The ZAFT battleship tried to evade but the shot from the Agni beam rifle still grazed its port side. The shot imparted full energy to the hit area, triggering a small explosion that could be seen from where Strike was. Kira noticed that the damage he dealt seemed to be more severe compared to what he did at Heliopolis. Either he hit a weak spot, or the shot packed more punch since it was not affected by atmospheric refraction unlike at Heliopolis; perhaps it was a combination of both.
Strike moved sideward to evade a beam shot from an orange GINN. Simultaneously Kira fired a burst of shots using the 120mm anti-ship Vulcan gun at the GINN. While the distance meant that the GINN could evade most of the shots, a few that hit left some marks on its left leg and shoulder, forcing it to retreat.
The other two GINNs fired their machineguns on Strike but other than the energy dropping one bar, Kira didn't see anything that he should worry about the two.
However, their attacks were a ruse to hide Buster's firing its six 220mm missiles. Kira engaged Strike's CIWS and shot down three of them. The remaining three managed to shave a quarter of the remaining energy. In a retaliation, Kira emptied Strike's own two 350mm missiles on Buster and following up with another burst of 120mm Vulcan shots. While he did not damage the green prototype, he knew that the latter's energy reserve had taken a hit, just like what happen to Strike.
He and the ZAFT team continue taking potshots at each other. In the end, Strike ended aiming its Agni cannon at Buster while starring at the muzzles of the latter's twin rifles as the orange GINN was in the range of the Vulcan. The other two GINN were to his left and right but as long as the Phase Shift armor was on, he didn't have to worry about them. It was a battle of attrition; either Kira depleted Strike's power, or his opponents exhausted their means of continuing the fight.
The stalemate was broken when a beam was fired at the ZAFT's carrier, grazing another part of the ship. Kira turned toward where the shot came from and saw Aegis in its mobile armor attack mode. A face appeared on the screen. "Flay!" Kira uttered. To his relief, Flay, appeared looking the worse for wear, but was alright. "I thought you were unconscious after the maneuver,"
"I blacked out a bit, but they didn't build the world's most expensive massage chairs for nothing,"
Kira laughed at that wry comment. Both Strike and Aegis had spherical cockpits that could rotate gyroscopically in one direction to dampen the effect of a high g maneuver. At the same time, the flight suit and the seat work together to press against the pilot's legs and abdomen to ensure that enough blood and thus, oxygen, reach the brain.
"So, any idea?" he asked as he watched the ZAFT mobile suits surround Strike warily.
"We have the advantage but we're still in a troublesome situation,"
"That's crystal clear, Dolfin," Kira uttered in frustration before realizing what he did, "Um... I mean..."
Flay mock gasped. "We have an accord about this. You promised!"
"I was just looking at the screen and it was an accident,"
"Nothing doing,"
Kira knew better than to argue. "Okay... back to the main question," he says, trying to change the topic, "what should we do?"
"Depends. We haven't offed any one of them so far?"
"No," Kira replied, wondering whether he had injured anyone on the ZAFT ship but decided that was a bit difficult to figure out. He moved Strike's Agni cannon a bit in the direction of the orange GINN only to see it moving away and the others responded. "Why?"
"I've just got a message from Archangel,"
There wasn't one for him "What is it?"
"Negotiation. I notice that we lost contact with those ZAFT pilots. Did they say anything about channel change?"
Maintaining his eyes on the screen targeting Strike, Miguel's hand engaged the communication console, opening the open channel transmission.
"Hello," the Aegis pilot who was called 'Pray' by Strike's pilot appeared on the screen.
"Oh, it's you again," Miguel remarked. He noticed that Aegis was once again moving toward them slowly. "So, what do you want?"
"Our CO would like to negotiate with yours,"
"That's not going to happen!" Dearka said as he appeared on screen. "No negotiation with terrorists!"
Miguel noted the irony of that statement since they negotiated with the same terrorist on the screen a few minutes prior. He looked at screen displaying the 'LOX' and then another one that had power reserve on it. While he still had enough oxygen supply to last another three hour and a half or even five if he stretched it, he had only around one hour of operating time left. He guessed that Buster had even less than that due to its higher power consumption. "We'll let Captain Zellman decide,"
Dearka seemed dissatisfied with that statement, and so were the other pilots, but they didn't say a word. Despite that, Miguel had a good reason for making that call. The enemy wasn't interested in negotiating just a few minutes prior but has since changed her mind. That meant either she was trying to minimize her side's loss, or her side gained an advantage and would be negotiating from the position of strength. Judging from how wrong Dearka was about Strike's ability to be charged, Miguel's money was on the later.
Mirriallia looked up from console. "Croix du Nord 1 is operational at 94.1 percent; range is 102.4 kilometers" she said as she stared at the screen. "Um... Dol...Fla...er...Dolfin is switching on subsystem 1F. We have visual communication with the Laurasia-class ship, Gamow,"
"Patch us through," Murrue said.
The communication window appeared on the main screen, showing a bearded ZAFT commander in black uniform.
"Captain Zellman of Gamow,"
"Captain Ramius of Archangel," Murrue say without missing a beat, even though her rank wasn't Captain.
"I see that you're using a similar signal extender of sorts. Interesting. So, Captain Ramius, what is your demand?"
Murrue starred at the face of Captain Zellman of Gamow on the screen, wondering about the demands that she had to make.
"We want Buster to be returned to us," Mu, who was standing next to her chair said haughtily, setting the tone of negotiation.
The ZAFT captain's eyes widened before his eyes furrowed. "What makes you think we will surrender it to you?"
"It is a trade. Unfavorable for us but we're nice people like that,"
"And what will you offer? Aegis? Strike?"
The question confirmed that ZAFT knew the name of the prototypes. "No," Murrue said. "Instead, we will offer the return of Athrun Zala,"
"We demand his repatriation under the Convention..."
"That applies if he's unable to contribute to the war effort," Murrue cut him off. She and Mu had a brief discussion about it and decided that the definition was vague enough that technically they could detain Athrun's corpse to prevent it from being used for war propaganda purposes. Of course, they were not planning to do something as gruesome as that even when push came to shove.
"And he's fine. Thank you for asking," Mu added.
Both Murrue and Mu shared a look, and he nodded. Time to take it up a notch. "Here's a live feed of him,"
A small window appeared on the main screen, showing Athrun talking to Lacus. Zellman barely controlled his expression even as his eyes widened a bit.
Murrue didn't miss the facial change though. "As you can see, he's in good health,"
"There's a civilian on your ship?" Zellman managed to ask, not mentioning the obvious.
Mu shrugged. "Not just her. Due to your attack on colony, we had to pick up a few of them. Then some more hitched a ride due to vehicle problem," he said wryly.
"What is your plan about La…" Zellman quickly amended his sentence, "her group?"
"Send them to a neutral place, signed them off with certificates of good health and be on our way,"
Zellman rubbed his bearded chin, probably racking his brain on what to do. That was to be expected since the revelation of Athrun and Lacus onboard Archangel had made the situation very delicate for him. The thing was, Murrue was not in the mood to sympathize with him since he brought all of these upon himself.
When Mu had presented Flay's plan to counterattack the ZAFT's carrier to buy some time for Strike to rearm and relaunch, both he and Murrue quickly concluded that the plan had a higher chance of failure since its success depended on Aegis or Strike managing to destroy the carrier. Even if the plan succeeded, there was a chance of the carrier's mobile suits would launch kamikaze attacks on Archangel in retaliation.
Therefore, they decided to tweak the plan slightly so in the case of Aegis and Strike failed, they would contact the carrier's captain to negotiate. They knew that Athrun was in Lacus' vicinity ever since he was transferred to the section few days earlier and to their good fortune, he was together with his fiancée at that moment of time.
Even though they showed Lacus on purpose, the two never made any reference to her and pretended not to know her identity. It was a morally grey action on Murrue and Mu's part since they were using her as a hostage without alluding to it at all. However, even if Archangel wouldn't confirm her identity, there was no way for Zellman to do disavow her, not when the communication was seen by his pilots as well as everyone on his ship.
While Zellman may have no qualm throwing Athrun under the proverbial bus, despite him belonging to an influential family, attacking a ship carrying Lacus Clyne and PLANT civilians unprovoked would be a political and public relation nightmare, especially if they survive such attack.
Murrue stole a glance at Natarle. From her expression, the Ensign haven't realized what she and Mu was up to. Natarle was an upright and straightforward person to a fault. She turned toward Zellman and signaled for the video feed showing Athrun and Lacus to be cut off. "Well?"
Zellman gritted his teeth in clear agitation. "You know that what you're requesting is something very difficult,"
Murrue crossed her arms. While negotiation was not one of her forte, she did have a trump card. "Even though Buster will be inoperable soon?"
"What are you implying?"
"No need to be coy with me, Captain. I managed their logistics and supports. The Phase Shift can last maybe forty or fifty hours of operational time but I'm quite sure there are some parts that need replacement right now."
Zellman was quiet for a few seconds, "Give me time to consider,"
"As long as you want but until then, both our sides will not launch nor recover our assets without agreement by the other side,"
"Agreed," Zellman signed off.
"That's one hell of a bluff," Mu remarked.
"It's not," Murrue said while shaking her head, "They're really running out of parts for Buster," She then explained the whole situation to the rest of the crew on the bridge. In its haste to steal the prototypes, ZAFT ignored taking any spare parts as well. Murrue knew because most of them were on Archangel when the theft happened. Without access to a regular supply, Buster would soon run out of its ammunitions. While it could wield ZAFT weapons with some modifications, the same couldn't be said for other critical components such as servos that allowed it to move.
ZAFT could theoretically reproduce them by scanning every component down to their molecular compositions, and then use additive manufacturing, or as they say, 3D prints all parts, getting the whole remanufacturing process correct was extremely difficult. ZAFT could eventually get them to start but it would have been so much easier to allocate more resources to produce more GINNs instead of creating spare parts for a single prototype.
"Then they were doing something pointless by sending the Gundams into the battle without proper logistics," Natarle concluded.
"Not really. They're still gaining valuable battle data, and despite what I said, they could rejig some GINN parts fit into Buster. I mean, the screws, nuts and bolts remained unchanged for two hundred years so at least those can be used,"
"We really are nice people for accepting a raw deal," Natarle deadpanned.
"I have a question," Kuzzey said from his station.
"Go ahead,"
"Are we going to stab, I mean, attack them after they accept the proposal?" Kuzzey asked.
"Wow, of all the questions...," Mu said in amazement. "Why do you think we will do that?"
"Because you're The Three Wise... Leaders?"
"Last time I checked, it was Troika, or Triumvirate; now we're the three monkeys? What, I'm the 'see no evil'?" Mu asked exasperatedly.
"Probably 'hear no evil'," Murrue remarked dryly. While it annoyed her, the description was apt in a perverse way. Mu was a confident man who didn't let opinion of others dictate his actions, hence the 'hear no evil'. As for Murrue, she had been described as an optimist, which was another way of saying that she's a naïve person. "That means I'm the 'see no evil'," she continued.
"Why I'm the 'speak no evil'?" Natarle asked, dissatisfied.
"You're okay attacking the ship after we transferred the PLANTs civilians there?"
"Of course not!"
"There you have it," Murrue said, as if it explained everything. "As for your question, Kuzzey, no, we're not,"
"But it's necessary if we're to escape them," the young man insisted.
"Listen to yourself, kid," Mu said. "That's a mighty scary word you're using. Once you're using it to justify everything, eventually, you can do anything by saying that it's necessary,"
"What the commander said is true," Murrue said. "As for your concern, that's why we're asking for Buster,"
"What if they do something to it?" Mirriallia asked.
Murrue considered the question and contacted Murdoch, "Is it possible to scan a mobile suit in case there's a bobby trap?"
"No!" Dearka replied. "I'm not handing over Buster," he said to Zellman.
"So, we continue fighting against Strike and Aegis until one of them land a direct hit on our ship?" Miguel asked.
"We can defeat the ship, what's the name again?" Muller suggested.
"Archangel, and kill your idol?"
"Er, no... We can get them to surrender?" Muller tried again.
"Even though we're outgunned?" Miguel sighed. "This is why I really don't like them, the Naturals, I mean. They're such assholes, pulling this kind of trick on us,"
"What do you mean?" Hazrul asked.
"They contacted us specifically to show that they're carrying civilians," Miguel explained. "Our civilians as well. And we attacked the ship,"
"We didn't know," Dearka complained.
"True, but we're still the one who fired first," Zellman said as he explained that even though while they did weren't wrong, it remained the fact that they attacked a ship which had rescued Silverwind's crew as well as Heliopolis civilians.
"They're not supposed to let civilians onboard!" Dearka insisted.
"They can under certain condition, such as SAR," Zellman explained.
"SAR?" Hazrul asked.
"Search and Rescue," Miguel explained. "While military's main role is to shoot the enemy, it could be ordered to help in other matters. "Our mission of locating Silverwind actually falls under this category as well,"
"But we're not in the wrong for attacking," Hazrul said, repeating Dearka's viewpoint.
"No, we're not," Zellman confirmed. "But still, those two are different matters,"
"Captain, I'll talk to them," Miguel said.
"Please," Zellman said before signing off.
"Talk," Dearka said.
"What matters is the optics, the narrative," Miguel began.
Attacking Archangel which was carrying Lacus and Athrun wouldn't be blamed on them since they didn't know; that wasn't the problem. The question was what to do next. The obvious option was to retreat and then Gamow would shadow Archangel from the distance. However, it was too much to expect the Alliance ship to let it do that without repercussion. To make matters worse, the deployment of N-Jammers network ensured that Gamow wouldn't be able to call for reinforcements. Even if Archangel let Gamow follow it, what would happen if the former went to the nearest Alliance Base? Would Gamow attack to prevent it from happening? Can everyone attack, knowing that they're firing upon Athrun and Lacus?
The second option that Gamow had to continue fighting which would only end in disaster since they clearly didn't have enough firepower to assure victory. Even if they won, their victory would assuredly come at the cost of Athrun and Lacus' safety since there wasn't a realistic way to ensure their safety.
The third option was, as suggested, trade. Despite how it seemed, trading away Buster wasn't such a bad deal since they could regain custody of the two VIPs without much hassle. Since ZAFT scientists already had access to almost all secrets Buster had to offer, recreating most of the technology was a matter of time. Instead, they had the advantage of rewriting the narrative of rescuing Athrun and Lacus and bringing them back home safely. On the flipside, the Alliance ship would also benefit from the trade. Despite the blonde Alliance officer claiming that they were kindhearted, in reality, they were being pragmatic. Recovering Buster was a moral win on their side while trading away the hostages would force Gamow and other near ZAFT ships to quickly return to PLANTs to ensure the hostages' safety.
"You think that they will trade with us?" Dearka asked.
"They did offer,"
"We should bobby trap Buster before giving it back," Hazrul said.
"They're aware of that. That's why they prevented us from landing. Not only it's to pressure Zellman but also limits us from doing anything to Buster. Besides, do you want us to be in a prisoner's dilemma?"
"What do you mean?" Muller asked.
"We want to booby trap Buster to deal damage to Archangel. Put yourself in their shoes. Shouldn't Archangel think of ways of doing the same, say, planting a bomb in the shuttle that would transport Athrun and Lacus?"
"They wouldn't," Dearka say, horrified.
"You want to do that, the Aegis pilot said as she invaded the conversation, "so why shouldn't you expect us to do the same? Because we're from Retardistan? Stupidisia? By the way, don't forget to thank me for pointing out the obvious weakness of using other people's equipment without proper adjustment and thorough testing,"
"What do you want?" Miguel asked, annoyed with her intrusion. Due to the higherups' decision to rush Buster and the other two stolen prototypes back to the frontline, not much modification could be done on them, with the communication suite among the many Earth Alliance systems still being kept. While in theory, they could rip out the systems and replace them with ZAFT's own which used the same UCI system, there was still the arduous task of retesting, optimization, and troubleshooting, which in turns required the time the task force didn't have.
The short-term solution was that to get the communication system onboard the Alliance's prototypes and other mobile suits in the taskforce to use unencrypted transmissions. Instead, the transmission was done through frequency manipulation to ensure that only those who knew the algorithm would be able to receive the message.
The so-called secret algorithm wasn't a secret at all.
"We'll be pushing for the agreement to include a ceasefire for seventy-two hours. So just to be clear, no putting traps inside Buster and we'll not be attacking the shuttle carrying the POW and civilians. No bombs and self-destruct. No getting reinforcements to chase after the other party as well. Ah, trojans and logic bombs as well, just in case you're too lazy to read the document,"
"What happens if you break the agreement, Pray?" Dearka ask.
"Feel free to shoot back and then reveal to the world our action," the pilot answered. "However, we wouldn't. It is 'you' who you should worry about. After all, it is you who attacked Heliopolis first to steal the prototypes that resulted in its destruction, it is you who attack us on the way to Artemis, and it is you who launched the sneak attack just now,"
"Oh, yeah?" Muller said, "It is you who launched those nukes at Junius Seven! "
The other pilot was quiet for a moment. "I'm surprised by that," she said, "that's an interesting accusation. Naturals launched those nukes you say?"
"Yes, they did," Hazrul concurred.
"Everyone's missing the obvious now, do we?"
"What do you mean?" Muller asked suspiciously.
"You are aware that there were Naturals on Junius Seven, just like there are Naturals living on PLANTs right now, aren't you? Or did you throw them out of the airlocks when you take over?"
"As if we would do that?!"
Before others could say anything that would worsen the situation, Miguel interjected, "Okay, you made your point. Why did you contact us?"
"As I said earlier, to convince you about the trade. As much as you try to convince yourself that Buster is valuable, it is not,"
"You're trying to exchange it with Athrun and Lacus," Dearka said. "It is valuable,"
"One Buster is cheap in the grand scheme of things. We could have asked for you to surrender all GINNs instead, but we didn't,"
"It's so that we will still have enough mobile suits to protect us in case anything happens," Miguel concluded. "Why?"
"It is in Archangel's interest that you survive the trip back to PLANTs with both of them. It's in your best interest as well. And right now, the longer you delay, the more dangerous it's going to be,"
In the end, Gamow contacted Archangel to accept the trade. Buster's pilot would deactivate and exit the mobile suit. At the same time, Archangel would launch the shuttle carrying Athrun, Lacus, and the rest of Silverwind's crew.
"We've received and digitally signed the ceasefire," Zellman says as his eyes looked away for a moment to read some information that has come into his attention, "with ZLCA-X1 Eurasian Federation combat carrier Archangel," he finished slowly, as if questioning the designation.
"That is correct," Murrue said. All the forms they filled in the Artemis were to register the ship as a Eurasian ship in order it to enjoy free resupplying, but she didn't feel the need to explain it to the ZAFT captain. "We have signed on our side as well, and as of now, the cease-fire is in effect,"
"Acknowledge. Transfer of VIPs and item are to be monitored and recorded by both sides,"
"Agreed."
After Zellman had ended the connection, Natarle commented, "I still can't believe how smooth it went,"
"Both our sides know how scary it is fighting without any backup," Murrue said. A simple mistake could mean the end of everyone onboard the ship. However, while she, like other military personnel, were trained and prepared to fight to the death if needed, the terror of being stranded in the middle of nowhere in space was something she wouldn't wish even on her enemies. The deployment of N-Jammers, which made all rescue beacons useless, worsened the situation further, making the already slim chance of a rescue even more remote.
Due to that, the high command allowed the ship's captain flexibility to decide based on situation encountered; it seemed that ZAFT's also the same.
Strike flew alongside the shuttle; inside its cockpit, Kira was talking to Athrun who was piloting the shuttle and Lacus who became its copilot.
"Thank you, Kira, and everyone onboard Archangel," Lacus said, "and please tell her as well,"
"You're welcome. Sorry for this sudden decision, but I hope all of you understand,"
"It is for the best," Lacus replied before turning toward Athrun, "Right?"
Athrun fisted his hands and came to a decision. "Kira, you come with us too!"
Kira's eyes widened.
"There's no reason why you should remain with the Earth Alliance,"
"I can't do that," Kira replied.
"No, just you. Not Strike. You can leave it there. I'm sure the ceasefire allows you to leave with us. You don't belong there, among them," Athrun insisted.
"I don't want to fight," Kira admitted softly. "I woke up just now wondering what I was doing. I didn't want to kill but I had to,"
"Then, that's all the reason for you to come with us. Leave this fight behind you!"
"But you know that my friends are on Archangel,"Kira turned his head toward the red mobile armor nearby.
"She can follow us too!"
Before Kira could say anything, Aegis sped away to the shuttle's side and blocked a few machinegun shots from the GINN which was supposed to escort the shuttle. "Gamow, what is this?" she demanded over open channel.
"The GINN is acting without authorization, I repeat, the GINN is acting without authorization!" Zellman responded urgently.
"Then get him to stop!" Aegis engaged its boosters and then went after the rogue GINN. While bullets bounced off the red mobile armor harmlessly, it closed the distance and rammed the later, simultaneously knocking the machine gun off the GINN hand and capturing it in Aegis' vice grip.
Realizing that he had no way out, the pilot shouted, "For the pure and blue world!" and self-destructed his GINN.
"Flay!" Kira called out.
"I'm alright!" Flay answered as Aegis emerged unscathed, "The shuttle!"
As Kira looked around him, the other GINN was aiming its weapon at the shuttle and was about to fire when a beam penetrated its cockpit, killing the pilot instantly. "Muller, Hazrul, neutralized," Miguel announced as the mobile suit he shot exploded. "Captain Zellman, please prevent other mobile suits from launching. We need to deescalate this situation immediately. And prepare a security detail for the landing,"
"Understand. I expect a full debrief. Aegis pilot, about..."
"There was an internal altercation which we're not party to," Flay answered immediately. "No effect on the cease-fire,"
"Thank you for your understanding," the captain of Gamow said before signing off.
"This is embarrassing," Miguel said. "But it made sense why we have to hurry home,"
"Sorry, hot potatoes are hard to handle," Flay said before she and Miguel signed off.
Athrun and Lacus who were still on Kira's private channel smiled awkwardly. "We're sorry for being hot potatoes," Athrun apologized to him.
"Even though potatoes are versatile plants, and delicious" Lacus added.
"That's not what they meant!" her fiancé hissed.
"I know," she answered while smiling. "I'm trying to lighten the mood,"
Athrun palmed his face and let out a long breath, "You're right. And this is quite awkward, since we're in the middle of a conversation of convincing you to leave,"
"About that, no. Even though I didn't say it the las... the first time, I'm afraid that I can't. You know why, and you met them," Kira replied.
"You will end up being used!"
"I can say the same thing, joining ZAFT and being at the frontline, to you, Athrun,"
Athrun was about to say something but clenched his jaw closed and gave a long stare. "We will end up fighting on the opposing sides,"
"Is that how you see the war? Us versus them? It's just as the officers told me, just press the trigger when told and forget everything else. That's what they taught you as well, don't they?"
"I'm fighting for the right reasons!"
"So do I,"
"Don't be like this, Kira. You belong with us, among Coordinators,"
"Even though I've killed fellow Coordinators?" Kira laughed ruefully as he recalled the times he pressed the trigger to protect his friends.
"Kira…"
"Is that how we will meet next time? As enemies?"
Athrun had no words to say to the questions.
"Sorry, Athrun, but I may press the trigger again after this,"
"I'm sorry too," his friend sighed resignedly.
The rest of the escort trip went in silence even though the private channel was still up as no one knew what to say. Even when Strike stopped escorting the shuttle and the orange GINN took over, no words was exchanged.
A message popped in his console and Kira read it. "Athrun, even if we end up on the opposite sides after this, you're still my best friend. That will not change,"
"Thanks. I consider you, mine," Athrun said just before the communication dropped due to the effect of N-Jammer.
Kira watched as Aegis, still in the mobile armor mode flew around the communication extender as the latter repack itself.
"You have said what you wanted?" Flay asked.
"Yes,"
"Good. Don't be like me," the redhead pilot looked at something, "oh, can you tug the Northern Cross module back? I think Aegis's transformation module malfunction due to the hit just now,"
Kira maneuvered Strike as he told, and the mobile suit and mobile armor made their way back. The behavior by the two GINNs were unsettling since they were supposed to be on Athrun and Lacus's side. The conspiracy theory about someone didn't want the pro-war and pro-peace factions to come together held more credence than everyone expected. The problem was identifying that someone.
It was easy to blame it on the Alliance since it was the one who declared war, and then nuked Junius Seven, but did it have the capability to insert agents inside the colonies? One of the GINN pilots did shout the quote attributed to the Blue Cosmos terrorist group, but anyone could claim anything at that juncture.
Kira blinked as he realized that he missed something. "Sorry, what did you say?"
"Aegis can't transform. And there's some more malfunctions that will keep the crew will be busy for some time,"
"Alright. How about Buster?"
"Once we land, Archangel will move to retrieve it. And speaking about the devil..."
"This is Archangel," Mirriallia's voice and face came online. "Do you read me?"
"This is Dolfin and Coffee Pod, loud and clear. Archangel, requesting landing solution,"
"Roger, Dolfin, Coffee Pod. Transmitting," Mirriallia replied
"Why are we using call signs now?"
"You started it,"
"I didn't mean to. Plus, mine's lame,"
"At least it's based on your unstoppable spirit and heroic exploit,"
"Annoying tendency to save rescue pods, you mean,"
"And 'sweet boffin' is a straight up insult. As a rule, though, call signs are never cool,"
"Even Mu's?" Mirriallia interjected.
"Yup,"
"Isn't his is based on Endymion?"
"That's what he wants everyone to believe. I heard Murdoch said that there's one time his flight went to the bar..."
Mirriallia was pushed away a bit and Mu's face entered focus, "Hey, people. Stop chit chatting and return to Archangel,"
"Roger, Feather Lite,"
1
A/N
1. Dolce means sweet in italian
2. Aviation groups have different approach to assigning callsign.
3. PLANTs used to be research facilities housing researchers, Naturals and Coordinators.