When he finally got back aboard the Archangel, Lt. Ramus sent him straight to his quarters with orders to get some more sleep. She had been worried sick about him and didn't listen to his complaints that he was fine and that there was a project that Nami wanted him to start, though he did manage to convince Ens. Badgiruel to bring him a copy of the Strike's original OS. When she had tried to deny him he had told her that the acting captain wanted him to rework it so that commander La Flaga could take over the Strike from him and that he had her approval to do so. Natarle finally relented and handed him a copy and a limited accessable laptop with it so that he couldn't make copies for himself and sell them to Zaft or Orb.
After he thanked Natarle for the help Kira moved onwards towards his room, though he was waylaid a coupla times by worried members of the crew and Sai and Kuzzy but it only took a few moments (and mentioning things like 'captain's order') for him to exstract himself from the wellwishers and finally make it to his quarters.
Kira no sooner opened the door then found himself staring into the eyes of a 'mildly' tee'd off Miriallia Haw. He started to backpedal out the door but Mir proved that anger can do scary thing to people, snagged him by the shirt an drag him into the room so fast that it caused his sore head to get shook up badly.
"Oww! Mir! what I do to- Owww!" Kira started to ask but was interupted when Mir rapped him on the forehead with her knuckles.
"Your LATE!" Mir growled at the cowering boy.
"I had to pick up some items for a project. Why are you in my room? and why are you wareing an Alliance uniform?" Kira said as he regained some control of the pain in his head. It was a surprise to see Miriallia in the pink uniform worn by female voluntaries in the EA, though right now she was only wareing the yellow miniskirt, white t-shirt, white kneesocks and pink boots. The pink an white jacket that went with it was currently draped over the chair at the room's desk.
"The captian let me barrow it until I can find something else to ware." Mir said blandly as she studied Kira, looking for who knows what, "and these are my quarters until further notice too" Kira blanched at the thought of Miriallia living and sleeping in the same room as him.
"Why?" Mir looked at the confused blockhead that was her best friend and let out a frustrated sigh.
"Cause she worried about you idiot!" Mir didn't mention that the only way that Natarle had signed off on it was to tell her that Mir was Kira's girlfriend and that she had suffered some severe psycological truma during the attack when a friend had been killed in a messy fashion. It was even true for the most part, only who's girlfriend she had ben was changed, and even then Natarle almost didn't go along with it.
"You have a habit of doing stupid things Kira" Mir said sharply as she yanked the laptop out of his hand, "like working when we all now that you've been ordered to rest. I'm here to make sure that you follow those orders." Kira could tell that Mir was being deadly serious about forcing him to rest but he had to try and get some work done, It wouldn't even really be work sence Kira really did find programming to be relaxing (If he didn't have people piling projects on him).
"Mir, please understand, I will be relaxing. I'll be doing nothing more strenuess the laying in bed, typing up a project Nami and me are working on to get me out of the Strike and possible Alliance impressment. I swear I'll be taking it easy the whole time."
"Thats right, you'll be in that bed with me, and I'm a light sleeper so don't even think about using that computer. The way you type I won't get a moments rest" Mir stepped up as close to Kira as she could get and looked him in the eyes. Kira notices that Mir's normally bright blue eyes had faded to a depressed gray-blue and were starting to severly drop. "Kira please just stop arguing and do as I tell you. The captain instructed me to do EVERYTHING in my power to get you to rest. Up to and including beaning you with the skillet I barrowed from the galley!"
"Alright Mir" Kira finally relented, Mir had looked like she'd start crying if he'd resisted any longer, so he just gave in and hope'd that Mir would relent in a few hours. Mir let out a giggle at how resigned Kira was being, most boys would jump at the opprotunity to sleep in the same bed with a girl. But Kira was slightly more trustworthy then most boys and worldn't use this as a excuse to feel her up.
And if he tried, well there was always the skillet.
BREAK.
Murrue Ramius stood on the bridge of the Archangel, looking out into space. Or more procisely starring at the Dragoon warship Dragon's Lair. She was facinated by the Dragoon vessel and dearly wished she could've gone aboard.
The Dragon's Lair was a Dragon class Battlecrusier. The ship was built around a armored rectangular box four hundred meters long by one hundred meters wide by eighty meters tall. This box was cradled between two large, rectangular engine compartments at the rear, each one hundred meters wide, one hundred fifty meter long and sixty meters tall. Each engine pod held two High Output Ion Thrusters and four manauvering thrusters. the pods each also held some of the ships armarment, namely two twin energy rifle turrets(dorsal and ventral), two 'Igelstellung' seventy-five millimeter CIWS turrets(dorsal and ventral/ inboard and behind main battery) and six Multipurpuse missile launchers(sides). From the front of each engine pod extented a blade like hull section that ran the remaining lenght of the hanger deck and a hundred meters beyond the end of the hanger. each flang started out one hundred meters wide at the engine pods and narrowed to twenty meters wide at the other end. The flangs were twenty meters thick for most of their lenght with a mostly flat top except for a step about twenty meters wide the run from the engine pods to the end of the hanger pod. In this step were mounted six forty millimeter CIWS turrets per side(alternating dorsal/ventral) and a Helldart Multilaunch AntiAir missile launcher per side. Murrue was also pretty sure that each flang had two catapults for launching mobile weapons.
Along the top of the hanger run what could best be called a command section. It ran from a point one hundred meters short of the bow of the hanger pod and over hung the stern by fifty meters, from top to bottom the command section was forty meters tall. The high point was the bridge which was two-thirds of the way down the the section. in front of the bridge were two twin railgun turrets and in front of them was an 'Igelstellung' CIWS turret. behind the bridge was another Helldart launcher and a pair of High Output Ion Drives, there were also a pair of Igelstellungs on either side of the bridge and slightly behind. Along the bottom of the ship was a five meter wide tube that run for a hundred meters under the hanger section until it intersected with a long rectangular section sixty meters wide, forty meters tall and two hundred meters long. The bottom section had a pair of Igelstellung's on either side just behind the connection between the tube and the boxy section and another on the stern end.
In total the Dragon's Lair was five hundred an fifty meters long, three hundred meters wide and one hundred an sixty meter from top to bottom. She was also probibly a good deal heavier then the Archangel and carried more but lighter armarment. Murrue rued the day she had to face the ship in combat, even with the Archangels heavy weaponary.
"Captain, incoming traffic from the Dragon's Lair" Sai said from his new postion in the CIC. Lt. Ramius wondered why Nami had Sai and Kuzzy working on the bridge but found that they took some of the load off the bridge crew.
"Acknowedge incoming traffic Commos, route it to the captain's quarters" Murrue ordered as she headed for the door off the bridge, "Ens. Badgiruel, you have the Bridge"
"Aye ma'am, I have the bridge" Nartarle responded as she assumed the captain's chair.
When Murrue arrived at her quarters, went to her desk and turned on the built in communication concil and was greeted by the grizziled face of captain Rider of the Lair.
"Captain Rider, what can I do for you?" Murrue asked.
"Not much at the moment captain. I have your orders from the Orb goverment, the Archangel is to clear out of Orb territory until such time that Orb an the Earth Alliance have hammered out an agreament in the resalution of the Heliopolis Incedent. you have four hours to make a course and begin a swift withdrawal before Orb impounds your ship and crew. Acknowledge reseat of orders Archangel" captain Rider said as he continued to stare at his screen.
"Archangel acknowledges reseat of orders. What do you want me to do with the Orb citizens and Dragoon personal aboard the Archangel?" Murrue asked.
"They will be staying aboard until future notice, but understand that while they serve you they don't serve the Earth Alliance. If you try to impress them you will face a battle." Murrue gluped as she thought of the forty odd Dragoons that were currently aboard the Archangel, if they mutinied they could take the whole ship, but without them she wouldn't have enough crew to opperate the ship effectively.
"Sir, how will we know when a dicussion has been made and were will we go until that time?"
"I've arranged for the Smuggler's Delight to keep you abrest of the situation and supplied until then. As for were to go, I'd suggest the debrie belt. you'll be hidden from everyone and unlikely to be attacked." captain Rider said as he watched the Archangel's acting captain.
"Thank you for the advice captain, until we meet aguin sir" Murrue said as she signed off. she could already see this turning into a cluster fuck as she headed for the bridge to relay the orders and get her ship moving.
BREAK.
Loud knocking woke Kira from the plesant dreams he'd been having. He tried to sit up but found that he couldn't because of a weight on his chest. A quick investigation identified the weight as the head and upper body of one Miriallia Haw.
Kira froze for a moment trying to figure out a way to wake Mir that wouldn't get himself slapped in the course doing it. The knocking came aguin, though it was a little bit more insistant this time. Kira decide to just shake Mir awake and hope for the best.
"Mir, awake up Mir" Kira said into Mir's ear as he gently shock her shoulders. Mir gave a grone for being disturbed and clung a little tighter to Kira's shirt.
"Mir" Kira said a little louder.
"You had better have a good reason for waking me up Kira or so help me I'_" Wham! someone slammed into the door to the room, causing Mir to sit upright in momentary fright, then she scrambled out of bed and snatched up her miniskirt. Kira got a momentary look at Mir's black panties before she could pull her skirt up, Then Kira walked to the door and pushed the open button.
The sight of Nami in the doorway, her left wrist in a brace with her flight suit tied around her waist was slightly entertaining to Kira, mostly because of the mildly tick off expression on her face.
"Now that your both 'awake'" Nami said, though the way she said it made both Mir and Kira blush bright red.
"Knock it off Nami, your being a pest" Kira said while giving Nami his patented 'Pest glare'. Mir couldn't help giggling at that.
"Well now that your both awake, I can deliver this and we can start on that project Kira" Nami throw a vacuum packed bundle of clothes at Mir as Kira walked over to his desk and started up the rooms computer terminal, Mir caught the clothes and headed for the bathroom to change.
"So where should we start?" Nami asked.
"Read over the original OS and compare it to the mods I made to get it to work" Kira said as he pulled out the disk with the Strike's original OS and another disk with Kira's modified OS on it.
"Well while your doing that I'll get started on Mir" Kira gave Nami a questioning look that Nami returned with an evil smirk.
"Start on Mir what?" a voice said from the direction of the bathroom. Nami and Kira turned to see Miriallia Haw standing there in the olive drab trowsers, jacket and brown combat boots of the Northernwolf Dragoons. She was still pulling at the hems, trying to make it more comfirtable. Mir looked up from rearranging her clothes to reask her question.
"What are you planning to do with me Nami?" Nami couldn't repress the chuckle as she stood up and walked over to Mir. With her good hand Nami straightened out some of the wrinkels on Mir's uniform then reached into a satchel she was carrying and pulled out a book, which she handed to Mir.
"Ensign Miriallia Haw, Stand to orders" Mir jumped when she heared Nami call her an 'Ensign'.
"What, I'm not an-" she started to say but was interupted.
"You are now Mir. Its the only garrentied way to keep the EA off you. Until this ship reaches it destination and you are discharged in good form" Mir look shocked at what she was hearing, then she got scared, really scared, really REALLY bloody scared. Nami could only watch as Mir slowly worked herself into a right state.
"W-why?" was all Mir was able to get out after a few seconds.
" 'Cause its the only way to protect you from being drafted by the Earth Alliance Military, not that Natarle probibly won't try anyway but this way we have some options for dealing with her an anyone else who tries" Nami said as she patted Mir on the shoulder, "And who knows, ya might get to take a swipe at Le Crueset while your at it!" Mir gave Nami a quizical look at this.
"Who's Le Crueset?" Mir and Kira gulped when they saw Nami's face darken with barely concealed hated, they had never seen Nami get really mad with anyone and just the name Le Crueset almost had her going ballistic.
"His full name is Rau Le Crueset. He's an ace commander in Zaft and it was his team that raided Heliopolis. He's also the one who put Tolle in the morgue and may or may not have been leading the Ginns that tore the colony to shreds with an indescriminate missile barrage" Nami said. Kira and Mir both let out a growl when Nami mentioned Tolle, but now they had a name to throw their curses at. Kira shook his head after a couple of minutes then went back to work. Mir sat down on the bed, contemplating what she had just learned. Nami tried to calm down, but after a few minutes found that she wasn't making much headway.
"I'm going to go get some drinks" Nami said as she toused a pamphlet to Mir "start reading that and be prepared to drill after lunch" she didn't wait for a reply as she stepped out the door. In the hall it only took her a second to orient herself.
"Was that really nessesary?" a voice said. Nami didn't need to turn around to identify the speaker, Mu La Flaga.
"Yes sir, they won't fight for pay or national pride, they have few friends aboard to protect so a little bit of pay back is all they really got" Nami said without turning around, she really didn't want to face Mu right now. Mu had other plans.
"Cassy when are you going to lighten up?, I'm really missing the joker from hell right know" Mu said, he thought he might have gotten through to her when she started but was startled by the dull, haunted look in her eyes.
"I'm not this 'Cassy' your looking for sir, I'm Nami and I'd like it to stay that way" then she walked off, leaving a very concerned Mu La Flaga behind her.
'your still not better, are you Cassandra Hawke. Damn it what do we need to do to fix you kid' Mu though as he watched her leave.
BREAK. CHAPTER END.
Thanks for reading this story, and please come back for more.
For those of you how may find the name at the end familiar, know that I based the character I submitted on this one, but 'Mezzy' dosn't have halfway a dark(or bloody) a history as Nami.
Now to the warship stats.
Name: Dragon's Lair Hull number: DBC-002 Lenght: 550meters Width: 300meters Height: 160meters Hull Armor: Laminated Armor plating Hanger Space: 2x420,000Cubic meters MS/MA Capacity: 60/120 maxium number of units Ships Armarment: 1x500cm Positron cannon, 8x127mm beam cannons, 4x8inch railguns, 10x75mm Igelstellung CIWS turrets, 12x40mm CIWS turrets, 3xHelldart missile batteries, 12xMultipurpose missle tubes.
Propulsion: 6xHigh output Ion Drives Crew: 40xofficers, 260xenlisted, 60or120 pilots Sensors: unknown Weight: unknown