Armored Seed

Chapter 7

Loss

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the Black Skulls, the AC's I've created and the Zeus


-Vesalius Bridge-


Rau Le Creuset had just looked over the latest intelligence report the Legged Ship was beginning to rendezvous with the Montgomery, Law and the Bernard which would more than likely take them to join the rest of the Eighth Fleet where they would be almost completely untouchable. They would need at least another seventeen GINNs plus the stolen prototypes and even then it would still be somewhat difficult to destroy the Legged Ship with that kind of escort.

"Captain follow the Legged Ship but keep outside of their sensor range" he ordered while Ades gave the commander a confused look but the man should have expected this from Le Creuset by now "Sir I thought we were supposed to continue searching for Lacus Clyne?" he asked "Oh but we will be searching for her as we go after the Legged Ship besides I don't want to be laughed at by future generations because I was too reluctant to destroy an advanced enemy warship." he explained.

In all honesty commander Le Creuset didn't really care about what happened to Lacus and neither did Patrick Zala for that matter. Athrun's father just saw Lacus as a political tool, if she was found dead he'd use her death as an means for him to gather more support.

If she was found alive however he could just as easily say that she was rescued from the Earth Forces. And with that in mind the more appropriate target at the moment was the Legged Ship. They could attempt to locate Lacus Clyne alive or dead at a later time.


-Archangel Bridge-


"Captain Ramius I'm receiving a transmission from the Zeus" said Mir from her location in the CIC "Put it on the main monitor" said Murrue. The oversized monitor in front of the bridge blinked to life with the face of captain Hackett "Captain Ramius I've just heard from Raphael here that you will soon be in contact with the Earth Forces Eighth Fleet and I just wanted to let you to know that you still be under our protection until you have reached your headquarters." he said while gesturing to the red haired man in the corner of the room.

Although Murrue had known early on that the main reason that the Zeus was escorting them was to try and get a reward from the Earth Forces it was nice to know that they were at least willing to see it the entire way through "Thank you captain I appreciate all that you have done here" she said genuinely thankful.

"Captain we couldn't just leave you to fend for yourselves it would stain my company's honor and between you and me, this crew hasn't had this much excitement in a long time so thank you for curving our boredom these last couple of weeks" he remarked jokingly.

"And by the way when you meet Mr. Allster please make sure that I'm there he's informed that his daughter wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Kira. I really do wish to see the look on the man's face when you tell him that" he said trying to picture the look on the face of Flay's father when he found out that a Coordinator had saved his daughter several times over the past couple of weeks.

Murrue Ramius herself had actually been just thinking about that and was wondering just how exactly that would turn out and she began to think that it could possibly completely change the man's outlook on Coordinators. However that would be highly unlikely considering the man's possible ties to a certain terrorist organization and their affiliates.

As much as she and several other less bigoted soldiers in the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian militaries hated to admit it, racism towards Coordinators was had been running rampant throughout the Atlantic Federation for several years. The term "Space Monster" was a very common and incredibly bigoted term for those who were born as Coordinators and "Race Traitor" was for those who lived in the PLANTs.

Discrimination and distrust towards Coordinators in the Atlantic Federation was quite common and thus most Coordinators usually lived at the PLANTs or with its allied countries or even at the neutral nation of Orb which had no such discrimination towards anyone.

In fact one of the PLANTs supreme councilors, Patrick Zala used the Earth Forces hatred of Coordinators to fuel his own agenda, his speeches would sometimes declare that the Naturals on Earth who weren't their allies must be defeated for them to be at peace or else they would never stop trying to exterminate them. And while he never openly admitted to the idea of the genocide of every Natural born human, if one looked hard enough the underlying tone was almost always there "We must kill off all of the Naturals on Earth and in the colonies".


-Archangel Hangers-


Nathan was in the hanger and was currently working his AC's beam rifle output hoping to increase its power without seriously increasing the power drain it would cause on the Lucifer's energy.

Normally it would take around four or five successful hits for a ranged beam weapon to successfully punch through phase shift armor and it took almost eighty four hits from a heavy slug thrower like the Panzer's gatling cannons and even more from smaller caliber weaponry to take down that kind of protection. The only weapon that could possibly go through the PS armor would be a beam saber or a sustained blow from an energy blade which were both close range combat weapons.

Unfortunately for him if he tried to increase the power output on the Lucifer's beam rifle it could render some of the Lucifer's combat equipment completely useless for almost seven or eight seconds because of the power drain that it would cause on the AC's fusion reactor. It wasn't worth losing almost all of the unit's systems just to take down one target just for them to eradicate you a second or two later if the pilot wasn't fast enough to evade the counter strike from the enemy pilots that would be attempting to avenge their fallen comrade.

Not only would the power drain be a problem but also he ran several simulations and each one predicted that a single shot powerful enough to punch straight through PS shields and the armor of the enemy mobile suits but it would also cause a massive heat build up in the weapon.

The massive amount of heat would result in causing the beam rifle to overheat to the point of melting the weapon along with most of the arm that had been using it. Nathan looked over another simulation he ran this time he was using a different type of power supply and beam rifle variant but it still had the exact same result. All of the main power in the AC was gone and the beam rifle and arm that was using it were completely destroyed in the process.

The Raven ace decided that for now he should let the idea go until he found a better energy weapon for the job but at least the single shot could be used as a last resort if he ever decided to use it but even then he would be more liable to use one of his armored core's energy blades than a single shot from a weapon that would quite literally melt the Lucifer's arm off.


-Archangel Crew Quarters-


News of the Eighth Fleet's advance forces had increased the morale of everyone on both ships considerably. Almost everyone was in much better spirits especially when the second transmission had said that after they met up with the Eighth Fleet they would be escorted by Admiral Haliburton himself to Lunar Command. It was also discovered from another transmission that Vice Minister Allster would also be on board that ship.

It would be more than pointless to say that Flay Allster was ecstatic just a few days ago she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to see her only remaining family member again. But there he was, on one of the same advance force that was going to be escorting them to the main fleet.

Once Flay got over her surprise however she became just a little nervous about her dad's reaction when he found out about her friendship with a Coordinator and hoped that he would at least try and get to know Kira before he made any snap judgments about him.

"Flay Allster please report to the bridge immediately. I repeat Flay Allster please report to the bridge immediately" captain Murrue Ramius' voice came over the ship's PA system. Flay didn't need to be told twice, she all but dropped what it was she was doing and rushed towards the bridge hoping that she'd be able to speak with her father before they met up with the main element of the Eighth Fleet.


-Archangel Bridge a few minutes later-


Flay had just arrived on the bridge and saw her father on the main monitor looking over the bridge crew while the captain of the Zeus appeared on the other half of the ship's communications unit "Daddy" she said trying to hold back tears of joy. The vice minister looked at his daughter and gave a relieved smile. "Flay thank god you're all right" he said before turning to give the Archangel's captain a thankful look.

"You have my gratitude for keeping my daughter safe captain Ramius" he said before Hackett spoke up with a slightly mischievous smile on his lips "Actually sir if you want to thank someone I recommend that you thank Kira Yamato because without him I doubt that any of us would have made it this far" he explained before the vice minister's eyes narrowed in anger, his blind prejudices towards Coordinators overtaking all of his better judgment.

"If captain Ramius' report is to be believed and that boy is truly friends with Athrun Zala one of the PLANTs council members, don't you realize that he must be the reason behind most if not all of the problems you've been having?" he demanded his damned prejudices blinding his judgment.

"Is he always like this?" Raphael leaned in asked Sai who was sitting at a nearby terminal "Only around Coordinators and those who support them" the spectacled boy responded "Ah" the mercenary mouthed. The Zeus crewmember couldn't say that he was that surprised. After all bigotry towards Coordinators ran rampant throughout the Atlantic Federation and most of Eurasia and if his contacts were correct with their information the Atlantic Federation might as well have been run by the Blue Cosmos.

How a terrorist group like them had managed to maneuver their way that far up the political ladder Raphael had no idea but that wasn't the most important thing at the moment. Instead of contemplating the improbability of a terrorist organization becoming a large part of a first world country he decided to simply just watch the rather entertaining argument unfold around him. Hackett was about to make a protest at the vice minister about his assumption of Kira but Flay beat him to it.

"Daddy he saved my life if he hadn't picked up the life boat that I was in I'd be dead by now!" she exclaimed not yet mentioning the other times that Kira had saved her.

Her father looked stunned once she was finished talking and didn't seem to be able to utter a response 'A coordinator saved my daughter's life' he thought in disbelief but quickly began to regain control over himself.

The Vice Minister was about to speak up again but Koopman cut him off. Apparently he had assumed that the Vice Minister was going to make another bigoted comment about the Coordinator that they had aboard their ship "I'm sorry but I feel that I must apologize for my guest's behavior however I too share some of his suspicions. Are you sure that the boy can be trusted?" he asked politely.

Raphael rolled his eyes while he groaned in exasperation wondering if these two idiots could put their prejudice's behind them for just two seconds and actually try and think rationally for a moment. Murrue and captain Hackett were going to come to Kira's defense but they were cut off by Raphael who had just then stepped in and gave the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs a glare that was laced with thinly veiled contempt of the man's bigotry towards those he knew almost nothing about.

"If mister Yamato was a spy he's doing a very, very piss poor job at it. He had numerous opportunities to betray us and hand over the prototype to ZAFT but instead he has saved the lives of everyone on this ship several times over so could you two morons please put your idiotic prejudices behind you for now and think like rational men?" he demanded.

The captain of the Montgomery looked as though he was about to respond however static quickly overcame both the audio and the visual on the main communications monitor.

"What's happening?" demanded Natarle as she turned to Mir who was working the communications console. Responding to the demand that the ensign gave she began to hurriedly type things onto the console he was assigned to trying to isolate the problem. After a few seconds of work the tech student managed to find it "It's N-Jammer interference…it's ZAFT!" she exclaimed before Natarle sounded a combat alert siren.


-Archangel hanger-


Once he heard the alert siren go off Kira rushed to the hanger already suited up for combat "Kira we've got to move now commander Le Creuset has finally tracked us down again come on!" ordered Nathan who was ahead of him and was getting into the Lucifer. Kira all but ran into the Strike's cockpit and began the start up sequence. Before he could get it onto the launch ramp however the communications unit turned on and Kira saw Flay's worried face where Mir's should have been.

The very moment that alert sounded Flay got over to the communications terminal that Mir was operating and opened up communications with the Strike.

"Flay are you doing alright?" he asked concerned "Please Kira, my father is on the Montgomery please just promise me you'll try to keep him safe!" she begged. Kira looked a little nervous at first but nodded "I promise I'll do anything I can to protect your dad" he said and that seemed to calm the red haired girl down a little bit "Thank you Kira" she said with absolute sincerity in her voice.

"Kid get your skinny ass on the catapult we have to launch now!" ordered Cross. Kira quickly did as the commander ordered and got the Strike with the Aile pack onto the linear catapult "Strike launching!" he said before the mobile suit was all but thrown out into void of space. The second he was out there he saw several Moebius mobile armor units fruitlessly trying to fight off several GINNs and the Aegis.

"This is Mir, Sky Eye reports that there are about nine ZAFT GINNs armed with heavy weapons plus the Aegis." said Mir into the communications system. 'Well at least they don't have all of the prototypes out there' thought Cross as he piloted the White Knight over to the catapult.

"Mir is lieutenant La Flaga going to be helping us in this fight?" Kira asked "Yes he should be out soon"

Cross was the first one onto the catapult. The magnetic launcher threw the White knight forward and out into the void. Almost immediately he could see that the Atlantic Federation forces were already having a hard time fighting back. Most of the mobile armors that they had sent out were pretty much destroyed and the ships themselves looked like they were taking heavy damage. Cross then checked his radar and saw that Kira and the other space worthy members of the Black Skulls had already launched and were ready to aid the Earth Forces however they could.

"All allied forces you have weapons free, repeat weapons free, eliminate as many enemy targets as you come across them!" ordered Cross as he flew towards one of the nearby GINNs.

Cross saw one GINN aiming a bazooka at one of the ships, Cross quickly took aim and fired with his machine gun. Hundreds of armor piercing 110mm rounds tore into the ZAFT mobile suit and out the other side. One of the hundreds of bullets hit the machine's main reactor and the GINN went up in an explosion.

"Sky Eye scratch one GINN" said Cross "Affirmative but I'm still reading several more enemy mobile suit signatures in the area and the Zeus is about to launch three squadrons of Mobile Armor units to provide fire support"

When Sky Eye finished his sentence Cross went wide eyed at the support officer if the Earth Alliance's mobile armors couldn't make a dent what hope did theirs have against the ZAFT forces that they were fighting "Has Hackett finally lost his mind? They won't last more than ten minutes against the enemy!" he shouted in disbelief that Hackett would make such a foolish move in combat. If they were fighting enemy mobile armors that could very well be a good strategy but under these circumstances it was like sending infantry armed with small arms weapons up against tanks.

"It can't be helped Cross! We've already begun to take even more damage to our hull not to mention that most if not all of our flak turrets are out of commission until they can be repaired or replaced and our main gun can't be fired period so right now we need as much air support as we can get!" Sky Eye explained to him almost angrily.

The Zeus came with five wings of mobile armors that was the Eclipse class mobile armor. The Eclipse was an Orb model mobile armor it had a sleek looking hull that mounted two chin mounted fifty caliber high velocity machine guns as well as six high explosive missiles that were commonly used by the Atlantic Federation, it didn't' have much of an armament but it was capable of combat on both earth and in space it was one of the most versatile Mobile Armor's that were available.

"This is Sigma team we'll moving in to provide close air support for Black Squadron, Kappa and Lambda teams you stay with the Zeus and make sure that she stays safe" said Sigma team's leader ordered. The two other mobile armor squadrons gave confirmations.

Athrun meanwhile targeted the Law and the Aegis transform into mobile armor mode and activated its Scylla energy cannon and fired. The weapon blew clean through the Law and clean out the other side of the nelson class destroyer. Several small explosions encompassed the Law's hull before it was blown to pieces.

Meanwhile the Montgomery wasn't fairing all that much better either, it had sustained massive internal and external damage to the engines and most of the point defense turrets that the ship was equipped with were completely destroyed along with its anti ship cannons. Kira had been trying to draw most of the enemies fire while attempting to try counterattack but so far they were mostly focused on the ship rather than the mobile suit that Kira was piloting.

Kira fired a volley of shots from his beam rifle at one of the GINNs that had gotten too close to the Montgomery each shot hit the machine destroying it completely. He then heard a beeping noise coming from the radar. He took a glance and saw that several mobile armors were heading towards the GINNs. Kira panicked and opened a communications link to the lead pilot of the group.

"Attention mobile armor pilots please fall back you're no match against those GINNs!" Kira begged but the pilots ignored him and instead opened fire with several anti mobile suit missiles. One of the GINNs was hit with three or four of the missiles blowing off the head and legs rendering the unit a derelict, but the two remaining GINN's counterattacked by opening fire with assault and beam rifles.

Three of the eight Moebius' were destroyed from the hail of beam and assault rifle fire. Those that remained were still being fired upon but they managed to evade the gunfire and got close enough to open fire with their own machine guns which failed to do much damage to the GINN's armor.

However the machine gun rounds did manage to hit the ocular sensor that was mounted on the head of one of the units rendering it blind "Kira light up those GINNs now!" ordered Sigma leader. Seconds later the Black Skull mobile armors were about to turn around and make another pass but they were quickly gunned down by the two GINNs.

Kira watched in horror as the entire mobile armor squadron die a near pointless death but he did as he was told and activated his beam saber and sliced the GINN vertically in half. The other GINN turned its attention to Kira and opened fire with its machine gun, the bullets uselessly bounced off the Strike's PS armor while the machine took aim with its beam rifle and fired it several times at the GINN's torso area. Each shot hit with pinpoint accuracy and all that was left of the GINN's upper torso were several enormous holes.

The pilot of the strike then turned his attention to the Montgomery it looked heavily damaged, there were several hull breaches and most of the defensive weapons were completely gone. He began to head back to try and lend the ship some support but the Vesalius had opened fire with it's main guns, the second that the energy rounds from the Vesalius hit the Montgomery several explosions rocked its hull before it was completely destroyed.

Kira just looked a the now completely obliterated hull of the Montgomery, he failed in his promise to a girl that he had been having a crush on for the last two and a half years.


-Archangel bridge a few moments earlier-


Flay was watching the battle and was getting more worried about her father the longer that the fight continued. The last of the mobile armors that the three ships had were completely destroyed and the Montgomery had taken heavy damage.

'No, please don't die, dad please' she begged as tears of worry began to stream down her face. Flay's breathing came in short almost audible gasps, she was terrified. When the Montgomery got hit by weapons fire from the Vesalius she screamed in shock and horror at the sight of her father dying, her tear drenched eyes rolled back and her eyes closed and she fell forward down to the floor unconscious.

Sai leapt off of the sensor equipment that he was using and grabbed Flay as she fell, the girl's tears were still streaming down her eyes. Ensign Badgiruel's eyes narrowed she knew that what had to be done and although it was rather obvious captain Ramius would never even come close to approving of her next action Natarle felt that she had no choice in the matter. Ensign Badgiruel quickly shoved Mir off of the communications console and opened up communications over an open channel.

"Attention ZAFT forces this is the Archangel, we have Lacus Clyne aboard this ship we found her in an escape pod in the debris belt so we saved her as a humanitarian gesture but if you continue to attack us we will be forced to take extreme measures" she said bracing herself for the crew's reaction which wouldn't be pretty especially when the Black Skulls found out about it.


-Space present-


The moment that Natarle had finished giving out the threat Nathan was for lack of better terms enraged. This was exactly why the Black Skulls rarely accepted any kind of a contract from any of the Earth Alliance's militaries. Although this policy may seem rather odd since they were technically a mercenary unit they still had principles and a sense of honor and one of those was that under absolutely no circumstances was a civilian to be intentionally harmed in any way physically or emotionally.

Because of this the Black Skulls ceased to accept any kind of job offer from the Atlantic Federation or any of its allies after the Bloody Valentines tragedy and focused on mostly doing work for both Orb and ZAFT until the attack on Heliopolis.

Apparently Nathan wasn't the only one disgusted with this events Athrun was as well. The blue haired ZAFT pilot spoke into the Aegis' communicator with an angered voice that was laced with contempt for his former friend's choices thus far.

"Well Kira do you feel justified now? fighting alongside these cowards?" he demanded before he and the handful of remaining GINNs that joined the battle, reluctantly headed back to the Vesalius.

To be continued.