Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces

By: Shadow Chaser

An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising

Story:

Previously on Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces…

"Nikolai, as your clone-brother, had a special ability given that he was the Ultimate Coordinator. He was what myth deemed to be an Esper, one who had ESP, extra-sensory powers. Of course there are countless other names, telepath, telekinetic, psionic, call it whatever you want, he had that ability. That is why you, the original, should also have that power.

"Now, move this," he jiggled the golf ball in his palm.

Kira gaped as he processed the information the man was saying. He was a what? But that wasn't possible. Coordinators had enhanced genes, but not enough to drastically and so suddenly be able to move objects!

"Perhaps you did not hear me correctly," Richard suddenly frowned, "move the golf ball."

Eileen bit her lip from contradicting the man. She couldn't say anymore without revealing who were the true pilots of the Justice and Freedom. "We're not at war now…"

"We will be if you keep us in this direction," Orson shot back before he stood up in his seat and stared at everyone around him, "I move for a vote of no confidence towards Councilor Canaver."

Her eyes bugged as she realized that he was an assassin and she was going to die. There was no one to stop her killer… The last thought she had was that she hoped Lacus and the others would continue her work before she felt a brief flash of pain on her throat, then all was black.

Nikolai released Eileen's body as soon as he slashed her throat, the liquid feeling of her blood running down a part of his left arm. She thumped to the ground unceremoniously as a pool of blood began to form beneath her slashed throat. Flicking the blood off of the knife he had took out of her desk, he wiped the blade clean on a part of her clothes before sticking it inside his uniform.

Now, since she was dead, the Supreme Council, even with their vote of no confidence, would have to nominate someone to temporarily fill her position before elections were held again. This would enable Zala to become a candidate for that position. But before any of that could happen, he would have to eliminate three more targets for him.

And his next one would have to be soon, before she left to head back to Earth.

Phase Six – Sortie

Athrun took a sip from the drink pouch in his hand, letting his mouth chew on the straw for a moment before taking the drink out and sighing. They were just a few hours from the remnants of Junius Seven, Captain Ramius being extra careful around the debris belt since there were a lot more ships that drifted into the belt since the war two years ago.

He stared out at the blue Earth, a part of him wishing he was back on Earth, back in Orb.

"Athrun!" Cagalli's voice made him turn around to see her running towards him as he got down from Justice after moving it into the Archangel. She was still dressed in her uniform, probably having come from a meeting of sorts. He caught her as she stopped in front of him, breathing a bit heavily from running.

"Cagalli," he greeted, "I thought you were at a meeting?"

"Yeah, but I got out. Made up some excuse to see the Archangel off," she smiled, "sometimes you have to cut meetings." She suddenly looked down at her feet, "So you're actually leaving…"

"Yeah…" Athrun pursed his lips for a second before making a quick decision. He had gotten the item a few hours ago, debating whether or not to give it to her…but decided that he didn't know when he would see her next, so no regrets. "Um…I have something to give to you…"

"A present?" Cagalli blushed, "it's not another Haro is it?"

Athrun raised an eyebrow, "You don't like my Haros?"

She turned even redder, "No, no, it's just that I have a lot and…

He laughed before releasing her and stepped back, pulling the small item out of the pocket of his LF jacket. He took a deep breath before getting down on one knee. Looking up at Cagalli's shocked eyes he smiled and opened the small box – in it was a glittering pink stone ring. "Cagalli Yula Attha, will you marry me?"

He barely noticed that the Murdoch had put a video feed through to the CIC of the ship or that Erica and the others including Kisaka had peeked around to watch them. All he was focused on was Cagalli who had started to cry.

She was shaking a bit as she nodded, "Yes…"

That one word made his heart flutter and jump as a part of him realized that she had accepted his proposal. He fumbled a bit getting the ring out before slipping it onto her right ring finger before getting up. She stared at her hand for a moment before leaping into his arms, nearly knocking him over as he embraced her tightly.

"I love you Athrun Zala," she whispered in his ear.

"I love you too, Cagalli," he replied before kissing her on the lips.

When they broke apart a few minutes later, they finally noticed the cheering and applause that ran throughout the ship and into the port. Athrun felt himself turning red from all of the attention and even Cagalli looked embarrassed. The only sobering thought was that if Kira was here…

Athrun snapped out of his musings as he heard voices coming into the dining hall. He looked as three pilots walked in, chatting to themselves. One of them noticed him and immediately shut up before saluting him, the other two following suit.

"Lieutenant Commander Zala, sir," the one who had first noticed him greeted, "I apologize for intruding."

"No apologies," Athrun smiled and waved away her apology, "Flight Officer..."

"Ami Dena, sir," the pilot grinned, before raking a hand through her short dark green hair, "pilot of the new Murasame Gundam."

"Matthew Tanim," the pilot next to her, with a shock of purple hair to his head and cool blue eyes, "pilot of Astray Blue."

"Orion Barton, pilot of Astray Orange," the teen with dirty blond hair and brown eyes said before a huge grin lit up his face, "I've read your military record sir, back when you were a part of ZAFT and of the Le Creuset Team. I'm PLANT born-"

"You don't need to tell him your life story Barton," Tanim shut the jabbering teen up with a whack to the back of his head.

"Apologies, sir," Ami glared at the two before bowing to Athrun.

"It's all right," Athrun nodded.

"Um, sir, a question or word of advice…what's going to happen? The other Astray pilots are afraid, and well…so were we," Ami shuffled her feet a bit.

He knew what she was really asking and decided to answer in the best possible terms, "You've joined up with the LF, and so defending the peace should be your priority. Everything we're doing right now is for those that we care about – and to protect them."

Ami looked like she was going to say something, but then warning alarms started to blare, making all of them look up at the blinking red light. "All hands to battle stations! Incoming mobile suits!"

Athrun took one look at the Astray pilots before they followed him down to the hanger bay's locker room. There, they changed quickly into flightsuits and helmets before running out into the giant hanger bay, each to their own mobile suit.

"Lieutenant Commander Zala!" Murdoch called to him as he arrived to the lift to take him up to Justice's cockpit. He turned to see the head mechanic running towards him. The rank he held within the LF was for him to be able to command units of mobile suits. He had originally declined the rank, but Murrue insisted and said that it would give confidence to those he would command.

"Murdoch?" he asked, watching as the first of the six Astrays the Archangel had launched.

"Before we launched, Princess Cagalli gave me this to give to you. I didn't expect we'd head into battle so soon," he grinned sheepishly as he placed a small package in his hand, "good luck."

"Thanks," Athrun replied before Murdoch ran back to a group of mechanics, shouting orders. He took the lift up to the cockpit of the Justice and hopped in, lowering the seat before closing the hatch. Deciding to open the package later, he put it in a secure spot underneath his cockpit seat and flipped on a variety of switches to power up his Gundam.

As soon as Justice finished powering up, he stepped onto the launching platform. The launch sign was activated and he spoke into the comm. "Athrun Zala, taking off!"

Throttling forward, he shot out of the Archangel's hanger bay and space greeted him along with the remnants of the Debris Belt. Glancing at his tactical display, there were at least two squadrons of mobile suits, which meant at least 24. They were probably more guarding the main weaponry, but it looked like he was right in his assessment of his father's plans for building a Genesis-like system on Junius Seven. Swift hot anger rose up as he stared at the enemy mobile suits, a mix of both ZAFT and OMNI built, flying towards them. They were desecrating the graveyard that belonged to so many in PLANT and his father, no, Patrick – Athrun refused to call that clone his father – had the gall to do such a thing!

"Sir, your orders?" Ami's head suddenly popped up on a small comm. window and he saw the Murasame flying next to him, behind them, all the Astray models the Archangel was able to hold.

A part of him wished that they had called another ship to help them, but there was no time.

"Take half of your Astrays and flank from the left," he flipped a channel to Orion, "Orion, I want you to back up the Archangel."

"But sir!" Orion protested.

"No buts," Athrun cut him off, "our objective is to destroy the Genesis-look alike. No heroics."

"Understood," Orion looked disappointed, but obeyed his orders.

"Athrun," Miri's face appeared, "Captain Ramius is going to support from behind. We'll pinpoint the core of the Genesis before relaying the information to you. Just keep the mobile suits off of us."

"Understood," shutting off the comm. he let himself go into seed-mode, noting with a certain irony that only roughly a week since the battle at Colony Mendel and seeing Kira going into seed-mode so easily…

A brief thought flitted through his mind – were there any detrimental side effects from going into seed-mode? He knew its purpose was to help him enhance his battle senses, but was there anything else with seed-mode?

He wasn't really used to commanding mobile suits, so hopefully the Astray pilots understood his vague directions. He was more used to working as a team, relaying advice and backing each other up. But the Astrays, though built based on Strike's model, were still not up to par with the firepower and armor of the Gundams. The only other Gundam out here was the Murasame and Athrun didn't know if he could trust Ami to back him up since he hadn't work with her before.

Targeting the nearest enemy mobile suits, he accelerated and fired his beam rifle, hitting each of the suits on a precise mark, making them explode. He knew that only weeks ago he had promised Cagalli that he wouldn't necessarily kill anyone on the battlefield, but he was a soldier and nothing could erase what a soldier learned. He wasn't like Kira who only disabled or incapacitated his enemies, he was trained to kill…and in this right, he had to destroy the enemy.

Flying forward, he twisted out of the path of a few wayward debris from the belt and fired twice, destroying two more mobile suits. He frowned as he noticed that the suits that were guarding the Genesis-like system were a ragtag group, almost like they were fighting the Talon's fleet. Was the Talon truly a front, or was all of this some kind of coordinated effort? If it was, then at least they got rid of one head of what looked like the Talon and Patrick Zala's doings.

He plowed on, firing his beam rifle until it clicked its energy output to empty and tossed it aside, activating a homing beacon so he would be able to pick it up after the battle and drew out his double beamed saber. He landed on a large chunk of what used to be a Earth Alliance battleship and three GINNs landed beside him before drawing out their sabers. Parrying the first blow, he ducked and kicked one off the platform before peppering the suit with bullets from his auxiliary machine guns on his head. He twisted around and sliced the second one in half before skewering the last one.

Hopping from his mini platform, he continued on and noticed to his left and right the Astrays doing fine. Below him, he could see the Murasame Gundam carving a nice warpath through the mobile suits that had challenged her.

"Athrun," Miri's face suddenly popped up on the screen again, "we've pinpointed the location of the Genesis system on Junius Seven. Uploading the data right now." Her face was replaced with scrolling data before a HUD navigation point marked how far he was relative to the entrance to the Genesis.

He keyed the comm. to all friendlies and forward them the data before comm. Ami who had just finished up a wave of enemy mobile suits, "Ami. You take your Astrays and hit them from below. I'll take them from the top with Matthew."

"Roger that," she replied.

"Matthew," he keyed in the comm. to the head of the Blue Astray squad that was on his right.

"Sir?" the purple haired pilot asked.

"We'll hit them from the top," he ordered.

"Aye sir, but aren't you worried about the desecration of the graves?"

Athrun frowned and swallowed past a small lump that had worked its way up his throat. His mother's grave was there…along with the millions of citizens who had died after OMNI blew up the peaceful PLANT. "By planting Genesis there, Patrick Zala has already desecrated the graves of those who died. I'm sure that the people who died there would not want a weapon of mass destruction on top of them."

"Roger that sir," Matthew dipped his head slightly, "apologies."

"Let's get them," Athrun waved away his apology before throttling forward. Matthew's Astrays fell in a triangular pattern behind him and he noticed that where there were once three Astrays, only Matthew and another pilot was left. A quick count of Ami's group told him that she was down to only a single Astray following her. Only Orion's group with two more Astrays was the only group left intact.

He weaved his way through the debris, slashing down the mobile suits that got in his way, before his visual screen showed him what looked like a giant microwave dish pointed in the direction of the Earth. Guarding it were at least two squadrons of enemy suits and they started towards them, weapons firing.

Just as suddenly, Ami's group blew a hole through the platform the microwave dish was on, and flew through, cutting the squadrons of enemy suits in half. Simutaneously the Archangel fired its Gottfrieds, wiping out some of the stray suits that had tried to escape from their pincher attack.

Running a targeting data over the dish, he quickly typed in the data that he remembered from his father's notes and his targeting recticle beeped a red as it pinpointed the main control room. "Captain Ramius," he keyed the comm. before sending the information towards the Archangel, "the control room is deep within Junius Seven. I'm taking Dena and Tanim in to see if we can sabotage the core to find out why it was built here. If we fail, these are the coordinates to destroy the Genesis with the Archangel's Lohengrins."

"Roger, we'll mop up out here," Ramius replied before shutting the link.

Athrun switched channels and both Ami and Matthew's heads popped up on his left screen, "Ami, Matthew, we're going in. There won't be that much gravity so we'll have to use jet packs."

"Roger," the two replied before he switched to Orion's channel, "Orion, you're in command of the suits out here to clean up. Stay on this channel to receive instructions."

"Yes sir," Orion still looked a bit put-out, stuck with the job of babysitting the other suits and cleaning up the stray enemy suits. Athrun knew that he was going to have a talk with the pilot, or at least with all of the pilots under his command. He couldn't work like this…half guessing and half wondering if they were actually fighting with their full strength and mind.

Shutting off the comm. he headed towards the entrance of the dish's facility when suddenly bursts of beam weaponry burst forth from the entrance, hitting him and making his Gundam rattle a bit. He cursed silently and drew back, bringing his shield to bear and the beams impacted and dispersed harmlessly. He activated one of his beam sabers and shot forward, determined to break through the second line that they hadn't seen in the entrance. He was almost there when a hail of yellow beam weaponry and missiles impacted the entrance, blowing apart all of the suits that were guarding it.

Glancing up he saw a familiar pink-colored ship floating among the debris before Andrew Bartfield's face appeared on his side screen.

"Hey kid," the man greeted with a jaunty wave, "looks like you needed help."

"Captain Bartfield," Athrun was surprised to see the man here, "I thought you were at PLANT with Lacus."

"I was, but we've been sent out to aide you after what happened. After all, we're still part of the LF," Bartfield grinned, "we'll handle it up here. Good luck." The man's face disappeared and Athrun continued, landing just as Ami and Matthew joined him.

He put the Justice on stand-by mode before undoing the safety belt and reached behind him for a portable jetpack, gun and two extra clips which he hooked onto a belt he wrapped around his waist.

He opened the hatch and rose up and stepped out, strapping the pack on his back before leaping off of his Gundam. Floating, he aimed towards the blasted entrance, taking careful note of any signs of survivors or soldiers waiting to ambush them. Landing on the metallic hanger bay, he was joined by Ami and Matthew who had also packed extra rounds for their handguns. Ami, however, was carrying a submachine gun, the Murasame Gundam a bit roomier to fit some extra weaponry. Overhead the silent explosions of a battle continuing above them were just mere flashes of light which quickly dissipated into the vacuum of space.

They entered in the base and Athrun waved Ami forward to take point. Sweeping around, he brought out a small electronic datapad where a layout of the small base of operations was in the remnants of Junius Seven. The control center was located in the former PLANT's control mechanism center…

The three of them flew quickly forward, occasionally stopping to check for any signs of an ambush or resistance before moving on. They were just a few hundred feet away from the entrance to the control center when gunshots rang out. "Scatter!" he cried as he dove towards a wall, hugging it and drawing out his gun, putting the datapad securely on his belt.

He peeked from his corner and shot a few blind shots at their attackers. They had to be down to the last resistance if only now they were encountering people so close to the core. A sudden cry of pain rewarded his blind shots and he saw Ami move out from her hiding place, mowing down a few with her submachine gun before diving towards another cover. As soon as she dove out of the way, Matthew shot out of his cover and fired a few shots, utterly confusing the soldiers who were shooting at them.

More cries of pain rang out before Athrun peeked his head out once more and fired two shots to the lone soldier left, killing him instantly as one bullet pierced his naval, the other his heart.

Silently, Ami stood up and jetted forward before turning around, "Clear!"

"Got your six Lieutenant Commander," Matthew called to him, his gun sweeping around the hall they had come from and towards the other halls.

As he flew to join Ami, he was secretly impressed with the professionalism of the two. They were as good as ZAFT trained. He wondered if either of them were Coordinators. Giving a quick nod to Ami as she pointed her gun straight at the door to the control room, and Athrun hooked up his datapad to a panel that was supposed to open the door. He quickly deciphered the code and the door slid open. Ami immediately fired a few warning shots before he flew in, gun held out.

It was nearly dark in the control room, except for one monitor which was illuminating a part of the room. "Hey, where did everyone go?" Matthew called out as he stepped in to survey the room, "there's no one here."

Athrun ignored the teen's comments and instead went over to the monitor. He pressed a few buttons and a screen popped up on the display. A dreaded pit of ice began to form in his stomach and he recognized the sequence. There was also another display and he brought that forward and the ice in his stomach crystallized. This wasn't the only Genesis lying around…there was another one and it was back at Colony Mendel.

They hadn't had time to destroy the Colony after Kira was captured…and so they never discovered that there was a weapon of mass destruction lying right beneath them. How could they have been so blind!

He patched a comm. to both Captain Bartfield and Ramius. "We've got a problem. Whoever did this knows what he or she's doing. They've set it up like Jakin Due. Except this time, the Archangel and Eternal can destroy it."

"How much time do we have?"

"Five minutes," Athrun replied, "we're leaving now."

He looked at Ami and Matthew, both who had shocked expressions on their faces at his pronouncement before as one they headed out of the control room and back towards their mobile suits. There was roughly less than a minute left by the time they reached their suits and Athrun quickly strapped himself in before throttling away from the dish. "Captain!" he called, "now!"

Both Ramius and Bartfield fired all of their weaponry at the microwave dish that was starting to glow red, ready to fire, and Athrun was thrown around at the close proximity of the Lohengrins that brushed past him. Alarms began to blare throughout his Gundam, warning him of overheating and he could feel the heat of the massive beam weaponry as it passed by him and struck the Genesis.

He glanced down at his datapad that showed the timer as it clicked down to the last ten seconds; looking up he saw the Genesis engulfed in a huge explosion that shattered the remnants of Junius Seven in half. When the explosion died down, all that was left was a slag of metal that was floating away…

He breathed a sigh of relief before heading back to the Archangel. As he flew towards the white ship, he remembered the gift Murdoch had said was from Cagalli and on impulse, reached underneath his chair and pulled out the package. Unwrapping it he saw that it was a small box, not small enough to be a ring box, but small enough. Opening it, he smiled as he saw that it was a four-way keepsake locket in the shape of the necklace he had received from Cagalli all those years ago. Opening it, there were four pictures. One of him, Cagalli, Lacus, and Kira.

A small note fell out and Athrun read it: Never give up hope Athrun, we will always be there for you. And if one of is lost, we will find them… - Love, Cagalli. Tears leaked to the corner of his eyes, but they didn't fall as he put both the note and locket in a secure pocket on his flightsuit.

"Justice you're cleared for landing. Captain Ramius wants to meet you in the main briefing room. Something's happened at PLANT," Miri's voice came over, grave and serious.

"What?"

"Supreme Chairwoman Eileen Canaver's been assassinated," Miri replied.

Athrun was not the last one in the briefing room, but was close to being one the last ones. As soon as Captain Bartfield arrived, Murrue dimmed the lights and turned on the television to one of the major news channels at PLANT which was running a 24-hour broadcast. She put it on mute and addressed all of those gathered.

"They found her a couple of hours ago during the morning hours when her secretary went to go put a few papers in her office. She's been dead for about 10 of those hours," Murrue said in a quiet voice, "there are no leads, and currently ZAFT is withholding some information for us. However, Cagalli has requested that we head to PLANT to help in any way and since Lacus is there, we would be able to coordinate with her in the investigation."

Athrun raised a hand, "Captain, there's also another problem. When we went to the control room on that Genesis, I found information pointing to a second Genesis-type weapon installed somewhere else."

"Where?"

"Colony Mendel," he replied.

He could see Murrue's face freeze up as she weighed the pros and cons. "All right," she started after a long silence, "the Archangel will head to Mendel while the Eternal returns to PLANT to help Lacus. Athrun, I need all information pertaining to the Genesis at Mendel before you are transferred to the Eternal. I need you to help Lacus."

"Yes ma'am," Athrun replied.

"We'll convene again in four hours. Good job everyone," Ramius said as the lights were brought up again and the various people in the briefing room stood to walk out, some chattering with others in muted tones, some just with shocked expressions on their faces.

"Athrun, you can transfer the Justice any time you feel like it. We'll be leaving in an hour," Andrew came up to him and clapped him lightly in the shoulder before moving to talk with Murrue.

He stared up at the still-muted newscast which showed the gruesome images of Eileen's mutilated body. How the hell did this happen? And most of all, was it related to what Patrick Zala was doing?

Author's Notes:

This chapter was kinda hard to write because for one thing, Athrun would not cooperate. I usually like writing battle chapters, but he didn't want to go to Junius Seven. Ahhh…back to normal stuff. Oh yeah, some of the stuff in here has echoes of SEED: Destiny – heeheh.