We were told that we had a few weeks to spend time with our families and friends before being assigned to different locations for active duty. During this time, I spent my time wandering around the city, enjoying the last days of civilian life. I saw families walking about, kids playing with other kids and I smiled to myself; this is what I will be protecting. It was worth it.

I returned to my apartment to find two people in black suits standing by my door.

"Who…are you?" I asked cautiously as I approached them.

The guy simply knocked on my own door.

"Ah yes, please." A voice rang out from inside.

Entering, I found a person sitting on the sofa. He looked to be around 30 years old and had short, neatly combed hair.

"Forgive me for letting myself in; we did not know when you will return."

I just stared at him.

"I apologize, I am Commander McArthur, base commander of Armoury One," he said, shaking my hand.

Hearing this, I quickly composed myself and saluted, "Sir!"

He indicated it's needlessness with a wave of his hand. We sat down on the sofa.

He took out a heavy looking file.

"Shinn, I think it is appropriate for you to know where you will be serving ZAFT. It has been decided that you'll be stationed on board ZAFT's newest battleship, the Minerva. I also believe that a large portion of your class from the academy will also be onboard."

"You mean Luna and Rey will also be on Minerva?"

"That's correct," he smiled, "the Minerva is our trump card, and we need the best pilots to protect her."

"We have also been developing several advanced mobile suits; Chaos, Abyss, Gaia," the commander continued as he flicked through his report.

"However, unknown to most, we are developing a fourth suit. ZGMF – X56S Impulse." He handed the file to me.

"Chairman Dullindal would like you to be its pilot."

The break passed quickly. Before I knew it, I was on my way to armoury one, riding a specially assigned bus for Minerva's crew. After sharing our holiday stories with each other, our attention was diverted to a huge ship which came into view at the end of the journey.

Is that the Minerva?

The people sitting on the other side of the bus all came rushing to get a better view.

"Soldiers! Please remain in your seats," Minerva's XO, Arthur Trine shouted, "You will get plenty of chances to look at it later."

"Hey look! Is that the ship's captain?" Meyrin asked, indicating towards a blonde woman saluting Chairman Dullindal. She had a firm, upright stance and gave off an aura of dutifulness.

"You're probably right," I replied.

As soon as we exited the bus, we were ordered to assemble in front of this woman. Giving each of us a good look in the face, she started,

"Soldiers of ZAFT, welcome to armoury one. The magnificent piece of work behind me will be your new home, hopefully, for a long time to come. If you serve this ship well, and I am confident that you will, the ship will return the favour. My name is Talia Gladys and I am the captain of Minerva. The XO Arthur Trine and I look forward to serving with you aboard this ship. Officers, please direct your division to their quarters. Crew, dismissed."

People began to scatter.

"Pilots of Minerva, please follow me this way." Commander Trine called out.

Luna, Rey, myself met the two other pilots named Shou and Dale. They were both light hearted and outgoing types, completely different to me.

We followed Commander Trine through the ship, to an elevator.

As the elevator descended, the hangar opened up to our view. It was gigantic.

"OH!" Luna squealed in excitement, "is that my ZAKU?"

Laughing, Trine replied "Yes, that's the one, the red ZAKU warrior. That white ZAKU phantom is yours, Rey. Shou, Dale, your GuAIZ Rs are stationed over there."

"Where is Shinn's mobile suit?" Rey asked, giving me a look.

"That…I am supposed to keep secret until Minerva's launch ceremony, but what the hell, let me show you."

We walked past the ZAKUs and GuAIZ Rs until we reached another hangar. Inside, there were stacks of leg, chest and silhouette fliers. Of course, the others didn't know what they were.

"What the hell?" Dale commented with a laugh, "Don't tell me you're piloting legs?"

Trine turned towards me and said, "Why don't you show them? I will give you authorization for launch."

Turning back towards the other pilots, he said "Ok, why don't we go up to the bridge of Minerva to get a better view." With that, they departed.

I walked towards the Impulse's elevator, which was specifically built for launching the fliers. Keying in the password which I was given earlier, the metal blast doors opened and there it was; Core Splendor. Climbing inside, I looked around the cockpit. It was exactly as the report described. Alright. This will be exactly like the simulation.

Keying in the ignition, the Core Splendor's panel lights came to life. A voice came through the comm. system and the monitor came to life. As expected, Minerva's mobile suit comm. officer, Meyrin, appeared on the screen! Giving me a smile, she started the launch process which we practiced beforehand.

"Impulse, standby for launch."

"Central catapult online, closing airtight shutter."

A clear shutter enclosed the elevator.

"Central catapult, proceed to launch position."

The elevator started ascending.

"Core Splendor, all systems online, initiate launch sequence."

I initialised the thrusters of the Core Splendor.

"Open the hatchway"
"Confirming engagement of the catapult system"

"Catapult thrust, normal. Course all clear!"

The final check panel showed green across the board as the elevator reached the top and locked into place.

"Impulse, you are free to launch!"

"Shinn Asuka, Core Splendor, launching!"

I engaged the thrust and was pushed back into my seat. Shooting out of the runway, a huge expanse of water opened up to me. Without letting the beauty of the view distract me, I immediately engaged the combination sequence.

Combination status: Incomplete

Computer tracking successful

Stage 1: Initialising

Guiding lasers initialised and locked on.

Synchronisation achieved, deceleration by 10.

Stage 1: Complete… Core Splendor docked with Leg Flier.

Stage 2: Initialising

Guiding lasers initialised and locked on.

Synchronisation rate below 98, pilot must compensate.

Manual override activated, manual compensation data integrated.

Stage 2: Complete

Combination successful

Phase Shift Activated

The combination of the chest, leg and Core Splendor was complete. The Gundam was responsive to my controls, following my movements with great precision. It was very different to simulation training. Acknowledging Meyrin's wishes, I did some aerial manoeuvres, twists, turns and high speed dives, finally appearing in front of Minerva's bridge.

"Good work Shinn, I see you managed to combine the Impulse on your first test-run," said Captain Gladys approvingly.

I could hear Meyrin and the rest cheering in the background through the comm. system. Saluting the entire bridge crew with my Gundam as I hovered, my friends Vino and Youlan, were on the deck laughing and waving at me

"Shinn, fun's over, the captain requests you to return to hangar, or else you would attract too much attention with that mobile suit. It's supposed to be classified."

A few days later

Minerva's launching ceremony was drawing closer. The captain gave us permission to disembark to do what we needed to do before leaving port. I went shopping with Youlan. The rest of our friends have already gone ahead of us.

We visited the local mall and picked up what we needed. After wandering around the area, we decided to head back towards the ship.

"Oh Youlan, do you want to say farewell to your parents? I won't mind tagging along if you need to."

"Nah, they'll be at the ceremony, I can say good…"

I didn't hear the rest of his sentence because a girl walked straight into me as I turned the corner.

"Are you alright?" I asked as I caught her, stopping her fall.

"Who are you?" She asked, however, without waiting for an answer, she quickly gave me a dirty look and broke away from my hold, running away.

"You grabbed her breasts didn't you?" Youlan commented leeringly.

"Eh!"

"Lucky pervert!"

"It wasn't…"

Youlan walked ahead of me, smiling.

"Hey, come on!" I protested, half laughing, "Youlan!"

By the time we arrived at the ship, I managed to convince Youlan to not tell Luna about what happened. However, as expected, Youlan immediately told Vino about me grabbing the girl's chest. I just sighed to myself.

"Haha way to go Shinn, did you get a nice feel, how was it?" Vino said this so loud, the other mechanics came rushing over. They all looked at me, expecting an answer. Fortunately, just at that moment, Meyrin's voice sounded over the public announcement system.

"All hands, report to battle stations, Armoury One is under attack by three of our own mobile suits. I repeat, all hands…"

"What?" I yelled out. The mechanics began to scatter.

"Pilot to Core Splendor," I ran for the central catapult and leaped inside the core fighter.

Captain Gladys's face appeared on the monitor. "Shinn, I have gotten a report that Armour One is under attack. The assailants are our other three prototype mobile suits; Chaos, Abyss and Gaia. Your orders are to capture them with minimal damage; those are our military's hardware." I nodded.

"Oh and also, Rey and Luna are not available. They cannot help you just yet, so be careful."

With a final nod, I prepared Core Splendor for launch.

This was the beginning of my journey, the beginning of my destiny.

The End

Start events of episode one, GUNDAM SEED Destiny

Final words:

Thank you to everyone who managed to get through 5000 words of story! I had fun writing this and I hope you have all enjoyed this. Hopefully, this makes up for what episode 20 missed!