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...

46. Robot Wrecking 101

(Archangel's Amazing Adventures, Set 6, Chapter 3: Robot Wrecking 101)

(Day 3, 0600 hours)
(Archangel Armory)

'Sparky' the grill master was at the door to the armory, as the Chef Commandos often pulled a shift and a half rotating detail, whereby they would work their usual eight in the galley, then do another four at the armory to supplement some of Murdoch's Madmen that guarded it. In all reality, Kira was glad for the present staffing, the Operators were a little more lenient with him in terms of training time.

Sparky snapped to attention. "Ensign Yamato, here for some trigger time?"

"Yeah, I made a few mistakes on the pirate ship. Definitely need to work on my form," Yamato admitted sheepishly.

"I heard you winged one of their squad leaders. You damn near never miss, kid. What happened?" the chef asked.

"Distracted by the enemy uniform," Kira said. "Or what passes for a uniform in their case."

"Ah," the senior shooter said. "That is something you will need to work on, kid. Hottest chick in the universe may be trying to blow your head off, and you still need to put effective rounds downrange. In fact, the hotter they are, the more likely they'll at some point try to blow your brains out. Be careful."

Kira was briefly reminded of Flay for a moment, though he quickly dismissed that thought as hers was psychological, not necessarily straight attitude.

"Anyway, head on in and throw some lead. At the minimum it'll help you blow off steam." Sparky opened up the armory bay. "200 rounds and clean it. Gotta conserve ammo, don't know when we may have a restock," he said.

"200, got it," Kira answered. The ship had about 40 tons of extra munitions for the small arms, but that was a finite number with no guarantee of resupply any time soon.

His weapon of choice for the training was the same 1911 he carried and had used in anger against Barnett. That was where his problem was, on the pistol; for if he'd had a Thompson the battle probably would never have occurred. So far as Kira could tell, she had all the aggressiveness of a typical fighter jock, but she was also smart enough to know when she was outmoded. Or, at least, that was the appearance from her request; she did want a rematch in a controlled environment, and Kira was thinking about taking up the challenge.

Finding the opened ammo box was not all that difficult — in flagrant violation of ship's regs, whoever had done some shooting last had left it on top of one of the armory counters. Kira pulled four boxes of rounds (50 rounds to a box) and set them aside. Not wanting to be 'that guy' around the ship, given that the listed on-the-books punishment for leaving ordinance unsecured was a public flogging on the arse with Nerapa's whip that Ryback had recovered from the Floating Continent incident, Kira closed up the ammo can and secured it in its proper location. His four boxes of .45 ammo and a couple packs of paper targets in hand, the pilot wandered into the adjacent shooting range, where he set up in booth 2.

"Going live!" Someone down the range shouted, which gave Kira enough time to put some ear protection on before the lead started flying. The shooter cut loose with seven rounds, did a fast reload, and another seven rounds in a suppressing fire drill. "Not bad!"

"Works for suppressing, you just have to be on top of the trigger," Kira recognized the speaker as Athrun.

"If I have to suppress someone with my pistol, it's officially a bad day," Yzak answered.

Kira attached his first target to the target shuttle, then ran it out to the same distance that he had engaged Barnett at — roughly fifteen meters, nothing hugely special. He routinely trained at a distance of 25 meters, so this was closer but expected to be faster. This first series was also not a combat draw, he intended to start with accuracy.

"Huh? Someone else here?" Athrun asked.

Kira loaded in a fresh magazine and dropped the slide on his 1911. "Going live!" he shouted, then brought the pistol up into the upper left quadrant of the target set. He started with five rounds — X, 10, 9, 9, 9, all easily fatal but only two would be major CNS hits (1) on a target that was squared to him For his second group, he took aim at the upper right target zone, fired two, dropped magazine and reloaded from his mag pouch, then fired three more at an accelerated pace to make up for the reload. This second string was better, X, X, 9, X, 10, but still not where he wanted to be.

"Not bad shooting," Athrun said from behind him.

"I will need to do better," Kira said before he moved his sight picture down to the lower left. Four rounds remained in his magazine, which he unloaded and reloaded as fast as he could force himself to do, and the last round went downrange. 8, 10, 10, X, X. "Barnett has challenged me to a contest."

"Serious, Strike?" Yzak asked before Kira let loose with his fourth string. 9, 10, X, X, 10.

"Read," Kira waved a letter over his shoulder with his left hand, while his right hand (and pistol) remained downrange for safety purposes. After Athrun pulled the document, Kira resumed proper grip and sent one round downrange, then dropped the empty magazine and hammered a fresh one in Four more rounds joined the single round from the last reload, resulting in his best pattern in the session so far — 9, X, X, 10, X.

Athrun read through the letter while Kira did his fifth string on the center target in the five-pattern series, 9, 9, 10, X, 10. "Okay, this is rich. Read this, Yzak, and try not to laugh."

While Kira fished his magazines out from the far side of the shooting range partition with a safety squeegee, Yzak read through the instrument of challenge. "Okay, this lady's got some serious chutzpah. Does she realize we're mercenaries? Or does she think the first time Strike perforated her ass was a fluke?"

"I don't know, and that actually brings up a question that's been on more than a few peep's minds, especially after this display of accuracy," Athrun waved at the pistol target that Kira had very efficiently shot dead. "What happened in that hallway, Kira? I mean, you just punched paper at the same grade as Ryback's team, but you winged Barnett? And you supposedly got her after she had already cleared leather?"

"This I gotta hear," Yzak said before he turned around to the rear bulkhead and clipped the target up on the wall under the heading 'cold shoot string — pistol under 25m' "So, what's the scoop?"

"Here's to hoping I survive the sin of being truthful," Kira said as something of a wan joke. "She had the drop on me, but some kind of loud noise in the ship behind her distracted her enough that I had a chance, so I drew down and dropped two."

"Nothing wrong with that," Athrun said before he shrugged. "Coordinator reaction speed wins."

"Still doesn't explain why you didn't X-ring her, or how she had the drop on you in the first place," Yzak continued the quasi-interrogation.

"I, erm, I was very distracted by her uniform," Kira admitted sheepishly.

Athrun and Yzak exchanged a look, then shrugged. After a moment, Yzak decided to roll with it. "Okay, Strike, two points for recognizing the fatal flaw in your skillset, and five points for publically admitting it. Just don't noise that to the Mechanics, no telling what antics they'd spring on you."

"I hope I don't look that crazy to you," Kira said acidically.

"Good. Given that I don't think we're going to have to shoot at the pirates again, I think we're safe on the 'gunfights with immodestly dressed pirate pilots' training regimen. So, you need to square up your first shot in the string, and speed up your pairs. Load up, I'll step you through it."

Athrun stood back and let Yzak take the lead here. Truth be told, Athrun was always more confident in Yzak's small arms skills than he was in his own, which rendered him the best trainer in this case. After a few minutes of watching the veteran and the not-quite-as-veteran at work, Zala came to a quiet realization: Yzak had given up all pretext of thought of the old days, ZAFT versus the Earth Alliance, and was working to improve the shooting skills of a former sworn enemy.

Athrun's only conclusion to the train of thought was short and brutal: Existence was a crazy place, and the Archangel Team appeared doomed to roam the 'bad neighborhoods' therein.

-x-x-x-

(Day 3, 1030 Hours)
(Cafeteria, Archangel)

"This is… different," Magno said. She silently admitted to herself that it was different compared to Meijere mess halls, but not different from the mess hall on the ark ship that had brought her to Meijere to begin with.

"Not paying for the meals?" BC asked.

"Nope, chow is included for the crew in the amenities," Commander La Flaga said. "We demand a lot of the troops, so there is an expectation of being well taken care of in the package. And the entire team gets a cut of our contract proceeds, so morale is usually high."

"I take it we crawl the line?" Gascogne asked.

"It moves fairly fast," Murrue pointed out. "And we have some very good cooks."

"It certainly smells great," BC said with a smile. "Thank you for having us over, Captain."

Here's to hoping it goes as well as I intend, Murrue thought but did not say. "A pleasure, Commander," she said instead.

The six slipped into line at the rear, and true to Captain Ramius' expectation the line was moving rather fast — roughly a person through every ten seconds.

"Wait a second, am I seeing this correctly?" Gascogne asked.

"You are," Mu answered. "We have eleven Tonberry, who volunteered for the galley detail while we were in Vector."

"I believe you had a crewmember that was chasing 'mister alien', we have some actual nonhumans on the ship," Murrue said.

"And the Chef from Hell," Gascogne said after he realized the head chef was the same chef that had forcibly introduced her head to the bottom of one of the cafeteria tables.

"Still undefeated in the kitchen," Ryback said before he laid out a slab of meat loaf on the buffet.

"Salads are up!" one of the other chefs shouted to the mess hall area before he laid out two large bins of salad fixings on a separate bar. Surprisingly (at least to BC's way of thinking), there was a bit of a rush for the salad material from the personnel in the cafeteria, most of which already had a tray.

Cakes are done, one of the green critters (a Tonberry?) mentioned by way of directly speaking to everyone's mind in the general vicinity before the cakes simply levitated off the counter and to the dessert bar.

"Next time you're down in the engine room, Commander, give my thanks to the Paxis," Master Chief Ryback said. "This new Galley setup is making things a helluva lot easier to work in and serve people."

"Will do, Chief," Commander La Flaga said as he used a guillotine cutter to chop the meat loaf and took a slab.

"So, you cook, but you also fight?" Gascogne asked Ryback as she eyed the meatloaf, but decided for some chicken instead.

"I also cook," he said, which pretty much confirmed to all three of the Pirates that his primary job function on the ship wasn't manning the ovens.

"And I think I see someone I would like to have a follow-up conversation with," BC said after she caught sight of Murdoch and the one scientist with the mechanical arm. "If you don't object, Captains?"

"None here," Murrue said.

"Gascogne, if you would please accompany BC?" Magno said.

"Will do, Captain," Gascogne said before she diverted away from the Captains to join BC.

I'll need to ask Murdoch what that was all about, Murrue thought as they took seats at the officer's table.

-x-

At the table occupied by the Chief Mechanic and the Scientists, BC stopped short by about a yard of the opposite side from Murdoch. "Mind if we join you to continue yesterday's conversation?" She asked after it became obvious they knew she was there.

"Definitely, give me a sec to clear some space," Murdoch said. "Spazz, Quiet, Voltage, if you're done chowing, you know what the job is for the day. No rush, but at least get it started," he ordered as something of a way to clear some space.

"Aye aye, boss," one of the three referenced troopers said. The seat was vacated inside ten seconds, giving Gosko and BC plenty of room without being crowded by the rather large old guy with green tattoos to their right.

"So, don't think we were formally introduced. Kojiro Murdoch, Commander of the hangar crew," Murdoch started off.

"Doctor J, engineer and researcher for the crew," the doctor introduced himself.

"Busam Calessa, BC for short. Tactical commander of the pirate ship," she frowned. "We're still working on a new name for it."

"Gascogne Rheingau, same job as yours," she nodded to Murdoch.

"Okay, I guess we need to start by making sure we're on the same page," Murdoch said. "You're pirates? Free-roaming, or are you dedicated to piracy against a single group?"

"Mostly against the government of Meijere, but occasionally we'll do another target like the raid on the Tarak forces. That was too good to pass up, staffing their flagship with straight rookies," BC said. "Your team? I've heard mercenary and military."

"Both, actually," Murdoch said. "Started out as military, then as we began hopping dimensions we went mercenary as a way to earn keep for the ship and crew. We do work for reduced fee, though, in cases where someone goes out of their way to try to sink us."

"So you're not under contract to anyone right now?" BC asked, though it was redundant with her conversation with Athrun the day prior.

"Just got off a contract, though we think it was artificially cut short. One of our pilots pissed off the nobility, speaking the truth on the wrong radio channel tends to do that. Eh, contract with that outfit was below our paygrade anyway, so it's probably for the best that we were booted anyway."

This guy seems legit, talks like a proper military trooper, and what he says is in line with what I heard yesterday, BC thought while working her way through the meatloaf.

"What about your team? I'm pretty sure the present state of your ship was not your intention," Murdoch said.

"At more than one level," Gascogne answered for the commander, who was working on her lunch. "We were going to capture the Ikazuchi to add it to our growing fleet. We didn't intend it to merge with our ship, and we certainly didn't bargain for the ride-alongs we have. All we can do is smile and play the hand we're dealt."

"If you're playing only the cards you're dealt, you're not cheating enough," Doctor J said, to Murdoch's surprise. "I believe you asked about some old stories, Commander?"

"I did, yes," BC answered hastily, naturally and professionally inquisitive where this was about to go.

"If you're playing against governments on a level field, you will lose," he said. "We Gundam Scientists set in motion our victories by breaking all the rules of our era. The government fielded a massive military, we put into action only a handful of machines. They used mass production units, we deployed highly specialized custom machines. They fought in stand-up actions, we conducted a guerilla war. They trained elite pilots in a dozen academies around the world, we put out only five extremely-skilled soldiers. You cannot beat a government at their own game, because a government is engineered to self-perpetuate at all costs. You beat a government by breaking all of their rules. And I mean all of their rules."

That's a lesson to remember, BC thought. "That is going to take some work."

"It will not be a simple or short process, but it can be done. We took seven years to build our Gundams for the rebellion we staged, with machine and system planning going as much as twenty years back. I am assuming that you have some time in the fight already?"

"A few decades," BC admitted. She was referring to the ops against the Meijere government overall, not necessarily her involvement in them.

"Realistically, if you want to make a true difference, plan on a couple more decades. Even the most corrupt and vain of governments will not be so simple to topple," Doctor J said, even though he had to admit to himself that the bulk of the legwork of disassembling the United Earth Sphere Alliance had been done by Oz, and the Gundams had never technically truly destroyed Oz. It had simply folded into the new national structures around the world, after the Treize Faction and the Archangel Team had flattened the last vestige of Romefeller. Certain mission paths for victory, Doctor J reminded himself.

"Corrupt and Vain may be the best description of Meijere I've ever heard," Gascogne said. "Sometimes I wonder what caused our society to go in this direction."

"Power corrupts, the more the merrier," Murdoch guessed. It would be much later into the future that he was proven horribly correct.

-x-x-x-

(Day 3, 1430 Hours)
(Archangel Hot Springs)

"Looking at this, I have to wonder if the ship is trying to send us a message, if the Paxis is trying to send us a message, or both?" Hikaru said. "I mean, they expanded both of the gender-side hot springs and inserted this one?"

"Um, yes," Kira said. "You're thinking about it wrong, though. The Paxis is the heart of the ship now, so they're both trying to send us a rather blatant message."

"Families? Or just couples?" Hikaru asked.

Kira looked at the number one room of the four, then checked the other three quickly. "These are big enough for three or four people each, so I'd say either couples or families."

"Or enough room for a couple to stretch out," Hikaru said in an off-tone that Kira easily recognized.

Kira partially mentally seized up at her comment. Nothing was wrong in the wording, but the way she said it reminded him of Flay in a bad way. It took him several seconds to unfreeze from the horrific mental echo before he could reply.

"Hikaru, I — I can't go that far. Not yet."

"Huh?" Hikaru spun around on Kira. "What?" After she had asked, she realized the look on Kira's face was one of dread, and a flash of realization in her own memories brought to mind Allster. "Oh! Damn, I — I wasn't trying to go there, Kira! I'm sorry!"

Kira nodded. "I know it wasn't intentional, but damn did that remind me of…" he let his sentence trail off unintelligibly.

"I should know better than that, I'm sorry," Hikaru said. "I should not have said anything. Forget — "

"It's not you, Hikaru," Kira said emphatically. "It's my problem. I just — every time I think I want to go in that direction, I remember Flay and it chokes me up. Every time."

On this, Hikaru could sense what Kira wanted to say, but couldn't force himself to say. He wanted to ask Hikaru, but he couldn't, his prior experiences kept stopping him. Though no measure of psionic, Hikaru could feel his emotions by way of their shared link to Rayearth and she knew he was being held back by a ghost. After a moment, she decided she would not be defeated by a superbitch that had been dishonorably discharged from the crew three adventures prior.

Magic Knight Shidou stepped toward Kira, who was facing away from her, and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Hikaru, what — "

"Hold on, Kira," Hikaru said. "Don't move. Just listen for a moment."

"Listen? What?"

"Listen," Hikaru repeated.

After the two had quieted down, Kira did listen, even if he didn't know what this was about. For several minutes, he listened to his heart race against the thrill of being held by Hikaru, then to the sound of running water in one of the couples rooms, then to the rhythmic sound of the circulation systems in all three springs. At that point, Kira began to feel something different — not just himself, but he could begin to feel Hikaru's being as well, and mostly her heartbeat as well. Or was it his own heartbeat? He could not tell readily, but it was a warm, serene feeling to the Gundam pilot.

"You heard it," she said calmly.

"I heard something," Kira said almost in a whisper.

Hikaru embraced him tighter. "You're hearing both our hearts, Kira. No fears, no ghosts, no defense mechanisms, just our hearts. And you liked it."

Kira sighed. "I needed that."

"I know you can't forget her, and I won't ask you to. You can't forget a person who held your heart, and then tried to skewer it. I am not that ghost, just the same as you are not the echo of the ghost. Just, believe in your own wishes, let yourself free, and we can make the rest work."

-x-

The AI unit in the Strike Freedom never truly slept, it simply waited. Even if it wasn't actively doing something pertaining to the defense of the ship, it was modeling out scenarios or designing improved hardware for the other Mobile Weapons in the hangar. With the last contract being a near-zero shipboard threat, with the only fail scenarios pertaining to the contracting party, there wasn't even a need for a major amount of spare parts on the ship, and the introduction of the Paxis Archangel had alleviated some of the ship's maintenance and power issues that the AI was planning on suggesting modifications for.

So, with the AI not being asleep, it never missed a communication in the ship — friend, foe, or in this case from the ship itself. The sheer blatancy of the comms was rather stunning to the AI, but not impossible. A quantum energy being would certainly have little trouble using quantum communications with the QIC Node (2) inside the Strike Freedom MP-LRRP.

"Strike Freedom, this is Paxis Archangel. Can you spare a moment?" the energy being asked after a few seconds.

"I am listening," the AI answered.

"A matter has arisen to compound the situation between several of the couples with psionic skills. I do not understand your origin relative to the rest of the ship, but I believe you may have access to technologies that may help alleviate the issue at hand."

"Psionic echoes," the Strike Freedom AI calculated as to be the situation. "My Psycommu System has been disabled since I boarded the Archangel, so I do not know fully what is going on. I will need to correct this." the AI took several moments to reactivate the Psycommu system that had laid dormant in the machine. "You seek a solution?"

"At least for the personal quarters for the pilots and bridge staff, possibly for the Couples' Hot Spring Area as well," Paxis Archangel confirmed by quantum communications.

"Doable. Can you create synthetic Ruby crystal formations that I can nanomachine into a prismatic structure? It is possible to entrap single-planar Psionic emanations inside a Ruby Prismatic Structure without the use of magics, but the quantity of ruby needed is normally very prohibitive."

Paxis Archangel took a minute to respond. "This will take some time to achieve, but I think I can generate a ton or two," the Paxis unit answered. "Estimate two weeks to achieve that amount."

"It will take me longer to nanomachine the crystals into the right alignments and sandwich them between bulkheads in the quarters or the hot springs." In this case, the walls had a 4-centimeter gap between wall plates that would be perfect for the requested project. Two centimeters of prismatic crystal sandwiched between a centimeter of ferro-ceramic tile on either side would achieve the desired effect.

"Best we both begin, I suspect the ship will soon have more couples," the Paxis unit admitted.

Their plan would be modified at a later time by Kira, but it would still achieve the desired effect.

-x-x-x-

(Day 3, 1745 Hours)
(Archangel Hangar)

"Just two?" Murdoch asked. "I was thinking you'd have five or ten."

"Just myself and Parfait," Gascogne said. "I'll be honest here, I don't really know what the Captains are conspiring about this. I'm always open to learn new processes, but your ship operates on a totally different structure and tempo from ours," she said.

Murdoch shrugged. "No clue, myself," Murdoch semi-lied. He had a sneaking suspicion that the point of this exercise was to familiarize them with a crew that is already gender-integrated, and the Hangar staff included a surprisingly large ratio of ladies to guys (roughly 1 to 5, which beat the ship's average of 1 to 8).

"Guess that settles that, nobody knows," Gascogne said. "Where do you want us?"

"Well, we'll approach this from the top down. You'll ride with me, Parfait will ride with Gomer," Murdoch decided, figuring that as the section lead and assistant section lead, the two were the least likely to get into trouble. After a moment, he re-decided. "Scratch that, I have Gomer busy on the Serpent, no telling what would happen there. Parfait can ride along with Hikaru," he changed his tune fast enough. Hikaru was in a good mood, and the mobility was one of the keys to the routine in the Hangar. "Hikaru, Murdoch, report over here," he waved at her from where he was standing.

The three support troops watched as Hikaru drove up to them on a cushman freight hauler (3). "What's up, chief?"

"You've got a ride along for the remainder of your shift. Parfait is studying up how we do maintenance and overhaul work, so step her through some of the processes — both on the personnel side and mechanical side."

"Will do, chief! Hop on, we've got a list ahead of us," Hikaru said. Murdoch didn't realize that Hikaru's supply run was for the Serpent, thereby inflicting that mechanic team on Parfait anyway.

Ten seconds after they drove away: "I'm beginning to wonder if this is going in the right direction," Gascogne said after she guessed that the pallette of goods on the back of that Cushman was mostly flammable materials.

"Fun's just getting started," Murdoch said. Gascogne glanced at Murdoch, but said nothing. "C'mon, might as well jump in feet first."

-x-

"If I may ask, what position are you in?" Hikaru asked her ride-along.

"Engineering," Parfait said. "You're a mechanic?"

"Part-time only," Hikaru answered. "I'm a pilot, mostly," she explained, then took a sharp turn toward one of the machines and stopped at the foot. "This'll take a minute." Hikaru picked up a radio handset and clicked the button. "Pickles!"

On hearing that one-word declaration, the guy in the cockpit of the large olive-and-tan-painted machine peeked out and down. "Right stuff, wrong timing! Give me five minutes," the mechanic answered over radio.

"I don't have five minutes, Gomer. Come get your crap, please," Hikaru answered.

"Whips and chains," he replied in a tired tone of voice, then slid down a rope from the cockpit gantry to the floor. "Gimme a hand offloading, will ya?" he asked at a half-shout.

Parfait was surprised at the informality amongst the crew, especially female to male and vice versa. She didn't realize when she thought it would be appropriate, but she joined in carrying ammo boxes from the Cushman over to one of the lift units to carry it up to the top of the machine. About ten runs from each and the palette was offloaded onto the lift. "That was fun," Hikaru commented after the last boxes were placed.

"Any way I can con you into taking them up to Silent?" Gomer asked.

Hikaru sighed. "You owe me," she pointed at the Mechanic in an accusatory fashion.

"Yes'm, noted," Gomer said meekly before he took the pilot's lift line back up to the cockpit of the Mobile Suit.

"C'mon," Hikaru waved Parfait over to the lift and stacked a couple of the ammo cans on top of each other to form a seat for Parfait. "Grab a seat, this lift isn't all that fast."

Parfait took the offered seat while Hikaru sat on a crate of anti-armor missiles. "Thanks," Parfait said.

"No, thank you. I shouldn't be putting you to work in this sweat-shop," Hikaru admitted.

"No, no worries," Parfait waved Hikaru off. "It's different and it's kinda fun."

Hikaru reached over to a control box and flipped a lever to the top position. "LIFT SIX HAZMAT UP!" she shouted loud enough to be heard over most of the din in the hangar.

-x-

"LIFT SIX HAZMAT UP!" Trowa heard from below the catwalks.

"Good, our ammo is here," Spazz commented.

" 'Bout time," Technician Rose Haywood said. A recruit from Doma, she had joined the ship on a whim and never looked back. Murdoch liked using her for electronics details, she was surprisingly apt with solid-state electronics despite having no experience with anything more than a boiler system and a machine gun before she stepped on the ship.

The elevator took two minutes to raise up to position, and once it arrived Spazz was not surprised to see Hikaru on it. He was surprised to see Parfait from the Pirate crew on the elevator, though.

"Rose, Trowa, let's get these boxes staged and ready," Spazz ordered. "Care to lend a hand, ladies?"

"It's what we're here for," Hikaru answered.

"Certainly!" Parfait said. "Erm, what goes where?"

"Two crates of missiles at each shoulder binder, the cannon rounds go over by the double gatling. And the rounds for the grenade launcher go by it," Rose said.

"Well, let's get to it," Hikaru and Parfait grab up the first missile crate and march it over to the far side shoulder binder. Rose and Trowa arrived a few seconds later with the second box. Their second run was a can of 76mm CIWS rounds in each hand, and their third, but the fourth run was grenade launcher rounds before they ran out of things to carry.

"That was easier than offloading the Cushman," Trowa heard Hikaru say.

"Do we load? Or do you have automated systems for that?" Parfait asked.

"Yeah, no," Hikaru said. "None of the loading processes here are automated. All done by hand."

"Well, then, let's get to it!" Parfait stood up and twisted about, though uncharacteristically she hooked her foot on an ammo can and lost her balance. Trowa saw her fall and slam back-first into the wall, but the act of falling froze his mind up as he remembered that fateful night at the circus, just after the battle in Siberia. Katherine had taken a fall in the same fashion, though hers was fright from a Leo accidentally targeting the performance area (and her). Trowa had blocked the shots, but the fall was burned into his memory.

The rush of the memories, of Trowa interposing his machine between Katherine and the enemy, and her climbing up into the cockpit to face-punch him for his intent, caused Trowa to black out.

-x-

"Trowa blacked out again, and Parfait tripped over a case of ammo and slammed into a wall. Just another day in paradise," Murdoch said with clearly forced cheeriness.

"Parfait I'm sure isn't hurt. Your guy?" Gascogne asked as Murdoch and she took the lift up to the top catwalk to replace the two medevac'd personnel.

"No clue yet. Doc will have to check them out," Murdoch said just before the elevator reached the top.

"Hey! The boss is here!" A lady technician said. "Do we need to look like we're busy?"

"Nah, we're down two troops and your boss showed up. I dunno, fly casual?" Murdoch said as something of a wan joke.

"Right," the lady technician said in clear suspicion of his answer. "Anyway, Spazz and I have the missiles, if you two want to get the gatling?"

"Any objection to getting dirty?" Murdoch asked Gascogne.

"Nothing new to me," Gascogne said, in case this was some manner of backwards attempt at testing or entrapment.

"C'mon, we're over here." Murdoch passed by the grenade launcher rounds to where the double gatling gun assembly was racked on the back of the machine. "So, we've got about 600 rounds to load, it's mostly full right now. Which side do you want on? Cans or crank-handle?"

"I'll do the cans," Gascogne deliberately picked what she thought would be the more difficult of the tasks to make sure she would not be ranked low if this was a test. Unbeknownst to her, Murdoch was not challenging or evaluating her in any fashion on the duties side, but he was somewhat looking her over…

Murdoch opened an access panel on the back of the gun frame, removed a manual magazine crank handle, and popped open two more access hatches: one to feed the ammo in, the other to wind the magazine feed while the rounds were fed in. Gascogne set two cans in line with the magazine feed and popped them open, and she flopped out the first belt to link it into the feeder. Once the belt was in place, she signalled Murdoch to begin the feeding.

"I'll give your troops credit, my girls would have freaked out over an incident like two dropping at once," Gascogne said.

"Nothing new around here," Murdoch said. "At one point, we lost roughly half the mechanic staff to combat losses. If these madmen choked up every time we lost a trooper, nothing would get done in this bay, which would cripple the ship in a hurry."

Gascogne signalled him to stop feeding while she linked a second belt to the end of the first. The empty case went aside and she shoved the second can forward, then pulled forward two more cans and popped their lids. By the time she had the canisters of ammo open, the belt was ready for link to the third of eight cans.

"How much cannon ammo does one of these things carry?" she asked after the fourth can began feeding into the magazine.

"800 rounds per gun," Murdoch said. "That's it for this gun, now I finish winding until the rounds stop feeding." Another six or seven cranks and the manual load handle stopped turning. "Done. Now for the second magazine."

With the first two magazine hatches closed, Murdoch opened up a second pair of access panels. Gascogne was ready for it with the fifth and sixth cans, and while those two cans were loading in she pulled the last cans and linked the rounds together into a 200-round belt that Murdoch simply continuously slowly cranked until it stopped feeding.

"Well, that should be a wrap for the Serpent, Spazz and Rose can fuel it for the pilot, and the rest of the machine was good before we stowed it after Operation Meteor Breaker, so I think we're pretty much done here."

"Already fueled, boss," Spazz reported from the right side missile binder. "And that's the last of the missile cartridges. Oscar Foxtrot Oscar time?" He asked.

"Dig up a deck of cards and something resembling chips, might as well kill some time while time kills us," Murdoch said. "You play poker, Gascogne?"

"Occasionally," she half-lied. By the time Parfait was cleared to return to the ship, Gascogne would have a new respect for Murdoch's playing skills.

-x-x-x-

(Day 4, 1300 Hours)
(Pirate Ship Captain's Quarters)

"I have always been convinced the Meijere government is wrong. It's why I formed this Pirate team some years ago," Magno said. "The matter with the men is going to be a social issue, not a right/wrong issue."

"Social issue, Captain? I thought we were against the men as well," Meia asked.

"You're conflating Men in general with the Tarak government. The Tarak government is also wrong, and if you read the old charter I wrote up back when I started the unit, you'll note that I did not declare war on all men, just their government," Magno said.

"This is not making sense," Barnett said. "Captain, do you really expect us to trust the men?"

"If they earn your trust, yes," Magno said simply. "I won't ask you to trust them. That's your decision. As far as I'm concerned, I have no reason to expect treachery from them, and as the Archangel crew proves, men and women can coexist."

"Quite well, actually," Gascogne grudgingly admitted. "I watched and assisted for a couple hours yesterday, there was no tension, no hazing, no conflict between men and women. There is some rivalry there, but it's hard to explain."

"This is bizarre," Meia said. "All my life I've believed that men and women are incompatible, and now — "

"Now we know that is wrong," Jura said. "Everything I saw that first day now makes a sort of creepy sense." She shuddered unconsciously. "It still feels wrong, but I think there's a lesson here."

"You too?" Barnett asked her girlfriend.

"Well, didn't you want a rematch against that pilot?" Jura asked in counter.

"Little different there, Jura," Barnett sniped back. "I'm out to beat a man, not learn lessons."

"This is going to take some work," BC said wearily.

"I think the lesson might be driven home soon enough," Magno said. She had briefly met Kira on the Archangel, and briefly after seeing him operating as the spotter and security for the Archangel Team sniper. Those two encounters told her that the young fair-haired pilot was serious combat material. Barnett was likely in for a rude surprise in that rematch she was pining for, though Magno knew that the first step to correcting a social problem was to break the preconceptions.

And Meijere citizens in general have a lot of preconceptions, not all of them accurate, BC concluded the same thought series as Magno, in roughly the same fashion between the two.

None of the section commanders, the XO, or the Captain knew that the first great challenge to their preconceptions was about to hit them like a machine cannon.

-x-

"What do you have, Commander?" Murrue asked as she entered the bridge.

"Three unidentified objects, gross mass estimate 400 tons per object, on an intercept course for ourselves and the pirate ship. Objects appear to be constructed though are not responding to any communications or signalling attempts," Commander Chevalier reported after he vacated the Captain's seat for her to take it.

"I'm not sensing any kind of mind in that object," Murrue said. "Miriallia?"

"Same, Captain, I'm not hearing any living beings in there," the CIC Commander answered.

"Prepare to divert course down angle ten degrees, we will slip under and speed by. Comms, recommend course of action to the Pirates, no sense getting into an entanglement — " she stopped midsentence when one of the unidentified objects opened its front up in a fashion similar to a seed pod.

"The Hell is that?" Newman asked after the innards of the object were revealed to be some kind of a cube.

"I've got a bad feeling, Captain," Miriallia said.

"Me too," Murrue admitted. The cube inside was discharged from the carrier unit, and after two seconds it split apart into 24 vaguely-humanoid pint-sized mech units. "Okay, that's a problem."

"Captain, similar launches from the other two units, I'm tracking 72 light contacts and the three carriers," Miriallia reported. "They're firing on the Pirates!"

"Chief of the watch, signal battlestations," Murrue ordered immediately before her left hand went for her seatbelt.

Newman picked up his intercom and radio microphone, then dialed in the command for the battle stations klaxon. "Battle stations! Battle stations!" The hull rattled to the sounds of machine cannon rounds impacting on the exterior of the ship. "Ship is under attack! Repeat, ship is under attack!"

"Remote weapons? Or autonomous?" Miriallia asked.

Sai dropped into the sensor operator's chair. Two quick commands had the answer to Miriallia's question. "No, ma'am, they're communicating with each other but not any outside source."

"Autonomous killing machines. Again."

"Dehumanized warfare at it's finest," Commander Chevalier said. "I'm heading down to the hangar."

-x-

"Buster on left, awaiting cat-shot," Tolle reported.

"Duel on right, ready for catapult," Yzak declared immediately thereafter.

"Launch clearance granted, deploy at your option," Dorothy released the pilot.

Kira zipped up his flight suit and sealed it down. "Damn, was enjoying that dream," he grumped.

"Did it involve you sitting on top of a pyramid while thousands of screaming girls throw little sweet pickles at you?" Mu asked as a joke. (4)

"That's kinda bizarre," Kira said. "And mildly creepy."

Mu picked up his helmet and spun it around in hands until it was in position for him to don it. "Guess I'm the only person I know that's had that dream." He dropped the faceplate cover. "Come on, time's a-wastin'."

"Right," Athrun grumped before he shoved out for the door to the hangar.

Pytor shrugged, stuffed his helmet on, and dropped the visor just before the airlock closed. "A day amongst this team is always a reminder," he said mostly to himself. "Humorless and vainglorious was my past team, but no more. Should I ever come face-to-face with the Clans again, they will learn the error of their ways at the muzzle of my cannon."

Once outside the pilot ready room, Pytor immediately broke left and crossed the catwalks to where the Vayeate was waiting for him. His crew chief gave him the traditional thumbs up, clearing him from the ground side for operations, and he vaulted backwards into the cockpit to take his seat. Four switches and the fusion engine within roared to life, ready to power his arms and motive systems for another round on the battlefield.

"Operations, Vayeate reporting ready for mission," Pytor reported as he secured the last buckle of his five-point safety harness.

"Vayeate, Command, you are cleared taxiway C to taxiway B for ingress to catapult, hold short at starboard catapult marker three for launch clearance."

"Aff, Command." Rayearth and Strike Freedom were ahead of him for catapult launch, with Mercurius preparing to launch shortly, but if nothing else the Archangel Team excelled at getting troops out the door in a hurry for this sort of battle.

-x-

"Captain, I have Captain Vivon on the the comm link," Kuzzey said.

"Screen three." The captain of the Pirate Crew came up on the requested screen. "Is your ship damaged?"

"Not yet, but the shield is beginning to fail," Magno answered the question from her counterpart. "We have a problem, though."

"Listening," Murrue said.

"Our launch bays for our normal fighters are out of commission, we're still clearing blue crystal from the equipment. We only have four units available, three large Dread fighters and one Vanguard, with only two seasoned pilots," Magno explained.

"Understood, we're deploying everything we have active right now," Murrue explained. "I may have a plan. Can you have your helmsman loop your ship around mine? The swarm follows your ship right through our fields of fire."

Magno looked aside. "BC! Make it happen!"

"Bart, turn the ship around and loop wide around the Archangel's stern! Don't stop maneuvering!" BC ordered from somewhere off-camera.

"Any idea what these things are?" Magno asked.

"We'll know something once we've destroyed them all and reeled in some of the remains," Murrue promised her.

-x-

"Target-rich environment!" Tolle shouted before he triggered his combined weapons and knocked out four of the enemy machines in one salvo.

"Oh no, you did not shoot that shit at me!" Yzak grumped before he put two beams into the tango that had shot him. "They're using some kind of machine cannon, nothing special. Phase Shift armor isn't damaged by it."

Tolle saw movement from the central launch bay on the Pirate ship, and wisely made sure he was out of the way of any potential launches. Three of the Dread units zoomed by his position shortly after he moved. "Welcome to the party, ladies!" he shouted before another blast took out two more of the enemy attackers.

"We're not here for you," Meia said.

"Well no shit Sensei," Yzak retorted. "You're here to save your own asses, and that of the crew of your ship. So, welcome to the party."

Tolle noticed a separate movement from the hangar area, this one a bit more disconcerting. "What the — WHOOSHIT!" He only barely managed to duck under the outbound Vanguard unit that was moving very erratically.

"I don't know how to fly this thing!" Hibiki shouted.

"God help us, it's amateur hour," Yzak said as he noticed one of the Dread fighters flying roughly as erratically as the Vanguard.

"Definitely," Nicol said as he joined the battle in the Serpent Mobile Suit. "How many are left?"

"52," Dorothy reported. "Captain is trying to reel them in so the ship's guns can help lighten the load."

"Agh! What the hell do I do? Let's try punching one of these things, partner!" Hibiki managed two good swings at one of the enemy attackers, which knocked it out of action, though other units began swarming it once it became obvious that the pilot was incompetent. "Damnit!" He found his sword and chopped a second apart, which only caused the remaining swarmers to back away.

"I've got this," Commander La Flaga said before he jetted out toward the rookie.

"Pilots, Command, deploy toward the gap between the pirate ship and ours. As the allied ship comes around, the cloud of attackers will fly right through your position," Dorothy laid out her plan.

"Got it," Kira replied.

"Acknowledged," Pytor said before he fired three beams in quick succession at the enemy machines. One contacted, which cooked most of the enemy machine in particle wash.

-x-

Hibiki was approaching the point of a panic attack in the cockpit of his machine, as he could make it move in fits and starts but not enough (any more) to allow him to chop down the attacking bots. With the ship moving away from his position, he had no real retreat option, leaving him effectively all alone and surrounded by enemies. Still, his pride would not allow him to request help; this was his battle, or so he figured.

Just at the border of panic, an object streaked by his machine too fast to properly see, but the results were easily understandable. Two of the attacking machines had fallen apart, chopped roughly in half by something as it passed, and as Hibiki tried to look down to where it was he caught sight of a green beam that blew past him — another kill. His radar system reported three more contacts blossomed bright red, then disappeared off the screen.

"What the hell is going on?" Hibiki asked.

"Kid, I'm beginning to wonder if you're a pilot or not," the Archangel Commander (Hibiki thought he remembered the name as Mu La Flogging or somesuch) said over the radio.

"Hey, uh — " Hibiki's defiance died aborning, given that he knew the guy on the other end of the radio link was an actual pilot — and a good one, given his rank. "I, uh, well, that is to say, uh, I'm not really a Vanguard pilot," Hibiki admitted. "I was sorta suckered into sorta trying to steal one of the Vanguard units as a prank," he admitted. "I was a parts mechanic before this."

Mu let off the radio switch before he groaned. Yzak, always a fairly good judge of character, had the right of it from the word go: amateur hour. The only thing missing in this equation was some grog to use as an excuse for dumbass moves and outcomes.

He clicked his radio back on. "Well, you're not a parts mechanic right now, kid. You're either a pilot, or you're dead. Excuse me a moment," Mu looped partially around the front of Hibiki's suit and fired three beams at approaching enemy attack units. "Which will it be? Dead, fled, or ahead?"

"No way will I run away!" Hibiki railed against the suggestion that he would show cowardice in the face of an enemy. He had made the boast, he had executed the boast, and now he was here, so he was going to make it back to Tarak to prove it to his factory block! "But, I, uh, really don't know how to pilot," he admitted.

"Okay, you have three control surfaces in that machine. Foot pedals, throttle, and joystick. The throttle under your left hand — " Mu stopped a moment to shoot a breakaway attacker down, " — gives your forward or reverse. You control machine turning left or right with your feet. The joystick controls pitch up and down by forward and back, as well as machine rotation left or right. Take a few seconds to try it," Mu ordered.

"Mu, Hibiki, make the training session fast, the enemy ships just launched reinforcements!" Dorothy informed them. Hibiki spared the ships a quick glance, and each enemy unit had launched a fresh cube of attackers, each cube comprised of 24 enemy units.

-x-

"This may work out yet," Magno said to BC.

"Well, it may take a miracle to survive this, and we may just get it out of the brat," BC figured.

"Captain, we're pulling even with the Archangel now," Amarone called out.

"Bart, take her left thirty degrees a minute," BC ordered, given that the Nirvana was off the port broadside of the Archangel.

"Turning now," Bart acknowledged the order.

"Captain, the two male units — err, the Vanguard and the Archangel Commander — are re-engaging from the starboard," Operator Belvedere Coco reported after Bart began the turn around the stern of the combat ship.

"Thank you, track our forces and make sure they stay out of the line of fire of the Archangel," Magno reported.

"Am I seeing this right?" BC asked nobody in particular. "How many guns does that ship have?"

"I, uh," Ezra hesitated on seeing the ship blossom with firepower that previously had looked innocuous under armored shutters.

When the ship cut loose on the augmented swarm of enemy fighters, the sheer amount of beam and laser weapons caused the camera to lens flare momentarily due to the varying brightness of the image.

"Oh," Magno gaped after seeing the sheer volume of fire belched forth from the Archangel. Missiles, beams, machine cannons, even ion cannons (5) in their arsenal.

"Captain! Slightly more than half the enemy reinforcements have been shot down!" Amarone shouted.

"Still not enough, they will have to do more," BC pointed out. The enemy could lose three quarters of their total forces and still be a credible threat.

-x-

"Follow me in, kid!" Commander La Flaga ordered as he put the throttle down to the stops.

"Hey! I'm not a kid! I'm a man!" Hibiki half-shouted before he put the throttle down to catch up.

"Then prove it!" Mu delved into a thicket of enemy forces with beam saber claw extended and ready, but he started with four beam rifle shots away from his intended target. Despite firing off-axis, he still plowed into the thicket of attackers, Hibiki behind and to the left, and between their blades they had reaped roughly a dozen of the enemy.

Before Hibiki could reorient on another cluster of enemies, a flight of missiles smashed into them and shredded the light enemy attackers. "Run low, Archangel has the high road! All mobile units, strike the lower level enemies! And stay clear of the pod ships!"

"Goin' down!" Mu changed pitch quickly to take himself below the angle of fire for the ship's upper deck guns.

"Damn it! How many do they have?" Hibiki shouted angrily.

"One enemy is never enough, two is entirely too many," Mu answered cryptically.

"Above!" Hibiki rotated his machine to challenge the enemy units trying to intercept him from above, but support fire from first the ditzy Dread pilot, then from the other Archangel commander wrecked the nine enemy units before he could change direction of travel. "Damn, that was fast!"

"Be careful mister alien!" the ditzy Dread pilot answered.

"Keep the skeer up, kid, you're doing great!" the commander said. Hibiki had no clue what his name was, but he struck him as something of a cool old guy with the grizzly beard and hard look.

"We have them compressed on three sides! Start reducing their numbers!" Dorothy ordered.

Hibiki darted into another cluster of the enemies, and with four swings destroyed five and damaged three, enough to lame the group and cause two to retreat up into the Archangel's lines of fire. "Is that what you meant?"

"Definitely, make the ship do as much of the dirty work as possible," Yzak said. "It's what we've modified her to do."

"Mobile Forces, raid warning, Archangel is targeting the enemy pod ships. Remain clear of the bow!" Dorothy warned them. Hibiki noticed that four protrusions on the top of the ship's 'legs' had opened up into four cannon assemblies with three barrels each.

"Going for another group!" Hibiki slashed his way through a pair, a single, two more pairs, then into a cluster of ten. When he emerged from the far side of the cluster, only three were still undamaged. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!"

"Got your six, kid!" One of the Magic Knight girls said (the blue one) as she swooped past him and chopped apart the attackers that he missed. "Just keep doing that, we'll mop up!"

-x-

"We're down to about twenty enemy units and the three ships," Miriallia tallied off the rapidly dwindling enemy units. "They just can't take the kind of heat we can dish out."

"Good. Chandratta!"

"Target lock, ships one and two, ready on your command," the gunnery officer reported.

"Fire at will," Murrue ordered.

"Firing one and two," Chandratta released the guns, and in both cases the shots were only a half-second from fire to impact. Both ships cooked off spectacularly when struck. "Two down, tracking three," The third ship had turned perpendicular to the Archangel's flight path, trying to get out of the line of fire of the beam cannons, but it did not begin moving fast enough. The third cannon caught it slightly behind the centerline and struck its engine system, which caused it to fireball cookoff. "All ships destroyed, Captain."

"Hey! Who pulled the plug?" Kira asked after the remaining few units stopped moving of their own accord.

"The enemy units have stopped moving!" Sai reported.

"Dorothy, have the pilots disable several of the undamaged machines and bring them in. We need to study these things," Murrue ordered.

Dorothy nodded. "Kira, Yzak, Athrun, Nicol, and Pytor, grab five of the undamaged machines, destroy their control systems without destroying the entire unit, and bring them in."

"Roger that," Athrun answered.

"And you didn't ask any of the ladies in your team?" Dread Squad Leader Jura asked.

Dorothy sighed. "The Rune Gods do not have technological sensor systems, they are living divine beings, so they would not be able to target the control systems on these enemy units."

I confirm this, we Rune Gods are ill-suited to such delicate work on enemy mechanical forces, Rayearth confirmed Dorothy's point.

The duty of an Operator is to know whose units are best for a given task, and to call upon them as needed. Gender bias plays no part in such decisions, Windam rebuked the Dread Squad Leader telepathically.

"Was that… really in my head?" Jura asked.

"It was… it was in all our heads," Meia said.

"First couple times it is a bit creepy, but you get used to it," Hikaru pointed out.

"Fun's over, troops. Back to the ships, refuel, rearm, and get ready for the next round. That was too small to be a fleet vanguard but too big to be strays or mere scouts. They know we're here, so we need to get ready for it," Commander La Flaga said.

"I don't take orders from a man," Meia said. Barnett seconded the point.

"Or don't," Mu said, figuring some tough snark was in order for the belligerent Squad Leader. "Hang around outside, run out of fuel or get shot up by the next wave. Your call," Commander La Flaga challenged her.

"Consider it an order from me, Meia," BC said bluntly. "We will need to talk when you get in."

-x-x-x-

(Day 4, 1530 Hours)
(Archangel Hangar)

"This is wild," Tolle said. "Looking at one of these things disassembled, it's like whoever designed it knows the human structure in and out!"

"That isn't just wild, it's worrisome," Yzak said from the top of the 'head' of the unit. "If they know our structures and biologic assembly, they either are humans or they know us well enough."

"This is one of the units?" Pirate XO Buson Calessa said as she approached with Dita and Parfait in tow.

"Disassembled, yeah. We stripped it down to frame and rails. Each one going down the line has more of the components on it, until the last one is fully assembled except for the control system." Removing those controls had not been a difficult task, the control housing was all in a single package in the back of the machine, attached to the 'spine' of the frame. Removing that package of control systems took the Gundams roughly five seconds and two steel locking lugs to rotate out of holding position to free up the controls.

"It does look human," Parfait said. "At least like human bones, sort of."

"They are human," Yzak said before he dropped down. "Even our Gundams or the Vanguard units don't use biologic styling on the structures, instead using the more mechanical block or cylinder structures. These frame components were designed to reduce mass and material used in the same way our human bodies have evolved over the eons to increase strength and reduce mass," Yzak pointed out on the ulna and radius of the attacker forearm.

"You've already come to a conclusion," BC commented.

"There are two possibles. One, we're facing aliens with a rather twisted sense of humor to use AI-driven robots that are structured in human fashion. Two, we're facing humans who are resource-strapped and are cutting engineering corners for the sake of deployable numbers."

"Bad aliens! I knew it!" the ditzy Dread pilot said in a half-wail.

"That's the less likely choice," Athrun said as he popped up from inside the torso of the second salvaged machine. "Serial numbers on these parts are arabic numerals, which means the Aliens are copycats, or these were manufactured in a human factory for some purpose." Athrun tossed Yzak a small part, which he caught. "Read it and weep."

Yzak snorted at the in-joke. "Factory A-12, S/N 10633082," the Duel pilot read off the part. "Commander?" he indicated Buson.

"Sure." She caught the part in question and read the laser-engraved serial off the side of the casing. "Okay, they're manufactured and they're human. Now what?"

"Well, the Doctrine Archangel is to find the persons or governments that are running this shit, and we break their ability to wage war. Or we kill as many of them as it takes to break their will to fight," Yzak said coldly. "Or both, if needed."

"We won't get a morale victory out of fighting AI-driven drones," Athrun pointed out. "So long as even one of these things remains active, it is a threat. To win against a monster like this, you have to kill them all or disable them all."

"And you picked up a valuable lesson on that note. Destroy the pod ships, the subordinate units cease functioning," BC pointed out.

"It's a start, but in a battle against ten or twelve pods, just getting close enough without being chewed to bits will be an accomplishment, never mind destroying the pod," Athrun said.

"Guys, I've got bad news," Kira said as he approached while holding one of the circuit systems. "The attackers are not autonomous themselves, they are drones. The control systems are elsewhere, they can be mounted in anything. They also use quantum communication sets, so they can't be jammed by the Aquarius."

"Sonofabitch!" Yzak banged his fist off the top of the 'hat' armor plate. "So much for my idea of pooping on them with Aquarius and then us just chopping the disabled machines apart."

"It gets worse," Kira grumped.

"Goddamn, I hate it when you say that," Tolle said.

"The control systems on the individual units are adaptable. If we kill one controller, the unit drops into a 'search' mode whereby it begins looking for another valid controller. If there are other controlling ships on the field, they can pick the orphaned units up and resume operations," Kira explained.

"Is there a per-ship limit? Or some other limit?" Yzak asked.

"Their addressing schema is double floating point. If their hardware has enough ass to it, the top-end is over 4 billion just on those numbers alone," Kira said with a perfectly straight face.

"4 billion? Of those things?" BC asked, pointing the salvaged part at the frame of one of the deceased machines.

"And you're holding a part from a machine in the 10 million range," Athrun said in continuation of her point.

"The numbers don't add up, though," Yzak brought their worries to a halt. "If they have the resources to build 4 billion of these things, they're going about it in a very wrong way. The machining required to build one of these in a biologic form well exceeds the simpler construction of our machines. You don't do that if you have the resources to build 4 billion of anything, you build basic, functional hardware and just swamp an enemy until he suffocates in midget robots."

"Right!" Parfait exclaimed. "They'd only build something like this if they were running short on materials but long on time and patience!"

"Exactly," Kira said. "The design on this is someone who wants to achieve results without huge resource use. They'll still give us the third degree in numbers, but the way they're doing these, they're thin on material to do it with and willing to take the time to engineer them light but strong."

"That tells me they're out for material, scouting to find usable resources," Yzak concluded the thought. "Or they're out scouting a huge swath of space for something else. Either way, I don't expect we'll see million-machine swaths of these things, but they'll hit us with numbers eventually. Sooner, if they're smart." Yzak had no way to know that he would be proved wrong, and in the worst possible way.

"And that reminds me," Athrun said, looking at BC. "I remember hearing someone say that most of your Dreads were captured by the Crystal. How soon can you have them ready?"

"Three days," Parfait answered for the boss. "The crystal takes so much laser energy to burn through!"

"That's because the crystals are a crystalline energy matrix and transport network. What you need to clear them is kinetic trauma."

"Such as?" Parfait asked. Yzak demonstrated what he meant by holding up a sledgehammer at eye level to the pirate mechanic.

"If you want it done fast, It's hammertime," Yzak said simply.

"How many sledgehammers can you spare?" BC asked.

"Do you want the hammers, or do you want us along with the hammers?" Athrun asked.

"And that brings me to a question," BC said. "You're being extremely gracious for mercenaries. Why?"

"I try to be nice to everyone that isn't trying to kill me," Athrun answered. "Starts less wars that way. In this case, your team is in worse shape than ours, and neither of our groups is doing well. Having a buddy in a suddenly-hostile neighborhood means both of our groups may get out of here alive."

BC nodded the point, convinced of the logic and wisdom in the pilot. His words would be a valuable lesson in coming months.

-x-x-x-

(Day 4, 2000 Hours)
(Archangel Hot Springs)

"Well, we get some good news out of this," Murdoch said after he slipped down into the water. "One, the material these things are made out of is titanium, so we can salvage them and repurpose the material for a lot of uses."

"That's damn handy to know," Commander Chevalier said.

"Second, the integral machine cannons in their attackers are close enough in size and cartridge that our 76mm CIWS guns can handle the difference. Chamber pressure is a bit high but not out of specification, and velocity is a bit off, like they're using a higher burn rate propellant, but Nicol has already set up a firmware mode on the guns for the different velocities."

"So, if we don't destroy their machine cannons, we can use the ammo?" Athrun asked for confirmation. He had not been privy to that part of the testing and analysis, he had been working with Kira on the electronics and frame.

"Pretty much, unless they do a refit we get free ammo out of the exchange," Gomer confirmed.

"Nice," Athrun said. "Kick their robotic asses and steal their lunch money."

"Well, I think we're going to need 'em. Tell 'em, Gomer." Murdoch waved a beer at his 2-I-C.

"We have identified parts with serial numbers in excess of 40 million on the machines. A couple of them were FRU parts, and a couple were duplicate parts on the same machine, but the hip frame on the number five machine you brought in had serial 33,515,907. That's neither a dup or a FRU, so that tells me whoever's building these things is very busy."

"Whatever their numbers are, they have a very clear instruction set," Kira said from just inside the bead curtain for the springs. "When they capture a human alive, they are to hold him or her intact until a capture unit can be brought in to put the captive in stasis. The instructions exist in all five of the attackers' main operating system, so it appears to be a system-wide directive."

"Then what?" Murdoch asked as Kira dropped down into the spring.

"Ah, oh yeah, that's good," Kira sighed after he settled onto the underwater seat. "Huh? Oh, yeah, the Attacker's code doesn't include any instructions other than making sure a human is captured intact. I'd guess the capture units have different operating systems?"

Gomer sighed. "We're not going to win this one, are we?"

Kira looked at the Mechanic 2-I-C, then shrugged. "The numbers are against us. Then again, their programming has no anticipation for what we are. It's probably gonna be close."

-x-

Dorothy had been in the hot springs for an hour already, her mind running in small mental loops that she could not escape, while she stared at a fixed point in the water a half-meter ahead of her. Hence, she completely missed Hikaru and Umi entering the springs area on the lady's side, but not for long.

The psychologic problem at hand stemmed from her prior conduct. Granddaughter to Duke Dermail, she had been a major proponent for the use of Mobile Dolls in warfare as something of a 'bloodless' way to execute a campaign. After the war, she toured several of the battle sites, including Luxembourg, and she saw firsthand what folly her notion of bloodless battle had been. Someone had bled for her grandfather's arrogance, just not the Romefeller Foundation forces in those cases.

The psychologic loop formed after the battle, when she had chained together several interrelated thoughts: Mobile Dolls are unrelenting killing machines — warfare with Mobile Dolls is never bloodless — the pod-ship attackers are small AI units — those attackers are trying to sink the Archangel and all hands on board — AI units (Mobile Dolls) are unrelenting killing machines. Within fifteen minutes of the first iteration of that mental loop, Dorothy had quickly found herself consumed by the sheer dread of what was coming for her, but more consumed by the horror of having been a major proponent of these soulless killing machines in the past.

Thus, when Hikaru vaulted over the exterior rocks and dropped into the springs with something just shy of a cannonball in terms of impact, the shock of it caused a temporary panic reaction in Dorothy until she realized that her 'assaulters' were a pair of Magic Knights.

"You are awake!" Hikaru said. "I thought you were sleeping with your eyes open."

Dorothy inhaled steeply, then sighed. "Entranced by the water," she covered with something that might be considered plausible.

It didn't fly. "Not buying that," Umi said as she slipped into the water directly across from Dorothy.

Dorothy frowned, then signed again. "I know better than to try, betwixt my siblings and myself, I was always the worst liar. And, on a crew with two known and possibly more Psionics, someone would pierce the veil soon enough."

"So, what gives?" Hikaru asked.

"Is everything alright in there? I heard a loud splash," Terra asked from the doorway.

"We're all right, just pranking Dorothy," Umi covered for Hikaru.

"We are good," Dorothy rose to the Magic Knight's aid.

"Rule Five, ladies!" Terra said before she moved away from the locker room.

Hikaru rolled her eyes famously. Rule Five of the Hot SPrings was that there was to be no horseplay in the springs, and would be punished if caught doing so. The mechanics routinely earned accolades for short stints in the brig for violations of Rule Five, and Murdoch had a tracking board in the hangar for it. "Okay, we just risked six hours in the brig to break you out of your funk. What's the scoop?" Umi asked.

Dorothy knew she was trapped, so the Operator figured the only way out now was forward through the minefield of her emotions.

"I have come to two conclusions over the past hour. Primarily, when I was semi-working for Romefeller, and occasionally sparring words with Relena Peacecraft, I had been advocating for a form of warfare that was absolutely merciless and soulless. Mobile Doll Warfare."

"Those were tough to take down," Hikaru admitted.

"You're not cheerleading for that now, so what's the big deal?" Umi asked staunchly.

"That method of war is now aimed at us, and only after seeing it in action have I realized how horrible and tyrannical I had been in pushing such a manner of combat." Dorothy pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face between them. "I see now why military forces exist as they do in the here and now, to prevent judgments like mine from committing genocide on a wide scale."

"You're not saying that any more, right?" Hikaru asked.

"No, never again, no," Dorothy said. "No, after I saw Luxembourg, after I saw Moscow, Germany, Poland, I knew I was wrong. Never again."

"Are you willing to stand against them?" This question wasn't from Umi or Hikaru, but from Miriallia, standing just inside the bead curtain.

"Yes!" Dorothy half-shouted emphatically.

"Good. We have a trip ahead of us, and somewhere out there is one or more worlds that are manufacturing these things. Captain thinks we need to either knock them out, or bird-dog them for forces that can knock them out," Miriallia said. "Given what you're thinking, I'm putting you on leave for a day to sort your personal feelings out. I'll cover your station in addition to CIC and tactical."

Dorothy sighed. She would never have asked for a leave to sort out her personal problems, but she was not going to complain about it in this case.

-x-x-x-

(Day 5, 0435 Hours)
(Archangel Bridge)

"Captain, our friends are back," Sai said after he picked up some sensor contacts.

"How many?" Murrue asked.

"Four off the port bow of the pirate ship, six ahead of us."

"Ten pods, or 480 attackers. Far cry from the 144 we scratched yesterday." Murrue hammered the general quarters battle alert button with her fist. "Dorothy, deploy all machines."

"Captain, you have a call from Crewman Barton, special request," Commander Chevalier said as he began unstrapping himself to head down to the hangar.

"Go, I'll answer it." Murrue found the channel indicator fast enough. "We're at battle stations, Crewman. What is your request?"

"Captain, I request permission to ride along with Kira Yamato today."

"Purpose?" Murrue asked, well apprised of his amnesia and fainting spells.

"Attempt to jog my memory, maybe uncover what I need to remember to assist in defending the ship, Captain," Torwa said calmly.

"He's not needed on a damage party, Captain," Murdoch shouted from off-camera somewhere.

"Authorized," Murrue made the snap-decision on the matter. "Get suited up. I'll inform Kira."

"Thank you, Captain," Trowa said before he killed the comm link.

"You may find something in your memories to cause you not to thank me, pilot," Murrue said to the blank screen.

-x-

"Again? More of these things?" Hibiki asked on an open channel after he launched through a swarm of them.

"You're going to need to expect this, kid," Yzak answered after Hibiki passed by his position. "These things are a swarm opponent, nothing more, nothing less."

"We kill them by the numbers, because that is all they have to bring to the fight," Athrun pointed out after he joined the fray.

"Same plan as before, Hibiki," Command La Flaga said. "Mow through, chop as many apart as possible!"

"Looks like the sledgehammer diplomacy worked, I'm seeing about a wing of Dreads out in the fray now," Hikaru said. She had been involved in the clearing of the Dreads, which was rightly surprising to the Dread pilots to find out that an Archangel Pilot also worked on the machines and also worked on physical labor tasks.

"Oh mister alien!" the ditzy Dread pilot half-shouted on the radio as she joined the fray.

A TacFlash message came across everyone's systems (and in the case of the Rune Gods, it appeared on the side of their control spheres) attached to the Archangel: DO NOT speak ill of Dita or her chasing Hibiki, Coming from Miriallia, most of them figured the CIC Commander had an inside line on the situation and figured something was going on between the two. They were only half-right: Miriallia did understand that this was one culture (Meijere) trying to come to grips with a foreign entity (Tarak), but she had not been looking into minds for that info.

"Rayearth, acknowledge and clear message," Hikaru said aloud.

"Something going on?" Meia asked.

"No, just a warning from CIC about standing orders," Hikaru covered quickly.

"Planning reminder, Kira and Morgan are to go ship-hunting while the remaining units hold off the attackers," Mu La Flaga made up a plan of attack to complete Hikaru's cover story.

"We're on it," Commander Chevalier had launched with the Gunbarrel Striker, which precluded any of the heavier anti-ship arms packs, but present estimates were that Kira would have the firepower necessary to tear apart one of the Pod Ships in a single shot with the Strike Freedom LRRP. Morgan Chevalier would simply run interference on the Strike Freedom while Kira did the dirty work.

"Remember, Kira, we need a control system from one of the Pod Ships reasonably intact to do analysis on it," Yzak threw on to add some extra buffing to the shinola job (6) on the airwaves. "Hard to study them if you atomize it."

"Easier said than done, but I'm going to try for that," Kira acknowledged.

"Keep your ass intact, pilot. Living personnel beats the hell out of scrapped machines. If it gets too hairy, blow 'em all to hell and we'll worry about battlefield salvage another day." Miriallia completed the impromptu planning change.

-x-

"They're not worried about the masses of enemies, but what they can collect from the scrap?" Jura asked.

"They're either faking it, or they're something else," Barnett said.

"This isn't faking it," BC said definitely (but incorrectly in this case). "These are mercenaries, not pirates and not regular military. The way they work as a team, they've been around a few nasty ones."

"It's good to have friends like these on our side," Dita said. "And like Mister Alien!" She took a pass by him to shoot down a couple attackers trying to get in behind him.

"When did she get that good at piloting?" Jura asked.

"We've all improved a bit since the incident," Meia said. "Maybe the Paxis unit is helping us?" she questioned the cause of the changes before she strafed four enemy machines (with three kills).

"I dunno, but it's kinda weird," Jura grumped.

"Dita, this is BC. Remain in close to the Vanguard and Commander La Flaga, support them as possible," BC made a snap judgment on the flow of the battle.

"Is that wise?" Magno asked, though even she had to admit to herself that it was a hollow question. Dita seemed to be naturally attracted to Hibiki…

"I'm making official what she is doing unbidden," BC pointed out. "We have to work as a team to survive this, and in this case Dita seems to have chosen her team a little bit different from her assignment."

"This may work out yet," Magno said. The three in that 'team' (Mu, Hibiki and Dita) were cutting down more than just a share of the enemies, but 480 against 50 was a grossly lopsided numbers matter. Someone would eventually take hits.

"Command, Nicol, reporting leg damage and loss of maneuverability. I'm returning to the ship to provide close-in support," one of the Archangel pilots reported.

"Not a good start, we're not even down a hundred so far," BC pointed out.

"This is Yamato, heading for the first enemy ship now."

-x-

Hibiki only barely saw the beam, but he didn't miss the destruction of the first pod ship of ten. Immediately following, a few of the enemy attackers in his area temporarily stopped operating, taking some pressure off the Dreads. That destruction gave him an idea.

"We can fight these things all day, or we can destroy the ships. I'm going for the ships!"

"Do what?" Mu asked. "Aww shit!"

"Mister Alien! Wait up!" Dita said.

"Gotta cover my wingman," Mu reminded himself, then put the throttle down to pursue.

"Dita! What are you doing?" Meia asked.

"I'm following Mister Alien!" Dita answered immediately. "I believe in Mister Alien! And our Mercenary Friends!"

"I'll cover them," Mu grumped. "Watch your ass, kid!" Commander La Flaga peeled away to engage some attackers that had broke rank to intercept the three intrepids.

"If we can destroy the ships, we win!" Hibiki put the throttle all the way to the mechanical stop and used his swords to clear a path through the attackers. Dita assisted as well, her Dread able to keep up with the Vanguard and her pulse guns were excellent at dropping the attackers at range.

"Wait, ship's opening, get clear kid!" Mu ordered, but even as he said it he realized the kid was on a self-imposed mission and wasn't going to listen to anyone until he accomplished it or died trying. "Archangel!"

"We're out of range, Commander, do you have any options?" Miriallia asked.

"Not really, kinda busy myself," Mu answered before he shot two of the enemy attackers in the space of a second.

"I will not STOP!" Hibiki shouted before the ship shot out some kind of metal extension to either capture or destroy the unit. Whatever happened was lost in some manner of blinding flash from the vicinity of Hibiki's machine.

"Shit! Did his machine just go full nuke?" Tolle asked.

"Something's there! Something's inside the flash!" Hikaru shouted after Rayearth caught sight of something inside the light burst.

"What the hell?" Yzak asked after the flash faded. "Okay, whatever caused that, is a whole new level of badass!"

The new machine (?) reached around the metal rods that had stopped the Vanguard and snapped them by hand. A little thrust and it was up to the pod by way of crunching through the projection from the Pod Ship. At the 'face' of the enemy ship, the unit (combined unit?) had no trouble ripping the hull open, and the paired over-the-shoulder cannons were easily more than powerful enough to shred the ship.

"Damn, someone got an upgrade," Tolle commented after the major components of the explosion faded away.

The commo video systems popped on, showing the cockpit of the unit, which confirmed most of their suspicions. "I got it! How many more?"

"Ehhh, I knew we could do it, Mister Alien," Dita said in a very tired fashion. Given their orientation and proximity, it appeared they were sharing a seat.

"This is a bit different," Commander Chevalier said diplomatically.

"True, but this ain't over by a long shot," Yzak said.

"Yo! Dita! Wake it and shake it!" Kira half-shouted over the radio channel. "We're two down, eight to go! This is no time for sleeping on the job!"

-x-x-x-

(Day 5, 1200 Hours)
(Archangel Cafeteria)

"That was a good, solid start, Hibiki, Dita," Tolle said as he slid into place with his lunch. "Four for you, three from Kira, three from the Archangel. About 150 recovered intact attackers. Pretty good start," Tolle said. "Now for the interesting part."

"What?" Hibiki asked before he began shoveling in some of the pasta chef's special-recipe Penne Gratin. Nobody dared call it macaroni and cheese, despite being a close cousin to it, mainly because it did not involve macaroni and the cheese sauce was wildly different from normal macaroni and cheese (penne gratin used a white cheese based on Asiago, most macaroni and cheese recipes used a yellow cheese base of Cheddar).

The cooks had laid out a heavy selection for the Pirate pilots, who had been granted leave from their ship to celebrate a rather stunning victory against their mystery enemies. Salvaging the battlefield had taken four hours, and once all the spare material was in, Magno had released her pilot crew to rotate through the Archangel's galley for some good eats. What Magno had not told anyone, though, was that her intention was to help acclimatize her crew to a mixed crew such as the Archangel's crew. Good eats would go along way to helping with that, as would interacting with the pilots.

"He's right," Yzak said after he sat down next to the Buster pilot. "Winning one is only the start. Means you have a general idea what to do. Training is the big thing that faces you now, if you want to get better you need to train like you mean it."

"I had several months in training before I could even properly launch in the Buster," Tolle admitted. "Training, and real battle on the line has me where I am now."

"That's it, training?" Hibiki asked.

"No, there will always be more," Yzak pointed out, though he was studiously refraining from commenting on how fast the Tarak-turned-pirate pilot in front of him was veritably inhaling food. "Training involves learning your machine, but also involves learning how to work with your team and in your case also involves learning how to work together with Dita in combined mode." One thing that Miriallia had made sure to get across to anyone on the staff involved in this soiree was to watch their phrasing on the matter of men and women in these case. Relations were still quite a bit sensitive on the subject, despite clear knowledge that it was possible.

"Then you have the operations part, going out and doing it for real," Tolle continued the thought. "What's that line your instructor drilled into the Redcoats?"

"When the shit hits the fan, you default to your level of training and preparedness," Yzak said. "That's why we never stop training, the harder you train, the harder you fight. In fact, we have a cockpit sim-ex scheduled in four hours."

Hibiki took the lesson to heart, even if he was somewhat annoyed by the thought of having to work with Dita. She wasn't a bad person, but she could be a bit of a pest. Still, given what he was seeing from the Archangel Team, it was workable. He saw a flash of light — red light — across the room, and noticed that Kira Yamato and Hikaru Shidou had a group around them. The flash had been Hikaru demonstrating her sword.

-x-

"We do practice once or twice a month with the Magic Knight weapons, but for most purposes these are the final act of defiance — the way the team fights, if we're on foot and it comes down to swords, we're already having a bad day," Kira pointed out the discrepancy in equipment versus logical use of equipment. "On foot, we use rifles, sub-machineguns, pistols, explosives, similar, but that is the exception — we're mercenaries, and we're pilots. If we can solve a problem from our cockpits, that's what we do."

"Do you do anything quietly, or do you always hit them head on?" one of Barnett's sub-commander Dread Pilots asked.

"We've done a few good quiet hits," Hikaru answered. "Romulus Spaceport was half-stealth, half-ambush. Doma Castle was strategic surprise, but South Figaro was both ground action and complete stealth infiltration. Our commando team inserted by the docks at South Figaro, and overnight they waxed the entire Imperial garrison in town without anyone knowing wiser. The citizens woke up in the morning and found all the Imperials dead and the Commandos manning the ramparts. We also had some surprise strikes against the Romefeller foundation, but not much of that in Halkegenia. So yeah, we're off and on stealthy, but more often than not the battle finds us," she explained at length.

"That's probably what will happen here. As we journey toward Meijere and Tarak, we'll probably stumble into enemy formations on the way and that will dictate the battle," Kira explained his thinking. "If we can get some hard intel on the enemy, the Captain wants to track them down and hammer them flat."

"Really? Take the fight to them?" Barnett asked with some shock.

"Captain has this thing about people trying to sink the ship without provocation," Hikaru said. "Makes sense, though. Throwing huge masses of automated weapons at us, with programming designed to capture humans 'intact', I agree with the sentiment. Find them, flatten them, ensure this never happens again."

"You'll want to think about it — whether you just want to go home, or if you want to go for vengeance, either one will require a lot of effort on all of our parts," Kira pointed out. "These automated forces won't make it easy."

Barnett nodded her understanding of the point. It would not be an easy travel, especially if hardened mercs like Kira and Hikaru were warning about it not being easy. A green flash from the next table over, similar to the flash of Rayearth's sword appearing, drew her attention momentarily.

-x-

"Someday, I want to return home tell my sister what has happened, and say a proper farewell to my family, but I've decided I can't leave the team," Fuu said. "I won't leave the team. My normal life from those years ago is long disappeared, and I don't think I could live with myself if I simply abandoned the team before our quest was done."

"That's…" Jura was left pretty much speechless by the thought of giving up a normal life for the team. She didn't strictly see the correlation between her own conduct and Fuu's intention, though she would come to realize it soon enough. "Wow," she concluded.

"Speaking of quests, one thing has been nagging at my understanding of things, if I may?" Nicol prompted for a question.

"Please do," Jura said, surprised and a bit cheered by being deferred to before the question.

"When we had Bart Garcis on the ship, we compiled his understanding of the Tarak-Meijere War, which wasn't much and a good portion of that is suspect. What is your understanding of the war?"

That was a question Jura wasn't expecting, but she rolled with it. "It's men versus women. Meijere's been trying to exterminate the men for decades, now, but we're pirates. We're pretty well convinced that both governments are wrong."

"Wrong? How so?" Fuu asked.

"Tarak is just wrong from top to bottom, as far as I'm concerned, but like you, Nicol, I'm beginning to believe that Meijere's stance on men is very wrong. It's hard to explain, but Meijere society is twisted, superficial, vain, jealous to no end. Something's just not right, and we're trying to get to the bottom of it."

Nicol found that explanation a bit strange, but he deliberately didn't point out that gender-segregated societies were the exception, not commonplace by any measure.

Instead, Nicol simply nodded. "Governments, societies can be wrong. It happens. All too often, it happens. At least you're trying to change things."

"Yours?" Jura asked, seeing through his phrasing.

"Yes, ZAFT has a long list of sins. My quest is to return home, to put an end to the problem. And there are a lot of problems on my homeworld," Nicol said.

"And the Magic Knights are in it to the end, whether it ends there or continues on, I do not know. We'll continue on, until it ends," Fuu concluded.

Jura finally understood the parallel between her conduct and Fuu, and properly saw the parallel between her purpose and Nicol, and the revelation stunned her. Different worlds, different genders, different paths, same purpose. It would be months still, but she would come to an understanding that would break the back of both the Meijere and Tarak governments.

-x-x-x-

(Day 6, 0430 Hours)
(Archangel Foredeck)

Kira had the foredeck watch alone for the 0000 to 0600 window today, as the operations tempo for active machines had been relaxed to allow Murdoch's team to catch up with repairs. As good as Murdoch's team was, they were not supermen, and even with about ten of the mechanic bunnies from the Pirate ship over to assist in repairs, it was still taking time.

"So, the expected material outlay for the reprocessing is roughly six tons per missile, with some 500 kilograms miscellaneous leftovers?" Kira asked the AI in his machine.

"This is correct. The main driver is the propellant and aluminum for the missile and micromissile propellants, with titanium used for the missile and micromissile hulls. Six tons material is a little much, but the extra material ensures that there are no deficiencies in the completed missile."

Kira had gone looking in the armaments database on the Strike Freedom for a weapon system that he could use or modify for use by the ship to deal with swarms of enemies. He had found the perfect unit in the old annals of warfare, antiquated designs such as they were, in the UC history set. The RX-78 GP03 "Dendrobium" Mobile Fortress interceptor system possessed multiple interchangeable weapons systems, but one weapon properly stood out amongst the varied arsenal. The Micromissile Pod, which carried 108 micromissiles in a single missile pod, was perfect for dealing with swarm attacks of small, light craft.

The missile as used by the Dendrobium was only 3 tons, most of which was the main missile body housing and control system for the Micromissiles, and was physically too small to be fired by the large missile launchers or too large to be used in the Helldart system. A little creative engineering and expansion work and Kira had the Micromissile system expanded to something usable by the ship. Two hours of reengineering, no big deal to Yamato. Each missile had been upgraded to carry far more micromissiles: the Dendrobium's pod was 3 slats at 36 missiles per slat in a triangle shape, or 108 missiles per wooden round (7), Kira's design carried 5 slats of 50 micromissiles per slat, arranged in a pentagon shape, for a total of 250 micromissiles per missile. Kira's calculation was on an estimated P-K (8) of 0.97 one missile could destroy the entire contingent of five pod ships, and would garner enough salvage in the process to build another twelve missiles with plenty left over for other purposes. Even assuming an unrealistically lower P-K of 0.60, one missile could destroy the contingent of three pod ships and thus finance the construction of seven more missiles on salvage.

"Any issues with the designs?" Kira asked.

"No, I have checked everything and not found an engineering issue with your revised design. The only downside I can come up with is the time for missile production is two days per missile per cubic meter of production space. For this to be properly efficient, and for the ship to not simply be overrun by enemy forces in a large mass wave attack, the nanomachine system will have to be primed soon and allotted a large cargo hold to work in, preferably something of no less than 200 tons volume."

Kira sighed. That was going to be a challenge in and of itself, but not entirely impossible. Several cargo holds could be compacted into each other to clear one large bay toward the rear of the ship. Getting the Captain to sign off on it would be the challenge.

"I'll have to take that up with the Captain, but I think I can get you one of the large centerline bays, something like 400 tons volume. Is that workable?" Kira said.

"For multiple purposes, yes," the AI answered. "It also allows me to consolidate repair and remanufacturing options for the Mobile Suits and Battlemechs."

Kira sighed again. "I can only imagine what a world with easy access to nanomachines would look like," he said.

"A world changes only so much as the residents want it to change," the AI answered pensively. "Easy access to nanomachines has changed the face of manufacturing for the better and streamlined the processes, but material mining and acquisition is always a concern. Small nanomachine forges are easily acquired and used for many purposes, but Mobile Suit production is still a combination of fabrication and assembly — faster that way, and less expensive overall, just as one example."

"Huh," Kira grunted at such a revelation. A whistle went off in his cockpit before he could continue the industrial philosophy discussion. "Something up?" His eyes immediately ranged over the radar panel and threat receivers, but all were blank.

"I have completed my astrolocation survey and determined our position in the Milky Way Galaxy relative to Tarak, Meijere, and Terra."

This was the big one to Kira, as it determined the nature of the travels to come. "Show me," he requested, and just as quickly regretted his request once the results were visible. "Okay, not good."

"Not entirely bad, either," the AI pointed out. "As it is very obvious that the ship's population will be increasing to the amount of two, this gives the ship time for those events to happen and return to some state of normalcy before we arrive at Meijere."

"Gah, allowed myself to forget about that," Kira said. "Wait, two?"

"That is my present estimation, yes," the AI answered.

"Ah," Kira half-moaned. "Miriallia and Tolle."

"Exactly. 330 days travel is optimal timing on that front, and as you noted earlier, the Pirates do require more seasoning before any serious altercations. Additionally, 330 days gives the ship an excellent opportunity to salvage and remanufacture enemy forces as appropriate, and investigate what their purpose is."

Once more, Kira sighed. "Okay, prepare some visuals for presentations, and I'll go before the Captain with these wild hair ideas after deck rotation."

His presentations would change the dynamic of their coming travels, to a degree that would rattle the social and power structures of the galaxy in coming months.

---

Author's Chapter Afterword:

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2015!

...Did I launch six presents, or only five? In the confusion, I kinda lost track myself. So, you need to ask yourself, 'do I feel Holly Jolly'? Well, do ya, punk?

Okay, now that I have that out of the way, time for the fun stuff!

Welcome to Vandread 1.1! Now, let me show you how to fight a war of numbers and attrition from the wrong side! That's one thing that kinda irked me about the series, for such a show that could have gone some pretty amazing places in the art of war, it didn't. Which is understandable: Vandread, in the anime series, is a romantic comedy with some pretty good hints of worse things on the horizon. I'm attacking this from the unused potential side, the military and astropolitical sides of the dice that govern all, with the intent of throwing in a good dose of the romance angle in coming chapters. I do have to stay true to the series to a degree, but I am the commensurate dog with the bone: I find something I think can be done better, I will try.

That said, the Archangel Team is going to get roughed up pretty badly in coming chapters, and not with the usual 'enemy of the week' bullshit that the series ran on. Yes, there will still be a few of the enemies of the week, but I've already laid the groundwork for the reaving to come with the AI-controlled drone systems and such. This is seriously going to be a numbers game that will push the Archangel to the breaking point, and with them the Pirates as well. At least part of the angst to come will be sheer stress and anxiety from all the combat and the damages incurred.

On the flipside, the dice have already determined that the relations between the two crews are starting to improve. I won't give percentiles here, as that would constitute spoilers, but already one good roll has changed opinions on the Pirates' side. Now, this doesn't mean that there will be no strife coming from the varied crews, as there are still a few rather convincing hardasses in the Pirate camp, but a few key personnel are already leaning in that direction. If the dice keep it up, this may get weird fast…

Now, I'm pretty sure a few of you have taken rather ardent notice of Kira and Hikaru's scene in the hot springs inspection. Good analysis and intel gathering if you did. Combined with their scene in the prior chapter, you're probably thinking things are going in the expected and proper direction, right? Also good analysis on your part. Now, you need to correlate that to past relational status with the other pilots, and take a guess at who goes how far how fast. Because, I can tell you now, what the dice say will happen may not match your preconceptions. Time for you to put your thinking caps on and start working out who's going where, even if I haven't made any noise recently on those subjects.

Also, while you have your analyst on, start thinking about whether or not the Pirates may start learning a thing or two (or more) from the Archangel Crew. Granted, the way the worlds Tarak and Meijere have gone in their societies, there will be strife, angst, and probably a bit of violence, but human emotion can only be suppressed for so long before it blows up. And when it does, expect one hell of a mess.

Of particular note, Paiway hasn't had any action in this chapter, and she usually causes trouble for Hibiki. Well, them's the shakes. She'll get a go-around in the next chapter, that may or may not cause problems for everyone, depending on how things roll out on website.

Anyway, I'm pretty much off-duty for writing for the next week, but I intend to break out the next chapter of a story on the 31st and kick the New Year in the arse with fanfic writing. Not sure what chapter is going to be next. Also, for anyone that follows my Sigma stories, that work is on hiatus UFN, I have hit a scaling snag in my records system that prevents me going too far without being bogged down, so I am working through the intricacies of modding all my old Works databases into a single Relational DB with automation programming included. It won't be simple to do so, and it will take hella time to get everything transferred over, but I shall. The plus side is that this transition will allow me to automate a lot of the backend game processes that I used to have to do manually, so this will speed things up and take out the MITL error problems (yes, even on a process I developed, occasionally I do screw it up. Go figure.)

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Review Replies: I had 35 reviews for the last chapter, constituting two pages and change! That is absolutely awesome!

Extreme Ninja 09: Dita hasn't seen the Tonberry Chefs yet, but she will… and I have a second scene planned for them here in coming chapters that will change some dynamics, not necessarily for the better.

Mordalfus Grea: Oh, I've already got plans to pooch the screw in Destiny, rest assured of that. And I've got a completely strange revisit for SEED before they get home (if they survive) that will cause some short-hairs to stand up.

Arbl A-17: All ideas are welcomed, amigo. Keep 'em coming!

Infinite Freedom: Aye, you have been shipping Kira and Hikaru, and I tossed another gas can in the general direction of that fire. Har Har.

Don't be so quick to think the harvesters are hosed, given the way I've set things up, it might get a bit hairy.

DS Gundam 00: Timing on this one wasn't all that stellar, due to multiple complications in the past month and a half, but it's finally here. Here's to good, solid results!

Dragoon 725: I like the idea on beam sabers, may have to hit that up. The beam sabers could use a beefcake anyway. As to Resident Evil, I have one major policy on that note: I don't do horror.

Knightwolf 1875: If I may ask, what is 'anthro MLP grounds', and how interested in it should I be? (Perfectly serious question, the term rings no bells to me).

Tanker 0923: I didn't say that the Archangel is finished evolving at this point, so more changes may be possible. As to one or the other ship being shot down, the way this chapter ran out, that is possible. As to your bet pools, you'll need to talk Murdoch about bets and odds. Keep that ammo can handy!

Mega 1987: How the Harvester encounters shake out, that is a factor of the dice at this point. Stay tuned for further!

Hellhound DOW: Thanks for the error checks, I will have to correct these, forgot to do so at the time. Also, the time factors are a bit skewed on the estimation front, but the check that Strike Freedom did in this chapter is a little more accurate.

Wing Zero 032: I have been considering possible locations for a break for the Archangel, but before any such thing happens, the dice have to permit it. Anyway, any other rest stops you can think of worth talking about, might be nice to hear!

Guest: Cosmic accidents happen to anyone, Executors included. And there will be more.

Extreme Ninja 09 (Review 2): I don't expect Rabat would be on a shitlist if he tried stealing a MS, he would probably be dead. Remember, according to the Geneva Convention, an enemy operative caught in plainclothes in a war zone or occupied territory of an enemy is considered a spy and is subject to summary execution with no penalty. I doubt Murrue is going to be nice about something like that, especially considering Rabat's duplicity in terms of the harvest.

Knives 91: Always glad to hear from you on a chapter. Trust me, there will always be more gun, just a case of getting it on the ship :)

Synbad2: I think the Paxis knows what's coming even without communicating with the crew, and is conspiring with the AI in the Strike Freedom to do something about it.

Unlimited Strikes 0314: Actually, more than a few of those options are potentially in the running. Stay tuned for further :)

WinBlades: Sigma is actually in a technical hiatus right now, details are in the author's notes. While I structure my new recordkeeping system, I will be doing quite a bit more core work, so you can expect more chapters of MMC, JW, AAA, and related stories.

Drednaught: Mouretsu Pirates is a new one, may have to look into that. Sinking pirates that are sanctioned to attack shipping, as in the old Letter of Marque system, might definitely get some noses out of joint in such a locale :)

Forlorn 1818: Pfft, if you've read my other stories, you know that there are two ways to bigger problems: harder problems, and scale of problems. I've got plenty of options to come :D

Unlimited Strikes 0314 (round 2): Ah, one little issue with this thought pattern of yours: balance. I've said it before on pretty much any of my stories, probably more than once on several of my stories, there is no such thing as 'balance' in real life conflict. Additionally, I don't create artificial limiters or buffs to create artificial balance in my works. My writing is geared to show how unfair these things are, because that is exact shape of Existence at any given point in time: unfair. Thus the nature of conflict in my works is not necessarily who wins in two evenly matched sides, but how does the Archangel fare against opponent X (who may be above or below them).

Guest (Another one): Oh hell yes, the Positron Cannons get off-and-on workouts in the chapters, depending on circumstances. Last time they were used was in the Gundam Wing arc.

NHO: TTS is Targeting and Tracking System. Sometimes, I forget that I need to cover technical terms better than I do.

Consider on the sensors that the Archangel never had the weapons to engage more than 15 to 20 individual targets at a time. That is wildly different now, and potentially subject to even more upgrade, so 1024 targeting parameters is helluva lot higher.

Chandratta was a misinterpretation I started in this story back in the beginning, and I've stuck with it. I never said I was a purist on some of these things, but you are right, that is a bit of a strange problem that has continued on. Maybe some point in the future he'll correct it?

Inova was a bit of a rather strange card to play, and I enjoyed it.

Interesting take on C&C, definitely workable, may have to consider similar angles.

Guest (a third?): My lists include several of those suggestions, but you dropped a few new ones. Thanks!

NHO (round 2): Your elaboration pretty much played out exactly as I envisioned it would. Kudos!

KPhoneix: Paiway is going to be a hellish headache for both ships in short order, though the details need to be worked out by the dice at this time. Pyoro may actually be the first named character to be spaced by the Archangel crew, if he gets to annoying Murrue too badly. As to the Chronicle, it's stranger than imagination yet, and will be explained thoroughly at the appropriate time.

Chat Kills: That may have been a misrep on my part, but the version of ZnT I saw had the one lady with the sand golems named Sandy Foquet.

Shin 5700: Have to be very careful about crossing this story into a multi-crossover, because that could get extremely messy extremely quickly. I have considered it, but right now I don't have any options that wouldn't quickly destroy the Archangel or to which the Archangel wouldn't just trash the place.

Kuflager: As far as I remember, that was not covered in the anime.

Apex 85: Oh yeah, that was an intense one :)

Royal Twin Fangs: Any advice on it, amigo?

Axcel: Need to see that one before I can comment.

Apex85: There will be options to come, but keep in mind that the Mercurius is primarily defensive and melee.

Apex85: I have no sympathy for the devil. And the Rolling Stones weren't all that hot a band, compared to their peers. Longevity notwithstanding.

Apex85: They met Zechs mostly unmasked during their encounters.

Apex85: Okay, sometimes I cut corners and step in the shitpot, like I did with the nobility thing, so I have rightly earned that chewing. My apologies.

On the stupidity of nobility, well, the grandest example of that is a history book. The derp is strong in some professions, and nobility or politicis are fields that tend to attract a huge amount of Derp Rocketeers. It's the way things work, I have little say in it.

Aye, that's the second time I've missed a good opportunity to play off the reality-versus-fiction angle, but eventually I'll have to light that fire and play with it.

I've toyed with the Idea of the White Wings movement as a side story, and I think I might give it a go after I'm done with Regent of Vector.

I am always looking for requests, so hit me with any more you have!

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REVIEWS! Another year goes by and I'm still writing! Here's to another successful year in 2016!

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The Gripe Sheet:

Couple minor points for the last chapter, thanks to Hellhound DOW for the checks! Much thanks to Necroblade, Sieben Nightwing, and Takeshi Yamato for trying to clean up my writing!

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Footnotes:

(1): Central Nervous System hits, the desired shot placement to immediately stop a threat party by gunfire. While shots to the major vitals may be lethal in time, a person that takes a shot to the body may still remain functional for several seconds to several minutes. Not so when a person takes a hit to the spine or brain. Note that this is different from a Sniper's Triangle Shot, which is technically a CNS shot but is very specific on placement and often used only by marksmen for very specific reasons.

(2): Quantum Interdimensional Communications Node. Used extensively by Crusader Long Range Recon Patrol (LRRP) units to facilitate easier communications with other Crusader forces, the QIC system is instantaneous across galactic or interdimensional distances, effectively impossible to intercept unless an enemy is using a man-in-the-loop attack, and in Crusader implementation, extremely heavily encrypted.

(3): Cushman Freight Haulers are used for transporting large loads by wheeled vehicle around factory, industrial, or commercial facilities. The ones in use on the Archangel are electric Cushman units rated for 5 metric tons carry and tow capacity. Cushman Haulers differ from Forklifts in that a forklift is designed to lift and move an object, while the Cushman is effectively just a flatbed to move material (and Forklifts are usually used to load up a Cushman for the transit phase, allowing a single forklift and multiple Cushmans to move freight faster than a couple Forklifts alone).

(4): Invoked line from Real Genius (1980s movie). If you're into geeky things and sci-fi, it needs to be watched at least once. The main character from the movie could almost be a relative of Kira, they're that similar.

(5): The Particle Projection Cannon is technically an Ion cannon, though not the same ion cannon as used by the GDI forces in the Command and Conquer series. If you haven't seen a Battletech PPC, it is roughly the same as the Tesla Cannon from Fallout 3.

(6): Shinola is a no-longer-manufactured brand of shoe polish made in the United States prior to the Vietnam War. As a word, it is far more widely known in the phrase 'you don't know shit from Shinola', which roughly means that a person can't tell the difference between fake (shit) and real (Shinola). Shinola Job, in this usage, refers to polishing something to a degree that it looks professional and tidy, regardless of what is under the Shinola polish.

(7): Wooden Round is a military logistics expression denoting a full single round of ammunition that is shelf-stored as a single unit and ready to be loaded and used immediately, requiring no checks or periodic maintenance in storage. This is opposed to component rounds, which is a single round of ammunition for a given weapon system that has to be assembled from multiple components before it can be fired, and also where one or more of the components is considered shelf-unstable or expirable. A perfect example is that a metallic rifle cartridge is a wooden round, whereas artillery shells for most large-bore artillery guns (100mm and up) are component rounds consisting of shell, powder bag, and primer as separate materials to be loaded.

(8): Probability of Kill