{ === + === }

Murrue came to on the floor of her bridge.

Groaning, she dragged herself upright with the help of her captain's chair and wiped the blood flowing down her face. Taking a moment to breathe, she assessed what she could see.

Namely, the Archangel's bridge section had been miraculously spared from a direct hit that would've certainly killed all of them. That being said, it was still in rough shape: the damage done to the ship itself had caused many of the systems within the bridge to fail and (in a few cases) explode.

Murrue then noticed the massive gash on the reinforced screen between them and the vacuum of space. It didn't take a good eye to realize that the bridge is most likely no longer airtight…which would be problematic to those of the bridge staff still alive.

"Are you alright, Captain?" Neuman the Helmsman asks, holding a bloody rag to his arm.

Murrue coughs as she tries to speak. "I'm fine." She finally says. "What's our situation?"

"The ship has been critically damaged." Sai replies. Murrue notices that the boy's glasses had shattered into his face. "The engines are entirely dead and the ship's hull is reporting numerous breaches."

"We brought engineer suits from the Hangar." Murdoch grunts. "Those bastards are gonna get what's coming to them."

Murrue accepts the suit gingerly. "It's that bad?"

"Five guys got out." Murdoch seethes. "Those assholes killed my entire pit crew."

"It's like that across the entire ship." Miriallia reports softly. "Everybody left alive is here."

Murrue closes her eyes and squeezes them shut for a little while. "What of the other ships?"

"The Kusanagi escorts have been sunk." Sai responds.

"We've been sunk too." Tolle's voice come crackling over the radio. "Archangel, are you guys ok? Milly?"

Miriallia smiles with relief despite herself. "We're alive at least, Tolle. What do you see out there?"

"Ah…ow." Tolle grabs a floating engine from one of the destroyed Astrays and pushes his own Astray into a slow spin. "The other two ships are in scraps. I don't think anyone survived there. The Eternal is missing its entire bottom half."

"Waltfield here." Waltfield checks in. "It looks like they retrieved our entire hangar section."

"Why would they do that?" Tolle asks before sounding like he just coughed up his lung.

"We were transporting two ZAFT prototype models." Waltfield explained. "But it didn't feel like they attacked us for the sake of those models."

"Yeah…they just wanted to kill us." Tolle made a mental checklist and tallied off every Gundam he saw. "What the…?"

"What is it, Tolle?" Miriallia asks quickly.

Tolle coughs again. "The Strike's missing."

…

…

[Orb, Morgenroete]

…

…

Morgenroete was in an uproar.

In a stroke of fortune, the Deep Space Survey and Development Research Station (DSSD) intercepted the general frequency mayday signal from the Archangel, allowing the station to alert Orb on the condition of the Archangel and the fact that it required immediate rescue.

Unfortunately, one: it was a mayday signal, and thus a sign that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong, and two: the signal was a few hours old, and thus it was entirely possible that the ship's crew were no longer alive.

Faced with the prospect of losing (or having lost) three of their currently five spacefaring warships both Orb and Morgenroete were not happy.

Thus, Morgenroete decided to ask Usea for help.

One problem with that – Usea, despite being the (technically) strongest nation in the world right now, had no real way of sending a ship to space. To compound this problem, Usea didn't have many assets in space to begin with, being as concentrated as they were on the Earth itself, and what assets they did have were congregated at Artemis, and the space station had its own problems to worry about.

Thus, the solution was as simple as it was haphazard.

Usea would send what space-capable craft it had along with the Junk Guild ship Re-Home, while paying a premium to the ship's captain (The lady by the name of Professor) for the privilege.

"And while they're at it, hire us to go as support." Murakumo Gai of the Mercenary Guild 'Serpent Tail' sighs. "What a poorly thought out operation."

"You're the one hitching a ride back to space with us." Lowe snaps. "Show a little appreciation, yeah?"

"I appreciate the Professor for giving us a ride." Gai replies coolly. "That's as far as it goes, though."

"If I didn't know better, I would've mistaken the two of you for friends." Ribbon smirks.

"Not funny, Ribbon." Lowe sighs. "Well, it's not like we're enemies or anything." He adds. "I just don't like his attitude."

The Re-Home was going up into space with four units:

Lowe's Astray Red Frame, upgraded (courtesy of Gründer) with improved arms, a more efficient battery, and extra Verniers for better control in space.

Gai's Astray Blue Frame, with upgraded wings on its back that can transform into a two-handed blade.

Mobius One's CFA-144N Dracula, with a special upgrade as requested by NEMO the computer, and…

Cagalli's Strike Rouge, with a specially designed Aile Pack.

"Why is the princess of Orb travelling with us?" Gai asks Cagalli.

"To be her bodyguard." Cagalli jerks her head to Lacus, the Princess of ZAFT.

Ribbon idly wondered if there was a Princess of Eurasia…then decided that it would most likely be Flay.

"Why are there two princesses aboard a junk ship?" Gai sighs, getting a 'hey!' of complaint from Lowe.

"Are you that worried about the kid?" Ribbon asks Lacus. "Uh, that Yamato kid, I mean."

Lacus nods. "Yes…I apologize for the inconvenience, Mister Guele." She bows politely to Lowe.

"Hey, it's no biggie." Lowe grins. "Having fresh faces on a boat like this is always a plus."

"Especially one as pretty as hers, right?" Kisato says loudly.

Ribbon could tell from a mile off that this was a trap meant for her love interest.

Lowe…not so much. "I know, right? She's like a ray of sunshine for the entire ship!"

"Hoo boy." Ribbon shakes his head as Kisato pouts. "Before this gets any worse, let's get the briefing underway, shall we?"

…

The Professor taps her pointer (slender metal rod type) against the star chart image superimposed on the table (the Re-Home has no dedicated briefing room so the bridge will have to do). "The last Archangel transmission placed them at this position." She said.

A small red blip appeared just outside of the debris belt.

"Given the speed required to avoid collisions within the belt, after a few hours the estimates would place them around here."

A red line extended from the initial blip and slowly spread out into a curved cone to show the possible position of the Archangel.

"This is seriously a rescue mission, huh?" Ribbon mutters. "Any data on the enemies we might be facing?"

The Professor shook her head. "Still nothing, Ribbon. All we've been told is that we should be careful."

"We do have the image Artemis sent us." Liam (Coordinator, Long blue hair) reminds her. "Maybe Ribbon here would make more sense of it than we can."

"Sure." The Professor agrees. "Here you go, Ribbon." She brings up the image on the table.

Ribbon frowns at the terrible quality of the image. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at."

"Hold on…here you go." Liam gets the image to zoom in.

Ribbon stares at the crimson red Strike with the seven dots on its face.

"That's a stupid-looking design." Lowe grumbles. "Who replaces the main camera for just a set of dots?"

"ZOE." Ribbon mutters. "Does this ship have any electronic warfare equipment?" He asks the Professor.

She looks at him like he was crazy. "Why would we? More importantly, what is that thing?"

Ribbon turns back to the image. "Although it's being applied onto a Mobile Suit, that's definitely ZOE."

"Zoe?" Gai repeats. "Is it an unmanned combat system?"

"Unless you happen to have worked on the project, nobody really knows." Ribbon replies. "But I believe so." He thinks back to the televised battles above Saint Ark, and the planes that danced in the air that day. "It's flying was far too sharp to have had a flesh and blood pilot."

ZOE was, in fact, the catalyst for the advancement to the G-dampener systems that allowed later pilots a greater degree of resilience while flying and maneuvering…though some would debate on whether if ZOE's success caused the change, or if it was actually the need to create more pilots who could combat it should it be deployed by the wrong hands.

"An unmanned drone capable of rapid maneuvering." Gai muses. "Sounds like both a worthy challenge and a serious danger."

Lowe, on the other hand, was a lot more animated. "I want to pop one open and look at its insides." He says eagerly. "Imagine all the things we can learn from it!"

Good luck with that. Ribbon thinks before deciding to do some more rounds in the Dracula. If his enemy was ZOE—and judging by the message, multiple ZOE—then he needs to understand every last inch of the Dracula's behavior in space to have a chance.

…

[Unknown Location]

…

"We have recovered two machines from the combat area." The female robot voice announces in her usual emotionless monotone. "Analysis is commencing on the models."

"I cannot imagine us learning anything of great use from this group." The male robot voice replies dismissively. "Document the recovered units and scrap them."

"Should we produce more of the Model 93?" The female asks.

"It is superior." The male acknowledges. "However, it is too complex. Use the Model 94 and V9 instead."

There was a brief moment of almost silence, where the only sound was the whirs of the machinery.

"What of the Coordinator?" The female asks again.

"Make an image of his traits." The male replies with indifference. "Then send him out to collect more data."

…

[Archangel Splash Site]

…

Lowe's response upon arrival: "Wooooo…wow, this is incredibly bad."

"This is Gai." The Blue Astray's pilot reports as he scans the area with his sensors. "The amount of debris in this region implies that our prior estimates were incorrect."

"We'll compensate, send us your data." The Professor orders.

"Roger." Gai begins transmitting.

"Yo, Ribbon." Lowe calls him over a private line. "What do you think?"

Ribbon scowls as his Dracula coasts past the shredded remains of what he thinks is a Lohengrin cannon. "This is probably the closest thing to a massacre that I've ever seen."

"Yeah." Lowe ran some scans. "A lot of scorches, a lot of impact points…I'm thinking 'overwhelming numbers'."

"Or at least overwhelming firepower." Gai adds. "We have new coordinates."

Ribbon glances at his map and sees two sets of blips appear. "Not what I'd call an accurate estimate, ship." He remarks.

"It's better to cover all of our bases." The Professor shrugs. "Let's hurry it up; I don't want whatever sunk the Archangel coming back."

"Mobius One rogers." Ribbon selects the set of coordinates in front of him (under the assumption that the debris had travelled faster) "I'll be going on ahead."

"The three of us will check the back point then." Gai responds. "Keep your eyes open, Mobius One."

…

…

Ribbon's search was made harder by the fact that his new set of coordinates took him into the debris belt.

He idly wonders if what was left of the Archangel would be smashed to bits within the debris belt, then shook his head lightly…he needed to stay focused.

"Sir." NEMO cut across his thoughts. "I'm picking up a weak distress signal from deeper within the debris belt."

Ribbon flipped to the frequency provided by NEMO and listened intently. "It's just static." He says after a moment.

"There are disturbances within the frequency that would hint at its original broadcast containing more data." NEMO notes. "Then again, we would be out of effective contact range with the Re-Home if we dove deeper."

Ribbon thought about this for a while, and dropped a buoy (in space!) that would act as a repeater for his signals. "We're diving in."

"Yes, sir." NEMO activated all of the Dracula's scanners and watched intently as the plane darted deeper into the debris belt.

…

…

On the other side, the three Gundams had found the Archangel's bridge section and were busy hauling it back to the Re-Home…with what was left of the Archangel's Mobile Suits tied up in a line.

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind." Tolle notes as his Astray's cockpit block section floated at the tail-end of the makeshift conga line.

"This isn't exactly what we had in mind, either." Lowe laughs. "How does it look back there?"

Tolle's nerves were too frayed at this point to care (he had been stuck for hours inside the cockpit block as it was damaged and refused to open). "Please don't do anything sudden like slowing down." He says tiredly.

"That's why Gai's in the back." Lowe grins. "We'll get you home safe and sound."

Gai was, in fact, in the back, holding on to the tail end of the makeshift rope they were using. "Why am I doing this?" He asks nobody in particular.

"Captain Ramius, are you the only ones alive out here?" Cagalli asks.

"There's still a section of the Eternal, which was the ship we were out here to find." Murrue replies. "But it floated off a few hours ago."

"It should still be within detection range if that's the case." Gai notes. "Lowe, ask your Professor to run another scan when she can."

"Yeah, I hear ya." Lowe replies.

"You guys just let them float away?" Cagalli couldn't help but ask.

Murdoch intercepted her question. "We had nothing to tie down the Eternal with; all of our heavy machinery was destroyed."

Cagalli's eyes went wide. "And they had nothing to escape with?"

"A little hard to live in space when all your suits are toasted." Waltfield, who was still within radio range, deadpans. "Kindly hurry it up?"

…

Meanwhile, Ribbon had dove deeper into the debris belt in search of a steadily increasing distress signal.

"I believe this is the strongest location of the signal." NEMO reports after a little bit more of flying. "The sensors do not display anything that is representative of recent combat damage."

Ribbon couldn't see anything that would have sent the signal, to say nothing of any remains of what could have been a ship as sizable as the Archangel. "Let's head back; it would be bad for us to run into an enemy out here."

…

Per his predictions, as he headed back to where he placed the buoy, he noticed another heat signature on his scanners and immediately cut all but his sub-engines.

NEMO trained its camera on the unit. "The coloring certainly resembles the database on the ZOE." He says of the blood red paintjob on the enemy unit. "But I do not recognize the make of the enemy unit."

"It looks similar to the Falken." Ribbon notes. "Maybe without the front-sweeping wings…it's not in the Morgenroete database either?"

"No matches." NEMO confirmed. "It is sending and receiving data to a remote location."

"Intercept as much data as you can." Ribbon orders while slowing down the Dracula to match the speed of the debris.

It doesn't seem to notice us. Ribbon notes. How? If it's unmanned then there should be no reason why it's not noticing us, even if the Dracula has some stealth capabilities.

He stalks the ZOE Ghost for a few minutes back to his buoy. The Ghost reaches the buoy and just parks itself there.

"I guess it intercepted our signal." NEMO notes. "I have some data concerning the enemy unit."

"Let's hear it." Ribbon orders.

"Understood." NEMO clears its throat (despite being a program). "The ZOE Unknown's serial number is 'AIF-9V'; its name is the Ghost V9R."

"V9? As in version nine?" Ribbon vaguely remembered a missile also given a V designation.

"I assume so." NEMO says. "The remainder of the data sent seems to be simple order adjustments; this unit is most likely autonomous and will be fully capable of combat regardless of what jamming we can employ."

Ribbon grimaces at that. "Just great…and we can't fly in space if our systems go down with an EMP. Just great." He then checks his instruments. "Since it's just one, we can kill it and bring it home for analysis."

"Affirmative." NEMO sounded pleased. "The R-110 is ready to go at any time."

"Ok…" Ribbon took a deep breath. "Mobius One, engaging."

…

[Re-Home]

…

With the Archangel's bridge section recovered and its occupants freed, the ship could get underway again…namely, to fetch Ribbon (who had gone the other way) and the Eternal (before it drifts back to the debris belt).

"Can this ship fight once it comes under fire?" Murrue asks. "This rescue mission will be for nothing if you guys get shot down as well."

"We'll be able to run away if we get targeted." The Professor reassures her. "More importantly, we'll need to reach the closest station and transmit this data back to Orb."

The closest station would be the DSSD.

"Good thing, too." Athrun absentmindedly fiddles with the cast on his left arm. "We were no match for them."

"Not even Coordinators could keep up with the enemies, huh?" Kisato (who is a natural) notes innocently, and gets a few glares in her direction in reply.

"Well, she's right." Nicol tries to calm things over. "We ultimately needed to be plucked from space, after all."

"Not only that, we lost four ships in the blink of an eye." Yzak seethes. "If they had been ZAFT warships we would've been court marshalled for sure."

"You got that right." Dearka sighs. "What if those things were actually fielded by ZAFT?" His following laughter was very much forced.

Nicol actually thought it over. "I'm not sure what would happen were that the case." He says. "So who's the newcomer in this war?"

Nobody had an answer.

"This war is all kinds of wrong." Cagalli grumbles. "First it's ZAFT versus the Feds, then Usea jumps in, and now these AI folk."

"Moreover, the leadership of PLANT, Patrick Zala, is still nowhere to be seen." The Professor adds. "Sounds like we're gearing up for something huge."

"Even better, whoever sent those fighters took Kira." Athrun growls.

Lacus wasn't really over that piece of news yet. "But why?"

"Who knows. Maybe they swing that way?" Dearka grins…for a few seconds. "Bad joke, sorry."

"We've come into contact with a buoy dropped by the Dracula." Liam suddenly says. "Ribbon is currently engaged in battle."

Lowe and Gai shared a glance before they rushed to their Astrays.

"While you're off doing that, how 'bout you come pick us up?" Waltfield grumbles.

…

[Battlefield]

…

"That mobility is impressively annoying." Ribbon growls as the Ghost zips away from another round of his EML.

"It seems to be a craft with impressive structure integrity, considering how often it makes those translational movements." NEMO comments. "Firing laser."

One of the ports on the back of the Dracula opened to discharge a beam at the Ghost.

The Ghost suddenly slid left as the beam fired, and the laser beam discharge zipped harmlessly (for the Ghost) into space.

"That's incredibly annoying." NEMO agreed.

The Ghost's claim to fame was its ability to suddenly change its flight path without changing its flight direction via use of its heavily modified engines capable of turning almost a full 90 degrees…which was both a bonus and a drawback.

The bonus: The Ghost can make use of its entire thruster output during maneuvering and thus can move with all the speed of a caffeinated hummingbird strapped to a series of rockets.

The drawback: The structure of the Ghost was heavily reinforced to keep the craft viable during its ungodly high-g maneuvers, as the strains of those maneuvers cause undue stress on the craft. This meant that although the Ghost was theoretically capable of sustaining damage, any damage it takes would greatly hamper the Ghost's ability to function, and a solid clean hit would kill it outright.

Even better: the strength required for the Ghost to keep its agility meant that it could only fit the single exterior cannon on its back and the two light Vulcans in its nose, as any heavier gear would compromise the unit's already problematic durability.

The Dracula, on the other hand, was a modified and reinforced CFA-44 complete with Phase Shift Armor and additional thrusters placed into its wings to assist space combat (those thrusters are inactive during atmospheric flight as they would absolutely trash the craft's aerodynamic properties) and enough durability to keep the pilot inside alive. Thus, while it was in no way able to keep up with a Ghost in terms of sheer maneuverability, it was more than a match for a single Ghost when it came to survivability.

…Of course, the ability to shoot a laser from its back at the Ghost whenever said Ghost got a little ballsy didn't hurt.

Said Ghost was now looking a little worse for the wear, as a near-miss from a laser shot had had damaged one of its Vulcans, causing the onboard AI to disable it.

"It would be nice if he stood still for a second." NEMO complains. "The R-110 is charged and ready to be deployed."

"Save it for now." Ribbon stops him, leading the Ghost into an EML shot…before the Ghost suddenly snapped downwards away from the shot while returning fire with its overhead gun. "Damn, this is tough."

"Discharging Laser." NEMO fires again at the Ghost and it jerks out of the way again.

Ribbon hears a voice over his radio. "Mobius One, are you in danger?"

"Affirmative, Gai. I'm engaged with a highly maneuverable enemy." Ribbon shows a flicker of annoyance as the Ghost in front of him dances away from a stream of bullets.

"Want our help?" Lowe asks, charging forward with his Gerbera Straight (Gundam-sized Katana) drawn.

"Negative." Ribbon replies curtly.

"He's mad." Cagalli deadpans. "It's that tough?"

"The target is extremely mobile." Ribbon replies as his craft shook from a few stray bullets. "It was likely designed for the express purpose of space combat."

"Yeah, those are the things that attacked us." Dearka points out when the lead Mobile Suits were close enough to the action to send a visual feed back to the Re-Home. "But why's there only one of them? When they hit us they had twenty."

That means there are more of them around here somewhere. Ribbon realizes. "Nemo, You have permission to use the Delphinus."

"About time." NEMO said with a faint note of impatience. "Detaching the R-110 from Dracula."

The bottom of the CFA-144 opens up and a small fighter popped out.

In order to test this new equipment, the ODLS was removed: the R-110 Delphinus was a smaller version of the R-101 Delphinus, and otherwise the two crafts looked the same. The R-110 was reworked to fly in space and has weapons developed from Morgenroete's technology though.

The R-101 Delphinus's design looks like someone married the F-4 with the Predator drone. It had the general shape of the F-4, but the sleekness of the Predator. The R-110 was the same, just scaled down to fit inside a Dracula with its folding parts.

The Delphinus, controlled entirely by Nemo, surged forward with Ribbon's now far lighter Dracula on its wing.

"I wonder what my callsign would be?" NEMO wonders aloud. "Oh well, it's not important right now. NEMO, engage."

With the additional of the small Delphinus on its tail, the ZOE did not seem to evade with nearly as much gusto as before, even as Ribbon's EML shots creeped closer and closer towards a direct hit.

And then the Ghost made a snap 180-degrees turn in order to escape an incoming trap, causing Ribbon and NEMO to both overshoot badly.

The Ghost itself suffered from the turn, with its overhead gun snapping off entirely due to the sudden forces. However, this maneuver allowed it to escape the battlefield at maximum speed (even with Gai, Lowe, and Cagalli opening fire on it).

"Ok, that's incredibly annoying." Ribbon sighs as NEMO pulls the Delphinus back into the Dracula. "Does anyone else feel like we were being played?"

"In retrospect, it did." NEMO said slowly. "The Ghost only made aggressive combat maneuvers when we showed signs of breaking off from the battle."

Lowe took this moment to fetch the snapped off gun from the Ghost and return it to the Re-Home.

"Great, just great." Ribbon sighs. "Mobius One, RTB. Where are we headed to next?"

"We're going to the DSSD." The Professor said. "We'll transfer our data there and drop you off for a shuttle back down to Earth."

"Not staying for the rest of the show?" Cagalli asks with disapproval in her voice. "We're up against something unknown and definitely dangerous here."

"My contract was to recover the Archangel's crew." Gai replies dismissively.

Lowe taps the Blue Astray with the recovered gun. "Ignore him; we need to warn the rest of the Junk Guild…and the Serpent Guild, if this new threat primarily operates in space."

Ribbon wasn't convinced. "And sailing to the station is somehow faster than wireless communication?"

"Most of the junk guild stations are shielded against being contacted by the outside." The Professor explains. "More importantly, if this does turn out to be a threat that doesn't obey the rules of war, then we might need to fortify those positions against future incursions."

"Great, just great." Cagalli grumbles. "Just what we needed."

…

The Re-Home makes it to the DSSD without incident, where it drops off the crew of the Archangel, Cagalli, Ribbon, and the top half of the Eternal.

After compiling the data gathered by both the Archangel and Ribbon's somewhat more successful engagement and sending it off…

"I'm amazed the DSSD took us in." Yzak remarks.

"It's on humanitarian grounds, so don't get used to it." Athrun reminds him.

"Yeah, yeah." Yzak grumbles. "So what is this place?"

"We are a research station dedicated to the advancement of deep space exploration." A man of no real importance says. "We have a guest room ready for you, if you'll pardon the conditions."

"It'll be good to sleep in a bed right about now." Dearka says with a yawn, and the ZAFT boys follow the man to their quarters.

Ribbon, on the other hand, had a direct connection to Morgenroete.

"What do you think?" He asks after the other side had gone through the combat information.

"I think if we turn this into a space battle, we're going to lose badly." Cipher replies. "That mobility is uncanny."

Ribbon nods. "According to the Archangel, there was also a purple Mobile Suit that acted as a master controller for about twenty of these Ghosts."

Moment of silence.

"Sounds like we're screwed." Pixy chuckles. "If they have the combat prowess to dodge fire like that then there's no way we can hit them."

"We'll pass on the message to Gründer then." Cipher decides. "Tell them to work on subsystems resilient to being shut down via electronic warfare. I feel like that would be the most useful thing against an army of AIs."

Gründer wasn't about to refuse demands from the Demon Lord any time soon.

"Yeah, I think so too." Ribbon agrees. "How goes the mop up?"

"Fast. The Feds are capitulating at a breakneck speed." Cipher laughs. "You'd think they planned this from the beginning."

All things considered, that might not be too far from the truth. Ribbon thought darkly.

…

Elsewhere, aboard the Dracula, NEMO ran a series of codes.

A sub on-board computer of the CFA-144N came to life, and it briefly read "Connecting to Electrosphere" before he turned the display off…it wasn't like he needed a graphical display to tell him what he was doing.

…

Elsewhere still, on Earth, within the control room of the Stonehenge installation, one of the usually neglected screens briefly flickered to life, displayed a series of garbled numbers and letters, and then turned off like nothing happened.

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

Choo choo all aboard the Rush Story to Completion Train

(Not gonna lie, I kind of regret doing this story with SEED instead of 00, since I'm more familiar with 00…but oh well.)