Phase 8: Orb
The Zala team was having a meeting in a submarine carrier just outside of Orb's territory.
"This announcement is nothing, but a pile of crap!" Yzak slammed the response letter from Orb down on the desk.
"I can't believe they're actually telling us that the Legged Ship has left Orb territory," Dearka stated.
The complaining of Athrun's friends was being lost in the room as he was wrapped up in his own thoughts. I know the Legged Ship is there. It went into their territory and never came out. The fact that Cagalli is the Chief Representative's daughter is all the more reason why they would have let them in. And the Archangel and Strike were built by Orb in the first place.
"That's their solution? They're treating us like complete fools," Dearka continued despite Athrun's lack of concentration.
Athrun still couldn't believe who Cagalli was. He thought of her as strange for a girl; but her being a princess, made her even stranger. Things are becoming more and more personal with that ship. First I was just fighting against Kira, but now Cagalli… I doubt she'll be allowed to remain with the ship when they leave Orb, so there's one less thing to worry about.
"Maybe it's because we have a raw Commander," Dearka joked as he could see Athrun wasn't paying attention.
"Dearka!" Nicol said trying to keep the peace.
"That's irrelevant," Athrun finally joined in.
"Huh," everyone responded simultaneously.
"But unfortunately you can't deny that this is Orb's official response. So you can complain all you like about how they're a bunch of liars, but it's not gonna change the situation that we're in." Athrun spoke firmly.
"Say what?" Yzak exclaimed as he was standing right in front of Athrun, while the other two were sitting further back.
"If we forced our way in, it would only turn into a diplomatic scandal," Athrun informed.
Yzak smirked and then put his hand on his hip. "Your analysis is impressively rational Athrun, oops Commander Zala," Yzak mocked.
"Hold on there, are you saying that we have to accept their word and just leave?" Dearka spoke from the back of the room.
"We'll ask Carpentaria to apply some official pressure; but if there's no quick resolution, we'll sneak in," Athrun stated slyly. "Does that meet with your approval?" He asked sarcastically.
"Oh; to pinpoint the ship's location, right?" Nicol asked.
"Yes because whatever the situation is, our opponent here is a sovereign nation. We can't take any hasty action against it without evidence of some sort."
"Look, we can just force our way in," Dearka suggested. "We know the ship's there."
"This is nothing like Heliopolis," Athrun tried to explain as he closed his eyes and thought of Kira and Cagalli. He was struggling to stay focused and keep them from his mind. He couldn't understand how the blonde he barely knew had made such a big impact on him. "The size of their Forces, and I don't have to tell you how advanced their military technology is. Officially, they're neutral; but behind the scenes, they are a cause of great concern to us."
Yzak gave a sly chuckle, "I'll go along for now; but if it were up to me, we'd be forcing our way in." Yzak walked past Athrun toward the door. "I can't disagree with the son of Committee Chairman Zala, now can I?" Dearka got up and caught up to Yzak. "Well sneaking in sounds fun too and there's always the possibility that I'll finally get a chance to see the face of the Strike pilot," Yzak said with an evil smirk as he turned his head back to look at Athrun.
The thought shocked Athrun to his core. He hadn't thought of that. He now wished that he hadn't mentioned sneaking in. There's nothing he could do about it now. All he could do was hope it wouldn't happen. He didn't want to imagine what would happen if his team who were professional and sometimes ruthless soldiers, met face to face with an unskilled Kira or even Cagalli. Especially considering that Kira damaged the Duel during their descent to Earth, giving Yzak a horrible cut and scar across his face.
Athrun could now feel some turmoil inside him busy stirring up.
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Myrna rushed over to the Archangel when she heard the Princess had returned. Myrna had been Cagalli's caretaker since she was a baby. Much to Cagalli's displeasure, her caretaker had come with a suitcase full of dresses. The older woman knew that Cagalli would be against it so she tried to compromise and only brought dresses in her favourite colour, green. The women tussled for a bit, but as usual, Myrna won.
"Uh I can walk on my own," Cagalli grumbled as Myrna held Cagalli's hand and escorted her down the hallways of the Archangel. Cagalli hated dressing up and being treated like this.
"But you mustn't," Myrna refused.
Cagalli was wearing a mint green dress with a pale green sash from her left shoulder, across her body and tied down at her hip. The dress flared out into frills and was matched with pale green heels. Her hair had a green ribbon on either side of her face, pulling some of her hair back; allowing view of her gold and red jewellery.
The crew all started gathering in the hallway gawking at Cagalli in her formal wear, she wished the floor would swallow her whole. It got worse when Kira and his girlfriend Flay joined the group. The red haired girl gave Cagalli dirty looks for having Kira's attention. Cagalli looked away, she didn't know what this girl's problem was and why she would always try to separate her and Kira. She couldn't understand why the girl was always giving her attitude either. One thing she did know, was that Kira could do better.
Myrna had escorted Cagalli off the ship, out of the military base and into a limo. Cagalli sadly sighed to herself as she was sitting watching the scenery change. As dangerous as it was out in the world, she really enjoyed the freedom. Cagalli loved her father, but she didn't like the obligations that came along with being the Princess of Orb. She didn't want to come back; but she felt like she had to protect the Archangel, no matter what the cost. She began remembering a similar conversation that her and Kisaka had when they had just left the desert to join the Archangel.
"Cagalli," Kisaka called as he chased her down the hallway of the Archangel."I haven't said anything to anyone. Stop bugging me about that, okay.""As long as you don't tell.""But if something bad happens then I think I should.""Cagalli.""I can't help it. I understand the circumstances; but something tells me that I have to stay here, to protect this ship and its crew members. You know, it must be the guidance of Haumea."
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It was now day break as Athrun, Nicol, Yzak and Dearka climbed out of the ocean onto a cliff and removed their scuba gear.
"Athrun Zala the Le Creuset team," Athrun introduced himself as he shook a mans hand.
"Welcome to the land of peace." The stranger handed Athrun and his teammates each an envelope, "That ID will get you into area one of the factory, but after that there's a system in place that checks for specific personnel data. I wasn't able to get anything more detailed on such short notice. And don't over do it, okay; I don't want any fuss. I'd rather let the beast keep on sleeping."
Athrun and his team had changed into Orb military overalls and now had to walk from the beach, through a rather large, inclined jungle. They finally reached a cliff where they could see over Orb's military base and part of the capital city.
As Athrun looked down on Orb he remembered his encounters with Cagalli. From pinning her down and almost killing her, to their argument in the cave that lead to her throwing his gun. Her words were now echoing in his head, "My name... my name is Cagalli Yula Athha." He closed his eyes and sighed. He spent all those hours on the island trying to get her to trust him and now, he was invading her nation yet again. Maybe she was right to want to kill him. He reluctantly started walking down the one side of the mountain with Nicol, while Yzak and Dearka went down the other side. As long as he was still breathing, he had to first follow his duties as a ZAFT soldier; no matter how much it went against his morals and feelings.
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Orb had agreed to provide the Archangel with shelter and assistance in repairing their ship, if they agreed to have Kira help them in their OS development. They wanted their mobile suits to have the same capabilities as the Strike. Chief Erica Simmons of the Orb military, was escorting Kira to Orb's mobile suit hanger.
Kira was shocked that Orb had mobile suits and at how many they had. Cagalli stood listening to Kira and Miss Simmons talk about the machines and it reminded her of what Athrun had said, "It's also a fact that Orb declared itself neutral and then built those things at Heliopolis!" He had indeed changed her view of her nation slightly. "Now you see the true face of Orb, the so called neutral nation," Cagalli piped up from behind Kira and Erica.
"Cagalli," Kira said surprised. He hadn't spoken to her since he found out who she is and he was surprised at how bitter she sounded towards her country.
"This is the M1 Astray, constructed by Morgenroete for the Orb military," Erica informed Kira.
"What does Orb plan to do with them?" Kira asked as he was seeing a whole new side to his homeland.
"What do you mean?" Erica asked amused.
"They're to be Orb's protectors," Cagalli answered as she walked over to where the pair were standing. "You know this, don't you?" she asked before reciting Orb's ideals to him. "Orb will not attack another nation, will not allow another nation to attack them and will not intervene in the conflicts of other nations." Cagalli said sounding as if she were bored and had recited it a hundred times. "This gives us the power to guarantee that. That's the kind of nation Orb is. At least; the kind of nation it was supposed to be, until my father betrayed it."
Kira's jaw dropped as Erica kept defending Lord Uzumi and Cagalli kept trashing him. Erica eventually indirectly called Cagalli ungrateful and stated that she had deserved more than a smack on the cheek for her actions the day before.
"Hey!" Kira said as he didn't appreciate Miss Simmons' statement about his friend.
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