Chapter 6: The Coming Hour

Confederate Battlecruiser, Yamato

"What do you know of SEED?" Captain Merquise asked. The tone of his voice had a hint of concern but still the usual commanding officer professionalism.

"Superior Evolutionary Element Destined-factor, it's a hypothetical theory for Coordinators and Naturals alike. Comparable to when a human finds themselves in danger and their strength, intelligence, reaction, simply everything is pressed beyond its limits giving even the weakest person the ability to perform super human actions."

"Good, you know your basics. It's as expected from the top graduate of the academy as well as the first scouted pilot for Project Gundam."

"Can you tell me what happened? Why I didn't retain all of my memories?"

"What do you remember from before that time Chris?"

Chris remained silent for a moment. He searched through his memory trying to recount any vivid moment.

"Shinn, Luna, and Mizuki were shot down," Chris finally said.

"Did you feel any anger?"

The image of a single bullet planting itself into the Aile pack on Mizuki's Dagger flashed in his mind. An immediate explosion; then the image of Mizuki's Dagger plummet towards the ocean. For a moment he stared at the steel wall looking through Captain Merquise. He came back to his senses when he heard the captain call for him several times over.

"Chris! Chris!

Silence. The captain waited for Chris to regain his senses, but he could see that he was still disturbed, so he started calmly, "you didn't do anything bad, Chris. It was to protect your friends and yourself," He could see it in Chris' eyes that he was still lost in himself, "you fended off the Next as best you could. I'm sure the other three are grateful for what you did."

Chris still remained silent. The events of when he was in SEED were finally coming to him, as if it were projected before his very eyes. Everything form start to finish from when he gave chase to when the entire cockpit was lit yellow like the rising dawn.

"As a future leader you shouldn't let something like this bother you."

"Don't flatter me like that captain," Chris quietly.

"I only speak the truth. Now go get some rest. You'll need it."

"Yes sir," Chris held a firm salute as Captain Merquise saluted him back. Once their customs were completed he turned towards the door ready to leave when Captain Merquise gave him a few parting words. "Be ready for Project Gundam" he heard him say, and with that he shut the door behind him.

"Yo," said a familiar voice once from behind him. The glimpse of Lunamaria's short red hair told him who it was though it wasn't who he was expecting it to be waiting for him.

"Luna? Why are you here?" Chris asked, "I expected Mizuki."

"Well, that's a little harsh don't you think?" she replied almost pouting.

"I'm not trying to tease you or anything."

"Mizuki asked me to wait here for you. He didn't say why but he said to meet at the Rec Room as soon as you got out."

The two made their way towards the Rec Room having idle chat along the way. Occasionally their conversation would die down until Lunamaria brought up a touchy subject for both him and Mizuki.

"Did you two get to see Sakura when you guys were back on the mainland?" Luna asked.

"Nosey aren't we?" Chris replied trying to avoid her question.

"All you two did was talk about her back at the academy. It seems like the two of you think of her more than a friend."

Chris went silent for a moment, staring down at the floor in deep thought to what she said. Lunamaria looked over noticing the disturb expression on Chris' face.

"I'm just thinking out loud," she quickly dismissed waving her hands in front of her, "besides you three have been together since you were all young right? I guess you could also look at it as sort of treating each other like siblings more so than friends."

"I wonder where we would draw the line," Chris said staring straight ahead.

"Here we are!" Lunamaria's voice rose in excitement. She pushed through the swinging doors with Chris close behind her. The room was already bustling with various crewmen on the ship. There were pool tables, television sets, a small bar to side one of the room, and plenty of tables to congregate at. Mizuki and Shinn were already waiting for them at one of the tables, waving them over to join them.

A large white ship emerged from the crumbling Heliopolis colony with a ZAFT frigate giving chase. Acting ship captain Lieutenant Murrue Ramius thought hard about how to get the crew of the Archangel, which was thrust upon her, out of the current situation alive. Riku found himself aboard the vessel as he had no other choice in the last moments of Heliopolis. Despite all the experiments carried out on him he didn't know if his body could survive direct exposure to the emptiness of space, and he didn't want to try. This was the last situation he wanted to find himself in, a stowaway on the Archangel.

Luckily one of the two boys he was searching for was aboard the vessel. He found out the boy was the one who put a hole in Heliopolis' outer wall causing it to collapse. It was clear that no matter how these scientist's predictions went they couldn't predict events such as this would happen, but their future plans didn't have anything else further to do with Heliopolis. Perhaps that tiny detail made him wonder if they really were expecting this boy to act like this. If so then did they also predict he would move according to their will?

"The Archangel will be entering combat mode. All hands to their stations," an announcement boomed overhead interrupting his train of thought.

He emerged from behind a crate inside the hanger storing the Strike and an orange Moebius Zero just as the other crewmen stormed inside. He wore an orange engineer suit like the ones onboard wore and blended in with the rush of crewmen as they scattered to ready the Strike and Moebius Zero to launch. Both pilots were called overhead, Kira Yamato and Mu La Flaga.

The two arrived shortly after being called. He assumed Kira to be the younger of the two with the brown hair and blue flight suit. Although he didn't have a clear view of his face he was sure Kira was the one that saved Murrue back in the hanger. As for Mu, the only person left would be the elder of the two making his way to the Moebius Zero. It was an unfamiliar face, but he felt as though an older influence would do great for Kira's survival. From what it looked like the two were a bit familiar with each other given their little time together while he observed their interaction before they departed from one another. They entered their respective units and readied to depart.

After both machines launched and a majority of the other engineers left the hanger area Riku returned to his isolated spot. He rested his back against a wall and closed his eyes. Behind his closed eyelids a virtual console appeared in front of him. It was as if he accessed a virtual computer mentally, the connection was instantaneous. From there he accessed the open communication line the ZAFT pilots and Alliance pilots were using to communicate to each other respectively. There he found the other person mentioned in the "plan," Arthrun Zala, son of Patrick Zala on ZAFT's team in one of the four stolen Mobile Suits from Heliopolis.

"We're finally here," Mizuki said reaching stretching his arms as he reached towards the sky. The other three pilots were behind him as they trailed behind Captain Merquise to one of the Orb hangers. Everyone but the four of them were given time off to explore the city. In the background several parts were being wheeled into the Yamato, set in front of the docks were it was stored on-board via crane. Ahead of them Captain Merquise was well into a conversation with another Orb officer, apparently the one in charge of their re-supply and safety.

"You seem quite enthusiastic," Luna said from behind.

"That's because we're on solid ground!" Mizuki exclaimed.

"Can't even live three days on a ship can you?" Shinn mumbled.

"He gets homesick easily," Chris added on the side.

"You guys better pay attention. Captain Merquise wants us to be mindful of what we come across," Lunamaria reminded them.

Mizuki looked around the empty hanger with a distraught look upon his face, "well I'm sure there is plenty here for us to see."

Several Orb soldiers eyed the passing entourage of Federation soldiers. Conversations died down when they neared any group of Orb soldiers. Whispers and unkind thoughts were exchanged between Orb soldiers in silent even as the Federation soldiers walked by.

"You know you can't stay here long," said the Orb officer to Captain Merquise.

"I understand. It was agreed upon that we stay here one day to re-supply to continue our training efforts. As you already know we were attacked while at sea and many of our training suits were damaged fending off the enemy," the captain responded in turn.

"I find it hard that those Daggers were able to fend off a Next."

"I hear knowledge in Nexts were your specialty."

"I do have some knowledge about them."

"You shouldn't be so humble, Joshua," Captain Merquise said slyly.

"You know sometimes it's hard to tell the meaning behind a person's intent without being able to see their entire facial reaction, namely the eyes. That is of course in a time of peace there wouldn't have to be a need to hide scars," the Orb officer replied as he trailed ahead of Captain Merquise.

"It makes me wonder if the world was in such a peaceful state then how interesting would coincidences be?"

The two officers came to a stop as they reached the end of the pier they were walking and talking so causally on. Ocean water lightly sprayed their exposed skin as it crashed against the concrete, but the both of them remained looking towards the horizon of ocean. The four pilots came to a halt slightly far away from them wondering what was going on. They couldn't hear any further exchange of words as the sound of crashing waves drowned out the sounds their voices.

Mizuki, who was leading the pack, turned to face his colleagues, "so he drags us out here to look at nothing."

"At least we know Orb isn't capable of fighting on their own," Shinn snorted.

"Think of it guys, why would they risk showing us anything? We're from the Federation after all and they just took their stand off of the cold war that's going on right now," Luna said.

"That would mean they're either hiding something or..." just before Chris could continue a barrage of missiles tore through the clouds. Mizuki quickly reacted to the expressions on their faces and the sound of projectiles surfing through the air tackling the three of them down. Before they hit the ground a deafening series of explosions rang through the air.

Mizuki was the first to recover looking over to where Captain Merquise and the Orb officer were having their conversation. Captain Merquise was still there standing at the same spot looking off in one different direction towards the ocean, but the Orb officer was gone. He shifted his head towards the hangers to find the Orb officer already well underway to where he probably should have been in a situation like this, but the strange thing was he didn't stop to help any of the wounded. He tried to remember any distinguishing features in case he were to be located again but there was nothing he could remember about that Orb officer.

"What the heck was that?" Shinn asked, cursing as he lifted himself up from the ground. By the time Mizuki paid any attention to his friends Chris was already up on his feet helping Lunamaria do the same. He and Shinn were on their knees, Shinn looking in the same direction as the captain and Mizuki now inspecting the damage. His eyes widened at the destruction.

"Why?" Mizuki muttered. He scanned the burning buildings, even though they were mostly empty, for any survivors. Feeling as though he witnessed something similar once before, flashes of images raced through his mind. Burning buildings just like the destroyed hangers, skeletal frames of vehicles just like a few military vehicles Orb had around the hangers, and bodies, though not as much as what he was seeing in his mind, littering the ground. Chris turned around to have the same reaction, looking as if he saw a ghost.

"-uki! Mizuki! Mizuki wake up!" he heard Lunamaria shout. Before he came to he felt as though he were living in the image he remembered. He turned his head slowly to his right, and heard Lunamaria shouting his name while Shinn was trying to gain Chris' attention. Captain Merquise was shouting something incomprehensible, most likely it was to get everyone back to the ship.

"Shinn, Lunamaria! Get Chris and Mizuki back to the ship! Get the Daggers ready for combat!" Captain Merquise shouted.

Shinn slapped Chris hard across the face bringing him back from where ever his mind wandered off to. Chris gave a quick nod and took off with Shinn back to the Yamato in full sprint. Mizuki, still dazed, struggled to his feet to find himself staggering. Lunamaria pulled his arm to get him moving but his feet were tangled along the way. Captain Merquise shouted to get back to the ship once more and started running their way. Lunamaria, having no other choice, wrapped an arm of Mizuki's around her and supported him as they ran towards the Yamato. As they ran fires from several hangers spread through the base. Orb soldiers desperately tried to contain it before another barrage hailed them. Inaudible as some were, screams of pain came from those caught in the explosions. Mizuki could only look at them with a dumbfounded expression as he still had could not fully grasp onto the situation.

Gunfire from a seemingly large sounding rifle rang through the air, an unfamiliar sound to Mizuki. It fired in controlled intervals with each shot ringing slightly quieter. He had never heard the deafening sound of gunshots from a humanoid machine's firearm. It was always subdued behind heavy armor plated walls. When he reached the Yamato with Lunamaria supporting him, and Captain Merquise on their tail. He looked back in the direction the captain was looking earlier to find the same blue AC hovering just above the water. It had a different set weapons this time. There were two large guns appearing to be enlarged versions of Gatling guns and two different sets of rifles on each hand.

Before they entered the safety of their ship a strong gust of wind, possibly the aftermath of a sonic boom, hurled light debris into the hair. As Mizuki was placed on the ground at one of the doors inside the Yamato his eyes caught a glimpse of a red dot, just like the blue AC's, look towards their direction before turning into a white blur.