Author Note: Well, glad to see that I've been meeting people's expectations, with the last chapter or two. Interesting to see Cray's popularity on the rise. Wonder what it is about the cruel, maladjusted, clinicly insane and evil pilot type that seems to grab hold of people so well. Well, then again, given how many righteous and goody two shoes heroes, or conflicted angtsy villians there are out there sometimes, perhaps its refreshing to see someone who is happy being evil and wouldn't want to be anything else. Now, regarding the "rift" in the Clyne Faction, between those who are Newtypes and those who are not... yeah, its going to be a recurring theme. And this is just the beginning. Small scale. But its not necessarily something the villians will exploit, at least not Noah... he's very smart and informed, but hes not omniscient, and there's not any good reason for him to know about their problem, because he very rarely comes into direct contact with them in such a way that he could find out. Some problems don't need villians. Some villians, for that matter, don't necessarily have to cause problems for the protagonists either... thus the direction I'm moving Ashino in. Oh, and you can hold out hope for Cray and Frost to get together, but do bear in mind they were never friends, and they'd be just as likely to try and kill each other as work together (though now that I think about it, having them do a knock down-drag out fight would be pretty cool).

Mary's been mentally influenced just like most of the rest of the Brotherhood, bear in mind, and Noah DID save her life after Purgatory Day. People have declared undying loyalty for less than that before. And she really does love him, as much as her less than whole mind can anyway, and thus she does tend to see his every action in a rosy tinted light. But there will be a rude awakening... its simply too fun an idea to pass up. But when I will leave secret. The Spear of Ares takes a while to set up. Is that a weakness? I guess. Given how powerful it is though, NOT having a set up time, especially considering its construction, would make it TOO powerful, in my opinion. It is already quite simply the most powerful Mobile Suit carried weapon in the story currently, and it will continue to be upgraded over time, but its never going to be a weapon you can shoot from the hip with. For all you people eager to see Kira beat down Randolf... yeah, it will probably happen. But it's not going to be a grudge match. Kira knows Randolf is part of the Brotherhood, it was never outright said, but he's not stupid after all. However he does not know that Randolf is an Apostle, or which Apostle he would be. He has no way of knowing who is piloting the Haunted, and thus no reason to be especially vindictive, other than his current passionate dislike of the Brotherhood in general.

Well, what some people have said about the Newtype thing being kind of sudden is somewhat true, but bear in mind that five years HAVE passed since Chaotic Cosmos, and while not intricately detailed, given how the characters act now, you should probably assume they've been acting like that for a while, so Katie's Newtype rudeness is probably far from recent news. Things are just reaching a head now, with Cagalli's injury and Katie and Lacus's solution, and then Cagalli's rebuff. People have had time to think over and react to what happened in CC, have formed opinions and deep rooted feelings, and now its all coming out under stress. Its not always an issue of trust, though that is definitely a large part of it. Its a question of basic privacy and personal property. Do the Clyne Faction members trust Lacus, or even Katie, to act morally and with concern for them when it comes down to it? Of course they do. But just because you trust a neurosurgeon to excise a brain tumor if you have one, does that mean you want them poking around in your head every time you go see them, just because that's what they do and they're curious? And of course there is Noah, plus who knows how many other Newtypes, with abilities that may or may not be wildly different from the ones already exhibited, still out there.

Roanoke and F.E.A.R. (An acronym I did borrow from that paranormal thriller FPS game, just modified to meet my purposes) do seem to be an anti-Newtype measure, but they don't have any idea that Kira, Lacus, or Ysak are Newtypes, and would only know about Katie if he saw her, so I doubt they'll be coming after them just yet. Eventually, no doubt... but they can't act on what they don't know. About Kira and the Seraph. Simply put, I disagree about it needing a power boost. Kira as a person, in my opinion, would not be desirious of some badass offensive weaponry, like what the Vorpal or Warmaster have. He might like the BGCS from the Phoenix King, but more for its versatility rather than its offensive or destructive capabilities. At least he'd not feel that way in his current belief system. Maybe that will change at some point in time, but for the moment, he is still that idealistic pacifist at heart, who needs to be pushed VERY hard and given extra reasons to boot, to bring deadly force against even the Brotherhood, who are mostly remote controlled anyway! For the moment, being the ultimate in passive resistance fits very well for how Kira feels about combat in my mind, and though it takes some time, with Kira's creativity, Seed mode and experience, the range of possibilities for what he can do with his Fractal wings is almost unlimited in tactical scope. The Dawn Goddess and the Warmaster have better ranged and single target firepower. The Phoenix King and the Vorpal have better close in combat capability and special weapons. But the Seraph outdoes them all in sheer flexibility, and that has always been Kira's best ability... the ability to adapt to any combat situation and dominate regardless!

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

Ashino frowned, pulling at his slack controls several times and finding no response whatsoever. No cameras, no sensors, no thrusters, hell, he couldn't even tell if the Independence was free floating or lying on the ground at the moment! He was pretty sure he wasn't upright, given that the Mjolnir capacitors had blown up in his face once more, almost certainly obliterating his remaining arm and doing who knew what sort of damage to the rest of the Independence! He was probably lucky to still be alive, and he felt a surge of deep affection for his Gundam, which had spared his life despite his mistreatment of it. He reflected with deep sorrow that it might be time for him and the faithful Independence to part ways, because if the Gundam was immobile and disabled, then staying with it would only lead to his imprisonment at best, or much more likely his death at the hands of the Solar Knights, who probably had orders to shoot to kill on sight regarding him. Ashino sighed regretfully, and began feeling around the interior of the darkened cockpit, removing what supplies and other things he felt might be useful to take with him, operating on memory alone, which illuminated the interior brighter than any light ever could.

As he gathered up his emergency gear, Ashino wondered just what was going on with the larger battle? Someone else was employing Mjolnir penetrating particle projector technology, probably among the FNE contingent, since neither the PLANTS or Orb would use something so unstable, and the ALU didn't have the tech capacity for it. He hoped whoever it was had found themselves on the right side of the risk versus utility equation... as he'd just rediscovered, having one blow up in your face was far from pleasant, no matter what sort of damage they did to the enemy. Even the Revenant's armor and defensive systems wouldn't last long against concentrated Mjolnir fire, unless it had Positron Reflectors like the Pulsar, it had yet to deploy, for some reason. Though one could never tell with Cray... sometimes he was a very stupid individual, who let himself be led around by the nose in a painfully obvious fashion, merely because he didn't want to be bothered with thinking about anything other than his own obsessions with explosions and death and females. Cray was a destructive hedonist, and that philosophy came first for him, before every other concern. It was only if he couldn't burn, explode, shoot or fuck something that he resorted to cognitive ability. Ashino was grateful for the tendency... it made Cray far less dangerous than he otherwise might be.

Ashino finished gathering up his meager cache of supplies and hit the cockpit open control. Nothing happened. It took him about a second to realize that the exploding Mjolnir capacitors had probably flash melted most of his frontal surface armor, which could sometimes have the unfotunate effect of sealing a cockpit shut by gumming up the cracks between the hatch and the rest of the Gundam, especially in space where the flash heated metal would rapidly cool and resolidify. He checked to see that the door opening mechanisms were still working, which they were, and then carefully set aside his supply package to free up room. Grabbing hold of a secure point on the cockpit overhead, Ashino took a few focusing breaths and then whiplashed his entire body forward, kicking the bottom of both feet into the top right corner of the hatch with all his strength. When nothing resulted, he hit it again, and again, and again, seven times in all before he felt the corner plate vibrate heavily under his eighth strike. Grunting and sweating slightly, he then turned his attention to the top left corner and repeated the procedure. Six hits later he felt the top left corner break loose as well, and then it was just one more full body swinging kick to the middle of the hatch plate and it slammed open, brittle shards of armor falling away from the edges on all sides.

Ashino cautiously stepped out onto the hatch, prepared to dive from his perch should he detect any incoming fire headed in his direction, since while the Independence was still partly operable, it was a sitting target and with the hatch open it was almost certain death to try and weather an attack while inside. Calmness, or the nearest equivalent of it given the circumstances, surrounded him. The Independence was lying on its back, its head and shoulders through the wall of a utility building that had been a few dozen meters behind him before his attempt to slay the sniper Knight. Both arms were missing, as was almost all his external weaponry, and what remained looked too damaged for him to want to risk firing it. Much as he'd expected, the entire front part of the Independence was charred into a blackened crust, and streaks of semi-molten cracks tapered off along its sides towards its back armor. Luck was indeed with him, if not quite as much luck as he was hoping for, since now there was no way he'd be able to kill Durandel now. At least at this moment, in this situation. He'd wasted his first and best chance, now things would have to be done in a more difficult manner, with a great deal more planning and preparation by him. It seemed he'd be speaking with Ms. Logan and the remnants of her Tiamat cell again before the afterlife after all.

A movement in the near distance caught his eye, and he stared with some surprise at the Brotherhood Gundam, the one known as the Vengeance, as it rose to a fully standing position from where it had been crouching by the side of a downed Solar Knight Archon, the one that the sniper Knight had been piloting, if Ashino's recollection of their relative positions was correct. The unimaginably sharp finger claws on the Vengeance's right hand slipped back into the finger sheathes, and the Gundam turned to look at Ashino, before dipping its head in a slight nod of respect, or at least that is what Ashino assumed it was. It was uncanny, watching a Gundam move with such humanlike movements that Ashino felt he could discern the pilot's emotion as if he'd been standing there looking at his face. Ashino stared back challengingly at the Vengeance, wondering what the Gundam would do next, as it definitely had the power of life and death over him at the moment. However, the Gundam made no move to slash at him with its claws or hand, or shoot at him with the long, slim rifle slung across its back. It just stepped away from the fallen Archon, looking over Ashino's head at the confrontation invloving the Revenant, seemingly dismissing the dismounted pilots as unimportant now that they'd taken each other out.

Ashino stared as the hatch on the Archon was pushed up and away in the weak Lunar gravity by the pilot inside, the neatly sliced square of metal falling away down the side of the Archon as the pilot poked her head out, staring up at the Vengeance's back with wary surprise. Had the Vengeance just cut her out of her flash melted closed cockpit? Why? It was a gesture of kindness that Ashino simply could not ascribe to the malevolent sort of people who made up the Brotherhood. The Vengeance had probably saved her life, because just sitting around blind and trapped in a Mobile Suit in these kind of conditions was a good way to get hit by random firepower, expended by or against the Revenant. But why would the Vengeance save a Solar Knight? Why would a Brotherhood machine not try to kill Ashino, the USN's Gundam pilot, even if he was currently rogue!? What the hell was the Vengeance thinking?

Well, he should probably not look a gift horse in the mouth, as one of Jean's confusing expressions went. What exactly a gift horse was, or why looking it in the mouth was bad were questions he'd posed that she had no answer for, merely stating that it was another way of stating not to question your own good luck. Motion caught his eye again, as another dismounted pilot in a flight suit belonging to the Solar Knights dashed towards the downed Archon from off to the side, jumping up onto its chest to help drag the female Solar Knight from her exposed position. Both Solar Knights turned and looked directly at Ashino from their perch, and both of them drew pistols holstered at their waists. Vacuum wasn't the best environment for a gun battle, but bullets would kill just as easily in an airless environment as in atmosphere. More so, even, given that an unsealable puncture in a flight suit could kill someone through depressurization or suffocation even if the wound inflicted was otherwise minor. Ashino ducked and jumped from his cockpit, heading off in a random direction, away from the Revenant and the more secure portions of the base. His quarrel wasn't with the Solar Knights, no matter if they were willing accomplices to Durandel or not. They weren't responsible for what had happened, and though they were Coordinators, their deaths would only weigh on his conscience in the long run.

As he ran, Ashino caught glimpses over his shoulder of the Clyne Faction's entrance to the battlefield, and their efforts against Cray. He wished them luck, and hoped that this time they would make completely sure of his death. Any world with Cray in it was more dangerous than it should be, and the Brotherhood would also be diminished greatly by the loss of their juggernaut. Two good things. He just wished he could have contributed to the fight. If only... a lot of things hadn't happened. Damn Durandel for upsetting the proper course of the world! What could his reasons be? Ashino vowed to find out before he killed the man... he had to know what could cause people to do such terrible and senseless things, so he could avoid ever letting it happen to himself! But for the moment he needed to concentrate on getting away, or else there would be no finding out, or future learning experiences of any kind!

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

"Attention all Brotherhood units. This is Kira Yamato, in the Seraph. Halt all combat operations and stand down your machines at once, or face destruction. This is your final and only warning." Kira broadcast on all available channels, as he came up behind the fracas between the USN forces and the Brotherhood reinforcements. "Surrender at once and your lives will be spared, and you will be taken into custody and treated with the rights belonging to prisoners of war." Kira waited a few moments, but did not recieve any return communications, nor did any of the Brotherhood forces even begin to look like they were surrendering. He sighed wearily, and resigned himself to what needed to be done. He'd given them the option at least, and now his last moral concern for their well being had been evaporated in the heat of their disdain. He switched his comm channels to a narrower selection, belonging to the USN and allied forces alone.

"All USN and allied member-state forces, this is Kira Yamato, in the Serpah. I strongly advise you to back down now, and let us handle this. You are tired and damaged and reduced in number, while we are fresh and still whole. Please allow us to bear the brunt of the Brotherhood's attack." Kira said politely. He also didn't want to have to worry about any more friendly fire accidents than absolutely necessary... the more people he could get out of the immediate battlezone, the better. There was just too much random ordnance flying about right the moment for him to feel comfortable... he could focus all of his attention on the Brotherhood, and still be struck down from the side or back by a misaimed allied forces shot. He could keep track of a great many things, all at once, but why tempt fate if there was no good reason? Besides, with Cagalli flying around nearby as well, he definitely didn't need any more things to worry about than absolutely necessary.

"By what authority do you give us orders?" A tired and gruff voice demanded in reply. "This is Knight-Lieutenant Obadiah of the Solar Knights Third Platoon. We are tired and hurt, but we can still fight! It is our duty to protect the USN and its citizens to the last, to our dying breaths if need be, and we will not just sit back and let you steal all the glory and credit for defeating the Brotherhood!"

"Glory has nothing to do with it! We don't care who gets the credit for defeating them, we just want to defeat them!" Athrun cut in sharply. "I admire your pride and your dedication, but letting them control your decisions will only get more people killed or hurt when they might otherwise be saved, Knight-Lieutenant!"

"Who is this? Identify yourself!" Obadiah instructed.

"I'm Ambassador Athrun Zala, of Orb, in the Phoenix King. We don't have any authority over anyone but Orb here, which is why were are just advising you strongly, rather than ordering you." Athrun answered, as the Dawn Goddess disengaged from his back and he shifted back to Mobile Suit mode, alighting just behind the Seraph, with the Dawn Goddess to his right and Kisaka's Dawndrake to his left.

"This is Commander Heine Westenfluss, ZAFT Special Forces, Project Primal and member of FAITH. All ZAFT forces will fall back into support roles and let the Orb Gundams occupy the enemy while we regroup." Heine made sure to give the order over a public channel. "We'd be stupid not to take advantage of having Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala offering their help, which I am extremely grateful for."

"We of the ALU agree with that sentiment. This is Colonel Haman Al'Jib, of the ALU First Garou Lancers. All remaining ALU forces should fall back and regroup and wait for further recommendations from the Orb Gundams. It is an honor, sirs, to share this battleground with such esteemed young men as yourselves!" Al'Jib added a few seconds later, also on a public channel. There was no reply from the FNE forces, who seemed much more concerned with the retrieval of the mostly crushed Panzerwulf unit, though the two whole Panzerwulfs did not retreat from battle either. The Orb forces were marshalling under Kisaka's direction, so that really only left the USN forces, consisting of a few dozen Champions and the battered remainder of the Solar Knights actively engaged with the Brotherhood forces, who were tenative in their assault, most of their attention focused on the three Gundams standing near their flanks.

"Ms. Murrue, can you give me the Lohengrins please?" Kira requested in a tight beam channel to the Archangel.

"What the heck are you up to, Kid?" Waltfeld's voice came back to him. The Archangel had just gotten done pasting the Revenant but good, almost knocking it down on its face, now that its legs were inoperable, and Ysak had just saved their hides by slicing off the right arm, the one with the Radiation Cannon in it, before Cray could fire upon them. Things were definitely looking up, though Waltfeld was sure he was going to have to change his shirt after the battle, because it was soaked in sweat. He might be needing to change his pants too, after that close call with the Revenant just now. He hoped that wet feeling was sweat anyway... anything else might be a bit embarassing. He really ought to know better than to drink a lot of coffee before a major battle...

"There's a lot of them, but their morale is weak, especially given what you guys are doing to the Revenant. I think I can end this quickly if we overawe them from the beginning, but the Seraph doesn't have the kind of firepower to take out large groups of them, not without some buildup time anyway." Kira replied calmly. "Fire the Lohengrin just over the Seraph's head if you would."

"We can take the little guys, Kira." Cagalli jumped into the conversation. "You focus on the Gundams, Athrun and Kisaka and I can handle the small fry just fine!"

"Cagalli..."

"Kira, don't baby me! Or else it's gonna be YOU they find in a bathtub with his throat slashed, not me, got it!?"

"Understood." Kira said quietly, though he was smiling. Cagalli sure was strong... already back to threatening people to hide her concern for them. "Give me the Lohengrin anyway, please."

"Do as he asks." Murrue ordered. "What's the status on the Vorpal?"

"Still recovering Ma'am. Commander Joule estimates at least five to ten more minutes before he regains operational control." The CIC officer replied, blushing a little, because Ysak's reply had been rather more colorfully stated than what she'd passed on to the Captain.

"Missile tubes, Gottfrieds, Valiants and all CIWS weapons, stay on the Revenant. Turn bow ninety degrees to starboard and roll out the Lohengrin. Aim point ten meters above Seraph." Murrue called out firmly. "Helm, keep an eye on the monster, you have free reign to evasively maneuver as required to save all our lives. Don't let up, people, we haven't won yet!" Murrue directed her attention to her comms officer once more. "Anything from the USN chain of command yet?"

"No, Ma'am. There seems to have been some sort of incident inside Galileo itself, and they are in a complete lockdown until they have the situation under control."

"Very well. We will continue to act as we think best then. Keep trying, Comms." Murrue turned back to her command screens as the Archangel came about, orienting more or less at Kira and the Seraph, even as the turreted weapons continued to do their damndest to pin the Revenant down, or at least keep him more or less in the same place. The Lohengrin deployed, twin muzzles flaring with light and power before disgorging two brilliant beams of positron particles, so bright that even most shielded systems couldn't look at them directly. The Brotherhood forces, many of whom were somewhat in the path of the shot, entered wild evasive maneuvers, falling all over themselves, even the Martyrs, trying to get out of the path of the shot. The only one that didn't run was the Tormented, who raised her left arm and activated the Positron shield therein. She never got to see if her confidence in her shield was well placed or not though, as the Lohengrin beams bent sharply downward as they encountered Kira's fractal wings, bouncing from point to point to point, splittling and refracting until there was a raging storm of prismatic light contained within the constantly moving pods.

Caught in the middle of scattering away from the perceived main cnanon shot from the Archangel, the Brotherhood forces were too spread out to generate the sort of combined defensive shield that might have been able to save them from the flood of energy that Kira released from his wings, expanding outward in a nearly 180 degree arc to his front, ripping the ground and void apart in a shockwave of expanding destruction that enveloped almost a third of the Brotherhood forces and flat out vaporized them under the impact of multiple positron beams. Lacking shields entirely, the Martyrs among the Brotherhood forces fared the worst, with seven of them consigned to sudden oblivion, while five of the Zealots were also ripped asunder, and many of the remainder damaged in some way. The Tormented had weathered the storm easily enough behind its Positron Reflector Shield, the energy beams not being focused enough to punch through, and the Tormented had also shielded the Traitor from the attack at the same time. The Haunted had outranged the short ranged wide angled attack, though he'd been forced to dive for his life in a very ungainly manner to do it.

Cagalli and Athrun wasted no time on capatilizing on the Brotherhood's disarray, as Cagalli picked off a damaged Zealot by putting a meter wide molten hole in its chest with her Arbalest cannon, while Athrun charged up a massive ball of plasma energy with his Vulcan's Forge, cupping and moulding the energy like a baker shaping dough, until Cagalli fired an Arbalest missile right through the middle of the plasma ball, the fantailling magnetic fields dragging the accummulated energy behind the speeding dart like a tail of pure fire. The armor piercing dart struck one of the remaining Martyr's on the center chest and exploding, failing to penetrate the Phase Shift armor, though the force of the blast did rock the large Mobile Suit back on its heels, staggering it. When the plasma wave arrived a millisecond or so later, the Martyr, along with a section of Moonscape about ten meters in diameter, plainly ceased to exist in a roiling fireball that left a pool of molten sludge in the bottom of the crater as the only remains of the Mobile Suit.

Finally throwing off their shock and awe from the sudden, devastating arrival of the Clyne Faction Gundams, the Brotherhood forces attempted to rally behind an attack spearheaded by the Tormented, with the Haunted providing covering fire with its palm mounted sniper cannons. The Haunted also launched three of its back mounted heavy missiles, though two were blown out of the void by the Archangel's covering Valkyros Beam CIWS cannons before they even got halfway to their targets, which had been Cagalli and Athrun. The last missile homed in on Kisaka's Dawndrake like a shark headed for a scrap of chum, missing only by a few meters due to a somewhat frantic dodge on his part, even as he lifted his wings in order to block a pair of beam blasts directed at the Archangel's belly, the HAC armor easily absorbing the heat of the shots. Kisaka's return 150mm hyper-impulse cannon blast took the offending Zealot through the face, blasting the head apart and dropping the machine almost intact to the ground. The missile buried itself in the rock just past his leg and then... shattered... for lack of a better word, releasing a sparkling cloud of what looked like dust in a wide radius, sweeping over to cover the Dawndrake in a thick layer of glinting grime.

Kisaka ignored the near miss for several seconds, continuing on with providing defensive support to the Archangel, acting as a sort of living shield against the energy and heat based weapons that were more dangerous to the ship's armor than standard munitions or missiles, and of course utterly ineffective against his own armor. He wanted to be protecting Cagalli, but he knew she'd never let him hear the end of it, especially now, and she seemed to be doing well enough on her own for the moment. She was acting with a lot more caution than was her usual wont, staying back at the fringes of the battle and providing covering fire to Kira and Athrun as they pursued the enemy more directly, instead of rushing in on Athrun's flanks. Winking red alarm lights suddenly, and apparently without reason, sprang up across Kisaka's control boards, and his thrusters fluttered and died, followed shortly by his weapons and then his sensor systems. He flinched back from his screens as they arced and sparked, even as his Dawkdrake went dead around him, its internal electronics eaten away by the nanomachines released by the Haunted's missile. He fruitlessly tried his controls, then his comm system, and finally his eject, but it was no use... anything even partially controlled by electronics was now useless junk! He couldn't even see what was going on anymore!

Kira batted several beam tipped rounds from the Haunted aside with his forearm Citadel Shield Projectors almost absentmindedly, most of his attention on the intricate movements of his Fractal Wings as he swirled them in complex orbits around him and his friends, absorbing missile and munition strikes aimed at Athrun or Cagalli, and redirecting beam attacks coming at himself or the Archangel, either bouncing them harmlessly into the ground or away into the depths of space, or sending them right back at the attacker, or one of the other Brotherhood machines. Kira slipped between two Zealots and spun, a sword in either hand, bisecting both surprised machines at the waist, before moving on to blast a Martyr apart with all four of his chest mounted 400mm hyper-impulse cannons, a straight shot requiring no deflections or tricks on his part. A Dawndrake moved up to support him from the left flank, and Kira rounded on it, throwing one beam saber sidearm, so that the blade pierced through the Dawndrake's right hand, blowing it and the beam rifle it held into tiny shards. The Danwdrakes outline flickered and frizzled, the holographic interface disrupted by the battle damage, until the Traitor activated its Mirage Colloid and attempted to slip away.

Kira drew a dual 57mm beam rifle with his free hand and fired a brace of shots behind him as he moved to engage another cluster of Zealots, one shot sailing on into infinity, while the other dead ended in the middle of space, spraying out molten globs of armor and structural metal, and the lower leg of a Mobile Suit phased into view, detached from the rest of the Traitor at the knee by the pinpoint shot. It wasn't that Kira could see the Mirage Colloided Gundam, it was just that with his powers of spatial awareness, he could figure where the Gundam was likely to be, given the chaotic nature of the battlefield, and could aim accordingly. He could just... instinctively feel where things were likely to be, in relation to himself. He parried a beam saber stroke with his own saber and twisted the Seraph's wrist, disarming the foe before his riposte lopped its arm off at the elbow and he finished it off with a trio of point blank shots to the face and chest. Beam blasts streak at him from three sides, and he deftly interposed Fractal Wing feathers, radiating the energy straight up into forever, momentarily haloing the Seraph in green plasma energy.

Nearby, Athrun had one hand digging into the chest of a Zealot, which he was flambasting with all three plasma jets on that arm, turning its armor bright cherry red and orange as it began to melt and sag. He lifted the slack machine from the ground and interposed it into the path of a hyper-impulse cannon shot from a Martyr, which ripped straight through the heat weakened armor, destroying the Zealot and impacting on the Phoenix King, though to no discernable result because of the HAC armor. His other hand was wielding a large dual bladed beam saber type formation, parrying and blocking the attempts of a pair of Zealots to strike him with their own sabers. The Zealots suddenly back off as the Tormented charged in from above, spearing its trident down like a woman trying to stick a pin through a bug. Athrun sidestepped the quick, if clumsy charge and slashed at her with his twin bladed sword, whirling it to strike with both edges alternately. She blocked with her Positron Shield, but was wrongfooted and forced to duck awkwardly back when he fired a cone of plasma fire over the top edge of her shield with his free hand, scorching her ears and shoulders.

Immensely heartened by the beating being administered to the Brotherhood by the Clyne Faction, the tired and haggard remains of the other defensive forces pushed back into the battle as well, eager to lock the Brotherhood down completely. Colonel Haman Al'Jib impaled a Zealot from behind with both of his beam claws, closing almost a half kilometer of distance in less than a second using his afterburners, hitting the Brotherhood machine so hard he ran right through it, scattering pieces to the left and right as he surfed through the flames of its detonation. Heine came in from the right flank, using his shotcannon to knock one Zealot over onto its side with a point blank blast, while he put three holes though the leg and lower torso of a second with his 125mm supercharged beam cannon in his other hand, the dark red beam bolts impacting with wrenching force. Discarding his ranged weapons, Heine activated the supercharged beam blade on either forearm and went back to back with Al'Jib as they tore a hole in the left flank of the crumpling Brotherhood forces.

Things weren't going COMPLETELY against the Brotherhood, as the Haunted claimed almost half of the remaining Garou's with a pair of nano payload missiles, leaving them lying in inert piles, like discarded statues, which he then almost casually executed with beam tipped shell shots to the cockpits. The Traitor took out a pair of unwary Cavalier's with a point blank sneak attack with its shotcannon, but was then forced to flee when Sting turned his Panzerwulf towards Dylan and almost gutted him with a Mjolnir shot, which, though it missed by a meter, still dug a molten trench through the Traitor's abdominal armor. One of the last Martyr's hurled itself into a group of Solar Knights from Third Platoon, including Knight-Lieutenant Obadiah, bearing one of them to the ground before activating its self destruct mechanisms and blowing one and a half squadrons of Solar Knights into space debris in an explosion so powerful it knocked Mobile Suits to their knees almost a hundred meters away.

The Phoenix King continued to duel with the Tormented, the Seraph continued to wipe out any Brotherhood machine that strayed too close, and the Dawn Goddess closed the gap with the Haunted, going lance and shield against the Haunted's two handed axe, remembering Athrun's discussion of how the Brotherhood Gundam wasn't particularly adept at melee combat. Cagalli almost immediately regretted her somewhat rash action, remembering a bit too late that what was somewhat lame to Athrun, might not be quite the same thing to her, as she was quickly pushed back onto the defensive by the combination of the Haunted's Chameleonic Phase Shift Armor and Holoprojectors, having real difficulty seperating which Haunted was the real one, versus the three fakes. Cagalli flinched and screamed when she blocked an illusory attack, and the Haunted's axe came in under her forearm shields and slammed into her torso, a glancing blow that still possessed enough power to knock the Dawn Goddess onto its ass, losing her lance in the process. Jarred by the impact of the axe, and the secondary collision with the ground, Cagalli just sat there dazedly for a moment or two, overwhelmed by a sudden pang of hopelessness. She was outclassed. Beaten. Defeated. Hopeless. She was going to di... she shook her head and snarled, recognizing the symptoms of a drug based depression attack. She would NOT lose to this!

She blocked the predictable downward chop from the Haunted with both of her shields, and then used her torso 80mm Gatling Cannons to clear the Haunted away from her, for just a second or two as she clambered back to her feet. She called out again, even through her gritted teeth, as the Haunted's axe came in at her from all four directions at once, and she had no idea which one to block. As it turned out though, the situation was taken out of her hands, as blue-green light flared all around her as Kira cocooned the Dawn Goddess in a multilayered barrier of Citadel Shields, enveloping her within his right wing as the Seraph alighted next to her. The Haunted hacked desperately at the Seraph, hoping to catch Kira off guard, somehow, someway. It just wasn't going to happen in this universe. Kira glanced the axe blow to the side with one forearm shield and then sliced the axe head from its shaft with his beam saber, before kneecapping the Haunted with a blistering pair of shots from his beam rifle.

Kira was just raising his sword to decapitate and disable the Haunted when a sudden premonition, a sort of realization, an awareness of a presence... something... warned him of an impending attack and he turned his decapitation slice into a spinning parry, aligning both forearm shields as a secondary defense as he reversed his facing instinctively to deal with the perceived threat, even though he had no idea what it was. And a good thing he did too, because the Vengeance had charged in from behind, seeing an opportunity to take out the Seraph before it even knew the Brotherhood Gundam was around, a move that would have been sure to cause great dismay throughout the battlefield, at least for anyone not of the Brotherhood. The Vengeance's quantum crystal zweihander sliced cleanly through the Seraph's beam saber and upraised rifle before digging into the layered Citadel Shields ffrom the forearm projectors, golden sparks fluttering and showering as the unimaginably sharp blade tried to cut through solid energy. In the end though, the attack was stayed, and Kira retreated a few steps to gain some distance, drawing his left side rifle with his right hand to replace the ruined one, beam saber still glowing pink in the left hand. The Seraph and the Vengeance faced each other down, and the entire battle seemed to grind to a halt...

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

The battle was lost, Michael knew this for a certainty. The Brotherhood forces had been mauled, almost annihilated, by the Clyne Faction, and now the other defensive forces were piling in and taking advantage of the Brotherhood's notoriously fragile morale, which was fraying and crumbling with increasing rapidity as each additional Zealot or Martyr was destroyed. The other three Gundams were racking up damage, and dealing out precious little in return. The Traitor was almost disabled, the Haunted was half broken, and the Tormented was the only one even slightly holding her own, though that largely consisted of fending off the Phoenix King while he slowly chipped away at her, rather than allowing him to end the duel in seconds. The Revenant was still active, as evidenced by huge green energy beams flying around in random patterns overhead, as Cray tried to claw the Archangel from the sky, so far with no success, or even getting close for that matter, as the agile and experienced warship maneuvered around and around, always in Cray's awkward spots, while pounding him in turn with the warship's own weapons so that Cray could never get properly stabilized.

Truly, the crew and commander of that warship were something special... Michael shook away his admiring thoughts, which clung like sticky mud to his mind, fouling him up and making it very hard to concentrate on the here and now. Which could be very detrimental to his health, because no matter the technology of his Gundam, he was now facing Kira Yamato, and anyone who did not take the most famous Gundam Pilot ever to live seriously was not long for this world. Although... Michael called to mind the Vengeance's scans of the Seraph's current weapon systems, and a faint smile crept onto his lips. Armed exclusively with energy based weapon systems, the Seraph actually lacked a good way of hurting the Vengeance, considering the near impenetrability of Liquid Crystal Regenerative armor versus energy weapons. On the other hand, the Seraph's pilot was considered the most skilled pilot alive, and the Seraph's defensive systems were second to none, outside of the Vengeance's itself. Could the ultimate sword beat the ultimate shield? It wasn't a contest Michael had much heart to try, to be honest.

Regardless of whether or not he could beat Kira Yamato and the Seraph, the larger battle had still been lost, and Michael knew Noah was going to be absolutely furious. They hadn't managed to kill Durandel. They hadn't destroyed the Solar Knights. They hadn't ruined the shipyards, or more than about twenty percent of Galileo LFB, which while still massive damage, was nothing of the scope they should have been able to achieve! Just about the only thing Michael could see that had gone right was that Meyrin Hawke had never once been in any danger of dying, and he hadn't even had to do anything to assure that! The Revenant was on its last legs, almost literally, and once the big Gundam went down for good, the rest of the Brotherhood would only be minutes away from sharing that fate, that was that! He'd thought he had a chance to take the Seraph out by surprise, but his opportunity had passed by now, and there was no longer any profit to staying.

The Seraph fired a triplet of dual beam blasts into his face and chest, but the energy bolts just fizzled and refracted into nothingness when they struck the LCR armor surface, and Michael paid them no heed. He swung his zweihander around in a wide horizontal sweep, clearing some more space between him and the Seraph as they both considered their options and strategies, Michael for his retreat and Kira for how he was going to take down something based off the Pulsar, without being able to damage it with any of his weapons! Of all the Orb Gundams, the Warmaster and the Vorpal were best suited, in terms of armaments, for fighting the Vengeance, but of course neither were available. Kira cursed himself for his shortsightedness in switching entirely to the more "deadly" beam based weapons, because he was now completely unable to harm the Vengeance, save for punches or kicks, and the enemy pilot was good enough that Kira would probably just lose a limb were he to try those attacks! He had the Directed Neutron Disablers in his gauntlets and palms, but those were designed to counter fission based weapons and power sources, the effect would be much less, if anything at all, on a fusion reactor!

Michael was just about to turn and run, trusting to the Vengeance's incredible agility and unearthly speed to get him safely away from the battleground, when a sudden text only comm came in from the Great Endeavor of all places, where Noah was no doubt impatiently watching his forces get their asses royally kicked., fuming and planning just how he would communicate to them all his displeasure at their failings. The brevity and grammer of the text told Michael all he needed to know... Noah was beyond livid, almost to the screaming tantrum stage, to the point where he couldn't even spell correctly, his figners were trembling with so much rage. "Jill th Acrhangle and withdarw." Michael read slowly. Kill the Archangel and withdraw, was it? It was a petulant order... the Clyne Faction had humbled the Revenant, and now Noah wanted to humble the Clyne Faction by destroying their mothership. For a long few moments, Michael teetered on the edge of indecision. Destroying the Archangel would do nothing in the short term, and precious little in the long term. It was just one ship after all.

All the same though, it would do quite a bit to bolster the flagging spirits of the Brotherhood pilots if they could take down such a famous warship, even if it was Michael, as usual, doing all the heavy lifting. Everyone liked it when the home team won big, and at the moment, the Vengeance basically WAS the home team, given how battered and overwhelmed the rest of the Brotherhood Gundams and regular forces were. Something else about the white and red ship seemed to be calling to him as well, and he found it difficult to look away from it once he set his gaze on it. He shook himself, even as the Traitor and Haunted lurched into full out retreats, hounded by mismatched groups of USN, FNE, ZAFT and ALU forces, though most of those broke off pursuit when the Haunted laid down a line of nano-warhead missiles along its backtrail, putting up a wall of nanomachines that wrecked anything electronic that flew through it, so that the Moonscape was soon littered with disabled Mobile Suits containing frustrated, surprised pilots, and the two Brotherhood machines were able to make a relatively clean getaway.

Mary refused to be pulled away from her clinch with the Phoenix King, despite the fact that she was outmatched, and both she and her opponent knew it. She just couldn't get off the defensive for more than a half second, and even when full on defending she was taking damage, a burn here, a scorch there, but it was starting to add up, and her frustration wasn't helping matters. In the depths of space, without air or any other medium for sound waves to travel through, her Banshee's Wail CUSA was entirely useless, stripping away her greatest short ranged weapon, and without that threat, there was nothing she could do to keep the Phoenix King at bay, so Athrun continually hounded her, staying right up on her shield, hacking away with dual bladed swords in either hand, or else trying to curve gouts of fire around the edges of her shield. Even as Michael watched, the Phoenix King spread its wings, which suddenly erupted in bright blue thruster wash as the individual feathers detached in a whirling storm of superheated metal shards, each following its own trajectory, swarming the Tormented from all sides, even from above and below, the sharp edged metal shrapnel ramming themselves with abandon into the Tormented's flesh and armor, perforating the arms and legs.

The Tormented staggered and reeled, until its limbs locked up totally, internal structures half molten and control circutry completely dead. The Tormented's thruster flickered and died as well, and then the entire Gundam toppled over, moving in slow motion in the Lunar gravity, to faceplant roughly onto the ground, well and truly disabled. The dark red edges of the cooling Phoenix Feathers protruded from all over the body and limbs of the Tormented, like the quills of a porcupine, and Michael could see at a glance that the Tormented's power plant was off line, as were all motivational systems and sensors. Mary was now trapped, as much as any of the hapless pilots Michael had freed from their Archons earlier had been, blind, deaf and dumb. Michael waited for the Tormented to go up in flames, courtesy of the hidden self destruct system all the Apostle Gundams were equipped with, that Noah could use to destroy them, should they appear to be in danger of capture, or if he just plain wanted to. He waited and watched, watched and waited, and after almost five seconds, nothing had happened. The self destruct must have been damaged or destroyed as well. That was the only explanation... though Mary would probably attribute it to Noah's love for her, knowing her.

Michael waited for his orders to change, to direct him to destroy the Tormented, but the order never came. The Archangel destruction orders continued to pulse bright red in the landscape of his mind, top priority urgency, and nothing else came in through the comm system. Whether Noah simply didn't care what happened to Mary and the Tormented, or whether he was too enraged to consider what was happening, Michael did not and could not know. He shrugged, and decided it really didn't matter either way, and it wasn't his concern either. He was going to destroy the Archangel, and then he was going to get the hell out of dodge, and that was that... he could sort things out with Noah later, hopefully before the kid ripped his head clean off his shoulders and pissed down his neck. Michael set a course for the Archangel and punched his thrusters for all they were worth, leaving the Dawn Goddess and Seraph staggering in his wake in a cloud of Moon dust, though the Seraph took off after him within a second, though there was no way the Orb Gundam could hope to match the Vengeance's FPR fuelled speed. Like a shimmering purple bullet, the Vengeance homed in on the Archangel from above and to the right front quarter, aiming directly for the bridge.

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

"Enemy Gundam designated "Tormented" confirmed as disabled by the Phoenix King." The CIC officer reported, a tone of relief very plain in her voice. "Almost all Brotherhood forces have been destroyed or disabled at this time. Vorpal reports less than a minute to full operational status, and the Warmaster is almost ready with the Spear of Ares. Colonel Kisaka's Dawndrake has been recovered by Orb's Galileo contingent. Allied equipment casualities are heavy, but initial reports suggest that pilot casualties are less severe."

"Understood, thank you, CIC." Murrue replied quickly, adding the information to the part of her mind that was considering overall battlefield strategy. Learning to think on multiple levels of a battle at the same time was essential for warship commanders. "Andrew, how are we coming with the Revenant?"

"Well, if he were a bear, and us a hunter, I'd say we should still put about three more shots into his brain before we set up for a trophy shot, but really, other than flopping and twitching, I think we might have this one in the bag, Captain." Waltfeld replied with a cocky smile that conveyed more self assurance than he felt. Despite the damage it had taken, and was continuing to take, the Revenant could still very easily take out the Archangel if they got sloppy or slow. All it would take would be a few consecutive blasts from that Gatling Gottfried system and the Archangel would be in flames if they were lucky, or small pieces if they weren't. Still, there was no point in letting the crew know he was biting his nails, it wouldn't help matters. He was about to say more when a loud proximity alert siren began to wail, and he spun, almost tearing off a chunk of the bridge railing in his mechanical fist in the process. "What the..."

"Massive heat source inbound... FAST!" One of the sensor operators shouted. By the time he'd got the sentence halfway out of his mouth, the Vengeance was already upon them, arrowing down out of the starry night, leaving a bright blue thruster trail almost a kilometer long behind it as it dropped towards them. The automated targeting systems of the Valkyros beam CIWS guns reacted with mechanical effeciency, and oriented upon and fired at the intruder in milliseconds, though to desultory effect, as the beams glanced and rebounded from the LCR armor even when they hit, which was far from often. By the time the sensor operator had shouted "FAST!" the Vengeance had swiped the starboard Gottfried turret clean off its mount with a single shearing cut of its massive two handed sword, the QC edges cutting through the laminated ablative armor of the Archangel like it was made of pudding. The damage control officer was just opening his mouth to call out the extent of the damage when the Vengeance struck again, taking out both of the starboard dorsal Valkyros mounts with two more sword slashes, before skidding to a stop on top of the Archangel, standing right in front of the bridge.

Murrue, Waltfeld and the rest of the bridge crew stared in horror, as the spectre of death raised its skeletal claws and the Vengeance drew back its sword, preparing to thrust the blade like a lance right through the bridge, skewering them or else exposing them to the unforgiving vacuum of space, a terrible way to go no matter which it was! Shouts and screams rang out, spooling on into a infinite cacophony that overwhelmed Murrue's senses as she calmly sat in her chair and watched the reaper approach on the tip of a sword, as the Vengeance began its surgical striking thrust. She met the Vengeance's infernal pink gaze fearlessly, refusing to give in to the panic and chaos consuming her bridge around her, as the inexperienced crew faced up to the inevitable doom facing them in various insufficient ways. She didn't hold it against them... no one wanted to die, and this was just so sudden that the shock was literally overwhelming... one moment they'd been victorious, and now they were all going to die... it was completely unfair! She didn't want to die, but she wasn't going to shame herself avoiding it either! Not with examples like Mu's to follow!

Because she was the only person on the bridge with open eyes that were facing the Vengeance, Murrue was also the only one to witness the incredible, unfathomable event that happened next. The Vengeance stopped DEAD, frozen in midthrust, the tip of its blade just barely scratching the armored porthole glass, like a figure in a movie stopped short by the pause button. Murrue slowly let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, wondering what this miraculous occurence was about... it seemed impossible...

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

Michael was lost, stumbling around in a storm with no rain or wind or clouds, but blinded, deafened and mightily confused all the same! Sweat stood out all over his body and face, despite the cooling touch of the GRS gel filling his flight suit, which was connected to various filtration and refrigeration units to provide a comfortable, breathable environment for him no matter how high he jacked the FPR power to, within reasonable limits anyway. Truth be told, he hadn't even really been paying attention to what he was doing, his mind already on other matters, like escape and the inevitable dressing down from Noah, and he'd been following through with his actions against the Archangel almost by rote, following his preplanned attack decisions. Swipe off turret... check. Take out CIWS... check. Destroy bridge... in progress. Not sure why though. He remembered stabbing with his sword, the armored glass of the bridge windows being absolutely no obstacle at all, but something had stymied his attack short of the goal.

His sword was trembling and shivering in his grip, as one side of him strove with all his might to drive home the blow and accomplish Noah's orders, while another side of him, a side he hadn't even realized was there, was striving just as hard to not only get him to pull the blow back, but to remember WHY he was pulling the blow in the first place! He tried to backtrack and figure out what might have caused him to suffer this... malady. he remembered sliding to a halt on top of the Archangel, where he was now. He remembered winding up for the thrust. He remembered looking through the armored glass window of the bridge that was his target. He remembered... remembered.... brown hair... amber eyes, like those of a hunting cat... brown hair... captain's chair... that steely calm expression of determination on the captain's face... her composed eyes, seeming to bore right into his skull and look into places he had forgotten even existed in the first place. Calling a name. A strange name, that was alien and yet completely familiar all the same. He could almost swear he heard her thought resonate in his mind for just a moment. A single syllable of a name, crisp and clear and crystal. "Mu..." He tasted the word tenatively, feeling an unaccountable excitement and tension build up inside him as he said it.

Sweat was no bursting out all over him, and his heart rate and breathing were cycling faster and faster, as tendrils of achy pain began winding their way both into and out of his head. Nausea roiled in his stomach and his vision started to blur with tears of pain, but for all that, he welcomed the sensations, because they seemed to herald a feeling of immense satisfaction and exultation that was building momentum inside him, slowly at first, like a yoked beast slowly snapping its restraints, but faster and faster and faster, and more powerful still, as every second went by and he continued to drink in the astoundingly familiar details of the Archangel's bridge, and most especially the woman sitting on the Captain's chair, an expression of puzzlement and shock and a little fear, tighlty controlled, on her face. Her posture was attentive, as she leaned forward, studying him, probing him with her attention, challenging him, DARING him even to remember WHY she looked so familiar, and why the sight of her made his heart and mind BURN with emotion! "My name... Mich... no... no... Mu... what...?" MIcahel staggered, withdrawing his sword from its frozen thrust and standing loose limbed on the Archangel's dorsal surface, shaking his head and trembling in the the grip of a fit that was growing more insistent and violent as the seconds ticked by!

"This... this is impossible!" Michael protested angrily, though he wasn't sure why he was angry. He felt like he was losing control of himself, like he was losing control of his thoughts and memories, like something out of a dream, where everything he was made of was consumed and subsumed by something else, something else that looked just like him, but had a totally different mind and personality, a wolf in his sheep's clothing! Possible... "What's that!? Who IS that!? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!? This can't be happening... this is IMPOSSIBLE!" Michael swore, stepped back awakwardly, staring unseeing now, oblivious to everything except the struggle inside his own mind. Possible... "Who's saying that! How are you in my mind!? Why do you sound like... like ME!?" Michael demanded. Me... possible... make... possible... Mu... "My name is NOT... not... not..." Michael sank to his knees, the Vengeance following his posture with a clang that reverberated throughout the Archangel, as the entire bridge crew looked on with alarm and shock as the Brotherhood Gundam seemed to begin suffering from a nervous breakdown. Murrue thought instantly back to the smouldering, burned inside out remains of a pilot they'd retrieved from the Pulsar way back when, and wondered if this pilot was suffering from a similar grisly death, right in front of their eyes. It was no clean way to go, even for a terrorist.

"Get out of my head!" Michael yelled, raising one hand to grip his temple, with the Vengeance of course mimicking the action completely. Out of my head... The voice that sounded just like him repeated, with just as much feeling as he'd had. "Who ARE you!?" Who are you...? "I am Michael Genesis!" Who are you...? "I told you! I am Michael La Fl... what!? What did I just... this can't be happening! This is impossible!" Possible... "Stop saying that! What do you want from me!? What are you doing!? How are you doing it!? Why now!?" Murrue... "Who? Murrue? Who the hell..." Murrue... Archangel... impossible... possible... your name is... My name is Michael! Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael, MICHAEL!" Michael retorted savagely, though for some reason, the more he said his name, the less familiar it sounded, the less correct it seemed. "My name is Michael Genesis! Isn't it...?" Father's name...

"My father's name is Albert..." Michael trailed off, suddenly stuck and unable to remember his own father's surname. "Albert... umm... Al..." Albert... La Flaga...? "Yes! No! What!? Wait! Why am I talking with myself! This is stupid! I have orders that need accomplishing, a job that needs doing, a person I need to serve and protect. I don't have time for this impossible bullshit!" Possible... the impossible... possible... "I'm telling you to shut up with that! Shut up and leave me alone! You're just a figment of my imagination! I don't have to talk to you, acknowledge you, pay attention to you... you don't exist! You're just a bad dream!" Motto...? "FINE! Fuck it... you wanna know my motto? I'll tell you my fucking motto! But you'd better shut up and leave me alone afterwards! I don't have time for this horseshit!" Michael spat vehemently, gathering himself into a semblance of control once more. "My motto is that I'm the man who can MAKE the impossible... possible..." Michael listened to the words, unconsciously spoken by long familiarity, slip off his tongue. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, stealing all his attention away, even as his proximity sensors warned of the Seraph's helter skelter approach from the side.

Your name...? The voice... HIS voice... asked him, almost gently. "My n-name is... is..." Possible... possible... possible... possible... possible! His internal voice had an echo effect that grew louder with each echo, instead of quieter, until the word "possible" was screaming in his ears over and over again, painfully loud, as an invisible, intangible and not nearly indestructible wall inside his mind first cracked, chipped and then shattered altogether, releasing a tidal wave of molten hot memories, an entire life he'd never realized he'd had resurfacing in a single moment, blasting apart everything he'd thought he'd know about himself. It was too much for him to take, and he felt himself being swept along by the tide into a swirling black hole of not entirely unwelcome unconsciousness, even as he felt his physical body shake and shudder violently, as the Seraph body checked the Vengeance off the top of the Archangel in a desperate bid to defend the warship against the Brotherhood Gundam. Before blackness claimed him utterly, he remembered doing two things. One of them was keying the emergency eject button. The other was... "My name is Mu La Flaga!"

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

Shinn staggered along, moving from one stretch of cover to another to avoid as much stray fallout from the battle raging around him and above him as possible. Everything was eeriely silent because of the vacuum, despite the chaos and fury of the engagement, which lit up the sky and made the ground shake every few seconds as dozens of tons of metal and machinery were reduced to wreckage or mere debris or even less in between heartbeats, the dance of death that was Mobile Suit combat at its most intense. It was an entirely different perspective when you were on the ground, unarmored except for a ballistic flight suit and helmet, rather than sitting in the command chair of a Mobile suit. Shinn found he didn't like it, being on the ground, vulnerable and helpless to do anything but scurry around and hope nothing landed on or even nearby him. If a stray missile or munition were to strike within a dozen meters, the shrapnel alone would probably shred him, assuming he wasn't just blown apart by the explosion. Beam blasts or hyper impulse shots could reduce him to scorched meat or even just stray vapor molecules if they passed too close by, much less hit him directly. And even if he wasn't killed immediately by some chance of fate, all it would take to give him a slower, if no less sure death would be a hole or two in his already blackened and damaged flightsuit, and then he would have the pleasure of either suffocating or exploding in the death pressure and airless environment.

He didn't remember much of what had happened after he'd thrown his sword at the Independence. He didn't even know if his desperate gamble had even paid off. All he remembered was the searingly bright, hot white light, and reaching for his eject toggle and then... waking up on the Lunar surface, a goodly distance from anyplace that looked familiar, though given the extent of the damage the base had suffered, it was little wonder he couldn't locate a familiar landmark. Having half his helmet face shield scorched black and opaque wasn't helping matters, and the outer surface of most of his flight suit was a mass of dark brown and black burn and sear marks. The smell of smoke and burnt insulation padding cycled through his air supply constantly, telling him just how close he'd come to being cooked alive or even charred into an ashy cinder. As things were, he was pretty sure he'd suffered some second degree burns over his chest and arms and legs, with a bad case of sunburn pretty much everywhere else. Sweat was pouring off him, but his mouth was dry, and his suit's internal water supply was no longer functioning, which was a big problem. He was in real danger of passing out from dehydration or heat injury unless he found a way to cool down or get some fluids in him!

As pressing as that concern was though, he pushed it into the back of his mind and continued half leaping and half hobbling his way along, ignoring his own physical distress in favor of the mental distress that was consuming his every rational thought. He HAD to know if Luna was all right. She HAD to be okay! She just HAD to be... he wasn't sure what he would do if she was hurt, or worse, killed! If he'd failed to save her then... then... Shinn shook his head and refused to even consider the possibility. No, Luna was fine... she was JUST FINE, DAMN IT ALL! Damn that Ashino for his treachery... how DARE he try to hurt Luna!? How dare he try to hurt Rey!? Shinn fumed and wrestled with his rage as it threatened to overwhelm him and drive his vision into a red haze he knew would probably only lead to him passing out and perhaps even expiring, just one more cold form amongst hundreds, if not thousands already decorating the battlefield. He had to be calm and rational and self controlled, or else he was dead. Getting inside the pressurized parts of the base was his best bet... but first he HAD to know about Luna!

Shinn was thinking these and other thoughts, most concerning what he was going to say to Lain and especially Eric when he next had the opportunity, about what their "friend" had almost done to Luna, and what their insistence on not fighting had almost cost the Solar Knights, not to mention Shinn personally, when he darted around a corner to get some cover between him and a furball involving a Zealot and two Garou's, when he ran smack dab into a shorter, bulkier figure moving the opposite way around the ruined structure, trying to avoid a fracas involving a Primal and a Zealot. They slammed into each other full on, neither prepared for the impact, and Shinn went stumbling backwards for almost ten feet in the low gravity, stunned by the mass and solidity of the other man, who barely even came up to Shinn's shoulder! The other man, with a lower center of gravity, not to mention mass on his side, was barely rocked, though the impact was enough to shake loose the pistol he'd held in his hand, sending it sailing away in a long arc until it was lost from sight. Shinn rolled back to his feet, shaking his head and wincing as his burns complained about this recent mishandling, before cocking his head to regard the person he'd run into, who was watching Shinn with extreme wariness, almost suspicion, despite the fact that they were both wearing USN uniforms.

"Who are you? What unit?" Shinn demanded, suddenly finding his tongue. This was a stroke of good luck, for once! Hopefully this other guy knew where they were, and then Shinn could get his bearings properly, and from there backtrack to where he and Luna had been fighting the Independence. And maybe he could do something to help with Shinn's water problem as well. However, there was no reply forthcoming from the other man, even though Shinn knew his short ranged comm system was still working. "Hey... I'm talking to you, soldier! I'm Knight-Ensign Shinn Asuka, of the Solar Knights, and I need you to identify yourself, your unit and then tell me where the hell in Galileo we are! This is urgent!" Shinn took a step closer to the short man, wishing he could get a look at his face, just for the eye to eye contact that would assure the other man that everything was okay, but the man had his glare visor turned up to maximum, and Shinn might as well have been looking in a mirror. Shinn was in the process of stepping forward again, to put his hand on the other man's shoulder to shake him out of his daze or whatever it was that was keeping him silent, when he got his answer.

"My name is Commander Markov Ashino. Formerly of the Seventy Second Special Mobile Squadron, First USN Combined Arms Division, the Independence." Ashino watched the Solar Knight stiffen, and sighed. He'd debated lying, even though he was terrible at it, but truth be told he just didn't give a damn anymore. He was pretty sure he'd given the other two Solar Knights the slip a while back... at least he HOPED they weren't crazy or stupid enough to try following him on foot through the middle of an active Mobile Suit battle, which was as close to actively suicidal as he'd been in a LONG time, with random death looming constantly on all sides. He wished he still had his gun, but judging by the decrepit and damaged condition of this Solar Knight's flight suit, the pilot inside was probably pretty beat up too, and therefore probably not overly much of a threat regardless. "No." Ashino said pre-emptively, holding up a hand to forestall Shinn's next words.

"No what?" Shinn asked, somewhat wrongfooted by the weariness and... emptiness, for lack of a better word... in Ashino's tone. He sounded like a man who was tired to the point of collapse, but was forcing himself to push on regardless, even though he had nothing in particular to push towards, other than a stubborn obstinancy and refusal to give up once started down a path.

"No, I won't surrender myself. No, I don't want to fight you. No, I'm not a traitor to the USN, despite what your angry friend says. No, you don't have a chance of subduing or killing me yourself. Just plain no." Ashino retorted. "So don't even bother trying any of that, and save us both a headache, all right?"

"Regardless of your reasons, you are a terrorist." Shinn answered firmly. "You were attempting to assassinate the USN Secretary of Defense while serving under his command, which also makes you a traitor, and a deserter from your lawful post. You resisted arrest and damaged government property, endangering the lives of three soldiers directly and countless civilians indirectly. And now you are a fugitive, attempting to flee the scene of your crimes. As a soldier and a Solar Knight, not to mention an officer and just plain a citizen of the USN, I can't let you go free. Come quietly, or I will be forced to subdue you by force, and as I'm a trained Redcoat, that could prove very painful for you, depending on how much you struggle."

"I fought a trained Redcoat once." Ashino mused distractedly, mind momentarily in the past.

"And you lost." Shinn didn't ask it like a question. It was more of a constant assumption on his part. "You'll lose again today too, so just don't do anything sudden and put your hands on your head, all right? I don't know the full story about you, but you obviously have a serious grievance to lodge against the SecDef. Let's just do this nice and legal, okay... much better than random death on a battlefield!"

"I did lose, though it was a close fight nonetheless." Ashino admitted. His voice took on a harder aspect. "However, my heart wasn't fully in that fight, and I didn't have anything I believed in to fight for then, or anything I wanted to protect! I was just an empty, curious shell at that point in time, and I still nearly won! If it hadn't been for her presence there to inspire him, I would have walked all over him! And now... now I have someone to inspire ME, someone I have to survive for, to win against the odds in order to protect!" Ashino narrowed his gaze and stared Shinn down. "And if that means I have to walk out of here after trampling your charred body into the dust, then so be it! Let's see if you can top Athrun Zala, Knight-Ensign Shinn Asuka!" Ashino settled into a low fighting stance, ready to defend or attack as the situation demanded, taking advantage of his already small form.

"Athrun... Zala!?" Shinn asked, dumbfounded and taken aback! Athrun Zala was one of his heroes, though he'd never admit it openly! Aside from his questionable taste in women that is. If there was one good thing about Orb, it was Athrun Zala. As far as the epitome of Redcoatism was concerned, Athrun Zala was the pinnacle, matched only by Commander Ysak Joule, in Shinn's estimation. He was slowed by his reaction, and slightly hindered by his burns and general tiredness, and so barely managed to dodge Ashino's leaping charge. Ashino's fingertips just barely brushed Shinn's shoulder, and there was still enough force imparted to spin Shinn half around and make him stumble in the reduced gravity. Ashino landed in perfect balance and leaped again, maintaining the initiative, wanting to end the confrontation fast. He ignored Shinn's counter jab, which caught him in the sternum, hard, but not hard enough to do more than jolt him. Certainly, he'd suffered much worse blows in various training scenarios, or even games, while living at JIHAD, under the Doc's onus. Ashino replied with a powerful right punch to Shinn's gut, doubling him over with a wracking heave of displaced air.

Shinn goggled, even as he panted for breath and fought to recover enough to get into some kind of defensive rythym... Ashino hit like a goddamn wrecking ball! He felt like he'd just be kicked in the gut by a mule! His vision was already a bit hazy, and he could see where he'd spat bile and saliva on the inside of his helmet. He tried to put the other, shorter man into an arm lock, but Ashino just twisted free with brute strength alone, again shocking Shinn, and leaving him with a growing sense of concern. What the hell was this!? His first blow should have dropped a Natural or even most Coordinators to their knees, breathless and cradling their bruised ribs and heart! Ashino might as well have not even been touched by it, for all the reaction he'd given, and Shinn knew the punch hadn't been blocked or glanced... he'd hit solidly... VERY solidly, as his sore wrist and hand informed him belatedly. It had been like driving his hand into a heavy rubber bag filled with weights!

Shinn found himself fully on the defensive, barely able to get a short jab or kick off her and there as Ashino assaulted him with a brutal storm of body and limb blows, each one landing like a kick to the balls, hard enough to leave welts on flesh and bruise bones even through Shinn's ballistic flight suit. His body was so sore he couldn't even feel individual hurts anymore... he just felt like shit all over, and each additional blow magnified the effect, like a migraine that afflicted his entire body! Not only was Ashino strong as hell, and apparently tough as hell, he was also FAST as hell, and he didn't seem to get tired much, despite the strength and speed of his attacks and counters. Beyond all that, he knew EXACTLY what he was doing, and had obviously been trained to not only utilize his size and physical assets, but to capitalize on them to great advantage, even in a low gravity environment. Maybe if he was fully rested, uninjured and not incumbered by a flight suit, Shinn would have stood a more even chance... he felt he had Ashino in terms of reach, agility and pure speed, he just couldn't utilize it very well in current conditions. His biggest fear was getting drawn into a grapple, where Ashino would definitely be able to use his greater strength, endurance and technique to best advantage.

Ashino rocked Shinn back with a pair of bairly blocked punches aimed at his face shield, the one coming in from the blind side actually striking home, though with only a tiny fraction of its original force. It was still enough to unbalance the tall Coordinator, and Ashino only needed a moment to slip inside Shinn's guard and land first a spearing knee into Shinn's previously tender gut, and then followed it up with a full on half spin side kick that splattered pinkish bile all over the inside of Shinn's helmet and dropped him coughing and shaking to the ground, arms wrapped around his middle, out of breath and out of fight. Ashino raised one booted foot to slam down on the back of Shinn's neck, breaking the spine, or on the side of Shinn's helmet, shattering the face shield and exposing him to vacuum, but held himself back at the last moment. Shinn was a Solar Knight, and he was just doing his job, and what he felt to be personally right and lawful. All things considered, Shinn was the sort of person Ashino could have easily gotten to know as a friend and even comrade, in a more perfect world. Killing him here, like this, would be a waste and a crime, especially considering he was already disabled and no longer a threat. He set his foot back down on the ground and turned away.

"Where... d'ya... think you're going...?" Ashino stopped walking after a few steps when he heard Shinn's pained question, and looked back over his shoulder to see the Redcoat cum Solar Knight slowly pushing himself to his feet, lurching and swaying like a drunkard, but staying upright in the end. "Yer... under arrest... you're coming with me. I can't let you go.... you tried to kill Luna!" Shinn's voice grew stronger, and his posture straighter, at the mention of Luna's name. He felt the familiar rage return, as strong as ever, filling his weary body with new energy, making him feel light and quick once more. He watched the red seed fall through the vast gulf inside his mind, detonating like a fireball of epic proportions. He was the first to attack this time, landing a haymaker punch to the side of Ashino's head that snapped the Gundam Pilot's helmet sideways painfully. Shinn smiled, and drew back his fist to repeat the maneuver.

And then rapidly learned that Ashino was not new to fighting people with Seed Mode, nor unmanned by Shinn's sudden second wind. Ashino rabbit punched Shibb's throat, making him gag and choke, ruining his momentum again, and then followed up with a wind up straight jab to Shinn's sternum, an amped up version of the first attack Shinn had landed on Ashino earlier. Shinn struck back with a fist to either side of Ashino's helmet, ringing his head like a bell no doubt, before being catapulted backwards off his feet, his chest a mass of fiery pain from three seperate broken ribs and a cracked sternum. He gathered himself and turned a somersault, only to catch Ashino's flying kick right in the same place again, and this time the damage was a LOT worse! Bright blood spurted from Shinn's mouth and nostrils when one of the snapped ribs bent backwards and stabbed his left lung, half collapsing it and taking ALL the fight out of him, dropping him to his hands and knees, coughing and hacking up clots of bloody phlegm, gasping for air that was suddenly a LOT harder to get. The entire world went black and white and colorless for a few seconds as Ashino kicked him again, this time lower down, on the side of the belly, bruising his kidneys and lower intestines and sending him skidding and rolling for several meters across the moonscape.

Ashino had just bent down to pick up a chunk of rubble, to use as a tool to smash open Shinn's helmet, and prehaps the foolish head inside as well, when a shadow fell over him and he tensed up. He looked up, knowing what he was likely to see, and already reacting because of it. A Mobile Suit was falling towards them from on high, an uncontrolled crash landing by the look of it. It wasn't going to land ON them... but it was going to be near enough by that the shockwave would be... problematic... especially if one was near a building that might collapse, or wreckage that might shift or that one might be thrown into. He'd seen enough people impaled on girders and crushed under rubble while cleaning up Denver after Frost's attack, he knew just how dangerous building materials could be when combined with explosions or falls! Ashino sprinted for open ground, covering three meters at a stride, abandoning Shinn to the graces of Fate with nary a look back.

If the falling Mobile Suit, the Vengeance by the brief glimpse he'd gotten, didn't take out the fallen Solar Knight, then the internal injuries Ashino's attacks had caused would finish him up in a few hours, unless the battle ended before then and someone happened to come across him to give him medical care. He debated dropping a locator beacon to draw relief forces in, but decided he couldn't afford the risk as long as he was in the area. More USN troops would just make everything more complicated, and he might be forced to cause further casualties. Ashino jumped as he felt the ground vibrate under him, and let the shockwave of the Vengeance's impact shiver along underneath him, making the ground shake and tremble slightly, even as dust billowed and rock chips inscribed lazy arcs through the void, cloaking the crash sight from easy view. Now... how the hell was he going to get out of here...?