"Garret, Victoria, it's time for you both to head out" Aston spoke into their mobile suits. The two acknowledged the order and the Duel was placed onto the ship's catapult.
"All systems green, Duel, you're clear for take-off" Kyle spoke to Garret.
"Garret Kross, Duel, soar!" Garret called and his Gundam was flung out onto the arid ground.
"Victoria Mays, GuAIZ R, mobilise!" the female pilot called out and she joined her comrade.
"The Duel and GuAIZ huh? The blonde guy and the girl in the green uniform right?" a female voice spoke over both of their communicators. The two mobile suits turned around and saw the Force Impulse land close behind them. "I'm Lunamaria Hawke, it's nice to meet both of you" the girl introduced herself, bringing up a video link with the other two pilots.
"I'm Garret Kross, nice to meet you too" Garret replied.
"My name is Victoria Mays" the other female pilot said.
"We better get going, the quicker we take out that enemy squad and get back to the ships the better" Lunamaria explained, walking in the direction they had to go. "Garret, make sure to keep your phase shift off along with any unnecessary systems to conserve power" Lunamaria pointed out.
"Right, I'll do that" Garret replied, quickly inputting several commands to his suit. The three travelled in a triangular formation with the Impulse at the head of the group. "Do you know the suits in the group we're intercepting?" Garret asked Lunamaria, hoping they weren't going in blind.
"I don't know the exact suits they're using but Commander Joule said there were eight of them. We should be fine though, it seems to only be an infiltration team" Lunamaria explained.
"Something other than Gundams would be an appreciated change of pace" Garret sighed, relaxing a little in his seat. "Victoria; is your GuAIZ all good?" he asked his friend.
"Everything seems fine, no problems" she said in reply, walking a little faster to stay in line with Garret. The three travelled at a steady pace for an hour or so before the Purity squad came into view across the hilly terrain.
"Two BABIs, two Murasames, a GOUF and three GAZuOOTs" Lunamaria informed the others as she saw the enemy. "Garret, engage phase shift now, we'll try and take some of them down from a distance now!" she instructed, flicking the switch on her console that engaged her phase shift armour. Garret did the same and the three mobile suits all lined up and raised their guns. The three beam rifles as well as Victoria's two railguns all fired at the enemy squad. But the enemy had expected the attack. The BABIs and Murasames all transformed and headed into the air along with the GOUF while the GAZuOOTs moved into cover behind large hills. Lunamaria soared into the air and swiftly cut through one of the Murasames with her beam sabre.
"Victoria, let's take the ones on the ground!" Garret called, running for the scattered hills the ZuOOTs had hidden behind. He scaled it and looked to the other side but was forced to leap back as two large beams shot up in front of him. As he landed on the hill from boosting backwards, the foot of his Duel sunk into the soft terrain and caused the mobile suit to fall, tumbling down to the ground.
"Garret!" Victoria screamed running for him as the three GAZuOOTs rounded the hills and advanced on the fallen Gundam. She did a short boost into the air and fired her three guns down through one of the tank-like mobile suits, destroying it. The second one raised its machine gun hands and launched a hail of bullets towards the GuAIZ. Victoria raised her shield and blocked the shots as she landed on the ground again. She leapt to the side as the third GAZuOOT fired its shoulder cannons at her. The girl danced around various attacks, slowly moving towards the suits as Garret struggled to get his mobile suit to stand on the soft, wet ground. She engaged the beam sabre in her shield and drove it through the cockpit of the second suit. She lingered on the spot for a second until she was thrown back when the GAZuOOT exploded. Her GuAIZ slammed into the ground and her eyes widened when she saw the last ZuOOT raising its missiles.
"Don't even try it!" Garret roared, boosting forward and cleaving through the waist of the tank-like suit with his beam sabre as he flew past. The Duel straightened up as it stopped and the suit exploded behind him. Victoria got to her feet and ran over to the Gundam then followed Garret's gaze to Lunamaria. She had taken down the two BABIs and was now only dealing with the last one of the Murasames and the GOUF. When they noticed the GAZuOOTs had been destroyed, the GOUF broke off from the Murasames and engaged the Duel and GuAIZ R. "Victoria, aim for its flight pack!" Garret called, raising his rifle and firing several shots. The GuAIZ followed suit and eventually one of Garret's shots pierced the wing of the flight pack, causing the GOUF to land. "Now keep it at a range, the GOUF is primarily a close range suit" Garret instructed, slowly walking backwards, firing at the blue mobile suit.
"Right!" Victoria called and she leapt into the air and flicked out her railguns, firing them and her beam rifle at the same time. The GOUF raised its arms at the Duel and fired its guns, but Garret deflected the attacks with his shield.
"Garret! Look out!" Lunamaria called. The Gundam pilot looked up and saw the flaming figure of the Murasame flying towards him. He jumped backwards as the mobile armour slammed into the ground and exploded. The GOUF raised its arms again and fired off another volley of shots, hitting and destroying the Duel's right arm.
"Argh! Dammit!" Garret roared as he staggered back. He dropped his shield and pulled out his beam sabre, getting ready for the GOUF that was rapidly approaching with its sword drawn. The GOUF struck out with its whip, wrapping it around the Duel's wrist and destroying the arm up to the elbow joint. "Shit!" Garret yelled.
"Garret!" Victoria yelled as she flew forward and slammed her beam sabre into the side of the GOUF. She disengaged the beam and flung the suit away with the tip of the shield before it exploded. Garret let out a sigh of relief and released his grip on the controls. "Are you ok?!" Victoria called, running over to the disarmed Gundam.
"Yeah, I'm ok" Garret said quietly. Lunamaria girl landed and approached the two pilots from the Ceres. "Well, looks like I won't be doing any fighting for a while" Garret sighed, checking a status report on the damage of the Gundam.
"Are either of you injured?" Lunamaria asked, looking between both suits. Victoria's had a few marks where shots had grazed her armour but Garret's Duel was clearly in far worse condition having lost its right arm and half of its left.
"We're fine" Garret said in reply.
"It's pretty funny when a green comes out of a battle in better condition than a red" Lunamaria said with a giggle. Garret ignored the comment and began heading in the direction of the location where they would rendezvous with the Minerva and Ceres. "Seriously though, are you ok Garret? You got pretty beaten up there" Luna asked, her tone genuinely worried now.
"I'm fine, just a bit of a headache from being bounced around" Garret replied, only just realizing how much his head actually did hurt.
"Well then, let's head for the ships and try to avoid any other Purity groups" Luna stated and the three all began working together again, the Gundams deactivating their phase shift armour.
"So, you're a veteran from the last war right Lunamaria?" Victoria asked the other girl curiously, bringing up a video link between all three mobile suits.
"Yeah that's right, and please, just call me Luna" the Gundam pilot said with a nod. Victoria silently nodded in reply. "I was assigned to the Minerva in that war as well, I spent most of the time fighting in a ZAKU, the one my sister Meyrin pilots now. After Shinn was given the Destiny, I took over piloting the Impulse here" she explained.
"How did you manage to get involved in this war as well?" Garret asked.
"Well to be honest, Meyrin and I aren't really soldiers for ZAFT anymore. We're part of a separate group but we were asked to join the Joule Team to assist with this mission. I assume that we'll both probably be returning to space again soon" Luna explained to the other two pilots.
"So you're more or less just acting as mercenaries" Garret pointed out.
"Something like that, yeah" Lunamaria said in reply.
"Well whatever the reasons are, it's good to have such an experienced fighter here with us" Victoria said with a smile.
"Aww, thanks a lot" Lunamaria replied.
They reached the ships with no further resistance along the way. The Minerva and Ceres were both grounded in a large canyon formed between two mountain ranges. The three mobile suits stopped and the Impulse turned to face the others. "Well then, this is where we depart, thanks for helping me out" Luna spoke, a smile on her face.
"Yeah, it was nice meeting you. Too bad it had to be on the battlefield" Victoria said with a slight sigh.
"I guess the circumstances will be the same next time we meet too" Garret spoke.
"Unfortunately. Well, I hope I get to see you both again before I leave. Goodbye!" Lunamaria said, waving with her Gundam and then flying back to the Minerva. Garret and Victoria quickly returned to the hangar of the Ceres, docking their mobile suits. As Garret travelled down to the floor on his zip line he saw Marcel running up to him and smiled a little.
"Garret! Are you ok?!" the brown haired boy yelled out before Garret had even touched down on the floor.
"I'm fine Marcel, don't worry" he replied with a smile still on his face. Victoria walked over to them and removed her helmet, letting her long, brown hair free.
"I'm fine too, thanks for asking" she remarked, poking out her tongue at her friend a little.
"Oh, sorry Victoria, I was just worried about Garret since his suit is in such bad shape" Marcel commented apologetically.
"I just screwed up a bit on the terrain then just got a little careless fighting a GOUF" Garret explained as the three headed to the locker rooms where the two pilots got changed into their proper uniforms.
"What are you gonna do about your Duel? I don't think this ship is equipped with the parts to repair it" Marcel pointed out. Garret sighed in response; he knew that his friend was right.
"If that's the case, I'll have to go back to piloting my GINN for a while" Garret replied, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "Not that it really bothers me, I'm more comfortable in that anyway" he continued as they headed for the bridge. Once they arrived they were greeted by Captain Phillips and Commander Falcon.
"Garret, Victoria, welcome back. Judging by the condition of the Duel, I'm unsure whether or not your mission was a success" Aston said, rubbing his chin.
"It was sir. We successfully eliminated the enemy squad, I just took some bad hits during the battle" Garret explained.
"Well done, I'll expect a full report from the two of you later. I want you both to report to the sick bay just to be checked for injuries" Aston instructed.
"Yes sir!" Garret and Victoria said at the same time before saluting their Commander and leaving the bridge. After leaving the sick bay, Garret headed down to the hangar and found Commander Falcon sitting in his GOUF.
"Commander, is something wrong with your suit?" Garret called out, walking to the feet of the white mobile suit.
"Nothing in particular, just running a system check" Aston replied. He climbed out of the cockpit and descended to the floor in front of Garret. "I'm guessing that you'll be piloting your GINN again for a while, judging by the state of your Duel that is" he said.
"So there's no way the Duel can be repaired at the moment?" Garret asked. Aston sighed and shook his head.
"The problem is; our mobile suit stock was taken before the battle in which you were… 'given' the Duel. So on the records that were sent to this ship before we came to Earth, it said that you were still piloting a GINN so there were no parts sent here for the Gundam" Aston explained. Garret nodded in understanding, it made sense. "Will you be fine piloting your GINN in the atmosphere" the Commander asked.
"It's not the first time sir. I'll be fine" Garret pointed out.
"Ah right, the last time would have been that mission with Cecil I suppose right?" the red haired man asked. Garret nodded in reply. "How could I forget that fight?" Aston sighed, leaning against the leg of the GOUF. Garret turned his head to the side, a sad look on his face.