Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed. The company Bandai is the legal owner. I also don't claim originality with this story; Solid Shark is the owner of the idea. If he does not approve of my use of his idea, he can let me know and I'll pull the story once I have gotten his message.

Claimer: However I do declare ownership of the Crimson Eagle, the Dark Side Bear, and the Lunar Cherry Blossom. I also declare ownership of the twist I'm putting in.

"The Endymion Ghosts"

Chapter Five: "Vanishing Gundam, Escape from Asteroid Fortress Artemis!"

Port side Sickbay, just outside the door

Three Eurasian soldiers came running down a hallway and saw a man in Alliance whites with an officer insignia on his left upper chest. They moved to take him prisoner, but as they approached, they saw what appeared to be an Infantry Combat Badge, something they had never thought they could get assigned to the backwater post they were at. Then they saw a flash of steel and the third man was begging for his life. The other two turned and saw the two just a couple of yards behind them. Then suddenly, their ally stopped talking. He fell, there was no blood, but a loud cracking sound had been heard. The man's neck was broken.

The two remaining men raised their carbines and prepared to kill the enemy officer, but a flash of steel and both fell. Their blood was flowing freely from their copses. The officer was indeed fast and strong, he had to be. If he could not be fast and strong, he would be very, very dead. He knew his Seed had exploded, he knew of his great strength that had…

'No, not now, not until the day when it is all over," he thought and left to hide the copses.

On the bridge, a Lieutenant Commander Biddulph took all the officers on the bridge prisoner, claiming they would need to identify themselves and brief them on the situation. As the four female officers were lead away they meet up of the five pilots going the other way. The kid, not being an officer was safe, for the time being and the Crimson Eagle lay in Sickbay without officer ID. That was only half right. Kira Yamato was safe for the moment, but Crim Eagleton was not in Sickbay, but only the Eurasian soldiers were in danger.

"I hope their benefits are paid up," remarked the Lunar Cherry Blossom.

Herded aboard a launch, the officers were taken into Artemis itself and led to the commander's office. Quickly changing the background from that of a view of the Archangel to some greenery, the base commander welcomed the group of officers.

"Greetings! Welcome to Artemis!"

Meanwhile back aboard the Archangel, the civilian refugees and the dozen civilian volunteers were starting to get worried. The ship's surviving regular personnel were starting to wonder what was going on. While throughout the ship, guards were getting restless as members of the boarding party began not to check in. That was when a young Eurasian officer walked down a hallway to see a man stuffing three bodies into a garbage chute.

"Hn… Boss you really need to learn not to be so messy," the man said, his dark brown eyes gazing over the bloodstains as he scratched his black hair.

"Well then help me out Rhines!" Crim Eagleton ordered his man.

"SIR!" Rhines said and began to help.

Adolph Rhines had a deep German background. Unlike his commander, Crim Eagleton, Adolph was a Second Generation Coordinator who specialized in covert operations and information gathering. He was also very afraid of the Crimson Temper. No one really had the courage, save for his wife and children to challenge him when Crim lost his temper. Adolph Rhines was pretty much typical of any man with Germanic background, though he was actually similarly built like Athrun Zala, but he was a full head and half taller than the young man. He had pretty much normal skin tone of average white.

The two men completed their task, as a fire team of Eurasian soldiers rounded the corner, both knew what had to be done and Crim struck first.

"Get off my ship! You filthy Eurasian pig!"

"Damn up and comer!"

The two began to fight and the three soldiers rushed to their officer's aid. Crim took off, as Adolph began to wander away from the soldiers seemingly in a daze. Two of the three gave suit, but lost Crim. The alarm was sounded.

Meanwhile, back in the Commandant Garcia's office

"Well it would appear that four of you are authentic Atlantic Federation officers, but the last…" Commandant Garcia said.

"I'm a special operations operative that has been seeking a leak with-in the Enforcer. All I can say is that I come from the Republic of East Asia," Sakura Ryosouke said.

"Very well, but it will take some time to re-supply your vessel so…" the Commandant is interrupted.

"SIR! Commandant Sir!"

"Yes Zukov, what is it?" he asked, though he was boiling underneath.

"Sir an officer from the white ship has been found attacking our men! He's killed a number of them!" Zukov was panicky.

"WHAT!" the older man yelled.

"I guess Crim woke up early and found that you have control of our ship," the Hawk said.

"Crim? What a minute! As in Crim "Crimson Eagle" Eagleton of ZAFT?" the commandant was shocked.

"Yes, he had grown weary of the war and deserted. He had fled from ZAFT shortly after Nova and has been in hiding in Heliopolis. Apparently he stole vital ZAFT secrets when he fled. He had gone to work with Moregenroete, but was unable to make it to a shelter during the attack and had been piloting are damaged mobile suit when he had been hit by a section of the support shaft," Lieutenant (Senior Grade) Murrue Ramius said covering for the Crimson Eagle.

"I see, but why attack my men?"

"He is actually under orders to keep a certain biological formula under guard," the Lieutenant (Senior Grade) Mu La Flaga said.

"OH! What kind of biological formula?" asked the Commandant.

"Sir, I thought you said you were a veteran of the Grimaldi Front?" the Hawk taunted.

"WAIT A MOMENT! You don't mean an anti-Natural Biological Weapon Formula! Those bastards!" Garcia slammed his fist onto the table.

"Now you know why he's been keeping it safe. His orders came all the way from Sigel Clyne himself!" the Hawk of Endymion finished.

"I see, after Bloody Valentine, I don't blame them for developing it, but I'm glad to hear that some considered it far too dangerous. Do you know where he keeps the formula?"

"Yes, the formula is actually kept by the only person who knows where it really is and is the only survivor from the research team, the Crimson Eagle having seen to that," the Hawk said.

"What of intelligence?" the question was directed to the 'spy.'

"First I've heard of it, it must have been kept real quiet or we never knew," was the unwanted reply.

"Consider yourselves confined until further notice."

ZMS Gamow, ZMS Star Guard, and the newly arrived ZMS Nazca

"Something stinks if they sent the flagship of Team Eagleton," said Dearka Elsman.

"Shut up Dearka! It's not like any of them are aboard, but I find it insulting that his ship was turned into a trainer and they sent trainees!"

"No argument, how about you Shiho?"

"I agree Nicol, but also Dearka is right, something is amiss here. Why is a trainer this far out?"

"According to the chief instructor and the captain, neither knows. They've been getting odd orders for a week and a half now," said Captain Zimmer.

"Maybe they want to insult Commander Eagleton with his own ship, but he's dead, isn't he?"

"I found his helmet, not even he could survive that kind of blow."

"But he survived a lot worse!"

"Nicol, he did survive a lot worse, but he had never fully recover from Endymion, few actually did. He not only suffered mentally and physically, but emotionally he was badly wounded. Though it wouldn't be him, maybe he sought death as a release, but I doubt it. Most likely his wounds suffered covering the evacuation of the Lunar Forces also added to the damage and he just wasn't able to survive."

"We need a way in. We need to at least find his body, I'm sure that some excuse can be made for him."

"My machine Blitz can sneak by thanks to a special function. If you had to classify it, it would most likely be for shock attacks, covert operations, and special-forces assignment."

"Then we will withdraw and hide and wait for the shield to drop. Then you launch and attack."

"Now no one would say that we failed!"

"Let's do it!"

Four hours later

The Umbrella of Artemis was lowered and the Blitz was launched. During those four hours, things for the crew of the Archangel and their civilian passengers had gone from bad to worse.

Two hours earlier

As Kira sat and picked at his food like most everyone was doing, a large squad of troops, a full platoon came in and took defensive positions. Then Commandant Garcia entered the mess hall where the important personnel and a number of refugees were being kept. He then asked for the pilots of the mobile suits. Chief Murduch tried to keep the kid from getting up and saying it was him. When told that Flaga was one of the pilots and the mobile complement commander, so talk to him, Garcia said that they knew that La Flaga was in the mobile armor and they had one of the mobile suit pilots.

It was then that Garcia grabbed Mirillia Haw, who had been wearing Alliance female volunteer hot pink uniform, by the wrist and saying it was she was one of the pilots. Kira bolted up and said he was one of the pilots of the mobile suits. Garcia at first rebuked it, but remembered that the Crimson Eagle was aboard.

"Another Coordinator, eh… Where do you come from son?"

"I'm from Heliopolis, I was a technical student there."

"Figures you were, but now we have a real traitor to ZAFT and the rest of those Coordinators with-in our grasp."

"Traitor! ME!"

"Yes, your betraying your fellow Coordinators is quite surprising."

"Bring the boy and the girl, they're the pilots."

"Mir isn't a pilot! The…" Flay Allster was interrupted by Mirillia Haw.

"Flay its alright! I'll be fine, after all I may not know much about fighting, but I was a technical student too, so they have me, oh well."

The two were marched out and into the hanger. The platoon left as well and a change of the guard occurred. As soon as the last of the platoon and the old guard had rounded a corner and left, the new guards spoke up.

"Listen up! This base is about to fall, all personnel to your posts!"

"What?" asked one of the engine room mechanics.

"We're members of the Avenging Eagles security team, did you really think that the boss wouldn't have figured this is the place that you'd run to. He knew that you guys would, but we grossly underestimated the food supplies needed, not to mention water supplies, you'll have enough, but as for how long, no one knows," the men then left.

"Go figure! He probably put the code before he launched in his mobile suit," grumbled Chief Petty Officer Kojiro Murduch.

The two hours later when the Blitz had launched

"Sorry Kira, but I left the Field without thinking when I locked it down. I guess I screwed up the code or something," Mirillia sat across Kira's lap with a gun pointed to her head by a Eurasian.

"No problem Mir… Ah look here; you corrupted the data for the code and the OS. It appears that you didn't lose your combat data, but you can forget piloting this thing. Now only a Coordinator can, though considering we both threw up from Shell Shock and combat fatigue, well it's none too surprising this happened. I think I can get it back up and running like its supposed to, but it will take some time," Kira said as he realized he had actually unlocked the OS, but he quickly corrupted the data stream.

With time beginning to run out, Kira actually setting a record, made the GAT-X107 Field Strike Natural capable. Meaning that even Mir or anyone else aboard ship could fly the mobile suit. Mir could actually do so, because Kira had her reading the manual to increase the appearance that they were trying to find out what had been 'wrong' in the first place.

As silent as space itself, the Crimson Eagle had slipped by the Eurasians and into the Strike GAT-X105. He silently dispatched the lone guard and the three scientists who were trying to download its information and data, but a little safety system had kicked in and all they were really getting were a bunch of insults and other words and terms not fit for a polite conversation. Crim was happy he had installed that system that Lina Joule had come up with in secret. It made the mobile suit rather smart, very smart. That was when the first explosions and tremors hit.

The Artemis Space Fortress was under attack. With its Umbrella down, the defenders thought an ultra long-range bombardment was occurring. There was a scramble to raise and open the Umbrella of Artemis and that's when Nicol truly began to strike.

Deactivating the GAT-X207 Blitz's Mirage Colloid, Nicol Amafli attacked some of the nearest Light Wave Barrier emitters, destroying them and for the first time, breaching the defenses of Artemis. He continued to destroy them as the three ZAFT ships charged forward deploying their mobile suits. The resulting Battle of Artemis was a textbook victory for ZAFT, but the escape of the Archangel was a textbook fiasco!

As mobile armor launched to defend the harbor, Mir used the thick and hard spine of the GAT-X107 Field Strike's manual to strike the guard in between the legs. He stumbled out and another helped him up and away as Kira's hands danced across the controls and with Mir's help, they began launch procedures. Then they were walking out as Commandant Garcia yelled at the top of his lungs at them.

"Garcia!"

Everyone, but the two young kids, froze at the shout. Turning, everyone saw the Strike's amber eyes come to life and the head turn to look at the addressed.

"Where Eagle's Dare, Justice is There! I'll be back to deal with you!"

With all said, Garcia and his men fled from the ship. Eurasians were abandoning the ship left and right. They were boarding all the launches and heading back to the safety of their base. Even the base was not safe anymore as explosions ripped through it, killing dozens of personnel. Damage was heavy. The few mobile armor that had managed to launch were being destroyed outright and the even fewer ships that had launched, didn't live long.

ZAFT mobile suits began to engage the perimeter defenses and protect their rides home while inside, the G-Weapons led by the Blitz penetrated the internal defenses, destroying everything that attacked them. One of the mobile armors that had been hit had crashed into the command center, where Commandant Garcia had gone to command the battle. The damage and destruction was complete. The Artemis Fortress and the Artemis Fleet had been lost that dark day. Yet, Blitz was alone and had finally found the Archangel, but he also found the Field Strike equipped with the Sword Striker Pack. Heading to rest on the back of the Archangel was the Strike, equipped with the Ramfire Striker Pack. Crim had no intention to join this battle and lose another helmet. He also knew they would be needing additional fire astern.

While on the other side of the port. Blitz and Field Strike went at it and the two began to circle and strike. The Blitz launched its penetrater darts. Those things were designed to pierce anything, unfortunately, that included Phase Shift Armor. Yet, Kira and Mir proved to be an able team and while Kira evaded, Mir adjusted her position to fire the "Panzer Eisen" rocket anchor, though the Blitz dodged that attack.

The two mobile suits separated a few tens of meters and stared one another down again, but Kira and Mir made the first move, by using the "Igelstellung" 75mm CIWS and the "Panzer Eisen." The Blitz skillfully evaded the attack, though it had barely done so, but Nicol almost didn't have time to bring his shield into place. It took the whole of the attack, flames and smoke erupted, as the blow was too much for the Trikeros Offensive Shield System. The right became useless as Nicol tried to put some distance between him and the Field Strike.

During the fighting on the surface of Artemis, a missile pod popped up and fired a burst of anti-material missiles, before a GINN destroyed it. One of those missiles caught an off guard CQUE, destroying the suit and throwing the pilot into the vacuum of space. As the pilot awaited death as the helmet continued to crack and then on the verge of blowing out, a strong arm pulled the pilot inside of the GAT-X102 Duel. The helmet gave, but instead of vacuum, forced air entered Shiho's lungs as the Duel finished resealing and pumping emergency atmosphere into the cabin.

The GAT-X103 Buster and five ZMGF-1068 GINNS caught up with the Blitz only to watch as the Field Strike brought the 15.68 meter anti-ship sword "Schwert Gewehr" with a down vertical cut right through the left arm and shoulder, severing the left arm from the mobile suit. The Field Strike brought the sword back and prepared to thrust it through the heart of the machine, but the Crim called it off.

"The ship's leaving! Abort and Return ASAP!"

Kira and Mir had just been about to strike, but followed the command and withdrew from the battle. After all, they weren't in the mobile suit really by choice. They just wanted to put some distance between them and ZAFT. All the ZAFT pilots could do was watch the ship with two mobile suits, one sending a couple of shots their way to keep them from pursuing, escape into the vastness of space. Yet, even as they escape and Crim looked over the enemy ships, he had one question.

"Where is the Vesalius?"

The ship in question was limping back to PLANT space with a small escort. Having received orders to appear before the Supreme Council on Aprilius One. The ship returned to homeport in very sorry shape. It was still leaking atmosphere and the hurried repairs to enable the ship to get home were starting to come undone. Only a skeleton crew remained aboard the Vesalius, all volunteer.

Rau Le Creuset knew that people would only take one guess and knows that the damage and losses incurred far out weigh the gains. He felt a headache coming on as he sneezed remembering something he hated. A wise crack from the Crimson Eagle about sneezing meaning someone is talking about you. Oh how he felt like breaking something, because the Eagle and the Hawk had joined together. Yet he also had a small smile… The war was about to go far worse, all he had to do was survive the Supreme Council and keep one of the radicals from turning soft. Now that headache was returning in full force.

"I HATE YOU EAGLETON!" he shouted in his empty office.

Exiting the Strike thousands of kilometers away and already feeling bad, Crim Eagleton sneezed and made for the nearest head. He knew he wouldn't be flying anytime soon, but at least they got a spare pilot.

As Mir lay back against Kira's chest, she felt something and knew they would need to exit soon. Problem was, they had guard duty. So both were trapped and drenched in sweat from the battle. Hopefully this wouldn't lead anywhere, though a rather dirty thought did get inside of Mirillia's head, but she shook it away as she heard a light snore.

Kira was asleep, having had to fight not only an exploding base, being called a traitor, the Blitz, and dozen other things, but rampaging hormones. Man, was he glad that Tolle Koenig was Mir's boyfriend. He wandered if, a big IF, they were to go… Kira shook his head and went into deeper sleep, not knowing the equally drained Mir had curled up into a ball against him.

Okay, Listen up! This is not going to be a Kira/Mir love story! Well, MAYBE. I still don't know, but a really sad truth of Crim Eagleton is coming up and we will find out why he and Yzak Joule were so gun-ho about the war early on. Also, there is more behind the scenes that not even the stagehands know about! Forget the actors not knowing. Let's use the Force and find out!

Just kidding! No there WILL NOT be a crossover here. That's final! Anyone asks and I'm sending you to Iraq! And forgetting to ship the water too, so don't push it.

Ah! I found Inspiration once more and will be typing up a storm. Hopefully, I've only recovered a little, so I'm still rather on shaky legs. So keep those reviews coming! Also, say good-bye to Shiho for a bit, she's heading back to the PLANTS to recover. Also note, Gerard Garcia did not die in battle at Artemis. The fool survived the war, if you don't believe me, then you haven't read the Astray Manga, because I have and that fool lived through the war, I think… He had a rather humiliating encounter with pirates, but the Serpent Tail crew bailed him out, naturally, Eurasian had to dish out the cash, but they got their base back.

All you who know what's next know what's about to happen and yes, Crim will have his enemies, but we will also get a treat to how the officers got back to the ship. Till then, signing off!