It was an exquisite feeling, the feeling of pleasure mixed with guilt, Kira realized as his hand hovered over it. It had far long transcended the most dreaded moment in his childhood his mother caught him with his hand in the cookie jar; such time could never compare with the one he was experiencing at the moment. It wasn't his first time but yet he got flustered just by thinking about it.

"It's okay," Flay whispered. "Just get it over with."

He swallowed a lump in his throat. He could still recall his moment spent in her arms crying about what he had done two days prior and he still couldn't believe that she was such a tender person. Of course, he harbored a crush on her when they met but to be progressing to such a stage was something unexpected. Besides, he didn't really know her that well yet. "Are you sure?"

"Really. Please do it."

"But… are you okay."

"As long as it's you, I'm fine."

His hand trembled at the proclamation. Kira closed his eyes. "Well, if you insist," he said as he finally decided to follow through his action.

A man growled. "Damn you, Yamato."

There was a buzzing button and Kira's world was bathed in electric light. He opened his eyes and was met with the annoyed expression Murdoch. "Murdoch?"

"No, I'm co-star in your upcoming adult video," the man said sarcastically. "Why can't you just press the damn button? It wasn't that difficult!"

"Sorry," Kira said sheepishly amidst audio diagnostic message being announced in the cockpit.

"Geez. You're just switching on the OS to test the connection between Spectrum and the additional parts, not press the button to doomsday."

Kira shrunk when he heard giggles from the seat behind him as well as laughter from below the mobile suit. The bastard Tolle was supposed to be on his side but the man dared to laugh at his expense! It wasn't his fault that he had trepidation switching on the mobile suit after helping to reconfigure the weapon acquisition and engagement sub-module. Yes, it made him proud and boosted his ego at being able to do what he did, but at the same time, there was a lingering feeling of guilt as he had basically helped to make the mobile suit kill more efficiently.

"Just ignore, him, Kira." Flay said as she scroll through one of the popup screens on 360 degrees three-dimensional monitor the two were sharing. "I think you may want to optimized the arms power output."

"I didn't realize that you're quite in the know in the mobile suit, Missy," Murdoch said with a tint of suspicion.

"I know a bit; that's how I stole this."

The other man nodded but shrugged. Despite what Murrue said, he still had a suspicion that the girl was a Coordinator judging from her interaction with everything.

"That's because few people realize that not all alleles responsible for desirable traits are dominant. With some of them really being recessive, the offspring of both a Coordinator and a Natural will have a good chance of being a Natural," Kira mumbled as he tinkered with controls to check the subroutines he had modified. He then stopped and wore an expression of surprise. "Huh? Who made that comment just now?"

Murdoch stared at him as if he had two heads. "No. Missy and I didn't say anything." He looked outside toward Tolle and Mir. "And they also didn't say anything."

"Strange. I could swear it was…" Kira fidgeted under the other man's stare. "Um… can we pretend that nothing transpired just now?"

"The hell I can! You're going to see the shrink right after this to determine whether you should be wearing one of those nice white jackets."

As Kira was preoccupied with Murdoch doubting his sanity, he missed seeing a frown on Flay's face.

She was staring intently on the screen in front of her, manipulating the trackball to change the viewpoint. Then a hand holding a drink canister appeared on her left.

"Here you are, decaff with one sachets of sugar and three sachets of creamer,"

The woman turned to smile gratuitously at the owner of the hand before taking the cup and putting it on the console. "Thanks, sis."

"Well, someone has to keep you well-fed, Meyrin."

"And I have to thank you for electing yourself to fill that position. There's an opening for someone to clean and press my uniforms…"

In response, she got a playful smack on her back.

"So, what are you looking at?" her sister said while leaning by her side to have a better look at the screen.

Meyrin had to suppress a twinge of jealousy as she glanced at her sister; it was apparent who was more endowed among the siblings. Lunamaria, older than her by only a year had already blossomed into a jealousy-invoking woman whereas she could still pay children's ticket price to watch movies or enter amusement parks just by pretending to be one; there was no need to hack into the purchasing system to do so.

However, as they said, grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Lunamaria had confided in her few times that she wished she had half of Meyrin's abilities. Also, even the attractiveness had its own disadvantages. Meyrin had heard, and had even witnessed how some men and women approached her sister for a quick whack job because they thought her sister was a bimbo who would spread her legs for everyone. Sure, fitting into the stereotypical 'nerd', Meyrin found herself attracting people similar to her but at least they were after long term commitment.

The younger sister smiled. Despite the petty jealousy between the two of them, they really loved each other. "It's the feed from one of our UAVs," she said, entering a few commands so that the feeds from the unmanned aerial vehicle would display some other information. "This particular one was modified by Athrun Zala himself so the range is extended by additional 50 kilometers and the loitering window by one hour. And it was given to me to use."

Loving one's sibling doesn't mean there would be no rivalry so she wasn't above using any ammunition at her disposal.

"Well, at least he's building something useful, unlike your weird-looking ball rolling around the cafeteria, saying 'Haro, Haro'. You can take some lesson from him," Lunamaria huffed.

"Actually, it's his work as well."

Meyrin wished she had a camera to capture the expression of her sister at that time. The closest description she could come up with to describe it was it reminded her of her pet goldfish.

"You're kidding!" her sister uttered, finally coming out with a response.

"Don't worry Miss Lunamaria Hawke, my silence can be bought for the price of two supreme chocolate fudge," Meyrin said in a conspiring manner. "Add another one and I'll even add in some good words about you complimenting his work." Of course, the younger sister barely knew the man himself. Even the work carried out on the UAV was carried by Athrun without her being involved; she only used the modified drone.

"Damn you, you little twerp," Lunamaria said while choking her sister.

"Ughh… the price just went up to four," Meyrin said while holding her sister's hands.

Suddenly Lunamaria's hold loosened.

"You agreed to four?"

Lunamaria's hands moved but only to turn Meyrin's face back to the screen. "That."

"There," Talia said while pointing to the map of Southeast Asia. "There's two ways that I can think of. Since Archangel is spotted near Java Sea, either it will escape by passing through Sumatra and then into the open ocean… or," she pointed at the Borneo island, "it will pass through the Makassar Strait and then into Celebes Sea."

Nicol raised his hand. "Assuming the ship will pass through the strait, wouldn't it be risky since the pirate activities there is quite a hassle even for our merchants?"

"Yes, that is correct if the ship isn't a warship. Even if any foolish pirate was lucky enough to get close without being blown to kingdom come, there's no exposed deck so there's no easy entry."

Yzak leaned back a bit and crossed his arms, "I'm sorry for not following the discussion but why are we talking as if the ship's captain would suddenly go northeast instead of west as said by Marco? I still say we should have blockaded Sumatra to prevent it from escaping into Indian Ocean."

"It's not in my nature to take other people's glory," Talia said, smiling. "It was his suggestion in the first place so it's not really fair for me to seize it, isn't it?"

"But you're a FAITH," Dearka added his own thought. "Wouldn't it be all right for you to assume command?"

"Not when it didn't fit in with my strategic conclusion."

Suddenly the map disappeared from the screen and was replaced with Meyrin's face.

"Yes?" Talia asked her.

"Sorry for disturbing you, Ma'am but we have found the 'Trojan Horse' as forecasted in Sector Beta."

"Good. Your sister's with you?"

"Yes."

"Send her here. Meanwhile, begin the phase A of the operation: Spear of Laocoön."

"Understood," Meyrin said as she signed off.

Talia turned to look at the rest of the people inside the room. "For those who don't know yet, that's our Synchronized Combat and Control Strategy officer, or SCCS."

"Success?" Dearka suggested. "Even the acronym seems a bit mouthful."

The FAITH shrugged. "That seems a good idea. In case you're thinking that this is run-of-the-mill CIC officer, I would like to correct that misconception"

Talia then explained why Minerva had a SCCS officer, admitting that ZAFT's military doctrine allowed more freedom to its pilots to take initiatives in battles. However, she pointed out, the different tactics employed by each pilot while fighting as well as gung-ho and elitist attitudes being adopted by few caused the military think tanks to reconsider doctrine. She then pointed out the painful fact that the 'Gundam' team lost one of its prototypes to the Alliance attack despite having better equipments and better pilots was due to the latter's superior well-formulated and well-coordinated tactic.

"Please don't mistake my words as referring to genetics," she said, "but I want to prove to the 'Trojan Horse' that we're superior than its force." Talia pointedly looked at Yzak. "I want 'us' to avenge what happened that day, not 'I'." It was a slightly subtle but still strongly worded 'either you're with me or you're against me' statement.

"I understand. After all, as long as we win against them, it's the same as avenging Rusty and myself, so I'll listen to you."

"Good," Talia said while nodding her head.

Yzak may be strong-headed but he wasn't stupid. He understood very well that someone who couldn't follow orders in a battle was a menace to his comrades. True, he gave his word to follow her orders but at the same time the promoise left him plenty of rooms for his own initiatives and he knew Talia realized that; he also knew that she didn't say anything because it was a small concession for him and he appreciated that.

She then addressed everyone else. "Now I will explain to all of your about phase B of the operation: Spear of Laocoön."

History being a favorite subject with Nicol, he could see the irony of their current situation. When Greek used the Trojan Horse tactic on Trojan, a priest named Laocoön had warned his Trojan kinsmen against bringing in the horse inside the castle and had thrown a spear at the wooden in anger when his warning went unheeded. However, Talia description of the plan left him feeling his team was the Greeks and the Alliance ship was the Trojans.

The klaxon sirens blared all over the ship as personnel ran toward their respective station. Murrue didn't even have time to check whether her uniform was buttoned properly; she was sleeping when the alarm went off and only sheer habit prevented her from arriving at the bridge in her polka dot pajamas. "Situation, Abby?" she asked the cute blonde CIC operator who was furiously tapping commands into her console.

"Four airborne hostiles just entering the long radar range, heat pattern match those of the prototypes."

"Shit. Where's Mwu?"

"Someone called for the hero to save the day?"

Murrue felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach upon hearing his voice. "You heard what Abby said?"

"Crystal. Murdoch is currently prepping the Skygrasper for me and as for the girls, they're boarding their mobile suits."

"Good. The four are probably using Guuls so their mobility would be limited compared to Spitfire but in return, they can last longer." She turned toward Abby. "Is the mothership or any other ship in radar range?"

"No."

"At least the prototypes operating within predictable time frame before they have to return back." Murrue turned toward Mwu. "We have to play for time until they run out of power."

"No problem, I guess."

"I thought making the impossible possible is your forte?" she said in a teasing manner.

"I'm still working on one," he said mischievously, "so it will take away some energy from this."

Murrue rolled her eyes. "Just get back here."

"Got it."

"At least she's telling you to get back so it's a progress," Mirrillia quipped as she went through her mobile suit's startup diagnostic.

"Really? To me she's just telling me to buzz off." Mwu replied over the communication feed.

"Men," Mir said, clearly exasperated. "Couldn't you see the signs? Geez, I thought that you're a ladies' man."

The blonde pilot smirked. "I never bothered to correct that perception because it made me popular with the guys, you know, and the girls see me as a nice catch." He then turned serious. "Spitfires?"

Mir checked the computer. Asagi Caldwell, Stellar Lousier, Juri Wu Nien, and Mayura Labatt and herself; all that remained of the PIXIE program which at the heydays of its operation, boasted a full wing consisting of few mobile armour squadrons. However, Halberton, whose vision gave birth to it had many political enemies; greedy generals who feared that his plan would be successful and cause them to lose clouts and influence. Even before it carried out its first mission, the wing was broken and dismantled under the excuse of other theatres needing experienced pilots. In the end, only her squadron remained for the mission.

There were five remaining and the number could only reduce. Although she was facing such an odd, Mir would still do her best to return to the man who had just finished installing her mobile suit's weapons. As if knowing that he was the focus of her thought, Tolle turned in her direction and smiled. Mir smiled back and waved even though she knew that he couldn't see her inside the cockpit.

"We're as ready as we'll ever be," she said to Mwu.

"Good. I wished there's someone who could pilot Spectrum though. We need all the firepower we have for the upcoming skirmish. Well, the two of them could but we can't really force them to do so."

Yes, one of them was a spy and the other a civilian belonging to a neutral country; hardly prime candidates to pilot the white prototype. Despite that, they were the best choice since Mir herself has yet to master the controls. Her boyfriend's buddy had improved the operating system to the extent that it could be used by a Coordinator adequately but she still had to practice controlling it and doing so in a battlefield was a 'no-no'.

Kira pulled his blanket high up to cover his head to cover his head as he tried his best to go to sleep; the siren was for the military, not a displayed civilian like him. He really hated the war as it had caused immeasurable suffering on everyone.

The blanket was pulled away and he eyed the person who did it. "Flay?"

"What are you doing here?" she asked neutrally.

"Isn't this where I'm supposed to be?"

"Are you sure?"

"The children had already been evacuated but I don't think I have to join them."

Flay gazed at him. "Are you sure this is the place to be?"

"Where else?"

She waved toward the ceiling. "To the battlefield."

He stared at her as if she had lost her mind. "Why?"

"To fight."

He got up but only to put his hands on her shoulders. Why couldn't the woman in front of him understand the consequence of her actions? War resulted in hate which in turn would fuel the war, leading to a never-ending circle that would be result in deaths and more deaths. "Don't."

She gazed into his eyes for an explanation for the statement.

"This ship's soldiers would defend everyone so you don't have to sully your hands."

"What would happen if they fail?"

He didn't dare answer her.

"But…"

She put her hands on his chest and pushed slowly but firmly. "Even though you broke your promise, I understand. It's okay." Flay then walked toward the door.

"Hey, what are you…"

The redhead exited the room and Kira found himself following her. Eventually they arrived at the dressing room where she quickly changed into flight suit, ignoring Kira who looked away when she was down to only her lingerie. After she had fully dressed, she turned Kira. "Why are you still here?"

"Why do you want to fight so much? You can't even handle the mobile suit properly!"

"You're right…" She said while staring at the floor.

Perhaps it was the way she looked vulnerable or how downcast her expression was but one thing Kira was sure was that he really wanted to hold her in his arms.

The CIC's voice echoed in the room, announcing the first launch of the ship's defenders.

Flay looked up and went toward a nearby communication pack. "Mr. Murdoch, please equip Spectrum with Interceptor Pack. I'll be there shortly."

The man frowned. "Huh? Who the hell do you think you are, thinking that we'll even allow you launch? Colonel's more likely to throw you inside the brig then allow you to do it."

"Oh?" she questioned while smiling. "You don't trust me?"

One by one Spitfires lined up in a flight formation behind Mwu's Skygrasper. He reduced the throttle a bit to make it easier for them to keep in formation. "Okay, guy…er people, the game plan's pretty simple: since there's no enemy mothership around, all we need to do is to prevent ZAFT from attacking Archangel and once their battery's finished, they have to return back and we'll have grilled steak for dinner."

"Somehow I lost my motivation to fight," Juri quipped.

Mir's giggle echoed through the communication network.

"I told you," Asagi interrupted, "they just cut the some tractor's tires and then served us, claiming they're steaks."

"The unfortunate thing is we're back on Earth. When we're at space, it was easy to pretend that it was delicious since we can't really taste it." Mayura said. Due to the lack of gravity in space fluid often buildup in sinuses, leading to the change of taste similar to eating a food while having flu; one could eat an onion and mistake its taste with apple's.

"Stellar like chicken," the former Extended pilot said thoughtfully.

"Ouch." Mwu's efforts to motivate them have backfired spectacularly. "Well, let's beat the stuffing out of them and just return to the ship. When we get to Orb, I'll spring for a dinner for all of you."

"All right!" Asagi, Juri and Mayura chorused. Even though the chance of Mwu delivering on the promise was abysmally small, the gesture was very much appreciated.

"Don't forget our colonel," Mir said.

"Of course not," Mwu replied.

"Chicken, chicken, chicken," Stellar hummed happily, seemingly oblivious to the current situation.

"Let's go!" Mwu said as he open fire on the attackers.

The battle had begun only thirty seconds ago but Athrun could already see why Captain Talia gave them leeway in choosing their own mobile suits rather than telling them to pilot their respective mobile suit. However, no one took that offer. How foolish of them. All four of them should have learned the lesson from the first encounter with the Alliance units but they didn't. With the five prototypes really designed for use in space, their aerial mobility were severely lacking with the exception of Strike which could mount an Aile Striker that allowed it to fly. However, that must be the reason why the enemy immediately singled it out for destruction.

One of the units had strayed into the crosshair and he pressed a trigger. Even though his reaction was fast, the mobile suit was already leaving the crosshair section by the time the trigger contact transferred order to the firing computer. The beam shot fired missed by a wide margin.

Yzak, Nicol, Dearka and he versus five mobile suits and a fighter: the odds would have been considered as unfair were they to fight in space.

There was a warning tone and Athrun swerved out of the way. The fighter was trying to attack his Guul unit, a rather good tactic since the carrier presented a larger and better target.

Yzak's short burst of exclamation also revealed that similar situations were happening with other prototypes.

Already, Athrun could see a pattern with the enemy's attacks. The enemy would try to get underneath the Guul whose section there was only lightly armored while at the same time preventing retaliation by the Guul's rider. A counterattack could be launched by 'stomping' the mobile suit underneath but Athrun wasn't willing to risk finding out that the enemy would take advantage of the attack; the counterattack could potentially lead to the loss of the Guul unit, leaving the mobile suit extremely vulnerable.

"Looks like it's going to be a repeat of that day…" Dearka said as Buster turned on its torso to track its opponent.

"Shut up!" Yzak shouted, clearly angered by the insinuation that they would lose again to the Alliance. "We're the redcoats! We can't lose to them!"

"Red coats don't mean squat if they ran around our mobile suits in circles."

"Captain, Phase G and H had completed according to schedule." Meyrin announced from her console.

"How about Athrun's team?" Talia asked.

"Still engaging the enemy with the probability of prolonged engagement lasting beyond the duration of the plan."

"I suspected as much." The captain took a deep breath. "Very well. Do it."

"Sis, it's a go, I repeat, it's a go."

"Thanks." Inside her AMEF-SEAD01 DINN, Lunamaria gingerly maneuvered the reticule on the main screen so that it would superimpose with a structure on the 'Trojan Horse'. As she did so, her custom-paint DINN moved its recoilless rifle a bit even as it remained hovering in the air. The older sister of the Hawke family made it as redcoat due to her specialty. While she could certainly held up in mobile suit, she was one of the few pilots tasked for suppressing enemy's air defense.

Luna pressed the trigger and her DINN shook a little bit as high-kinetic tungsten alloy left the rifle. Two second later, the shot hit its mark. "Target hit."

She didn't have time to rejoice as the cockpit computer warned her about her mobile suit being 'painted' by radar, meaning that what she hit was not a radar module. It was rather hard to skim the sea to make her way to the ship in order but the tactic had allowed her to remain undetected by flying beneath its radar detection angel. With the shot, the enemy had wised up to the tactic and there was a probability that she could expect a radar-guided anti-air missile soon.

However, while she had failed to take out the radar, that was also taken into the consideration in the overall tactics. Her DINN turned in the air to fire four anti-radiation missiles at the ship and then turned to engage an interceptor missile with her CIWS. "Phase I-2 has been initiated," she reported amidst the explosion of the missile.

"Jam the Trojan Horse's CIWS's IR."

"Okay." She then activated the system and her DINN directed several burst of laser at the CIWS's forward looking infrared sensors. Luna then noticed that the radar was no longer operational. The enemy had switched off the radar in order to prevent detection from the anti-radiation missile; the move with combined with the jamming of CIWS would ensure a higher probability of it surviving the attacks. "Radar had been switched off."

"Roger. Continue with Phase I-2-1"

Unfortunately for the Alliance, that was what her sister anticipated. "Fire away, sis."

Four drones made their way to Archangel, each one carrying four guided missiles. Like Lunamaria's DINN, they also avoided detection by sea skimming though at a much slower speed. While that was a disadvantage, Meyrin easily compensated for that by launching them much earlier. Besides, while they were slow, they also had very long loitering time and their plastic bodies made them more difficult to detect.

Meyrin pressed the launched button and two seconds later the drones fired their missiles.

The missiles came into life and fired their propulsion engines while their sensors heads chased at the targets being illuminated by her sister's DINN which were the CIWS. They weren't after the radar in the first place but instead to destroy the ship's air defense. Drawing from ZAFT's own CIWS design, she knew that the interception system worked by radar, infrared and automatic image processing. With radar being turned off and the infrared being jammed only automatic image processing was operational.

Four of the missiles struck their target, leaving the portside of the Trojan Horse vulnerable to attack.

"First secondary objective have been eliminated," she reported to Talia.

"Archangel had been hit!" Asagi uttered at the sight.

However, her concern was her undoing when Buster slammed into her Spitfire, before firing its weapon at point blank.

She rolled out of the way just in time to avoid fatal damage but her mobile suit's glide system had been damaged and she found herself crashing to the sea below.

Dearka watched as the enemy mobile suit managed to slow down before reaching the sea, increasing the likelihood of its pilot's survival. Whoever the pilot was, she was fortunate because its destruction wasn't a priority in his list.

"My opponent had been shot down," he reported.

"Proceed to attack Trojan Horse," Athrun commanded. "Remember the plan."

"Roger!" Buster swooped toward Archangel, the latter's defenders were helpless to stop it as they were engrossed in their own fights.

"Seconds wave in position in ten seconds," Meyrin announced as her hands fiddled with the controls. This time, there would be no CIWS stopping the missiles they carried, unlike the first wave.

"Prepare to fire," Talia said in reply. "It should be able to withstand the second volley so we'll give them the chance to surrender or risk the third wave."

"Minerva, I'm detecting the white mobile suit exiting through the aft catapult." Lunamaria announced.

The feed from Meyrin's own observer drone confirmed what her sister saw a second later. "Captain?"

"How far is the third wave?"

"Twenty five seconds?"

"What is the white mobile suit doing?"

"Guarding." Meyrin answered even though that reply wasn't needed as Talia's tone indicated that she already realized the possibility.

"Launch both waves simultaneously."

"Captain?" the SCCS specialist asked. Attacking the ship with so many missiles would mean its destruction.

"Someone had said to prepare for the worst while hopping for the best," Talia answered. "As it is, I'm willing to settle with a scuttled ship rather than have it run away."

"Incoming missiles!" Flay announced. "Forty eight of them."

"There's too many of them!" Kira uttered as he shot down the first one. Even though Spectrum was equipped with weapons and armors from surplus Spitfire modules, the add-ons worked perfectly, he noted to his chagrin.

"Leave the navigation and automatic target acquisition to me; just concentrate on firing at them.

In the end, he joined her in defending Archangel, despite his misgivings. Yes, he hated wars but Flay had touched on a very painful subject when she mentioned the importance of protecting the children. It was due to his fault that they became homeless and lost their caretaker; he couldn't help but be responsible to ensure their safety until the ship arrived at ORB.

Flay was correct in predicting that Colonel Ramius would allow them to sortie. Granted, she was very reluctant to allow the two of them to join the fight but she had no choice when the enemy managed to destroy the Archangel's air defense. Flay was right, the ship was in danger and he had no choice in the matter but to fight.

"Fire the missiles!" his redhead copilot said even as he destroyed the tenth missile.

"Okay!" He would not let every single missile hit Archangel.

Spectrum's bolted-on attachments popped open, and its own missiles streamed, searching for the targets they have been assigned to. There were many explosions doting the place as the missiles hit each other; they were almost instantaneously followed by secondary explosions due to other missiles being caught inside the earlier explosions.

The interception had destroyed more than three-quarter of ZAFT missiles but the remainders still soldiered on.

"Flay!" Kira called out.

"Understood!"

Spectrum jumped and landed at the ship's portside, still firing its beam rifles. One by one the missiles were shot down until last one finally exploded a few meters away from the white mobile suit. The resulting force caused Spectrum to be slammed into the ship's wall with so much force that it left a dent.

While Spectrum's gyroscopic cockpit had redirected most of the impulse away, it still left Kira a bit dazed. "Are you okay, Flay?" he asked gingerly while ignoring the coppery taste in his mouth; he had accidentally bit his lips during the collision.

"Yeah, I guess."

Lunamaria stared at the destruction, not willing to believe what happened. The carefully planned strategy her sister had put together had been disrupted by a single mobile suit! That was unforgivable! The reconnaissance specialist quickly targeted the white mobile suit with its long range linear rifle and fired a shot.

She had expected the mobile suit to either block or evade the shot so was taken by surprise when it destroy the shot with one of its beam rifle. "Shit. I'm not going to lose to that no-face white jackass!" Lunamaria's DINN brought out its melee blade and dashed toward Archangel.

"Sis!" Meyrin called out in alarm.

"I'll teach him a lesson for destroying your plan," the older said, ignoring the younger one's plead.

With the nearby CIWS units taken out, she only had to focus on beating down the no-face.

The first slash met with air as the no-face evaded just in time. But Lunamaria continued on the offensive, using the other hand to shoot at the sea in front of the enemy, causing water to spray at it.

The tactic was successful and the pilot was distracted enough for her to destroy both of the white mobile suit's beam rifles.

"I got you know!" Lunamaria gloated as her DINN moved in for the kill. Without the beam rifles, her enemy was a sitting duck.

She saw a flash and engaged the airbrakes just in time to escape from being cut into two. The blade the her mobile suit didn't share the same fate; it was quickly rendered by the enemy's weapon.

"Beam saber," the ZAFT pilot hissed.

The white mobile suit began its counterattack and Lunamaria found herself being pushed back. She fought back, firing the DINN's rifle again and again. Her attempts were in vain, however as the enemy easily sidestepped the shots. Once it was close enough, it destroyed the rifle's barrel and Lunamaria was forced to jettison the rifle.

She had to retreat, she realized.

Her realization came a little as the white mobile suit activated another beam saber right after the first one destroyed the rifle; nothing could stop it from killing her.

Lunamaria saw her whole life flashed before her.

"Stop right there, Earthlings," a man's voice echoed and Spectrum's beam sword stopped a scant meter away from penetrating the enemy's cockpit.

It was a trap, the pilots inside the mobile suit realized. The enemy mobile suit it was facing didn't attack Arcangel erratically because the enemy pilot was frustrated due to the previous missile attack failing to destroy Archangel but instead to draw away all attention from another mobile suit.

The gambit was successful and everyone in Archangel's bridge was being held hostage by the latter.

"Move and your ship is going to get it."

Kira let out a relieve breath as the first enemy mobile suit left the area. He almost killed again.

A small window popped up on the main display, showing a ZAFT redcoat pilot. "Deactivate both beam sabers."

"Do it," Flay told him as a small window appeared showing a green mobile suit right in front or Archangel with its long weapon aimed at the bridge.

Another window popped up, showing the ZAFT pilot. Kira had to wonder how the enemy could communicate with them even though he's on the opposing side.

"He's broadcasting through open channel," Flay said.

With the statement answering his question, Kira opened the communication link. "This is..." he stopped to recall the name of the name mobile suit... wait, was he supposed to introduce his faction? Spectrum of Archangel perhaps? Then again wasn't it wrong to make an introduction since he was a civilian and the ZAFT pilot was expecting a military officer? Why was he recalling the formula to calculate the intensity of helium-cadmium laser?

"Let me answer it."

He nodded.

Flay switched the communication to her. "We hear you loud and clear. What do you want?"

"We're going to negotiate with your boss so remain where you are and don't try anything funny. "

The redhead nodded in compliance and was about to contact Archangel when Murrue's face turned up on another small popup screen.

"I'm Murrue Ramius of Archangel,".

"Establish a link with the ship," Talia ordered Meyrin. 'So the ship's name is Archangel,' she mused to herself. 'A rather ironic name'

"Done."

She tipped her captain's head down a bit as the person named Murrue changed expression. "I'm Talia Gladys, captain of the ship that is undergoing military operation against your ship right now." It was a lengthy and roundabout way of saying that her ship was behind the attack but the captain wanted to see what kind of person the commander of the Trojan Horse was.

"I'm listening."

Talia let a ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. That Ramius went straight to the point, a trait that she could learn to like and hate at the same time. She eyed the aerial dogfights still waging on amidst the communication; both sides would continue fighting until an agreement had been reached. "I'll be blunt. As accordance with the accepted military convention, we demand your unconditional surrender."

"How can we trust you?"

"I give my word as a FAITH member."

"Surrender?" Kira tried to think clearly about the implication of the statement. "Does that mean we don't have to fight?"

"Yes," Flay answered, typing into her console. "But is that what you really want?"

"We don't have any choice, do we? After all, their mobile suit is aiming its weapon at the bridge and we can't do anything about it without risking everyone's life."

"You're right, I guess…"

"See? It's just like I said…"

"I wonder what will happen if ZAFT gets its hand on our mobile suit," Flay continued, interrupting Kira's words.

"Huh?"

"Of course, looking at a positive side, ZAFT could probably end the war faster, but with something like this in their arsenal, I don't dare think about what Alliance would do as a response."

"But we don't know what will happen!"

"Of course, we don't know…" her voice became deathly neutral, "just like you don't know what will happen when you didn't destroy this mobile suit when you had the chance."

Kira growled silently in pain as his mind was assailed with images of the battle at Marshall Island.

"Would you allow us to destroy our white mobile suit prototype if we surrender?" Murrue asked as she tapped some text with the small keyboard on right hand rest.

"I'm afraid that is not permissible. You will also surrender the prototype to us."

"I see," Murrue said while smiling a bit. The answer didn't tell much but it did reveal the ZAFT's captain not really knowing the mobile suit belonged to her faction. It looked like the decision was taken out of her hand after all. "Then," she slowly raised her hand as if wanting to say something but instead snapped her fingers.

An explosion took Dearka by surprise. He quickly searched for the source of the explosion and saw smoke coming out of the section above the ship's starboard mobile suit hangar. A zoomed up image showed the section had some sort of weapon, judging from the wreckage.

It would have been the last thing he saw if not for the warning system prompting him to evade a beam saber stab. He cursed himself for the lapse in attention to surrounding.

Before he could formulate a counteraction, the whole cockpit jarred as Buster was being rammed by what seemed to be the enemy mobile suit. Instinctively, he kicked it away.

After he had regained his bearing, he discovered that the attacker was the white mobile suit which had reconfigured into the form he had seen from the video. However, it sported blue trimmings. The other thing he noticed was that it was hovering in the air with only its propulsion. Also, it stood there, as if waiting for him to make his move.

Dearka risked a look at the place where the explosion occurred. From the look of it, the damage was rather well-contained, except… It struck him. There was no other mobile suits nearby except Buster and the white mobile suit. The explosion occurred at an angle which caused him to look away from both the bridge and the white mobile suit. Rather than trying to ascertain what happened, the white mobile suit's pilot immediately took advantage of the situation, gaining precious one second in the process. All of these led to a single answer.

The enemy deliberately set off the explosion on their own ship.

He had to chuckle at his enemy's insanity.

"Retreat?" Athrun couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yes. Retreat." Talia confirmed.

"Why?" Yzak interrupted, being polite but at the same time a bit spiteful.

"Right now the battle has become one of attrition. If the enemy managed to hold its own in another ten minutes, then the enemy would have gained advantage against you."

"Ten minutes?" Athrun looked at his power gauge. Aegis's power was more than quarter full. But while his mobile suit could probably last another half an hour, the Guul's power was a different matter. He had to take into account the power requirement to return back to Minerva. In ten minutes, his unit would have not enough power to make it back.

"Understood." Yzak apparently realized the same thing. "We'll get them next time."

"Of course." Talia said.

Athrun retreated from his opponent while launching the signal flare.'Kira, I wonder what you would think of me if you find out what I'm doing right now."

At the same time, the said person was slumping in his pilot seat as he watched the last of ZAFT mobile suits left the place. 'Athrun, I'm sorry.'

1

Author's note (11 May 2010)

1. In my opinion N-Jammer (NJ) doesn't interrupt with electronics in the same way as Minowski Particle (MP) does. Note that the MP disrupts disrupt low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, such as microwaves and radio waves as well as electronic circuitry. This causes precision missiles to be quite useless, leading to mobile suits warfare in the UC era. However, in Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny, you can see a lot of scenes where they shoot missiles such as the scene where Lacus went to space and the attack on the Heaven's base. In the first case, the missiles should have been guided ones or otherwise, it would easy for Andrew to evade. In the battle at the heaven base, LOGOS would have deployed artillery instead of rockets since it would very cheaper to do so, thus allowing it to deploy more of the defensive units.

2. Since the director did say that GS was quite close to the real world, so why not a UAV ambush? I'm not whether I'm the first to write about such tactic in Gundam SEED, but I have to say writing about it was quite an experience for me. So, both Luna and Meyrin are part of the CnC team but playing different roles.

3. In case some of you wondering, no, Kira didn't know that Athrun was there in the group.