Forseti,
Archangel Class Assault Ship:
Higure, the keyboard allowing him access to the GOUF's OS ripped from its fixtures and in his hands, waited as a team of mechanics made sure the Mobile Suit he was in was secured next to several others in the ships arsenal. He couldn't see anything outside of the MS, but he presumed that was what they were doing. Or perhaps it was hope?
He could hear the faint sounds of a conversation outside the cockpit of his GOUF and although he couldn't hear anything that sounded hostile or violent, he never let go of the keyboard.
"Hello in there pilot, do you mind opening up the cockpit so we can speak?"
Higure frowned slightly, sure that the voice sounded familiar yet at the same time so distant in his memories.
"I can hear you perfectly fine inside here thank you."
"A sense of humor, very nice, but I prefer to speak to people face to face…"
Before Higure could answer, the hatch to the GOUF's cockpit opened up and left him staring at the grinning face of a red haired man, seemingly only a year or two older than himself, dressed in a black and dark red pilot's suit. It took Higure a few moments to realize he still had the keyboard in his hands, but when he did he threw it with all of his strength. However, he hadn't weighed in the almost zero gravity in the ship, the man was able to propel himself out of the way easily and the keyboard kept spinning end over end until it shattered when it struck a Murasame's chest.
"Now that was not nice." The red haired man stared at Higure, one of his eyebrows raised slightly. "If we wanted you dead we could have blown you up, or just left you for those two GUNDAM…"
Two dark haired soldiers, both in plain outfits of white and blue, floated up to point handguns at Higure and slowly he raised his hands in surrender.
"Now, can we talk or do you want to throw something else at me?" Despite the seriousness of the situation, at least from Higure's point of view, the red haired man seemed to find everything amusing.
"Yes, we can talk." Higure sighed, pushing himself away from the seat of the GOUF and floating towards the trio. When he had reached them, a third soldier pushed himself down towards them and held a gun steadily at Higure.
"Very good, now then soldier, what is your name?"
"My name is Higure, and I am not a soldier."
"Yet you were out in a Mobile Suit armed with weapons in the middle of a battlefield?"
"I was protecting myself and my home from the Earth Alliance and their GUNDAM."
The red haired man looked at Higure, his eyes full of doubt and every part of his body showing that he was no serious.
"I gave you my name, soldier, now tell me yours." Higure practically spat the word soldier, putting as much hate into it as he could.
"My name is Dante, pilot and commander of the thirteenth MS Air Squadron. I'm also the man that just saved your life. Oh, and, welcome to the Forseti."
"And, Dante, you just happened to be close enough to the battle to 'save' me?"
"My team and I were performing routine training exercises in space; we picked up traces of a battle in space and came out to help any survivors. You and the two GUNDAM were all we found."
Higure stared at Dante, just floating there while his mind attempted to comprehend what he was being told. Everything?
"The Asgard Space Station?"
Dante nodded slowly, looking genuinely upset over the loss of a ZAFT military base. He gestured for the guards to lower the weapons they held and after a few moments they did, holstering them but keeping a close eye on Higure.
"Come on, our ships doctor wants to take a look at you; make sure you're okay."
Higure allowed himself to be led away from the GOUF, his eyes vacant and never seeming to settle on a single thing. My friends, my family, my life… The Earth Alliance wiped it out. Yet these people, representatives of Orb, seem to genuinely be worried about me… Just what the hell is going on here?
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Dante stood, saluting a woman sitting on a chair behind a desk in a well furnished room aboard the Forseti. His dark red hair was spiked up slightly, having had time to change since dropping off Higure at the medical bay, and he wore a soldier's uniform instead of a pilot's suit.
"So Dante, you left the vessel to interrupt a fight without orders. Ordered a Mistral and its pilot to rescue a ZAFT Mobile Suit and its pilot and you still stick by your decision?"
"Maam, yes maam." He stood perfectly still, his hand still raised to his head in salute, while the woman inspected him.
"You made a decision Dante, and you will have to face the consequences. Firstly, because the brigs have been converted into storage space for ammunition, this refugee is to be housed with you."
"Yes maam."
"Secondly, you are to watch him at all times. Report anything strange back to me immediately."
"Yes maam."
"Thirdly, stop calling me maam. I may be the captain of this ship but it irritates me."
"Yes captain."
The woman couldn't help but shake her head, removing the hat she wore that hid her purplish hair before sighing and leaning back against the chair.
"Seriously Dante, what were you thinking?"
"Captain, two days ago we had reports of GUNDAM being developed by ZAFT. My team and I were sent out here to keep an eye on this specific area of space, with no apparent reason, and not even an hour before we get here the ZAFT base is under attack by someone claiming to be part of the Earth Alliance."
"Claiming to be?"
"Yes captain, I saw several suits and mobile armor heading towards the battlefield. They were destroyed, but even before the battle the couldn't have gone in fully operational."
"Yet the ZAFT military base is destroyed."
"The work of the ZX's captain, when I left the battlefield to cover the Mistral I saw them firing at the base with Rail Cannons and what appeared to be a new form of Beam Rifle."
"What are you saying Dante?"
"I believe that the attack isn't what it seems captain, this was why I left the ship to rescue the GOUF when I saw it battling the two GUNDAM."
"Yes, I noticed that in your report. You said he was in a damaged GOUF but had managed to injure one of these… GUNDAM…"
"Yes captain, the ZX-814."
"Although I can not order you or your team to do anything commander, we will be heading immediately to the Utgard on our way back to Earth. I have already sent a report and it is possible that the 'refugee' will be taken into custody at the station."
"Yes captain, is that all?"
The captain stood and saluted Dante, waiting until he had left the room before sitting back down and tapping away at the keyboard of her computer. A small smile crossed her face as she read something on the screen, then she frowned. Was Dante right?
Jormungand, Laurasia Class
Frigate:
Two pilots stood on a metal walkway running in front of the ZX-814 and ZX-243. The black and grey pilot's suits they wore helped them to blend in slightly with the GUNDAM now that the Phase Shift armor was offline, but the man that walked towards them had no problem seeing them.
"I said no survivors, is that not right?"
In unison, both of the pilots spoke. "Yes sir!"
"Yet you let a GOUF get away, and not only that you let an M1 Astray see you and return to its ship."
Again, they spoke in unison. "Yes sir."
"In two hours we will meet the ship in battle, you will destroy it. If you don't, then you better be destroyed yourselves."
This time, although they spoke in unison, both of the pilots' voices showed fear. "Yes sir!"
Forseti:
Higure sat in front of a long table in one of the ships canteens, a tray of food in front of him and a fork in his hand although he hadn't touched his food in the last thirty minutes. Dante sat opposite him, drinking from a blue colored bottle, dressed in a military uniform.
"Aren't you hungry?"
Higure shook his head slowly, feeling uncomfortable in the room surrounded by soldiers. Although they all seemed to be ignoring him, busy speaking to each other or just eating, he felt weird. He was dressed in a pair of loose trousers and a black top, his pilot's suit resting on his new bed.
"Listen, I'm sorry about the base. Did you have family there?"
"Yes, my mother. She was an engineer, helping to inspect ships that had just landed on Asgard."
Dante nodded slightly, pointing towards the door, and stood up slowly. After a few moments Higure followed him and the two of them floated down corridor after corridor, a maze that Higure was trying to memorize. He didn't know how long he'd be aboard the Forseti, but he didn't intend on getting lost while he was here. After several minutes of traveling, moving up and down floors, Higure found himself looking out into one of the Forseti's two hangars for Mobile Suit and Mobile Armor.
"We haven't got the parts to repair your GOUF; it was missing too much externally and internally. Sorry."
"Thank you anyway, although I don't think my chances of getting out in it were high even if it was repaired."
Dante nodded slightly before pushing Higure through into a changing room and from there into the hangar where they stopped in front of a slightly battle scarred M1 Astray.
"That's yours, isn't it?" Higure was facing the Astray, but speaking to Dante. He noticed out of the corner of his eye a nod that confirmed what he already thought.
"Thank you, for saving me I mean. I don't know who those guys were but I have a feeling they wouldn't of minded killing me."
Dante nodded slightly then, with a kick of his legs, started to drift slowly towards the open cockpit of the Astray. He motioned for Higure to follow him, and when that was done he showed him the inside and its controls.
"Technically, my team and I are not part of this ship and as we receive orders directly from miss Cagalli Yula Athha the captain can not order us to do, or not to do, anything…"
Higure nodded slightly, although he found the situation weird, and studied the controls of the Astray.
"You probably already know that the Astray has been outdated by the newer Murasame's but I find it hard to let go of my Astray." Dante grinned as he spoke, and then pointed opposite them towards a Murasame, a mixture of metallic blue and a silvery-white. "That one's empty, the pilot never made the shuttle up to Forseti, so the engineers have neglected it but I thought we could check out its systems, give the both of us something to do in this quiet."
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The captain sat in the bridge of the Forseti, ignoring the talk of those that worked under her as she thought about what Dante had said just over an hour ago. Could he be right? And if he is, who was it responsible for the attack on Asgard military base? So intent on her thoughts, the captain didn't notice the radar operator addressing her. After several attempts, the radar operator was reduced to shouting.
"Captain!"
"Do not shout at me!"
"My apologies captain, but there's a Laurasia class ship closing in on us, the computer names it as Jormungand…"
"Attempt to contact them."
"I have already tried captain," This from a communications officer, turning in his chair to look at his commanding officers. "Our long range communication is being jammed and they aren't answering."
"Captain, the Jormungand has launched Mobile Suits… I'm registering four ZGMF-600, that's the GuAIZ, and… Captain, the ZX-814 and ZX-243 have launched captain!"
The captain nodded, touching the controls on the edge of her chair while giving the bridge crew orders. Activating an onboard communications system, she addressed the crew.
"We are about to come under attack by four GuAIZ R, the ZX-814 and the ZX-243. All necessary crew to their battle stations, there is a green light for the Thirteenth MA Air Squadron to launch!"
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Inside the cockpit of the Murasame that he had been examining alongside Dante, Higure listened to the announcement quietly. His hands tightened on the controls of the Murasame and he heard Dante's voice echoing across the chamber.
"Right team, you heard the situation! We have hostiles, six of them, two in advanced Mobile Suits. Our mission is to delay the MS while the Forseti heads toUtgard! I don't want any heroics, stick together and work like we've been practicing!"
He could hear the metallic echo as the M1 Astray and six Murasame headed towards the catapult-like launching systems aboard the Forseti. As he tried to move the Murasame he was in, Dante's face popped up on one of the view screens.
"Higure, you are not to leave the ship. The engineers will not launch your suit without mine or the captains' orders and we have both decided that you are not to launch."
"B-but they're out there!"
"Exactly, we can't risk you jeopardizing the other members of the team."
Although Higure's hands tightened on the controls of the Murasame he nodded his head, understanding the reasoning behind Dante's words. Leaning back against the seat in the cockpit of the Murasame, he slid the keyboard down and tapped away at it; modifying the OS to work better for coordinators. He could hear the sounds of battle outside, but see nothing. It was driving him insane.
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The Forseti was firing at what appeared to be random intervals with its main weapons, leaving the missiles in reserve in case the enemy MS got close enough to do any real damage. With no long range communications systems, the Forseti could not contact the asteroid base Utgard. A problem that was becoming bigger while the two ships fought each other.
The Murasame were performing circuits of the ship in teams of two, sticking close to one another in order to provide support, where as the Astray was flying out to meet the two GUNDAM. As good as Dante was, he was piloting an outdated Mobile Suit with limited weaponry in a fight against two next generation Mobile Suit armed with Railguns, High-Energy Beam Rifles and Beam Shields that protected them from most of the shots the Astray fired.
"Captain, the GUNDAM are heading towards the ship! I can't stall them any longer, my beam rifle is gone and my saber is useless with these shields!"Dante's face and voice appeared on one of the screens of the Murasame Higure was in and he knew that the Forseti would not reach Utgard. Pushing himself away from the seat in the cockpit he leaned outside of the Mobile Suit and shouted down at the engineers.
"I need to launch, if you guys have got any heavy weaponry then perhaps I can get on top of the ship and try to help keep the ZX's from getting too close!" The engineers stared up at him, obviously with conflicting opinions, but finally one started running towards the controls of the hangar, his voice shattering the silence as it was directed via communication systems into the Murasame.
"We have a High-Energy Beam Rifle that was supposed to be taken to the Utgard after the Thirteenth squadron finished up training."
"That's more than good enough, please have it inside the launch bay!"
Higure pulled himself back inside the Murasame's cockpit and immediately tightened the straps around the seat, gripping the controls and starting up the MS. As everything finished loading he headed out, careful to make sure not to knock into anything. As he reached the catapult-like launching system onboard the Forseti he grinned, noticing the Beam Rifle. He reached down with the Murasame and cradled the long weapon in its two hands, ignoring the protests of the captain.
"I appologise for borrowing your Murasame and weapons captain, but I don't feel like being blown to pieces quiet yet. Higure Cross, Murasame, Launch!"
The Murasame was thrown away from the Forseti, but before too much distance could be covered Higure twisted it around and used the jets on the Murasame to propel himself back towards the Forseti. Settling down just above the launch system, he braced the Mobile Suits legs against the outside of the ship and allowed the targeting system to designate enemies and allies.
