If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Chapter 12: Mutual Enemy

- March 23, UC 0084 -
- 0630 hours (CST) -
Captain Shiden's eyes were beginning to loose color from staring at the desolate lunar landscape unrolling beneath his ship. He'd thought it would be less depressing as the Tarawa came to a closer approach on its orbit, but as luck would have it the scene only got worse the closer he came to it. It had all the landscaping charm of a gravel pit and half as much color; he was somewhat tempted to close the blast shudders on the bridge to stare at the relatively festive color of drab metal plating. "Erin, how soon until we can put into Granda's space port?"

Ensign Garcia yawned and glanced lazily over her shoulder. "Uh... I dunno." Captain Shiden raised an eyebrow and the Ensign suddenly remembered she was still on duty. "Oh, sorry sir. We're about fifteen minutes from perigee, which puts us about two hours from final docking."

"Two more hours of this..." Maybe it was just the lighting, the effect of a lunar high-noon that eliminated all shadows and variation from the moonscape, or maybe it was just the sorry condition of the ship and mobile suits that had him so depressed. After three weeks of battling guerillas in Side 6, half of the Tarawa's mobile suits were down for the count and the other half were already showing signs of fatigue. This stop at Granada would be little more than a three-day pit stop before the ship put in to its home port at Konpei Island for repairs and replacement mobile suits for the powerful but hopelessly overworked Gundams. Thinking about it just made it all seem worse. "Erin, could you at least turn the ship so we can see the stars? It's so depressing here..."

"Well, I could turn us, but we'd just have to turn back in ten minutes for the next wave of maneuvers."

"Yeah, I know. Never mind..."

Lieutenant Browning's radar screen screeched a brief warning and a series of lights flashed on the overhead monitor. "Is that... Captain, I've got a heat source on the port quarter."

Finally something happening. "Range?"

"About three hundred kilometers aft of us... whoa! Multiple heat sources detected, looks like weapons fire and an explosion."

"Magnitude?"

"Small arms, some explosive weapon. Could be a mobile suit or a fighter."

Just that little and the Captain was ready to forget about this monotonous moonscape beneath him. He would have liked to turn the ship to check it out himself, but ten years of naval experience worked him in the right direction in the end. "Holland, have Lieutenant Wilson send out a patrol. Have them rendezvous with us at Granada's space port."

"Aye, Captain." Holland knew the pilot's daily routines by heart now and paged Lieutenant Wilson right where he knew she would be. "Bridge to Lieutenant Wilson, report in immediately."

He waited patiently for a few moments and was greeted by severely irritated Lieutenant with a textbook case of bed-head. "What now, Holland?" She said yawning.

"Aaron's pickin up a firefight. Captain wants you to check it out."

Naomi groaned and started falling back into bed. "I'll send Lucy and Dyson. Have Brian standby in..."

"Lucy's AMBAC is on the fritz again and Dyson's GM has no left arm."

Naomi growled and climbed out of bed one last time, still in uniform from the routine suddenness of her cat-nap. "I don't believe this... have Izumi standby on the MS deck." She sat down at her desk chair and started tugging her boots back on, but then caught Holland just before he clicked off the monitor, "Doug, hold it! Have Alice meet me there instead with Mudrock. Put Izumi on standby in case we need backup."

Lieutenant Holland grinned. "Why do you always take the rugrat? Izumi's already standing by on C-Deck."

"I told you, it's the conspiracy."

Holland, like most of the crew, was used to the old cliché of "co-conspirators only" information among senior officers. This time he had his foot in the door. "By any chance would the late Ensign Fokker, Captain Shiden or Lieutenant Matsui be in on this little conspiracy?"

Naomi did a double take at the monitor, caught a little off guard by the question. "Aren't you on duty, Holland?"

"Cut me in and I'll leave you alone."

Naomi groaned yet again and started out of her quarters again. "Fine, I'll brief you and Izumi at the same time. But LATER, not now."

"Izmui? He's in on it too?"

Naomi killed the monitor and slipped out of her quarters before the Ensign could annoy her further. Damn, I can't keep ANYTHING secret anymore.

- 0635 hours (CST) -
"Well, it's official. With Side 6 out of the loop, there's no one left to argue with them."

Duncan felt his stomach churning. "They're canceling the Colony Reclamation Plan?"

"They already have, four hours ago I believe. The Feddies won't spend another dime restoring damaged colonies. The C.P.C.'s gonna change a few names and side numbers, alter some zip codes, and help repopulate the colonies that have already been built. As usual, Earthnoids are saying it's none of their business and they're leaving the colonies to rebuild all on their own."

"And what about Side 6?"

Captain Emeril held a cigar on his lip and shuffled around in his pocket for a lighter. "Londenium and a few of the largest colonies are being moved to Side 1, and the new government HQ will be in Bunch 39. Oh, and the new zones go into effect starting next month, so Side 6 will become Side 5."

"What's Side 5 become?"

"Side 4. And the old Side 4 becomes Side 6..."

"Forget it, it's too confusing." Duncan was surprisingly at ease despite the situation. The Titov and it's "fleet" of ten mixed civilian and mercenary ships had nowhere to go and no one to turn to, with perhaps their last refuge now occupied territory of the Titans. "I hate all this political dancing," He grumbled bitterly, "Any word from Side 7? It IS still Side 7, right?"

The Captain finally found his lighter, but for some reason was no longer in the mood for a cigar. "Yes and yes."

"And?"

"The old man had nothing positive to say. Basically, we're no longer welcome at Green Noa-II. Hell, he's even denying our status with the Marquis Fleet in case the Titans catch on."

"I expected that. Dad never misses a chance to cover his own ass." Duncan let himself drift out of the chair and float lazily around the bridge with his arms folded behind his head. The Titov was nowhere near what could have been called a combat zone, but even despite his relaxed posture something in him wanted to jump in his mobile suit and go out looking for more enemies to fight.

For a few long moments the Captain let him float there in the solitude of his own thoughts, but the relaxed atmosphere in the room evaporated with the opening of the main hatch. Vanessa swaggered into the room with all the humility of an undefeated champion boxer, even despite the cast on her left arm and the multitude of bruises covering the whole of her body. Out of respect for his older sister he let her mood go on for a few moments, though Captain Emeril didn't even seem to notice her sore lack of taste. "Finally awake, huh? I told the medics to inform me when you regained consciousness..."

"I wanted to surprise you. And what do you mean finally? How long was I out anyway?" She said snappishly as if coming out a short catnap.

Captain Emeril turned and tried to smile, even knowing the humorless nature of the situation. "It'll be three weeks tomorrow. And you ought to thank your brother, you wouldn't have woken up at all if it weren't for him."

Vanessa glanced at Duncan and chuckled. "Oh, come off it. Takes more than some spoiled little brat to take me down."

The time for patience had come and gone. Duncan turned around, planted his feet on the deck and pushed over to her side. She glanced up at him just a split second before he pulled back his arm and slapped the taste out of her mouth. She recoiled in shock, then looked at him in utter surprise. "Duncan, what is your...?!" Duncan thrust a stack of papers into her face before she could say anything else. She skimmed the papers at first just to see what they were, but on a second look her eyes widened in surprise. "What's this all about, Deuce?"

"We finally got some reliable intel." Duncan let her thumb through the papers and read all the information while he recapped it for her. "The girl's name is Alicia Robyn Cunningham, age thirteen. She's listed as a civilian observer on the assault carrier Tarawa, but according to our data she's being trained as a combat pilot."

Vanessa looked at the papers and saw all this for herself in all its striking detail. "Where'd you get all this data? I don't suppose you have a mole onboard their ship..."

"No, but since you've been sleeping we've made some fairly resourceful friends."

Captain Emeril stepped down from his chair and walked over to the main screen in the back of the room. "Riah went down hard, but not without a fight. The defense forces were beaten easily, but several other factions have moved in and started making trouble. Nothing too major, just some blockade runs and a couple rallies. One or two pirate groups even tried a couple raids." Captain Emeril typed in a command on the view screen and the computer called up an image of the Mudrock Gundam from its archives. "As it turns out, some of these pirates are really good at getting sensitive information. Based on all data, the mobile suit that shot you down is unlike any weapon we've ever encountered. Even the other Newtype-use models can't seem to keep up with it." The computer replayed the last images from Duncan's flight recorder, granting Vanessa the humiliation of watching her own mobile suit chopped to bits with its own beam rifle. "We've been analyzing the data for three weeks, even staged a fight trying to draw it out for analysis. We have no idea what kind of control system or technology makes this possible..."

"I don't think it's that. It could be just the pilot."

Duncan grinned at the captain, settling a two-week-old bet with just those few words. Captain Emeril decided to be stubborn. "I think that's very unlikely. The pilot's a pre-teen with poor eyesight, no combat training, no battle experience of any kind. There's no way she could have done all that damage without some mechanical aid."

"What damage...?" Vanessa flipped to the back page for the last and most alarming intelligence reports. It was a list of fleet actions within Side 6 over the past three weeks and the known mobile weapons involved there. In four separate engagements, the Mudrock was accounted for seven mobile suits shot down and five aerospace fighters. "No... that's impossible! She's only a child!"

"She's almost a year younger than your brother and is fast approaching his battle record. I wouldn't have believed it myself except..."

"... she managed to shoot ME down, right?"

"Well, yes. Face it Vanessa, you're not exactly the best pilot in the world, but I've never seen you take a beating like that before. If she could handle YOU like that..."

Vanessa glanced over at Duncan with a faint grin. "So that's how it is, huh? I make one little mistake and now you're trying to protect me from your little girlfrie...?"

"How about you pull your head out of your ass and grow up a little!" Duncan sprang forward, shouting in her face. "We don't have time to screw around anymore! The Titans are getting more aggressive and Alicia's becoming more skilled! If we don't do something now, we could have a real nightmare on our hands!"

Vanessa pushed him gently away from her, letting his words fly over her head for the time being. "I'll keep that in mind, baby bro. Anyway, where the hell are we going?"

Captain Emeril turned and smiled. "We heard some scuttlebutt about a gathering in deep space of a bunch of renegades and cutthroats. As we have nothing better to do at the moment, we're on our way to check it out."

Vanessa scratched her head in confusion. "Gathering by who? I thought the Riah forces were all wiped out?"

"Not all of them, but they're in no position to organize anything. It's some left-wing political group called the A.E.U.G.."

Vanessa looked at Duncan, who seemed to take this situation even less seriously than she did. "And they are...?"

Duncan shrugged. "I dunno, but they don't like Titans."

"Great. We should get along just fine then."

- 0651 hours (CST) -
The flashes of cannon fire and explosions flickered intermittently ahead of them, mixed with the occasional signal flare and a streak of what looked like a shoulder-fired rocket. They were almost close enough to get visuals; Mudrock was skimming over the moon's dusty surface at its top hovering speed while Alex bounded along ahead of it with long vernier leaps. Naomi couldn't help but notice the speed gap between them and felt a surge of anxiety. Alex's thrusters weren't nearly efficient enough to hover the suit, and any other way it was just barely fast enough to keep up with Alice's faster mobile suit. She tried not to think about it; the idea of Alex being obsolete was both disappointing and increasingly obvious. "Scan ahead, Alice. What do you see?"

Alice adjusted the sensors to their highest resolution and let the computer do all the work. The system couldn't pick out the fine details for her, but by now she was used to it enough to tell what the sensors were seeing. "At least seven mobile suits. I think they're Zaku type, but there's two GMs flying around too. And I think there's something else in that crater."

Naomi rebounded off the surface and jumped higher than usual on her next leap, scanning down over the lip of the crater to see a gigantic heat source and a large column of outgassing. "Whatever it is, the GMs are protecting it... might be one of those transports from Riah. We've had reports of those things getting ambushed lately."

"Oh yeah, you're right! Maybe these are the hijackers we're looking for?"

"Either way, there's not that many of em. Alright, Alice, what should we do in this situation?"

Alice thought about everything Naomi had taught her in the last three weeks and wracked her brain to think of a solution. "Uh... we should call the Tarawa and have them send backup, then setup a rendezvous point where we can offload survivors."

Naomi felt something warm in her heart. What a fast little learner. "Exactly right, under normal circumstances. But remember, the only mobile suits ready for combat are Ryo and Mike. Your brother could use a core fighter, but that won't be much help until we get the upgrade parts from Granada."

Alice thought for a few more seconds and then came up with her plan-B. "We might support the GMs to cover the transport and then call up a missile barrage from the Tarawa. It's still on the horizon for another few minutes."

"That is one option, but if the enemy strength isn't too high we can achieve the same effect with your 300mm."

"You're right. I might need you to spot for me."

"Of course. Fall in behind me and we'll each pick our first target." She's been studying her manual. Not bad for a girl who reads with her fingers.

Alex landed on the lunar dust and blasted forward under full power, more flying than hovering towards the still-intense battle zone ahead of them. Mudrock followed along the same way and Alice flipped up the safety on her beam rifle as they came into range.

An explosion overhead announced to them they were finally close enough. Alex cut left and Mudrock cut right, both selecting the same target from opposite ends. The Zeon mobile suit noticed Naomi first and boosted straight up to get the drop on her. "That's yours," Naomi said, stopping long enough to keep the suit's attention.

Alice took her cue and locked her computer onto it, steadied herself in space and then fired off two quick blasts from the beam rifle, both scoring hits and sending the Zaku tumbling to the ground in three separate pieces. "Got him."

"Nice shot." Another improvement. She usually hits him in three or four... Naomi fired her thrusters again and rose up over the crater, joined by Alice just a few seconds later as they followed the battle area and the dueling mobile suits nearby.

As soon as they had a view, both of them gasped in surprise. Two GMs lay broken in the dust next to the battered and broken hull of a Salamis class, its defensive guns still firing wildly into the air in a vain effort to keep its attackers at bay. The two surviving GMs were fighting it out with three enemies at the opposite side of the crater while a pair of Gouf Custom's bombarded the cruiser with gatling guns from the distance. Only a few of them... so much for the missile barrage. Naomi and Alice both landed in the crater next to the cruiser and crouched down next to the hull just below the bridge. She made sure they were clear from enemy fire and called out on the short-range radio, "Lieutenant Wilson, EFS-Tarawa."

There was a long pause, then one of the GMs from outside of the crater landed behind them and a slightly annoyed woman returned with a light French accent, "Lieutant Sayla Mass, EFS-Bali! We got ambushed by some hijackers masquerading as refugees. They forced us down here and they're trying to board us!"

Naomi wondered at first why no one in the command staff had answered, but on a second look she saw the reason for it. The main bridge was riddled with machinegun fire and almost falling apart in Luna's gravity. "What's your cargo?"

"It's uh... medical supplies and thermite charges for clearing colony wreckage."

Alice listened for a few moments and turned up the volume on her radio. Where've I heard that voice before...? "What about the crew? Is anyone still aboard?"

"There's still some officers trapped below decks, the rest evacuated on foot. In any case, we can't let them through to the ship unless we scuttle it."

"That's true." Naomi ran around the stern of the ship and came around the other end, just beneath the line of fire of the two Gouf Customs. A flurry of machinegun fire ripped apart two of the defense turrets, but the ship's aft particle cannons were still blasting away for all they were worth. They're being careful with those after turrets. They don't wanna risk hitting the engines. Naomi poked her head over the lip of the crater just long enough to get a look at the two attackers. They were about twenty kilometers away, which was about as close as they dared with the barrage still pouring out of the cruiser. She scanned the mobile suits for target data and then flinched at something else. "Two Goufs with heavy machine guns... wait a second, how can a ground type mobile suit operate in space?!"

Alice walked around behind the cruiser and crouched down just behind its engine nozzle. "How should I know? Shut up and spot for me!"

Naomi poked her head up again and her computer quickly calculated their position for her. "Range, nineteen point five-eight. Set your spread at one and a half degrees, plus and minus 127. And remember you're in Lunar gravity here."

"Gotcha." Adjust for Lunar gravity... that's one low shot! Alice aimed both cannons just over the lip of the crater and turned herself in the right direction. Angle's too high... She fired a burst from her head vulcans and lowered the lip of the crater just enough to clear her shot. "Perfect! I'm locked in!"

"Then shoot!"

Mudrock fired the cannons in sequence, left and then right in a continuous rhythm until each barrel had fired five shots. It only took a few moments for them to impact; the shells began exploding one after another all around the two Goufs, knocking them around like ducks in a pond and kicking up giant columns of dust around them. The last shell exploded only a few meters in front of the lead suit and knocked it off its feet, and in another instant, Naomi's Gundam burst through the dust cloud with its beam saber and sliced it in half before it even hit the ground. The other Gouf spun around and launched its heat rod; Alex spun around in place and sprayed the suit with its arm gatling and the Gouf exploded almost immediately. The tip end of the heat rod connected with Alex's armor, with its other end now attacked to a pile of shattered debris. "Ground types in space. Of all the dumb ideas..."

She saw a pair of twin flashes out of the corner of her eye and turned to watch Alice and the other two GMs gang up on the retreating raiders. One fell victim to Sayla's beam spray gun, while the other one caught a pair of 300mm shells in its main vernier pack and disappeared in a tremendous fireball.

Everything about this fight had Naomi shaking her head in utter confusion. Even as Alex returned to the cruiser with the other Federation suits, she still had nothing but questions about the enemies they'd just defeated. The first person with any information was the first person to suffer her frustrations, "Lieutenant Sayla, are you sure these guys were trying to hijack your ship? If I didn't know better, I'd swear these guys weren't even expecting a fight."

Even the mobile suit shrugged at the question, something which almost made Naomi laugh. "They seem a little eccentric... or maybe just desperate. They attacked us with a squadron of Dopps packed with high explosives and crashed them into the ship like missiles."

Naomi groaned once again. "See, there you go again! Dopps can't fly in space!"

The GM shrugged again. "Fly, no. Drift, yes. Their tactics are unorthodox, but somewhat effective, as you can see."

"Right..." Next Naomi turned to Alice, who she could tell was already wracking her brain for excuses. "What about that last Zaku you shot down? That explosion was a little bright for an old..."

"I didn't look like a Zaku. I think it was a... a... I don't know what the hell that was, but it was really ugly."

"I don't care, what's dead is dead." Naomi turned back to the wrecked cruiser lying against the side of a lunar crater and the sliced-open cargo hold along the side of it. Now that she looked carefully, she could actually see a dozen space suited officers with torches cutting through sections of the outer hull to rescue their trapped comrades inside. Tough break, guys... "Sayla, we'll get in touch with the Tarawa and send a pickup. Are you the ranking officer in charge?"

She hesitated for a long moment and then stammered back, "Well... I... um... well, actually, we don't need you to send a pickup. With the raiders eliminated, we can take it from here."

Naomi started to ask another question, but then stopped herself and slowly looked around and examined the hull of the Salamis cruiser. The markings had all been stripped by battle damage, but now that she looked at it more carefully she recognized something about the hull she should have realized from the very beginning. Most Federation cruisers were upgraded with mobile suit launch facilities either shortly before or immediately after the Delaz Uprising; this one was not. "Is all of your equipment registered?"

"Through our unit, yes."

"Which unit is that, exactly?"

Sayla hesitated to answer, but hoping for a miracle she tried her long shot. "That would be the... 13th Autonomous corp. of the Tianem 2nd Fleet."

Naomi grinned at the response. She still wasn't sure what was going on here, but given that bizarre habits of their enemies it was a safe bet to say they weren't much of a threat. "Heh... Give my regards to White Base."

"I certainly will."

Naomi turned her mobile suit and started walking out of the crater in the direction of Granada. Alice followed along behind her, but just before she left turned for a parting, "Nice to see you again, Artesia," and followed Naomi back out of the crater.

Sayla waited until both were well out of range before kneeling down again and drawing her beam saber. She gave the workers a few moments to clear out and then began slicing open the hull of the ship to clear a path through to the cargo hold. Stay out of trouble, Alice, for once in your life... She cut out a small square section out of the hull just large enough for the work crews to slip inside and complete their mission. I was afraid this would happen. Casval was right after all. The Titans are obsessed with controlling newtypes... "Ground team, our supply ship from Tycho will arrive shortly. The cargo is the number one priority, but you must TRY to get to the main computer."

- 1925 hours (CST) -
Commander Passaroff only weighed thirty two pounds in Lunar gravity, but just that little weight in his heels was a welcome sensation. He could walk almost normally in Granada's spaceport without having to step firmly everywhere and keep himself pulled to the deck, no longer having to worry about pulled muscles or strained joins from all the tricky movements of Zero gravity. Just being here on Luna brought back memories; somehow he wished the Titans had just assigned the Albion into their forces and let him keep it.

Agamemnon's refueling was near complete, but the ship wasn't scheduled to leave for quite some time. Admiral Dyson hadn't returned to the ship since its arrival here four days ago—not that anyone had minded his absence—and now as the jeep came to rest in front of the three-star hotel where Dyson was staying during port leave. The Passaroff left the jeep in idle close to the front door and stepped inside quickly, hoping to get this business out of the way and move on to far more interesting pursuits. He didn't even wait for the girl behind the front desk to look up, just slapped his hands on the wood and started speaking, "I'm Commander Passaroff, I'm looking for Admiral Juan Dyson."

The woman looked up slowly and eyeballed the Titans uniform. It took her all of two seconds to remember the room number of his objective. "Room 211, take that elevator."

Passaroff raised a brow. "How'd you remember that so fast?"

"We got a lot of Titans." Passaroff nodded and started for the elevator, but the girl behind the desk added to his back, "And if you have no other business here, I'd appreciate it if you leave quickly. We've had some noise complaints from up there."

The Commander stopped dead in his tracks and turned back to the desk. "Noise complaints?"

"Admiral Dyson's had a lot of visitors up there. Some of the guests keep complaining about some commotion."

"Yeah... thank you, ma'am."

He took the elevator to the second floor and turned left at the hall, around a corner and down another hall to the extra-luxurious suite that was room 211. Passaroff stood and listened for any signs of "commotion," but heard nothing after a few long moments and decided he was in the clear. Don't sweat it, I'm sure they were just rumors. He knocked on the door and stepped back a little from the peephole. The door opened only seconds later and Commander Passaroff saluted the Admiral as he stepped into the hallway. "Reporting, sir."

"At ease, Commander." Dyson returned the salute and pulled the door almost-closed behind him. "How's my ship?"

"Refueling is almost complete, and our supplies all arrived on schedule. Major Cunningham has been in contact with Admiral Marquis, and he reports they're ready to proceed with Carter's test phase. We're just waiting for Marquis to pick a test location..."

"About that..." Admiral Dyson grinned and leaned back against the doorpost. "Something's come up recently and it seems we might not be needing Marquis' scientists after all."

"Sir?"

"It's what we've always suspected, Commander. The problem with our new weapons is not the weapons themselves, but rather the pilots."

"Uh... yes sir." Passaroff felt a tingle in the palms of his hands, but tried his best not to show it. Neither he nor anyone else in the crew had been briefed on whatever it was Project N was supposed to be doing, in fact the only information they'd been given at yesterday's briefing was that the Marquis fleet had the missing pieces of this magical new technology. "How will this affect the overall mission, sir? Uh... if you don't mind me asking..."

"It won't. If anything, it'll change our testing schedule. Don't worry about it."

"Yes sir. Will that be all, sir?" Dyson took a few moments to think about it, but in that brief silence, Passaroff heard the strangest sound from the still-cracked hotel room door. It was very faint, sounded muffled in some way, but if Passaroff didn't know better he would swear there was someone crying. "A-Admiral...?"

"Nothing else, Commander, but put in a requisition order for a MRP-720 and at least one spare cap. Have Bates team run some simulations with it."

Passaroff listened for a few more moments before he even considered the Admiral's order. "An EMP? I beg your pardon, Admiral, but these weapons aren't even effective in modern combat. Even the old Zakus are screened against EMPs."

"I'm well aware of that, Commander. Carry on."

"Thank you, sir." Passaroff saluted again and Admiral Dyson stepped back into the hotel room. For the few seconds the door was open, Pasaroff heard it loud and clear; the sound of someone crying somewhere inside the hotel room. For a few moments he tried to shake it off, told himself it was the TV or the radio. In the elevator he decided it was someone in another room, and back in the lobby he decided it was just his imagination... then he came to the front desk and slapped the wood again, "Excuse me, have there been any other visitors for Admiral Dyson today?"

The girl reached under her desk and checked the guest list for the day under the visitor registry. "Three others, uh... a Colonel Sheridan from the marine corps, James Langly and Garcia Lorca. The two civilians are listed as relatives."

Passaroff sighed in a bit of reliefe and started to walk away, but once again the girl stopped him before he got too far, "Interesting... Mr. Passaroff, there was one other."

It took every bit of nerve to turn his head and face the girl again. "Who?"

"She was with Colonel Sheridan, he said she was his niece."

"How old was she?"

"I don't know. Ten... twelve... something like that."

The Commander turned back and walked out of the lobby without another word, not looking back or even stopping to digest the information. He hopped back into the jeep, slammed the accelerator and sped off towards Granada's downtown district. Calm down, Yuri, it's only a rumor... Just the echo of the sound from Dyson's hotel room caught up with him again and he slammed the gas even harder. I think I could use a drink.

- 1939 hours (CST) -
The Tarawa was descending into Granada's main port, riding on a cushion of minovksy particles to control its descent into the hub of the city. Captain Shiden almost rejoiced to see the flickering patterns of guide lights running vertically to give Ensign Garcia a visual reference; any color by now was a welcome thing to see. The entire crew felt the weight dropping off their shoulders and an air of relaxation filling their lungs. Granada was everyone's favorite port, the kind of city Earthnoids had never learned to appreciate.

Naomi and company were in the officers lounge when the ship finally touched down, with Lucy and Mike kicking back at a table sharing a bottle of campaign, Chief Watson and three other senior mechanics at another table napping comfortably after yet another barn-burning effort to service Naomi's mobile suit after another sortie. Naomi stood in the middle of them all and waited until well after the ship had landed, a wait of more than fifteen minutes before all three of the party guests arrived at once. She eyed each of them as they sat down; Ryo Izumi and Brian Anderson came in side by side and Captain Shiden closed the door behind them. All three grabbed chairs and pulled up between the two tables, but then one late arrival slipped into the room with an armload of holographic equipment. "Sorry I'm late," Holland said, huffing from the long climb from the storage room six decks below. "Shit, even in low gravity..."

"Stop bitching. You want in or not?" Holland nodded sadly and set the projector down in the middle of the room, opened the panels and plugged it into the wall behind Naomi. "Now then, for those few newcomers here, we always meet in the lounge like this because of security reasons."

"Security?" Brian looked around self consciously.

"It's easier to sweep for bugs in here than the briefing room."

"Ah."

"Before we start, I might as well bring you three up to speed." She slipped a disk into the base of the projector and threw the switch. After a few seconds, an image appeared in the air in the middle of the room showing a gigantic mobile suit unlike any Ryo or Brian had ever seen. "The Titans refer to a program called Project N. You'll never see it personified more clearly than this thing."

Ryo gazed at the massive bulk of the machine and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Wh-What is it?"

Lucy stepped up and stood on the opposite side from Naomi. "MRX-007. It's merely a prototype for a much larger unit, but Titans are calling it "Flash Gundam." It's very heavily armored and extremely powerful, and despite its appearances it's also quite agile."

Naomi turned the image of the mobile suit around a few times so they could all see it clearly, giving the newbees a piece by piece tour. "The entire suit is built around an advanced Pschyommu system nearly identical to the Zeong class mobile suits of the One Year War." She turned it to face the front and singled out one massive squarish bulge on its torso. "It usually carries no handheld weapons, but it's main armament consists of this extremely high output beam cannon on the chest. It's capable of both wave-form and scattering motion, so there's really no point taking it on at close range. He'll just blow you away as soon as you slow down."

Ryo shifted back and forth in his chair again. "Is it protected?"

Naomi grinned. "Very. The cannon's fully armored on all angles and has a blast shield when it's idle. You should also be careful of a smaller beam cannon mounted in the head, two small ones on the forearms as well. The suit is also known to carry at least one beam saber into combat on a recharge rack just below the main vernier pack."

Ryo and Brian looked at each other for a few moments, and Ensign Holland suddenly regretted being made part of this. "Is that all the intel we have on it?"

Naomi nodded. "Everything we could swipe from the Titans. If this latest info is reliable, it might be combat ready within two to three weeks."

Brian though for a few moments, then thought of a new question, "And you don't know who's behind this exactly, right?"

Captain Shiden giggled at the question. "I don't think you understand this situation, Lieutenant. Flash Gundam is a Titans weapon designed expressly for their Newtype corp. The purpose of this meeting is to figure out how to kill it."

"Really?" Ryo looked around at all the people in the room with him and started to smile. "Little mutiny, huh?"

"Something like that." Naomi clicked off the holo-screen and pulled up a chair in the midst of the group. "We're not going to war against the Federation, Ryo. It's just the Titans are building a weapon much too powerful and it has to be destroyed."

"Why?" He looked up slowly until he was looking straight into her eyes. "Before you mentioned something about bio-weapons, but this is just some radically advanced mobile suit. What's the big deal?"

Brian sat up and nodded in agreement. "Besides, from the look of that thing it's still just a concept. I don't know about your intelligence source, but I strongly doubt something that loaded would even be able to stand up."

"It can." Naomi stood up from her chair in front of him and, to Ryo's extremely mild surprise, started to unbutton her shirt. "There's only one person in this room who really knows anything about these weapons..." She pulled off the top shirt of her uniform, reduced to a tanktop now, and turned her shoulder so Ryo could see the number 07 burned into her arm with what looked like a branding iron. "... and I know these things from experience."

Ryo stood up in front of her and almost grabbed her in his excitement. "You've piloted something like that?"

Captain Shiden sighed and folded his arms behind his head. "Our dear Lieutenant Wilson was one of Project N's rising stars. She'd still be there now if it weren't for a few minor circumstances."

Brian felt a sense of inclusion in this crew he hadn't felt since he came aboard, but he wouldn't be doing himself a service if he didn't finally ask his question, "And where does Alice fit into all this?"

Naomi waited for Ryo to sit back down and then turned to face the entire room. "Alice's abilities are... an anomaly. She's already on a higher level than me, and certainly higher than any of Project N's other pilots. The only thing she lacks is combat experience, but I've been working night and day trying to get her caught up."

Captain Shiden folded his arms across his chest. "You think she's ready?"

"Not quite, but close."

Brian fidgeted in his chair, glancing around like a little kid waiting for someone to notice him again. "You still haven't answered me. What do you want with her? What's she supposed to do in all this?"

Naomi started to answer, but Lucy stood up and walked around in front of him. "Flash Gundam utilizes an upscale version of Mudrock's Psycommu Interface. An oldtype wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell, unless the battle system is disrupted by a more powerful wave form. We don't know for sure how to produce that energy wave..."

"But Alice does." Brian looked past her at Naomi with a strange sparkle in his eye. "That's why you brought us aboard after the Merrimac Incident. You're going to use her just like some living weapon..."

"That's how it has to be, Brian. She's our only shot at making this work."

Brian stared at her for a few long moments, then shook his head in disgust. "You're no better than the Titans! You don't even care about her, you're just using her for your own..."

"Of course we're using her. She's a weapon, and a valuable one. She's the only weapon we have that can defeat the Flash Gundam."

Brian surged up towards her and everyone in the room moved back a couple inches. "Alice isn't just some bio-weapon, she's a person for chrissake...!"

"Everyone has a role to play, Brian. We don't choose it, we just play it when the time comes. On this ship, Alice is no more human than the mobile suit she flies."

Brian surged past her in anger and stormed out of the room, leaving all of them in an awkward silence for a few long moments. Ryo started to follow him out, but stopped at the door and turned around to a room full of somewhat embarrassed officers. "I'm just curious... do all of you feel the same way?" Glances passed from one person to the next, everyone looking to the next person to see just who would answer the question. "Is that all she is to this crew? Just... just cannon fodder for some big operation?"

Captain Shiden sighed and stared at his knees. "I know it's a shitty deal, Lieutenant, but we have no choice but to play the cards we've been dealt..."

"So why do you have to use her like some kind of machine? She has feelings, you know, she's still a person..."

"Conner and Miranda don't have that choice." Naomi was mumbling to herself, but just loud enough for Ryo to hear her. "The Titans have taken everything away from me. My family, my friends, my dignity..." She looked up suddenly with tears in her eyes, "All I have left is my life. I can never get back what they took from me, but with Alice as my weapon, I can make them pay for the lives they've destroyed."

"And to hell with Alice's life, right Naomi?"

"You just don't understand." Naomi's shoulders sagged and she stared at the floor again. "You don't understand anything."

The room fell silent again, this time a dead silence as if the entire world had suddenly stopped. Everyone in the room felt their hearts beating slower and their lungs taking in a thicker atmosphere than usual, but in another moment, Ryo and Naomi were the only two people in the otherwise crowded room.