Reina awoke from her sleep, she checked the clock and saw it was 0800 hours. She got up and came out dressed in her training gear. She spent some time in the gym mostly running on the treadmill and doing other cardio activities. It was 0930 hours when she returned, covered in sweat. After cleaning up, she returned to her duties in her Red Uniform.
"Zala-san, I'm here to take your shift," Reina reported in over their comm-link. They were supposed to take turns being an active lookout in the sky due to the threat detection malfunctioning on the bridge after exiting the Quantum Tunnel. She mounted onto the Gundam Parallel Alpha and took off and matched its speed with the Eternal's speed. Zachariah's Astray Mirage Frame returned to the Eternal. Once inside the eternal, Zachariah dismounted and headed to the briefing room where he was supposed to meet with Shinonome, Captain Connor, and Officer Nina Espada, and the rest of the leaders aboard the ship.
"Science Officer Nina Espada has some important new information on our current status, and what is to be done," the Captain stated, " I hope this presentation will clarify all your questions, and maybe we will be able to generate some answers. Now, Nina."
"Thank you, Captain. Now as you may all know, 48 hours ago we witnessed and survived a very catastrophic event known to the scientific community as the Quantum Tunnel. It shares a lot of similarities with the wormholes we are familiar with, but they have some different qualities when it comes to their affects on the space time continuum. First and foremost, the Quantum tunnel is a subcategory of a Wormhole but instead of pinching two points of space together it pinches two points in time together. You may all know the illustration when it comes to the possibility of traversing a wormhole as the wormhole shrinks the distance between two points to almost nothing. In the same way, the Quantum tunnel shrinks two points in time to almost nothing, so that we can go forwards in time almost instantaneously. I won't go into the reasons why we can't go back in time since that would be digressing from our current subject."
"So, if we are in the future, how far are we in the future, because it seems like Mars and all the planets are still here," the Chief Engineer noted, "if the Grey Matter attacked wouldn't these all be Grey Matter planetoids."
"That is where I concluded we took an alternative route in the time. You see time doesn't just move forward linearly it branches out as different decisions change the possible outcome of the future. It is also likely that instead of moving forward like we first expected, the rift placed us sideways in time. We went from our timeline to some other timeline."
"Are we stuck in this timeline then," another crew member asked, "is it possible to go back."
"It is possible to go back, but we need one thing, People, other humans, just advanced enough in technology to help us get back home. So our primary directive at this point is to return home, our secondary directive is to return to Earth and see if humanity even exists in this timeline."
"Captain Zinnerman, a rogue ship is coming in our direction."
"Who does it belong to," Zinnerman replied gruffly, "the Federation?"
"No sir, there are no markings on it, wait," he zoomed in on the exterior of the Eternal, "I see one heat signature flying near it, it appears to be, Gundam?!"
"A Gundam, it must be a federation ship, but why it so far out, they should be closer to Earth."
"No idea, sir, what are you orders."
"Set battle status to red, ready the Gearas and have Marida launch in the Kshatriya."
"Yes sir," the deckhand replied, "All units to battle stations we are in a code red." Marida and her team began suiting up. They loaded into their Mobile Suits and launched off one by one.
"Gundam, is it," she glared at the cockpit of the Kshatriya, "I'll defeat them. I'll defeat them all." She jumped in and threw the visor down on her helmet. The cabin glowed as it came to life, she positioned her hands over the controls and cleared her mind. "Marida Cruz, NZ-666 Kshatriya, Launching." The catapult launched her forward and she spun around surrounding herself with the Kshatriya's shields and took off.
"Marida-san we're approaching the target," one of the pilots called, "I have a visual on the ship's emblem, Z.A.F.T., what is that, Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, do we have any information on them."
"Just assume they are targets," Marida replied, "Gilboa-san take the Gearas and target the ship, I'll take on the Gundam."
"Roger that," Gilboa replied, "Geara's on me."
"Yes, sir! Sieg ZEON!" they yelled as they rallied with Gilboa's Geara Zulu.
"Marida, be careful," he told her as they went off.
"I will," she assured him.
Alarms went off in Reina's cabin, "3 mobile suits inbound and 1 mobile armor, all of them some form of a Zaku-type," everyone on the Eternal began bustling about. The mobile suit pilots went to their stations and mounted their mobile suits. Alarms went off throughout the ship and the crew aboard the bridge were shouting off commands to everyone on the ship. "Shirou Yamato, ZGMF Gundam Astray White Frame, Let's go!" The pure white mobile suit took off from the Eternal along with 4 other Red Astrays and Shinonome's Blue Frame. "Atlas, follow me, Crow and the rest of you guard the Eternal, make sure they don't touch us. Shino-san do what you do."
"Yes, sir, " they replied. The White Frame and one of the Red Frames went off to take on the group of Geara Zulus headed around the ship. The rest of the Red Astrays sat by the Eternal providing cover fire for them. Shinonome whipped out the Blue Frame's Beam Gatling Gun and provided support for Shirou And Atlas. Atlas engaged in a skirmish with a couple of the Gearas. Shirou took on supposedly the lead mech, piloted by Gilboa.
"CIWS, Missiles, Main Armanent, Fire," the Captain commanded. The Eternal took aim at the Garniceries, but the Gearas refused to let the ship take any damage and focused their fire on it.
"Fire the bazookas," the group of Gearas pulled out their beam bazookas and took aim at the Eternal. The Astrays near the Eternal drew out their shields and intercepted the shots. Then several blasts from their right flank instantly incapacitated them.
"Now to separate the wheat from the chaff, Funnels Fly," Marida declared. She launched several funnels from the hatches inside the shields of the Kshatriya. She opened up the shields and unleashed another volley of beams from her funnels completely eradicating the defense force.
"Crow!" Shirou yelled, "Dammit, that's no mobile armor its a suit, Atlas stay near me focus on taking down the bits. Watch out though this pilot seems very experienced in using them. Then we can take out the other enemies."
"Roger that, Shirou," the two positioned their suits back to back and began firing and deflecting shots from the Kshatriya's funnels. "There's so many of them it's hard to keep track." Atlas struggled to keep a lock on them. "Try to distract it somehow."
"Reina and I will take on the stronger mobile suit," Shinonome called out. Shinonome and Reina burst into action and flew towards the Kshatriya.
"The Gundam and the blue one are going to challenge me, so be it," Marida flew head on and opened up more Funnels. They started spraying indiscriminately and forced Reina and Shinonome to break formation. Shinonome flew back and began firing at the funnels to try and take them down. Reina charged forward and drew her Beam Boomerangs. She threw them at the Kshatriya, Marida blocked the attack with her shields by covering her front side, but they did a considerable amount of damage. Reina used the time her main camera was covered by the shields to try and circle around the Kshatriya for a direct attack with her beam sabers. Marida sensed movements with her Newtype abilities and opened up with another volley from her funnels from behind and forced the Gundam Alpha back.
"This one is so annoying, it's almost as if it can read all my movements," Reina exclaimed, "I need to defeat it, to become stronger. To overcome my fears." Her pupils dilated and her iris became a dull green. All of a sudden the world began moving slower, the funnels didn't seem nearly as fast any more. Everything became clear as if the glass that filtered the world shattered, and she drew all her resolve, "To Overcome her Fears," and placed it into this next attack. "Take this you, b-tch," Reina cut through the Kshatriya's funnel defense.
"She changed her patterns entirely," Marida exclaimed. Turning all her attention to the Gundam, she drew her beam saber and the two cross swords for the first time. Shinonome gazed at the two while she took on the squad of Geara's with Shirou and Atlas, "I guess you found it, your resolve, Reina."