Next move.

Hey all Here is the newest chapter hope you like it. Also I realized I have been forgotten to add a second N to Shinn's name and have fixed it for this chapter and will try to fix the others. Any way on with the story.

On the Minerva. Which was now on the earth.

Arthur's eyes widened as Talia gave him the news. "You cannot be serious! How could any of that even be possible?"

The two of them were in her office; she had just summoned him to convey the news from intelligence they had received.

Talia sighed "I know it's hard to believe, but it's the truth. Both the Alliance's Atlantic Federation's Pearl Harbor and San Diego naval bases were both attacked during the night, and it was the Gundams that did it."

If they publish a new edition of the dictionary, I expect to see a picture of the Gundams next to the word 'bold', she mused, In truth she was impressed.

Arthur shook his head. "But… but the sheer distances involved… how would they have even done such strikes?"

Talia nodded. "I certainly can't argue with you on that, but the reports are all to clear on the matter. It's already having a considerable effect too. Alliance forces are breaking off. If I had to guess, I'd say they're returning home to defend what they have left from future attacks. The enemy will still have a considerable presence, but it will be reduced, and I have no doubt the Council will take advantage of that. In fact, they've already begun to do so."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"I just received orders from them a little while ago," she replied, "They're accelerating the plan; the Minerva is to launch in 1 hour."

"And our course?" asked Arthur.

"It is the same," said Talia, "They want us to break the enemy's hold on the Suez Canal. We won't be going alone, either, both the Nyiragongo and the Whakaari will be with us."

"Two of our best and most powerful Vosgulov-class ships," said Arthur, "The Council's serious then."

Talia nodded. "Indeed. Get to the bridge and make sure we are prepared to launch. I'll join you shortly."

Arthur saluted. "Aye, Captain!"

Meanwhile

Out on the observation deck of the Minerva, Athrun stood alone as he looked out over the sea. The morning sun in the sky.

He felt like he did in his earlier days of ZAFT. ''The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose.'' he thought.

Defending the PLANTs up in space that was one thing, but now, down here on the earth, he had a chance to go on the offensive. There's a lot to be done; I'm sure Dead and the others have left plenty of the enemy troops to fight.

Word had spread through the ship after Wufei returned the attacks on the bases at Pearl Harbor and San Diego. While much of the crew thought the very idea of two attacks as bold as those was impossible,

Athrun could not help but shake his head in a combo of both amusement and envy. The world reminded of the brutal application of the power of Gundams, the plan had Dead's name all over it. "I swear he is the most wild boy I have ever met."

As shocking as the raids were, though, Athrun knew that it would take more that to bring this war to an end. But he knew Dead was aware of that.

After meeting and working with Chairman Durandal, though, and seeing what ZAFT and the PLANTs under such leadership was capable of, Athrun was wondering what he had planned.

Athrun could tell Dead and the others tell don't trust the Chairman.

Athrun was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of the door opening behind him. He looked to see Shinn Asuka come out onto the deck.

"Oh," said Shinn, "Your here. I'll go somewhere else."

Athrun called out. "You don't have to go. If we're going to be fighting alongside each other, we should try to get along."

Shinn gave him a skeptical look. "Really? I thought you didn't like me because I called out your Chief Representative."

Athrun sighed. "Look, if you can refrain from insulting her like before, I think we can work things over. I know you hold her responsible for the deaths of your family, and while I think you're wrong I also know that nothing I say will convince you otherwise. So why don't we both agree to disagree for now and leave Cagalli out of this, all right?"

Shinn nodded. "All right."

Shinn joined Athrun by the railing. He still seemed wary of Athrun, but at least he didn't want to pick a fight.

"So," said Athrun, trying to break the tension, "that was your first time being at Carpentaria back there, right? What did you think?"

Shinn nodded. "It was interesting."

"That's right," Athrun replied.

"Were you there during the last war?" asked Shinn.

"I spent some time there," Athrun replied, "It's actually grown since then."

"Why do we even need bases on earth anyway? I mean the PLANTs are in nation; we don't need a presence on the Earth." Said Shinn.

"Well, look at it this way," Athrun replied, "We are now at war again. Having some fortified positions set up on the earth will help us in our campaigns. Also, the more we fight down here, the more resources the Alliance is then forced to devote to its time to drive us off the earth. That means they have less manpower, supplies, mobile suits and more going to their fleets up in space."

"But can't it also go the other way to?" Shinn asked, "If we're defending bases here, then that's less manpower, supplies, and mobile suits for our fleets"

Athrun nodded. "I never said that there was not going to be any trade offs. You do have a point, but it's a price that we need to pay in order to maintain a balance of our forces on Earth and in space. It helps to give us a lot more strategic options, not to mention more flexibility.''

"That's only because of that damn treaty," Shinn said, "Now that we are now at war, the treaty is now completely useless, the Alliance proved that when they tried to kill us with nukes! now can boost our numbers, what we should be doing concentrating all effort to our space fleets."

Athrun nodded. "That is true the Treaty of Junius Seven was flawed, but look at what happen in the last war, there was no treaty regarding the size of any armed forces on wither sides, and we had less ranks then the Earth Alliance. Now that we're engaged in conflict, I have no doubt that both the Defense Council and the Supreme Council have moved to transition the PLANTs into a war economy. That means we have more resources to our forces, while greater numbers of troops will be brought in. That does not change that we can never hope to match the forces of the Earth Alliance when it comes to numbers. Hell, the forces of the Federation by themselves already outnumber our forces. We may have stopped their first attack, but that doesn't change the fact that they still have far larger armies and fleets than we do."

Shinn just sighed. "It's just not fair damn it!"

"I know," said Athrun. "But this war is not about fair. It's about doing what we can with what we have to win. The deck's stacked against us, but we still have cards to can still fight."

Shinn nodded, with a look of pure determination on his face. "We have to.''

"Yes," Athrun replied, "and if we're going to beat them, that means we need to keep our skills sharp. So, why don't we head down to do that?"

Shinn just raised an eyebrow. "You mean go through simulations?"

Athrun smiled. "Sure. We need to pass the time somehow"

Shinn just smiled after that. "Sounds good to me." He said as the two of them headed inside.

Meanwhile.

The commander of Phantom pain Neo was looking over his extended soldiers. When a doctir cae in.

''Are they read?' Asked Neo.

''Yes they will be only just a few minuets.'' Said the doctor.

Back on the Minerva.

"Damn it. He beat me again!" Shinn said as the simulator screen went black.

Ever since they started training Athrun kept beating Shinn. Tho he knew he was good.

''I need to get stronger'.' He thought.

"That's enough for now. Let's take a break." Came Athrun's voice.

Shinn nodded and got out of the simulator. Athrun did the same, and Shinn saw Lunamaria and Rey standing outside; they'd been watching the two of them on a monitor.

"You were really going at it," said Lunamaria as Shinn and Athrun approached.

Rey nodded. "You both did great."

Shinn smiled. "Thanks."

Athrun nodded. "That was a good round. You're improving. Just remember that fighting down here is not the same as in space; you need to account for atmospheric conditions, and the gravity."

"Right," said Shinn.

"We all do," said Lunamaria. "Good thing we've got pilots with us now who are experienced in combat down here."

"Yes," said Rey, looking up at the Altron Gundam, "Now we just need to make sure that we all work together."

Shinn also looked and saw Wufei in the hangar deck looking over his Gundam, as he refused to let anyone else do so. Shinn could still not bring himself to like or trust the independent fighter, even if he was willing to fight alongside him.

"We'll be fine," said Athrun as he looked at Wufei as well, "Wufei tho not a member of ZAFT like us, is one of Dead's friends and has already proven his abilities, I trust him."

Rey folded his arms. "Personal friendships aside, that does not change the fact that he is still not one of us, he is a outsider, and an unpredictable one. We can't fully trust him."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "Hey, where's this coming from, Rey? Sure, Wufei can be a bit much, but he's not a bad guy. He's helped us out quite a bit since he joined up with us, so doesn't he deserve some benefit of the doubt.

"we cannot forget that Wufei's allegiances is not to ZAFT or the Minerva. He and the others made it clear. We should see him only as a temporary ally, even an expendable one, and use him."

"Did you say expendable? What the hell, do you hear what your saying Rey? You sound like one of those damn Alliance officer, talking like that! None of us are expendable, and that includes him!"

"I don't mean I see him as cannon fodder," Rey said, "He is far above the skills of pilots in either the Alliance or ZAFT. I admit that his abilities surpass those of even the elites on both sides, myself included. He is useful to us, but we should not blind ourselves to the fact that he is not one of us. He is an ally, nothing more."

"He's more then just an ally. He's a friend! God, I just I can not believe you… ugh, you know what, just forget it!" Said Lunamaria as she walked away.

Unbeknownst to the ZAFT pilots, Wufei had heard every word they said. Sharp hearing was a must-have for any true Gundam pilot, he could now hear Lunamaria approaching him.

"Can I help you?" Asked Wufei.

She gave him a very wary look. "Did you hear? you know about what your friends did last night?"

"Who hasn't on this ship?" said Wufei, "I can't really say I'm all that surprised, raids like those come naturally to us. Classic Gundam move."

"You're not planning to fly off to join them, are you?" Asked Lunamaria who had come to like having him there.

Wufei just shook his head. "I already told you I said I would stay and help. Hearing about my friends pulling off a couple of daring strikes isn't enough to change my mind. Tho if I knew they were going to I would have stayed to help before returning."

"Oh, okay. That's good to hear." Said Lunamaria with relief.

"Glad to hear," Wufei said.

"If you don't mind me asking this, how did you and your friends all manage get to be well you know so crazy? I mean, attacking both of those bases. I know you were not part of it, but I've seen some of the things you're capable of, so I can definitely imagine you pulling off something like that. Don't get me wrong, all of you are incredible pilots the best, but I think you've each got a some screws loose."

Wufei just chuckled. " I suppose that is not a bad way to put it."

Lunamaria just sighed, relieved that he did not take any offense by what she said. "So what's the deal then? Do you guys just feel like you have something to prove by being so damn reckless, or is it one of those macho things?"

"Neither," Wufei replied, "It's how we were trained to do things. And just our style."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "You mean your instructors actually told you guys to go and just pick all the biggest fights you possibly could?"

"We have done things like this before, challenged a whole world to battle," said Wufei, "The fight hardly gets much bigger than that. A surprise attack on the enemy's biggest bases is trivial in compared to that. You wont ever reach our level. Unless you have nerve to take the kind of risks that we do."

"Okay, first off, I have already got plenty of nerve, for your information. Second, when did you six 'challenge the entire world to battle', exactly? Your groups first recorded appearance was helping the Archangel when it was under the flag of the Earth Alliance, and it continued to do so up until the Battle of Alaska. After that, the ship was at war with both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance, but still had allies in the Orb Union, and picked up defectors from both sides.

Even then, that pretty much would've been a fight against the entire world, but there's no mention of Dead oryou, Heero, Duo, Trowa, or Quatre in anything before you started helping them. Granted, Tho I am sure that many of pilots that fought with the Three Ships Alliance will never have their names recorded by history, but with the level of skill you've all displayed, and the machines you have.

I'm pretty sure that you six would've be more well known. There's not a single mention of any of you anywhere before the war, and after you all just vanished like you did exist. Which is similar to how you all showed up the first time.

Perhaps I've said too much, he thought, I haven't exactly told her any lies, tho I have not admitted how we are all from another world.

Tho he was tempted to tell her the full truth, but he knew he had to suppress the urge. There was no point in doing so at the moment.

"Is it not it enough to witness wjat we can do firsthand?" he asked, "What does it matter to you when we made our battlefield debut have we not already proven our selves before the eyes of the world?"

"Maybe that's enough for everyone else." Lunamaria replied, "But not to me."

Wufei was now puzzled. "Why?"

"Because a lot of this just dose not make sense, I feel you are all keeping some big mind blowing secret." Said Lunamaria. "And I just can't help but wonder what it is, or why you feel the need to keep it to yourselves."

"Its not that we don't want to tell, its just that we feel would be to hard to. And we feel the less who know the better." Said Wufei.

''But why can;t you just tell me?" Asked Lunamaria.

"A number of reasons, one of them is Dead has forbidden me to.'' Said Wufei. "And I swore I would fallow him and his orders when he bested me in combat, and honor demands I do as I am told, I'm sorry but I can't tell you."

Lunamaria wanted to say more, but did not want to get Wufei in trouble with his team.

"OK, I guess I have to accept that." Said Lunamaria. "But can I ask what are your plans for when the war?"

"Look for more fights else where.'' Said Wufei who planned to use the portal technology they had to seek out other worlds where he could fight more. "There was a time I had hoped me and Dead could fight more and forever, just seek out each other and others to fight."

"So you plan to just keep on fighting?" asked Lunamaria, "When the war's over you can't just keep fighting forever. No one can."

Wufei just shook his head and started to walk away. "You're naive. As long as humans exists, fighting will never end. And as long as there are fights to fight, Nataku and I will keep fighting. Such is the way of the Gundam combat"

Lunamaria wanted to fallow, but chose to instead just sigh as she watched him leave the hangar. Just when she thought she had him figured, he goes and drops another huge bombshell on her that forced her to rethink everything. Trying to figure him out felt like punching a wall.

Meanwhile on earth.

"Thanks for coming," said Andrew as the Gundam pilots settled in. Along with Zechs, Noin, Sally and Howard and with Cagalli, Kira, Lacus and Marrue.

They were meeting at Kira and Lacus home, and they had a full house. The pace of the war was accelerating, and with the multitude of events happening all across the world they needed to get a handle on things and figure out their next move.

Duo chuckled. "Got that right dude. I bet the Alliance is pissing themselves right now what with all the damage we caused!"

"Indeed.'' Said Trowa. "We did a lot"

"I feel that was a bit risky.'' Said Lacus as they looked at her. "I don't understand what you were trying to accomplish?"

"It's the best way to get the enemy's attention," said Noin. "Rattle them all up, get them all angry; angry enemies always end up making mistakes."

"Mistakes that we can and need to exploit as fast as we can," said Dead, "Have we gotten any updates on Earth Alliance troop movements?"

Quatre nodded. "Yes, according to reports, the Alliance is trying to rally whats left of its troops to defend what they have left."

"What about Orb?" asked Murrue, "Has the Alliance made any indication of deploying forces there to try and get the Seirans' cooperation?"

Andrew shook his head. "No according to what we know. The Alliance appears to be taking a break from that now that their forces have all taken major hits. It would seem that their resources are focused elsewhere."

"Not to mention we are keeping those Seiran asswipes and the others in line.'' Said Duo.

"And we mean to keep it that way.'' Said Heero.

Cagalli let out a sigh of relief. "I am just glad that means they're not threatening my country."

"Still to soon to relax.'' Said Heero.

"Is that really a good idea?" asked Kira, "Things could get worse."

Lacus nodded. "With things as they are, a sudden shift could occur at any moment. If so it could spell disaster."

Zechs sighed. "We know, but that's the risk we need to take. We can't be matched for quality, but quantity that's different. We just can't cover as many fronts as the Alliance and Z.A.F.T."

"Thus we need to plan our next move carefully," said Sally, "We to focus on where we can do the most good, that will be where the fighting is heaviest."

"In the meantime, we have to deal with Durandal's little secret, and see to use it our advantage," said Dead as he showed him a oicture of of Meer a double of Lacus that the Chairmen has and is using.

"So that is the Lacus doppelganger we herd of?" Asked Howard.

Andrew saw the look Dead and the other Gundams had, and knew that look; the young men had a plan. "Got something you want to share with us?"

Heero nodded. "It may help us with our next move."

"We're all ears." Murrue said.

"Lacus is regarded as one of the heroes who helped end the last war," said Dead, "She is seen as a icon by the people of the PLANTs, a symbol for peace which is why Durandal created this doppelganger. And chances are may try to have the real Lacus eliminated.''

"Hearing that shocked Kira,Lacus, Cagalli and Marrue."

"You think he would try that?" Asked Marrue.

"Chances are yes.'' Said Andrew.

I'm willing to bet Chairman will attempt on her life. And with no way to prove that the Lacus employed by Durandal is actually a fake with the real Lacus killed they would be ffree to do as they please."

"Seems reasonable enough," said Quatre.

"So what's your plan?" Asked Andrew. "Do we try to stop them."

"No." Said Dead shocking Kira, Lacus, Cagalli and Marrue. "Not right now we wait for them to strike first."

"Dead what are you saying?" Asked Kira hoping he was not thinking what he was thinking.

"He is saying we wait for these guys to strike first, then take em out and then use the whole thing as evidence against the chairman.'' Said Howard.

"Yes, don't worry I am not saying we sacrifice Lacus, but we need to get proof of the Chairman's deeds. I would say evadence of a attempt of Lacus life would be good enough. Let them see he tried and failed to kill her.''

Trowa nodded. "There would be a huge uproar in the PLANTs if the people learned that Durandal ever tried to have Lacus killed.''

"I bet soldiers would mutiny too." Said Quatre.

Duo then smirked. "Yeah and it would be such a real shame if someone were to say leak that information, wouldn't it? Is that what you got in mind, Dead? Sow a little bit of chaos in ZAFT's ranks? I'm game!"

"Yes how ever we need Lacus to act as bait for that.'' Said heero.

"No we can't do that.'' Said Kira as they looked at him.

"Kid calm down we are not saying we are gonna throw her to the wolves.'' Said Andrew.

"But you are thinking of putting her in danger.'' Said Kira.

"No actually we are planning on just waiting for the Chairman's forces to attack, a;; we need do is wait they will come.'' Said Dead. "Once more they will no doubt try to kill her at some point as her being alive is a threat to thheir palns.''

"Sorry kid but he got you beat.'' Said Andrew. "Like it or not Lacus is a target, but we can use it to help us."

Kira knew they had good points and alll but he still did not like it.

"Calm down we will help keep her safe." Said Duo.

"Yes but like it or not they will come for her.'' Said Trowa.

"It's OK Kira.'' Said Lacus as he looked at her. "I know I will be ok, cause you and the others are here." She said with a smile.

"OK fine but if anything goes wrong your taking the responsibility." Said Kira.

"Fair enough.'' Said Dead.

"Now we just need to be ready for the attack." Said Zechs.

"Yes and if Kortax is involved as I suspect he is, he will no doubt try to attack to to help kill Lacus.'' Said Dead.

Well that is it for now please review so i know to keep going.