Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the OCs in this story and probably the story idea? (shrugs)
GSD: Shifting Shadows
Shift 03: Under the Light Show
Lunamaria walked towards Athrun as he zip down from the Zaku. "You lived up to your legend." The ace pilot just stared at her in silence. Lunamaria, undeterred pressed on. "So, do you know anything about those." She tipped her head at one of the CGUEs. "From what I heard, their leader met up with Ms. Cagalli."
"What?" Athrun halted his steps to look at Lunamaria.
"I take it from your expression, they're not some sort of ORB special forces." Athrun shook his head at her statement.
"I thought they were another ZAFT task force." The chatter from personnel in the hangar hushed as the three CGUEs open their cockpit hatches. Lunamaria move to get closer to one of the CGUEs, her curiosity peaked. The first thing she notice about the pilots are the reflective visors. The orange glint is noticeable even from far away. The next thing is the pilot suits they wore. Unlike ZAFT or Earth Alliance pilot suits which were colored according to the faction's colors and the design contours to the pilots body to make movement easier, their suits are bulky and bright white. The design, from her perspective, is reminiscent of humanity's early space suit during the Space Race.
Athrun studied the pilots of the as they just stayed near their perspective cockpits. It was difficult to measure the pilots with their visors in the way. The way the two of the pilots move, however, showed them to be females of a young age probably around 15 to 19 years old. The third pilot is definitely a male and probably reads plenty of books from how he produced a book out his suit's pocket.
The whole hangar waited for the unknown pilots to zip down and introduced themselves, but the three pilots just stayed at the ramp. Lunamaria, the ever confident and curious one, shouted at them, "Aren't you guys gonna come down?" She stepped closer, "Don't be shy! Come down and say 'hi'. I promise we won't bite" Lunamaria verbally jabbed at them. One of the pilots laughed boisterously, while the other tilted her head at the laughing pilot. The third one, merely lowered his book by a fraction.
"Sorry, Pinky. Can't do. Standing orders you see." Lunamaria spluttered at the 'Pinky' remark while the engineers just snickered.
"Athrun!" Cagalli ran towards her bodyguard, barely restraining herself from giving him a very tight hug. "I'm glad you're okay."
Athrun smiled at her and replied, "Yeah." He noticed an imposing figure wearing the same outfit as the rest of the CGUE pilots. The pilot stepped up from behind Cagalli and extended his hand.
"You must be Alex Dino, Lieutenant Ianius Ran, IMC, Chimera Squad" said the man in a baritone voice, noticeable even with the voice synthesizer. Athrun clasp at the offered hand.
"Athrun will do, lieutenant." He raised an eyebrow as he continued, "IMC? I never heard of them before."
"We just like to keep it that way" he lightheartedly said.
"Lieutenant, if you don't mind me asking" Cagalli spoke up, "aren't you going to remove your helmet?"
"Oh right," he clasped his helmet and turned it. A loud hiss followed as the suit depressurized. Revealing a pale white, clean-shaven man of around 30 years with charcoal wavey hair that just reach past his chin.
"What about them?" Lunamaria butted in, pointing at the CGUE pilots. Ran looked at them and nodded.
"Finally!" Vi removed her helmet, revealing a pale white head. She shook her chin-length pale blond hair to un-stick them from her sweaty skin. She inhaled the air and commented, "Smells new." Vivi trained her deep blue eyes at her squadmates, "Well? He said it's fine." She hook the helmet on her hand and zipped down to the hangar deck, but not before locking her mobile suit up. Joan and Saros locked their mobile suits before following after Vivi.
The three pilots lined up before Cagalli and gave her a salute. "Please, no need for that" said Cagalli as she motioned them to lower their hands. The blond one grinned and swiftly lowered her hand and extended it towards the young leader.
"Vivian Onatis, IMC, Chimera Squad, Callsign 'Eighteen'" Cagalli clasped her hand and found it surprisingly firm.
"Uh..." Before she could say anything, Vivi let go and stepped back. Joan took her hand.
"Joan Watson, IMC, Chimera Squad, Callsign 'Seventeen'. It's nice to finally meet the one they called the Lioness of Orb." She said to her with professionalism and let go of her hand. Joan and Vivi send a mild glare to their third teammate who stood a step behind them. The said young man sigh in resignation and stepped forward to shake Cagalli's hand.
"Um. Saros Graves, IMC, Chimera Squad, Callsign 'Twenty'. Uh..." He paused before nervously adding, "N-nice to meet you."
"Uh- I-" Cagalli fumbled her words before finally saying, "Thanks for you're timely help" and cheerfully smiled at them. The three pilots nodded in appreciation.
"Squad," Ran called attention to his subordinates, "guard the representative while I talked to the Captain about getting us quarters for the duration of our stay."
"Sir!" The three pilots saluted at the retreating form of their squad leader.
Athrun stood next to Cagalli, "Thanks for the assist." Vivi squealed as she found out who spoke.
"You're Athrun Zala!" Joan and Saros each immediately grab Vivi's shoulders to stop her from smothering the poor unsuspecting pilot with something akin to hero worship.
"Ah, yes." Athrun replied with bewilderment. Vivi excitedly patted her pockets looking for something. She look at Saros with a serious expression.
"I know you have a pen on you. Hand it over." Saros not wanting to deal with his slightly troublesome teammate, surrendered his pen. Vivi gladly grabbed the pen as well as swiping Saros's book. "Can you sign this! Please!"
Athrun, overwhelmed by the blond's hyperactivity, numbly grabbed the book and pen and signed the first page of the book, not realizing the book's title nor its content.
Saros fingers twitched at his precious charm being vulgarized. He needed to do something and soon. Joan look back and found the sharpshooter going through something akin to a mental break down. Athrun handed the book and pen back to Vivi's awaiting hands. Joan intercepted the handoff and tossed the said book back to its owner. Saros fumblingly caught the book and sighed in relief. He gave Joan a grateful look before pocketing the book back to its safe haven.
"Hey!" Vivi angrily glared at Joan for stealing her precious book that had Athrun Zala's autograph. Joan pointedly look at her with one brow raised. "Fine" she defeatedly replied.
Lunamaria courageously stepped up and spoke to the three interesting pilots. "I'm Lunamaria Hawke, pilot of the Red Zaku over there" she pointed at her one-legged mobile suit.
"Hey, Pinky." Vivi recognized her by her weird hair color that most coordinators are known for. "Vivian Onatis" she extended her hand, "you already know that though. Call me Vi or Vivi. I don't know why my parents decided to name me Vivian." Lunamaria ignored her new nickname and shook her hand.
"So, what does IMC stand for?" Lunamaria asked, hoping to know who these skilled pilots are. Vivi smirked at her.
"IMC is IMC and we like to keep it that way." Lunamaria, nonplussed at her blatant disregard of giving a suitable answer, changed her line of inquiry.
"Are you a part of ZAFT?"
Vi answered cheerfully with a single flippant word, "Nope!"
Lunamaria asked as she narrowed her eyes at Vivi, "Where did you get the CGUEs?"
Vi's smirked widened and answered, "If I tell you, I have to kill you" and gave her a wink.
While the ZAFT elite pilot and blond IMC pilot verbally sparred with each other, Joan turned her green eyes at her charge. "Anywhere would you like to go, Ms. Attha?" Cagalli slightly jumped at her question. Even though she was Orb's head of state, she wasn't used to having an escort, save for Athrun for obvious reason.
"Would you rather rest? That was quite an ordeal to go through." She said to the two pilots in front of her.
"As nice as that is, Ms. Cagalli, our mission is to provide protection until you're back to Orb. Even inside this ZAFT battleship, someone is bound to have some sort animosity toward you." Joan noticed the visible winced from the chief representative and Athrun mouth curled slightly downward. Joan slightly narrowed her eyes and eyed every ZAFT crew in her vicinity. Saros taking her cue, reached inside one of his the pockets containing his sidearm and loosely held it in his hand.
Cagalli noticed Joan's change in demeanor and waved her hands in front of her. "It- It's not like that. Not at all!"
"Ms. Cagalli, as long as you are within the protection of Chimera Squad, anyone that comes near you with ill intentions will be dealt with 'accordingly'." Cagalli gulped at Joan's statement.
"I hope you consider warning him first before you do anything more drastic." Athrun stated to the young woman trying to curb the initial reaction of implied bodily harm to something less of a bloody affair. "He has a grudge on Orb and anything that is connected to Orb."
"Duly noted." Athrun was slightly taken aback by the sadistic smirk she gave before it disappeared without a trace from her pale white but composed face. "So, who is it."
Athrun was quiet for a moment, debating on whether to give up the name of the young gundam pilot. He can protect Cagalli from most things, but he can't protect her from the barb words of the pilot and his hatred for Orb and specifically Cagalli. Every time the two clash verbally, he chipped away at Cagalli's fragile confidence at keeping her late father's wish. He tightened his fist and with a whispered voice deprived of any emotion, uttered a name.
"Shinn Asuka"
Meanwhile back in the bridge...
"Arthur, re-check our trajectory." Captain Gladys calmly spoke to her first officer. However, behind her calm facade, she was genuinely worried when Minerva's radar operator first reported their new trajectory after they fired the ship's positron beam cannon several times.
Arthur went over his console and pulled up the ship's navigation data and began checking the Ensign Heim's work. He winced when it came up to the same conclusion. "Captain," he look at Captain Gladys with a somber expression and shook his head.
"Ensign Heim, find us a better location and fast. I don't want to take Minerva into somewhere we are unwelcome.
"I'll try Captain." The ensign nodded to her before going back to his console and calculate a new trajectory before their options dwindle down. On his console, Minerva's current trajectory would lead them smack-dabbed in the middle of the Atlantic Federation just over spitting distance from Detroit.
Shinn Asuka, pilot of the Impulse watch most of the hangar personnel linger around the new pilots. He heard the engineers discuss about how it was possible for CGUEs to be outfitted by phase shift armour.
"It's got to be a new mobile suit that just look like a CGUE!" said one of the engineers.
"If it is, why make it look like a CGUE. Why add only a MA-MG21 beam rifle from a GuAIZ and a beam saber?"
"The time it takes to repupose a mobile suit is by far greater than building new one. It's more economical in term of man power to build a new mobile suit."
"If only we can look at its Cockpit Operating System."
"Fat chance at that. I heard from one of guys that the mobile suit is protected by something called a 'class-10 lock'. Vino even tried to connect his laptop and unlock the cockpit. Guess what, his laptop got fried." One of the engineers whistled in awe.
"Shinn." The young pilot turned around to find Rey, still in his pilot suit, coming out of the elevator.
"Rey." Rey stood beside Shinn and watch the commotion below. "What do you think about those pilots?"
"They are skilled in Zero Gravity Combat and they have excellent teamwork. To gauge their skills outside of outright challenging them, we need to look at the combat data." Shinn nodded in agreement. The pilots each shook the Orb representative's hand. "It looks like they are here for Representative Attha." Shinn tightened his gripped on the rails and narrowed his eyes at Cagalli. One of the pilots, the black-haired one with a bob cut hair snapped her head towards his direction.
Joan instinctively snapped her head at the catways. Several people were milling about, with most of them wearing a two-toned green jumpsuit. What got her attention were the two people wearing the red pilot suit the same as the one who calls herself Lunamaria. One was a girlish-looking boy with a blond hair covering one eye and reached just past his shoulder. She assumed as he lacked ample breasts, well if not, she's malnourished which is kind of sad. What got her attention was the boy beside the long-haired one. The wild-haired boy stared at her general direction, specifically glaring at Cagalli. Instinctively, she thought he was the one Athrun talked about.
Captain Gladys studied their new trajectory when the bridge doors opened and admitted a rather imposing figure wearing a familiar white suit.
"Captain." Ran saluted Talia Gladys. She was surprised that she didn't noticed his baritone voice before.
"You must be the Lieutenant." Gladys saluted back at the pilot. She studied him for a second before continuing "I'm afraid I can't talk right now, lieutenant."
Ran stance didn't shift given his experience during IMC's extrasolar activities and the subsequent incident that nearly eradicated the entire IMC expeditionary fleet. "Problem?"
Talia decided to inform of the lieutenant of her and her ship's predicament. "Ensign, put our current course and the new plotted course on screen." The screen showed Minerva's current and the new plotted trajectory. "As you can see, we will be landing in the Atlantic Federation territory."
"And their hatred for anything 'Coordinator' is well-known." Ran frowned, "The debris from Junius Seven should mask this ship's presence. What's the time there right now?"
"4:04 AM." Ran nodded at the Ensign.
"Making a landing in one of the Great Lakes should be a good choice as long as this ship is capable of making a water landing."
Captain Gladys decided to go ahead with the new plotted course, glad to have a second opinion on her decision. "Helmsman, change course to 345! Meyrin inform the crew to prepare for a water landing." She turned around to face the lieutenant. "Thanks for the help, lieutenant. Now, is there something I can do for you?"
"I'll tell you later Captain, you need to concentrate on making our landing survivable first." Talia smiled at him.
"Of course. If you could take a seat."
"Thanks, Captain." Ran took one of the 'guest' seat where Cagalli sat during the Junius Seven incident.
Reports of the damage from the now called "Break the World" incident filled all stations reporting all around the world. The projected damage from earlier models didn't reflect the actual damage cause. Analysts were surprised by the fact that most pieces burned up on re-entry with only the remaining larger portions slowly disintegrating before most of it plunging into the ocean and creating tsunamis. One of the largest pieces actually broke up and send millions of deadly debris around the equator.
With Earth's airspace filled with debris, Earth Alliance radar system are overwhelmed to the point that most Radar Operator opted to just watch the light show, or ignore their radar consoles. Under the light show of Junius Seven, Minerva aligned itself to Lake Ontario lengthwise. On 4:12 AM under the still clear wintery sky of the northern hemisphere, the ZAFT Battleship Minerva landed on the freezing waters of Lake Ontario. The wake it created is blamed by observers as a stray debris from the burning colony.
Shift 03 End