HeavyarmsBuster-01: Thanks for the review. I have decided on pairings. It will be Kira/Lacus and Flay/OC. In fact, I'm gonna completely removed the Flay/Kira romance that's in the first half of the series.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed.

Phase Two: It's Name: Gundam

January 25 C.E. 71

Morgenroete Factory District

Heliopolis

As the flames consumed the warehouse, three mobile suits emerged from the ruined building. Their movements were slow and shaky, like the machines were being operated by trainees piloting a mobile suit for the first time.

The Aegis pulled away from the other two machines as a pair of GINNS landed nearby the three Gundams.

Chris watched his aunt struggle to operate the mobile suit. Though he knew they were still in danger, he couldn't help but feel concerned about Kira, Liz and the others.

"Damn. They still haven't perfected the OS yet. How did they ever expect this thing to be combat ready with this OS?" Johanna said in frustration.

Chris couldn't help be agree with her. The operating system was clearly of an inferior design. Which was very bad for them, if those GINNs decided to attack.

Suddenly, a woman's voice came over the radio. "Pilot of the Raven, identify yourself."

"This is Johanna Dante of Morgenroete. Lt. Ramius? Is that you?"

"Yes." Lt. Ramius answered. "It's good to see that you managed to survive and get that machine out of there."

"Is Kira with you?" she asked.

"The boy? Yes, he's here."

'Thank god.' Chris thought to himself.

He had lost enough friends because of this war.

"Good." Johanna said. "Now listen to me Lt. Ramius, the OS still isn't ready for a Natural like you and myself, to pilot. Allow Kira to pilot the machine."

"What?!" both he and Lt. Ramius said in disbelief.

"Kira's a Coordinator, just like my nephew. They should been able to better handle these machines than we can at the moment."

"What?!" he said again.

"I can not allow a civilian to pilot a top secret machine." Ramius replied.

Suddenly, the two GINNs holstered their rifles, pulled out their swords and started running at them while the Aegis flew off.

Johanna quickly pushed a button on the console, activating the Raven's Phase Shift armor. It's dull gray body turned to midnight blue with red trim. One of the GINNs raised it's sword over it's head. She barely managed to raise the Raven's shield cannon to block the sword strike and push back the GINN.

"Dammit." Johanna cursed. "We don't have much time Murrue. It's the only way to save these two machines."

Johanna then moved out of the seat and said in voice that allowed for no argument, "Get in."

Chris quickly sat and began to experiment with the controls, all the while thing, 'What the hell am I doing in this thing?'

"You probably gonna have to rewrite the OS to better accommodate a Coordinator like yourself." she said.

"Oh great." he mumbled to himself as he began rewrite the system.

But the GINN wasn't about the time to do it. It lunged at him with it's sword. Chris barely sidestepped the attack.

"Dammit. I need more time." he said as he continued to type away while keeping an eye on the GINN.

GINN swung it's sword again and again at him. But each time, he dodged the blows. And Chris noted, that the machine's movements as well as his own reactions were becoming quicker and smoother. The mobile suit's movements weren't perfect but definitely better than it was earlier. The pilot of the GINN was clearly getting angry as his swings were getting wilder and wilder. Making it easier for him to avoid the attacks and rewrite the OS.

"This will have to do for now." he said to himself as he finished his typing.

He hadn't completely rewritten the OS, but he didn't have the time to do that while dodging attacks. But it was enough for him to properly pilot the machine without too much difficultly.

The GINN swung it's sword in a downward arc. He sidestepped it and punched the GINN's head, sending it falling to the ground.

Chris took this momentary stop in the fighting to check on the machine's computer for it's weapons.

'Let's see..."Igelstellung" 75mm anti-air vulcan guns, beam sabers, and a dual 52mm hyper velocity shield cannon. Hmm...Mobile Armor Mode. I don't think I'll be trying that one today.'

The GINN quickly got back onto it's feet. He could imagine that the ZAFT pilot was getting pretty pissed by now. The GINN charged at him, it's sword pulled back. The GINN pilot clearly wanted to destroy him and this mobile suit.

'Well, let's try the Igelstellungs'

Chris squeezed the trigger and the two head mounted Igelstellungs fired. The rounds did nothing to the GINN's armor but they did catch the pilot off guard and he stopped his charge.

The GINN sheathed it's sword, drew it's rifle and fired. Rounds struck the mobile suit, violently shaking it but the armor held.

'Wow. This thing's armor must be quite strong if it can take bullets from a mobile suit rifle without any real damage. Let's see what this thing can do.'

He raised the machine right arm, with it's arm mounted cannon and fired. A pair of energy shots streaked towards the GINN.

Unfortunately, the cannon's calibration was off. The first shot missed entirely while the second shot severed the GINN's right arm at the elbow. The GINN staggered back a feet steps and took off into the air, fleeing Heliopolis.

Suddenly, there was a loud, nearby explosion. Chris looked around and spotted the Strike stumbling backwards from an explosion.

"KIRA!" he shouted.

To his relief, the Strike stayed standing and appeared to be relatively undamaged. The only sign of the other GINN was flaming wreckage strewn around the ground.

"Lt. Ramius, Kira, are you two alright?" Johanna asked over the comm.

"I'm fine." Kira replied. "But that woman's injured and unconscious."

"Okay." she said. "There's a park not far from here. We'll go there and regroup. Got it?"

"Got it." Kira replied.

Johanna then put her hand on Chris's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?"

For the first time, he realized that he was breathing heavily, sweating buckets and he had a deathgrip on the controls. He felt a little light-headed and scared but at the same time, he had this lingering sense of excitement, like he had just gotten off an intense amusement park ride. He let go of the controls and watched his hands slightly tremble for a moment.

He couldn't help but wonder how they had survived that battle. This was his first time in a mobile suit and yet he had managed to beat a trained ZAFT pilot while rewriting part of the OS.

His hand reached up and wrapped a hand around his grandfather's dogtags. His grandfather had always said that these dogtags were lucky and would protect the wearer. Before, he had passed it off as has his grandfather being superstitious. Now, he wasn't so sure.

He nodded. "I'll be alright."

"Hey, what's this machine's name?"

"It's the GAT-X305 Raven." Johanna answered. "And the machine that Kira is in is the GAT-X105 Strike."

"The Raven huh? So you made this thing?"

"Yes. But at the moment, I can't tell you much else. This is all suppose to be top secret."

"Is uncle Nick apart of this as well?"

The second he asked that, he regretted it. A pained look spread across her face.

"He's dead."

"Wh-what?"

"A ZAFT soldier shot him." she answered, the pain evident in her voice.

Chris hung his head in sorrow. This damned war had claimed another person he cared about.

"Come on. We have to go. We can mourn later." Johanna said in a reassuring tone.

He gripped the controls again and moved the machine towards the park.

When they reached the park, both the Strike and the Raven knelt down and deactivated their Phase Shift armor and their cockpits opened up. At the same time, much to both Chris's and Johanna's surprise, Liz, Tolle, Sai, Miriallia,and Kuzzey arrived.

"What are you guys doing here?!" Chris shouted as he and Johanna climbed out of the Raven while Kira climbed out of the Strike. "You're suppose to be in the shelters!"

As soon as he reached the ground, he rushed over and embraced his little sister in a hug. He usually wasn't the type for this kinda thing but thought of his sister out there in the middle of a battle, had scared him half to death.

"Sorry brother." Liz said. "But when got outside, we kinda ended up in the middle of a battle between you and those GINNs."

"You guys were amazing! And those machines were awesome!" Tolle shouted like a kid in a candy store. "Where'd those machines come from? And-"

"Can we save the questions for later? Johanna interrupted. "There's an injured person in the cockpit of the Strike and I'm gonna need some help carrying her out of the cockpit."

"What do you want us to do?" Kira asked.

"Kira, you, Tolle, and Sai, will help me get her out of the cockpit. Chirs, I want you to get back in the Raven and finish rewriting the OS. ZAFT may have left, but it's likely that they'll be back and you and Kira are the only ones who can pilot these machines. And once we get Lt. Ramius out of the cockpit, I want to do the same."

"Actually, I finished rewriting the OS already."

"What? Wow. That's amazing. I knew you Coordinators had impressive abilities but...wow." Johanna said in amazement.

"What about the rest of us?" Mir asked.

"Just stay out of the way for now." Johanna answered. "Okay, let's get to it."

Chris climbed back into the Raven's cockpit while Kira and the others went about their tasks.

Chris sighed as he sat down and pulled out the keyboard. He knew Kira was good at computers but the fact that he had completely rewritten the Strike's OS while under attack no less was unbelievable. He doubted that most Coordinators could do that.

He resumed rewriting the OS. He had to admit, this machine was impressive. And he was kinda curious about the full extent of the Raven's abilities. He almost wished that ZAFT would launch another attack just so he could see it's abilities.

Keyword there being 'almost'. If ZAFT did attack again, it would only endanger Heliopolis and it's people.

A short while later, Johanna climbed into the Raven's cockpit.

"How's it coming?" she asked.

"Almost done." he replied. "How's the Lieutenant?"

"We treated her wound as best as we could. She's still unconscious though."

"So what now?" he asked.

"Well, the Strike is low on power from it's battle, so I'm gonna go see if I can find a transport trucks with one of the Striker Packs for the Strike."

"Striker Packs?"

"Basically, armament and a battery recharge for the Strike." Johanna replied. "Unlike the Raven, the Strike has few build in weapons. Instead, it can become equipped with various different weapon packs. Allowing the machine to serve multiple roles on a battlefield. The Raven on the other hand was designed primarily for space and atmospheric combat."

"Wow. That sounds quite impressive."

"Yes, the Strike is easily the most impressive and powerful of the prototypes we made. But I always preferred the Raven and the Aegis."

"The Aegis?"

"That was the third machine in the warehouse."

"Oh. What's so special about this machine and that one?"

A grin spread across Johanna's lips. "They both transform into mobile armors. When I was a child, I always loved the idea of a transforming robot. In fact, that's one of the reasons I fought to save the Raven from being scrapped after the accident."

"There was an accident?"

"Yes. Early in the construction of the Raven, there was an accident. Half of the crews working on it had died or were seriously injured. Afterwards, the higher-ups wanted to scrap the Raven and focus on the other units. Myself and some of the others that had been working on these machines had decided that we shouldn't discard the Raven just because of the accident. We argued that the Raven had for the most part, survived the accident and could be salvaged and that by abandoning it, all those who died would have died in vain. Eventually, they agreed to allow us to finish it."

"Hey, there is one that's bothering about this whole thing."

"What?" she asked.

"Why did ZAFT attack us? Orb is neutral. Even if it was developing new weapons, that still isn't a reason to violate the treaty and attack Heliopolis."

"We violated the treaty." she said.

Chris instantly stopped typing. "What?!"

"We worked on these machines with the Earth Alliance. That injured lieutenant is an EA officer."

"Why would the Orb government do that? They wanted to stay out of war."

Johanna shrugged. "Don't ask me. I'm not a politician, I just build these things."

Chris had never met the Lion of Orb, but his grandfather had on several occasions and always spoke highly of him. Athha had always spoken of maintaining Orb's neutrally, yet if he authorized building these mobile suits with the EA, than how could Orb stay neutral? What reason did he have for violating the treaty like that?

"Well, I'm going now. I'll be back in a little while." Johanna said as she climbed out of the cockpit. "Let's hope that ZAFT has decide to leave rather than risk further damage to the colony by trying to capture these to machines."

He resumed his typing. He wondered what would happen now. These machines were clearly top secret and he doubted that the authorities would just let all of them walk away after seeing these things, and in the case of Kira and himself, pilot these mobile suits. Though his aunt did work for Morgenroete, so that may help them out a little bit. Maybe she'd be able to convince them to let Liz and the others go, while he and Kira would help them make a better OS for these machines.

When he finished rewriting the OS, Chris decided to climb out of the Raven. As he stepped out of the cockpit, there was a gunshot followed by the EA officer yelling, "Get out of those machines!"

Deciding that he was not about to argue with an armed military officer, Chris quickly climbed down the Raven as Tolle and Kuzzey who had standing on the Strike, climbed down.

"Stop! What are you going?!" Kira shouted. "They helped get you of the cockpit and tended to wound."

"I am grateful for your help." the Lieutenant said. "But these two machines are part of a top secret military project. It isn't something civilians should be allowed to touch carelessly."

"Ah c'mon. Kira and Chris were piloting those things not to long ago." Tolle said.

She ignored Tolle and motioned with her gun for everyone to get together in one group. Which they quickly did.

"Now tell me your names." she ordered.

"Kuzzey Buskirk."

"Sai Argyle."

"Miriallia Haw."

"Tolle Koenig."

"Elizabeth Dante."

"Chris Dante."

Kira defiantly glared at her for a moment. "Kira Yamato."

"Lt. Murrue Ramius. I'm an officer of the Earth Alliance." Lt. Ramius said. "I'm sorry to tell you this, I can not allow any of you to leave."

"What?!" was everyone's response, expect for Chris, who had already expected this.

"As I said, you have been exposed to a military secret and until I can reach the proper authorities and they can determine what to do with all of you, I can not allow you to leave my sight."

"We're citizens of Orb. You can't boss us around." Tolle said definitely.

Chris shook his head. "In case you haven't noticed Tolle, she's got a gun. So you probably shouldn't antagonize her."

"You should listen to him. It will make things easier on everyone." Lt. Ramius said. "Now, where is Johanna Dante?"

"She left, saying that she was going to find one of the Striker Packs for the Strike." Chris answered.

"Good. That will speed things up a bit." she said as she lowered her gun. "Okay, Chris, Kira, I want one of you to get back in one of the mobile suits and get on the radio and try to contact any surviving members of the Earth Forces in Heliopolis."

"I'll do it." Chris said. "The Raven has more power than the Strike does at the moment."

He climbed back into the cockpit of the Raven. He sat down and started up the mobile suit.

"This is the GAT-X305 Raven. Any members of the Earth Forces still in Heliopolis, please respond." he said over the radio.

No response. So he tried again. Again no response. He couldn't help but wonder if there were any Earth Forces left alive in Heliopolis. He tried a few more times with no success.

He turned off the machine and stepped out of the cockpit. "I can't get anything! Either we're being jammed or...there's no one left to here my calls!"

"Alright then, you can come down! We'll try again a little later!" Lt. Ramius replied.

As he climbed back down, a large truck pulling trailer pulled up. The truck stopped near the Strike and his aunt stepped out.

"Lt. Ramius, it's good to see you're up." she said as she walked towards them. "I got the Launcher Striker."

"Good. Let's get this thing hooked up." Ramius said.

"Kira, get back in the Strike while I get the Launcher Striker ready for you." Johanna said as she back to the truck.

She stepped back into the cab of the truck. She pushed a button on the dashboard. The trailer folded open revealing the Launcher Striker.

"Kneel down with the Strike's back facing in the side of trailer."

Kira followed her orders, bring the Strike next to the trailer.

"Okay. I'm gonna mount the entire unit on the-"

A loud explosion from above, interrupted her. Everyone looked up. There was a ball of fire coming from a part of the central shaft of Heliopolis. A ZAFT CGUE emerged from the fireball, followed by an EA Moebius Zero.

"Chris! Get in the Raven now!" Johanna shouted.

The second he had seen the ZAFT machine, Chris had already started running to the Raven. He quickly climbed into the machine and turned it on as Johanna started to mount the Launcher Striker on the Strike.

During this, the CGUE sliced off part of the barrel of the Moebius's gun, rendering it helpless and now had it's eye set on the Strike and the Raven.

Chris aimed the Raven's arm cannon at the CGUE and opened fire. But CGUE effortlessly dodged every shot as it flew towards them.

'Damn. This guy is good. Gonna have to try something different or we're all gonna die. Well, let's see what this thing can do in the air.'

The Raven leapt into the air, it's thrusters blazing. Chris fired it's cannon at the CGUE as it flew away from where the Strike was. He had to distract the ZAFT machine long enough for the Launcher Striker to be mounted on the Strike and for Liz and the others to get away from the area.

And sure enough, the CGUE turned and began to fire at him as it dodged the energy shots.

'Yes, follow the little birdie. Don't worry about the defenseless machine on the ground.'

Chris honestly didn't know how long he could hold out by himself against this machine. The pilot was clearly an experienced ace and he on the other hand, was piloting a mobile suit for the second time.

Rau Le Creuset was beginning to become annoyed. Athrun had reported that not only had the Strike stayed in the hands of the Earth Forces but that the supposedly scrapped seventh machine had been built and was still in their hands. He had rendered that pest, Mu La Flaga, defenseless and had been about to destroy the two deactivated mobile suits, when the seventh machine, the GAT-X305 Raven if he recalled correctly, came online and started firing at him and trying to draw him away from the other machine. Which the Raven's pilot had succeed in doing. After all, he couldn't exactly destroy the Strike while that other active mobile was firing at him. Rau had to admit that the pilot had some skill, but he was clearly a rookie pilot.

"You're pretty good with a gun but let's see how you fair against a sword." he said as he switched from the CGUE's rifle to it's sword.

Chris heard over the radio, "You're pretty good with a gun but let's see how you fair against a sword."

The CGUE suddenly switched from it's gun to it's sword and charged. Chris quickly fired the arm cannons at the ZAFT machine, but it sidestepped every shot as it rocketed towards him.

At the last second, Chris blocked the sword with the shield part of the Raven's cannon while it's left hand reached for the beam saber on the right side of it's waist.

He drew the saber, activated it and slashed at the CGUE, but it quickly parried the blow with it's own sword.

Chris swung again and again at the CGUE. Every time, it effortlessly dodged, sidestepped, blocked or parried his attacks. While when ever it attacked, Chris barely did the same.

'Damn. This guy is really good. At this rate, unless Kira can lend me a hand, I'm not gonna last much longer.'

Elsewhere

Aboard the Archangel

Lt. Natarle Badgiruel and the handful of crew members that currently currently had made up the bridge crew of the Archangel rushed to get the Archangel online. They had been attacked by ZAFT. The captain, the command crew, the G-Pilots, and majority of the crew that had been outside the Archangel when the bombs when off, were dead. And they had no idea what was going on outside of the hanger.

"All systems are green. We're ready to go." Chandra reported.

Unfortunately, there was no way for them to open the hanger doors, if they were even still operational. So they were gonna have to a make a door.

"Take us out, maximum speed." Lt. Badgiruel ordered. "When the ship reaches maximum speed, fire the Lohengrins."

A minute later, as the Archangel neared the hanger doors, the two powerful Lohengrin cannons fired. Destroying the doors in a massive explosion.

Elsewhere

Everyone heard and felt the explosion. Everyone stopped and looked up. There a massive fireball tearing through a part of Heliopolis. They all watched as the Archangel flew through the fireball.

'First a ZAFT attack, now this. What else is gonna happen today?' Chris thought.

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