Vesalius, Bridge

"That could have gone better." Rau admitted after the debriefing "I nearly had a heart attack when I heard that roar again."

"What was that sir?" Miguel asked "The minute he heard his was friend in danger he just went crazy or something."

"We are not really certain what it was," Pixy admitted "It first happened at Endymion when a Squad member of his kamikazed our flagship to remove the prototype jammer we had installed, around a third of our losses at Endymion could be traced to him."

"Holy shit," Miguel's jaw dropped "but if he could of killed us so easily than why didn't he?"

"A good question," Pixy admitted with a sigh "I believe that he is sick of killing, and would avoid it if possible, but is still willing to do so if put in a corner."

"And what of the council summons sir?" Eric asked curious.

"The Gamow is in route with the third fleet, Athrun will be coming with me to make our report and we will also get the Rosso repaired after the Demon tore through it." Rau explained "The rest of you will be transferring to the Gamow and will be put under the command of Captain, he also has your new GuAIZ from the homeland Miguel, So you all better get ready to transfer over, there isn't anything we can do about the Archangel right now as they are now in Artemis Space."

"Yes sir." They coursed as they saluted before leaving to their quarters.

Onboard the Gamow

"Damn it!" shouted Yzak. "There were ten of us and only Seven of them! And we still lost!"

Rusty shook his head and turned away as Yzak continued to rant and rave about their defeat. Yzak really needed to learn some anger management.

Yzak grabbed Athrun and slammed him into the lockers on the wall. "And what the hell was that stunt? You had a clear shot! You could have destroyed them both! Why didn't you?"

Rusty had to admit. That puzzled him as well. Athrun had a fairly large window of opportunity to fire upon and destroy both the Katana and Strike in a single blow. Yet, he didn't.

"That's enough Yzak!" shouted Nicol. "The enemy's out there! Not in here!"

Yzak let go of Athrun but he was still pretty pissed off. "It's because of this coward that we lost to three Naturals!"

Rusty sighed. "Again Yzak, you're underestimating Naturals. But that doesn't matter at the moment." He turned to face his teammates. "Those pilots weren't Naturals. They were Coordinators."

Nicol, Dearka and Yzak gave looks of surprise and disbelief while Athrun looked away and Matthew and Kelsey nodded in agreement.

"What? No way," said Yzak.

"How can you be so sure?" asked Nicol.

"Simple. The pilot of the Katana told me himself," replied Rusty. "And frankly, I can't see any reason to lie about that."

Yzak, if it was even possible, grew angrier. "So it's a group of traitors and the Demon piloting those things? Then we'll just have to destroy them."

"Traitor?" scoffed Matthew. "Hardly. Genetics don't define who we are." Rusty nodded in agreement while Yzak glared at Matthew.

"Our orders are to destroy the mobile suits anyways, so it doesn't matter," said Kelsey, earning an annoyed growl from Yzak.

None of them noticed Athrun's depressed expression. Or were even remotely aware of his secret.

Archangel

"Wow…" muttered Flay as the Archangel backed into Artemis, moving through the deactivated section of the umbrella."It's a light-wave barrier, known as the Umbrella of Artemis," explained Sai. The two were standing at the back observation deck, after Flay had recovered from her fear of the battle, and Sai had recovered from Flay's earlier anger at him for leaving her alone like that. "They say it even blocks laser beams," continued Sai. "Heh. It's the ultimate defensive weapon." "I'm so relieved," said Flay, smiling. "We can finally feel safe. Wouldn't you say?" "Yeah," said Sai, matching her smile.

Bridge

Murrue sighed in relief as the Archangel made port with the Artemis base "Thank god for Darknal's plan," she breathed "Because that could have gone worse then what happened."

Darknal's plan was to launch their decoy missile in the direction of Artemis base as the Archangel stayed put in the debris field and waited for the ZAFT ship to pursue it and when that happened they attacked them forcing them to retreat His reasoning for that was that if they could get the first strike in then they could hopefully damage one of their suits enough where they would have to call off the pursuit for repairs.

"You can say that again," Mu agreed as he rubbed his eyes "That kid is a bloody genius. Any word from Sarah and Corrine?"

"Corrine's fine now, eating in the cafeteria with the others. Same as Sarah." John answered as he stepped into the bridge "Still a little shaken but nothing that will be with them forever."

"Good to hear," Murrue said honestly "Mu, Natarle and I will be disembarking when we finish docking, so you'll be in command until we get back."

"Understood ma'am." John answered saluting before he left the bridge again and made his way to the cafeteria to get some food himself. Upon entering he smiled at the sight of Corrine laughing at some joke that Tolle made and quickly gathered up his food and sat down next to Corrine giving he a quick peck "Feeling better?"

"Much, thank you." Corrine answered honestly smiling at John, her night's sleep doing wonders "And thank you for coming when you did."

"Hey I promised didn't I?" John asked with a big grin on his face as he tore into a piece of bread.

"Hey, John who was Piloting that GuAIZ?" Jordan asked, who was sitting next to Sarah. "His name was Larry Foulke." John Replied. "When I joined the E.A, he was a Mercenary me and my squad would usually team up with. He prefers to go by his Call sign 'Solo Wing Pixy'."

"Was he a friend of yours?" Sarah asked. "Actually, yes." He said, chuckling alittle. "Dispite us being on different sides now, He's still a good friend."

Suddenly, a squad of soldiers busted into the room their guns at the ready "What the Fuck is going on!" John roared standing up as a base Lieutenant walked in.

"Due to the fact that your ship is not in our base registry I'm afraid I must place you all under arrest," The Lieutenant said in an oily voice "So please remain calm and sit back down as we will be bringing everyone aboard this ship to this location."

Growling John sat back down as he eyed each of the soldiers "Should've know something like this would've happened," he whispered "Garcia was always a snake."

As people slowly filtered in John patrolled around the room asking the various staff about what they had seen while giving some orders on what to do should something else happen.

Bridge

Oh great, thought Murrue, Natarle, and Mu all at once as they were locked into place and the Archangel was surrounded by Moebius mobile armors and armed soldiers. "Captain?" said Natarle. "What's going on there?" asked Tolle. Murrue turned to the inspection officer from Artemis. "Well, commander?" she asked. "I must advise you, captain, remain silent," said the officer. "I was afraid of this…" said Mu under his breath. Then, he smirked slightly behind his hand. Ah well. They won't get the G weapons… though I have to wonder who's in charge here… most Eurasians wouldn't behave quite like this…

Hades Bridge

"Hail the Vesalius." Zar said. "Yes sir." Dren said. The Hades slowly approached the outskirts of Artemis's sensor range. They didn't want to inform the Eurasians of there presence just yet. The screen up ahead changed as Rau la cruset's face appeared. "Well, my my." Rau said, smiling. "If it isn't the Devil himself." "Enough with the formalities, Rau." Zar said. "I have decided to assist you in a task that should not have required my assistance in the first place. The council will want an explanation of what happened to Heliopolis, and your failure to capture the remaining enemy mobile suits." "Yes, well there have been quite a few…complications." Rau said. "But hopefully, this will all be over soon. Unfortunately, you are right. The counsel has already sent for me, and I was just about to leave. It would be appreciated if you would take command of my team for me while I am absents." "Of course." Zar said. "I look forward working with your infamous Cruset team." He cut the transmission. Rau will lie about what happened at Heliopolis. He thought. He'll say that the earth forces destroyed the colony, not zaft. He wants his image to look good for the counsel. Zar saw as the Vesalius began to move away. What will you do when the time comes, my old friend?

Artemis

"The top secret military project of the Atlantic Federation," said Rear Admiral Gerard Garcia, the commander of the Artemis base. He smiled. "Who would've guessed it would jump right into our lap?"

"So, all those rumors that have been circulating about Heliopolis were true after all," said Garcia's second-in-command. "We'll invite these people to remain here," said Garcia, still smiling. "On an extended 'shore leave'."

The Gamow

On the bridge of the Hades, roaming about the Artemis airspace, Captain Zar met with his pilots, Dearka, Yzak, Nicol, Eric, Rusty, Matthew, and Kelsey to discuss the matter of continuing their mission.

"The umbrella blocks all lasers and projectiles coming at it," explained Zar, as the tactical screen displayed a digitized model of Artemis and the umbrella. "Although the same could be said for anything going out."

"So what it comes down to is, they won't be attacking us," said Dearka, somewhat condescendingly. "What a perfectly lame invention."

"Though as a purely defensive weapon, it's quite an achievement," countered Zar. "This base hasn't had any strategic importance, so up to this point, our forces have pretty much ignored it."

"At present, we don't have the means to break through that umbrella. Their holed up in a tricky spot," he continued.

"So, what's the strategy then?" asked Dearka. "Kick back till they come out?" Dearka snickered to himself at that. Zar frowned at his behavior.

"Stop clowning around Dearka," said Yzak "When the commander gets back, do you wanna be the one to tell him we weren't able to do anything? We'd be totally humiliated."

"But the Umbrella of Artemis doesn't really stay open all the time, does it?" asked Nicol, speaking up for the first time.

"it only remains active while enemies are still in the area," said Zar. "But even if we were to approach while it was closed, they would detect us before we got within range of the fortress, and reactivate the umbrella."

"My own machine, Blitz," said Nicol. "It just might be able to give us the advantage we need to pull this off." Nicol's words drew the somewhat shocked attention of his comrades. Although Matthew, Kelsey, Athrun and Rusty had treated Nicol well, Yzak and Dearka always thought of him as a coward because he wasn't as eager to go to war as they were. "It has the same Phase Shift armor as the other mobile suits," explained Nicol. "But it has another interesting feature."

Artemis

Garcia stood in the Artemis control room, looking out at the Archangel docked right outside, smiling. He still couldn't believe his luck. The power this would bring, not only to Eurasia, but also to him personally…

The console in front of him beeped suddenly, alerting him that someone wanted to speak with him. Activating the intercom, he spoke. "What is it?" he asked. "The ZAFT Laurasia-class is leaving the area," said the officer. "Yellow eighteen, mark twenty, Charlie, distance seven hundred and increasing steadily." "Very good," said Garcia. "I'll leave it to Rize to handle it. Continue to maintain surveillance of the area."

At that moment, his lieutenant entered the control room behind him. "Find anything?" asked Garcia. "Sir, it's proceeding smoothly," reported the lieutenant. "We're still in the process of examining the unregistered vessel. However, about the mobile suits…"

"Well, what is it?" asked Garcia. "There are locks on the OS's that we simply haven't been able to figure out," he said. "We have been attempting to activate them, but have had little success."

"What?"

"We have assigned all of our technicians to study how to remove the lock, and they're working on it as we speak," continued the officer. Garcia gritted his teeth. This could be trouble.

Artemis Lounge

A short while later, after the Archangel officers had been escorted to their room, Natarle privately let her companions know her opinion. "Sure the ship may be unregistered," she said. "But this kind of treatment is inexcusable." Military protocol was so heavily coded into Natarle's psyche that the thought of ambitious soldiers acting against protocol to further their own goals was almost entirely foreign to her. "There isn't much we can do," said Mu. "Right now, those guys would much prefer we didn't return to the ship. But there's something that concerns me even more." Mu looked down at the ground in thought. "The fact these soldiers here on Artemis have this unquestioning faith that their secure against any enemy assault." "No base cannot be taken," said Murrue in agreement. "And no defense is perfect or absolute."

Gamow

"Distance from Artemis, twenty-five hundred, still no change in the protective light-wave barrier," said the Gamow's sensor officer.

Down in the hangar, Nicol was prepping the Blitz.

"Mirage Colloid voltage check," said Nicol. "System all green, ready to launch." Nicol sighed. "Trial and error with an untested system," he muttered. "I really hope it works."

"The Earth Forces sure come up with some bizarre stuff," commented Yzak to Dearka in the lounge.

"It seems appropriate for Nicol," said Dearka, smiling condescendingly. "A weapon fit for a coward."

"How is Nicol a coward if he volunteered to join Zaft, even though he diddnt have to?" Matthew said.

"Nicole is possibly the bravest of us all." Rusty said. "I'll say." Miguel said, The Blitz, meanwhile stood up and headed out to the catapult, ready to launch any time.

Archangel

"Eurasia is supposed to be an ally," said Sai, looking at me. "Don't they have good relations with the Atlantic Federation?"

"I don't think that's the issue here," I said. Kira sighed. "The problem is we have no identification code," he said. "Is it that big of a deal to these guys?" asked Tolle. "Apparently it is," said Scout, her annoyance obvious in her tone and expression. "If you ask me," said Murdoch, looking at me. "That's just an excuse. There's something else going on here."

"I agree," John said. "And I think I know what." Murdock staired at him. "What?" he asked. "The Gundams." I said. "The what?" He asked, scratching his head. "The G-Weapons." I said. He then nodded. "It would make sense." He said. Kira sighed, stepping over into a corner.

"Figures." John said, deffinely ticked off. "I should have known that bastard diddnt change in three years."

"Ok, what happened?" I asked. "What happened between you and this Garcia guy?"

John paused for a moment. "About a year before Endymion…" he said. "Me and the rest of Wardog squadron were stationed on the Earth Alliance Ship New Jersey, Before we met Mu, Garcia was the captain at the time." He took a deep breath. "One day, he asked our only woman wingman, Second Liutenant Kai Nagase to see him in his quarters…" he trailed off after that. "And he…" he simply could say it, but we all got the picture. "Bastard." I muttered. "How could he of even reached rear admiral rank?"

"Believe me kid, I ask myself that even today." John said, trying to calm down. "The guy even tried to steal my own Custom CGUE, but he diddnt know about the self destruct feature I added in." He chuckled. "Never seen him so mad in my life. But it took me months to get a replacement suit though."

I then started going through the mobile suits that Zaft had captured. I had convinced Murrue to let me see some of the basic data on the other Gundams. None of the real mechanics or inner workings, just things like capabilities. Like everyone else, I suspected we will be facing the stolen machines again. I now had it all on my compact computer—a PDA sized laptop. It was difficult to operate, and in general less useful than normal computers. not to mention, a shit load more expensive, but the small size made up for it. That's when I saw it.

"Oh shit," I said quietly, drawing the attention of the others. "Um… Chief Neumann?"

"Yes?" asked the blue-haired ship pilot.

"The Umbrella shield… it's only active when enemies are within the defense perimeter, right?" I asked.

"Yeah…" said Neumann, not knowing where she was going with this. Everyone else was curious as well.

"Is that perimeter… greater than the operational range of the Blitz with Mirage Colloid deployed?" I asked. The eyes of the Archangel crew widened in horror, and most internally swore. Scout, Adam, Darknal, Sarah, Kira, Flay, and the others were left blinking in confusion.

"Mirage Colloid?" asked Adam.

"An active cloak, rendering it invisible to all forms of detection," I said. "An absolute stealth system. The ZAFT soldiers are anything but stupid—they may not have had time to learn the full capabilities of the Blitz in the last battle, but they know about the Mirage Colloid by now."

"Which means they're coming for us any minute now," said Murdoch. "Damn… we need to get you to your mobile suits."

Then John started the chuckle. "What's so funny?" Sarah asked. "This isn't a real good situation we're in right now."

"But it is." Darknal said, probobly catching onto why he was lauphing. "The soldiers here at Artemis are inexperienced, and are so confident that their presious shield will protect them from anything. But when the Blitz arrives, its first target will obviously be Artemis's Umbrella shield generator. With Artemis's only real defense gone, the soldiers here will be in chaos."

He then smirked. "It would be the perfect time for us to get into our suits in all of the confusion." Now I smiled. "I love it when a plan comes together." I said.

Suddenly a large bald man walked in with a commander insignia with another Lieutenant following him "I am the base Commander Garcia," the large man announced in an obviously false pleasant voice "All I want are the pilots for the Seven mobile weapons in the hanger."

No said a word as his eyes swept the room and stopped on a scared Flay "You know, the captain of this vessel is a female, so it could very well be that one of the pilots is a female as well." He suddenly grabbed Flay's arm and roughly dragged her up causing her to cry out. John gripped Sai's shoulder preventing him from doing something stupid while Scout held Adam in place oddly enough. And as much as I really wanted to lash out at the bald bastard, I couldn't draw to much attention to us at the moment.

"That's enough Garcia," John called out standing up calling all attention to him "I honestly can't believe that you think that the daughter of EA's vice president is a mobile suit pilot."

Garcia whirled around and looked at John in surprise as he slowly walked in front of a nervous Garcia "So you were alive after all." Garcia snarled in contempt as he eyed the coordinator in obvious dislike. This should be interesting. I thought.

"I've missed you too." John said sarcastically "So what is it you want?"

"My guess is your the pilot of the Demon?" Garcia speculated to which John curtly nodded.

"La Flagga piloted the Strike as Ensign Badgiruel piloted the Archer, Ensign Neumann piloted the Slash, Murdock the Orca, Pal the Wolverine, and- ." John's lie was cut off when I stood up. "And I piloted the Katana." I said. John gave me a look that said. You should have stayed down. But I looked back and him with a face saying. You were running out of people to lie about anyways. "I'm a Coordinator, like John." John just accepted it. "Happy? Now leave the civilians alone."

Garcia snorted at John "Do you honestly believe that I would believe a traitor such as yourself," Garcia sneered as he eyed the area that John was sitting in.

But then he staired at me, and raised an eyebrow. "Thought I do believe this man is the Katana pilot." He said, smirking as he walked towards me. "What is your name?" he asked. "Jordan Takeo." I said. Garcia chuckled. "I should have guessed." He said. "You look to damn much like your Father."

A jolt ran up my spine. What? I thought. "How do you know my Father?" I asked, in a slightly demanding tone. The admiral shook his head. "That would be a story for another time." He said, smirking. "Perhaps the real other pilots would come forward with a little, persuasion, though"

With that the guard closest to John slammed the butt of his rifle into John's gut. John just gave a small grunt as he eyed stared at Garcia while Murdoch firmly held Corrine in place "Did a fly run into me?" John asked as if discussing the weather as he grinned. That's John for ya. I thought. Smirking at his defiance.

Garcia growled at John as he nodded to the guard who smashed the back of his skull causing him to cry out and fall to his knee "John!" Corrine shouted in fear.

Garcia raised an eyebrow when he heard Corrine's shout and signalled a guard who shoved Darknal and grabbed Corrine roughly making her hiss in pain "Well what do we have here?" Garcia drawled smirking as John narrowed his eyes "What is such a pretty young thing doing on this ship?"

John gave off a low growl as he stood up and eyed Garcia darkly "Watch it Garcia," he warned darkly "Or you could lose something precious to you."

Garcia only smiled sickly at John "So she's close to you than?" he questioned as he twisted her arm making her cry out. You just did a real duuuuuumb thing jackass. I thought as I fought myself from kicking the ever-loving shit out of Garcia, as John did it for me.

Suddenly John was in front of Garcia with his fist pulled back and punched him full in the face forcing him to drop Corrine as he staggered back in pain. "Pwned." I said, smiling.

Then the guards all pointed their rifles at John who kept his eyes on Garcia as he righted himself "Don't kill him, yet," Garcia ordered "Knowing him if anyone but him tried to unlock the Demon it would self-destruct."

"Learned from the last time have you?" John asked rhetorically as the guards surrounded him and bound his wrists "That surprises me really, 'cause that would imply you have a brain." Garcia snarled as a guard smashed John's gut causing John to bend slightly and let out a grunt "What? Afraid to get close to little old me?" John mocked with a sick grin that surprised his friends. I don't know if he's either cocky, Briliant, or both. I thought.

Growling Garcia stepped up to John and backhanded him across the face, His only reaction was to tilt his head and smile at Garcia "Is there a breeze in the room? Or was that it?" Growling again Garcia gave a full blow to John's nose breaking it and causing Corrine to scream out in horror and fear at seeing him collapse. "I'll admit, that was a good one." John commended as he stood back up with a slight sway "I guess your bulk is good for something other than scaring away the ladies."

Everyone just watched in awe as John continued to mock Garcia as the blows rained down on him.

Artemis

"Regular patrol sweep," announced one of the Artemis control officers. "No sign of enemies within defensive perimeter." "Okay, it's fine now," said the officer in charge. "Switch lightwave barrier facilities to level two alert status."

Outside the defense perimeter, the Gamow detected the closing of the umbrella, and opened the catapult for the Blitz. Nicol launched his machine immediately, and as he did so, he pressed a button. From the Gamow's point of view, the Blitz suddenly vanished into nothingness. "Mirage Colloid formation looks good," the green-haired pilot said to himself. "Dispersion loss rate: thirty-seven percent. Its usage is limited to a maximum of eighty minutes." That in mind, Nicol burned the Blitz at the maximum safe speed for Artemis.

Archangel

Back at the Archangel John definitely looked liked he had been through the grinder with a broken nose a multiple bruises on his body and his uniform ripped in a couple of places while the others looked on in horror, the only thing keeping Corrine back was Neumann holding her back. Garcia grinned sickly as he watched John stagger back up onto his feet "I'll ask you again, who are the pilots for the other machines." Garcia asked as John shook his head clear.

"Barney the Dinosaur, the yellow tellietubby, The numa-numa boy, The sneezing Panda baby, and Leroy Jenkins." John answered giving off a small chuckle "Didn't you hear his battle shout?"

Garcia snarled and raised his fist to too strike John again, Only for it to suddenly stop. He was then suddenly in the air and the wind knocked out of him. He fell to the ground to see Jordan standing there, fist read from his recent punch. "Hit him again and I'll rip out your stomach and feed it too you." He said in a mececing voice. I always wanted to say something like that. he thought.

Then a pair of guards began to raise their rifles. "No!" Corrine shouted "Please stop it, I'm the pilot for the Wolverine so please stop it." She pleaded desperately.

Garcia Snarled. "You expect me to believe that a mere child was piloting one of those mobile suits. Who are the real pilots, brat?"

Garcia then tried to punched Jordan in the face. Or would have if Jordan wasn't a Coordinator. He sidestepped the blow, grabbed Garcia's wrist and threw the fat commander back to the ground. One of the soldiers grabbed Jordan, restraining him.

Garcia eyed Jordan. "Who are the other pilots?"

Jordan didn't say anything, but spit in his face. "Go to hell." He said. He noticed John shake his head, knowing he inspired him to do this.

Garcia was about to punch him in the face when yet another hand stopped him. This time it was Kira's. "Stop this now!" he said. "I'm the Pilot of the strike." This only made him madder. "I hate liers!" He said, attempting to punch kira, but Flay stopped him. "Wait, their telling the truth!" she yelled. "Their coordinators!"

Looking at each other both Scout and Sarah nodded and stood up as well "We're the pilots of the Guardian and the Slash." Scout stated. Followed by Darknal and Adam as they said they were the pilots of the Orca and Archer as The guards moved around them.

"There that wasn't so hard now was it?" Garcia asked snidely "Grab them and bring the girl as well, as... motivation to cooperate."

All Seven of the pilots narrowed their eyes at Garcia while Adam's shoulders shook minutely before the guards started pushing them along to the hanger where a team of techs were swarming over the Mobile suits. "Quite the amazing series that the Alliance has made don't you agree?" Garcia said suddenly civil as he watched the techs continue their work "I have a proposition for you, work for me and help me develop new mobile weapons and I shall do everything in my power to give you your hearts desires."

"You want us to remove the lock on the OS's, right?" asked Kira

"For starters," said Garcia, smiling in a manner that reminded the three Coordinators of a wolf staring down its next meal. "But I imagine you're capable of doing many other things."

"What do you mean?" asked Sarah, now confused.

"For example," said Garcia, looking up at the Strike. "You could analyze this machine's design and build more like it. Or perhaps you could even come up with a weapon that's effective against this type of mobile suit."

"Look, we're nothing more than civilian students," Jordan said."We're not soldiers, and we're not some military contractors. There's no reason why we have to do any of those things."

"But you're already traitors to your fellow Coordinators, are you not?" said Garcia, smiling.

"Us? Traitors?" Jordan said, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know what your reasons were," said Garcia. "But regardless, you did betray your own people, and so by rights…"

"You're wrong!" said Kira. "We did it cause…"

"Being Coordinators siding with the Earth Forces makes you two very valuable," interrupted Garcia. "There's nothing to worry about, I assure you that someone like yourselves could be made welcome, even in Eurasia."

Jordan stepped forward, the guards pulled out there weapons. "Since when did we side with the E.A?" he said. "Like I said, we are all simply civilians from a Nutrel nation. So are the other civilians. And John here is a retired E.A ace so you have nothing on him either. We honestly don't have to do a damn thing you tell us to do because we don't report by your chain of command, because we don't belong in a military of any kind. And as for your Coordinator comment, this war is one between Zaft and the E.A as far as I care. As much as people think it's a war between Naturals and coordinators, I just think it's another bloody war between humanity bickering between one-another like the hundreds of times before. Coordinators or no coordinators. So again, your little persuasion their means nothing to us."

Garcia only sneered at Jordan "We are not looking to join anyone," Kira stated his eyes full of determination "We just want to go home."

The others nodded in agreement causing Garcia's scowl to deepen further "You will unlock those mobile suits or I will have you killed," he threatened "and I will start with this girl, and if that doesn't motivate you than I will start killing the civilians." The others gasped, but Jordan remained calm, while John growled.

"Tell me Garcia…" Jordan said. "How long has it been since the Zaft ships left Artemis's sensor range?" Garcia raised an eyebrow. "ten minutes ago, why?" he asked. "If your looking for help you're your Coordinator buddies, if they approach this station, we'll just activate the shield again." Jordan looked like he was calculating something. Then he smiled.

"Your right." He said. "You'll activate the Umbrella as soon as you do detect enemy ships." He then staired deviously at Garcia. "But what if you cant detect the Blitz's Mirage Colloid Stealth system!" he shouted in triumph, and Garcia's eyes widened. "GET THE UMBRELLA UP AGAIN!" he shouted, then suddenly, the base shook violently.

Nicol frowned in thought as he ghosted through space careful to prevent his heat emissions from going to high and revealing his position. Once he was past the shield radius he activated his phase shift armor and started blasting away at the shield generators destroying them and sent the confirmation signal back to the Gamow "All that's left is the legged ship." He murmured to himself as he charged to the hanger.

"What was that!" Garcia yelled. "Sir, we are under attack!" A voice yelled. "A mobile suit just appeared from out of nowhere, and destroyed the Umbrella system!" "Thank you Blitz!" I yelled as I punched the guard holding flay square in the face, while the others took down the other guards.

John grinned and quickly leapt and shoulder tackled the guard in front of him while jerking the gun out of the guards hands. Turning he quickly fired off a couple of shots at the remaining guards killing them before he spied Garcia hauling his fat ass out of the Hanger. Meanwhile the others managed to secure their mobile suits and were moving them to launch to defend the Archangel. Reaching back into the cockpit John pulled out his Mp5 that was in a secured compartment along with radio headset and quickly slipped it on and tuned to the Mobile suits Radio frequency "I want the six of you to launch," he ordered quickly as he clambered down the elevator "I'm going after Garcia."

"Will you be alright?" Corrine asked in concern "You did take some bad hits."

"I'll be fine Kira," John assured as he face the Wolverine with a grin on his bruised face and waved her on "Go, I need to settle things with tub o' lard."

A small chuckle came over the radio "Be safe John." She said with a slightly stern voice.

John saluted the Wolverine "Aye aye." The Orca, Strike, Wolverine, Slash, Guardian, and Archer launched, But I stayed with John. "What are you waiting for?" John asked me. "I want answers." I said. "I want to know what Garcia knows about my father. And how he knows him."

"What if he's lying?" John asked. I smirked. "Then I'll kick him for such a terrible lie." I said. John nodded.

We ran off in the direction that Garcia disappeared. Running through the corridors of the Artemis base John smirked as he heard Garcia stutter off some commands to a group of soldiers. Slipping into the shadows he grinned as he saw Garcia panicking as he desperately made his way to the Shuttle nearby "Oh Garcia!" John sang as he stepped out of the shadows with his Mp5 in hand, while tossing the stolen assault rifle to me. And we pointed our Gun's at Garcia's two guards. Turning Garcia's eyes widened in fear and shock at John and me as he stumbled and fell "You two can leave if you wish," John said calmly as he kept his eyes on Garcia "The only person I have an issue with is Garcia."

Looking at each other the two guards quickly made a break for the nearest shuttle leaving Garcia and us alone "Just you and me Garcia," John growled as he stepped forward "Any last requests? I'm in a giving mood so I just might grant it." I then stepped up to John. "Hey" I whispered. "Wanna screw with him?" I then explained what I wanted to do, and to Garcia's dismay, John smiled. "Let him have it." He said, as I stepped forward arming my machine gun.

"What contry you from?" I asked. "What?" Garcia replied. "What aint no contry I've ever herd of!" I shouted. "They speak English in what?"

"What?"

"ENGLISH MOTHER FUCKER DO YOU SPEAK IT!"

"Yes!-y-Yes I speak it!" Garica stuttered, John grinning.

"Good," I said. "Now, what does my father look like?"

"What?" Garcia said again. "SAY WHAT AGAIN!" I shouted pointing my gun at his head. "Say what again mother Fucker I dare you, I double dare you mother Fucker! say what one more god damn time!"

"He…he's tall…" Garcia stuttered. "And…brown hair…" "Does he look like a bitch?" I asked.

"What?" Garcia asked and I shot off his left Kneecap, and he whaled in pain. "DOES HE LOOK LIKE A BITCH?"

"No!" Garcia yelled in pain. I nodded. "Ok, so far he's telling the truth." I said to John who was grinning.

"Now to get serious." I then walked up to him and Grabbed him by the coller. "How the hell do you know my father." I said in a more serious tone. Garcia snarled. "Why should I tell you?" he said. I fired a shot that missed his manhood by meer inches.

"Unless you wanan loose that, Tell me." I shouted. Garcia, now more cooperationg, talked.

"Your father…" he said. "Was a mobile suit Pilot for the E.A. Possobly the only Natural pilot who could fly at a coordinator level. The damn fool was just like John over there, with is Self-preserving rules of engagement, and your apparent views on Natural and coordinator unity."

I staired at him. "Your lieing." I said. "My father was a worker at Morgenroete who died just a day ago by a Zaft pilot." Garcia snickered. "Immposible." He said. "If that were true, then why was his last known position with the 8th fleet just a few months old?" My eyes widened. "That's impossible." I said. "My Father had been living with me and my mother at Heliopolis for almost a year now! He never even left the Colony!"

"Then why don't you go and ask him yourself?" Garcia said. "He should still be there if I'm right. And if your right, he wont." I glared at Garcia for a few seconds, and tossed him to the ground. "He's all yours John." I said, and I moved for the Katana.

Garcia paled further and he tried to scramble away from the Demon "P-p-please, h-h-have m-mercy." Garcia pleaded desperately on his knees.

That was the final straw for John as the crystal exploded in his mind causing Garcia to whimper in fear when he saw John's eyes change "Mercy?" John questioned in a dark voice "Did you give mercy to Nagase when she pleaded for you not to rape her? Did you give mercy to those who refused to cater to your sick desires?"

Garcia trembled as John stalked forward his rage building to massive proportions "Would you have given mercy to the innocent civilians aboard the Archangel after you had gotten what you wanted." He asked, Garcia desperately nodded his head trying to avoid getting killed only to stop when a bullet whizzed past his ear "No you wouldn't have." John growled "Be glad though, I won't kill you," Garcia breathed a sigh of relief only to pale further at John's next words "I`ll just make sure you don`t hurt another person like you hurt Nagase." With that said John took aim and fired right at the point that made Garcia a man and removed it with a single shot making Garcia howl in pain as John began to walk away only for the Hanger exit to collapse from an explosion.

Looking about quickly John quickly spotted a mobile suit with a Gunbarrel pack on the back and quickly jumped in and made adjustments to the OS so that he could pilot it properly, though he did make sure to save the original OS for later analysis 'This is a variant of the Patriot series used by the Junk Guild, and Terminal,' John quickly realized 'How did Garcia get his hands on this?' Pushing away that line of thought John quickly tore out of the hanger hoping that he could make it to the Archangel.

Minutes Earlier

With Adam

"Thank you," said Flay as she squeezed into the space between the seat and wall of the Orca. "Don't mention it," Adam replied. "Oh, and don't touch anything that looks important." He opened up the comm to the Strike. "Guys, let's get out of here." "Right," said Kira as he loaded the Sword Striker onto the Strike. "What you said in the mess hall. You shouldn't have told them that we were Coordinator." Adam said. "What?" She asked. "But it was the truth. And besides, they're our allies," said Flay weakly, in her defense. "Allies? Perhaps Eurasia is an ally. But that commander doesn't give a damn about us. All he cares about is the promotion he'll get for handing over the Archangel and these mobile suits to his superiors. Hell, he was about to throw you out an airlock if we didn't do what he wanted," Adam said. "Just think before you act next time, ok flay?" Flay didn't say anything as the Orca and the Strike launched from the Archangel into growing chaos of the Artemis Base port, followed by the guardian, Slash, Wolverine, and Archer.

The Hades and Gamow headed top speed towards Artemis. "We split up into two teams." Matthew said. "Team one: Yzak, Kelsey, and Dearka focus on Artemis and its defences. Me, and Rusty will take on the mobile suits, and the legged ship."

I grunted as My suit collided with the inner wall of the base after a particularly nasty kick from the Blitz 'This is not good,' I thought to myself 'My suit is definitely better at close combat, the Blitz however is well versed in all types of combat focusing on manoeuvrability.' Ducking a slash from the beam saber of the Trikeros shield unit and countered by swinging my sword at the waist of the Blitz only form him to dance out of the way. I quickly dodged several shots from the Blitz and threw my Heat Rod. This Blitz got caught off guard when the Heat Rod Latched onto his Trikeros and dragged him towards me in the Katana as I prepared to swing my Katana sword.

Quickly thinking Nicol Detached the shield and backed out of the way of the sword. "Damn," a soft voice came over the radio surprising me "You win this round Katana."

I smirked as the Blitz saluted and started moving away avoiding the raging battle between the Orca and the Guardian against the station defenders "You almost had me." I admitted as I flew off attaching the Trikeros to the Katana as a badge of honor and started cutting through the station defenders leaving a slightly shocked Nicol about how young the pilot sounded before shaking his head and left the battlefield.

John groaned as he spotted three mobile suits approaching the Hanger, two CGUE DEEP arms, Both with a Blue-and-White paint job, and the last one was a familiar Red-white custom CGUE "Well, well," he drawled catching the attention of the three mobile suits "Look who it is, Anthony Palmer, the Sorcerer of Junius Seven. It's been awhile, ZAFT finally decide that Creuset wasn't good enough for me?"

"Something like that," Anthony chuckled as he drew out his custom Broadsword "where is the G-weapon you where piloting?"

"Ahh, thought I'd give those two a handicap for this battle." John joked with a small grin "So, how shall we do this?"

"Jack, Cory continue the mission," Anthony ordered as he and John began to circle each other with John drawing out his beam saber "I'll deal with the Demon."

"Yes sir." Jack confirmed as both boosted towards the Artemis base hanger.

"Let's go!" John shouted in challenge as he slammed his saber against Anthony's Sword both of them grinning widely as they continued to exchange blows only for the other to dodge or block the shot. Separating the two brought up their respective long range weapons and exchanged fire with each other never landing anything outside of a glancing blow. Grinning John activated the Wired Gunbarrels on his suit and started opening fire on Anthony with both his Gunbarrels and his machinegun forcing Anthiny to do nothing but evade as John rained the blows upon him.

Suddenly switching Tactics John switched his Rifle to his shield hand and drew out his Beam saber with his remaining hand and recalled the Gunbarrels and clashed swords with the White-Red CGUE once more only for John to aim his rifle at the CGUE's head forcing Anthony to break off the power struggle or be crippled "I see your skills haven't dulled that much John." Anthony commented as they started circling once more.

John chuckled "Since when does a soldiers skills truly dull?" John mused with a smirk "After all when you have something you wish to protect..."

"That is when you find true strength!" Anthony finished with a grin as he clashed swords once more with John "I still remember that day when we first fought."

John's laugh was full of mirth as he ducked under a slash and returned the favor with a kick to the CGUE's gut "I was the Idealistic Fool."

"While I was the Insane Idiot." Anthony added with his own laugh as he recovered from the kick and fired his Shields vulcans at John who also dodged as well "I learned quite the lesson from you that day."

They both laughed as they once again crashed their swords together enjoying the pure test of skill with each other.

I like this weapon," Jordan stated as he fired the Trikeros beam rifle at another base mobile armor "I'm gonna ask Murdoch to permanently attach it to the Katana."

Scout chuckled as she flipped as the last of the defenders began to flee "Archangel the path is clear." She said over the radio "And it seems that Jordan found a new toy to play with." She added with a laugh.

Adam sighed as he shook his head at the pairs banter, having mostly hung back due to having Flay in the cockpit with him he could only chuckle weakly as the group continued to joke with each other. He realized that this was Jordan's way of holding off the shock from his first actual kills and left it be until they landed. Suddenly his proximity alarm went off and reacting on pure instinct he barely managed to dodge a sword strike from a Blue-White CGUE DEEP arms while the Katana, Archer and the Slash dodged sniper fire from a another one. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these the pilots that John advised we do not engage?" Adam asked rhetorically as Flay gave a small scream when he threw the Orca back hoping to put some distance between him and the Blue CGUE.

"So John warned you of use huh?" A light, joking voice asked "I'm flattered that he thinks so highly of us."

"Hn," Cory Grunted as he missed the Orca again "Don't see why he warned them, they are fairly skilled."

"Umm, thank you?" Scout said in confusion as she rolled into her suit form and fired a volley of missiles at Jack forcing him to back off from his pursuit of the Orca followed up by the Strike coming down with and overhead slash only to be forced to break off or be shot at from Cory's sniper.

The Shadow scythe, and Inferno charged into the hanger. The storm blasted a tornado of fire from its flameflowers. But I jumped out of the way, missing it. Then the Shadow scythe Jumped out from that tornado of fire, Beam sythe drawn. I drew my own Sword, and parried his slice. I pushed the Scythe away, and swung my sword. Just grazing the surface of the Shadowsythe's chest armor. I'm getting closer, you son of a bitch. I thought. Then the Inferno gave a barrage of stabs from its beam saber. I dodged them as well. "You like to double team us way too much." I said. I then fired off some rounds from the Inglusadies, hitting the Inferno in the shoulders. The enemy Gundam replied to that with a blast of fire. I jumped and dodged it again, and parried another swipe from the shadow scythe. I then jumped away, and fired two quick shots from my beam rifle. But they were both caught in the Inferno's shield.

The Five rookies did their best against the enemy and to their luck the vets were still not used to their new suits thus keeping them on a somewhat even playing level when the Archangel thankfully appeared guns blazing on the two enemy suits forcing them to retreat "I never thought I would be this thankful to see that ship." Kira admitted as they made their way to the Archangel and was supported by a course of agreements from the others as they boarded.

John groaned as his rifle made the wonderful sound of clicking indicating that his gun was empty while he had no spare clips left. The spinning of Anthony's vulcans indicated that he was running on empty as well as no bullets were coming out. To add to their pleasure both of their suits were screaming an alarm that their suits were running on empty as well. "Looks like it's another draw." John stated as they started drifting away from each other.

Anthony sighed "Looks like it," he agreed than spotted Cory and Jack fleeing the battlefield "That's my cue to leave."

With one final salute to each other the pair both sped off making their way to their respective flagships. Landing on the Archangel just as the Artemis base exploded with one final spectacular explosion John braced himself to the interior of the hanger as the ship rocked. Once it was over he disembarked and greeted a depressed Corrine "Let me guess, new kills?" John asked concerned when Corrine nodded he drew her into a hug "You're not a monster Corrine," he soothed gently as they floated along "You did what was necessary to protect yourself and our friends," he smiled at her "Let's get you into a shower and then I'll give you a back massage, how does that sound?"

"Sounds wonderful." she said with a slight smile as she linked arms with him and made their way to their room smiling as he described his fight and past with his 'rival' so to speak. As John gave her his promised massage after he forced her to eat something she smiled "Thank you John." She whispered quietly drifting off to sleep.

Smiling John kissed her forehead and drew the covers over her "Your welcome Corrine." He said before going to his desk and activating his terminal and putting in a series of upgrade requests to the Gundams and the new Patriot Zero that Mu would pilot once the OS was perfected "I swear Corrine, I will make sure you and our friends remain safe," he whispered to himself "No matter what." He then started looking at the Schematic's of the Katana, that he looked at for quite a while. Alan, He thought. Why you left your own Son, and Wife, I'll never know. He looked away up at the ceiling. Wherever you are, I promise I'll keep him in line…until you take over at least.