Author's Note: Hello, and welcome again for another excitingly-new, action-packed chapter of Gundam SEED Reflex! I don't always update my current fanfics, but when I do…it's this fanfic! Aside from a not-so-clever attempt at "The Most Interesting Man in the World" reference, I can promise you that there's going to be a whole lot more action in Team Spartan's continuing quest to find out those responsible behind the deaths of Team Roman. Without further ado, here's the fifth story chapter. Enjoy!


Voltage Axe Presents

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Reflex

PHASE-05: On the Prowl


February 10, C.E. 93
Gulf of Guinea, Eternal-class ship Polemos
2030 Hours

Several ZAFT soldiers waited in a straight line besides a depot in the armory room that contained numerous firearms and multiple types of ammunition that were stored inside the depot. Some of them were in their white service t-shirts, a few others clad in uniforms of desert-pattern camouflage. While they waited in the queue, two men passed them by, a man in his early-30s sauntering with a young man beside him who wore his rimless glasses. The black-haired young adult who wore the glasses had a very stoic expression marked on his face, the look of his eyes seemingly entranced by something that continued to beset him for a long while.

The man in his early-30s, of darker skin complexion, turned to the young soldier at his left.

"I know that scene in Nigeria was tough," Brooks assured Davis, "but don't let it get in your head."

Davis continued in his stoic silence, still trying to disseminate the events that had happened early in the mission that they undertook most recently, in the back of his mind.


Brooks and Franco prepared themselves with their firearms drawn, readied to breach the front doors. Castle situated himself beside the side entrance to his right, with Davis taking up the other side of the door, his light-machine gun armed tightly in his hands. With the four yellow outlines of the mercenaries in plain view through the walls, all four Spartans were ready to breach in.

Brooks prepared them. "On my go. 3…2…1…GO! NOW!"

Suddenly, Davis felt it again. In the back of his eyes, a brown seed dropped from above in an abyss, before it bounced up and exploded into a million tiny fragments. Rushing streams of "1s" and "0s" emerged outward from the zone of the impact, the numbers overwhelming everywhere. In an instant, Davis moved in and kicked down the wooden door with his left leg, the powerful force of his kick had almost blew the door off its hinges. As he breached in first with Castle following behind, he began to feel the time slowing down before his eyes, as he saw the world around him move even more slowly than he actually was. Shock and confusion overcame him for the second time, as he took a few deep breaths repeatedly, while he raised his light-machine gun from the waist-down.


Brooks continued as Davis was deep in his thoughts, "Those people were in trouble long before we got there."

The dark-haired male remained silent and expressionless, as the two men passed by the front of the lineup to their left. A bald-headed male soldier waiting in the line at the front had took notice and was not amused at both men passing by him.

"Hey, there's a line here!" The surly-looking man scolded them, before he turned to another male soldier who was in front of him. "Guess the military's not real big on manners, huh?"

He then came face-to-face with a very disgruntled Franco, sporting a field cap, with Castle next to him. The bald-headed man was caught off guard at his bloodshot eyes, the dark blemishes forming underneath them, combined with his scrunched eyebrows and facial features that struck fear into the man, as he got close to his face threateningly.

Franco snapped as he confronted him, about to lay his arms on the man. "Maybe you want to teach me some, KID?"

"HEY! Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Castle immediately stepped in to break up what could've been an ugly, sparring match-up between the two. He then turned to the bald-headed man a moment after he cut in.

"Excuse us, we're a little off this morning," the Englishman explained in his calmly manner. "Haven't slept in 72 hours, and we just got back from a village full of dead civvies…our mistake."

Convinced by his words, the bald-headed man took it easy on them and had let the two Spartans walk off. "Hey…you guys can go ahead."

Franco, still quite distressed by what he had experienced recently, stormed forward slowly in a haze of anger with Castle right behind him to his right.

"Come on," Castle tried to convince him. "Don't sweat it, stay calm."

Unmoved by the confrontation and Castle's words, Franco muttered out the word "fucker" under his mouth, directed at the bald-headed man now behind him to his left. He then stopped to extend his left middle finger out and flashed it at the man he had just cursed at as an open insult, before he continued to trudge further at his slow pace with a concerned Castle right by his side.

"I'll save you a seat, jarhead…." Franco dreaded under his breath menacingly, as the two men at the front of the lineup watched on before turning to each other in disbelief, wondering what had just happened.


"Officer Garamond is on his way to Northolt Air Base," Commander Kira Yamato explained. "After they check him out, he'll be going home, thanks to you. In return, he gave us some critical intel."

He continued, "The pieces are coming together, gentlemen. All three supply chains lead us back to the same source: a gun-runner out of Pakistan, with an international client list. We're going into Peshawar, a convenient hub for illicit trade, to and from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This isn't a small time operation."

"Whoever he is, this man is running serious hardware, mil-spec technology," Kira continued further, "maybe even radioactive material. We'll have to cut him off."

He paused. "We're cooperating with Equatorial Union forces on this one. Their operation will cover ours. They keep the local, we get his supplier, and everybody wins."

"Your team will identify, secure, and extract the supplier," the commander outlined the objectives. "Get this guy, and we're a major step closer to the big picture. Evgeniy is here to add one more thing for your current equipment."

"Thank you, Commander," the chief designer said. "I have modified to add one more feature to the H.A.R.O. Drone that you are currently using. The drone will now be packed with a sonic pulse weapon, when it is in its land configuration, but just don't rely on it too much. That's it for now; good luck out there!"


February 11, C.E. 93
Peshawar, Pakistan, Equatorial Union
1600 Hours

The streets of Peshawar were filled with life, copious amounts of civilian men and women marched down the sidewalks of the streets, with a heavy stream of vehicular traffic that consisted of small cars and trucks. Sounds of the crowd din flooded the air from below, as the four ZAFT Specters rappelled down the side of a building, from high up.

"Command, Spartan's prepping to infil the target area," team leader Brooks communicated.

"Copy, Spartan," the head operator responded. "Be advised, you've got a lot of civilians in your vicinity. Keep it low profile out there."

All four Spartans made their way through a few open windows of the building. "Understood. Should we pick up the buyer while we're here?"

"Negative, we're leaving him for the Equatorial Union forces. Alive. Secure the seller only, he's our priority," the head operator outlined their objective.

"Extract the seller, don't shoot the buyer. Copy that," Brooks acknowledged as he ended the transmission.

Once they were all inside the room of the building, they enabled their augmented reality features within the IRIS-COM. Through their visors, they could see a blue dot marked with the amount of distance from the target objective.

"Target house is marked," Brooks noted. "Keep your eyes open. We don't want any surprises."

It was then that Brooks and Davis vaulted over the open window they had just came through, and onto the flat roof of the tall building they were on. Castle and Franco followed, as the first two Spartans vaulted over a wall to their left. Spotting another wall to their right, Davis climbed up first and made his way onto the elevated platform of another roof. He quickly slid to crouch behind the brick wall a few short paces ahead, with all other Spartans having caught up.

With his adaptive camouflage system enabled automatically, Davis stuck his head out from cover and peered through the scope of his sniper rifle. There was a host of buildings in front of his sights, just about a hundred metres away from his position. He could make out two hostile men taking guard on top of the buildings in the distance, one balaclava-clad man having drawn out his semi-automatic assault rifle, while another masked gunman was watching on a rooftop just a level above said man. Davis instantly e-tagged the man on the lower-level rooftop first for Castle to take the target, before he lined up his aim on the gunman at the higher level.

"Ready on your shot," Castle growled under his breath.

Davis squeezed the trigger on his suppressed sniper rifle. "Go!"

Within a couple of seconds, both masked gunmen on the rooftops had their skulls blown off into several fragments as they collapsed on their backs, dying right away on the spot.

Brooks immediately spotted more hostiles while he took a position behind the wall that lined an edge of the roof. "I've got eyes on two more, up ahead of us," he peered. "One more."

"9 o'clock," Franco added quietly.

As the camo on his suit activated again, Davis moved off to the right of the rooftop, before he turned to his left again and peered through the scope of his rifle. There was another building north-westward of where they were, also about a hundred metres away. The young Spartan could make out a masked gunman strolling at his leisurely pace with an assault rifle in his hands, before he trained the sights on the moving target. As soon as the hostile man had stopped past the towering structure on the building, Davis pulled the trigger right away, the bullet travelling far and through the man's throat and out the back of his neck.

"Target eliminated."

Once they saw that there were no more hostile guards in the vicinity, Davis rejoined his team already crouched behind the wall that lined the edge of the rooftop. He poked his head out over the ledge once the camouflage on his suit was activated, peering through his scope again. He could make out two men clad in their veils that covered their heads and chests, located on a lower-elevated roof just 30 metres ahead. Davis e-tagged the gunman who strolled by a clothesline full of hanging articles of clothing first for Castle to make his mark again, before setting his sights on the second man who was standing ahead of an air conditioning unit.

"Ready?" Davis turned to Castle as he lined up his shot.

The Englishman gruffly affirmed. "Ready."

"Fire!"

Both gunmen on the rooftop just below them went down straight away, splotches of blood erupting off from their exit wounds to their torsos, as the whole vicinity was now completely devoid of any hostiles.

"Area's clear," Brooks reported.

The Spartans then moved while crouching to the right, before they rounded a corner to the left and made their way down a flight of stairs and onto a lower-elevated portion of the roof. Turning right, the whole team climbed up a chest-high wall, before they continued across on the slightly high-elevated roofing. They slowly made their way towards a staircase that took them down and onto a lower-elevated surface again. Cornering to the left, making their way to the right, then heading left before they took the corner to the right again, the Spartans slowed their approach as Davis snuck towards cover behind a skid full of sandbags. Castle and Brooks took cover behind a wall next to the roof access door.

Brooks peeked his head out, surveying the view in front of his eyes.

"Hostile, armed with an assault rifle. Up ahead."

Davis looked up from his cover, peering through the sights of his scope. The crosshairs of his scope were laid on a veiled man slowly lifting himself up on the roof of a building and with a roof access door behind him, his assault rifle having drawn out in his hands. Lining up his shot, Davis squeezed the trigger on his rifle, the single-burst fire having passed through the man's sternum as he collapsed to his death.

"He's history," Castle grumbled.

After Davis reloaded the magazine on his firearm, he joined Castle and Brooks, hopping down onto a slightly lower-elevated roof surface. As Brooks approached and took cover behind a short ledge leading onto another roof to his right, he could spot a few more hostiles in the distance up ahead.

"We need to get rid of these guards first," Brooks instructed. "Secure the perimeter."

Davis crouched while moving slowly, peering through his scope at the sights in front of the team leader. He could make out through the open gaps that hanging clothes made from the clothesline in front, that there was a rifleman monitoring on the edge of a towering structure on top of a building to his right. Shifting to his right, Davis could make out another rifleman monitoring on top of a building that was to his left. He tagged the man on the building to his left first, before tagging the man on the towering structure to his right. His instincts kicked up again, as he turned around behind and could easily spot a veiled guard by a few satellite dishes, getting himself off his feet with a rifle in his hands.

Once Castle and Brooks got into position, Davis took aim at the man by the satellite dishes through his scope, and fired right away. At the same time, the two other Spartans fired their rifles, all three men going down with blood profusely pouring away from their exit wounds as they all lay slain.

"Four more hostiles," Brooks noted from his new position. "Three o'clock."

Davis turned around again to climb up the short ledge, before dropping down from it and making his way towards cover behind a wall. He poked his head out of cover, peeking through the sights of his firearm. He trained the crosshairs of the scope on a veiled guard monitoring on top of a tall building 60 metres away from where they were. He tagged the moving target first, before he moved his sights down to another rifle-toting guard just above an advertisement billboard, his back turned to Davis. Davis tagged him second, before he moved his sights further down to the right, before shifting to the left. There were two more armed guards, one walking in front of another at an even lower-leveled portion of the roof. He tagged the guard who was in front, before he settled the crosshairs on the hostile behind.

"Ready when you are," Franco prepared him.

Waiting for the perfect moment, Davis had found it and fired right away. The three other Spartans fired on cue, with all four guards that were on the rooftops ahead were now flat on the ground, baseball-sized bullet holes that marked their slain corpses.

Davis moved up, following Castle and Brooks again, as they made their way behind a brick wall that overlooked an area ahead that was enclosed with three connected structures that formed a square.

Brooks peeked out, "Got a hostile on the roof up ahead."

Castle looked up before he settled back down behind his cover. "There's another one, on our right."

Staff Sergeant Leung poked his head out of cover to take aim through the scope of his sniper rifle. There was, indeed, a veiled guard with a semi-automatic rifle standing on a roof about 40 metres away. He tagged the man for Castle to target upon, before he peered at a balcony to his bottom-right, where he observed another veiled guard coming out into the open.

"Marked two," Davis noted to Brooks, as the team leader reached a suitable firing position.

"Ready on you," Castle gave the green light to Davis.

"Fire, fire!"

Within a quick moment, both guards went down imminently at the same time, with the sharp bullet rounds coming right through their abdominals and chests. Once the area was cleared of the hostiles, the Spartans headed to the right, before they leapt down from a ledge.

"Alright," Brooks commanded. "Form up on entry."

Climbing over a short barrier, each one of the Spartans took positions behind each side of the rectangular skylight on the roof of the structure.

"We're going in fast," Brooks warned as Castle reloaded his rifle. "Pick your targets and drop 'em."

"Ready, we'll move with you," Davis confirmed before he peered through the spotlight to make out a few shadowy figures below them. "I count four."

"Get a drone in there," Brooks commanded Davis.

Deploying the H.A.R.O. Drone, Davis steered the unmanned aerial vehicle towards the square space enclosed by the three structures. Lowering it onto the floor of the balcony, Brooks further instructed Davis over the communications on what to do.

"Switch to land configuration, and locate the target. I wanna know exactly what we're walking into."

Tapping a holographic button, the drone in air configuration had instantly transformed to its land setting. The spherical drone was now in its normal state, with the exception of two wheel-like rotors extending from the two holes of its bottom-half, with another wheel-like rotor having extended out from the back of the bottom-half. Guiding the now-unmanned ground vehicle, Davis steered it past the open doorway, before sneaking it through an open vent shaft and out. Through all of their headsets, they could hear a Pakistani man shouting angrily over his phone in English, as they saw the camera feed of the drone through their visors.

"Well, that's the buyer," Davis noted. "No sign of the seller though."

"Looks like they're still waiting around," Castle eavesdropped.

"He should've been here by now," Franco realized. "You think he spooked?"

"I don't know," Brooks answered before he quipped. "Let's go ask."

Brooks then turned to Davis who was steering the drone. "Arm the H.A.R.O., set up to breach."

Davis signalled back with a nod, as he steered the drone to the right, before he directed it down the stairs to its left. The U.G.V. now onto the carpet grounds, it stealthily manoeuvred past a chair without any of the guards and the buyer noticing. Once the drone made it all the way towards the middle of the room and parked from there, Davis lifted an index finger of his right hand and tapped on the holographic button that deployed the sonic pulse built into the drone.

In an instant, everyone in the room was jolted aback by a strong electromagnetic burst that emanated from the spherical device, including the male buyer.

"GO! GO! GO!" Brooks shouted, as they breached from the skylight.

The glass panes of the skylight on the ceiling exploded into millions of tiny shards, raining down on the large group of men, as the four ZAFT Specters quickly rappelled downward from the now-open skylight. As their feet touched the ground, time slowed down before them, as Davis drew out his personal defence weapon and aimed at the closest guard as he turned around to his left. He quickly fired in a few short bursts, the bullets penetrating through the veiled man's body and leaving behind spatters of crimson-red fluid in the air. He then turned his sights on another rifleman right next to the slain guard to his left, and fired another few rounds. The man slowly collapsed to the ground as the bullets pierced straight through his eyes, falling to his side. Castle, Franco, and Brooks finished off the other remaining guards in the room.

As time and motion instantly resumed to its normal and synchronized pace, Davis quickly rushed over to the cowering Pakistani male, before he forcefully subdued him against the wall. The turban-clad male shouted in Urdu as Davis violently patted him down and frisked him for any suspicious materials or items that he may have.

"Whoa, hey, kid!" Franco told Davis, "Careful with that! We might need him."

Davis then slowly reached for one of the man's pockets, before he retrieved what appeared to be the man's smartphone. The young Spartan then passed it over to the team leader.

"Command," Brooks requested the head operator, "we need you to trace the signal."

"Copy, Spartan. Punch it to us."

"You got it."


'SATELLITE SCAN INITIATED.'

'LOCATING: PAKISTAN.'

'LOCATING: PESHAWAR.'

'LOCATING: NORTH BORDER.'

'LOCATED: CITY CENTER.'

"Satellite's locking in now," Commander Kira Yamato confirmed.

"Alright," Brooks responded. "We're gonna move back up to roof level."

"Roger, keep the line open," Kira responded. "We're triangulating. Stand by."

'TARGET LOCATED: WEAPONS DEALER.'

"Okay, we've got a fix on the weapons dealer," the commander confirmed.

Brooks asked. "On the move?"

"Negative," Commander Yamato responded. "We've got some complications."

He analyzed the screen. "Traffic's got the vehicle boxed in on all sides," Kira explained. "You'll have to go to him."

"Tough to keep it low profile if we're out on the street, sir," Castle lightly objected.

The commander kept observing what was happening on the screen. "Stakes just went up," Kira dreaded. "Equatorial Union forces are closing in on the area. They've already locked down two of the major routes. Looks like they're making a play for both parties."

Davis snapped at the current revelation. "That wasn't the deal!"

"Guess they're making a new one," Kira quipped earnestly, before he paused. "This just got real messy, gentlemen."

"Think we can trade the buyer for the seller?" Davis asked.

"Not an option, Spartan," Kira explained. "Dealer's the big catch. If they get him, the E.U. forces won't let us near him. And if he gets away…we may never track him down again."

"We'll get him, sir," Brooks assured the commander. "What do we do about the Equatorial Union forces?"

The commander elaborated. "We'll bring you in from the opposite direction. That'll let the Equatorial forces push the target your way and avoid any accidental engagements."

"Let me make that clear," Kira commanded them. "You are NOT to engage the Equatorial Union forces."

"Are they gonna show us the same courtesy, sir?" Franco asked with a slight hint of sarcasm.

"As long as they don't see you."

"What's the E.T.A. on the bird?" Brooks asked.

'LOCATED: SUPPORT HELICOPTER.'

"She's tracking in now," Kira answered. "It's pretty much worst-case down there. You're going to have a lot of civilians in harm's way, and multiple hostiles moving through traffic."

He warned the Spartans, "Watch your targets, and watch what's behind them."

"Understood," Brooks acknowledged.

"Marking the location for you."

'LOCATION MARKED.'

"Copy that," Brooks confirmed. "Spartan's on the way."

"Just once, I'd like something to go to plan," Castle calmly quipped.

"Plan wasn't that great to begin with," Franco commented.

"Stay sharp, boys," the commander told them.


As the Spartans rushed down the middle of the busy street, multiple exchanges of gunfire rang out in the air, bullets hitting and bouncing off the ground that kicked up dirt and bits of gravel everywhere. Civilians caught in the crossfire scrambled and ran for their lives, yells and screams of terror erupting all over the area, as the gridlock of cars were now abandoned by their owners. Rushing and dodging the incoming rounds headed his way, Davis slid behind the front of a small, red hatchback.

"Alright, eyes up gentlemen!" Brooks barked out as he quickly took behind the cover of a side of a building. "We need to find that car!"

Having drawn out his personal defence rifle, Davis checked his corners around the left of the car and to the right, unable to identify any hostile riflemen in front with the numerous civilian men and women running towards his direction. He reached for a motion sensor device from his belt, before he armed it and lobbed the device in the general direction in front of him. With the motion sensor on the ground somewhere, Davis was able to pick up a few male outlines marked in red through his visor. Peeking out from the left side of the car's front, he saw a female local running towards him before a barrage of bullets ripping through her body from behind. The civilian woman laid dying on the ground in a pool of blood, just as Davis could see one of the hostile gunmen sliding to cover behind the back of an S.U.V. that was parked 20 metres ahead. Furious at what he had seen, Davis drew out his P.D.W. before he took aim through his scope and fired in short-rounded bursts.

As the assailant poked his body out of cover, he was met with the several bullet rounds that passed through his torso and abdomen, collapsing instantly and profusely bleeding out as he succumbed right away. The five other veiled gunmen on the ground shouted angrily in Pashto, before they returned fire at the Spartans moving forward from cover-to-cover. More locals in the area of the town were caught in the crossfire between the hostile gunmen and the ZAFT Specters fighting their way up. A line of them were gunned down by the hostiles, three innocent women and two senior males all fallen into a bloody heap. Glass shattered everywhere, as bullets penetrated through the many windows of the flood of cars and buildings all over the area.

"Moving!" Davis rushed away from his previous position before taking cover behind the front of a black S.U.V., narrowly dodging the bombardment of gunfire aimed at him.

"Hostiles, 9 'o clock!" Brooks shouted, as he poked himself out of cover and fired at a moving gunman from his right, the man going down face-first from being shot in the legs.

"Rifleman, up ahead!" Castle yelled as he got up from his knees and opened fire on a veiled hostile taking up behind the back of a station wagon.

The bullet penetrated through the vehicle's front and back windshields, before it went through and split away at the skull of the unsuspected gunman.

One of the remaining riflemen ahead at the three-way Y-shaped intersection screamed in his home language, before he threw an armed grenade at Brooks. The fragmentation grenade bounced a few times, before landing in front of Brooks as he rushed out towards the front of a minivan in time, just as it exploded. The powerful force of the explosion launched an unsuspected male native against a wall as he ran, breaking every bone of his body.

"They're moving!" Franco bellowed before rushing and sliding towards cover behind the side of an auto rickshaw.

He then quickly peeked out to return fire through the open spaces of the rickshaw, clipping down two masked gunmen who charged in front of him. Davis poked his head out for a bit, as he could make out a gunman firing from a balcony on the front side of the building about a hundred metres ahead and to his right. Braving away at the barrage of bullets that bounced off of the S.U.V., the young Spartan switched positions to take cover behind the front of a four-door sedan nearby ahead to the right. Taking out a sniper rifle from his back, he peeked out from the front of the car and steadied his aim at the man on the balcony, before pulling the trigger. The bullet pierced through the man's throat before exiting away from the back of his neck, as the gunman collapsed backwards lifelessly.

Brooks laid suppressive fire on the two remaining gunmen behind a couple of buses, allowing Castle nearby to fire upon the two assailants with his P.D.W., picking off one to his left before he took another one down to the right.

"Targets are down!"

"I'm moving!"

Davis moved off from his previous cover, before sliding towards the front of a pickup truck and poked his body out from the right side, firing a few bursts at a masked gunman in front of him. A few more civilians rushed past him, as he moved away from the truck.

"Contact! Dead ahead!" Castle roared, as the four Spartans advanced towards the road to the right.

"Assault rifle!"

Davis got onto the sidewalk to his right, before he took cover behind a stack of coloured crates. Franco and Castle took positions behind the fronts of passenger vehicles, exchanging back fire at the gunmen ahead. Brooks scrambled from cover-to-cover, aiming down his sights and firing down on a few gunmen that charged, picking them off instantly. The staff sergeant of the squad quickly reloaded the magazine on his rifle, before he emerged from the crates and took cover behind the back of a sports car. Just as he poked his body out of cover, one of the gunmen in the near distance fired his semi-automatic rifle at him. Davis felt the bullets strike through his legs, as the force of it launched him on his back and onto the ground, as he struggled to move away from the line of fire.

"Aaaagghh!" He screamed in pain as he started to bleed out. "I'm hit! I'm down!"

Castle fired a few rounds at the attacking gunmen, before he turned to his right and saw the incapacitated Davis lying down on his back, dragging himself towards the back of the sports car.

"Argonaut's down!" Castle shouted to the other squad-mates, before he took cover behind the front of a vehicle from the striking bullets. "Cover for me! I'm coming for him!"

Brooks and Franco moved up slightly to lay down suppressive fire on the hostile assailants coming from the opposite end of the road. Castle rushed over to the immobilized Davis, avoiding a few bullets that narrowly missed him. He reached for an auto-injector from his belt that was the shape of a saber-tooth, the medical device containing apple-greenish fluid through its glass casing.

"You're gonna be alright, Davis!" Castle held the auto-injector firmly with one hand before he stabbed the tiny needle through the cloth portion of his combat suit. "Just stay with me here!"

Davis grunted out in pain as he felt the dosage working its way through his skin and working its way through his veins. In a few seconds, he felt the mind-numbing pain instantly disappearing from his legs, with Castle getting him up from his feet right away. They immediately scrambled away from each other, taking up positions in the process. Franco and Brooks kept firing down on the gunmen advancing, both of them taking out two of the hostiles.

"Riflemen! Coming towards our right!" Castle blared out, picking off a few hostile gunmen taking cover behind a few vehicles.

As Davis continued down the sidewalk, he could see a couple of the gunmen charging towards his direction, their assault rifles already drawn out. Before he was about to be caught by them, he felt it again. A brown seed dropped down from the abyss in the back of his eyes, before it bounced upward and exploded, sending a rapid stream of "1s" and "0s" surging outward from the zone of impact. Marked by a thin white line gleaming out of his extending from his shrunk pupils within the enlarged irises, time and motion slowed before his eyes as he was the only one moving at a normal pace. Drawing out his rifle right away, Davis fired a few short bursts, taking down both assailants in front of him. He ran past one of the open doorways leading into an abandoned storage space. Before he advanced even further, he saw a few masked gunmen coming past the open doorways from the left.

A second thin white line gleamed out from his pupils right next to the first line, as he felt himself charge at the first gunman he saw in front, quickly drawing out his combat knife. Exerting his strength and agility at higher than maximum levels, he instantly disarmed the masked man's rifle away from him, before he overwhelmed him and swiped his knife at the man's neck. Slashing away at his throat, Davis took him by the neck and slammed him against the brick wall with violent force. He then ripped the rifle off the second gunman from his hands, before he also overwhelmed him and violently slammed his head a few times against another brick wall. Taking out his sidearm, Davis avoided the third gunman's swing of the back of his rifle against him, before he spun around and shot him point-blank repeatedly.

Rushing out into the open again, Davis pulled out his personal defence rifle and rapidly fired at a few gunmen in front and to his right. All of the hostile assailants were picked off right away, as Davis rushed out and dove into a side of a minivan, avoiding bursts of bullets in front that narrowly missed him. He could notice that there was a masked gunman taking cover behind a taxi right in front. As the gunman poked his head out from cover, he was met with several bullet rounds piercing through the glass windows of the rear-passenger doors, before being struck by them. Rushing to take cover behind the black-and-yellow taxi, he turned to his left to find Castle behind the side of the taxi as well, just in front of him.

The ground shook with force as a deafening explosion rocked in front of the Spartans, as a hostile man armed with a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher fired from the balcony of a building to the left side of the street.

"Hostile with an R.P.G.!" Brooks shouted. "Watch out!"

Davis moved away from the taxi before he took cover behind the side of a building as the man with the rocket launcher fired again. It struck a vehicle, launching it in the air with a huge fireball before it came back down on the ground. The three other Spartans scrambled away from each other as they took different positions behind vehicles and buildings, as they returned fire at the onslaught of gunmen on the ground. The young Spartan reached out for his sniper rifle as another mini-warhead was launched, obliterating another parked vehicle on the road. Poking out from around the corner, Davis took aim at the hostile male through the scope of his rifle and fired, the man dropping the rocket launcher instantly as he collapsed on his back dying from a sniper round to his chest.

More heavy gunfire was exchanged between both groups, as the Spartans continued to advance forward, taking cover between different vehicles on the road as they moved up. Davis rushed up from his previous position, before he got out his P.D.W. again and fired at a few incoming foot soldiers as he dove towards the sidecar of a motorcycle parked on the pavement near the sidewalk. Castle advanced forward, before he fired in several bursts to his right, gunning down three hostile men who toted shotguns right by a bus. Franco reloaded his primary weapon, before he moved from cover-to-cover, firing blindly through the back windshield of a hatchback and picking off a gunman in front.

"We gotta get to the vehicle!" Brooks shouted as he sprinted, reloading his rifle. "Move up! Secure the area!"

Passing by a red S.U.V., Davis rushed behind Castle before he took cover behind the front of a 4WD vehicle. He could hear the loud, ratcheting booms going off from the mounted gunner on an armoured truck just 30 metres away from their positions. The three other Spartans proceeded to finish off all the other remaining groups of hostile riflemen in the area. Castle emptied his clip on a few masked hostiles coming off from the right, and picked off a couple more hiding behind a few vehicles. Franco slid to cover right ahead of Davis, as he shot at a gunman tearing off from his left, before moving away as the mounted gunner fired at him. Davis then rushed left and slid to take cover behind a small green coupe, before he popped out and fired at a rushing gunman at point-blank range.

A couple more riflemen rushed out towards his direction, firing at the coupe with their semi-automatic firearms, before Davis emerged out quickly and fired in short bursts. Both gunmen went down right away, bullet holes across their torsos with crimson-red fluid leaking out of them. The mounted gunner on the truck focused his aim on Davis, firing in rapid bursts at the coupe, flattening its tires and chipping away at the metal. Davis broke off from the coupe to his left and somersaulted his way behind the front of a red minivan, with Castle behind the wall of a building beside him. All the windows of the minivan burst apart, showering tiny shards all over as the mounted gunner continued to fire down on the Spartan. Davis reached out for a fragmentation grenade from his belt as he nodded at Castle, who also pulled out one from his belt as well. The pins pulled on their grenades, both Spartans tossed the explosives in an upward arc, both landing next to each other under the armoured truck. A massive fireball ensued, destroying the armoured truck and throwing the dying mounted gunner off the bed. The blast also claimed another two gunmen who were in front of it, as they lay slain in the radius of the explosion.

Once the area was finally devoid of all waves of hostile enemies, Brooks and Franco emerged from their covers and rushed forward, with Castle and Davis joining them.

"Move to the car!" Brooks ordered. "Secure the H.V.T.!"

As the Spartans moved towards the white sport utility vehicle that allegedly carried the weapons smuggler, Castle took point first as he approached the automobile slowly. With all other Spartans covering for him, he carefully pulled on the driver-side door and slowly swung it open. Davis had his primary weapon drawn out as Castle fully swung the door open, only to find that there was no one occupying the car.

"Damn it!" Davis blasted out as he searched the car. "Target's fled!"

"Command, Spartan," Brooks communicated to the head operator. "You got a read on the H.V.T.?"

Suddenly, Davis heard a distinct electronic beeping noise that went off somewhere inside the S.U.V., with dull vibrating noises in between the long, haltering beeps. He looked inside the car again, before he located the noise originating from inside the glove compartment of the vehicle.

"Wait a minute," Davis paused, his eyes slowly widening. "Is that a cell?"

The head operator then reacted fast, hearing his words and those sounds over the radio.

"BOMB! GET CLEAR, GET CLEAR!"

As fast as lightning, Davis scrambled away from the vehicle that was going to go off any second, with the other three Specters sprinting off into the opposite direction as well. Without warning, a monstrous explosion tore through the streets, sending thick black smoke everywhere and rocking the ground to its very core. Vehicles that were caught in the blast radius were thrown off into the air like toys, a few of them almost landing on the Spartans as they dove in the nick of time.

A few long moments after the blast, a section of the street was all covered in a fiery inferno, cars and trucks were either flat on their wheels or they were turned over from the force of the blast. A sniper rifle was laid on the ground, while the fires kept burning ahead in the dead silence that followed.

"Spartan, this is Command. Do you copy?"

There was no answer, with the head operator attempting to establish communications again.

"Spartan, this is Command. Do you copy?"

A hand picked up the sniper rifle and carried it, as Castle slowly shuffled towards Davis, who was laying down on top of a car's hood.

"Come in, Spartan!"

Castle helped Davis off the hood of the car, as the young Spartan shook his head a few times before the master sergeant handed him his rifle, while getting his feet back on the ground. Franco knelt for a long moment besides a four-door sedan, before he got back up and started to walk, as the smoke started to clear.

"Command, Spartan is intact," Brooks emerged from the side of a building. "What happened?"

"Dealer's car must've been rigged to blow," the head operator explained.

"And the target?"

"The dealer's secured a new vehicle, and is on the move! You'll have to track him from the air," the head operator commanded. "We've got choppers inbound to pick you up. Move to the rally!"

"Copy," Brooks acknowledged as two helicopters came from their left and hovered above them, "on the way."

Descending slightly towards the ground before stopping, the choppers dropped down a couple of ropes for the Spartans to climb up and board them.

"Go! Go!" Brooks shouted as Davis and Castle hooked in to the ropes from one of the choppers. "Move it, people!"

Once the Spartans made their way aboard the choppers through the rope lifts, Castle and Davis settled on their seats before they bumped their fists with each other.

"We've got it, come on!" Davis bellowed in confidence as the other two Spartans settled onto the other chopper.

"Alright, let's go!" Castle shouted, as the choppers began to take off and away.


'SATELLITE SCAN INITIATED.'

"We've got positive I.D. on the dealer," Commander Kira Yamato confirmed. "She's Russian. Mariya Volkov."

"Oh, it's a chick?" Franco laughed before he snidely remarked. "Now I feel kinda bad for callin' her a bitch."

'TRACKING TARGET: MARIYA VOLKOV.'

"We're working connections to see what we can find," Kira explained, "but we've already got enough to be worried."

Commander Yamato continued. "Early reports have her linked to an international import-export collaboration with known ties to criminal elements. These people are very good at making things disappear…weapons, money, people. If she goes to ground, we're gonna have a hell of a time digging her back up again," he paused.

"ZAFT's Intel Department is involved, and our boys at Terminal have a file, but nothing's as good as a face-to-face," Kira stressed. "We need her alive, gentlemen."

"Better tell that to the neighbours," Castle quietly remarked.

"It's a hornet's nest down there," the commander noted. "Looks like everybody with a gun's coming out to play."

"You'll have to deal with them before you stop her," Kira insisted. "And you WILL stop her. Our birds don't have the range to chase her into Afghanistan. If she makes the border, she's as good as gone."

"That's a roger, Command," Brooks acknowledged. "We're on it."


The helicopter flew high above ground, travelling along the winding gravel roads of the stony mountains to its left.

"Here we go!" Davis shouted as he manned a mounted rotary gun at the left side of the chopper, with Castle in his sniping position to his right, aiming out the open window.

As the chopper continued flying straight alongside the winding road from below, Davis trained his sights following along the path of the roadway, before he spotted an armoured 4WD with its mounted gunner firing at the chopper right away.

"Hostile, left!" Davis roared, as he began firing the mounted rotary gun at the vehicle below.

"Hostile light truck!" Castle shouted, as he spotted another armoured vehicle behind the other, its mounted gunner also firing at the moving helicopter.

Davis kept firing the mounted gun continuously at the trucks that now stopped, the heavy bullet rounds shredding through the vehicles as they blew up into spectacular fireballs surrounded by thick clouds of smoke.

"We got this!" Castle trumpeted as he focused on another hostile 4WD going around a concave-shaped bend of the road. "Just don't get cocky!"

The mounted gunner on the 4WD focused his fire at the helicopter, before Davis fired back with the bombarding rounds of the rotary gun. Some of the heavy rounds struck through the windshield of the vehicle, killing the driver, as the truck lost control and slammed hard into a roadside barrier and exploded next to a civilian bus.

"Check your fire!" Castle yelled as he saw a few civilians scrambling away from the scene. "Those are civilians!"

Davis focused his fire on another armoured 4WD as the helicopter got even closer alongside, avoiding the bullet rounds from the mounted gunner aboard the vehicle, before he continuously fired at the 4WD. The 4WD's tires blew out with enough force to send the armoured vehicle on its side, before it rolled over a few times, landing on its roof. A mini-warhead zoomed towards the helicopter from the far-right, narrowly skimming the chopper as it went through.

Castle hollered. "R.P.G., watch it!"

"We've got it, come on!" Davis howled as he fired down at a blockade of two armoured 4WDs ahead of the road, both vehicles exploding into massive fireballs and sending a few ground troops flying off the cliff.

Castle surveyed the area to his right and saw a convoy of vehicles that were almost two kilometres away from the carnage that took place on the road. Two armoured 4WDs were escorting an armoured S.U.V., one in front of it and one behind it.

"We've got a visual on her vehicle!" Castle identified.

"Concentrate on the escort vehicles," Brooks directed. "Do not engage the primary. I repeat, do not engage the H.V.T.'s vehicle!"

As the helicopter kept travelling forward, the loud, buzzing drones sounded off from the rotary gun being fired, spattering heavy bullet rounds at the escort vehicles. The militarized 4WD behind the gun-runner's S.U.V. instantly blew up in a fiery wreck, the heavy rounds piercing through the vehicle's gas tank. Davis then locked his focus on the other 4WD escorting the sport utility vehicle, as they passed by a few hostile foot soldiers on the ground. Firing the rotary gun without lifting off the triggers, the heavy rounds pierced through the 4WD before it had also exploded into flames, the scrapped-out vehicle going over the cliff and tumbling down.

With the S.U.V. entering a tunnel, a loud alarm blared rapidly aboard the helicopter as a mini-warhead zipped towards it.

"Do something or these guys are gonna smoke us!"

The helicopter pilot then made an evasive maneuver, as the chopper swerved violently and curved around to avoid the incoming rocket-propelled grenade. With the R.P.G. passing by, the helicopter pilot steered and pitched the air vehicle back into its normal position, as it flew around the rocky mountainside. When it reached to the point where the tunnel ended, the alarm sounded aboard the cockpit again as Davis could see a hostile attack chopper coming their way.

"Hostile chopper, inbound!"

The enemy gunship fired its auto-cannons at the transport chopper, some of its rounds nearly missing the two Spartans aboard the aircraft.

"We're losin' it!" Davis yelled.

Castle turned to the pilot. "Go, GO!"

As the chopper blew by the hostile gunship, Davis jerked the rotary gun to his left and fired at the enemy helicopter from behind. The enemy chopper tried to follow the transport copter as both made a wide left. However, as the ZAFT chopper moved above the enemy gunship, Davis fired the rotary gun again as the heavy rounds struck the rotors and the body of the aircraft.

Castle fired at the moving gunship with his sniper rifle. "Keep the pressure on!" He shouted at Davis.

Davis swung the rotary gun back into position as he fired at the gunship that was now near the exit of the tunnel. The several bursts of heavy rounds from the mounted gun shredded through the metal of the hostile chopper, and pierced through the windscreen, killing both pilot and gunner in the process. The attack helicopter burst into flames before it set off into a large fireball that sent every scrapped part of the chopper off the cliffs.

"We got this!" Davis howled out.

"Alright, we're givin' it to 'em now!" Castle added, as the transport chopper made its approach near the exit of the tunnel, as the gun runner's S.U.V. came plowing through the exiting end.

"Put a bird down across the road," the head operator observed. "Let's see if she can drive through that."

Davis fired the mounted rotary gun at a couple of hostile foot soldiers, as the black S.U.V. blew past the transport chopper that was up close to the road.

"Heads up, here we go!" Castle bellowed, as the helicopter took off once again.

"Step it up, come on!" Davis shouted at the pilot, as the helicopter trailed close along the black S.U.V. travelling down the road at a fast speed.

As the transport chopper began to cut off the black S.U.V. once more, Davis fired a few bursts from the rotary gun, with the few rounds puncturing away at the tires of the vehicle. The tires on the vehicle exploded, the force of it sending the S.U.V. tumbling over, end-over-end. The wrecked armoured vehicle flipped over a few more times, before it ended up on its side, just in front of a settlement sealed off by brick walls.

"That ought to stop her," Davis remarked as the chopper made its descent before hovering next to the chopper that Franco and Brooks were in.

The other transport helicopter then flew off and around the area to land, as the transport chopper Davis was on hovered around the settlement and landed on solid terrain behind it. Davis and Castle hopped out of the chopper, before they began to rush towards the totalled sports utility vehicle.

"We got her boxed in! Secure the area!"

Brooks, who was still aboard the other transport chopper, began firing from the mounted rotary gun aboard that aircraft. Davis rushed from behind an abandoned house to his right, before he took cover behind a brick wall, with the downed S.U.V. nearby to his left. Firing from the mounted gun, Brooks picked off several masked gunmen that rushed towards the vehicle from the houses that were in front of Davis, on the opposing side of the road. The young Spartan peaked his head out of cover to find a cargo truck coming from his left, headed straight for the S.U.V. before it stopped short by a mud-bricked hut. Castle advanced towards a position behind the flipped-over vehicle in the middle of the road, as Davis fired several rounds at the hostile foot soldiers coming out from the truck, with Brooks assisting him from the chopper above.

A hostile foot soldier with a rocket launcher fired a mini-warhead at Davis before he was picked off by Castle. The small metallic warhead flew above Davis and past him, before it slammed into the second-storey of the settlement behind the Spartan, blowing out chunks of rubble and debris everywhere. Another cargo truck went around the downed S.U.V., passing by Davis as he popped out and fired at the truck before reloading, as it rounded a corner to the right and stopped behind where Castle and Davis were. Castle scrambled back to his previous position before he opened fire on the cargo truck that unloaded more hostile foot soldiers. Likewise, Davis emptied his clip firing at the several enemy riflemen that scrambled out of the truck's back end. An armoured 4WD had also entered the scene, stopping right behind the cargo truck, as the mounted gunner fired down upon them.

Davis and Castle got out their fragmentation grenades again, pulling away at the pins, before they chucked them at the area where the hostile vehicles were. The grenades exploded, causing a chain effect that both vehicles burst into monstrous fireballs and instantly taking out anyone within the explosions. Brooks concentrated his fire from inside the chopper, on the new wave of enemy foot mobiles that tried to surge from the dwellings on the side of the road opposite of Davis. He managed to mow down several gunmen on the ground, some of them with their arms and legs being blown off from the force of the heavy rounds raining down on them. The team leader then focused on an incoming cargo truck that came towards the direction of the sports utility vehicle. Davis heard a loud explosion from beneath the brick wall as he withstood the ground shaking close to him, before he popped out of cover to find the cargo truck now in flaming and smouldering ruins.

Without warning, a hostile rifleman approached Davis from behind, his firearm drawn out. Davis suddenly turned around to face the gunman about to open fire, before he heard a blustering gunshot coming from behind the man. The masked gunman collapsed down on his stomach, as Davis could see smoke billowing off from the barrel of Castle's sniper rifle. He stared blankly at him for a moment, before he quickly peeked around the corner and fired his P.D.W. from the hip, shooting down the remaining gunmen that tried to approach them from behind. One of the gunmen fired at Davis, who jostled his aim as he returned fire, the bullets striking the groin area of the gunman as he screamed in pain before collapsing face-first and dying.

With the last hostile gunman cleared out, the area around the totalled vehicle was finally secured.

"We're clear!" Brooks reported. "Move in and secure the target!"

Rushing towards the smoking S.U.V. that was now on its roof, Davis approached the door of the vehicle, before he pulled away at it. Inside the vehicle was a veiled woman in her early-30s, laid flat on her back, on top of the ceiling of the car and was knocked unconscious from the wreck. Davis discovered what appeared to be a smartphone that was sitting next to her unconscious body, taking it before he passed it to the team leader who was now with him.

"We got her!" Davis confirmed. "She's out, but alive."

"Command, Spartan," Brooks communicated. "Target is secured!"

"Roger, Spartan," the head operator replied. "Bring her in."

Davis stared at the unconscious woman inside the vehicle, before he looked up at the transport chopper hovering above the crash site.

To be continued in PHASE-06: "The Far-Reaching Depths".


NEW TECHNOLOGY
H.A.R.O. (Hover-land Advanced Robotic Operative) Drone (ZAFT)
NEW FEATURE

Sonic Pulse In the H.A.R.O.'s land configuration, the drone is able to deploy an electromagnetic pulse that will disable any electronic devices within a 15-metre radius. The sonic pulse weapon can also be used to stun any nearby hostiles within the radius of the weapon being deployed.


And that's it for this chapter! I know, it's not as long as the previous few were, but it can also be considered the most-detailed in terms of descriptions and whatnot. A few notes to make about this chapter, from start to end:

Firstly, who knew Franco could be that pissed off when deprived of so much sleep? That, and what he had been through during the past few missions as part of Team Spartan.

Secondly, and here's the big part about it—Davis has unlocked what appeared to be a second ability when in Advanced SEED mode. Building further on the explanation behind SEED+ Mode, individuals who activate it are able to have three different abilities, and they are unlocked by "stages". The first stage is the ability that is used right when the individual enters SEED+ Mode, with the second stage allowing for a different ability to be used. In the case of this chapter, Davis entered SEED+ Mode on the first stage with time and motion slowing down around him (bullet-time, or I should call it, "Reflex Mode"), before he entered the second stage with the ability to increase strength and agility past maximum levels as he encountered his enemies in close-quarters. Each stage is marked visually by a gleaming thin white line that extends from an individual's pupils, with three lines next to each other representing the third stage ability being unlocked. As I've stated before, each ability has a lasting effect that is limited more than the original SEED mode.

Thirdly, the mission that Team Spartan undertook in this chapter is based off of the "Tiger Dust" mission in Future Soldier, where the Ghosts had to capture an arms smuggler in Pakistan.

And lastly, I know…"That's not cool, Davis. You don't shoot a guy in the dick!" If South Park had ever taught me anything, it would be that. It may be unnecessary, but I wanted to fit that reference right in there, in its ever subtle form.

In just a couple of the chapters, the story will pick up even further, and the antagonists will be revealed by the end of the seventh chapter. This will precede what will be even bigger that will happen in the eighth chapter. Until then, stay tuned for more!