Trailblazer awakened... (Part 2)

XXXXX

The attention of the gathered officers on the com channel had been intent, they listened as best they could to Ray as he pitched his plan.
"To put it simply we have to breach the perimeter as quickly as possible before we're overrun, I can't see many options we could to pull this off, but my plan is to breach by punching a hole through the encirclement, using the Archangel and Eventide, I'd be able to disable the Laurasia-class's weapon systems and cripple its engines while the Archangel plows forward. Meanwhile we bring the Montgomery and the others behind us, but we use two Drake-class ships to screen our flanks."

"Do you mean we should sacrifice two ships to guard the flanks?" Murrue asked him with some disbelief.

"Skeleton crews only, I can't see much of an option there." Ray admitted grimly.

"That plan sounds like it could get us all killed!" Lieutenant Badgiruel with exasperated breath.

Ray promptly reminded her of their situation. "It's the only other option we've got, the other being to slowly get crushed between Creuset's forces from all around us, and I don't need to tell you how slow and painful that's going to be." He said heatedly.

"The bastard does love to strangle us to death when he gets the chance." Mu commented as he circled around the Archangel.

"Captain Amir, do you have any idea how long it might take before reinforcements reach us?"Murrue asked in the vague hope of kindling some sort of defensive strategy.

"Not fast enough, our ships are damaged, and our mobile armours have limited armaments, I doubt they'll last longer if we keep this up." Amir said as he reminded Murrue.

"Then I don't see much choice, I support Warrant Officer Ray on the next course of action, hopefully we'll be able to pull off this insane plan you've concocted." Murrue decided to concede to this idea.

Badgiruel didn't like this but she didn't make any further objections knowing that she wouldn't have had much to say in terms of devising an alternate strategy to a clearly dire scenario, no matter how you looked at it, there wasn't much in the way to tell you that you were going to die.

"Thank you Captain." Ray said as he headed off to clear up their flank. "I'll clear us some more breathing space, you'd all better get ready to make the first move." He told them.

The plan was simple enough, break through the encirclement. The details were a little hazy, but Ray had thought of potential downsides of fighting in the Gundam universe, one big problem being energy weapons, and he knew how much in Gundam Seed that there was tons of beam spamming at least in the mobile suit department, ships were a little more reasonable, and mobile suits till this point aside from the Gundams had beam weapons, so it didn't pose a really big issue.

He had Alice create anti-beam countermeasures for use, dispersal pods which could encompass a large area for a short period of time, long enough to cut beam efficiency to nil, from there, it'd give him a momentary edge, as his unit didn't just use beam weapons, and beam sabres did also work to a very limited degree even in an anti-beam field. But he had other ideas, the mobile armours would have a better fighting chance as would the Moebius Zero as their weapons wouldn't be directly affected by the field, of course this meant that the ships beam weapons were out of the question.

The good news was that the beam weapons used by the Gundams and ZAFT suits wouldn't work either, in which case, it all boils down to projectile weapons, which the GINNs still have, but they wouldn't be able to switch their armaments fast enough, so launching an assault during this time would more than likely catch them off guard. The trouble was that the field only encompasses a small area so to speak, and once the ship leaves it, then it was going to be a free for all.

"Shit, I think I'm in over my head." Ray laughed as he slipped by the Montgomery as he engaged a GINN HMT, he couldn't help but wonder if his own division commander would have smacked him over the head for suggesting something so fucking reckless, either that or asked him to rethink his approach.

XXXXX

The bridge was still a flurry of activity with the CIC doing its utmost to keep defences going, their fire control system was running at maximum trying to keep up with all the sensor contacts and the bridge crew were still running the numbers. Miriallia had swapped out for a break and Sai was now running her station, meanwhile the sensor operators were swapped as well, trying to alleviate the exhausted bridge crew. Lieutenant Badgireul and Captain Ramius were in the midst of organising their withdrawal with the surviving elements of the fleet, a process which was proving a little difficult to time as the Drake-classes were still trying to fend off attacks, but a window of opportunity was coming up soon.

"Do you think this was the best idea for letting him lead this plan?"Natarle asked as they prepared for their departure from the area.

"We don't have any choice, options are running out and so is our breathing space, Strike is going to run out of energy soon enough and Moebius will need to rearm, we have to breakthrough while we still can or we'll be finished off." Murrue replied promptly, her tone didn't betray the doubt she had though.

"But first we need to weaken a section of their flank before we move, if Ray's prediction is right then we'll move in on the Laurasia-class located to the starboard section of our formation, then make a hard bank, assuming that Rau doesn't cut in and stop us." Natarle stated her scepticism about this plan.

"I know, but we don't have a great deal of options and time isn't on our side." She said tersely before they were alerted to the sudden flash of an explosion.

"Ma'am escort 3 is hit!" Romero reported urgently.

The Drake-class was struck multiple times in the engine section, causing a series of explosive decompression and fires to break out, as per the response to such crippling damage the ship ditched its engines as quickly as it could to avoid catastrophic damage, but the damaged vessel was unable to jettison the second engine. The resulting explosion caught the Drake-class escort by the port side, resulting in a blast which sent the ship spinning out of control, thrusters desperate to correct the orientation failed to slow the momentum.

The bridge crew watched in horror as the ship drifted aimlessly in a spiral pinwheel, drifting off as it vented atmosphere and whatever else inside, the loss of the ship, seemed like a signal for the ZAFT forces to keep up their attack as the firing resumed, with a barrage of attacks along the left formation. Beam fire intensified as the remaining escorts attempted to suppress the barrage of attacks. Murrue gritted her teeth.
"How long can we sustain this?" She asked herself grimly.

Natarle looked just a grimly at the situation, they weren't in a good situation, and it seemed as though Ray's option for an exit was all they had, regardless of how reckless it seemed, it was their only option to escape this death trap. She hated to admit it, but Ray seemed to always have an answer for all these situations, and it kept raising more questions, of course whether or not this would succeed was anyone's guess.

All around her a cacophony of verbal exchanges were all but drowned out amidst the reverberation of shockwaves and alarms going off around them, the battlefield all around, the fight had become a brutal slug out between the remaining Alliance ships against the ZAFT. The Lieutenant headed back to her station once confirming their status on the remaining ships, there was no going around this much longer, they had to breakthrough. Murrue issued their orders, hopefully they'd be able to regroup fast enough and get on with this desperate plan.

XXXXX

Meanwhile...

Buster and Duel had come at Ray once more, the furious duo of Gundam pilots were more than desperate to gut the Eventide as they pressed the attack, this time they were alternating their attack pattern with Duel coming in after Buster unleashing a barrage, denying him the opportunity to retaliate effectively. Ray narrowly dodged a burst from the Buster before Duel came swinging in with its beam sabre and rifle, laying down suppressive fire as it attempted to get into range with its sabre.

"Shit, looks like they're getting the hang of fighting me." He said to Alice.

"I concur." Alice remarked as she helped to orientate the Eventide around the attack.

They swung in and he lashed out with a concentrated barrage of beam shots and a few missiles, keeping Duel off his back before engaging the Buster, his proximity to Duel denying the Buster a clear shot before he manage to strike a blow against the machine with a concentrated burst from his Lancer, slicing through the buster's beam gun and forcing the machine back again.

The Gundams peeled off from the battle, having exhausted themselves, he knew that Yzak and Dearka would back off and come back to try and clobber him again, but for now he had bought a short reprieve for him and the Archangel. And in this short opening, he knew that they had one chance to pull this off.
"Captain, please tell me preparations have been completed."He asked as he took a moment to examine his surroundings.

The battle had begun to reach equilibrium, no doubt the ZAFT units had exhausted themselves from fighting him and wasting so much munitions, the situation allowed them to breathe a little easier for the moment, but they knew it wouldn't last long, their plan had to be put into effect before then.

Murrue's appearance looked haggard, but she was still quite calm. "We've completed transferring what crews we could manage, we're ready to go when you are." She informed him.

"Good." He said as he turned the Eventide to the Archangel.

"Looks like it's time, load the missile pods with beam chaff, load as much as you can, we're going to need all of it for this battle." He said to Alice.

'Damn and I just got those canisters readied for the next battle.' He thought back to his plans for helping the 8th fleet.

He signalled the Archangel.
"Captain, approaching your starboard, preparing for swing around." He said as he calculated the correct trajectory.

"Understood, good luck." She said as they got going.

The Archangel moved ahead, its engines igniting behind it, leaving a trail of plasma exhaust, from all around, the others began to move as well, Amir and his remaining ships moved on ahead, quick to keep pace, the Drake-classes maintaining the screen between the Montgomery and the other ZAFT ships. Ray saw the time to act, he armed the first canisters and dropped them in succession, knowing that they'd cover the movement of the Alliance vessels, the rest on the other hand would be needed to cover Archangel as it approached the Laurasia-class.

The canisters fired out across the battlefield, each canister was loaded with compound ionized particles, and this would be enough to attenuate the beam efficiency by over 99 percent. Such an effect would be capable of deterring beam savvy users to rethink their approach. Thankfully neither ZAFT nor the EA Forces had ever encountered anti-beam countermeasures like these before, so it would play well for this plan, though he knew it'd raise a lot of questions later. He'd probably have to come up with some bullshit excuse for the captain and his report to the EA.

The canisters detonated in succession, allowing the area to be saturated in a fine mist of glittering gold and yellow, the Laurasia-class fired a burst from its beam weapons, intending to gun for the Archangel. But to their honest surprise and shock, their beam strikes never reached, the emerald beams were dissipated by the condensed field of ionised particles, absorbing and dispersing the heat generated by the beams over a wide area.

It was at this time the bridge crew reacted.
"Fire valiants and sledgehammers!" Murrue commanded as they entered firing range.

The Archangel unleashed its main guns, and lay down a missile barrage on top, striking the Laurasia-class and its surrounding mobile suits. The shots were dead on target, striking the portside linear guns and drive section. As for the missile barrage, the missiles were enough to drown out opposition fairly quickly.

Most machines didn't have enough time to dodge, as the pilots were assuming the beam shots would have been enough to deal with the oncoming ship. The barrage caught two machines, obliterating them in seconds, and crippling a third, driving them away from the Archangel. The captain of the Laurasia-class realised the immediate danger and ordered flanking speed to get out of reach of the Archangel's primary guns.

Ray came in from behind the Archangel, having spotted the opportunity he needed, he came in fast.
"Executing manoeuver!" He declared as he came around.

The Archangel stopped firing in order to allow him to execute his attack vector, throwing his machine around the side of the Archangel with a grappling wire, he was able to make the turn in a split second allowing momentum to carry the Eventide forward while the Laurasia-class attempted to peel off, Ray was able to flank the ship quickly.
"Surprise, mother fuckers!" He said ecstatically through gritted teeth.

He got in close and managed to fire off a cloister of missiles in close range, enough to divert the CIWS on the Laurasia-class and his machine, he dove in and sliced his way into the first turret and disabled another with his integrated machine guns. The missiles he fired off picked off point defence turrets and damaged the starboard thrusters of the ship.

Realising that they wouldn't be able to hang into the battle, the ship peeled off and circled around, laying down missiles as it went, as for the remaining mobile suits that had been circling the area were given temporary recalls. The battle had turned on its head, with the Archangel now able to move forward without having to worry about the Laurasia-class blocking its path, the other Alliance vessels followed behind quickly, laying down suppressing fire as they did so.

As Ray circled around he contacted the ship.
"Ha, you've got your window."

"Good work, we're pressing the attack and moving to exit the area, the Montgomery sustained a bit of damage, but she's still hanging on." Murrue reported.

"Kira, Mu, get back and rearm, they're making a temporary withdrawal. There's no point in slugging it out here." Ray said to the other pilots.

"Understood." Mu said before he turned around.

"What about you Ray? You've been fighting everything off as it stands." Kira asked as he saw Eventide turn back to the Alliance ships.

"I'm used to prolonged battles, I can handle this, and besides, I'm not out of tricks or weapons, I'll be able to manage."He said reassuringly as he headed back.

"But-."Kira was about to begin.

"I said go, you need to rearm and cool off. I've got the rest here." Ray said cutting him off as he turned back to the battlefield. "You only got another fifteen minutes before the anti-beam field I put up disperses, get rest and come back, I'm sure the captain agrees with my stance on this."

"Agreed, Kira, it's best your return, the Strike's going to need time to recharge." Murrue urged the young man.

"I'm heading back." Kira replied, but he took a moment to ask Ray.
"What are you going to do?"

"Stick it out, see how many more I can hold off." He said as he rushed off to engage the remaining ZAFT units harassing the ships.

Kira turned the Strike around and headed back, leaving Ray in his Eventide to face off the remaining mobile suits which were still buzzing around.
"Alice, make sure to keep notes on his behavior, don't want him to grow too attached to me now do we?" Ray said as he thought about his future plans.

XXXXX

Back aboard the Archangel, Flay was wandering around the ship, the rocking of explosions had given her constant shakes, and anxiety plagued her mind, unable to determine what she was going to do. The situation was chaos, utter chaos. Every shake and shudder she could feel, rattled her bones. She exited the safety of her confined room, wandering into the corridor.

"Hurry up damn it, we're swapping out with maintenance team 6, come on. Rearming the Mobius and Strike is priority." A maintainer said as he rushed down the hall with others in tow.

"Aye." The engineers yelled in response.

Upon hearing of the Strike, Flay wandered on, looking around for the elevator. She knew that if the Strike had returned, then Kira had come back.
"He said it would be fine, he promised me." She repeated to herself.

"Kira!" Flay said as she entered the changing room.

Kira turned to see her entering the room. "Flay?" He said perplexed.

"Oh boy." Mu muttered as he continued to sip his bottle of water.

Kira was taken aback by Flay's sudden appearance, he only had to to set his bottle aside when he was suddenly embraced by the panic stricken girl.
"What's happening, where's my father, why's the battle still going on?" She asked worriedly.

Kira wasn't sure how to respond, this was not something he was used to, and he was supposed to be resting. He tried to make some sort of reassurance.
"Flay, we're still out there fighting, your father's aboard the 'Montgomery' he's still alive. But we're in a difficult battle right now. We're trying to get him out along with the ship to safety. Please you need to go back and wait."

"You said you promised, you said you'd make sure my daddy came back."The girl said with a tense tone.

"I know." He said to her, recalling his words.

Inwardly Kira was in turmoil, his battle with Ahtrun was turning him inside out, he didn't want to see a close friend killed, but he was desperately trying to come to terms with fighting his friend. This wasn't something he wanted, but everything was pushing them against one another, whether they wanted to or not.

Mu interrupted with a gentle cough.
"Kira, I think you might want to take Miss Allster to her room, it's better to stay in quarters, especially in the midst of a battle." He gave Kira a curt nod, indicating what he meant by his words.

Kira understood and gently guided the redhead out of the room; he continued to try and console her about the current situation, hoping it would be enough. As the ship was rocked by another explosion the girl whimpered as she held him close, Kira was uncertain how to deal with this sort of response. But he tried, speaking carefully, he told her.
"Flay, we're doing all we can, and I'm doing all I can. Can you just accept that?"

"But you promised, and so did all of you." She said in a soft but hardened tone, a tense moment of desperation stung in it.

"I know, and we aren't giving up, it's a desperate battle we're fighting. And I'm sure that your father is just as worried about you, I'm sure you can understand that."

Kira managed to get the young woman back to her room, but he felt guilty about trying to make a promise he wasn't sure he could hold to her. This entire situation was so hectic, he wasn't sure why he was reacting like this, ever since his talk with Ray, and Ray's constant insistence he learn how to protect himself, Kira had been fighting with his internal troubles.

As he departed, the girl stared out blankly, her heart feeling like ice, she was uncertain about all of this; all she knew was that coordinators were trying to kill her father.
'Coordinators…'

The redhead heard the gentle tune of a song…

XXXXX

Meanwhile…

Rau had to commend the pilot of the strange new fighter, he was definitely making things interesting, the battle was heavily in his favour, and now it was an utter mess. The blue fighter had turned things in favour of the Alliance ships dispersing some sort of particle field which disrupted beam weapons, allowing the Alliance to utilise the maximum effectiveness of their rail guns and missiles rather than beam weapons.

This fighter was a remarkable piece of hardware, having downed quite a few machines and holding its own very well against the G-weapons, it was truly an astonishing piece of technology no doubt having brought the situation around, but it irked him that they were making their escape, despite how much

"Commander, your CGUE Voltaire has finished being retrofitted, it's down in the hangar." Captain Fredrik informed him.

"Ah good, it's time then." He said eagerly clapping his hands together,

"Though I am curious as to why you would want that peculiar modification for your unit."

"It's something Zodiac Arms wished to test before we tried again, besides, I'd like to test my potential." Rau informed the captain.

"Do you wish to make a name for yourself or was this battle mostly to gauge the enemy's abilities?"

"It would be negligent of me to not at least attempt to try and test the abilities of the Altair, R&D had gone through such pains to develop, I'd rather like to see how well she can handle herself."He said suiting up.

"I'll be heading out now, circle around and bring the ship's guns to bear on the patrol group's command vessel, even if you don't hit it, draw its attention, that's all I'll need for now." He said as he leapt towards his suit's cockpit.

The blonde masked man promptly entered into his unit, seating himself and strapping himself in, all the while he did a quick OS check of his suit's newest features, as the suit's OS came to life, he was pleased to see that the machine had indeed full operations of its faculties, perfect for his use against the thorn in his side, and he could continue the plan, and bring about his end game.

Gleefully he smiled at this fortunate turn of events as he began to move the newly upgraded Altair to the linear catapult, every step forward across the hangar bay seemed to draw the attention of those inside, all watching in awe as the fabled commander took his chance to sortie, and grace the battlefield with his presence. Rau set the machine onto the linear catapult as the airlock doors swung closed behind him,

XXXXX

After what seemed like forever, Ray was beginning to question the validity of the anime's accuracy in depicting actual war. Unlike how people who wrote the show viewed it, some battles either are sporadic and last moments, and others can turn into a real nightmare for those involved, fighting under tremendous pressure, from all sorts of enemies.

It was almost an hour into the battle, and it was a real mess, thankfully Ray had already figured out how to keep them going, by cycling each machine carefully, one unit at a time, switch the Moebius back for the Strike and so forth. Ray didn't need to rearm or recharge as much, so he could continually jump back and forth in the engagement when needed, but that didn't change the fact that his body was under strain. Using his neural interface was slowly taking its toll on his body, and sooner or later he knew it'd give out.

But he wasn't calling it quits yet, as much as their plan was going and cycling their machines, it wasn't proving to be all that favourable for the Alliance ships, thanks to the fact that they were either damaged or crippled. The 'Law' was on her last legs and 'Bernard' was still fighting it out, with the 'Montgomery' was still in the cluster fuck of a situation, holding the battle together with grim determination.

Archangel was currently holding the rear by keeping the Laurasia-classes from circling around and scrapping the remaining Alliance vessels, it was keeping its distance which Ray had anticipated well enough. Ray's suggestion worked alright, but they had to enact their plan and fast, before the ZAFT forces completely overwhelmed them and wiped the remaining ships out.

"Captain, what's the status of the Archangel?" He asked as they continued to push past the ZAFT encirclement, the Nazca-class was moving, but it was keeping itself at a distance.

The anime wasn't quite clear on how many mobile suits were accompanying Creuset's force, but it was clear that there was about two dozen here, not an ideal situation, that was for sure. The two Alliance warships were horribly outgunned and outnumbered, with the Archangel barely making a dent in the current situation; Rau had them by the balls.

But Ray knew that this was going to happen, with the Alliance minister aboard the ship and their only source of reinforcements in reach, they were gambling a hell of a lot on this situation. And he suspected that Rau knew this as well, which was why he was so hell bent on attempting to pin them down in one area.

Facing down a force over four times their size was a stupidly dangerous move, and one he would have asked the Captain to reconsider, as this would allow Rau to corner them into a very difficult situation. But seeing as how they had Lacus aboard, he hadn't a reason to not support it, besides if they abandon the ships to their fate, Flay's father would die, and she would no doubt go on her vengeful path of self-destruction.

That crazed bitch phase that he saw in Flay could have some very negative consequences for everyone involved; then again, there was no telling how much his actions would change the course of this entire timeline.

"Warrant Officer, something's approaching the advanced recon fleet!" Lieutenant Badgiruel contacted him from the CIC.

"What?" Ray responded as he knocked back another GINN.

"We're not sure what it is, it's moving in fast, twice as fast as a GINN, the Moebius is moving to intercept but its going to reach them before Lieutenant La Flaga can intervene!" The Lieutenant reported.

"What's the silhouette?" He asked.

"Uncertain, the shape is reminiscent to that of the CGUE-515s but this is much larger." Romero reported in.

"Oh god fucking damn it!" He cussed as he turned immediately around.

XXXXX

The Drake-class which had been covering the 'Montgomery' was struck by a series of impacts, sending the ship drifting out of control, its engines were damaged and it looked as if it was about to collide with the 'Montgomery', thankfully the captain in charge of the ship saw the danger and immediately made an emergency thrust to one direction using the ship's momentum.

This move saved the ships from colliding, but it opened the 'Montgomery to attack. A white CGUE with a large bulky pack with a rifle and modified shield appeared. The machine zipped in between the damaged craft and the now exposed 'Montgomery', quickly unleashing a series of attacks from the blind spots of the ship, damaging the thrusters and disabling some of the weapon systems. Explosions rocked the ship around as it attempted to correct for the sudden assault, but Rau wasn't letting up.

Of course the other escorts started to bring their guns to bear, hosing the surrounding space with a hailstorm of anti-air fire, streams of gold rippled through the black expanse, trying to converge upon the small white machine which danced around the storm, before it turned around and unleashed its fury upon the second escort ship. The undamaged Drake-class was soon struck by emerald beams from multiple directions, the beams ripping holes through the soft underbelly of the ship's hull and burning through sections of the bow, the ship suffered massive explosions, sending it reeling in a trail of explosions.

"Now's the time for a real battle!" Rau said cheerfully as he watched the ship he swatted drift away.

The Commander was gleeful in showing his prowess on the battlefield, but as much as he wanted to wipe it away, his aim wasn't just the Alliance ships, his aim was to wipe away his past with Mu and that cursed reminder of his origins, along with the Strike and Archangel. He knew that the Archangel would come to the aid of the crippled ship before it was sunk, and he also knew Mu was going to come.

His instincts kicked in as he dodged a linear blast which zipped right by the flank of his machine, but thanks to his spatial awareness and the newly improved Altair's abilities, he was able to move ahead and counter, unleashing a series of attacks. Altair's gun barrels were unleashing, wire guided funnels zipping around and unleashing emerald beams upon the Moebius Zero.

"What the hell?" Mu yelled as he narrowly avoided getting shot.

The lieutenant felt the familiar sensation of warnings, telling him of incoming danger, his mind raced at this possibility as he avoided more attacks before he determined the feeling, the constant nagging sensation as he felt when he fought his hated enemy.

"It's Creuset!" The mobile armour pilot exclaimed as he moved to dodge incoming fire from Rau's upgraded unit.

"What's that?" Murrue asked as the bridge recieved Mu's warning.

"Creuset's got a new suit, but its different, its armed with gun barrels with beam weapons!" Mu said as he narrowly avoided another beam strike.

The Eventide was moving in, making its way by the number of mobile suits and mobile armours still fighting. "Looks like a custom upgrade, damn it, I thought this bastard wouldn't start using shit like this till later." Ray said as he recalled the mobile suit from the manga.

He didn't realise that he said it on an open channel, but managed to mutter his comment, it still drew attention from Mirirallia who was listening in. "What?"

"Sorry, I meant that Rau's going all out, he wanted to wait for us to tire ourselves trying to break out of this trap and come in when he saw a chance of victory." He said as he turned to face the white CGUE Alistair.

He then called to the captain. "Look I'll deal with Rau, you guys regroup and try to press against the remaining ships if you can, otherwise, abandon the 'Montgomery' and get moving. Or we're going to get overwhelmed." He said as he knew that there was a good chance that Rau would sink the ship.

He knew that this was bad, his body was feeling sore, and from what he could tell, Rau was definitely using the improved CGUE Custom, this one was a real bitch to fight from what he recalled. The ZGMF-515 CGUE Alistair, it was a custom unit for Rau which could use gunabrrel upgrades. Modular wire guided gun pods mounted onto either side which had similar features to the Moebius Zero, none of the Alliance ships could defend agasint such attacks. Another annoying feature was the upgraded shield and weapon systems the Alistair would be using.

Ray fired off a series of beam attacks to chase the mobile suit back and then unleashed a series of attacks hoping to drive Rau off long enough for him to give the Archangel breathing space. But this was proving to be one hell of a challenge as he found himself being pressed by attacks from the remaining GINNs and worse yet, Rau's reinforcements, a trio of GINN HMTs armed with improved weapon loadouts.

"God damn..." He grunted as he avoided a burst of missiles fired in his direction.

"Ray!" Mu said as he attempted to relieve him.

"Stay back, keep the bastards off the ship, and make sure Kira stays clear, it's going to get a whole lot worse soon enough." He told the mobile armour pilot as he tanked another barrage.

He shook off the explosions from around him and cut across to the damaged Drake-classes where he then began to look for Rau again, he didn't need to look particularly hard as the bastard came around attacking the damaged ships, successfully destroying the Law, and sending it up in a brilliant fireball. Ray cussed as he was tossed around, his muscles ached from piloting for so long, and he knew that this wasn't over, not yet...

XXXXX

Rau enjoyed this feeling, this tribulation which had pained him for so long, he wanted it all gone, and soon it'd happen, after he wiped out the remaining survivors of the Alliance fleet and the surviving machines from the Archangel. But he was a little perturbed when he found that the new fighter wasn't willing to go down as easily, the Azure craft made his this battle all the more interesting for certain, but the pilot was giving him a hell of a run for his money.

The machine struck fast and hard, lashing out from the flank of the Alistair, managing to force him back with a series of beam shots, Rau lashed out with his beam funnels, the wire guided funnels let loose a short barrage from various angles in attempting to pin the unit down, Rau was careful to push it towards the effective range of his weapons.

"You won't be getting away so easily!" Rau said intent to down the Azure machine.

His shots went towards it, but he was astounded to see it pull off a quick turn manoeuver, which it then reicprocated with a series of beam attacks, the bright bluish beams almost cut through the Alistair's shoulder as it received a glancing strike. Thankfully he saw the attack just barely in time to avoid getting struck, he turned about and attempted to get clear as fast as possible, laying down fire as he did so.

"Commander, the Archangel is turning to meet our advance, it's covering the remaining Alliance vessel."

"Damn..." He muttered as he danced around with the Azure fighter.

It was then he devised the best strategy to deal with this problem. He contacted the two of the reckless fools in his team.
"Yzak, Dearka, finish off the remaining Alliance ships." He ordered them promptly.

"Commander?" Yzak said perplexed, and no doubt angry. Having been denied so many times of victory.

"That's an order, once they lose them, they'll be denied further support, be quick about it before we lose momentum!" He ordered, the tense tone made it clear he wasn't tolerating any excuse of pride in this case.

The two G-weapons moved on without hesitation to execute the orders given by their commander, Creuset then turned his attention back to the Azure craft, smiling as he asked aloud.
"Let's see what you decide." He grinned maliciously.

XXXXX

The 'Montgomery' was being circled by new GINN units which were playing hooky with their point defences. And the escorts were virtually destroyed at this point. This battle plan had only bought them a few minutes at most. But they were now being attacked from three directions, one to their 9 o'clock position, and another to their 6 and 4 o'clock positions.

This was the worst way things could turn out, and to emphasise the point, the remaining Drake-class was downed by a series of beam attacks courtesy of the Duel and Buster which had returned to the battlefield, Aegis and Blitz in tow. They were now throwing themselves all into this fight, and it was clear that they were about to get completely overwhelmed by the combined forces.

Compounding onto this little problem was the Nazca-classes ere now moving in fast, their window having been secured thanks to the Montgomery having been damaged by Rau's attack, the Archangel had to move in to cover the crippled vessel. But now they were in danger of being encircled and this time without anywhere to run, the Buster and Duel closed the distance, no doubt Creuset having given them their new directives, the two G-weapons were quick to blast through the defensive screen.

"Son of a bitch..." He grunted as he attempted to get around Rau's constant barrage, stonewalling him every time he attempted to get through.

Alice then chimmed. "The Montgomery will be likely sunk within the next minute or two if we fail to break free from this complication."

"I know!" He said aloud as he dodged another attack.

Ray spotted the attack and knew that there wasn't any time left, there was only one course of action, despite how much he hated the idea, he'd have to reveal the truth of the matter now. The choice was his.
"We're out of time." He breathed. "Alice, Code: Zero Hour, begin primary neural sync." He ordered grimly as he prepared himself for the synchornisation.

"Understood, beginning process." Alice replied automatically.

"I never thought I'd use this fucking thing again." He said through gritted teeth as he felt his mind racing with a flood of information now pouring in from all around him.

The Eventide's sensors and receptors acted like his own, allowing him to feel as the machine felt in a way, his arms and legs twitched in increments, his back arched back and his head shuddered against the interface, but he felt it functioning. The sensation of data wasn't painful; it was like having your mind bathed in a body of cool mercury, the feeling of which can usually feel uncomfortable at first, before improvements were made it was like having your head dipped in a bucket of ice cold water. Your body freezes over and suddenly thaws, it feels like having frostbite, your nerves are stinging all over your body.

But he knew that this was only temporary, his body would hit the maximum limit and start to begin cooling off, as it was pushed to literally feverish levels of exhaustion as it burned through energy, not to mention exert a great deal of exhaustion on his body to function at its peak efficiency. But it didn't matter it only needed to last long enough for him to chase them all off, he then grasped the controls, leaning forward as the connection cables yanked at his body.

"Transformation sequence, let's give them a show." He smiled as he felt his mind flood with data feed.

The Eventide was able to get around Rau's attack before it suddenly began transforming, its arms reoriented themselves as its legs took shape, and the torso moved upwards allowing the head to appear and take shape, the arms detached the shield and beam Lancer, each embellishing each item firmly in their grasp. The last feature was the appearance of the Eventide's beam funnels which looked like wings behind it. The head glowed a sharp blue as it powered up, suddenly turning to the Alistair.

All around him, mobile suits stopped momentarily to take in what they had seen, most were quite surprised to suddenly find a new mobile suit appear from out of nowhere, while those on the Archangel stared in awe. Mu was honestly surprised, but kept his focus on chasing back the ZAFT machines, he couldn't help but whistle. And Kira, he and Athrun had stopped long enough to see this scene unfold.

Ray could see from within the Eventide, his eyes turned to the white mobile suit before him, he knew that the cat was out of the bag, and he had little reason to waste his time with Rau. He immediately gunned the accelerator. Eventide catapulted forwards, the engines trailing plasma exhaust as the suit rushed to meet the CGUE Alistair head on.

Ray lashed out fast, his beam Lancer came up faster than the Alistair could dodge and a stream of yellow golden light ripped through the space near the Alistair, glancing along the arm of the machine which had his rifle with it, Rau had thrown the weight of his machine's body around to avoid getting lanced. A subsequent explosion erupted from the damaged arm, not enough to cripple the suit, but more than enough for Rau to withdraw. Using the remaining funnels, the commander used the weapons to distract the Eventide, hopefully it'd force the machine to either deal with him or head off to save the remaining Alliance vessels.

The beam funnels circled around and tried to lance Ray's unit, emerald beams danced left and right, but Eventide moved faster than ever before, with Ray managing to pint point turns and twists using the various thrusters in conjunction to one another, he dodged one beam after the next and returned fire, managing to catch one as it circled behind the Eventide.

A small explosion erupted as the beam Lancer split the funnel open with a direct hit, the funnel seemed to compress as particles slammed it and melted it with enough force to destroy it. As the funnel was destroyed, Ray quickly turned his attention to the Montgomery which had taken a few more hits, the Buster and Duel were now closing in despite how much Mu tried to fend off the two machines while fighting the Blitz.

Buster lined up its shot while Duel covered it, destroying the remaining mobile armours which were desperately trying to defend the ship to the last. Ray didn't need to be prompted, he rushed forwards, calculating the best course of attack and approach, he grabbed the mega-shield with his left arm and detached it, switching it to absolute defence, he threw the shield out with his arm at high speeds, using momentum and the shield's self propulsion systems to carry it towards the Montgomery.

His shield reached out as the Buster fired, the sniper mode of the Buster would be powerful, but Ray knew the best counter. As the shield reached the starboard side of the ship, it was struck by the beam attack, and a great flash of light emerged. At first the suits in the area paused, thinking that they had struck a successful blow, but they were quick to realise the mistake.

The light faded as the shield stayed firmly where it was, the core field generated dispersed the beam impact with a field glowing brightly. The Duel and Buster had little time to attack again, as Ray came down on them hard, Lancer in hand, Ray fired...

XXXXX

On the bridge things had been intense, with the battle going ugly as possible outside, and the ZAFT ships closing in on them, they couldn't imagine how much worse it could have gotten until Flay had come with Lacus, the red haired girl was angry and desperate, demanding to have the captain relay a threat that Flay would kill Lacus if they didn't stop attacking.

However, it seemed fate had other plans for them, the Montgomery was seen being struck by the Buster, to which Flay recoiled in shock, but much to everyone's surprise, they learned of another secret, Ray's machine and apparently how in the hell it saved the Montgomery while keeping the rest of them from being wiped out.

"What the hell was that?" Natarle said in an almost disbelieving tone, trying to comprehend what was going on.

The battle had turned badly against them with the Montgomery on the verge of being sunk, and yet now things looked like they were going to win, with the battle having been turned around abruptly, there wasn't much they could understand from this scenario than Ray having transformed the Eventide into a mobile suit.

Murrue herself could only vividly imagine where the Eventide had come from, her suspicions on the machine weren't that considerable, but she was now alarmed to learn of this drastic development coming out from the left field. Whoever Ray was, clearly he had hidden far more than just simple information, regardless, she couldn't argue that this wasn't a welcome turn of events, as the Eventide dodged a wall of missile attacks from the Blitz.

The one here who had a lot more to be relieved though was Flay who looked a little shaken as Sai tried to console her.
It was then that Natarle began to move, she knew that she hadn't much time, the lieutenant signaled the fleet.

XXXXX

Rau couldn't help but watch in horror as his plan fell into utter shit, the situation had turned around rapidly, with the new machine having cleaved off his arm and disabled one of his barrels with ease, he was lucky that he didn't die from fighting the damn thing, but he could feel it, the presence of something terrifying from within that machine. It unnerved him how casually it managed to tear its way through those GINNs and even deflect the combined attacks of the Duel and Buster, but here it was.

He took a moment to breathe deeply, his hands shaking with nerves frayed, his medication, in one hand, he took a dry swallow of the pills before he grasped the controls of his machine.
"Fuck!" He cursed.

The battle looked as though things were getting ugly now that the transformed mobile suit began aiding in the counter attack and with the Versailles having been damaged, he could forget a victory, getting out of here alive was top priority.

'So close... so damn close.' He thought darkly as he watched the Azure machine engaging the G-weapons.

Blitz, Duel and Buster were all now throwing themselves into a pitched battle against the lone machine, all the while, the Strike and Aegis exchanged blows elsewhere.

XXXXX

Ray managed to disable the Blitz with a successful strike from the left flank, damaging its arm and blowing its missiles to shreds, forcing the suit to back off. Their battle was over, at least for now; the Blitz finally decided that it wasn't able to keep up the battle. Inside the Eventide, Ray was feeling the burn of operating his machine on the basic setting.

He had already expended multiple missile pods and he had managed to keep the energy levels at an acceptable level, but he knew that this was becoming way too much even for him to handle. The last drawn out battle of attrition using Eventide as his machine, the last one was during his test run for the free for all competition for the stadium.

Of course this was real battle in which every second counted, and every action had to be used carefully, one mistake could see him dead, or worse, someone else getting killed on his watch. Yeah this was definitely like his second tour in south East Asia. The difference was that he had to take care of a complete newbie who had an issue with killing people.

Thankfully Mu could help Kira out when necessary, but the kid's constant hesitation and personal turmoil was going to get him killed if he didn't adapt fast, then again his SEED abilities hadn't come into play yet. But this wasn't the only issue he was faced with, his body suffered from overheating, a troublesome development thanks to his augmentation.

He burnt up a great deal more energy than the average human due to his increased metabolism, even with sub dermal glucose deposits which allowed him to store more sugar in his body. It was clear that he would reach his maximum limit soon, and his body was feeling the burn of using his muscles continuously, a side effect of his augmentations.

It was a rather bad double edged sword, seeing as how his augmentations were capable of causing permanent nerve damage to his body. But they gave him and other operators an edge over most normal pilots; too bad most of them were either dead or retired now. Alice was keeping a monitor on his abilities and acting as his limiter, thanks to her, he was able to hold out longer than normal, as she could perform quite a few of the designated targeting solutions and complex pattern manoeuvres.

But this wasn't enough, his body needed Beta-C if it was going to operate for extended periods of time, and he knew that such things weren't available in this world, at least not to his knowledge. The bio-injectors would most certainly give him the ability to continue on for extended periods of time.

The trouble with this was that Beta-C was a form of protein which couldn't be produced outside of laboratories, and he knew that Alice might be able to produce some, but not near the amount he'd need for prolonged use. Mass conversion to fabrication in the Eventide was advanced, but things like that would take a great deal of time to properly produce.

As he pulled Eventide around the 'Montgomery' he did what he did best, intercept, cutting into the nearest GINN, he fired off trio of short bursts from his Lancer, they weren't nearly as powerful as the primary single beam setting, but it was enough to inflict damage, at least on most mobile suits. His shots made contact with armour or weapons, at this point it didn't matter, as long as he kept the bastards at bay, it was enough to stop them from downing the 'Montgomery.'

XXXXX

Meanwhile the Duel and Buster which had gone back onto the offensive after having been caught off guard by the sudden transformation of the fighter into a mobile suit, and the fact that it was hammering the living crap out of their forces.

"What the hell is this machine?" Yzak said as he examined the mobile suit.

"Don't know don't care, but it's got some pretty impressive firepower." Dearka remarked as he watched it push back another GINN.

The two were determined to get even, and Yzak had seen a chance to prove himself truly, plunging head first, the Duel went all in, guns blazing. But with Eventide, this was a lot more difficult, the suit downed two and disabled a third GINN before moving onto their G-weapons.

Duel and Buster were the ones that came up, and both pilots were determined to beat the Eventide down. But they had never fought Ray before, or ever fought the Delta Ex-Eventide. As they entered close range, Ray was able to swing around, slamming his Lancer to his left and forcing the Duel back.

Buster attempted to get around and cover Duel, but without much success, Eventide manoeuvred far too quickly to get a bead on it. Ray managed to graze the Buster's left arm and melt a joint in place, forcing it to pull back. This was when the Duel attempted to get around and slash at Ray from behind.

"I've got you now!" Yzak yelled as he came down hard.

Ray saw through the attack, knowing that Yzak wouldn't waste time to exploit an opportunity to try and take him down as quickly as possible. His attack came in a wide strike, intending to slash the Eventide horizontally. But Ray pulled his machine into a sharp turn and threw weight and thrusters to turn faster.

He dodged the attack and managed to slam the Duel in the chest with the Eventide's legs, sending the machine flying backwards. He unleashed another burst from his Lancer, and pulled off a strike to the Duel's exposed arm. With rifle in hand, he managed to land a blow on the Duel's exposed right sword arm, and blasted it into a pile of super-heated molten slag.

Duel's arm exploded in a burst of light as the beam sabre detonated along with the arm. Yzak knew that there was no way he'd be able to handle fighting it out any longer, withdrawing as fast as he could, all the while he gritted his teeth and cursed loudly. The pilot slammed his fist into the side display with enough force that his hand left a crack in the screen.

"Son of a bitch." He heaved as he got his damaged machine back to the waiting Nazca-class.

Dearka was now on his own, but he knew a losing battle when he saw one, and this was a lost battle. His energy reserves were low and he didn't have much more to throw against the blue and white winged demon of a mobile suit that was the 'Azure Hawk', it certainly didn't look like a hawk anymore.

He sighed and smiled with a frown.
"Looks like we lose." He said as he pulled back. The Buster went off to join the Duel.

The remaining suits in the battle consisted of two GINNs and one GINN HMT operated by Sato, and finally the Aegis, which was still locked in battle with Kira. Rau's Nazca-class and the remaining Laurasia-class were all that were left, chasing the Archangel and the 'Montgomery'. Ray had managed to push the Laurasia-class back, as for the Nazca-class; it was certainly making every effort to keep the pressure on.

Mu's machine was bogged down trying to do crowd control, the Mobius had successfully damaged one of the GINNs, and kept the GINN HMT with assault shroud at bay, but Sato was not an easy opponent, and the veteran pilot was making every effort to pin the elite mobile armour pilot down. Ray decided to go in and help Mu before he was overwhelmed.

Eventide moved through the open space with ease, gliding through the open battle space with ease, Ray managed to zero in on his intended target, Sato's custom GINN HMT, he called over to Mu.
"Mu, break off, this one's mine, you deal with the stragglers, keep the 'Montgomery' covered."

"Alright, but be careful, this guy's a lot better than those other GINN HMT pilots."

"I know." Ray said as he pulled his unit into a sharp turn and dive, making a clockwise corkscrew turn as he aimed for Sato.

Sato saw Ray's approach and immediately went in to welcome him, firing off bursts of linear shots attempting to down Ray's machine, without success. Ray retaliated with his Lancer and forced Sato onto the defensive, blocking the shot with his shield, almost melting the surface off while returning fire.

Ray had to admit, he was avoiding using the full power of his Lancer, because it would flat out kill Sato, a grazing impact even from his Lancer anywhere near the main body wouldn't do wonders for the pilot.

The continued to exchange fire, right up until Ray managed to slice off the arm, but Sato didn't give in, making a sharp turn and kick which Ray just dodged, the pilot fired sporadically at him, narrowly missing the Montgomery from a distance. Ray didn't want to risk losing the ship now after having forced the entire ZAFT fleet back, he lashed out quickly, stabbing forward and using his thrusters and momentum to carry him along, he cut through the GINN HMT's arm, disabling its weapon and leaving Sato to curse as he withdrew.

As one danger passed, Ray was alerted to another. "Ray, Kira's in trouble." Alice warned him.

Ray turned and saw Kira's unit getting pinned by the Aegis, the red machine having transformed into mobile armour mode and ready to fire. Ray was about to go running when the Archangel began broadcast.

"ZAFT forces, cease and desist, this is a formal warning, we have the daughter of Siegel Clyne aboard the ship, if you continue to pursue hostilities, we will not be held accountable for whatever may happen to her. I repeat, cease and desist."

'Damn, looks like they finally got to it.' He thought as he saw the ZAFT forces halt.

The ZAFT fleet signalled a retreat, flares went up declaring an end to hostilities, with the life of the Chairman in danger and their enemy now holding a new card, they were forced into a difficult situation.

As the survivors withdrew from the field, Ray sighed as he felt his neural connection timing out, his body's threshold having reached its limit, and not a moment too soon, seeing as he knew that he was pushing the limiter to a dangerous point by now.
"Alice, guide us back in, my body won't be response for a few minutes." He told his AI as his muscles went numb.

"Understood Ray." The AI said as she took him back.

XXXXX

On the bridge Flay was looking at the display screen as the ships and mobile suits were withdrawn, she was being handled by Sai who had gotten up to stop her from doing something regretful. As for the Lieutenant, the raven haired officer looked around with a purposeful look. Murrue was still shocked that the Lieutenant would do something like this.

It was a desperate situation for certain, being stuck fighting multiple enemies from all sides is definitely not something you'd want to do when you're outnumbered and outgunned.

"Lieutenant, I hope you understand what you've done."

"Captain, I'm doing what I must to ensure the survival of this crew and this ship."

"This isn't what I can imagine when threatening the life of a civilian for safe passage."

"Ma'am, we're facing an enemy force many times our own size, and we're surrounded, I saw what had to be done, now whether or not it was right, it doesn't matter when our lives are on the line."

The bridge crew weren't sure how to take this, but with ZAFT withdrawing their forces, they were able to determine the next best course of action, assuming ZAFT weren't willing to forgo the warning and just wipe them out. But seeing as this was Siegel Clyne's daughter, they were going to play it safe no doubt.