Gundam: SEEDs of Change Chapter 1, a gundam seed fanfic

Patriot-112: (Aile 105 Dagger lands) What's up, Peeps!?

Takeshi Yamato: We have a new chapter for you!

117Jorn: (GOUF Ignited dropped next to Dagger) And its a Doozy! Let's Begin!

Chapter 2: Black Swords of Freedom

May 18th 2014 AD/CE 71

San Joaquin Pocket - Fresno & Madera Counties

California, United States

In just over a week, the Atlantic Federation have now gained, or regained in their opinion, almost all of the United States, except for the Southeastern States, including Texas, the Sierra Nevadas, and a few strongholds in the Rockies and other small areas. Almost 55 percent of the U.S. Armed Forces were either killed, captured, or missing. America's southern neighbor, Mexico was in a total state of anarchy, as its government completely collapsed, and its entire military was destroyed.

Their northern neighbor, Canada, was in a similar boat: most of the second largest country on Earth on the eastern side, from Newfoundland and Labrador to the majority of Ontario, but someone was causing a great deal of problems for OMNI Enforcer, delaying their advance, but only by one or two days. Their military was no longer numbered in the tens of thousands, but in less than 9000 men and women. As such, all military units, foreign or otherwise, were given orders to get their assets to the Sierra Nevada mountains.

However, this was a BIT of a problem for survivors in California, as OMNI Enforcer was circling in and calmly blowing their asses up with rail gun and beam rounds.

There was a phrase for this:

Turkey shoot.

In the Pocket itself, Marines, Army troops, and as well as any Air Force personnel who were lucky to escape from the other Air Bases, and couldn't go anywhere else, were busy putting up defenses, along with help from civilians who wanted to do something to help. Even with this brave and rather formidable defence, OMNI Enforcer was still dealing heavy damage: even if they weren't killing the troops and drafted civilians, they WERE slowly removing their ability to resist as AFVs were turned into molten wreckage and makeshift bunkers were shot apart. The most effective weapon they had was the M270 MLRS vehicle, and while they claimed a few kills against linear tanks, against Mobile Suits they were but chaff to be separated from the wheat.

And they were doing a LOT of separating, if the large number of wrecks, from the M270 to the M60A3 to even the famed M1A2 Abrams, were any indication. The Strike Daggers were joined by their even deadlier brother units, the 105 Daggers, which mounted the Striker Pack weapons system, making them at least ten times worse than the GAT-01s that were slowly wearing the US defenders down. Launcher Pack equipped units destroyed fortified buildings with ease, and Sword Pack units hacked and slashed apart any tank or other armored vehicle that tried to escape. Aile Pack equipped units served as commander-type machines, as they were the most agile in or out of the atmosphere. In short, it would take a miracle to get ANYONE not OMNI Enforcer out of there alive.

But the one thing that the US Armed Forces had to their advantage were the locals, who had formed into guerilla bands and started attacking any AF troops who tried to exploit the gaps made by the railguns and the Launcher Daggers. Not to mention they used the derelict vehicles as camouflage to hide the vehicles they still had in working condition, and used the remains to launch ambushes on any unsuspecting OMNI Enforcer Mobile Suit. This tactic worked so far, but the Commanders knew it was only a matter of time.

At the Save Mart Center, on the grounds of the California State University, the overall Commanders of the forces inside the San Joaquin Pocket were busy conversing over the digital map of their small area. Standing at the front of the table was an elder man with short greying white hair, and blue eyes wearing a MARPAT Uniform, and with the proper insignia which showed him as a Lieutenant General of the Marines.

"I don't need to tell you we're all in a tight spot," Lieutenant General John A. Toolan Jr said. "We're surrounded on all sides against these 'Earth Forces' bastards, and they've been picking down our defenses since day one." He sighed "We only have so many aircraft left, and only a few Abrams, and every other Vehicle we have. And we're down to just short of 2,500 capable men and women from the Forces." He sighed. "They've got us boxed in… and at this point, I'm open to suggestions from anyone here."

There was about a minute of silence, as everyone seemed to look at each other, searching for answers of what to do.

"It seems to me," a new voice said, "that aside from having us surrounded… the big advantage the Atlantic Fed's have against us is their Mobile Suits. We don't have any ourselves… but if we did, we could turn things around here a bit."

The officers blinked and they turned and spotted D.J. and Jordan, the former, having a bandaged left face cheek after getting a couple of cuts from shrapnel, while the latter, while still wearing his trench coat, had exchanged his former clothes with older - but still useful - BDU's, and had a red Bandana over his forehead, right by the door.

"How the heck did you get in here!?" demanded an air force colonel who was dressed in a Digital Tiger stripe ACU. Jordan just smirked.

"The front door was open," he half joked. "And from the sound of it, Lieutenant General, you need all the help you can get… and me and my friend here have an idea to turn the odds in our favor."

One of the Colonels was going to order them to be taken out, but the General rose his hand, silencing him as he looked at the two. "And… you are?" he asked.

"Jordan Tackett, and D.J. Cobb, at your service sir." Jordan said, as both of them gave a quick salute. "Sir, as I said, the AF. have one key advantage: their Mobile Suits. They're tearing apart our own forces because they have the technological advantage. However, if we can get some of their Mobile Suits, we might be able to turn the tide into our favor… at the very minimum, we could hold out until we get some reinforcements from the rest of the Military or someone."

The General quirked an eyebrow. "Someone as in…" and D.J. sighed.

"We, along with a good lot of people, know something that involves what the hell is happening," the Military/Anime otaku said. "Though we still don't know how this is going on."

"Though right now is not the best time," Jordan said as they walked forward. "Me and D.J., and our own little band of misfits have been doing some scouting in the forests… and we found something." He pointed to a small area on the map. "The Atlantic Federation set up what looks like a Depot here, and from what we could see, it's being used as a recharge and resupply spot for their Mobile Suits. They've got Daggers, Strike Daggers, Buster Daggers, Duel Daggers, and all of the ammo, weapons and supplies needed to keep them running."

Jordan looked up at the US Armed Forces. "Unless we get these Mobile Suits, we're screwed either way," he said. "Even if we can just get a handful of them, we'll have enough to hold the line for a bit longer until we get some help. I for one don't want to sit here on my ass while these bastards overrun our positions and take our homes. If we're going to hit them where it hurts, we need Mobile Suits. We've managed to gain a bit of an understanding of how they work from units you've managed to destroy in the past, along through some other sources, and we believe we understand the basics of operating them."

The officers were a little unsure, while Toolan, although skeptical, was not about to lose a gift in the horses mouth.

"If you can do this, you think you can do something against those damn 'Launcher' mobile suits?" he said. "They're dealing hell to our armored units."

The two just smiled.

"Consider them sashimi," D.J. said, as he was fully intending to deal with those At Fed pigs. His Uncle Tom and Aunt Claudia were among the casualties in San Francisco, and he was determined to deal some payback.

Before anyone else could say anything, an Army Lieutenant came into the room, moving as fast as he could while wheeling in a rather large 'portable' radio. "Sorry to interrupt, General, but we're getting a transmission from Nellis Air Force Base!"

Toolan, and the other officers all had surprised looks since Nellis AFB went dark almost two days ago.

"Who are they, and what's their unit?" the Marine demanded.

"They're refugees and remnants of the Colorado National Guard, sir," the Lieutenant said. "And apparently, they've managed to grab one of the enemy machines!"

Everyone in the room blinked, including Jordan and D.J. "Well, shit," Jordan muttered. "Glad we're not the only ones with the same idea."

"Still, how did they manage to do that?" the Air Force Colonel asked.

"They came under attack south of Grand Junction, and apparently one of the Refugees hijacked one of the attacking machines in what their commander is calling one of the most insane stunts he's ever seen in his life," the Lieutenant replied. "And once the refugee hijacked the enemy machine, well… someone managed to get a recording of what he apparently said over the unit's loudspeakers."

The Lieutenant adjusted something on the radio, and it started playing back a recording.

"The one that civilian hijacked is moving, sir!"

"I can't believe he managed to get it going! Here's hoping he actually knows what he's doi-"

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!" came another voice, which sounded different enough that they knew it was coming from a loudspeaker, followed shortly by an explosion. "I WON'T LET YOU DO AS YOU PLEASE ANYMORE KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"

Everyone in the room blinked, as Jordan and D.J. glanced at each other and chuckled. "Well… at least we know he's an Otaku," he said. "If the sound of explosions is any indicator, he at least knows what he's doing."

D.J. nodded at that. "Yeah... but who is it, I wonder?" he said. "And, which type of Mobile suit he managed to MS-jack."

One of the officers motioned to the Lieutenant to continue after he glanced at the two civilians oddly. "As to the machine he got, it was apparently one of the variable ones with the Sword-type pack," he said. "And the pilot, when asked for his name, well… here's a recording of what he said." The Lieutenant fiddled with the radio some more, then-

"Just call me Takeshi Yamato," came the voice that had belted out the Gurren-Lagann-esque attack names earlier, only much calmer, and tinged with bitterness and sorrow. "Now that the last of my living family is dead, my birth name holds no meaning to me anymore."

Both Jordan and D.J blinked before they looked at one another "You don't think…" D.J. whispered.

"The odds are 1,000,000/1," Jordan said. "But all things considered, with Gundam and all that…"

"Maybe…" D.J. said. "But… if what he said was true… about his parents…"

Jordan sighed. "A lot of people have lost their families, Drew." he said, "I'm still worried sick about mine…"

D.J nodded, knowing how true that was. Meanwhile Toolan looked a the Lieutenant. "Contact them, and tell them if they can to hurry their asses over here, with everything they have," he said. "We could use all the help we can get over here, and if they do have one of those Mobile Suits, we can sure as hell use it." The Lieutenant nodded as he saluted before he moved to carry out the orders.

Toolan then turned back to Jordan and D.J. "Well boys," he said, smiling a bit. "Looks like your plan may work if this kid could pull it off… what do you need?"

"Anything you could give us without sacrificing the defenses," Jordan said. "I understand you have a lot of pilots without planes? A Mobile Suit may be different from any aircraft, but some piloting skills is better than nothing. Plus at least they'd be doing something rather than sitting around doing almost nothing else."

The general nodded. "I agree with you. There's Captain Richard Miller and survivors of the Black Knights Squadron who lost their planes when those shitheads came and blew up the hangers." he said, and the two nodded.

"Excellent," Drew nodded, remembering the name of the Marine squadron, and then he smirked. "And I'm sure they're gonna love their new rides."

"I'll send word to Miller and his boys ASAP," the General said. "Along with every other able-bodied pilot I can muster." He then paused for a moment "Also, I'll loan you a Platoon of the best we have: A Platoon from SEAL Team 7 that managed to evacuate with us."

The two were surprised at that, but they were not complaining. With the Navy SEALs helping them out, the mission will probably go a bit smoother. However, they both knew that the E.A.F. will probably have their aces or, worse, Extendeds.

But, if there were, they would cross that bridge when they get there.

"That… will do General." Drew said and he and Jordan gave the Marine general a salute.

"When do you plan on attacking that depot?" Toolan asked.

"ASAP sir," Jordan said. "We can mobilize the moment everyone in the attack force is ready - we don't have a moment to lose, since it's only a matter of time before the EA tries to make their final push to overrun our positions here."

The General grinned a bit at the eagerness of these two. They were only civvies, but they got the heart of soldiers in them.

"Then you best get your people ready," he said. "I'll have S-Team 7 and the Black Knights ready for you when you get back here."

The two nodded as they saluted the General, who returned the salute before they marched out. D.J let out a sigh. "Damn," he said. "I can't believe he actually listened to us."

"He's desperate, D.J.," Jordan said with a sigh. "We're all getting desperate… we saw those pictures we took Drew, there is a lot of activity going on across the EA lines, I fear an attack may be iminent. The only way I can see any of us surviving this next assault is with Mobile Suits. This is an awfully big risk we are taking… this had better work."

Meanwhile - Nevada

Nellis Air Force Base

Takeshi sat in the cockpit of his 105 Dagger, which was currently hooked up to a diesel generator with specially adapted cables to allow it to recharge, adapting the OS to suit his personal styles and adapting the Phase Shift Settings.

He'd found the options function for the Transphase Armor rather early on, and was in the process of changing it to more regular Phase Shift - it might drain more power, but Transphase Armor's nature of only activating when hit with a physical blow and only where the blow was striking meant that it could possibly be overwhelmed by massive volleys of fire, a weakness that basic Phase Shift Armor didn't have.

He was also optimizing the OS for high-speed melee combat - part of him was wishing that he had access to Gundam Exia, or even his custom Tempest Gundam right now, but he had to make do with what they had. Thankfully, they'd managed to take down a 105 Dagger with an Aile Striker Pack earlier, with the Striker Pack completely intact, and they'd managed to mount both it and the Sword Striker at the same time, with the Anti-Ship Sword now resting on the back of the Dagger's waist. It didn't give him full flight capabilities, but it did give him increased maneuver options and two additional beam sabers. All he needed was a second Beam Boomerang and he'd have Seven different bladed weapons, just like the Exia or the Tempest.

"Yo! Kid!" A voice called out, causing Takeshi to poke his head out of the cockpit, as the commander of their group approached his machine. "We got contact from the forces at the Sierras!"

"Good to hear," Takeshi replied. "What's their situation?"

"Not good," he said, sighing as he shook his head. "They're surrounded on almost all sides by Atlantic Fed forces, with their backs against the walls. And they think their next and final assault is coming up soon. The General there wants us to help break their encirclement, and rain hell on the AF with your machine and the other forces we have. The General said they had a plan to 'even the odds' but didn't go into much more detail. Didn't want to risk the chance of the AF picking up our transmissions."

Takeshi nodded. It made sense. "Understood," he called out. Ducking back into the cockpit to check his machine's power levels, he continued, "My machine looks like it's fully charged. Just need to do a few final tweaks to the OS, and I'll be ready to go!"

The Commander nodded and gave a thumbs up as he went back to inform the rest of the group, leaving Takeshi to continue the upgrades before he gave a slight sigh.

"Man, what I would give for a Sword Calamity," he said, "The 105 Dagger is great, but I need something with a bit more bite. Exia would be my preferred choice, but have to make do with CE machines, and the Sword Calamity's the most melee-focused CE suit I know. Heck I wouldn't mind stealing one from one of the Aces that use them!"

Somewhere else on earth, a certain EA Pilot sneezed.

Meanwhile - Near Lake Athabaska - Manitoba/Saskatchewan border -

May 18th, Anno Domini 2014/Cosmic Era 71

If there was one thing Ron seemed to do best, it was learn quickly. He mastered the use of his Mobile Suit's controls within a few days, and he received bad news over the OMNI Enforcer frequencies: the Alliance had launched a strike against Edmonton and destroyed most of the survivors. The rest were running toward either Alaska, which was untouched for reasons unknown, and south to Washington State across the border. For Alaska, the Gundam expert (or Crimson Fucker: depended on the people referring to him) figured that this was after that disaster of an attack known as Operation Spitbreak. It explained the Strike Daggers and their 105 counterparts, and why OMNI Enforcer wasn't bothering with Alaska just yet.

As for Washington, it wasn't that big of a surprise. A lot of Canadian Forces that survive the initial battles were either going up north to Alaska, or south the the United States across the border hoping for better luck helping the Yanks. Thankfully, a lot of Canadian Forces have been managing to find some pockets of areas in the north that the AF haven't conquered yet, such as Washington, some of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maine, and New Hampshire.

"Well, this fucking sucks." Ron said in the cockpit of his 105 Dagger "There goes plan A, boys."

Dylan's face appeared in a comm panel. "NOW what do we do?" He asked.

"The end of the journey's the same, and those idiots in the US still need our help." Ron said, "We just need to get there fast without leaving the civilians or the vehicles behind. Question is-"

A large transport (larger than a C-5B Galaxy or even the famed Antonov An-225) flew over their machines, not even noticing them. And on the underside of the wings was the emblem of OMNI Enforcer, the military arm of the Cosmic Era Earth Alliance.

Ron smirked "Talk about luck." he said, "Looks like OMNI Enforcer read my mind."

"What's the plan, Ron?"

Ron chuckled. "How does a repeat of what those fucking bastards who hijacked those 767s 13 years ago sound?" He said.

"You mean hijack that plane?" Tanner asked.

"Damn right, Tanner," Ron said. "If I'm right, that plane is meant to resupply the MS teams down here. And that thing is big enough to transport Mobile Suits en masse. A few tanks and transports won't be a problem."

Kristina's voice came in from the last 105 Dagger. "The problem is, we need to take out those ground troops." She said, "How the hell are we going to do that without blowing up the plane, Ron? Seriously, most of your plans involve a large amount of overkill."

"The 105 Daggers have 40mm cannons mounted in the head," Ron said. "Normally I'd settle with something like smaller 30mm or 20mm cannons, but 40mms are good enough I suppose." He glanced at the Leopards and LAV IIIs below. "Kristina, get those Leopards to make a distraction. The LAVs can help kill the ground pounders with their machine guns while we board the plane and take down the crew."

"There's a LOT of things that can go wrong, Pinkerton." Kristina warned.

"Then we make sure they don't," he said before he took in a breath. "PANZER VOR!"

Lake Athabaska - OMNI Enforcer staging point

The poor bastards would not see it coming. The plane (which, to Ron, looked surprisingly similar to the Garuda-class from Zeta Gundam) had landed on the lake, and was offloading equipment and weapons as quickly as possible. There were reports of a group of Canadian Armed Forces troops that managed to take out several of their Mobile Suits and cause a lot of problems for them. As such, they wanted to get the equipment offloaded as fast as they could and get the hell out of there.

Too bad the unofficial leader of said group had other plans.

120mm shells landed near the outskirts of the base, getting closer to the human targets and away from the plane. "Get out of there!" The Commander of the OMNI enforcer troops shouted "It's that Canadian motherfucker!"

The transport tried to get moving, but the crew was mostly off the plane to confirm that the supplies had been transferred. Only the pilot and co-pilot were on the plane, and two men weren't anything to a pissed off Canadian. Out of the forested area came a 105 Aile Dagger, and the OMNI Enforcer troops thought that it would save them, but those hopes were dashed as the Dagger landed in the plane's cargo hold. "Tanner, Dylan, cover the LAVs and the Leopards!" Ron ordered. "Kristina, get on the plane!"

Tanner's Launcher Dagger popped out of cover, firing the shoulder mounted Gatling at the Alliance troops.

"Got it!" Dylan said as his Sword Dagger came out of cover next, using the Schwert Gewehr as a giant bat rather than a sword proper. "We'll give 'em hell!"

The last Launcher Dagger managed to land on the plane, and both machines marched as far forward as they could before Ron and Kristina dismounted their machines. Ron carried his Remington 1100 shotgun while Kristina had a Colt C8A1 carbine with a AG-C 40mm grenade launcher. "Cry havoc, ne?" Ron said with a smirk.

"Shut up and move!" Kristina shouted, as the plane pitched forward slightly, but that didn't stop them from reaching the cockpit doors. Kristina forced the doors open before Ron charged in, finding the two pilots yelling at one another. "OH, boys?" He shouted, and both men looked at the shotgun-wielding Ron. "Haven't you heard? This is MY plane now. So, unless you want to die, OUT OF THE SEATS."

Both men weren't expecting that comment. "Alright! We surrender!" The pilot said as he throttled down, stopping the plane.

"Good," Kristina said, "Now, we're going to be letting you off here. Have a nice day." She grabbed the two pilots and began to herd them toward the rear hatch, but Ron shook his head.

"They're pilots." He said, "They could do something to you, then hijack the Daggers. I have a better plan." He opened the side hatch to the cockpit.

"They won't survive the fall." Kristina said.

Ron just smirked "Who says they'll fall?" He said, as Kristina pushed the two OMNI Enforcer pilots to the hatch.

"Wait!" The Co-pilot shouted "You said you wouldn't kill us!"

The 6'4 Canadian scoffed. "I never said that." He said as he took aim with the Remington and fired four shots from the semi-automatic shotgun. The two pilots were dead before they even got halfway to the waterline.

"You didn't need to do that!" Kristina shouted, "Besides, we needed them!"

"I know how to handle a transport in flight." Ron said, "Basically the same as flying a Cessna. Just over a thousand times bigger."

Kristina sighed. "Dylan, Tanner, status?!" She asked on the Radio.

"Those assholes won't be giving us any trouble, Lieutenant." Dylan said.

"Finally." Kristina said, "Load the Mobile Suits and the vehicles into the plane. We're getting the fuck out of here."

With that, and after loading the Mobile Suits and other vehicles, the Transport took off leaving a devastated base.

However, watching the transport take off was a single person, clad in an EA pilot suit. Their eyes glaring at the transport as it took off.

"This isn't over." He growled out, "Not by a long shot."

Fresno County, California

Atlantic Fed Weapons Depot, 20 miles West outside of Fresno.

Jordan smirked as he looked through the pair of binoculars he had in his hands, as he and several dozen men and women in varying uniforms were behind him in the foliage of the forest in cover "What did I tell ya, Chief?" He said to a man wearing a Navy SEALS uniform lying down next to him with binoculars of his own, next to him was also D.J. "Mobile Suits galore down there."

He was right, 20 miles ahead of them they could already see the large AF Weapons and MS Depot in the distance, while there were a handful of AF Vehicles such as Tanks and Utility Jeeps patrolling the area, no AF Mobile Suits were active, and they could see lying down on trailers and standing up in make-shift hangars the AF forces had set up were dozens of Mobile Suits of varying types, most of which were GAT-01 Strike Daggers or GAT-01A1 105 Daggers. All of which were simply waiting to be taken.

"I gotta admit, Kid," said the Chief Petty Officer. "You two were right on the ball on that intel."

D.J. and Jordan both chuckled at that. "Well, we don't want to make the same mistakes as most of those bureaucratic morons in Washington," the former said, and scanned with his binoculars before his face turned into a frown.

"Jorn, makeshift hangar in the northeast corner." he said, and Jordan followed D.J.'s instructions and his eyes widened.

"Oh shit," he said, as he saw a couple people in familiar EA pilot uniforms. "Those are Armored Normal Suits… same ones the fucking Druggie extendeds use…"

"Who?" The Chief asked, and D.J sighed.

"Remember what we told you about Gundam and all that?" he asked. At the Chief's nod, he continued, "Extendeds are basically MS Pilot super-soldiers The EA and AF call them 'Biological CPU's'." D.J. growled a bit "They're artificially strengthened through genetic and chemical methods, trained up to be killing machines with drugs."

"They're mentally conditioned to eliminate their sense of fear, and increase aggression in combat," Jordan continued. "The first Gen are given regular doses of a performance-enhancing drug called Gamma Glipheptin. Makes them act crazy during battle… but the withdrawal effects are very severe, as their own nervous system begins to collapse without regular doses. The only reason they work with the AF and the Alliance is because they are the only ones who can supply Gamma Glipheptin - which keeps them alive and out of pain."

The Chief was a little unnerved at that.

"Jesus… and how long do these drugs last?" he said, and D.J. sighed in thought.

"Approximately, twenty minutes or so…" he said. "Unless they don't have spare capsules of the shit in their Mobile Suits."

That didn't make the Chief feel any better, but it also gave the best marksmen of SEAL Team 7 a top priority objective.

"So far, I only see two, and thank God it's not Clotho, Shani, or Orga, since those three are the most ruthless since they're cons," D.J. said. "And, the Mobile Suits I see in the hangar are just 105 Daggers."

"Yeah, the ones we can see at least," Jordan said. "We can't see what's more towards the back of the base - I can see a few more trailers, but I've got no idea what they're carrying."

"One of them might be a Gundam Type. So, it's best if we secure those first," D.J. said, "After that, we'll try to capture as many of those 105s and Strike Daggers as possible."

They then heard a shuffle as another SEAL, with the rank of Petty Officer First Class, came up to them.

"There's a firebase of AF just a few miles down the road," the POFC said. "I counted at least five mobile suits."

"What types?" Jordan asked. "And were they active, or parked?"

"Only two were active, and they were heading to the depot," the POFC said. "The other three were parked. From the pictures you showed us, the active ones are a Buster Dagger and a GAT-333 Raider Full Spec. They've also got an GAT-01A1, and two GAT-01's."

Jordan thought about it for a moment, as a plan began to formulate in his mind. He then smirked. "We could use this," he said. "While our primary objective is the depot, we could hit the Firebase simultaneously. If we do it quietly, we can capture their MS and use them to help in attacking the Depot… or if we do it loud, we could draw some of the defenses at the Depot towards the Firebase, giving the Depot Attack less resistance to deal with."

They then looked at the Chief.

"Think you can handle the Firebase, Chief?" D.J. asked, and the Chief nodded.

"Hell yeah I can," he said. "I'm gonna need more men though."

"We'll give you half of our guys," Jordan said. "They'll try and capture the three remaining machines there and give you cover."

The Chief nodded. "Got it," he said. "We'll take care of it - and bring your guys back in one piece."

Jordan nodded as he made a series of hand signals to several of the men behind him, who nodded before they stood up and moved away along with half of the SEAL's.

"Alright," Jordan said. "Let's head to the Depot, we've got twenty miles to go, so we'd best start hauling ass."

The group nodded as they got and proceeded toward the depot, all of them determined to complete the mission successfully.

Meanwhile, just one mile off the coast of Monterey Bay

The Archangel broke the surface of the water as it now ascended into the air just southwest of Monterey. As it rose through the air, the bridge crew of the Archangel could finally see with their own eyes the battlefield playing out before them, with shocked looks around their faces. The west coast of the 'former' United States was an all-out warzone, as the red skies looked as if they were in flames, with pillars of smoke rising from the ground, and tracer bullets firing up into the sky.

"Oh my god…" Sai Argyle muttered, as they saw the battlefield before them. While they had all seen what happened to the African Village that Sahib Ashman and the Desert Dawn lived in, but this made that look like childsplay.

"It looks as if someone opened the gates of hell," said Mu, clearly not liking what he was seeing.

Murrue nodded, but didn't say anything as the coastal city, famous for it's seaquarium, the sea kelp forests, and its white beaches, turn into a virtual hell.

"I hate seeing a city like Monterey turn into this," the Lt Commander said. "So much was probably lost in this chaos…" She turned too Mirallia "Mir, what do you have on the Comm Channels?"

Mir shook her head. "It's all pretty jumbled out there, Ma'am," she said. "Getting a lot of chatter on AF and multiple other unknown frequencies. It's a total mess. However there is a lot of chatter coming around the area near the Sierra Nevada Mountains."

Murrue gave a neutral look. "Can you make out anything there?" she said, and Miriallia was quiet for a moment before she responded.

"Reports of heavy fighting, large numbers of refugees, and the AF having trouble breaking through the lines," she said.

"It looks like the guys who started this mess are in some trouble," Mu commented, turning to the Captain. "I think it's a safe bet that if we want to find out what's going on, that's where we should start looking."

Murrue nodded and turned to Arnold Neumann, the helmsman.

"Neumann, set course for the Sierra Nevadas," she ordered, and Arnold nodded before the Archangel began to leave the coast.

In the hangar, Kira Yamato, a young 16 year old, brown haired, 1st Generation Coordinator, and Orb citizen was busy making adjustments to the O.S. of the Freedom, given to him by Lacus.

The Freedom was an amazing machine, and has proved itself to be superior than the Strike in almost every way. He was glad that Lacus had given him such a powerful machine… but his thoughts drifted away from the Freedom itself, and more towards Lacus. He could not deny his growing feeling for Lacus, he developed a small crush on her after initially meeting her in space after finding her life pod among the ruins of Junius Seven, however at the time, he still had feelings for Flay Allster. However after staying with her on the PLANT's… those feelings began to grow further.

Speaking of Flay Allster, that was another subject which he was internally torn. He admits that breaking up with Flay back at Orb was probably for the best, as the love he had for her wasn't the same as with Lacus… but he could not simply forget her, as he still cared about her, and wondered where she was now, weather she was safe or not.

It made him wonder somewhat… if he met with Flay again, would he go back to her? Or would he continue to follow his growing feelings with Lacus?

He scratched his head in mild frustration at the dilemma he was in. Sure, he figured out that Flay was just using him to kill his fellow Coordinators in revenge for her father, which he blamed the war for that.

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a knocking at the entrance of his Gundam's cockpit, and he looked up and saw one of the 6 Astray pilots that went with them, a young man the same age as him named Daiki Goro, who had black hair, grey eyes, and dressed in a blue Orb flight suit. The pilot reminded him of Tolle in way, he was very friendly, and was moderate about Coordinators, though he had a mischievous side. "So this is where you've been," he said. "You doing okay, Kira?"

Kira nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "Just doing some mods to the Freedom's OS. What's up?"

"Just came from the pilot ready room," Daiki said, as he sighed. "We saw some of the video of what's going on in Monterey Bay… damn place looks like the gates of hell now."

Kira nodded at that, having seen the video images of all the cities damaged by this phenomena that had gripped almost the whole planet. At first, when he saw the still images of the uniforms worn by those attacking the Alliance, he was at first, a bit suspicious.

And now that they were here, they had a chance to find out what the hell was going on.

"I know," Kira said as he sighed. "I've never seen something like this before..."

"It's an honest to God warzone out there," Daiki said. "Captain will likely want the pilots all on standby in case AF forces try to attack, or if these unknown turn out to be hostile." He then smiled a bit. "Hopefully, we won't need to make any more enemies though."

Kira nodded in agreement at that.

"I agree with you on that," he said, as he finally stopped what he was doing and began to get out of the cockpit, while Daiki stepped aside, while Kira stretched.

"You know," Daiki said. "They should find a way to make MS cockpits more spacious. No offense to Morgenroete or anything, but sometimes it's a little claustrophobic."

Kira chuckled a bit. "Wow, glad I'm not the only one who noticed," he said. "I've had a few ideas for that… but of course with all that's going on, it's not exactly something I have time to work on. Plus I'm not that good with hardware, I work mostly with software like Operating Systems."

Daiki nodded in understanding. "Well, maybe you can tell Mrs. Simmons when we get back to Morgenroete," he said. "She's always looking for new ideas."

Kira nodded, thinking he might just do that.

"Hey fellas!" said a female voice, and the two turned, and saw one of the Astray Test pilots, Mayura Labatt come toward them, clad in her pink Orb pilot suit. "Thought I'd find you here. The Captain is ordering all pilots to the briefing room. Turns out we're heading for the Sierras."

"The Sierras?" Daiki asked, "Why there?"

"Don't know, Captain said she'll explain in the briefing room," Mayura said. "Come on, don't want to be late."

Back with Jordan and D.J.

AF Depot perimeter

It was now nightfall as the group of Guerillas and SEALs reached just outside the perimeter having crawled since late afternoon. Jordan pulled out his SKS, which over the weeks he has modified to be compatible with AK-47 Magazine clips and attaching a ACOG sight on top. He looked down the sights. "Front entrance is guarded by two guys," he said. "Armed with Rifles. A few guards are also patrolling the perimeter from the looks of things."

"See any openings?" D.J asked, as Jordan surveyed the area.

"Twenty Degrees left, south side," he said. "Part of the fence they set up isn't well guarded. I brought some pliers, we can get in through there."

"Good, although we all know a well thought out plan is bound to backfire," D.J. said.

"Dude, don't talk like that! It's bad luck," Jordan said.

"Sorry. Let's get moving," he said and the two started moving toward the fence that was lightly guarded, their group following closely behind. Upon reaching the area, Jordan pulled out two pairs of pliers, and handed one to D.J as they began cutting through the wires of the fence.

Once the hole was cut out, they yanked out the wires they cut before Jordan walked through first, and began motioning for the others to head on in. "Come on, hustle!" he hissed as he held his SKS at the ready. One by one the SEAL's and Guerrillas entered through the hole with Jordan and Patriot keeping watch.

When the last person slipped through, Jordan and Patriot ran to catch up with them. "We'll need to split up," Jordan said. "You take half of the team to the northern area, and I'll take the rest to the rear of the base. I'll see what other Mobile Suits our AF Friends have."

The SEAL leader, another CPO, nodded as he signaled for his fellow SEALs to follow him, while Jordan, D.J., and the guerillas, about 9 in all headed to the rear of the base, keeping low to avoid being detected. It took them at least ten minutes to cross the entire base, along the way planting some semtex charges at specific locations around the camp.

They now arrived where there were at least 4 trailers, like the ones at Heliopolis. Jorn turned to D.J. and motioned him that he was taking the first trailer, while D.J. nodded that he was taking the second.

Jordan pressed his back against the side of the Trailer next to the door, as he opened it. He peeked inside, and saw no one else within the trailer he stepped in. He aimed his rifle downward, keeping a firm grasp as he moved through the trailer, looking for the MS inside. With D.J., he did the same as he opened the door to the trailer, and searched inside.

It didn't take long, as a few moments later D.J. popped through another door at the center of the trailer, and upon seeing its contents D.J's eyes widened, before he grinned "Oh yes!" he hissed out, as he saw a GAT-01A1 "105" Dagger in mint condition, and appearing to be armed with an Aile Striker. "Now that's what I'm talking."

He was about to march toward it and board when something caught his eye, and he walked toward a computer which was displaying a set of Mobile Suit Schematics. His eyes widened as he recognized as the GAT-X105E Strike E, and its special Striker Packs, including the infamous Noir Striker.

"Oh fucking hell yes!" he hissed again. "Score!"

He then looked around for a data disk, and immediately spotted one and picked it up.

Meanwhile in the second trailer, Jordan kicked open the door as he scanned the inside of the trailer for hostiles. When he saw none, he looked at the MS inside… and his eyes widened in disbelief. "No fucking way…" he muttered, as he began grinning ear to ear.

Inside was a single MS, and it obviously was not of the Dagger series. It had a black and red color scheme, and its head gave it a very intimidating appearance… however the most distinguishing feature of the machine was the golden V head crest presented proudly on its forehead.

It was a Gundam. It looked similar to the Calamity, but very different all the same.

"FUCKING A!" Jordan hissed/cheered out as he approached the machine, hopping onto its arm before he approached the cockpit which was already open. He peered inside, making sure no one else was within the cockpit before he hopped inside, closing the hatch behind him.

As he sat in the cockpit of the machine… Jordan didn't know why, but he suddenly felt very calm, and he felt more sure of himself than he's ever been. It almost felt as if he belonged in the cockpit of this machine. However he put those thoughts aside, as he began the activation sequence of the Gundam, as the screens flickered on, and the OS warmed up.

MOBILE SUIT OPERATION SYSTEM

/Version NV8 – N099/

General

Unilateral

Neuro – Link

Dispersive

Autonomic

Maneuver

O.M.N.I. Enforcer

GAT-X132 Schwarze Calamity

'Schwarze Calamity Gundam?' Jordan thought, as he smirked as he saw the system features 'Oh my, you have a lot of weapon choices… Calamity Packs? I love it!' He then quickly disabled the Schwarze Calamity's AF IFF system, and replaced it with the US IFF he designed for them to use. Mostly so they would know in this mess who was friend or foe until they could repaint their machines to their own custom colors.

'God I hope I can find more of those Calamity Packs here,' Jordan thought, as he looked at the watch, which clicked to 9:30 PM, and he smirked. 'Show time,' he thought before he began to raise the Schwarze Calamity out of its trailer.

Outside the MS trailer a patrolling AF soldier looked up and saw the Gundam Type standing up.

"What the fuck!?" he shouted.

"Hey!" a voice shouted behind him and he turned around and he paled as he saw one of those Extended Pilots, clad in a black pilot suit, run toward him, while glaring at the rising MS. "Who the hell is piloting my Mobile Suit!?"

"I-I don't know!" The AF Soldier replied, as the Extended growled before he grabbed a nearby radio, and tuned it into the Schwarze's Comm. "HEY! YOU! ASSHOLE!" he shouted. "THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! GET OUT OF MY MOBILE SUIT NOW AND I MIGHT GO EASY ON YA!"

Inside the Schwarze Calamity, Jordan blinked in surprise at the sudden radio contact, before looking at the direction it came from, spotting the pilot. He then smirked a bit. 'Anavel Gato moment time,' he said as he keyed the Comm. "I hereby claim this Gundam Mobile Suit in the name of the Black Swords of Freedom," he said. "The United States of America will rise again!"

The two EA personnel both blinked at that. But before they could answer, from the second Mobile suit trailer, the 105 Dagger, began to sit up as well.

In the cockpit, D.J. was grinning like a loon.

"Hell ya, baby!" he said. "Thank you OMNI Enforcer!"

He then held the data disk in his hand, his smile growing bigger. He then looked at Jordan's trailer, and he felt a small twinge of jealously. Setting the Radio channel with Jordan's he spoke into the radio.

"You got a Gundam? A Calamity, no less!?" he said, causing Jordan to chuckle.

"Correction: Its called the Schwarze Calamity," he said. "And I fucking LOVE IT! It's like the Calamity and Strike put together! And damn that Extended pilot looks pissed I took his machine!"

"HEY! QUIT IGNORING ME, ASSHOLE!" the said pilot shouted, causing the two to glare at the Extended.

"Ass-can, shut the fucking hell up!" D.J. said, and armed the 40mm CIWS in the head of 105 Dagger.

The AF and Extended eyes widened a bit. "Uhh… see ya!" The AF soldier said as he ran off.

"HEY! Where the hell do you think you're going?" the Extended shouted, before he quickly followed suit. "Someone sound the damn alarm!"

Moments after he said that however, explosions began going off across the base, as out of one of the hangars a GAT-01D1 Duel Dagger, with it's Fortresta Mode armor equipped, sped out of a hangar, along with two GAT-01 Strike Daggers as they opened fire inside the hangar, destroying anything else inside. Across the depot similar actions were taking place as mobile suits activated and began opening fire at dormant Mobile Suits, their IFF's now reading them as United States or Black Swords of Freedom machines. "This is team two, we've captured a bunch of Mobile Suits," came the voice of the Captain Richard Miller of the Black Knights Squadron. "All captures successful. And Ho-ly shit you guys were right, these Mobile Suits are awesome!"

Soon the same thing happened and more explosions occurred, and more Strike Daggers, and even two Buster Daggers came out.

"Fucking A! I love this!" shouted one of the other Black Knights pilots, in one of the Buster Daggers.

"Okay everyone! Let's blow shit up!" With that D.J. fired the head vulcans of his 105 Dagger, shredding a line of missile trucks and linear artillery trucks.

"Yeah! Take that you bastards!" a friendly Strike Dagger pilot shouted, as he gunned down several Linear Tanks. "Didn't expect this shit, huh? Not so tough now that we've got your toys now, are ya?"

"Take out the fuel dumps and any aircraft! As well as any parts we can't carry back with us!" D.J. advised, and the others acknowledged as they continued to devastate the base.

In the Schwarze Calamity, Jordan couldn't help but be reminded of Heliopolis from the show. However in this case, they were giving the Atlantic Federation more hell than ZAFT.

"You heard the man, move it!" Jordan shouted as he stepped the Schwarze Calamity out of the Trailer, as he grabbed a "Todesblock" 337mm Plasma-Sabot Bazooka, and a 57mm High Energy Beam Rifle from the trailer as well. "Cause as much damage and grab whatever you can carry! We're hauling ass back to the base ASAP!"

"Hey Tackett! Do you read me!?" shouted the voice of the SEAL Team Leader.

"Chief? Is that you?" Jordan said.

"Yeah, we attacked the Firebase and we captured the 105 and Strike Daggers!" He then heard the Chief sigh. "However, that Raider FS and that Buster Dagger are heading your way, right now!"

Jordan nodded. "Copy that," he said. "You'd best head back to the mountains Chief, we'll meet with you shortly!" He then keyed the Comm to the rest of the team. "Alright, hurry it up people! We've got company incoming! Enemy Raider Full Spec and Buster Dagger are heading our way!"

"It's just two units, we can take 'em!" argued one of the Black Swords.

"Listen! That Raider Full Spec is probably piloted by an ace. I'm not sure about the Buster Dagger, but whoever is piloting that thing is no slouch either!" D.J. retorted, since they knew who pilots those particular units. "And we need as many of these things in one piece as possible, so get your butts back to our lines! SCHNELL!"

"You heard him! Move your asses!" Jordan shouted. "Get back to base, and try to avoid combat!" He then hit the private comm with D.J's 105 Dagger. "You think it could be them?" He asked.

He heard his friend sigh. "It might... But I hope I'm wrong," he said. "I was hoping to face them later than now. But it seems fate has a way to bite you in the ass."

Jordan chuckled at that, as the rest of the group began leaving the base, using their back thrusters to make long jumps.

"I agree with you on that," he said, and then smirked. "So, what are you gonna do if you end up fighting your crush?"

He heard D.J. stammer at that. "S-Shut up!" he shouted, causing Jordan to laugh. "It's not funny!"

Jordan would've continued, but right now their sensor warned them of incoming. And the two looked and sure enough, there was a Raider Full Spec in MA Mode, with a Buster Dagger riding it as they headed their way.

"Time to get ready." said Jorn and D.J. in the 105 nodded as they prepared to fight.

In the two incoming suits, Ed Harrelson, the pilot of the Raider Full Spec, spotted the burning supply depot, and the two mobile suits in the base. He quickly identified the first machine as a GAT-01A1 105 Dagger, however the second machine caused him to look at it surprise, as it looked almost identical to his other Machine, the Sword Calamity.

"Rena," he said on the Comm, "we need to be careful, that second machine is a G-Weapon, Calamity-type."

Riding on top of the Raider was a GAT/A-01E2 Buster Dagger with its Gun Launcher and Beam Cannon at the ready. In the cockpit was none other than Rena Imelia, who nodded in agreement. "Agreed," she said. "You worry about the Calamity - you know the machine type more than me. I'll deal with the 105 Dagger."

Ed nodded in agreement as Rena's Buster Dagger jumped off the Raider Full Spec.

"Just don't kill the pilot! The brass needs prisoners to interrogate!" he reminded, and Rena glared back at the Ripper.

"I'm not stupid you know!" she retorted. "Unlike those nut-job Extendeds, I know when to take prisoners!"

Ed could only sigh. "Just reminding you is all." he said, as he flew the Raider Full Spec low "Here's your stop!" Rena nodded as she jumped her Buster Dagger off of the Raider, and landed on the surface as she skidded to a halt, as she raised her two primary weapons and fired at the 105 Dagger.

"SHIT!" D.J. Shouted as he jumped his 105 out of the way of the two blasts from the artillery Mobile Suit. "Whoa fuck, that was a close one. Still got my balls, thank Heaven."

He then returned the favor by firing shots from his M703 beam rifle back at the Buster Dagger, being careful to aim, than to just spray 'n' pray.

"I got him!" Jordan shouted as he raised his Bazooka and prepared to fire a shot, however a stream of 76mm machine gun fire arced past him, causing him to jump back as the Raider Full Spec flew by in MA mode. It turned around for another pass, and Jordan's eyes narrowed. "Oh no you don't, take this!" he shouted, as he fired his Plasma-sabot Bazooka at the Raider, however the pilot was capable of weaving through the shots with ease.

Cursing, Jordan did a quick scan of his weapons again, as he confirmed he was currently fitted with the Cannon Calamity pack, which was basically a pack dedicated to the armaments of the original Calamity, with the exception of the addition of 75mm CIWS and the Anti-Armor Knives.

'Would've preferred something more Close Combat oriented, but better than nothing!' he thought as he armed his two "Schlag" 125mm High-energy long-range beam cannons, and opened fire. The Raider continued to weave through the shots, however Jordan then activated the thrusters as he sped forward. Though his current Calamity pack was not suited for actual flight, he knew that the thrusters on the pack were similar to those on the original Calamity, and allowed him to move across the surface faster than standard MS. But if he timed this right…

He watched the Raider as it began to fly in low, trying to give chace using the Raider's superior Speed. 'That's right, keep following…' Jordan thought. 'I hope Vsauce was right about this…' The Raider got closer and closer, and when it was a few dozen meters away, he cut the power to his thrusters as he jumped into the air, aiming his Bazooka to the ground, and fired. The Shockwave and force of the blast sending him up into the air as he fired two more times, with the same effects.

"What the?!" Ed shouted as the Calamity seemed to launch into the air, as Jordan pointed his Beam Cannons at the Raider, grinning.

"ROCKET JUMP, BABY!" He shouted, as he fired his cannons again. The first shot missing, but the second shot his very close to the Raider, and he must've done something as the Machine was forced out of MA mode and back into MS mode. "Holy shit, I can't believe that worked!"

Ed was surprised by the sneak attack made by the Schwarze Calamity, and he was wondering if the Gundam Type was piloted by a fellow Ace.

'Whoever he is, he knows what he's doing,' he thought, as he grinned a bit, 'Looks like I may have a challenge after all!'

When the Raider entered into MS Mode, Jordan got a better look at the machine, and he zoomed in on it with his camera, and spotted a small insignia imprinted on its right shoulder… and he groaned. "Oh fuck…" he muttered, as he immediately recognized the image of a rose flanked by a pair of swords. "Ed the Ripper… I fucking knew it…"

He then turned his attention back to D.J. as he watched as the 105 and the Buster Dagger continued their duel, with the latter firing it's guns and almost hitting the Strike Legacy, as he watched the explosions, he noticed how it dispersed like Sakura petals. He groaned again, knowing who it was.

"The fucking Sakura Burst as well," he said. "Just our luck… D.J. it appears that's your dream girl!"

In the 105, D.J. groaned when he heard the warning.

"Just my fucking luck," he said, and then looked at the Ground MS, and an idea clicked in his mind. "I might get killed for this, but oh well."

He then placed the beam rifle behind his back, and then drew a beam saber.

In the Buster Dagger, Rena blinked in confusion. 'Is he challenging me?' she thought, before she grinned slightly. 'Well, who am I to deny a challenge?' She put away her Gun Launcher and Beam Cannon, as she pulled out one of her own unit's Beam Sabers.

To the side, Jordan glanced at the sight in confusion. "Patriot, what the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked.

"Just gonna give a test…" was his response, while Jordan blinked at that.

"A test…?" He asked.

Ed also spotted the two machines about to enter a duel, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for whoever was in the 105.

"Whoever is in that 105 is either pretty brave or stupid if they think they can take Rena on in a sword duel," the Ripper said. "She might not be an expert like me, but she's no slouch either."

When Jordan saw D.J begin to charge, he cursed. "D.J., you idiot!" he shouted. "This is Rena Imelia we're talking about! She fought the same guy I'm fighting to a stand-still! And I'm fighting Ed the Fucking Ripper!"

Moments after he said that D.J.'s Dagger struck out with his beam saber, however Rena ducked under the attack as she delivered a fierce punch into its torso, forcing the Dagger back before she spun around and delivered a kick, sending it back further.

In the cockpit, D.J. shook his head as the whole suit shook from the punch.

"Fuck! So that's how you wanna play, huh?" he said as he threw away the shield, and gripped the handle of the beam saber in both hands, like a Kendo swordsman. "Okay Miss Sakura Burst, bring. It. ON!"

With that, the two went at each other again. In the Schwarze Calamity, Jordan cursed. "Idiot…" He muttered, before warning alarms went off as he saw the Raider Full Spec charge towards him - and much to Jordan's surprise, armed with Beam Sabers. "OH SHIT!" he shouted as he raised his "Kaefer Zwei" 2-Barrel 115mm Ram Cannon shield to block the attack. "Shit! Fuck! He modified his unit with Sabers!"

Jordan shoved the Raider away, before he fired his "Scylla" 580mm Multi-phase energy cannon on his machine's chest, however Ed maneuvered his machine around it quickly. In response, he drew out and fired a pair of GAU-8M2 52mm Machine Guns at Jordan, as he raised his shield again to avoid being hit. His shield took most of the fire, and what shots he could not simply impacted against the Trans Phase armor.

When he stopped firing however, Jordan raised his arm and fired his "Kaefer Zwei" at the Raider, but Ed Maneuvered around it quickly as he jumped up, and the shots simply hit an empty hangar.

'I can't get a bead on him!' Jordan though with narrowed eyes as he glanced at his power supply. Thankfully he still had plenty at around 79%, but he knew he had to get out of there - and soon. While his machine was more advanced than the Raider Full Spec - he was facing an Ace, who had also apparently modified his machine to some extent. They still needed to fall back to the mountains with the others.

'Well, at least it can't get worse,' He thought to himself, however he immediately regretted saying that as his sensors went off, and he looked to the side and saw what appeared to be a group of six GAT-01 Strike Daggers approaching the area. "Ah shit…" He muttered.

Meanwhile - Somewhere in the nearby Forest

"Here they come. Six more Strike Daggers moving in to help them out," a voice said. "You guys ready to help these guys?"

"Ready!" four other voices said.

The shapes of five vehicles shifted as engines started and within minutes, they began to move. Turrets aimed at the incoming Daggers, waiting… hesitating…

"FIRE!" a sharp female voice shouted.

Suddenly, the sound of thunder roared out of the forest as fifteen flashes of light soared out of the trees, hitting the ground closest to them and sending brush, rubble, and rocks everywhere.

The blasts startled the pilots and they scattered, trying to find the enemy by firing into the forest in a frenzy. However in a second salvo of shots, one of the closer Strike Daggers was hit directly in the torso and it exploded, catching the attention of Ed and Jordan as they looked in surprise as the remains of the Strike Dagger fell down.

The remaining five Strike Daggers began opening fire at the forest, hoping to take out what had claim the life of their comrade as they unleashed volleys of beams from their 57mm Rifles, as they kept the bombardment up for a good few seconds. They stopped firing after a good 30 seconds of continuous fire, and all was silent…

Just as one pilot was about to ask if they got whoever attacked them, a third salvo of cannon fire blasted out of the ruined trees as one cannon shot blasted a second Strike Dagger, reducing the pilot into nothing but ashes.

His commander witnessed this and his eyes widened. "No!" he shouted. He aimed his rifle, but was caught off guard when he spotted what appeared to be a large vehicle dart past his machine and another slammed into his Strike Dagger's legs, knocking it off balance just as another shot blasted its head, causing it to tip over and fall on its back.

With his machine's head destroyed, therefore also his camera rendering him blind, the commander growled as he unstrapped the straps and popped the hatch, opening it and sticking his head out.

What he saw surprised him in every sense of the word.

Five tanks were running around, and while looking similar to the M1A1 Abrams he has seen the enemies use so far, they looked much different than any other Abrams he has seen before.

For one thing, they had a slightly larger caliber barrel - likely a 130mm meaning it had much more range than the standard 120mm rounds of a standard Abrams with a .50 Cal Machine Gun attached to the cannon's side. But if that wasn't enough firepower, mounted on top of the tank was a pair of smaller barrels as well, likely of the smaller yet still effective 90mm calibre. Attached on either side of the tank were two pods of four TOW Anti-Tank Missiles, and attached on top were what appeared to be a pair of 7.62mm M240 Machine Guns. The tanks possessed a far more sleeker design than average M1 Abrams, however if still appeared to pack a lot of armor, and had a pair of dozer blades attached to its front. And they moved damn fast for tanks.

The five tanks split up in all directions, causing even more chaos for the enemy units.

The remaining three Strike Daggers of his team tried to stop the tanks, but they were not as easy to target as the past tanks they've dealt with. They continued to move at max speed, moving quickly around them and circling them, making sure they were not easy targets. Meanwhile two other Tanks peeled off from the rest of them as they gained some distance from the Strike Daggers, and opened fire with their 130mm Cannons, and 90mm Cannons. Their shots destroying yet another two Strike Daggers with well placed shots. The last Strike Dagger tried to fly up to get a height advantage, but the five tanks simply gunned him out of the sky.

With the Strike Daggers defeated, the five tanks entered a V Formation before they charged towards the Depot, One of them barreled right for an ammo storage facility and fired off its guns, all five of them. The shots hit the storage facility and it went up in flames, causing those not in Mobile Suits or tanks to go try and put it out before it hit the other storage facilities for ammo and fuel.

One of the tanks spun around and darted back towards another area of the base, but left the medical area alone. The tank pivoted the turret around and fired at some of the Mobile Suits that were unmanned and blew up two of them while one fell to the ground, burning at the shoulder and chest joints. A third tank let loose with two TOW missiles from the pods and blew up a couple of stationed linear tanks, creating a massive explosion that knocked over a bunch of light APCs.

The fourth one darted by the base commander's office and fired its machine guns, tearing through the windows and sending documents blowing out as fire erupted within his office. The final vehicle rammed down a Mobile Suit that was somehow still operational and buried its main gun in the chest before firing and backing up. The machine exploded as the tank turned and bailed out of there with the others meeting back up with it.

While a few AF personnel armed anti-tank rockets and fired at the group, the tanks moved quickly and dispersed as the missiles missed and struck the ground detonating harmlessly. One tank didn't stop charging at all, as the AF Soldiers panicked, dropping their rockets and jumping out of the way as the tank charged through a building, and smashed through the other side.

What few machines that survived the attack were mobilizing, but they were little more than APCs and a handful of anti-tank guns. The anti-tank guns opened fire, one shot hitting the side armor of one of the tanks, however the smoke cleared and the only damage they seemed to have accomplished was scratching the paint job before the tank turret spun and aimed the AT position, and fired a shot from its 90mm guns. The blast destroyed the AT position effortlessly.

A group of APC's maneuvered into a line, forming a makeshift barricade to try and stop the tank, however they did little as the tank's dozer blades plowed on through them, moving so hard and fast two APC's turned over. A few other APCs aimed their guns and let loose, but two of the tanks broke off and headed at them from either side, charging at them like bulls on the loose. The turbines roared as the tanks split up and slammed into two APCs, crumpling them under the larger weight. The other tanks met back up with the remaining three and they opened up with their machine guns at any personnel who survived.

Ed and Jordan couldn't help but watch in surprise. Five tanks. Just five tanks managed to defeat six Mobile Suits, and decimated multiple AF positions and armor. "Who the fuck is driving those things?" Jordan asked.

Meanwhile, D.J. was not having a good day as Rena was giving him a tough time. He expected someone like Rena to give him hell, but SHIT! This was like a fight between a mongoose and a scorpion, and he was the scorpion about to eaten.

"Fuck me!" he shouted as his Dagger fell backwards to the ground. "No wonder they call her the Natural Coordinator!"

Before Rena could attack with her saber, a large projectile hit the Dagger's left arm, practically making the arm useless. "What the fuck?!" she shouted. "Who the hell shot me?!"

Drew looked to the left, and saw what looked like a massive Garuda-type transport flying overhead… with a fucking TANK hanging out of the rear hatch. Whoever was in that tank was either brilliant or insane.

Up above, aforementioned madman, one Ronald Pinkerton, was laughing his ass off while aiming the Leopard's 120mm main gun at the Dagger's head. "That's right, you Blue Cosmos fucktards!" he shouted. "Guess who's fucking you up tonight?!"

The radio crackled as his driver spoke up. "Ron, are you ALWAYS like this when you're doing crazy shit?" Dylan shouted.

"Dylan, this is what I was BORN FOR!" Ron shouted. "Tanner, support fire! Let's give these bastards a bigger headache than they bargained for!"

Tanner's Launcher Dagger stepped out, leveling the Agni at the Buster Dagger. "Got it!" He shouted as he took aim.

Rena, meanwhile, was in no mood to get killed by a hijacked machine over hijacked machines. "Ed! We're falling back!" she shouted as she hopped away from the 105 Dagger she was fighting. "We're getting outnumbered here!"

Ed meanwhile nodded as he looked at the Schwarze Calamity. "Roger that," he said as his Raider jumped up into the air, and transformed back into MA mode. As he flew towards Rena's Buster Dagger which jumped on, he flew away, but not before he opened a Comm channel with the Schwarze Calamity. "Until next time!" he said with a smirk. "Looking forward to seeing how you improve over time - that is if you survive!"

Jordan blinked a bit in surprise, as he watched the Buster Dagger and Raider Full Spec fly away. However, Jordan couldn't help but smirk a bit. "Right back at ya, Ed the Ripper," he said to himself, before he walked towards where Patriot's 105 Dagger was. "Yo Patriot! You alright?"

"Considering I just got my ass kicked by a girl, I'm just peachy," he said, as he checked the status of his suit. "A few burns to the legs and arms, at least I didn't lose a limb - SHIT!"

A beam shot passed between the two, and they turned and saw, to their surprise, a duo of GAT-01D Long Daggers, both wearing full Fortrestra Modes.

"Oh come ON!" Jordan shouted, as he prepared for combat again, and D.J.'s 105 Dagger stood back up. "We just finished up with two aces! Can't we get a damn break?"

The five tanks that had caused such chaos before came speeding back before stopping in front of the Gundam and Dagger. "You need a hand?" a female voice asked.

Jordan blinked in surprise as he looked down at the tanks, before activating his Comm. "Thanks, but no offence but this fight may be out of your league," he said. "Those aren't run in the mill Mass Production Mobile Suits - they're Long Daggers, only Extended Aces and Coordinators pilot those."

"Still. We'll provide a cover for you as you get out!" the voice said. "Now let's go!"

The tanks began to retreat, firing as they did so. The Long Daggers they were aiming for dodged, but kept their attention directed towards D.J.'s 105 Dagger and Jordan's Calamity.

Suddenly, Jordan didn't know why, he felt some sort of pressure on his mind… he didn't know how else to explain it, but he felt like… something was emanating from the enemy machines. They both felt similar… and they both felt as though they should not be taken lightly.

Jordan put those thoughts aside. "Patriot, we need to get out of here," he said. "We need to fall back to the base. I have a very bad feeling about these guys."

D.J. nodded at that. "I agree with ya, I feel the same way. But these guys are not gonna let us go, since you have their Gundam," he said, as he picked up his shield, and pulled out his beam rifle. "Let's try to take their weapons and then get out of here."

A 120mm shell slammed into the Long Dagger's shield, and both men noticed that the Garuda was flying lower, and the tank (likely either a M60, a M1A2 or even a NATO tank they didn't know about) backed up before driving toward the end of the ramp as the plane managed to fly barely 5 or 6 meters above the ground.

"PANZER VOR, MOTHERFUCKERS!" a voice called out, as the tank drove out of the rear of the ship.

Now that it was on the ground, they could ID it. It was a German-designed Leopard, a kind of 'brother' to the Abrams.

"Hey, MS pilots! Get your asses out of there! We'll try and cover you!"

The two pilots all blinked at the voice of the tank commander, before D.J. answered.

"Are you guys nuts!" he shouted. "Get out of here, now!"

"No! We're not!" the female tanker said. "We're giving you help! Tanker Knights, mobilize!"

"Right!" the other tanks said.

"Damnit!" Jordan shouted. "Now is not the time to argue! We're getting out of here NOW!" He turned to D.J. "Drew, follow me in!" he said as he armed his "Schlag" Beam Cannons once again, and opened fire on the Long Daggers, who quickly dispersed, going in either direction.

"Dammit!" Drew cursed as he prepared his M703's grenade launcher, and fired it at one of the LDs which also dodged it. "Just our fucking luck!"

"Didn't I say fall back, you jackass?!" The Leopard fired its' main gun at the Long Daggers, but the MS pilots had long since worn off their shock of seeing an old tank shooting at them, dodged with ease. "Dylan, turn! Sharp left!"

"Got it, but why?!"

"We need to regroup with those Abrams! Concentrated fire will kill these motherfuckers no matter what! And what has more firepower than a product of German engineering?" If Dylan could've, he'd've been glaring at Ron and pointing at the Mobile Suits, but he couldn't see the glare, so he just kept driving. "Oi, tank lady! Can you hear me?! If you can, aim for the ankles! If they can't walk, they can't fight!"

"Roger that!" the woman said. "Tanks 1, 2, and 3, you take those guys on the left! Tank 4, you're with me!"

"Got it!" All five tanks split up and went onto the attack. The ones on the left tried to fire, but the tanks lowered their barrels and opened up, hitting the ground and shredding the ankles of the Mobile Suits. While their shots hit, however their shots only damaged the Fortrestra Armor which protected the Ankles.

"Damnit, fall back!" D.J. shouted as he rose his shield, deflecting a Rail Gun shot fired by one of the Long Daggers. "These guys are too good!"

"No shit!" Jordan shouted as he jumped away from the second Long Dagger's beam sabers. "Everyone retreat! We've accomplished our intended mission! Fall back - shit!" Suddenly the Long Dagger kicked his Machine down, as he fell into a hangar. The Dagger fast approached, raising its beam sabers for a final attack. "SHIT!" Jordan shouted, as he began to raise his shield, but he was moving too slow.

However, at that very moment just before the Dagger would of finished him off… a green beam of energy blasted forward, and blasted off the head of the Long Dagger, before another two beams blasted off its arms, causing it to fall back.

Jordan blinked. "T-The fuck?" he asked. "Where did that… come..." However, the answer came as his sensors went off, as he looked up and his eyes widened. "H-Holy… no way…"

(BGM: "Fly! Freedom!" Gundam SEED OST)

Up in the sky, soaring above them all, was a single mobile suit, one with a black torso, white limbs and possessed a pair of large wings on its back, and its head possessed an all too familiar double-V head crest. And in one motion, its wings spread out too their full extent, as white particles flowed out of them.

Jordan immediately knew what the machine was. Every true Gundam Fan knew what Gundam this was. One of the greatest machines to be created in the Cosmic Era, ZAFT's first official Gundam. And for the first time, Jordan felt as though he were in awe at the sight of the machine he has loved for so long. Real and in-person.

The ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam.

All fighting stopped as all the combatants looked up and saw the Freedom.

Drew was more than shocked when he saw the Freedom, his eyes as wide as saucers as he saw the angelic looking mobile suit.

"Holy shit… am I trippin'…?" he said breathlessly.

After the initial shock wore off, the second Long Dagger tried to attack the Freedom as it launched itself into the air, but the Freedom seemingly effortlessly twirled around the Long Dagger, and in a flash it drew outs its Lacerta Beam Sabers as it sliced apart its Rail Gun, and sliced off its left arm faster than they could blink.

From the wrecked Leopard, Ron snorted as he watched the Freedom knock out the Long Daggers. "Fucking coward won't do what he needs to do and just fucking kill them." He didn't care whether or not Kira's past led him to that method of fighting. It was simply easier to kill the pilots and be done with it.

However their thoughts then turned to something else as they spotted a ship that all recognized. The red, white, and blue color scheme, and the front looking like a pair of 'legs'.

"Holy fuck! The Archangel!" Drew shouted in surprise, and watched as from the launch catapults, came the GAT-X105 Strike, the Strike Rouge, and to everyone's surprise, Astrays.

Ron cocked his head to the side as Dylan poked his head out of the driver's compartment. "What the hell's going on?!" He asked.

"The Archangel just got here!" Ron said, "And they're launching Mobile Suits!" He then remembered a BIG problem. The Garuda-type still had OMNI Enforcer IFF. "Fuck me! If they see that plane, they'll shoot it down!" He dived back into the turret, then flipped the radio to a general frequency. "LCAM-X01A Archangel, do NOT fire on that plane!" He warned out "It's full of refugees! I repeat: DO NOT FIRE!"

"This the LCAM-X01A Archangel, who the hell is this?" said a feminine voice he recognized as Miriallia Haw.

"The fucking Commander of the fucking Leopard tank!" Ron retorted. "Now do what I say and DON'T fire on that transport!"

Jordan, now finally over the shock of seeing the Freedom, finally managed to get the Calamity to stand back up as he watched as the Archangel and its mobile suits approached. The two Long Daggers, knowing they were outgunned and outnumbered, decided to cut their losses and retreat.

"Archangel, he's telling the truth," he said as he turned on his Comm. "He and that ship saved our asses before you showed up… speaking of, thanks for the assist."

There was a short pause, before a new female voice spoke on the Comm. "This is Captain Murrue Ramius," came the familiar voice of the aforementioned Archangel Captain. "Glad we could help, we detected your battle and decided to lend you a hand."

Jordan chuckled a bit. "And its much appreciated," he said. "Though, I'd like to ask why you're here - and what you're doing in California."

"The short version is that we came here to find out what is happening in the Atlantic Federation," Murrue said. "We assumed that you and your friends are part of the group attacking."

Jordan paused for a moment, considering how to answer that. "Well… it depends on how you look at things," he said. "From your perspective, we are attacking. But in ours, we're defending our own homeland… believe me, this situation is far more complicated than that." He then sighed. "Look, if you want a better explanation, it's best we bring you back to our base. We can show ya the way… and it'd be nice if you'd let us hitch a ride with ya, since our machines are running a bit low on energy."

"I'm not a fan of being ignored, Captain!" Ron said, "That plane needs to land NOW!"

"Chill buddy!" Patriot said. "Man, you remind me of a online pal I know."

"Oh, And who would THAT be?" Ron snapped.

"That would be Ron Pinkerton," Patriot said. "Goes by the FF name of Ron the True Fan. He's a member of Fanfiction dot net." Ron blinked a bit in confusion. That quickly turned to rage as he roared into the radio. "HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!"

This caused both Patriot and Jordan to blink, as they looked at each other's MS. "R-Ron?" Jordan asked. "Holy shit, that's you?" He then grinned. "Dude! It's us! Patriot-112 and 117Jorn! "

"Jorn? Patriot?" Ron retorted in surprise. "Holy fuck… I'd debate the odds of us meeting in person like this, but right now I think we all have bigger problems right now!"

"Your plane should be able to make it back to our base," Jordan said smiling. "I'll send a message to the Commander to expect them. "

"Hello?! What about us!?" the woman shouted. "Titanic X here!"

"Titanic?!" Jordan shouted in surprise. "No fucking way! You're here too?"

"Oh yeah! Who else is driving these things!? Me and my friends are in here!" Jessica 'Titanic X' Miller said. "Fancy meeting you here too Jorn, Patriot, Ron!"

"Fuck me," Patriot said, shaking his head while still smiling. "It's like a Reunion of all our Fanfic buddies! Who's next? DKR gonna show up or something?"

Jordan chuckled. "After all this, it wouldn't surprise me if we run into him down the road," he said before he turned serious. "Anyways, right now we got bigger things to worry about, and we'll get back to the reunion latter. Captain Ramius? Do me and my friends here have permission to land on your ship?"

It was a moment before they heard her voice.

"You have permission to board, Mr…?" Jorn sighed a bit.

"Jordan Tackett, one of two commanders of the Black Swords of Freedom," he said. "And thank you Captain." He they keyed the Comm for the others. "Alright everyone, mount up! We've got ourselves a ride back to base!"

Later - Onboard the Archangel

Now with the permission of the Captain, Jordan and D.J.'s machines were allowed to board the Archangel, as they also helped load up the tanks of Jessica's team, and Ron's own Leopard tank, carrying them from the ground into the Archangel's hangar bay.

With them all loaded up, Jordan sighed as he finally placed the Schwarze Calamity into its birth in the Archangel's hangar alongside D.J.'s new 105 Dagger. He shut off the Schwarze's systems as he smiled, patting the consoles of the machine "You and me are gonna get along fine, Calamity," he said before he opened the hatch to his machine. He grabbed the decent cable as he lowered himself down to the deck of the hangar bay.

In the 105, D.J. sighed in relief, as he patted his machine as he came out, and mounted his own descent cable. Looking around, he had to admit, the MS hangar looked bigger than in the anime. He then looked down at the floor and saw the tanks that helped them. He couldn't help but thankful to whatever deity saved their asses.

Jessica leapt out of her tank, landing on the ground as she looked around the Archangel. Her other teammates all leapt out as well. Jessica was a young woman of 22, with short messy brown hair and brown, almost golden eyes. She wore a Naruto headband around her forehead to keep her bangs out of her face and she was clad in a white T-shirt with a boat picture on the front, blue jeans, and white athletic sneakers. She stood at five foot eight, with tan skin from being outside a lot.

Ron and Dylan popped out of their own tank, the former cracking his neck a bit. "That was too close for comfort…" he muttered to himself as he hopped off of the side of the tank, landing on the deck.

"About time we got someplace safe," one of Jessica's teammates said.

"Tell me about it, Steven," the only other woman on the team remarked. "At least we had these things to use, to devastating effect."

Jordan began to walk away from the Calamity along with D.J., before they glanced up at where the Freedom, Strike, and Strike Rouge had parked themselves, as their respective pilots also descended down to the bottom of the hangar bay. Upon reaching the bottom, they walked forward, removing their helmets as they revealed them to be - as Patriot and Jorn expected - to be none other than Mu La Flagga, Cagalli Yula Attha, and Kira Yamato.

"Whoa, I'd never thought I'd see them in person," Drew whispered to Jorn, who nodded.

"I hear ya," he replied, as the three pilots walked toward them as the Astray pilots disembarked, with the Astray Girl Trio among them. "Let's just try to keep our cool here..."

D.J nodded as the pilots of the Archangel approached them, as the three 'star' pilots of the Archangel stopped before them. "Well…" Jordan said, "Thanks again for helping us out back there… things were getting a bit hairy." He then looked at Kira with a smile. "And thanks for the hand back there, I'd probably been dead meat if you hadn't of shown up."

Kira shook his head at that as a smile formed on his face.

"It was no problem." he said, and looked at the Schwarze. "But where did you find the Gundam?"

Jordan just gave a smirk. "I'll tell you this: Atlantic Fed security… SUCKS!" he said.

"It only sucked because they weren't expecting someone to be stupid enough to infiltrate their supply depot and hijack their Mobile Suits." All three looked at the source of the comment, finding a rather tall brown-blonde man wearing a ridiculous number of sweaters walking toward them. "There's such a thing as a one-trick pony. That won't work a second time."

Kira blinked. "Uh, who are you?" He asked.

"Ronald Pinkerton, acting commander of the remnants of Canadian Armed Forces 22 Wing/CFB North Bay," Ron said. "And presumably the craziest son of a bitch you've yet to meet."

"If you're anything like you are in Fanfiction, Ron, I wouldn't doubt it," Jordan said with a chuckle. "Good to finally meet ya in person, buddy - and that you managed to survive this whole mess."

"I got lucky: nothing more," Ron said with a small smirk before he turned serious again. "Speaking of lucky, we're going to need to talk." He eyed Kira and company. "Privately."

Jordan nodded, knowing what Ron was likely wanting to talk about. "Of course," he said, before he turned back to Kira, Cagalli and Mu. "Anyways, again, thanks for the help. I… don't think I got your names…?" He knew what their names were of course, but he had to feign ignorance for the moment, knowing he couldn't afford any slip-ups.

"Oh, right!" Kira said, and motioned to himself. "I'm Kira Yamato, this is Lt. Commander La Flaga, and this is Cagalli Yula Athha of the Athha Family of Orb."

"Nice to meet you," Mu said, as he glanced up at the Schwarze Calamity "That's a fancy Mobile Suit you got there… looks similar to the original G-Weapons."

Jordan looked up at it "Its called the Schwarze Calamity on the O.S," he said, as he grinned "Though it also said something about it being a Gundam… I like the sound of that..."

"Gundam?" Cagalli asked, with a raised eyebrow. Jordan was about to answer, but Kira surprisingly beat him to the punch.

"Its on the startup sequence," he said. "It's an Acronym for General, Unilateral, Neuro-link, Dispersive, Automatic, Maneuver, G.U.N.D.A.M."

"Good, I ain't the only one who noticed," Jordan said with a smile, as he look up at the other three Gundams in the hangar. "I'm guessing your machines are also 'Gundams'?"

"Well, the Strike, Strike Rouge, and Freedom are," Kira said. "But the Astrays are all Mass Produced MS from Orb - though they've been designed to bear a lot of similarities."

Jordan nodded as he saw the Astray's in the hangar as well. "So I see," he said in approval. "Look like pretty mean machines if I do say so myself."

"Yup," Mu said as he cranked his neck a bit. "Well, as nice as this is going, it's best we get back to the bridge. I believe the Captain would like to speak with you and your friends here about the situation here."

Jordan nodded. "Of course," he said. "Just give me a moment with them, we just need to get some things squared away here."

Mu and the others nodded as Jordan turned and then motioned for D.J. and Jessica to follow him to another, more secluded, part of the hangar where they could talk.

"So, what's the deal, Jorn?" Jessica asked.

"Alright, listen up," he said in a slightly hushed voice. "No one mention anything about Gundam SEED while we're here, that means no telling Kira about the UC Project, no telling Mu about what Rau really is, and no telling Cagalli that Kira is her brother. I'd like to avoid the butterfly effect and mess things up more than they already have been at this point. We just need to feign ignorance. Ron already knows this I bet-" "No shit! That's the most basic rule about real life self-insert fics: tell them NOTHING. Same thing applies here." "But I need to make sure none of us slip up by accident."

Jessica nodded. "Got it. Me and my team can keep it quiet," she said.

Drew nodded. "Agreed, and I suggest we hide ANYTHING Gundam related, that includes U.C., 00, AGE, Wing, all of it," he said, and the others nodded in agreement.

"I was about to say that," Jordan said while nodding before he sighed. "Well let's get going, shall we?" He looked over at where Ron was. "Ron! You think you and Titanic's team could stay back here and keep an eye on our stuff?" he called out. "I'm taking Titanic and Patriot here to see the Captain!"

"Yeah, sure!" Ron hollered out as he and Dylan began working on some repairs to his Leopard tank. "We'll call ya if we need anything - NO! Damnit! That one goes there, and that one goes there!"

Jordan just chuckled a bit before he walked back towards Mu and the others. "Well, lead the way Mr. La Flaga." He said.

A few minutes later

Archangel Bridge

The three Gundam fans along with the three pilots, arrived at the bridge of the Earth Alliance's brand new class of warship, the Archangel. The two young men's and woman's thoughts were that how more realistic the bridge of the ship seemed in real life.

'This is freaking awesome!' Jordan thought as he looked around at the bridge, before his eyes fell upon the very captain of the Archangel herself: Murrue Ramius. "Captain Ramius, I presume?" he asked.

Said Captain nodded. "Yes, that's me, I assume you have a reason to what is going on all over the planet?" she asked, and Jordan sighed.

"I'll be honest with ya, Captain," Jordan said. "We're not entirely sure ourselves, but I have a suspicion it had to do with that ball of light in Afghanistan."

"Ball of light?" Ramius asked surprised, as Jordan nodded.

"Yeah, about a week ago the news covered some weird ball of light, that originated in Afghanistan," he said. "It started out small and slow, but in a few hours it passed through the whole planet." He sighed. "Next thing we know… these Atlantic Federation and Earth Forces guys started popping up all across the world. America, Brazil, England, Germany… they've been showing up everywhere, causing all sorts of havoc. Half of the world governments have fallen like Mexico, and only the major powers are putting up some fight. But when they started using these big old robots - Mobile Suits I think they're called, things began going south."

Murrue then felt like she needed to ask the question, and Jorn felt she was going to.

"Exactly, what year is it to you?" she asked, and Jorn pretended to be confused.

"2014 A.D., why?" he said, and everyone one of the bridge crew gaped at that.

"That's not possible." Mu said. "We stopped using the Anno Domini calendar 70 years ago! Now you're telling us we've travelled back in time?"

"I don't think so," said D.J. and everyone turned to him. "If you have travelled back in time, you wouldn't have taken whole armies, and NEW buildings along with you."

Jordan nodded. "Yeah… if it were just a few people arriving here, it would be one thing," he said as he sighed. "This is gonna sound crazy… but I have a theory I've developed over the course since this shitstorm started…" He pointed to Murrue. "You and all of our AF Prisoners say it's Cosmic Era 71, while to us its still 2014 Anno Domini… the only thing I can think of that makes sense is somehow… your world, and ours are somehow… colliding, merging into a single world."

Murrue along with everyone from the Cosmic Era all gaped at that.

"B-But… how is that possible?" she asked no one in particular, while the three A.D. locals all shook their heads.

"We don't know exactly," Drew said. "But… the best place to find the answers, is in Afghanistan."

"It's where the flash of light originated," Jordan said. "For us at least..." he sighed. "Unfortunately, we can't afford to pay a trip over there yet, since we have bigger fish to fry at the moment… The Atlantic Federation is preparing to attack our forces that are held up near the Sierra Mountains, and we can't hold out against them with their Mobile Suits. It's why we orchestrated the raid at the Depot here: to hijack a few AF Machines so we could stand a better chance against them in the coming battle… at least until reinforcements show up."

"And why we snagged those tanks back in Maryland," Jessica added. "We were given a mission by the commander of the First Armored Division, which was supposed to receive those prototypes. We had to keep them out of any enemy hands and go to anyplace where there could be people holding out. In fact, I'm the acting commander of the First Armored… or what remains of it, at the moment."

"There are only a handful of us left," D.J said, shaking his head. "Even with the Mobile Suits we captured… we may not last through the attack without some serious help. We were expecting some reinforcements coming in from Colorado and Nevada, and with Ron's group from Canada should help out a lot. But we can't get much more help from the main forces of the United States, since last we heard they've got their own problems trying to hold the southern states and what other holdouts they still have going for them."

Murrue began thinking about that. They now had a lead of where that light originated, which was Afghanistan, more specifically, the Equilateral Union. Of course, her conscience was telling her to not just abandon these people to wiped out.

Still, she still had a mission which was to find the source of the problem. But before she could say anything further, Romero Pal spoke up.

"Captain, I've just intercepted a heavily encrypted radio message," Romero said. "I'm… trying to see what it said."

"What is it?" Ramius asked. "Is it Atlantic Federation?"

He shook his head. "No ma'am," he said. "I… don't know the coding, but it's not AF."

Jessica perked up, her eyes widening. "Wait. What if it's from US forces?" she asked.

"It's possible," D.J. said as he hummed in thought. "Can you tell us where it's originating from? Could be more US forces trying to fall back and need help."

"Hang on..." Romero said. "I… can't get an accurate position, but it looks like it's coming from…" He blinked. "The… Equilateral Union?"

Murrue and everyone blinked at that, but before the captain could ask, Romero blinked again.

"Wait… there's something very faint coming through." he said and pressed a few buttons and a female voice was heard on the bridge.

"…is Colonel Patricia Rosen, Authorization Code Sierra Dash Five…" A female voice said on the comm, her voice broken through static "…nyone there? NORAD? Pentagon? Dammit, someone and…"

"Can you clear that up a bit?" Jordan asked, and Romero shrugged.

"Doing the best I can," he said as he continued to work.

"…entagon, Wolfsbayne is online. If you're picking this up, we need a status report! What's going..." The voice continued, and D.J. rose an eyebrow

"Wolfsbayne?" he asked. "What's that?"

"Never heard of it before," Jordan said, "But… I have a bad feeling about this..."

"Wait…" said Jessica, "If we're picking this up, could anyone else pick it up?"

Jordan, D.J., and Murrue both blinked at that before their eyes widened in realization.

"SHIT!"

Meanwhile, 40,000 feet above Yosemite National Park.

Descending through the atmosphere was another Re-entry pod, which broke through the cloud cover before breaking apart. Inside, three Mobile Suits emerged from the pod before dropping through the air together. The machines looked surprisingly like GiNN's, however their head fins were reversed, and each were equipped with Katana Swords and advanced rifles, each colored black with purple trimming.

In the cockpit of the lead machine, was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties with short neck length orange hair, and a black left eye, her right eye being covered by an eye patch, and wearing a customized black and purple colored Normal Suit. "Radio Check, You guys still reading me?" The woman asked on the comm.

"Tri-Star 2, acknowledges." said one of the GiNN pilots.

"Tri-Star 3 here… man, I hate Earth's gravity," said the second of the woman's teammates.

"Just deal with it Mars," the woman said. "We're the only pilots the Commander could get to Earth on such short notice."

"Yeah, look on the bright side," Tri-Star 2 said with a chuckle. "At least we finally got our new custom units for the mission. These GiNN HM 2's are a step up from our old ones. We should be able to take on anything we see down there - including those new Earth Forces machines."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Mars."But it doesn't change my mind how I feel about this planet's gravity."

"Cut the chatter, Mars. We'll be approaching our LZ very soon," the woman said again. "Right in the middle of Yosemite National Park."

"Copy that boss," Tri-Star 2, Herbert Von Reinhard, said. "We'll follow you in."

The woman, Hilda 'Tri-Star 1' Harken nodded as the three machines of the Tri-Star continued their descent. "Stay tight, you two," she said. "We don't know what to expect down here, unless we confirm any hostiles as EA, fire only when fired upon."

"Roger!"

Refugee Camp

Yosemite National Park.

Large numbers of people that were in travel trailers, campers, RVs, and tents, littered the entire area of the Yosemite National Park, which was then renamed as Yosemite City, due to the large number of refugees, which the population was at least near nine thousand people. Yosemite was one of two major refugee areas in California, the second in Owen's Valley.

The people living in the makeshift city were people from across California, including citizens from Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and other cities of the western US nearby. While life wasn't perfect for the people, who wished for life to return the way it was just a few weeks prior, they managed to get on by, as they managed to go about their new daily lives, helping one another - and their defenders - as much as they can.

Among the people of Yosemite City, sitting by an old trailer were two men wearing classic hunting gear and armed with hunting rifles. "It's crazy, ya know?" the first man said. "This place used to be a park… people enjoyed themselves here… now? Look at it…"

"Yeah…" the second man said, sighing. "I wonder if things will ever go back to normal… where everyone can just go home…"

"But, with the recent shit happening right now, nobody knows when it will be…" the first man said, and before the second could say anything, people began to shout and point up at the sky, causing the two to look up and their eyes widened.

"Oh shit! Not again!" The second man shouted as he saw three large machines falling from the sky. Luckily for them, these weren't the hostile (well, they WERE hostile, just not to the refugees) humanoid Daggers dropping in from space, as they looked slightly larger, and with a much more different design.

The MS team landed harshly, but that was mostly because their machines weighed somewhere around 80 to 100 tons. Nothing that heavy lands like a feather. But not one of the refugees gave even a fraction of a fuck to any of that. They were Mobile Suits, likely there just to make their lives worse. So the general reaction of total anarchy was perfectly natural.

"Whoops," Said Mars as he and the others saw they landed in the middle, of what they can see, is a refugee camp, and spooked the locals. "Looks like we landed right in the middle of a bunch of scared rabbits."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean, Mars?" Harkin demanded.

"I think what he means is we just landed in the middle of a Refugee Camp," Herbert said with a groan. "Damnit, I knew we should've double-checked our LZ…"

"Cut the chatter." Harkin said, "We're here now, so there's nothing we can do about it. Just make sure we AVOID the civies: I'd like to avoid killing anyone not with the Alliance." The GINNs began moving away from the refugee camps, but not without a lot of angry yelling directed at them.

They were NOT happy, and their fear had now turned to anger. Story of their lives, unfortunately. Fortunately, none of them had any firearms, so shooting at them (which would just piss off the pilots) was out of the question.

"Man what's their problem? We're not attacking them or anything,"Herbert said, as the two GiNNs continued to walk through the refugee camp, being careful not to step on anyone or anything.

Of course, they did step on a trailer or two. That didn't win them any friends, that was for sure.

"Fuck off, you bastards!"

"Yeah, you assholes! You already stole our homes!"

That was when the ZAFT pilots realized that these people didn't have any idea what was going on. They just assumed that they were OMNI Enforcer, as ZAFT didn't have any forces in North America until now. "They think we're with the Earth forces?" Herbert asked. "My God, they've got no idea what the fuck is going on."

"Just keep moving and don't step on anything else, especially something that could be easily squashed like a bug." Hilda warned as the three GiNN HM Type II's continued their walk, until their sensors detected some new friends.

"Uhh, Hilda, we got company,"Mars said. "Twenty targets heading our way!"

"What are they?" Hilda demanded quickly. "EA?"

"No, they're… old 21st Century Vehicles," Mars said oddly. "I'm picking up what looks like six M60A3 Patton Tanks, and about fourteen AH-64 Apaches making their way towards us - fast. I think we might of stirred up a Hornet's nest here."

Even the most advanced AH-64 was decades out of date and posed almost no threat to the GINNs, but those AGM-114 Hellfire missiles could easily be used to take out the GINNs with a bit of skill and a LOT of luck. After all, some jackass in Canada did the same thing with even older weapons. "Don't make any threatening moves!" Hilda said. "Switch to their radio frequency: we need to tell them that we're no threat to either them or the refugees!"

"What?!" Mars shouted "Are you kidding me? Those things are outgunned!"

"Outgunned or not, they outnumber us, and numbers usually make the difference in a battle!" Hilda said. "And those helicopters can fly better than we can, giving them a bigger advantage. And on top of that, we want to avoid a fight with these guys. We want answers, not battles."

Mars grumbled but complied as did Herbert before Hilda keyed the Radio, scanning through the frequencies looking for the one that the approaching forces were using. "This is Hilda Harken of the ZAFT Special Mobile Suit Team Tri-Star," she said, "To the approaching tanks and Helicopters, we are not here to fight - we are not part of the Atlantic Federation or Earth Alliance. Please respond."

It was a few moments before the Tri-Stars got a reply.

"This is Captain Marlowe of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion-5th Marines!" came the voice of the commander of the US Forces. "What in the flying FUCK is ZAFT!?"

Hilda blinked in surprise. These people didn't even know what ZAFT was? 'How is that possible?' she thought, before she sighed. "It's a long story," she said. "But I can tell you we do not work for the Earth Alliance or Atlantic Federation, and we're here to find out what the heck is going on here."

"You tell me, lady!"shouted Marlowe. "I was awaiting my discharge from the Marines, and then some fucking wall of light comes out of Afghanistan and covers the whole fucking globe and then the U.S. is under attack by these assholes!"

Again, Hilda was confused. These people thought they were being attacked, and not the ones attacking? How could that be possible? However her attention was then grabbed when he mentioned a wall of light. "You saw the flash of light too?" she asked.

"Did I stutter!?" Marlowe said. "And I said it came out of Afghanistan and swept the whole damn planet and these AF pricks just started shooting us!"

Hilda then mentally wrote the name in her head.

'Afghanistan, a Middle Eastern country before the Reconstruction War.' the ZAFT pilot thought. 'And if my geography is right, that's smack dab in the Equilateral Union.'

Marlowe was silent for a few moments before he spoke. "Either way lady, I've got orders from the General," he said. "We're to escort you back to Command HQ, the General would like to see you."

Hilda weighed the options before giving a sigh.

"Lead the way then, Captain," she said, and the tanks, and the Apache Ds then turned around and began to lead the ZAFT machines back to their base.

Meanwhile

Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan

Patricia was cursing up a storm, the reason because she couldn't get a hold of Washington or NORAD. Not only that, but she could not contact anyone back from the States. Phones, radio, nothing was working as if there was no one listening in.

Ever since Wolfsbayne went haywire, she ordered the whole thing to be shut down, which Anton quickly accepted as the generator itself was shut down, and the base was put on high alert. And then when they lost contact with the states, things got even worse as they suddenly began to feel very alone in all of this.

Patricia was running out of options, and she knew it.

"Dammit… there has got to be a way to get in contact with someone back home," she said, as she rubbed the temples of her head, feeling a headache. Her thoughts were interrupted as one of the base guards came in.

"Colonel…" the soldier said breathlessly.

"Anything?" she asked and the soldier shook his head.

"No Ma'am, we can't get in contact with anyone back home," the soldier said negatively. "The only U.S. base we managed to get in contact with was Bagram Air Base, and even that's a little choppy. We also managed to, although accidentally, contact a Chinese PLAAF Air Base in Tibet, though we couldn't understand what they were saying."

Patricia let out another long tired sigh as she palmed her face with both hands, as she pushed her hair back. The situation was just getting worse and worse. They were in the dark, had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world… she needed answers, and she wasn't going to find them sitting around here waiting.

"Inform the hangar to get an Osprey ready," the Air Force Colonel said. "I'm heading to Bagram. And inform Major Speers that he is in command until I get back."

The soldier nodded and went to carry out his orders, leaving Patricia to once again sigh at the situation.

A few minutes later, Anton walked through the door. He walked in and silently sat next to Patricia, as the two just sat in silence for a few moments.

"Anton…" Patricia spoke first, "That light… what did it mean? What happened… when the field spread out like it did?"

The Russian scientist was silent for a minute, before he sighed "I don't know for sure," he said, "We never ran the machine at full power before… hell, I still don't know what exactly happened back then…" He shook his head. "The best I could give you is an accurate guess… maybe our world and another merged together, or it somehow transported our solar system to the opposite side of the galaxy - if not the other side of the universe… we just won't find out unless… we look."

"That's just fucking wonderful," Patricia snorted. "We have no contact with Command, Project Wolfsbayne seems to have backfired SPECTACULARLY and something tells me that if the general public finds out about this, my ass will be set on fire!"

"It wasn't your fault," Anton said, shaking his head. "I was the one who built the machine… I pressed the button… if anyone will take the blame, it's going to be me."

Patricia gave the Russian a deadpanned look.

"I thought scientists didn't like their reputations sullied and put the blame on others," she said, while Anton chuckled grimly.

"Those are individuals you see in movies and those Japanese Anime shows," he said. "I'm not one of them."

Patricia couldn't help but smile. "Well, that's cheerful news," she said sarcastically.

Meanwhile - United States

Archangel - en-route to Sierra Mountains

Jordan sat in the cockpit of the Schwarze Calamity, as he overlooked the Operating System of the machine as he inspected all that his newly acquired Gundam could do. He found that learning Operating System mechanics for Mobile Suits wasn't nearly as difficult as he believed it would be, as he was able to quickly learn what did what and how it did it. He thanked his previous understanding of the Gundam universe - and his own experience with computers, hardware and software for that.

It had been half an hour since they made first contact with the Archangel, and since the raid on the depot ended. With the help of the massive battleship, they managed to load up a lot of supplies that they would've had to otherwise leave behind and destroy, including tons of ammo and supplies for Mobile Suits and their maintenance. And not only that but they also managed to acquire the full set of Calamity Packs for the Schwarze Calamity to utilize.

While Jordan and D.J. continued to work on their newly acquired machines, they had begun to get to know the crew of the Archangel more. It was a very strange experience, talking to once fictional characters in person. However, they were steadily building up a decent friendship with Kira and the other pilots of the Archangel, along with the members of the bridge crew.

The tank-driving nutcases (Ron and Titanic) were busy trying to repair the damaged Leopard 2 that Ron used as his C&C vehicle on the deck below. Ron was more or less distant, even with them. And his eyes were red. That was a bad sign.

Jessica's eyes were narrowed as she adjusted one of the bolts for the track. "All right. Just about done," she said. She turned to face one of her team, a young man standing at five foot eleven with short messy black hair and brown eyes. He wore a T-shirt that was blue at the top and white at the bottom with green stripes on the sleeves and brown cargo shorts with combat boots. "Hey, Steven! Can ya toss me that?" she called.

Steven Krane nodded. "Sure thing!" he shouted back. He tossed the tool she needed over to her and she caught it.

"So, Ron, what made you decide to snag a Leopard tank?" she asked as they worked.

"I..." Ron said as he tightened a bolt on the engine block. "Didn't! This thing literally drove up to my convoy! The crews of the tanks were shellshocked. They just stared dead ahead. As such, I hijacked one as my command vehicle."

"Oh. So that explains it," Jessica said as she wiped at her forehead with her free hand. "Bet you're glad for that, right?"

Ron didn't respond at first as he continued to fix the engine.

"More like didn't have a choice. The best weapon to use against a Mobile Suit is another MS. Tanks are second rate unless you ambush the MS."

"Like me with the Abrams," Jessica said. "That's why we have those five." She gestured to her team working on resupplying the five tanks. "And because we were given them by the commander of First Armored before he died… We're just lucky that we were able to ambush them in the first place. They were not expecting us to attack from the forest. Still…"

She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "I… I never thought that the best armored division we had… would be wiped out so easily! And now… me and my team are the new First Armored. At least until we can get more support and members," she said.

"People die in war," Ron said with a sigh. "They've got better weapons and lots of them. To be frank, our chances at actually winning this debacle are slim, if not none. At least with now we've got a chance to fight back and survive another day."

Jessica blinked. "You mean the MSs that Patriot and Jorn stole from that depot?" she asked and Ron nodded.

"Yeah. Don't get the idea that we'll actually win back North America on our own, though. We're up against a superior enemy force." he said as Jessica bowed her head at that.

"I know. Still, at least we have some chance at surviving. And soon, we can and will reclaim it. But for now… it's either flee or die," she said, looking back at her team. "I know that all too well."

While the two were talking, D.J. in the 105 Dagger was looking through the Strike E schematics on the Mobile Suit's built-in computer. He was looking specifically at the Noir Striker.

He believed that once fully tested, the Noir Striker could be Mass-produced and equip any M.S. with Striker Pack hardpoints. Of course he knew that such a goal was a long-term one until they could amount the proper resources to make the Noir Striker to begin with.

"So, whatcha got there?" Jordan said as he appeared in front of the 105's hatch suddenly, causing D.J. to Jump.

"Jeez, Jordan!" D.J. shouted. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry," He said with a smirk as he looked at the schematics. "Hey… is that what I think it is?"

D.J. nodded as he looked back at the screen. "Yep, it's the Strike E Gundam, along with its signature Striker Pack, the Noir." he said, and Jordan's eyes widened.

"Where did you get these?" he asked incredulously.

"Back at the depot, in the trailer where I got my 105. They were on a terminal, so, I grabbed the closest data disk I saw, and downloaded the file," he said. "And now I have a theory of actually Mass Producing the Noir Striker once we have the right facility and resources to build and test it."

"Damn…" Jordan said, nodding. "Almost makes me jealous, Patriot… almost."

D.J sighed. "You love your new Machine, don't you?" He asked, and Jordan chuckled as he grinned.

"You know it," he said. "The Calamity series is among my top favorites, alongside the Astray Red Frame, Freedom, Blitz and the Gold Frame. I got so damn lucky to get not only one of my favorites - but an improved version of one of my favorites! And that's not even mentioning all the upgrades I've got planned for her!"

D.J. blinked at that. "Her?" he said, and turned on one of the sub cams of his mobile suit, and looked at the Calamity-type. "It looks like a guy to me."

That earned him a whack to the head.

"Hey! What was that for!?" he shouted, and saw the glare that Jordan was giving him.

"It's. A. She," he said slowly. "And you best respect that, I won't have you insulting my Gundam. And if my plans work - she's gonna have some sisters soon." He began to chuckle maniacally after that.

D.J., as well as a few other people outside the 105 Dagger's cockpit, became unnerved at that laugh.

"Why do I get the feeling that you're going to cause mayhem like a certain drunk Canadian friend of ours does?" he said, and Jorn just continued chuckling.

Meanwhile - Northern Canada

15 Miles away from Alaska

The northern tundra of the Canadian Arctic was a hard and barren place, you had to be hardy to survive the land and it's perils, and to thrive there would require iron hard grit. To do battle there, it required both, with intelligence mixed in.

So, when the 'Atlantic Federation' invaded Canada, instead of trying to continue to hold the lines, the Canadian Armed Forces fell back, retreating further North where, even with the massive mobile suits, they held the distinct advantage of being adjusted to the freezing temperatures, long nights and days, and more importantly, knew where the stockpiled weapons were.

A young man looking to be in his early to mid twenties let out a sigh he was clad in the winter digital camo uniform that blended in with the snowy surroundings, the insignia of a Captain on his shoulders, watching his frozen breath dissipate before him as he looked over the landscape, all around him soldiers were picking through the remains of several mobile suits that were sent to try and root out the Canadian Armed Forces. Above, several CH-47 Chinook Helicopters milled around, grenade launchers attached to the hulls by the doors for gunners to use. "Captain Johnston, there's a survivor."

The man looked over, his brown eyes looked steely, but tired. "Right then," he said as he turned. "Condition?"

"Wounded, but stable, not in danger of dying anytime soon." The soldier replied.

"RIght then," the captain walked up to the wounded MS pilot, studying him as the pilot glared defiantly back. "Right now, your life is in our hands, you have one of two options, submit yourself to our custody and answer any questions we have for you, or die. Choose."

The pilot spat at the captain, nailing the canadian flag emblazoned on his chest.

"There's your answer boys, shoot his legs and let's go," he ordered waving an arm to the circling Chinooks, three of them coming down for a landing. "Load up gentleman! We're moving on!"

Two cracks of a gun followed his statement. "Enjoy freezing to death!" He called out to the now crippled pilot. "That is… if the polar bears or wolves don't find you first!"

The pilot's curses were drowned out by the engine of the Chinook as he climbed on. "Captain! HQ is on the line!" the co-pilot shouted out.

"Roger that!" the captain replied accepting the headset. "Captain Johnston here."

"Captain, this is General Landry, the HMCS Victoria that was tasked with scouting the Alaskan coastline found something, about 30 klicks from your position," the General informed as the last of the soldiers were loaded and the Chinooks on the ground rejoined the others. "I want your taskforce to take a closer look, Spysats aren't picking up any enemy movement in the area, but be careful."

"Roger that General, we'll get you that intel," he informed closing the link before switching to the squad comms. "Alright boys, new orders, good ol' Victoria came through again, she's found something on the beaches of Alaska, we're going in to take a look, eyes sharp boys, we may not see anything, but it doesn't mean that no one is there!"

A course of affirmatives reached his ears as the Chinooks took off towards the submarine's discovery.

As they travelled the Captain stared out the window, watching the barren landscape soar past. 'How long has it been since I've seen an actual summer?' he wondered to himself. 'And how long has it been since anyone called me Tom or Thomas instead of Sir or Captain?'

"Sir! We're in visual range!" The pilot shouted out, catching Tom's attention as he looked out the window and dropped his Jaw.

"That's a Spengler-Class!" He shouted out. "Pilot, take us down! ALL squads, we are securing that vessel, radio, get Admiral Hummel to get the Super-Ice Breaker out here! We're going to need it if we want unbeach that monster!"

The soldiers in his Chinook all grinned at the Captain, for on his own face spoke only one thing, hope. "Yes sir!" They all shouted at once.

"Copy that sir!" The Chinook pilot replied cheerfully as the Choppers began their descent, heading down towards the beached AF Carrier.

Later - Beached Spenger-class

Interior

A few minutes had passed since the discovery of the beached Spenger-class aircraft/M.S. carrier was made, and now the soldiers of the Canadian Army were securing the massive vessel, making sure that the ship really was abandoned and not booby trapped in any way. So far, no traps had been discovered, but Tom was wanting to be extra careful.

He held a Canadian Forces Marksman Rifle System (CF MRS) in his hands as the two soldiers before him cleared the passageway. "This is Whiskey-Actual to all units, report in." He ordered into his comm set to the rest of the units scouring the ship.

"Whiskey-Actual, this is Ghost-Actual, we have secured the bridge, waiting for Bravo to restart this ship's engines for power."

"Bravo-Actual here, we have made it to the engine room, searching for the start up consoles."

"Raven-Actual, Dormitories are clear, looks like no one has been here for a while."

"Wolf-Actual, same here in the mess."

"Roger that all units," Tom replied as he mentally filed the reports, his squad coming to a halt in front of the doors leading to the hangers, a quick look to the point man informed him that they wouldn't be able to safely open the doors without power. "Waiting on power to secure the hanger."

"Roger Whiskey-Actual, we have found the startup, activating in three… two… one… NOW!"

The entire ship shuddered for a moment before the lights flickered on, power humming through the circuits. "Good work Bravo, Ghost I want those logs pulled."

"Sir."

Tom nodded to the point man who hit the release for the door, causing it to hiss open revealing the hanger. Whiskey squad quickly entered, their weapons sweeping the hanger for enemies when they all froze. "Well I'll be damned," Tom breathed as he looked up at the rows of mobile suits in the Hanger, all save one being of ZAFT design, the lone non-ZAFT Suit looked to be a mix of the Duel and the Strike, the gundam V-crest proudly on display. "Boys, I think we have found our level playing field…"

"Captain, this is Ghost Actual: we've spotted two ships on approach. They appear to be destroyers and cruisers: don't look to be any of ours, and they sure as hell don't look like American or Russian ships." That left only one option: OMNI Enforcer Arkansas or Des Moines-Class cruisers.

"Any Mobile Suits on their decks, Ghost Actual?"

"Unsure at this - FUCK! They've got two of those things per ship!" Yup, it was OMNI Enforcer.

"Well, I would've loved to tune this thing, but doesn't look like I've got much of a choice now." Fight to strike back, indeed.

Arkansas-Class cruiser EAS Robert E. Lee -

20 kilometers from beached Spengler-Class carrier

While the Arkansas-Class was out of date in the era of the Mobile Suit, against US and Canadian Navy destroyers, frigates and even carriers it was overkill. They managed to sink the USS Cape St. George, Decatur and even what was considered the 'flagship' of the Canadian Pacific Fleet, the HMCS Ottawa. They were on the run, and OMNI Enforcer, for once, was doing what they should've been doing day one: killing anything that got in their way. Sure, killing eight decade old ships was easy, but at least they were actually DOING something for once.

They had been searching for more of the Canadian guerilla forces that had managed to take out an entire squad of Mobile Suits, despite the fact that they didn't even have any Mobile Suits of their own. The guerillas had been using the terrain to their advantage and trapping the North with a staggering amounts of explosives.

It was during this search that they picked up several of the Canadian Helicopters circling a beached Spengler-class carrier, a rather surprising find for them as well, and decided to 're appropriate' it from the Canadians.

Their Mobile Suits were just about to launch, when one of the hanger doors on the carrier opened up and out stepped a mobile suit, it was mostly grey with ocean blue highlights, equipped with heavy plated armor and a railgun on it's right shoulder and a long rifle in it's hand.

That's when things went to hell.

The first shot was from the rail gun on the unit's shoulder, punching through the cockpit of a '105', no doubt killing the pilot as the unit exploded, very nearly taking the ship and second mobile suit with it.

The second shot came from the rifle, piercing through the cockpit of the second unit, a quick shot from the rail gun tore the cruiser's bridge apart, leaving the ship to float dead in the water.

The final two units managed to take to the air, charging at the unknown gundam in a desperate attempt to end the threat, their charge was met halfway as the gundam pulled out two beam sabers and leapt at the 105's, quickly bisecting the pair of them before landing on the destroyer, it's glowing eyes boring into the bridge as the Destroyer's Anti-Air weapons ping'd harmlessly off of it's armor.

"One choice," A voice announced over the speakers. "Surrender to Canadian Custody, or die."

All firing ceased on the Destroyer as the proverbial white flag was raised.

"Smart, not so fun now that we can fight back, is it?" The pilot asked, a grin visible in his voice as several Chinooks came towards the ships, loaded with soldiers, ready to secure their new prisoners of war.

Inside the cockpit of his new Gundam, Tom grinned. "Y'know, I just thought of a name for you… Arctic Wrath," he informed the unit, before activating the comm suite and keying it to the Canadian Underground network. "General Landry, I have some good news for you, we are back in this fight."

"Good work, Captain. Any news on that refugee convoy that was supposed to link up with the survivors from Edmonton?"

Tom shook his head. "Nothing yet."

Whoever was in command of that convoy were members of 22 Wing/CFB North Bay, and other than Tom's team, were the biggest damage-dealers in terms of knocked out Mobile Suits. And that was while guarding a civilian refugee column, no less.

'Still, the way those guys took out those Daggers reminds me of something...' He shook his head. "Whoever those guys are, they know what they're doing. They'll either link up with us or head down to join up with the US forces that managed to escape."

"I understand, I'll have our scouts report back if they find anything, also, Admiral Hummel has sent out Pathmaker to your position, is it really one of their carriers?"

"Yup, with some nice shiney new mobile suits to play around with, not to mention… a Gundam." Tom informed, a grin spreading on his face. "I'll report in when we get back to base with our new toys."

"Understood, I'll be awaiting your report then."

Tom chuckled as he cut off the comms. "Well Arctic Wrath, we got some fun times ahead of us..." he informed his unit. "Wonder how those guys are doing?"

Ron the True Fan: (VII from Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team OST plays) And now the death-fest begins.

Patriot-112: Indeed, and introducing...

DragonKnightRyu: (Crashes in through the ceiling, landing in the rubble in a reclined fashion) Sup fellow Warhawks!

117Jorn: He-hey! Ryu! Glad you could join us for the ride!

DragonKnightRyu: (Holds up a bottle of whiskey, pops the top and starts chugging) Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey I cry. If I don't get my Whiskey I think I may die.

Ron the True Fan: (blinks) I think I should be thankful for my low alcohol tolerance. Either way, people, be ready! The death-fest steamroller is about to get rolling!

117Jorn: That be an understatement, if our plans actually work the way we want them to.

Takeshi Yamato: Especially if we go with that one idea I had. (Rubs hands together). That would be really fun.

Patriot-112: They will work. See you next time folks! (Jumps into Aile Dagger, and takes off)

Titanic X: Hey, peeps! I'm also lending a hand! So don't be shy to leave a review, and keep an eye on this epic fic! (Hops into M1A3 Abrams) So see ya next time! (Drives off through the wall)

All: Ja ne!