AUTHOR'S NOTE: No real major changes here, just a few minor details tweaked around in the interest of making more sense of the chronology of the story.

PHASE 14: The Shadows of War

Earth Alliance Suez Base
CVN-133S John Paul Jones

Lukas was on his way from his quarters to the bridge when he heard a commotion coming from a room down the hall, which he knew was where Auel and Stella were quartered. Quite distinctly audible was Stella's voice as she yelled.

"NO! You can't take it! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

With a puzzled expression, Lukas entered. The room was dimly lit, and the first thing one saw when entering was a sizable bank of computers and other electronic instruments. Three technicians were at the console, while a number of others were clustered around the center of the room. Lukas recognized among them Doctors Megan Kinney and Martin Rice, the scientists in charge of maintaining the two Extendeds.

Rice was a hard, deceptively slender man of some thirty-five years, with short brown hair and an expression of deep contempt. Kinney was shorter and a little older. She had blonde hair, and a concerned expression on her face as she looked into the room where four or five other technicians stood clustered around one of two large, elliptical pods, which lay in the center of the room. Each one was closed by a transparent plexiglas lid, and contained a padded mattress. It was in these pods that the Extendeds were maintained when not in combat.

One was closed, holding Auel who already slept.

The other was open and held Stella, who was seated, holding a blood-stained handkerchief in her hand as if it was the most precious thing in the world.

She looked around at the technicians that stood around her "bed", her expression rather akin to that of a cornered animal. One of the technicians had already had to be taken to the medical bay, his jaw dislocated when she had kicked him in the face after he removed the handkerchief from her ankle and made to discard it.

"What's going on here?" Lukas asked.

-"Who knows? She went ballistic when we took that mangy handkerchief off her ankle to try and check her injury before putting her under." Rice said. Next to him, Kinney was fiddling with something, but looked up resentfully at his tone.

-"So that's what happened." Lukas said when he saw the item in question. He didn't recognize it, so he guessed it had to belong to that ZAFT kid who'd found her. He stepped forward and approached Stella, who looked up at him. "I'm sorry Stella. Don't worry, no one's going to take it from you..." He said as he ran a hand through her hair. Her expression became less fearful, but still looked wary.

-"Really?" She asked softly.

-"Of course." Lukas replied soothingly. "Why would anyone want to take away something so important to you?"

At that moment, Dr. Kinney stepped forward. "Here, Stella. This was in your pocket." She said. In her hand was a small seashell, threaded on a length of black string. Stella relaxed at the sight of the object, and as Lukas took a step back she stepped forward and slipped it around her neck, then tied it. "Now, you get some rest."

Stella looked from Dr. Kinney to Lukas, and she gave a small smile as she lay down.

The pod soon closed as well, and after a little while she was asleep.

"You're too soft, Kinney." Rice said spitefully.

-"I know how to handle her." Kinney countered. "She may be a slender girl, Rice, but if you'd tried to take it from her by force she would have broken your neck with her bare hands."

Kinney left soon afterwards to check on their injured colleague. Once she was gone, Lukas turned to the others.

"I get the feeling I've crossed a line, and become a wicked man. Taking important things away from them is what we do best." He mused. Then more seriously, he continued. "For her to be so disturbed, she must have experienced something quite significant..."

-"You're right about that. She came back with a strong impression of something," one of the technicians replied, before adding dismissively, "but whatever it is, it'll soon be gone."

-"These two are fighting machines and nothing else. Their job is to destroy their designated enemy." another one added. "They're better off without something unnecessary like memories or feelings - things that would reduce their efficiency."

-"Yes, I know." Rice replied callously. "Anything these kids are taught, anything they feel...it won't do them any good."

As he stepped out, Lukas spoke again. "All of this because I let them go into town - I wonder if maybe I'm the one who's too soft with them - I guess that's my bad. I want you to pay special attention to their maintenance, especially her. That girl fears dying more than anything else...if she wants to continue living, then she has no choice but to keep destroying her enemies."

March 26th
Bandirma

Several days had gone by, and the Minerva was finally ready to launch. In the hangar, there was quite a commotion, as she was at full combat capacity for the first time in her short but highly eventful life.

Six gleaming UMF/S-6 ASSH amphibious assault mobile suits had been added to the ship's complement, supplementing the two ZAKUs and Athrun's and Shinn's Gundams. Also onboard were two additional new models: One was the orange ZGMF-2000 GOUF Ignited prototype, which it turned out was piloted by Heine Westenfluss. The other was an identical machine, this one painted two-tone blue - the same paint scheme sported by Commander Joule's own ZAKU, before its destruction. This second machine was intended for his use.

Vino and Yolant looked up at the two machines, visibly impressed. "Man," said the former, "they just keep rolling out the new models!" Yolant merely nodded in agreement.

"Here're the manuals for the ASSH and the GOUF." Aves, the chief mechanic, interrupted as he handed out data disks to all of them, "Make sure you read them both thoroughly."

Meanwhile, with his mobile suit onboard Heine himself formally reported to the ship, greeting Yzak on the bridge before heading down to the break room. With the addition of seven new pilots to the ship's roster, the room was rather more crowded than usual.

Heine immediately singled out, however, the slender blond-haired pilot in the red uniform whom he'd seen a few days before. Rey stood and saluted.

"Rey Za Burrel, reporting sir."

-"Right, the pilot of the white ZAKU. I'm Heine Westenfluss - pleased to meet you."

Heine then saw Shinn and Luna, and strode over towards them just as Athrun entered and did likewise, with Rey also following. "I must say, the Minerva's a hell of a ship. Way better than a Nazca-class, right?" He added, glancing at Athrun.

-"Yeah, you're right about that." Athrun agreed, remembering the Vesalius from the previous war. It too had been a hell of a ship, but the Minerva was definitely something else.

-"Were you assigned to a Nazca-class previously, Commander Westenfluss?" Luna asked curiously.

-"Call me Heine - I'm not a big fan of formal titles. And yes, I was assigned to the Montesquieu previously. After that, I did a brief stint onboard a Lesseps-class before my assignment here."

-"Commander," Shinn said to Athrun in an undertone, "Is he serious about us calling him..."

-"Commander Westenfluss has seniority over me, Shinn. So do as he says."

-"Call me Heine." the latter repeated admonishingly, addressing Athrun. "I just don't think it's a good idea to build walls of that nature between pilots. I mean, on the battlefield, us ZAFT pilots are all the same, right? Regardless whether we're FAITH or the color of our uniforms."

He nodded to Athrun, in his black uniform with its FAITH insignia on the lapel, or to Shinn, who wore red like himself. "We're nothing like those guys in the Earth Forces who can't seem to fight except in huge groups under orders."

-"That's true." Shinn assented, remembering the Orb and Indian Ocean battles.

-"Well there you have it. You really should've had them do that in the first place, Athrun." Heine said. Athrun nodded, then Heine strode off, Lunamaria and Rey following. Athrun hung back, and so did Shinn.

-"I wish I could be a little more outgoing like that," Athrun said. "It's hard for me, though."

-"Commander..." Shinn started. Athrun smiled.

-"Call me Athrun, okay?"

-"Hey, what are you doing, Athrun?" Heine hailed from the other side of the room. "You're supposed to be showing me around, remember?"

-"Right! Be right there!" Athrun said, and he and Shinn walked quickly towards the rest of the group.

March 28th
Earth Alliance Suez Base
CVN-R19 Jeanne d'Arc

Following the completion of her South Pacific patrol, the Jeanne d'Arc had turned southwest and made her way to the Indian Ocean, and from there had changed course to the northwest. She had stopped only briefly to refuel and resupply at Aden before crossing the Red Sea to Suez, where she had docked the previous evening next to another carrier of the Spengler-class, which its hull designation number identified as the Atlantic Federation's CVN-133S John Paul Jones.

On the bridge, Captain Natarle Badgiruel glanced askance at the vessel, deeply suspicious about the reasons it was docked here.

Suez was nominally a Eurasian Federation base, however she suspected that its leadership chafed under the policies of President Baum and retained ties to Blue Cosmos.

The presence of a carrier rumored to belong to the Atlantic Federation's secretive 81st Independent Mobile Battalion tended to lend credence to those suspicions.

"Well, there's not much to do about that - orders are orders." She said wearily. "I'm just glad Cagalli was off the ship before we left the Pacific."

Major Cal Bayan had returned from his brief trip to Hokkaido just in time, and had reported the success of his unusual mission.

Natarle was not surprised - while the activities of the 501st were shrouded in secrecy, she had also heard the rumours, and knew them to be the best of the best.

No one - except herself, the two pilots, and a handful of officers who'd been on the bridge - knew the identity of the pilot they had intercepted, and she trusted in the discretion and discipline of her crew.

Besides, the story of a Eurasian Federation carrier intercepting an obsolete Atlantic Federation fighter in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific, hundreds of miles from any base, was too ludicrous to believe.

But even worse than the presence of the Jones was the arrival, as she watched, of a gigantic carrier that steamed slowly into port, docking some distance away.

She'd never seen a vessel so large, and the massive trimaran hull was unfamiliar to her. However, she instantly recognized her escorts as Orb Union Aegis-class cruisers and Kuraomikami-class destroyers, which meant that the carrier had to belong to Orb as well.

Natarle had to admit, she was impressed by the ship, which towered over the Spengler-class.

But its presence here was not good news at all.

"And now they've roped Orb into this too?" She muttered, shaking her head.

Onboard the Jones meanwhile the two Extendeds, closely supervised by their handlers, were waking up.

Auel was already awake, and as the second pod opened and Stella rose, she was surprised to see she was holding an unfamiliar, bloodstained blue handkerchief.

"What is this?" She asked quietly. Shrugging, she pocketed the handkerchief and stood, ignoring the twinge from a cut on her ankle beyond vaguely wondering where it had come from...

The presence of an Orb fleet at Suez was quickly noticed, and the information soon made its way to Gibraltar, and from there to Bandirma where the Minerva still was docked.

"Damn it. That bastard Seiran is bloody behind this, I know it." Yzak fumed. Athrun nodded, his expression looking worried and apprehensive. Heine looked puzzled.

-"Unato Ema Seiran," Athrun explained, "the Prime Minister of Orb. He and his son Yuna Roma are strong supporters of the Atlantic Federation. I suspect they took advantage of Representative Athha's abduction to consolidate their power base and reestablish ties with the Atlantic Federation after she pulled the rug out from under them with that treaty."

-"Ah. Makes sense." Heine replied. "She did turn up again, though."

Athrun nodded - he'd seen the report in the news that Cagalli had returned to Orb.

- "Right - but she was missing for over two weeks." He said. "Plenty of time for the Seirans to reestablish contact with the Atlantic Federation and dispatch the Takemikazuchi and the fleet here."

Athrun just wondered how Cagalli took the news - though he had a pretty good idea - and what she was doing now. Probably trying to get the fleet back, but with the Seirans running interference, he doubted she'd have much success.

-"We still don't know whether they'll hit Gibraltar first or come here." Yzak interrupted. "My money's on here, though. They have to reopen the land route to Suez. Headquarters feels the same, so it looks like we're heading back into battle again."

The other two FAITH officers nodded.

-"Other than the reinforcements from Orb, what kind of battle strength do they have at Suez?" Heine asked.

-"Currently just two Spengler-class carriers and a handful of surface escorts. However, one of them is the John Paul Jones - the same one we faced in the Indian Ocean."

-"What?" Arthur exclaimed, "The one carrying those machines from Junius Seven?"

-"Yep. It's a bitch, but we'll be facing them again. That's what could make this a bad one. We leave at 0600 tomorrow, take up a position in the Dardanelles and guard the approach into the Sea of Marmara. Dismissed."

In the ship's mess, the news that Orb was reinforcing the Alliance had reached the ship's crew as well. The general reaction was negative, but nobody was more surprised than Shinn.

"What? Orb's...but how could that country?..." He asked Lunamaria, who was sitting next to him as they ate an early breakfast.

-"Yeah, I know. It really is pretty unbelievable." Lunamaria said. "But, they did join the Eurasian Federation so that does make them part of the Earth Forces now. I guess we shouldn't be that surprised."

Busy as she was talking, Luna failed to notice Shinn's reaction to her comments. He was frowning, his expression indicating how angry he was at this development.

'Bastards...so much for your so-called ideals.' He thought, his fists tightly clenched.

The following morning, the Minerva moved out from Bandirma, heading down the coast of the Sea of Marmara and into the Dardanelles channel until it ended in the Aegean.

Athrun was on the starboard deck, like Shinn preoccupied with what he had learned. He was thinking of what had happened, remembering his last conversation with Kira, the last time he saw Cagalli. He wondered where Kira and the others were now, and if they knew about the Orb fleet.

"So, you've been in Orb this entire time - since the end of the Great War?"

Heine's voice interrupted his thoughts, and he turned to the older officer as he continued to speak. "I've heard from others it's a wonderful nation."

-"Yes, it certainly is." Athrun agreed.

-"In its own way, this place is beautiful too." Heine said, then continued "You'd rather not fight. Against Orb, I mean."

-"That's true." Athrun responded.

-"All right then. Who would you prefer to fight?" Heine asked, surprising Athrun.

-"It's not like I want to fight someone specifically." Athrun said hesitantly.

-"Yeah, I thought so. Same here. But this is war, and we are soldiers. If you forget that, then you will die." Heine said, suddenly grim. "It sucks, but that's how it is."

-"Right." Athrun assented.

It did not take long for the Orb fleet, along with the two Alliance carrier groups, to arrive at the entrance to the Dardanelles, where the Minerva and her twelve mobile suits were waiting.

Yzak took the ship to Condition Red, secretly glad that they had been fully resupplied. The Orb carrier had about a dozen escorts, plus the two Spengler-class carriers and their escort ships.

Based on what Athrun had told them about the Orb carrier, they could be facing a mobile suit force as much as four times the size of what they'd faced outside Orb.

Yzak knew that this time, they had a card in their hand that they had not had before, and he planned to use it. But he wasn't sure that would be enough…

In the ready room, Athrun was suiting up and preparing for launch, as was Shinn. What caught Athrun's attention was when Shinn, once he was ready, slammed his locked shut with a clenched fist. He followed.

"Hey, Shinn! Something bothering you?"

-"No." Shinn said shortly. "I realize we're fighting Orb, but at this point it's the same thing as if they were the Earth Forces anyway."

-"Cagalli wouldn't...I seriously doubt this would have happened if Cagalli had been there."

-"What are you talking about? that idiot?" Shinn retorted angrily. Changing tack, Athrun turned to face Shinn directly.

-"You left Orb, so why are you so angry about this? The truth is...you really loved Orb, right? That's why you're so angry."

Taken aback by the sudden statement, Shinn did not immediately respond. "You're wrong! That isn't it at all!" He retorted. He then stepped into the hangar and headed to the Impulse, while Athrun went to the Saviour.

But Athrun had been right, and whatever Shinn might say, they both knew it.

He thought about Major Todaka, the officer who'd taken him in, and his daughter Tsubaki, and wondered how they were doing.

'This isn't the time for this.' Shinn berated himself as he dismissed those thoughts and boarded his machine.

Soon enough, the Orb fleet launched the first of its mobile suit teams, a mixed force of MBF-M1A/F Astray Flight Types and MVF-M11C Murasames. On the decks of its two Aegis-class escorts were underwater-assault MBF-M1/LC Astray Littoral Combat Types, which also deployed.

"Thermal ID, twenty signals confirmed at one o'clock. Identified as Orb Union Murasames and Astrays...Sonar reports four additional incoming underwater contacts...No match found." Bart Heim reported from his console. The Minerva's bridge was lowered into its protected combat position, and the mobile suits were on standby.

-"Ascend from water surface, turn 10 to port. Launch the Saviour and Impulse." Arthur ordered. "Load launchers one through four with Dispars, six through ten with Parsifals. Activate CIWS, Tristans, and Isoldes. Load Wolframs, tube one and two."

In the hangar, the two GOUF Igniteds and the two ZAKUs waited on standby while the Minerva ascended and the Impulse and the Saviour launched. The Saviour was the first one out, with the Force Impulse close behind.

The two mobile suits evaded the Orb escort ships's initial barrage and engaged directly against the enemy mobile suits. Though equipped with a thruster pack that granted them atmospheric flight capability, the Astrays were hopelessly outmatched by the far faster and more maneuverable Impulse, and in the first few moments of the battle three of the ten mobile suits had gone down.

Meanwhile, the Minerva was engaged by the enemy escort ships, though the three carriers hung far to the rear, out of reach.

Arthur suddenly heard a communication from Yzak.

"Arthur, establish a firing axis for the Tannhäuser. Wait until we're clear of the strait, and mow the bastards down!" He ordered.

-"Right." Arthur acknowledged and began preparations, when Bart reported still more mobile suits - an additional forty machines, most of them Astrays, with ten more Murasames.

"Damn it!" Athrun swore as he was engaged, already having difficulty fending off the Murasames attempting to break past, when he saw the incoming reinforcements.

The Murasame, while inferior in firepower and defensive capabilities, was almost fast and agile enough to keep up with the Saviour, and they had the advantage of numbers.

"Firing axis established!" Chen, the weapons officer, reported from his post on the Minerva's bridge.

-"Good. Activate Tannhäuser." Arthur ordered. "Target the enemy escort ships."

-"Activated, targeting enemy ships. Primary weapon bank...contact. Output stable. Releasing safety lock." Chen said, as the barrel of the weapon began to glow with accumulated energy.

The instant before Arthur gave the order to fire, a shot from above pierced the cannon laterally, detonating and destroying the weapon. The resulting conflagration tore through the ship's upper bow, causing severe damage and numerous casualties.

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?" Yzak raged from his GOUF Ignited's cockpit as the damaged ship began to slide toward the surface.

"Tannhäuser destroyed. FCS is down." Bart reported.

Arthur relayed the situation to Yzak, then turned back to the bridge crew. "Put out those fires and get the FCS back online! Damage control crews, stand by." He said, a panicked edge to his voice. "All hands brace for water landing!"

The ship landed hard in the water, smoke pouring from the gaping hole in her bow. Arthur ran a quick check: miraculously, the four frontal launch tubes and their weapons were intact - the heavily-armored bulkhead that separated them from the rest of the bow, including the Tannhäuser, had buckled, but it had held.

"Secondary tubes three and four, load Fafnirs." Yzak ordered. There was silence. The MMI-M382 "Fafnir" had been onboarded as part of the ship's arsenal during their resupply at Bandirma.

With the sole exception of the Tannhäuser, this supersonic anti-ship cruise missile was the heaviest weapon in the ship's arsenal, with a terminal velocity of Mach 3, an operational range of nearly three hundred kilometers, and a 450-kilogram high-explosive warhead capable of tearing even the enormous Takemikazuchi wide open. After a moment, the tubes were loaded.

Meanwhile, the attack had also caught the attention of the ship's mobile suits.

"What was that...from above?" Shinn looked up and spotted the attacker. He recognized it immediately - and so did Athrun.

-"The Freedom...Kira!" Athrun exclaimed as the ZGMF-X10A Freedom appeared. Not far behind was the Archangel itself, two additional mobile suits on its decks: The Buster and Aile Strike.

Athrun guessed from its black shield that the latter had to be Cagalli's old Strike Rouge, but recalibrated to the original's settings.

- "It's him." Shinn exclaimed savagely as he too recognized the newly-arrived machine: He would never forget that mobile suit - the same one that had murdered his family.

Instantly, he prepared himself to engage. But before he could move in on the Freedom, he was attacked by incoming enemy mobile suits.

Evading or blocking their fire, he instantly countered, but the enemy units dodged his initial attack.

Onboard the Takemikazuchi, Colonel Todaka too had recognized the new arrivals.

"The Archangel...is Lady Cagalli onboard?" the veteran officer wondered. Apparently, Yuna Roma Seiran was wondering the same thing, and he did not look pleased.

"What are you fools doing? HURRY UP AND ATTACK!" He screamed. "I want you to shoot that accursed ship down!" He ordered.

Reluctantly, Colonel Todaka gave his orders. "Aim missiles, target the Archangel...Fire!"

The six ships escorting the Takemikazuchi launched their attacks.

'I'm counting on you, Freedom.' Todaka said silently.

His faith was not misplaced. The Freedom moved in front of the ship, deploying its weapons and targeting the incoming projectiles. Only a handful of the missiles made it through, and the Archangel's own defenses destroyed them all.

Meanwhile underwater, the four Astray Littoral Combat Types had been waiting for a chance to attack their target, and as soon as the Minerva hit the water they began closing in. They were about to launch their attack when a barrage of torpedoes sped into their mist, and the surprise attack destroyed one of the machines as the Minerva's six ASSH underwater assault mobile suits, launched prior to the attack, moved in to engage.

A new-model machine designed to operate in the shallow waters around Orb itself, the Astray LCT was equipped with a scale system, so its speed and maneuverability were significantly higher than that of the ASSH.

However, they were outgunned and outnumbered two to one, and their enemies were experienced in underwater combat.

Though initially able to hold off the ASSH's attacks, the tide soon turned against the Astrays. Evading the torpedoes from its enemies, one of the Astrays was able to destroy an ASSH by moving into close range and driving its Armor Schneider assault knife - an enlarged version of the knives originally developed for the Strike - into its cockpit, causing the pressure hull to collapse.

However, he was struck from behind by one of the remaining ASSH, and at five against two the remaining Astrays were soon defeated as well.

"ASSH Team reporting all enemy underwater mobile suits destroyed, sir." Abby reported.

-"Good." Arthur replied. "Although we're still at a serious disadvantage right now. And with our luck, the Alliance ships are going to get involved now too."

Arthur was right. At that moment, the Jones ordered its own mobile suits to prepare to take off, as Lukas left the bridge and headed down to board the Chaos.

Reluctantly, Natarle did the same onboard the Jeanne d'Arc, and the ship's Daggers, led by Sven's Windam IWSP, took off.

"Excellent. Now that it's wounded, this is our chance - take out the Minerva!" Lukas ordered.

Underwater, the Abyss shot at full speed towards the ship.

"Let me at it...I've been waiting for this chance." He said eagerly. Then he came under attack from the five ASSH mobile suits. "Damn. Not these bastards again..." He muttered as he evaded their attack, then countered.

Meanwhile, the Minerva launched its two GOUF Igniteds, followed by Rey's Tempest ZAKU Warrior. Lunamaria launched as well, with her customary Gunner Wizard equipped.

"Damn it." Athrun swore as he found himself surrounded by Alliance mobile suits, attacking and destroying them before they could reach the Minerva. At the same time, he was trying to establish radio contact with the Freedom, but he was not having much success - there was too much interference.

Enraged at the sudden development - first the Orb fleet, then the Archangel attacking the Minerva - Shinn was relentless, obliterating Daggers and Astrays alike. Suddenly he found himself engaging against a Murasame, whose significantly better speed and maneuverability allowed it to dodge Shinn's shot and close into mêlée range.

Blocking the Murasame's saber strike with his shield, he shoved the throttles to their stops and the Impulse shot forward, the shield slamming into the Murasame and knocking its saber loose. Thrown off-balance and stripped of his saber, the Murasame pilot steadied his machine and drew the beam rifle from its waist hardpoint, only to go down as Shinn fired a salvo that tore off both its arms before piercing the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" Yuna yelled frantically from the Takemikazuchi's bridge. "Hurry up and give the order to attack them! All our mobile suits, NOW!"

-"Sir..." Todaka began.

-"We have to sink the Minerva! Our reputation is at stake here...and while you're at it, sink the Archangel as well!" Yuna retorted. "You can trace all the problems of our nation back to that ship - it's been a thorn in our side forever; so get rid of it too."

Meanwhile the Gaia stood on the prow of the Jones as it steamed closer to the battle, while Lukas closed in on the Minerva from the air and Auel was engaged by its ASSH team underwater.

As it approached, she drew a bead on the Saviour and fired the Gaia's beam rifle at the red aerial mobile suit.

Athrun dodged easily, but was unable to counterattack - he was too busy engaging the mix of Alliance Daggers and Orb Astrays that at that moment were trying to attack the Minerva.

However, their odds were about to improve somewhat; Roughly half of the Orb mobile suits diverted, turning their attack on the Archangel.

From the deck, the Buster fired its weapons, bringing them down if they drew too near, while the Freedom used its overwhelming advantage in speed and firepower to quite literally disarm any mobile suits that came within range, severing their arms and main cameras either with the Freedom's beam saber or with a shot from the beam rifle.

Heine's GOUF Ignited drew from within its shield the "Carnwennan" beam sword that was its primary close-range weapon as he closed in on an attacking group of Orb Murasames.

This was a more compact physical sword loosely similar to the Sword Impulse's "Excalibur" anti-ship beam swords, but designed for anti-MS use and equipped with a beam on each edge of the sword, giving it greater flexibility.

The GOUF Ignited was nearly the Murasame's equal in maneuverability, but Heine was far more skilled; dodging or blocking with the GOUF's shield any attacks that came his way, he sliced apart one Murasame, then narrowly dodged an attack from another, which he shot down with the GOUF Ignited's rapid-fire "Draupnir" four-barreled forearm-mounted beam gun.

Carrying a beam rifle, Yzak likewise deployed, and found himself engaged in battle against the Windam IWSP. Despite the other's superior firepower, the GOUF Ignited was slightly faster, and the two were evenly matched as Yzak dodged a barrage from its shield-mounted gatling gun. Targeting the weapon with the beam rifle, he fired and the Windam dodged.

However, even with the addition of Heine, Yzak and Rey, they were too few to effectively defend the badly-damaged Minerva, and the enemy mobile suits began to slip through.

From the bridge, Arthur ordered a volley of Dispar air-intercept missiles fired at the enemy mobile suits, while its CIWS also threw up a hail of bullets that shredded most of the missiles fired by the enemy units. One Murasame succeeded in slipping past the Minerva's defenses and as it closed in, aimed its rifle right at the bridge.

"Huh? There's nothing..." He hesitated as he saw that where the ship's bridge should have been, there was nothing but bare metal behind the high windows.

That second's hesitation allowed Lunamaria to fire a shot from the Gunner ZAKU's "Orthros" beam cannon that obliterated the Murasame.

"That was too close..." She sighed wearily.

Underwater, the battle continued as the five ZAFT ASSH mobile suits battled against the Abyss.

"Damn it...you bastards. TAKE THIS!" Auel yelled as he fired a volley of torpedoes at the nearest mobile suit, following it up with a volley from the Abyss's shell-firing cannons.

The ASSH avoided the torpedoes, but the cannonfire severed its arms.

Auel followed up with a volley from the Abyss's six phonon masers that finished off the crippled ASSH and took out a second one, leaving only three of the mobile suits, which counterattacked with a volley of torpedoes from their back-mounted launchers, forcing him to switch to submersible mode and evade.

"Evade! Ten to port!" Arthur ordered as the Alliance and Orb ships fired a volley of missiles at the Minerva. The ship veered to the left, presenting the maximum number of CIWS turrets to the incoming missiles, which were shredded by the turrets's sustained fire. A second volley however slipped past, and the ship shuddered under the impact of the missiles as they hit.

"Counterattack! Tristans, FIRE!" Arthur ordered, and the three double-barreled beam cannons fired, the attack destroying one of the Orb fleet's Kuraokami-class escort vessels.

A force of Orb mobile suits closed in along with the Chaos and several Daggers, which were met by Rey's ZAKU and the second GOUF Ignited. The two of them immediately counterattacked, the GOUF Ignited's pilot using his beam rifle to target them before they had a chance to attack the Minerva, Rey opening up with the Tempest ZAKU's beam gatling guns.

The Chaos deployed its gunbarrels to counterattack, but an alarm bell rang out in its cockpit as the Saviour descended on the mobile armor, firing its heavy beam cannons at the released weapon pods in a surprise attack that destroyed two of them.

"Damn it. That red bastard again." Lukas commented as he turned the remaining Gunbarrels on the new arrival, evading a followup attack from the beam cannons as he fired a missile barrage at the Saviour.

Switching to mobile suit mode, Athrun fired a volley from the Saviour's cannons across the missiles' flight path, using his CIWS to shoot down those missiles that he missed.

Several of the ships, along with roughly half of the enemy mobile suits, were engaging the Archangel, and several Murasames fired their four-shot missile launchers at the ship, while others targeted the Freedom with beam rifles and cannons.

"Evade!" Murrue ordered. "Lower bow 15 and descend."

The ship dipped and decreased altitude, sliding below the missiles' trajectories and shooting them down with the Archangel's 75mm CIWS.

Kira meanwhile brought the Freedom's shield to bear, blocking the attacks before counterattacking with the beam rifle, firing a glancing blow that sheared off the rifle from the attacking Murasame's side, damaging it and forcing it to retreat.

As he fought, he felt himself enter that state of exponentially enhanced awareness in which his already impressive skills were magnified - and he launched a counterattack with the Freedom's full firepower, disarming several Orb Astrays and Alliance Daggers.

Meanwhile on the Archangel's deck, the Buster fired a volley at the incoming Astrays that shot down two of them, while the Strike Rouge, reconfigured with the original's colors and piloted by Canard Pars, used the beam rifle to shoot down a Jet Dagger that had slipped through.

"Tch...this thing's different from the Hyperion." He muttered, bemoaning the Strike's comparative lack of firepower. "Still, pretty impressive maneuverability."

He rose from the deck, drawing a beam saber and blocked an attack from an enemy Dagger before countering, neatly piercing the Dagger's cockpit before falling back, reflecting with some amusement that the Strike had been Kira's mobile suit originally - albeit this particular machine had belonged to Cagalli.

"Change course and head over to the Minerva." Murrue ordered, "Keep an eye on Orb and the Earth Forces."

-"Yes ma'am!" Neumann, at the helm, responded.

The Minerva was on the move, putting as much distance as possible between them and the enemy ships while continuing to fend off the attacking mobile suits. The two GOUF Igniteds were engaging against a remaining force that consisted primarily of Alliance Dagger Ls, with Yzak having switched to his beam sword after losing his beam rifle.

The Windam IWSP attacked again, forcing Yzak to dodge its cannonfire. He moved in closer and attacked the Windam at close range, forcing it to draw its beam saber to parry the attack, then fired the four-barreled beam gun on his forearm at point-blank range.

The Windam backpedaled to avoid the attack, but the volley severed its left arm, taking with it the shield and its powerful gatling gun.

Then another Dagger - also painted black, this one equipped with an Aile Striker and carrying a pair of arm-mounted rocket anchors in addition to its standard weapons - moved in, firing a short-range beam carbine at Yzak's GOUF.

It was Heine who intervened, blocking the volley before countering with another of the GOUF's weapons - a metal segmented whip, which wrapped itself around the forearm of the Dagger. The whip delivered an intense electrical shock, which destroyed the Dagger's arm, taking the carbine with it.

Below, the Gaia spotted the orange mobile suit and fired its two back-mounted beam cannons up at the GOUF Ignited as Heine retracted the whip.

"Oh yeah?" Heine said as he dodged the attack, then attacked the Gaia with the whip, delivering two successive strikes that caused a massive electrical discharge, the current incapacitating for a brief moment the Gaia and its pilot. Leaping back and transforming to mobile suit mode once she recovered, Stella raised the beam rifle, but in the time it took to aim it at the GOUF, Heine had once again attacked, the whip wrapping itself around the weapon's long barrel.

"What?" Stella exclaimed, surprised.

Heine smirked. "This is no ZAKU, pal." He said as he triggered the whip's electrical discharge. In the instant before it detonated, Stella released the rifle and brought the shield to bear in front of her, protecting the Gaia from the attack as well as from the followup shots from the GOUF's beam machineguns.

"Bastard." She spat as she drew the Gaia's beam saber and charged. Heine narrowly avoided the attack, then took flight, moving out of the Gaia's strike range and moving to back up Shinn and Rey, who were engaged against enemy mobile suits and badly outnumbered.

"Comm...Heine!" Shinn exclaimed as he saw the GOUF closing in. An enemy Murasame attacked him at that point and he opened fire with the beam rifle. The Murasame dodged the attack, only to be shredded by a followup strike from Rey using the Tempest ZAKU's beam gatling guns.

Meanwhile, the attack continued, and the Orb and Alliance forces' superior numbers continued to pose a problem as still more Daggers closed in on the Minerva.

"Four mobile suits off Minerva's starboard bow!" came the report from the Archangel's CIC.

-"Can you fire in between them?" Murrue asked.

-"Yes ma'am!"

-"Then do it! Aim Gottfried Two...and don't hit those machines...FIRE!" she ordered.

The Archangel's double-barreled "Gottfried" beam cannon fired, the beam passing through the formation of four Murasames and forcing them to scatter, only narrowly missing the ship itself.

"What the hell do they think they're doing now? They destroy our cannon, killing who knows how many of my crew in the process, and now they're backing us up?" Yzak glowered as he saw this from his GOUF Ignited. "I'm starting to think these morons are trying to stop this battle by shooting at everybody!"

Meanwhile the Freedom was continuing its attacks, every shot disabling but never destroying an Orb or Alliance mobile suit before it was able to attack.

"Finally!" Shinn exclaimed as he took out an Alliance Windam.

Having shaken off or destroyed the Alliance mobile suits they were engaging, Shinn turned his attention to the Freedom.

"This guy...who the hell is he?" He asked, impressed despite himself at the way the Freedom was engaging numerically superior foes with such apparent ease.

He raised his beam rifle and took aim at the machine's cockpit, but before he could fire the Freedom shot past the Impulse, severing the arm that held its beam rifle in a single saber slash as he swept by.

"DAMN!" Shinn swore angrily.

The Freedom then turned its attention to the Abyss, moving a few meters below the surface in submersible mode as it continued to evade the ASSH's attacks. Deploying the Freedom's railguns, he fired both weapons twice, pummeling the Abyss. The short range and high speed of the large-caliber slugs, though reduced by their short travel through the water, partially overwhelmed the Abyss's Phase-Shift Armor, damaging its thrusters.

"What the?" Auel swore. With the Abyss's mobility reduced as a result of the damage, he could no longer hope to hold off the three ASSH, and immediately retreated. Seeing this, the ASSH team fell back towards the Minerva, taking up defensive positions in front of the ship.

In the Saviour's cockpit, Athrun was still trying to establish communication with Kira, to no avail.

"Kira...why are you doing this?" Athrun wondered. "Damn..."

At that moment the Gaia leaped, wing blades ignited and firing its beam guns at the Freedom. Kira blocked the attack with the Freedom's shield then countered, slicing off the Gaia's front legs. Thrown off-balance, Stella screamed as the Gaia crashed into the water below.

"Attacking all of us...what the hell makes you so special?" Heine yelled.

Targeting the Freedom, he fired the GOUF Ignited's "Draupnir" beam guns.

Evading the attack, Kira accelerated and severed the arm neatly at the elbow as he slipped past the GOUF. Then he saw the Saviour closing in, and turned his attention to it.

In the Saviour's cockpit, Athrun continued trying to establish communication with Kira, to no avail.

"Son of a..." Heine mumbled and moved in to attack the Freedom again.

However below, the Gaia stood, in mobile suit mode.

In its cockpit, angry at what had happened to her mobile suit and, to a point, terrified that this guy might kill her, Stella looked up at the Freedom, which had its back turned.

"Nobody does that to me..." She fumed as she pushed the throttles to their stops and took the Gaia into a powered jump towards the Freedom. Midair she switched to quadruped mode, deployed the wing beam blades, and ignited the array of thrusters built into her wings, nearly doubling her speed as she shot up towards the Freedom.

Moving in to attack himself, Heine drifted into her path without realizing it, until alarms rang in his cockpit. Instinctively he ignited the GOUF's thrusters and the mobile suit shot upwards, but not quite fast enough.

The Gaia's blade cut the GOUF Ignited in half just below the waist, and the lower half of the machine exploded as it shot past.

Kira spotted the Gaia coming, and he delivered a hard kick that sent the black mobile suit reeling back. The shock knocked Stella back and she lost consciousness. Incapable of flight and with its pilot unconscious, the Gaia was seconds away from a fatal collision when the Chaos swooped past, catching the machine in its huge leg-mounted claws, and retreated towards the fleet.

"HEINE!" Athrun yelled, fearing that his friend - for so he thought of him - was dead.

Then he saw the tiny, bright orange escape craft falling from the wreckage. Though normally capable of limited movement, the escape pod - the same type as that used by the ZAKU - had been damaged by the Gaia's attack and was falling towards the water below.

"SHINN! Retrieve it!" Athrun ordered frantically.

-"Right." Shinn acknowledged as he shot towards the damaged escape pod and, ejecting the Impulse's shield, caught it using his remaining arm.

-"Shinn, take Heine and get back to the Minerva." Rey said as he pulled up. "Athrun and I will deal with this guy."

Reluctantly, Shinn agreed. He hated to leave in the middle of the battle, but he was in no condition to fight. However...

His mind made up, he shot towards the ship.

"Minerva, I have the GOUF Ignited's escape pod. Prepare to receive it, and send out a replacement Chest Flyer!" Shinn asked.

The port and central catapults opened and Shinn dropped off the escape pod in the former, before taking off and ejecting the Force Silhouette and the damaged Chest Flyer. A replacement shot from the central catapult, and Shinn docked with it before reducing with the Force Silhouette.

Meanwhile, Rey turned his attention to the Freedom, taking aim and firing with the back-mounted beam gatlings and his beam rifle.

Kira dodged the attack and moved towards the ZAKU, intending to sever the arm with the beam saber. But Rey saw the maneuver coming, and drawing the beam tomahawk from its compartment inside the ZAKU's shield, he parried the saber and counterattacked with the ZAKU's shoulder-mounted railgun, firing it into the Freedom's head at point-blank range.

For any normal mobile suit, such a blow would have destroyed the head entirely. As it was, the supersonic slug was mostly stopped by the Freedom's Phase-Shift Armor. However, the impact caused minor internal damage to the head, hindering its movement and damaging the numerous sensors that were stored inside it.

Kira fell back, stowing the beam saber and drawing the beam rifle, then turned to counterattack, deploying the Freedom's wing-mounted beam cannons and hip-mounted railguns, then fired. Rey moved to evade the attack, but one shot went through.

Caused in part by the ZAKU's movement to defend and in part by the Freedom's aim being very slightly altered as a result of the damage it had sustained, the attack was off from its pilot's intended target, and a shot that should have neatly clipped off the ZAKU's left arm instead struck squarely on its upper torso.

As he was closing in, intent on returning into combat after replacing the damaged Chest Flyer, Shinn saw the Freedom's attack hit the ZAKU's torso, and the white mobile suit exploded.

"NO! REY!" He yelled as the ZAKU's remains fell into the water.

With a scream of rage, he fired at the Freedom from below. Kira dodged the attack, only to find himself facing the Saviour Gundam, as Athrun closed in. He fired the beam rifle at the red mobile suit, which blocked the attack. In the following seconds, Kira had switched from the rifle to the beam sabers and, compensating for the slight error in targeting, attacked the red mobile suit, aiming to slice off its arm.

As the Freedom closed in, Athrun had drawn his own beam saber and parried the attack.

"Why, Kira?" Athrun wondered, "What the hell do you think you're doing here?"

An alarm suddenly rang in the Freedom's cockpit, warning Kira that the other Gundam was closing in fast and firing at the Freedom from behind.

'It looks so much like the Strike…' Kira thought as he evaded the attack.

The Saviour also backed away, the shots passing harmlessly by. Turning to face the new opponent, Kira kept one eye on the Saviour as he targeted the approaching Impulse with the Freedom's "Balaena" wing beam cannons and fired. The Impulse blocked the attack with its shield, drawing a beam saber as it approached.

Kira drew the Freedom's own beam saber and was preparing to engage when a salvo from the Saviour's powerful "Amfortas" plasma beam cannons passed in between the two, forcing both to break off.

"Shinn, back off!" Athrun ordered as he moved in, saber drawn and continuing to engage. At the same time, he turned on the Saviour's radio again, intending to attempt one more time to get through to Kira, in spite of the heavy interference.

At that moment however, the Freedom attacked again, this time from long range with its wing-mounted beam cannons and rifle.

Athrun attempted to dodge the attack, and he was partially successful, narrowly avoiding a shot to the right arm that, had it connected, would have blasted it off, taking with it the heavy cannon mounted just behind. However the attack sheared off the Saviour's left forearm as well as its leg. With his machine damaged, Athrun began to pull back towards the Minerva, and Shinn fired a suppressive volley at the Freedom from the beam rifle as he covered Athrun's retreat.

At the same moment, the John Paul Jones sent up a retreat flare. The Alliance mobile suits, led by the black Windam IWSP and the Chaos, withdrew, and the remaining Orb forces did likewise.

Kira turned back towards the Archangel as the catapults opened. He entered, soon followed by the Strike, then the Buster. Its mobile suits safe within, the ship submerged, disappearing once again beneath the surface.

'Since when can the Archangel do that?' Athrun wondered as he saw the ship disappear, just before he reentered the Minerva himself, closely followed by Shinn's Impulse.

Yzak ordered the ship to begin searching for the remains of the ZAKU. It was, after all, equipped with an escape pod, and there was a distinct possibility that Rey might have bailed out. Using the ship's sensors and supplemented by the ASSH searching from underwater, they scoured the area around which the ZAKU had fallen.

At the same time, he ordered a communication sent to the ZAFT base at Bandirma, appraising them of the situation and requesting assistance. He stressed that they had a pilot shot down, but who might have survived. Yzak also advised that in the condition they were, they had no choice but to divert to the nearby port city of Çanakkale for repairs. The base commander said they would send out ships to search for the missing pilot, as well as personnel and supplies to assist in the repairs.

Two hours later when the ships arrived, they still had found no trace of the ZAKU's wreckage. Yzak was forced to conclude that Rey had been unable to eject, and the bulk of the group began to leave the area.

The commander of the newly-arrived ships said he would remain in the area and continue to search, though neither was optimistic about the chances of Rey's survival, or the ZAKU's recovery.

As the Minerva sailed towards Çanakkale, the ship's pilots stood on the deck except Yzak, who had remained on the bridge.

Athrun looked confused and angered at his best friend's actions during the battle. Lunamaria wept for the death of Rey, someone she had been closer to than anyone else. As for Shinn, tears were also flowing down his face after his best friend's death, and he was shaking with barely-suppressed rage.

Night fell as the ship steamed on, and one by one the others headed back in until Shinn was the last one still outside. As he looked out at the ocean in the direction the Archangel had vanished, he finally spoke, though there was nobody outside to hear him.

"The next time we meet...I'm going to destroy him." He swore. Then, wiping the tears from his eyes, he turned and headed back into the ship.