This is the 7th chapter. Enjoy ^^

And yes, our favorite green ball robot here finally makes an appearance in this chapter! Congrats for those who have guessed correctly :thumbs up:

Credit goes to Vandenbz for revision.


Orb Union – National Library

A week had passed since the Archangel had escaped from Heliopolis and temporarily docked at Artemis before continuing its journey. At the same time, things in Orb seemed fine as usual since most people went about their daily lives without any fear of military attack from either the Earth Alliance or ZAFT. But even though it had the title of the Land of Peace, that didn't meant there wasn't any criminal activity. Even petty things like vandalism, pickpocketing, or stalking sometimes still happened and the suspect always got caught in the act by local police departments. But luckily that didn't happen frequently, maybe only one or two cases per month.

Inside one of the largest and maybe the only national library of Orb, Char Aznable, now operating under his alternate alias of Quattro Bajeena; a man who had been known as the Red Comet back in the Universal Century was standing before the bookshelves which had been listed under the 'people and society' category. On the reading desk near him was a stack of books from various subjected which appeared to have been read by him already. He was in another world, a different reality which had uncanny similarities with his world since they also had Mobile Suits and space colonies here, so it was necessary for him to learn as much as he could about the Cosmic Era. Of course he didn't believe that he was in another world at first since it was very illogical for him. But after a very long argument with Erica Simmons, a senior engineer of Morgenroete, the Red Comet finally could accept the reality that he wasn't in the Universal Century anymore.

The same could be said for Erica. At first she thought Char might be insane, but from the way he talked and how he explained his last situation when he was still in the Universal Century, he was too smart to be considered as delusional. Also from what her technicians reported, it turned out that the capsule they found him in was actually some kind of Mobile Suit's eject-able cockpit that used an entirely different technology which was far more advanced compared to ZAFT's standard Mobile Suits. They also had managed to extract some information from the cockpit's databases, however they had been locked out by a high level security code that none of them could bypass until now. This discovery of course had interested Erica enough that she finally started to believe that Char was from another universe. Besides, she really wanted to know more about the Mobile Suits from his former home.

Back to the Red Comet, after a while of staring at the shelves, looking for a book that might take his interest, he finally found one; A brown thick book which appeared to have more than a hundred pages with a title 'Coordinator: Genetically Modified Humans' written in gold capital letters and an image of a baby inside a test tube.

Char then took a seat at his desk and began to read the book. After reading for a while, he could conclude that these Coordinators were similar to Newtypes in some aspects with the exception that Coordinators were humans that were genetically enhanced prior to birth whereas Newtypes were humans that had evolved due to living in outer space. When he read the part about the social relationships between Coordinators and non-Coordinators known as Naturals, he frowned a bit. He could see that some people saw Coordinators as a threat and violation of the human being whereas some Coordinators deemed themselves as superior to Naturals. Even in the Universal Century, there were people who despised and didn't trust Newtypes due to their fear.

After reading for a while, Char decided to take a break, so he let the book remain open on the desk as he folded his arms on his lap while looking above at the ceiling. "(Sigh) I guess no matter what world we're in, war… fear… and even hatred towards those who are different in some way is inevitable." said the Red Comet. His mind then turned to his rival Amuro Ray. Since both of them were the only ones left when their psycoframes resonated, could it be that the White Devil was here in this world as well?

'Amuro. If you were here, how would you stop this stupid war with what you believe in? Could you make them understand each other with this light within the human heart that you told me about?'

"So, did you find anything interesting?" A feminine voice suddenly asked him from behind, causing Char to snap out of his thoughts. He turned to see Erica who was smiling at him as she approached. "The library will close soon. We should get back."

'This woman… I don't know why but somehow… she reminds me of Nanai…' thought Char. It was true that Erica shared some physical similarities to his lover Nanai back in the Universal Century, but that was just a coincidence, right? With a small smile that matched hers, he then replied, "I'll see you after I'm done with this one."

With a sigh, the brown haired woman walked to the library's entrance before turning her head to the Red Comet again. "I'll be in my car when you're done."

.

.

.

Archangel – Bridge

"Reconfirmed. No signs of enemy ships within 5000 kilometers." reported Tonomura which made the captain sigh in relief as he continued on, "It appears that we've managed to lose them."

"They were all preoccupied with Artemis, so we were able to escape unnoticed." commented Mu. He then turned his chair towards Murrue, "We should be thankful to them for that at least."

"However…" Natarle trailed off, looking at Murrue as well.

"Yes, I know." The captain nodded before she lowered her head with the same concern, "We're fortunate that the Laurasia-class lost us, but we still haven't solved any of our problems."

In spite of their now apparently safe voyage to the Lunar Base because ZAFT wasn't on their tail anymore, the Archangel now had another problem rearing its ugly head. Since they hadn't been resupplied back in Artemis, the supplies they possessed had been decreasing faster than usual. In particular, water was becoming an increasingly large concern. Even though the water restriction had been applied to everyone on the ship, including the civilians, no one could tell if they would survive long enough before arriving at the Lunar Base. Long story short, the Archangel was now in a race against time before they totally ran out of supplies.

While everyone was in deep thought about how they would survive this, the sound of the door opening caused Mu, Murrue, and Natarle to snap back to reality and turn to see Amuro enter the bridge with a strange green ball shaped robot rolling on the ground behind him. It was the size of a basketball and had two small eyes above its curved mouth and four circular sections around its body.

"Something wrong here?" asked the White Devil who proceeded to sit in an unoccupied chair.

"I'm afraid so, Amuro. Currently we're low on supplies since we didn't get resupplied back in Artemis. We have to reach the Lunar Base if we want to resupply, but…" The captain trailed off and then averted her gaze towards the FMGES's Flight Management Guidance Envelope System screen. "As you can see, right now we're having a problem deciding the fastest yet safest route before the supplies run out." explained Murrue as she pointed at the route that traced from the Archangel towards the moon throughout the debris belt near the earth's atmosphere, "This is the fastest route that we've come up with so far."

"But the main problem is the debris belt." Mu added before he stood up from his seat and crossed his arms. "Moving through all of this junk quickly would be impossible, unless we want to take the risk of ending up as part of it."

"That's quite a problem indeed…" Amuro then lowered his head and thought, 'Compared with what I've been through, I've never faced such a crisis like this! Furthermore with additional passengers, we're running low on supplies faster! What should we do now?'

As he kept thinking, Amuro didn't notice that the ball-like robot near his feet had begun to extend its hidden limbs from the four circles on its body, revealing two hands and feet. The ball robot then floated to the screen which surprised some of the officers with the robot's behavior.

"HARO! SUPPLIES! HARO! SUPPLIES! HARO! SUPPLIES!" The robot said in monotone while rubbing the debris belt area on the screen.

"H-hey! Haro, what are you doing!? Get down here this instant!" scolded Amuro to his pet robot Haro which caused the other officers to look at him with confusion on their faces.

Haro finally did what he told and landed on Amuro's lap. It was then that Mu asked him, "Um, what is that thing, Amuro?"

"Ah, this?" Amuro then released Haro again, which pushed off his lap and flew around the bridge in the zero gravity. "This is my robotic pet, Haro. I made him from some leftover parts in the hangar."

"Robotic pet, you say?" Mu then looked at Haro with interest while rubbing his chin, "That's quite a robot that you've made Amuro, but why did he point at the debris belt?"

"I dunno." answered Amuro as Haro landed again on his lap and folded its limbs back, "Haro has an AI that I've programmed so it can think, but somehow I don't understand what he's trying to tell us."

"Hmmm…" After a moment of silence, suddenly Mu's eyes lit up as he realized something. "Wait a minute… the debris belt!"

"What's is it, Mu?" Amuro asked Mu who now showed his typical confident look.

The Hawk of Endymion then motioned to Haro with a hand gesture as if he was calling a little puppy to come. Both Murrue and Natarle could only give him incredulous looks for calling a robot like that. However to their surprise, Haro actually came to him and then jumped onto his lap. Smiling, Mu then patted Haro like a puppy which made the green ball robot flap its wings/ears in happiness.

"Heh, looks like I understand what our little friend here is trying to tell to us." said Mu with a grin. Both women then looked at Amuro who only shrugged.

.

.

.

PLANT – Aprilius One, Supreme Council Chamber

"Now, the Supreme Council shall commence a special inquiry into the collapse of Heliopolis, a territory of the Orb Union." announced the chairman Siegel Clyne before focusing his attention towards the masked man in the white uniform, Rau Le Creuset. "We shall begin with Rau Le Creuset. Please present your report."

"Yes sir." replied Le Creuset as he stood up and then presented the report about how Morgenroete Inc. from Orb and the Earth Alliance had secretly worked together to develop Mobile Suits to fight against ZAFT. After he finished his presentation and went back to his seat, there were mixed reactions from the council members. Some of them became angry and even blamed the Earth Alliance as the one responsible for the destruction of Heliopolis and the Orb Union for breaking the treaty as a Neutral state, but some of them also opposed that. After some arguments, Patrick Zala, father of Athrun Zala, who totally despised the earthlings or as they were commonly referred to as Naturals finally stood up.

"However, Commander Le Creuset, are the Earth Forces' Mobile Suits truly valuable enough to account for all the sacrifices made to get them?" He asked, gaining Rau's attention as he stood again from his seat.

"To explain their marvelous abilities, I've brought a pilot who has not only operated one, but has also battled against the only machine that we failed to take and one unknown machine which we hadn't known about before." He then turned his gaze towards Athrun who was sitting beside him, "I request to have Athrun Zala present his report."

After a moment of silence, the chairman finally spoke up. "I will allow Athrun Zala to report."

This time Athrun stood from his seat and saluted the council members. The display screens on the councilors' desks then began to turn on and showed the first Mobile Suit: the Aegis.

"First, this is the machine known as the 'Aegis'. One major characteristic is its ability to transform. Due to its frame structure, it's fundamentally different from the other four models. This allows the machine to transform into a mobile armor. Also, upon transformation, it's equipped with the powerful 580-millimeter dual-phase energy cannon known as the Scylla. Along with the other machines, it comes with an armor system called Phase-Shift Armor, which has yet to be tested apart from a single combat sortie thus far. At present, we are reprogramming the OS to bring out its maximum potential. And based on the specs of the machine, it is believed that these mobile suits are superior, both in technology and power, to ZAFT's main weapon, the GINN."

The screen then shifted to the Duel firing its beam rifle and the grenade mounted on it.

"Second is the 'Duel'. This machine was developed with close-range combat in mind and has a variety of uses. It's believed to have been used as the basis of development for the other machines. Like the others, it has the anti-air system 'Igelstellungs' installed to intercept missiles, as well as destroy aircraft and armed vehicles. This machine also has a pair of beam sabers and an anti-beam shield for its standard equipment."

The screen then changed again to the Buster firing its combined high-energy sniper rifle.

"This is machine designated as the Buster. This machine was designed with long-range artillery attacks in mind. It is believed that this machine was built to provide fire support from the rear and perform sniper attacks. It is not equipped with a shield; however it has a 350-millimeter gun launcher that uses attachments to become an ultrahigh-impulse long-range sniper rifle or an anti-armor shotgun."

The screen then changed again. This time it showed the Blitz raising its arm and then fired off the lancer darts from its Trikeros offensive shield system.

"This one is the Blitz. It has a special feature called Mirage Colloid, when activated specialized particles that are capable of bending light and radar waves are released over the armor's surface, rendering this machine virtually invisible to detection. This system makes it effective for search and destroy missions. However, when this system is activated, it is unable to use its Phase-Shift Armor System. It's believed that this machine was developed for blitzkrieg warfare or sneak attacks. It's also equipped with its own weapons, Trikeros and Gleipnir."

The screen then showed the Strike with its different equipment from the Aile, Launcher, and Sword Striker packs.

"And this is the machine that we failed to take, the Strike. From what we know, it's a machine that's capable of various types of combat. The design allows this model to switch between a number of different weapon packs, named Launcher, Sword and Aile. From what we determined from the data, the Launcher has a 320-millimeter ultrahigh-impulse cannon. It is also equipped with a 120-millimeter anti-ship Vulcan cannon as well as a 350-millimeter gun launcher. The Sword module equips it with a 15-meter long anti-ship sword, an anchor similar to the Blitz's Gleipnir and a beam boomerang. Lastly, the Aile pack provides the Strike with a significant boost in maneuverability and speed. It also possesses a beam rifle, an anti-beam shield and a pair of beam sabers. In addition, this machine also carries two combat knives in its hip sections as its fixed armaments aside from the Igelstellungs. It's assumed that this machine has high combat potential, however we are currently unsure if there were more packs created for the Strike due to an in-depth analysis and the fact that the Aile and Launcher packs were developed based on the capabilities of the Duel and the Buster."

The screen then finally showed the Hi-Nu firing its beam rifle before deploying its finger decoys while carrying the Strike. From behind his mask, Rau was both surprised and interested with the image of this new Mobile Suit since he had never been told anything about this unknown unit before.

"Lastly, this is an unknown unit that was unreported by our Intel. We have currently dubbed it under the alias of Blue Falcon. For now we don't have many details about this unit aside from its standard equipment including a beam rifle and beam saber in addition to explosive decoys stored in its fingers. However…" The screen then paused and zoomed in on the Hi-Nu's back boosters and propellant tanks, "It's possible that this unit was built for high speed combat and long operational time on the battlefield, considering these two external tanks." The screen then reverted back to the ZAFT logo. "That concludes my report." He saluted after explaining the quick summaries of the Mobile Suits.

"They've created these abominations?!" one of the council members, Jeremy Maxwell, said with disgust in his voice. "Damn Naturals!"

"But they're only prototypes at this stage, right?" the female member Eileen Canaver asked as she voiced her opinion, "You can hardly consider five Mobile Suits a threat."

"But if they've come this far, their next step would be mass production!" The white haired female member Ezalia Joule countered back, "Are you suggesting we can afford to wait until that happens?"

"This is a clear indication of the Naturals' intentions!" another member agreed with her before turning towards Canaver, "They want to further escalate the war!"

"Come to order, committee members! Order!" Clyne tried to calm the situation amongst the members which made them focus their attention back to the chairman again.

"There is no one who prefers fighting. Who among us actually wants to head out to a battlefield? We want to live in peace, tranquility, and happiness. That has been our only wish." Zala said and then stood up, his voice becoming louder as he continued on. "But who ruthlessly shattered that wish? Who took our freedom away for their own convenience and ambitions, and continued to push us? We will never forget the Bloody Valentine. The tragedy of Junius Seven! 243,721 people... It's been a year since we lost so many of our citizens in that abominable incident. Yet we've endured, making only minimal demands in all attempts to end this war as quickly as possible. However, the Naturals have put our efforts to waste, time and time again! We fight to protect ourselves. If we cannot protect without fighting, then we have no choice but to fight!" As Patrick ended his speech, the majority of the committee who agreed with him gave him solemn nods with the exception of Canaver and the chairman himself who only took a deep breath and then sighed.

.

.

.

Archangel – Lounge

With Kira and everyone out salvaging supplies from the debris, there was nothing for Mu and Amuro to do so they decided to spend their free time in the cafeteria. It turned out that the idea Mu had gotten from Haro was to salvage the available supplies from the wrecked ships and assorted junk in the debris belt. At first, Kira and the others thought that it wasn't a good thing to steal from a place that could be considered as a ship's graveyard, but vice-captain Natarle had told them that they had to do this in order to survive. Taking two cups of coffee from the coffeemaker, Amuro walked towards the table where Mu was sitting with Haro floating around the room.

As Amuro took his seat and gave the blond pilot a cup, he spoke first. "Mu, it's about what you asked back at Artemis."

"Huh?" Mu was a bit confused before he finally remembered what he had said back then, "Oh right, about these Newtype people..."

Amuro nodded, "You said that you could possibly be one of them? Do you have any similar traits to what I've mentioned before?"

After a moment of silence between the two aces since nobody was in the cafeteria except them and the kitchen staff, Mu finally answered, "Well, there's a person that has become my nemesis for a long time since our first encounter at the Endymion Crater, and somehow I could feel his presence whenever he's nearby or not. Not only that, but I also think I could communicate with him without having to turn on my comm. line if I truly wanted to. It's like… some kind of… a telepathic communication I guess."

'That's extremely similar to when I could sense Char. So far those are the traits of a Newtype indeed, hmmm.' Amuro thought for a moment before asking another question, "Who is this person then?"

"He is the leader of the Le Creuset team, Rau Le Creuset." Mu then gave him a serious look as the White Devil took a sip of his coffee, "That man is a decorated ace pilot and a great strategist as well." taking another sip, he continued, "You better be careful when you face him too, Amuro. You'll know when you fight a customized Mobile Suit like his CGUE."

Amuro nodded. 'This Creuset guy seems like Char, I better not underestimate him.'

"Anyway, back on track." Mu's words brought Amuro back from his thoughts as he focused on the Hawk of Endymion again, "Do you think those traits could describe me as a Newtype too?"

After taking another sip, Amuro then replied, "Well, so far if what you said is true, then I guess so. But… if you're really a Newtype, then you should be able to do the same thing to me since I'm a Newtype too."

"Now that you mention it, I think I could only sense Rau's presence."

"But I can feel your presence Mu." Amuro's reply made Mu's eyes widen a bit, "So that means you're a Newtype since Newtypes can sense those like themselves. Maybe it's because you share a special connection with this Le Creuset, or maybe your Newtype powers haven't fully awakened yet."

"Man oh man, all of this is too complicated for me." As Mu finally drank up all of his coffee followed by Amuro, a beeping came from Mu's wrist-mounted communicator. Both Mu and Amuro listened to the message relayed from the bridge.

"They're back. I guess they've already brought some chunks of ice from the debris." Amuro said as he stood up and then threw away his empty cup into the nearby trashcan, "Come on, Mu."

With a nod, the blond haired man also stood up and threw away his cup before following Amuro.

"AMURO IS LEAVING! AMURO IS LEAVING! HARO!" Realizing that the two had left the lounge, Haro landed on the ground and then followed them by rolling itself like a ball.


Sorry if I skipped the argument part between Kira and the officers about taking supplies from a space graveyard. Next chapter we'll have two balls meet each other, and a certain gallant knight in shining armor will also back for his quest for justice.

R&R and no flames, kay?