Chapter 5 Interesting times
"I won't run and hide until there's no-one left to fight."
Iwa knew she was in trouble when she saw the ship. She didn't recognize the type; it could belong to Orb or Sanc, in which case she had just thrown a live grenade into a fuel depot. The other possibility was that this was the new Alliance ship she had heard about; what was it the Legged Ship? If it was then she would have been better off dead. Sure, the Alliance had rules for POWs, but she didn't expect the Alliance to follow them; ZAFT didn't follow the rules and they were the good guys.
This also begged the question why was His Excellency's Daughter fighting for such a disgusting and honourless organization as the Alliance. She could not imagine any OZ soldier fighting for such people; those who did were traitors as far as she was concerned. If she took them prisoner, she would not shoot them but she had no problem with pulling the trigger on former OZ units perverted to the Blue Cosmos' cause.
As they entered the hanger, Iwa was confronted with the worst possible scenario; it was the Alliance. There were four of them armed with assault rifles, all pointing at her and Murphy. She took a second to look around without moving her head. Further into the hanger were several blocks of ice of all things, and two escape pods, one an O'Neill colony model; the other of Sanc design, had several people around it, who appeared to be more curious than hostile. The four Alliance personnel in front of her were not Marines, and in fact looked like they were unfamiliar with their weapons. Could she take them? Four to one was bad odds, but so were ten to one and she had taken those odds on before in the Regiment.
"Take your helmets off, slowly," came a voice from above Iwa. Cold, emotionless, professional, he must have known that her helmet had limited upwards visibility so she would have had to move her head, a giveaway that she was evaluating her situation and thus likely to try something.
Iwa removed her helmet, playing it safe as did the Kid. Hopefully, the Kid would shut his mouth and not do anything stupid until she had a plan. She used the motion of flicking her shoulder length hair out, to get a look at the man above her; and kept moving; freezing up when you realize how fucked you were could only get you killed. There was a reason why so many pilots died shouting "it's a Gundam!" or simply locked up even if it would be very appropriate right now.
01 ordered them to unclamp and raise their hands as they were manhandled in the zero gravity over to the walkway, where they were searched for weapons, they didn't have any, those wherein the survival kit, which was still in her Ginn.
Iwa replied by following his instructions, disobeying a Gundam would be detrimental to her health.
"Ah yes, Miss Roimata," came a soprano voice from behind her, more mature than the last time they had met, but still unmistakably that of his Excellency's daughter, Lady Khushrenada. Iwa was surprised his Excellency's daughter had recognized her; the last time she had seen the woman was after her transfer from the NZ SAS to the 501st So she must have been what, 12? Still, it was reassuring to the old OZ soldier inside, that she had not been forgotten, too many had been. She had sympathized with those who had joined the rebellion, Civvy Street and the politicians behind the preventers had wanted to forget everything. They saw those who had fought for a better future as inherently violent and were scared they would revolt again.
"Lady Khushrenada, it's an honour to meet you again; we are very grateful for your assistance." Murphy didn't look grateful but openly hostile, so she gave him a harsh jab in the ribs. The kid was too young to know what a magnificent man His Excellency was.
"You're welcome, Miss Roimata, perhaps we can talk later about the good old days where wars were fought by warriors," said his Excellency's daughter.
01 snorted on cue, "only thing honourable in war is not fighting one."
Iwa rolled her eyes; did they all talk about honour like this? It inspired the newbie crew but it got old fast for the vets. That's when it hit her, honour could be twisted, she knew that all too well, maybe she could use 01's honour against him, and she had just the tool. Gundam 01 was rumoured to be close to the Sanc Kingdom monarch, time to see if that was true.
"True, but shall we move onto more relevant matters?" Asked Lady Khushrenada looking at the two ZAFT pilots.
"You won't get anything from us," shouted Murphy.
"I am sorry, we have not been introduced, my name is Mariemaia Une-Khushrenada, and you are?" asked his Excellency's daughter.
Murphy stayed silent, so Iwa answered for him, "Lieutenant JG Murphy; please pardon his manners he's as green as they come your Excellency."
"That's quite all right; it's no doubt unpleasant to be captured. I dare say that our side has not made the process less traumatic, but I can assure you that on my honour and that of my father, you will be treated properly whilst on board this ship," said Lady Khushrenada.
Iwa knew that with his Excellency's daughter being a mere Lieutenant, she did not have the authority to make such a statement, however, whichever officer contradicted such an oath, would have a very short and unpleasant career cleaning toilets in Alaska.
"Who is in the pod?" asked 01.
"Don't you know?" asked Iwa, she doubted they would know, and she still believed that the attack on the Silverwind must've been pirates. Sure she would not put it past the Alliance to try something but 01 would have already known who was in the pod. Thanks to some old derelicts that must have been gutted by a large number of heavy rounds a plan was slowly forming in her head, one that might get them out of here alive.
"Who?" asked 01 never breaking eye contact. Unfortunately for 01, Iwa was part of amateur theatre back on the PLANTs, so knew how to show only the emotions she wanted him to see, contempt for what the Alliance had done, the trick was the eyes.
The question was answered by the pod's hatch opening, ejecting the PBD as the chairman's security detail had dubbed Mr Pink. As always, the Pink Ball of Doom proceeded to find the nearest individual and to pester them with an overly cute voice that somehow reminded her of a Mobile Doll. The PBD was followed by a pink-haired girl, confirming that yes, she had made it out, thank God.
Lacus appeared to lose her balance as if she was inexperienced in the zero gravity. It was an act; anyone who had lived in the colonies for their whole life knew how to move in low gravity, but the Alliance sailor nearby fell for it, reaching out to steady her.
Lady Khushrenada launched herself off the platform towards the group surrounding Lady Clyne, leaving Iwa and Murphy in the hands of a Gundam and the Alliance troops. She hoped that Murphy didn't do anything stupid, yet. If 01 was anything like the commander, he didn't tolerate stupid.
0o0o0o0o0o0
He was a veteran of numerous covert insertions, none this stupid. Spacecraft were not like their water-born counterparts, where a sufficiently equipped and determined diver, could latch onto an enemy vessel as it passed, remaining undetected by the crew. Space, however, was empty, hence its name, and with the lack of cover, it was easy to spot someone trying to sneak up on you. A warship with its sensor suite was able to pick out missiles travelling at several times the speed of sound, with the radar cross-section of a grape beyond the horizon, so would normally have no difficulties spotting a man of average height and build in a space suit with no stealth gear. If this mission had not been concocted so hastily, then he might have found some piece of kit from the Nataku that could let him get close, but he had had two people taken prisoner, and the daughter of the chairman at stake so time was vital. This mission was so short notice that his backseater, with little training in mobile suit controls, was now flying his suit back, and the only equipment he had was what was in his and his back seater's survival bag. Time to procure on site; maybe he would use Heero's trick of avoiding ironing by liberating some clothes from the laundry.
He watched as he approached the 'Legged Ship'; he was on target. In 5.3 seconds he would need to detach himself from the rock he was using as a shield; if he was half a second too late then he would miss the target. Half a second too early, he would enter the firing envelope for a CIWS and be promptly blown to a bloody mess. If he had been travelling more slowly, he would have run out of air, any faster and he would not have made the next part.
A magnetic clamp, on the end of a 50-metre carbon nanotube wire, latched onto the hull of the warship, yanking the ZAFT spec-ops off the rock he had been holding onto to hide from the warship's sensors. The rock continued on its path, barely affected by the departure of its passenger, however, physics demanded that the passenger continues at the same velocity as the rock, just on an altered trajectory. Even before the clamp had adhered to the hull, the man had activated both his flight packs. Individually, each was capable of giving a fully laden Marine limited flight in an atmosphere; together, they could slow down a lightly laden man enough to avoid becoming a twisted figurehead on an Alliance warship.
With a thunk Wufei Chang landed on the 'Legged Ship', unopposed, and therefore the crew of the warship were as of that moment dead; their bodies were too weak to have caught up with reality.
A short spacewalk with the help of a second grapple got the former Gundam to an airlock near to his insertion. With no recon, he had to take the chance that the Alliance was not guarding this airlock. If it was guarded, he would put his hands up and go into custody, for a time; jails were tough to get out of, but not impossible.
Looking through the porthole, Wufei saw that the airlock was unoccupied, by humans anyway. The ship's security and damage control systems, on the other hand, were actively monitoring the hatch as they should be. The only way around them was to hack into the system, not easy as anyone with the slightest inkling of cyber warfare knew that it was child's play to open all the doors on a ship, exposing the crew to vacuum.
From his kit bag, he pulled a data slate with some pre-loaded software that would let him bypass the door's security. As he plugged it into a USB port, his HUD went from a solid red to a flashing red with a warning tone; less than one minute of air left, and his program would take between 20-30 seconds to fully deactivate the security depending on the speed of his connection and the firewall's rigidity. The depressurisation would take about 10, then 10 again to bring the lock back up to pressure, giving him 10-20 seconds to get his helmet off before he suffocated.
His hack took over 3 minutes, and needed him to input several commands to avoid detection; now he had to wait 10 seconds for the airlock to depressurise. His air supply was gone, and his HUD was a solid red, with a new window taking precedent, one showing his CO2 level. It was above normal human tolerance. As good as a normal suit was, it was no spacesuit and was in fact only partly pressurised. With his tanks empty he had an area about his fist of air at 1.1 bar. Things had been going dark around the edges of his vision for some time but they were less edge and more in his way now, he would make it, just.
Wufei grabbed his data-slate and pulled himself inside the ship then slapping the door controls, CO2 levels were now at dangerous levels, he didn't need his suit to tell him that as he was now having problems remaining conscious. As the hatch closed, he threw off his helmet, exposing himself to vacuum for an instant before the airlock re-pressurised. Normal exposure to vacuum before loss of consciousness was 9 seconds, with death proceeding about 2 min thereafter; he had managed 3, but he was not going to repeat that experience. This time, however, he was in an airlock that was steadily increasing the pressure back to 1.1 bar, so the effects were noticeably less than full exposure. He felt the water in his mouth vaporize once he had stopped blacking out.
Wufei lay panting on the deck; he needed to regain his breath. "Damn it, this was the sort of stupid stunt Heero had made his name doing," Wufei said to no one. this thought amused him but he tapped down on his laughter before his oxygen-deprived mind blows the
mission.
His body had been stronger during the EVE war, but he had been the respectable lawyer for far too many years and had not kept himself in the sort of regiment he had once, but a lawyer didn't pilot a Gundam to fight evil, they put the perpetrators of evil behind bars.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Lacus thanked the young Alliance soldier who helped steady her; he looked about Athrun's age, with a kind face that was at odds with his uniform; maybe they were not so different, as her father used to say. She had always believed her father and trusted his opinion, but looking into the eyes of this young soldier drove it home.
"Oh my, is this not a ZAFT ship?" she said. It sounded rather silly, being surrounded by so many Alliance soldiers, but she didn't want to appear threatening; she knew the coordinators' reputation for being hyper-intelligent being that could bend steel bars without breaking a sweat.
The Alliance soldiers around her looked confused and unsure what to do.
"Don't let the mobile suit fool you, Lady Clyne, this is an Alliance vessel," said a familiar voice.
"Lady Khushrenada," said Lacus, so surprised she gave the older woman a curtsy, completely blowing her cover as a ditzy pop star with a rich father, even if the woman knew her well enough to know she was no ditz.
The older woman returned the gesture awkwardly, her back was no doubt giving her great pain despite Athrun's mother's best efforts.
"Excuse me, Lieutenant but do you know who this is?" asked an officer with brown hair.
"My apologies Mam, this is Lacus Clyne, she's a famous pop singer on the PLANTs, you may have heard of her," said Lady Khushrenada formally. The other woman must be her superior, she would have to thank the older woman later for not mentioning her father.
"Clyne, did you say? You have the same surname as the PLANT Chairman Siegel Clyne," said a man with blond hair.
Lady Khushrenada's posture stiffened; Lacus knew the other woman was reacting to someone pointing out something inconvenient, now the question was, was the older woman going to lie for her or would her loyalty to the Alliance be too strong?
It would only be a matter of time before they found out, and if Lady Khushrenada lied now, then there would be problems down the line for her, so she cut in before Lady Khushrenada could speak, in her best impersonation of an air-head, rich daughter with more money and looks than sense. "Ah yes, Siegel Clyne is my father, do you know him?"
By the looks on everyone's faces, she had succeeded in convincing them she was a complete moron. Maybe seeing this side of their "enemy" would convince them that they were more human with all the flaws of their natural born cousins. Funny how a stupid word at the wrong time could change people's opinions faster than the right word at the right time.
0o0o0o0o0
Lancaster looked at the two ZAFT soldiers, they had been stripped down to their underwear then given fatigues to stop them concealing anything that could help them in an escape. He had also searched some less obvious places but found nothing.
"Name, rank and number, you first," said Lancaster pointing at the woman. He had decided that he may as well interview both at the same time due to not having enough people to guard them, and quite frankly he wanted to get this over with. He wanted to see Lacus, her goddaughter that he had never met, what was she like? How was Relena really doing?
"Iwa Roimata, Lieutenant Commander," said the woman along with a long numeric code, out of the two he expected her to give him the most trouble, looks like she was willing to cooperate, for now, maybe his Imōto could get more out of her.
A LT commander? ZAFT rank structure was unfamiliar not following the normal OZ structure, being a militia, ZAFT combined several ranks to the point where Lancaster could not tell what was going on, everyone seemed to be an officer of some sort. Normally a LT commander was high enough up in the chain that she would have the exec of a ship or be in a HQ. Was she still that valuable? Probably, he would have to pass it on to the Skipper.
Lancaster looked into the eyes of the woman to get an idea of her worth, only to get the impression from her steady return gaze that she had been here before and thought he was doing a poor job of it. She was OZ and was old enough that she could have been in for some time before meteor. So an OZ soldier who knew what a battle was like, had been captured at least once so knew what to expect, and was amused at something Lancaster was doing, or maybe that's what she wanted him to think?
"You," said Lancaster pointing at the boy. He didn't want to linger on the woman too long; the kid might be equally dangerous in his own right, he had once used his youth to his advantage, after all a school kid could not be that much trouble right?
Lancaster waited a moment then looked up, the kid had frozen up, the fight or flight instinct clearly in control, which was his only warning of what the kid tried next.
The kid leapt out of his seat screaming as he lunged at the door guarded by two "marines". He didn't get far as Heero's fist slammed into his gut then pinned him to the sealing. The kid tried to take a desperate swing, but it lacked power and Heero easily caught it in a vice grip that elicited a moan of pain as Heero's artificial hand squeezer.
Lancaster blinked, damn it was just like in the Strike, or back on Artamus where he had lost control. This time it would have been less of an issue, but he had almost broken every bone in the kid's hand. There had been governing software that stopped him from breaking bones, but he had removed it, sometimes at work, he needed to use more power to hold something.
"You should have restrained us," said the woman sounding annoyed.
She was right, he should of, but he thought he could intimidate the prisoners into submission without needing to find out who had the handcuffs, he would not make that mistake again.
"You, get the doc, have a look at the kids hand," said Lancaster pointing to one of his 'marines' whom was really a deckhand he had grabbed and given a gun with an empty mag, trying to hide his loss of control. "and you, get some cable," he said pointing at the 'marines' next to him.
Putting the kid back in his seat, Lancaster took his seat and looked around for his datapad.
"You dropped this," said Roimata
Lancaster grunted as he retrieved his data slate, it was on the standard form for POW he had been using for her information, he had not written his thoughts down so all she had got was her name, rank and number. If she was hoping the data slate contained any useful data, she was wrong, he had picked up a new one before starting the interview as he didn't want anyone to see the programs he had installed or the level of access he had on the one assigned to himself.
Flipping over to the kid's file he found it already filled out
"Lieutenant JG Murphy" was the kid's name, his number was as meaningless as hers but would allow any red cross or 3rd parties to confirm his identity and contact next of kin.
"You're acting rather calm," Lancaster remarked.
"I am not a stupid scared kid, and I know with his Excellency's daughter's word you will not kill Murthy, regardless of how dumb he is," she said.
Lancaster nodded, he didn't want to kill the kid, he was just scared out of his wits, the alliance was not known for being kind to POWs, but he suspected the feeling was mutual.
"What was your mission?" asked Lancaster. He didn't expect an answer, everyone knew the longer you hold out the more likely it was that your interrogator would believe the half-truth you gave when you broke.
"To locate the Sliverwind or if it was lost Lacus Clyne, and return her to the PLANTs, but you guest that already," said Roimata,
"What… are … You... doing?" rasped out Murthy.
"Not being a stupid kid," she said annoyed.
"He has a point, you know how the game works, and I can tell you have been here before," said Lancaster. He had expected her to tell him nothing, which is what he would have done in her situation.
"Because I know who you are, I got transferred to 501st after you left, and as my old boss said you don't have allies but mutual objectives, roamer has it that you have a stake in the safety of our target. But from now on if you want information you have to do something for me," she said smugly.
Lancaster took a moment to answer, he was in trouble. Could he silence this woman? Probably not, the alliance might not blink at him killing this woman, but the crew would and especially his Imōto would take issue. Bribe? What would she want? That was obvious, her targets safe return. Would she plead for her or the kid's freedom? Maybe the kid might be able to be released on medical ground, but he had not hit him that hard. Time to test the water.
"I want to know how many units were involved in your mission," stated Lancaster. it was the only important thing he could think of, sure the alliance probably wanted to know more but he didn't care.
"Telling me why this ship shot up the Silverwind? I know the alliance did it, I thought you were pirates at first because I didn't think the alliance was that stupid," said Roimata as the doctor entered the compartment.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Lancaster. The question didn't make any sense, information was useless to her if she spent time as a POW, even if she broke out it would be out of date and hardly worth the effort.
"Spare me, several dozen Linear rounds, four sledgehammer anti-ship missiles, and a few hundred rounds of CIWS shot at the Sliverwind, and the only warships in the area were two Drakes and their Moebius escorts," she said smugly.
Was she trying to get under his skin, if it was about the Alliance losses it was not working, he didn't care about the Alliance, well maybe most of it. Some of the crew were good people, the Skipper was a good person and if anything happened to Mu it would make his Imoto unhappy. The implications that the Alliance might have been involved with the Silverwinds destruction was more concerning. That was an escalation of the war to involve Sanc. Still, the accusation didn't hold water, he had seen the drakes Roimata was talking about. Whatever had hit those ships had to be equivalent to the main gun of a battleship. What little Sanc had for self-defence lacked that sort of firepower.
"If you're not willing to tell me that then why don't you make another deal, let me have five minutes with Lacus Clyne," said Roimata.
Was that her game? Give him something he could not give then negotiate down to something more reasonable? If it was then he had an out.
"I will have to ask the skipper," he said truthfully. He doubted they could get anything useful out of her but the skipper might want to have a shot.
"You don't have the authority?" asked Roimata, she sounded surprised.
"Negative," said Lancaster as he picked up the wire that the deckhand had brought and tied down the woman's arms. He was going to do the same with the kid but the doctor waved him off.
"The kids got a few broken fingers and I am worried he has a broken rib," said the doc, he sounded upset.
"Sorry," said Lancaster, why did he have such trouble keeping himself from hurting people? Maybe it was better that she didn't see him if he could not control himself, he could not bear it.
"He tried to make to run for it, the Capt. didn't let him get far," said one of the 'substitute Marines' sounding far too pleased with the kid's injuries.
Before Lancaster headed to find the skipper, he made an announcement over the ship-wide to clear the corridor to let the doctor do his work without the crew or passengers harassing his patient.
0o0o0oo0o0o0o
Siegel led his guest to a chair and put the reverend's hand on the chares back to let the man feel his way to the seat. It was a shame, the man's old guide dog, whilst rather unsuited for his role would have let the man be more independent, but sadly it had passed away some years ago and he could not bring himself to get a new dog.
"Thank you, Chairman Clyne," said Reverend Malchio.
"That is quite alright, shall we get down to business?" asked Siegel.
"Certainly, I heard on my way in the council chose to condemn Orb for aiding the Alliance in building weapons on Heliopolis," said Reverend Malchio.
"Yes, the evidence and the sophistication of the weapons being built has the council in an uproar. My military advisers are telling me that we may be forced to declare war on Orb before they retaliate for the loss of their colony; even though all the evidence shows the alliance is at fault. However if at all possible I would like to exhaust all diplomatic options before I contemplate such actions." Said Siegel. He wanted to make it clear how close there were to declaring war on Orb so they didn't stall, he didn't need the distraction right now, he had enough personal distractions as it was.
"The Orb government predicted that the PLANTs council would see the supplying of weapon's to the Alliance as a provocation to war and also wishes to settle the matter peacefully, that is why Chief Representative Athha asked me to help mediate," said Reverend Malchio in a very calm tone
"That is good to hear, has Orb offered any concession or are they expecting us to give them something?" asked Siegel. He was willing to give "compensation" to Orb if it would keep them out of the war despite being in a position to demand concessions from Orb. Orb was a majority Natural nation, but they did have the largest Coordinator population outside the PLANTs so he could not afford to antagonise them or risk getting hit hard in the polls and campaign funding.
"Chief Representative Athha will be assuming full responsibility for the loss of Heliopolis and will be stepping down as chief representative, his brother will be taking on the position as head of the family and the government, he only need to know if such a move is acceptable by the PLANTs," said Reverend Malchio.
Siegel just looked at the Reverend, he had expected Orb to ask for trade agreements, compensation, or some sort of political manoeuvring that would favour Orb, or appease the PLANTs depending on how strong a position the Orb government thought they held. For the government to over through its self, was whilst acceptable, unexpected.
"Chief Representative Athha has no desire to get involved in this war, despite certain members of his government wishes." Explained Reverend Malchio sensing Siegel's disbelief.
"Where's the 'but'?" asked Siegel, there always was a 'but'. It was times like this that he wished he had kept up with Orb politics, but it was a very dynamic subject.
"Chief Representative Athha wishes Orb to be left alone," said Reverend Malchio.
"Chief Representative Athha? Not the Orb government?" said Siegel spotting the "but"
"Yes, there are those who wish Orb to get involved in this war, but they will find it much harder to gain support when the media is crucifying one of their own for the loss of their colony," said Reverend Malchio.
"It's refreshing to meet a man in his position who is willing to fall on his sword to keep the piece," said Siegel wishing that the man didn't need to sacrifice himself for the sake of peace, the ESUN would have never had fallen into such disarray if there had been more men and woman like the Lion of Orb.
"Yes, however, Mr Athha will still hold a great deal of power and influence in the government, and I suspect that whilst his brother may be taking over he be the real power in the Orb Union." Said Reverend Malchio smirking.
"Remind me when the war is over never to play chess with that man," Siegel grimmest. The man had beaten his political adversaries by losing and yet would not suffer any real consequences. What would have happened if he had one and the alliance had got there new mobile suits and ZAFT had not discovered them till it was too late?
Reverend Malchio his smirk grow wider, "you would be wise to polish your game, he beat me one out of four when he was hammering this out."
"I wonder what he is doing to appease the alliance?" asked Siegel sure the man had cut a deal with them.
"I believe they are under the impression that with Mr Athha no longer in power they can gain more influence over Orb, along with access to what records survived the loss of Heliopolis." Said Reverend Malchio.
"The briefing I received from ZAFT made it clear that the only surviving data on the project is on the legged ship that's trying to fight its way back to an Alliance facility." Said Siegel.
"A week ago a Junk Guild ship helped fend off an Alliance attack using a mobile suit that bears a resemblance to the one the Alliance is using, or so my wife tells me, I also believe they were recently expelled from the PLANT after they were involved in a terrorist attack on the Evidence 01." Said Reverend Malchio.
Siegel remembered that attack, someone had tried to shoot up the only know alien fossil, Evidence 01, only being thwarted by another man throwing himself in front of the Evidence 01 to protect it. The junk guild people had been until then bystanders that were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Security had kicked them out of the PLANT because one of them had become involved, it had taken five ZAFT soldiers to get the man off the terrorist who later died in hospital.
"So there is more data and materials from the X weapon project, and some of its made it onto the civilian market, but no doubt most is in Orbs hands, is that an unofficial warning from Orb or an observation on your part?" asked Siegel.
"Unofficial, but it was my wife that spotted the similarities to the alliance weapons and the new toy the Junk guild has found. If I can speculate I believe that Mr Athha wants you to understand whilst he does not want Orb involved in this war if you bring the war to Orb, Orb is not defenceless.
"I would never consider Orb defenceless, two-decade ago they supplied the majority of the UESN peacekeeping force, until they got fed up of their sons and daughters coming home in bits and no one else 'pulling their weight' sins then they have been fiercely isolationist,"
The reverent grimmest "they lost a lot of sons and daughters, I remember, the middle east and part of Africa seemed to be on fire back then, or so my wife tells me, I don't remember that much from back then."
"I am sorry, I didn't mean to remind you of-" started Siegel but he was waved to silence.
"I lost my sight, but found god, I think that's a fair trade, although my hair is another matter, you know I was blond before?" asked Reverend Malchio in jest.
Siegel smiled, Reverend Malchio might not be completely serious, but his attitude was completely different from the Mars pioneer who life was hanging in the balance after getting to close to an out of control fission reactor. The man was an unsung hero who was ready to accept his fate, praising the work of others who had died to save the rest of the pioneers. That man who had multiple run-ins with cancer and who was once told he would be bed bound for the rest of his short life, maybe God was looking out for him, or maybe it was just Relena. That woman had a stubborn streak when she put her mind to it.
"I never got why you wear a black toupee?" asked Siegel only half joking.
"My wife told me she thought I looked better with black hair and that was that," said Reverend Malchio with a smile on his face.
"how is she? It has been too long since she accompanied you here," asked Siegel trying to remember the last time he had seen her.
"She is busy, she finally hired some new staff for the orphanage but I fear she needs to hire some more," said Reverend Malchio.
Siegel reflexively hid a wince, the little orphanage Reverend Malchio and his wife ran only started to take in war orphans from the alliance, and there was far too many that had lost everything.
"Mr Chairman?" came his aid.
"Yes Jurgen?" asked Siegel.
"An admiral Po is trying to call you on a height priority link but your privacy setting won't let her connect, she's very persistent." Said Jurgen apologetically.
Siegel winced, anyone who managed to badger his secretary into interrupting a meeting could be called persistent, along with other things. Po was supposed to be good being in FATH but Patrick disliked her, and not just because she was a natural, they had differences of opinion and Po was not one to keep her opinions to herself. It was only the devastation of ZAFTs peacetime forces that let her climb to the rank of Admiral.
"Excuse me," he said to his guest, the there meeting was turning into a friendly chat.
Sitting down at his desk he took the call only to be faced with a woman under high g acceleration.
"Give me, a minute, sir," gasped the woman. She had some nerve calling him and then asking him to wait, but Siegel was not willing to call her on it yet, carrying on a conversation with someone under acceleration was unwise.
His aid past him over a cup of tea, before helping Reverend Malchio set up a game of chess against a computer opponent. He had found that asking Reverend Malchio to wait outside during calls like this was unfair on his staff who were overworked as it was. Besides, it gave Reverend Malchio a chance to play an opponent at chess that could give him a challenge, unlike Siegel or Lacus who were nowhere near his level.
The acceleration cut off and the woman in her forty slumped back in her chair, "I am sorry sir, things are time critical, I will have to be quick my force will be doing its next burn in 5 minutes once we have cleared the PLANT,"
"That is alright Admiral, what is it you wish to discuss?" Siegel asked, trying to not get annoyed at how over dramatic she was being.
"We have located your daughter. She's alive, but she appears to have been captured by the Alliance. We have a ship in the vicinity, the Natakuo, and have begun efforts to recover her," said the admiral, trying to sound confident.
The cup of tea clattered back down onto the saucer. He had been hoping that the Silverwind was just having problems communicating, the N-jammers and the debris belt playing havoc on radios, but the Alliance, there was only one reason for the Alliance to take an interest in her, to get to him, and someone willing to use a child in such a manner would not be gentle, he had seen that during the eve wars.
"Are... are you sure she's alive. Is she ok?" he asked hoping he didn't sound as desperate as he felt.
"We believe so; I am still gathering reports, but the Alliance retrieved a single escape pod from the Silverwind. Commander Chang is out of contact at this time, but his ship's captain is passing on as much information as he can from his recon pickets. It's not much, some activity around Junius Seven. As for her condition, she is alive, Nataku pinged the pod and confirmed it was her. I can also guarantee that she will not be harmed. Under normal circumstances I would be telling you that her remaining unharmed would be part of the negotiation strategy, however, I have something more solid to work on," said the Admiral, as she sent an image of a man in his mid-30s to the Chairman.
"I am sorry I don't know this man," said Siegel as he tried to recall any briefings he had about individuals Alliance officers.
"His name is Heero Yuy," said the Admiral looking serious. A chess piece when scattering across the floor as Reverend Malchio miss judged his move.
Siegel only new one man by that name, and he died over 40 years ago. His bafflement must have been obvious on his face as the Admiral continued, "I am sorry, you can't have been briefed on that one; you probably know Heero as Zero-one, the pilot of the Gundam Wing Zero during the EVE war,"
"A Gundam" it took him a moment to realise he had said it as the relentless sound of mobile dolls firing and the hum of Epyon's beam sword, over it all Carita screaming in pain as the Sanc Kingdom burned around them. the Memories drown out his senses for a moment before he blocked them. His wife had lived, They had seen a Gundam, and in all the chaos someone had heard his call for help and had saved them, Patrick, a former OZ soldier who had been running away from everything, stopped to dig Carita out of the ruble of there home.
Siegel took several deep breaths and looked at the man, the man who had started the OZ revolution by killing the Alliance leadership by shooting down their unarmed shuttle. The one who had saved the earth by killing Milardo, and destroying Libra. And now the man that held his daughter, the most precious thing to him. Could they stop him? Could they win a war against such a man?
"Admiral Po, thank you for your efforts to retrieve my daughter but I think the situation is not suitable for a military solution, we will begin-" said Siegel but was cut off.
"Sir I disagree, I know the Gundams, I worked with them," said Admiral Po.
"We are talking about a Gundam, it's been made painfully obvious that military solutions to Gundams don't work, we could lose more than my daughter, dear god if the man attacked the PLANTs then there's nothing we can do to stop him," said Siegel.
"Sir I worked with the Gundams, I know how they think Heero in particular, and I can guarantee he will not attack the PLANTs, and he would never harm Relena Peacecraft goddaughter," said Admiral Po.
"I don't understand, I thought the Gundams were hostile to Relena for what happened during the war," said Siegel managing to not come right out and say that 01 had killed Relena's insane brother. Sure the man got what he deserved but he was still Relena's brother, the only living member of her biological family that she had ever met.
Admiral Po smiled in a way that made her look like a 40-year-old school girl about to impart some juicy gossip. "I could tell you stories about your friend that you would never believe, midnight rendezvous, mad headlong charges against overwhelming odds to rescue the princess, the list goes on, one day I hope to write a book about it, but no one would believe me."
Siegel looked hard at the admiral who moments before had been professional and tried to determine why she was slandering his friend, "I will take what you have said under advisement," he said diplomatically.
The admiral lent back, restoring some of her professionalism. "Sir I would consider it a favour if that advisement was Relena Peiscraft herself, she gave up hope that Heero was still alive a year ago."
So she was telling the truth or she wanted to screw up relations with the Sanc Kingdom. He was going to have to look into her record to see why she had a grudge against the Sanc Kingdom.
"Excuse me Chairman Clyne but may I intrude?" said Reverend Malchio with a start Siegel realised Reverend Malchio had been sitting there the whole time, and this was not some jumped up flag officer showing off there rank this was a briefing that needed the security seal on it.
"Yes reverent, go ahead," said Siegel hoping he could distract the admiral from burning retrograde.
"While I do mediate between peoples to help find peaceful solutions, I am also a man of the cloth and have certain duties I perform in such a role, one is bringing comfort to those who need it. I cannot go into detail, however, I can second your admiral's assessment. As a mediator I cannot endorse her recommendation of you telling Relena due to the sensitivity of the matter, instead, I will take this information back to Orb with me and tell Relena myself through more secure means," said Reverend Malchio.
Siegel was about to protest but Admiral Po was nodding, "sir if we want to keep a lid on this we need to not use normal channels. Sanc's security systems are compromised so you can't send a message to Orb to be relayed to Sanc without the Alliance intercepting it. Same goes for a hard copy, any shuttle leaving the PLANTs with Sanc kingdom markings will be intercepted and its contents examined," said Admiral Po.
"Why do we need to keep this information from the Alliance? The man and more importantly Lacus is on board an Alliance warship," said Siegel.
"Because I believe that they don't know Heero is on the Legged ship, and he could be the best chance we have of getting her off without a fight," said Po.
"Explain," demanded Siegel.
"Sir I," A red light came on in the background warming hard acceleration. "forgive me, Sir, I will call you back, we are going to be on hard burn for several minutes," said Admiral Po.
"Very well, but I want a full explanation." Said Siegel.
"Yes Sir," said Admiral Po.
"I can give two reason, why the alliance may not know about Heero," said Reverend Malchio.
"And that is?" asked Siegel.
"First the alliance would be spouting propaganda about how the Gundams were on their side, second ZAFT didn't lose it entire attack force attacking Heliopolis. If he's not with the Alliance and with his close ties to Lacus godmother he might be willing to aid in her rescue," Said Reverend Malchio.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Lacus continued to look bamboozled as the senior officers asked her some questions. Lady Khushrenada would give her an imperceptible nod, so she knew when to answer them truthfully. She, of course, left out that white and green mobile suit which had come to their aid; she didn't want to get that pilot into trouble after all he had done. she was also certain that telling someone about it would make sure she didn't live.
Just as the questioning was coming to an end, the door opened, and four boys about her age fell in the room from where they had been eavesdropping. Behind them, stood a man who bore somewhat of a resemblance to the boy who had helped her out of the escape pod, except his face showed no emotion. The man looked down at the boys, who made apologies before bolting. Her father was right, they were not so different; boys will be boys, speaking of which, the boy who had helped her out of the escape pod was standing further down the corridor, with a shy look on his face. She waved to him, and he shyly smiled back. She wondered why he was fighting, he looked such a nice person; it was hard thinking of him fighting. That was something that was putting a strain on her relationship with Athrun. She knew why he was fighting, but didn't understand it; fighting never solved anything, but telling that to someone who had seen his mother being murdered on the news, was difficult. Her godmother had done her best to explain as she had known several soldiers, despite her somewhat pacifistic philosophy.
Athrun had been so innocent when she had first met him, and had needed all her social etiquette skills to get him to talk, he had been so out of his depth it had been cute, even more so when she had mentioned an interest in his robots project he had been working on as a hobby. the next week he came around he had given her Mr Pink as a gift, she had been thrilled at getting a gift that he had made himself even if she had no clue what to do with it and had spent the next few days learning all she could about it, that had been a good move as he made her Mr Blue next time he had visited, now she had a small army.
"Mam, a word," said the man looking at the most senior woman.
"Very well Captain Lowe," said the woman she had thought was the Captain. However, if this man was the Captain then what rank was this woman? Admiral? if so she was younger than any Lacus had ever seen being in her mid to late twenties rather than her late fifty which was the norm. saying that, all the people on this ship were young with this Captain Lowe being the oldest one being in his thirties, maybe this war had taken a greater toll on the Alliance forcing younger and younger people into a greater responsibility to fill the ranks, this thought sent a shiver down her spine. So many were dying in this war and for what? Her father had offered to negotiate an end to the war but had been refused constantly.
"Well, now since the formal part is over, how is Lenore getting on? You must be seeing a lot of her now your engaged to Athrun," asked lady Khushrenada.
Lacus froze in shock, she didn't know! How did she not know?
"Umm Lady Khushrenada, I uh have something to tell you," started Lacus, how do you tell someone that one of their most precious friends had died one year ago on Juneuse seven.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Finding the skipper was not hard; she was interviewing Lacus Clyne, Relena's goddaughter. It was not hard to work out what room she was in, most of Kira's friends and some of the bridge crew were outside trying to listen in on the interview, Kira was at least being discrete. Of course, the kids had taken an interest in Lacus over the two ZAFT soldiers; neither of the ZAFT troops was young, pretty and pink.
Lancaster was not in the mood for dealing with some immature kids so pressed the door controls using his access code in case the Skipper had locked the door. This caused the kids to fall into the room to the anger of the entire senior staff who glowered at the intrusion. The kids made some excuses and bolted under the combined glare of the senior officers.
Lancaster looked at the skipper and said "Maam, a word," gesturing down the corridor. He made sure he didn't make eye contact with Lacus Clyne, it felt odd, here was someone he would probably know very well if circumstances were different, but he had a mission, and Kira needed protecting, even if the kid had no clue. Maybe he could change that, but he would have to be discreet about it or he could be discovered, logic told him that it was too risky, but his emotions told him to damn logic and they rarely led him astray.
Finding somewhere they would not be overheard the skippers started "What happened Captain?"
"One of the POW, the kid, tried to make a break for it, not a serious attempt, he panicked. Doc is checking him over, maybe a few broken bones in his hand."
"Was that necessary," demanded the skipper. he had been right, silencing the woman would not have gone down well.
"No mam, I failed, it will not happen again," said Lancaster looking away, disgusted with himself. focus, he needed to focus. he fell back on an old standby. what is your mission? Protect Kira, prevent operation meteor at all cost, secondary objective protect Lacus, protect civilians in combat. who is your enemy? those who wish harm on Kira, those attempting to commence operation meteor, those who would harm Lacus Clyne or the civilians onboard this ship. allies, Imalto.
"Were you able to find out anything?" asked the skipper gently
"The woman, LC Iwa Roimata she wants to make a trade for information," said Lancaster
"A trade? That's unusual" said the Skipper.
"Affirmative, she first wanted to know why we attacked the Sliverwind, but when I was unable to answer she instead asked to talk to Lacus," said Lancaster.
"That brings up a more pressing matter, Lacus confirmed that the Silverwind was attacked by two drakes, at first
it was the normal harassment the Alliance is giving Sanc shipping for defying the trade embargo, but when they found Lacus was onboard they insisted she was handed over. The crew refused. At some point, they shoved her into an escape pod and a few days later we found her." said the skipper, it was her turn to look away.
This was a major escalation with Sanc, he had not wanted to believe that the Alliance could have been involved. The Alliance would see this as the Sanc kingdom aiding their enemy, an act of war. Sanc would see this as an atrocity and demand justice, the Alliance would never give them such.
Sanc could not go to war, they were unarmed and surrounded on all sides by the Alliance. The Alliance wound have no qualms and going to war if they felt they could politely, they had already done that to the USSA and the Africa Community.
"If you feel you cannot continue piloting the strike because of this, I understand," she said still not raising her gaze.
"You don't have anyone else who could pilot the strike," he pointed out
Lacus would also not be safe, the Alliance had destroyed a neutral civilian ship in an attempt to kidnap her. She would not be allowed to leave with the Orb civilians.
"We would manage, I could ask Kira," said the skipper
"No!" Heero did not care how angry he sounded.
"Sorry, I know you don't want to see those kids involved, I just want to make sure you know you're not irreplaceable. If you want to quite you can go back to being with the civilians, the fleet is coming to pick us up, first elements will be here in 4 days, we can hold ZAFT off till then."
The fleet was coming to get them? no one had told him, had something came in since he had left. The times involved ment that the fleet must be in high orbit or coming from the moon.
"And what happens to her?" asked Lancaster.
"Right now, she's a civilian; I plan to keep her separated from the others for now, judge how the other civilians take to her. I should assign a guard but we don't have the manpower. after the fleet gets here" she shrugged helplessly. "The communication I had with the fleet on Luna was one-way and brief, so I could not ask for guidance."
and if he read between the lines that is the way she would like to keep it on the matter.
Lancaster was going to ask if she wanted him to guard Lacus when his Imauto shot passed, water droplets following her.
Mu was behind her and trying to keep up. "It's ok, explain later," he said in that voice that Lancaster had put down as cheerful, I am in control, don't worry, there is a hull breach.
0o0o0o0o0o
Wufei left the airlock carefully, no one had seen him yet, and his ZAFT greens was too conspicuous, he needed to find some knew cloves, fast, but until then he needed to gather intelligence. He rarely went in this blind, people thought that Special Forces did there ops by the skin of their teeth, they didn't every move was planned and rehearsed.
Pulling out his data slate Wufei plugged it into a terminal and started to rifle through the ship's systems on the network. Getting into the ship's systems as a user was simple but it didn't give him access to much, apparently, the ship didn't use a standard OS so most his patch's and emulators just gave him blue screens.
Cursing his luck as he scanned the dimly lit corridor he was in, it was crew quarters by the number of rating bunks that branched off. The lights were at there nighttimes which made no sense, alliance ships worked on GMT like ZAFT so it should be about late afternoon. Could it be an unoccupied part of the ship? Unlikely ZAFT intelligence believed that the Alliance didn't have a manpower problem, rather, they had more volunteers than they knew what to do with, so the ship should be fully crewed. Would not be the first time Intel was wrong.
Deciding he needed to find out if ZAFT was close to wiping out the manpower disparity, Wufei took a chance and picked the lock of one of the sailors' chests. It was full of the normal detritus that sailors always seemed to take with them; photos of family, a proud mother and father standing to either side of a boy in his naval bests; photos of a girl 15/16, in various poses, with friends or on her own; most featured the boy as well; books, mostly fantasy, some comics, porn, a handheld console, and, most importantly, a camcorder.
You were not supposed to keep any unofficial accounts of your time in the military, in case it fell into enemy hands, but soldiers always kept something, so Wufei ejected the memory card and made a quick copy on his slate. There was nothing else of military value so he used photos he had taken with his slate's camera when going through the chest; to set everything back exactly the way it had been. It was an old trick that meant you didn't misplace anything which could tip off your presence, and this bunk was not vacant, despite its appearance. The occupant of this bunk might smell a rat if his stuff was messed up, even if nothing was missing.
Wufei did a quick inventory, he had gained little for the risk, this section of the ship had occupants but he had no explanation for the current lack of them, which meant he had to move on to a more remote part of the ship before he was discovered. He still had far too many unknown, where was Lacus? Where were his people? Where was the enemy? Where could he find an Alliance uniform that no one would miss? Where could he plant demo charges to destroy the ship? He didn't even know where the bridge was.
His thought was interrupted with an all hands broadcast, "All hands all hand this is Captain Lowe, clear all passageways between the brig and sickbay," said Heero? Heero Yuy? What in the colonies was Heero doing here? Wufei had known that the man was still alive, Sally had told him of Heero's last mission after she had recruited him to the ZAFT commandos, but of all the times he could have wandered into another Gundam pilot in the last 15 years this was the worst.
Then it hit Wufei, any plans he might have made was now gone, he needed to get out of sight fast and he didn't have time to play ninja in the shadows. He needed to go hard and fast whilst miss directing everyone and keep Heero from knowing he was on board until it was too late.
Wufei went back to the kid's locker and broke the lock with his boot then grabbed everything valuable including one complete uniform. He then tipped the chest over on its side, grabbed the can of shaving foam and used it to write graffiti on the remaining cloves and bed sheets, the kid was really going to hate him, but the kid was Alliance so not his problem.
Wufei changed from his ZAFT greens to the uniform quickly and stuffed his greens along with all the stolen items into a laundry bag. With no further use for anything with a ZAFT logo on it, he went back to the airlock and cycle everything apart from his slate out into space, using his hacks to hide his presence.
Wufei now needed to move on or be caught as a vandal, the question was where? He had entered near the front of the ship so logically he needed to scout to the rear, get an idea of the ship's layout. However there were still limitations to where he could go, his uniform was that of the engineering crew, so wondering onto the bridge would draw attention. He would also have to avoid Heero, there was no way the other man would not recognize him. Other than that he should be safe being low rank meant he was just a face in the crowd. The FNG look had worked better when he was 15 as he looked too old to be a FNG, but there was always some old guy who joined the lower ranks, so it held up, just not as well.
Deciding that he needed to head aft, Wufei soon came across lit passage's that looked like officer quarters, only to be nearly bowled over by a large red-haired woman. He almost made a sexist remark that would have had Sally slap him but it died in his chest almost followed by his hart. His Mei Mei barrelled off down the corridor not even noticing him and barely able to say sorry for nearly bowling him over before entering an officers' cabin.
Wufei was so fix sated on the woman that he didn't notice the platinum blond man use him as a handhold before chasing after Wufei's Mei Mei. For a moment he thought it was that Zecks copycat Le Creuset but the lack of silly mask made him realise it wasn't the fashion-impaired commander of the Vesalius.
Interesting times, indeed.
0o0o0o0o0
"I need to talk to Kira," said Maremma, She had finally calmed down after being told about her friend's death. Mu didn't know much about Lenore other than she was a friend that Maremma had made during her medical internship but by her complete loss of composer a very close one. He doubted she had lost it as bad on hearing her father had died, maybe for the Gundams. The only other thing he knows about Lenore was the last name Zala, he would not be sharing that as people would not understand how higher society worked, apart from the XO.
"Not in your state, give it a few minutes, you had a big shock there," said Mu comfortingly, as he put his hand on her shoulder. He was one of the few who could touch her so familiarly, not as much as a pubescent teenager would have liked, but she had reasons and he respected them. Mu didn't know why Maremma needed to talk to Kira but whatever she had to say could wait until she was more settled.
"Yes, your right, but I still need to talk to him, he and Lenore's son were close," she said rubbing her face to hide the tears that were still flowing.
"I will be there when you talk to him," said Mu.
"Thanks, it's not going to be easy." She said folding her hand in her lap.
Mu watched her for a minute as she composed herself, then without warning, she slammed a fist into her bedside display. "Why do we put up with this, you know how the Alliance has killed more of my friends than ZAFT. How much longer till I get one of those sad letters telling me my mother has been killed by some master strategy by people living in a fantasy world where we can win this pointless war?"
Mu sighed, "same reason soldiers always have, for the man or woman next to them, the propaganda tells stories of heroes who gave their life for the cause, real patriarchs. The common grunts, real people, its home, friend and family, same for the 16-year-old ZAFT PFC."
"How can you say that after Endymion, a Cyclops System just so happen to go off under the battle, or should I say kill zone, how many friends did you lose that day to our 'own side'. I never understood why Hee- Lancaster always asked 'who is your enemy' until now." Maremma said looking at him in the eyes.
Mu was silent for a long moment, remembering his friends, his comrades, and a woman who might have been more than a one night stand. "Because we are grunts, a number on a spreadsheet that some officer under the Alaskan ice needs to work out how to feed, where to berth and were to throw into the grinder. I gave up a long time ago that I could affect the big picture, I am no Gundam. I just do what I can for the little guy, the ones that are just numbers to others."
"All it takes is one foolish man to change the world," said Maremma as if she was quoting someone.
"Who's that from?" asked Mu.
"Oden Lowe, I told you about him, an ex-SF soldier turned gun for hire, no deed to his name, one illegitimate son who he only ended up meeting because of the boy's mother's death.."
"The man who assassinated Heero Yuy. An event that spiralled into the EVE wars," said Mu. Remembering one of her stories. Now lent credence by their mobile suit pilot. She did this sometimes, leave clues in some of her stories that linked together in ways that partly match the history books, but changed it in such a way as to make heroes into villains and villains into heroes. She had almost made him fail a test at school because he had put down that the assassination of Vice-Foreign Minister Darlian was carried out by OZ, not colonial rebels. That was when he had started to ignore the tails for the flight of fancy they were. What was it she had said about Oden Lowe's son, he had gone on to greater things, if so he didn't see it, maybe it was a subtle hint at her origins.
"What would have happened if he had taken the assassination plot to the authorities? This war might never have even started. My dad would have been some eccentric who like to philosophise about war, shunned by the media for being a barbarian. You keep looking after the little guy, I am going after the big guys who are killing my friends, and damn near killed my family, who started a war over the choices other people make for their children." Said Maremma.
"This is not a new thing is it, wanting to be your father's daughter, taken over the world again?" accused Mu. Maremma winced.
"Believe me I have thought about what you want to do, those nights when their faces keep me awake, but no. Get those who hurt us? Do you even know who they are? Do you think they would let you near them? Blue cosmos, let's not pretend they are not the ones pulling the strings, leave people that inconvenience them in shallow graves and brand them as martyrs for their cause. I will add that this whole conversation could get you branded as a traitor, and no I am not going to the thought police." Said Mu.
Maremma looked at the floor for a long moment going over his words, hopefully seeing the logic, finally, she said, "Maybe I can't but I know who can."
"If you say our mobile suit pilot then, no, the more I get to know him and the more you talk about him, the more I get the feeling he's a live hand grenade and I don't see a pin. If we were not so short staffed I would ground him and dump him on medical." Said Mu.
"You're right to think of him as such, I think he's been like that for some time, but I was too young to understand and no, I don't want him getting involved, but there are others." Said Maremma.
"Others? Are we playing 20 questions, or-"
"Gundams." Said Maremma
Mu blinked at the answer, "are you feeling ok, I know you just took a big hit but they died what 16 years ago, I know you always had hoped but they found body's for at least 2, and the others were vaporised by large-scale ordnance that bordered on overkill."
She just smiled, "first it was one body and an arm, and whilst the body was genetically matched to 03, 03 was a man, and the body had a Y chromosome, so either there's a story about gender I was too young to understand at the time or it was his sister. Then there's the man who called the former foreign minister away at the lunar conference."
"The lunar conference? I saw the interview, Doralen said she could not remember who had called her, and the doctors backed her up with the sort of scans I am sure you understand." Said Mu
She smiled in a knowing way. "Relena had a rudimentary phone tap to record her calls, normally when some reporter who had got her number and wanted an impromptu interview. It was found near her, damaged and the team investigating believed it was of no consequence so gave it back. It was 02, he called her to let her know about the attack, only really heard the first bit, she must have dropped it. Don't tell Lancaster, he knew the Gundams and 02 owed him a lot of money for something, and by owing I mean he stole it from Lancaster and said he would pay him back."
Mu just stared in horror, she actually thought she could take on Blue Cosmos or whoever it was that was behind the war, and that the Gundams were alive and would help.
"You can have a go at talking me out of world domination later, now I need to help the little guy, coming?" asked Maremma.
"You know, I am reconsidering my little guy mentality in favour of finding a hole to hide in until the second Maremma rebellion is over," said Mu getting up and proffering a hand to his friend and hopefully not the next dictator of the earth and all her colonies.
0o0o0o0o0o
A/N
Well, I am back… Been working on this for a long time, then had to put it on hiatus whilst my job situation stabilised. Stay tuned as things go off the rails, not Astray that's for another story.