Chapter 11 is now up so do the usual please.
The bullet bounced off the wall and landed on the floor, Ryan was staring, slightly wide eyed at Arli who was standing several feet away her gun pointed at Ryan, the last shot a warning as it streaked between the Chief representative and Ryan. Uzumi still kept his calm expression.
"Arli?" Ryan stuttered still staring at her, his gun still pointing at Uzumi.
"Ryan, I'm sorry but I can't allow to kill Lord Uzumi, if you still try to kill him, then I'll have no choice but to kill you!" Arli warned, close to shouting, glaring at Ryan but with tears forming in her eyes. Ryan stared back before sighing and lowering his gun and putting it back, Arli did the same but didn't put it back in it's holster.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Ryan asked, his head lowered, after an awkward silence, although he could already guess what it was about.
"Well it's about your family members and why we did not allow any of them into Orb." Uzumi answered, Ryan looked up slightly and almost glared at him. "The reason why we did not allow them into our country is because we did not want to make ourselves a target." Uzumi continued, receiving a questioning look from Arli.
"Is that it?" Ryan asked looking at the Lion of Orb directly. "Your already making yourselves a target by having power, like you said."
"Yes I know that, but I could not put many lives in jeopardy just to just to protect a few people, if we had then we would have ZAFT and Earth Forces trying to get in to Orb to kill them and possibly kill more innocent lives and we may not have been able to protect them." Uzumi answered sternly. "I understand how your feeling and I am deeply sorry for what happened to your family." Uzumi continued, Ryan remained staring at him, but close to tears, clenching his fists. "May I ask you a question?" Uzumi asked, Ryan looked in surprise, but nodded. "I know what you are currently trying to accomplish but, what will you do once you have done that?" Uzumi asked, Ryan's eyes widened briefly.
"I don't know, to be honest, once I get rid of Azrael I won't be able to continue with the Earth Forces and there's no way I'll be able to join ZAFT once I kill Patrick Zala." Ryan answered, unsure why the Chief representative was asking such questions.
"What if you can not do that?" Uzumi quickly asked.
"I don't know, where is this going?" Ryan said back slightly agitated.
"I'm just finding out whether you have given any consideration to the future or not." Uzumi answered "And it's clear you haven't, have you ever considered joining Orb?"
"Why would I?" Ryan snapped back
"Because you won't have anywhere to go, regardless of whether you have achieved what you have wanted or not, Arli has chosen to join Orb, in case you wished to know." Uzumi answered, Ryan looked to Arli, who had being listening to conversation, looked away from him, Ryan turned back to Uzumi with a questioning look. "She and I had a talk earlier and she decided to join Orb now, and she asked if I could offer you the same." Uzumi explained, Ryan again looked to Arli who just smiled, Ryan sighed before smiling back.
"Thanks for the offer, but I can't join Orb yet." Ryan answered turning back to Uzumi, seeing Arli's smile drop slightly. "But if you don't mind Lord Uzumi I would like to have a look around the city." Ryan continued no longer giving Uzumi a stern look.
"Of course you can look around the city, just don't mention about the battle that happened." Uzumi said turning to walk away, Ryan did the same.
"Thank you." Ryan said loud enough for Uzumi to hear, Ryan walked towards Hydra and entered the cockpit, the gundam being in a crouching position, and began to type various screens popping up in quick succession.
"How comes you won't join Orb?" Arli asked walking over to Hydra.
"Because I want to make sure that the Archangel reaches Alaska, ZAFT will probably attack once we leave anyway." Ryan replied diverting his attention to her. "And there might be a chance Azrael is there." Ryan added, there was a moment of Arli's expression changing to a darker one before it was quickly hidden away.
"Will you be coming back?" Arli asked worriedly.
"Once I've done what I need to then probably." Ryan answered, Arli smiled at the answer before starting to walk off.
"Well I better get back to updating the Combat." Arli said
"What are you updating on the Combat anyway?" Ryan asked
"You'll see." Arli teased before walking quickly so Ryan didn't asked anymore questions. Ryan smiled slightly before returning to his screen which showed a box that read above 'enter password'. If this isn't the password then I give up. Ryan typed in 'Orb' and entered it, nothing changed then 'password verified' came up on the screen and layouts of Hydra and other blueprints of various machines appeared. My dad had to put Orb as the password. Some of these plans may not have been built in Hydra yet, I'm sure I could get the facilities here to do that for me, but that does mean leaving Hydra here. Given the choice I'd rather not part with one of theo nly things left to remind me of my family. Ryan thought as he scanned through all of the new information copying them onto a disk. Ryan moved Hydra in front of an Astray and left the cockpit.
"Erica!" Ryan called to the Orb mechanic observing the three Astray's
"Yes?" Erica replied turning around to face him.
"I need to look at this for me, it's quite urgent." Ryan said back holding the disk up for her to see.
"Ok then, follow me." Erica motioned for Ryan to follow, she led him to her office. Ryan followed in silence and gave her the disk, she inserted into her computer and uploaded the data, her eyes widened slightly as she viewed the data that showed up on screen. "Do you think ZAFT have built this yet?" Erica asked, not looking away from her screen.
"Not sure it's possible those plans were stolen from them then uploaded into Hydra's memory banks." Ryan replied eyeing the Orb worker as she looked though the rest of the plans. "So do you think you could build everything on there?" Ryan asked curiously.
"I would imagine so, but it would take some time. I guess you already have realised that your mobile suit would need to be kept here, in order for us to make these changes." Erica answered moving her eyes to look at the pilot.
"Yeah but what I want to know is would morganroate actually make these upgrades?" Ryan asked seriously
"Probably, it would help if Lord Uzumi gave his permission to allow something like this to be built, for the rest of the upgrades they would oblige." Ercia answered thoughtfully. "What would you say to the rest of your crew when they start asking where your machine is?" Erica asked slyly.
"I'll just say it needed extensive repairs, make sure Arli does not find out about these changes, I would like to see what she thinks of the improvements." Ryan replied
"I'll try my best we have finished the upgrades on her mobile suit so hopefully she won't visit as often to see it." Erica said smiling at Ryan who smirked back. "What will you use then if your machine is here?"
"I was hoping you would let me borrow one of your Astray's, so I can still help the Archangel until it reaches Alaska." Ryan replied
"Well the Chief representative will probably have to make that decision, but I would imagine so." Erica shrugged turning back to the screen.
"And what decision is that?" Lord Uzumi asked walking into the office startling Erica for a brief moment.
"Lord Uzumi I'd like you to take a look at this, it was found in Hydra's files, and Ryan wants to use our facilities to build them." Erica explained, Uzumi walking over past Ryan and standing behind Erica to look at the screen, his face showing no change in emotion as he was shown all the blueprints and plans. "Of course he will need your permission for these changes to be made Lord Uzumi and as you have probably figured out Ryan's mobile suit would have to remain here, therefore he will need to use one of our Astray's as a temporary replacement." Erica further explained, Ryan shifted his gaze to Erica, the screen and Uzumi.
"I trust Ryan will not misuse it so I authorise it." Uzumi after a moment's silence, Ryan smiled slightly. "However…" Uzumi started, the smile going from Ryan's face to be replaced with a questioning look. "I would like to have that system to be placed on Miss Erica's computer so that we can use it for our mobile suits." Uzumi said referring to the plan to be shown last, consisting of images of Hydra with a new weapon.
"Why that one, Lord Uzumi?" Ryan questioned looking over to see what the Lion of Orb wanted.
"I believe it may come in handy one day, if it should ever come." Uzumi answered moving to face Ryan directly. "We shall have someone move your machine to our facilities to be given the changes and we'll later have an Astray moved to the ship for you." He continued, Ryan nodding in agreement.
"I think I'll have a look around the city since I have nothing else to do." Ryan said moving to leave.
"We'll have an escort take you there." Uzumi said as Ryan was about to leave. He nodded before leaving the room, walking back to where the mobile suits were. He saw the three pilots in the Astray's as he left the observation area, still training in them and had begun to improve more. As he found his way in the hangar he spotted Cagalli staring at the mobile suits before turning her attention to Ryan and walked towards him with an angry face. I hope it isn't about trying to kill her father. Ryan thought hopefully.
"Why did you try to shoot my father?!" Cagalli shouted at him as she caught up, making him wince slightly from her scream.
"It was just a misunderstanding." Ryan replied reassuringly.
"About what?" Cagalli demanded not shouting this time.
"About my family." Ryan answered, Cagalli's face lost her annoyed look almost immediately. "Orb didn't allow any of my family in to their nation." Ryan quickly said before walking away, Cagalli didn't follow she walked away to the observation room, knowing she'll get the details from Arli later. Ryan was lead to the city by one of Orb's officers, taking him in a car the whole journey was in silence. Ryan was dropped off at the centre of the city, he began walking around noticing everyone getting along with their daily lives as if the battle that took place just outside of Orb territory never happened. Were they told the ship left, who's going to believe that. Ryan continued walking through the city not seeing anything of interest to him. This country sure is peaceful, makes it hard to believe there is a war going on, sure hope this nation doesn't get involved, although they'll probably end up in it one way or another. Something then caught Ryan's eye on the street floor, Ryan walked over to it and picked it up, it was a pink phone with a yellow strap.
"Shinn!" Someone cried out, Ryan looked for the person who shouted to see a girl with brown hair and brown eyes, wearing a white shirt, red skirt and yellow jacket running over and stopping in front of a teenage boy called Shinn, who had red eyes and black hair wearing a white jacket over a black shirt and jeans looking down on the restless girl. "Shinn, I've lost my mobile phone can you help me look for it?" The girl asked in a kind manner, Shinn sighed heavily
"Mayu I wish you'd take care of that thing more, alright I'll help." Shinn said, Mayu smiled at him before running off. Ryan walked over to Shinn keeping the phone in his hand.
"Is she your sister?" Ryan asked Shinn, who turned towards him with a slightly agitated look to him.
"What's it to you?" Shinn asked back, Ryan held the phone in font of his face seeing if it was hers "That's her phone." Shinn stuttered. "Where did you-?"
"I found it on the ground, your sister is a bit careless isn't she." Ryan said humorously letting Shinn take the phone off his hands.
"Yeah she is, thanks for finding it saved me a lot of trouble, I'm Shinn by the way." Shinn said to Ryan
"So I heard, Ryan." Ryan greeted smiling, Shinn returned it.
"I don't think I've seen you around here before." Shinn stated giving a quizzical look
"I'm here on a temporary visit." Ryan answered "I thought I'd take some time to look around."
"Well there isn't much to look for here apart from the usual stuff." Shinn said casually.
"What do you think of Orb?" Ryan asked suddenly
"Well I don't like the Attha's excuses but I guess because of that this place isn't involved in the war." Shinn answered thoughtfully, Ryan nodded. "And I do like living here." They were interrupted by Mayu as she ran towards them.
"Shinn have you found my phone yet?" The girl whined Shinn handed her the phone, with his sister quite literally jumping for joy.
"Mayu this is Ryan he's the person who found your phone." Shinn said gesturing towards Ryan.
"Thank you, Shinn we better get going." Mayu thanked Ryan before tugging on Shinn's arm. Shinn sighed again.
"I'll catch up Mayu, sorry about that but I better get going." Shinn apologised as Mayu ran off again, turning to face Ryan.
"Don't worry about it." Ryan said smiling slightly.
"Alright well I better get going." Shinn said as he made to run off after his sister
"Hold on." Ryan said quickly making Shinn stop. "Just a piece of advice I learned, what ever happens in your life don't let others make your personal decisions for you or change your opinion, if you let that happen then you'll end up making decisions that you'll regret." Ryan said seriously, Shinn blinked at this.
"What are you a soldier?" Shinn asked humorously.
"Not exactly but I am a mobile suit pilot." Ryan answered before he walked off waving good-bye, leaving Shinn to stare for a moment before putting what he was told said to the back off his mind and ran to catch his sister. I wonder if it was a good idea to tell him that, oh well can't be helped now. Ryan thought as he walked through the city the day slowly turning to evening, Ryan noticed four people walking in a group constantly looking around, he also saw two people he recognised who were behind the other two, Athrun and Nicol. Must be looking for the Archangel, maybe this is a good time to talk to them even if it means they know we're here. Silently Ryan walked behind the group, enough distance so they didn't hear them, after a few minutes Ryan quickened his pace and tapped Nicol on the shoulder, he stopped and turned around to see who it was, the other three stopped a few paces away and turned around also.
"Hey, Nicol how are you?" Ryan asked as if they had never fought against each other.
"Ryan, what are you doing here?" Nicol asked back, bewildered and happy to see him outside of the battlefield.
"I'm here on a visit." Ryan answered simply, smiling. "Aren't you going to introduce me to these people?" Ryan asked
"Sure, this Athrun, Dearka and Yzak." Nicol answered gesturing to each person when he named them. "Guys this is Ryan." Nicol then said to the other three.
"Nice to meet you." Athrun greeted playing along and pretending he didn't know him. Yzak gave a quick sneer at Ryan before turning away.
"Don't worry about Yzak, he's not what you call sociable." Dearka said kindly to Ryan, who nodded. "So, Nicol how do you know him?" Dearka asked.
"Can you have your little chat while we walk I don't want to waste time." Yzak said hastily from in front beginning to walk, the others followed but hung back a little to hear the story, Ryan kept a snigger in at Yzak's behaviour.
"Ryan had stayed in the PLANTS for some time and we quickly became friends after we met in school." Nicol explained, for Athrun this was a chance to know about more about Ryan.
"But a few years later my parents wanted to live on Earth so we left the PLANTS." Ryan continued for Nicol. "That's putting it simple, but what I want to know is what you've been doing since I left?" Ryan asked
"Well I joined the ZAFT military when the war started, which is how I met Athrun, Dearka and Yzak and I have still been practicing on the piano for concerts." Nicol answered
"Same old Nicol always on the piano but why are you wearing Orb overalls if your with ZAFT?" Ryan asked faking suspicion.
"That's none of your business!" Yzak shouted angrily though Ryan didn't react to the outburst.
"We're trying to find an Earth Alliance ship we believe is in Orb." Dearka answered casually.
"Dearka!" Yzak shouted turning to face him, however he ignored Yzak.
"So you think it's in there?" Ryan asked jerking his thumb to the right, all four looked to see several Orb military buildings the entire place blocked off by a fence.
"That's what we believe, considering we're the ones who damaged it." Athrun stated.
"So all four of you are mobile suit pilots?" Ryan asked, all of them nodded apart from Yzak who grunted. "Is this ship by any chance called the Archangel?" Ryan asked slyly, receiving the full attention of everyone, even Yzak.
"You know it?" Dearka asked
"I've been travelling around and heard quite a lot about it. Apparently it's a very difficult opponent for ZAFT, I think it's because of the pilots of those mobile suits." Ryan answered, Nicol couldn't help but roll his eyes, knowing what he really meant.
"One of those pilots is my sister." Dearka stated sadly looking downwards.
"Sorry about that must be tough, but I've been in Orb for a while now and there's talk going on that one of their pilots has decided to stay in this country, who knows it could be your sister." Ryan said reassuringly, Dearka's faced brightened up as he heard it as did the others. "I take it you all know her?"
"Yeah she was with us when we joined the military." Nicol answered, thankful that he would be fighting one less friend.
"Must be tough fighting someone you know so well." Ryan said, he saw Athrun sadden slightly when he said it. At that moment a robotic chirp was heard, everyone looked up to see a mechanical bird fly towards them, it landed on Athrun's hand, everyone was looking at it curiously.
"Birdie!" All five looked away from the bird to see someone on the other side of the fence looking around, Athrun walked towards the fence and handed back the mechanical bird, they talked briefly but Ryan couldn't make out what they were saying. Athrun walked back with a solemn look on his face.
"We better head back." Athrun told the other three
"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up." Nicol said, the others walking off. "It was nice to speak to you again." Nicol said to Ryan
"Same here."
"Will you be staying in Orb as well?" Nicol asked hope in his voice.
"Sorry Nicol, I can't I'm hoping to get to Alaska to kill Muruta Azrael." Ryan answered
"Wait so your not with the Earth Forces you're using them?" Nicol asked slightly confused, Ryan nodded. "Well I better get going before I get shouted at by Yzak." Nicol continued waving good-bye and walking off.
"Yeah, see you later." Ryan said saddened, before turning away and walking to the fence where Kira was still standing with Cagalli.
"Do you know him?" Kira asked as he reached them.
"Sure do I've known Nicol for a long time, do you know the guy who gave back that bird?" Ryan said back
"Yeah we're old friends he's the one who gave me birdie." Kira answered solemnly, the bird making another chirp
"Where's the nearest way in?" Ryan asked after a moment of silence.
"Well you can try to climb over the fence, it isn't electrical." Cagalli said matter of fact tone, Ryan just looked up at the fence before clambering on and climbing on top before jumping down behind Kira and Cagalli. "Have you done this sought thing before?" Cagalli asked, Ryan just looked at her as if she asked a stupid question, she walked past him when he didn't reply and got into the car where Erica was waiting, Ryan joined her then looked to Kira.
"You go ahead I need to get the Strike back to the Archangel, we'll be leaving tomorrow morning." Kira said before walking back to where he came from, Erica started the car and drove off.
"We've moved one of our Astray's to the Archangel with out too much hassle and your mobile suit has been moved for the upgrades." Erica informed Ryan
"Thanks, what did you say to the crew on the Archangel about it?" Ryan asked
"We just told them it needed extensive repairs and offered to fix it, that seemed to be enough for them, you need to program the OS, we figured you'd prefer to have your own then the one you programmed for us." Erica answered, Ryan just nodded although he was thankful. The car stopped at where the Archangel was docked, Ryan left saying good-bye to Erica and Cagalli and made his way to the Archangel's hangar where his temporary mobile suit should be.
"Hey Lieutenant your working on that thing all ready?" Murdoch asked looking into the cockpit of the Astray to see Ryan working on the OS, Ryan nodded not looking up from his work. "Don't you think you should be getting some rest, you can work on it tomorrow." Murdoch continued leaning on the suit
"ZAFT will be attacking us tomorrow so I need the OS to be ready." Ryan answered with a matter of fact tone
"How can you be so sure of that?" Murdoch asked obviously confused.
"Just call it intuition." Ryan answered looking up at Murdoch. "Did they give us any spare parts for this thing?" Ryan asked as he returned to working on the OS.
"Yeah they gave us some equipment to fix it with, it's also compatible with the Strike." Murdoch said looking over at the Strike for a brief moment.
"Can they be used with the other G-weapons?" Ryan asked quickly throwing Murdoch off.
"I think so, why would you want to know that?" Murdoch said after a moment of thinking
"I'm thinking it would be better if we captured them then destroying them." Ryan answered still working on the Astray.
"That does make sense, have you told the Captain?"
"Not yet I'll tell the Captain tomorrow, by the way where's Kira?"
"He's asleep like you should be, well I'll leave to your work Lieutenant." Murdoch said moving away from the suit and walking out of the hangar. Ryan finished on the OS some time later, by then it was well into night, he left the Astray and went to his room and quickly fell asleep.
Ryan awoke several hours later and immediately went to get his pilot suit knowing what will happen when they left, he saw Kira in there already in his pilot suit.
"You put that on early." Ryan said as he changed into his pilot's suit.
"We both know what will happen when we cross the border." Kira stated
"Kira you said you and Athrun were old friends right?" Ryan asked suddenly
"Yeah, but how do you know his name?" Kira asked slightly bewildered.
"Because I talked with him yesterday, anyway instead of killing him why don't we just capture his mobile suit, that way you won't have to fight him." Ryan answered as he walked out to the hangar, leaving Kira to think about what he said. When Ryan entered the hangar he noticed Arli standing around.
"Arli what are you doing here?" Ryan called out as he made his way over to her.
"Well I just wanted to say good bye before you left." Arli answered "Just promise me something will you, promise you won't die out there." Arli spoke out, worry in her voice. Before she realised what happened Ryan pulled her into a hug, Arli just stared in disbelief, before returning it.
"Don't worry I won't get killed, I promise." Ryan said before breaking apart, smiling at her, she smiled back. "You better get going otherwise you'll end up leaving with us." Ryan said, Arli nodded and ran out, Ryan looked until she left before walking to the Astray's cockpit and getting in and turning on the main power systems. A few minutes after the Archangel left, soon after seperating with the escort fleet as it left the Orb territory, just as four mobile suit's on Guul's launched out of a surfaced submarine.
Sorry about the slow update but I'll make up for that. Hope you enjoyed it even if there was no action.