Phase 8: Chance Encounter
Having departed the Colony area, the Archangel continues on its charted course towards Earth and begins to approach the debris field that circles the blue planet. The crew has begun to tire having started to run low on supplies. Not weapons those having been restocked by the Titans but basic amenities such as water.
Archangel. Kira and the rest of his friends sit in the cafeteria, slowly eating their food. Flay lets out a heavy sigh while checking her hair.
"This water restriction really stinks... I haven't been able to take a bath in days at this point!"
"Oh poor you..." Tolle's eyes roll as he bites into his food which proves a little too tough to swallow and he begins to choke, though his outburst proves a bit overblown to the point Miriallia slides her glass of water over to him.
"For goodness sake. Go on, take it." She tells him as he quickly reaches for the glass downing it in one go. The teens laugh at his antics and Kira for a brief moment forgets about the severity of their situation, to think just days ago they had been able to act like this whenever they liked on the colony. Kira hoped all of this would end with them reaching Earth, reaching Orb.
"But you know... We really do need to get some water soon..." Sai's words a harsh reminder of the situation they are all in and soon kills the cheery mood.
"Don't worry I'm sure Ms Murrue will come up with something." Kira tries to reassure everyone while hiding his own uncertainty.
Archangel Bridge. Murrue mulls over the route they are currently taking towards Earth. Mu walks over looking over her shoulder, she sits up to look at him.
"Cheer up, at least we are out of that mess with ZAFT." Mu reassures her
"True, but now we need to do something about our lack of supplies. We left in such a hurry after all." Murrue replies sighing and putting the map down.
"Our current course is our fastest one but it takes us out of the way of any potential stop off points that are Earth controlled however it does take us through the debris belt" Neumann states putting the map on the big monitor screen
"Humanities junkyard, the debris belt huh? We had better be careful not to get caught up and end up part of the trash." Graham adds looking at the on screen map. Suddenly Mu clicks his fingers signifying him having an idea.
"Thats it!" He shouts
"huh?" Murrue questions him.
"The debris belt! There's all kinds of things in that godforsaken area and a good chance we might be able to find some supplies."
Murrue looks down. "I was thinking about that.. but I'm worried about going that route."
"Don't, we will just get enough to survive things. I'm sure the dead will accommodate the living as long as we're respectful" Mu assures her.
"Your right. It's not like we have many other options after all" Murrue concedes
Mu heads to the cafeteria to find Kira and the rest.
"Alright, your all in one place, makes finding you all easy." he announces standing in the door way.
"Lieutenant?" Kira stands to face Mu who gestures him to relax.
"As you know, we're running low on supplies, mostly water. So we have decided to stop off in the debris belt. All kinds of abandoned debris from colony's and old ships from the One Year War are left out there."
"But isn't that stealing from the dead?" Sai mutters not comfortable with Mu's idea.
"That's horrible..." Miriallia adds.
"Hey! We're not going to do or take anything unnecessary but giving our situation, it is necessary that we get those supplies." Mu tells them trying to get them to snap out of their thoughts. The group looks down searching for a rebuttal. Mu sighs and rubs his head
"Come on don't look like that, we have to do this to survive, of course we don't want to do it but we don't have much choice." The kids finally nod in acceptance.
Time passes and the ship reaches the debris belt, in the hanger of the ship Natarle and Tolle are assigned to the same salvage craft while Sai and Graham take the remaining. Kira is assigned to guard the crafts in the Strike. Kira talks with the two crafts via monitor screens from the Strike.
"The Strike can help with the heavier lifts but your mostly just there to make sure nothing goes wrong. So just focus on our surroundings Kira." Natarle lectures as Tolle preps the craft for takeoff.
"Basically it's your job to bail out ass's out of any trouble that might happen. You'll do fine kid." Graham adds.
"Well at least it's not fighting so I should be okay" Kira thinks
"By the way Tollie, where is Miriallia? I thought she was to come as well?" Natarle asks Tollie who finishes checks.
"Oh didn't you hear? She and Flay are busy with the children. They have something planed. I think so the Captain took her off this mission." Tollie recalls
"Is now really the time..." Natarle wonders.
The group launches as the ship moves deeper into the belt, soon however they come across a magnificent but chilling sight that shocks even the older officers to the point Murrue can only cover her mouth to stop her voice escaping as she stands.
"No way... What's that doing here of all places!" Graham says in awe of the huge mass in front of him. The object in question is none other than a shattered colony but no normal colony, a PLANT. Once a home colony of Coordinators, now a ghost town lost in the junkyard of outer space.
"It must have been dragged here by Earth's gravity..." Natarle coldly summarises
"But thats.." Tollie gulps
"A PLANT isn't it?" Sai asks Graham who nods back.
"Junius Seven.. I don't believe it.." Graham confirms.
"Junius Seven..." Kira mumbles in awe. Athruns words haunt Kira.
"I lost my mother during the bloody valentine tragedy, that's why I joined ZAFT..."
Kira holds his head as he calms himself.
"Are we really going to go there?" Sai asks Graham who pauses, knowing the answer to the question but still not feeling comfortable with answering.
"Damn, didn't expect things to be this unpleasant" Graham grumbles
"On the other hand, a PLANT should have more than enough water stored inside, it will save us time checking the smaller locations." Natarle states calmly, her worlds aren't met by any enthusiasm even from the Officers.
Finally Murrue speaks having returned to her seat. "Natarle is right and although I'd prefer not to we don't have another choice. " The crew respond knowing her to be correct.
"Still lets at least show our respects first" Murrue adds looking down at a small screen on her chair showing Miriallia and Flay along with the children all holding origami flowers.
The excavation is left on hold as preparations are made by those on the ship. Before long however Kira notices a number of crew members appear on the outside of the Archangels hull in space suits lead by Miriallia and Flay, they bring several large cases out and set them down. Kira watches on from the Strike as the cases are opened letting loose many colours of origami flowers into space. The sight seems to ease Kira and the rest of the crew members who all take a minute, some quietly working on, others pausing and paying respect.
As the flowers scatter works gets underway. Excavation of large frozen ice blocks inside the colony goes on without too much excitement. Kira oversees things from the Strike in its Alie configuration and helps from time to time to ensure the blocks of ice are securely transported and stored on the ship.
Kira sits back in his cockpit as the excavation crafts start on the next block of ice, he opens the visor on his helmet to take a drink, as he moves to put the drink away his monitors sensors flash to light. Several light fly past him hitting the ice and shaking the excavation crafts.
"The hell is that!" Sai shouts holding onto the controls as best he can to stabilise the craft from the rocking.
Graham almost loses his seat from the explosion "Not now!"
"What!?" Kira scrambles to get sight of where the shots had come from, he finds them. Several AEU Hellion Perpetuum and Space Leo Mobile Suits appear from out of the wreckage. The Archangel crew get a visual as well.
"AEU models!" Murrue recognises the suits.
"More than likely terrorists, there isn't any unit markings I can see. Plus the AEU isn't know to be very good at holding onto their mobile suits." Mu adds
Graham steadies himself "or more likely, they like to make money... Kid! They aren't friendly wipe them out!"
Kira listens to his words and blocks some of the shots, but finds it hard to fire back at the closing suits.
"With everyone behind me, if I move now to attack then they could hit the excavation crew " Kira thinks looking for a way to turn the tide while blocking the shots that could hit Graham and Sai's crafts.
"Darn, he can't fire back and protect the crafts! I'm going out!" Mu shouts unable to watch anymore however he is stopped by a shout from Kuzzey who operates the radar.
"What's happening! My radar's dead?! It's not N-Jammer interference though!"
"Same here! I've lost contact with the Strike as well!" the other operators on the ship confirm causing Murrue and Mu to look in confusion.
At the battlefield Kira blocks a shot from a Leo and finds himself able to target for a counter attack but before he can pull the trigger the Leo is hit from another angel by a purple beam shot causing it to explode in a flash of light. The unexpected attack spooks the other terrorist units whose loose formation is broken as they search for the location of the shot. More shots ring out hitting more terrorist units destroying the mobile suits in single hits as they begin to panic. Kira searches for the origin finally seeing it. A olive green and white mobile suit with a design unlike anything Kira had see before even in his books on mobiles suits from his studies on the colony he had never seen anything close to this mobile suit though Kira did have one opinion on it and its large rifle. A Gundam. Kira was sure of it even if it's design was very different to Strike or the MK2. Suddenly a distorted voice comes over Kira's comms.
"If you so much as move your dead, now get out of that suit." The voice demands. More shots are fired from the rilfe of the suit taking out the remaining terrorist suits.
"Who are you!?" Kira definitely asks. Silence is the only reply. Kira tries to open a channel with the Archangel but finds it jammed. He looks back at the suit and notices something else green lights coming from the suit.
"Is that light jamming my systems?" He wonders as he looks around for any options for escape. That'sd when he sees it. A GINN outfitted for recon moving towards the Archangel and Sai and Graham's location.
"No" Kira says under his breath turning back to the mysterious Gundam but it was no longer in his sights. "Gone"
Kira's attention moves back to the GINN who seems to have notices Graham and Sai's ship.
"Why couldn't you have just went past!" Kira yells raising his rifle and firing a shot at the GINN. The shot hits and saves Graham and Sai who breathe a sigh of relief.
"Now you have done it." The voice from the mysterious mobile suit again. The pilot takes aim at the Strike.
"Targeted and.. huh?" the origami flowers float in the way of the Gundam's rifle sights causing the pilot to take his eyes off and not fire.
"paper flowers?" He questions
"What is taking so longer, your already past the mission time to deal with such a small force. Return at once. Your putting the operation at risk the longer you stay out there" A second voice complains to the pilot over his comms. The pilot laughs to himself
"Roger I've dealt with the terrorists. Returning to ship." He looks back at the Strike before leaving.
"I'm sure we will meet again Mr White Gundam." And with that his unit pulls back. As it leaves the communication systems on the Archangel and Strike come back up.
"The radar is back!" Kuzzey announces. Murrue reaches for her chair side terminal to contact the Strike.
"Strike come in do you hear me?! What happened out there!?" Murrue asks
"You didn't see anything?" Kira replies
"No."
"Well there was another Mobile Suit, it... It destroyed the terrorists. It's gone I think. I'm okay." The crew breathe a sigh of relief.
"I'll return now." Kira continues.
"Good Job" Murrue finishes.
As Kira moves to return he notices something in the ruins around him, flashing. "A capsule?"
The Strike returns to the Archangel but not alone, the capsule is with him. The engineers work on breaking the lock as a small number of the crew gather around, Kira included.
"You really have a habit of picking things up don't you..." Natarle tells Kira standing next to her.
"Well I couldn't just leave it." Kira say defensively.
"Alright this should do it." Billy says as him and Murdoch open the capsule.
The doors slide open and from the iron case a girl floats out and upwards towards the crew. Kira gazes as the girl no older than himself looks down on them all. She has long flowing pink hair and wears a white and blue dress, behind her a small pink robot, a hard comes floating though the hair.
