"Captain, there must be some mistake," protested the redcoat. Luna had faith that Meyrin would never betray ZAFT.
"We've traced the source of the alarm. Apparently, someone had hacked into the ship's security system, and we tracked the signal all the way back to the computer in Meyrin's room." Talia noted the shocked look on the girl's face.
"Listen. I know that you don't believe any of this. But, that's the truth. Meyrin has escaped from ZAFT, together with Kira and Athrun."
"I understand, Captain."
"Good. You may leave now." Although the captain thought that her pilot didn't sound very convinced, it would have to do for now.
Meanwhile, Durandal was looking across the table at the other redcoats. He was very displeased.
"The Legend and the Destiny can outperform the Freedom and the Saviour any time. Would anyone of you care to explain this failure?"
"Chairman, I was the one who decided to let them go," replied Shinn. Rey kept silent. The Chairman shook his head.
"I know you still regard them as friends. However, with your lapse in judgement, you have let two FAITH members escape, along with the CIC of the Minerva. There's no telling how much of ZAFT's sensitive information leaking out because of this." Shinn hung his head. Durandal sighed.
"What's been done cannot be undone. I can only hope that you will be able to make amends during Operation Ragnarök."
"Ragnarök?"
"The invasion of Heaven's Base. As such, despite today's incident, I have something for both of you." He took out two boxes from his drawer and pushed them across the desk. When the pilots opened them, they saw the FAITH pin inside.
"Since two members had left us, replacements would have to be found for them. I hope I would not be disappointed this time."
"You can count on us, Chairman," saluted Rey. Shinn followed suit. As the two took their leave, Durandal looked at his chess board.
"So, the White King has castled. Nice move, Athrun Zala, Kira Yamato. I look forward to winning this match," mumbled Durandal, with a smile on his face.
When they were just about to reach Orb, the Freedom hailed the border patrol. When they received the call, they were stunned. Who from ZAFT could possibly wish to talk to their Representative so late at night? Upon Kira's urging, the officer on duty decided to notify Cagalli.
"Kira, what is it?" His sister was getting drowsy. She had been at work all day and badly needed some rest.
"I'm sorry, Cagalli, but Orb has to terminate its alliance with ZAFT right away. I'll explain later!" By now, the lady was fully awake. She gave orders to put the military on standby. The Freedom and the Saviour flew over the ZAFT encampment. Athrun switched the radio to an open frequency.
"Hailing all ZAFT forces in Orb! This is the pilot of the Saviour! All troops would have to leave the country before daybreak!" After repeating himself, Athrun issued his warning.
"Should the forces decide to fire at the Orb military or at us, we would not be able to ensure the safety of your evacuation!"
The senior commanders within the base were stunned by this eviction order. They decided to comply, for now. As ships slowly streamed out, both pilots and their passenger heaved a sigh of relief. However, the units would not land until they were sure that every single ZAFT ship were safely out of range.
Lunamaria decided to get some answers from Shinn. Since he was meeting the Chairman, the lady had no choice but to wait. When Shinn came on board, the questioning began.
"Was Meyrin really with them?" Shinn nodded.
"She went with the Freedom. Don't worry. They should be safe, for now."
"How did she..."
"I don't know! I can't even figure out why those two did such a stupid thing in the first place," exclaimed the black-haired pilot. He was getting agitated.
"Remember what the Chairman said, Shinn. The three of them are now enemies of ZAFT. The next time we see them, we'll have to act accordingly." Lunamaria went limp. She would have to kill Meyrin?
"I'm sure the Chairman would be able to convince everyone of their guilt," added Rey Za Burrel. There was no turning back now, he thought.
"Kira, Athrun, what the hell was going on?" Cagalli was completely lost. Her brother and Athrun spoke of the Destroy assembly lines. The Representative was silently thankful that her hunch of distrusting Durandal was right. However, there were other matters to take care of.
"Now, the main problem is: How am I going to account for this in front of Durandal? ZAFT can very easily frame Orb for being a dishonourable state because of this."
"Simple: don't do anything. Anyway, Orb would not be his target. He's more concerned with the destruction of LOGOS."
"After that, what next," questioned Cagalli. Athrun did not have the answer to that.
"We have no other choice now, Cagalli. What we can do, is to step up Orb's defences." Cagalli sighed. It was becoming an all too familiar sight for her.
"I hope you guys know what you are doing. Many people could lose their lives because of this." Athrun and Kira realized that; they swore to do whatever they could to avoid bloodshed. Cagalli decided to update Waltfeld on the situation.
The Eternal and the Orb personnel hadn't been idle all this while. With a base & mobile suit factory established (and hidden) within an asteroid, Andrew's "contacts" had also provided valuable technology, as well as ZAFT troops who questioned the wisdom of the war. Hilda Harken, Mars Simeon and Herbert Von Reinhardt were particularly interesting. When their DOM Troopers worked together, they were "unstoppable", boasted Hilda when she first arrived. Andrew thought for a while.
"I'll get the Eternal back to Orb. Our guys up here have something which Kira and Athrun should find interesting," grinned the Tiger.
"Be careful," cautioned Cagalli. Waltfeld gave the thumbs-up, and signed off.
Durandal had received the news of Orb's eviction orders. Currently, the lot was stationed in Carpentaria. The Chairman gave orders for them to remain where they were. He would deal with the country later. Meanwhile, he had "produced" evidence that Athrun, Kira and Meyrin were working for LOGOS, and that they accessed classified information before they left. Both Shinn and Lunamaria were speechless. The pair decided to blame LOGOS for "corrupting" their friends. They knew that apart from Rey, they only had each other's company. They would have to go through this together.
ZAFT and the defected Earth Alliance forces mobilized for a siege of Heaven's Base, the headquarters of the Logos benefactors of the Blue Cosmos rulers, located in Iceland . Lord Djibril sneered as Durandal issued them his demands: hand over the LOGOS members and dismantle, or be attacked. His answer was a barrage of rockets before the ultimatum expired. Also, a great number of mobile suits, some new mobile armors, as well as five GFAS-X1 Destroy units were deployed. Sting Oakley knew that his Chaos was useless compared to this new "toy". He couldn't wait for the carnage to begin.
Many of the anti-LOGOS EA ships and mobile suits (shrewdly placed near the front of the formations by Durandal) were destroyed, especially by the Destroy units. As the alliance's death toll mounted, ZAFT forces started incurring casualties of their own. In response, ZAFT launches an attack from above by dropping a great number of mobile suits from Earth's orbit. Djibril coldly ordered the Nibelung to be fired. The massive energy burst destroyed all units coming from above and crippled the already weakened forces.
As the rest of the world watched the battle unfold on their screens, Kira and Athrun were horrified by what they saw. Because of Durandal's exposure of LOGOS, countless soldiers had died, and for what purpose? Also, they prayed for their friends' safety on board the Minerva. Lacus, who was already notified of Athrun's return, had joined the group in witnessing the battle. She was visibly ill after a while. Athrun decided to escort her outside. He, too, couldn't stomach the destruction he had just saw, despite his years as a soldier.
The Minerva finally launched the Destiny, the Legend and the Impulse (now piloted by Lunamaria), which quickly turned the tide of the battle. The Impulse then led a group of ZAKUs, BABIs, DINNs and GOUFs against the Windams, while GOOhNs, ZnOs and ASHs took out the aquatic Forbidden Vortex units and shoreline defenses. Noting the Destroy's only weakness, Shinn ordered Lunamaria to switch to the Sword Silhouette and to provide one sword for Rey. The trio then set to work eliminating the giant MSes with the Destiny's Arondight and the Impulse's Excalibur anti-ship swords. Sting Oakley was killed when the Destiny drove its anti-ship sword into his cockpit. In the meantime, ZAFT forces gained the upper hand when they were able to successfully penetrate the base. After the last Destroy unit was lost, Djibril - knowing that Heaven's Base was all but lost - abandoned the other LOGOS members and fled in a submarine towards Orb. Along the way, he demanded that the Seirans prepare for his arrival. Unato and his son saw to the demands reluctantly.
Heaven's Base had been broken but ZAFT's losses were severe, and Djibril had escaped. We would get him next time, thought Shinn as the Destiny returned to the Minerva. Also, he was aware of his own skills, now that his mentors were not around. He dreaded to see the day when he would have to face them in combat, but he knew that the moment was fast approaching.
After the battle, Andrew wanted to see Kira and Athrun. The duo, together with Cagalli, Lacus and Meyrin, boarded the Eternal. Meyrin was convinced that the Lacus Clyne standing before her was the real one. Her grace and beauty was different from the Lacus on TV. Athrun also wanted her to feel comfortable. Among the Coordinator crew of the Eternal, she wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.
"Over the intercom, you mentioned that you had something for us," noted Athrun. Andrew grinned again. He led the group to the Eternal's hangar. Upon first sight, the group thought that their eyes were playing tricks on them.
"Freedom? Justice," mumbled Athrun and Kira. The Tiger shook his head.
"Look closely." After some observation, the pilots realised that these units were brand-new.
"The ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice and ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom. Our guys worked their butts off to rush these babies out. They would be more than a match for those ZAFT elite suits just now." The Tiger had tuned in to footage of the battle as well.
"Thank you, Captain, for bringing them their new swords." The Pink Princess bowed. In her dress (which resembled a kimono), she looked like an Oriental royal despite her pink hair. Andrew blushed despite himself. Athrun looked at his wife. Although she had been in hiding all these while, she hadn't forget that Athrun and the others were fighting their own battles. I didn't marry the wrong lady, thought the pilot.
"I heard that you're the CIC of the Minerva previously," boomed Waltfeld as he turned his attention towards Meyrin. The girl nodded timidly. She was afraid of the Tiger, who towered over her.
"I need a CIC for the Eternal. Perhaps, you would be interested?" The girl looked at Athrun.
"It's your choice." Meyrin nodded her agreement. If she went into the battlefield again, she might be able to convince her sister that things weren't that simple.
Cagalli thought about the future as she looked at the new units. Although she didn't know what exactly Durandal had in mind, if he ever threatened Orb, she would not let him off easily. A conflict seemed inevitable now. The Representative steeled herself...
Afterthoughts
-Please RnR!