Chapter 4: Archangel.
The Archangel had nearly made to the Orb union, but to the crew it didn't look as good as it had when they had come the last time. The war had escalated, and it seemed that this time the only outcome would be the complete destruction of either side, but fortunately Kira Yamato had returned, and that was good, however the new machine still was a mystery, and captain Ramius had finally decided to take matters into her own hands.
Captain Ramius knocked on the door of the new crew of the Archangel "This is Captain Ramius, may I please come in?" asked captain Ramius, and almost immediately the door opened, and a blonde young woman stood there smiling at the captain.
"It is a pleasure to see you captain, please come in" said Relenna Darlian as she moved out of the way to allow the captain in.
"Thank you" answered the captain, and soon she was in the room. The room was very neat, it was obvious that these two people where very organized, however there stood one person who didn't even flinch at her sight and this unnerved the captain very much. "Hello there Mr. Heero Yuy, how are you?" said the captain still looking at Heero Yuy who only looked at her for a second before resuming his work.
"Hmm" was Heero Yuy's only answer and he kept on working.
"Please do not worry about Heero, that is how he treats everyone" said Relenna very enthusiastically and soon went to a small kitchenette. "Would you like some coffee?" asked Relenna.
"Yes, thank you very much" answered captain Ramius and soon Relenna was happily preparing the refreshments. "Very well then Mr. Heero Yuy, I have come to know why you are here?" asked captain Ramius going straight to the point and trying but failing miserably at reading Heero Yuy who was as always stiff as a rock-what is with this guy- thought captain Ramius.
"Hmm, it seems you don't loose your time, that is good" answered Heero Yuy without even flinching at captain Ramius and continued "If you must know we just came here to help" said Heero Yuy without looking at Murrue Ramius.
"What Heero says is true, our only intention for coming here is to help you with this conflict, so that it may end before a real catastrophe occurs" said Relenna Darlian as she offered the coffees around.
"You can't possibly expect us to believe that" said captain Ramius very calmly, and continued drinking the coffee.
"If we wanted to be your enemies, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now" said Heero Yuy still stuck to his work, and not even looking.
"Yes captain Ramius, we are not your enemies, and believe me when I tell you this, if we wanted to be your enemies you wouldn't stand a chance against us" said Relenna Darlian calmly, meaning no threat in her words.
"You know how wrongly those words can be interpreted" said captain Ramius.
"Yes we know, but there is no other way" said Relenna looking very depressed by those words.
"I understand" answered captain Ramius, and she prepared to leave "I expect however that you will not cause trouble, and that we don't have any trouble, good bye" said captain Ramius and then she left.
"That went well" said Relenna.
"Yes" said Heero Yuy finally moving from his work bench, and looked at Relenna "however, we will need to work harder to earn their thrust" finished Heero.
"Yes you are right" and with that she got close to Heero and started kissing him, but soon stopped "tomorrow I shall begin doing that" finished Relenna and she resumed kissing her husband very passionately.
Murrue Ramius continued walking through the corridors still thinking about what they had said, but was soon interrupted. "So what did they say?" asked commander La Flaga as he grinned at her.
Captain Ramius was a little shocked by the sudden appearance of the commander, but soon regained her composure "well, they are on our side, that's for sure" said the captain.
"O really, how can you be so sure about that?" asked the commander still grinning like a fool.
"Well, although they are an as of yet uncounted bunch, I could not detect any hostility from them" said captain Ramius while she remembered the words of Relenna Darlian (flashback) - Yes captain Ramius, we are not your enemies, and believe me when I tell you this, if we wanted to be your enemies you wouldn't stand a chance against us-.
"Well I guess I'll just have to take your word for it" said commander La Flaga, and the two of them started to walk, thinking what can of worms the new arrivals had just opened.
Later in the hangar of the Archangel Chief Murdock stood in front of a console reviewing the data gathered from the new machine, but with not much of a hope, when two figures stood through the entrance.
"Well Mr. Murdock, what have you got?" asked captain Ramius as she entered the hangar.
"Well the truth captain, it isn't very good" answered the chief scratching his head as he looked at the captain.
"At this point, nothing can surprise me from them, so what do you have?" said captain Ramius yet again.
"Well, from what the scans tell me, this thing is nothing short of amazing" said Chief Murdock and started looking at the nearby console where he was working. "All the scans that I have conducted have turned back negative, X-ray scans can't even get through whatever this thing is made out of, even worse, I can't get past the locks on that thing, it is completely shut, no matter how many locks I get past the system simply places more locks in place" said the chief Murdock very upset and looking very upset.
"Well then, what do you know about it?" asked commander La Flaga concerned for the information he was getting.
"The truth is that, I have very little other than what I told you" said the chief. "The only other thing I have, is that the alloy that thing is made out of, puts even phase shift armor to shame" finished the chief, and immediately his companions seemed very concerned.
"What do you mean Mr. Murdock?" asked a very concerned captain Ramius.
"Well" started the chief again scratching the back of his head. "When the machine first entered the Archangel, the first thing the sensors detected, was that, that Mobile Suit was nearly 25 lighter than the one Kira had brought with him, which stroked me, because that machine is clearly somewhat larger, and it seems to be posses a thicker armor than the Freedom. So I started making the scans I already told you about, so you know how they turned out. Finally I wanted to get at least a sample of the alloy" said the chief stopping to catch his breath.
"And?" asked commander La Flaga.
"I started using several cutting instruments, none of which even dented the thing, and some of which even broke during the process. In the end I opted for one of the laser drills, we succeeded in taking out one small chunk, but the drill was hard pressed to do even that" said the chief and caught his breath, and looked at his two listeners who had very concerned looks on their faces. "The scans show, that whatever that alloy is, it is extremely though, it can resist great pressure easily, and form the test I have been able to conduct it is electrically neutral, so that explains why the laser had troubles getting it out, that Mobile Suit is nothing if not impressive" finished the chief now with a smirk on his face at the thought of taking the thing apart and knowing what made it thick.
"Very well, thank you very much chief" said captain Ramius, and both she and commander La Flaga started to leave, when the intercom started to sound. Captain Ramius to the bridge, captain Ramius to the bridge finished the message, and soon the captain and the commander where heading towards bridge, not knowing what was going on.
Soon afterwards the captain and the commander entered the bridge, which was in a clear state of commotion. "Ensign, report" cried captain Ramius as she took her place on the bridge, and commander La Flaga took his place on C&C.
"We are receiving a distress signal on all channels from Panama" said the comms officer. "It says, to all Earth Alliance forces condition one, repeat condition one, Panama is under attack, repeat Panama is under attack, all Earth Alliance forces are called to assist" finished the comms officer, and immediately the only the machines and the alarms where the only thing that could be heard on the bridge.
"Say what?" cried commander La Flaga, but he had heard it all, Panama was under attack.
"We are to far away to do anything, and in any case we are already considered rogues" said captain Ramius, but the surprise and frustration where clearly shown on her face. "Stay on course to Orb" ordered captain Ramius, but even though many things had happened she still felt a little concerned for all those people who would suffer.
"That was a very clever move" said Heero Yuy from the inside of his cabin on board the Archangel as he continued to study the monitor and the battle data coming from the Earth Alliance forces. Getting access to the data feed was not difficult for Heero, he was used to tougher systems, and this system was certainly less advanced than those he normally used, so despite the interference due to the N-jammers, Heero had been able to secure an untraceable line through the comms system of the Archangel and was getting real time feed from the Earth Alliance forces "That soon after a major defeat and already on the offensive, it will be good to see how they pull this one off" said Heero Yuy and looked at the sleeping form of his beautiful wife, and felt at peace.
"Heero?" said Relenna as she got up and started staring at Heero, she was not surprised, that he was working on the computer "What are you doing" asked Relenna still somewhat asleep.
"ZAFT forces have started an attack on Panama" said Heero, answering the hails of his wife.
"What?" said Relenna and graving the sheets to cover herself, headed towards the monitor where Heero was working, and regarded the screen with a mixture of shock and determination, as always horrified by the bloodshed a war could throw out, and instinctively looking for a way to stop it. "What is this vessel going to do" asked Relenna again.
"The Archangel is currently headed towards the nation of Orb, and they haven't changed the course, so I assume they will not interfere" said Heero as always not showing any hint of emotion.
"Patch me through to captain Ramius" said Relenna very concerned.
"Very well" said Heero after looking at his wife, and immediately got a line to the bridge.
"Captain Ramius, why aren't we heading towards Panama?" said Relenna with a very commanding tone, which was not missed by captain Ramius on the bridge.
"Ms. Darlian" started the captain. "How did you get a line to the bridge? and secondly why would we have anything to do with people who wanted to kill us and have already regarded us as traitors?" finished the captain, very angry for the posture of the newcomers.
"How I got this line is not important" said Relenna, but was not finished "what is important is what we are going to do about this crisis, there are people dieing there" answered Relenna, with a very concerned look on her face.
"As I said Ms. Darlian, we are traitors to them, we would probably be shot on sight, and we are in no condition to go there and fight" answered the captain, clearly very angry by the statement.
"I understand that this ship is in no condition to go and fight, but we should at least go there and provide humanitarian support" finished Relenna Darlian, clearly very upset about the captain's position.
"My decision is final Ms. Darlian, we will not go there, we will continue on route to Orb, and make sure this is the end of it" finished the captain, clearly very angry.
"Then let us leave" said Heero Yuy, as always in his unnatural monotone.
"Are you crazy, one Mobile Suit couldn't possibly make any difference in such a battle" answered the captain.
"Just let us leave, we can take care of ourselves" finished Heero Yuy, his mind already set.
"But, what can you possibly accomplish?" was the captains response, clearly very concerned because of the bold posture these people where taking.
"Anything we can, that is after all our reason for coming here" said Relenna, and for a moment everything was quiet.
"Very well, I can't restrict you from leaving, get ready for launch" finished the captain.
"Thank you very much captain" finished Relenna and terminated the comm.
"This will not be easy" said Heero as he got up from his seat and went looking for his flight suit.
"I know, but we can't simply ignore people who are suffering, and continuing this conflict will only escalate it" said Relenna and with that both simply continued getting into their suits.
Soon the Heero and Relenna found themselves in the cockpit of the Wing Zero, which was being moved towards the launching catapult, while Heero finished the preflight checks.
"This is control" said a young girl from a new window "Prepare for launch"
"Roger that" answered Heero, and prepared the engines for launch.
Both Heero and Relenna where preparing themselves for the upcoming experience, Panama was a few hours away, but both of them knew that taking a base of that size, and power was not easy, so they would probably would be getting during the worst of the battle.
"Say what!" cried commander La Flaga
"I'm positive sir, the EM emissions just went off the scale" said the sensors officer from the C&C on board the Archangel.
"Does that mean?" asked the captain.
"Yes Ma'am, a high yield EM weapon was just used on Panama" finished the commas officer.
"I am only receiving ZAFT transmissions from the Panama area, all coded" said the comms officer. "All Earth Alliance channels where suddenly silenced, as if someone had just pulled the plug" finished the comms officer as he tried again and again to get any kind of communications from Panama.
"Hmm" said captain Ramius. "Inform the Wing Zero of this, tell them to standby. Comms confirm the loss of Panama" announced captain Ramius, very concerned, knowing the implications of loosing Panama.
"Wing Zero, this is control" said Miriallia Haww the flight controller. "We have received announcement of a new development, please standby" said Miriallia, and in the background everyone heard a Roger, without any emotion to it.
A few minutes passed, and the Archangel continued its march "Communications, what is taking so long?" asked captain Ramius.
"I'm trying to get confirmation from anyone, so far nothing, but Panama isn't responding, and all Panama channels are still silent" answered the comms officer, but the crew was not s single bit relieved.
Some time passed afterwards, and everyone was getting very worried, the worst seemed to have happened. "Sorry Ma'am" said the comms officer "Panama is silent, and all the other channels are jammed, we must assume that the enemy did indeed use a high power EM weapon" finished the communications officer, but by now it was pretty clear what had happened, and the outcome was not good.
"Very well, inform the Zero to cancel launch, resume our course for Orb at maximum speed" ordered the captain, and soon everyone was doing their work, but the feeling was the same. Panama had fallen, and now the Earth forces where left without a major center of operations, now the Earth Alliance had nothing of strategic value to loose.
"Wing Zero" started Miriallia Haww in the monitor "Panama has fallen, abort launch, repeat, Panama has fallen, abort launch" finished Miriallia, and the screen disappeared.
"That was definitely unexpected" said Heero in his usual monotone.
"Yes" conceded Relenna in the back seat of the Wing Zero, as it started to return to the hangar of the Archangel, however both of them where very disturbed by the lose of Panama, and wondered what implications it would have for the future of the war. In the end only time would tell.
