[During the Archangel's week on the ground]
Rau Le Cruset read through the report he received for what he feels is the fifteenth time.
The ruins of Heliopolis had generated some light patterns that suggested a battle, and Rau, by virtue of both being the closest ship that mobilized and by being in hot water for letting the Archangel go repeatedly, was tasked to find out exactly what had happened in the colony debris field.
He had also received a discreet order from Patrick Zala to start grooming Athrun as an officer.
"What do you make of this, Athrun?" Rau passed the report to Athrun, who scanned it quickly.
"It could just be two junk guilds fighting over the scraps." Athrun said with disgust.
"That's why we're going to find out." Cruset said with a light laugh.
"And the battle plan, sir…?"
"Is as we discussed, Athrun. Don't be nervous; you'll be fine." Rau smiled.
…
…
Athrun, according to the battle plan, is responsible for leading two fresh recruits into the debris for scouting purposes.
Said two recruits were not exactly happy about their first mission being a non-combat mission, but the prospects of being under the son of Patrick Zala closed their mouths.
Rau was to sweep in later with a combat team in case something happens.
…
…
"Athrun, you're cleared for launch."
"Roger. Athrun Zala, Aegis, heading out."
Athrun's Aegis was overhauled with new armor. To the eternal ire (and no small amount of respect) of the ZAFT ship engineering crew the Phase Shift Armor module performed just as well regardless of what kind of armor the Aegis had, provided it didn't exceed some built in limitations within the on-board computer.
Regardless of the reason, the Aegis was now repaired up to its brand new condition…missing a beam saber and wielding a makeshift beam rifle, but brand new nonetheless.
…
Athrun idly dodged a few pieces of debris as he coasted through the ruins of Heliopolis, his mind elsewhere.
Deep down, he was both terrified and thankful of the appearance of the unknown pilots of the EFA. Terrified, because the four aces have demonstrated again and again that they were superior in terms of skill, and thankful, because they gave him a reason to fight, and gave him a target other than his best friend.
A small part of him also reminded him to thank whoever decided that stealing the G-units was a good idea.
Athrun involuntarily shuddered at the idea of the four aces piloting the super powered prototypes.
"Sir, we're coming close to our inspection point." He heard one of the rookies say.
He marveled at their ability to keep pace with him despite the debris field.
"Understood; keep an eye out. The Junkers might still be around."
"Roger. Permission to speak frankly, sir?"
"Go ahead." Athrun stared at his radar.
"Do you think there's really anything left here? This place is trashed."
"It doesn't hurt to be careful." Athrun said. "Carelessness will get you killed."
"Yes sir. But the demons aren't here." The rookie laughed.
…
Athrun then heard a beeping, and felt himself frozen for a fraction of a second.
"Scatter!" He ordered.
The three units split and flew in different directions.
Athrun turned around when he had flown far enough and saw an explosion mark where he was.
"Captain, we're currently in combat, requesting support." Athrun has long since abandoned the notion of fighting alone with his pride.
"Understood, we'll be there momentarily."
…
Athrun looked around and saw…nothing. The debris obscured his vision at every turn, forcing him to engage his engines and move around to find this potential attacker.
He then heard a warning alarm denoting fire coming from behind him.
Athrun propelled himself upwards and turned around, just in time to see a missile fly toward his face.
Athrun raised his shield in defense and the missile exploded (relatively) harmlessly upon the shield. He then took this opportunity to rocket away from the oddly thick dust cloud to properly see his enemy.
It was a GINN. A high mobility type with its oversized back-mounted engines, painted white.
In fact, he would've thought it was Yzak's unit if not for the fact that the right arm of the unit was painted red.
"Unknown GINN, state your intentions or you will be destroyed." Athrun declared on an open frequency almost instinctively.
He heard a laugh in reply, from a voice that sounded familiar but he couldn't place where. "That's not something you should say when combat has started, buddy."
Athrun gritted his teeth, and leveled his rifle at the unknown GINN.
The Unknown GINN responded by…vanishing from sight.
"Damn!" Athrun realized too late that the debris created far too many blind spots, and he responded by boosting and climbing upwards…
…before he stopped to avoid running into a stream of bullets.
Athrun twisted his unit's arm around to the direction of the bullet stream and fired back blindly in reply.
The red and white GINN jinked away from the Aegis's counter fire.
"Captain!" Athrun heard his rookies yell.
"Ignore him! There's something here that he wants, find it!" Athrun roared while keeping his eyes locked on the GINN.
"Good call, captain; you've got some good instincts." He heard the other pilot say with a laugh. "But you're a little late to the party there."
"We'll see about that!" Athrun fired at the GINN while charging forward at full speed.
The other GINN dodged the beam rifle fire, and waited until the Aegis was close enough to swing with its beam saber. Then, with a swift maneuver of his engines, the GINN took aim at the back of the Aegis with its rocket launcher, and pulled the trigger.
Athrun fired his engines for a brief second and barely evaded the rocket that was supposed to damage those engines. The rocket flew into a nearly piece of debris and exploded harmlessly instead.
Athrun twisted around with one of the Aegis's leg out in a roundhouse kick.
The GINN blocked it with his sword, and threw a punch in return.
Athrun blocked it with his shield.
This might take a while. He thought grimly.
...
While the two units were trading blows the two rookies flew into the largely intact piece of a warehouse.
"What do you think is in there?" Rookie one said.
"Hopefully? What we came here for. What do you think about the captain?" Rookie two replied.
The two managed to catch a few of the oddly savage melee between the two units. "Nevermind him being the son of a top brass, the guy's got balls." Rookie one said with a shake of his head.
Rookie two laughed. "You got that right."
Rookie one turned to the hangar. "Let's sweep this. Turning on lights."
The light on the head of the GINN turned on, and the two made a short sweep around the outside of the hangar in a minute.
"Don't see anything. Move on?" Rookie two said, glancing back at the melee every so often.
"Yeah."
…
Athrun, meanwhile, was getting angry.
"Damn, get the hell away from me!" He snarled.
The GINN was sticking to super close range combat. Close enough that every time the Aegis tried to swing in with its beam saber the GINN would stop the attack by forcibly hitting the Aegis's arm.
"I know what you're thinking, buddy." The GINN's pilot said, with an audible grin.
Athrun was briefly grateful that his communications was off. "Yeah, and you're still annoying." Athrun tried to knee the GINN, but the GINN blocked it with its sword. "Get that sword out of my face!"
Athrun was losing his composure.
…
Rau Le Cruset, meanwhile, was taping the fight from a fair distance.
…
Suddenly, Athrun noted that Rookie one's unit was no longer responding.
"Oy, Unit two. Are you ok?" Athrun's momentary distraction cost him a punch to the Aegis's face. Athrun then fired his head mounted Vulcans to try and get some distance.
The GINN blocked with his sword again, and Athrun took this instant to rocket forward into the other GINN for a full body tackle.
He heard the other pilot grunt with some satisfaction, before rocketing away at full speed.
"Unit two, respond."
…
Unit two, meanwhile, was dead like the debris around him.
…
"C-captain! There's a new unit-" Athrun heard before the line went dead.
"Unit three! Dammit!" Athrun turned to see… the other GINN keeping his distance.
…
…
"Gai, you ok over there?" The pilot of the red and white suit asked.
"Startup sequence normal. Status is all green." Murakumo Gai said, marveling at this new unit he managed to find.
"Ok, I think I'm done here too; can we go home now?"
Gai looked at the empty dock next to it. "Yeah; we'll need to move on."
"Roger that."
…
Athrun levelled his gun at the other GINN, cursing himself for not taking a shot sooner.
The other GINN swerved and took cover behind floating debris.
Soon enough Athrun saw two engine lights escape from the combat area.
"Athrun, you did well." Rau Le Cruset said lightly.
"Thank you, sir." Athrun growled.
"We've recovered one of the rookies for some quite useful data. Losses are unavoidable, but a reality of war, Athrun." Rau said gently.
Athrun took a deep breath; the melee battle had gotten to him. "Right, I understand; Athrun Zala, returning to ship."
…
…
For the next few days the ship's intelligence crew poured over the data, piecing together anything that seemed relevant about this new, unknown unit.
They also spent some attention on the red-and-white unit, but the unit data was already within most common databases (including the ZAFT mercenary registry), so they ignored it after the first five minutes.
Rau Le Cruset had briefed Athrun on the unit that fought with him when the data came out.
"It belongs to a mercenary that is affiliated with the Serpent Guild." Rau had said.
"Serpent Guild? How did they get access to a high mobility GINN?" Athrun wondered.
"Not sure. We've never seen a unit with that particular paint job before either. Either way, they were employed by the Clyne faction when Siegel's daughter was missing."
Athrun remembered the man playing cards on the ship. "Oh, so that's who he was."
Rau nodded. "Have you met the pilot before?"
Athrun shifted a little. "Yes, he was aboard the ship during the...parley."
Rau looked thoughtful. "And I take it you did not meet his unit during the exchange?"
Athrun shook his head. "No sir. It's the first time I've seen it."
Rau smiled. "I understand. You're dismissed."
Athrun salutes and turns to leave, but Rau stopped him for one last comment.
"By the way, I recorded your fight. You've gotten better, Athrun."
Athrun froze.
Rau laughed.
…
Patrick Zala felt an odd mixture of happiness and despair at watching his son pilot a machine and go into old-fashioned fisticuffs with another unit in a zero gravity no holds barred brawl.
Athrun Zala felt an odd mixture of fear and exasperation at the fact that he was now considered something of a local hero and very well respected among the ZAFT rank and file as a "total badass."
.
.
.
{ === + === }
Side story, featuring the Serpent Guild showing up for realsies this time. (Kinda, sorta...)
I'm probably going to do more like this, and they're probably going to be about as short as this.
I can't pad very well. :(