Mirriallia starred at the two mobile suits fighting against each other in awe as next to her, Erica Simmons, the senior engineer of Morgenroete which was responsible for developing the M1 Astray, a new mobile suit intended for use by the Orb military. "Let me guess," she said to Erica, "that's the power of Coordinator pilot?"

"No," the other woman answered while checking at the data being displayed on her tablet computer. "He's a Coordinator but that doesn't account for his performance."

"But he's fighting Stellar to a standstill!"

Erica shrugged and put away the tablet. "Well, that's the power of an Otaku."

"Otaku?"

"Japanese word for someone who's quite obsessive with something," Erica explained as Stellar's Spitfire knocked down the other Spitfire being piloted by other pilot. "If not for the fact that someone spotted him in a video game competition, he probably would have become a professional NEET, playing video games any free time he has. Some people say that he had been referred to as the god of video games on the internet."

Not in Education, Employment or Training or in short NEET. Mir found it was hard to believe that Orb would recruit such a person into its military.

"Sure, he has problems with authority every other day but he still follows orders given and his piloting and gunnery skills are probably among the best," Erica continued before wincing when Stellar's Spitfire was knocked on the ground, causing a small tremor. A second later, the ground trembled again as the other Spitfire straddled Stellar's Spitfire, signaling the end of the match.

"It is the attitude, not aptitude that determines the altitude."

"True enough," Erica conceded. "Still, I'm rather surprised that he volunteered to with the ship to replace the other four pilots."

"I'm relieved that they will have a chance for a decent live after all that they have gone through, especially Stellar."

"I've heard," Erica said as the two Spitfires began leaving the battle area. "Not to give you false hope or anything, but a doctor friend of mine believes that she can be weaned off the drugs through replacement therapy. However, that doesn't mean her mental age will be on par with other people instantly and she will lose the ability to pilot."

"If it can give her a semblance of a life, then I think it's more than fair."

"But why didn't you and your boyfriend stay behind as well?"

"Unlike the four of them, the two of us are in the military by our own choice," Mir answered. Both she and Tolle entered the military after graduating from the school because they wanted to make a difference in the war. Still, she had to admit at that time, she wasn't sure that they had made the right choice. But she was quite certain that leaving the four pilots to undergo rehabilitation and subsequently reintegration into the society was the right thing to do.

"Welcome back, Zala," Talia said, seated inside her office. "The trip's gone well, I presume?"

"Yes, ma'am." Athrun said as he presented with a small package. "A souvenir for you."

"Oh, you shouldn't have." The gift was duly accepted and set to the left side of the table.

"I should. It's courtesy."

"No, you don't get it," the captain said with her fingers intertwined in front of her serious face. "You shouldn't have because officially you were on a recon mission. If you go around dispensing gifts like Santa Claus, what will other people think?"

Athrun's eyes widened. "I just thought…"

"Have you given the presents to everybody else?"

He looked downward in regret. "I did."

"Good."

Athrun raised his eyes in surprise. "Huh? But I thought…"

"Sometimes the best way to confuse cunning people is to be oneself."

"Oh." Despite being relieved at his commander not being mad at him, Athrun couldn't help but feeling that he had been slighted by the comment but he couldn't put a finger on why he felt that way.

"So, the one thing that I asked you to observe while in Orb?"

"Yes… er," Athrun brought out his tablet, "according to my observation, there's a lot of civilian trucks moving in and out of the main city though I'm not sure where they were going."

"No. That's information is enough," Talia said as she rapped the table with her fingers. Orb's cyber defense was quite formidable to actually foiled Meyrin's hacking attempts but the country was so confident that it could cover everything up that they had let in Athrun into the country to show that there was nothing going on. Since Athrun didn't see anything out of ordinary besides the part she told him to observe, it seemed that they had done their homework. However, it was quite hard to hide movements of supplies even though they had tried to disguise the trucks. "The ship will be moving soon, sooner than I expected and would have liked. But…"

"But?"

"The timing is too fast. Think about it, even though Orb is forced to send out the ship, it has to have a mission.

"Maybe they would be sent out as peacekeepers to stop the fight between us and Alliance? After all, right now they have the advantage of fielding NFWJ."

"Please don't insinuate Orb's military planners as idiots, Zala. Even if they have no-face white jackass, you wouldn't seeing it interfering in a battle, disabling both sides' mobile suits while its pilot shouted out some selfish idealistic quotes or attacking every side in order to force everyone to work together to fight it. Even if it comes to that, let me tell you that such useless action wouldn't stop the conflict. Stopping military conflict is like unraveling a complicated knot."

"Sun Bin."

"Good. You know your history well."

Know the history, he did. Sun Bin was a famous strategist who lived 2500 years ago had written his own treatise on war strategy and tactics. "So you're saying that Orb trying to interfere directly with the current war with its own military might is just like trying to unravel the knot using a fist?"

"Yes. World politics is more fluid than such a single dimension kind of thinking. If Orb really wants to stop the war, it cannot hope to end it by entering into the fray. It wouldn't be effective, just like pouring water into a raging forest fire when the best for containing it is maybe through controlled deforestation around the fire area to deny fuel to it. From your information, I think that they have found out 'that' other method"

Athrun understood what was being said but he felt that something was a bit off. From the way Captain Talia said it, he had the impression that she wanted Orb to succeed in whatever it was going to do.

"Come," Kira said he held out a hand to her in what he thought to be a gentlemanly manner to the redhead girl in front of him, "A few more minutes and we'll arrive at the place."

Flay took his hand but only held it fleetingly. "You have yet to say why this place is so special."

"It is a very special spot just for the occasion and not many people know about it." He left his bird pet behind on purpose so that only the two of them would be at the place.

The girl who was holding his hand, grinned. "Oh? I get it. So if you suddenly decide to ravish me, there wouldn't anyone around to help me, would they?"

"Wha?" Kira uttered as he pulled his hand while taking a step backward. "No, no! I'm not thinking about you like that! I don't have anything for you..." he stopped when he noticed her stare, "I feel something but, well, at the same time I'm not thinking that although I did picture you in a swimming suit..." He was stopped when he heard a melodious giggle.

"I was kidding," Flay said. "I know that you're not that kind of person, Kira."

"Even if I am that kind of person, you'll kick me so hard that just like the last time." The young man thought to himself.

"Are you thinking about me being violent, Mr. Yamato?"

"No! Of course not!" he said hurriedly. He then quickly changed topic in order to avoid another question that was due next. "Um, I want this to be a surprise, so can I blindfold your eyes?"

Flay didn't answer immediately, leading Kira to conclude that his request was shot down and thus surprised him when she gave the answer. "Okay."

The two kept walking until they reached the designated place. After Kira has sat Flay down, he removed her blindfold. The redhead let out a gasp as she took the view of Orb city from the hill where the two on "Kira…"

"Yes?"

"This setting…. This…"

"Yes? Yes?" Kira said, eager than before.

"This is surprisingly corny," Flay finished flatly.

Kira chuckled in disappointment as his attempt to impress the girl next to him failed. "I know," he admitted. Even though he had just entered college, he didn't have that much of money to spend on a 'proper' date since the allowance he received from his parents was just enough to cover his normal expenditure. He could have asked for more but he didn't want to trouble them. So, being a dirt poor student, he brought her at his special place, a place he stumbled upon when he was small for a low cost date.

"It is good that you know it," the girl said as she put her hand on Kira's, startling him out of self misery, "Because I really like it and appreciate it." She closed the distance between the two of them.

Kira's mind was so distracted by the mental firework that was caused by her kiss that he didn't notice the real one painting the sky in front of them as Orb celebrated its annual firework festival. Even after she broke their short chaste but sweet contact, he still found himself totally lost for words and all he could do was notice her flushed face before his attention shifted down a little bit to the very same lips he had just tasted seconds before.

Feeling bashful Flay turned away. "Now don't get any strange ideas. The kiss is just my way of saying thank you."

"Ok…" he responded, barely able to form the word.

He didn't see redhead smiling before she turned to see the firework display. "They're beautiful."

"Yeah… and whenever I'm in Orb, I'll go here to view them from this place, you know a special spot just for the occasion."

"Thank you for bringing me here,"

"My pleasure."

The two continued their firework watching in silence as both of them were occupied with their respective thoughts. Eventually, it was Kira who spoke first after the last of the fireworks exploded. "I heard that Archangel would be leaving."

"Yes," Flay confirmed.

"You as well?"

She nodded.

"To war." It was a statement, not a question.

Flay nodded again.

"Why?" Kira asked again, not satisfied with the answer he was getting, "I thought that the ship is supposed to be surrendered to Orb and the team to be disbanded."

"It seems that was not meant to be,"

"You know something, didn't you?" he asked, slight anger creeping into his voice.

"Kira, do you realize what you're asking to know?" Flay asked back in a silent manner. "You have the perfect chance to walk away, to return back to your previous life, being together with your family! Do you really want to find out the answer that will distort your life?"

"When I met you, my life was already distorted. I already killed someone, remember?"

"I never forget about that. But at that time, you had no choice but to protect those kids!"

"Then why do you fight?" Kira asked, his voice rising a bit. "Don't tell me that you want to kill more Coordinators!"

"But that's true!"

"You're lying!"

"Kira, do you remember that you said that if everyone understands each other, there will be no war?"

"Yes. It was what late Reverend Malchio taught me."

"Tell me then, what will happen if people understood each other but they still fight?"

"That wouldn't happen."

"Actually, that is why your late Reverend Malchio's teaching is a bit fallacious. People have been using their understanding of other people to get rid them. It's already happening since time immemorial and has a name: military strategy and tactic."

Kira felt uncomfortable for his belief to be brought out in the open and hacked into bits but he felt that Flay was about to say something important so he held his peace. She turned to him, opened her mouth but then closed it and hung her head. "Kira, what will you do now that you're back here?"

He shrugged, not knowing the answer himself. "Anything except join the war, I guess."

"Because war is evil?"

"It's not right to fight to kill people."

"Even if it means letting your enemy kill you and everyone you care about?"

"I will protect them," Kira said simply. "But I wouldn't join the war because I don't need the power."

He didn't see the slap aimed at his face which had quite a bit of power on it. Slightly dazed, he put a hand on his stinging cheek while looking at the girl who slapped him. Flay had stood up, anger on her face. "Did you realize how stupid you sounded just now? Will without power is nothing." She pointed at him. "You know what? I think you're scared of the war, not because you hate it."

Kira stood up as well and wanted to grab her hand but instead found his hand being twisted around, ending with him being forced to kneel.

"See?" Flay said, "You don't have the will to use your power whereas I use both." She then released the hold as the point was already made.

"But power will corrupt!"

"Correction: power can corrupt," the redhead replied, "Even the power to end the war," she said as she began walking down.

"Power… to… end the war?" he tested.

Flay stopped. "Spectrum," she said simply.

"Spectrum?"

"You haven't realized it even though the two of us have been controlling it?" she said in incredulous tone before chuckling. "Well, don't worry about that. With or without you, the war will still go on and many people will be killed. If you don't want to fight then it's fine. Just don't spout nonsense about protecting everyone without doing anything. It is an insult to everyone who has died due to this war."

Once again he felt his cheek. "Sorry."

She sighed at his voice; it sounded like an irresistible plea. Flay turned back to walk to him. "Look Kira, I agreed to come here with you just to, you know, spend some time relaxing together… so maybe we can do that by not talking about the war and instead talk about something else?"

Kira couldn't help himself from smiling and nodded. "Yeah. Let's try again. Once again, I'm sorry."

Flay put her hand on his reddish cheek, caressing it. "Me too," she said before she kissed it.

"A little more to the left… left…" Murdoch said over his communication set to an operator whose crane was transporting a mobile suit leg into Archangel's portside hangar.

There was a small crashing sound as the leg hit the ship's wall a bit and the man let out very colorful expletives which was quite audible to Murrue from a distance. How's everything?" she asked when she was next to him.

"Peachy, though I really wonder how they could put a stupid idiot on a crane job," Murdoch replied gruffly. "You know, they're Orb and well, you expect Orb guys to be very skilled, you know, just like the story you heard about them."

"No one's perfect."

The man snorted. "Well, don't claim if you can't deliver, I always said that." He then changed the subject. "Heard about the mission. Thinks that it's a wild goose chase."

Murrue smiled reluctantly. "We have a good reason to believe the info and Orb had used a lot of its intelligence assets to have them confirmed." It was a sanitized way of saying that a lot of Orb agents had died to ensure the veracity of the information.

A female Orb pilot saluted at them while passing through them. "How about the fate of the four PIXIEs?"

"Attha agreed to take care of them as well as Stellar's special case. They're quite angry at being left here while Mir will be with us but she had thoroughly explained the situation to them and they managed to accept the situation." She gestured at a group of four people leaving the ship. "There they are. Probably finished saying goodbye to Mir. They wanted to be here for the departure but they have to be in Scandinavian by Tuesday for treatment."

"I hope the best for them. Well, still have work to do. See ya," Murdoch said while moving to shout at some random personnel.

Murrue watched him did his work before shifting her attention to the docked Archangel. Yes. There was still a lot of work to finish and even that was just the beginning.

Sitting idly on a swing, Kira wondered about what Flay had said to him as children were playing around happily with their parents watching over them. It was almost easy to forget that the whole world was in the middle of a war watching them playing in peace.

Kira noticed a young girl was eyeing the swing he was sitting forlornly and got up to leave; he had something else to do anyway. He walked past a house where a man around his age was in the middle of talking to his family. The man was probably going abroad to study or something, he thought.

Flay had said that it wasn't wrong not to fight but did that mean he shouldn't feel guilty living in peace? Sure, the war had yet to escalate into full conflict and all sides were wary of targeting civilians but it would be a matter of time before a bomb dropped on a city or a missile pierce into a colony. What should he do?

"Trust yourself!" a young girl's voice inside his head. "You already know the answer." An obscure memory of a young girl with pink hair smiling encouragingly popped up.

"Maybe Murdoch was right; I need to see a psychiatrist," he muttered.

A young man stiffened a bit as his mother hugged him in front of their house.

"I'm going to miss you, Shinn," the mother sniffed before breaking the embrace.

"Mom, stop it. You're embarrassing me," Shinn complained.

"Be careful, son and contact us whenever you can," his father said from the side.

"Yeah, if possible. Sorry I can't say much about my mission. The only thing I'm allowed to tell you is that I'll be out of this country for a while."

"We understand, Shinn," his mother who had moved next to his father said.

Shinn nodded and turned toward the last family member who had been quiet all the while. "You're crying because your cool brother is going away?"

"As if," Mayuri, his sister scoffed. "Nothing's cool about being an idiot bent on collecting magical girl figurines. Loser, yes, but not cool"

Shinn rolled his eyes. "I don't need to hear that from someone who has yet to beat me in any game."

"Playing game is useless!"

"See? You even suck at being useless!"

"Why you…"

Mayuri was about to launch into a tirade when her brother patted her head fondly.

"Take care," Shinn said.

"Um… you too." Mayuri reached into her bag, fished out her mobile phone and handed it to him. "As something to remember us by."

Shinn stuck out his tongue at his sister, "Like I'll be caught dead bringing that pink monstrosity to everywhere I go."

"Huh, I guess I'm the mature one after all," Mayuri said while pouting. "Lolicon," she muttered while turning away.

"What was THAT?"

There was a honking sound from a nearby military transport. Shinn looked at it and then at his family. "I guess I'll be seeing you," he said while bowing a bit before walking away.

"I still say that the mission's pretty pointless" Mwu said to himself as he oversaw the last of the supplies being loaded to the ship. "Looks like everyone and everything's on board and there's not going to be a going away ceremony or something so…" he trailed.

Murrue was already onboard as well as most of the ship's crew. He looked at his watch. It was the time to depart and he strode toward the planks leading to Archangel's entrance.

"Wait!" someone called out.

Mwu stopped in his stride and turned toward the person. "Oh, it's you, brat. What do you want?"

Cagalli skipped to the main door of the medium-size house happily. She had finished helping her father and so was granted some time off, the time that she would use to force her brother to bring her out to shop. Oh, how she would use him like a mule to carry her things, she thought with glee as she pressed the doorbell. And since she appeared in front of him without any notice, Kira would have no way to run. That would teach him to ditch her to go out with his ZAFT boyfriend.

The door opened and Caridad Yamato, Kira's adoptive mother appeared in the doorway.

"Hi, is Kira around?"

Caridad had a puzzled look on her face. "I thought you're the first one to know."

Cagalli felt her blood curdled. "Know what?"

A short explanation later found her screaming her brother's name heavenward, swearing to beat him up when she got the chance.

Philip narrowed his eyebrows as he pondered over the information. Few days prior he encountered a ZAFT ship in the middle of nowhere not doing anything whatsoever and after he had chased it away, what did he get for the effort? A ship belonging to Phantom Pain in the middle of nowhere not doing anything whatsoever.

He had established communication with the ship, but the ship only opened a voice channel, not allowing him to see the face of the ship's female captain. Admittedly, Philip was very curious; after all she rudely told him that he had no business inquiring about Blue Cosmos' activities, warned him not to interfere in the ship's mission and terminated the communication before he could retort back. It was a good thing he was far from being a very 'expressive' man in his younger but he still felt irked by the who situation.

"Still nothing?" he asked his CIC operator.

"We have confirmation of IFF status of the ship being one of ours, but that's about it. Nothing in the database."

So, at the very least he knew that he was talking to the captain of the 'Flying Dutchman' and it belonged to his own military.

"What do you think we should do about this ship, Loop?" he asked his flag adjutant.

"Well, I think we should detain it."

Philip grinned. "But we're dealing with Phantom Pain here, you know, 'one of us' even though I myself often wonder about that. All of us could get into trouble for provoking them, you know."

"But how can we get into trouble attacking something that doesn't exist?" she answered coyly

"Sir," the CIC operator called out. "I'm sorry but the IFF database developed some bugs. Some of enemy ships have been incorrectly labeled as friendlies," he reported with a knowing smile. "It will take quite some time to recover from it."

"Damn," Philip growled pretentiously. "That means we have to detain the ship just to check whether it's really one of ours."

"What do you mean the gambit failed?" Mwu, who face on the main screen was clearly frowning, asked. "I thought I told you to sound smug and arrogant, you know, just like a Phantom Pain commander is supposed to sound like. Maybe you forget the insults as well?"

"I'm sorry that I couldn't be that bitchy." Murrue murmured while looking away. "I forgot to enroll in Bitchiness 101 class when they offered it last year."

The blonde ace grinned and shook his head. "Well, it was much of a stretch to believe that we can get away without a fight anyway. Permission for the mission, Captain?" he asked, emphasizing her new rank given by Orb military.

"Permission, granted."

"They're launching a mobile suit and a fighter at us despite our telling them not to do anything?" Philip asked in incredulous tone.

"Yes sir," the CIC operator confirmed. "One of it is Skygrasper though the other is an unknown. Both of them moving at Mach 1."

Philips remembered the article that he read about the attack on ZAFT's base. "The mobile suit's one of ours?"

"The IFF broadcasted code doesn't match ours."

"Send out a warning broadcast to the two."

A minute later, a FX-535 Thunderstrike pilot flipped off the safety button and activated the attack sequence. "This is Wildcat, weapons hot," he reported to the CIC operator onboard a nearby Airborne Early Warning System, or in short AEWS, as the targeting computer showed that it had aimed at a faraway target designated 'Rogue-2'. There was 'Rogue-1', a hostile Skygrasper but his order wasn't to engage it; his wingman would. "Target locked," he added as the computer had achieved a firing solution.

"Roger Wildcat. Switch to networked guidance."

"Roger, switching to networked guidance." The missiles would not be guided solely by his aircraft radar but also from instead by the AEWS. That would allow the missiles to have their flight changed for tactical maneuverability.

The pilot switched on a private channel between him and his wingman. "Well, what do you, know, Cookie, we're actually shooting something today."

"Yea, but we're shooting our own planes, for god's sake," Cookie replied. "And would you knock it off with that call sign?

"But that's your call sign."

"I still don't know the dumb fuck who assigned Cookie as my callname."

"Cookie, you know that will not change anything, Cookie," Wildcat said teasingly.

Before Cookiecould reply, the AEWS's CIC operator's voice came back on line. "Weapon's free, I repeat, weapon's free."

"Well, Cookie, you heard 'em," Wildcat said as he pressed the trigger. There four clicking sounds, and two seconds later, four missiles launched into the horizon followed by another four. "And there they go."

"Wildcat, Cookie. Banzai and Sundance are en route to rendezvous with you. After they've joined up, move in and intercept."

"Roger." The pilot chuckled. "There you have, it, Cookie."

"Fox Three," Mwu announced as the computer onboard his Skygrasper activated the electronic countermeasure system to confuse the radar-guided missiles aimed at it and Spectrum. The jamming succeeded as the missiles lost their guidance and remained in their current trajectory instead of adjusting to intercept the two of them Spectrum. But the victory was short-lived when the missiles had reacquired them. "Whoa! We have to take them down!"

"We're on it," Mir said as Spectrum moved in front of Skygrasper and fired off its beam CIWS continuously at the incoming missiles.

As Spectrum destroyed the missiles one by one, Mwu couldn't help but compare the new combination of pilot and gunner controlling it with the previous crew. Mir and that new brat were trained by the military despite and represented what could be considered among the best in North Atlantic and Orb. The other brat Yamato wasn't even not properly trained to hold a pistol, despite his traitorous partner's experience while his partner was only half-trained in combat.

Because of that, he had expected to see improved performance from the mobile suit. Yes, the weapon targeting was more accurate and the shots hit their targets more often but at the expense of fluidity in movement. He had seen Mir pilot Spitfire and he could see that she managed to control Spectrum to almost the same degree. However, it couldn't compare to the performance displayed earlier. If he had to say so, the mobile suit seemed lethargic in its movement.

Mwu was a pragmatist man, however, so he didn't care whether it could do tango or not as long as it did its job well.

"All right, people. You know the drill. Mir and whatisname… You're to cripple the carrier or inflict significant damage to it."

"Shinn! Shinn Asuka!" a male voice chirped irritatedly. "At the very least remember my name."

Mwu released flares to confuse a pursuing missile of his fighter. "Right. If it can't be done, attack the carrier's bridge. That's where the command's located."

"Roger." Mir answered.

"Good luck, Mir, Shawn."

"Shinn!"

Meanwhile, Mwu would take on the scrambled aircrafts all by himself. He grinned nervously. While it seemed like an impossible mission to take on more agile fighters with his own slower but more heavily armed Skygrasper, it was something that he could pull off; making something impossible possible.

"They're going to fight off the whole carrier?" Kira asked, not believing what he was seeing on the screen on the main bridge of Archangel. "That's insane!"

"It's not like we have a choice," Murrue answered in a clipped tone. "Besides, they're just to keep the fleet busy until we've put considerable distance with us and the carrier's effective range. Then, we don't have to worry about them sending the whole squadron at us."

"But we're," Kira corrected himself, "you're fighting against your own people."

"And that's what having a conviction is all about," Murrue was still wondering whether letting the young civilian stowaway onboard was a right thing to do. She could argue that she couldn't turn the ship back after finding out about him and she could also blame Mwu for not telling her about him until it was too late but she had condone the act but not doing anything. It felt a bit pretentious of her to be lecturing to him about conviction when she's had swayed in her judgment in letting him stay.

Mwu dove his Skygrasper right in the middle of the fighters' formation and instantly chased after one of the four fighters. As he had predicted, the pilots had high combat training in fighting dissimilar enemy units but then whoever their instructor was, it certainly wasn't him. If it wasn't him, he would have taught them that the best way to fight a clustered group of enemy was from the inside of their formation.

He quickly settled on a nearest aircraft, trying to align his fighter with it. Since he had an initial advantage, he preferred to save his missiles and instead engage in basic dogfight. However his target decided not to cooperate and initiated break. The Thunderstrike turned sharply across his Skygrasper to increase angel of tail. While the move exposed the aircraft to Skygrasper's aircraft for a split second, the tradeoff gained by the maneuver was that Mwu's aircraft overshoot away from the aircraft.

Mwu wasn't an ace in name only and he easily countered the move by executing a barrel roll. His Skygrasper performed a helical roll that achieved a virtual 90 degrees turn using all three dimensions in the direction opposite of the roll. While still in the middle of the roll, the warning computer beeped as another Thunderstrike had entered the fray and tried a sneak attack on him while he was occupied with the first one. He quickly locked on it via his helmet mounted display and pressed the trigger button to release a missile from the left wing pylon. As his Skygrasper exited the roll with the nose pointing in the direction of the first Thunderstrike, the missile came to live and sought the second one.

In a span of few seconds, two Thunderstrikes were shot down, one by a missile and one by cannon fires in just a few seconds.

The attack shocked the remaining pilots because such an outcome was very improbable. Even though Skygrasper was more advanced than Thunderstrike, its numerous weaponries and resulting loss of speed made it more suited to ground attack compared to Thunderstrike whose maneuverability made it the best aircrafts in dogfights, even against mobile suits. Yet, the Skygrasper pilot simply tore away the aerial dogfight manual tactics that they have learned and began rewriting it.

As his custom F-535X Raven, a matt black heavily modified Thunderstrike, was being elevated to the launch platform, Sven Cal Bayan pulled his gloves and tightened them. According to the short briefing he had before, an enemy mobile suit was coming in to attack the fleet. Defensive measures had been deployed but merely succeeded in delaying it from attacking. Also, the fleet had already lost six fighters, one to the mobile suit and five to its accompanying Skygrasper.

Henceforth, his mission was to shoot it down or at least ensure that it couldn't get near enough to inflict some damage on the fleet.

He went through the final check as his fighter was guided toward the linear catapult. "Final check completed," he reported as linear catapult's capacitors began to store energy for the system.

"Roger, Astroboy. You're cleared to launch anytime."

A small box on his helmet mounted display indicated that the catapult had stored enough energy to launch him. "Astroboy, launching," he said as he pressed the launch system. Everything seemed to be propelled forward at very high speed and at the end of the runaway, he engaged boosters to help build up enough lift to take off.

Astroboy. What an ironic call sign, since it was an already buried ambition of his when he was very small to become an astronomer.

The black Raven climbed away, eager to swoop on its incoming prey.

"Not bad, Asuka," Mir said as a fighter careened out of control, its left wing clipped by a hit from Spectrum's beam rifle.

"Hmph," Shinn said in a bored voice as he aimed at an incoming missile, "I've already got the hang of this thing. It isn't as impressive as you made it out to be." He pressed the trigger and the missile threatened them no more.

He was skilled, Mir had to admit, but that wasn't enough to stop a growing dislike at his bratty personality. "You haven't seen anything yet. There's supposed to be alternate modes for this mobile suit, something that I haven't been able to activate not for the lack of trying."

"Yea, right…" the designated gunner drawled.

Mir wanted to say something in response to the cavalier remark but the computer beeped as an enemy fighter entered rather range.

"New target?" Shinn asked, his interest rising.

The signal faded into obscurity, perplexing Mir. "Probably a malfunction." She tried again to find the signal but it didn't turn out.

"Wow… the super-duper secret mode is for the radar to display phantom enemy. How very cool… super cool."

"Shut up… Asu…" Mir's voice stopped in her throat as a black fighter dropped to Spectrum's left.

"What the fuck…" Shinn said, not believing what had just happened.

The black fighter flew by Spectrum's side as the pilot signaled with his right hand.

"What is he saying?" Shinn asked, knowing that the signals meant something but he didn't know what it was.

"He's asking us to purge our weapons and surrender," Mir replied.

"And what if we don't want to surrender?"

As if knowing what Shinn had asked, the pilot signaled again.

"If we don't," Mir translated, "he'll blow us to smithereens."

"As if!" Shinn said as Spectrum raised its rifle to shot at the fighter but it had already rolled out of the way.

Sven had arrived just in time to see the white mobile suit fight of the last of the Thunderstrikes sent to intercept it and had a generally good idea about its capability. One of the things his flight instructor had drilled into him was that a mobile suit's weapon could be aimed anywhere unlike a fighter's cannon which required him to aim the aircraft's nose at the enemy. That was a huge disadvantage against for him but the ability to aim anywhere wasn't without its own weaknesses. In order to aim accurately, a mobile suit had to remain suspended in the air and would be open to attack.

While the white mobile suit seemed to be capable of firing even while on the move, it couldn't shoot accurately. Hence it would still have to pause in order to fire. And that small window was what he utilized as Raven dove from the clouds at the unsuspecting white mobile suit.

"Shit," Shinn cursed as the fighter rolled out of crosshair before he could even get a lock. "Can't you still Spectrum for a moment?" he growled at Mir.

"If we don't move, we're going to get it," Mir replied as Spectrum swerved to avoid a stream of auto-cannon fire.

The black fighter moved into the cloud again. There was a radar reading but both Mir and Shinn had learned not to trust it. The fighter had some sort of a cloaking device that allowed it remained invisible to radar. She had thought to try other methods to detect it such as through seeking radar radiation but it seemed that the fighter didn't utilize any active detection which meant it was supposed to be fighting blind like them as well.

She detected a movement just in time to change Spectrum's course in midair. However a shot had hit its linear rifle and Shinn managed to release it before it exploded and tore half of the cockpit away.

"Damn!" Mir let out her own curse.

1

Author's note (28 August 2010)

1. It's been a while since I last updated; been busy with stuffs and whatnot.

2. While I do enjoy answering questions, I think it's best I preempt some of the questions:

a. Sadly, the chapter ended in a cliffhangar. Not because I really enjoy it (okay, I do to some extent) but because finishing everything will take a longer time and I don't want to lose the momentum I've built so far.

b. Why Kira's not in the Spectrum this time? Well, it's too much of a stretch to believe that any adult would allow him to pilot Spectrum just because he's the first one to do so, not when there's a properly trained military pilot, i.e. Mir that had learned to control it. Remember, Kira is still a civilian and you don't see any soldiers handing assault rifle to any civilian and ordering him to shoot unless there was a compelling reason to do so. However, as you can see, there's a difference in Spectrum's performance given the change in duty roster.

c. About Shinn Asuka, it's an AU after all but what would happen if his family weren't killed? If you recall his monologue in GSD, he mentioned that he was more interested in new video games. That points out to the fact that he could have become a hikimori, someone who's reclusive and didn't care much for the society as a whole.

Have a good day!