"Tell Destiny to standby," Talia told Abby. While the Meyrin's replacement acknowledged her order, she turned her attention toward Malik. "Take off and turn the ship toward ORB's main force,"

"What are we doing, Captain?" Arthur asked.

"Prepare Tannhauser for firing,"

"What's the target?"

Talia bit her lips a bit. "Target the ORB's main military force,"

"WHAT?" Arthur almost shouted

"ORB is our enemy, Trine, and the order to use Tannhauser against them comes from above," Talia said, using Arthur's family name to show how serious she was.

"Yes, Captain," he said while turning to his station.

"Abby, tell the rest of the fleet to synchronize missile volleys with our shot,"

After a few seconds, Abby announced, "Done. They're waiting for our signal,"

"Tannhauser's preparation complete," Arthur said.

With everyone's eyes on her, Talia took a deep breath, telling herself that what she did was for the good of PLANTs

"FIRE!"

Red positron stream began to burst toward its target at great speed while above it, hundreds of missiles were being launched, targeted at the same place as well. It was almost certain that ORB's force would be annihilated by the oncoming onslaught.

That was before an orange colored mobile suit moved into Tannhauser's firing path, transfigured into mobile suit and blocked the positron beam. Then, it moved toward the incoming missiles and erected a giant lightwave shield, stopping quite a number of them so that whatever missiles that got through could be taken down by others easily.

"What was that?" Arthur asked, echoing everyone's surprise perfectly.

"That is what I believe to be Shizuka, ORB's advance prototype," Talia answered.

"It blocked our Tannhauser easily. In fact, better than the Alliance mobile armour we fought that time,"

"Arthur, this is not the time to be impressed by our enemy. How long would it take before we can fire again?"

Before Arthur could answer, the whole ship was rocked by a large explosion.

"What happened?" Talia asked.

"Tannhauser's main barrel has been hit by a shell!" Arthur reported. He read the information from his screen before turning toward Talia and shaking his head. The hit had taken the large positron cannon out of commission for the duration of the battle.

"Then we'll have no chance to use it," she turned toward Abby and said, "Report Tannhauser's damage to the command. Tell Shinn to take down Shizuka,"

"How about Legend and Crusader? They're waiting for clearance to launch," Abby asked.

"Not yet. If possible, we want only Destiny to fight in this battle," Talia answered. During the high-level briefing that she went to with Rey, Gilbert had made it clear that it was important to show to the world that ZAFT intend to liberate ORB, not conquer it. Because of that it was decided to send only Shinn to fight as he was a native of ORB; Rey and Crusader's pilot would only fight should the need arise.

Moments later, Destiny flew toward its objective as numerous ZAFT mobile suits began taking off from their respective ships.

At that time, Shizuka's pilot was communicating with Archangel which had just surfaced from its underwater launch facility. Cagalli listened to Murrue telling her that it would be best for Archangel to engage Minerva. "No," she said as she shook her head.

"No?" Murrue asked, confused by the contradiction. "But someone has to take care of Minerva,"

"Since I think both are evenly matched, your ship and Minerva would probably run around in circles for a long time before any victor can emerge. Frankly speaking, I don't think we have the luxury to do that. Minerva is the least of our concern right now; what we must take care first is the ZAFT's flagship. According from an intercept we got, the flagship is one of the Vulgoz-class submarines,"

"So…"

"Yes. Since ORB doesn't have a strong submarine fleet and our anti-submarine capability have been hampered by previous defeats, it would be up to Archangel to fulfilled that task,"

"Understood," Murrue said while Cagalli signed off. She then said to Mirrillia, "Launch all of our mobile suits,"

One by one Murasames, in their mobile armour mode, began launching from Archangel's catapults. The second last mobile had just cleared the entrance when a single shot from a lucky ZAKU hit it and made it explode. Although the ship wasn't affected much by the explosion, it had caused the catapult system to malfunction, preventing the last Murasame from launching.

Murdoch, being in charge of the technical matters onboard the legged ship scramble to get the catapult online back. Five minutes passed but they were unable to repair it. "Why in the hell isn't the catapult repaired yet?" he screamed amidst lout clanging noises in the hangar.

"We're trying our best boss," one of the younger hands answered. There was a large boom and everything shook. A stray missile had exploded not far from the hangar.

"Even monkeys can do their jobs faster," the head mechanic groused. He then turned toward the suited up man next to him. "Hey, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in your plane ready for takeoff after we repaired the friggin' catapult,"

As a reply, the pilot silently pointed in a direction. His Murasame, transfigured into its mobile suit mode was walking toward the catapult area, forcing the technicians nearby the place to flee for their live.

Murdoch went to the nearest com set and contacted Mirrillia. "What the hell are you thinking, ordering the Murasame to go to the catapult?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked back as a frown appeared on her face. "Aren't you the one who will tell me when it's okay to tell it to launch? I'm still waiting for the go-ahead. So when are you…"

"Huh?" he mumbled as he terminated the communication, without waiting the other person to finish. Murdoch then dialed the Murasame which was just moving in front of the catapult. "Flight 51-A," he began calmly, "what the fuck do you think you're doing, you bastard?"

"Launching," Neo or rather Mwu's voice crackled back cheerily.

"What the hell… I don't care if you're Neo or Nero, but no one's getting off until we fixed the pad,"

"That's what you say," Mwu said as his Murasame began to sprint toward the exit.

By then Mirrillia had sensed that something was wrong and had joined in the conversation. "Colonel," she said, minding his rank, "what are you doing?" She grimaced as Archangel was rocked by another explosion.

Murrue who overheard some of the conversation turned her attention toward the CIC station.

"Keep the launch bay door open," Mwu said.

"Neo, launching right now is impossible!" Mirrillia insisted.

"Relax and watch. I'll show you how I make the impossible possible," the former Phantom Pain officer drawled as his mobile suit's sprint became faster. "Besides, the green horn that was supposed to pilot this thing doesn't look that skillful to me. I kinda thought that every trained pilot from ORB is at least on par with the kid when he started flying," he continued, referring to Kira when he began piloting Strike in the last war.

Murrue's eyes widened, shocked at Mwu's comment. All possible doubts regarding his not remembering his past vanished when she heard his next comment.

"Since I'm not a mobile armour pilot anymore, can I expect you to go out with me, Captain?" he said, switching the connection to Archangel's main bridge.

"Only if you return," Murrue said, barely restraining her emotion.

"A very motivating answer. Well, then, see you later, navigator" The Murasame reached the end of the hangar and jumped out of the ship. It then reconfigured into mobile armour mode and sped off toward the battle raging over ORB's sky.

The Archangel's captain felt her eyes moistened. "Mwu, you idiot. Please be safe," she whispered


The place wasn't the epitome of comfort but to the hundred plus civilians sitting inside it, they couldn't care less. They're more worried about their safety, and as the room shook from time to time, they shared concerned glances. Few of the children broke down and cried, confused and scared of the distant but loud rumbling sounds that took place from time to time and their parents were trying their best to comfort them.

A boy around eight years old looked at his crying friends and then turned toward his father. "Why are we here and what is that loud sounds?"

"We're here because bad people are attacking our home again and if we stay here, we'll be safe," his father replied.

"Why?" the question was simple, but yet profound.

"Because we haven't learned to accept each other," his father replied after thinking.

More and more people began to listen to the conversation.

"Then, do we have to move somewhere again just like the last time?"

The father shared a look with his wife who then put a hand on the boy and smiled. "No, this time we don't have to go away. Our representative will protect us and chase the bad people away,"

Grinning, the boy pumped his fist in the air. "When I grow up, I want to be ORB's representative so that I can protect father, mother and everyone!" he announced confidently.

Every adult in the room watched the kid with wonder before they broke into a cheer. The boy had reminded them that as long as they persevere, dark times would eventually come to pass. Besides, their representative was out there, fighting for them; they couldn't lose.

And fought for them she did as Shizuka, in its mobile armour mode, fired off several high energy beams at Destiny. Cagalli briefly wondered how ZAFT managed to design prototypes that obviously use a lot of power but still comply with the Junius Seven Treaty prohibiting the use of nuclear reactors and N-Jammer cancellers in mobile suits. She didn't know at that point of time only ORB was fielding a totally conventional mobile suit forces and she was fighting a nuclear-powered mobile suit.

A high energy beam blast from Destiny's M2000GX forced her to refocus on the battle. She then saw Destiny activating its Wing of Light to chase her. Resolving not to let herself lose at the hand of the ZAFT invaders, Cagalli inadvertently entered into SEED state as she began going through several loops to throw Destiny off its back.

The sudden change in his adversary's skill level caught Shinn off guard as his attack should have found its mark. He did try to chase Shizuka but Destiny's less-than-aerodynamic design slowed it enough that Shizuka managed shake him off by entering into a group of clouds. Shinn didn't see that as a major setback because Destiny's radar was keeping track of it.

That situation changed when the radar suddenly registered multiple targets, all at different coordinates.

At first, Shinn was alarmed, but when the radar showing a Destroy unit 2 kilometers behind his mobile suit, he finally understood what had happening. The ORB mobile armour was using some sort of device to mess up Destiny's radar.

He saw a flash from the cloud and moved Destiny out of the way as two beam shots passed by. When Shizuka appeared, Shinn aimed Destiny's M2000GX at it but the targeting computer couldn't get a lock. Infra red sensors seemed to be working perfectly, but with the low heat signature being emitted by the battery power prototype as well as the high heat generation by his own mobile suit, targeting using them would be quite difficult unless he switch off the Wings of Light. Doing that would almost cripple his mobile suit.

Shinn quickly reprogrammed the computer to switch to manual targeting. Fighting the ORB's prototype would be more difficult than he thought.


Like giant leviathans rising from the sea, four ZAFT Ash units began moving toward the shore, their objective was to destroy the geothermal station just a mere two kilometers inland. With their clawed feet allowing them greater mobility on the beach and no hostile mobile suits in sight, there was nothing that could have stopped them from achieving the goal. With the geothermal station out of the way, there would be no backup power supply for ORB once ZAFT capture the main nuclear reactors; that would deal a severe blow to the nation's defense. ZAFT would have sent airstrikes to destroy it but the reconnaissance data collected showed the place was heavily defended by anti-air batteries. With all Phase Shift armoured mobile suits being assigned to assist with the main attack, a surprise land attack was needed to destroy the power station.

The four mobile suits continued moving, not wanting to waste any time. Then, the leader stopped as a Murasame came into view, smoke trailing from one of its engines. Realizing that it didn't pose any threat to them, the quartet resumed their journey as the Murasame crashed into the sea behind them.

Unknown to them, there were people watching their movements, waiting patiently and quietly. After the Ashes have just covered 500 meters, one of the pilots saw some movements on the ground in front of them. The movements turned out to be tunnel doors being opened as ORB's SAPPER infantry, armed with their anti armour rockets, appeared, took aim and fired. Once launched from their tubes the rockets moved toward the four Ashes, their onboard targeting systems making minute adjustments to their respective flight paths.

With no CIWS to destroy the rockets or the jump packs to escape to the sky, the ZAFT mobile suits tried to evade the missiles by changing their path. Their efforts were similar to beached squids trying to escape from preying gulls; it was futile. The rockets hit their knee joints, one of the least armored parts of the mobile suits, and exploded. When the explosions subsided, the Ashes had collapsed to the ground, immobile and helpless.

The defenders had no time to celebrate as more Ashes emerged from the sea, eager to take revenge for their fallen compatriots. Without the element of surprise on their side anymore, the ORB soldiers had to take cover as missiles from the Ashes' GMF22SX missile launches began raining their position.

A few minutes later, a communiqué burst caused Kisaka and everyone at the ORB's headquarters' moral to drop slightly. ZAFT had managed to destroy the secondary power station. Knowing that they had no time to dwell on what had happened, he quickly ordered more reinforcement to be brought to the main power generation site.

Nash Jackson, who was part of the reinforcement that was ordered there wasn't happy with the order. "We're supposed to be the heroes, not the end-level boss, right, Mr. Snookum?" he said to a small lion plushie on his seat. "This is boring," Because of his skill, Nash was trained to specialize in anti mobile suit dog fighting. Thus, he didn't feel comfortable being relegated to protect 'important assets'; he prefer blasting them to pieces.

"Commander," his wingman said, "I must remind you that this place is very important to ORB. If it's knocked down…"

"Yes, yes, I understand," he said. "We get to sleep without any air conditioner tonight and with your tropical weather, I'll be roasted by morning,"

"They're coming," someone else interrupted as multiple hostile began appearing over the horizon, preceded by multiple missiles aimed at the power generating station.

"Great. Now I feel like we're in Missile Command game," Nash said as his Murasame raised its beam cannon. "One with lowest scores buys lunch for everyone else!" he hollered to his people. "…if everyone don't buy the farm, that is," he said to himself.


It was first detected by a radar detector onboard a Vulgoz-class submarine who first thought that it was a giant missile. When the computer had identified, the commander onboard ZAFT's flagship St. Helens was immediately notified. Instantly, a flight was directed to take it down. They were quickly destroyed.

One of ZAFT's biggest threats, Fallen, the mobile suit borne out of its own research, had arrived on the side of ORB.

Two ZAFT mobile suits approached it from behind, wanting to take advantage of the fact that the mobile suit would have to slow down to turn toward them; even if it tried to execute a spin, they would be able to keep it busy. Thus, it was to their shock when Fallen, not even changing its vector or turning, reached for its MPG 252 beam machinegun stored on its back, and fired at them. An observer would later remark that Fallen had eyes on its back. The statement was quite close to the truth as Fllay didn't need to turn her mobile suit toward her target in order to attack and instead rely on the view provided by the back cameras that was shown on the helmet mounted display. That approach to providing 360 degrees view was more elegant than the one used on Destroy which had to use multiple displays to form a panoramic display.

With no normal ZAFT mobile suit daring to pursue it any more, Fallen approached the site where Destiny was still fighting Shizuka. The ZAFT prototype, clearly having an edge against the battery operated Shizuka was about to slash the mobile suit into two with its Arondight sword when it was blocked by Fallen's twin Saittenwaffe short beam swords.

"What, no cool sounding greeting?" Cagalli remarked, switching to an unencrypted channel so that she could communicate with Fallen.

"I'm not here to impress you. I understand why you're here instead of being at the base Cagalli, but remember that it can backfire,"

"Yeah, I know," One of the reasons why Cagalli insisted fighting alongside the rest of the ORB armed force was to motivate it. However, she acknowledged the fact that should she be killed in the fight, it would have a devastating impact on its moral. "Somehow I believe that someone will bail me out in the end. And you did, which is just as well since Shizuka's power is running low,"

"I'm floored by that vote of confidence. However, you should head to the base to coordinate the incoming reinforcements,"

"Reinforcements?"

"He's coming," Fllay said simply while Fallen brought up its shield to block Destiny's CIWS.

Cagalli knew exactly what she meant. "It's a bit embarrassing to say this, but please take care of this for me," she said as her mobile suit changed mode and left the place.

"So I was fighting against Attha herself, huh?" a male voice invaded Fallen's communication channel.

"That you did," Fllay said as she prepared herself. Despite Destiny stopping from attacking, she didn't want to take the chance in case the pilot was trying to trick her.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did she fight?"

"I don't know the real reason. One thing's for sure, you're attacking her country,"

"I am trying to prevent the country from being destroyed," Shinn insisted. "I once lived in this country before it got wasted in the previous war and although now I'm with ZAFT, I don't want that to happen,"

"How do you intend to do that?"

Shinn was surprised by the question. He had expected some kind of retort to his statement. "If I can demoralize them enough, then we don't have to fight,"

"I see,"

"That's all what you wanted to say?" Shinn asked incredulously. "Aren't you supposed to chide me, calling me a hypocrite for attacking my own country or say that my way of thinking is wrong?"

"I can't do that, ZAFT's pilot. You being here is proof enough that you believe what you're doing are right. However, I'm also here because I believe in my own reasons," Fallen engaged its Plume de Lune and charged at Destiny.

"She's fast," Shinn thought to himself as he engaged Destiny's Wings of Light to propel it toward his opponent. The Mirage Colloid being spread by the system created multiple illusions of the mobile suit, confusing both Fallen's visual and radar, forcing it to resort to using its swords to defend. The two clashed swords once again, with Fallen having to use both Saittenwaffe to hold Destiny's Arondight. Shinn had considered using Destiny's Palma Fiocina but doing so required him to relinquish Destiny's pressure on Fallen. Despite it being a bit stronger than Fallen, he had no illusion that if he eased the pressure, Fallen would take the opportunity to break the blockade and kill him. "So, there's no convincing you to hold back?" he asked.

"No,"

"Very well," he said. His pupils began to expand he inadvertently triggered his SEED. Once more his mind becoming clearer as his senses perceptivity increased. Even as he entered such state, he could feel that something was different with him. Unlike the previous situation where his thoughts were filled with intense desire to kill his enemies, his current thoughts had none of those; only sound strategies to defeat the opponent in front of him.

Destiny pushed its sword to the side, suprising Fallen and caused it to veer past Destiny. Quickly it switch Arondight to the left hand, deployed its mega cannon and fired it at the gunmetal black mobile suit, knowing that it would evade, most probably to his left. His prediction came true and Fallen came into the position where he can stab it with Arondight easily.

However, the subsequent even that he predicted didn't happen. Fallen had simply moved out of Destiny's stabbing range. It was then Shinn had noticed that Fallen had deployed its wings, which somehow reminded him of Freedom's HiMAT. Unlike Freedom's which seemed a bit restricted in movement however, the wings on Fallen seemed to be movable.

All that didn't matter as Shinn beginning to plot for Fallen's downfall. Destiny's Wings of Light came to live again and he chased after Fallen, subconsciously going through numerous iterations of what Fallen would do. To his confusion, although its pilot kept doing the same thing that he predicted, he still couldn't land a hit on it. It was then he noticed what was wrong.

To test his observation, he threw Destiny's two beam boomerangs at Fallen, calculating their angles and speed so that Fallen would have to defend against them instead of moving to the spot where he could shoot her easily. Shinn got his unwanted answer when Fallen swerve to evade the first one.

Although it was poorly armed, Fallen was at least as fast as Destiny. Perhaps it has something to do with the mobile suit's wings moving.

Knowing that he could be at a considerable disadvantage the longer the fight dragged on, Shinn resume his attack just as Fallen was about to evade the the final beam boomerang, wanting to close the distance as much as possible. He could clearly see how Fallen's pilot had notice him coming and began to take countermeasures. Throttling the Wings of Light to the maximum, Shinn prayed that his gambit would be successful. There was a large flash as the two clashed.

"You almost got me there," Fllay said as Fallen's Saittenwaffe had barely from slashing up its chest. "Sadly, you haven't understood why I can evade your attacks, do you?"

Shinn was puzzled when Fallen's wings folded to the front. It was then he found the real answer just a fraction before the main screen became black. Instinctively, he guided Destiny to move away from Fallen, hoping that the damage to the main camera wasn't permanent. Even if it recovers however, Shinn wasn't sure that he could beat Fallen, not alone.

He had thought that the movement by Fallen's wings, which was similar to flapping, was solely intended to intimidate Fallen's opponents. The truth was that the wings weren't flapping; instead, they changed position to redirect the main thrusters' direction to maximize acceleration and deceleration. That as much explained why Fallen was able to fly backwards as fast as flying forward.

Before he could dwell on how to defeat it, the threat alarm went off, telling him that his opponent had attacked. Only knowing that the attack came from the back, he tried to escape, all the while jinking to the left and right. The screens had finally began to show the outside view and he could see beams shots left and right of him as Fallen kept firing its beam machinegun. He didn't dare stopping or change direction though, as it would require him slowing down, something that could be fatal.

Suddenly, the firing stopped. "Are you all right, Shinn?" Rey asked.

"Yeah, I guess,"

"We're here, so we can work together to defeat it,"

When Destiny turned toward Fallen, Shinn could see that Fallen was facing Crusader and Legend. There was a slight damage on its right shoulder

"It has some sort of laminated or reflective armour," Rey commented. "The beam shot is supposed to destroy that part,"

"But that means it probably doesn't have any Phase Shift armour," Shinn observed.

"Projectiles can hurt it," Crusader's pilot, whom Shinn have yet to know her name, commented. "That means it could be defeated easily,"

"Don't be an idiot," Shinn snapped. "It's like a cockroach. Sure it looks weak and puny but don't underestimate it,"

"Then what do you think we should do?" Rey asked.

"It is fast. Very fast. Doesn't have the firepower though. As long we attack it together, watch each other's back and don't be a goddamned hero, we'll eventually corner it," he said, wryly noting that it was almost the same thing what Athrun had told him when they fought Freedom. It showed him how much he had changed.

"Very well. We'll follow your strategy,"

For the first time since she arrived at the battlefield, Fllay found herself being forced to go on the defensive. With Plume de Lune already operating at Level 2, she couldn't increase Fallen's speed anymore without risking melting away its PS-less armour; not that it really mattered. The expansion caused by the heating would affect its joints as well, leading to loss of operative capability. As long as they operate in the atmosphere, no mobile suit would able to surpass mobile armours and their weaker fighter jets brethren when it comes to speed alone.

Despite that, Fallen was still faster than other mobile suits and by that virtue alone did Fllay managed to prevent Fallen from being turned into a very expensive scrap metal. An alarm went off, surprising the flame-haired pilot. While she was fighting the trio to gain an opening by taking Crusader out of commission, they had quietly arranged for missiles to be fired at her, taking advantage of its vulnerability to conventional weaponry. Letting out a silent curse, she stopped from pursuing her prey and tried to put as much distance as she could from the missiles.

That was difficult because the projectiles' robotic brains were programmed to be persistent and chase after her, making it clear to her that they were more threatening than the trios and their beam weapons. She took care of any missile that got close enough with Fallen's CIWS but more and more missiles blotted her display screen. ZAFT had spared no effort in taking her down; if they weren't concerned with possible crossfire they would have sent more mobile suits as well.

She destroyed three more missiles and would have destroyed more if not for a single beam shot that she had to block. It served its purpose well as Fllay was distracted long enough for the missiles to close in to her mobile suit.

When the first missile began exploding against Fallen, Shinn watched it with grudging respect. The traitorous mobile suit had proven hard to handle. It even stopped him from killing Representative Attha and brings ORB's resistance to an early end. To his chagrin, Fallen emerged from the explosions intact, although it was in a pretty bad condition. Fallen descended uncontrollably to land below.

"I'm going after her," Crusader's pilot announced as she engaged her mobile suit's boosters to attack. Strangely enough, the normally calm and collected Rey followed suit, probably wanting to make sure that Fallen would be destroyed.

Shinn would have let them be but then he saw some metal chunks coming off Fallen. It turned out the mobile suit's auxiliary armour had protected it to some degree. "Be careful, it may be a trap!"

Rey acknowledged his warning but Legend and Crusader still gave chase.

Meanwhile, Fllay struggled to gain control of her mobile suit's flight system which had been damaged by explosions. It was futile as she wasn't a Coordinator and reprogramming mobile suit's computer wasn't her forte. Besides, the computer indicated that the failure was caused by a hardware and not software. Before she could plan on her next move, she caught sight of the two ZAFT mobile suits approaching, Legend from the right and Crusader from the left.

A compartment door underneath each one of Fallen's wrists popped out, revealing three knife-like objects inside them. Fallen's hands then reached for the compartment on the other side, grabbed them and threw them at Legend and Crusader.

At first, they flew toward the two mobile suits unassisted. Then, the rocket motors inside them came to live and their tips began to glow.

"Block them!" Rey warned out to his colleague as he finally realized that they were almost similar to the pikes mounted on his DRAGOON unit were designed to penetrate most armours and shields.

Both Legend and Crusader brought up their shields just in time. One of the rockets pierced and damaged Legend's left MX2200 shield generator while the other two passed by harmlessly. Unfortunately for Crusader, all three rockets found their marks, incapacitating its right arm and damaging its knee.

"BITCH!" Crusader's pilot cursed as she wanted to pursue Fallen again only to be stopped by an explosion that rocked its chest. When the explosion abated, she saw a white blur passed by.

At the same moment, Fallen kept descending toward ORB's land at terminal velocity. Fllay had already exhausted all available methods get her mobile suit to fly again and knew that even though Fallen's gyroscopic cockpit will absorb some of the damage, the crash would probably kill her. Just as Fallen was about hit the ground, she felt it began to slow down. She turned her head and her view changed to show a white and blue mobile suit supporting hers. A small delta shaped object was also visible in the distance.

A small smile appeared on her lips. "You're finally here, Kira," she whispered as she closed her eyes tiredly.


1
Author's note (10 August 2007)

1. Some may wonder why Fallen could only be kept in check by three Gundams whereas Strike Freedom was stopped by two in GSD. While I would be happy to answer questions on this, please consider these propositions first.

a) Kira in GSD is trying hard NOT to kill Shinn and Rey. Doing that would take a lot of skill. It's like trying to defeat a machine-gun wielding enemy with a pillow. Of course, Kira in this story isn't that much reluctant to get rid of them in order to protect the peace, but he isn't as powerful either. Think of him as an experienced GS Kira. GSD Kira who doesn't mind killing would too powerful. It's the story balancing, which is quite natural.

b) Fallen is fast. Unlike the maximalist design taken by LOGOS, ZAFT and Terminal, Confeds use the minimalist design, meaning less weapons and armor for Fallen to ensure that it's fast. Think about a tank (which is quite fast) trying to hit a faster Humvee with its shells and you'll see what I mean. Also, just because Humvee's armor is quite thin in comparison, doesn't mean that it can't destroy a tank, right? Firepower isn't everything.

2. Shizuka, in this chapter underwent through two equipments. Also, notice that there's no mention of it glowing unlike the one in 'ORB's whisper,' Unlike Fujin which generates plasma to absorb beam shots, Mikaboshi have a radar jammer as a countermeasure.

3. I would like to thank Warboy the Destroyer for his help in technical military information.

4. For more information on SAPPER, please refer first chapter.

5. Shinn in this story is somewhat like Athrun in GSD, he became unsure of what is he doing. (minus the moping). I somehow think that this is what the director had in mind in GSD. Oh well, I get to do it then.

6. I know the fight scene is quite long as usual. Since I visualize all fights and pretended I see the anime, I found myself unable to skimp on the action. Then again, I wouldn't skimp on other important scenes as well.