Disclaimer: Commander Alexander Stanton and his team, as well as Chief Representative Lee Ikari, are my creations. I don't own Gundam SEED or any of its characters.

Chapter 2: Urgency

Athha Manor

"This happened during the Blue Cosmos attack?" Even over the phone, the shock was still audible in Murrue's voice.

"No, Captain Ramius," Cagalli said, pacing back and forth as she talked. "I don't think there was a Blue Cosmos attack. I think that whole thing was just a cover." She stopped for a moment, resting her hand on the table next to her. "I know what I'm asking you, but—." Murrue cut Cagalli off before she could finish.

"He may be your brother, but Kira is family to me as well, and most of the crew probably feels the same way. We'll be ready to launch by dawn." Cagalli nodded grimly.

"I'll know where those bastards ran to by then."

"Do what you can, Cagalli; I'll see you at Onogoro tomorrow morning." The two women said their goodbyes, and Cagalli hung up, turning and walking across the library to where Athrun sat on the sofa comforting Flay. It had been just one hour earlier that the redhead had burst into the parliament house, out of breath and trailed by security personnel somewhat apologetic for not trying harder to stop her. Cagalli had waved the guards off, as she didn't terribly mind the interruption. She understood that Yuna had needed to talk to her about military spending, but why couldn't he have come to the training facility instead of having her drive all the way to him? Besides, it wasn't like there weren't higher-ranking military officers he could have spoken with. At this rate, Cagalli was beginning to suspect that the younger Seiran had ulterior motives for wanting to see her.

Needless to say, it had been no problem to blow him off to speak to Flay, and when she had heard about Kira, they had rushed back to the mansion, where they now sat in the grand library. Flay's eyes were red and puffy from crying. When she had found Athrun and Cagalli, she had been under obvious stress but kept herself together admirably. When Athrun had asked her to explain what was going on, however, reliving the ordeal had proved too much for the girl, and Flay had been crying since they got back to the house half an hour ago.

"I just talked with Captain Ramius," Cagalli said, kneeling down so that her face was level with Flay's. "We'll be going after Kira by tomorrow, so don't worry." Flay looked at her questioningly.

"What if they don't let you take a ship?" she asked. Orb's defense fleet wasn't that large, and every warship was a precious resource. Athrun put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Kira's one of the military's best OS programmers, not to mention his piloting skills," he said. "Getting him back isn't just a matter of personal feelings; it's important for the country as well. Now, do you want to stay with Kira's parents tonight?" Flay shook her head.

"I want to know if anything new comes up. Can I stay here?" Athrun looked away from Flay and turned his emerald eyes to Cagalli.

"Sure," the blonde said. "There's a guest bedroom down the hall; you should get some rest." It had been a little less than five hours since the attack, and the sun wouldn't set for quite a while yet, but Cagalli could tell that Flay was worn out, and sleep would probably be the best thing for her. After thanking the older girl, the redhead left the library and headed off down a side hall. Athrun turned back to Cagalli.

"What do you think?" he asked, "tighten security at all ports and catch these guys as they try to leave?" Cagalli nodded.

"We're already doing that, but they might have left the planet. Did you check shuttle launches?" Athrun nodded in turn.

"Nothing unauthorized has left our spaceports, which means that either they're still here or they have their own shuttles, which would take considerable funding." Cagalli moved on to the last thing she could think of.

"What about the dart?" she asked, remembering the projectile Flay had given them earlier.

"I didn't recognize it, so I gave it to Captain Todaka and asked him to run it through the military database and see if he could come up with a match." Cagalli sighed with frustration.

"How long is that going to take?"

"I don't know," Athrun replied.

"Well we can't just sit here and do nothing!" Cagalli had been calm and collected in front of Flay, but now that she was alone with Athrun, she let a little of her inner turmoil slip free. Her brother was in harm's way. There had to be something she could do.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Athrun approached her from behind and put his arms around her.

"I'm worried about him too," the blue-haired boy said. "But we won't be able to do anything until we know more about these guys." Cagalli sighed, relaxing against him.

"I just hate not doing anything," she said, and Athrun nodded. He had an amazing ability to remain calm; it was one of the things Cagalli loved about him.

Well, not always, she thought. Sometimes when she was upset, it only made things worse for her boyfriend to seem completely unfazed by whatever was going on. Right now, however, it was exactly what she needed: for someone to be the ice to her fire, the calm to her storm. She shifted in Athrun's arms, and he kissed her forehead reassuringly.

"Well, is she in there?" At Cooper's question, Lia took the binoculars from her face.

"Not only is the redhead in the building, but get this: Cagalli Yula Athha is in the room through that window," she said, handing him the binoculars and indicating where to look. While the eyepieces covered his green eyes, Lia could see Cooper's brows rise in surprise and mild amusement.

"Alright, she's home. So we eliminate our witness," he said, "and we get to bag a lioness while we're at it." He looked back to Lia, who nodded, grinning with excitement.

"Do you want to be shooter or spotter?" she asked. Cooper hesitated for only a second.

"Shooter sounds good to me. It's been a while since I used the VTOL in combat." He stood up and walked away, while Lia settled herself in and trained the binoculars on her quarry again.

They were on a hill about a kilometer and a half East of Athha Manor. It had taken them a few hours to find out just where the girl had run to, and when they finally arrived, they had set the VTOL down behind one of the hills surrounding the mansion. The original plan had been to go in quietly and kill the girl with a silenced firearm, but the presence of the Lioness of Orb complicated things. Aside from Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala, Lady Cagalli was probably the best mobile suit pilot in the Orb military, and rumor had it she was no slouch when it came to a straightforward shootout.

In order to neutralize Athha's advantage in combat, they would have to attack with overwhelming force. Lia pressed a button on her headset, activating it.

"Cooper, do you copy?" she asked.

"Roger that," came the voice over the com-link. Lia brought the binoculars back to her eyes.

"Okay. Lady Athha's still in the room I showed you earlier, along with a boy who, judging by hair color, is probably a Coordinator." She paused as something occurred to her. "In fact, if appearance is anything to go by, that might actually be Athrun Zala in there."

"Are you sure?" Cooper asked. "I mean, how many war heroes can you find together in one place?" Lia shrugged, even though she knew Cooper couldn't see it.

"Well, I've only heard descriptions, so it might not be Zala, but we know that Yamato, Athha and he stayed with the Orb military after the war, so it's not impossible." Cooper chuckled over the com-link, and Lia could practically hear him shaking his head at the situation.

"We had better get medals for this when we get back," he said.

"Copy that," Lia agreed. "Now, let's get this show on the road."

The first thing Cagalli noticed was the sound: the low, reverberating whine of some sort of engine. She looked at Athrun questioningly.

"Do you hear that?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, and I think it's getting closer.

The library was a large room, twenty meters long and with a high ceiling. Bookshelves lined one side of the room, but on the side facing out into the countryside, the wall was lined with massive arched windows that went almost all the way to the ceiling, separated by large stone support pillars. Cagalli walked over to one of the windows, a growing sense of unease creeping over her. The sound was indeed getting closer, as Cagalli could feel the vibrations through the floor, and dust had begun to fall from the stone walls. As she reached the window and looked out, the source of the noise became visible.

It resembled a helicopter, sans propellers. Two large rotors were mounted on mechanical arms extending from the sides of the vehicle, and two box-shaped eight-barrel missile launchers were affixed to the tail. Cagalli recognized the profile of the vertical takeoff and landing fighter, after all, Orb's helis had a similar design, and she knew just how little time she had to take cover as the triple-barreled Gatling gun mounted under the fighter's nose begin to spin.

Inhaling sharply, Cagalli dove behind one of the pillars as a burst of gunfire shattered the window and tore into the pillar itself, sending stone chips and dust flying in all directions. Coughing out some of the dust, Cagalli looked over and saw Athrun crouched down on the other side of the window, his sidearm already in his hand. Not bothering to question how he got there, she reached into her jacket and drew her own handgun. Cagalli knew that the nine-millimeter rounds would do almost nothing to the vehicle's armored fuselage, but maybe if she could get a shot on the cockpit…

Taking a deep breath, Cagalli stepped out into the open and managed to fire one shot at the fighter before the vehicle opened up with the Gatling gun again, forcing her back behind cover. She gritted her teeth as bullets ripped through the library a second time, splitting the table at the center of the room in half and spraying everything with splintered wood. She looked at Athrun again.

"Think this is a coincidence?" he said, only half-serious.

"Like hell it is!" Cagalli shouted back. She gestured to Athrun, and they both stepped into the open, firing off several shots but missing the VTOL's cockpit. Another burst of gunfire pushed them back.

"We can't keep this up," Athrun said. Cagalli nodded.

"The house has a silent alarm, but the panel is back at the door," she said. Athrun thought it over for a second.

"I'll cover you." At that, Cagalli bolted across the room as Athrun stepped in front of the window again and started firing. She could hear the gun blasts as well as the sound of her own breath coming short and fast as she drew nearer to the door.

Come on, come on! Just a little farther.

Suddenly, one of the window-frame pillars in front of her exploded, sending massive chunks of stone flying through the room. Cagalli jumped back, and scrambled behind the nearest undamaged pillar.

Despite Athrun's cover fire, the fighter had managed to send one of its missiles her way. Cagalli squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to catch her breath.

Cooper was starting to get frustrated. In light of how infuriatingly nimble Lady Cagalli was proving to be, perhaps the Cheetah of Orb would have been a more fitting title for her. Lia came over the radio, interrupting his thoughts.

"What did you use the missile for?"

"I had to cut her off, she was almost out of the room," he replied irritably.

"I wasn't complaining," Lia replied, and then growled in frustration. "I've lost visual on Zala." No sooner had she said that than two bullets embedded themselves in the cockpit's ballistic glass, causing Cooper to jump in spite of himself. Swearing, he swiveled the Gatling gun slightly and fired, forcing the young Coordinator behind one of the pillars. Watching the structure to make sure that his target didn't escape, Cooper prepared to fire another missile.

"Damn it! We've got military forces inbound." Cooper moved his finger away from the firing button when he heard that.

"Talk to me, Lia. What are we dealing with?"

"Four mobile suits are coming in fast!" Gritting his teeth, Cooper swung the VTOL around as the first MBF-M1 Astray, a Shrike rotor unit attached to its flight pack, came around the side of the mansion and settled to the ground. The machine stood between seventeen and eighteen meters tall, its aggressive-looking orange and white frame gleaming in the sunlight. As the mobile suit raised its beam rifle, he reacted, spraying it with Gatling fire. The Astray brought up its anti-beam shield, and the bullets ricocheted off harmlessly. It did, however, buy Cooper the time he needed to throw the fighter into reverse and start to retreat.

Cagalli stood in the library, staring out through what remained of one of the windows. She had only just set off the alarm, but there was already at least one Astray Shrike standing outside. The VTOL fighter was covering its retreat with gunfire, but it wasn't going to last. The Astray was advancing, its shield held in front of it, and the Gatling gun would run out of ammunition sooner or later.

Apparently, the fighter pilot realized this as well, and he launched a pair of missiles into the mobile suit's shield. The force of the explosion knocked it backwards, and the VTOL took advantage of the opening. It angled its rotors slightly, turned 180 degrees, fired the miniature jet engines under the rotors and accelerated to full speed…

And it was forced to bank sharply to avoid running into the two Astrays coming at it from the other direction. A fourth mobile suit came to rest beside the first one, which was rising to its feet even as the other three rose into the air and moved to encircle the fighter. The vehicle may have been cornered, but the pilot wasn't giving up yet, and as Cagalli watched, the fighter tilted its rotors back, flying up and backwards over the nearest Astray, and launched eight more missiles at the mobile suits. Two of them took light damage as the anti-tank missiles struck a leg and a shoulder, disabling the limbs but doing no fatal harm. A third Astray, however, took a missile on the left side of its chest. The shaped charge explosive sent a hypersonic jet of burning copper stabbing into the mobile suit. A secondary explosion tore through the left pectoral vent, blasting away chunks of metal and sending the machine crashing to the ground. From what Cagalli could see, the cockpit was intact, but the MS was definitely out of the fight. She knew there was no chance of hitting the fighter's cockpit from here; it was too far off the ground now.

Those rotors are awfully big targets, though.

Gripping her handgun tightly, Cagalli jumped out through the window and ran in between the feet of the nearest Astray. Getting underneath the VTOL, the Lioness went in for the kill, firing shot after shot into the jet engine beneath the right rotor. The tactic worked. The bullets penetrated near the exhaust nozzle, and the engine began to smoke. The fighter spun around and pointed its Gatling gun directly at her, the weapon making a low mechanical whine as it started to spin.

The pilot had her, dead to rights. At least, that was probably what he thought until an emerald blast from the nearest Astray's Type 71 beam rifle pierced the VTOL's cockpit. The resulting explosion blew the fighter apart. The nose and Gatling gun were hurled forward and crashed down perhaps ten feet from Cagalli, while the tail and missile launchers dropped like a rock and hit the ground with a loud thud. The rotors spun away and slammed into the earth, sending clumps of soil into the air. As the dust settled, the cockpit of one of the M1s opened.

"Lady Cagalli," the pilot called out. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she responded. "But how did you guys get here so fast? I triggered the alarm maybe one minute before you showed up, so who called you?"

"She did," Athrun called out, and Cagalli turned back to see him and Flay climbing out through one of the shattered windows. Cagalli found herself genuinely surprised. In the chaos of the attack, she had completely forgotten about the redhead. Indeed, Flay seemed out of place in the destroyed area, stepping gingerly around any debris she saw and trying not to touch any of the shattered glass and broken rock. She reached Cagalli and shrugged.

"I heard shots and explosions, so I called the emergency number," she said, and the blonde couldn't help but smile a little. Flay was trying to act humble, but Kira had told Cagalli about how she had been back at Heliopolis. Flay had loved being the center of attention, and while she had probably been terrified while the fight was going on, Cagalli had no doubt she was enjoying being responsible for helping to end it.

"Commodore Athha," the pilot from earlier called her. "What are your orders?" Cagalli thought for a moment.

"Have two of the Astrays sweep the immediate area; we don't want any more of these guys sneaking up on us later," she said. "Call for a retrieval crew and a medic for the pilot of the disabled suit." She glanced back at the mansion for a moment. "I need to get on the phone. Chief Representative Ikari is going to raise Hell when he hears about this."

Onogoro Island, Coastal Dry Dock

By the time the sun rose the next morning, much had happened. As Captain Murrue Ramius made her way down the corridors of the Archangel, she stared absentmindedly into her coffee cup, reflecting.

After examining the pieces of the destroyed fighter, military analysts had matched it to a type used by Earth Alliance forces. The possibility had been raised that this might be an act of war, but after tense discussions with the Alliance ambassador and other Earth Forces personnel, it had been determined that the fighter was an older model. The version currently employed by the Alliance possessed a six-barrel Vulcan gun, with double the rate of fire of the attacker's Gatling cannon. In addition, the missiles on the attacking fighter had been wire-guided, while the newer model used laser-guided missiles. All things considered, a black market purchase seemed likely.

Matters had only gotten more complicated when Todaka ran the dart through the military database. It turned out that the projectile was a ZAFT design, but Athrun had been adamant that Chairwoman Canaver would never do something like this.

In other words, the evidence led nowhere. When all was said and done, however, Chief Representative Lee Ara Ikari had granted Athrun, Cagalli and Murrue what they had all wanted. He had authorized the launch of the Archangel, with the purpose of searching for Kira Yamato and his kidnappers. The vessel had been armed and fueled and was now on standby, waiting for its quarry to move. One hour earlier, an unidentified shuttle had entered the atmosphere, and had landed somewhere along the Orb coastline, with the apparent purpose of retrieving surviving members of the failed attack on Athha Manor.

"Anything yet, Petty Officer Tonomura?" Murrue asked as she stepped onto the bridge. Down in the CIC, a young man with Asian features and glossy black hair looked up from his data screen.

"Not yet, Captain," he said, sounding somewhat weary. Murrue knew he had been manning his post for the past few hours. "How are things down in the hangar?"

"Well, we've got the Rouge aboard, along with all the Striker packs and the new IWSP module," she said. "We've also had four Astrays brought aboard, three of which have their own pilots. The remaining one is for Athrun." Murrue had just seated herself in the captain's chair when the bridge entrance opened and a young crewmember stepped in.

"Captain Ramius, there's someone asking to join us," he said, obviously nervous. Murrue sighed. She wasn't obsessed with military regulations, but simply allowing people to walk onto a battleship was irresponsible, to say the least. Murrue was about to tell the young man to escort their visitor off the ship when Flay Allster stepped through the door. The redhead wore a simple, long-sleeved rouge dress that went down to just below her knees, and she looked nervous.

"Flay," Captain Ramius said gently. "What are you doing here?" Flay hesitated for a moment, and Murrue sensed she was gathering her courage.

"Can I come with you?" she asked.

"Flay, you shouldn't worry yourself about this. Go back and stay with Kira's parents until—."

"I'd feel a lot better if I came with you," the girl reiterated. "I ran communications on the Dominion, and I can do the same thing here," she hastened to add. Murrue understood Flay's relationship with Kira, and she knew just how much it hurt to lose a loved one and be unable to do anything about it.

"You do realize that this will be dangerous," she said. If the girl was going to join the crew, Murrue wanted to be sure she was aware of the risks. "These people, whoever they are, are serious about what they're doing." Flay nodded.

"I know, Captain Ramius," she said. "I was there when they…" she faltered for a moment, but swallowed quickly and regained her composure. "I know what we're up against." Murrue waited for a moment, just to be sure Flay didn't have any second thoughts, and then smiled.

"Alright, I'm sure we have a spare uniform in the crew's dressing room. Do you need someone to show you the way?" Flay shook her head, smiling at being welcomed aboard.

"No thanks, Captain; I remember enough to find my way there," she said, and quickly left the bridge.

This is going to be a lot of paperwork, Murrue thought. She'd have to do some sort of retroactive enlistment when this was over. Flay wasn't likely to be happy about it, but Murrue couldn't have a civilian running communications on a warship.

Perhaps five minutes passed in silence, and then Jackie Tonomura called out from the CIC.

"Captain, we have the shuttle on radar!"

"Are you sure?" Murrue asked quickly.

"Absolutely: it's increasing its angle of ascent and its velocity is rising." Captain Ramius looked over at Ensign Arnold Neumann, who sat at the helm, an expectant look on his face.

"Is the mass driver ready to go?" she asked quickly. The helmsman nodded, and Murrue strapped herself into her seat before pressing a button on her right armrest, broadcasting her voice across the ship's intercom.

"All hands brace for acceleration," she said. "The Archangel is launching."

Author's Note: The chase is on! While I was planning to have Lacus enter the story in this chapter, I realized that I didn't want her and Flay simultaneously asking if they could come along.

The VTOL fight was a lot of fun for me to write, and it was nice to finally get Cagalli into the story. I'm not sure if I got the dynamic right between her and Athrun, so AsuCaga fans will have to let me know. For the record, the actual VTOL fighter seats two, a pilot and (I assume) a gunner. I figure our villains might have tinkered with the controls to allow the pilot to use the gun as well.

I didn't have Cagalli be Chief Representative because she's 17, and I doubt any sane government would place the responsibility of running a nation onto the shoulders of someone so young, so I came up with Lee Ikari to fill the position. I had a rather extended conversation with Dragoon Swordsman (author of Valkyrie's Run and Destiny Awaits) and he suggested that Cagalli would retain her position as a mobile suit pilot after the war. Obviously, this would mean that Athrun wouldn't need to be her body guard, as she probably keeps a gun on hand.

Finally, I mentioned that Kira is still with the Orb military. In Destiny, Kira is very withdrawn toward the beginning, and spends much of his time looking out at the ocean. I attribute a lot of this to losing Flay, and I thought that if she hadn't died, Kira might be much better off. That's just my opinion of course.

Next Chapter: Our heroes receive a new ally, as a "show of good faith" from the EA, Kira awakens, and we learn some more about our villains.