Okay here's the second chapter of this story. I was really rushing to pump at least one more chapter out before I slowed down with production of this story.
On an unrelated note if anyone's wondering, many of my other major stories are still on hold because I PC is still broken, this story I'm writing on my phone which means less refined spelling and grammar, but I can keep writing it
Disclaimer: I don't own gundam seed or wing
Heero wasn't sure what to make of the scene in front of him as he carried the escape pod with him through the debris belt, it was odd enough that the ruins didn't look like any place he could have known of but now he was seeing numerous paper flowers floating through the air.
The sight in and of itself begged the two questions of who made them and why, considering this was the ruin of a destroyed colony it was likely safe to guess that the paper flowers were part of some kind of memorial service, while that would answer that latter question the former one was still something of mystery.
Considering the paper flowers appeared once Heero began coming relatively close to where the latest signal was located there was a fair chance it was the crew of whatever vessel the teen pilot was headed towards along with his guest in tow.
If that crew was out here to perform a memorial service then logic would dictate that their ship had to be civilian one, if that was the case Heero had to at least convince them to get Lacus on board' she couldn't just stay in the escape pod forever, if there was no room on the vessel to store Wing Zero, Heero could just follow the vessel towards whatever destination it was due for.
Whatever the case was Heero wouldn't find out until he arrived and came upon whatever ship in question was here. Luckily that didn't take long as soon enough Heero caught sight a massive white and red ship that looked nothing like any vessel that Heero had ever encountered in his life, from what he could tell it was clear this ship was definitely military if the various armaments were anything to go by.
In front of the ship were numerous people standing in an organized formation with their eyes closed in a pose that suggested silent prayers for the deceased which confirmed Heero hunch that the crew was indeed performing a memorial service.
The thing that stood out the most however was a mobile suit standing just behind the crew members. The unit in question was mostly white in terms of color scheme with a dark blue chest and red torso. The shape of its head was relatively humanoid with a four pronged V fin, two yellow colored eye sensors, and a mouth plate with two gaps rowed vertically, overall the mobile suit had the appearance of a gundam.
How was that possible? It wasn't one of the gundams belonging to one of his fellow gundam pilots and it wasn't the Epyon.
Was it an eighth unit? But why would one be created at all let alone now of all times? The eve wars were over, in fact from what Heero had heard three of his fellow gundam pilots Duo, Quatre, and Trowa were actually planning on disposing of theirs since the world was at peace. Wufei had disappeared and no one had any idea what he planned to do.
In terms of weapon loadout it appeared to be geared towards general purpose with the with addition of amplified mobility, it was armed with a beam rifle and shield and from what else Heero could see there was two beam saber handles mounted to a backpack which was the very thing that gave the machine its extra mobility, on the sides of its head with small gunbarrels which Heero surmised served the same purpose as vulcans.
Before Heero could contemplate this any further the crew took notice of him as he was approaching with many of them appearing to panic.
Seeing where this situation could possibly go if he didn't dispel any unnecessary conclusions the officers could jump to Heero quickly switched to an open frequency. "Attention, this is Heero Yuy, I stumbled upon an escape pod containing a civilian, I request permission to come aboard."
Heero didn't receive an immediate response, from what he saw from his secondary cameras a couple of the officers looked as if they were debating or perhaps arguing on what they were going to do.
Eventually those same officers began reboarding their ship before a hatch just above each of the front ends of the ship opened up.
The other mobile suit moved to enter the right hatch before Heero finally received a response. "This is Murrue Ramias, acting captain of the Archangel, you have permission to board, please come in through the opposite hatch of the one our mobile suit unit, we'll meet you in the hangar to further discuss this."
"Roger that and thank you." With that Heero began heading toward the indicated entrance relieved that this did escalate into a hostile situation.
He didn't know the capabilities of the other gundam type mobile suit or the ship code named the Archangel, on top of that he'd have to protect the escape pod that Lacus was currently housed in.
It would potentially have made a fight exceedingly difficult, nevertheless had this crew turned hostile Heero would not have hesitated to destroy the archangel and the other mobile suit.
Still he was grateful that things didn't come down to that since he would have been at a loss as to where to go next since Zero's data on earth and outer space had seemingly become useless. Hopefully he could finally get some answers once he got on board the Archangel and spoke with the crew's chief officers.
XXXXX
"On board the bridge of the Zaft ship known as the Valarient the surviving CGUE pilot was watching of the recording of the events that had just taken place mere hours ago, starting from when that mysterious white and blue mobile suit suddenly appeared and how it destroyed all the other pilots involved in the ensuing fight to the only remaining Zaft pilot being force into temporary hiding.
"So all the others….. Michale, Cory, and Jose were all shot down by this mysterious mobile suit." The captain of the ship mused.
"Yes." The ZAFT pilot confirmed solemnly
The captain let out a sigh. "I suppose the only positive we can take from this is that Adrian's theory about parallel worlds existing was right afterall. Though it would have been far more preferable if the confirmation didn't come in the form of a hostile mobile suit killing almost all of our pilots that were sent out during the latest test."
The captain could only grimace at the loss of the majority of the mobile suit team had truly begun to sink in. "On top of that this unknown mobile suit is now running around in our world doing god knows what, Adrian is not going to be happy with this new."
The captain then turned their gaze back towards the remaining Zaft red. "Jacob I want you to rest for now, odds are more than likely when that mysterious mobile suit shows up again we'll be given the task of subduing it."
"Right." With that the ZAFT red pilot now identified as Jabob or their full name Jacob Quinby who wore a standard ZAFT red uniform with almost honey colored disheveled hair and silver colored eyes left the bridge of the Valarient.
Meanwhile another officer took the opportunity to speak with the captain. "Sir forgive me if this question seems out of line but will it even be possible for us to deal with that mobile suit? From what the footage has shown, that machine clearly has the same design as the prototypes stolen from Heliopolis."
The captain turned to the officer who had addressed him. The individual in question was a young male in the late twenties wearing a typical green ZAFT uniform with brown hair ties in a short braid named Oliver.
"In spite of how unreasonable the task might seem, the fact that this mobile suit is even here is our fault, even if we all carry the secret of this with us to our graves the fact remains any blood from fellow Zaft soldiers lost to that machine is on our hands albeit more indirectly as such this situation is our responsibility."
"Understood."
"Believe me, I'm aware of the risk we'll be taking when the time comes to deal with this machine, but we can just avoid it for the sake of saving our own skin, Adrian wouldn't allow it."
XXXXX
Now inside the Archangel's hanger Heero opened the hatch to Wing Zero and exited the cockpit.
Looking down at the first floor Heero immediately spotted whom he suspected were the chief officers.
One was a woman likely in her mid twenties wearing a white military uniform that Heero did not recognize, with shoulder length brown hair and eyes. Her expression showed a mixture of uncertainty along with hopefulness. If the gundam pilot had to guess she was likely prepared for the worst but also hoping for the best whatever that might have been by her definition.
The next individual was also a woman around the same age group with short black hair that framed her face with purple eyes and a stern look on her face that conveyed a great deal of suspicion. It was probably a safe bet to assume she did not trust Heero in the least, it wasn't something Heero could realistically blame her for all things considered.
The final individual was an adult male with blonde hair who had his sleeves rolled up above his elbows, the mam had a more laid back look on his face but there was a hint of caution hidden within his eyes.
Off to the side a couple of mechanics were working on opening up the escape pod that Lacus was inside with a rifle man standing off to the side of them.
Making his way down the catwalk, Heero began making his way towards the chief officers whilst various individuals were shooting surprised glances at him muttering different things.
"It was just a kid piloting the mobile suit? Is he any good with it?"
"Probably, I mean if he's able to pilot it odds are he's another Coordinator."
"Can we really trust him? It's unnerving enough having one Coordinator on this ship."
A part of Heero wanted to ask what these people meant by "Coordinator" but he couldn't reveal how little information he had about his own situation, less he wanted to be at a disadvantage during the talks he was about to undergo.
'I need to gather more information about what's going on fast.'
Shooting a glance at the other mobile suit Heero saw that the machine had completely lost its color scheme with all the previous colored parts now being by different shades of gray 'this machine might have the appearance of a gundam by if the color shift in its armor is anything to go by the mobile suit is different from what me and the others use.'
As the three officers approached the brunette woman was the first to address the gundam pilot. "Welcome aboard the Archangel, now that we're face to face we can have more proper introductions, as I've told you before I am the acting captain aboard this ship known as the Archangel Murrue Ramius."
Ramius then gestured to the two other officers with her. "These two are Lieutenant Mu La Flaga and ensign Natarle Badgiruel."
"Heero Yuy, pilot of the Wing Zero."
"Is that what your machine is called?" Ramius questioned.
"Yes." Heero answered.
Mu took a curious glance at the Wing Zero. "Where exactly did you get this mobile suit? A part of me wants to believe it's based off the design of the Strike and the other prototypes stolen by ZAFT forces back during the attack on Heliopolis but judging by the fact it retains its color scheme even though it should be powered down tells me it's not the same as the mobile suits we built."
"That's because it's not, as for where I got it, all I'm at liberty to say is that it was made by private backers that need to remain anonymous." If these people did not know about Wing Zero then Heero had no intention of divulging anything.
Mu raised an eyebrow. "You know its gonna be hard to accept that."
"You're gonna have to regardless."
"You're aware we can simply seize it from you." Badgiruel said leveling Heero with a glare.
The gundam pilot simply shot her an indifferent glance. "The only reward that you'll be yielded is the mobile suit's self-destruction."
Upon hearing this all three officers as well as anyone listening became much more alarmed before Ramius shot the teen pilot her own glare. "I may have granted you permission to come aboard but I won't allow you to threaten or endanger the lives of anyone on this ship!"
"And I didn't come here to hand you my mobile suit, its data, or anything else pertaining to it on a silver platter nor did I come with the intent to harm anyone here, I came here to save a civilian and offer you a proposition."
"And what would that be?" Ramius asked, still on edge from Heero's previous warning.
"I'm assuming your ship is fighting amidst the war with ZAFT, am I correct?" This was a shot in the dark, but from what bits and pieces of information the gundam pilot was able to gather this far he was fairly certain he was correct.
"They've been pursuing this ship along with the Strike for some time."
"If you'll allow me to stay I can offer to fight alongside your crew against ZAFT."
Mu gave the perfect soldier a skeptical look. "Kid no offense, but considering how secretive you're being about the mobile suit you brought on this ship you can't possibly mean to enlist as a member of the Earth Alliance."
"I'm not intending to fight as a member of the military but rather as an independent fighter."
"So a mercenary in a sense."
"Yeah, but I simply need lodgings for the time being."
"Did you get separated from the ship you were on?"
"It was shot down and I've been wondering through the debris belt since." Heero replied, it was a blatant lie but he couldn't realistically tell them he literally appeared here out here out of nowhere or that he was currently lost, the former wouldn't be believed because of how irrational it was and latter half of the truth would just allow the key officers the chance to seize control of the conversation.
"Okay but there has to be more of a catch with your offer than just the need for lodgings."
"Only that whenever I sortie I'll act according to my own judgment, so to say I won't follow any orders from anyone here."
"That's unacceptable!" Badgiruel exclaimed. "You don't even belong to any branch of the Earth Alliance meaning by law you shouldn't be taking part in any combat operations to begin with and you think you're just going to be allowed to do whatever you want during combat?!"
"Considering I'm not asking for money or any other type of considerable compensation it's not a lot to ask, besides considering that as you pointed out I don't belong to any part of the earth forces, I don't fall under your chain of command."
Ramius let out a sigh. "Fine, you have a deal."
Natarle gave the acting captain of the ship a look of complete disbelief. "You can't possibly mean to agree to this arrangement, it gives him near absolute autonomy while he's here on the Archangel!"
"I'm aware but as things stand now we have too many civilians from Heliopolis on board this ship, not enough supplies, and only a single mobile suit and mobile armor. And that's ignoring the fact that we still have to make it to the lunar base to regain contact with the Atlantic Federation. We need whatever help we can get."
Ramius then gave Heero a stern look. "All that being said I expect you to keep your end of this deal and protect this ship should we come under attack by ZAFT forces."
"Understood."
Coincidentally enough once the negotiations were finished one of the mechanics spoke up. "Hey we got this pod open!"
Everyone turned their gazes toward the escape pod as the contraption opened open and to everyone's surprise the first thing that came out was a pink colored mechanical sphere shaped robot floating through the air.
"Haro, haro, where's our savior, where's our savior? Haro." The pink sphere said.
Well now Heero knew who the mechanical voice belonged to but what about the actual girl inside? The gundam pilot didn't have to wait long (if at all) as the other guest soon exited the escape pod revealing themselves to be quite the beauty even by Heero's own internal admission.
The girl who had identified herself as Lacus Clyne had long flowing pink hair with a triple layered gold ornament in it and wore an elegant dress consisting of a white shirt high colored with separated sleeved leaving her shoulders bare and a long flowing purple skirt that went all the way to her feet. "Thank you for taking us in." The teen declared happily though no one within the hanger replied, rather they just stared at the pinkette with looks of shock on uncertainty.
"I-is that for real?!" One of the crewmen asked.
"Yeah I think it is."
A small part of Heero was now somewhat curious about this individual now, judging from the reactions of everyone else around him he could only guess that Lacus was someone with a far reaching reputation, the question was what type? Celebrity or political?
If it was the former then this was potentially probably going to turn into something of a tedious scene. If it was the latter…..then things could potentially become far more complicated, depending on how things progressed Heero might have needed to intervene to protect Lacus if anyone decided to take any type of action that endangered her well being.
Hopefully that wouldn't happen, meanwhile the guest in question simply glanced around the hanger with a cheerful smile on her face seemingly oblivious to the newest wave of tension in the room. "Thank you for coming to our rescue, I was worried we were going to be stranded in space."
No one could really bring themselves to give any type of reply. Mu simply scratched the back of his head. "Geez, this is really awkward, to think we'd wind up with the chairmen of the Plant's daughter on board this ship."
Lacus merely tilted her head to the side. "Um this is a ZAFT ship right?"
Again a long silence permeated the ship before Ramius finally worked up the will to voice a response. "Not exactly; you might want to come with us so we can discuss this somewhere more private."
"Okay but might I at least meet Heero Yuy. I'd like to at least thank him for saving me."
"I don't think that should pose a problem. He's coming this way now."
As Ramius gestured towards the gundam pilot causing Lacus to look toward him and push her way towards as fast as she was able to with the hanger's current lack of gravity.
"I'm really grateful to you for saving me."
"You're welcome, saving you was the right thing to do; anyway we'd best go with the chief officers."
A part of Ramius was tempted to bar Heero from the meeting they were about to have with Lacus but something about his demeanor told he was going whether she and the others approved or not, plus he might have extra details about Lacus's current circumstances. Letting out a sigh Ramius addressed the two teen guests. "Follow me."
As both Heero and Lacus began to follow Ramius out of the hangar along with Mu and Natarle the acting captain of the Archangel glanced toward the Strike. "You can come out of the cockpit now, Kira."
Within a few seconds the Strike's hatch opened up revealing an individual wearing a mostly white and blue flight suit who stared at Heero with curiosity as the group of five left the hangar to discuss Lacus' situation further.
Heero couldn't help but harbor some of his own curiosity about that other pilot as well, he figured Ramius must have ordered him to remain in the Strike on standby just in case Heero tried anything with the Wing Zero.
XXXXX
As Jacob Quinby laid in his bed he contemplated how the crew was supposed to deal with that mobile suit that killed off his fellow pilots and nearly killed him.
To merely say that he saw that task as a rather tall one was something of an understatement. Anything he and his team had thrown at the mobile suit was effortlessly blocked or evaded and its weapons were on a whole other level from anything ZAFT could currently field.
Personally Jacob was having a lot of doubts that the mobile suit in question would be able to be brought down by any Ginn and CGUE but if he knew if push came to shove that's essentially what would have to happen.
If that scenario played out, how many more fellow ZAFT pilots would be killed? How many more friends would Jacob lose?
Back during earlier years of his life he was a first generation Coordinator who was actually born and raised on earth before Blue Cosmos advocates murdered his family in a bid to kill Jacob himself until law enforcement surprisingly intervened though in a twist that surprised pretty much no one the perpetrators were given highly lenient sentences.
Jake himself was almost left in a foster home which was run by individuals who like his family's murders hated Coordinators, luckily around this time Jacob's adoptive father Adrian Quinby came onto the scene and took him to live in the Plants from that point onward.
Since then Jacob had volunteered to become a member of ZAFT and from there he honed his skills as a pilot becoming a ZAFT red with skills that visibly surpassed others with the same rank.
Eventually after completing a total of eleven missions where he shot down a total of eighty six mobile armor pilots and nine war ships throughout the course of these missions where he further solidified as a prodigy even amongst ZAFT aces he was stationed aboard the Valarient which contained a crew that answered directly to Adrian.
After that he and the rest of the Valarient's crew began conducting experiments with a new device that Adrian himself oversaw the invention and construction of called the warp drive which operated on Adrian's personal theory of a parallel universe.
According to him if his belief turned out to be true the possibilities were essentially endless ranging from new technology to further advance ZAFT and the Plants, maybe a new home for the Coordinators where the Naturals who constantly sought to oppress them.
It seemed the idea of new technology was correct considering what came through to their world after a multitude of previous tests where a rift was produced but nothing beyond that happened.
Hopefully the Valarient's crew could keep this under wraps, if the ZAFT council found out that there may be a new enemy running potentially amok in space that there was no telling just how dangerous they were because of an experiment conducted on Adrian's orders it could very likely spell the end of his entire career.
Suddenly the door to Jacob's room opened up revealing another pilot around his age group with sky blue and matching eyes. "Hey Jacob are you doing all right?"
The other pilot in question was named Archie Lam who like Jacob was a ZAFT red but with a record far more average for someone of the red rank.
He had first met Jacob when the former first moved to the plant and from there the two became fast friends and have developed a strong bond over the years ever since.
A large part of Archie's decision to join ZAFT and fight the war was because of his desire to support his closest friend as a brother in arms and that determination had driven to achieve his current rank.
"Yeah, just shaken up over the death of our friends."
Archie let out a sigh "Understandable, still it's a relief that you came back at the very least."
"Maybe but my CGUE is going to be out of action for some time plus whoever the pilot of that machine was, to simply say they were no slouch might really be sugarcoating it."
Archie scratched the side of his head. "Yeah, I saw the footage, just from that alone I know no run of the mill pilot, and probably most aces will be able to match them in single combat. But I was hoping to hear your personal opinion on the matter if that's not too much at the moment."
Jacob clicked his tongue. "I can completely vouch for your assessment, but the thing is for all the prowess that pilot had shown with that mobile suit I have a bad feeling they're even more dangerous than they showed themself to be."
"By how much."
"I'm really not sure…and that's what worries me."
XXXXX
Now in a meeting room with Ramius, Mu, and Natarle sitting on one side while Heero and Lacus sat on the other, the acting captain of the Archangel turned to the latter of the two teens.
"Ms Clyne, could you explain exactly what happened for you to end up stranded in an escape pod prior to Mr Yuy finding you?"
"Yes, you see me and many others on board the vessel I was traveling on were headed to the ruins of Junius seven in order to perform a memorial for those lost in the bloody valentine incident when we encountered an earth forces vessel."
Ramius and Mu both internally tensed up having a good idea of where her explanation was going though both officers really hoped they were wrong.
"They requested to inspect our ship and soon the matter escalated into violence, the next thing I knew I was being shoved into a pod and ejected from the ship and I floated out in space until Heero found me."
The gundam pilot was both surprised and grateful to the pinkette at the same time. While what she told the Earth Alliance officers was the truth by all accounts she omitted the part where Heero had eliminated the EA force that was responsible for the deaths of all the others intending to perform the memorial service. Had she told them that it might have jeopardized the arrangement Heero had made with them which would only complicate things even further for him.
Both Mu and Ramius grimaced knowing that odd were very likely the EA squad that Lacus had encountered were likely blue cosmos sympathizers who were looking for an excuse to fire upon Coordinators in spite of the fact they were non combatants.
Natarle for the most part wanted to refute Lacus' claim about the EA's action believing their at least had to be more to the story for fellow members of the Earth Alliance to do such as thing but after what happened on Artemis with the Eruasion forces she couldn't help but consider the possibility that there existed those within the EA who'd commit war crimes.
Ramius then turned to Heero. "And how did you end up in the debris belt?"
"The ship I was on came under attack while traveling through the debris belt and I was forced to launch in my mobile suit, similarly enough to Lacus I was the only one to survive the attack."
"I see." Ramius said.
From what she heard both teens had similar circumstances surrounding them, it was just lucky that one of them had a way to travel as well as defend themselves if need be otherwise there was a high chance both would have been left stranded and died alone in space. "I suppose the only thing left is to figure out what to do going forward."
Natarle turned towards her fellow officer. "I believe it would be best to have Ms Clyne be kept in one of the residential rooms for the time being, her presence here is a delicate situation that we need to handle carefully."
"Agreed we'll have some of the officers onboard escort her." Ramius then turned back towards the perfect soldier. "What do you plan to do in the meantime?"
"Perform maintenance on my mobile suit."
"You need any help from of mechanics?"
"For reloading my shoulder guns but not without me supervising it."
"I can assure they're well equipped for the job."
"Be that as it may I don't want them seeing any of my machine's inner workings or systems."
"If you insist."
XXXXX
Now having returned to the (currently open) cockpit of his gundam after having reloaded his shoulder machine guns, Heero wasted no time in downloading the files from the Archangel's archives pertaining to recent history, locations, and military information.
Looking over the history side of things Heero was shocked to find out that the Calendar read year 70 of Cosmic Era instead of 145 of the after colony Era of 195.
That didn't make any sense, it was like Heero mine as well have traveled through time; no that couldn't possibly by it Heero would still have data on some locations as well as wherever the Earth was from here if that was the case, it might have been more accurate to hypothesize that…
Heero decided to pull up more archives of this Cosmic Era's history, according to the archives in question the beginning of the Era was when humans first began to migrate into space apparently during the early years there was a man named Gorge Glenn who had achieved world fame through a series of considerable accomplishments and is currently known as the world's first Coordinator.
Around the 15th year of the cosmic Era Glenn ventured out into space with a ship of his personal design on 14 year trip but during the said trip Glenn decided to reveal he was genetically altered while still at the embryonic stage enhancing him both physically and psychologically granting him enhanced reflexes and a superior learning ability to normal humans.
On top of that revelation he also decided to leave instructions on how to create more Coordinators like himself in hopes it would help humanity achieve more than it ever had prior to that point.
Initially the creation of Coordinators was made illegal for many years until the 30th year, once the ban was lifted many families began having their children made into Coordinator resulting in a "Coordinator Boom?" Which last for the next 2 decades.
However as more Coordinators were created throughout the years it caused humanity to become split into two genetic factions, the Coordinators as per the term invented by Gorge Glenn while naturally born people who were simply referred to as Naturals.
Many Naturals began to resent the very existence of Coordinators for ethical reasons or for reasons ranging from unease of Coordinators to pure hatred and jealousy.
Eventually Naturals harboring anti Coordinator sentiments began holding protest and even began turning violent, these sentiments subsequently led to the founding of a group that called themselves Blue Cosmos who wished for the genocide of all Coordinators.
Throughout much of the world Coordinators were faced with a harsh amount of discrimination and as a result began Migrating the specially constructed space colonies known as the Plants which essentially became their homeland.
However the sponsor nations responsible for the creations of the Plants were determined to keep control of them and the Coordinators who had made their home there under their control and forbade the Plants from producing their own food forcing those loving there to be dependent on earth.
Eventually a political party formed within the Plants known as the Zodiac Alliance with the goal of winning independence for Plants as dissatisfaction loomed because of the actions of the sponsor nations, in response the EA began stationing military forces within the Plants to maintain a position of control over them and maintain the profit of goods produced by them.
Eventually the Zodiac alliance reformed into a new group called ZAFT and following its formation the current chairman of the Plants Siegel Clyne ordered three of the Plant colonies to be overhauled for agriculture so that those living with the Coordinator homeland would no longer be dependent on the earth for food.
In response to this EA sent the Atlantic Federations 4th fleet to suppress the Plants' population however upon arriving they encountered a new weapon ZAFT had created in the form of the ZGMF-1017 Ginn mobile suit which forced the fleet back allowing the Plants to officially established themselves as a new independent nation where Coordinators could live free from the oppression of discrimination by Naturals.
Unfortunately in their refusal to accept the situation the EA launched another attack on the Plants in which a nuclear missile was fired on one of the agricultural colonies, Junius 7 to be precise killing 243,721 coordinators and bringing about a full scale war between the EA and ZAFT, the incident itself since its' occurrence came to be known as the bloody valentine.
In retaliation for Junius 7's destruction the Plants began utilizing devices known as N jammers which essentially emitted specialized radio waves to stop all nuclear reactions.
The idea might have been understandable had they only used them in space to prevent nukes from being used against them but ZAFT decided to take use of the N jammers even further and seeded the Earth with the devices which in turn led to a massive energy crises which subsequently led to economic collapses for numerous nations on the Plant as well as starvation costing the lives of millions, the vast majority of which were civilians.
Following those two incidents the two sides of the Earth Alliance a d Zaft have been at war for almost a year, Many initially thought the former would achieve a swift victory since they outnumbered the latter then ten to one however thanks to ZAFT's superior weaponry in the form of mobile suits disproved that assumption.
One thing Heero noted was that in spite of the N jammers the Wing Zero was still very much operational, he could only surmise that the Gundanium armor blocked the radio frequency of the N jammers.
Seeing the general history cosmic Era made things the situation Heero was currently in now abundantly clear.
The reason the scene around him changed so drastically when he had first come here, encountering mobile suits and mobile he had never scene before, hearing of a war that by all logic should not be taking place between two sides he had never heard of, the other mobile suit that had the external appearance of a gundam.
He didn't just travel to some faraway location from where he was conducting his investigation beforehand, he had literally come to an entirely alternate world.
Letting out a sigh Heero let what he had just discovered, he had literally experience something that only happened in a science fiction work or Iselai anime however irrational it was. The large part of him was tempted to deny it but with everything that's happened since stumbling upon the rift he knew better than to try and hide from reality.
Still that left a list of questions he needed answers to.
How did he even get here to begin with, was it even a coincidence? He had encountered ZAFT mobile suits immediately upon coming to this world but he saw nothing on the Mobile suits themselves that looked capable of creating that rift or any other devices that might have been able to achieve such a thing. In short he had too little information to jump to that conclusion.
Still if those mobile suit indeed did have something to do with the gundam pilot's sudden presence in this other world then did that mean ZAFT itself was involved? Considering they were locked in a war with an enemy that was determined to oppress at best and wipe them out at worst this wasn't a good time to be attempting to make contact with other worlds.
Essentially Heero was stranded in a place that was completely foreign with no real clear direction to go in or no real leads as to how he even ended up here whether it was due to the actions of those ZAFT pilots he fought or an unfortunate coincidence.
As things stood all Heero could do is continue traveling with the Archangel whilst gathering any other information he was able about this world.
Speaking of extra information according to the Archangel's more recent archives in hopes of closing the gap in battle strength between the EA and ZAFT the commander of the Atlantic Federation's eight fleet Admiral Halberton began a special projectile with assistance from the neutral nation of Orb where the construction of five specially made mobile suits began codenamed the G weapons within the colony of Heliopolis.
The units in question were known as the GAT-X102 Duel which was a general purpose unit that was used to lay the groundwork for the other units. Overall it had in particular strengths or weaknesses meaning its design could be considered relatively standard in many regards.
The next mobile suit was the GAT-X103 Buster which was designed as a long range artillery type unit making its special life purely on long range combat as well as in pure firepower compared to most of its sister units, the tradeoff was that it had no close range capabilities.
Then there was the The GAT-X207 Blitz, just as its very name implied the machine's intended specialty was in Blitzkrieg warfare via a special system known as the mirage colloid, on top of that the unit also also came with specialized feature known as Trikeros or the offensive shield system which allowed the machine to switch between offense and defense quickly, the major con that was that losing the Trikeros meant losing nearly all of its armaments.
Finally there was the GAT-X303 Aegis, which according to the archives was meant to be a commander type unit being given better communication and analysis capabilities compared to the other units, it came with a mostly balanced weapon loadout but with the added specialty of a transformable configuration the gave it a special mobile armor mode that was equipped with long range weapon called the scylla cannon.
All four of these mobile suits were apparently stolen by ZAFT during an attack on Heliopolis which resulted in the complete destruction of the colony.
The one unit still within the EA's possession was the GAT-X105 Strike which was designed as a multi purpose unit that could utilize different weapon loadouts depending on whatever situation it was faces with via the use of striker packs, one was the Aile which gave the Strike a balanced weapon set and extra mobility through the use of a detachable backpack that had extra thrusters, the next was the sword which just has the name hinted at have the Strike a set of weapons aimed almost purley towards close combat, the final one was the launcher which by contrast to the previous pack gave the Strike long range capabilities and firepower the rivaled the Buster.
All in all the Strike was the most versatile of the machine and on top of that it could use the pack to recharge its power supply giving it an extra advantage assuming its pilot was able to switch packs during combat.
From what the specs showed all the machines were designed to at least have the appearance of gundams and they all came with a specialized type of armor called phase shift which made them impervious to most physical weaponry.
Overall these five mobile suits at the very least were certainly state of the art, at least by this world's standards.
Looking through the history archives even further Heero found that since the attack on Heliopolis the Archangel had been trying to rendezvous with fellow EA forces all the while being pursued by ZAFT forces with no real success.
The closest thing the crew had to success was when they went to a base under the command of the Eurasian Federation which was another major faction of the EA. Unfortunately for the Archangel's crew, going there only resulted in the commander of the base attempting to confine them and the theft of the Strike mobile suit.
However both luckily and unluckily pursuing ZAFT forces managed to get the jump on the Eurasian forces thanks to the Blitz's stealth capabilities and the base was destroyed all the while Archangel escaped during the ordeal.
Since that time the crew came out here to the debris belt in hopes of refilling their water supply where they decided to perform a memorial service out of respect for those who were killed during the destruction of Junius 7.
And that's where they had met Heero and Lacus.
Speaking of the latter. "Are are still working on your machine?" A voice suddenly spoke up surprising Heero who looked up from the cockpit's pc monitor to see none other than the Archangel's other guest.
"I thought the officers took you back to your room." Heero mused.
"Me and Mr pink were left with nothing to do and Mr pink was getting restless." Came Lacus' simple reply.
Heero resisted the urge to visibly raise an eyebrow. If there were no guards stationed outside of whatever room this girl was being kept in, then odds were the room was locked from the outside, though assuming that was the case it would mean Lacus had essentially broken out of it. "I've also noticed that some of the equipment in the hanger had been moved around. Does that mean you're done reloading your weapons?"
"Yeah." It seems that in spite of her seemingly cheerful and almost airheaded demeanor she was a lot sharper than one might give her credit for upon meeting her for the first time. "I just got done with a diagnostic check for the Wing Zero."
"Then perhaps you could tell me a bit more about yourself? I have to admit I'm a bit curious as to how you ended up coming to the debris belt."
"To say the least it was a bit by accident, to be a bit more honest I might have been just as lost olas you if we hadn't found the Archangel."
"So that's why you were asking for the closest location we could go to when you first arrived."
"You could say that."
"Now that you're done here would you like to join me? I believe they should be handing out meals in the mess hall right about now."
"I don't see the harm in it." Heero said as he found himself following the pinkette to the mess hall.
A part of Heero was confused by his own actions, it wasn't like he had told Lacus anything vital but somehow the girl gave off a vibe that made even the perfect soldier feel like she was one person he could genuinely trust.
Still he had to be careful he couldn't be completely careless with this girl, she had already proven to be far more observant than she let on. If he revealed something too vital to Lacus there was no telling what she might do with the information.
As the two arrived at the mess hall they stumbled upon the sight of two teenage girls, one having short brown hair and the other with red shoulder length hair arguing.
"No way I'm not anywhere near that girl, she's a Coordinator! What if she attacks me?!" The red head yelled out.
"Flay, she's just a civilian, she's not a member of ZAFT."
"What does that matter? She is still a Coordinator; she's not even human!"
"That's not true." Lacus said, catching the attention of all those within the mess hall. "Though I may be Coordinator and yourself a Natural we're not so different, it's even possible for us to even be friends."
Lacus held her hand out but the girl identified as Flay recoiled in a mixture of fear and disgust. "As if I'd ever want to be friendly with any of your kind, you, your friend, and all other Coordinators are monsters that shouldn't even exist!"
Before Lacus could reply or anyone else might have thought to a teen boy with brown hair and purple eyes wearing an EA uniform that consisted of a blue shirt and tan pants stood up and left the mess hall with a distraught expression on his face.
Having taken the boys' appearance Heero realized that they must have been the pilot of the Strike Kira. He could only guess that the reason for their crestfallen mood must have been Flay's words.
From what he read in the archives of the archangel's database the crew was forced to rely on that boy to pilot the Strike since its OS was too unrefined for any Natural to pilot and he was the only Coordinator on board.
This meant that Kira was essentially was a Coordinator fighting against those like himself on the behalf of the EA which was made of of Naturals which likely did not bode well for his mental state to begin with so hearing one of the people he was fighting to protect spew out anti Coordinator sentiments didn't help that case.
Ignoring Flay and everyone else, Heero quickly grabbed two trays of food and started towards the entrance of the mess hall before the brunette whom Flay was initially arguing with spoke up. "Um I'm sorry for Flay's remarks but not all of us feel that way about you and Ms Clyne."
Flay let out a defiant grunt whilst Heero addressed the brunette.
"I appreciate the sentiment and don't worry. I know there are those whose opinions on those that are different from them will never change no matter how misguided they might be."
"I see, I'm Mirriallia Haw be the way."
"Heero Yuy?" The gundam pilot's simple reply before he began leading Lacus back to her room.
Once the two arrived Lacus sat at the table of the room whilst Heero chose to stand. "I really hoped to eat with all the others, it's a bit dull having to stay here don't you think?"
"It might have made for a more social environment but the situation couldn't be helped given the personal circumstances surrounding you."
"I suppose. This war will only make it that much harder for people to understand each other."
Heero shrugged. "True understanding is never easy especially as long as humanity as a well retains the will to fight."
"Maybe." Lacus' expression become more resolute. "But in spite of that I don't believe it's impossible, there's no need for Natural and Coordinators to aim to destroy each other."
"Maybe but right now with the sides engaged in a war reaching any type of mutual understanding will have complications."
"Still me and you are able to get along in spite of our circumstances."
Heero raised an eyebrow ever so slightly, considering his ability to pilot a mobile suit he half expected Lacus to assume that he was a fellow Coordinator much like that Flay girl. "I know well enough that it's not an individual's background that determines who they are as a person but rather what they decide to do over the course of their life and what path they take."
"I agree, everyone has the capacity to choose what they wish to do and that's why I believe that in spite of the sad history that people have had thus far throughout this war they have the potential to come together whether by Coordinator or Natural."
Lacus then smiled at Heero. "I also believe the two of us can be friends going forward."
"Are you sure? I'm going to be fighting your countrymen from today onward."
"I can't say that it's a saddening turn of events but regardless I can see you're a sincere and kind person at heart."
"You just met me, and saw me shoot down all those EA mobile armor and their ship prior to rescuing you."
"It's true you took life but if you held no regard for it you'd have never lifted a finger to rescue me and Mr pink."
"You're good, you're good Haro!" The pink robotic sphere chimed.
Heero had to admit he was a little surprised by how easily Lacus put her faith in him, in some ways it reminded him of Relena.
And that is the end, I tried to write so that Heero prior to looking through the Archangel's archives tried to play things off like he knew what was going on around him, I figured it was something he'd do because if everyone realized he was lost and had no idea where he was they'd try and take advantage of him and that was one scenario Heero was definitely want to avoid.
Another thing to note is the Valarient's crew, as the scene with them showed yes they are the ones responsible for Heero being there in the cosmic Era and more so to the point their going to play a major part going forward so I hope that's not going to take away your interest but they're necessary for certain parts of the bigger plot
I also hope I gave Heero and Lacus and decent enough starting off point upon truly meeting each other though truth be told beyond the point where Lacus gets returned to ZAFT (trust me I'm not spoiling as much as you think) I haven't had much time to think about how to have the relationship between the two develop so suggestions are welcome in that regard