"Archangel, all units recovered." Miriallia said, after the Moebius units were finally recovered into the ship.
"Ugh, finally; too much sitting and doing nothing." Blaze grumbled, finally unstrapping himself from the seat.
…
"It a pity the escort ship didn't make it." Murrue mused. The escort ship that was supposed to go with them was trapped in the dock when the entrance was blocked by debris.
"Yeah; what's going to happen now?" Natarle wondered while looking at the small speck in the distance of the view port that was Artemis, its Umbrella shimmering as debris from the station kept on floating into it.
"Odds are? We're going to be pursued." Mu said. "I'll be surprised if ZAFT will let those guys go after what happened back there."
"Well, the Archangel has better acceleration than the Nasca class cruisers ZAFT is fielding, so we'll be fine." Natarle said with pride in her voice.
"Didn't help us the first time." Mu couldn't help but say in an undertone, earning him a dirty look from the severe black-haired lady.
…
…
…
"Captain Cruset, are we going to be pursuing that legged ship?" One of the other ship captains asked him over the ship communications.
"We are, but not before resupplying; no point pursuing the enemy if we don't have mobile suit support."
"Yeah." The captain sighed before signing off; his ship used to house the Hellion team, and their immediate and sudden death at the hands of a single Moebius (modifications or no) was shocking, to say the least.
Rau Le Cruset sat back in the captain's seat and couldn't help but sigh as well.
"Something on your mind?" The ship's captain, Fredrik Ades, said while walking onto the bridge with two drinks in his hand.
Rau gratefully took one of them. "Yeah. How are the pilots coping?"
"Not well; except for your boys most of them are either some form of denial."
"Oh?"
"That video you made was a little too good." Fredrik took a sip of his drink. "It made the Naturals seem unbeatable."
"Ask the Reds and they'll tell you they really are." Rau chuckled at that remark from one of the ship's operators; according to Fredrik they had watched the battle between the stolen Gundams and the Strike (from the back of the room) with an odd mix of fascination, horror, and excitement.
"Well, I might have gone a little overboard, but I assure you, the training will be worth it."
"Do you think high command will push for those changes to the recruit training like you asked?"
"Probably not." Rau smiled. "Patrick is very stubborn; it's one of his good traits, after all."
…
As it so happens, Patrick Zala had the video censored even within the ZAFT military, under the belief that it would be harmful for troop morale; a part of him lamented the loss of such useful propaganda footage, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that a war fought under the belief that you will eventually lose is a war that should be avoided.
…
"And what do you think the Naturals are doing?" Fredrik asked with a small chuckle.
"Why, continue being xenophobic and useless, of course!" Rau said, and broke into full out laughter, not shared in its intensity by the rest of the bridge crew.
…
"Well, shit." Cipher muttered, looking at a discreet mail sent to him by Garcia, commander of the Artemis station.
The Earth Federation Army high command had released their video as a pure propaganda move (despite Garcia's suggestions) and as an end result almost nobody, in or out of the military, took it seriously.
Almost nobody, because the crew (especially the pilots) of the Artemis station now worshipped the Strangereal aces as if they were gods, and logged a truly staggering amount of simulation time trying to be like them.
…
[Some time later]
…
"What's up?" Ribbon asked a disgruntled Talisman.
"It's the rookies. They're refusing practice on moral grounds."
Cipher perked up. "Wait, what?"
"Yep. Something about not wanting to learn from a space monster." Talisman said, shrugging.
Blaze growled. "Makes sense, much as I hate to admit it." During the start of the Circum-Pacific war many Yuktobanian flight instructors in Osea were apprehended or detained in some way, on the simple basis of them being from nations at war with each other. Many Osean pilots also refused to fly in Yuktobanian skies and were arrested for insubordination, at least until the war got going in earnest.
Cipher had an expression that just screamed "dull surprise."
"So the rookies won't train to be better because they think anyone better than them are space monsters. I had no idea they wanted to die that quickly." He deadpans, before getting up.
"Where are you going?" Talisman asked as Cipher headed out of the officer lounge.
"To beat in some heads." He said before leaving.
…
"What? You want to run a live training exercise?" Natarle said with no small amounts of shock, while trading looks between Murrue and Mu.
Both of them shrugged in response.
"I'm worried about the state of readiness of our loan pilots from Artemis." Cipher sounded more diplomatic than normal, Mu noted.
Murrue shrugged again after giving the idea a minute of consideration. "We're currently not being pursued, so I don't see why not."
"Captain…!" Natarle started, before Cipher cut her off.
"Thank you Captain Ramius; we'll get the boys ready right away." He said as he left the office, much too quickly.
"Are you sure about this?" Natarle said, almost accusingly.
Murrue blinked. "It'll be a good way to get the rookies some experience; so why not?"
…
"Why are we learning from a Coordinator?" A rookie asked another.
"Because he's got the captain in his pocket." Came the laughing reply.
"His pants, more like." Said another.
"Cut the chatter, and get focused." Cipher said sharply.
"Sorry, sir." The rookies said, their tone indicating absolutely zero respect.
Cipher sighed inwardly. "We will now begin our combat training; get ready."
…
Cipher seethed inwardly. Damn you, Garcia, you and your nuggets. No wonder Artemis blew to pieces.
And it was as he saw: the rookies had serious issues just trying to keep their units pointed in the right direction, and often they nearly flew into each other or couldn't use their vectored thrusts correctly, causing a lot of swearing on the lines and quite a few near-death accidents.
He finally couldn't take it anymore. "How did any of you earn your wings?"
"We were just transferred to Artemis before it was attacked, what did you expect, sir." Came a Rookie's accusatory reply.
"I was expecting you to do more than just shoot your damned mouth off." Cipher replied. This was really not his field of expertise.
"Sir, we're Naturals."
Cipher couldn't help but laugh at that one. "Oh! That's good! Is that what you want to hear when you die out here?" He then changed his tone to mock the young pilot. "You weren't meant to live, because you're a Natural and can't do anything, right?"
No response.
Cipher's voice changed once more. "Out here, there's no distinction between Naturals, Coordinators, Space Monsters, or whatever the hell you can think of. Right now, you are all pilots, flying under the same rules as everyone else. If you don't want to learn from someone not like you? Fine, then die out there on the battlefield with your pride." Cipher grinned, "If you think your complaints can save your asses from a real bullet, then go right on ahead and run your mouth until you die. If you have an actual pair of balls, then learn to fly like it; if it makes it any easier on you, treat me like I'm a goddamn Demon from hell. I don't care, as long as you can fly right."
A momentary pause, then…
"Sir," The rookie lacked his usual bravado. "Coordinators are better in every way, how do you expect us to beat them?"
"You fly to survive. If you can do that, then you can worry about winning." Cipher said, remembering some of the words spoken by a certain instructor in Belka. "And to survive, you have to fly with everything you've got. Not just your own abilities, but the abilities of your wingmen."
"Can't be a hero if you don't work alone." One of them said sulkily.
"Yeah." Cipher agreed. "But you're not out here to be a hero. If you do, then all you're going to do is die."
Silence.
"I'm done arguing the point." Cipher said after a few seconds. "If you think your pride can make you fly better, then prove it right here, right now. Otherwise, shut up and train like you mean it."
…
…
"Sounds like the problem is solved." Blaze said with a hint of skepticism in his voice.
"If they didn't believe us back at Artemis I don't see why they would start now. I guess Cipher's gonna have to pull ranks on them to get them to behave." Ribbon shook his head. "I know they're rookies, but are they really that undisciplined?"
"Eurasia and Atlantic branches of the EFA always had strained relations. I guess Garcia just dumped his worst pilots on us." Mu sighed. "Not to get sidetracked, but...Ribbon."
"Yes?"
"It would be an honor if you taught me everything you know." Mu said, begging with his hands. "Pretty please?" He added a wink at the end.
…
…
[Some days later]
…
…
"Know what this is about?"
"Not a clue."
Mu and Ribbon were swapping theories as to what the sudden summons for all the officers was about; theories ranged from "Birthday party" to "Natarle baked a cake for everyone."
The two had been in the simulator for the better part of a few hours so they were both rather hungry.
…
"We're here, captain. What's the news?" Mu said, saluting once he got onto the bridge.
"We picked up an emergency signal beacon." Murrue said, nodding towards Miriallia.
"From where?" Kira asked. (Mu had passed by him on the way and dragged him to the bridge, despite Kira not being an officer).
"From the debris belt." Miriallia replied. The Debris belt was, as the name implied, a ring of space junk left over from humanity's exertions in space. (Technically it was more of a sphere, but since the majority of the junk was orbiting around the equator most people just call it a belt instead).
"We're not going into there, are we?" Mu asked with raised eyebrows.
"We're not." Murrue shook her head. "We need to rendezvous with the 8th fleet and we're still being pursued; the detour will take us too long and give ZAFT the chance to catch up. However…"
"We can't just let someone die in space." Kira finished for her, looking grim. Murrue nodded.
"That said, there is always the chance of the beacon being a dud." Natarle interjected, earning her a blank look from some people in the process. "It is a possibility, no matter how remote."
Murrue sighed. "She's right, which is also why we can't take a detour, which is why we're all here right now."
"We're going to send a detachment?" Mu's eyebrows almost melted into his hair.
Murrue nodded. "That's the idea; any takers?"
"Um…" Miriallia started to say, catching everyone's attention. "The signal is also coming from a ZAFT ship, if that matters any."
"ZAFT ship?" Ribbon voiced everyone's confusion. "What's a ZAFT ship doing in the belt in one piece?"
Everyone looked around at one another in mild confusion, before something clicked in Kira's head.
"I'll go." He said. "The Strike has greater operational range than the Moebius or the Zero."
"Ooh! Good for you, kid. What if this is an ambush?" Mu said, fake jovialness in his voice.
"Well…have him tow the Zero in?" Ribbon mused. "It'll save the problem of him not having a wingman."
"That's true, and…wait! Why am I going?" Mu sounded shocked.
…
"Loading spare batteries onto the Zero."
"Mu La Flaga, roger. Sheesh…"
Mu sat in the Moebius Zero's cockpit, watching a large oversized energy canister (dubbed batteries by the uncreative staff) be dragged through the loading dock for attaching to one of his hardpoints, leaving him with two gunbarrels instead of the usual complement of four.
With a little creative engineering, Murdoch was able to fashion a crude system for energy transfer between two compact batteries, allowing the Strike to "refuel" in flight without the use of another Strike Pack. The fact that it actually fitted onto the Zero (Murdoch had made it as a sort of a hobby) was only an added bonus.
"Sir?"
"Ah, nothing." Mu forgot that Miriallia could hear him.
"Lieutenant La Flaga." He heard Murrue say.
"Yes, captain?"
"Well…you know what's in the debris belt; be careful, and watch Kira's back."
"Not gonna tell me to watch mine?" Mu laughed slightly.
"I think you'll be just fine." Murrue said, a little frostily.
…
A short while later, he was watching the Sword Strike's engine running in front of him while being towed by a grapple cable.
…
"La Flaga, sir?" He heard Kira over a private line.
"No need for the sir; what's on your mind?" Mu was glad for a little company; the flight was going to be fairly long, after all.
"Is there something unusual in the debris belt?"
Mu went to stroke his chin but found his helmet in the way. "Not really? There's trash, maybe unexploded ordnance, and pirates. Beyond that it's pretty normal."
Kira momentarily wondered what definition of "normal" Mu had.
"Why did you ask? Worried about something?"
"Yeah, well…Heliopolis was a neutral colony, so we could get satellite TV from PLANT."
Mu wasn't sure where this was going, so he didn't respond.
"And, well, I heard once that ZAFT makes routine trips to remains of Junius Seven as a part of some program they had."
Mu sat up straight (as straight as he could under the circumstances).
"So you're thinking that this crippled ship belongs to one of those expeditions?"
"Yeah." Kira said with a small nod to himself.
Mu's mind was racing. If the kid is right, then that ship has the high possibility of containing someone valuable to the ZAFT top brass, especially if this trip is done right now for political reasons within their own government. But if he's dead, then there's a good chance the EFA's going to be blamed for killing a noncombatant. He then mentally shrugged. Given that the EFA's greatest claim to fame is nuking a farming colony I can't see how ZAFT's propaganda machine could spin it any worse.
"Alright, head there at maximum thrust; I want to be back before the day is over." Mu commanded.
"Roger!"
…
…
"I wish I could've gone with them." Tolle said, slightly wistfully. "It would've been my first mission, too."
"Not a good omen to visit a graveyard on your first trip." Talisman said lightly.
"Yeah, but it would've been good experience anyways." Tolle sighed.
Once again, Talisman was stuck babysitting the teenagers on the ship (given age similarities). If nothing else it gave him an idea of what the moral support around Kira was like, and it gave him a reason to slack off, which was good.
New this time was a girl with long red hair. A little inquisition later told him that she was Flay Allster, Sai's girlfriend (through arranged marriage) and the hottest girl back in Heliopolis, based on the relatively small sample size of one.
Which, honestly, told him very little about her personality, and forced him to extrapolate based on what he knew about the Allster family instead.
"Sai, why is Kira flying that machine? Isn't he a student like us?" Flay asked.
"He's made a pledge to protect us and help end this war; in our own way, we're going to help him right back, because he's our friend." Sai responded.
According to what Talisman could gain from various news outlets, the Allster's head of household, George Allster, was quite famous with his reputation as a family man in a political climate rife with people trumpeting their family purity, and had gained a little bit of bemused notoriety for his near-constant doting of his daughter. This implies that Flay here might be spoiled rotten. Talisman thought worriedly. Spoiled rotten on love and not a small amount of problematic ideology.
"Well, yeah, but…isn't he a Natural? How could he fly something like that without any training?" Flay asked.
"Being a Natural isn't a justification; what really matters is your skills, and how willing you are to compensate for your weaknesses." Talisman said idly, not really paying attention.
"Huh?"
He sighed. "Kira has been practicing almost constantly ever since he decided to fight. Add on the fact that he is a Coordinator and, frankly, I'm not worried about him at all." The rookies, on the other hand…
"Kira's a Coordinator?! Aren't we fighting the Coordinators?!" Flay exclaimed, dropping her voice to a hiss as if it was some great secret.
"On the surface, sure." Talisman said. "But very rarely are wars motivated by just plain hatred; there needs to be some reason for declaring war." He stared directly at Flay, who immediately began fidgeting under his gaze. "There's no such thing as a war where one side is perfectly evil and another perfectly good, girly."
Flay flinched a little. "But…but dad said that all Coordinators are evil."
"You've seen Kira. Would you say he's evil?" Talisman asked.
Flay slowly shook her head. "No…he's nice and polite, if a little weird sometimes."
"Yeah. It's never a good idea to believe that all people on the other side are evil; remember that the war started because the Naturals decided to nuke a colony." He stared at her again. "If you were to meet a Coordinator aside from Kira, how do you plan to convince them that you are, in fact, not an inhuman monster?"
Flay didn't have an answer, and instead mumbled something under her breath.
"So, uh, Talisman." Sai said, trying to change the subject since it seemed like Flay was about to cry. "What do you think the reason for the start of the war was?"
Before Bloody Valentine? "It's hard to say, actually." Talisman said after a moment of thought. "The EFA had no reason to invade a series of colonies, especially when Earth has more resources overall, a higher standard of living, and generally better conditions." He shrugged. "I say it was because the EFA high command was insane; I hope they died fast and early, otherwise we're all fighting a war for someone else's personal feelings."
…
…
[A few hours later]
…
…
"Kira, I'll give you the updated coordinates to the signal, hold on a minute."
Kira patiently waited for a minute.
"What the…the ship has moved more than expected."
"It's a trap after all?" Mu muttered, releasing the grapple from the Strike and coiling it back onto the Moebius Zero.
"It could have just hit some debris." Kira said, but he unhooked the oversized sword from the Strike's back just in case.
"You're going into the debris belt, please be careful." Miriallia said.
…
There was enough space between debris to comfortably fly a mobile suit around.
…
"There it is." Kira said after a few minutes of following the signal coordinates sent by Miriallia (the Strike's receiver would actively ping whichever ship was using an SOS signal, effectively ruining the element of surprise, thus it was turned off) and had finally found a ship that looked to be intact enough to do anything useful. It was also being guarded by two GINNs.
"I think we found our target." Mu muttered upon seeing the two GINNs. He unhooked the spare battery (as he saw it) and placed a signal flare on it.
The GINNs lifted their machine guns to face the new threats, before one of them suddenly had his head replaced by a sword. The second GINN fired a few shots at the Strike in retaliation (since the Strike threw its oversized sword at the first GINN and was effectively weapon-less) and turned as a missile from the Zero caught its attention.
Mu then almost gasped in surprise as the GINN suddenly rocketed upwards while firing its forward-facing thrusters, causing it to fly over the missile while flipping around to face said missile. It then destroyed the missile with a burst of machine gun fire.
"Damn, looks like we have an ace on our hands." Mu seethed, rolling out of the way of a retaliatory burst of first from the GINN he had just fired at before he had to roll once more to dodge a burst of fire from the headless GINN, which had jettisoned its head connector (which was still attached to the oversized sword) and was now fighting without its main camera. Make that two of them. He thought as he heard a metallic ping from one of the GINN machine gun rounds scraping his Zero.
Kira, meanwhile, was sorely missing the Aile Strike's beam rifle. He had chased down the GINN's head and retrieved his oversized sword, and had now powered it up, a beam of power acting as the cutting edge for the sword. He then charged full speed towards the second (still-whole) GINN, bringing his sword down for an overhead strike.
The whole GINN spun quickly and boosted out of the slash to deliver a roundhouse-ish kick to the Strike's side with the momentum of the spin. It then brought out a pair of knives and neatly jammed them into the Strike's arm section, causing the Phase Shift Armor to crackle and removing the arm's ability to do anything useful.
"Whoa! Damn!" Kira, though taught by the Aces of Strangereal, was still inexperienced in actual hand-to-hand combat with mobile suits, as he had nobody to teach him.
"Kid! I got your back!" Mu fired a few shots from his linear gun near the whole GINN, but it didn't budge an inch. Figured a move like that wouldn't work on an ace. He then had to focus his attention on the headless GINN, as it had maneuvered above him.
Mu fired a grapple at a nearby piece of debris and nosed-up hard, bringing that debris into the GINN like a wrecking ball, knocking said GINN off-balance. Mu then detached his grappling hook while taking several pot shots at the headless GINN (while the GINN fired back aimlessly), reorienting himself to set up for another attack.
Kira tried to hit the GINN pinning his arm with his knee but missed, as the GINN rocketed out of the way (knives still stuck in the Strike's arm) and counterfired by spraying the Strike with a pair of machine guns.
Mu rolled and sharply pulled his Zero to bring his gun to bear on the still-whole GINN, but before he could even stabilize his threat alarm told him that the headless GINN was firing at him, forcing him to dodge out of the way again.
"Dying in a graveyard, this isn't even remotely funny!" Mu gritted his teeth, and released his Gunbarrels.
He aimed his Gunbarrels at both GINNs and fired away while dodging the spray of fire from the headless GINN.
…
Meanwhile, on a ZAFT ship bound for the debris belt…
"Sir, we're receiving a lot of heat signatures from a location within the debris belt, it's very close to where the ship disappeared." The operator said, after spending some time listening intently to his headphones.
The captain of the ship nodded. "Acknowledged; Mr. Zala," he looked at Athrun, who fidgeted a little upon being referred to as such (he was here as a representative of the ZAFT government instead of as a military officer, thus his status as the son of a top official trumped his rank). "Do you think Miss Clyne is being attacked?"
I don't think a civilian ship could defend itself against an enemy attack for this long. Athrun mused. "Let's hope not, but it's best to not rely on just hope; how quickly can the ship get to that location?"
"It's fairly deep within the debris belt, and we can't dive in too quickly." The captain said.
Athrun grimaced. "Ok; then I'll deploy in the GINN; head to that location at top speed."
"Roger. And, Athrun," The captain was a family friend, after all. "Don't get in over your head."
Athrun smiled slightly. "I won't."
…
"Son of a…he fights just like those guys!" Mu snarled as he pulled another high-G maneuver to dodge a spray of fire from the headless GINN that was getting more and more accurate. "Are you alright there, kid?!" Mu yelled over the warning alarms telling him that his Vernier thrusters were starting to overheat from the strain.
"Yeah!" Kira felt his body shake from yet another kick from the GINN he was up against. "These guys are really good!"
Well, no shit, kid. Mu couldn't help but think.
Kira was a better ranged fighter: the Aces of Strangereal had taught him that much. Every hit he's gained so far on the GINN (with his head-mounted guns) was when he was fighting at range. The pilot of the unit had realized that quite early and as a result had moved into super short ranged combat, combining kicks and punches along with well-positioned dagger stabs to the Strike's joints; at this point the Strike's cockpit was blaring with warnings about joint damage despite the Phase Shift armor's protective properties.
Mu, on the other hand, was locked in a shooting duel with the Headless GINN. A lot of fire was being exchanged between the Moebius Zero and the GINN but due to maneuvering, debris, and the fact that the GINN was missing its main camera, neither side scored any serious hits.
Kira had long since abandoned the oversized sword that came with the Sword Strike, favoring the smaller but nimbler Armor Schneider knives instead. However, due to his lack of experience he simply couldn't bring them about fast enough to do any serious work.
After a few minutes of Kira getting punched and knifed in the everywhere repeatedly over and over again, he found himself face to face with the GINN's knife, held pointed at his cockpit section, while his Phase Shift Armor happily informed him of its end of operation.
Suddenly, the GINN flashed something with a light on the head.
"A truce?" Mu said, after his Zero's computer had deciphered the message. "Why would they ask for a truce? They were kicking our ass." Mu wondered, and pulled his Gunbarrels back.
"I don't think they're ZAFT units." Kira said, calming down and finally getting a good look at the units in question: The GINN still with his head attached was painted a mixed hue of black and blue, had oversized shoulders signifying increased mobility and performance, and most importantly it was missing the notable fin on the head like most GINNs. The one that had its head blown off was a normal GINN in design, but it had one of its arms colored a bright red, almost as if it was a replacement arm from a different piece.
"Well, it's good to know that we're not going to die out here." Mu said dryly.
…
Once the two pilots had docked with the ship (parked next to it and gotten out) they went inside the ship, which was surprisingly well furnished and in pretty good condition, damage aside. Good enough condition for the two of them to remove their helmets while inside.
"Ah! You two must be the newcomers. I hope my friends didn't give you too much trouble." A girl's voice greeted them once they got into a room in the center of the ship.
She had long, flowy pink hair, a white dress, a very pleasant expression, and a small bundle of pink annoyance bouncing around her heels.
"HELLO! HELLO!" It said, flapping its ears wildly while half bouncing and half floating around.
"Hello, uh, and you are…" Mu said hesitantly.
"Lacus Clyne. Nice to meet you, sir." The girl said with a deep bow.
"Clyne…?! So you're Sigil Clyne's daughter?" Mu was shocked.
"Do you know my father?" Lacus asked with a very pleasant expression on her face.
"Ah, well, not exactly." Mu scratched his head. The girl's not very attuned to the politics side of things, I see.
"Uh, Mu, who's Sigil Clyne?" Kira asked.
"One of the big brass in ZAFT, and one of the more moderate ones." Said someone behind him.
"Ah! Mr. Mercenary, I hope you weren't injured." Lacus said, upon seeing who it was behind them.
Mu wheeled around to see the man that had almost singlehandedly killed both of them. The man he thought Lacus was referring to had unkempt black hair, an EFA uniform (unbuttoned at the top), and large, large glasses.
"I guess that uniform makes you a deserter, huh." Mu remarked.
The man didn't answer, only gazed at Kira with an impartial expression.
"Don't mind him; he's not very friendly even on the best of days." The second man said, with short blonde hair, small crooked grin and a friendly extended hand, which Mu took. "Nice shooting back there, taking my head off with a sword like that." He said to Mu.
Mu pointed to Kira. "He's the culprit, I'm innocent."
The man's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Ah, well, your hit with the grapple was pretty good all the same."
Mu laughed. "Only because you kept stopping everything else I did; where did you learn to fly like that?"
The man's grin widened in response. "It'll take a while..."
…
"So what's a princess of ZAFT doing all the way out here?" Mu asked, after the group had made a little bit of small talk.
"I was on a memorial trip to Junius Seven, before the ship was ambushed by pirates." Lacus said. "If it wasn't for the assistance of these mercenaries here I don't know what could have happened." She said, following it up with a small bow towards the mercenaries in question.
Mystery mercenary number two waved it off. "We were paid for the contract, nothing to be surprised about."
"So who would hit a girl?" Mu mused to himself, mostly.
"Someone looking to extend the war, most likely." The second man said, scowling. "I wouldn't put it past them to assassinate a peaceful ZAFT envoy and try to blame the EFA for it."
"Well, knowing our top brass, it would be more of a kidnapping mission instead." Mu muttered, not a hint of a joke in his voice.
"What do you plan to do now?" The first mercenary suddenly asked.
"We came here looking for a distress signal, and we found it." Mu said. "So I suppose we could go back empty handed, but it wouldn't explain the battle damage."
"And we can't part with the princess either, since the job is to get her back to her daddy safe and sound." The second mercenary said. "How 'bout you guys stick around for a while, until one of our ships get here?"
"Then you get your pay and we get our alibi. Perfect!" Mu said. "Got anything to do while we're waiting?"
"I got some cards, if you're interested." The grin came out again.
Kira and Lacus, meanwhile, retreated to some plush chairs bolted to ground and started talking, with a fair amount of fumbling on Kira's part.
…
…
"Mr. Zala, we're not picking up the signs of battle anymore; be careful." Athrun heard over the communications.
"Roger." Athrun acknowledged. Don't be dead, Lacus…!
He then pressed his High Mobility GINN to go faster, navigating through the debris field with relative ease.
…
It wasn't very long afterwards until Athrun came across a most peculiar sight: The Strike, colored grey, a headless GINN, and the orange Moebius craft were unmoving next to a relatively intact ship bearing ZAFT markings.
If I strike now I could destroy both of them. But what if Kira's inside the Strike right now? He thought for a second to himself.
That second was immediately punctured by a lock warning.
Athrun hesitated for a split second, and that second was enough for him to feel his unit shake.
"Damn!" Athrun throttled his engines to full and climbed for a brief moment before rapidly and suddenly decelerating to hopefully throw off the attacker (which he still hasn't seen).
He then suddenly felt cold in his stomach, and pulled out his sword almost in reflex.
That reflex meant he suddenly heard the sound of metal on metal as his sword collided with a solid something, and he finally could see his assailant: a piece of ship debris.
Athrun gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus, and then accelerated rapidly downwards, spiraling away from the debris.
"You're decent. Only decent." He heard over the general line, and came face to face with a customized GINN aiming a pair of machine guns at him. "I assume you're here for the same reason as the EFA?"
Athrun took a calming breath while his mind worked overtime. "I'm here in search of a MIA civilian ship; if you goals are the same, then we've no reason to fight."
The GINN lowered its gun. "So be it; come to the ship."
…
…
Athrun walked into the gathering room, still seething at his performance, despite his hours of practicing.
The first thing he heard was two people saying his name in surprise, and looked up.
Kira Yamato, his childhood friend, and Lacus Clyne, his fiancée, were both looking at him with surprise and no small amount of joy.
"Kira…Lacus! What…" Athrun was a little too shocked to be happy. "Kira! What are you doing here?"
"We received a distress signal from this ship, so the two of us were sent to check it out." An EFA Officer he doesn't know said, looking very relaxed. Athrun's hand twitched to his gun holstered at his side. "Easy there, kid. We're here to save lives, not end them; I'm fine with not fighting over that." The man said.
Athrun calmed down. "Uh, right." He then turned to Lacus. "Are you ok?"
Lacus nodded, smiling. "Yes, thanks to these nice mercenaries I'm perfectly fine."
Athrun looked at the man leaning against the wall and the man sitting down with some cards in his hand, and bowed slightly. "I give you my thanks for protecting her."
The man sitting down tapped a card, watching it flip over and over in his hand. "No problem, kid; is she someone important?"
Athrun didn't answer; the question was simply too odd.
"Kid. Why do you fight?" The man leaning against the wall said. Kira pointed to himself in confusion, before noticing that the man was focused on Athrun.
"Why…to get revenge for Junius Seven!" Athrun said, a little too automatically for his own liking. Then, almost as if in justification, "the Naturals destroyed a civilian colony and killed millions of innocent people! I can't just let them get away with that!"
"But the Coordinators…no, ZAFT." Mu said, correcting himself for a moment. "Wrecked the Earth's ability to produce power and indirectly killed just as many people in response."
"If you didn't attack us that wouldn't have happened." Athrun said sharply.
"True." Mu shrugged. "Coordinators as a whole have a reason to hate Naturals, but that doesn't justify why you personally fight."
Athrun seethed. "My mother was on Junius Seven. Is that reason enough, you damned Natural?!"
"Athrun." Kira started to say, before Mu cut him off.
"Yeah, plenty. So when do you plan to stop fighting?"
"When I've avenged my mother."
"Interesting. You've killed a lot of my comrades, you know. That should give me enough reason to chase you into hell itself. And let's not forget the fact that you were also responsible for trashing a colony in response. Do you think you should die for our revenge?" Mu shrugged. "Do you think the war would end after you got your vengeance?"
Athrun opened his mouth to retort.
The second mercenary holding the cards sighed. "It's so much easier to fight when you're just doing it for the money; are we here to argue or to get the lady home?"
Mu's expression softened. "Just trying to make a point."
Athrun looked at Kira. "Why do you fight, Kira?"
Kira looked at Athrun. "To stop this war; I don't have as deep of an emotional reason as you do, Athrun," Athrun remembered that Kira's relationship with his parents were distant, at best. "But…I've seen what this war is, and I can't just turn away and hope that it will end soon."
Lacus looked at them both. "Athrun…if you fight for hatred, will you stop once your hatred is quenched?"
Athrun sighed. "I don't know. But I do know one thing. I do plan to fight."
The first mercenary rapped his knuckles against the wall, getting their attention. "Philosophical debate later, decide what you need to do now."
Athrun shook his head. "Right; There's a ZAFT ship nearby, I can take Lacus back with me."
"We've got a ship coming too, y'know, and we're getting paid to get her home safe and sound." The second mercenary said, packing up his cards.
"She's a ZAFT civilian, thus it's only right that the military recovers her." Athrun said.
"Just between all of us here…" The second man said, pretending to whisper. "Our contractor has implied that someone within ZAFT might want your princess gone."
Athrun looked shocked. "What? Why?"
"Because she's practically a poster child for peace." Mu suddenly said. Kira looked at him. "Think about it; the innocent and pure girl of a moderate ZAFT politician gets assassinated on a memorial trip to Junius Seven. A story like this is going to power the ZAFT war machine for ages!"
"As if Junius Seven wasn't enough." Athrun mumbled; Mu's story was plausible, though Athrun was drawing a blank on who would want to escalate the war further.
"Well…who would want to kill her within ZAFT, though?" Kira said, looking at Lacus, who was playing with the pink annoying thing that had demanded for her attention.
"The more extreme factions." Mu mused. "But it could also backfire horribly; if ZAFT goes on a murderous rampage and starts a genocide, they stand to lose their platform for the war immediately."
"Lastly it could have been just a pirate attack, although I don't think the ship would be in such a state if it was." Kira said, looking at the mercenaries.
"We only got here after the attack was underway; as soon as the attackers saw us they turned tail and ran." The second mercenary said with a shrug.
"In any case, it would be best if Lacus went with the mercenaries; the risk of there being a possible opposing faction aboard that ZAFT ship Athrun's with is too high." Kira mused.
"Kira…!" Athrun felt like his best friend should've taken his side.
"Athrun, I've been feeling it for a while now, but…this war is weird." Kira said hesitantly.
"Weird." Athrun deadpans.
"Yeah, as if…"
"There's someone else behind the wheels, right?" The second mercenary said. Kira nodded.
"So please be careful out there, Athrun; don't get yourself killed."
Athrun looked at his friend with a bemused expression on his face. "You do realize we're on opposite sides here, right?"
Kira shrugged. "Well, as far as I can see, ZAFT can't touch me out there, so I'll be fine. You, on the other hand…"
Athrun frowned. "This isn't like the Kira I know and don't love. You used to be so mature and gracious, what happened?"
Kira grinned. "Blame it on a demon lord trying to kill me every day in the simulators."
He didn't see the second mercenary look up upon hearing that name.
"The hell's that supposed to be?" Athrun laughed.
The two friends, for a moment, briefly forgot (or willingly ignored) the fact that they will be trying to kill each other again as soon as they go their separate ways.
…
[A few moments later]
…
"Kira…don't die on me." Athrun said as a goodbye.
"Yeah, same to you." Kira frowned.
The two friends parted ways, with Athrun leaving first to report back to his ship.
As he left, he saw a shuttle pull nearby to the stranded ship and hide itself behind a wall of debris.
"Our ride's here, we need to leave as well." The first mercenary said, standing up straight.
"Sure thing, Gai. Give me a moment." The second mercenary said, getting Kira's attention.
"You said you know a guy called "Demon Lord", right?"
"Uh, yeah." Kira said, surprised.
"Actually…" The man had a slight smile on his face. "Nevermind. I'm sure I'll meet him soon enough; stay alive out there, young man."
.
.
.
{ === Author Notes === }
It's oddly difficult to communicate the "Polite yet friendly" tone that Japanese honorifics seem to confer without resorting to honorifics.
If you guys have any tips I'm happy to listen. '~';