Gundam Seed: Iron Brotherhood

by The Watchman

Gundam Seed in the POV of soldiers. Each having seen and lived war. Each one with a story, some with painful memories, others with dark secrets. All struggling in a world gone mad by war. A GSeed AU with slight Wing and UC crossover, Read for pairings

10. Phase8: Tears of Eurasia part three

A/N: Time to the end of the Eurasian escapade. This one's going to be long, so be warned.

Phase 08: Tears of Eurasia part three

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Sally Po stared at the Epps' laptop screen, what she was seeing something she thought she'd never see again.

What she saw was a camera feed from somewhere in the base, probably in the lower levels below them.

It was of a room full of cylindrical glass chambers lined in several rows, each contains a green liquid which seemed to glow in dim light.

"Ma'am," Epps began with bewilderment. "What are those things?"

"Gamma Gliphalium Regeneration chambers," Sally whispered. "That's as much as I can tell you. If I'd told you anymore, I'd have to kill you. …Seriously."

He blows out sigh, "I'll take your word for it ma'am. And somehow I wouldn't want to know."

"Epps… how did you…"

"I…" he sighs, "…just came across it."

Gamma Gliphalium chambers were used extensively in back when she was part of the Oceanic Union Army, in a joint black project with the other pacific nations, EU and Orb and the Kingdom of Scandinavia, a project codenamed "Leonidas". The chambers themselves didn't surprise her, there had always been rumors of the project's accomplishments were leaked to the Eurasians, she knew they didn't enjoyed similar success. No, what shocked her was what's inside them.

Children, most were probably no older than 14 at the most. There were a few that were older, probably 18 or so. But even they didn't seem to be healthy enough for the chambers. Her eyes widened even more when she realized another thing.

The number of missing children in Eurasia had more for last couple of years. This was officially blamed at the rise of the slave trade, however she had a feeling of otherwise. This was probably just one of several or more bases that conducted this, the estimated missing could not possibly be all hidden here. The number reached to at least the hundreds.

The more Sally thought about it the more her stomach turned. She had seen more than her fair share of atrocities before but this, this was beyond comprehension even for her.

Sally placed her hands against the control panel to support herself, she looked down, breathing fast.

"How could they…?" She whispered to herself. After a moment, her shock had turned to anger. She slammed both her hands in anger, then looks at the hacker next to her.

Eurasian bastards!

"Epps, can you download all the data the in the mainframe's system?"

Epps nods, a bit wary of his angry superior, "It's going to take time."

"I don't care how long it takes," she growled. "Just do it."

"Entry team do you read me? Entry team!"

Master Pierce Rayer yelled as he contacted Sally's unit, "What the hell's keeping you up? We don't have much time left!"

"This is Entry," Sally responded. "Sorry Faust, but there's a slight change in plan. Please hold the fort little longer, over."

"What the hell are talking about?-!" Pierce yelled, "Didn't you just confirmed you have the data?-!"

"I know what I said Faust," Sally answered coolly. "But you'll have to hold on a little more, Entry team out."

"Entry team! Damnit!" Pierce switches the radio frequency, "Bullfrog, get yourselves evac now. Something's holding up Entry team. Rendezvous with the chariots."

"What the bloody hell?" Simon scowled but responds. "Affirmative Faust, we'll evac now."

He turns to the BuCUE Jackal carrying the radome, "Asimov, get the hell out of dodge, you don't have much to fight airborne weapons."

"Copy."

As the BuCUE left, Rayer switches the frequency once more, "Eagle, Faust here. Change of plans, get out of here now."

"What the hell are talking about?" Noin responded. "You'll be sitting ducks to those DINNs."

"And you guys are probably almost out of ammo by now," Pierce said. "Get out of here, we can evac ourselves."

"Listen to him Eagle," Zechs Merquise joined in. "Just follow what he said, that's an order."

"But…"

"No buts," Pierce snapped. "Now out of here!"

Noin glared at the radio,

"I'm not a damn rookie," she muttered. "I got more experience than either one of you."

She checks her armament screen and winces.

They were right on one thing though, she was almost out of ammo. All she had left was one sidewinder and more or less a hundred rounds in all of her machineguns and CIWS. And she was now on the borderline combat limit of the battery.

She let's out a sigh of frustration, "Fine, I'm pulling out. You guys better not get yourselves killed."

The BuCUE Jackal pilots watch as their only air cover left them.

"She really cares for you two," Jacques Leon commented.

Pierce nods absently and answered simply, "We know."

Zechs watches as the Aries unit disappeared from view, "We're more than aware of it."

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Meanwhile up in Artemis

"Huh?" Nicol notices an incoming mobile weapon, two Moebius Zeros. He fires his Trikeros' 50mm. beam rifle at one of them.

With unusual dexterity, the mobile armor he targeted dodges them easily. He responds by letting loose his gunbarrels.

Nicol dodges most of the fire but gets hit in the leg once. To his the surprise, the shot had badly warped the armor.

"What the–!" Nicol suddenly becomes more wary. "That wasn't a normal gunbarrel…"

The mobile armor pilot, a blonde haired, brown eyed teenager named Nadir Crandall smirked.

"That's right chump, this ain't y'daddy's Zero. Now buy it!"

He concentrates the fire of his gunbarrels and linear gun at the Blitz.

The other Zero attacks with its lineargun, the pilot, brown haired and green eyed Sarah Macgregor frowned.

"You maneuvers lack restraint, you're being too reckless."

"Shut it!" Nadir snapped, "I'll do what I want!"

Nicol grits his teeth as takes another hit, "Damnit…!"

"Kira," Miriallia called as Kira got himself ready.

"Mir!" he responded out, as she nodded.

"We're safe for now, and we're giving you the Sword Striker, it's only the Blitz," She told him.

"Alright." Kira replied, as he activates the phase shift of the Strike, after the three parts were connected to his machine.

The Strike moves out of the Archangels hangar, and stared down the Blitz Gundam that was right in front of him.

He was already kept busy by the Eurasian mobile armor.

Nicol groaned when he saw the Strike, "You couldn't have showed up a worse time…"

Both machines fired their anchors at each other, the Panzer Eisen and the Gleipnir met each other squarely.

"Damn, even in a place like this they attack us!" Kira called out.

With that, the Strike pulled out the Schwert Gewehr anti-ship sword.

Two mobile suits fought above the Archangel.

"Nadir, Sarah" Gurlukovich radioed to the young pilot. "Consider the Archangel and its mobile suits as hostile."

"Yes ma'am," Sarah responds.

"Yeah, yeah, more for me." Nadir began to fire on both machines with its gunbarrels.

"What the hell?-!" Kira yelled as he dexterously dodges, "Do they seriously want the Strike that badly?"

Nicol was just as confused, "What's going here? They're firing on their own units?"

Just keep cool Nicol, backup will here soon, your team and the Hawke team are heading their way.

Or so he thought.

Outside Artemis

"Missile tubes and torpedo launchers have been loaded sir!" The fire control officer of the Basilisk reported to its captain.

Steven Halberton nods as the ship maneuvers toward its target, "Missile launchers 1 and 4, torpedoes 1, 2, 5 and 6, fire!"

The Gamow gets a full broadside to its port.

"Sorry boys," Antonio said as the Chimera docks both beamrifles together and aims at the Lee, "But you just can't have the Archangel." He fires, the beam strikes the Nazca-class on one of its thrusters.

"What! You've got to be kidding me!"

Yzak scowls as he gets news from their ship, "The Gamow and Lee are under attack?"

"Were there Earth forces patrolling that we didn't detect?" Dearka looked around.

"They sure have good timing," Rusty commented. "They waited for us to leave, so now the ships are defenseless."

Capt. Zelman of the Gamow sends them a visual feed of what was happening.

Yzak eyes narrowed when he saw the Chimera and Siginarugan, "UN forces."

"So," Dearka began, "Looks like they haven't left the legged ship just yet."

"This ends right here and right now!" Yzak snarled, he turns back for their ships.

"Yzak!" Rusty scowled, "We can't just leave Nicol alone in there!"

"Save your breath Mackenzie," Dearka sighs. "You and the Hawke team go ahead with plan, I'll go follow Yzak and make sure he'll be in one piece and we have ships to come back to. Besides you can handle it now, since you modified one of the Duel's spare beamrifle and saber for your suit."

Rusty nods, "Watch it you guys. Commander Rau said the pilot of one of those things is Antonio Le Saint Claire, they aren't typical natural pilots."

Dearka snorts, "Yeah well, it doesn't matter if they're elite or whatever. We're coordinators and they're not, they're only doing so well because they got superior machines. Well we're gonna fix that."

With that, the Buster boosts off after the Duel.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Rusty sighed. "I don't think our own ZAFT veterans call him 'Tode Jaeger' for nothing."

By this time, Miyuki, Frank and Jethro were on their way into the inner spaces of Artemis, near the enormous hangar.

Along the way, they paused, suddenly hearing shouting coming from down the hall and a loud commotion.

"Hey," Frank commented. "Doesn't that sound like our mates?"

"It is," Miyuki replied as she pulls her assault rifle's trigger group to semi-auto. "C'mon."

Without pausing, they ran towards a down the hall, taking out two unfortunate guards who happened to passed them at an intersection of two corridors as they ran to the direction of the disturbance.

As they ran around the corner, they come across the exact people they were looking for.

"You know, skipper," Jethro quipped, "you don't have to shout, we heard you just fine."

Ramius, La Flaga, and Badgiruel, who had been locked in a room since their own initial meeting with Garcia, looked at them with surprise. Noting the weapons, they had with them.

"Looks like you guys went into Artemis a little more prepared," La Flaga commented. "What took you guys so long?"

"This place isn't exactly small," Miyuki replied. "And as you can tell, Artemis is under attack. From what I'm guessing, they probably did it with the Blitz."

"Then we'd better get back to the Archangel," Ramius said decisively.

Jethro raises his hand, "I second that proposal."

Frank nods, "Got no argument here."

"Sounds good to me," Miyuki added.

"I'm afraid I can't just let you do that," a voice familiar to Miyuki said behind her.

Miyuki quickly turned around, there leaning against the wall of the hallway they pass. Ivana Gurlukovich calmly eyed them

"You…"

Ivana smiled "Yes… and I believe we've got... personal business to settle."

Miyuki frowns looking at the woman, "This isn't the time or place Ivana."

Mu also frowns, "Ivana? You mean to tell me that's Ivana Gurlukovich?"

Badgiruel's eyes widen. "The 'Voyevoda'?"

"Yes, I'm Ivana Gurlukovich," the older woman answered calmly. "We meet again Sword."

Murrue cocked her head, "Sword? Who are you…?"

Miyuki winced, damn it. No one in the Archangel except a very few know who she was in ZAFT and the Plants.

Her friend quickly realizes who she was pertaining to, "Yuki? You're…"

Ivana looks at the captain with a raised eyebrow, "You don't know? She's well known in the plants and especially ZAFT; Commander Miyuki Kajiura the 'Ultimate Shield', Identification number: nine-one-eight-zero-zero-four."

Miyuki looked at her with a hard stare, "Ivana, stop it."

"Commander of the then the Ame-no-Murakumo team also known as the Swords of Zodiac, call sign is Capricorn. Last assignment, SCICOM, Special Engineering Unit, credited as the architect of Operation Uroboros and was a major factor during the Battle of Jachin Due and Ides of March incident."

"That's enough," Miyuki said with slightly louder voice, becoming more agitated.

Murrue was taken aback at some of what Ivana said. She looked at her old friend, she was beginning to truly realize how little she knew of her now. Miyuki had definitely come a long way since they last met. But what disturbed her was the fact she was a Sword, someone close to who may have killed Dmitri or she may be…

Murrue shook her head. No,… it can be her… She's not like that. It's not her. It can't be her… It just can't…

"I am only interested in Miyuki, the rest of you may pass."

Mu looks at her incredulously, "You're just gonna let us go?"

The Eurasian nods, "Yes, I have no interest in doing that fool Garcia a favor."

Murrue looks at Miyuki, "Yuki?"

"Just go," Miyuki replied still looking at Ivana. "This usually doesn't take too long, I'll catch up."

Jethro nods, "Let's move people."

Frank, Jethro, Mu, Natarle and Murrue ran passed Gurlukovich and made their way to the hanger that held the Archangel.

Murrue looked behind her back, "Yuki…"

As they ran, Jethro switches his radio head set on, "Package is secure, move out."

Gate control room

"They got the package!" Daniel announced as he switches his gun's safety off, "Time to fly partner!"

"Copy!" Luke's fingers rapped over the control panel keyboard, "That'll take care of any records of us, in the system. The virus will take over the system after the charges go."

Daniel cocks his head at him, "Virus? You weren't carrying anything when we got here?"

Lucian gives him a knowing look, "You're right, I wasn't carrying anything."

"Then how did you…?"

"I made it," He answered simply.

Daniel blinked, "Here…? In just five minutes? Out of scratch?"

"Yup. I'm the guy who cost the Atlantic Federation billions four years ago aren't I? A simple worm virus isn't hard too make."

Daniel shook his head, "Good thing you're on our side."

Ivana Gurlukovich began, tossing her officer's cap and jacket to the side.

"So…" She tears her skirt on the side, she then flicks her wrists to reveal two daggers then assumes a knife combat stance. "Shall we begin?"

Miyuki reaches out under her collar on the back of her neck, she pulls out a weapon. A Japanese tantō or knife, its handle was simple wooden one, this weapon was not elaborate like her katanas because this one was made a less than noble purpose, assassination.

Without a word, she launches herself at the Eurasian.

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Down in the Black Sea

Nathaniel's frowned as his sensor began to detect a unit of Dinns closing in at the Taskforce fleet. He and his suit the XMS-M1 Tallgeese Model 4/4 sat on one of the Javelin's hangar doors. There were only four Tallgeese mobile suits that were ever created, all of which were given to each Spartan Eternal or more officially known Spartan Immortals. They were called Eternal instead so as not to be confused with the "Black Immortals", an elite forces group that had similar prestige as they Spartan's back in the Euro-Pac war.

Each was numbered 1 to 4 over 4, Antonio was one, Michael was two and Une was 3. The model was based on ZAFT's prototype ginn model design and was optimized for use by trained Naturals.

Though it may be an obvious tip off to the Eurasians or Zaft on who was the unknown. The fact that the Tallgeese was the base of the Leos design, early models look very much like it. Which meant the EU and Scandinavia wouldn't be necessarily blamed for the incident unless the Eurasians would actually capture it, which was highly unlikely, given that Wolfthorne was a skill pilot himself and the Tallgeese was more than a match to what the Eurasians and ZAFT had.

"René," Nathaniel called his ship's XO. "What's the status of our men?"

"Fairly good sir," The officer replied. "Apparently the ZAFT have no amphibious mobile suits as of yet sir."

Nathaniel nods, "I see, keep me posted."

"And René," he quickly added. "Call for Black Knight push Alpha."

"Yes sir."

Up in the skies over the Mediterranean,

Several unseen shapes ride through the clouds like birds of prey in the prowl. They had been earlier in the day stationed in a base south of Visby in Gotland, Sweden, Scandinavia. They made very little sound as they got closer to the border north of Ukraine. They were bombers, the shape of these craft was similar to that of the old US B2 bombers except they were a bit bigger, their wings could adjust like that of an F-14 and they flew under the flags of the Equatorial Union and Scandinavia. These were the EUB-SR12 Highwind stealth bombers, the latest aircraft designed by the Equatorial/ Scandinavian weapons firm Integral Dynamics, equipped with the finest and most powerful systems of stealth technology.

These particular models were manned by experienced crews and were equipped with the Atlantic Federation's Mirage Colloid cloaking technology, which they traded in exchange of data regarding the construction of mobilesuit frames.

"Black Knight leader to kids," One of the pilots called to the others. "We have orders to push at point Alpha. Disengage cruise mode and follow my lead."

They bombers wings swept back slightly as they increase speed as they sped to their target.

Simon West's unit has strapped itself in the four EUA- U/S15 Osprey heavy transport carriers that were waiting for them.

The large, bulky aircraft were the regular transport aerial of mobile and conventional weapons since its introduction in 69CE, during the height of the Euro-Pac war. Noin's Aries team was escorting the withdrawing force. The withdrawal went seemingly smoothly until a blip in Noin's sensor caught her eye. She frowned, it was the ZAFT advance force, but they weren't heading to their direction, instead they heading to the Odessa base, heading toward Pierce and Zechs.

"Don't you even think about it Noin," Simon West apparently what she was thinking. "You're too low on energy and ammo to go back in there."

"Yeah, yeah…" she muttered.

Simon could tell from her voice she was frustrated. After a few moments of thought, he sighs. Blessed Mother…

"Noin, tell you what, link up to Carrier Freddy they'll resupply you and your unit."

Lucrencia Noin blinked, "What… You're serious?"

"You bloody damn right I'm serious," Simon snapped. "Now get yourselves prepped up before I change my mind."

Lucrencia smiled, "I owe you one Simon."

"Just bloody come back alive," the older man replied. "Your two bloody boyfriends will kill me if you don't."

Noin cringed slightly at that remark but nods. "Thanks Simon… Team! Link up with Carrier Freddy!"

Kanbei bursts out laughing, "Roger chief. I was hoping for more action today."

"Looks like you're going to get it," Natsumi replied. "I hear you Sifu."

"Lotus," Simon radios to Xuiying. "Eagle's going to intercept buzzards, back her up."

Xuiying chuckled through radio, "I knew she was going to do something like this soon. Roger, I'm on it."

"Thanks," Simon manages to smile. He looks at the picture stuck on the side of the cockpit. It was of his family in Orb, him, his wife and his two year old twin daughters.

He shook his head. Kids… What a sucker I am…

"Entry team!"

Pierce was now yelling at the top his voice, "God damn it! Entry we don't have much time anymore, we have bail now!"

He was more worried than angry, he began wondering if Entry team was actually under heavy fire down there and Sally didn't anything to him because he didn't want to do anything rash. Pierce was known among Spartans as being reckless when it came to helping fellow teammates, sometimes doing insane risks.

"Entry team," Pierce said as calmly as he could. "C'mon answer me. If you're in trouble down and you down answer me in the next thirty seconds, I'm going down there myself."

"Master…" Zechs called.

Pierce ignores him, "I'm serious here. Your thirty seconds starts now."

Sally groans when she heard this.

Sometimes she wondered if the young teen cared too much, but she still manages to smirk. "Well, I guess he just takes the Atlantic Federation Rangers motto by heart."

His grandfather and father were both Rangers, as a kid used to listen to their old war stories though they did stretched the truth a bit. It captivated him to begin a military career.

"Leave no man behind," one of the Scandinavian SF operatives said. "He's a good soldier."

Sally nods, "He is."

"Commander Po, I got it!" Epps called out. "I've finished downloading the files!"

"Best news I've heard all day," Sally commented as she turns her Colt Commando's trigger group to automatic. "Entry to Faust, no need to come down, we're coming up."

"It's about damn time," Pierce retorted. "We have about 9 minutes to first contact. We're getting Dinns and I'm not even equipped for AA combat."

"Copy, sorry for the delay, we're coming up."

"Okay Eagle,"

Lt. Commander Xuiying Hong of the Equatorial Union Navy called, "Let's see how much you've improved since our last mission together."

Noin smiled at her former senior, "You may find I've improved a lot, Prefect."

"You don't have to call me that," the older woman said hearing her old Spartan rank.

The Prefect rank was formally known as "Praefectus Castrorum" the battle commander and second command of a Roman Legion. Despite the name, the military structure of the Spartan Guard was based on that of the Roman Legionary. The name of the group was actually the merging two ancient elites The Spartans, the elite among warriors of their time and Praetorian Guard, which were the elite among the Roman Legion.

"You've earned that rank," Noin replied. "You should be a little more proud of it."

"I am, Primus" Xuiying answered, also using her friend's old rank, which was the "Primus Pilus" or "First Spear" they were in-charge of a Legion's First Cohort. Noin's position in the Water corps was essentially the first lieutenant having seniority over the other lieutenants who were known as the "Pilus Prior."

"It's just a little embarrassing sometimes."

Noin nods, "Understandable."

"I hear you're going to get knighted soon."

Noin grins, "I am. It's really an honor for me. I never really thought I was qualified for the Order of Amn."

Xuiying smiled as her mobilesuit, the XMS-M1 Tallgeese Model 1/4 alongside Noin's Aries. "Congratulations, Primus."

Just then, Xuiying's and Noin's sensors were tripped.

"We have company," Xuiying comment as she readies her suit's 220mm. Mk II "Nightingale" railgun.

"Team," Noin radios to her companions, "Finger skirmish."

"Copy that," Kanbei called.

"Roger Sifu," Natsumi called.

The four suit loosely fly alongside each other, Noin's Aries flew slightly forward whilst the other lagged slightly behind, forming something like the fingers in a hand. This was known as the finger four formation, four because it was usually done by four units. It's an old, tried and true aerial combat formation which supports a squadron from attack from all sides.

Noin notes the enemy's lead unit, Lenneth's cgue. "Whoever that is most be pretty good to sport a paint job like that. Prefect, I'll take him."

"Copy, watch yourself, don't get overconfident."

Lenneth frowns as she sees her adversary for the first time, she didn't like what she sees.

"They're in a finger four formation, these people know what they're doing."

"Commander," Belenus radioed, "Should we attack?"

The former shrugged, "I'd prefer not to if it can be helped but since they're an aggressive stance, we have no choice but to."

Lenneth's cgue suddenly spreads a pair of wings, it was from an Equatorial EE20 Aerial maneuver pack behind its back, and began to fly without the aid of the guul. It then pulls out a long shining spear with a touch of black on the spearhead, the shaft was colored dark blue. It had been forged a couple of years ago in a place in space known as "the Graveyard". She christened it "Dainslef", Old Norse for "God slayer."

Xuiying raised an eyebrow, "That pilot purposely used a guul to conserve energy, since guuls have their own battery source. And in combat uses an AM pack for better maneuvering. Prudent, if I say so myself."

Noin nods, she looked at the cgue as it flew at them. "We have a fight our hands."

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"Okay natural!"

Yzak yells as he charges at the Chimera, "You've been lucky in the last few fights, but your luck ends now!"

The Duel fires its rifle, shooting a burst of green energy which the Chimera dodges effortlessly.

Antonio raises an eyebrow as he watches the Duel approaches.

Though he wasn't communicating with it, he said quietly. "You sure are in a hurry bud."

As the Duel closes in, Yzak sets aside the rifle and pulls out a beam saber.

"Eat this!" He yells as the beam blade descents on the UN suit.

Antonio blocks the attack with the Mandarangan Guan-Dao or Chinese glaive. Instead of burning through, the beam weapon was stopped on its tracks.

"Damnit," Yzak cursed. "Anti-beam coating…"

The Chimera quickly splits the glaive's staff in the middle, it uses the half with the blade to thrust at the Duel.

"Shit!" Yzak just barely blocks the attack with his suit's shield. The Mandarangan's blade pierces through it halfway.

Antonio uses his suit's knee to hit the abdominal part of the suit where the cockpit was.

Yzak yells at the sudden impact, he lets go of his shield and pulls out of the tangle.

"You forgot something," Antonio quipped as he pulls out the Mandarangan out of the Duel's shield.

He glares at the Chimera which bore a similar color scheme to the Duel, "Why you…"

That's when he notices that the UN mobilesuit had new equipment on it, similar to what the Strike used, except it was armed with several weapons on its shoulders.

That doesn't matter, Yzak thought. It's going down no matter what.

The Duel puts away its saber and once again switches back to the rifle then maneuvers to the side.

"You think you're hot stuff Natural?" He yells, as the Duel aims the rifle at the Chimera.

"Die!" He fires the beam weapon, this time he also fires the grenade launcher.

This maneuver perplexes Antonio, "What's the point in that?"

He dodges the beam and fires his CIWS at the grenade. It gets struck by a 75mm. shell, causing it to explode.

But it wasn't the usual fragmentary explosion he expected, instead the grenade gives out a blinding light.

"Ahh!" Antonio looks away, shield his eyes with one hand.

He blindly fumbles his hand across the control panel to find the Rommel Panzer armor control switch, though it wouldn't help if the Duel decided to use the beam saber, the blade would not be absorb fast enough by the armor.

Despite his predicament, he manages to smile.

Flash illumination grenade, nice move kid, just what I expect from an Elite Red coat pilot like you.

As the Chimera was blinded, the Duel attacks from the side with its beam saber, "Got you!"

But...

The Duel was just about to hit.

I didn't turn into the Spartan of Waves for being a so-so pilot neither.

For one second his left iris turns red, the pupil into a slit.

He couldn't see his opponent, but a sudden pulse inside his head that told him exactly where he was about to strike.

"What the–!" Yzak yells as the Chimera suddenly feints to one side.

Antonio thought of attacking the Duel there, but decided against it.

Instead, he boosts away to let his eyes recover, "Dang. That's something you don't see too often…"

Better put away Mandarangan for now, anti-beam doesn't last forever...

As soon as he got his sight back, he places the Chimera's melee weapon's two pieces on the side of the hip.

He then pulls one Bathala 175mm. beam rifle out, "Better stick to this first."

"C'mon!" Yzak yells as the Duel goes into the attack once again, charging with both its beam rifle and beam saber out. The Chimera pulls out a beam saber and charges as well.

The two suits strike each other's saber as they passed each other. Both turned around and fired their rifle at the same time, narrowly missing the other. They circle each other as both continued to fire at the other.

Antonio decides to put the Sol Striker pack to use, he charges in and fires the 105mm. cannons and the 115mm. railguns, as well as the AW20s and the 57mm. double gatling guns.

Despite the fact that the barrage thrown at him was useless with PS on, Yzak couldn't help but dodge them anyway. He had only been in combat in the Duel for a couple battles.

And it was a rule among mobilesuit/ armor pilots that to always avoid or deflect any projectile thrown at you. No matter how ineffective it may be.

Amidst the barrage, Antonio would occasionally shoot a beam shot at the Duel, keeping it on its toes.

The same moment, the Buster made contact with the Siginarugan,

And Dearka quickly realizes he was going to eat the words he had said to Rusty.

He grits his teeth as the Siginarugan throws one of its beamsabers at him then fires its beamcanon. Dearka narrowly avoids being hit by blasting the saber with his 94 mm high-energy beamrifle and dodging the beam blast.

As soon he did so the Siginarugan fires its grappling harpoon, Dearka curses as it latches on to the Buster's arm.

"Wonderful…" he muttered.

This Natural was quick, he's definitely not some green pilot plucked from the ranks.

The Siginarugan begins pulling him forceful toward it, Dearka uses all the thrusters of the Buster to try and pull itself away. Knowing full well what's going to happen if he gets close to it.

For all its strengths, the Buster had one major weakness. It had no effective close range weapon.

Fighting close range with mobilesuits like the Siginarugan was suicide.

He shoots the line with his beamrifle but it does not break, much to Dearka's dismay.

"Oh give me break!"

"Hey, Zaft boy," Michael switches his radio to a general ZAFT frequency. "What's the matter? Scared of coming close to me?"

Dearka scowls, "You're the one to talk! It's not exactly easy to fight close range with no means to fight there."

Michael raises an eyebrow, "You mean you don't have a saber? …Oh, right. Your suit's the Buster… here."

The Siginarugan tosses his remaining beamsaber at the Buster.

Flabbergasted, Dearka stared to the beam weapon then at the Siginarugan.

"Wha…? What the hell are you doing? Are you stupid? Why the hell would–"

"A battle's no fun if it's one sided," Michael replied. "Well? Aren't going to take it? 'Cause I'm not going to hesitate even if you don't."

Dearka stares at the saber as the Buster grabbed it and as the suit's onboard OS identified and linked to it.

Michael smiles, "Okay here's the deal. We're gonna lash ourselves together with the harpoon line so as nobody gets away. We're gonna only close range weapons, deal?"

Dearka raises his eyebrow, this guy's cocky.

He then smirks, even if he's natural, he's my kind of guy.

"Suit yourself, Natural"

The saber blazes to life in the Buster's hand.

Michael smile grew wider, "Good… Let's do it then!"

The Siginarugan pulls out one half of the Sidapa and charges.

Dearka makes the Buster charge at the Siginarugan, Michael blocks the attack pushes him back.

As the Buster backs off, it fires its 220mm. missilepods, hitting the Siginarugan in the body.

Michael irks as he takes the impact, "Hey! Didn't I say close beam weapons only?"

Dearka gives him a toothy grin, "Oh c'mon! As if that hurt you that bad!"

Michael wasn't amused, "Oh a wise guy eh?"

The Siginarugan whips the arms with harpoon line, the resulting wave shakes the Buster badly.

"Hey!" Dearka yelled, "C'mon! Can't take a joke?"

"That one wasn't funny pal," Michael retorted as the Siginarugan went on the offensive.

"Geez, you don't have to be so up tight. Okay here I come!"

At this time, Rusty and the Hawke team had passed the perimeter of the Umbrella.

"Okay we're in," Rusty radios to his companions. "We'll split up to two groups, two of you are with me, while the rest of you will secure the perimeter."

The units dispersed, Rusty went in with Leona in her modified Black GINN Assault type she nicknamed "Cervantes" and Heine's custom GINN high maneuver type colored in orange.

"Well, well," Leona smiled. "Looks like it's just you, me and Heine here."

"Yeah, seems that way. It's been a while Leona."

Rusty smirked, "So… you're still driving your colleagues crazy?"

Leona chuckles, "Not as bad as back then, but yeah a bit."

Heine clears his throat, "I hate to break up your reunion but we're working here."

Leona looks at his ginn HM which was to her right.

She smirks at him, "What's the matter Heine, Jealous?"

He snorts at the comment, "Please."

She laughs heartily, "Well it's your loss."

Leona boosts ahead of them, making several quick barrel rolls as she did. She continues laughing as she did.

"Hey Mackenzie," Heine radios to Rusty. "Was she like this when she was with you guys?"

Rusty chuckles, "Since day one."

Miyuki Kajiura and Ivana Gurlukovich locked blades together.

Ivana's left bladed met which with Miyuki tanto, while the right was neutralized by Miyuki grabbing her wrist and part of her palm.

Both were attempt to push the other, using strength not normally associated to women.

Suddenly, Miyuki tightens her grip on the hand she held and falls backwards in a modified Judo style tai-toshi or circle throw. Using Ivana's own strength, Miyuki pulls her over her body using her right foot as leverage to toss her. After doing so, she rolls backwards over her head to get back on her feet.

Ivana manages to break fall, landing on one knee. As she assumes her stance, she realizes she was missing one dagger.

"Looking for this?" Miyuki a similar stance to hers, hold Ivana's dagger with her once free hand.

Ivana smirked, "Well played."

She stood up and then charged. They two veteran fighters clashed blades as swung at each other, their strikes to a normal person would see as blurs.

At one moment, Ivana grabs Miyuki's arms by the forearms neutralizing her blades. Ivana delivers a head butt which landed on her left eye.

Miyuki irked in pain. She kicked herself free, holding the area struck, she then felt a familiar liquid. She looks at her hand to find blood.

She glares at her opponent who seemed to be enjoying herself.

"Is this all fun and games to you?" She growled, "You have some nerve Ivana. I you told them I also was, I would have shot you instead."

Ivana frowns at her adversary's unusual hostility, "I had no intention of revealing them that side of you Miyuki, I can more than understand why you didn't tell them."

"Whatever," Miyuki grunted. "Right now I'm not in the mood of playing with you."

"Too bad," Ivana replied as she charged in again.

Outside Artemis,

"Aw man, this is boring." One of the two ginn pilots from the Gamow complained as they and the Hawke team effortless dispatched the Moebius mobile armors as they came out. "Why the hell do we even have to do this anyway? These guys can't even put a dent on us thanks to the N-jammers."

He was fresh from basic training, his ginn didn't bare the scars and dents that were earned in combat. And the machinegun and heavy sword he carried looked as if they just been unpacked.

He had been transferred from the Zeigler earlier as the Gamow was being resupplied. He had no actual combat experience and had the cocky and arrogant vigor of a new recruit.

Ever since he got into the Gamow, he constantly complained about not seeing action. He managed to get into Dearka and Yzak's nerves.

Now he was getting into Gabriel White's.

"Pipe down," The twenty-two year old elite ordered. "No unnecessary transmissions."

"Yeah, yeah," The rookie mutters. "Whatever."

White shook his head and sighed, "Rookies…"

Gabriel White on the other hand was a seasoned soldier, he was one of the last batch of ZAFT pilots to have taken a military degree from West Point. He served during the Eurasian-Pacific war as a sapper under Andrew Waltfeld in Afghanistan who was supporting the fourth Equatorial Army and the Spartan Guard Fire Corps.

He had seen too many young inexperienced 'boys' as he called them die. Most of them had that same arrogance as this kid, and from what Gabriel was seeing now, he maybe joining them real soon.

"Clark," One of his teammates, Clark Redman, called. "We got incoming, they're coming real fast, just two of them though."

Gabriel frowned, "Two?"

Normally, mobile armors were launch five at a time. This was to correspond to the rule of 5 armors to one suit. Since mobilesuits were vastly superior to mobile armors.

Launching just two was suicide, unless…

Gabriel shook his head, "It can't be… the last of those things were destroyed in the Endymion Crater."

He didn't want to take any chances, "Team, fall back to secondary positions."

They did so, going a little further from the hangar gate they were guarding.

Sure enough, the two armors showed themselves, Gabriel's eyes widen as he finds his hunch was correct.

"Moebius Zeros," Redman gritted his teeth. "Damn Naturals…"

"Hey Bro, check it," blonde haired, blue eyed Ritchie Mossberg, told his brother, Wade.

"Hmm…?" Wade looked at the ZAFT unit with his sleepy looking eyes. "Oh they would take us too long. You take care of them, I'll go a huntin' some bigger fish."

Ritchie grins widely, "Much 'bliged brutha." He lets loose his gunbarrels and begun attacking, firing seemingly randomly at the entrenched unit.

The Hawke team responds with fire of their own. Two ginns provided covering fire as one of their teammates fires his Barrus Heavy particle gun. Another ginn attacks with his Pardus and Canus missilepods.

Ritchie smirked as he dodges the barrage with ease, "It's gonna take more that to take me down!"

His Zero does something that surprises Gabriel, releasing two more slightly smaller gun barrels.

"What the hell?"

The Jethro, Frank and the officers arrive at the hangar.

They find that the UN guards were still engaging the Eurasians in a full blown fire fight.

An alert Eurasian sees them, and unloads his guns at them.

"Sonova-!" Jethro curses as he ducks back behind corner, "Don't these guys have anything better to do? Like self preservation and saving themselves?-!"

"Apparently not," Frank answers. He pulls out a Fragmentation grenade he had obtained in the Archangel's armory before they left the ship.

"Maybe this'll change their minds," The auburn haired Australian drawls as pulls the pin, "Fire in the hole!"

The blast catches several Eurasians.

"Happy landings…" Jethro commented as he fires his rifle in full auto and the hits the Eurasian who shot at them.

"Sounds like Frank's already in the hangar," Daniel commented.

"Well let's join 'em then," Luke sets his rifle to semi-auto.

They enter the hangar through a maintenance platform that overlooked where their teammates were fighting. Both walk towards the barricade in a crouch position.

Whist Luke aims his gun at the door they entered, Daniel searches through a set of maintenance equipment not far from it.

"Ah, just where I left it," he pulls out a long carrying case, inside was his custom made, 7.62 NATO caliber Accuracy International anchored at the receiver with precisely torqued screws that held it in a glass-bedded, Monte Carlo style stock, above which the finely tuned barrel floated, less than the width of a dollar bill, allowing the barrel to flex freely when he fired the rifle.

Daniel pulls it out and fastens a 12 power Unertl scope, an old fashioned but very reliable scope for snipers. He looks over the barricade at the fire fight, then zeroes his rifle for five hundred yards.

"Shall we begin?" The Lieutenant asked the Specialist, as he loads the five round magazine into the rifle.

The brown eyed Black South African nods, "You take the right, and I'll cover you on the left."

"Right."

Luke sets position a little distance away, placing a Tactical Ops 5 power scope he brought along on the captured Eurasian weapon.

1st Lt. Spear aims his rifle over the barricade, setting his sights on his first target. He looks off scope for any UN troops who may in avertedly get in the line of fire, then goes back to the scope.

His heart pounded, sending the rifle scope's cross hairs rising and falling over his target – a man who seemed to be leading a small unit of Eurasian soldiers. The sniper waited for his pulse to settle. He had the same dilemma at Camp Perry, Ohio, when he won the Wimbledon Cup in 65CE. Though this shot was not nearly as difficult as firing at a 20 inch V-ring from a thousand yards away. This was hardly going to be much of a challenge for his marksmanship skills, the hangar maybe large but it was still small compared to the distances he's used to shooting at.

As his concentration narrowed more and more on the accuracy of his first shot, the pitch of his sight's crosshairs grew less and less erratic until the steadiness of a national champion marksman held the scope's center point steadily on the Eurasian squad commander.

The surprise of the rifle's discharge caused Luke to blink, and as he heard Daniel's bolt ejecting the shell and sending a second into the Accuracy International's chamber, Luke fires at the suddenly frozen figure on the far left of the defensive line.

The Eurasian leader lay dead at the feet of his unit. A seventeen year old soldier, who had been assigned to the base just a week ago, lay dead on the line's left flank. A third shot cracked, and another Eurasian squad leader rears with a 7.62mm. hole in his neck, just missing his body armor by mere millimeters.

The whole line froze, bewildered. Seasoned soldiers wisely ducked down immediately. Knowing full well that shot was from a sniper's weapon. Others scramble for better cover behind the crates on the side of the hangar, Daniel's and Luke's shots followed them, claiming soldiers in each report.

Frank sees what's happening and looks up at the platforms.

"That must be Danny and Luke."

Jethro nods and looks at the Archangel's officers, "Okay folks, that's our cue to skedaddle."

Murrue nods as she cocks the handgun given to her, Natarle and Mu did the same.

Frank yells at the other UN soldiers, "Deploy smoke! Move out!"

Some soldiers began to throw smoke grenades as the force began to move towards the shuttles to escape.

"Let's go!" Frank yelled as he dashes toward the shuttle.

"What about your two men up there?" Murrue asked as she and Jethro ran side by side.

"They can handle themselves," Jethro replied. "They're in a good enough position for us to get them later with mobilesuits."

"Aren't you worried of them getting stormed?"

Jethro chuckled as though he had been told a joke, "I doubt it. Danny probably had the foresight of setting some booby traps along the way to the door to where they are. And besides, the ZAFT ships' N-jammers make it impossible them to communicate with standard shortwave radio and as for these guys in the hangar, Danny's got them scared shitless."

Murrue nods as she heard the distinct sound of the sniper's rifle as another Eurasian soldier falls.

"Glad I'm not at the receiving end of that."

Miyuki and Ivana continue to clash

After locking blades for several moments, the two women push away from each other. In split second, Miyuki jumps onto the wall and vaults at Ivana. The Eurasian manages to jump out of the way, she thrusts her blade at her. Miyuki parries and makes a thrust of her own and which Ivana also parries. Miyuki then uses her elbow to strike her opponent in the jaw.

Ivana backs away, she rubs her jaw. She spits out some blood at the side.

"You're quite touchy today," Ivana commented. She eyes Miyuki thoughtfully. "That woman who called by your nickname, she's close to you isn't she?"

Miyuki doesn't say anything, but her eyes told Ivana exactly how she felt. They were full of darkness and anger that had been kept inside. She was just barely keeping it contained.

"You're quite protective of your past from her…" She continued, "Almost as though you're afraid of her knowing."

That last one struck home for Miyuki, Gurlukovich was dead on, was she being that obvious?

"Though she doesn't strike me as a vain woman, I don't think she'll leave you even if she knew who you were. Unless…"

Miyuki winced, It was almost as if Ivana was reading her mind. She had excellent assessment as her cousin's, it's a chore for her to hide her true feelings around Murrue when Antonio was around, an exercise of ultimate self-control, but of course, even that had its limits. It was out in the field or when no else is around her when she reveal her true, worn out soul, punished by months of emotional pain.

"You took away someone important to her, didn't you?"

A knot formed in her throat, the voices inside her head began talking again.

---

Don't deny it…

You killed him…

Just like so many innocents you've killed before…

Like those during Uroboros…

Or should I say the April fool's Crisis…?

Like those in Jachin Due…

Like those in the Ides of March…

For that is what you are…

A murderer…

A destroying Angel…

Death's favorite daughter…

---

"Shut up…" She muttered, shaking her head wildly pressing her hands toward her ears.

"Stop fucking telling what I already damn know…"

Ivana sighed, shaking her head. "Do you realize what you are doing to her?"

"How would you know," she glared at her. "You even know her!"

"I may not know her," Ivana replied. "But you of all people would tell how much pain she's going through!"

"What the hell are talking you about?" Miyuki growled. "Who are you to tell me how I should–"

"Are you that blind?" Ivana snapped, "Are you that stupid?"

"The longer you hide it from her, the more painful it will be when she eventually finds out. You can't hide forever, she will find out eventually."

She wanted to gag, the headaches and pain that riddled her body were all coming back. That was how bad the guilt was.

"SHUT UP!" She screamed, "Shut the fuck up! You don't fucking know the first thing I'm going through!"

"Oh on the contrary, I KNOW," Ivana's eyes darkened as well. "I fucking know what you're going through. You're not the only person in the world whose world was torn apart around you. I know how it feels to lose everything that matters to you."

"And here you are, afraid that someone you care for will know what you've done."

"You've turned into a coward and a fool Miyuki," Ivana's eyes narrowed. "Don't you see the pain you're causing her? How can you call yourself her friend?-!"

"You…" Her eyes flash in rage. That was the last straw.

She wildly lunges at the older woman. "I'll kill you!"

Ivana easily dodges and parries all of Miyuki's attacks which were no more than wild, random swings and thrusts. Gone was the methodical woman Ivana face just a while ago, she was replaced by someone made half-insane by grief.

A one point, Miyuki drops the knife she had taken from Ivana and draws her handgun, aiming it at her.

But Ivana quickly grabs the slide, and in one motion disconnects it to the rest of the gun. She than twists the arm then drives her elbow down Miyuki's.

Miyuki eyes widen as the pain synapses were delivered to her brain. She lets go of her blades and drops her knees, holding tight on the arm that had been dislocated. Her brain wanted her to scream but her throat numbed, her body was busy comprehending the pain. She presses her head against the floor, clenching her teeth.

Gurlukovich stared down at her, "Stop running away from what you done, take responsibility for your actions, only then will you find salvation for you and your friend."

She twirls her knife then slips it back in the scabbard under her sleeve.

"We'll do this again in another time." She picks up her cap and jacket and walks away.

Miyuki doesn't answer looking down at the floor, out of frustration, she bangs her head against the floor.

"Damn it… I'm sorry…"

Ivana looks over her shoulder, "I know. You'll survive this."

"I'll expect you to anyway," She added

Miyuki looks at the woman as she leaves.

She manages to smirk, Easier said than done. But you know that don't you?

Back at Artemis' hangars

The UN had finally managed to pull out a large portion of their men back to the shuttles and were heading for the Artemis.

"I never thought I'd be glad to go into space with the enemy waiting us," Mu commented as he sat down on one the seats of the shuttle they were riding, taking the moment to finally rest since their entry into Artemis.

Murrue nods with a smirk, "That makes the two of us Lieutenant."

She turns to look at the ship XO, "What about you Ens. Badgiruel?"

Natarle didn't reply, she looking out one the windows with a deep frown in her face.

"Ens. Badgiruel?"

Mu notes her facial expression, "Hey ensign… Did what the Eurasians did piss you off or something?"

"Captain, Lt. La Flaga," Natarle finally replied. "Please look outside."

Both of them stared with wide eyes when they saw the two Moebius fighting the Strike and the Blitz.

"W-what the hell…?" Murrue began "Am I seeing things? Or are those…?"

An equally confused Mu gave a look at her, "It can't be… my Zero's the only one left."

"That thing outside is saying otherwise sir." Natarle replied

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What are those ships?-!"

A Zaft Dinn pilot asked no one in particular, as he fires his missiles on the Skiold-class, Tyr. The attack seemed not to affect the ship that much.

Around him, his teammates weren't having much success either. Whatever these ships were, they well armed, the machineguns and missile launchers were causing bad enough casualties. They surrounded the accompanying Tarawa-class, giving it more ample protection as it resupplied the Aries mobilesuits as they docked in.

But what was really hurting them was the white mobilesuit that was protecting the unknown fleet. No one in the unit knew what it was, it had similar characteristics to a Leos but it much more powerful.

One shot from its gun, which probably a railgun, was enough to destroy a mobilesuit. Its pilot was very skilled to the least, dodging every shot thrown against him or he would use he CIWS to cancel an attack. He was simply impervious to them, his caliber was well beyond theirs.

One young pilot however didn't think so. "Bastard! I'll kill you!"

Nathaniel easily spots him, he shakes his head. "Will…Valor…"

He puts away his railgun, and pulls out an Armor Schneider combat knife.

The young pilot's Dinn charges in straight at him with guns a blazing and firing all his remaining missiles at him.

Nathaniel uses shield to block the rounds and fires his CIWS to take out the missiles.

"…is useless without strength."

He throws the knife, striking the Dinn in the cockpit area. The Dinn flies past the white mobilesuit and into the murky depths of the sea, its pilot dead to the world.

"Neither strength alone, nor will alone can change the will of fate."

"Damn…" The Dinn pilot who witnessed the effortless dispatching of his fellow pilot cursed. He only one thing left to do, "Team, it's no good, fall back."

Near the Odessa base, over an evergreen forest

The Carrington team was engaging the four renegade mobilesuits they encountered.

Kanbei and Natsumi each kept a Dinn occupied, aggressively dogfighting their ways to an advantage.

Within the cockpit Xuiying Hong showed off her skill, as the Tallgeese placed its railgun and shield away, and drew two blades, Chinese scimitars of Daos named "Kirin Fang" which a Chinese kirin engraved on the blade, and "Blue Moon Dragon" with a blue dragon engraved, from its back and flew towards a group of dinns, decapitating and slashing off limbs any mobile suit in her way.

Noin in the mean time, finds herself fighting the team's leader, the steel grey cgue.

Lenneth's cgue flew above Noin, then charges at her with her spear.

"Whoa!" Moving her Aries to duck below the blade, Noin attempted countered by thrusting one of her beam sabers at the cockpit, but was to her surprise blocked by a sword. A katana called the Shiroi-yuri, Japanese for white lily. A beautifully made sword, the blade, sword guard and hilt all shined, the handle wrapped with a white fabric and cord. Like the Dainslef, was made in "the Graveyard."

"You're quite good," Lenneth said under her grin.

"You're not too bad yourself..." Noin grinned back. Parrying the Cgue's spear thrust, she charges at it and was on the offensive. "Your weapons must be anti-beam coated by the way."

"Correct" Lenneth pushes back by using both her melee weapons, slashing and thrusting with both, but Noin blocks her swipes perfectly at every angle her head.

"Excellent!" Lenneth yelled, "It's been a while since someone lasted this long against me."

"Glad you're happy." Noin grinned, firing her 57 mm CIWS on the cgue. Lenneth predicts the movements of Noin's Aries and evades it.

Noin was again on the offensive, swinging both beam sabers, attempting to slash Lenneth's cgue in half or at least lop off the arms before going for the kill.

"You think I won't see that?" Lenneth called, blocking saber in Noin's left hand with her spear.

"Gotcha!" Noin yelled. In the blink of an eye, she brought down the beam saber on her right.

Lenneth's eyes widen, "How-?"

She just barely manages to pull away, but the saber hit her cgue's left leg, damaging it severely.

"How did she do that so fast?" Lenneth was stunned, not knowing how she did what she did. "Is she a…?"

"In case you're wondering" Noin chuckled. "I'm just a Natural, Carrington!"

"You knew?" Lenneth sheaths her Katana and pulls out her machinegun and lets loose at her, making the Aries dodges her attack.

"Anyone who's fought in the Eurasian-Pacific should know who the Steel Huntress is!" Noin answers, She tosses one beam saber to the joint connecting Lenneth's left leg to the cgue's waist, disabling some of the thrusters in that leg.

"Damn!" Lenneth muttered, seeing the sensors on her displays that some parts of her suit's leg has been immobilized when she was forced to kneel down own the ground below.

"Now I have you..." Noin was about to pull out another saber when Belenus' Dinn attacks Lucrencia by simply tackling her in mid-air.

"I won't let you!" Belenus yelled, pinning her down with the dinns' arms holding Noin's Aries down.

"Maxwell, stand down! This is between me and her!" Lenneth tries to get her cgue up.

"I'm sorry ma'am" Belenus called. "But I have bad news from Suez, someone has ordered the orbital descent units to proceed!"

Lenneth scowled, "What! We haven't even secured a proper perimeter around the base yet! Under whose order was it?"

She however had forgotten to cut her transmission with Noin. Her face fell when she heard what was about happen.

Pierce…! Zech…!

Up in orbit above the Odessa base

Several Nazca-class ships began dropping reentry pods, each held three mobile suits. They gather speed and glowed brighter as the gravity well begun to pull them down. After several minutes, they break through the stratosphere.

Down Earth, Master Pierce Rayer's jaw drop when realizes where his sensors were detecting the enemy. Looking up in the sky, he could just barely make out the small dot-like silhouettes of the entry pods.

"You have got to be kidding me…"

Zechs was thinking the same thing, "Entry team, you'll have to move a little faster! ZAFT's about to hit us with an orbital drop!"

"What?-!" Sally yelled with surprise. "They actually bothered dropping on this backwater?-!"

The entry pod began split apart, releasing three mobilesuits each.

"Incoming!" Jacques yelled, he fires his railgun hitting one ginn, but there are several more take it's place and began firing at the small infiltration unit.

Pierce cursed as he returned fire, "We're sitting ducks out here."

"Hold the line!" He ordered the others, "Entry team is on their way. We'll have to hold them off a little while!"

"Hope that 'little while' doesn't take too long," Jacques muttered.

Vincent climbed into the cockpit of the mobilesuit he had found

He quickly got running, the main display shows him the name of the system that ran the suit.

---

MOBILE SUIT OPERATION SYSTEM

///Version nvs - EU - X - 2.3 ////
General
Unilateral
Neuro - Link
Dispersive
Autonomic
Maneuver
G.U.N.D.A.M Synthesis System
O.M.N.I. Enforcer

F.O.S EURASIA

---

Vincent was astonished by the Hyperion's weaponry, "Huh… beam submachine gun… beam knives… two beam canons… and what's this? They even gave this suit an 'Armure Lumiere' shield on each hand. That may come in handy."

He was quite aware that a lightwave shield was impervious to anything except anti-beam coated weapons.

However, Vincent was not impressed by the suit's existing OS set up. "If anyone can fight with this, then they're a better pilot than me…"

He pulls out a system jacking device and plugs into the mobile suit's computer, after a few keystrokes, the device began loading Vincent's custom OS which was a modified E.O.S. operation system. But he finds that the system was unable to use it.

Huh… In that case… a coordinator OS perhaps?

He tapped the keyboard a few more times, loads up the system. This time the mobilesuit responds.

Vincent smiles, "There… let's see what this puppy can do."

The ravens outside began crowing in unison, as though were trying to wake up the sleeping giant.

The Hyperion's eyes glow ominously in the dimly lit room as it began to move.

While Vincent inspects the rest of the suit's systems, he stumbles onto something.

"Well…This mobilesuit is not the only one this base… there are others, though not as powerful..."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things outside Artemis however, wasn't going so well for ZAFT

"Damn," Gabriel White gritted his teeth. The Moebius Zero were taking a toll on the unit currently under his command taking cover behind the protruding pieces of metal on the surface of Artemis. They haven't suffered any losses yet but if this kept on that may change soon enough.

The rookie who constantly complained not too long ago wasn't helping the situation.

"Take this you damn bastards!" He recklessly fires his machinegun, not caring to aim his shots, wasting the little ammo he had left. This to any seasoned soldier was being more scared than brave.

"You stupid idiot! Get down!" Gabriel yelled, "Stop wasting your ammo, you'll get killed faster that-!"

His warning came too late, before he could finish his sentence the rookie's gets shot in several places by Ritchie's Zero, one of which was the cockpit area.

Gabriel cringed as the ginn explodes, damn…

The Assault on Artemis has produced its first loss.

On the Archangel, Murrue Ramius, Mu La Flaga, and Natarle Badgiruel had just reached the Bridge.

"Captain!" Pal called, their sight relieved the members of the bridge.

While Ramius settled into the captain's chair, La Flaga took a detour into CIC.

"Great work, kids!" he said with a grin, ruffling Mir and Sai's hair.

"What's up with this fortress, anyway?" Sai wondered aloud.

"I think we should find out." The Hawk glanced up at Kuzzey, at communications, "Anything from Artemis?"

"I just pulled some surveillance footage, sir," Kuzzey replied. "It's encrypted, but I think we can crack it, given time."

"Get the computers working on it," La Flaga ordered. "It might be useful if there'll a board of inquiry on this."

"Crewman Buskirk," Ramius called. "Are all of the UN personnel aboard?"

"Most of them ma'am," the teen answered. "According to Sergeant Mills, they're still some unaccounted for."

"Any news from the Basilisk?" It was Badgiruel's turn to ask, "Are they on the way?"

"They're currently engaging with ZAFT forces."

"Captain," Sai called out. "From what I can tell from Artemis' system, we're dealing with one Nazca-class, one Laurasia-class, The Duel, Buster, Blitz and twelve ginns. Two of which are consistent with a ginn assault type and a ginn high maneuver."

Mu frowned, "Ginn High maneuver and Assault types… Those babies are better armed than a regular ginn, and they're usually given to elite pilots."

"As for the Eurasians," Sai continued. "They don't have much out, two Drake-classes and a Nelson, with about twenty Moebius units deployed and also… what…? That can't be right…"

"What is it Crewman Argyle?" Natarle asked.

Sai looks at her with a confused expression, "The data indicating the Eurasians have also deployed four Moebius Zero type mobile armors."

Natarle scratches the back of her head, "What in the world is going on around here?"

"You got me Ensign," Mu replied shaking his head as checks the data that Sai has on his station. "All it can tell you is that whoever's fighting for the Eurasians, they're definitely using something that's consistent to a Zero. The thing is… these models are equipped with beam gunbarrels."

"Crewman Haw," Murrue called. "What is the status of the Strike?"

"Kira is currently engaging the Blitz and two Zero." Mir replies as she listens to something on her headset.

"Captain," She called out. "Sergeant Snow is requesting to launch, he says he's going to support the remaining personnel on the ground and maybe the Strike."

"Give him permission," she ordered. "Get ready to launch Archangel as soon as we're clear. And patch in with all the personnel left in Artemis, tell them to board the Archangel immediately."

Natarle added, "They're probably using the UN general frequency, its 134.78 Delta Sierra Tango."

Murrue looked at her curiously, "Ensign, how did you…?"

"Lt. Col. Le Saint Claire told me about a couple of months back," She replied.

"Aren't those things supposed to be classified?"

Natarle smirked, showing her dimple and slight blush.

"Yes ma'am," She answered simply. "They are.""

The Duel goes in for another close range attack,

The Chimera quickly stores its beam rifles and pulls out its beam sabers. Antonio detaches the gatling shields to give himself better flexibility.

With a loud cry, Yzak drives down a beamsaber with both hands. The Chimera parries with it left saber underhanded, then swings his second saber at it. Duel pulls out its saber in time to parry it. Both mobilesuits pull out, the Chimera fires a cluster from its right missile pod. The Duel uses its CIWS to blow them up.

This time, Chimera charges in, it swings both its sabers together in a scissors formation. The Duel blocks with its arms crossed, its right saber blocking the Chimera's own right saber and vice versa. He pushes its sabers upwards along with the Chimera's in its own scissors move. As he did so, Yzak returns the favor by kicking the cockpit area of the Chimera.

"Whoa!" Antonio yelled at the hit but manages to quickly recover, making the Chimera feint from the Duel's sabers as it swung aggressively. He fires its railguns, to make the Duel back off.

Antonio smiled at the Duel, nodding at the way he evaded his attacks.

Not bad for a hot head.

From what he gathered from his personal assessment and Wynn's information on the Duel pilot, Yzak Joule was a solid close combat fighter with good use of tactics. He definitely had some experience, though could tell he was still a little green and a rather obvious hot temperament.

Yzak looked at the Chimera with newborn respect, the pilot was different from the Strike.

Whoever it was definitely had experience. His judgment and timing were excellent. And he almost felt the confidence of his attacks each time they crossed weapons.

Unknowingly, both pilots smiled at the other.

Both thought, I think I'm gonna like this.

The Buster and Siginarugan were giving out an equally intense show.

Michael was a veteran of one on one engagement, ever since the birth of the mobilesuits as a weapon of war.

His opponent, Dearka Elsman though was using the Buster, was no slouch when it came to close combat himself.

Both suits went at each other relentlessly, their weapons crossed in quick flurries of strikes then they break off, pulling back as far as the harpoon line would allow it.

As they did, they circle each other, trying to get the upper hand in maneuvering.

When they went at each other, both suits virtually slam their bodies at each other. The impacts were loud and bone jarring to the pilots who fought.

Both young men were now running on their wits, their instincts and adrenaline as they strike and parry each other's attacks continuously, trading quips and insults as they did.

Dearka felt wired and pumped up, he exhilarated, this was the first time had this type of rush. And he liked it. Michael was feeling the same thing was been there before also enjoyed it.

"Hey Buster, wanna go back to the standard way?" Michael radioed.

"And miss all this fun?" Dearka replied. "You wish."

"Sergeant Snow, you're for clear for launch."

Mir informed the ex-Oceanic Union marine. "The Eurasians have Moebius zero mobile armors

"Copy that bridge, Frank Snow moving out."

The Legionnaire firefly leaves the Archangel, its leg pulls into its hover frame. Its hand armament was the usual gunlauncher.

Frank sees that the Strike was engaging

"Hey, little Nipper!" Frank yells as he tries to aim his Gunlauncher at the Zero that flew past him. "Do you need a hand?

"Never mind me!" Kira replied as he throws his beam boomerang at one Zero which it easily dodges. "I heard what you're supposed to do out here. Sergeant, go support those who are left, I can handle it here for now!"

Frank notes that the Blitz wasn't directly engaging the Strike, focusing its energy on the two Zeros.

They both probably think they're the bigger threat, Frank thought. I guess the saying is still plausible, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"

"Okay," Frank finally said. "Just don't get reckless mate."

Wynn and Regina make their way through the labyrinth of Artemis' multiple hangars

Regina carried the Gungnir unit on her back where the Aile pack would've been, she didn't really needed it out in space since the Wyvern had its own built in verniers. They entered the base virtually undetected, taking a maintenance shaft as their route into the main lines. Neither talked much, they were maintaining radio silence, using hand signals to communicate.

Their infiltration went smoothly, until they get something in their sensors.

"Three ginns," Wynn called, "Heading straight for us."

"Copy," Regina looks around where they were, a connecting tunnel that linked up all hangars together in that level, it was used to transport heavy materials from one ship to another and as a direct route to Artemis storage facility. "Watch it Wynn, it's a little tight in here, careful with missiles in here."

"Roger that," Wynn readies her beamrifle, attaching a saber below its muzzle.

"Two unidentified suits up ahead," Rusty announced.

"It's same the same type suit Aelia commandeered."

Leona raised an eyebrow, "Wynn eh? Well this'll be interesting… I'll hang back to see which one is Wynn's."

"And I'll see how good the other pilot is," Heine called. "I hear from reports it's the 'Winged Fury'" piloting the other one, that particular Eurasian woman gave me quite a beating back in the Eurasian- Pacific conflict. I think it's time return the favor."

"Sounds good to me," Rusty replied. Pulling out a beamsaber he had taken from the spare parts for the G-units with one hand, while the other still held the beam rifle. "Let's go then!"

The three ginns boost forward, Leona's "Cervantes" lagging slightly behind.

"Go!" Regina yelled as the Wyvern boosted side by side.

Heine's ginn HM went straight at Regina's Wyvern, swinging its heavy sword at it. Regina holds up her shield to block and counters with a beam blast and a burst from her CIWS. Heine skillfully dodges this, firing his Pardus missiles as he did. Regina destroys those with her Igelstellungs.

Rusty yells out a cry as he swings his beam saber at Wynn's Wyvern. Wynn activates the attached to the rifle, parrying the attack then firing the rifle. Rusty narrowly dodges the attack, he backs off, firing his own beam rifle. Wynn uses her shield, which absorbs the shot. Rusty charges in, shooting his beam continuously.

"Rusty," Wynn called out. "You're gonna use up you battery faster that way."

She throws her shield twirling at her like a Frisbee, Rusty fires at it, then remembers it was anti-beam coated. Before he could react, he gets struck by it. Wynn pulls out an Armor Schneider and rushes in. Rusty swings at her but she gets past it and plunges her knife into his suit's right arm which held the beam saber.

She was about to hack off the other with her beam saber bayonet. But she notes the ginn assault type wasn't fighting her partner nor was in her field of view.

Sensing she was about to be snuck from behind, Wynn elbowed the Cervantes and blocked an attempt to fire its gatling guns at her by flying out of the way with the help of her Aile Pack that enabled him to go behind the ginn before pulling out her other beam saber.

"Nice try!" Head locking the ginn with one arm, Wynn apply as much pressure in disabling her adversary. When she drew out her remaining Armor Schneider, the Ginn Assault type pulls out its own armor and manages to stab Wynn at the side just inches below the cockpit.

Wynn cursed, releasing her hold on the Assault type then drawing out her beam saber and rifle which still had the saber attached on it.

The Assault type moves off with unusual speed, draw out a 20 meter broad sword, it engraved with old Norse runes.

Wynn immediately recognized the weapon and utters its name, "Grand Sting."

She frowned, switching her radio frequency, "There are only a few people in the whole of ZAFT crazy enough to use a large weapon like that with a low mobility unit like the 1017AS. And you're one of them Leona."

"Correct," Leona chuckled. "You've gotten a little better, Janus."

"So did you Leo," Wynn answered back. "But I don't have the time to play right now."

"Tough," Leona replied as she attacks.

Regina's Wyvern and Heine's ginn were busy exchanging beam saber blows with one another.

"I doubt you remember me," Heine began executing a downward sword slash. Regina pulls out a beam saber and blocked Heine's blow, his sword was also anti-beam coated. "But you owe me quite a bad beating back in the last war, 'Winged Fury.'"

"I'd normally like to chat about that," Regina replied, doing a shoulder tackle after she successfully blocked the sword attack. "But I really don't have the time for this."

"Oh?" He raised an eye brow. "Well, I'm afraid I can not accept that!"

The two mobile suit pilots clashed their weapons. Heine made a horizontal beam saber slash while Regina did a vertical beam saber slash, leading to a stalemate.

Heine gritted his teeth, trying to gain an advantage with his ginn HM over Regina's Wyvern. She's just as good in a mobilesuit… I hate to admit it but you're good…

Regina was impressed with Heine's skill. Not bad… Not bad at all…

"Heine!"

Rusty's ginn engages the Wyvern in combat, drawing out its beam saber as he went in.

Hooboy… Regina raises her Mk3 Hoppod "Gungun" Shield in time to parry the beam saber, countering him by executing a beam slash of her own. This is going to be a long day…

"Don't get comfy," The ginn HM gave support by firing its machinegun. The pilot then introduced herself to Rick, "The name's Heine Westenfluss by the way, surrender while you still can."

Regina decided to put some humor into the situation. "Surrender? I've just getting warmed up Heine. Or as Oliver Hazard Perry said it, 'I have but only began to fight!'"

"Strong words, Natural!" Heine, chuckling a bit from her remark, charges at her.

Using the Wyvern's verniers to boost out of the way, Regina executed a drop kick. Aiming at the center of Heine's Ginn HM, she kicked the cockpit area with both feet.

"Argh!" Heine grunted, Hurtling on the floor. Rusty moves out to assist Heine.

"Heine!" The young red haired elite yelled. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Heine responded, "Watch it kid, this one's real good. Don't underestimate her."

Ugh… Why do I always get double teamed on? Regina began to engage the modified ginn.

"Let me introduce myself," The pilot gritted under his pilot helmet. "I'm Russell Mackenzie of the Le Creuset team and I'll be your executioner for the day."

"Le Creuset team?" Regina's eyes narrowed, right now, the very thought of Rau's name annoyed her greatly. "Damnit, so you decided to follow us all the way here eh… I wonder if you are ready for a Euro-Pac-style battle."

"Before this day's over, I'll finish you right here, right now." Rusty raised his beam rifle after putting away his beam saber. "Die, Eurasian! This is for all those ZAFT soldiers you killed during that war!"

Regina blocked the shots with her beam shield, and using her M19 beam rifle to answer the beam shots by firing bursts, canceling out the incoming beam shots from the customized ginn.

She almost reminds me Wynn... Rusty decided to put away his beam rifle and draw out his beam saber again.

"It isn't me who's gonna die today!" Getting back to the offensive, Regina slammed her suit's shoulder on Rusty's ginn so hard that his mobile suit nearly collapsed if he didn't quickly countered the force that Regina had exerted.

Rusty gritted his teeth, fainting back from a beam slash that followed the tackle. I need some help here…

"Miss me, Fury?" Heine prepared to dive bomb Regina from the air, he attacks her with his machinegun.

"Don't hold your breath pal." Regina retorted, putting away her beam rifle and shield, and pulling out both beamsabers. She began swinging both sabers independently from each other, simultaneously fighting both pilots.

"Whoever said women are the weaker sex," Rusty muttered to Heine, "Obviously had rocks in his head!"

Smoke partially obscured the hangar, but it did not provide the cover the Eurasian soldiers had hoped.

The two UN Special Taskforce soldiers remained crouched in their positions, looking over the positions the Eurasians were. Watching heads pop from behind cover.

Luke notices their UN troops were moving out and the Eurasian were staring to move at them.

"Our boys are making their move," He commented.

Daniel replied with a shot that dropped a young Eurasian soldier, and Luke replied with a crack that downed another. Daniel worked his rifle's bolt so rapidly that his fire kept pace with Luke's which was operated automatically.

After they down six men, the Eurasian attempt to stop the UN troops evaporated, the last two retreated back to the relative safety of the crates but are shot before they reach it. All the enemy fire was wild.

At one moment, one of the Eurasian officers scrambled to his feet and ran toward the entrance to the base itself. His cries echo in the hangar as he ran for dear life. Just as he was about to disappear in the smoke, a rifle cracked from the platforms, he fell on his face with a 7.62mm. boat tailed round lodged in his spine.

"Luke," Daniel called out, keeping his eye on the scope. "How many rounds you got left?"

Luke feels his pocket for the magazines, "One mag, that's 30 rounds out of the gun. You?"

"Twenty rounds in four mags and three in the gun," Daniel replied without even checking, he always counted his ammunition in his head, it was a part of his job as a sniper.

"Hope, somebody decides to pick us up soon." He continued, "I don't want to have to use up all my ammo here."

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Black Avalanche was starting to go badly

Several Scandinavian and Equatorial Spec Ops and mercenaries were trapped in the middle of a hostile base. Their support was still several kilometers away. ZAFT had launched an Orbital drop, deploying several dozen units into the base.

The BuCUE Jackal units were now low on ammo and energy as their batteries continue to drain as the time passes, and were outnumbered. The Entry had just exited the facility, they were rushing to their suits.

"Get to your mobilesuits, fast!" Sally Po yelled, as a BuCUE Jackal covers them. Luck however decided to stack the odds against them a little more.

As Sally was about to board her Legionnaire, it gets hit by a shot of beam energy, destroying it instantly. She was thrown blown from the blast a several feet away. Dazed, she pushes herself back to her feet.

"What…?" She turns her to see what shot that weapon, was it ZAFT?

About a hundred feet away was her answer, several dozen mobilesuits she hasn't seen before. Their frame was a humanoid shape, from what she could tell, they were at least with a beam rifle and a shield.

"Pierce!" Zechs yelled, "Entry had been hit!"

Rayer looks at him, "What! By what?"

"Unidentified," Zechs grimaced. "From what Amid and Sally can tell, they're similar to the new Wyvern units. They're quite a few of them."

Pierce yelled in frustration as gives out they order to fall back, giving ZAFT the ground they just gained. The three BuCUE Jackals returned to ground zero.

The surviving mobilesuits of the Entry team fought with the Eurasian mobilesuits. Sally had commandeered Vincent's Leos, seeing that the Eurasian wasn't around. If he doesn't like it, he'd better explain to me where he ran off too.

She fires the suit's MMG68 120mm. multibarrel heavy machinegun and 57mm. CIWS at the crowd of enemy mobilesuits, dodging beamfire by overboosting from side to side. The new suits' pilots obviously knew how to control their machines, there was very little control stuttering, which was common among new pilots. But she guessed they had no actual combat experience. She orders her unit to spread out. She and her team aimed at the cockpit areas of the suits, taking down as many as they could, without taking casualties of their own.

Sally blocks a beam shot with shield, mentally thanking the Equatorial military officer who decided to begin applying anti-beam coating into the military equipment before the Wyvern would come into service. She retaliates with a well aimed burst from the machinegun to cockpit.

"Commander, look out!" One of her team members yelled. She turns around to find a Eurasian mobilesuit just about to swing its beam saber. Damn! She forces to back off but it was too late too block evade, she braces herself for impact.

But attack doesn't come. The mobilesuit gets hit with a volley of green energy rounds, hitting it then exiting the other side. It then falls. Sally, though confused, backs off before the suit explodes. She then turns around to the direction of the shot.

"Who?"

There stood another suit she never seen before, but according to her IFF system it was friendly.

"Look what I found a little deeper into the base," Vincent called to her with a satisfied smile. "Looks like the Eurasian military had been busy."

Sally frowned at the Eurasian mercenary, "So you went treasure hunting. If I was still in the Equatorial military, I would have you court-marshaled for insubordination."

"Well you aren't," Vincent haughtily replied. "And don't be so mad."

He gave an even wider grin, "I saved your life haven't I? Before thankful I even came back."

Sally's raises an eyebrow, "Maybe it's just because I'm using your suit."

Vincent looks at her with mock hurt, "Oh, that's a cruel thing to say."

Additional discussion was interrupted by fire from the Eurasian mobilesuits. When it did, both pilots returned to the professional stances.

"Those suits are GAT-01D Long Daggers," Vincent began. "They're armed with two beam sabers, "Igelstellung" CIWS, shield and a 57mm high-energy beam rifle with a 175mm grenade launcher. They're rather high performance. From what I understand, these things are fitted with coordinator OS's. And they're piloted with the so-called "combat coordinators" we've been hearing so much about or-"

"Children that have been through the nano-enrichment process," Sally finished.

Vincent looks at his Leos in the corner of his eye, "You've seen them?"

Sally nod, "Gamma Gliphalium Regen chambers yes."

"Those weren't filled with Gamma Gliphalium," Vincent replied with a frown, disgusted by it himself. "They're filled with Gamma Glipheptin."

Sally shot a wide eyed glance at the Hyperion, "No… they can't seriously…!"

"They have," Vincent interrupted. "In fact, I believe the end results are piloting those mobilesuits."

Sally was starting to breathe a little faster, she looks at the downed Long Daggers that littered the ground, her stomach turned.

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The tide had begun to turn up in space

With the aid of the Eurasian mobile armors, Artemis had deployed all of its mobile armors. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a problem for ZAFT forces. However, the sheer numerical advantage of the Eurasian was great, and with a presence of the Eurasian Moebius Zeros, who apparently had experienced pilots, were a formidable foe even with the G-Units.

Yzak and Dearka were forced to break off their respective fights as they Gamow and Lee sent distress calls to their mobilesuits as they were under attack. As the return to their ships, they get attacked by a Eurasian Zero and several Moebius.

"Ah…" Wade Mossberg smiled as he saw the two mobilesuits. "The big fish… You're mine!"

He lets loose his gunbarrels and attacks them directly. The Buster and Duel, the batteries weakened by their battles with the Chimera and Siginarugan, sparingly fire back as they as return to the Gamow.

"Damn…! Yzak cursed, as a volley of beam headed his way. He holds up the shield and braces for impact.

The Chimera however jumps in front of the volley, and twirls the Mandarangan rapidly, canceling the beam shots.

Yzak stares the suits, "What the hell are you-?"

"I have a proposition to make," Antonio interrupted as Michael's Siginarugan fires his beamcanon and flaklauncher at the Eurasians. "From what I understand, since the Vesalius is not here, and since the Aegis isn't here either, you're in charge. You guys are in tight spot and so are we, right now this battle is three way and right now the Eurasians are having the upper."

"I'm not telling you to conspire with the enemy, and I'm with the UN, a neutral party. But right now your men should be the first thing on your mind."

The Chimera then aims one of his beamrifles, "So. What it going to be, Yzak Joule."

Yzak stares hard the Chimera, "You know. You have a lot of nerve for a Natural."

He cracks a smirk, "But you've got a point."

He connects himself with all the other ZAFT mobilesuits, he announced that the legged ship, its mobile weapons and the UN forces were for to be considered friendly. Antonio makes a similar transmission.

Naturally, everyone was taken aback by this.

Rusty wondered if that was even Yzak he just heard, he switches his frequency. "Hey Wynn… Did you guys get an order…?"

"Uh huh…" Wynn replied. "I guess… we're allies… at least for now…"

The two Wyverns and three ginns float in zero-g, a little unsure of their temporary alliance.

Leona raises her eyebrow, "This is quite a development…"

Regina shook her head, "That's the Lt. Colonel's initiative for you."

"I guess self-preservation should be primary right now." Heine commented.

The Archangel's bridge was just as flabbergasted.

Murrue dropped her jaw at the audacity of the announcement, "Did I just hear that…? "

"You did," Mu said with a dimpled smirked. "You did."

Natarle shook her head, "That's Antonio for you."

Capt. Zelman made a transmission to the Duel

"What the hell are you thinking Yzak Joule?-!" The Gamow captain yelled, "You realize the penalties we face if-!"

"Stuff it!" Yzak snapped, "Right now, the Eurasians are having the upper hand. If we don't work with them, even if we do win here, we're going to lose a lot of men! If you have any complaints of my actions you can take it to the Defense Council!"

Antonio listened into the transmission and smirks back, "We'll cover you, resupply then get back here."

Yzak nods, the Duel heads to the Gamow, "Copy. C'mon Dearka, let's move it before we miss the fun!"

Buster follows, "Right!"

"Ant," Michael called as the Siginarugan flies beside the Chimera. "What the hell did you get us all into?"

"We'll find out soon enough," He replied, as several dozen mobile armors went at them.

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Vincent frowned as he tried to overboost the Hyperion.

It was as agile as a brick, the vernier system was providing inadequate lift. Because of that, he was relying more the "Armure Lumiere" shield, he knew it was consuming more energy than the beam submachine, canon and knives.

He fires his beam submachinegun at several targets, a mix of ginns and long daggers, Vincent pulls out three beam knives and throws them at three separate mobilesuits at their cockpits. They turn into three explode balls of fire.

"Ms. Po is there any support coming yet?" The platinum haired Eurasian called. "Even this new suit won't last too long in this melee."

Sally looks at him, "You're actually getting nervous?"

The Entry team made a defensive perimeter, using nearby buildings as cover.

"Hey Vincent!" Pierce called as three BuCUE Jackal trot toward them. "Looks like you've got thing under control here."

He whistles as he saw the Hyperion and the devastation it caused. "Man, that thing's hot."

"And quite the gas guzzler," Vincent commented. "My battery's already the halfway gone."

"Well, that's what you get if you're armed with only beam weapons," Sally added.

"True," Vincent nods. "It's still a good set up though."

"Commander!" a Legionnaire Scorpion overboosts toward them, "There's large contingent of ginns and cgues coming from the north, and there's another unit of Long Daggers emerging from the lower base in the northwest and we're getting reports from Red Tango Charlie of a unit of dinns is coming from the southeast."

Pierce sighs with exasperation, "It just keeps getting better and better…" he muttered, then take command of the situation.

"Jacques," He calls. "You and Amid stick around here and support the Entry team."

He switches the frequency, "Zechs, Vince, let's go."

"Copy," both men replied.

He they left, he make one more transmission, "Sally, stand by if anyone gets postal."

She nods, knowing what that meant. "Just makes sure you guys stay within the time limit.

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The two BuCUE Jackals and the Hyperion in the base north of Odessa, and the Chimera and Siginarugan up outside Artemis.

All were pinnacles of mobilesuit design. And their pilots, Antonio Le St. Claire, Michael Takahashi, Vincent Allen Schellezar, Master Pierce Rayer and Zechs Merquise, were some of the finest Natural pilots in current existence. Even with that, they were facing formidable odds. All of them knew there was no other way but to use it.

Five warriors, all at once both of their eyes' irises turn blood red, pupils turn into slits.

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Antonio uses his beamrifles to dispatch the multiple Moebius mobile armors coming at them

Round orbs of explosions dotted the space along the path of the each beam shot. He flies in amidst a cluster of Moebius, reeking havoc as he did, firing his CIWS and chest mounted machineguns.

Several Moebius mobile armors, some were obviously fitted with beam weaponry try to surround the Chimera. They got a nasty surprise in what happens next.

The Chimera's legs transform, turning to its hover or "missile boat" frame. It then sudden starts revolving in a seemingly random axis. It activates the long dormant plasma launcher, what would've a pillar of flame in atmosphere, was a glowing pillar of pure plasma. The long pillar of energy spread out rapidly like ripples in a pond. Catching and destroying Moebius armors stupid enough to come close.

Michael gets a transmission from Antonio

"Mike, clear a path for the Archangel to cross!"

The brunette haired, green eyed Orb soldier nods, "One path, coming right up!"

The Siginarugan boosts toward Artemis.

"Where do ya' think you're goin'?" Wade drawled as he chases after him.

Michael ignores him, he decide switch on his wings, "Activating RHEA system high mobility mode."

The Siginarugan's wings uncover its body, they set themselves in its back, and the thrusters on it give the Siginarugan additional boost.

"Hey!" Wade yelled as he desperately and futilely tries to catch up.

Michael looks over his shoulder, "'later slow poke."

He splits the Sidapa in half and uses the beam kamas to slice anything that tried to get in his way. He left a path of destruction as he boosted to Artemis. At one moment, a Eurasian Drake-class attempts to fire its weapons at him.

Michael shakes his head as he dodges and counters the enemy.

"You just signed your death warrant pal!" He pulls out the beamsaber he got back from the Buster and throws it straight at it, striking the bridge. Not satisfied, Michael goes at the crippled ship. Using the Sidapa, he slices the whole forward section of the ship.

Down on earth, Pierce, Zechs and Vincent were creating similar havoc

Zechs and Pierce went through everything that was on the ground like the clichéd hot knife through butter. They dodged and counter every attack thrown at them and then some. Showing quite clearly, why the BuCUE is one of the most feared land mobilesuits. They occasionally use their railguns, mainly to take out of reach targets. What they really used to effect were the beam sabers, they several times much lighter than the old cutter blades and spikes, making the BuCUE much more maneuverable. It didn't make any difference when they were fighting the ZAFT ginns or the Eurasian long daggers, they just fell.

Zechs sees several dinns just about to fly over him, he level his railgun. Normally a shot like that for him would be 50-50, but into the state he was in, he could easily time his shots with dead accuracy. At the first shot, he hits two dinns.

Pierce comes across a long dagger that had the guts draw out its beam saber at him.

He raises an eyebrow, "Well, well, what a rather brave pilot we got here. Okay, just because you've got such balls, I'm going to just cut your arms and head."

His BuCUE runs across the little distance between it and the long dagger. He jumps, moving his BuCUE's head slowly as he jumps over it. Cutting exactly where he said he would, the arms and head.

Vincent, though he was a little cautious due to the fact he was on a new suit, was also causing a lot of grief.

He was currently sticking with a Romteknica beam knife in each hand, seeing they were lowest energy consuming weapon he had. With the suit standing half-crouched, he runs and slashes at the cockpits of ginns or long daggers like a ninja.

Vincent runs at three long daggers, quickly dispatching two by plunging his knives into the cockpit, he quickly pulls back as the third tries to fire at him. Vincent thrusts the beam blade of his beam knife against a Long Dagger beam saber. He fires his CIWS into the long dagger's head destroying the camera. This causes the pilot to panic, easing pressure on the saber. Vincent capitalizes by thrusting his other knife into the cockpit.

The pilots fighting these men were all generally thinking the same thing.

Were these people even human?

They moved and react so much faster than even most coordinators can handle. Despite being out numbered, they were still gaining the upper hand. They have no idea of what these men were capable of. Because to the state they were in, their reflexes, decision functions and five senses are heightened, making them highly reactive and very efficient in all types of combat. But as if that wasn't enough, they still had one more trump card.

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Each of the five pilots looks at their watches

Several minutes had gone by, just enough to perform the final phase safely.

Okay… All five pilot thought, Here we go!

Their irises makes another metamorphosis, a shade yellow began to emerge from the side of the pupil, it expands leaving only the red on the edges of the iris. In this state, they were experiencing high levels of pain all over their head and body. But they've done this so many times that they learned to ignore the pain for a length of time, just long enough to effectively utilize this state's benefits. In this level of their capabilities, their decision function, reflexes and senses were in a hypersensitive state. Meaning they could hear the subtle sounds like moving parts, breathing, heartbeats, muscle contraction and expansion. Also in this state, people new to this would experience having spatial awareness, the proverbial sixth sense, though experienced users were capable of this even in lower stages.

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Antonio kicks off, with deactivating his PSA,

Seeing that his energy display was almost borderline, and he didn't really needed it by then. This also encouraged several Moebius armors to move in one him. Big mistake.

Antonio pulls out his beamrifles. Without waiting for the computer to lock on target, he fires them along with his Gatling shields, 105mm. canons, railguns, and machineguns. All of them found their targets, demolishing everything the Chimera's pilot considered hostile. It wasn't long when he sees the Moebius Zero who attacked the Duel earlier going at him.

"It doesn't make any difference if I'm alone," Wade boldly declares.

"Y'all a' goin' down!" His gunbarrels attempt to attack the chimera, which activates his Rommel Panzer, absorbing the shots.

The Chimera boosts toward it, Mandarangan in hand.

"Oh you wanna fight eh?" Wade sneered, firing another shot from his linear cannon at Antonio's Chimera. "I'll give you one!"

"Buddy," Antonio murmured, vectoring in on the Zero, "I'd actually be glad if you just get lost... now!"

Wade quickly finds he was fighting someone well beyond his league. In a flash, the Chimera uses its Gatling shields to destroy three of his main gunbarrels, and one of the smaller ones. Antonio boosts at Wade as he tries recalling his remaining gunbarrels. Not quick enough though as the Chimera severed the remaining weapons he had.

"Damn…" Gritting his teeth, seeing that he lost, he pulls back.

Michael also deactivates his PSA

This also attracts several mobile armor, which were all easily destroyed by one swing of the Sidapa and several aimed machinegun bursts. As he close in to Artemis, he spots a Moebius Zero attacking the entrenched Hawke team. Without a word, he moves in.

Ritchie quickly notices him, "Hey! More targets to blow up!"

He quickly aims several gunbarrel at him.

The Siginarugan splits the Sidapa scythe into two and crosses its arms.

As the gunbarrels close in, Michael yells, "Get a load of this!"

He throws both kamas, which twirled like boomerangs, severing the wire of the attacking gunbarrels before returning to their owner.

Ritchie clicks his tongue, now focusing all his attention on the mobilesuit. With his surviving gunbarrels and his lineargun, begun firing at it. Michael dodges by a series of quick strafes and rolls. He links the Sidapa together, he hold the scythe with one hand as the other held the beamcanon. He levels the beamcanon and fires a grenade.

Michael looks away before the Zero shoots the grenade, letting loose a blinding light. It was the same tactic the Duel had used earlier.

"Argh!" Ritchie yelled, while the Zero's pilot was blinded, Michael destroys all the remaining gunbarrels.

Despite being blinded, Ritchie manages to pull away before, the Siginarugan finishes him.

"I'll get you next time!" The young pilot snarled as he got away.

"Hey," Gabriel sends a transmission. "UN pilot, thanks for the assist."

"You're welcome," Mike replied as he boosts off.

Gabriel smirks as he watches the suit fly away, "It's just like back in the Euro-Pac."

Mike smiled, glad to see that old allies were still within ZAFT's ranks.

"It is."

Vincent mounts out the "Forfanterie" beam cannons over the Hyperion's shoulders

The resulting beam shot wipes out several the last surviving long daggers, effectively wiping out the base's ability to defend itself. Vincent fires a second shot, this time at the air, obliterating several dinns. Vincent frowns when hear the low power alarm which went off after the last shot.

"I'm almost out…" He mutters as several ginns head for him.

"Vincent!" His Leos appears from behind him.

"Catch!" Sally throws at him his mobilesuit nodachi, the "Durandal."

The Hyperion catches it. As he did, he unintentionally looks up, finding that the ravens were circling the sky. One flies toward the Hyperion, perching on its shoulder.

Vincent looks at it for a moment, and then speaks.

"I see…"

He looks at the ginns, the levels his sword him. "The ravens marked you all, your deaths shall be by my hand."

The Hyperion suddenly dashes forward, the Durandal in hand. Like a berserker of the old Germanic and Saxon tribes, he charges headlong at them, he uses the 360 degree shield despite the little power he had left. With a horizontal slash, he severs three ginns in half. He reels back then lunges in for a thrust, impaling two more.

Zechs runs into a crowd of long daggers, cutting several in a row.

He makes his BuCUE jump on top of a long dagger, the dagger pilot shoots his beam rifle wildly. Zechs makes the long dagger turn to one side, shooting the long dagger beside it. Zechs then activates the double beam saber in the BuCUE Jackal's head and stabs it into the long dagger's cockpit. Jumping off the dispatched suit, he pierces the cockpit of another with its Armor Jaeger blades.

A group of ginns then catches his attention, "Numbers…"

He activates his beamsabers, "…mean nothing!"

Dodging the machinegun fire, he runs pat them cutting in several places as he did.

His partner, Pierce, was just as busy dissecting enemy mobilesuits.

He was using similar run and cut tactics. The young lets out a battle cry as he crashes and cuts his way through a unit of ginns. At the same time, a Dinn dives down to strafe at him. Pierce levels the railgun, but does not fire immediately. After few more seconds, just as the pilot was about to let loose a barrage of missiles, Pierce fires. But it completely misses the Dinn.

The pilot of the Dinn smirked, "What the heck are you shooting at? You can't even hit the side of a-"

The Dinn gets hit. But not by enemy fire, it struck by a crashing Dinn. Pierce had shot it just at the right moment. Both Dinns explode in midair by another railgun shot.

A pair of Dinns attempt to strafe run at the battle weary units below.

But unfortunately Zechs and Pierce spot them and were running on high speed opposite at them. They continue on until at one moment when both mobilesuit jettison their railguns. Pierce's BuCUE jumps on the back of Zechs', at the same time, Zechs jumps. After reaching the height of the jump, Pierce lunges upwards, using Zechs' BuCUE for leverage. He yells out a cry as he his beamsabers activate all at once. Both Dinns explode after they had been bisected in the middle.

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All five pilots look at their watches, there was only seconds to spare.

Antonio and Michael take off their helmets and loosen their suits. Pierce, Zechs and Vincent did the same with their shirts. All of them take out a syringe that held a transparent bluish-green substance. After fastening their upper right arms tightly, they all inject it into their system. Their eyes began to return to normal. The yellow and red first disappear from the iris, and then the pupils return to their normal round form.

All of them were breathing deep. All were in a cold sweat.

And all thought the same thing. That was too close…

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Watch out!"

Frank yells as his EUMS-Mk104 Legionnaire Type Firefly fires his CIWS at the Eurasian positions, peppering them with ordnance.

"There's our cue," Daniel said as he began packing his rifle.

Luke nods, "I'll cover you down, go!"

Daniel tosses a rope he tied to the barricade earlier down to the lower level, with his rifle case strapped to his back, he gingerly rappels down to the lower floor. All the time Luke looked out for anyone who might take a potshot on him.

At the base of the rope, he kneels and draws his sidearm. "It's clear, go!"

Luke shoulders the strap of his rifle, then rappels down haphazardly, almost loosing his grip halfway down. Both men dashed like mad across the hangar toward a waiting shuttle.

"Christ sake…!" Luke heaved in horse breaths as they ran toward it, "It didn't look… that far… when… we were… up… there…!"

"Just keep going," Daniel gulped, trying to talk. Think about the… Eurasians… We better keep… running… God knows… what they… do to us… Don't… stop!"

They charged through the clearing, accompanied by other men, ignoring the rounds exploding around them, they saw the shuttles engines starting. The men commandeering the craft saw them, now waited anxiously, ready.

The shuttle lifted off the wading dock as the men jumped in.

Daniel's and Luke's knees gave way, falling down to the floor of the shuttle. Daniel rolled on his back, blinking from sweat in his eyes as they streak down his face. His chest heaved and his head pounded. With his hand, he felt Luke's shoulder and arm at his side, and smiled triumphantly. All was well… for the moment anyway.

All the UN soldiers have now returned to the ship.

Most went straight to their assigned stations, Jethro and Luke headed to the bridge, others took the wounded and Daniel to the infirmary, the sniper had passed out due to exhaustion, while Miyuki and others went for the hangar.

Once she made it to the hangar, the last of the Eurasian had barely left, Miyuki went right for the Strike GINN.

"Murdoch, Get the Sword pack ready!" She called down.

"Ma'am, we haven't changed the Ginn's battery yet!" Murdoch called up to her.

"So, who cares?" She snapped, "It won't have a ship to be recharged if I don't."

Murdoch sighs, "The kid has the Sword pack, you'll have to use the others."

"Then I'll take the Aile pack," She gets into the cockpit, and began activating the machine.

She hisses in pain as she tries to raise the arm Ivana had dislocated.

Murdoch notes the arm, "You really should have that checked first."

"There's no time," She replied, smiling at the head mechanic. "Thanks for the concern though."

Murdoch with a grin, "You're one of those few pilots that never got to my nerves."

"Thank… I guess." Miyuki looks at the arm and grimaces, "Looks like I have to do it…"

She grabs the wrist and bites on her lip, this is gonna be fun…

Miyuki pulls her arm suddenly, forcing her elbow joint back into place.

It makes a disgusting, muffled crack. She irked in the pain, almost biting into her lip.

Murdoch cringed, almost feeling the pain himself.

"Everything's good to go."

Jethro looks over Luke's shoulder as his fingers rapidly tap on his laptop's keyboard which was linked to one of the terminals, "Open that gate Mr. Lawman."

"Give me sec… there!"

The gate that protected the Archangel hangar begins to lurch open, but just as it was halfway, open it stops suddenly.

"Spc. Lawman, it stopped," Natarle called.

Luke frowned, "What hell…?"

He checks the system to find the problem, he cringes, "Damn! The charges went off early! The virus is already spreading, I can't access it without infecting the Archangel!"

The black-haired XO frowns, "Then we'll have to blast our way through."

Jethro shook his head, "No good, the security turrets'll shoot anything that makes an electronic weapons discharge and missiles, the Archangel will hit from all sides."

Luke gritted his teeth, "I guess I made it too simple."

"Can't be helped," Frank's image appeared. "I'll take care of it, the security turrets only react with electric charges right."

"Affirmative Snow," Jethro responded. "If you detonate any charges they'll look for the source to the trigger."

"I don't want anyone turning into a fallen hero because of this," Murrue called. "Come back in one piece."

Frank nods, "Keep the light on for me."

His image disappears on screen, the bridge watch as the Legionnaire Firefly flies off.

The Strike GINN walks into the catapult

Setting itself up the mobilesuit to be fitted with the Aile pack, as this being done Miyuki quickly adjusts the control settings to compensate for her injured arm.

"Bridge," She calls. "Up any heads up on what I'll be facing?"

"Not much ma'am, thanks to the temporary truce."

Mir replied. "Kira and the Blitz are engaging two Zeros over the ship. Aside from that there's a few Moebius and Mistral mobile armors detected, not much."

She nods, "I copy, I'll be heading out now."

Mir nods back, "Strike Ginn you're clear for launch."

"Miyuki Kajiura," She calls as she prepares for the discharge. "Strike Ginn moving-!"

"Yuki!" Murrue's image suddenly appears.

Miyuki's eyes widen slightly but she keeps calm face. "Murrue?"

"Wait… I…" The captain hesitated.

She finally finds some resolve and looks at her old friend.

"I need to know… I need know who you are now."

"Would you really want to know?" Miyuki smiled sadly.

"Try me," Murrue said firmly.

She chuckled unemotionally, "You asked for it. Fine. I'm known in the plants before I married Darren as Miyuki Nobuko, the "Ultimate Shield". I graduated from the ZAFT academy top of my class, earning my self a red coat. At the wake of the war, after Ides of March incident, I was assigned to SCICOM there I helped make the final development of..."

"The N-Jammers…" Murrue finished.

She nods, "We amplified the device's range, making them effective for several miles. Did you know that it was designed originally as a counter-meltdown system?"

"I figure it was designed for something like that," Murrue replied. "That woman also said you also the…"

"I was," Miyuki answered simply. "I was the one who set the plans for operation Uroboros, it wasn't really a big deal. Your so-called counter-intelligence groups made easy, you'd be amazed how much intelligence we had."

"You must rather high up the ZAFT hierarchy to command that authority," Murrue observed.

"I was in Patrick's inner circle, along with Ray Yuki, Ezalia Joule, Louise Leitner, Jeremy Maxwell, Herman Gould, Rau Le Creuset, Lukav Minaev, Reed Leighman and Cynthia Knowles."

Miyuki smiles emotionlessly, "It's very unsettling isn't it? The thought of someone you consider friend is the cause of the deaths of thousands? That is if you still call me your friend."

Murrue forces a smile, "You are. It doesn't matter what you did."

Miyuki shows a genius smile, "I see… That's good to hear."

But what if you knew…?

"There are some things I'm not ready to tell you… I need time…"

Her friend nods, "I can wait. We can talk about it in a better time."

Murrue's image disappears.

"I just hope that I can tell you by then," Miyuki muttered.

"Miyuki Kajiura, Strike Ginn launch!"

The Strike and Blitz took on the two Moebius Zeros

With somewhat difficulty since this was their first time for both pilots to face one of these machines in combat, and in an area smaller than in Heliopolis.

They had teamed up well before the announcement in the radio, seeing that the Eurasian Zeros armed with beam weapons were the bigger threat.

Nadir, being the more aggressive one, was keeping the Blitz preoccupied. Whist Sarah and Kira squared off one on one.

Kira blasted towards the Sarah's Zero, dodging the attacks it fired, and swinging its massive blade at the machine. However, only ending in failure as the Zero dodged the attack.

Sarah smirked, "Got you."

In one quick action, she closes in and spreads her gunbarrels around the Strike.

"Damnit…" Kira muttered. He wasn't fighting like he usually does, he was also fighting a conflict within his mind.

The words of Garcia, "You are a traitor to the coordinators," kept repeating in his head through his head.

"LEAVE US ALONE!" Kira yelled.

As all of a sudden, the Moebius loses three of its gun barrels from a beam boomerang,

"What the–! Who did that?-!" Sarah scowled as the Strike ginn came out of nowhere armed with the Aile pack. The strike ginn caught the beam boomerang in one hand, it was same one Kira tried to use earlier.

"Kira!" Miyuki called out, as the two machines flew side by side, as the Strike Ginn brought out Chaya and Be-day.

"Kajiura-sensei!" Kira called out.

"We got to clear a path for the Archangel keep her guarded since she can't use its weapons in here!" Miyuki called out to him, as Sarah's Zero seemed to hesitate, as now it was facing multiple opponents, as it was usually the one that had the numbers on its side.

Sarah scowled, "I'll get you all for this!" Her Zero leaves the hangar.

"Yeah that's right." Nadir laughed at his teammate, "Get out of here ya wuss!"

As soon as he said this, he gets attacked simultaneously by several mobilesuits.

"Back off!" Miyuki uses her swords and cuts off a gunbarrel.

"You'll pay for that!" he fired its linear at the strike ginn and begun redirecting his gunbarrels at it.

The two Wyverns and the ginns of Rusty, Leona and Heine all rush into the fray.

"Oh no you don't!" Kira, Regina, Wynn, Rusty and Leona each went for a gunbarrel.

Nadir grits his teeth as he began struggling over the numbers of his enemy. He uses the gunbarrel to target each individual suit

Heine gets in front of it and throws his heavy sword, striking and destroying the linear gun.

Nadir yells at the impact, at the same time each of the other mobilesuits sever or destroy the remaining gunbarrels.

When Nadir recovered, he realizes he too had been out fought. "Sonova–! Argh!"

He finally pulls out.

Sarah smirked as she sees Nadir following her, "And you were saying?"

"Shut up!"

"Okay mister gate!"

Frank yelled as he back away from the partially open ship entrance gate, "Time for you to open sesame!"

He pushes the trigger on a hand detonator. Several points of the large gate exploded. At first, the blast didn't seem have any affect. Frank then shoots it several times, which prompted the gate's security gun turrets. They concentrated fire on the Firefly. Frank dodges the attacks which hit the gate instead. After several moments of dodging the turret fire, the gate finally gave way, breaking and splitting in several places.

"Archangel!" Frank radios in, "All clear, all ya' have ta do's push them pieces aside now."

"Copy that Sgt. Snow," Ramius replied gratefully. "Please return to the Archangel now."

"You don't have ta tell me twice, skipper."

"Archangel is Launching, prepare for launch!"

Murrue's voice echoed throughout the ship, as Regina and Wynn place the Gungnir in the middle of the hangar, Regina began arming it.

"Kira! Miyuki-sama!" Miriallia franticly called the two mobile suits.

"Come back the Archangel is taking off!" She called.

Kira began to take off, as Miyuki looked at the ginns of Leona and Rusty.

"Thank you guys..." She told the Blitz and the Ginns, as both the Strike and strike ginn retreated.

"No problem boss," Leona replied. "I'm just glad to see you."

"Just watch yourself with the Earth Forces brass," Rusty called. "Naturals in general may not be bad but those guys aren't worth trusting."

Miyuki nods with a smirk, "I'll remember that."

"I glad we don't have to fight this time," Rusty replied. "But next time, I'll be gunning for that ship."

Miyuki nods, "I won't make easy for you or your team though, so watch out."

Rusty smirked, "I will, I will."

"Hey!" Frank's voice cracks in the radio, "You aren't plannin' to leave without me are ya?"

The Archangel's bridge watch as the Equatorial made mobilesuit approached them.

Mu smirked, "Of course not. But you better hurry, we pretty much worn out our welcome here."

Frank laughs with his usual gruffness, "Right you are mate!"

With that, The Strike and the Strike Ginn land on the Archangel, followed by the Legionnaire Firefly. Before however, Miyuki collects the several severed gunbarrels that were floating, seeing that they may come in handy, especially for their own Zero.

"Gungnir is armed and ticking!" Regina announces through the radio, "Fire in the hole! 30 seconds!"

"Neumann, maximum engine output, get us out of here!" Murrue yelled.

With that, the Archangel launched into space leaving a burning hangar behind them, the Wyverns and the ZAFT mobilesuits in front of her, clearing the way.

"I've never thought I'd be doing this," Heine commented, "Protecting an Earth forces ship."

"You and me partner," Leona replied. "You and me."

Regina looks at her timer, "Ten seconds… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one…"

Instead of a conventional explosion, the Gungnir gives off a powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Though it was modified, the EMP weapon was still powerful enough to disable the electronics of all mobile armors, conventional weaponry. Any metallic object close to the blast shatters as a powerful current passes through them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Highwind Bombers silently flew as they made over to the base.

"This is Black Knight leader, we are now just about to pass target area. All friendlies transmit your IFF codes to the designated frequency; we are now ready to commence bombing run."

Pierce looks up, his suit's IFF system points out where they are. "It's about time you guys got here, copy, I'm sending ours now."

After a few second the squadron leader's console fills up several series of numbers, next to them were their corresponding unit.

The leader then spoke again, "This is Black Knight leader, All authorized units accounted for. Kids, commence run."

The nine cloaked bombers opened their bomb bay doors as they lower to the recommended bombing altitude. They then fall out of formation, splitting up to target any hostile mobile weapons and surviving conventional weaponry.

As a bomber picks a target, one of the Long Daggers, it flies over it lines up then releases a one thousand pound RGW-79 "Armor Scythe" radar guided anti-armor smart bomb.

The weapon was developed by the Scandinavian and Orb armies to use against armored or mobile weapons forces. It is designed to pierce the armor of a target using high velocity, the "Armor Scythe's" outer surface is covered with shark like scales, these make the bomb streamlined, making it capable of reaching high speeds without the need of propellant which give it a heat signature. This weapon was one of the most cost effective ways of combating enemy mobilesuits aside from using mobilesuits.

The bomb cuts through the air like a bullet, in less than 10 seconds the bomb falls from a height of 5000 ft. to hit its target dead on. It struck right where the cockpit would be, 2 seconds after impact it explodes. The Long Dagger split into several pieces, flying in every direction.

This was repeated all over the base as both ZAFT and Eurasian units get hit.

The remaining Scandinavian/ Equatorial Taskforce make their escape, cheering the bombers on as they did.

"Yeah ha ha ha!" A Special Forces Equatorial pilot yelled gratefully, "Flyboys! I love you!"

"Let's move boys," Pierce barked. "We ain't out of the woods yet!"

He turned to Jacques, "Leone, pop those flares!"

"Aye sir," Jacques presses button on his controls. A flare launches from his BuCUE, signaling the way for the Osprey Carriers to land.

Five Ospreys approach them, the lead unit acted as a gunship, firing it heavy machineguns and CIWS around the LZ.

The four others land, their backs facing parallel to each other .

"Okay people!" Sally yelled, "Let's get the hell out of here!"

The mobile units rushed quickly but orderly into the carriers, within a minute they were all strapped in and secure.

"Dust off! Dust off!" The lead Osprey pilot orders, the four carriers lifted off and left the base in squadron formation and disappeared into the night.

Inside the Ospreys, the cheers were now were much louder as the pilots were finally heading home.

Pierce happily opens his cockpit as he makes one last transmission, "Kingfisher, this is Faust, Operation Black Avalanche complete."

"Copy that Faust," Nathaniel replied, "Good job. We'll meet at point Ostrich."

"Roger Kingfisher," The young merc replied, "Over and out."

Lenneth winced when she hears the reports up at the base.

Attack failure, force remnants in full retreat.

"Damnit…" She cursed, the operation had turned into a disaster.

She looks at Noin's Aries, "It seems like your group has taken the upper hand."

"Looks that way," Noin replied.

"I hope we meet again," Lenneth replied. "Unit, pull up the disabled suits. We're pulling out!"

Several Dinns pick the pilots had had been downed, Lenneth recalls her Guul and they left, leaving the battered and scarred Tallgeese and three Aries.

Noin sighs with relief, slumping on her seat. "I did it… Barely, but we actually did it."

Xuiying nods, "That was cutting it closer than I'd ever want to."

The battle in Odessa's snowy land was over.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Battle in L3 however wasn't quite over.

The Duel and Buster were back in the fighting.

"It's payback time!" Dearka yelled as he snaps together his gunlauncher and sniper rifle to form the 350mm. anti-armor shotgun. He fires a burst which wipes out several Moebius armors. Without the Zeros for support, Artemis' resistance had collapsed entirely. There is nothing regular Moebius armors can do against G-units.

"Think you're hot stuff?" Michael called as the Siginarugan held a beam kama in each hand and crosses her arms. "Check this out!"

The Siginarugan once again throws them like boomerangs, they take out several Moebius in one pass.

"Nice," Dearka commented.

The Duel and Chimera went at the surviving ships of the Eurasians, Yzak went for the Drake while Antonio took the Nelson.

The Chimera levels all its weapons at the Nelson, "Sorry."

He blasts it on its port side.

Yzak took a more brutal approach, he flies up to the bridge of the Drake.

"Take this, cowards!" He fires a grenade into the bridge, it explodes inside, taking out the entire tower.

The legged-ship catches the corner of his eye. He smirked, "You're so close yet so far… well, I give self-preservation always wins out in situations like these."

Yzak was many things, but he definitely always keeps his word. They would let the Archangel escape, for now.

"All units pull back, we're returning to the plants for repairs."

The Chimera flies next to him.

"Looks like our little partnership is over," Antonio commented.

Yzak nods, "Looks that way. But keep in mind. When we meet again, I'm not holding back."

Antonio back, "I'll counting be that, Yzak Joule"

The Chimera and Siginarugan boost off.

"Hey!" Yzak calls out, "How did you know my name anyway?"

"Wynn told me," Antonio answers with a smile.

Yzak frowns, "Wynn? You mean Aelia… ugh! She better not tell anything personal…"

Antonio laughs, "I don't pay attention to any of that."

Ivana ordered and organized rescue and recovery teams, as soon as all hostile forces left the area.

Garcia was injured during the attack, a Moebius armor had crashed into the control room he was in. One she had been in only seconds before it happened. He was unconscious, and still was, when he was found but only suffered some burns and minor cuts. He would survive, much to her disdain.

However, she wasn't going to be with him for much longer. The attack on the Base near Odessa had reached her, high command was demanding that she was to return to Earth as soon as clear up mission were completed. She found it highly vexing that Hyperion had been stolen and that 24 of the 30 long daggers had been destroyed by the ZAFT attack. But both the incidents in Artemis and the Odessa bases weren't complete losses. Both had given plenty of useful data in the strengths and limits of the Atlantic Federation mobilesuits as well as their own. As well how they were capable of against ZAFT's own machines. Overall, it was a good deal for her and the military.

Inside the Nelson-class "Ulysses", Ivana enters the bridge, all the officers in there quickly stood attention as she enter. Ivana nods at them and they resume their work. The ship had remained on stand by during the attack, it had been stationed in a hangar on the far side so it was spared from the assault. It was carrying Long Daggers but Ivana had decided not to deploy them during the attack.

Ivana takes a seat beside the ship's captain.

"What is the status of the rescue operations?" The blonde haired, brown eyed officer asked.

"The rescue team's progress is faster that expected," the captain replied. "87percent of Artemis' current personnel are accounted for."

She nods, "Captain, please prepare to disembark as soon as this is done."

"Yes ma'am."

"However…" She continued, "We're not going directly to Earth."

"Ma'am?"

The female officer looks at him in the corner of his eye, "I'll take responsibility."

"Then where we going to first?" the captain asked.

"The space debris belt," Ivana replied. "That is where the Archangel is likely to go. And we're going to go after it."

Yzak and Dearka enter the locker room together

"That was some fine kettle of fish," Dearka comments as he tosses his helmet into locker.

Rusty turns around to face them, already wearing his red uniform. "So Yzak, you ready to face a board of inquiry when we get back?"

Yzak stares at them with a raised eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Zelman will report this," The red haired elite replied. "He's not going to just overlook this man."

The platinum haired pilot stares at him, then smiles smugly. "Oh I wouldn't be too sure of that."

Nicol looks at him as though he's lost it. "Capt. Zelman probably has recorded footage of you working with the Earth forces."

"I don't care," Yzak calmly replied as he took off his normal suit. "First off Nicol, we were working the UN Forces who are a neutral party."

"And you guys didn't have to follow my orders," Yzak pointed out as he puts on his pants uniform. "Neither did captain Zelman, he's a ship captain, he had the power to overrule my authority. If he really didn't want what had happened to occur, all he had to do was take over command."

"And besides," Yzak continues, putting on his jacket. "The fact you guys still followed my orders make you guys just as guilty as I am."

Rusty nods with a grin, "That's because ZAFT does not have a proper military ranking structure, every ship and team is considered one whole individual…"

"Which means everyone in the Gamow and Lee is to be punished if the Defense Council finds the actions unbecoming." Yzak finishes, putting on his belt and adjusts his collar.

Dearka also finished changing back to his uniform, he leaned against his locker with a smirk. "You must've thought of this before you accepted that Le St. Claire guy's offer."

Yzak closes his locker door, "I did."

He begins to walk out of the locker room. "Now c'mon, let's get something to eat, I'm starved. We can make plans on how take down the legged-ship over lunch."

Inside the Archangel's hangar,

UN soldiers, Archangel Personnel and Heliopolis civilians all cheer as they just escape Artemis with their lives.

Frank laughed boisterously as he was lifted over his fellow soldier's shoulders.

Antonio opens his cockpit, to be greeted by a crowd of people cheering him.

"You're the man sir!" a UN soldier yelled.

"Scratch another for the Spartan of Waves!" another called.

He enthusiastically raises his hand with a smile acknowledging and thanking for their praises.

Mu and Murdoch walk toward him. Murdoch slaps him hard on the back. Antonio cringes, still feeling the after affects of the final phase.

"I don't what you did to make ZAFT did what they did," He said. "But hell I'm glad did it!"

Antonio manages to smile, "Thanks… I think."

"Speaking of which," Mu looks him with a half serious look. "How did you do it anyway?"

Antonio shrugged, "I just ask him."

As he was surrounded by people thanking and congratulating him. Miyuki makes her way to him.

She whispers at his ear, "Ton-ton, we need to talk."

He looks at her, "What is it this time?"

"It's about Flay…"

Michael had the same reception when she exited the Siginarugan, though was a little smaller.

He smiles and laughs in the group, happy as they were of being alive. That's when realizes something was missing, he looks around. Regina wasn't in the hangar. He turns to the direction of her Wyvern to find it was empty.

His eyes widen.

Gina…

He drops his helmet and runs out of the hangar.

In the Infirmary

Daniel wakes up to find himself lying on a bed with an oxygen mask over his mouth. He quickly realizes he had passed out several moments after he and Luke had entered the shuttle. He doesn't move his body, instead shifts his eyes around, seeing if anyone's there.

"You're awake…" A soft British accented voice said.

He looks to right to find Naomi. She was sitting there right beside him. Her concerned and worried eyes told him why.

"Naomi…" He began.

She smiles and places a finger over her lip, "Shh… don't talk, you need to regain your strength. Don't worry about fighting for now, we're out of Artemis."

"I'm sorry," Daniel whispered. "I was-"

"You did what you had to," Naomi interrupted. "Don't worry, I understand that. And you did it with flying colors."

She smiles at him, "Like you always do."

Daniel tiredly smiles back, "Thanks."

Elsewhere in the Archangel

Flay found herself being confronted by Sai Argyle, Miyuki Kajiura and Antonio Le Saint Claire.

She didn't like the looks in their eyes, particularly Miyuki's. Though they seem casual, they had an eerie coldness to them.

Her arms were crossed, one hand rubbed the elbow she had forcefully realigned. After the fight with Gurlukovich and her chat with Murrue, she wasn't in the mood of being sympathetic. Her meeting with her former teammates only calmed her just a bit.

Antonio gave her a stern look, he wasn't happy when he found out about from Miyuki what she did in the Cafeteria.

"Flay. We need to talk."

Hangar

All of the mobilesuits were now in their respective positions, as Kira came out seeing both Murdoch and Mu down on the ground.

"Hey Kid," Mu said as Kira floated right by him, not saying a word.

"What's with him?" Wynn asked coming down, as both Mu and Murdoch shrugged.

She looked at Kira as he left the hangar. "What in the world…? Kira…?"

Llewelyn was about to follow him when Lucian. "Let 'em go. He needs time to be with himself."

She looks at him, "Luke?"

"He needs space," Luke replied simply. "It's the best thing we do for him right now."

Kira walked alone in the hallway in his room, suddenly feeling drained inside.

"I'm… a traitor?" He asked no one in particular.

Birdie perches on his shoulder, as he continued on to his room.

Jethro looks at the data file he had taken from Artemis' mainframe

It would prove useful in the near future to UN and it members someday. He had already made a copy of the data and secretly transmitted them to his connection in North America. It was exactly the same way he did it with data of the Chimera, Siginarugan, even Orb's Astray models. No one knew of his alternate allegiance, not even Antonio. But it was for the best, what they didn't know won't hurt them. He only hope they would understand when they found out.

Regina simply stared as the shattered rock that been Artemis as it disappears into the distance.

Her heart wrenched, even though she had been forced out of her own home and betrayed by her own people, it was still her home and they were still her people. It still hurt her when she saw soldiers from her home, even if they consider her their enemy, dying for what they held dear. Not knowing how much they were just mere pawns to the higher ups, expendable personnel they can just throw away. Oh, it hurt her, very much.

Michael stood just behind her. "Regina… Are you hurt? Do you want me to take you-?"

She turns to him, tears streaming down her face. She her wraps arms around him. "Please...don't say anything..."

Michael, though unsure, held firmly yet gently, comforting her as best he could.

"Thank you..." She whispered, sobbing, letting her rest on her shoulders.

Michael strokes his hand over her light brown hair. "Gina..."

"...Yes..."

He holds her closer to himself, closing his eyes.

"It's alright, cry all you want..."

"...I'm right here..."

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Down on Earth

Nathaniel's force had just arrived in Maltepe, Turkey just east of Istanbul. Technically, Turkey was a part of Eurasia however like Ukraine, has been neglected by the central government. The economic situation here in the Middle East wasn't as sever as it was in Eastern Europe, thanks to the tourist trade. They went here because there were several Scandinavian military bases, like the naval base near Maltepe. Also, the Middle Eastern governments here had a secret agreement with Scandinavia and the EU, to provide support to Scandinavian, EU and UN troops when it is requested. And finally, Nathaniel had friends and connections in the Turkish local government.

Sally Po, Simon West, Xuiying Hong and Nathaniel Wolfthorne all gathered in his office in the Javelin which was docked along with the original Skiold-class and the Tyr in an underground section of a Scandinavian Naval harbor. The Siegfried was docked along with the other conventional ships. Nathaniel rests his head on his hands, staring at the extra data that had gathered on his laptop.

"I see… And that's the reason you were delayed."

Sally nods, "Yes sir. Specialist Epps stumbled on it when we were extracting the target data."

Simon, who was leaning against desk, shook his head. "Deacon's hell… Its bad enough they've attempted this two years ago with soldiers. Now they're doing it with bloody kids?"

Xuiying looked away at the images presented, "Eurasia has been looking for an edge against its neighbors for years… they even gone this far."

Sally nods, "This is going to delay Meteor, right?"

Xuiying, Simon and Nathaniel among each other, they had no idea.

"It may be too late you know," Xuiying pointed out.

Sally sighs, "I know… It just…"

"I've got two little girls waiting for me back in Orb," Simon said suddenly.

He places a hand over her shoulder, "I know how you feel."

Nathaniel sighed, closes his eye and rubs his temples. "It's up to the higher ups what'll happen from here on in."

He then opens his eyes, "We'll have to live with whatever decision they'll make. Whether we like it or not."

Out on the dock

While Nathaniel decided to stick around a bit, Pierce and Vincent were leaving soon. Lucrencia Noin watches as they had their mobilesuits along with the Hyperion loaded on to a V/STOL transport carrier Pierce owned.

Unlike the military higher ups, Noin had no problems of Vincent taking the Hyperion who forfeited his share of the pay to keep it. He found it after all. And it also because the very sight of it angered her, reflecting exactly her thoughts of the Eurasian central government. They created highly advanced and expensive weapons systems like this and yet they were neglecting their own people's needs to achieve it? In her mind, this was as best of a punishment the Eurasian government will get. After all, in the world of politics, there was no such thing as justice, just 'compensation'.

She walks toward Pierce, "Leaving already?"

Pierce looks at her at the corner of his eye, "Yeah… A merc's life is always on the move, especially during war. We had a contract slated after this one, we'll heading to North Africa for a longer lasting stint."

Noin's nose wrinkles, "So… you're going to work for ZAFT now? Even after what you done?"

"Hey… don't give me that look," He told her. "I'm a merc, that's just how business is."

She sighs, clearly a little upset of the whole thing. "Yeah I know…"

"Y'know how I feel about it," She adds. "Forget it."

She looks at him "Why did you leave the EU military anyway?"

Pierce shrugged, "Being a soldier, you don't get a lot of action most of the time. Being a merc however, you're almost guaranteed to be in the thick of it. You know me Lucy, I'm an adrenaline junkie, I look for trouble."

Lucrencia nods reluctantly, "Yeah… I guess…"

She manages to give smile, "You know… this is the first time in a long time you kept call me that."

He smiles, "I figure you missed being called that."

"Pierce," Vincent calls him. "The suits are loaded and strapped in."

"Start her up for me," He replied. "I'll be there in minute!"

"We'll I guess this is goodbye," Pierce sighed.

Noin nods, "Seems that way…"

The two drew each other's face closer, letting their lips touch. Vincent was about to call Pierce again when he sees then. He rolls his eyes and gets back into the V/STOL. The two stayed that way for several minutes.

As they separated from each other, they were surprised to find Zechs.

Zech looks at Pierce with a straight face, he said calmly, "You couldn't resist a goodbye kiss. Eh, Pierce?"

Pierce looks at him, "Oh… hi Zechs. Look, it's not like we'll be meeting each other anytime soon."

Zechs cracks a smirk and shook his head, this wasn't the first time he caught them kissing and probably won't be the last. "Whatever."

He offers his hand, "It's been nice working with again, Master."

Pierce takes it, "Same here buddy."

They gripped each other's hand tight, "Let's do this again sometime."

Master Pierce Rayer heads into the transport.

"Hey," Noin calls out, "Who in ZAFT hired you anyway?"

Pierce looks over his shoulder, "One of Legate Michael Takahashi's old colleagues."

He uses the title of a Spartan Guard's corps commander, formally, its name is 'Legatus Legionis.' They were a Roman Legion's overall commander.

"Andrew Waltfeld, the Desert Tiger"

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A/N: Gah…! Fights all over the place… And my longest chapter to boot. Thank God, that's over. Juggling between work and this monstrosity, I'm almost fit for a straight jacket here! Yeah I know, using Long Daggers this early in the story's a stretch, but I had to think of something to even the playing field down there.

And is it just me, or did the Artemis battle almost resembles the battle of Gryps 2 near the end of Gundam Z? And I think I made Yzak a little TOO decisive-minded…

Please R & R.

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Glossary

LZ- Landing zone