Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam SEED or any of its characters. Commander Alexander Stanton and his team, as well as Ensign Roger Doolittle, are my own creations.
Chapter 7: Destination
September 17, CE 72, Archangel, Infirmary
The first thing Roger saw on waking was a white fluorescent bulb, set into off-white metal.
"Well," he said, "this is a familiar ceiling." Turning his head left and right, Roger quickly confirmed that he was indeed in a bed in the infirmary. His flight suit was gone, replaced by hospital scrubs, and a set of electrodes was attached to his chest. He moved his left arm and winced at the pain. The Alliance soldier had suffered far worse injuries, but the bandaged limb still hurt.
Well, Roger thought with a rueful grin, at least I'm not in another full-body cast. Further rumination would have to wait, as Sara, Athrun and Cagalli chose that moment to enter the infirmary.
"We figured we'd drop by and see how you were doing," Sara said with a smile. Roger shrugged.
"I figured you'd know better than I do," he said. "The last thing I remember was taking a bad hit in my mobile suit, and then I woke up here." Sara nodded, her expression turning serious, and Cagalli spoke up next.
"You took some shrapnel, but the doctor said it's all soft tissue damage. The fragments weren't moving fast enough to break any bones, and your vital organs are all fine. Your Dagger, on the other hand, is scrap metal." Roger's eyes narrowed at that.
"Bitch totaled my mobile suit," he said, nodding grimly. "It's on now." He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "Alright," he said. "Let's get to it." Roger swung his legs over the side of the bed, slid off, and hit the floor with a dull thud. He looked up at the group, and his frustrated expression asked the question for him.
"You're kind of floppy at the moment," Athrun said, smiling slightly.
"It's a side effect of the painkillers you're on," Sara added. Roger's eyebrows rose.
"Couldn't you have told me that before I fell out of the bed?" he asked.
"I didn't want to deprive you of the experience," Sara replied with a smile.
"Let me guess," Roger said, grabbing the side of the bed and hauling himself back up onto it, "Hiro did that to you." Sara smiled and shook her head.
"I actually did that to him," she said with a smirk. "He had his appendix removed about three months ago, and we went through the same thing you and I did just now." Roger rolled his eyes.
"That's a hell of a way to treat your boyfriend," he observed. Sara shook her head.
"He didn't like it at the time, but he thinks it's pretty funny now." Her expression turned serious; almost sad. "He's probably worried sick about me." Roger nodded thoughtfully.
"Don't worry," the Alliance pilot said seriously. "I won't tell him you're having an affair with Kenji." Sara's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, but her shock quickly turned to amusement.
"I am not having an affair, baka!" Cagalli and Athrun looked at each other, and the blue-haired Coordinator shook his head, bemused.
The joking was interrupted as two new people entered the infirmary. Roger recognized Flay, looking far happier than he'd seen her since they met. There was a new arrival as well; Flay was holding onto a boy a little younger than Roger was, with medium length brunette hair and violet eyes, dressed in an Orb uniform. The Earth Forces pilot's brow furrowed.
Damn, that guy looks familiar.
Flay indicated the new arrival.
"Roger, this is Kira," she said, and then looked at the boy. "Roger's an Earth Forces pilot who helped with the rescue." The new arrival, Kira, smiled and nodded at Roger, and the Alliance pilot noticed that his lips were a good deal redder than those of most men he'd met. His attention was refocused when Kira suddenly smiled, recognition flashing in his eyes.
"I met you last year!" he said, "right after Jachin." The remark snapped Roger's memory into focus, and he remembered the young Coordinator now: the pilot of the legendary Freedom. He actually laughed at this.
"We rescued you?" he asked, surprised and very amused. Athrun's brow furrowed.
"They never gave you a photo of Kira or anything?" the blue-haired Coordinator asked. Roger shook his head, still laughing.
"No," he said. "My orders were to assist with the rescue of an Orb lieutenant. I had no idea we'd be bailing out Spamfire's pilot." Apparently, the nickname the Churchill crew had for the Freedom didn't register, or Kira had other things on his mind because he paid it no heed.
"I'm not sure you bailed me out," the Coordinator said with a small, red-lipped grin. "You seem to have a habit of putting yourself in the infirmary." Roger cocked an eyebrow.
"Tough words from a guy wearing lipstick," he responded. Kira's grin disappeared and he bore a puzzled expression. He and Flay looked at each other; she touched her lips thoughtfully, and after a second Kira blushed furiously. Flay started giggling as the brunette frantically rubbed his mouth on his sleeve.
"Sorry," Flay said to Kira, and then turned to face everyone else. "I guess I got a little enthusiastic when he got back," she finished with a nervous giggle.
Space station Azathoth
Alexander Stanton stood at the front of the briefing room, facing his assembled pilots. Rodriguez now had his shoulder length black hair pulled back in a ponytail. Hawke, as always, kept his brown hair neatly combed and parted to one side, and Masterson's black hair was parted straight down the middle, and hung down to the level of his prominent cheekbones. Lia and the Amigos were all in their flight suits once more, and the mood in the room was rather mixed. Lia was clearly upset that they'd lost the legged ship; her golden eyes smoldered with restrained anger. The Amigos, on the other hand, seemed fairly satisfied with themselves. Rodriguez, Hawke and Masterson weren't exactly trading jokes, but they seemed pleased with their kill counts. Stanton shook his head.
It wasn't that he was unhappy with their performance. Thanks to them, there were four fewer Naturals out there (Lia had wanted it to be five, but Athha had retrieved the ruined Earth Forces machine, indicating that the pilot had survived), and the PLANTs were that much safer. The only problem was that the Amigos didn't seem to grasp what they all had to do now.
Well, Stanton thought, I might as well get on with it. He cleared his throat, getting his team's attention.
"As you know, the Tesla and Raleigh are the only ships we have that are undamaged. Since the Raleigh is undergoing some modifications, we can't afford to send it out after the Orb forces, so the Tesla will go instead." Stanton hesitated for a brief moment. "Until Kane and Pryce are cleared for duty, we are the best the Advent faction has." Rodriguez grinned at this.
"So we get another crack at the legged ship?" he asked. Stanton nodded.
"Very possibly," he answered. "We've been tasked with locating it, which could mean combat."
"How are we supposed to find them?" Lia asked, shaking her head slightly. "They could have gone anywhere." Stanton nodded in response.
"They could have," he answered, "but it's doubtful. The station has very powerful sensors, and while we detected the Starglider and the supply vessel leaving the debris belt, we did not see the Archangel go with them. They did take a fair amount of damage during the siege, and as such are probably waiting somewhere fairly nearby, effecting basic repairs and planning their next move." He turned to the table in the center of the briefing room, which displayed a map of the nearby space. "Alright, this is our plan."
Archangel, Bridge
"We don't have enough fuel left for a one-tangent transfer orbit," Commander David Herikawa stated with a wave of his arm. "We can pull off a Hohmann transfer and be back in low Earth orbit in about forty four and a half hours."
"But we can't actually land," Captain Ramius said grimly. David nodded.
"During the battle we lost several of our ablative gel dispensers. The damage is far too severe to repair by ourselves, and if we try atmospheric reentry without the ablative gel…"
"I understand," the captain replied. "So we have to dock somewhere and have the dispensers replaced before we can go home."
"Do we want to talk about Ame-no-Mihashira?" David asked, prompting Murrue to chuckle briefly. He couldn't exactly blame her for that. Ame-no-Mihashira was a space station in geostationary orbit, positioned above the Orb Union, and built and owned by the island nation…at least in theory.
"I'd rather not," she said. "The station may technically belong to Orb, but we all know it's basically Rondo Mina Sahaku's private fortress. I know she's a member of the House of Representatives, but Mina's a little…"
"Batshit insane?" David offered. The Sahakus weren't exactly his favorite noble family.
"I was going to say eccentric," Murrue said, "but that works too. I'm honestly not even sure she'd let us dock, and if she did I'd be a little nervous about how things between Cagalli and her would go."
"What about the Moon?" The captain looked up, and David followed her gaze to see Ensign Doolittle enter the bridge, followed by Athrun. The Earth Forces soldier was the one who had spoken, and Herikawa's brow furrowed.
"You want us to head for Daedalus?" Athrun asked, but Doolittle shook his head.
"The far side of the Moon? Hell no. The way I hear it, the Daedalus guys are kind of hardliners," he said. "Rumor has it they're still sympathetic to Blue Cosmos, so a ship full of defectors carrying the Ultimate Coordinator probably shouldn't land there. On the other hand, I know quite a few guys from Arzachel, and they're good people."
"Besides," he grinned. "I'd love to see those Advent Faction SOBs try to get inside Arzachel." David still didn't like the idea of docking at an Alliance base, much less their lunar headquarters. Rondo Mina Sahaku might have a couple of screws loose, but at least she had never done anything overtly hostile to anyone he knew. Meanwhile, the supposed "good people" Ensign Doolittle was talking about were part of the army that had burned Onogoro one year ago. He looked over at Captain Ramius, and was more than a little relieved to see her shake her head after thinking for a moment.
"I'm sorry, Ensign Doolittle," she said, "but I still find it difficult to trust the Alliance." David looked back at the Earth Forces officer and saw him rolling his eyes.
"However," the captain continued, "that is not the primary reason I don't want to head for the moon." Ramius gestured to the main view screen and tapped a button on her chair. A map of the Earth Sphere appeared on the screen, with a small green dot representing the Archangel sitting in the debris belt. "We can only enter a Hohmann transfer orbit when we and our destination point are in the right positions relative to one another. We're getting close but we're not aligned for our entry burn yet." She tapped another key on her armrest, and a circle representing lunar orbit appeared on the map, along with the Lagrange points and the Archangel's current position. Captain Ramius faced the other occupants of the bridge.
"Given our current orbital position, if we launch into a Hohmann transfer, the Moon won't actually be there when we arrive. We'd have to wait for our orbit to 'catch up' to where we need to be before we could launch, and the longer we wait, the more likely we are to get a visit from Advent Faction. However, the PLANTs are at L5, which is 60 degrees from the Moon and that much closer to us. If we launch for the PLANTs instead of the Moon," Murrue paused for moment while the computer ran the math, "we save more than two and a half days." Ensign Doolittle nodded, and David did the same.
"If the Advent Faction really is made up of deserters," Commander Herikawa said, "then ZAFT certainly won't be giving them a warm welcome either."
"I can send word that we're coming," Athrun said, and Captain Ramius nodded.
"We should be in position for our entry burn in about four hours."
Roger sighed with frustration as he walked down the corridor. He supposed he should have expected the Orb forces not to trust him, given what had happened just one year before. Still, it was aggravating beyond belief.
Blue Cosmos seizes control of the Alliance, and somehow everyone in the OMNI Enforcer and Atlantic Federation suddenly become terrorists! Roger did his best to shake off his irritation; he had other matters to attend to, like his current dearth of mobile suits. If he could find that Orb soldier, Kira, he might be able to remedy the situation, but it was proving quite difficult to find the kid.
"Excuse me, Ensign Doolittle," Captain Ramius's voice brought Roger back to reality, and he turned to find the officer standing behind him.
"You can call me Roger," he replied, and the woman smiled.
"Roger," she said, "I just want you to know that what I said about not trusting the Alliance—." Roger started to wave the comment off. Just because it pissed him off didn't mean that the captain should have to apologize for it. However, the brunette raised her own hand, telling him to wait.
"Just because I don't completely trust your superiors," she said, "doesn't mean that I don't trust you." Roger remained quiet for a moment, and Captain Ramius stepped forward and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "After how hard you've fought to defend this ship and the people on it, I want you to know that I consider you a part of the crew, and I'm willing to bet that plenty of the pilots consider you a friend." She punctuated her last statement with a warm smile, and while Roger could do nothing but nod, he very much appreciated what he had just been told. He'd honestly never expected that the Orb crew would be as tolerant of an Alliance officer as they had, much less that they would come to consider him one of their own, and it was deeply moving to know that they did.
"Thank you very much, Captain Ramius," he said, and it was the superior officer's turn to dismiss a remark with a wave of her hand.
"If I can call you Roger, you can call me Murrue." Roger nodded, smiling.
"Thank you," he said. "By the way, you didn't happen to see…" He trailed off as Kira walked into a hall intersection a little way ahead of them. "Excuse me," he said quickly, "but I have something else to take care of." Sprinting away from the captain, Roger caught up to Kira, the brunette giving him a slightly puzzled look.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Roger shook his head, catching his breath for a moment before replying.
"Nothing's wrong, but I was wondering if you could help me with something."
"Sure," the brunette said, nodding. Roger smiled.
"I've heard you did some programming work with a mobile suit OS," he said. Kira smiled and nodded in affirmation.
"I created the Natural-compatible OS that the Astrays use."
"That is exactly what I wanted to hear," Roger said.
Tesla, Bridge
"Is there anything yet?" Lia Cromwell asked over the intercom. From his commander's chair, Alexander Stanton shook his head, although he knew she couldn't see it.
"Nothing yet," he answered. The Tesla was positioned at an optimal observation point, a fair distance from Azathoth and just outside the debris belt. Squadron Commander Sabato had figured that the legged ship would head for one of two destinations: the Moon or the PLANTs. It was always possible they'd head for Earth and try for reentry, but Sabato, Sanford and Stanton all doubted it. The Archangel probably wouldn't want to suffer the heat and ram pressure of reentry while damaged.
Assuming they didn't travel too far from the station before breaking away from the debris belt, the enemy would emerge on one of two trajectories, and the Tesla was sitting directly between them. If the legged ship made a move, they'd see it.
It was still something of a gamble, of course. Just because they'd damaged the Archangel at Azathoth didn't make the ship a sitting duck, and Yamato's skill in a mobile suit was the stuff of legend. They could only hope that there wasn't a spare suit he could use. After all, as good as Lia, the Amigos and he were, Stanton had no illusions about defeating Kira Yamato in battle.
"Commander," one of the technicians called out. "We're reading a signal breaking away from the belt. Stanton's brow furrowed.
"Identify it," he said. There was a moment of relative quiet, as the bridge crew worked to focus the sensors and refine the image of the ship.
"The signal matches the legged ship; it's headed for the PLANTs." Stanton smiled. Out of the two courses the enemy could have taken, their current one brought them slightly closer to the Tesla's position.
"If we move to intercept, how long will it be before our paths cross?" he asked.
"About a week," was the reply. Stanton nodded.
"Let's get underway."
Archangel, Crew Quarters
Kira breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled off his uniform jacket. Too tired to put it away, he simply tossed the item of clothing on the floor, along with his pants. Clad in his boxers and undershirt, he pulled back the covers on his bunk and slid beneath them. While he had nothing against Roger, the Earth Forces pilot could get rather...well…insistent, and he'd almost been watching over Kira's shoulder while the brunette had designed the new OS he wanted. To put it mildly, Kira was glad to be done.
Behind him, Kira heard the rustling of Flay's clothes as she finished undressing. Clad in what Kira knew were her tank top and panties, she crawled in next to him, and he felt her arms wrap around his waist, the length of her body pressing against his. The young Coordinator felt his skin heat and his body respond to the contact, and he smiled a little as he rolled over to face Flay.
Any thoughts of a romantic interlude, however, vanished when Kira saw her face. Flay was looking at him, but there was worry behind her eyes, the grey-blue orbs like storm clouds, veiling turmoil within.
"What's wrong?" he asked, brushing her bangs out of her face. Flay looked away for a moment, hesitating. Finally, she felt ready to speak.
"It's not a big thing, I guess," she said quietly. "It's just that, well, Lacus is here and I just don't know—." Kira cut her off, kissing her forehead.
"Lacus isn't angry at you," he said, rubbing her shoulders reassuringly. "She doesn't hold grudges, and she knows you're a good person, so you shouldn't feel guilty around her, okay?" Flay smiled and nodded, her eyes watering a little.
"Kira," she said. "You know I love you, right?"
What prompted that?
"Of course I do," he replied. "What made you ask that?"
"I just don't want you to think I take you for granted," Flay replied, reaching up to brush away a stray tear. Kira smiled.
"I don't think that," he said, leaning forward and kissing her softly on the lips. Flay snuggled up against him, Kira pulled the covers over them and they quietly settled down to sleep.
September 24, CE 72
The combat alarm went off as Roger was walking through the crew quarters, getting rid of some excess energy.
Well, he thought, I guess I get to work that energy off on the battlefield.
Up ahead, doors slid open as personnel who had been resting were summoned to their posts. Most of the crewmembers rushing past were unfamiliar to Roger, but he recognized Kenji, Maria and Sara as they darted by, and he hastened to join them. After a few seconds, Sara noticed him.
"What are you doing?" she asked. Roger cocked an eyebrow.
"What do you think?" he responded. "I'm coming with you." Sara took on a concerned expression.
"Then be careful," she said. "When I talk to Hiro again, I don't want to have to tell him I made an interesting new friend…and then he got killed." Roger chuckled at the remark.
"Oh, don't you worry," he said. "I've got a little surprise for the enemy."
Lia broke formation, Masterson and Hawke following her as they headed for the legged ship's bow.
The plan was fairly simple. Since they didn't have the firepower to destroy the ship on their own, they would just have to slow it down. So Lia, Commander Stanton and two of the Amigos would engage the Orb mobile suit forces, providing enough distraction for Rodriguez to circle around back and destroy the ship's main thrusters with the Hellfire cannon.
Of course, there had been the inevitable joke about taking the enemy from the rear. Lia shook her head at the memory.
"Men are pigs," she said to no one in particular.
"You aren't exactly a saint yourself, Cromwell," Masterson shot back, alerting Lia to the fact that her com link had been on.
"Cut the chatter," Stanton interrupted. "Here we go." As if on cue, the Archangel's CIWS opened up, showering them with tracer fire. Electron beams, hypervelocity projectiles and explosive shells streaked back and forth between the legged ship and the Tesla, and Lia pulled her GuAIZ down below the enemy vessel.
"This is too easy," she said, lining up a beam shot even as she spoke. "Where the hell are the Orb mobile suits?" No sooner had she said that than a cockpit alarm went off, and Lia barely managed to evade as a high velocity electron beam streaked past. Tracing it back to its source, she spotted the Astray variant, painted in those unmistakable orange and yellow hues. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who recognized the color scheme. As four standard Astrays came around the side of the legged ship, Commander Stanton spoke.
"Masterson, kill the Tiger," he said. "Lia, you, Hawke and I will take these others."
"Copy that," she said, beginning to move toward the four M1s. Suddenly, however, her cockpit alarm went off again, and she screamed, pushing her machine into full reverse as something nightmarish came straight at her.
She was just fast enough, and the enemy machine's attack missed her by perhaps one meter. Lia was grateful that she had turned her com link off a moment ago; she didn't want her enemy to know he had rattled her like that.
The new machine was disturbingly similar to one of the three GAT-X models that had been at Jachin, save for the fact that its massive shoulder cannons and shield were missing. Instead, the teal machine sported two small shields on its wrists, similar to descriptions Lia had heard of the legendary Strike's Panzer Eisen device. What looked like the handles of beam boomerangs projected from the thing's shoulders, and it held a massive anti-ship sword in each hand, the blades' emerald beam components glowing menacingly.
"Impressive," Lia said over the com link, regaining her composure.
"Oh, it's you again!" the voice confirmed that the Alliance pilot had indeed survived.
"You got off on luck during the last battle," she said. "G-weapon or not, I'll kill you this time."
"Bring it on!" Lia opened fire with her beam rifle. The enemy mobile suit dodged her first shot and took her second on one of its shields. Growling with frustration, Lia extended the GuAIZ's beam claws and rushed her opponent.
Athrun pulled his Astray to the right, avoiding the command GuAIZ's extensional arrestor and responding with a shot from his beam rifle.
"How come Lieutenant Yamato isn't out here?" Kenji Tiran's voice emerged from Athrun's cockpit speakers. "He could probably take these guys blindfolded." Athrun laughed; Kenji was probably right.
"I wish he were out here," the blue-haired Coordinator replied, "but we're kind of short on mobile suits at the moment." He fired on the command GuAIZ again as he spoke into the com link, turning it into an open transmission.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked. "You're outnumbered and outgunned. You can't win this." Perhaps a hundred meters away, Athrun saw Kenji's Astray moving to flank the tattooed machine, but the commander evaded the tactic, accelerating upward and away from Athrun and Kenji as they fired.
"That all depends," the Advent Faction soldier said. "Who don't you see here?" Athrun grinned in response.
"I don't know," he replied. "Who don't you see here?"
Allen Rodriguez drifted into position behind the legged ship. Thus far, it had all gone very smoothly, with the Orb forces going straight for the distraction and leaving him free to do his work. As he locked on with the Hellfire, Rodriguez savored the anticipation of what was probably the biggest explosion he would ever cause.
He really did have an awesome job.
"Legged ship goes up in flames in three, two, on—," Rodriguez stopped as his cockpit alarm went off, and he hissed as he let go of the Hellfire with his GuAIZ's left hand and brought up his shield just in time to block the incoming beam shot.
"Thought you might try something like this," Lady Cagalli said over the com link as the Strike Rouge interposed itself between Rodriguez and his target. "I figured I'd hold back from the others just in case." The Advent Faction pilot grimaced.
"How fortunate," he said. Rodriguez made to use the Hellfire, but was pushed back as more electron beams hammered on his shield.
Athrun brought his beam saber down on the command GuAIZ's shield, pressing the attack and forcing the enemy machine back. Taking advantage of the momentary break, he scanned the rest of the fight.
The GuAIZ that had engaged Waltfeld must have figured that the M1A's lack of a shield would make it an easy melee target. Unfortunately for the enemy pilot, that weakness did not escape Waltfeld's attention, and he was using his mobile suit's maneuverability to give his opponent fits, dancing out of reach of the Advent Faction soldier's beam claws and delivering the occasional beam shot in response.
Sara, Maria and Kenji were occupied with a combination of the sharp-shooting GuAIZ and fire from the Laurasia-class several kilometers away. Nevertheless, they were holding their own.
Roger and the remaining GuAIZ had once again spun off into their own little duel. While the Alliance solder had had very little time to familiarize himself with the Sword Calamity, he was doing quite well, dodging or deflecting his enemy's attacks, although he had yet to land a blow himself.
Athrun refocused on the command machine as it opened fire with its beam rifle.
"Had enough yet?" the enemy pilot asked. Athrun laughed.
"No," he replied, lashing out with his saber and slicing the fin off the enemy machine's head. "Have you?"
Rodriguez dodged another beam saber strike and fired all of his thrusters, getting as much distance as possible. His opponent moved to draw her beam rifle.
"Screw that!" he yelled, raising the Hellfire. Not even bothering to lock on, he pointed the massive cannon at the G-weapon and fired.
For a moment, it seemed that he had failed. The Strike Rouge darted out of the way, and the plasma beam went wide. Rodriguez smiled, however, when the crimson beam continued on and struck one of the legged ship's portside thrusters, setting off a massive explosion.
"Burn, baby, burn!" he cried out, firing again and blasting another afterburner. As he lined up his third shot, however, the Rouge struck from above, slicing away the GuAIZ's right arm.
"Damn it!" Rodriguez shouted. "Just when I was getting something done…" Holding on to the Hellfire with his machine's remaining hand, he beat a hasty retreat.
Lia was beyond frustrated. Nothing she did seemed to work on the new Alliance machine.
Why won't you DIE!?
She opened fire again, and again the enemy blocked the shot with one of its small shields. Pointing the same arm at her, the Earth Forces mobile suit fired the Panzer Eisen. The metal claw clamped onto the GuAIZ's right arm, and the G-weapon yanked on the cord, pulling itself and the GuAIZ closer together and swinging its right sword at the same time. Lia managed to bring her shield up, and the anti-ship blade crashed against the barrier.
"Bastard!" she snarled, firing her CIWS at the enemy…and crying out in anger as the heavy bullets ricocheted off without leaving a scratch.
"Hah!" the enemy pilot laughed over the radio. "Trans-Phase armor, ho!" Lia hissed and pushed away. The Earth Forces pilot moved to stow one of his swords, and Lia took the opportunity and fired her extensional arrestors, beam blades active.
The Alliance mobile suit fired its thrusters and inverted completely. As the arrestors passed under its head, the G-weapon swept the anti-ship sword it was holding through a downward arc, slicing cleanly through the cables.
"I think I'm getting the hang of this," the enemy pilot said, highly amused by the situation. Lia was working to come up with a witty retort when she was interrupted by Commander Stanton.
"All units fall back." Lia couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"I can take this guy," she said. "I know I can—."
"I said fall back! This isn't worth all of us getting killed."
"Understood, Sir," she forced the words out. Sparing one last look at the Earth Forces mobile suit, she began moving back towards the Tesla.
Before this was over, she would kill that pilot.
Tesla, Pilots' Ready Room
Lia threw her helmet across the room. It rebounded off the opposite wall and spun through the air in the weightless environment. Masterson wasn't doing any better.
"Freaking Orb soldiers are getting on my nerves," he growled. Hawke, stoic as ever, remained relatively calm, although his expression was dour.
"Your nerves?" Rodriguez demanded with an incredulous expression. "My machine lost an arm!" That was enough.
"Quit it!" Alexander yelled. "You lose your heads out there and those Orb soldiers won't hesitate to kill you." The pilots grew silent, and Stanton felt some of the tension dissipating. "Now," he said, "did we manage to disable the legged ship?" Rodriguez shook his head.
"I took out a couple of thrusters on one side, so they'll have to slow down unless they want to fly in circles, but they didn't lose all maneuvering capacity." Stanton nodded.
"Alright, I'll send a report back to Azathoth. In the meantime, we'll repair your machines and get ready for our next attack." As imagined, the mobile suit team was more than a little dubious.
"What good is that going to do?" Masterson asked. "We didn't even damage any of their mobile suits in this battle. What makes you think that the next one will go differently?" Stanton waited until he was finished, and then spoke.
"You noticed, I take it, that our GuAIZs are not the only mobile suits on this ship." There was a moment of silence, so the commander continued. "Jason Pryce," he called out, and a young man with neck-length blonde hair and blue eyes, garbed in the unmistakable red of a ZAFT ace, entered the room, "I believe your final viral infusion has run its course." The new arrival nodded.
"I've also taken the Herald to its limits," he said, "at least as far as simulations indicate." He looked at Stanton's team, and an icy smile, unsettlingly akin to Dr. Sanford's, crossed his face. "I believe our next sortie will be very interesting."
Author's Note: I realize that Lacus wasn't in this chapter, and I'm sorry about that, but I just couldn't find a spot where it felt right to put her in. I guess what I'm saying is don't worry; I haven't forgotten about her.
The rivalry between Roger and Lisa is growing more intense and, as you may have suspected, she is his nemesis for the story.
While Flay is still having her own inner conflict, she's definitely more comfortable now that Kira's back on the ship.
Next chapter: the Tesla gives chase, and the first of the Advent Faction's "enhanced" Coordinator pilots makes his combat debut.
