The deep space was filled with beam shots and explosions; it was a fair, merciless executor, silencing the screams of both ZAFT mobile suit pilots and Alliance's mobile armor pilots as they succumbed to its vast emptiness. The thought crossed Captain Hoffman as he stood on the bridge of Menelaos, barking out orders to his crew as they tried to fight off the relentless attack by a flight of four GINNs that was making its way to the ship. "All power to the Gottfrieds!" he said, barely keeping his voice even. "Fire all weapons!"

"Vampires inbound. Multiple vectors!" the CIC operator announced as the ZAFT flight was firing its missiles at the ship.

"Kill them!" Captain Hoffman said, even though he knew the Combat Fire Control officer was already taking the steps to respond to the threats by engaging the close-in weapon systems, CIWSes, to shoot them down; the order was a mere confirmative action. The captain watched with grim satisfaction as the interceptors switched on and sprayed hails of bullets at the missiles, hitting and destroying them. However, everyone on the bridge couldn't celebrate, as they still had to contend with the four GINNs. "Have Toledo, Harry and Adelaide move in a pincer maneuver to intercept,"

"Toledo, Harry and Adelaide on intercept vectors,"

A few seconds later, the three Drake-class ships moved to intercept in a triple envelopment. The movements allowed the GINNs to continue their approaches to Menelaos unimpeded but left them vulnerable to attacks from the ships. The GINNs would have to choose whether to push their attack or engage the three ships first. From the way things looked, they chose to do the former.

Unfortunately for them, Hoffman had predicted their movement. "Aim at the four mobile suits, fire at will!"

Once the firing solutions were achieved, the gunnery officer fired the ship's four Gottfried. There were blinding flashes of light as the shots found their targets, and Hoffman breathed a sigh of relief. The Toledo, Harry and Adelaide weren't only there to intercept the GINNs but also to force them to move closer to each other, making it easier to hit them. But his celebration was short-lived, as he realized only three were destroyed while the sole survivor only had its machine gun taken out. Weaponless, the pilot launched a kamikaze attack, sacrificing itself to take out the flagship.

"Brace for impact!" Hoffman said, as his crew struggled to shoot down the mobile suit while changing the ship's vector. A lucky shot hit the mobile suit, and it exploded, but its wreckage still had the momentum that led it to crash into Menalos's port side. The moment of impact was deafening, and the ship rocked. Despite that, the overall structure held.

Hoffman went to his seat and pressed a button that would connect him to the engineering department. "Engineering, damage report,"

"We're detecting multiple leaks at D4, D20, and E9."

Hoffman nodded. The damages were in the D and E sectors were expected since they were in the port side areas. "Are they serious?"

"Our teams are taking care of them even as we speak,"

"Keep me updated."

"Roger,"

Hoffman ended the call, allowing himself a few seconds of respite. It would have been disastrous if the flagship had been taken out. However, thanks to the restored battlefield awareness, one that has been missing since last year, the threats could be mitigated easily. The man scoffed a bit. Halberton was wrong to lump him with the higher-ups at the Alaskan base. Sure, there was some overlap between his opinion and theirs regarding the current state of the war. However, the converse was true as well; Hoffman found out from his sources the reason the higher ups sent him to be under Halberton was because they thought he was on the same page as the said admiral.

Hoffman was his own man. He certainly saw the value in mobile suits and there were strategic advantages conferred by the mobile armors. However, while Halberton and those Alaskan stickups were content to talk about assets and strategy, Hoffman belonged to the school of thought that viewed everything as a function of logistics. A battle, a campaign, or even a war could be explained as a function of logistics. According to this approach, all resources, including men, asset, and supplies, must be produced, allocated, distributed, consumed, and replaced in a timely manner. A victory simply meant one's logistics execution triumph over the adversary.

It was a cold way of thinking, the captain admitted to himself. However, one wouldn't have lasted long being a passionate and sentimental person in a war, which makes Halberton quite an anomaly, one Hoffman had to respect despite the difference in opinions.

"I told you I have no time for this!"Athrun said, as his beam saber met Kira's shield while blocking Kira's own.

"Then, retreat!" Strike boosted back while storing its beam saber and bringing out its beam rifle. It aimed its rifle at its opponent's right arm, causing Athrun to bring out its shield to block the shot. However, it was a ruse. Kira quickly readjusted his aim and shot at the left leg. The shot hit, but only superficially burned the part. It was then Kira recalled adjusting his beam rifle's power output to one-fourth of the usual rate at Mu's advice. That was why the shot was ineffective, since it lacked enough energy to inflict damage. Kira clucked his tongue in annoyance. The shot would have been a deciding factor in defeating Athrun.

No, the advice was sound, Kira told himself. Mu correctly guessed Tolle and Sai would end up firing a lot of shots at their respective opponents. While Sai's orange-colored opponent retreated during the skirmish, Tolle had fired a lot of times at his adversary and ended up having to return to Archangel since Buster's energy was almost depleted. Tolle would be disappointed with his own result, but Kira would disagree. The flight's mission was to prevent the ZAFT's prototypes from affecting the operation and his friend had carried out the mission successfully. "There's no reason for you to be here, Athrun,"

"There is a strong reason! I couldn't retreat. Not when your side is trying to commit another Bloody Valentine?!" Athrun said in anger.

"What are you talking about?" Kira said in confusion. He recalled Mu's reminder to avoid talking to his friend should he meet Athrun, but he found it to be difficult to follow the order. Athrun was his best friend, so it felt on his shoulder to dissuade the other man from fighting. Athrun's agitated behavior suggested that he was there to prevent something big from happening. Storing away the beam rifle, Kira activated Strike's beam saber once more. Both Kira and Athrun fought each other using their mobile suits' melee weapons.

"As expected, they didn't tell you!"

Not all secrets would be shared with him. Flay had told him about it, and subsequently Mu and even the stern Natarle alluded to that piece of truth. Information would be provided enough for him to carry out his mission, not more and not less. While that was true for the current operation, he was involved in the planning and clearly understood its aim. He couldn't understand how pushing ZAFT's fleet away from the sector had anything to do with the Valentine tragedy.

Maybe Athrun was referring to the use of nuclear weapons? That couldn't be as ZAFT had ensured they were useless. Even if they could be used, the Task Force was too near to the ZAFT's fleet to escape the ensuing nuclear radiation. Maybe Admiral Halberton was a Blue Cosmos fanatic who was willing to sacrifice the ships under his command. The idea was outlandish, given the admittedly limited interaction he had with the Admiral. However, even if the Admiral was that kind of man, there was no way the Eurasians would conspire to do so. Kira suspected Colonel Pogba was a high-functioning psychopath, interested in protecting his own interests. Therefore, the man wouldn't cooperate with any scheme that has the potential to end his life.

Kira was too deep in his thought that he barely registered Athrun's mobile suit kicking Strike's right hand, knocking out the beam rifle out of its grip while simultaneously inflicting some damage to the hand. Mu's words came to him. It was all part of the mind game, and Athrun took advantage of his indecision. How could he be so stupid and fall for the ruse?

While watching his enemy for any movement, Kira quickly typed a subroutine to compensate for the damage to the hand. It was just as well as he lost the beam rifle, since the accuracy had been affected. But it would be more than enough to operate the beam saber. Once again, he activated the weapon. He would not make the same mistake. Talk to Athrun, but don't listen to him. Keep him as busy as possible and, if the chance presented itself, disable Athrun's unit.

"Signal Wolf, Saber Fouer. I have the ball,"

Tolle's voice attracted Miriallia's attention, and she subconsciously cupped the earpiece in her left ear fondly. "Copy. You're cleared to land,"

Archangel had an automatic landing system that used a combination of laser and radio signal guidance that would communicate with the compatible system on Buster to allow the mobile suit to land effortlessly and correctly on the ship. However, Tolle still needed to verify whether the approach corresponds to the backup optical landing system, nicknamed 'ball', just in case.

"Roger that,"

From her console, Miriallia watched as Buster entered through the starboard side of the launcher and engaged vernier thrusters to slow down before the arresting net brought it to a complete stop. At this, she let out a long breath. Tolle had returned safely for another day. Even though the operation was still ongoing, Kira and Sai were still out there, there was no way for her boyfriend to return to the battlefield any time soon. Even though it was selfish of her, Miriallia couldn't help feeling happy about that.

While Miriallia had no problem working for the Earth Alliance, even though she's from ORB, she felt a bit conflicted for her boyfriend to risk his life fighting for it while she remained in the relatively safe environment. Being on the bridge was arguably unsafe as well, but as long as the Archangel stayed away from the key battle, it was as safe as it could be.

A small beep attracted her attention. Something had entered the long-range sensor range. Miriallia tried to run it through the identification system, but it drew a blank since it was still far away. She opened a private channel to Flay, who was managing the entire communication system. Surely her friend could redirect some of the fleet's sensors to focus on the newcomer to determine its intent. "Flay, I mean… Saber Echo, do you see the new bandit?"

"Confirming. Cleaning picture… It's a positive. Bandit detected. Vector toward Henry Bake," Flay replied in an even, bored voice, as if she was talking about something mundane.

Miriallia raised her eyebrows at the calm way Flay said about the incoming craft. The vector showed it was traveling at a high speed from the general direction of PLANTs. Even if she discounted those factors, the standard operating procedure would have her assume the newcomer posed a risk to the fleet, particularly the ship Flay was on. With that, the next course of action would be to direct an interception before it could get close. What should she do in the situation? She looked at the hangar. Buster was deactivated and Tolle had left the cockpit. Getting him in back in was an option, but Buster needed to recharge and have its armament replenished. Sending Tolle out in the mobile suit's current situation would endanger his life, something Miriallia was reluctant to do. However, as the CIC Operator, Miriallia had to stomp down her emotions for the success of the mission. "Roger. Saber Echo, I will get Buster to launch again."

"Negative, Signal Wolf. Buster is to stand down,"

To have Flay prevent her from sending Tolle out again relived Miriallia, but made her feel guilty at the same time. However, Flay's action didn't solve the potential problem and the newcomer finally entered radar range and the identification system announced that it was the size of a small shuttle or a large mobile armor. The Identification Friend or Foe system still drew a blank over what the craft was, but confirmed it had a transponder corresponding to a ZAFT unit.

It was a hostile. As Flay had mentioned, it was moving toward Henry Bake.

Miriallia switched the screen to view the hangar, and to her consternation, the technicians had already detached two parts from Buster, and many were working over the mobile suit. No, it was too late. She had to get someone else to intercept. "Saber Echo, Signal Wolf. I will direct Kira," Miriallia caught herself for forgetting to use the call sign, "I mean, Saber Two to intercept,"

"Negative, Signal Wolf! Negative!" Flay said, her earlier mask of calmness was gone. "Saber Two is to maintain his current directive! This is an order!"

Miriallia felt her blood curdled at the change of behavior. The said order by Flay also had her confused. Neither of the line-layers were armed to defend themselves from the newcomer.

"What's wrong, Ensign Haww?" Natarle was looking straight at her, waiting for an answer to explain strange behavior.

"Er… no… I…" Miriallia looked at the console, at Natarle, and back at the console. She didn't know what she was supposed to do at the moment; whether she answer Natarle's question or respond to Flay's demand.

"Signal Wolf. This is an order," Flay repeated. "You are to stand down! I say again, stand down!"

"But…"

"As a CIC Operator, follow my command! I say again, belay that order!" Flay repeated with an edge in her voice.

"But Kira…"

At the mention of his name, Flay's expression softened, and she shook her head while saying. "Getting distracted will be dangerous for him. I will not put him at risk unnecessarily, no matter the cost,"

"But you…"

"Say again, Mir," Flay said with a firm expression, using her name instead of her call sign.

Miriallia swallowed a sob. "Copy. Belaying intercept order,"

"You did the right thing, Mir," Flay assured her before her transmission ended abruptly, replaced by static as a section on the Henry Bake exploded. Miriallia stared at the empty screen, oblivious to Natarle's and Murrue's voices calling out to her.

The many debris all over the battlefield didn't stop the four mobile armors and their three GINN pursuers from weaving through them. Both sides' pilots were engaging in a deadly game of cat and mouse where a slight mistake would have a devastating and life-threatening consequence.

Lieutenant Park didn't become the flight leader just because his predecessors all lost their lives at the beginning of the wars. He had enough skills and experience to keep himself alive, and the prudence to use them always during the mission. Slow and steady wins the race was the maxim he adhered to. Being nominated to receive the covered Congressional Medal of Honor was a noble goal to strive for, but so was being alive to receive and celebrate it.

"Macrochelys One, permission to engage,"

"Negative, Macrochelys Three. Wait until I gave the command,"

Their pursuers retreated from their own attack on his fleet in order to prevent him from getting close to theirs. That meant they had spent a lot of energy and propellant doing so. It would be more advantageous to get them to waste more before going for a kill.

Park scanned the screen, trying to search for any sign of his adversaries. The debris field was playing havoc with the sensors and radar. Suddenly, his screen lit up as a decommissioned satellite just above his mobile armor exploded, spraying his mobile armor with debris. "Shit!" he cursed as the cockpit shook a bit. It was fortunate of him to take cover near the satellite or else he would have been killed. Before he could think of the next step, a GINN got close and begin shooting.

The mobile armor and mobile suit engaged in a series of dizzying maneuvers, with each pilot trying to get in the position to kill the other. Park fired off his Moebius' 40mm Vulcan Gun while his opponent shot his MMI-M8A3 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun.

Eventually, Park saw his chance, and he dove towards his quarry, catching the latter off guard. Multiple shots hit the GINN, and it exploded in a brief ball of fire and smoke. It was a hard-fought victory, but he knew that the genuine victory was to survive through it all, not to kill as many as he could. He put his palm together for a second while chanting a short sutra in his mind as a sign of respect for his fallen adversary, who fought bravely to the very end.

The next thing to do was to regroup with his flight. Strange. There was nothing being displayed on the radar; not his flight or the two GINNs they were fighting against. He pressed the communication button, but only static greeted him. Park was still trying to find out what happened when his mobile armor was hit by a beam rifle.

Miguel witnessed the destruction of the mobile armor with mixed feelings. A flight of four mobile armors defeating three mobile suits was something unacceptable since the mobile armors were cheaper to produce and compared to more complex mobile suits. To make it worse, the loss of three GINNs corresponded to the loss of three ZAFT pilots, which were more difficult to replace.

He wasn't sure why the mobile armors' fighting capability suddenly degraded in the last few minutes, but Miguel wasn't one to complain.

The fight between Kira and Athrun went on for a long time, so that Strike's energy level was down at an alarming level of 30 percent. On the other hand, he had just destroyed the right arm of Athrun's mobile suit, leaving it with only the shield on its left arm. Cognizant of the disadvantage, Athrun tried a desperate gamble of using the shield as a bludgeon weapon, but Kira easily cut off the left arm as well. Before Kira could capture Athrun once more, something hit Strike and exploded, ripping a chunk of its energy reserve. Shocked, Kira searched for the attacker and found a white mobile suit with a black torso attached to a booster. The newcomer's main camera module looked somewhat familiar.

"It's a Gundam," Kira uttered in disbelief. While he didn't know whether the newcomer used the same operating system, the main camera shared many similarities with his own mobile suit, complete with four matching antennas. The Gundam, which Kira presumed to be hostile, had had two weapons at its hip deployed and aimed at Strike; they were probably weapons used against it.

Kira eyed the newcomer warily, realizing Strike could not fight against it.

"All ZAFT forces in the area. We hit Antevorta. I repeat, we hit Antevorta," a synthesized voice leaked into their communication, seemingly from the newcomer.

"Antevorta?" Kira uttered in confusion.

"Our mission is now complete. All ZAFT mobile suits and ships are to disengage and retreat from the sector immediately," the voice said before terminating the transmission, and the newcomer engaged its boosters to leave.

"What happened?"

"Kira, the battle today convinced me I truly lost you as a friend," Athrun said, regret in his voice. "You willingly fought on their behalf just so they could kill more innocent people," he said before leaving. "Next time, I wouldn't hold back,"

With Strike's energy remaining at 12 percent because of the damage it took, it had neither the reserve nor the weapon to go after Athrun's mobile suit, leaving Kira gazing at its departing back. He only realized what had happened when a tearful Miriallia informed him that the ship Flay was on had been attacked.

"Admiral, hostiles retreating from AO. Hostiles retreating from AO," a CIC operator announced.

Having ZAFT mobile suits and ships leaving the Area of Operation meant the Task Force had achieved its primary objective. However, Halberton remained tense. The advantage the force was enjoying throughout the battle was almost taken away when Henry Bake was disabled. It was a good thing McIntosh was left unscathed, as otherwise the situation could have devolved further. "Recall our mobile armors,"

The command was quickly followed as the CIC operators contacted the mobile armors under their control to deliver the message. At the same time, the corresponding flares were shot to signal the same thing in case the communique was not received. Even though the process was underway to recover the mobile armors, Halberton's mind was already moving on to the next thing. While it was an experiment at an unprecedented scale and the task force suffered a lot of casualties, it was a massive success. There were lessons to be learned, oh, there were a lot of them to be sure, but the operation was a massive success. Inflicting massive damage to ZAFT and forcing it to retreat was a significant achievement by itself. However, that paled with the other achievement.

With enough preparation, it was possible to fight with a full situational awareness.

An epiphany came to him. Perhaps this is what his subordinate has been talking about when the man griped that Duane has been focusing so much on certain things instead of the whole picture. In a way, just like one would disseminate troops, equipment, and assets in an effective manner to ensure the operation's success, one should also treat information as a resource. Knowing an enemy's movement allowed countermeasures to be made against it. Whether Duane was correct or wrong, what mattered was the ZAFT's siege has been lifted. The Victoria Mass Driver would be free to reestablish the supply line to the Ptolemaeus Lunar Base and reinforce the space forces.

Duane had no illusion ZAFT might launch a counterattack, even to the extent of using the same strategy that he had utilized against them. However, his mission was to capture the exit area. The task of maintaining it would be carried out by someone else. Instead, he would move on to the next theater, the next area of operation.

"Operation Starlight Picnic is a go, then?" Jeremy, who was next to him, asked in a small voice.

"Yes, with some alteration, and after the ships arrive,"

"You are trying to run away from what had just happened, aren't you?" There was no accusation in Jeremy's words.

"Yes, I am. How am I going to tell my best friend about what had just happened to his kid under my watch? I don't even dare ask about her condition!"

"I admit, that is difficult," came the observation. "But wouldn't the situation be favorable to us?"

Duane narrowed his eyes. "Use her, you mean?"

"No need, not when a carefully crafted narrative can achieve more."

The admiral turned to stare at his companion, who seemed unperturbed by the look he received.

"Let me point out that it was you who used her and her father in the first place," Jeremy said.

"So were you,"

"True. But I'm not the one who's feeling guilty,"

Duane wondered if Jeremy's superiors felt the urge to shoot the man, just like he was feeling at the time. He thought Hoffman was a very difficult subordinate, and it was unfortunate he had found a more annoying one. But Jeremy Pogba was very good at his job and until everything ended, he would be stuck with the man no matter how bad the latter's personality was. Duane's frustration continued to boil over until he summed the whole thing up the way he knew how.

"Fuck!"

Upon hearing from Mirriallia about what happened, Kira quickly made his way to the damaged Henry Bake without prior permission from the Archangel. He then secured Strike to the ship by grabbing one of its fixtures and then entered through an airlock by hacking it open from outside. While his first impulse was to ask around, but with people moving about hastily caused him reconsider his option. Eventually, he accessed the nearby panel to locate the medical room and went there.

Kira kept moving along the ship's corridor, ignoring the people who were working to repair the damaged sections. The damage was quite severe, but in his limited knowledge and experience, it was still manageable. While most of the people he met along the way were focused on their own work, a man actually tried to stop and ask questioned his presence. In response, Kira grabbed the man's face with his hand and pushed the man behind him, saying that he was in no mood to waste his time.

Normally, such a reaction would have drawn a reaction from the rest of the crew members, but they were quite occupied with their own efforts to bring everything under control to think about the minor altercation. Besides, there were few of them who seemed to recognize Kira, judging from their expression.

Eventually, he arrived at the medical room. The first thing that hit Kira's mind when he entered it was that it was utter chaos. Metallic scent of blood permeated throughout the room as the medical personnel were trying to treat the wounded crew members to the best of their abilities despite being overwhelmed by the sheer number. The sounds of people groaning and gasping in pain, medical personnel shouting out orders and updates on patients' conditions, the beeps of the monitor, fill the air, making it almost impossible to hear anything clearly. Meanwhile, two orderlies were trying to stabilize a patient on the examination table as the heart monitor was flashing some warning while someone on the next table was trying to cut through the space suit of another injured patient.

While his heart ached at the scene, his mind was more focused on searching for just one person. Flay, still wearing her flight suit, was seated on the floor in a corner of the room, leaning against the wall, watching the whole pandemonium quietly.

Kira approached her.

When she noticed him approaching her, Flay smiled. "Kira, I'm glad you're alright," she said to him.

Flay looked so relaxed despite everything going on around her that Kira felt something was wrong with the picture. When he got close enough, he finally noticed what was wrong. The redhead's face was paler than usual, and her complexion wasn't good. Meanwhile, her right hand was pressing an area around her stomach.

"Are you alright?"

Flay pulled away her right hand, revealing a wound with a pointed shrapnel on it. "I told them to focus on others who needed more urgent attention."

"Flay!" Kira was about to get up and search for a medic to attend to her, but Flay's left hand on his stopped him.

"Please, I had waited for you, so please don't leave me," Flay whispered through gritted teeth. "Not now," she said, while tugging his hand.

Kira agreed and sat down.

"I'm sorry, Kira."

Kira put his hand on top of her left hand. "Why?"

"I didn't lie, but I held everything away from you, and Sai. Like you're the first and now. I thought I was prepared to throw it away, and Sai, he was supposed to be the anchor, but I couldn't lie... myself," she said while trying to maintain her smile but failing to do so. "I don't matter… you are… to me. Promise me…" she continued, as her eyes already lost their lights and not looking at him anymore.

Kira grasped her left hand. "I promise,"

"Be careful… of… Logos… your enemy if…," Flay mumbled in a delirious manner before she succumbed to her injuries and fell unconscious.

1

A/N

1. The ball is a reference to the landing system used to provide visual guidance to aircraft landing on aircraft carrier.

2. Amateurs talk strategy; professionals talk logistics is often attributed to the military strategist and historian B. H. Liddell Hart. This quote is also attributed to General Omar Bradley.