"That'll light a fire under their asses." Cervantes commented smugly to Asmodeus. He stood in a private observation dome in Gypsy City, on the Earth's moon. Gypsy City was a center of lunar industry and commerce, on the far side of the moon from the Ptolmeus crater and destroyed Earth Alliance space fleet headquarters. Naturally, Cosmos Manufucturers had many interests and subcompanies situated there. Cervantes had nominally come up on the biannual inspection tour, but in reality he was enjoying watching his plan to restart the war between the PLANTS and the Earth come to fruition.

"Which side do you refer to?" Asmodeus asked, swirling his drink as he stared at images from Junius Six on several large view screens situated below the observation screens of the dome. He was still sweating slightly, from the effort of piloting the Purifier first to the ZAFT defense line, then into battle against ZAFT forces, which had been tough, if supremely satisfying, and then finally back to the moon after Frost entered the colony. The view screens showed several views from ZAFT news and military channels, showing teams of Ginns and Cgue's slowly searching through the ruins of the cities and towns inside Junius Six for the Fury. Several of the screens were live feeds from the Fury's own external cameras. Currently Frost was amusing himself by playing hide and stalk with several Ginns in a ruined former factory district. Frost was slowly killing them off one by one, disabling the machines and dragging them off to the center of the factory, where he left the pilots trapped in their inert machines, all piled together.

"Both sides of course. Neither side will tolerate an "unprovoked" attack of this level. There is no doubt in their minds that each side attacked the other in horrific fashion, completely without warning. I don't doubt the PLANTS will be making a rather fiery announcement in an hour or two. I'll have to get on the line to the President soon, to give him some friendly advice and our complete support in this tragic situation." Cervantes started chuckling uncontrollably. His humor slowly built into a full throated laugh that left him gasping for breath. "God, I feel like a child again."

"Don't get too distracted by amusement, sir. We still have a long way to go with JIHAD before we can relax." Asmodeus warned. Cervantes calmed and took a drink from his own cup.

"Of course, of course, Captain. You are right, of course. Tell me, how do you rate Frost and the Fury?" Cervantes asked, studying the screens himself.

"He's as effective as I was told he would be. I wouldn't put him in the battle line with other soldiers, but as a weapon of terror, he's scarier than a nuclear missile, by far. Are you sure we can control him? If he went rogue…" Asmodeus said, trailing off with a shiver.

"The damage would be tremendous, yes. But we have sufficient control over him for now. We let him do what he wants to do, and the bomb on the Fury can eliminate him at any time. He'll remain loyal, for the moment. And later on, he'll be far too busy to worry about turning on us. I intend to push him to his limit." Cervantes promised. "And the Purifier, how was it to pilot a mobile suit in battle?"

"A dream come true, sir. There's no describing the feeling of power I felt when I was in that pilot's seat. The Purifier is an amazing weapon. I can see why the Calamity, Forbidden and Raider had such trouble with it. If a pilot of more than my middling skill were to pilot it, it would be fearsome indeed." Asmodeus replied, his voice awed.

"As fearsome as Frost and the Fury?" Cervantes asked guardedly.

"… No. But nearly. The multiple target system…"

"I understand. We borrowed that for the Fury, Bane and Merciless as well. The ability to engage entire enemy units at once is highly useful. I'm glad you enjoyed the mission. If you wish, you may keep that Purifier as your own personal transport. The second one is nearly finished, and after that the factory will be cranking one out every two weeks or so."

"Thank you, sir, I will. Have the Bane and the Merciless returned safely?" Asmodeus asked. Cervantes touched a control and one of the screens switched to a data flow.

"Yes. No damage, to either. Lieutenant Thresher is ecstatic at the destructive potential of the Merciless." Cervantes informed his friend.

"What about Ashino? He's the sanest of the three, what did he report?"

"Ashino hasn't said much. He might be the sanest of the three, but he's still not sane. He withdraws into himself after every battle; he's done it since he reached BCPU level four. He'll be uncommunicative for the next several hours or days, depending."

"Well, the opening operations seem to have been successful, sir. You have my congratulations."

"Yes… but its time to move on, you're right. I have to go off and talk to that worthless president. It'd be so much easier if I was president."

"No, sir. You know I won't let you assassinate the president."

"Of course, I was just joking… I'm fully aware of how far you'll go, Asmodeus." Cervantes said, shrugging the subject off. "How is my soon to be son in law?"

"Sai was in Pearl Harbor during the attack… an unforeseen trip. He is, however, unharmed. Shaken, angry and frightened, but unharmed. My sources say…" Asmodeus paused to call up a data screen of his own. "He was in our Pearl Harbor offices, in the executive spaces. That building was outside the destructive radius of the blasts. Some windows were broken and several people were temporarily blinded, but that's it. Sai helped carry wounded victims from out of the blast area until the authorities arrived… which was about five minutes ago. He is currently waiting for transport through the blast area so he can return to your island, sir. I have ten of my best soldiers watching him and protecting him at all times." Asmodeus replied.

"That's a relief. Vanai would be devastated if anything happened to him."

"Nothing will touch him, sir. But he's not fitting in too well with Blue Cosmos. He's not a true believer yet. He prefers the idea of just kicking the Coordinators off Earth and forgetting about them, rather than getting rid of them all together."

"He'll change his opinion after a few ZAFT attacks. Everyone is always more conciliatory towards the start of a conflict. Let a few cities be nuked… a few colonies be destroyed… then we'll hear much less talk of agreements and compromises and much more of vengeance and extermination. That's how the last war would have been, if a small band of Coordinators and Coordinator lovers hadn't interfered." Cervantes said with certainty. "When is the wedding?"

"Three months from now. I felt it was best to wait until after the initial salvos, for things to calm down a bit. Then, you can use the wedding as a boost to morale when the initial surge of anger starts to fade." Asmodeus reported. Cervantes smiled.

"As usual, my friend, you are considering every possible angle."

"It is what you pay me for, sir."

"Among other things." Cervantes said leadingly. Asmodeus looked at his boss expectantly.

"Yes, sir?" he asked quietly. "You have need of field work, then?"

"Yes, of the kind you did both before and during the last war. You know that group that has been striking at our training facilities? I want them hunted down and wiped out. The cover of the war should keep your efforts from being noticed." Cervantes ordered. Asmodeus nodded and then looked closely at the other man.

"That… seems a little… pointless, sir. Why hunt them down now? There is no way they can…" Asmodeus began.

"No way such a small group can be a threat to JIHAD and the war? What about last time? All it took were three half manned ships and a handful of children to bring the last war to a premature close." Cervantes countered grimly. "No, something bothers me about an elite group waiting out in the night, gunning for me and Blue Cosmos. I want them taken out before they show up at the wrong moment. Or worse, what if such a group were to stumble upon the JIHAD facility itself? They were active in the Andes before. A few tons of explosives could bring my dream crashing in flaming ruin."

"Of course sir. What are my resources and timeframe?"

"Take whatever you need. If you need to requisition anything bigger than an Agamemnon Class, please at least tell me." Cervantes said with a hint of sarcasm. "Do it as soon as possible."

Asmodeus saluted. "Yes, sir." He said as he quickly walked from the room. When Cervantes wanted something done as soon as possible, it meant he'd be asking in a few days time if it was done or not. Not much time to put an operation together, considering Asmodeus didn't even know where the enemy was. But that kind of pressure was what made the job fun.

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"The damage doesn't look so bad." Chanel commented as she looked out the window of Alkire's jet as it circled the blast area. "Most of the buildings are still standing."

"What were you expecting? A meteor crater?" Victor said with a snort. "Explosions aren't that destructive, despite what many believe. Much of the force of the blast is wasted because there is plenty of room for the gas and heat to expand into. Plus these were baby nukes, designed for planetary battlefield use, not strategic destruction. If one of the missiles that they used on Boaz had landed here, there wouldn't be much left but rubble and ash."

"It's bad enough as it is." Kira said icily. Victor nodded his head, unable to argue. What Chanel had said was true. Most buildings, except those in immediate proximity to where the missiles had landed were still standing. Of course, standing was all they were. No glass remained in their windows and Victor knew that if you went inside them all you would find would be ash, rubble and corpses burned almost unidentifiable. In the buildings closest to the blast area there would be humanoid shaped pale areas on walls, where people's shadows had blocked the intense light and heat enough to spare the wall some damage. In buildings farther away you'd find less burn damage but more shockwave damage. Glass windows would have turned into clouds of half molten glass splinters in an instant, propelled inwards with the force of bullets. Most people probably never knew what hit them. Bringing the bodies out of those buildings would not be easy or fun.

"Why would someone do this?" Lacus asked for perhaps the sixth time. Nobody was able to answer her. Nobody could think of a justification for this sort of attack.

"To provoke a war even greater than the last one." Alkire said tightly over the intercom. "The news videos of this are going to ignite the population of the Earth. Even diehard pacifists will be joining the military to get even for this "ZAFT sneak attack". There'll be widespread panic among the civilian population, a call to action that will allow the people behind this monstrosity to do what they want to do… wipe out the Coordinators, to the last man, woman and child."

"And the same thing will be happening in the PLANTS. They can't exactly ignore the attack on Junius Six. The footage of Frost tearing through the defense fleet will make many Coordinators nervous. They'll demand an equal or preferably greater force be created to defend against further attacks. And when you have that sort of power lying around, it's only a matter of time before it's used for offense, no matter what it was originally intended for. Just look at GENESIS… a propulsion source used as a weapon of mass destruction." Raine added.

"Can we stop talking about the implications? I think we all get it! This is bad; the war's going to start up again! We all know that. We should be thinking about what we're going to do in response!" Athrun said with a hint of anger.

"Hit back, of course." Ysak replied with more than a hint of irritation himself.

"Hit who back?" Cagalli said witheringly. "ZAFT thinks the Earth Forces attacked them without warning and the Earth thinks they were attacked by ZAFT without warning. Who do we hit?"

"Blue Cosmos." Katie answered. "They're behind it all, right?"

"Yes, but how do we separate Blue Cosmos from the Earth Forces?" Lacus countered. "If we just attack the Earth Forces in general, that won't help the problem."

"We can help you with target selection. We've been hitting Blue Cosmos specific targets for a while now." Victor said. "But enough about the future, I think we've got plenty to worry about in the present, right, Alkire?"

"True, Victor… for instance, I think I found a place to land… everyone hang on, it might be a little bumpy." Alkire responded, as the plane started to descend. Sai, below in the city, looked up as the plane roared by overhead.

-------------------------------------------

"I wonder what that plane thinks its doing?" Sai said to no one in particular.

"Landing, sir." A voice said from close by. Sai jumped, having thought he was alone. Standing a few paces behind him was a man dressed in urban camouflage clothing and battle paint, holding a wicked looking assault rifle in his hands.

"Who the…" Sai began, stepping back in surprise.

"I work for Captain Sark. You might say I'm part of the CWM security force. The same goes for my men." The man replied casually. Sai looked around warily; he didn't see anyone else nearby. The security man chuckled quietly. "Please, give us some credit sir, if you could spot my men, what good would we be?"

"Okay… I guess I understand. I just didn't know I'd been assigned bodyguards, that's all." Sai replied. The security man shrugged slightly.

"If it hadn't been for this attack, you still wouldn't know. I find the best way to protect someone is for them to not even know they are being protected. Invariably the client always gives the guards away when he knows they are around, which makes their job exponentially harder. But in the wake of a nuclear attack, I figured that your present safety takes precedence over the future. My men are currently searching out transportation to get you to the nearest functioning airport, so we can get you home to your lovely wife."

"Um… thanks. Er… what's your name, so I can thank you properly?" Sai asked. The security man glanced at him with distant eyes. Sai shivered slightly, this man creeped him out just a little bit.

"You may address me as Lieutenant. My name is of no importance to you." The man replied.

"Well… thank you, Lieutenant, for your help." Sai managed.

"No problem sir, it's what I do." The Lieutenant said and then touched his ear, which held a very tiny communication device no doubt. "My men have located a vehicle. Please, come this way, sir." Sai followed the Lieutenant down the rubble strewn street. He kept looking out of the corners of his eyes, hoping to spot the other men in the security force, but he never could manage to see more than a hint of movement. The Lieutenant muttered orders constantly, so low Sai couldn't make anything out, though he assumed the Lieutenant was having his men flank them and check out the buildings and wreckage to either side as they moved. After about ten minutes of careful walking, the Lieutenant held up his closed left fist. Even Sai knew that meant "halt", so he did. "Here's the vehicle." The Lieutenant said, with a flick of his head. Sai looked in the indicated direction.

"You mean that jeep with the roll cage?" Sai asked, a bit confused.

"Yes… it has the capabilities we might need to get you to the airport. Please climb into the back center passenger seat, sir."

"Okay…" Sai did as ordered, climbing into the old jeep and looking around. Three more men dressed in urban camouflage fatigues had appeared from nowhere while he had been getting into the jeep. All were armed similarly to the Lieutenant. Jeez… Cervantes must take security pretty seriously… these guys aren't joking around. Who knows how many more are still out there. Hey… wait a minute…these guys probably guard me around the clock…that means… "Hey, Lieutenant!" Sai called. The Lieutenant looked up from the huddle he was having with his men.

"Yes, sir?"

"Just how long have you been guarding me?"

"Ever since you proposed to Mr. Zunnichi's daughter."

"And you guy's guard me around the clock, no matter where I am?"

"That is the idea of having bodyguards, sir. Round the clock protection, indiscriminate of location."

"Does that mean… you have me under observation… even when I'm at home?" Sai asked, getting to what he was uncomfortable about. I don't like the idea of performing for an audience.

"Of course sir. Threat level actually increases when you're at home, because then potential attackers know exactly where you are and can plan for most eventualities." The Lieutenant paused and gave a very small smile. "We exercise the utmost discretion, sir. You need not fear for your privacy. Even if we did observe anything, we would never tell anyone, it would be a fatal breach of professionalism."

"I don't know if I should feel better or worse." Sai said. The Lieutenant and his men came over and boarded the jeep as well. The Lieutenant was in the front passenger seat, and one of the other men was driving, while the other two squeezed Sai protectively between them.

"It's best if you just try to forget we're around. You'll never see us, so just try not to worry. Now hold on, sir. This ride might get a little rough."

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"Where are the rescue people?" Dearka asked, looking around the deserted highway just outside the city where Alkire had landed his jet. "You'd think this place would be swamped with military and civilian personnel right now."

"Not necessarily. This isn't just a car bombing or drive by shooting, you know. Two nuclear missiles landed about two miles north of here less than two hours ago, after two unknown mobile suits half destroyed Pearl Harbor fleet base. The military is still probably a little busy manning battle stations and getting reorganized. As for the civilian rescue details… well, most of them are probably dead. It'll take time for rescue elements from other cities and even further away to make an appearance. Give it another four hours and you'll be able to walk from here to the ocean on the heads of rescue workers." Alkire replied.

"So why are we here then?" Ysak asked. Chanel and Katie both kicked him. "What?"

"In four hours many wounded people will have died from their injuries. There may not be many of us, but even rendering basic first aid will save many people's lives. So that's what we're going to do. We may not be able to save even a small fraction of the wounded in the city, but does that mean we shouldn't try?" Raine responded, unloading several large white metal boxes with red crosses on them from the back of the jet.

"Of course we'll help." Lacus said determindedly. Kira nodded his willingness as well. Athrun went over and picked up one of the medical supply boxes.

"We'd be able to do more if we split up. Should we just meet up back here in say, three hours or so?" Athrun said.

"I don't like the idea of splitting up." Alkire said immediately.

"Oh, come on. We're all armed and the people around here are hardly going to be in a mental state for violence. Like you said, most are going to be wounded in some manner or other. And given how many wounded there are likely to be, it's not like we'll get more than a few blocks in three hours. We should still be within shouting distance of at least some of the rest of us at all times." Ysak retorted.

"All right, all right, you make sense. I admit it. But you'd better be back at the jet in no more than three and a quarter hours." Alkire ordered. Everyone agreed and split up, each group taking a box of medical supplies. Kira, Lacus, Dearka and Miriallia went together as one group. Cagalli and Athrun went off by themselves, as did Ysak, Chanel and Katie. Raine, Alkire and Vlad formed another group, while Victor and James remained behind to guard the jet.

Kira's group immediately headed into the city. Out near the fringes where they were, the damage wasn't so bad. A few small buildings had collapsed and there was a lot of broken glass and debris lying around, but for the most part the buildings were standing and the streets were clear. Fires burned in some spots, sending plumes of grayish smoke into the air and several cars were overturned at one intersection, not from the blast but from the driver's panicking due to the explosion.

Of course, the area was still devastated and scores of people in various stages of shock or injury lay, sat or walked about. Kira immediately helped an eldery woman sit down; the woman was bleeding from a ragged gash on one arm and above her left eye, but was just wandering aimlessly about. Dearka and Miriallia went into a nearby building, the remains of a small business it looked like and started helping people with glass cuts and a few broken bones make their way out of the lobby and nearby office spaces. Kira left the eldery woman with Lacus and searched out the more seriously wounded people he could see.

Kira had to shut his eyes at times, to avoid looking at the bodies and parts of bodies that were scattered here and there in the ruined buildings and near the wrecked cars. Some body parts were charred almost skeletal and must have been thrown here from much closer to the blast area. Most injuries consisted of cuts or gashes from flying glass or debris, or broken bones from being knocked around by the concussion wave. The more serious cases consisted of two compound thigh fractures, which required most of Lacus's attention, several amputated fingers, an amputated ear, and the worst case, a man who had caught a face full of molten glass, which blinded him and covered more than half his face in third degree burns.

"These poor people." Lacus sobbed. Kira put an arm on her shoulder to comfort her and tried to stifle his own emotions. How can people fight wars when this is the result? Why do weapons like nuclear missiles even exist?" "How could they do this? How could they do this to their own people?" Lacus asked through her tears.

"They want to do this to our people. That's all that matters to them. So they did this to make people angry and willing to do what they want." Kira said, clenching his fists in anger of his own.

"That doesn't make any sense. Can't they see how crazy that is?" Lacus complained.

"They can't. That's the problem. Their hate and fear blinds them so much that they can't see even something as obvious as that." Kira replied. Dearka and Miriallia came over then.

"Why don't you and Lacus go out and do some searching and leave the tending to Mir and I for the moment." Dearka suggested. "We're bushed. Going through those ruined buildings takes a lot out of you."

"Physically and emotionally." Mir added tiredly. "Those poor people… a lot of them never knew what hit them. We… we searched through a collapsed day care center… it… was…"

"Shh. It's okay." Dearka said, interrupting her as he pulled her into a tight embrace. He looked at Kira. "You should be careful. We stumbled into a few bad sights, if you know what I mean. And some of these buildings are only standing by a little bit. I saw several stairways collapse just as I walked by."

"Okay. Thanks for the tip." Kira said, as he and Lacus headed in the opposite direction Dearka and Mir had just come from. For a block or so there were no buildings that looked even remotely safe to enter, so Kira and Lacus stuck to the street. They had just reached another intersection when the noise of a car engine caused Kira to halt. "Someone's coming." He told Lacus. Some sixth sense told Kira to get off the street, so he did, pulling Lacus into a partly collapsed convenience store.

"What?" Lacus breathed into his ear.

"A bad feeling." Kira replied. He watched the intersection carefully. The car noise drew steadily closer. As it did so, several nearby civilians noticed and ran towards the intersection.

"Hey… a car, a car!" one shouted.

"Stop! Stop, please!" another cried.

"I'm hurt! Please take me to a hospital!" a third yelled, holding up a heavily bandaged arm that had red stains all over it. Kira's bad feeling got about ten times worse, as the car noise dropped off very suddenly, likely because the car had slowed to a walk. Kira looked expectantly at the intersection, as did Lacus. They were so intent on the people outside Kira didn't notice the back door to the store opening until the man in urban camouflage was completely past the threshold. Kira spun as the man brought up his wicked looking assault rifle. Lacus screamed as the man opened up with a short burst of automatic fire that shredded the shelving around them. Kira dived on top of her and crushed them both flat to the floor.

"Two civilian kids. They're in the store on your right." Kira heard the man whisper very quietly. "They're still alive. I just warned them. How should I proceed?" the soldier continued, obviously talking to someone through a communication device. "It's just the kids, the rest of the place is clear." The soldier paused a moment. "Yes, sir." He said respectfully. "Okay, kids, sorry for the scare there." The soldier said in a normal voice. "There's an important person being evactuated past here and we're all a little jumpy. You two just stay right where you are until the jeep passes and we'll have no problems."

"Why the hell did you shoot at us?" Kira asked firmly.

"Like I said, we're all a little jumpy. This place just got nuked ya know. The damn PLANTS sent some of their new MS models down to tear up the fleet base. They did a damn good job of it too, damn them. There's not much left of the pacific fleet. And then they nuked the city, just like those monsters have always wanted to do." The man replied evenly.

"Why would they want to nuke a city? They know what that's like. Why would they want to do that to us?" Lacus asked, trying to circumspectly point out the error in the soldier's thinking. The man laughed, from his position by the rear door.

"Why do the damn Coordinators do anything? They're genocidal war maniacs, that's why. Space monsters." He replied with more than a hint of bitterness.

"That's not true!" Lacus couldn't help but blurt out. The soldier's laugh took on a grim tone.

"Isn't it? You two probably don't know much about it, but the PLANTS used a weapon called GENESIS to wipe out the Ptolemais Lunar Base. They were going to fire it at Earth, to kill everyone, but it was blown up before they could." The soldier replied. Kira heard him moving toward the front of the store and he clamped a hand over Lacus's mouth to keep her from replying and possibly getting the soldier angry. The man was plainly an adherent of the Blue Cosmos philosophy. "Smokes… don't mind if I do." The soldier said lightly. Kira could just barely make out the man reach over the counter and rummage around in the tobacco cabinent. "Not like the storekeeper's ever gonna smoke again, with that wound."

"What storekeeper?" Kira asked.

"The dead guy with half his head missing behind the counter here. Looks like he was facing away from the blast wave that threw the cash register into his skull. Messy. You shouldn't look at it." The soldier replied calmly, like seeing a horribly dead man lying on the ground was nothing strange. There came a clicking noise and the smell of smoke. "Ah, that tastes good." The soldier commented to nobody. He stared out at the intersection. "Damn civilians are gonna get killed if they don't get out of the way."

"The people outside?" Kira asked. "But they're just trying to get help."

"They should get it elsewhere. The jeep doesn't have time for them." The soldier said flatly.

"Hey! Stop! My brother needs help! Stop!" one of the civilians outside yelled.

"Fool." The soldier said contemptuously. A single gunshot sounded from outside. The civilian stopped yelling. Lacus started to breathe much quicker, beginning to panic. Kira patted her back to calm her down.

"Did… did the people in the jeep…" Kira started to say.

"Don't ask me that. I don't wanna have to silence you kids." The soldier warned. Kira shut up, given all the answer he needed. The soldier waited about a half minute more. "All right, we're clear. I'm going now. You kids stay safe. You should head home, stay indoors until the authorities arrive. And if you're real smart, you'll forget everything about the jeep and me." The soldier said, moving back out the rear door and disappearing into the city. Kira wasted no time in jumping up and heading out the front door of the store. One of the civilians was lying in the middle of the street, a gaping bullet wound in his neck. Blood coated the street around the obviously dead man. The other two civilians were nowhere to be seen. Kira looked around. He could make out the jeep, which was painted black and looked extremely battered as it turned at the next intersection up the road, farther away from Dearka and Miriallia, thankfully. Kira's jaw dropped. He knew who the passenger in the jeep was, even though he was seated between two more soldiers in the urban camouflage.

"Sai…?" Kira gasped. It was unmistakably his friend though. He was even wearing his signature orange tinted sunglasses. Kira opened his mouth to shout but quickly thought better of it. The soldiers didn't seem to be afraid of killing people who just got in their way. And the way the soldier in the store had talked, they wanted to go unnoticed. If Kira called out to Sai, he'd be noticing them in a big way. "What is Sai doing here?" Kira mumbled before going back into the store to help Lacus.