In the five years since the end of the Second Valentine War, and the formation of the new power bloc of the Afro-Lunic Union, the Moon, now formally known as Luna, had experienced a tremendous economic boom. Where before the population of Luna had mostly been corporate employee's of the various low gravity industries that the Moon had been famous for before the advent of the PLANTS, and were in a decline because of the loss of business to the PLANTS, these days it was the entertainment and tourist industries that did the most business, and more people were moving to live on Luna permanently because it was now one of "the" places to live. Because of the Moon's unique position as the middle point of trade between Earth and the PLANTS, because of the ease with which it could handle both space ships and mass driver cargoes, far more money flowed into Luna than flowed out. Copernicus City, the new Lunar capital, had expanded to three times its original size and was still growing strongly. A new Lunar metropolis, Armstrong City, was under construction a few hundred kilometers away, and though ground had only been broken on it a couple years prior, its population was already up into the millions.
It was much easier to build large structures on the Moon, because of its light gravity, than it was to construct buildings of similar size on Earth, which lowered costs considerably. On the other side of things, there WAS gravity, so people didn't have nearly as much trouble adapting to a potentially zero G environment, or have to spend extra money on creating entirely artificial gravity, which was a major concern in the PLANTS. Everything was bigger on the Moon, or so it was said. What would buy you a one thousand square foot house on Earth, or a five hundred square foot apartment on the PLANTS would get you a thirty five hundred square foot combo-suite in a Lunar city. Even when you factored in travel costs and immigration taxes, which were light because the ALU was trying to encourage immigration at the moment, the Moon was fast becoming one of the most desirable places to live in the entire USN. Lots of space, exotic environments, low cost of living, plentiful business opportunites, a booming economy, the premier tourist and entertainment industries of the USN... Luna was the Las Vegas of the USN, but better in many ways.
The laws of the ALU were also somewhat... loose... at least in comparison to similar laws in the FNE, Orb or even the PLANTS. All sorts of businesses and pursuits that were only borderline legal or even illegal in most of the rest of the world were perfectly normal and acceptable on Luna, if not the terrestrial holdings of the ALU. Luna had pretty much taken the concept of the "red light district" of Earth cities and made it the standard model for their main commerical centers. Of course, many people disapproved of this wild and woolly character of Luna, but that minor public disfavor just helped bring in even more business, because it is a well known fact that as soon as people start trying to ban or boycott something, it's value and popularity immediately skyrockets. Some people will go for it JUST to be counter culture, even. With no minimum drinking age, legalization of most popular recreational drugs, a decidedly cavalier attitude towards what was considered a decent amount of clothing to wear in public and a definition of freedom of speech that would shock most liberal news reporters, Luna had become THE new party spot in the USN for the young, the rebellious and the people who just did not give a rats ass about anything but having the best time of their lives.
Anarchy didn't exactly rule the streets though... Luna was well aware of the detrimental effect a continual wild college party atmosphere would have on the greater majority of people looking to become permanent residents of the ALU. No matter how good for business the wild parties were, they were seasonal income, and while seasonal income was great for padding the profit margins, it was the steady state work of permanent residents that really filled out the Lunar economy, and kept the cost of living so low and made Luna the lucrative place to live and do business that it was. It was jokingly said at times that the civil police in Luna were actually stronger than the regular ALU military forces. Whether that was a hit on the ALU military, which was notoriously feeble compared to the militaries of other USN member-states, or a true compliment to the skill and quality of the Luna Police Force, was a matter of some debate and personal opinion. The LPF even had their own detachment of riot control Mobile Suits, surplus Strike Dagger's bought from the FNE. Though incredibly dated by military standards, and effectively neutered by the removal of all offensive weapon systems and most of the thrusters, which were not quite replaced by spotlights, tear gas launchers, amplifed speakers and sirens, their sheer physical presence helped keep things calm. You could beat up a police officer. You could vandalize a police car. But disrespecting a Mobile Suit was borderline lunacy.
Well aware that their newfound economic power had come at the cost of the economic power of other nations, most notably the FNE, and distrustful of the USN, since it was still at heart a multinational organization, a type of organization that hadn't exactly had a very good historical record of helping out Africa, the ALU had invested a considerable amount in their military forces. However, the people in charge were unwilling to spend the billions and billions of dollars, not to mention years, perhaps even decades of time in creating a military from the ground up, preferring to spend the money on social or political projects to benefit their previously underpriviliged and formerly destitute majority populations. They certainly didn't want to sink money into the pit of producing their own unique Mobile Suits. Why do that when ZAFT had huge inventories of its own, only slightly outdated models that they were looking to get rid of because they couldn't afford to maintain them with their peacetime budget? Sure, all the real interesting technologies had been stripped out, and the ALU had to buy a defence contract from Orb's Morganroete Armories to get the operating system that let Naturals use Mobile Suits, but in greater scheme of things, the costs were well worth it for what the ALU was looking for.
They didn't need to be a military superpower, they just needed to make sure they had SOME military power, so that non-governmental forces didn't think they could just walk all over the ALU, a major historical problem especially in the African nations, who had been plagued by warlords and inter-tribal conflict for millenia. They made their military just strong enough that the tribal warmongers and dissidents couldn't stand up to them, and then relied on close ties with the USN or ZAFT to bolster their forces if and when the time came that the situation got out of hand. In fact, the ALU had fought hard to have as many USN or multinational military facilities in their territory as possible, to help facilitate the intervention of stronger forces in the cause of mutual interest should things ever get too crazy. The primary such facility was the Galileo Lunar Fleet Base, on the dark side of the Moon. Formerly one of the primary military bases of the Earth Alliance and then the Isolation, Galileo had been almost totally destroyed during ZAFT's attempt to conquer the Moon during the Second Valentine War, though that had been because of Zacharis Frost crashing the Judgement, a hundred meter tall walking battleship, into it at several dozen kilometers per second, rather than any real effort by ZAFT.
Galileo LFB had been rebuilt in the time since, first and most basically by the ALU, who then leased the property and facilities to the USN for quite a fee in both money and political favors. If the USN could be said to have a true military headquarters, it would probably be Galileo LFB. It was where almost all of the USN's military forces went for space based training, and was the primary manufacturing center for the USN's Mobile Suits. It was also the primary space based Coalition training center, where military units from the USN, Orb, ZAFT, the FNE and the ALU would meet for joint training scenarios and even cross-service training. Indeed, there were even entire portions of the base devoted to and owned by the various member states, who kept permanent military and political detachments there in ongoing efforts to integrate more fully with the USN and each other. This philosophy was met with varying degrees of effort by each member-state, with Orb and ZAFT being the most in favor of it, while the ALU didn't really care much either way as long as nobody bothered them and the FNE was surly at best, at least when they didn't think they were getting the better deal on something, in which case they could be almost comically accomodating.
Tensions were sometimes high though, especially between the FNE and the ALU, or the FNE and Orb. And with military material, even Mobile Suits, ready to hand, the possibility for a major international incident was always lurking in the back of everyone's thoughts. The USN maintained higher authority over the entire base of course, and had a military presence that far outweighed even all four member-states put together, but the USN couldn't be everywhere at once. Some days, despite everything that had brought the people of the world to the state they were in now, it really seemed like true peace was an impossibility, given how the various factions remained at each other's throats constantly. The civilian support city underneath and around the LFB sometimes seemed divided into gangland territories, where troops from one faction weren't welcome in the territory of another faction, and the USN forces were only barely tolerated no matter where they went. The greater public of the USN and even the member-states themselves had no idea of course... but Galileo LFB was a powder keg at times, and the days of the aftermath of the atrocity in Switzerland by the pro-Coordinator Brotherhood of Man terrorist group was definitely such a time.
It was into this powder keg that Noah had sent Jean Dylan and his Gundam, the Traitor. The world public had been shocked and angered by the terrorist action in Switzerland, and public pressure was strong on the USN to more securely protect it's citizens and world peace. It was time to further stir the pot. And there were few better pot stirrers than Jean Dylan, who was infamous, even if most people didn't know his name, for the selling of the secret Cyclops System plans to ZAFT just before their assault on JOSH-A in the First Valentine War. Though ZAFT had still suffered greatly in their assault, it was widely accepted among the higher ranks of the military forces of the world that ZAFT would have been much more heavily damaged, likely forced to sue for peace, if Dylan had not turned traitor and warned them of the danger. Though not much of a fighter, Dylan knew better than most how to cause the most damage without ever getting into direct combat in the first place. Appearances and assumptions could be so damagingly deceptive after all.
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Jean Dylan froze, sweat beading on his brow, as the USN inner perimeter patrol came into view. He'd been expecting them of course... he had the entire USN patrol schedule right there on his damn screen after all... but he still couldn't completely still the nervous thrill. Intellectually he knew that regardless of whether or not he was immobile or not didn't really matter, since the Mirage Colloid system was on he was functionally invisible to standard sensor systems and even the naked eye. Not only that, but he was in slight cover, lying down just over the crest of a hill with just his head poking up, in a manner only made possible in a NIC equipped machine. It would take a miracle from the devil himself for Dylan to be discovered right now... but he didn't discount the possibility either. If there was anything a life of only being loyal to himself, and selling out his so called "friends" to the highest bidder on multiple occasions had taught him, it was that it was not possible to be TOO careful or paranoid. And while Dylan might be able to lie to himself with relative ease, he wasn't so self deceptive as to tell himself that he had any sort of real chance in a stand up fight, if he was discovered. He was a soldier in name only, the only reason he'd made it through basic training was because he'd had the goods on some of the instructors, shall we say, less savory habits.
Even though the Traitor was, technically anyway, a Gundam, Dylan knew that even a two machine patrol from the USN outgunned him by a significant margin. The basic Mobile Suit of the USN, a pair of which were currently strolling with grim purpose about a half kilometer away to his front, was called, presumptively in Dylan's opinion, the Champion. Twenty meters tall, damn near one hundred tons, they were bigger and meaner even than the Cavalier's that formed the basic troops of the FNE, and quite a bit tougher than the Elementals ZAFT used. They weren't as versatile as the M-4 Guardian's that Orb sported, but again, they were tougher and bigger. As for the nearest ALU equivalent, a trio of which Dylan could just make out at the edge of his vision, well... even he had to snort with amusement. The model was called Lupus... but what they were was slightly modified original model Ginn's, almost a decade out of date. Scary if you were in a tank maybe, but really... Ginn's? Come on! They didn't even carry ranged beam weapons, just a single machine gun and RPG combo and a pair of light missile racks. Their most dangerous weapon was the short handled beam axe that probably only one in twenty of them had any idea how to use, and only one in a hundred would actually SURVIVE to get close enough to use!
Dylan focused his attention back on the two Champions, which were no joking matter. Hard mounted weapon systems included a twin 20mm CIWS turret somewhat untraditionally mounted high on the left shoulder, while the right shoulder carried a AMS-LAS (Anti-Mobile Suit/Light Anti-Ship) missile system. Though only consisting of four missiles, they were a bastardized mix between true anti-ship munitions and the rockets usually carried by Mobile Suits, each more than powerful enough to at least disable, if not destroy outright, any current mass production model Mobile Suit of any nation. The same missile could pretty much cripple an escort class warship, and two or three would benough to even trouble a destroyer or frigate. The missiles were armored as well, which helped ensure that they would hit their targets before being blown away by most light CIWS interdiction fire. Each Champion also carried a ten meter long physical/beam bladed anti-ship sword, much like the one the original Sword Strike Gundam had had.
For primary armament, the Champions could be outfitted with a variety of weapons, depending on their combat role, or the demands of the situation. Both of the ones Dylan could see had the standard "infantry" weapon, which consisted of a combination of a 57mm beam rifle and 80mm machine gun, granting both the penetrating power of a beam weapon and the rapidfire capability of the machine gun. Other alternate weapons that Dylan was aware of included a 580mm hyper impulse cannon, a 350mm gun launcher, and a 30 tubed multiple missile launching system. For protection, the Champions had heavy, thick armor, with a limited Phase Shift system powered by a seperate battery from the main power source, granting total protection against up to twenty five ballistic or physical type hits before it ran out. Not only that, but they carried a massive Citadel equipped shield on their left arms, a tower shield varient that covered the Mobile Suit from just below the CIWS turret all the way down to just above it's toes, being broad enough to hide over ninety percent of the Champion's profile as it advanced with shield to the front. A special notch in the middle side of the shield allowed the weapon of the Champion to protrude through the shield, allowing them to fire while advancing, even through their own Citadel shield.
Not only all that, but at least with the USN, you could never tell if the pilot was a Natural or a Coordinator, not until after you engaged them anyway. At least with the FNE or ALU you were pretty sure it was Naturals you were up against, and with ZAFT you knew that the other guy was a Coordinator right from the get go... with the USN, and to a lesser degree Orb, it was a crapshoot. Luck of the draw. Dylan HATED crapshoots. Way too easy for a guy to get his head clipped off in situations like that. He considered his own weapons. He had a 57mm beam rifle of his own, with an attachment that let him fire 300mm rocket grenades for a bit of explosive punch. But he only had five grenades, and they were about as useful as paintballs against Phase Shift Armor. He had a 155mm pump action shotcannon he'd taken at the last moment from the surplus weapon stores, but it only had nine shots in it and was likewise basically a popgun compared to something with true punch. Not only that, but it was short range, which was unhappy making. Really, his most deadly weapon was his beam sword, and he'd never even USED it before. Other than that, he had two 20mm CIWS guns, a bunch of anti-personnel .50 caliber machineguns built into his fingers, and a pair of automatic anti-personnel grenade launchers in his forearms. Not exactly a frightening arsenal.
On the defensive side of things he did have a Citadel shield, and Phase Shift Armor of his own, powered by a nuclear reactor for unlimited duration, which was a comfort. At least until he started to consider the truly staggering number of beam and plasma type weapons that were likely to be in use on the LFB. And he did have Mirage Colloid, though he couldn't use that and the Phase Shift at the same time. But really, to be going in, basically alone except for a last ditch emergency measure, the Traitor wasn't exactly the most bad ass of Gundams. On the other hand... Dylan accessed his special electronics suite, which had finished intercepting and decrypting the various IFF signals being bounced around the base by various factions. He selected one for the FNE, identifying himself as a Cavalier. The USN patrol passed out of sight and sensor range, and Dylan brought the Traitor up into a mad sprint for the fence line. He crossed it with plenty of time to spare before the next patrol or sensor sweep from the nearby comm tower. He consulted his rather nice and complete schematics for the base. He was currently in a sector of the base that was "owned" by the ALU. A perfect place to start. He dropped his Mirage Colloid, activating his Holoshroud in the same motion. After that it was just a matter of fine tuning a few things with regards to his stealth system, and then, viola... to almost any observer, there was a FNE Cavalier standing there.
Of course, if you looked real close, someone might notice that the "Cavalier" wasn't quite moving right, but it was astonishing, truly astonishing, how infrequently people looked past first glance, especially when their sensors agreed with their eyes. Dylan waited with baited breath, in plain view of the comm tower, through the acid test as the tower spotted him and swept him with its sensors. His comm system started to ping as the tower asked him what his business was, so far outside his own sector of the base. Dylan chose not to reply with words, instead slotting a rocket grenade into place on the tip of his rifle. Before the poor sots in the comm tower could figure out what was happening, Dylan had blown the top part of the tower apart with the grenade, sending bodies, whole and in pieces, spiralling out into the void. Alarms started to wail across the various frequencies. Dylan ducked behind a warehouse to block line of sight, and his holoshroud shimmered and fritzed. Within a second or two, a Lupus stood there, complete with IFF codes. Dylan smirked, and took off at a steady trot, passing several squads of scrambling ALU machines on his way out. It was going to be a busy day... this was a damn big pot to stir.
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And just WHAT are YOU looking at now!? Katie's somewhat irritated thought pulsed heatedly in the front of Ysak's mind. He refocused his eyes and smiled somewhat weakly across the cafe table at her. She wasn't buying it, he could see that already. Katie had that way of looking directly into his eyes that informed him that she already knew what had caught his eye. Still, the instincts were hard to fight. "Oh nothing much." Ysak replied, before he could really stop himself. He cursed to himself... Katie did not take well to denial, especially when she knew he wasn't being truthful.
Is... that... so... Katie's eyes narrowed vindictively. So if I was to turn around right now, I would not see some scantily clad little thing prancing along the sidewalk in an entirely too innocent fashion? Is that what "nothing much" means these days? Hmm?
I don't see why YOU of all people would react badly to the standards of dress around here. Ysak groused, not denying anything. Could he help it if seeing girls basically strutting along in what amounted to lingerie, and not very much of it at that, in broad "daylight" on a public street was eye catching? And it wasn't an isolated incidence either... you could NOT look around without seeing that sort of thing! He'd heard stories from soldiers who'd gone to Luna on leave before, but he'd never lent them much credence. People see all sorts of things when they were drunk, not all of them were real. And those that were real were often exaggerated for dramatic effect. Well, in some cases, Ysak was finding that his soldiers had been dampening down the details for believability's sake. It was a good thing, he reflected, that he'd found Katie before Luna had become like this... the Ysak of the First Valentine War would have had to run and hide in embarassment from this place. You're the one who only sees clothing as convenient, not required. HOW many times again have you been forced to hide in the bathroom at home when my mother drops by for an unnanounced visit, just because you never decided to get dressed that morning!?
YOU'RE the one who forces me to hide... I don't have a problem with nudity! I was RAISED that way, remember? Sure, maybe those scientists were WRONG to raise me that way, but they were wrong to do a LOT of what they did. Katie countered. She leaned slightly closer to him over the table and took one of his hands in both of hers. Ysak was not fooled by the apparently cuddly gesture... Katie could do quite a number of unpleasant and painful things to him just with access to his hand, things learned from her Uncle Alkire, Uncle Vladimir and Big Sister Raine, if the mood struck her. I don't care what people wear or don't wear... I just don't like it when YOU get distracted by them when otherwise you wouldn't! It's called jealousy, Ysak... I wouldn't think you'd need to look it up.
Well, I'm trying not to stare, okay... but it's HARD! This culture is just so... open... its crazy! I can't see how people can live like this... its indecent! Ysak furrowed his own brow, keeping his hand still and steady. Trying to pull away was like pulling away from a cat when it had its paws on you. Its instinct was to sink in its claws, regardless of whether it was going to do it before. Katie was the same way... if he tried to free his hand, she'd do something just because he was trying to get away. Maybe coming out here for lunch wasn't such a good idea after all.
I really like our new Gundam too, Ysak-y... but honestly, you cannot go to Luna and NOT walk the streets of Copernicus. Katie withdrew her hands slowly, folding them in front of her and leaning her chin on them. But maybe you do have a point... perhaps we should go somewhere else after we finish lunch. A moonwalk or something. Or maybe that low gravity roller coaster they have... that looks pretty wild!
Ysak relaxed slightly... she was calling him "Ysak-y" again, which was a very good sign. Now he just had to keep her happy... a never ending chore that was. Worth it though. Definitely worth it. He decided a change in topic was appropriate. Can you just imagine what the looks on everyone's faces are going to be when we show up from our "vacation reunion" with a brand new Gundam in tow? Now that they're a public secret, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't show off a little.
You say that happily, but aren't you a little pissed off at what happened to Cagalli and Athrun? Katie cast her eyes down to the table for a few moments. I mean, they went and did the right thing, and look what happened.
Nobody ever said doing the right thing was going to be easy, or popular. Ysak shrugged. Athrun and Cagalli can handle themselves. It was something of a dick move on Durandel's part to drag the whole affair into the public eye, but then again, its kind of his job to do things that way. If I was him, I'd probably have done something similar. Having my major political opponents basically gift wrap themselves and put their heads on a silver platter for me like that, I wouldn't be able to resist really. Though I'd have been a lot tougher on them than Durandel was. See... he's not such a bad guy... he could have royally fucked Orb and it's military, but he didn't.
I guess you have a point. Katie frowned, lifting her eyes from the table and directing her gaze past Ysak's head, off down the street a ways. Ysak didn't turn around, instead focusing his attention on watching Katie's face and paying attention more fully to the link between them. Despite how keen his own senses were, they were nothing compared to Katie's ability to sense minds and intentions in those minds. If there was something up... and there was, judging from her face... then she was going to be able to figure out what it was before he ever could. You have an admirer. A kinda cute one too.
Oh? Ysak raised an eyebrow. Apparently his first impression had been wrong. No emergency after all. Well... Katie's definition of emergency could be rather loose at times... anything alarming or interesting to her could be "emergency" status. Not my fault this time. My eyes have been on you for several minutes now. No way I could have been oogling another girl.
Who said anything about girls? Katie smirked at him for a moment. Young, tall, slim and military type build. Slightly wild looking, with that dark brown shaggy hair and those blazing red eyes. He looks like the sort of guy a girl could have a lot of fun with if she wanted. Though he's only looking at you, not me, so maybe he swings the other way. No, no, retract that statement, he just goggled as that floozy strutted by. Hmm, so, I wonder what's so interesting about YOU, Ysak-y?
Is that so? Ysak refused to rise to the bait. He was as possessive of Katie as anyone in his situation would likely be... though considering the only other people in his situation were Kira and Lacus, perhaps that was a bad way of putting it. It was very hard to imagine Kira in a fit of jealousy. And Ysak strongly doubted that Lacus Clyne ever played games with Kira like Katie played with Ysak... trying to draw him "out of his shell" by indirectly flirting with or admiring other men while he was around. Perhaps you should go find out... I'll need some time to find a place to hide the body afterwards anyway. And it's not like I'm exactly in disguise here. How many other Coordinators do you know with white hair and my scar? Honestly, the only two other Coordinators likely to be recognized on sight easier than me, at least amongst the younger generation in one case, are Athrun Zala and Lacus Clyne herself.
You are somewhat easy on the eyes, I will admit. Katie smiled briefly. She turned her gaze back to him. His friends showed up and they moved on. Just a random admirer I guess.
Better get used to that. Ysak shifted in his chair, catching the eye of the waitress. They'd sat there in silence for long enough the service staff was likely starting to wonder if they were ever going to order lunch. Sometimes it was hard to remember that their mental conversation was inaudible to other people, given how realistic it sounded, even down to variations in tone and emphasis based on mood or feeling. I can't be totally sure of course, but I get the feeling that every Redcoat in ZAFT is going to be bleeding green with envy once they get a gander at the Vorpal. As is right and proper, of course. Given the torturous path I... We've... had to walk to acquire it, I think its really about time that we got to bathe in the covetous glares of the plebes.
I think you might be letting this whole hero of the USN thing go to your head a little bit. Katie's smile grew wider. Can't you just see the looks we'll get the first time we step out of the cockpit together? Envious would be quite an understatement, I think. People will be putting a whole new emphasis on the word "cockpit", eh?
The waitress had to wonder, as the strange but slightly familiar looking couple finally ordered, after almost ten minutes of making faces at each other in dead silence, just why the guy was flushed so red with embarssment. She sure hadn't seen or heard anything that would cause such an extreme reaction. And people said Lunites were weird... they had nothing on the tourists.
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"That's funny." Shinn Asuka muttered to himself, craning his head around even as the other guys from the Schwartz team pushed him on down the street, with all the grace and poise of a rioting mob. Liberty call on Luna, in Copernicus City no less, was not to be taken lightly, or so many of the younger pilots insisted. Just turning twenty one made Shinn actually one of the oldest pilots in the Schwartz team, other than old man Schwartz himself of course, who positively ancient at thirty five, at least for the Mobile Suit Corps of ZAFT. "I could have sworn that was Commander Joule back there."
"Uh oh... his Demonic Highness is muttering spells again! Watch out, or all our hair will drop out, or our balls will shrink up and be useless!" One of the other pilots, the often brash and more than frequently annoying cadet Jamis Karr, nudged his best friend and fellow cadet Rodrick Clave with one elbow. Shinn shot the both of them a fierce glare, hoping to pre-empt any more of their near constant fun at his expense. He was aware that he was often a brooding, somewhat grim presence, especially compared to the lighthearted cadets, but then again, was that really his fault? He'd fought in the Second Valentine War after all, in some of the biggest battles of the War... and not always winning battles too. None of the rest of them, save for Commander Schwartz, had ever fired a real round against anything more dangerous than a target asteroid. They all talked pretty good games, but Shinn could vaguely remember how he himself was at that age, and he took much of what his teammates said with more than a few grains of salt. Still, he couldn't deny that if he was going to be stuck on Luna for a few days anyway, especially on his twenty first birthday, he might as well go out with the guys and look for something fun to do, even if his idea of fun and theirs didn't always mesh.
"Not like you need to worry too much there, Car-Wreck, given your luck... if you can call it that... on getting laid." Kai "Guy" Kurane, third most senior man in the team, after Shinn and Schwartz himself, commented wryly. He was staggering somewhat as he walked, which was far from surprising, considering he was holding a long necked bottle of vodka in one hand, from which he'd been swigging every few steps for what must have been a good kilometer and a half now, as they searched for "this one bar" that Jamis had heard about that was supposed to "be the be all, end all of party bars". Kai was a pretty big guy, and a Coordinator, but they'd been bar hopping for several hours already, and he was definitely starting to get to a good buzz stage. He was kinda disappointed that they hadn't managed to get Shinn to do more than down a glass of beer every now and again, given that this was supposed to be HIS birthday party and all... but then again, that was Shinn for you. "His Demonicness has better things to do with his time than waste dick shrinking curses on a wanker like you."
Shinn turned the fierce glare on all three of his teammates, but they'd been part of the team for long enough by this point... and drunk enough liquor to boot... that none of them were particularly intimdated. Shinn glared at everyone, all the time. It was just a part of who he was, or so the common consensus went. It had been the source of his nickname, no one could forget that, when Shinn had just come back from the ZAFT Elite Academy and fought an unarmed exhibitionist match with a pilot from another team. Shinn had completely destroyed the cocky bastard, so badly that when the poor bastard woke up after his teammates doused him with ice water and broke open a smelling salts pill under his nose, his first words were to ask whether that "red-eyed glaring devil" was gone or not. From then on, it had been pretty much inevitable, as most such nicknames are when most people agree on them. There was no fighting it, you could only tolerate it as best you could. Even Commander Schwartz used it, having given Shinn the callsign Red-Devil during several training maneuvers and simulations. At least it was better than Jamis's "Car-Wreck".
"Besides, theres nothing wrong with baldness!" Rodrick exclaimed, rubbing a hand over his own shaved and polished head. "I think it would be worse if the Demon-King were to cause our hair to grow... can you imagine having to shave like three times a day? Ugh!"
Kai and Jamis looked at each other and shrugged. Rodrick was a good guy, but he was a little... off... sometimes. "Whatever you say, Gator." Kai took another swig from his bottle, which was nearly drained. He straightened and staggered, reaching out with a hand to steady himself on a nearby wall. "Goddamn it, I'm just wasted enough to wish I was more wasted! Where the hell is this bar, Car-Wreck!? We've been walking too long!"
"Not much further, Guy, I promise. Just you guys wait... you'll see. This place is fan-fucking-tabulous! They got everything... even strippers! It's gonna be awesome!" Jamis informed them, practically swaggering with self importance and delight. "We're all gonna feel like we died and went to heaven! Or to a nicer place in hell, for his Demonic Highness."
"That's what you said about the last bar." Rodrick pointed out. "But there weren't any strippers there. The beer kinda sucked too."
"Listen man...!"
"For that matter, you said the same things about the bar before that one. And the one before that too." Rodrick plodded his conversational momentum onwards. "In fact, if memory serves, you say that every time we go out on liberty..."
"Man, why you gotta be dissing me like that? I can understand pessimism from the Dark Lord back there... but you're supposed to be full of piss and vinegar like me, Gator!"
"I AM full of fucking vinegar, Car-Wreck... thats the fucking problem, since I'm trying to be full of wine!" Kai cut in. "The beer tastes like shit in every bar you pick, and the liquor ain't much better! No, we're done following the Car-Wreck. I say we consult a true connessieur of worldy pleasures. Hold on a sec." Kai fumbled in his pocket for his cell phone.
"Ohh fuck... who's he gonna misdial this time?" Jamis licked his lips with a mixture of nervousness and anticipation. Guy was always good for a few laughs later on in the night, especially after getting sloshed, because he always kept his cell phone with him, and he liked calling to "consult" people when he was in the throes of a drinking binge. The results were often side shakingly hysterical. Like the time Guy had called the duty officer and gotten into a profanity laced screaming match with the girl, right there in the middle of the bar. Explaining it to Commander Schwartz the next day hadn't been nearly as fun... but at the time, Jamis had seen few things funnier.
"Uh uh... gimme the damn phone, Guy!" Rodrick stepped forward, reaching out to take the phone away from his inebriated teammate. The last thing they needed was Guy calling the duty officer or someone else important again, and getting all their liberty canceled because he was drunk and disorderly towards a superior officer again. He didn't know how many investigations of misconduct he could stand up to before the investigators caught wind of some stuff that he really should have never gotten involved with, but now couldn't exactly back out of. Spiffy was a truly damnable substance, even if you only sold it on the side. Maybe even especially if you only sold it on the side, most especially if you sold it on the side while on active duty in ZAFT. Just cause it was one of the most addictive and expensive designer drugs on the market... well, that and it was deadly poisonous to humans in doses larger than a hundred milliliters or so, which was about six hits. Problem being of course that you felt SO DAMNED GOOD while high on it that you'd do just about anything to keep the hits coming. Only thing that kept the majority of users from OD deaths was cost... at several hundred dollars a hit, most people on the street couldn't afford more than one or two hits at a time.
Kai lifted his hand high above his head, out of the reach of his shorter teammate. "Trust me on this one, fellas. This man is a true master of good times. If anyone is to know where to go, it'll be him. Just hold on while I find his number... its in here somewhere."
"Come on, Guy, I ain't fucking joking!" Rodrick grabbed his friend by the arm and tried to pull the phone down within reach. "You know what sort of bad shit happens when you get near a phone when you're wasted! You'll thank me for this later! Jamis, help me out here!"
"Fuck you, Gator. You gonna trample all over my bar finding ability, and then yer gonna ask me for help? Nuh uh, I wanna see who Guy calls out of the blue."
"Shinn! Shinn, please... I don't wanna explain to Schwartz why we just stood by and let this happen again!" Rodrick called out in desperation. He didn't really like "tough guy" Shinn Asuka, thought he was a self righteous dick most of the time to be honest, a goody-two-shoes Redcoat who felt he was too good for the rest of them just cause he was veteran and they weren't. So what, he'd fought in the fucking war... big fucking deal! So had a lot of folks, and it wasn't like it was Rodrick's fault he'd been ten at the time, was it? He did have to admit, Shinn was some pretty hot shit in a Mobile Suit, but then again, he was a fucking Redcoat, so that wasn't much of a surprise was it? No, Shinn was a cold fucking fish most of the time, and Rodrick just couldn't warm to the often melancholy bastard. Still, Rodrick was pretty sure that Shinn hated getting in trouble with Commander Schwartz because of Guy's drunken dialling even more than Rodrick did, and any port in a storm right?
Shinn sighed and stepped forward. He disliked getting involved in the boisterous infighting that his three teammates seemed to enjoy every time they went out on liberty as a group, but Rodrick did have a point. Commander Schwartz was enjoying his own liberty call somewhere else in the city, and he would NOT be appreciative of being called back to the transit station in order to escort one of his miscreant subordinates back to the ZAFT section of Galileo LFB, a good forty minute mag-lev ride away. There wasn't much Commander Schwartz could really do to Shinn, since Shinn was a Redcoat and thus somewhat outside the usual chain of command, but on the flip side of that, Shinn was a Redcoat and thusly had some measure of responsibility for keeping his companions both in line and out of trouble, since he was the senior man present. And Shinn rather liked Commander Schwartz in the balance of things, given his tolerance of Shinn's moodiness and personality quirks. "Put the phone up, Kai. I'll find us a place to go. Maybe even a bar. There's bound to be a directory somewhere."
"You can pry it out of my cold, dead... um..." Kai's brain caught up to his mouth and he trailed off, considering as hard as his alcohol flushed mind could muddle. This was Shinn he was talking to now. Shinn was a Redcoat. Not only that, but he was a hardass, angry Redcoat, at least at times. Shinn had a very high up spot on Kai's personal list of people he never wanted to fight unless he had no choice, and preferrably the advantage of numbers and surprise. On the other hand, Kai was feeling pretty tough himself, having drunk most of a bottle of vodka and almost a dozen beers in the last few hours. He wasn't sure why exactly, but the thought of the alcohol in his system made him feel quite a bit tougher, faster and stronger than he usually was. Maybe even tough, fast and strong enough to turn the tables on Shinn. Kai was still considering the pros and cons of the situation when Rodrick, trying to take advantage of the slightly befuddled look on his teammates face, made another grab for the phone. He almost got it too, half tearing it out of his friend's hand, as Kai snatched his arm up and away. His grip was considerably loosened by Rodrick's attempt at stealing the phone and he was still puzzling over how to handle Shinn, so he forgot to tighten his grip again. As a result the phone went sailing out of his hand in a long arc, like a grenade tossed by a ground pounder.
Kai watched with horrified eyes as his precious phone descended towards the pavement a good twenty feet away, well out of the range of any potential intervention by the members of the Schwartz team. That was a six hundred dollar phone, down the drain right there, not to mention the social costs of losing all the numbers in the directory. It had taken him the better part of three years building up the network of friends, acquiantances, old girlfriends and various "important" people, like the party-master he'd been about to call, that had been programmed into that phone, along with all his work related contact numbers as well of course. So maybe the programming was a little haphazard, and he sometimes called a work number when he thought he was calling an old girlfriend and got into a screaming match with a testy bitch, who later turned out to be the duty officer. Mistakes happen, right? Well, they wouldn't be happening for a while, he mourned, waiting for the phone to shatter into blue plastic shards on the pavement.
However, that personal calamity was averted at the last second, as a hand shot out of the crowd of pedestrians making their way along the sidewalk and caught the phone as easily and surely as if he'd been aiming right at that person the whole time. Quite who the person was they couldn't see because of the pedestrian traffic, at least for a few moments, until the person stepped out from behind the group of oblivious tourists who hadn't even seen the phone in the first place, and looked back down the street towards the Schwartz team. Collectively, the Schwartz team let out small gasps, even Shinn. The person who'd caught the phone was a girl... well, young woman. And WHAT a young woman too. Pale, lightly tanned skin, leggy, with the hardened and shapely figure that can only be found as the result of constant physical training or activity, tall for a girl, with magenta shoulder length hair and light blue eyes, she was definitely pretty enough to draw stares from the four Coordinators. Those selfsame stares obviously identified for her just who had tossed the phone, and she wasted little time in approaching them.
"I saw her first." Jamis claimed in a tight whisper, licking his lips slightly, before realizing that he was in plain view of the smoking hot girl while he'd done it. He coughed, bringing one hand up to cover his mouth as he flushed with embarassment. To be entirely honest, for all his tough talk, Jamis was unbearably shy around girls, especially pretty girls. Especially, especially pretty girls in short pink skirts and well fitting sleeveless shirts that definitely showed off their figure to good advantage. "That means I..." Jamis continued, his voice somewhat muffled by his hands.
"Have already been too slow." Rodrick cut his friend off, running nervous hands across his scalp, combing back hair that hadn't been there for almost a year now, though the nervous habit was hard to shake. He was nervous, but inwardly he was smiling. Kai was drunk, so he wasn't much of a contender at the moment. Jamis practically broke into hives and had nervous breakdowns when girls were nearby, so he was out. And Shinn was a cold fish, who probably didn't even stroke off at night, and seemed about as interested in girls as Rodrick was in root canals. Of the four of them, Rodrick was the only one really in a position to take advantage of the situation. As long as he didn't make a total fool of himself with first impressions, he might even find this liberty call being a great deal more enjoyable than he'd dreamed. "First come, first serve, Car-Wreck." Rodrick stepped forward to meet the girl.
"I believe you dropped this?" The girl said, flicking her eyes across the group of men. Off duty ZAFT soldiers, unless she was totally blind. Probably from the Galileo LFB contingent, though from what it looked like, ones that didn't get out to Copernicus City much, since they seemed to be in the middle of an arguement as to where they were going. She rolled her eyes... men were such idiots at times, when all it took was five minutes at a public net terminal to come up with complete, street level maps of pretty much anywhere you wanted to go. But no, they preferred to pretend to be hunter-gatherers, trading spears and clubs for vodka bottles and cellphones, beating the modern bush for bars and strip joints in high fashion. She could feel them all appraising her, but she was relatively used to that, and they were actually a bit more polite in their half drunken stares than many sober Lunites had been on her way to this spot from the hotel she was staying at.
"Well, my friend's had a bit much to drink, and the predictable happened to his physical abilities..." Rodrick shrugged, trying for a winning smile. He held out a hand for Kai's phone. "Thank you, by the way... he'd have been in tears by now if it wasn't for you. I'm Rodrick Clave, who might you be?" Rodrick asked. Look at the face. Focus on the face. He kept chanting the mantra inside his head. Nothing gave a worse first impression to a sober girl than a guy staring at close range at her breasts and other assets, especially when he was talking to her. Never mind that she was definitely well endowed, he could compliment her on that later... he had to first get past initial awkwardness, so there could BE a later. She cocked her head and looked at him intently, which caused his heart to flutter, you bet it did, as she placed the phone in his hand. At least, his heart fluttered until he realized that she wasn't looking AT him, but rather PAST him.
"Shinn? Shinn Asuka?" The girl asked slowly, as if dredging the name up from deep within her memory, which was an accurate assumption. If she recalled right, the last time she'd seen hair that brown, and eyes so red, had been during Operation Overload, at the climax of the Second Valentine War. Of course, that had been five years ago, and he'd been wearing rather less at the time, having been caught in mid scramble with just his boxers on, but the hair and the eyes... even amongst Coordinators, you didn't come across brown hair and red eyes all that often. Usually if someone had a totally alien color like red for their eyes, they also had hair that was creatively colored, like green, or blue, or purple... not an entirely natural, if dark, brown. The shaggy, slightly wild cut of the hair was also the same as she remembered. Not quite disheveled, but certainly untidy. It, along with the eyes, definitely lent him an air of a beast, barely restrained by iron self control. "Its been more than five years!"
Shinn was doing some memory sorting of his own, before he too hit on Operation Overload, having been helped by her comment about it being five years. "Lunamaria... Hawke?" He asked, somewhat doubtfully, though to his somewhat relief he saw the pleased look in her eyes that told him he'd come up with the right name. He tried, with not much success, to compare the interesting, if still somewhat gawky, girl he remembered bumping into and nearly flattening against a bulkhead back then, and the more than pretty young woman standing barely an arms length away right now. He remembered agreeing to her half shouted suggestion to meet up and talk after the Operation was over, but that had never happened, due to the disorganized, half destroyed state of the ZAFT fleet. To be honest, he'd pretty much forgotten about the whole incident until just now. That was starting to look like a misstep on his part, because there was absolutely no denying that Lunamaria was more than just attractive, she was stunning. Shinn knew his teammates would never believe it, but he was far from uncomfortable with the idea of feminine company... it was just tough finding someone who could put up with him, that was all.
"That's me." Luna agreed, sizing him up again. Five years had not taken much away from him, at least at first and second glance, that was for sure, and had added quite a bit in the process. "Seems fate conspired to keep us from having that talk we promised each other, eh?"
"Well, things were a little chaotic, given that more than half the fleet was floating scrap, and we still didn't know who was in charge of what or why." Shinn could not suppress a shiver at the memory. "I have to admit, I kinda forgot about the whole thing until just now. Fancy meeting you here."
Lunamaria smiled, somewhat charmed by his blunt honesty. To be truthful, she hadn't really thought much of the guy she'd bumped into either, until she'd bumped into him again, just now. Everyone had had much more pressing matters than socialization on their minds in the wake of Operation Overload. But few men, in her experience, would have admitted to forgetting about or blowing her off, especially to her face, doubly especially given the "fate conspired" excuse out she'd provided him. "Oh, I'm just passing through with my sister, on our way to our command. I just got done with the Academy, and we're finishing up my two weeks of graduation leave."
"The Academy?" Shinn raised an eyebrow. It was a generic term, used amongst ZAFT to denote all sorts of post basic training courses and schools. If he remembered right, she'd been a pilot first class back during Operation Overload, same as him, which meant that, given her age, she had advanced about as far as she could at the time. But to be a pilot first class when you were fifteen or sixteen, and still be in ZAFT five years later... Shinn did some calculations, and straightened his bearing somewhat. It was more than likely that she was an "officer", as much as ZAFT had formal officers.
"Yep. Had to go convince some people that I needed a change of wardrobe. And about damn time too." Luna's smile grew wider at some fond memory. "I can't tell you how good it felt to trade in those gold crosses for the trefoil wings." She added, referring to the formal collar pins worn by first pilot first classes, and then the much rarer adornment worn by elite pilots. Redcoats to be precise. Shinn smiled himself, pleased without knowing quite why that they were of the same basic rank, if not fully seniority, since he'd been through the Academy for his trefoil wings several years ago. Still, ZAFT wasn't exactly picky about seniority as long as people had the skills and drive to get things done, and that went triple for the Redcoats.
"I've some idea." Shinn replied with a nod. "Buying all new uniforms is something of a pain though, even if they do give you an allowance for it."
"Its never enough. Not for the correct number of uniforms anyway!" Luna agreed. She cocked her head slightly at Shinn. "But then, I think you know that already, right?"
Shinn was just about to reply when, in unison, the duty pagers that he and all three of his teammates wore or carried somewhere on their persons at all times while out on liberty call away from Galileo pinged urgently. Shinn heard the pinging chorus around a bit, as other ZAFT personnel interspersed throughout the crowds were likewise paged. Jamis dug his pager out of his pocket and stared at the screen in incomprehension. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" He complained angrily. "Urgent recall? What the fuck!? We're out on the first ninety six hour liberty chit in two fucking months and we get a fucking urgent recall!?"
"Fate conspires once more." Lunamaria commented with a smile and a shrug. "One of these days we'll be able to have a good talk, Shinn."
"Maybe I should make like I lost the fucking pager!" Jamis was muttering rebelliously. Shinn quieted him with a look. Not a glare, just a level look that nonetheless left the pilot third class quite subdued. Shinn nodded his head at the crowds around them, listening to the pings and pongs and beeps and blurts of all sorts of pagers and cell phones and other communication devices going off.
"Its not just us." Shinn said thoughfully, trying to sort out the various chimes and signals. ALU... FNE... more ZAFT... some USN... even an Orb, he was pretty sure. "Every soldier in hearing distance is getting recalled all of a sudden. Something's happened at Galileo. Something big." He turned to look at Lunamaria again, who had an understanding look on her face. "I won't forget this time." Shinn promised, meeting her gaze eye to eye.
"I should hope not. I get the feeling we both might miss out on something we'd rather not." Luna smirked at him. "I'll be on the Moon for another two days, at the Hilton-Copernicus. Room eighteen thirty six. See you around, Shinn?"
"See you around, Lunamaria." Shinn agreed, before leading his teammates off at a quick trot, to join the stream of other civilian dressed soldiers heading for the transit station. He could not but help glance over his shoulder a time or five though, despite the ribbing his friends were trying to give him. He would definitely NOT forget this time.
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"When I said earlier that I could not wait to show off the Vorpal to my compatriots at ZAFT, this is most definitely NOT what I meant!" Ysak grumbled as he burst through the door into the makeshift ready room aboard the cargo shuttle that had been chartered to carry the Vorpal, as well as Ysak, Katie and several technical teams from Orb who would be in charge of actual maintenance on the Gundam, at least until Orb and ZAFT finished working out the agreements that would let the ZAFT crews take over. He was still moving as he groused though, shucking off his outer garments even as he opened his locker, grabbing the specially constructed flightsuit and accompanying gear. The one downside to the Vorpal, with its unique cockpit design, was that snap launching took a lot more time than it would if it was just him jumping into his flightsuit and strapping in. When he'd had the Duel, and later the Duelist, he'd been able to get ready to launch in less than four minutes, from dead asleep to clipped into the magnetic launching system, armed and dangerous. So far, his best time for similar results in the Vorpal was something more than fifteen minutes. Of course, he'd only had the Vorpal for a week or so, but still... it chafed.
Katie followed him into the ready room at a somewhat more sedate pace, since her own pre-launch readiness requirements were quite a bit simpler than Ysak's. Indeed, before she actually climbed into her "seat" in the Vorpal, she didn't have to do anything at all. Couldn't really do much of anything at all, besides help Ysak don the considerably more cumbersome than usual flight suit. "Well, its not like we HAVE to go out with the Vorpal, you know." Katie reminded him. "Yes, from what we saw on the TV, the situation at Galileo does look pretty bad, but we're not on active duty right now, Ysak. In fact, from what I saw anyway, things looked so chaotic out there that maybe showing up in a basically unregistered Gundam might not even be a good idea..."
Ysak paused, and gave her a steady look. "People are dying out there." Ysak said quietly. "I'm no bleeding heart, or even much of a philanthropist, but I... We... have the power to help, and thus the responsibility to help, unless I'm much mistaken. And chaotic though it might be, a Gundam showing up might be just the thing to calm things down somewhat. From what it looked like, the ALU was tearing into the FNE, while the FNE was making moves against ZAFT, and ZAFT was hitting pretty much everyone. God knows why its just the units at Galileo going nuts, but the USN's on crackdown mode, and I don't think that's going to go very well considering the various units are already engaged. You can ignore a lot of things... but I don't think you can ignore a Gundam. And you certainly can't ignore me!"
Katie shrugged. "Just playing devil's advocate. Hopefully when we get over there I can figure out what's causing everyone to attack each other. This whole situation is just too fucking strange. Why would the units at a multinational training base that's under the direct control of the USN suddenly start attacking each other? And not just attacking each other, but practically picking fights with multiple opponents at once!? It just doesn't make any sense, especially because no action has broken out anywhere else on Earth or in Space. I don't buy it."
Ysak finally got the suit comfortable, or at least comfortable enough, and he stood up. "This is where I used to give you a hug and a kiss before heading off, but I guess that's not really going to be necessary this time, is it?" Ysak asked, with a thin smile. Of course, Katie threw her arms around him and kissed him anyway, but she was positive that that was what he'd said that for in the first place anyway. This time it was her who led the way, though only because he had to be somewhat careful moving through confined spaces, especially doorways. Within seconds they entered the main cargo bay of the shuttle, where the Vorpal was standing, still being released from its packing restraints by the technical crews. They wasted no time in boarding a portable gantry lifter, which raised them to the cockpit level with a hydraulic hum. Katie stepped onto the armored hatch that would cover the cockpit entryway when raised, and acted as a boarding platform when lowered, before Ysak, since there would be no way for her to enter the cockpit if he went first. Katie looked over at Ysak and smirked, seeing his face already twisted in a scowl as he glared down at the various technicians and engineers working below.
Without further ado Katie cast away her shirt and skirt, then the underwear underneath, completely without shame or hesitation. She did resist the urge to stretch out her back and legs, but only because it was a relative emergency. The crews below were well trained, or at least as well trained as young men could get, and though many paused a moment every now and then to sneak a glance up at her, none overtly stared and all continued their work at nearly the same pace as before. Which was well and good for them, because Ysak's gaze was scouring the makeshift hanger, daring anyone to be unlucky enough to meet his jealous and angry-embarassed eyes. He'd made very clear to the technical crews that he was far from above the level of meteing out "unofficial" punishment if he caught anyone being lewd during the times when Katie was entering or leaving the Vorpal's cockpit. And his definition of lewd was pretty much anything he didn't like. Katie decided that she would do her part in keeping all the various members of the technical crews out of the hospital, and stepped into the cockpit without further delay, followed quickly by Ysak.
Once they were inside the cockpit though, Katie became more fully serious, attaching the various medical monitoring sensors that would make sure she remained alive and functional during the stress of battle as she settled onto the cushions in the bottom and back of her tank. Once the device was more fully prepped, it would be filled with gel, which would render the cushions obsolete, but until that point in time she was definitely grateful not to be sitting naked on bare metal. Ysak carefully sat himself down in the modified command couch of the Vorpal, and he and Katie went through the somewhat laborious process of fixing him in place, so that the back part of his suit formed a solid seal with the front of her holding tank. Several minutes later, Katie removed the rebreathing mask unit from its cubby in the side of the tank and put it on, resigning herself to breathing the cold and filtered oxygen supplied by generators deeper within the Vorpal. Once that was in place, she leaned forward and placed her arms and legs into the special sleeves in the front of her tank that connected with the bulky restraints that criss crossed Ysak's chest and body. As always, she shivered with enjoyment at the feel of her skin sliding along Ysak's, in a not so faint reminder of other, much more fun times when they touched like this.
Concentrate. Ysak's thought resounded with unusual force because of the enhanced intimate contact between them. Are you secure?
I am. So serious, Ysak-y. Katie replied, moulding herself to his back as best she could, in order to enhance the link even more, and get comfortable.
We're in a Gundam. Playtime is officially over. Ysak's thought-tone brooked no arguement. And Katie acceeded to that, though she probably wouldn't have if they were somewhere else. But Ysak was the Gundam expert of the two of them, and she could be as serious as anyone when the mood struck her. Or when Ysak needed it from her. I'm starting the gel flow then. Katie felt Ysak's muscles twitch slightly as he reached over to flick a switch. With a low hum the pipes that led to the aerated gel stowage containers started to pump the thick, slightly warm blue stuff into the tank at high speed. Katie focused her mind on other things, running through the mental equivalent of the systems checks Ysak was performing on the rest of the Vorpal, as the gel level rose higher and higher. Not that she was particularly claustrophobic or bothered by the thought of being submerged in the gel, which was breathable even without her mask, but it still took some getting used to. This was only her seventh time actually getting into the full system. Gel levels show maximum. Confirm?
Confirmed. Katie replied, after a moment's inspection. How am I doing?
All vital signs showing green and healthy. I'm ready when you are. Ysak's tone was steady, but she could easily feel the nervousness beneath. She didn't blame him, this wasn't exactly a well understood thing that they were about to do. Still, she was confident in her abilities, and confident in her bond to Ysak. They could do this. Katie smiled, as she began to drift into the familiar dream haze of a Trance, much like she and Chanel had used to do, oh so long ago when her dear sister was still alive. This time though, instead of a tropical beach or slightly messy bedroom, her dream took the exact form of the Vorpal's cockpit, as if she herself were sitting in the pilot's chair, and not in the tank behind it. Her hands were on the controls. Her feet upon the thruster pedals. Her eyes watched the screens, and her ears listened to the data readouts beep and whistle. She was Ysak. Ysak was her. They were both something more. Katie looked with more than just her eyes, and listened with more than just her ears, allowing her perceptions of the physical universe to drift away, dissolving the dream construct of the Vorpal so that she could see in all directions around it, unimpaired by physical structures blocking line of sight.
Ready. Can I have the honors? Katie asked, as she watched the technical crew's minds withdraw from the makeshift hanger, as the massive swinging doors at the back of the shuttle opened, allowing a path for the Vorpal to stride out into the larger hangar area, from which it would ascend to the lunar surface. She felt Ysak's assent in a warm inrush of anticipation, and she smirked as she stretched out her mind in a way that would be impossible for her to do alone. It was the work of less than an instant to locate the technicians nominally in charge of "launching" the Vorpal. Katie dived into their minds like an olympian off the high board, awestruck by the ease at which she passed the normally impregnable Stump barrier common to non-Newtype minds. This Ysak and Katie Joule. In the Vorpal. We're launching! Katie informed the technicians, enjoying the stark surprise and unease that flowed through their thoughts. Get used to it... She left the thought trailing off in their minds as Ysak walked the Vorpal nimbly off the shuttle, causing all nearby work in the greater harbor to freeze in wonder at the sight of the Gundam.
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For Jean Dylan, actually being there firsthand to witness the results of his treachery was a novel experience. One he didn't much like. It was so... messy. It wasn't like he knew these people, didn't know their names, their histories, couldn't feel how they felt really... he didn't really have a connection with anyone personally. But as a whole, watching them howl with rage and lash out at others around them with little or no warning, because they had been stabbed in the back by someone who they had at least thought was an ally, if a lackluster one, and not an enemy... it was more than faintly disturbing to Dylan. He liked to be well away from a situation, preferrably several hundred miles away if not more, when things got sticky because of his profiteering. So much cleaner to read about things in the next days newspaper, or watch them on the news that evening. Being there, living the events as they happened, was kinda scary, even though he was definitely the one in control of the situation.
At the moment Dylan was marching at the rear of a patrol of FNE Cavaliers, disguised as a Cavalier, naturally. He'd been spending most of his time as either an FNE or an ALU mobile suit, both because they were the easiest to mimic and because they had Natural pilots, like him, and so his actions and response times would seem more normal. Of course, he had had to masquerade as an Elemental once or twice to get ZAFT fully into the act, but he didn't like it... there was just an aspect to the fluid, graceful, confident movements of the ZAFT pilots in their Elementals that he felt he lacked, and might be noticable to a trained or sharp eye. For similar reasons he'd avoided mimicking the Orb Guardians when other Orb units were around, since not only did he not really move like a Guardian pilot would, he couldn't transform into a jet or a tank either, which would be an instant giveaway. His holoshroud could alter his physical appearance quite a bit... but he had to look like a Mobile Suit at least.
Dylan's "unit" was responding to reports of a ALU incursion into FNE territory, over by one of the storage and industrial lots allocated to the FNE by the USN when they'd leased this part of the base. Tracer fire, beam blasts and the glow of ion thruster contrails could be seen crisscrossing the infinite dark sky above and to all sides of them as they moved across the lunar surface, headed towards the cluster of blocky buildings and bunkers that was their destination. Ever since being rebuilt since the end of the Second Valentine War, Galileo LFB had become one of the largest bases, in pure physical size, in the entire Solar Sphere. The central portion of the base took up most of the massive crater where the Judgement had landed and exploded, though you could barely tell there was a crater there at all, given how built up the area was with a multiple leveled military facility. This area was the primary USN headquarters and training center. The ground for about two kilometers in every direction in a rough circle around the crater was also USN territory, with industrial centers, storage facilities, extra housing areas and testing ranges interspersed throughout the territory.
To the geographical north of the main crater was all FNE territory, a sprawling collection of harbors, parade grounds, industrial-support complexes and mass habitation units that extended for dozens of square kilometers. To the west was the ALU portion of the base, which was more tightly grouped in its distribution of structures. To the east was Orb, which was the sparsest of them all, at least when it came to surface structures, though like an iceberg, almost ninety percent of the Orb holdings were actually underground, dug deep into the moonrock. This left the surface bare except for a few control and communication towers, hangar openings, a mustering ground, and the various defense perimeter bunkers and emplacements, leaving the greater majority of the surface open for use as a testing range or training exercise field. Finally, to the south, directly opposite and in no way bordering the FNE base was the ZAFT base, distinguished by the blue crystal glass domes over its habitation centers, identical to the material the PLANTS were made from. ZAFT, like the ALU, had concentrated most of its structures in a single location, but unlike the ALU, they had enclosed them within a single, massive structure, a large armored, half buried oval almost two kilometers long and more than a hundred meters tall at its highest point. ZAFT thus had two perimeters... their outer one, which Dylan had already penetrated several times in various guises, and then the oval, known as Aurora Base, which had gone on lockdown as soon as hostilities had started, which he had not even touched.
Which was both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it meant that his emergency backup wasn't likely to be accidentally uncovered by stray munitions... bad because it was now sealed in an armored fortress, quite a bit out of his immediate reach. Oh sure, he could activate it at any time with the codes the Boss had given him, but who knew how long it would take to get out of Aurora and arrive at his location? Probably longer than he'd like, given that it was an emergency failsafe only, thus indicating that he was having an emergency. Dylan's thoughts along those lines were cut off by more immediate concerns, as his patrol came under fire from a squad of ALU Lupus's and the even bigger, support model Ursus's, which were modified ZaOots, also purchased from ZAFt at bargain prices. Flights of missiles and rocket mortar rounds started falling like fiery rain upon the FNE machines, destroying the lead man as four missles slipped past his shield to detonate his chest in a smoky multiple flash that was eeriely silent in the lack of atmosphere. The rest of the FNE machines, Dylan included, scattered, searching for what little cover the lunar plain allowed, Citadel Shields raised like medieval men staving off arrows. Dylan immediatly saw that the FNE were faced with a conundrum... they had plenty of long range, reasonably accurate firepower... but any misses would strike their own base structures, and when you were talking about hyper-impulse cannons, friendly fire was definitely deadly. But advancing without cover fire would be costly, and perhaps even impossible.
Before the little skirmish could go much further though, a double strength unit of USN Champions landed in the middle of the ground between the two sides, a ballsy move that Dylan could not help but be impressed by. Stray missiles detonated harmlessly against the limited Phase Shift the Champion's sported, further underlining, in an obvious manner, the technical sophistication and power of the USN machines, compared to those of the fighting member-state units, at least in this particular case. With five Champions facing the FNE, and five more facing the ALU, the appearance of the USN forces brought the skirmish to a screeching halt. Nobody wanted to jump over THAT dark percipice, of firing on the USN without provocation. Of course, Dylan couldn't exactly just let them calm down and start talking things over, now could he? No, that would be quite counter to his mission statement. If they weren't going to shoot at the USN with a reason... then it was his job to GIVE them a reason. Fortunately for him, the dust clouds rising from the craters left by the missile barrage provided more than enough visual blind for him to activate his Mirage Colloid unnoticed, though only for the second or so it took him to modify his holoshroud and stealth system once more, before reappearing, in the rear of the FNE unit, as a USN Champion.
Given that he was no longer trying to hide, Dylan knew it would be seconds at most before his erstwhile "comrades" noticed the "intruder" behind them, and the simultaneous loss of one of their own unit icons from their IFF displays. He declined to wait even that long though, keying a program into his comm system that played a recording of a woman screaming in terror before being cut off in mid yell... a relatively accurate semblance of a pilot being shot and destroyed from behind. The fact that they were on the Moon, and thus in a vacuum, meant that not hearing a mobile suit blow up would in fact be normal, though a careful person, with the right frame of mind and the time to think about it might note that there was no explosion sound in the comm blurt. The trick was not allowing them the right frame of mind, or the time to think about it. The female voice was part of it already... it was a proven fact that, all things considered, most pilots, especially male pilots, responded with more anger and hatred when a female compatriot died than when a male compatriot died. Primal human instinct at work, or something like that. Dylan shrugged, since he wasn't really bothered either way, not really having people he would consider "compatriots", certainly there were no females he'd ever invested enough emotional worth into that their death would cause him even a moment of sadness or anger. At the same time, he brought up his rifle and blasted the two closest FNE machines to him in the back, just as the rest of the FNE patrol turned in reaction to the scream.
This was the most dangerous time of any betrayal... the time when the betrayed realized the fact of their situation. There was no telling exactly what people would do in this situation. Some stood in shock, others tried denial, still more descended into mindless fury. Dylan did what he could to tip the balance towards mindless fury, blasting several more times at the dumbfounded FNE machines as he slowly backed into the slowly settling cloud of lunar dirt. He didn't hit any of them, though that wasn't the point. The point was that they were under fire from a USN machine, without warning or reason. The mostly unaimed blasts also pinged off some of the USN machine's Citadel Shields, giving them the impression that they had been fired upon by the FNE. There were some people who could be fired upon without warning, and they'd just take it as best they could and keep trying for peace or understanding. Fortunately, such people were exceedingly rare, and none of them were in this unit of the USN. The USN unit oriented fully upon the FNE, labeling them the aggressors of this particular skirmish, despite the fact that the ALU unit was trespassing on FNE territory, and opening fire. People tended to think less rationally when beam blasts were flying at them. Wonder why? Dylan smirked as he used the confusion to slip away, Mirage Colloiding himself at the earliest opportunity, though he kept his holoshroud identity for the moment.
He listened to the shocking news of the unprovoked attack by the FNE on the USN, or the USN on the FNE, spread across the Galileo LFB comm nets, and his smirk grew wider as he heard both sides diverting more forces to the area in order to protect their own interests. The FNE was accusing the USN of biased supporting of the ALU's treachery, since everyone knew how tight the ALU and USN were, while the USN was saying that the FNE was using the situation between ZAFT and the ALU to reduce the strength of their terrestrial neighbor, since every knew the FNE hated the ALU. Meanwhile, ZAFT and Orb, despite being close allies, were eyeing each other suspiciously as they investigated reports of unprovoked attacks by either side against the other, and Orb implored ZAFT to cease its attacks on the ALU. ZAFT refused, saying that they were defending themselves, not attacking at all, and actually asked Orb to HELP them defend themselves, since they were allies. Dylan decided to direct his efforts there, since with the USN and the ALU nominally working together, the FNE would not last too long. On his way though, he figured he might as well accomplish one of his secondary objectives, which was to cause as much "shock" damage to the USN as he could. He wasn't supposed to deal major, long term damage... just something that would go over real well in the mdeia to generate anger and fear and sympathy for Durandel's cause. He had just the right idea too, which would also help with getting ZAFT more fully into the game.
Dylan kept his Champion guise as he decloaked on the outskirts of the Galileo hub, though he tweaked his appearance somewhat to display some battle damage scars... burn marks, buckled plating, a small atmosphere leak... enough to account for his hurried pace and his path towards the central repair and training centers of the USN base. Not that anyone was really paying too much attention of course, since everyone was running... well, driving or flying on the surface anyway... around in a panic, trying to figure out why the entire base was going to hell in a handbasket all of a sudden, with no other military movements by any member-state in support of the madness, and thus no one to pin the blame on. Of course, the image of a USN machine, "battle damaged", would by itself make people less inclined to be forgiving in the near future. Dylan soon reached one of the main entry airlocks for Mobile Suits, and he asked the control system for permission to enter. Technically, though he had a perfect USN IFF code, it was a generic one, and not specific to any of the units actually assigned to Galileo, which might have caused a problem, were it not for the override signal piggybacked onto the request transmission. Quite how the Boss had override codes for the USN's own military systems was something Dylan would have loved to know, but at the moment he was just thankful that the Boss did, because they made his own job a lot easier.
Dylan cycled the Traitor through the airlock, which had a lift integrated into its floor that lowered up to four Mobile Suits at a time the fifty meters into the moonrock so that they could access the first layer of the Galileo Hub. Dylan stepped out into a chaotic scene that mirrored well the actual fighting above, though obviously without actual violence. There was atmosphere here, and he could hear people shouting, hear motors racing as cars and bikes sped by him on service roads and even feel the footsteps of other Mobile Suits shaking the pavement as USN units rushed hither and yon in efforts to contain and resolve the crisis. Dylan strolled through the midst of this barely controlled chaos, practically unnoticed and unremarked upon, save by curious passerby catching sight of the battle damage. He'd have to be careful here... there were many more potential observers in here that could see him change his shroud, and all it would take would be a few witnesses with a comm system seeing that, and the entire gig would be up. And right now, he was in the lion's den, so that would be pretty damned inconvenient for him. Maybe even fatally so.
Dylan entered a second airlock/lift system, much the same as the first, which took him down to the second level, which was where he wanted to go. A five minute walk, spent listening the the furor over the comms, brought him to a wider open area, consisting of hanger type buildings, large parade grounds, administrative complexes and row upon row of multileveled barracks complexes. This was where most fresh USN inductees underwent their training while on the Moon, whether it be for permanent zero G duty stations or just the standard course all USN soldiers had to endure. This was also where the nascent USN Mobile Suit pilots would take their first staggering steps, in outmoded Strike Daggers, Ginn trainers and other dated mobile systems. Things were quieter here, more than a hundred meters underground, protected by two layers of defensive systems and armored bastions, as well as scores of Mobile Suits. It wasn't exactly business as usual... anyone who wasn't an active duty, fully trained and qualified soldier was currently confined to quarters, or at the very least to the bounds of the training base itself... but there was no chaos here. Yet. Dylan was here to change that, oh yes he was. He gained access to the base, overriding yet another automated system in the process, thinking that the USN was certainly going to be re-thinking their widespread use of automated recognition systems after this day was done, which would make things harder in the future, at least until the Boss found a way around whatever their solution was too.
People started running over the tarmac towards him as he marched into the first empty looking hangar he saw, forcing himself to move with the awkward gait of a Mobile Suit, rather than the more natural locomotion his NIC system allowed. The hangar wasn't quite empty, being home to several Ginn trainers and a single technician who was staring at him with wide eyes from his station at a diagnostics computer hooked up to the Ginn closest to the entrance. It would have to do. Dylan pointed his shield arm at the hapless tech, and the automatic grenade launcher slid out of its recess on the forearm, though it was still hidden under the holoshroud. Dylan selected a frag grenade from his menu and without further ado, blasted the tech and his console into bloody, sparking rags. The bastard never even knew what hit him. The Traitor shimmered and wavered for a moment, before reforming its appearance to that of a ZAFT Elemental. He'd debated using an Orb machine, but had eventually decided against it. NOBODY would believe that Orb had launched an unprovoked attack on the USN, not even the USN. Orb just wouldn't do it. They took their national character, embodied by that crazy bitch Cagalli Zala-Attha, way too seriously for them to just go batshit and attack the USN, even if Cagalli was known to hate Durandel passionately. There was, thankfully, no such garuantee with the PLANTS. Oh, they were peacable bastards, but they had used sneak attacks before, no one could forget Heliopolis, certainly.
Dylan stepped from the hangar, his rifle and shield stowed for the moment, with his arms extended loosely, his fingertips levered away to reveal the barrels of the antipersonnel machine guns hidden within, while the grenade launchers in both arms loaded themselves with a mixture of HE, frag and nerve gas grenades. The people that had been running towards the hangar before in alarm at seeing the damaged USN machine all came to various screeching halts at the incomprehensible sight of the Elemental striding out of the hangar. Dyaln reflected, as he opened fire and blasted dozens of helpless soldiers to bloody ruin with his machine guns, that he should have picked an Efreet mask, since Efreet had Mirage Colloid, which would have made more sense for explaining how the ZAFT machine had appeared from nowhere. Oh well, his bad... and it wasn't like he was planning on making sure no one ever found out that the Brotherhood had done this, right? Either way worked, whether the public blamed the USN or if they blamed the Brotherhood, it was still the USN's problem in the end. Dylan raked his fire over the nearby administrative tower, the automatic grenade launches whirring and thumping as they sent their explosive munitions crashing through windows or blowing chunks from the unarmored walls. The machineguns as well, being of the caliber usually used as support or vehicle mounted weapons, penetrated the unarmored building facade with ease, often plowing through two or three walls, and people besides, before coming to a halt.
Dylan fired a pair of gas grenades at the main entranceway to the tower, fogging the area with pale yellow vapors that preyed upon the lungs and other involuntary muscle reflex systems of the human body, sending those who breathed it into uncontrollable spasms that ended in broken spines and twisted bodies that leaked blood and ooze, as the secondary effect of the gas corroded aay their softer tissues. Nasty stuff... he was very glad that he was in an environmentally sealed Mobile Suit. He bet the horde of people stampeding out of the shot and grenade ravaged tower were wishing the same thing, as they encountered the gas laid across their path and went down, howling and screaming like damned souls. Dylan declined to watch their greusome ends, knowing that it would upset his stomach. He turned his attention to a barracks building, and opened up with his twin 20mm CIWS. As his antipersonnel machineguns were much more powerful and deadly than common rifles given to soldiers, so were the 20mm CIWS more powerful by a great magnitude than the machineguns. Designed for use against light armored vehicles and even Mobile Suits, the armor piercing shells chewed through the thin metal and concrete walls of the barracks like they were made from sugar cubes. With cyclic rates approaching two thousand rounds per minute each, it took only a ten second burst and a slowly turning head to completely gut the lower levels of the building, in fact collapsing the entire structure as its support beams gave way under the damage.
He only had two of his rocket grenades left for his rifle, but he chose to expend one against a second barracks compound, blowing a thirty meter wide hole in the top and middle floors, the hole was deep enough that he could actually see through the building to the one beyond it. He fired another pair of nerve gas grenades, this time into the ruined floors of the holed building, to prey on any survivors of the blast who did not quickly evacuate the premises. Of course, any who did would probably find themselves victims of his machineguns, but would you rather die in brutal contortions, sneezing up your liquified stomach... or be blasted apart by .50 caliber bullets? At least the bullets would be quick, from hydrostatic shock or instant decapitation. Even while he mused on the grotesqueness of that choice, Dylan fired the rest of his explosive and frag grenades from the automatic launchers through the hole into the building on the other side, blasting away most of the outer facade and sending almost half the building tumbling downwards in rubble. His finger guns were starting to run low on ammo, as were his CIWS, and he was down to only a few more gas grenades. It was time to move on to greater things. He drew his rifle and shield once more, pausing only to fire a couple of beam blasts back into each hangar he could see, filling them with explosions and flames as he struck idle training Mobile Suits or stored parts and munitions. He left, not looking back, so as to avoid the nightmarish scene he'd created burning itself into his dreams. He'd look at in the news. Not a moment sooner. It was just too messy.
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There's Galileo. God damn... what a mess! Ysak noted, shaking his head as he adjusted the thrusters, pushing the Vorpal into a dive towards the USN base. Spread out for hundreds of square kilometers below him, the base looked like it was trying to relive the third battle of Carpentaria, where the Isolation had managed to overrun the entire base in a matter of hours due to advanced tactics and new technologies. ZAFT had hung on doggedly, largely due to the fact that it was still unknown at that time just whether the Isolation really was different from Blue Cosmos, and whether or not they would simply massacre all the PLANT civilians sheltering at the base. As a result, the base had been thoroughly trashed and leveled by the invading forces, to the point where few buildings had remained standing or whole. Galileo wasn't quite at that point, but if the wild melee was allowed to continue for too much longer, it wouldn't be long before a whole new standard for widespread devastation was set. Galileo was a very well built up base, with far more infastructure than was normal because of its multinational nature, with each faction, including the USN, declining to let its competitors build a bigger, better base than itself. In the current situation, that meant collateral damage was enormous... almost every errant shot hit SOMETHING, whether it was a target range, comm tower, storage hangar or defensive emplacement. And with the confused nature of things, there were a LOT of errant shots.
I can't even tell who's shooting at who. Katie replied, her tone filled with misgiving. Heck, as far as I can determine from right here, some of THEM don't even know who they're shooting at, or why... they're just shooting because they were shot at, maybe even by accident. How the hell are we going to sort this out? If we fly down into the middle of that, people are going to shoot at us just by REFLEX!
Aurora still looks relatively calm. We'll start there. Ysak decided, aiming their course at the ZAFT base, which loomed up at them from the Lunar surface like a humpbacked whale breaching on the surface of the ocean. Ysak recalled, briefly, seeing such a thing during his time in Orb not so long ago... it had been an awesome sight, to say the least. Animals that big did not exist on the PLANTS... could not exist on the PLANTS. It had been humbling, and inspiring. He forced himself to focus again... neither of them could afford distraction right now. Ysak keyed his comm system, trying to find a command frequency. He needed to talk to someone in charge, and quickly! The Vorpal had IFF codes for both ZAFT and Orb, but in the current situation he didn't want to just drop down out of the blue, Gundam or no Gundam. ZAFT and Orb didn't seem to be attacking each other right at the moment, but that was no garuantee, since NOBODY should have been attacking ANYBODY, yet they were.
You don't think that this is going to cause a political fuss? Katie asked as they descended, while Ysak fruitlessly tried to sort through the garbled comm network. Us, I mean. We're an Orb made Gundam, piloted by a ZAFT commander. Isn't that going to make a lot of people think Orb and ZAFT are becoming more than a little chummy?
Well that IS the truth. Ysak snarled in silent frustration as he switched channels again. Some of the stuff in the Vorpal is propetiery to MA, but a lot of it isn't. Orb want's to keep me, and my Gundam, on rapid retainer in case of future emergencies, but facts are, I work for ZAFT. So in return for ZAFT in effect leasing me and my skills to Orb whenever Orb needs me, Orb makes me a Gundam, and ZAFT gets to look at most of the tech, complete with instruction manuals and everything. The idea was to keep it secret, to prevent jealousy from the FNE and ALU, but now that the Gundams aren't a secret anymore, that's a worthless idea. ZAFT has elected not to build its own Gundam program, instead they're in essence time sharing one with Orb. ZAFT gets a Gundam and some tech, Orb gets a Gundam and ZAFT owes them a big favor. Definitely a positive situation either way, or so I surmise, given that both sides agreed pretty easily to it. This is just the start too... I wouldn't be too surprised, at some point in the future, if ZAFT and the Orb National Military didn't end up combining on a more permanent basis.
I don't think the FNE is gonna like that idea. The ALU either, though as long as they get some profits out of the deal, they won't bitch and moan too loudly. Katie considered. Not much they can legally do about it of course, especially since Cagalli isn't exactly known for giving a shit either way what the ALU or FNE have to say about military matters, or internal Orb politics. Do you want me to try contacting somebody?
Ysak thought about the offer for a few seconds before shaking his head. Thanks, but I don't think it would help. Whoever you contacted would probably think they'd started going crazy. Maybe they HAVE, considering the situation, but lets not push anyone more over the edge than they already are, okay? Ysak finally just set his comm to broadcast on all ZAFT and Orb frequencies, and he boosted his signal strength to hopefully cut through the muck and static clogging the system. "This is Commander Ysak Joule, in the Vorpal. I need to talk to someone in charge. ZAFT Forces, Orb Forces, please respond!"
There were a few moments of static and senseless noise before, at last, recognizable voices came back to them, if faintly. "This is Commander Duponte, of Aurora Base Command Staff. Say again who you are, your Mobile Suit does not show up in our database." The first voice, that of an older female, ordered. "Commander Joule, this is Colonel Fayne, ONSF (Orb National Space Forces). We have you on our screens. Be advised, sir, the current situation with ZAFT is somewhat strained. We have unconfirmed reports of unprovoked attacks by ZAFT upon our outer perimeter. They claim to have suffered attacks by us in return, but no Orb Forces... I repeat NO Orb Forces have engaged anyone outside our territory." The second voice, an older male, added right afterwards.
"So you would naturally say!" Commander Duponte retorted, now that Ysak had connected her directly with her opposite number in the Orb base. "I have seen vid of a Guardian with my own eyes launching unprovoked attacks against our perimeter defenses!"
"Just as I have seen vid of an Elemental doing the same thing to US!" Colonel Fayne replied scathingly. "If Orb wanted to attack you, Commander... and rest assured, we do NOT... then you'd be seeing more than just vid of Guardians! The Ambassador would have my balls on a plate if we initiated any sort of conflict, with ANYONE! We're supposed to be allies!"
"Yes we are! But you're being strangely reticent for an ally, Colonel. Regardless of what you may or may not have done to our perimeter, ZAFT has UNDOUBTEDLY been attacked by ALU forces on several occasions now. Probes that we sent packing handily enough, but we have requested aid and you have done nothing for us! What am I supposed to think, other than that you've cut us off for your own agenda!?" Duponte answered, her own voice beginning to heat up.
"BOTH of you need to calm down and THINK about the situation!" Ysak half shouted, angered by the infighting between two people who could have already been making great strides towards resolving the whole situation. "ONE Guardian attacking Aurora? ONE Elemental attacking Orb? The ALU... THE ALU... attacking ZAFT? Nobody see's anything wrong with this situation? The ALU Mobile Forces are a JOKE! Ginns and Bucue's and ZaOots... vs Elementals!? Nobody in their right mind would match the ALU against ZAFT. Those attacks you suffered must have been independent movements by soldiers not acting under their chain of command... the ALU knows better than to pick a fight with ANYONE without USN backing!"
"Independent movements or not, we WERE attacked." Commander Duponte argued. "We have a right to defend ourselves." Her voice softened though, as she thought. "It does seem strange that only a single machine would attack us, in the case of the Guardian. Not only that, but we never could track it down..."
"The same for us... I have studied the Elemental in our vid extensively, and as yet I have been unable to match its serial numbers to ANYTHING you have over in Aurora. The same for its IFF code. It was definitely a ZAFT Elemental, without aspect packs... but it had no team code or other identifying marks. I can't discount a special stealth unit... but why use only one?" Colonel Fayne mused, puzzlement in every word.
"I am ordering that both ZAFT and Orb stand their forces down RIGHT NOW!" Ysak cut in, his voice low and fierce. "I don't care who may have attacked who, or why, or what the fuck is going on, or you THINK is going on... participating in this conflict is not helping ANYONE. Both sides will power down their defenses and return their units to their bases at my signal, is this understood? If you don't think I have the authority to DO this, think again. I am on a first name basis with BOTH of your head's of Government, and I can get authorization the likes of which God has never seen if I have to, but I'd prefer not to make this any more complicated than it has to be! If you are attacked, by ANYONE... I will defend you. Call me and I, and my Gundam, will make an END to anyone attacking either ZAFT or Orb, understand? No matter WHO it is." Ysak set the Vorpal down in front of Aurora Base and faced the main airlock doors confidently.
"I... understand. Orb Forces, standing down now." Colonel Fayne replied, after only a few seconds hesitation.
"Just like that!?" Commander Duponte sounded flabbergasted.
"Commander, the man is piloting a Gundam custom built for him by the order of my Chief Representative and Queen. If that doesn't showcase to you the sort of faith and esteem in which she holds him, what does? I would be a fool to ignore that level of political authority, regardless of my military superiors, who would all likely agree with me anyway. I don't know how things are done in ZAFT, but in Orb, what Cagalli Zala-Attha says, goes, at least within reason. And I find his order to be quite reasonable. Besides, it means its HIS problem now." Fayne replied with a snort.
"Very well." Duponte responded, after almost a minute of consideration, and perhaps consultation with her own superiors. "ZAFT is willing to place its own faith in its own Gundam Pilot. My apologies, sir, I had not realized the full extent of your qualifications."
"I don't like making an issue of them, Commander." Ysak replied shortly. Two down... two, possibly three more to go.
I had no idea you could be so diplomatic. Or, well... coming in and overpowering both sides with pure charisma and brute force authority... yeah, that sounds kinda like my Ysak-y after all. Of course you do realize that if something goes bad, its all gonna be your fault now... Katie informed him.
Some people are afraid of responsibility. Others thrive on it. Which do you think I am? Ysak retorted with a smile.
I think... OH CRAP! Katie's shout of alarm went off like a low yield nuclear bomb in Ysak's head. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing, but he found himself spinning the Vorpal around to respond to the threat, whatever it was, before he could sort out what Katie was sending him. And then, his own eyes were providing a more than accurate summation of the problem. Namely, the reinforced platoon of almost thirty USN Champions making good speed across the lunarscape towards Aurora, weapons armed and in an assault formation. The ZAFT forces that had just been heading back to base from their perimeter positions slowly halted, confused. On one hand, they had their orders. On the other, the USN forces didn't look like they were stopping over for a calm, quiet chat either. Comm hails went unanswered, which was more than ominous. They aren't in a mood to play nice, Ysak. Those are a lot of very pissed off people coming at us. Katie informed him.
Any specifics? Ysak asked, even as he strode the Vorpal forward, taking a position ahead of the ZAFT forces, so that he was between them and the USN platoon. "ZAFT forces, you have your orders. Stand down. Do not open fire, do not return fire if fired upon. I will handle this."
"No offense Commander Joule, but there's almost thirty of them... you might need some backup." Commander Duponte observed.
"If I have to fight the USN, Commander, no amount of backup will be enough to make the situation right." Ysak replied calmly. "USN forces. This is Ysak Joule, in the Vorpal. Halt your advance and state your intentions. ZAFT forces are standing down as we speak."
"Standing DOWN!?" A hoarse, tense voice replied over the international channel. "After what those murderous bastards did, you think we're just going to let them STAND DOWN!? Not gonna happen, buddy! You've got one option, so far as I can see... you can surrender right the fuck now, and we'll take you all into custody pending court martial!"
"We are on sovereign PLANT territory! The USN has no such authority here!" Commander Duponte answered firmly. "Commander Joule..."
"I will handle it, Commander." Ysak cut her off harshly. Give me something, Katie!
They think they've been attacked. Sorting through this stuff isn't exactly easy you know! Theres a lot of them, and they're all on emotional highs! Be very careful with this, Ysak... these people are right on the line of shooting first and worrying about consequences later.
"What are you accusing ZAFT of doing, exactly? There's been a lot of confusing things happening lately. I do not want to see the USN and ZAFT fighting each other, especially over what might have been a mistake or even a deception!" Ysak asked, playing for time. If he could get them talking, get them thinking, he might be able to defuse the situation. Not only that, but it would make things easier for Katie if they were thinking logically, rather than just allowing blind rage to guide them.
"A mistake!? FUCKING RIGHT IT WAS A MISTAKE! You bastards thought you could get away with trashing our training center, with killing hundreds of recruits in training and support staff without warning, in their BEDS in some cases, while they were helpless to resist, and you wanna call it a MISTAKE now!? You think you can get away with using fucking NERVE GAS in a sealed environment, and then just act innocent and STAND DOWN to keep from getting your just desserts? I got news for you then, you fuckers... it don't work like that!" The USN commander yelled, his voice still hoarse with painful memories.
"ZAFT wold never do something so atrocious..." Commander Duponte protested.
"BULLSHIT! I SAW it happen with my own eyes! One of your Elementals sneaked down into the base... how I don't know... and wiped out the fucking RTC right in front of my eyes! I almost got shot myself!"
He's speaking the truth. At least, he is certain he saw an Elemental destroying the training base. Katie reported. She winced, as she encountered the man's raw memories of buried alive friends, nerve gas victims, and the splattered remains of dozens of bodies lying on the parade ground, cut to pieces by heavy bullets. Many of the bodies were of younger people, eighteen, nineteen or younger in the case of Coordinators. But how the hell did it get down there? Mirage Colloid?
Mirage Colloid has been banned ever since the end of the Second War. ZAFT still has some Efreets with it, but none here and none that are used anymore. Besides, Mirage Colloid wouldn't let a Mobile Suit enter not just one, but multiple locked airlocks without making a scene. There's no way a Mobile Suit could get to the Galileo Recruit Training Command without going through at least two airlock-lifts. I don't buy it. And nerve gas? ZAFT doesn't have nerve gas. Quite literally does not have... not isn't known to have or doesn't admit to having... ZAFT does NOT have nerve gas. And while the RTC is technically a military target, ZAFT has no reason to attack it... the FNE and ALU would just LOVE a reason to get together with the USN to take down ZAFT, and attacking a USN location so brazenly would be all they would need to start a witch hunt. No, something's wrong here. Ysak returned. Is there anything suspicous in there? Anything at all?
You make it sound like a cluttered storage container, not a living mind. Katie groused, but she kept "digging". The USN contingent had at least slowed to less than assault speed, and had begun bunching up, since they were well within range of Aurora Base's perimeter defenses and had not come under attack. Things were not going as expected, and they were starting to lose the surety of blind anger and hatred, given the lack of resistance, despite the ability to resist, that their enemies were displaying. The towering and cloak wrapped form of the unknown but unmistakable Gundam standing tall between them and the ZAFT forces was also a cause for some concern amongst many of them. They'd all watched the news concerning the Switzerland incident, and the capabilities displayed by the Gundam in that situation... who knew what sort of crazy things this blue and grey Gundam could do? Katie watched, through the USN commander's eyes, as a damaged but still mobile Champion stomped its way across the spotless parade ground of the RTC before disappearing into a hangar. Shortly thereafter, the Elemental that had laid waste to the RTC strolled out of the exact same hangar, and had begun its destructive rampage. There was no sign of the Champion, nor any indication of a clash between the two machines taking place inside the hangar. Aha... that is strange!
What is? Ysak asked, eyeing the still approaching USN forces, with his hands tense on his triggers, especially on the controls for his Minion pods. He was going to be needing a powerful shield in a hurry if all the USN forces decided to blast him out of their path. He was pretty sure he could handle this with force if things got ugly... like, about seventy percent sure. He suddenly wished Kira and the Seraph were the one handling this... nobody in their right mind and almost none of the people in the wrong mind would shoot at Kira Yamato, regardless of situation. And if they did, the Seraph would just send everything they shot at it right back at them, neat as you please. But all he had was the Vorpal, and Katie, and that would have to be enough. Katie replayed the memories she'd found for him, and Ysak found himself frowning. That IS strange. Where'd the Champion go? Why didn't it do anything to stop the Elemental? What the hell was a battle damaged Champion doing at the RTC anyway? There's better repair facilities elsewhere in Galileo. What the hell is going on here? Ysak kept most of his concentration on his instruments while he pondered, and thusly he was able to catch sight of a truly strange occurence.
A Champion at the back of the platoon suddenly disappeared from his sensor screen, its IFF icon just winking out without warning. Ysak was familiar with the phenomenon, it was what happened when a Mobile Suit or ship was destroyed, thus cutting off the IFF signal... but he'd seen no explosion, registered no weapon's fire... there was no reason for a Mobile Suit to suddenly blow up, or just plain disappear! Even more strange, a ZAFT IFF icon suddenly appeared near where the USN icon had disappeared... and it was an Elemental. "What the fuck is that?" Ysak murmured, staring at his screen. He flagged the IFF beacon on his screen and opened a data link to Aurora Base. "Commander Duponte, who the FUCK is that and why aren't they standing down?" Why didn't you see him, Katie?
Before she could reply, there were two explosions from the back of the USN formation, signalling the demise of two Champions, shot down from behind without ever knowing what had hit them. Needless to say, the rest of the USN forces, seeing the ZAFT icon on their sensors, weren't about to waste any more words on talk. They'd been looking for a final bit of provocation, and boy, had they found one! Some turned towards the new threat, while the rest sent a flurry of shots at the ZAFT forces making their way into Aurora Base. Ysak activated his Minion pods, producing a reinforced Citadel Shield between direct line of sight of the USN and the ZAFT forces, blocking much of the fire, while he sheltered behind his own shield against the desultory fire directed his way, mostly the result of misfires or accidents, since the USN pilots were hesistant to provoke a Gundam intentionally.
Ysak... there's only two people dead! Three mobile suits were destroyed, or so it would seem... but only two people died! One mind barely even changed position! Katie replied, her tone confused. I should have seen anyone coming within a couple kilometers right now! I should even be able to detect people like Cyprus or Ashino when we're Resonating like this!
I don't doubt you. But let me guess which mind didn't change position... the first Champion to "die"?
And the guy piloting the Elemental. I wasn't watching as closely then, but I'm pretty sure its the same mind. But how is that possible?
"ZAFT forces... do NOT engage! Retreat at once! I repeat... do NOT engage!" Ysak screamed over his comm, as he saw some of the Elementals around Aurora start to raise their weapons as incoming fire blasted into the lunarscape around them, and splattered off Aurora's armored surface. "USN forces, cease fire! ZAFT did not attack! You have an unaligned intruder on your flanks!"
"Sure looks like an Elemental to me!" The USN commander retorted. "Ignore the bastard, people... he's just trying to confuse us! Blast the murdering fuckers! And the Gundam too... he's on their side!"
Ysak deflected a few more beam and bullet blasts with his shield... the USN pilots weren't obeying the order to attack him with much fervor, none wanting to attract his attention most likely. If only they knew his trepidation about firing on them. Normally Ysak wasn't the sort to hold back when fired upon... but right now he KNEW that they were all being manipulated into this fight, and by killing USN soldiers he would only make things worse, not better. Yet another reason to wish Kira was here... disabling enemy Mobile Suits was first nature to Kira, Ysak didn't think that he himself would be nearly as good at it. Perhaps sensing his reluctance, and definitely noting the reluctance of his command, the USN leader oriented himself on the Vorpal, and charged to the attack, beam blasts and machinegun shells spitting at the Gundam in steady streams, while an AMS-LAS missile streaked from the shoulder mount like a lance of fire. Ysak took the beam and shell fire on his shield, and easily perforated the missile with his beam CIWS, which penetrated the missile armor with ease.
Undeterred by the ease at which Ysak had handled his ranged attacks, the USN commander switched out his gun for his sword and leapt forward to the attack, gunning his thrusters for every bit of extra momentum. Ysak... Katie's worried voice whispered inside his skull, he sent calming emotions and reassurance back. He knew what he was doing, and in a one on one situation, he would have no trouble in avoiding killing the poor fool. Ysak waited until the USN commander had commited to his swing before sidestepping, turning side on to the Champion, allowing its vertical sword swing to scythe through empty space while Ysak slammed his shield into his opponent's shield, unbalancing his flight. As the Champion stumbled by him, Ysak raised his 120mm shotcannon and fired a blast into the back of the Champion's left hip, the FIHR rounds glowing white hot as they penetrated the limited Phase Shift armor and blew the limb cleanly off. Staggering, the Champion tried to turn, only to take a shot from the Vorpal's twin 75mm rapidfire linear cannon right to the jaw. The explosive rounds didn't penetrate the armor, but the kinetic force sent the already unsteady machine over the point of no return, and it fell awkwardly to its back on the ground. Two more precise shots from the shotcannon blew off the sword arm and other leg, crippling the machine almost completely.
Keep track of that Champion-Elemental. I've a feeling he might have some interesting things to tell us about why the USN is trying to kill ZAFT. Ysak ordered, scanning the nearby area for any more direct threats. There were none, the majority of the USN forces seemingly content to try and maneuver around his Minion pods to get a clear shot at the ZAFT forces. A couple were trying to hunt down the Elemental that had sneak attacked them, but in the clouds of dust that had risen from the destruction of the two Champions, they were forced to rely heavily on their sensors, and they seemed to be having great trouble in using those effectively. Ysak was having similar problems, with the Elemental icon in question no longer even on his sensor screen... until he boosted his vari-camera array power, and there it was, of course. Slowly edging away from the fight, the Elemental was Mirage Colloid cloaked, its outlines hazy and indistinct, even to the vari-cameras. Ysak raised his shotcannon and aimed his linear cannons. The enemy was outside the effective range of the FIHR rounds special ability, but Ysak knew better than most that Mirage Colloid and Phase Shift didn't mix, so it hardly mattered whether his shots were just plain explosives or not. The cloaked Elemental seemed to realize his peril at the last moment, and he shimmered into existance, much to the surprise of the Champions searching for him, just as Ysak opened fire.
Those two Champions, as well as Commander Duponte and anyone else looking in that direction at the time, were dumbfounded to witness the linear cannon and shotcannon rounds simply bouncing off the Elemental in question, which staggered backwards under the kinetic force of the shots like a man punched in the face. Ysak frowned mightily... no Elemental mounted Phase Shift armor, and no Elemental could move like that... no Mobile Suit period could move like that! Mobile Suits did not mimic human motion anywhere near to that accuracy. Well... there was the one... and Athrun had mentioned that the terrorist machines he'd fought in Switzerland had had the capability as well... Ysak narrowed his eyes. "That's not an Elemental at all. Or a Champion. Who's in that thing?"
Name is... hold on... Jean Dylan. Never heard of him... but he is GUILTY, and scared. Want me to give him some red hands? Katie asked, her voice both worried and a little eager. This would be her first time in trying this particular trick, though she'd seen Lacus do it a couple of times, or something similar anyway. Lacus regarded it as unethical and all sorts of bad... Katie herself thought that, as long as it worked like it was supposed to, that it was pretty neat. And besides... she wasn't TAKING free will away... she was just making her will seem like a VERY good idea. Katie did not wait for Ysak's assent, though she knew she had it. This guy had really ticked Ysak-y off. Bad news for him. She funneled some of Ysak's frustration and anger into herself, and used it to bolster herself as she reached out and sunk her mental grip into this Jean Dylan. He'd notice she was doing it... that was kinda the point really... but he was so shocked and frightened he could barely even think to defend himself, not that he knew how. Hello Mr. Terrorist. My name is Katie. I'm the person who's going to be mindfucking you today. I'm sure we're going to get along just GREAT, right!? Here, let's start things out by having you show us just how the hell you can look like an Elemental and a Champion, 'kay?
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