"This room is amazing. You constantly surprise me, Robert." Raine said, sitting on the edge of the bed. The master bedroom was mostly dark at this time, but it was very richly appointed. That, however, wasn't what had drawn Raine's interest. Rather, the thing that interested her was the skylight. It wasn't really a skylight, since it didn't show the sky. It was more of a porthole, looking up into a coral reef. It had a mechanical shutter that could open or close to block off or reveal the view. It had been blocked off when they walked in, but then Alkire… Robert… had opened it with a wide smile.
"What have I told you all about calling me Robert?" Alkire said in exasperation. "Robert's dead. Shot down by MP's while trying to escape the Atlantic Federation Armed Forces."
"Come on now. If you're going to be a father figure now, don't you think you should have a real name?" Raine admonished.
"Alkire's a real name. I like Alkire, personally. Alkire Majesty. Has an exotic ring to it." Alkire protested. Raine rolled her eyes.
"Please. Even the girls think it's phony." Raine said. Alkire looked wounded. "Okay… fine. Just get rid of Majesty. That's the part that I don't like. Alkire Jones is perfectly acceptable." Alkire scowled.
"I'll consider it. You really now how to squash a guy's creativity."
"Turn your expansive mind towards other pursuits. Like figuring out how to be a great dad, and figuring out what to do next."
"Besides produce more children with you?"
"Don't make me assassinate you before we've even slept together. Or worse, don't force me to go get Vlad to straighten you out. He's very overprotective, you know." Raine said, perfectly mimicking Katie threatening to sic her Uncle on a hapless boy.
"Please don't hurt me." Alkire said, chuckling. "But in all seriousness, I think we should just lie low for a while. This complex has everything we're going to need for the next little while."
"How long is a little while? And what "complex" are you speaking of?"
"With the nine of us… we're probably good on supplies for the next… three years, give or take a few months. As for the other question… why don't I show you." Alkire walked over to what looked like a blank wall. It was only when it shimmered ever so slightly that Raine saw it was actually a large TV screen, which projected a seamless image of a section of wall. "Map." Alkire ordered the air. The screen changed from a wall to a 2D overlay of the area around the safehouse.
"Voice commands. Sexy." Raine commented. Alkire gave her a glare.
"Show all buildings in the complex in blue." He ordered. Immediately, a network of blue boxes connected by thin blue lines appeared on the map of the peninsula. The largest blue block, in the center, where the ruined house was, was labeled "Hub". Six lines radiated outward from it. They were labeled "Tunnels". One tunnel led to a box about a kilometer away on the far side of the peninsula. The box was labeled "Generator". The other five boxes were labeled "Gun Range", "Practice Room", "Hanger", "Communications" and "Command Center".
"This place is huge!" Raine gasped in awe. Alkire smiled proudly.
"Welcome to the family headquarters. You don't wanna know how much this all cost." Alkire said smugly.
"What about the family?" Raine asked without thinking. Alkire froze. Raine covered her mouth in regret. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. You don't talk about it."
"Neh. If I can't talk to my wife about it, who can I talk to? My family was killed in the riots caused by the energy crisis. They left me everything. Which is a lot. Asmodeus's unit was supposed to evac them. They botched it. Maybe on purpose. I never was able to find out. Then, when the opportunity came, to solve the energy crisis, that's why I freaked out. People wanted to continue the war, rather than save all the poor people suffering from the energy crisis. It was all so… senseless. I looked back at what I'd been doing ever since the start of the war… and I had nothing to be proud of. Sabotage missions, scouting missions… missions… more missions… always missions. Ever since the first month of the war, when I straightened out my family affairs after their deaths, I'd been doing nothing but one mission after another. And none of the missions really helped do anything to bring the war to a close." Alkire replied, putting a hand to his head and massaging his temples.
"I had no idea." Raine whispered.
"Of course not. I never told anyone. None of us are exactly talkative about our respective pasts."
"But you never mentioned you had a wealthy family, even back when we were in Kisaka's class. In fact, I clearly remember you saying you came from a poor mechanic's family, in the former United States of America." Raine replied.
"Are you saying that the background you told everyone in that class was accurate?" Alkire said with a smirk. Raine smiled back and shook her head. "My family had fingers in lots of pies. My dad really did start out as a poor mechanic though. We were never a very public family, which is why almost no one has heard of us. Our primary business wasn't very legitimate, actually. Arms trading. We were the middlemen. We got the weapons from the legitimate depots and sold it to the actual dealers. We were pretty global. Lots of competitors. One of those decided to use the chaos of the energy crisis as cover for a takeover. He's dead now, but so is my family."
"I'm sorry." Raine told him, settling an arm around him.
"Thanks. It felt pretty good to open up for a moment." Alkire replied. He smiled at her. "Any revelations from your side of the fence? You're not a super rich scion or former supermodel or crime fighting action hero or anything?" he grunted as she punched him lightly in the ribs.
"I'm from eastern Europe. One of the older former countries that used to have civil war problems, before the Eurasian Fedeartion came along. Truth be told, it still had a lot of problems with gangs and terrorist groups. My family worked as farmers. We were peaceful. But then a turf war between two rival terrorist groups rolled onto our land and in the chaos, my family was killed. It was nothing out of the ordinary. I spent the rest of my young life making myself strong, so that I could protect my new family, if ever I found one, from a similar fate. That's all. I must have been about Chanel's and Katie's age at the time. That's why… when we found them… there… I had to take them with us." Raine explained.
"I know what you mean. But enough gloom and doom. Now that we've got this stuff out in the open, we can be a normal married couple once again, and start worrying about our friends and the gossip around them." Alkire said cheerfully.
"Your definition of normal has always been a little off." Raine told him, turning back to study the screen map. "You have a gun range here?"
"For testing some of the product before sending it off to the customers. People who sold stuff that didn't work had a bad habit of meeting up with their very disappointed customers in violent confrontations in my family's line of work. Its big enough for pistol and automatic weapon fire, but you'll want to go outside if you want to practice with your sniper rifle." Alkire clarified.
"Practice room?"
"How do think I got so damn good at what I do?" I've been a commando since I was eight. I was the black sheep of the family, joining the legitimate military rather than becoming chief of security." Alkire shrugged. "It's basically a small gym, complete with padded mats and all the equipment for almost any sort of physical training or exercise."
"A hanger?" Raine said, slightly incredulous.
"Slang for the garage. It's big enough, I guess. We'll certainly have enough room for the vehicles we've got, even with the tank and the minisub already there. The hanger is also where the fuel and much of the living supplies are stored."
"Why weren't we living here from the beginning?" Raine asked suddenly. "It would have made a lot more sense than the apartments in Bern."
"Painful memories. This is a pretty private place, y'know. Family secret and all that. Nobody in the world knows about this place. Or rather, those that do don't know what it is they know, and so can't give it away."
"I'm touched then, that you'd bring us here."
"For the girls? For you? And for Vlad, James and Victor? It's past time we were here. Now we can get serious about TEMPEST."
"What about Ysak and the other kids?" Raine asked. Alkire gestured for her to take a seat. She complied, sitting on the edge of the bed. Alkire sat down in an easy chair across from her.
"It's a tough situation. These aren't just ordinary kids. Most of them are soldiers, in one form or another. Failing that, they had important parents, or acted in some way that directly influenced the outcome of the war. These people didn't just fight at Jachin Due and GENESIS… their actions shaped the flow of those battles and may have even decided who ultimately won or lost. I haven't heard anything close to a coherent story from them about it and even Vlad's sources are pretty vague. I've held off from asking for politenesses sake, and because I could tell they were suffering under a great burden and I felt no need to trouble them further. But that was before this situation." Alkire began.
"Yes. Before Blue Cosmos used them to destroy the peace talks they fought so hard to create." Raine agreed. Alkire cocked an eye at her.
"You know something?"
"Just what the girls have learned listening to Ysak's stories. If they're at all accurate… and given Ysak, they're probably understated, if anything… then you were right about how what these kids did mattering to the war. You know how Azrael and the AFSF (Atlantic Federation Space Forces) tried to nuke the plant home colonies, right? You heard about how all the missiles got blown up by some ZAFT defense system before they could hit the PLANTS. You might even have seen the video of all the nuclear detonations."
"Yes. I was fresh out of the service then, but it was all over the news."
"There was no ZAFT defence system. It was Kira and Athrun blowing the missiles out of space using their Mobile suits. They got all of them. Not a single nuke hit a PLANT." Raine said in awe.
"So you're saying they're skilled then."
"Ysak is an elite ZAFT soldier and mobile suit pilot. He's right up there with Le Cresuet and their other top aces. He couldn't even get close enough to shoot at the missiles that Kira and Athrun destroyed. They're the equivalent of Vlad, but for mobile suits. Put Kira, Athrun, Dearka, Ysak and Cagalli in mobile suits and they could probably hold off the combined space fleet of the Atlantic Federation, for a while anyway."
"You make them sound like heroes or gods."
"Maybe they are. Heroes anyway. Way I heard it, Athrun blew up GENESIS using a self destruct on his MS moments before it could fry the Earth and everyone on it. Kira meanwhile not only battled Le Cresuet to a standstill, but actually killed the crazy son of a bitch too. Those two young men changed the course of history then, I think."
"What about the girls?"
"Mir's just a nice young girl from Orb, who got caught up in the whole thing because she was Kira's friend. Lacus is of course the daughter of the late Siegel Clyne, the former PLANT supreme chairman. Her supporters in the PLANTS are probably the only reason the peace negations haven't totally fallen apart. She also helped bring the war to an end by participating, if indirectly, at Jachin Due. And poor Cagalli was, until a day ago, Queen of Orb, the leader of the World Peace Organization. Now she's a humiliated, former Queen with no country to call her own. Of course, she still has her brother Kira and Athrun… two of the most formidable people around, I think."
"Blue Cosmos may have bitten off more than they can chew." Alkire reasoned.
"Get these kids their MS's and I think you'll be right."
"How do we do that?"
"Not quickly or easily. The mobile suits are in Orb, at the Morganroete facilities there. Given the current situation, the kids won't be able to travel for a while. And Orb likely won't settle down for a while either. I think the best bet is just lay low for a while. Rest some more, recuperate some more, train some more. Put out feelers and gather information. Once we better understand what Blue Cosmos is up to, we can decide what to do then." Raine planned out.
"You know what?" Alkire asked, an amused smile rippling across his face.
"What?"
"I think there's better things a newly wed husband and wife could be doing than discussing long term strategy. You thought the sealight and wall display were cool… I can't wait to show you the bed, honey." Alkire purred. Raine smiled back.
"I got myself in way over my head when I chose you, didn't I?"
"You jumped in the deep end, that's for sure. Now stop talking."
-----------------------------------
"Subject is awakening. Sedation levels are reaching minimum allowable. He'll be awake in approximately ten seconds. All personnel clear the recovery chamber." The PA system blared through the training complex. White coated doctors, scientists and assistants scurried about, locking up tools and instruments and vacating all areas close to the recovery room. Markov Ashino glared up at the ceiling in annoyance from his position in the weight room, where he was doing his daily workout.
"So Frost is dethawing again. Lucky us." He commented sarcastically to the bare room. He got slowly to his feet and wiped his face off with his small towel. He discarded the disgustingly small and safe towel in a bin and walked out of the weight room. The BCPU 4 sauntered through the deserted gym until he stood outside the door to the recovery room, which was heavily reinforced with steel plates and bars. He counted away the slow seconds until his sensitive ears could pick up the sounds of Frost waking up. Grunts and the noise of plastic restraining straps being torn from their mountings. It took longer than usual, as Frost was still injured and nowhere near top form. Still, in less than half a minute, the six hundred pound door slowly swung open and Frost stalked out, his left arm and shoulder still heavily bandaged and his gunshot wounds still visible as pale scars.
"Have a nice nap?" Ashino asked snidely. Frost stared at him hungrily.
"You're brave today, Ashino. Usually you'd be on the other side of a barrier before talking to me. Ever since that regrettable incident with the spoon shiv, you've been less than social towards me." Frost noted.
"Regrettable? I didn't think you felt regret any more, beast." Ashino spat, hands balling into fists at the memory. Frost had swiped a regular spoon from his meal tray and sharpened it into a shiv with which he had slit one doctor's throat and nearly carved Ashino's eyes out in his sleep.
"Well, you're still alive, so obviously I regret that. I hate failing to kill someone."
"You must be really steamed then. All of those teenagers that kicked your ass from here to Sunday are still alive and well." Ashino goaded. Frost's eyes glinted and he took a slow step forward.
"Frost… good to see you, man. I heard about Amy. That sucks." Cray Thresher said from the restroom doorway. Ashino and Frost turned to the last BCPU. Cray was tall and thin, with lank blond hair and grey eyes, while Ashino was short, though not as short as Frost, with pale red hair and green eyes.
"How so?" Frost asked.
"Don't gimme that. Even you enjoy a good fuck now and then. With Amy gone, we won't be getting any female companionship for a while." Cray grinned lopsidedly.
"Had plenty of that on my last job. Cervantes's daughter couldn't keep her hands off me. It bugged Ray crazy like." Frost smiled, in a good mood suddenly.
"Yeah, I heard about how that little fuck took a bullet to the temple. It was too quick and easy for my liking. I wanted to do it myself. Little bastard was always caressing the kill switch like a surrogate dick." Cray snarled.
"They are listening to this conversation. And recording it. And sending it to Cervantes and Asmodeus." Ashino commented.
"And?" Frost asked.
"Asmodeus isn't gonna like us bad mouthing his dead son."
"Fuck Asmodeus. He got a problem, he can come in here and say it. Not that he will. They're all scared of us." Cray noted.
"Well… they're scared of me anyway. You two they know they can control," Frost replied in a superior tone.
"Screw you. If you was so free, why the hell are they all still alive?" Cray snorted.
"Don't make me kill you."
"Make you? I'm probably going to have to fight to stop you, and we both know it."
"Yeeaahh… true. Wanna fight?" Frost said dreamily.
"You're injured. You move that arm too much, it'll fall off, implants or no implants." Ashino warned.
"You're such a pansy. I don't know why they bothered upgrading you at all." Cray said dangerously. "You remind me more of meat than man."
"Stay the hell away from me, Thresher. They need all of us, now that Amy is dead. You try and slit my throat again and they'll put you under so deep Frost'll look like a light sleeper. They can keep you on ice until they need you… they don't have to let you walk around and have a semblance of a normal life." Ashino said reasonably. Cray and Frost shared a hollow laugh.
"Normal life? I'm a psychotic killer, with enhanced physical and mental abilities. There's no such thing as a normal life for me any more." Cray retorted.
"What is life? I don't know anything but death. Death, pain, suffering and rage. Nothing else exists for me." Frost added.
"So that means you prefer to sleep long and deep?" Ashino asked shrewdly. Neither of the other two said anything. "I thought so. Now… do you know why they woke Frost up this time?"
"Wound checkup maybe?" Cray suggested. "You were hurt pretty bad, man. Worse than ever before, I'm pretty sure."
"True enough. Of course, you guys'd be dead if someone shot at you with a machine gun from twenty feet away." Frost allowed. Cray shrugged and Ashino just shook his head. They were intimately familiar with Frost's superior physical abilities.
"Nah, not wound checkup. They'd just use their instruments to tell when he was done healing. No need for them to risk themselves waking him up. They lose someone practically every time that happens. I think it might be a brief." Ashino decided.
"Frost thinks Ashino has a point. Maybe our MS's are done. Maybe it'll be another simulator run. Maybe you two will get to do a live test." Frost intoned. He shrugged, knowing that he'd never get a live test run. They'd probably never let him into the Fury, because they knew that he'd be unstoppable. They thought he'd turn their precious MS back on them the moment he gained control of it. They were right to think so. Frost's enhancements had boosted not only his physical abilities but also his mind, even as it twisted it. There wasn't a self destruct device he couldn't disarm within seconds of entering the cockpit and he already hurt all over so much that the added pain from drug withdrawal mattered as much as a raindrop to a river.
"All subjects report to the briefing room. Now." The PA warbled.
"Aye aye, Doc." Ashino waved a salute, as did Cray. Frost glared up at the announcing device like he wanted to rip it from the ceiling.
"Doc is gonna get his." Frost promised, for the umpteenth time.
"Maybe so, #13z. Maybe so. But not today and not from one of my own creations." The Doc, the scientist in charge of the JIHAD project, replied calmly. "Now report to the briefing room. You won't regret it."
Frost joined his two "comrades" in the small briefing room. There were no chairs or other objects that could be conceivably used as weapons. A large wallscreen came to life as Frost walked in. The bespectacled and frowning face of the Doc appeared on the screen. "Your wounds are healing according to schedule, #13z. You'll be back at optimum in another week or so. You'll have to be more careful next time. You have set JIHAD back by nearly a month because of your failure. Mr. Zunnichi was most displeased."
Frost snorted and glared. Like he cared about Cervantes or how he felt. Sometimes it bothered him that he didn't care about anything. Most of the time though, he didn't care enough to be bothered. "You'll all be interested in knowing that the Bane, the Merciless and the Fury have been completed, as have one and a half Purifiers. Crusader production runs at fifty units, minus one destroyed in Bern a day ago. In short, the JIHAD is almost ready for phase two. The peace talks have nearly collapsed and there is much tension between the Earth and the PLANTS. War is just a minor incident away."
"What kind of incident are we talking about here? An assassination? A riot?" Ashino asked.
"Mr. Zunnichi is thinking more along the lines of a nuclear attack on the Earth Alliance, with a simultaneous destruction of a PLANT." Doc replied.
"That's minor?" Cray said, incredulous.
"Compared to what JIHAD is designed to do, yes, actually. Once phase four is completed, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there wasn't a single PLANT remaining, nor much left of the Atlantic Federation." Doc answered.
"You mean not much left that doesn't support Blue Cosmos. That is what JIHAD is about, after all, cleansing the world of Coordinators and those sympathetic to them, once and for all." Frost clarified.
"Of course. Mr. Zunnichi doesn't wish to destroy the world, just purify it. There is much corruption and waste to be rid of, and the process won't be easy or bloodless. Now, the part you three will play in this is very critical. The Earth forces are aware of the Strike Crusader model of MS, as a prototype anyway. We cannot use them just yet. But the Bane, the Merciless and the Fury are still unknown to the world or anyone outside the JIHAD project."
"You mean we'll actually be allowed to take them out for a test run in actual combat situations?" Cray said, delighted.
"Exactly. The Bane and the Merciless will assault Pearl Harbor, wiping it and the fleet base there out. The attack will be blamed on the PLANTS. Meanwhile, the completed Purifier and the Fury will assault Junius Six, destroying it if at all possible. That attack will be blamed on the Earth Forces. With any luck at all, both sides will once again be in full hostilities after this operation." Doc told them.
"Wait a minute… you're sending me out in the Fury? Into a full combat situation, with no restrictions?" Frost asked, suspicious. "That's crazy. You know what I'm like."
"You'll be surrounded by hundreds of ZAFT warships and Mobile suits. If you have the time for treachery, then your abilities are even greater than I can imagine. And I can imagine a great deal more than you're currently capable of. Besides, Captain Asmodeus will be piloting the Purifier. He'll have a remote access bomb controller wired to a thermonuclear warhead mounted on the back of the Fury. It won't be accessible from the cockpit, so there is no way you could disarm it. And I still believe you don't wish to die just yet, Frost, despite your seeming indifference. How could you die without exacting your revenge on me and Mr. Zunnichi, much less the rest of this too cruel world?" the Doc replied shrewdly.
"You remind me again why you have to die, Doc. You know me too well. At least as well as I know myself." Frost threatened. The Doc just smiled and nodded.
"After phase five, you can take your revenge. God knows I deserve everything you want to do to me. The sins I've committed are too numerous to recount, and make your petty bloodthirstyness look like childs play." The Doc agreed.
"When are we conducting this operation?" Ashino asked.
"As soon as Frost is again in top form. Roughly 1.5 weeks from now. We'll be doing simulators every day until then. That's where you're going next. Make me proud, boys." The Doc said.
"Aye aye, Doc." All three BCPU's replied softly.
-------------------------------------------------
Lacus was not having fun. Being cooped up inside this compound reminded her too much of when she'd been a "hostage" aboard the Archangel. Worse, she was surrounded by people who were, to put it lightly, not peacable. Death was their business, and they were very good at their business. Lacus was especially worried about how being surrounded by this kind of people would affect Kira. Even during the war, he'd been around people who were very humanitarian in their outlooks. Captain Ramius was a very moral person, and Mu La Flaga, Kira's mentor, had been fun loving and easygoing, but also possessed of a strong sense of what was right.
Not that Alkire, Raine and the other commandos were bad people, by any means. They'd rescued Kira, herself and everyone else from Frost and had protected them and sheltered them ever since. Alkire had opened his own family house to them, and he barely knew them, other than that they were friends of Ysak's. It was just that to these people, killing their enemies was as natural as breathing. To them, a war was ended by killing enough enemies that the remainder didn't want to fight anymore. They had trouble seeing what a vicious cycle killing was. They just didn't understand what Cagalli said about one person being killed, then their killer being killed for revenge and so forth and so on in a wider and wider spiral of death.
Lacus frowned. Even now, Kira was being taught how to "defend" himself in hand to hand combat by James. To Lacus's eyes, most of the defensive moves ended up with your opponent in agony or lying dead on the ground with their neck broken. At least it wasn't Vladimir teaching him. Lacus still got shivers whenever that man was around. She'd been very young when he was still active as the Strangler Horrificus, too young to really be afraid of the stories. But now… now she could appreciate what it was like to lose someone you loved. She didn't want to think about what it would be like if someone stole into her house and stole her child away, never to be seen alive again.
The thought of children made her smile. She was making some progress with her relationship to Kira, at least. He was still very shy, tentative and private, but he was becoming more like the teenagers Lacus had known in the PLANTS. He smiled a lot more, and made jokes and generally acted a lot more like Dearka and Athrun than before. In the week and a half since that first night, he had shown he was more like Athrun than even she'd thought. Kira could be very passionate too; he just kept it under a much tighter leash than her former fiancée did these days. He wouldn't do more than kiss, cuddle and hold hands in public. But turn out the lights, lock the doors and get into bed and he'd… well… he was everything Lacus could have imagined it would be like.
"You're zoned out again." Cagalli commented, sitting down next to Lacus on the floor of the gym.
"Oh, hello, Cagalli. How are you today?" Lacus asked brightly, blinking her eyes back into focus on the here and now.
"Late night again?" Cagalli asked wickedly. Lacus blushed. Her friend was always so forward.
"A little." Lacus allowed. "What about you?"
"Not yet." Cagalli said guardedly. "It's driving Athrun up the wall, but I'm still jumpy. It's like the nightmares after Frost. I know I'm safe, that nothing bad will happen. Doesn't stop me from having nightmares though."
"I understand. I'd feel the same, if I was you." Lacus said. She heard a grunt from the mat and looked over towards Kira and James. Kira had the larger man down on the ground, with one arm twisted behind him, face pressed firmly into the mat.
"My win." Kira panted. He released James and stepped back a pace. Sweat rolled down his face and arms and soaked his gym shirt to translucence. Lacus caught herself staring, even though she'd seen him in considerably less than a sweat soaked gym shirt.
"You're getting good, Kira. I'm not saying you could take out a commando, but if anyone else made a grab for you, they'd end up regretting it pretty hard." James said with a smile. He wasn't even really breathing hard. He popped his shoulder loudly as he stretched and got back to his feet. "You might be ready for Raine, next. But first, we should go have some lunch. I'm starving."
"You're always starving, Captain. I don't know how you can each so much." Kira commented with a smile.
"What can I say? I'm good at everything I do. Especially scoffing." James said with a belly laugh. "I'll go get Vlad and Victor. Meet you at the hub." He continued, slipping out the far door of the gym, which led to the gun range and eventually back around to the hanger. Kira walked over to Lacus and Cagalli. They stood as he came up.
"You cleaned his clock, little brother. I never thought I'd see the day when you beat up someone else. You're turning into a regular bully." Cagalli needled. Kira still had the grace to blush, which pleased Lacus to no end. He was still the same kindhearted person he always had been, at heart.
"What have you been up to?" Kira asked, as they headed down the tunnel to the living hub from the practice room.
"Watching Athrun, Dearka and Ysak get their butts kicked in a paintball match against Raine and Chanel and Katie. Ysak is, as usual, pissed off about it all, but Dearka and Athrun at least had the grace to say that they were outmaneuvered, which they were and outshot, which they definitely were. Outside of a Mobile suit, they really aren't that tough. Tougher than me, certainly, but nothing training can't compensate for." Cagalli replied.
"You aren't all that soft yourself, Cagalli. I mean, most people wouldn't be able to do the things you do." Kira pointed out. Cagalli shrugged.
"Maybe so. As for how soft I am, well, that's debatable. To hear Athrun tell it, I'm soft in all the right ways." She said with a wide grin.
"Yeah… I didn't need to hear that." Kira grumbled.
"Oh, shut up. It's not like you don't feel that way about Lacus, right? It's how guys feel about girls, moron." Cagalli sighed.
"Yes… right… but you don't have to be so public about it." Kira protested.
"Let's not get into another argument about this. You two always have this fight whenever you get together for more than a few minutes." Lacus admonished.
"Only because he won't admit I'm right."
"No, because I won't admit you're completely right. You're right about some things, but wrong about others. I don't see how you can be so sensible about the world political situation but so mulish about your relationship to my best friend."
"I oughta hit you."
"You couldn't hit me if you tried."
"Do all brothers and sisters act like this?" Lacus asked.
"Huh, I hit Athrun all the time. What makes you think you're special?"
"Athrun wants you to hit him. Odd as it seems to me, that seems to be your method of foreplay. You punch him a few times, he pulls you close and you go on from there. I hope you can see how crazy that is."
"What? Just because Athrun and I don't hold hands and go for romantic walks or have quiet dinner dates, we're crazy?"
"Please…" Lacus continued, desperately trying not to laugh.
"Well… I can't exactly say that. Still, physical abuse doesn't strike me as the most romantic thing to do as a couple."
"It's not abuse. Athrun hasn't hurt me in my life… well, he did toss me around a little on that island, but I tried to kill him first, so that's okay. And he's a Coordinator, I doubt I could hurt him too much even if I really belted him."
"Just because a person is a Coordinator doesn't mean they can shrug off a punch. It still hurts when I stub my toe or jam my hand in a door. Being a Coordinator hasn't rendered me immune to pain. I really wish it had, but it doesn't."
"Why are we talking about hitting people?" Lacus wondered. By this time, they had made it down the tunnel and into the living quarters. Food for lunch was already laid out on the main table. Like most of their lunches so far, it consisted of cold cuts of meat, sandwich breads, various fruits and vegetables and condiments. "Sandwiches again?" Lacus asked, slightly dispirited. Sandwiches were well and good, but eating the same thing for a week and a half was starting to get really tedious.
"Hey, if you want something else, you should tell me in advance. I could always go out and get a few burgers or something on my next trip into town." Alkire noted, slipping into the common room from the passage that led to the master bedroom.
"Would you please? I'm grateful for the free meals, but they are getting really repetitive." Lacus said with a wide smile.
"Learned anything yet?" Kira asked Alkire, as he started to make himself a turkey sandwich.
"Nothing helpful. I've confirmed that Blue Cosmos leaked that video and photo to the press. I'm pretty sure the name of the cameraman is going to turn out to be Wayne Dumash. He's a reasonably notorious any-dirty-job sort of guy. The only reason he's stayed out of jail is that the Earth Forces have been too busy fighting a war to waste time hunting him down. Not surprising that he'd be willing to disrupt the peace talks. And he certainly has the skills needed to pull off a job of that magnitude. Other than that, things are suspiciously quiet." Alkire replied.
"Only you could possibly consider quiet suspicious." Raine commented, also coming out of the master bedroom. "I, for one, am relieved things have been quiet. I half expected Orb to send out its military to search for Cagalli and Athrun and I know Switzerland would probably like to have a nice long talk with you and the rest of TEMPEST, Alkire."
"But it doesn't make sense for Blue Cosmos to just wait quietly after they dropped their bombshell. Every hour brings the peace talks closer to being back online, if not as steady as they used to be. Even a serious blow like that video and picture couldn't derail the talks completely. GENESIS scared people. They're still scared of war again so soon. Nobody wants hostilities to resume. Besides, most nations have privately recognized that the video and picture were a blatant character assassination. If Blue Cosmos doesn't follow up soon, their operation will have been wasted, doing nothing more than causing a few days of scandal and seriously pissing off Cagalli and Athrun." Alkire argued. "Point taken about Switzerland though. Though I do hear their prisons are real nice."
"What's this about prisons?" Victor said, entering from the direction of the garage, followed closely by Vlad. Athrun, Ysak, Dearka, Chanel and Katie all piled in behind them. The three Coordinators were covered in blue and green paint, while only a few spots of red paint marred Chanel and Katie, and none appeared anywhere on Raine, Lacus noted.
"Just talking about upgrading your quarters, Victor. We thought maybe sending you to prison might teach you better table manners, give you a change of scene, that sort of thing." Alkire replied casually.
"Which prison? I've been to prisons in the AF, EF and Kingdom of Scandanavia. Of those, I liked the Kingdom of Scandanavia the least. They still have a few… gulags… I believe they are called, from back a few centuries ago. Nasty places." Victor commented.
"Bah, there is nothing wrong with gulags. They make a man strong. Remind you of what the real world has to offer. Sure, the beatings… the physical labor… the throat slitting… maybe that is considered harsh by modern standards. But in the Scandanavian Underworld, such things are relaxing. The gulags are vacation spots compared to some areas I can remember." Vladimir grumbled.
"That's disturbing. You really have a working knowledge of these prisons, that you can compare which is the worst?" Dearka said tiredly. "The worst place I've ever been was the brig on the Archangel. Being stuck in that room for even a few days was driving me nuts, and they brought me regular meals and didn't even ask me any questions."
"Part of advanced commando training. You gotta get yourself thrown into prison, and then break out. You can choose which prison, but if you choose some pansy minimum security jail, you don't get much respect. Though if you want my advice, you will stay out of the Kingdom of Scandinavia. Despite what Vlad says, the torture there really sucks." Alkire explained. Lacus gasped.
"People aren't tortured in prisons any more. Its' been illegal for centuries." She pointed out. All members of TEMPEST present had a good laugh over that.
"Sure… people aren't tortured in prisons… just like Blue Cosmos doesn't use nuclear weapons." Victor said grimly. "When you're in prison, you leave behind the real world. The real world only knows what the warden wants them to know. Who's going to say different from him, anyway?"
"There are good prisons, where prisoners are treated humanely and given rights." Raine cut in. "However, the kinds of prisons that commando's deal with aren't that kind. And I think that's enough discussion of prisons. Let's see whats on the news." She continued, flipping on one of several large wall screens situated around the room.
"… an update on the crisis in space." The announcer was just saying. Dearka accidently squeezed the mustard bottle too hard, sending yellow mustard spraying across the sandwich table.
"Crisis in space?" he choked.
"SHHH!" half a dozen people said urgently, as Raine turned up the volume.
"A warning, the upcoming footage may be disturbing to some viewers. We will be going live to the Solar News Station feed of the current situation around Junius Six." The announcer declared.
"Solar News Station? That's a PLANT station." Ysak muttered. The screen cut to a view of space. The hourglass shaped PLANT hung large in the background. Scores of ZAFT warships and hundreds of mobile suits filled the space around the colony. Weapons fire strung lines of green and gold across space.
"Oh, a war! Who's winning?" James cried, bounding into the room. Everyone turned and glared at him until he held up his hands in apology.
"A little more than ten minutes ago, a pair of Earth Forces mobile suits assaulted the defenses around Junius Six. Despite repeated calls to veer off, the two suits have blown through the defense lines and are currently making a beeline for the PLANT, ignoring the best efforts of the ZAFT warships nearby." The announcer declared from off screen.
"How the hell did two Earth Forces suits get past our defense lines?" Ysak snarled.
"What, are they asleep up there?"
"That is strange. Two mobile suits shouldn't be much of a challenge for the homeland defenses." Athrun mused. "Especially since the strike daggers aren't all that powerful."
"They didn't say they were strike daggers." Kira pointed out.
"True… more new models, you think?" Athrun said.
"I hope not. The last three were tough." Kira replied.
"Here is footage of the Earth Forces mobile suits breaking through the ZAFT defense line." The announcer said, as the view switched to a much better defined view of a ZAFT warship and attendant group of eight Ginns hanging in space. Two bright drive contrails soared towards them from the direction of Earth. Everyone watched avidly as the ZAFT forces engaged the interlopers, bright beam blasts and stutters of cannon fire blazing through space towards the enemy. The two enemies wove through the incoming fire like they were on a simple obstacle course.
"The one in front is much better than the one in back." Athrun said quietly, analyzing the relative skill of both enemies, as far as he could tell from the video.
"Yeah… wish I could see what machines they were in." Kira murmered back. Everyone kept their eyes glued to the screen as the two approaching enemies grew closer and more defined by the second. "Wait a minute…" Kira said, his voice distressed. A few seconds later, everyone else saw what was upsetting him. Not only was the lead MS a new model, but the lagging one was a new one too. Well, new to the Earth Forces armory anyway. Kira and everyone else from the Eternal, Archangel or Kusanagi stared, dumbfounded, eyes bugging from their heads.
"That… that's YOUR mobile suit." Ysak said uncertainly, glancing at Kira. "Isn't it?"
"That's the Freedom all right… or a Freedom anyway. Mine was a pile of molten scrap after GENESIS." Kira whispered.
"Who the hell built another one? Nobody but the PLANTS had the plans for that thing." Athrun protested. "And it's plainly not of the PLANTS, since it's attacking them."
"While you're asking that, you might as well ask how the Earth Forces acquired the N-Jammer Canceler." Lacus put in somberly. "That disk that Rau had Flay take to the Dominion probably had more than just the N-Jammer Canceler schematics on it."
"That's a good point." Athrun allowed. "The N-Jammers were an integral part of the Justice and Freedom. Rau had access to their technical files, of course."
"What the heck are you guys talking about?" Alkire asked. "You know that mobile suit?"
"It's the same class as the one I used to pilot, before the war ended." Kira explained. "I thought it was unique. But apparently the Earth Forces have copied it."
"What about the other one?" Victor said, pointing at the leading MS, which was smaller, thinner and much more angular looking than the Freedom. It had a dark green and crimson splotched paint scheme, looking like blood on dark grass.
"Never seen it before. Doesn't look like any known ZAFT or Earth Forces machine." Athrun replied. Everyone watched as the Freedom decelerated, letting the new model continue ahead alone. "That's nuts… keeping the Freedom out of the fight. It has the firepower to take out the entire checkpoint by itself."
"Maybe the pilot doesn't have the confidence to engage by himself." Ysak said with a smirk. "You noted how he seemed to be of lesser skill than the guy piloting the new model."
"That's crazy too… why wouldn't you put your best pilot in the Freedom? I think Kira well demonstrated during the war what a skilled pilot is capable of doing in that class of mobile suit." Cagalli added. As she did so the new model's speed suddenly increased dramatically. It charged towards the oncoming Ginn's almost faster than the camera could track it. Twin slabs of greenish energy sprung from its fists, while smaller spikes of green energy sprung from the spikes on its arms and legs.
"Strange looking beam swords." Dearka commented. Strange though they were, they proved just as effective as normal, as the new machine cut through the Ginns like they were so much trash. In a matter of seconds all were nothing more than molten slag. The machine then turned on the warship. Beam tipped grapples shot from its arms and legs, punching through the warships armored hull with ease, pulling the new machine towards it at high speed. The warship attempted to intercept the onrushing killer, but couldn't track its guns fast enough. The new machine made contact with the ships hull and quickly took the ship apart using its beam sabers to cut large sections of the hull off. The whole process took less than a minute.
"He's enjoying his attack." Alkire noted with narrowed eyes. "If he wanted to destroy the warship, he could have hit the engine room and it would have gone up in seconds. Instead he wasted time with those horrific yet time consuming attacks on the living quarters, medical section and bridge." The scene cut from the destroyed warship and Ginns back to the PLANT. There were many fewer ZAFT mobile suits in operation and scrapped and crippled warships floated in all directions.
"Woah! What the hell happened? It's been like five minutes since they cut to the previous footage. No way ZAFT could have gotten wrecked that bad since then, could it?" James sputtered. Before anyone could answer, the view jumped again, this time to the outer surface of the PLANT itself. A team of five Ginns floated in close formation, weapons raised. Standing on the hull of the PLANT less than a hundred meters away was the new Earth Forces machine. As one, the Ginns opened fire, spitting a storm of tracers at the machine. As people around the world and on the PLANTS watched, dumbfounded, the Earth Forces machine seemed to blur, weaving its way through the storm of bullets like a dancer, taking only glancing hits to the outer limbs as it rocketed towards the Ginns.
"That's way too familiar looking." Dearka said, his voice sick. The enemy machine reached the knot of Ginns and green fire flashed, too fast for the eye to follow. Five Ginns exploded. The new machine paused and everyone could almost hear the laughter of the pilot as he exulted in the kill. Seconds later, they could hear the laughter, as the enemy pilot hacked into the news feed.
"So too will all the space monsters suffer and die." Frost's chilling voice hissed from the speakers. All the girls collectively shuddered. "No one can stand against the Fury." Frost announced with obvious pride.
"This is the guy I shot in the chest?" Alkire said. Kira nodded. "That's bad." Alkire said shortly. Nobody disagreed. The Fury turned and returned to the hull of the PLANT.
"What's he think he's doing?" Alkire wondered.
"Nothing good." Vladimir said with feeling. "He's a beast. Nothing he wants to do can be good."
-------------------------------------
"Eat vacuum, monsters. For the preservation of our blue and pure world…" Frost intoned. Coordinators everywhere shivered slightly. The Blue Cosmos mantra was bad enough when shouted by machine gun wielding thugs. Hearing it whispered, almost lovingly and with dreadful sincerety by the pilot of the Fury was to hear a death sentence pronounced upon you.
"No!" Athrun cried, hand reaching helplessly towards the screen. Frost ignited his wide bladed beam sabers and stabbed both to their hilts in the hull of the colony. He then dragged his swords downward, cutting parallel lines through the outer surface of the PLANT in a several kilometer long cut. The hull material between the cut lines peeled outward as if it was under a can opener, from the air rushing to get out. Frost reached the bottom of the PLANT and started to cut his way in through the bottom.
"Wasted effort. The PLANT is too big to explosively decompress from such a relatively minor breach. It'll take several hours for all the air to escape from that cut." Victor said disgustedly. "It's a great way to inflict terror, but not much else."
"No… it's worse than that." Vlad argued. "Blue Cosmos has known the layout of the PLANTs for a long time. They know where all the emergency shelters are located. That madman is going to destroy the shelters."
"Still, one mobile suit won't be able to do that much. There's thousands of shelters." Victor retorted. Vlad shook his head.
"Destroying them all isn't the point. The shelters are connected to the news just like we are. They'll see other shelters being destroyed. The panic will be intensified manifold. The colony won't be destroyed, true, but the damage will be intense nonetheless. The image of an Earth Forces machine hunting down helpless Coordinators will provide the killing blow to the peace talks. Worse, the images of that Fury wiping out the Ginns and warships will prompt the development of newer, deadlier weapons to combat it." Vlad shot back. "Of course, picking Junius Six, the next closest colony to the former Junius Seven, was no accident either. It's a double kick in the balls, right?" he asked the Coordinators present.
"Yes." Athrun confirmed in a small voice. Cagalli looked at her fiancée in concern. Athrun had bad memories of Junius Seven. Well, most Coordinators did, but Athrun's mom had been on it when it was destroyed.
"But will the people of the Earth condone this attack? I don't think so. It seems to me that this is just another ill considered Blue Cosmos rampage." Lacus interjected.
"They're moving without a solid base of public support. This horrific act won't garner any support from the world, but will more likely turn the Earth Forces against them, along with the PLANTS."
"Yes, that does seem strange. Blue Cosmos doesn't require a reason for its acts, but it frequently creates one anyway, to prevent world opinion from swaying against them. They can hardly claim that the PLANTS have attacked the Earth." Alkire mused. As if summoned by his words, the vid-screen changed views.
"This just in… Zaft mobile suits are attacking the Atlantic Federation Fleet base at Pearl Harbor." The announcer cried. Everyone spun back to face the screen. The view showed the middle of Pearl Harbor, with dozens of frigates, destroyers and several carriers moored at various docks and piers. Explosions dotted the harbor area and dark plumes of smoke soared high into the air from where a pair of unfamiliar mobile suits waded through the wreckage towards the center of the Fleet base. Strike daggers, tanks and jets scrambled to intercept them, or even to slow down their advance, but all were blown away as soon as they got within a few hundred meters by the arsenal of weapons both mobile suits mounted.
"Damn, that thing's big." Dearka commented, staring at one of the mobile suits. It stood next to a strike dagger and everyone gasped. It was nearly twice as big as the mass produced Earth Forces MS. And it carried far more than twice the amount of weapons. Large bore cannons were held in each hand, while deadly looking gatling cannon projected from the shoulders and bulky missile packs sprouted from the legs. Six beam cannons were mounted in two rows of three on the chest and two massive missiles rode in vertical launch assemblies on its back.
"That's no ZAFT mobile suit." Ysak said with a sniff of disdain. "That thing is so slow a ZAFT pilot would be embarrassed to pilot it. It makes a Zaoot look graceful."
"Problem is, it also makes a Zaoot look puny." Dearka muttered. As everyone watched the giant MS cut loose with a barrage of missiles and cannon fire, leveling several acres of base structures and vehicles in less than a second. The second MS was more normal sized, and was less heavily armed, but was still managing to wreak a lot of havoc, because it was still far better armed than any strike dagger could hope to be. It concentrated on warding the giant's back and sides, making sure no one could get close.
"What the hell are they trying to pull? Its like with the colony, two mobile suits may be able to cause a lot of damage, but theres no way they can be victorious. Eventually the Earth Forces are going to get organized, and then they'll surround them and use numbers to take them down. It'll be costly, but the Earth Forces will be the winners." Alkire said with a frown.
"What kind of missiles are those?" Vlad asked Victor quietly.
"Which?"
"The two big ones on the giants back."
"They look sort of familiar, but I can't place them. They remind me of the bunker busters the Ginn's sometimes carried, but these are bigger." Victor said, peering closer. His mouth dropped open and his hands started trembling. "Ysak… or one of you Coordinators with good eyesight, come here and tell me that's not what I'm afraid it is." Victor said in a whisper. Ysak darted over and stared at where Victor was pointing.
"FUCK!" Ysak shouted. "THAT'S A FUCKING NUKE!"
"WHAT?" Kira, Athrun, Dearka and Lacus chorused. Before anyone could move further, both missiles launched from the back of the giant and roared into the sky. The giant and its aide started to retreat, sowing death as they walked backwards.
"Pearl Harbor is about thirty miles from here; as the bird flies… will the nukes in those missiles have the punch to hurt us here?" Alkire asked Victor. Victor shrugged.
"If they put a couple megatons in them, sure, easy. Anywhere at about ten megatons and up, you'd probably feel the shockwave around the world. Course, Pearl Harbor and most of the surrounding five miles would be nothing but a blast crater then, and that giant MS and its buddy'd be part of the cloud of radioactive smoke, so I doubt it's that powerful. It's more likely that they're tactical nukes. Point five to five kilotons, maybe multiple warheads. Figure a blast radius of around a kilometer, shockwave and fire damage out to triple that. Out here we'll get to see a nice light show, experience an ungodly amount of wind, and get to watch the plumes of smoke turn into a spectacular mushroom cloud. That's it though. Oh, and maybe a tsunami, if enough of the explosion happens in the harbor proper." Victor reported after a few moments thought.
"What about the people at the fleet base and the city of Pearl Harbor?" Kira asked. Victor shrugged again, this time dispiritedly.
"I'm figuring close to fifty to sixty percent blast casualties, considering its lunch hour. Maybe another twenty percent collateral casualties and who knows what sort of damage from radiation. A good three quarters of everybody within the shockwave radius is going to be dead in a few minutes." Victor told everyone.
"You seem pretty calm." Dearka noted. "It doesn't bother you to talk about all those helpless people like they're nothing but percentages and figures?"
"Hey, I'm not happy, kid. But explosions and their effects are my job. I don't consider it very professional to let how I'm feeling bleed through into work, and this is definitely work. Besides, you're hardly one to talk. All you MS pilots ever see is the enemy machine. You never have to actually see the people you're killing, don't have to look them in the eye when you pull the trigger or press the switch. After you've done that a few times, maybe then I'll let you criticize me." Victor snarled. Dearka held up his hands placatingly.
"Is there nothing we can do to help?" Kira asked, his fists clenched.
"No." Alkire said decisively. "We can get revenge, that's about it. Even if my jet was nearby, by the time I finished the preflight, those nukes will have hit their targets. We'd only put ourselves in danger of crashing in the winds caused by the explosions. And your mobile suits are in Orb, which means they are as close to impossible to get as can be."
"So we can do nothing but pray?" Lacus said. Alkire nodded, his eyes blazing.
"Who would do this? ZAFT?" Cagalli asked into the silence.
"Hardly. The civilians would murder us all in our beds if we initiated an unprovoked nuclear attack on Earth." Ysak declared.
"Probably Blue Cosmos again. Not too surprising, though nuking their own side is a bit much, even for them." Raine sighed. "They've got their excuse. Nobody will criticize them for retaliating after an unprovoked nuclear attack. I think the war just got started again and worse this time." It was at this time that two streaks of light barely identifiable to the Coordinators present as the two missiles shot down from the heavens back into the view of the camera.
"Oh…" the cameraman and reporter on scene were heard to mutter before the entire screen flashed blinding white before turning to static and then black as Alkire turned it off. Nothing happened for a minute or two, leaving everyone to look around in puzzlement and hope. However, the faint ray of hope was soon extinguished when the ground trembled slightly all around them.
"There's the concussion wave." Victor noted dryly. No one said anything as the tremors continued for several more minutes before dying away. "It should be safe now, if we want to go topside. Nukes that small, the radiation will be confined mostly to the blast area." Without a word, everyone hurried for the stairs up and out of the bunker complex. Ysak was first up the stairs.
"Oh… man…" he gasped, staring at the double mushroom cloud that glowed brilliant pink and orange and grey on the horizon. That entire section of sky was tinted orange and red from all the vaporized dust swirling through the air. As people came out behind Ysak they each responded in their own way. Alkire and the members of TEMPEST murmured curses under their breath at the awful sight, while Lacus, Miriallia, Chanel and Katie were quick to shed tears for all those lost. Athrun and Cagalli looked grim and squeezed hands, while Kira stood as still as a statue. Dearka tried to comfort Mir, but was struggling not to weep himself. He remembered Junius Seven as well as any Coordinator. Any Coordinator that didn't cry or feel horrible at seeing a nuclear attack had something wrong with them, in his opinion. Hell, anyone that didn't feel a twinge of fear when seeing a mushroom cloud was a little crazy, in his opinion, Natural or Coordinator.