Gundam Seed: The Federation
By Blackshadow999
A/n: Okay, as the title includes 2.0, it should be pretty obvious that I have been going through this story. I have been adding some things but the biggest difference will be that I've written this all in third-person and none in first-person. I still like the overall storyline and will be keeping the vast majority of it. Still like everyone, I'm human (a natural) and so am prone to making mistakes just like we all do and will probably continue to do so. I will state my official disclaimer in this Phase and then just refer to it going forward.
I myself, do not own Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny or anything in the Gundam Universe, nor any of the related characters or the subject. Nor do I own the ideas that I borrow from other universes. All I can take credit for is my original characters and concepts that come from my musings, such as some of the vehicles, suits or other machines that are not in any series. The ideas from the Gundam Universe and other Universes belong to their respective authors, anime or whatever they belong to.
That's my disclaimer, this will be the one time that I will state it, so refer to it later if you like. Now, this is one of my attempts to write in multiple points of view, including third person which I don't believe I'm very good at. So please, bear with me in this and cut me a bit of slack. The beginning section is still a historical accounting and setting the world as it will be in this story, since it isn't the same as what Gundam Seed and Seed Destiny have. If you don't like that kind of thing, skip to the last two paragraphs of the first section. However, should you do so, there will be references made later that will make less sense later. Please read and Enjoy!
Phase 1: Drawn into Chaos
The human species, scientific name Homo Sapiens, unique creatures among the many that inhabit the world called Earth. Possessing one of the rarest gifts which so differentiates them from other creatures around themselves, the ability to choose or free-will. And with having this gift, humans have an incredible potential combined with the rare capacity to surpass the limitations of their species, humans stand out from other intelligent creatures. Yet humanity even with all its limitless potential is also riddled with serious contradictions that can prove detrimental. The faults, shortcomings, and limitations would bring about the destruction of other creatures but have not done so to humanity thus far. But as the wheels of fate keep turning ever forward in what can seem a repetitive cycle, chances of destruction keep appearing in humanity's path
Humanity is currently in what they call the Cosmic Era, which began when the Anno Domini or A.D. calendar came to an end. Hopes of a fresh beginning with the new era, were strained as the change of eras came with the greatest upheaval humanity had ever experienced before. Many events contributed to the shift and upheaval, the first was that petroleum and the other resources that could make fossil fuels ran dry. That combined with the critical levels of environmental pollution led to the worldwide economic crisis that turned into the collapse of the global economy bringing hard times onto all.
To attempted to recover from the collapse, the global community members formed a few major powers to stand together. However, as such occurred, long-standing ethnic and religious strife returned to the forefront and led to a conflict that evolved into a third global war that became known as the "Reconstruction War" which started in the first year of the Cosmic Era. As the war progressed, a virus that simply was called 'Type S influenza' rapidly spread around the globe unlike an illness or plague had before. It the wake of its spread, death followed in staggering numbers. Within nine years, the world war came to an end, the cure to Type S Influenza was discovered, and new territorial powers were formed to give the people of the world peace. The major powers or states were the Atlantic Federation, the Eurasian Federation, the Republic of East Asia, and the Euros Coalition. By the thirteenth year of the Era, the Equatorial Union, the Kingdom of Scandinavia, and the Orb Union had also been established.
To prevent another war from happening, the United Nations, the governing body of Earth overall, announced and began to execute a plan to go out into space and build colonies began, to explore further than the human race had before. Such an idea had been interrupted by the Reconstruction War and now was to be resumed. So, in a few years, a ship was sent out into the Solar System to go beyond the asteroid belt visit Jupiter, an announcement that rocked the world was heard from that ship crew. A member of the mission to Jupiter, by the name of George Glenn, made the confession of him being what became known as a 'Coordinator'.
A Coordinator is what was defined as a type of human being that'd had their genes changed or altered in some way shape or form. Some of the common traits that Coordinators had, were that they tend to be faster and stronger than those who didn't have their genes changed or engineered could do, plus, the near immunity to diseases. The reasons as to why Coordinators came into existence, is a hotly debated subject even in the present time.
That particular argument came to a head during the controversy of Coordinators, brought out many things. One point that was brought up by this argument, was the formation of groups which were against Coordinators and what they represented, and they made outcries heard to the world of the "moral" wrongness that they say Coordinators were. Among those groups, one by the name of Blue Cosmos was one that shouted out against Coordinators and later were believed to commit terrorist attacks against the places in the world that did the genetic alterations. So, during year 16 of the Cosmic Era, which was known as the 'Coordinator controversy issue', a conference of representatives of the world was held in Italy. At that meeting of world leaders, the 'Torino Protocol' was adopted, which stated that the manipulation of human genes was to be stopped and would be prohibited going forward, period. However, as history had proven for human beings when something is forbidden, then some wanted to do it more than if it was not. In this case, some more wealthy individuals ignored the protocol and made some of their children into Coordinators.
For the next few years, the conflict of Coordinators' existence became quiet, but not dropped, but tolerance for them grew with more than half of the human population. Still, some committed attacks on the few Coordinators that were publicly known and the places that could produce them, which would be classified as terrorist attacks later on. To help bring those who were committing terrorist attacks that kept happening to justice, a group was formed by the United Nations, which would be separate from the military of the nations of the world to act as peacekeepers and hold those bring chaos and fear accountable for their action.
Even as these events occurred, the development and construction of space colonies continued unaffected by the conflicts on Earth. Years passed by and just as things were settling down, news came from the exploration group that had gone to Jupiter, that they found a mysterious fossil that was unlike anything seen before. The ship was ordered to come back to Earth at once and so, the ship that had gone to Jupiter called the "Tsiolkovsky", started its journey back towards Earth.
In the twenty-ninth year, the Tsiolkovsky returned from Jupiter and what they had found was confiscated from it and taken to one of the completed colonies named "ZAFT", located at what was called "Lagrange 5", which was sixty degrees from the moon was for research. In the following year, a period began that would later be called the first "Coordinator Boom", in which the creation of Coordinators was being done much more than before. Also, during this time of the Cosmic Era, the construction of a device known as a "Mass Driver" which made the process of getting up into space a great deal easier than before, was underway. As mass drivers became more available and usable, the pace of construction of space colonies increased.
Then, in the year forty of the Era, an Alliance between the Euros Coalition and the Republic of East Asia and the group that the United Nations formed, joined together and formed the Human Federation, the first superpower of the era. As that was happening, the Atlantic Federation had started building a base on the moon, which they called Ptolemaeus. A year later, the first space fighter, developed by the Human Federation was unveiled for the defense and protection of those in space. The Atlantic Federation soon finished their lunar base and then revealed what they called "mobile armors" which were based on the Federation space fighter.
Meanwhile, at the ZAFT colony, the research continued, but George Glenn had also developed a concept for a new type of space colony and he announced his idea. The concept caught the interest of most of the major powers of Earth and so funding was provided to begin construction of them at Lagrange 5. The newer type of space colonies started being constructed and was called Productive Location Ally on Nexus Technology or PLANT for short. Their construction began in year 43 of the Cosmic Era and the first ten of this type of colonies were finished a little more than a year later.
Coordinators hoping to escape the discrimination from non-Coordinators or Naturals as they were also being called, moved to the new PLANT colonies. However, the acts of terrorism soon began also happening to the PLANTs, though a number of the attempts were thwarted by the Human Federation's military forces. The creation of the ZAFT Alliance occurred to give the PLANTs political autonomy and protection from those who wished to do harm and was done in the hope that the attacks would happen less. The PLANTs began to depend on the Federation Military for protection for a time, especially as the Human Federation was getting larger and gaining more influence since the Kingdom of Scandinavia joined, and shortly after so did the Equatorial Union became a member of the Federation. But, still wishing for independence, after the development of mobile suits, the ZAFT Alliance changed its name to ZAFT Alliance of Freedom Treaty or ZAFT and started taking responsibility for their own protection.
As terrorist attacks against Coordinators increased, the leaders of the United Nations, met together at Copernicus City on the moon to discuss what could be done to stop these acts. Unfortunately, a terrorist attack came during the meeting, killing the leadership, coming to be known as the Tragedy of Copernicus, which Coordinators were blamed for. Shortly after the event, the Earth Alliance was formed, which brought together the Atlantic Federation, the South African Union, and the Eurasian Federation. Conflicts then began popping up all over and that evolved into the Earth Alliance was formed and the war between ZAFT, which started with one event. The event was called the Bloody Valentine after it occurred, was the nuclear strike made against the PLANT type colony. The colony was destroyed and the whole colony's population lost their lives in the event.
In response as well as for their protection, ZAFT dropped ground-penetrating "Neutron Jammers" across Earth. The purpose was to stop the production of nuclear weapons, but all forms of nuclear energy were affected by the jammers. The war between the PLANTs and the Alliance has continued for near five years, with little sign of a conclusion in sight. The Human Federation did what they could to stay out of the conflict and held a stance of neutrality. So, the war that played out between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT quickly went beyond the scope of any of the previous wars human history had witnessed. For, it involved not only almost all of Earth but space as well.
At first, it was expected and predicted that the Earth Forces, the military of the Earth Alliance, with their superior numbers would be the victors of the conflict. However, such expectations were proven wrong by ZAFT and their use of mobile suits. With the Earth Alliance and ZAFT at each other's throat, the neutral nations on earth and in space whether small or large were put in the trying position with the two sides that were at odds attempting to convince those nations to join their sides. But, the Human Federation would not allow any of its member nations to be bullied and the Alliance quickly stopped trying to force the Federation to assist them by physical means. With their military force made up of Coordinators and Naturals, the Federation attempted to prevent the violence between both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT, yet with the hatred between the Naturals and Coordinators, it seemed an impossible feat.
In the current year of Cosmic Era 71, tensions were only getting worse between the Earth Alliance and the ZAFT organization. Around Lagrange 3 which is directly opposite of the moon in its own orbit, the three-island type colony Heliopolis which was built during the earlier part of the Cosmic Era. The colony's design had a base of large space rock with a cylindrical tube that made up the living space of the colony's inhabitance. From that base, running perpendicular, were three 'arms' stretched out with solar panels and the oxygen regeneration system that utilized plants and a small atmosphere that flowed to the main living area of the colony.
The colony was designated Heliopolis and was built for resource mining, but also did technical development and later, minor military research. The ownership of the colony fell to the Orb Union on Earth as they built the colony itself. For the citizens who lived in the colony, as their nation was neutral, they didn't worry about the war affecting them, yet heard the news of what was going on. A further sense of security began to be felt when rumors of Orb deciding to join the Human Federation spread. And even with the proximity of the Eurasian military satellite Artemis that belonged to the Earth Alliance, for Heliopolis peace was present.
Inside the colony, a young man by the name of Tyler McGregor who stood at five feet nine inches was going about his business of the day. He was lean to the point that he was close to lanky in overall body figure. With green eyes and spiky tan locks of hair that went in random directions, he was considered a bit of a looker even at the age of eighteen. For the day, Tyler was wearing a sand color T-shirt with a white vest over the shirt with his casual black pants. He didn't stick out and that was how Tyler preferred it most of the time. Officially, Tyler was in the colony Heliopolis, on educational exchange and was attending the technical college. Although unofficially, he was at Heliopolis along with the three other members of the Federation Military, as part of an investigation team, looking into a rumor that the Earth Alliance's OMNI Enforcers had been developing weapons somewhere within a neutral colony.
The morning began as most did for near a year now, but for some reason, the tension level had grown much higher over the last week. Upon reviewing the time at Heliopolis, Tyler didn't believe things should be as tense as they felt yet. Six months ago, the other three team members and I had confirmed that the members of the Earth Forces from the Atlantic Federation that were here were using Morgenroete Inc. and its engineers to develop prototype mobile suits along with a new type of battleship to use against ZAFT in their war. Not only were the actions in violation of a standing treaty between the Earth Alliance that was to keep issues down between the Federation and the Alliance. But also, they are putting the colony at risk of being dragged into the fighting, and that frustrated Tyler.
The treaty that was being violated was known as the Latinan Protocol, which in simple terms is meant to keep the Earth Forces from getting help with military development from the Federation. With the Orb Union joining the Federation close to a year ago, that made the protocol apply. They may have not announced that they were members of the Human Federation publicly, but it didn't change the fact that they were a part of it. And Tyler was seeing mounting evidence that there was an OS for Naturals in development, yet not much as to who was doing the designing of that system or how far along that idea was.
Honestly, it didn't matter at this point, and Tyler knew that even if he didn't like the point. However, Tyler doubted that the Earth Forces personnel had even thought about the possibility of the colony getting attacked by ZAFT forces because of them. They were too busy with what was seen as the Atlantic Federation's precious secret project to consider their enemies interrupting them. Tyler knew that such careless lack of thought about potential harm to others their actions might cause was typical for them forces.
That wasn't the only issue Tyler was dealing with which frustrated him quite a bit, there was more which just related to the actions of the Earth Forces. Evidence had been coming to light of an operating system for the mobile suits that were in development for Natural-type humans or for the soldiers of the Alliance. Tyler had been trying to find out who was in charge of that but hadn't gotten solid facts on a person responsible for the idea. It was what Tyler had been working on as of late, finding whose job it was to work on the suit operating system. Tyler did have a few people of interest that he was watching hoping to get evidence that would show responsibility for the project.
In the back of Tyler's mind, he was thinking that he really needed a vacation after this assignment. The job had been wearing on him fairly hard and he wouldn't say no to some rest and relaxation for a bit. Yet, the sound of the communication unit that Tyler had with him brought him out of his thoughts. The device was made to look like a regular civilian com-unit so as not to draw attention or look out of place. Tyler took out the unit and put a code in and moved it to his ear, "Hey Lisa, anything unusual out there," he asked in greeting.
Lisa Malto was a teammate of Tyler's and a female Coordinator that was in her early to mid-twenties. She had a height of five feet four inches with mid-length straight black hair and green eyes with an average figure. She was seen as second-in-command on the team and would take over if Tyler was for some reason unable as he was the leader of the team.
Day in and day out, there had been a ritual set since arriving at the colony, one member of the team would go out for a watch in a space fighter once a day on the outside of Heliopolis. The one inside would check in with the watcher outside for anything of note. It had been rather boring to Tyler before when his turn came, but he wished it was still now as it had changed. It had been around a week and a half ago when the transmission came from Federation's military high-command that a patrol would be coming to confiscate the Earth Forces equipment and clean up things. The Alliance could say nothing really as they had been breaking the agreement they made.
When that message had come, the investigation team had been breathing sighs of slight relief as it marked the end of the assignment looming. The four team members including Tyler had started to look towards what would happen now that the mission's end was in sight. That changed the day before yesterday when two ZAFT vessels had shown up and had been camping out a small margin out of the range of the colony since. Tyler knew that ZAFT forces being here meant they more than likely knew what the Alliance personnel were doing here. And what's more, Tyler also knew some ZAFT commanders had no issue with attacking just because Heliopolis is a neutral colony.
"Other than the colony maintenance crews making their rounds for this week, not really. There's an old Earth Forces ship, a Marseille III-class if I'm seeing right approaching the dock right now. So, they'll dock soon, but other than that, it's been quiet, nothing from the ZAFT forces yet other than recon from what I've seen," replied Lisa.
Alliance ships came on occasion, in truth it was supplies and personnel being transferred over to the project being done. It had been when ZAFT forces had appeared, Tyler had made the decision that the watch needed to be done more than once a day. He also tried to figure out who was in charge of the onsite ZAFT ships as he wanted to know who he was dealing with. The problem was there were a few ZAFT officers that didn't see anything wrong with violating treaties and then getting their actions waved off or attempt to, it wouldn't always work. In Tyler's mind, what was being missed is the risk and harm the colony's citizens would be under were fighting to break out.
There was the chance and hope that the Federation patrol would arrive before violence came up, but there was just as likely to happen before the patrol got around the colony. Tyler shook his head and took in a deep breath before he replied, "Let's hope it stays that way, still keep your eyes open. The feeling of tense foreboding and impending problems is getting worse faster than I like at all. If ZAFT forces are going to make their move, then it'll likely be soon with the increasing pace that the OTSE personnel is working at." Tyler paused for a moment then continued, "I know we hope that the Federation patrol gets here before a fight breaks out, I know I certainly do. But none of us can say at this point, so better to be prepared."
Tyler terminated the connection and slipping the com-unit back into his pocket before heading off. He didn't want to dwell on the possibilities of what could happen as that wasn't fruitful, he instead decided to go and check on a friend that lived at the colony. Tyler's friend had the name of Kira Yamato and they had known each other for years. They had met at a prep academy that was on the moon when they had been younger. Kira was two years younger than Tyler himself and was very smart when it came to academics. However, Kira had a flaw that Tyler called his friend's naïveté and it frustrated Tyler many a time. Some may call the idea "innocence" and other things. Tyler refers to it as naïveté and "a special kind of stupid" though it isn't meant as an insult in any way by Tyler.
Kira was at Heliopolis on an educational exchange as Tyler was officially. And Tyler knew that normally at this time of the morning, Kira would be in the central quad in the residential district of the colony. Hence, Tyler was heading in the direction of the central quad and when he arrived fifteen minutes later, he saw Kira sitting on a bench. Kira had short neutral brown hair and silver eyes and shared a similar average body shape as Tyler himself had. Kira also had an oval-shaped face that framed his handsome facial features rather well even if he didn't flaunt them.
And yet, Tyler found that Kira was not alone as he had expected him to be, there was a teenage girl with him. The girl was around the same age as Kira himself and easily stuck out with her beauty. She had a tad longer than hip-length pink hair that appeared silky in texture. The girl had a hair clip in her hair on the right that was in the shape of two waves one on top of the other. Her eyes were blue and fit her regal-looking face that only added to her beauty. She was wearing a black turtleneck and tan capris which was different than the normal style of clothes the girl wore in public.
Tyler knew the girl's name was Lacus Christopher though that was an alias as her real name was Lacus Clyne. The reason she used an alias was Lacus was the youngest daughter of one of the major leaders of the PLANTs. The name Clyne had influence and renowned due to Lacus's father and the efforts for peace that he had made as to the current leader of the PLANTs Supreme council.
Lacus had come to visit Kira and Tyler did consider her a friend but not in the same way as she was with Kira. Tyler hadn't missed the signs even if his friend had, Lacus liked Kira more than a friend, but Tyler's naïve friend didn't see her tokens of affection as her saying that she liked him. Then Lacus was also engaged to one Athrun Zala who happened to be friends with both Tyler and Kira.
Tyler made his way closer to the two teens and began overhearing their conversation, "Couldn't you have asked the professor to take some time off," asked Lacus, pouting slightly while Kira typed away on his laptop. "I visit as often as I can, but it isn't easy getting here, and I don't have long."
"I know," said Kira smiling apologetically, "and I did ask him, but he wouldn't budge. He said this stuff was the top priority and didn't give me a chance to say anything else though I tried."
Lacus let out a sigh in response to Kira's response and Tyler could understand the girl's frustration. The professor being referred to was named Kato and he taught advanced computing courses at the college. Both Kira and Tyler had been hounded by the man as Kato had been getting their help on work he had been doing and not giving either a lot of choice in helping. Tyler was well-aware that Kato had been spreading himself thin and was now heaving work onto others like Tyler and Kira and it wasn't new. That was the standing issue as Tyler saw it with the man, he works himself hard and then makes others pick up the slack which tended to end out being Kira and Tyler himself. Kato didn't seem to care that both were students and were expected to keep up with schoolwork, he still dumped work on both of them or used to.
Tyler had begun avoiding the professor over the last month or two telling him that he was giving out too much work. Tyler hadn't told him the truth that he was on assignment but had said that schoolwork combined with assisting the journalist he worked with was more important. The answer Tyler received from Kato was that Tyler should get the work he had for him done first and to "somehow manage" and that "he was young". Tyler took the advice of managing and simply avoided the man by leaving classes before Kato could shove stuff onto his shoulders. And thus far, the solution that Tyler had employed had been successful overall. Nonetheless, the consequences of that Tyler was seeing was that Kato went to Kira instead and dump the work he would give Tyler onto his friend. Unfortunately, Tyler knew that Kira had a hard time refusing others and he rarely if ever complains about being overworked like Tyler would when necessary.
Tyler suspected Kato most of all as being responsible for the development of a mobile suit operating system. However, Tyler didn't have enough evidence to confirm Kato as the one or not and it wasn't for a lack of trying. Tyler closed the rest of the distance that separated him and the two younger teens to be behind them. He then waited for them to recognize that he was there, "Fine," Lacus said, "But could you hurry it up a little please?"
"I'll try Lacus," Kira answered.
Tyler held his peace for a moment longer but then was unable to stay quiet, "So, Kato dumped more work on you again did he, Kira," Tyler mused with a tone of pity.
Both Kira and Lacus twisted around and looked at Tyler as he stood behind them smiling. "Tye, where did you appear from," asked Kira.
Tye was what Tyler's friends called him and he was fine with the nickname that he had gotten and had stuck. Tyler did gain a sheepish expression, "Oh well, I was walking around this morning, avoiding a certain professor that's been trying to bug me about stuff, you know the usual." Tyler turned to face Lacus, "Hey Lacus, nice to see you again, didn't know you were going to visit. If you'd called ahead, then I would have greeted you earlier along with Kira when you arrived."
The pink-haired girl smiled and nodded at Tyler's greeting and waved while Kira looked tired, "That professor wouldn't happen to be named Kato, would they," he questioned.
The response from Tyler was an apologetic nod, "Yeah, it's him." Tyler came over and looked at the display of the laptop, "And it looks like he dumped the work he has tried to get me to do the last time he got me to listen to him onto you Kira. Sorry about that, Kato can be a stubborn guy, I'll tell you, but you already know that." Tyler paused, rolled his eyes before he continued, "I mean, can you believe when I said to him that I needed to catch up on schoolwork along with other stuff from my job, he brushed all that off?"
Tyler threw up his arms, "I'm falling behind a bit due to the research I've been doing for the Journalist I help for my job as of late. So, my paying job makes keeping up in school challenging enough, the work Kato gives me has caused my grades to suffer more. I don't want to have to see an advisor as they won't help me with my grades, they wouldn't understand the cause of the issue." Tyler sighed, "Plus, Kato just told me, and I quote, I should get the work he had for me done and then catch up on the schoolwork afterward." Tyler shook a finger in a knowing gesture, "But lest we forget, the past record says that every time you or I get the collection of work done which Kato supplies, the man just turns around and shoves more onto us without hesitation. Somehow he keeps forgetting that he does that regularly to you and me." Tyler sighed, then focused at Kira, "But again, we both know all about how Kato does that without thinking, don't we?"
Kira answered by rolling his eyes at Tyler and then turned his attention back to the work holding the documents in one hand and typing at a quick pace with the other. On another section of the display were news reports and feeds playing in the background of the laptop, while Kira was typing away. While Kira focused on the work, Lacus and Tyler focused on what was being said from the news feeds as they reported on the war though the reporting could and probably was a tad out of date. However, it was the best info that was available and Tyler couldn't get anything else while on his current assignment.
It was made clear that the fighting between the Alliance's OMNI Enforcers and ZAFT forces was only getting worse. The Federation's military had been trying to prevent as much of the conflict from getting out of control as possible. The result was some of the skirmishes were less bloody than they could have been but that was all thus far. Yet still, innocent people were dying because of the fighting the war involved and it was considered an unfortunate accident.
Hard as it may be to believe for some, the overall reason that the war started and was kept going was rather simple. There were the Natural humans who were afraid, jealous, or both of Coordinators and so, they demanded to have control and dominion over them. To get what they wanted, those who disliked Coordinators convinced others to attack them. The response from Coordinators was to defend themselves, and that, unfortunately, led to retaliation which descended down into the current war. The Bloody Valentine had occurred and things just got to the point that any kind of peace talks became impossible.
As Tyler and Lacus were taking in what the news reports were saying that a mechanical blue finch-like bird glided into the gazebo and landed on the monitor of Kira's laptop. The bird chirped slightly, tilting its head as it did so as it looked at what Kira was doing. The robotic bird was named Tori or its creator who was Athrun Zala called the robot that name. It would either chirped or said what sounded like 'birdie' and nothing else. The same person had created the ball-shaped pink robot that was on the table that we were sitting at started rolling a little wildly. "Haro! Haro!" said the robot.
Lacus has had one of these ball-shaped robots for the last few years, not necessarily the pink one for she had more than one. The thing and its duplicates rarely said anything besides "Haro" hence their name, Lacus's name, and simple lines that made little sense most of the time. Suddenly, Haro's eyes began to flash. "Haro! Lacus! Run!"
"Kira, Tye," came a male voice. The voice belonged to a male teen by the name of Tolle Koenig, and he was one of Kira's friends. Tyler had quickly become a friend to him like Kira during the near year that he had been at Heliopolis. Tolle was a natural-type human that stood at a height of five feet four inches and had dark brown hair that had a bit of a wavy quality to it. Along with his green eyes, he gave the impression of being an easy-going and funny guy. Today, he was wearing an off-white button-up shirt and a pair of jeans.
Tyler heard Kira groan at seeing their friend and Tyler could understand the issue going through Kira's mind. Tyler was also none too happy for Tolle to be searching for them. It meant that he was more than likely roped in by Professor Kato to find the two because he had MORE work to dump on both. Kira and Tyler had learned that the college professor wasn't beneath sending out friends to fetch them and bring the two to him so that he could distribute out more weight to the workload he set them with. The friends of Kira and Tyler had little idea that they were used by Kato to get the two to go to him.
The fact of the matter was that Professor Kato had started 'giving' the two work that was to help him when he discovered that they both had a talent for complex electronic and mechanical systems. Although Tyler had been avoiding the man for over a month, it seemed that the efforts had come to a standstill as friends were now being involved. "So, this is where you've been hanging out with your girlfriend Kira," Tolle remarked. "Tye, you really should get a girl for yourself, Kira is showing you up."
Kira and Lacus both blushed slightly at Tolle's comment whereas Tyler just rolled his eyes, "That's my business Tolle and none of yours, so kindly stay out of it," Tyler replied almost tiredly. "So, moving on, what brings you around here?"
Tolle simply barreled on and answered Tyler's question without letting him finish, "Professor Kato has been trying to get a hold of you, both of you actually."
"Again," moaned Kira.
Tyler grumbled with frustration as Kira ended his moan, "Yeah, I'm well aware that he's been trying to get ahold of me and my answer to him hasn't changed, I got work to catch up on, so heck no!" Tyler exhaled in frustration, but continued, "Hasn't he piled enough work that 'he says' he can't do himself on to us," Tyler asked rhetorically, "The man needs to learn to be patient and not keep pushing more of his stuff onto others like Kira and me. He can't demand top-grade work in the timeframes he is forcing on us, not if he wants decent results in anything."
"He asked us that if we saw you two, to bring you both to him right away," said the girl with Tolle who was his girlfriend. "Are you assisting him with something else?"
The girl's name was Miriallia Haw, another Natural-type human who is a fifteen-year-old female and stood at five feet two inches. She had auburn-colored hair and ocean blue eyes which were fitting for her. And today, Miriallia was wearing a blue dress with the middle of the dress being white and the shoulders open. She's nice most of the time, yet with Tyler, she seemed to harp at him for what he does or the lack of action on his part.
"I have too much stuff," complained Kira. "I still haven't even finished going through the stuff he dumped on me yesterday."
Kira slouched back sighing at the question and its subject matter which Tyler could relate to the feeling. In fact, Tyler leaned over to Kira and spoke, "It's like I told you, Kira, you've got to learn how to say no to people, you'll kill yourself if you don't. There is such a thing as being too nice for your own good and it will only complicate your life. A good quality you possess to be sure, but others will take advantage of it if you're not careful. To make things more manageable, I've found it tends to require being able to decline, refuse, and stand firm against others." Tyler shook his head, "I've lost count how many times I've told you that."
Tyler stopped speaking as he caught a glare from Miriallia for he had learned that it's smart not to keep going when he got glares like she was giving him right now. "It's pretty rude of you Kira doing all this work when Lacus is visiting," said Miriallia, then she fully faced Tyler. "Tye you should be taking some of that work off of Kira and do it yourself."
The air was a bit tense after Miriallia's statement though Tyler was staring at the girl with an expression of incredulity. Tyler kept himself busy with things, some of which his friends knew about and other things they did not. So, with the demand made by Miriallia Tyler felt that he was being treated unfairly and that added to the stress he was under. The activities of the Alliance personnel along with ZAFT encroaching in had been causing sleep deprivation for Tyler for the last few days. However, he really wasn't able to tell anyone else as he was undercover with the assignment he was on.
Truthfully, if Tyler were able to do all he was currently AND take some of the work off of Kira WHILE keeping Kato satisfied, he would do so without hesitation. And yet, with the gaze he was getting from Miriallia, he knew that he could say little to nothing in his defense that would help. That wouldn't stop him from trying, "Seriously, you're going there again Miriallia?" Tyler then threw up his arms, "Then by your claim, I should be drowning with work Kato says he can't do himself and instead, dumps on Kira and I while ignoring all my schoolwork and most else I do? Is that what you're telling me Miriallia?" Tyler held out a hand, "Sorry that I have a life outside of school and that's how it is thank you very much."
"I'm just saying you could help Kira in this," she replied firmly.
Tyler's shoulders slumped at the replied Miriallia gave as it showed that she wouldn't let him win in this kind of thing. It was certainly not the first time Miriallia had accused Tyler of shirking work that's then in turn dumped on Kira. Tyler prepared to dig his heels in as he'd had enough crap lately. "Hey you two, calm down," interjected Tolle.
Tyler snorted out loud, "It's not like I wouldn't love to help Kira out by taking some of the pressure off him Miriallia. But what you don't seem to understand is even were I to do as you say, your expectation of him having a lightened workload is incorrect. Me taking some of the work has never stopped the Prof from dumping more stuff on Kira or myself before, I doubt it would start now," Tyler snapped.
"That's the truth," agreed Tolle who had seen the idea as it happens.
Kira paused in his typing and looked at the ground as he spoke, "I asked for a break, but Kato refused and just gave me more stuff to do when I asked," he retorted.
Tyler shook his head as he listened and looked at Kira as he gave his explanation. "That doesn't surprise me Kira with all the 'priority work' he keeps getting from who knows where. It makes me wonder how he is getting the work and gets away with handing off to the two of us along with equally stressful and honestly unreasonable deadlines attached," Tyler reasoned. "That's why I stopped asking for a break, and instead I take a break and don't give Kato the chance to shove work onto my shoulders. Granted, Professor Kato hasn't appreciated me avoiding him, but since he won't listen to me when I tell him no, he leaves me with little other option."
"Well, Kira is the best student at the college and Tye is certainly not a bad student," justified Tolle smiling slightly. "At any rate, let's get going, maybe you can tell him to give you a break if we're there with you."
"We can only hope for that," Kira and Tyler said at the same time.
"You should come along with us too Lacus," said Miriallia grabbing the pink-haired girl's hand as the group headed off towards the college.
Meanwhile, in the colony's control center, those operating and watching the colony systems busied themselves with the docking procedure of the incoming Alliance vessel. The ship was a Marseille III-class vessel which was an older Alliance transport that wasn't in service much anymore. It had a length of one-hundred-twenty meters from bow to stern with the navigation bridge at the front of the ship. The transport had four mid-sized engines attached to spars with two on top and the other two below. There wasn't much when it came to armaments, like most transports there weren't many weapons equipped to the ship. The armaments the ship had was a few point-defense turrets and a single beam cannon. Nonetheless, with the way the war between the Alliance and ZAFT was going, old ships were used for different purposes than they were originally built for, so this transport was not entirely out of place.
The Marseille transport was given clearance to dock as it had provided the proper documentation for docking at the colony. The documents were in order and that was what matters for the time being to the colony control, especially with two ZAFT vessels around the area recently. Most of the colony control staff were on edge with the ZAFT vessels around since it didn't happen much before now. Plus, ZAFT was saying little in the effect of what they were doing around the colony when they were asked. The chief controller got on the com-line that there was with the Alliance vessel, "Marseille Apitus, adjusted your axis right 6.51 points and prepare to enter dock one."
The Alliance ship did as it was instructed making the correction as it kept moving forward. "Ship entering vector is satisfactory," returned one of the operators.
"Breaking jets off, transferring control to automated docking system," replied the ship captain.
One of the console operators signaled that he had the ship coming into the dock as the ship was slowed and caught by the systems that regulated the docking process for the colony. As some looked out the window as the ship passed before the vessel moved towards the dock it had been assigned. "Deceleration rate at 2.56," stated the chief controller looking at a console display, "Commencing final docking procedures, stand by."
Onboard the ship named the Apitus, its captain let out a sigh of relief as the docking procedure was completed, "And so this old ship has just completed her final mission and done so admirably." The man turned to the two younger people, being a man and a woman that were on the bridge with him, "The escort of you and your team has been much appreciated Lieutenant La Flaga, Major McAlester. It may have been a boring job for pilots like yourselves with so little to do," said the captain with a smile. "Still, my crew and I are in your debt."
The young blonde man at the age of twenty-eight by the name of Mu La Flaga and held the rank of Lieutenant in the Earth Forces. He waved a hand in dismissal, "Sir, we just glad that all on board along with our teammates were able to get you all here safely and without incident. It's a rare thing these days," said Lieutenant La Flaga.
The woman close by him whose name was Krystal McAlester or Major McAlester in the OMNI Enforcers nodded in agreement. "Indeed, with the ZAFT Nazca-class destroyer and Laurasia-class cruiser around here. They weren't here the last time by what the reports said, and I doubt they are here sightseeing. What is the status on those two ships by the way," she asked.
The captain inclined his head a bit, "They're out there alright, but there is no real cause for alarm right now. As we're docked now in Heliopolis, they are fully aware that taking action against us while we're here would cause massive problems with the PLANTs and the Orb Union Major." The captain paused before he kept going, "In future, it might be even more of an issue for them and us if the rumors about Orb considering joining the Federation are true."
"Well, since the Orb Union is neutral and this colony is theirs, it is the same in essence," Mu remarked. "I still don't understand that stance while the war is going on personally. And even if they were to join the Federation, I don't see that making much of a difference," said La Flaga.
"Well Lieutenant," remarked the captain, "I can tell you from experience the forces of the Federation's military aren't ones you want to underestimate or have as enemies. Even the ZAFT forces are careful around the Federation as each encounter with them on record hasn't ended well for either the ZAFT forces or for the Earth Forces," the captain admitted. "But still, it is because of this colony's neutrality that plans have progressed as far as they have. It is a good thing that the Alliance recognized nations like the Orb Union as independent nations if only for that even if others disagree."
"Excuse us, captain," said one of five young men who had come onto the bridge while the conversation had been going on, all saluting before they exited the bridge.
Mu La Flaga stared after the five that had just left worried about the young men and their futures they may or may not see. He knew the war wasn't going well, worse than the news was actually stating it was. However, for that to translate to young people going to battlefields before they had much of a chance to live a life didn't sit well with Mu. "You think they will be able to handle themselves on the battlefield," he asked.
"They're so young to be getting into this war," commented Major McAlester sadly.
"Granted, they are young, but they have proven that their selection to be G-pilots was the right choice, they'll be just fine," said the captain, then smiled. "Plus, Lieutenant, Major, don't take it the wrong way, but you two would stick out like sore thumbs with your experience and reputations."
The two ZAFT ships had observed the old Alliance transport dock inside the colony even with their moderate distance away. The lighter and faster of the two, the Nazca-class destroyer which the ZAFT forces used was two-hundred-seventy meters from bow to stern. The ship was built in three sections, the main central sections and the two side wings. There were a few engines at the back of the central section though the more powerful engines were in the wings. This gave the ship class a total of eight engines to work with and provide a good amount of speed to work with. And as a destroyer, the Nazca-class had an array of weapons including railguns and beam cannons mainly. There was also defensive equipment for interception, but the ship normally relied on speed and the suits they carried to keep the ship safe.
The Laurasia-class cruiser Gamow that was the traveling companion of the Nazca-class Vesalius to the Heliopolis colony was somewhat larger than its companion being three-hundred meters from bow to stern. Unlike the Nazca, the Laurasia had two smaller wings on both sides which connected to heavy engines giving the ship six in total to work with. Much like the Nazca-class the Laurasia had an array of railguns and beam cannons to use along with the titan suits it carried.
And upon the Bridge of ZAFT's Vesalius, a white-uniformed ZAFT commander, wearing a silver mask that covered all but his mouth and chin stood looking at an image of the colony nearby. His name was Rau Le Creuset, a well-known ZAFT commander specifically for disregarding rules and had earned the reputation for doing. "Try not to look so frustrated Ades, it is bad for one's health," Creuset said as he turned and floated back towards the tactical table display.
"Forgive my frustration sir, but I can't imagine that it's too late to wait and hear back from the council about this. I'm not saying that your point of the argument isn't valid for I have to admit, it makes sense, especially with the evidence. However, what you suggest… it's more than just risky to pull for many reasons," Captain Ades returned.
Creuset shook his head, "It will be too late if we delay. Your frustration is understandable, yet I assure you that I've seen enough to know that with the evidence that we have says the enemy is up to dangerous things." Creuset sent a picture towards Ades, "You tell me what this picture tells you. To me, it says that time is of the essence and the time to act is now and we will only come to regret our inaction later, likely paid with our lives." Creuset paused, "The Alliance's attempt to create mobile suits must not slip through our grasp because of hesitation, they needed to be secured before they're moved somewhere else."
While that was going on, down in the pilot locker room a young man was thinking about what he was about to do. The young man that stood at five feet seven inches and had neck length blue hair and green-colored eyes by the name of Athrun Zala. Athrun sighed to himself as he pulled on the gloves of his pilot suit as he was still having some serious reservations, questions, and doubts about the upcoming mission the commander had briefed the participants on. There were so many contradictions and ways things could go wrong and lives be lost.
And the more that Athrun thought about this mission, the more risks that came to his mind. Some of those possibilities were dangerous or lethal, and there was even the chance that the information obtained that this mission was going on was false. The mobile suits in the images could be frames the Orb Union was developing and completely unrelated to the Alliance or and the Earth Forces. The other part of the risks were in a way worse was the possibility of the Federation forces discovering the ZAFT presence here without permission was rising. There were serious consequences of trespassing in Federation territory that usually got ships shot at and potentially destroyed.
A proper allegory to the mission was like someone juggling high-grade explosives, several of them of the extremely dangerous variety. Doing this task hoping to snatch the one gem among them and leave praying to get far enough away before the rest went off and shot shrapnel in every direction. Most sane people would dismiss the idea outright as foolish and asking for trouble, but not commander Creuset.
Added to the point, the very idea of Orb helping the Earth Alliance in weapon development seemed as off as it was ludicrous to him to begin with as it would be with the Federation. There was far more reason for them not to work with the Alliance than to cooperate with them in Athrun's mind. Even if working with the Alliance could accelerate the union's own weapon development, especially with suits, it made more sense to remain strictly neutral and just quietly develop while everyone else ignored them. That's pretty much how the Federation did things and the Orb Union was on very good terms with the Federation. That said, if ZAFT forces were caught attacking Heliopolis, then the Federation could use that as cause to attack both ZAFT vessels here without much further issue.
Athrun was brought out of his thought as he felt a hand on his shoulder and when he looked up, Athrun saw his recently made friend, Rusty Mackenzie. "Hey Athrun, you doing okay," Rusty asked quietly.
Athrun frowned, "It doesn't feel right, what we're about to do," he replied.
"What's wrong with you two," asked Yzak Joule.
Athrun and Rusty turned slightly to glance at their teammate that had just spoken. Yzak had medium length silver hair that went down to the top of his neck along with blue eyes and stood at five foot nine inches. He already had his red pilot suit on as he gazed at them, "Yzak," began Athrun.
Rusty gave a small smile, "We're good Yzak, just some pre-mission nerves. They come to a lot of pilots before they go out on assignment," he said.
Yzak shrugged, "If you say so, you both do look nervous even when there's nothing to worry about in this."
"Yeah, sneaking into Heliopolis is going to be all too easy," said Dearka Elsman as he finished closing up the collar of his pilot suit. Dearka had short blonde-colored hair and purple eyes standing at the same height as Yzak. "The possibility that an attack would be launched hasn't occurred to them in their wildest dreams." He gave Athrun and Rusty a slightly mocking smile. "You're not chicken, are you Athrun, Rusty?"
"That's enough Dearka," snapped Nicol Amalfi who had come up behind Dearka. Nicol had green hair and brown eyes, had a height under his comrades at five foot five. He was seen as the cautious one out of those assigned to this mission aside from Athrun and Rusty. "This is a dangerous and important mission. We can't let our guard down simply because the Orb Union is a neutral nation. The Federation is neutral and yet they can match the ZAFT forces if they are put to it and have proven that fact isn't a fluke."
"Nicol is quite right," cut in a new voice suddenly drawing the attention of the five pilots to the tall-masked man that was their commanding officer.
"Commander Creuset," muttered Yzak, surprised to see their enigmatic commander here.
"This mission is of great significance," said Creuset. "The Alliance's OMNI Enforcers have developed prototype mobile suits at a colony of the Orb Union, under no circumstances should this be treated lightly."
Rau paused, "The success or failure of this mission could have a tremendous impact on the rest of the war rest assured. Time is of the essence and we need the mission to be done before Federation patrols come looking around," stated Creuset, taking time to study his subordinates, and gave a slight nod as he concluded that any joking attitude had vanished. "The fate of ZAFT rests on your young shoulders, so we're counting on you to help secure the future."
The five in red pilot suits snapped to attention saluting their commander without visible hesitation, "Yes sir! For the glory of ZAFT!"
As events began turning, back inside the colony the group of teens that included Tyler and Kira along with their friends were heading for the closest electric car station to get to the college. "So, what's Professor Kato researching for Morgenroete, or is he even doing that as he claims," asked Tolle as the group walked.
Tyler exhaled heavily, "As far as I've been able to tell, he is indeed doing research and work for Morgenroete Inc., but that doesn't mean he says what he's working on. Kato tends to be too busy giving Kira and I stuff to give detail though neither of us to ask," he said tiredly.
"Well, by what he's been handing us in the last few months, I think he's developing some new operating system," suggested Kira off-handedly.
Lacus perked up slightly at hearing that wondering if that meant Morgenroete Inc. was helping on creating a Natural-type use mobile suit Operating System. The Alliance definitely wanted an OS that their soldiers could use along with suits, it was no real secret. From what Lacus understood there had been some attempts by some within the Alliance to make an OS before, but those had failed.
Tyler on the other hand, knew that the Earth Forces were trying to develop an OS they could utilize, and Professor Kato was the prime suspect to be the designer. The Federation's military already had developed an OS that Naturals and Coordinators can both use. Although the system wasn't the simplest and took practice to use, the point still stood that all Federation pilots could work with it. The OS Tyler knew hadn't been shared with the Alliance or ZAFT, even if they may suspect its existence, neither has been able to prove their suspicions. The Federation neither confirms nor denies the questions about an OS which is an ongoing frustration to the Alliance whereas ZAFT didn't show much of a response.
Tyler shrugged, "Yeah, I suppose it could be something like that with the stuff Kato has given us thus far. The man tells us not to ask too much about it whenever the opportunity comes up and I'm not that interested in knowing more myself," he added.
"Operating System," Tolle questioned, "Okay, guess that could be." Then Tolle glanced between Kira and Tyler, "So wait, you mean neither of you knows what you're even helping with?"
The two shook their heads in response, "That's so typical of you both," muttered Miriallia in exasperation.
Both the teens looked at Miriallia, a moment later Kira looked away while Tyler rolled his eyes, "Is it so hard to believe that we don't want to be put in a position to get into trouble Mir? There's such a thing as knowing too much for your own good," Tyler posed to Miriallia using the nickname she wasn't the fondest of being called.
Miriallia glared at Tyler for using the nickname, "Tyler McGregor, I told you that using that name is not to be done most of the time," she growled while Tolle was holding her back.
"Hey, be nice Miriallia, it isn't worth arguing about, Kira and Tye are just assistant students," said Lacus coming to their defense. But then, Kira was her childhood friend and had introduced Tyler to her later on. "It's not like they're being told everything," Lacus added.
"Exactly," said Kira, nodding slightly. "Besides, making inquiries would probably just get both of us saddled with more work."
Tyler's shoulders slumped at hearing that and knowing it was true, "Yeah, I bet that's what Kato would do, probably saying that it's so we take responsibility. There's already more than enough work dumped on us, too much really," Tyler remarked yet, he leaned in towards Kira and continued in a whisper, "Although, shouldn't you also say so you can spend time with Lacus as she can't stick around for long my friend?"
Kira blushed a bit at the whispered comment, to which Tyler smirked in response. "That's your excuse," said Miriallia, regaining their attention, "It doesn't change the fact that this is typical behavior for you both. Most people would want to know more, so don't you?"
Tyler was aware that Miriallia really didn't understand how military development works or is seen by those involved. In this instance, should the work Kato was giving Kira and Tyler be related to Morgenroete Inc's weapons development or rather the Alliance's tech advancement, then neither Kira nor Tyler should be more involved than they are. Tyler knew that and it was a risk that he had been mitigating the best he was able.
Miriallia was still pinning Kira and Tyler with her gaze, clearly waiting for a reply to her question. The two were saved from replying when an interruption came, "I'm telling you it's not what you think," came a voice ahead of them, drawing our attention to a trio of girls walking their way. One of the girls was a blue-eyed redhead in a pink sun-dress with a jacket in the lead. Tyler noted that he had seen the girl a few times, but his flaw of matching names to faces was causing him trouble with remembering her name.
"Then what is it," asked a brunette with pigtails.
"It's none of your business," replied the blonde.
"Flay," muttered Kira in slight surprise.
It was that name that got Tyler to realize and recall that the girl happened to be the fiancé of one of Kira's other friends whose name is Sai Argyle. Lacus meanwhile was frowning slightly as Kira had said a few times that Flay was kind of pretty and so meant she could be competition.
"Oh, Miriallia!" said the brunette girl in the trio when she noticed the group.
Her words alerted Flay and the third member of the group, a black-haired girl who gazed over at the other group of teens. Flay's eyes immediately settled on Lacus, and the blonde recoiled ever so slightly away, but only Kira, Lacus, and Tyler noticed. The cause of the reaction was not apparent to any there that noticed it, but body language doesn't just happen for no reason.
"Did you hear," asked the brown-haired girl, rushing over to Miriallia. "Flay got a love letter from Sai Argyle!"
Sai was a good guy Tyler knew, he had a down to earth attitude and would often help Kira and Tyler to not be burdened with work from Kato. Tyler had found him to be very pleasant even if he didn't speak up a great deal and so they got along. That then begged the question of why it would be so unusual for a love letter to be sent? Sai was engaged to Flay, so communication and gestures are expected to go between the two. "Huh, from Sai," gasped Miriallia in surprise.
The words jarred Flay out of her silent stupor, and she stepped forward, a partial glare on her face. "Come on, this has nothing to do with Miriallia," she said as firmly as she could manage.
"Why don't you just say yes," asked the other girl of the trio. "He's not all that bad or anything, right?"
"It's not that," countered Flay.
Tyler was left to wonder why girls seemed so addicted to gossip and then concerned themselves about other another was doing. It had never made much sense to him, but Tyler had seen this idea enough to now it tended to be a commonality with girls. Lacus leaning closer to Kira, "Isn't Sai her fiancé," whispered Lacus to Kira.
Tyler glanced at the two to see Kira nodding slightly, "Yeah, I believe it was a parental arrangement from what I've been told. It's a lot like you and Athrun," he whispered back.
Tyler hummed, "So, that's how it was supposed to work, I kind of wondered," he remarked so that they heard him. Kira stared at Tyler with a look that asked what he was talking about with the comment. Tyler sighed, "I meant our friend Sai as you mentioned he was engaged, but not the circumstances as to why he was in the situation at such a young age. It is a parental arrangement explains the point, don't get why parents do that myself."
As the teens were interacting with each other, a car drove past the otherwise deserted road they were on. The passengers were in civilian clothing but were Alliance personnel here working on the organization's secret G-project. The project was simply to create prototype mobile suits that could be used by Earth Forces soldiers along with a new battleship class to help in the ongoing war. The project had been going for close to two years now at the colony and so far nothing about it had been discovered according to reports. However, ZAFT forces coming around the colony suggested that they may be starting to catch on something that was being done here.
That in mind, work on the new battleship was being finished up and preparations to move the prototype suits to the ship itself. The suits weren't ready for deployment as the OS wasn't finished yet, but the officers assigned to this project were in agreement that time was running out. Drawing the Federation's attention was undesirable as they were sticklers for rules and regulations. And were they to find out, there was a very high probability that the mobile suits and the ship would be seized. Yet, to draw ZAFT forces notice was in a way worse as this project was the hope for a means to bring the war to an end. So, the stress levels for Alliance personnel were extremely high and still rising. The car stopped by the station that one could broad the colony's internal transit system and four adults got out. The teens didn't appear to notice their arrival, "I wonder why he'd write a love letter," Lacus mused.
The woman that was in the lead of the group of adults and who was in charge of them began moving forward. She stood five foot eight inches which had her around the same average height as those with her. The woman had short raven black hair while her eyes were a light violet color. Her name was Natarle Badgiruel ensign in the Earth Forces even if she was wearing clothes that had her blend in with the citizens of the colony. These teens here were talking about frivolous things to her, completely unaware of what the war had been doing and taking in the years it had been going. Natarle couldn't blame them for being blessed with the ignorance they enjoyed though it did frustrate her a bit sometimes. Natarle cleared her throat, "Excuse me," she asked.
All the teens turned to face Natarle in her red jacket along with the three men behind her. None answered Natarle immediately, but after a moment Tyler spoke up, "Yeah?"
Natarle inclined her head slightly, "If none of you are going to board the train, do you mind if we do," she posed.
Tyler as well as the other teens blinked at the question before they shook their heads and moved aside. Natarle and her colleagues moved forward, but she felt a stare on her, and when she glanced back, she found the oldest teen in the group was watching her. The teen kept staring even as the doors to the train closed though Natarle couldn't say why he did so.
Tyler kept staring until the train as it left as he thought he had seen the woman before somewhere. He couldn't place where exactly, but he was sure it had been within the last month which he had been paying more attention during. She could be one of the Alliance personnel here at the colony and it was likely by what Tyler saw as the woman had more military-type air around here even if others may not notice it as he did. Yet, the familiarity could be false and really paranoia from the heavy stress of ZAFT forces being around. Tyler dismissed thoughts about the woman as the next train that would take the group to the college arrived and they all boarded the train.
At the same time, a shuttle left the Nazca-class and began moving towards the colony taking a route that was not within the notice of the colony controllers. In a shuttle, the team that would infiltrate the colony waited to arrive at the drop-off point. All of them were in pilot suits which were airtight with a backpack and small chest unit. The trip itself was around ten minutes, but it seemed longer than that for some. The wait was over when the announcement came, "We have now arrived at the block six maintenance hatch."
Athrun looked to Nicol, who was nearest the hatch of the shuttle and nodded for him to be ready to open the hatch. Then Athrun depressurized the shuttle interior and then Nicol opened the hatch giving those in the team an unobstructed view of the outside of the colony wall. Athrun raised a hand and waved the team out the hatch while five other soldiers in green pilot suits emerged from the other transport pod. They floated forward and quickly spotted the opening to the shaft they planned to use to enter the colony.
The main mission plan called for those in the special ZAFT pilot suits to capture the enemy weapons. There were five suits according to the evidence obtained, and a pilot had been chosen for each machine. There was a risk to those chosen getting killed by the Alliance personnel defending their suits and death was a real possibility. Therefore, regular ZAFT pilots were accompanied by the chosen pilots to safeguard their comrades and, if needed, pick up the slack should something be off with their Intel.
It was an unsaid given, anyone who didn't capture an Alliance machine would probably not make it out alive. Should they somehow be left alive, it would probably only be through capture and intelligence made it clear that such was a fate akin to death. Every single member of the team had volunteered for this mission as they understood the importance of this mission. Were Earth Forces gain the use of mobile suits, the war would become much worse and the death toll would skyrocket.
Athrun glanced at his watch waiting for the scheduled time to start the mission. These hatches were used almost daily at a set time, at the time, the hatch would automatically. Following the hatch opening, five seconds afterward the sensor lasers in the tunnel would shut down for thirty seconds normally in some sort of cycle. This routine was a relic from the time when Heliopolis was being built and had never been changed or removed. With the low number of workers, the need for more automation had forced for the necessity of maintaining the colony. If they encountered any maintenance workers, then they'd have to kill them, so Athrun hoped they were running a little late today so that they wouldn't need to kill someone unfortunate enough to just come by.
Athrun's watch lit up just as he'd set it to do, and the maintenance hatch opened giving the view of long dirty maintenance tunnels of the resource colony. Since this tunnel was close to the outside of the colony, there wasn't an atmosphere here unless someone needed to work on this area. The ZAFT soldiers briefly caught sight of the sensor lasers before they deactivated, that done all ten soldiers headed inside.
The colony train came to a stop by the entrance of the technical college in the colony, Tyler, Kira and those with them got off and entered the college grounds. They headed for the office of Professor Kato as the reason Tolle and Miriallia had gone looking for Tyler and Kira was the professor wanted to talk to them. Kira had said little about how Kato was likely about to dump more work onto him while Tyler had been grumbling about the prospect. The door of Professor Kato's lab was open as the group approached, so they just went on into the workspace. And they were greeted when they entered, "Ah, I see both of you finally gave in."
The teen was the same age as Kira, and his name was Sai Argyle. Sai had short yet straight blonde hair and blue eyes, which were hidden behind his full-moon glasses that had an orange tint to them. He stood at a height of five foot nine almost ten inches. He was also one of the few that tended to understand what Kira and Tyler out of the group who was around them intellectually speaking. Sai was better academically than Tyler was as was shown by grades among other things. He also tended to work more work than Kira regularly than Tyler did on schoolwork.
"Yes, something like that, not willingly at least from me," Tyler replied somewhat begrudgingly.
"Hey, I thought it was just supposed to be Kira and Tye if you found him," said another teen by the name of Kuzzey Buskirk, another member of their circle. Kuzzey had short black hair and brown eyes and stood at five foot three. He was also the last of the four that made up Kira's immediate circle of friends. They had pretty much adopted Tyler into the circle shortly after he arrived at the colony.
"You got a problem with us being here Kuzzey," demanded Tolle irritably.
Lacus and Miriallia were looking over to the left side of the room after noticing something off from the rest of the room. That something came in the form of a person in a brown jacket and hat attempting to draw the least attention to themselves. Tyler upon seeing the girls were looking at something, looked over in the same direction, and studied the person a bit. And Tyler couldn't come up with a reason an unknown person was hanging around Kato's workspace or have gotten in to begin with. Plus, Kato didn't like others in his work space that he didn't want there and he was territorial from Tyler's experience.
Attention was drawn back to Sai as he spoke again, "The professor added this to the workload, sorry," Sai apologized handing Kira a data disk.
"Thanks," muttered Kira unhappily. Sai pushed his glasses up slightly, then he turned to Tyler, "Then Professor Kato said if you dropped by or were dragged here to give this to you Tye. He said that you should be able to get all of it done in the next day or so as you've been having a break from it," he said handing Tyler not one, but two disks.
Tyler took the disks with a tired expression knowing that this would eat up the time he would like to use to catch up on sleep. "Thanks Sai, another long day and likely night of work for me," he remarked. "Yet another night that I get little if any sleep, whoopty freaking doo."
Sai and Kira knew that Tyler did other things aside from schoolwork, but Tyler hadn't told them what he actually did or that he was a part of the Federation's military. All of those here believed that Tyler was an assistant for a 'journalist' at the colony as a means to pay for staying at the colony. The journalist was technically one of his teammates here investigating Alliance activity but Tyler didn't mention anything about that. "I did try to convince him to wait with this stuff or let me handle it since Lacus was here visiting and Tye has been busy with other things, but the professor wouldn't budge no matter what I said to him. It seems this stuff is an even higher priority than we realized," Sai said.
"Thanks for that," said Kira, much more genuinely this time. Sai wasn't only Kira's best friend here other than Tyler, he was also a very gifted Natural-type human Kira had ever met and Tyler had agreed with the view. Tyler expected that Sai could even be offered to work for one of the development groups that worked with the Humanity Federation soon enough. Plus, Sai was one of the few that knew of Lacus's real identity even if it was rather easy to figure out for most that she was a Coordinator.
Tyler gave Sai a small smile, "I don't doubt Kato would say this stuff is 'high priority' like he's been doing lately. At least you try to help, and it is appreciated," Tyler paused then continued, "even if it didn't always get the desired result. I can't blame you for how this ended out, especially as this is Kato's way of saying thanks for avoiding him for the time I have." Tyler stopped talking as there was a vibrating sound from his pants pocket and the sound was audible as other sounds in the room died down. Tyler took out the com-unit and checked the ID code displayed which his eyes widened a bit at seeing who it was. "Uh sorry all, I need to take this call, please excuse me for a moment," he said, setting down the disks on the nearest surface, then Tyler stepped out of the room.
Once Tyler was out of the room and hearing range, he glanced around to make sure he was alone before he put the com-device to his ear. "Okay Lisa, what is it that's urgent you need to call me less than an hour after I checked in?"
"Tyler, you need to move, ZAFT forces are closing in! I think they might already have gotten in a raiding force. Alan found a large maintenance hatch open that shouldn't be and the laser detection system is off," Lisa said to him in a bit of a rush.
Tyler had known that ZAFT personnel might make a move before the Federation patrol got to the colony. He had hoped they would not, but more expected they would more likely than not. The stress began showing outwardly with Tyler as he ran a hand through his hair, "Okay, first calm down and see if you can't prevent ZAFT suits from entering the colony if you could please. The less of them there are to deal with, the less complicated this situation will be in the end. Meanwhile, I'll head to the factory district and see what I can do there to mitigate issues," he instructed before he disconnected the com-line.
Tyler recomposed himself before sliding back into the room and facing the group that he called friends as they were all looking at him for an explanation as to his actions. Tyler smiled a bit more in an apologetic gesture, "Um, sorry everyone, I just got a call from the secretary of the journalist I work for," he iterated. "Apparently, there's an urgent task that's come up that I'm needed for, so I'm being voluntold to get my butt moving and working. It comes with being an assistant in a news organization, on-call all hours of the day and night."
Tyler spun to face the door but didn't get through it before Tolle called out to him, "What about the stuff that Professor Kato has for you to do?"
Tyler paused for a moment as if things went anything like he suspected they would, then the work he was being given wouldn't be of any consequence at all. So, Tyler waved a hand in a dismissive gesture, "I'll get to it after I deal with what I've just been handed Tolle. This is what it is to hold a job," Tyler stated. "You have to do things when you're asked even when it's not convenient. Kato doesn't get that there's more to life than his work and it is time he receives a lesson that no means no whether he likes it or not."
Tyler wasn't exactly lying but nor was he telling the full truth as he was doing his job. It is just Tyler wasn't working for a news organization like he had told them he did. Tyler then raced out of the college and headed to his apartment to collect his bag of goodies that he had prepared for a situation that was currently developing. After collecting his supplies, Tyler would get to the factory district as fast he could to deal with risks as he could. In the best-case scenario, Tyler might be able to stop things from becoming a horrible incident by at least minimizing the damage and casualties, perhaps more.
Phase End
A/n
This Phase is less long than it was before, but that's how it goes. However, I'm much happier with this version as for Phase 1, it goes into better detail and that makes the work on the references that no one else sees but me worth the time and effort that I put into this. Should there be terms you don't understand, you can go to Gundam wiki as that's where I do a good deal of my research for this story along places connected to it. Now, as I tend to do, I ask some of you to please take the time write a review and tell me what you think, whether you think this is crap or think it's awesome, I just want to know. This is Blackshadow999 signing off!