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 Four: Interlude

Lt. Ramius and Lt. la Flaga were holding a quiet conversation in the Archangels lounge where several of the Earth Forces crew and civilian passengers where being allowed a chance to stretch their legs and see something besides the four walls of their quarters. "I don't understand why Yamato chose to side with the Coordinators" Ramius said to her blonde haired companion. "After all we did save him and his friends when no shelters would have taken them in."

Lt. La Flaga stared pensively into his coffee mug as he thought about how to answer the others question. "I doubt that we will ever know all the reasons that the kid decided to side with ZAFT but I suspect that yours and Ensign Badgiruel's less than open attitudes towards Coordinators, even neutral ones like Kira, probably had something to do with it. I said before that the kid had a hero streak in him and that if he was approached right it would make him more inclined to protect the ship, but you and Ensign stick up her ass have this aversion to all things related to Coordinators and you threw those feelings up in Kira's face each time you saw him after you found out his genetics. Add to that the fact that we virtually held his friends hostage to coerce him into piloting the Strike and right there you have enough reason for him to accept an even halfway decent offer from ZAFT especially if they had already figured out that he was a Coordinator."

"But wouldn't the ZAFT commander consider Yamato a traitor for fighting against his fellow Coordinators?"

"Other ZAFT commanders might but not Creuset, I have fought him several times and I have come to understand how he thinks to a certain degree. He obviously can see the same untapped potential in Yamato and he will exploit it for the benefit of the PLANTs."

"Isn't there anything we can do to keep this ship and the prototype mobile suits out of ZAFT's hands?"

"I don't think that we being under manned to begin with and unarmed to boot have any hope of taking on the three or four platoons of ZAFT soldiers stationed around the ship, and even if we did somehow manage to regain control of the ship the other ZAFT vessels would more than likely shoot us down than allow us to escape."

"Even if there were still ZAFT personnel still onboard the ship?"

"The soldiers who fight for ZAFT are all volunteers; they all know that by signing up to fight there is a chance that they might be killed in combat, the same as you and I. Even I know that aside from some of the weaponry this ship is not as advanced as the newer Laurasia class ships that ZAFT is currently deploying and by now they have certainly downloaded the schematics of the ship over the escort ships to prevent the loss of such data in the event of this ships destruction. It is a tough thing to realize but we have lost this battle and once the technicians and scientist at the PLANTs begin developing their own versions of our mobile suits the war will be that much more difficult for the Earth Forces."

Both La Flaga and Ramius were busy pondering that realization when suddenly the battle stations claxons began sounding throughout the ship. They were quickly escorted out of the lounge and into the nearest empty set of quarters where they were locked inside. La Flaga took stock of the room they were in before walking over to the desk and attempting to activate the monitor that was mounted above it. To their surprise a camera shot came up showing three ZAFT vessels deployed ahead of the Archangel and beyond them they could just make out the shape of six Earth Forces vessels maneuvering into attack formation. Suddenly all three ZAFT vessels began deploying mobile suits including all five of the captured Earth Forces Mobile Suits. Lt. Ramius and Lt. La Flaga watched helplessly as the ZAFT piloted mobile suits tore the Earth Forces fleet to shreds losing only one GINN during the entire battle.

As they watched the ZAFT mobile suits returning to their docks the two P.O.W. Earth Forces officers felt all hope leave them; with the stolen mobile suits in their possession their was little chance that the forces of the earth governments would come out victorious in this war.

TBC…