Chapter 6

Gjallarhorn's ship lost it's main engines along with their commander so they were in no shape to pursue Tekkadan and reluctantly retreated from the battlefield.

With Gjallarhorn unable to pursue them for the time being they got to work and salvaged all the damaged mobile suits bringing them aboard the Isaribi, three of them were going to be repaired for use by Tekkadan including the Schwalbe Graze that Gaelio piloted and the four other ones were going to be scrapped for spare parts of the enemy mobile suits they are keeping.

The four Ahab Reactors will be sold for a high price when they can get a buyer for them, Gjallarhorn were the only ones who could make new Ahab Reactors so there is always a market for them.

The plan had went off brilliantly as Mikazuki had predicted; they had used a mining asteroid to swing the Isaribi around to face the enemy directly, the two ships were taken by surprise by the maneuver that Tekkadan had pulled off which made them slow to react when Akihiro closed in on the Gjallarhorn ship and were unable to stop him from destroying their ship's main engines.

The Isaribi managed to get the boarding party on Orcus's ship as they passed close by them, Shino and Dante were in Paladin suits who used the railguns to make short work of the Nanolaminate armor of the ship tearing a hole into the cargo hold, from there the boarding party fought their way through the ship killing all opposition on their way to the bridge.

Orcus surrendered saving what was left of his crew, Tekkadan took the ship and allowed Orcus along with his remaining crew to leave in a small transport shuttle they kept for moving supplies, after he had signed over ownership of the ship along with all the cargo currently on the ship which thankfully only belonged to Orcus.

The cargo on the ship was mostly general items on would find on a ship such as ship fuel, ammunition for the ship's weapons, missiles, spare parts for ship repairs, containers of clean water and food.

They had stuffed Todo into an escape pod with the message "this looks like one of yours, so you deal with him." Written on his fat belly for Gjallarhorn to pick up as they left the area.

The engineering teams had a lot of work for them after the battle was over, they repaired the hole that was made when the boarding party breached the cargo hold, then they got to work on the mobile suits with Akihiro and Mikazuki helping with the maintenance of their own machines.

Neither Barbatos or the Graze Custom that Akihiro used had suffered any real damage so the maintenance for them was very easy to complete so they started on them first, and after that was done they began on the captured mobile suits.

The four Grazes that were scheduled to be disassembled were the next thing the engineering team started on, this took a few hours and when it was done the four Ahab Reactors were stored away for reselling.

Chaos used the access codes he had acquired from Gaelio Bauduin to gain high level access to Gjallarhorn's database archives, a lot of the secret information was still restricted even for the heir to one of Seven Stars family's but what he did gain access to was priceless to the right people.

They were able to get the full blueprints for the Graze and the Schwalbe Graze along with maintenance records, this was a massive help to Nadi and the rest of the engineering team in repairing the mobile suits properly.

The blueprints for all the most conventional tools, ships, and weapons that Gjallarhorn makes were copied to the Isaribi's database alongside all the information Gjallarhorn had on the various organizations wether they were civilian, criminal, or militant from the Earth Sphere to the Outer Spheres, Chaos handled everything and made sure to erase any records of having accessed any records so as to not arose any suspicion on Gaelio, for his access codes are only useful as long as nobody suspects him of anything.

He also made a backdoor to the Ariadne network which would allow Tekkadan to use it for short time intervals without being detected, it also allows them to monitor transmissions made from any Ariadne relays they are close to.

With everything he needed to do finished in the hanger, Mikazuki made his way through the ship corridors, it was late hour and most of the crew was asleep aside from Nadi, Yamagi and a few others on the engineering team that were working through the night.

He had missed the earlier meeting they held about Tekkadan's next course of action with regards to the escort mission to Earth, Orga had decided on them heading to Jupiter to meet with Teiwaz as they needed powerful backing so that the Tekkadan members left on Mars don't get destroyed by Gjallarhorn and they need a guide to get to Earth unnoticed which Teiwaz could provide.

As Mikazuki turned down another corridor he saw Orga leaning on the railing deep in thought, so Mikazuki approached him.

"Hey Orga, I thought you would be getting some rest." Mikazuki says to him.

"Heh, this is nothing." Orga said with a smirk before asking. "What about you Mika? Aren't you getting some rest after all that fighting the other day?"

"I did get some rest while Chaos was hacking Gjallarhorn for us, so that we wouldn't be going in blind should we run into any dangerous groups out here and Old Man Nadi really liked that he now has the proper instructions on how to service the Grazes we are going to be using." Mikazuki said to Orga as stops beside him and looked out the window at the dark vacuum of space.

"Yeah, Biscuit was almost dizzy with all the new information Chaos dropped into the database about, well, everything." Orga laughed as he said this remembering how Biscuit had reacted.

There was a silence between them for a few minutes before Orga spoke again.

"Mika, is your dream still the same? Do you still want to run a farm someday?" Orga asked suddenly.

Orga knew Mikazuki the best our of everyone else since they were best friends for as long as he can remember, that changed though after Chaos came into their lives, Mikazuki talks more, he shares his thoughts with him and no longer just leaves the decision making to Orga alone anymore. It was a welcome change and Orga couldn't lie to himself that he felt a weight lift itself off his shoulder ever since Mikazuki started to truly help him carry it, and how relieved he was not to be in it on his own any longer.

Mikazuki had changed and Orga just wanted to see how much of the old Mikazuki was still in there, hence the question, Mikazuki had talked about owning a farm like Biscuit's grandmother a few times over the years with bright eyes, it was something Mikazuki truly wanted and Orga wants to know if he still does.

"No, not anymore." Mikazuki said not moving his eyes off of the vacuum outside the ship. "When I met Chaos I still dreamed of owning that farm but when he showed me what our future would look like, I was forced to watch as we lost almost everything including our lives." Mikazuki's voice was laced with emotion as he said this shocking Orga to the core because Mikazuki never let's go of his emotions to this extent, ever. "I became tethered to Barbatos and could no longer live without constantly being attached to it via the Alaya-Vijnana system." Mikazuki turned to Orga as he finished saying that, and from tbe look in his eyes Orga knew Mikazuki was telling the truth.

"So that is why you gave up your dream and got more involved?" Orga asked him.

"Yes, I knew that things needed to change to avoid all of the loss and pain we would suffer, and more importantly I needed to change and start to think, and do more for everyone aside from just fighting on the battlefield." There was steel in his voice and a blazing inferno in his eyes as he spoke. "I want to make us a home where we belong, where others like us can find a home and family like we did when we made Tekkadan, I am a warrior, a natural born killer, I accept that and I am prepared to use this talent of mine so that we all live through this all of us, including myself. It has always been easy for us to die for each other because we didn't have a future but I want us to start living for each other no matter how hard it is."

Orga was speechless as he stood there absorbing Mikazuki's words, it is the longest he has ever heard his best friend speak and what he had said resonated deep within Orga's chest filling him with purpose, he wanted to make that dream a reality not just for Mikazuki or for everyone but for himself as well, this is a dream that they can all share and work towards with their heads held high.

"I have to say, when you have a goal you aim big Mika, I like it. Let's make it a reality!" Orga said with his trademark smirk while raising his fist.

"Yeah." Mikazuki said with a smile as he raised his fist as well and bumped it against Orga's.

The two friends fell into a comfortable silence after that, enjoying each other's company before Orga broke it by commenting on how close Mikazuki has gotten to Kudelia even though he has Atra, Mikazuki immediately denies this and asked confused on how he has Atra for she only belongs to herself, his response makes Orga groan in disbelief while Mikazuki and Chaos chuckle because Mikazuki fully understood what Orga meant, he is just playing dumb.

Plus, as far as Mikazuki is concerned, if a girl asked to sleep with him or make a baby he saw no reason to say no especially if he likes the girl not hate her, when Chaos had shared his life experiences with him, Mikazuki found it strange that a man wasn't allowed to have more than one woman, for if it made everyone happier what was the problem with doing that.

The friends time together was interrupted by an alarm going off through the ship loud enough to wake everyone up.

Mikazuki and Orga swiftly made their way to the bridge of the Isaribi, when they got their Eugene, Chad, Biscuit, and Fumitan were already there.

Mikazuki cast his eyes to the woman for a moment before heading inside the bridge, Chaos had pointed out that she couldn't be trusted but she had skills that they can have her show the others, and it is better to have her close than to have her out of their sight on the ship.

"What happened?" Orga asked as he made his way to the captain's chair.

"A stop signal from another ship." Fumitan reports in her professional voice.

"Another ship? There position?" Orga asked quickly as he sat down.

"Unknown, sir." Fumitan responded.

"Isn't it Gjallarhorn?" Eugene asked.

"I don't know. Where is it from?" Biscuit said confused as he checks the sensors.

The comms. Channel of the ship suddenly opened to reveal the angry face of Maruba Arkay former president of CGS. "You twerps. Give me back my ship." He shouts at them.

"President."

"Maruba Arkay."

"What."

A few people on the bridge say in surprise.

"You thieving rats! Give back my Will-O'-the-Wisp now." Maruba continues to shout at them.

"Eugene." Orga called to him and motions with his finger for him to handle Maruba.

The call is moved from the main screen to a small one at the terminal Eugene was working at.

"Look who's talking, the coward who ran away first. Stop your nonsense." Eugene said angrily.

"Who are you? Orga. Get me Orga." Maruba shouts at Eugene not listening to him at all.

"Miss Admoss, can you analyze the LCS signal?" Biscuit asked her.

"I'll put up the relative coordinates on the monitor." Fumitan said simply and did just that. An electronic map showed up on the main screen showing the position of both ships that Tekkadan has along with another ship directly behind them some distance away. "Direction 180 degrees, distance 6,200. Their relative speed almost matches ours." She reports.

"This is bad. They've taken up position on our aft." Biscuit said with a frown.

"No way. There was no Ahab Wave reaction." Chad said in shock.

"How'd they do it?" Biscuit said just as shocked.

"If they're good at such things…" Mikazuki said but paused to take a Mars palm out of his jacket pocket to eat. "They must be troublesome." He said perfectly calm.

Orga huffed as he saw how Mikazuki's nonchalance at the current situation calmed down everyone on the bridge.

"Are you listening, brats? Stop the ship. I'll kill you without suffering…" Maruba continues to shout but was cut off suddenly.

A new person popped up on the main screen, he was a young man with long black hair, black eyes, and tanned skin, he wore a white suit with a dark shirt and a fedora hat.

"What?" Maruba said aggressively.

"Get out of the way, old man." The newcomer said.

"I'm sorry." Maruba apologized meekly making the Tekkadan members that knew his surprised by what just happened, although they shouldn't be Maruba has always been a coward.

"This is going nowhere. It's getting boring, right?" The newcomer asked with a smile.

Orga recognized the man from the Gjallarhorn files for the top members of Teiwaz but he had to be sure.

"Who are you?" Orga asked.

"Me? I'm Naze Turbine." Naze responds easily with confidence.

"Well, that confirmed it." Orga thought to himself.

"I represent the group, the Turbines." Naze said.

"I'm the leader of Tekkadan, Orga Itsuka." Orga introduced himself.

"Tekkadan? Give me a break." Maruba said angrily.

"I happen to have a working relationship with this Maruba Arkay. I bumped into him on Mars where I just happened to stop by." Mikazuki narrowed his eyes as he heard this, not believing Naze for a second. "But he was in a big mess, and he told me had a run-in with Gjallarhorn and is in trouble. I said we could make them stop bothering him, so we decided to lend some help, but.." Naze trailed off.

"We?" Orga asked and Biscuit brought a tablet up to him.

"The Turbines are a crew directly under Teiwaz." Biscuit says them passes the tablet to Orga. "The size of the group is small, but that man Naze has sworn a Sakazuki blood oath to Teiwaz's boss, McMurdo Barriston." Biscuit finished saying.

"He's a big shot." Orga said as he continues to look at the tablet.

"This is the worst scenario. If we cross Teiwaz too, it's the end." Biscuit said worried.

This was all theater for those watching them, they all knew who Naze was the moment he said his name, the information on the tablet was not information on Naze as everybody watching them thought, it was a battle simulation between Tekkadan and the Turbines with all the accurate information they had, the simulation showed that in almost all the battles Tekkadan wins against the Turbines.

Orga shared a look with Mikazuki and knew that he would follow his lead on this one.

"No, this is a chance. We wanted the support of Teiwaz as well, and Maruba brought us that opportunity." Orga said to Biscuit.

"Hey, don't whisper amongst yourselves when you're talking with me." Naze said from the main screen. "You get along so well with just men." He comments.

The door to the bridge opens and Shino, and Kudelia walked onto the bridge.

"Sorry about that, please continue." Orga said confident that they will make it out of this if things turn bad.

"Is that so, then he agreed we'll be rewarded for this backup by having all CGS property handed over to us. But when I looked into it, on paper CGS has gone out of business and all it's property had been transferred to some Tekkadan." Naze explained.

"So what you couldn't get from Maruba, you came to take from us." Orga deduced.

"Don't be so uptight. I witnessed the battle with Gjallarhorn myself. Quite a fight for kids, you even got a new ship out of it. If you hand over the goods, I won't mistreat you." Orga tensed up at the way Naze was speaking to them as if they were children with no idea what they were doing, it irritated not only him but every other Tekkadan member on the bridge. "I'll give you decent work as a group under us, decent work where you don't have to risk your life." Naze offered.

"Huh? What's that?" Eugene asked with disbelief clear in his voice.

"Don't be stupid. I'll kill any brat who disobeys me." Maruba shouted before he was pulled away by the woman who was standing by Naze's side though her face could not be clearly seen, the only thing they could tell about her was that she has brown skin, a voluptuous body with a scar running the length of her upper body, she wore jean pants that hung low on her hips and a red blouse that was tied under her large breasts.

"Well, you've got a rather large household. You can't all be together forever." Naze said to them.

"Are you serious?" Orga asked Naze.

"Did it sound like I was joking?" Naze questions.

"I don't want everyone to go their separate ways." Mikazuki said while looking at Orga from the corner of his eye.

The message was clear; they were not doing this, Tekkadan sticks together.

"Sorry, Mr. Turbine. We can't accept your offer." Orga said firmly.

"I see," Naze said losing some of his easygoing demeanor.

"We have a job we accepted as Tekkadan, we can't just quit on it partway." Orga,explained their position.

"Excuse me, I've asked them to escort me to Earth., I can't have Tekkadan dissolved just yet." Kudelia said to Naze.

"So you're Kudelia Aina Bernstein. It's complicated with you, as you're considered Maruba's property." Naze said holding his head.

"Property? What does that mean?" Orga asked Kudelia.

"I don't know…" Kudelia said confused.

Orga looked at Fumitan who simply shakes her head no.

"I'll have to check this with the old man McMurdo." Naze mutters to himself.

"Excuse me, can I say one thing?" Biscuit asked Naze.

"Huh? What is it, plump one?" Naze said.

"I'm Biscuit Griffon." Biscuit introduced himself.

"What a delicious name." One of the Turbines crew said excited.

"What is it, Biscuit boy?" Naze asked his demeanor getting less charming.

"Can we make a deal here between the Turbines and Tekkadan?" Biscuit asked.

"Huh? What are you saying?" Eugene questions Biscuit confused by him still trying to negotiate only for Biscuit to give him a firm look.

"We want to escort Miss Kudelia to Earth. To do that, we have to avoid the eyes of Gjallarhorn, and have a guide that can secure a path to Earth. The Turbines manage the transport branch of Teiwaz, right? Will you allow us to use your transport route?" Biscuit made his pitch hoping to avoid fighting even though he knows they would win, he doesn't want to anger Teiwaz as well as Gjallarhorn. "Of course, we'll pay any suitable tolls."

"No, out of the question." Naze denied firmly.

"Why?" Biscuit asked dismayed by the refusal.

"Don't squawk like you're someone when you merely stole your company. I'm talking about principles here." Naze explained.

"You can say that when you side with the coward who left us to die?" Eugene asked in anger.

"I can't stand being seen as beneath that scoundrel." Shino said pissed off as well.

"We stole nothing, Maruba left us to die with CGS to serve as out tomb, we fought, we bled, and some of us died for us to stand here today, nobody decides who we are but us, and we are somebody even if you chose not to accept it." Orga said with hard glare in his eyes.

"Then what are you going to do? If you are not kids, you know what it means to make me an enemy, right?" Naze questions them without missing a beat even if what they said was something he could understand and agree with.

He was not there for himself but for his boss, McMurdo Barriston who wanted Kudelia Aim Bernstein so that Teiwaz could gain the rights to half-metal.

Mikazuki looked at the main screen with his cold emotionless eyes that spoke of murder making the bridge crew of the Hammerhead feel a chill down their spine.

"It's as I said before, we can't accept your offer. Whatever your principles are, we have our home and honour to protect." Orga said certain in his decision.

"So that means you're willing to fight against us, right?" Naze asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, we'll teach you that we're not just kids." Orga said matching Naze's stare without backing down.

"Maruba, if I see you in person I will kill you just as I did with Haeda and the others," Mikazuki said in deadly voice making Maruba fall on his ass in fear.

"The price for being so big-headed will be high." Naze said before ending the call.


(Armored Assault Ship Hammerhead)

"Sorry Amida. It turned out this way." Naze said to the beautiful brown haired woman at his side from his chair aboard the Hammerhead.

"It's a grown-up's job to scold naughty kids." Amida Arca said with a sigh.

"Although from the look in that kid's eyes, he may have never had the chance to have been a child." Amida thought remembering the cold eyes of Mikazuki which marked him a killer.

"You're such a lovely woman, indeed." Naze said with a charming smile.

"Tell Lafter to wear a normal suit." Amida orders.

"Yes, ma'am." One of the bridge crew answers as they compiled to her orders.

"Everyone prepare for battle and get to your stations." Amida shouts to the bridge crew.

The alarms start to blare warning everyone that they are entering a battle.

"Azee, come with me." Amida says as she leaves the bridge heading towards the mobile suit hanger.

"Yes, any time." Azee responds, Azee was a tall young woman with short white hair and light skin.


(Isaribi)

"I told you to watch yourself. There was room for negotiation." Biscuit says to Orga in frustration.

"I know that, but I can't stain our honor by being spineless."Orga says as he hands the tablet back to Biscuit. "They are coming at us from behind but this is a good chance to show the power of Tekkadan, right?" Orga asked the others who responded enthusiastically.

"Of course, we can't have them looking at us as like we are kids or they will never actually listen to is." Eugene said with a serious look on his face.

"Yeah! We'll show them." Shino said in his usual boisterous way.

"Let us grab this rare chance to negotiate with Teiwaz." Orga declared.

"Biscuit you heard it yourself they are not going to compromise with us, they only way to avoid fighting would be to surrender to them and nobody on this crew would want to do that after we finally stood up for ourselves gaining our freedom." Mikazuki said to Biscuit making him look in his direction. "We will never go back to being anybody's dogs." Mikazuki's voice was sharpened steel as he said this.

Biscuit nodded his head in defeat for there was no changing their minds.

"Confirming Ahab Wave reaction. Enemy is closing in faster." Chad reports.

"Okay stow away the bridge. Maintain the current speed and turn 180 degrees. Prepare to exchange fire." Orga orders rapidly.

"Yes sir, stowing away the bridge." Chad reports as he triggers the sequence.

Fumitan notified the entire crew that they were entering combat and that they were deactivating the ship's gravity.

"Mika, you got this?" Orga asked Mikazuki.

"I will make sure not to kill anyone just don't sink the ship." Mikazuki said with a smirk as leaves the bridge with Shino following him.