After the battle in the seas near Australia (for a certain definition of near) the Archangel was largely left alone to its own devices for the rest of its trip in the ZAFT-controlled waters.
Much of it had to do with a certain video that surfaced mere hours after the battle. The fact that there was a video of a large scale battle in the ocean was interesting, however…
"Look at those camera angles." Ribbon said, stopping the video every so often. "There's no way in hell anyone could've gotten shots like that."
The angles he was referring to were very, very close range camera shots of the four aces either killing ZAFT DINNs or maneuvering in some physically implausible fashion between streams of bullets crisscrossing in the sky.
"For someone to get shots like these they had to have been flying with us." Talisman agreed. "But if they did we would've seen it, and I'm pretty sure ZAFT isn't going to release a propaganda video with themselves as the losers."
"Yeah, hell…look at how smooth it is." Mu said, frowning. "Whoever shot this thing didn't care that he was in a warzone."
Regardless of everyone's reservations on the matter, the general consensus was to happily accept the reprieve this video granted them.
The consensus around ZAFT and the rest of the EFA was a little different, however. It was something more along the lines of "oh shit those guys are actually real" with the occasional "I told you so."
…
The Archangel had sailed through the ZAFT seas and was on its way to Orb with relative ease for the past few hours. Hell, Murrue even dropped the threat level on the ship and everyone who wasn't useful for running the ship's operations were told to take some well-deserved rest.
Or at least, that's what Kira Yamato was expecting. Instead, he found himself in the bridge that also happens to be unusually loud for a ship on a relatively peaceful cruise.
"Oh hey, Kira." Tolle said, clapping his friend on the back.
"Tolle. What's going on?" Kira asked, looking around and seeing some faces on the ship he neglected.
"You need to spend less time hanging around the Aces, that's what." Tolle grinned. Kira spent most of his downtime on the Archangel cooped up in his room, refining the Strike's OS. (It was decided after the battle that the Duel's settings would be left as is for the time being, which is why Kira worked only the Strike).
Either way, Kira was now immensely aware that he had more or less ignored all of his friends for the past few days.
On the bridge were all of the SEED kids, the Aces of Strangereal (plus Captain Bartlett and Yellow 13), Cagalli and her bodyguard Kisaka, and Flay Allister and her father.
"I guess there's a really important reason for calling all of us here." Bartlett said gruffly once he noticed Kira on the bridge.
"Ah, yes, well…" Murrue said sheepishly.
"In a nutshell, Orb is a neutral country; this is the first chance you all have gotten in this entire trip to disembark." Natarle said stiffly, looking at the SEED kids.
"If you want to quit the army, now is the time…right?" Cipher said.
Murrue nodded. "In the end, I won't force any of you to stay aboard if you do not want to."
"There's another issue here, isn't there?" Bartlett said. "Otherwise you'd just be calling for the kids to be here."
"Correct." Natarle nodded. "We still need a reason to enter Orb."
"The Archangel is an EFA prototype warship; if Orb accepts the ship into its waters with no justification it'll be seen as a transgression of its neutrality in the war." Murrue said.
"So we need an excuse, big deal." Cipher shrugs and nods at Cagalli. "We have a princess of Orb right here."
There was a momentary pause as everyone interpreted the information.
"What? Cagalli's a princess?" Kira asked, wide-eyed.
"Cagalli isn't a common name." Bartlett said with a shrug. "I'm amazed none of you figured it out."
"It's not like we cared about political news on Heliopolis." Tolle grumbled.
On the other hand, Miriallia gave an excited squeal and hugged Cagalli yelling "I knew it! I knew it!" She then drifted off into excited chatter that nobody understood.
Kisaka sighed. "Just blow our cover wide open, sure…"
"Besides, you still have civilians on board." Flay's father said, referring to himself and Flay. "I'm pretty sure Orb wouldn't turn away a ship carrying normal people even if it's affiliated with the Federation."
…
…
Thus, several hours later, the shores of Orb saw the approach of the Archangel near theirs shores, being escorted by several Orb patrol boats.
"So what's the word?" Blaze asked Cipher as the two watched the Archangel get directed to a dry dock attached to what seems to be a large military facility.
"Orb is calling this a strictly humanitarian mission, and that they're accepting this ship 'out of goodwill among men.' Not at all surprising, I guess." Cipher shrugs. "Though I have to admit they reacted a little too quickly for my tastes."
Blaze stared at him. "Fast…it took them two hours."
Cipher didn't look away from the dock, but cracked a grin. "You know how bureaucracy works; besides, I expected them to just take the civilians and force the ship to stay in international waters."
"Well, yeah, but…" Blaze shook his head. "Y'know what? I'm not gonna ask."
The two of them then blinked in surprise as the ship was properly secured in the dry dock.
"Oy." Cipher muttered, looking around.
"I feel it too, but I don't think it's around here." Blaze shook his head. "It's really faint, too."
"What are you two talking about?" Sai asked.
"It's nothing big; what's up?" Blaze said with a smile.
"Uh, Captain Murrue's orders; full disembark. Morgenroete's going to do a full overhaul of the ship while we're here." Sai said.
"Morgenroete? Is that where we are now?" Cipher asked, following Sai as he made his way around the ship.
"Yeah…why?" Sai asked.
"Just curious." Cipher shrugged.
…
[Elsewhere]
…
"Jeez, are you serious…?" Yzak breathed as the smoldering husk of the ZAFT base they deployed from filled his GINN's main view screen.
"I knew they said the base was hit, but…" Dearka looked around. "I didn't think it would be this…total."
"And this was done by a single Mobile Armor, too." Athrun seethed. The combined losses of the battle, the base, and his friend Nicol weren't doing any favors for his composure. "Do we have anything? Anything at all?"
"Eh…hold on a second." Dearka switched to his infrared screen. "I'm picking up some signals…they're weak, but they're there."
"Survivors?" Yzak switched to his own sensors, picking up nothing.
"Who knows, who cares. Give us the coordinates, we're digging them out." Athrun sighed.
…
[At Orb]
…
The Archangel crew was given room and board in the main Morgenroete facility, where Kira was currently being confronted by a woman in a light brown jacket with short, curly brown hair.
"You want me to assist the Orb's Mobile Suit project?" Kira frowned. "Are you sure? I'm technically still a civilian…"
"I've seen what you've done with the Strike's OS, I'm sure you'll be a lot of help." Erica Simmons, the brown-haired lady, said with a friendly smile. "It's not like we'll be relying on you to do all of the work, after all."
As if to make her point, a grinning young man with brown hair restrained by a blue bandana walked up to Kira, offering a friendly hand.
"Yo! The name's Lowe, Lowe Guele. Nice to meet ya." The young man said.
Low Gear? Kira took the offered hand. "Uh…Kira Yamato. Hi…so…"
"I'm responsible for that guy over there." Lowe pointed over his shoulder to a red Mobile Suit behind him, nestled in a mobile suit hangar and separated from them by a wall of glass. Kira noted with a raised eyebrow that the unit in question was equipped with a Mobile Suit sized Katana. "And I built the basis for the OS that you're going to be working on." Lowe said with a grin.
"I haven't agreed to do it though." Kira muttered.
"Ah, c'mon. You like fiddling with machines too, right?" Lowe clapped him on the shoulder. "I can tell, from one mechanic to another. Help Orb out; they're a lot better than the EFA bastards."
"You don't like the EFA?" Kira walked up to the glass screen to stare at the rows of mobile suits lined up in the hangar in various states of construction, namely, at the skeletons of the MBF-M1 Astray, the new workhorse of the Orb military.
"Eh…they've never been good to the Junk Guild." Lowe walked up next to him. "The EFA keeps trying to pass and enforce stupid laws that don't make any goddamned sense, and they keep trying to blame us for all of it." He shrugs. "It's hard to like people who do that."
"Politics aside," Erica piped in. "Your expertise as a Coordinator would be well received."
"Well…sure, I guess." Kira shrugged.
…
[Elsewhere]
…
"Orb accepted an EFA warship into its waters?" A man said.
"Not just that…the ship was built with the help of Morgenroete." A second man said with a chuckle. "Looks like Orb is hardly nearly as neutral as it claims to be."
"Doesn't surprise me…Uzumi is anything but neutral." The first man sneered. "Well, that's fine too…how's our little project coming along?"
"Proceeding about as well as I can hope." The second man chuckled. "Having the Aces give us such good footage certainly didn't hurt. We just need the EFA to keep working and we'll be well on our way."
…
[Orb]
…
"Lowe, who's that guy over there?" A blue haired girl asks him.
"Who, Kira?" Lowe looks over to where she's pointing. "He's helping you guys with the Astray program."
"Oh, so he's the guy Erica roped?" A yellow haired girl said. "He's pretty cute; can he really do this kind of stuff?"
"He's supposed to be a super coordinator or something." A red haired girl said with a shrug. "I guess that makes him special."
Lowe frowns at that. "That's not very nice."
The blue haired girl quickly sides with Lowe. "Yeah, Mayura, that's not very nice!"
The yellow haired girl pokes the blue haired girl on the chin. "Siding with Lowe so quickly, huh, Juri…I think something's up, don't you?" She looks at Mayura, the red haired girl, who grins evilly and nods.
"Wh-there's nothing going on, Asagi!" The blue haired Juri pouts.
"What are you girls talking about?" Lowe scowls.
So loud… Kira's face shows no emotion as he continues to read through the OS readouts on his screen, only looking up when he hears a knock on the door frame.
"Uh…can we help you?" Asagi says uncertainly, seeing Blaze at the door.
"Maybe, maybe not." Blaze grins. "Kira! Your buddies are looking for you; not nice to just start working and not say anything, y'know?"
Kira doesn't even look up. "Oh, sorry."
Blaze sighs. "Does he always do this?" He asks the people behind him.
"Yep…Once he gets focused it's nearly impossible to drag him back out." Sai laughs. "Yo, Kira. You should've let us know if you're doing something like this."
"Sai!" Kira finally looked up. "Sorry, uh…"
"We know, we know." Sai waves it off. "So, have you decided?"
Kira frowns. "I haven't. I'm honestly not sure what to do."
"Decide what?" Lowe asks, looking at the SEED kids.
"Well, for him…" Sai ruffles Kira's hair. "He's picking between acting as an EFA pilot or jumping ship. For the rest of us…well, we go with him."
"Except Kuzzey." Tolle reminded him.
"Except Kuzzey." Sai agreed.
"Kuzzey left?" Kira asked.
Nobody was very surprised, since Kuzzey didn't have much of a presence in the story when Neil effectively took his spot.
"Yeah…I don't blame him though." Sai shook his head; he, like the rest of the SEED kids, has had trouble sleeping through the night recently (though none of them told each other).
"Well…" Kira got back on track. "I don't know." He didn't get back on track very well.
"You like doing stuff like this, right?" Asagi piped in, taking a peek at Kira's work. "I'm sure Morgenroete would hire you if you left the EFA."
"I don't think his job opportunities are what's bugging him." Blaze chuckled. "Kira, you can protect without fighting in the front lines too, you know? Don't feel compelled to stay in the army just because you can fly."
"Wh-" Kira stared at Blaze and realized that the man was smiling. "Oh, I see how it is." Kira grins. "You're afraid I'm going to be better than all four of you combined."
Blaze chuckled. "You'll be better than us once we retire for a few years, maybe."
"It's never too late to go back to being just a civilian, you know." Blaze said after a moment. "I mean, sure, your skills are top notch, but it's not like you owe the EFA anything."
"I…" Kira looked down at his screen. "I understand. I do believe, however, that my skills are best used on the battlefield."
"Well, as long as you're sure." Blaze shrugs.
But on which side do I belong? Kira couldn't help but think.
…
[ZAFT Carpentaria base, one week later]
…
The ZAFT Boys (minus Nicol) spent the previous half day organizing the rescue effort aimed at digging out people from underneath the rubble that used to be their base, before getting a transfer order that effectively said "let the lesser people handle it", but in more pleasant terms.
Instead, they were to be transferred and stationed at Carpentaria for the foreseeable future.
"Is it our punishment?" Dearka had asked with a (faked) heavy sigh.
"If it is, just be glad we're getting off so easily." Yzak said.
…
Against their expectations, their reception at Carpentaria base off of the coast of ZAFT controlled Australia was fairly pleasant with a fair amount of condolences on having lost their base due to (as the soldiers put it) command level incompetence.
Against their greatest expectations, Carpentaria was positively overflowing with activity, with hangars and barracks stuffed full of units and their respective pilots.
"Is Carpentaria this full all the time?" Yzak muttered as the three were shown to their quarters.
"Supposedly the higher-ups are planning some sort of offensive with all these units…not that any of us know where we're going." The aide leading them said.
Probably Panama. Athrun thought. It's the only EFA base near here that would require such a huge influx of troops.
"Here we are." The aide led the three boys into a fairly spacious officer's lounge. Upon getting a quizzical look from Athrun, the aide shrugged. "Commander's orders. We give our aces special treatment."
Yzak chuckled with disbelief. "After our colossal failure we're still considered aces?" He said.
"Well…" The aide squirmed a little. "We all saw the video of the battle…and as far as us lowly soldiers are concerned, you all are aces for just coming home alive."
The three boys paused. "What video?" The Gundams, understandably, were not equipped with internet access.
…
[PLANT]
….
Nicol's father was not a happy man.
After all, since Rau Le Cruset himself came to his home (and heaven knows Cruset never made time for any sort of family ventures) it didn't take a genius to realize that he was the bearer of the worst kind of news.
Indeed, his poor wife had done nothing but cry her eyes out ever since Cruset broke the news to them: That Nicol was declared MIA, most likely dead.
While a small part of him held just a tiny, tiny shred of hope that maybe Nicol was rescued from the oceans before the elements claimed his son, his logical side maintained that there was no way for Nicol to be alive.
Either way, it led him directly to Patrick Zala's office, and to an interesting little project Patrick professed to be working on.
He didn't care. As long as the Naturals paid for every last drop of blood they shed.
…
[Orb]
…
Nicol, on the other hand, was alive and well (as much as one can be expected as a Prison of War) in Morgenroete.
"I can't believe I'm not even being locked up." Nicol said blandly.
"Well, Murrue doesn't consider you a risk." Talisman shrugged, having picked the short straw for guard duty. "Besides, if you try to run they'll shoot you dead."
The two were being tailed by a security detail of at least four armed guards.
"At least let me contact my parents." Nicol said calmly.
"And create an international incident? No thanks." Talisman laughed. "Kid, just go along for the ride. It's not like we're torturing you for information or anything."
Which was true: ever since Nicol regained consciousness in the hospital bay he was treated with a fair amount of neglect.
Nicol sighed. "And who are you, anyways? Why do your people hate you that much?"
Talisman laughed openly. "Hate me? I have the easiest job here!" He clapped Nicol on the shoulder, nearly putting the young boy on the ground. "See?" Talisman said with a cocky grin.
"Yeah, yeah." Nicol scowled despite himself…now he could see why Yzak placed his honor so highly above all else. "Wasn't Yzak captured by this ship before?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Yep. Whitey-locks busted himself out without too much hassle though." Talisman nods.
"And you just let him go?" Nicol stared at the man, this… 'Talisman'.
"We got the Duel back." Talisman shrugged. "The kid has potential, y'know? And…we, at least, don't like killing potential in the bud. There's always an after-war, after all."
Nicol blinked. Nobody in PLANT ever talked about an "after the war", as if the war against the Naturals is the natural thing to do. Part of it, at least, had something to do with maintaining the war effort.
"After the war?" Nicol asked.
"Yeah." Talisman grinned. "There's always a time where the two sides stop fighting, y'know? And hating each other for the hell of it isn't gonna make our lives any better."
Nicol looked thoughtful. "Then…can I walk around?"
"And talk to people?" Talisman asked, to which Nicol nods his agreement. "Well, sure…as long as you stay within your clearance level."
"Thanks." Nicol smiled.
"This is your big chance to see this PLANT from the outside, looking in." Talisman smiled as well.
…
…
[3 days later]
…
…
Asagi, Juri, and Mayura (yellow, blue, and red) marveled at the progress of the Astray OS.
It was really the only thing they can do, even as they experimented with it in the Morgenroete training grounds.
Kira Yamato smiled sheepishly as he heard the three lay their praises upon him for his superior work.
"Looks like they're all smitten with you." Erica Simmons said with a sly grin.
"Except Juri, she's got someone else in mind." Asagi laughed. "When do you plan to tell him?"
Juri, as expected, could only sputter in response.
Kira watched the Astrays perform some acrobatic maneuvers while lost in thought and only barely registered Erica tapping him on the shoulder.
"Got a minute?" She asked him.
…
…
"So what's this about?" Kira asked, upon seeing Lowe, Murrue, Natarle, and Mu in the same room.
"Well…" Erica pulled an image of a large, white flat something floating on the ocean on the main screen.
"Oh, is this the rumored Giga Float?" Mu asked with a wide smile.
"And the Giga Float is…?" Murrue looked to both him and Erica.
"The Giga Float is a roaming structure, housing the first civilian use orbital launching facility. In other words…it's the first and only Mass Driver not owned by either the EFA or ZAFT."
"Ok, so what does that have to do with us?" Natarle asked.
"Well, we've received a support request from the Giga Float crew; apparently their work progress is being hampered by attacks from an unknown party." Erica said. "Orb isn't the only neutral nation to respond, mind you, but we happen to be the closest."
"Well, I mean…we're Federation soldiers." Natarle said. "If Giga Float is neutral, then they didn't call for help from either the EFA or ZAFT, thus…we can't exactly help either."
"Truth be told, I just wanted your opinion." Erica chuckled. "Orb can't assist either, on account of the Astray project still in development, and we don't have the units or pilots to spare…the three girls back there are our best pilots right now, after all." She said with a knowing look at Kira.
And they'll all die to a real enemy. Kira thought with a scowl.
"Hey, not a problem." Lowe said, pointing to himself cockily with his thumb. "I got the Red, I'll go."
"Thank you, Lowe." Erica said with a smile.
"And I suppose you wanted to ask them to lend me?" Kira asked, still frowning.
"Exactly right, Mr. Yamato…you're still a Federation soldier, after all." Erica said.
"This goes against regulations." Natarle couldn't help but say.
"The fact that we're in Orb right now goes against every regulation." Murrue said lazily. "Kira, it's your call."
Kira nodded. "I've made my mind up already; Miss Simmons?"
Erica smiles. "You might've realized that you can't use an EFA suit for this mission." She sees Kira nod. "Great. We have an Astray supplied and ready to go; it's probably not as responsive as the Strike you're used to, and it lacks all the bells and whistles, but it should be more than adequate for this mission. If you have any armament requests, you should tell the mechanics now."
Kira nods, salutes, turns, and runs off.
"Motivated, isn't he?" Mu said with a cheerful grin.
"That kid's driven by the desire to protect others." Murrue frowned slightly. "I hope it doesn't come back to bite him."
…
[Morgenroete Hangar, one hour later]
…
The MBF-M1 Astray, Orb's new unit, is a lot like the Strike in terms of its build (no surprise, seeing as it was built from the G-Project data) but differs in that the armor is comparatively thinner and lighter, making it look thinner and taller. On the back of the Astray is an engine with comparable output to the Strike's normal engine and 4 built-in set of Vernier engines mounted on wing-like emitters, which, due to the Astray's lighter armor, gives it more mobility than the Strike (though not by much). Normally, an Astray is armed with a beam rifle, a pair of beam sabers, a shield with a prototype anti-beam coating, and head mounted Vulcans.
Low Guele's MBF-P02 Astray Red Frame, on the other hand, is a prototype unit much like the Strike. Compared to the mass production model, Lowe's Astray is stockier despite using the same armor plating and has extra components mounted on the arms, and the head is smaller and more mobile in its neck area. In lieu of a shield, Lowe's Astray was equipped with a pair of beam sabers, beam rifle, head mounted Vulcans, and a Mobile Suit sized Katana dubbed the "Gerbera Straight".
On the other hand…
"Seriously? Kira?" Lowe said, staring at the other unit, not knowing if he should be aroused or not.
Kira's Astray was equipped with a lifter module (which looked like scaled up versions of a Spearhead's VTOL engines taped onto the mobile suit's shoulders) and had also lost its shield. Instead, it carries four beam sabers (two on the back, two strapped to the wrists), two beam rifles mounted on the waist, and a pair of bazookas, and, of course, the head mounted Vulcans.
"I wanted to be prepared." Kira said innocently.
"Prepared…you look like you're ready to start a war!" Lowe said, astonished.
"It happens, ok?" Kira grinned, though nobody could see him.
"Sheesh." Lowe shook his head, and then heard the launcher counter go off. "Lowe, Astray Red, go!" His Astray is then pulled by the catapult and shot into the sky.
"Kira Yamato, Astray, launching!" Kira's Astray wobbled slightly on account of its slightly oversized wings once he took to the air.
…
"I'm very glad those wings cleared the hangar walls." One engineer said, to the general agreement of his peers.
…
"Something interesting going on?" Cipher asked once he saw Blaze watch what looks like a tactical screen.
"The kid's off on a mission." Blaze responded, his face a mask.
"Kira is? Who's the other guy?" Cipher asked upon seeing two dots on the screen.
"A friend of his, I guess? I don't think they know each other very well." Blaze shrugged. "They're heading off to some offshore facility."
Offshore…Giga Float? Cipher thought. For whatever reason the name Giga Float made him feel uneasy. "Well, if it's Kira, he should be fine; the boy improves so fast it's frightening."
"Still not as fast as us though." Blaze said offhandedly.
"Right, right." Cipher grinned, and then looked at him seriously. "Can I borrow you for a minute? We got some people we need to talk to."
"What kind of people?" Blaze said, not moving an inch.
"Our kind of people." Cipher said as he walked out the door.
Blaze stared at where Cipher was, cursed, then jumped up and followed him.
…
…
[Carpentaria]
…
…
The past three days haven't been easy for the ZAFT boys.
Given their status as 'aces' (a title accepted only dubiously by a majority of the base staff) the three kids were told to train the newbies at the base (of which there was quite a few).
In fact, Yzak wasn't sure if there were any experienced pilots at the base to begin with.
Regardless, the stint as a teacher helped ensure their status as Aces in the eyes of their compatriots, and also helped their own piloting skills (especially Athrun and Dearka, as they had become a little lazy with their defense due to the phase shift armor they had).
Lastly, it helped catapult Yzak to an almost godlike status among his peers (or so the rookies claim).
Yzak and Athrun sparred in training DINNs very often (as a means of collecting data for the rookies to use) and Yzak was almost always the victor.
"Doesn't surprise me." Athrun said with a shrug when a rookie asked him about their skill levels. "Yzak was always the better pilot at school, but his temper would get to him and he'd make fundamental mistakes…now that his anger issue is gone, he's as good as he should be."
"Still not as good as me though." Dearka said with a smooth grin.
Dearka scored more victories against Yzak than Athrun did, largely by sniping at Yzak regardless of what he would do.
"And that's why we work together." Yzak bopped Dearka on the head good-naturedly.
"Sir Jule!" The Rookie said, snapping to attention.
"Yzak is fine. What is it?" Yzak waved the rookie's terror away (or at least tried to; his constant scowl made him a bit unapproachable at all times).
"Uh, Sir Yzak. Would we be able to fight those demons as we are now?" The rookie asked.
"No." Yzak's face showed just a brief flicker of anger. "They are not to be underestimated."
"Even though they're flying Spearheads?" The rookie asked.
"Especially since they're flying Spearheads." Yzak corrected him. "It's only a matter of time before the EFA puts those guys on the top of the new requisitions list. Imagine how terrifying they would be if every one of them had one of those EFA prototypes."
The only thing that scared the ZAFT rookies more than the Aces of Strangereal was the Strike.
"I don't want to think about it." The rookie shuddered. "I understand. In the event that we face the demons…"
"If you can run, run. If you can't, call up reinforcements and hope for the best." Dearka repeated what Yzak has said many times with a sigh. "You're putting them on too high of a pedestal, Yzak."
"You think so?" Yzak looked at his best friend. "I can't help but feel like those guys still have some untapped potential, and it scares me."
"They killed a battalion of DINNs with four Mobile Armors, of course we're scared of them." Athrun said.
…
…
…
[Gigafloat, 1400 hours, 2 PM]
…
…
…
Kira Yamato whistled. "Whoa, look at the size of that thing."
"This is even bigger than I thought." Lowe's respect for the builders was interrupted by an incoming message. "Ah…this is Lowe, who is"
The rest of his sentence was cut off by a girl's shriek. "Lowe! Where the hell have you been?! We were so worried about you!"
"Ah…Yamabuki!" Lowe said happily. "So this is where you all went!"
Kira could hear the anger boiling over on the other side of the line and render the poor girl unable to speak.
Lowe, blessedly, could not. "Does that mean the Professor is there too?"
"Yep, we're all here." The Professor, a beautiful woman with long dark red hair said. "The EFA hired the Junk Guild to help build this thing, and that's why we're here."
"Even after falling from orbit?" Lowe asked incredulously.
"Falling from orbit?" Kira wasn't sure if he heard right.
"Yep. Well, the Home is trashed as a result." The Professor said, gently nudging the girl known as Yamabuki away from the console before the poor girl popped a vein. "But the rest of us are totally fine."
"It's not trashed…it just needs a refurbishing or so." A man said, offended.
"Friends of yours?" Kira asked Lowe.
"Yep, they might as well be my family." Lowe said with a sheepish grin.
"How touching." The Professor cooed, much to Lowe's embarrassment.
"We consider you family too, Lowe." The man said with a laugh.
"Yeah, uh…" Lowe scratched his face nervously, "Can we land now? Or are we worried about enemies showing up real soon?"
"What enemies?" The Professor asked.
Kira scowled. "What? Orb said that it received a reinforcement request from the Giga Float…"
"Well, I don't know if the organizers sent a request, but we sure didn't hear about any enemies…" The girl, Yamabuki, said, having finally calmed down enough to be allowed near the radio again.
"That's because I sent the request." A new man's voice came on the line.
"Gai! Why are you here?!" Lowe demanded.
"It's my job." Murakumo Gai said, with an audible shrug (even if the man himself didn't do any shrugging).
"Er, actually, where are you, anyways?" Lowe asked, looking around and seeing no sign of Gai's Blue Astray.
Kira felt a tingle run down his spine, and unhooked a beam rifle.
"Eh? Kira? You ok?" Lowe asked upon seeing Kira's Astray turn and look all around him.
"Yeah…" Kira muttered, not paying Lowe any attention.
…
Underwater, a young man dressed in a really over-the-top, extravagant black cloak smiled. "I see…looks like Orb isn't nearly as disconnected as we were led to believe."
"Is it time yet, boss?" One of his henchmen asked.
"Stay put for the time being. We are, after all, in no real hurry." The young man said coolly.
…
Kira and Lowe were allowed to land on the Giga Float after flying around rather aimlessly for a good ten minutes.
Upon exiting his Astray, Kira heard a girl practically scream Lowe's name before turning around to see said girl nearly crash into Lowe.
Once Kira put his feet on the ground, a red haired woman in a white lab coat walked up to him.
"Ah…are you a friend of Lowe's?" The woman asked with a polite smile.
"Yes he is, Professor!" Lowe yelled over his shoulder, while the girl in question ranted on in front of him.
The woman known as the Professor chuckled.
"Professor?" Kira asked, wondering why the woman doesn't give her name.
"Yep, that's me." The Professor said. "And you are…?"
"Uh, Kira Yamato. Pleased to meet you, Professor." Kira said with a polite bow. Because he wasn't looking, he missed the minor twitch the Professor had when he said his name.
Yamato, huh… The Professor mused."Well, Kira, thank you for coming to the Giga Float's defense, as…oddly organized as it may be. Are you an Orb pilot?"
Kira shook his head. "I'm a Morgenroete engineer." While that's not technically true he figured the truth of "EFA pilot" was less than ideal in the current circumstances.
"Seriously?" The rust-red haired girl who was talking to Lowe said, immediately forgetting about Lowe for the moment. "I didn't think Orb's Astray project got this far."
"Hey, they got data from me." Lowe said with a cocky jerk of the thumb to himself. "Of course they would've gotten super far!"
"More like they got the data from Hachi." The girl grumbled.
"Who's Hachi?" Kira asked.
"Oh, you haven't met him yet. Hang on." Lowe jumped back into his cockpit and came out with a briefcase with a screen on it.
"Uh…hi?" Kira guesses that the briefcase is Hachi.
"Hello to you, too." The briefcase says back, in a rather boyish voice.
Kira blinks. "Whoa, he talks?"
"Of course! He's my partner in crime." Lowe grins, patting the briefcase.
"I'm responsible for keeping Lowe alive." The computer says.
"Truer words have never been spoken." The girl nods. "Hello, I'm Kisato Yamabuki, his friend."
Kira guesses from the fact that she nearly spat the last word out she's not exactly happy that they're just friends. He also refrained from staring at the girl and her rather odd choice of clothing, namely, at the utterly tiny tank top and jacket that fully exposes her navel for all to see.
"Uh, hello." Kira nods with a small smile.
"So what happened to the Home?" Lowe asks, looking at the professor.
"Nothing overly special. We dropped near here and the Giga Float fished us up." The Professor sighed.
"More like we crashed into the Giga Float. It's a wonder we didn't die from it." A young man with long, black hair said. "Yo, Lowe."
"Liam! How've you been?" Lowe grinned and clapped the man on the back.
"So…" Liam's face turned grim. "Why is Giga Float worried about an attack?"
…
[Orb]
…
"Ah, Aces! Please to meet you!" A grizzled man said with a wide grin and a booming laugh. "It is an honor, yes?"
"You give us far too much credit." Cipher laughed. "I didn't think Gründer would have a facility in Orb."
"Best place to do business!" The Gründer mechanic said. "The Feds don't want our planes and ZAFT are little bastards."
"Is that why we're here then? To do some business?" Blaze looked around the hangar they were being led through: A lot of planes were being assembled in the hangar with a combination of mechanics and large, foreign-looking robotic machinery.
"You'll see. Our boss does the talking, I do the building." The mechanic led the two Aces to a small room near the hangar exit.
"You must be the Aces our African branch told us about." A man dressed in a sharp black suit said, shaking Cipher and Blaze's hand in turn. "It's an honor to meet the legendary Aces from our homeland, even if we were on opposite sides." He motioned for the two aces to take a seat.
Cipher nods. "Right…so what are we here for?" He asks after sitting down.
The Gründer representative sat on his side of the table and rested his chin on his folded hands. "I'll get down to business then. Gründer is a business, and a business is no good without customers. Both the EFA and ZAFT have driven their war engines with their own units, and as a result we can't easily dig into the market as we once hoped to do."
"So you want us to fly your planes?" Blaze asked.
"Yes and no." The representative looked at Blaze. "I know how good you guys are…your reputations are well deserved, and having our planes with such spectacular results will definitely drive salves, however, the problem is that if your wing flies our fighters in an EFA ship, well…"
"We drag Orb into a political scandal large enough to drag them into the war." Cipher finishes for him.
"Exactly."
"So what do you want?" Blaze asked.
"Well…in the best scenarios, I want the four of you on Gründer's payroll." The representative says with a noncommittal shrug. "But I know you guys won't do that."
"Not easily, anyway." Cipher said, and then saw Blaze look at him. "What?"
"You're not thinking of defecting just for a bigger paycheck, are you?" Blaze asked him with narrowed eyes.
"Did you forget, Blaze? I'm a mercenary at heart." Cipher grinned. "Well, that being said, it'll need to be a hell of a paycheck to get me to change sides though."
"And our bosses won't give me enough money for that…not immediately, anyways." The representative agreed sadly. "So I'll settle for plan B: I want your help in rolling out our planned flagship fighter."
"Even though we're attached to the EFA?" Blaze asked the man.
"The EFA is…very easily swayed, as long as ZAFT isn't involved, so long as their reputation isn't visibly tarnished." The representative said with a note of anger in his voice.
"You don't like it?" Cipher was slightly surprised.
"As a businessman, it certainly makes my job easier." The man said. "But as a true Belkan, their disdain for their own values disgusts me." He shakes his head.
"Plus we're not exactly high on the EFA's friends list." Blaze muttered. "If memory serves they still think we're coordinators."
"Do they?" The man said, surprised. "That's a little different from what he said." He mutters to himself.
He? "So if we agree to work with Gründer…" Cipher asked.
"We'll send a Gründer work team along with you, along with the development prototype."
"So we can't fly it?" Blaze grumbled.
"Gründer has a reputation to uphold…we won't deploy a fighter that's currently still being tuned, after all." The representative shrugged.
"Sounds all fine and good, but…" Cipher frowned.
"A little money goes a long way." The representative reminded him. "Besides, the EFA's intercontinental connections are horrible. They won't know for a long time anyways."
"Well…it sounds like it benefits you more than it does us." Blaze said.
"I'll let you in on a little secret." The man said, leaning forward a little. "The EFA has been sponsoring a drug company in Eurasia lately. Said company went under a few years ago for making illegal stimulants that killed a lot of its users."
"How do you know this?" Cipher scowled.
"We have contacts all over the world; setting up an information web was one of the first things we did." The representative shrugged. "The point is I don't believe you gentlemen would benefit a whole lot by sticking with the EFA until the bitter end, and by doing this we'll take the heat if you guys ever decide to defect."
"Shouldn't you be contacting the ship captain for this? I think moving more crew onto the ship is her pejorative, not ours."
"Oh, don't worry. We have people for that." The man waves Blaze's comment away.
What is that supposed to mean? Blaze's thoughts were interrupted by a call from his phone.
"Blaze here, what is it?" The Four Aces decided to each get a phone yesterday.
"Are you near a television?" Ribbon's voice came over the line.
"We need a TV." Blaze said to the representative, scowling. Something in Ribbon's voice put him on edge.
The representative stood up quickly. "This way." He led everyone out of the room.
…
While the war was between the EFA and ZAFT, the fact remained that not all of the nations on Earth belong to the EFA (Orb being the most prominent example) and thus not all of the satellites around Earth were destroyed.
Satellite TV, at the very least, was still a luxury the world could enjoy.
"We bring you this video live from the-" Blaze heard the announcer say before an explosion overpowered his voice.
"Holy shit, Ribbon." Blaze said, watching with Cipher and the representative.
"I know." Ribbon, on the other hand, watched it from the Morgenroete facility along with some dock workers.
"Those guys have gone insane, the world has gone insane!" Natarle exclaimed, looking for something to bang her head on.
…
[Giga Float]
…
"The hell?" Lowe looked up from his food, hearing the alarm go off.
"I guess we're getting what we came for." Kira said, before shoveling food down his mouth.
"Your sense of urgency is a little odd." Lowe wanted to ask whether if Kira felt the need to abandon his food and run off, like how Lowe is feeling right now.
"If they wanted to destroy the Giga Float they would've done it with cruise missiles" Kira said after he had finished shoveling food down his mouth. "No amount of panicking will make us fight better."
Lowe shook his head. "Man, Fed pilots are weird."
"We? Who else did you meet?" Kira asked as the two ran off to the Hangar.
…
[Carpentaria]
…
Athrun walked into the break room on the base, and found the atmosphere to be far too quiet.
"What's going on, guys?" Athrun asked, before noticing that everyone was focused on the TV.
"Athrun, the Naturals have gone insane." Dearka said with a hollow laugh.
Athrun read the tagline on the bottom of the screen: EFA DECLARES WAR ON EQUATORIAL UNION.
"That's not the worst part. Look." Yzak pointed to the action being shown on the screen.
Athrun gritted his teeth as the television showed the EFA Spearheads dropped bombs indiscriminately over the skylines of a major city. Are these the people you're trying to protect? Kira!
…
…
…
{ === + === }
I guess this would be the first major deviation in the plot, EFA suddenly annexing more territory.