Edit 11/01/2011 thanks to Twillightfairy for spotting an error, you may get a cameo later on. I have also fixed some other errors I spotted, I feel stupid now.
Chapter 3 MO2
"Just see for yourself how powerless you really are!" Mariemeia's reply to Heero's question about the security of her bunker.
"You heading for the bridge?" asked an officer with no rank badge, he didn't salute.
"Yes sir," replied one of the two ratings escorting the Commander to the bridge. The rating also neglected to salute; he would have to have a word with this lieutenant Ramius, standards were slipping.
"Tell the Skipper I am going to get some sack time. I am in corridor B, bed 4 if she needs me or the Strike," said the officer heading towards the crew quarters, failing to salute or acknowledge his presence.
"Will do sir," said the rating, then as an afterthought, "great job out there sir, you showed those co-ordinator bastards what us naturals can do."
"Who is that man?" asked the rear admiral trying to sound curious and not as though someone had just failed to give him the respect to which his rank entitled him.
"Sir, that's Captain Lowe our mobile suit pilot, some sort of old OZ army ace mixed in with some civilians we picked up," said the rating eagerly.
"Thank you Seaman," said the Commander, as he typed something on his data pad. Small bits of information like that could prove useful to the Commandant, he thought as they got into the lift.
"Hold the door," came a yell from down the corridor. Automatically one of the ratings pushed the button to hold the lift in place long enough for a young brown haired kid in an orange uniform to catch up.
The boy started when he saw the Commander and tried to salute with the wrong hand, much to the amusement of the two ratings.
"Don't mind Kira Sir, we were short on manpower and asked for volunteers from the civilians," said the rating as an explanation.
"Don't worry about it, so what have they got you doing son?" asked the Commander trying to put the young man at ease. He had been an Ensign at one time and knew how scary his rank made him. Too bad for this kid, he was going to shit a brick when the Marines arrived, best keep him calm so he didn't do anything stupid.
"The hanger deck, I help out with the Zero" the kid said, but he was not just nervous, there was something more. It was as if he was scared of something. Interesting... He would also have to report this.
He thought through his standard lines of encouragement and found an appropriate one. "I am sure you did the best you could under these difficult circumstances, Mr..."
"Yamato, Kira Yamato Sir," said the boy looking relieved and trying a salute again with a noticeable improvement.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Athrun watched as the Vesalius limped out of sensor range. There was no way to repair the damage other than time in a ship yard back at the PLANTs, same could be said for Yzak and Dearka's machines. You could build and repair a lot of parts for mobile suits with the tools available in a warship, but there was a limit to what you could do, and rebuilding a mobile suit that none of the technicians had been trained on was more than they could manage.
Athrun looked across the hanger to the only other machine, the Blitz. Nicol was running through simulations of the last battle, trying to beat that pilot of the strike. Athrun had not faced the strike's new pilot but he was good. First he had seen the obvious attempt to draw out the Archangel's strike craft, then had separated and engaged Yzak's wing in single combat negating their numerical superiority. Then there was the way he had fought; it was as if he was not even trying to kill them, as if they were not worth the effort ,or at least that's how Yzak and Dearka saw it, and were out for vengeance. Athrun however didn't care, as the pilot was not Kira, his friend. The others would not understand how relieved he was about fighting someone who made a mockery of a squadron without trying, as long as it was not little cry baby Kira as some of the kids used to call him.
"Hey Lieutenant we are going to need in there now to check the wiring," said a technician who was working on fixing the flaws that had crippled the Duel and the Buster.
"Sure" replied Athrun prising himself out of the cockpit. His watch said 0110 hours ship time which meant he had enough time for a shower and to grab something from the mess before his briefing with the Skipper.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Well the Alliance soldiers were smarter than their OZ counterparts; Lancaster had to give them that, as he looked down the barrels of ten rifles.
All he could do was raise his hand.
"Both arms!" barked one of the soldiers in the manner of Sergeants everywhere.
"It's under my bunk," he replied, trying to sound disarming but he knew better than to expect it to work; emotionless drone was one of the nicer things his co-workers called him behind his back.
"Don't fuck around with me, get your hands where I can see them!"
"It's an artificial limb,"
"A fucking cyborg! They will be letting damn Dolls into ZAFT next, fucking White Fang," said the Sergeant using one of the worst things his co-workers called him.
"Can I put it back on?" Lancaster asked. He could not sleep with it on and he had gone through several alarm clocks before he had given up and just taken it off when he slept.
"Like hell you miserable dirt bag, move it out!"
Lancaster sighed, why did these soldiers have to be competent the one time he was not there to kill them? At lest he was decent, this Sergeant sounded like he would drag him out in his underwear.
The soldiers separated him from the others and lead him to an airlock used to board the ship. He was joined minutes later by Murrue, Ensign Badgiruel, the Major and another man with L.T. commander stripes.
"Where's your arm," asked Murrue, she didn't look happy.
"Under my bunk, Marines didn't let me get it," he said.
"Well these Marines were probably told to disarm everyone," said Mu. This got a collective groan from everyone within earshot.
The journey to the Commandant's office was uneventful if not longer than it should have been; their escorts took them by the scenic route and doubled back several times. It didn't matter, as he knew the layout of this base even if it had been upgraded since last he was there for that memorial service with his Imoto.
When they arrived the admiral stood up from his desk and greeted them in an overly friendly manner, in turn they saluted, Lancaster noted that his salute was different to the others' but decided it would keep up his appearance of a retired soldier who was out of practice.
"I was unaware that you were injured in your last engagement, I will have my medical staff take a look at what is left of your arm," he said actually sounding concerned.
"That won't be necessary, I lost my arm when I was in the Preventers," replied Lancaster smartly not bothering to bring up the Sergeant.
"An old peace keeper veteran? I served myself in the Preventers. First Officer on the Warspite, I tried to do the merchant fleet but it lacked that something that I fell in love with back in Romefeller. I am sure you have some stories to tell especially about your arm."
"I am sorry sir but I was in the Special Forces so I can't talk about what I did," said Lancaster, trying to sound genuine. He also left out the jokes like 'if I did then I would have to kill you.' The 'Mobile Doll' were obviously lacking in the humour department.
"You will find I have sufficient clearance," said the Commandant smugly.
"Sir, with all due respect, you don't have high enough clearance or you would already know," said Lancaster, not liking his persistence. Questions answered could tell a trained observer what was a lie and what was a half lie. That was basic interrogation and was better than pain at getting answers.
This seemed to annoy the admiral, but his face bore the expression of a brother in arms who regretted having to make them jump through hoops. It was just procedure, however his eyes gave him away. Good, keep your focus on us and not Kira.
He then moved on to buttering up the Major with how he had served on the Grimaldi Front, and how, despite the defeat at the Endymion Crater the Major's actions gave a great morale boost to those fighting under the Eurasian flag. Personally, Lancaster didn't see how anything on that front could be considered a victory, ZAFT had been hit hard by the suicide of Endymion, and the Alliance had been hit hard by ZAFT to the point where killing your own men was deemed an acceptable way of winning a battle. From the expression on the Major's face, he didn't see it as a victory either.
"However who would of thought you would inexplicably appear onboard that vessel," said the Commandant in a voice so greasy it could have come from Duo's microwave on a Saturday night.
"I am on a special mission, Sir. Unfortunately I am not at liberty to disclose any detail at this time," said the Major in a voice that sounded too respectful to be anything but a pre-rehearsed line.
"I understand, but it will be difficult to resupply you right away," said the Commandant in a tone that suggested that if they told him everything he wanted to know, it would be quicker.
"It's absolutely vital that we head to lunar HQ as soon as humanly possible. As you know, we are being pursued by ZAFT," said Murrue. Lancaster wondered if she had missed the subtle hints the Commandant had been making, then he remembered all the "Yes Sirs" he had heard that meant nothing of the sort.
"By ZAFT?" said the Commandant pushing a button on his desk changing the landscape displayed on the monitors behind him to a view centred on the Laurasia-class.
"It's the Laurasia-class?"
"As you can see, the ship has been roaming around outside the umbrella; they have been there for a short while now," said the Commandant turning around to look at the ship.
"One or two vessels are of little concern to us here, even if you were resupplied you would still be unable to depart."
"They won't abandon their pursuit of the Archangel. We cannot afford to stay here for much longer and risk damage to Artemis"
The Commandant laughed, "Did I hear you right? Damage to our base? They are powerless to do anything to us and will eventually leave; it happens all the time."
"With all due respect commandant–," began the Major, but he was cut off by the Commandant raising his hand.
"At any rate I recommend you get some R and R, you appear to be exhausted. I will have your quarters prepared," said the commandant pressing a button
"Commandant couldn't we-" the Major was cut off again by a young officer entering the room.
"We will have a chance to contact lunar HQ once they leave, we will make arrangements after that."
"You are that certain, that Artemis is safe?" asked the Major.
"As safe as an infant in its mother's arms," replied the Commandant. This brought up a memory from before meteor of what had happened to a little girl and her dog. That base had thought that they were safe from attack on such a peaceful colony with the latest in electronic security. He had turned that overconfidence in their invulnerability into their demise. But from where Lancaster stood right now he could not see how ZAFT would do it, he just knew they would.
Lancaster used the time it took them to walk to their quarters to remember the locations of armouries, barracks, hangars, escape pods and generally anything that would go bang in a big way, just in case he needed to fight his way out and grab Kira on the way.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Damn the Captain of the Archangel! She was not playing ball; if she had, then he could have got the Eurasian Federation valuable data on a new warship, and more importantly, a mobile suit, but she had to be difficult, and now he would have to steal the data. Still he had one option left to him, that pilot Captain Lowe, he was defiant, but Commodore Gerard Garcia knew these OZ types, they would do anything for that mad man Treize. He had almost dishonourably discharged her from the fleet but had held back.
Commodore Garcia smiled, 'yes, she would do,' he thought as he glanced at the photo attached to her profile. Her pale blue eyes bore back at him as defiantly as Captain Lowe's, but that didn't matter. She was not her father and all the better for it; the man was insane. She was a perfect opportunity to advance his career and of course to win the war, they were one and the same after all.
She was admitted into his office, her long red hair, (well beyond regulation), flowing out behind her. On a normal woman this would be a tripping hazard, but she didn't tower over people through her presence. Her projection of power was just an illusion by the little girl inside that had held the world in the palm of her hand for less than a day. Even then it had been an illusion; she was only a puppet pulling the strings of the world not seeing her own. Times had changed and now she served another, not as a puppet but as a pawn. His pawn.
Her height was offset by her constant stoop; she however meant no disrespect by her posture, for her standing was a miracle in of itself. Her vertebrae had enough metal holding them together to build a battleship, along with a small computer to replace the nerves damaged when she was a child. An injury that should have kept her from the fleet; her father's name was the only thing letting her serve. It was time to use that name to move the final pawn into position for checkmate, and his inevitable promotion out of this backwater.
"Ah, First Lieutenant Khushrenada, I have a matter you are uniquely qualified to handle," he said, bringing up a photo of Captain Lowe.
"Sir?" she said inclining her head. However her eyes gave away recognition of the pilot of the Strike, so she did in fact know all the men who had been involved in her rebellion, and this man really was one of them.
"This man claims to be a former soldier of yours, however he came in on that ship we suspect of being a Trojan horse. I want you to find out who he really is and any information he has on that mobile suit," he said keeping to the story he was feeding his men. She might be powerless and weak but she was at times too sharp for her own good.
"Yes sir," replied the Lieutenant smartly, not an ounce of disrespect in her voice. Hopefully that was a sign she would not cross him like that Sanc Kingdom business last month. She was supposed to have stopped that ship as part of the Alliance's plan to put pressure on the Sanc kingdom to side with them in this war.
He had given her too few men for the job, and then set an unrealistic time limit with the words, 'if you can't search the suspected ZAFT craft properly, bring it inside the base, we will run a thorough sweep'.
She had, within half the time allocated to her, searched the whole craft thoroughly and then had dinner with that damn pacifist Queen who had so short-changed the fleet that they didn't have enough ammunition or fuel at the start of the war.
She had defied him and prevented the Alliance from gaining a foothold in L5 and made him look like a fool to the Admiralty.
"He is in the guest room, along with the senior officers we could find," he said, turning back to his computer. There was another person he needed to see. Someone had tried to hide him in plain sight, but the boy's nerves gave him away. Now he was going to find out why he was being hidden.
The answer appeared on the front page.
Name: Kira Yamato
Gender: Male
Age: 16 years old
Nationality: Orb Heliopolis
Genetics: Coordinator
Only the Atlantic Federation would be so concerned about having a coordinator in their midst, that they would try to hide one in plain sight. It was as if they feared that their superiors would shoot them for daring to not kill a coordinator on sight.
Oh, this was just too good an opportunity to get one over on those morons in the Atlantic military. He would have to meet this boy himself, maybe convince him to join the Eurasian Forces; most of them made fine officer material in the fleet.
Reading on, he found something even better to do with the boy. He was an engineering student at Heliopolis College, one of the best known colleges in the Colonies, beating most the ones on the PLANTs. How insulting would it be if this boy, a coordinator from a neutral colony, could unlock the Atlantic Federation's mobile suit for him.
Stealing the Atlantic Federation's new mobile suit would give them the upper hand in the Alliance, one he was sure he could use to end this war decisively. Doing so by using resources the Atlantic Federation was too blinded by genocidal ways to use was just priceless.
That promotion to Fleet Admiral was as good as on his uniform.
0o0o0o0o0o0
"This base has had no strategic importance, that is why Zaft has not attacked it," said Captain Zellman.
"That, and it's a legacy from the EVE wars. The Alliance is only keeping it operational to host Christmas parties," said Athrun bitterly, remembering the last time he and Lacus had been forced to go to that awful place with all those arrogant people.
"Yes, the political ramifications of attacking Artemis with a large force would be unpleasant," agreed Captain Zellman.
"But we don't need a large force; the Blitz, my unit, has phase-shift armour like the others but it also has a stealth system," said Nicol looking thoughtful.
"But the technicians have not started on your mobile suit yet," Athrun said, concerned. Aegis was being rewired to prevent a complete electrical failure, like the Duel and Buster. The Blitz was next for an upgrade; it would have been upgraded at the same time as the Aegis, but Nicol wanted to run through all the simulations he could on the Strike.
"I can do it; they will be caught completely off-guard. The Strike won't have time to launch," said Nicol, with what almost sounded like pleading in his voice.
"Very well what do you propose," said Captain Zellman. Since Le Creuset had gone back with the Vesalius, Captain Zellman was now the most senior officer, and therefore it was his call. Athrun vaguely wondered why, as Nicol worked through his plan, most commanders were in mobile suits rather than part of the ship's company.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Conversation had dried up hours ago with everyone scared, not able to do anything about it, and wrapped up in their own thoughts.
"How long are they going to keep this up?" asked Arnold, finally breaking the silence as he sat down with his tray of food, voicing everyone's unspoken question.
Kira stiffened as he spotted more guards entering the mess hall, lead by a man in a uniform that to Kira's untrained eye looked to be that of a high-ranking officer, judging by the number of decorations on his chest.
"Where's the Captain?" demanded Arnold as he stood up to face the newcomer.
"You do not need to worry about that right now. Ah, Mr Kira Yamato," said the man as he locked eyes with Kira, "it seems we have use for someone of your talents."
"Hold on," demanded Arnold as moved to block the man's path, but he froze as the soldiers that had entered with the high-ranked officer raised their weapons at him, sending the civilians into a panic to get out of the firing-line. Arnold slowly returned to his seat.
The officer raised his hand and the soldiers lowered their weapons before he continued, "I was merely offering Mr Yamato an opportunity to work for people who do not have any animosity towards his kind, unlike the Atlantic Federation."
Kira felt his body become cold; they had found him out, and the message was clear; 'cooperate or your friends die'. This was all happening because he was the only coordinator on the Archangel. Never in all Kira's life had he wanted to be a natural more than now, not when Flay had shown contempt for all coordinators, and not even when he had been made to pilot the Strike.
Arnold growled dangerously. "It's ok," Kira said, resigned to his fate. Miriallia looked like she was going to say something, but a wave of a soldier's gun silenced her.
Kira followed the high ranking officer, who had introduced himself as Commandant Gerard Garcia down to the hangar. On the way the Commandant tried to make small-talk, but Kira was too scared to answer in more than two words, and kept his head down trying not to say anything that would provoke the man.
In the hangar, Kira saw the Strike had half a dozen technicians crawling over it.
"The pilot of the Strike has found an ingenious way of locking down the OS that has baffled my experts, but no matter, after all none of them are coordinators, like you," said the Commandant gesturing in a way that looked dramatic, but Kira was too numb to appreciate.
Kira's silence seemed to please the Commandant, Kira didn't know why, but the man continued, "It's a shame so many young coordinators like yourself are discouraged from joining up by those in the Atlantic Federation."
Kira was perplexed. Did the man think he had been mistreated by Murrue and the Archangel's Crew? Sure there was a strain between him and some of the crew, but most of them just saw him as another kid who had saved them during the battle for Heliopolis. But his hesitation seemed to anger the Commandant, so he nodded his head.
"Well then, I could help you find a promising career within the Navy, but first," he gestured to the Strike. Kira took the hint, and with a glance at the guards, he propelled himself towards the Mobile suit. The two guards followed him up to the cockpit and floated outside, watching Kira as he settled into the seat.
Kira looked at the Strike's console; if he didn't do anything, the two guards outside would notice and his friends might be hurt. He didn't trust himself to fool the technicians that he was working by random key-strokes. Kira didn't see any other alternative than to work on the problem and hope they would leave him and his friends alone if he gave them what they wanted.
The console itself looked as if it had a simple password with a hard limit of 16 characters. Surely they could have bypassed something so simple, or even hard-cracked it by number-crunching. This was the sort of thing that came on computers as a token defence against hackers. Keeping this in mind, he typed a random series of letters and numbers until he reached 16. The password had been set not to display characters.
"Incorrect password. Less than minimum number of characters. Are you human? Type the words displayed in the box below."
What the..! He had entered 16 characters. Oh, this had happened to him before, with one of the professor's old laptops he had found in a cupboard when the overhead had packed in before an important university finance meeting. The laptop had to be older than him, and had of course been corrupted, so a figure had been changed in the BIOS that stopped the laptop recognising more than one or two characters in the password. He had never before thought of corrupting part of the BIOS to stop anyone getting into his computer. He reset the computer and mashed the F5 button until the BIOS came up. Flicking through the settings, he found the one he wanted hidden deep in some menu that must have made sense to the guy who programmed it, but mystified Kira.
As the computer started back up, Kira wondered why they simply didn't pull the hard drive and use another computer to read the data, as his eyes drifted down to the tower, only for him to jump out of his seat. He was no expert, but he knew from video games that C4 was high explosive, and the stuff was crammed into every nook and cranny in the computer's tower, along with red blinking lights.
"Relax, the explosives are only set to blow if you tamper with the case. The Commandant didn't want to risk losing the data on the computer, so the bomb disposal team didn't do more than look at it," said a technician, not filling Kira with confidence.
Kira didn't return to his seat until a guard pointed his gun at him, and made motions for him to sit. He was once again presented with the password screen. Now he needed to figure out what the password was. Kira looked around the cockpit for inspiration, and saw one of the Packs of C4 had a 16 digit code on it. Well, he may as well start with that, he thought, before a muffled sound and vibration drew his attention away from the console.
The two guards had floated away from the hatch, and there was a lot of yelling from outside. The technician that had reassured him was looking down at the Commandant.
"We are under attack."
"How? This is Artemis, no-one can attack this base." That was the commandant; he sounded furious.
If they were under attack, then his friends were in danger, and Mr Lowe was not here, that meant Kira was the only pilot who could manage the Strike. He kicked the technician in the shoulder, and closed the hatch, as he typed in the 16-digit code on the explosive. It worked.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Lancaster looked round as he heard the door open behind him, and froze.
"Imoto?" he whispered.
The young woman standing in the doorway marched towards him, her eyes ablaze. Lancaster could not help but feel pride for his imoto, 16 years ago she had been confined to a wheelchair, now she was performing difficult walking motions in low gravity.
Mariemaia stopped right in front of him and raised her right hand. In a flash Lancaster brought up his own to block, as he reset his balance to take the blow's momentum and turn it into an arm hold that would break her arm. Only problem was, his left arm was under his bunk, back on the Archangel.
Mariemaias slap sent him spinning in a lazy arc that would eventually meet the ground, but she was not done with him yet. Grabbing him by the back of his uniform and dragging him back to his feet, she started snarling something, but Lancaster was not in a frame of mind to understand it. All he could think was that somewhere in his brain he had perceived his little sister as a threat and had retaliated against her. It was almost like ZERO, there was a threat, acquire target, eliminate, and it was all done without his control as if he was a passenger just along for the ride.
Yes, she had attacked him, but once during a temper tantrum of hers, he had taken a Leo to the face, a plushy he had made for her, but it had a large button for an eye and it hurt.
How in the colonies was he going to make this up to his Imoto? He thought, drawing her into a one-handed embrace.
This stopped her tirade instantly as she hugged him back. "Hello Ani, I have missed you," said Mariemaia giving him an extra squeeze.
"Ani?" asked the Major looking questioning at Lancaster, he must have thought it was a name.
"It's Japanese for big brother," said Murrue. She still looked stunned from Mariemaia's entrance.
"What else would I call the boy who was responsible for my parents' meeting. I believe you have a good story about that, don't you?" replied Mariemaia, her face completely transformed from the rictus of fury it was moments before, into the picture of a model officer and lady.
"Lady Kushranada, I am sorry, I was unaware that you were in the fleet," said the XO formally.
"Yes, I gained my wings 6 months ago, the PR thought I would be a big boost to morale, but my mother stopped them from using my photo on the recruitment posters," she replied just as formally.
"How is Lady Une if I may ask?"
Lancaster saw a flicker of doubt in her eyes but she mastered it perfectly before replying, "She is well, but her command is keeping her busy."
"What unit is the General with?" asked Lancaster, dreading the answer, his sore cheek forgotten.
"The 2nd Armoured," she said, controlling all emotion except in her eyes, which said she was scared.
Lancaster knew what she was feeling, the Second Armoured had been hit hard in north Africa near El Alamein and had been shattered. The woman who had so callously sent men to their deaths against him, and would have ordered attacks on the colonies if they had not surrendered, had gone. What was left was someone who had taken in a child who may or may not have been her lover's illegitimate child and raised her. Times like this he questioned why he had stopped being that monster.
"My apologies Lieutenant Khushrenada, this is Lieutenant Ramius, she is the Captain of the Archangel," said Badgiruel as a way of introduction.
"A pleasure Lieutenant," said his Imoto saluting, which was returned by Murrue.
"I doubt you dropped by for a social call, did the Commandant send you?" asked the Major.
His imoto smiled, "he wanted me to talk to the pilot of that ZAFT mobile suit we 'captured' along with the Archangel."
"You don't really believe that we are with ZAFT do you?" asked the Major.
"Well I would not have believed that you were all ZAFT but..." she said breaking off and looking at Lancaster.
"I am not with ZAFT, and even if I was you know I would not need to use such a ploy to get past the umbrella."
"Get passed the umbrella," she laughed, "the umbrella of Artemis is impervious to any attack. Not even you could break your way through. It's funny how a pacifist government would go to such measures to make a base in case of revolution."
"Remember the last time you made that boast?"
"Fine, how would you get passed the barrier?" she asked glowering at him, no doubt she didn't want to be reminded of the night she became crippled.
Lancaster thought, the light wave barrier was a new invention that had been classified top secret, and typical of the Preventer pre war doctrine focussed on defence rather than mobile forces. Problem was he didn't know what its capabilities were. ZAFT might, but a trend that started about 7 years ago due to 'terrorist activities', was for individual Preventer commands not to share more than they had to with other commands, especially with ZAFT command.
"I am 16 years out of date, care to fill me in."
"The light-wave barrier forms a complete barrier against any solid object similar to the planet defence on the Virgo but that's where the similarities end. The light-wave barrier has ground-based emitters rather than the orbital ones used on the plant defence system. They don't have to recharge, and with a sufficient power source, will remain active indefinitely," his Imoto explained.
"But you don't have a large power source; MO2 has a nuclear reactor from when it was a mining colony with solar sails as backup power. When they introduced N-Jammers as ECM they would have replaced the nuclear reactor," Lancaster pointed out.
"No, the reactor is still there and we use it when there is no N-Jammer around, but we use a battery system to store the power for when the ZAFT patrol arrives, but they have never stayed long enough to find out how long the battery can last. It also disrupts our communications with lunar command," said his Imoto.
"So the umbrella is not always open?" asked the Major.
"It opens if we see an enemy but most of the time it's closed. We are a port after all, and we do need to let ships in and out," replied his Imoto.
"So it's only open when you see an enemy?" said XO as if to herself.
Something sent alerts through Lancaster's head. If he was attacking this base he would drift in from sunwards to cover his heat trail, and what little radar signature he had. Only way he would be stealthier was if he was using Mirage Colloid...
Lancaster evidently came to the same conclusion at the same time as the Major, judging by the vocabulary he was using.
"The Blitz," said Murrue.
"One of the Gundams is equipped with Mirage Colloid," said Lancaster by way of explanation. "Sound General Quarters if you don't want to be on the wrong end of a Gundam attack again." But his Imoto was already moving to a comms panel set into the wall.
"All hands Action Stations! Action Stations! Enemy stealth unit confirmed. Open Umbrella! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!" echoed his imoto's voice throughout the asteroid.
"Belay that; all hands stand down; Marines to the guest quarters arrest the spies," ordered a man Lancaster had never heard before.
Snatching the receiver from his imoto's hand Lancaster barked, "command override Whisky Zero One Black Alpha, confirm override."
"Who is this?" demanded the man on the other end.
"Confirm override." Lancaster could hear heavily armed men moving outside in the corridor.
"I demand to know who I am talking to," came the voice again. He obviously did not take orders as well as he gave them.
The Marines outside were stacking up on the door now. Lancaster didn't have any more time to waste on hoping his command overrides would still be accepted. Dropping the receiver, he put his fist through the wall 10 cm down and 35 cm to the right of the panel, activating the hidden panic button located there.
A blast proof door made out of Gundanium alloy, probably what they salvaged from Zero, was propelled downwards on electro-magnetic rails until it hit the polished wooden floor, and dug into the bed rock like a hot knife through butter. The sound like a firecracker going off could be heard from the other side of the door as the Marines tried to make entry; they would need a battleship to breach that or a nuke. Thanks Zero, sorry you have still not seen your final battle but neither have I old friend, thought Lancaster as he ran his hand over the smooth alloy.
"Come on," shouted his imoto from the entrance to the secret escape passage.
The XO looked like she was going to argue, but the sound of distant explosions ended any protests before they could form.
"All hands Action Stations! Action Stations! Pilots to your craft! Enemy mobile suit detected within our perimeter," announced the intercom before another voice started ordering damage-control teams to the affected areas.
Lancaster moved through the opening followed by the other Alliance officers, moving down passages so narrow they had to shimmy sideways at times. Somewhere between hatch B-2 and junction Blue-8, he acquired a gun; he embarrassingly shoved the pistol into a pocket. He could not remember the last time he had held one but it felt to natural for his liking.
His imoto reached a service hatch and opened it letting in a flood of noise that could only exist in the organised chaos of a battle. Across the sea of men and woman Lancaster saw an airlock marked "Maintenance Bay B-10". If memory served him right, that was an old ore hauler service bay that had been used to repair everything from the Tallgeese to Leo-Motherships. From a glance, those were its hay days, as it looked like a scrap yard for Moebius and anything too badly shot-up to be flown again, with one exception. In a corner sat a Moebius with an OZ decal on an over-sized radome.
"So what now?" asked the XO
"You four clamp up," replied his imoto, as she opened a locker and passed out one-size-fits-no-one normal suits which were used in emergencies where hard-vacuum was the alternative.
"Clamp up?" asked Murrue eyeing the bane of all space-faring people dubiously. She can't have had much experience of some of the short cuts those who worked vacuum-side of a hull took on a daily basis.
"Clamp your safety harness to any handle on the Moebius and hang on," said the Major as he suited up.
Lancaster shrugged into his suit wondering who in the military was 12 feet tall and had a circumference so large they had their own Lagrange Point. He tried fastening up his suit, but eventually let the Major suit him up and clamp him to the radome.
On closer inspection the radome appeared to be just a big dish with an OZ logo on it and the word Tallgeese stencilled on the back. With a start, Lancaster realised that the 'radome' was the shield from the Tallgeese. It would knock off the balance and overall performance but would be impervious to almost any attack ZAFT could throw at it, short of a ship's main cannons. The shield must have been a spare from the Tallgeese MK.2 left here after the EVE war and never decommissioned probably due to someone listing it under something like miscellaneous or scrap metal.
They cycled through an airlock and were discharged into the main harbour. At the entrance the Archangel had used to enter to the port, could be seen fireballs as MO2's defenders died. Lancaster didn't need to be a combat veteran since he was five to know that It would only be a matter of time before the Blitz reached the Archangel parked in the middle of battle ship alley.
His imoto tapped the throttle and they headed for battle ship alley, passing scores of transports leaving the Archangel. Looking through the windows Lancaster could see technicians and soldiers. Part of him was relieved that they had not tried to evacuate the civilians; another part was revolted at soldiers abandoning civilians like that.
Reaching the Archangel Lancaster detached himself from the Moebius and attached himself to the railing next to the airlock so he could help the XO and Murrue inside.
"How long do you need to leave port?" asked his imoto, her voice buzzing with all the junk kicked onto the airwaves by combat.
"Ten minutes," replied the Major.
"I will see what I can do," said his imoto as she turned her Mobious around and opened the throttle.
"Don't be a hero," Lancaster called out. Last thing he heard on the radio before the static drowned it out, was his imoto laughing.
Damn it, he thought, as he flung himself into the Archangel; he needed to get to the Strike. His imoto was in a glorified tug-boat up against a Gundam-class Mobile suit. He didn't wait for the chamber to fully pressurise, but rather he overrode the airlock controls and launched himself thought the door, against the force of the on-rushing air, ripping his way out of his normal suit as he bounded down the corridor. No more little girls and their dogs were going to die.
He reached the hangar only to find no mobile suit. Had they moved it? Was it on one of those shuttles? The sound of the Strike being loaded with equipment saved the Commandant from committing suicide by Lancaster.
Lancaster kicked off for the catapult, slammed his hand down on an override to halt the launch as he reached the hatch.
"Launch aborted by catapult crew," said Kira's female friend, as Lancaster hoped he was not too late, forgetting completely about his arm.
0o0o0o0o0o
Nicol shot down another two Moebius, one of which smashed into what looked like a control tower. A third, with a radar dome on one engine pod, charged him as if on a kamikaze run. Knowing that if he struck it dead on, the debris would still hit his depleted armour, Necal aimed his beam sabre to slice off the engine pod with the radar dome. Only then did he realise, as it spun to take the blow on the raydom, that it was a Leo's shield with an OZ emblem on it. The Moebius then whirled on its axis, deploying a beam sabre from the other engine pod which sliced into the Blitz's shoulder armour, and clipped the V-fin.
Nicol staggered back, giving him a brief moment to look at the damage the surprise attack had caused. Thankfully it was minor, only catching the edge of the shoulder and not even penetrating far enough to affect the sensor package in the V-fin.
The Moebius came in again, spinning at the last moment to cut him with the sideways-facing beam sabre. Nicol blocked the strike despite its speed, and was able to push the much lighter craft back. This was a mistake as the Moebius twisted around until Nicol was looking down the barrel of its linear cannon, which fired. The shell of course could not penetrate the phase-shift armour, but its impact almost deafened Nicol and disorientated him.
Backing off after the second surprise attack from the Moebius, Nicol evaluated his enemy. He was using the small mass of his craft to spin faster than what his much heavier mobile suit could match. However, light weight had its disadvantages too, thought Nicol firing his Gleipnir at the Moebius, which was coming in for another attack.
Just as planned, the Moebius took the blow on the shield, and used the momentum to spin around and snap off a shot at Nicol. However, Nicol had expected this, and had already raised his shield to take the impact, using it to spin his mobile suit. Too late the Moebius realised that the Gleipnir which was only slightly lighter than it, was attached to its shield. Nicol spun the Moebius around and around, his greater mass and firm grip preventing it from escaping until he judged it to be moving faster than its ability to brake, and launched it at a nearby Drake class.
Almost out of nowhere came a blue Gleipnir, smaller than the one on Blitz, which grabbed the Moebius by the shield, stopping it before it collided with the Drake.
0o0o0o0o0
"Relena always said Heeros will turn up just when they are needed the most," said his imoto her eyes unfocussed.
"Affirmative, land on the Archangel, we are leaving," he said fighting the urge to call the Blitz his enemy. That would no doubt lead to another loss of control, something he didn't need during a mobile suit fight in a phone-booth.
"Ok," said his imoto looking unsure. "You are coming back this time Ani?"
"Affirmative," said Lancaster re-evaluating his opponent, who was only now coming to a stop. Impressive moves, but no Gundam should have taken a hit from a glorified tug boat. All he had to do was remember not to try to shoot down the Gleipnir with his head Igelstellung that didn't work last time, and he would be fine, close-combat was his speciality.
Lancaster tried to push the throttle open, only then remembering his arm was still under his bunk; switching hands he opened the throttle. He ran through his options; if all he needed to do was survive, he could keep manoeuvring around and refusing to engage, but that left him on the defensive, which conceded the initiative to the enemy. No, not his enemy, his... opponent; yes, treat this like a fencing match; he could do that.
The Blitz blocked his charge; Lancaster frantically switched controls, only just catching the Blitz counter-thrust.
Lancaster knew that many considered him the best mobile suit pilot who had ever lived, or still lived as the case maybe but he knew he was weak, and that he was too weak to do close combat with one hand. He needed to put some distance between him and the Blitz before his weakness killed him and he failed his mission. No, damn, he needed to think straight like he did as a civilian. His life had value to him now DAMN IT! He was not some kid who dropped into earth's atmosphere not caring if he died; she would never forgive him, nor would his imoto.
HE, WAS, GOING, TO, SURVIVE!
Lancaster launched his Panzer Eisen at the Blitz, which reciprocated by firing its Gleipnir; both collided in a shower of sparks, but Lancaster was already on the other weapon controls, and had the Strike reaching back for a beam boomerang.
"Launch preparations complete, return to the Archangel," said one of Kira's friends; he needed to find out her name.
"Rodger RTB," said Lancaster winding his Panzer Eisen back into its holster and firing it behind him.
0o0o0o0o0
Nicol made a lunge at the Strike, but its Gleipnir attached itself to the legged ship's superstructure, and the Strike was yanked away. Nicol charged after it, this was his opportunity to finish it off; the pilot had not been fighting with the same precision as during the last battle, only able to do a single task at a time, a sure sign of fatigue. He had lost friends during the raid on Heliopolis and was not going to lose anymore to that suit, not Yzak with his bad attitude and insults, not Dearka with his wit and gung-ho attitude to everything, nor Athrun. Athrun was still hurting from the loss of his mother and all of his squadron mates, Nicol could almost feel the grief from the other pilot, his heart was bleeding.
A Nelson-class next to Nicol exploded, showering his suit with debris.
"NICOL!" yelled Athrun.
"I am ok," said Nicol looking at his power gauge; 2 minutes of combat power. He needed to leave the rest up to Athrun.
"I am heading back," said Nicol before he was hit by the debris of a Drake class.
"This place is going up; I must have hit a fuel dump," said Athrun.
0o0o0o0o0
Mariemaia tried to turn around to kick the hatch open in the universal method of fixing anything designed to survive re-entry. She needed a bigger cockpit, the Moebius was as roomy as a ball-turret on a B-16 and she was 6.6 feet tall.
One would think that the destruction of MO2 would affect her; it did, just not in the way one would think. To her the base had never been a symbol of her father; the bits from the Tallgeese and Leos she had attached to her Moebius were all the man had left behind in that place. Not even the soldiers she had talked to, who had served alongside her father, held it in high regard. They thought it should have been destroyed as a final symbol of war. But symbols can be twisted, and MO2 like her, had been twisted into a symbol that her father would not have been proud of. At one time they had called it the most powerful space station, and thanks to her father, Milliardo and her Ani, it was simply the most powerful by being the only military space station. And now it was gone and so, for a time, she was free from others' political manipulations. She might be able to make a difference now, she was not just some grunt whom commanders could pass around for political favours, and if her father watched over her she could finish what he started, war! By all accounts he was, after all her freedom had come with her reunion with her Ani, someone who she knew could scare the world into dropping its guns and capitulating with his every demand, or risk annihilation. The boy who took her to the park could not and would not carry it out, but they didn't know that, some symbols could be miss interpreted and the Gundams where often depicted as monsters.
A thunk on the outside of the hatch told her that the flight-deck crew were familiar with jammed cockpit hatches, and with a clunk it opened. Peering down at her was a surprisingly familiar face, one that explained why her Ani was fighting.
"Hallo Kira Yamato, how's your mother? I heard she got a job in Orb, and how's Athrun getting on these days? The two of you were impossible to separate as kids," she said pushing herself out of the cockpit and stretching her sore back.
A/N
I know I will get asked this because I have been vague on it but this is not a Lancaster x Mariemaia fic. Yes I see the potential relationship there but they are set up as having a relationship of brother and sister, so no. Maybe next time but not in this series, and then they won't be calling each other brother and sister; that would just be creepy.
Also I don't believe Mariemaia was crippled by the bullet. No, it would give her a nasty scar, but chances are she would be able to walk again. Sure we have seen her in a wheelchair; I am not surprised as she was probably still not fully healed, and walking would aggravate her wound, especially if she was hit in a lung, which from the angle looks probable.
So how did you like OZ-MA2 Tallgeese MK.4? I have seen all these mobile suits people have made for OCs, and I wanted to try something different involving a Moebius. Yes it was going to be another piece of junk Moebius, but I have given it a Leo sword and shield, fitting for Mariemaia.
I am going to have a little section where I talk about the battles in GS and GSD which although more realistic and in greater detail than Wing, show a complete lack of understanding for naval, armoured and infantry warfare, as well as air to air combat, with some battles appearing to be, "there's the enemy, zerg rush them!" However the battle for Artemis could really happen. In show, Nicol hit Artemis when they thought they were invulnerable, because ZAFT didn't bother attacking them before. When Yazk and Dearka came in, someone hit something big and bye-bye space station. The defenders didn't have a chance; it takes a long time to get aircraft ready to launch for intercepts and with the base able to see enemies coming, CAPs or combat air patrols would have been small. So the Alliance would have had no real fighters in the air at the time, and only a few on standby. Then the ships at port could not fire without risking hitting the harbour itself or another ship. So basically Nicol had a turkey shoot because the base was so 'invulnerable' that no-one was actively defending it. If you want a similar example, Pearl Harbour is the most well known but there are others. At Pearl, defences were low as no-one would dare attack them on a Sunday, and after all, the Japanese were at the other side of the Pacific, and they could see them coming, lest we forget.
I will get on to some of the more egregious examples such as the battle for Orb, which in my mind should have been the biggest turkey-shoot in human history. God damn it, did anyone look at beach assaults at Sunrise? Evidently not, because Orb lost the battle. Oh god, I can rant about that one for a full chapter... or maybe two, depends on how competent I make the EA, or if a sixteen year old girl gets command of Dads Army. No, scratch that, the Home Guard would do better than the Orb Navy. However thankfully, there are more like Artemis which are just big cock-ups, rather than Sunrise not understanding tactics, and a few to which I have to take my hat off as, God damn it, Sun Tzu would be proud.