Author's Note: Now, in this chapter, I think, is the biggest curve/screw ball that the system could throw at any Player-type character.

Phase 16

Pirate Base (New Artemis) Personnel Quarters

Norba was laying across his new bed in the base assigned to him by Yuri, or as the crew had taken to calling him, "Pops". Normally the young man would have been happy for such a large room to be all his, but the severity of the situation was starting to weigh on him.

They had assaulted ZAFT forces, and been marked as pirates in the eyes of the PLANTs. He didn't care all that much about them. they had been the ones to attack first, and there was the fact that they had probably killed hundreds when they had attacked Heliopolis. When he had seen the devastation for himself, he'd been horrified. And then he had fought them in his Gundam. His Calamity Ryusei Go had torn through them like they were nothing.

Now they had successfully attacked and taken over an Earth Alliance asteroid base. Now, not only were they the enemies of the ZAFT forces, but of the Earth Forces as well. [This is feeling way too familiar.] He thought. [I think something like this happened in my old world,] he frowned, and rubbed his eyes. Marika had informed the crew of Heero's slow memory loss, and how it would soon affect the entire crew. [Maybe forgetting what happened in my old life is be a good thing...] he sighed, [but something feels like its going to go horribly wrong.]

The bell on his door beeped, "Norba, are you in there?" Said a soft female voice.

A voice that had Norba sitting up right away, "Mai?!" He found himself grinning, "Yeah, come on in!"

The pink-haired girl came in barely a second later. "Um, hey?"

"Hey," the boy nodded, "Everything alright?"

She nodded, "Yeah, the Archangel just departed for the debris belt like the Captain suggested," she said before taking a seat on his bed, "Commander Yuri is breaking in the new recruits, and I guess the captain is..." she frowned, and sighed.

The young man nodded, "Yeah, I get it." He sighed, "Mom puts up a good front, but she's not fooling anyone."

Sending off the Archangel with her daughter on board had obviously not been an easy task. She had sent her off with a hug and a kiss, and the Archangel had departed with her. After that, the woman had thrown herself into repairing the base. It had only taken a day, but the quirky System had pulled it off, and the New Artemis Base was much different.

And then there was the fact that she had accepted the new ship that the System had awarded her. Yuri was already painting it with his old nation's colors, mostly green and black. Not at all what Norba would have painted it.

"So," Mai said hastily, "Congratulations on being promoted," she smiled at him, "Lieutenant Junior Grade already, and I hear that she's having a new Mobile Suit built just for you!"

Norba sighed, "Yeah, I guess I should be happy," he frowned, "But something tells me it's gonna be a lot harder from this point." He rubbed the back of his head, "My memory's really fuzzy about my old life, but I think I did something like this back then, and that's what got me - "

"Don't say that," the girl grasped his arm tightly, "I know that this new Era is brutal, but the captain is kind and takes care of us like family." She said, shaking her head, "Everyone from your world is so kind, and Commander Yuri is like a dad to everyone. Even if we have to fight sometimes, we - "

Norba smiled at her, and gripped her hand, "Hey, I'm not saying I'm gonna die." He said, "I just have a bad feeling."

Mai nodded and shyly leaned her head against his shoulder, "Just promise me that you won't get hurt."

Norba laughed, but said nothing more as the pair remained together.

ガンダム

Pirate Base (New Artemis) Mobile Suit Hangar

Ride Mass frowned as he looked up at the Gundam-type Mobile Suit that Kid was working on. The unit, Exia was what it was supposedly called, was mostly white, and blue in some places. The frame and armor was mostly complete save for a few remaining pieces on the left arm and leg.

"What'cha think?" Kid called down from the Gundam's shoulder, "A real beauty, ain't it?"

Ride gave him a small look of annoyance, "How's it compare to the Strike you worked on before?"

Kid shrugged, "No limit on battery power," he said, "It's mostly a close combat type, but it does use have a rifle to equip when needed."

"That's not what I meant," Ride frowned.

Kid just frowned right back at him, "You upset about something, Ride?" He asked, "If you wanna know, this Gundam's going to be put in the front lines." He said, "If you want a super powerful, mega weapon of some kind, then I'm afraid the only one that fits that description is the one Heero's piloting." He jerked his thumb over toward the machine in question.

Ride frowned at it in envy. The blue and white machine was being painted as they spoke to match the machine that Heero had once piloted in his home Era. The Wing Zero, or whatever it had been called. Ride couldn't really recall. Which was partly the cause of his sour mood. He was forgetting about his home Era himself. Just like Heero and everyone else that had been dragged to the Cosmic Era.

Forgetting his old home wasn't so bad, he would admit that he liked the Cosmic Era better because there was no such thing as Human Debris, but the fact that he was forgetting the people from Tekaden that hadn't been brought over...

[Biscuit...Orga...Mikazuki...] He sighed as he turned away from the Gundam, [Stupid system...] He thought back to when Marika had tried to bring Orga to them at his request, but they had ended up with Yuri Kellerne, a good guy, and a decent pilot, but not who Ride was hoping for. If anything, Yuri's appearance had been a lucky break for the woman since the man had taken an instant liking to her.

"Hey, Kid!" Shouted another newcomer as she floated over to them, "When you get done with this one, the boss-lady says she want's you to take a break for a while."

Kid looked down at her, "Ah, come on, I've barely started!"

"Not my idea, Kid," she said with a shake of her head. "Talk to Mom."

Kid groaned and pushed off from the Gundam to float down beside her, "Alright, but I've still got a few hours' work to do on this thing." He said whilst wiping grease off of his hands. "I can have a few of the others help, but it's still gonna be around eight hours."

Pala frowned as she looked up at the Exia he was working on, "Well, maybe you guys should go ahead and call it a night?" She suggested, "I mean how many of these things do you have to build?"

"Not counting this one?" He asked with a jerk of his thumb, "We've finished three so far, so I'd say nine more after this Exia is done."

Ride looked at him, "Three? Are you serious?"

Kid nodded, smiling happily, "Yup, we've got the Kyrios, and Cherudium done, and we've got one of the Virtues ready for use."

"Have they been assigned, yet?" Ride asked excitedly.

The younger boy shrugged, "No idea, but I think the boss is gonna be making a few announcements tomorrow...so I guess we should call it a day." He sighed in clear defeat, "Man, I at least wanted to get one of the Exia's ready for combat!"

Pala slung an arm around his shoulders, "Three complete Gundam-types is nothing to sneeze at, Kid, be proud of that."

ガンダム

Pirate Base (New Artemis) CO's Quarters

Marika sat back at her newly acquired desk in her lavish room, her mind heavy with thought. Her conversation with Heero a few days prior had rattled her greatly. Heero Yuy was one of the strongest willed characters she had ever knonw from any Universe. To see him break down and beg her to let him go him was almost too much for her to take, especially since she couldn't help him.

Of all the people she had brought to the Cosmic Era, Heero was picked purely for his skills with a Gundam, and his combat prowess. The fact of the matter was that she hadn't realized until too late that she could be hurting them through her actions. Yuri and her boys were one thing, Yuri had been betrayed and murdered. And the young boys of the Post Disaster Era had been treated as nothing more than slaves because of their "whiskers". But Heero had been one of the rare Gundam pilots that had come out of his war and lived a good life.

Even Amuro Ray hadn't been able to live a full life beyond being a Gundam pilot, and died in his final battle against Char Aznable. Both of whom she had considered bringing in, but the volatile state of the Red Comet and his rivalry with the White Devil was something she didn't want to deal with. Plus Char was manipulative, and she didn't want to take the chance of him taking over, and harming her crew.

[I've done the best that I can so far,] she sighed as she contemplated what to do next, [If things move in a similar way to how the original story was supposed to, then the Archangel should encounter Lacus Clyne soon, and then they should meet up with the Earth Federation fleet...my god that was a massacre...] She hung her head tiredly.

The bell on her door chimed, "Miss Hoshino, can I come in?" Asked a young female voice.

"Come in." Marika nodded, glad of the distraction as the door came open to reveal Yamagi's little sister Fuka Uno. "Good evening, Fuka," she said as the girl came in, "Can I help you with something?"

Fuka had come from the Post Disaster Era of 330, so she was a seventeen year old girl with dirty blonde hair, and warm brown eyes. "I just thought that I'd come by and see how you were doing." She said, "Even after coming all this way, and finally catching up to her, you didn't get to spend much time with your daughter."

Marika smiled at her, "That's sweet of you, Fuka," she said as the girl stood next to her desk, "If I were to tell the truth, I would readily admit that I wished to have had more time with her, but this Era has a slight schedule that needs to be kept in order for things to go smoother than they have." She sighed, and rubbed her forehead, "But in all honesty, I doubt things will go smooth at all from this point on."

"Why?" Fuka found herself asking.

Marika frowned, "My daughter's Gp Base is a device that has several Universes worth of technology on it." She said, "And now someone almost as bad as Rau le Creuset has it, and is probably going to spread that technology all over the place before making Orb a massive military target...well, more than it already is." She said.

Fuka frowned, "Didn't you say that this Universe was a little different than you remembered?"

"Only slightly, Dear," she nodded, "First of all, Rhondo Sahaku was never supposed to board the Archangel, but then again, he was supposed to have escaped in the Astray Gold Frame." She frowned, "And Mars was only supposed to be surrounded by colonies, not be terraformed as a habitable planet."

"What about this base?" Fuka asked, "You seemed surprised that they had Gundams stored here."

"I was surprised," Marika relented, "I'm not sure where, but the Hyperion series were stored in a different Eurasian facility."

The girl smiled, "Then maybe things won't be as bad as you think?"

Marika sighed as she smiled at the girl, "No, sweetie, with Sahaku no doubt about to sell that information on the Gp Base, things will get a lot worse for the Cosmic Era."

ガンダム

Pirate Base (New Artemis) CO's Office (The Next Day)

Kid's info was as good as anyone could have hoped as Marika called Yuri and her original crew into her office the next morning bright an early. Ride was eager to find out if he was going to be able to pilot a Gundam soon, but the serious look on the woman's face brought his high down.

On either side of her were Yuri, and Eugene, her two XOs as far as the crew went, both of them looking grim. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I've called you in here so early in the morning," Marika sighed, "And the answer is that I'm assigning you all new roles to fulfill both here, on the Neo Zeon, and the Black Pearl."

"We're splitting the forces?" Norba frowned with a glance toward Mai.

Marika noticed the way his eyes moved and gave a small smile, "Just for a short time." She said, "Because thanks to a mishap concerning my daughter, somethings in this Universe will become more difficult."

"So," she stood with a data pad in her hand, "First thing's first. You all know that there are new Gundams to be assigned." The pilots all began to grin and chatter, "And those Gundams will be assigned to this base, or the Neo Zeon."

Yuri stepped forward, "Three Gundam pilots will come with me aboard the Neo Zeon," he said as the boys all grinned, "and I'll also be taking some Cosmograspers with me. So keep your helmets handy."

Marika nodded as she held up her data pad, "Ride Mass," the boy jumped, "You're promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade, and are assigned to a GN-001 Gundam Exia." Beside him, Lafter smacked his shoulder, and grinned, "You're also being assigned to the Neo Zeon."

Yuri stepped forward and gave him a slip of paper, "Report to the ship, and get your things out of the locker assigned to that number."

"Lafter Franklin," Marika called out as the girl gulped. "You're staying here on the base, and will be also be assigned to an Exia." She smiled at the blue-eyed girl, "You're being promoted to Lieutenant Commander."

"YES!" She pumped her fists and grinned at her bear of a boyfriend, "In your face Akihiro!"

Akihiro grinned at her and flipped her off. Eugene laughed at the pair of them. "Alright, settle down you two." Marika giggled. "Alright, next up is Hush Middy, promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade, assigned to Exia."

"Yes, Mo-er-Ma'am!" Hush saluted, stuttering.

"You're also staying on the base," she had a twitch in her eye at the near slip, "Danji Enrei, your promotion's going to be a bit longer, but you'll receive the fourth Exia." Marika said, "You'll be on the Pearl whenever she goes out."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"There's a total of five Exia, but we'll keep one of them here as a spare unit until we can get more." Yuri said.

"Next up, Kusuha Mizuka," Marika smiled at the blue-haired girl, "You're rank will stay at Lieutenant Junior Grade for now, but you will be assigned to the GN-002 Gundam Dynames, one of the long-range units. You'll be assigned to the base."

"That's fine by me, Mom."

"Call me 'captain'," the woman ground out amid snorts of laughter. "Aston Brothers, step forward."

Akihiro, Masahiro, Aston and Derma stepped up to the front of the crew. "With the exception of Akihiro, all of you will remain as Ensigns until further notice," she said, much to the disappointment of three of the boys, "However, I'm glad to announce Akihiro's promotion to Lieutenant Commander - "

"HAH?!" Lafter shouted, "How come we're the same rank!?"

"In your face," Akihiro repeated with a grin on his face.

"Excuse me, love birds," Marika half-shouted at the pair, "Would you two like to settle this now, or would you prefer to have your new Gundams assigned?"

"Gundams, please," Derma piped up.

"Good choice," Yuri chuckled, "Akihiro, you'll be another member on board my ship."

"And the Gundams you and your brothers will be piloting are the four GN-005 Gundam Virtues we have," Marika said, "Kid already has one put together for you Akihiro, so you'll move out as soon as the ship is ready."

"Okay."

Marika smiled at her last member on the list, "Norba Shino, I'm promoting you straight to Lieutenant, and assigning you to a more advanced sniper type Gundam." She didn't miss the look of dismay on Mai's face, "GN-006 Cherudim Gundam is special unit because it takes two little Haros to help you manipulate the shield and rifle bits. You'll be assigned to Commander Kellerne. Mai Kobayashi, I'm assigning you to the Neo Zeon as their cook. Any objetions?"

Mai beamed at her, "No, Ma'am!"

"Softie." Yuri muttered.

"Hush, you." She smacked him with her pad. "Yuri, Pala Sys will be one of your Cosmo pilots, along with those four boys you took from the personnel of the base."

"Right," the burly Commander smiled at her, "You've all heard your orders, so get your shit together and rendezvous and the Neo Zeon."

"Dismissed." Marika said as the crew began to file out.

Eugene looked back over his should, "I'll tell Kid to get the rest of the Gundams finished." He said before the door closed.

Marika sighed as she returned to her chair, "This is going to be a disaster."

"Nah, not a disaster," Yuri shook his head whilst grinning, "Cluster fuck, maybe, but not a disaster."

The woman snorted, "You have the worst timing for your idiotic jokes." She smiled up at him, "Are you really up for this? Going against these people is not gonna be easy."

"No," Yuri agreed, "but I think it's going to be necessary...you do wanna let these kids stay here when this is all over, right?" He smiled at her as Marika nodded slowly, "I...just wish I could..."

She reached up and grasped his hand, "This game is cruel...if I could, I'd disconnect and put it in the closet." She frowned, "But my daughter's happy here...and I don't even know if we'll be allowed to stay."

"We just have to do what we can for now." Yuri said with a frown, "By the way, what have you got Heero doing?"

Marika shook her head, "He's taking time for the moment," she told him, "With everything that's happening with his memory, he's understandably shaken up."

Yuir frowned, "But don't we - ?"

{Alert! Alert!} Both adults yelped as the system popped up in front of them with the blaring sound of an alarm as well as red flashing lights.

"What the hell?!" Yuri shouted.

"Do you have to keep doing that?!" Marika shouted angrily.

{Apologies, but the System is now sending Mobile Doll enemies into the game!} The hologram shouted, {This was not supposed to happen in this game play!}

"Mobile what?" Yuri asked.

Marika was growing pale, however, "Mobile Dolls! They're unmanned Mobile Suits that were present in Heero's Universe. They were powerful machines that even managed to give him trouble at one point or another."

"So just take out the one controlling them." Yuri said, "Cut a puppet's strings and it can't do anything."

Marika frowned as she looked at the hologram, "But there's no physical puppeteer, is there, you holographic bimbo?"

{No...}

ガンダム

Author's Note: Not gonna lie. I forced this chapter out, so it's kind'a terrible. But it's a set up. 00 Gundams are on the rise, and we have Mobile Doll-type enemies coming at the characters. Now we're not talking Leos, Taurus' or anything else from the A.C. verse, I'm talking some real monsters like the Hashmal making an appearance.

Anyway, crappy-ness aside, I hope future chapters are well enjoyed.

Adios Amigos!