Disclaimer: None of us own Gundam SEED. Goddamn Sunrise… Furthermore, any franchises that make cameos here belong to their respective owners.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Radio"
Chapter Nine:
Mugen Kano, Brig
Athrun sighed as he sat on the stiff bed in his cell, his captors had said little to him when placing in here, only that someone will be coming to speak with him when they left combat.
And so, he sat waiting for someone.
The doors to the brig slid open. "Sorry about the rude treatment you've received," came a familiar female voice. "Former Commandos tend not to know the meaning of 'gentle' when hauling prisoners from one place to another, especially if the prisoner in question has been shooting at them just recently."
Athrun jerked his head up, his eyes widening as he spotted a familiar brown haired, amethyst eyed young woman wearing a pair of tough woodland camo pants tucked into a pair of combat boots with a black tank top, her brown hair tied into a tight ponytail. "Ki… ra?" he asked uncertainly, the woman before him a far cry from the girl he knew on Lunar Academy. "Kira Yamato? Is that… you?"
She nodded. "Glad you still remember me, Athrun Zala," she remarked. "Though it's Kira Hisanaga now - got married about seven months ago."
"WHAT!?" Athrun asked in shock. "But… you're only 16! Why did you marry so early?"
Kira flushed a little at that. "Well, for starters, my relationship with my new husband was a bit of a whirlwind - we met on opposite sides of an argument, started working together, and I could feel a connection with him as we started getting things we needed for our new partnership, then I met his family, then his parents were killed, and I had to watch over his younger siblings while he went out and… exacted vengeance. Then, when he got back, we realized and confessed our feelings, and…" she trailed off, figuring he could probably extrapolate it from there.
"Wow…" Athrun breathed out. "Wait… did… did you say Hisanaga, as in, Ryu Hisanaga?"
She nodded. "Yes," she confirmed. "Ryu is my husband… and we already have a child."
Athrun stumbled back onto the bed, clearly shocked by the revelation. "Holy shit," he breathed out before letting a chuckle escape his lips. "Wow, you never did anything half-assed, have you, Kira?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Kira replied with a giggle. Her expression then turned serious as she asked, "And when did you join ZAFT? When we parted company at Copernicus, you hated the very idea of fighting."
"I… I joined after Junius Seven," he informed. "I was with father during the attack and mother was… on Junius… after that, I… I just wanted to be actually able to do something to defend my home…" he looked up at Kira. "Why are you on this ship, don't tell me Ryu is dragging you into this…"
Kira laughed again. "Ryu dragging me into this?" she asked rhetorically. "Don't be silly! The day after you left, I ran into a Terminal Recruiter at school, who had brought a Mobile Suit Simulator with him. I tried out the simulator, and aced the mission he gave me."
"But… this isn't a Terminal ship, Terminal produced yes, but I have yet to see a Terminal Uniform," Athrun stated. "Who owns this ship?"
"I do," Kira replied with a grin. "After a couple of years so I could finish school, I met the recruiter again. I didn't want to join Terminal, so he helped set me up as a solo mercenary, including giving me this ship. Then, after I met Ryu, we started to recruit more people, wanting to create a Guild."
"Never half-assed, indeed," Athrun said with a sigh. "So… what's going to happen to me?"
"Well, you'll need to stay with us for now," Kira informed. "I'll make sure you're treated well, maybe even move you out of here and into a private room if you're okay with being supervised when moving out and about. Once we get to whatever port of call we end up at next, though, I'll do what I can to return you to ZAFT."
Athrun chuckled. "I guess it helps if I'm a childhood friend to the leader of my captors," he joked. "I hope you realise, ZAFT may be willing to say 'oh well' and give up, but the EA won't be…"
"Yeah, I know," Kira replied. "We'll be ready for them, and for any pursuit ZAFT might muster - given what Victor's told us about 'old Mask Face', I kinda doubt he'll give up that easily."
Athrun sighed. "Commander Creuset is one of ZAFTs top aces, but… he's odd," he informed. "Like he sees everything around us like some big cosmic joke."
"Doubt any of us want to know what he thinks the punchline would be," she remarked, unlocking the brig cell. "Come on, I'd like you to meet my kid, and Ryu, as well."
"Sure," Athrun agreed as he stood. "That'd be great."
With a cheery smile, Kira led her old friend out of the brig and towards the quarters she and Ryu shared.
Mugen Kano, Hanami's Room
"No! Get away!"
"You… shot me…" the red coated commando slowly got to his feet, even though his helmet was shattered and splattered with blood.
"No!" The silver-haired young woman shouted, her hands trembling as she clutched the gun in her hands tight. Despite her best attempts at pulling the trigger, it refused to budge an inch.
"Some day... you'll die on the battlefield too... just like me... Hanami!"
"NOOOO!"
Hanami awoke with a start, her clothes drenched with sweat. She laid there for several moments, trying to get her emotions under control before groaning and climbing to her feet.
"That's the third time tonight…" she sighed. "Why…? I know it's a nightmare… but… it feels so real."
Hanami clenched and relaxed her right hand. She was sure she had never handled a gun before, but in the nightmare the gun that she was holding definitely felt like a real one... the weight, the texture of the grip, everything felt real.
Just like that of the holstered gun currently sitting on top of her side table.
She wasn't sure where she had gotten it - it had been hanging at her side when she woke up in the hangar in Jinn's arms and she hadn't even realized it was there until it was time for her to turn in for the night. What was even more damning was that she KNEW the gun, her hands handled it like she had fired it before…
What had really happened when she was knocked out? Had she really been unluckily knocked out by a flailing technician like Jinn had said?
Speaking of which, recalling the feeling of being in Jim's arms in a bridal carry still made her flush madly. She could still feel the warmth of his hands on her arms… and she also distinctly remembered how safe she felt just being around him.
"Am I… falling for Jinn-kun?" she whispered, clutching a hand to her chest.
She decided to put that thought off for later and walked into the adjoining bathroom to freshen up. As she looked in the mirror, her reflection stared back, clad in only a white bra and panties that put her hourglass figure on full display… and the bags under her eyes were starting to get very obvious.
A few splashes of water to her face woke her up slightly. Since she couldn't get any sleep anyway, she shrugged on a tee and a pair of hot pants and stepped out of her room to head to the observation deck.
She was rather surprised when she saw Jinn on the observation deck, leaning against a railing, staring out into space a distant look on his face, not seeming to notice her arrival.
"Jinn-kun?" she whispered, revisiting her memories of the previous day and feeling her heart beat speed up again.
"Hm?" Jinn responded, snapping out of whatever was distracting him to find Hanami behind him. "Ah, Hanami, couldn't sleep?"
"Yeah…" she stood beside Jinn, wrestling with her emotions while staring out the window at the endless sea of stars beyond. "I keep having… nightmares."
"They can be troublesome," he agreed with a nod. "That's why I like space so much to be honest, you can just stare out and forget your worries, sometimes I even try counting the stars… never gotten higher than 2000 though…"
Hanami giggled lightly. "I don't usually do this - when I'm stressed out I try to find something to paint. It's just that… I don't have a canvas to paint on. I left most of my stuff on Heliopolis when we… started the mission." She sighed, still regretting failing her part to bring back the Exodus. "I'm… pathetic, aren't I? Getting knocked out like that…"
"Actually, I think you were rather strong," he informed. "All of you were, me, Jade, Shinn and Flay have been exposed to things like this before, granted not to that level, but we were more mentally prepared for it, you and the others on the other hand, were not mentally prepared for it, the fact that you are still willing to stand here is proof of your strength, personally, I admire you for it."
"Really?" she brightened up slightly. "Thank you, Jinn-kun… By the way, is it… is it normal for people to dream of… killing when they haven't even touched a… a gun before?" she clenched and relaxed her gun hand again.
"Dreams… have a strange way of showing us what we fear," Jinn informed after a moment of thought. "Even if it is subconscious, when we sleep, we are in our most relaxed state and are much more receptive to what our subconscious mind tries to tell us, like the fear of killing."
"But it all felt so real… I could feel the weight of the gun, the texture of the hand grip, the sound of the bullet leaving the barrel… the recoil kicking against my arm when I pulled the trigger…" her eyes took on a haunted look as she mimed firing a gun.
"Our mind is a very complex organ," Jinn informed. "It records information without us ever knowing, quite honestly, it is the greatest object for creating simulations for anything, just by seeing something, your mind can make relatively accurate judgements on the weight, feel and associated reactions."
"I suppose so…" Hanami slumped slightly. "Thanks for talking to me, Jinn-kun. I feel so much better now…"
"Glad to hear it," Jinn replied easily. "If you need someone to talk to, I am always willing to listen."
"I… I will, Jinn-kun," the silver-haired woman smiled as she turned around and headed back to her room.
Hanami had a much better time trying to get in some sleep for the rest of the night.
Mugen Kano, Ryu and Kira's Room
Ryu smiled as he held his slumbering son in his arms, gently rocking the babe as he walked aimlessly around his and Kira's room. 'My own family… strange I would have never seen this for myself five years ago,' he thought to himself. "Shiro, I don't know what the future holds for you, but… I will do everything within my power to ensure you have a world safe enough to do whatever you wish to do…"
There was a knock on the door. "Ryu, are you in there?" Kira asked through the door.
"I'm here," Ryu called out softly. "Shiro's asleep."
The door opened quietly, allowing Kira to walk in, followed closely by Athrun. "Thought I'd introduce you two. Ryu, this is Athrun Zala, my closest friend back at Copernicus. Athrun, this is Ryu Hisanaga, my first partner in the mercenary business, and my husband."
Ryu smirked at Athrun as he studied his wife's friend, who was doing the same with him. "It's nice to meet you," he informed, extending his hand. "Hopefully the boys and girls weren't too rough with you."
"Well, they weren't gentle in hauling me to the brig, but they didn't really go out of their way to make things rougher," Athrun remarked. "It almost felt like they were just wanting to get me secured ASAP, and things like my comfort during transit got lost in the shuffle."
"Well, the majority of our Marine force were former O.M.N.I Commandos, they were trained for quick securing of prisoners," Ryu informed. "And given that we were in a combat situation, I think everyone was rather on edge."
"That makes some sense," Athrun replied. "In the middle of a battle, you don't worry about things like that. Anyway, it's good to meet you. I honestly had a minor crush on her when we were younger, but I'm definitely glad she found happiness, even if it wasn't with me."
Ryu chuckled as he shifted Shiro slightly. "Well, she definitely brought me happiness," he informed, a relaxed smile on his face. "And, well… we also have this little bundle of joy, Shiro."
Athrun looked at the sleeping baby in Ryu's arms. "Cute kid," he remarked. "Can definitely see the resemblance with both of you." He then frowned slightly. "By the way, why did you steal the EA's Mobile Suits, anyway? I mean, if it was just to get access to their technology, there are probably easier ways to do it…"
Ryu frowned as he gently handed Shiro over to Kira who started to hum a happy tune as she held him. "Well… it wasn't actually us," he admitted sheepishly. "My brother, sister and their friends actually planned it, it wasn't until they realized they had no place to actually stash the suits that they came to us."
"Yeah, it was a contingency plan of theirs to keep the machines out of EA and ZAFT hands in case the colony was attacked before they could be shipped out," Kira added. "They'd also added programming blocks that meant had the machines simply been shipped out, they wouldn't have been able to start - the EA would have had to gone elsewhere to try and program around the blocks."
"Which considering it was one of Jinn's, they would probably have to go to you on that stuff, eh, Kira?" Ryu asked wryly. "I once saw her hack her way into the OMNI Intelligence database to look up profiles on potential recruits."
Athrun smiled. "Just like in Copernicus," he mused. "Kira was always the quintessential programmer and hacker. I was decent there, but my specialty was working on the hardware. Kira's pet, Birdy, is only one of the things I've been able to make."
"Yeah, I remember our classmates tended to call you the Mechanical Tinkerer from Hell," Kira remarked with a fond smile.
Ryu snorted as he eyed Birdy who was flapping around the room. "You did a good job on Birdy there," he informed. "Best work I've seen on mechanical pets."
"Thanks," Athrun replied. He then seemed to think about things for a moment. "Actually, do you have some kind of machine shop on board? My Fiancee's birthday is coming up, and I was planning on making something for her."
"Fiancee?" Kira asked, surprised. "How'd that come about? I mean, you were shocked at me being married at 16."
"It's an arranged marriage," Athrun admitted. "Our fathers are good friends, and I guess they'd planned the match for a while." He sighed. "Though I'm not wholly convinced it'll work - I care about her, but honestly, it's more of a sibling-type affection than romantic."
"Well, things like that happen when you are the children of the of the two most powerful men in the PLANTs I suppose," Ryu informed with a sigh. "Still, better she be with you than someone three times her age."
"Yeah… though honestly, I just want Lacus to be happy…" Athrun mused. "Doesn't matter if it's with me, or someone else."
"And that's how the majority of marriages end in happiness," Ryu informed, looking over to Kira. "It's making sure the other is happy without compromising your own happiness."
"Makes sense…" Athrun remarked, before pausing for a moment. "Though, I'll have to admit, the last few times I've been out with Lacus in public, I'm not sure, but I think I've occasionally seen her steal glances at other women…"
Ryu paused for a full minute before moving over to Athrun and placed his hands on Athrun's shoulder. "Athrun, all I am going to say, keep an open mind, and if she says anything, do not say no," he informed.
Athrun paused for a moment, but nodded. "Alright," he said. "Anyway, about that machine shop?"
"Right, we do have one just off of the hanger, mostly used to construct small parts for the Mobile suits," Ryu informed. "But it can be used to tinker."
"Thanks," Athrun remarked. "Kira, if you want to continue supervising me, I could probably use a bit of help on the programming - this is probably going to be a bit more intelligent than Birdy, or even any of my previous gifts to Lacus, even though it'll share the same frame as those previous gifts."
Kira smiled. "Of course I can help you out," she informed as she handed Shiro back to Ryu. "Besides, it'll give us a good chance to catch up."
"Yeah - still wrapping my head around the fact that you became a mercenary," Athrun remarked as the two left the room.
Kira shrugged. "I wasn't really all that interested in joining any of the militaries, or even Terminal, with Take-nii a part of it and all," she informed. "Although… ZAFT has made me some nearly obscene offers."
Athrun was beginning to ask about how Kira had first met Ryu when the door closed behind them, leaving Ryu alone with a sleeping Shiro once again.
Ryu sighed and looked down at his son. "Y'know, I think you have the right idea there son," he informed his sleeping son. "Time for a nap."
Aboard the Vesalius, Bridge
"What the hell, Commander!" Yzak Joule shouted angrily as he stormed onto the bridge of the Vesalius. "Commander, why the hell aren't we going after those mercenaries!? They have Athrun!"
"Calm down, Yzak!" Dearka shouted from behind him. "Are you forgetting that the ship is damaged and we don't have our units?"
"We can't leave Athrun in the hands of those mercenary scum!" Yzak protested back. "Who knows what they could be doing to him?"
"I understand, Yzak," Rau replied calmly. "Unfortunately, as Dearka said, both the Vesalius and Gamow are heavily damaged - just barely intact enough to return to the PLANTs. And we don't have very many Mobile Suits left after both those mercenaries and Terminal went through most of ours - if you were to try a rescue now, you would have to try infiltrating the ship, with no Mobile Suit support or support from the ships."
"Plus, there is no reason for them to actually harm Athrun," Dearka inputted. "I mean, it's not like he has valuable information to give out, and no one would dare hold the son of Patrick Zala hostage."
Before Yzak could reply, a soldier walked up to them. "Commander, we just got a message from the Council," he reported, and the group went up to the communications booth to see the PLANT Supreme Council Chambers in the viewer.
"Commander Creuset, I hear you have experienced some troubles in your recent mission," Siegel Clyne informed. "Mind explaining what happened?"
"Unfortunately, apparently someone else had thought about stealing the Earth Forces' new Mobile Weapons, as well," Rau reported. "They got all the machines before our infiltration team could reach them, and when the team followed, they got into a firefight outside the Mercenary ship the other group was using. Athrun's vernier pack was clipped by enemy fire, and it went out of control, sending him into their ship as it escaped."
"I see, did you managed to get an ID on the ship, or who the Mercenaries were?" Patrick Zala asked, his concern obvious.
"They deployed new Mobile Suits of their own, but we believe the ship belonged to the Fenrir group," Rau replied. "Furthermore, as they escaped a new Terminal Warship appeared, apparently having answered a distress call from Heliopolis, and deployed new Mobile Suits of their own, driving us away from the colony while damaging or destroying the last of our machines."
"Fenrir… if I remember correctly, it is lead by… Kira Yamato, wait, make that Hisanaga, and her husband, Ryu Hisanaga," Siegel informed, looking over the reports, but a look of surprise flickered over Patrick's face, making Siegel pause. "What is it Patrick?"
"Kira… Yamato… she's a friend of Athrun's from his time on Lunar Academy…" Patrick informed. "We've hired her for several missions before Fenrir came together… we may not have to worry about Athrun being harmed, but… we should still secure those G-Weapons."
"How?" Dearka remarked crassly. "Between Fenrir, that Terminal ship, and all of their new Mobile Suits, both our ships are barely in any condition to come back to the PLANTs, and all our Mobile Suits are trashed. What're we supposed to do, buy the G-Weapons from them?"
"It would be unlikely that they would be willing to sell them at this point," another councillor commented. "At least we can be assured that the EA won't be getting them either… what about trading for the technological data?"
"It could work," Nicol Amalfi mused from the back of the group. "Even if we don't get the prototypes themselves, we could always purchase their technical specs, which we could then use to improve our own machines."
"Very well then, the Gregorovich is en route to your position with your usual units," Patrick informed. "You are to commence the pursuit of Fenrir and negotiate for the release of Athrun Zala and attempt to negotiate for the G-Weapons technical specs."
"Very well," le Creuset replied with a nod. "Given that the Vesalius and Gamow need to return to the PLANTs for repairs, I assume I will transfer my command over to the Gregorovich once it arrives?"
"No, you will not," Siegel informed, a hard frown on his face. "You are to return to the PLANTs for an investigation, we had given explicit orders to not send anyone into ORB territory until we gave permission. For the time being we will be placing Lieutenant Commander Courtney Heironimus in command of the Creuset Team."
Rau hesitated for a minute, inwardly seething at how Fenrir and whoever they were working with had screwed up his plans, before nodding. "Understood," he said.
"I wish you all the best of luck with your negotiations," Patrick said. "And I must ask you, please be respectful in your dealings with Fenrir, in particularly Kira, from my son's stories, she can be very… vindictive to those who cross her."
Yzak nodded, but it was Dearka who replied. "We'll try not to make her mad," the blonde remarked.
Patrick nodded before the link cut off. "Negotiate?" Yzak asked, in barely restrained anger. "Why are we negotiating with them? They're just Mercenaries!"
"Extremely skilled Mercenaries, Yzak," Dearka replied as the Reds then left the Bridge. "Don't forget that. If we try just taking the prototypes and rescuing Athrun militarily, we might turn them away from working with ZAFT in the future. And who knows if we might need their services one day?"
"My father told me that this, Kira Yama… Hisanaga, was the one responsible for capturing that one EA base in Africa," Nicol inputted. "Then there's Ryu Hisanaga himself to consider, an 'Anti-Army' specialist, then there's Victor Amsel, who, let's face it, outstrips us all in experience and skill."
"You see, Yzak?" Dearka asked. "So, make sure to be nice to the extremely lethal Mercenaries who could make our days suck in a really bad way if we piss them off."
Yzak scoffed, but said nothing, a slight scowl on his face. "So… what do we trade them?" he asked. "Our underpants?"
"We'll need to figure that part out," Nicol remarked. "We have some time to do that, though - it'll be a few days until the Gregorovich shows up to take us aboard, and then who knows how long after that it'll take to catch up to them again? At the very least, we should be able to put together a short list of potential materials we can use to trade by the time we get to that point."
"Let's talk to R&D, they may have some new fancy toys that Fenrir may be interested in," Dearka commented. "You know how much Mercs love fancy technology."
Heliopolis, Colony Interior, Warship LCAM-X01A Archangel, Bridge
When the ZAFT team had launched their raid, the infiltration team had also placed explosives around the warship that had been built at the same time, the Archangel. However, the explosives had failed to destroy or even give it more than a scratch, though it had killed a majority of the crew, including the Captain and those who had been intended to pilot the G-Weapons.
After the attack had ended, the few surviving Archangel crew members had managed to activate the ship and escape to the colony interior, and were currently landed in a very large park. They had also picked up a Moebius Zero Mobile Armor, the only EA Mobile Armor to have survived the battle, and piloted by Mu la Flaga, one of the last Aces from the Zero Corps still in the EA. They'd also picked up several EA techs from the Morgenroete Factory, including Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, who was the highest-ranking officer still alive.
And now, she was discussing the situation with Mu and with Ensign Natarle Badgiruel, who was assuming the role of her XO.
Badgiruel was understandably upset with the ZAFT raid and the Mercenary theft of the G-Weapons, Mu on the other hand…
Was laughing his ass off when he heard who was responsible. "Only Ryu could have pulled off a stunt like this!" he roared out between his guffaws. "Dear god! That is Hilarious!"
"Would you get serious, Lieutenant!" Badgiruel snapped. "This is not a laughing matter!"
"Please calm down, Ensign," Murrue remarked, trying to soothe Badgiruel. She wasn't happy about it, either, but didn't think getting mad would solve any problems. "I remember hearing that Fenrir Marines made off with several of the Striker Packs, but the ones who stole the actual machines didn't look like soldiers - if anything, from what I saw before that Flashbang, they looked like college students."
"Any of them have green eyes?" Mu asked, stilling his mirth long enough to speak. "'Cause honestly, it would not surprise me if his siblings chose to do that on their own."
Murrue shook her head. "Unfortunately, I didn't get enough of a glimpse before the Flashbang went off," she admitted. "I could only make out nine figures before I got blinded by the grenade - no details."
Mu chuckled lowly. "Man, you have to appreciate the humor in the situation," he informed. "Here we are, two major world powers, each prepared to take hold of these units developed by a third, only for a group of teenagers to steal them before anyone can even make a move!"
Badgiruel just sighed, while Murrue let out a slight giggle - when he put it that way, it was kind of funny. "Anyway, that aside," Murrue said, "what do we do now? Given we haven't seen any ZAFT forces, I'd have to assume they think that their bombs managed to destroy the ship, which gives us an element of surprise and stealth."
"Our only choice really is to either limp our way to Luna Base, risking running out of supplies," Mu informed, "or head to Artemis and get into contact with command there."
"Artemis seems like our only option," Natarle remarked. "Normally, I'd be worried about security, given that it was built by Eurasia, but I've heard a rumor it was recently acquired by Terminal. If we were to head there and ask for resupply, requesting client confidentiality to maintain secrecy, we could also hire a team of Combat Agents to give us a Mobile Suit Escort when we finally make a run to Headquarters.
Murrue nodded in agreement as Mu grinned. "Who knows," he commented. "We may even run into Fenrir when we're there, but… I doubt we'd be able to get away with trying to steal back the units when under Terminal's roof."
"Agreed, but that might not be the only way to get them back," Murrue remarked. "They are Mercenaries, after all - we could buy one or two back from them, or at least any performance data they may have managed to maintain."
"Performance data would be your best bet with that," Mu informed. "Although… I haven't really spoken with Ryu very much after his parents deaths, not completely sure on his feeling on the EA with the rogue elements from OMNI Intelligence."
"We'll find out soon enough," Murrue remarked. "We'll wait a couple of hours for any ZAFT stragglers to clear the area, then leave as quietly as possible and head for Artemis."
"Aye Aye, Captain," Mu informed as he reclined in his chair. "Should make life interesting now…"
Terminal Warship Gungnir, Lounge
Given that they had stood down from combat after driving ZAFT away from Heliopolis, the Gungnir was now headed for Artemis, for Deployment orders. Meanwhile, the pilots for Terminal's new Prototypes were on shift rotation in case of trouble. Takeshi was currently off-shift, and enjoying lunch in the Lounge with Linda, who was also off-shift.
"Definitely not the standard way to break in a new ship and new machines," Takeshi remarked, "but it certainly worked."
Linda giggled slightly as she grinned. "Definitely an interesting first official mission," she agreed. "But… I guess we weren't really needed, were we?"
"Aside from cleanup, not really," Takeshi admitted. "Fenrir seemed to have things well in hand."
"Those units that Ryu built, they were pretty impressive," Linda informed. "There was that one unit, the Thor I think it was, it was a very impressive unit, I mean it was equipped with only melee weapons, but they compensated that by managing to make a quick hyper burst of the thrusters."
"Yeah," Takeshi remarked. "The Tempest is a similar concept, but rather than bursts of speed it's just high-speed all around." He then paused. "By the way, where'd they head off to after the battle? Are they headed for Artemis, Ame-no-Mihashira to drop off the Princess, or somewhere else?"
"Well, apparently they're going to make a direct route to ORB," Linda informed. "Drop the Princess off there."
"Ballsy," Takeshi remarked. "A direct route from Heliopolis to ORB goes through the Debris Belt - right past Junius Seven, if I recall correctly. That's part of the reason standard travel between the ORB Mainland and Heliopolis is a week each way - most traffic navigates around the Debris Belt."
"Well, it should be doable with the pilot they have," Linda informed. "After all, didn't Joker fly a loop around the ring in a Marseille-III, without a scratch?"
"I think he did," Takeshi replied. "So, they should be good. Only question is what happens next in this war. I doubt the EA will be happy losing their precious G-Weapons to a Mercenary Unit, and I'd imagine that ZAFT is feeling a bit of a sting to their pride at failing to snag them.
"Hope they'll be alright," Linda asked in concern. "With Terminal, we're large enough that most people think twice about attacking us, but a newly formed one like Fenrir…"
"They may be small, but they make up for it with skill," Takeshi replied. "Trust me, Linda, they'll be fine."
"If you say so…" she agreed. "So, any ideas on our next mission?"
"No idea," he remarked. "I guess we'll find out when we get back to Artemis."
Linda nodded in agreement. "Well let's get back to work, shall we?" she asked. "You know how the Captain can be when we slack off…"
"True," Takeshi remarked. "About time for us to get back on shift, anyway." The two stood up. "Once we get off-shift again, you up for spending some time in our room?" he asked.
"Of course I am," Linda informed. "When am I not?"
Takeshi smiled. "I'll see you there, then, and we can have some fun…" he grinned a little bit as he said 'fun', and left the Lounge, heading for the Hangar, Linda not far behind as she moved towards the bridge with a giggle.
Mugen Kano, Mechanical Room
"Here's where you made your mistake for their programming, Athrun," Kira informed as she pointed out a series of command line. "You needed to make the memory unit more adaptable and integrate some of the learning computer's processes, allowing for more complicated tasks."
"That makes sense," he remarked. "That should allow them to help her out more… though the first one I made for her almost seems a slight bit smarter than the others - she keeps it with her at all times, and if someone locks her and it in a room, something that tends to happen if she's being escorted places in warships, to keep her from wandering where she isn't supposed to go, she still manages to leave said room."
"Interesting, perhaps with the new design we can also have it recognize threats to her safety and equip it with a taser and tear gas," Kira suggested. "The Commandos brought some of their compact ones with them when they joined up, should be doable to put them into the unit."
"Yeah…" Athrun mused. "Though… Kira, I think I just had a rather crazy idea."
"Hm? What's that Athrun?" Kira asked as she looked over to her friend.
"What if… we could upgrade these things to not just unlock doors or provide security functions?" Athrun asked. "Make them smart enough, and apply the proper hardware, we could modify these things to do just about anything! Mobile Suit Repair, Ship Maintenance, heck, we could even make adaptor modules to let them actually plug into a Mobile Suit and serve as a Copilot!"
"Actually…" Kira replied musingly. "That is possible, and it could be helpful for the ship staff when undergoing repair and maintenance."
Athrun nodded. "OK, let's finish getting this one ready for when I see Lacus next, and then we can see about making more for your people."
Kira waved her hand. "All we'll need is the blueprints of the version we're designing now, we can make adjustments for our own productions," she informed. "So no worries about time crunching."
Athrun nodded again. "Gotcha. At the very least, we can start making changes to the blueprints once we finish this thing."
Kira nodded, her hands flying over the keyboard, sending a grin over Athrun's way. "Been a while since I've had an engineer able to keep up with my programming," she informed teasingly. "Ryu's good and all, but he's geared more towards Mobile Suits and Weapons than stuff like this."
"Brings back memories of Copernicus, doesn't it?" Athrun replied with an identical grin. "I tackled the Hardware, you did the Software."
"And the University shuddered with fear," Kira agreed as they worked. "Alright, we will need a docking station for it to operate out of for the larger tasks, perhaps also a universal adaptor?"
Mugen Kano, Kitchen/Dining Area
Most of the college students, with the exception of Hanami, were heading to the dining area to get a bite to eat. They hadn't really seen Hanami when they were getting up earlier that morning, so they were wondering where she was, though based on what they'd been talking about the previous day, odds were she was there ahead of them.
When they arrived there though, they were quite surprised to see the usual cooks sitting at the tables grumbling about something, still wearing their aprons and looking at the closed kitchen door.
"Did… something happen here?" Jade asked as she and the others walked into the kitchens. "Did Maes finally get sick of your cooking and hire a real chef?"
"No, that silver-haired girl you guys brought onboard came into the kitchens earlier and chased us out!" one of the Marines grumbled. "Said we were using too much seasoning, 'disrespecting' the ingredients and stuff like that!"
"I heard that!" came a loud yell from the kitchen, rather uncharacteristically of the Hanami they knew. "Cooking is a form of art! If you don't respect the ingredients that go into your food, you're never going to make a good meal!"
"You see?" the Marine grunted.
"Yeah…" Shinn replied. "I guess she takes cooking rather seriously…"
"Just wait a moment, I'm almost done!" Hanami called out, at the same time a delicious aroma wafted out from the kitchen.
Jinn rose an eyebrow in response. "I see…" he informed as he sat down. "This should be interesting."
"Yeah…" Flay remarked. "I think I'm looking forward to trying her cooking."
"What's going on here?" Ryu asked as he walked in carrying Shiro. "Michaels, why are you guys not cooking?"
"That silver-haired kid Jinn brought here? She chased us out of the kitchen a while back and commandeered it," Michaels jerked a thumb at the closed kitchen door. "Though… I'm starting to think it might've been for the better."
"Obvious by the way you're drooling," one of the other Marines supplied.
"Shut up," Michaels grumbled, hurriedly wiping it off.
Ryu raised an eyebrow. "Well, hopefully it's portable, Kira tends to not eat when occupied by a project…" he informed, taking a seat. "So, how are you kids settling in, any issues or problems?"
"No problems - we've been doing well so far," Flay remarked. "The only… issue is actually a bit of strangeness regarding Hanami."
"What's wrong?" Ryu asked, settling the awaking Shiro in his arms. "How strange are we talking?"
"Split Personality Strange, according to what Jinn told us - he's had the most contact with Hanami and her… other self."
"It's… not completely unheard of happening when someone experiences the trauma of combat," he informed, holding his finger for Shiro to play with. "The mental stress of killing a person can be too much for a person to take, so in response they will develop a separate Personality they are not aware of to deal with the stress of combat."
"Ah, so this… 'Kagami' that's taken residence in Hanami's mind is the equivalent of a coping mechanism?" Sai asked.
Ryu nodded. "Essentially, yes," he informed. "Sometimes it stays for life, other times both of the personalities fuse together, it all depends if the original personality can come to terms with the trauma they experienced or not."
"Hmm…" Sai mused. "Well, we'll need to wait and see, I guess."
At that moment, the door to the kitchen slid open, releasing a large variety of delectable smells that invaded the noses of everyone present. Hanami appeared in the doorway pushing a trolley filled to the brim with food that was practically sparkling.
"Umm… I wasn't too sure what every… everyone on this ship would want to eat, but I figured that… since… since everyone needs to build up strength in this… this line of work, I'd cook more protein…" she squirmed slightly under everyone's gaze. "Eh… here I have creamy potato soup, smoked chicken, meatballs in bolognaise, some veggies stir-fried in red wine…"
"Michaels, you're drooling all over the floor again," one of the Marines pointed out.
"... stir-fried tomatoes with eggs…"
"I think I'm in love," Michaels muttered, not bothering to wipe off his drool this time.
"Can you give me the stir-fry to go?" Ryu asked. "Kira and our guest needs to eat, and unfortunately, trying to get Kira away from a project is near impossible, probably worse with her friend as well."
"I can give you a bit… a bit of everything to go, actually… give me a moment!" Hanami disappeared into the kitchen, coming back out with several containers and cutlery. Within moments she had the containers filled with food, wrapped up in cloth and presented to Ryu.
"Thanks, Hanami," he said gratefully as he stood, accepting the parcel from the girl. "I appreciate it."
"Don't… don't mention it!" she hurriedly bowed.
Ryu waved with the package as he left the cafeteria. "This is really good," Jinn informed as he scooped another forkful of eggs into his mouth. "You're a really good cook."
Hanami's face turned a very bright shade of red at Jinn's compliment as she began fidgeting nervously. "Tha… tha… thank you!" she bowed a little too hard, losing her balance and stumbling forward.
Jinn looked up at the precise moment of her stumble as she fell, the other looking on in an amused awe as the pair's lips smashed together as Hanami crashed against Jinn, her forward inertia pulling him with her to the ground.
"Oh my," Jade said in a false scandalous voice as she watched the drama unfold. "Breakfast and a show, how lucky am I?"
Hanami was silent for quite a while even as she laid sprawled out on Jinn's chest. It was several seconds before she finally reacted by practically jumping to her feet, her cheeks flushed from the impromptu kiss. "What the heck am I doing out here?" she yelped, looking around through the red eyes that indicated Kagami was in control.
"Kagami's out?" Flay asked. "That's strange. How did that happen?"
"Don't tell me…" Sai groaned as he palmed his face. "Was Hanami's embarrassment at being kissed so much that Kagami took control due to the stress?"
"Oh sheesh," Kagami smacked her face in exasperation. "I did say I'd only come out if she couldn't handle something… but of all things I never expected it to be a kiss…"
"That… was interesting," Jinn muttered as he finally recovered himself. "Very unexpected…"
"The worst part is that she won't even remember the kiss when she wakes up later…" Kagami groaned. "What am I going to do with you, Hanami?"
"Well, I guess we'll have to help her overcome the trauma that created you somehow," Tolle informed. "That may help her at least control the transitions…"
"Probably," Kagami nodded. "Although I'm not even sure if I'll still be around after that happens. I might just end up merging with her."
"Well, we'll see what happens," Flay remarked. "No matter what, though, it'll probably be a good idea to get to know you, as well - I'd imagine you'll emerge whenever a battle scenario pops up, and given that you'll probably be piloting a Mobile Suit in that fashion, it'll be a good idea to get to know you, make it a bit easier to anticipate what you can do in battle."
"True…" Kagami shrugged. "You probably already know this, but I'm a lot calmer than Hanami. I still have most of her talents too, just manifested in a different way. Her creativity on canvas and in the kitchen, for instance, I can use to create traps on the fly in the battlefield. That's actually why Hanami chose the Exodus in the first place - it can carry around anything she needs, what I need to make the traps."
Flay nodded. "Makes sense," she remarked. "If we need to lure the enemy into a trap, we can have you set that trap up for us."
The silver-haired girl nodded. "That and I have a tendency to use weapons in… unorthodox ways. Let's just say I can think up a hundred different ways to use a beam saber to take out an enemy mobile suit without holding it."
"Inventive," Jinn commented. "Definitely will come in handy."
"Then there's also… Hanami's high spatial awareness," Kagami mused. "Did you know that she was practically working on ALL the dishes she cooked just now at the same time? She gets so zoned out in the kitchen that she doesn't really realize it, but she was actually tossing prepared ingredients halfway across the kitchen into the pots and pans with perfect accuracy without thinking or looking."
"Perhaps we should run you two through Ryu-nii's Zero Simulator," Jade suggested. "He did the same for us when testing for Spatial Awareness, I got fairly average scores, although Jinn completely bombed it."
"The rest of us should probably give it a try, too," Shinn remarked. "It'd be a good idea to figure out who has Spatial Awareness and who doesn't."
"Well, Hanami is going to be out for quite a while anyway, so why not?" Kagami agreed.
"Let us finish breakfast first!" Tolle informed desperately. "It'd be a crime to let all this go to waste!"
"Nice to see you guys are enjoying the meal," Kagami snuck in a clearly faked innocent grin while staring at Jinn. "She wanted to make herself useful, so she put everything into making it for you guys. Especially when she thought of a certain someone eating it."
"What?" Jinn asked between mouthfuls as everyone stared at him.
Jade sighed in response. "My brother, the social retard," she groaned out.
"Social retard? This is going to make things a little harder…" Kagami didn't seem to mind as she got up from her chair, walked behind Jinn and promptly leaned into him, making sure to cushion his head with her bountiful chest as she put her arms around Jinn's neck. "Right? Jinn-kun~"
Jinn blushed as he felt the pillowy softness of her breasts surrounding his head. "Uhh…" he replied intelligently.
Flay smiled. "So that's why Hanami is even shyer around Jinn than she normally is…" she muttered.
"Yep, and I'd be a douche if I didn't help her along with it," Kagami winked saucily while pressing her chest harder against Jinn's head. "Helps that I can do it with her~ own~ body~"
"Urk," Jinn replied as more of his head was buried within the valley of her breasts.
"Might want to ease up there, Kagami," Shinn remarked. "You might break him mentally if you get him any further into your chest."
"Tch, killjoy," Kagami mock-pouted as she released Jinn.
Who immediately faceplanted into the table in a dead faint with steam pouring out of his ears.
"Huh, whoever thought I'd see the day where Jinn of all people have a boobage overload…" Jade commented in amusement. "This is so funny it almost loops right around to being sad, almost."
"Well, looks like we have a bit of matchmaking to do while we make our way to Earth," Flay remarked with a smile.
Jade giggled in response. "Oh~ This will be so much fun!" she squee'd in response.
"Incidentally when will we be able to go shopping next? Hanami does have some… ideas in mind," Kagami asked.
"When we land in the homeland I suppose," Jade informed. "When we drop off the princess."
"Hopefully we'll be able to have you with us when we do that, Kagami," Miriallia remarked. "I doubt Hanami would be able to handle the kind of shopping we're thinking of all that well."
"Easy. Just arrange an… 'accident' between Hanami and Jinn about halfway in. Oh, the things I'll sneak into her shopping bags…" Kagami giggled. "Hanami won't know what hit her - she'll think she actually bought all that."
On the table Jinn twitched in response, somehow despite his unconsciousness, he knew what was in store for him.
The next Day, Artemis Airspace, Archangel Bridge
"This is the LCAM-01XA Archangel to Eurasian Base Artemis, requesting permission to land, I repeat, this is the LCAM-01XA Archangel to Eurasian Base Artemis, requesting permission to land," the ship's pilot, Arnold Neumann, called out over the radio. "Artemis base, please respond."
"Artemis Control here, Archangel," came the reply. "You have permission to land, though honestly, you're a bit behind the times - Terminal purchased Artemis from the Eurasians about a week ago."
Silence reigned through the bridge as they all shared shocked looks with one another. "We were not aware of that, Artemis base," Neumann informed slowly. "Thank you for allowing us to land anyways…"
"You're welcome, Archangel," the Comm Officer for the base replied. "The Base Commander will want to meet with you once you land."
"Understood, Archangel out," the pilot informed before cutting the link. "Well, this changes things…"
"No kidding," Mu remarked. "On the one hand, at least we don't have to worry about any friction - no tensions between Terminal and the AF quite like the ones between the AF and Eurasia. Not to mention it might be easier to hire a Mobile Suit Escort. On the other, stocking up on supplies might be a bit more expensive than we were thinking…"
"Do we have anything to trade with them?" Murrue asked.
"I'll need to check the cargo holds," Natarle remarked. "The crew grabbed everything in Morgenroete that hadn't been tied down in case we needed any of it, so hopefully we have something of value…"
"Worse comes to worse, we can trade with the technical specs of the G-Weapons," Mu suggested. "It's not like Fenrir has any reason not to trade the specs for them with anyone…"
"And I think we might have a couple of spare Striker Packs we can trade, too," Murrue remarked. "We should probably keep at least one of each on hand, just in case we find anything we can adapt to use them, but any more than that would probably be rather valuable…"
"Actually, if possible, let's see if we can get a Patriot out of the deal," Mu suggested. "They have universal hardpoints that we may be able to use to mount the Striker packs…"
"That could definitely work," Murrue agreed. "Even if they won't work directly, we could always adapt them to work."
"Hopefully they're willing to bargain," Mu announced with a sigh. "Worse comes to worse, we can use my Zero as a bargaining chip."
Murrue let out a sigh of her own. "Agreed," she replied, as they approached the port. "Hopefully we can get supplies, escort, and maybe a Patriot or two without spending too much…"
Nazca-class ship, Mediterranean
"Sir, we have spotted the Fenrir ship, Mugen Kano!" the ship's RADAR officer reported. "We are about 700 klicks from being able to establish contact!"
"Understood," the captain replied before opening the ship comm. "This is Captain Silver to the Creuset team, we have spotted the Mugen Kano and are on approach to make contact."
"Right," Dearka replied over the comms, Yzak was temporarily in charge until Lieutenant Commander Heironimus arrived, but he was a bit too hot-headed to reliably make comm calls, meaning that task fell to Dearka, who was considerably more laid back. "Our relief ship will show up shortly, so we'll catch up as soon as we can."
"They will also have whatever tech we can spare for trade…" the captain informed. "I've forwarded a list of what they are bringing with them to your computer, make sure you study it."
"Gotcha," Dearka replied. "Man, I hope we can get this done soon - not only are they heading straight for the Debris Belt, but we're coming up on the one-year anniversary of Junius Seven, and I think a lot of us were looking forward to getting back to the PLANTs for that."
"Agreed," the captain stated, nodding to himself as he thought of his own daughter at home. "Helmsmen, pick up speed to maximum, hopefully we can catch up."
END CHAPTER
Custom Ship Specs
Gungnir-class
Ship Type: Limited Production Assault Carrier
Manufacture: Terminal
Operator(s): Terminal
Known Ships:
Gungnir (Prototype)
Others are pending completion of trial run
Special Armor and Equipment:
Laminated Plated Titanium Armor
Sensors, Range unknown
Lightwave Pulse Thrusters
5x Catapult Decks
Armaments:
4x 'Gottfried Mk. 71' 225cm High Energy Beam Cannons
6x 'Seraph' Railguns
2x 'Sigurd' Mega Rail Cannons
Manyx 'Igelstellung II' 65mm Anti-Air Chain Guns
2x Heavy Missile Launchers
8x Medium Missile Launchers
2x Micromissile Arrays
Carries:
TXG-X100 'Ascalon'
TXG-X101 'Ymir'
TXG-X103 'Tempest'
TXG-X104 'Hunter'
TXG-X105 'Paladin'
25x TMS-081 Patriot (Assorted Custom Units)
Known Captains:
Erik 'Odin' Corval
Known Crew:
Linda Yamato (CIC)
Yuna Falcon (Commander of Pilots)
Takeshi Yamato (Pilot)
Yvon Terran (Pilot)
Renis Tennyson (Pilot)
Urvan Incon (Pilot)
Sections:
Appearance:
arkhonus . deviantart . com art/Gungnir-class-Assault-Carrier-Cruise-Mode-447215539
arkhonus . deviantart . com art/Gungnir-class-Assault-Carrier-Assault-Mode-447215808
Valiant-Class, Mobile Suit Transport
Known Ships: Tyr, Avalon, Utopia
Special Armor and Equipment: Laminated Pot Metal Armor
Armaments: 2 x Beam Cannons
4 x Missile Pods
Many x Anti-Missile Vulcans
Carries: Up to 15x Mobile suits
Sections:
Cafeteria
Bridge
Hangar
Crew Quarters, with communal Men and Woman Baths
Rec Room
Mobile Suit Pilot Ready Room
War Room
Infirmary
Appearance:
arkhonus . deviantart . com art/Valiant-class-Mobile-Suit-Transport-446102817