Gundam 00: Phoenix
Sins of Space
Earth's Orbital Ring, March 14, AEU Orbital Elevator La Tour
Reports had come in from the UN forces back a ship had just left Earth's atmosphere, passed by the orbital rings, and had entered into unknown space, tearing through the minimal space forces in their path in process thanks to them having five Gundams supporting their carrier.
Kati Mannequin could only wonder where they were heading to. Could they be regrouping with members of Celestial Being—the possibility wasn't unrealistic or far off thanks to the Virtue being in tow along with them.
The Rising Phoenix, itself had been relatively quiet over the past weeks, and it was only recently they began to stir again with this reappearance into space and Kati knew that the series assassinations that took place last week were all their doing.
Senators Meads, Duncan, and Frieda from both the Union and AEU were all found dead within the same week. Unsurprising due to questionable rumours that had been spreading over the past several years, many would have tossed them out of office if it were not for the unfortunate fact there was simply no evidence to support this.
"Colonel, the 13th Mobile Suit Team has just returned from reconnaissance, nothing to report," a report came in from a officer with a thick French accent.
"That's the third sweep we've done around the Earth and the surrounding areas, but still no sign of them. Did they go off into deep space or is there a base we don't know about?" Kati pondered, they needed to find the Phoenix as it was their mission, but without any intel trying to find their enemy in the vastness of space was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, a really big haystack.
"Ma'am, Colonel Smirnov's forces are being dispatched to join us in space. About twenty machines and Laohu transport ships," another report then came in. "They'll be joining us within the next twenty-four hours."
The rather large number of mobile suits coming here meant some serious combat would be taking place, if they ever found the Rising Phoenix's carrier. This many machines meant the UN wanted total annihilation on the enemy once they were found, but the problems of finding the enemy made this difficult and maybe even a waste of resources.
"Colonel," the French officer then began, "there's a message from you, it appears to be from Second Lieutenant Patrick Colasour...It's the third one this day."
A slight bit of agitation overcame Kati nearly forcing her to bury her head in her hand for a second. Colasour just did not seem to stop with the messages that weren't even remotely even related to the mission, he was quite intent on trying to do whatever to gain her attention. She had already banned him from the command room, but that did not stop him from occasionally trying to get in.
"Tell him to stop with those damn messages, or I'll personally make sure of it that he'll be reassigned," Kati said lifting her head up, knowing this would make Patrick shut up. A man like him wouldn't dare want to be reassigned if it meant staying near her.
"Ma'am we appear to be getting information from command, they're telling us where the Rising Phoenix may be headed and want us to investigate," the previous officer then told her as the coordinates appeared on the main screen.
Kati wondered how command got this information, but pushed it out of her mind. "Once we link up with Sergei's unit we'll head out towards those coordinates after a scout returns. I expect our own forces will be ready within the next four hours, lieutenant."
"Yes, ma'am."
Unknown Location, March 15
Ribbons sat infront of the large screen displaying a large debris belt.
It was an unfortunate turn of events when Judgment died—he even felt his presence disappear, but it was no matter. What the Rising Phoenix had dug up wasn't anything important to him, and the UN could not get anything out of the Legacy with its systems locked down completely by Veda.
It would be best if the UN could destroy the Rising Phoenix's main strength by themselves, their Gundams. They may be humans, but they were more than capable to destroying their enemies thanks to their near unquenchable appetite for war—something he would correct, eventually. And what point was there to guide a species that always needed someone to hold it's hand?
Footsteps then came behind him, his colleague had finally returned.
"I see you survived where even one of my own couldn't," Ribbons said to Ali, who gave a grunt of laughter.
"Being good in on area doesn't cut in the battlefield, although he was a tough son of a bitch—even I couldn't survive that much lead. What was it, about two and a half clips to bring him down?"
"Indeed and I suspect you're ready for your next mission?" Ribbons asked even though he knew the answer.
"I'm always ready, just say the word and I'll be there, as long as you keep the money coming of course," Ali replied he pointed out
Ribbons smirked. "Alright then here are the mission details," he got up and passed Ali Al-Saachez a small data disk containing all his instructions.
Ali took the data disk instinctively and then headed out of the room leaving Ribbons alone who turned back to the screen.
Ribbons' smirk remained on his face as he sat back down and switched to an image of three unknown Gundams. The future was coming and he would be the one to guide it.
Lagrange 3, March 15, Rising Phoenix Carrier
The emptiness of the bridge didn't die away, even when new people had come in to replace those who have fallen. Just the fact several old faces were missing made Wesker have flashbacks of his time in the AEUmilitary how he had a hard time dealing with teammates who died.
One face that wasn't in the bridge was Kail. Not because he had died, instead Wesker, to his reluctance, left him back on Earth despite his protests, but it was a liability he could not risk. Kail'seyes had been badly damaged and would take time to recover and during that time he couldn't do much to help their current operation unless he could look at screens with an invisible eye that he kept hidden.
Leaving not only Kail behind, many of their troops and a freights worth of equipment were deposited off at their Spanish base. If Celestial Being was fearful of their location being revealed then so be it—less than a hundred handpicked individuals seemed enough, not to mention most would be staying onboard the ship.
To get to this point took a considerable amount of time, thanks to the repairs taking a full weak due to lack of proper facilities while airborne which was another reason why they stopped by their Spanish base and he wanted Helana and Daveral to fully recover from their injuries. The last component was speaking to various members of Celestial Being ranging from observers to actual members of the organization itself, on audio only transmissions of course.
Some members of the organization, mainly the observers, thought his actions were extreme in some cases, but they couldn't deny the effectiveness of their operations even if he got his hands dirtier with underhanded tactics such as assassinations. Some were even afraid of him thanks to the resources he had since three senators had been recently assassinated and with Veda in someone else's hands they had the right to be afraid—their identities were already at risk by just speaking to him. There were also rumours about Observers disappearing making tensions rise within the ranks of Celestial Being thinking it was his people, if it weren't for the fact he had to evidence to prove their innocence.
To his left, Tieria stood by his side. Soon they would be nearing Celestial Being's asteroid base.
Sitting in his seat Wesker turned to Tieria. "So you think my little speeches were enough to get us in?"
"Well if they didn't I would not be with you," Tieria replied simply before continuing. "You deployed the Drei, Lancaster and Zesus but you never told anyone where they were heading to, might I ask where they are going?"
"Well the Trinities had a mother ship from what Nena has told me and she asked if she could go retrieve it and then head for the coordinates they found." Weskerthen switched the display to a map with a red mark marking the place where the Gundams would be going. "Although they are vulnerable, I trust that they can remain undetected, find whatever's at the coordinates and return back in one piece. If they need help they can simply signal us and we'll be on our way."
"You also deployed the Filvery, or as the techs have renamed it thanks to its massive upgrades, the Variant, but their ship can only carry three mobile suits."
"Helana is with them, she'll just be their eyes and ears as they move to the target area thanks to the Variants stealthsystems. With the UN reinforcing their space forces they'll need to be wary of anything, even if the coordinates are far away from the eyes of most. Think as her as the vanguard," Wesker explained to Tieria.
Tieria arched a brow. "You sure it's a good idea to send them on their own? Sending them back up should they get into trouble will take time, you should at least send some of your own people," Tieria advised.
"Don't worry I've got it covered. If the UN does pick a fight, then they'll be in for a surprise," Wesker assured him as a very large asteroid came into view. "So I guess this is it."
"Phoenix, standby for alignment markers," a message then came from the base through a secure channel. Guide markers then appeared as a section of the base opened up.
"Well," Wesker then turned towards the base. "I guess it's time to introduce myself in person to the rest of your colleges." he said as he stood up, it was time.
Lagrange 5, March 15, Debris Belt
"What the—why the hell is there debris all the way out here?" Daveral exclaimed from within the Lancaster to the Nena and Flint who were in their own Gundams as he stared the massive amount of floating debris preventing any warship from entering.
The modified Filvery, renamed the Variant then appeared beside the Zesus to everyone's surprise, nearly causing Flint to raise the Zesus' blade by accident before the Lancaster appeared between the two.
Daveral could only be jealous at Helana's modified machine. Thanks to the inspiration of the Legacy, the techs decided that the Gale pack would be a permanent attachment and GN Fangs would be mounted on the arms and legs, saving space and sticking closer to the new name with its ability to quickly change its role on the battlefield and how it fights.
Helana then appeared on screen. "Beacons have been dropped, if anything passes by we'll be sure to know of it," she told them, which everyone acknowledged before she turned to the debris belt. "Oh, wow, what happened here?"
"There's something hidden in there, or what's left," Nena then stated. "With this much debris there has to be something hidden here," she trailed as her Drei then began to move forward into the debris belt.
Everyone then followed Nena in, keeping particle dispersion at maximum, if anything was in here, then they would not be noticed on sensors—if they still worked here.
Bits of metal hit and bounced off the Gundams as they flew through the debris field.
"You know," Flint began. "If we were to fight here, I don't think anyone would last long. The fact a wrong turn could mean you run into enemy mobile suits or crash makes for one shitty battlefield."
"You're also forgetting about a dozen other factors," Daveral replied, observing the debris belt in detail.
One of particular piece that stood out was large pieces of twisted, bent metal that dwarfed even the Union's Arizona-class carriers in size and its thickness three times of a mobile suit. It was so large it that a small army mobile suits could battle another and have room to manoeuvre in a open battlefield if the entire thing didn't have so many bends, holes and twists.
"These pieces look like they're for colony construction, but does that mean—" Helana didn't finish and instead let out a gasp of surprise.
"What is it, Helana?" Flint turned to see what had caused her to gasp in surprise.
They could hear her trying to calm herself down. "There're bodies here," Helana stuttered in shock.
Flint, Daveral and Nena all saw multiple bodies floating through the debris, some were even children, and they all had one thing in common, they were wearing patient gowns and upon zooming in they even had identification numbers inscribed on a tag attached to the gown.
"Wh—what is this?" Nena then said in shock. "They look like they were being used for some kind of testing!"
"No kidding, but does that mean that guy who was after us from here, or did he do all this?" Flint then brought up.
"We'll have to find out," Daveral replied grimly, gripping at his controls.
Whatever this was it was unnatural, barbaric and monstrous, some of these kids were barely older than ten. Just who the hell would possibly do this people? Was it one of the superpowers, or a smaller faction that they didn't know about—either way someone had to pay for this, human lives were not something to be played with.
"Part of me does not want to know what happened here," Nena said reluctantly.
Flint nodded his head. "I agree with her Daveral, whatever happened here does not deserved to be rediscovered, even if it's a good idea."
"But if we don't find out what happened, then that just makes us ignorant. We have to know what happened, don't we?" Helana murmured quietly, her eyes closed to avoid looking at the bodies.
Daveral shook his head in agreement with Helana. "We have to know what happened here. If this is happening elsewhere then we have to stop it."
Flint sighed. "I guess that means we're going further in."
"That's right." The Lancaster then moved forwards with the others following in tow.
Moving forward, Daveral could only see those bodies in his mind's eye. This would probably be lingering in his mind for the rest of his life, just by the fact there were children who were disposed of like feral animals. Why do children always have to suffer over things that the old do? It made sense, but yet it also didn't in his mind.
Lost in his thoughts, only the a distinct noise from the sensors caught his attention—he looked up. Something had just entered sensors range, but it wasn't a mobile suit instead it was something much larger.
Now looking at his screens for confirmation, what he saw utterly surprised him. Infront of his eyes a station in decent condition appeared from within the debris belt—so this must be where all those bodies came from.
The station's body was a long cylinder a two kilometres long that had arms connected that rotated around the main body given and connected to each arm were extremely thick panels that protected the station from any incoming debris as the arms spun. At the very end of the main body was another rectangular block that looked like a docking bay, the doors wide open—definitely large enough to carry a warship.
"This is exactly where the coordinates lead to, so I this is the place then," Nena said, surprised this is what was here.
"Prepare to dock with that station, and be ready for anything, if there's anyone in there they might not be happy to see us," Daveral told his team as they began to move towards the station's docking bay.
The four Gundams landed inside the station's docking bay without a hitch after making sure it was clear and the four pilots met each other at an entrance that led further into the station.
To Daveral's surprise upon getting out there was some air in this place from what readings showed, although he wouldn't be taking his helmet off quite yet. For all he knew this place could be filled with poisonous gas that could kill them in an instant.
The station, however, was pitch dark so he guessed this place had been had been abandoned and most of the power cut off.
Everyone had their weapons drawn, in case they had to fight upon entering through the door and this time they were carrying compact submachine guns. The last encounter on the island had taught them that they needed a more powerful weapon for close quarters, although they did still keep their pistols as backup.
Daveral flipped on his weapon's flashlight as did the other before he said, "Alright we're going inside."
Flint took a breathof recycled air from within his helmet. "Well let's find out what the hell this station does." He then opened the door with the help of Helana and then moved inside.
Lagrange 5, March 15, Atticus Station
This place felt awfully familiar to Nena. In the back of her hand with each passing step more and more of her kept thinking this was the place she was raised. Maybe this was the place, but if that was the case, why was it so big? To raise only three people, didn't require that much room, although she never actually saw the rest of the facility she was raised in herself. She and her brothers just got transferred somewhere else when she was about fourteen.
If this was the place, maybe she would get some info on who created her and her brothers and why was it done here, in a place that is so far away from the Earth with people who were disposed of like test subjects?
Her thoughts continued on the matter continued on as Daveral, Flint, Helana, and her continued down the large corridor hoping to find something of interest soon. And soon enough, a large room divided into several sections by low walls appeared filled in it were computer consoles, lab stations, medical equipment—and bodies.
All four of them paused before they walked into the room, all while trying not to catch a glimpse of the bodies and their decayed faces as they made their way to the computer consoles to see if any information remained.
Nena noticed that none of the people here were dressed in patient gowns as they previously seen; instead, all the bodies here were scientist and their staff with multiple bullets holes in every single one signalling someone had gunned them down. The question was, by whom? She then noticed there were firearms floating around—had they killed each other?
She winced as the memories of Spain flooded back to her from the sight. She had never got a good look at the bodies from the Spain Incident, but looking at these bodies somehow brought up detailed images of what she had done and the people who were killed that she recognized in some of her nightmares.
After getting over the sight of bodies and the memories of Spain that came flooding in, she looked around at some of the equipment that was in the room. There were beakers, vials, test tubes, burners, syringes, incubators, and a whole bunch of stuff she did not even recognize. She wondered if this was where her life started—the place where a test tube baby is created.
Turning away from the lab station, she noticed something distinct floating through the air and went over for a closer look to see it that the thing floating around was some kind of recording device.
Grabbing it, she saw the device still had some power left and it worked, but upon viewing what recordings it contained she noticed it had a bullet partially lodged in the back and that over ninety percent of the recordings were badly damaged and irrecoverable, but one recording remained and it was the last one which may explain what was going on here.
"Nena, what you got there?" Flint said who hovered over beside her, curious to what she had.
"It's a recording device, and there's one recording left," she replied as she then selected the last recording and played it.
"Subjects E-35 to E-51 have been transferred out of the facility back to our main research lab on Earth. With those Trinity kids being sent to Laguna Harvey for the final part of their training we've been getting far too little funding to maintain this facility in space ever since. The sheer amount of resources going into each candidate already causes strains on our resources and having specialized ships bringing in supplies isn't cheap either, especially with our distance from the Earth. It also doesn't help that over half the candidates died during the surgery and we're constantly forced to toss bodies into the debris belt since the project director wants to keep this secret, even though that does little to help. I swear that he wants to put us down after all of this; the director's been on edge lately and he even had one of our people blown out of the airlock for protecting one of the candidates, fucking bastard. The director is not the worse part; though, some of our own people have been acting strangely; they've grown violent and most barely remember what they're doing. I think the director even had the guards inject some of my staff with what we're using on the candidates, so I better watch my back. No telling when everyone might turn on you. Hopefully the next ship off this hellhole will finally get here before the director finally loses it and then we're all fucked."
The recording then ended giving Nena a rather clear clue what happened, but she wondered, who were Subjects E-35 to E-51. The recording said they were subjected to surgery that killed over half the subjects here and apparently one of the injections caused the subject to become violent and their memory begins to fail them.
"Well Nena," Daveral began slowly who had listened in, "I guess this was where you were born."
Nena shrugged. "I kind of already had that feeling when I got here, but I never knew anything like this went on here."
"That's just sick," Helana commented, disgusted by the recording. "How could they possibly do stuff like this to people and then have their own staff kill each other?"
Flint just crossed his arms. "If Celestial Being was fighting for something I'm pretty sure this is one of the things they would be trying to end, and if not, then we'll have to. I can't imagine a world without war, but this kind of bullshit still going on."
Everyone nodded their head in agreement before Daveral then told them they were moving on towards the door on the left-side of the room which was wide open and to Nena's dismay, stained with blood.
Flint entered through the door first, his weapon raised so he could see the path ahead of him, and everyone followed right behind him to see another corridor leading somewhere into the darkness of the station.
Following where this corridor led to, Nena could only have memories of her past flash into her mind of this place where she and her brothers were isolated. Nothing really happened other then scientist watching them develop the skills they would need and giving them what they needed occasionally. It drove Michael mad that people were always watching them like animals and he could of happily beat up any scientist who came in, if it were for Johann keeping him on a tight leash here and the armed guards who also looked like they would happily kill them without a second thought. When the guards weren't around to shout at them, Johann, Michael, and herself just did whatever they could do to pass time within the multi-chambered room, hoping someday they would get out if even they knew what they were supposed to do.
And to think, the very same scientist were also doing things like messing with peoples' bodies, at least they got what was coming to them and she knew the others felt the same, if considerably more strongly on the matter.
If we knew this kind of stuff was going on, would it have changed us for the better? she thought to herself and then answered the other part of her mind answered with, Yes, we probably would which is why we never saw what they were doing, ever.
To think she had been raised in such a place to start becoming a Gundam Meister, it made her sick.
Lagrange 5, March 15, Godwind-class command shuttle Thunderbolt
The Thunderbolt made a very slow pass around the debris belt, monitoring the area and maintaining control of the forces sent along with the Gundams, under Wesker's direct orders. The Trinity mothership also followed in tow, linked up to the Thunderbolt's systems.
"So the Gundams entered into the debris belt?" the commander of the Thunderbolt asked a pilot who had just contacted them.
"That's right, sir. They're already at the coordinates, but they haven't responded back. Either they're dead or the found something,"
"Just give them some time because we've got plenty of it. If the UN appears, they're going to have to survive our little trap that we've planned. That should buy more than enough time for the Gundams to reinforce us." The commander then stood up and then headed to the back as the pilot disconnected from the channel.
Looking over the shoulders of his subordinates monitoring the radar he asked, "Any sign of UN forces yet?"
"Negative on that, sir; no sign of any activity but," the communications officer began as he grabbed a data pad floating around his station and handed it to the commander, "we've got UN fleet movement and they appear to be heading to this area from what our observation satellites show. Their ETA to this area is about another hour and they're bringing a considerable force."
The commander acknowledged the heads up with a nod. "Keep me posted on any details that we receive; we've planned for a fight, but it's the last outcome we want."
"Understood."
Lagrange 5, March 15, Atticus Station
Helana and Flint struggled to open a door that had been nearly sealed at the very end of the hall with their own hands until the room finally opened after much effort. If it weren't for the small opening they may have been forced to blow the door open with some sort of improvised explosive, but in these cramped corridors it was extremely dangerous and stupid.
"You two can get the next door that comes up," Flint said to Daveral and Nena as everyone then entered into the next room.
Upon entering the room, Helana noticed Nena's eyes widen abit and turned to see what Nena saw to give her that reaction.
In her sights, Helana saw several consoles and from behind an observation screen, a room containing three terminals that was connected to at least half a dozen other doorways that led somewhere.
"Nena," Helana began as she turned to her, "is this the place where you were raised."
Nena slowly nodded her head. "Seems about right. I remember using those terminals over there to look up information on the world."
"Should we go inside?" Flint asked pointing over towards the door that led here.
Nena shook her head. "There's nothing useful here that I remember and I prefer they stay away from that place, I hate it."
"Understandable," Daveral responded soundly.
Helana looked at the room they were in; there wasn't much other then clipboards and the consoles here, but there had to be something useful on the clipboards, she could clearly seen a considerable amount of notes and records on each.
Picking up one of the clipboards, Helana skimmed through what had been written. From behaviour notes to social interaction with each other, this clipboard and the next one she looked at contained information that knew everything about the Trinities. The information gathered made sure nothing was left out.
Putting the first clipboard down, Helana grabbed another one, but instead of notes written on lined pieces of paper, a black and white map of the facility showed itself instead which Helana unclipped and showed the others.
Helana showed them the map and the question of where to go now became much clearer.
"I say we head to the administrator's office," Daveral said, pointing the location out on the map. "We should find something useful there. If not, we'll head down to the database core, before heading back to the docking bay."
"Sounds like a plan," Flint replied, leaving the room with the others following in tow while Helana guided them.
Heading back the way they came, the four passed through the lab they had once been in and pried open another door leading to the administrators office.
The walls of the hall were covered in bloody handprintsas if someone had tried to get away from the fighting that took place in the lab and the prints kept appearing along the walls until they finally stopped at an open door and at the door's controls was a dead body that lay motionless with multiple gunshot wounds in the abdomen.
The blood this person had lost could be seen floating in clumps around them and the doorway. Even part of the person's entrails could be seen dangling out causing some uneasy stomachs and shudders from the group.
Passing by the dead body, everyone entered the next room and were surprised to see a light emitting from a computer console on a metallic desk in the darkness of the room and in a seat behind the desk was yet another body, however, unlike the others they've seen, the decayed female had a bullethole clean through the side of the head and a pistol to floating nearby to the side. She must have commited suicide.
Helana then turned from the body of the dead woman to the terminal and wondered how did that terminal have power but everything else did not. Was all the auxiliary power left going towards this terminal and other parts of the station they haven't been to yet?
Daveral was the first one at the terminal and began to read what was on the screen. "All project personnel are to be terminated including the project director once all test subjects have been moved. Certain members of the staff are to be injected with Beta Venamien to incite infighting and increased aggressiveness between each other. Once station has been purged of project personnel, databanks are to be wiped once a copy has been made of the database and station is to be shut down."
Flint sighed and crossed his arms. "That ruins the second idea, so should we head back to the Gundams in docking bay?" he asked.
"Hold on, Flint," Daveral said back as he kept exploring what was on the console until he found a file of interest, but up opening it, to his surprise, resulted in him seeing something written in some kind of code. It was something beyond his expertise to decipher; all he saw was several dozen pages of text that made no sense.
Nena then pushed Daveral to the side upon seeing the encrypted file to his surprise and took a look at the file for a second.
Helana saw Nena's eyes quickly skimming through the text on screen before she connected a small flash drive to the console's hard drive and began to upload the file to the flash drive for storage.
Turning to the body, Helana wondered if this person had any clues to why this terminal was still running and what the encrypted file could possibly be.
"I'm not going to decrypt it here, something like this will take time, but I can eventually find out what the message is. If someone went through the effort to encrypt it this much then it has to be important," Nena stated as the file transfer finished and she pulled it out. "So should we get going now?" she then asked.
Helana raised her hand for the others to wait for her as she checked the pockets of the deceased woman and found a recording device similar to the one they found earlier and activated the first recording saved as they all began to move back to the docking bay.
A mature, yet soft voice came from the first recording, breathing heavily. "Those damn goons of Alejandro Corner just came in and killed nearly everyone in the station to make sure we kept silent about both projects. I'm surprised, however, by the fact they haven't destroyed the place and instead kept it as a floating graveyard, stupid idiots. I've just managed to reroute what's left of the auxiliary power towards this terminal, the mess hall, and the air scrubbers. It should hold out for a little under decade unless the parts for the generator wear out. I can't believe the station's administrator would do this and betray our trust by not warning us of this impending raid. If someone ever finds him I hope he gets what's coming for him."
"So that diplomat Alejandro Corner was behind all of this?" Daveral began as the first recording ended. "Never thought he would be one to do something like this."
Flint shrugged. "At least he's dead now. The AEU, Union, and HRL say he was killed during the final battle with Celestial Being."
"Could he have been the one piloting that large golden mobile armour we caught glimpses of?" Helana then said, wondering why a diplomat would be caught up in a fight with the so-called terrorist of Celestial Being. "For someone to have something like that while being a diplomat, it just seems so strange."
In Helana's mind, politics always had too much power. It was politics who decided to do nothing about the place she lived in and let it become its own third world nation, it was politics who caused wars that led to Celestial Being's creation, and it was politics who got soldiers like Sten killed. Just why did they have to control so much to the point where the people's decisions and choices seemed to do little more then put up a show that meant absolutely nothing?
Nena gave a solemn look of relief. "I'm just glad he's dead, I bet he was the one who sent Ali-Al Saachez to kill me and my brothers since we weren't part of his plan anymore." Nena then looked up with a uncertain look on her face. "But if Veda is still in someone else's control, does that mean even he was a tool to be used and tossed away?"
Before someone could respond a transmission came in through their helmets from the Thunderbolt. "Team One, requesting status report over."
Daveral placed his hand on the side of his helmet activating the helmets transmitter. "We copy that Thunderbolt, we're just making our way out of a station in the debris belt. We've found some valuable information that you guys might want to see later."
"Later could be quite abit later. We've got UN forces entering the perimeter and they'll soon be within range of the debris belt and us. We're going to be forced to spring our trap in less than five minutes at the rate they're closing in," the commander said to them, advising them to hurry up.
"Roger that." Helana then saw Daveral turn to them. "Alright, you heard what he said, it's time to get out of here."
Lagrange 5, March 15, Virginia-class Carrier Manhattan
She did not how all this debris got here, nor did she care to know how at the moment. All that mattered at was the mission, but with no signs of the enemy they may have just been lured out by false information, wasting both time and resources.
"Ma'am, getting a close up visual of the debris belt." The screen then showed a much more detailed image which seemed to shock a few members of the crew.
"This is in Union colony development territory," someone said. "Does this belong to them?"
"If so they'll have much explaining to do," Kati then turned over to the sensor officer. "Any sign of the Celestial Being or the Rising Phoenix?"
"I'm not sure, but we have readings of sensor beacons set up around the debris belt. Someone's here and they know we're coming for them," came a reply back to her.
"Have secondary mobile suit teams launch and have them immediately commence mission plan F–42. Colonel Smirnov's team will continue with plan B–12."
The side mobile suit containers of the Manhattan began to open up and deploy four Enacts and one GN–X from each container while its sister ship the Washington, released five Enacts from its own containers.
Upon being released mobile suits began to take off towards the debris belt in search of their quarry.
As the mobile suit teams left a warning suddenly went off in the small bridge.
"Ma'am we've been marked by a laser designator," someone warned as on screen, eight objects classed as Ace tactical fighters appear, releasing missiles heading towards them. "They've just launched long-ranged TGO–32 anti-warship missiles, ETA to impact ten seconds and counting!"
"So we are close enough that they've already given up their surprise to strike at us," Kati said with a smile. " Mobile suit team to intercept!" She ordered as four Tierens, three Hellions immediately appeared from beneath the Manhattan and another group of similar composition appeared from beneath the Washington.
The mobile suits quickly intercepted the missiles with barrages of both shells and linear fire causing large explosions light up space near the task force; however, when each missile detonated, instead of being completely destroyed, additional, smaller missiles sprouted out of the explosion.
"What the—?" one of the crew exclaimed as Kati eyes widened in surprise—ordinary TGO-32 missiles did not contain cluster munitions from what she knew. "They must of swapped the conventional warhead out!"
Kati put on a scowl upon seeing the smaller missiles heading straight for them, having breached their defensive line. "Brace for impact!" she then shouted as everyone did exactly as instructed.
The ship shook and rattled violently as the smaller missiles impacted against the starboard side of the hull, but the rattling soon ended almost as quickly as it had come.
Kati looked up and turned to one of the ship's operators. "Damage report!" she demanded.
"Starboard side container has taken moderate damage, no breach in the hull, but we have lost starboard side linear cannons and launchers."
"Ma'am, twelve new heat signatures have just appeared right behind us and they're closing in. They're enemy fighters; the group that just fired the cruise missiles also appear to be closing in on us," a warning came.
"Have teams remain on interception mission and order the Washington defend the rear, we'll cover the right flank," Kati then ordered, hastily.
"Yes, Ma'am!"
The large, ponderous Virginia-class carrier began to manoeuvre to face the enemy with its missile launchers already going off, releasing deadly ordinance into space.
Now, just when are the stars of the show going to appear? Kati wondered, hoping her forecast was correct as the battle intensified outside.
Author Notes: I'm going to start changing some of the event in Gundam 00 S2 around so when I get to work on the S2 of Gundam 00: Phoenix I have a plan that I can roll on which I've been planning out in my head for quite some time, although I probably should write it down. Also, the next chapter will be fully about combat and then a prelude to S2. I know the first part is abit vague in some areas and rushed, but I will promise the S2 part will make much more sense and be better. Also I changed the Filvery's name in to the Variant. I don't know why I picked that stupid name, but I think I'll keep it for S2.