Archangel's Amazing Adventures

by CSS Stravag

Mass Crossover fic. Chapter 51 UP! Powerful magic draws the Archangel and the ZAFT Creuset Team into a world of magic and intrigue like nothing imagined by the straight-laced CE residents. Their battles on Cephiro are only the beginning of their nightmarish journey as they give Odysseus a run for his money in the 'bizarre trip home' category...

11. Those Who Fight Further

(Section 02, Chapter 03: Those Who Fight Further)

"All hands, prepare for liftoff and exit from the atmosphere," Captain Ramius notes over the ship's intercom.

For Athrun, it mean that shortly he would be back in native environs, as he was most used to working in Zero-G and preferred it over working under gravity, strangely enough. Being a ZAFT officer, his home was the colonies, and he had learned early on how to

The catch was, the machines he was working on were not designed for space battle, despite the fact that they were environmentally sealed. Battlemechs worked best when under the influence of gravity, though in a real desperate pinch they could be used in space—so long as they had jump jets. Compared to Mobile Suits, which were primarily engineered to operate in space, it was a sorry way to conduct a battle in Athrun's final analysis. Not that one Battlemech would be weak, per se, as even the small ones were a threat to the Buster, and a quantity would probably be enough to repel a Mobile Suit attack. It came down to differing philosophies, he guessed.

What the Archangel had received as its 'signing bonus' had turned out to be what they had managed to take down (really hard) in the sands of Dustball, and these machines were not slouches. They could go toe-to-toe with some of the best of local machines and usually come out the victor. That clearly showed that the Clans were doing something right—or the AFFC was doing something wrong, or both. Still, the sheer power of the Mobile Suit energy weapons made the matter rather one-sided in the Archangel's favor, which was a good thing as far as Athrun was concerned. The easier it was to knock them down, the better, he figured.

The units available to him included three Summoner chassis, all heavily damaged, a Mad Dog that he shot the head off personally, two Timber Wolves, rare 'mechs among the Jade Falcons from all reports but very powerful chassis nonetheless, and three of the midget 'mechs that Dearka had shot up, one with the Gun Launcher, one with missiles, and one with his combined beam cannon and gun launcher in shotgun configuration.

These smaller ones were called Kit Fox, and were potent for being so small, easily the rival to anything that small among the AFFC forces. The Mad Dog units, of which he got one mostly intact plus an arm from another, were fire support units, designed with long-range combat primarily in mind, as the paired 20-silo missile racks and copious reloads showed. The Hellbringer, one of the mainstays of the Jade Falcons, had a berserk weapons config that made it easily capable of blowing the hell out of whatever it faced, though it had serious issues with heat buildup. The Summoner was the premier of Jade Falcon Omnimechs, though; they used it for just about everything, and it had weapons configurations to match, from the versatile primary weapons config to the missile launcher arms of the fire-support variant to the heavy-hitting Ultra AC/20 carried by the close-in variant. This was a very dangerous machine in the right hands. The one that had Athrun really worried, though, was the Timber Wolves, as their primary weapons variant (of which he had two, one without a head and the other without a gyro) had five laser weapons (two Large, three medium) as well as machine guns and two of the same type of missile launcher that the Mad Dog had—as well as a lot more armor than said fire support machine. In Athrun's estimation, the Timber Wolf was designed as a main forward assault unit, solely for taking and delivering serious amounts of punishment to the enemies. He silently dreaded what other weapons configurations there might be for that 'mech, and having to face them in battle.

And right now he had the most intact of each of the machines hangared and racked, to look at their main systems and do analysis on their components. Even at full burn, to get to the Jumpship would take days. So, he planned on getting some real hard analysis done and hopefully he would have an idea as to how to convert some of the engines from these machines into powerplants for the Gundams. Getting the existing machines improved was their first priority, as well as possibly using some of the weapons on the Archangel to improve the anti-air defense of the ship. Nothing would say 'go away' better than a turret assembly next to the Igelstellung guns that had a pair of PPCs to knock down fighters.

Athrun was working on the Timber Wolf, since he wanted to get real intimate with it since there was a good possibility that he would have to face the rather rare Omni in future battles. Yzak and Dearka were in the next bay over, picking apart the Summoner that Dearka had blown the right leg clean off. That pilot had bailed out manually instead of ejecting and hitched a ride on the foot of one of the Hellbringers that Kira had chopped up, so the cockpit was relatively intact. Those three arms that Kira had forcibly detached from their respective Hellbringers were in the bay beyond that, as Murdoch and his personnel were breaking them down to figure out how the machines were assembled and exactly how large the weapons themselves were. They actually did not get a Hellbringer as salvage from the battle, though the arms contained plenty.

"How's it coming, Yzak?" Athrun shouts out from his cubicle.

The reply took a few seconds. "You know, I think I kinda like this machine. Not that I'd give up the Duel for it, but it seems like it would be fun to pilot."

"Well, you guys think you can pull the leg off one of the other Summoner frames and put it on that thing?" Athrun asks.

"Probably, but I'm more interested in the engine," Dearka replies. "I'd love to have one of these engines in the Buster."

"Of course you would." The bent of Yzak's intonation made the accusation obvious: Dearka shot his beam cannon off wildly.

"Man, fuck you, Yzak. I'm more worried about the assholes with the large racks of missiles than your obsession with shooting everything that moves near your gunsights."

"Sure. Keep telling yourself that."

"Stop arguing and get to it, both of you!" Athrun shouts from the cubicle next to them. "If you want the engine, pull it out and get it ready for one of the Gundams!"

"Yes, Master, right away, Master," Yzak chants facetiously, though definitely not loud enough to be heard outside the cockpit of the Summoner. "All right, where do we start?"

"I'd say break our way into the back of this thing and start detaching the engine from the rest of the frame." Dearka opines in response to Yzak's rather brainless question.

"Attention all hands, we have now left Dustball," Murrue notes over the intercom. There were a few cheers from the crew in the hangar, but nothing major.

"That can't be fucking right, we're still under influence of gravity," Yzak notes derisively. Surely anyone with half a brain would know that after having left the planet, they would not have gravity to draw them down to the deck of the ship?

"I dunno, but if we're continually accelerating it would act like we're still under gravity since the ship is constantly moving relative to us," Dearka notes. "Only problem is, this may cause issues with what is up and down in the ship now, since the engines just became the new bottom of the ship."

"No, dumbass, we're still being pulled downward, as in down toward the deck where this one-legged-bandit has its one good foot, or haven't you noticed which way your lead ass is being dragged right now?"

"I don't get it," Dearka notes after a few moments of testing the gravity effects. Yes, there was a bit of a lean toward the rear of the ship, but indeed as per Yzak's crass commenting they were mostly being pulled downward toward the keel of the ship. "Screw it, working under gravity doesn't bother me. C'mon, let's get this engine out."

"Yeah."

"Hey, Athrun, come here a second, I think you need to check this out!" Murdoch shouts across the hangar toward the cubicle that Athrun was working in.

"What is it?" Athrun asks as he runs the 40 meters from where he was working to where Murdoch was working.

"I think we just found out why Kira saw two of the same frame with two totally different weapon sets. Here." Murdoch points to an internal encapsulation surrounding the frame of the Gauss Rifle within the arm that Kira had chopped off the first of the enemy machines. "This whole frame is designed to come out of the arm assembly. You release the lugs at certain intervals, you can pull the whole internal pod, weapon and all, right out of the arm."

"Do it," Athrun says, while inspecting the pod. It was roughly hexagonal, just as was the arm itself, and fit into the arm's weapon enclosure area by way of six locking lugs that could be tripped with the push of a steel rod against them. This one of the mechanics effected, and a heavy equipment gantry was used to pull the pod enclosure out. The shock of the day was that the pod enclosure was an ABS plastic material, it was not metal and really had no structural or armor value except to secure the weapon into the arm.

"Jesus, that thing weighs 12,000 kilos, man," one of the Mechanics notes as he was looking at the load-bearing scale for the gantry.

"What?" Athrun asks, then looks at the device that was about six meters long, two meters tall, and about a meter wide. "That thing weighs that much?"

"Yeah, big sucker for something in such a small package," Murdoch notes. "I'll bet good money that when we do the workup on the Timber Wolf, we'll find similar pod-frame designs in it."

"Oh, I see, it uses an interlocking power connection here," Athrun points it out without touching it, "that interfaces with the main power feed for the arm." He shines a flashlight into the back of the pod assembly. "Oh, wow, look at the size of that slug."

"Jesus," Murdoch says as he looks into the ammo feed that Athrun was looking at. The slug itself had to mass well over 100 kilos, was as wide as Athrun's thigh and just about as long as said body part. "It's definitely bigger than the slugs for the Lightning Striker pack (1)."

"Scary shit," Yzak comments from five meters. Dearka and Yzak were checking out the topic of interest, the pod assembly that everyone was looking at, as well as dodging what they really were not looking forward to, trying to remove a whole engine from a large 'mech. "Looks about the same size as the slugs for Shiva, maybe a little smaller and longer." Shiva was the railgun mounted on the left shoulder of the Duel, and was very effective at knocking down enemy aircraft and causing damage to the Archangel. How it fared when compared to the local weapons was still under judgment, though it had destroyed one of the Summoner frames by blowing out the toroid of its engine.

"How long do you think it would take to change out these pods for a different set?" Athrun asks the veteran mechanic.

"Five, six minutes if you had good equipment to do it with and the pods ready and waiting."

"Huh." Athrun ponders something for a few moments. "Hey, you guys think you can pull the gyro out of the headless Timber Wolf and put it in the one that Umi stabbed? I'd love to have the engines out of those two in our Gundams, but I think we can get away with putting the engines from the Mag Dogs and the Summoners in our machines. The Timber Wolf is too good a unit to just leave around, I think."

"We might be able to accomplish that, the Kwaidan is supposed to send over a few persons to help and advise, maybe they can give us some extra help as to what's what." There were definite similarities between the G-Weapons and these Battlemechs, but not all was the same and how certain things worked was a mystery to everyone right now. That would change with enough analysis, and by all accounts in the coming months there would be plenty of time for analysis and modification. "Now, who do we get to pilot it?"

"Crewman Koenig or Commander La Flaga would be able to, with enough time in simulation, I think."

"Well, that's a start," Murdoch notes. "All right, guys, let's get in the headless Timber Wolf and see if we can extract the Gyro out of it. We'll worry about the weapons we have lying around later."

-x-x-x-

"Hey Flay," Tolle says as he wanders past her. She had been called to the Stateroom by the Captain for some reason, and in reality she was feeling almost sick to her stomach with worry about it. Am I going to be court-martialed because of my affair with Kira? She asks herself silently, then realized that Tolle had said something to her.

"Hey Tolle," she acknowledges as she goes by, still headed for the Stateroom. There is only so much of a winding path you can take when headed throughout the Archangel; inevitably, she had to come to the end of her road, as she saw it. When she arrived, she pressed the doorbell, and waited.

"Come in," The answer finally came after what seemed like eternity and change to Flay. She enters, to find Murrue and Mu sitting at the main desk in the room, going over some papers. "Grab a seat, Flay, we're just checking out some minor details in an engineering plan submitted to us."

"Captain, I, uh, well..."

"You're not in trouble if that's what you're worried about, Flay," Murrue informs her earnestly.

"Oh." That immediately improved Flay's mood from fearful to curious. She did have a seat in the chair farthest away from the two officers in the room, though, as an automatic reaction to dealing with the Captain and Commander. Despite being the more personable of the three command officers on the ship, and a whole helluva lot more social than the four ZAFT pilots, Flay was still rather afraid of them since all three were career military.

"Okay, going by this I think we should have a working facility of the type we discussed, in our ship, within three days. Those Engineering guys are chomping at the bit to get this done, as we haven't had jack for engine trouble since this whole mess started."

"What we could say the same thing about our luck at travel destinations, I guess." Murrue sighs, then continues: "All right, plan approved. Get them on it, they have my permission to borrow Kira if need be, since he was a technical student he might be able to help with this project, but I want that minimized if at all possible. We don't know what kind of capability the enemy has in space, and I don't want to take chances for now."

"Clear. Project Hot Steam begins in thirty minutes." Mu picks up the engineering schematic and salutes the Captain with it. "I think more than a few of us are going to enjoy this..."

"Get to it, Commander, and I don't want to hear about any dirty thoughts crossing your mind pertaining to this, clear?" The unspoken addendum was that Miriallia, being one of the persons likely to use the facility, would definitely report such bad conduct straight to the Captain.

"Clear."

"Dismissed;" Murrue was definitely smiling about something, and Flay could hazard a guess as to what it was in reference to. It did not even qualify as a secret, the two (Captain and Commander) were quite close to each other, and had grown more so since the mystery tour from hell had begun. "Now, Flay, it has been brought to my attention that while you are assigned to the Archangel, you are not assigned to a duty section."

"Yes, Captain," Flay responds in the silence after the Captain's observation.

"A position is about to open up that has not been available on this ship prior to now. I take it you have heard the rumors that someone is planning on building a hot spring on the ship?"

"I did not think that was a rumor, Captain. I thought it was a half-concealed dream for some way to relax for the crew."

"Well, as of three days from now, four days tops, it will not be a dream, it will be an actual facility on this ship. That being said, we have a slight issue with who we have available to staff the facility, and your name came up as being available, as well as three other persons that are on this ship and are not active Mobile Forces personnel." That immediately means that Umi, Fuu and that wench Hikaru aren't it, Flay thinks sourly. She had misgauged how the Captain was classifying said persons, however. "I am going to need a person that can man the hot springs, keep disputes to a minimum, make sure no perverts try looking in the opposite gender's spring, and run laundry specifically for the hot springs. Since the expected occupancy of the springs is going to be rather high, this is not going to be a simple task while you are on duty. Your shift rotation will be eight on duty, sixteen off. Clear?"

"Am I allowed to use the springs in that case?" Flay asks, wondering what restrictions she would have when she took this position.

"Yes, when you are not on duty. When on duty, you are attending to the springs, not using them, clear?"

"Okay, I'll do it," Flay decides on a whim, happy that she wasn't being court-martialed and she could now actually do something useful...sort of.

"Very well, report to the ship's stores and have the quartermaster draw you these supplies." Murrue had the list prepared already, and it was indeed a laundry list of things that would be used in the hot springs, a laundry list that actually did include laundry, or specifically a whole slew of towels. "Once you have the supplies, you are to transport them to the storerooms that are on the bow-side of corridor E-6, clear?"

"Clear, Captain."

"Get to it, I'd like to see those supplies stowed and ready no later than 1700 hours. Dismissed."

"Thank you." Flay gives the Captain her best salute (which wasn't much), turns and heads out the door. Outside, Tolle was walking past again, with his head in his ancient music player. "Tolle, can you help me with something?" Said in her best innocent, slightly dazed voice; not that Tolle was easily manipulated, but he was always willing to help when someone appeared to be in need.

"Uh, sure, what?"

"I have to move some stuff from the storage rooms to a room down by the engines."

"Oh, sure, can do." They begin the trek toward the storeroom in question. "So, how're you and Kira getting along?" Tolle asks after fifty meters of walking.

"Well, I'm not sure why, but every time I go looking for him it's like he disappears out of the ship. Or he's working on his Gundam," Flay thinks aloud. "It's almost like he's trying to avoid me for some reason."

"I dunno, with all that we've gone through recently, the Captain and Mister Murdoch have been keeping him busy."

"Oh." Silence for ten seconds. "Tolle, has it...really been that bad?"

"Sort of. I mean, we had some hairy battles in Cephiro, and the rude shock we had with Princess Emeraude, but it was a bit better than when we were in the desert on Earth. Now, though, we're in it real deep, 'cause those Clanners aren't playing nice."

"But, we beat them, right?" Flay asks.

"Yeah, this time, because we got them in close with limiting terrain. We face them in an open field, they may go right through all of our machines and come after the ship next." Tolle shrugs. "That's the breaks, though. We all knew what we were getting into when we chose to sign up for this." And thank God we did, otherwise we'd've all been blown up on that shuttle, Tolle thinks but does not say to keep Flay from hyperventilating. Strangely enough, the person that had shot that shuttle was now a pilot attached to the ship.

"Oh, yeah, right," Flay notes as she stops in front of the supply room. "Hey, Tolle, where are you going?"

"Huh?" He looks back after having walked five meters farther down the hall. "Oh, right. Sorry."

-x-x-x-

"I don't think this is going to work offhand," Newman notes as he starts bringing theArchangel alongside the Katana. It was impressive, being three hundred meters longer than the Archangel for all that it probably only massed a little more than the said monitor.

"Well, nobody has ever accused the Archangel of being a lead-ass ship, but in this case we gotta figure out how to connect our ship to that thing or we ain't going anywhere fast," Mu notes.

"Conn, radio for the Captain."

"Archangel, Captain Ramius here," she says after putting the radio broadcast on the main speakers.

"Captain Verstadt of theKatana," the caller replied immediately. "Considering the size of your ship, we will need to connect it to multiple of the dock hardpoints. Please have your helmsman invert the ship and slide it under the keel of the Katana, back toward the aft portion of the ship."

"Roger that, Captain. Newman, you know what to do."

"Roger that, Captain," Newman replies as he begins the process of inverting the ship.

The Katana was itself an impressive sight. It had a very large sail coming out of the rear of the ship, ostensibly to collect light and radio energy to power the Jump Drive, a massive fabric disc that only appeared to be a few millimeters wide on sensor scan with the picture of the symbol of the Draconis Combine on it, being a large oriental-style dragon. In appearance, the ship itself looked like a graduated cylinder from a chemistry lab, a large disc with a pipe coming out of the top of the disc that ended in the bulbous nose of the vessel. All in all, it was an impressive ship for an impressive purpose, moving groups of ships between star systems in a matter of seconds (if Murrue was interpreting its purpose right). The only thing it lacked was significant weapons clusters, for which it had the Kwaidan andArchangel right now.

"Newman, center the ship between the four underside dock collars," Murrue notes, then picks up the bridge phone at her chair. "Athrun Zala, Kira Yamato, please report to the bridge."

It only took two minutes for them to get to the bridge. "What's going on, Captain?" Kira asks as he walks over to her chair.

"We're just about to dock with the Katana, except that the bottom of our ship doesn't match up to their collars. We're probably going to need some creative way to link our ship to their collars."

"Oh, right, I think we can do that," Kira thinks aloud. "We'd need to build four frames to attach the ship to the collars...huh?"

"What?" Murrue and Athrun ask in unison.

"Look at that, the collars are moving to attach to us," The four collars that the ship was centered on were attached to movable booms that were initially designed to accommodate even the largest of Dropships. In this case, they had moved two of the collars to attach to the bottom of theArchangel's legs and the other two to attach to the back of the engine housing, giving it four points of contact to the Katana.

"So much for that problem," Murrue notes ironically. "Now, how do we cross over to the Katana?"

"For now, it would be best if you remain on your ship, Captain Ramius," Captain Verstadt notes with a neutral intonation, which very abruptly reminds them that he was still connected to the ship. "We will be conducting a hyperspace jump in thirty minutes. It is best if your crew are not loose at that time."

"Understood, thank you Captain."

"Jumpship Katana is over and out." The link cuts audibly.

"Well, for now we don't get to have a discussion with our ride, later may be a different story." Murrue sets the ship's speakers to 1MC, which broadcast her throughout the ship. "All hands attention, all personnel are to secure any loose material and secure themselves within the next thirty minutes, no exceptions. Be prepared for hyperspace jump at that time. That is all." She switches off the 1MC. "So, how are the machines coming along, guys?"

"We have Duel, Strike, Blitz, Aegis all upgraded with engines we pulled out of the Clan Omnimechs. So far, the engines seem to be running completely normally, and we managed to give them extended 'fuel' tanks so they can operate for a longer duration." The fuel of the fusion engine was plain water, not something reactive or explosive like what the engines of the Archangel ran on. A normal fusion reactor would break down the water into diatomic hydrogen and oxygen, and pump the oxygen to the pilot for breathing while using the hydrogen to fuel the engine. The engine combines two atoms of hydrogen into one atom of helium, in the process generating an incredible amount of heat. The heat was used to heat water into steam, which ran a turbine that produced the unit's power.

"And Buster?"

"We're still debating how we want to do the engines in the Buster. We're trying to figure out if we should wait for another large engine or if we should try to use two or three of the engines from the Kit Fox machines in place of its battery."

"Well, how big are the engines for those Kit Fox machines?"

"Oh, about three and a half tons each mass, physically they are about two meters cube."

"Those things are small, and they can run like that?" Tolle asks from his position at the helm.

"We stumbled into a land where they got some things grossly ahead of us and some things way the hell backwards," Athrun replies deadpan. "They jump between stars in seconds but they still use a lot of fossil-fuel-based machines in battle, or so I've heard." Apparently these Clanners had a disdain of those types of combat units, but the Inner Sphere was not afraid to throw combat vehicles and tanks around.

"This is crazy," Murrue notes, referring to the apparently uneven progress the locals had made over the 1000 or more years that interstellar travel had been available to them. "Athrun, do you think you can get away with putting two or three of the reactors in the Buster?"

"Probably, especially if I dedicate them instead of feeding one accumulator. I think Kira and I can make it work until we get a larger engine for it."

"Then do it, but not right now. Secure anything you two are working on and get ready for the jump."

"Aye, Captain," Athrun responds, salutes, and leaves with Kira in tow.

-x-x-x- (23 April 3050) -x-x-x-

"Ablative gel layer is holding at nominal resistance, Captain," Chandratta notes as they begin the descent into the atmosphere of Romulus. Technically they were still in FedCom territory, but the last word from the HPG networks was that a neighboring system, Wotan, had just been taken by the enemy. That made the matter all the more urgent that they all get trained up and ready to really stick it to the Clans.

The logic was dead simple to Murrue. Even the best of the ZAFT and Earth Alliance still had room to improve, and for all intents and purposes the 1st Somerset was a rather scratch-up and slapdash formation that needed a lot of work. Strangely, despite the technological variance, theArchangel's mobile compliment was more elite than the locals. Despite this, the whole force (including the ship) would report to the Romulus Militia base for a week's worth of extended and hard-core training, then it was down to the spaceport to draw supplies and barter, then back to the Katana to continue the journey of the Augmented 1st Somerset Strikers.

"We're inside the atmosphere now, switching to atmospheric control at this time," Newman notes. "Ship is decelerating to extended flight speeds now."

"Sensors, status of theKwaidan?"

"Kwaidan is coming down on course to land outside the militia base. We will have a twenty-minute flight time before we get to the area."

"All right, Mister Newman, take us to the training field. All ahead quarter."

"All ahead quarter, aye." Newman puts the throttles forward to a quarter and makes sure the Levitator was powered and functioning.

Murrue had the bridge phone set to the whole ship again. "All hands, attention. For the next week, we will be executing field maneuver training on Romulus, the planet we are presently on. Section leads are to keep an eye out for where performance can be improved. All pilots are to report to their machines for the introductory briefing and battle at the Romulus Militia facility."

"Conn, Comms, Kwaidan reports they are on the ground, awaiting our pleasure," Sai reports with a hint of humor.

"Well, we had to come down in a remote area. If we hit the ground in a civilian center, it would have caused tremendous casualties." Not that there were a huge amount of civilian urban areas on this planet, by all accounts this was a farming planet that produced crops for planets within two or three jumps of here. It was a lucrative business, they figured, but not as prestigious as military service or high-tech industries. So far, they had seen plenty of farmland and not a whole lot of cities, so what they heard was tracking with what they were seeing.

"Athrun Zala to CIC, reporting ready for operation."

"Dearka Elsman, Buster is ready for operation."

"Yzak Joule, ready to kick some ass."

"Chill out, Yzak, it's not like we're going head to head with the Clans today," Miriallia chides the Duel pilot.

"Kira Yamato, Lightning Strike, ready for action."

"Roger that, Strike," Miriallia replies. "Lightning Strike pack?" She tacks on after a moment.

"I'm going to do some long-range work today, Miriallia," Kira notes.

"Blitz to command, I'm ready to go."

"Blitz, command requests you do not use the Mirage Colloid today, we want to keep that as our ace in the hole for now, over." Miriallia made sure she had put that out only on the direct land-line communication link to the Blitz, which was a data wire that ran parallel to the power cables that connected it to the ship.

"Understood, command," Nicol replies.

"Tolle Koenig, Launcher Grasper, hot and ready."

"Tolle, you're being a pervert again," Miriallia notes.

"Everyone needs a hobby," Tolle responds offhand, causing a few amused chuckles in the CIC pit.

"Mu La Flaga, Timber Wolf, ready to go." They had not changed the weapons around in the Timber Wolf, though they did replace the lasers that Umi had sliced up. The two laser weapons, damaged beyond repair, were awaiting turnover to FedCom intelligence personnel as per the contract. The remainder of the Summoner and Mad Dog chassis were awaiting similar transfer, or more likely components to finish rebuilding them for eventual use. More than a few crewmembers had stepped up to take the challenge of driving one of the sim pods that Athrun had modded to match the cockpit of a Clan Omnimech (the cockpits were all rather similar), and more than one of the crew was capable of piloting with some level of decency.

"All right everyone, listen up," Natarle begins, then gives a pause to make sure everyone was. "Lock your systems into live simulation mode. All your weapons are presently hot and loaded, this will unload your ballistic and missile systems and bring your beam weapons down to simulation strength. We don't need any friendly fire scenarios today. Confirm lock out now."

"Aegis locked out."

"Blitz locked out."

"Buster is weapons cold."

"Duel is disarmed."

"Strike, locked out."

"Launcher Grasper, locked out."

"Timber Wolf, weapons dry."

"Archangel, weapons locked in sim mode."

Yzak picks up a new addition to the arsenal of the Duel and slings it over the left-shoulder missile pack on the Assault Shroud. "I'm going to enjoy using this thing. Twenty silos and 100 missiles worth of reload is going to fuck someone's ozone."

"Just be sure you get a valid lock-on with it, dead-firing those things is likely not going to work," Dearka notes.

"At spitting range it will, and who in this bay has problems with shooting off his guns without a lock-on?" Yzak counters.

"Shut up, both of you," Athrun says directly before the argument could go any farther downhill.

"Right," Yzak counters. "Hey, are the Magic Knights coming along today?"

"Yeah, I thought they were," Nicol notes.

"They might still be helping with final adjustments to the hot springs," Dearka notes. That project had hit some significant snags, strange equipment in strange places that was not on the original schematics, though after a week's worth of delays they were ready to open the springs. If there was any doubt that the Archangel was an evolving ship, those doubts could be laid to rest courtesy of the attempt to put a hot spring into the ship. Athrun had some of the strange equipment broke down and was analyzing it in his off-time, to see what it was for.

"No, here they come," Nicol notes, though he was mostly paying attention to the one farthest from where the Blitz stood. There was a bit of admiration there, knowing that the three persons he was looking at (with a slight system magnification) were schoolgirls from an otherwise nonviolent country that still mounted up and helped solve the problems of someone else's world. He lost sight of them as they boarded the Rune Gods and made ready.

"Nice of you three to join us," Athrun notes on open channel.

"We're ready."

"And willing to learn, of course," Fuu adds to Hikaru's statement.

"Keep your magic talents to yourselves for today, okay? Just go in close, we'll handle the long-range operations," Yzak notes coldly. "We may work for them, but we don't want to give them everything on a platter, y'know?" Natarle silently blessed the pilot fo the Dule; when he wasn't being an arrogant asshole, he actually knew how to think in her opinion. Murrue had managed to pass off the color changes between the Gundams as a side-effect of the manufacturing process for the machines, as well as a bit of psychological warfare (the Gundams were incredibly scary to the opposing side when colored, she had explained, and the Strikers believed it).

"Will do," Umi replies sourly. Though she almost always preferred going in close with her sword, there was logic to using long-range attacks in certain occasions. The best at ranged combat, though, had to be Hikaru, though in pure hammering power the Buster was the heaviest on deck.

"All Mobile Forces, standby to launch. Ten minutes."

"Well, time to try this bad-boy out, see how the Clanners like their own weapons used by superior machines," Yzak twitches the missile pack that he and Dearka had removed from the scrap Timber Wolf and framed to be used by the Duel as supplementary firepower. He could fire it using a single missile at a time or ripple-fire all the missiles one right after the next, with a 100 millisecond gap between each missiles (meaning that when he dumped all twenty silos, it would take two full seconds to fire them all). The silos reloaded after about eight seconds, giving a full cycle time of ten seconds.

"Glad I got my boots on, the shit is getting deep in here," Athrun notes sourly.

"I'd have to agree with Athrun on this one, after driving the Duel and now driving this thing, I find I like the Timber Wolf better."

"We may have to settle this later today, Commander," Yzak's pronunciation of Mu's rank almost made it out to be an insult.

"Boys and their toys. They'll never grow up," Miriallia notes loud enough that her headphones picked it up and transmitted it to everyone.

"It might also be good field-testing for the Timber Wolf, of course," Natarle notes on the same channel.

"Then it's settled, we'll scrap it after our first few battles while the rest of them take a break."

"Simulated, of course," Mu notes to make sure that much was clear in the challenge.

"Of course," Yzak notes with a tone that clearly told that Mu was a dumbass for even considering otherwise.

"Whoa, looks like we were a lot closer than we thought. All units prepare for landing cycle and deployment," Natarle notes on the radios.

"Archangel forces, this is CIC, deploy Duel, deploy Strike. Strike to starboard launch catapult."

"Strike standing by," Kira notes after he gets into position.

"Duel standing by," Yzak notes a moment later.

"Launch Strike, Launch Duel."

The Duel was shot clear of the catapult and basically right down onto the training grounds. The four Battlemechs of the 1st Somerset Strikers were parked over by the facility command building, pilotless, as the personnel were inside the sim command room talking with the militia commander. Yzak wandered the Duel over to where the machines were parked, as well as Kira's Strike Gundam, and both pilots got down off the Gundams to enter and speak with the personnel. Athrun supposedly already had a set of logic written up for the sim that would program in the Gundam's unit specs to the battle, and by request their weapon power had been reduced to make the match more challenging.

"Ah, the Archangel's pilots are here," Major Steiner notes from the control pit in the room. "How many of you are going to be active today?"

"All of us," Kira notes.

"I see what you meant by their machines being nothing like we've ever seen, frankly I'd be afraid to take those things on with an Atlas (2)," The controller notes with a nice hint of awe to voice; saying such definitely made Yzak feel all that much better about what he was doing and piloting. "Oh, two more from the ship."

"Mister Hartman, this is Yzak Joule and Kira Yamato, two of the pilots. And the two that just came out are Aegis and Buster, a general purpose assault machine and their heavy fire support platform."

"Which one of you can give me a run-down on your machines? I'll need that for the simulations."

"Athrun has all that info programmed already, he'll upload and mod it to the sim specs when he gets in," Kira notes as he grabs a seat near the console that Mister Hartman was at.

"Whoa, holy shit, isn't that one of the invader's machines?" Hartman asks, dumbfounded by the fifth machine out of the Archangel, never mind the evil-looking sixth machine.

"Yes, that is, you guys got one of them working?" Major Steiner asks as Athrun and Dearka enter the facility.

"Yeah, one of our veteran aero pilots is taking that machine out today." It had a totally different paint job from the usual green-on-gray that Jade Falcons used on it, Mu had it painted in a maroon similar to his mobile armor, and there were the trademark feathers painted on the sides of the missile packs, as well as the Earth Alliance symbol on the sides of the main body. "Mu La Flaga said he could handle it, and I believe him," Kira notes for the benefit of the Major.

"Well, I'm not going to argue the point with him," Valten says as he watched the monitors. "There should be three more and one of the fighters, right?"

"Yeah, that's what's left of us," Athrun notes as he grabs a seat at the consoles. "Where do I upload the information on our machines, sir?" Athrun had taken care to make sure that all that was handled was bare-bones specs, so that someone who came along behind them would have nothing more than the barest amount of data needed to run an accurate simulation, and that if you had a good model of the machines in question or the actual machines. Certainly not enough to rebuild one of the machines was contained in what he was going to upload.

"Right where you're sitting, pilot." He looks Athrun over warily. "You're, what, fifteen?"

"Sixteen," Athrun notes as he really cuts loose with his typing, up to about 200 words per minute, as the machine itself began processing and incorporating the data from the five Gundams, one Omnimech, one fighter, and three Rune Gods. More than a few eyebrows were raised when people saw how fast Athrun was inputting and modifying data.

"Now those things are scary," Hartman notes as the three Rune Gods took up position by the Gundams, waiting for the pilots to finish their briefing. "Those things are basically just for close-combat, right? Kinda limited, don't you think?"

"True, they aren't really worth hills or beans at distance, at least I don't think they have any range capabilities," Major Steiner looks to Kira, whose only answer was a rather neutral shrug and raised eyebrow, "but God help you if they get up in your face," he completes the thought, remembering clearly what he saw of the butchering job the green one had done on a Summoner.

"That bad, huh?"

"Any one of those three could take down my Axman and still have room for seconds and thirds. Same goes for the rest of them, these guys may look young enough to be high-school kickouts, and the pilots of those three are even younger, but they are incredible in battle. Just watch, when they cut loose, you'll see what I mean."

The last of the Rune Gods had launched, being Windam, as well as the Skygrasper with the Launcher Pack. Windam spread its wings to gain maneuverability and landed basically in place with the other three Rune Gods, while the Skygrasper orbited the facility in turn with the Banshee from the Kwaidan. "Even has their own air support, and that ship's probably a mobile battery as well, right?"

"It's got a few surprises, rest assured," Athrun notes drolly, having a long history of being on the receiving end of said surprises. "I'm done, everything is uploaded and ready."

"So, what're you going to do to us, Mr. Hartman?" Major Steiner asks.

"Oh no, I'll leave that up to your imagination once you get out there and get into the fray."

"Oh, I love surprises," Yzak rolls his eyes famously after saying so; "C'mon, Dearka, might as well mount up and prepare for it." Dearka snorts cynically, then follows Yzak toward the door to the parking area.

"For what?" The Wolfhound pilot asks. They had not caught his name yet, and he had not really shown any interest in being civil to the Archangel crew, so they knew little about him, unlike Captain Hawkins, Captain Ryder, or Major Steiner.

"The corn-cob," Yzak replies as he steps out of the building. Major Steiner grimaces at the thought.

"Ignore him. He's always a pain in the ass," Athrun notes as he and Kira begin wandering toward the door.

-x-x-x-

"Looks like it's time to begin," Umi notes. "You guys sure you're all right with this?"

To understand thine foe, even if the forms are changed, shall help us all return to native lands in due time, Selece notes telepathically to Umi. Thine comrades are agreed on the matter, none more so than Yzak, Athrun, and Nicol. Their desire to return to where they believe they belong is unmatched.

Take heart, Magic Knights, there shall be ways for us all to return to our homes, and some may come of light soon, Windam adds to the conversation at hand.

"That is very reassuring, thank you sir Windam."

"Everyone ready? Hold onto your neurohelmets (3), I'm firing up the simulation now,"

The first pair of enemy machines appeared around the group. "Whoa, I know they ain't there, but my sensors think they're the real McCoy," Valten notes.

"Your machines will think they're the real thing, and it'll feel as real as it looks."

"I like this thing already," Yzak says as he takes aim at one of the machines that had popped up on his side. "I guess for this one we just shag 'em all, right?"

"That's scrap them all, Yzak," Dearka notes as he rattles off four missiles at a nearby target, a medium 'mech with multiple laser weapons.

"Whatever," Yzak fires off Shiva simulated rounds into the one directly in front of him, while setting his shield forward to block a pair of incoming PPCs from it. As it stops with the PPCs to allow them to cool down, Dearka centers his new LRM-20 pod on the enemy and cuts loose with ten of the missiles, forcing the enemy to the ground. "Hey, wait, my weapons aren't doing a whole helluva lot of damage," Yzak whines as he pelts the enemy machine twice with Shiva again.

"That's how I set it up, Yzak, so we'd get a real workout in this battle," Athrun notes. The damage simulation capabilities of the simulator were impressive, to say the least, as a pair of beam rifle blasts had removed the left arm from a Lancelot Medium 'Mech.

"Feed me, Rachel," Major Steiner notes on the channel going to the Kwaidan, then to the Jumpship where Rachel Specter was stationed right now.

"Tactical Operations Officer reporting, Major, you have a pair of 'Mechs on the other side of the ridge to your north." Kira and Major Steiner were the closest, but the 'mechs weren't on the other side of the ridge, they were damn near in the Striker's faces.

"What the hell is she smoking?" Dearka asks as he trains his Gun Launcher on the machines and fires two simulated shots.

"Look out! They're headed straight for you!"

"Thanks for the scoop, got any fresh intel?" Valten notes as he rattles off all ten missile silos at a King Crab nearby him. Of course, this got the attention of said King Crab, which was double the size of Valten's Centurion and had over four times more firepower... "Oh, shit," Valten says as he realizes what he was facing.

"I got 'em!" Kira shouts as he jets forward and pulls the left combat knife from his Gundam's leg. He stops the jet action as he comes level with the machine and mimics stabbing it in the cockpit. The simulated enemy machine went face first into the ground and did not move again.

"Adam, I'm routing the signal through too many satellite relays, I think it's causing a time delay!" Lieutenant Specter notes with a bit of worry to voice.

"Great, School Boy, our Tac Ops Officer is totally useless right now. Any other bright ideas?" Captain Hawkins notes drolly.

"Quit complaining and work through it, Captain Hawkins."

"Link to CIC in the Archangel," Nicol notes as he goes in real close on a Black Knight. He took a punch and his system registered a hit from a Medium Laser that almost penetrated to the engine cavity, but the beam saber on the Blitz won through the day, completely tearing off the arms of the Black Knight and giving the simulated pilot a case of the shits (the sim was programmed to handle the simulated phychology of the pilots as well as the technical details). "Set frequency 185.35 and authenticate to the CIC, then we can work through this mess."

"Archangel CIC, this is Major Steiner, our Tac Ops is cut off, request you take up the slack. Can you accomplish?"

"Major Steiner, have your unit set to channel one for tactical. We'll see if we can get you out of this jam alive," Natarle replies. "Fire control, load Sledgehammers. Target enemy formation at two o'clock low. Skygrasper, try punching a hole in the enemy to the east so we can get the ground forces out to the east, over. All ground units, base of fire right, break through the east."

"You heard the lady, punch through them east!" Mu shouts as he brings the weapons of the Timber Wolf onto target and begins unloading his medium lasers and missiles on a Thug. "I love this 'mech," Mu says as he walks past the downed Thug, with his torso centered on the chest of the enemy and firing his medium lasers and machine guns.

"Huh? Hey, I can't move my leg!" Nicol shouts.

"Your machine think it's leg has been blown off. Your 'Mech is dead in the water."

"Great."

"Aww, shit, all my systems went dead!" Yzak shouts after a few more moments.

"That's two down," Hartman notes after Yzak's cry of despair.

"Screw this chaos! Everybody, formation delta, now!" The Wolfhound pilot shouts.

"What the hell are you trying to do, get yourself killed?" Dearka replies to the hot-headed Mech-jock as he links his weapons up in shotgun formation. A Champion heavy 'mech had closed in on him and was causing a shitload of damage with medium lasers, though one shot of the combined Buster weapons completely trashed the Champion, even in simulation.

"Strike is down!" Kira shouts as his screens go black.

"So much for the aero-jock," Hartman adds to the mounting misery. There was just too many of them to combat effectively, even with support from theArchangel taking them down three or four at a time.

"Hawk is down," Captain Hawkins notes sourly. His last had been to terminate a pair of Hussar Battlemechs, but in doing so he had ignored a Flashman that had crawled up his six and tore into the back of his 'mech like a chainsaw.

"The red one with the shield and sword is dead," Hartman notes, analyzing the status board. "The blue and green ones with the swords aren't far behind."

"Hikaru, you've taken too much simulated damage, take a knee for now," Nicol notes.

"Right." Hikaru sounded rather depressed by that thought, though right now more than half of them were administratively dead and the rest weren't far behind.

"I'm downed? How the hell did that happen?" Tolle asks as he checks his status panels.

"That's it for Windam." When informed, Fuu had Windam take a knee and rest, though she had to admit that Windam's battle expertise and power had loosed quite a few arms from their simulated mechs. "Aegis is dead in the water, engine hits."

"Damn, we've all but lost this one," Dearka says.

"Losing them is nothing new to us, remember?" Yzak says from his position of being dead.

"My weapons are out, I'm done for," Mu notes. He was having a jolly time using his missiles to make life difficult for the enemy, but something had blindsided him and basically knocked all his right-side weapons offline in a matter of seconds. When he reoriented on the near enemy, the enemy Black Knight finished tearing off his weapons with PPC and laser blasts.

"Selesce is down," Hartman notes; "All that's left is the Axman, the Wolfhound, and the Buster." Umi, as per the rules, stopped her offensive and took a knee. She had gone face to face with another King Crab and paid the price for it, the dual Autocannon-20 weapons had torn into Selesce in sim without reserve.

Assaulted from four directions, the Axman, Wolfhound, and Buster managed to take down one last Crab before they were finished off by no less than six enemies.

"I hope you're proud of yourselves, Strikers. This simulation was based on the Clan's field maneuvers."

"Hey, our tactics defeated the Dracs, and the—" Captain Hawkins begins, but is cut off by Major Steiner's rebuke:

"We're fighting a new enemy here! And they aren't impressed with your quaint little defense formations," he says with the finality of a death sentence. "CIC, Major Steiner. Let's review what went wrong."

"All personnel, prepare to receive strategic simulation," Natarle orders. Athrun had written a display application that allowed her to take the sensor data, composite it to a map and show it to all receiving units, as well as use display tools to highlight things as her discussion went on. "I'm going to preface this by saying that I think we could have won if we didn't have a Monday-morning quarterback on the field, Lieutenant Ramirez, and if when I ordered you to break through to the east you actually would have, instead of standing around with your thumbs implanted. Those two failures basically cost us the unit." The display was even available to the three Rune Gods, who were watching it on the side of their control bubbles inside the Rune Gods. "I should note that individually each one of you actually did well given you started surrounded and outnumbered. We lost the battle because nobody was acting like they were on a team—except the enemy, that is."

"All right, Commander Badgiruel, what do you suggest we do next time?"

"First off, listen to your tactical commands. Second, operate with a buddy or preferably in teams, concentrate your fire on the most threatening unit, and knock them down as quickly as possible. Third, don't expose yourselves to fire unless you have to, you paying attention Duel?"

"Thanks for the G-2, Commander," Yzak says testily.

"So, uh, how do we assemble teams? Or do we want to do this in lances?" Captain Ryder asks.

"We'll assemble in three teams, two groups of four and one of five. Strike, you copy?"

"Aye, Commander,"

"Return to the ship to change out weapons packs to Sword Strike or IWSP Strike. First team will comprise the Major's existing group plus Commander La Flaga. You will operate under call sign Mech Team, clear?"

"Yes ma'am." The Major had to admit to himself that he was a bit intimidated by the way she apparently already had a plan for solving this debacle.

"Second team will be Aegis, Blitz, Duel, Buster, call-sign Gundam Team. Clear?"

"Got it, Commander," Dearka replies smoothly. He was liking the prospects of operating under logical teams already.

"Third team will constitute Rayearth, Windam, Selesce, and Strike. You will be the Sword Team, clear?"

"Yes ma'am!" All three reply with a bit more cheer than they had felt over the past few minutes.

"Skygrasper and Banshee will operate as a team as the air support forces. When the Archangel takes active role in the battle the Banshee and Skygrasper will operate as a team with the Archangel, clear?"

"Understood, ma'am!" Both Tolle and Kylie reply from their craft.

"Now that we have this settled, let's try this again without the monster screw-ups, okay people?" Natarle asks in a wearied tone of voice.

"IWSP Strike, Launching!" Kira shouts as he gets a cat-shot with the massive IWSP pack. After flying somewhat gracefully for 300 meters, he lands near the three Rune Gods.

"Man, it's like a swiss army knife, it's got more tools and options than I'd know what to do with," Valten notes after seeing the third of the Strike's five weapons packs. "Do you have a 'really big gun' option as well?"

"Simulator command, this is Archangel CIC, please begin the simulation again," Natarle says after Valten's rather irreverent and pointless comment on the Strike.

-x-x-x-

After the day's simulated battles were over, the record was break-even, five losses and five wins, each against superior numbers. With the new force structuring, they had taken another good beating at the hands of the simulated Clan tactics before they got one right. They lost two straight after their win, then won two, lost one more (force of numbers, Natarle had misread the enemy intentions on that one), and won two at the end. Morale was running fairly high for all that they had a fifty-fifty record for the day. Apparently these Clanners were so bad-ass that winning one out of a dozen was a miracle.

Kira had gotten some combat time with each of the packs, including the proper planned use of the Lightning Striker pack and some blasting away with the Launcher Strike pack, which was an impressive sight even when down on 1 percent power. The Fusion Reactor upgrades to the machines were holding, including the three reactors that formed the heart of Dearka's machine. Those three engines had made the interior of the Buster incredibly cramped, but they worked, and that is what mattered.

The machines stowed and the simulator deactivated, the crews had decided to convene for a community dinner in the Archangel, and after that some R and R in anticipation of tomorrow's brutal training. Valten, Mu, Dearka and Yzak were last seen at a table in the cafeteria along with the crazy chef, playing poker and drinking DonQ Rum. Of course, Natarle had to confiscate the bottle, but there was no prejudice there. Regulations and all. Tolle and Miriallia were last seen in the pilot's lounge, talking quietly. Athrun and Nicol were last seen headed into an empty storage room he had set up as a small workshop, and they were discussing the strange equipment that had been recovered from the hot spring build. The three Magic Knights were last seen headed in the direction of the hot springs, and for good reason, given that unlike the other pilots they had been on their feet all day and taken a physical toll for the drilling of the day.

Natarle had decided on a whim that she would enjoy the hot springs, since the ship had them and she was really stressed from her time in the CIC pit, trying to keep cohesion in the ad-hoc force structure and stick it to the enemy. There were some real rough personalities in the force, namely Ciro Ramirez and Yzak Joule, both of which were out for glory instead of the team. In both cases Natarle figured it would get bloody, but she'd approach that problem at that time and not worry too much about it for now. Getting them to work as a team for now was the big deal that they had to overcome.

"Oh, Commander, ready to go in?" Flay asks when Natarle steps up to the podium Flay had set up to keep track of occupancy.

"Yes, I think I could use some rest."

"All right, you're in cube 12 for your clothes, ma'am. Yell if there aren't any towels."

"Can do." Natarle steps into the robing room for the ladies' side, and immediately notices the other officer's uniform in the room, being Murrue's uniform. There was also two other uniforms that Natarle did not recognize, probably from the crew of the Kwaidan, and as confirmation Natarle could recognize two voices in the springs that did not match what she had heard around the ship, as well as the Captain's voice. The three Magic Knight's rather abused school uniforms were also stowed, and Natarle could distinguish their voices in the room. She was rather fast to strip down and wrap up in a towel.

With a sigh and a bit of internal pep-talk Natarle headed into the springs (4). When she entered, to her immediate right was the Captain, dead ahead and to the left were two that she did not recognize. The room had a wide ledge of stones that had been garnered from the sands of Dustball, giving the room a rather desert look due to the sandy-brown and red appearance of the rocks. This was contrasted by the wall painting that was a picture of a blue sky with a few clouds here and there. The pool itself was six meters wide and about ten long, and there was an artificial wall at the end that likely led to the men's section of the springs.

"Hey, Natarle." Murrue says as soon as Natarle enters and starts to climb down into the springs. She was being a bit slow about it, and for good reason since it was rather warm down in there... "This is Katiara Kylie, Banshee pilot for the 1st Somerset," Kylie was close enough that she could shake hands with the Commander of theArchangel's CIC.

"Thanks for the help in the air, Kylie," Natarle says politely as she finishes slipping down into the springs.

"Hey, just glad we got the job done there toward the end."

"Oh man, this feels great, I think I may have to rescind my complaining about putting a hot spring in a Warship," Natarle notes as she could feel the heat soaking into her bones and innards.

"You were complaining about this?" The speaker was the other person in the spring that Natarle did not recognize. "Hot Springs have known and quantifiable medical benefits."

"Trust a doc to point that out," Kylie notes.

"And this is Doctor Nakamura from the Kwaidan,"Murrue finishes up the introductions.

Natarle had settled herself down onto the rock ledge that the engineers had put into the springs for just that purpose. The center of the spring pool had a strip of rocks that served the same purpose, seating in the middle of the spring basically, but there was a oval where the spring went a meter and a half down total that would allow someone to stand with their head just barely above the waterline. As Natarle was sitting, her shoulders were just barely above the water, which meant that the Engineers did their homework right this time when setting the seating up...which also meant that at least one of the Engineers was probably a pervert of some type.

"Think we'll clean house tomorrow, Commander?" Kylie asks.

"Probably not. We've still got too many hotheads on the team to fight as a completely coordinated whole. Each lance does well on its own and in its designated style, but when working together we're losing something. Practice is the only real fix for that," Natarle notes, drawing on lessons of command school and experience from the field.

"Well, general quarters is at 0600 tomorrow, so we'll have all day to work on it," Murrue notes. "Anything particular you want to work on tomorrow, Natarle?"

"For now, the basics. Repelling an assault is the big deal, and I think we need to get the Archangel more involved," Natarle notes calmly. She was reaching a point of relaxation that she had not felt since long before the flight of the Archangel had begun, lo those months ago and worlds away in Heliopolis.

There was silence in the springs for a little while. Since there was no clock in the springs, there was no telling how long the silence had lasted. "I'd like you ask you something, if I am allowed?" the Doctor asks rather timidly.

"Sure, go ahead," Murrue replies after a few moments.

"The Major said you were involved in a war of some kind from where you are originally from. If that is true, then why are you worried about helping us fight a losing war here?"

"Well, maybe in helping you guys, we'll find a way to get ourselves one step closer to home?" Umi tosses into the conversation.

"Or maybe we just don't want to see innocent people be harmed by these nasty Clanners," Hikaru adds to the fray.

"And you two?" The Doctor asks of the Archangel's officers.

"I just want to get my crew home, alive and intact if possible," Murrue notes. "If that means making a living here, for now, that's what I'll do."

"I'm with her," Natarle jerks her thumb toward the Captain.

"We're all trying to do that," Kylie notes. "Though, for us it means taking Somerset back from the Clans."

"Have a good evening, everyone," Fuu says as she stands up and leaves the springs, headed for the showers that the Engineers had put into the robing room. .

It was not long thereafter that the hot springs were devoid of persons, except for two: Natarle and Murrue. Perversely, Murrue was also the first of the occupants to get into the springs, a bit before the Magic Knights had entered into the springs.

"Think we're doing this right, Natarle?" Murrue asks after a few minutes of silence between them.

"No real way to tell if we are or are not. All we can do is hope we get home alive—at least until we find some way to master our dimension-hopping."

"I wonder, do you think there would be someone in life who can move between dimensions like we seem to be doing?"

"I would think so, just never around when you need them," Natarle notes ironically.

"Or, would they even give us a lift home?" Murrue asks in response.

"Well, most people in life aren't...well..."

"Assholes?" Murrue offers as the answer to the word Natarle was hunting for; Natarle nods after a moment. "Well, then I guess we just ended up born on one screwy planet where most people are assholes. Funny howthat works."

"Everybody likes a little ass, nobody wants to hear it," Natarle notes after a few seconds of silence.

"Natarle, I never figured you one for the dirty sense of humor," Murrue replies almost immediately, a whiff of shock to voice.

"I went through the same academy as you, Captain. Do you think I could have survived that without a sense of humor and without turning into super-bitch?" What she was referring to was dead simple: the Earth Alliance ranks were 93 percent men, meaning the seven percent of women who actually tried to do their jobs had one helluva challenge in harassment from superiors and teammates. Murrue had indeed put up with all the harassment of two years OCS (5) and walked away alive and relatively unharmed. She had know ladies that did not walk away unharmed, though, and she could not at that time speak out about it because of the male-dominated command structure.

"I dunno, for a while you were doing a fair impression of it," Murrue notes with enough of a hint of humor that Natarle considered it wasn't an insult.

"Thanks, Captain." Natarle throws her a salute. "I'm not trying to be a bitch in any way, I'm just trying to get us all home alive with some semblance of discipline and military order here."

"I do respect that, Natarle, as much as I take actions that may go against what seems as military discipline." Murrue sighs, internally wondering how the conversation had crossed this topic line. "I should warn you, the first major lesson I got from Admiral Haliburton was that in the special forces, the rule book is a guide book, not holy writ. You do what you have to, and if necessary to hell with the rules."

"An interesting lesson," Natarle notes. Said admiral was dead any way you coughed it up, but if you considered his record prior to being killed while defending the Archangel, his was a rather impressive record on both offense and defense, inasfar as the Earth Alliance had an impressive record at anything against ZAFT. The G-Weapons were designed to even the odds, but it still took a Coordinator to really use them as they were meant to, or a Coordinator to build an operating system that allowed anyone to use them to potential. "I'm sure someone in the brass would disagree, but in this case I do agree. We do what we have to. We can worry about the rest later"

"Well, in that case, I leave you with command over the hot springs. Good night, Commander."

"Good evening, Captain," Natarle replies as Murrue climbs out and heads for the showers. "Now, how do I get to that temperature control without getting out?" Natarle asks herself, eyeing the offending dial that was probably just barely above her reach range.

-x-x-x- (25 April 3050, 1600 hours) -x-x-x-

"And then there was one," Miriallia notes whimsically as the Sword Lance went in on the last of the Thug Battlemechs. Now that the unit was rebuilt in logical formations that capitalized on the type of machine available, and now that there was some level of cohesion between the three lances, the tactics the enemy was using were no longer all that effective against the Strikers, since it seemed that the enemy apparently attacked only one at a time; victory was to the Clanners usually because one enemy machine could kill one Inner Sphere 'mech reliably and go onward to another Inner Sphere machine without issue.

This last machine was the province of the Rune Gods Rayearth and Selesce. These two came in high and basically landed on it, the two swords passing through the holosimulation with ease and apparently tore two major chunks out of the enemy as well as completely ripped both arms off. The Tiegart PPCs, the main weapon of the Thug, were contained in the arms, therefore it had lost its major weapons in one stroke. Umi had the follow-up, as Selesce directed the rapier into the center of the machine with a thrust attack that went through the main toroid of the fusion reactor. That accomplished, the 'mech shut down and collapsed backwards, the simulated pilot ejecting from the wreckage.

"End simulation," Mr. Hartman says. "You guys are getting better and better with each battle sim. Keep this up and you'll be able to take down these invaders with pocket knives. So, do we want to jump into another battle or take a break?"

"We'll go right into the next battle, Mr. Hartman. We got a lot to do today before sunset."

"Roger that. I'll set you guys up a mobile defense of the Archangel, see how well you do trying to keep the flies off the big dog."

"Major Steiner, unless you want us to witness more of your 'battlefield prowess', I request leave to take the Dropship to Remus spaceport for supplies," one of the officers on the Kwaidan notes.

"Granted, Mr. Sakamoto." The dropship lifts off after a few seconds and angles toward the civilian spaceport.

"Archangel CIC to mobile forces, we have a situation here, I show ten enemies on the other side of ridge 26, moving left to right." They had been at it so long that the pilots had written up names or numbers for the hills and ridges. To the left of Ridge 26 was Umi's Hill, so named because of the one time that she had taken the hill by chopping down four enemy machines on it, alone and completely unsupported, before being put down hard by an enemy King Crab. If anything, the Magic Knights had earned a well-deserved reputation as incredibly powerful in-fighters with their sword work that was as graceful as it was merciless.

"No rest for the wicked," Dearka notes sardonically. "Yzak, Athrun, Nicol, shall we?"

"CIC, Aegis, how does the prospects on Bloody Top look?" Athrun asks fast, working through four or five possible plans for holding the wolves at bay. Bloody Top got its name from the analysis of yesterday's battles, after everything was said and done the Archangel team had paid more in every battle to secure that area than any other area in the sim grounds.

"No go, Aegis, we think the enemy has a lance of heavies hiding in that area. Ridge 12 is a possible, though," Miriallia replies.

"Roger that, but if we don't get Bloody Top secured somehow they'll park a few Bombardiers on it and take potshots at the Archangel."

"Clear, Athrun, we're working on it," Miriallia replies.

"CIC, Mu here. Can you put a barrage of Sledgehammers on an array of coordinates from Ridge 26 to Ridge 30, one missile ever forty meters or so?"

"Roger that, locking in target zones now. Stand by," the missile bays on the Archangel pop open and the holosim shows missiles in the tubes. "Firing!" Natarle shots as Chandratta hammers the fire commands out, launching twelve missiles into the requested kill zone. After the simulated impacts they could see two ejection pods come up from the low grounds that Mu had requested the barrage in.

"Huh? What the hell?" Sai asks his monitors. He had a sweep radar up, looking for aerial contacts, that was not tied to the simulation, yet it was showing something. "Conn, Sensors, clear the channels. I have possible contacts heading 145, altitude 14000 meters and descending, over."

"Huh? 145 is toward the spaceport," Valten notes, then looks in that direction. When the Dropship had left it was clear; now there were pillars of smoke visible at range.

"Lieutenant Specter, this is Major Steiner, please respond." Nothing came back in response.

"JumpshipKatana, this is Warship Archangel, Archangel CIC reporting. Please respond on any available frequency," Kuzzey puts out on all normal broadcast channels.

"Conn, Sensors, I'm picking up encrypted traffic bearing 145 and replies bearing 210 azimuth 65, best range estimate 3-7-5 thousand kilometers," Sai notes after converting all his systems back over to 'real' mode (as opposed to 'sim' mode).

"Mister Hartman, end the program!" Major Steiner shouts. After two seconds, the simulated enemies disappeared.

"Aww, you can't cancel the war just because you lost touch with your mommy!" Captain Hawkins shouts just as he was sighting up a Champion for some very personal attention, moments before it disappeared.

"Something is very wrong here, Captain," major Steiner notes gravely.

"Kira?" Athrun asks at a whim.

"I sense it. A battle is happening at the spaceport between the Militia and the Jade Falcons," Kira notes as he was concentrating hard on the action in the distance. "The Jade Falcons are winning, ten to four and still knocking down the Militia machines."

"Mister Hartman, do you have a bolt hole?" Major Steiner asks, referring to a hole that he could hide himself (and possibly the Strikers) in.

"I'm thinking, but right now we need to put some distance between ourselves and—"

"Conn, Sensors, Contact close aboard!" Sai shouts, though it went out on the unit frequency as well. "Heading 230 azimuth 72, heading in for us fast! Gross mass estimate 11000 tons!"

"A Dropship, and a big sucker at that," Valten notes.

The next thing that happened to them could have been something out of a script from a bad thriller movie. The mug that appeared on all their communications screens was an older dude but had the strangest facial tattoos that they had ever seen prior. "Warriors of the Inner Sphere, I am Star Colonel Nikolai Malthus of Clan Jade Falcon; the conqueror of Somerset, Wotan, and Romulus."

"Should I be impressed?" Yzak asks in retort.

"So you're the monster that destroyed my home, my family!" Major Steiner says in response.

"I hereby issue a formal batchall," he continues as if there had been no interruption.

"How did you get on my viewscreen?" Athrun asks, pressing several buttons to try and clear his ugly mug from the screen.

"How many warriors do you bid for this battle?" Malthus asks.

"I'm not bidding anything, 'pal', I'm hitting you with everything I got!" Major Steiner replies with determination.

"How amusing." The enemy Dropship was landing in close, though before it even touched down the bays on its side opened, dropping some form of small mechanical enemy.

"All forces, Archangel CIC, go live, this is not a sim, these shits are real enemies! Repeat, weapons free at this time!" Natarle shouts on the unit frequency.

"Chandratta, arm the weapons, this is not a drill," Captain Ramius notes. "Set CIWS to intercept those things, helldarts, sledgehammers. Charge but do not deploy Valiants, if that ship wants to join the shooting I'll turn it into scrap."

"What the hell are those things?" Valten asks.

"I dunno, but our fearless leader just committed us to battle totally unarmed!" Hawk replies.

"What? You mean you're completely out of options?" Athrun asks. "Retreat to the Archangel, Strikers. Gundams, Rune Gods on me!" Athrun shouts as he pulls his beam rifle.

"Gundam Lance, Sword Lance, maintain lance structure, Gundam Lance move to Bloody Top and use plunging fire on them. Sword Lance, Kira, what's your status?"

"Kira here, Aile Strike is good to go!"

"Prepare to come in from Ridge 14 and flank them while the Gundam Lance hammers on them from range, over," Natarle notes.

"Roger that, Commander," Total, there were twenty-five of the little midget machines. They looked incapable to really challenge the large machines, but Kira got the feeling that these were little packages of big destruction.

"I got 'em," Dearka says as he combines his weapons into shotgun formation and levels it on the enemy formation. One shot tore five of the enemy to bloody shreds—and bloody was right, as everyone could see the ground run red with the blood of the troopers in the armor.

The enemy, in response to the loss of a fifth of their ranks in one shot, commenced to spread into four groups of five and scatter, two groups headed for the Rune Gods, two groups headed for the Gundams. Their method of movement was unusual, as they would jump 90 meters at a time and land, running for a few moments, then jump again. It was rather endearing that they would have the ability to armor and support the infantry, Athrun figured. He would have killed for a few of those on the initial assault at Heliopolis, maybe this nasty chain reaction would never have happened.

"They think we can't beat these puny things?" Ciro asks as he closes up on one of the enemy formations.

"Ciro, fall back!" Major Steiner shouts as the Elementals jump up onto his machine and cling to it. After a few moments they begin firing their laser weapons into Ciro's Battlemech at point-blank range, causing significant damage to the Wolfhound just in one volley. After a few moments, the Wolfhound collapses forward as another unit of them head in for the Centurion.

"Hikaru, Umi, Fuu, with me!" Kira says as he pulls a beam saber from the Aile pack and jets up into the sky. When he lands it was among the nearer of the groups that was zeroing in on him, and his machine landed on one of the enemy, flattening it underfoot. Before he jumped again he took two swings downward, and one contacted with an enemy, incinerating the armor and cooking off the propellant for the jets, causing a rather messy and bloody explosion that coated the right leg of the Strike with blood and bits of the trooper.

"Oh, go away!" Fuu brings her sword around and down, onto one of the elementals nearby where Kira had landed, after being frustrated with it shooting some small laser at her and some missiles. Her blade, though as wide as the armored trooper itself, managed to cut the trooper in half vertically and coat the tip of her sword with a combination of blood and some green gel-like liquid.

"Eegh!" Umi had gotten too close to the other two of that five-group and they had jumped up on her Rune God. With her left hand she grabs one of the enemy and slings it to the ground, where it bounces twice and doesn't move for a few moments. The other, sinceit was hovering at head level, she directs Selesce to head-butt it, causing it to lose control of its jump and fly into the ground. The one that had flown into the ground was relocated by Selesce kicking the Elemental for a distance of about 200 meters.

"Agh! Next time you will not be so lucky!" One of the Elementals says audibly, pointing at the Aile Strike.

"Uh, guys, looks like the midget patrol is on its way outta here, but here comes they big guns," Valten Ryder notes.

"Fucking lovely," Yzak says. "Captain, orders?"

"All units fall back to the Archangel, we're outta here. Mister Hartman, any ideas?"

"My farm, should be roughly north of here about ninety kilometers. Can I hitch a ride?"

"Get on fast, all of you!" Natarle orders quickly.

-x-x-x- (2100 hours) -x-x-x-

The farm that they had come to was a large one, easily the rival of any of the super-farms in the Earth Alliance territory. All the fields within sight of the farmhouse were the Hartman's fields, as well as an even larger territory that was beyond visual range. The homestead comprised a water tower (that Mr. Newman almost knocked down with the wing of the Archangel), a dozen grain silos, a processing facility, a tobacco barn, four barns for livestock, two hangars for farm equipment, and the house itself which was a multistory structure that in construction style dated back to the farmhouses of old Terra. All in all, it would have made a very comfortable residence for a family, more than a few of the Archangel crew figured.

"I LIVE!" Yzak shouts as he drops to the ground; the Duel was kneeled in the bay that the 1st Somerset Strikers had taken up occupancy in, and everyone was securing tarps and wind covers over their units as camouflage. "Though, why the hell did we run? We had them outnumbered and probably outgunned."

"They had us ranged, Yzak," Dearka admits quietly. "Our machines are most effective at about half of what they fight at. Yeah, any of us can stand off and take potshots at them at range, but the only reason we won on Dustball was because we scared them shitless in close quarters. They could have stood off three kilometers and hammered on us until we folded."

"Fire while closing. Next time, I am not retreating."

"We will all do as ordered by the Captain, Yzak," Athrun replies. "You, me, Dearka, Nicol, the Magic Knights, keep one thing in mind: the Captain doesn't have to take any of us anywhere. She's taking us home out of civility, and very politely overlooking the fact that she's Earth Alliance and you're ZAFT. And because of that, I think we're all obligated to play by her rules for now."

"When the hell did you trade your balls in for your red coat, Athrun?" Yzak asks crassly.

"Man, fuck you, Yzak. I'm not getting into this kind of argument. And don't expect me to save your ass if you disobey orders." Athrun stormed off toward Aegis, Leaving Yzak to the wolves in the bay, such as they were.

"All the Clanners have to do to win is leave us alone with each other for a few hours," Captain Hawkins notes

"That was incredibly smart, Yzak. Piss off your teammates. See how many Christmas cards you'll get this year," Dearka notes acidly as he heads back to his Gundam. Nicol said nothing as he turned away from the errant ZAFT elite pilot; Hikaru and Fuu had left with Nicol, discussing something with the ZAFT pilot pertaining to how to fight in close without getting stomped by the enemy. Yet, it was not his comrades that had gotten his attention, it was the intense look of disdain from Umi, before she turned and walked away, that had broken his arrogance.

"I'm with ya, Yzak," Ciro notes to the Gundam pilot who was now suffering a minor earthquake of conscience as to what was and was not proper conduct given that only he believed they stood a chance in that last battle. "Aleksandr Kerensky did not hand out medals like this for cowardice." Ciro was gripping an ancient medal his family had long had.

"Yeah," Yzak's voice held very little conviction.

"Anyone care for some chow?" Mr. Hartman asks as his wife and daughter help carry in some fresh produce and stew buckets. Of course, theArchangel mess hall was adding to the dinner, and quite a few of the non-essential personnel were down helping with the camouflaging of the Archangel and the mobile forces or other tasks around the barnyard, as a basic 'thank you' gesture to the Hartman family.

"Y'know, I'm not sure how we can repay you for the assistance, mister Hartman," Mu notes as he helps clear space for their addition to the cookout.

"You guys are helping the Major to stop or get rid of the invaders. That's more than enough repayment."

There really are nice guys out there in Existence, Mu thought to himself but did not say. Such courtesy was definitely lacking in the Atlantic Federation, and for the most part anywhere in the world from which he came as far as he knew.

"Oh, wow, how did you make this? It is excellent!" Fuu says as she tried some of the strange-looking casserole concoction that Mr. Hartman's daughter had brought out.

"You really think it is that good?" Gretchen asks.

"Indeed, it is very tasty," Fuu replies.

"I agree," Mu says with a mouthful of it. "Man, nothing beats good local eats," he says after emptying his mouth in the usual fashion. "I just wish the circumstances could have been a bit better."

"Could have been worse," Kylie said immediately thereafter as she was loading up on roasted turkey. "At least we all got away alive," she noted.

"It's really easy to make, if I had something to write with I could give you the recipe, Fuu." She looks around and spots the pen in Mu's breast pocket.

"Here," Murrue grabs the pen from Mu's pocket without any form of forewarning or explanation and hands it off to her. "I think we're all at least slightly interested how you make this."

"Who do I squeeze for the recipe to this casserole?" Nicol asks the assembled group, thereby unknowingly proving what Murrue had said. Even the ZAFT personnel wanted to know what was in the casserole.

Gretchen had written up the recipe in English on a napkin and handed it to Fuu. "Here. It's real simple, cooks in an hour. My dad says it would work well for military forces on the go, but I'm not so sure if he meant a like like yours..." She hesitates, obviously trying to chew on a rather tough thought. "By the by, where are you guys from, anyways?" Gretchen asks as she hands the pen back to Murrue, who again without forewarning puts it back in his pocket.

"By all accounts, the best explanation we can give is that we are a military group comprised of persons from two different dimensions from this one." Murrue proceeded to give her second full rundown of where the Archangel came from, as well as their journey through Cephiro. The telling thereof took twenty minutes, including interruptions to explain certain things more fully, and made excellent dinner entertainment for the whole group.

Elsewhere in the bay, Dearka and Yzak had reconciled their argument for the night and were wandering down the row of machines along with Ryder when they came across Kira, Tolle, Miriallia, and Kuzzey sitting on a crate, as Kira's robotic bird bounced from one head to the next. "Hey, what's that he's listenin' to?" Val asks, indicating Tolle and his headphones. That mention had Dearka's attention, and by extension also had exposed Yzak to it as well and thereby caught his attention as well.

"Here, let me check," Miriallia pulls the headphone off the side of Tolle's head nearest to her, at the same time that Kira had done the same thing. "Oh, some of the old 'American Metal' that he's so in love with," Miriallia rolls her eyes, quite clearly expressing her opinion on that subject.

"The older the metal, the better, and this band is Metallic—" Miriallia and Kira released the headphones at the same time, causing them to snap down on his ears at the same time. "—Arg, why did you guys do that?"

"Do what?" Kira asks.

"Snapped my headphones—forget it." Space case, Tolle thinks of Kira a moment thereafter, and gets an elbow from Miriallia and a telepathic warning to mind his mind, which was fast becoming an inside joke between them. "Anyways, the song's called Fade To Black by the ancient metal band Metallica. They some serious old-school metal."

"I may have to look into them," Yzak says. "Doesn't sound half as annoying as Athrun's fiancée." Yzak was notorious for not liking the bubblegum-pop genre that had grown of late among the PLANTs, of which culminated in the ultra-famous singer Lacus Clyne. Though, by the same token the PLANTs were rather short on good, hard rock bands except in clubs here and there that no self-respecting ZAFT Elite would enter...

"I know, I mean she has a very beautiful voice, but pop definitely isn't my thing." Tolle shrugs, suddenly wondering how in the name of a rather chilly hell he had found anything in common with the otherwise insufferable Yzak Joule of ZAFT. "Y'know, I keep hearing rumors and snippets of a form of music that mixed vocals sorta like Lacus with either some real strange techno music or some really kickass metal, or both. I just can't find a full song of it anywhere..."

"If you do, let me in on it. I gotta hear something like that," Mostly to have some form of defense against Athrun's obsession with said pop star, Yzak thinks crossly; his thought earned him a semi-approving snort from Miriallia. The thought of metal mixed with female pop vocals did not really appeal to Yzak, but he figured anything was better than straight-up pop music.

"TO THE ARCHANGEL ON THE DOUBLE! PILOTS MOUNT UP!" Murrue shouts over the din of the gathering. The sound of an autocannon accentuated the matter at hand as something outside took a shot at one of the buildings. Mr. Hartman was last seen by Yzak as he ran out of a personnel door in the hangar, carrying some form of semi-portable laser weapon, something that looked like it was meant for use on vehicles and such.

Yzak was not the first or the last to mount up and fire his systems up. He was, however, first out the door since his machine had one of the highest concentrations of armor in the entire unit and would make a good point-man when the situation was not completely known. "Duel to CIC, what is the situation?"

"All forces, be advised we have fifteen enemy machines, confirmed Clan Jade Falcon, and they are out for blood. They're leveling the civilian structures in retribution for us being here," Sai says. "Archangel is coming on line now, we'll be ready to support in less than two minutes," he tacks on for added effect.

"Roger that, CIC. Gundam Lance is moving out now, we'll see if we can draw their attention away from the civilians, over."

"Banshee is in the air," Kylie declares.

"Skygrasper is airborne with Launcher pack," Tolle notes.

"Sword Lance is deployed," Kira notes as he was the last out of the hangar of his lance. The 'Mechs had just two still to exit, the Mauler and the Timber Wolf.

"CIC is online, awaiting fire support requests," Natarle notes on the radio. "All forces, Archangel is taking off now, close support is available."

"Roger that, CIC, where do you want us?" Athrun asks.

"Sword Lance on the right flank, Gundam Lance in the center, Mech lance to the left and slightly forward. Fire as they come, full release. Magic Knights, if you have a target you can knock out with spells, do it."

"Roger that," Adam replies.

"Right!" Hikaru answers to Natarle's orders.

The battlemechs began trading fire at long range, mostly missiles thrown back and forth between the units with long-range missiles, as well as the Duel getting the first notable action with its carried LRM-20 box. There was something to be said for the interface between the Duel and its missile box, for between the accuracy of the two sides the Duel was outshooting the Clanners and the Strikers two-to-one in hits, though not in volume.

"Oh, I gotcha this time, maggots," Dearka says as he combines his weapon into sniper rifle configuration. When he levels the weapon, he waits for a group of missiles to hit his Gundam and blow, which caused precisely zero damage to the phase shift armor, then he fired. The shot traversed straight into the chest of a Hellbringer and punched straight through, literally blowing out the back of the unit and causing something spectacular inside the machine to cook off, likely an ammo store; the pilot ejected a half-second later as his machine went face-first into the ground.

"Killer shooting, Dearka," Athrun congratulates the unit's unofficial sniper. "Nicol, on my target!" Athrun centers his beam rifle on a Mad Dog and fires once (left torso), then Nicol does (center torso), then Athrun again (left arm,), then Nicol again (left torso again). After Nicol's second shot, the machine fell backward and did not move again.

The lasers started in earnest, mostly coming from the Clan machines, though also headed toward them from the Mech lance. The Gundams had their shields set forward, except for Dearka who had fallen back to make himself scarce for this phase of the battle. He was still using the sniper rifle configuration of his weapons, and as the enemy came on they presented an excellent target profile for him to shoot at. Yzak had dropped aside the missile pack after completely unloading it into the enemy ranks, and was shooting his beam rifle off like the fusion-powered menace machine he really was now.

"Shit, they got bigger and nastier machines in there today, I got track on three of 'em!" Athrun says on the Gundam frequency. "Yzak, Nicol, help me take this monster down over here!" Athrun sights up something that looked strangely like an apartment building with legs and arms, the squat and blocky torso ill-suited or streamlined yet menacing even so. The machine in question sighted up Athrun for the shot it took to the leg and returned the favor; Athrun was only barely able to interpose his shield between the monster's three PPC blasts and his Gundam, because all three were aimed right at his chest. "Archangel, Aegis, request heavy support ASAP!"

"Aegis,Archangel, hold on to your ass pilot, incoming close support fire." Close was the operative word, as the distance between the forces had ground down considerably; they were now at 1000 meters and closing, with just about every weapon in their arsenals barking at each other. A volley of 12 Sledgehammers and 12 Helldarts lanced in on the enemy's heaviest group, which also included the machine that Yzak and Nicol had helped bring down by literally blowing its right leg clean off, though that feat had taken a stunning ten shots of beam rifle with three solid hits to the same 2-square-meter patch of its leg. Hitting the leg of a moving machine is no simple feat, even for ZAFT pilots.

The missiles came down in a cascade, throwing the four machines in several directions as the explosions tore major rents in the enemy armor. Each missile was a lot more powerful than even the Clan's standard artillery pieces, and apparently none of them were all that well interested in dodging or shooting them down, so they took the hits, figuring their machines would shrug off the fire. Oops. The samllest of the machines in that group, a Mech with twelve laser barrels, perversely flew the shortest distance from where it was, since the pilot was acting a bit overeager to get close and rough with the Sword Lance. The largest of the machines, armed with two of the PPCs that Athrun's tormentor had as well as four cannons equivalent to the CIWS guns and a large shotgun-like cannon, was hammered by four of the missiles and catastrophically exploded as its reactor was breached too fast to compensate and safely shut down (6). That explosion, as well as two missiles, finished off the apartment-building-on-legs and the pilot punched out amid the flaming, sputtering remnants of his LRM-10 rack and ammo cooking off. The Helldarts seemed to swarm down upon the one Timber Wolf in the enemy formation, with ten hits that shredded the arms and legs clean off the 'mech, as well as punch a nasty hole in the left missile pack of the 'mech (which had a different array of missiles it had not yet fired at the Archangel's force compliment).

Dearka had lined up on the red Summoner that was running in their heavy star, and had a good feeling about dropping the hammer on this tango, as if he was something important to the enemy formation—maybe a command officer? Before he could put full pressure on the trigger, though, his right arm indicators immediately went to a shade of yellow indicating he had just taken a hit, accompanied by a sound that reminded him of crackling static electric discharge. Strange, that. Nobody had hit him with the dread weapon PPC, he had not seen the shooter, unless they were running a flanking attack as well—he traversed his machine's head right, and got an eyeful of what was shooting at him and just a moment thereafter the Archangel. "Oh, shit, guys, flanking attack! Coming in from the north!"

"How the hell—no way, there's another fifteen of the bastards on our right flank!" Yzak shouts in exasperation.

"Sword Lance, move to and support Dearka, priority! He's gonna get cut to ribbons unless—"

CRACKFZZZZZZ, a PPC from one of these exceptionally small machines hammered into the upper chest of the Buster as it reoriented on them and changed weapons configurations. The shotgun combination would be most optimal for putting down three or four of them at a time, since they were moving in close formation, a trio of wedge formations headed right at him, basically, and he was standing between the Archangel and the enemy. CRACKFZZZZZZ, another hit him in the leg as lasers passed within meters of his machine and he lined up for the first barrage on the enemy machines. Before he could fire, the Archangel had put down a barrage of Igelstellung on the far end of the formation and swept it from right to left, in an attempt to basically distract and harry the enemy machines while Kira got into position to support him. The catch was, the Igelstellungs were not all that powerful a weapon any way you cut it, and Clan Omnimechs are designed to take the abuse, regardless of them being the midget Kit Fox or the monster Timber Wolf (or whatever the bigger machines are named). The shelling managed to knock down one of the smallest of the machines, and scored hits on all of the enemies basically, but it did not stop them from returning the favor to the Archangel or the Buster.

Dearka got his shot off, just a moment prior to a Kit Fox from the left-most wedge put a crimson-colored laser through the left shoulder of the Buster. The 40mm charged shot of the gun launcher and the high-energy beam cannon tore into the center wedge of the enemy, knocking all three of the center machines down in the wedge of five. The laser had punched into the center of the machine, hitting a very vital component in the Gundams that most personnel don't think about unless it does fail. "Oh, shit, they got my hydro master cylinder, I got thirty seconds before my machine is stiff as a board!"

"Get your ass clear, Dearka! You ain't going to be able to—" Yzak begins, then stops abruptly.

In the center wedge of the enemy forces rushing him, the rightmost of the machines that he did not hit was a Nova, A variant pods. The two arms, normally filled with six lasers per arm in the Primary variant, instead carried a single Clan ERPPC (7) in each arm.. The pilot, a veteran Jade Falcon that had seen combat on a dozen words and had his share of kills against the disdained Clan Wolf, had long since developed the habit of firing both PPCs in one Target Interlock Circuit, meaning that both PPCs fired at the exact same time at the exact same targeted location.

CRACKFZZZZZZ.

Kira, Yzak, and the whole bridge staff of the Archangel could all see the acintic lightning streak around the waist of the Buster, and they all had enough imagination to tell where the two PPC rounds had hit the Buster. Against a battlemech the PPC is a significant threat, causing thermal, electric, and impact damage to the target Against a Gundam, however, there is almost zero defense against this class of weapons, just as the armor of a Gundam was unprotected against beam and laser weapons.

The first real indication that any of them got that something was wrong was actually Miriallia, as she could sense Dearka's mind, just briefly, then nothing. Like a lightbulb, just before it dies, it burns the brightest you shall ever see it; in that one instant, Miriallia saw many things, but the foremost of the thoughts she could recognize were about going home to the PLANTs and a crush he had on Hikaru that he definitely didn't want to admit. Then, nothing; complete silence from the cockpit of the Buster. The monitors for the IFF coming from the Buster went red, as if it had been disconnected; the error message reported 'signal lost'.

The main physical indicators came after two seconds; the Buster dropped its combined weapons and then fell backwards, and to all it was a moment frozen in time, seeing the charred wreck where the Buster's cockpit had been.

"No, Dearka, no..." Yzak says, totally stunned to the point that he wasn't even firing, just looking at the fallen Buster.

"No..way...he's...gone," Athrun notes.

"God DAMN them!" Yzak shouts as he recenters his view forward, toward the heavy Star that was even still bearing down on them. In an instant, his mind blanked out everything as he quickly figured out a way in which he could make as many of them bleed as quickly as possible. "Follow me in! We'll send them all to hell!" (8)

"We're goin' in!" Kira shouts as he draws both Beam Sabers and jets upward at a pace faster than any Battlemech would using Jump Jets. Before he landed on the offending Nova he sprayed it down with 75mm CIWS, then landed on top of it with both knees, and it was the right knee that crushed the cockpit and instantly killed the pilot. For good effect, Kira ran the beam saber in his left hand into the rear of the torso of the machine and dragged it out as he vaulted off the back of said 'mech.

"Hurt my friends, I'll stop you from doing this!" Hikaru shouts as he closes up on the left-side wedge of small machines, and she did so by the same tactic that Kira did, though rather than coming down on them with her knees she set her sword down and dropped straight in on a Kit Fox, the blade literally puncturing through the body of the mech and coming out right between the legs of of the unit. When she drew her sword out, it came clear coated with grease and coolant, dripping red as if she had just run through a living being. Umi was right alongside her, the sword of Selesce having been slashed through the body of a Fire Moth completely (the Fire Moth is an exceedingly small machine with very little armor), quite literally chopping it into two pieces that proceeded to fall to the ground moments before the pilot punched out.

Yzak, Athrun, and Nicol had all gone in close on the main enemy they were slated to challenge, Nicol starting off by launching all three of his Lancer Darts into one of the few machines on the field larger than the Timber Wolf, and this one had proved itself exceptionally fast but a bit thin on armaments. The lancer darts all penetrate well into the center of the torso and detonate, immediately violently throwing the machine backwards and causing the pilot to eject. Yzak went in on the Nova in the star, using both beam sabers to completely chop its arms off and then swiftly kick the 'mech over onto its haunches. Athrun had challenged the Hellbringer in the same fashion that Kira had, and after blocking the two ER Large Lasers in its arm he went about removing its main dangerous weapons, being the two ER Large Lasers in its left arm. This he accomplished the same way that Kira had before, completely removing the right arm just below the shoulder with the beam saber, where the arm was physically the thinnest and weakest. The shot from the Ultra-5 Autocannon in its left arm was pro forma but pointless against the Phase Shift armor of the Aegis.

"Hey, guys, they're retreating!" Kylie notes from her point of view. The Aerofighters had gotten some work in on the star to the left of the initial enemy wave, but not enough to score any kills from their actions. The 1st Somerset, though, had claimed an Adder and an Ice Ferret out of that same star and damaged all the rest, which was not a simple feat under heavy Clan fire.

The proof was in the enemy Summoner that had jump-jetted backwards 500 meters and turned around in mid air to hit the ground literally running away from the unit. The remainder of both forces that had assaulted the unit, being only half-capable to the battle now, were running hard and fast away from the unit and the Archangel.

"I'll fucking chase them down and eat their hearts for lunch!" Yzak shouts, though the Duel was restrained from moving by the Aegis.

"It's over, Yzak. Leave them be for tonight. We'll finish fucking their ozone tomorrow, clear?" The question was not so much a question as it was a warning to the Archangel bridge, and a grossly unnecessary one at that. That proof came a few seconds later:

"Fire!" Murrue shouts to the CIC crew, which was picked up by the microphones they wore. The command was to the Valiant Linear Guns, which were not small weapons by any definition of the irreverent thought. One of the slugs missed; the other struck a Stormcrow square in the back, the slug ripping straight through the enemy machine and in transit completely shredding the engine of the machine. The monster fireball as the machine cooked off and knocked its nearby cohorts to the ground was simply a parting shot of the aggrieved, though, and would have little effect on upcoming battles. A second and third volley netted no results, as the enemy was now moving in random patterns to avoid long-range sniping.

"That's it for restraint," Athrun notes coldly, audible on the all-unit channel. "Major, you have my full support in taking them down and kicking them out of the Inner Sphere."

"Damn straight!" Yzak shouts.

"Major Steiner, Captain Ramius," everyone present recognized the wearied voice of Mr. Hartman. "We have a set of old, unused mining tunnels to the west of here. You can rest in there for the night, and use the time to patch up your unit."

"Unit, recover the Buster and hangar in the Archangel," Natarle orders. "We will repair and redeploy the Buster at a later time."

The Strike, the Duel, and the Aegis all labored to pick up and carry the Buster and its massive weapon to the Archangel.

For him, as they say, the war is over.

---

Author's Chapter Afterword:

Shocked yet? Actually, I did hesitate quite a bit in writing this last section, Dearka is one of my favorite Gundam SEED characters. You don't encounter very many nihilists anywhere in Existence, since more or less everyone defers to some level of authority somewhere and somehow. Not to mention the Buster kicks ass and the said pilot kicks ass without the whining. Such is fate; the dice roll wicked and the enemies don't play nice, what can I say? I didn't even fudge on the random unit rolling for the Jade Falcons here, except on which designs are legal for 3050 play. I think I rolled the Night Gyr about four or five times for the assaulting Trinary, which is a 3055 design and won't be designed for at least that long, if at all in this altered universe. I ended up re-rolling any invalid designs, and tossing in different pod configs for those I rerolled. That's why the Nova A, which is not common to the Jade Falcons, that killed Dearka's machine.

I do have to feel sorry for Miriallia, though, having to feel the death of one of the pilots has got to suck, not to mention the instant overexposure to the thoughts of that person leaves her in one hellish quandary: does she tell of what she saw in his final moment or not? And if she does, what would that do to the persons left behind? A hellish quandary of conscience indeed.

I believe someone once asked if the characters presented here are actually from Battletech. Yes, they are from the original Battletech cartoon that aired on FOX networks sometime in 1994. The great battle between Major Steiner and Nikolai Malthus was what made that year of grade school bearable, getting to see it every Saturday morning at 1000 CDST was a helluva blast, followed up by Mega Man. Killer entertainment, comrades, at least for a grade-schooler of those times.

Say hello to Tolle the metal-head of the Archangel. You can rest assured that pass-time of his is going to cause a bit of strife, above and beyond Yzak's desire to find something to counter Athrun's love of a certain not-included-character's pop music. And, somewhere down the road he is going to meet someone who listens to the kind of music he is thinking of.

I think I have said everything I need to say in prose for this zone. Just be warned, next chapter will be even more violent as the ZAFT crew draws vengeance for their fallen comrade, and the Archangel does its level best to help on the subject.

And now, for the review or PM replies, whichever applies on whichever subject:

First off, Maddery. Continuing from last msg, the prayer for my sanity on the reading material in question will likely be helpful. Not that I intend on delving too far on that subject, per se. And does the above count as what you were speaking of for a character death?

Thanks, Knives. I have not even begun to write yet, as the old saying goes.

Well, Gonging Apple, mind dropping me the recipe of this health drink? I think I can figure out who among the series in question that I shall violate is immune to such a concoction. And get yer arse out of the hospital, comrade, if it ain't gushing blood it ain't a problem.

CHM01, a helluva idea. I'm thinking a BLU-41 canister filled with Haros made in the fashion that you are speaking of, dropped from the wing of the Skygrasper. "With Love from Athrun" on the side of the cluster bomb case, of course :P As to Murrue's weapon, I'll save that surprise for now. Flay, well, Flay is Flay, and I hope I can keep her out of trouble for now, but her being the mistress of the Springs when Kira is off-duty is going to cause monster problems, I daresay. And neg, Clef did not just piss off the ZAFT people, everyone on the ship feels at least partially betrayed and he's going to have to talk fast to keep his neck intact.

Mega1987: Huh?

Etienne Of the West Wind: continuing off your last, thx for the appraisal of said characters on the subject and the suggestion. The series you mentioned is one of my all-time favs for Sci-fi, I think I watched the first four seasons religiously, having missed maybe two eps out of the whole run. I lost track of it partway through the fifth season, when I was moving from my old home to where I live now, lo those many years ago. I do have all five seasons on DVD, so I may have to think long and hard about that )

Gatomon, thx for the review, I at least hope the OOC that I am developing the characters into is a logical evolution as they get strung out through the worlds they pass through. And, for some reason I enjoy writing epic-style fics, I like having a lot of room to play with prose and concept, building a complex plot and interactions between characters and elements. And building the history that drives the persons, the events is just as fun in my opinion, since nothing happens in Existence without due cause, even if the answer is just 'because I wanted to screw with something' from the person that did it. (I'll leave the question of who screwed with what up to your imagination).

Much thanks for the encouragement and reviews to the persons who dropped them. C'mon, I know there are craploads of you peeps out there reading this monster, drop me a review and your two cents on the story. I listen to everyone's opinion and I do respect conflicting ideas and methods of operation. I have read much of people who do not respect such, and I swear that while I enjoy arguing technical points, I do respect differing opinions.

Next up: The combined unit has to put aside their losses and reclaim their Dropship to get off Romulus, though this means going Through the Falcons..

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Footnotes:

(1): Not much is told in detail about the Lightning Striker pack, except that it was initially designed to extend the operation lifetime of the Strike on the battlefield. The main weapon of the Lightning Striker is an electromagnetic rifle, which tracks with the method of slug-throwing that a Rail Gun uses, which is the common name for a Gauss Rifle, which is what Athrun is staring at in this sentence. Basically, it throws a big slug at a very high speed at the enemy by pulling it down the barrel using electromagnets. In Battletech, it is said that a Gauss Rifle slug can slam halfway through the arm of a heavy 'mech routinely, and can rip the head off any 'mech completely, regardless of size. I have lost more than one 'mech and 'mechwarrior to a Gauss Rifle to the face in a game of Battletech.

(2): Atlas is the classic definition of an Assault mech, big and brutal and not particularly fast, mounting as much in weapons as the total weight of many 'mechs. It is said that an Atlas can pick up light 'mechs and throw them to the ground as if it was throwing around a child's toy. Even Clanners, with their generally superior arsenal, still have a hard time taking down this venerable assault 'mech, which makes it some very heavy metal.

(3): A neurohelmet is the main way that a 'Mechwarrior interfaces with his machine. It basically reads the pilot's motor-control thought patterns and translates them to the machine, thereby allowing the pilot to use his internal cockpit controls for more serious tasks like putting lasers and missiles on target. The downside is that certain types of internal damage to the machine can cause feedback that can injure or kill a pilot.

(4): This is due to the fact that this is not something Natarle normally does, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do the unusual things, quiaff?

(5): Officer Candidate School. Basically an academy that trains non-commissioned officers (Sergeants) into commissioned officers (Ensigns). Kira got lucky here, he was drafted in as an Ensign.

(6): this is a valid Level Three rule in Maximum Tech. An engine blast causes a helluva lot of damage but in a very small area, as is shown here by the effect of knocking down the neighboring Omni.

(7): ERPPC is Extended Range Particle Projection Cannon. The Clan version has a 23-hex range and 15 points of damage, making it the most powerful energy weapon available to the Clans until the advent of the Heavy Lasers by the Star Adders. For reference, the Beam Rifles used by the Gundams are 20-point damage weapons, the Beam Cannon carried by the Buster is considered 30 points (double the power of the ERPPC), and the Gottfrieds are 300 points per barrel.

(8): Yzak went SEED, and was already pissed off to begin with. This could get bloody.