The Golden Age: Chaotic Cosmos

by Maderfole

Book 1 of The Golden Age trilogy. Peace is attained, but even worse chaos lurks just below the surface, waiting to consume the entire Seed cosmos in a war to dwarf all previous wars. The beginning of the epic story. FINISHED. Continued in Eden Disaster.

102. Absolute Zero

THEN

"So, you don't think this is a big deal then?" Sai asked, nodding his head at the digital timers that were still taking the place of al his computer's other functions, feeling a good deal more chipper than was usual for this time of morning. It really was incredible what a night with your family could do for you, especially since it was such a rare thing these days. He hadn't even had to chug down a thermos of coffee yet,and given that it was almost six thirty in the morning, THAT was saying something.

"That's not quite what I meant." Cyprus replied, still with his gaze and attention fixed upon the three timers. "Someone, somewhere has managed to hack into our most secure data networks and has downloaded some form of net virus or hostile program onto your computer, sir. That is a grave matter indeed. Especially since our own computer experts can't figure out how to debug this attack... nobody can get any further into the computer than this, even when we break it apart and switch out the hard drives. The old hard drives corrupt new machines, new hard drives are corrupted by something, somewhere in this one. Its information warfare on a level I've never seen before, albeit, not particularly fierce warfare. So far we've detected no hostile or unauthorized downloads, and even all the authorized downloads are checking out. So far."

"I wonder what whoever it is is trying to say? "Angry Sky"... "The End of All"... "Fin"? Talk about cryptic. What's the point of hacking into a system like this and leaving something like this, if it's just a bunch of gobblygook?" Sai turned the problem over and over in his head as hard as he could, but no matter what angle he looked at it from, it didn't start making any more sense. "Maybe it's a taunt? A sort of, "Hey, look what I can do, even to your most secure system" sort of thing?"

"That is likely part of it. If that's the totality of this, then whoever did this is very childish. They had unlimited access to our system files... everything in the Isolation, really... from the moment you opened this file. But as far as we can tell,nothing was taken, nothing is damaged, and nothing besides this timer program has been inserted. If was just a game of "look what I can do", it must be a very, very idle game to whoever did this, if they can do that and just want to taunt us. Now we're going to be looking for someone. Very hard. There MUST be something more to this than just a show off." Cyprus shook his head, irritated. Information warfare wasn't his forte by any means, but psychological warfare was, and the two were often closely related. and this was one of the most contrary and confusing examples of psychological warfare he'd ever seen. It demonstrated extreme technical skill and planning, but had apparently sputtered out into what amounted to a "come and get me" sign, when hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worth of damage and tens of thousands of man hours of time wasted could have been caused.

"What about the video clips showing Frost and his new Gundam?"

"I've alerted the forces at Panama, and they are currently searching the area thoroughly, but given the nature of the terrain around there, and the relative vagueness of what you described from the video clip, I don't expect them to find him before he moves on, unless he attacks them. Which, given his personality and history, is reasonably likely, actually. I've taken the liberty of diverting additional forces to the area, as backup in case of a sudden engagement. Given the capabilities of the Gundam, and the capabilities of Frost, no matter what sort of conditions we engage him under, save the very most favorable, our losses will be severe."

"Yeah, no kidding." Sai winced, his gut feeling like it had dropped down to his toes just at the thought. "Why now... why delay so long, but start moving now? What's the significance? Is there any? He's certifiably insane, but I can't help but look for some sort of reason or plan behind his actions." Sai gritted his teeth in frustration. "Damn me if I can think of anything though."

"Sir, if you could even fractionally understand and decipher the actions of that monster, I'd have to declare you medically unfit for duty and have you placed in a mental ward." Cyprus replied, not really joking very much. "Its enough that we know he's on the move, and headed in a generally northern direction. All forces in the Atlantic Federation in both North and South hemispheres, including as far out as places as Orb, have been placed on just below red alert status, with the capability of mustering full combat forces in a matter of minutes. I've also put in orders to have the security around Denver increased substantially. Beyond that, there isn't much we can do... we can't take too much away from our ZAFT deterrent forces, or else they might think they can try something at the last moment."

"I'm expecting them to try something at the last moment anyway." Sai pointed out. "They'd be failing their people if they didn't."

"As am I, sir, which is why it is extremely important that we not deplete our orbital, near space and sub-orbital defense forces. As of right now, especially with some of the new ground based defensive installations coming online in the past few weeks, I feel confident in our ability to see off any last ZAFT gasp, even up to and including a full on orbital bombardment and nuclear strikes, both of which our analysts seem to think are reasonably likely. All forces are conducting extra training in missile and low orbit warship interdiction efforts. The airspace above Denver, and most other major Isolation installations, I would tenatively qualify as "impenetrable" to conventional or even WMD attack from ZAFT, given the forces they have remaining to them."

"And our intelligence has seen utterly no evidence of any large space based construction projects... unless they've somehow managed to totally bamboozle our intelligence networks, we won't be seeing a repeat of that melodramatic, converted giant space laser they tried to use last time."

"You cannot deny that it was a very effective, melodramatic, converted giant space laser though, sir. But I agree... if they had something like GENESIS ready, they'd have already showed it to us, rather then waiting until the absolute last minute. According to our projections, given nominal food stocks in the PLANTS at the time of the Earth Isolation, they'll have to sue for peace sometime within the next two weeks, or else let their entire society go to hell. We can hold out for two weeks against anything they have left to throw at us. I'd almost garuantee it, sir."

"An almost garuantee from you, Cyprus, is more than good enough for me." Sai said with a grin. "Well, thanks for giving your opinion and advice. I think we can put this on the back burner for now, at least until the Isolation is finished. On to the real fun part... the legislative and judicial comittee appointments."

"You shouldn't use foul language like that sir, it's not nice."

NOW

"Well, I guess I don't have too much more time, do I?" Sai asked, talking more to himself than to anyone in particular. He still received an answer though. It wasn't totally surprising, given the number of people around. He was planning to give his very first "State of the World" public address, which would be broadcast all over the Earth and up to the Moon as well. The signals were being very carefully calibrated so that they would NOT radiate to the PLANTS... it was a lot of extra hassle on the tech department end, but it was high time they started getting used to doing it, in his mind. It was going to become the norm, after all. The PLANTS could probably still pick up the broadcast, assuming they had people on the Moon, which he assumed they did, but they had teams watching for covert communications relays... with any luck at all, Cyprus's counter-intelligence units would net a good haul of ZAFT operatives and conspirators during the course of his broadcast, as they sought to send the signal to their superiors in the PLANTS.

"Well, that's very true, Mr. President, sir, if you don't mind my agreeing with you." One of the nearby tech support people, setting up the podium, microphones and cameras that would send his words and image out across basically every major TV and radio channel on Earth, piped up. "At least if those clocks over there are right. I don't get it though, Mr. President... what do those captions mean, if I can ask?" The tech pointed behind Sai.

"I was actually hoping someone would eventually be able to tell me that." Sai muttered in slight disgruntlement. He looked over his shoulder at a laptop on a nearby table, it's screen completely blackened out except for the cryptic timers labeled Angry Sky, End of All and Fin, in blue, white and red. Last time he'd looked at that laptop, about two minutes ago, it had been displaying a write up of some of the questions he was expecting to get asked by the reporters. Sai turned and raised a hand slightly, snagging the attention of one of his technical advisors. "The timers are back."

"GodDAMN it!" The man swore under his breath. "It followed you AGAIN, sir! I DON'T get it... that's one of MY computers... I did the firewall and code locks on that unit MYSELF! They were airtight! You couldn't even get a Six Gold into that unit. Whoever's doing this, I want to shake their hand. And then wring their neck until they tell me HOW they're doing this! Do you want me to get you another computer, sir?"

"No, just leave it. I get the feeling that whoever is at the other end of this annoying phenomenon is getting a kick out of us replacing all these computers. They'll just hack the new one too. Obviously, whoever it is considers those timers very important, and doesn't want me forgetting about them. A simple phone call with a warning might be able to do the same thing, but apparently, that's too easy for our mystery hacker." Sai slumped his shoulders for a moment in irritation, but then quickly recovered his posture. It wouldn't do for people to see the President of the World moping like a nineteen year old who got turned down for a date, especially over something as trivial as this pointless hacker.

"You know Mr. President, it's kind of funny." The tech support guy said, as he finished positioning another microphone.

"What is?" Sai asked, somewhat absently, already running over the speech again in his mind.

"Well, given that we've never told anyone the exact time when you're going to give this address, the timer saying "The End of All" is only about three minutes off from your scheduled start time. Looks like that timer is going to run out just after you start the speech."

"It's almost creepy." Sai commented dryly. "The hacker's melodramatic sense of timing is somewhat in sync with my own. Imagine that. I guess great minds think alike, or some such rubbish as that."

The tech support guy chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so, Mr. President. Well, thats it for the set up, or nearly so. Guess I have to go back to just being part of the audience now. Good luck, sir. And, if I could... I'd like to thank you, sir, very much, for what you're doing."

"No, it's me that should be thanking you... and everyone else. I'm not doing this by myself, after all." Sai smiled and shook the man's hand warmly.

--

"Unidentified PLANT shuttle. We have you on our scopes. You are in a no fly zone. Divert from your intended course and return to your mothership. Do not attempt to enter the Earth's atmosphere. Repeating... DO NOT attempt to enter the atmosphere. If you proceed, we will shoot you down with no further warning." The radio crackled and fritzed from the beginnings of atmospheric inteference.

"Yadda, yadda, yadda." Alkire muttered under his breath, tensing his hands on the controls. "Could I have a medium fries and a coke with that too?"

"Are you ever serious, Robert?" Kisaka commented from the co-pilot's chair. "This is a life or death situation, and you insist on acting like you're some sort of commedian."

"Ledonir, its BECAUSE this is a life or death situation that I'm adopting my devil-may-care attitude. Because otherwise, I'd be a shivering wreck, no good to anyone. Because what we're doing, is, most likely, suicide. One way or another."

"You don't have confidence in your piloting skills?"

"Oh, I have LOTS of confidence in my skills. I just happen to be wise enough to not discount THEIR skills. Or the fact that, at least during the initial atmospheric entry, my maneuvering capability in this bird is essentially nil, unless I want to turn us into a phoenix."

"A phoenix?"

"As in, bird made of FIRE. Or in our case, flaming wreckage, because while the heat absorbing tiles on this baby are pretty good and tolerant of small errors... say, a couple degrees of slope either way from optimal... if I try any sort of juke or dodge, I'll be lucky if I only tear a wing off, and not just turn us into a friction fireball."

"Surely you're over-estimating the danger. You don't have to try and scare me, Robert. I'm plenty scared. I just don't resort to jokes to hide it."

"Well, it isn't ALL bad, you're right. We've got a couple things going in our favor. The kids are relying on the idea that Sai doesn't WANT to act offensively, especially against an unarmed civilian shuttle, so we can get pretty close before they actually take action against us. I wasn't counting on it, but so far anyway, its been borne out. I'm relying on the fact that we're basically hitting the atmosphere at the STEEPEST survivable angle possible, at a speed I'm sure the designers of this bird would scream and cry in horror about if they knew we were doing this. I'm no real expert on orbit to ground landing procedures, but from what I've read on the trip to Earth aboard the Eternal, shallow and slow are the "good" descriptive terms for atmospheric entry paths, while steep and fast are generally "bad" terms. I'd really almost prefer to be in one of those neato drop pods ZAFT uses... those go pretty much straight down like bullets, which makes them VERY hard to intercept. Of course, the problem with drop pods, which precludes our use of them, is the fact that they don't have any OTHER maneuvering capability, other than the ability to... drop downwards like bullets."

"But once we're through the upper atmosphere and in controlled flight, you'll be feeling much happier?"

"Much is a very relative term."

"You are determined to be pessimistic about this, aren't you? We've done everything we can, including launching decoy's from the Eternal and picking an insertion path in one of the most dead empty air defense zones on Earth. We're coming in pretty much directly over the North Pole, and well outside the defense perimeter of the nearest major base, which would be Heaven's Base in Iceland. There isn't a ground installation within two hundred miles of our path... even the fastest orbital interceptor jets will take ten minutes or more to reach our location, much less our altitude. We're actually dropping very close to one of the Angry Sky drop points... obviously ZAFT has made the same analysis of the air defense network in this zone as we did."

"Very good. Do we have a fleet overhead and a couple dozen Mobile Suits providing close cover too?"

"We have the Eternal, at least for the next three minutes or so."

"Then you'll understand if I remain less than fully satisified by that comparison?"

"Unidentified shuttle, you have ignored our warning and crossed into the upper atmosphere. Our targeting radar is now locking on to you. If you continue on your path, you will be intercepted and shot down without mercy."

"For FUCKS sake!" Alkire snatched at the radio toggle. "Listen, you bastards... if you're gonna try and shoot me down, get the fuck started, the tension is killing me up here! On the other hand, if you wanna keep giving me warnings, tell me now, so I can go to head for a bit, cause I gotta piss some. Pick one or the other! Good christ!" Alkire put both hands on the steering yoke again.

"If we survive this, Robert, I'm going to put in for you to see a psychiatric counseler, okay? You seem to have some issues that I want someone professional to talk to you about."

Alkire ignored him and tagged the intercomm button. "Hello everyone, this is your captain speaking. I'd like to welcome you all to Majesty Airlines. Thank you for flying with us. Or, in this case, plummeting under minimal control. Things are likely to get very interesting and perhaps even violent soon. I'm sorry to say there will be no in flight movie, though in small recompense, there will be a very impressive laser light show going on outside the windows. Sometimes very close outside the windows. Please, take this time now to stow all personal belongings and fasten your seat restraints securely, and turn off all electronic devices. Unless one of them happens to be a very powerful ECM suite. Cause we could use that. Turbulence is expected, so locating your air sickness courtesy bags now would be prudent. Remember to switch bags when one becomes full, otherwise it can become very messy. Once again, thank you for flying with Majesty Air. With a great deal of luck and a few minor miracles, we will be on the ground, hopefully in one piece, in about thirty minutes." Alkire turned the intercomm off and sighed heavily.

"I suppose you think that was funny."

"Actually, no, I don't think it was funny at all. However, now that THEY'RE all panicking, I don't have to anymore. Now I can worry about them, and not me. And all its going to cost us is a whole bunch of vomit and quite a few soiled space suits. Small price, in comparison." Alkire straighted in his seat and smiled a predatory smile. "All right, you Isolationist motherfuckers... lets dance."

"Serious professional help indeed. Inpatient care. Supervised. With sedatives. And restraints." Kisaka kept mumbling even as he gripped his own restraints tightly, because the shuttle was starting to shake and shiver from the friction against the atmosphere. They'd just crossed the point of no return. There was only one way to go from here, regardless of the method. Down.

--

"Mr. President! Mr. President!" Sai turned at the unexpected, insistent calling of his title. Especially at this very last moment sort of stage. He was due up on the podium to start taking pre-speech questions within the next minute. A military aide pushed through the crowd of Isolationist political personnel that seemed to grow larger and larger at every function he want to. Orderlys having aides having assistants having consultants... he wondered if it would ever end, sometimes. Couldn't anyone but him and a select few others make up their minds without having to ask the opinions of a dozen or more other people?

"You've got thirty seconds, Colonel. What is it?" Sai prompted, waving away the man's salute. If it was that urgent, he could give a damn about protocol.

"An unidentified civilian PLANT shuttle has breached the atmosphere above the North Pole, sir. It launched from it's mothership less than thirty minutes ago and began a sharp and direct descent path almost immediately. Our anti-air radar in that part of the world detected them almost immediately... they haven't employed any sort of countermeasures or protective devices, not even chaff. Several other shuttle launches were detected from the mothership, but our radar people are pretty sure those are decoys. Forces are currently scrambling to intercept and shoot down the intruders, who began controlled atmospheric flight about twenty minutes ago, despite our best efforts to shoot them down with long ranged fire. They are currently flying south and west at an altitude of two hundred thousand feet, in a long dive pattern. They appear to be heading in this general direction, but our forces will be able to interdict them when they are still more than a hundred miles away at least."

"That's all well and good, Colonel, but I don't see why it warrents my attention. It sounds like the military has things well under control."

"We do sir. And I wouldn't have bothered you at this critical time either, sir, except for one thing."

"What's that, Colonel?" Sai asked, starting to head towards the stairs that would lead up onto the podium. It was a nice, late afternoon Colorado day... partly cloudy, blue skies mostly, currently about sixty degrees, making him glad for his suit jacket, with temperatures expected to plummet to below freezing that night, with perhaps even a few snow flurries in the early morning. Snow flurries in early autumn... altitude sure could do strange things. Guess it hadn't used to be known as the Mile High State for no reason.

"The identity of the mothership, sir. It's the Eternal. According to our records anyway, despite its appearances, that is not a ZAFT aligned ship. In fact it belongs to..."

"I know who it belongs to, Colonel. And I know who's likely to be on that shuttle too, so don't feel like you need to tell me." Sai clenched one fist in frustration. "I'd thought I'd seen the last of them after Orb, but I guess they have one last gasp to make too. They would, of course. It is Lacus Clyne and Kira after all. They just don't know when they aren't needed anymore." Sai let out his breath in a deep sigh. "Thank you for the update, Colonel. Please, keep me informed as to when that shuttle is shot down."

"Yes, sir!"

--

"Well, that wasn't nearly so bad, was it, Robert?" Kisaka asked, adjusting his restraining straps as gently as possible to avoid aggravating the deep bruise lines they'd worn into his chest, despite the thickly padded space suit. "Yes, it was quite a bit rougher than most orbit to atmosphere transitions I've experienced in the past, but you made it sound like it was a near certainty that we were going to go up in flames at any second."

"Oh yeah... it wasn't so bad at all..." Alkire gave Kisaka a dirty look indeed. "Care to guess why I'm only going to be dodging left or right in a very minimal fashion, Mr. Optomist? And it isn't because I feel like giving myself a handicap for kicks! Can't guess? It's because the part of the tail that LETS me turn left or right ISN'T part of the tail anymore! Its only by the grace of some God that we still have ANY tail at ALL! That was some SERIOUSLY accurate long range fire, considering the angle of descent, our speed of descent and the relatively small size of this shuttle. If I could shoot like that, I'd be able to give Raine a run for her money some day! It's akin to shooting the tailfeathers off a hummingbird from fifty feet away! Even by accident, its still something you can brag about!"

"We're still alive though, Robert, bear in mind! Given how you were talking earlier, that puts us quite a bit ahead of the game, doesn't it?"

"Yep. We've gone an' passed the little league. Now the professional players are looking for their turn to stomp the rookies." Alkire gestured at a large series of blips on their radar screen, which was fuzzing and fritzing erratically as it was disrupted by the countermeasures of the fast approaching Isolation forces. "Care to guess how many of them there are? I'm going to go out on a limb and say... LOTS. And they're splitting up to surround us too."

"So what do you want me to do about it?"

"I don't want you to do ANYTHING about it, Ledonir. Doing things about it is MY job at the moment. I just want you to shut up and stop trying to give me hope, okay? I don't need it. I function at my best when there IS no hope, okay!? When everything is completely bleak and its obvious that we're totally boned, thats when I pull the miracles out of my ass! Not any other times. If there's one thing I ever learned from an enemy, its this... when all you can see around you is death and destruction, with no way out... it's time for you to decide How you wanna go to hell. When and why are NO LONGER up to you. But you can ALWAYS choose how. For instance... if I stay on this course and speed... we are fucked. Totally fucked. They can't really engage us very well at this altitude and speed... but we can't stay at this altitude and definitely not at this speed for very long, or else the whole deal is going to be pointless, because we'll be coming down in Brazil, not Colorado. All they gotta do is plot the point where our course drops below their garuanteed kill range and be waiting for us there. If I'm not completely wrong, thats about a hundred miles short of our intended location."

"Who did you learn such a terribly nihilistic philosophy from? And I see your point, about the hundred mile thing. Thats where I'd assume the evasive maneuvers and your piloting skills would come into the equation."

"Thats what THEY'RE thinking too. Which is why I'm going to do... this." Alkire rammed the control yoke forward, smirking as he listened to the screech of airframe as the shuttle suddenly dropped into a nose dive, pointing almost straight down towards the ground far below, which was mostly mountains... somewhere in old Wyoming, according to their map display. Gravity abruptly went away, leaving them hanging, seemingly weightless in their harnesses, at least for the moment. "And it was Asmodeus by the way." Alkire added. "When he took out the Archangel."

"THIS IS INSANE!"

"Who was it that said something about there being a thin line between genius and insanity? Uhp... don't answer that yet... you're really gonna wanna hang on." Alkire yanked back on the yoke with all his might, while also pressing and releasing the pedals that controlled his remaining flight adjustment surfaces rapidly. It sucked that the tail was mostly useless for right to left steering... it meant he pretty much had to turn the shuttle by adjusting one side or the other to have more air resistance... but it actually helped that they were going so fast... that was a LOT of resistance to use. Even tiny changes in the shuttle's resistance to the air passing along various surfaces made big differences when you were barreling along at close to four times the speed of sound. Alkire felt the blood rush out of his head and torso and start to pool in his legs and other extremities because of the G-forces from pulling out of the dive, but his flight suit managed to compensate for the worst of it, and dogged disregard for anything besides survival defeated the rest.

"Woo! Headrush!" Alkire exclaimed, giddy and light headed after the shuttle leveled out, now flying at only a little higher than the tops of the mountains around them. And upside down, but that part didn't really affect him much. Still, shuttles were designed to fly for long periods of time only in certain ways in atmosphere, so he grudgingly pedalled his surfaces to make the shuttle rotate back to having the seat bottoms actually being down, more or less. "I'd like to see a rollercoaster beat THAT!"

"W-what... what was the point of that!?" Kisaka asked weakly. The high G-forces had affected him more than Alkire, due to his larger size and mass. And general unfamiliarity with such maneuvers. Kisaka could fly a mobile suit just fine... even better than fine. But a nosedive from two hundred thousand feet down to fifteen thousand feet, with a rollover pullout, over mountainous terrain that wasn't a great deal less than fifteen thousand feet high at many points, was NOT in his standard repetoire of tricks. Especially going Mach 4, which was a speed no normal Mobile Suit could even get anywhere close to in atmosphere.

"Well, besides keeping all of our dear passengers awake and alert, you mean? Think about it. You're still grey in the face yourself. No one in their right mind pulls stunts like that. Certainly not if their life doesn't depend on it. I certainly don't expect any of the crowd of folks gathered up there at the one hundred fifty to one hundred seventy five thousand foot marks to be in any particular rush to get down here. We're an unarmed, unprotected civilian shuttle after all. Their sensors can easily show them that. Why risk catastrophic equipment failure or medical problems with a Blazing Deathdive if you can just circle down nice and safely and just catch up to your prey later? It's not like we can shoot back at them... or at anyone."

"How much space did that bit of structured insanity give us?" Kisaka's voice was still unsteady.

"Twenty-thirty miles, I'm guessing. Air's a lot thicker down here, it's going to slow us down. Thankfully, we're going to be out of the mountains in a minute or so, so that'll free up another few thousand feet of airspace. And don't worry, I still got at least one or two more tricks WAAAY more fucked up than a simple Blazing Deathdive. We'll get to the city, don't worry."

"Who's being optomistic now!?"

"Once we get to the city, we're in the hands of God or the Devil, whoever bids higher, but we'll get to the city all right."

"Alkire... what the HELL are you doing up here?" Kira's unexpected voice demanded from just behind them. "I've seen you do some pretty crazy things in the air... things even Mu would never consider... but WHAT was the logic behind that dive just now?"

"HOW ARE YOU STANDING!?" Alkire jerked away from the sound of the voice as if he'd felt a ghost touch him. He didn't dare turn around to look at Kira to display the full extent of his incredulation... taking your eyes off the road was bad enough at twenty miles per hour, much less 3300 miles per hour.

"This isn't the first time I've made an unexpectedly direct trip from orbit to surface. Last time I was in a Mobile Suit. In many ways, that was a lot worse, because at least in a shuttle we don't have to worry about a lack of heat tiles or cooling systems to prevent us from collapsing from heat exhaustion."

"Okay. Whatever. It was an evasive maneuver, okay? Now get your spooky ass back into your seat and comfort your princess or something, got it? And let me fly in peace. You're gonna jinx me, standing up, unrestrained like that!"

"Lacus actually isn't doing too bad. Nobody was happy with that dive, but you should remember that most of us are used to living in microgravity at times, which is a lot harder on the stomach than..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Siddown, thats an order from the pilot of this aircraft. And if she isn't sick yet, well, that's because the ride isn't over yet, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, it's just getting to the fun part, as I was informing Ledonir before you interrupted us." Alkire listened to the door of the cockpit opening and shutting again. "Holy god, how did he DO THAT!? I pulled an easy seven or eight G on that pullout and he's NOT in a protective flightsuit like me... he should be semiconscious at best, standing up so soon after that dive!"

"I would suggest not letting it bother you, Robert. We have more pressing concerns. Such as those jets."

"Oho, oho, oho... not doing too bad, eh... used to living in microgravity, eh... jinxing the pilot by standing up, eh... WELL LETS SEE HOW YOU HANDLE THIS, MR. COORDINATOR!" Alkire savagely jerked at his controls, throwing the shuttle into a rapid axial spin, so that it was cutting through the air like a drill bit. Every so often, at mostly random intervals, he jammed down on one wing flap pedal or the other for a second or to... the sudden change in wind resistance on that side of the shuttle resulting in it being kicked in the opposite direction almost sideways anywhere from fifty to a couple hundred feet at a time, depending on how long he held the pedal down. And of course, since the wings were, at any given moment in time, rotating around a central point, that meant the shuttle was bounced in basically random directions... sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes left or right, sometimes at a combination of directions... like a housefly that has flown into a bug zapper and just barely not been killed. Just, much, much faster.

Alkire smiled grimly as he heard screaming from nearby. Apparently Kisaka was very impressed with this method of avoiding enemy fire... he was flailing around like a madman. Of course, that might just be because he had no choice, since everyone in the shuttle was being bounced around like pebbles in a marraca, with an extra strong boot to the ass every time the shuttle slalomed. Alkire listened to the shrieks of sirens and other alarms, and mostly paid them no mind. He knew what the sounds of an airplane breaking apart in midair sounded like, and he wasn't hearing them yet. Cherry red lights appeared on many instrument panels. Cherries were good things, so Alkire decided he was going to consider anything colored like them good as well. It wasn't like he had to give the shuttle back to anyone or anything. He gripped the yoke and focused as much of his attention and strength on keeping the shuttle on a mostly straight course as he could. Perfectly straight was of course out of the question... but then again, he'd really, really like to see someone actually hit him ON PURPOSE right now. Well, no, he wouldn't really, but academically speaking, it would be interesting to be in the other guys shoes right now.

He eyed a certain gauge with steady misgiving... the only downside to this particular maneuver that he could see... at least, that was currently relevant... was that it ATE fuel like nothing else. Shuttles were not designed to spin like this, not and maintain speed anyway. His wind resistance was off the charts... he'd turned a long, swept back delta shape into basically a large rectangular box by spinning like this. Rectangles, especially boxes, were not very aerodynamic. However, it wasn't like he really needed to conserve fuel either... they were only going one place, and shuttles actually carried quite a bit of extra fuel on board. He debated making a grab for the intercomm and asking how people in the passenger compartment were doing, but he decided against it. One, taking a hand off the yoke would probably result in him losing control and them all dying. Two, they probably couldn't hear him over all the other noise. Three... he didn't want to know if Kira was actually able to talk to him coherently right now. He was afraid of the answer.

At length... about two minutes or thirty plus bounces... after he'd started the maneuver, he looked again at his radar screen and realized that he'd passed the oncoming fighter jets, who had now turned around and were pursuing, though at a leisurely distance and speed. Maybe they'd thought he was in the process of crashing. He supposed that he might not blame them for thinking that, if he'd been on the outside, looking in. When he snap-rolled the shuttle out of the headlong spin, they did increase their pace slightly, but he could already see the buildings of the metropolis of Denver ahead of them on the horizon. He was starting to fly over suburbs and outlying communities now, and it was probably not a good idea to keep appearing like he was about to slam into the ground at almost 2800 mph... they might figure that blowing him into tiny pieces was better than risking him landing on a school or something. No, now he wanted to assure them that yes, he was in fact in control of the shuttle, so please, don't do anything to disrupt that, because he might then crash on a school.

"So... as I was saying... we're going to make it to the city. See, there's the city." Alkire tried not to listen to the sounds of retching and panting. "Ledonir?"

"Robert... was that... intentional... or did we lose some critical part of this shuttle and you only NOW got us back under control!?"

"Oh, that was a patented Jones family maneuver. We call that one "Thank GOD for seatbelts". Or, if there are no seatbelts, then we call it "The Slushie Machine"."

"YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!? That would suggest you'd done it at least once or twice before, to practice!"

"Several hundred times, actually. It's a real blast to do in those flight simulator games, especially the 3D ones. To be honest, I was kinda happy to see it worked, in real life. Its too bad I'll probably never get to see the flight recorder clips from the pursuing jets. Those are going to be inducted into a hall of fame somewhere, I'm sure."

"You and I will have more than words later. If there is later. And maybe a hall of fame of stuff that SHOULDN'T have worked!"

"But did." Alkire wasn't too proud to point out. "Okay. We're at the city... well, about thirty seconds out. Now what? Please bear in mind, a snap decision would be nice... at this speed, we won't be at the city for longer than about eight seconds."

"We need to find a place to land. A road, a field, a lake... something."

"Ah. Very well then. Co-pilot, the controls are yours."

"What!? But I've never landed a shuttle before!"

"Oddly enough, neither have I. Not even in a simulator."

"Robert!"

"Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on. I was just kidding. I've done lots of shuttle landings in simulators. Just, never without crashing." Alkire began rapidly throttling back and reversing thrust, while also lowering the flaps and raising all control surfaces... anything to generate wind resistance to slow the battered shuttle down. It was working just fine too. Everything was peachy, airspeed was dropping rapidly, altitude was dropping rapidly but evenly, nobody was shooting at them. At least, until there was an absolutely horrid ripping of metal and plastics and the port side wing just sorta... got left behind. One moment it was there, doing its job well, if thrumming and humming like a whole orchestra of harmonica players... the next, it was completely gone. "That's not good." Alkire had time to opine, just as the shuttle heeled over sharply to the left and sharply down as well. Part of the problem was corrected a few moments later when, wrestling madly with the controls, attempting to bring the nose up into something approximating a normal landing position, the right side wing buckled and tore in half, slewing the shuttle back over towards the right.

"Air speed is only two hundred and fifty miles per hour. Altitude is a little over three hundred feet and dropping like a stone. And I think there's a field somewhere beneath us." Alkire commented, in those crystal clear moments of time that seem to last forever, just before everything goes completely to hell. "This is the part where we bend over and kiss our as..."

--

Well, that was one speech that wasn't going to start on time. Sai thought disgustedly to himself as he, along with several dozen other senior Isolation officials, took shelter from the clouds of dust and powdered glass spreading like mist through downtown Denver. He'd been just about to start his opening lines when people started pointing and shouting. That happened to him sometimes during his speeches... he was pretty popular. But they weren't pointing and shouting at him, he had soon realized. No, they were pointing at the decrepit and smoke trailing orbit to surface shuttle that was streaking like a comet towards the city out of the north, pursued by Isolation strike fighters, flying way too close to the ground to be even approximating safe, which was the source of the shouts. That is, until the sonic boom from the rapidly deccelerating shuttle caught up to it and shattered half the glass in the greater downtown area into powder, the sonic assault sending people reeling and leaves whirling from trees, cars skidding into other cars and into road barriers and blowing Sai himself over, even standing behind his podium like he had been.

The sonic boom hadn't been kind to the shuttle either, as both wings fluttered off it with a second of each other, like a locust being tormented by a small child. With no wings to continue to give it lift and its engines stuttering and dying, the shuttle did what all large, heavy, unpropelled airborne objects do... it came down to Earth. The shuttle didn't crash particularly close to the downtown city area, but instead came down in the outskirts, near the Platte river. The sound was still clearly audible, even five or six miles away, and the dust cloud easily covered that far, as Sai could see, since he was looking outside the former State Capitol building and he could, for the moment, see little besides drifting grit outside. Military and civilian emergency response had been immediate and overpowering, with several squadrons of mobile suits and nearly a regiment of mechanized infantry arriving at the crash site within minutes, followed shortly thereafter by caravans of fire trucks and even a few ambulances. Ashino was flying overhead with the Independence by the time rescue and investigation crews started pulling the wreckage apart. To their great surprise, and Sai's not so great surprise and great disgruntlement, they found survivors. Plenty of survivors as it turned out. Plenty of very FAMOUS survivors.

Survivors who were quickly gathered up by military police, after their wounds, which were mostly minor bruises and contusions since the shuttles safety systems, which were usually thought to be completely overdesigned, had worked to save their lives, were tended to and were currently under heavy escort and guard being brought to Sai. He'd really, really wanted to just have them sent to jail, or even, for a few savage moments, just have them shot right then and there, but he'd controlled himself. Shooting Lacus Clyne and her chief followers out of hand, even if they had broken several treaties and caused millions of dollars worth of damage in coming back to Earth, wasn't the sort of image he wanted to be representative of the Isolation's kicking off. And while sending them to jail would be both prudent and legal, his people on the scene had reported that even while they were receiving medical attention, both Lacus Clyne and Cagalli Zala-Attha had been requesting... no, begging... to talk with him about something. He was stumped as to what either of them could want with him so desperately... he was fully aware that he was FAR from their favorite person ever, but he was also curious. What could bring Lacus Clyne to do something so hideously risky like this? Much less bringing all the rest of heir chief supporters along for the ride. Something was fishy here.

And so he waited, somewhat impatiently, along with Vanai and his children, plus Ramierez, Glory and Cyprus, for Ashino and the 71st SMS to arrive with the prisoners. Maybe putting five Templars and the Independence as guards for the Clyne Faction, given they didn't possess a single weapon amongst them, was heavy handed... but just because he'd decided to humor them, didn't mean Sai was feeling particularly civil either. This was a major disruption to a critical event in his plan, and he was not going to be anything less than visibly angry about it. Especially because, no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see anything that Lacus or Cagalli had to say to him that he would either A, care about, B, could do anything about or C, want to do anything about. He'd already HAD his discussion with them, outside Orb. They'd surrendered. Given up. What MORE did they want to cover? Well, he did know one thing... this time around, he wasn't going to point a gun at Kira. He chuckled bleakly.

"Something funny, sir?" Ramierez asked, his weapon held not so casually in his arms.

"Just be careful where you point that, okay, Ramierez? I don't want Lacus melting our brains again."

"Oh, great, sir, thanks for reminding me about THAT!" Ramierez replied, somewhat bitterly. "As if I wasn't nervous about having them around before."

"They're unarmed."

"That didn't stop her, last time I checked!"

"While this entire operation is uncharacteristic for Ms. Clyne, Corporal, I still personally find it hard to believe she would come here with the intent of harming the President." Cyprus said. "While I have no doubt that if she was the sort of person inclined to assassination, Ms. Clyne would do the job herself, she isn't that sort of person. Especially since Yamato is still alive."

"Neither is Cagalli, at the end of things." Sai added. "She talks a fair game, and she doesn't hesistate to fight when she thinks she needs to... but assassination... no. Not unprovoked, certainly. And conquering her nation and shipping a percentage of its population away to live in space, while offensive to her, isn't THAT offensive. If she, or any of them, were to kill me or even attack me, things would go badly for them AND for the PLANTS, and they know it. They aren't stupid people, they know how to act for the greater good, even if its offensive or degrading to them. Truly, anyone looking for a icon of self sacrifice doesn't have to look any further than a random given member of the Clyne Faction leadership."

Further conversation on the subject was rendered moot as six large and very impressive Mobile Suits descended to the ground outside the capitol building. Looking almost like toys next to them, two six wheeled APC's rolled to a stop at the base of the stairway leading up to the main entrance hall. Sai had debated recieving the Clyne Faction in a place with a little more decorum... a conference room in the underground government center for instance... but he'd decided against it. Better to show them just how displaced and disgruntled he was. He'd greet them in a public place, with dust and glass powder still on his shoulders and in his hair, where they'd have to tell their stories and make their excuses with lots of press and media around... press and media that was quite staunchly on his side. Bad enough that they had to crash a shuttle into a city of his, they'd be crucifying themselves if they tried to bring up some of their old arguments, many of which he'd had distrubuted to the press after the Isolation of Orb. He'd had nothing to hide, after all.

Lacus Clyne, obviously freshly changed out of a space suit, judging by the rumpled and slightly ragged look of her clothing, was the first preson through the doorway, with Cagalli and Kira not far behind her. The rest of the Clyne Faction, including even people like Alkire Majesty, Ledonir Kisaka and Murrue Ramius, formed a solid knot of slightly worn, slightly battered but still fully alive and supportive people behind the three main representatives. Sai didn't see Andrew Waltfeld anywhere, but he supposed someone had to stay behind, in charge of the Eternal. Even now, even though they were political and even personal enemies, Sai couldn't deny that Lacus Clyne was pretty damn good at making an entrance, when she wanted to be. No matter the fact that thirty minutes ago she'd been pulled, coughing, retching and staggering from the smoldering wreckage of a shuttle crash, she walked into the capitol building with her head held high and a steely glare on her face that told anyone with eyes that she meant business. She didn't wait to be directed to him, she spotted him the moment she entered the building and made a beeline for him, with the various Isolation officials in her way parting before her like a messiah parting an ocean. Sai felt the force of something he couldn't fully describe strike him like a slap to the face, making him blink and stand a little taller and straighter, even more awake and attentive than he had been before.

Sai glanced around, to see Ramierez and Glory and pretty much everyone else around him blinking their eyes and adjusting their postures as well. Everyone but Cyprus, that is, who was utterly unchanged and seemingly unaffected by Lacus's magnetic personality. Which said to Sai, since he'd experienced feelings somewhat like this, if not nearly as benign, before when Cyprus had been the only one not affected, that this wasn't just strictly Lacus's personality, which, while surely stellar, was not really attractive to him, on second consideration. He found, through an effort of will, that he could ignore the feelings of special attention and slight attraction she was somehow giving off... how, he'd dearly like to know, because it would REALLY come in handy in politics. "Lacus Clyne. And esteemed company. I'm glad to see you all alive and well, though you might not believe me." Sai made sure to get the first word in. No sense in letting Lacus keep the advantage her little... whatever it was... had given her.

"Your concern for our physical health has never been in doubt, President Argyle." Lacus replied, smoothly and easily. "I'd like to return your greeting. I'm sorry for the method of our arrival, but we had no other choice. I hope you'll be able to forgive us for causing a disruption to the city." Sai noticed that Cagalli didn't appear to agree with Lacus's concern for his physical health, but she was, wonder of wonders, keeping her lips buttoned, at least for the moment.

"I think..." Sai said slowly. "That you might want to hope for something a little more... possible. Such as, perhaps, a chance to explain yourselves? Do I need to remind you that you surrendered to me and agreed to be deported, never to return?"

"Yes, you defeated us militarily and we did surrender. You're right." Cagalli said, the words harsh in her mouth. "But we aren't here to talk about what happened in the past. I'm not even here as the former leader of Orb. I'm here as a concerned human being."

"Concerned human being?" Sai tasted each word seperately. "Are you trying to rephrase your previous arguments? I'd advise you not to... its going to be embarassing enough for you when I put you under house arrest for the conceivable future, you might not want to damage what political credibility you have left, you know?"

Lacus stepped forward a half step. "No, President Argyle, we aren't here to re-debate past points of contention, no matter how much I'd love to. Like Cagalli said, we're here as concerned human beings. People, concerned about other people... all other people... to discuss a matter with you that affects everyone on Earth and in Space. A matter of the greater good, which your bodyguard over there was so wise to lecture me about, outside of Orb."

"We're here to give you a warning, Sai. Not from a threat we pose... we don't pose a threat right now, even I can understand that... but from a threat the entire Earth is facing." Kira spoke up, direct and strong and much more forward than the Kira Sai was used to. Save for that one time, in the desert, when he'd tried to confront him about Flay. Only this time, Kira seemed quite calm.

"A threat? To the Earth? What are you talking about? The Earth is currently the safest place in the solar system right now. ZAFT is mere weeks from being forced to surrender. There's nothing they can do about it, either. Our defenses have been built up with the goal of preventing even massive orbital bombardment and use of nuclear weapons and other WMDs. ZAFT doesn't even have a fiftieth of the forces we do now, and their technological edge is about as sharp as spoon, and getting duller every day. ZAFT's not a threat, you people aren't a threat, Tiamat isn't a threat... what threat are you trying to imply that there is!?" Sai demanded, incredulously.

Lacus reached into a pocket and pulled out a data disk. She held it out to him. "This disk details the threat we discovered. Feel free to take it. In fact, I insist you do. I'd be happiest if you looked at it right now, in fact."

Sai tenatively reached out and took the disk. It was just a standard ten gigabyte chip. Nothing special about it he could see. "I was about to give an important, world wide speech, before your shuttle interrupted me. I'll look at this disk after I take care of my original plans, if thats okay with you."

"Its not." Lacus's reply stopped him cold. He regarded her with some surprise. Lacus Clyne had always been unfailingly polite and politically correct. Disagreement was not the expected reply to that statement.

"Well, I'm sorry that you don't like it then. But I'm the President here, Lacus, not you, so I'm afraid you're going to just have to deal with the disappointment." Sai retorted, feeling somewhat confrontational all of a sudden. Even frustrated. It took him a moment to realize that they weren't his feelings. "How are you doing that, by the way?" Sai asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"It's... its... I'll tell you, if you look at that disk." Lacus hedged.

"How about you tell me, and then, if I'm satisified you aren't trying to game me, I'll look at the disk?" Sai returned.

"Ugh! What's the matter, are you afraid to look at a disk or something? Is it so hard to believe that Lacus Clyne would bring you critical information on ZAFT's latest project?" Cagalli protested furiously.

"Now that you mention it... yes, it is hard to believe, given that she's a Coordinator and daughter of a former Supreme Council member. Betraying the PLANTS is the LAST thing Lacus Clyne would do." Sai replied with a small smile.

"Even if what she discovered was so repulsive and despicable that she decided to come here, risking her life to do it, as a concerned human being, and not Lacus Clyne, PLANT idol?" Kira asked with a pointed look at the disk. "The clock is ticking, Sai. None of us... not you, not us, not the Earth itself and all the people on it... have time to be wasting on posturing because of personal or political dislike!"

"Kira..." Sai found himself legitimately angry this time, without recourse to whatever it was Lacus was doing. "I could have sworn I've warned you before about trying to preach to me or tell me what I should do? Have you not learned that... well, to be blunt, I don't VALUE your opinion anymore, Kira. You want me to look at the disk so bad? Tough. I said I'd look at it after I give my speech. So I will. Unlike several people here, when I make a promise, I keep it."

"Operation Overload and the Angry Sky mechanisms are not something you want to be putting on hol..." Athrun spoke up, freezing as Sai, Cyprus and many of the upper echelon Isolationist tech support people all suddenly swiveled their heads to stare at him.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Sai demanded.

"That you didn't want to put this on hold."

"NO! Before that. Operation Overload and WHAT!?"

"They're EMP bombs. Gigaton category Gugnirs." Athrun retorted. "ZAFT calls the project "Angry Sky", presumably because they're the product of an enraged nation from beyond the Earth's skies."

"You said Angry Sky?" Cyprus asked, in confirmation.

"Yes. Thats what the bombs are called. They built twenty of them. They're going to drop them on Earth in less than a day from now. If the Angry Sky's go off, you can kiss the Isolation goodbye... you can kiss civilization on Earth in general goodbye. Its all on that disk we're BEGGING you to look at. PLEASE!" Athrun replied, bowing his head deferentially, though it certainly stuck in his craw to do it. "Why do you keep asking about Angry Sky? Have you heard that phrase before?"

"You said less than a day?" Cyprus asked for confirmation again.

"Its on the disk. The disk!" Athrun repeated in exasperation. "But yes, that's right. ZAFT's fleet should already be on their way to Earth right now, if they're following the plan we discovered."

"Sergeant-Major, get OrLoSuCOM (Orbital Long Range Surveillance Command) on a secure line right now! Tell them I want an update on all know ZAFT fleet dispositions ASAP!" Cyprus ordered briskly.

"Why are you taking us seriously now?" Kira asked. "Not that I'm complaining, because this is about as serious as things can get."

"Corporal. Show them the computer."

"Sir!" Ramierez wasted no time in grabbing Sai's laptop from a desk nearby. He flipped up the screen and turned on the power. Within seconds the familiar black screen and three digital timers were there for everyone to see. The electric blue timer titled "Angry Sky" had just over twenty two hours remaining on it. The white timer titled "The End of All" sat ominously at zero, like it had for almost an hour now. The bloody crimson timer titled "Fin" was also still showing all zeros.

"This timer showed up on my personal computer a week and a few days ago. It took over the computer completely, after I looked through an apparent scouting report that had located Zacharis Frost. He'd retreated to Antarctica in the ZAFT Gundam Kira abandoned. But then, nine days ago, he'd started heading northwards. I have many forces looking for him, especially around Panama, which is where the last known sighting of that Gundam is. But that was nine days ago. And we still haven't found a trace of him. We thought that the program was some form of childish information warfare or psychological taunt. Apparently it was also a warning, I see that now." Sai explained. "Maybe I won't send the hacker to jail for life then. Just a few years, until they can learn proper communication skills." He added, more to himself.

"Does anyone else find it at all ominous that, given the Angry Sky timer there is dead on accurate, that something labeled "The End of All" has reached zero? Meaning to me, that it should have already happpened?" Dearka spoke up, with a hint of nervousness.

"That timer ran out almost an hour ago." Ramierez pointed out. "About the same time you crash landed. But I can't find myself thinking that "End of All" has much to do with you Clyne Faction sad-pandas. Especially since you apparently came with a legitimate warning. But everything's been quiet since that timer ran out. Maybe that one was the joke?"

"Mr. President! MR. PRESIDENT! LIEUTENANT FINCH!" A ghastly pale faced military aide burst out of a side office and into the main hall, tripping over himself in his haste. He was still shouting even as he struggled to his feet. "RADAR PICKED UP A INBOUND BOG-" The rest of the aide's sentence was lost to history when a sound like a man punching an armored glove through a plaster wall, but a million times louder echoed from outside the capitol building. Before the echoes of that could even bounce twice, the front entranceway of the capitol building was smashed inwards by a hurtling object that sent flying stone and wooden debris and shrapnel flying everywhere before it crunched into the far wall, cratering it deeply. The object, which was roughly ball shaped, though possessed of many angular surfaces and protrusions in a oddly familiar symmetry, fell out of the wall and onto the screaming aide and the people nearby with a resounding metallic "CLANG-NG!" that utterly hid the sound of squelching bodies. The object tolled a few more sounds as the object rocked back and forth for a few moments with residual kinetic energy. There was a long instant of silence.

Everyone in the hall found themselves staring at the decapitated head of a Freedom class Gundam, cleanly severed at the neck by something either very sharp or very hot and with deep claw like gouges across its face and skull. One antennae ear was all but ripped off, and one green camera eye was gouged out and the socket sparking. Having come to rest upright and facing Sai and the Clyne faction, with the pools of blood and gore spreading out beneath it, and bloody splatter splashed across its mauled face, it looked like the Gundam head was actually bleeding out, like a real person would. That is when the screaming started.

--

"You're LATE!" Mr. Machine accused, his voice testy and irritated, even through an electronic disguiser. Frost, in the tiny portion of his mind he'd decided to devote to hating Mr. Machine, and Mr. Machine alone, shrugged happily. Little evil geniuses apparently didn't like it when people didn't play by their rules. Or dance on command. Or, be anything at all like Frost. Who was NOT a puppet or a lackey, despite what Mr. Machine seemed to strongly believe at times.

"For what, Mr. Machine... for what?" Frost replied, luxuriating in the feeling of total freedom of movement and expression that the Pulsar gave him. It was like it drew his very soul directly out of his body and gave it form and function. Whatever his other faults, Mr. Machine could design a very lovely Gundam, Frost had to admit. This Pulsar was him. He was the Pulsar. There was no seperation. No slothful controls. No interruptions between intent and action. He hadn't felt like this in... he hadn't felt like this. This, this was bliss. Bliss and orgasm and fate and destiny and love and purpose and function and power, all rolled into one.

"Never you mind, freak. You're just late. Almost an hour late! I thought you were the one that was in a hurry!?"

"Mmm... nah. Not now. Not when you apparently desire me to be. Being contrary is fun, isn't it Mr. Machine? How does it taste, your own medicine, that is?"

"Don't push me, freak. I'm the one in control here. You serve at my pleasure!" Mr. Machine was really gritting his teeth now, Frost could tell. Or whatever it was that pre-teen evil geniuses did when they were frustrated.

"If it bothers you so much, Mr. Machine, how about we make a little deal, eh?" Frost continued to loaf along, barely at the speed of a drag racer, staying well below the radar horizon of his enemies as the Pulsar sprinted across the Great Plains of southern Colorado. Frost couldn't exactly feel each shuddering footfall, but he was used to numbness in his extremities, especially given all the injuries he'd suffered. It was all right... he could imagine well enough what it felt like. For him, where the difference between dream and reality was often imperceptible, the numbness of the Pulsar's control system was no handicap at all.

"What sort of deal, freak?" Mr. Machine sounded very suspicious of Frost. That hurt his feelings a little bit... he was the most brutally honest person alive. With an emphasis on brutally. He'd never lied once in his life. To anyone, even Pink and the Boytoy. Or Fiery Zala-Attha. Or Loser Zala-Attha. Or Scarface. Or the Blond Weeny and his chick. He'd never even lied to Little Ashino. He'd not told the Doc some things, but he'd never outright lied. Of course, Mr. Machine lied all the time, so he was probably used to other people lying too. It was sad. Dishonestly was such a sad thing. The world was a much better place when you could just tell everyone straight out what you wanted to do to them. That way, even when they complained about how he treated them, they didn't have any legs to stand on. Even before he touched them.

"The easy kind, Mr. Machine, that should make us both happy. You want me to hurry up, right? Well, I will. But you gotta do something for me, first."

"What do I have to do for you?" Mr. Machine sure could put a lot of arrogance and malice into simple words like "I" or "you". It was one of his few endearing qualities.

"It's very simple, Mr. Machine. Anyone can do it."

"Why am I not surprised that you would ask for something simple, that anyone could do." Again, with that loathing in "you". It was delicious. If only he could get Pink to talk like that.

"I want you to scream for me, Mr. Machine. I want you to cut something off for me and scream in agony while you do it. Nothing major, you understand. A finger. A toe. An ear maybe. Its better if there's a bone of some sort involved. The crunch as the knife cuts through the bone... oooh, it tingles my spine. Think of it as practice for when we finally meet up in person, Mr. Machine. The more you cut off now, yourself, the easier and quicker the end result will be for you. I'd ask you not to commit suicide though... limit yourself to become a quadrapelegic, please. But remember, the important part is the scream. Screams are how souls communicate with each other, did you know that, Mr. Machine? I'd dearly love to get a taste of your soul."

"I... I'm-I'm not going to m-maim myself for your twisted p-pleasure, freak!" Mr. Machine's voice was unsteady all of a sudden.

"Thats too bad, Mr. Machine. It is. Because, truth be told, I don't have anywhere to be just now. I could take a nap maybe. Or find some more animal friends to play with. You remember the animal friends, right? Their eyes are so sad when they die, Mr. Machine. So sad. They don't know why. I can't wait to hear how you plan on explaining to them why they had to die."

"You're going to die LONG before me, freak!" Mr. Machine was very angry now, Frost could tell. Mr. Machine's sore spot was animals. He loved animals. He was indifferent to people, but he really loved animals.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot, Mr. Machine. If you do decide to take up our little deal, I'd certainly appreciate it a whole lot more if you'd turn off the voice disguiser. I know you aren't a middle aged man, Mr. Machine. You don't have to hide from me like that. And, let me be honest... or honest again, as the case is... but the screams of a man and the screams of a young child... there is simply no comparison, Mr. Machine. None. Salt water and sweet drinks, thats what they are. I know. I'm a young child too, after all. In heart, if not necessarily mind and body. I just wanna play with you, Mr. Machine. You and everyone else. I just want us to all play the same game. Its a very fun game. You'd like it. I was your age once too. Maybe more than once. Its hard to tell, with what the Doc did to me."

"The game doesn't happen to involve murder does it?"

"Ooo... it might. I much prefer terms like extinction and genocide though. Those... and torment. Barbarity. Barbarity is an especially fun word. Say it. Barbarity! Its got a good ring to it." Frost looked around. "Lets see, lets see, lets see."

"If... if you will get back onto track... where you're supposed to be... I'll give you a reward." Mr. Machine said slowly.

"A reward, Mr. Machine? Bribery now, is it? I'm listening, by the way. Though, given your reluctance to scream for me, I'm wondering exactly what you intend to bribe me with..."

"I'll give you your enemies. The ones you hate so much. The ones who have caused you so much pain and problems."

"Give them to me, Mr. Machine? What, do you have them prisoner? Captive? Bound and gagged and waiting for my presence?"

"As good as. They, unlike you, have been dancing to my tune like good puppets, without even realizing it. They haven't left the palm of my hand since I first reached out and scooped them up."

"If you really do think that, Mr. Machine, you really are stupid."

"I am NOT stupid. I am the FURTHEST thing from stupid."

"Why would you "give them" to me though, Mr. Machine? From the way you talk about them, they are doing what you want them to do. Unlike me. One would think it would be the other way around... that you would be giving ME to THEM."

"Let me be honest with you, freak. You're nothing more than an experimental test subject to me. However, in order to get the results I want, I need to test your capabilities to their limits. I can best do that by setting you against your enemies and watching things go from there. Does my reasoning make sense to you now?"

"Mr. Machine, you should have said this a long time ago. I would have LEAPT at the chance to be your guinea pig like that. You do like guinea pig's too, right? Of course you do. You love all animals. Especially the cute and fuzzy ones. I have years of experience as a guinea pig, Mr. Machine. I would have done it for free before. Not now though. Now, I want you to give me what you promised."

"Very well then. What you seek is in Denver, along with what I seek. Is that sufficient motivation for you?"

"We have a deal, Mr. Machine. I'll trust you for the moment. Though if I get to Denver and find out you are lying, I will be quite wroth with you. I'll give you more than just a spanking, little boy."

"You can have them all except for the Clyne girl. I don't care about the rest of them. Though, if Kira does manage to kill you off, I won't be weeping any tears, understand."

"Neither will I, Mr. Machine, you may be surprised to learn. Neither will I, even though it won't happen like that. As for you having Pink... I'm afraid that is a logical impossibility, Mr. Machine. I really don't appreciate it when people try and change the deal on me after the fact. Pink is mine and mine alone. She has always been. If you have any sense of intelligence or self preservation, you WILL NOT get between me and Pink." Frost grated, his voice becoming absolutely deathly at the end.

Mr. Machine sighed heavily. "Fine. Fine. Whatever. You can have her too. What do I care? I'm just a little kid after all, right? What would I do with her?"

"There's no need for that, Mr. Machine. It's okay for you to like Pink. Boytoy does after all. So do many of you space monsters. Shes got quite the cult after all. Its just not okay for you to have her and not me, thats all. As for what you would do with her, that is a good point, Mr. Machine. I don't know why, but I get the feeling what you would do with her and what I will do with her shall likely be very different. She already has Boytoy, Mr. Machine. You're barking up the wrong tree if you think you have any chance there."

"We'll see. I'm only ten, almost eleven. I have a long, long, long life ahead of me. So does she. I'll ensure it. I've already taken some steps in that direction. Mr. Yamato on the other hand, now that I've run him through my tests, is dead weight. His only remaining purpose is to rid the world of trash like you, freak. After that, he'll become entirely expendable and something will happen to him someday."

"You don't quite pull off the murderer bit just yet, Mr. Machine. Nice try though. I appreciate you trying to think a little bit like me, but its really not you. Stick to your far reaching, evil genius plans. Leave the messy murders to me. We'll both be happier." Frost jumped into the air and took flight on his wings of raging fire. He rose rapidly to a height of several thousand feet. Enough to ensure that they couldn't possibly miss him. The transition between stillness and full on charge was satisfyingly abrupt... he merely willed it and it was so. He could feel his great, fiery heart beating strongly inside his chest, still, even now, mostly asleep. His claws prickled inside his fingers, and his forearms itched where the heated chains were coiled. The weight of the beam zweihander on his back was comforting and solid. Even the quaint beam saber launching crossbow apparatus felt right and natural next to its small quiver. His palms tickled with the restrained anti-matter fields of the Positron Reflectors, and his entire body tingled a little bit as the microscopicly tiny repair machines crawled up and down him in their millions. This... this was true life, not that sham life he felt in his weak and common flesh. He could taste the light. Feel the colors. Smell the sounds. Experience everything again, newer and better and forever.

He watched the tall, tombstone like towers of a major city get closer and closer with agonizing slowness. It took almost three minutes to reach the city from his previous location. Interminable. He'd have to do better next time. There was no whistling of wind in his ears... the whistling wind was almost a minute behind him. He looked down and admired, for a brief moment, the huge dust cloud and furrow-trench he was leaving in the ground, so far behind him. He didn't even have to touch something to destroy it now. It was like an aura. Images popped into his mind. Blips of heat and color. Targets. Prey. Six of them. Familiar looking ones. Like Boytoy's machine... no, lesser ones. Lesser ones and Ashino. Dear Ashino. Little Ashino. He hadn't played with Ashino in forever. It was time to get his little brother back into the game. For the last time. They hadn't detected him yet. Good. Surprise parties were ALWAYS the most fun. He could feel the the drugs and other things start pumping and circulating in his old body, but it was largely useless. His soul was already in direct connection. There could be no more sublime linkage.

There was a building in his way. Stupid building. Getting in his way. Bad idea, Mr. Building. Bad, bad, bad. Naughty buildings would get punished. He'd make Mr. Building bleed and fall over dead. Frost raised his hands and let the energy flow out in front of him, an impenetrable shield of crimson tinged energy fields. They crackled and sparked as they devoured the air... and then flashed novas of incredible colors as he plowed into and through Mr. Building's stomach without slowing in the slightest. Even as the screens went back to mere sparking, he clenched his hands and cut off the fields. His right hand snagged the zweihander and brought it up and off his back. His left hand remained open for the moment, his claws sliding out with neat "click-ick-ck-k-k" sounds. Frost swung the sword at the closest of the lesser Boytoy machines... Freedoms or whatever it was they were called. The head popped off and spun through the air. He batted at the playtoy with his left hand, and sent it careening away like a handball to crash into and through the front of another, older looking building. His claws retracted and he put both hands on the sword, even as he halted his charge and spun, redirecting himself into a new charge, ramming the sword into the chest of the decapitated Freedom, plucking the other machine off its feet with the force of the blow and dragging him along for a ride... at least until his arms and legs broke off and the torso blew up in a red and gold ball of cleansing fire.

Frost dropped to the ground, his feet kicking up clods of asphault, cars, bits of dirt and plenty of crimson showers as he used friction to slow himself down again. Once he'd slowed down to the speed of a racing car, he kicked off again, gleefully running along the side of a row of buildings before digging in his feet to launch himself in a diving flip back towards the prey, who were just now beginning to react to his destruction of the first. Frost didn't see Boytoy or the others anywhere... but having Ashino here for the moment was good enough. He could find the others later. After he had some fun with his little brother and his pals. Frost cackled with glee as he descended upon them from above, sword blazing, claws gleaming. This was indeed, his destiny.

--

"Yep, this is bad." Dearka groaned, pushing himself off the floor... where he'd tossed himself, and more importantly, Mir, pretty much as soon as the first explosive sound occured, even before the decapitated Gundam head came through the front of the building. They'd managed to avoid the clouds of flying debris, and more imporantly the shrapnel like shards of stone and wood that had reaped a bloody massacre amongst many people in the hall with slower reflexes. That was to say, most people, except for the Clyne Faction and Sai's guards. People closest to where the head had burst through the exterior wall had been shredded and pulped, scattered like broken dolls, while others, further away, had merely been riddled with stone shards like bullets or else impaled with spars and jags of wood through various parts... limbs, torsos, heads... there was blood, gory meat and excreta everywhere. Even the people around him hadn't escaped entirely unscathed.

Cagalli and Athrun were working on stemming the bleeding coming from Kisaka's head and lower left leg. Kisaka, for his part, was lying there like a log, completely unconscious at best. A large piece of stonework had struck him on the temple, and more, smaller shards had heavily lacerated his calf and ankle. Dearka noticed that Cagalli was also sporting a large gash on her head, though it looked more like the sort of injury one would get if one was suddenly thrown to the ground without expecting it, but she was ignoring it for the moment, blinking the blood out of her eyes as she worked on her guardian and foster father figure with frantic concentration. Alkire was also down, with what looked like a piece of a wooden chair leg impaled through his lower right thigh. His face was white with pain,but he didn't seem to be in real danger.

Among the Isolationists, Ramierez was down hard, jagged wooden splinters as big as Dearka's fingers sticking out of both his arms, both below and above the elbow. Sai looked to be unhurt, though he was looking a little dazed, probably because of hitting his head when Cyprus tackled him down. Cyprus himself was already back on his feet, much like Dearka was, though, unlike Dearka, he wasn't standing around in a slight daze. He was shouting orders and organizing people as best he could, ignoring several smaller wooden splinters embedded in his torso armor. Armor. That would have been a good idea. If only he didn't feel so... stunned. He should be getting organized too. Really. His attention caught on something. A laptop computer. With a black screen and three timers on it. The blue one still had lots of time on it. The white one was still at zero. But the red one was counting upwards. Thirty seconds. Thirty one. Thirty two. Thirty three. Thirty four. Dearka shook himself. He had to concentrate. He couldn't account for why his head was so fuzzy.

"You've got blood all over the back of your head, Dearka. You might want to sit down, before you fall down." Ysak commented, from the corner between the back wall and a pillar, where he'd dragged Katie in case any more debris started flying.

"Oh. Really?" Dearka touched the back of his head, which, now that he thought about it, WAS pretty sore. "OW!" He stared at his fingertips. Wet and red. Not good.

"Good instincts on throwing Miriallia down and covering her with your body. Next time though, cover YOUR head too. You took the seat of a broken chair right across the back of the skull. Glancing, I'm pretty sure, but it looked like it'll hurt, once you wake up enough to feel it." Ysak continued, smiling tightly.

"What about you?" Dearka swayed a bit as he slowly lowered himself to his hands and knees. He wondered where Miriallia was. It sounded like, from what Ysak said, she was fine... but he really wanted to see that for himself.

"Well, I would have probably been right in line for that chair seat, except you took it. Thanks, by the way."

"You welcome. Any time. Where Mir?"

"She's over there, dealing with the real emergency." Ysak nodded his head, a sour look on his face.

"Real 'mergency? Wha..." Dearka turned his head a bit too quickly and had to blink to clear his vision. Yep. Concussion. He'd had em before. He knew the signs. Clear vision didn't stop his stomach from doing a flip flop. Mir had a lot of blood on her. But it wasn't her blood. "Lacus!? Wha da hell!? How did Lacus get...?"

"Same way a lot of people got hit, dumbass. Flying debris."

"Yeah... but... Kira's... 'Ow did LACUS get hit?"

"You didn't see it then, I take it?" Ysak sounded positively ugly. It took Dearka a moment to realize his friend was almost enraged.

"No, wha happen?"

"Well, while you and me and Athrun and most everyone else was doing the right thing... grabbing important people and making sure they didn't get hit... Kira did something unexpected. He saved himself."

"He di' wha!? Thas not Kira!"

"Oh, I KNOW its not like Kira to do that. I don't think he intended to dive away from her and save himself. I think his reactions and instincts are A LOT more messed up than he was letting on, more messed up than he knows. He was FAST too. He hit the ground at least a half second before the rest of us did. Hell, I'm pretty sure he was GETTING BACK UP by the time most of us hit the ground. Cause he realized what happened. He went low and left, and Lacus was standing high and right. Right in the path of a bunch of flying glass shards."

"AGH! Is she...?"

"She's not dead. If you listen you can hear her talking. She's still concious and everything. Can't be fun though, with your face and torso and arms all cut up like that though. Its a good thing scars aren't permanent anymore... she'd have a few that would make mine look like a papercut. I'm pretty sure she managed to save the important things... eyes, ears, nose, etc... its just a lot of ugly, deep, painful cuts. Bloody. Frightening. I remember very well how painful glass cuts like that can be. Especially on your face. I don't think she realizes that Kira accidentally abandoned her... I think she just thinks he missed, or it was one of those things that was unavoidable."

"Wha abou' Kira?"

"Perfectly fine. Untouched even. And I think he's hurt the worst out of anyone still alive because of it. He saw the whole thing, just like I did. Except, he was close enough to get splatter. He ALMOST made it to her in time, too. He was CLOSE. Just not close enough."

"Where is he?"

"Look, I know you got your brain disconnected when it rattled around like a pea in your skull, but I need you to focus, Dearka. We NEED EVERYONE in the game here. Where the HELL do you think he is?"

"Oh, righ'. Didn' see 'im."

"You may be hurt worse than I thought if you missed Kira, with THAT expression on his face. Maybe you should lie down."

"O... No." Dearka forced himself to talk clearly. This wasn't the worst blow to the head he'd ever had. He was pretty sure. Besides, Ysak was right. They needed EVERYONE right now. "Just a little ringing in my ears. I'll be just fine. As long as I don't have to dance. Or sing."

"If I was you, I'd not bring up singing around Kira anytime soon. You're lucky you're a Stump, Dearka, and I don't mean like a tree. As a Newtype, you don't EVER want to hear Lacus Clyne scream in pain. Bad enough as a guy that knows her. Or even just a guy in general. You think I'd be this angry just by myself? I'm not angry at Kira either. Disgusted, a little... but its not his fault. I saw THAT fully clearly... his body didn't do what he wanted it to do. You'd be pissed off too, if you had to hear Lacus scream like I did. Girls shouldn't make noises like that. I'm really gonna hurt the guy who did that to her."

"Maybe you're picking up on Kira too. That's one hell of a look he's got on his face."

"Kira doesn't usually broadcast to me like that. It's possible though. That is one hell of a look."

"You guys have no idea what you're talking about. Bad? Bad, Ysak!? That was every bit as bad as hearing Chanel's echo. I knew... know she's powerful... but... never expected... THAT!" Katie's voice came to Dearka from behind Ysak's body, where she was apparently huddled. "As for Kira. Whatever you do, don't look him in the eyes." Katie swallowed hard. "You don't want to see what's in there."

"No, you don't." Kira's voice, raised in only slightly tremulous agreement, reached them. He wasn't looking at them, his eyes were only for Lacus, even as he pressed hastily made bandages composed of shirts and jackets to her face and chest, with gentle but steady pressure. "You probably don't want to look too far outside the building either, Katie. Looking at him can't be fun."

"Oh shit. You mean...?" Dearka gulped solidly.

"The Pulsar has claws on its hands." Kira jerked his head for a moment at the decapitated and mangled Freedom head across the foyer. "Also explains the loud noises... sonic booms. And the lack of warning the Isolationists had. By the time they'd confirmed his heat signal, he was on the outskirts of the city. I've heard three distinct mobile suit detonations as well. He's out there. Frost. I... I can feel him, a little bit, sometimes, in my head. Just like I could feel Rau at Jachin Due. Whatever he did to me... that blood... we've got a connection now. Tenuous, but its there, real enough. Real enough that I abandoned the person who means the most to me in her time of need without even thinking about it." Kira's voice was dead, and it wasn't hard to see the tears dripping down his face. "I was... I was just short... just like with Flay. Close enough to see it. Close enough to feel it. Not close enough to stop it. The only one of you who can possibly have any idea of what it felt like for me is Katie, and she was shielding herself. I wasn't. I was open, completely. Giving Lacus what support I could during our talk with Sai. I felt every last one of those shards of glass. But those were nothing compared to having to just watch it happen, helplessly. Because I'd abandoned her on first impulse."

"But it's not like you want..." Dearka tried to say.

"Shut up. Please, Dearka. Don't say anything. At all. I really, really don't feel much in control of myself right now. I'd hate to do something else I regret later." Kira slowly leaned down to touch his forehead to Lacus's. He whispered something to her, and she whispered something back. Dearka had to blink, because his vision went all blurry and strange for a moment. He felt an enormous emotion swell up inside him for a moment, but it was gone before he could identify it or even really realize what was happening. Kira bent over even more and kissed Lacus on the lips. He slowly lowered her head to the floor and stood up as Miriallia and Murrue moved back in to continue the first aid. Kira wiped something away from his lip and stared at the red droplets on his palm. That hand turned into a very white knuckled fist, so tightly it looked like Kira's fingernails had gouged his own flesh, because there was suddenly more blood droplets leaking from the fist. Kira relaxed the fist all at once and pressed his palm against the side of his leg to start staunching the bleeding.

Straightening fully, Kira turned and took several steps away from the rest of the Clyne Faction, towards where Sai and the Isolationist government were rapidly forming up and trying to organize a coherent response to the sudden attack. Vanai and her children were already being escorted away by a detachment of guards, and Sai was having a meeting with Cyprus and Sergeant-Major Glory, all their heads bowed slightly together. Kira walked right up to them, but they didn't, except for Glory, briefly, even look at him.

"Intel confirms that ninety percent of ZAFT's fleet strengths have left their defensive positions and are forming up into seperate fleets, which are indeed headed towards Earth orbit. We've not been able to pick out which ships contain the Angry Sky bombs just yet. We have analysts looking at the Clyne Faction disk now, they should have the projected attack locations for us shortly, so we can move forces to intercept as is appropriate." Cyprus was explaining. "We need to get you away from the chaotic situation here, Mr. President. We should head to NORAD Mountain as soon as possible, its the closest safe bunker."

"That's going to be kind of hard, if you're planning on going overland or by air." Kira interrupted, his voice very soft. "Because Zacharis Frost is outside, in the Pulsar, tearing the city and your troops apart like a lion hunting mice."

Sai breathed out heavily. "I was afraid it was something like that. Cyprus, do we have the forces to handle him here?"

"Yes sir, we do. We have nearly eighty squadrons of Crusaders and Dagger JA's in the area, along with multiple units of Cataphracts, Archmages and four SMS units. Plus Ashino and his squadron. It will be bloody, especially in the middle of a city, but we'll wear him down."

"Respectfully... no you fucking won't." Kira refuted. "Believe me. I've piloted that machine. If you thought what you've seen it do so far was at all a taxing of its abilities, you're deluding yourselves. You can send as many troops as you want at him, they're just going to be prey for him. He's not someone normal people can beat, in that machine. I hate saying this, because it goes AGAINST everything I've believed in... but there's certain required abilities to be able to fight him that your soldiers just don't have."

"And you do, I suppose?" Glory asked, arms folded across his chest.

"I do, yes. Unfortunately." Kira retorted. "As does Athrun and Dearka and Ysak. And Cagalli for that matter, much as it pains me to say it. You need to go and lead your people, I understand that, Sai. I'm offering my help, and that of the Clyne Faction. We won't fight ZAFT for you, but we'll be glad to help get rid of Frost. I just want one thing in return."

"I'm still not fully convinced I need your help for this Kira, but I'll bite. What do you want?" Sai asked.

"I want a cease fire between Earth and the PLANTS. I want everyone to sit back down at that table on the Moon, and talk things over civilly again, now that both sides have revealed their ultimate last resorts. Even with that data we gave you, Operation Overload has a very high chance of success. I think using the Angry Sky is wrong. I don't want them to do it. If it really comes down to it, I'll probabaly fight to stop it. But you can stop it much easier than I can, Sai. Just... try one more time for a peaceful resolution, that's what I'm asking for. Give and take. With the Angry Sky bombs, you have to realize the Isolation can't work. It's mutually assured destruction at best... destruction of the Earth only at worst... to continue with the Isolation like it is."

"You're not nearly as persuasive an arguer as Lacus, Kira. Maybe you should get her to try and sell this deal." Sai replied with a shake of his head. "With the data you gave us, I'm pretty sure we CAN stop the Angry Sky. And take care of Frost by ourselves too. Face it, Kira... your time has passed."

"Listen to me, please Sai. I don't know if the attack point data on that disk is accurate. The whole file was leaked to us, just like you got those timers. Someone is behind the scenes here, trying to use both of our forces for their own goal. Given the sophistication of the data virus you seem to have, and the fact that the Angry Sky data was basically given to us in the PLANTS, I think whoever is "helping" us is a Coordinator. In the end, that means their loyalty is probably to the PLANTS. Do you really think someone smart enough to set us up with data like this wouldn't have some sort of fail safe? I don't know any of this for sure... but I would, if I was them. Alternate attack points perhaps. Airburst detonations. I don't know, I don't think in terms of mass destruction."

"Hmm... you have something of a point there... but..." Sai hedged.

"I'd love to let Lacus do the talking on this Sai. She'd be much better than me for it. But I can't. Lacus is hurt. Badly. She needs to go to a hospital, soon. Think about it this way if you have to... I can't get Lacus to a hospital with Frost out there either. By helping you, I'm helping me. There, I have a selfish motive. Can you believe that I want to help you now?" Kira pressed.

"How'd Lacus get hurt? I thought she was with you?" Sai asked, surprised.

"She was." Kira gritted out. "I messed up. I couldn't recover in time to save her. This isn't my blood on me."

"Oh." Sai looked at his erstwhile friend for a long while. "Okay... no... no, I'm afraid I can't. I want to let you help, Kira. I can see that you really need to do something. But my forces can handle this. Just wait until the all clear is given. I'll make sure Lacus gets sent to the best hospital we can find. Priority." Sai was turning away when Kira's hand shot out and grabbed him by the shirt collar. Kira lifted and yanked Sai right off his feet and swung him around, pressing him none too gently against a nearby column. Cyprus and Glory reacted at once, with Glory dropping a meaty hand on each of Kira's shoulders, while Cyprus made a pistol appear in his hand as if by magic. Kira made it disappear as if by magic too, wrenching the weapon out of the Hellhound's hand and throwing it clean across the room with a backhand flick of his hand. That hand came up and around and gripped Glory by one wrist. And twisted, while applying pressure. Bones crunched and popped. Kira then repeated the grip and twist on the other hand.

"Don't press me right now. I'm not in the mood." Kira warned Cyprus, as Glory fell back, whimpering and grinding his teeth from the pain of the compound fractures in both wrists, inflicted before he could even begin to react. Kira noted the washed out look in Cyprus's eyes. A Natural with the SEED. Well, Cagalli had claimed that one time, but this one Kira could see for himself. Cyprus's hands, held flat like blades, chopped for his neck and speared for his sternum. Killing blows, designed to break the neck and stop the heart. Kira blocked the neck chop with his free hand, and kicked out with his toe into Cyprus's gut with enough force to lift the bigger, older man off his feet a little and throw him back a step, gasping for breath, hands pressed to his gut and ear. Kira saw the little silver roots growing and pulsing at the corners of his vision. "Stay away. I mean it. I don't wish to hurt you. But I can't always control myself these days. I really can't. I... I let Lacus get hurt, when I could have saved her. Easily. But I dived for my own cover first. Do you UNDERSTAND what that MEANS!? Do you UNDERSTAND how I FEEL!?"

"N-now K-kira... c-calm down..." Sai spluttered.

"I can't, Sai. I can't. Not while Frost is out there." Kira jiggled Sai just enough to inform him that he could do a lot worse. "I need my mobile suit, Sai. Where is it?"

"O-out of the q-question! You're not d-doing much to m-make me want to h-help you any m-more, Kira!"

Kira brought Sai down away from the column. Right up, face to face. So close their noses were almost touching. Certainly more than close enough for Sai to look full in Kira's eyes. "Where... is... the... Liberty?" Kira asked, slowly and very calmly.

"In an underground hanger. It's about a ten minute drive from here. All of your Clyne Faction machines are there. The research and development teams are having field days with them, but as far as I am aware, they should be in working order. We were going to distribute them to our own pilots." Cyprus spoke up, calm and centered as well. Kira turned his head to regard the grey haired, grey eyed Hellhound. So did Sai. "Put the President down, nice and easy. Or else I'll go find a hostage of my own, and I don't think you'll like my choice very much, Mr. Yamato."

"She would be a very poor choice indeed." Kira replied, not threatening. Just informing.

"Poor choices are sometimes the only ones that work." Cyprus replied evenly. "As you should well know, given what it is you are doing right now."

Kira considered that... and slowly let Sai back down onto his own feet. "Thank you then."

"Don't mention it. I don't like you, Mr. Yamato. I've seen what you can do, and I think you're the most massive waste of a human being's potential to ever live. You disappoint and disgust me deeply, on a personal level. But right now, you're right. We're losing troops far faster than I anticipated. Nothing we throw at him even gets close. Even Markov is on the ropes. As a fellow person who has fought Frost on a personal level, I should have known better. He isn't someone regular soldiers can handle. I let my experiences with the Pulsar on the Moon cloud my judgement. As long as the President doesn't have any problems with it, I'd like to provisionally agree to your deal."

"Well, I'd really prefer not to get choked and manhandled next time. But Cyprus has made some good points." Sai rubbed his throat and glared at Kira. "I'll talk with the PLANTS one more time. But I'm not going to bend over backwards just because of these EMP bombs. They're a danger, but I think we can still handle them. But nothing happens until Frost is defeated. He's the greater concern right now."

"Good. I'm... I'm glad to be on the same side with you again, Sai. Even if it is for the last time." Kira replied.

"I'd believe that more if you hadn't just been throttling me." Sai refused to look Kira in the face. "Get out of here. Cyprus will show you where to go."