Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Gundam Seed Destiny


Fic is now just over 1 year old. Throwing that out there for the sake of it.

Last chapter was short. This chapter isn't even done yet (while I'm writing this) and it exceeds the last's count. This chapter is actually the longest of this branch of the fic, at 21k words (wrote this part when it's in FF editing). Story wise though it isn't, because if you scroll all the way down, you'll see I copy/pasted the ORB-0x machine specs there, which is completely skipable if you don't care/already know them. So in reality, this chapter is 15-16k words long.

Directed at Fireminer: Yes, this is your lucky day. I love warship on warship battles. In fact, I'll go as far as to say the crappy movie known as Star Trek: Nemesis (Rotten Tomatos gave it 37%) is partially redeemed because of it's end battle, as one sided as it was. I like em that much =D


Bursts of fire and glimmers of beams sparked and ignited the entire battlefield, consisting of the sea just to the south of the ORB Union, and the shores of it's main island. ORB mobile weapons, consisting of mainly transformable Murasames and fixed-form Astrays, although there were a few outdated tanks and fixed-defensive turrets, stood their ground against the ferocious onslaught of malformed, humanoid shaped machines, belonging to the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty. Amphibious models, such as the UMF/SSO-3 ASH, UMF-4A GOOhN, and long-armed UMF-5 ZnO burst from the ocean onto unwelcoming shores, raising their defenses and offenses while they battled the white and orange mobile suits, neither side showing any sign of weakness, nor the intention of giving their enemy quarter. As all of this went on, the top brass of the ORB Military, consisting of officers like Colonel Soiga and his comrades, observed the battle from a secure, well-guarded, and fortified location known as Defense Headquarters, making quick, but educated moves in an attempt to turn the battle in their favor, and push back the aggressive legions of Zaft.

"Hiyamatsumi has been destroyed! Toyamatsumi is immobile!"

"Sixth Mobile Core to the Izanagi Coast! I repeat: Sixth Mobile Core defend Izanagi!"

"What's the status of our search?" Colonel Soiga began. "Where the hell is this 'Lord Djibril' character hiding anyway?"

"We're searching, but the Seirans seemed to have left no tracks... we don't even know where Lord Yuna Roma is, Colonel!"

"Well that's just great..." Soiga snarled. "He's hiding and we have to protect him... get Lord Yanata Ema on the line, right away!"

"On it, sir!" One of the lower-ranked soldiers replied.

"Have the Third Mobile Core assist Lady Cagalli's Sovereign immediately!"

"Are there any signs of a drop fleet preparing themselves in high orbit?" One of the higher-ups sitting at the planning table with a map of ORB questioned.

"No sir, it seems that whatever Zaft was going to send at us, is already here."

"Understood. Divert mobile suit teams assisting from the far north-west side of the main island. Have them flank the Zaft forces from the west, and step on it!"

"Colonel Soiga, I've just received a status update regarding Lord Yanata Ema Seiran. He's taken shelter inside the Seiran bunker and is oblivious to the whereabouts of his son or Lord Djibril!"

"Wonderful!" Soiga sarcastically spat. "Where the hell are they? Find then! All sections, status report!"

"Section Nine, I'm reporting no sign of Djibril!"

"Section Ten, nothing out of the ordinary!"

"Damn..." One of the officers at the central table, a bald male with a long and respectively groomed white beard swore, lowering his head and looking down onto the map, only to find something quiet unusual. "Hold on a minute! Didn't Lady Cagalli inform us that the denounced Zaft vessel was to stick to our coast?"

"Uh, yes..." Colonel Soiga turned, his mouth partially open as he spoke.

"Well she's moving!"

"That's a violation of the terms of asylum Lady Cagalli issued! Has she opened fire on our forces?" Another one of the higher ups asked, his tone one of a cynical skeptic.

"Towards the south from what I can see, and at combat speeds... wait... I'll be damned... she's fighting the Archangel, not our forces, sir!" The bald man spoke again.

"The Zaft ship has advanced forward?" Soiga tightened his grip, knowing full well that the amount of effort ORB would have to divert towards sinking the Archangel would be a severe detriment to their forces, even if they were successful.

"If' she's going to be that defiant then have the Seventh Mobile Suit Core eliminate her." Another, younger officer suggested.

"Belay that!" Soiga slammed an open right fist onto the table, right in front of the younger soldier. "We need everything we got right now. As long as it doesn't attack our forces!"

"But... Lady Cagalli ordered... and..."

"Lady Cagalli is fighting right now, contacting her would serve only as a large distractant! Besides, if she let them in this close, it means she trusts them..." Soiga explained, several other officers nodding their heads, realizing the severity of the current battle.


Back on the battlefield:

"Parsifals, fire!" Arthur Trine shouted from the Minerva as she made a sweeping turn to her starboard, the port missile launchers of the ship discharging a number of anti-ship missiles, the sky around the vessel almost seeming to ignite with the explosions of the battle.


"Helmsman, evade them! Thirty to port!" Admiral Kendan Westenfluss waved his right hand across his front while the Archangel lurched in response to the Minerva's aggression.

"Helldarts, launch and intercept!" Executive Officer Dubu added, several small, quick, and highly maneuverable projectiles ejecting from the Archangel's 'neck' at high speeds, colliding dead on with the Parsifals and exploding right behind the Archangel, leaving a large cloud in her wake. "Valiant one, calibrate and fire, now!" The starboard Linear Cannon rotated backwards and adjusted itself to the right height, launching a bright yellow blast from it's barrel that rushed towards the Minerva at high speeds, crashing into the center of her port hull dead on, greatly shaking the smaller vessel.

Following this, two black and purple BABIs, in mobile armor mode, swooping in towards the Minerva's bow, launching their own volley of missiles onto the ship from above while it's CIWS turned their attention towards blasting them out of the sky. Despite this, some of the projectiles stuck the Minerva's hull, specifically in the middle of the starboard wing and the area just in front of the central catapult, narrowly missing the ship's Isolde. All the while Admiral Westenfluss watched from his seat, looking to his right with a snarky grin as he observed his new enemy, knowing that he had the upper hand, while Gladys grit her white front teeth in pain and discomfort.

"Tristans, fire!" Arthur lurched forward, nearly slamming his torso directly into the console in front of him while the Minerva returned fire with it's starboard gun, decisively taking down one BABI and grazing the others left side.


Two opposing gundams, ORB's Demoness and Zaft's Assassin seemed to circle each other in an off-balance, elliptical pattern, each of them firing their respective beam weapons towards each other, with Stella giving off a pair of shots from what appeared to be the eyes of her Dragon-shaped silver shield with each trigger pull, and Heine returning the favor with his HA-M552RC "Draw" High-energy Beam Pistol, wielding one beam sword in his left hand as well.

"Well it seems Mr. Invisible has come out to play!" Stella growled childishly.

"A Westenfluss doesn't need stealth to take someone like you out!" Heine retorted as the two gundams tighten the length of their invisible minor axis, blitzing towards each other with the intent of a close quarters brawl, the Assassin raising up it's blade, ready to strike.

"We'll see about that! Against me, you won't last long!" Stella barked, placing the Demoness' shield over it's body while the two suits closed the distance gap, a flash of lightning taking place as Heine took his swing, a perplexed look on his face right afterwords.

"I could have sworn I got a direct hit to your wing..."

"That doesn't work! Know your enemy, jackass!" Stella circled back around and approached the rear of the Assassin, Heine's eyes widening as he noticed the silver gundam heading right for him, and preparing to hold her off if she got too close. "This is for harming Cagalli's masterpiece of a machine!" Stella warned, pulling back on her thrusters just as the Assassin turned with the intention of taking a beam rifle shot at her, and then proceeded to perform a very quick, three hundred and sixty degree turn, the spiked tail of the Demoness waving up and down in the wind as it impacted the chest of Heine's machine, knocking it off balance and throwing it down in the air. "HAH!"

"Heine!" Luna screamed from a distance.

"Huh?" A startled Stella noticed the bulky Colossus coming after her now, a powerful, multi-phase shot bursting from it's chest towards the metallic machine, the Extended pulling back and evading, only to have another shot come at her directly, forcing her to strafe to the right and evade it. "Who the hell are you! Your aiming seems uncomfortably familiar..." Stella tilted her head, a mental image of Lunamaria's old custom, purple Gunner ZAKU Warrior flashing for a quick second in her mind. "OH! You again!" She yelled over the communications line, purposely intending to reach the attention of Lunamaria, and get that attention she did.

"What? The Gaia's... not you again! I'll show you!" She unfolding her left beam cannon into it's sniper rifle mode and lines up her shot, unleashing another, even more powerful blast of energy right towards the Demoness.

"Err..." Stella grunted from stress, folding her left wing in and across the mobile suit's body, an array of bright blue dots activating and spreading across the outer wing as a massive beam shield protected it, Lunamaria's shot hitting home on the defenses and pushing the Demoness to her left while the beam blast seemed to 'flow' across the surface of the shield.

"Have another one!" Lunamaria unleashed an additional two beam shots, the verniers of her machine pushing forward purposely towards Stella as she was forced to either block of move out of the way. "And yet another one!" She folded the cannon back into it's storage mode and continued firing with her chest cannon.

"No... no... NO! How about you! Have some of...!" Stella raged, deflecting another beam blast and pushing forward with the Demoness, reaching for the staff stored on the suit's rear while Lunamaria closed in.

"No thanks!" The magenta haired FAITH pilot barked, unleashing a flurry of beam sparks from her Gatling guns and normal shells from her CIWS, a startled Stella forced to abort her attack and shield her machine with it's right wing shield as the shots intercepted, and Lunamaria closed in, raising the Colossus' legs and crashing the feet directly into the shield, the weight of a one hundred and fifteen metric ton machine being transferred partially to Stella and causing her to bash her helmet into the head rest of her seat as the Demoness was thrown back down, but not out. "And now!" Lunamaria unleashed yet another LC-778SC "Catharsis" Multi-phase Energy Cannon shot, simultaneously unfolding both large beam cannons out again into sniper rifle mode. All the while the last shot hammered the Demoness' beam shield, making the challenge of balancing the machine increasing difficult and capable of consuming greater time, exploding the main body from the wing in the process. "For the finish!" Lunamaria pulled her triggers. "Goodbye, bitch!" Two more massive energy lasers burst forth and blazed through the air towards the Demoness.

"AHH! NO! I'll stop you!" A certain golden mobile suit intervened, flying directly in front of the Demoness with it's large backpack facing the Colossus, the clear, almost glass like surface with engraved lightning becoming victim to the Zaft machine's shots, although they did nothing, and from the looks of it, seemed to be absorbed directly into the disk, it's trapped lightning bolts intensifying to a bright blue in the process, the machine turning around to face the Colossus as it guarded it's sibling, a small amount of light gray exhaust spewing from it's vents.

"Again with you?" Lunamaria questioned as he sensors beeped up, displaying multiple incoming hostiles, the FAITH pilot looking over to her right and spotting several Wave Rider Murasames heading her way. "Dammit!"

"Lady Cagalli! Let us handle this!" One of the pilots informed with the voice of a patriot, four Murasames closing in on the Colossus as it backed up and powered up it's pair of beam Gatling.

"Stella... are you alright?" Cagalli turned her attention towards the equalized Demoness, only to remember something important. "Wait! Hold back!" She twisted back around and looked at the Murasames as they flew in formation towards a lone Colossus, circling it as they all pointed their noses directly upwards and flew above Lunamaria's machine, switching into mobile suit mode and pointing their rifles down. "I said-!" A green beam flew out of nowhere and impacted the first Murasame in the back as a pink beam dart flew out from the same direction and pierced the second just above the back skirt armor, both machines falling.

"Izo! Nesla!" The third Murasame pilot screamed at the loss of his comrades, their deaths throwing him off balance, so much so that the Colossus was able to take advantage, turning the machine inside out with a burst of beam fire, a certain stealth mobile suit revealing itself seconds later with arms crossed in front of it's chest.

"That guy!" Cagalli grumbled.

"Him again!" Stella added.

"Couldn't even save those three... and from what I see, this is the Chief Representative of ORB? What a terrible leader!" The Assassin's pilot stated, the gundam shaking it's head in disgust as he said it.

"Why you! It's the guy from the Dardanelles! That orange GOUF! I'll 'terrible leader' your face, jackass!" Cagalli raged, angered by Heine's insult and pointing her left shield directly forward and her right directly out and off to the side as she burst forward towards the Assassin.

"Huh." Heine smirked, withdrawing both HA-M442CC "Quickblade" Ultra-Light Beam Blade. "Clearly you're over your head!" The Assassin stretched out both arms aggressively and ignited the multiple thrusters on it's back, bursting towards the Sovereign and clashing blades with the golden mobile suit in a flash of lightning.

"The Gaia... Stella's her name... now I'll settle this!" Lunamaria seemed to reach for one of her oversized beam sabers, Stella's eyes narrowing as she observed.

"You leave Cagalli's nation alone!" The blonde ranted, brandishing her double-bladed staff and thrusting forward at the Colossus.


Back with the Judicator, Veneficus, Crusader, and Legacy:

The four machines hovered in the air, still maintaining their positions as they were beforehand, although Shinn was tapping his right first finger on his console, sick of this nonsense.

'I'll shut up... if you says so, Kira...' Shinn mentally grumbled.

'He hasn't talked to the Chairman at all, there's no way he could be aware of the Destiny Plan...' Athrun reasoned with himself.

'Chairman Durandal is a nice guy up front, but a plotting, scheming figure below... I doubt he would expose his greatest plan to Athrun, not before revealing it to everyone. And besides, Athrun... you're too smart to fall for something like that, aren't you? But still...' At the same time, those thoughts went through Kira's head. "What do you mean 'No'? Are you saying you're aware of something that I'm not?"

"Exactly!" Athrun snapped his gloved fingers. "Looking at this whole mess from ORB's point of view, from the perspective that people like you and Cagalli see it, Zaft is simply gathering up the members of Logos, and perhaps you might think it as a scapegoat, I know. IT ISN'T! In the end... we hope to achieve something greater! Something that you are unaware of and blocking in your ignorance, Kira!"

"DAMMIT!" An enraged Kira Yamato swore. "ATHRUN. YOU. JUST. DON'T. GET IT!" He steamed. "I am not ignorant! I know about the snake in the grass plotting that Chairman Durandal has been doing and I know about utterly sick-minded idea known as the Dest-" The Veneficus' sensors began to go berserk.

"You dare speak of the Chairman in such foul language? He is a greater man than what you could ever hope to be, given your immature attitude, Ultimate Coordinator!" Rey shouted, folding all of his small DRAGOONs forward and unleashing a barrage of twelve beams upon the Veneficus, which side stepped backwards to fully avoid the blast, all while shifting it's attention to the distanced Zaft machine.

"Rey!" Athrun protested. 'So, he does know? How... and Ultimate Coordinator...' The Crusader maintained itself in the air while the Legacy raised both of it's beam rifles and fired them in conjunction with it's Rail cannons at the dark Veneficus and it's focused pilot, who evaded once again.

"Rau Le Creuset..." Kira muttered to himself quickly storing his beam sabers and drawing both large, oddly shaped beam rifles, aiming his right-handed one outwards and upwards, targeting the Legacy.

"We fight once more..." Rey muttered at an equally low tone, a powerful beam blast bursting from the Legacy's abdomen cannon, blazing towards the Veneficus as it fired a dark, powerful beam from it's rifle, the two shots colliding together, pounding against one another, and eventually canceling each other out for good as the two suits engaged in another ranged brawl.

"NO! Stop it!" Athrun's sensors beeped.

"Shut up! Talking time is over! You've had your chance to try and pathetically convince someone who's not going to entertain your propaganda!" Shinn blurted as the Judicator opened up it's large black wings and burst forward, a long anti-ship sword at each of it's sides.

"Fine then!" Athrun rubbed his teeth together. "Come at me, you little hypocrite!" Crusader activated it's beam shield and beam naginata as it powered towards the other machine, the two of them either locking sword-to-saber or sword-to-shield while the other two found themselves embroiled at a range.

"I'm not going to let you destroy ORB and I'm not going to let you bring the world to the brink of destruction as you did before!" Kira announced, striking the Legacy's beam shield with multiple beam rifle shots.

"Hmm... I'm not as ambitious as the one before me, know that now. However, that doesn't mean I'm not your enemy, if this is your naïve outlook on the world!" Rey responded while the two machines took shots at each other, dodging or blocking their opponents attacks while the full burst targeting screen on the Legacy appeared in front of Rey's eyes it's radicals fixing on the Veneficus. "It's a shame we can't have you by our side. Athrun was optimistic about that, earlier. No matter... AHH!" Rey shouted, firing a salvo of all forward weapons at the Veneficus, Kira forced to perform numerous, difficult evasive moves in order to dodge all the beams, storing his rifles back at his sides.

"Too bad I have my own beliefs to abide by, and my own reasons to fight and protect." For a split second, an image of Cagalli appeared in Kira's mind and disappeared as he narrowed his gaze, closing in on Rey's machine completely empty handed as the opposing pilot let out more ranged fire at him.

"Reason's good enough to plunge humanity into chaos and despair? Where's your proof that the Chairman is the man you think he is?" Rey questioned, the expression on Kira's face clearly indicating that Rey's words were reaching him, and pissing him off.

"WHO'S TO SAY YOU'RE NOT DOING THE SAME THING!" Kira raged, coming up from below and slicing the Legacy's right Rail cannon with his beam saber, just as it was about to fire, jamming the gun and forcing a small explosion on the suit's side while Kira ascended, opening fire on Rey's machine with his CIWS.

"You think I'm going to fall for that one!" The blonde growled, and in a knee-jerk reaction, the Legacy raised it's right arm up and blocked the bullets... with it's rifle, the gun suffering many bullet holes and forcing Rey to throw it upwards as it exploded, pulling back and landing a direct kick on the winged gundam's chest with it's right leg. (Char clone; Char kick 8D)

"Ugh..." Kira grumbled as he was pushed back, holding onto his controls while the Legacy unfolded it's left Rail cannon and fired back, striking Veneficus' left side skirt and damaging it's rifle.

"Eye for an eye!" Rey spat, withdrawing one beam saber with his now-free right hand and going forward for the kill.

"Eat this!" Kira grunted in pain and resolve, quickly activating the four cannons on his backpack and pointing them all forward directly at the Legacy's torso while it tried to close in, Rey gasping in surprise, a light blue SEED crashing down and bursting into bits inside the blonde's eyes, quickly thrusting both arms forward and activating the pair of MX666 "Heiligen Schild" Beam Shield Generators on them Kira shot away.

"NAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The Legacy's pilot gurgled on his own saliva due to the challenging momentum of the beams, their nearly point-blank energy overpowering the Legacy's multitude of forward thrusters and shoving the gundam back, increasing the distance between the two machines by at least one hundred and fifty meters by the time Rey shook his head and leveled off.

"Rey!" Athrun shouted with deep concern as he watched his friends battle in the corner of his eye.

"Don't look at them! Look at me!" Shinn warned remorselessly, the Judicator quickly raising both of it's massive anti-ship swords over it's head and bringing them down onto the stationary Crusader's beam shield with such massive force that the salmon-toned machine was brutally forced down and towards the oceans surface. "Now..." Shinn lowered his angle and almost dived after Athrun full speed, clashing the blade in his left hand against the Crusader's beam naginata as Athrun thrust his right fist upwards. "What the hell were you babbling like an idiot about earlier, anyway?" The red eyed coordinator interrogated.

Pressuring his thrusters, Athrun got to Shinn's altitude and forced his machine's right fist, and weapon forward so that the gundams were actually quite the distance apart, and leaning forward with outstretched arms, as they locked blades. "Calling me that just makes it all the more contradictory!"

"Makes what contradictory?!" Shinn broke off and pulled back his two massive blades as the Crusader prepared a downward slash with it's double-bladed saber.

"If it isn't obvious!" Sparks and lightning flew as the backside beam of Shinn's left blade met Athrun's main weapon. "How could you forget... how could you... EVERY TIME you called me 'out' on being a 'traitor' because I left ORB and went back to Zaft! And now... now look at yourself, piloting an ORB machine with an ORB Uniform on your back! What the hell happened to you, Shinn Asuka! I didn't like you but it never occurred to me that we couldn't depend on you!" Athrun ranted, causing Shinn to pause and lose his focus as he took in those exposing words.

"Wha... what... ARG!" Shinn let out a whiny shrill as the Crusader boosted all of it's engines up and rammed the Judicator's chest dead on with the flat part of it's shield, transferring many joules worth of kinetic energy to both mobile suit and pilot.

"Shinn! Damn..." Kira said, locked in a beam saber battle with the Legacy, both machines holding their arms stretched out and fighting from the longest distance that close-quarters would allow. 'I may have overestimated his first time control in that machine, and Athrun's no pushover...' The Legacy took a swing, swiping outwards with it's left hand, the pink beam met with the Veneficus' blue one and outright stopped while Rey came forward and attempted to swing down with his right hand, the Veneficus side stepping out of the strike at the last second and moving away from Rey's machine, heading towards the two other gundams, only to have his path blocked as a large array of beam ignited the path before him, their spread too high to go over quickly and too tight to fit through. "Dammit! You just keep coming... no matter how many times..."

"Until people like you learn to accept reality for what it is, and realize what needs to be done, I'll never stop!" A SEED mode Rey warned in a cold tone.

"Why torment yourself? Saying: "Eventually... some day", how long have you been fighting? With your thoughts clouded by that brand of sweet poison?" Similar words, from a person very similar to Rau himself, played like a requiem of sanity in Kira's mind, his eyes only snapping back open to block a direct hit from Rey's remaining beam rifle.

"We'll see about that..." Kira frowned, firing back at Rey, placing a saber in his right hand and activating the shield on his left as Rey unleashed another round of blasts from his central RL-223 "Calidus" Multi-Phase Beam Cannon at Kira. "WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT AFTER I'M THROUGH!" Kira boiled, charging forward directly into Rey's beam fire, his wings of light blazing in the wing as the white and red beam struck the shield and was blocked, dividing up and spreading while the Veneficus stormed forward unstoppably, the laser fading just as it got close.

"GAH!" Rey screamed for his life, pulling back on his controls.

"RAH!" Kira performed a diagonal slash with his beam saber, the blade cutting a shallow cavity into the Legacy's chest, disabling it's chest cannon and damaging the exhaust vents on it's right side, an attack that would have most certainly breached Legacy's Hyper-Deuterion Nuclear Reactor if Kira was in SEED mode; an attack that left the FAITH pilot huffing for breath after.

'I can see now why you've managed to stay alive all this time... but just wait... until we battle outside the atmosphere... it's coming... it's coming...' Rey thought.

Shinn swung upwards with his blue, right-handed blade, the Crusader tilting it's large shield below it's body to block the hit. "But! No! I didn't... you don't understand anything!" Shinn hollered.

"Don't understand?" An offended Athrun huffed, pressing in closer to the Judicator. "Indirectly and directly blaming me for most of the tragedies that's happened this war, specifically to ORB, and criticizing my actions about it at every open opportunity, and then leaving Zaft, only to switch allegiances? I think I understand everything now..."

"Jackass!" Shinn hastily, and predictably, as if in a fit of uncontrolled rage, swung down with his left blade, the Crusader backing up and kicking up with it's right AJ-Q15A "Stolz" Beam Blade to intercept.

"Exactly! If that's all you can muster then so be it! If you want me to be your enemy, then I'll fight you and kick you down and out!" A green SEED burst into a storm of sparkling bits inside Athrun's eyes, the Crusader unleashing a volley from it's two Fatum-10 cannons directly at Shinn, who raised his swords and shields to block the attack, but that was only the start. "SAAAAAAA!" Athrun roared, quickly flipping over and striking down on the Judicator's beam shields with his left leg beam, shoving a non-SEED mode Shinn back.

"Jeez..." Shinn tried to keep his eyes open, only a sliver of distance between his eyelids.

"Is that it? Is that all you are? What you are? A little, whiny, bitchy loudmouth who has bark but no bite? I didn't like you... Shinn, but I never felt feelings of such great disrespect that I've felt for you until now!" Athrun viciously closed in, unleashing a flurry of attacks upon the Judicator gundam as Shinn struggled to keep himself straight and fight Athrun off, the right leg beam of the Crusader kicking upwards and biting into the outer leg armor of the black gundam's left leg, but not completely cutting it off or rendering it non-functional. It was almost as if Athrun's style right now; the way he swung his weapons and raised his shield, reflected a noble man who had been insulted greatly, and once he got a chance to get back at the criminal who had wronged him, he wanted to humiliate them, and bring them down slowly. "Are you more then what I think you are? By all means then, tell me! Or just flat out admit that I was right! THAT I WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE FLAT OUT WRONG!" The Crusader righteously punched forward with it's right fist, nailing the Judicator directly in the face mask with a fierce, phase shift knuckle sandwich.

"Damn... damn... damn... damn..." Shinn muttered angrily to himself, breathing at a heavy rate as he struggled to hold off against Athrun's relentless assault.

"I guess this was pointless..." Athrun puffed out bitter air, challenging a downward slash from both of Shinn's swords with either side of his naginata, giving him an opening to take a clean kick into the Judicator's torso with his lower right knee, an attack that Shinn saw coming.

Like other times, memories forced their way through his brain to the front of his mind as he remembered Kira, Cagalli, Captain Gladys, Executive Officer Trine, the rest of the Minerva's crew and Stella.

He had seen just how innocent and vulnerable she was, even though she could pilot a mobile suit in her own right. Yes, Shinn had broken the trust Zaft gave him, and that pained him on the inside, but there was something else inside of his body, something more important. A promise, the promise... to the girl who he had rescued... he couldn't back out of that agreement... not now.

"NO! I'M MORE THEN THAT!" A bright red SEED violently burst into a million small pieces as Shinn opened his advanced eyes with their dot-sized pupils. While changes occurred in Shinn's body, they weren't enough to stop Athrun's onslaught, however the Judicator itself had something up it's sleeve, for as soon as Shinn's SEED activated, a message stating 'Pilot S.E.E.D. Mode factor activation detected. Superior Elimination of Enemies Domination O.S. Activated.' popped up on the central, physical screen in front of him, the gundam's eyes flashing from a pure, tabula rasa white into a stained red color, matching Shinn's eye tone perfectly, the blue v-fin of the gundam splitting at each end from one spike into three. Last, but certainly not least, the small, middle wings of the Judicator began to move up and down between the two large binders, the wings of light fluctuating in the process, and the gundam itself seeming to blur, as if afterimages were being projected in close proximity to it. "HURRRAHHH!" The skirt and shoulder armor of the Judicator came to life, specifically the bottom left armor, which revealed itself to be a smaller, sub arm system, equipped with all the functions but not all the strength of the main ones.

This 'secondary arm', to call it that, quickly emitted a bright blue beam shield from it's hand guard and stretched it out, blocking the kick from the Crusader dead in it's tracks and leaving FAITH Special Forces pilot Athrun Zala speechless and with a wide open jaw. "I... I am... I'll protect her! I'll protect Stella! That's what I am! And now!" Shinn screamed a righteous rage, the three additional sub arms of the Judicator reaching for a taking hold of the beam sabers located on it's knees and backpack, activated their longer then average, lime green, scimitar shaped blades. "Now for you!" Shinn growled, swinging his bottom right arm forward, the Crusader powering in reverse to avoid suffering a hit while Shinn closed in quickly, the forward thrust of his machine easily outperforming the reverse of Athrun's, allowing him to thrust his upper left beam saber forward at the Crusader's head.

"Grr..." Athrun gasped and swallowed for air, pulling his own neck back into the head rest of the Crusader as Shinn's beam came close to impaling the suit's red, horned head.

"You say you understand me perfectly, but you're only forming a conclusion based on your own evidence!" Shinn leaned forward again and struck as Athrun jerked back some more, both amazed and frightened by the gundam's sudden burst of power, strength, and fighting capability. "I may have done the same in the past, so I guess I could say 'sorry' right now..." Shinn almost seemed to chuckle. "You however never took into account what happened to me today! So don't you dare think you have the right to judge me!" He pulled back on his upper left arm and sliced forward with his upper right, the blade narrowly reaching the Crusader's head and slicing the large sensor spine of the suit clean off, right in the middle. Luckily, the cameras in the eyes and the other forward optic of the Crusader were still active, but the same could not be said about the smoldering horn, the signature trait of any gundam belonging to Athrun Zala, and boy did it make him sour and wanting to strike back.

"Wait a minute! Don't I dare judge you? Fine then, tell me just what made you decide to have a change of heart then!" He thrust his beam naginata forward, Shinn blocking with a raised left sword.

"Because I got my head out of the cloud!" The freed lower left arm of the Judicator opened it's palm and formed an energy orb, the same type used by the swords and main hands of the suit, and then whipped it at Athrun.

"Pah!" Athrun quipped, spreading the legs of the Crusader out a far as their mechanics would allow them to, avoiding the beam orb as it went between his legs. "Comical." He closed in, powering up the beam boomerangs on his shield and slicing in Shinn's direction, the upper right arm of the Judicator blocking the hit. "Dammit Shinn, that's the same reason why I left Zaft last war, and why I joined Zaft this war! Don't you get it? DO YOU?" He yelled.

"What?" Shinn's eyes snapped open in disbelief, loosening his control on the upper right arm and allowing the Crusader to cut it directly off at the elbow, the black phase shift armor and dead beam saber flying off into the distance.

"So where exactly do we differ then? Answer me! If that's your reasoning for deserting, then you're the same breed of human being that you've played me out to be! How does it feel, knowing that? ANSWER ME!" Athrun demanded, ramping up on the offensive again, taking advantage of an on-tilt Shinn, who although he could still fight, was unable to see any openings in Athrun's attack pattern.

"NO! You're wrong because!" Shinn tried to counter weakly, lowering the lower right secondary arm of his machine and thrusting it forward in a fit, Athrun skillfully pulling back in the blink of an eye.

"It's not and you know it!" The Crusader dived forward and kicked in front of the Judicator with it's left leg beam, slicing the hand of Shinn's secondary arm clean off in an instant, clearly taking advantage of both Shinn's mental state and his experience with this type of gundam. "Pathetic..." He allowed a bitter cough out, raising his beam naginata up and preparing for a downward slash right through Shinn's torso section. "Shinn, you asked for it! Remember that, while you're in hell." He thrust downwards.

"No he bloody well didn't Athrun and you know it!" An equally enraged Kira burst through, the Veneficus kicking the Judicator in it's right side and forcing the gundam out of the picture while he slid into Athrun's range, raised up his own dark blue beam naginata and intercepted Athrun's perfectly. Although the Veneficus came in at just the right moment, it was not without damage, as evidenced by the lower left cannon on it's back, which was now missing, as if it had been shot down, by Rey, while Kira rushed to save Shinn.

"Kira, get the hell out of this! It's between Shinn and I! Not you!" Athrun barked as great bolts of lightning erupted from the spot where the Crusader and Veneficus' beam staffs were colliding.

'Kira...' Shinn pulled back from the fight, recovering from the impact with the Libertas Veneficus, but all the while taking note that the Legacy, for all it was worth, was still closing in on the battle, observing from the side.

"You are dead wrong!" Kira said in an objective, imperative tone, looking towards Shinn. "Take on that Rey character! Now that you've managed to activate your special functions it shouldn't be much trouble! I'll handle Athrun!" He ordered absolutely.

"KIRA!" Athrun became aggressive.

"But... Rey... is..." Shinn fumbled.

"NOW!" Kira brawled with the Crusader as Shinn shook his head and gulped.

"Fine! On it!" He opened the wings of the Judicator up and ignited their wings of light, several afterimages of the machine being left in the wake as it burst forward towards the Legacy.

"If you're involved, care to explain how then?" Athrun questioned.

"Fine. I was the one who told Shinn to either take that gundam he is now piloting, and fight for ORB, or he wouldn't be able to fight at all, for anyone or for any cause! I disabled the Impulse and brought him in against his will!" Kira answered, the Veneficus' left side leaning downwards and activating it's beam shield for the sake of blocking a quick kick from Athrun's right leg, while still maintaining his hold over the battle between the weapons in each suit's hand.

"Oh, and care to explain just how you convinced Shinn? By all means, I'm listening!"

"Only if you're willing to walk the same path as him. I'll forgive you." Kira warned. "But right now, it seems you're too entrenched in your own beliefs to be convinced!"

"Go to hell, Kira, like you're any different!" Athrun jerked, pulling back and out of the way, the right beam boomerang on his shield popping loose as the Crusader flicked it's left arm up, the weapon coming out only to be caught by the suit's free hand. "Like I'll join those who would standby and defend the likes of Logos! Give me a break!"

"Oh for crying out..." Kira rolled his eyes in anger as Athrun whipped the weapon at him and then charged in directly following it, the Veneficus putting it's double-bladed saber directly in front of it's body, spinning it in a circle at a high frequency, deflecting the boomerang off into the distance.

"Huh..." Athrun stopped in front of the bladed barrier his opponent had put up in the distance, keeping enough space between them to avoid any sudden moves by Kira, looking for an opening.

"Listen to me Athrun. Right now, you're backing the Chairman, and I'm backing ORB. Don't think of me as ignorant. I know about the Destiny Plan. I know of it well enough to be disgusted by it. That's why I'm fighting it, and you, right now! And that's why neither I, nor ORB, will simply back down! I won't let you harm Cagalli's heart again!"

"Is that as important as the fate of humanity?" Athrun asked, being extremely cynical as he faced Kira with green SEED mode eyes.

"Rey!" Shinn rushed forward directly at the Legacy from behind, his wings blazing furiously as he approached the slower gundam, meter by meter.

"Shinn! I am disappointed. Really." The blonde shook his head. The six small DRAGOONs of the Legacy quickly pointing backwards and firing at the front of the approaching Judicator. "But I don't care, either." Shinn was forced to back off to his right to avoid the first wave, only to have Rey fire a second at the raven haired pilot, who by placing all of his arms forward and activating their shields, blocked the attack, but lost some momentum in the process. "What happens to you now is irrelevant, know that." He said in disgust.

"Does that mean... all this time!" Shinn caught up to Rey and took a swing at him from above with his right arm, the Legacy lowering itself and flipping over so the two machines faced each other's front side, looking into each others eyes, the blade of the Judicator several meters from Legacy's torso, who's backpack was bent downwards to provide the necessary thrust to keep this position and height. "I thought you were my-"

"We're both expendable. I don''t care about our past relationship. Now you're only an object to be eliminated, it's as simple as that." Rey stated in a cold, neutral tone.
"Why you bastard!" Shinn barked, attempting to dive forward and impale the Legacy's cockpit with the tip of it's blade.

"Hmmph..." A SEED mode Rey hummed, unfolding the remaining RL-532 "Xiphias Drei" Rail Cannon of his machine and firing it at Shinn's shoulder and upper arm, as well as straightening his backpack and falling down out of the blades reach, the two actions preventing Shinn from reaching the kill, and causing a fair amount of kinetic energy to be inflicted as pain, to Shinn. "Now... what about Athrun?" He prepared another volley, targeting the Veneficus. 'That machine and it's pilot have to be destroyed for us to be victorious.'

"Him again!" Kira stopped twirling his beam naginata as he noticed the Legacy turn it's attention back towards him, and prepared to power away.

'I see what he's doing.' Athrun thought. "Stop right there, Kira!" Athrun threatened, raising his machine's left arm and launching the AJ-988G "Griff" Grapple Stinger from it's shield, the claw pincering onto Veneficus' right hand as Rey opened fire, slowing it down significantly.

"...Fuck..." Kira bit his bottom lip, doing his best to evade the beam barrage from the Legacy, and managing to do so, if not for two things: One, Rey's remaining Rail gun shot managed to strike the Veneficus' right hand, and although it was protected by phase shift, the beam sabers were not, forcing Kira to let go of them and allow them to drop and explode in the process, leaving him unarmed for melee combat. Two, a beam from the Legacy's outer left DRAGOON managed to strike the other lower beam cannon of the Veneficus, piercing it's barrel and severing the bottom half clean off. On the other hand, one of the beams from Rey did severe the grapple hook Athrun had used. "Shit..." He swore again as Athrun closed in and ramped up his attacks, taking advantage of Kira's predicament, although Veneficus made sure to keep it's shields up all the time now, blocking and moving out of the way of consecutive strikes from Athrun.

"Why, Kira, why? Are you actually able to justify your beliefs for once? What are you fighting for?" Athrun intensifies his attacks, although it seemed as if he was more concerned with disabling Kira, at least for the purposes of talking to him.

"That... line... of... rhetoric... again..." Kira barely managed to let out, completely concerned at keeping the Crusader at bay, grumbling and sweating as he did.

"Screw you for doing something like that!" Judicator crashed directly into the Legacy's right beam shield and punished it backwards with all of it's force.

"Dammit, Shinn! You will fall down and out for all of this! In the end, that's a promise!" Rey replied back, fighting against Shinn with beam sabers drawn, but knowing full well that against a machine with as many melee weapons as Shinn's, that he needed to keep his distance.

"Are you so sure?" Shinn stretched his right arm across his machine's body and raised the left one up high.

"Yes, I am!" Rey replied objectively, getting ready for Shinn's attack and preparing to dodge out of the way.

"Really, watch this!" Shinn smugged, swinging the right arm of the Judicator horizontally, the speed of the limb surpassing both the velocity of most, if not all other gundams, as well as Rey's expectations. The blade then proceeded to cut off the top half of Rey's two large DRAGOONs, although that wasn't all that he had in mind. "Kira! TAKE THIS!" The other large, dark blue anti-ship sword suddenly deactivated it's beams and folded up into storage mode, and rather than swing it down upon Rey, Shinn slinged it over the Legacy's head and towards the Veneficus.

"What?" Athrun asked in surprise as the Veneficus backed away and caught the sword, properly gripping it's handle and folding the blade out as Athrun charged in again, the blade of his pink beam naginata meeting Kira's new, green sword blade.

"Thank you... Shinn..." Kira said over the line sincerely, while still holding focus on Athrun, breaking back and forth, clashing his sword against Athrun's sparkling blue beam shield. "So we battle again, Athrun..."

"If it comes down to this then, to two old friends forced to fight for opposing beliefs, one who is right and the other who is wrong, then I guess it is! I'm not backing down!"

"So be it..." Kira stated in a calm, determined voice, a purple SEED finally exploding in his eyes as he went into his berserking SEED mode, the same message appearing on the Veneficus' screen that appeared on the Judicator's as Kira pulled back, his machine's eyes flashing a deep purple and it's zig-zag v-fin folding back up straight as the suit bent it's legs outwards and raised the anti-ship sword up high, it's blue Libertas wings opening up in an instant and casting their bright blue wings of light outwards as Kira charged forward (A/N: Think of how the Destiny prepared to charge with it's Arondight... that's what Kira did, plus the transformation), the Crusader's pilot preparing himself as the two machines blitzed past each other in the blink of an eye, and then back again, two SEED mode warriors fighting in opposition.


"You fight well, for someone who should be in office trying to beg negotiations!" Heine commented with a scornful smile, the Assassin and Sovereign battling it out in a fierce melee engagement as beam fangs crashed against beam swords.

"HAH! Says you! A real leader charges into battle with their soldiers and fights alongside them!" Cagalli retorted, blocking a downward vertical slash from Heine's right sword.

"That seems rather brazen! At least when Durandal came out to the front lines, he stayed inside of the ship!"
"Good for Durandal." Cagalli grunted, pulling away a few meters as Heine thrust his left sword forward, only to have Cagalli crush it down with her right shield. "I know how to fight, and I'm not afraid to use the skills that I've acquired in action, if it means fighting for what I believe in, even if it puts my own life on the line!"

"Roar..." Heine joked, making fun. "Fine then, let's test your so-called skills then, and allow me the pleasure of making you eat your own words..."

"Why you!" Cagalli gnarled, performing a perfect, semicircular horizontal slash with her left shield directly across the Assassin's front, the stealth mobile suit's head lurching forward and feet bending up slightly as it's torso was pulled back to avoid suffering damage.

"... by seeing what it takes to kill you!" In an instant the Assassin fired it's right-armed HA-M231D "Wurfmesser" Hyper-velocity Retractable Beam Dagger into the Sovereign's left shield, the beamed dagger sinking into the defensive armament like a metallic, energy fang. Quickly following, Heine then pulled in on it's wire, the dagger pulling both the Assassin and Sovereign closer together as Heine swung down with his left-handed sword, slicing Cagalli's shield in half and disabling all of it's weapons in an instant.

"What the..." Cagalli found herself at a loss for words as Heine prepared a follow up.

"Hmm, not much, apparently." Heine insulted, moving his suit back and retracting his dagger out of the broken, falling piece of shield, preparing an uppercut attack with his right-handed weapon. "Now for the finish!" He lunged forward and swung the Assassin's right arm directly upwards, and in a split second; a flash of lightning, Cagalli made her move.

"UNDERESTIMATE ME, ASSHOLE?" She questioned with raging royal fury, the Lioness' eyes now transformed to their SEED state as the attack met a stalemate. At the same time, her machine's eyes blinked from sparkling white to a glistening gold, and a piece of each v-fin seemed to separate from the main part and fold inwards until the two pieces connected right in the center of the gundam's forehead. However, to stop Heine, Cagalli quickly ejected her broken shield and then brandished the lone beam saber located on the Sovereign's left skirt armor in the backwards position and brung it forward and across her chest to catch Heine's blade attack in the blink of an eye.

"Oh..." Heine tried to giggle, but these were no giggles of joy, rather of masked surprise.

"I'll show you just what kind of Warrior Princess I am!" She barked, the thrusters on the Sovereign's backpack and legs igniting up to a higher power rating, pushing forward on the Assassin as Cagalli became exponentially more aggressive, flipping around her beam saber and unleashing a hurricane of slices and cuts. Now Heine was on the back foot.

"Very good... very... good..." He struggled to speak, so focused on not taking damage from the SEED mode pilot. "But I think it's time you learned a lesson from..."

"Just shut up!" Cagalli raged, a hint of laughter in her voice as she beat the Assassin back and figuratively sealed Heine's mouth with tape, the orange haired man making a small error in his next move: When he made his next attack with his left-handed sword, he accidentally twisted the blade in such a way so that it's blunt, metal, and unprotected side was now coming at the Sovereign, so that when it countered upwards with it's right-armed shield, the beam blades sliced down the center of the sword, from just above the hilt, to the tip. "Gotcha." She snarled sarcastically.

"Not yet... not... yet..." A drop of sweat rolled down Heine's face between his eyes as the Assassin bent it's knees downwards to narrowly avoid a slice that would either decapitate it or do worse (Google 'matrix back bend' for visuals), then threw aside his now useless blade and reached for one of the HA-M888HG "Effugere" Flash Grenades on his left calf, chucking the bomb upwards and into the Sovereign's chest.

"Arrg... my eyes... damn it hurts..." Cagalli pulled her hands off of the controls and used them to cover her eyes from the blinding light, shaking her protected head in pain, while outside the Sovereign seemed to randomly perform some moves, both random and defensive, responding to her mental SEED mode brain waves.

'Well... it appears I've gauged your strength...' Heine thought, cloaking his suit in the midst of the explosion.

"Err... where is he?" Cagalli opened up her golden SEED eyes, some tears from the pain rolling down them. "Dammit... he's gone... for now..." The Sovereign started to thrust away from it's position. 'No he isn't, chances are he'll come out when it suits him... but until then, there's some things I can do...' Cagalli began to pull some evasive maneuvers and chart her way towards where Stella was on the radar.


In the meantime...

"Just try and attack me up close, I dare ya!" Lunamaria shouted, unleashing a massive barrage of energy projectiles from all of her beam weapons at the Demoness while Stella kept her distance, evading and blocking the Colossus' suppressive fire, but being rendered completely unable to close in and get on the offensive whatsoever. "Have some of this... and this!" She unleashed back-to-back barrages from both of fully extended beam cannons and chest gun, scaring the sky with a multitude of thick, powerful, and deadly multi-phase beam blasts.

"Bang... bang... bang... bang? Is that all you can do?" Stella strafed out of the way of each shot, clearly stressed from the battle.

"Not so tough now that the playing field is equal, is it? I'm no longer in that pitiful ZAKU, but I haven't forgot about what you did to me, and to Zaft!" Memories of the Armory One Theft, the battle in the Debris Belt, the Junius Seven drop, and the engagement at the Dardanelles snapped in the magenta haired girl's mind, reminding her of all the times she had been at the Gaia's mercy, and all the encounters where she survived by the skin of her teeth.

"You call this equal? Just wait until I get UP IN YOUR FACE!" Stella threatened. "Mobile Armor... no...High mobility... err... Waverider... no, Skylord Mode... that's what this is called! Skylord Mode, active!" Stella announced, imputing a few commands into her suit's controls. At the same time the gundam raised it's left arm to where it's head was, the v-fin folding and collapsing horizontally so it wasn't sticking up as much as the device on the back of the neck grabbed the shield that was shaped like a dragon and detached it from the arm, the upper left limb going back down to where the right one was as the body began to 'fall forwards', the shield covering the gundam style head and becoming the new head of the Demoness as it transformed into mobile armor mode. The next part of the process was that the area below the 'side skirts' of the legs seemed to rotate one hundred and eighty degrees, so that the bottoms of the feet were now facing the ground as the devices mounted on the top of the feet slide forward on their tracks and folded over, to that they were on the other side of the feet but facing downwards with an angle of depression of around twenty degrees as the knees bent downwards so that it looked like they were now those of a dragon standing on the ground in their shape.

As the wings spread out the cockpit seemed to outright turn so that Stella was facing forward with her machine rather than looking down as the ORB-03 Demoness completed it's transformation into Skylord mode for the first time.

"Just try and lock onto me with that overweight Zaft hunk of junk now!" Stella rammed her thruster controls forward, the engines on the machine's back, the tips of the wings, and the sides of the legs each intensifying their respective blue thruster flames, ramping up her speed by a great deal, matching that of Shinn's machine when it was in it's SEED mode.

"Hunk of junk? Oh, that's it!" Lunamaria warned, a blue SEED bursting apart inside her eyes in a fit of anger. "You want me to lock onto you, alright!" The Colossus' targeting cross hairs fixed onto the flying silver dragon as Lunamaria pulled the trigger on her controls, unleashing even more beam shots from her massive cannons, beams blitzing through the sky at incredible speeds.

"Geez... she does mean business!" Stella struggled, flying upwards to avoid a beam and then downwards, multi-phase shots rushing over and under her machine's torso as she turned and faced the Colossus head on and fired a pair of shots from her suit's nose shield.

"You can do better than that!" Lunamaria moved to her right and evaded, following up with a chest cannon shot. "Your fancy, shiny armor doesn't mean mean against these kinds of weapons, does it?" She questioned.

'She's right...' Stella rolled to her right as the beam passed under her left wing and she turned away, uncomfortable with the thought of flying forward against those cannons.

"Let's just test that theory out!" With the precision of a skillful sniper, Luna locked onto Stella again and fired all three of her major beam cannons.

"Uhhh... uhh..." The Extended opened her eyes up a lot and rolled to her left, descended, and activated the beam shields on her spread dragon-like wings for protection, all three shots converging on the beam of the right wing, their combined power propelling the Demoness into a severe, out of control, clockwise roll. "I didn't think they would be that powerful if they all hit the same location at once..." Stella braced herself as she spun around and around dizzily, folding her wings back in as the Demoness plunged into the watery sea below.

"Have a good time down there!" Lunamaria stated, scanning the area for where the Demoness would emerge later.

"Wow.. that hurt..." Stella rubbed her right shoulder, which slammed into it's roll-cage rather hard, only to have an outside force assault the Demoness soon after. "Oh what now?" She asked, finding that an Amphibious UMF-4A GOOhN was now attacking her, although whether it was with it's missiles or darts, she cared not. "Oh, you're in for it, first generation buckero! This is phase shift you're dealing with!" Stella transformed her machine back into mobile suit mode and made a 'come at me, bro' stance with the underwater Demoness while the GOOhN charged forward, hoping to get off some blasts with it's Photon Maser High-energy Cannons, although Stella would have none of that. "RAH!" She ferociously roared like a cat, grabbing the GOOhN's shoulders with both hands and then kicking it square in the chest with her right foot, knocking it away as she grabbed the mace and chain from her lower back armor and swung it forward with all of the Demoness' might, the spiked ball at the end slamming into the GOOhN's side and causing internal damage.

"FOR ZAFT, YOU BITCH!" The pilot screamed for his life as water began to fill his suit and decompress the insides, his life now severely limited.

"And that's how you deal with that..." Stella expressed neutrally, storing her weapons back and rising up the to the surface, switching back to Skylord Mode as she did, bursting from the water only to find herself... directly in front of Lunamaria's unit.
"Back for more?" She questioned, although her cannons were now in their shotgun mode now, the chest cannon didn't have that option, and she opened fire with it.

"Bad place to..." The shot impacted the beam shield on the Demoness' left wing and pushed it aside, giving Lunamaria a chance to open fire with her beam cannons and energy Gatlings, spraying the entire area with small beam pellets. "Would you stop!"

"NO!" Lunamaira continued her assault, as another voice entered the field.
"Then I'll stop her for you!" Cagalli announced as a storm of small, green, and fast moving energy bolts arrived onto the scene coming from an angle perpendicular to Lunamaria's shots, intercepting many of them and, as hard as this is to believe, canceling them out in thin air.

"You again!" Lunamaria snapped as the Sovereign came into vision, shining ever so bright as it did, and stopped in front of the Demoness. "You're... so..."

"Frustrating to deal with? Now you know how it feels!" Stella spoke, switching back mobile suit form and taking position behind her sister suit.

"Stella, you go around and get her! I'll cover you!" Cagalli issued with SEED mode eyes, her image appearing in the Demoness' cockpit on a holographic image that appeared just to the left of Stella's controls.

"Ugh... fine then! I trust you, Cagalli! Now it's payback time!" Stella laughed a slight giggle, turning the Demoness back into it's Skylord form and coming around the back of the Sovereign, to the Colossus' left.
"You can't cover her if you're not in front of her!" Lunamaria rattled, extending her left cannon back to it's full extension and taking aim at Stella, firing

"Are you so cocksure?" Cagalli questioned, the remaining 'solar flare' like objected mounted in a circle on her backpack seemed to 'burst' into flames as they emitted a multitude of small green energy bits out at the beam blast Lunamaria just fired, intercepting the white and red shot one by one and outright canceling it out of the air, much to Lunamaria's surprise, and allowing Stella safe passage.

"What the?" Luna leaned back in fear. 'This was unexpected...' Her SEED mode eyes cried a little, the Colossus pulling back while the Demoness approached.

"Ah aha!" Beam sabers began to emit from the devices mounted on the silver gundam's wings, the suit rushing towards the slower Colossus and striking at it with skill, although Lunamaria wasn't one to be taken out easily. With a quick reflex the Colossus leaned back and avoided the front right claw of Stella's machine, while the back right one severed her left cannon in half, rendering the device inoperative. "EAT IT!"

"Grr... why don't I hit your friend then...!" Lunamaria scowled, recovering back her balance and reaching for the two halves of her positron cannon. "I'm pretty sure the same rules that apply for beams, don't apply to these! Goodbye!" She linked them together and began to charge up the weapon, the vibrating.

"Cagalli! Move!" Stella warned from a distance as she watched the Sovereign make small and little evasive movements, but nothing meant to dodge an anti-matter cannon.

"Arrogance!" Lunamaria fired her shot of powerful positrons, the lazer blitzing towards the Sovereign as it's backpack seemed to detach from it's main body.

"IS YOU!" Cagalli responded as the large disk flew in front of the Sovereign as the positron cannon blast impacted it, the blonde seeming to struggle as if she was fighting a mental battle, while the disk seemed to 'capture' and 'contain' the positron cannon blast from the Colossus. "Derrr..." She groaned, the arms of the suit bending inwards towards it's chest as the disk angled upwards. "AHHHH!" She yelled a burst of relief, unleashing the anti-matter blast upwards and into the air, right before the eyes of all three girls, the beam 'exploding' high in the atmosphere, creating an effect similar to the phenomenon that occurred when the Archangel left ORB in the first war, although this one wasn't nearly as powerful.

"How in the? Beams... and positrons?" Lunamaria gasped, trying to comprehend what just happened as she stored the two halves of her gun back on their respective skirts and growled, juking the trigger for her chest cannon, the shot flying towards the Sovereign and hitting home on the clear glass portion of the disk, which seemed to absorb it, while an invisible voice commented directly following that.

"That's an interesting device you have there. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it!" A single HA-M762W "Elektrisch" Electro-Whip appeared out of nowhere and whooshed through the air towards Cagalli's disk, the blonde herself breathing in and out to recover.

'Damn... come back...' She ordered lightly, the disk thrusting upwards into the air, but not quick enough.

"Luckily, nothing will happen to it!" Stella warned as she switched forms again and made a throwing animation with her left arm, the dragon shield on the end of it launching a beam whip out of it's mouth to intercept the Assassin's, the two weapons wrapping around each other and stopping, only until Heine's was destroyed, and Stella's deactivated. "Hehe..." She giggled with joy.

"Time to end this..." Cagalli stated as the disk locked into her suit's backpack again. "Stella, I have an idea... think you can at least keep both of them busy for a few minutes?" Cagalli asked, and Stella gave her a positive nod back. "Alright." The Elegant Sovereign flew away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Heine questioned as he fired both of his wired beam daggers in Cagalli's direction, only to have Stella outright get in the way and block the daggers as they met the Demoness' body and did nothing by bounce off.

"Tickles." The Extended giggled.

"Smarty-pants." Heine smirked.


Archangel's bridge:

As of this moment, the ship was still locked in combat with the Minerva, who kept some distance from the ship and was traveling almost perpendicular to her direction, approximately fifty degrees off the starboard bow.

"What. Was. That?" Admiral Kendan Westenfluss asked, his eyes taking note of something that he had spotted to the port side of the ship. "Was a positron cannon reaction?"

"Ugh..." Muffled Meyrin Hawke, who was still on edge since the incident with the Minerva. "Yes... Lunamaria used one of her weapons... but..."

"Yes, she used her Kristallnacht, but did she shoot it straight up? I thought I saw the beam bend!" Kendan interrupted.

"Yes sir. The positron beam did suffer some form of interference, and I can't tell what happened for sure, but it was deflected." Mary Walafi finished for Meyrin, silencing herself afterwords as the younger girl breathed in.

"Hmm..." Kendan adjusted how his glasses sat on his nose. 'Deflected a positron cannon beam? What level of technology are we dealing with when it comes to ORB? I've got to contact Rulski afterwords...' He thought to himself, only to be forcibly lunged forward as he let out a bad cough, the entire ship shaking as the Minerva struck her starboard leg with a direct hit from it's starboard Tristan. "Dammit! Ian!"

"Sorry sir! That one was a curve ball! I tried." Ian responded from the helm.

"Don't try! Do! XO, our barrage isn't powerful enough!" Kendan informed.

"They're not in the Valiants line of fire, Captain." Erin explained from below, waiting about five seconds before he would speak again. "Now, Gottfrieds one and two, fire!" The white behemoth unleashed four battleship-caliber beam shots, aimed precisely at the Minerva, one of them managing to impact the ship's starboard missile launchers.


Minerva bridge:

"Damage report! Starboard launchers are down!" Arthur yelled over the sound of the ship's rumble.

"Return fire!" Talia reacted. "This is bad... this is bad..." She whispered. "We're deadlocked right now... but they have the definite advantage... think... think..."

"Incoming mobile suit!" Bart announced. "It's the same one Chief Representative Attha was using earlier! She's coming for us at a high speed."

"What?" Talia questioned.

"Isolde, fire!" Arthur ordered, immediately following.

"I'll repeat that again? What?" Talia requested, only to have the ship shake, but this time, it wasn't from the Archangel, rather, the Sovereign had planted it's feet down on the ship's port side mobile suit deck, with it's beams deactivated. "BART!" She slammed her fists down, only to have the communications line open up again, revealing Cagalli. "Why have you landed on my vessel?"

"We assumed you wouldn't do anything." Cagalli refuted, causing Gladys to swallow and gulp, although very few could notice this. "Then again, you were attacked." Cagalli remained silent for a few more seconds. "Captain Gladys, I want to drive the Archangel off. With Zaft's flagship damaged, that should serve as a sign that..."

"The Archangel isn't the flagship for this attack, the Saint Helens is." Talia corrected, some slight turbulence from an exploding missile being felt by the present parties.

"Umm... whatever, it's their most powerful ship right now. I'll try to drive them off but I think I could use your help..." Cagalli tried to explain.

"Hold on, you said you were just giving us asylum... and right now we are defending ourselves..." Arthur spouted.

"Executive Officer Trine, silence!" Talia ordered. "I know what you're talking about, but if ORB is lost, the consequences for us will be worse then if ORB manages to push Zaft back." She turned to Cagalli. "Do you have a plan at least?"

"Go and try to get directly behind them, and target their engines."

"What! That's too close right now!" Arthur complained again, while the large vessel off in the distance fired another pair of large green beam shots, the blasts rushing over the Minerva's central hull as Malik made an effort to dive out of the way.

"I agree. We're keeping our distance, and from this range they'll see it coming and react. I may not like Admiral Westenfluss but he isn't nearly stupid enough to let something like that just happen, not by a long shot." Talia admitted as more missiles launched from the Minerva's port side, flying upwards and over the bow as they raced towards the Archangel.

"Are you saying that if you get closer you'll be able to pull this off?" Cagalli asked.

"Yes, but if we get closer-"

"I'll cover you."

"Demonstrate yourself. I'm curious to see how a single mobile suit can cover an entire battleship." Talia skeptically crossed her arms.

"Err... if you insist!" Cagalli growled, another bump shaking the entire ship as the Sovereign jumped off of the deck and flew towards the gap between the two ships while the Archangel tried to make a more aggressive turn and get the Minerva in it's Linear Cannon firing range. Seconds later, the Archangel shot a blast from it's starboard Gottfried at the Minerva, adjusting the shot so it wouldn't impact the Sovereign's armor. However, at the same time Cagalli narrowed her eyes and muttered some word to herself, unleashing more of the light green energy bolts from her backpack disk at the shots, the small specs of light intercepting the Gottfried shots, and although it took a lot of them, they managed to cancel out one and severely weaken the other to such extents that when it struck the Minerva's bow it didn't do much damage, if any, causing Talia to raise an eyebrow.

"Fine then..." Talia adjusted how she was sitting, and looked at Cagalli with somewhat serious expression. "But make sure we don't suffer major damage." She replied.

"Deal." Cagalli responded with a similar gaze.

"Wow... what a day. First the incident with the Admiral and now we're... fighting with the Princess of ORB?" Abbey questioned from her controls.

"Don't get to comfortable..." Talia grumbled. "We're doing this for the survival of our vessel and it's crew. Malik, twenty to starboard! Bring us in closer!" She stretched her right arm forward in a commanding fashion.


Archangel bridge:

"So, she's coming after us? XO!" Kendan shouted as the Minerva pulled herself in towards a direction parallel to the Archangel's.

"Wombats and Gottfrieds, fire!" Erin Dubu shouted from the area under him.

"Alright... here goes nothing." Cagalli mumbled to herself as she watched the missiles launch from the Archangel and reached her left hand across and wrapped it around the beam rifle on the Sovereign's right skirt armor, throwing it in the air afterwords and catching by the handle. Afterwords the Archangel unleashed a volley of anti-aircraft missiles. "Right now!" She descended and aimed both her shield and rifle at the missiles and took out at least three of them with her first shots while the Minerva's CIWS handled the rest. Following that, she knew the ship would fire it's energy weapons soon, and to counter she detached her backpack. 'Wait for it... wait for it...' The starboard Gottfried fired. 'Now!' She mentally ordered, blocking one of the beams with the Sovereign's body and deflecting it back and over the turret while the disk outright stopped the other one.

"So that's their strategy then? Meyrin, get Heine back here, and stat!" Kendan barked as the Archangel fired another shot, only to have it be either reduced or reflected by the Sovereign again.

"Ugh... yes sir." Meyrin answered fearfully, the vessel brutally shaking as the Minerva fired both it's starboard Tristan and Isolde simultaneously, both sets of beams striking either the Archangel's leg or it's central hull.

"Evade! Get us out of the way before they melt the ablative armor clean off!" Kendan warned.

"I'm trying, but it's hard to shake them at this range!" Ian spoke quickly, a lot of anxiety and panic in his one.

"Dammit! They must've planned this! Those cursed traitors!" Kendan spat.


"Come on! Captain Ramius made better use of it then what you're doing!" Cagalli mocked as she bounced between the small distance between the Archangel and Minerva as the gray vessel's bow passed the end of the Archangel's legs and began to turn slightly to it's starboard side. Suddenly though, as the Sovereign's backpack detached itself and began to fire off more anti-beam energy bolts, a distortion in the air made itself prevalent, revealing itself and outright cutting a secant line slash through the upper right hand section of the backpack, disabling two of it's remaining emitters. 'Dammit! Knew it wouldn't be that easy! Back, now!' Cagalli opened her eyes wide and recalled the damaged backpack towards her before Heine could deal more damage, however this allowed the Archangel to get one last shot off with it's Gottfrieds before they went out of range; a shot that struck the Minerva's starboard double beam cannon.

"Tristan one is down! It's been shot, Captain! Fire control teams to starboard flight deck!" Arthur informed.

"We've got to pull away!" Malik began to pull up on the controls.

"NO! Belay that and keep at it! We've almost got this! Arthur, take out that linear cannon! Then we'll have a clear shot at their engines and they won't be able to shoot back unless it's missiles!" Talia calmed everyone down and gave out orders.

"Uh, yes ma'am! Adjusting for multiple angles! Isolde, fire!" The Minerva's triple beam gun calibrated itself so that each individual barrel was progressively higher than the other, like a set of stairs, and then fired as the white ship tried to tilt and avoid damage, but the lowest beam hit it's target regardless.

"Good! Malik, just a little more! Don't bring us in the line of fire of their other cannon and we've got their engines!" Talia announced, now at the edge of her seat with her hands on the cliffs of their rests.


"Check, but not mate! We can still do something you can't!" Kendan growled.

"They're right behind us! Ca...Captain! Orders!" Ian tightened his grip on the steering controls.

"I know that! Prepare to submerge! Descend! NOW! NOW! NOW!" Kendan screamed.

"Right away!" Ian pushed hard on the controls as the ship began to descend towards the oceans surface, only to be shoved forward in his chair as something in the back of the ship exploded.

"Engines two and three have been hit!" Mary informed from her station.

"Hurry it up! And don't let them get the back of the bridge, whatever you do!" Kendan commanded.


"A direct hit!" Arthur proudly put his left fist up into the air.

"Don't be so cocky..." Talia spoke without emotion. "We don't have any good offensive options if they get underwater, not with one of their Linear Cannons online. Fire one final barrage from our remaining beam cannons and then get us the hell out of here! Raise bow forty five degrees! Full thrusters!" She ordered.

"Right away, ma'am!" Arthur quickly jumped back to facing his station and went to work, while Malik prepared to pull up as soon as he saw green streaks.

"How's Lady Cagalli holding up now? Her suit took damage, did it not?" Talia asked while the ship fired again, most of the beam missing although one of the Isolde beams did manage to graze the yellow sensor array to the starboard of the Archangel's bridge, giving the crew quite the scare while their bridge went underwater.

"She's currently engaging the Assassin." Abbey answered.

'Admiral's son...' Talia thought.

"And the Colossus is inbound too." Abbey added.

'Lunamaria...' The Captain mentally continued. "Try to cover her with some missiles, Arthur! Are we out of the cannons range yet?" Talia asked as the ship suddenly lurched to it's right, shocking the crew. "MALIK!"

"EEK!" Abbey screamed.

"Sorry... I'd say now we are, Captain." He answered as a yellow blast flew past the ship's port, the Captain breathing deeply outwards following that.


Djibril's shuttle launch bay:

The 'good' Lord, his feline pet, and Yuna Roma each entered the main fusillade of the aircraft, several ORB soldiers meeting them inside, two of which were of course in the cockpit.

"We're all set to launch. All you have to do is get seated..." The co-pilot turned around and stated.

"Launch now!" Djibril snapped is fingers. "We'll buckle ourselves in while you're gaining speed! Now hurry!" He moved towards a chair.

"Ugh... yes sir!" The main pilot responded as he began to initiate the shuttle take off and the door to the outside began to close.


ORB Defense Headquarters:
"Unauthorized launch from section six!" Images of a shuttle bursting outwards from the ground at an almost eighty degree angle to the ground splashed all over the control screens while each and every officer at the main strategy table thought of one word with all their wisdom: 'Djibril'.

"Send in the Murasames and the ORB-03! Don't let it escape! I swear, if you do...!" Colonial Soiga barked out. In the meantime, Stella, who was still locked in a battle with Lunamaria, broke away and switched into Skylord Mode.


Archangel bridge:

"Message from the Flagship Saint Helens, Admiral!" Meyrin Hawke informed from the submerged vessel.

"Huh?" Kendan turned to face her.

"They've detected a shuttle launch from ORB's Main Island." Meyrin informed.

"So the bastard's making his escape now, is he? Tell Heine to break off and shoot it down! The ORB soldiers won't bother a machine that they can't even see!" He ordered while the ship fired a blast from it's port Valiant towards an ORB Seldamis-class submarine directly behind it, striking the vessel's port section. "That'll get them off our back..." Kendan mumbled with a smug, yet angered look.


Djibril's shuttle:

"Come on... COME ON! Get us out of here!" The Logos leader raged.

"They're..." Yuna gulped. "Right on our tail. Hurry up!" The purplette placed his hands on his face in fear while several Murasames, and the Demoness, followed from behind, firing shot after beam shot.

"We're trying the best we can!" The co-pilot informed.

"Well... harder!" Djibril panicked.

"AHHH!" The main pilot screamed as he pulled up on the controls with all his might, the shuttle blazing forward to the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

"Dammit! If on I could...!" Stella tried to align up another beam shot from the shield on the front end of her suit, when suddenly another green beam burst out of nowhere in front of her, the ascending Assassin rising upwards as well with it's single beam pistol in hand. "Dammit, get the hell out of my way!" Stella screamed as she tried to make adjustments for Heine's appearance and fire off, but she, alongside Heine, we're too late!

"DJIBRIL!" Both pilots yelled at the top of their individual voices.

"This is your fault!" Stella growled, switching back into mobile suit mode and taking aim at the Assassin with her shield.

'I'm surrounded by her guys...' Heine thought as Stella launched her beam whip at him and he evaded it, only to come under fire by other ORB suits. "Well, it was nice seeing you, but goodbye now!" He announced in a comical fashion, reaching for his second flash grenade and tossing it away towards the Demoness, whose whip set it off while he took one final shot before going into stealth, the ORB pilots unable to do anything else due to the light.

"Damn..." Stella shook her head and opened her eyes, only to find that her dragon-shaped shield had suffered one final hit on it's right eye and horn when she placed it over her torso for protection. "Luckiest last second shot..." She pouted.

"Where is he?" One of the Murasame pilots questioned, hopelessly scanning the area.

"He vanished... mirage colloid for you... lets go down and clean up." Stella suggested, the Murasames following suit as they all ascended back down towards the island.


The ORB-02 Libertas Veneficus and ZGMF-X19S Crusader gundams, piloted by skilled, SEED mode blessed pilots, clashed blades once more, turned around, and slammed against each other again before finally circling each other.

"Djibril just might have escaped! Kira! Do you still feel justified fighting for ORB? Well? Do you think what you're doing right now, and what you're defending, could possibly be considered right?" Athrun questioned as the Veneficus reached for it's remaining beam rifle with it's right hand and fired off a shot directly into the Crusader's beam shield.

"Athrun, let me ask you something right now: If by chance we just laid down our arms, and surrendered to Zaft, what would happen? Answer that question, now!"

"We would have brought a criminal to Justice, Kira!" Athrun answered as Kira fired another shot of rage into Athrun's shield, deliberately.

"And what else?" Kira stored his beam rifle and gripped the anti-ship sword loaned from the Judicator with both hands as he saw Athrun coming. "What else would Zaft do to ORB?" The Veneficus backed away from a right kick from Athrun, and then ascended while raising the sword into the air and strafing a tad (like what the Destiny would do...) as he came crashing down again onto Athrun's shield.

"Nothing! You know why we were here!" Athrun responded.

"Liar!" Kira responded. "I saw with my own eyes just what Zaft was prepared to do! What about the Archangel, and the person who's in charge of it now? What do you have to say about what they tried to do, nearly decimating ORB a while ago?" Kira questioned, pulling back and slamming the anti-ship sword down onto the Crusader's beam naginata as Athrun tried to swipe with it.

"Listen to me, I don't support Admiral Westenfluss' actions, and I'll be sure to confront him after all of this is said and done-"

"A confrontation doesn't change the fact that he tried to fire a positron cannon at us! Do you know how many civilians that would have killed? What if he was successful, considering it was a ZAFT SHIP THAT STOPPED HIM!" Kira asked, his tone as angry as Shinn's was when it was at it's worst.

"But he didn't! Listen Kira, this wouldn't have happened in the first place if you just handed him over or surrendered! Now he's escaped! Look at what you've done!"

"Athrun, chances are he got away because of the confusion taking place right now! If Cagalli had managed to take back control earlier then chances are this probably wouldn't have happened and we would have dealt with it ourselves! As a sovereign nation!" Kira raged.

"And what would you have done? Let him roam free? And what could Cagalli have done anyway?" Athrun attempted to speak as he felt Kira push just a little bit harder on his controls, the two machines breaking off and flying towards each other again, except this time the Crusader extended out it's left foot, the beam on it being met by the anti-ship sword's blade as sparks flew between the gundams.

"Listen, look at the big picture! I know about the Destiny Plan, and so do you!" Kira stated as the two gundams broke off again and flew around each other, flying at one another and exchanging another round of pointless blows only to back off. "Why do you think Chairman Durandal hasn't announced his malevolent plan to the world yet, if that's his goal? What do you think a nation like ORB.. a person like Cagalli or I, would react to that if we found out for the first time, after surrendering to Zaft and let them gain free reign in ORB? Do you think such a grand design would involve allowing us to make those choices for ourselves? Or do you think Durandal would take advantage of Zaft's hold over us?"

"That's ridiculous, Kira!" Athrun fired both of his shoulder cannons at the Veneficus, the shots missing completely.

"To you, maybe. To us, it's a convenience for Durandal. Take out both Djibril and ORB. Neither Cagalli nor ORB is in the position to take such risks! We can't just blindly put our trust in him like you have! For crying out loud, you're being a complete tool! Open your eyes!" Kira demanded, a tear of raging melancholy rolling down his right eyelid as Athrun closed the distance and thrust his shield forward, Kira dodging to his right and pulling back only to slam down on the beam shield with his sword.

"Oh, so I'm the one who's being a complete tool? Coming from the guy who blindly follows his twin sister and will obey her every whim and command like a pet dog! What the hell's happened to you, Kira? Half the things that you two have done this war have either made no sense whatsoever or cost you dearly! Notice how you don't have the Archangel anymore? And where's that massive carrier I'm sure I noticed it at the Dardanelles? Did it magically disappear or was it destroyed by the same people who you signed a treaty with? If anything, you're the one being used because you just follow along and obey 'ORB's precious ideals!'"

"It's not about ORB's ideals, Athrun. They could change and I still wouldn't care as much as you think I do. No, we've done our part in this war... in order to make sure that more terrible tragedies didn't occur. More people would have ended up dead if it wasn't for us!" Kira pulled away and fired both of his wings cannons into Athrun's beam shield, knocking the Crusader backwards into a flip. When the salmon colored mobile suit leveled itself off again, Athrun definitely had something to say.

"Indisputably wrong!" Athrun yelled. "First of all, you kidnapped Cagalli and caused an uproar in ORB because of that, which gave the Seirans power. Second of all, you butted in at the Dardanelles and just caused more chaos and confusion! Thirdly, you decided to appear while the first Destroy was deployed, but from the reports, nothing good actually came of your actions. Finally, you forced Zaft to act and initiate Operation Angel Capture! That's all you've done this war! Nothing. Good. At. All. Besides, how the hell are you alive after what Shinn supposedly did to you, and how the hell did you force him to leave Zaft?" Athrun quickly rushed in and punched forward with his beam naginata while Kira let go of the anti-ship sword with his right hand and reached for his rifle while also thrusting forward with his left arm, the beam on the handle of the blade grinding against the Crusader's as the Veneficus bent forward as if it was kneeling in the air. "Well?"

"Athrun, you've made it clear to me now... you left ORB in a heartbeat because of some people loyal to your father, even though you made it clear that you had completely cut ties with him last war... you left Cagalli alone, when you could have helped her, and aided her, just because you felt your little moral dilemma was more important? And now you dare talk about... people like me, Cagalli, Miss Murrue, and Mr. Waltfeld like that? Do you even know what we did? No, you don't know that at all! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A DAMN TRAITOR TO ME RIGHT NOW!" Kira bellowed as loud as he could, firing his remaining beam rifle into Athrun's shield and forcing him to break off his beam attack and defend, only to have the Veneficus follow up that attack with a swift kick into the Crusader's shield, knocking both it and the Red Knight back while Kira prepared for a decisive charge with his anti-ship sword.

"Damn traitor! Err... damn traitor! KIRA THAT'S ENOUGH!" Athrun raged back, preparing to attack, the two machine blazing towards each other as fast as their engines could carry. The Veneficus pulsed by it's wings of light and the Crusader by it's Fatum-10 lifter. Once they got in range Athrun began to perform a precise uppercut attack while Kira narrowed his eyes and adjusted his controls just a tad, striking down skillfully with his anti-ship sword while the two gundams with SEED mode pilots, purple eyes vs. green eyes, blazed past each other, but there was no lighting, no indication of a beam meeting a beam.

Instead, in less time then it takes for a human heart to beat once, while the Veneficus left a trail of light blue particles behind it, the Crusader suffered a hit. A massive blazing beam gash appeared right in it's fist, almost exactly on the spot where the two beam sabers were connected, that blaze of molten metal running into the hand, forearm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder of the suit for a split second before it ignited and wiped the Crusader's right arm unit clean off of it's body in a fiery explosion.

'Ki... Ki... Kira...' Was all Athrun could think.

'Athrun, I do what I have to...' Kira thought.


Meanwhile, with Shinn and Rey:

"For a man who said he hated Logos you sure are quick to jump ship, aren't you, Shinn?" Rey interrogated, raising his left arm's beam shield to block Shinn's remaining anti-ship sword as it struck down upon it.

"I'm not fighting for Logos, Rey. I would take great joy from choking the life out of Djibril if given the opportunity." Shinn answered, raising his blade upwards and striking forward with the beam saber in his lower left arm, forcing Rey to side step to his left and avoid.

"Actions speak louder then words. The Chairman sounded the call and placed the bulls eyes on the heads of people like him, yet you decided to leave. Your words do not reflect what you have done." Rey replied, both calm and controlled as he tried to pull away, but the Judicator was faster than his suit.

"Chairman Durandal didnt' tell me everything." Shinn countered as he tried to stab forward with his left secondary arms and the Legacy dodged out of the way again. "I was given the choice to either fight alongside those who also want to banish Logos, or not fight at all. I didn't openly defect in the end."

"Oh, I see." Rey stated in an apathetic voice that didn't really care, quickly grabbing the beam saber on the Legacy's left skirt armor with it's respective hand, holding the blade backwards and intercepting the Judicator's anti-ship sword as Shinn swung it downwards.

"And besides, I could tell that the Chairman had something up his sleeve when he made the decision to let Stella stay on the Minerva. I must thank him though, for now he can't use her as leverage against me." Shinn admitted, pushing downwards on the sword while the upper left arm of the Judicator stored it's beam saber away and opened it's palm menacingly, charging up an energy ORB. At the same time, Rey smiled, if only slightly, but nevertheless, he smiled.

"Is that so?" He questioned in a devious fashion. The Legacy then pointed its right small DRAGOONs forward and prepared to fire them in response to Shinn's latest move.

"YEA!" Shinn quickly broke away and dodged the six beams that came after him, launching the orb he had created, only to have Rey turn right and evade it.

"Well then good for you." Rey went back to his normal tone, and Shinn unconsciously narrowed his eyelids in suspicion. "I could care less about some washed up Extended."

"Thanks." Shinn replied in a 100% sarcastic tone, swinging his blade down and sending another orb at Rey. "It means I can end this war without as many burdens and then live my life afterwords... happy."

"Big words coming from a man who's existence no longer has a point." Rey fired the beam rifle in his right hand at the Judicator, his words shocking Shinn and forcing him to raise his shields, rather than easily evade, making the distance gap even larger.

"How the hell can you say something like that?" Shinn shook his head, flew up and to his right while his suit's wings left afterimages, and then performed another batting attack with his blade in tandem with a beam orb toss from his upper left arm.

"Think about it." Rey's SEED mode eyes glared as he activated the beam spikes on his shoulder large DRAGOONs and knocked one of the orbs away, dodging the other due to a bad throw on Shinn's part. "Your family is dead, and you're the only one left. You went all-in with Zaft and now you have spat on the trust they gave you. There is literally no meaning behind the name 'Shinn Asuka' anymore."

"HOW DARE YOU!" Shinn raged, lunging forward again with his massive blade at his side as Rey fired forward with his beam rifle. "You can't say that!" Shinn literally swung back and forth, cutting the beams in half with his rifle and charging forward.

Rey raised his head in fear for what Shinn was doing, but he wasn't going to be taken down that easily, and put both of his suit's arms forward at the last second, just as Shinn reached him and struck down with his blade. "Oh yes I can! And believe it... somebody like me... somebody LIKE me... has the credentials to decide how much meaning there is in a person's life."

"Take your credentials and shove them." Shinn took the Judicator's right hand off of the blade and charged an energy orb. When it was finished, he tried to shove it forward into the Legacy's torso while the two gundams were locked together.

"Ignorance." Rey pulled back as Shinn raised his blade, and then stored his beam rifle back and then brandished his other beam saber. "If you lived my life, you would understand. If you've been through the things I've been through, you would know."

"Well why don't you enlighten me then? You never told us about what happened to you before you left Zaft!"

"Better that you ask your new best friend, Kira Yamato, it seems." Rey replied as he noticed Shinn come at him again, and turned his machine to it's left. "He'll tell you everything." Rey fired the five beam guns his shoulder's large DRAGOON was equipped with as Shinn intercepted with his shield.

"Stop playing games, Rey!" Once Shinn recovered, he came right back, swinging upwards diagonally with his anti-ship sword while Rey tried to guard with his beam shield.

"I will, if you come back with us. This is your only..." Rey offered, interrupting himself in shock as Shinn swung down. For some reason, despite the fact that he had activated the beam shield on his right arm, the purple beam on the tip of the sword, when it made contact with his shield, overpowered it and went right through it, slicing the entire generator in half, but luckily not damaging the arm below, too much.

"Not... a chance..." Shinn replied. "Not so tough now, are you, without your shield?"

"We'll... we'll see about that!" Rey answered, ascending out of another horizontal swipe from Shinn.


Zaft Flagship Saint Helens:

"What do you mean Djibril managed to get away? Are you positive that shuttle was his?" The Captain of the vessel questioned.

"We're not sure, but right now, we've yet to apprehend him, we're being pushed back, and the machines we've got deployed right now are starting to run low on power... looks grim if you ask me." His Executive Officer answered as the Captain leaned his left forearm against the periscope and placed his head on that arm.

"Ah, don't we have more machines in reserve?"

"Some, but not as many as the one's being deployed right now. If we swap out the ones we have available they'll only have an easier time driving us away."

"Damn, if only things didn't go the way they did early on." The Captain groaned. "Fine then, open a channel to the Archangel."


Ten seconds later, Archangel bridge:

"What? Fall back? Are our machines in such a state now?" Kendan Westenfluss asked.

"No, it isn't. But I phoned in to get your approval sir. You're our commanding FAITH officer."

"Alright..." Kendan replied in a voice of regret. "Meyrin, what's the status of our machines?"

"They're beginning to be worn down, sir. They could stay out longer but with how things are going..."

"Spare me." Kendan interrupted the girl. "Alright, I see your point. After all, our objective is not to trade pointless blows with ORB, and we can't find that man. There's no point in continuing this fight if that's the case." He said in a more rational tone. "Ian, surface the ship. Prepare to fight signal flares indicating our retreat."

"Surface the ship, aye." Ian manipulated his controls as the vessel rose upwards to shallower waters.

"Thank you, Admiral. We'll contact you once we've returned to the planned rendezvous site." The Saint Helen's Captain saluted before cutting the line.

"This is embarrassing..." Kendan said to himself.

"Surface in three... two... one..." Ian announced as the Archangel rose from the waters uniformly. Once it reached a certain height above sea level several hatches along the hull opened up and fired three flares indicating a return signal for all mobile suits.


Following the call to retreat, Kira and Athrun's gundams stood across from each other as their pilots seemed to gaze endlessly at each other with mixed feelings.

"Just know..." Athrun spoke up. "Just know right now, that whatever comes of Djibril's escape... the blood will be on your hands as well. This isn't the end, I'll return when that happens to set things straight." The green eyed SEED mode pilot threatened as he turned around and boosted away.

"And I'll be waiting for you, Athrun." Kira took his hands off the controls and cross his arms, the look in his eyes matching that of a person thinking to themselves heavily, and before too long, the Veneficus turned and parted it's own separate way.


"It looks like you lost." Shinn stated in a neutral, but yet bitter voice to Rey just as the two broke their engagement and backed away.

"I suppose it must feel good to be on the winning side, but this war isn't over yet, Shinn. As they said: 'You won the battle but you lost the war.'" Rey answered as the Legacy took off towards the Archangel, leaving Shinn be as an announcement blared across the communication lines of all ORB mobile suits.

"All units are to pull back immediately! We are not pursuing the Zaft forces! I repeat: All units pull back immediately!"


Minerva bridge:

"The Zaft forces are retreating!" Executive Officer Trine looked out with a spark of joy at the retreating mobile suit's and vessels.

"Admiral Westenfluss..." Talia bit her bottom lip, while at the same time, many ORB mobile suits, consisting of Murasames and Astrays, and the four ORB-0x gundams, began to surround the Minerva. "The question is... what happens to us now..." The good Captain simply placed her right hand on the bottom of her chin and watched as the mobile suits gathered around her vessel.


Machine Specs if you need them:

ORB-01 Sovereign

Name: Sovereign

Model Number: ORB-01

Unit Type: Prototype SEED User Ultimate Ranged Defensive Mobile Suit

Developed from:

GAT-X105 Strike

ZGMF-X09A Justice

Manufacturer: Morgenroete

Overall Height: 19m

Standard Weight: 72.5 metric tons

Power-plant: Ultracompact Hyper Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Accommodation: Panoramic ORB Elite SEED System cockpit in torso

Fixed/Standard Armaments:

12.5mm Head Mounted CIWS x 2

Model 101 "Unflinching" Defensive-Offensive Shield x 2

Sovereign mounts two large shields on each arm in a way that makes them seem like an extension of that limb. Each of these shields are connected to and cover the hands of the mobile suit, disabling it's ability to carry weapons while each shield is attached to the arm, however they can be detached. Each shield is directly wired to the computer of the Sovereign and shares the Sovereign's SPS-01 "Speculum" Phase Shift Armor.

Type-105CC "Ardent" Triple Beam Fangs

Each of the two Model 101 "Unflinching" Defensive-Offensive Shields features three beam 'fangs' that come out of the bottom of the shield. These are the close combat weapons of the Sovereign.

Type-110RC "Imperatrix" Double Beam Cannon

In addition to the beam fangs, each shield mounts two beam cannons on the upper-middle portion of the shield. These cannons each have the power output of a typical beam rifle.

Type-115BR "Cent" High Energy Beam Rifle

In case either shield is destroyed, ORB-01 Sovereign mounts one beam rifle on it's right side skirt for ranged attack power.

Type-120BS "Innocens" Beam Saber

A single beam saber mounted on the left side skirt of the Sovereign should a shield be destroyed

System Features

Operating Systems

Standard G.U.N.D.A.M. O.S.:

Like each of the four ORB-0X gundams, the Sovereign utilizes a modified version of the General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver operating system, the operating system used on the GAT-X series. This operating system was created by Kira Yamato when the Archangel landed to Orb after its defection from the Earth Alliance. He devised this system to make Natural pilots combat well using a mobile suit, making them fare well against Coordinator pilots. This operating system was developed further by Erica Simmons for the purposes of the four gundams. One of these modifications includes a compatibility protocol with the SEED System.

Specialized S.E.E.D. O.S.:

Each of the four ORB-0X gundams also has a specialized SEED system installed in it. This is known as the Superior Elimination of Enemies Domination O.S. This system only activates once the mobile suit has detected that the pilot has entered SEED mode. When the pilot enters SEED mode they no longer control the mobile suit using just the actions of their hands and legs, but their mind as well. However several armaments of each mobile suit can only be activated when the SEED system is activated, and as such only a SEED user can utilize the full potential of the suit.

Phase Shift Armor:

ORB-01 Sovereign is protected by a unique type of Phase Shift Armor specific to it. This armor is known as the SPS-01 "Speculum" Phase Shift Armor. In addition to the typical benefits of PS Armor, the SPS-01 "Speculum" Armor also makes the Sovereign immune to standard beam weaponry. If a shot is fired at the gundam, it will be reflected. This armor also makes the mobile suit appear to be made out of solid gold, although just the outside armor is affected by it. This armor also affects each of the backpacks of the Sovereign as well as its "Sol" WASPS. Note: Cannot protect the mobile suit against positron cannon shots

Optional Striker Packs:

ORB-01EP "Elegant" Sky Pack

On Earth, or in any location with significant gravity, the Sovereign mounts a large disk on it's back. This disk can only be activated when the mobile suit switches to it's advanced O.S. and is able to detach itself from the Sovereign and fly around independently of the mobile suit, being controlled mentally by the pilot. This disc has several systems and armaments to it. In addition to this the Sky Pack increases the overall height of the mobile suit from 19m to 25.3m and increases it's weight to 92 metric tons.

Gamma Ray Canceler

Allows the "Elegant" Sky Pack to cancel out gamma ray blasts up to a certain strength.

"Solaris Flamis" Anti-beam emitter x 7

Each of these is capable of emitting a small green discharge that travels at a high speed and are only usable in SEED mode. This beam is not designed to damage mobile suits or battleships. However should it collide with a beam shot, from either a rifle or a cannon, it will either outright cancel out the beam, or weaken it. E.g if it collided with a shot from a standard beam rifle, it would cancel it out. If it collided with a large cannon shot from a battleship, it would only weakened the blast, however several hits from the emitter with eventually cancel out the shot.

Energy absorption array

Another feature of the ORB-01EP "Elegant" Sky Pack is that if a beam rifle/beam cannon shot hits the center section of the disk, it will absorbed and it's power will feed the battery of the disk, allowing it to operate independently from the Sovereign for a longer period of time. If a positron cannon meets the disk, the disk is able to trap the blast and fire it back in any direction, although it cannot contain the positrons for longer than several seconds.


ORB-02 Veneficus

Name: Veneficus

Model Number: ORB-02

Unit Type: Prototype SEED User Ultimate Ranged Offensive Mobile Suit

Developed from:

GAT-X105+AQM/E-X03 Launcher Strike

GAT-X103 Buster

ZGMF-X10A Freedom

MBF-10+P30QC Strike Noir

Manufacturer: Morgenroate

Overall Height: 22.5m

Standard Weight: 73 metric tons

Power-plant: Ultracompact Hyper Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Accommodation: Panoramic ORB Elite SEED System cockpit in torso

Fixed/Standard Armaments:

12.5mm Head Mounted CIWS x 2

Type-210ES Beam Shield Generator x 2

Mounted on each of the hand guards of the mobile suit are two beam shield generators capable of blocking beam saber and beam rifle hits.

Type-215BR "Arcanyte" Mega-Energy Combinable Multi-Phase Beam Rifle x 2

Veneficus carrys two beam rifles, one in each hand. Each of these beam rifles are significantly more powerful than the standard beam rifles carried by most mobile suit, and rival the power of battleship caliber beam cannons as well as gundam-mounted beam cannons, as evidenced by the blue and red blast fired from them as opposed to the normal green shot. When not in use they are mounted on the side skirts of the Veneficus. These two rifles can be combined together to form a beam shotgun, which is capable of firing eight individual beam rifle blasts in a cone. In addition to this, the beam rifles can also combine and plug into the abdomen mounted connector on the front of the mobile suit and used to power up it's Apocalypse laser. (A/N: I have drawn this weapon out myself and will post a picture of it in my profile... and this time it doesn't look terrible **cough** Grandeur **cough**)

Type-220DS "Dual Innocens" Combinable Beam Saber x 2

Two beam sabers are mounted on the back skirts of the Veneficus. These two beam sabers are the same as the Type-120 "Innocens" Beam Saber mounted on the ORB-01 Sovereign in every way except for two reasons. One is that they have a different color, and two is that they can be combined into a large beam naginata.

System Features:

Operating Systems

Standard G.U.N.D.A.M. O.S.:

Like each of the four ORB-0X gundams, the Veneficus utilizes a modified version of the General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver operating system, the operating system used on the GAT-X series. This operating system was created by Kira Yamato when the Archangel landed to Orb after its defection from the Earth Alliance. He devised this system to make Natural pilots combat well using a mobile suit, making them fare well against Coordinator pilots. This operating system was developed further by Erica Simmons for the purposes of the four gundams. One of these modifications includes a compatibility protocol with the SEED System.

Specialized S.E.E.D. O.S.:

Each of the four ORB-0X gundams also has a specialized SEED system installed in it. This is known as the Superior Elimination of Enemies Domination O.S. This system only activates once the mobile suit has detected that the pilot has entered SEED mode. When the pilot enters SEED mode they no longer control the mobile suit using just the actions of their hands and legs, but their mind as well. However several armaments of each mobile suit can only be activated when the SEED system is activated, and as such only a SEED user can utilize the full potential of the suit

Phase Shift Armor:

ORB-02 Veneficus is protected by standard Phase Shift Armor.

Specialized Frame:

The internal frame of the mobile suit is of unique design. This frame is known as the SMF-02 "Marksman" Frame. This frame allows the Veneficus to have unrivaled accuracy in it's beam rifle shots, but is dependent also on the pilot's own abilities. It also makes the exposed parts of the frame glow a rich light blue silver.

Apocalypse System:

The most powerful weapon of the ORB-02 Veneficus is it's Apocalypse Laser which is only usable when the user is in SEED mode. When the mobile suit combines it's beam rifles together, links them to it's chest, aims all of it's ranged weapons at a specific spot and builds up energy over a period of time in a specific spot and then fires the blast, it fires the Apocalypse Laser. This weapon is the most powerful beam discharge ever designed in the Cosmic Era that is not a large super weapon and is capable dealing massive damage. This laser makes the Veneficus a ultra compact super weapon of mass destruction like no other. (Fyi this weapon SPITS in the face of Heero Yuy and his no-skill herp derp twin buster rifle, damage wise)

Optional Striker Packs:

ORB-02EP "Libertas" Sky Pack

While on Earth, the Veneficus mounts a backpack that bears a striking resemblance to the Wings of Kira Yamato's second gundam, the ZGMF-X10A Freedom, however these wings extend further down the mobile suit to allow for different armaments. Mounted on these wings are several armaments and features. When equipped on the Veneficus it's height increases to 24m and it's weight increases to 95 metric tons

Type-230PB "Kaos" Plasma beam cannon x 2

Like the wing design of the Freedom gundam, the "Libertas" Sky Pack mounts an upgraded version of the Freedom's M100 "Balaena" Plasma beam cannons. One major difference is that these cannons can aim backwards too, while the Freedom could only aim forward.

Type-275MC "Obliterate" Mega-Energy beam cannon x 2

Veneficus' Sky Pack mounts two Mega Energy beam cannons on the thruster portion of the mobile suit, separate of the wings. When activated they swing under the arms of the gundam and extend outwards.

"Luna" Beam enhancer emitter x 6

Mounted on the tip of each wing is a an emitter that when fires, launches a very small very fast, blue blast of energy. This blast cannot harm a mobile suit however when it hits a beam rifle or beam cannon shot, it increases the power of that shot. These emitters, like the "Sol" anti-beam emitters on the ORB-01 Sovereign can only be used in SEED mode due to the skills required to accurately aim such a quick and fast discharge and fire it rapidly without accidentally enhancing an opponents weapons. They play a critical role in charging the Apocalypse Laser.

"Alas Libertas" System

Each of the wings of the "Libertas" Sky Pack is capable of emitting particles that allow the Veneficus to travel at a faster speed than most mobile suits in addition to making the suit look bigger due to the particle 'wings' that are generated.


ORB-03 Demoness

Name: Demoness

Model Number: ORB-03

Unit Type: Prototype Transformable SEED User Ultimate Close Quarters Defensive Mobile Suit

Developed from:

GAT-X105 Strike

GAT-X303 Aegis

MVF-M11C Murasume

ORB-01 Sovereign

Manufacturer: Morgenroate

Overall Height: 24m

Standard Weight: 72 metric tons

Power-plant: Ultracompact Hyper Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Accommodation: Panoramic ORB Elite SEED System cockpit in torso

Fixed/Standard Armaments:

12.5mm Head Mounted CIWS x 2

Type-305MC "Wrath" Directable heavy mace and chain

Mounted on the back skirt armor of the Demoness and serving as the tail of the mobile suit in both mobile suit and mobile armor mode is the "Wrath" mace and chain. This weapon is equipped with several thrusters on the base of the spikes in order to keep it from hitting the main body. When the pilot enters SEED mode they can coordinate these thrusters to direct the weapon wherever they want it to go. Affected by Demoness' "Nemo Potest Me Interficere" Phase Shift armor but only when attached to the tail or in the hands of the gundam. Usable in mobile suit mode and mobile armor mode.

Type-310PS "Grim" Multi-purpose staff

Another signature weapon of the ORB-03 Demoness is it's long staff, which houses a weapon at two ends. On one end of the staff is the emitter for a long beam scythe, and on the other end is the emitter for a beam spear. The emitters on either end produce a dark purple beam which is capable of ignoring beam shields. When not in use it is stored on the back of the Demoness. Only used in mobile suit mode.

Type-315CC "Talon" Twin beam claws x 4

Mounted on each arm and foot of the Demoness are it's four twin beam claws, which are around a quarter the normal length of a beam saber each. Usable only in mobile armor mode.

Model 301 "Immovable" Combined shield

Mounted on the left forearm of the Demoness in mobile suit mode is it's shield. This shield greatly resembles the head of the Dragon. When the Demoness transforms into mobile armor mode this shield is moved to behind the head and becomes the head of the Demoness. It has two weapons which can be used in either mode.

Type-320LR "Thrash" Beam Whip

A long whip made out of beam particles that originates from the mouth of the Model 301 "Immovable" Combined shield where the tongue would be. Very long and dangerous.

Type-325LR "Ignire" Beam cannon x 2

Two beam cannons each with the fire power of one regular beam rifle that fire from the eyes of Demoness' shield.

Type-390ES "Pallium" Wing Beam Shield x Many

Mounted on several points on the wings of the Demoness are beams shield generators, which serve to protect the gundam from ranged attacks as it uses it's wings to defend itself.

System Features:

Operating Systems

Standard G.U.N.D.A.M. O.S.:

Like each of the four ORB-0X gundams, the Demoness utilizes a modified version of the General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver operating system, the operating system used on the GAT-X series. This operating system was created by Kira Yamato when the Archangel landed to Orb after its defection from the Earth Alliance. He devised this system to make Natural pilots combat well using a mobile suit, making them fare well against Coordinator pilots. This operating system was developed further by Erica Simmons for the purposes of the four gundams. One of these modifications includes a compatibility protocol with the SEED System.

Specialized S.E.E.D. O.S.:

Each of the four ORB-0X gundams also has a specialized SEED system installed in it. This is known as the Superior Elimination of Enemies Domination O.S. This system only activates once the mobile suit has detected that the pilot has entered SEED mode. When the pilot enters SEED mode they no longer control the mobile suit using just the actions of their hands and legs, but their mind as well. However several armaments of each mobile suit can only be activated when the SEED system is activated, and as such only a SEED user can utilize the full potential of the suit.

Phase Shift Armor:

ORB-03 Demoness is protected by a special type of phase shift armor, much like it's sister unit, ORB-01 Sovereign. However this armor is different. It is known as the SPS-03 "Nemo Potest Me Interficere" Phase Shift Armor and unlike the armor of the Sovereign, does not make it immune to ranged beam weaponry. This type of Phase Shift Armor instead makes the mobile suit immune to beam blades and sabers, in addition to the normal effects of Phase Shift Armor. This makes it so that the Demoness cannot be taken down unless it is shot by a ranged weapon for the most part. The armor turns a bright silver when activated.

Skylord mode:

ORB-03 Demoness is capable of switching between mobile suit and mobile armor mode. When in mobile armor mode the gundam resembles a Dragon. In this mode Demoness' speed is equal to that of the ORB-04 Judicator when it has it's "Multis Iudiciis" System activated. When in this mode ORB-03 can use it's Type-305MC "Wrath" Directable heavy mace and chain as a tail weapon, its Type-315CC "Talon" twin beam claws, Model 301 "Immovable" Combined shield, and beam shield generators. Does not require S.E.E.D. O.S. to be active, but any benefits that are present in that mode will be carried over.

"Geminus" System

When SEED mode is activated the bone-like wings of the Demoness begin to glow and emit particles that are a bright lime green. This also allows the gundam to project a holographic double image of itself nearby which is controlled by the SEED mode pilot and acts in a realistic manner.


ORB-04 Judicator

Name: Judicator

Model Number: ORB-04

Unit Type: Prototype SEED User Ultimate Close Quarters Offensive Mobile Suit

Developed from:

GAT-X105+AQM/E-X02 Sword Strike

ORB-02 Veneficus

Manufacturer: Morgenroate

Overall Height: 25.8m

Standard Weight: 102 metric tons

Power-plant: Ultracompact Hyper Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Accommodation: Panoramic ORB Elite SEED System cockpit in torso

Fixed/Standard Armaments:

12.5mm Head Mounted CIWS x 2

Secondary arm x 4

One very unique feature about the Judicator is it's four secondary arms, two of which are mounted on the shoulder armor, and two of which are mounted where the side skirts would be. These arms can only be activated and controlled when the mobile suit pilot has activated the SEED system. When not in use they are folded inwards into a compact shape.

Type-405EO "Palma Orbis" Emitter x 6

Each palm of the Judicator, whether it belongs to the main two arms, or the four secondary arms, is capable of generating and throwing an orb of pure beam energy at it's target. The speed and accuracy of these orbs are dependent on the pilot's throw.

Type-410SS "Arbitrator" Beam saber x 4

Four beam sabers are mounted on the body of the ORB-04 Judicator. Two of them are mounted on it's kneecaps facing outwards and two of them are mounted on the hinges for it's wings sticking upwards. The beams projected by these beam sabers are slightly longer then average beams and the beams are curved in the shape of a Scimitar.

Type-450MS "Executioner" Anti-ship sword x 2

Compacted and mounted on separate and independent holsters attached to the back thrusters of the Judicator are it's two main weapons which can only be wielding in it's two main arms. These two anti-ship swords are almost 26m long when fully unfolded and both are made of an ultra-strong light weight metal alloy. Each Executioner has two large beams that run down the cutting edge and back side of the sword and stops at the curved tip. The tip of each sword has several small emitters that project a purple beam similar to that of ORB-03 Demoness' Type-310PS "Grim" Multi-purpose staff, meaning that the sharp end of the blade can pierce beam shields. The hilt of each anti-ship sword is similar to that of the Stichdegen, with the handle guard being able to project a curved beam that runs along the outside of the sword.

Type-450MS/O "Gladius Orbis" Emitter

The curved sharp edge of each of the Judicator's two Executioner anti-ship swords has a circular indent which is lined with the same type of emitters found on the gundam's palms. This allows the mobile suit to whip beam orbs at it's enemies even when it is wielding all six of it's weapons.

Type-490ES "Navitas" Beam Shield Generator x 6

A beam shield generator mounted on the hand guards of all six of the Judicator's hands

System Features:

Operating Systems

Standard G.U.N.D.A.M. O.S.:

Like each of the four ORB-0X gundams, the Judicator utilizes a modified version of the General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver operating system, the operating system used on the GAT-X series. This operating system was created by Kira Yamato when the Archangel landed to Orb after its defection from the Earth Alliance. He devised this system to make Natural pilots combat well using a mobile suit, making them fare well against Coordinator pilots. This operating system was developed further by Erica Simmons for the purposes of the four gundams. One of these modifications includes a compatibility protocol with the SEED System.

Specialized S.E.E.D. O.S.:

Each of the four ORB-0X gundams also has a specialized SEED system installed in it. This is known as the Superior Elimination of Enemies Domination O.S. This system only activates once the mobile suit has detected that the pilot has entered SEED mode. When the pilot enters SEED mode they no longer control the mobile suit using just the actions of their hands and legs, but their mind as well. However several armaments of each mobile suit can only be activated when the SEED system is activated, and as such only a SEED user can utilize the full potential of the suit.

Phase Shift Armor:

The ORB-04 Judicator is protected by standard Phase Shift Armor

Specialized Frame:

Like it's older brother, the ORB-02 Veneficus, the ORB-04 Judicator also features a unique frame. Known as the SMF-04 "Berserker" Frame, this hardware design allows the Judicator to move it's limbs and react quicker than any other gundam in existence and also increases the strength of the main arms, which is critical for the control of the anti-ship swords. This frame glows with a molten metal color when the mobile suit is using it.

"Velox Veredictum" System

When the pilot of the Judicator activates their SEED mode, the wings open up and begin to emit particles similar to that of the Veneficus' "Alas Libertas" and "Cosmos" systems, allowing the Judicator to move at speeds that exceed the Veneficus.

"Multis Iudiciis" System

A subsystem of the Judicator's "Velox Verdictum" system. Should the mobile suit activate it's wings while the pilot is in SEED mode, the mobile suit's speed increases even more than before. In addition to this, the Judicator will leave glowing after images in it's wake to confuse enemies.