I don't own anything except Ken DiFalco, his team, and Sophia DiFalco

Archangel, Aft Deck/Locker Room, March 3rd, C.E. 71
Kira and Cagalli were still enjoying the peace and quiet of the open sea when the general quarters alarm went off. "All hands to Level One Battlestations! Repeat, all hands to Level One Battlestations!"

After but an instant of startled confusion, they were both running for the hatch; a hatch which opened before they reached it, revealing a grim-faced Ken. "Hurry," he said succinctly, immediately turning and racing down the corridor. "So much for our day of rest," he added.

"What's going on?" Kira demanded.

"Not sure yet." Without breaking stride, the ace pulled a headset out of his pocket and put it on. "Bridge, this is DiFalco; just what is going on up there?"

"Sai here, Falcon," came the reply. "We're detecting two submarine mobile suits -tentatively ID'd as GOOhNs- and a pair of DINNs." He paused. "We're also getting some kind of intermittent reading; looks like a sensor ghost. Any ideas?"

"Negative; doesn't ring any bells." They were getting close to the pilots' locker room now. "I'm launching ASAP; if Mu and Sophia aren't already down there, tell them to hurry."

"Roger that."

Ken turned to Cagalli. "You with me, partner?"

She nodded decisively. "Just try taking off without me."

"Frankly," he replied, "I don't have a death wish." It was possible he could slice her apart, as he had Heinrich Metzinger... but he remembered their abortive sparring match all too well. "I'll meet you in the hangar, got it?"

"Right."

Kira watched her go. "You're flying with her?" he asked, as they entered the locker room.

The ace nodded, opening a locker and pulling out his own distinctive gray flightsuit. "That's right," he said, pulling on the suit... while simultaneously removing a small patch from his shirt, just to the left of his breastbone. "She's a good gunner, knows what she's doing; just as good as Sophia, really."

Kira hadn't realized until just then how unusual it was for him to put on his flightsuit around other people, but he had no time to comment before Ken sealed it. He did, however, note the glint of some kind of metal apparatus, embedded in his chest...

"Falcon, what is that?" he asked, confused.

"Nothing you need to worry about, my friend. Nothing at all." Ken buckled the flightsuit's belt, adding another pouch of power packs as an afterthought, and grabbed his helmet. "Come on, let's get to the hangar; I think we're about to earn our pay."

Archangel, Hangar
Mechanics scattered from the path of the charging figure in gray, who ignored them all on his way to his machine. I, he thought, catching hold of the zip line, am getting very, very tired of ZAFT attacks. If Victor is out there today, I'm going to be very irritated.

Of course, he tended to be very irritated every time Victor Tempest turned up.

Cagalli was already strapped into the gunner's seat when he climbed in. "When do we launch?" she asked immediately.

"As soon as I'm strapped it." Ken went through his usual preflight checklist, taking care not to forget the power connection to his suit, and activated main power. "Bridge, this is DiFalco; ready for catapult connection."

"Roger that, Falcon," Mir answered. "We're moving you to the port catapult; Strike to starboard. The Skygraspers will launch right after you."

"Copy."

"Any special equipment needs today, Commander?" Murdoch asked. "You're about to be dealing with both airborne and underwater machines; and we're still not sure what that sensor-ghost-thing is. Want some heavier firepower?"

"Negative; what we've got can take just about anything ZAFT can possibly have in this region."

Cagalli looked at the pilot through narrowed eyes. "Pretty confident, aren't you? What if they've got another prototype out there you've never seen before?"

Ken shrugged. "Then we may have problems. But the main point is this: we may have to go underwater, and I want as little drag as possible; it'll be hard enough to maneuver down there in a space model as it is, without adding equipment to the shoulder mounts."

As the Raptor was loaded into the port catapult, she frowned down at her targeting displays. "I don't suppose there's any chance of your 'friends' coming to help us out anytime soon, is there?"

He shook his head, making a few last-minute adjustments to his systems. "Not if they follow orders; right now Sparky, Tom, and Leanne are busy with a special project, one which is far, far more important than anything that may happen today."

"I don't see what good it'll do us if we're dead," Cagalli said acidly.

"We're not going to die here," Ken told her, quite calm. "I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but after everything we've been through so far, I can't see a couple of GOOhNs and a set of DINNs causing us that much trouble. No," he said again, shaking his head, "their project is much more important. It may be the only thing that stands between life and death for the entire world."

"You know, I'm getting really tired of your cryptic predictions of doom, Ken."

"Deal with it." He keyed the radio. "Bridge, we're ready down here."

"Roger that. Connected to catapult; APU online." On the screen, Mir nodded to the pilot. "You're go for launch, Falcon."

"Affirm. Grimaldi Falcon, launching." Acceleration pressed them into their seats, and Raptor shot out into the open sky.

Mu and Sophia had both been kept waiting for several minutes, until Mir's voice came over the radio at last. "Sorry to keep you waiting," she apologized. "There's been a change in plans. Strike can't fly in the atmosphere right now -the Aile pack is still being repaired- so he'll be maintaining position in the starboard catapult, firing from there. I'm afraid you'll both have to launch from the port."

"Roger that," Mu answered. He glanced over at the brilliantly-painted Skygrasper Two. "Kestrel, you go first; you're the atmosphere-combat expert."

"Got it, Hawk." Sophia edged the throttle forward, taxiing into the catapult her brother had just left. "This is the Victorian Kestrel, heading out."

Her fighter shot forward, a blue-and-gold streak, and Skygrasper One quickly took her place. "Mu La Flaga, launching!"

Time to show this new team why even the Le Creuset and Waltfeld teams couldn't stop us. He smiled to himself. Even the Gray Demons themselves might have had trouble with us.

Gulf of Aden, Battlefield
"Looks like Sai's sitrep was right on the money," Ken murmured. "Bridge, we got a tallyho on the bandits; heading to engage."

"Roger that, Commander," Natarle replied. "Fire at will."

"As if I intended to wait for permission," he murmured to his gunner. He switched radio frequencies then, and uttered the ascending wail.

Cagalli stiffened. "Ken, when you made that unearthly noise-" she admitted it probably had a helpful psychological effect against the enemy, but she still wasn't very fond of it "-that 'sensor ghost' turned up again. There is something else out here."

Ken frowned, studying the data. "You're right; somebody's being cagey. Must be some new kind of stealth system..." He switched to his link with the Skygraspers. "Mu, Sophia, I'll let you two handle the DINNs; Cagalli and I will try to figure out what the other thing is."

Mu nodded. "Roger that. Watch your back, little brother."

"Always do."

In the lead DINN, a pilot had heard the hunting call, and he scowled. "So it is you, DiFalco," Commander Marco Morassim hissed. "Today you'll die, traitor." He swung around, orienting his machine toward the slate-gray Raptor, intending to pummel it till its Phase-shift ran out.

"I don't think so!" Mu's fighter dove in on him, firing hyper-impulse shots from his Launcher pack and forcing the ZAFT commander to reconsider his actions.

"Urgh! Noisy fly," Morassim muttered, and charged off in pursuit of the aircraft.

Down below, on Archangel's open starboard flight deck, Kira was attempting to blast the pair of GOOhNs that attacked from below; a task which might have been easier if he'd had a Striker pack.

But I don't, so I'll just have to make do.

The young Coordinator, though concentrating on the sea below, didn't relax his vigilant observation of the sky. As he was firing another green dart at the water, he caught sight of something moving up above. Just a flicker, almost like a ghost, but...

Kira keyed his radio. "Falcon, that's not a sensor glitch," he called. "I'm not sure what it is, but I just caught a glimpse of it..."

Ken's head snapped up. Of course! "Roger that, Kira," he replied. "Thanks for the warning." Rolling to avoid an attack from the second DINN, he brought down his keyboard and started punching up data. Let's see; check that data package Sparky sent me...

"Okay," Cagalli said, sparing a moment to snap off a cannon shot at the DINN, "I give up. What are you doing?"

"Sparky sent me an updated list of ZAFT's mobile suit inventory in his last message," he replied absently. "I remember something about... There. Take a look at this," he said, shunting the data to her display. "He mentioned that ZAFT's managed to reverse-engineer the Blitz's Mirage Colloid; and while they've got a fully-functional version now, they stuck an incomplete model on something called a 'Tactical Air Reconnaissance GINN'. You can catch glimpses of it in when it's moving, but if it stands still, it's invisible."

Cagalli nodded, looking over the information herself. "I get it; if we can catch it just right, fire a shot when it's exposed..." She frowned. "But who would be flying it? Unless..."

"Exactly." Ken keyed his radio, setting it to a standard ZAFT channel. "This Falcon; that you, Victor?"

A low chuckle came over the speaker. "Hello, Boss; I wondered when you'd figure it out. Of course, I'm not sure how you did figure it out, but..."

"I still have sources in the PLANTs, Raven." His eye narrowed. "Exactly what do you hope to accomplish? You may have that assault beam rifle, but that won't do you much good if I slice it in half, now will it out? You must have a death wish."

"Maybe I do," Huckebein acknowledged. "But who says this is a standard TAR GINN?" The black-painted machine flickered into existence... and drew a pair of beam sabers from its hips.

"Hmm." Ken examined the situation. "We may have a slight problem here," he admitted to his gunner. "But, we all do what we must. Shall we go take him down now?"

Cagalli nodded. "Let's; I'm getting tired of this guy."

Huckebein laughed again. "Actually going to finish the job this time, Falcon? Go ahead and try!" His flight-capable GINN rushed forward, while Raptor drew its own melee weapons.

Archangel, Bridge
"Mobile weapons are engaged, Ma'am," Mir reported. "We have now confirmed the total enemy force to consist of two GOOhNs, two DINNs, and one experimental GINN variant. Skygraspers One and Two are engaging the DINNs, and Strike is attempting to engage the GOOhNs; Raptor is now attacking the GINN."

"Roger," Murrue responded. "Can we assist them?"

"Not with heavy weaponry, Captain," Natarle told her. "We have Igelstellungs engaging the DINNs and GOOhNs; but we can't help Raptor at all. The situation-"

The two flight-capable machines flashed past the Bridge, striking at each other with sabers.

"-is too chaotic," she finished. "As you can see."

Murrue grimaced. "Understood; keep me informed, please; and Ensign Neumann, try to keep Archangel out of harm's way!"

"Yes, Ma'am." Even as he spoke, Neumann juked the big ship to one side, letting a GOOhN-fired missile fly harmlessly past.

Gulf of Aden, Battlefield
Kira cursed, watching another shot splash uselessly into the water. "Chief Murdoch!" he called, taking a shot on his shield.

"What is it, kid?" the mechanic replied swiftly.

"Didn't the supplies from the Eighth Fleet include a bazooka?" He fired another green dart, and had the satisfaction of watching it blow away a missile.

"Yeah," Murdoch said, puzzled. "What about it?"

"Please get it for me." Kira stared at the water which was the GOOhNs' defense. "I'm goin' down there after them."

On the monitor, the grease monkey blinked in surprise. "Wait a minute, kid!" he protested. "The Strike's a space model; it can't-"

"I know that!" the pilot interrupted. "But we have to do something, and there isn't time to think of a better option!"

"Okay, kid." Murdoch sighed. "One bazooka, coming right up." The older man just hoped Kira wasn't making a big mistake.

In the sky, Raptor and GINN battled; and this time, the odds were more even. Huckebein's machine had lost bits of armor in the fierce engagement, but Raptor, too, had gouges, mostly around the Panzer Eisen rocket anchor/shield. It was going to be a battle of attrition.

Cagalli was fighting to keep track of everything that was going on; both Ken and his enemy were moving so fast they were giving the targeting computers fits. No wonder Ken doesn't use targeting computers, she thought irately, struggling for a lock. The computer can't keep up with him!

Frozen fire flashed, clashing and breaking apart in arcs of bright energy, neither truly getting the upper hand. "You've kept in practice, Victor," Ken grunted, clashing both sabers against his opponent's. "I didn't expect you to last this long."

"Yeah, well, I had incentive, didn't I?" The Raven grinned. "I knew that one day you'd be back, and I could pay you back for what you did to me." Deep inside, a part of him was railing at the rest of him, trying to regain control, but that part wasn't strong enough to win the battle...

"I did nothing to you that you didn't bring on yourself," the ace retorted. With a fast spin -which, just incidentally, added a little more stress to the frame- and a jet of his verniers, he managed to gain an extra hundred meters of altitude, before diving back in with a falcon's scream.

Huckebein recoiled in time to save himself, but not his left-hand saber. "I should have remembered, Falcon," he hissed. "You always did like dive and slash attacks, didn't you?"

"Just part of my charm," Ken said easily. "Now get out of the way!"

In another part of the sky, Mu and Sophia twisted and dove with the pair of DINNs, firing at every opportunity. Not many of them had come up yet... but now one did. "Kestrel, Fox Two!" Sophia called, and unleashed a salvo of missiles against Morassim's compatriot.

The pilot tried to pull away, but his DINN wasn't quite as maneuverable as the missiles chasing it. After a brief scream, the salvo impacted, blowing him away.

Mu raised a fist. "Nice shot, Kestrel! Another chalk outline."

"I prefer 'roasted turkey'," she said, swooping back into the sky, "but that'll do. C'mon, let's get this other guy." With a laugh of pure exhilaration, the Victorian Kestrel dove back into the fight. "She stoops to conquer!" she shouted, firing her beam turret.

Down below, Kira had finally gotten the weaponry he needed, but now that he was ready to take the plunge, he hesitated. Falcon is still up there, he thought, fighting that Raven guy. Is there anything I con do...? Wait a second...

Holding the bazooka one-handed for a moment, he picked up the discarded beam rifle. "Falcon, catch!"

Ken turned, saw the weapon hurtling toward him, and dropped his left-hand saber in order to snatch the rifle out of midair. "Thanks, Kira," he called. "Now go get those GOOhNs."

"Roger that." Strike took a couple of running steps and leapt straight out over the water. He seemed to hang there for several moments, and then he dropped beneath the waves.

Huckebein, seeing that, shook his head. "Just what is he planning to do? That thing can't swim."

"Never bet against Kira Yamato," Ken advised, raising the newly-acquired rifle to firing position. "Those who do, tend to die."

The Raven raised an eyebrow. "Another rifle, huh? You know, I'm not sure what good mixing melee and ranged attacks will-"

That was when he noticed that Raptor had put away its right-hand saber, and now held rifles in both hands... and both were pointed directly at him.

"Hm. This seems to change the paradigm a little." The GINN dropped its own blades, switching instead to its single rifle. "Shall we see who's the better shot, old comrade? The man who hates guns, or the man returned from the dead to fight him?"

"If you think you can win this contest, Raven," Ken said coldly, "you are welcome to try."

Behind him, Cagalli surreptitiously readied the beam cannons.

Gulf of Aden, Underwater
One GOOhN pilot laughed openly, seeing the Strike dive into the water. "A space model?" he chuckled to his partner.

"Worthless underwater," the other pilot agreed. "Let's go show him the error of his ways."

Watching the GOOhNs head straight for him, Kira frowned. Here they come, he thought. This isn't gonna be easy; but it never is, is it?

His bazooka was out and ready by the time they reached him; and he had one advantage: sheer thruster power. They used scale systems to effortlessly slice through the water, but he could do the same -albeit with less maneuverability- through brute force.

Not to mention the fact that scale systems were much more fragile...

Here goes nothing. Kira fired his bazooka, only to curse as it missed completely. The GOOhN's maneuverability did count for something, after all.

"That the best you can do, Natural?" the enemy pilot sneered. "I've seen better from a new-made recruit." He fired a barrage of torpedoes at the humanoid machine.

They did nothing at all to his Phase-shift-equipped machine; his bazooka was not nearly as lucky, and Kira groaned as it broke in half. Now what am I supposed to do? He hastily backed away, thinking furiously. Come on, come on... what was it Falcon said about GOOhNs? Something about... water pressure!

That was it. If he could just pierce the submarine units' outer armor, the water pressure would crush the imperfect shell, imploding the entire machine. And making gashes in mobile suit armor was exactly what his Armor Schneiders had been designed to do...

Drawing them, the Strike turned back to face its adversaries once again.

Gulf of Aden, Above Water
Ken muted his radio, while taking a shot from Victor's GINN on Raptor's shield. "When the time is right," he murmured to his gunner, "fire the cannons."

Cagalli nodded, flexing her hands. "How will I know when the time is right?"

"You'll know."

They were in the middle of what Cagalli privately termed the "cautious sparring" phase of Ken's battle plan. It seemed as though every time he ran into a new machine, he spent some time evaluating its capabilities through skirmishing; this seemed to be no exception. She had the feeling he could have ended this long since, right after he obtained Kira's rifle, but he seemed intent on gathering as much information as possible first.

Probably for future reference, she thought, recalling the pilot's obsession with careful planning. Now, if he'll just hurry up...

Inevitably, Huckebein got a shot past their guard, ripping away a chunk of Raptor's torso armor; and nearly taking a chunk of the cockpit with it. "You just gonna float there, Falcon?" Huckebein demanded. "While I blow you to pieces?"

Ken ignored him. The damage was a small price to pay; he now had the information he needed. He boosted back into the sky, readying his rifles...

...And a Skygrasper hurtled down out of the sky, firing a beam turret at the GINN.

Ken was correct: Cagalli knew precisely when to fire.

Tempest fired desperately at the same moment, but green energy flashed from both beam rifles, the beam cannons, and a beam turret, all at once, and his armor splintered and shattered where the emerald death struck.

His last shots weren't quite in vain -they succeeded in blowing away both rifles, and one of the cannons- but Huckebein's machine took far, far worse damage. Both legs were gone, the head, both arms, and the wings. It had been essentially reduced to a cockpit, and he howled in frustration as he fell. "Next time, Falcon," he shouted at the top of his lungs, "it'll be over! I'll make you kill me!"

Cagalli shook her head as the TAR GINN dropped in the water. "Does that guy have a death wish or something?"

"I have no idea." Ken keyed the radio. "Archangel, this is Falcon; we're down to just the GOOhNs and a DINN; we're returning for repairs. Huckebein gave almost as good as he got." He smiled, very slightly. "Almost... but not quite."

"Roger that, Falcon," Mir said with a smile of relief. "You're cleared to land; good work out there."

"Thanks; but it was Cagalli's shot that blew him out of the air." Behind him, Cagalli was quietly smug about blowing off the GINN's wings. "What's Kira's status?"

Mir's expression turned grim. "We're not sure. Sonar shows weapons' fire, but we think he only got off one shot from the bazooka..."

Ken nodded, equally grim. "I see. Well, don't worry too much, Miriallia; Kira's a superb pilot, and he has Phase-shift. Those ZAFT machines do not."

"Yeah. You're right."

Gulf of Aden, Underwater/Above Water
By the time the first GOOhN reached him, Kira was nearly ready. The machine managed to slam into him before he was completely set... but the enemy pilot unknowingly made it all the easier for the Strike to destroy him and his machine.

The ZAFT pilot was chuckling to himself as he forced the Strike backward through the water. "See? You're no match-"

A metal hand moved, and the Armor Schneider ripped through the GOOhN's armor as though it were made of cheese. This weakened the machine's structure, leaving it vulnerable to the immense water pressure bearing down on it...

The pilot didn't even have time to scream before his machine crumpled around him, turning it into a strangely-shaped alloy coffin.

That's one down, Kira thought, breathing hard. But there's still one left; and I don't think that trick will work twice...

"You bastard!" the other pilot hissed. "You'll pay for that!" He fired a barrage of torpedoes, soundly cursing all the while.

Now it was Kira's turn to curse; the torpedoes, while harmless to him, blew away his other Armor Schneider, leaving him weaponless. "Oh, no," he whispered. "Now what am I gonna do?" He felt an instant of envy of Ken whose mobile suit was equipped with even greater firepower...

Above, two Skygraspers danced across the sky with a DINN between them. Marco Morassim was a fairly decent pilot, and that was the only thing keeping him alive as shot after shot spat across the sky toward him; even the Archangel had joined in. "This is pointless," he hissed to himself, trying to get a bead on his adversaries. "You can't dodge forever!"

He wasn't aware he was transmitting (and probably wouldn't have thought anything of it if he was; it didn't even occur to him that Archangel had been furnished with ZAFT frequencies). "You're right," Mu murmured, "we can't dodge forever... but we don't have to, do we?"

"Nope," Sophia agreed; she was quite cheerful, having helped blast Victor Tempest out of the sky yet again. "Your move, Mu."

"Got it, Kestrel."

Morassim cursed viciously. He'd managed to avoid another salvo of missiles from one of the aircraft, but now streaks of light were coming down from the sky. One of them managed to blow off his left arm, dropping it and the weapon he carried into the deep beneath; he assumed it would fall to the bottom of the sea.

He assumed wrong.

Kira was still evading the second GOOhN when he noticed something drifting down from the surface. Is that...? Yes... It was the disembodied arm of a mobile suit... still clutching a shotgun in dead, motionless fingers. If he could pry the weapon loose...

The GOOhN pilot had no idea what the Strike was up to when it suddenly stopped, but he wasn't complaining. "Idiot," he murmured. "Well, I guess he decided there's no point in dying tired..." Abandoning caution, he rushed forward.

Straight into a shotgun blast.

The pilot's eyes went wide for an instant, then shut forever when his machine crumpled into a ball.

Up above, Morassim noticed the implosion. "What? They've both been destroyed? But... You'll pay for that, legged ship!"

"Not today!" Mu put his fighter into a steep dive, and this time his cannon hit something a little more vital to the DINN's functioning.

Morassim cursed yet again, feeling the shock of a wing disintegrating. "Time to retreat," he hissed. "I'll get you next time, legged ship." He turned tail and flew away, chased by another flurry of energy fire.

Once again, Archangel had been attacked; and once again, it had been victorious. Now it was time for them to regroup, as well.

Archangel, Bridge
Some hours after the battle, the officers had again gathered on the Bridge, this time to discuss the current situation.

"That was quite the unexpected turn of events," Mu commented, and looked over at his younger brother. "Guess we should have listened to your warnings about ZAFT submarine forces, Falcon."

Ken shrugged, arms folded, hands tucked into his trench coat; even now, he disliked his Earth Forces uniform and preferred to hide it under his coat. "Not your fault, either of you," he said, encompassing Murrue with his remarks. "Even I didn't expect to run into them; the Archangel must really have them spooked."

Sophia nodded. "Unfortunately for them, they don't seem to have much respect for what they're dealing with." She frowned. "Any idea what team they were from?"

"I listened to recorded radio transmissions," he answered, eye narrow. "If I'm not mistaken, the pilot of the surviving DINN was one Commander Marco Morassim."

Natarle raised an eyebrow. "Marco Morassim? I'm not familiar with the name."

Ken shrugged again. "No reason you should be; Morassim isn't bad against conventional wet-navy forces, but then any ZAFT man worth his coat can deal with conventional forces easily enough. He's really not that bright; a by-the-book sort with a healthy ego and an even healthier distaste for Rau Le Creuset. Calls him a punk." He smiled slightly. "About the only thing we agree on; but he probably launched that idiotic attack in an attempt to show Rau up."

"You've met the man?" Murrue asked.

"Once; we don't have a high opinion of each other." The almost imperceptible smile thinned noticeably. "I don't think he ever got over the notion of a seventeen-year-old kid getting promoted over him like that."

Actually, she suspected there had been quite a few stubbed toes over that one; even she had been unable to determine what exactly had prompted Patrick Zala to put so much faith in one teenager, and she rather suspected it wasn't widely known in ZAFT, either.

"Well," Mu went on after a moment, "now we have a general idea of what we're dealing with out here. Any ideas about what else they can throw at us?"

Ken thought about that. "Unless they can send another submarine our way," he said slowly, "not much. We're too far from Carpentaria for land-based machines to reach us, and we just took out a good portion of Morassim's forces. There's a possibility that Huckebein's TAR GINN could be restored to flight status, but not for a few days yet, at least; we really did a number on him." He frowned. "If memory serves, Morassim's submarine -probably a Vosgulov-class submarine carrier- can't have much more in terms of mobile suits. I'd say... a couple of GOOhNs, and maybe some kind of command unit left. Probably a ZnO, in the latter case; big, green machine, really ugly, but very effective underwater."

Murrue nodded. "Think they'll be more cautious next time around?"

He snorted. "Marco Morassim? Not likely. One thing to remember about the man, Murrue: he does not learn from his mistakes. At least not until he's made them three or four times. Besides, even the best can be guilty of underestimating their opponent; the Magic Bullet of Dusk fatally underestimated the Strike, despite having already lost to it once."

Mu smiled. "Then I guess all we do for now is keep an eye out, right? No brilliant plans this time?"

"Mu," Ken told him, "Marco Morassim couldn't find his own backside without radar, laser designators, and inertial guidance; he's too stupid for a brilliant plan to work. Lesson Thirty-nine: Subtlety is of use only against those smart enough to be fooled by it." He turned toward the hatch. "If you'll excuse me, I need to rest."

As he left Murrue glanced at Sophia. "Is it just me, or has he needed to do that right after every battle we've fought on Earth?"

The Kestrel leaned against the bulkhead. "It's the gravity, Murrue; he's still adjusting to it. Remember, he's spent very little of his life in full Earth-gravity. Even the space colonies -be they PLANT or Island-Three type, like Heliopolis- have somewhat less than full gravity; and aside from four months on Heliopolis, he's spent most of the last three years or so in zero gravity. I don't think he's quite adapted to Earth yet."

"I see..." That makes sense; especially since he hates planets.

Archangel, Ken's Quarters
"You can't deny the potential of that weapon, Falcon; and it was you that devised the basic strategies for its use."

"Granted. And, to be sure, I'll sleep more soundly once we have something that can truly defend the PLANTs from an Earth Forces attack. There will never be another Junius Seven, if there's anything I can say about it."

"Agreed. We cannot forgive them for the Bloody Valentine... ever."

"Just what plan are you using for GENESIS' deployment, Patrick?"

"Take a look, Falcon; and if you have any refinements to make to your old battle plan, now might be the time."

"You can't be serious! That goes far beyond anything we ever discussed with the Council, Patrick!"

"You've gone too far, Patrick! Too far!"

From his vantage point in the dark of space amid the hourglasses of the PLANTs, the gray-clad ace stared in horror. The silvery disc spat its glowing beam toward the alignment mirror, which reflected the stream back into the inner mirror. The entire installation began to glow... and it sent the energy out into space a second time.

The piercing beam of light speared into Earth's surface, burning, scorching... searing the entire planet clean of life, while one man's laughter echoed...

A different scene. The slate-gray GINN desperately fired its machine gun again and again, but failed to connect on the mobile armor it was chasing. Surviving to attack range, it launched its deadly nuclear missile-cargo, which was to impact in Junius Seven mere seconds later.

Caught too close to the coming blast was another GINN, already badly damaged. "Get out of here, Falcon, before it's too late! There's nothing more you can do..." A cough. "That nuke's about to hit, and I'm not getting out of here. You've got to make it... and make sure this never happens again. Don't let our -my- sacrifice have been in vain..."

An anguished cry came from the gray GINN, then a head came up, and Prussian blue eyes went wide and Berserker-clear...

Ken sat bolt upright. "Not again..." he whispered. "Why can I never get any rest?"

He knew the answer, of course. Ever since February Fourteenth, C.E. 71, he'd had nightmares. Of the Bloody Valentine, of the Battle of Endymion Crater... of the coming cataclysm he was fighting desperately to prevent. Vivid images went through his mind, and true rest was impossible...

Ken checked the time, and noted with disgust that it was 0200 hours; about average, but still far less than he would have preferred.

"Well," he told himself, "I might as well go prowl the corridors; I'm not going to get anymore sleep tonight. Maybe somebody else is up..."

The ace went to his storage closet and opened it; his gaze first went longingly to the red ZAFT uniform that hung there... but he knew it wasn't time to wear it again. Not while I'm still with the Earth Forces. That would endanger me... and dishonor the uniform. No, not till the time comes for the real mission to begin; not till Preybird is complete, and Asmodeus is nearer to commissioning...

Instead, Ken drew on his usual Earth Forces uniform, minus the jacket, and fastened the gray trench coat over it. At his hip was the only relic of the Gray Demons that he currently permitted himself to wear; other than his custom flightsuit, which he wore for medical reasons.

Affixing the eyepatch over his mutated left eye, the pilot stepped out into the corridor for a night of prowling.

Archangel, Cafeteria, March 7th, C.E. 71
Five of the students-turned-crew-members were in the cafeteria when Ken stepped in for lunch. His presence there, once an unusual occurrence, was becoming more frequent, as he grew more at ease with the crew. As near as anyone could determine, he'd finally resigned himself to being with the ship for the long haul.

Or that was the going theory, at any rate; Mir, for one, wasn't so sure -it seemed to her that, from the moment the ace had set foot on the Archangel's deck at Heliopolis, the ship had become a part of his plan- but she didn't really care, either.

"Hey, Falcon," she greeted with a bright smile. "Good afternoon."

He nodded in response, and sat at one of the tables; not with the students, but not as far apart as he might have been, either. "Afternoon, Miriallia." Without another word, the eyepatch-wearing pilot applied himself to eating, with the same single-minded efficiency he devoted to every task.

It's almost as if he plans even his meals down to the last detail, she thought, amused. Well, who knows? Maybe he does.

Meanwhile, Sai, Kuzzey, and Tolle were discussing the ship's course, while using a small computer to check the data. "You know," Tolle pointed out, "the Archangel's course will take her pretty close to the Orb Union; we'll be going right past their territorial waters."

Kuzzey leaned forward. "Hey, you're right; maybe we could get a little shore leave?" he said hopefully. "I've never actually seen the homeland before..."

Sai frowned. "I don't know, you guys... I don't think we're likely to get any time off in the near future; we are making for Alaska as fast as we can."

"But if there's even a chance..."

"If we were to go even a kilometer into Orb's territory, Kuzzey," Ken said softly, "we'd be blown out of the water. They jealously guard their neutrality, and will by no means permit an armed warship from either side to enter their territory at this point. I don't blame them, either; after Heliopolis, they must be less than happy with both sides... with good reason."

"But they agreed to build the Archangel and those mobile suits," Kuzzey protested. "Can they really complain if it went wrong?"

"Yes," the ace said simply. "I don't believe it was the government that approved the G-weapon project; I rather suspect it was largely the Sahaku family's influence that brought that about."

Cagalli had entered the compartment during the discussion, and now sat with Kira. "He's probably right," she murmured, quietly enough that only the Coordinator heard. "I doubt my father knew nothing about it, but it probably was the Sahakus behind it." She grimaced. "Rondo Ghina and Rondo Mina Sahaku have always been ambitious. My family doesn't get along with theirs very well."

Kira nodded. She'd know, wouldn't she? The revelation of her identity had come as something of a shock to him, but he was having little trouble obeying her injunction not to treat her like a princess. He'd met her long enough before learning that that it was simply habit now.

"Still," Tolle was arguing, "our parents are there; doesn't that matter?"

Ken shook his head. "From their perspective? Probably not. And you have to admit they have a point, Tolle. If you were just students, that could be one thing; they'd probably send someone to pick you up without hesitation. But now you're official members of the Earth Forces, and that makes all the difference."

"So we can't go see them until we're discharged?" Kuzzey said plaintively. "That's just..."

"War, Kuzzey," the ace said gently. "That's war; soldiers always go a long time without seeing family and friends. It's part of the sacrifice they make, for the greater good."

Cagalli smiled a little at that. "I don't think Kuzzey liked hearing that," she whispered. "And coming from anyone else, I'd consider it an arrogant thing to say. But coming from him..." She shrugged. "Well, is it still arrogant when the person saying it is arrogant?"

Kira winced. "That sounds like a Zen koan."

"A little, I guess," she admitted. "But then, he's like a Zen koan, isn't he? I don't think anybody aboard the Archangel knows what he's really up to."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not sure he knows what he's up to. I mean, he's brilliant... but I sometimes think maybe he's a little..."

"Crazy?" Cagalli suggested, and shrugged. "Maybe so; even he admits he's obsessed. But... there's something going on, and I think this ship is a big part of it."

"Just as long as we survive it," Kira muttered. He was all too familiar with how the eccentric genius had subordinated everything to his cause; on the other hand, the Archangel probably wouldn't do him much good if it got blown up or something.

She touched his shoulder reassuringly. "Hey, this ship's survived even Le Creuset and the Desert Tiger; we'll be fine."

"Yeah." He shook himself. "Yeah, you're right."

Archangel, Bridge
"Think we're still in range of that submarine?" Sophia asked idly, lounging near the bow of the Bridge. "It's been four days..."

Murrue shrugged. "You'd have to ask Falcon that; he knows more about this Morassim fellow; on the other hand, I'm not sure he'd know, either. If the team is going by procedure, instead of initiative, it might be harder to predict. They've doubtless begun changing how they operate since learning of his defection."

"Don't be so sure it's gotten that far, Murrue," the Kestrel told her. "Remember, never underestimate how much bureaucratic inertia can slow things down, even in a situation like this."

"I suppose. Still..."

"Anomalous sonar contacts!" Tonomura called out. "Reading one submarine, and three launch sounds; believed to be underwater mobile suits."

"Specify," Natarle snapped. "What are we dealing with?"

He frowned, listening. "It sounds like... the same Vosgulov -the propeller frequency seems to be identical- two GOOhNs... and a ZnO."

"Roger that." She turned to her left. "Crewman Haw, order all pilots to their machines."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"Prepare of battle," Murrue ordered. "All hands to Level One Battlestations, and prepare for combat with undersea units."

Archangel, Hangar
"Always knew Morassim was an idiot," Ken muttered, fastening his flightsuit on the run. "Chief, how's Raptor?" he asked of the mechanic.

"We've got it fixed, Commander," Murdoch answered. "Didn't take too long to put on a new beam cannon, and there wasn't much else wrong with it. But there's one thing-"

Ken didn't give him time to finish. "Good; I'm launching immediately." The pilot leapt into his machine, and immediately began startup procedures; he wasn't surprised when Cagalli arrived a few moments later.

"Thought you were leaving without me, did you?" she asked, strapping into the gunner's seat. "Not a chance, Ken."

"Actually, I figured you were going to turn up," he told her, connecting his suit to the mobile suit's power supply. "I just didn't see any reason to wait on getting my preflight started; in a battle, any battle, seconds count." He closed the hatch. "Shall we go?" Without waiting for a response, he got on the radio. "Bridge, this is Raptor; we're go for launch."

"Roger that, Falcon," Mir replied. "You'll be loaded into the starboard catapult, as soon as Kira launches; he's intending to deal with the ZnO," she added.

"Got it." Ken looked back over his shoulder. "That means you and I take the GOOhNs, got it?"

"Right." Cagalli paused. "But can Raptor manage underwater combat?"

His shrug was not very reassuring. "Beats me." Ahead, the Strike -equipped with the Sword pack- launched, and their machine followed it into the catapult. "Let's find out, shall we?"

"And hope we don't die in the process..."

Vosgulov-class Submarine Carrier Hades, Bridge
"Morassim is at it again?" Sparky Cooper rumbled. "What lovely timing that bone-headed imbecile of a commander has."

"Agreed," Tom Delaney said tightly, from fire-control.

Their ship -officially decommissioned, like much of the Gray Demons' purloined gear- had been shadowing Archangel since shortly after the ship's last encounter with the Morassim team. Now they were close enough to intervene in the coming battle... if they had the capability.

"Can we assist?" Sparky questioned. "They can probably handle this by themselves, but I don't want to take any chances..."

Tom shrugged, never taking his gaze from his targeting screen. "We can probably go after the Vosgulov -carefully- but the mobile suits? I'm afraid not."

"What about Preybird?"

Leanne Eldridge handled that question. "Sorry, Sparky, but it's out of the question. We have the basic frame complete -have since late last month- but while we also have the basic weapons installed... No, I wouldn't want to try it."

"Why not?" Sparky demanded.

"Because," Tom said acidly, "we can't be sure it won't blow up on us. There's a reason weapons are tested before use, Sparky; we don't know how those things will act in the real world. We need time to test them. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is."

"But it won't do the Boss any good if he's killed before we can get it to him-"

"And it won't do anybody any good if we blow it up before it's even complete!" the engineer snapped. "Listen, Sparky, I know just as well as you do how fragile the Boss's machine is right now. But I'm telling you, we can't afford to launch Preybird. Not yet. Give me two weeks, and NJC or no NJC, I can give you partial combat capacity. But today, it just ain't happening."

Sparky sighed. "And we can't afford to use the other units, since they're ZAFT standard and could blow the whole thing wide open... All right, Tom, you win. Stand by for antisubmarine warfare; as soon as we're in range, I want Morassim's flagship dead."

Leanne twisted in her chair, and the Bridge crew likewise looked at their commander. "Sparky," she said softly, "you know that means we'll be killing our own people."

The huge commander shook his head sadly. "Leanne, 'our own people' are those who are part of Shiva Option Three; the rest of ZAFT... Look, the Boss knew it would come to this one day. That's obvious from Preybird's design. There comes a time when drastic measures must be taken... and that day is today."

The green-haired test pilot sighed in turn. "I guess you're right, Sparky."

Indian Ocean, Battlefield, Above Water/Underwater
Raptor burst out into the sunlight just in time to see the Strike disappear beneath the waves, Schwerht Gewehr in hand. "There goes Kira," Ken murmured. "Morassim is about to have problems; now let's go do our job."

"Right," Cagalli agreed, bringing up her targeting systems.

That was when Murdoch's urgent-sounding voice came over the radio. "Hey, Commander! There's something I really need to tell you."

"What's that?" The pilot brought the machine higher into the sky, preparing for a steep dive into the ocean. "I'm a little busy right now, Chief."

"I know that," the mechanic said impatiently, "but this is important. Look, I was trying to you this before you took off: there's a problem with your Phase-shift."

That brought Ken up short. "What kind of problem?" he asked carefully.

"You've got a weak spot, in the torso; probably a result of the stress fractures. I think I can fix it, but it means that for this battle, you'll want to avoid getting hit by anything in your port side."

The ace cursed. "Roger that, Chief. This isn't good," he added to his gunner.

Cagalli frowned. "Why? I mean, I know that's a little close to the cockpit, but..."

"There are too many vital systems that could be hit," he told her. "Things like power feeds to the weapons, control linkages... a lot of things. Not one of them good." He shrugged. "But we don't have much choice, do we?" Without further talk, he shoved the controls forward.

GAT-X107 Raptor dove into the choppy seas below.

Elsewhere, two Skygraspers were closing on the Vosgulov. This time they'd localized it; and this time, they were going to sink it.

"Here we go, Kestrel," Mu murmured to his wingmate. "Time to go put that thing out of our misery; what do you say?"

"Right with you, Hawk." This time, they were both armed with Launcher Strikers; the spare was back up and running, so they'd decided overwhelming force was in order. "This is overkill, you know, against just one submarine."

"I think Falcon would say that there's no such thing as overkill." Mu considered that, then shook his head. "On second thought, I think he'd say 'Better overkill than underkill'."

Sophia grinned. "That's, what, Lesson Forty-two?"

"Yeah; I see you've read his book, too."

She shrugged. "We've been on better terms lately, so I figured it was time I learned a little more about what made him tick." The Kestrel frowned at her Heads-Up Display. "Coming up on the target, Mu."

"I see it." Mu rolled ninety degrees, looking down at the submarine. "It's surfacing," he reported. "Makes sense; according to Falcon, they can't do much when submerged except launch amphibious mobile suits. To use the vertical launch tubes, they have to surface, and the same for any weapons they might have that could hurt the Archangel." He armed his weapons. "Let's go."

"Roger that." The pair of fighters swooped in, firing hyper-impulse cannons at the soon-to-be-vulnerable ship; the first shots having little effect, diluted as they were by the water. But it's only a matter of time before- What the? "Mu, what's...?"

"I see it." Though he wasn't sure what he was seeing. There seemed to be something else down there; a silhouette of another ship, perhaps? It wasn't moving... but it seemed to be hiding, even from the Vosgulov. What was it...?

Beneath the waves, an order was given, and firing controls pressed. Torpedo tubes flooded with water; and the final order was given.

Mu let out an incredulous curse when the Vosgulov suddenly exploded, detonating with tremendous force. "But we didn't even hit!"

"What the blazes just happened?" Sophia demanded. "What killed it?"

"I don't know." The Hawk slowly shook his head, completely bemused. "Whatever it was, I don't think that ship ever knew it was there. Anyway, we'd better get back to the Archangel."

"Roger that."

The Skygraspers wheeled around and shot back the way they'd came; and beneath the ocean, a huge man sighed regretfully.

The shockwave was noticed all the way over in the patch of water where Raptor now approached its foes. "Hmm," Ken murmured. "I do believe these GOOhNs no longer have a mothership."

"That's something," Cagalli observed. "But I have to ask you something: is this the first time you've fought underwater?"

He glanced back at her. "Yeah; like I told you, I spent the war in space. Why?"

"Because," she pointed out sourly, "it doesn't seem to have occurred to you that we don't have much in the way of weaponry that will even work down here."

The pilot blinked, glanced at his displays, back at her, and then to his screens again. Beam sabers, beam rifle, beam cannons, wired gunbarrels... He looked up, and said, very calmly, "Oops."

Cagalli sighed. "I was afraid of that. I don't suppose there's a Plan B?"

Ken thought furiously, cursing himself for such a stupid tactical error. "Beams don't work very well underwater," he murmured, "which leaves... just the Armor Schneiders and the Panzer Eisen." His hands tightened on the controls. "Time for some fancy work, partner; I'm transferring control of the left arm to you. You handle the snatch, I'll handle the stab."

"Right," she acknowledged. "And next time, how about you think of these things before you dive a hundred meters beneath the water?"

"We're more than a hundred meters down," he said grimly. "I'm going to try to lure these GOOhNs closer to the surface; as it is, if we take a hit to that weakened section of PSA, we'll be crushed by water pressure. That, partner," he said dryly, "comes under the heading of A Bad Thing."

"I bet. Here they come," she added in warning.

"Roger that. Let's get them."

Raptor turned about, racing away from the Archangel and toward the water's surface.

Archangel, Bridge
It seemed absurdly calm on the Bridge.

If this is a battle, Murrue thought to herself, then why is it so quiet in here? "What's going on out there?" she asked of the crew at large.

Natarle shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, Ma'am; Commanders La Flaga and DiFalco report the Vosgulov was destroyed -by an unknown force, no less- and the Strike seems to be keeping the ZnO at bay. The GOOhNs were attacking us, but they seem to have left sonar range; and so has the Raptor."

"Can you punch a signal through to Raptor?"

"Negative, Ma'am," Mir responded. "I can't even find them to contact them; and even if I could, I don't think the signal would carry through the water very well. Not through the N-jammer interference."

"At least we're in one piece," Natarle offered. "That counts for something."

"Yes..." Murrue stared moodily at her main display; currently empty of the usual scenes of battle. "But we won't stay that way if we lose track of our mobile suits. Keep trying to find them."

"Yes, Captain."

Indian Ocean, Battlefield
The Raptor had managed to lure its opponents some distance from the Archangel before Ken decided it was time. "Get ready with that rocket anchor," he said softly. "And don't be too startled if something explodes on contact; the Panzer Eisen might be enough to break the armor all by itself, so the results could be... implosive."

"How reassuring," Cagalli muttered. "Okay, I'm ready."

The first GOOhN pilot was heartily amused when he realized that this space model had even more problems than the Strike. "Hey," he told his partner, "this should be easy; he doesn't even have anything that can hurt us down here."

The other pilot grinned. "Then let's get him!"

"Steady," Ken murmured, watching the machines approach. "Steady... don't fire until the exact moment..."

Cagalli didn't have to be told. She had enough experience with the Raptor's weapons now to judge when it would be time to launch the Panzer Eisen. And that time, she thought, eyes narrow with concentration, ...is now! She pulled the trigger, launching the rocket anchor out into the ocean.

The ZAFT pilot was extremely startled when the claw grabbed hold of his machine's arm. "What the-!" he cried out in surprise, as his GOOhN was pulled close to its erstwhile prey. "No-!"

Raptor's free hand suddenly held an Armor Schneider, and it drove right into the GOOhN's monoeye, blinding it... and disrupting the delicate balance that kept it intact.

Cagalli wrenched the anchor free just in time to avoid losing it in the implosion. "Whoa; that was... really something."

"Yeah," Ken agreed. "But we've still got one more of them to deal with. Get ready to fire the anchor again; I'm heading to less dangerous depths."

"Right."

The remaining GOOhN pilot snarled in anger, watching his enemy ascend. "You're not getting away that easy!" he shouted, and followed it up. He raised his machine's right "hand", and fired a salvo of torpedoes.

"Uh oh." Ken wrenched Raptor around as sharply as the water permitted, but it wasn't enough to completely evade the torpedoes. One struck the mobile suit... squarely on the weak spot.

As damage reports scrolled on the main monitors of both cockpit positions, Cagalli fired the Panzer Eisen one more time. "Take that!"

The GOOhN was deeper than Raptor; even so that, unlike the Earth Forces unit, a simple hull breach would be enough to cause catastrophic implosion.

And having a rocket anchor rip into your hull usually constitutes a breach.

"We got it," Cagalli said, satisfied, as they began to ascend once more.

"Yeah," Ken said grimly, looking over the damage reports. "But we took a hit in the worst possible place." He fiddled with the radio, and nodded when he managed to punch a signal through to the retreating Skygraspers. "Mu, Sophia, this is Falcon; do you read me?"

"Barely," Mu replied. "What's your situation?"

"We took care of the GOOhNs; but a hit took out our navigation systems. We're RTB."

"Can you find your way back?" Sophia demanded, instantly concerned. "With your nav systems down, you'll be..."

"We'll be fine." Raptor burst through to the surface, and took to the air once again. "Just get back to the Archangel; we'll be right behind you."

"You'd better," his sister muttered grimly. "Okay, we'll see you back at the ship."

"Roger that." The pilot shut off the radio.

"You sure we can make it?" Cagalli asked quietly. "We've gotten quite a ways from the Archangel, thanks to your brilliant plan; can we find our way back?"

"Sure," Ken said negligently. "Nothing to it."

Archangel, Bridge, Hours Later
"Any sign of them yet?" Murrue asked, for about the tenth time.

Natarle sighed. "Not yet, Ma'am. We know they left the battle area, but nothing more than that; they could be anywhere by now."

"My fault," Mu said quietly, furious with himself. "When Falcon reported their nav systems were out, I should have turned right around and escorted them in."

"Not your fault, Mu," Sophia said tiredly. "Nobody's fault, really; but it does make me wish Falcon were a little less arrogant."

Murrue turned to her. "What do you mean, Sophia? What could that have to do with anything?"

"Simple," her friend replied, closing her eyes. "See, Falcon doesn't like to admit he's bad at anything; but as a matter of fact, he has one glaring issue: he hates planets."

Natarle raised an eyebrow. "Why is that such a problem, Commander?"

"Because Falcon can't navigate in atmosphere," Sophia said bluntly. "He's spent no more than a few months out of his entire life on Earth; he can navigate at night by stellar navigation -anybody born and raised in space can- but in the daytime, he'd get lost if he went a hundred meters without navigation systems. By now," she went on, very softly, "Raptor will have run out of even reserve power, which means he and Cagalli are stranded out there in the ocean somewhere."

"Should we list them as MIA, Captain?" Natarle asked quietly, causing the Kestrel to stiffen.

Murrue shook her head. "No, Natarle, not yet; I won't give up on them that easily. Raptor is too valuable... and I will not leave two good people behind!"

The entire Bridge crew winced, and then Mir looked over at Tonomura. "What does 'MIA' mean?" she asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

The sonar operator's voice was equally soft, his face grim. "It's a military designation that means Missing In Action," he told her.

"But," Sophia chimed in, voice leaden, "what it usually means is that they're dead, and we just haven't found enough pieces to prove it. Usually... we never do."

"It's too early to make that assumption," Murrue said firmly. "I'm not giving up on them without searching as long as we can. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Natarle said quickly; even on the occasions when she disagreed with the Captain -and this wasn't one of them- she knew better than to continue the argument when the older woman used that tone. "Shall I have the Strike get ready for launch?"

"Yes; but let me talk to him first."

Without waiting for instructions, Mir linked the Strike with the Bridge. "Kira here," came the young pilot's voice. "I'm ready to launch."

Murrue was gratified by his willingness, but she knew he couldn't be as rested as he sounded. "Sorry to send you out there again so soon," she apologized (Kira's battle with the ZnO, while ultimately triumphant, had been far more difficult than the rest of the battle). "If I could, I'd send someone else; but..."

"I understand, Captain," Kira replied. "Our only other mobile suit is the one I'm about to go look for, right? It has to be done."

"I'm glad you understand. But remember, Kira, it's getting late; I want you back here in-" she checked the time "-no more than two hours. If you haven't found them by an hour after sunset, we'll wait until morning. I'm sure they'll be fine until then."

"Understood." Kira nodded; though inwardly, he was quite willing to carry on the search as long as necessary. Ken was his friend, mentor, and, to a certain extent, moral compass; Cagalli was a very good friend, and perhaps the only one who truly understood what he was going through. "I'm ready to go."

"Very well." Murrue nodded at his image. "Go ahead, Kira."

"Kira Yamato, heading out."

"I only hope he's in time..." Sophia whispered.

Indian Ocean, Deserted Island, Two Hours Earlier
In Raptor's battered, darkened cockpit, Cagalli groggily raised her head. What... happened...? Where am I? She couldn't remember...

Then she saw, in the seat in front of her, the slumped figure in the slate-gray flightsuit, and memory came flooding back. "That's right," she whispered, in a voice cracked from disuse. "We crashed..."

They'd been back in the sky for several minutes before Cagalli noticed, in the reflection on the display, the increasingly tense expression on Ken's face. "Is there something wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"Maybe," the pilot replied. "I'm an idiot," he added. "Should have known better than to try to find my way back on my own, with no navigation systems..."

She stared at him. "You mean we're lost."

"That's exactly what I mean." Ken quietly cursed himself. "Thing is, I don't like planets; I'm spent no more than a few months on Earth in my entire life. Which means... that during the day, I have no idea how to find my way around."

Cagalli closed her eyes. "So you have no idea where we are."

"Not even the slightest clue," he agreed. "And thanks to that- Wait a second; there's something else up here. It looks like..."

There was a ZAFT mobile suit transport dead ahead, apparently unaware of their presence. Typical of its type, it was big, lumbering, and slow; and also a big, fat target.

"Where do you think that's going?" Cagalli asked, already checking her targeting systems. "For that matter, what's it doing out here?"

"As to your second question, I have no idea. The first..." Ken frowned. "Probably going to Carpentaria; which means if we follow it, we'll get a vague idea of where we are. Unfortunately, that's fairly useless, since Carpentaria's defenses would shoot us down in a heartbeat... and it still wouldn't tell us where the Archangel is." He narrowed his eyes, considering. "Whatever it's carrying may be intended to go after the Archangel. Therefore... get ready to fire."

She hesitated. "You're willing to take them out?"

"I thought I told you: the most important thing to me is the protection of the PLANTs; and I'm convinced Archangel is the key to doing that. Ergo, anything that threatens Archangel threatens the safety of the PLANTs." He tightened his grip on the controls. "Fire when ready."

Cagalli armed the weapons under her control, and waited impatiently for a target lock. "Just give me a few seconds..."

By this time, the transport had obviously noticed them; and realized that it stood no chance of escaping with its cargo still aboard. The only way they could possibly get away would be if they dumped whatever mobile suit they were carrying; and that was also the only way the mobile suit would get out intact.

Ken dropped back a little when he saw the big aircraft's cargo doors open, then blinked in surprise when he saw what fell out. "That's the Aegis," he murmured. "The Le Creuset team is out here somewhere..."

"I've got a lock," Cagalli called. "I'm taking the shot."

"Go for it."

Beams of coherent light shot out from the beam cannons, blowing away a good chunk of the transport's cargo area; but it wasn't sufficient to instantly knock it out of the sky, and the aircraft had defensive weapons of its own, in the form of gun turrets.

Ordinarily, they'd have been useless against Raptor; but they already had a chink in their armor from the GOOhN attack, and the transport's guns ripped into that weakness.

Ken cursed, struggling with the flight controls. "That's not good," he said grimly. "We're losing power, fast." He noticed the enemy aircraft was getting away, but that didn't particularly matter anymore. "Let it go; we can't waste any more power... Blast."

"What is it?" Cagalli demanded.

The ace looked at the small island ahead. "Brace for impact," he said, voice calm as ever. "We just ran out of power; and there's one thing I do know about mobile suit performance in atmosphere."

She was afraid to ask, but did so anyway. "What's that?"

"They glide like bricks."

The ground was rushing up at them now, and Cagalli braced herself. There was a tremendous impact, then darkness...

Now Cagalli had regained consciousness, but it appeared her pilot had not; so she unstrapped, and climbed down next to his seat. "Ken?" she said softly, touching his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

There was no response; the ace simply sat there, unmoving, with only the slow rise and fall of his chest to indicate that he was even alive. Clearly, he was out like a light, and would remain so for some time longer. That left any action up to her.

She hated to leave him there, but there wasn't really anything she could, so she reached past, hit the manual hatch release, and stepped out into the sunlight. "I'll be back soon, Ken," she told her unconscious partner. "Don't worry, 'kay?"

Cagalli drew her sidearm, checked the chamber, and jumped down onto the island's sand.

Athrun Zala pulled himself out of Aegis' cockpit, cursing softly. "Of all the things to go wrong that no one could have predicted," he muttered. "What on earth was the Grimaldi Falcon doing out in the middle of the ocean?"

Now, because of that fiendishly-effective pilot, Athrun was stranded on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, and it would be at least an hour yet before his transport could even get in range to tell anyone about it!

"First thing to do," he told himself, "is scout around, make sure nothing else is around, and find someplace to spend the night." He doubted a rescue party could be sent before morning, so he planned to be as secure as possible while he waited.

At least I should be alone here, he thought. That machine had to have gotten away; I don't believe a transport could have shot him down.

Athrun knew the Grimaldi Falcon, slightly; he'd flown against him a couple of times in simulators, and run into him a few times during visits home. For some reason he had never quite figured out, the ace had, after Endymion, become almost his father's shadow; some kind of important strategist, according to the rumors, but nobody knew for sure.

He walked a few meters away from the Aegis, carefully observing his surroundings. Just because he didn't expect any human difficulties didn't mean he wasn't aware of the potential for inimical animal life. Best to be cautious; particularly since he'd never been to Earth before.

The ZAFT pilot had gone about ten meters from his machine before he noticed movement on a small cliff above.

Cagalli spotted him at about the same moment, and raised her pistol. It was a ZAFT flightsuit, in standard colors, and the mobile suit near him was the Aegis; that told her everything she needed to know.

She didn't remember, just then, that she knew exactly who the Aegis' pilot was.

Athrun grunted in pain as the bullet struck him in the arm, forcing him to drop his own sidearm, and he leapt away. Who is that? It wasn't the Grimaldi Falcon, so who...? It didn't really matter. What he needed to do now was get under cover, so he sprinted away, out of sight.

Cagalli fired a few more shots, just to make her target cautious, before carefully climbing down to the beach. "A ZAFT pilot, here," she whispered, cautiously making her way to the dropped autopistol. "He must be the one we shot down..."

Curious, she picked up the gun; it seemed to be of a different sort from the one Ken used. Different enough to keep her attention focused on it a moment too long...

Athrun leapt from hiding, a switchblade in his hand, and rushed at her, zigzagging to avoid her sudden, frantic fire. You're going down!

She cried out as he tackled her, knocking her to the ground. No! The pilot raised his knife, ready for the killing blow...

Athrun felt something hit him in the side, and he went flying into a nearby boulder. "What the-!"

Cagalli almost gasped in relief when she saw what had happened: a gray-clad figure, face bruised but otherwise apparently intact, had shoulder-tackled her enemy, and now he stared coldly through his visor at the ZAFT pilot; in his hand was a drawn katana, alloy blade gleaming in the afternoon sunlight.

Athrun, too, recognized the figure, and his stomach clenched. I was wrong, he thought. Commander DiFalco didn't get away. Slowly, carefully, he reached for his gun, which had landed near him...

Ken didn't even blink when the bullets started coming his way. His blade moved in a blur as he advanced, deflecting the lead harmlessly away. "That was foolish, Athrun Zala," he said coldly. "Never try to shoot me... and if you so much as touch my partner again, I'll kill you. Actually," he added after a moment's consideration, "I may do so anyway; I don't know that I can trust you not to try to stab either of us in the back." To Cagalli's surprise, he raised his blade...

Athrun, thinking fast, realized his only chance. "Honor's not in the weapon," he said quickly.

The sword paused. "It's in the man," Ken said with a nod, curious that one of his own maxims had been quoted at him. "Got something to say, Zala?"

The ZAFT pilot knew he was on slippery ground here. His only chance for survival rested on the Grimaldi Falcon's peculiar honor code, said to be the only thing that might sway him from an action deemed "for the protection of the PLANTs".

"Nobody needs to die here today," Athrun said carefully, relying on Falcon's reluctance to kill ZAFT soldiers. "If there's to be any fighting, let it be hand to hand; the winner walks away, the loser agrees not to stab him in the back."

Ken considered that. "I believe," he said after a moment, "that in the business world that is what is known as a 'win-win deal'." He pulled off his helmet. "Very well, Zala; you seem to be a more honorable man than your father. Come at me."

The two pilots faced each other, bowed, and settled into martial arts stances. Ken had an advantage over his opponent: he knew Athrun's military record, and so was aware that, though he had taken the requisite close-combat training, he hadn't spent his life practicing. The Grimaldi Falcon, on the other hand...

Cagalli stared at them in bemusement. What's the point in doing this at all, if the result is the same no matter who wins? Then, suddenly, she understood. Of course. Neither of them intends to mention that they even ran into each other when they're rescued... but if it does become known, they can save face by saying that they did at least try to defeat each other...

Another of Ken's brilliant plans, she realized sourly. She hoped this one would turn out better than the last, which had gotten them stranded here in the first place.

Ken had sunk his blade point-first into the ground; now he stood ready, fists loosely closed, for the match to begin. This is ridiculous, he thought inwardly. Is this a war or a contest? Still, he could see what Athrun was getting at; and he respected the younger man enough to grant him the cover story, how flimsy, should it be needed.

Athrun, growing impatient and knowing in the back of his mind that he was probably going to lose anyway, made the first move, a hard punch that Ken caught on his forearm. The ace responded with a sweep-kick, which Athrun jumped, then rolled away from the blue-haired pilot as he landed.

To Cagalli, it was mostly a blur of fists and feet; at one moment, it was Athrun who took a hit and went down, then it was Ken who knocked the ZAFT pilot flying. To completely understand it, you have to be participating, she thought, then ducked as Athrun went flying over her head in a most uncontrolled manner.

The pilot's head impacted on a tree trunk, and he lay there for several moments, dazed. Note to self, he thought muzzily. Don't ever attempt to best the Grimaldi Falcon in martial arts again.

Ken walked over, ignoring the twinge in his chest. "Do you yield, Athrun Zala?"

Athrun nodded gratefully. "I yield."

"Good. Then-"

The ace broke off, eye going wide, and clutched his chest. No! Not now! To Athrun's utter confusion, he wheeled around, and staggered toward a nearby cave. "Keep an eye on him," he gasped to Cagalli, and stumbled away; his breathing was growing ragged.

"What's wrong with him?" Athrun asked of his erstwhile enemy.

Cagalli shook her head. "I have no idea; but I'm going to find out. You stay here," she ordered, and ran after her partner.

The command was quite unnecessary. Even if he'd been able to stand up, he wasn't inclined to risk getting sliced in half again.

By the time Cagalli caught up with him in the cave, Ken's breathing was becoming very labored, and he was scrabbling at the fastener of his flightsuit.

"Ken, what's wrong with you?"

He didn't answer immediately. "My belt," he gasped instead. "Power packs... belt pouch... get one out for me..."

She complied, just as he managed to open his flight suit. The pilot tore away a piece of his shirt... revealing a metal plate covering the left side of his chest. He took the power pack from her, and jabbed a lead from it directly into a socket imbedded in the plate.

Soon, Ken's breathing started to regularize, and his muscles began to relax. "That's... much better..." he wheezed, slumping against the cave wall.

"What happened?" Cagalli asked gently. "It has something to do with why you plug your flightsuit into your machine's power supply, doesn't it?"

"Yeah..." He looked up at her with a tired smile. "I left my heart at Endymion Crater."

"Wha...?"

"They say... that there were five survivors of Endymion, among the Gray Demons." He shook his head. "Actually, there were only four. I... I was caught in the Cyclops; ripped into my CGUE, set off a secondary explosion in the cockpit, and shredded my heart and one of my lungs. By the time a rescue party got to me... I was dead." Ken coughed, rubbing his chest. "They managed to revive me, hooked me up to life-support gear, and got to work replacing what I'd lost. Within a few days, I was good as new... almost."

Cagalli shook her head, confused. "But... if you got it fixed, then why...?"

"I have a very rare blood type," he replied. "As far as I know, Mu is the only man alive who could donate organs to me without certain tissue rejection; so they had to use mechanical replacements. Unfortunately, mine are of an earlier generation than Victor Tempest's, so there are... problems with the power supply. Usually, they run off my body's own bio-electric field; but when the tension mounts, and my heart rate and breathing pick up..."

She nodded slowly. "Your prosthetics can't keep up with the power demands."

"Exactly; that's why I hook myself up to my mobile suit's power supply during battle." Ken managed a weak chuckle. "Usually, I attach one of those portable power packs when I go into battle on the ground; that's what I did in Banadiya, for example. But this time, I was still so groggy from the crash that I kind of forgot..."

Cagalli sighed. "You mean to tell me that you need a constant supply of power to your heart, and you... just... forgot?"

"I'm not infallible," he protested. "Just brilliant."

She covered her eyes with her hand. "You keep saying that... and every time, it seems to be just before something goes wrong." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Come on; we'd better go check on that guy before he does something he shouldn't, like try to take off and shoot us."

"He won't do that," Ken told her, standing. "One: he gave his word, and I trust that. Two..." He held up his pocket computer. "It just so happens that I know the self-destruct code for the Aegis. If he steps out of line, I can transmit it..."

"And blow us all to smithereens." Cagalli snorted. "Brilliant plan."

Indian Ocean
While Mu flew a search pattern of his own in Skygrasper One, Kira swept along under the waves in the Strike. Come on, you guys... Cagalli, Falcon, where are you?

He couldn't figure out how they could possibly have gotten so far away. He knew, of course, that by the time Raptor made contact with the Skygraspers, it was well out to sea, having lured a pair of GOOhNs a safe distance from the Archangel. What he couldn't figure out was how they'd managed to head in the exact wrong direction on their return course.

Why didn't they just follow Commander La Flaga? Kira wondered. They knew where he was, didn't they? He sighed. Like Sophia had said, it was probably directly linked to Falcon's abysmal planetary navigational skills; quite likely the interference the Earth's electromagnetic field had imposed on the radio signal had confused him. And now I have to try to find them, before something happens...

It didn't help that Cagalli was headstrong, and Falcon supremely confident in his own skills. There was no end to the trouble those two could get into together; it was one reason he worried whenever Cagalli went up into battle with his mentor.

Kira sighed again. He was running low on power, and he'd already stayed out an hour past the time Murrue had told him to return. "I guess I should get going..." he muttered, and turned back the way he'd come. "Falcon, Cagalli... be careful, okay?"

The night closed in, and soon this patch of ocean was empty once again.

Indian Ocean, Deserted Island
Night had fallen, and the three inhabitants of the small island had built a fire in the cave where Ken had collapsed. There was little they could do for now; Ken had permitted Athrun to board the Aegis long enough to launch a distress buoy, while Cagalli did the same from Raptor, so now there little to do but wait for rescue.

After a long silence, Athrun stirred and looked up from the fire. "Commander..."

Ken looked up from his own thoughts. "Hm? Some thing you want to say, Zala?"

The ZAFT pilot nodded. "Yeah... I just want to ask you: how is... Kira?" He knew that the ace would know of his friendship with the Strike pilot, so he saw no reason to hide it.

Cagalli glanced up, startled, before remembering what Kira had told her, days before. This is his best friend, she realized. I should have remembered...

"He's fine, Athrun," Ken said, in answer to the question. "Physically, anyway; a girl by the name of Flay Allster is currently attempting to manipulate him, but I'm keeping an eye on the situation... and making sure she has less success than she'd like."

"I see." Athrun nodded to himself. "I appreciate it."

Cagalli frowned. "But... aren't you two enemies now?"

"Doesn't mean we don't care about each other's safety," he said quietly. "I don't want to fight him at all; so it's good to hear he's okay. Even if he is being manipulated into fighting for the Earth Forces."

"He's not fighting for the Earth Forces, Athrun," Ken told him. "He's fighting for his friends, that's all; nothing more, and nothing less."

Athrun had been through this argument already, with Lacus, and didn't want to rehash the same old talking points, so he changed the subject... slightly. "So what are you fighting for, Commander?" he asked. "Why fight alongside the Earth Forces?"

The ace was silent for a long time. "The roots of it go back a long time, Athrun," he said at last. "But the catalyst... Just how much do you know about your father's long-range plans, anyway?"

Athrun shrugged. "Not much, really; I'm just a pilot, and I prefer not to play the patronage game."

"That's a mark in your favor, Athrun," Ken said approvingly. "But because of it, I suppose you don't know about the Shiva Option."

The ZAFT pilot frowned. "The Shiva Option? That sounds like..."

"Yes, it started out as one of my plans." The ace leaned back against the rock wall. "Just like the abortive Operation Guillotine. Anyway, the Shiva Option was originally -actually, I guess it still is- the ultimate plan for winning this war." He looked at the younger man oddly. "What is ZAFT's mission?" he said softly.

Athrun blinked at the apparent non sequitur. "The defeat of the Naturals, of course..."

"No," Ken said sharply. "That is not the mission."

"Wha...?"

"The mission, Athrun Zala, is the protection of the PLANTs." Ken's eye blazed with an inner fire. "The purpose of the Revolution was -and remains- to obtain complete autonomy for the PLANTs; the genetic code of the enemy is completely irrelevant. Need I remind you that our allies on Earth are Naturals? I've flown with mobile armor pilots from Oceania, and believe me, they are every bit as devoted to the cause as we are."

Athrun nodded thoughtfully. "When you put it that way, I guess it makes sense... but what does that have to do with my father?"

Ken sighed. "Just this: the original Shiva Option had, as its centerpiece, a device known as GENESIS. I won't tell you what exactly that is -it's better if nobody else has to know- but suffice it to say that its original purpose is far different from the one your father would put it to. Patrick's version of the Shiva Option also involves GENESIS; but instead of simple victory, he desires something far, far more permanent." He looked the blue-haired pilot straight in the eye. "Patrick desires the extermination of all Naturals."

Athrun violently shook his head. "No way! That isn't possible! Not my father!"

Cagalli looked from one to the other. "Falcon, are you sure you should...?"

The pilot glanced at her. "He needs to know, Cagalli." He turned back to the ZAFT pilot. "Athrun," he said gently, "remember the Bloody Valentine. You lost your mother there; your father lost his wife. Think about what that can do to a man; what the pursuit of vengeance can do."

"But still..." Athrun couldn't believe what he was hearing. In fact, he didn't believe it. "My father... he'd never..." Yet the seeds of doubt had been sown...

"I don't expect you to believe me, Athrun," Ken told him. "I'm not even asking you to. I'm just asking you to think about it. And, the next time you see your father... ask him. I don't think he realizes that not everyone shares his views, so he may tell you outright; he admitted it to me readily enough, the day before I deserted. That's... that's pretty much why I'm out here. Well, not here," he amended, glancing around the cave they were. "But you know what I mean."

"It seems... out of character for you to do something so impulsive," Athrun remarked, turning to a less emotionally-charged topic. "First you desert, than you join the legged ship..."

"I'll be the first to admit I acted hastily last September," Ken said candidly. "If I'd been a little smarter, we might not be in this situation to begin with. But joining the Archangel... there I had little choice. It was the only way off Heliopolis, and from there, I knew I could know longer wait out the war in peace." He smiled, very slightly, and closed his eye. "As for the rest... do you really think I don't still have a plan in the works?"

Before Athrun could think of a response, the legendary pilot was asleep; so he turned to Cagalli, instead. "Has he been talking like that the whole time since joining the legged ship?"

She shrugged. "As long as I've known him, anyway; I don't understand everything he's talking about, either, but he does seem to have some kind of plan going on. And he has an easy time getting people to believe him when he says he's still protecting the PLANTs; he even got the Desert Tiger to pass on a message for him."

He sat up. "What kind of message?"

Cagalli shrugged again. "Beats me; he didn't tell me, and I wouldn't tell you if he had."

"Hm; guess you have a point." Athrun leaned back against the wall. "I guess... I should get some sleep." He smiled a little. "You going to keep watch or something, to make sure I don't kill him in his sleep?"

She laughed. "Zala, if you tried that, I have the feeling his little computer would notice it, and trigger your machine's self-destruct sequence."

"Oh." He mulled over that. "You're probably right," he conceded, and closed his eyes.

Indian Ocean, Deserted Island, March 8th, C.E. 71
Athrun was awakened the next morning by Ken's soft voice; it didn't surprise him that the ace was already awake. "You might want to go check the Aegis, Athrun; something in there is going off. I think your buoy picked up a signal."

He was instantly on his feet and running for his machine, while Cagalli stretched. "Good news?" she asked her partner.

"Possibly," Ken replied. "At least it'll mean he'll be out of our hair."

In the Aegis' cockpit, Athrun fiddled with the radio until a voice came over the speakers. "Athrun, it's Nicol; do you copy? Athrun, are you there?"

"Right here, Nicol," Athrun replied, grinning. "I'm glad to hear you."

"I bet; must have been a long night. Anyway, I have your signal and I'm on my way in." Nicol paused. "By the way, Dearka wants to know if you saw any sign of Commander DiFalco while you were out there."

The blue-haired pilot paused. "Tell him I'll talk to him face-to-face," he said finally. "I think he'll understand."

"Roger that."

Athrun climbed back down to the beach. "You two might want to return to your side of the island," he told the pair. "There's a ZAFT rescue party coming, and I'm not sure you'll want to be around here for it."

"Probably not," Ken agreed. "I'm told there are 'shoot on sight' orders out regarding me now."

The ZAFT pilot didn't bother asking where he'd heard it; presumably, he had sources in the PLANTs still. "It was... interesting meeting you," he said to Cagalli. "Maybe we'll meet again."

"Maybe," Cagalli agreed. "But hopefully, not on the battlefield."

"Agreed." Athrun turned to the ace. "Commander, I don't know whether to say it was nice seeing you again; but I'll tell you this: I'll think about what you told me. I still think you're wrong about my father... but you may not be wrong about the entirety of ZAFT." The prospect troubled him. "Is there anyone who could tell me more?"

Ken considered that. "If you're looking for people you can trust unquestioningly -and if you'll believe me- then seek out what's left of my team. They've got good sources, and can tell you some things you won't hear anywhere else. For that matter, they probably know more than I do, right now." He saluted the younger pilot. "Till we meet again, Athrun Zala."

Athrun returned the salute. "Good luck, Commander... I think." He turned, and walked off to his machine to await Nicol Amalfi's arrival.

The other two castaways slowly walked back toward their own mobile suit. "He seemed like a decent guy," Cagalli remarked.

"He is," Ken replied. "A far better man than his father. I only hope that he'll realize the truth before this war claims him, too."

She looked at him sidelong. "So, what is GENESIS?"

"Something you never, ever want to know the details of," he told her. "And something I really don't like to talk about."

The girl accepted that; with someone already under a lot of stress, she preferred not to press the issue. So silence reigned, until they reached the beach where they'd crashed.

That was when Cagalli caught sight of the Strike, rising out of the water nearby. "The Strike!" she shouted, grinning. "Kira!"

Author's note: The Morassim team has been wiped out, and Falcon and Cagalli have met Athrun on a deserted island in the Indian Ocean; meanwhile, Preybird inches toward completion…

Soon, the Archangel will enter the Orb Union, and more of Falcon's master plan will be revealed…

NukeDawg, as a matter of fact, I know rather more about the Dreadnought now; and upon further reflection, I'm pretty sure it won't be appearing in Birds of a Feather. You see, it's my understanding that the Dreadnought is supposed to be the prototype for the other ZAFT Gundams; and in this version, that role has effectively been supplanted by the Preybird.

No doubt I will find the machines appearing later in your story interesting; I'll be keeping an eye out.

As for Hyperion, check further in last chapter's notes: I finally figured there was no point in being cagey about it anymore, so I actually stated that Sophia will be the pilot… much later in the story, of course.

Deathzealot, I am aware that a lot of people use the term "Clyne Faction" generically; it's just that I prefer to be more exact. Personal quirk, I suppose. Anyway, glad you liked the chapter; I wasn't sure what kind of reception that one would get.

Storm Wolf77415, you might say it's something like that… Glad you approved of the chapter.

Ominae, may as well point out here that if it's anime and it ain't Gundam, I haven't seen it. I have little interest in anime at large, and the only Gundam I've seen much of is G Gundam and SEED; the only series I'm interested in -that have come to the States, at any rate- are SEED and Wing.

Infinite Freedom, the Death Blossoms are not going on Sophia's machine; I see that I at least retain my talent for confusing people. No, that will not be revealed quite yet…

Hadn't thought of the notion of equipping machines such as the Buster or Strike with nuclear reactors, but now that you mention it, Falcon's people would probably have the capability to do it. They're already having to build an N-jammer Canceler for the Preybird, after all, so I suppose it's a possibility.

I also hadn't thought of having Mu use the IWSP or Lightning Striker, but those are interesting ideas. There would be one problem with the IWSP, however: according to some things I've read, the Integrated-Weapons Striker Pack is compatible only with the Strike Rouge; something to do with the power extender, I think. Of course, giving the Strike a nuclear reactor would solve that problem, wouldn't it…

Nope, Huckebein does not pilot a ZnO; for one thing, you'll notice I have a preference for putting him in less common machines, such as the CGUE DEEP Arms. Don't know yet what he'll be flying next, though, or even when his next appearance in battle will be.

Rather odd that the Forbidden Blue would have finished testing before they completed testing for the standard model; and Sutherland certainly implies rather strongly that the Forbidden and its brothers are not yet ready for combat at the time that the Archangel reaches Alaska.

Yeah, I figured it would be interesting if Kira found out earlier about Cagalli's true identity; a minor point, but interesting.

As for Flay, it annoyed me that she interrupted when she did, so I figured that would be a good time for another one of Falcon's hacking stunts; I'm not surprised it was a popular moment.

Farm7455, to answer your questions, yes, Le Creuset will be piloting Providence; I have quite the epic final battle planned around that. No, I don't think the Regenerate will be appearing; I really don't know how it would fit. I actually have read about that machine, so I'm aware it has a rather limited role before being taken apart by the Astray prototypes. Finally, as regards Nicol… we'll see. Let me simply say that I have some… interesting plans in mind.

Easy-Company-506-101, Cagalli is not going to be flying the F-7D at all (its very minor role comes later) and you saw here when the scene would occur. I agree that it's an important scene; though what it led to rather irritated me.

Centurious, glad you liked it; as I said, I wasn't sure how it would be received. I'm pleasantly surprised by the reaction.

As a matter of fact, I was already planning to have Tempest pilot a Tactical Air Reconnaissance GINN even before you mentioned it; but I found the suggestion about beam sabers quite useful. Thanks.

Lipana, I'm not sure if you were agreeing with me on the uniform thing, but for everyone who's been arguing with me about it, let point out this (something which, for some reason, I didn't remember until recently): Andy Waltfeld wears a striped flightsuit in SEED Phase 21, and Aisha also wears one I haven't seen elsewhere.

Having heard both the English and Japanese versions of Lacus' songs, by the way, I must say that I don't really care one way or the other. Frankly, my main concern is being able to understand what they're saying, and given that my Japanese is virtually nil…

Depressed suicidal writer, I guess I'm not surprised; I wasn't expecting people to like it much at all, so at least it was better than I expected.

As I said before, I'll be keeping an eye out for your story; I'm always watching for interesting SEED fics.

Max summers, to be perfectly honest, I prefer Kevin Walker, too; with his checkered past and cybernetic enhancements, I find him quite enjoyable to write. Well, fear not; Brothers in Arms: A Call to Arms should be up within the next couple of months.

Bremics, thanks for the suggestion; but since it'll be the Gray Demons building the machine anyway, -as hinted at in Chapter 17- it isn't really necessary to find a "canon" solution.

Thanks also for pointing out the discrepancy with Falcon's Lessons, by the way; if memory serves, "Friendly fire isn't" should have been Lesson Five, not Thirty-five. I'll go back and correct that soon.

Shinji Ikari, it is a welcome change to read a review from you that isn't critiquing something; usually, when I see a review alert of any real size, my blood runs cold. Not your fault, of course; it just means I screwed up royally. Nice to see I've been doing a better job this time around.

Anyway, I rather thought the "Newtype" theory was something like that; I mean, you'd think that something like that, if official, would have been mentioned somewhere in the actual series. It's an interesting notion, I suppose, but the official website says only that Mu's powers of spatial awareness are greater than normal. Besides, like you said, what would be the point of having Newtypes in a series with Coordinators? (I haven't actually seen anything in the Universal Century, but, like you, I've done a great deal of research; and personally, I always thought the Turn A theory rather ridiculous.)

About the fact that Gundam SEED is supposed to be a reinvention of the original Mobile Suit Gundam: that's something that always bothers me about people who keep complaining that SEED is too much like the original series. I mean, why complain when it's supposed to be similar? Just one of those things that gets on my nerves…

As a matter of fact, the only information about the Gerbera Straight that you mentioned that I was unaware of is the fact that it can be used on Phase-shift-equipped machines (which, by the way, is very useful information). The rest I'd learned through my own research, including the giant Gerbera Straight. Frankly, I question the useful of a sword that big -aside from, say, the METEOR beam sabers- but I guess it doesn't matter. Anyway, thanks for the extra info; since Preybird will have that particular weapon, I'm sure it'll come in handy.

Well, well, well… author's notes consisting of fewer than two thousand words. That doesn't happen very often anymore. Well, let me know if it was any good. -Solid Shark