How lucky the heart where love makes its home, for love makes it forget the cares of the world! Love is like the bolt of lightening, which sets fire to patience and reason and reduces them to nothing.
The lover becomes careless of his own safety. Mountains of blame weigh no more for him than a straw; criticism only increases his passion.
- Jami

Chapter 21: Earthlight


- May 24, UC 0084 -
- 1002 hours (CST) -
It required a substantial leap of imagination to define Lucifer as a true mobile suit. It it's current configuration it looked more like a fortress than anything else, with beam cannons and sensor equipment bristling on all sides. Once the mobile suit unfolded itself, he knew, Lucifer would be a mobile weapon with no equal anywhere in the universe—that is, at least until the rollout of Lucifer's big brother.

Even Admiral Carter barely recognized the mobile suit he had personally helped to design, mainly due to the necessary modifications by the Murasame Institute to make the system more efficient than its original specs. "What do you think, Nine?" He said, nodding over his shoulder, "Is this more to your liking?"

Nine sighed and set her hands against the veiwport on the bridge. "Even if I could see it, I wouldn't dignify that with an answer."

Carter chuckled, not wanting to get into yet another ego-war with the young pilot, but satisfied himself for the moment with watching the mechanical teams load the mobile armor into the Dogos Gaia's aft hangar deck, a section of the battleship that had once been large enough for an entire squadron of Saberfish fighters. "If you're not particularly busy, Lieutenant, I want you to go below decks and start running simulations on this machine."

"I'll get around to it." Nine said passively.

"I mean now, Lieutenant, not when you feel like it."

Nine turned around slowly and scowled in his general direction, "I'll get to it when I get to it. Get off my back!" And she turned towards the main hatch and disappeared through it without another word, leaving the Admiral to his frustrations.

At the same moment the Lieutenant departed the bridge, the hatch on the opposite side opened for Admiral Carter's visitor, several minutes later than he had expected but present nonetheless. "I believe there's something we need to discuss, Admiral," He said in his usual drum roll of a voice.

Something in Colonel Bosque's tone filled the air between them with a stink of suspicion. Suddenly Admiral Carter felt like a smuggler trying to talk his way through a customs office. "That so? Anything specific?"

Bosque walked to the glass panel on the starboard side of the bridge and gestured at the immense mobile armor lingering outside, even as the machine slowly moved around to aft to be loaded into the hangar. "There's a problem with your team's progress reports, especially related to Project N."

"What problem, specifically?"

"That the reports are all blank. And even when your team does manage to advance in some way, the end results are always negligible."

Carter had expected this, though somehow he was surprised that Colonel Bosque himself had come all this way to settle the matter personally instead of sending one of his lackeys to inquire for him. It didn't take much to read between the lines: Bosque had a closer eye on him than he thought. "It takes patience to develop technology like this, Colonel." He said, keeping a mask of calm on his features, "And the strides we have made from this project already will benefit the Titans forces for many years to come..."

"What do you take me for, Carter?" Bosque said with the faintest of smirks. "You've been developing Project N since before the Titans were formed, and yet no one outside of the development team knows any of the details. The only reason you've lasted as long as you have is because no one in the top brass is aware how many failures you've experienced."

"Except for you, Colonel."

Bosque grinned. "Which is about the only thing saving your ass right now."

"I don't understand."

"Let's just say your team is no longer leading the pack as far as newtype research. Not surprising, really, considering your knack for failure."

Admiral Carter was silent for a long moment, his mind grappling with this bit of news even as he made the mental connections. Bosque didn't seem forthcoming, but he couldn't help but demand details. "I've been working directly with the Murasame Institute..."

"And the Murasame Institute is in the back seat now. Colonel Dallas' team in Augusta is working on a new prototype transformable mobile suit, and with their current production schedule, they will have it on the assembly line within the next two years. They've already completed a training regiment for their "strengthened humans" program, which includes psychological conditioning and newtype enhancement."

"And this new prototype is superior to the Flash Gundam?" Carter said skeptically.

Bosque grinned again. "The hell it is. But the units they're working on are production models, not experimental units, so once the Gaplant's trial run finishes, mass production immediately follows. In other words, Admiral, Project N may have potential, but the Augusta Labs will have a finished product while your team is still in the test stages."

"But in the mean time, the Flash Gundam has already proven itself a superior design. By the time Psycho Gundam is ready for trials..."

"You know good and damn well that even your Flash Gundams cannot be mass produced, let alone behemoths like Lucifer or the Psycho. The Titans do not need a handful of unbeatable super weapons, but we do need powerful--and most importantly-- RELIABLE weapons on a massive scale."

Admiral Carter felt a bitter taste swelling on his tongue, magnified a thousand times by the gloating smirk on Colonel Bosque's face. He wanted more than anything to remove it forcefully, but for the sake of possible humiliation by the Colonel's fist, he held his temper in check. "And what about my project?" He said, feeling much like a child asking his mother for a cookie.

Bosque picked up on this as well, and it visibly amused him to no end. "I consider myself a fair man, Admiral." He said this with irony, as if with full knowledge of the opposite, "I'll let you keep your little pet project for now. We have practically unlimited funding, so you can continue your research as much as you like. But at this moment, Project N is no longer a significant consideration in Titans strategy. You will, of course, be informed if we ever do find a use for it."

Carter's frustration began to pile in the pit of his stomach. "Colonel, all it took was a single mobile suit to turn the tide of the One Year War..."

"Your grasp of history is childish." The Colonel turned towards the very hatch through which he had entered. "The tide of the war changed because of the superiority of Earthnoid engineering, not to mention Earth-trained pilots. But to the spacenoids, the Gundam became the walking symbol of Federation supremacy." He paused at the door and glanced back with a smirk, "And it will be again."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Bosque left without answering, leaving Admiral Carter to wonder., Is all that talk about a Gundam Mk-II really just a rumor?

- 1231 hours (CST) -
The Galbaldy fired its reverse thrusters to cut its forward motion, then in a split second slammed on its afterburners and pushed straight up from the lunar surface on a column of fire. Naomi reacted on a hair-trigger, pulling the controls back and surging upwards in pursuit; the g-force slammed her against the restraints and then down into her seat as the mobile suit maneuvered, and yet the Galbaldy was still just a few steps ahead of her. "How long can you keep this up?"

"Long enough!" He reversed thrust again and rolled off to one side, firing off a well-placed shot from his clay bazooka as the Alex shot past him in ascent. The splatter round flattened itself against the Gundam's shield, and Naomi's reflex was to reverse again and line up another shot, but in a split second she sensed Ryo's next move and reversed back to dodge his next two shots...

Even as she dodged, she felt the controls push back against her hands and the pedals stiffen up beneath her feet. She didn't have time to contemplate it, but found herself cursing under her breath at the machine's timing for a malfunction. "You can't keep playing luck in your favor!"

"The hell I can't! And anyway...!"

"Shut up and fly!" Naomi locked on and fired ahead of him, predicting his movements and firing a splatter shell right where she knew he would be. Ryo snapped his thrusters back a split second before the shell would have hit his cockpit, but failed to roll out as another round slammed into his left shoulder, splattering the armor of his arm with a adhesive clay. "How do you like that?!"

"Not bad, Naomi, but try this on for size!" Ryo inverted the mobile suit and fired all of his thrusters straight down towards the moon, diving from the sky at full speed as Naomi dove after him, lining up another shot. He waited for her to lock on, then as she fired dodged quickly to one side and charged back up at an angle, firing his clay bazooka at almost point-blank range. The shell hit a section of the torso just below the upper radiator, but neither of them registered the hit; Ryo immediately circled away at full afterburner while the Gundam rebounded off the lunar soil and then took to the air again.

Naomi took half a second to reload the clay bazooka, Ryo took half a second to do the same, and immediately both fired two more shots at each other's directions as they continued to circle away from each other.

Ryo landed again in the dust, crouched down behind the lip of a crater and took a few moments to catch his breath, while Naomi did the same in another crater farther off. The power of the mobile suit throwing itself around space had been rattling his insides around like pennies in a jar, yet somehow he was a little surprised at just how well his machine was able to keep up with the Gundam. "Call me crazy, but this thing handles a little different from the Alpha Gundam."

"I know," Naomi lifted her head slightly out of the crater and scanned the landscape for him, "I was assigned to a Gal-Alpha with the Republican Guard. Those units were just a few steps below Alex in agility, but their response time was a lot slower."

"Well these upgraded Betas don't have that problem. It feels a tad faster than the Gundam, if you ask me." He swung the mono-eye in a half circle and surveyed the landscape, formulating a plan to get the edge on his opponent. "You never thought of upgrading to another unit?"

"No. Why?"

"Well the magnetic coating makes Alex faster than any of the older models, but new units like the Hizack are all using electronic bearings, which has the same effect."

Naomi thought about this for a moment, then did a mental shrug. "Alex still has more thrust than the Hizack."

"Yeah, but he's heavier too. Besides, a year from now the Titans will have some mobile suits that can fly circles around anything we've got today."

Naomi knew this was true, and having to be reminded of it now made her feel small for some reason. "I even heard they're planning to standardize Luna Titanium."

"Maybe not on a massive scale, but you'll definitely see a lot more designs using it."

A strange impulse surged in her blood—Naomi's feet slammed the pedals down and the Gundam leapt from concealment without thrusters, landed on the dust and then jumped again in the direction she sensed Ryo was hiding. "I think Alex still has some life in him!"

"You think so?" He sensed her approach as she descended in the lunar gravity, and waited for her to get closer... and at the last instant he sensed Naomi was about to land in the crater, he sprang up from concealment himself, jumping hundreds of meters into the air without using his verniers.

The action caught Naomi off guard, but she just managed to cut in the thrusters and ascend again, locking on for a kill shot. But the instant she pulled the trigger, the Galbaldy cut in its own verniers and dove towards her, catching her shot against its shield. Naomi met the challenge and locked on, but in an instant Ryo changed angles again before she could get a shot off, passing beneath her legs and firing off three quick splatter shells just as the Gundam spun around again to face him. Naomi sensed his attack and reversed directions, but again she felt the tension of feedback from the controls and resistance from her Gundam. She managed to dodge the first shell, but the next two shells scored hits—one splattered against the cockpit and the other hit the Gundam's face, blinding all of the primary sensors. "Gotcha, Commander. Three to two."

"Dammit all!" She slammed her fist against the instrument panel in frustration, then switched over to backup cameras to guide herself back to the ground. She landed in the dust at the edge of the crater, and Ryo's suit landed in front of her and opened the utility port in one of its fingers. "I must be loosing my edge." She said as the Galbaldy began spraying the splattered clay rounds with a solvent, "Think maybe my golden years are spent?"

Ryo chuckled. "You got careless. It happens sometimes."

"No, that's not it... but..."

"But what?"

The adhesive clay on the face plate melted and fell away, clearing her cameras and sensors enough for her to switch back to the main system, "Alex just isn't responding like he should. The controls feel heavy, the movements are sluggish..."

"Alex isn't the problem, Commander. You are."

"What do you mean?"

"The trouble is that you're so much faster than Alex, the computer has to cut in the limiter. You keep burning out the motors like that, Alex isn't gonna last much longer."

Naomi looked down at her instrument panel in surprise. "Is THAT what's wrong with this thing?"

"I'm afraid so. The AMBAC system just can't move that fast."

Naomi sighed again and started walking towards Tycho city. "No problem, I'll just have Kelly reset the limiter again..." Then it occurred to her, a thought as inescapable as it was disheartening, "What did he set it to last time?"

"350%. And the machine shop is having trouble keeping all the parts working."

The lights of Tycho city appeared on the horizon, and Naomi realized with a certain fascination that despite the sunlight lighting the landscape around them now, the city in the distance was already bathed in darkness. "Is Alex really that obsolete?"

"Even with its advanced design and all the upgrades, the fact is that Alex was designed during the One Year War. Federation mobile suits were still a novelty back then."

Naomi took this to heart and filed it away for later; for now, she walked Alex to the top of a hill and gestured for Ryo to join her there. She opened her cockpit and emerged with a vernier pack, crossed the short distance between them to set down on the top of the armored blast shield in front of the Galbaldy's cockpit. Ryo opened the hatch and joined her there, and both sat side by side and looking out over the Lunar plane in the direction of the immense impact crater to the south where Tycho city had been built. The sun was beginning to set in the northwest, and the line between night and day appeared on the horizon and came rushing towards them at hundreds of miles per hour. "You ever seen a Lunar sunset, Ryo?"

"Of course." Ryo watched the line of shadow race towards them, and then flinched as the darkness swept over the land and the sun disappeared behind the opposite horizon. In an instant, every star in the sky tripled in brightness, and a soft bluish-white glow beamed down on the landscape from the crescent Earth hanging in the sky.

They sat in silence in the tranquility of the moonscape, until Ryo broke the silence with a chuckle. "What's so funny?" Naomi asked.

"Just remembering that time you and Anna went out in the eclipse with some stolen normal suits, and it was so dark you couldn't see anything so of course you got lost. But when the sun came back..."

"Anna jumped out of the shadows and scared the hell outa me!" Naomi chuckled at it herself, then stopped and looked at him in utter shock, "How'd you know about that?!"

Ryo thought for a moment, "You told me, didn't you?"

"No. I didn't."

"Are you sure? I distinctly remember..." Then the thought occurred to him that he didn't remember himself when she might have told him this, or even when he might have heard the story from someone else. In fact, the only thing he could remember about the incident was the memory itself, the experience of it, and the single moment of absolute terror when the sun emerged from behind the Earth and Anna leapt out of the darkness with her arms flailing in the air. "I remember it though..." All at once he remembered back to the incident in the locker room, and the flood of memories he had accessed then and ever since. A thought occurred to him as an echo from Brian's Contolism books, "Naomi, do you remember Emily Regan?"

She smiled automatically without thinking, "Of course I do."

"Where'd you meet her?"

"Working in the loading dock in Nobel Col..." She stopped herself, suddenly realizing the memory in her mind was not her own, "Nobel Colony..."

"Me and Emily were engaged."

"I know. I... I remember."

They turned slowly and looked at each other, and here in the pale Earthlight, even through the visors of their normal suits, they found in each other's eyes a safety neither of them had ever felt before. They were alone for a light year in every direction, nothing between them, not even their own defenses. It was something neither of them had felt for many years. A trust beyond friendship, even beyond family...

The radio crackled in Ryo's suit on the usual contact code, and a distant yet familiar voice invaded their private world under the Earthlight, "803, this is Empty Nest, please respond."

Ryo hesitated for a few moments, but answered the signal without breaking contact with Naomi's eyes, "803, here. What's up, Brian?"

"Intelligence division just called in. Commander Larson's called for a briefing of the senior staff and pilots."

"When?"

"1930 hours tonight. Are you two done sparring yet?"

Ryo deferred to Naomi, and she nodded without speaking. "Yeah, that's it for today. We're on our way back."

"Roger that... uh..." He paused for a long moment, then sighed in frustration, "Ryo, Naomi's radio isn't responding. I don't suppose you could ask--?"

"You two still on tonight?" He said, knowing the request even before Brian could finish.

Naomi nodded again, and this time opened her own radio lines to speak. "Meet me at the rock garden after the briefing's over. And wear something nice this time, okay?"

"Sure, okay. See you back at the barn." Brian closed the radio from his end, Ryo and Naomi did much the same.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, almost forgetting they had been interrupted at all. Five more minutes passed this way, until at length Ryo patted her on the shoulder and smiled. "C'mon. We better head back before we run out of air.

- 1740 hours (CST) -
Juan Dyson was the absolute last person in the world he wanted to see right now, despite what Rico had come to know about his Uncle over the years and the circumstances that suddenly placed them on opposite sides of a battle line. The Rear-Admiral had raised him almost from birth, ever since the plane crash near Madrid that claimed both of his parents when he was only four months old. Uncle Juan had raised him, taught him everything he knew about life, brought him up in a military tradition, grooming him to a fine-tuned pilot of an FFS-3 Saberfish. Now he found himself staring at a computer terminal, half-mesmerized by the blinking light in the corner of the screen as the computer routed his signal to the Titans base at Blue Nobel colony. It couldn't be helped; to avoid a trace, the laser signal would be bounced off so many satellites and relay networks with so many ghost traces that it would take the Titans intelligence a week to trace it, and then only if he left the channel open the entire time.

After what seemed like a dozen eternities, the flashing light pulsed to a steady green, and Rico reached up slowly and tapped the box in the upper right hand corner to connect the channel. He had masked the contact code so Dyson would read it as a priority signal from Jaburo, but judging by the expression that suddenly flashed into existence and filled his monitor he could tell that the Admiral had been long expecting his call. "Hello, Boy." He said, voice almost a growl of contempt, "Glad to see you're alive. This is good news."

Rico stared at the monitor for a moment, saying nothing. He nodded his head slowly, silently indicating to the Admiral that this was not a signal between allies.

Admiral Dyson appeared to have expected this as well. "So this is what it comes to, isn't it?" He said with a sigh, "After all I've taught you about loyalty, about honor, about being a man, you've decided..."

"I've decided to stick with the only people I can trust. You did, after all, teach me about a soldier's duty to his comrades. Even if I did have any ties to Earth besides a paycheck and a commission, I still wouldn't desert my comrades even to save myself."

"Very noble of you. I suppose you want a medal too while you're at it?"

Rico took a deep slow breath. Juan was a creature of habit after all. He had never known the man to be any more pleasant and understanding than this. "I thought we might clear the air a little, just so we understand each other."

"I understand perfectly, Boy. You've turned your back on everything you are, your heritage, your culture... you've run off with a pack of bleeding-heart liberals and terrorists."

Rico shook his head slowly. "Try to be a little more open minded today, Uncle."

Juan paused for a moment, calmed his temper, then said again with a mask of calmness over his voice. "Okay. What did you want me to understand?"

It was something he had needed to say to the Admiral for a very long time, yet now with hundreds of thousands of miles separating them and a different insignia on their uniforms, there was just enough distance left for him to put it on the table. "All my life, I was brought up to be what you wanted me to be. There was always duty, obligation, expectations... I was never tough enough, I was never manly enough..."

"You have an issue to discuss? Let's hear it."

"Mainly, Sir... I never learned until recently that there's more to life than just obedience. Sometimes you have to take initiative, and that's why I am where I am now."

Juan stared at him for a long chilling moment, and then to Rico's total surprise, he grinned. "It's good that you've finally learned that, Boy... a pity it took a group of wannabees like the AEUG to bring that out of you."

The conversation had started to make him angry. He decided to skip the rest of it and cut to the chase. "Why are you doing all this?"

Juan's grin turned back into his usual grim visage. "All what?"

"This... this conquest, this little war you're stirring up. What's the purpose of all this? What are you after?"

Juan smiled, much wider this time. "You haven't figured that out yet? Our purpose is to achieve and maintain the dominance of the Earth federation over the space colonies once and for all."

"By killing innocent people? Don't play games with me, Uncle Juan, you knew those transports were loaded with civilians. Why would you...?"

"To set an example. No mercy will be shown to those who fellowship with terrorists."

"But..."

Juan's fist hit the desk in front of him with such force that Rico could almost feel it in his chest across a hundred thousand miles. "What the hell is this, Ricardo?! Is THAT your objection to the Titans? You don't wanna hurt any of the pretty flowers, is that it?"

Rico felt his chest tightening in a familiar way, yet for some reason he found himself just able to fight it back. "Maybe human life means more to me than it does to you?"

"Bullshit," Juan snarled, leaning closer to the monitor until his face eclipsed the screen, "You've always been spineless like this, a real disappointment just like your father. Look at yourself, sitting there in the dark whimpering, "Uncle Juan, why are the Titans so cruel," like a little sissy! I tried to teach you many things, Boy, but I guess I never did teach you how to be a man!"

Rico brushed it off; it was becoming more and more easy for him, something he hadn't expected in a million years but welcomed at this time and place. "You spent my entire life trying to teach me how to be cruel. I watched you destroy people just for the hell of it. I stood there and watched you torture Naomi and I even let you make me..."

"I didn't MAKE you do a goddamn thing! You wanted it, you took it, and you know you enjoyed it!"

"Even if I did, I can't forgive myself for it." It felt like a fist reaching into his chest and squeezing his heart. He moved on quickly before the memories could swim back to the surface. "It's just not who I am, Uncle Juan. It's not who I have ever been, or who I ever will be."

Admiral Dyson's face overflowed with contempt. "Spineless! That's all you are, Ricardo, A spineless little boy! You'll be a boy forever!"

The memories could not stay gone, especially after this. Juan had used those same words four years ago... with all the ceremony of a sack of old socks, Juan Dyson had dumped a young girl's body on his lap, stripped and beaten, soaked in her own blood, still impaled through the shoulder blade by an eight-inch field knife. Rico had sat there staring at her for almost half a minute before his uncle kicked him in the ribs and spat at him, "Spineless! Get on it Ricardo, you wanna be a little boy forever?!" Rico had wanted more than anything to make his uncle proud of him, and for a time even managed to convince himself that the misshapen mass of flesh in front of him was something other than a human being...

Then her eyes opened. It had startled him beyond words, so much so that he had stumbled away to a corner and vomited behind one of the dumpsters before wandering back home in a daze. In his mind he saw her as she was four years ago... and then in his mind's eye he saw above them, the blackened shape of a Gundam, it's eyes glowing fiercely in jade flame. "You don't get it..." The memory faded into the back again, and Rico started to grin, "You really don't get it, do you Juan?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Get what?"

Rico reached to the corner of the screen and paused his finger just over the icon that would cut off the communications. "Haven't you learned anything yet? All your brutality, all your oppression, everything you do to intimidate and control Naomi just makes her stronger and more determined. You thought she would cave if you pressured her, but instead she turned and took a shot at you. What makes you think the colonies will react any differently?"

Juan's response was automatic, "Because like Naomi, they know that if they ever challenge our authority, we'll..." All at once, Rico's point struck him like a ton of bricks. He no longer had any authority over her that she could not reject, no control she could not break, no presence she could not challenge. She had already grown far beyond his control, and retribution would be highest on her to-do list. "For once in your life, you just might be right."

"Yeah. Scary isn't it?" Rico said mockingly.

"Well what do you suggest I do? Send her a teddy bear?"

"Better than nothing... but you're gonna need about five billion more."

Juan snickered. "I'll bill it to the taxpayers."

Rico stared through the monitor and across a distance of a hundred thousand miles, and for just an instant, for the firs time in years, the two men reached and understanding. "You know how this will end."

The Admiral nodded. "Yes I do. And there's nothing I can do to change it. We are what we are, like it or not."

"Yes sir."

"I'll see you on the firing line... stay safe until then."

"Yes sir." Rico tapped the icon and closed the channel, then tilted back in his chair and kicked his feet up on the desk in front of the monitor. He folded his arms behind his head, concentrating his thoughts in silent reflection, I think I'm going to enjoy watching her kill him.

- 1950 hours (CST) -
"In the olden days of maritime affairs, this was known as "gunboat economics." In this case, Side 2 is exploiting the economic crisis on Earth, so Earth is attempting to impose a crisis on Side 2 with military force." Commander Larson pointed to a chart on the monitor, indicating the number of incoming and outgoing transports, as well as highlighting the ones that had been intercepted and impounded by the Federation blockade. "And so far it hasn't been working."

Vanessa squinted at the chart, not sure if she was reading it correctly. "Looks like they've caught up less than a third of the ships."

"Twenty nine percent, at last check. Most of these freighter captains taught themselves how to avoid patrols during the One Year War, so a Federation blockade is nothing new to them. But the Federation is aware of this as well, and the blockade is intended as little more than a form of harassment."

Duncan had already figured as much, but he could sense this was not the main objective of the briefing. "I guess the AEUG is going to be sponsoring a rally or something to protest, right?"

Gwen nodded. "Governing bodies in twelve colonies have endorsed it. The majority of the population is expected to support the rally, and I'm sure more than a few in the non-endorsing colonies will hold one anyway. All that public outrage will bring the Federation even more into suspicion in the eyes of spacenoids, especially considering they're not likely to lift this blockade any time soon."

The briefing on the Side 2 situation had been running now for nearly twenty minutes, with Commander Larson giving them all the details of the situation, the number of ships, the relation to Operation Stardust, even AEUG operations in the area to date. Brian had filed it all away for future reference, but he got the impression the actual focus of the meeting had yet to be revealed. "Of course, you didn't bring us here for this naval blockade, did you?"

Gwen smiled. "Quite right, Captain. But in the context of this naval blockade, something else has come to our attention." She tapped the computer input on the lectern in front of her and the screen on the wall changed from the chart of blockade runners to a still photograph from a recon ship. There were several ships in frame, but from such a distance that the exact types couldn't be discerned. "An AEUG patrol spotted a small Titans fleet entering the blockade zone nine days ago. They counted six vessels total; four light cruisers, an assault carrier, and a heavy cruiser. Then six days later, they were joined by an additional warship of an unknown type." She flipped through four separate slides until they came to one that showed the Titans fleet in higher resolution along with their new arrival.

Naomi recognized the entire formation with only one glance; the Agamemnon was near the front, with the four Salamis cruisers in a staggered formation beneath its keel. But father to the rear was a Pegasus class assault carrier, and alongside it was a battleship in dark green paint nearly twice its size. She recognized the ship immediately, but the sheer size of it relative to the carrier was something she had not expected.

Gwen almost seemed to read her thoughts from across the room. "You've seen these units before, Commander Wilson?"

Naomi nodded. "The big one by the rear... it's one of the Titans vessels that pursued us on the way to Tycho. It was carrying a squad of advanced mobile suits..."

"Newtype weapons, correct?"

Naomi nodded again. "A system I'm very familiar with."

"As are we. She's called Dogos Gaia. We don't know much about her, but we believe the hull was converted from a Birmingham class battleship. It's 480 meters in length, and has a compliment of up to twenty four mobile suits."

A few amazed whispers circled the room as the Tarawa's senior officers grappled with this information. Even Captain Shiden, sitting in his wheelchair in the corner of the room, couldn't help but be impressed.

"The mobile suits that attacked us earlier are on board that ship?" Brian said, already knowing the answer.

Gwen nodded. "As are the pursuit units from the first wave, stationed here on the Agamemnon."

"Then I suppose our mission objective will be to administer some payback."

For some reason it began to worry Gwen how Brian's inexperience might work against the crew, but she knew from experience that once she started to doubt him, the doubts would see no end. "Commander Wilson's information, combined with other reports from our intelligence division, have culminated into a very troubling prospect for the AEUG. Our analysts have determined that Project N represents a significant threat to the Earth sphere, especially in the hands of a group like the Titans. Should their development continue unchecked, it could redefine warfare as we know it." She waited for this information to sink in, then continued, "The AEUG has already finalized a long-term timetable for militarization of the colonies. We've entered into a defense agreement with Anaheim Electronics, and at our present rate of buildup we will be ready for open warfare within the next three to five years. In the mean time, the Titans fleet is still vastly superior both in numbers and equipment..."

"We're not strong enough to take them on directly," Brian simplified for her. "But the longer we wait, the stronger the Titans become."

Gwen smiled in amusement. Maybe he's a tad sharper than I thought... "Precisely. And this leaves us with a bit of a dilemma. If we allow Project N to develop, by the time we're ready to mobilize it will already be too late. The further development of the project, therefore, must be halted at all costs."

Mike popped up with a question, "And if we end this program, how do we know they won't finish their work some place else? And while we're at it, the Titans are developing more powerful weapons all over the Earth sphere. How will stopping Project N help us?"

Gwen answered the second question first. "To be honest, The Titans are already starting to develop weapons decades ahead of their time. We'll have a hard enough time fighting them as is without some newtype-powered doomsday weapon on top of it." She paused for a moment, focusing mainly on Naomi with the next statement, "Even the Titans top brass don't realize what they've got here. Analysts of the former Marquise fleet believe Project N may be on the verge of a major breakthrough. They've already surpassed the Axis Zeons in technology, and if the Titans ever find a way to refine their system..."

"Then we could be looking at entire squadrons of these... berserker newtypes." Ryo shuddered at the thought even as it occurred to him. Just fighting two of them was difficult enough, but to try to imagine a dozen Flash Gundams, even scaled-down versions of them, caused a chill to migrate his spine. "I can barely imagine..."

"Needless to say, this operation is our current top priority." Gwen tapped another command on the lectern and the screen changed to the next slide. "The mission codename is Operation Marduk. The primary target for this mission is capture or destruction of the battleship Dogos Gaia and the advanced prototypes she's carrying. Secondary target is the destruction of the Agamemnon, or at the very least the live capture of Rear Admiral Juan Dyson." Her eyes darted to Naomi for a split second, and in an instant Naomi's heart started pounding in her chest. "Tertiary objectives" Gwen finished, "Are the supporting fleet, including the assault carrier riding escort to that battleship and any mobile suits she's carrying."

Brian took it all in, but found everything about this mission increasingly stacked against them. He glanced across to Naomi's seat for a reaction, but found her staring at the floor, lost in her own thoughts. "One ship against seven... this looks familiar."

Gwen sighed, feeling the mutual anxiety in the room. "You'll have both of your cruiser escorts, if that means anything."

"It'll help, but not much." Lucy did the math in her head, "They'll have almost sisxty mobile suits in that fleet. And even if we could get past their defenses, there's still the prototypes to deal with. The last time we fought them..."

"Alex and Mudrock have the best firepower and speed, and the Galbaldys can match them as well." Vanessa jumped in suddenly, "The trouble is the GMs. They'd be sitting ducks for those prototypes, especially in a furball..."

"I suppose we could have one of them ride the core booster like we did against the Titov," Lucy said, then shot a glance at Vanessa in time to catch the flash of a grin.

Commander Larson followed the conversation for only a second longer before she provided them with a partial answer, "We do have one thing," She flipped over to another slide, displaying the schematics for a mobile suit, "Anaheim Electronics sent us a couple of their older prototypes as collateral for our defense contract. Commodore Brex has already arranged to have them transferred here."

Lucy did a double take at the specs. "I've seen that unit before... isn't that one of Delaz's mobile suits?"

"Well it's Anaheim's design, I don't know who else they might have sold it to. All I know is that from the specs, it's at least twice as fast as the Galbaldy."

All of them nodded in distant appreciation, but Lieutenant Dyson, who hadn't said a word since the briefing began, broke into it now with a powerful concern, "And which one of us gets the new models?"

Naomi looked up suddenly, sensing something in his voice that immediately irritated her. "Why do you ask, Lieutenant?"

Rico shrugged, trying to look innocent. "Well, Commander, we're going into a difficult mission... I'm just thinking me and Mike won't be much use to the ship with just those GMs."

Duncan snorted. "I'm sure we can find a couple of old Zakus for you..."

"Oh, very funny!"

Mike and Lucy erupted into laughter, but rolling with the momentum, Vanessa joined in, "No, Deuce, he's too good for a Zaku. If he wants to upgrade from a GM, he should probably pilot a Ball."

Ryo spun around on reflex, "Now THAT'S something I'd pay money to see! Big Rico in a flying coff—!"

"Shut up, all of you!" Naomi stood up from her chair and faced the rest of the room, a severe expression on her face and tension in her shoulders. "I've made a decision."

The room was silenced, everyone in earshot knowing something serious was about to happen. Naomi looked at each of them intently as if waiting for a challenge, then stood ramrod straight like a soldier at attention and announced: "The new mobile suits will be piloted by myself and Lieutenant Izumi. Mike and Rico will take the Galbaldys, Duncan and Vanessa will stay in the GM Customs, but Vanessa's unit will be fitted with a high-output beam cannon. Kelly will rig-up an external reactor unit later this week. The Gundam Mudrock is still off limits, but as for the Alex..." Her chest seemed to tighten as she spoke the next part, but with great pain she managed to utter the words, "Lieutenant Matsui will pilot Alex from now on."

She immediately turned and walked out of the briefing room, shutting the door behind her without another word and leaving the senior officers in a shocked silence. It took them each no less than a full minute to grasp what had just happened, and even when it did they still couldn't believe it. "Did I just..." Mike shook his head in disbelief, "Did I just hear Naomi...?"

"You heard right, Mike." Lucy said, still in a state of confusion herself. "You know she's been under a lot of pressure lately... but to actually give up the Alex?"

Ryo sat motionless in his chair for a moment longer, then surged up from his seat for hatch to follow behind Naomi.

He found her only a few feet down the hall, staring at her feet with a strange, disconnected look in her eyes. He said nothing as he walked up next to her, but put his hand on her shoulder as a friendly gesture. "It's hard getting attached, isn't it?"

Naomi nodded silently, but then looked up and frowned. "That's not it though."

"What's wrong then?"

She looked up and down the corridor to make sure no one else was listening, then looked back up at Ryo and searched his face. He found in her eyes a fear he had never felt before, but in half an instant, for a moment in time, Ryo's mind flooded with memories not his own, of a life he had never lived, from the soul of the person in front of him he had sampled several days before. He knew all the things about her she had worked so hard to keep secret, and he knew now that what she was about to ask him might very well change both of their fates for years to come. "Ryo..." She said tenderly, just above a whisper, "Can you help me to...?"

"You wanna talk to Gwen?"

She nodded slightly, the fear in her eyes intensifying. "And I don't know how."

He understood why without needing to ask; the memories were as real for him as they were for her. But the fact that she was even asking his help meant that something inside her had already changed after their experience together. "Okay then... as soon as you come back from your date, swing by my quarters and we'll have a chat."

Naomi looked up at him in confusion. "Date? What date?"

"You and Brian are going out to Rudy's. Remember?"

She thought about it for a few seconds, then blinked in remembrance. "Shit, I completely forgot about that!"

Ryo patted her on the shoulder and smiled. "You better go change clothes. They're wrapping up the briefing right now."

"Alright." She started down the corridor towards the officers quarters, but stopped a few feet down and turned slowly, "Ryo..." She stared at him for a few long moments, a warmth in her eyes beaming across the corridor to him, "Thank you."

"Any time." He turned back down the corridor and headed off to satisfy a growling in his stomach. He could still feel the warmth of her eyes watching him every step of the way, right up to the point where he turned the corner towards the officer's mess.