PHASE 17: Unfulfilled Promises
April 7th
Eurasian Federation
Lodonia Biological CPU Development Laboratory
Shutting down the Impulse's thrusters, Shinn opened the cockpit and clambered down until he stood on the Gaia's torso. He climbed in, detaching the harness, and lifted Stella from the seat, carrying her out.
'Stella...why'd it have to be you?' He asked silently as he remembered their encounter, only a few days before.
She was unconscious, and a wound on her head was bleeding profusely. As he clambered out of the Gaia, something slipped out from her uniform jacket: A tiny seashell, threaded on a very fine silver chain - identical to the one Shinn wore on a length of sturdy string around his own neck.
As he held her in his arms, she stirred for a moment.
"Can't...die...scared...protect..." She said weakly, her eyes half-open. Then she closed her eyes and lost consciousness again.
The GOUF Ignited landed not far away, and Athrun opened the cockpit and stepped out.
Shinn ignored him, moving back towards the Impulse, Stella in his arms.
"Wait a minute..." Athrun muttered as he saw Shinn move, holding a young girl in an Alliance uniform that had to be the Gaia's pilot. He thought he recognized the pretty blonde girl Shinn had met in Bandirma.
The one whose photograph had been in the data they found at the lab.
-"Shinn!" He hailed the other pilot. "Hey Shinn, what're you doing?"
Shinn did not listen, and the Impulse's cockpit hatch closed. Moments later, the Impulse took off.
"Damn it." Athrun mumbled, then got on the radio and contacted Yzak back at the lab.
-"The enemy machine is down. I'm not sure why, but it apparently was not carrying any kind of heavy weapon or explosives intended to destroy the facility." He reported.
-"Good. Now, why the hell's the Impulse taking off? Where's Shinn going?" Yzak replied.
-"Not sure. Apparently the pilot was injured in the battle, and I'd say Shinn's taking her back to the Minerva."
-"What? Has he lost his mind?" Arthur interjected.
-"Go after him." Yzak ordered Athrun. He didn't know what the hell Shinn was thinking, but he wondered if it might've had anything to do with the incident Shinn and Athrun had reported in Bandirma.
-"Right." Athrun acknowledged, and the GOUF took off in pursuit.
Then Yzak sent orders to Çanakkale to have two mobile suits sent out to retrieve the enemy machine, and he notified the Minerva.
"I'm heading back to the ship." Yzak told Arthur. "You take over here until we're done."
In the Minerva's hangar, meanwhile, an emergency alert rang out advising the crew of the Impulse's impending return.
"The Impulse is coming back?" Yolant asked as they immediately moved to open the catapult. "Why's it returning already?"
-"Don't look at me, I don't know!" Vino retorted as the Impulse soared through the open catapult and into the hangar. In the time it took for it to land and shut down, the GOUF Ignited had also returned, and Athrun left its cockpit just as Shinn descended from the Impulse and reached the hangar floor.
"What's going on, Shinn?" Vino asked.
It took a second before he realized that Shinn was holding a girl in his arms, and another before he registered that she wore an Alliance military uniform.
-"Shut up and get out of my way!" Shinn retorted, shoving past Vino and running from the hangar.
Athrun followed close behind, but by the time he reached the lift the door was closed.
"I can't...die. Not yet..." Stella whispered as they rode the elevator.
-"You won't. Not if I can help it." He said, not sure if she could hear him. "I swear it, I'll protect you."
The lift doors opened, and two crewmembers stood in front of the doors. "Move outta my way!" Shinn yelled as he elbowed past them and shot down the hall.
"The hell? What's going on?" one of them wondered. At last Shinn reached his destination: The medical bay.
"She needs medical attention!" He yelled, a panicked edge to his voice.
-"What's going on here?" the nurse on duty asked. "That's an Alliance uniform!"
-"So what? She's injured." He retorted.
-"She's the pilot of that machine, isn't she?" asked another voice. Shinn looked up: It was Heine, who had just limped into the room. "I was up on the bridge when Yzak reported that you and Athrun'd captured an Alliance unit that attacked at the lab. Well done."
-"She is." Shinn answered.
At that moment Athrun entered, followed by a half-dozen MPs. Heine waved them down.
-"Very well. I suppose as long as she's guarded it can't hurt." Heine replied. Then he turned to the doctor. "I suppose as a patient myself I shouldn't, but I'm invoking my authority as an agent of FAITH. I'll authorize her treatment. Two MPs will remain here as long as necessary."
-"Well, I can't argue with that." The nurse said reluctantly. "But if she dies…"
-"No!" Shinn yelled, rushing towards Stella. At the sound of the word she had panicked again and she lunged off the bed. He caught her in his arms.
-"Stella, calm down! You're not going to die!" He said as she struggled. She stopped struggling for a moment, and the doctor sedated her. A few minutes later, she was asleep, strapped down into the bed by her wrists and ankles.
Eventually Yzak arrived, and ordered Shinn brought to his office. Heine followed, and the two arrived soon afterwards.
"I don't know what the hell's going through your head, kid." Yzak said, addressing Shinn. "Who the hell authorized you to bring an enemy soldier aboard a ZAFT vessel? That's a clear violation of military law on at least two counts - Article 4, section 2, and Article 11, section 6. That's grounds for a court-martial. Now you tell me why I shouldn't just arrest your idiotic ass right now."
-"I'm sorry, sir." Shinn said flatly.
-"I understand you know this girl. Stella, did you say her name was?"
Shinn nodded before replying.
-"Stella Loussier. I met her in Bandirma a few days ago."
-"So she's the one who fell off a cliff." Yzak replied, rolling his eyes. Shinn nodded again. "And the truth of the matter is, she was this machine, the Gaia's pilot. The same machine that shot down Heine's GOUF when we fought against them in the Dardanelles. Before that, the Indian Ocean. And before that, during the Junius Seven incident."
Shinn nodded. He did not say anything about what he'd seen at Lodonia though.
"And still you brought her here. And who the hell authorized you to force the nurse to treat her?"
-"That would be me, Captain." Heine replied. "The prisoner is secured, and I've placed her under armed guard. She won't try anything." He said flatly, though there was an oddly knowing look in his eyes as he glanced at Shinn. Yzak shrugged, but before he replied, the intercom beeped with a communication from the medical bay.
-"Captain, could you come down here?" the likewise-returned Dr. Thompkins asked.
-"I'll be right there." Yzak replied. Shinn followed, as did Heine, still leaning on a crutch. Athrun, who'd been waiting outside, followed as well.
"Her outward injuries were rather severe, but we examined her more thoroughly just in case, and we found something rather troubling." The doctor said. "It appears this girl is one of the Alliance's Extendeds."
-"I thought so." Yzak said, glancing sideways at Shinn. When he noted that Shinn did not appear surprised, he suspected that Shinn might also have guessed, and made a mental note to talk to him about it later.
-"She's sedated for now, but there's no telling how long that will last. Her examination results were rather unbelievable; abnormally high levels of many natural chemicals. More troubling is that there are also traces of several substances not normally found in the human body, and in high quantities. I suspect her higher brain functions may also have been tampered with."
-"Enhancements done artificially. With drugs?"
-"Yes, and maybe other means as well. I can't say for sure until we conduct additional tests at a more specialized facility, but initial results are consistent with the data we found at the laboratory here. I can't be sure how she'll react to medical treatment."
Stella regained consciousness at that moment, slowly opening her eyes. Shinn stepped forward.
"Stella?" He said softly, looking at her.
-"Huh...who...are you?" She asked.
'She doesn't recognize me...how?' Shinn wondered, and he felt himself growing angry again. He took a deep, steadying breath.
Stella made to sit up, and she realized she couldn't; she saw that she was strapped down.
"This place...what is it?" She said and she began trying to break free, panicking as she struggled against the restraints.
-"Stella!" Shinn yelled, sounding frightened. "Calm down, nobody's going to hurt you!" He said, his arms around her. As he tried to calm her down, the shell he wore around his neck slipped out from his jacket, and she saw it.
After a moment she stopped struggling, staring fixedly at the little pink shell.
"You gave that to me. Don't you remember?" Shinn asked. He looked around and found a pile of her clothes, an identical shell on a thin chain sitting on top of it. He grabbed it and held it out to her. "Here. This is yours."
Then he unfastened the clasp and placed the chain back around her neck. "Nobody's going to hurt you."
-"I don't...where's Lukas? I don't...like this place." She said, and after a while she lost consciousness again.
"They even tampered with her memory." Athrun said coldly, a disgusted expression on his face as the four men looked down at the unconscious girl. Then he turned to leave.
Yzak soon followed, as did Heine, but Shinn did not.
His fists clenched, he sat down in a chair in medical, looking across at Stella and wondering what kind of monsters could have done that to her…
April 8th
Alliance Naval Base - Izmir
CVN-133S John Paul Jones
Lukas O'Donnell was in his quarters, the door locked. On the screen in front of him was the smug face of Teivel Jibril - the leader of Blue Cosmos and a high-ranking member of the influential cabal Logos - and by extension his boss, since after all Phantom Pain was little more than the official military arm of that secretive organization.
At the moment, Jibril looked angry.
"I'm not the kind of man who likes to dwell on events in the past. But neither am I one to tolerate repeated failure." Jibril said haughtily. "Despite your best efforts, things haven't gone as planned, Commander O'Donnell. However, orders are given with the expectation that they will be carried out. We are not playing games, here."
-"Yes, that has been made clear to me." Lukas replied evenly.
-"If it is clear to you, then hurry up and do as you are told! Otherwise, our other plans are going to be affected as well." As he spoke, Jibril glanced at a display on his own desk, which showed a set of schematics for Adukav's next prototype mobile armor, the GFAS-X1.
A mobile weapon after his own heart, he thought.
"Lately, all these anti-Alliance groups have been holding up the Minerva as their hero, saying that ZAFT forces are the champions of justice." Jibril continued speaking, his tone irritated and disdainful. "Of course this is nonsense - it's simply that these Coordinators have been inordinately fortunate in battle."
-"You're right about that." O'Donnell consented. He could speak from personal experience as to the battle strength of that ship and its pilots.
-"Then there's Orb." Jibril spat angrily. "And even that fool Baum is beginning to consider approaching the PLANT government directly. Sooner or later they will have to be dealt with as well."
After a moment's pause, Jibril continued slightly more calmly. "They are all pathetic - failing to give any consideration to the future and embracing whatever is most convenient at the drop of a hat."
-"Yes, that certainly is true." Lukas assented - witness the events in Gulnahan, after ZAFT had annihilated the Alliance's outpost there.
-"How could they let themselves be fooled so easily?" Jibril asked rhetorically before continuing. "We're talking about Coordinators here! Mark my words, they will turn against them at some point. That's why that ship is such a problem - it's simply too dangerous to leave alone! Make sure you destroy it this time."
-"Yes, sir. Now, what about this latest development - the loss of one of our Extendeds?" Lukas inquired.
Since the disappearance of Stella and the Gaia the previous day, the destroyed hangar exit hatch was being repaired on the Jones, but the loss had important implications for the ship, as it represented a fifth of their overall battle strength - not including the Daggers he'd requisitioned from Izmir, which against the Minerva were likely little more than cannon fodder anyway.
-"Write it off." Jibril said sharply. "The loss can't be helped, but I'm certain the enemy has suffered their own setbacks in the fighting. Just destroy the Minerva, Captain - after all, don't forget that this is the reason you and your team exist in the first place."
And the screen went blank as Jibril cut the communication.
Later, O'Donnell made his way down to the room in which the ship's remaining Extended, Auel Neider, was sleeping.
Dr. Kinney and Dr. Rice were both there as well.
He had his orders from Jibril, and they could not be any clearer.
He addressed Kinney and Rice as he entered.
"The brass are still deciding what to do about the Lodonia incident, but meanwhile our orders are to treat the loss of the Gaia and its Biological CPU as irrecoverable." He said, sounding irritated.
Kinney likewise appeared annoyed at the statement.
-"Well, I guess that's the military term for it. Impersonal." She replied irritably. Rice glowered at her.
-"I suppose I understand why." Lukas replied. "Sorry, but could you erase her from his memories?"
-"Erase her completely?" Kinney replied. "You realize how difficult that would be?"
-"I know." O'Donnell replied. "But it needs to be done - both her and the Gaia. I'll get some crew in here to assist in the removal of the second pod."
-"Right." Rice replied, glaring at Kinney. "We'll get right on it."
A few days passed. Additional supplies and reinforcements arrived for the Jones including a second Windam, to be assigned to Mudie instead of the Dagger; it already sported the 501st's distinctive black colors, and would be fitted with the same equipment: an Aile Striker and one of the two rocket anchors normally equipped to her previous Dagger; Mudie opted this time to retain the larger shield with its missile launchers. Additionally, three Jet Daggers were added to its complement.
Meanwhile, what had been Stella's "bed" was detached from the equipment in their room, removed from the ship, and destroyed. No visible trace remained of Stella's presence onboard…except for a single handkerchief, still in the possession of Dr. Kinney.
On the bridge of the Jones Captain Bernard McCaffrey, the ship's commanding officer, pondered the recent developments his ship had seen.
As much as McCaffrey was wary of O'Donnell and utterly despised that lab monkey Rice, he had become rather fond of the Phantom Pain Commander's two young charges, especially Stella.
He thus found particularly distasteful the contempt with which Lord Jibril had ordered the lost pilot written off, as if she had been no more than a defective piece of equipment.
But then again, that was the way of it, he thought scornfully. He read through his own orders, then turned to his XO and ordered him to begin preparations for launch as soon as possible.
April 12th
Çanakkale Seaport
LHM-BB01 Minerva
At last the repairs to the Minerva and its mobile suits were complete, and they were ready to set sail; They were still short-handed, as Heine was in no condition to pilot, but they had managed to acquire a replacement for his GOUF Ignited.
Additionally, Yzak had twisted the arm of the commander in Bandirma and managed to acquire additional mobile suits: along with the remaining ZAKU and the Impulse and Saviour Gundams, the ship carried one additional UMF/S-6 ASSH aquatic mobile suit, bringing its total to four, plus two more GOUF Ignited mass-production types, their dull-brown colors clashing sharply with the gleaming blue and orange of their counterparts.
The Gaia had been recovered and loaded onboard as well; being an Alliance mobile suit, it alone had thus far not been repaired.
In the ship's hangar, Aves looked up at the mobile suit, impressed at its design, and wondered if there wasn't anything that could be done to render it combat-ready again. He browsed through the data on the mobile suit, gathered from information gleaned at that lab as well as from their own encounters with the machine.
Then with a shrug, he returned his attention to the rest.
With much of his own crew occupied by repairs to the ship itself, the bulk of the mobile suit repairs including to the Saviour had been done by additional repair teams from Çanakkale and Bandirma. Their work done, those crews had left.
Aves had balked at their presence, but had tolerated it - he had enough to work on supervising the repairs to the ship itself. Still, they'd done a great job with it, and the ship was as combat-ready as it could be under the circumstances.
On the bridge, Arthur relayed the order.
"Prepare for ascent; the Minerva is taking off." He said. "Our destination: Gibraltar." He was relieved that, if all went well, they would soon arrive at Gibraltar, ZAFT's second-largest base on Earth.
The ship slowly rose vertically, then its thrusters adjusted and it began moving forward, slowly at first but gradually picking up speed.
The door to the infirmary opened, and Shinn entered.
Dr. Thompkins was absent but a nurse was there, reviewing Stella's condition. When she saw Shinn enter, she stepped outside, and he headed straight for the bed, off to the side, where Stella had been placed.
'The girl I met by the sea...all that time, you were the pilot of the Gaia, too.' Shinn thought as he looked at her.
Stella appeared to be sleeping, but she stirred, looking troubled. He wondered if she was having a nightmare. He crouched next to her, resting his hand on her forehead. She felt warm to the touch.
"Help...me...Lukas." She whispered.
-"I knew it was you. But you couldn't recognize me, could you...how terrible. To have even your memories stolen from you." Shinn said softly.
He remembered the encounter well, and as he thought about it his hand slipped to her cheek, where she had had him place it before.
She stirred at his touch, and her eyes opened. She looked at him vaguely, then her gaze found the shell around his neck.
"Sh...Shinn." She whispered.
-"Stella?" He said, hardly believing what he was hearing. She knew - she remembered his name.
-"You...you came to see me." She said, a small smile on her face. "Thank you."
He nodded in response.
-"That's right," he said, "I'm here. Everything's all right now."
Athrun was in the ship's rec room, mulling over the events of the past few days. He saw Heine approaching, leaning on a crutch, and stood to greet him when Lunamaria also approached.
"Oh, Lunamaria." Athrun said as he saw her. "Something on your mind?"
-"No, sir. I was just..." She started. "I was just wondering where Shinn was. Have you seen him?"
-"I believe he went into the infirmary a little while ago." Athrun replied.
-"Again?" Lunamaria asked. "He's been in there a lot. It's weird."
-"Is it so strange?" Heine said as he sat down. There was an odd, knowing sort of look in his eyes again. "Why is that?"
-"Well, that girl's an Alliance pilot, right? So why is he so concerned about her?" She asked. "I've known Shinn for a long time; He hates the Alliance - Comm...Athrun, you've seen how he gets about Orb, right?" She asked, turning to Athrun.
-"Yeah, I have." Athrun answered, uncomfortably.
-"Well, he's even worse about the Alliance. And yet...It just doesn't make sense. I've never seen him act like this before." Lunamaria said.
-"Well, perhaps there is something there that wasn't there before." Heine said cryptically.
-"What do you mean, sir?" Lunamaria asked, puzzled.
-"Oh, never mind." Heine said casually. "But I don't think it's anything to worry about."
-"If you say so, sir." Lunamaria replied, then with a brief salute she continued on her way, wondering just what Heine could have been talking about…
Heine turned to Athrun as the latter sat down again.
"Now you definitely have something on your mind, Athrun." He said.
-"I was just thinking..." he started, "about the battle before."
-"You mean Rey?" Heine asked, cutting straight to what he guessed was most weighing on Athrun's mind. "You blame yourself for what happened."
Athrun nodded.
-"I just keep wondering...if there was something more I could have done." He said.
-"Maybe. Maybe not," Heine said seriously, "but there's no use beating yourself up about it. Take it from someone who's been there."
Athrun looked up at Heine, wondering what he meant. Heine soon answered the question.
"Athrun. You and I both fought in the Great War a few years ago. And we've both seen our share of deaths. Even now - I lost a few good friends of mine when the Montesquieu was attacked during the Junius Seven operation." Heine started to say.
Athrun looked at him, and suddenly he remembered something: In the confusion of that battle, he'd caught brief glimpses of an orange ZAKU - the very same colors as the GOUF Ignited Heine piloted.
-"I was there too." He said. "I was leading the memorial delegation escorts - there were five of us, piloting Murasames. I didn't really know the others, but…"
-"But all of them were wiped out." Heine said somberly. "Then they sent what remained of us down to Earth, to support the Ruddle Team."
This bit of news caught Athrun by surprise, but then he remembered that Heine had said he'd been previously attached to the Hawkins Team. And finally he remembered why that name had seemed so familiar.
"Their outpost is so positioned that the only possible approach is through the Gulnahan Ravine. They've placed a positron cannon here to defend the approach, protected by a monstrous reflector-equipped mobile armor. With support from the Hawkins Team we've already made an attempt to destroy it, with disastrous results."
-"I see." He replied, guessing the rest - he knew that the ZAFT that had tried to take the Lohengrin Gate before the Minerva arrived had been nearly wiped out, only one Petrie-class and a handful of mobile suits returning.
-"It's understandable, what you're feeling right now." Heine continued. "But don't let it get you down. It wasn't your fault."
-"Thanks." Athrun said sincerely, grateful to have someone who understood what he was feeling.
-"No problem." Heine said with a smile, clapping him on the back.
Meanwhile, in the medical bay, Dr. Thompkins continued to monitor his patient's condition, and there was something worrying about it.
"Do you have her latest biochemistry data?" He asked the nurse on duty.
-"One moment, sir. I'll get it right away." she replied, and brought over the requested data.
-"Hmm...this isn't good." The doctor said, reading through. "Get an oxygen mask."
As they slid the mask on, the door opened and Shinn walked in.
-"Stella? Doctor! What's happening?" he asked, his voice full of concern. Not for the first time, the doctor wondered why this boy was so fixated, so concerned with the health of one enemy pilot. And an Extended no less…
-"Please stay back." he said shortly. "This doesn't make sense...I just can't figure it out." he mumbled as he turned to his console again. "As I said to you before, all these drugs have had a variety of different effects, and to be honest we have no idea how her body will react to treatment."
"Apparently, her body requires regular maintenance using some kind of specialized equipment, and unfortunately we don't currently know what that equipment might be...or what will happen to her without it."
-"You're...you're kidding." Shinn replied.
Stella stirred at that moment, her eyes opening. Weakly, she tried to raise her hand, to reach out to him. Shinn stepped forward and took her hand in his.
-"Shinn...I'm scared..." She said weakly. "Shinn...protect me..."
-"I will." He said softly. "Stella...don't be scared."
Oblivious to the scene behind him, Thompkins remained at his console.
-"When it comes to drugs such as these, I'm afraid the Naturals are far more advanced than we are. Bastards." he said.
Shinn stayed at her side for a few more minutes, and after a while Stella lost consciousness again. As he reluctantly stood to leave, the doctor turned towards him.
-"I have to wonder though, why exactly you're so concerned about her." he said, "And how is it that you know her name? Or that she knows yours for that matter?"
-"It's...kind of a long story." Shinn said evasively, and he left.
He went up to the Minerva's observation deck, wanting to get some fresh air and try to clear his head. The doctor's questions were still on his mind. Why did he care so much?
He was still there when Athrun came out onto the deck. As Athrun stepped towards him, he stopped.
Shinn was softly humming to himself a slow tune Athrun had never heard before. The sheer incongruity of the sight aside, the melody was hauntingly beautiful and, Athrun thought, incredibly sad.
Hearing footsteps, Shinn stopped and turned to face Athrun.
"Word on the ship is, you're spending a lot of time in medical." Athrun started to say. "You're worried about her?"
-"Yeah." Shinn said. "They're saying she's not getting better. And I'm worried about what might happen when we leave."
-"Well, we've orders to keep her onboard when we do." Athrun revealed. Yzak had told him earlier they'd received orders from Headquarters to deliver the Extended to Gibraltar, where she would be taken to a better-equipped facility for further treatment. "We're to deliver her and the data we got from the lab to Gibraltar. The facilities there are much better equipped, so she should be okay."
-"I just don't want her to die." Shinn said, and from the concern in his voice Athrun knew that there was more to it than that.
-"After everything she's already been through, I suppose not. When the Gaia showed up, at that lab...you'd already guessed it was her."
Shinn nodded. "I saw that data in there, I recognized her. When the Gaia arrived, I guess...I hoped it wasn't, but yeah."
Athrun thought it explained why he had gone for a saber strike instead of using the beam rifle; he'd disabled the Gaia without killing the pilot. But the question still remained of why he had even been so concerned.
Remembering what Heine had said earlier, he thought he guessed what the real reason was, but did not press the point.
However, he did have one question.
-"That melody you were humming. Did...?"
-"It was the first time I saw her - when she fell over that cliff, in Bandirma. She was humming it. I guess I remembered it because I was thinking about her." Shinn answered.
His guess confirmed, Athrun turned to head back inside. Laying one hand on Shinn's shoulder, he said. "Don't worry too much about it. I'm sure the doc's doing everything he can. Come on, let's head inside."
Shinn nodded, and the two men returned together to the ship.
April 13th
Mediterranean Sea
NDC-01 Takemikazuchi
The massive supercarrier Takemikazuchi, flanked by the much smaller John Paul Jones, was on station in the Mediterranean Sea west of Crete, having set sail the previous evening. Each ship had a sizable escort, consisting of eight Kuraomikami- and Aegis-class escort ships, plus approximately a dozen Alliance Arkansas- and Frasier-class.
On the Takemikazuchi's bridge, Lukas O'Donnell was briefing Yuna Roma Seiran and Colonel Todaka on their strategy for taking out their target: The Minerva, which would as before be traveling without the benefit of an escort. Also present was Captain McCaffrey.
"As you can see, at its heart the plan is quite simple. If all goes well, we should easily be able to take out the Minerva if we attack it here." Lukas said, pointing out a specific position on the map.
-"Yes, but are you sure things will go this smoothly?" McCaffrey asked. "First of all, how reliable is the intelligence you're basing this on? Spreading a net like this is not in itself a bad idea, but if the Minerva…"
-"Hey hey, that's enough. There's no use being so negative after we've come all this way." Yuna interrupted, "I wouldn't bring our fleet all the way out here on a wild guess. There's no doubt that the Minerva will follow this route to Gibraltar."
'Maybe that's what worries me…' Colonel Todaka, standing next to McCaffrey, thought to himself as he remembered not only their last encounter with ZAFT's newest assault carrier, but the first time he had seen the ship in battle.
He distinctly recalled having been shocked by the sheer brutality of its assault on the Alliance. That one mobile suit in particular...
"They'll be setting sail any minute!" Yuna continued. "The Captain and I have already gone over the details of the operation. All you need to worry about is what to do once it shows up."
Lukas smirked. Todaka was a shrewd commander, as was McCaffrey - that was their strength.
That said, Yuna's sycophantic pandering would prove more useful in this situation.
-"Such accurate intelligence, and so decisive." He said smoothly. "That is your strength, Lord Yuna. Orb should be fortunate to have such a competent presence as overall commander of such a fleet."
-"Oh, it's nothing, really." Yuna said, falsely modest.
-"Well then. The fighting could be pretty intense, but we have to succeed here." Lukas continued.
-"And the Orb forces are more than capable. We will show you the true strength of our nation by sinking this ship." Yuna replied. Then he turned to Todaka and his XO, who looked concerned. "A problem?" He asked.
-"If those are your orders, then it is our duty to carry them out." Todaka said flatly.
-"I expect your best." Yuna added condescendingly.
-"I don't expect that strange ship to make an appearance this time, but it might." Lukas said, addressing Yuna - who understood perfectly that the Alliance commander was referring to the Archangel. "If it does show up, you won't have any problems, will you?"
-"Of course not." Yuna said.
-"Very well then. As long as we're clear...McCaffrey and I are returning to the Jones. We will take up our own position and prepare to attack the Minerva when it arrives."
LCAM-01XA Archangel
Off the coast of Samothrace
On the bridge of the Archangel, Murrue, Kira and the rest of the crew were discussing the same situation. Also present was Miriallia, newly returned to the ship.
"So the Orb fleet is gathering off the coast of Crete." Murrue said. "It's likely that they're after the Minerva again."
-"Yes ma'am." Chandra replied, glancing at the communication they'd received. "We still don't have confirmation, but that is how we should interpret this."
-"Their strategy seems to be riding on the Minerva's destination being Gibraltar." Neumann commented. "The Alliance is getting desperate."
At that moment, a console beeped. At her console, Miriallia pulled up the incoming transmission, which was encrypted. She decoded it and relayed its content. "The Minerva's just left port - heading southwest."
-"That settles it. They're heading for Gibraltar" Murrue said firmly. "And that confirms that the Orb forces will attack the Minerva at Crete."
-"Let's head out." Kira said. "Everything Lacus worked towards, everything we fought for...that's all in danger right now. That's why we have to go."
-"I see. Very well then. The Archangel is heading out." Murrue said. Her orders were relayed throughout the ship as Kira headed towards the Freedom.
Soon, the ship was under way.
Meanwhile, a recon-type Murasame deployed from the Takemikazuchi had detected the approaching Minerva, and reported it to the ship as well as to the Jones.
"All hands, prepare for battle! I repeat, all hands prepare for battle!" The announcement rang throughout the Takemikazuchi as the pilots headed to their machines and prepared to take off.
On the Jones's deck, Lukas O'Donnell had also received this information and began preparations as well.
"Very well then, let's begin. Captain McCaffrey, you take command. I'm going out."
McCaffrey did not reply, focusing on issuing orders to his crew.
As O'Donnell reached the Chaos and strapped himself in, he thought of the Extended he had lost, only a few days ago.
'I know you're not here to take your revenge, Stella...' he thought as he prepared for launch, 'but today is the day we send that ship to hell.'