Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces

By: Shadow Chaser

An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising

Story:

Phase Nineteen – Fighter

Through out the short trip to the Eternal in the shuttle they had taken from the Archangel, Athrun resisted the urge to deck Griever to the ground. Lacus and Yzak had joined them while they were heading to the shuttle and had managed to soothe tensions between the two of them – or at least prevent him from throttling the clone.

He zipped up and secured his flightsuit before putting on his helmet. There had been no time for him to talk with Cagalli and before, Captain Ramius had ordered all ships to be at DEFCON 1, the highest alert status. Heading out of the pilot's locker room he floated towards the Justice which was getting the last look over by the technicians on board the ship.

A little farther beyond his mobile suit and on the opposite side of the hanger bay, Griever was already getting into the cockpit of his Ragnarok, talking with a technician who was nodding to whatever he was saying. Athrun sighed and entered the Justice's cockpit, and secured himself with his crash webbing before lowering the chair into his cockpit and saluting one of the technicians above him briefly before closing the hatch.

He powered up the Justice and turned on the comm. to all channels to listen to the chatter between the four ships of their small fleet. He patched a line through to the communications officer aboard the Eternal. "Clear for launch?"

"You're clear, Lieutenant Commander," the officer replied.

Athrun stepped out into the launching platform and powered up his verniers. "Athrun Zala, Justice, launching!" The tow cable holding him back to give him a quick send off released and he shot out into the remnants of Heliopolis, where he immediately noticed on his targeting screen, the Astrays launching from the Kusanagi, Archangel, and Babylon.

He keyed the battle frequencies, "All squads form up on me."

"Roger," came the three voices of the main pilots he had worked with while stationed on the Archangel. They had decided to split up Ami Dena, Matthew Tanim, and Orion Barton through the Astray squadrons in the rest of their little fleet and a subsequent promotion to Lieutenant (JG) for both Barton and Tanim.

He glanced at his Friend-Or-Foe system and saw that there were at least five OMNI ships, two Agamemmnon-classes, the other three were of the same class, but it was an unknown design. The style was very similar to the Archangel, but there were enough differences to warrant it a totally different class. They even looked a bit oddly bulky in places. Mobile suits were pouring out of the five ships and headed towards them. He glanced behind him and saw that both Yzak and Dearka had taken flanking positions, falling back into a loose pattern of what they had been when they were still in ZAFT.

Knowing that the temperamental white-haired man wouldn't want his mobile suit to be stationed to the Archangel, Athrun had discreetly transferred the Duel to the Eternal.

Farther to his right was Griever, almost blending in with the surrounding blackness of space in his Ragnarok. The debris and some of the paint on his Gundam told him that he was there. A frown formed on his face as he glanced to his right and saw Cagalli's Strike Rouge leading the Astrays from the Kusanagi.

"This is the Heracles-class ship, the Ares. You are ordered to stand your ships down and prepare to be boarded. Failure to do so will result in deadly force," a broadband transmission came from one of the new OMNI ships and Athrun narrowed his eyes. He had to wonder at the gall OMNI could believe Zala's words…even though he was a Coordinator.

"This is Lacus Clyne of the Clyne Faction. We do not wish to fight with you, but we will not surrender. We are your allies, and we fight for the same goals as you do. Do you find yourselves so easily swayed by Patrick Zala's words to the point where military force is needed? Please reconsider your orders, and think about what you are trying to commit. War will erupt once more and there will be needless bloodshed," Lacus' clear voice came over, both calm and strong and Athrun watched his FOF system as the OMNI mobile suits and ships came closer.

"Hold your fire," he called out to the Astrays and Gundams, "let them make the first move." This was the first true test to see if OMNI and ZAFT really were listening to Zala. While the Supreme Council had been taken over by Zala, there were still many others he knew that might not believe the madman. Especially if the madman was an abomination of nature and had pulled the trigger of Genesis.

There was a tense moment of silence before Athrun saw the Strike Daggers and other motley collection of mobile suits bring their weapons to bear and fired. He immediately dodged and return fire just as the rest of the mobile suits also fired and both forces clashed.

Athrun abandoned his beam rifle after a few shots, deciding to go head on with the enemy mobile suits. Whipping out his double beam saber, he shot forward, slicing through three Daggers before releasing his flyer module and it launched a feint attack on a squad of Daggers who tried to fend it off. He slipped under his flyer module and promptly sliced the squad to pieces before attaching the flyer back onto his back.

Glancing around to do a quick assessment of the current situation he noticed that the Astray squadrons were holding their own against the Daggers for now. But oddly, the three Heracles-class ships had not moved forward into the battlefield and instead were hanging back. Instead, the two Agamemnon-class ships were approaching them, batteries firing.

He suddenly ducked as a Dagger swiped its beam saber at him and retaliated with a kick of his own before plunging the saber into the Dagger, decapitating the mobile suit in half. Grabbing his discarded beam rifle, he quickly patched a line through to Miriallia Haw on board the Archangel. "Miri, what are those three Heracles-class ships doing back there?"

"Don't know, comm. chatter's been weird. They've been silent ever since the battle's started," Miri replied.

"Thanks," he switched frequencies, "Barton, bring your squad, we're going to see what those ships are waiting back there for."

"Aye sir!" the pilot of the Orange Astray replied and made a move to join him when suddenly one of the Archangel's main engines exploded, startling everyone on the battlefield, including the attackers.

"What the…!" Athrun trailed off as he heard Captain Ramius' calm voice over the comm.

"Eternal, Kusanagi, and Babylon will have to cover for us. We have a possible saboteur on board our ship," Ramius' voice was the calm detached professionalism that he hadn't expected from her, not after all that she had been through, and realized that they couldn't worry about the Archangel right now, not when it was something internal.

He continued his course towards the three OMNI ships, followed by Orion Barton's Astray squadron. A part of him hoped Kira wasn't involved…

Kira was still in the training room, staring at the pieces of the shattered chair that had been aiming for him, trying to make sense of what had happened. He had sat down on the cold ground for some support and to try to ease off his aches and pains that had overcome him in those brief moments of pure clarity with the tendrils. He knew he should go back to the Medical Bay and get some rest, but he was too wired to rest right now.

Suddenly a horrible rock in the ship sent him crashing to the ground and he frantically tried to grab onto anything and winced as pieces of the recently destroyed chairs slammed into him. What the hell happened? He grabbed onto a corner of one of the tables and pulled himself upright as he one of his arms cleared away the remnant chair pieces that were floating around the near-zero-g of the ship.

He moved towards the door and it promptly hissed open when he stopped, staring at one of the Marines that had been guarding the training room talking rapidly on his radio. The receiving sound was loud enough that he heard part of the message from Captain Ramius.

"—with Squads Two and Four and report to the engine room. Use caution. We don't know if the saboteur has more explosives wired on them or if there are any other explosives."

"Permission to use deadly force if necessary, sir?" the Marine asked.

"Granted, but I want the saboteur alive," Murrue replied before a click told him that she had cut the connection.

"Come on, let's go," the Marine that had been talking to Murrue gestured for his partner to follow and Kira stepped towards them. A saboteur? In the engine room?

"What's going on?" he asked.

The Marine looked like he was going to ignore him when his partner saluted instead and answered in a crisp voice. "Engine One's been disabled with an explosion, Lieutenant."

Kira had completely forgotten that Murrue still kept his rank aboard the ship, even though he wasn't officially part of the LF, probably as a holdover from his OMNI days as a Lieutenant (JG) before he went AWOL. Thus he was a bit surprised at the salute and response to his inquiry. The other Marine had also realized it and saluted him hastily; both were 2nd Lieutenants, one rank below him in terms of Marine rank towards Navy, which was the branch of the armed forces he was in. All pilots, bridge crew, and tech officers on board the LF ships went by Navy ranks while the Marines went by Marine rank.

He knew that he couldn't just go back and sit idly away, not with the ship in danger and so gestured to the Marine that had answered him, "Hand me your back-up and let's get moving."

The soldier nodded and reached down into a side pocket on his pants and drew out a spare handgun, handing it to him butt first. Then they took off to the Engine Room joining up with Squad Two and Four before they reached the hatch to Engine Room.

"Kid, what the hell are you doing here!" Murdoch called out to him as they approached the engine room.

"I couldn't sit around and do nothing," Kira replied.

"Be careful in there. He's still firing his weapons and I've already got three crewmembers seriously injured and two dead."

"How did he get into the armory?" Kira knew that the ship's armory was constantly locked and on guard.

"Don't know, but I've called medics here," Murdoch shook his head.

"Sir," one of the Marines from Squad 2 addressed him and he turned to see that the woman wore a 1st Lieutenant rank bar, meaning she was the same rank as him. He also realized that he had zero experience deploying soldiers or commanding others. His rank was just for the benefit of him being a mobile suit pilot…not to command others… "Lieutenant Yu-Ling Chan, sir."

"Coordinate the attack, I'll follow your lead," he replied and she nodded before a slightly wolfish grin lit up her face.

"Thank you sir," she replied before she started to talk on her radio to the other Squads who were nodding down two lines they had formed to burst into the Engine Room. She paused in her orders and glanced at him, "Your first firefight, sir?"

He smiled sheepishly and shrugged, a part of him surprised that the anger he had felt just a short while ago while battling Griever was gone. Instead, her calm voice help soothe his nerves.

"Don't worry sir. Just stick close to me and let me teach you the ropes. Bit of irony I might add…your father taught me and now I'm teaching you…"

"Huh!" now he was confused.

She gave him a crooked smile, "I was part of your father's team sent into Mendel to locate and kill Sven Anderson. They call me Wolf," her smile suddenly disappeared as her face hardened, "I should have killed that bastard Quinn when I had the chance."

Kira didn't really know what to say to her statement and stayed quiet.

"Well, let's go," she brought back her mask of professionalism and gestured for the two squads to head in with a few hand signals that Kira did not recognize.

They immediately went to work with such speed and efficiency that Kira had only seen soldiers do on the news. He followed Wolf, making sure the safety was off on his handgun and crouched in the corner, as the Marines made signals that everything was clear. He noticed that behind them was a huge door that cut off one part of the giant corridor that housed all of the engines and the door had a giant number one written on it. He realized that the engine had blown straight into space and there was no oxygen behind it, which mean the saboteur or saboteurs as Kira was beginning to think that one person couldn't have done that without alerting anyone, were somewhere in the other engines.

The occasional thump of missiles impacting or nearly impacting the ship reverberating through the floor reminded him that there still was a battle going on outside with the OMNI forces. They moved forward silently and Kira tried to be silent as possible without giving away the rest of the Marines' position. He had absolutely little to no experience in this sort of thing, but he knew he couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

Suddenly Wolf held up her hand and the Marines froze in their spots. She closed her eyes and was listening and Kira wondered what she had heard when his own enhanced senses finally picked up the faint scraping of metal on metal and occasional ping as maybe one or two screws dropped quietly to the floor, barely hitting it from the near zero-gravity aboard the ship. He briefly wondered how Wolf picked it up with her own senses being a Natural and all when the answer came to him a few seconds later. She was trained; he wasn't, simple as that.

She signaled the Marines with a few hand gestures before a few of them disappeared around another corner of a different corridor before she tapped him on the shoulder and he followed her with a group of Marines towards the faint noise. As they got closer, Kira could definitely hear the scraping sounds of metal on metal and a quick glance around his surroundings told him that the saboteur(s) were working on engine number two.

Suddenly a voice pierced the air and Kira froze as he recognized the voice. "There is no need to hide, I know you are there and you can't stop me. No one can."

"Taylor!" he called out, earning a slight glare from Wolf but her eyes gleamed as she thought up of another plan and made a flurry of signals to the Marines. "Taylor Ren?"

"Kira? That you?" Taylor's voice was mocking and he suppressed a slight shiver down his back. "Wow, didn't know you've come all the way down here just to stop me…"

"Taylor, what the hell are you doing?" Kira inched out slightly and saw that it was indeed his good friend tinkering with one of the main computer panels controlling engine number two. He stepped out fully, keeping his gun point up and not at his friend.

"Ah, Kira, there you are," Taylor looked up and he nearly recoiled at the blankly crazed look on his friend's face.

"What…why are you doing this?" Kira stared at Taylor, aghast. "I thought…I thought you broke free of Sven Anderson's programming! I…thought…"

"Well you thought wrong, Kira," Taylor stopped with his tinkering and glared up at him, his eyes no longer blank, but they were dark with anger, "you and your friends fell for the trap that Zala had set! I was working for him the whole time and you fell for it."

"No, I don't believe it…" Kira shook his head, "you aren't someone that would willingly betray anyone! I know you!" Even as he spoke, he realized how long he had been gone since the battle at Colony Mendel. He hadn't even realized what had happened to his friend after the battle…back then he had been too concerned about the getting to Mendel and killing Sven Anderson… He couldn't exactly wrap his head around the concept that his friend had betrayed them all. They were all supposed to be on the same side! Only Griever was the one who would betray them, a part of him spoke up in protest.

"That's where you're wrong," Taylor frowned, "you never knew me. You never knew what had happened…"

He had heard the comm. channel's chatter during the furious battle over the space where Mendel rested and had heard his sister's successful attempt at breaking Taylor's programming, though it was distant in his mind as he had been fighting Griever at the time. "I heard what happened…and I know this isn't the real you."

Taylor gave him a sardonic smile, "You never knew the real me. Only Haruka has known the real me ever since we were children. Why do you think she was the only one I recruited for Sven Anderson and for Patrick Zala?"

Kira didn't say anything, part of him still unable to comprehend that this was his friend's true nature. It just didn't seem right…it wasn't fair!

"She knows, Kira…she knows and she's been assigned her mission," Taylor smiled.

"Ru! But I thought her programming was broken by that bracelet!" he had seen Athrun shoot the bracelet off of Haruka Satou's wrist during the standoff with Anderson.

"That was added insurance," Taylor's smile widened slightly, "but you needn't worry your head off Kira. You won't be able to stop her…nor will your friends out in space when OMNI unleashes their weapons. In fact, I think they'll be long dead before that…"

Kira froze to the spot as he realized that his former friend was telling the truth…and was truly working for Patrick Zala. He also realized that Taylor had told him that there was a traitor in the midst, in the mobile suit squadrons sent out to defend the ships… But even so…he still couldn't believe all of it…it just wasn't happening.

He raised his gun up to point at Taylor's head, surprised to find his own hand shaking.

"Kira if you think you can shoot me now, you would have done it a long time ago. Even with your friends hiding out, you fire," Taylor nodded his head down to his hands that were holding a bunch of wires, "I blow up Engine Two…"

"You'll take yourself out," Kira knew he sounded foolish for trying to negotiate with his former friend, but part of him still held out hope.

"That's no problem of mine. I die knowing that you all would follow me to hell soon afterwards," his former friend said.

"W-Why…" he choked out, "why are you so adamant about dying?"

"Because you all destroyed my life during the war two years ago. You could have prevented Genesis from firing on the Ptolemaeus moon base and yet you did nothing. You had the power of METEOR and you did nothing," Taylor looked at him with angry eyes, "my family was there. And you and the rest of the Clyne Faction killed them all."

"Patrick…" his former friend let out a low barking laugh and it grew slowly high pitched, "Patrick showed me how I can avenge them. You know? He doesn't really have a plan…he just wants everyone to die. Hahahaha!"

"What about Ru? Won't she…won't she miss you if you die?"

That immediately stopped the laughter and Taylor stared at him with cold unmoving eyes, "Ru knows…Ru's a pawn-"

There was a sudden crack of a gun going off and Taylor recoiled as blood spurted out from a shoulder wound. He hissed in pain and Kira tightened his grip on his gun as his former friend looked around. "It won't be that easy! You won't-"

Suddenly a much louder crack filled the air and Kira's eyes widened in shock as Taylor was lifted off the ground and floated backwards, a bullet in the middle of his forehead, blood pooling out of it in coagulated chunks floating in the near zero gravity of the ship.

Suddenly a heavy hand landed on his shoulder and he flinched before looking up to see Wolf's grim face, the barrel of the sniper rifle she was carrying still smoking from the bullet discharge. He realized that she had fired the killing shot…

"It had to be done, Kira," Wolf looked at him, her eyes weren't blank as he had thought they might be of someone in her position; instead they were filled with unshed tears, "I'm sorry. He was holding the two fuse controls in his hands to set off an explosion in the engine and when one of the Squad fired the first shot, he had been ready to join the two fuses together."

Kira glanced over to where a couple of the Squad Two's members were hovering over the body, and noticed that Taylor's hands had been holding the wires… He understood then that he wasn't properly trained for anything like this and it was by his own virtue of luck and skills that he had been able to participate in various firefights. He didn't even notice the detail of his surroundings while he was talking with Taylor.

"Captain, this is Lieutenant Chan," Wolf's voice made him look up again and he saw that she had out a small communicator, "threat's been neutralized, sir. But we might have a problem. The threat reported of two other potential threats to the fleet. One goes by the name of Haruka the other is a mobile suit pilot."

"Haruka Satou," Kira added in quietly.

"Sir, Lieutenant Yamato says it's Haruka Satou," Wolf added on.

"Roger that, thank you Lieutenant. Hold your position until the clean-up crew has arrived, Ramius out," Murrue's calm voice came back and Wolf shut off the communicator.

"Lieutenant," Kira realized he had to do something before more innocent lives were lost. He couldn't just stand here and leave the battle to his friends, "I'll be checking with Miss Murrue about Haruka Satou's whereabouts."

"Roger that," Wolf nodded and Kira took off, running past the technicians and past Murdoch who were suiting up to head into Engine One's room to repair it.

He flew down the hall to the pilot's locker room and quickly changed into his flightsuit before heading down to the hanger bay. Looking around he spotted a shuttle that was empty and headed towards it.

Climbing into it he strapped himself into the pilot's chair and flipped a series of switches to start the engine. As soon as the engines were warmed up he eased the shuttle to the launching pad and the comm. channel lit up with Miri's face and her eyes widened slightly as she saw that it was he who was piloting the shuttle.

"Kira! I thought you were resting!"

"Can't, not with a traitor out there," Kira replied, "I'm going to get the Freedom. Please don't stop me…"

He saw Miri look off camera for a few seconds before she turned back to face him, "All right. Captain's given you permission. Kira…be careful out there…"

"I will, thank you Miri," he replied before the transmission cut and he flew out of the hanger bay, and headed towards the Eternal. He wasn't going to let anyone else die today…

Author's Notes:

All right, instead of waiting maybe another month for this chapter, I decided to break it apart and post for you readers. My beta tells me there's something off about this chapter, but I don't see what. If you guys can find it, thanks and please don't hesitate to tell me. Oh yeah, military ranking system as follows:

Army, Marine, Air Force – 2nd Lt., 1st Lt., Captain, Major…

Navy – Ensign, Lt. (JG), Lt., Lt. Commander…

I based the rankings on both the novelization of Gundam SEED…in it, it seems that both Kira and Mu, pilots, were named by Navy-ranking system. So that's how I came up with Kira and the other pilots (Athrun and the Astray pilots) ranks. This can be found at http/www.defenselink.mil/specials/insignias/officers.html website.

Also, next chapter may be a bit short since I'm essentially chopping CH 19 in half, but it'll count as CH 20. Oh yes, another thing…I've been very busy with school with little to no time to write so please don't expect an update until Spring Break (2 weeks) or maybe later. Also, I've been depressed for a few weeks now and it's been hard for me to get the energy to write. Sorry to all those who are expecting this story, but I should have a preview of Destiny Falling in the next chapter. Thank you again for staying with this story!