Making a descent to Earth is considered difficult. Doing it at high speed from a low orbit is highly risky. But making a descent without even saw the entry angle or any direction at all was a clear suicide. Knowing all the facts, Kira was sure that the pilot of the mysterious Gundam-type wanted him dead. Kira know that the Strike Freedom could handle any kind of orbital descent, but wasn't so sure about his opponent.
"Ok, if whoever is flying that Gundam really wants to make BBQ with me is going to end like crispy if that MS don't have any coolant." As if on cue with Kira, inside the Omega, Razgriz typed like a maniac, modifying the internal systems of her MS.
"VPH setting on front, coolant reserves activates. ¡Tail Fins deployed!" From the shoulders and the sides of the Omega legs, some heating-coolant-fins came out. In a matter of seconds the Omega, still holding the Strike Freedom withstand the terrible heat of the entry. Watching this, Kira was impressed.
"Ok, now that both of us are in a real state-of-the-art Gundams that can withstand this hellish heat, the question now is where in the world we are going to land."
At some distance from them, the Lorelei started its own descent. Everyone of the crew hoped that the ship could handle the entry, as it was the first for the stolen ship. At the bridge, Rosario was updated of the last movements.
"All hands ready Captain! Available Murasames are safe in the side hangars!"
"Fold side-pods! Shut down all weapons! All hands on stand by in positions! This baby may not have ablative gel like the Archangel-class, but I know that we'll make it!"
"That if we don't ended like KFC Hot Wings first!"
"Have faith, helm! We've come this far. A single re-entry won't kill us… I think."
Outside, both hangar side-pods move into the central body of the ship as it make its descent to Earth. Back to the bridge, Galen informs Rosario the good news.
"External temperature holding! We are at max descent and so far, the ship is holding without any problems.
"The problem now is try to know where are we going to land… Mister Hirvonen, game me an accurate." Jalkhi Hirvonen was the terrain-specialist and main radar controller of the ship. For any kind of terrain, its location or tactical advantage it offer, he was the man.
"I can only do that after we're inside the lower atmosphere, Captain! The screens are too clouded now!"
"Then, all we can do is wait…"
In front, now inside the atmosphere, the Strike Freedom and the Omega approaches to land. Breaking away from each other, both Kira and the Razgriz take a look at the frozen land they were. Kira stated the fact that the situation was somewhat good.
"Antarctica… Well, at least we're in neutral territory."
Facing each other with their sabers activated, both pilots were waiting for the other to strike While Razgriz waited for the sudden move to unleash all her fury, Kira took his time to think about the feeling that sensed when they first met.
"This pilot is a Newtype, I'm sure of it. Moreover, I know that resonance field… could it be…?" Even with the knowledge of the lab and that feeling, Kira was unsure. If this pilot was really Flay, then he needed to contact her, but with the sudden raging attack, it was like entering the tiger's den without any weapons.
"It's waiting for my move… Patience even after such raging attack on the orbit... I conceal that. It's too risky, but I think I don't have any other choice…"
The signal was clear, if anyone moves, the battle could go on and on, so Kira opted for a gamble. Even if he wasn't that good with it, Kira relaxed and open up his resonance field, trying to find that feeling he sensed within his adversary. Inside the field, Kira saw first saw nothing, much like an Extended pilot.
"I guess my gamble didn't pay. But why I'm feeling like I'm in home? I pretty sure this was the same feeling that I remember from Jachin Due, but…"
Then, he sensed a faint light. Without losing time, he went to that light and…
The Lorelei finished its entry, and now, Hirvonen could know their position.
"We're in the Artic Polar Ring, Captain. Inside neutral territory"
"Al least we don't have to worry about been fired by any Earth guerrilla forces. Mai, anything on the Omega or the trail of the Strike Freedom?"
"Got them! At 0-9-1."
"Ok, now we're going for some answers about that little stunt she pull! Deploy the side-pods, full speed ahead!"
For Razgriz, it happened in a single flash. A single moment freeze in time, but enough to finally clear her mind. Once again, she saw the boy clad in blue uniform, but this time, she could see that the blur on his face was clearing. Bit by bit, she saw more and more of him. Without noticing and by reflex, she turned off the beam saber and make the Omega make a slow descent on the ground. Watching this, Kira do the same with the Strike Freedom. Back inside the Omega, Razgriz, still seeing this vision wondered about it.
"Who are you? Why I sense that you are too important to me?"
And then, she could see him entirely. Brownish hair, clear eyes and that innocent face that she started to recognized. Once the Omega landed, she let go the controls, hugged herself and let a single tear run from her cheek.
"Ki… ra…" Was all she say after passing out in the cockpit. When the Omega changed from stand to kneel position, Kira knew that his gamble paid off. As the Strike Freedom's internal radar spotted the unknown Gundam's mother ship, he don't make a move until the ship was at their position. Inside the bridge of the Lorelei, Galen stated something that makes Rosario went ballistic.
"Eh… shall I blast him?"
"Real genius XO, you want to try to blast the guy that not only helped to stop two wars, but tore apart A WHOLE FLEET SINGLE HANDED! Yeah, real genius…"
"Captain, there's no response of the Omega. The link is open, but she's not hailing us."
"No blast-heat signature on the Omega's plating. Seems that she faint…"
"Signal flares! After that, make the remaining Murasames to pick up the Omega. It seems that we got to talk with a celebrity."
Back to the atmosphere, after losing the trail of the unknown remaining ship, the Archangel, alongside with their escorts scrapped some of the remains of the enemy MS, searching for more answers for their questions. Inside the ship, the pilot compliment explained the details during the debriefing.
"I told you, Captain! Those MS are by more powerful than any actual mass production MS from the EAF or ZAFT! Even with our customs ZAKU's and Shiho's GOUF, it was like fighting against a squad of Strikes!" As always, Yzak was barking all the details.
"I concur with Commander Joule. Those things were a match for the Destiny and the Sword Impulse. Have we didn't have the telemetry from the combat in behind, only God knows what kind of hell we got into." Even if Shinn was exaggerating, that was a rouge battle for every pilot of the Archangel.
"Any accidents?"
"We lost 50 of the MS compliment of both the Paris and the Mythos. Only a few Windams and GOUF's manage to return. The rookies didn't have any chance against them." Mwu's report was simple, but right to the point, and Murrue, now in command of the mission because of Kira's absence, knew that the call from the Sword of Freedom about the lab incident was right.
"Powerful MS or not, what we need now is answers, and since we're on stand by here in orbit until the EAF investigation fleet arrive, I think that the Murasame pilots of that ship will update us about what the heck is going on." Then, a comm. link from the bridge hails the group.
"Captain, all the Murasames have landed on our ships. Their CAG is on his way to the briefing room."
"Thanks, Miriallia-san."
Back to the Lorelei, after recovering the Omega, Kira settled the Strike Freedom inside the main hangar. As he step out of the cockpit, Rosario and Galen waited for him.
"I'm Captain Rosario Vasquez, welcome to the Lorelei, General Yamato. This is my XO, Lieutenant Commander Galen March. I must apologize for the misunderstanding our girl made."
"Forget it Captain. I pretty much guess that what she did caught you all by surprise."
"That's the understatement of the century…" This was by far a bad day for Galen, as his comment was rewarded with an elbow on his ribs.
"If you follow us, we can talk about what's going on."
"I appreciate it, Captain. But first, there's something that I must confirm about the Gundam you have here." Following Rosario to the rack where the Omega was settled, once Kira got into its cockpit, he checked the OS ad the internal systems of the Gundan-type MS. After a couple of minutes, he found what he was searching.
"As I expected… The OS is definitely different, but most of the internal systems and register markings came from Orb and my personal programming."
"What do you mean?"
"This is the cockpit and the main frame of the original Strike Gundam." The surprise was general for both Rosario and Galen. Not only they were talking with the now legendary Kira Yamato, but also standing in the revamped Strike Gundam, Kira's first MS. After shutting it down, Kira step out of the Omega and took a second to watch the Gundam.
"Well, at least this resolves the why and how Mwu did survive in Jachin Due… Ok, Captain. Now we're ready to talk… and if you got an extra uniform, it will help me."
"We don't have much here, but I believe that we got some spares."
A couple of minutes later, now in the briefeing room, as Rosario and the main crew of the Lorelei waited, Kira enter the room, clad in an EAF blue and white uniform.
"Kind of nostalgic wearing this, but was the only one that was my size. Well, Captain, I'm waiting. What's your call in this mess?"
"We're from Orb Special Uncover Operations, under the direct command of the Shahaku Family."
"So, you're part of the Viper Junkers… Should've known that Mina was involved in this" Kira knew very well the name. That was the first try for the Clyne Faction to have eyes and ears in the shadows they can't venture after Jachin Due. The idea was to unite the Junk Guild, the Serpent Tail and the troops loyal to the Shahaku Family, including the three Astray Prototypes, in a single squad, but several problems arise and the project was scrapped. Only after the Battle of Messiah, the project was restarted.
"This was not an order from Mina-sama, but from the Princess itself."
"Cagalli! Wait, wait! When did she found info about this? Why didn't she hail Confed?"
"Since the information available was unclear, Orb wasn't in position to make an official search, especially with all the post-war tension. That's why we came into picture."
"Our mission was to investigate an unknown space facility, and report back to Orb. But things came out of control as we started the mission…"
On the Archangel's briefing room, Murrue and the rest were hearing the same story from one of the Murasame pilots.
"We were in an unmark ship, and our Murasames don't have any squad markers or nation colors, so we were like pirates raiding the place. The perfect cover…"
"But then, there was this mysterious MS…" Athrun smelled that the story was starting to get complicated at this point.
"That's right. Our infiltration teams manage to take control of the facility, but one ship appeared from nowhere and then, hell break loose. Our ship was a modified transport with heavy weaponry, but not a match for a heavily armored cruiser. My squad engaged this MS, called Den'an, but with heavy loses. That's when our XO made a crucial decision…"
"Ram the damn ship and fire all we got against them at blank point." Galen explain the situation with passion, as the rest of the main crew was shaking their heads and sighing.
"Rather harsh decision."
"But one that worked. We tore down the enemy vessel, but our ship was disabled. Our Murasames manage to shot down the Den'ans, and the only choice we had was to enter the facility and find something that may got out of the mess."
"And then, you found this ship, the Omega, and… her… am I right?"
"We expected to find something big, but a ship, a Gundam-class MS and a potential Extended lab in a close space section of the main PLANTS? Never. The girl was unexpected, but with the knowledge of the atrocities made by the EAF during the previous wars, I wanted to save her." Rosario was a woman of principles. As many other great commanders, she was someone that will never leave one behind. Kira saw that clearly in her statement.
"After that, we kinda make a crash course on how to operate the ship, and eventually escape on it. Without comm. Our only chance was to reach Earth, using the less crowded trade routes to avoid any encounters, but it was inevitable to fight against raiders. That's when a single event changed everything, even the names of this ship and the lady we rescued."
"Captain, I still think that you could've given the ship a better name." Once again, Galen was the one to talk, and Rosario was already fed up.
"XO, no matter how you're bickering, the ship will not be called Enterprise, and that's final!" Rosario's roar put an end to the comment, and also made Kira and the rest chuckle.
"Anyways, the thing was like this…"
"We encounter raiders attaching a commercial transport. Since they were on our course, Captain Vasquez decided to help them, so we launched. The problem was that we were outnumbered 10 to 1, and the ship was not completely operational at that time. That's when she came into scene."
"You mean the girl you rescued from the facility?"
"Up until that moment, she was a girl like any other. Maybe her memory was a wreck, but that was understandable. Sweet, caring, and even wanted to help us in many ways."
"That didn't sound like our lost read head…" Mwu remember clearly the somewhat bitchy girl that made Kira and their friends enlisting during the Valentine War not being that lovable at all.
"Then, when we were engaging the raiders, one of them slipped from us and fire upon the transport, damaging it. I was still inside on the hangar as my Murasame was being repaired, but what I saw left me breathless. That girl run like the devil right to the Gundam, and in a way I've never seen before, she managed to activate it. The next thing I knew was that I was already launched alongside with her. As you may imagine, the rest of the battle was settled in minutes…"
"The determination I saw in her was powerful. Much more than any pilot I seen before. Until that moment, that Gundam was impossible to move. Its OS was completely complex, and we didn't have a programmer that could rewrite the whole system." Chief Logan was a veteran, but every time he saw the girl at the Omega, he was surprised.
"After the battle, we ensure that the transport was safe, but as we were retreating, we all heard a song."
"A song?"
"It was her. Not the kind of song Lacus-sama could sing, but nevertheless, a soothing song, with a beautiful voice. That game me the idea of the ship name, the same as the legendary submarine Lorelei, the Witch of the Pacific Ocean, and at the same time, Mister Hirvonen thought a suitable name for her."
"Since I'm from Scandinavia, I know this legend: "
'When history witnesses a great danger, Razgriz reveals itself,
First as a demon,
As a demon it uses its power to reign death upon the land;
And then it dies.
However, after a period of slumber, Razgriz returns.
This time as a great hero…'
"The Demon of Razgriz… A story that suit her very well…" Kira thought of the somewhat irony of the legend upon Flay.
"It seems that you know her, General."
"You don't know how much… What's her actual condition?"
"Doc said that she's alright, but she's like in an induced comma. Whatever you did to her, was truly effective." As Kira nod with his head, Rosario ended the debriefing.
"About our enemies, all we know is that they called themselves the Heirs of the Stars. We thought that they were EAF renegades, as we thought that Razgiz was an Extended, but their way of fighting and their mechs are more advanced than standard ZAFT, Orb or EAF equipment. We don't know any more"
"Thanks pilot. You may rest up, you all deserved it."
"Thanks, Colonel Flaga." As the Murasame pilot came out of the briefing room, even with the answers they just got, they only got even more questions. It was Dearka who recalled the worst of those questions.
"Well, who's going to explain Lacus-sama that Kira is AWOL right now?"
Needles to say, no one answered that…
Since Kira didn't know yet the layout of the Lorelei, the only place he asked to go after the briefing was the infirmary. He was both preoccupied and afraid of seeing a ghost, but he realized that sooner or later he was going to do it. As he enter the infirmary, for the first time in almost three years he was truly speechless. There she was, long fiery hair, almost perfect style… there was no doubts, she was Flay Allster.
"Flay…" Kira took his time and approaches her slowly, placing his hand on her cheek.
"You manage to do it. Your thoughts have been protecting me and helping me to fight since that time… And I think is time to gave back what is yours…"
Kira remembers a certain conversation that him, Mwu and chief Erika Simmons had about the SEED and Newtypes. Theoretically, as Kira himself got, it was possible to transfer not only the thoughts of one Newtype to another, but in a certain way, to give a whole SEED to another person to enhance his/her habilities, but that the effort could be too much for the sender.
"… even if it cost my life." Kira was decided to do this, and now was his only chance as doc was out right now. So, as he did before, he expanded his senses and rests his forehead on Flay's, hoping that the contact itself helped him. After a while, Kira shook up, as memories from the past returned to him. Memories of battles, encounters and some goodbyes. A few moments later, Kira disengaged from Flay, strained from the effort. He didn't know if what he did was enough, but at least he try. That's where the alarms of the ship went off.
The Heirs have found the Lorelei…
Ok, a little change of pace, with the swapping of the scenes between the Archangel and the Lorelei, and since I wanted the "Newtype Resonance" to be a little bit linked to the SEED, kinda of use this "spiritual nexus" (sometimes even I don't know what I'm thinking)
And now, before I forget…
Disclaimer: Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny are not mine. The same for Lorelei The Witch of the Pacific Ocean and the names applied from Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War