C.E. 71 February 2.

"They followed us! So open the door, then we can take care of them!" Cleo shouted as she stood up from her seat.

"Sorry, but I was given orders not to let the ship pass and allow it to replenish its supplies."

"We'll blast the door open, so just do it!" Cleo slammed her fist as she sat back down. The man looked at her as she stared daggers into the screen, a skeptical look on his face until he saw her look over towards a part of the ship. "Ready cannons! Aim for the door and nothing else!" Cleo ordered as Snowfall's main cannons slowly charged up.

Outside of Ptolemaeus Laurasia class

Nassir flew forward little by little, not using the thrusters as much as possible, making sure there was a lesser chance they'd not get caught. There were seven MS's in total until they reached the dark side of the moon. They might have already detected them, but while in space, the GINNs had little to worry about. ZAFT had the superiority in space with mobile suits, but this one white and sliver GINN had been used against them for most of the war, proving time and time again that this was a war that they weren't gonna back down from.

"Alright! Abela and I will go ahead to see if we can lure out the pure white ship. Can you handle this?" Joseph, leader of Kelper's team,

"Yes, sir!" Abela's commanding voice took over the coms as she used her thrusters to float next to the leader.

"Right, the rest of you keep a lookout for us!" Joesph's red-colored GINN launched off the moon's surface a little along with Abela's normal colored GINN, slowly using their thrusters as not to cause themselves to appear on radar. While they boosted little by little towards the base of Earth Alliance, they made sure to hug the surface of the moon, using it as a form of cover if need be. The two stopped their advances, seeing two mobile armors doing their usual patrol, stopping to observe every once in a while before going along their usual route.

"You think they know if we're here or not?"

"I don't know, let's go. I rather us not have to face the entire fleet of Ptolemaeus."

The two continued traveling along the ground before making it towards a crater. This crater was one of the many places to hold ships coming in for supplies or returning from patrols. Looking around, the two moved slowly as not to be spotted by anyone.

Snowfall

The door slowly opened as Cleo's bluff worked. The purely white ship slowly pushed forward with its rear thrusters, sending it out into the sea of stars.

"Have Isa launch first. We need to get a good look at our enemies' strength."

After Cleo gave the order, the space fighter launched from the catapult sending off a blue hue as it flew away.

Deeraj activated his machine, causing the pink monoeye to lit up after its activation. It stepped onto the catapult next. Upon stepping on the latches, arms came down to give the machine its weapons. Instead of a machine gun, instead this time, it was a long-range ballistic weapon. After receiving the weapon, Deeraj tensed his body as he prepared himself to launch.

"Deeraj Young, GINN taking off!" The force of the catapult made him grunt as he felt himself being launched from the ship, pushing the accelerator downward. The white and silver GINN flew off into the sea of stars, only for it to deactivate its thrusters and turn around. Deeraj clenched his controls as he felt that same sensation from earlier.

Abela and Joseph both landed on the white surface, causing dust to rise into space. Upon stopping, Abela looked up and saw a white glint of light appeared for a second. Squinting her eyes, she sees it was the GINN flying towards their squadron.

"Sir! The GINN-" Abela started only for a missile to hit near her foot, causing pieces of rocks to float up from the hit, making both her and the leader rise into the air, turning around with verniers, they started away with the sub thrusters to fly away from their location.

"I'll hold them off, get back to the group and retreat away from the base at once. If your far enough and the white ship bites the bait, then fight with all your heart's content!"

"But sir, what about you?"

"If I'm there with you, then I am. Hurry!" Joseph turned around and stopped his momentum with the back boosted before flying back to fight the approaching enemy off. Abela couldn't help but sweat a little as she pressed down on the left pedal, increasing her speed to maximum.

Deeraj stopped his machine and flew upwards with blazing speed dodging bullets from an approaching enemy. His machine controls, slightly shaking from the sudden change of pace. The white and silver MS stopped with Verniers as it aimed down the long-ranged gun and opened fire towards the red suit approaching him. Quickly moving to the left, the red suit dodged Deeraj's first attempt and then moved upwards with the verniers. The red GINNs thrusters grew as it boosted faster, firing in turn, its machine gun. The mostly white GINN used its verniers and reverse thrusters to move back from where it was before switching over to the forward boosters.

Shooting off two more rounds, the red GINN, of course, dodged it with its thrusters and verniers spinning as he did so and used its free hand to grab for its long heat sword. Detaching the weapon and swinging horizontally at the chest. Deeraj grunted as he reacted with a sudden stop and a slight reverse vernier dodging the attack and then took his long-ranged weapon, placed it on his back, and then took out his own sword, though it wasn't a specially made one.

"This guy's fast... Can the GINN keep up with my decisions?" Doubts were in his mind as his enemy lunged forward, making the white machine fly higher into space, leaving the red unit back wide open. Descending with a downward swing, he scratched a little bit of the left-wing, but the red suit responded with a reverse spinning hook kick towards the torso, rattling Deeraj as he tried to regain control. Joesph took his heated toward and swung for the waist, only for the white suit to counter with a parried sidekick, and performing the same move Joseph just did to the mono-eyed machine's face. With the sensors rattled, Joesph smiled as he moved left to right backward, with no weapon in hand.

Deeraj rushed forward, throwing his sword towards his opponent, only for the red suit to move around the weapon and throw a hook towards the white suit's face. Using the verniers on the shoulders to duck under the hit, the white suit tackled the red one and boosted towards the ground, slamming both of them into the moon. Dust and debris flew up as the two stood from the impact, both machines electrocuting as they stared with their fists balled up.

"Your good, perhaps a coordinator?" the voice of his enemy came through the com.

"Natural," Deeraj responded as he readied his suit for another engagement. Both suits still had their ranged weapon on them. It's just a matter of who would be quicker.

"Oh? An actual Natural being able to stand up to a coordinator? I must say, I'm impressed," The red suit started to reach for its gun. Deeraj reading his movements as both slowly reached for their weapons. "I guess this guy is the real deal, the ghost of death for the Alliance... I guess this is my last fight," Joesph smiled as he stared down the white and silver suit. The red suit made a clear grab for its weapon without warning, causing the white machine to dodge roll to the right, making the machine gun follow. While the suit rolled, the right hand grabbed the rifle coming to a complete stop on its knees, firing a single shot into the cockpit. The shot didn't cease the firing until it exploded a few seconds later, the arm still firing off shots, the body no longer moved till it was empty. Deeraj flew a little more to the right to get away from the shots and stared down his opponent's powerless machine. Saluting towards him, Deeraj flew back towards Snowfall after retrieving his sword. Landing on the deck, he checks over his machine's damage, seeing a dent where he was hit.

"Any damage?" Isa asked.

"Yeah, the pilot managed to get a hit on me with his machine gun and a kick, we'll have to check for it later, right now, we're in pursuit-" Deeraj stopped mid-sentence, feeling a sensation of an enemy very close, to close to be exact. Reloading his long-ranged gun, Deeraj aimed at a silhouette opening fire. Without warning, he hit the reactor of the machine, causing an explosion, and with the explosion came the enemy—five of them rushing out of their hiding spot and towards open space. Aiming again, they started to spin and zig-zag so that he couldn't get a clear good shot. Deeraj smirked as he enjoyed a challenge when it came down to sniping. The opening fire hit the right-wing of one GINN, making it lose its mobility. Spinning out of control, the suit then exploded as the pilot ejected out of it, being caught in the explosion.

"Damn, who is this guy?!" Selon asked as they tried to get away, only for another machine to be hit in the reactor.

"Araah! H-help!-" His voice was cut off as the explosion ensued. Nassir clenched his controls as he moved them to turn around, opening fire to provide cover for his team.

Deeraj felt the same sensation from earlier as bullets from black, and gold GINN started to sway around Snowfall, one hitting Deeraj's machine's leg, causing the knee to weaken as Deeraj tried to step back. Grunting, Deeraj used his main thruster and fired one more round before a single round hit his GINNs shoulder, causing the arm not to work. The bullet he fired traveled through space, hitting Nassir's GINNs torso, making it bounce from the hit. Before it could explode, however, the purple GINN from before flew off with the pilot. Deeraj tried to move his white GINN to no avail, the suit was totaled, and now it couldn't move as effectively as before. Part of the reason being that Deeraj fried the system form the inside, the other reason is because of the bullet holes in the glorified tank.

"You ok?" Isa asked as she chased off the remaining GINNs, spinning and mocking them with missed fires grazing the tail, tucking enemies.

"No, my suit probably won't last much longer. I have to abandon it!" Deeraj unlatched his seatbelt and then open the cockpit, hop out with the backpack. He moved away from his machine towards the bridge.

"Roger, I've let the bridge know that you have at least fifteen seconds before you caught in the explosion!" Isa exclaimed as the Young saw the door to the bridge open with a line extended towards him.

"They work quickly under Cleo's influence, huh?" Grabbing the line, he felt them pull him in fast, getting closer and closer to the bridge until he was pulled in by most of the ship's bridge crew, excluding Cleo and the steerer of the ship. Once onboard, the explosion went off, causing a slight wave of relief for the young man as he took off the helmet while getting to his feet. Staring off towards the retreating enemy, the sensation from earlier caught his attention again.

"Nassir," he whispered under his breath, clenching his fist with a smile.

Earth, Orb military base

A brown-skinned man stood on top of a Maroon-colored Astray mobile suit, developed a mobile suit by Orb to protect their neutral country. Aarav, the older brother of Isa and Deeraj, looked on towards the ocean with the sun setting.

"Aarav!" A voice called to him, making the 28-year-old look back with a raised eyebrow. Behind him was a brown-haired woman with green eyes looking with crossed arms.

"Yeah?" Aarav asked as he pulled out a cigarette and reached for his lighter.

"Why is your millions of dollars machine laying in the sand?!" Her voice wasn't made but aggravated at best.

"I mean, you can ask it?" Aarav shrugged his shoulder as he continued to look off into the sunset. The sound of feet running and her going airborne, before he knew it, she was in his face.

"What happened?" The green-eyed woman asked as she reared her head back from the male blowing smoke in her face, growling after he did so.

"The flight unit didn't work. But I've been doing some thinking. Before the war killed them, some blueprints from my parents," Aarav walked towards the open cockpit and grabbed a folded piece of paper. "They always said use this when all else fails... But seeing as I'll probably have to face my own brother soon, it seems appropriate," he handed her the paper, puffing out more smoke as he was halfway done with his cigar.

"This is!"

"Impressive? I know. We were the ones who helped invent the mobile suits in the first place."

"Wow, amazing," the women continued to look over the blueprints before looking at the Astray. "Hey, take this back to base real quick. I want to try something," She took the paper and hopped down, landing on her feet rushing off towards her car.

"I know that look. What are you planning?"

"Something that I know you'd love!" With that, the woman hopped in her car with extraordinary air over the convertible car, starting it off and then taking off towards the road from the beach. Aarav sighed and looked down to see if she forgot anything, seeing a wallet on the ground, causing him to blow the last bit of smoke from his cigar, a smile on his face.

"That woman," Picking up the wallet, he put it in his pocket and then hop back into his machine, closing the hatch before slowly rising off the ground, causing sand to waste off the machine's open cracks. Once it finally rose from the ground, it walked back onto the road, making its way back to base. Once there, he put it back where it was in the hanger, opening the cockpit to get out, and onto the railing that held the machine. Walking towards the life, he brought it down so that he could be on the ground, looking around for the brown-haired women. "Erica!" He called, making the dark green-eyed woman talking to another engineer about the blueprint she had just received.

"Yes?"

"You forgot something," Aarav said as he whacked her upside the head with her own wallet, a blank expression as she rubbed her head. Snatching her wallet away from him, mock lunging at him only for the pilot not to move. Rolling her eyes, she went back to work.

"So? Do you think we have the technology to do this?"

"I don't know, maybe? I'll have to double-check," the engineer rushed off to do just that.

"Well, I'll be off then."

"To see your daughter?"

"Yeah, she has a playdate with a girl," Aarav said as he started to walk away from the hanger.

"Let her know I said hi!"

"Same to you to your son!" Aarav turned the corner, and seconds later, he drove by honking his horn, driving to get his daughter from the Asuka's.

Upon pulling up towards the mountain house, he got out of his car and waited, seeing two male figures walking out of the house with his daughter Taaj, walking out with the girl she played with Mayu. The two males were two that he knew very well, especially the boy named Shinn.

"Aarav! It's time for her to leave already?" The dad asked with a disappointed tone. As he says that, Taak ran up to him with clasped hands.

"Daddy, can I please stay the night?" She asked with puppy dog eyes. Aarav smiled but shook his head.

"Sorry, you have to go to school tomorrow, plus I have something planned for you," Aarav bent down and lightly head-butted her, making the young girl giggle before rearing back her own head. Getting up, he was about to say something till he felt a crushing blow bellow the belt. "T...That was low..."

Despite the pain he was in, the group laugh as he recovered himself, telling her to get in the car. "Be safe!" Shinn smiled and waved his hand goodbye. The two waved back and pulled off towards their own home.

Laurasia class, towards PLANTs.

Nassir looked at his helmet, thinking about the accuracy the pilot of the enemies GINN displayed.

"Deeraj..."

"You ok?" Abela asked as she walked into the locker room, a concerned expression on her face.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well... You saved our lives back there, and I wanted to say thank you."

"It was a lucky hit," Nassir got up and walked towards his locker, putting his helmet away.

"But still-"

"That pilot, he's still alive. He escaped just like me."

"You still shot his machine down! That's impressive on its own!"

"I should have killed him-"

"Any more time you would've taken to get your aim right, he would have killed you instead. We don't call that pilot the ghost of death for nothing, 300 kills, and he's a natural guy. He is dangerous. But you saved us, those you could anyway, and for that, we thank you," Another voice spoke up. Selon walked along with the other remaining survivor of the Ghosts attack. As Nassir looked away as silence filled the air without saying something, his two squadmates picked up he wasn't n a talkative mood. So they left it alone, with Selon calling Abela, who reluctantly left Nassir's side. The hatred he feels for naturals grew slightly more because of their ideology. Now they're using the weapons they've made against them.

Walking out of the hanger with his green uniform, the 23-year-old walked out of the hanger, practically storming off into the hall. As he walked, he felt himself get light-headed slightly. Looking down, he saw there was shrapnel in his side, one he hoped to hide from his squadmates. Shaking it off, he made his way towards the medical bay, stumbling as he walked, the anger fueling his determination to end the war.

Snowfall, Ptolemaeus hanger.

"What you did was reckless and irresponsible!" Salvio was yelling at Cleo from the other side of the door, with Isa and Deeraj inside. "But, you did drive off the enemy, so for that, I congratulate you. Mister Young, You are being promoted from lieutenant to commander lieutenant for your efforts on the battlefield. So until you get your new machine, your to stay here on this base."

This came as shocking news to the newtype, as he stepped up to say something only for Isa to grab his shoulder, reminding him of his place. Saluting in response, Deeraj said nothing, holding his tongue despite his feelings.

"As for this ship, you are to head down to earth and find the Archangel crew. We're unaware of their whereabouts as of now. Once you've found it, you can return to space at once. Try not to get shot down on your way there."

"Yes, sir!" The group of three saluted after being dismissed.

"Good luck, and Cleo... Stay here for a moment, please."

Cleo, who's been quiet the whole time, stopped her movement as the rest of them walked out, sharing a glance and a nod with Deeraj before he left. "Yes sir?"

"You are ok? I expected rebuttal or something to that factor," Salvio said as he placed his cheek on his hands.

"I understand why you didn't want us to go after them b...but, we just couldn't sit by if they followed us here!"

"Yes, but did you consider the consequences?"

"The consequences? We lost one of our units, but that's all."

"You're a smart woman so I'm expecting you of all people to get where I'm going with this. Not only did you lose a unit, but it was also one of our top aces units, with him in action we could scare them into submission-"

"He's more than a weapon!" Cleo slammed her fist on Salvio's table, shocking him slightly.

"But that's what you used him as right? Without him, the success you've had probably wouldn't be a thing. After seeing his fighting style he is something special, could probably be the best pilot in the whole cosmic era," Salvio said as he leaned back in his chair.

"What does that supposed to mean? So what if he is? You're not gonna use him as a guinea pig!"

"Oh? And who's going to stop me?"

"Don't push me, padre," there was venom in her voice as she stared into his soul without backing down. The older man got up and tilted his head, a smile on his face as he stared at his daughter.

"I raised a fine young woman, and for that passion I want you to go towards the debris belt, be careful of your altitude, and scout out one of ZAFTs bases, don't get too close. Once you've done that send information to our intelligence in the area, then head to Artimies, resupply them if you can. Once you've done that go to Africa, we heard the Archangel had just left that area, support them any way you can."

"What about Lieutenant Young?"

"He'll join you once the machine is completed, your scheduled to take off after resupply."

"Yes sir," Cleo saluted and started to walk out of the door.

"I love you, my child," It was random and out of nowhere for her, but she turned back with a smile.

"Love you too dad."