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Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The Queen of Space
A Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Alternate Universe Novella
Brought to you by,
William R. Woods
"deathzealot", or "deathzealotzero"
Brief Foreword
Okay. First of all, I need to mention that this story is quite different from any other story that I have done in the past. As I am going to take a single character from the series, one of which wasn't all that important in the story, and vastly expand on said character into something far more fun to write. This character being Caridad Yamato, Kira's Mother, who in the series was a typical stay-at-home mother and in the background of the anime at large. We only really see the woman a handful of times in both the Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny anime. I do believe we only really hear her talking once or twice. Hence, I decided to do something a bit different and expand on her character into something far more interesting in my opinion. Captain Caridad Yamato, of the Orb Defense Force and commander of a space warship of the newly formed Orb Space Defense Force. Something, that is, quite different from what we saw of her in the series itself.
Overall, this idea originally called for Captain Caridad Yamato as a naval officer on the planet itself during the later stages of the Bloody Valentine War, but when I was working on something else for another project, I was working on I started to get the idea to change things around with Caridad becoming captain of a space warship. The result of which would become this story which follows a somewhat modified version of the original series story from the perspective of Captain Yamato. Unlike the original idea which did not have that instead having the story focused on the usual main characters of the series, Kira and Athrun. Caridad Yamato was only a military officer in the background of a vastly modified version of the start of the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny storyline. That said, I think this version of events and the focus on Caridad would make things interesting as I tie her storyline with that of the rest of the main storyline which follows Kira and his friends.
With that said I need to mention that the character of Caridad Yamato is quite different from her portrayal in the original series with her becoming a passionate and courageous warrior but also a compassionate mother figure for Kira at the same time. In the original idea, Caridad had a so-called "Glance of Doom" of which could quill Kira and later Athrun with just one glance. That is kind of drawn from my experiences with my mother and from fictional mothers out there like Molly Weasley from Harry Potter Fame. However, in this story, I am going to tune that down a bit for mother and son will interact only a handful of times in this story. All that said I need to mention that thanks to this story Caridad Yamato is quite different from the original version of her character I am visually basing her character on Mirellia Q Melromarc from The Rising of the Shield Hero anime just with green eyes. This is mainly because of their similar hair color and that Kikuko Inoue her voice actor, also portrays Caridad much to my own amusement.
One last thing to mention here before I end this foreword. While much of the large story overall and the background of said story remains similar to that of the original I have changed a couple of things. The first of course, is that like many of my other Gundam stories, I am going to be adding extra factions and third parties to the story. That is not all that important to later in the story but what is important is that I am adding a warship design that becomes a sort of the primary ship design in use by the mentioned extra, smaller, factions, along with that of some pirates. This ship design will actually be based on that of the Salamis Class Light Cruiser from the Universal Century Gundam. I did this because I was kind of tired of having the known ships from the Cosmic Era Gundam either in some modified form or not, being used for other factions in the Cosmic Era. Like, say the Serpent Tail mercenaries using a Laurasia Class ship. I then decided to use the ubiquitous Salamis Class because I am a fan of the design and I had previously used it for my old Angelic Dawn story in a similar role. Not to mention the newer versions of the ship in both the Origin OVA and Thunderbolt anime look very good compared to the older animation of design in my humble opinion.
That is about it for me talking about this story and time for the story itself. I hope you all enjoy this story for it was quite an interesting idea in my opinion. See you all later and thanks for reading.
Phase One: The Fragile Peace
When I was placed in command of my own space warship, I was quite nervous and out of my element since I knew that while I did have experience commanding a ship. That was a naval ship on Earth and not a spaceship floating through space. Yeah. It was thanks to a paper that I wrote on a whim about the need for a Space Defense Force for Orb that saw me in command of such a ship. Still, trying to get used to commanding a spaceship while similar to what I was used to commanding a blue water ship, there were still numerous differences. The most major difference? Zero Gravity! It took me ages to get used to floating around the ship instead of walking around. I was thankful that the Myoken and her sisters had a gravity deck, a small one, but still a dedicated gravity deck, or I would have gone crazy with all that darn floating around I had to do to get around my ship. Eventually, I did get used to the Zero Gravity, and I did get used to the other differences in commanding a space warship. However, those early days really were irritating and if it wasn't for my executive officer, Commander Malcolm Reed, I think I would have gone insane within those first few weeks. Especially after the Heliopolis Incident…
- Taken from The Queen of Space: A Look into Captain Caridad Yamato – Unabridged
Published in, The Heroes and Not, Of the Bloody Valentine War, A Short Historical Series, Circa May of Cosmic Era 73
Command Bridge
OSDS Murakumo
Lagrange Three, Earth Sphere
January 25, Cosmic Era 71
In the black ocean of space, a lean and large-looking warship approached a vastly larger asteroid anchored alongside a few smaller asteroids at one of the points of stability in space that is called Lagrange Points. This warship sported many weapons across its hull with what looked to be a pair of deployable turrets gracing the forward hull with another two unknown deployable weapons on either side of the ship's back end and a dozen of what looked to be some sort of machine gun turrets were spread across the hull of the ship. All of this made the ship look quite powerful yet at the same time graceful. Meanwhile, its hull was painted in a light blue coloration with some white breaking up the blue colors in some areas. While a bold black hull number of SCC-103 graced the ship's bow and the ship's name, Murakumo was painted in lovely, graceful-looking hand along either side of the ship's forward hull instead of a more militaristic-looking text. Finally, the golden sun-like emblem of the Orb Union graced not only one side of its superstructure but in a smaller format in a few other different places across the ship's hull.
On top of the superstructure of the Murakumo was its bridge which inside saw its bridge crew go about their duties with lowered voices while sitting in the large chair at the center of the bridge the figure of the ship's captain, one Captain Caridad Yamato, calmly observed them all. The captain was almost statuesque and lean-looking, giving her a graceful but commanding look to her as she stared over the bridge like a queen. After a moment the captain looked up in some brief confusion as the stout but somewhat pudgy figure of her second in command, one Commander Malcolm Reed, floated towards her command chair from the now opened entrance to the bridge. The man sported a slowly balding head with what hair he did still having a mix of dark brown and gray showing his age along with the crow's feet at the edge of his eyes. Still, that did not prevent him from being a great officer of the new Orb Space Defense Forces.
"What brought you to the bridge Commander Reed, I thought you were terrorizing the forward weapon crews after their conduct during that last simulation we had?" the captain asked with a small smile on her lips making the older officer snort in some contempt which almost sounded like a snarl to her ears. As he brought himself to a halt next to her chair, she could hear him mumbling under his breath.
"Damn kids," the man was saying before shaking his head and turning his attention to the captain now with a small smile on his face.
"Well, first your Steward found me and bid me to pass this on to you. Since he was busy getting the junior stewards up to his standards," the aging Commander said with a short chuckle as he reached over the left armrest of the captain's command chair, bulky with the phone-like handset, small display monitor, and other minor controls, to hand her a zero-gee thermos making the green eyes of Captain Yamato blink in some surprise and a bit of pleasure as she read the label on the thermos.
"That man spoils me so much," she mentioned popping up the cap and taking a generous sip of warm green tea that filled the thermos almost humming in pleasure at the taste. She knew that the new Orb Space Defense Forces gave their captain and other senior officers personal stewards mainly to help take care of them for unlike the ships of the much larger Orb Naval Defense Forces which were not often far from the shores of the homeland the ships of the OSDF would often be off on cruises lasting up to a couple of months. Therefore, such stewards were assigned to take care of the officers which included keeping their assigned officer able to quickly get into normal suits during a battle.
"That is kind of his job ma'am," the XO amusedly mentioned in reply before chuckling at the somewhat relieved looks of the totally not listening in members of the bridge crew, "Besides I do not think anyone on this ship wants you without your tea after what happened the last time."
The captain grumbled under her breath at this being reminded about a previous incident during the time they were working up the ship and its crew. It saw her being edgy and upset after tasting the very weak tea with a bunch of sugar in it that had been included in the standard rations of the ship. This saw many of her crew did not want that to happen again due to her bad temper and annoyance at the weak tea. She took another sip of the tea and was glad she managed to get some of her favorite tea onboard after that incident. Not to mention her new personal steward was quite capable of making tea even in zero gravity which is one main reason she hadn't complained all that much about him being on board.
"I know that, but do you know that he is from a family that has long been part of the Attha Family Household Staff? He was trained from since he was young to be a servant of a noble family and now he is taking care of someone like me," she mentioned with a sigh looking over at her second in command to see him chuckling under his breath making her huff in some irritation before she looked out the bridge viewport at the fast approaching surface of the resource satellite and space colony that was hidden behind it.
"Can't wait to be back home ma'am?" Commander Reed asked softly seeing the look of nostalgia on her face.
"Yes, it has been around a month since I was pretty much yanked off the colony and taken to the mainland to enter talks with the Chief Representative and his top military advisors about that damn paper that I had written months ago," the captain replied with a chuckle remembering that time for she had written a small minor paper about the need for a space defense force for the Orb Military after a few incidents with pirates across the Earth Sphere including a daring raid directly on a space colony at Lagrange Four. This paper, much to her own surprise somehow managed to get to the top of her country's leadership and ignited a sort of desperate need for the country to start the formation of such a force as quickly as possible. She was contacted by a representative of the government and brought down to earth to start discussions about such formation of a new Space Defense Force.
"I remember that as well. It is not every day that a family spacer like me is literally dragged from their family's ship to help a country that had done good to us over the years to help form a dedicated Space Defense Force," the commander mused with a chuckle of his own remembering that time late last year. Unlike the captain and the majority of the ship's crew, he wasn't really an Orb-born citizen instead being from a long line of independent space haulers that often worked with Orb over the years.
"Wasn't it because you also read my paper and volunteered your services?" the captain questioned with a smirk on her face as she took another large sip of her tea. The commander only rolled his eyes and nodded his head at his captain's question. However, before he could answer the captain the ship's helm officer seated almost directly in front of the bridge's command chair turned their chair slightly towards the two senior officers.
"Captain, I am now adjusting course from relative Green 14 to Green 20 to get us around the Erebor Resource Satellite and on a direct course towards Heliopolis," Junior Lieutenant Mirai Yashima reported with a calm expression on her youthful face making the two officers look down at the young woman.
"Very well, go ahead with your course correction, and thank you helm," the captain replied with a nod to the younger woman and a brief smile at her youthful senior helm officer making her smile slightly herself before turning back to her controls. This brought the captain's eyes to look over to her second in command to see him shaking his head with a sigh, but he was smiling as well.
"Still Commander it has been weeks since I have seen my family," she said continuing their earlier conversation with the older officer.
"It did not help that I was pretty much dragged from my home on the evening of Christmas Day," she continued on with a grumbling frown on her face. The Commander was silent during this and only nodded his head in answer to his captain's almost wistful-sounding comment.
"You have a son if I remember right?" the Commander finally mentioned after a few moments of silence between the senior officers.
"Yeah, Kira he was so excited that he managed to get accepted in the Advanced Technical College Program of the Morgenroete Sponsored Heliopolis Industrial College," the captain replied with a wistful look on her face making the commander smile himself as he remembered his own son who was now an adult and starting his own family.
"He also started dating his childhood friend Fiona when I left," the captain then mentioned a short laugh and a shake of her head. She really liked Fiona Alexander, Kira's longtime friend and now girlfriend. That girl was quite tough and stood up against Caridad one time a couple of years ago about something or another that Caridad had forgotten about. One of the few times that Kira actually got in trouble with her over the years. She took another sip of her green tea as she turned towards her executive officer with an almost motherly look on her face.
"So what about…" she started to say but was brutally cut off by the scream of shock from her helm officer and the sudden cursing of the navigation officer sitting next to the helms officer making the two officers snap their heads to look down at the helm station. This brought the attention of the rest of the bridge crew up towards the helm station.
"CAPTAIN! The Colony!" Lieutenant Yashima finally managed to say, and Captain Yamato's eyes snapped towards the forward viewport from staring at the straightened back of her helms officer and her heart suddenly seemed to jump straight from her chest to her throat as she saw the massive expanding debris field where the colony that happened to be her home had once stood in space. She barely could hear the gasps and screams from the rest of the bridge crew or the angry cursing on her second-in-command. She could only watch the debris field and be fearful for her family. Suddenly she heard a cold and sharp voice she briefly acknowledged as her own voice before the professional Captain Yamato took over from the simple Caridad Yamato, wife to a lovely man and proud mom to a Wizkid teenaged son. Now the disciplined and military-minded Caridad Yamato was in control.
"Bring us to Alert Level-One! Action Stations! Full sensors sweep of the surrounding area! I want to know what the hell happened here," that cold and sharp voice of Captain Yamato called out not even noticing she had dropped the thermos of her favored green tea in shock sending it floating away from her chair with droplets of tea escaping the straw as it spun through zero gee atmosphere of the bridge. Her cold voice brought the others on the bridge to action, and they went about their orders. The form of Commander Reed soon echoed the order to the rest of the ship, and he pushed off from the command chair to take position behind the main tactical section of the bridge right below the captain's chair. A brief moment later alarms started throughout the ship bringing the crew of the ship to their stations. The forward viewports usually sporting open views of the surrounding space were suddenly cut off as armored shutters started to fall down over the open viewports blocking off the view for a brief moment before three large view screens suddenly lowered from the bridge's ceiling over that of the now closed shutters and turned on to show similar views of earlier. However, what was different was various readouts and such displayed alongside the view of the surrounding space around the ship. Outside the ship's two main weapon systems deployed from their mounts, with a very large double barrel cannon turret being deployed from the mounts along the top and bottom of the forward hull. Meanwhile, a long-looking single-barrel weapon was deployed from that of the mounts along the back end of the ship. It was around a minute or so later after that first order that the sensor officer seated to the captain's left turned his chair away from his station.
"Captain I cannot detect anything in that debris field there is just too much interference between all the debris and the remainder of whatever jamming was used to cut off the colony from sending off a distress call," the officer reported in a similar cold sounding voice reminding the captain that a good portion of her crew were also from the colony originally.
"Understood sensors keep looking please," the captain replied making the young officer nod in understanding before he turned back to his station. The captain meanwhile turned to other matters as she waited for the rest of the crew to race to their battle stations.
"Captain! The crew is now reporting that they are all at battle stations! All weapons are reported to be crewed and ready. The Murakumo is now ready for combat," Commander Reed reported from the bridge's tactical section making Captain Yamato frown slightly before nodding at her second in command as he popped his head from the tactical section built underneath the larger upper bridge area before he returned to hovering over the officers assigned to the tactical section.
"Understood. Helm continue on course for the remains of the colony, while sensors continue with full spectrum scans around us," she directed her crew and she watched the view screens silently as the ship continued on towards the growing debris field that was all that remained the colony she had called home. A few minutes later a beep sounded from the sensor station making the sensor officer cry out in some success before turning his chair to report.
"Captain! I am now detecting a large heat source that my instruments are reporting to be a warship. We would need to get a bit closer to get further data on the unknown ship," the man reported making the captain frown at him.
"I need a location Ensign!" she barked at him making him blink before blushing and turning back to his station.
"Yes ma'am!" the man barked back before reading his screens for a moment and then entering a few commands into the station. He then took a brief moment to read the resulting information from his screens before turning back to look at the captain.
"The unknown ship is located at Green 332 Alpha by Blue 285 Charlie," the man reported back making the captain nod before looking down at the helm station to see her helm officer already at work directing the ship towards those coordinates making a small smile to appear on her face before going back to a cold more business-like expression.
"Ensign Tomas, can you get anything else from the sensors about our friend out there?" she asked as she turned back to look over at the young sensor officer.
"Yes ma'am! He is hovering just outside the nearest section of the colony's debris field. He is also looking to be scanning the debris with not only normal sensors but fire control radar as well," the man reported without turning away from his station making her nod slightly to see that the man was learning. However, she soon frowned at that report for it seemed like they were looking for something and it surely wasn't trying to rescue any colony lifeboats if they were using fire control radar. So, it may not be any sort of rescue effort from the nearby ports, but she may be looking a bit much into that report. Her thoughts were cut off when further beeping from the sensor station saw her turning her attention back to the sensor station.
"Aha! We now have a match for the unknown's thermal pattern," the Ensign reported before a moment later he seemed to blink in some sort of surprise before continuing his report, "Looks to be a ZAFT Laurasia Class Mobile Frigate!"
"What in the world is a ZAFT Frigate doing all that way out here!" the voice of Commander Reed came from the tactical section in some confusion. The captain meanwhile hummed a bit as she stared out at the view screens trying to see if she could see the distant ship.
"Well, we did that info packet from the Orb Intelligence about ZAFT having stationed a couple of ships out here to keep an eye on the Eurasian's military facility Artemis," she mentioned out loud answering her second's earlier statement.
"Still Captain I do not like them using Fire Control Radar on the debris field. They are surely not assisting in any rescue effort," the man replied back looking at the screens down in the tactical section.
"I do agree for it seems like they are searching for something in that debris to attack," the captain mused out loud in a thoughtful tone, "So let us go over there and ask them what had happened here and what they are searching for so thoroughly."
"Captain! If it is actually ZAFT who had been in some way reasonable for attacking Heliopolis they may attack us as well," the Commander said in a somewhat shocked tone poking his head out of the tactical section once more to look at her and making a small savage smile to appear on her face.
"Oh. If that is the case, I am looking forward to it! Still, let us be a bit cautious in our approach," she mentioned in a voice colder than space itself before looking down at the helm station and Lieutenant Yashima.
"Lieutenant, I want you to bring us into his aft arc and a bit below his current orientation," she ordered the young woman who simply nodded her head at her before turning towards her controls to follow her captain's orders. The Commander blinked in some surprise at those orders before his own savage smile appeared on his face.
"Oh. I get it. Since the Laurasia Class has the majority of its armament on its dorsal hull you are going to have us come in at an angle that prevents them from firing on us," the man mentioned with a chuckle before with a hum of thought he dropped back into the tactical section.
"Correct. While we will have a good amount our own weapons already locked on his aft ready to fire if he decides to maneuver in any way to bring his own weapons into action against us or start launching mobile suits," she mentioned in reply before she leaned forward now with a concerned look on her face. "Still I am quite worried that he hasn't detected us yet."
"Ma'am. I doubt he can since he is directing all of his sensor sweeps in the debris field and what sensors he still has directed in our direction is somewhat affected by the nearby debris," Ensign Tomas the sensor officer replied to her statement making her turn to stare at him in some surprise before she chuckled.
"Understood Ensign. Still, helm keep on your course towards our new friend out there," she said looking back down at the helm station.
"Aye Ma'am! We shall intercept the other ship in about five minutes or so," Lieutenant Yashima replied without looking over at the captain.
"Understood thank you helm," the captain mentioned before leaning forward in her chair staring out at the still-expanding debris that was once her home in some thought before she looked back over at the sensor station.
"Sensors if I am not mistaken that pattern of debris from the colony looks to be destroyed from something internally," she mentioned out loud making Ensign Tomas swing his chair away from his station with a thoughtful look on his face before he too looked at the viewscreens and that of the debris field.
"I am not much an expert ma'am, but it does look quite different from the images I saw in the past of the destruction of Junius Seven, and the collapse of the Shepard colony at Lagrange Four two years ago," the man replied with a look of some intense thought on his face making the captain nod in understanding for both of those colonies had been destroyed by something hitting them externally. Junius Seven from a large anti-ship nuclear warhead launched at the colony while the Shepard Colony was in fact destroyed via an intense meteorite storm that shredded the colony's skin with dozens of small holes from the impacting meteorites which soon saw the colony ripping itself part a few hours after the storm stopped. Each of the resulting debris fields from those destroyed colonies along with of smaller incidents Caridad could remember from her own childhood was quite different from this debris field.
"I think you are correct captain. I remember the destruction of the original Zodiac Station at Lagrange Five. Blue Cosmos Agents had somehow managed to smuggle numerous high-end explosives into the interior of the station, which was basically a small Bernal Sphere, and set them off," the voice of Commander Reed said as he rose from the Tactical Section and steadied himself by grabbing a bar attached to one side of the captain's command chair.
"The debris field spread from that is quite similar to what we are now seeing with the destruction of Heliopolis," the man finished with his own cold look as he stared towards the viewscreens. The captain nodded at this, looking over at the face of the sensor officer who had a look of some amazement before shaking himself and turning back to his station which had just started to beep something at him.
"Hmmm… Captain looks like some of the heavier jamming has stopped or faded for I am starting to pick up numerous lifeboat signals at these points," the man mentioned now with a bit of hope entering his voice before touching command which some data to one of the sub-displays on the main screen which showed large red dots on the display. The captain blinked at this report and saw her previous icy look of anger start to melt with some relief. She leaned forward slightly to study the sub-display before nodding.
"Those look to be the three of the four main emergency evacuation points programmed in the flight system of the colony lifeboats," she mentioned out loud in some relief as that meant that there was enough time for the colony's population to make it to the colony shelters. It also meant that it was not a sudden destruction but a slow collapse of the colony.
"Ensign, do you have a count of those lifeboats you can detect?" she asked the sensor officer who after a moment of studying the gathered data on his screens turned his seat to look at the captain.
"As of this moment Captain I am only detecting five hundred forty-three lifeboats gathered at the three evacuation points that we currently have in sensor range. That also does not include any damaged lifeboats at the evac points or in the debris field itself which I cannot detect right now due to the overall heat and such given out by the debris," the man mentioned with a worried look on his face which was reflected in the face of his captain for that was just under half of the lifeboats/shelters built into the colony's skin. Still, there could be dozens of lifeboats damaged in the debris field or at the evac points themselves which means they couldn't be detected due to those damages, or there could be a lot more at the final evac point which was a bit deeper into the Lagrange Point. The captain studied the display for a further few moments eying the icons showing the lifeboats before sighing and shaking her head turning her attention towards the large yellow icon on the main viewscreen showing the location of the ship from ZAFT.
"We shall put off any further search for any other lifeboats for the moment. Let us take care of that "friend" of ours from ZAFT first before we send anything or anyone into the debris field to search for more lifeboats," she ordered with a sigh making the others on the bridge turn their own attention to the icon of the ZAFT ship as it started to grow larger in the view screen.
"We should be in range momentary Captain," was the statement from the helm station making the captain nod before she turned to look at Commander Reed who stayed at her side.
"I know that common courtesy would be to send off a message to our friend out there Commander, but I really want to make things clear on how displeased I am about finding my home in such a state," she nearly whispered to the man who raised an eyebrow at her statement before he too stare at the slowly growing figure of the ZAFT ship before turning his attention towards her knowing somewhat what she wanted to do.
"Well ma'am we really do not know if they actually had a hand in the destruction of the colony just yet, so I think a direct video message would be the best of this moment, but if they refuse to mention to us what had happened here then I can see us sending them a more direct message," he mentioned nearly under his breath to her making her frown slightly but nodded knowing he was right.
"I want you to set up our more direct message then Commander," she replied back with a nod towards the open space on the floor leading to the tactical section. The commander smirked slightly down at her before following her unsaid order and heading down toward the ship's tactical section once more. That done she turned her attention towards the ship's communications station which sat next to that of the sensor station at one side of the bridge.
"Comms get ready to send our friend out there a tight beam communication if you please," she ordered with a scowl on her pretty face making the young woman in that position nod at her order.
"Captain we are ready down here," came the voice of the Commander. Outside, away from the view of the bridge crew the ship's weapons all started to lock on the still distant figure of the ZAFT Laurasia Class Frigate. The forward missile launchers open their doors showing torpedo-like anti-ship missiles ready to fire, and the forward three high-energy beam cannons focus their barrels right onto the ZAFT frigate. The stubby-like weapons along either side of the ship started to hum and extend itself to its full size revealing the weapons to be some form of linear cannon.
"Ma'am, we are now in range of the ZAFT ship, and starting to slow us down," Lieutenant Yasima mentioned from her own position at the helm. This made the captain nod in understanding before she turned towards the communication station.
"Start broadcasting Comms and get me whoever is the commander over there," she ordered out loud with a glare on her face which saw her former icy expression to return to her face. A moment went by before the large multi-purpose screen that had covered the former viewport on the ship's port side started to flash replacing the view of the outside with that of the focused view of the ZAFT ship before it suddenly flashed once more, and a black uniformed youthful looking man appeared on the screen.
"Captain, I am Captain Caridad Yamato of the Orb Space Defense Ship Myoken and I really want to know what has happened here," she mentioned in the same cold-like tone of voice she used before as she leaned forward in her seat almost threateningly. The man seemed to blink in some surprise at her appearance before he seemed to sneer at her for a moment before his face became quite neutral and started to talk.
"Captain Yamato I am Captain Zac Walker of the ZAFT Ship Ziegler, and it appears that the Morgenroete Facilities on the colony were in the process of developing new mobile suit prototypes for the use of the Earth Alliance. Therefore, my immediate commander, one Commander Le Creuset ordered an attack on the colony to either capture or destroy the prototype along with a prototype assault warship to carry them all. In the process of the battle between the Commander's forces and that of the colony's defense forces including elements of Earth Alliance Marines the colony was destroyed," the man said in a haltingly almost arrogant-sounding voice making the hands of Captain Yamato to squeeze the armrests of her chair in some anger at the tone before she blinked in outright surprise at what the man was saying.
"Excuse me?" she angrily managed to say in response to the man's speech before she took a couple of deep breaths and returned her attention to the screen.
"Let me get this straight Captain. Your Commander violated the neutrality of my nation because he believed that we were producing weapons for the Earth Alliance?" she replied with an even icier tone of voice. However, that did not appear to matter to the man on the other side of the communication line.
"Correct Captain Yamato, and now I, along with my ship, are currently along with the rest of my Commander's forces are in the process of hunting down that prototype assault ship of the Alliance and the single remaining prototype mobile suit that managed to escape from the colony before its destruction. So, you can start rescue operations at your leisure while I must get back to my mission," the man replied with an almost grand nod of his towards the camera and started to raise a hand however he could use it to signal the cut-off the communication line between the two ships Captain Yamato raised her hand and quickly snapped her fingers. This saw Commander Reed having been following the conversation in the tactical section pressing a single button on the main tactical station. Outside of the ship, the portside linear cannon fired a single shot towards the ZAFT ship which thundered passed the ship with only a couple of inches of clearance between the ship's hull and the glowing projectile. This saw the surprise and a little bit of fear appear on the face of the ZAFT Captain as the shot disappeared into the blackness of space. Caridad simply leaned forward in her chair to stare at the man on the video screen.
"No, Captain. What you are going to do right now is that you are going to remove yourself and your ship from Orb-claimed space immediately. I do not care if you continue your search in the debris field opposite from this position for those Alliance units or even head on home. Really, I do not care. What I do want is for you and your ship to be nowhere near Orb space while my ship starts our rescue operations for the now displaced civilians of my nation. If you are not started leaving in thirty seconds I shall order the total destruction of your ship," the captain angrily snarled to the now white-faced Captain Walker on the screen.
"Filthy Natural! Are you siding with the Alliance now, after we were willing to allow you to start rescue operations without interference from our forces" the man said after recovering from his shock and fear from the near miss of his ship. However, Captain Yamato only sighed and leaned back in her chair shaking her head at the outright stupidity shown by the ZAFT Captain.
"Captain Walker, let me make one thing clear. I am not supporting the Alliance and in fact kind of furious they were willing to use a neutral and civilian colony in this matter when there were plenty of other places, where they could develop their new weapons. Including a couple of places elsewhere in the Earth Sphere, not to mention the many places on the planet itself. However, you did admit you had a hand in destroying a civilian colony and displacing the inhabitants of said colony therefore the reason for my current animosity towards yourself and your ship," she said using a tone she had once used to explain something to her then seven-year-old son and his pair of best friends when they got into something that they shouldn't have.
"Also, your Commander had no legal right to attack Heliopolis even if it was developing weapons for the Earth Alliance. He should have reported it to your Supreme Council who would complain to that of the Orb Ambassador to the PLANTs which may have led to things like censures or trade tariffs between our two nations," she continued on with a sigh of exhaustion as she stared at the too young man on the screen in front of her.
"That would mean nothing against the Earth Alliance they would still have their prototype G-Weapons and that Assault Ship which would lead to the mass production of new mobile suits for the Alliance," the ZAFT Captain nearly snarled in answer to her own statement. Caridad nodded at this in agreement before she shook her head with a sigh.
"Captain did you know that Morgenroete has been producing weapons for the Earth Alliance since the start of the war," Captain Yamato simply replied in an almost bored tone of voice making the ZAFT captain blink in some surprise.
"What?" the man said in shock making Captain Yamato simply smile almost coldly in response.
"Since the start of the war and even before Morgenroete was producing the M2 Bulldog Armored Fighting Vehicle, its variants, and the LRV-10 Linear Artillery Vehicle for the use of the Earth Alliance. Morgenroete also had a hand in producing some parts for both the TS-MA2 Moebius Mobile Armor and the F-7D Spearhead Fighter Craft. That is not even considering the production of the MAW-01 Mistral Mobile Work Pods used by many ships in the Earth Alliance Combined Orbital Fleet for non-combat duties. While Morgenroete's facilities on the now destroyed colony we are next to currently had a hand in producing reactors and some minor parts for various ships of the Orbital Fleet. However, ZAFT and the PLANTs never complained about any of that in the past. No, it is only when we had a hand in producing new mobile suits for the Earth Alliance that gets you up in arms like this for you are scared of the Alliance getting a weapon that will even the score in the war between you and the Alliance," she replied shaking her head a frown on her face which made the ZAFT man sputter in shock at this statement.
"Now you will leave Orb Space immediately captain!" she said after some moments of silence between the two captains, allowing the other captain to recover from the shocks that she had delivered him.
"Understood Captain Yamato. I shall lodge a complaint against you with your ambassador for high-handed response against my ship and myself," the man now calmly mentioned though still with a sneer on his face. Making Caridad sigh in some annoyance and a bit of sorrow over such blatant racism that was on both sides of the war.
"That is your right Captain. Farewell," she mentioned before slashing her hand at the communication officer who cut off the link between the two ships. The captain and the rest of the bridge crew then watched as the ZAFT ship lit its engines and started to head away from the debris field on a course that would take the ship away from Lagrange Three itself. A few moments of silence went on as they watched the ship move away before everyone was sure they were really going to leave.
"Think that was wise Captain," came a light tenor voice from behind the captain's chair interrupting the silence in the bridge. This saw the captain rotate her chair to stare at the officer who was now floating into the bridge from the hatch leading to the rest of the ship.
"No, I do think it was wise at all Lieutenant Commander, but that ZAFT officer and his commander are idiots in thinking that we would let them be so dismissive in having a hand in destroying our colony like that," the Captain answered almost tiredly leaning back in her seat as she looked at the taller, yet younger, red-haired figure of Lieutenant Commander Brianna Carter, the ship's aerospace commander which included nothing at the moment.
"I agree with you, ma'am. However, that commander the captain mentioned is in fact Commander Rau Le Creuset and he is a very dangerous man. He is also the main hatchet-man of Patrick Zala, the Chairman of the National Defense Committee and overall commander in chief of ZAFT as a result," the other woman dryly mentioned making Captain Yamato raise an eyebrow in interest. She knew that like the rest of the crew that the Lieutenant Commander happened to be a Coordinator and had once been a member of ZAFT till she returned home to Orb due to the death of her parents in an accident.
"That would also mean that the Commander would be part of the Radical Faction of ZAFT since Chairman Zala is also the man in charge of the PLANT Government's Radical Faction," she replied to the younger woman.
"Correct. However, I do know where you are coming from with your little speech, it may still end up backfiring later on," the Lieutenant Commander replied in turn making the captain nod in some thought before she suddenly frowned as something in her memories demanded her attention.
"Zala. Is he related to Lenore and Athrun Zala?" she asked remembering the other childhood friend of her son, and the mother of said friend that she had befriended during their time at Copernicus City on the Moon. The former ZAFT officer blinked in surprise at that before sighing and leaning against the unused secondary command chair along the right side of her own chair.
"Yes, Lenore Zala was the wife of Patrick and Athrun is their son," Brianna mentioned making the captain frown at the other woman as she picked up the word choice of the statement.
"Was? What happened to Lenore?" she shot back and was taken back by the sad sigh of the other woman.
"Lenore Zala was on Junius Seven when it was destroyed Captain," the coordinator mentioned making the captain gasp in some surprise at the news of an old friend of hers being killed in one of the worst terrorist acts in history.
"Oh, God. Poor Athrun," she whispered under her breath before shaking herself and looking over at the other woman.
"Anyways, Lieutenant Commander I need to start getting our pods ready for we are going to be starting to see about recovering any damaged lifeboat in the debris field," she ordered the other woman.
"Understood Captain," the former ZAFT officer said with a short almost lazy salute and started towards the bridge's main hatchway.
"Captain, ZAFT Ship Ziegler is now at the ten-kilometer mark and on a course taking them out of the Lagrange Three area," the sensor officer reported a few moments later drawing the attention of Captain Yamato towards the viewscreen seeing the distance from of the ZAFT ship making her nod.
"Understood Sensors. Commander Reed, bring us down to Alert-Level Two and prepare for the start of rescue operations," she ordered as she got up from her command chair.
"Yes ma'am," came the reply from the Commander and she watched momentarily as tensions started to leave the rest of the bridge crew.
"The bridge is yours, Commander, for I need to make my report to Lord Uzumi. If you need me for anything further, I shall be in the radio room," she ordered as Commander Reed removed himself from the tactical section once more.
"Yes captain," he mentioned with a nod towards as she pushed herself from the chair and started to head towards the bridge hatch towards the nearby radio room which sported the advanced communication equipment needed to make a report back to the mainland even through the remains of the ZAFT jamming and the N-Jammers placed in orbit of Earth to cut-off contact between the Earth Alliance Forces on the planet with that of their forces on the moon. The Commander took the command seat and started to talk to the sensor officer about something or another. However, Caridad did not hear them as she turned briefly to stare at the viewscreens and the debris of the colony that had once been her home.
'Please Haruma, Kira be safe,' she thought to herself before she shook her head and started to move away letting the bridge hatch to swish shut behind her.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes
So! That is the first chapter of this story that really kind of came out of nowhere for me. As I mentioned in the foreword this story was originally supposed to have Caridad working for the blue water navy forces of Orb instead of the black water navy. However, I think this does work a bit better since we really do not focus all that much on the naval battles in the story. Also, this story kind of took a new life after about halfway through this chapter. I originally had planned for this story to really follow a very slightly modified version of the original story but that changed halfway through when I started to include some bits in the background of the story from my now failed story Angelic Dawn. A few other things were added but not included in this chapter but the next couple of chapters, including a completely reworked version of the Astray Project. Also included would be the character of Lieutenant Commander Brianna Carter who is a different, female version of my main original character Brian Carter. For this story, I am basing her more on my head-canon for one of my created characters in my playthrough of SD Gundam Cross Rays.
That said. This chapter really kind of fought me while I was writing it, not including the addition of old ideas into the story. I believe I cut out two to three different scenes because they did not work with my plans for the chapter. The first was the original opening of the chapter which had Caridad Yamato reading a book about space naval tactics which would spawn a lengthy discussion with Commander Reed about how Caridad is still learning the ropes of space combat after spending much of her career on naval blue-water ships of the Orb Navy. It would have been the start of a small subplot about Caridad trying to get herself up to snuff in space combat. I dropped it when it seemed a bit unprofessional for the two officers to be discussing something like that while on the bridge of the ship with the ears of the bridge crew listening in. This again became a thing a bit later when they start discussing about their family lives which I cut that out as well and then we get the bit about the two of them shooting the breeze right before they reach Heliopolis. I kind of just said fuck it and let them ramble on since that is what the story wants to happen. Sigh. Although, there were a couple of things I wanted to include in the story but kind of got cut off thanks to the chapter ending up longer than I really wanted it to be. One such element was the chapter ending with Caridad reporting via a communication line with the Orb mainland on what has happened with Heliopolis. However, as mentioned the chapter was getting a bit longer therefore, it was dropped before I could even start writing it. It may be just something that happens off-screen. The second main thing that I wanted to include was a discussion on zero gravity between Caridad Yamato and Commander Reed. It just never ended up being included in the chapter and before I knew it the ship was now at Heliopolis. Shrug.
Okay. One more thing to mention here is that if you can not tell I am really not a fan of how Le Creuset got away scot-free from attacking Heliopolis. I know he had Patrick Zala "sanitize" his report before presenting it to the Supreme Council, but still, he should have gotten at least a little bit in trouble for that move. Hence, here in this story, things are going to be different. The first happens with the conversation between Caridad and the Captain of the Ziegler at the end of the chapter. I always found it odd that Orb and the Alliance had the same exact armored support vehicles between the two of them. Both had the Bulldog Missile Truck, the Linear Artillery Platform, and the Linear Tank in their inventories. However, the latter vehicle will not appear in Orb's hands in this story if I get that far in the story. Therefore, I went with the idea of Morgenroete actually being the one who produces those vehicles for the use of the Earth Alliance. ZAFT didn't really make that much of a fuss because they were quite confident that their new mobile suits could easily counter these new vehicles. Therefore, when Morgenroete starts helping the Alliance develop new mobile suits we have ZAFT finding out through the Le Creuset Team and who then attacks the colony of Heliopolis. It looked as if they panicked about the existence of such a program. I was also going to have Caridad point out that the United States had provided the British weapons, ships, and vehicles during the early parts of World War II while claiming to be neutral. Therefore, it really shouldn't be that much of a shock since while much of the higher-ups in the Orb government are sympathetic in some way with the PLANTs much of its population are much more sympathetic to that of the Earth Alliance since they live on Earth after all and have seen the chaos caused by the April Fool's Crisis. However, the chapter and the conversation itself were getting a bit long therefore I cut that out. I am maybe going to go that route if I do something about the Orb Ambassador to the PLANTs doing a lecture in front of the Supreme Council.
Okay. That is about it for these notes which went way beyond what I plan on mentioning like normal. Anyway, I shall see you all in the next chapter! Thank you for reading.
EDIT: I am planning on posting the next, completed chapter either next Tuesday or Wednesday depending on some things. That will allow me to get a few more chapters finished in that time. As I am adding a new chapter between chapter two and my half-written chapter three. Also planning a few other things in the future!