He adjusted his sunglass, feeling a bit smug with himself as he exited the airport. It had taken him quite some time to come up disguise for his cover but it was worth it.

"Birdy!" a metallic voice chirped in agreement.

Captain Talia had given him permission to visit Orb to investigate about the Alliance mobile suit and ship. The mission was actually a farce because there was no way he could do the job without risking international incident should he be caught. Besides, he was the son of a prominent ZAFT politician so the fallout would be even worse.

So there he was, pretending to be on be a vacationer when he was actually on a spying mission which had to be turned into a vacation because it would be risky to be actually spying while pretending to be on a vacation. Athrun sighed. At the very least his disguise was so good that nobody would recognize him.

He walked around, reveling in the views he got from everyone. Perhaps his dressing was a bit vogue and he should have toned it down a little bit. Then a thought entered his mind. Since he was in Orb, he should try to look for Kira. It's been a few years since they've met and they would have a lot to talk about. Plus, he wanted to know about the first mechanical pet he had invented… what was its name again?

"Birdy!"

Right. Birdy. That was the name of the green bird. It would be nice if Kira still kept the green bird he had fashioned for his best friend. It would be a difficult job to locate the brunette in that country but if the man wasn't in Heliopolis colony, the place where they first met, then he would most likely be in Orb.

"Athrun?" a voice called out uncertainly.

Athrun froze in his spot at hearing his name being called. Not willing to turn toward the voice, he feigned ignorance.

"Athrun Zala?" the voice called again, this time more insistent.

Reluctantly, Athrun turned around as he tried to school his feature to not betray his apprehension at being discovered. However, once he saw the person who called out to him, he couldn't help himself from smiling. "Kira?"

"It is you!" Kira said as he went to hug his childhood friend. "It's been so long since I saw you!"

The redcoat in disguise hugged back his friend, happy at the reunion but yet he couldn't help but give a measuring look at what seemed to be Kira's companion; a rather attractive short-haired blonde woman with shiny golden eyes. Even the male and childish side of him couldn't help feeling jealous the rational part of him was trying to determine the level of threat the woman posed to his cover. It was strange but he could have sworn that he had seen her somewhere.

Kira broke the hug. "Man, it's a pleasure to see you here. Here on a holiday?"

"Um… yeah," Athrun chuckled nervously as the blonde's expression narrowed.

"Ah yes. How rude of me." Kira gestured toward the blonde. "This is…"

"I'm Carrey Dinar," the blonde said neutrally. "A friend of Kira's."

"Friend… I see." Athrun neither miss the fact that Kira was standing too close to the blonde to be considered as a 'friend' nor he missed the frown that appeared on him when Carrey Dinar introduced herself as his friend. "Congrats, Kira. You and Carrey Dinar made…"

Carrey Dinar stomped toward him and grabbed his collar. It took quite an effort for the trained soldier not to react to the hostile move. "Look here, bird brain," she said with gritted teeth while pulling him toward her. "If you think your clowning around here is tolerated, then you're making a big mistake. I'll be watching you. You fool around with Kira, and you'll deal me personally." She released her hold and pushed none too gently and then stormed away.

"Cag… Carrey," Kira called out to the woman.

"I'll see you later, Kira," she said as she continued walking.

Athrun remained speechless for almost a minute. "Did she… suggest that the two of us have something going on?" he asked, breaking his self-imposed silence.

Kira scratched his head. "Well, maybe one of 'those' days."

"Oh." The suggested answer would have explained the strange behavior. "Say, that reminds me. How do you know that it was me? I like to think that my… um… clothing is different now."

"I was searching for Birdy for almost half an hour now and I found it on your head." His friend replied while pointing above his head. "You know Birdy wouldn't simply approach anyone."

"Huh?" Athrun slowly put hand a hand on his head only to confirm that Birdy was indeed on it. Then it made sense; those weird stares he had been receiving from people passing by. He didn't realize about Birdy's presence and walked around with the bird perched on top of his head, all the while thinking that he was looking cool.

Athrun had an urge to cover his head with a paper bag.

"Birdy!"

"No, I don't need you to read my thought and agree with me!"

"You know," Kira began, "this feels déjà vu."

His best friend looked heavenward and heaved. "That again? How many times I have to remind you: You didn't find me hiding in the bush with a bird on my head when we were small. I think it was a girl"

"Really? You seemed girly when you were small. Besides, Birdy seems to recall the programming."

"Birdy!"

"See?"

"It does not!" Athrun insisted. "And Birdy, don't just agree with anything he said!"

Meanwhile Cagalli was in a foul mood. Out of all friends Kira had, one of them had to be Athrun Zala. Being involved in politics surely had its own advantage as she had learned several influential people and with Patrick Zala on the PLANT's council, his son would make a juicy target, if she was working with Alliance, which she didn't. As long as he didn't cause some ruckus, she was willing to pretend not to notice him. She also hoped that Kira got the message not to reveal her real identity as well as her relationship to him because she really would cause him a world of hurt if he messed up.

Her brother probably met the birdbrain while studying in Heliopolis, just like those Alliance soldier named Tolle whom she did met at Kira's farewell party. The man seemed rather decent in her opinion which is why she was surprised to see him wearing a military uniform, belonging to Coordinator-hating Atlantic Federation outfit some more.

All of a sudden, she was on the hard sidewalk, the commotion of her falling attracting the attention of people passing by for a few seconds before they go their own way.

"Damn it, bitch! Watch where you were going!" someone uttered.

Cagalli spun toward the speaker, intent to give him her piece of mind. She came face to face with a snotty looking brat who looked around her age picking up what seemed to be small boxes of media disc. "Is that 'Galge'?" she asked while pointing at the boxes, forgetting her intent.

The brat sniffed and clutched the boxes possessively. "I wouldn't let you put your grubby paw on my special edition of 'Nekomimi Alliance' and 'Yuki Zakura' that available in special boxes version instead of downloadable content.

"Huh? What the hell do you think I am, you low-grade Otaku," she said while standing up. "Say," she said as she examined him closely, "aren't you from the Six Squadron?"

"How… Oh…" the man trailed as he seemed to realize to whom he was talking to. "Now you're going to use your nobility on me, aren't you?"

The statement caused Cagalli's blood to boil. She really hated using her position for personal matter and she hated being accused of doing such thing. She made a derisive snort and left before the man's stupidity infected her.

The man looked critically at her retreating figure. "Lady? Hah! As if. If she's a lady then Attila the Hun must have been Snow White."

Asagi Caldwell sighed as she slowly moved her cast leg into a more comfortable position. The doctor onboard Archangel had told her that she broke her leg when she crashed her Spitfire. While she would recover, it was an obvious that the crash spelled 'el finito' to her career as a mobile suit pilot and thus an end to her being with her friends.

She was bored.

Everyone else had permission from Orb Security Service to go to mainland so they probably had left, leaving her alone in the infirmary. While Mir had offered to stay behind, she couldn't accept it as that would deny Mir of the chance to be with Tolle. She also chased away the rest, telling them to bring her some souvenirs.

She was alone and bored. It would be three more hours before the next check up and she had to fill her time with some kind of activity. All the books given to her had been finished twice and Asagi wasn't in the mood to color the coloring book Stellar got her. In the end, she resolved to go to sleep.

Then the door opened. "Surprise!" few people chorused.

"Surprise?" she said while looking at the people who had just entered the room. Her flight leader, along with her boyfriend and others were there. Even Stellar, even though she had to balk at the maid costume the girl was wearing. "Um… Why are you here?"

"Stellar want to celebrate Asagi's birthday." The girl stepped aside to reveal a wheelchair behind her.

"This way, everyone can go," Mayura said excitedly. "And we already book for the celebration."

"And if you're thinking, the doctor gave us his okay," Jun added.

"After we eat delicious cake, Asagi and Stellar can go around the city." Stellar said.

"Can go? Celebration? Doctor? Birthday?" she turned toward Mirriallia in confusion. The latter should have known that she didn't even know her birthday since she became orphan at a very young age and her extended family, if they really existed, didn't look for her. When she was entered into Anti-Coordinator program, she merely accepted it as being her fate to die fighting. But then she was transferred into Archangel into the PIXIE squadron and it was there she found something close enough to a 'family'.

Mir smiled. "Well, Nina," she stopped for a second as her smile faltered, "Nina had always wanted to celebrate your birthday but there was no time and the situation wasn't right." Slowly, she brought out a small wrapped box and handed it to Asagi.

The bed-ridden girl noticed that the wrapping was a bit warped in certain spots.

"Sorry, I handled the box while my hands were wet, so…"

Mir was lying and she knew what really happened: her flight leader found it heavy to give away the gift to Asagi, not when it served as a memento of her best friend. It didn't matter though as Asagi felt her tears splashing on the wrapped box. "Thank you," she whispered. "Everyone, thank you for being with me. Thank you for celebrating my birthday. Thank you… thank you," she trailed off as she let her tears run free, unafraid that she would be scolded or punished via shock for doing so. She was not in the Anti-Coordinator training program but with people she considered as family.

The arms of Mir, Jun, Mayura and Stellar felt warm and comforting as they embraced each other.

Tolle smiled softly at he slowly closed the door to the room. Everyone inside needed some time together, the time that had been needed to them, so it was only proper that he gave it to them.

"So, what do you do now, Athrun?" Kira asked as they walked along the pier, watching the gulls returning to the shore as the sun was setting down.

The two had spent the day reminiscing their shared childhood memory in Heliopolis: how they put a whoopee cushion on Mrs. White's seat and how it made an obscene sound in the class as well as the subsequent punishment they had to endure, building an autonomous flying drone only to have it crash into someone's window and how they ran away before the person came out, how the two of them had been detailed by the class teacher to man the refreshment stand during school sport day and becoming drenched when one of their friends slipped while holding a pot of water and all those fun and not so fun details.

That was why when Kira found out that Athrun had to move away at the final day of their primary schooling, he had cried.

"Right now I'm… um… how to say this, I work with equipments that require the knowledge of mechanical and electrical engineering."

"Ah, Mechatronics! I know you're talented in that field."

"Right. Mechatronics. That one." Athrun said while chuckling nervously. "It would be nice to work in that field. So how about you?"

Surprised that the question was shoved back to him, Kira didn't notice Athrun's slip of tongue. "I'm doing so programming and testing." It was somewhat truth if a bit convoluted as he did helping in the programming of operating system for mobile suits that would be used in the war. "Say, how long did you say your trip will be?"

"I didn't say anything about it, but maybe three days. I took some time from ugh… my work to enjoy some R&R."

Kira turned toward his friend."That's great! Why don't I show you around tomorrow and then bring you over my house for dinner? Mum's a swell cook, if I have to say so myself."

"Sure."

Murrue exchanged a glance with Mwu who in turn shrugged. She then turned to address the Representative of Orb. "I understand that it's within your power but if I may ask the reason why," she stopped and tried to come up with a movement but in the end just pointed to the person who had entered the room, "she is here?"

"We had a bargain," Izumi said with a tint of apology in his voice as the person took one of the remaining two seats. "Miss Alster insisted that she be here for the discussion. I hope there's no problem with the arrangement."

'No problem? She is a catastrophe with legs' Murrue wanted to shout but instead kept it restrained in her. "If it's okay with you then I don't say why not,"

To a normal person, it seemed that Izumi had deferred the decision to her but she knew that he was just being polite since he held the real power.

"Thank you very much," Izumi said as he took the last seat. "Shall we begin with the discussion, Colonel?"

Before Murrue could say anything, Flay had interjected, "This ship must not remain here."

The other three people quickly stared with her; Murrue and Mwu's looks were of annoyance because of her interruption whereas Izumi was surprised by her words. When she had revealed the existence of traitors and double agents in Orb, she had requested that she would be brought along on his meeting with the two former Alliance officers. But he didn't expect her to find out the topic of their discussion.

"I already guessed that there will be a discussion to determine the fate of the ship and its mobile suits between the three of you which is why I requested to be present,"
Flay continued, answering Izumi's silent question.

"That's very astute of you," the man remarked.

"But why?" Mwu asked.

"Before I answer that," Flay turned to Izumi, "I would like to confirm whether Orb had detected any intrusion attempt by unmanned reconnaissance vehicle."

"There was none. Orb had increased its surveillance three-fold and I'm quite confident that none would be able to bypass our security system."

"And that is good, isn't it?" the blonde man asked.

"I really wonder about that. It could be that there was no attempt to do the reconnaissance because ZAFT commander that attacked us already knew that we're here," Flay hypothesized.

Murrue was aghast at the comment. The explanation made sense. The enemy seemed to predict correctly that Archangel would sail through Makassar Strait and used the information to set up an ambush. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe that the same commander already knew that the ship would go to Orb instead of heading north to the nearby Alliance base. "That's why she had no reason to send her planes here."

"I see," Izumi remarked in a thoughtful manner. "But Miss Alster, I neither see the connection between this fact and you wanting to be here nor you giving up information, a precious."

"Because I don't really care for it in the first place."

"Aren't you Blue Cosmos members supposed to be fanatics? You know, hate Coordinators and all that garbage about the so-called pure and blue world…"

"I hate Coordinators," Flay clarified with a steely expression. "Because it was because of Coordinators I don't have a family and when I do have a family, Coordinators took it away and…" She stopped to still her silent tremble. "It was a Coordinator who killed my best friend," she finished quietly. "If she wasn't fighting against a Coordinator at that time, she probably still be alive to this day. As you said earlier, I hate them very much." The young woman smiled venomously. "Ah, right. I guess you're going to say that you wouldn't deal with someone like me, right?" she said as she silently challenged the three of them. When she noticed Izumi was about to say something, she quickly interrupted. "Not even if what I'm going to say next will save everyone, including those Coordinators you like so much?"

"My patient with you is running thin, young lady," the Orb Representative replied slowly. "Make your words count or else…"

"The ZAFT commander already knows the mobile suit is nuclear-powered," she said while smashing her hands on the table in front of her. With her words catching everyone by surprise, she stood and pointed to Murrue and Mwu. "And this is partly your fault for not telling me where the ship was headed!"

"How could ZAFT knew about Spectrum?" Murrue questioned defensively. "You're not making any sense."

Flay chuckled. "Making sense? Did it occur to you the real reason why the ZAFT's Captain didn't bother searching us here? I'll tell you why. She didn't want to find this ship in Orb!"

"Are you saying that the captain purposely avoided searching for Archangel and Spectrum here?" Izumi asked.

"This is the worst case scenario but if you really think that I'm wrong, you're free to throw me into a dungeon and throw away the key."

Mwu was frowning at the statement. "But that means by being here, Archangel and Spectrum is endangering this country."

"Spectrum," Flay corrected.

"If what you say is true, then the reason why the captain didn't search for the ship and mobile suit is to avoid the rest of ZAFT find out about Spectrum," Izumi said. He could see the reasoning. Izumi wasn't conceited to admit that the higher echelon of ZAFT wouldn't dare attack his nation despite its neutrality. So, any revelation of Orb harboring Archangel and Spectrum could cause a declaration of war against it.

However, if the country was attacked by ZAFT, that would lead to an escalation of conflict which would certainly be seized by Alliance even if Orb would remain indifference to any treaty; one reason that he could think of is Alliance accusing ZAFT of trying to conquer Earth which would certainly seem that way by more neutral nations. The other reason would be that the Alliance would want to reclaim its rogue ship and prevent it from falling into ZAFT's hands.

In another unsavory scenario, Alliance would claim that Archangel was sent to help Orb which would be quite a logical explanation given the situation. Even if ZAFT revealed the existence of the nuclear-powered mobile suit in Orb, with the country's diplomatic standing, it would be easy to dismiss the claim as something fraudulent. Since ZAFT had been using combat mobile suits for a while, such action could in fact backfire on them.

He gave a look at the redhead who nodded. It looked like he also arrived at the same conclusion as she did. "The ZAFT captain doesn't have all the necessary information and is bidding for time. That's why there wasn't any move made. Miss Alster, you're saying that the longer the Spectrum and Archangel remains here, the more danger they would pose to this country?"

"Why Archangel as well?" Mwu asked.

"Because Spectrum has been identified with it," Murrue said resignedly. "One couldn't be seen without people wondering about the other. It looks like Archangel have to leave Orb, isn't it?" she asked Izumi.

"I'm sorry that you're right. We're neutral right now so even if we have the means to protect ourselves, Orb will not enter the war unnecessarily." The man turned to Flay. "By revealing the existence of traitors and spies in Orb you hope to slow down the time. But in the end the ship will have to leave but the details we'll work out later. What I want to know is where will you be when the time comes?"

"You wouldn't like it," the redhead answered but I want to be onboard Archangel."

Mwu gave a hard look at her. "So you can play your role as triple agents, furthering your agenda as Blue Cosmos? Kill more Coordinators?"

"Yes. I will erase every one of them, until only human remains."

"You!" the blonde ace stood up but was held by Murrue.

"Miss Alster," Izumi began. "All of us have heard your saying that you want to kill Coordinators a few times already. However, I have to ask you: are you sure you're in the position to be saying that?"

She turned toward him. "It seems that I have to apologize to you for looking down on Orb's Intelligence," she said in not so sincere manner.

"Apology accepted," Izumi said neutrally.

"What are you saying?" Murrue asked confused with the exchange.

Her questioned remained unanswered as the Orb Representative and the Alster scion traded silent stare.

"Captain!" a man called out in alarm.

"What is it, Arthur?" Talia asked while wondering why her Executive Officer, shortened to XO, couldn't act like his legendary namesake. After all, a king has to remain calm at all time but not her subordinate who always seem so fidgety that the only thing she could think off that could probably challenge him was a recently opened can of Mexican jumping bean.

"We lost one of our drones!"

Calmly, she turned toward Meyrin who nodded. "Probable cause?"

"It was shot down," the SCCS reported.

Talia turned toward the main screen and crossed her fingers in front of her face as she pondered the information. "By what?"

"Air to air missile, make, unknown but believed to be BVR."

"Beyond-visual-range…" The captain of Minerva clucked her tongue in annoyance as she arrived at an unsatisfactory conclusion. "I want you to search for information, any information on all Atlantic Federation's as well as Eurasian Pacific Fleet CSGs in the recent months. Any sighting of them, whether here, Artic, wherever, as long as pertaining to them, I want to see it."

"Carrier Strike Group?" Arthur asked.

"Yes," she said impatiently. "You know, a group of ships with an aircraft carrier? The group of ships which can be dangerous to us?" she asked back sarcastically. The drone shot down belonged to a fleet of newest ZAFT UAVs designed to operate on Earth theatre. Stealth and very low observable profile were among of its numerous advantages so it was quite improbable to shoot it down from far away unless the enemy had some sort of advanced radar. The lack of enemy installation in the area suggested that the drone was detected by airborne early warning system.

The main screen began showing numerous details pertaining to all known CSGs belonging to Alliance's Pacific Fleet.

"I think…" Meyrin began slowly.

"Tell me," Talia commanded.

The ensign nodded. "I think it's the America CSG," she said as the information about the group was displayed on the screen.

America CSG, the first and unfortunately the last in its class of then outdated fighter carrier design as Spengler-class carriers were hurriedly introduced to counter ZAFT's threat. Unlike Spengler-class carriers which carried the complementing squadron of vertically launched or landing F-7D Spearhead, America carried the carrier-launched FX-535 Thunderstrike squadron which was considered inferior from F-7D due to the aircrafts having to be launched via runaways or carriers.

"Full stop," Talia called out to Malik who was at the helm.

"Ma'am?"

"Full stop."

"Aye aye ma'am."

"Bart, I want a full sonar sweep of the area. Chen, I want you to ready our ASROCs just in case. Meyrin, I want all pilots ready for launch in five minutes. All of them."

It was an uncommon knowledge to ZAFT ship captains that a CSG would have at least two submarines in them but that was to be expected since many of them would be commanding space-borne Laurasia-class and the newly launched Nazca-class ship. But Talia held an uncommon position, captaining Minerva, a special operation ZAFT ship that could operate on Earth and in space so she had to be familiar with both theatre strategies and tactics.

"Area energized, and no enemy detected," Bart reported.

Talia bit her lips. "Sound the red alert. I want the firefighting teams on standby. Chen, set all our available anti-ship missiles to automatic target search in case we need to fire them."

"Captain, aren't you overreacting?" Arthur asked. "It's just a drone," he continued, contradicting the way he was acting moments before.

"Captain," Bart interrupted. "Detecting two anti-ship missiles vectoring in our position!"

"CIWS!"

"CIWS at full auto!" Chen reported.

Silence reigned in the bridge as two CIWS units came to life, firing at their designated targets. Two fireballs erupted a kilometer away, and Talia let out a relieved breath.

"Bart, have you tracked the missiles' point of origin?"

"Yes."

"Very well. Launch all our mobile suits!"

Onboard CVN-153 America, the only ship in its class, Rear Admiral Phillip Martin calmly munched his bagel, despite the tense situation. The tall lanky man with a streak of silver hair was no beginner to battles, having served in numerous conflicts before. In fact, there was a weird rumor that went around the carrier group that said he developed a craving for bagels as it reminded him of ship mines which was false of course since he had already liked the food since childhood.

"Coffee, sir?" his flag adjutant, or as referred to as 'the loop' asked him, a pot in her hand.

The Oklahoma-borne admiral nodded as she poured the content into a cup nearby cup and handed it to him, earning his thanks in return. He didn't really like the black caffeine-laden drink but he grew tired of the looks he got from everyone whenever he ate his favorite food with tea; it was as if he was committing a sacrilege of the highest order by not eating bagel with coffee. At least since he was promoted to his current rank, there were lot less people asking him whether his father was a police officer. "Situation?"

"Our surveillance unit confirmed the launch of three mobile suits astride with their flyer units toward the launch area," the woman answered.

"Hm… non-aerial mobile suit. I wonder if it's the same one that wiped out our space fleet,"

"The same one, except the white and blue that was destroyed by one of Phantom Pain's strike teams."

"Ah, that one. Read the report." Phillip murmured. The attack on Ocenia by a Phantom brigade strike team had bolstered the morals of Alliance, especially since it showed that the advanced ZAFT prototypes weren't invincible after all. While personally impressed by the audacity of the operation, he found irked by the fact that such Blue Cosmos-led teams would be successful whereas the normal military force failed. But he had to hand it to Blue Cosmos: the rich and famous club of anti-Coordinators power makers had a very good way of brainwashing and instilling blind loyalty since the team committed suicide by blowing up its ship to capture by enemy. It would be nice though if they didn't have to blow up such a ship; even though he was blue-blooded Navy man, he could appreciate the technical beauty and alluring form of the ship used in the assault. "All of our planes up in the air?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good."

"Sir?"

Philip noted the questioning look which is to be expected since they were fighting against one of ZAFT's finest. "Lieutenant Kathlene, since you've just become our 'loop' only recently, you might be unfamiliar with the tactics we use to fight ZAFT's navy. Have you heard about Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, the dictator of the Roman Republic?"

"Fabian strategy?" Arthur asked. "I don't see what that has to do with the order for the Joule team to return."

"I'm not willing to fight a pointless battle, not when we can retreat safely. If the enemy can be polite, then so can I."

"We can still fight them! Our Gundams can easily outmatch anything they have."

"You're right. Our mobile suits don't have to worry about them. It is we who should fear them." If her hunch was correct, the Alliance's squadron would engage the Gundams an aerial battle. However, there was no guarantee that the enemy commander wouldn't change tactic and attack Minerva instead. With the fighters faster than even ZAFT's DINN, they could easily outrun the mobile suits to attack the ship and be gone long before the Gundams could arrive. Then the CSG would continue to harass Minerva, probably dropping bombs on the ship from high altitude, turning away to run before they could be intercepted.

It was a classic asymmetrical warfare tactic, one that she herself would use if the position was reversed so it would be an insult to think that the enemy was too incompetent to think of it.

When the war started, ZAFT military planners had planned for the Alliance to be quickly subdued by three-prongs strategy of reducing the strength of the military force through the use of technologically superior mobile suits, destroying key military targets such research facilities as well weapon factories and lastly achieving naval dominancy to cripple the economy of Alliance states. The strategy failed, leading to an impasse in the whole conflict.

There were many factors leading to the failure of the first two part of the strategy but only one reason attributed to ZAFT's not achieving naval dominancy: Alliance's CSGs. It was thought that a Vozgulov-class submarine, able to operate silently underwater, would be adequate enough to destroy such group by itself; it also can deploy underwater and aerial mobile suits if needed. That assumption was quickly proven wrong when two of them were lost in separate attempt to attack the CSGs while only one carrier and two frigates were crippled by the attacks.

It was found out that underwater attacks would require the Vozgulov to get as close as possible to the group of ships but doing so would expose itself to detection. An ambush could be arranged if the CSG's course could be determined but the advantage gained wasn't much since the anti-submarine frigates would provide cover to the whole group. An underwater attack could be carried out through UMF-4A GOOhNs but the moment it launched the mobile suits, it would make a lot of noise and render it detectable on enemy radar. Plus, the mobile suits rather unimpressive range made them tad better than guided torpedoes. A long range attack could be launched through DINNs but the enemy could always shoot them down; some mobile armour could be sent to engage them while the rest sent to hunt down the originating submarine.

A Vosgulov could probably destroy a lone aircraft carrier while risking significant risk of being destroyed itself so attacking a CSG increased the risk tenfold. Minerva had more firepower but suffered from other weaknesses such as lack of stealth.

"We can always fire Tannhauser at the group and destroy it with one shot," Arthur suggested.

"Arthur, remember just now that I asked for a sonar sweep and no submarine was detected. Now, either there's really no submarine in the area or there is a submarine waiting to ambush us should we try to attack. Even if there's no submarine around here, there will be a submarine hidden somewhere that will detect us firing our Tannhauser cannon and I would be surprised if we're not vaporized with a nuclear missile within thirty seconds of firing it. After all, it produces a lot of gamma weapon that it is essentially a WMD." She didn't feel the need to mention that the enemy CSG would have to be in visual range in order to fire Tanhausser at it due to atmosphere effect of reducing the range of the weapon.

"But Captain…"

"If we have to fight, it would be through conventional method and I'm quite certain our enemy possesses more situational awareness than we currently have." When Minerva attacked Archangel it had such advantage so Talia knew how much of a difference it would make. "And as I said earlier, I don't want to fight a pointless battle, especially one one where we don't hold an advantage which can cause us to lose."

"Retreat?" Phillip asked incredulously. "You're telling me they packed up and leave?"

"Yes sir. They even transmit the orders to their mobile suits through open and unencrypted channel. Should we pursue them?" his adjutant asked. "The Trident missiles we launched will intercept the ship in two minutes."

"No. If the missiles scored a hit or two then it's a go but the chance of that happening is very slim. Just call our people back." It seemed that the ZAFT's captain had already realized his tactic and recalled the mobile suits. He didn't know whether it stemmed from the captain being a Coordinator or not but he was impressed nonetheless especially with the audacity in which the intent to retreat was broadcast in a way that it would be intercepted by his fleet. Deciding not to fight was a correct decision to take because Phillip was confident that he could achieve a decisive victory if the advanced prototype could be led away.

He could press on with the attack but with their mobile suits guarding their ship, it would be very difficult to win. Since the ZAFT ship had also began retreating to safe waters rather than remain in the current position, it was obvious the captain didn't want to fight. Indeed, the best tacticians would be able to achieve the outcome of the battle before a single shot was fired and he could see that the ZAFT's commander would be a formidable foe in the future.

Phillip decided to focus on the current situation. "We however, will remain in the area."

"Sorry, sir?"

"ZAFT's there for a reason."

And whatever the reason was, Phillip intended to find out.

1

Author's Note (4 July 2010)

1) Ah, right. Fourth of July, Happy Independence day to United States. When I started this chapter and the subsequent introduction of America-class, I didn't know that I'll actually finish this on 4th July so as I write this AN, I find the whole thing to be poignant. While I can't say whether America CSG would play a big role similar to Cherubim in Fallen Angel, at the very least it would have an impact on the whole situation.

2) I remember there was an anonymous review saying that the all of characters have been developed except Kira. Since it was anonymous, I couldn't reply via messaging and had to put it here in order to clear it up. Sure, most characters already started a bit developed as they were in military and you would expect normal characterization in regards to that fact; in contrast, Kira was the only one not in military so it seemed his character was yet to be defined. That said, I can say that as the story move, the characters would develop although the rate and path of development wouldn't be similar. After all I don't want to repeat the same thing that happened in GSD where the I couldn't even see some semblance of character development except for Athrun or maybe Cagalli and even Gilbert but the rest seemed rather the same throughout the series.