Divergence

By: cjtokage

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Gundam continuum. I am making ZERO dollars on this work of fiction.

Warnings: Yaoi/Slash; in other words two (or sometimes more heh, heh) guys romancing each other. Athrun/Kira pairing; AU story that takes off from the cannon version fairly early. Perhaps a small hint of OOCness for those of you who worry about that type of thing. Proofread but not beta'd, so any mistakes are mine. Let me know and I will fix them during the final draft.

Chapter Two: Shoot the Arrows

Athrun and Kira found the Gamow¹ and the Vesalius² floating in near orbit close to their previous positions. Athrun knew that it was very likely that Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol were now on board the Vesalius to have a post combat debriefing after the destruction of the Heliopolis colony. He would have to watch Kira's back closely until the situation was explained, especially knowing what a hot head Yzak was.

"This is the X-303 Aegis hailing the Vesalius, Athrun Zala requesting landing permission for myself and the X-105 Strike. I also request a meeting between myself, the pilot of the Strike mobile suit and Commander Creuset at his earliest convenience."

Orders were apparently relayed because a few minutes later the two mobile suits were given the go ahead to commence landing. Upon entering the hanger bay Kira immediately noticed the difference in quality of the ZAFT vessel as compared to the Earth Forces ship. Were the Archangel had been cold and sterile with a hard, straight edges, and a completely metallic interior, the ZAFT ships appeared to be design around a more circular pattern. Everywhere practical there appeared to be circular hatches, circular passageways, circular view ports, and other less conspicuous details. It all made for a much more natural feeling onboard the ship especially when it was taken into account that straight lines and sharp corners were rarely found in nature. As an added bonus the circular passageway left more room for the ships intrinsic electrical and fiber optic cables and with the right reinforcements the closer bulkhead and rooms could be an asset in the event of a hull breach.

Athrun allowed Kira a few moments after disembarking to acquaint himself with the lay out of the Vesalius before directing his attention to the hatch that lead to the main corridor. From there they proceeded directly to Commander Creuset's office. Athrun was stunned to see that Kira had been telling the truth when he exited the Strike mobile suit without a flight suit on. Even a small crack in the mobile suits armor could introduce a vacuum inside the cockpit that with a flight suit would possibly be survivable but without one would spell instant death. This was just another example of the Naturals blatant stupidity or worse willful neglect considering that they knew that Kira was a Coordinator.

Athrun came out of his silent fuming when he noticed that they were nearing the Commander's cabin. He paused to give Kira a small encouraging smile before pushing the small button beside the doors control panel. The door opened immediately to allow them entrance and Athrun noticed that Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol were also in attendance.

Athrun gave his commanding officer a smart salute and stated in a firm voice "Athrun Zala reporting sir, I have with me Kira Yamato, the pilot of the Strike mobile suit, which he is turning over to our hands."

Kira for his part stayed silent during this exchange; he was willing to admit that he was more that slightly intimidated by the half masked man before him and it did not help that he also had three other ZAFT soldiers in the office with him not including Athrun. He therefore remained alert and aware of the fact that he was currently in what could be considered hostile territory. He noticed during Athrun's introduction that all eyes became more intensely focused on him so he was not surprised when the commander asked him "tell me Mr. Yamato how is it that a Natural can suddenly pilot an advanced mobile suit with a flawed OS just as well as our elite ZAFT Coordinators can? Hmm?"

Kira hesitated a moment before answering "Sir it is not possible for a Natural to overcome the inherent flaws of the Gundam's OS while battling against enemy forces."

"Then tell me how you were able to accomplish such a feat?"

Kira noticed the tightening around the platinum blonde's and the golden blonde's eyes which told him that they had probably figured out just how something like that was possible. Then the green haired one's position shifted to an even more offensive position and Kira knew that everyone in the room now 'knew' that he himself was a Coordinator even if he had yet to say the words. Kira who had not been around other Coordinator for a long time was coming to the conclusion that these were people who could keep up with him and probably even surpass him in various fields that he was naturally weak in; so Kira did not hesitant to answer their suspicions because to do so could mean his death for being seen as an enemy.

"That would be because I too am a Coordinator, Sir, first gen. to be exact."

The platinum blonde one jumped up at this and quickly asked "how could you betray your own people by piloting a mobile suit for the Naturals?"

"First of all…?"

"Yzak!"

"First of all Yzak I was not piloting the Strike for the Earth Force, at first I was simply trying to defend myself when the mobile suit I was a passenger in was attacked. I took over the controls when it became clear that the Earth Forces officer piloting the machine was not capable of operating it and was about to get the two of us and several dozen civilians killed. The other times I have piloted it is because the Earth Forces are holding my friends on board the Archangel and told me that if I did not fight that we would all be killed along with the rest of the crew. What was I suppose to do, I was trapped in an inescapable position especially when you sent in GINN's equipped with heavy weaponry."

Commander Creuset sat back with a calculating look on his face "so you have no loyalty to the Earth government? Why ever not?"

"Because the Earth Forces are responsible for the destruction of my home colony sir" Kira answered honestly.

"Technically it was ZAFT who invaded your colony and it was ZAFT who fired the shot that caused the collapse of Heliopolis."

"And I say that while technically you are right about it being ZAFT who fired the first shots a few hours ago it is the Earth Forces who are ultimately responsible; ZAFT after all was just responding to a recently discovered threat and attempting to neutralize said threat. The Earth Forces should not have been on Heliopolis to begin with especially since they were building advanced war machines on a neutral colony with or without the permission of the government of Orb. The Naturals I'm sure gave little or no thought to the lives that they would be jeopardizing if and when their secret was exposed; this is just another in a long line of incidences that demonstrates the Earth government inherent selfishness and greed."

"What exactly are you saying Mr. Yamato?" Commander Creuset asked with just a hint of anticipation in his voice.

"Sir I Kira Yamato, Coordinator First Generation request permission to join the ZAFT organization and would like to continue piloting the Strike Gundam in defence of the PLANTs against the corrupt and negligent Earth governments, beginning with the rescue of my friends and the capture of the Earth Forces ship the Archangel."

"You do realize that your services will not end with the capture of the Legged ship and that you will be called upon to kill enemy combatants and possibly destroy civilian structures and unintentionally injure or kill innocent live while obeying orders?"

Kira hesitated for a few moments while he internally wrestled with his sometimes sensitive conscience before answering "I understand that Commander Creuset and while I won't say that I am happy about the possibility of innocent blood on my hands I had already prepared myself for that eventuality before I even asked to join up. As for the enemy combatant they will just have to learn to get out of our way won't they?"

The whole room was in varying states of shock, particularly Athrun, his little crybaby best friend had toughened up in the years that they had been apart. Athrun was proud of him for growing up somewhat even if it was at the cost of some of his innocence.

Kira was swiftly sworn in as a ZAFT soldier equal in rank to Nicol; Athrun, Yzak, and Dearka were all one rank above his own. The six ZAFT soldiers then immediately made their way to the bridge not even stopping to supply Kira with his new uniforms. Once on the bridge Commander Creuset had Captain Ades pull up a display of the space surrounding the former colony he then started the planning session by asking if anyone had any questions or suggestions, after all his pilots were the best in the ZAFT military and all were considered to be geniuses even as compared to the advanced intelligence of the average Coordinator.

Creuset saw that Kira wanted to speak up but was unsure of how to go about it so he intervened "Kira Yamato if you have anything to add please do you are after all the only one here who has actually seen the inside of the Legged ship."

"Yes sir…, I was wondering if you had considered using a Trojan horse sir?"

"Interesting please explain what you have in mind?"

"Well sir the Archangel's mobile suit hanger is one big area with plenty of room to maneuver in and the Captain has no idea whether or not the Strike is damaged or what injuries I may have sustained. Therefore it was my idea to use the Strike to gain access to the hanger, jam the hanger doors open, and leave the ship open for a party of ZAFT soldiers to gain access. My only real opponent will be the Zero Moebuis, if I can disable it quickly enough then I should be able to hack into the hanger controls using the Strikes laser communications equipment. I may even be able to disable some of the ships weaponry in the same manner but I won't know about that until I can get in there and try."

Dearka was the one to speak up this time "you expect us to trust you someone who just joined ZAFT after flying a mobile suit for the enemy; for all we know this could be some elaborate trap to destroy one or more of our mobile suits. I don't trust you alone on that enemy ship for a minute!"

Kira was about to speak up when surprisingly Nicol beat him to it "you say you don't trust Yamato onboard the legged ship alone and maybe you have a point but he doesn't necessarily have to be alone. Kira though you are unaware of this the others should be if they have read the technical briefings concerning the newly acquired mobile suits; the Blitz is equipped with a system called the Mirage Colloid which renders the mobile suit invisible to radar, infra-red sensors, and the naked eye. If we used it to gain access to the legged ship along with your own Strike mobile suit then I could provide you with back-up incase anything unexpected happens and that will give those of our comrades" at this sweet little Nicol gave Yzak and Dearka a hard glare "who doubt your commitment the knowledge that someone is watching over you."

All eyes turned toward Commander Creuset even some of the junior crew members at their stations were straining to listen in on this conversation, all were curious about the young man standing with the commander and the captain dressed in civilian clothing.

"I believe this idea has merit; with a few modifications to the plans to adjust for your lack of knowledge in military procedures Kira Yamato the legged ship will be in our possession hopefully without sustaining too much damage.

A short while later...

Kira shifted around in the seat of 'his' mobile suit in an attempt to get used to the formfitting ZAFT flight suit. He maneuvered the internally repaired but superficially damaged Strike Gundam onto the Vesalius's launch ramp and after waiting a few moments to allow the electromagnetic accelerators to power up he was catapulted out of the ship that for a short time at least would become his new home. He had no time to think about the future though because beside him coming from the Gamow was Nicol in his Blitz Gundam both suits kept their phase shift armor powered down to save on battery power as they proceeded towards the area near where the Archangel was last located.

After traveling for thirty minutes in a zigzag pattern the two mobile suits began receiving garbled radio transmissions and five minutes later the signal became clear enough to decipher the voice of an unknown crew member of the Archangel calling the Strike "X-105 Strike, come in. Come in. Come in, Strike. Do you copy?"

The soldier sounded bored and disheartened and had probably been at this for sometime now.

Kira tight beamed his laser communicator at Nicol's Blitz Gundam "Strike to Blitz do you copy?"

"Blitz here I read you Strike go ahead."

"I'm about to answer their call so you go ahead and engage your Colloid system and then prepare to follow me in. Once inside the airlock they will began to cycle us through and that is when I will began to hack their systems; crew workstations first, hanger doors next, and then last any defensive systems not overridden by the first set of commands. You cover me and don't let La Flaga near the Zero, in fact go ahead and take it out first because we don't need it. "

"Roger that Strike, I'll follow your lead, you take care of your end and I'll watch your back."

"X-105 Strike, can you hear me? Kira Yamato, come in!"

Kira adjusted his voice to sound dazed and barely conscious then hit the intercom button for voice only "this is Kira I can hear you."

Captain Ramius's voice quickly came over the radio "Strike, are you alright?"

"I'm bleeding from a head wound and my ribs are sore I think some of them might be broken, I don't know."

"Alright and what about the condition of the Strike can you make it back or do you need assistance?"

"Visual communications are out, right arm not responding, thruster's are at sixty percent of maximum output, other than that I'm not sure. I can make it to your position but it will take me a few minutes. You may wish to clear the hanger until I get this thing settled in and have a fire team ready just in case."

Kira flashed his running lights twice to signal the other three Gundams that they were moving out then he boosted the Strike up to fifty percent thrust and began maneuvering through the Heliopolis debris zone.

Meanwhile on board the Archangel the three senior officers were having a quiet but intense discussion concerning one Kira Yamato. Ensign Badgiruel was once again attempting to make her point that the kid had been out there for too long and that Coordinators were not to be trusted whether they come from a neutral colony or not. Lt. La Flaga on the other hand was insisting that the kid had a hero streak running through him and he likely would come to see it as his duty to protect the Archangel with his life if necessary. Captain Ramius was undecided about the trustworthiness of Coordinators but she had to admit that without the Strike mobile suit piloted by Kira they stood an ice cubes chance in hell of surviving to make it to an Earth Alliance base; so she really had no choice but to use the Coordinator until such a time as he proved himself or he became expendable which ever came first.

Kira came into view of the Archangel and began to maneuver slightly erratically as to simulate damage. He maneuvered into the airlock and paused for a moment to allow the Blitz time to catch up if need be; he then moved forward and at the same time began using his laser communications system to infiltrate the Archangel's computer system. Five minutes later when the hanger doors were opening he had locked out the bridge crew from their controls and he had also sealed the crews' access to the hanger area proper he then sounded the decompression alarm and began depressurizing the entire hanger to allow both airlock doors to be opened simultaneously thereby granting direct access to the hanger area for the ZAFT troop carriers that would be approaching as soon as he gave the all clear. As he waited for the pressure to drop enough to open both doors Kira went to work on the ships weapons systems, disabling each as he found them; this took several minutes as there was several layers of cyber defenses surround each weapons autonomic software command center. He then locked down all the ship's internal airlocks and disabled the ship's elevators.

Once finished Kira took the time to really notice his surroundings instead of just partially monitoring them and discovered that sometime after the inner airlock had opened the Blitz had entered and disabled the Zero's engines before taking up a defensive stance between the Strike and the interior of the hanger. Kira also noticed that he had apparently left the in-ship communications system open because Captain Ramius was demanding that he explain exactly what was going on. He ignored her for a moment and instead entered into the ship's systems again and used the ship's running lights to send the all clear signal to the awaiting boarding party. He then opened up a full visual and audio link to the bridge which allowed everyone there to see that he was wear a ZAFT flight suit.

"Captain Ramius I ask that you have your crew stand down and vacate the bridge, ZAFT troopers will be on board the ship within the minute and I really don't want to see any of you get hurt." Kira then opened a ship wide broadcast "this is Kira Yamato pilot of the Gundam Strike I ask you all to proceed to your quarters and stay there until otherwise notified. ZAFT troopers will be boarding momentarily and I have no desire to see anyone hurt or worse, killed. They outnumber you five to one and are more than capable of seizing this ship if you resist." With that he cut off all in ship communications and watched as the four ZAFT troop transports landed under the watchful eyes of the two towering Gundams. Kira sent the company commander all the access codes he had encrypted into the ships systems that would allow the troopers to gain control of the ship in an orderly fashion. He then returned to sentry duty ensuring that no one would sneak around the invading troops and try and attempt to gain access to the weaponry in the hanger.

Four hours later...

The Assault Movement Special Equipment Warship Archangel was firmly under ZAFT control with only one casualty, Ensign Badgiruel had disobeyed direct orders and had attempted to defend the bridge by herself she suffered a gunshot wound to her right shoulder thereby disabling her. With additional manpower provided by a nearby Laurasia-class frigate, the Eddington³ the four ship convoy was now underway toward the distant L-5 PLANTs with only the strategically worthless Port of Artemis with its limited offensive capability to stand against them. It seemed that the ZAFT fleet would have a clear course towards their distant homeport.

TBC…

A/N: According to the information in the back of the fourth volume of the Gundam Seed manga the ZAFT organization names its space based vessels after famous scientist and advancers of knowledge while their terrestrial vessels are named after famous explorers. The Earth Alliance on the other hand names its vessels after the rulers of ancient kingdoms and famous military leaders.

A/N: Special Note: All below and subsequent information found in the Webster Illustrated Contemporary Dictionary Encyclopedic Edition.

1) Gamow, George 1904-1968 Russian born U.S. Physicist and Author. (Show original ship name)

2) Vesalius, Andreas 1514-1564 Belgian Anatomist. (Show original ship name)

3) Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanly 1884-1944 English Astronomer and Astrophysicist. (My original ship name)

Adema – Shoot The Arrows

Been greeted with a smile, in my back twists the knife

So quick to flip the switch, never know quite what hit

Behind the lines you know, true colors always show

Forget that you exist, the hand that feeds cut off at the wrist

Hate spreads like an infection, two faces yet you see one

Hey, shoot the arrows, as I turn to go

Know one day when most of us are gone, shoot the arrows

Holding on to what you feel is true, and it's killing you

Fed up for so long, I've let go, watch you hang on

When did lost trust begin, as soon as I decide to let you in

This took a part of me that will never return you see

I've grown cold and hollow, the hurt that's caused I'll never let it show

Total lack of devotion, in you I have no faith

(Chorus)

There's no way that you ever could have known I would stoop so low

Don't tell me you wouldn't do the same thing, I know all the games you play

Think hard 'cause now it starts to eat at you

There's nothing else to do, what's done is done

You hold onto what you feel is true and now it's killing you

(Repeat Chorus)