Gundam Seed: The Federation ver 2

by Blackshadow999

Different telling of Gundam Seed. With the conflict between Naturals and Coordinators getting worse as time passes, some nations have banded together and formed the organization known as the Human Federation. Will the Federation be able to help bring peace or will the hatred between Naturals and Coordinators destroy everything and bring extinction of humanity? Cover by Saddle Patch

9. Phase 9: Chasing the Hunted

A/n

I would like to say thank you to the Front link workers like doctors, nurses, and first responders. They are doing an amazing job and they have helped my family and friends, so I wish to recognize them at this time. Again, I ask you don't hold me to an exact timeline, as I'm estimating the best I can along with the changes I've made in the original timeline. So, the usual disclaimer of me not owning anything to do with the Gundam universe or any other universe I borrow things from. I do take credit for my own characters that I've created along with the custom machines that I describe in this story. Okay then, on with the story!

---

Phase 9: Chasing the Hunted

January 27th, 71 C.E.

---

Lagrange 5, Aprilius One

With the meeting with the PLANTs Supreme Council done, Tyler felt the 'shore leave' was a tad short and non-relaxing. But then, he was also worried about his friends that he had been separated from more than a day ago now. A lot could occur in that period and Tyler's imagination was having a negative field-day of supplying the horrible things that could have happened already. That in mind, he saw it wise to report back to the Donnen, thinking that he could hitch a ride back to wherever he got to go next. Tyler was hoping that destination would be around wherever the Archangel had gone to. Nevertheless, that choice was out of his hands for the moment and in those at Federation High Command.

Tyler was on his way back towards the docking area where the Donnen was at, yet as he came into the corridor that led to the dock, he felt a shiver run down his spine. That shiver made Tyler freeze where he was and look around to attempt to find what had caused the shiver to come over him. As cliché as it may sound to some, Tyler was having the feeling he was being watched and he didn't like the feeling much at all. Oddly though, the corridor that he was currently in was devoid of other people which stuck out to Tyler. This passage was meant for military personnel and not civilians, but for it to be empty at this time when it should have activity, Tyler was sure that there was something wrong with the current picture.

Another shiver runs down his spine, but before Tyler could react in any way, a pair of arms wrapped around his torso. The grip of those said arms was tight and as he hadn't expected them, he was entrapped within the hold. From what else Tyler felt, he was being 'embraced' by a female likely a woman that was his age or a margin older. However, the most telling thing for him was the voice he heard shortly after being trapped. "Ah, I found you again Tyler," cooed a smooth feminine voice, "this must be fate saying that we are a pair destined to be together. By the way, you do look very handsome in that uniform you're wearing."

There was no way Tyler could or would ever forget the voice that had spoken, nor to whom it belonged. With the experience that Tyler had with the owner, how they didn't leave him alone when their paths cross, no matter how many times he told them or the way he delivered the message to leave him alone, it never changed the issue. And the other problem in Tyler's view was no one ever believed him when he told them about what he endured. The moment that he mentioned who bothered him, all had said in some way that he was either exaggerating or lying. Not even his friends had taken what he said about this as true which hurt a bit to him. However, it was understandable why none but a very select few knew what Tyler went through. The individual's reputation was the biggest contributor to the disbelief and Tyler couldn't deny it.

Tyler struggled hard in the hold to escape, but the arms didn't release him though he didn't expect them to really. If anything, the embrace tightened around him and the sound of happy giggling filled his ears. With the individual he was dealing with Tyler didn't like it when she giggled as it didn't bode well for him. That motivated Tyler to try MUCH harder as if his life depended on it and it just might from his perspective. After a minute, Tyler finally managed to squirm out of the hold of the woman trapping him and made distance between her and himself, then spun around to face her.

The woman Tyler saw was twenty-two years of age and had a height of five feet eight inches so, she was about the same height as Tyler himself. Her hair was a neutral shade of pink and it went to her shoulder blades with its length and appeared to be like silk, not that he had gotten close enough to check that. She had a defined full hourglass figure when it came to feminine curves, her beauty was hard to miss and drew attention from those around her. The woman's name is Sakura Clyne, and she was Lacus's older sister and currently, Sakura was wearing a light blue blouse and black dress pants.

Now Sakura's reputation preceded her as she wasn't known to be easy to get along with all the time which was earned with the service she's done in ZAFT. Tyler knew that you merely had to mention her name can and usually did silence a room filled with ZAFT personnel and kills the mood in no time flat. The reason happened to be that Sakura was known for being cold, unyielding, and outright stubborn beyond belief. The woman doesn't accept defeat or take crap from anyone, enemies, or allies, whether they be superior officers few that there were or subordinates. Tyler knew that Sakura was seen to be one of the most ruthless commanders that the ZAFT forces had. Officers in ZAFT either respect her, or they're outright scared of her, and Tyler didn't blame them in the slightest.

Those within the Earth Alliance and more in its OMNI are scared of her for the things she does and has done to them. And Tyler knew if they weren't when they first encountered her, by the time Sakura was done with them, they would be. With what Sakura had done against the Alliance, the fear was understandable, they had never won against ZAFT forces when Sakura had been with them. Honestly, Tyler knew there were even commanding officers in the Federation that were wary of the woman that had been hugging him. That's the kind of reputation that the eldest of the two daughters that Siegel Clyne had.

Yet for some reason when she's around Tyler, especially when it was just the two of them, there was an extreme difference. The pink-haired woman would act like a girl obsessed over a pet or boy when around him. He had never been able to explain why that's the case or why Sakura was so fixated on him. And Tyler had put time and effort into trying to figure out why Sakura was so focused on him and why it was him that she was so different from. However, he had gotten no answer that made any sense to him, just that something about him caused the change. It was annoying to him but also was more a chore as he got help from pretty much no one to fend her off with a few exceptions.

And upon looking at Sakura's face, Tyler wanted to bolt and run away from her as she had a grin that he'd, unfortunately, become familiar with. It was the grin that told him of a chase would ensue as Sakura didn't intend to leave him alone anytime soon. Truthfully, Tyler knew from previous times that running was pretty pointless with Sakura as she caught him the majority of the times he attempted doing so. As hopeless as his situation may seem to some, he didn't let that stop an attempt to escape from Sakura. Tyler gave no sign or warning, just bolted off down the direction he had been heading before he'd been stopped. For the briefest moment, Tyler entertained the thought that he might get away from his pursuer, but alas it was not to be. Sakura had been after him a moment after he shot off and caught him in a hug giggling at the attempt Tyler made to his getaway.

This young man incited feelings in Sakura that almost no other did, and Sakura longed to have them. She had been pursuing Tyler long enough to know some of his methods of attempted escape and she found them amusing. Oh, he resisted now, but eventually, she would get him to accept that he would be hers, and no one else's, Sakura would see to that personally. She was patient and so in the end she would have him for her own and enjoy every moment of being together. "Still playing hard to get Tyler? You know that chasing you provides such an element of fun, but it's foolish to think that you can get away from me. Although, it's so cute," said Sakura in a sweet voice that was admittedly pretty yet didn't fit her usual air. With Tyler in her embrace, Sakura began turning him to show proof of how this chase would end. She started by caressing Tyler's cheek with her own and tingling warmth spread in her chest. Tyler kept struggling, but Sakura's hold didn't release and so he remained trapped in the situation he was in. "Accept that I'll have you as mine," Sakura whispered in Tyler's ear.

Tyler's thrashed around doing his utmost to try and free himself but was having no success in his efforts. He didn't want to endure Sakura's toying with him, the last time had taken a day to recover from. Tyler had things to do and recovering from the woman's actions wasn't on the list and he didn't want it to be. But he was quickly realizing that if there was no change in the next minute or two, he wouldn't have a choice at all.

Sakura giggled at seeing Tyler struggle against fate, it made her plans of snuggling with him and never letting him go all the better. She would show him the sweeter things of life and enjoy them as well and it was high time that it happened. She put a hand on Tyler's cheek and was slowly turning him so that she could kiss him. Sakura was about to claim Tyler's lips with hers when she was interrupted, "Ah Sakura, there you are. I was wondering where you had gotten off to," came the voice of Siegel Clyne.

Tyler held in the sigh of relief that tried to leave him when Sakura stopped when she was clearly about to kiss him. However, Sakura turned around to face her father keeping Tyler hugged to her even if he was facing forward. It was a rather embarrassing position to be in for Tyler as Siegel was a person with fairly high standing. It would have been worse if his mother had seen this scene as it was beyond embarrassing to him. "Hello father, what reason do you have that you would need to find me," asked Sakura before hugging Tyler a bit more reveling in doing the gesture. "I'm a tad busy as you can see, so if it's not important, then whatever it is you need can wait."

Tyler didn't like the implications that Sakura was making at all though 'busy' was the most worrisome term he heard. That word alone got him to stiffen as with Sakura, busy meant things that he didn't want to do with her. Memories of what happened the last time Sakura caught him flashed through his mind and Tyler began to struggle again. As if to prove him right, Sakura then once again turned Tyler around even as he struggled, to resume the attempt to kiss him.

Sure, Tyler would admit that Sakura was pretty, but he was only eighteen and wasn't interested in a romantic type of relationship right now and certainly not with Sakura. And yet, the picture of Tolle on the floor rolling around laughing and as well as cheering him on was he to see what kind of situation he was in right now came to Tyler's mind. But Tolle would be completely and blissfully ignorant of the real situation Tyler faced currently. Tyler tried pulling away from the motion of the woman attempting to kiss him, but it didn't help as she drew ever closer. "Sakura, the Defense Committee wanted to have a word with you as soon as possible," remarked Siegel.

Sakura came to a halt a mere inch from kissing Tyler and frowned slightly at her father telling her the Defense Committee wanted a word. More often than not, the members of the said committee would rant about how she should do what they spouted and other nonsense like that. None of the ignorant fools knew what a real battlefield was like, she doubted that any had been on one anyway. However, duty did require her to at least give them some time, even if it was interrupting what she wanted. "Is that right," replied Sakura, "Fine, if they're so insistent, then I'll give them the time. They'll regret it if this is a method to waste my time with their personal agendas and/or vendettas. I'll make sure of that personally," she said in an emotionless voice.

Tyler felt like he was being offered salvation as it sounded like Sakura would have other things to do now that didn't involve him. And the way she had said the last two sentences at least was much more what Tyler expected from her reputation, emotionless and cold as heck. However, before Sakura released Tyler, she leaned in and kissed his cheek, then pushed away from him. She also 'blew a kiss' towards Tyler as she floated down the corridor and turned around a corner disappearing from view. Tyler felt an involuntarily shiver to go through him before he let out a relieved sigh, "Siegel, thank you very much for your impeccable timely arrival! You saved me from the clutches of that eldest daughter of yours," he said gratefully to his savior.

Siegel smiled a bit at the comment even if it didn't show Sakura most nicely. His eldest daughter had always been the "warrior" of the family and there really was no disputing that. However, Siegel didn't like how others saw Sakura as the cold blood princess that a number called her. It was a tad saddening to know that as she had been a caring and protective individual when she was younger. Both his daughters used to be inseparable, but that had faded after the war had started, unfortunately. "Yes, Sakura has always been stubborn and determined to achieve the goals she sets out on. She gets that from her mother, and what a pity it is that she's not around to see either her or Lacus as they've grown," Siegel commented.

Then things had changed a few years ago with Sakura which Siegel had noticed. She had mentioned that she had seen something around Victoria after the area had been taken from the Alliance, but nothing more than that. But even since that time, she had begun her pursuit of Tyler McGregor and had never let up. Siegel had nothing against the young man, he was a fine upstanding one from what he'd seen. And if Sakura and Tyler ended out together, he would wish them well and hope for the best for them. "Although, I've never understood why she's so set on having a relationship with you Tyler. It came out of nowhere as far as I've seen, still, I have little complaint were you two to end out together," Siegel returned.

Tyler hesitated at that for where Siegel may not see an issue with Sakura ending up with himself as Tyler wasn't as keen on that kind of outcome as she was. He wouldn't deny that it was possible, but Tyler would be fighting it the best he could. "I guess anything is possible, yet it won't be anytime soon if I've anything to say about it. I'm still eighteen for goodness sakes, I'm too young to enter a serious relationship, let alone think about getting married and I don't have an interest in such a thing right now. The way Sakura acts around me versus others is just weird among other things," Tyler commented.

Tyler resumed his journey to the Donnen after making his farewells to Siegel and boarded the ship. He wasn't interested in giving Sakura the chance of catching him again and that could happen if Tyler stayed. Whatever it was that the Supreme Council's Defense Committee wanted would keep Sakura busy for a time and that allowed him to leave. Plus, Tyler was hoping for news on what would come next so that he could plan accordingly to try and help his friends. He would do what he could do for his friends from Heliopolis no matter his orders from high command.

Once onboard the ship, Tyler headed to the quarters that he'd been given for the journey to wherever it will be too. Nonetheless, he'd barely had the time to change out of the stiff Federation formal uniform and into the much more practical uniform when a knock came at the door. Tyler answered the door and found Commander Sulu there. He told Tyler that the captain wanted to see him in her cabin about something. Since Tyler had nothing else to do for the moment, he went to Captain Shepard's cabin to see what the captain had. Once let in, Tyler hovered to be in front of her desk, "You wished to see me, captain, what is it that I can do for you," Tyler asked.

Captain Shepard pushed a folder towards Tyler, "New orders for you and your team from Federation Command, you should look them over," she replied drily.

Tyler caught the folder and opened it, then scanned the few pages that were contained in the folder. His eyes widened a bit as he took in the orders from Federation Command as they were unexpected in a few ways. What Tyler and his teammates were being ordered to do would be good and bad at the same time in Tyler's mind and a stress producer to no end. And while they were from high command, they were more specifically the leaders of the Federation's Military. The orders were as follows:

To: Commander Tyler McGregor,

Lieutenant Lisa Malto,

Sargent Alan Knight,

Sargent Luke Lascy

From: Federation Admiralty

Subject: Priority Assignment

Commander, you and your team were assigned to investigate Earth Alliance activities at the neutral resource space colony of Heliopolis. That mission is officially considered concluded and as such, regulation would have all of you getting time off before a new assignment would be handed to you all. However, due to recent developments, all of you are being assigned to a priority mission right away. Regrettably, this is being asked of all of you after what occurred with Heliopolis, but time is of the essence. The before mentioned mission which is being put to you is very important and the experience you gained at Heliopolis will serve well.

Your mission is to track down and follow the Atlantic Federation's prototype warship known as the 'Archangel'. The knowledge of the ship and potentially the members that make up the crew along with the possible equipment on board the ship which was gained on the investigation will be valuable. Time is limited and will become more so the longer this assignment takes to complete. That being stated, this assignment is to be completed as quickly as possible, but the completion of the objectives is of the highest priority.

The objectives that must be achieved for the mission to be considered completed are as follows:

Prevent data pertaining to mobile suit construction blueprints and/or schematics from reaching either Earth Alliance Lunar Headquarters Ptolmaeus Base or the Alliance's Earth-based JOSH-A headquarters.

Preventing a mobile suit unit(s) from reaching either before mentioned Alliance bases.

Delaying the Alliance vessel named the "Archangel" in their journey to either base and prevent the ship from reaching them if possible

The methods which are used to accomplish this mission are up to you and your team. The more of the objectives that are achieved, the better it will be for all in the Human Federation as a whole. Current information obtained indicates that the "Archangel's" location is in the area of Lagrange 3 heading away from the remains of Heliopolis. Evidence points towards the vessel making its way to the Eurasian Federation's military base Artemis.

Understand the critical importance of the success of this mission for the Earth Alliance and its OMNI from gaining the capability to mass-produce and use mobile suits is viewed as extremely dangerous for the Federation. To all of you, do your utmost to succeed in this assignment, and the best of luck.

Admiral Ben Moses

Admiral Matilda Ajan

The second page that Tyler scanned gave other details about Alliance forces that might be in the position to help the Archangel along its journey from what he saw. There was also more specific detail on things with the assignment on the other pages, but that would be for study later.

This mission had several points that were difficult for Tyler specifically, which can happen with any mission. In this instance, there were things that he might have to do that he REALLY didn't want to do if he could help it. He was glad he'd gotten his wish to go after his friends and make sure that they would make it out of what they were alive. Now he had permission from his superiors and that usually was better as it meant that he wouldn't need to skirt around them. Yet, the objectives are where Tyler was concerned and saw problems cropping up. To have to prevent the Archangel from getting the Strike and/or the Asuka into the hands of the Alliance wouldn't be an easy task at all.

That was because it came down to that was the exact mission of the Archangel, which was to get mobile suits into the Alliance's hands. Tyler certainly didn't disagree with the view of Federation Command in the view of the Alliance obtaining mobile suits being a very bad thing for everyone else. Those in their OMNI would use mobile suits against ZAFT forces at first, but Tyler doubted it wouldn't take long before they were turned against the Federation as well. The logic came from there being those within the Alliance who didn't hide their frustration with the Federation, its standing, and policies. Whispered threats had made it clear that they would attack the member nations to acquire territory and resources from the Federation on Earth given the opportunity. It was the major reason that the Federation does not share scientific information with the Alliance anymore, there was far too much risk involved.

After taking in the orders, Tyler glanced back up at Captain Shepard, "Captain, could I request the Donnen to provide transport for my team and me for the time being while we chase an Alliance vessel? Or at least take us part of the way," he posed.

The woman nodded, "Yes, as it happens, the new orders for the Donnen state it is suspected that there are citizens of Heliopolis on board the same ship you are going to pursuing, and as citizens of the Federation, we have to protect them as best we can," she replied to Tyler.

Traveling on the Donnen would make the task of catching up to the Archangel an amount easier on Tyler and his teammates. So, he bowed to the captain, "Thank you, captain, your hospitality is very much appreciated, my team and I will be staying on the Donnen for a time and look forward to working with you and your crew ma'am."

Mary wasn't exactly sure what to make of this young man for he had proven himself quite a mystery. She had pulled up his personnel file and had been a tad surprised that a sizable portion of it was classified and some of that with a high level of clearance required to view. Tyler was also part of SOLAS which was pretty much unheard of for his age-range, which implied that either he had the skill set or something else qualified him for that group. So, Shepard returned the gesture given to her, "Likewise commander."

After that, Tyler left the captain's cabin and searched for the other members of his team to tell them of the change in what they would be doing. Honestly, Tyler was happy that he would be working with the three he had been as they made a good team thus far. Much like the old phrase, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", Tyler was of the mind that if something worked, why change it? And with a mission like the one they had working together would be crucial for there to be a success. And so, Tyler found Alan and Luke in the room that they had been provided and Lisa was there helping them pack. It had been assumed that they along with Tyler would be leaving the Donnen and going to either be reassigned, very likely separately, or be given leave to get some R&R.

Tyler cleared his throat to get their attention and the three turned and looked at him, "Hey all, new orders have come already, priority mission as it happens. That said, stop your packing, we'll be staying on the Donnen for the time being. And with that in mind, sit down, shut up and listen, I'm going to lay out what our new orders will have us doing," Tyler stated.

Tyler's three teammates sat down on the pieces of furniture that were in the small room and focused on him. With him in the spotlight, Tyler took a deep breath and began, "Okay then, our," he said emphasizing the inclusion of all four. "New assignment is to pursue the Archangel and to prevent them from getting even a mobile suit or data upon the subject into the Earth Alliance's hands. We'll still be working as a team with this assignment until its completion. The methods of how this will be done will be up to us, are there any questions?"

When no one responded, Tyler took that to mean that the information was understood and there were no questions about it. With the information delivered, Tyler left the room while Alan and Luke began unpacking their stuff. However, before he got too far down the corridor on his way to quarters, Lisa stopped him. She could see some potential issues for Tyler at least with the mission they now had. She didn't blame him for wanting to help and save the lives of his friends, it was a good quality. But saving them would likely require he do things that would make it seem that he was a traitor. "Tyler, are you going to be okay with this? You do understand that to obtain the objectives, you might have to either betray those you know on the Alliance ship or at least appear to do so. Are you still going to go through with this, I doubt any would blame you if it were mentioned that there are friends of yours on board that vessel," she inquired.

Tyler knew what Lisa was referring to and it had been weighing down on his mind not too long after reading the orders from Federation Command. To prevent mobile suits from getting to the Alliance, Tyler would likely have to lie and perform sabotage to some degree. It wasn't that he couldn't sabotage as that was a skill Tyler was rather good at and he knew the Archangel's systems very well, arguable better than those that ran her now. And if it were only the OMNI personnel that would have issues, then Tyler wouldn't have such a problem with the mission. It was the imagination of what his friends from Heliopolis would think that haunted him the most. So, he frowned at the question, "Thanks for your concern Lisa, but it best and in my view for me to be on this, it has to be me, someone else might get it wrong. And the consequences that would come as a result of getting things wrong will be people dying."

Tyler paused at the other part of this issue that was looming which involved Athrun and Kira. For as things stood, the two would very likely end out facing one another on the battlefield and might even kill each other. Tyler wanted to avoid that outcome at all costs, but with how events were playing out, such may not be possible. "Plus, if I don't do something, I very well may end up attending the funerals of at least one of my best friends if not both of them among others I know. I-" Tyler's voice caught for a moment, "I don't think I would be able to forgive myself if my two best friends end out killing each other and I did nothing to stop them."

Lisa had an expression of confusion on her face, "What are you talking about?"

Tyler sighed knowing that a bit of an explanation might help, "I have two friends that I went to a lunar prep academy with, and now one is a ZAFT pilot that's under Creuset's command who's pursuing the Archangel. He's piloting one of the stolen Alliance mobile suits, specifically the X303 Aegis if I guess right. The other is on the same OMNI ship that we're going to chase and is one of the two pilots no doubt protecting the ship."

Tyler paused shuttering at the thoughts at the possibilities of what could happen in the future as there were so many and few were good ones. "In the future, they're going to be forced onto the battlefield on opposite sides and will have to fight one another. They wouldn't fight one another under any other circumstance, but they will be forced into because of this dumb war that some idiots keep going. If I side with either one of them, I'll be seen as an enemy to the other, I just don't know what to do in this!" Tyler writhed his hands in frustration and being unable to change how things were right now. "And that's why I hate this freaking war! It's pitting friend against friend, and those who are leading this conflict don't give freaking care that their views and choices are causing this crap!"

Lisa tried to comfort Tyler the best she could, she didn't succeed, but she didn't fully fail either. In the end, Tyler returned to my quarters, and just after he got there he felt the ship moving and upon looking out the viewing port that was in the room, he saw that the Donnen was exiting the docking area of Aprilius One. The Donnen quickly disappeared after clearing the dock and set course towards the Eurasian's Artemis base. There were things to keep Tyler occupied during the time it would take the Federation cruiser to get in range of the Alliance base. Tyler wasn't one to be idle when he had time to wait for something to happen. There would be more than a twelve-hour trip that would need to be made to get to their destination, so he had to give himself work so as not to be restless.

The first thing Tyler did was head down to the hangar bay to chat with the chief mechanic to see if he might be able to do some work on the Shadow. There were things Tyler wanted to get improved and changed while there were the time and equipment to do so with. When Tyler found the man he was looking for, he began to lay out what it was he hoped to be done. The Shadow suit was a marvel of engineering Tyler had to admit and he was becoming very optimistic about what it could do. However, some systems weren't designed to work well with the rest of the system or to work efficiently by themselves.

The best example that Tyler knew about was the Mirage Colloid system that the Shadow had. It was an intriguing jump in stealth technology, but as it was designed sucked down power and generated a great deal of heat as a byproduct. The result of the inefficiency was the operational time was short and the heat could give away position to an extent. Federation stealth technology was better at the point, but the Mirage Colloid was an alternative, but still needed work in Tyler's view. He believed that the issue could be lessened or fixed onboard the Donnen.

Then Tyler liked the shield the Shadow had as it had worked for the three instances that he'd used the equipment. However, Tyler wanted it tailored a bit mostly for his personal preference and as he would be the one piloting it, he didn't see a reason why it shouldn't fit his taste. Then there could be some work done to increase the defensive capabilities, specifically blocking power against beams as phase shift takes projectiles and minimize damage to the unit.

The chief mechanic had no issues with Tyler's request especially since the majority of the mechanics on the Donnen have been looking at the mobile suit with great interest as it was quite different than Federation machines. He did, however, tell Tyler that it would take him and his crew a decent amount of time to get what Tyler wanted to be done as his requested changes were fairly extensive. Tyler told him if problems required him to be out on a battlefield, he would use one of the four fighters that were onboard the ship. The chief was good with that and so he and the other mechanics set to work, and Tyler went back to his quarters.

When Tyler was back in 'his' quarters, he went to the bed and 'laid' on it, or rather floated up with there being no gravity. Yet he didn't take much notice as he got to thinking about recent events with the opportunity. With the collapse of Heliopolis, a lot had changed for Tyler, yesterday morning he had been with friends going to school. Within the last thirty-six hours, Tyler had been separated from them, didn't know what their circumstances were or if they were okay or hurt. He felt horrible that he was not with them right now, and that they were likely worried about him, but it was what it was.

Admittedly, Tyler found it nice to get some sleep as things had been stressful as of late, what with recent events of the meeting with the PLANT's Supreme Council and Heliopolis. And since the trip to Artemis wasn't short, Tyler managed to catch some much-needed sleep even if it wasn't the best quality. It was ten hours to reach Lagrange 3 and close to two hours from there to coming into view of the Eurasian Federation's Artemis Asteroid base.

The asteroid itself had a rough sphere-like shape overall with the main entry center of the forward-facing side of the space rock. Artemis had little tactical value in the current war thus far, mostly as it was out of the way of where most fighting took place. Then with Lagrange 3 being opposite of the moon in Earth's orbital path, the base had been left alone more often than now to this point by both ZAFT and the Federation. However, with the Archangel inside it, those that had been pursuing the ship had taken more of an interest in the base.

And shortly after coming into the visual range of the asteroid, Tyler came onto the Donnen's bridge and tactical center. In the tactical center, the holographic display system was being studied for more information on Artemis currently. Tyler quickly spotted the captain and approached her, "Captain Shepard, what's the current situation thus far with Artemis," Tyler asked.

Shepard glanced up at Tyler and then back down at the digital display that had a holographic representation of the asteroid base and there was a layer over the base itself. Then, there were three much smaller images which were that of ZAFT vessels that were in range to attack the Alliance base. Shepard gestured at the images, "As you can see, Artemis has it's lightwave umbrella up like due to the three ZAFT vessels nearby. And by the radio chatter we've picked up on the Alliance channels, the Archangel is inside the base. Then given the relations between the two major states of the Earth Alliance, I would be shocked if the Archangel is being given the nicest treatment. My assumption is that those inside Artemis are far more interested and intent on inspected the mobile suits onboard."

From what Tyler knew of the internal workings of the Alliance both from what he read and what he knew personally, Captain Shepard wasn't wrong. The Eurasian Federation wasn't on good terms with its technical ally the Atlantic Federation, it was more than the two were at serious odds as of late. If Eurasia could gain an advantage over the Atlantic Federation, then they wouldn't likely say no to the opportunity. That brought up issues that Tyler didn't like nor was fond of contemplating what they could develop into.

Shepard moved the image so that the Artemis base moved to one end of the field displayed and the three other smaller images appeared. "Then, there are these three ZAFT ships, a Laurasia-class and two Nazca-classes positioned at the edge of Artemis's defensive range, hence why the lightwave umbrella being up. Unfortunately, with that barrier up even Federation fighters wouldn't be able to get in as is."

Tyler was silent at what he'd been told knowing that he would have a difficult situation to deal with in this, he just hadn't thought it would be this bad coming out of the gate. Yet, as in everything, Tyler knew that there was a way to get around obstacles even if it wasn't obvious. One only needed to figure out the means to skirt around what blocked the path and that was something Tyler practiced regularly as necessity required. Still, Shepard continued, "Plus, as this is an Alliance base, it makes us go around, or inside it is more of a political mess more than anything else. Artemis is especially problematic being as close to the border between the Federation and the Alliance Territory as it is."

It was an unsaid fact that was a subject of contention from time to time between the Alliance and the Federation. With Artemis next to the border of the established territory, the Alliance would try and claim a portion of Federation space as their own. Such had never stood or gained them more territory, but that hasn't stopped some within the Earth Alliance from trying the tactic.

Tyler didn't say anything to Shepard's statement, merely gazed at the images and considered what possibilities there were to move forward. The current circumstances were definitely volatile and would become worse if nothing changed soon. Tyler didn't expect ZAFT forces to sit idly for long as he knew that Sakura at least wanted to see Artemis fall if just to prove that it could be done. Then as Shepard had said, there were potential political consequences with just rushing into the base recklessly. And Tyler was well-aware that political consequences were not so easily waved off even if those like Creuset made it appear that way. However, those responses could only be justified with concrete proof if those that try to make a fuss don't want the whiplash that can come with their actions. With that point in mind, Tyler gained a soft smile, "You have a point on most of the situation Captain, however, I disagree going into Artemis being a problem," Tyler remarked.

Shepard stared at the young commander with a brow raised as his comment didn't make complete sense. He should know that the Alliance always complained about the Federation coming into 'their' territory even when they were in the wrong. "And why would you disagree Commander McGregor?"

Tyler's smile morphed into a smirk as the art of getting away with things that weren't technically legal was one he knew well. "You say that politics make this a problem for my team going into Artemis. That would be true IF, and only if, two things occur," Tyler emphasized. "The first is that the base is still around and functioning when the current situation is said and done. Then the second thing, you assume that the Alliance personnel will see or detect us enter or us moving around Artemis." Tyler shrugged, "If we're being honest, what amount of currency would you bet that ZAFT forces will attack the base as their quarry is inside? That alone will give the Alliance much more to worry about than Federation pilots being inside their 'impregnable fortress'. Then finally, they won't have proof of any of us being inside the base, so politics is of no real concern in this."

Captain Shepard blinked at the answer and then chuckled, "Indeed, you have a valid point," she replied with a slight smile.

Meanwhile, within Artemis's interior, the Archangel was being locked down without the full knowledge of those on the ship. Those that weren't on duty along with the refugees were told to gather in the mess hall, but not why. However, it was clear that something was off and wrong when the non-commissioned crew entered and were followed by Alliance soldiers with guns. "Alright, all of you freeze," commanded the lead Artemis soldier. The soldiers behind the first followed suit and leveling their assault rifles at the people in the mess hall. "No one move!"

The refugees huddled in a tighter group, further confused and scared at what was happening while the crew members in the mess hall were just trying to process what was going on. Artemis was supposed to be an allied base belonging to the Eurasia Federation, so this situation wasn't expected at all. At the same time, the Archangel's bridge crew also found themselves facing gun-barrels being pointed at them. In fact, all on the Archangel were finding themselves in much the same situation of having guns aimed at them as the ship was locked down. The non-bridge crew was herded to the mess hall over twenty minutes and a watch was set over them.

Murrue and Natarle were attempting to wrap their heads around why they would be treated as they were, akin to an invasion of the Archangel. Even without allied codes, the actions that those here at Artemis were taking were extreme, to say the least. An inspection would be understandable, but a full-on lockdown and soldiers threatening to shoot if cooperation wasn't given made no sense at all. And the majority of the bridge crew were wondering the same things that Murrue and Natarle were. Yet Mu and Krystal weren't all that surprised at this development as they had figured there would be no warm welcome. That was the reason they had taken the steps they had to prepare for this possibility. There came a point that Murrue couldn't stay silent, "What are any of you doing," she demanded.

Murrue was frustrated as the ship's crew was being threatened and pretty much bullied for no real reason and it irked her. Granted, she was aware that the relationship between the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasia Federation wasn't the best, but that shouldn't translate to abusing authority like this. And that her demand for an explanation went ignored only feed her frustration to burning hotter.

Natarle was also getting frustrated and was going towards irritation and couldn't keep quiet for long either. "Lieutenant Commander Biddulph," stated Natarle evenly controlling her growing irritation, "I request an explanation for these actions which should be customary manners for those that are allies."

"We are only locking down the ship's controls and weapons systems as part of our standard security procedures," replied Biddulph cutting Natarle off.

Natarle experienced a mix of incredulity and irritation, "Lockdown? Since when do lockdowns," Natarle started snapping but stopped herself in her outburst and took a quick moment to regain control of her emotions. Then she continued in a calmer voice, "I know that our arrival was unplanned and is somewhat odd, but there's no need for you to go this far."

The response that Natarle received was a soldier aiming a gun at her directly which didn't help her mood at all. "Isn't a large and heavily armed force a bit much for a standard 'lockdown' of an allied ship Lieutenant Commander," posed Krystal. "It's almost as if you're treating us as prisoners or enemies rather than allies as we are."

The man in charge of this glared at Krystal, but she returned the glare and for half a minute there was a stare down which Krystal won in the end. The commander straightened his uniform before turning back to both Natarle and Murrue, "Your vessel isn't recorded in the ship register," continued Biddulph, "Naturally we have no identification code for it. Given the circumstances as they are, we permitted your entrance to our port. Unfortunately, it hasn't yet been determined if we recognized you as friendly."

Natarle was aware that the Archangel didn't have an identification code yet and wasn't in the ship register for OMNI. However, for that point to translate to what was happening didn't make logical sense, it was more an excuse in Natarle's view. "But that doesn't," Natarle began to object.

"This is a military facility," stated Biddulph. "Do at the very least keep that in mind."

Murrue didn't buy what was being said, it was sounding more like an excuse all the time. What Krystal and Mu had said was coming back to mind that there would be no warm welcome. And Murrue was trying to think of some way to change the situation from what it was, but nothing was coming to mind. Mu and Krystal were just watching this knowing that what was being done and the justification was a lie. The likely explanation was that there were some here that wanted a look and access to the mobile suits onboard the Archangel.

"Now then, I would like the officers to brief us on the current situation," said Biddulph. "You shall accompany me."

Meanwhile, in the command sector of Artemis, Rear Admiral Gerard Garcia, the leading commander of the Artemis base stared at screens displaying the harbor from his office. "The top-secret military project of the Atlantic Federation," he said smiling. "Who would've guessed it would jump right into our lap with little resistance? If this isn't a good turn for the Eurasian Federation, I would argue what could be all that much better."

"It would seem that all those rumors that have been circulating about Heliopolis were true after all," said Garcia's second-in-command. "It's more surprising that the Federation nor ZAFT found out about it and did something before this."

"Indeed," Garcia mused, "We'll invite these people to remain here, on an extended 'shore leave'."

At that moment, there came a knock on the door, "Excuse me, sir," came the voice of Biddulph, "I've brought with me four officers from the unidentified vessel."

"Yes, enter," said Garcia. Biddulph opened the door and entered, followed by Murrue, Natarle, Mu, and Krystal. Monk stood up smiling even more broadly, "Greetings, welcome to Artemis."

Back on the Archangel the time the commissioned officers were taken to the mess hall and were kept there with the Refugees. In the room there were two groups, the first group was the rest of the crew of the ship and the other was those who weren't helping run the ship. The only thing any had been told was that they would be kept here while the 'lockdown' was in place. Any resistance to this had quickly been put down, and none asked their watchers anything since they would unlikely get anything from them.

Sai himself was getting irritated at what was happening, both the Eurasian Federation and the Atlantic Federation were a part of the Earth Alliance, weren't they? So then, why were they being treated like enemies in this? The subject was so frustrated, Sai leaned over to Pal Romero, "The Eurasian Federation is supposed to be an ally to the Atlantic Federation isn't it?" he muttered, looking at Pal. "Don't they have good enough relations with each other for something like this not to occur?"

Pal figured that Sai and the other volunteers probably didn't know what the relationships within the Alliance were like with them having been in a neutral colony. Truthfully, the Alliance was more groups that had a common enemy than friends or groups working together in cooperation. "No, not really," replied Pal quietly. "In truth, the Earth Alliance is just holding together due to the tense terms between its members. The only reason the Alliance hasn't fallen apart or collapsed is the war against ZAFT. Our current situation might not be as much of a problem if we had proper identification codes, but I can't say."

"Don't have proper codes my rear, the idiots in charge are just latching onto that as an excuse to do what they want," said Murdoch quietly glancing at Arnold. "There's something else going on here mark my world."

The opinion that Chief Murdoch had was the same that what was left of the crew had too. Those at Artemis were making excuses to get what they wanted, whatever that was as nothing had been mentioned yet. And Arnold Neumann who was the highest-ranking officer left on the ship with those taken figured he should do what he could to keep things going bad. "I would agree with that Chief," said Arnold, "but don't do anything rash yet, they have guns and we don't.

Listening in on the exchange, Kira sighed at the subject matter as it made him feel uneasy and worried. He stepped over into a corner bringing Lacus with him so that they could have a private conversation, "What do you think of this," asked Kira quietly.

"I think we may be in trouble," she said softly. "Even if Commander Creuset wasn't with those chasing us at the start, he will be as soon as he can. He is one of ZAFT's elite, a dangerous strategist, and extraordinarily persistent. My sister may not like him, but she can't deny that he gets results even if she doesn't like the methods he uses to get them. We have lost some that would help us and from the looks of things, we haven't found allies at all. It's like we're shoved back to square one."

"Yeah," mumbled Kira in a disheartened tone.

Back in the office of Garcia, he was looking over the personnel files on the four officers that now stood in front of him. "Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, Lieutenant Mu La Flaga, First Lieutenant Krystal McAlester, and Ensign Natarle Badgiruel," stated Garcia. Then the man glanced up at the four he had referred to, "Well, it would appear your identification is authentic Atlantic Federation IDs."

Mu decided to show manners and see what that got them as there was little else that could be done right now. "We apologize for any trouble we might've caused," said Mu taking the lead.

"And thank you for allowing us to dock here in Artemis sir," added Krystal instantly seeing what Matt was trying to do.

"Think nothing of it," said Garcia before he smiled. "As a matter of fact, I'm well acquainted with both of your illustrious names Lieutenant La Flaga and you Major McAlester." He pointed to Mu first, "You're the one they call the 'Hawk of Endymion'." He then pointed to Krystal, "And you're the one known as the 'Lunar Peregrine'. I too saw my share of action while stationed at the Grimaldi Front." Garcia grimaced slightly. "Came closer to death there than anywhere else… And when the Roc and his demons behind him showed up," he paused, "doubt I was the only one that thought I would make it out alive at that point."

"Ah, then you were with Commodore Marks's defense unit were you?" asked Mu, hiding his own grimace. The "Roc" to which Garcia referred was the infamous "Grimaldi Roc," an elite ZAFT commander and one of ZAFT's champions. His team had the nicknamed the 'Vultures', as they cleaned up a field like the bird they were named after.

The Roc himself had the infamous reputation for his talent with close-combat tactics as well as his use of a scythe to cleave his enemies into pieces whether strike fighters or ships. And lastly, the other point was his love for attacking from above in a manner reminiscent of the same mythological predator he was named after. Mu had tangled with the man at the Battle of the Endymion Crater, managed to tick off the man by shooting down one of his comrades. It was an encounter Mu barely survived though the Roc later saved his life by warning him of the Cyclops System blast that ended the battle. The man had vanished, and nothing was heard of him after that battle and was presumed dead.

Krystal suppressed a grimace at the mention of the ZAFT Campion and ace as well. A close friend of hers had been shot down by the Roc, when the man had decided to leisurely sit outside the carrier she had been assigned to, blowing apart the mobile armors after they distanced themselves from the ship as they did for resupply. She had been a fresh green armor pilot at the time and so could do very little but watch and pray. The man seemed to have a bizarre sense of humor, but the results achieved couldn't be denied.

"That's right," said Garcia, in response to Mu's query. "The battle may have ended in defeat for the Alliance, but your heroic feat in single-handedly taking multiple GINNs each gave us a sorely needed morale boost." Garcia glanced over at Krystal, "Then you, damaging and disabling the Black Zephyr's Jade Knight along with half of their team forcing them to retreat, didn't hurt at all," said the man, referring to another infamous ZAFT team which Krystal had managed to take on.

The ZAFT mobile suit team which had been led by the 'Jade Knight' had been under the command of the most infamously dangerous of ZAFT's champions, the Black Zephyr. There were rumors that the Jade Knight was also another ZAFT ace, also known as 'the Mocking Jay', but no fact could confirm if that was true or now. Most of them had been destroyed in the Endymion Cyclops blast including their leader assumedly. If the pilot was somehow still alive, what they were doing now, none knew as there had been no evidence about what happened to them. "Very kind of you to say, sir," said Mu with Krystal nodding, but saying nothing.

"However," continued Garcia, "Who would've believed the two of you, of all the people that could have popped up and appear on the prototype ship of the Atlantic Federation?"

"My comrade and I are on a special mission sir," said Mu seriously. "Unfortunately, we aren't at liberty to disclose any details at this time."

"I understand," said Garcia. "But it'll be difficult to resupply you right away."

Murrue wanted the man in charge here to understand what the current situation was, it may help the Archangel. "It's absolutely vital that we head to Lunar HQ as soon as humanly possible," said Murrue. "As you no doubt know, we're being pursued by ZAFT forces."

"By ZAFT forces you say," said Garcia, something almost condescending about his demeanor. He pressed a button on his desk, and the nature scenes displayed on the screen behind him disappeared, replaced by an image of Artemis with its umbrella shield activated. On the other side of the shield, there was a single Laurasia-class frigate and two Nazca-class Destroyers a short distance away. Murrue gasped at the sight as it showed things were grimmer than she had thought, "As you can see, the ships have been roaming around outside the umbrella," Garcia said turning his chair to face the screen. "They've been there for a short while now. One or two even three vessels are of little concern to us here, though if you were resupplied," he turned his chair back to face them, "it would still mean you'd be unable to depart, wouldn't it?"

Mu knew that with ZAFT here, they wouldn't leave and the more time they had, the more likely they would find a way inside. "They won't abandon their pursuit of the Archangel sir, not with Creuset driving them on," Mu said. "We cannot afford to remain here for long or we risk damage to Artemis."

Garcia chuckled, "Did I hear you, right Lieutenant," he asked. "Damage to our base? They're powerless to do anything to us, and they'll eventually leave, it happens all the time."

Mu held in the frustration he felt at the claim as he didn't believe it for a second. He had dealt with Rau Le Creuset enough to know the man was beyond dogmatic and he wouldn't let the chase go. This base would merely slow him down for a time, not stop him, of that Mu was sure. "With all do you respect commandant, their commander, Rau Le Creuset won't just give up," Mu stared but was cut off as Garcia raised a hand.

"At any rate, I recommend you get some R&R," remarked Garcia. "You appear to be exhausted, so I'll have your quarters prepared for all of you,"

Garcia pressed another button while Krystal spoke up, "Commandant couldn't we…"

"Excuse me, sir, you needed something," said an officer opening the door.

"We'll have a chance to get in contact with Lunar Headquarters once they leave and we can lower the shield," said Garcia seemingly to reassure them. "We'll make arrangements afterward, so relax and get some rest, all of you."

Mu wasn't going to let the conversation end there, not with the stakes being what they were. "You're that certain," he posed after a moment, "that Artemis is that safe from all attacks?"

Garcia smirked, "I assure you, Lieutenant, it's as safe as an infant in its mother's arms."

Naturally, this did nothing to reassure any of the Archangel officers least of all Mu and Krystal. After the meeting, the Archangel's officers had been escorted to a room that had been prepared for them. Once inside the room and the door closed, Natarle privately let her companions know her opinion. "I understand that the Archangel may be unregistered," she said with frustration, "but this kind of treatment is inexcusable!" The military protocol was so heavily coded into Natarle's mind and psyche, that the thought of ambitious soldiers acting against protocol to further their own goals was almost entirely foreign to her. She came from a family that for many generations had served in the military and done so with distinction. So, the way things were run around this base that they had seen was irritating her a great deal and she wasn't the only one that was not happy about it.

"Logically speaking, you're probably right, but people aren't always logical rather they are inclined to fool themselves. Besides, there isn't much we can do for the moment," said Mu in reply. "Right now, those guys would much more prefer we didn't return to the ship since they brought us here. A way to keep us from organizing resistance against them I would bet, but there's something that concerns me even more."

Mu looked down at the ground in thought about the issues they faced. Krystal had seen the expression on his face before and she also was thinking of the problems they had right now. "Would it be the fact that these soldiers here on Artemis have an unquestioning faith that they're secure against any enemy assault," inquired Krystal.

Mu nodded to Krystal's question, "That's the big point right now, there is no such thing as a base that cannot be taken," said Murrue in agreement, "and no defense is perfect or absolute. That fact is one that has been proven in this war by both the ZAFT forces and the Federation to the Alliance."

Meanwhile, the mood aboard the Gamow was tense and it was mostly due to a few people on the ship. One of those, would be Yzak Joule and he was in a very, VERY bad mood, and the reason why was readily apparent. While Dearka and Nicol got to keep their fancy new captured machines after the battle with the Alliance vessel, the same couldn't be said for Yzak. He had gotten stuck in a GINN so that he could fly during the time the Duel which had been heavily damaged was being repaired. However, while everyone knew why he was in a bad mood, being around him and having to deal with his foul mood wasn't something any of them really wanted to tolerate. Not even his fellow pilots Dearka and Nicol could ignore how their comrade was acting and they confronted him about it. As a result, Yzak did his best to rein in his foul mood, mostly by just keeping his mouth shut.

Currently, Captain Zelman who had gathered the three pilots to discuss how to go about their current mission began the briefing. They had been watching the Alliance base for around an hour and nothing had changed, "The shield blocks all lasers and projectiles coming at it," explained Zelman, as the tactical screen displayed a digitized model of Artemis and the umbrella, "Although the same could be said for anything going out."

"So, what it comes down to is, they won't be attacking us, and we can't attack them," said Dearka, somewhat condescendingly. "What a perfectly lame invention."

"Although it is a purely defensive system, it's quite an achievement nonetheless," countered Zelman. "This base hasn't had any strategic importance, so up to this point, our forces have pretty much ignored it. That's of course, outside of the Black Zephyr expressing an interest in trying to crack it open to prove that it can be done to OMNI."

"I'm guessing the opportunity doesn't arise often enough for the Zephyr to organize an operation," said Nicol. "I've met and have known the Black Zephyr for a couple of years, I can't see something like this slowing someone like her down for long."

"Correct, but that reason is irrelevant to our current situation," said Zelman. "For us, it's a matter of not having the means to break through that shield even with three ships on the station. So, we're in a tricky position, but they're pretty much stuck as well."

"So, what's the strategy then, kick back till they come out," Dearka asked snickering to himself.

Zelman frowned at his behavior, "Stop clowning around Dearka," growled Yzak angrily. "When Commander Creuset gets back from the PLANTs, do you want to be the one to tell him we weren't able to do anything about the legged ship? We'd be totally humiliated if we have nothing to show for the time we've had!"

Nicol kept quiet and ignored the argument between his comrades focusing on the tactical problem they faced. He frowned as he stared at the tactical screen trying to come up with something that could change the current situation. He thought about what the Black Zephyr would say at a time like this. She certainly wasn't one to just accept that there is nothing that can be done facing an opponent that's in a place of security. Then Nicol remembered a line that she had said while visiting his father the last time, 'In war, the way is to avoid what is strong is to strike at what is weak'. However, there wasn't a weakness apparent or obvious, not while the shield was up. Yet that thought caused Nicol to have a realization as to where the focus on this enemy defense should be.

"Captain Zelman, when does the lightwave shield Artemis has close? I assume that it isn't up all the time, it would draw lots of power if they did that. So, it has to be shut down at some point," asked Nicol drawing everyone's attention.

Zelman put a hand to his chin, "You would be correct, it does close and shut down. The shield only remains active while enemies are within a particular range of the base," said Zelman, before he looked at the display and frowning. "The problem is that range is greater than any ZAFT vessel's weapons can reach. So, even if we were to approach while it's closed, they'll detect us before we get close enough to fire upon the base since they will simply reactivate the shield."

"In war, the way is to avoid what is strong is to strike at what is weak," muttered Nicol to himself.

"Nicol," questioned Dearka uncertainly wondering what his comrade was getting at.

"What is the weakness of the lightwave shield," posed Nicol before barreling on to answer his own question. "The emitters that generate it like the make up the shield projection system. That is consists of a network of projectors across the surface of the fortress that emit the lightwaves that construct and maintain the shield. That's where the defense of Artemis is weak, and so that's where a strike must be made to take down the defenses."

"Sure Nicol, you're probably right with the emitters but, not even the Buster's long-range shots could hit enough emitters before the shield goes up. You would have to take out enough of them in a small area and you would have to know exactly where the emitters are. The other difficulty is that N-jammers will start interfering with targeting and throw off your aim within a few shots," retorted Dearka in return.

"True, but that's a direct approach that ends up striking at what's strong again," said Nicol. "All warfare is based on deceiving your opponent while thinking ahead of them to bring about victory for yourself. So, breaking that down, we need to find a way to strike at the fortress's weakness, and deception would be the best way to do that," he paused, "and I think I know the perfect tool for the idea."

"And what is that, coward," demanded Yzak irritably.

Nicol looked up seeming almost serene, "The Blitz is a rather unique machine," he said. "Sure, it has the same phase shift armor like the other OMNI mobile suits. However, it has another rather interesting feature as well which I believe they came up with to use against the Federation. And if it is used right will put me in a position to take down enough of the shield emitters." He tapped the screen. "To strike at what is weak, to give us a tactical advantage."

Back around Artemis in its control room, Garcia stood looking out at the Archangel docked right outside smiling, still not believing his luck. For the results of the Atlantic Federation's secret project to come to him was unbelievable and good fortune. The power this would bring to the Eurasian Federation would help its standing in the Earth Alliance. Also, it would give him a good amount of credit in the military and even a possible promotion, there was a lot of possibilities. The Eurasian higher-ups would definitely be pleased as the Atlantic Federation had been tightly lipped about their project. The console in front of him beeped suddenly alerting him that someone wanted to speak with him. Activating the intercom, he spoke, "What is it?"

"The ZAFT Laurasia-class and the two Nazca-classes are leaving the area," said the officer, "Yellow twenty-two, mark fifteen, bravo, distance seven hundred and increasing steadily."

Garcia was satisfied to hear that the ZAFT ships were finally giving up and leaving. The group had stuck around longer than ZAFT forces did on average that came around Artemis. "Very good," he said. "Tell Lieutenant Rize he is to keep an eye on them and to shut down the shield when those ZAFT ships are gone. Continue to maintain surveillance of the area." At that moment, his lieutenant entered the control room behind him. "Find anything," asked Garcia.

"Sir, it's proceeding smoothly," reported the lieutenant. "We're still in the process of examining the unregistered vessel. However, about the titans onboard," the officer hesitated, "There is a minor issue."

"Well, what is it," asked Garcia evenly as he wasn't interested in complications.

"There is some kind of lock on their OS's that we simply haven't been able to figure out," he said. "We have been attempting to activate them but have had no success."

Having mobile suits but being unable to activate them was like not having them at all in the end. Separating the ship officers from the rest of the crew had been the step Garcia had hoped would curtail issues. However, it appeared that some preparation had been done beforehand, which meant that Garcia had underestimated at least some of the officers of the Archangel. He frowned a bit, "I see," he acknowledged, "What steps have been taken so far?"

"We have assigned all of our technicians to study how to remove the lock, and they're working on it as we speak," continued the officer.

Garcia gritted his teeth as that would likely take time and with what had happened with the Heliopolis Colony, the Federation was poking around. ZAFT forces around Artemis was fine, they were predictable and could be managed. The Federation's military on the other hand was much more difficult as they could go where they wanted, and no one knows.

Once the Donnen was within a decent range of the Eurasian asteroid base, it was the cue for Tyler and his teammates to start towards the hangar. Infiltrating an enemy base may sound simple, but it was normally not, and Tyler knew that from personal experience. Even as he put on a Federation pilot suit which was the same overall as what Lisa and the others had, just different colorations with blue and white instead of blue and grey. Tyler was imagining the possible difficulties ahead as he and his team suited up.

He was confident that the four of them could pull off what it took to get the Archangel out of the base. Tyler didn't doubt that those in-charge at Artemis would have come up with an excuse to keep the Archangel there. The ship itself and the mobile suits it had onboard were too tempting for them to pass up an opportunity for the Eurasian Federation to get ahead of the Atlantic Federation. The predictability of the Alliance didn't worry Tyler as much as what ZAFT forces would add to the mix. And honestly, if not for the Archangel being there with his friends on board, Tyler would have been rooting for ZAFT forces to win against Artemis. The Eurasian Federation base and its personnel had a notorious reputation of being absolutely confident that their base's defenses were unbeatable. Specifically, the lightwave shield that the base had was boasted to be an impenetrable and unbeatable defense and they stated that as fact. The boast was dumb and Tyler was in full agreement with those who knew that to be so as it was a matter of tactics to get through and the security was lax for the base.

No, it was the unforeseen circumstances that could come up that worried Tyler in this and that would come from ZAFT forces. Once Lisa, Alan, Luke, and Tyler had finished putting on their pilot suits, he went over the mission, its objective, possible problems that could come up, and the requirements that they would be under. None of the others had an issue with the plan that Tyler had come up with, so they exited the locker room and headed to the hangar.

In this mission, Tyler would love to the Shadow on the mission into Artemis, yet it was still getting work done on it that he had requested the chief mechanic of the Donnen to do. That being said, there were parts and cabling exposed and not in the places they should be meaning that the suit wouldn't usable at this time. So, Tyler opted to use a Federation space fighter, which wouldn't be a bad trade as they weren't machines to scoff at or underestimate. With the current fighter model that's used and developed by the Federation, it had mobility and weaponry that could match ZAFT mobile suits.

The HFCS-D201 Delta Fighter or just Delta Fighter as it's referred to for short is as mobile armors are for the Earth Alliance and mobile suits are for ZAFT. It had a length of eighteen point six meters from the end of the rear thrusters to the tip of the nose of the machine. The fighter has small thrusters at different places that give the machine the superior mobility that even ZAFT mobile suits have a hard time matching. The fighter is white in overall color and had blue along the wing edges and top of the rear jets. There was also blue color on the center and top of the fighter's middle and the inside of the nose of the craft. The nose and forward section of the fighter was made up of a shield-like shape that was wider at the back than the front. A large blue fin was set in the center, starting about a meter from the nose tip.

The wings system was made up of two different sections; the first was the main wings on either side and was in line with the upper center of the craft. The piece comprised of two wings extended out, the front one was less than a meter long and the back wing has a length of a couple of meters and both were parallel to one another. The second part of the wing system was above the main wings and was separated by the meter and a half diameter front mount of the rear thrusters. The wing's length was around the same as the back wing of the main wing system, though it was thinner. There were also short fins on either side of the wing, the inside more forward than the outside fin. Plus, there was a booster halfway down the wing, built into a raised section of the upper wing.

The fighter's systems were standard within the Federation with what would be considered standard optics that OMNI and ZAFT forces use. For power, there is an efficient battery built into the machine. The real differences come with two systems equipped that the Federation used exclusively. The first is the Specter Camouflage Field or SC field which allows the fighter not to be detected or seen by current sensor technology. And when combining that with the method used in the heat disbursal from the thrusters there is no heat signature to give away position. The second system equipped is a recharge cable that can be tap into a facility's own power grid or into an enemy unit's battery.

For armaments, the Delta Fighter has a pair of "pepper" 60mm vulcan guns that are mounted next to the forward optical array in the upper half of the nose sections. The guns themselves were not meant for penetration however, the round from them cause impact which translates to shaking the cockpit of the other machine as well as for interception. Next, is a pair of railguns that attach to the backpack for mid-ranged combat. The final weapon which was optional was located on the underside and rear of the nose section, which can be one of two optional weapons. The first is a Plasma Pulse Cannon or PPC which causes heavy and explosive damage on the intended target. The other is a rapid assault machine cannon, that had the capabilities of a machine gun and is loaded with high caliber armor-piercing rounds. All the armaments could be used and fired while the optical camouflage is active without affecting either in a noticeable way.

Tyler and his teammates separated into the Delta fighters that they would use for the mission to Artemis. As Tyler approached the fighter that he was going to pilot, an area in the midsection of the craft rose up and aside to allow access to the cockpit. The fighter cockpit wasn't what many would call tight or confined exactly, but there wasn't much extra room to work with for the pilot. However, Tyler had used the fighter model so he had no personal issues with space and even if he did, he would have ignored the feeling with the stakes as they were. His friends could be and likely were in some kind of danger currently and Tyler wasn't going to let such be the case for much longer.

He slipped into the fighter's cockpit and settled into the seat before feeling and hearing the audible click of his suit's backpack section locking into the seat structure. Tyler was buckling in the other restraints and checking them when a mechanic came over the hatch catching his attention. "Commander, all systems on this fighter should be fine as we checked them a few hours ago," he said.

Tyler glanced up and nodded in thanks and acknowledgment of what the mechanic had said. "Thank you, the work is appreciated," he returned.

The mechanic nodded, "Good luck to you and your team commander," he said before withdrawing from the space the fighter cockpit hatch left when it was open.

Tyler pushed the button on the right control set console that had one of the joystick manipulation control. The hatch for the cockpit closed throwing the interior of the cockpit into darkness for Tyler other than the command pad on the right forearm of his suit. The darkness lasted only for a moment before two lights from just behind his seat came on and he was now able to see the forward control console, along with the left and right control board sets. The right control set had a vertical joystick and other buttons and switches. The left had a horizontally oriented joystick control and like the right control set had an assortment of buttons and switches including a throttle sliding lever. The forward console had the main sensor and information display in the center with a small touch board connected to the bottom of the display screen. On either side of the information screen were other smaller screens that would show the status of the fighter's primary systems. Under Tyler's feet were actuators that could be used for more fine piloting control with the thrusters.

Tyler touched a button below the main display and the controls lit up with the screens on the forward console came to life and hummed as the system started up. The forward screen displayed the startup of the OS that the fighter was installed with and went through the system checks. To his left, right, and ahead, images of what was outside the fighter's cockpit appeared that were fed by the optical sensors on the outside of the machine. Tyler felt a jerk as the fighter moved towards the rear of the hangar for launching out of the ship. By the time that his fighter's operating system was finished loading and running checks, his machine connected to the track that shortly began taking the craft to the upper linear catapult.

Once Tyler reached the catapult, there was a clunk as the fighter was released from the holding dock. Next, shutters closed below to create an airlock for the catapult and the air was sucked out of the space before the outer door of the catapult rose. Tyler looked forward at the view of space and the Donnen's central hull below him outside. Then Tyler observed the two-electron rails on either side of the catapult extend out and lock for their part in the acceleration the catapult makes possible. A low hum began as power was supplied to the catapult and there was a second clunk from the supply cable that was unlocked so that it could come off when the fighter launched. Tyler gripped the right joystick and the throttle, looking forward and waiting for the signal to take off.

The signal came shortly, and he shot off down the catapult, the electro rails increasing his speed as he left the cruiser. Tyler was followed shortly by his teammates off the lower and upper linear catapults. When clear of the ship, the four engaged their fighters' camouflage before turned towards Artemis. However, before they flew off there came one final message from the Donnen, "Commander McGregor, the Donnen will be heading to the other side of Artemis. You'll be on your own from here, all that we can do is wish you and your team luck with your objective," said the voice of Captain Shepard.

That's one of the nicest things Tyler had heard from this female captain and it took him by slight surprise. Tyler wasn't the most popular with ship officers as he was young and had a license to do pretty much as he saw fit. So, he was used to be 'wished well' and shoved off a ship by its officers as it had happened before. "The information is appreciation captain as it the wishing us luck. We'll meet you on the other side when everything is said and done," he replied.

"Very well, Donnen out," returned Shepard.

Ahead of the four was the tough mission of infiltrating the OMNI base Artemis and then getting the Archangel out in one piece. Tyler knew that getting through the lightwave shield would be a challenge and more so while not being noticed. The shield itself prevented objects from passing through and that included space fighters. That then meant that tactics would be required to get past the shield, yet no simple ones were visible. And that didn't change in the ten minutes that it took the four to get within a short distance from the shield. Being right up close to Artemis's lightwave shield did show Tyler the idea itself was an impressive achievement in the area of defensive technology. "So, anyone got any ideas on a way of slipping into this OMNI base," he asked on the encrypted Federation channel.

A discussion between the four ensued, yet none of them could come up with a viable means of entering Artemis. As Tyler listened to the others, he got frustrated at just sitting outside of the shield and not able to get inside it. Yet as his frustration was rising towards a boiling point, he caught sight of an Alliance shuttle that tends to be used for maintenance around colonies or bases sailing along. As the shuttle was outside the shield, Tyler knew it had to have come out and get back in as the shield had been up for a decent amount of time now. A smile grew on Tyler's face at the logic that was coming to his mind, and he cut over Lisa who was currently speaking. "Hey all, listen up, I believe I got a way in, which is approaching at our three-o-clock," he remarked.

There was silence for a moment, "You talkin about the OMNI shuttle mate," asked Luke.

"Indeed I am Luke," Tyler returned without missing a beat, "the shuttle is outside the lightwave barrier and will need to get in at some point. That requires the umbrella to open some time for that to be possible, even if it is only a small gap. That should work well to our advantage, would anyone disagree?"

Tyler heard nothing from anyone, so he took that to say that none disagreed and that the idea he had. With a plan in mind, the four moved their fighters to be in line around the shuttle as it kept skirting Artemis's shield. They used the OMNI shuttle to get into the base much like ancient historical accounts say those who defeated the Trojans with the trick horse. The craft traveled for five minutes to where the front entry to the port into Artemis was and once in that area, a section of the umbrella the size that would allow a moderately sized warship through with a little room to spare formed. With that amount of space, Tyler and his teammates had no issue whatsoever getting past the shield with the shuttle. And there was no sign that any Alliance personnel was any the wiser to the four outsiders in their base.

The four quickly stopped following the shuttle and began cruising around the docking area avoiding being in the path of any spacecraft. As Tyler and his team moved around the open area, they spotted OMNI ships and mobile armors docked and smaller craft floating around. Tyler did note that those here looked bored and therefore were being lazy in what they were doing. And while he expected the behavior especially with how the Eurasian Federation boasted about this place, it was still sad to see. But with ZAFT forces outside Tyler didn't think such would last for all that much longer.

Tyler soon caught sight of the Archangel as it was the only white ship here and it was in one of the more elaborate docks. He slowly made his way over to where the vessel was docked and flew over it to see what had been done to her. After Tyler took a moment to look over the vessel, there wasn't any obvious evidence that anything had been done to the outside of the Archangel, other than locking her into the dock she was in. The moorings would make leaving more difficult while they were in place, but Tyler was sure a well-aimed shot would get the locks to go away. Yet, he also knew that doing such an action would draw serious attention, and that's not what would help right now. There was too much unknown to risk foolhardy actions and the lives of his friends were too important to do that kind of thing.

Tyler was deliberating on the best course of action to take next would get in the Archangel. Rushing right in would be unwise, yet with ZAFT forces camping out it was just as dumb to not keep an eye on them. Then it came to Tyler that with the team of four, they could split into two pairs and do both watching and investigation at the same time which would be ideal. The first thought Tyler had was for him and Lisa to team up, but he knew it would be better that he and she not. Leadership skills would be needed in both pairs and since Tyler and Lisa had those more than Luke and Alan, the pairs were somewhat set. Tyler decided that Lisa and Alan would keep an eye on the activity around the docks and warn him and Luke if something comes up.

That would leave Tyler and Luke to slip inside the Archangel and see what the situation was and do what they could to make it better. Tyler may not know the crew of the Archangel well with the time he had around them, but he honestly couldn't see them being interested in letting those here at Artemis have the way. However, with two mobile suits likely on the ship, Eurasian Federation personnel would probably not kill the crew outright for the time being as that would be plain stupid. So that in mind, it was more likely that the crew had been herded somewhere for the moment.

Tyler gave out assignments before he maneuvered his Delta fighter to be on the left side of the Archangel heading for an unobtrusive airlock that he knew about. The airlock was located around the middle of the central structure on the left side. Tyler brought his fighter to a halt a short distance from the airlock before he opened the cockpit and popped his head out of the fighter. He glanced around to make sure that none of the OMNI personnel were looking in his direction. Being caught right now would not be good as the situation was volatile already, making it worse was not needed. Although those here were lazy, Tyler didn't want to give them a reason to suspect anything was out of place. Still, once Tyler felt that he hadn't been seen, he hauled the rest of his body out of the machine.

After exiting the fighter, Tyler activated his pilot suit's thrusters which are attached to the backpack section that flipped out and extended for use. Tyler moved forward and the distance that separated him from where he had parked his fighter and the airlock that he intended to use in entering the Archangel. Just before reaching where the airlock was, Tyler looked back to see the hatch to the cockpit of the Delta fighter closed and the fighter stay where he had brought it to be.

Tyler moved over to the airlock and when he came to touch the hull of the Archangel, he pressed a small plate that revealed a keypad. He inputted the default code which he had found out during the investigation mission since he knew it would still work to access the airlock. A moment later, the sound of the airlock cycling, depressurizing the space on the other side of the lock. Then the airlock clunked and opened revealing a small space that allowed access to the Archangel's internal components from the inside of the ship. So, Tyler grabbed the edge of the airlock and pulled himself inside, and pressed the control that shut the airlock behind him.

The small room went through the process of filling the room back up with oxygen and pressurized the space. The process completed as signaled by the green light above the door that would open into the Archangel itself. Tyler moved forward and pressed the switch by the door, and it slid open granting him access to the inside of the ship. He sailed 'forward' and 'upward' in his view, through the doorway, and found himself gazing at the ship deck. Tyler reoriented himself to be perpendicular to the deck of the ship before looking around to take in his surroundings.

Tyler identified that he was in a corridor that was on one of the middle decks and there was no one here but himself. Before going forward, Tyler took the time to check over his equipment, making sure he'd quick and easy access to all of the items. He had sonic concussion grenades which were helpful tools that use heavy shockwaves that have high pitched sonic tones that are loud and powerful even if they were short with the emission. Those could pretty much knock out anyone that doesn't have protection against sonic or pressure waves, especially in a closed space. Then Tyler had his trusty S13 "Hornet" sub-machine gun sitting against his right thigh, ready to be whipped out and be good for use. The firearm was capable of firing one-hundred-fifty rounds a minute with fifty rounds per clip. And lastly, Tyler had a combat knife in a sheath on his left thigh which he could use for close quarters.

With everything in order by Tyler's reckoning, he started off activating his helmet's visor's plate blocker so none would see his face, just in case he should come across someone. He would try to avoid being seen, but best to be prepared was a motto that Tyler employed more often than not. If this mission required killing some unlucky OMNI personnel, then that's what Tyler would do even when he preferred not to. Tyler continued forward down the corridor setting his route to take him to the ship's navigation bridge. If he could check on what the status of this Archangel was, Tyler believed he could go on from there with helping his friends.

Tyler was quickly making his way through the Archangel using the emergency access ways to go up to the decks above where he'd entered at. Were he to use the lifts the ship had, it could attract attention and suspicion to himself which he wanted to avoid. Yet Tyler rapidly took note that he was seeing little to no evidence of anyone on the ship which was quite odd. It felt close to cruising the decks of a ghost ship and it was eerie to him. It was mostly that he had inspected a ship that was abandoned before now and it was extremely unsettling.

It wasn't until Tyler reached the upper deck that he started being on edge slightly with no one appearing in his path. Tyler was still looking carefully around corners and downside corridor that branched off the central one. Yet Tyler came to a stop before the hallway that led to the lift which went to the bridge as he caught sight of OMNI soldiers floating by the lift as "guards". Tyler did spot noticed Luke in the corridor on the opposite side of the hallway and a little forward of where Tyler was. The two weren't noticed by the guards as they weren't really paying attention to what was going around them.

"So mate, how do we get past this lot," asked Luke over the com-line that connected to the Federation pilot helmets.

"Luke, do you not remember some of your basic training," Tyler inquired tiredly as he saw this situation as simple to deal with. Tyler put his left hand into the pouch that held the grenades he was carrying, "Disable problems which would be those who are standing there, so watch and learn," he said in reply. Tyler pressed the arming button on the grenade priming the device and then chucked it into the hallway. The grenade sailed through the air which none of the soldiers noticed it floating towards them. There came a vibrating boom combined with a thud signaling the grenade went off three seconds after Tyler lobbed it. A moment after the blast, both Tyler and Luke glance into the corridor and saw four bodies floating as the small amount of smoke cleared. "And that is one way to take care of an issue," Tyler stated with a bit of satisfaction.

Luke stared at Tyler for a moment as this behavior wasn't all that unheard of with him. Luke had found Tyler an interesting individual even if he didn't follow the book of tactics with making his own. However, Luke would be the first to admit that Tyler's plans normally worked and were efficient. "See your tact is effective as always mate," he commented.

The two made their way forward pushing the four bodies aside as they sailed and then boarded the lift riding it up to the bridge. When they reached the top, Tyler and Luke were greeted by nothing since there was no one there. Tyler for one found it odd for OMNI personnel here at Artemis to think there was no need to have anyone on the command deck of a ship that they have no registration for. It was a clear novice mistake in Tyler's mind and though he expected that from OMNI from time to time, it was dumb with enemies on the outside of the base.

Yes, Tyler had his own experience with soldiers from the Earth Alliance and specifically with the Eurasian Federation. Those here were extremely lax and Tyler saw the signs, but this went beyond that as it's plain obliviousness and it would soon bite them in the rear. Luke flew over to one of the forward consoles and began to tap in some commands, curious what had been done. To his surprise, Luke found the console was completely usable and there were no locks whatsoever on it. "Mate, looks like the ship's systems are fine, just shut down," he paused studying the data on the console. "Cricky, OMNI people here aven't even locking down access to the ship's controls or main systems," Luke paused again, "These blokes are downright sloppy!"

Tyler didn't disagree and snorted audibly, "Sloppy is a loose way of putting it, I would say more like stupidly self-assured that their defensive umbrella can't be beaten and so, are lax with a capital 'L'," he retorted. "The team getting into Artemis is just one form of proof that this base's shield isn't impenetrable or infallible as they claim."

Luke turned to face Tyler, "So then, what do we do from here mate," he asked.

Tyler took a moment to think, his head lowering a bit as he did so as there were potential lives at stake right now. He had seen no one other than the four guards while on the Archangel and that hadn't felt right. Those here around the base were lax and lazy, so they would unlikely move the crew or anyone else on the ship off of it they didn't have to. There had also been information from the Federation's Information Network that there were several refugees from Laitus on the ship too. Luke had not mentioned anything about seeing anyone along his way here, so Tyler assumed that he hadn't seen any.

The only thing that Tyler came up with was people had to be somewhere and likely gathered together were he to guess. So, searching the ship would be the best way to find them, "We make our way to the hangar using different routes Luke. The ones in charge here will be interested in the mobile suits onboard and that is a fact. We search along our way to the hangar trying not to be seen by any other soldiers on the ship. If they do see you, then disable them and move on from there. You take the upper deck route, Luke, I'll take the lower road doing the same and we'll meet up in the hangar, got it," Tyler said.

Luke nodded, "Too right mate, sounds like a plan," he replied.

Tyler and Luke reentered the elevator and went back down from the bridge before the two split up to go their separate ways. As Tyler began making his way towards the hangar, he glanced into rooms that he passed, searching for any of the crew of the Archangel. He hoped with everything he had that he didn't find bodies, especially of anyone that he recognized. If that did come up, then those responsible will be made to regret that, Tyler would personally make sure of it. He didn't want to lose the friends he had made in the last year, they were really good people.

At the same time, the Gamow and the other ZAFT vessels were traveling away from Artemis keeping an eye on the lightwave shield. "Distance from Artemis, twenty-five hundred, still no change in the protective lightwave barrier," said the ship's sensor officer.

Meanwhile, down in the hangar, Nicol was doing the final preparations with the Blitz, "Mirage Colloid voltage check," he said to himself. To say that Nicol was worried about whether the system the suit he'd stolen was reliable would be an understatement. The Mirage Colloid was an interesting concept Nicol would admit, but it hadn't been tested much for consistency by what he could tell. Perhaps the Federation's investigation team had found out if it had, but that was irrelevant right now. However, the stealth system had the best chance of getting past the enemy's shield without being detected. Nicol sighed, "System all green and ready to launch," he paused. "To do trial and error with an untested system," he shrugged, "well, guess I'll be counting on Lesson thirty-one, 'if it's stupid but it works, then it's not completely stupid'."

While Nicol was doing his preparation, up above in the pilot lounge Dearka and Yzak were looking down through the viewing ports down in the main hangar. Both were thinking about what Nicol had suggested as it was gutsy, more so than their fellow pilot tended to be. "The Alliance's OMNI sure comes up with some bizarre stuff," commented Yzak to Dearka.

"Yeah, obviously an attempt to compete with the Federation's stealth capabilities even when ZAFT nor they have been able to before. Although it seems appropriate for Nicol," said Dearka smiling condescendingly. "It's an ability fit for a coward."

Yzak agreed with Dearka, but then Nicol had shown that he could be quite the tactician when he tried. Plus, the comment before had brought up a point, the Federation's military had proven just how effective stealth ability could be used. So perhaps, their fellow pilot had more in mind than they were giving him credit for, "Perhaps Dearka, but then, Nicol is resourceful and can surprise others, so we'll see how this goes," returned Yzak.

The Blitz left its dock after Nicol was ready and headed to the catapult to launch its attack against the "undefeatable Artemis base". He had what one could call a loose plan, which was to get close enough to be inside the shield then shoot the base until the shield emitters popped up. However, after that, Nicol didn't have much to go on so he would be somewhat blind and he disliked that.

Back in the Artemis control room, the operators were keeping an eye on the ZAFT ships as they gained distance from the asteroid. Once they were beyond the defensive range it was deemed that the danger was passed. "Regular patrol sweep," announced one of the Artemis control officers. "No sign of enemies within defensive perimeter."

"Okay, with ZAFT gone now," said the officer in charge. "Switch lightwave barrier facilities to level two alert status."

Outside the defense perimeter, the Gamow detected the closing of the umbrella and opened the catapult for the Blitz to launch out. As Nicol left the ship in his machine immediately after the shield when down, he activated the suit's mirage colloid. From the Gamow's point of view, the Blitz suddenly vanished into nothingness as it set out on its mission. Nicol was keeping his breathing measured in an exercise to remain calm. There was so much that could go wrong in this mission though he didn't want to dwell on them. Yet, one could never plan for everything and that was a lesson that Nicol had learned personally.

"Mirage Colloid formation looks good," the green-haired pilot said to himself. "Dispersion loss rate, thirty-seven percent. Its usage is limited to a maximum of eighty minutes." Nicol paused and took a deep breath, "this will be cutting it close, much closer than I like." That in mind, Nicol set the Blitz's thrusters to the maximum safe speed he could and made his way towards Artemis. He went over his plan over and over in his mind as he traveled in silence toward the OMNI base.

Meanwhile, back on the Archangel's mess hall Admiral Garcia had stepped into the mess hall with other Artemis personnel. He looked over all the remaining crew of the Archangel that had been herded here. The number of questions about the mobile suits on the ship that were being blocked with the machines having locks on them. It had been quite a surprise for the Atlantic Federation's mobile suit project to literally come into Artemis. The Eurasian Federation hadn't been the most pleased to be waved off by the Atlantic Federation when asked about their work on their mobile suit prototypes. With the war against the ZAFT Forces and the Federation was adamant about being neutral and not taking sides in the conflict, the Alliance needed more power to work with.

With the Archangel docked at Artemis, there was the opportunity to get good information on the Atlantic Federation's mobile suits and Garcia saw that as something not to pass up. And now that the highest-ranking officers and the most influential ones were separated from the rest of the crew, getting info should be simpler. Plus, Garcia would like to be given the credit for obtaining the information on the mobile suits and get kudos from others. But the locks on the machines had to be removed and the pilots would be with the crew now. He would need to convince them to give access to the machines, whether that was through talking or inform them what could happen to others on the ship would up to them. Garcia came to stand in front of his men, "First, I would like to state to you all, that you are guests here at Artemis and we welcome you after the travels you have endured," he greeted. "I would like to ask who among you are the pilots and mechanics of the mobile suits onboard this ship? Their work is impressive, and I would like to acknowledge and congratulate them in-person."

While that situation was unfolding, Tyler was working his way towards the rear of the Archangel searching for signs of anyone whether it was a crew member or refugee as he went. Each room he glanced in was empty, every corridor he went down was devoid of signs of life, and it was irritating to him more and more. Nonetheless, the worst thing to Tyler as he went along was the silence, it was deafening and complete. No sound came in on the receivers in his helmet and Tyler felt it wasn't just odder than hell, but it was eerie in a way that didn't feel right at all. It was much like the silence that had been around the ruins of Junius Seven the last time he had been around there.

The deep quiet caused Tyler to wonder two things, one, since he'd found nothing thus far was there anyone on the ship anymore? Then two, the lack of security was getting on his nerves even if Tyler had expected the lax manners and laziness from the OMNI soldiers here at Artemis. The base's personnel's confidence and unwavering faith in the lightwave shield would bite them in the butt at some point very soon and HARD, Tyler was sure of that. Just seeing the behavior of the Alliance personnel here, helped Tyler understand the interest Sakura had in successfully assaulting Artemis. And he didn't normally see eye to eye with the woman at all as she stalked him and he didn't like that.

The crew and the refugees could have been taken off of the ship and be somewhere in the interior of Artemis itself, Tyler knew that was a possibility. However, Tyler wanted to be sure no one was on the Archangel before he went into the inside of the base. It's just as likely that everyone had been gathered into one area, so they can be watched by the soldiers here at Artemis. It was an extremely lazy way to do it in Tyler's view and the one he expected with what he knew about the base personnel. Tyler had looked through a full deck and started the second without resistance or encountering any other. The four soldiers he'd come across by the bridge were the only other people Tyler came across thus far.

Tyler had thought about accessing the Archangel's systems while he has such free reign of the ship. It wasn't an opportunity he believed would come up often if ever again and that would get his team's mission done. Then, there had been evidence that had been acquired during the time at Heliopolis, which inferred that the Alliance might have stored specs and plans for their prototype mobile suits onboard if something unforeseen happened. This was literally a pure golden opportunity to look and take care of the problem if it did really existed. But the safety of his friends and the refugees and even the majority of the Archangel's crew took priority.

It was as Tyler came into the corridor that as he recalled the mess hall was off of that he received the first bit of solid evidence of there being anyone on the Archangel. That came when he heard voices ahead picked up by the audio filters in his helmet. Upon hearing that, Tyler stopped and listened hard to figure out what he was hearing. " Apparently, none of you heard the Admiral, the pilots, and mechanics of the mobile suits," said an arrogant and irritating male voice, "They're here in this room, aren't they?"

Kira almost spoke up but stopped when he got a quick glance from Murdoch that silently told Lacus and himself to remain quiet. That kind of confused Kira, yet a memory of Tyler saying that the relationships of the members of the Earth Alliance weren't nice. And with his mother being in politics, his information in this kind of thing tended to be accurate. So, Kira was left to wonder how bad the relations were and how that would complicate things. Also, he was reminded of how much he missed his friend, Tyler always seemed to know what to do in tense situations.

Tyler plastered himself to the wall and inched closer to the doorway into the mess to better understand the situation. He heard silence in response to the demand from the Alliance officer for a minute. Tyler wanted to get a look into the room but there was too much of a risk of being seen. That in turn could put others in danger so Tyler couldn't risk that at the moment until he learned more.

"Why are you asking us this," asked Arnold Neumann standing up and approaching the officers. He was the highest-ranking non-commissioned officers with the rank of chief petty officer second class. That being the case, with the commanding officers absent the chain of command stated that command fell to him to lead and protect the crew and those on board. Arnold had never thought it would come to him to do this, but with what had gone down so far here at Artemis, he wasn't going to shrink under the gaze of these idiots!

"You think you can talk back to us," demanded the lieutenant grabbing the front of Arnold's uniform.

Tyler wasn't impressed by the retort that was said, it made him wonder what's going on within the Earth Alliance lately since he'd been out of the loop for a while. Since he'd been on the investigation at Heliopolis, the information he had been able to get is mostly through the news feeds and those aren't reliable. As far as Tyler knew, Artemis was an Earth Forces military base, even if it belongs to Eurasia Federation technically so, should be on the same team. Tyler thought perhaps there could be a schism developing among the members of the Earth Alliance but there was no clear evidence to say that.

Arnold however, kept his cool and simply gazed back at the Lieutenant acting badly thus, proving that he was better mannered. "By your question apparently, you haven't asked either the captain or our officers? Wasn't that one of the reasons they were escorted away for briefing others," posed Arnold. "Or are you not permitted to ask about the information and so just are going to others in an attempt to get around not having permission?"

The question reminded Kira and Lacus of Mu and Krystal's words to both of them just before entering Artemis. Telling them to lock their machines OS's so that only Lacus and Kira could activate the two mobile suits. Now, after seeing how these Alliance officers here were acting and what they were asking, it all made sense. For whatever reason, those here knew about the Atlantic Federation developing mobile suits and wanted them for themselves. But with the locking program that Kira put on both mobile suits' OSs, they weren't able to see any of the systems of the machines.

Tyler felt that he was definitely missing something in this conversation he was overhearing. It had something to do with the Strike and the Asuka, but what the demand was about was a mystery to Tyler. But there was a piece of information that he'd heard that said something of interest, the officers of the Archangel weren't on the ship. Tyler wondered if those in charge of Artemis are wary of them stirring up resistance on the ship. "Enough Lieutenant, calm yourself, there's no need of violence in this," said a different voice than either Arnold or the other officer that had made the demand, though it was calmer than the demander.

There was silence at the statement, it was clear what this was about, "You're referring to the mobile suits on the Archangel," stated Arnold but there was part of this that didn't make sense. "Why would you see the need to come here? With all of us being kept here, you can go look at both mobile suits all you want, and we can't do anything really about it." Arnold had a feeling that it would be best not to mention that the Asuka was actually an Orb machine that happened to be at Heliopolis. Nor would it be wise to bring up the Shadow which was missing since the colony collapse.

There was silence at the statement, and during that time Tyler got to within a couple of meters of the mess hall doorway. None had noticed him that he could tell thus far and he'd take that while he could get it. "You are right, and impressive mobile suits they are," said Garcia in a nice tone. "The fact of the matter is we feel privileged to have the opportunity to see them before they're officially announced. We're merely curious about them," he paused, "now, who are the pilots of the two mobile suits?"

'What a load of crap,' thought Arnold along with several other crewmen. Nevertheless, the question posed did put the crew into a bind. There was a chance that they could pass of Mu and Krystal as the pilots. But with being as shorthanded as the crew was, it would be unlikely believed to be true. To run the ship, they needed at least one of the two on the bridge for the time being. Even with the students from Heliopolis volunteering, they just didn't have the skill for ship operation yet they weren't enough yet.

Meanwhile, Tyler was finding the conversation getting more intriguing the longer it goes on, informative in ways that most wouldn't know. He was disgusted at the poor excuse being used to get to the mobile suits on board. It was clear to Tyler that those here at Artemis want the specs to build mobile suits themselves so they can use them. "We're shorthanded," said Arnold gesturing behind himself. "Some have volunteered, which has let us manage. None of us are pilots, the only two who are pilots in any way is Lieutenant La Flaga and Major McAlester."

Tyler would give a compliment to the officer trying to cover for Kira and Lacus, they were doing fairly. It did show that his friends had been earning the trust of the crew of this ship and Tyler felt some pride about that. Still, Tyler stayed where he was attempting to figure out how many were in the room and if he could deal with them. Tyler was betting there were more than just his friends in there and that was a problem as they were in danger.

"Now, don't lie," said Garcia. "But a good effort I'll admit, yet it's unlikely as their experience would be needed on the ship. Volunteers could very well help, but with what you'd faced that wouldn't be enough. Both of the mobile armor pilots are good at what they do, but with looking at the previous battles you fought, that level of skill is unusual, and while I might have believed one of the suits could be piloted by one of them. Yet for them to be both out is foolish as they would be needed on the ship. Gut instinct says that given your other lies, all of it is a lie."

Tyler would give the man marks for the deduction, it was sound and thought out. However, that left the question of what will he do now that he has determined La Flaga and McAlester aren't the pilots in Tyler's mind. A yelping sound from a female served as an answer to Tyler and his right hand moved to his gun. He knew the voice that had cried out, it was Miriallia and Tyler wouldn't let her get hurt even when she had made his life harder from time to time.

"Miriallia," exclaimed Tolle rising from his seat as she cried out slightly in pain. Kuzzey and Sai quickly moved forward and held Tolle back from lashing out at the soldiers and possibly getting killed. Both realizing that Tye usually kept any of them from doing something dangerously stupid and that echoed his absence.

"But who would have thought that one of the pilots could be a woman," continued Garcia, "But it occurs to me the captain of this ship is a woman as well."

Miriallia cried out as Garcia tightened his grip and there was visible upheaval with the actions from him. Kira had enough of staying silent, he wouldn't be quiet while a friend was being hurt. Tyler had his SMG out of the holster along with his left hand went to the pouch above his left thigh and grabbed one of the sonic concussion grenades and withdrew it. Tyler was readying himself to move closer to the mess hall and chuck the grenade in hoping it wouldn't hurt others. Nevertheless, another voice stopped him. "Hey, cut it out, you're just being a bully," said Kira stepping forward.

Tyler had a very bad feeling about the situation as he suspects things will soon get more complicated. The current mess was bad enough and it was going to get worse when ZAFT got involved and Tyler knew they would. He didn't want to have things even worse than they were going to be as he was having a time keeping people from dying.

"Kid, don't," started Murdoch but Kira ignored him. Lacus was right behind him completely in agreement with Kira. "You want to know who was piloting them," asked Kira.

"We were," said Lacus, her hand on Kira's shoulder, an uncharacteristic glare on her features.

Tyler held in the sigh that really wanted to escape him even when his helmet would prevent it from being heard. He deciding to air on the side of caution for the time being by backing off for a bit. Tyler knew going in gun blazing would likely get others killed and that's to be avoided if at all possible. The probability of him getting a second shot of making a difference is very low, so he has to get this right the first time. So, as much as it pained him, Tyler moved away from the mess hall and concealed himself in the nearest room leaving the door open a bit so that he could keep listening.

There was total silence after Tyler's two friends had blown the current situation to hell from his point of view. He betted that everyone in the mess hall was staring at them now which wasn't helpful. Instead, Tyler activated his com-unit, "Luke, I've found where the crew is being held. However, things have become," Tyler paused, "complicated to put it simply. You continue to the hanger ahead of me, I'll meet you there after I'm done doing damage control here."

Luke had stopped going down the corridor he was traveling down as he heard the tone in Tyler's voice and knew he was not kidding, and things had become worse than they already were. The team had discussed the potential for problems for this mission, and they hadn't been few. But ZAFT was supposed to be the major contributor, yet apparently, that had changed. Luke calculated that he was halfway to the hangar, but he still could get to where Tyler likely was, "You sure mate? I can get to your position in a minute or two if you tell me where you are," Luke replied.

Tyler appreciated Luke's offer, but they needed to be a step ahead in this to save the most lives. The ship's hangar would be where the Alliance officers would end out in eventually, that would be the best place to turn the tables in Tyler's mind. "Thanks for the offer Luke, but we need to be ahead of those here, so I need you to get to the hangar more than backing me up. I'll manage with things here," Tyler returned.

Luke knew Tyler could handle himself, but that didn't mean that he liked leaving him hanging. He had grown to like Tyler, the kid had one hell of a sense of humor and could pull a neat prank. And the two of them could do some awesome stunts and Luke still wanted to do that with Tyler. Yet, as usual, Tyler was right, there was a lot at stake and they needed to be careful, "Copy that mate," replied Luke, "just holler if you need me."

Tyler returned his attention back to listening to what was going on back in the mess hall. Yes, he said to Luke that he would manage to change the situation, but he was still trying to figure out how to do that. There were more lives than just his friends at stake and Tyler took his duty of protecting citizens of the Federation seriously. "Well young man," said Garcia, "I admire your sense of duty in protecting the girl."

Tyler knew that what Kira was doing wasn't protecting Miriallia exactly though in a way it was. He knew it would be expected a great deal from Kira and Tyler didn't when it comes to reading the mood. It was due to Kira's naïveté and that's driving him to do what he is and it frustrated Tyler so much. Kira believes that all people can be reasoned with when Tyler was well-aware that's not how the world they lived in works. Some people won't listen to reason, full stop, end of discussion and Tyler wished Kira would understand that. Athrun and Tyler had been trying to help Kira understand this point, but alas, they hadn't had success yet.

There was a moment of silence after Garcia gave the compliment, and he meant what he said to the teenager. It was commendable that he was trying to defend another like he was, it showed bravery. However, what the kid had said was ridiculous as teenagers piloting mobile suits was as likely as the Federation jumping into the war. So, he spoke again. "But those machines weren't made for mere children like you to operate! Get serious, you twerps," continued Garcia snapping the last bit.

The sound of motion came to Tyler which he guessed was someone trying to hit another, but he couldn't say for sure from just what he was hearing. Then there was a thump of a body hitting the floor and Tyler wished that he could see what was going on. "I haven't done anything to deserve you getting angry and hitting me," said Kira. Tyler felt sorry for his friend, he really did since his view of the world is more a dream. Tyler personally wish was real, but he knew that the truth was different than that picture. Yet, Tyler didn't know how he can get the point across to Kira about this kind of thing and it's not for a lack of trying on Tyler's part as best he could to help Kira understand.

"Commandant," exclaimed the officer that had spoken before.

Kira was frustrated with this whole situation, "What is it with you people," he questioned.

Kira is digging himself a hole and a deep one Tyler knew and it would be hard to get out of. Tyler stopped a hand from smacking his forehead in pity It pained Tyler to hold himself where he was and not rush in the mess hall and teach the Alliance officers a lesson. However, that wouldn't be the best option if he wanted the least amount of injury to happen to those here. as much as Tyler didn't want it to be so, the needs of the many outweigh the urges from the loyalty to the few. Tyler was left to wonder how he ended out having to fix situations like this, he didn't try to get into them.

"Don't do it," said Sai.

Tyler was glad that Sai was trying to help, he could always count on him to keep a good working head connected to his shoulder. He hoped that Kira will listen to him, but Tyler feared that's wishful thinking at this point. Tyler didn't see much of a way that things could be worse, but he was proven wrong. "Is this how Eurasia treats its allies," questioned Lacus.

Tyler wondered if Lacus spent much time around her father as she would learn about some of the politics of the Earth Alliance. From what Tyler had seen, major issues were developing for years most likely. Tyler was more surprised that it hasn't fallen apart already or gotten into a civil war. He bet that some under the table deals done to keep things from crumbling with the Earth Alliance. His attention was snapped back at the sound of guns being positioned came to him. Tyler came out of the room he was in, which was a supply closet were he to guess and started creeping along the wall getting closer to the mess hall. "No, stop," said a different feminine voice. "What they're saying is the truth, they're the pilots!"

Tyler was forced to pause as the voice sounded a tad familiar to him. He tried to recall where he had heard it and it came to him. The voice belonged to the redheaded girl that was supposed to be Sai's engaged girl. Tyler hadn't expected her to end out on the Archangel, but it was an odd day thus far, why not Tyler would say. He was hoping that the Alliance officers don't take what she says seriously as that would not help things. Tyler knew it would be better if they buy that Kira and Lacus aren't the pilots, even though they are.

In the mess hall, Tolle and Sai were very worried about Flay stepping forward and saying that Kira and Lacus were pilots. The air in the room was getting heavier by the moment and it was bad already. "Flay," hissed Tolle trying to stop her no doubt.

Tyler was halfway down the hallway around six meters away from the doorway to the mess hall while the exchange continued, "That's enough," said the Alliance officer, "Will you kids give it a rest?" Tyler let out the breath he was holding hearing that the Alliance officers were ignoring the redhead's comment.

"Are you really that stupid," demanded Flay, which brought about silence. Tyler gripped his gun at hearing the redhead not keeping her mouth shut. He was left to wonder if the redhead dislikes Coordinators or something along those lines. By what he'd had seen, she had shown a few signs that she didn't like Coordinators. But Tyler was more suspecting that she did not see the consequences of situations like this. However, it didn't stop there, "Open your eyes and look at Lacus! Do you think that sort of hair color occurs in Naturals? I realize that you're a bunch of morons taking your own allies prisoner to try and advance your own positions without having to go out there and get involved in the war, but I'd expect reaching your position to require at least enough intelligence to recognize a clear sign of a Coordinator when you see her and be able to extrapolate the truth from that!"

Tyler was a bit shocked at what he was hearing. True, he had wanted to say how stupid some of those who are in positions of power and command in the Earth Alliance can be and are normally, but he rarely said it to their faces. So, either Flay is very brave or very dim saying what she did, Tyler couldn't say which yet. Not that the fact of Lacus's hair is an unnatural color isn't true, but that wasn't the point. "They're Coordinators," asked Garcia.

Tyler couldn't help but think about how the one leading was an idiot, but there were other things to keep in mind. Nevertheless, things changed for Tyler when he heard movement behind him and was made aware of his surroundings. When he turned around, Tyler saw two Alliance soldiers at the end of the corridor that he was in. For a moment, the three looked at each other in silence, the two soldiers were staring at Tyler unable to process that he was standing there. They couldn't see his face, yet that didn't matter at the moment, Tyler was there and to them, he wasn't supposed to be. He shot forward at one drawing his knife and stabbing on while getting a grenade in the other hand and arming it.

The two didn't have the time to react to Tyler, one got a knife plunged into his abdomen while the other had not time to move. Within three seconds the grenade went off and a boom thundered down the corridor. The boom was felt more than heard while Tyler kept flying forward unaffected by the blast with his helmet and suit protecting him from a concussive blast. He grabbed the two bodies and dragged them down the corridor and around the corner where he threw them into a random room. But Tyler knew that others would have heard the grenade going off and the sounds of others confirmed that fact.

After dropping off the two idiots that just happened to come across him, Tyler popped into a different room down the intersecting passageway. He floated up to the ceiling and made myself as conspicuous as possible and waited. Tyler expected soldiers to search for the source of the disturbance and so he bided his time. With having used a grenade in the corridor, Tyler might as well have announced his presence over the internal ship com-system. Yet Tyler still saw a potential way to salvage the situation in his favor if he played his cards right that is.

Listening to the Alliance personnel getting closer, the room Tyler was hidden in was dark as the lights were off, still, he was above the door. Tyler fetched another Sonic concussion grenade, a finger ready to press the arming button. The door to the room slid opened and to his surprise and good fortune, four Alliance soldiers came in without noticing Tyler at all. Tyler oriented himself to have his head pointing towards the floor and be within arm's reach of the door control panel. Then he pushed the arming button in and softly tossed the grenade towards the center of the room. The scene was comical in Tyler's view, one of the Alliance soldiers caught sight of the grenade just as Tyler hit the control to close the door. The concussive blast reverberated around the room, contained with the door closed, and the four guys were flung against the walls hard.

Once the sonic barrage the grenade caused had ceased, Tyler reoriented his body with the floor and left the room leaving the four soldiers behind, and headed back to the mess hall. Once at the doorway, Tyler risked a covert look in from the outside and took stock of how things had changed within the last few minutes. He saw that the members of the Archangel crew along with several other people who he'd guess were the refugees from Heliopolis, both divided into two groups. There were still three guards inside watching both groups on either side of the room and they did have assault rifles.

Tyler wracked his mind trying to come up with a way to disable those guards quick enough for them to not call for help or hurt anyone else. Then Lady Luck smiled on him once again in a most unexpected way which provided an opportunity. The sound of crying from the refugees was heard and one of the guards went over to the kid that was sobbing while her mother was trying to comfort her scared daughter. Tyler felt sorry for the young girl, she had to be less than ten years old and has soldiers scaring her along with pointing guns at her and her mother. It angered Tyler more than usual with the Alliance which irritated him normally, to begin with. "Keep your girl quiet," the soldier ordered.

That was a signal to Tyler to act, so he grabbed the edge of the door frame and launch himself forward. He managed to get on the right side of the closest soldier, one leg in front of him, and a hand on the back of his head. Then, Tyler pulled back his leg, thereby sweeping the soldier's legs out from under him while Tyler shoved the man's head forward and slammed it into the nearby table. There was a horrible sounding crack as the guy's head made hard contact with the metal table. Next, Tyler shifted himself to face the soldier to the left drawing his SMG flicked off the safety. Tyler fired off two shots at the soldier, the first forcing the man to let go of his gun and the second nailing him in the right shoulder. Tyler whipped around to point his gun at the last soldier, only to find that members of the crew had taken action and had subdued the other soldier.

Tyler holstered his gun and watched the scuffle settle but said nothing at that point. Chief Murdoch was the first to notice the other that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Of course, the gunshots had echoed around the room, and for the crew, they were worried that one of the Alliance soldiers had gotten shots off. But apparently, the shots had come from the odd person out that had popped up. Murdoch also noticed that the individual was in a Federation space suit and the helmet hid their facial features. "What the?! What is a Federation pilot doing here," he asked.

That line reminded Tyler that his helmet was still in place meaning that the helmet's visor which blocked facial detail. Normally, Tyler kept it on to prevent the trouble that being identified could bring in most situations however, he needed cooperation from the people here to get the Archangel out of here in one working piece. Tyler raised his hands to show he had nothing in them before he went through the process of releasing the seal between his helmet and the rest of the pilot suit. That was done by a switch on the right side of the neck and then disconnecting the clasps that held the helmet in place. After all that was done, Tyler lifted his helmet up and off his head.

The second Tyler's face was clearly visible, much of the crew gaping at me as they recognized him. None of the crew expected to see Tyler McGregor again, not after the Shadow was separated from the Archangel. Sure, the Heliopolis volunteers had kept hopes of him popping up, but the crew didn't have the heart to tell them their friend was likely gone. But here the teenager was in front of them in a Federation space suit. It was Sai that found the use of his voice first, "Tye?! How did you get here?!"

Tyler stored his helmet under his left arm before he smiled a bit, "Well, hello to you too Sai. You're welcome for getting you all out of a jam," he said with a slightly amused tone.

For the crew of the Archangel, now that their guards were out of the way, they could get to work. They may not know where the commanding officers were right now, but the Archangel couldn't stay here, they had agreed upon that. "Well, now that guards aren't watching us, we can regain control of the ship," said Pal.

"What about Kira and Lacus," asked Miriallia not wanting to have their friends forgotten.

Tolle at the reminder wasn't the most please at what had resulted from Flay speaking up. Because of her, Kira and Lacus were potential in trouble and she should have kept quiet. "Yeah, thanks to Flay and her mouth, they're with those Alliance officers heading towards the hangar. Why'd she have to go and say that stuff about Kira and Lacus," muttered Tolle.

Sai frowned at Tolle though he knew he wasn't exactly wrong. He believed Flay didn't understand what she had been doing at the time and she had been taken as well. "She didn't know that this would happen, Tolle," he said.

Tyler could see where Sai was coming from, but it didn't improve the current situation. So, he sighed, "Perhaps Sai, but this is an example of why it's unwise to run one's mouth without thinking."

Miriallia glared at Tyler as he was being rude with his comment. It wasn't the first time that he had been mean like this, he tended to be blunt and to the point. However, she would ask would it hurt for him to sometimes try to be nice and not point out mistakes. "Tye, that's rude," she snapped.

Tyler turned to face Miriallia as this certainly wasn't the first time she had called him rude for something he said. In fact, it was unfortunately pretty common, so Tyler shrugged, "What, I doubt that I'm the only one that is thinking along the line I stated," he returned, then glanced around the room, "Anyone wish to deny that?"

No one said anything to Tyler's challenge as much of the crew had been thinking that when Flay had spoken up. Yet the silence was broken when Arnold spoke up, "We were all thinking something like that admittedly," he said quietly. "Even if she has a point though, there's no doubt anymore about what the Eurasians are up to."

Tyler never had to question what those here at Artemis wanted it was plain as day when one thought about it. The Earth Alliance wanted mobile suits, but their member states also wanted power over the others. So, logically speaking the suits had to be the target, "Was there ever doubt what they were after," Tyler asked the group at large.

"Does anyone have a plan to get out of this," asked Sai trying to move things alone and get the conversation off Flay.

"Not yet, but I'm working on it," replied Arnold.

Tyler felt it would probably be a good idea to tell those here that the way to the bridge should be clear. Plus, he needed to head to the hangar quickly before things got worse, so Tyler exhaled heavily, "Well, luckily for you, I've done clean up along my way here and so, have removed obstacles. You should have a clear shot to the bridge for the moment, so recommend that you don't waste the opportunity." Tyler slid his helmet back on and faced the door, "As for Kira and Co., leave helping them to me."

Tyler didn't wait for any to reply, he just left the room and began his journey forward towards the hangar. He took care to pop into one of the maintenance spaces and kept going choosing the route he was taking to avoid notice. And going through the small maintenance shafts that go throughout the ship was not easy for Tyler. Thankfully he wasn't claustrophobic in any way or taking the route he was, it would be much more unpleasant. Going through the conduits Tyler had around half a foot in front and in back separating him and the other stuff in the tube he was moving through even if it was one of the larger ones.

Meanwhile, Arnold and the other members of the bridge crew along with the four Heliopolis student volunteers brought up the rear of the group, as they had left the mess hall. They all saw the bodies of some Alliance soldiers floating along the way in the corridor with the main elevator, all four of them knocked out cold. The unsaid thoughts were that they were probably involved in the "clean up" which Tyler had mentioned. Most if not all in the group were a bit curious how Tyler had knocked the soldiers cold and yet, appear to do no damage to the surrounding area or a lot of visible injury to the soldiers themselves. They all recalled hearing a dull boom before those from Artemis had gone their separate ways. However, none of them had known what had caused that and even with it likely being part of what Tyler had done, it still didn't say what happened.

They all crowded into the lift up to the bridge, when it opened the group came out, and they found the bridge was dark until Pal hit the switch for the lights. Arnold headed for the helm while everyone else went to their customary stations. Everyone glanced out of the front viewing port, to find that space suited Eurasian soldiers moving away from the ship along with the mobile armors caused slight confusion. It was clear something was happening to get them moving, but there was no visible evidence of what had their attention. Arnold refocused on the task at hand and gave out orders, "Startup the engines and bring all main systems online." Some small part of Arnold wondered how they would get out of the dock with the moorings still in place, but what else could they do.

"What about the captain and the other officers," asked Pal as they began working.

"Unfortunately, we can't stay here, or we'd be sitting ducks! We need to get the ship moving and let's hope that they can get back to the ship soon," said Arnold. There was silence at the reply, but all those there did their best to get the Archangel up and running.

Back with Tyler, he eventually got to be under the floor of the hanger at the front of the ship where the hangar was located. All Tyler could say to justify being able to get through the spaces he did was to say thank goodness for Zero-G. If that weren't true, then his traveling would kill parts of his body and Tyler wanted to avoid that. And once where he wanted to be, he lifted the vent plate up slowly so that it didn't make noise and came out of the maintenance tube. The sound of voices came from above him which got him to freeze. "You want us to remove the locks on the OSs, correct," asked Kira. Tyler figured he had just arrived in the nick of time for the real event on the ship. So, Tyler traveled the rest of the way out of the conduit and closed it without making a sound.

Garcia stared at the young Coordinator who was blind to what he could do. He was seeing the teen as a way to improve mobile suits and assisting bring victory in this long war. "For starters," he said. Garcia was hoping for more than just seeing the OS for these suits, once mass-produced they would help turn the tables. "But I imagine you're capable of doing many other things as well."

The previous conversation made more sense to Tyler now, the Alliance forces here want access to the mobile suits on the Archangel which he knew. But Kira must have put a lock on them that the techs here can't crack which was a smart idea Tyler would admit. Why Kira put them in place, Tyler couldn't say, but it did end out providing a reason for the personnel here not to kill those on the ship. Tyler still kept to the shadows at the edges of the hangar to not be noticed but be ready to jump in. When Tyler looked up, he saw Kira and Lacus a bit ahead of where he was hidden while the girl Flay was right above. Tyler didn't like the view he was getting as he could see up things he didn't want to which had him wishing the redhead hadn't been wearing a dress. All in the hangar were looking at the two mobile suits alone, "What's that supposed to mean," asked Kira, eyes narrowing.

Tyler hoped that Luke had gotten here already, the situation was not good already and a second person would help. "Luke, you in the hanger yet," Tyler asked.

"Yeah mate, keeping out of sight, specially with the Earth Forces officers that just came in a minute ago," replied Luke.

"Good, stay that way until I say so, we'll see how this plays out," Tyler returned.

"Got it," Luke replied.

Tyler turned his attention back to the conversation that was going, "For example," said Garcia. "You could analyze this machine's design and build more like it. Or perhaps you could even come up with a weapon that's effective against this type of mobile suit."

Tyler had to hold in the anger he felt at the implications that the man in charge was making about Kira. He was one type of example that gave Tyler reason not to like being around Alliance officers much. They don't see Coordinators as people or as human beings like they would see fellow Naturals. They saw them as tools to advance their interests whatever they are or less than that.

Kira didn't like being seen like this man was doing, Kira was a student, not a soldier. "Look, we're nothing more than civilian students," replied Kira, "We're not soldiers, and we're not some military contractors. There's no reason why we have to do any of those things and it isn't to fight in this war."

Tyler would have shaken his head at the display of Kira's naïveté that he was all too familiar with but the situation was too serious. It was nice that Kira was trying to pass off Lacus as a student like he is, yet that wouldn't protect her well in this Tyler knew. "But you're already traitors to your fellow Coordinators, are you not," posed Garcia.

Kira and Lacus were somewhat shocked to be called traitors when they had been defending themselves as any human being would. "Us? Traitors," said Kira incredulously.

"I don't know what your reasons were," Garcia said, "But regardless, you did betray your own people, and so by rights…"

Tyler had his gun out of its holster and ready to use showing his anger at what he was hearing about his friends. The logic was twisted and was a lie and Tyler wouldn't accept anything else that was said about Kira and Lacus. This base leader was not much different than those who were members of Blue Cosmos from what Tyler was seeing. Granted, he isn't out to kill Coordinators out of principle like some were, but using Coordinators wasn't all that much different. "You're wrong," Kira snapped, "We did it cause-"

Garcia cut over Kira, "Being Coordinators siding with the Earth Alliance makes you two very valuable. There's nothing to worry about, I assure you that someone like yourselves could be made welcome, even in Eurasia. But if you still don't want to cooperate," he looked pointedly at Flay.

The group moved over towards the mobile suits which Tyler took as an opportunity being presented. "Luke, you got eyes on the redhead that's being used as a hostage," I asked.

Luke was looking down at the redhead with a soldier holding her with a gun pointing at her. "Yeah, I see her mate, why," questioned Luke.

A plan was quickly forming in Tyler's mind, "You think you could separate the soldier from her and get the redhead out of the potential line of fire before she gets hurt? I'll take care of the two other soldiers," Tyler explained, "you up for that?"

Luke was once again amazed at the plans that Tyler could conjure while under pressure, they were nothing short of amazing. What's more, they tended to work much more often than not and Luke didn't doubt that would be proven again. "Mate, I live for missions like this! Just give the signal and we do this," answered Luke.

Tyler looked back at the group that was in front of the Strike now, gauging when to give the signal. Kira and Lacus's body language said that they were unwillingly being forced to concede and if they did things would go bad.

"Kira's the one who put the locks on the OS's," said Lacus. "I'm afraid I won't be able to remove the lock from either machine."

That doesn't sound true at all to Tyler, Kira would have made sure Lacus could unlock either machine. That made Tyler think that she was mitigating risk, which was a good thing to do. "Very well then, start with this one," said Garcia motioning towards the Strike.

Kira couldn't think of what else he could do and keep others from getting hurt, so he climbed up to the Strike and clambered into the cockpit while two soldiers stood just outside rifles trained on both Lacus and Flay. Tyler readied himself and deployed the thrusters on the backpack of his pilot suit, "Luke, go go go," he said before moving forward.

The bang of a gun firing resounded throughout the room causing chaos and confusion. Luke shot at the soldier that was holding Flay hostage and forcing him to back away and separate from the redhead. Luke then floated down quickly and grabbed a very scared and confused girl before moving both of them back into the shadows. While Luke did his movement, Tyler shot forward with a boost from his suit's thrusters shooting the soldiers and disarmed one and landed a shot in the arm that was holding the guns. Tyler came to a stop a few feet from the two Alliance officers and two soldiers keeping his SMG trained on them.

The gunshots were out of nowhere and so the Alliance's soldiers' reactions were slow and they were caught off-guard. "What," Garcia cried in surprise.

Lacus moved away from the Alliance personnel when the gunshots sounded. One of the figures that appeared was someone in a Federation space suit. Those from the Federation's military from what Lacus had heard were more reasonable and likely more safe to be around. At least, Sakura had given the impression that she respected them somewhat and Lacus's older sister didn't respect without a good reason. So, she came to be a short distance behind the Federation person since she'd been separated from Kira.

Once Garcia recognized the spacesuit to be the kind the Federation used, anger coursed through him. The Federation's Military tended to be frustratingly annoying with their interference. But for even one of them to have gotten inside of Artemis was problematic for a couple of reasons. "What is this?! What would a Federation pilot be doing here and how did you even get in?!" he growled.

The nice thing about the com-system built into Federation pilot's helmets that Tyler liked was it can change the sound and tone of the voice so that you weren't recognized. And Tyler had some choice words for those here that he had wanted to say each time this base was boasted about. "I'm preventing a fiasco from occurring," Tyler began, the sound of his voice lower and had a more mechanical tone to it so that it didn't sound like his own voice. "As to how I got into your so-called impenetrable defense, it wasn't very hard, security was more than just lax."

At the same time, the Blitz had made its way and had now arrived in a range of being able to hit the Alliance base. Nicol hefted the Trikeros offensive shield the Blitz had which had the majority of its weapons. Said system included a beam rifle, beam saber, and three lancer darts to work with. Nicol took aim at the asteroid, expecting the Alliance to show where the lightwave emitters were since they're hidden when not in use. He pulled the trigger and fired the Blitz's beam rifle and saw Artemis shake satisfyingly. The question is, how long will it take the Alliance officer in charge to react and bring out the barrier system. After firing off over a dozen more shots, Nicol spotted one of the umbrella emitters rise into position. "There is one," he said softly. "Strike at what is weak!"

He deactivated the mirage colloid and switched over to using phase-shift armor and continued his assault. Nicol ignited the beam saber in the Blitz's shield and pierced the emitter causing it to explode. Nicol then began to actively scan around for more of the emitters, with enough of them destroyed the lightwave shield would fail. That was the goal as then reinforcements could then move in and Artemis would fall. Plus, there would be a fair chance to catch the white Alliance vessel, which was an objective in this too.

The moment that the first tremor was felt Murrue, Natarle, Mu, and Krystal agreed that waiting was pointless and they all left the room they had been escorted to. Mu and Krystal disabled any whoever tried to slow their progress of getting back to the Archangel. But most were rushing around in panic and it didn't take long for that to sink into the officers of the Archangel. "What in the hell is going on," muttered Murrue.

Mu glanced over at Krystal who nodded as both had a rather educated guess as to what was going on. Their hunters were tired of waiting for them to come out and were making their way inside Artemis to strike. "My guess is that ZAFT found a way to successfully assault Artemis. They're proving that this place isn't impenetrable as they claimed it was and now they are being caught off-guard," Mu said to the group at large.

There was no real argument to Mu's statement as it was the most logical explanation of what was happening. The issue is brought up with the four needing to get back to the Archangel as soon as possible. "Then, that's all the more reason to get back to the ship as quickly as possible," stated Natarle.

The four picked up their pace though they stop for a moment when they reached a viewing longe. The sight of multiple mobile armors moving towards the entrance of Artemis and the glimpse of ZAFT mobile suits didn't give comfort in any way. The four continued forward towards the dock where the Archangel was hoping to get to her before ZAFT forces got too far inside Artemis.

Mu and Krystal were the first to come into the shuttle bay to find it was in the same chaos they had been seeing along their way. Mu led his companions over to a shuttle and got on board, he moved to the pilot chair while Krystal took the copilot seat after shutting the hatch of the shuttle. Murrue and Natarle buckled into two of the other seats on the shuttle as Mu turned it on. The shuttle lifted upward and then headed out into the massive docking area.

Back in the Archangel's hangar, the ship trembled which surprised Garcia genuinely. Tyler took the shaking as ZAFT jumping into the current situation, likely working on taking out the shield were he to guess. Yet the sound that came from the radio that Garcia had with him answered the question of what was going on. "Sir, a mobile suit is in our defense perimeter," came the report over the radio. "Our Lightwave reflectors are being destroyed!"

Garcia couldn't believe what he was hearing, for an enemy unit to get so close shouldn't be possible. "How can that be," he questioned angrily to the room at large.

Tyler suspected that with ZAFT's attack on Artemis starting, stealth was involved to get so close and that infers that the X207 Blitz was used. The shaking continued at a fairly consistent basis before the radio crackled again, "We've already lost several emitters, if we lose too many more, then the umbrella will fail!"

"They're cutting through the umbrella? That's impossible," shouted Garcia as the tremors grew worse.

Tyler saw this as a show of stealth being an effective concept which the Federation had proven already. It made Tyler interested to take a closer study of the mirage colloid feature that the Shadow had. He, of course, would make sure the system was inspected by Federation scientists when the chance came up. Mirage Colloid could be dangerous, so best be prepared was Tyler's motto and he knew it was one the Federation shared.

"Commandant," said the lieutenant his worry obvious.

Everyone appeared to have expressions of worry, Kira shared a quick look with Lacus, and the two gave slight nods. Kira flew over to the Asuka and kicked the engineer out of the suit's cockpit, then quickly got in and closed the cockpit hatch. Lacus was still behind the Federation person as the Alliance officers were in disarray. However, she knew she would have to move and the Strike would be a good choice for a place to get to for safety. But before Lacus got too far, she was grabbed by the Federation suited person. They propelled Lacus forward towards the Strike and when Lacus glanced back she saw they had thrusters on the backpack of their suit. Lacus did look at the helmet hoping to perhaps get a clue as to who was helping her, but the visor blocked any view of the person's face. And she had heard that the Federation's military had a habit of hiding the identities of their personnel, but this was the first experience of the idea.

It took less than thirty seconds for Lacus and the Federation person to reach the Strike's cockpit. When Lacus looked into the cockpit, she saw that there were two Alliance engineers. The Federation person pointed their gun at them and motioned for them to get out of the cockpit and leave. Lacus hoped that the engineers did as suggested as she didn't want others to die needlessly, there had already been more than there should be. Thankfully, the engineers exited the cockpit and floated away so they didn't get hurt, which Lacus was happy with. Then the Federation person looked at Lacus and gestured to the cockpit clearly telling her to get inside.

Lacus was confused with this turn in the situation, and she couldn't figure out what was going on completely. Sure, ZAFT attacking made sense, Creuset wasn't one to give up hunting his prey from what she knew. But why would the Federation interfere in this and help those like here? "Lacus, it would be safer if you got in the Strike and closed the hatch. Don't worry, I got this," said the Federation person.

Lacus's eyes widened at hearing the voice as she knew it instantly for it was Tyler's. There had been no news or hints as to what happened to Tyler after Heliopolis collapsed. Kira hadn't taken it well nor had Lacus herself, he had always been a friend one could count on no matter what. So, to hear his voice gave Lacus some hope, "Tye," she breathed with the tone of hope evident.

Tyler switched off the visor blocker that prevents someone from looking in from the outside of the helmet being unable to see his face at all. Right now with the situation as it was, cooperation was more important than secrecy and besides that, he trusted Lacus. Tyler inclined his head, "Were you expecting someone else milady? I'm one that can really make a very timely entrance when I put forth the effort," he returned to his pink-haired friend with a bit of a cocky grin.

The moment that she saw Tyler's face warmth came to her heart knowing he was safe and here. So, Lacus lunged forward and hugged him, to which Tyler just patted her on the head, "We can catch up later, now get into that cockpit. I'll handle things here in the hanger, don't worry about the redhead. A colleague of mine saw to her safety," he said.

Lacus pushed away from Tyler and entered the cockpit through the open hatch. Tyler began moving away but he caught sight of Lacus waving at him as the cockpit closed. He knew that she was a sweet girl, very different from her older sister Sakura. Lacus shouldn't be in a situation like this nor should Kira, and Tyler cursed that they had been forced into it. If he was able, he would get them out, yet Tyler feared that wouldn't be possible any longer, though that wouldn't stop him from trying.

"You traitors," shouted Garcia as the shaking continued.

Tyler aimed my SMG at them as they filed out of the hangar and when they were gone he just shook his head at the stupidity. Tyler then got on the com-line and told Luke to drop off Flay and get back to his fighter. Meanwhile, Tyler made his way towards the console that controlled the linear catapults so he could make his way to his fighter. The goal in this hadn't changed in the slightest for Tyler, he and his team were to get the Archangel out of Artemis in one piece. With ZAFT "banging" on the front door, time was now a much bigger factor than Tyler figured would come up at some point. Tyler didn't doubt for a moment that the ZAFT force were those that had likely been hunting the Archangel.

Tyler sailed over to the console he was looking for and stopped before inputting the command to depressurize the whole hangar. He glanced over at the Strike and the Asuka, noting that both had their cockpits close, which worked out well for him. So, Tyler proceeded in depressurizing the hanger which caused an alarm to sound in the room and the door to the hanger slid shut and a few red lights began flashing, signaling that the room's atmosphere was being sucked out. While that was happening, Tyler brought up his right arm and tapped some buttons that were on the forearm control set used to control a Federation fighter. Tyler was telling it to be positioned close by the exit of the Archangel's left linear catapult for him to get to.

A different alarm sounded, saying that the hangar was now a vacuum which made using the linear catapult doable. Next, Tyler typed in the command for the airtight shutter that closed when a mobile suit launches out. The shutters opened, and before going through them, Tyler set a timer for them to close after he went past. Tyler pushed off the console and flew through the hangar passing the airtight shutters and into the main catapult area. The shutters closed behind him shortly after he was inside, and the other catapult door rose up as Tyler had programmed it to. Then Tyler used his suit's thrusters to move forward, down the catapult's length and towards Artemis's docking area.

Meanwhile, with the Archangel now fully operating, those on the bridge were taking orders from Arnold as he had taken charge of the other commanding officers absent. Everything was going okay other than still being locked into the dock which was the major problem currently. How the locks could be undone none on the bridge could guess and the ship couldn't leave until that was dealt with. Still, none of them brought that particular point up as they were trying to look at the bright side of things as there wasn't much going for them.

Actually, Arnold had to admit, the teens said that their friend Tyler McGregor reappearing was one of the few good things that had ever since the Archangel had arrived at Artemis was very true. Hell, none of them had expected to see the teen again after he vanished during the collapse of Heliopolis. Yet, not only had McGregor popped up out of nowhere, but he had taken care of the Artemis soldiers on the ship. He had also been wearing a Federation pilot suit which said some things potentially. Whether that means the teen had connections or work for the Human Federation was anyone's guess.

Back with Tyler, once outside the Archangel, he turned and looked to his left and saw the vaguest of outlines which were the Delta fighter. It was how Federation stealth technology worked, if you didn't know what to look for, one wouldn't see it, not perfect, but still efficient. It was the principle employed with the optical camouflage by the Federation to make others see what is behind and glance over what is really there. Thus far, both those in ZAFT and the Earth Alliance haven't found a way to cut through the methods that the Federation military uses for stealth.

Tyler transmitted the command for the entry hatch to open and it did reveal the cockpit. Closing the short distance, he grabbed the edge of the entryway of the cockpit and swung himself into it, settling into the seat. Tyler felt his body locking himself into the restraints as he buckled the straps and activated the fighter's systems. He closed the cockpit and took in the situation around and began to come up with a plan to get his team and the Archangel with those on board along with himself out of this fast-growing chaotic mess.

Once settled and ready, Tyler switched the com-line on, "Lisa, Alan, we need to act quickly if we want to get the Archangel out of this base operational and in one piece. The first thing that needs to happen is those dock moorings that keep the ship in place have got to go! So, do whatever it takes to get rid of them or disengaged. I don't care which happens, start blasting them if that's what it requires. Just get things so the Archangel to be able to leave the dock asap since time is short with ZAFT banging hard on the front door!"

Lisa knew that Tyler wasn't wrong, if anything he was putting the current situation mildly.

"Agreed," she replied, "Alan, start on the forward right mooring, I'll take the back left."

"Got it," replied Alan.

Tyler maneuvered his fighter away from the Archangel and turning towards the forward entry to Artemis. He and Luke would provide cover while their teammates would free the Archangel should ZAFT get far enough in already. And with what Tyler was seeing, specifically the holes developing in the lightwave umbrella which were slowly becoming bigger, that was a real possibility. Clearly, ZAFT wasn't wasting time peppering the base's outside and then inviting themselves in. The mobile armors trying to defend the base were doing little to stop them, more just irritating and temporarily slowing ZAFT down.

Two explosions got Tyler to glance back over to the Archangel and noted that the explosions were two of the mooring clamps being blasted apart. It progressed even if Tyler wished it was going faster, so he exercised patience and just hope that ZAFT would be kept busy for long enough.

At the same time, on the Archangel's bridged, the crew was shaken as two explosions were seen outside the ship, though the tremors didn't last all that long. Sai looked down at his console since it began beeping, "Sir, incoming communication, source unknown, but it's heavily encrypted."

Arnold didn't know what was best to do in this, he wasn't a commanding officer or even supposed to be doing bridge operation. He was a backup console operator, even if he had some piloting experience before the Archangel. With this ship, he was just the pilot in the driver seat of this ship. "Then let's hear it," he said.

"Archangel, do you read me," said a voice.

Everyone was a tad shocked to hear Tyler McGregor's voice coming out of the speakers on the bridge. Sai was the one that found use of his vocal cords first, "Yes, we read you, Tye, what is it," he asked.

"Well, I was going to warn you about the explosions that probably rocked the ship," Tyler paused, "but the attempt came a little late I guess. Just so that you all know there will be two more blasts soon, don't panic, it's the clamps holding the Archangel in the dock being remove," there was another pause, "actually being blown to hell would be more accurate, but the same idea in the end."

Arnold cleared his throat, "Understood, thanks for the warning," he remarked.

"Don't mention it," Tyler replied promptly, "Once you're free start moving towards the back entrance of Artemis, the front is rather crowded right now as ZAFT is taking down the front door and that door is not holding well at all. McGregor out."

Back outside, with the first two locks were blasted apart, the third mooring followed and so, everything was going as smoothly as they possibly go with the current situation. Lisa set up for destroying the last clamp keeping the Archangel in the dock when Tyler caught sight of the first few ZAFT mobile suits getting past the mobile armors that were defending the entrance to the docking area. Shortly after Tyler had given his warning the Archangel was rocked hard from first the right side.

However, before the final clamp could be shot at, ZAFT suits came into Tyler's view including the Buster among them and they were finishing up dispatching the half a dozen Moebius armors that had been defending the base's entrance. The Buster and a GINN broke off from the other suits and came into Artemis's interior. A few more mobile armors launched from further inside the Alliance base to intercept the two invading machines. Tyler doubted that the additional OMNI forces wouldn't help that much as they unlikely had seen battle for a while now. it was kind of hard for Tyler to watch as the Buster and the GINN effortlessly blew apart the mobile armors. One of the mobile armors even went crashing into the command booth after taking a missile hit from the Buster. Tyler assumed that event threw whatever organization the base had if it had any to begin with, out the window as they fell into complete chaos.

Lisa then fired her fighter's Plasma pulse cannon at the fourth and final clamp blowing it apart. Pal was staring at the console in front of him, "The docking clamps are gone, we're free!" he said loudly.

"Right," said Arnold as he moved the Archangel up out of the docking space and began to crawl forward slowly.

The shuttle was maneuvered and began making its way towards the dock that the Archangel was stuck in. As it approached, Mu and Krystal witnessed two of the moorings being destroyed but no source of the shot that did that. The sight was followed by the other clamps being removed through blasts and the ship became free from the restraints. Krystal looked at the sensors as the shuttle got closer to the Archangel, "Mu, I would hurry, it looks like ZAFT is getting inside the docking area as we speak," she said.

Mu knew that Krystal had a point, time was against them before, but it was even more so now. However, as he looked back at the Archangel, he noticed that the left linear catapult was open for whatever the reason. It did give a way in for the shuttle, but the possibilities of why the catapult would be open escaped Mu. Yet, there were enough problems without adding more questions that didn't have answers right now. That in mind, Mu flew the craft into the catapult to get to the hangar. Krystal communicated with the few mechanics inside the hangar so that they would close the catapult and bring in the shuttle.

Tyler was breathing a tad easier when the Archangel lifted out of the dock unbound and slowly moved forward. The Archangel could use the rear exit the base had during the confusion that ZAFT was causing and none be the wiser. Tyler still kept an eye out as the ship, nor his team was out of the woods yet as the old phrase went. He even saw a shuttle heading for the Archangel but there was nothing Tyler could do at this time about that. He needed to focus on the ZAFT mobile suits incoming now bringing chaos faster, so he hoped the crew could handle the shuttle.

The moment that the shuttle touched down, the four ship officers were out and heading as fast as they could to the bridge. The Archangel hadn't been going forward away from the dock long when the door to the elevator opened. Out of the lift came Murrue, Mu, Krystal, and Natarle to all on the navigation bridge's surprise as none had heard anything about the four officers and so hadn't expected to see them. "Hey all, excellent work everyone, you kids included, definitely better than was expected from any of you!" said Mu putting a hand on Kuzzey's heads.

While Mu did that, Murrue and Natarle took their seats as Krystal looked ahead out of the front viewports. "Hope you had less trouble than we did," remarked Sai in a frustrated tone as Natarle settled into the command chair in the CIC.

Murrue didn't reply to the comment, just ignored it and focused on the current predicament, "We can't maneuver while we're in here, launch the Archangel and get us out of port."

Natarle recalled there should have been Artemis soldiers on this ship but they hadn't seen any on their way to the bridge. "Let's hope leaving here will be as easy as that, what happened with the soldiers anyway," she asked to the bridge at large down from the CIC.

Arnold hesitated for a moment trying to figure out where to start in the explanation. "Well ma'am, we got assistance from a source we certainly didn't expect and it was very helpful indeed," he answered.

Murrue cut over Arnold as it wasn't the time for explanations or catching up with the circumstances as they were. "We can catch up later, swing us around and point us towards the entrance so that we can get out of here," she ordered.

Tolle spoke up right after Murrue finished her order, "We can't, ZAFT forces are coming in that way," he shot back, "We need to go out the back of Artemis."

Mu stared at Tolle for a bit, the teen was correct, but it sounded like they had more info then he or the other officers did. "And how do you know that," he asked.

"It's true Lieutenant, we'll catch you up after this is done, but the front entrance won't work," agreed Arnold.

There was not the time to argue and the truth was ZAFT was moving forward so the Archangel needed to leave. So, Murrue nodded, "Very well then, engines to half and get us to the back entrance to the dock."

Tyler observed the Archangel heading for the rear exit as hoped. Hopefully, things would keep going the way they were the ship, Tyler, and his team could slip away before things got really bad. However, then the Blitz appeared out of the fighting shooting towards the Archangel clearly to attack.

Nicol had been weaving in and out of the fighting, looking for the real target they were here to take down. Artemis was nothing more than an obstacle in the mission, though beating its defense was an achievement. Yet, that wasn't the goal and Nicol made sure not to lose sight of that even if others had by attacking the base itself. It was within a minute that Nicol spotted the legged ship flying towards the back of the asteroid. Were they to not be stopped, they would get away and this mission would fail. So, Nicol moved forward aiming the Blitz's beam rifle at the ship's engines to slow them down.

Tyler wasn't going to let the Blitz get even a shot in at the Archangel while he was in any way able to stop it. He moved the throttle of his fighter to their forward stops and maneuvered himself to be between the Archangel and the attacking machine. Tyler leveled the fighter's vulcan guns and held down the trigger and let loose rounds towards the Blitz. His aim was true and simply dead on hitting the torso of the mobile suit bring it to pause. However, with the Blitz's phase shift armor active the effect of the weapon fire didn't penetrate the Blitz but it did stop its attack.

Nicol had aimed his weapon but weapon fire at the Blitz stopped him from firing a bolt. He looked around but found nothing immediately shooting at him. The phase shift armor was intercepting the weapon fire but draining power at the same time. Nicol was forced to shift the Blitz's shield to block the shots to stop the drain from the phase shift. The next thing Nicol knew, an object appeared a short distance ahead of him between the Blitz and the legged ship. It was but a moment for Nicol to realize what he was seeing was one of the current model space fighters that the Federation military used. That brought up the question of what the Federation would be doing at Artemis or how they even got in before Nicol had started taking down the lightwave shield.

Tyler fired the railguns his fighter had at the Blitz and followed that up with the plasma pulse cannon. The railguns slammed into the Blitz's shield but the shield took the shot, but Nicol had to throw his controls hard to the right to evade the third weapon shot. The railguns were something that Nicol could deal with, not nice but doable. The third weapon was something he'd only seen videos about and read some guesses about. It was supposed to be some kind of superheated blast, not exactly a beam but similar power and capability. That in mind, Nicol decided to cut his losses and leave. Federation forces always traveled in groups, fighters included. There wouldn't just be one, there would be a few at least and Nicol didn't believe the phase shift would hold out in that kind of situation.

Tyler watched as the Blitz backed off a bit and then got distracted by a couple of mobile armors. He believed that would do for long enough to let the Archangel leave this mess and gain some distance from this place. So, Tyler followed the Archangel as she flew to the back of the dock, the white Alliance ship didn't see any of the Federation fighters following. Tyler believed that is was in the ship's best interest right now to not know they were getting help from the Federation.

By now, Tyler was confident that the lightwave umbrella was either in the process of collapsing or had done so. And he didn't doubt that Sakura would be kind of happy with whoever came up with the plan that defeated Artemis. If she wasn't, then she'd be miffed that she hadn't gotten to do it personally. Tyler felt sorry for the planner of this should the second possibility be the truth.

On the bridge of the Archangel, all the crew was feeling the tension of the trouble of leaving the asteroid. When the Blitz popped up, that feeling rose sharply, but that changed when another craft appeared. Mu and Krystal instantly recognized it as one of the Federation's space fighters. Neither would complain about the help, but the Federation didn't tend to interfere in the war between the Alliance and ZAFT. So the question of why they would now of all times did come to mind, but there was no time to ponder the answer.

It wasn't long before the Archangel sailed out of the rear of Artemis and away from the chaos within. For the moment, Tyler would say that ZAFT is none the wiser of the fact of the Archangel's exit. He was breathing a sigh of relief with the mission essentially accomplished until he spotted three ships following a short distance behind. Two of them were one-hundred-thirty meters in length from front to back and were the Alliances Drake escort class ships. The other was two-hundred-fifty meters in length and was a Nelson battleship class. There were also a small number of mobile armors that Tyler spotted following the ships as well.

Tyler after a second decided it would be better to ask for assistance in this issue now that this was outside of Artemis. He used his com-line and connected to the Donnen, "Captain Shepard, I think we might need an assist soon enough. Two Drake-classes and a Nelson-class are following the Archangel and us in a rather menacing way. So, I assume that some Artemis officers are out to get some payback on the Archangel."

Shepard had seen the ships as the Donnen was a short distance from the asteroid watching the events unfold. And since there were refugees on the Archangel, the destruction of the ship was much less desirable. "Understood, we'll take care of the ships while your team manages the mobile armors," she answered. She then turned to her second-in-command, "Sulu, battle stations if you would."

Sulu nodded, "All hands, battle stations," he announced, "Tactical, acquire shooting solutions on the three Alliance vessels."

Shepard knew that the quicker this was finished the better so ZAFT didn't have evidence the Federation had been around. "Sulu, ready the MAC gun," she ordered.

"MAC gun, lock and load along with warm up coils," Sulu announced without missing a beat.

Tyler in the meantime was wondering a bit how the Donnen's captain intended to handle the Alliance ships. However, his attention was snapped back as the Drake-classes fired on the Archangel followed up by the Nelson-class. The mobile armors moved forward in the clear intention of attacking the white ship. Tyler switched his com-line over to talk to the rest of the team, "Listen up everyone, none of those mobile armors are to be allowed to attack the Archangel. The two Drake-classes and Nelson-class will be handled by the Donnen. It's time we stop being nice and take those armors down, pick your target, and nail them!"

Tyler chose the lead mobile armor and adjusted his fighter's course to head directly toward it. He locked it in his sites on the armor furthest ahead and lined up the fighter's railguns. After a few seconds, Tyler fired off a shot from one then the other, but the mobile armor dodged it mostly due to luck by what Tyler saw. It had been evading the defensive gun turrets on the Archangels that were shooting at it when Tyler had attacked. However, the armor pilot didn't miss the projectiles zooming through where they had been. Tyler saw little reason to stay invisible, so he shut off his fighter's optical camouflage rushed forward. With the camouflage down, the fighter had a much better top speed and acceleration and Tyler would use it. Tyler kept firing at the mobile armor even as the other three space fighters appeared and attacked other mobile armors.

On the bridge of the Archangel, the crew was finding it difficult to not watch the battle unfolding in front of them. To most of the crew, this was the first time they had seen Federation forces fighting OMNI. For Mu and Krystal, this was yet another show of how much the Federation outmatched OMNI.

Back outside, Tyler got a shot from the railguns to find its mark to destroy the lead mobile armor. Other mobile armors moved in to attack Tyler, but he was ready for them and had a surprise as well. If there was one thing that could be said about Tyler's style in piloting, it would be there's no place around him that his opponent could be which he couldn't counter and attack. As the armor pilot behind Tyler began to lock in a shot at him, Tyler smirked and jerked back his throttle, tilted the nose up, and hit the brakes.

Tyler's Delta fighter shot back, flipping over the mobile armor, nose first in a clockwise directional arc. At the point that my fighter's nose was moving over the machine, not perfectly vertical, but to have them in his crosshairs, Tyler went into action. He lit up the fighter's vulcan guns and unloaded round after round from them at the Alliance machine. That made a very clean and neat double line down the center of the armor as Tyler continued to rotate over the mobile armor. He finished the fighter's flip to end out behind the armor and quickly swung my pulse cannon's barrel to point at the other mobile armor and fired. The first mobile armor shortly exploded after he'd ended out behind them and had peppered it with holes from back to front. The other armor followed suit just after the plasma pulse cannon nailed them square in the rear end.

The mobile armors were being picked off, there came a loud boom and a second later Tyler saw the Nelson-class gain a good size hole punched through its central ship structure. That ship shortly exploded and became debris after being shot at and that was quickly followed by two shots from beam turrets, one at each of the Drake-classes. Tyler was blinking at what he'd just seen as he hadn't expected what the Donnen had done.

The weapon employed in the destruction of the Alliance vessel was one that the ones that the Federation exclusively had and wasn't willing to share for a couple of reasons. The weapon that had just fired was known as the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon or a MAC gun for short. The cannon fires a massive metal projectile that can either be explosive or nonexplosive using a linear system of magnetic fields coils down a long shaft. The idea is with utilizing the coils, the projectile's velocity increases until it carries an incredible amount of kinetic energy.

The energy was dependent on the length of the barrel and how many coils were involved in the acceleration. But basically, with the average length of the barrel that the Federation builds the MAC guns with, which is the forward forth of the Donnen's length. The methodology makes armor essentially pointless as it is the same results were paper to be used for defense with the speeds that projectiles get chucked from the guns. The drawback is the MAC gun takes a decent amount of time to warm up and you have to point the ship in the direction you want to fire in. It can't fire consecutively due to the need for a cool-down time.

The use of a Federation cruiser's MAC gun was not surprising as when it was used, any witnesses were normally those being shot at. But in this instance, the Archangel had seen the effects which were okay, but still a bit of a risk from what Tyler knew. It made some sense as this battle needed to be handled quick before ZAFT came around.

So, Tyler and his team made short work of the mobile armors that outnumbered them more than three to one and showed how Federation fighters can whip Alliance mobile armors. Once the fight was finished, the Archangel moved forward without issue. The ship was safe and that's what counted right now no matter what anyone else said to Tyler. He hadn't forgotten that he and his team would have to somehow stop the Alliance from getting their hands on the Strike or the Asuka, nor data on mobile suits. Yet, Tyler decided to think about how that would be done later and take the victory for the moment.

Phase End!

A/n

…This chapter ended out being longer than the original, but the flow was still as I hoped it would be. So anyway, as always, please take the time to write a review or PM me to say what you think. The Delta fighter is actually a Gundam from the Universal Century, specifically the 'Gundam Delta Kai'. Now as always, I appreciate if some would take the time and say what they think of the story development. Below are specs for the Federation fighter and the cruiser, until the next time!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Classification: Mass Production Transformable Mobile Suit

Model number: HFCS-D201

Official name: Delta Fighter

Overall Height: head height 18.6 meters (Mobile suit mode)

Base Weight: 68.6 metric tons

Powerplant: Ultracompact Energy Battery

Armor Material: unknown

Crew: Pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso

GENERAL DATA

Manufacturer: Teswa laboratories, Human Federation

Developed into: HFS-E100 Excel

Variants: HFCS-D201E Delta Fighter Eagle Custom; HFCS-D201R Delta Fighter Roc Custom

First deployment: July 23 65 C.E.

Operator: Human Federation

Known Pilots: Tyler McGregor, Lisa Malto, Alan Knight, Luke Lascy, Kurt Gream, Cormag Swift

Equipment and design features:

Long Range Targeting (L.R.T.) scope

The optical camera has a huge zoom ability which acts like a scope on a long-range rifle and is hidden in the right side of the head. In the cockpit, a small screen comes out from behind the pilot seat and sits right in front of the pilot's helmet on the right side.

Specter Optical Camouflage Field system (SOC field)

The system allows the fighter not to be detected or seen. It does so by projecting real time images of what's behind the field with the method used in the heat disbursal from the thrusters, even the heat won't give away position

Recharge cable system

The equipment is attached to the underside of the machine, is made of three parts, a line that connects to the battery of the Delta Fighter, a junction that the line connects to and a combination of hydralic launcher and cable that can connect to other connectors. The system can be used to tap into a facility's own power grid or into a mobile suit's battery, simply when what's connected to the other end of the cable is in contact with either cables or other means power is transferred by

Fixed armaments:

"Kai" 120mm Railgun

The two cannons are mounted on the backpack, one on the left and one on the right, like all railguns, they use electromagnetic forces to launch the projectile they carry.

Shield

A standard defensive feature the Delta Fighter, it's arm-mounted shield which goes over the left arm in mobile suit mode. Originally a thick piece of extra armor designed to stop physical rounds, shield technology has been forced to adapt to the development of beam weapons by incorporating an anti-beam coating. The Delta Fighter's shield also has the function of serving as the unit's forward section in flight mode. Beside the Beam Sabers/Beam Cannons and it can mount a large variety of weapons.

"Pepper" 60mm Vulcan

The 60mm vulcan gun while not very powerful and typically unable to penetrate mobile suit heavy armor, the vulcan gun is useful in intercepting missiles/rockets, destroying mobile suit sensors, and engaging lightly-armored targets such as tanks and small aircraft.

Beam Saber

The Delta fighter's close combat armaments, they are stored in the rechargeable racks on the shield. The beam saber is capable of cutting through any metal that has not been treated with anti-beam coating. They are also dubbed as beam cannons while mounted in the shield and could be utilized in flight mode

Optional armaments

Plasma Pulse Cannon

An optional weapon that can be mounted on the underside and rear of the nose. It causes heavy and explosive damage on the intended target, and is the default heavy weapon the Delta Fighter has at its disposal. The secondary effect, comes from the highly-heated plasma that can remain after the impact and corrode a machine's armor.

Rapid Assault Machine Cannon

An optional weapon that can be mounted on the front side of the shield. Developed by Koovos Weapons Development Institute, it fires heavy-caliber armor-piercing rounds.