Author's Pre-chapter Note: Hi everyone! Sorry this took a while, real life decided to barge in on my writing time. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
("Normal Dialogue" / "Thought")
Tieria Erde made his way to the bridge of the Ptolemaios II as soon as he heard that Setsuna had returned from the sortie to Eclipse. Said Meister had just handed off the slip of paper to Feldt, who then proceeded to decode the rather obtusely-coded contents of the paper as the purple-haired Innovade crossed the open doorway to the briefing area where the other Meisters as well as Ian had already gathered.
"Oh, hello Tieria." Setsuna greeted his fellow Meister, who nodded in return.
"How was the sortie?"
"It was alright. Had to face another one twisted by our interventions back then. But that is not important. At Eclipse I found Veda's location."
"You found Veda's location?" Tieria asked incredulously.
"Yeah. I got the information from Wang Liu Mei."
"W-Wang Liu Mei?" Tieria was stunned speechless. Sumeragi, noticing his reaction, let out a sigh.
"Setsuna, while you were away we interrogated Anew. She told us that Wang Liu Mei had been willingly working with the Innovators. It was how Anew was embedded in our organisation in the first place." The tactical forecaster explained the situation to Setsuna, who seemed to take things in stride.
"I see. She was hurt when I made contact with her. It could be that they fell out, and she decided to take a chance with us again." The Kurgis man commented, everyone then turning their attention to the information of Veda's location.
"Veda has been found…" Tieria seemed to mutter to himself, which piqued Feldt's interest only for an alert sound to play from her computer console. "Crypt-analysis of the data is complete. It's at point CZ9842R, the dark side of the moon!" She reported, saving the analysis data to the ship's memory banks.
Calmly, Sumeragi turned to Mileina and requested, "Mileina, focus the super-long-range camera on that point." While Mileina responded with her usual enthusiasm and prepared said camera, the other people in the room were themselves reacting to this revelation.
"Lagrange Two…" Allelujah muttered.
"It's an area they're not even starting to develop any colonies in. The perfect place to hide something, I'd say." Ian chimed in.
"Showing the location now!" Mileina announced, and the briefing screen changed to show… pitch-black space, bespeckled with stars.
"Hey… there's nothing there." Lockon stated the seemingly obvious. Sumeragi, scratching her chin, saw differently.
"Superimpose the star map of our current location over this image." The tactical forcaster requested.
Mileina happily complied. The briefing system immediately overlaid a star map which quickly showed deviations between the bright points on the image and the true positions of the distant stars based on the star map.
Ian was surprised, even for his age and experience. "What's this?"
"The positions of the stars are off…" Allelujah surmised, his eyes widening as the implication hit him.
"Optical camouflage." Sumeragi noted. "Feldt, calculate the area of this discrepancy."
"Understood." Feldt's answer came quickly and shockingly. "The area… has a diameter of fifteen kilometers!"
"Fifteen kilometers? Are you joking?" Lyle expressed his own disbelief.
"What is it that they're hiding that's so large…" Tieria trailed off, himself also shocked at the magnitude of this unknown object.
"It is there. On the dark side of the moon." Setsuna concluded.
A tense air seemed to settle over everyone on the bridge, with the information they now held holding both promise and dread. It would be a while before another alert sound from Feldt's console broke the silence. Turning to face the terminal screen, Feldt parsed the incoming information quickly, her expression brightening up. "Miss Sumeragi, I just got an encoded message from the lab transport ship!"
"Mama!" Mileina exclaimed from the opposite terminal. Ian allowed himself a small fist pump, and seemed invigorated enough to want to leave for the hangar immediately.
"The upgraded equipment is here!"
Anew stirred from her sleep in her cell. It had been slightly more than a week since everything went to hell and back - Revive's capture, his unshackling of her mental restraints, her betrayal of the Ptolemy crew, her fight with Lyle…
She tried to shake off the negativity she was heaping upon herself, but already the day was already feeling downcast. However there would be no time to mope, for the cell door opened without warning.
Soma walked in, already in her persimmon red pilot suit, and tossed down a white normal suit on the floor of the cell. Curtly, the super soldier informed Anew, "There will be a briefing in half an hour. You're expected to be there. Don't be late."
The cell door was left open as Soma turned and left, almost as soon as she came in. And Anew was left on her own, her mouth agape as she attempted to take in what had been said.
"I'm… expected? They want me to be back in their service?"
She gripped the fabric of the normal suit, feeling incredibly heavy in her hands. Anew contemplated what was seemingly a non-starter of a choice. She knew she was still a security risk to Ptolemy and her crew, given that Ribbons could take control of her again on a whim. Yet, they were pretty much giving her her old place on the team back, as if the slate had been wiped clean, that nothing had happened over the past week. With the chance, mandatory as it had sounded, before her, Anew gathered her resolve just as she had when she overpowered Ribbon's control fighting Lyle.
"I will fight. I will fight to protect the crew of this ship and their future, and to atone to them for what I did before."
Anew ended up being a few minutes early to the briefing. All the Meisters were already there, together with Saji, Soma, Sumeragi and Feldt. Anew noted Mileina's conspicuous absence, but the gazes of everyone else unnerved her, and she swallowed the lump in her throat as she slowly made her way over to Lyle's side, looking at the floor-mounted briefing screen as it showed an area of space near the Moon. Tieria, noting the increasing congestion on his side of the briefing area, wisely stepped around and crossed over to stand next to Setsuna.
"Hey…" Lyle whispered to her. "Glad you're here with us."
Anew made a very hesitant hum, looking around at the others. She had expected there to still be hostility in their gazes at her, but she could not detect any. Even Feldt, who had been the harshest towards her during this period, only briefly stared at her before returning to her console screen.
"M-Miss Sumeragi, may I…" She hesitantly asked, only for the tactical forecaster to nod her head. With that permission granted, she raised her chin back up and took a deep breath, before she began to speak.
"Everyone… I'm sorry. My actions a week ago were unforgivable - should have been unforgivable. Even if I had been kept…" Anew mentally stumbled for a moment, before continuing, "sealed, as it were, up till that point, I still willingly chose to betray all of you as was my original mission. I had believed that I was going along the right path, one where the Innovators would lead the world to a true peace."
"I was wrong. I was very wrong. And I know it is also wrong to ask for your forgiveness right now." Anew, her eyes watering despite her best efforts at keeping calm. "I… I only ask for the opportunity to prove that I have changed, that I really am on your side now."
Lyle gently took her gloved hand in his, gently squeezing it in a quiet gesture to give her some assurance. While Setsuna remained mostly expressionless as usual, Tieria and Allelujah separately looked away, both men sympathetic yet conflicted. Blocked from Anew's perspective by her seat, Feldt balled up her fists as she stared at the screen in front of her, her attitude still unwavering.
Soma, rather surprisingly, spoke first. "Words are cheap. I want to see you walk the walk with my own eyes, or at least hear about it from the others after the fact." Her tone was terse as she leaned against the wall with her eyes closed, as if in contemplative thought.
"What if Ribbons decides to attempt to control you again?" Tieria asked the biggest question on the ship at that moment.
"I will resist, as much as I can. And if that proves to be insufficient…" Anew's body tensed up as she felt herself nervously shake again. "Then I will end myself before I become a threat to anyone on board this ship."
"Anew!" Lyle exclaimed in shock.
"I have to! It is the only way!" Anew tearfully replied, staring up into his blue eyes with her own reddish brown ones. "I can't be a loose end! I won't let myself endanger anyone here. Never again."
Lyle gave a look of disbelief at Tieria, who was beside himself despite having his question answered. The Irishman hurriedly hugged his girlfriend, who was attempting to put on a brave face despite the occasional sniffle.
"Ahem." Sumeragi cleared her throat, getting everyone present back to the original matter at hand. "Shall we begin?"
Everyone in the briefing area nodded, and the briefing screen shifted to show the area of space corresponding to the coordinates that were obtained by Setsuna earlier. Grey diamonds were visible in the picture - the bows of A-LAWS cruisers.
"That's an entire fleet gathered at the point Wang Liu Mei indicated for us." Allelujah summarised.
"Then there is no mistake." Tieria inferred, "That's definitely where Veda is located."
"As well as the Innovators' headquarters." Lyle added on. He felt a bit of a tug on his sleeve, and he realised that Anew had clung onto his arm.
"We'll break through the A-LAWS fleet and recover Veda." Setsuna declared.
"This will be a fight like no other." Tieria added on. Setsuna then seemed to sense something, for he turned to look at Saji, who appeared uncharacteristically determined.
"I'm going. In order to fight my own battle." The Japanese civilian stated.
"Saji…" Sumeragi began, but the 0 Raiser's pilot held firm.
"I have made up my mind. No more hesitation."
"Allow me to take part in this mission." Soma requested in her normal, no-nonsense tone. Anew was rather surprised that Soma would be requesting in the first place, given that the latter was already in her pilot suit.
"Soma Peries…" Allelujah uttered, looking slightly apprehensive, but Soma opened her golden eyes, her gaze of steel only reinforced.
"I too have my reasons for joining you." Soma would cryptically remark, eliciting a slight shrug from Lyle.
"Yeah, that's right. Even though our goals may differ, we all have a reason to head out there."
"It's because those feelings are connected to the future." Setsuna would interject. "All of us here… we are fighting for the future."
"The future…" Anew thought silently, gripping Lyle's hand just a little bit tighter.
"To liberate all of humanity from the Innovators' control."
"To make this world one where anomalies like Soma and myself are never again created." Allelujah himself stepped forward to declare, his fellow super soldier looking on as she continued to lean on the wall.
"My goal is to overthrow the Federation government. And shoot down the Innovators." Lyle coolly stated, warmly gripping Anew's shivering hand and turning his head to gaze into her eyes. "That way, they'll never hurt you again. You'd be free, able to grasp your own future."
"We will all change." Setsuna firmly asserted. "If we don't, we can never face the future." Anew faintly heard Feldt say something, but the latter was so soft that even with Anew's enhanced senses as an Innovade she could not discern the actual words.
"Ptolemy will depart as soon as our resupply is completed. Is that alright?" Sumeragi concluded, giving an aside glance to Lyle which Anew also noticed. The brunette Irishman shrugged again, trying to appear noncommittal.
"Right. Katharon. Might as well see if they want to show up." Anew thought, before Allelujah raised his hand like a schoolboy.
"Ptolemy doesn't have a helmsman right now. I mean, Anew's here, but-"
"Anew won't be helming. She'll take the auxiliary station." Sumeragi stated, but was then interrupted by the bridge door opening, revealing Lasse in his short-sleeved uniform.
"You have a helmsman right here." Lasse rather self-depreciatingly noted, pointing at himself as he crossed the frame and properly entered the bridge. The gathered Meisters were all visibly and audibly surprised at Lasse being up so quickly, having by some twist of fate never crossed paths with him the last few days.
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Tieria asked with concern.
"Of course I can." Lasse assured. Noticing his fellow co-helmsman present next to Lyle, the ex-mafia member continued, "Well, heard you're benched for a while. It's a shame, your skills are really good. Maybe next time."
Anew would nod, still with some nervousness, as Setsuna took in the sight of practically the whole team gathered together, with a common goal and desire. He would beckon, staring wistfully into the empty void of space, "Let us go. To the dark side of the moon."
"So this is Cherudim's upgraded form." Anew noted as she drifted in the hangar with Lyle, inspecting the green Gundam. The GN Shield Bits normally covering the GN Drive at the rear waist area had been shifted to form a large shield attached to the left shoulder, with new, larger GN Rifle Bits taking their place on the GN Drive as well as being mounted on Cherudim's right shoulder. The GN Drive area also held a pair of extra GN Beam Pistol IIs; "as if he needed more guns to play with…" Anew idly but humorously thought.
"Neat, isn't it? Haro and I get more remote bits to snipe those A-LAWS with, and if those don't work, I have my usual pistols and my other pistols." Lyle attempted to provide some levity, but seeing Anew's increasingly conflicted facial expression, he decided to cut back on the wisecracking.
Anew placed a hand on the front skirt armor of the Gundam, gently moving it from one corner of a panel diagonally down to the other, and Lyle quickly pieced together what she was doing - tracing over where she, or rather Ribbons in her body, had struck Cherudim using the Gaddess' sword. "Hey…" He attempted to get her attention. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"I-I…" Anew sniffled, continuing albeit haltingly, "W-when Ribbons took over, a-and I looked like I rejected you again… how did you feel?"
"I was scared, sure. But I thought I'd messed something up, somehow, and you got pissed over it. In the moment, I wasn't thinking that there was anything else at play." Lyle admitted.
Anew wanted to cry all over again, hugging Lyle and starting to openly tear up. "I'm sorry…"
"Anew…" Lyle reassured her again. "You made your choice, and you're here. Just give me a while and you won't have to worry about anyone getting into your head anymore."
This time, Anew didn't resist, nor question, nor even contemplate. She just nodded, her chin rubbing on Lyle's shoulder. Just then, an alert bell sounded.
"The super-long-range visual camera has picked up the enemy fleet!" The shrill voice of Mileina came over the intercom.
"All hands to primary battle stations! Meisters, prepare to launch!" Sumeragi's commanding voice called out from the ship's speakers.
"Well, that's my cue. You should go on over to the bridge." Lyle mentioned, putting on his green helmet. But Anew, wanting to hold onto this moment where she could be right next to Lyle, grabbed his hands with her own, not letting go even as they reached the Cherudim's cockpit hatch.
Wordlessly, Anew looked at Lyle with eyes that were watering up yet again. Turning away to prevent him from seeing her vulnerable state again, she chanced upon Haro already in its dock, and took the opportunity to ask of the little round robot, "Haro, please take care of Lockon for me, would you?
"Don't worry Anew! Don't worry Anew!" was Haro's chirpy reply, the robot seemingly unaware of Anew's intonations. Her heart settling back down, Anew finally let go of Lyle's hands, smirking as she drifted towards the door linking the hangar to the bow section. "Good luck, Lockon Stratos. Do what you do best."
"Ah, gotcha." Lyle replied as he clambered inside his Gundam. As the hatch closed and the Meister settled in his seat, his robot companion turned in its dock and asked, "Is Anew okay? Is Anew okay?"
"She will be. And we're going to help her, Haro, by taking out the enemies coming for us."
"Agreed! Agreed!" The orange robot energetically replied.
As Cherudim was lifted up to the catapult, Lyle reflected on his time in Celestial Being, and how he himself had changed from essentially a mole for Katharon to somebody who was really, truly a believer in Celestial Being's mission. It was ironic, on hindsight, that a major catalyst for his change was Anew, who herself was a double agent now throwing her lot in with Celestial Being.
"Cherudim, launch preparations complete!" Mileina informed the Irish brunette.
"Anew, I'm gonna do it. I will protect you from the Innovators." Lyle softly declared, with only Haro as his witness. With his usual gusto and his newfound determination, he announced:
"Cherudim, Lockon Stratos, targeted and firing!"
Anew had already taken her seat at the auxiliary bridge position when Lyle launched in Cherudim. As she tracked the position of the Gundams' and the enemy A-LAWS fleet, she noted that the Innovators were not deployed amongst the cruisers and mobile suits of said fleet. "Are they in reserve? Or are they going to swing in when we've exhausted ourselves destroying this fleet?"
"Contact! The Gundams have engaged enemy advance units!" Mileina soon reported, breaking Anew out from her pondering.
"Maintain course! Set GN Field to maximum shipwide output!" Sumeragi ordered. The Ptolemaios II was still kilometers away from the developing skirmish, but it did not hurt to be prepared for any enemies breaking through.
"Feldt, anything I can do at this moment?" Anew queried, seeking to contribute as much as she could.
The pink-haired tactical operator squinted for a moment, but then ordered firmly, "Assist Mileina in tracking the battle situation. Do not let the enemy flank us nor the lab ship."
"Roger." Anew acknowledged, quickly focussing her gaze on her own console screen. It was quickly clear that the Gundams were easily dispatching the advance mobile suit force, leaving the cruisers themselves…
That were still pointed straight at Ptolemy and moving at full speed.
"Miss Sumeragi, three enemy ships are closing fast! They're not slowing down!" She alerted the rest of the bridge.
Lasse was immediately making his annoyance known. "They're ramming us!" He bellowed.
Sumeragi was calmer after her initial reaction to this development. Quickly, she opened up direct communications with the 00 Raiser, ordering out loud, "Setsuna, use the Raiser Sword!"
The ships' corresponding markers would soon disappear from Anew's console screen, bisected breadthwise by said Raiser Sword, however Anew had a gut feeling that it was not the end of it, and the rapidly spreading cloud of sickly green fumes enveloping the ships and Gundams confirmed that hunch.
"An anti-field has been deployed over a wide area!" Mileina called out from her station.
"Particle beam effectiveness has been reduced." Feldt continued.
"Did they trap us?" Lasse asked out loud.
"We're lucky they did not deploy this point-blank! Change course, get us out of here!" Sumeragi replied, and Lasse immediately threw the ship into a banked turn to starboard.
Anew's screen quickly filled with symbols. "New contacts! Main forces of the enemy fleet are launching mobile suits, headed straight for us!" She reported, already bracing herself for the incoming combat to come.
The next few minutes were all a blur to Anew. Ian and Linda were already launching the Ptolemaios II's missile complement from the sub-bridge, but the A-LAWS were throwing ever more mobile suits at them and the Gundams, tying the latter down. Despite everyone's best efforts, a missile would penetrate the ship's GN Field and punch into its port side amidships. The resulting explosion rocked the bridge, causing everyone to grunt and groan even though they had been bracing for such an attack getting through.
"Damn it all, are they trying to bully us to death?" Lasse complained as more missiles struck the ship.
Alert tones caused Mileina to peek at her console screen, then exclaim, "More enemy mobile suits incoming!"
Anew herself was trying to keep track of the situation from her own screen, but she noticed one enemy blip circling the ship at extremely close range. Craning her helmeted head to her left, her blood ran cold as she saw said enemy present itself in front of the whole bridge - an Ahead, lugging a container almost as large as itself with three large missiles aimed and ready to fire.
"Lyle! I…"