Gundam SEED Destiny: Kira

by Tellemicus Sundance

He had no memory, found drifting amongst the final battlefield. Two years of peace have passed since that day, unrest and distrust are again rising. This is the story on how he recovers what he lost, what he forgot, and what he never knew he had. DISCONTINUED

4. Chaotic Battles, Abysmal Luck

Gundam SEED Destiny
Kira
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Phase 4: Chaotic Battles, Abysmal Luck

October 2, 73 C.E
Armory One, 9:40am

"This is the pilot of the MVF-X24C Fortitude Gundam, Tolle Koenig," he said loudly and clearly into the radio. "I'm taking off to aid in the defense of Armory One."

Ignoring the rapid refusal on the other end, Tolle remotely initiated the catapult's launch system. There was no way he was going to listen to some low-level ZAFT officer telling him to not interfere! Especially not when Athrun had just contacted him through their private communicator and informed him of the situation. New ZAFT Gundams were being stolen? How cliché… What made this apparent theft even more ironic was that this was more or less the exact reason that he, Cagalli, and Athrun had journeyed to the PLANTs to speak with Chairman Durandal in the first place!

Shaking his head clear of unnecessary thoughts as he exited the catapult, he boosted the engines to maximum and flew towards the rising plumes of smoke originating from the military installation. Doing a quick fly-by, he spotted several things immediately. The trio of new Gundams, a bulky green, a streamlined black, and a dual-shielded blue, that were running amok were busy battling against a fourth mobile suit that looked remarkably similar to the old X105 Strike Gundam, except for the red coloring.

Tolle continued to fly around high out of sight, carefully watching the three Gundams battle that fourth. Though he was no legendary ace like Athrun, Kira, or even Commander La Flaga, even he could easily see that the pilot of that red Gundam was newbie. There was a noticeable awkwardness to the suit's movements and the tiniest of hesitations before each attack. That pilot was probably just a kid who'd recently graduated from the Academy, not even having seen what true combat was yet.

"Tolle! Are you there?!" Athrun's voice sounded loudly on their radio.

"I'm here," he responded instantly. "Where are you and Cagalli?"

"Cagalli and I are inside a ZAKU right now," the Coordinator pilot answered. "Where are you?"

"I'm above the battle, gathering surveillance on the enemies," the young man said as he steered his new machine around to once again view the fight below. "Do you want me to join in? I'm not sure that red Gundam can fight all three alone."

"If you think he needs help, step in immediately!" Cagalli spoke up suddenly.

"Yes, Madam!" he said with crisp military precision.

No sooner had those words left his mouth than the green and blue Gundams suddenly lunged towards the red defender. Jerking the Fortitude into a sharp descent at the attackers, his weapons locked on instantly but he had started firing even before the proper lock. It turned out to be a good thing he'd shot first, the new Gundams' reaction times were startlingly quick to the target lock.

As the green one dodged to the side, the blue one opened those strange blue shields and unleashed six deadly beams towards him. Quick as lightning, Tolle switched out of armor-mode and into mobile suit mode. As the suit transformed, the armor blurred to a gray color for just a moment. Upon landing somewhat heavily in front of the blue, the once orange and black jetfighter had now become Orb Union's signature orange and white mobile suit color scheme. While the blue one turned to fully confront the new threat, the green one quickly rushed away to help the black one fighting against the red ZAFT Gundam.

Upon seeing yet another new model, the pilot of the blue Gundam froze for just a second, no doubt believing that the Fortitude was another ZAFT Gundam. It was during that second's hesitation that Tolle used to grab one of the two boomerangs stored on the Fortitude's shoulders and threw it towards the enemy as he grabbed a beam saber in the other hand. The blue suit was clearly an artillery unit, so close-range combat was its weakness. All Tolle needed to do was to narrow the gap and he'd be much more likely to win, if he wasn't shot down prior to that.

Knocking the attacking beam weapon aside with one of its shields, the blue Gundam turned its chest towards the charging Orb Gundam and fired its Callidus multi-phase cannon. Jumping to the side, Tolle brought the Fortitude's beam saber slashing forward as the cannon blast missed him by a narrow margin. With his opposite hand, he caught the recoiling boomerang and brought it slashing forward as the blue Gundam blocked the saber with its shield yet again. Using its beam lance's greater reach to its advantage, the blue Gundam was able to deflect the boomerang-armed hand to the side. Then it reversed its lance's direction and moved the beam slashing towards the Fortitude's cockpit. Quickly bouncing backwards, Tolle showered the enemy mobile suit with Vulcan gunfire to cover his momentary retreat.

"Tolle!" Athrun called out. "Cagalli's injured, we're withdrawing! I'm gonna dock with that ship nearby. And don't get too carried away!"

"Pah!" Tolle snorted in amusement. "Please try to trust me for once!"

It was then that the entire area suddenly shook quite violently as sounds of a powerful explosion echoed throughout the PLANT. For just a brief instant, Tolle wasn't a Lieutenant of the Orb military piloting his fourth experimental model in a battle against a Gundam thief. For just a brief instant, he was a tech school student studying computer programming and basic mobile suit operating systems who was suddenly caught up in a surprise attack by ZAFT forces.

If the pilot of the blue Gundam had not been occupied with a conversation with his fellow thieves, Tolle would've easy prey as he attempted to drag himself out of the past. These flashbacks had been happening at odd times ever since the end of the war two years ago, and he was really starting to hate them!

Turning his attention back to the battle at hand, he watched as his opponent and the green mobile suit suddenly took to the sky. So, they were planning on escaping now? That explosion must've been their signal. Well, he certainly wasn't going to let them go without a fight! Gunning his thrusters, he shot up into the air after them. A quick glance at his unit's power supply said that he was well within the acceptable range, easily another ten to fifteen minutes of power

As he was flying after the retreating thieves, he spotted a pair of uniquely colored ZAKU that were quickly closing in on the fleeing suits. The pilots of those ZAKU must be ZAFT Reds, since only Reds and commanders were given the privilege of coloring their units. Good, those two would be a big help! But as soon as that thought had crossed his mind, the engine of the red ZAKU suddenly let out a small explosion before rapidly losing power. Spoke too soon I guess.

"Pilot of the unknown mobile suit, identify yourself!" a sharp, militaristic voice demanded fiercely over the radio.

"This is Lieutenant Tolle Koenig, escort mobile suit pilot of the Orb Union Chief Representative: Cagalli Yula Athha," Tolle answered quickly in a smart military-formal voice. "I was ordered by the Representative to aid you in the recapture of those machines."

"Understood," the unknown pilot said. "I am Rey Za Burrel of ZAFT."

Up ahead, the red Gundam was making repeated attempts to attack the black one, but was deftly blocked by the green and blue Gundams each time. The black Gundam in the meantime was shooting its beam weapons into the PLANT's exterior wall in a clearly frantic manner.

"Minerva!" a new voice called out over the radio. "Send out the Force Silhouette!"

"The what?" Tolle couldn't help but ask himself.

Shaking his head, he focused on more important issues, namely rushing the blue Gundam once again with his beam rifle flashing. Easily blocking the simple beam blasts, the blue responded with a full barrage of its own weaponry. Rather than attempt to block all that energy with his simple shield, he changed the Fortitude into its armor mode and hastily evaded the beams.

As he was doing this, he was treated to a full view of the red Gundam exchanging its backpack for a newer one which had arrived by some kind of small transport plane. When the new winged backpack attached to the machine, the red shifted to blue and the resemblance to the old X105 Strike was even more noticeable than before. He couldn't resist a snort at the irony of ZAFT creating its own version of that ever-versatile Gundam.

Swinging back around to attack the thieves again, Tolle watched as the green and blue Gundams unleashed waves of overwhelming energy upon the weakened PLANT exterior in quick succession of one another. The exterior wall was not designed to withstand such power in such a short amount of time. So when a sudden section opened into a 'relatively' tiny hole on the exterior, Tolle wasn't overly surprised.

Seeing the stolen Gundams fly through the new hole without a moment's hesitation, Tolle let out a sharp growl of annoyance and boosted his throttle, flying after them immediately. The Strike-lookalike was only a few seconds behind him, followed by Rey, as he exited the PLANT.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

Outside Armory One
10:04am

He knew he wasn't going to like it, but he had to know. After that one time almost two years ago, he had been unable to check up on his work, in a sense.

At first it had merely been because Captain Brimfield had requested he not repeat the incident. The reasoning had been that if he kept trying to interfere in such a way, he really would cause the war that he was trying to prevent by erasing their database and designs. Then it was because the next thirteen months had him continuously preoccupied with the reconstruction of the Freedom. And the following eight months were spent calibrating the Freedom's weapons systems, fine tuning the OS, continuously examining the structural integrity, and making the new mobile suit more comfortable for long distance travels.

Once the work on the Neo Freedom, as Akira had taken to calling it, had been completed, Brimfield had finally unveiled the grand surprise of the identity of his new mobile suit. He was giving the Neo Freedom to Akira?! Sure, Akira may have been involved in quite a few skirmishes and saved quite a few of the pirates' lives, but…giving away the Freedom like that just seemed like overkill.

However, Akira finally decided that it was time that he moved on. After politely bidding farewell to his friends and comrades of the Early Harvest pirates, Akira took the Neo Freedom to Earth. His original plan had been to start looking for people who might have known him in his past. He had landed in the wilderness of Western Europe and hid the Neo Freedom after placing a complicated lock on it.

Though he hadn't found what he was looking for, he did come to a very relieving realization. Apparently shortly after the fiasco with his computer virus that had struck both the Alliance and ZAFT, many of the radicals on Earth had calmed themselves. It seemed that due to the simultaneous crashing of both nations' defense and computer networks had caused both to keep in even greater contact with each other, which incidentally created some kind of level of trust between them when they realized they were sharing the same problems. Now, no longer were they screaming for the deaths of all space monsters and abominations of nature. Instead, they seemed somewhat content to let the past be and just live their lives peacefully. This change of opinion had lifted an almost unbearable weight off Akira's shoulders, a weight he didn't even know he was carrying.

After that trip, he began a series of travels and explorations throughout the world. He would fly his Neo Freedom, under the stealth of Mirage Colloid, from one country to the next and explore the countryside and cities by foot. This near constant travel of his gave him a very broad scope of just how…content the world was, despite the rather fragile truce that had been holding it together. Europe, the Middle East, a fair amount of Asia, and the island nations of the Pacific could all be considered 'moderates' now. The Americas, Africa, and the Eurasian government were still as biased and aggressive as ever though. Still it was as close to paradise for the young Coordinator as he could hope to find since it didn't seem likely that war would break out anytime soon.

Then reality came and slapped him hard in the face, just as he was planning on finally visiting the Orb Union. He had been coincidentally passing by a military installation on his way back to the Neo Freedom after a long tour of a city on Hawaii. With his rather sharp hearing, he was able to overhear some military commanders, most likely Generals, discussing some rumors of ZAFT developing new mobile suits and Gundams. Though the men had merely made a passing comment on a seemingly irrelevant issue, it had been more than enough to cause Akira to realize that he had been living in a fantasy thus far.

He had to know if those rumors were! The Earth Alliance more than likely had continued developing new Gundams as well, but they could wait. Infiltrating top-secret Natural installations was a walk in the park compared to ZAFT installations.

That was why he was now flying towards Armory One, Mirage Colloid deployed to mask his presence from everyone. Mirage Colloid was one of the more useful new features that he and Professor K had given to the Neo Freedom. The secret with the colloid was that it only lasted a certain amount of time depending on the amount of power that the battery supplying it could maintain the output necessary to keep the mirage particles covering the suit's armor active. That was why the colloid was more dependably used in warships than mobile suits. With the Neo Freedom's fission reactor, Akira could keep the colloid up for almost as long as he wanted, so long as he wasn't engaged in a battle.

Speaking of a battle, the Neo Freedom's sensors were picking up multiple heat sources coming from near the outer shell of Armory One. What was happening over there?

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

It was only thanks to the improved sensors that Erica Simmons had thankfully installed into the Fortitude that Tolle was able to locate the retreating Gundams. They were flying on minimal power to best avoid detection. He couldn't help but grin slightly at that. Flying on minimal power meant that he could catch up to them in next to no time, maybe even being able to disable one of them before they could react! Turning his machine in their direction, he went flying after them. For whatever reason, neither the Strike-lookalike Gundam nor Rey followed him.

He was nearly upon them when his sensors detected what they were flying towards. No sooner had he realized that the signal was from a warship than an alert rang out. A target lock! Hastily swerving to the side, Tolle saw a pair of beams shooting past where his former position from behind him. What he saw was a pair of black Strike Daggers wearing some kind of dual heavy-cannon over their shoulders.

Transforming back into a mobile suit, Tolle yelled out over the radio, "Attacking from behind?! Now that was just dishonorable!" To accent his point, he fired a pair of shots at the closer of the two and was rewarded in seeing it explode spectacularly.

As he was moving to aim at the second, the alarm sounded again. This time, he could almost sense the direction in which the attack was coming: the warship. It was, after all, the most likely attacker since the stolen Gundams had probably boarded by now. Deftly dodging to the side, he showered the attacking missiles with his Vulcan cannons, causing a fair portion to explode which destroyed the rest.

The beating alarm sounded again and Tolle reflexively put his Gundam into a sharp ascent. His rapid climb saved him from the remaining black Strike Dagger's attack. Yelling out in anger at yet another dishonorable attack, Tolle snatched out one of his beam sabers at hurled it with pinpoint accuracy into the Dagger's cockpit. With more missiles beginning to rain down upon him, he danced out of their way as he headed over to the unexploded wreck that still held his beam saber. Upon retrieving the weapon, he bodily threw the immobile suit into the missile barrage.

Transforming into his mobile armor for greater speed, he flew off to the side, circled around, and then took a near-suicidal charge at the ship's broadside. Dodging the Igelstellung cannons became steadily more difficult the closer he got until he forced to change back into a mobile suit so he could use the shield more effectively. However, not even with the shield's help was he able to protect himself from all the attacks. No less than four Igelstellungs struck the Fortitude in various places, as well as a missile hitting the shield very heavily, before he was finally too close for the cannons to be of much effect. It was with a broad smile of triumph that he landed upon the warship's starboard Gottfried beam cannon turret and plunged both his beam sabers into it, melting the armor and energy casings inside almost simultaneously. Hastily jumping to the turret on the portside, he repeated the process as the cannon he'd just abandoned exploded, violently rocking the ship.

Shifting back into his mobile armor, he quickly flew away to think up a new attack strategy. However an all-too-familiar beeping informed him of the one thing he'd been hoping wouldn't happen. The Fortitude was dangerously low on power, scarcely enough to maintain the VPS armor for more than a few more minutes!

"Dammit!" he yelled, quickly retreating to a much safer distance.

In doing so, he was able to see three signal flares suddenly light up the space some distance ahead of him. Focusing his camera in the direction of the return flares, he saw that it was ZAFT's new warship, the Minerva. Athrun said that he and Cagalli would be boarding the ship, right? Are they still there?

"This is Lieutenant Tolle Koenig of the Orb Union," he called over the radio as he flew the Fortitude over towards the warship. "Minerva, do you copy?"

"This is Captain Gladys speaking," a female voice said after a moment. "What do you need, Lieutenant?"

"My Gundam is damaged and nearly out of power," he said, trying to speak as clearly as he could. "If at all possible, I request permission to land and recharge my machine. Also, my comrade informed me earlier that he and the Orb Chief Representative would be boarding your ship. I wish to verify that they are still aboard."

There was a long moment of silence. He could easily guess that this Captain Gladys was hastily trying to confirm his statement of Cagalli and Athrun being aboard her ship, as well as trying to decide if she should allow him permission. Finally, after what seemed an eternity to him, she replied, "Permission granted. You may proceed to the starboard hangar bay. And please hurry, we must pursue that warship with all due haste."

"I copy," he answered, relief coloring his voice. "Starboard hangar bay, on the double!"

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

Minerva
10:30am

"Athha of Orb?" Shinn Asuka asked in a strictly neutral voice as he and Lunamaria floated up to her ZAKU's cockpit.

"Yeah!" the short-haired redhead answered quickly, rather enthusiastically. "I was totally surprised as well. What are the odds of meeting a big war hero all the way out here?"

As the girl was finishing her sentence, she noticed her companion's gaze turning over towards the new Orb Gundam. "What is it, Shinn?"

"Nothing," he said, his voice thick with suppressed emotion. After a moment though, he asked, "What's up with that ZAKU over there? It wasn't assigned to the Minerva. Do you know who the pilot was?"

"Believe it or not, it was her bodyguard," Luna said, glancing over at the green machine that was missing an arm and its shield. Smiling ever so slightly in an almost knowing manner, she leaned forward as though to whisper a piece of confidential information. "He said his name was Alex…but it might be Athrun! Athrun Zala."

That statement drew a slight gasp of surprise from Shinn. Despite how much he now despised Orb and all it stood for, even he would acknowledge that its most famed resident, Athrun Zala, was one of the best mobile suit pilots ever to have lived. If he were honest with himself, he would've liked to have had a chance to have met the guy. "Athrun…Zala."

"What do you mean you can't fix my Gundam?!" a loud voice suddenly yelled out in anger from the other side of the hangar, earning curious glances from everyone in the hangar. Lunamaria and Shinn both shared a silent glance before pushing themselves in the direction of the voice's owner. "The Fortitude is, for all intents and purposes, just like another run-of-the-mill Murasame with a few new little toys! In fact, it's structurally identical to the GINN! How the hell can't you be able to fix it?!"

"Listen, Lieutenant," Madd Aves, the mechanics team leader grunted out in a strained voice. "While you may be right about the structural similarities, neither my crew nor I have trained on Murasame mobile suits before. And we don't carry any of the basic parts necessary to do even precautionary maintenance on a machine built for a Natural like you."

The pilot, a brown-haired young man with several ugly scars running from his cheek and down his neck, abruptly shut his mouth as the mechanic's words sank in. It was common knowledge that a lot of the components needed for Naturals to pilot mobile suits were drastically different than those of Coordinators. The ion pumps for Coordinators alone were easily three times larger than those used in Natural-oriented suits since they could handle more power more easily, while Naturals compensated with using ion pumps that were trimmer but in greater quantities. The overall outcome of these two different systems was a different kind of mobile suit each that had roughly the same performance capabilities.

"Dammit!" the scarred Lieutenant growled, slamming his hand into his mobile suit's armor in his frustration. Turning back to the mechanic, he said, "Do you at least have a spare toolset I could borrow?"

Nodding, Aves pushed himself away to hurriedly find the toolset so as not to set off the Lieutenant again.

"And just who are you?" Shinn demanded with a fierce glare in his eye as he spotted the Orb insignia on the pilot's sleeve. "And what's an Orb pilot doing onboard the Minerva?"

Neither the pilot nor Lunamaria could miss how Shinn spat the nation's name, as though it had left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. Returning the boy's glare full force, he answered nonetheless, "I am Lieutenant Tolle Koenig, the escort mobile suit pilot of the Chief Representative of Orb. And just who are you?"

Lunamaria couldn't help but gasp slightly. She recognized this scarred pilot's name quite quickly. After all, he was one of the 'lesser' key members of the Three Ships Alliance during the Bloody Valentine War. It was said that he'd first piloted a mobile suit in the defense of Orb against the Earth Forces and had played a significant role in the three-way battle at the Mendel Colony as well. While not nearly as good of a pilot as Kira Yamato or Athrun Zala, Lunamaria had little doubt that he could fly circles around even Shinn.

"Tolle Koenig, eh?" Shinn repeated almost snidely. "That's funny, I heard that he had gotten killed during a battle with ZAFT. So how do you claim to be him when he's clearly dead?"

"Funny thing about rumors," Tolle remarked, his face a careful void of emotion or reaction. "They are only based on facts…I was able to turn my jetfighter just enough to the side that I wasn't killed outright. Instead I got these 'little beauties' as souvenirs." He said the last statement while lightly tapping the red scars on his neck. "And now, again, just who are you?"

"Shinn Asuka," the boy said. "And I suppose you were privileged to land here because your precious Athha was aboard as well."

"Damn, you catch on fast," Tolle observed in a painfully obvious ridiculing tone. "You probably think you're hot stuff, don't you?"

"Well, they didn't assign him the pilot of the Impulse for being a slouch," Lunamaria said, frowning slightly at the ace's bad attitude. Though she could kind of understand his frustration; his mobile suit was damaged and despite being on a ship with a crew who should be able to repair it, they couldn't. Yes, he definitely had a valid reason for being upset.

"The Impulse?" Tolle asked, glancing over at her. For just a second, his hard gaze softened as he looked at her. But then he blinked and that razor sharp edge was back again. "Is that the name of that Strike-lookalike Gundam I saw earlier?"

"Strike-lookalike?!" Shinn snapped, quite offended. "Where do you get the right to compare the Impulse to that antique?!"

"Well, considering I was there when it was considered 'state-of-the-art' and had my best friend piloting it continuously to save us from the Le Creuset Team, I think I'm more than privileged," Tolle answered, a grin pulling at one side of his face as he watched the younger pilot start to get a wild look in his eye. "So, the Impulse is the name of that Gundam? With you as its pilot, I guess it was aptly named indeed."

"And just what is that suppose to mean?!" Shinn demanded angrily, his voice escalating in volume.

"That you're reckless, impulsive, and, judging from this little conversation, quite easy to anger," Tolle said, suddenly seeming like the mature adult that he was as his eyes took on an almost pitying gaze.

Lunamaria couldn't help but blink at the abrupt one-eighty that seemed to have come over the veteran pilot. What was he doing now? Some kind of test for Shinn? Or was that earlier conversation the test?

"What gives you the right to judge me?!" Shinn demanded, practically yelling now as his hands started trembling, yearning to grab hold of Tolle's neck to strangle him.

"Tell me, Shinn," Tolle said. "What happened to you when we chased after those thieves through the hole?"

"They got away," Shinn said simply. "Then me and Rey got ambushed by a mobile armor. What's it to you? Show me some respect!"

"So, in other words," Tolle said, shaking his head slightly as he let out a small sigh. "you had to fight a single mobile armor with Rey until it was forced to retreat when its mothership fell under attack."

"How did you know?" Luna asked blinking.

"Because I was the one who was doing the attack," Tolle said, turning to face Aves as he finally returned with a bulky container. "I was able to locate the mothership, destroy two of its mobile suits, and then damage two of its primary weapon turrets before I was forced to retreat due to low power."

Glancing at Shinn, he asked, "First, gain the self-discipline and foresight to avoid battles that you shouldn't even start, and then I will consider respecting you." Rather than wait for a reply, the young Lieutenant took a hold of the toolbox and pushed himself towards his mobile suit's torso.

With a growl of anger, Shinn decided to leave and pushed himself towards the doorway to leave. Losing interest and her ZAKU's maintenance forced Lunamaria to go bouncing towards her suit to help speed its repairs along. But as she was settling into the cockpit, she couldn't help but sigh in slight resignation. Lieutenant Koenig was…a very strange guy. That much was certain!

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

Approaching the Debris Belt
2:06pm

Akira found himself anchored to the hull of ZAFT's newest warship, the Minerva, only a few hours later. He hadn't had a chance to sneak into the PLANT like he'd originally intended, instead he had merely observed the battle of between the ZAKU, ZGMF-X56S Impulse, and that Earth Alliance mobile armor. By intercepting transmissions, he had learned that the Alliance had somehow stolen three of the new ZAFT experimental Gundams and were attempting to make their getaway.

This discovery had angered him greatly. Two years ago, Akira had made a pledge to himself that he'd do everything in his power to prevent another war or senseless battles. His first act on that pledge had been that virus he'd planted. And now the Earth and its people were well on their way to forgiving the sins and mistakes made in the past. However, with the theft of those Gundams whose preliminary designs he'd tried to destroy, the probability of another war starting had just sky-rocketed. Thus he came to an immediate decision; he would personally destroy those Gundams before any remaining radicals could start crying for war again.

While the Neo Freedom had far greater engines due to several redesigned components and more efficient usage of power, not even it could maintain the same high velocity as a warship for extended periods. After anchoring himself directly to the stern of the Minerva's bridge, he dropped the Mirage Colloid and deactivated all non-vital functions to minimize the possibility of detection, despite hiding in the warship's shadow. So now he was passing the time with attempting to hack his way into the warship's computer network. To his surprise, he was having a great deal of difficulty hacking the ship's supercomputer.

"It would seem that ZAFT has learned from what happened two years ago," he grumbled to himself as he was again denied access.

Sighing in defeat, he reluctantly shutdown his terminal and idly stretched his stiff body. No matter how comfortable the cockpit with its various (small) luxuries, a mobile suit cockpit was still a very confined space and not designed or built for long-distance or time-consuming travels. Feeling bored, he opened the files containing the brief skirmish he'd witnessed the Impulse in. Even if he still possessed the original designs, there was nothing to prevent the final product from having differences to what the plans suggested.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

"Captain, I've lost the signal," said Bart Heim, the Minerva's sensor and secondary systems operator.

"Were you able to track it to its source?" Captain Talia Gladys asked, glanced towards her subordinate.

"No madam," Bart answered with clear anger in his voice. "Whatever broadcasting frequency the signal was using, the Minerva's supercomputer was unable to accurately pinpoint its location."

Growling quietly in annoyance, Gladys resisted the urge to hit her chair in her frustration; she had a position and reputation to uphold after all. The Minerva had detected that invading signal for nearly two and a half hours. Normally it would've been considered child's play for the supercomputer to isolate and pinpoint a hacker before retaliating in kind to the invasion. But for this particular incident, it just couldn't seem to get a proper fix for any significant degree of time. Clearly this hacker was a truly gifted computer specialist and quite determined to find something, if the extremely long attempted cyber break-in was anything to go by. If it weren't for the obvious skill of this hacker as well as the great distance between them, Gladys would've been inclined to believe that the hacker was aboard the ship currently called Bogey One. Frankly, she had no idea of just who they were dealing with or what this person's intentions were.

"Did you at least pinpoint what it was that it was after?" she asked after a moment.

"Not entirely, Captain," Bart said, looking back towards her. "The signal kept bouncing from one file group to the next at rather random intervals. However, it did pay quite a bit of attention to the files containing the technical data on the Impulse and the other stolen Gundams that we had in record."

"Yes, I see," was all she said. That didn't really tell her anything that she wasn't really expecting. If this hacker was indeed in league with those thieves, of course it would be quite interested in the Impulse's data and combat potential.

"Madam!" Bart said suddenly as his terminal posted an alert. "We've caught Bogey One! It's at Orange 55, Mark 90, Alpha, distance 8,000!"

Putting the mystery of the hacker on the backburner, Gladys instantly jumped back into her role as the captain of a warship.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

Debris Belt
2:49pm

Athrun just didn't like the feeling that he was getting. He'd been having some pretty bad feelings ever since Cagalli and he had arrived at Armory One. As it turned out, his war-sharpened instincts had been quite correct as the unthinkable happened right in front of them. Then he had to commandeer a ZAKU in order to not only protect Cagalli, but he had to take them aboard the nearby warship since it was arguably the safest place available. And now they were trapped aboard for the duration of the chase after thieves with ZAFT Supreme Chairman Gilbert Durandal and his silky tongue.

But what made their stay on the ship all the more unbearable was that he continuously found himself falling back into old, military-training ingrained habits. Habits like returning salutes to fellow soldiers and crewmen, attempting to mesmerize his way through the ship so that he'd navigate through it more efficiently, critically examining the postures of the soldiers and equipment. Despite the war being officially over for almost two years, he found himself growing almost…homesick was the only word that he could use that even vaguely explained what he was feeling.

But he had sworn to never pilot a mobile suit or Gundam again, and to never have to take another man or woman's life away again. A lot of things had changed for Athrun after the war ended and Kira disappeared without a trace. Athrun, who'd already experienced the pain of losing his friend when he believed he had killed Kira earlier, had been more 'prepared' to deal with the grief than the others, especially Cagalli and Lacus. So he had stuck close to the blonde who'd somehow stolen his heart, he helped her come to terms with Kira's likely death just as she had for him earlier. Then, after settling things in the PLANTs, he had permanently moved to Orb to live with Cagalli and Lacus to serve as Cagalli's aide. Athrun was strictly a professional whenever he had to go anywhere in public with Cagalli, attempting to live up to his new alias as Alex Dino.

And then the raid on Armory One occurred and he was again forced into the cockpit of a mobile suit. Though he dearly wished to deny it, the brief time back inside that death machine had been an exhilarating experience for him. It had felt as though he had returned home after a long time living aboard, being surrounded by the familiar environment of a mobile suit cockpit. Why was that?!

Athrun was no real expert when it came to politics, but he knew the basic scenario of putting up good appearances and offering kind words when they were necessary. That was the type of work had he continuously found himself dealing with since he took up the job of being Cagalli's aide. But why was he now finding himself once again thinking like a soldier, preparing to take command of a mobile suit squadron or even the ship itself? And presently sitting in a chair upon the very bridge of that warship wasn't helping his mentality in the least bit!

Why wasn't the enemy ship altering course or launching mobile suits to counter the four that were currently bearing down on them? The ship most assuredly had detected them at near the same time that they had detected it. But it wasn't changing course, inside the Debris Belt, even with enemy mobile suits rapidly approaching…That could only mean!

"A decoy!" he said loudly at the same time that Captain Gladys let out a cry of anger, having come to the same conclusion at the same time.

It was about that time that the ambush was sprung with the three stolen Gundams ruthlessly attacking Minerva's rookie pilots. And then the lead player of the ambush made its appearance...behind them!

With a pair of mobile suits that had been accompanying the ship closing in on the Minerva from one side and the enemy vessel attacking from the rear, that left only one real option for the Minerva to take. During the ensuing run around the asteroid in a feeble attempt to shake off the pursuers, Athrun remained utterly silent, his gaze fixed ahead with a focused glare that he'd not truly worn for over a year. He wanted to get there and fight, he knew he could make a difference. But he couldn't anymore. He'd made a pledge to give up fighting and that was a pledge he wasn't about to break just yet.

However the debris provided adequate shielding for the enemy mobile suits, which allowed them to further terrorize the Minerva. It was a frustrating situation for everyone onboard, especially since they were unable to properly counterattack.

"Half of our firepower is wasted like this!" Gladys snapped with her own frustration clear in her voice.

Just as those words had left her mouth, a pair of bright explosions lit up the space where the enemy suits were located. For just a second, everyone stared in slight surprise. What just happened?

"What happened?!" Gladys yelled quickly.

"Enemy mobile suits have been destroyed!" Bart reported, sounding genuinely bewildered.

"But it wasn't from us!" Chen Jian Yan, the fire control officer, said in a confused voice.

"Then who?!"

"I don't know, Captain! I'm not picking anything up on radar!"

"Never mind," Gladys said. "Malik, get us clear of this asteroid immediately!"

"Yes, Captain!" Malik confirmed, already attempting to find a clear path.

"Captain, we've got missiles incoming!"

"Intercept them!"

"But they're not…"

Athrun, in an instant, realized just what was happening. The only reason that they wouldn't be aiming for the Minerva was because they'd acquired another…better target. "Move it!" he yelled, jumping into his old battle-hardened mindset yet again. "Get the ship away from the asteroid!"

In the moment it took Gladys to look back at him in surprise, a string of near-instantaneous explosions occurred behind them.

"Captain, I'm detecting an unknown…a mobile armor!" Bart called out a second later. "Directly behind us!"

"A mobile armor?!" several people asked at once, all turning to glance at Bart for clarification.

"What? Where did it come from?!" Gladys demanded. Even as she made that demand, another string of explosions lit up the debris field behind them. Snatching up her inter-ship communicator, her connected to the mobile suit hangar and said, "Aves, send Rey out!"

"Madam, the catapult isn't completely clear for the moment," the lead mechanic answered as he watched the pilot already jumping into his white ZAKU.

"Walk him out if you have to!" she ordered. "We've got an unknown out there that I'm not inclined to trust just yet!" Turning her attention back to the bridge, she called, "Malik! Get us clear!"

"I'm doing that now, Madam!"

"Doesn't this ship have any more available mobile suits to deploy?" Durandal asked quietly.

"Yes sir, but we don't have the pilots to use them," Gladys answered, earning a small gasp from Athrun as he had to quickly bite his tongue to prevent himself from offering to pilot one. This was noticed by both Cagalli and Durandal.

"Where's the Impulse and ZAKU?" Gladys demanded from Meyrin.

"They're still engaging the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss!" the CIC replied quickly.

"Captain!" Bart called out. "An enemy mobile armor is approaching the unknown!"

"Launch CIWS and Dispar interceptor missiles at the mobile armors," Gladys called out.

"No, don't!" Athrun snapped out in a commanding voice. "That unknown armor was just offering covering fire! Otherwise we'd be buried in a mountain in rocks! Send support to the armor!"

"But we have no idea of the pilot's intentions or how we only now were able to detect it!" Arthur Trine, the second-in-command, pointed out.

"The pilot's actions thus far have indicated that he's intending to help us survive this mess," Athrun countered immediately, pointedly ignoring Cagalli's questioning stare. "Our immediate need is for his cooperation in distracting the enemy until we're able to properly retaliate!"

"You do have a point," Gladys commented quietly, as if in resignation. Turning to Meyrin, she said, "Contact the unknown armor to clarify its intentions!"

"Yes, madam!" Meyrin replied before suddenly saying. "Rey has launched, Captain!"

As the Minerva's bow finally pulled free of the asteroid and was turning to face the approaching enemy ship, they could vaguely see the engine-emissions of the combating armors.

"Captain, we've got a visual of the unknown armor!" Bart stated.

"Put it on screen!" Gladys ordered immediately.

The image that they saw was among one of the more bizarre they'd ever encountered. The mobile armor had a very broad and bulky main body, eight segmented wings, a pair of bulky engines under the stern, and a pair of beam cannons protruding from the fuselage sections. The overall color scheme of the machine was white and an almost-faded orange. However there was no doubt in the minds of anyone seeing that image that this unknown armor was most likely a transformable mobile suit.

"Well," Chairman Durandal said. "This is an unexpected development."

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

"You're pretty good in that machine," a confident voice said over the radio. "It's such a shame that I must destroy you now."

"You can try," Akira answered, the filter on his helmet concealing his true voice.

Yanking the Neo Freedom's controls, he nimbly danced his current-mobile armor between the deadly beams of his opponent's gunbarrels with an agility that was almost unnatural. For the thousandth time since this fight had started, Akira was quite thankful of his insight to adding additional maneuvering thrusters to the wings for this exact reason! Without them, he most assuredly would have been crippled in space by now. The pilot of that Exus armor was superb!

Akira was so focused on swerving between the gunbarrels that he ignored the inquiring message from the Minerva as it launched a spray of missiles and CIWS fire towards the Exus. With exceptional skill, both pilots were able to evade the missiles before resuming their death dance.

"Tell me, pilot," the same voice asked. "To what do you hope to accomplish by aiding that ship?"

"My reasons are my business," Akira said before flipping the Neo Freedom through a complete 180 and reversed his flight path thanks to those extra thrusters, narrowly avoiding a piece of asteroid debris in the process. Immediately locking onto a target, he fired the Kaefer Zwei beam cannons and was rewarded with a resulting explosion of one of gunbarrel pods.

"That was impressive," the Exus pilot commented idly, already reacting to avoid being hit. But before he could attack the unknown armor in turn, a sixth sense warned him to dodge. Only a split second later a white ZAKU appeared, its beam rifle firing at the Exus without remorse. In a display of astounding accuracy, the ZAKU pilot had been able to hit one of the ever-moving gunbarrels and destroyed it. "So, the White Baldy finally comes out to play as well."

At that moment, the Minerva blasted its Tannhauser positron cannon at the enemy ship. The Alliance ship was just barely able to avoid a direct hit, but the massive cannon blast still had a glancing blow with the ship's starboard side. Upon seeing the two warships fly past one another, a mutual agreement went between the two combating pilots: it was time to leave now that the Minerva was able to properly fight back.

While the Exus recalled its remaining two gunbarrels, Akira activated the Neo Freedom's Mirage Colloid and went flying back towards the Minerva for another piggyback ride out of the area. Now that the Alliance ship knew of his presence, they (and the Minerva) would undoubtedly be on their guard for him, even if he could sneak up on them using the Mirage Colloid. Besides, he was a little tired after that fight with the Exus. Mobile suit combat was his strength, not mobile armor.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

Minerva, Debris Belt
3:21pm

Athrun stood to one side of the Minerva's lounge by himself, his eyes glued to the monitor hanging from the wall that was showing the unknown mobile armor that had appeared out of nowhere. His hand was dancing across the screen as he froze sections of the video clippings and dragging them off the side for later examination.

He couldn't put his finger on it, but he could've sworn that he knew that armor from somewhere. It had such distinctive features, namely those strange wings. Features that he knew he knew quite well from somewhere, but the exact memory of kept slipping out of his grasp.

He was so entranced in his work that he didn't notice the quartet of rookies enter the room behind him and freeze upon seeing him. Athrun was in the process of reviewing the strange armor's seemingly-impossible reversal that allowed it to destroy one of the gunbarrels when a loud voice finally penetrated his concentration.

"Well, well," a vaguely familiar feminine voice said behind him. "We were just talking about you, Athrun Zala. And, presto, here you are!"

"My name is Alex Dino," he said distractedly as he froze the image and dragged it aside as well.

"Really?" the redhead drawled in an almost playful manner. "Then I suppose I'm just imagining a civilian trying to analyze the abilities of that strange mobile armor that I've been hearing so much about?"

A loud snort of disgust sounded from the other side of the room, earning a brief glance from Athrun to see that it was that same angry ZAFT red from earlier. "Who cares about somebody from Orb? They don't understand crap!" Without a second glance, he left the room.

Athrun paid the angry boy no further attention as he returned his mind to his project at hand. Quite curious, the two Hawke sisters walked forward to peek over his shoulder to see the various images he was busying studying.

"Wow, it's even weirder looking than I thought it would be," Lunamaria commented dryly. "I wonder what kind of idiot would design a mobile armor like that."

"That's no mobile armor," Athrun corrected, only half his mind on the conversation. "See the way the engines here are located in two entirely separate sections here? And you can see arms tucked under that top section here, which also obscures a head piece. Plus, that top section is clearly a shield. That is a mobile suit."

Blinking slightly, Lunamaria quickly double-checked the places that he'd mentioned and she quickly realized that he was indeed correct. That was a mobile suit!

"Is it true that it suddenly just disappeared after the battle?" she asked, glancing over at the focused young man. She silently admitted to herself that he was indeed a very handsome guy, regardless of what he said his name was. She was honestly jealous of Representative Athha to have him as her aide.

"Yes," Athrun answered instantly. "It seems to be able to employ the Mirage Colloid, and quite efficiently as well."

"I wonder if I'll be able to see it up close," Lunamaria commented to herself as she turned to leave, she could clearly hear the shower calling her name.

"If you're lucky, you won't," Athrun said, his gaze not leaving the monitor. "If this is the level of combat potential that pilot can handle while flying that machine in that configuration, then you can rest assured he's a hundred times better when he's using it as a mobile suit."

"I guess we'll see," Lunamaria said before leaving the lounge, Meyrin hot on her heels.

---

(Auhtor's Note) I dont' have much to say this. Just that I hope you all enjoy this chapter! That and that I've created a poll on my homepage where you can place your votes on what new types of armaments that the Neo Freedom could have. Please note that the only features that I have completed decided on are its transforming into a mobile armor, enhanced maneuverability, and Mirage Colloid.

One last note before I end this chapter is this; a brief explanation to Tolle's seeming change in personality earlier in the chapter. It is rather simple when you think about it. As FictionReader98 has reminded me, Tolle is known to get rather annoyed and talk down to people (like how he acted when they all boarded the Archangel in SEED and the guards pointed their guns at them for Kira being a Coorindator. Not many people wouldn't stand down at gun point like that). Also, this is two years later, and given all that Tolle was gone through - surviving a near death experience and continued fighting in the war - I daresay Tolle should be developed a little differently from what he was in SEED.

MVF-X24C Fortitude Gundam
Power plant:
Ultra-compact energy battery
Equipment and design features:
Sensors, range unknown
Variable Phase Shift (VPS) armor; orange/white as a mobile suit and orange/black as a mobile armor (experimental model)
"Voiture Lumiere" light propulsion engine system (experimental model)
Fixed armaments:
2 x M2M5D 12.5mm CIWS, fire-lined, mounted in head
2 x RQM60F "Flash-Edge 2" beam boomerang, mounted on shoulders
2 x Type 70R Kai beam saber, stored on hips
1 x shield, mounted on left arm in mobile suit mode
1 x Type 72 Kai "Ikazuchi" beam rifle
4 x Type 66A air-to-air "Hayate" missile launchers
4 x M2M5D 12.5mm CIWS, mounted on wings, operable only in mobile armor form
1 x Type 72D high-energy beam cannon, mounted on back, operable only in mobile armor form