At long last they were headed for the Archangel. It wasn't like they had much of a choice, Kira reflected. If they wanted to be able to play a part in stopping the war from escalating any urther than it already had, they needed mobility and flexibility. And they simply could not support their new mobile suits out of Alkire's bunker-house. Most of the mobile suits may not have needed recharging, but there were dozens of things mobile suits required that Alkire simply could not provide... lubricants, coolants, ammunition, replacement parts, etc. And also, sooner or later they would have been tracked back there and then things would have been over.
The Earth Forces would have swarmed them... or maybe even nuked them, if Blue Cosmos had as much control as Kira feared it did. And so, by unanimous vote, they had decided to go find the Archangel, then go to the Kusanagi. A quick few calls by Cagalli had alerted Desert Dawn to their intentions, and she had recieved specific directions to find the hidden cavern-storage barn where the Archangel was concealed. The crew was also being gathered as they flew. Alkire had elected to come with them, as had the rest of TEMPEST. Kira was hardly surprised. The commando team seemed to have adopted Ysak as a sort of soon to be son in law, and the rest of them as good friends.
Still, he had some misgivings about having them along. Their philosophy's were sure to clash in the future, and Kira just didn't see any way he could bring Alkire, Raine and the others around to his way of thinking. Athrun would honor honor his wishes that people not be killed, as would Cagalli to the best of her ability. Dearka would try, especially if Miriallia urged him, and Ysak... well Ysak wouldn't care. But Ysak was somehow a different case than the TEMPEST members. Ysak didn't... enjoy combat like they did. Well... he enjoyed combat, but he didn't seek it out like Alkire and company did. Kira often felt that nothing else existed besides war in the minds of TEMPEST. When they weren't fighting they were preparing to fight. When they weren't preparing to fight, they were dreaming about fighting.
And they would use every underhanded trick in the book... plus a few they made up themselves... to win. Shooting people in the back, slitting their throats while they were asleep, leaving bombs, poisons... you name it, they'd use it someway to kill the "enemy". And they absolutely did not feel at all bad about it. Not guilty, not repentant, not sorry... if anything they felt good. Felt like they'd done their job. Kira just knew there would be a lot of conflicts between him and them. And between Lacus and them. And Lacus didn't need to be under any more stress than she already was, being worried about him going out to fight and stop battles like he was. Sure... he might very well be the best mobile suit pilot out there, but she would worry anyway.
Kira wouldn't have it any other way. It felt quite good to have someone worrying about him and to have someone to worry about in turn. Someone to protect. It made everything... more real. Personal. He could really put his heart and soul into getting this war stopped as quickly as possible so he could go back to being what he wanted. a normal kid, with a happy relationship with the people most important to him. Kira shook his head, dropping out of reverie to check his displays. Nothing showed besides the blips that represented Athrun flying ahead of him, Ysak to the left, Dearka right, Cagalli below and Alkire to the rear. Kira was flying at the top of the formation, above everyone else, so that if trouble did occur he was equidistant from them all and would be coming down in a dive, which would maximize the surprise to the enemy.
Thus far they had had to fly around two battle zones, but had encountered no other trouble. Kira wished he could have stepped in to both of those battles, because he surely would have been able to stop them quite cold... but if he had he would have exposed Lacus and everyone else in Alkire's jet to danger... and he just could not do that. He knew he couldn't always be concerned about Lacus's saftey or he'd start becoming a liability to the things he really wanted to do... stop the war, bring peace, etc. But until she was safe on the Archangel he'd be on tenterhooks. He knew it, he accepted it. It didn't make it any easier.
They were currently flying over the Indian Ocean, having just passed the western border of the Oceania Union a little less than an hour ago. That still put them at more than ten hours flight from the eastern shore of Africa, and a further four hours from there to the Archangel's location. Kira shifted uncomfortably. Mobile suits were not deisgned, for the most part, to be long range transports. Some exceptions did exist, like the recon Ginn he'd been forced to kill in the ruins of Junius Seven. But the Liberty and indeed all the other mobile suits piloted by his friends were not such an exception. The seat which was comfortable enough for a ten or even thirty minute battle was like a bed of iron nails after ten hours and the polymer straps which kept him in it were like bars of hot steel across his chest, even through his padded flight suit.
Also, the sanitary facilty was totally lacking... pilots were supposed to be empty before they sortied. And he only had three water bottles and a few tubes of yogurt to subsist on till next they landed... which would be on the African coast. Plainly put, it was not a fun experience. He'd tried to sleep but found he could not trust the autopilot. He knew it was perfectly safe... but that didn't stop him from scanning his scopes intently every five minutes or so, just to make sure nothing was going wrong. Nevermind that the LRR array on the Grand Buster had ten times the range of his sensors... he still couldn't help checking.
He couldn't even talk to Lacus, except over the open channel that everyone used. And simply put, most of the stuff he wanted to talk to her about really wasn't for public digestion. Some of it was about Alkrie and company, some about what they should be focusing on during the war... but most were more personal than that. He wanted to see what she thought about a few things which were bothering him, see her perspective on Athrun and Cagalli and even Dearka and Miriallia. She was so much better at the whole emotional thing than he was... he felt lost and confused by it all while she knew exactly how people were feeling. He also wanted her to sing him a song. One of the gentle ones, where her voice would flow like water running down a stream. That would put him to sleep like he needed to be.
He didn't mean that in a bad way, as though her songs bored him. Quite the opposite, they entranced him so much he totally blocked out the outside world and could really, totally relax. She sang him to sleep whenever he woke with nightmares... it worked like a charm... better than any medication. And if her songs could put him out when he was as keyed up as he was after a nightmare, then everyone else would probably go out too... and then the jet would crash and lots of other bad things would ensue. He envied Dearka and Miriallia their tandem cockpit, even though he knew Lacus would not voluntarily enter a mobile suit under any but the most dire of situations.
So it was that Kira tossed and turned and grouched and grew steadily more intolerant of everyone and everything around him. By the time they reached the African coast he was nearly to the point where he wanted to punch something. He hoped they didn't encounter any enemies on their way to the Archangel... it'd go rough for the foe if they did.