A/N: sorry this took awhile, but the update is in.

Chapter 5

Flight of the Survivors

Sonic and Knuckles were sitting in the living room of Tails's house on his home island as the young fox was busy inside his workshop completing the final touches on the new vehicle he had been building, but was now making some modifications and additions to the craft in question. Sonic the acquisition of the parts Tails needed while Knuckles assisted Tails with all of the heavy lifting and labor since there was only so much a fox as young as Tails could do on his own.

Once their respective tasks were done, the two were encouraged by Tails to take a break while he finished the final touches on the new craft, which thanks to their help was on the verge of completion. The two heroes were quietly relaxing while waiting patiently for Tails to finish…finally after two hours when the two were dismissed the young fox child emerged from his workshop having finally finished.

"I am done…she's ready to fly."

"Finally" Sonic replied as he stood up from the chair he had been sitting on as he and Knuckles followed their friend into his workshop to see the finished product.

The craft before them was completely different from the Tornado because the new craft Tails had constructed looked more like a fighter jet than a biplane with a length of seven meters long and a wingspan of about twelve meters and about almost five meters in height. It had four wings behind near the cockpit in an X-shaped configuration with two large engines on the back of the craft with two rudders on the back for increased stability in flight. It had some black and red lining on the craft including some gold on the nose and near the engines. However what made this craft completely different aside from a large number of modifications and design features was that unlike the Tornado this craft could take up to four people, with two in the cockpit and two more in an additional passenger pod/capsule near the rear of the craft.

"Nice" Knuckles complimented appearing to be a little impressed with the design.

"I was building it originally to combat Eggman's flying fortress and built it so it can fly into space to reach those orbiting space stations he sometimes builds, so it was easy to modify it to travel to other worlds."

"It looks great Tails."

"Thanks guys" Tails said proudly.

"So how soon can we take off?" Knuckles asked.

"Well we're ready to go right now if you guys want." Tails replied while the two were talking Sonic took a glance out the window and saw someone coming.

"Let's go then" Sonic said as the blue hedgehog quickly hopped into the newly completed aircraft's passenger pod near the rear of the craft.

"What's your hurry?" Knuckles asked.

"Hey we got to find and stop Eggman and get the Master Emerald back…so let's get moving."

Tails and Knuckles agreed with their friend as they all boarded the X-Tornado before Tails switched on the engines and the aircraft engines roared to life as the workshop's roof was opening up to allow the plane to take off.

"Here we go!" Tails said as the plane and the floor it was on reclined back as they were about to be literally shot into the sky. At the moment Tails fired up the engines to full throttle the plane was shot into the sky was it was quickly climbing to break through the atmosphere.

Outside the workshop at that moment a certain pink hedgehog in a red dress arrived looking up at the aircraft as it quickly disappeared from sight.

"Sonic…come back here!" Amy Rose snapped.

Deep within the sublevels of the Morgenroete Facility, Lucas along with Gamma and Beta continued down the corridor leaving deeper and deeper into the sublevels. After getting off the elevator when went as far down as it could go, Lucas and his escort were heading to secured elevator that would take them directly to the vault where Shadow was kept.

"We're almost there…just a few more yards ahead."

Suddenly a ventilation duck fell open and falling onto the ground ahead of them was the young woman that had been with Kira. Cagalli landed right in front of the trio as Beta and Gamma were already pointing their weapons at her ready to fire if she attempted to attack their master, but her saving grace was that the two robots didn't detect any weapons on her so she was safe…for the moment.

"Now what do we have here? A lost tourist perhaps?" Lucas mocked as he floated a little closer to the young woman as she was trying to get up. Cagalli realized her situation when she looked up at the two towering robots and their master sitting inside his Egg Mobile.

"Who" Cagalli began as she got to her feet, but stopped when she saw Gamma's gun-arm pointed in her face.

"Now young man what is your name and what are you doing here in Morgenroete. I doubt you're a kid student who got loss."

The princess's face began turning bright red at the comment in her anger; she couldn't understand how people easily mistake her for a guy.

"I am a girl you asshole!" Cagalli snapped.

"Really" Lucas said with a confused expression as he removed his glasses and began cleaning them with some fabric from his coat before putting them on again. "You kinda look more like that one boy from Kato's student research group. Are you two brothers?"

"I AM A DAMN WOMAN HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE NOT TELL!" Cagalli shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Wear a dress then" Lucas replied calmly before in a fit of rage Cagalli lunged at the young man in his hovercraft, but the young genius drew out a small pistol from a hidden compartment and shot Cagalli with a stun gun that knocked her out in one shot. The princess of Orb was now laying face first on the ground unconscious, but she was otherwise completely unharmed. "People these days…Gamma grab her and hold onto her. I'll look into figuring who she is later."

The group continued on until they reached the end of the corridor where a pair of thick armored doors stood covered in dust and some cobwebs signs that the doors before him hadn't been opened in a long time. Finding a small wall-mounted computer control; Lucas hovered in close as he had to get up to reach the control panel.

"Let's see…I'll put in a new user id…password…Maria." Lucas said as he pushed in the required commands. When the computer accepted the password the heavy doors opened for the first time in long time. The elevator was only small enough for Lucas and his Egg Mobile to fit through so the young man decided he would go on alone as Gamma and Beta stood guard with her unconscious prisoner.

Descending into the lowest level of the facility Lucas disembarked from the elevator as he entered into a large and spacious storage room with only one object in the room. On the other side of the room attached to the wall stood a large machine covered in frost with a human-size capsule large enough to hole an average-sized person built into it. Judging from its design it was sleeping capsule designed to keep one occupant in suspended animation.

"This is it…now great grandpa it's time to awaken your greatest creation. I just use my new user id I created and open this thing up and awake up your creation." Lucas said as he climbed out of his hovercraft and approached the large machine as he knelt down next to the small computer control next to the capsule.

Try as he might Lucas couldn't see who or what was inside due to fifty years worth of ice and fog covering the glass, but the young man did see someone inside. After wiping away from frost covering the control panel Lucas wasted no time deactivating the machine and opening it up. Steam shot out of a pair of vents above the machine as sleeping occupant was beginning to awaken as the glass slowly opened and a thick blanket of fog filled the room.

Moments later something rose up from inside the capsule standing at three feet and three inches tall, but what surprised Lucas was the silhouette he was seeing…it wasn't human at all…it was hedgehog shaped. As the fog finally cleared Lucas saw the Ultimate Life form his great grandfather had created.

Gerald Robotnik's creation stood before him with coarse and close-lying black fur with red highlights on several parts of his body including his quills, arms, legs, and on the upper corners of his eyes. Like Sonic and Amy he also had tan skin muzzle and inner ears with thin and wiry black-furred arms with large, very serious looking eyes with ruby red irises, black pupils and glassy white sclera along with black eyelids. His six elongated quills, most of them were coming out from the back of his head while the outer four are bent upwards and lastly a triangular patch of tufted white fur on his chest.

Aside from his physical appearance he wore a pair of white gloves backed by black, red-tongued cuffs and gold energy rings on them. Finally he wore a pair of speed-enhancing white, black, red and yellow air shoes installed with five jets, but they also had gold rings above the ankles similar to the ones on his gloves.

"Are you my grandfather's creation?"

The black hedgehog knelt down before the surprised young man as he said "My name is Shadow…you have awakened me from a state of suspended animation. I am very grateful…to show my gratitude I am at your command."

"Doctor Robotnik" A voice spoke from the Egg Mobile as Lucas hurried over and saw Decoe on the video screen on his main control panel. "Doctor Robotnik we have a slight problem."

Meanwhile above ground, outside the Morgenroete Facility…the battle was finally dying down as the last of the research facility's defenders had been slain by Robotnik's robotic shock troopers and heavy machines while civilians were fleeing to whatever shelters they could reach. Kuzzey, Sai, Tolle and Miriallia having lost track of their friend Kira were now trying to find a shelter to escape to, but so far every shelter they had found was already full.

The group wandered outside of the main complex as they saw the remains of military and civilian vehicles scattered all around them along with slain bodies of Morgenroete security and Earth Alliance members lying around.

"What the heck happened out here?" Tolle as he and everyone else saw the devastation around them.

"It looks like a warzone." Kuzzey commented.

"We got to find another shelter and fast." Sai advised.

Suddenly a large explosion was seen from the factory district as two Gundam mobile suits rose up from the collapsing facility; the Aegis followed by the Strike emerged from the burning ruins as the two Gundams landed near one another. As Athrun went to work reconfiguring the operating system of his newly acquired machine the Strike Gundam was taking its first, if not rather unbalanced, steps into the world.

"Are those mobile suits?" Miriallia asked.

"They don't like any ZAFT ones I have seen?" Tolle added.

Suddenly a Behemoth waltzed by them only sparing them a momentary glance before continuing onward while a pair of SWAT bots was following not too close behind. As the giant robot had done the two machines had only spared a moment to glance at them scanning them for weapons. After demeaning them non-threats they began to move on.

Freaked out by the appearance of the robotic soldiers Kuzzey eyed at assault rifle lying on the ground near the corpse of an Alliance soldier deciding to arm himself, but when Kuzzey took the weapon into his hands the SWAT bots detected the threat as they turned around in one sharp move aiming their weapons at the young man.

"Kuzzey!" Tolle and Sai shouted, but it was too late as the two SWAT bots ruthlessly gunned down the young man.

"Threat eliminated" One of the SWAT bots said before turning around and continued following after the Behemoth robot.

"They only noticed us when Kuzzey picked up that rifle." Sai said as looked down at the lifeless body of his friend. "Those…machines are programmed to only target anyone who's a threat…anyone carrying a weapon."

At that moment Miguel arrived just ahead of an Egg Mobile that was moving in to engage the two mobile suits that had emerged from the facility. However the enemy machine had taken notice of the GINN that had arrived and was changing targets as it was beginning to take aim at the GINN since its AI considered the GINN more of a threat considering the incomplete status of the Alliance mobile suit's operating systems.

The egg-shaped robot moved towards it target as it fired four shots from its beam rifle as it hurried towards the GINN. Miguel dodged the shots taking cover behind a building, but one of the four shots grazed his machine's shoulder armor.

"Athrun, Rusty" Miguel called out to the two machines.

"We lost Rusty…an Earth Alliance officer is piloting the last machine." Athrun reported sadly.

"Athrun you need to get your machine out of here…I'll see if I can recover this one after I take care of that thing. It's getting pretty bad out there; Commander Le Creuset and the others are trying to secure a path for you guys to escape. I am transmitting the coordinates…head to that location and hook up with the others I'll be along soon." Miguel said as he began exchanging weapon fire with the Egg Doll.

Athrun was hesitant to leave at first as he looked at both Miguel and Kira inside their respective mobile suits.

"Damn it Athrun go now!" Miguel shouted as he threw his gun at the charging Egg Doll right before drawing his sword to engage the machine in melee combat.

Athrun engaged the thrusters of his machine and took to the air fleeing the area. Meanwhile inside the Strike's cockpit; Murrue and Kira saw the two machines fighting it out while ignoring them for the most part. Murrue was completing stepping in, but that would leave her open for attack from the GINN. Kira on the other hand was horrified by the devastation caused by the battle being waged around them.

At that moment Miguel was putting up a fierce fight against the enemy machine as he managed to push the machine back a few feet before the Egg Doll began fighting back with its beam saber mounted on its rifle. Miguel backed away to avoid getting cut in two as the Egg Doll went on the offensive.

The GINN was quickly being overpowered as its sword was cut in half by the attacking Egg Doll before being kicked to the ground, but Miguel engaged his machine's thrusters and narrowly evaded a death blow from the egg-shaped machine grabbing hold of its machine gun once again before shooting at the unmanned machine.

Miguel managed to land a few shots on the enemy machine…although he didn't destroy the machine when his shots struck the chest area near the head he did notice some minor damage to the armor creating a small hole. If he could land a shot through that hole in the armor then Miguel could win against the Egg Doll.

But sadly before he could do any more the Egg Doll shot Miguel in the stomach of his GINN before the machine exploded.

Now with one threat eliminated it turned its attention to the Strike.

Meanwhile outside the colony's exterior wall; Commander Rau Le Creuset was engaged in battle against the Egg Doll trying to keep the machine's attention on him so Mathew could get a clean shot at it while at the same time Rau was trying to gauge the machine's capabilities. None of them realized that another pair of Egg Dolls was closing in from the other side of the colony.

After blocking a few shots of beam fire Rau saw an opening and took it as he aimed the small Gatling gun mounted on his shield and fired it at point blank range unleashing a barrage of modified rounds from his M7070 shield-plus-28mm vulcan system tearing into the Egg Doll before disappearing into a fireball.

But when Rau turned around Mathew had been jumped by the other two Egg Dolls as his mobile suit was completely decapitated by the two unmanned machines. With two more enemy machines to face Rau steadied himself for an all out confrontation between the two machines as the two Egg-shaped mobile suits charged straight at the CGUE mobile suit.

Rau backed off and side-stepped to the right to avoid the first one, but the other Egg Doll slammed into the masked commander's mobile suit. The CGUE delivered a kick to the enemy machine forcing it back as Rau tried to counter attack, but the first Egg Doll was aiming its beam rifle at the white mobile suit.

The masked commander realized the danger and quickly backed away getting out of the line of fire, but he countered by firing a full spray of bullets from his rifle at the two machines. Although they were blocked by the two enemy machines, Rau used the opportunity to put some distance between the two Egg-shaped mobile suits and his own machine.

Seeing a warning light that his rifle was out of ammo, Rau switched out ammo clips with a spare one he had stored under his shield arm, but in any event it was his last one. If he ran out of ammo now then his opinions for fighting the unknown machines would be greatly reduced leaving him in an unfavorable position.

After considering his opinions and the situation Rau had an idea to improve his changes as he flew straight both mobile suits firing his rifle at the closest one. After deploying their beam shields the two machines fired their beam rifles. The CGUE was narrowly evading and dodging the beam shots by a hair as it turned and twisted to the sides while passing beam rifle shots left black graze marks on the limbs and shoulders of his machine showing how close the Egg Dolls came to hitting their mark.

At the moment Rau came between the two machines he fired a spray of bullets into the direction of the first Egg Doll on his right while he fired the vulcan cannon mounted on his shield at the other Egg Doll before turning over continuing his assault on the two machines as he was quickly moving backwards away from the two machines while he kept his sights on the two.

Rau came to a stop as he quickly tossed his rifle aside to grab Mathew's large energy cannon aiming it at the first Egg Doll. The masked commander wasted no time in firing off a shot as he just barely managed to deliver a killing shot to the unmanned machine before it could raise its beam shield up to defend itself.

Although he scored another kill Rau was unable to take out the second Egg Doll due to the fact that unlike its unfortunate compatriot it managed to raise its beam shield in time. But all in all Rau had only one more Egg Doll to finish off. Before the battle could continue Rau detected new comers to the battle as he turned and saw a GINN leading out three prototype mobile suits.

"Commander Le Creuset!" Yzak called out over an open com channel.

"Yzak…you and the others form up and surround that enemy machine." Rau ordered as the battle had just been tipped to his favor. "Hit that machine with everything you got." The CGUE charged in first as the Duel, Blitz and Buster followed suit along with Olor as they joined in on the attack of teaming up against the enemy machine.

Rau raised his shield up as he blocked and weathered the beam rifle shots being fired at him while Yzak and Nicol were closing in for the kill while Dearka was hanging back ready to deliver some support fire. Rau slammed his shield against the beam shield of his foe as Nicol and Yzak double teamed the enemy machine with Yzak driving his machine's beam saber into its back while Nicol stabbed the enemy machine with his shield arm's built in beam saber.

The three machines backed off and watched as the enemy machine exploded.

"Are you alright commander?" Olor inquired.

"I am fine Olor, but I am afraid we lost Mathew."

"Damn it…where did those damn machines come from?" Dearka inquired.

"That is something we'll need to investigate…where are Athrun and Rusty?"

"I am here commander, but we lost Rusty. An Alliance officer managed to board the last machine." Athrun voice said on the comm. channel as he had just barely exited the colony through the hole the group had made.

"Rusty too…whoever these bastards are will pay" Yzak snapped punching the side of his cockpit.

"Easy Yzak, Athrun where is Miguel?"

"He stayed behind to cover our escape both he and the last machine are fighting one of the unknown mobile suits you have been fighting."

"I see…Athrun you and the others head back to the ship. I'll head into the colony and see if I can give Miguel a hand."

"Commander Le Creuset let me go…your machine has already taken a beating."

"Are you sure Olor?" Rau asked after he eyed the energy indicator on his machine seeing that he was running dangerously low on power.

"Yes sir I volunteer to give Miguel a hand."

"Very well permission granted…if Miguel has been killed in action by the time you arrive you are then to disengage from the battle and return to the ship. We lost enough men today I have no intention of losing anymore."

An uneasy silence fell upon the group until Olor spoke. "I understand sir…I'll return to the ship when my mission is complete." Olor took off and descended into the colony as Rau issued new orders to his subordinates.

"Everyone grab whatever remains of these unknown machines you can find. We're taking them back with us to the ship for examination. Perhaps we can find a clue as to whom or what faction is operating these mobile suits?"

Meanwhile inside the colony Kira and Murrue were now forced to engage the Egg Doll in battle as it put away its beam rifle and instead kneeling down to pick up Miguel's sword. The Egg Doll instead of destroying the Strike was going to attempt to capture it when its AI observed how it could barely move around properly taking into account all of the information its internal computer had on the machine.

It couldn't even be considered a real threat.

The Egg Doll advanced upon the Strike Gundam with the GINN's heavy sword in hand as it planned to batter and knock the Strike around until either its pilot was dead or until the Phase Shift Armor had drained the machine's battery. The Strike despite its slow moment was doing its best to shield itself from the hammering sword strikes and kicks.

A kick to the stomach sent the Strike Gundam falling back onto one of the research buildings causing it to collapse under its weight.

"What is that thing doing?" Kira inquired wondering why the machine wasn't trying to destroy them.

"I think it's trying to capture this machine. It's wearing down the Phase Shift Armor draining the battery."

Suddenly Kira noticed something to his left…he saw his friends there with a dead Kuzzey. The young coordinator was horrified by the sight that one of his friends had been killed in the attack. Kira began glaring at the enemy machine as he realized that if no one stopped it now there was no telling how many more of his friends could die.

Kira suddenly took the controls as he engaged and fired the CIWS of the Strike hitting the Egg Mobile in the damaged chest area created by Miguel catching it off guard allowing Kira to deliver a sweeping kick that knocked it to the ground.

"Please let me take the controls…this machine doesn't stand a chance with this kind of OS." Kira said as Murrue hesitantly stepped aside and allowed Kira to take the pilot's seat as he pulled out a fold-out keyboard from the side and began using it to make quick adjustments to the operating system. "This is ridiculous, how can anyone expect to run a complex machine like this with this kind of OS."

"It hasn't reached the completion state yet it can't be helped."

Working fast Kira began reconfiguring the operating system so it could hopefully operate well enough for him to have a fighting chance against the enemy machine while a second Egg Doll was approaching. However it was at that time the GINN piloted by Olor arrived on the scene as it remained airborne high above the facility searching the area for signs of Miguel's GINN.

It didn't take him along to the find the remains of his comrade's machine before he noticed the Strike and the Egg Doll responsible facing off. But before the GINN could do anything the second Egg Doll that had been approaching the area had taken notice of the new comer and began moving to intercept and attack the ZAFT machine.

As an aerial dogfight between the new machines began Kira had finished reconfiguring the Operating System for the Strike just in time as the Egg Doll was standing up again ready to press forward with its original attack. The Strike suddenly launched itself off from the ground as it tackled the Egg Doll knocking it back to the ground surprising and confusing its AI as it had been certain that the Strike should have barely been able to move let alone launch a counterattack like that.

The Egg Doll landed on its back before using its position and its legs to push the enemy machine off its body and throw the Strike through the air over its body landing atop of some small buildings behind it. The two machines got back up ready to go at it some more as Kira activated the audio system inside the cockpit to warn his friends.

"Sai, Miriallia, Tolle…get out of here!"

"Is Kira inside that thing?" Tolle asked as they heard their friend's voice.

Kira quickly opened up a system file explaining the offensive armaments the Strike had hoping it might have something that could help him finish the fight quicker. Needless to say Kira was rather disappointed at the selection of weapons he had. The Strike only had a pair of traditional fire-linked Igelstellung 75mm multi-barrel CIWS mounted in the head and two Armor Schneider combat knives stored in the hips.

"That's it!"

With little choice Kira drew the Strike's combat knives before rushing at the Egg Doll just as it was picking up its rifle. The Strike launched itself forward as the white machine stabbed the rifle in the center near the end of the barrel piercing the weapon rendering it inoperable preventing the Egg Doll from firing the weapon, but the machine still had its melee capabilities.

The Egg Doll drew one of its beam sabers from the compartment inside its wrist and readied it for use against the Strike, but Kira saw the weapon being activated and quickly retaliated by plunging one of the knives into joint above the wrist causing the hand on said arm to go limp before Kira successfully landed the second knife through chest piercing the damaged armor plating.

Having struck a vital point the Egg Doll sparked as a power surge tore through the machine before it died down. The machine fell back onto the ground completely lifeless, but Kira came under attack as the second Egg Doll had just finished off the ZAFT GINN it had engaged in battle and was now turning its attention to the last remaining mobile suit in the area.

The remains of the GINN came crashing to the ground below as it landed on the roof of the remains of the research facility as causing the weakened structure to collapse upon the weight of the mobile suit. As The Egg Doll began marching towards the Strike Gundam the destroyed remains of the GINN was raining down on the surrounding area.

Sai, Tolle and Miriallia were trying to run for cover, but between the collapsing building near them and the raining GINN debris there weren't a lot of places for them to hide for safe refuge. Kira saw his friends in danger and charged towards the enemy mobile suit as it held both knives ready hoping that the young coordinator could end this quickly because Murrue had some bad news.

"We have to hurry the Strike's main battery is almost depleted."

Sure enough as Kira looked at the energy indicator he saw that he had likely a little less than two minutes of power remaining. When the right arm of the destroyed GINN struck the Egg Doll in the back of the head causing it to stumble forward for a moment leaving a small opening Kira decided that he was going to take advantage of, but just as he was about to plunge the knives into the unmanned machine.

However the Egg Doll head butted the Strike sending it reeling backwards before it pushed onward with a fierce counterattack as it hit the Alliance machine in the face with the butt of its rifle. Caught off balance the Strike Gundam fell backwards landing on the ground, however it was at that unfortunate moment that Kira's friends were trying to flee the grounds of the facility when one of them was caught underneath the Strike as it fell.

"SAI" Tolle shouted as he and Miriallia managed to get by the falling mobile suit, but Sai on the other hand had tripped and twisted his ankle. Tolle and Miriallia could do nothing as the Alliance machine fell on top of the young man killing him instantly.

As Kira recovered from the shock of being knocked over he turned his head and saw on the screen to his right Tolle and Miriallia, but no Sai…their expressions left him with a sick feeling in his stomach which he soon figured out why they were both crushed. When the machine fell it had landed on Sai.

The knowledge that he had likely accidently killed a friend sent Kira into a rage as the Strike Gundam sprang back up attacking with greater ferocity than ever before as its young pilot saw a jewel-like purple seed explode before his eyes. The Strike Gundam kicked the Egg Doll back sending it reeling before delivering a left hook to its face followed up by a right cross.

The machine was about to counter by firing its beam rifle at the attacking Strike, but a rail gunshot stuck it square in the chest followed up by a few more shots stunning the enemy machine allowing the Alliance mobile suit to tackle it to the ground as Kira began savagely stabbing the unmanned mobile suit repeatedly in the head and chest areas of the machine.

Kira didn't stop as tears streamed down his face as he continued brutally mutilating the enemy mobile suit even after the Egg Doll had ceased to function. The young man only stopped when Murrue managed to snap him out of his berserker's rage.

"Please that's enough you defeated it…there are no more of those things." Murrue said as she grabbed Kira's shoulders and began shaking him bringing the young man back to reality. Kira fell back into the chair emotionally crushed knowing that he had lost two of his friends today…the sight of the destruction wroth by the invaders didn't help him either as it only deepen the mental scars this day would no doubt leave him with.

Above them Mwu was flying over the devastation as he was trying to open up communications with the Strike. The destruction of the facility and the surrounding area left the ace pilot silent as a feeling of guilt, powerlessness, sorrow and anger filled him.

"My god…this wasn't a raid. It looks like a fucking war took place here." The Atlantic Federation ace slammed his fist into the side of his cockpit as he continued attempts to open communication with the Strike which were providing difficult with all of the electronic interference throughout the colony.

Meanwhile outside the colony back aboard his ship; Lucas and Shadow made their way to the bridge where a nervous Decoe and Bocce were waiting while Bokkun had taken this as moment to be elsewhere on the ship since he knew Lucas wasn't pleased with what had transpired while he was recovering the results of Project Shadow.

The robots had a feeling of dread surging through their circuits as they watched Lucas step onto the bridge with Shadow in tow.

"I want to know...how in god's name did we loss almost half of our Egg Dolls?" Lucas roared as he looked down on the two frightened robots.

"Those ZAFT pilots got to four of the prototypes before the Strike force did and the last unit was captured by an Alliance officer. That last machine defeated two of our Egg Dolls while ZAFT and an ace mobile armor pilot defeated the other machines." Decoe answered worried that Lucas might rip him apart.

"You idiots…I should have deployed and destroyed them myself. Where are the ZAFT vessels now?"

"They have currently left the area…we lost them." Bocce answered as the machine was trembling.

"What about the last prototype unit?" Lucas demanded as his face was already turning red from anger.

"It's still inside the colony."

"Was the battleship destroyed at least?"

"Yes sir…there have been no signs of it surviving."

"Forgive me Doctor, but we need to head to ARK to secure it as soon as possible." Shadow said entering the conversation.

"Who is that?" Decoe asked.

"This is Shadow…he my great grandfather's creation."

"WHAT" Both robots exclaimed.

"I'll explain later right now Shadow did bring up a good point. Securing Space Colony ARK has just become our top priority. At most confirm whenever or not it's still…intact." The robots were confused by this sudden change in plans, but they didn't dare question the good doctor's son about it out of fear for their own safety. "Are we still linked to Heliopolis's computer mainframe and security system?"

"Y-y-yes sir" Decoe replied.

"Hack into the computer systems involving the lifeboats for the colony and the black box for the mainframe systems. We're going to rewrite some of the information they contain regarding what happened here."

"Rewriting the colony logs?"

"Every colony including the PLANT colonies has a special dedicated system similar to the black boxes kept on spaceships and transport vessels. This colony black box stores everything that happens at a space colony including keeping a log of incidents that happen such as our little raid upon the place." Lucas explained as his temper was back under control much to the relief of his subordinates. "When a colony is say destroyed that information is carried over to all of the life boats within said colony so when recovery crews pick them up they have a detailed record of what had transpired leading up to the colony's destruction that they pass along to proper departments of the colony owner's government depending on what happened."

"I see, but why do you want those logs rewritten?" Bocce inquired.

"I want those logs to basically say instead of unknown invasion party I want the whole thing blamed on the Atlantic Federation stating they used mobile suits developed outside of Heliopolis using stolen research data."

"But sir will they buy that?" Decoe asked.

"After we destroy the colony they will."

"WHAT?" both robots shouted as they couldn't believe what Lucas was suggesting.

"But your father wouldn't approve besides hundreds of innocent people will be killed." Bocce said trying to sway the young Robotnik from his current course of action.

"Relax the citizens of the colony had more than enough time to evacuate…I want to know how long will it take to rewrite the colony logs and implant the required incriminating evidence to pin the blame for what happened on the Atlantic Federation."

"Considering we'll have to rewrite the logs in the lifeboats we're looking at a few hours." Decoe answered.

"Make it one at least or I'll take you two apart and sell your parts on eBay." Lucas threatened.

"When we're done, how do you plan to destroy the colony?" Bocce asked.

"We're going to use the main cannons once the rewrite is done. With the colony destroyed we'll have not only covered up the evidence of our attack there, but we'll also cover up all signs of us stealing Project Shadow. However our third benefit is that we'll eliminate that last prototype that downed two of our Egg Dolls. Even if it survives the colony destruction the life support in a mobile suit and a flight suit will only last so long. We'll come back for the machine once ARK is secured…try to find out if we have any surviving robots that could tag it for us. If not send a robotic probe in there to tag it."

"Yes sir" the two robots said as they went to work hoping to finish carrying out their boss's will within their one hour time limit.