Gundam Seed: The Federation

by Blackshadow999

Different telling of Gundam Seed. With the conflict between Naturals and Coordinators getting worse as time passes, some nations have banded together and formed the organization known as the Human Federation. Will the Federation be able to help bring peace or will the hatred between Naturals and Coordinators destroy everything and bring extinction of humanity? Cover by SaddlePatch

19. Phase 19: Chaotic World

A/n

Alrighty then, as you readers no doubt noticed, this chapter isn't short in any way. However, in my defense, I covered a good deal of material in this chapter. I left off at the end of the Battle of the Alliance verses the Federation in the Republic. As usual, I don't own nothing to do with the Gundam Universe, as neat and cool as that would be, I own none of it. Just take credit for my characters and musings. So then, on with the tale!

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Phase 19: A Chaotic World

June 11th 71 C.E.

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-Neutral pov-

The Orb Union

When reports of the beginning of the Earth Alliance's attack on the Republic came to the Orb Union, it increased the already growing tension and worry which had been building since the Alliance's loss of Panama. The military headquarters was abuzz of activity, both preparing the country's own defenses and watching the battle as it unfolded in the Republic through their connection to the Federation's Information Network. For near all, it was painful to witness the lengths that those who led the Alliance were willing to go to obtain their goals. Many of those watching, seeing the Republic which was known as a country of peaceful for any to go and relax, was hard. Yet, all knew that this event, these actions of the Earth Forces and in extension, the Earth Alliance, were only the beginning of worse things to come.

With the Orb Union having joined the Human Federation a year ago, they knew Orb wouldn't be spared from the Alliance intentions. The Orb's military were well aware their turn would come soon enough. However, since becoming members of the Federation, the buildup of Federation military forces had been happening so, there was now a sizable addition to Orb's defending forces. Thankfully, none of the incoming Federation military forces had been rejected by the citizens of Orb, as many of the Federation soldiers became citizens of the Orb Union themselves with their families.

Those that worked and ran the government, were worrying the most, and it wasn't if the Alliance would attack, but rather when and what they would do when they came. The attack on the Republic had shown that the Earth Alliance no longer intended to be nice or polite about their plans and goals. The Alliance had renewed its drive to win their war against ZAFT with the results from battle of JOSH-A. However, that drive took a blow with the loss of Panama and its mass driver. Now it was clear, that trying to retake Victoria from ZAFT wasn't enough to satisfy those leading the Earth Alliance. They also intended to force other countries and nations of Earth into either joining them or labeling the country an enemy and just taking them over by force.

The horrible part of this, the actions of the Alliance went against the agreement made that they wouldn't do what they were over a decade ago with the Human Federation. The agreement was known as the "Ordea Treaty" and had been drafted to keep the peace between the Federation and the Alliance. Before the treaty had been put in place, the tensions between the two sides had been extremely harsh. Yet, now the Earth Alliance was ignoring the treaty, by attempting to force the member nations of the Federation to either join them or be taken over instead.

Uzumi Athha, the chief representative in the council that was the head of Orb's government, was personally worried about the woman that he saw as a friend and colleague that led the Republic. Ellen Blass had been a longtime friend and had been able to help his daughter Cagalli in ways that he, her father hadn't been able to do. And now, the country she had ogiven so much of herself for, was being attacked physically and on its principles. Having been to the Republic himself, Uzumi felt pain to see and know that such a beautiful nation being marred like it was. Uzumi could understand the feeling of pain and sorrow of the place you call home being threatened. And soon, Uzumi knew he would know first-hand what it felt like to have to watch one's country assaulted.

As the hours passed since the initial reports of the attack on the Republic had started coming in, then the reports of the victory of the Republic over the Earth Forces came to Orb and there was slight relief at the news. However, the losses initial estimates came in just after the reports of victory and the loss on the defending side, dampened the positive feelings that came with knowing of the victory. The losses hadn't been small, many people had died, a sizable amount of damage had been incurred, both would take time to accept and move on from. Still knowing that, didn't help dispel the worry or tension that hung over Orb, it only kept increasing.

Less than a day went by after the news of the Alliance being repelled from the Republic came, the Orb Union received a message from the Atlantic Federation. In the message, it was stated that the contents was from the Earth Alliance, but the subject matter gave a feel that was different, much more what is expected from the Atlantic Federation. The representative council had gathered together to address the message from the Atlantic Federation. Representative Homura Athha, the second most senior representative among the group, read the message out loud to the others there. "The message from the Atlantic Federation states that this is our final warning and it is as follows:

The Orb Union has failed to take into consideration the current state of world affairs and has abandoned its inherent responsibilities as a nation of Earth and only seeks to preserve its own domestic peace. Its claims of membership to the Human Federation are invalid, as the group has shown to not have the best, or any interest for the good of Earth, so is not being recognized as a legitimate group by the Alliance. Furthermore, your nation has continued to refuse repeated requests for cooperation with the other nations of Earth in efforts to bring peace to Earth. With the need of safeguarding and protecting the world from those who threaten it, such can no longer be ignored. Therefore, on behalf of all the member states of the Earth Alliance, we demand the following concessions from the Orb Union.

The immediate resignation of Orb Union's current government.

The disarmament and the subsequent demobilization of all its armed forces.

Should these demands not be met in forty-eight hours, then the Earth Alliance has no choice, but to conclude the Orb Union is a supporter of ZAFT, who is an enemy of Earth, and will confront your nation with force.

That is the full contents," finished Homura, putting down the page.

There was muttering between those in the room at what the Atlantic Federation was demanding. However, it was Uzumi Athha that reacted outwardly, and it was in anger and incredulity, "What ridiculous nonsense!"

"Indeed," agreed representative Homura. "It is easy to see why many in the Federation military have been preparing for the time the Alliance gained the ability to mass produce mobile suits, for with these results, those concerns are verified."

"Do they now, no longer have the decency to make the attempt to use diplomacy, or even hide their real intentions, they don't even hide their true colors now that they've lost Panama? Damn the Atlantic Federation!" growled Uzumi Athha.

Another at the table then spoke up, "For them to say what they did about the Human Federation, and then to not recognize it as a separate group, it is clear they are adamant in their efforts. Unfortunately Representative Athha, there's already an Alliance fleet heading south towards us according to the latest from the Information Network. They must have headed out not too long after the fleet that attacked the Republic did. That leaves the question, how many of the Alliance's seaborne fleets have been mobilized for their vendetta."

"For Orb, it's Morgenroete and the mass driver that they're really after, there's no more doubt," remarked Homura.

"No matter how absurd these demands are, it seems that the Atlantic Federation doesn't care about the Ordea Treaty, since their actions show they've dismissed it," said a third representative.

"With the Republic having repelled the Alliance's attack, the other member nations of the Federation are already preparing for similar attacks from the Alliance," said a woman.

"The Republic isn't likely in a position to assist with the battle they've fought, and the Equatorial Union is readying itself with the Alliance activity that's increasing along their western border and, so they can't send help either right now," commented a man.

"ZAFT's Carpentaria base has heard what is happening and is also asking for an audience to get more information on the situation," said yet another.

All these facts only seemed to hammer the point that those who were leading the Alliance were making sure the war between the Alliance and the PLANTs continued. It angered Uzumi greatly, to see the world, the moon and the colonies were being pull further and further away from any chance of peace for anyone and closer to complete destruction of everything. Uzumi ended out voicing his dislike in words, "The world is being divide into two armed camps because of the Atlantic Federation, or rather those like Blue Cosmos who have control and influence that hate Coordinators! Does everyone have to either be an ally or an enemy in this senseless conflict? Why should any in the Human Federation throw away their laws and/or principles, in order to fight whichever enemy we're told to?! All that is at the end of that path is destruction and nothingness for all."

The statements from Uzumi, sparked worried muttering from the other representatives around the table. For the implications, true as they were, still made the future for Orb and the other member nations of the Federation look darker and darker. Nevertheless, Uzumi kept going, "If we join forces with the Alliance, then the PLANTs become our enemy. But then, if we join forces with the PLANTs, then the Alliance becomes our enemy. Even if we were able to avoid conflict with the Alliance today by agreeing with their demands and leaving the Federation, we would suffer the same fate as Panama or even Victoria tomorrow! The second we side with one of them, all chances to avoid the war vanishes, that's why the side of the Human Federation is so important in this conflict."

"Representative Athha, as much as we all agree with your sentiments, it's clear that the Alliance isn't going to take that justification for an answer," said a representative.

Homura cleared his throat to gain the attention of the room, "Then, our next actions are just as clear, we should give the evacuation orders to the citizens. Their safety needs to be the highest priority and there still is time to get them out and avoid possible innocent casualties."

All the governing representatives went silent at what Homura said, before one of the representatives nodded and spoke what was on the minds of most in the room. "Representative Homura… you're right. Let us pray that our people, especially the children, will suffer the least amount of tragedy during these difficult times that have come upon us."

-Line Break-

The Archangel

The entire crew of the Archangel gather together in the hanger at the request of Murrue as she said that she had something serious to talk about with all of them. Once everyone was there, Murrue faced all of those who had been under her command throughout this journey. Mu was on her right and Krystal was on the left of Murrue. Kira was on the sidelines of the crew who were lined up in rows of ten with five rows in total.

The crew was bigger than it had been starting out from Heliopolis, which had been less than even a reasonable skeleton crew almost half of what the Archangel's normal crew compliment was. From the 8th fleet, there had been three officers and a number of non-commissioned officers transferred over to the Archangel, fifteen of them in fact. Only two out of those fifteen had received training for bridge station operations, which helped, but still, the Archangel was far from the full crew compliment of one-hundred-eighty. With what had happened at JOSH-A, so much had changed or rather, so many things had become clear that they had been ignorant of before. Now, the Archangel was a runaway ship and that was a harsh title to be labeled as, for it was close to the same as deserters or traitors.

"Thank you all for gathering here, I wanted you to all know how things stand as I believe that all of you deserve to know the truth. An Earth Alliance fleet is on its way here to Orb right now. We're told the reason that the Alliance is giving for this action is unless Orb joins forces with the Earth Alliance and fight against the PLANTs, thereby leaving the Human Federation, they will be considered a supporter of ZAFT," Murrue stated.

There were gasps of astonishment and disbelief, but it was Jackie Tonomura that voiced what most if not all of the crew were thinking, "But that's ridiculous!"

Mutterings of agreement to Jackie's statement came from a number of those in the hanger, yet Murrue continued where she'd left off. "By what information we have received, the Republic of East Asia has already been attacked by the Earth Forces for the same reason. And even with the Orb government is stressing and sticking to its position as a member nation of the Human Federation, it doesn't seem that it's having any effect. Along with the Federation's neutral stance in this war, along with informing the Alliance's demands go against the Ordea Treaty, in which the Earth Alliance agreed not to coheres other non-Alliance members, countries or territories."

Murrue paused as the next part of what she would say, was more her opinion, rather than fact, "The government is still pursuing a diplomatic solution even as we speak… but unfortunately, judging by the actions of the Earth Forces so far, the chances of avoiding a conflict is extremely slim. The attack on the Republic of East Asia is proof of that and it appears that the Alliance won't stop, even when they were repelled back once. The government is giving orders to its citizens to evacuate cities and areas in close proximity to military facilities. Orb is also readying their defenses in preparation for the worst-case scenario, predictions are being formed with what's know that come from the early reports of the battle at the Republic."

Murrue took a deep breath, about to come to the whole point of this, "Now each one of us, must make a decision as well. At the moment, The Archangel is a runaway ship and our status is undetermined. There's no one giving us orders, not even myself, of what to do about this situation with Orb. If you choose to stay onboard the Archangel and an attack prove unavoidable, then it will commence at 0900 hours the day after tomorrow and the Archangel will be fighting on the side of Orb. If you choose to leave the ship, then you are to evacuate according to the Orb's government's instructions. That's the choice that each of us has to make, whether we stay or go. Therefore, if you wish to leave, now's the time. Rest assured, none of us will think less of you should you choose to do so. All I can say for myself, is that it has been a real honor to serve with you all and I've felt privileged to command you all this far."

The next couple of minutes, only muttering was heard among the crew, then Murrue gave her last piece, "I know I've not always been the most reliable captain during this journey, and I want to thank you all for sticking with me up to this point. As I said, it has been a privilege to have led you all, may you all think hard about your decision. This is my final order, you are dismissed to make your decision."

The crew filtered out of the hanger, leaving Murre, Mu and Krystal in the hanger alone. Murrue sighed after watching the crew leave the room, "I'm left to wonder how many will leave the ship," she said to no one in particular.

Mu came up and put a hand to Murrue's shoulder, "I think you will be pretty surprised at what will result from this will be."

"I agree with Mu in this," said Krystal, "I'm confident that the majority will stay. This crew has gone through things that change anyone and that's something you don't forget."

Throughout the Archangel, the crew was making their decision individually, whether to keep going onboard the ship or to leave and take their chances. A small number did exit the ship, but most of the crew stayed where they were. With all the stuff they had been through together, they would stay and go the distance with their comrades.

Tolle, who had already decided that he was going to stay, had put on his uniform as he would be on duty soon, then headed towards the bridge. He felt the need for something to do to occupy his time to not let his mind dwell on what was coming. Hearing about the attack on the Republic and knowing that Tyler would've been there during that event didn't sit well with Tolle. He didn't doubt Tyler was still alive, after all he had survived the destruction of the Shadow, a battle with the Alliance would probably not dampen his style.

As Tolle was thinking, he stepped out of his quarters and he found himself bumping into Kuzzey. Even more surprising was that Kuzzey was still in the Earth Forces uniform, for Tolle, Miriallia and Sai had kind of expected Kuzzey to leave the ship. "Kuzzey? You're still here and in the Alliance uniform?" Questioned Tolle.

Kuzzey gained a serious expression on his face, "I… I thought about leaving the ship, I really did, since I hate all this fighting and what this war is doing to the world and the colonies. I know that you and the others say that I'm too nice for stuff like this and you're right. But even so, after believing that Tyler died and feeling the pain of that loss… I don't want to go through that kind of experience again, living with the regret that I ran away from where my friends were and then find out they died when I wasn't there. So, I'm going to stay on the Archangel, no matter the dangers that will come or how scared I'll get. I'm staying with those I care about and helping in whatever way I can, even if it's the simple things only."

Tolle was in a mild state of shock at hearing the determination that Kuzzey was showing. Kuzzey had always been more like a teddy bear, soft, nice and one that dislike violence and would avoid it as much as he could. But at Kuzzey's firm determination, Tolle felt a smile creep on his face, before he moved forward and hugged Kuzzey. Now it was Kuzzey's turn to feel shock, and he was about to ask Tolle what he was doing, when Tolle spoke. "Then you'll be in the best of company Kuzzey! I was thinking that all of us would have to say farewell to you for the time being, but apparently not and that's awesome!"

Meanwhile, Miriallia headed down to the brig of the Archangel, having been asked to release the prisoner that had been kept onboard. She was carrying the red ZAFT pilot uniform, to give it back to the guy who had come out of the Buster. Miriallia came into the brig and inputted the code to open the cell and the blonde, tan skinned guy, looked up at her, "So then, questioning or a transfer?" Asked Dearka.

Miriallia glanced at Dearka, then tossed the red pilot suit at him, "This ship will be going into battle again, because the Earth Forces are going to attack Orb," she replied evenly.

Dearka stared at Miriallia in confusion, to suddenly be released was so unexpected, that Dearka didn't know what to say. He didn't get any chance to say anything, since Miriallia kept going as she began turning away from him. "Apparently, you're free to go now, you're being released," remarked Miriallia.

Miriallia started walking away from the cell and heading towards the door of the cell block. Yet, Dearka got up and began to follow Miriallia, "Wha… Wait a minute, what do you mean this ship is going into battle again?" He asked.

Miriallia didn't face Dearka, just kept walking towards the door, but she did answer the question asked her. "Exactly what I said, Orb is likely going to be attacked by the Alliance, and the Archangel is planning to help Orb in their defense. That's probably why there isn't a good reason to keep you in the brig onboard, so get off."

That caught Dearka's attention, yet made so little sense to him, "Okay… what I want to know is why you guys are fighting against the Earth Forces, it doesn't make sense," Dearka questioned.

The two came out into the corridor as the conversation continued, "It's because Orb refused to side with the Alliance and will stay with the Human Federation," said Miriallia.

"Huh? Okay, I get the idea of wanting to stay with the Human Federation, but then why would fighting with the Earth Forces come up then? The Federation has always been insistent with staying neutral, hasn't it?" Posed Dearka.

Miriallia spun around and glared at Dearka, "What's it to you?! Anyways, when the fighting starts, it will be chaotic around here, so get lost, you're on your own," she snapped.

Dearka drew back slight at the snapped reply, "That's easy for you to say… wait, what about my Buster?" Dearka demanded.

"It was ours to begin with, since you seemed to have forgotten that, you idiot. Morgenroete has it now," Miriallia shot back.

At hearing that, Dearka felt his mood drop lower. So, not only was he being 'released' which was pretty much to be taken as being kicked off the ship that had captured him earlier. But now, he also was going to be denied the mobile suit he had been using. Things were certainly not looking too bright or really very nice, the longer Dearka thought about the current standing he had.

"I'm sorry that things ended out this way. And I'm sorry for trying to stab you before, I was… having a hard time back then, thought a friend had died," apologized Miriallia.

Dearka looked up at this girl that had talked to him while he had been onboard this ship. It looked like she actually meant the apology that she was giving to him. But, that also meant that Dearka himself, had been an unknowing idiot with the joking he had been doing at the time. He had been joking about a 'friend' dying, he had not thought a thing of it… until this girl had tried seriously to stab him with one of the medical tools. That action had gotten Dearka to consider that his words hadn't had the effect he had been going for, which was to lighten the mood. So, Dearka himself was partially to blame for that situation due to what he had said, "I should say I'm sorry for that time too. I was trying to lighten the mood, a habit of mine when I'm in a tense air," Dearka remarked. Dearka then had a thought, then grabbed her upper arm, "Then, are you going into this fight too?" He asked.

Miriallia looked Dearka square in the face, "I'd better be, I'm assigned to be in the Archangel's CIC!" said Miriallia, yanking her arm away from Dearka. "Besides, Orb is my homeland."

Miriallia left Dearka in the corridor, and he was left to a growing conundrum in his mind at the situation that was developing.

-Line Break-

Pacific Ocean

The sizable Earth Forces fleet, the 2nd fleet of the Earth Forces, was made up of twenty-nine ships, pasted the outer most borderline that made up the Orb Union territory. The fleet consisted of fourteen Fraser-class frigates, which were one-hundred-fifty-two meters in length. They had their main 127mm rapid fire gun and carried a number of missile launchers, normally used to bombard defenses of enemy bases on Earth. Positioned on the outsides of the fleet's formations, they were the lightest and fastest ships within the fleet.

Next, there were ten Des Moines-class cruisers, one-hundred-ninety meters in length and were similar to the Earth Alliance's Arkansas-class cruiser. They possessed a 155mm rapid fire gun on the front and had missile tubes built into the ship. Making up the core of the Alliance fleet, they kept in the middle part of the armada. They carried aircraft like VTOL fighters and F-7D Spearheads on them, which weren't as good as mobile suits, but still helped at wearing down an enemy.

Then last but not least, the five Spengler-class carriers, two-hundred meters from bow to stern. The carriers lacked in the area of armaments, but with the aircraft and mobile suits contained in them, they made up for the absence of weapons. For all but one of the Spengler-class ships, they carried the new GAT-01 Strike Daggers, the mass production mobile suit models the Alliance had. There were also helicopters and other aircraft flew above the seaborn 2nd fleet as it moved forward towards their intended destination.

On the lead Spengler class, which was named the Powell, Blue Cosmos director Muruta Azrael was looking at the reply the Alliance had received from Orb's government. "Your demands are unjust, so therefore we cannot accept them. The Orb Union is a member nation of the Human Federation and will remain so for the foreseeable future," read Azrael in a flat tone, then the man laughed. "I have to admit Representative Athha, impressive comeback from you. I'm glad to see that both he and Blass didn't fail to disappoint in giving us a chance to go against them. Truth is, I was a tad worried that after knowing the Republic was attacked by the Earth Forces, I was worried that he would think about agreeing to our demands. Now, we have all the more reason to conduct our test with the new suits. I just hope they oblige us by fighting until the bitter end. That, I'll enjoy to the fullest!"

The captain of the vessel looked to Azrael, "Sir, we still haven't received word from the 1st fleet has engaged the Federation forces around the Republic. They were to meet up with us and assist in the expected assault on Orb afterward," said the man.

Azrael smiled, "Indeed they are my good man, but do give them time and patience. The Republic's defensive capabilities have been estimated to be strong. I don't doubt they will be meeting up with us once things are settled. You should have some faith in your colleagues," he replied.

"I understand that director, but with no word from them yet," the captain pointed out.

The blonde-haired man sighed, "Very well, I will call my contact who is with the 1st fleet and ask how things are going on their end in a little while. Then we can get to planning who the upcoming operation will go," Azrael said.

The Captain of the Powell nodded slowly at the suggestion and began thinking about the battle that loomed with Orb. The nation was strong and powerful, like all the member nations of the Human Federation were thought to be. The issue was that there was so little information on the strength of the Federation military, whether in space, on Earth or defending their member nations from attack. No one had seriously attacked any part of the Human Federation openly like the Alliance was now doing.

The lack of communication from the Alliance's 1st naval fleet, worried the captain of the Powell and felt like a bad omen. He knew he wasn't the only one that had tried attempting to make contact with the fleet, and none had received anything back. The absence of a reply could be for a variety of reasons, something blocking transmissions, to the worst-case scenario, the fleet had been wiped out by the Republic defending forces. It was possible, a number of commanding officers in the Earth Forces knew the Federation would be a more vicious opponent that ZAFT had been thus far in the war, even if the leadership didn't agree openly. For those who had even a little experience against the Federation military, they were aware that the Federation would be ready to receive an Alliance attack. Either way, there would be losses on the side of the Earth Alliance and about half of those in the fleet, regardless of rank knew this as fact.

-Line Break-

Spengler-class Lawdon, Eastern Quadrant of the Indian Ocean

The remanence of the Alliance's 1st fleet, which had assaulted the Republic before ending out retreating, was now sailing south of the Republic through the ocean south of Asia. The Earth Forces vessels were heading towards the Victoria base that had originally belonged to the Earth Alliance. The 4th seaborne fleet was on their way to the base to commence the operation to retake the place from ZAFT. It had started on March 13th in year 69 of the Cosmic Era, ZAFT attacked the base that had been the Alliance's headquarters on Earth. The second battle of Victoria had gone on for nearly two days off and on, with neither side giving in to the other. But then, a little after dawn on March 15th, that changed, for then she came, the ZAFT champion, the Black Zephyr had joined the ZAFT forces.

When that woman appeared on the field, the battle that had gone on for a few days, ended in a matter of just over an hour. That hour however, had been the most horrible hour in the second battle of Victoria for the Earth Forces. It was still one of the worst losses the Earth Forces taken in the war thus far. Yet, the amount of embarrassment that had come from the Black Zephyr whipping the Alliance and losing their headquarters had hurt in a way that words couldn't say. Nevertheless, to make it more painful, not that it was needed, but to have lost in that short of time, it was something the Alliance hadn't been able to live down. Since then, the Earth Alliance had been planning how to take back their former headquarters from ZAFT with care and preparation.

As the ships traveled, Mina Moss was in her quarters, going over the records of the recent battle of the Earth Forces going against the Federation forces in the Republic. The facts were as she'd seen during this war, even if the Federation had not actively participated in it. The first was that the Earth Forces had grossly underestimated the Federation's military and the strength they had. Anyone with common sense and logic, which many in the Alliance were lacking in Mina's opinion and there was a great deal of evidence to support that view. One merely could look at past events and make some sound observations about the Federation. The amount of preparation the Federation military made was well-thought out and took in many factors into account, more than most would. It had been clear to Mina that the odds that the Federation having mobile suits was very high and had been so for an amount of time.

Second, Mina hadn't accounted for the number of custom Federation mobile suits. She'd expected one, maybe two or three of them and she'd been confident that her girls could handle such working together to win against such a situation. But even they couldn't take on seven of them at the same time and then, the that unknown crimson suit that had appeared later in the battle, then siding with the Federation forces had added to the difficulty. Her girls were good at getting good results, but even they would have serious issues taking on multiple custom machines, and there had been eight of them. From Mina's experience, a custom mobile suit almost always had above average pilot that was skilled, usually bordering on expert or better in with their capabilities. So, custom machines equaled dangerous opponents and were to be avoided as best as those on the field were able and were to be taken on cautiously in necessary.

Yet, it was because of that 'equation', which had the Earth Forces wanting her and others to create the perfect soldiers that none could defeat. That's what the lab received the majority of its funding for, the enhanced human project, but they were such fools to believe a feat like that was possible. Such a soldier never would exist, there's no such thing as an undefeatable soldier or pilot or a "perfect human". One had already tried that, and Ulen Hibiki had had failed in that dream of his, he had intelligence and talent and had wasted it all on the obsession in Mina's view. Not to say that the work on the enhanced human project hadn't making strides of improving some subjects to be able to do better. Some of her candidates could perform as well, if not somewhat better than average ZAFT pilots at this point.

Anyway, even with the loss that had been incurred against the Republic's defending forces, the data that had been acquired on the Raptor, the Sinister, and the Bandit had made the sacrifice a fair exchange to Mina. The adjustments that would be made by the time the fleet reached Victoria would make a difference. If those results were impressive enough, then perhaps the funders would get off Mina's back, stop demanding ridiculous things and keep the money flowing in. Mina didn't like having to deal with financial backers, most just wanted results and didn't care or understand the work put in or involved in projects.

Nothing she or any of the other scientists at the lab did, had been noticed by those who gave the money that the lab needed to keep going. None of the financial backers the lab had, ever seemed to possess a bit of gratitude or were satisfied with anything. Every single representative from a funding group for the lab, no matter how many times she had shown them examples from different projects, did any of them see the value of what those in the lab did. None of them had cared about the work and time that had gone into the projects. Not a single 'good work' or 'this is an incredible achievement', just 'is that all you can offer' and 'can't you do more'. It was crap like that which frustrated Mina so much! Hell, she had been considering going to the Federation or even ZAFT, in the hopes that one of those two sides would understand the real value the work had. Granted, there would be projects that neither of those two factions would like, but if giving up a couple of projects was the price to pay for notice and encouragement to continue, then that might not be such a bad trade off. Especially, with how the Alliance had been treating those at the lab, including herself lately.

A beeping sound drew Mina's attention and she saw that there was an incoming call on the terminal in her quarters. Connecting the com-signal, Mina hid her irritation which flared up at the sight of Muruta Azrael on the screen, "Director Azrael, how unexpected to get a call from you. So then, what do you want this time?" Mina greeted flatly.

"My my, to the point as ever Mina. Well, I hadn't heard from you, so I thought I would check and see how things were going on your end," Azrael returned.

Mina scoffed a bit, "The answer to that, would be the Earth Forces 1st fleet you put me with, failed miserably at what they were assigned."

Azrael's reaction was controlled, but it was clear the answer Mina had given wasn't the one that he wanted. But Mina saw that Azrael was unhappy, "Is that so, define what you mean by failed miserably, Mina," he said.

Mina thought for a moment, and decided that to boost her mood, she would tell this man exactly how the idiots around her had failed so spectacular. "Of course Director, I'm more than happy to oblige you in your request. The Alliance forces weren't able to take the Republic in any way and ended out being ousted by the defending forces. And then, they lost close to sixty percent of the strength they came with as well by the time they retreated." Mina said in a mocking sing song voice. Then Mina's voice and expression returned to the annoyed and irritated look she had before, "That's what I mean by failed miserably Azrael, I could go into more detail should you wish, but I doubt that you want to hear more right now. Honestly, I don't have a high opinion of the one in charge of this fleet. I had to simplify the situation by laying it out in the form of the risk versing the plausible outcome. By the time he comprehended the point, half the fighting forces had been disabled or lost," Mina iterated.

Azrael quickly began having issues at hiding his emotions, to hear that things weren't going according to plan wasn't what Muruta Azrael wanted to hear. "And what of those candidates of yours that you are so proud of? With the way you talked about them, I would have thought they would've made a different in the battle. Yet, by what I'm hearing, it sounds like they failed as well," he sneered.

Mina gained a foul expression at hearing Azrael say that her girls had failed, "Mocking my work is VERY unwise Azrael, don't make that mistake, you've shown yourself smarter than to do that! My work including, candidates and mobile suits you had me do the designing and do a good deal of overseeing with their construction, aren't at fault. The Earth Forces have grossly underestimated the Federation military strength and they paid the price for it, plain and simple. For you to expect a couple to pick up the slack that many are leaving due to their stupidity is not just ridiculous, but also pathetic. Besides, the data acquired for the three suits with me was worth the time, the improvements will make the difference in the next battle. The candidates from the lab were designed and trained to go against ZAFT forces, not the Federation soldiers and there is a difference, even if there are those in the Alliance say there isn't, they are blind. Should you want or need proof of what I say, my candidates will prove their value when what's left of the fleet reaches Victoria and links up with the 4th fleet. I would assume that the forces trying to retake the base, will still be working on the job by the time we get there, since ZAFT won't make it easy in any way. My girls will speed that along and will achieve the results that will have a lot less damage to the mass driver than there would be with just the Alliance's Strike Daggers suits doing the job."

Azrael suddenly gained a bit of a smile, "Oh Mina, it's nice to see that your confidence is still healthy. Very well then, I'll give you the opportunity to show me what they can do against those they've been trained to fight. I look forward to hearing from you with the results of Victoria with a sales pitch like that. Until then, keep up with that attitude of yours."

The call with Azrael ended, and the room was left in silence as it had been before the call had come. Mina was left fuming at the man that she had quickly come to dislike, Muruta Azrael. Granted, Blue Cosmos was one of the bigger funders that the lab had, but it wasn't pleasant to have one's work questioned. It was one of Mina Moss's serious pet peeves, to have her work questioned or doubted and it irked her to an extreme. None at Lodonia Lab did such a thing anymore, they knew better and knew that there were consequences with doing so. However, she knew that should she want the funding to continue coming, she would have to play nice enough to keep it that way. But she would have the one she trusted at the Lab seriously look into seeing if the Federation or even ZAFT, would be interested in some of the work the Lodonia Lab did.

-Line Break-

-Tyler's pov-

The Republic

With the Earth Forces gone, the battle mercifully was over, but that doesn't mean the work that needed to be done could be ignored. The damage done by the Alliance was painful to look at, more so when you knew what it had looked like. The city of Shira had been beautiful and a thriving city, now had fires burning, buildings in need of repair before any stepped into them. I was flying over the city and it hurt to look below my current position, for it was home to me. Yes, I'm well aware that all of this could be rebuilt and could be a sight to behold once again. That didn't change the fact that it was painful to see home in the state it was now. The three custom model mobile suits the Alliance put onto the field had caused more damage than any other Alliance forces. Had to admit, whoever it was that designed and built those machines, certainly knew how to build mean mobile suits.

The losses that we, the defending forces of the Federation had taken weren't small. Many good men and women gave their lives to defend the Republic from the Earth Forces trying to take it for themselves. Now, there would be families that would have a member missing from them, sorrow would come to them at the loss. Heck, I might be assigned to deliver the bad news to their families… certainly hope I don't get that job, it's never easy. Hours went by during which, the Republic's borders were secured and the search for those who hadn't reported in had been going on. Search and rescue teams were taking shifts and were bolstered by mobile suits in the effort. It was also discovered that an Alliance force from Eurasia had been encroaching from the north, but it was small. So, a full squadron was sent to handle the job along with the two land-based suits went with the fighters. The land-based machines used their quadruped modes to great effect and covered the distance on land.

The searching and assessing went on even after the sun set, but shortly after that, the order for the rest of us who had launched from Teswa, to return came. So, I changed my course to head back towards the valley I'd come down from the research complex. The Justice took up position on my right, riding its Fatum-00. At least I get to look forward to talking to Athrun again for a bit, as I'd wanted to ever since waking up after the explosion. There were things that I see, really needed to be said between the two of us.

I came into the area that the Teswa R&D complex takes up and saw that the large shutter was already opening to the open space in Teswa's central area. I went into Teswa and landed on the spot I had taken off from, and upon glancing to my right, witnessed the Justice landing on the docking platform next to mine. Even though I'm still recovering from recent injuries, including the destruction of the Shadow, I was doing 'okay'. I'm looking forward to talking with Athrun, for I worry about him and what he had been doing to himself. I waited for my mobile suit to come back into the development floor from the empty central space that Teswa had. Once inside, I exited the Aurora's cockpit and used the zip-line to get down to the floor, rather than waiting for the dock catwalks to move into place.

I mean, when I take the time to consider the last time that I'd seen Athrun, it was when I'd gotten him and Sakura out of the Republic. The next 'meeting' we had, ended with me being right next to an explosion and I don't doubt that Athrun has been blaming himself for what happened. I'm still going along the road of recovery from what that explosion had done to me, I won't deny that. After all, that event had gotten close to giving the grim reaper a near clean shot at me with that scythe of his! He missed, but still, it had been FAR too close for me to have any feeling of comfort. However, I didn't blame Athrun in any way for what had occurred between us, I had been doing what I saw necessary to prevent my two best friends from killing each other. I don't regret my actions in the slightest, and would do it again if that was needed, but Athrun had gotten time to beat himself up and that rarely ends well.

Anyways, Athrun did the same type of descent I did with a zip-line, and so was setting his feet on the floor not too long after I did. I made my way over to the feet of the Justice, not as easy as it might sound, lots of people here going around doing all sorts of stuff. But, I did get over to where my best friend was. Both of us had taken our helmets off and were looking at each other, the world seemed to fade away.

"Tye, I'm," Athrun began.

I moved forward and embraced my friend before he could say any more, "Athrun, I can't think of the words to say properly, how good it is to see you and know that you're doing okay. I was worried about you with how events played out between us, but we're good."

Athrun returned my hug, "I… I'm glad to see you still alive Tyler. I thought you were gone and that I," Athrun got out.

I chuckled a little at hearing that, "Yeah, I would bet it looked that way after that explosion. I thought that I would be kicking the bucket for a little bit too and be seeing my dad and sister earlier than I expected. But, I'm still here and that's what counts and what happened wasn't the fault of any of us there, so let it go. Like I said, we're good Athrun, but if it makes you feel any better, I fully and totally forgive you," I said.

I was very happy that Athrun was okay, even though I don't know what it is that brought him here. He had saved my butt when it counted and that is why I'm grateful to have a friend like Athrun. Still for him to be piloting the X09A Justice, it makes me curious what purpose he was given it for. We broke apart and I looked to the other nuclear powered mobile suit ZAFT had produced, "I have to say though Athrun, I didn't imagine that you would be piloting this mobile suit."

Athrun looked at me with confusion, "You know about the Justice? I mean, Lacus did mention that you found out about the Freedom, but not how that happened. So, how did you find out about the Freedom and the Justice?" he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "Siegel Clyne and Lacus showed me the specs on both of the machines when they requested my assistance with seeing that they got where they could be used the best."

My friend's eyes widened a bit, "It was you! You were the one in the pilot suit that stole the Freedom!" he stated.

I bowed slightly to the claim, "Indeed, guilty as charged in that, but there were reasons why I agreed to help get at least one of those suits out of the PLANTs. First of which, is that I agree with Siegel, in that those machines were dangerous being left where they were. Then concerning the Freedom, I brought it here for a short period before I headed for JOSH-A. After that, I gave the suit to Kira so that he could put it to good use. The mobile suit fits his fighting and piloting style far more than it does for me. Plus, I'm completely confident that Kira will use the Freedom to do what's best and wouldn't let it fall into the wrong hands. I made sure to give him a proper explanation, taking into account Kira's naivete that we're oh so frustrated by."

"Okay, I agree that Kira would understand, and I also have faith that he wouldn't let the Freedom fall into the wrong hands. But, what I want to ask is why you did what you did when you clear knew that security cameras were recording you," said Athrun.

It took me a good amount of effort, along with the pain accompanying the effort, to contain the laughter at the reference of showing what I thought of the current leaders of ZAFT and the job their doing. The question that Athrun was asking, also meant that he likely knew of the head of the Supreme Council 'reaction' was to view the recording.

Then, I was kind of curious what the reaction had been, "Oh, is that all? By all means, I gave the watchers 'the finger' for two particular reasons Athrun. First, I did that, because I wanted to take as much attention off of Siegel and Lacus, by focusing it on me, and saw that as a good way of doing that. And second, the recent actions of both the leaders of the Earth Alliance and of the PLANTs have been really ticking me off. They are sending good people out to get killed for little reason and it's infuriating the heck out of me," I said, pausing for a moment, before I continued. "Take what happened at JOSH-A as an example, that event was set up for a large number of people to die. If not for me and your friend Nicol Amalfi, the number of casualties would've been a great deal higher, like more than sixty percent of ZAFT's fighting force being killed, probably closer to eighty, instead of the below thirty-five percent it ended out being. Honestly, that whole setup was horrid, and I would love to make the rat who orchestrated the whole thing pay in spades!"

I shook my head and focused back on Athrun, "But it's a discussion for a different time, there are things to be done that are more urgent."

"Agreed, so then, what will you do Tye?" Athrun inquired.

I smiled a bit, "I have things that need to be seen to. Right now Athrun, I think that our friend Kira will need your help more than I do at this time. So, go to Orb and help him, we'll meet back up in space, then we'll catch up with one another," I said.

"That didn't answer the question Tye," Athrun stated firmly.

I put a hand on Athrun's shoulder, "Suppose not, you know how I am when I promise things to someone Athrun, I don't make a promise that I don't fully intend to keep. I've a promise to keep and deliver on, said vow requires me going into space. And so, that's why I say we'll meet up in space, Kira included, we will go forward from there, settling accounts between the three of us. I don't deny there's a need for catching up, but better to do the idea once with everyone concerned. So until then, do what it takes to stay alive," I assured my friend. Athrun nodded before he boarded the Justice again, the resupply for it was sped up a bit.

Meanwhile, as if my statement had been somehow heard by the higher ups, orders came that Lisa, Graham and I would be launched into space. I took one last look at the Justice, before I went with Graham and Lisa toward the transit system. The three of us traveled to the Republic's mass driver, Shen Lóng, our mobile suit that we had used, coming along behind us. Once we arrived at the mass driver complex, the three mobile suits were loaded onto the space craft that was on the mass driver's tracks. Shortly after the machines were loaded, the three of us got on the 'shuttle' to wait for the launch.

The Shen Lóng, is a little difference than the other mass drivers of the world. Where the others are fairly straight over the distance of water or land the track runs, Shen Lóng is not that way. First, the Republic's mass driver is surrounded by mountains on three out of four sides, the one way that mountains didn't affect the way that the tracks ran down. So, as a solution to that problem, the catapult was shorter than the other mass drivers. To compensate for the lack of length, which is used for acceleration, there were platforms with modules connectors attached to ships which was connected to magnetic rails built into the mass driver's tracks that were employed to increase the acceleration. Then the mass driver's last fourth of the tracks, climbed upward along the mountain at the end of the valley area the catapult was located in. The Natural landscape acted as a shelter for the mass driver as well as a very defensible position for the complex.

It was as the sun started rising when the signal finally came for the large shuttle to begin its launching sequence, and we felt the craft started moving forward along the track. The shuttle quickly began picked up speed as it raced down the electron rails, helped along by the connectors racing along the magnetic rails system. As we hit the last third of the track, the final acceleration of the craft started and shortly, the shuttle's orientation changed from being parallel to the ground, to forty-five-degrees to the ground. The increasing G-force, press those of us on the shuttle back into our seats, while our orientation with the ground kept moving to perpendicular to the ground. We were pressed into our seats a bit more as the sound of the modulus accelerators disconnecting from the shuttle. Then the shuttle's boosters ignited, and the craft gained a sizable increase in speed as it shot up and off the end of Shen Lóng. The craft carrying us upward, rocketed up higher and higher, taking us from Earth, back into space.

-Line Break-

-Neutral pov-

Athrun launched in the Justice from Teswa, heading down the canyon that he had traveled down following Tyler, heading back toward the shoreline. As light began coming over the horizon as the sun began rising, Athrun was left to his own thoughts. He was thinking about the things Tyler had said and the events that had led to the current circumstances. Athrun was very happy that Tyler was alive, since most odds would state that he shouldn't be with the explosion he had been next to. Tyler had even somehow known that Athrun had been blaming himself and beating himself up for what had occurred, even if he hadn't said it exactly. The last time that Athrun had even spoken to Tyler, had been as he and Commander Clyne had been leaving Shira for Carpentaria. Lacus had been right, talking with Tyler had helped a great deal, not with just the confusion that he had been experiencing, but also brought peace of mind.

He could clearly see now, that the orders he currently had from the Chairman, were ones that Athrun himself could never follow. They would require that he kill his two best friends and many good people, and Athrun would rather be branded a traitor than become the murder his orders demanded. Besides, Athrun had already tried killing Tyler once, and that didn't appear to slow him down all that much if at all. Heck, Tyler hadn't blamed him when it was the self-destruction of the Aegis that had nearly done him in and had even said he forgave Athrun. Honestly, Athrun didn't deserve friends like Tyler and Kira, he didn't kid himself about that, he really didn't deserve either of their friendships with what he had done.

The view of the shoreline came into the forward viewing screen of the Justice, and when he came to the open ocean, Athrun changed his mobile suit's course. Now, the Justice was pointing towards the Orb Union and the trip should get him there around noon. Hopefully, Athrun would find the Freedom at Orb and with the mobile suit, Kira as well.

Still, the realization that the one in the recording of the theft of the Freedom, was Tyler had been something else. Tyler wasn't one to normally be rude, so… for him to make the gesture that he had was out of place. His reasons for doing it made sense, but it was just different for him, and Tyler probably wouldn't have done it if his mother could've seen it. His mentioning of what happened at JOSH-A made Athrun wonder what was going on even more, especially with the identification of a "rat" in a derogatory reference. If there had been someone responsible for that event, then they couldn't be allowed to do such things ever again! However, the last part about a promise Tyler made to someone, made Athrun curious. Tyler had always been serous when it came to making promises. When he made one, you could count on him doing what it took to fulfill the said promise made. So, the question would be, who was it that Tyler promised something to and what was it that he promised he would do.

Athrun had been traveling forward for a time, the sun was rising as a thundering boom came from behind Athrun. When he glanced in that direction, he caught sight of a shuttle rocketing upward in the sky from the Republic's mass driver, Shen Lóng. Athrun silently wished Tyler luck in whatever he was going up to space to do and kept going forward toward Orb. He intended to find Kira and have a talk with him, the chat with Tyler had helped and Athrun assumed that doing the same with Kira would be as well.

-Line Break-

The Orb Union

The day when the Alliance set for their demands to be met dawned over Orb and an eerie silence filled the air of the early morning. The ships in Orb's fleet, made up of two different classes; the Aegis-class cruisers and Kuraomikami-class battleships both of which were comparable with the Federation's own sea borne vessels. Ships of both classes headed out from their docks around the main island and from Onogoro island, going out to surrounding waters of their homeland. The military headquarters on the main island of Orb, outside of the nation's capital, Olofat, had dense airs of foreboding as the signals of the Earth Forces fleet came into short-ranged sensors. Linear Artillery vehicles had already moved into positions along the coastline for the purpose of intercepting missiles and enemy aircraft. The fixed defenses that Orb had, were in place and ready to do what was needed to prevent the Earth Alliance from taking over Orb.

These defenses and forces were combined with the Federation military forces that had come to Orb within the last year. Federation Delta Fighters were prepared to launch and support the M1-Astray mobile suits that would be sent out. Runways had been laid at several different places around Orb, for Federation fighters to launch from and most were located by military complexes. And since the fact of the Federation having mobile suit in the form of fighters had come to light during the defense of the Republic of East Asia, the Federation pilots in Orb were prepared to use their machines in the same manner as well.

The evacuation process to get the citizens out of harm's way, was moving along as efficiently as it could. But, it hadn't been finished just yet even with the battle with the Alliance looming, it was being sped up the best it could be. The leaders of the Orb government, kept feeling the tension rising as the Earth Forces drew ever closer like the defending forces were. The hope that diplomacy could serve as a solution faded and the understanding of imminent attack sunk into Orb's inhabitance.

It was the alert sounding as missiles were fired from the Alliance vessels, that told of the start of the battle which would determine the future of the Orb Union. Orders were given to begin interception of the missiles as well as for the rest of the defense forces to move out. All the M1-Astrays left their docks and made their way out to the battlefield and at the same time, Delta Fighters took off into the air. The Astrays were to do the best they could from the ground, while the fighters were to take care of the Alliance's aircraft. One of the lessons learned from the battle of the Republic, the Earth Forces would have aircraft to drop in mobile suit on the mainland. In this battle, the less Alliance mobile suits that were able to reach Orb's mainland, the better chances the defending forces had at forcing the attackers out.

The Archangel moved out of the dock it had been in and once on the field, her crew saw that the Orb fleet was doing okay at defending against the Alliance fleet's attacks. Still, the former Alliance warship steered towards the battle to assist in the defense of Orb. As they moved towards the fight, they witnessed the numbers of Federation fighters flying over them, shooting missiles down and searching for Alliance aircraft. However, even with the efforts of Orb's defending forces, some missiles and other projectiles managed to hit randomly on the Orb mainland.

Explosions from above caught attention which was followed by the wreckage of Alliance carrier planes plummeted to the water below them. The fighters after finding the Alliance carrier planes, they focused their efforts on preventing the aircraft to be able to drop mobile suits. Other Alliance aircraft attempted to keep the Federation fighters busy enough to get the carrier planes through, but with little success as more carriers were attacked and then plummet to the water below them.

Then, from all four Spengler-class ships other than the Powell, their Alliance's Strike Daggers, equipped with flight systems began launching. The blue and gray mobile suits headed straight for Orb's mainland, dodging incoming shots as they were able. However, only around half the Strike Daggers landed on the Izangai shoreline, which was east of the capitol city. Yet, the Alliance gained some momentum as two Alliance planes got past the Federation fighters and got in range to get their mobile suits to the mainland. Even as one carriers took a shot to one of its engines, both it and its companion managed to deploy the mobile suits they carried over Onogoro Island. The Alliance's pilots' target, was the Mass Driver and Morgenroete's main complex.

The battle progressed little as morning continued on as it was, the Archangel opened both linear catapults. The Freedom moved to the right catapult while the Strike was sent to the left. Kira was calm and focused on the task of forcing the Alliance back from Orb. Whereas, for Mu and Krystal, this would be their first actual battle piloting mobile suits rather than Skygraspers or mobile armors. Both had put in time to practice piloting the machines, even sparred with Kira, neither had won against the kid, but had come away with lessons learned.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, let's do it!" announced Kira, with the Freedom launching out from the Archangel directly following.

The Strike was equipped with its newest armament set, the AQM/E-YM1, which gave the Strike the combination of all its striker packs. The rocket anchor and shoulder with beam boomerang from the sword striker was attached to the suits left arm. While the launcher pack's shoulder piece, complete with gatling gun and missile launchers, went on the right shoulder. The flight pack from the Aile striker pack was mounted on the machine's back hardpoint, though it had two arm units for mounting the "Agni" beam cannon on the left and the "Schwert Gewehr" anti-ship sword on the right. Yet with this set, the mobile suit had to give up the customary beam rifle and anti-beam shield.

Once the equipment set was on, Mu was given the go ahead to launch, "Mu La Flaga, launching in Strike!"

The Strike flew out from the Archangel and followed the Freedom, that only left the Shadow to go. The mobile suit had already moved to the right catapult and was getting its flight system put on. But when that was done, Krystal focused forward, "Krystal McAlester, Shadow, heading out!" The Shadow joined the two other mobile suits and dove into the battle against the Alliance.

Meanwhile, on the Spengler-class Powell; Shani Andras, Clotho Buer and Orga Sabnak, had just down the 'dose' of medication that had been given to them regularly for performance enhancement, though the mixture was different from normal. The three males were candidates from the Lodonia Lab, along with the three girls that had gone to the Republic with the Earth Forces. Although, the three didn't work together as well as Mina Moss's girls did, the woman had deemed their performance overall, above acceptable. It was high praise from the female scientist, more to the candidates, who knew the woman much more than those who had only heard of her reputation or met her a time or two.

Shani, Clotho and Orga, knew that this was a chance to show Dr. Moss what they could do. And if a candidate could make Dr. Moss happy about their performance, then they were a LOT less likely to have to suffer punishment from those in the lab. Said punishments weren't in anyway pleasant to have to endure, all three had experienced the idea first hand. None of them wanted to ever go through such things again! Plus, if they could get in the woman's good book, the amount of freedom they would have would increase a great deal and that was something all three wanted. None of the three, really cared about the one giving them their instructions, for none of them feared him anywhere near a number of the scientist back at Lodonia Lab, Dr. Moss being the one they feared the most.

When they were told to board the suit that each one of them had been assigned to, they did so without a word. The ingrained habit of following instructions given showing, acquired from the years of training and conditioning they had gone through. Orga went into the X133 Calamity, Shani entered the X252 Forbidden and Clotho got in the X370 Raider. They were checking the onboard system as they'd been taught to do each and every time, when the voice of Muruta Azrael came over the com-channel. "Say boys, it's extremely important that you not damage Morgenroete or the mass driver, Understand? I've heard good things about you three from Mina, so I assume that such a task won't be an issue, will it boys?"

A feeling of excitement filled the three candidates at hearing their instructions. Normally, the set of instructions they received were specific and restrictive, along with giving little room to do anything else. But, the instructions that had just been handed to them, granted immensely more freedom than they were used to having, "Then, does that mean we can destroy whatever else we want to around this place?" inquired Shani, making sure he understood what had been said.

"It certainly sounds like it to me," remarked Clotho, smiling at the thought of so much freedom to do what you wanted.

"Would you two shut up already so we can get going on this," snapped Orga, yet he too, was excited to have such freedom to destroy things and play with this mobile suit he had been given.

Azrael laughed, "Now that's the kind of attitude I wanted to hear boys. You're all absolutely right in your assumption. Now then, go out there and have fun boys while you work," Azrael returned.

The three hatches on the sides of the forward half of the Powell opened, with two on the starboard side and one of the port side. The Forbidden leapt out the port side hatch and surged forward with its highspeed mode in place. The Raider was next to leave the ship and shifted over to its mobile armor flight mode, which was pretty much identical to the Bandit's mobile armor mode. Once the Raider had changed modes, the Calamity moved out of the ship and jumped up and landed on top of the Raider. The three Alliance custom model suits rocketed forward towards the battle still in full swing ahead of them.

In the skirmish, a small number of Alliance Strike Daggers had gotten onto Orb's mainland, but not the number hoped for or even originally planned. The efforts of the combined Orb and Federation forces had made it hard for the Earth Forces to get even what they had on land. It was made even harder when a half of the Federation fighters switched over to their mobile suit forms and came to the ground to help their allies against the Alliance machines. The Alliance mobile suit pilots knew they were outnumbered and were reminded of the point as some of them were simply overwhelmed by the teamwork of the Astray suits and Federation Delta suits taking them down.

Yet, when the Freedom, Strike and Shadow arrived, the Alliance attacking forces were shown just how direr the straights they were in really was! The Strike headed to the west side of the battlefield, while the Shadow made its way to the east side and the Freedom shot for the center. Kira spotted some Astray machines having difficulty with five strike daggers, so he brought out the Freedom's two railguns and plasma cannons. The targets were locked and Kira shot, hitting five of the Alliance mobile suits, taking them out of commission. Then Kira detached the Freedom's shield, drew both beam saber and cut off the arms of the two remain Strike Daggers with two slices and then gave one more swing, taking a leg off of each machine. Kira stored the beam sabers, then grabbed the Freedom's shield, which had just hit the ground by this point, bottom tip down and flew off to help the Orb ship as they were having trouble.

A short distance from that area, Mu was using the Agni cannon to mow down two Strike Daggers, before landing the Strike on the ground. "This is cool, even if I'm still pretty new to piloting this machine," Mu commented to himself.

At the same time, the Shadow was shooting Alliance suits a ways away, sometimes using the LRT scope to do the job. "As right you are Mu, focus on the battle. Although, don't compare yourself to the previous pilots of these suits, Kira and Lacus make piloting mobile suits look fairly simple. But, Tyler made it look like there was little that was easier," Krystal said of the radio.

"Yeah, I know Krystal. Tell you what, we both survive this, we go out to have a drink and I'll buy," Mu replied.

"That sounds good, heck you can even invite Murrue if you feel so inclined as I would bet you will be with how cozy you two have been getting. Only want to make one small change to the bet, let's make it that the one who takes out the least enemy suits buys instead. That way I won't feel like you trying to sweet talk me into something and you can save face," Krystal shot back.

Mu felt his cheeks heat up slightly, he thought that the building relationship between Murrue and himself had been kept very quiet and so wouldn't be public. But then, Mu chuckled, "Deal Krystal, may the best pilot win," returned Mu. Then he noticed the small number of Astrays watching the Freedom, "Hey, stay alert girls, the more Alliance suits we stop from moving forward, the better chance we all have at being alive by the end of this!"

While those on the mainland kept up their defense, on the water, the battle continued as well, the Archangel was attacking Alliance vessels. It was to chip away at the Earth Forces' strength down so that they would at some point retreat and leave Orb's territory. Yet, none on the Archangel had notice the three new Alliance mobile suits approaching them. The Raider with the Calamity on its back, was viewed the white ship with interest, "That white one, it looks like it would make a good boom when its destroyed," mused Clotho.

Orga looked at the Archangel and then snickered, "You know, for one of the rare times that it happens, I agree with you Clotho, shall we find out if you're right?" he asked.

The Calamity brought its backpack mounted heavy beam cannons to bear on the Archangel along with lining up its torso multi-phased beam cannon, then fired all three weapons. However, the white vessel managed to move sideways out of the way in time for the beams to miss the Archangel, but strike an Orb ship and do damage. Clotho huffed, "If you're going to shoot something that's this close, you shouldn't miss it! You need to work on your aim," he remarked in an insinuating and derisive tone.

Then the Raider flew over the mainland and Clotho tilted the Raider's wings, forcing the Calamity to fall to the ground. The Calamity moved itself to point its weapons at the Orb forces and began firing off its arsenal. While the Raider went back to where the Archangel was, though Kira took a couple of shots at it as it went for its target, still missing the Alliance machine. Clotho got his suit right in front of the bridge of the Archangel and was going to send the Raider's "Mjoinir" Spherical Breaker that was built like an old-fashion ball and chain weapon. But, Kira slammed the Freedom into the enemy suit and knocked the Raider out of the way before it could hit the Archangel. The Raider was sent flying downward and entered the water with a sizable splash as a sign.

As the three custom mobile suits joined the battle, Federation suits positioned themselves to protect the routes that was being used for the citizen evacuations. They blocked whatever came in that direction to make sure that the citizen didn't get hurt as they attempted to flee. The Federation suits even attacked the Calamity, making it move a margin away from one of the evacuation routes. Along that route, Dearka Elsman came to a stop once again and watched the battle, conflict plaguing his mind. On the one hand, as a pilot for ZAFT, this battle didn't concern him, but on the other hand, to just leave didn't feel right at all. After meeting Tyler McGregor and talking with him, Dearka had felt bad for attacking the Archangel, for the reason of those onboard that weren't Alliance personnel. Then with that girl, Miriallia Haw, she had brought him meals and had talked to him when pretty much no one else did.

As Dearka watch Federation mobile suits doing whatever they could to protect the evacuation route, he made his decision. He turned around and ran towards where Miriallia had said his mobile suit, the Buster had been taken. Explosions kept going off all around Dearka as he ran towards Morgenroete, but when he got to the complex, there were few people around. So, he just went inside and quickly found the Buster in a dock. Dearka slipped into his pilot suit and clambered into the Buster's cockpit and brought the OS online, thankful that the activation code hadn't been changed yet. Then he moved the Buster out of the dock and out of the factory, making his way to the battlefield.

Over the water, with the Raider taking a dive into the sea after being hit by the Freedom, the Forbidden to that opportunity to attack one of the Orb vessels. Shani landed his suit on a Kuraomikami-class battleship, then made a horizontal slice with the Forbidden's scythe, cut through the bridge tower. Then Shani leapt of the ship, satisfied to see the ship explode from the damage he caused. He was thoroughly enjoying himself with all the fun destruction he was making, using bad memories to fuel his drive to keep going. Yet, he then noticed a strange mobile suit following him and as Shani didn't recognize the machine, he assumed that it was an enemy.

Then, the Raider came out of the water, and Clotho was mad that someone had denied him the fun he had almost had in destroying the white ship. So, Clotho launched the Raider's "Mjoinir" at the Freedom, wanting to make the one that had stopped him pay. However, the Freedom evaded the projectile that had been sent its way. Yet, Clotho continued pursuing the Freedom, determined to get the machine that had cheated him.

Mu had gotten to where the Calamity was destroying structures and took out the Strike's anti-ship sword, bringing it down on the Calamity. Nevertheless, with the improved Trans phase armor the Calamity had, the sword wasn't able to slice through. Orga brought his multi-phased cannon to bear on the weird suit that had attacked him, and pulled the trigger. The Strike moved out of the way and so the beam missed, but then the Shadow hit the Calamity from behind with its shield's railgun. The impact forced the Calamity forward a few steps, which Mu took the chance to send the rocket anchor into the Calamity.

Even with the bouncing around, the Calamity's firepower was more than the two mobile suits it fought and that quickly began making a difference. Krystal was blocking incoming shots, yet she was forced back a distance each time she did. Mu was not really given the chance to attack as the Calamity kept shooting at him and he had to dodge. Then a couple Astray suits and Federation suits came to the aid of both Krystal and Mu. The Astrays began blocking with their shields for the Strike and Shadow, while the Federation suits were trying to hold the Calamity and keep it from using its weapons. This came in the form of a suit on each of the Calamity's high-energy beam cannons on the backpack, forcing the cannons to point upward. There was a suit on each arm attempting to pin the Alliance suit. Orga began struggling against those trying to pin the Calamity, but was finding it difficult to move against them.

Meanwhile, the Kira quickly found himself, fighting two out of the three custom Alliance machines and the fight wasn't easy. Yet, at the same time, it was clear that the pilots of the two mobile suits didn't care about one another. For they shot at the Freedom, as much as they fired weapons at each other, so they weren't working together as a team at all. They were getting in each other's way and just attacking everything within reach. Then when Kira did manage to get a shot from his plasma cannons at the Forbidden, the beams were deflected by its shields shifting forward. Even as skilled as Kira had become over the last few months, he was getting close to his limit of his abilities in this fight.

With Kira being kept busy, some of the Earth Forces ships started focusing on trying to take down the Archangel, even Alliance aircraft joined in on the task. Missiles and projectiles were sent the former Alliance vessel's way and the Igelstellungs intercepted a good portion of it. However, some missiles got close to the ship, then at the last minute, beams destroyed them. It was Sai that utter an explanation as to what had happened, and it was only two words, "The Buster."

A picture of the Buster in the shallow water in the local bay, both of its beam rifles along with its missile launchers open shooting down missile and Alliance aircraft. "Archangel, keep moving, I'll cover you," came the voice of Dearka over the com-channel.

As the battle was going on above the Archangel, the fight raged on all around Orb. The Buster was keeping busy chipping down the number of Alliance aircraft with many Federation fighters assisting. He had begun to resort to switching between the snipe configuration and the launcher configuration that his rifles could do to keep blasting down missiles that wouldn't stop coming. The Shadow had separated for the Strike, and was now helping in the defense of Orb's military headquarters from the pressing of the Earth Forces. The Alliance had managed to push forward a ways onto the Orb mainland and so, the defending forces had been put into the position of digging in and not giving more ground. The Strike was still dancing with the Calamity with a few allied mobile suits working together with Mu. Overall, the Earth Forces had gained some ground, but they had paid for each meter that they gained, with their armed forces being worn down and chipped way in their numbers.

Meanwhile, the Freedom's situation was getting harder as time kept moving forward, as the Raider and Forbidden continued to come at it. But it was around that time, the Justice came into range of the battlefield that Orb had become. Athrun quickly spotted the Freedom and the two mobile suits that it was trying to fend off. The green and white mobile suit was different than any of the Earth Forces mobile suits Athrun had seen around the Republic. Yet, something about the black and red suit nagged at Athrun, for it was familiar somehow.

Taking into account recent events, Athrun's resolve fed his swelling determination that no more friends die in this war! Athrun had the Justice jump off the Fatum-00 and had it reconnect with the main suit and brought it to active position. Then, the Justice zoomed forward as the Freedom took a blow from the Raider's ball. The Forbidden then caught the Freedom with its scythe and forced it to be directly in front of the Raider. The Raider fired its "Zorn" energy cannon that was mounted in its head at the Freedom and it appeared the battle was over. But at the last moment, the Justice got between the Freedom and the Raider, blocking the beam with its shield. The action brought the Raider and the Forbidden to a halt, mostly due to the appearance of another odd and unknown machine.

Kira could only stare at the crimson mobile suit in front of the Freedom. It had come out of nowhere, and had blocked the beam that Kira had thought would possibly kill him. And yet, Kira hadn't a clue who it was piloting the suit right now or which side it was on. Kira's unasked question was quickly answered though, "This is ZAFT special forces agent, Athrun Zala. Do you hear me Kira Yamato?" came the voice of Athrun Zala over the radio.

Kira was feeling surprised mixed with shock at heading Athrun's voice, for it was completely unexpected. However, he and Athrun were forced to dodge as both the Forbidden and the Raider rushed forward at them. The Raider went for the Justice, shifted into its mobile armor mode and started using its machine guns. But the Justice evaded the shots, which in turn got Clotho to change the Raider back over to its suit form. Then Clotho used the shield cannons he had on the Raider's shield, but was again blocked by the Justice's shield.

There came a beam at Athrun from his right, which had a definite curve to it, and though he managed to get his shield in line to block the shot, the Justice was forced back a bit. Athrun turned to the plasma beam's source which was the green suit, but it had two rails up on both sides of what looked like a beam cannon emitter. So, Athrun had the Justice take out its beam sabers and combine them into one, then he attacked the green machine, moved its shields to be in front of itself.

Kira drew one of the Freedom's sabers and rushed up to the Raider, striking the black suit, preventing it from attacking the Justice while it was dealing with the other machine. He was kind of happy and unhappy at the same time with Athrun showing up here in Orb. The way he had identified himself, said he was here as a pilot for ZAFT and had 'official business' likely something to do with the Freedom. The mobile suit had been entrusted to Kira by Tyler and from what their friend had said, Lacus and her father had probably taken the fall for the theft of the Freedom. That put both of them at great risk of being arrested and/or killed, and that didn't sit well at all with Kira any more than it had for Tyler.

So, there was no way Kira would give up the Freedom to anyone, not after knowing those sacrifices being made to get it away from the PLANTs. ZAFT could easily use mobile suits like this to gain the upper hand or simply deliver a nuclear payload to wherever they chose as Tyler had mentioned. Then, there would be those in the Earth Alliance that would take the neutron-jammer canceller and then use it to send nuclear warheads at the PLANTs. So, neither side could be trusted with the technology as they were more likely to abuse it and keep the war going, rather than use it to help end the war with the least lives lost.

"What are you doing here Athrun?! ZAFT has no business here," Kira demanded over the com-channel.

The Raider got away from the Freedom and went for the Justice as it was going against the Forbidden. But Athrun moved out of the way, causing the Raider and the Forbidden to crash into each other as the Raider couldn't stop its momentum. "I haven't received orders regarding this battle. This intervention is at the request of a friend that I don't deserve, along with my own will!" Athrun answered.

The Forbidden shifted into its high-speed assault mode, then the two electro-magnetic rails came up. The plasma beam that was shot, curved to the left and shot at the Freedom, forcing Kira to flip the Freedom backwards to avoid the beam hitting him. Still, Kira was left to wonder what Athrun meant by his answer. Athrun having no orders to be in this battle, but here because of a 'friend', was the reason he was here. The friend was almost certainly Tyler, mostly due to Athrun saying 'a friend that I don't deserve'. With what had happened to the Shadow, Athrun was likely blaming himself for what Tyler had gone through.

Athrun shot forward and slashed at the Raider, and it was at that moment, the realization hit him why this mobile suit was familiar. It was near identical to the blue and black mobile armor from the Republic that could shift into a mobile suit, with the exception of the armaments it had were different. That got Athrun thinking, all three of these Earth Alliance machines were similar in one or more ways to one of those three custom models he'd help fight around the Republic. The green suit had the deflection ability that the Duel-like suit with the large sword. While the one that was shooting from Orb's mainland was like the one with artillery, just to name a few of the similarities.

The biggest difference that Athrun was seeing between these three and the others from the Republic, was the way the pilots were fighting. Those that had fought at the Republic, had worked as a team and to great effect by looking out for each other and all working towards a common goal. Yet, the three here were doing nothing like that, they seem just as willing to fight one another as fight anyone else. They clearly didn't care enough to not fire at their allies or weren't worried enough about anyone else in being damaged or killed.

As the battle between the four mobile suits continued, others on the battlefield began to notice the fast pace aerial fight going. Mu paused as the Calamity finally broke away from those who were doing what they could to pin it down. The Federation suits landed nearby, and Mu was about to thank them when movement caught his eyes. When he focused on the movement, he saw it was a fight among mobile suits and one was the Freedom, "What the?! What's going on up there?!" Mu questioned.

Krystal had just cut an Alliance's Strike Dagger in half at the torso and leapt back from it as it exploded. Then she noticed the fight going on high in the sky above Orb, and her eyes widened as she saw the Freedom was one of the mobile suits. "Who is the Freedom fighting up there and who is helping Kira?" she uttered to herself.

Dearka got a rest bit, as the rain of missile let up for a little time, and then he spotted the fast pace movement above. The sight of four mobile suits fighting at such a quick paced battle wasn't something one saw on any given day, even a mobile suit pilot. At least, Dearka hadn't seen a fight like this that he could recall at the moment. He couldn't think of anything to say other than utter sounds that spoke of his surprise and mild shock.

The Calamity joined in on the battle in the sky and it didn't take long for the dynamic of the battle itself to change. Both Athrun and Kira saw the shift from before, even if the Raider and Forbidden had shot in each other's direction, it had not been intentionally done. They just didn't care about what happened to their allies to aim with such in mind. But now, they appeared to be intentionally shooting at each other. That was only made worse as the third Alliance custom mobile suit added its firepower into the mix. Granted, Athrun and Kira were still made to evade and dodge, but not like they had been before.

Nonetheless, even if the three were now fighting among themselves, Kira and Athrun could see the danger that was still presented by the three. There was no need to speak to each other to understand what was need, much like Athrun had done with Tyler in the battle of the Republic. The Justice flew forward at the Forbidden, lighting up the turret machine guns on its Fatum-00 and pounding the Forbidden. Kira moved forward behind the Justice, bringing out the Freedom's railguns. The Forbidden shifted both its shield forward to block the Justice's attack. Only to find that when the Justice went past, that the Freedom was in line to get point blank shots at the Forbidden. The Freedom began firing its railgun, sending rounds slamming into the Forbidden's shields, sending the suit flying down into the water with a splash.

As the Forbidden crashed into the water, the Raider zoomed forward and sent its Mjolnir at the Justice. Yet, the Freedom changed course and went straight for the Raider, shifting Clotho's attention and Athrun dodged the incoming sphere. The Freedom flew his opponent, which surprised Clotho, then he was met by the sight of the Justice right in his face then the Raider got kneed in the upper torso.

The Calamity kept firing its arsenal at the Freedom and the Justice, but wasn't able to hit them. The Forbidden came out of the water as the Raider got hit by the Justice and began shooting its railguns at both mobile suits. Kira shot his plasma rifles at the Alliance machine, only to be blocked and deflected by the Frobidden's Geschmeidig Panzers. Then the Justice disconnected the Fatum-00 and sent it at the Forbidden with its turret machine guns blazing. Shani moved the Forbidden's shields to be in front, to intercept the bullets from the Fatum-00. Yet, when he shifted the shields out of the way, Shani saw that the Freedom was right in front of him with its railguns mere meters from him. The railguns fired, the shots nailing the Forbidden and sent Shani tumbling through the air again.

In fact, over the whole battlefield a shift was occurring, the tables were turning upon the Earth Forces and favoring the defenders. Where the Strike Daggers had been making slow progress forward, with losses as they went, now they were being forced to retreat with even faster increasing casualties. The combined armed forces of Orb and the Federation kept up the pressure, pushing the invaders further and further away from what still stood along with the citizens that were still trying to get away from the fighting. Feelings of hope grew as the defender gained more momentum in their push against the Alliance forces.

-Line Break-

Spengler-class Powell

On the bridge of the Powell, which was at the rear of the Earth Forces fleet, the crew was observing the battle against Orb. Hours had passed since the battle had started in the morning and it was now afternoon, and Muruta Azrael was feeling impatient not seeing the end results of this by now. However, he reined his emotions in and didn't let them show outwardly, "We haven't taken over Orb's military headquarters yet? Isn't that kind of strange in an operation like this?" he asked.

The captain of the Powell turned to gaze at Azrael, "In an operation like this, things are not as simple as politicians think Director. In this instance, the two major problems are first, those new machines you are so proud of aren't doing the job you said or expected they would do. They are more of a hinderance than a help as they apparently just interested in showing how the mobile suit weaponry work on both our opponents and our own forces. Second, the Federation mobile suits along with Orb's own machines are putting up far more resistance than anticipated," he replied to Azrael flatly.

The captain hadn't been all that happy to have the director of Blue Cosmos onboard his ship, even if he was the Alliance's National Defense Industry Association's head. Azrael was well-known for being a devoted member of the organization and a vocal hater of Coordinators. Granted, ZAFT was made up of Coordinator, but it made one wonder if the hatred wasn't one of the driving forces behind this war between the Alliance and ZAFT. The man certainly didn't understand how things went on a battlefield, that fact had been proven multiple times already.

Meanwhile, Azrael's feelings of irritation, were transforming into fury. He definitely miffed that Orb hadn't fallen yet along with being told that the mobile suits he had being so interested in testing weren't delivering as was sold to him. The newer 'GAT' series machines were supposed to be strong and with candidates from the Lodonia Lab, should be able to do what they were told. That's how it had been put the idea to Azrael and by what the captain of this ship was telling him, they weren't performing up to that. Azrael was definitely going to have a word with Mina after this, and the words wouldn't be nice.

The fight kept going and yet, the longer it did, the more ground the Alliance lost to the combination of Orb's military and the Federation's forces here. Then it was reported that the Calamity, the Forbidden and the Raider were appearing to fight one another more than those they were supposed to be fighting. That was followed by two odd custom suits beating two out of the three again and again. But then abruptly, the three custom Alliance mobile suits stopped fighting, before shortly starting to head back towards the Powell for now visible reason.

When one of the operators on the bridge of the Powell reported that the three had returned to the ship, the captain turned to Azrael. "Do you have an explanation for their actions Director?" asked the ship captain.

Azrael didn't answer right away, for he was fuming at the failure that the three candidates of Mina's had shown. The day was going differently than it was supposed to, and it frustrated Azrael so much. He was silently cursing the Federation and its member nations for not falling into line like they were supposed to. Upon entering into the hold of the Powell, the pilots of the three custom suits exited their cockpits, or rather Clotho, Shani and Orga fell out. They collapsed to the floor in pain as their medication had run out and their bodies were experiencing the pain that came when the medication dose ended. The staff that was onboard to oversee the health and performance of the three were watching them suffer.

Where back on the bridge, Azrael finally gave an answer to the captain's question, "Well Captain, think it's time that we all take a break from this fight, don't you?" he posed.

"Huh?" uttered the captain, sure he hadn't heard correctly.

"Recall all forces for the time being, don't worry, this is only temporary," Azrael went on.

The captain realized that he hadn't been having hearing issues with Azrael's answer. The order was ridiculous, especially with the losses that had been taken thus far with the Earth Forces. It made the captain quite irritated at simply hearing such, "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Even you can see and understand that the Strike Daggers aren't going to get all that far against the Federation and Orb forces. I'm forced to admit that we underestimated them a bit and perhaps the loss at the Republics wasn't entirely a fluke as originally thought. The best chance of taking Orb requires the power of the new machines. I'll be getting into contact with the one that will hopefully explain why their performance is disappointing." Azrael finished.

Not that the captain didn't understand and admit the facts stated, but for all the work that had been put forth to be wasted still didn't sit well with him. But, to cut further losses of strength and forces, there wasn't much of another option, "Very well," the captain said, then turned to one of the bridge crew, "Fire signal flares, temporary withdrawal and regroup!"

-Line Break-

The signal that was sent up to announce the Alliance's intention to retreat, was seen by both the Earth Forces and those defending Orb. The Alliance forces fell back to their fleet, leaving Orb in the damage state they put it in, but it could've been worse. The Freedom and the Justice faced each other, "Thanks for the backup, but still, I can't help but wonder what your intentions are for being here," Kira said to Athrun.

Then, Kira saw the cockpit of the Justice slid open and the pilot seat rose up, making Athrun visible to the open air and the outside world. Athrun was looking at the Freedom as he spoke, "Technically speaking, I'm under orders from the homeland to either recapture or destroy that machine you're flying right now, the Freedom." Athrun paused as the thought of the other half of his orders, "Then I'm supposed to eliminate any who learned of that mobile suit." Athrun's voice had become bitter at saying what was expected of him. Yet, he continued, "But, I have no intention of following those orders. Only if you betray the one who entrusted the Freedom to you and hand it over to the Earth Alliance would I take such extreme actions."

Kira could tell that Athrun had changed, in what way exactly, Kira couldn't say. However, it was clear that they needed to have a conversation with each other, sooner rather than later. Kira then did the same as Athrun had, by opening the Freedom's cockpit and have the pilot chair raise up and out of the main cockpit. So now, both Kira and Athrun could see one another, Athrun in the ZAFT red pilot suit, Kira in an Orb pilot suit.

"I… just want to talk okay, face to face," Athrun said.

Kira nodded to the request, "Fair enough," he answered.

Down on the ground on the Orb mainland, those who had made it through were taking stock of things. The defense of Orb had come with a cost to the defending forces and that price hadn't been small, many lives had been lost to earn this victory. The recovery work to see what could be done to prepare for the high possibility of the Alliance coming back to attack later began. During which time, the Shadow made its way over to where the Strike and the Busters were, all three mobile suits showed signs and marks of damaged from the long battle. "Mu, you okay?" asked Krystal.

"Yeah, tired, but still here and you?" answered Mu.

"Still alive, so one of us will be buy drinks later," Krystal returned before turning her attention to the Buster.

The pilot, Dearka Elsman as she recalled, was supposed to have left the Archangel and evacuated with Orb's citizens. But apparently, he hadn't done that with the Buster here, "Pilot Elsman, I would hope that you're still alive and somewhat kicking or better, especially with the trouble you've shown that you're capable of causing from past experience," Krystal commented.

There was silence for a moment, but then a reply came, "Got to say lady, you need to work on how to encourage someone, because your current way of doing it, really sucks," Dearka shot back.

-Line Break-

Ocean off the Western Coastline of the African Community

The remanence of the Alliance's 1st fleet, came into view of Victoria an hour after sunrise. The 1st fleet's flagship the Lawdon, had made contact with the Alliance's 4th seaborne fleet, who was assigned the mission to retake Victoria. The attack was planned at dawn of today, and so, the fight for the Earth Forces to take back Victoria had begun already when the 1st fleet arrived. The Earth Forces that were in combat with ZAFT, weren't doing badly or being pushed back by their opponents, but neither were they making good progress.

Yet, the 1st fleet was not in the best position to lead a lot of help to their allies due to the losses from the battle with the Republic. However, Mina told the captain of the Lawdon that her girls could launch out and they would make a difference in this fight. The captain begrudgingly agreed, for it did mean that what was left of the 1st fleet could provide long-range support. And with less than half the fleet left from the assault on the Republic, curtailing any more losses would be best.

Deborah, Lafter and Rossweisse were down in the cargo hold and had already boarded their machines. They were awaiting instructions, but it was clear that they were all itching to go out to the field. Lafter was barely able to sit still, she was twitching and moving even in the Sinister's cockpit. Rossweisse was sitting in the pilot seat, but her eyes were closed, and she was focusing on the upcoming battle. Only Deborah appeared to have an air of calm around her, yet she also was looking ahead to what would be asked and expected of her and her sisters. They hadn't managed to obtain the best results back at the Republic, though they hadn't failed either according to their mother. However, this time, all three of them were determined to make up for their falling short last time in this battle, they would make their mother proud.

As they were making their preparations, there came an interruption, "My darling girls," came the voice of Mina.

All three girls stopped what they were doing and looked to the left video screen where the picture of their 'mother' had appeared. "I know you're feeling down after the last outing, but today is a new day and a new opportunity for you all. I'm confident that you three will do better, and that you should do well in this fight as it will be much more like the training you've gone through. Now like before, getting good data for the mobile suits is the bear minimum, but I expect you all to perform better than the minimum standard. So, it would be better for you to shoo away the ZAFT forces and make sure the mass driver was intact. It would be best if you can have as much of the base intact as possible and the mass driver in working order. Also, please do try not to hit the Alliance units the best you can. I know things happen, but do make an effort. Do you three understand your task girls?" Mina iterated.

Deborah, Lafter and Rossweisse nodded to their mother, "Yes mother/mama/mom, we understand," they replied together.

The hatches on the side of the Lawdon opened and once they had, the Sinister, Bandit and Raptor launched out of the ship. The Raptor took its spot atop of the Bandit after it had shifted into its mobile armor mode and the three machines made their way toward the African mainland where the Victoria base stood. All three activated their machine's trans-phase shift armor, taking on the customary colors. The view of the Alliance's forces battling it out with ZAFT became clearer as the three approached, though they ignored them other than remembering where they were around. Lafter climbed upward towards the ZAFT mobile suits, taking out the large beam sword as she went. Deborah flew over the base for Rossweisse, and the Raptor leapt off the Raider at a spot that Rossweisse determined was good enough to work from. Then the Bandit kept going forward, deeper into the base, searching for a critical target to strike.

Lafter activated the beam cutting edge of her anti-ship sword, rushed up to the nearest GINN and sliced them in two pieces with one swing. She moved onto the next enemy suit and then the next, cleaving through GINN after GINN, seemingly unstoppable. Meanwhile, Rossweisse in the Raptor, had brought its six cannons to aim forward, then started unloading on any ZAFT suits she could get her crosshairs on. The barrage of beams put the ZAFT pilots to the wall and the number of them defending began falling the longer the Raptor and the Sinister kept attacking.

While they occupied ZAFT's defending forces, the Bandit kept going ahead, heading for the base's command center. Deborah knew that tactically speaking, were the command center to fall, then chaos ensued and an enemy force doesn't survive very long when the command structure falls apart. Soon Deborah caught sight of her target, and as the Bandit was in its mobile armor mode, the speed of the mobile suit was better than ZAFT's machines that had tried chasing her, she was alone. Deborah brought the claws to point forward and started to fire all four of her suit's machine guns along with the high-energy beam rifle on the right side at the bunker that was the command center. Unfortunately for the ZAFT officers, Deborah's aim was accurate and true, as her shots struck the view windows of the main control room and crashed through and caused explosions came from within.

From this point going forward, the fight quickly went from going fine to ZAFT losing ground and people fast. The three custom Alliance machines were making a real difference and were proving that fact effectively as they were forcing ZAFT back. Over the next hour, the battle was done, and it was a serious loss for ZAFT, close to what JOSH-A could have been. With the work of the Bandit, the Sinister and the Raptor, only a small portion of ZAFT's defending force were able to retreat, while the rest were exterminated, mostly by the three custom machines. However, when the time came for them to resupply their suits, the Strike Daggers and Earth Forces aircraft finished cleaning up what was left of the ZAFT forces.

The results of the Third Battle of Victoria, were much better than original estimations by those who planned the operation. The greatest fear of course, was that the mass driver would be damaged and made unusable, or worse, destroyed completely. However, due to the work of the three 'GAT-X' series mobile suits, the mass driver only took minor damage and was still completely usable for launching ships into space. Not only that, around seventy percent of the base was still standing with varying degrees of damage states.

On the Lawdon, much of the crew were gob smacked at what they had seen during the battle. Yes, they had seen the three girls that had come with the she-devil Mina Moss, but none of them had thought they could do what they had out there. It had been unreal to witness even the scene, while Mina was quietly smug at the results that she knew her girls would achieve.

The 1st fleet came into the ports at Victoria, the 4th fleet was already securing the base and doing damage control. Thus, much of the rest of the daylight hours were spent, inspecting the base and seeing what worked and what wasn't working. Mina left the bridge of the Lawdon, and returned to her quarters to write up the report on this skirmish, the results were on note after all.

To say that Mina Moss was in a much more satisfied mood after seeing a battle like the recent one, would be an understatement. Her girls had done even better than she herself had hoped for and she was extremely proud of their performance. Yes, she had been training and working on the Lab's candidates, so that they would be able to successfully take on ZAFT pilots and win more than fifty percent of the time. But all three of her favorite girls had sent a sizable ZAFT force running away and had nearly overwhelmed them with the chaos they had caused among the enemy. Plus, now Mina could gloat to Azrael that not only had her girls proved her right, they had outdone the Alliance force along with doing the majority of their job almost by themselves. She was looking so forward to doing just that, that after she finished writing up her report, she called Azrael without further delay.

However, when Mina did get into contact with her employer, it became instantly obvious that he wasn't in the same good mood she was. "My my, Director Azrael, it appears that our moods are reversed from the last conversation we had. In fact, you appear to be in quite a bad mood today, should I ask what caused this?" Mina asked.

"Mina, I've been needing a word with you and you calling saves me the trouble of having to do myself," Azrael said in a cold tone.

Mina's eyebrows rose, "Is that so Azrael? Well, since I've done the curtesy of calling you, what is it you want to speak to me about?" she inquired, somewhat curious as to what the man wanted to talk about.

"Well Mina, the assault on Orb failed, your candidates were useless and didn't do what YOU said they would. So then, how do you explain this result, for this isn't how you sold this to me," Azrael snarled.

Mina held in the irritation that flared up in her at the complaint, "Once again Azrael, I state that there's nothing wrong with the mobile suits or the candidates. The mobile suits are as efficient as they can be made without more viable data that comes from field tests and actual combat. My candidates have been trained and conditioned to be able to do well against ZAFT forces," Mina was iterating.

Yet, she was interrupted by Azrael, "And yet, they failed Mina, why?"

Mina glared at the blonde man, "You want an explanation, then don't interrupt me. You sent those three against Federation forces and that's not what they've been trained to perform against, so the results will vary. And my intuition tells me that there were some custom model machines on the battlefield, am I right?"

"Yes, but what possible difference should that make?" Azrael grumbled.

This man was frustrating Mina more than most ever got to before, "Custom models, almost always have very skilled pilots Azrael, skilled pilots are more difficult to take down. My candidates haven't gotten to the point where they can consistently take on multiple pilots of that caliber. Then, it sounds like there are other problems going on that I'm not aware of at this moment." Mina then gained a smile, "But director, I believe I have a way to brighten you glum and foul mood."

"Oh, and how would you do that Mina?" Azrael asked flatly.

"Victoria has been taken and is now under the control of the Earth Alliance. Thanks to the performance of my girls, the mass driver is still in good working order and more than half the base is still very usable. They did a good portion of the work in the battle, even had a good number of the Alliance commanding officers' jaws hanging open as my girls did their tasks. I even got some videos of my girls forcing ZAFT to retreat, running away, or at least those they didn't shoot down, which I can send for your viewing pleasure. They performed beyond my expectations and that's not a normal occurrence, but still, very satisfying to witness and they did prove me right," Mina said a bit smugly.

Azrael had sat up straighter at hearing that, "Well well, that does help lighten my mood an amount Mina, but still, Orb is a standing problem."

Mina sighed, "If it would help you understand what I've stated is correct, I could come met up with the fleet around Orb and check to see if there is something is wrong with either the mobile suits or their candidates. Should any of the pairs be unable to perform, then I'll send out one of my girls in their place to show you that candidates from Lodonia can give an acceptable performance. Would that be agreeable and to your liking?" posed Mina.

"That's quite the offer Mina, what brought this on?" Azrael asked curiously.

Mina frowned slightly, "I suspect that the problem that you're seeing, lies with not the candidates per say, nor the suits, but with the handlers themselves. Candidates require a certain level of consistent maintenance to keep up their heightened performance, if it's not done, issues start happening. It… does occur occasionally, yet much less than in the earlier days of this project. So, if that's indeed the issue as I believe it is, it would be better if I handle it. I prefer to take care of internal issues myself, rather than leave someone else to do the job and possibly leave lose ends."

"Now that's a mentality I can understand Mina. Yes, I accept your offer, how long would it take you to get out here?" Azrael asked.

Mina took a moment to think about the answer, "Likely two days, less if I were to tell the captain of the Lawdon to push it."

"Then tell the captain to push the Lawdon, the sooner you get here, the better," replied Azrael.

Mina nodded, and then ended the call, before she went back to the bridge of the ship and told the captain to ship out. She also, said to put the petal to the metal and get the Lawdon to Orb as quickly as possible by the orders of Muruta Azrael.

-Line Break-

Orb Union

It was around sunset by the time some semblance of order had been mostly reestablished, and an amount of calm had come. Most of the mobile suit pilots were tired and showed it, where much of the military personnel were glad to be alive after the battle like they had been in. The Strike, the Buster and the Shadow came to stand in an area that they were directed to and Mu, Dearka and Krystal clambered out of the machines. Krystal and Mu met up with one another making sure they were okay, while Dearka watched the Archangel coming in to land.

The attention shifted when the Freedom and the Justice hovered over a clear area nearby and then lowered down. The Justice's Fatum-00's outer wings folded down as the suit got closer to the ground and the Freedom's wings collapsed into their stored position. As the two suits touched the ground a portion of those who were around moved towards the two mobile suits. That group included most of the crew of the Archangel, the mobile suit pilots and Cagalli herself.

Kira and Athrun came out of the cockpits and used the zip-lines to descend down to the ground. At the sight of Athrun Kisaka Ledonir, the man chosen by Lord Uzumi Athha himself to safeguard his daughter, he felt shock. "That's the ZAFT pilot we found around the Marshall Islands," Kisaka muttered.

The two friends touched down to the ground and simply looked at one another for a moment, before they both began walking towards each other. The world around them seemed to fade out from the notice of both of them as they kept closing the distance between one another. None in the watching crowd moved, just kept looking at the two pilots as they got closer to each other.

Soon they stood in front of one another, neither knowing how to start this. So much had happened between seeing each other in the Republic earlier this year and now. And an amount of it had involved them and had ended badly and there hadn't really been an opportunity to talk things out. Then, out of nowhere, Tori flew over to Kira and landed on his shoulder and acted as a trigger, "Hey Athrun… nice to see you're looking well," Kira greeted his best friend other than Tyler.

"Kira… I," Athrun started, not sure how to word what he wanted to get across properly.

Suddenly, Cagalli ran forward towards the two friends, "You two!" she shouted as she went. When Cagalli had reached them, she wrapped an arm around each of them and pulled them closer together, "You... You're both such idiots!"

Kira and Athrun looked at each other and smiled, knowing for now, words weren't needed to understand. However, once things calm down, the work of repair and maintenance was were seen to in earnest as the threat of the Alliance was still present. Everyone was contributing in what ways they could between their periods where sleep came. Even the leader of Orb, Uzumi Athha was going out in a helicopter assessing the extent of the damage that the Earth Forces had done.

As all of this was going on, Athrun and Kira got off by themselves, so they could catch up with one another. They had both gotten something to eat and drink, before they found a place to sit down. Kira was the one that started the conversation, "So then, you said that one of the reason you're here was due to the request of a friend… which you don't deserve. I take it that you're referring to Tyler, right?"

Athrun nodded, "Yeah," he said, clenching a fist and lowered his head a bit, "I… I don't deserve someone like him as a friend." Tears began flowing from Athrun's eyes, "I nearly killed him when I tried to kill you, and yet… he didn't even once blame me for it. He greeted me saying that he was glad that I was alright, then said that what happened, none of us were to blame… and he forgave me… I don't deserve that at all."

Athrun felt more grateful of a friend like Tyler after hearing he didn't blame him at all for what had gone down outside of Orb. Just after Athrun had come to understand that the self-destruction of the Aegis, had pretty much destroyed the mobile suit Tyler had been in, the pain that had filled him had been the same kind that had come after Junius Seven's demise. It was why when Lacus had said that Tyler was alive, Athrun had wanted to believe her so much. In the end, it was taken her suggestion and going to talk to Tyler and now was talking to Kira that was doing more for Athrun than anything else.

The conversation moved to Athrun telling Kira about the battle at the Republic in more detail. What both weren't fully aware of, was that others were listening to their conversation. And Athrun was going into details that weren't in the reports received by the Orb government, so there was interest in what was being described and said. Some of the highlights, were the descriptions of the three custom Alliance suits, the similarities between them and the three suits that had been in the attack on Orb. The similarities suggested they had been made either in the same place, by the same group of people, or both. The scary difference between the group of pilots of these new Alliance models, became clear as Athrun talked about those from the Republic used team work and those which they just faced didn't. Then, the description of the number of custom mobile suits made by the Federation was of interesting for those listening as well.

Athrun then got into the conversation with Tyler after the battle, ending with Tyler's promise that they would see each other in space. "So, Tye says we'll meet back up in space, did he? Then, there's nothing to worry about, we'll see him again," Kira reasoned.

With all the things that had happened, Athrun couldn't help the small smile that came to his face, "I know that we haven't always seen eye to eye Kira, but… I don't know. This war used to seem simple, but now it's so confusing, no matter where you go or who you talk to. Sometimes I think your naiveté is a gift for you," Athrun remarked.

Kira looked a bit confused at being considered naïve, but shook his head and just looked back at Athrun, "It would be great if we lived in a world where we didn't have to fight, and I would assume Tyler would agree. If only we could live forever in such a world," Kira mused.

Athrun agreed, but also knew the other part of that, the exchange that would be made if such a world was made. "Yeah, but in such a world, everything would stay the same, there would be no happiness, no sorrow, no pain or joy. The world is made up of the good and the bad, you can't have one without the other," he said.

Kira nodded slowly, "True, and if things go on like they are now, then the PLANTs and Earth will very likely end out destroying each other. Nevertheless, I believe there's still hope for things to end out peacefully, and that's worth fighting for. Therefore, that's my reason for choosing to fight, I can go back to how things were before, since I've already pulled the trigger and can't give back the lives taken anymore. I'll fight to protect that which is dear to me and do so with everything I have," Kira replied.

That brought to mind one point that Athrun wanted to bring up and make sure of, "One question Kira, you know the Freedom is equipped with a Neutron-Jammer Canceller. I want to confirm that you understand, should that data was to fall into the hands of the Alliance, you know that it would result in countless lives lost," Athrun stated.

Kira smiled, understanding what Athrun was getting at, "If anyone tries to steal it or data on it from me for their own purposes, I'll shoot them myself to stop them. I've been trusted with it and I will not betray that trust for any reason," Kira said firmly, with conviction.

He then rose and walked away from Athrun, to find something to do to occupy the idol time. Athrun had known that Tyler had made the right decision in entrusting Kira with the Freedom, but it helped Athrun to have conformation. He understood the line of thinking that Siegel and Lacus Clyne had considered both the Freedom and the Justice dangerous and shouldn't be left where they had been. Although, Athrun didn't want to admit that his Father… the current chairman of the Supreme Council, he might think about using nuclear technology to harm the Earth or other places. Just because of his hatred of Naturals that had stemmed from the Bloody Valentine Incident and that didn't make any sense.

A future with the man that Athrun's father had become, had been looking more bleak and non-existent as time kept moving forward. Patrick Zala was once a good man that really thought peace was a possibility for both Earth and the PLANTs and even practical. Most wouldn't know that and with the way that Patrick Zala presented himself now, none would ever think that of him. It was sad to Athrun to understand that, so many wouldn't know the father Athrun himself remembered from when he had been younger.

A day and a half went by and the Earth Forces were using the time to prepare for the next assault upon Orb. However, the real reason for the wait time wasn't known to most of the soldiers or commanding officers, but it wasn't for preparation. Azrael was waiting for Mina to arrive and figure out what the problem with the new machines and their 'CPUs' were. It was as twilight was falling that the Lawdon came into range of the 2nd seaborne fleet of the Earth Alliance.

Shortly after the Lawdon came alongside the Powell, Mina made herself ready to go over to the Powell. She would have an assistant going with her, mostly to record things for her to look over later if it was needed in future. Mina did stop by to talk to her girl rooms and told them to be ready to sortie out, for it might be needed. Then, Mina went to the upper deck of the Lawdon and boarded the helicopter that would take her and the female assistant over to the Powell. The helicopter lifted off and flew the short distance to the other Spengler-class ship.

Mina stepped out of the aircraft and didn't wait for the soldiers that were there to offer her a hand on getting down. She ignored them and headed inside the ship's interior with her assistant right behind her, carrying the briefcase that contained tools Mina believed she might need to use with the problem she suspected was present. She came around a corner and saw Muruta Azrael smiling at seeing her, while Mina had no readable expression on her face. "Director Azrael," Mina greeted flatly.

"Mina, happy to have you here," Azrael returned, "So, any idea how long identifying and taking care of the issue will take? There's work to be done and I'm not the fondest of waiting for long periods of time."

Mina looked at Azrael, "Want another go against Athha that badly, do you director? Well, barring any unwelcome interference, I believe I will have an answer for you concerning whether any of the three can perform properly in around an hour or less. So, if you keep those onboard this ship from sticking their noses into business they have no right or real reason to look into, then I can settle things. As I said to you before, I prefer to handle internal issues personal, if indeed that's the problem, so I would like all others to butt out," Mina stated emotionlessly.

Azrael's smile broadened a bit, "That's quite reasonable, I'd imagined it would take longer, good to hear that I can still count on you to get results in a reasonable amount of time Mina."

Mina nodded, before going past the man, her assistant silent following her, heading for the infirmary. Upon arriving in the room, the sound the three male candidates grunting in pain and clearly suffering. Mina became extremely ticked at seeing the instructions she had specifically given to the man that was the handler, were not being obeyed. Mina had expressly said that doses of medication were to be administered as the set schedule dictated, regardless of whatever else was said by anyone, even Azrael. She didn't need to see any more of the situation to know that her instructions hadn't been followed in most if not all of them. But, Mina did look a bit longer anyways and from the trembling forms of the three males, had been denied multiple doses of their medication. The medication was a mix of two different drugs; the first being Gamma Glipheptin, the other was Miliana Seritonine.

Gamma Glipheptin was in simple terms, was a performance-enhancing drug and was effective at doing so, better than any drugs with the same purpose that had come before. The issue with this synthetic substance, it was extremely additive, worse than any Natural addicting drug or substances known. The human can and could become so dependent on the drug that the withdrawal incapacitates the person a bit more than eight times out of ten. Long term effects of the drug were still undocumented, but preliminary estimations suggested that it would have consequences and end out killing the recipients, but there had been no deaths yet and that's what mattered to Mina.

Miliana Seritonine, was a substance created to help stabilize the body overall and balanced out the work done on candidates. It also prevented the bodily rejection from coming into play that the other surgeries did bring on sometimes with the candidates. With the range and variance of implants installed in candidates, it was necessary to stop the human body from rejecting and attacking the implants. It also had the added effect of extending the time that the Gamma Glipheptin acted on the body and diluted the negative effects of the drug somewhat, but not get rid of them.

Mina wasted no more time and visually signaled for her assistant to bring her the briefcase and the woman did so. Mina then, put the case down on a table and opened it. In the case was a variety of medical tools, liquid filled bottles and even had a datapad. However, Mina went straight for a syringe and then studied the small liquid filled bottles, before she took one out and filled the syringe with the substance. Once filled, Mina put the bottle back and then moved forward into the room. None noticed her coming in, Mina just went to the one that was supposed to be in charge of the three male candidates, their handler. Without hesitation, Mina grabbed the man's shoulder with one hand and with the other, plunged the needle attached to the syringe into the back of the man's neck and injected the liquid inside.

The man dropped to the floor holding the back of his neck, while Mina just stood above him, "I see you've decided that ignoring my explicated instructions I gave before leaving the lab is fine Dr. Mull, disappointing," Mina said coldly.

All in the room drew back in fear of the woman, for her to give another something that would cause pain of some sort, wasn't new for Mina Moss. The real question, was how bad was the punishment going to be for crossing her. Even as those in the infirmary watched the man, Dr. Mull began thrashing around from the pain he was put in from whatever it was that Mina had injected. Mina then took one of the available chairs in the room and sat down, before she spoke again, "None of you are to do anything to help him, this is what he receives for not following the instructions given him in favor of his own method. Should any of you feel inclined to do so, understand that you'll receive the same treatment."

At hearing that, the rest of the doctors and scientist turned away and ignored the man in pain on the ground. "One of you go and fetch three standard doses of medication right now, before any more damage is incurred with these three," Mina commanded and one of the doctors rushed off to do as they had been told. "Next, I'm to have a status report on what has been happening since leaving the lab, A.S.A. Damn P. One of you I would think would've been documenting, like should be common practice by now."

Within a minute, the woman that had gone to get the medication returned and the doses were given to the three males. Once the medication was administered, Mina then began to perform tests on the candidates to see if there were still up to going out in mobile suits. During that time, she was informed that two doses had been missed thus far since leaving the lab. Dr. Mull got a hard kick to the gut by Mina for that and she had firm heels on today. She would have kept doing that after the next question if the answer wasn't what she liked and would start using the heels she had to jab the man regardless whether it seriously injured the man. "Tell me Mull, did you at least record data for improving and adjusting the mobile suits, to make it worth what was sacrifice in the battle worth it? If you didn't, today will be the last of the few free days you will have going forward."

Silence from Dr. Mull told Mina that he hadn't recorded any data, and she was about to jab her right heel into the man's gut, when one of the female scientist spoke up. "Excuse me Dr. Moss, Dr. Mull might not have taken data for the mobile suits, but another and myself did. It was more due to the habit of documentation you've drilled the majority of us on."

Mina lowered her leg and returned to the chair she had sat in before and waved a hand, "Well, at least some of you listen to what you get told, even if a greater portion don't see the logic of it. Then take the data and make the needed adjustments to the three machines on this ship as quickly as possible without making mistakes."

A number of those in the infirmary left to do what Mina told them to, as much to get away from Mina than anything else. It was thirty minutes passed, when the results came back to Mina, telling her the condition of the three male candidates. She drew the attention of the three older teen boys by pinning them with her gaze, "The results are in for you three on whether you are fit to keep performing. First, Candidate Clotho Buer," Mina began.

Clotho stood up, "Yes, Ma'am," he said evenly, doing his best not to let his voice say that he was afraid.

Mina looked at him, "You are deemed unfit to perform at this time, so you are to return to your quarters and wait for further instructions," she stated.

Clotho bowed his head, and quietly did as he was told, not wanting to anger Dr. Moss, only hoping that he would get a second chance at those two machines from the last battle. Mina then looked at the datapad again, "Next, Candidate Orga Sabnak," Mina continued.

Orga stood up, "You are deemed unfit as well, and are to also return to quarters and await further instructions," Mina iterated.

Orga felt a bit of panic mixed with the desire to go back out there and fight, "Please Dr. Moss, I can perform, just give me a chance ma'am," Orga pled.

For the 'candidates' from Lodonia Labs, to not be able to perform could be seen as being useless and if such happened consistently, that was extremely bad. It could mean that the one would be disposed of and that was a permanent thing that couldn't be undone. Orga, like all the candidates didn't want to be disposed of, many of them had nowhere else to go and what they had come from was normally horrible for most. Mina looked up at Orga, "Need I remind you Orga Sabnak, that it isn't up to the candidate to decide if they are fit or not, that's the job of those like me. If you are unsatisfied with my diagnosis, then I can have your accommodations changed to assist in your understanding. One of the brig cells on this ship would do just fine and rest assured, that cell will be made to be exactly like one of the 'time out' rooms back at the lab. That in mind, are you sure you wish to disagree with my assessment of you right now?" Mina posed emotionlessly.

Orga shivered at the mention of the 'time out' room, Shani hugged himself in fear at the mention of the place, for they both knew exactly to what Dr. Moss was referring to. It was a set of specific rooms at Lodonia Lab and they weren't rooms that any of those there like or wanted to go to. In fact, it was one of the few things that all who lived at the lab agreed upon, whether they were a Natural type or a Coordinator type, for there were both types at the Lab. The set of rooms were the worst punishment that could be given other than disposal! All the candidates had either seen someone or been in one of the 'time out' rooms themselves, and know how horrible they were. One would go in resisting or fighting those as they were dragged there… but, when they came out they were all the same. Every single person would be broken down, in tears, promising to be good and do what they're told no matter what. Orga himself, had be sent to one of those rooms once and he would never forget how awful it had been to be put in there! The experience was one he never ever wanted to repeat again, for he too had been a mental mess and had broken down into tears, promising to be good and do what he was told like the rest when he came out.

So, Orga quickly shook his head, tears coming to the corners of his eyes, "No Dr. Moss, you're right, I won't question you again! I'll go back to my quarters like you told me! So please, don't put me in one of those rooms another time!" pled Orga shakily and desperately, his fear evident.

Mina gazed at Orga for a moment, "Very well, I'll let it slide this time, since I'm feeling generous right now and it's your handler's fault you've been having a number of the issues. Now off to your room you go then," Mina said dismissively.

Orga left and when to the quarters he had been given. Back in the infirmary, Shani was trembling as he awaited the verdict for him. He didn't have high hopes as the other two had been declared unfit, it was unlikely he would be any better at this point. And having to be reminded of the worse punishment those in the lab could face hadn't helped him at all. His 'roommate' had been sent to one and what they had described had really scared Shani and so, he didn't want to face the idea himself. Mina glanced back at the datapad, "Finally, Candidate Shani Andras," she announced.

Shani stood up, as ready as he could be to be told that he wouldn't be able to perform, "You are fit to perform as it happens," Mina remarked.

Shani's head snapped up, thinking he had heard wrong, "Uh, you said fit Dr. Moss, right? Meaning I can go out again?" Shani asked with disbelief.

Mina nodded, "That's corrected Shani, so that being said, I expect you to do acceptably as your past performance has shown you are able to do. You've proven to be the most consistent out of your trio, so make yourself ready to launch soon in the X252, off you go," Mina ordered.

Shani nodded and then bowed, before he left the infirmary and headed towards the cargo hold, in a better mood with the prospect of being able to go out again to prove he was useful. Mina put down the datapad and then contacted the bridge, "Azrael, I've finished solving the problem and it was as I thought, an internal issue," Mina said.

"I see, so then, what's the verdict for your candidates?" asked Azrael expectantly.

Mina sighed, "Clotho Buer and Orga Sabnak are unfit at this time to perform however, Shani Andras is up to go out. Since two out of the three are not going to be able to pilot, I'll also send out my girls with him so that he doesn't go out alone and needlessly get killed and waste the work that's gone into him," Mina said dryly.

"That's perfectly fine with me, I look forward to seeing their performance Mina," Azrael said with glee.

Shortly after the news of the pilots was heard, the Alliance fleet advanced forward, approaching the Orb Union once more, now that everything was made ready according to the leaders of the fleet. Mina had returned to the Lawdon, not wanting to be around Azrael. The man had an ego far too large for one person needing or should have in Mina's opinion. It was that, which made him as a financial backer that Mina had to deal with, a particularly frustrating one. Pretty much the only reason that Mina tolerated Azrael, was Blue Cosmos gave Lodonia Lab a LARGE amount of money to work with for researching funds.

Once on the bridge of the Lawdon, Mina sunk into her chair and exhaled heavily at the whole situation that was happening. War wasn't Mina's thing at all, even if her work was well suited for the idea. Her interest was always in finding where the limits of human beings were and see what it took for them to surpass them.

She then focused on the battle looming, turned connected a com-channel to the four mobile suits that would be going out. "Listen up all of you, your goal is to get as far as you can in this fight and I can guarantee it won't be a simple task. You're not going against ZAFT forces like you have been trained to face in the simulations back at the lab. That should be clear to each one of you by this point with having at least one experience against Federation military forces, they are an amount better than ZAFT is. That being said, using your brains will be the best thing for you to do in this outing. Like before, the desired results are for the mass driver to be intact and usable as well as Morgenroete being like that as well. Quite honestly, I don't find it likely that even with the four of you working together being able to do that without a lot of effort and luck. But, I'm optimistic and hopeful that it's possible, still all four of you are to be careful out there. Do the four of you understand your instructions?" Mina said.

"Yes mother/mama/mom/ma'am, we do," all four replied in unison.

The Earth Forces fleet started firing off missile and projectiles at Orb's mainland again, renewing assault they had left off on around two days ago. Of course, the defending forces of Orb took up repelling the Alliance from getting on to the mainland. It was as Strike Daggers flew out of ships and headed towards the Orb mainland, that the four custom mobile suits came out of the Spengler-classes. The Bandit shifted into its mobile armor mode and let the Raptor jump on top, then with the Sinister and the Forbidden flew towards Orb's military forces.

Meanwhile, on the side of those defending Orb, returned to the battlefield to protect their home and all they held dear. The second attack from the Earth Forces had been expected, but it was hoped that somehow it wouldn't come. The attack was heavy like the one earlier, but the defenders stood their ground and held firm. Kira and Athrun flew up to be above the bay the fighting had begun in, looking over the battlefield. And they were the first to spot four incoming custom mobile suits. Kira recognized one out of the four, the white one that had the green backpack unit and the shields on either side of the shoulders. But, the other three were new to him, though one of them kind of looked like the black and red one from the first battle, but this one was black and blue.

Athrun felt his heart drop a little at seeing not only one of the three from the previous skirmish, but all three mobile suits that had been in the battle of the Republic. Even if Athrun had fought two of them for a short period of time when he had entered the fight to help Tyler, it had been enough to know they were dangerous! More so since unlike the previous three, the one's from the Republic worked as a team. Athrun opened a com-channel to the Freedom, "Kira, those three machines with the scythe wield suit, they are the same ones that were in the attack the Republic. Don't underestimated them, they're dangerous, as individuals and as a team," remarked Athrun.

When the four Alliance machines got into striking range of the defending forces, they immediately got down to attacking the defenders. The Forbidden and the Sinister took the enemies higher up, while the Raptor jumped to the ground and started putting its artillery to use. The Bandit, after dropping off the Raptor, headed for the Freedom and the Justice. It shifted into its mobile suit form and taking out both beam sabers, striking at the Freedom and the Justice. Kira and Athrun pushed back against the Bandit, but even when it was forced back a bit, the suit just took out the rifle it had and fired alternating between the Freedom and the Justice.

Mu and Krystal were taking on the Raptor, but with it being lighter than the Calamity, it had better mobility then the Calamity had. Then the other problem with going against the Raptor, the two plasma cannons it had on the sides of the shoulder, had a hundred-eighty-degree spherical range of motion and so, there were less blind spots to exploit.

As time moved forward, Athrun and Kira managed to push the Bandit back and then they split up. Kira went after the Bandit, while Athrun went for the Sinister, which was swing at Federation fighters that were in the air. However, all four custom Earth Forces machines were proving to be a challenge for any to hamper their efforts.

On the Powell, the view of the skirmish was being taken in and most of the crew and officers were in shock at seeing the difference that the other custom mobile suits were making. Yet, Azrael was smiling at the performance of those Mina had sent out with the one from the Powell, for it was even impressing him. It made him consider the value that the work Mina and those cooperating with her were doing, for these results were very good in Azrael's view. There was still the open com-channel between the Powell and the Lawdon, Azrael couldn't help but comment about the view. "Must say Mina, quite impressive performance from your candidates," he said.

"There's a reason that I have confidence in my work and the results of it Azrael, you would do well to remember that," Mina answered back.

Things were going well for the Alliance nonetheless, the momentum that they had gained and use to surge forward, didn't last for all that long. The tables turned and changed unexpectedly when the Alliance ships began to be attacked from behind. Shortly after the Earth Forces ships were struck from behind, a sizable number of Federation fighters zoomed past the damaged ships. Azrael felt frustration at the sight of more of the Federation military showing up when things had been going well.

Mina on the other hand, was looking closer at the coloration that the fighter/mobile suits sported. It had been something else that Mina and some others had noticed, Federation military forces, especially the fighters, had different colored markings and the color was normally attributed to the nation they were from. And with the colors this group had, there were most likely from the Equatorial Union. If that's true, it was a good assumption that the Earth Alliance's 3rd seaborne fleet, which had been sent to that nation, had failed in taking control of the Equatorial Union. One could then further conclude that the Alliance hadn't been able to succeed at taking over even half of the Human Federation's territory, pretty much none of it so far.

The issue Mina saw with that for the Alliance at least, was while the Earth Forces down here on Earth was being foolish, she had the hunch that the Federation military in space was busy with the Alliance forces up there. And if what had happened thus far on Earth was anything to go by, the Federation were probably mowing down the Earth Forces orbital fleets as things went on down here. Mina was seeing what a mess that helping the Earth Alliance was becoming the longer that this time away from the lab. Technically, Lodonia Labs didn't belong to the Alliance, just more than half its funders were a part of the Alliance. The thought of looking into taking her work to either ZAFT or the Federation came to mind once again.

Then as the new Federation fighters began to exploit the weaknesses of the custom machines, Mina could see that things were now going badly, and that the Alliance would probably lose. But still, the bad news kept coming as another group of Federation forces arrived on the field. Yet, it was the marking coloration that alerted Mina that there was most likely an upcoming problem. For the coloring was that from the Republic, and memories from that battle came to mind specifically, the issue with the sonar that had occurred.

Mina twisted herself in her chair to the captain, "Captain, it would be in our best interest if the frequency that sonar runs on, changes before it becomes blind like it did back in the Republic," she said in a flat tone.

The sonar operator had barely done just that upon orders from the captain, when reports came in from other ships, saying that something had taken down the sonar detection system. The battle had been going on for nearly an hour by this point, and the fact that the custom mobile suits for the Alliance, would soon need resupply was began registering to Mina. Things were quickly looking grim for the Alliance from Mina's perspective and with little possibility of improvement. The last point or the capping idea that worried Mina how this would end, was the reputation Uzumi Athha had. For if you went by that, then the leader of the Orb Union wouldn't let the Alliance have the mass driver or Morgenroete, even if it ended bad for Orb itself. So, no matter how this finished, the Alliance would lose and not get what they were after.

So, Mina go back on the com-channel to the Powell, "Azrael, don't take this badly, but I would suggest that a tactical retreat be done, a personal opinion base upon observation," she said.

"I have no interest in hearing your opinion right now Mina," Azrael growled back.

However, before Mina could say anything else, two unknown craft burst out of the water and changed into custom mobile suits, before landing on different Alliance ships. One was the green, some of the larger sections a darker green while the rest was a lighter green, only the feet's center section was white. Before, the suit had appeared as a saucer for the upper section, and the lower was the lower half of the suit simply folded back and was likely the propulsion system. So, the head, shoulders and arms, folded in and combined with the back to form the saucer section. It possessed two long cannons, one on either arm mounted on the saucer section parts. It was clear, from where it had come, it was meant for fighting underwater and above it as well.

The other machine, was white overall, with the upper torso section and the feet being blue. Like the other, could transform into a submersible with the long nose divided into two parts, one behind each shoulder. Then there was a powerful looking cannon on its back along the center, where there were two rifles on the outside of the shoulders. The suit was also carrying a lance of some kind on its back beside the cannon.

Both the custom mobile suits, started shooting the Alliance ships and honestly, were ripping them apart with their arsenals. That left the Federation fighters that had come to Orb, to work on taking down the Alliance forces that were on Orb's mainland. Mina then turned her attention back to Azrael, "Look around you Azrael, then tell me that you think it's such a bad idea to retreat. Plus, with the reputation that Athha has, I would bet a substantial sum of currency that he had rigged something with the mass driver and Morgenroete. Should you overtake the defenders, then I wouldn't doubt he'd destroy both of them before you could do anything to stop him. It would make all the work done to get this far wasted," Mina reasoned.

Azrael looked to the field once again, then frowned, angry at how things had gone from going the way he wanted them to be, to going horribly! Yet, he could see the logic Mina was saying, even if he disliked it. Athha was stubborn enough to do as Mina said, and Azrael knew that by this point. He sighed in slight defeat, "Okay Mina, I admit that you have a point in this, but don't think that this fight with the Federation is over."

"I wouldn't doubt you'll make sure of that," Mina replied.

She then gave orders to recall the custom mobile suits immediately, not wanting to have too much damage with them. The order was echoed to the rest of the Alliance forces and they pulled back from Orb, leaving the nation still standing. It had been damaged and would take time and resources to rebuild the land, but the Alliance had failed in taking over.

-Line Break-

Kaguya Facility, Onogoro Island

Things had been busy since the Earth Alliance forces had pulled out and left the Orb Union's territory. There had been further losses on the defender's side, and there had been damage and destruction wide spread.

The Archangel had come to Orb's mass driver facility, known as Kaguya and was having

Plasma Boosters mounted to its sides. The boosters were to help atmospheric ascent, which normally, a mass driver would be required for anything bigger than a medium class shuttle. A second ship was being prepared on the mass driver's rails, one of Orb's own space vessels, the Izumo-class.

The Buster, the Strike and the Shadow were loaded on the Archangel, since neither of the three did well in atmospheric conditions for extended periods of time. The Freedom and Justice would follow, hanging onto the outside of the Izumo's central module, since they could do fine in atmospheric conditions. Once things were prepared, the Archangel lifted off, pointed its bow towards the sky, then fired a volley from both of its positron cannons. The positron energy reacted with the boosters and helped the ship increase its speed as it climbed higher and higher. The white vessel was heading up to space as that's where the real fight that would decide the way this war would end.

Meanwhile, the final tasks needing to be done to make sure the Izumo was ready to launch up into space were being seen to. Kisaka would be in charge and would act as the ship's captain with the military experience he had, it seemed the best option. Erica Simmons would also go to make sure the Astrays that were going onboard would be working as efficiently as possible. Cagalli was doing what she could to help, but she was also kind of sad that she had to see the ship and those going with it leave at a time like this. However, when her father, Uzumi Athha came up to her and put a hand on her should she straightened up and put on a good face. "Worry not Cagalli, you will not see the Izumo leaving Orb," said Uzumi.

Cagalli turned and stared at her father, "What do you mean father?" She asked.

Uzumi gently pushed Cagalli toward the ship, "You will be onboard when it flies into the heavens," he returned kindly.

Cagalli gaped at her father and was about to say no, when Kisaka grabbed one of her arms, "It's almost time to go Lady Cagalli," he said.

She glanced to Kisaka, then back to her father, "But Orb needs people here! I can't go up into space right now," Cagalli choked.

Uzumi shook his head, yet smiled, "No, your place in above this world, your voice may be able to help turn the tide and bring about a better tomorrow for not just Orb, but for all humanity. I will stay here and lead this nation and help it get back to its feet after the Earth Alliance's attempts to bring it low came to not," Uzumi turned to Kisaka. "Fly Kisaka my friend, watch over my daughter while she's under your care. She is one who will help nourish the seeds of the future, and that will be necessary if the human race is to have any chance of surviving and having a future for itself."

Kisaka bowed to Uzumi, before he began pulling Cagalli towards the Izumo. Cagalli however, was struggling against Kisaka, saying she couldn't leave Orb like this. Uzumi could only smile at seeing the struggle his adopted daughter was putting up. It reminded him a bit of his late wife, and very much of his friend and colleague, Ellen Blass. Certainly, Cagalli had learned a few mannerisms from her, how to be headstrong at the very least! Homura Athha came up behind Uzumi, "I take it that my niece didn't much like the idea of leaving at this time?" He asked.

"No, but it is needed, the seeds of the future are in jeopardy and those who are able to protect and nurture them are necessary now more than ever." Uzumi sighed, "Still, not an easy thing for a parent to send their child off, and so it isn't for me either."

Homura chuckled, "You are not the first parent to admit that, and nor I believe, will you be the last my brother. Still, there's plenty of work to do down here. I just got done speaking with our allies from the Equatorial Union, seems that we aren't the only ones that have serious issues with the way the Alliance leadership is running things. Apparently, a growing number within the Alliance states are becoming dissatisfied with the leadership and their actions," stated Homura. Uzumi hummed in thought at that piece of information, for it could infer quite a few different things.

The announcement of the start of the launching of the Izumo came and the ship began moving along the mass driver tracks. The Justice and the Freedom latched onto the ship as it zoomed down the mass driver, constantly gaining speed. Halfway down the length of Kaguya, the Izumo's boosters activated and the increase of speed picked up sharply. The Izumo rocketed of the linear catapult upward toward space and an unknown future.

Phase end

A/n

Okay, that's where I'll leave off for this chapter. Now, I admit, that this is the other end of what goes down on Earth before the story shifts into space. And originally, I debated whether to do this chapter at all, but after I laid it out, I saw value in making this phase. The overall reasoning, comes in a few points; the change in what happens to Orb, the battle at Victoria and showing what Mina Moss can be like. I'll start with Mina, in the last chapter, I mentioned that she had a reputation of being mean, but I wrote an example of it in this chapter. I also showed the air of fear with many who work around her and how a number of the 'candidates' see her, for there is a difference.

With the battle of Victoria, I made that section to portray what the three girls Mina has with her could do against ZAFT. Plus, they kind of show to me what Clotho, Orga and Shani might be able to do were the to work as a team. Then finally, the change in what happened with Orb at the end of the second battle does have importance. Mostly because Orb's mass driver is intact and Uzumi Athha ISN'T dead! That will play a part later, won't be saying why or what will come from it. I'll let your imagination do work instead. So, to finish off, as I normally do, please some of you write a review and tell me what you think. Reviews do help me improve my writing and that in turn, makes the story better.