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

15. Symphony of Rage

Gundam SEED Destiny
Kira
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Phase 15: Symphony of Rage

December 12, 73CE
Crete Island
9:23am

Shinn let out a feral growl as he pushed his Blast Impulse in a rapid dodge to the side. Not a second later, the Abyss launched a salvo of beams at his evasive form. Though none of the shots connected, more than a few of them were a bit too close for his liking. Swinging the Impulse around, he answered the Abyss' attack by blasting his Kerberos heavy beam cannons. The Abyss quickly shifted into its submersible mobile armor form as it reached the zenith of its jump out of the water, which also allowed it to dodge the Kerberos cannons. With not even a scratch on it, the blue mobile suit dove back under the water. Not willing to let the stolen Gundam escape unscathed, Shinn fired the Deluge rail cannons to where he guessed the Abyss was as it once again disappeared under the waves. But his shots went wide as Auel easily evaded them.

Meanwhile, in the skies above, the Savior and the Chaos were once again blasting at each other. Bringing his shield up, Athrun blocked the Chaos' shots as he shifted to the side and shot back, missing as the Chaos predictably dodged. Athrun was really starting to think that the pilot of the Chaos had taken up a personal vendetta against him because it always seemed to seek him out on the battlefield.

Swarms of Orb and Alliance mobile suits were attacking the Minerva in such a ferocious manner that it far outshone the previous battle. And while the CIWS were admirably able to hold off the mobile suits from coming too close, the Dispar interceptor missiles weren't quite able to stop all the mobile suit and battleship missiles from hitting. The damage of those missiles, along with the fragmentation shells that the Orb fleet had launched at the start of the battle, was quickly beginning to take its toll.

With the Minerva's resident aces keeping the stolen Gundams busy, Heine, in his GOUF, was able to freely attack the rest of the attacking fleet. His Tempest beam sword and Slayer Whips lashed out with deadly accuracy, and his wrist-mounted Draupnir beam cannons' aim was nothing short of lethal. And even though Rey and Lunamaria did their best to defend the Minerva, the sheer numbers were overwhelming them as well. Rey had already received substantial damage to his ZAKU Phantom's left arm and shield.

Only when a Murasame unit had finally managed to bypass Heine and the CIWS and came to a hover in front of the lowered bridge of the Minerva did things once again start spiraling out of control. Just the Murasame was about to fire upon the bridge, a beam shot forth and destroyed its rifle. Several more decisive shots were rapidly fired, disabling the units that were about to land deadly attacks on the ZAFT warship. A split second later, a blinding flare of white light and afterimages zipped forth and circled the Minerva, disabling all enemy units that were within its range.

When the light died down, there floated the familiar form of the Fortitude Gundam in front of the fast approaching Archangel. Like the previous time, a pink-tinted antique Strike launched out of the Archangel's catapult and came into a hover slightly in front of the Fortitude. And, like last time, Cagalli called for an immediate order for the Orb forces to withdraw and retreat from the battle, claiming that it went against the ideals of the nation fight in battles like this.

However, at the mere mention of the word 'ideals,' Cagalli had unintentionally triggered Shinn's enormous reservoir of loathing he kept stored with the special purpose of hating Orb and the entire Athha family. Thus he quickly spun his Gundam around and launched a barrage of Firefly guided missiles at the pink Strike Rouge, all the while screaming, "EXCUSES!!"

As Tolle protected Cagalli by mowing down the missiles with a spray of Vulcan guns, the battle renewed itself in earnest. Rushing forward, Tolle snatched a beam saber and attempted to once again take the Impulse out of the battle. However, in his rage, Shinn had triggered his own recently discovered 'battle calm.' With his heightened reflexes, he was easily able to dodge the initial slash and return the favor with his Defiant beam lance, forcing the scarred Lieutenant to instantly retreat. The slash was so close that the beam energy actually scratched a noticeable line across the cockpit hatch.

"Tolle, stop it!" Athrun yelled as he flew the Savior in between the two, firing several warning shots. "I told you to go back to Orb!"

"And I told you why we won't!" Tolle yelled back angrily. He transformed his Gundam into a plane and flew off towards another portion of the battlefield to play interference, with Athrun hot on his afterburners. Shinn only had enough time to glance up towards where the two former allies were heading before an alarm alerted him to the Abyss' resurface. The pilot of that suit was clearly tired of being ignored.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

A spray of rapid-fire beams shot past Tolle's cockpit as he pushed his machine into a complex series of rolls and turns meant to lose his pursuer. However, Athrun was determined and more than capable of following the younger ace's moves with relative ease. The fact that Tolle couldn't use the Voiture Lumiere while in plane mode also helped him greatly.

"Stop it, Athrun!" Tolle yelled over the radio. He quickly changed back into a mobile suit, spun around, and charged for the Savior-plane. "Don't make me shoot you down too!" The Savior quickly and easily swung to the side, evading a collision with Tolle. But that was exactly what the scarred Lieutenant wanted and he instantly exploited the advantage by shifting back into his plane form and flying off in the opposite direction away from the Savior before Athrun could properly react. "I've got a job to do and you're really starting to get annoying!"

"If you really want Orb to keep out of the battles, you should've done what I told you!" Athrun growled as he rapidly closed back in on the Fortitude. Though the Orb Gundam was indeed a very impressive model, it was still essentially an upgraded Murasame; his Savior was easily able to pursue it.

"And I already told you that we can't go back until we know which side we should be fighting, if at all!" Tolle snapped, trying to concentrate on destroying a series of Windams and Dagger Ls as he swooped past them. He was able to blow the head off one, shredded the cockpit of another, and destroyed the Jet Striker of the third. He missed the fourth altogether.

"Hey, hey!" a third voice yelled over the radio. "Did you forget somebody?!" The green Chaos floated in front of the Fortitude and Savior, firing at the duo as they neared it. The two plane-like Gundams immediately evaded the shots as they swept past the green machine. "I'm gonna blow you to pieces!"

As he turned his machine to follow the two, Sting found himself face-to-face with both of them, beam sabers glowing dangerously. Even as an Extended, the green-haired teen didn't have time to react before the Savior and Fortitude each delivered a decisive slash. Both of his weapon pods were destroyed and the Chaos' arms were severed completely. With the loss of its weapon pods, which also acted as extra thrusters to maintain flight, the Chaos plummeted like a rock into the sea below.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

The warning came almost too late. Dodging to the side with enough force to jostle even a Coordinator, Heine spotted something that made his stomach turn unpleasantly in remembrance. Flying towards him were four of those Alliance mobile suits; the Rapier? Remembering his earlier fight with the violet and lime-green one, he felt his dread rise drastically. If the pilots of those machines were even half as good as that one from the previous battle, there was a very good chance that he wouldn't survive! And to make matters worse, this time the four suits looked like they were equipped with Striker packs, namely the Sword and Launcher.

"Captain," he called over the radio. "We've got four incoming Rapiers, two of which have the Launcher Striker and two with the Sword Striker!"

"Shoot them down if you can," Gladys ordered immediately. "We can't let them get a direct hit on us or we're finished!"

"Roger that," he acknowledged, forcing his fears aside to focus on the mission. Punching his GOUF forward on a direct interception course, he left the swarms of enemy mobile suits behind for Luna and Rey to fend off.

As he neared the quartet, he raised his arm and blasted his Draupnir cannons at the Launcher Rapiers. However, the pair of Sword Rapiers swung around and attempted to block his salvo with their small shields. This wasn't entirely successful; one of them lost a head piece and its shield arm. The second Sword Rapier dodged to the side as it lunged for him, bringing its beam sword to bear. The Launcher Rapiers merely continued on their earlier flight towards the Minerva.

Lashing out with a Slayer Whip, Heine was able to smash the crippled Sword Rapier's cockpit, which caused it to explode an instant later. As he was doing this, the other Sword Rapier dropped out of the sky and attempted to slice him in half. Blocking the slash with his Tempest sword, he deflected the deadly sword to the side. Angling his other arm, he fired the Draupnir at near pointblank range into the cockpit, riddling the torso with holes. Knocking the soon-to-be destroyed unit aside, he blasted his GOUF after the still-charging Launcher Rapiers.

Damn, they were almost within range of the Minerva! Without getting a proper lock, he blasted his Draupnir towards them in an attempt to distract them. Apparently it worked, as one of them spun around and returned fire with its right-shoulder Vulcan cannons. Managing to dance out of the way, he continued to fire at the mobile suit. The pilot seemed to realize the futility of using the Vulcan and switched to the Agni hyper-impulse cannon. Even with the split-second warning, Heine was barely able to dodge under the massive wave of energy in time. Using the energy to hide his trail, he boosted his GOUF's engines and rocketed forward. The Launcher Rapier didn't stand a chance of dodging and was cleanly sliced in half.

"Heh, these guys aren't that tough," Heine muttered, grinning slightly.

Before he could turn his attention to the remaining Rapier, a shower of Vulcan fire erupted from behind him. It came close enough to his GOUF to actually scratch the paint as he hurriedly shifted to the side and faced his new opponent. As he was turning to face his enemy, a powerful wave of energy shot forth and smashed into his shield. Though the energy was safely blocked, the sheer force of impact knocked his GOUF back several meters before he could regain control. Finally locating his enemy, Heine quickly raised his Tempest sword to block the slash of the descending enemy mobile suit. As the two of them struggled against the other for a moment, he was finally able to see who he was fighting. It was that familiar violet and lime-green Rapier from before, also equipped with a Launcher Striker.

"You should pay more attention to the battlefield around you," a deceptively calm voice said over the radio as the Launcher Rapier backed off and sheathed its beam saber.

Heine was momentarily torn between engaging this Rapier in combat again and rushing after the last Launcher Rapier that had slipped past him. However, before he could even make a choice, an explosion tore through the air nearby. Glancing ever so slightly to the side, he spotted the debris that was once the Launcher Rapier he'd been pursuing falling from the sky as a triumphant feminine cheer sounded over his radio. Apparently Lunamaria had gotten the last one. Good for her.

Despite himself, Neo was in a very unhappy mood. They'd lost Auel; the combinable Gundam had speared him straight through the gut. Auel, like Stellar, had been a very likeable and friendly person despite being considered a mere tool by the military. Neo had easily been able to grow attached to the boy, even with his occasional reckless behavior. So, in a sense, Neo was out here to not only fill in for the boy but to also blow off some steam after his death.

"I'll keep that mind," Heine responded as he turned his full attention back to the Rapier in front of him quickly. He was trying to keep his voice in a similar tone as the man approaching him. "However, if you wanted a rematch, you merely had to ask."

"I see, so then please forgive my rude behavior," the pilot said as he opened visual communications with Heine. The pair eyed one another as the Launcher Rapier came to a halt in front of GOUF, safely out of range of the Slayer Whip. "I am Captain Neo Roanoke, commander of the 81st Autonomous Mobile Group."

"I am Commander Heine Westenfluss, member of ZAFT Special Forces: FAITH," Heine answered easily. Not another word was spoken as they began their rematch.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

"Why won't you listen to me, Tolle?!" Athrun demanded angrily as he once again tried to clip the Fortitude's wings. He knew that Tolle was a skillful pilot for being a mere Natural, but when did he get so good at evasion? "Don't you understand what I'm trying to tell you? As long as Orb is a part of the Alliance, I will have no choice but to consider them as enemies and to fight them. If you want to stop that, then go back and have Cagalli get the nation out of that treaty! The Earth Forces set this whole thing up! Are you saying you want them to destroy the Minerva?!"

"You just don't get it, do you?!" Tolle yelled, anger practically palpable in his voice. The Fortitude finally stopped flying away, transforming back into its mobile suit form as Tolle opened visual communications. Athrun quickly followed the maneuver and stared at his companion's image, which was twisted up in a furious scowl. Turning to the side, Tolle hit some buttons and a new image appeared on Athrun's other monitor. An image of Cagalli, dressed in her pink flight suit, was shown to be mutely yelling and screaming for her nation's forces to stop fighting. Streaking down her eyes were thick trails of tears as her orders were continually ignored by the combatants. "This is why we're doing this! Cagalli is crying her heart out because this stupid battle is exactly what she feared would happen! And by saying that the Earth Forces are to blame is saying that Orb is to blame! You're attacking the very thing that Cagalli is trying to save!"

"No," was all Athrun could think to say in his confusion over what Tolle was saying.

"So you leave me no choice," Tolle growled as his eyes suddenly glazed over. "I will defeat you!!"

Without another word, the Fortitude lunged forward as it drew a beam saber. Growling slightly, Athrun mirrored his opponent and lunged forward. The two Gundams crashed into the other's shield with almost enough force to bend their neo-titanium frames. Recovering more quickly, Athrun knocked the shield aside as he moved in to deliver a slash at the mobile suit's headpiece. Using the momentum of Athrun's shove to its advantage, the Fortitude went into a backwards roll, leaving the Savior cutting only air. As it continued its roll, the Fortitude kicked out and smashed its foot against Athrun's portside Amfortas plasma cannon, crippling it.

Drawing back as the Fortitude righted itself, Athrun prepared himself for Tolle's next move. Seeing the Fortitude preparing for another lunge, a moment of inspiration struck him. Throwing his shield at the charging Gundam, he felt a small grin on his face as Tolle did as he expected, deflecting the slab of metal to the side and not altering his course. Snatching his second beam saber, he brought it downwards in a slash that successfully hacked off the Fortitude's still-extended left arm, shield and all. Slicing his other saber forward, he cut the Fortitude's beam saber's hilt in two pieces, which destroyed the deadly weapon. Blasting his engines, the Savior tackled the Fortitude and went into a steep dive towards the Minerva and the sea below. Time seemed to slow as they drew closer to the water below. With their present course, they'd likely splash down fairly close to the Minerva. Good, perhaps the crew would be able to retrieve Tolle from the water so he and Athrun could have a decent conversation!

Movement in the corner in the Savior's camera caught Athrun's eye. The Fortitude's one remaining arm, which was blocked from reaching its remaining beam saber on its hip, reached up and grabbed the hilt of the Flash-Edge boomerang on its shoulder. Damn! Rather than attack, the Fortitude latched its arm down upon the Savior's neck as its engines roared to life, drastically altering their course away from the water and towards the Minerva itself, without Tolle realizing it.

Gasping, Athrun tried to quickly free himself but the Fortitude's grip was considerable. Letting out a yell as he saw the warship's hull come ever closer, he activated his beam sabers and jabbed them into the Fortitude's engines, causing a fierce explosion to erupt from the Gundam's backside. If he'd plunged his sabers at a slightly more inward angle, he could've caused the entire machine to explode. But he wasn't trying to kill the Lieutenant, only to get him to let go. And boy did he immediately!

But as soon as the arm came free, the Fortitude drew it back and slashed forward with its beam weapon ignited. Even though it no longer had its engines to help it fly, the Savior still hadn't been able to safely pull out of reach. This was the reason why the boomerang not only struck, but was able to completely remove the Savior's headpiece, left shoulder, and arm.

Tolle didn't even get a chance to feel a burst of pride over his victory over the man who almost killed him two years ago. Without its engines to keep it in flight, the Fortitude crashed mightily into the Minerva's side. It went into a slight skid as its momentum carried it partially into the Impulse's catapult. And even though the Savior did still have its engines, without its headpiece and main camera, it was effectively blinded. That was the reason that Athrun quickly followed Tolle into having his machine sprawled out on the Minerva's hull near the catapult.

He was badly jostled by the impact. Something exploded above him, sending shrapnel showering down upon him. Another explosion to his side sent more shrapnel blowing up towards his face. If not for his visor, that shrapnel would've dug its hot edges deeply into his face. Reorienting himself, Athrun pulled the emergency ejection lever and opened the Savior's cockpit. No sooner had he done so than did an explosion suddenly rock the catapult. Thanks to the angle that his Gundam was lying at, Athrun was quite protected from the blast and more shrapnel from the source. Only once the explosion died down did he crawl out of his ruined machine and look towards where the explosion had come from.

The Fortitude was no more. All that was left was a smoldering pile of debris and twisted metal. Even as he watched, a large number of engineers and crewmembers came rushing forward to smother the flames and recover the crashed Savior.

"Tolle!" he yelled, stumbling slightly as he hurried towards the wreckage. He'd already lost so many friends, even his best friend. He didn't want to lose another, even if they were essentially on opposite sides of the war once again. And though Tolle was certainly nowhere near the friend to him as the one that they'd both shared, he was still someone he could easily call on when he needed help.

"Let go of me!" a familiar voice yelled angrily over the burning inferno. "I can walk on my own!"

Stumbling around the wreckage, Athrun spotted a trio of soldiers restraining a struggling and heavily bleeding Tolle Koenig. Athrun watched with mixed feelings as his companion was hauled away, his wrists already cuffed behind his back. The Minerva had captured itself a prisoner.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

"Dammit!" Heine growled as he barely rolled his GOUF out of the way of another massive Agni blast. This Captain Neo Roanoke was a very good pilot! His GOUF had already lost its left arm and his shield was heavily dented and twisted out of shape because of that damned Agni. To make matters worse, his GOUF was nearly out of power too. If Lady Luck didn't smile down on him soon, he was finished for good this time! "You won't kill me. You won't!"

"Perhaps, perhaps not," Neo said as he threw his Rapier's one remaining Stiletto armor penetrator at the evasive GOUF. "But today, we will most certainly sink that ship!"

As he said that, a fierce explosion tore a large hole into the Minerva's hull. It was a fatal mistake on Heine's part that he looked off to the side in order to survey the damage done to his ship. Using the explosion's distraction to his fullest advantage, Neo fired the Agni cannon once again. Heine didn't have time to react in any way other than to gasp in horror. The Agni's blast tore a large hole in the chest armor of the GOUF and blasted its headpiece clean off. Heine yelled as various instruments in his GOUF exploded and showered him with hot shrapnel. If not for his helmet and fireproof flight suit, he would've received a lot more injures that the crash into the water gave him.

With torrents of water gushing into the damaged cockpit of his GOUF, Heine quickly pulled the emergency ejection lever. Once the interior of his mobile suit had sufficiently flooded, he pushed himself out and swam for the surface. When his former machine unexpectedly exploded, he was further propelled towards the surface. Once finally breaking the surface, he could only watch from his new vantage point as the battle finally concluded with Shinn destroying several of the Orb ships, including its large carrier. Once that flagship had been destroyed, the remaining Orb and Earth Alliance fleet began to withdraw.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

Minerva
1:27pm

"No serious damage to the main engines, Captain," Arthur reported in a neutral voice. "But there is significant damage to the ship's hull, weapons, and the Impulse's launch catapult." As he was speaking, Captain Gladys was quietly reviewing a report of the estimated repair time needed for the hull alone. "Of our mobile suits, the GOUF was completely destroyed, the Savior, Warrior, and Phantom are all heavily damaged. Although it seems that the Savior can be saved once the replacement parts arrive from Gibraltar. Overall, things aren't looking too good."

"Yes, it's going to be tough just sitting here waiting for supplies and repairs," Gladys remarked in a very displeased tone of voice. "Especially considering how close we are to Gibraltar, but I guess it can't be helped." Sighing as she handed the list back to her Deputy Captain, Gladys turned and said, "Make sure you keep an eye out for enemies, both above and under the water. I'm going to be visiting our prisoner, notify me of any issues that arise."

True to her word, the blonde Captain walked straight towards the infirmary. With all the problems that they'd run into as the Minerva was searching for a hiding place in the rocky cliffs that bordered the sea, as well as directing and redirecting the many repair crews, this was the first time that Gladys had even stepped out of the bridge since before the battle had even begun. And though there was no noticeable damage to the interior portion of the ship that she was in or was heading towards, the marks of battle were clearly evident on many of the personnel that she passed. Most had some form of bandaging upon them, be it a simple band-aid or having their entire limb wrapped up in a cast. Only just recently had Medical finally been able to slow its ragged pace to attend to the many injured crewmen and work at a more leisure pace.

Although she had ordered the prisoner to be taken to the brig as soon as his injuries were attended to, Gladys was almost certain that he hadn't even left Medical yet. Despite the fact that he should've received treatment first, Gladys wouldn't have been surprised if the doctors had been forced to put his care off until they were able to handle the flow of crewmembers. Getting as many technicians and engineers back to work on repairing the severe amount of damage to the Minerva was a top priority at the moment.

As she was walking into the room, Gladys was instantly snapped out of her musings by the sounds of a struggle going on. She took in the situation almost immediately. The doctor and his assistant were standing off to the side watching with only professional worry at the scuffle that was happening, yet both seemed unharmed. The captured Extended was still sleeping off the drugs on the bed where she was still safely restrained. Commander Zala was standing off to the other side supported by a crutch and his left knee wrapped in bandages. However, the center of the attention was off to the right side of the medical bay. Lieutenant Lunamaria Hawke, despite having her left arm in a sling, was strangling a wildly protesting Lieutenant Koenig. Of the injured personnel in the room, he was easily the one most covered in bandages. The Lieutenant had his shirt removed, showing the blood-stained bandages coating his torso, his right arm set in a sling, as well as the bleeding wrappings that were secured over the right side of his forehead were painfully visible.

"—call me that name again, Lieutenant!" Luna was growling in an obviously peeved tone of voice.

"But it's so—much fun—!!" Tolle managed to gasp out around the iron-hold she had on him with her uninjured right arm squeezing tightly around his neck."Miss Red—ZAKU—cute when mad!!"

"Cute, huh?" Luna snapped, her face lighting up with either embarrassment or anger. She tightened her hold dramatically, causing Tolle's already red face to brighten. "How's this for 'cute'?"

"Let him go, Luna," Athrun said from where he awkwardly stood. "Remember, he's also a prisoner and we treat prisoners with dignity."

"Only when they deserve it, Commander!" Luna growled, glaring in a slightly disgruntled manner that he'd try to prevent her from properly 'disciplining' the Lieutenant.

"Am I interrupting something?" Gladys asked, her face deceivingly expressionless. "Or should I come back when you're finished, Lieutenant Hawke?"

"Captain?!" everyone in the room squawked, having not noticed her entrance. Luna released the nearly-purple faced Lieutenant reflexively, which caused the young man to collapse painfully upon the floor at her feet from the head spins he was experiencing.

"Dare I ask what that was all about?" she asked in heavy tone. She really didn't need or want to deal with such childish outbursts as what she suspected had just happened.

"And I thought—Cagalli was—bad with self—control," Tolle wheezed from where he'd pushed himself into a sitting position at Luna's feet. Looking at Athrun's narrowed gaze at his insult to Cagalli, he asked, "Are all female—Coordinators like this? I know Miss Lacus isn't but—"

Ignoring the rising conversation between the trio, Gladys walked up to the doctor. "How severe are Lieutenant Koenig's injuries?"

Humming slightly as he quickly dug out a clipboard, the man said, "Well, thankfully he doesn't seem to have any internal bleeding after suffering such a crash against the hull. However, he does have multiple cracked ribs and his right shoulder was badly dislocated. I must say that I am truly impressed with whatever safety features that were installed into that mobile suit he was piloting. I doubt even one of our own pilots could've walked away with only these for injuries. As far as his head injury goes, I believe he got that from shrapnel after he'd climbed to safety. There was a slight amount of burnt tissue around the wound. Overall, I'd recommend he gets plenty of bed rest with minimal activity for at least a month so his ribs have time to properly heal themselves."

"I see," she quietly. Truthfully, she'd expected him, being the Natural that he was, to be in far worse shape after witnessing the crash firsthand as it happened. Indeed, in her opinion, many Naturals wouldn't have been able to move after, much less walk away from, such a crash. Turning back to the Lieutenant, she saw him staring unerringly at her. "Lieutenant, I highly recommend you get plenty of rest while you're aboard the Minerva. Because I cannot guarantee what's going to happen to you once we arrive in Gibraltar."

Tolle merely gave a quiet nod to her statement before returning his gaze back to Lunamaria. However, the red-haired girl had apparently walked out of the medical bay during his small lapse of attention. This realization earned a small grumble of disappointment from Tolle since he'd been hoping to continue with his newly-discovered form of entertainment.

---

(Author's Note) It's short, I know. But with what I had planned to happen next, I decided that it wouldn't really flow too well with the current chapter content. I hope you all enjoyed this little battle. And I wonder how many of you saw the outcome between Tolle vs Athrun? Not too many, I'm sure ^_^ And thank you Paintball-Gamer and animefan29 for reviewing this chapter for me!

The next chapter promises to be much longer because I'm finally turning my attention to the attempted ambush. Let's see how (A)Kira handles that situation. And the chapter following that will likely be one of the most challenging I've ever written because I won't be the only author who does his piece on it. That's right, there'll be multipile authors writing towards the outcome of that chapter! I can hardly wait for it!

Also, to those of you aspiring Gundam SEED authors, my friend animefan29 has issued a challenge on the newest one-shot he's posted (Growth of a Seed). I highly recommend you go and check it out because it is an extremely promising idea! If I wasn't already weighed down by my own projects, I wouldn't mind writing it myself!

One final note: this should be a much better address to the picture of the only other ship that is of the same class as what that of the Early Harvest is. If this link doesn't work, I don't know what will!

http://www(.)mahq(.)net/mecha/gundam/astray/cornelius(.)htm