Chapter 2

CE 73, November 4th, North-East of El-Tor, OMNI Enforcer AFRICOM, Egypt, Sinai Base

Morning 08 30

Lieutenant-Colonel Rahabinod sneaked a look out of his office as the Manhunters and Sinai Base's technicians bustled around their work. Aaqil and Navana weren't scheduled to return yet, so he contented himself to just watching his forces get taken away from him... again.

Rahabinod gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. It wasn't as though he needed them for a fabulous, world-splitting rebellion or anything.

Rahabinod turned to face the door as three knocks sounded out. "Come in," Rahabinod said, closing the curtain blinds, as Major Asanogawa Yoko, his second-in-command, entered.

Unlike Rahabinod, who preferred to command with some laxity, Major Yoko, from the Republic of East Asia's Far Northern Air Force, was utterly rulebook-bound, even for a veteran. Rahabinod often jokingly thought to himself that such a strict personality was wasted on being an OMNI officer; if she had been a Coordinator geneticist, she would have taken their gene manipulation techniques to new heights.

Yoko noticed Rahabinod's slight smile. "Is there something on my face, sir?"

Rahabinod returned to shuffling papers on his desk. "Nothing," he said. "Do you need me for something, Major?"

Yoko reached into the stack of papers she was carrying, and handed over a sheaf of them to Rahabinod. "More from OMNI, sir." she said, pushing her glasses up, her lips pressed into a thin line. "They denied the special ammunition resupply we asked for two months ago." She shifted slightly, the disapproving look on her face directed at the papers Rahabinod now held. "The two transport aircraft that landed yesterday, with our two new pilots, have finished delivering our monthly supplies… and is appropriating any materials we can spare for the Lohengrin Gate, as per orders from OMNI CENTCOM… as well as leaving the Manhunters with orders to march via land."

"Classic," Rahabinod said, taking the papers and feeding them to the shredder. "It's a good thing we go out of our way to make Egypt a safe place. Without the Egyptian government's support, we would all have been out of a job." The whine of the shredder seemed too loud in the silent office. "As usual, AFRICOM is a dumping ground of requests and problems for any OMNI base not under direct threat of attack."

Yoko remained silent at Rahabinod's way of expressing his disdain with OMNI African Command, which commanded overall troop and supply movement in and around the African Community, the eastern and OMNI-controlled part of the continent. Unfortunately, they were still under the final say of CENTCOM, and it was an unspoken rumour amongst OMNI personnel that OMNI's headquarters were now staffed by Blue Cosmos sympathizers more focused on legalizing and justifying Coordinator witch-hunts, than making any effort in dealing with insurgents and dissidents. "They also said that they won't be able to send any supplies at all, what with engaging ZAFT on several fronts, the fortifying of the Suez Installation, and the construction of the Gulnahan Gate," Yoko said, her slightly furrowed brow being the only indicator of her emotion that she had allowed herself to show.

"The force there is barely worth a third of the fleet they strung in front of the Minerva,when OMNI ambushed them outside Orb," Rahabinod said, unknowingly voicing his subordinate's inner thoughts. "Add that to the Alliance's 'stunning display'," Rahabinod said, shaking his head, "Of 'chivalry' and 'tactical sense' at the battle of Aprilius One… it's a cosmic wonder troop morale is still so high. Maybe they're all taking drugs," Rahabinod paused to feed more paper into the shredder. "Did I mention the Atlantic Federation military command is demanding to lead most operations nowadays?"

"Scattered engagements usually end in OMNI victory," Yoko said, careful to keep her voice neutral despite her agreement with the vast majority of her commander's words. "Statistics show that ZAFT forces usually retreat in the face of superior numbers."

"That's because they have no desire to take territory," Rahabinod cut in. "Gibraltar, Carpentaria, those are all established ZAFT bases already there during the first war, returned to them during a time of peace. Why would they need to forcefully take territory when the current OMNI, by sowing distrust between native civilians and the forces it stations in any area, are already giving up those territories themselves?"

"Their recent advances towards central Eurasia, especially their latest attempt via the Gulnahan Ravine through the Iranian region, would suggest otherwise," Yoko said.

"Only because the Eurasian Federation is too busy to plug the holes in its side," Rahabinod answered. "With inter-state insurgency at its all-time high when the Junius 7 Incident occurred, and with pressure from local state governments threatening to secede into independent countries once again, the Eurasian Federation has been forced to cut off areas that are refusing its region-wide force-shuffling, so as to preserve its remaining military resources. I heard that Turkey is soon to go, and if ZAFT takes the Gulnahan Gate, then Georgia and Armenia are likely to get the same treatment, considering that their local government's past history with the Eurasian Federation has been a stormy one as of recent years."

"At least the attached tank battalion and battle copter wing were from the African Union and Republic of East Asia respectively," Yoko said, reminding Rahabinod of the units that were under their command. "OMNI Central can't take them out from under us." She paused for a while. "I need to speak with Major Nain before she leaves. Excuse me."

"Go ahead," the older officer said. As soon as Yoko had left the room, Rahabinod sighed heavily, sinking into his chair; his age, his stresses, for an instant, weighing his shoulders down to that of a shrunken old man's. "I hope so, Major," he said. "I most certainly do."

CE 73, November 4th, North-East of El-Tor, OMNI Enforcer AFRICOM, Egypt, Sinai Base

Morning 08 40

"Sir! Do you think the crew should load this as well?"

Ray turned to see who had called him. Warrant Officer Third Thomas Randall, the chief mechanic of Sinai Base, pointed to a couple of boxes, all either marked as spare R-14Ks, or universal beam rifle plasma slots. Messy red hair peeked out from under the non-commissioned officer's cap as he approached Ray.

"Sure, load them up as well. Include the spare parts for the Dagger Ls in the cargo hold too," Ray replied, and turned back to his datapad.

"About that, sir…" Thomas dropped his tone. "The commander of the transport ships wants to take some of our load. He said something about orders to send material to the Gate first."

Ray sighed and crossed his arms. "Let him take the bare minimum. The Dagger Ls might have been tuned for desert warfare, but I still need those replacement parts. And whatever you do, don't allow him to take any of the flatbed trucks… I don't want to wear out the Dagger Ls' joints before we reach the Gate."

Thomas tipped his hat. "Yes sir," he said, before moving off.

Loud machinery sounds to his left made Ray look up. Sheryl was testing out the R-14K-enhanced Windam beam rifle, her Dagger L making small adjustments with its arms in imitation of a person holding a rifle at the ready, as she sighted an imaginary target on the horizon. Ray activated his comm unit. "How's the calibration for that thing?"

"Perfect," came the reply, Sheryl's glee barely contained within her voice. "I'm going to have to start stringing any ZAKU heads I get on a loop of steel wire and carry them around…!"

Leaving Sheryl to her own thoughts, Ray opened a link to Guy and Kaguya. "Leon, Sakamoto," he said. "Did you find anything in the armoury that you wanted?"

As Ray finished his sentence, Guy's Dagger L strode out of the hanger it was housed in, and plucked a M703K beam carbine, the standard model issued to all Dagger Ls, from a nearby holding rack, in addition to the Mk. 39 Low-Recoil Cannon it held in its left arm. A Launcher Striker Pack was equipped on its frame.

"The armoury has surpassed all my expectations," Guy said. "I don't know which to take, sir."

Ray smiled despite himself. "Take what you need," he said, keying in information into his datapad. "We're lacking a bombardment specialist. If you don't mind taking on the role…" Ray hit a button on the pad's touch screen, sending a list of equipment over to the older man.

Guy's eyes widened as he returning to the armoury and looked through the list. "We have frag grenades and claymores? Where were these during the attack on Carpentaria- holy shit… are those high-yieldFLASH BANGS? "

"Don't get your hopes too high," Ray said, wondering what was taking Kaguya so long. "The Lieutenant Colonel had the local industry manufacture some for counter-terror operations. These are the only place to get them, and they aren't really cheap on the Egyptian side either."

"Were they useful though?" Guy asked Ray, as his Dagger L picked up a bunch of eight fragmentation grenades, still in their holding crate.

"Bringing any one type of those special weapons in a mission requires Rahabinod's express permission," Ray joked. "The last time we used all of them in a single campaign back in early CE 73, the one remaining terror cell that survived the campaign almost moved out of the area. Too bad they didn't, though."

Guy eyed a bunch of six MS-sized claymores, labelled "SELF-FORGING/HIGH EXPLOSIVE ARMOR-PENETRATING", as he listened to Ray talk. He tried to imagine a GINN getting nailed by one of those. "Amen," he said, and put them on the ground while he continued looking through the armoury hangar.

Thomas walked up to Ray a second time. "Sir, the transport captain wants to take whatever Striker Packs we have as well."

Ray groaned. "Please don't tell me he-"

Just then, Kaguya's Dagger L strode out onto the open ground. Mounted on its back was a Sword Striker Pack. Kaguya deftly manoeuvred her Dagger L around as she swung the heavy Anti-Ship Sword in mock swings.

Ray watched Kaguya test out the Sword Pack, and turned back to Thomas. "He can take the batteries, he can take the spare rifles, he can take the spare joint parts, he can take the thruster fuel, he can take the artillery," Ray gestured violently at a row of Mk. 39 cannons, "But he is most certainly not going to take any Striker Packs we have, and definitely not our explosives. If he persists, you can tell him to…"

Thomas held up his hands. "I understand, sir," he said, before moving off. Ray breathed out slowly, and turned back to watching Kaguya's Dagger L cut an elegant path through air. "How's the Sword Striker?"

"Excellent," was Kaguya's answer. "Preferable to beam sabres for heavy cutting, at least. Is this the only one?"

"It is," Ray replied. "How the Lieutenant Colonel managed to get that and a Launcher Striker pack delivered to a backwater base like this, I'll never know."

Ray took a last look around, and noted with satisfaction that the supply trucks were ready to go, and so were the Dagger Ls. He strode into the hanger holding his own mobile suit.

Unlike his three other comrades, Ray's Dagger L was just that: a production Dagger L, and he preferred it that way. As a machine under the name of the Manhunters, the unit sported grey where white should be, and so did the other three Manhunter units. However, its head mounted two command antennas instead of one, modified to angle backwards and to the sides more than usual, and painted red like the Dagger L's headpiece. In his own way, he honoured the Strike's legacy that it left behind, as well as the heroes that he never got to meet during the Jachin Due campaign, but had heard plenty about.

Ray relaxed into the pilot seat as he powered up the systems, and outside, the head sensor units flashed a brilliant crimson; a personal tweak to the systems. He preferred to call his machine the Dagger L Custom; for short, the Manhunter Command.

Ray surveyed his teammates through the Dagger L's camera. Good, he thought; no anomalies in the camera and visual ID system.

The three other Dagger Ls of the Manhunters also shared the same colour with the Manhunter Command, with the exception of its customizations; an aesthetic change courtesy of the base's technicians, who expertly re-colored their units in a single day. Painted on Guy's Dagger L's right shoulder armour was "04", Kaguya's was "03", and the middle segment of her Dagger L's upper torso armour carried her personal emblem; an empty Samurai's helmet with fiery eyes, complete with fanged helmet and mouthguard gripping a wakizashi, a Japanese sword. Sheryl's unit carried "02" on its right shoulder guard, and her emblem was a cartoonish ZAKU Warrior's head with a cross in lieu of its mono-eye… complete with realistically painted bullet hole through its forehead. All the Dagger Ls carried the Manhunters' emblem on their left shoulder armour.

Given Sinai Base's geographical location, the technicians had already done their work on the Dagger Ls, with joints treated for sand resistance, and the pieces of synthetic cloth they had wrapped around the joints would make their units more resilient during the week of desert warfare they might have to deal with. All of the Dagger Ls were of the Block 20 upgrade batch; improved avionics and sensor systems, all internal upgrades, allowed their mobile suits to make use of horizon mapping and outline tracing to identify potential targets. Combined with traditional heat-seeking and waveform-detection systems, their Dagger Ls were almost there with fighter aircraft in terms of sensor range; an impressive feat, considering the widespread wavelength-disrupting effects of N-Jammers that were still buried in Earth.

Ray counted himself lucky that all of their Dagger Ls were of the latest version that there would ever be. The Block 25 upgrade was still in development when the Windam entered production; with the widespread adoption of the newer mobile suit, the Dagger Ls were being rapidly sidelined in terms of being kept in top form with upgrades.

Then again, Ray figured, if there were any upgrades, neither the squad's nor my own machine would be the first on any officer's list to get them.

"It's a pity we lack land battleships or even aerial carriers though," Kaguya said, her voice bringing Ray back into the present, as the four watched the ground crew load the last of the sorted supplies into the transport ship. "It would have made things very much easier."

"Unfortunately," Sheryl said. "It would also have made us the same as the rank and file." Laughter filled the team intercom.

The Dagger Ls manoeuvred onto the flatbed trucks, and Guy and Ray drew first lots to stay in the cockpit just in case. Thankfully, the Dagger Ls had improved temperature regulators; Strike Daggers had terrible temperature regulators, and most of the time the pilot suit, already lacking in comfort functions, had to do the work.

Ray opened a video line to Guy. "Lieutenant Leon," he started.

"Sir?"

"I read through your profile," Ray started. He had no idea how to handle this; part of him knowing Sheryl was that she was just that open to others.

Ray, unfortunately, had not much of a chance to practice knowing his comrades, what with the first war, spending the better part of a year in depression, and then returning to OMNI and shifting from post to post until he settled at Sinai Base. In fact, this was his first combat command where people weren't in threat from dying the moment they entered combat; if only for the fact that it wasn't Boaz or Jachin Due, and that the new members had their own considerably illustrious backgrounds.

"If I understand, you're married," Ray said.

"Yes, I am, sir," Guy replied. "My wife is a first-generation Coordinator. Her name's Kate Lanpert."

"You have a daughter," Ray continued. He inwardly chided himself for sounding more like a computer than a commander trying to get to know his team members better.

"I do. Her name is Sarah Leon," Guy said. Ray thought he detected a hint of pride in his voice. "She's young, but she's got a talent for working with computers; she had no trouble using basic functions on a discarded MS system I brought back once."

"I'm sorry, sir," Guy said, a few seconds later. "I probably sound like I'm rambling."

"Not at all," Ray replied. "Please continue. It's four hours until the guard rotation anyways."

Ray looked out of his cockpit as the convoy of trucks exited the base; behind them, the transport aircraft had also taken off, the load roar of its engines receding into the skies. He hoped no one had planted any IEDs on the road today or any day for the rest of the week; he really wanted to get to the Gate and get things done, before returning back to Sinai Base. It wasn't a large force; four mobile suits, respective supply parts, a small infantry detail, and a couple of linear artillery units. The reinforcement orders had left out the battle tank battalion and the attack helicopter complement of the base; the former was an OMNI AFRICOM unit, the latter, a loan from the Republic of East Asia that came with Major Asanogawa's reassignment.

While Ray understood that transporting those additional assets would take up more logistics than just a single transport, he also shook his head at the reinforcement orders. It was clear that the forces at the Gulnahan Gate were picking out OMNI units with ties to the Atlantic Federation, first and foremost, and as typical of many Atlantic Federation commanders who took post after the Bloody Valentine War, many of them were woefully ignorant of battle tactics not involving mobile suits. Ray turned his thoughts away from the lamentation of his nation's current state, and back to Guy, as the veteran started talking again.

"I used to live in New York, in the United States, Atlantic Federation, way back before the First Bloody Valentine War," Guy said. "I met Kate almost ten years ago; as the years went on, it was hell trying to keep her hidden in the heart of the Atlantic Federation. I kept telling her to move to Copernicus, but she wouldn't listen, and my daughter's inherited her stubbornness… or force of will, if you'd prefer hearing it like that."

Ray noticed the pride creeping back into Guy's voice. No wonder the man lived through Operation 8.8, Ray thought. He has a pretty big reason to live.

"So, what happened?" Ray continued. "Your residence is stated as Copernicus, Luna… I assume you finally convinced them."

"I did," Guy said. "But it wasn't without some danger. Somehow, it got out that my daughter performed too well in school. They surmised that she was a Coordinator. Not that they were all wrong, but they just labelled her a Coordinator even without checking up her medical data. And when they did find out, they only got more arrogant."

"They?" Ray asked. "The school board?"

"Them and only. They expelled her on ground of repeated cheating… after repeated counts of bullying from her "friends", of course, and even that that was after my daughter came back home, distressed about why everyone seemed to hate Coordinators." Guy paused. "It's a good thing she understood that some things just weren't meant to be said out loud, and never actually told anyone she was half-Coordinator before."

"So my wife and I debated on whether to move. We managed to decide on Copernicus; ZAFT at that time would never allow me in, and as hard as I tried, my wife just wouldn't stand to leave me behind." Guy said. Ray could detect a hint of bitterness in the older man's voice. "Then five days later, two days before we were actually supposed to move… I came home after a short walk and found the entire neighbourhood out and wielding anything they could find. And they were gathered at my house."

"Incited by Blue Cosmos?" Ray asked.

"The men leading them were local police officers holding up OMNI papers for eviction of Coordinators from Atlantic Federation territory." Guy sighed. "Eviction my ass, some of those "evictions" prior to mine had been caught on national television, and they weren't pretty for the Coordinators involved. It was the first time I felt so helpless… that there was no one I could stand with." Guy then did a very odd thing; he chuckled.

"… Leon?" Ray asked.

"If you'll excuse me, sir, this is where it gets good." Guy said. "I wasn't able to do anything in time, but my wife did. With my pistol in hand, she threatened the people gathered that if they stepped onto the front porch of her house she would shoot them." Guy smiled at the memory. "The people didn't step down that easily, of course. But then Kate fired a round as close to the crowd as she dared into the ground. That shocked everyone into inaction. I took the chance, got Kate and Sarah, and drove as far as I could out of town, and booked the flights that would get us to Panama as fast as possible. We were lucky. I heard Atlantic Federation troops started active sweeps at Panama Spaceport when they annexed South America soon after… they caught quite a number of Coordinators too." Guy closed his eyes for a moment. "We were very lucky."

"Quite," Ray said, slowly digesting the past of his comrade. This conversation had proven to be quite a good one; Guy was open enough that Ray wouldn't need to worry about anything from him, and more importantly, he was a man governed by his logic... or at least, he seem to be. "Why continue with OMNI though?" Ray asked. "After all, they've failed you once and it nearly cost you everything."

"Well... I needed the job, sir. Actually, since I had a passport with both the Eurasian and Atlantic Federations, I could still work with mainline OMNI or the Eurasian forces when the Atlantic Federation revoked my citizenship; they weren't half-bad. In fact, when I was stationed at Berlin during CE 72, Coordinators were returning to the Eurasian Federation." Guy shrugged again. "After all, I don't see the difference between piloting Mobile Suits for OMNI, and being a low-wage welding worker on Luna." Guy smirked. "At least the pay as a pilot is good."

Ray had to give it to him, the man had iron balls. "Just be mindful that OMNI is blind to minute details like those. The Sinai forces and the troops at the Lohengrin Gate are technically under the jurisdiction of OMNI CENTCOM, and who knows how many of the commanders up top are in the pay of the Atlantic Federation." Ray paused. "We're not really mindful of whom we work with… but I can't speak for the Gulnahan forces."

Guy nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, sir."

"Good," Ray said as he terminated the connection. That was one unknown down. Guy was someone he could count on to watch his back.

For Kaguya though, Ray could see that she carried herself in a manner more suited to an aristocratic royal than the typical pilot's swagger. That, in addition to her sword skills and her former Captain rank… Ray put those thoughts into a corner of his mind. He didn't so much as expect trouble, than the possibility that he, not knowing about his teammates well enough, might make the error of sending them into roles they could never fulfil adequately.

"Just asking a question, sir…" Guy began. "But why is Sheryl's Dagger L wielding a weapon not rated for her unit?"

"Her Dagger L, the Oracle Lance, is tweaked to give out higher output at the cost of runtime. Her Dagger L has a spare battery pack located on its backpack." Ray explained. "As for why she went through the trouble of procuring a state-of-the-art weapon… let's just leave it at that her views towards using the Mk. 39 or Doppelhorn Striker is like trying to kill a moving ant with a cleaver."

Guy thought for a while. "Point noted, sir."

CE 73, November 6th, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, Petra; Israel

Afternoon 16 30

For two days straight, the Sinai convoy travelled through vast expanses of empty space and rural settlements. The convoy didn't really need more than two weeks to get to the Lohengrin Gate, since they could change shifts for driving through the night, but Ray had told them to take their time; even if they did find an insurgent stronghold, they couldn't engage it carelessly. And so they had done as planned, talking with the locals they met in "convenient places" on recent happenings, and asking for any information on strange or out-of-place events. Kaguya had asked Ray about the meaning of his actions, and the young officer had explained that he trusted the locals here well enough.

Kaguya still couldn't bring herself to not think that some of the people they talked to might have been terrorist informants, but Ray had told her briefly that before he came here, something had happened in CE 72 that shifted public favour towards OMNI Sinai Base. Kaguya figured that that counted for something, since the nations around Egypt occasionally borrowed the strength of those stationed at Sinai, despite news of defecting nations all throughout CE 73.

As Sheryl was talking to a local, Kaguya, who had followed her outside, noticed two men casting furtive glances around. She took one last look at Sheryl before walking off after them.

Kaguya followed the two men to where some of the convoy's smaller vehicles were parked, a few jeeps for easy transport. Two OMNI soldiers stood guard, but the men had pinpointed the security loophole well. She hid in the shadows and watched as the two men slowly approached the flatbed truck, its bulk hiding them from the soldiers. Crouching down, the two men brought out rectangular devices from their packs.

Kaguya immediately recognized it as an attachable IED, constructed around a C7 explosive block. Activating her comm's automatic distress signal, she dashed forward and reached for the hidden throwing knife she kept handy on a belt clip, and let the sharpened blade fly. One of the men yelped as the knife found its mark on his hand, and she dodged behind a flatbed truck as the other man pulled out a pistol.

The pistol never saw use, however. The gun-wielding man toppled from a whistling hole in his temple as the two OMNI soldiers attacked, pinning the remaining man to the ground. Sheryl strode out of the alley that Kaguya went through, her pistol in both hands. In scant seconds, the entirety of the OMNI group now surrounded the man.

Sheryl spoke into her comm unit, her voice low. "Sheryl here. The trap worked." Gesturing towards the man with her gun, she motioned for the soldiers to haul the bomber to his feet. "I'm sure you know who we are, so we should get straight to the point. Where's your cell?"

The man growled. But he did not say anything else.

Sheryl sighed. "Bind him," she said. "We'll wait for Ray and Nain to deal with this."

CE 73, November 6th, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, Petra; Jordan

Night 18 11

Major Nain bint Aamir, overall commander of the convoy, and a former personnel of the Atlantic Federation's Bureau of Intelligence, was not happy to have to deal with this. But having trained in interrogation tactics, she was the only person for the job.

Unlike the other people on this convoy, Nain was formerly part of OMNI's Intel division's field operatives. She had quit her job after Jachin Due, only to have OMNI call her back within a month, and with higher pay, to handle post-war covert operation situations, making sure that no limits were overstepped, and yet probing enough to keep them ahead of ZAFT intelligence. She had relatives to support, so she had agreed… but she soon found herself neck-deep in distasteful tasks, like sabotaging Coordinator-related information feeds, and other related unsavoury jobs.

She had protested, to no avail. She supposed that it was lucky she was assigned to Sinai Base a year ago, instead of being "assaulted" by some "punk" out on the streets somewhere.

Nain desperately wanted to rub the bridge of her nose, but face-to-face with a terrorist harder to crack than bedrock, she couldn't afford to show any emotions. Torture devices or medications for the man were out of the question; after all, she had accepted her posting here precisely because she wanted to at least reserve some moral high-ground for herself.

"Are you hungry?" Nain asked the bound man. She would try anything; after all, they couldn't take the man with them on the road. The sooner they offloaded him to local authorities, the better.

"THE GODS WILL SMITE YOU!" The man screamed. "WE ARE BLESSED BY THOSE FROM ABOVE; THEY WILL DRIVE THE TRAITORS AND SINNERS INTO THE GROUND-" The man blinked upon hearing Nain's statement. "What?"

Nain meant it as a random chance that she learnt from an old friend, but seeing as it got the man's attention, she let it rip. "I've had dinner. You haven't. You tell us where you come from – just which organization you belong to- and I'll let you eat."

"You whore," the man snarled… just as his stomach gave a loud rumble, and he fidgeted in his restrains. Nain noticed one of the soldiers standing guard in the room clenched his free hand very hard, trying to prevent a smile from breaking out on his face. He didn't actually understand what was being said, as the prisoner and Nain had been conversing in extremely fast and fluent Arabic, but he did get the gist that the prisoner just lost plenty of verbal ground.

"This is your last chance to get a meal, you know." Nain continued. "The prisons here aren't going to serve anything else other than gruel and the occasional salted… item."

"You can't break my spirit, sinner," the man said, as another loud growl echoed around the vacant space.

Nain sighed. It looked like making the man willingly divulge information in a night was too high a goal. "Transfer him to the authorities," she told the soldiers. She exited the room, letting the local authorities waiting outside step into the truck to take the man away.

Outside, Ray was waiting. He was curious beyond measure, when what he presumed was the man's voice belting out a steady stream of extremely loud and coarse-sounding Arabic words had suddenly stopped. Moments later local police officers entered the truck and dragged the man out, one of them tapping his baton threateningly on the man's chin as he squirmed. "How was it, ma'am?"

Nain shook her head as the local law enforcers left the area. "Nothing gained," she said. "I hope the locals treat him well. From what I remember they don't look kindly to violent disruptions, after what happened the last time." Nain turned to Ray. "How about other forms of analysis?"

"The IED's… well, an IED," Ray said blandly, fishing for a way to express the results of the analysis without making it sound like a failure. "But we managed to find a map amongst his items, and we've managed to trace their lodgings in this city and search their belongings." Ray gave Nain a grim look. "They seem to be from the Liberation Front of All Middle-East, or at least a local branch. I've just sent a transmission to the Lieutenant Colonel; we should get a reply soon on the most current information about those guys."

Nain grimaced. "Our old foes," She shook her head. I hope they've forgotten about the time we shattered their main base with every MS-sized classification of explosive devices Rahabinod had...

CE 73, November 7th, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, 7 kilometres north-west of Petra; Jordan

Night 01 00

Max Altriar, Corporal, crept closer to the edge of his cover, using the chance to look over the rocky terrain, making sure that he was stepping on solid ground and not loose rocks. Beside him, Jake Ourenon and Burton Kalley, the medic and signalman of his squad, respectively, cast furtive glances at the shadows. The moon was full, but patches of cloud cover occasionally covered it. The howling wind, however, kept the moon from being hidden for long, and every few minutes or so, Max would find the bright face of Luna gazing back down at him again.

After that little incident back in Petra, the convoy had set off almost immediately after nightfall, the soldiers having to contend with prepacked rations instead of the field cooking that they were beginning to take for granted.

Max knew that the drivers worked in shifts, but he thought it odd that they would be travelling by night; they usually never did, and they were making good headway even with all the constant stops and distance to the Gulnahan Ravine. But when his squad leader roused him at 2am, and had thrust a rifle, a mug of coffee, and a pair of electronic binoculars at him, he realized what had transpired while he was asleep. The OMNI infantryman and his unlucky chosen partners had crawled, rolled, climbed, slid, and ran for at least two kilometres before reaching the recon point marked on his map. Unfortunately, Max couldn't really grumble; they were just one of many such recon squads on this operation, and he really should have guessed things the moment their contingent commander, Mendez LaFouze, had heartily announced to all of the infantry that tonight's dinner would be cold rations.

"Sodding hell," Jake said, shifting uncomfortably under his full combat gear and medic backpack. "Why a night run, of all things?"

"Beats me," Max replied. "Now stow it and hunker down. They usually take a base like that with an airdrop assault, to keep things as stealthy as possible; if they didn't get news of our trucks rumbling all the way out here, they'll be stupider than I figured them for."

"We started from almost four kilometres back," Jake grumbled. Max knew that of his squad, Jake hated night operations the most, having been an on-base medic for most of his military life until recently. Team signalman Burton was the same, but, thankfully for Max, kept his mouth shut, despite the cumbersome signal set that served as his backpack; Max was dressed in little more than body armour, with his combat vest filled with essentials, while Jake lugged a light-weight medic's pack around; just enough to deal with wounds that might be sustained in a firefight in a single night of operations.

"You'll be surprised at how far people can hear things when out in the wild, far from civilization," Max replied, thinking back wistfully to his previous posting on the western borders of Germany. He enjoyed walking on those forests alongside his family on his off days. "Now stow it, and that's the last time I'll be saying that."

Two kilometres away, Sheryl continued to scan the terrain with her Oracle Lance's improved sensors, utilizing every scrap of visual data sent from the networked binoculars of the advance scouts; arranged in intervals of half a kilometer from each other, they had formed a recon line, and had managed to narrow down the area as stated in the insurgent map the OMNI forces had found earlier that day. She managed to find a suspicious outcropping of rock; a more thorough scan revealed electronically-recognized radio waves leaking from its position, and she wasted no time in relaying the data to Ray.

"Perfect," Ray said. He mentally went through the plan again; blast a hole, neutralize effective resistance, and pave way for the local authorities coming over soon.

"Hunter Leader to all units. On my mark," Ray said. The Manhunter Command held up its right hand, showing three fingers. With the night vision enhancements on the mobile suits, his hand actions could be clearly seen.

Ray counted one down. Kaguya did not even bother sparing a moment to glance at her squad leader's machine, instead keeping the reticule of her Sword Dagger L's beam carbine trained on the area Sheryl had pinpointed.

Ray counted another down. Guy briefly pinched the bridge of his nose to keep his attention from faltering. No matter how many combat situations he had been in the past, every situation was new and different. A miss at this time was unacceptable.

Ray counted one more down. Sheryl steadied her breathing, her right hand gripping the control stick lightly. The enhanced beam rifle in the Oracle Lance's hands made minute position adjustments as she made last-minute adjustments before time ran out.

"Mark," Rey said. The Manhunter Command had its carbine trained on that spot as well.

Sheryl had an eye for things. Guy's Launcher Dagger L fired, and the beam leapt from its Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon's barrel, connecting squarely with the rocky surface of the target point. The material in the cannon fire's immediate area vaporised, leaving a hole roughly fifteen meters in diameter, in the rock outcropping, rimmed with angry red slag, steam, and heavy smoke… and revealing a well-lit concrete tunnel behind it, complete with the rails of a heavy lift built into its surface.

Somewhere in the back of Ray's mind, he silently cursed the bastard back in the era of the Reconstruction War, before the advent of the Cosmic Era calendar, who had concepted the "underground base" stratagem and pushed for its total acceptance. It had been the perfect military method of surviving all-out nuclear exchange. Now, however, the sturdy but outdated facilities across the world had also made local insurgents into subterranean terrorists that were all but impossible to be rooted out properly.

As if the insurgents had expected someone to find them easily, a shot lanced out from the uncovered tunnel to meet the Manhunters. Guy and Sheryl barely managed to return to cover as a powerful beam screamed over the heads of the four Dagger Ls, dissipating high into the night.

"Bloody hell!" Guy exclaimed. "I thought I was supposed to be toting the heavy firepower here!"

Kaguya returned fire down the length of the tunnel while keeping her Dagger L behind cover. It hit nothing, but it did prompt the cannon to fire again. "Hunter Four to Hunter Leader," she opened a comm line to Ray. "This is suspicious, sir. Space-use weaponry is extremely difficult to obtain, considering who these insurgents are… and given that level and type of energy reading, I believe we're facing a main gun salvaged from the turret of a Nelson-class battleship."

Ray had to agree that it was a strange occurrence to say the least. "Hunter Leader to all scout teams," Ray spoke through a secured line. "Report your status."

The sound of gunfire immediately filtered through the open line.

Afterword:

Many of you may have noticed that the locations are far off the paths of the main characters in Gundam SEED Destiny. This is intentional; for the most part, Greyscale World will attempt to bring in an explanation of the world at large, and the people living in it. And if something appears off, no worries; it's just me and my elementary-tier attempt at MUH PLOT HOOKS.I will do my best not to leave them hanging for too long, however…