"The Endymion Ghosts"
Chapter One
"Battle of Heliopolis"
Heliopolis Resource Satellite, Orb Union Island-type Colony, L3 Area
The weather programming for Heliopolis called for sunshine and few clouds. Other than that, it was a beautiful day. People were going about their everyday lives and enjoying themselves, but outside the colony two ZAFT ships dispatched a group of commandoes to raid the colony for the new Earth Alliance G-Weapons and to sink their new battleship being built there. At the same time, an Earth Alliance OMNI Enforcer ship, carrying the new pilots for the G-Weapons, successfully docked with Heliopolis well aware of the ZAFT ships, but not the commandoes and feeling quite safe. It was a neutral colony after all. No one ever thought that the fighting would come to this slice of paradise, but it just did.
Walking through the endless hallways and complaining about their plainness, a trio consisting of one female and two males walked through the endless hallways to one Professor Kato's office. There they meant up with a group of Heliopolis Technical Institute students consisting of Tolle Koenig, Miriallia Haw, Kuzzey Buskirk, Sai Argyle, and Kira Yamato. Plus there was Kira's annoying, at least in Sean's opinion, green and yellow mechanical bird, Birdie and a blonde with a brown hat and brown coat with tan slacks off to one side near the professor's personal office.
"Great, I get outta bed and have to wait after the lady of a guest," grumbled Rick Bluefield, shocking the HTI students who did a double take and now that they could see past the initial appearance, they realized it was a girl.
"She is a girl," Kira naively stated and the blonde blushed before going off on a triad of chewing Kira out for thinking she was a boy and then went on to chew out the rest, even Miriallia didn't escape the tongue lashing they all got.
"Not my most enjoyable day," Rick stated as he watched the verbal punishment end and the 'kiddies' as he and Sean called the group get back to work.
"Could think of better things to do with my time then wait after a Tomboy for a chronically late Prof," Rick gave a sigh at the end of his grumble.
"Same here," agreed Sean Hayes with his own sigh, though he did notice a jiggle effect in the blond's coat and nodded about it to his friend who shook his head.
That's when Rick's wife, May, pinched their ears, making them cry mercy in record time. She scolded the two for being lazy, neither took offense and decided to embarrass her instead by helping out the kids and listing off what they were required to do, minus the Classified Orb and Alliance military projects and related fields. She blushed a perfect shade of crimson in embarrassment that colored her cream white face brightly.
"Still the same as ever," Tolle remarked.
"That reminds, why did you put Kira into a headlock just now Tolle?" asked May, quite curious to the young brunette's actions and hoping to deflect attention.
"Trying to get him to fess up about Sai's letter to Flay Allster," Tolle grinned triumphantly, confident he was on the verge of a great victory.
"Oh that," Sai remarked with amusement clear in his eyes as his yellow glasses sat further down his nose than normal.
"Looks like it was dud Tolle, better luck next time," Rick put in with a hearty chuckle.
"Yeah, that Flay Allster is not something Kira would want. I think that Lacus Clyne from the PLANTs would be more his speed," Sean remarked with a cheeky grin, "she is after all a high speed, high gee model," Sean added at the end and making Kira blush.
"Oh knock it off and let's get to work," Kira finally said after a moment or two to regain his composure and failing miserably.
Inside the dry dock for Earth Forces new Assault Carrier-type warship, OES Archangel, an elite force of ZAFT commandoes, the Sword Breakers, placed high grade explosives at key points and areas that they could reach without getting caught by the guards after a successful infiltration of the colony and secret space dry dock. They quickly regrouped and exited the dock area secure in the knowledge that they had just sunk a new model ship of war at dock.
Then, when the timer hit zero, two ZAFT ships, the ones that the commandoes had come from, mobilized and began using their Electronic Counter Measures or ECM for short, to jam everything and anything to a degree so they wouldn't be affected either in the area.
Leading the attack was Rau Le Creuset, known throughout the Earth Sphere as the White Knight do to his appearance and his heroic feats since the Blockade of '69. He had learned of the Earth Forces secret G-Weapons Project and had gone after the development site, only to learn it had long since been moved. His command then set course for home only to run into a mercenary group that had attacked a ZAFT supply base and though put to rout, the group claimed a couple of their ZGMF-1017 GINNs and a ZGMF-515 CQUE, while damaging four others, including ace pilot Miguel Aiman's custom GINN. Of the damaged units, two were complete write offs and Miguel's mobile suit along with the third CQUE in their group had to be sent back to the PLANTs for repair with the relief vessels ferrying the base survivors, of which there were few, back to the PLANTS leaving them short on both pilots and machines, but fortune seemed to smile on them at that moment for they had lucky learned from a spy with information that led them to Heliopolis and sure enough, had gotten evidence, which is what had prompted the raid.
Though the attack had begun, things continued as normal in the colony, only that the Heliopolis Defense Force mobilized their force of three hard to come by GINNS, modified by Morgenroete Inc, and TS-MA2 Moebius Mobile Armor, but a group of dock workers scramble on their exhaust trails in MAW-01 Mistral Mobile Pods, another type of mobile armor, but meant more for worker details than battle assignments and it would show again as the HDF units are quickly defeated do their lack of combat experience. This leaves only the Mistrals and while the HDF pilots had been able to down two GINNs and damage a third, the ZAFT forces press their attack with five remaining suits. The resulting fight is completely uneven, but one of the Mistral pilots successfully damages a second GINN before being down and two GINNs then infiltrate the colony, even as the Marseille III-class, OES Crescent Glow, barely escapes the dock with its three mobile armor, two regular Moebius units and a TS-MA2mod.00 Moebius Zero.
The Hawk of Endymion enters yet another battle, but one too much to his dislike.
'This is why I thought we would need a battle group!' the Hawk, Lieutenant (Senior Grade) Mu La Flaga, mentally griping for prior to the battle, he had thought it a bad idea to rely on Heliopolis, and by extension the United Emirates of Orb, neutrality.
Chancing a look back, the Hawk could see the dock was littered with Orb patrol vessels, neutral vessels, Junk Guild vessels, and civilian ships as well as debris and bodies. All of them shot to hell by the two GINNs that had gone into the colony and that wasn't all the damage. The insides of the dock were full of holes from shells and explosions and the control box had been hit and all inside killed from a direct hit.
'At least they didn't suffer long enough to die in vacuum,' the Hawk thought with a grim feeling of peace he had come to know as he could tell High Explosive shells had been used and the dock personnel were dead the moment the control box took at least one or two bursts.
Luke and Gale then alerted him to the incoming GINNs. There were two directly to their front, one more just below them and a fourth that had hidden itself. The Hawk was no fool and alerted the Crescent Glow to the fact that the enemy was short on machines. The captain, a Thomas Riley Brandon who was a thin aging captain looking forward to retirement, reported he knew and said they had lost all contact with the Archangel and their people in Morgenroete.
The bombs having long gone off in the dry dock of the Archangel, destroying the dry dock and killing most of the personnel there. The explosions had been enough to blow apart several of Northrop-Grumman Shipyard Division's new Manhattan-class (Magellan-class in Eurasia do to a 'slight' internal/external reconfiguration) Battleships birthed next to each other. The power of the explosions would indeed have almost guaranteed that the colony might even suffer severe enough damage to destroy several critical points and relieve the colony of its atmosphere, but Morgenroete had really engineered new safety systems, but they were still pushed to their breaking point.
The attack had the intended effect of getting the Alliance and Orb troops to hurriedly get the G-Weapons to the Archangel, not knowing that while that was happening, the dock had also been bombed and that no one knew any longer what the situation was.
No one, but the ZAFT Sword Breakers and the ten pilots assigned to their ranks. While it had been confirmed that there was only five, the ZAFT commandoes had brought five additional pilots to round out their numbers, incase one, two, or, the Stars forbid, all five of the Red Coats were killed or rendered unable to pilot the machines. Still, the ZAFT forces were still confident, but three of the Red Coats were grim faced, not liking this one bit. The sight of three of the five trailers and the message was sent to where to make the attack run for the two infiltrating GINNs.
Inside Kato's Lab, everyone felt the explosions, it was akin to an earthquake, with Sai wondering if a stray asteroid had struck the colony, but two of the three adults knew what was happening. They nodded to one another and told May to stay with the children as the two took off. The group then left the Lab under May Bluefield's direction and went to the nearest stairs when Sai found the elevators and lifts to be out, much to the annoyance of May who asked the question why would they hurry into a deathtrap much to the group's embarrassment. They quickly forced open the door which had been somehow damaged and that is where they found out the truth.
"ZAFT GINNs are inside the colony!" one man said, clearly becoming panic.
At that moment, the blonde guest bolted down another hallway with Kira in hot pursuit. Kira chased the blonde down the hallway and both stopped dead, seeing Rick and Sean in a gun battle with ZAFT commandoes. The two had automatic weapons and the body armor off two dead Orb soldiers, clearly the ZAFT soldiers had killed them. As bullets whizzed by the two, Kira grabbed the blonde and dove into a side room, landing inches from two blood soaked ZAFT corpses, three dead Orb soldiers, and a dozen technical personnel from Morgenroete.
Kira at that moment discovers that the blonde is indeed a girl, though it was a wonder how he could forget. He couldn't not notice when his right hands is clutching one of her breasts and her hat is laying three feet to the left of them. Then he remembered what Rick and Sean had been saying about measurements that made no since to him. They had been referring to the girl's BODY measurements!
He was also quite sure now that they had been measuring up Miriallia against her and vice versa.
She screams and slaps Kira, dumbfounded, Kira can only say one thing, "you're a girl."
This off course sets hers off on another tirade about the issue as a grenade goes off and throws them over a table in the middle of the room. Kira gets up and notices a computer still on and sees a group of blueprints and solid pictures for the machines that are illustrated in the blueprints. They are all mobile suits and three data sticks sit ready to be removed.
Quickly looking over them Kira sees that there are eight Earth Forces mobile suits, as well as a battleship and three Orb mobile suits with another battleship, but some small bits of data that make no sense. The blond sees these as well, though missing the off to the side data. Then they freeze when they hear two people come up behind them. They turn their heads to see two ZAFT soldiers standing there, but a pair of control bursts and the two were felled, backs riddled with bullet holes and bleeding profusely, no denying they were dead.
"The Sword Breakers, but I don't see who could be commanding them, save one. One of the worst men in ZAFT and a coward to boot, Rau Le Creuset," a familiar voice says with a tone full of disdain.
"Mister Bluefield?" Kira asks.
Said man walks into plain sight and quickly finishes downloading all the files, making triplicates, on the computer terminal, before releasing a virus to destroy the information and as an added measure, shooting the computer hard drives until they spark and shut down.
"Someone made off with the Gold Astray," Sean walked in with an uneasy look, "mysteriously though, it would be minus an arm," shrugging at that possibility.
"The others?" asked Rick.
"Red and Blue are trapped, but the ZAFT are having a devil of a time trying to get the Strike and the Aegis, but they appear to not know about the remaining three units," Sean reported as he checked his weapon, a MA5B .30 caliber (7.62mm) Fullmetal Jacket (FMJ) Assault Rifle, formerly common to the Atlantic Federation Army Infantry, finding his magazine was down to half its normal capacity as indicated by the ammo counter.
"Orb Security troops?" the blonde asked cautiously.
"Nope, just employees, now…" turning to the two, "Get to West Block Shelter 38! Move, on the bounce!" Rick commanded and the two took off.
"Let's go, we need to get to our units and join this battle," Sean said finishing his inventory of spare rounds for both his rifle and the M7 Caseless Submachine Gun, better known as the Bullet Hose, to which Rick nodded, checking his own MA5B and his M6D .50 caliber (12.7mm) Semi-Armor Piercing High Explosive (SAPHE) side arm and the two were off.
The two had no way of knowing that Kira Yamato had just taken his first steps to becoming a legendary Ace of Aces himself, whose skill would surpass the Crimson Eagle and the other Four Masters of Lunar and all the top aces of the war. They had no way of knowing that the path the two would take, would lead them through the battle for the Aegis and the Strike. Nor did they know that others had taken shelter in the shelters that they had sent the two to. They knew none of that as they fought their way through the maze of demolition that was once one of the finest technical schools and factories in the Earth Sphere.
These factors would lead Kira Yamato back to his the battle site, have an encounter with his long time friend Athrun Zala, and start the journey that would lead to him becoming known as the Sword of Freedom.
But for now, Kira and his blonde acquaintance were running for their lives. They ran through the constantly shifting building as new sections were destroyed or the building swayed as it took damage that the builders hadn't thought about. They soon emerged into the light and to their horror; two mobile suits were in a maintenance area below them. It didn't take the two long to conclude that it was part of the factory and that the two mobile suits had been prepped for battle.
"Mobile suits!? HERE?" Kira gasped in shock at the sight his face the picture of shock and disbelief.
"I knew it," the blonde said dispassionately on the verge of collapse, "the Earth Force's new mobile suit weapons," tears began to fall as she cried out full of sorrow, "FATHER WHY HAVE YOU BETRAYED US ALL?!"
Down in the middle of the fire fight, one of the orange clad technicians turned and fired up at the sudden noise. Normally, this would not have occurred, but she was a ship's officer and a technical specialist, not an ordinary Marine or Infantry and thus was out of her realm. Which also showed as her aim had been off, hitting the railing, though one round did graze the girl's cheek.
Kira grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her back to her feet and took off running telling her to worry later and run at that time while leaving a confused Alliance officer in their tracks that remained so for two or three seconds until a repeated pinging sound reminded her of the battle she was fighting.
In a junkyard at the edge of a field of flowers, a young girl was laying atop one of her many junk piles sunbathing in the nude. She was listening to her favorite music and had the headphones on. So at first she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, though she had a great view of the space battle going on, but was sound asleep. Not even the quake caused from the bombs woke her. It was the pair of GINNs that flew right over her and the sounds of nearby heavy fighting when her headphones had come off that did wake her.
She looked out and saw all the destruction and came to a conclusion (correct conclusion) that Rau Le Creuset was attacking the colony or more aptly, he was attacking Morgenroete Inc with the colony's survival low on his priority list, 'non-existent is more like it.' She quickly took off for her office and began getting things ready. A little while later, a jeep pulled up and two men in cloaks dismounted and ran into the office. They promptly ran out with various things following them.
"Geez! You'll think she'll remember to put clothes on!" complained Sean as he tried to clear the ringing in his ears and massage the back of his head.
"Ok you can come in," called the woman.
"Jun it's not like we don't trust you or are in one of the biggest hurries..." he trailed off as she came out, clearly unarmed, only wearing a towel. Rick could hear Sean grinding his teeth. An explosion nearby settle the argument as the three ran to their machines.
Meanwhile, back with the two teens, they had successfully arrived at the designated shelter. As they arrived, Kira found one that still had its speaker active. He immediately requested to be brought in with the girl, but was informed they could not take anymore in. Kira was told to go to another shelter, but h requested that the girl get taken in. The request was granted as they had just enough room for one more.
"Thank you," Kira said and started to struggle with the blond to get her into the elevator, but he was stronger then her and more clear headed which allowed him to force her in as she began to cry as he smiled gently, in a way that was only him.
"My name is Cagalli!" she yelled as the door to the lift closed and she was lowered down and Kira nodded and mouthed his name as she disappeared, before taking off to the other shelter…
… The other shelter located on the far side of the raging battlefield.
Outside the colony, the three lone mobile armors desperately were trying to hold off the ZAFT advance. They and their ship had indeed launched in the nick of time as the port had been captured and destroyed by the two ZAFT mobile suit infiltrators. At that moment one of the three mobile armors, a plain TAS-02 Moebius, was sliced in two and the pilot hurled into the vacuum of space.
As Gale floated, he awaited the end, idly wondering which would be less painful, waiting or snapping the seals on his helmet, but a Zero appeared in front of him with a mobile suit. The mobile suit successfully rescued him and transported him back to the colony, while the Zero engaged and destroyed the offending mobile suit. This created a fuss, especially when a low, bear-like growl was issued forth over all comm. channels.
"Lieutenant La Flaga, it can't be the..." Luke started.
"It is, the Grizzly Bear, Ensign Justin 'Grizzly' Glick," Lieutenant Senior Grade Mu 'Peregrine' La Flaga cut in.
"Mind if I play too Mu, Rau, or is this a private party?" the Bear asked rhetorically as he began to dance with two more GINNs.
It was at that moment he saw and evaded the fire from the GAT-X303 Aegis. He growled warningly over the radio at the pilot, who went straight back to his ship, the Nazca-class Vesalius. When the GAT-X105 Strike failed to appear, a smile appeared on Bear's face.
'They have only four of eight and that means a mission failed and a complete disaster!' he thought, but he knew the causalities and damages alone would probably say they came in about even, but still, as long as half the machines weren't captured, it was a major defeat to ZAFT.
The fighting inside the colony was another thing though, especially before the two appearances outside of the colony.
A lone GINN, surprisingly clothed in a brown cloak, marched up to the two other GINNs. The two turned to review the new comer.
"Identify yourself!" one voice called out.
"Reckless as always Miguel Aiman, or perhaps should I call you the Magic Bullet of Dusk? What a weak name for such a fallen pilot," the new comer responded with a direct tone of hostility and superiority.
"Eagleton? You're alive and here? What's going on?" demanded the Magic Bullet confused as his he blinked at the sight of a clothed GINN.
"Never speak to superiors like that boy. Now your murderous rampage ends here, as does your treason," replied Eagleton, making his tone even out into a neutral point while still leaving the air of superiority with a touch of righteousness that would surely anger the blonde pilot.
"WHAT? I'm no murder and certainly no traitor, you deserter!" Miguel roared back moving his GINN to fight his opponent as goaded.
At that moment an explosion occurred and the X105 Strike and X303 Aegis appeared. Miguel looked happy at the sight of the two, but had to check.
"Athrun!" Miguel called out happily as he smiled at the sight of the two machines, confidence in his every facial feature, then he got a bitter pill that changed all that back to anger.
"Rusty failed, an Earth Forces officer is in control of the other unit," Athrun Zala reported, but there was something off with Athrun, for he seemed reluctant to say more.
"With holding information in a battle is a court-marshal offense, punishable only by life or death," Eagleton radioed Athrun.
"Commander Eagleton, sir! I wasn't aware you were here, sir!" Athrun reported quite nervous and surprised to see the GINN, not expecting anything like that and so he automatically fell back on his Academy training.
"Don't bother, I can guess and that guess is Kira Yamato, right," Eagleton stated rather than ask the obvious as he knew from Kira and from Athrun of their friendship, but had never told the other, one because he wasn't around and it wouldn't do to let Kira know that Athrun was fighting for revenge, but had no clear personal objective in this war.
That was something that had always bothered Crim and he didn't bother to explain it to the always nervous Athrun when they crossed paths as Crim treated Athrun, and for that manner many in ZAFT, with an indifference that undermined them in confidence.
Athrun seemed reluctant to answer and his mobile just stood there and Crim was reminded of why he didn't like the pretend soldier named Athrun Zala, but still held great respect to Miguel Aiman, though he felt that the blond had fallen too far from the path they had been on.
"Attacking an Orb Military R&D and disputing Orb Military mobile suit research is something I cannot let you get away with. Don't bother; Kira's loyalties are to his friends and homeland, not to the PLANTs or ZAFT, especially the latter. Your father is mad…" Eagleton's cold statement was interrupted.
"Enough!" shouted the fiery mad Miguel and Athrun.
"Very well, then, die," as he finished with a cool indifference that few could achieve in battle, his trademark Eagle's Cry sounded throughout the colony.
The Crimson Eagle flew straight at the Aegis, discarding his cloak, the dual kodichis made contact on the tough Phase-Shift Armor that quickly came to life. The attack was meant to distract him and keep Athrun busy and out of the second fight now going on. Yet, the old, but upgraded GINN that Eagleton had been using since his graduation from the Academy back in June of 67 was beginning to show its age. Still young as technology goes, this particular GINN was heavily customized to adapt to the pilot, but because of the heavy fighting it had seen and surviving the destruction of the Endymion Supply Base and the destruction of a hospital ship and lack of its maintenance crew, the Aegis was proving far more difficult with the Aegis breaking away and destroying a pair of missiles and then the M212 Missile High Wheeled Mobility Vehicle, 'Ohka,' that had belonged to the HDF that had fired them.
No survivors
The Strike and Miguel had begun to fight while the third GINN didn't know what to do, having come to retrieve the remaining commandoes, but with only Athrun left and his GINN damaged, the young pilot had no idea of what to do and stood there, though not for a bad reason. The pilot had idolized the great ZAFT Master of Aces, Crim "Crimson Eagle" Eagleton, but now he didn't know what to do. That inaction caused him almost an arm and a leg, because a fourth GINN snuck up behind him and impaled him on a lance. The pilot barely survived, but would end up in an Orb military prison until he was released shortly before Orb was pulled into the war, but he would follow another than Patrick Zala.
His attacker was none other than the famed Lunar Cherry Blossom and boy, did she ever earn it. She once shot down a pair of Zeroes and a trio of regular Moebius Mobile Armor at the Battle of Jachin Due. By the time she arrived on the moon, her white with pink flowers GINN was already quite famous, but here she had destroyed 4 Zeroes and 16 other mobile armor with-in four days, getting two Zeroes on a Sunday. The Crimson Eagle hadn't even racked up that kind of score in such a short time, but he was by far the highest ranked ace on both sides. He had shot down or damaged 49 Moebius units and 11 Zeroes as well as sinking 12 ships (including two carriers, single handedly) and damaging 15 others as far back as the Blockade Run of 69. He also had taught the Blossom most of her tricks. He even taught at the ZAFT military Academy and served briefly on the ZAFT planning command. Beyond that he just fought on the frontlines.
Now the Aegis decided to leave. Athrun spotted the second suit, faded like the Eagle's, but still dangerous like a rose. Athrun called out to Miguel, only to have to intercept two missiles heading for him. Then Athrun destroyed another unlucky Ohka that had fired them. Eagle let loose on Athrun, but Athrun had already started to flee from the battlefield, just as Miguel's mobile suit explodes. Miguel escapes, but barely. Athrun grabbed him and both fled, were they have a brief encounter with the Grizzly Bear.
Now the Grizzly Bear differs as he was not a Zero volunteer like the rest, he received orders with several others to report to the Third Lunar Fleet for re-assignment to the Zeroes. They were second only to the more experience members of the Zeroes, including Mu La Flaga, the Hawk of Endymion, which placed them dead last in the Zero Corps. He quickly gained a reputation as he and the other re-assignments had been detached and order to join the Battle of Junius Cluster. They saw first hand the destruction of the ill-fated PLANT of the cluster and even had the bodies of civilians bounce off their Zeroes. Needless to say they complained big time about the use of Nuclear weapons.
Even so, they said that they were committed to battle and successfully shot down large numbers of mobile suits. The Grizzly Bear personally shot down three CQUEs in the Battle of Nova, a record only surpassed by Mu La Flaga's five mobile suits, four CQUEs and a GINN HM, at the Battle of Endymion.
It was said that Grizzly's low growl had earned him the nickname, so it was said, 'Don't Mess with bears, or you'll get a hug," a reference to Grizzly's love and skills of Greco-Roman Wrestling, despite not really looking the part.
It was also derived from the fact that he destroyed a pair of ZGMF-1017 High Maneuverability GINNS with his gun barrel wires, by wrapping them around them tightly and then going the opposite direction. Combine that with the growl and only the infantry was brave enough hang around him. Though that was because he had a soft spot for them, and since he had been one himself, he knew the talk and the walk and how much the tab would be at the end of the night.
As the fighting continued, the Grizzly Bear knew the game was up for him as his mobile armor needed ammo, parts, and repairs. He growled in annoyance, and then keyed La Flaga.
"Peregrine, Grizzly here, Winchester and the hull's had it for now."
Flares and the ZAFT suits withdrew, "I'll take that kid in with me and you look for Rau Le Creuset, go it?"
"Copy, Luke!"
"Roger, falling—CQUE!" Luke barely managed to eject and make his way to the colony via EVA thrusters of the equipped flight pack.
Grizzly picked him up and flew on to the colony. Both 'Cool Hands' Luke and 'Stormy' Gale found themselves inside of a shelter, after all, Gale had a broken leg and several cracked ribs and Luke was suffering from the effects of punching out of a Moebius doing Mach .89 in a Zero-Gee environment. It would be several weeks before he could hope to keep his lunch down and with no word from the Archangel both had to be stuffed in with the civilians.
The two would survive the war as flight instructors and get reassigned to the Top Gun Academy in Miramar, California after the war.
Inside the Colony roughly an hour later, Lieutenant (Senior Grade) Murrue Ramuis could not believe her eyes as she looked upon two of the most feared GINNs in ZAFT. She had come to after a while and saw the two ZAFT pilots just standing off to one side, playing poker. They were completely ignoring the Strike as if it was a standard issue mobile suit and an unpopular model at that. She saw the slimmer of the two throw her cards down and start to beat the table they were at. Her companion reached his hand over and calmed her down. A second female in a lab coat walked over to the two and seemed to start to berate them. The male quickly hid behind the female.
"So much for male dominance," Murrue mussed and then realized, "THE STRIKE!"
She quickly drew her pistol and fired a warning shot at the kids messing around with the mobile suit. Everyone was up on the bounce, but in the case of the threesome, behind the nearest up-ended table. Positioning herself, between the Strike and the large group she called the other three out. They obeyed and stepped forwarded.
"I know who two of you, or rather I have a pretty good guess, but as for the rest of you…" she trailed off not needing to complete what she was saying.
"Tolle Koenig, technical student and a part timer at Morgenreate."
"Miriallia Haw, the same."
"Sai Argyle, technical same."
"Kuzzey Buskirk, the same, but we're Naturals."
"Kira Yamato, same, but I'm also a First Generation Coordinator," he was honest, though three of his friends grasp, while the fourth just shrugged.
"Lina Joule, ZAFT weapons R&D and I'm a civilian contractor," May Bluefield came clean. "I've been in hiding from ZAFT for some time now."
"Former-ZAFT Commander Crim Eagleton, Team Eagleton, serial number ZMF-3754-X114-39Z, I too have been in hiding, posing as Rick Bluefield and Miss Joule has been posing as my wife, long story short, we three," motioning to himself, Lina Joule, and the other ZAFT pilot, "are deserters, but staunch loyal patriots of the PLANTs," Rick Bluefield said, also coming clean, 'or is he,' Murrue thought, he looked vaguely familiar to her.
"Former-ZAFT Commander Sakura Ryosouke, Team Ryosouke, serial number ZMF-9564-X130-49B, please to meet'cha," Jun Yamasaki came clean with a wide grin that was some how honest despite the situation.
"I'm Lieutenant Murrue Ramuis of the OMNI Enforcer, Eight Lunar Fleet. As three of you are well aware, you've all seen highly classified military secrets. Therefore I cannot let you go until I contact the appreciate authority," Murrue said.
"Which wouldn't matter as half of the machines are in the Le Creuset Team's hands and if that isn't a security breach, and then I don't know what is," Crim replied with sarcasm.
"How do you know so much?" Murrue questioned.
A new voice spoke out, "Who do you think was building them and the Orb military's own prototypes."
"Mister Hayes!" Mir exclaimed excitedly as the man in question appeared.
"Actually Mir, it's not Sean Hayes, the name's Justin Glick, OMNI Enforcer Third Lunar Fleet, Zero Corps, serial number AFSF-9678-X127-9B84-CEJ3. I, too, am a deserter, but from the Earth Forces," Sean Hays came clean.
"What are you doing here?" Murrue said slightly afraid, especially since she was only with the M45A4 .45 calibers Semi-Automatic Naval Sidearm trained on the larger group, but the larger M6G Magnum .50 calibers with Heavy Slug rounds pointed at her.
"Let's put the guns away, Kira try calling any Earth Forces in the area, Sai get the number 5 trailer from Sector 35-South Block, Miriallia tend to Lieutenant Ramuis and make sure she sits down and stays down for a time, Kuzzey and Tolle help with the reload of the GINNs, move it people on the bounce!" Crim snapped off orders and everyone ran about, doing their assigned task.
"My Zero had it in the last fight, without mechanics and a complete and proper overhaul, she'll never fly again," Justin reported sadly.
"Cheer up! Didn't the files say that the GAT-X One-Two-Seven had a completed OS for Naturals to pilot the thing?" Crim said with a bit of a smile.
"Yeah, you're right! They did and it's also my particular type, especially with the HMD equipment," Justin was grinning like a boy about to get his first bike.
"How'd do you two know about the OS and HMD of the X-One-Two-Seven?" Murrue asked and the two showed her the data sticks.
"We made copies!" Justin said with a huge grin.
"What do you expect two employees to do? Abandon their employers most vital data and secrets and besides, we killed a dozen or so ZAFT commandoes for the information, so we have no friends in ZAFT as of then," Crim said sadly.
"Oh!" Murrue noted his down spirits earlier, but unlike the others, she heard, "again," added so softly, she would have missed it if she hadn't had previous first hand experience with soft speakers.
The group went about their business and moved as fast as possible. Sai returned with the Number 5 trailer, pulling another trailer, this one marked GF4 on the side, when asked, he said it was already like that, but said he saw what appeared to be mobile suits, abandon on flatbeds. Kira also reported no luck calling for help, which disheartened a number of the group. The three pilots just nodded to one another and took off for the three abandon suits, their gear was done for and they needed the new suits. The remaining group began to probe the GF4 trailer in their absence.
After they left, Tolle just had to ask.
"Miss Bluefield… I mean Miss Joule," Tolle began to speak to her, correcting himself in mid sentence.
"Yes Tolle?" she said, noting he must have figured it out.
"Umm… Are you sure you two aren't actually married?" Tolle had a bit of an embarrass blush across his face.
"Yes Tolle, we're not married. Though his real wife was sure one lucky woman to have him for a husband. He only thinks of her and their two children, even now," she said with a bit of a laugh and a bit of sadness as they did in fact do things like a married couple and their had been results.
"Okay, sorry! I just… well… you know!" he yelled the last part, though he had seen her right hand go to her stomach and knew that they...
"I know, I know," she said, but now Murrue thought of something, but Lina caught her look.
"Yes, my sister is one of the chairpersons of the Supreme Council Miss Ramuis. We differ on the issue of Coordinator-Natural co-existence, though it had not always been so. My being here ought to prove that," the woman had a sad look on her face at being on the different side in a war against her sister before turning back to the brunette, "Later, if there is a later with the way things are, you'll understand. The four of us and others are political refugees wanting no more of this war," she said with a weary tone that showed on her face and in her posture.
Murrue nodded her head, her hand going to her locket. She would always think of him, and his best friend. The two were just too much to bear together and too much apart. They were always getting into fights, but they were the best of friends, though one was claimed by the Ptolemaeus Insurrection and the other by ZAFT forces at Jachin Due. She felt some tears beginning to sting her eyes, when she heard a rather large explosion, turning and facing the area with the blast had occurred, she realized with horror that the Strike had yet to mount the pack.
"Hurry and mount the Striker Pack!" she yelled and ran towards the kneeling mobile suit.
At once, Kira was on it, the sounds of fierce fighting coming closer by the second, just as the pack was mounted and his Phase-Shift engaged, a white CQUE began its attack run on the unprotected people and the two GINNs. Kira reacted by firing the anti-ship Gatling cannon on the Strike's right shoulder. The CQUE evaded, as a thunderous explosion occurred and rising majestically out of the ground was the new and mighty Archangel, her white hull glistening in the artificial sunlight and sky of the colony, promising hope and peace.
Well, this one is now overhauled and some additions made to throw a whole lot of loops de loops!
R and R!