Alright, welcome to another installation of Gundam SEED: Orb's Guardian Lions. Now before we begin, I would like to apologize for not updating on time. I was stuck in bed for most of last week with the flu, the last few days have been spent either work double shifts to make up for lost time, and my sophomore college classes. Now, originally I planned to update this story with a new chapter every 2 weeks for the time being unless something happens and I am unable to get the chapter written. Also, School has started back up for me, and while I will have to take some time to get settled back into routine, I'm happy to report that my course load is more basic classes than what I had for my first two semesters, so dividing my time between work, school, and writing will be a lot easier. But that doesn't mean that something may come up and throw everything into disarray.

Also, I have gotten a good number of reviews with positive comments about my story. Though there have been a few who have asked if I can include some more action/battle parts to my chapters. To which I say I will do my best to make such scenes appear more often. Now this is a two part chapter, but the first part is more centered around the development/introduction of some of the characters and their personalities. (like Kira, Mu, Murrue, and Natarle) It will also deepening the plot and such. Therefore, I should warn you that there is a lot dialogue and has a rather long flashback in it(which was almost four thousand words by itself before edited it down a bit). But the pt. 2 will be almost entirely combat and fighting centered.

Also,while I'm very good a developing original Mobile Suits, I am pretty weak in develop OCs characters, so I would like to announce that I'm having OCs submission contest.

There are a total of eight openings: five for mobile suit Pilots(one of those will eventually become a major antagonist for Kira and Cagalli later on), two for Ship Captains(the ships they will captain have already been designed, I just need a commanding officer for them), and an older OC for a position as head of Terminal's forces. Now for the pilots, I have plans to use four of them as part of Terminal's strongest squadron and each pilot will have their own unique/custom mobile suit. Now, I have several MS I created just for that purpose, but if you wish to submit a mobile suit along with your OC, I will look it over and contact you about it. The last pilot does not need a mobile suit, but you can still include one if you wish. I'll look it over and contact you about it. The official rules for each submission will be included at the end of the chapter.

Always, now that's out of the way here's a new chapter in Gundam SEED: Orb's Guardian Lions.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED or any of it's content. The only things that belong to me are my original mobile suits and a few other things that haven't been introduced into the story yet.


Chapter 4: Breaking Through Pt. I

Heliopolis, Archangel Main Hanger

Most people say that when things get busy time seems to pass quickly, but for Kira it just seemed to crawl by one agonizing second after another. He had been sitting inside the Strike's cockpit working on various systems for the last hour and a half, dressed in a blue Alliance pilot uniform much like the one worn by Mu. The head mechanic had told him and Cagalli that as long as they were going to pilot the Rhino and the Strike, that unless they were told otherwise that anytime any the ship was on high alert, they were to have their pilot suits on in the hanger.

Down below the surviving Alliance and Morgenroete technicians and workers scurried around doing whatever task they had been given. Most were rushing unload the line of transports that were being used to ferry in things that range from raw materials to supplies(both military and civilian) to recover ammunition and weapons that had been coming and going for the last forty or fifty minutes.

Just watching them work, made Kira wish he could do more to help. While he did hold some resentment to the Alliance for using a neutral colony like Heliopolis for their own gain, which only served to drag the colony and it's residents into the conflict, he held no anger at those who had just been following orders.

His beef was with those in command, but he wasn't foolish enough to try and confront them. Most of them were Blue Cosmos "supporters"(read as nutcases) and would more than likely have both him and Cagalli killed should they even set one foot inside the Alaska Base.

Still, Kira wished that the head technician would have let them be more productive in helping get the Archangel, the Alliance's newly completed Assault Carrier, supplied and battle ready. Instead, Murdock had put the two teens to work overseeing the work being done on on their respective machines after politely declining their offer. He said it would be better to just let the crew do it themselves. After all, their arrival in two of the most advanced machines the Alliance had developed so far, had not been an ideal one.


Flashback an hour and a half ago

Once he was certain that the ZAFT was not coming back, Kira gathered up his friends and the the Alliance officer then made his way towards the Alliance vessel. He was able to land without any troubles, but once he had emerged from the Strike's cockpit things went south fast.

He had waited until the officer that had been with them since the attack on Morgenroete started to address what appeared to be the highest ranking officer left alive from the attack, and in Kira's opinion from the way the woman in question was acted and spoke, he found her to be a big 'by the books' type of officer.

Anyways, once Lt. Murrue Ramius(who had not bothered to introduce herself to the teens after waking up) introduced herself to the Ensign Natarle Badgiruel, and with the later doing the same, Kira decided that it would be best that he and Cagalli come out now.

The two had barely been standing on the hanger's floor for a minute when Mu La Flaga come walking up to the two Alliance officers. The three exchanged introductions once more before moving onto various things regarding the ship and it's crew, then came the biggest issue: Kira and Cagalli. The two officers and Ace pilot moved over to them, followed various personnel and technicians that had accompanied Natarle, all of whom turned their collective attention on the two teens.

While Kira had some doubts how they would survive their situation, he also that Lt. La Flaga was more likely to help their situation resolve peacefully, rather than cause it to blow up. The Alliance Ace had one of the best outstanding reputations amongst various military groups, not only for his skills as Moebius Zero pilot, but as one of the few people in the Alliance that did not have any hatred or contempt against Coordinators, he was second only to Admiral Halberton himself.

So when he addressed them, Lt. La Flaga's voice was calm and sincere, showing no outward signs that he any secondary motives or thoughts. But as that famous saying by Primo Levi goes: "Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.", and he couldn't have been any more correct.

"You two are Coordinator's, aren't you?" It was more of a statement rather than a question, but it was that was need. Nearly everyone there (excluding Lt. La Flaga and Ramius) visible tensed. Things got even more tense when both teens just answered, "Yes."

Nearby, a jumpy four-man squad of Alliance marines tightened their grips on their semi-automatic rifles, before leveling them in Kira and Cagalli's direction. Each looking ready to use them on the young, supposedly 'deadly' Coordinators at moments notice, not really caring to look at the whole situation at all.

Of course, when Kira's friends saw that, they instantly situated themselves between the two Coordinators and everyone else, with Tolle in the lead. It took some effort from both Lieutenants' to get them to stand down, and to remind them that since Heliopolis was a Orb colony, which was neutral in the Alliance/ZAFT conflict, it wasn't a very hard to find Coordinator's there that had no affiliation with the PLANTs and/or ZAFT.

It eased the tensions a bit, and once Kira and Cagalli revealed that they were First Gen Coordinators(born to Natural Parents) things settled down further. Mu even offered an apology for stirring things up and the rest seemed to follow suit for the most part, though the lady Ensign still looked weary.

But it didn't last long. Cagalli, who having been quiet for since the ordeal began, spoke up. "What are you planning on doing from here?" While the question was simple, it had caught everyone off guard.

"What do you mean?" Some in the back of the Alliance crew asked. "The only thing we can do is salvage what we can and wait for the next attack."

Right then and there, Kira was sorely tempted to find the person who said that and beat some common sense into him/her, but decided against it in favor of enlightening them as to what the consequences of doing that would be. "You are aware that in a few hours Orb will know that it's colony has come under attack and has been damaged, right?" Everyone there shook their heads in confusion.

Kira slumped his shoulders, sighing heavily. "Orb colonies have systems that send automated okay/not okay reports through a number of their communication satellites back to a monitoring station in Orb. Now, normally these reports are submitted every week or so and take about another week and a half to get there, but should the colony get damaged by a meteor or come under attack internally or externally, a high priority message is sent out and the travel time is cut down to about eight to ten hours. You following me?"

Everyone nodded. "Now the message itself will only contain a small amount of the details, but the main control room computers will have more detailed reports on the whole thing, but that report alone will be enough for Orb to justify sending a number of their ships here to investigate."

Kira paused to catch his breath, before continuing. "Now, this method of active monitoring is pretty stand for any colony, military base, or space station, no matter who it belongs to since ZAFT as it's the best way to counter the jamming caused by N-Jammer Cancelers. So, whoever is in command of the ZAFT forces outside know this…"

"Rau Le Creuset!" Mu blurted out of nowhere.

"Huh?!" Kira asked, slightly startled by the sudden comment.

"He's the one in charge of the ZAFT forces outside," Mu explained. "That white CGUE you shot the arms off of was his."

Kira and Cagalli both visible paled at that this piece of information, but for differing reasons.

"Then things just got a whole lot more dangerous." Kira said as he turned to look at Mu, everyone eyes going to him as he did. "I've heard a lot about Le Creuset, and most of it's not good. So, since I'm pretty sure you would know if it was him or not, I feel that this Colony's chances of coming out of this intact just went down a lot. Don't you?"

Mu nodded his head solemnly. "That bastard won't hesitate to destroy the colony if meant taking the ship down as well."

"No," Kira just shook his head. "He would destroy the colony even if this ship wasn't here."

This got everyone's attention, most looking surprise by his statement, though Cagalli looked resigned like he had just confirmed her fears. 'She heard the rumors as well,' thought Kira.

"How do you figure that, Kira?" asked Sai, asking the question that was almost everyone there mind.

"Rau has a reputation for being very thorough in his assignments and he is also Chairman Zala's lapdog, so if ZAFT's attack on this colony became a known fact, which is the likely outcome once the Orb fleet recovers the colony's black box. The black box will contain enough evidence, that if found, would give Orb more than enough reason to get involved in the War, and Terminal would fight alongside them since they have very strong alliance with Orb. Now Rau and the ZAFT wouldn't want that, so what do you think would be the best way to prevent that?"

Kira paused for several moments, letting the Alliance crew connect the dots together. "There's only one pretty foolproof way to ensure that…"

"would be to destroy the colony altogether." Finished Lt. Ramius, looking as pale as a ghost.

Everyone, both military and civilian, paled at that.

"Yes," confirmed the teen. "And we have given him the perfect cover story and reason to do it, too."

"How do you figure that, Kira?" Sai asked, stepping into the conversation for the first time.

"It's not that hard to figure out," Cagalli interjected, stepping up to stand beside Kira.

"The two target objectives throughout the entire operation was the capture/destruction of the prototype Mobile Suits and the destruction of this ship." Cagalli quickly glanced at the Strike. "But while ZAFT has captured four of the five machines and set off a large number of explosives in the Archangel's main hanger, they have not even come close to completing the operation. The Archangel is still intact and operational, as is the Strike and Rhino, which to ZAFT means that between the two machines, the Alliance has managed to create their first Mobile Suits and created an OS that would allow a Natural to piloted them."

"But neither of those statements can be applied to either of you?" Tolle asked, confused.

"But they don't know that." Kira said, "To the ZAFT forces hiding outside the colony, they will more than likely see us as Natural Pilots' who survived the initial attack, and got into the two most completed Machines. The records from his mobile suit alone will give Le Creuset a lot of reason to justify using whatever heavy weapons the ships under his command have. He will play on any ZAFT citizen and soldiers biggest fear: the existence of Alliance Mobile Suits."

Kira reasoning was very strong, as everyone there knew that a majority of ZAFT's military leaders considered the only reason they had managed to best Alliance forces so much was due to their ability to produce and field Mobile suits. If that advantage was taken from them, the entire war would escalate to new levels and their colonies would once again come under the threat of another nuclear attack.

"There's also the fact that since the operation has been thrown into disarray due to me and Cagalli's interference, Le Creuset needs to ensure that there is no evidence left behind that can incriminate ZAFT. Namely this ship, the Strike, the Rhino, and the colony."

This of course sparked several statements of "Huh?!" and "Why the colony?"

"There are a three main of reasons why Le Creuset would need to destroy Heliopolis. The first would it's where this ship is currently sitting idle at." He stated, holding his left hand up with his pointer, middle finger, and index finger showing.

"One, as long as this ship continues to stay inside the colony, that man will be able to justify any and all of his actions and any resulting damage to the colony that might cause the Heliopolis to collapse." One went down.

"Two, he needs to get rid of the Black Box hidden somewhere in this colony." The second went down.

"Three, the elimination of all the resident witnesses." A third, and final, finger curled down. "From what I can tell there are only two ways Le Creuset could set up this whole situation that would eliminate this ship, it's crew, the machines, the colony, and all of it's inhabitants."

"The first way he could accomplish something like that is pretty straight forward. Send in mobile suits in with heavy weapons, have them engaged this ship before it's crew has had enough time to gather enough supplies that would last for it's the trip to Earth or so it could leave the colony all together. In the fighting, I can bet both sides will cause a lot of collateral damage will they attacking each other. Also, I'm pretty sure Le Creuset wouldn't stick to the standard battle procedures governing fighting inside a colony and just tell his forces to focus entirely on destroying this ship by any means necessary. Right, Lt. La Flaga?" The Alliance Ace just nodded his head. "The second way is more indirect and has little guarantee that it will destroy this ship, either of the machines, or the Black Box, but it does eliminate the fourth factor: Heliopolis's inhabitants. They would most likely launch an attack on the colony's exterior, blast enough holes in it and the colonies rotation will do the rest, and the amount of debris thrown up inside would be enough to cause some moderate damage to this ship."

"But why would they go after the civilians?" asked one of the officers behind Natarle.

Kira really hated how thick headed, not to mention, short sighted these people were, but considering how genuine their reactions were, he could see that none of them had really considered the possibilities of ZAFT finding out.

'Actually, it's more like they expected Heliopolis's status as a neutral colony of Orb would serve as buffer to prevent or at least tone down any sort response from ZAFT.' thought Kira.

To his surprise it was Cagalli who provided the answer. "While the accounts of Heliopolis's residents would not be as accurate or as detailed as what you would get from the black box, it would still be enough to incriminate ZAFT, right?"

Kira nodded. "So, it would be better for them to eliminate them first, go on to destroy this ship and the Strike, then clean up afterwards therefore removing all evidence or editing it so that it does not links them to the incident."

At this point, Kira thought that no one could have gotten any paler than they already were, but was proven wrong when everyone(excluding himself, Cagalli, and, surprisingly, La Flaga) lost another shade of coloring to their skin.

"But that's only one of many possible outcomes, and that relies on the idea that this ship doesn't survive the collapse somehow relatively intact, if it did they would have to chase us instead going about 'cleaning up' after themselves." He put extra emphase on the 'cleaning up' part.

Upon finishing his explanation, Kira cast his gaze over the Alliance crew all of which were one state of shock or another.

Turning around, Kira moved back towards the Strike, while gesturing for Cagalli to follow.

"Hey!" called another officer, his comment also serving to help bring everyone's attention back to the present. "Where are you going?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kira asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, not even bothering to stop or turn around. "I'm going to prep the Strike for combat. Piloting it is pretty much the only way I can do anything to protect my home."

The statement leftmost there speechless, but Ramius and Natarle quickly set about sending them on their way. Orders were given to salvage as much materials(Morgenroete) and supplies (colonies civilian stores) as they could, while the three senior Alliance Officers retreated to the Captain's Office to discuss their options.

Flashback end


The entire one-sided conversation had only lasted about twenty minutes or so, but the Kira could tell that it was being taken to heart. The surviving Morgenroete workers, along what was left of the Archangel's original crew, had been working like bats out of hell to gather the necessary supplies and salvageable resources, and bring them aboard.

Well that, and the fact that in less than half an hour Operation: Thunder Brake would begin.

The plan wasn't much, and most of it had been cobbled together than actually planned, but it would give both the Archangel and Heliopolis the best possibility of coming out of the conflict relatively intact.

The first part of the plan required Mu(whose machine had been repaired using spare parts for the Rhino), Kira, and Cagalli to launch a preemptive strike against the ZAFT fleet and it's forces while they were still outside the colony. While that was happening the Archangel would quietly exited the colony through one of Morgenroete's two remaining underground docking ports. The ports themselves were big enough to allow four ships plus the Archangel to dock in relative comfort.

Once outside, the Archangel would swinging around beneath the colony until it was able to line up with the center of the ZAFT fleet, before blitzing through that point. Once through, the Archangel would recover all three pilots and their machines, then accelerate to it's best possible speed towards Earth, all the while drawing what remained of the enemy fleet after it.

The plan was simple in and of itself, and drew most of planning on the known aggressive nature that those under Le Creuset's command commonly showed in battle. But even still there were a lot of variables that could change that.

But there was no use worrying about the uncertainties, so instead Kira busied himself by offering his help to the technicians. An offer that they were quick to take up, though they were hesitant the first few minutes until they saw his skills. Most of which was spent helping them adapt the OS of Mu's Zero so that it could integrate properly with the spare parts from the Rhino that had been recovered from the test hanger(the same place Kira, Cagalli, and Murrue fell down after the first attack).

After that, he taught Cagalli how to run various system checks and tests on both the Strike and the Rhino, while he went overseeing their maintenance. Though in his opinion, the Strike wasn't really in need of it. The Rhino, on the other hand, was the one that really needed attention. It was able to function as a Striker pack for the Strike just fine, but it's Mobile Armor mode needed a lot of work before it could be fully operation.

As it was in its current state, the Rhino was only about seventy percent complete. Also, most of its weapons had been created through modifying the left leftover/spare parts from the G-Series prototypes that hadn't been destroyed in the attack, and a majority of its secondary components and systems needed to be either installed or updated(which didn't take long for Kira to do), but there was little they could do about it at the moment. With the operation scheduled to begin shortly, Cagalli would have to make due with an incomplete Rhino until after everything was over and the ships' technicians and engineers actually had the time to fabricate the necessary parts and install them.


Heliopolis, Archangel - Conference Room(1 hour and 30 minutes before)

Deeper inside the Archangel, a meeting was taking place between the three highest ranking Alliance officers. For the most part the three of them had been sitting around one of the smaller tables in the ship's Conference Room discussing the events of the past few hours. Which the newly promoted Cap. Ramius(as she was the highest ranking officer left alive and had knowledge on commanding the ship) had been leading by recounting the events of the last few hours, occasional answering various questions from Lt. La Flaga and Ensign Bradigruel about the events that transpired since the attack began up until she came aboard.

Excluding the large gap from the time the Strike feel down into testing hanger to the time she woke up in the care of Kira's friends, Murrue's report was more than enough to satisfy Mu's questions. Natarle, on the other hand, was far from satisfied with the report and how little Murrue's recounts of the events failed to provide answers about the two Coordinators currently given free run with their last Mobile suit and experimental Mobile Armor.

Her by-the-books attitude also made it harder for Murrue's story to convince her that apprehending the two teens and tossing into the brig, until a time that they were able to get in touch with someone higher up in the Alliance military(preferably a person whose rank was that of rear-admiral or higher) wasn't the best way to handle the situation(not to mention it would cause more harm than good as the two teens plus Mu were the only means of protecting the Archangel outside of it's own armament).

After Murrue finished her story, the three adults lapsed into a tense 3 minute long silence, not sure on where they should go from there.

Mu, having experience with dealing awkward moments with like this one, was quick to find another topic. "Well, that must have been something, but what's the plan here?"

A topic that the two women were quick to latch onto.

"First, is the scenario that Kira laid out earlier a possibility, Lt." Murrue wasn't one to get all worked up over something that was only a speculated outcome, but the way the young male Coordinator explained his reasoning made it seem as if though it was more a probability than a possibility.

Mu leaned back into his seat, turning his gaze up towards the sealing. "Yes, I've fought Creuset enough time to know a little of how that man thinks. He won't hesitate to go thru with such a plan if it meant getting the job done or interferes with his agendas."

Both women nodded their heads in acceptance of his answer.

"And what do you recommend we do?" asked Natarle.

"I don't know." Mu continued to stare blankly upwards. "Other than get this ship outside of the colony in the next hour or so."

An option that did not sit well with Natarle at all.

"That's suicide!" She argued. "The moment we leave the colony the ZAFT vessels will be able to detect us and what about the possibility of an ambush waiting for us at any of the docking port airlocks. We have no way of knowing what's out there."

"It's better than staying in here." Murrue countered. "If we stay and the enemy does want Kira says, then we have condemned the people of this colony to die."

"There's no proof that they will do that, this is not an Alliance colony, and ZAFT has to have regulations that would stop them from using such weapons on a neutral settlement," Natarle pointed out.

Having quickly grown tired of the Ensigns by-the-book attitude, Mu once again interjected into the conversation. "This is not some run of the mill commander you're dealing with here." Stressing the word Commander. "Creuset has a history of not abiding military regulations and taking action without proper approval from the council, then claiming that if he hadn't done what he had then things would have become turned out badly for ZAFT in the end."

"I've also seen reports from several of those occasions, from both Alliance and ZAFT perspectives, and from a tactical viewpoint each and every time such pre-emptive action did indeed turn things in ZAFT favor. ZAFT has long feared that someday the Alliance will get to the point where they can develop and produce mobile suits, and by showing that have indeed built prototypes, the Supreme Council can only logical assume that the Alliances next move would be to have begun mass production."

"But we've only just finished them, and were planning on moving them to moon for testing." Murrue blurted out. "The only thing we've at the moment outside of simulation data, is the construction records and development data."

"That's more than enough to give them a way to develop mobile suits suited to be mass produced for the Alliance. A lot of the things that went into the prototypes are things that you would not include into mass production, like the P.S. Armor." Mu explained, having some knowledge on the matter. Not many people knew how much he had been involved in the development of the Moebius Zero, and had some knowledge on the shift from prototype unit to the final production standard.

In fact, when the Alliance team finished developing the first five Moebius Zero prototypes, Mu got the rare opportunity to witness the Zero's transition from the prototype stage to a production model. But it was a really shock to him when he learned that the development of the production model was to be done by a different team.

The concept confused him, so he asked the head engineer about who was more than happy to explain it to him. The Alliance felt that they needed equip their forces with things that could be mass produced on a scale that suited their ridiculously large military, be relatively cheap, while still be functional. So they let the first team would create a prototype or prototypes with high specs and output potential, then have the second team come in and simplify things down to make it better suited to match Alliance mass production standards.

"Also, now that ZAFT has have captured four of the five prototypes, we can reasonably assume that they have begun collecting the data on the weapons, armor, and systems some of which they will most likely integrated into new models. So..."

"So, that between the Alliance and ZAFT, we can safely say that this war is going to escalated to another level soon," Murrue supplied.

Mu nodded, turning his head so that he could look in her direction, catching her gaze as he did.

For several seconds they silently stared into each other's eyes, but the moment was quickly ended by Natarle. Who having decided that they were wasting time by sitting in awkward silence(at least to her).

"Well, that's all and good, but unless you can magically call up a distraction from that, we still need to come up with a plan here. One that gets us past the three ZAFT ships guarding the best and only course route to the Moon, without leaving us open to attack as we leave. "

The comment snapped both of them out of their moment, and while Mu blinked several times trying to comprehend the Ensign's statement, Murrue's eyes went wide as an idea formed in her mind. "That's it!" She whispered the first part, but shouted the last.

"Huh?" was the collective reply from Mu and Natarle.

A small smile began to tug at the sides of her mouth, as Murrue explained her idea to the them.

"That's a bold move," Natarle stated.

"But it's a move that just might turn everything around. It would take Creuset about an hour and fifty minutes to get things together for another attack." 45 mins to return from the colony, twenty or so minutes to reorganize his remaining forces, and then about forty minutes to equip heavy weapons on them. "This plan could buy us enough time to get the ship outside and close enough before they even know it."

"Of course, we'll have to ask the two kids for their help first, " Mu reminded them. "but I don't think it will take much to convince them. In fact, I'm pretty sure they'll will agree to it once we explain it to them and with them the plan has a very high chance of succeeding."

Unfortunately, unlike the legendary ace, the two female officers could not say the same. The chances of their plan working, even with the Strike and the Rhino participating, was still only about 50-50. But neither openly voiced it.

The three talked for several additional minutes, before getting up and leaving the room.


Heliopolis, Archangel Main Hanger

And as it would turn out, Mu was right. Kira and Cagalli, once the plan was explained to them, were quickly to extend their skills and abilities in saving not only the ship, but the colony and its citizen's. But it didn't stop there, after hearing the plan the two even proposed a few additional extras to the plan that improved it's chance of succeeding quite a bit.

Kira also proposed an alternative to just sending Mu's Zero out with missile packs, which instead had them take the Strike Rhino down into the Secondary testing hanger, and collect a number of the Rhino's spare parts they had seen there before. Then it was only a fifteen minute wait as the technicians installed the parts onto Mu's machine it, and then another five for Kira to tweak the machine's OS enough that the parts would work.

Once that was done, it was simple matter to launching the three machines.

The first out was the Strike, equipped with the Sword pack, plus a Beam Rifle stored on the back of it's hip. "Kira Yamato, Strike Aile. Taking off."

Following less than a minute later was the Rhino, which looked a lot better equipped with two full loaded missile pods tucked safely against it's main body, a fully functioning L-MAC rifle mounted underneath, and two prototype Beam/Ballistic wired DRAGOON gun pods. It's once orange paint hand been changed into a more rose madder red that matched the colors of Cagalli's pilot suit. "Cagalli Yule, Moebius Rhino. Heading Out!"

Mu's Moebius Zero was the last out. It's armament looking a little missmatched given how the spares from the Rhino were sleeker indesign than the Zero's. "Mu La Flaga, Zero. Taking Off!"

Together, the three machines, boosted away from the Archangel, headingtowards the same hole Le Creuset busted open in the central shaft so that he could enter the colony's interior. From there they would follow back to the main port, and then out into space and the ZAFT ships that sitting idle there, unaware of the impending danger that loomed over them.


I *sigh* just so you know this chapter was a pain to write. I would have rather just skipped into the battle part, but I needed to do some character and plot development. Part II is already started and I'm pretty sure it will be one of the longest chapters to date for my story, and most of it will be co

Now for the rules for the OC Submission Contest

Pilots:

Rule 1: must be between the ages of 16 and 25.

Rule 2: Must be fairly detailed: (ex. personality, appearance, skills, past history, etc.)

Rule 3: They can be Coordinator or Natural. Male or Female.(the only exception to this rule would be that the antagonist pilot must be a male Coordinator)

Rule 4: Their skills must be realistic(that means no god-skills or unrealistic abilities).

Rule 5: If you submit an MS with them make sure it's well detailed, specialized for a certain type of combat, and are realistic.

Captains:

Rule 1: between their early 30's and late 40's.

Rule 2: One will a male Natural, the other a female Coordinator(there's a reason for this)

Rule 3: You don't have to be as descriptive as with the Pilot's(appearance and personality are all I need).

General:

Rule 1: Must be a male OC.

Rule 2: Must be in his late 50's and a Natural.

Rule 3: He is to be former EA Admiral, so his design should look the part.

Rule 4: Must have facial scar(s) of some kind(again I my reasons for this rule)

Also here the Technical Info for the Moebius Rhino.

Model number: TS-MAR1

Code Name: Moebius Rhino

Unit type: Prototype Enhanced Moebius Mobile Armor(scaled down version)

Manufacturer: Morgenroete(using incomplete designs blueprints from Terminal's WIZARD group)

Operator(s): Earth Alliance

Accommodations: pilot only, in standard cockpit

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

Armor materials: unknown

Powerplant: ultracompact energy battery, power output rating unknown

Propulsion: jets/thrusters

Equipment and design features: NICOS(Neural Interface and Connective Operating System); transformable frame(striker pack, atmospheric, and zero gravity configuration modes); sensors, range unknown; reflective armor; movable thruster mount; Striker Pack mode

Fixed armaments: 2x 40mm CIWS chain gun

Optional fixed/interchangeable armament: 2x Beam/Ballistic DRAGOON gun pods, 1x L-MAC (linear-mass acceleration cannon), 4x 'Hunter' tracker missile pods

Technical and Historical Notes:

With the success of the Moebius Zero, the Earth Alliance wished to further the use of the Moebius Zero, even though there were few people who had the capabilities to use it. Unfortunately, the scientists in charge were unable to produce a working prototype. The Alliance was forced to turn to another means of acquiring a replacement for the Zero. They had Morgenroete construct the Rhino by combining three sets of blueprints they had managed to steal from one of Terminal R&D divisions(though in actuality all three were part of the same set of plans that had just separated into three parts that had been stored in different files as means of preventing any thevies from obtaining a full blueprint). The Moebius Rhino is similar and different to the Moebius Zero is a number of ways. It most notable feature is the transformable frame that allows it to change into three different forms, a form much like the Moebius Zero for use in zero gravity, a fighter plane mode for use in the atmosphere, and a striker pack mode. Another is the fact that the thrusters on the Rhino can be moved and change their position to better allow the pilot to fight and dodge attacks. It also incorporates a prototype DRAGOON system specifically designed for it, featuring both beam and projectile weaponry. Its armor is another improvement as well, it's armor is a scaled-down, non-powered variant of the Phase Shift Armor that allows for the Rhino to be hit by both beam and projectile weaponry and receive only a small amount of damage. The LAST feature is one that Kira added to the MA in order for Cagalli to be able to fully use it, the NICOS System, which connects the pilot directly to the Rhino and helps the pilot develop their Spatial Awareness and greatly increases their control on the DRAGOON system. Even the weapons are all carefully designed to consume less power than normal and still function like normal as to better enable the Rhino to operate for longer periods of time.

Appearance: Its all integrated, think of the TS-MA4F Exus with the bottom having the 'Hunter' missile packs instead of the gun pods with wings (like with the Rosso Aegis's flight stabilizers when it is in its mobile armor mode in the atmosphere) that when in space MAM(mobile armor mode) connect to the sides of the cockpit, which looks like the one from the TS-MA4F Exus(and no its has no open canopy since the cockpit would be biggest weak point on the MA, so it a closed cockpit that uses a full Panoramic Cockpit, from gundam Z and ZZ, that allows for full view around the Rhino), and two DRAGOON pods on the top both of, which can also be used as additional thrusters, and the CIWS is a miniature version of what the Archangels use to intercept incoming missiles, but instead of one turret it has two chain guns on a rotate-able turret mount, it is positioned in the same spot as the beam cannon on the FX-550 Skygrasper. The L-MAC rifle is located on the underside of the MA, like the rifle of the Moebius Zero.

Color: original: the same as Mu's Moebius Zero; Cagalli's: A red similar to that of her pilot's suit in that she piloted in at the end of the SEED.

When it changes to atmospheric MAM, it changes it a variation of the FX-550 Skygrasper, where the wing slide back and open to the side with no thruster at the ends of the wings, then the center of the where the DRAGOON and 'Hunter' pods are located, just after the CIWS turret is, splits open, while the 'Hunter' pods on the bottom shift to the underside of the wings, and allows the cockpit to slide back and take up a position like that of a fighter plane(while in the atmosphere the Rhino can not use the DRAGOON pods separately from the body, so instead it uses them as thrusters to fly and make sharp jumps up, down, or to the sides, since they can move to different angles and rotate in a full circle) which allows the Rhino access to the landing gear and the L-MAC rifle shifts to either side of the underbelly just like how the Angi Impulse Cannon would be.

Sticker Pack forms - the Striker Pack mode involves two different forms based off of the space and atmospheric modes. In both modes the connector for the hard points is located just past the back of the cockpit. While the Rhino is in either of its Striker Pack forms, its pilot acts as a copilot and allows for the main pilot to be more aware of the things going on around them.

Form #1

The first one is just like how the Moebius Zero combines with the Strike, except the there are only two DRAGOON pods just behind the shoulders and the missile pods move the to the to the top of the shoulders, while the cockpit moves to a position underneath the body, and the CIWS turret provide fire that cover to the back of the unit the Rhino is attached to, the L-MAC gun is used as a rifle for the unit.

Form #2

In atmospheric mode it changes to look like the IWASP striker pack with the wings out and the DRAGOON pods over the shoulders. The missile pods are situated on the underside of the wings, and the L-MAC gun is used as either a rifle or a sniper rifle, depending on the setting used. The cockpit shifts down and rotates around so that it armored bottom is facing outward and the piece of the Rhino that holds the cockpit is locked up against the gundam unit its attached to.