Armored Seed

Chapter 37

Orb's Last Stand part 1

A/N: Just so everyone knows this chapter takes place roughly a week after the previous one so that no one gets confused. Also thank you everyone for your reviews as they help give me incentive to keep writing.

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-Orb Military Command Center-

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The primary command center for Orb's military was almost completely abuzz with activity. For the past several hours there had been sightings of dozens of Atlantic Federation naval ships along with a several Armsforts that bore the logo of the Omer Science Foundation. There were at least three or four Eclipses in the group plus a number of Giga Bases acting as artillery support. To make matters worse, the Atlantic Federation had brought the entire Third and Fourth fleets to bear down on them.

The strangest detail of all however was that in the middle of the two fleets was what appeared to be an almost exact copy of the Archangel. The only thing that appeared truly different about it was that it was that it had a much darker coloration to it. Of course since most of the Archangel's weaponry was housed within and came out of exterior hatches when needed, it was still too soon to tell what kind of weaponry it was capable of wielding.

So far the Atlantic Federation had not sent any word as to what they were doing in Orb territory or what they were planning on doing but it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were most certainly not here for peaceful reasons. What they wanted from Orb was still to be determined at this point although there were several military analysts who already had a number of very plausible theories regarding the matter. All hails that had gone out to the Atlantic Federation fleets had gone completely unanswered.

By now, almost everyone in Orb's government and military was fearing the worst possible scenario. The Atlantic Federation was there to try and take control of Orb's mass driver. With the Panama and Alaskan mass drivers destroyed, the Atlantic Federation had no way to send more soldiers and supplies into space. While they technically could just rebuild the mass drivers, it would take several months if not years to rebuild a single one. Time that the Atlantic Federation did not seem to have. And that was not even going into the money that would be required to rebuild them.

In the center of the command room was Izumi Attha who had already surmised the Earth Forces intentions: take over Orb's Mass Driver, by whatever means necessary. Sure they would probably try diplomacy first, as a formality of course, so that way they could at least claim that they tried to use reason. But when that failed they would use far more heavy handed measures to get what they wanted.

So in response, Orb had scrambled their First and Eighth fleets and the Archangel to help with the defense in the event that things went south. However this would only prolong the inevitable as there were simply too many of the enemy forces and there weren't enough of them for a long term battle. In the end, they would probably end up being overwhelmed by numbers.

Chief Representative Uzumi Attha was broken out of his thoughts when one of the command center's staff - one of the people who had been trying to contact the massive Atlantic Federation fleet if he wasn't mistaken - looked up from his console and shouted "Sir, we're finally getting a message from the Atlantic Federation Fleet!"

Uzumi looked at the man and said "Put it on the main monitor." Maybe now they could finally have a chance to resolve this little incident before it grew to be any more disastrous than it already was. The main monitor turned on and the face of the leader of the Atlantic Federation appeared on the screen. Muruta Azrael. The man had a relatively neutral expression on his face but Uzumi could see that the corners of his mouth straining not to tug upwards into a smug grin. Uzumi hated that man, the sheer amount of arrogance he generated was almost nauseating to just look at. Deciding to ignore all pleasantries considering the circumstances, Uzumi looked the man dead in the eye with an almost damning glare.

"President Azrael what is the meaning of this? Why have you brought this fleet to Orb? You know that we're a neutral nation and therefore bringing an entire fleet of warships is a direct breach of international law!" While most people would consider something such as breaking international law a very big deal, Muruta showed nothing but disinterest towards the accusation levied at him.

For a moment Azrael just examined his fingers for a moment in disinterest before looking back up at Orb's Chief Representative "As you probably already know Chief Representative Attha, the Mass Driver in Panama was recently destroyed along with the one in the JOSH-A headquarters. Therefore the Earth Forces require another means of getting into space and since it would be very difficult for us to get reinforcements into space, we were hoping that you would allow us to use the Mass Driver for the foreseeable future. If you don't well…you're a smart man I'm sure you can figure out what will happen if you don't." Azrael's smug look had returned full force at that point.

Uzumi's eyes narrowed "Orb has made it very clear that it will not take any part in the war between the Earth Forces and ZAFT. If you do not leave Orb waters immediately we will consider this as an act of aggression." The warning didn't even seem to really faze Azrael at all. If anything he seemed almost, amused. "Very well, it seems as though we will have to take it by force. I truly am sorry that it had to come to this."

The communications broke off and Azrael's smug face was replaced by a blank screen. Within seconds alarms started to ring throughout the command center. One of the men manning the sensor array turned to look over at Uzumi and one of the Orb military commanders that were present "Sir the AF carriers are launching Spearheads and the Eclipses have already started making their way towards our coastal defenses!" he declared.

'So it's finally happening,' Uzumi thought, knowing that eventually Orb would have been dragged into the war between ZAFT and the Earth Forces whether it liked it or not. It was one of the reasons that he had commissioned the original Gundam prototypes in the first place. Better to have some at least one ace up the sleeve should war break out than none at all. Unfortunately it seemed as though they didn't have much of a chance in this battle. The new Astray units were still in the prototyping phase and they wouldn't be ready for mass production for at least a few months time. Time that Orb simply didn't have.

"Order the Archangel and the fleets to get ready for hostile contact, they need to hold the line for the time being." Uzumi ordered all the while trying to think of some way to get his homeland out of this situation.

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-Archangel Hanger-

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There were many things that were going through the minds of the crew of the Archangel. The most prevalent of which was anxiety. True they were no longer strangers to seemingly unwinnable battles considering what they had gone through since Heliopolis but this time their backs were literally to the wall. At this point Orb was their last sanctuary and if it fell, they pretty much had nowhere else to go to.

In the hanger, all pilots that were ready for battle had already gotten themselves into their machines and were awaiting the order to launch out onto the battlefield. Just about everyone was either very calm or were hiding their anxiety as best they could. At this point in time each and every last one of them had been in a large scale battle before at some point or another whether or not their "christening moment" was before Heliopolis or sometime after it.

Unfortunately certain members were unable to remain completely composed. Kira was in his cockpit and although he wasn't shaking or sweating as much as he used to when he was first starting out, he was still very nervous in regards to fighting. Despite this though, anyone was able to tell that he was much calmer about the whole situation than he used to be.

Inside of his new mobile suit Kira was brought out of his anxiety when he heard a rather entertaining conversation come over the communications channels between Mu La Flaga and the original pilot of the Lucifer, Nathan Fletcher. "Commander La Flaga I hope that you realize that while I am reluctantly allowing you to use my recently repaired Armored Core I feel the need to make sure you understand that any damage done to it will come out of your bank account."

Ever since Nathan had last left the Archangel with Flay, Mu La Flaga had started to use the Lucifer's simulation unit in order to get a better insight on how to properly pilot an Armored Core. Needless to say, Nathan wasn't entirely pleased with how someone had decided to go into his AC's simulation program without prior permission and had half a mind to severely berate the Commander for going behind his back to learn how to properly pilot an armored core.

However when Nathan finally managed to calm down somewhat; he was willing to admit (albeit reluctantly) that Mu piloting the Lucifer would have some advantages that would inevitably help with whatever battles that were to come. Of course that wouldn't prevent Mu from not being financially responsible for whatever happened to his machine if it were damaged in battle. Now he was going to make this abundantly clear to the man.

For a moment everyone was silent before Mu gave a very nervous response "You're uh, you're kidding right?" he asked nervously. In a deadpan voice Nathan gave a very simple response "No." Kira could almost picture the dejected look on Mu's face when he heard that response.

"I hope you realize that I'm not exactly receiving much in the way of income at the moment,"

"And I hope you realize that I simply do not care. You're still financially responsible for whatever damage my machine takes in the time that you are piloting it. There are no excuses in the matter. You will just need to find a way to raise the money if it gets damaged." With that there was a series of chuckles from many people of the comm. channels. Mu could even overhear members of the bridge like, Sai, Kuzzey and Mir letting out small snorts of laughter. The ones that overshadowed the entire group though were Drake and Adams who were outright laughing at Mu's little predicament.

Even as Mu tried to sputter out some kind of response to that little bit of information, Fiona Jarnefeldt's voice came over the comm. channels "Alright everyone cut the chatter and get over to the launcher, we've just officially gone into combat!" she declared. With that having been said everyone started to line up at the Archangel's launching unit.

Within moments of each other they were shot out of the former Atlantic Federation mobile suit carrier and into battle.

The second that they were launched outside of the Archangel Kira saw for himself just how big this battle was turning out to be. The sky was almost completely filled with Atlantic Federation Spearheads and Orb fighters dog fighting hundreds if not thousands of feet above their heads.

AF Spearheads were light and very agile but they didn't really come with all that many armaments other than a couple of missiles and machine guns. The Orb fighters however had better weapons and armor. Then there was the fact that most of the Spearhead pilots had much more combat experience than the ones from Orb, which would put the Orb fighter pilots at a very big disadvantage when it came to long term engagements. The only thing that the Orb fighters had going for them for the time being was sheer numbers but even then that may not be enough.

Within moments Hackett's voice came over the comm. channels "Drake, Adam I need the two of you to provide covering fire for the fighters, start taking out as many of those damned Spearheads as you can. Cross, you, Li and Mu will provide groundside support, the rest of us will engage the enemy fleet directly!"

With that having been said, the group went about their orders. Drake and Adam headed for the nearest hillside which would give the two pilots a much better vantage point of the battlefield so that they could switch their tactics accordingly if they needed to open fire on the enemy ships.

Even though the Atlantic Federation had brought two large fleets with them, so far there only the Giga bases and the Fourth Fleets were engaging the Orb forces while the Third Fleet and the Eclipses were staying far back in reserve. This struck Hackett as strange. Why wasn't Azrael sending in all of his forces? If he did that then he could easily overwhelm Orb's defenders. Why was he waiting like this? Azrael was many things but he wasn't stupid, there had to be some kind of a strategy behind all of this, but what was it?

Hackett brought himself out of his thoughts when he saw that he was getting closer and closer to the Atlantic Federation naval fleet. As soon as the Jaguar got within range of the enemy ships it opened fire with its shoulder mounted missile pods. The missiles impacted several of the main guns on one of the warships, effectively taking it out of the action even as some of the other ships attempted to open fire with some of their CIWs at the armored core. Fortunately the near lightning fast movements from the Jaguar's thrusters were more than enough to keep them from getting a decent shot in.

The leader of the Black Skulls could see that the pilot of White Glint was doing the same thing that the Jaguar was doing, albeit at a much greater speed than his armored core could ever hope to mimic. Andreas was also targeting the guns of the enemy warships. Given that like Hackett, he didn't have enough rounds or missiles to sink ever last one, he decided to target the primary and secondary batteries of the enemy warships. If they were unable to do any damage to the Orb navy then they weren't much of a threat. The Gundams that Kira and Nathan were piloting though, were all but decimating the enemy ships.

The weaponry that the two mobile suits used was almost unreal. It was like someone had taken the firepower of one of the much larger Armsforts like the Spirit of Motherwill (if Motherwill had beam weaponry that is) and shoved it all into one small, yet insanely destructive package. The railguns and beam cannons that the two mobile suits carried, all but obliterated whatever they touched.

It actually made Hackett somewhat jealous. Those Gundams could pretty much curb stomp just about anything aside from a small army or other Gundams while he was stuck in the Jaguar. That wasn't to say that Hackett would trade the Jaguar for anything though. Ever since he had started using the machine, he had grown very much attached to it despite it being made from slightly older parts it still handled just the way he wanted it to. Of course that also did not mean that he still couldn't be a teeny bit envious of some of the advantages that the Gundams had over his machine.

Hackett also noticed that Nathan was sticking much closer to the Archangel than he normally did during combat, which wasn't to say that he completely left the ship undefended, far from it. Instead it was more like he was intent on staying close by to make sure that nothing happened to the vessel and to ensure that any unfriendly missiles were shot down if they headed for the ship.

The reason was not that hard for Hackett to grasp. It had to do with a certain meeting with Uzumi Attha a couple of days ago that he and certain members of both his staff and that of the Archangel. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

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-Two days earlier, Uzumi Attha's office-

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Hackett and the rest of his command staff plus the ranking officers of the Archangel had just been called in for some sort of meeting with Uzumi Attha himself. The messengers who had been sent for them hadn't even told them what it was about other than it was "extremely important" and that even they weren't sure what it was about. Well whatever this whole thing was about it was clear that Mr. Attha considered this little meeting important enough that he had to get physical messengers to tell everyone rather than just have someone call them up using electronic means.

When they entered the office of Uzumi Attha they soon discovered why that was.

Sitting right across from Orb's Chief Representative was the daughter of PLANTs now deceased Supreme Council Chairman, Siegel Clyne as well as someone who looked like some kind of priest. Hackett had noticed that the one who was the least bit surprised by all of this was Nathan, which meant that he probably knew that she was already in Orb but he obviously hadn't expected to find her sitting in Uzumi Attha's office. He also seemed to recognize the old guy with that was with her. This explained why he spent so much time away from the Lucifer while they were in Orb, or most of it at least.

The first person to speak was Murrue Ramius, "I beg your pardon Chief Representative; but just what is going on here?"

Orb's Chief Representative let out a bated breath and told them the same story that had been passed to him through Lacus and old guy (who soon introduced himself as Reverend Malchio). Apparently Lacus was sent to the orphanage under his care as a precautionary measure by her father for fear that more radical members in the PLANT's government would try to use her as leverage against her father. That gave the man's story that the leader of one of the more radical factions in the government, Patrick Zala was behind the death of Siegel Clyne a little more credence.

Even though everyone could see the political reasoning behind it, it was still pretty difficult for everyone to digest. Supreme Chairman Clyne dies at the hands of what could be an assassination plot by the Earth Forces. As a result Patrick whips the PLANTs' into a frenzy for vengeance, the more radical faction of ZAFT takes all but complete control over the civilian government giving him much more power than he had as just the Chairman of Defense.

But that begged the question, why would he want that kind of power? Did he want to use more drastic measures to end the war? Maybe but to murder one of his oldest friends to do so? Patrick Zala was already in a very favorable position to win the upcoming election for the seat of Supreme Chairman, all he had to do was wait a couple of months. It was a much safer choice as Siegel Clyne's popularity had gone down significantly in the polls while Zala's was rising at a steady pace.

While the group was reasonably skeptical of these claims, Uzumi Attha was not. In fact he seemed to have taken it as utter gospel when one considered what he said next "I want you to take Miss Clyne aboard your ship and keep her safe for the foreseeable future."

At that point Raphael asked "I beg your pardon Mister Attha but wouldn't Miss Clyne be more safe with this man than on a military ship. After all given the Archangel's current track record it is possible that she may be put in harm's way more often than not while here she can remain safe in anonymity."

Uzumi let out a stress filled breath "I am aware of that. However the fact of the matter is that many members in Orb's military agree that the Earth Forces will most likely make a move to try and coerce us to allow them to use Orb's Mass Driver considering that they just lost the last one in their own territories. When that happens we will remind them that we are a neutral nation and that we want no more part in this damn war. The only reason we cooperated with the Earth Forces during the Heliopolis incident were only to have them assist us in creating mobile suits for ourselves not for them. After refusing them, it will only be a matter of time before Orb falls to the Earth Forces. When that happens nowhere will be safe for Miss Clyne."

When Uzumi said that last bit, Hackett noticed that Nathan's hands clenched into fists and that his eyes had narrowed considerably. While he didn't say anything the message in the boy's actions were clear; he would kill

anyone who dared to so much as lay a single hand on that girl.

"Before Orb does fall however, I ask that the Archangel and its crew take the ship along with my daughter to space. A couple of days ago I received a message from one of Siegel Clyne's supporters that he had information that would prove to be very important, that may change the course of this entire war and I informed him that I would arrange for several representatives to meet him. I want you to be those representatives and do whatever you can to end this war."

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It had been a tall order to be sure but Hackett and the other members of the Black Skulls had also been promised one hell of a payment in return. Sure while they still had a sense of right and wrong, the Black Skulls could not fund their organization on that alone. Weapons, supplies, personnel, none of those were free. They had to pay for them and doing work like fighting against someone was the best way to do it.

Of course after the war they would be hard pressed to find work but Hackett was sure that they could work as a private security force or something. After all a mercenary group helping to end a war was a rarity and could provide them with some very positive publicity. Perhaps they could even do something along the lines of weapons testing for the Orb military. Hackett let out a small chuckle as he thought of some of his crew's reactions to such a job offer. Cross, Nathan and Li would probably end up being content but Drake and Adam would be absolutely ecstatic to test new destructive weaponry for Orb.

Hackett brought himself back to the present. He didn't get to where he was now because he counted his eggs before they even hatched. Right now he needed to focus on the task at hand.

The Atlantic Federation fleet was already starting to fall back towards the relative safety of the much larger fleet that was nearby. Nathan and Frost were both already taking shots at the retreating ships, not wanting them to regroup with the main force and become an even greater threat.

While several of the ships continued to be gunned down Hackett couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong here. Soon the group heard Fiona's voice over the comm. channels "Everyone listen up, the Archangel's sensors just picked up something underwater near White Glint's location. Whatever this thing is, its enormous and its heading straight for the surface!"

Large waves started forming on the water's surface a short distance away from the spot where they were currently hovering over. It was obvious that there was something making its way up from underneath the water and judging by the size of the waves, whatever it was, was huge.

Instinctively the pilots of the White Glint, Jaguar, Freedom and Seraph all flew upwards to a higher altitude to avoid whatever was coming up out of the sea. Soon a shape appeared on the water's surface, it had a metallic smoothness to it. Soon, more and more of the machine became visible. At first the group had any idea what to make of what they were seeing but as more of the machine emerged from beneath the surface of the water almost everyone recognized what they were looking at.

It was the Armsfort Stigro!

The Stigro was a recently developed Armsfort that was made in a joint venture by the Omer Science Foundation and the Interior Union but other than that not much was known about this particular variant. Things like its weaponry, speed and armor were almost completely unknown to the group. There had been unsubstantiated reports that it was capable of incredible speed despite its massive size. However that had to be very unlikely as the levels of speed in which was described at going at were completely unbelievable for something of that scale.

Still though it was probably best to just destroy it now than to find out later. Hackett was about to order Kira and Nathan to open fire on the Armsfort when a very familiar voice came over the comm. channels "How typical. All those slimy politicians make their 'calls to arms' in the name of 'justice and peace.' tch, The whole thing makes me sick." It easy to hear the contempt and disgust in the man's voice. "I'll sink every last one of them to the bottom of the ocean."

The Ravens in the group immediately recognized the voice. It was Otsdarva, the ranked one Raven.

Anyone who had worked knew those who worked in the Raven circles, had all heard of Otsdarva. he had managed to make it to the number one rank in the combat arenas in a single season and he had never once failed a mission no matter how impossible it might have appeared. Ever since the man had made his debut, Otsdarva had quickly built up quite the reputation for being incredibly arrogant towards other Ravens and would even look down on whoever he was working with at the time. Despite these flaws he was still a very much feared and somewhat respected Raven pilot for his skills and rate of success

"You ready Fragile?" Otsdarva asked, to which an empty, almost robotic voice responded "Preparations complete, ready to begin mission." There was a brief chuckle on Otsdarva's end "Hmph. Good to hear, now move out!"

To be continued.