Gundam Wing: Destiny's Call

by operation meteor

Sequel to Journey to a New Battlefield. It's been two years since the Bloody Valentine War and tensions are rising. When a shadowy group attacks the colony of Armory One, a certain Gundam pilot takes to the battlefield once again. However, little to his knowledge, some old friends are on a journey to his new world. M for language and violence (again, it's war. What do you expect?)

5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: Kept you waiting, huh? Sorry this one took so long, it's a pretty damn big chapter, plus I've had a lot on my plate. Canon takes a few more good kicks to the gonads, and this is far from the last chapter that will happen in. Also there's a few new mobile suits in this chapter that I know some of you have been dying to see in action.

Song list for the chapter, in order of appearance: "Ambiguous" by GARNiDELiA (the second opening theme for Kill la Kill, love that show!), "Realize" from Gundam SEED, fourth opening theme, and "Gensou no Kekkai / Necrofantasia", an arrange of Yukari Yakumo's theme "Necrofantasia" from Touhou: Perfect Cherry Blossom (original piece by ZUN, the arrange done by xi-on).

Episode Five: Sins of the Father

Heero sighed as he concluded his report to Murrue. "So that's it. We lost Bogey One and have no idea where she might be. Unless her Mirage Colloid system fails again I can't see us picking up her scent any time soon. As for the Salvager-class vessel, if they really are heading for the Lunar Perimeter then I can understand Captain Gladys' decision not to pursue; I'm sure the Earth Alliance has already broadened their patrols since the attack on Armory One, and we'd probably be intercepted by their official forces long before we caught up to the modified Reclamation Ship. Things would probably get real ugly then, especially once they asked about Wing Zero Albion and the other four Gundams."

The battle had ended just a little while ago. All five Gundams, along with the ZAFT units, were back inside the Minerva, and from what Heero understood the battleship was moving to rendezvous with nearby elements of the ZAFT fleet. The battle had been quite quick all things considered, thanks in no small part to Duo acting as a stealth spotter for Heero's opening shot, and as soon as the Perfect Soldier had touched down in the Minerva's hangar he'd wasted no time in getting a secure communications channel set up so he could give Murrue a proper status update. Rather than the Morgenroete attire she had worn last time, now Murrue was clad in the light grey and dark blue uniform of an Orb military officer.

Murrue nodded. "I agree. I bet the Earth Alliance is already putting political pressure on ZAFT. After all, you've fought alongside the Minerva's mobile suits in two battles now. The Earth Alliance will probably accuse ZAFT of violating the treaty by constructing new nuclear powered machines, including one that's designed around Wing Zero."

"Yeah," said Heero, "Of course, they have no idea that it actually is Wing Zero."

"Let's keep it that way," Murrue replied, "Things are bad enough as it is."

Heero closed his eyes for a moment, and his gaze became a little darker when he opened them. "I have a feeling that they're going to get worse regardless. I failed, Murrue. This was our chance to capture Bogey One and get to the heart of all this and I let it slip through my fingers."

Shinn may have been the one that Heero had sent to disable Bogey One's engines and had been unable to do so, but Heero did not hold the ZAFT Red responsible for the battleship's escape. Wing Zero Albion's pilot held himself to be accountable for the mission's failure. He should've been able to defeat the violet gunbarrel machine faster, been able to punch through the enemy's Dagger L rearguard, been able to knock out the warship's engines and weapons before it could cloak, been able to board the vessel and take it intact…

"Don't do this, Heero," said Murrue firmly, breaking him out of his thoughts, "You and I both know that you did everything that you could. I won't let you blame yourself for what happened today. Even if Bogey One escaped you still defeated an entire battle group that was working with it and sent their best pilots packing for the second time in as many days. You also defended both Cagalli and the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman, both today and yesterday. Do not assume that this was a defeat just because the core battleship and the A.I. carrier got away. As long as you and I draw breath, this is far from over."

Heero couldn't help but smile slightly. Murrue knew him so well; she'd instantly realized the road his thoughts had gone down and had swiftly moved to counter. It must've been instinctive for her by now.

It was just one of the many reasons why he loved her.

After a moment he nodded. "You're right, although what we do for our next move is something of an open question right now. How long until you're ready to launch the Archangel?"

"Erica's teams finished mounting the positron boosters just before dawn," she said, "The crew all boarded last night, and we're all topped off on supplies. We just have to wait until night comes again so we'll have cover to move out, and that's just a few hours away Orb local time. We'll be in orbit soon enough, Heero."

"Good," said Heero, "What's Natarle's position?"

"In the Debris Belt," Murrue replied, "at about the mid-point between L3 and L4. It sounds like things are drifting more towards L1 or L5 now, so she'll be adjusting her heading. Once my ship makes orbit I'll set our course based on your latest status report."

"All right," said Heero, "I'm honestly not sure how much longer the others and I can remain aboard the Minerva. We've still got good will with the crew, and today's battle didn't hurt there, but if Captain Gladys is going to be operating with other elements of the ZAFT fleet now then that could complicate things."

"There will be room aboard both the Archangel and the Dominion for your Gundams if you need to make a run for it," said Murrue with a smile, "Both ships are carrying mobile suits, of course, but we made sure to spare some space for you."

"Appreciated," said Heero, "We'll probably need it sooner or later."

"Speaking of the Archangel," said Murrue, "I've got some good news on that front."

"What is it?" asked Heero.

"I talked to Lacus and Kira," she said, "Both of them are coming with us when we launch."

Heero nodded and gave her a small smile. "That's good to hear. Kira's skills will definitely come in handy, and I know having Lacus on the Archangel will be a morale boost for all our forces."

"My thoughts exactly," said Murrue, "They both send their regards. Oh, the Waltfelds, Dearka, and Yzak will also be flying from the Archangel should we end up in a fight."

"Even better," said Heero, his smile slightly growing, "No problems with their mobile suits?"

"Chief Murdoch reports that they're all set for action," said Murrue with a confident smile, "Any enemies we encounter won't know what hit them, especially with Dearka and Yzak's mobile suits. I'm glad you were able to help Erica produce those; they look very formidable."

"They should be," said Heero with a smirk, "and they won't be the only surprise in store for our foes. How are the Archangel's upgrades looking?"

"Everything's in the green so far," Murrue replied, "Although… I hope we don't have to use the big one. That's going to set the whole world on edge if it's revealed."

Heero nodded. "I know, but depending on the situation we may not have a choice in the matter. We'll deal with that when the time comes. Besides, the world will be on edge as it is with the attack on Armory One. Even if the other powers learn about the Archangel's new weapon I doubt that'll inflame tensions as much as the strike at the L4 colony already has."

"I hope you're right," said Murrue, "In the meantime, please be careful, Heero. I know you've gotten yourself in the good graces of the Minerva's crew, but be cautious in dealing with them."

Heero gave her a small smile. "I know, Murrue. I'll watch my back, so don't worry about me."

Murrue returned his smile. "I'll try. Take care, Heero."

"You too, Murrue," said Heero.

….

"Man," said Lunamaria as she left the pilots' locker room, "talk about a letdown. We do all that work and Bogey One still gets away! I can't believe we're not chasing after that other ship, too! What's the Captain thinking?"

"No kidding!" said Shinn as he and Rey came out behind her, "We could've at least caught up to that thing and tried to capture it!"

"That modified Salvager-class ship was on a vector that takes it towards the Lunar Perimeter," said Rey calmly, "If we pursued them we'd run into Earth Alliance patrols. The Captain's probably trying to avoid a diplomatic incident."

"Incident?" said Shinn incredulously, "They attacked our colony and fought us again just a few minutes ago! We're way past 'incident' here!"

Lunamaria sighed and shook her head. Shinn was a good pilot and a generally nice guy most of the time, but sometimes it amazed her just how many key details he could miss. He wasn't exactly a 'big picture' kind of guy.

"Shinn, we still don't have proof that it was them," she said, "Yes, most of the units used in the past two fights are ones also utilized by the Earth Alliance, but they weren't broadcasting Alliance IFFs or flying with their markings. That's why capturing Bogey One was so important; we needed to do that in order to get proof of their involvement!"

"Yeah," Shinn grumbled, "and I screwed that up, I know. Don't remind me, Luna."

"No one is saying that you screwed up, Shinn," said Rey, "The enemy utilized countermeasures to distract you while it cloaked. Since we still don't know the full array of Bogey One's capabilities we could not have seen that coming."

Lunamaria nodded. "Rey's right, Shinn. It's not your fault; we get that. So lighten up and focus on getting those bastards next time."

"If there is a next time," said Shinn gloomily, "We have no idea where Bogey One is now and have no way to track it."

"It'll pop up again sooner or later," Lunamaria replied, sounding more confident than she actually felt, "and when it does we'll make the people on board it wish they'd never picked a fight with us!"

"I'm sure we will," said Rey.

Shinn nodded and smiled. "Yeah, you're right, Luna."

She smiled. "Damn right, I am. Come on, let's grab something to eat. I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving!"

"Sounds good to me," said Shinn.

"Shinn, we can't, remember?" Rey cut in, "We're supposed to go to the med bay for our evaluation."

Shinn sighed. "Right, I forgot. You'd better go on without us, Luna. Don't bother waiting; knowing the doctor we'll probably be a while."

"That bites," said Lunamaria, "All right, I'll catch you guys later."

As the two boys headed towards the med bay Lunamaria made her way towards the cafeteria. She hoped Meyrin or someone else she knew would be there too; it was no fun eating alone.

I wonder if Heero or any of the other Gundam pilots will be there, she thought, I wouldn't mind getting to spend some time with them… even Wufei. He's got to think a little better of me now; I did way better in today's battle than I did yesterday.

Truth be told though, her feelings about her performance in the battle in the Debris Belt were a little more mixed than she would've like to admit. Yes, she had improved significantly, and with the Gunner pack she'd been able to take down more mobile suits than she had without it back at Armory One. However, she realized that it meant she was also becoming a more efficient killer, which was definitely unsettling. Yes, she was a soldier, and Lunamaria had accepted that that meant she would be called upon to take life in the course of her duties. She had accepted that… or at least, she told herself that she had.

Get it together Lunamaria, she thought, shaking her head, You're a pilot for ZAFT now. The people you killed today knew what they signed up for; they were mobile suit pilots too, after all. The group they fly for picked a fight with us at Armory One and tried to destroy the colony; they're fair game by the laws and conventions of war. You did the right thing, both yesterday and today.

Trying to push those thoughts aside, she entered the cafeteria. She looked around for Meyrin but didn't see her. Another familiar face did pop up, though; Chang Wufei. He was sitting alone, and while he had food in front of him he didn't seem to have really dug in yet. The young man looked like he had his mind on something other than dinner, although what that was Lunamaria didn't have clue.

Well, she thought as she went to grab her food, this should be interesting.

Dishing up, she then went over to Wufei's table, smiling as she approached. "Mind if I join you?"

The young man looked up at her and nodded. "Sure."

It wasn't exactly an enthusiastic greeting, but it wasn't hostile or dismissive either, and Lunamaria decided that she would take what she could get from the strange pilot. Sitting down across from him, she quickly began digging into her food. As she ate she waited for him to say something, but he was silent, occasionally taking a bit from his meal but doing little else. Lunamaria hated silence during a meal; it felt way too awkward for her.

"So," she said after a minute or two, "I saw you fighting that black and red mobile suit earlier. You know, that guy came pretty close to killing Shinn yesterday."

Wufei nodded. "I'm surprised he didn't succeed. He should've had no problem making the killing strike against him."

Lunamaria glared at him. First Shinn got in a fight with Heero because the Gundam pilot had criticized him, and now another of the strange pilots that had come aboard the Minerva was ripping on him. Sure, Shinn had his issues, but Lunamaria felt like this was a little too much.

"Hey!" she said, "What the hell's that about?"

"It's just an observation," Wufei replied calmly, "Rodrigues is a veteran pilot. Shinn is not. With that man's skills, Shinn was very lucky to escape with his life."

"Wait a minute," said Lunamaria, puzzled, "How do you know the name of that pilot?"

"Because he told me it," said Wufei casually.

Lunamaria's eyes widened. "You mean you actually talked to him while he was trying to kill you?"

Wufei smirked. "It's not that unusual, you know. Stranger things have happened on battlefields. If you survive long enough you just might see a few for yourself."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "If I survive? I think I proved to you today that I can hold my own."

"Perhaps," Wufei replied as he took another bite of his meal, "You did better today than yesterday, but if I'd pursued Rodrigues after he began to withdraw I wonder if you'd have been able to fend off the rest of those Dagger Ls by yourself."

Lunamaria's eyes narrowed. "You still don't think I can handle myself?"

"You have skill," Wufei replied, "but I think you're overestimating yourself."

"Well, I could say the same of you," Lunamaria shot back, "Sure, you're better than me, I've got no problem admitting that, but you're not perfect. You're not the best, and you shouldn't act like it!"

Wufei shook his head. "I never said I was the best. Someone else already holds that title, whether he'll admit it or not."

Lunamaria was taken aback; that wasn't the sort of response she'd been expecting. With the level of confidence Wufei seemed to have in his abilities, to hear him freely admit that he was not the top pilot was quite jarring.

"Well then," she said carefully, "If you say that you're not the best… then who is?"

Wufei chuckled. "I just gave you a pretty damn big hint; he won't admit it to anyone. It's in his nature, which is part of what makes him the best; he doesn't let it go to his head. He is fully aware of his power and knows just how to use it, but he also recognizes his limits. Tell me, Lunamaria; among us, who fits that description?"

"How should I know?" she asked, "I've only known you guys for about two days."

"You should still be able to make a guess," said Wufei coolly, "Especially since he's already got quite the reputation around here."

After a moment Lunamaria put two and two together. "You mean Heero Yuy, don't you?"

Wufei nodded. "He's earned that title, even if he doesn't want to wear it. The others and I come close, but the top of the mountain belongs to him."

"What kind of training did you guys have?" she asked, "I mean, what you five can do… it's not just because of your mobile suits, I know that much."

Wufei closed his eyes for a moment. "We were each trained in a different manner. However, for us the real teacher has been experience, and in that no one in this world can match us."

"You mean the Bloody Valentine War?" asked Lunamaria.

Wufei shook his head. "Our abilities were forged and tested in fire well before that conflict."

He was being unusually forthcoming now, and Lunamaria did not know how long it would last. She was determined to make the most of it.

"Then where?" Lunamaria pressed, "When? What did you guys go through that sets you apart from us? What battlefields have you seen?"

Wufei was silent for a moment. When he spoke again his voice was solemn, and Lunamaria knew that she was treading on sacred ground for him.

"We survived campaigns that pitted us against the might of the entire world," he said, "We fought adversaries who gave no second thought to sacrificing both soldiers and civilians. Villages, cities, nations, and entire colonies were laid to waste… including my own."

Lunamaria's eyes widened in shock. "Wait... your colony? Are you from Junius Seven? Or one of the L4 colonies?"

Wufei shook his head. "They're not colonies that you would recognize."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

If he heard that question he did not answer it; his mind clearly someplace else now. "Stand in the ashes of what was once your clan, knowing that you are the last of your kind, and that they sacrificed themselves in defiance of the power that ruled the Earth Sphere. Stand against a power that is willing to detonate nuclear warheads on its own bases just for a chance to kill you. Stand against men who would try to poison an entire colony just to kill a handful of rebels and to make it easier to scrap. Stand against the armies of the world, knowing that there is no backup for you, no cavalry that will come riding over the next hill when you are about to fall."

His eyes met hers, dark and heavy with the weight of a past that Lunamaria was now desperate to learn about. "When you've fought enemies like that, in battles where the term 'impossible odds' is not hyperbole, then you will understand how we became what we are."

Lunamaria sat in stunned silence for a moment. If what he had described had not taken place in the Bloody Valentine War, then what war was he talking about? There was no way that he was lying; the look in his eyes was all the proof Lunamaria needed of that. Still, what he was describing was not a small conflict in some developing region that had taken place before the last war. This was carnage and destruction on a massive scale, but for the life of her she could not match it with a recent conflict other than the Bloody Valentine War.

"Who are you?" she said softly, "What are you?"

"I am a Gundam pilot," he said calmly, "No more and no less."

"That doesn't tell me anything!" she replied, frantically trying to find a way to get him to tell her more.

"It should tell you everything," said Wufei, "There are only five of us in the entire Earth Sphere, and for good reason. Our power does not come from a vacuum. To ascend to the peak of combat ability, you first have to plunge into the depths of humanity's cruelty and barbarism. It's a baptism of fire and blood that goes far beyond simply taking life on the battlefield. You have military training, and that is important, but conventional instruction cannot prepare you for the true horrors of war."

"What are you saying?" she asked, "That our training was a waste of time?"

Wufei shook his head. "No, but if you think that you learned everything you needed to know during your time at the academy then you are sadly mistaken. You noticed that in your first battle, didn't you? Tell me, was fighting real opponents, people actually trying to kill you, anything like practice and simulations?"

Lunamaria looked down at the table. "No… it wasn't."

"Of course not," said Wufei, his eyes narrowing, "These past two days have given you a taste of real combat, but even now you've yet to truly take the plunge. You're in the shallows, Lunamaria; you've entered the ocean, but you haven't dived into the abyss."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Mobile suit combat, for all its lethality, is relatively sanitized," said Wufei, "You don't see the person that you're killing, only their machine. The life and death struggle of mechanized warfare is very real, but it is also impersonal. Your hands guide the mobile suit, your fingers pull the triggers, and you see the enemy machine explode on the screen, but you do not feel the death of the other pilot. Your mind may acknowledge it, and your heart may be unsettled by it, but their deaths are distant, shielded from you by electronics and metal."

He leaned forward, his elbows on the table and his hands clasped just below his chin. "Gundam pilots fight using more than just their mobile suits. We've all engaged in battle on foot at some point in our careers. Often it's with firearms, but sometimes the fighting is truly up-close and personal. That's when the blades come out. Either way, whether we blow a man's head off in a firefight or slit his throat in an infiltration, we can see death in its rawest form. The spray of blood, the smell of gun smoke, or the last, ragged gasps of the mortally wounded… we've seen all that and much more besides."

With that he stood up and picked up his tray, giving her a look that was a strange mix of pity and a warning. "Pray that you never ascend to our level of skill, Lunamaria. To do that would require you to descend into a manmade hell, one that no amount of training could ever prepare you for."

Lunamaria shook her head, determined to meet his gaze. "Whatever you endured, I can do the same. I'm not afraid."

He turned around and went to put his tray away, but before he did so he spared her one last look over his shoulder, one that chilled her to the bone.

"You should be."

….

As the cafeteria door closed behind him, Wufei moved over to the nearby wall and leaned back, shaking his head.

What the hell got into me back there?

Even if it hadn't necessarily been a straight answer, it still wasn't like him to give out as much information as he had, especially to a girl that he'd met roughly 48 hours ago. Another pilot might chalk it up to little more than adrenaline letdown and venting a bit after a heated battle, but it wasn't Wufei's style.

Ever since he'd come aboard the Minerva it seemed like his path kept crossing with that of its feisty red-headed mobile suit pilot. At another time he could simply chalk that up to coincidence, but there was something about Lunamaria that made him rule that out. She may not have been nearly as strong as a Gundam pilot and was definitely a newcomer to the battlefield, but she was spirited… and had somehow found a way to get under Wufei's skin.

Just like her…

Wufei shook his head again. She was dead. She had fallen four years ago, and all that remained of her were echoes and memories in his mind. Even her grave was no more; it had been lost when the colony he had once shared with her had been destroyed.

"Did you run into your new friend in there?" said a familiar voice.

Wufei looked up to see Trowa Barton coming down the corridor. The Gundam pilot from the L4 colony cluster had always been something of an enigma to Wufei. As a long range and barrage specialist Trowa's preferred method of fighting was the complete opposite of Wufei's, and the pilot of Heavyarms Arsenal could be as cool and inscrutable as Heero. Yet despite his withdrawn nature he had struck up what appeared to Wufei to be an odd sort of friendship with the circus knife thrower Catherine Bloom. He was a hard young man to figure out to everyone except apparently Heero and Quatre, and that wasn't helped by the slanted bangs that covered one of his eyes, making him even more difficult to read.

"What are you talking about?" asked Wufei.

"The pilot of the red ZAKU," Trowa replied, "You save her life in yesterday's fight and you stuck around today to keep her from dying rather than chase after the enemy you'd been dueling."

Wufei shrugged. "So I've helped her stay alive. We're allies, so it's natural that I'd help her out. That doesn't make her my friend."

"You're not a natural team player, Wufei," said Trowa, the eye Wufei could see narrowing, "We're all independently minded, but even by our standards you're not exactly one for cooperation."

"I fought alongside you and the others in our war," said Wufei.

"I didn't say that you couldn't cooperate at all," said Trowa, "Just that it was harder for you than the rest of us. You knew us and were familiar with our skills by the time we all formed a team on Peacemillion. You've only known Lunamaria for two days."

Wufei folded his arms. "What are you getting at?"

"That there's something about her that presses one of your buttons," Trowa replied, "Does that sound about right?"

Wufei shook his head. "You're imagining things."

"Are you sure?" said Trowa, a rare smirk on his face, "I'm not the only one who might be 'imagining things'. Quatre's picked up on it too."

Wufei glared at his fellow Gundam pilot. "It's nothing."

Trowa shrugged. "Whatever you say. Just don't let Duo notice. You know him; he'll never let you hear the end of it."

"There's nothing for him to notice," said Wufei, a little more forcefully than he had intended.

Trowa nodded and headed for the cafeteria door. "All right. Catch you later."

Wufei shook his head in frustration as his fellow Gundam pilot moved on. Of all people, he hadn't expected Trowa to go in that direction with him…

She's just an ally, he thought, and she has some of… her spirit. That's all there is to this.

Just reminders of a past that refuses to stay at peace…

….

Smiling as she left the bridge, Meyrin immediately made her way towards the Minerva's cafeteria. It wasn't just because she was hungry, although the stress of a battle and the subsequent adrenaline letdown was certainly one way to work up an appetite. There was a particular pilot that she was hoping to run into down there.

I hope he's there, she thought, her heart fluttering as the pilot's face flashed through her mind, I mean, Deathscythe Omega did return today, so I know for sure he's alive. I just have to find him.

She shook her head. Just what was wrong with her? She'd known Duo for all of two days and barely knew a thing about him. He wasn't a ZAFT pilot and not even a PLANT citizen. He was part of Heero Yuy's group, and the Demon Lord of Avalon had made it quite clear that their alliance with the crew of the Minerva was very much a temporary one. She didn't know how long they planned on staying on the ship; they could leave any day with hardly any notice.

Still, he'd saved her life in yesterday's battle, and Meyrin doubted that today's fight would've gone as well as it had without his help. True, Bogey One had evaded them yet again, and the modified Salvager-class ship had escaped as well, but the rest of the enemy battle group had been wiped out. Meyrin considered that to be a victory, especially since there had been no friendly casualties.

Duo may be keeping secrets from her, but that was only natural given their brief acquaintance and the incredibly advanced nature of his mobile suit. He'd still been kind to her and seemed like a nice guy. Despite the severity of the situation that the Minerva had found itself in, Duo was always relaxed, with a smirk or smile on his face, and Meyrin had found that to be very encouraging.

The fact that he was cute didn't hurt either.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts about the pilot of Deathscythe Omega that she failed to pay attention to where she was going. Meyrin was abruptly brought back to reality when she collided head on with a figure wearing a black flight suit.

"I'm so sorry!" she said, bowing her head in embarrassment.

"It's okay," said a male voice, not belonging to the pilot she'd been thinking about but still familiar nonetheless.

Looking up, she was startled to see that it was none other than Heero Yuy that she had collided with. Her cheeks flushed in further embarrassment. To just absently run right into the most famous pilot in the Earth Sphere like that… who knew what he would think of her for doing something like that?

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Meyrin nodded, surprised that he would take the time to care about someone as minor as her. "Uhm, yes, thank you."

Heero nodded. As he turned to continue down the hallway Meyrin remembered that he was a friend of Duo's and pounced on the opportunity.

"Hey, uhm, Mr. Yuy?" she said.

He turned back to her. "Just call me Heero. What is it?"

"Well, Heero," she said, "have you seen Duo since the battle?"

The famous pilot nodded. "He's still down in the hangar bay."

"Oh," said Meyrin, "Is he all right?"

Heero nodded again, looking slightly puzzled. "He's doing fine. He's just looking over Deathscythe Omega."

Meyrin nodded. "I see. Thank you!"

"You're welcome," said Heero.

She was sure that the young man was watching her as she changed directions, heading down the corridor that would take her towards the hangar. Meyrin couldn't blame him; she hadn't exactly been subtle about her concerns for Duo. It didn't really matter, though. As long as she got to talk to him again Heero could think whatever he wanted. Seeing him down in the hangar would actually be a bonus; if she was lucky he'd show her more of Deathscythe Omega. It was a very fascinating mobile suit, especially since its cloaking technology apparently didn't involve the Mirage Colloid system.

Picking up her pace, she headed for the hangar as quick as she could go. When she arrived it was not hard to find the mobile suit she was looking for; the five Gundams definitely stood out in a crowd.

There was Deathscythe Omega, a mechanical embodiment of the Grim Reaper if there ever was one. If it had been an imposing sight on the bridge monitor, its intimidation factor was ratcheted up tenfold upon seeing it in person like this. Meyrin could not help but suppress a shudder as she approached. It was hard to believe that such a dark and demonic machine was flown by such a relaxed and friendly pilot. Apart from the black attire Duo seemed to favor he didn't appear to have anything in common with his mobile suit.

Duo wasn't hard to spot; he was floating in front of his mobile suit. The cockpit was closed and he didn't appear to be doing any work on the exterior. He was just looking at the machine with a smirk on his face.

As Meyrin got closer she heard him chuckle. "So I'm back to being the God of Death, huh?"

God of Death?, she thought, He said that in yesterday's battle, and in today's. Does that really mean something to him?

He must've realized that he was being watched because he then looked over and gave her a smile. "Hey, how's it going?"

Meyrin smiled as she came up to him. "Pretty good. I'm glad the fight's over. How about you?"

Duo shrugged. "Still alive, along with everyone else on our side. Can't really complain with a result like that."

Meyrin nodded. "I guess you're right. Still, I wish we could've captured Bogey One."

"It would've been nice," Duo replied, "but I guess it just wasn't in the cards."

He seemed quite at ease about the situation, which was a stark contrast to everyone up on the bridge. Meyrin was glad she had decided to come down to see him; after the dour mood of her fellow bridge officers and the Captain upon the escape of Bogey One and the other ship fleeing towards the Earth Alliance's Lunar Perimeter she could definitely use some of Duo's relaxed nature.

"It really doesn't bother you?" she asked, "I mean, wasn't that the whole point of the operation?"

Duo nodded. "Sure, but if I let every setback get me down I'd be a wreck. You gotta keep things in perspective."

"How?" she asked.

Duo smiled. "Look at it this way. We all live to fight another day, and we kicked some ass in the process. The enemy turned and ran because we scared them shitless. Sure, the main target got away, but with the way things are going lately I'm sure we'll run into them again soon enough."

Meyrin smiled, encouraged by his optimism. "You're probably right about that. The sooner we encounter them again the sooner we'll be able to bring them to justice for the attack on Armory One."

"Still," said Duo, "let's not be in a rush to jump into the next fight. Gotta take breaks when you can, you know?"

Meyrin nodded. "Yeah, I guess I didn't really think about it like that."

"Don't sweat it," Duo replied, "You're still new to all this. You'll pick up little bits of wisdom as you go along. We all do."

"Even you?" she asked.

"Hey," said Duo, "no one starts out as a pro. You learn with experience and time, simple as that."

It was nice to hear him say that. Ever since the battle at Armory One Meyrin had been acutely aware of just how raw and inexperienced both she and the rest of the Minerva's crew were. Captain Gladys may have fought in the last war, but considering she was practically the only person on the new battleship with that sort of experience it was difficult for her to really transfer that to her crew. She gave sound commands and was a calm center on the bridge, but without equally experienced subordinates there was only so much she could do. Meyrin could only hope that with time she and the others would be able to learn from the Captain and become more effective in their roles.

That was one of the reasons why having Heero, Duo, and the other Gundam pilots with them was such a big deal. Not only were their mobile suits incredibly powerful, but the experience of the pilots was just as formidable. They handled themselves on the battlefield with confidence and skill born from prior battles, and while Meyrin had read the official stories about Heero's fights there was no such information available about Duo and the other three pilots. They were completely absent from the chronicles of the Bloody Valentine War, but it was abundantly clear that they were not green pilots.

What battles had Duo fought in? Why had he and Deathscythe Omega remained off the radar until now? Those were just two of the scores of questions Meyrin wanted answered about the self-proclaimed God of Death.

"So," said Duo, "what brings you down here?"

Meyrin blushed as she tried to think of an answer. "Well… I wanted to see your mobile suit."

She was relieved to see Duo nod. "All right, although you know that I can't tell you all its secrets, right?"

Meyrin nodded. "That's okay. I understand."

The two of them looked up at the Gundam for a moment. Glancing over at Duo, Meyrin saw him smile fondly at his mobile suit. He was clearly quite attached to it, and Meyrin guessed that he'd been through a lot with that machine.

"Pretty fitting for my line of work, wouldn't you agree?" said Duo.

Meyrin was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Duo gestured at his Gundam. "Well, it's only right that the God of Death flies a mobile suit modeled on the Grim Reaper, don't you think?"

"Why do you call yourself that?" asked Meyrin, "The God of Death, I mean."

Duo chuckled. "Oh, that. Remember how I mentioned that I was an orphan and spent some time in a church?"

Meyrin nodded. "What was that like?"

"It was okay while it lasted," he replied, "There were good people in that place. We had out disagreements, sure, but they still looked after me like I was one of their own. One of those disagreements was how I decided on that little nickname."

"What do you mean?" asked Meyrin.

"Well," said Duo, "for starters I told them that there was no god. I thought that if there was a god then he would make it so there wouldn't be any more wars… and no more orphans like me."

The young man was still smiling, but Meyrin didn't miss the hint of melancholy that had crept into his voice. She wanted to grab his hand but couldn't summon the nerve to do it, so she just waited for him to continue his story.

"The priest in charge of the church," said Duo, "told me that wars aren't started by god, but by people, and people have to end what they begin. All I got from that was that it didn't matter if there was a god or not, and if there was one then it could only be a death god."

"So," said Meyrin, "you don't believe in the god that monotheistic religions recognize… but you believe in the Grim Reaper?"

Duo smirked. "Well, miracles are supposed to be a sign of the god that those faiths believe in, right? I've never seen a miracle, but I've seen plenty of dead people. You see where I'm going with this?"

Meyrin nodded.

"Anyway," he continued, "after a while I kinda decided I liked the moniker, so I took it. That's the end of that story."

But what about the church you were staying at?, she thought, What happened to them? You said you stayed there for a little while, and that it was 'okay while it lasted.' How did it come to an end?

She wanted to go into that, but the way Duo had cut the story off indicated he didn't want to go near it. Meyrin could only imagine that something awful had happened at the church that had ended his time there, and that it was too painful for him to talk about.

"Well," said Duo, shaking her out of her thoughts, "as long as we're playing Twenty Questions, I've got one for you if you don't mind."

Meyrin's eyes widened. "For me? Uhm, okay… go ahead."

"Why's someone like you in ZAFT?" he asked, "Look, don't take this the wrong way, but you don't exactly strike me as the soldier type."

Meyrin smiled sheepishly. "It's okay. I get that a lot."

Duo chuckled. "I'm sure. So, why join up?"

"Well," said Meyrin, "my sister was the one who really wanted to join up. Honestly, I was pretty torn; my scores on technical aptitude tests could've gotten me into any college in the PLANTs. Lunamaria was really set on getting into ZAFT though, and I wound up following her."

Duo smiled. "You really care about her, don't you?"

Meyrin nodded. "Well, of course. She's my sister, after all. Wouldn't you want to stick with a sibling and help them out?"

"Orphan, remember?" said Duo, "Also, pretty sure I was an only child."

Meyrin looked down in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry!"

"Don't worry about it," said Duo, smiling again, "So, was it really just wanting to help out your sister that brought you in?"

Meyrin shook his head. "Well, to be honest, there was more to it than that. The other reason… well, it's kind of selfish. It wasn't really about duty or protecting people like others who join up."

"Nothing wrong with that," Duo replied, "So, what was it?"

"Technology," she said, "I've always been fascinated by advanced technology, and ZAFT's at the forefront of research and development in the PLANTs. Since it's fully government funded their labs can really push the envelope, and because of that our soldiers have access to some of the most advanced equipment and weaponry in the Earth Sphere."

Duo nodded. "You guys do have some pretty impressive machines. Also, this battleship's no joke."

"Well," said Meyrin, "the Minerva is the newest and most advanced ship in the fleet. Lunamaria did really well in the ZAFT academy's piloting courses, so she graduated as a Red and was assigned to the ship as one of its pilots. I never really had an aptitude for piloting, but I scored at the top of my class in data management and communications. That made me a natural choice for bridge duty, and so I got to follow my sister to the Minerva."

"How did you feel about the posting?" asked Duo.

Meyrin smiled. She wasn't normally a talkative young woman, but for some reason it felt really good to be telling Duo about herself like this.

"It was an honor," she said, "I mean, they chose me to work on the bridge of the newest and most sophisticated ship in the fleet! Plus, since I coordinate the mobile suits in action that means I get to directly support my sister. For a posting straight out of the academy, this is about as good as I can get."

"What about the action?" said Duo, "You're bridge crew on a battleship, which means you're front line personnel now. Are you sure that's what you signed up for?"

Meyrin sighed. "Well, I'll admit I wasn't expecting to be thrown into a fight so soon. I mean, whoever attacked Armory One struck before the Minerva's official launching ceremony, so I know I'm not the only one in the crew who feels like they're in over their head here. I knew that joining ZAFT meant that I could end up in battle sooner or later, but still… I didn't expect anything quite like this."

Duo nodded. "Don't feel bad about that. Your first time in a life-or-death fight is never going to be what you expect it to be."

Meyrin's eyes widened. "Really? So it was the same for you and your fellow pilots?"

"Yes and no," Duo replied, "I mean, I know we all entered the battlefield in our own fashion, but I'm pretty sure that none of us really had a good idea of what our first time in a fight would be like until we actually got into that fight."

"I see," said Meyrin, "and… when did you first start fighting?"

Duo closed his eyes for a moment. "Way earlier than you, kid. Sorry, but that's all I'm saying on that subject for now."

Meyrin nodded, disappointed in his answer but respecting his decision. "All right. Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

Duo smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'm hungry, so what do you say we grab a bite to eat?"

Meyrin returned the smile. "Sounds good to me."

….

It's really quite a view, thought Quatre, I should try to come over here a little more while I'm still on this ship.

As a child of the colonies, there was something about looking out a viewport at the stars that the L4 native found comforting and relaxing. It hadn't taken long for Quatre to find his way over to the Minerva's officers' lounge, and while he may not have had clearance to be there it was a very simple matter to bypass the meager security in place. He was glad he'd come here; it was a good place to unwind. His view of the stars was far from clear since they were still traveling through the orbital Debris Belt, but Quatre didn't mind that at all. The vast field of floating scrap actually served to enhance the view in a way; it was a glimpse into the Cosmic Era's accumulated history.

It was hard for Quatre to believe that he and the others had only been in the Cosmic Era for about two days. The fact that they'd already been involved in two battles in that time period was not exactly an auspicious start to their mission. Sure, they'd found Heero, but with his flat out refusal to return to their world with them their mission looked to be a failure. Quatre wasn't sure if there was any way to talk Heero around to their side; he'd seemed fairly adamant in his decision.

Once again his mind went back to the debriefing Heero had given them yesterday… and more specifically, the almost unconscious way his demeanor had changed whenever he had spoken of Murrue Ramius.

He has something with her, he thought, She's the real reason why he's so determined to stay here. I wonder what really happened between them…

Quatre shrugged. Heero had said that they would 'see in due time', and they really had no choice but to trust him on that.

He heard the door open behind him, and in the window he could see a familiar reflection.

"I figured you'd find this place sooner or later," said Heero.

Quatre turned around and smiled. "I'm going to place a bet and say that you've already been in here."

Heero nodded as he joined Quatre at the viewport. "You hardly need to be an expert to break through the security."

Quatre chuckled. "I guess the Minerva's officers' lounge isn't so exclusive when the likes of us are on board, huh?"

"That's one way to put it," Heero replied as he looked out the viewport.

The two of them were quiet for a moment before Quatre spoke. "It's almost like old times. We've only been here two days and we've already gotten into as many fights. We really don't know how to stay out of trouble, do we?"

Heero nodded. "Old habits die hard, as they say."

"Yeah," said Quatre, "I don't know what I was expecting when I signed up for this mission, but… well, I definitely didn't see this coming."

"The Cosmic Era's an interesting world," said Heero, "Depending on where you look, it's not hard to find either stark differences from the old world or eerie similarities."

The old world, thought Quatre, He really doesn't think of the After Colony era as his world anymore, does he?

Quatre smiled and nodded, hoping he wasn't betraying his thoughts to Heero. "You've got that right. I wonder what the others back home would've thought of it."

"You'll have to show them the data from Sandrock when you return," said Heero, "I'm sure they'll find it interesting."

"Couldn't you show them yourself?" asked Quatre.

Heero shook his head. "Let's not start this again, Quatre. I've made myself clear. I'm not going back. That world is no longer my home. The Cosmic Era is."

Quatre sighed. "Well, at least one thing about you hasn't changed. You're as stubborn as ever, Heero."

"It's a survival trait," his old friend deadpanned.

Quatre chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so."

"So," said Heero, "will you accept that your mission is a failure? It's no fault of your own; it was doomed before it started."

"I thought loosing battles were a specialty of ours," Quatre quipped with a smirk.

Heero nodded. "True enough, but you should know me well enough to realize that I am set on my decision."

Quatre gave him a knowing smile. "This Murrue Ramius must be quite a woman."

Heero was quiet for a moment before giving a small chuckle and smirk. "How did you know?"

"It was a guess," Quatre replied, "You just confirmed it."

Heero chuckled again. "Still masking that cunning with an innocent face, I see. You haven't changed either."

Quatre smirked. "Well, like you said, old habits die hard."

Heero nodded. "Indeed. Do me a favor and don't tell the others about her, all right? I told her I'd save that surprise for when I introduce her to you."

Quatre smiled. "Sure thing. I can't wait to see Duo's reaction."

"Yeah," said Heero, "It should be interesting."

The two of them looked back out the viewport for a moment before Heero spoke again. "He was so damn close, Quatre. So damn close to stopping them in their tracks."

"You mean Shinn?" he replied, "You know it wasn't his fault that Bogey One got away, right? Those flare missiles would've tripped up any of us."

"I know," said Heero, "and yesterday the exploding spare fuel tanks did the same for us. I can keep things in perspective, Quatre. Still… this is going to cost us."

"You really think it's the Earth Alliance that's behind this?" asked Quatre, "After just how close the Cosmic Era came to annihilation in the last war, do you really think that they'd be willing to start up a new conflict?"

"Not just them," said Heero, a dark look in his eyes, "I think they may have a willing partner in reigniting hostilities."

"Who?" asked Quatre.

"Durandal," Heero replied, "He has his own game underway."

Quatre listened as Heero described the conversation he'd had with the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman the day before. When his friend was done Quatre looked out the viewport for a moment before responding.

"You really think he was baiting them?" he asked, "An entire colony seems like it'd be a little too valuable to use for something like that."

"I think he was hoping they'd wait until the entire colony city was up and running and then blockade it," said Heero, "Still, either way the result is the same; tensions are rising. They already were even before the attack due in no small part to the construction of the Minerva and the prototype mobile suits being developed with her, but this strike will ratchet things up even more."

"But why would Durandal want a new war?" asked Quatre, "The Earth Alliance I can understand if the underlying power that motivated it to start hostilities in the last conflict was never truly vanquished, but from what you've told me it doesn't look like the Chairman was ever a member of Patrick Zala's faction. Unlike the Earth Alliance, the PLANTs seem to have removed the old regime completely, or at least the parts that were most closely associated to Patrick Zala's agenda."

"I didn't say that I knew the reason why Durandal would seek a new conflict," said Heero, "Just that I think he has a hand to play in this."

"Should I tell the others?" asked Quatre.

Heero shrugged. "Do what you will. Right now we just don't know enough about the forces at work here."

"Maybe," said Quatre, "but we've got cards to play, especially considering all the friends you made in the last war."

Heero nodded. "I've been keeping in touch with them since the attack on the colony. They're on the move, though hopefully we won't need to call upon them for anything more than a place to lay low once we ditch the Minerva."

"Any idea when that might be?" asked Quatre.

"That depends," Heero replied, "I know right now that the Minerva's moving to link up with other elements of the ZAFT fleet, and depending on how that goes it could force our hand."

"If we have to leave the Minerva," said Quatre, "do your friends have enough room for our Gundams?"

"Yes," said Heero, "Storage and maintenance will not be a problem. I think you'll be impressed with their capabilities."

Quatre smiled. "Well, that's one less thing to worry about then."

"Once we meet up with them," said Heero, "I'll introduce you to someone who can make use of the data you brought over here. She'll be able to get things set up for your return to the old world, although it will take some time."

"I'm sure it will," Quatre replied, "and it sounds like we'll have plenty to do in the meanwhile."

Heero shook his head. "This isn't your fight, Quatre. You don't owe the Cosmic Era anything."

"Maybe," said Quatre, "but I still want to help you clean things up a little here before we head back. I think the others would agree with me as well. As it stands now the world could very well be on the brink of another massive war. None of us would feel right if we left you here to face something like that without trying to help out."

"Can you really speak for the others on that?" asked Heero.

Quatre smiled. "Come on, Heero, you should know us better than that even if you've been gone for over two years. Duo and Trowa will definitely want to help out. So will Wufei, although he'll have his own reasons, of course. He always does."

Heero nodded, though Quatre was concerned when he saw his eyes narrow. "His own reasons… yes. That would've applied to him coming out here as well. I wonder what they were."

Quatre shrugged. "He's always been something of a wild card. That hasn't changed much over the past two years either."

"I'm sure," said Heero, "He's as stubborn as they come, although you could say that about any Gundam pilot"

Quatre chuckled. "True enough."

The two of them looked out the window again for a moment before Heero spoke again. "I know you guys didn't come out here to fight another war, but I'm grateful that you're willing to help me out with this."

"Hey," said Quatre, "that's what friends are for, right?"

Heero surprised him with a small smile. "Yes… old friends and new."

Quatre smiled as well. "We'll figure out how all this fits together, Heero, and then we'll put a stop to it. We always do."

"Just don't expect it to be easy," said Heero.

"Hey," Quatre replied, "since when do Gundam pilots ever get the easy jobs?"

Heero chuckled. "Good point."

….

On the monitor, Colonel Nazara saw Djibril scowl as he finished his report. His face was set in an expression that could only be described as barely contained fury, and the Colonel had to wonder just how long it would be before that rage boiled over.

"Is there anything else?" the head of LOGOS asked, his voice an icy dagger.

Nazara shook his head. "That is all, my lord."

Djibril sighed. "So you managed to get nearly an entire Black Fleet battle group wiped out? Your second one in as many days?"

Nazara grit his teeth. "The power of the upgraded Wing Zero and the four new machines that fly with it is considerable."

"You do realize that it's not just warships and mobile suits that you have lost," Djibril growled, "nor are those ordinary soldiers that are being mowed down like wheat in a field by those five machines. Each and every member of the Black Fleet was handpicked for that top secret force due to the invaluable combination of both their combat experience and their ideological commitment. They are not the common trash of our conventional forces; such casualties are much harder to replace."

"I'm well aware of that, my lord," said Nazara through his clenched jaw.

The tension building in the air was like that of the atmosphere before a great tornado was unleashed. It was only a matter of when, not if, the storm would cut loose. Nazara knew that he could only brace himself and weather the inevitable tempest.

"When I placed the Black Fleet under your command for this operation," said Lord Djibril, "you assured me that Force Alpha would be more than sufficient for the task. Force Beta was positioned nearby as a strategic reserve in the unlikely event that ZAFT would beat you back and inflict significant losses, but you were supremely confident that those reinforcements would not be needed."

A confidence that you had as well, you blind piece of shit, Nazara silently fumed, You're as much to blame for this catastrophe as I am, if not more so.

"We had no knowledge of the upgraded Wing Zero or the other four mobile suits," he said, "Intel completely dropped the ball."

"Yes," Djibril hissed, "but you failed to adapt when they took the field! You're supposed to be one of our best pilots, and have been given one of the best mobile suits in the Earth Sphere, but in both engagements you barely managed to save your own skin! Are you our Phantom Commander or a damn coward?"

This time Nazara could not suppress a snarl. "Why don't you try taking the field against the Demon Lord of Avalon and his four new friends, my lord?"

He all but spat out those last two words. Djibril wasn't worth the toilet paper he used to wipe his ass with, let alone such an honorific.

"Insolent bastard!" yelled Djibril, "If it weren't for the fact that your abilities are needed now more than ever I would have you spaced!"

Nazara smirked. "Lucky me none of our other pilots come close to my level of skill. Save the threats, my lord. As long as Heero Yuy lives you know that you can't replace me. I may have been defeated by him three times now, but remember that I have also now survived three fights with him. Very few pilots can lay claim to that achievement."

"You're a prideful looser, aren't you?" Djibril growled, "A pity your arrogance hasn't gotten you killed already."

I could say the same for you, thought Nazara, and it may yet if I have anything to say about it…

"Are we done here?" Nazara hissed, "If all we're going to do is trade barbs then this would really be a waste of time."

"Fine,' said Djibril with a glare, "but if you fail again, do not expect me to be so lenient, Colonel."

"Whatever you say, my lord," Nazara replied.

"At least this mission was not a total loss," said Djibril, "From what Rear Admiral Xen has reported it sounds like she got more than enough combat data from her Moebius A.I. units during the battle."

"So she'll finally be able to apply the program to mobile suits?" asked Nazara.

"Xen says it will take a little time to make the necessary programming updates," Djibril replied, "but Project Iron Legion is at long last ready to enter its final stage. Simulation and live-fire trials should be underway within weeks, and from there it will be just a short delay before we're able to deploy the first combat units."

"I hope they're more effective than the Moebius units Xen deployed earlier today," said Nazara.

"Those were merely proof-of-concept testing units," said Djibril, "They were never meant to challenge the likes of Wing Zero. Even on mobile suit platforms I doubt an individual unit can defeat Heero Yuy… but an army of them would be a very different story. They'll be a nasty surprise for the Coordinators as well; according to Xen they'll be able to perform maneuvers with far greater precision than those genetic freaks ever could."

"Do you really think Xen can deliver as advertised?" Nazara scoffed.

Djibril glared at him. "Considering Xen's part of today's operation was the only portion that could be thought of as a success, I trust her confidence far more than I do yours at the moment."

Nazara grit his teeth. "Touché."

"Indeed," said Djibril with a smug smirk on his face, "Project Iron Legion won't be ready in time for the opening hostilities, but it will be able to make its debut soon enough. Our enemies won't know what hit them."

"So," said Nazara, "do we actually have a timeframe now on when this new war will finally begin?"

Djibril smiled and chuckled. "Yes, and it's actually looking to be ahead of our original projections thanks to some very interesting intelligence we just received."

"Really?" said Nazara skeptically, arching an eyebrow under his mask, "Just what would that be?"

"A report from one of our scout ships patrolling the Debris Belt," Djibril replied, "A copy will be forwarded to the Girty Lue. Once you see it I'm sure that you'll agree that the catalyst we've been looking for is here."

"If you say so," said Nazara.

"Scoff now if you like," said Djibril, "but I guarantee that you'll change your tune once you read the report."

"Will this 'catalyst' you speak of involve my ship at some point?" asked Nazara.

"Perhaps," Djibril replied, "We may need you to run interference in order to make sure events follow the proper course."

"If that's the case," said Nazara, "then I will need my Dagger Ls and Extended restocked again."

"Yes, yes," said Djibril dismissively, "You'll have your replacements, Colonel. Do try not to expend them so quickly this time."

"It would be easier if you'd put more than one Wind of Destruction at my disposal," said Nazara, "Minuano may have followed the retreat order, but before that he was holding his own against one of the new machines, and in the raid on Armory One he crippled the Strike knockoff quite easily."

"Mistral, Monsoon, and Sundowner are presently engaged in other operations," said Djibril, "In all likelihood they will be unavailable for the coming mission. You'll have to make do with your usual fare and whatever two Extended I can send your way. A resourceful commander should have no trouble using them effectively. You'd best prove that you are, in fact, a resourceful commander."

Nazara grimaced. "Very well, my lord."

Djibril chuckled. "Don't look so down, Colonel. We may have suffered a few setbacks over the past 48 hours, but Lady Luck is about to smile upon us."

"I'll take your word for it," said Nazara.

"Rendezvous coordinates will be included with the report you'll be receiving," said Djibril, "Make for them as soon as you get them. A carrier will be sent to provide your reinforcements."

"Understood," Nazara replied.

Djibril nodded. "The eve of war approaches, Colonel. With the success of this operation we will be one step closer to restoring the world to its proper state. We will cleanse it with fire and blood, and this time nothing will be able to stand against us."

"For the preservation of our blue and pure world," said Nazara.

"Just so," the head of Blue Cosmos and LOGOS replied, "Djibril, out."

….

Floating in the middle of the Dominion's hangar bay, the twenty-year old Lan Zhao had her dark brown eyes closed in concentration. A bead of sweat came down her pale skin, while her long black hair was tied up out of the way in a ponytail. Rather than her black flight suit or modified Orb military uniform, the beautiful Chinese Coordinator was dressed in black sweat pants and a tank top that did little to conceal her lithe and athletic figure. It was cooler in the hangar than in other parts of the ship, but since Lan was in the middle of a unique zero-g exercise she'd developed she didn't mind the drop in temperature a bit.

Five… four... three…, she mentally counted down as she felt herself slowly descend towards the hangar floor, two… one…

At zero she felt her feet touch down on the surface, and she immediately kicked off. Flying through the hangar, her body twisted and flowed through a series of flips before she began a sequence of kicks and punches. After a few seconds she braced herself as the ceiling rapidly approached. Lan once again closed her eyes and began her silent countdown; the real trick for her was seeing if she had her timing precisely right.

Sure enough, as her mental timer hit zero she felt her feet touch the ceiling, and once again she kicked off. Her body spun through another series of kicks and punches as she descended towards the hangar floor again.

This wasn't just exercise for the sake of keeping in shape, nor was it improvised martial arts training done for enjoyment. Ever since word had reached her and her friends of the attack on Armory One and other related developments, Lan had found herself on edge, and this was as good a way as any to blow off some steam. It was a combination of nervous anticipation and excitement. On the one hand, the last thing that she wanted to be doing was flying into another battle. Yes, she had trained for the possibility along with the rest of her friends and allies over the past two years and was keenly aware that their purpose was to take to the battlefield if the world was threatened with another disastrous war, but she had always maintained hope that they would somehow be able to avoid coming to that point. On the other hand, the thought of who she may very well get to fly and fight alongside with in the near future had her heart absolutely racing.

Just one of them was unlike any other man I've met before, she thought, A god among mortals if there ever was one. A prince of the battlefield, a true lord of combat… and a handsome devil to boot. Heero Yuy… you chose Murrue Ramius, and I've accepted that, even embraced it. However…

…now I've got your four old friends to take a shot at!

The pilot of Wing Zero had told her and the others about the other four Gundam pilots of his old world, those incredible young men who had shaken the foundations of his old world, those unrivaled masters of the art of war. For so long, Lan had thought that the chance to meet any of them was nothing more than a pipe dream, an idle fantasy.

Now it was quite real, and she could hardly wait for what she was certain was their inevitable encounter.

Lan found herself smiling as she continued her exercises. Regardless of what happened next, it was clear that the future had some exciting things in store for her.

It was enough to make her forget that the one year anniversary of her mother's death was coming up…

…at least for a little while.

"Little hot under the collar, Lan?" said a familiar female voice.

As she touched down on the hangar floor again Lan turned to see her two best friends approaching. The one that had spoken was the twenty-one year old Adaline Bellerose, an Australian born Coordinator with long and flowing red-hair, dark and deep blue eyes, and the body of a surfer. Next to her was the twenty year old Italian/Romanian Coordinator Priscilla Dalca, her long blonde hair unrestrained rather than held up in its usual ponytail, and her gentle green eyes with an amused look in them. Lan couldn't blame her for that; both of her friends knew her well enough to take a good guess at what had been occupying most of her thoughts since the news of the other four Gundam pilots' arrival in their world.

Lan chuckled as she approached her friends, both of whom were wearing Orb military uniforms sans rank insignia. "That obvious, huh?"

Adaline smirked. "Let's see, I believe your exact reaction when Shemei told us Heero's old friends had showed up was 'Oh my fucking god, they're here! Which ones are single?' Then you fangirl squeed for a good five minutes straight. Sound about right?"

Lan had to laugh at that. "Yeah, I think that's about how it went down. Come on, though; you two were pretty excited too if I recall correctly."

Priscilla turned to Adaline and smiled. "She's not wrong there."

Adaline nodded. "All right, you've got me there."

"So," said Lan, "what brings you two down here?"

"We were going to grab a bite to eat," said Adaline, "Want to come with?"

Lan nodded. "Sure. Food sounds good right about now."

"I'll bet," said Priscilla as the three of them headed towards the exit, "That workout looked pretty intense."

Lan smiled. "Yeah, but it's actually pretty fun. You should try it sometime."

Priscilla shook her head. "No way. I don't have the same kind of balance and coordination that you do. If I tried that I'd probably smack my head against the ceiling or something. I can outshoot you, but as far as martial arts go, that's definitely your field."

Lan nodded. "Can't argue with that. That was the reason Shemei wanted you to go with Heero and La Flaga when they hit the Dominion in the last war, after all."

"It's still kinda hard to believe," said Adaline as they headed through the ship's corridors towards the mess, "To think that this was once Muruta Azrael's flagship, and now it belongs to us, a group that's dedicated to the peaceful coexistence of both Coordinators and Naturals… man, talk about ironic."

Lan smirked. "No kidding. Bastard must be rolling in his grave right now."

"What grave?" asked Priscilla with a smile, "Badgiruel had his body spaced after the battle, remember? I know there were heavy cleanup efforts undertaken after the fight, but the odds of someone actually finding his body in that mess were slim to none, especially since he was only wearing a business suit; he wouldn't have had a space suit's built-in beacon. He's probably still floating through space right now, unless a ship plowed into him and splattered his guts on the hull."

"Fine," said Lan, "Then he's metaphorically rolling in his nonexistent grave. There, happy, Pris?"

Priscilla laughed. "Close enough."

"Speaking of graves," said Adaline, "A lot of people have been sent to theirs over the past few days thanks to Heero and his friends. Two rogue task forces all but completely wiped out… the boys are on a roll."

Lan smiled. "No kidding. Man, I can't wait to catch up to them and see them in action!"

"You do realize that us 'seeing them in action' will quite likely mean another large scale battle, right?" said Priscilla as they entered the mess, "As much as I would like to meet the other four Gundam pilots, I would rather avoid combat if possible."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Lan.

"By the way," said Priscilla as the three of them dished up, "what makes you say that those two task forces were rogue, Adaline? From what I've heard so far Shemei and the others suspect that they're Earth Alliance black ops units."

"It's just a figure of speech," Adaline replied, "I'm betting the Alliance is behind it too, although proving it's going to be pretty tough."

"No kidding," said Lan as they found a table, "Slippery bastards. If they want to start another war then they're going to have to fight us as well. By now they know that Wing Zero's back, and you'd think that'd be enough of a deterrent right there."

"The Alliance has always been arrogant," said Adaline while digging into her sandwich, "and they've had two years to research new technologies and weapons. They must believe that whatever they've developed in that time period is sufficient to let them fight against both ZAFT and us."

"Don't forget that the Earth forces do hold a numerical advantage," Priscilla chimed in, "While the Treaty of Junius Seven may have reduced the size of the militaries maintained by both the Earth Alliance and ZAF, the Alliance still holds the largest standing army and fleet in the Earth Sphere."

"But it's not a completely united entity," Lan reminded them, "The Atlantic Federation has the core forces, but the Eurasian Federation and the Republic of East Asia also make contributions. Even without those two portions the Atlantic Federation still maintains the largest force in the Earth Sphere, but going to war without the full support of the other two members of the Earth Alliance would be a far riskier proposition."

"Especially since the main anti-Coordinator faction in the Eurasian Federation was removed from power at the end of the last war," said Adaline in between bites, "and the Blue Cosmos-like factions over in East Asia have never really gotten close to gaining political dominance. It'll be interesting to see how the Atlantic Federation ropes the other two nations into going along with its war."

"It may not even matter if the other two go along or not," said Priscilla, "Blue Cosmos holds enough sway in the Atlantic Federation to make them go it alone if they have to, and their hatred of us hasn't diminished over the past two years."

"Jeez," said Lan as she took a sip of her water, "Don't those guys got anything better to do other than hate on us because someone tweaked our genes in the womb? Seriously, they need to go get laid or something."

The three of them shared a laugh at that, although privately the thought of a group that could hate their race so deeply that they would ignite a new global war for the chance to kill them was far from funny. It was a sobering and depressing notion, but the way Lan saw it, if she let that get her down then it was the same as letting her enemies win.

The three of them focused on their food for a bit before Adaline spoke. "No matter what happens, we can't let them win. If we can't stop them from starting another war then damn well better finish it on our terms. Too many people could die if things go their way."

Priscilla nodded. "Agreed. It won't just be L5 at risk, either. The entire world could be drawn into the conflagration. Azrael's dreams went beyond just our annihilation; he wanted the entire Earth Sphere under his dominion."

"So did Patrick Zala," said Lan darkly, "He and Azrael shared that same dark ambition. Who's to say there aren't people in ZAFT or the PLANTs government today that share the same desire for conquest and death?"

"Of all things that could be cross cultural," said Adaline with a sigh, "why did warmongering and carnage have to be one of them?"

"Human nature," Priscilla replied grimly, "Despite the radical faction's claims to the contrary, Coordinators are just as human as Naturals are. Our genes are modified and our abilities enhanced, but in the end we're people just like they are. Dreams and nightmares, love and hate, the capacity for good or evil… we have all that and more in common. The likes of Muruta Azrael and Patrick Zala could never see that, but for those of us with perspective and sanity it's all too obvious."

Lan smirked and elbowed her blonde friend. "Are you sure you weren't a philosopher in a past life?"

Priscilla blushed and gave a sheepish smile. "Well, who can say?"

"I don't know what to say to that," Adaline chimed in, "but I do know what to say to anyone in the Earth Alliance and ZAFT who thinks they can make the rest of the Earth Sphere submit to their ambitions; they got to go through us first."

"Hell yeah," said Lan, "and this time we've got some new friends in our corner."

"Including four very recent arrivals," said Priscilla with a knowing smile, "If the Earth Alliance and ZAFT hated fighting Heero in the last war, then I can only imagine their dismay once they learn that they now must contend with four more young men of his caliber."

Lan chuckled. "Yeah, they're fucked. They're just too stupid to know it yet."

"So," said Adaline as she raised her drink, "what do you say to educating them on just how fucked they are?"

Lan and Priscilla followed suit, clinking their bottles with Adaline's.

"I'll drink to that," said Lan.

….

October 4th, C.E. 73

His eyelids were heavy from lack of sleep, but Commander Michael Cortez of the rogue Laurasia-class frigate Curie refused to turn in now. He remained on the bridge, determined to be present when the ship received the final confirmation from the engineering teams working on the desolate surface of the ruined Junius Seven. The amount of effort that he had put into this endeavor demanded no less than that.

Anytime now, he thought, tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair, The moment of truth cannot come soon enough…

The preparation and installation of the Flare Motors was not the only matter that the former ZAFT officer and his cohorts had been attending to. Maintaining a renegade force of forty warships was no small task, especially in a hazardous environment such as the orbital Debris Belt. There was also the political side of the endeavor to consider; the Commander and his closest subordinates had only just finished drafting the statement that they planned to release just before the debris entered the atmosphere.

Some of the others consider it to be an exercise in ego, he mused, They're missing the point. It's not enough to deliver judgment; those bastards need to know who is casting said judgment and why. Only then, when their terror is at its peak, will they be allowed a merciful death. The petty marker left on this mass grave is far too insufficient a tribute to the lives that were lost here. Proper tribute will soon be paid…

Paid in blood.

Feeling the need to occupy himself, he turned to his sensor officer. "Any contacts at our perimeter?"

His subordinate shook his head. "All is quiet, Commander. Should I widen the range of the recon flights?"

"No," said Commander Cortez, "Flights too far afield increase our risk of detection. Continue with our current patrol patterns."

The officer nodded. "Aye, Commander."

"Comms," said the Commander, "are any vessels reporting mechanical issues or damage from the debris?"

"A few minor scrap impacts," the radioman replied, "but nothing that will impede their functionality."

Commander Cortez nodded. "Very well. Carry on."

Come on, he thought impatiently, I've waited long enough for this. We all have…

Finally he got the message he was hoping for from his communications officer. "Sir, new report from the engineering teams! The last Flare Motor has been securely mounted and primed. Guidance systems are locked in across the network!"

Commander Cortez smiled. "At last…"

"Sir," said the communications officer, "Should we issue the order?"

The Commander nodded. "Set the transmission to broadcast directly from my station; I'll give the order myself."

The radioman nodded, and a moment later a green light appeared on the Commander's personal monitor. "You're live, sir."

Taking a deep breath, the Commander leaned forward to make sure the built-in mic caught the full measure of his voice.

"Attention all forces," he said, his gaze as hard as stone, "The time that we have waited so patiently for has finally come."

"Commence Operation Meteor."

….

Moving through the corridors of the Minerva, once again in his casual attire, Heero was surprised to run into Duo, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei at an intersection on the way to the warship's briefing room.

"Yo, Heero!" said Duo with a smile, "I was wondering when we'd run into you."

"You four were called by the Captain as well," Heero surmised.

Quatre nodded. "Whatever's going on must be pretty big if she's asking us to join her and her pilots for a briefing."

"Either her trust in us has grown," said Trowa, "or this is a matter far too important for her to turn down our aid."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough," said Wufei.

"Couldn't she have called like an hour from now," said Duo, trying and failing to suppress a yawn, "I like being included and all, but I was hoping for a little more time to snooze."

'Day' and 'night' were relatively subjective terms when one was in outer space, but by the clock the Gundam pilots and the Minerva were running on now it was still pretty early in the 'morning' following the battle in the Debris Belt. Heero was in agreement with Duo as far as sleep had gone; he'd spent more time down in the hangar going over Wing Zero Albion and corresponding with Murrue and other members of Terminal through the Gundam's secure communications array, and he definitely wouldn't have minded another hour or so to sleep. Still, he knew that if Captain Gladys was asking for his help it had to be important, otherwise she likely would've kept the matter strictly to the ZAFT crew.

"Can't be helped now," said Quatre, "We should get a move on. They should be starting soon."

"Agreed," said Heero, taking the lead.

A few minutes later the five of them arrived in the briefing room. Captain Gladys and Chairman Durandal were standing in front of the main monitor. Seated in the gallery were Lunamaria, Rey, and Shinn, along with Athrun and Cagalli. Heero noticed Shinn occasionally glare at Orb's Chief Representative, but if Cagalli noticed it she seemed determined not to let it bother her.

Those two in the same room is a diplomatic incident waiting to happen, thought Heero, I'm glad Athrun's sitting between them.

He turned to Captain Gladys, who nodded at him in greeting. "Heero, I appreciate you and your companions coming here on short notice. I'd rather not rely on the aid of outsiders, but your assistance has been critical to us over the past few days, and I fear that we may need your help now more than ever."

"The situation is dire," said Chairman Durandal, "Given your experience in the last war, I'm sure you'll understand why we've summoned you once you've been briefed."

Heero nodded. "We're willing to hear you out. Once we know what's going on, then we'll decide on our next course of action."

Chairman Durandal nodded. "We can ask no more than that."

"Thank you," said the Captain with a smile, "Please, have a seat."

Heero and the others settled in between Cagalli and her bodyguard and the ZAFT pilots. When they were all seated Captain Gladys clicked a button on the small remote she was holding, and the image on the screen shifted to a sight anyone with a passing familiarity with current events in the Cosmic Era would recognize.

The ruins of Junius Seven, he thought, warning bells going off in his head, Something tells me this isn't about the memorial marker there…

The image was of more than just the wrecked colony. Scattered about on the screen were several warships that Heero knew quite well; Laurasia-class frigates. The Gundam pilot instantly put two and two together; they now had a much bigger problem to deal with than the escape of Bogey One.

"A little over an hour ago," said Captain Gladys, "We received word from long range scouts that had been searching for signs of Bogey One of a new development; the orbit of the ruins of Junius Seven has begun to decay. According to our preliminary estimates, the debris will fall to Earth sometime on October 8th."

"How is that possible?" asked Cagalli, her eyes wide in shock, "I thought the ruins of Junius Seven were supposed to be in a stable orbit!"

"It's not a natural decay," said Heero firmly.

The ZAFT pilots, Cagalli, and Athrun all looked at him in confusion, but Heero's gaze was focused on Captain Gladys and Chairman Durandal. "The warships pictured with the colony aren't part of the ZAFT fleet, are they?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Shinn, "Those are Laurasia-class frigates. Of course they're ZAFT ships!"

"But ZAFT's been phasing them out in favor of adding more Nazca-class destroyers and Hel-class cruisers to the fleet," Heero replied, "Plenty of Laurasia-class frigates still operate with the fleet, but they're typically used in defensive deployments like Armory One's patrol screen and the L5 Home Fleet. These ships are too far out, and there are too many of them to just be long range patrols."

Chairman Durandal nodded. "The vessels pictured here were all decommissioned some time ago, and were meant to be scrapped or sold to civilian contractors and converted for asteroid mining and transport operations. However, they were all stolen over a prolonged period. We've been trying to track them down for a while now, and it appears we've finally found them."

"We believe that these rogue vessels are manned by former soldiers who remain adherents to the ideology of Patrick Zala and his followers who seized power in the PLANTs during the last war," said Captain Gladys grimly, "Their intent appears to drop the remains of Junius Seven onto Earth."

A collective gasp went up from all three ZAFT pilots along with Athrun and Cagalli. There was no such reaction from Heero and the other four Gundam pilots though. Looking at his old friends, the Perfect Soldier shared a knowing nod with them.

Even in a completely different world, he thought, the concept of Operation Meteor holds a draw to some people. I wonder if these renegades are using that name for their plan or another one…

Chairman Durandal clearly caught on to the reaction of Heero and his friends. "You five don't exactly seem surprised by this."

Heero shook his head. "After the end of the Bloody Valentine War, the followers of Patrick Zala were removed from all positions of real power. Those that still cling to that ideology can no longer rely on the resources of the state to carry out their ambitions. An attempt at an orbital drop like this, while still logistically and technically challenging, is a much more feasible proposition for such a group as opposed to something like GENESIS."

"I be they've been planning this for a long time," said Duo, "All those stolen warships and managing to disrupt the ruins' stable orbit… that's not an overnight job."

"How many ships do they have?" asked Trowa.

"Somewhere between thirty to forty," Captain Gladys replied, "Each frigate can carry six mobile suits, so if they all have full complements then we're looking at anywhere from 180 to 240 machines. Our recon units reported spotting a few upgraded GINNs that appeared to be flying coordinated combat patrols, but we have no idea if that is the only type of mobile suit the renegades have at their disposal."

"How did they manage to disrupt the orbit of the ruins?" asked Quatre.

"The reports indicate that they're using a network of Flare Motors," said Captain Gladys.

"How do those work?" asked Wufei.

"They harness the power of solar wind to move objects along a predetermined course," the Captain replied, "An extensive and properly positioned network of the devices can move just about anything. However, it does take some time for them to really get an object up to speed, especially something on the scale of the ruins of Junius Seven."

"That is our saving grace," said Durandal, "We have a four day window to stop the remains of the colony from hitting the Earth."

"Does ZAFT have a plan?" asked Cagalli.

Captain Gladys nodded. "We're scrambling a task force right now. Engineering teams equipped with heavy industrial drills will land on the ruins of the colony and break it up into smaller pieces. Our warships will bombard them to break them up further, and hopefully anything that falls into the atmosphere will not be large enough to do major damage."

"The renegades won't just sit back and let you carry out this operation," said Heero, "You'll need to punch through their lines and protect the engineering teams while they carry out their tasks."

"I'm sure they'll put up a hard fight," said Captain Gladys grimly, "Only fanatics would go to lengths such as these, and I highly doubt they'll go down easy. Unfortunately they've had two years to plan this operation, whereas our response plan was only created in the last hour. Our task force will be very much an ad hoc formation, and one hastily assembled with the most readily available resources. I expect that we will be outnumbered in this fight, and that is why we must have your aid, Heero."

"You more than proved your ability to handle long odds in the last war," said Durandal with a smile, "and your four friends have likewise shown that their talents and the power of their machines can more than offset a numerical disadvantage. Our foes here may have been planning this operation for years now, but I highly doubt that you five have figured into their calculations."

Duo smirked. "So you want us to be your ace in the hole, huh?"

"Simply put, but adequate," Captain Gladys replied before turning to the three ZAFT pilots, "You three have talent, and I have high hopes for your future growth, but unfortunately you're in way over your heads here. I expect you to cooperate with Heero and the others in the coming mission. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" said Lunamaria, and Heero saw her spare a quick glance at Wufei.

Huh, he thought, Wufei's not really the type to get someone to seek his attention after just a few days. I wonder what's up with those two…

"Hold on!" said Shinn, "They haven't agreed to help us, yet!"

"With all due respect, Captain," said Rey, "Shinn is right; we don't have their confirmed support."

"You have mine," said Heero firmly, "but I'll only speak for myself. I told you that the other four are each my equal, and that means that their decision to help you is theirs alone."

"I see," said Captain Gladys, turning to the other four pilots, "I know that we only just met a few days ago, but I humbly ask for your help. Please."

Duo smiled. "No need to worry, ma'am. I'm in."

"As am I," said Trowa.

"Me too," said Quatre with a smile, "I'll do all I can to make sure the mission succeeds."

Wufei nodded. "You'll have my support as well. There's no justice in sitting back and doing nothing while these fanatics try to wipe out all life on Earth."

The Captain smiled. "On behalf of my crew, you have our deepest gratitude."

"What about you, Athrun Zala?" asked Chairman Durandal, "We'll need every skilled pilot we can get for this operation. Your talents would most certainly come in handy here."

Athrun looked at Cagalli, who gave him a smile and a nod. The young man then turned back to the Chairman.

"If you're willing to let me fly for you again," he said, "then I will join your operation."

The Chairman smiled. "Excellent. With all of you on our side I am quite confident of the mission's success."

"It is encouraging," said Captain Gladys, "but let's not pat ourselves on the back just yet. We have a hard fight ahead of us."

"Of course, Talia," the Chairman replied.

The Captain turned back to the assembled pilots. "Given the size of the force we'll be up against, Minerva will be moving to join our nearest patrols as swiftly as possible before proceeding to the operation site to support the task force. I want you all to rest up while you can. We'll need you at full strength when the time comes."

The three ZAFT pilots stood as one and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

Captain Gladys nodded. "That'll be all for now. Dismissed."

The Captain and the Chairman left the briefing room quickly, but the others stayed behind. After everything that they had just heard, Heero couldn't blame them; it was a lot to take in on such short notice.

As was typical, Duo was the one to break the silence. "Well, I didn't see that one coming."

"You've got that right," said Quatre, "First an attack on Armory One, and now someone's trying to drop the remains of Junius Seven onto Earth… it certainly makes for a lively week."

Heero saw Shinn's eyes widen in shock and indignation. "Lively? One of our colonies was attacked and now a bunch of terrorists are trying to drop the ruins of another onto the planet, and you call that lively? What the hell's wrong with you?"

"Calm down," Trowa admonished him, "You're a soldier; freaking out won't help anyone here."

"He's right, Shinn," said Rey, putting his hand on his shoulder, "You need to keep a cool head."

Shinn sighed. "You're right. Still… how can you guys be so calm about this?"

"Because we're experienced," Wufei replied, "Earth-threatening crises aren't exactly new to us."

"So," said Lunamaria, "what does it take to ruffle your feathers then? If an impending colony drop doesn't do that, I'd hate to think of what would."

Wufei folded his arms. "If you think we're going to divulge information like that then you're more naïve then I thought."

Lunamaria glared at him. "You don't have to be like that, you know."

Duo chuckled. "Don't mind him. Wufei's got no problem being a pain in the ass when he wants to."

"I could say the same for you," Wufei shot back.

"At least I know how to pull the stick out of my ass," said Duo with a smirk, "You need to do the same. Then again, if you did you'd probably just start beating guys to death with it."

Heero saw Cagalli shook her head in disgust. "Ugh… boys."

Athrun smiled. "At least they're entertaining."

Cagalli laughed. "True."

"Are you sure about sticking around, Athrun?" asked Heero, "Your primary responsibility is the protections of Cagalli. I'm sure the Chairman could arrange to have you two transferred off the Minerva before the operation starts."

Athrun shook his head, and Heero saw a haunted look in his eyes. "No. The people that are trying to do this… they're following my father's ideology. It wasn't enough that we stopped him in the last war. His ideals, his legacy, still survive, even if they don't have as many followers as they once did. I… I have to fight them."

"Athrun…" said Cagalli softly, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Your father's sins aren't yours, Athrun," said Heero firmly, "You bear no responsibility for his legacy."

Athrun gave a rueful chuckle. "You really think that, Heero? I'm his son. After mother died I was the only immediate family he had. I should've recognized the path he'd started going down sooner. I could've stopped him if I had, and who knows who many lives could've been saved?"

"That's not a weight you need to bear, Athrun," said Cagalli, "If you're going to fight these people, don't do it because of your father's legacy. Do it for the people that they're trying to kill."

"You can't change the past," said Duo, "and you shouldn't let your old man define your future. He's dead and you're still standing. Leave him in his grave and make your own path. Fight for your future and the people you care about, not because you think you have to take care of his legacy."

Trowa smirked. "That's unusually eloquent for you, Duo."

Quatre smiled. "I'm impressed. I didn't know you had it in you."

Wufei chuckled. "I still don't think he does. He's just pulling it out of his ass."

Duo folded his arms. "You're just hating on it because you couldn't come up with it yourself, Wufei."

"Why would I need to?" Wufei replied, "I couldn't care less about the sins of Athrun's father. The only thing that matters to me is the coming battle."

"If you're going to fight, we won't stop you," said Heero, meeting Athrun's gaze, "Captain Gladys was right; we need every skilled pilot we can get. I've got your back, just like in the last war. Still, make sure that you're doing this for the right reasons. If you go into this fight carrying misguided guilt, you won't survive."

Athrun nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Heero."

Heero then turned to the ZAFT pilots in the room. "Are you three up for this? Armory One and the Debris Belt will be a picnic compared to what's coming."

Shinn nodded and glared at him. "Don't underestimate us just because we don't have the same level of experience that you do. We're ready!"

"Shinn's right," said Rey, "We're soldiers of ZAFT. When the time comes, we will do our duty."

Lunamaria smiled. "We'll fight alongside you and stop these guys. We can do this!"

Wufei chuckled. "Well, at least you've got spirit."

"I've got more than that!" the red-head replied, "I'll show you!"

"Save that spirit for the fight," said Heero as he headed for the exit, "You're going to need it."

"Hey!" said Shinn, "Where are you going?"

"The enemy and your Chairman are moving their chess pieces," he said without looking back, "I'm going to move mine."

Before it's too late, he silently added, Murrue… please be ready!

….

Leaning back in her seat on the Archangel's bridge, Murrue took a deep breath as she absorbed everything that Heero had told her.

Of all the possible twists we could encounter, she thought, I never anticipated this one…

It was fortunate her formidable warship was now in orbit and concealed within the Debris Belt. With the way events were unfolding, Murrue knew that swift action would be crucial to resolving this new crisis.

When she spoke again her eyes met Heero's on the main monitor, and she could see the grim look in them. "So it wasn't enough that we have to contend with an Alliance black ops force. Now the remnants of the Zala regime are making a move… and one right out of your old world's playbook to boot."

Heero nodded. "Yes, though with some key differences. The original Operation Meteor revolved around disrupting the rotation of a fully functional colony and knocking it out of orbit. After the impact, the five Gundams would descend to Earth and achieve dominance in the chaos. Of course, we sabotaged that plan. Here the radicals are taking the remnants of Junius Seven and using them to try to wipe out all life on Earth; I highly doubt that global conquest is on their agenda."

"And they're using Flare Motors to pull it off," said Murrue bitterly, "How ironic. Those devices were originally developed to be used on asteroids that were in danger of impacting the Earth in order to alter their courses and avert Armageddon. Now the radicals are employing them to bring about that exact kind of cataclysm, only with the ruins of a nuked colony rather than a meteor."

"At least that gives us some time," said Heero, determination clear in his voice, "We've got a chance to stop them, Murrue."

Murrue nodded. "How do you want to play this?"

"I know the Archangel and the Dominion are capable of reaching the ruins before ZAFT's task force," said Heero, "However, with the size of the force our enemy is employing here, it would be best if we made our move in conjunction with the Minerva and the other ZAFT units."

"Agreed," Murrue replied, "ZAFT's plan to break up the remains of the colony is sound, and if we add our firepower to the mix we can make sure that nothing large enough to pose a threat is able to fall to Earth."

"Yes," said Heero, "We may have the power to destroy the remains ourselves, but if we fired on them when they were in one piece there's still too great a chance that portions of the debris with substantial enough mass to pose serious harm could still impact the planet. By co-opting ZAFT's plan we can minimize the risk providing we act with careful timing."

"That does mean we won't be able to launch our attack until October 8th though," said Murrue nervously, "That's the same day the ruins are projected to make their final descent. Things are going to be tight here, Heero."

Heero sighed. "I know, Murrue. Believe me, if you've got another plan, I'm all ears."

Murrue shook her head. "I wish I did, but I think this is the only shot we've got."

"Is the Archangel's crew ready?" he asked.

Murrue smiled. "Of course, Heero. It's not what we were anticipating, but you know how adaptable we are."

Heero nodded and gave her a small smile in return. "That I do. Get in touch with Natarle as fast as you can. We need to move quickly if we're going be in position when the time comes."

Murrue nodded. "Will do. Before that, though, I've got some people here who'd like to say hello."

She looked to her right and motioned for Kira and Lacus to come forward. As they both came into Heero's line of sight they smiled at him.

"Hey, Heero!" said Kira.

"It's good to see you again, Heero!" said Lacus, "Although I wish it were under better circumstances."

Heero nodded. "Same here. I'm glad you're both here. We'll definitely need your help on this one."

Kira nodded. "We weren't planning on fighting the remnants of the Zala regime, but no matter who we're up against we won't let them threaten the Earth and the peace that we fought for."

"Yes," said Lacus, a look of fierce determination in her usually peaceful cerulean eyes, "We will do everything in our power to thwart this awful scheme."

"I appreciate that," said Heero, "Kira… are you sure you're ready to be back on the battlefield?"

Kira nodded again, an unusually grim look in his eyes. "I am, Heero. It's not what I wanted, but this is too important for me to sit it out."

"As long as it's your decision," said Heero, "It'll be good to have you on the field with us."

"The Freedom's almost as iconic as Wing Zero," Murrue cut in, "Are you sure ZAFT won't raise any issues with it?"

"I doubt they'll try to go after Kira or any of us in the middle of a fight when the stakes are this high," Heero replied, "Although… if these are fanatics from the old regime that we're up against, I have to wonder how seeing one of the famous stolen nuclear prototypes on the battlefield against them will play out. It might decrease their morale… or just make them angrier than they already are."

"You could say the same thing for Wing Zero, though," said Lacus, "Kira may have defeated Creuset in the final battle, but you were the one that broke through Patrick Zala's final line of defense and destroyed GENESIS."

"There's also the Archangel's reputation among the old regime to consider," said Murrue, "Frankly, any of us just showing up on the same battlefield as them is going to have consequences, both intended and otherwise."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," said Heero, "We all knew what we signed up for when we formed Terminal. Our duty is the protection of the Earth Sphere as a whole. We'll worry about the fallout from our actions after we've averted the apocalypse."

Murrue smiled. "Well said, Heero."

"Indeed," said Lacus.

"We'll get it done, Heero," said Kira, "and after that we'll figure out who was behind the attack on Armory One."

Heero nodded before turning to Murrue. "Give Natarle and the others on the Dominion my regards."

"Will do," Murrue replied, "We'll see you soon, Heero."

"And not just you," said Lacus, "I must say, I'm very much looking forward to meeting your fellow Gundam pilots."

Kira smiled. "Yeah, same here. It should be interesting."

Heero smirked. "Yes, I'm sure it will. I'll see you all soon. Murrue… thank you."

Murrue shook her head and smiled again. "You don't have to thank me, Heero. We're well past that point in our relationship, aren't we?"

Heero nodded and returned her smile. "You're right, Murrue. I love you."

"And I love you," she replied, "Take care, Heero."

"You as well," he said, "Heero, out."

Knowing that they had no time to lose, Murrue turned to the blue-eyed, red-haired seventeen-year old woman at the communications console.

"Get a secure communications link set up with the Dominion immediately," said Murrue, "We need to update Natarle and the others right away."

Flay Allster, communications officer of the Archangel, nodded and smiled.

"Aye, Captain!"

….

Sitting in the Captain's chair on the bridge of the former Earth Alliance battleship Dominion, Natarle's purple eyes were narrowed in concentration as she listened to Murrue's report. Now twenty-seven years old, apart from growing out her black hair a little bit the former Atlantic Federation officer had changed very little since the Bloody Valentine War, at least as far as personal appearance was concerned. She maintained a slim and athletic figure that her Orb military uniform did very little to hide and it was something that her lover was always quite ready to compliment her on.

Said lover was floating less than a meter to the right of her chair, listening intently as the woman who had once been their direct superior two years ago update them on the situation. His arms folded and his usual carefree smirk replaced by a grim expression, Mu La Flaga still looked every bit the dashing ace pilot that Natarle had fallen in love with during the last war. The thirty-year old combat veteran had grown his blond hair out a bit, but his blue eyes still held that devil-may-care light that was his hallmark, and his Orb uniform did not detract from his fit figure.

When Murrue finished briefing them, Natarle sighed. "Well… I wasn't planning on this when you had us deploy from L3."

"No kidding," said La Flaga, "I thought the surviving radicals were nothing more than a battered remnant with no real power."

"They may be battered," Murrue replied grimly, "but they still had enough power to put together a fleet of forty ships and to attempt a colony drop. Whether we want to believe it or not, this is where we stand."

"I wonder how much help they had from within the PLANT government," said Natarle, "Even if the ships they stole were decommissioned and slated for scrapping, I find it hard to believe that they would've been completely unguarded."

"Yeah," said La Flaga, "and even if they stole older warships and mobile suits, I'm willing to bet that these guys make up for that with experience. I'm not sure if the task force ZAFT's scrambling to counter them will be enough. They may have better ships and mobile suits, but they've also got a lot of green personnel."

Murrue nodded. "The Gundam pilots and the rest of us will have to make up for the lack of experience from the new ZAFT forces."

"We'll definitely have them beat there," said Natarle with a smirk, "Not to mention a serious technological advantage."

"You got that right," said La Flaga with a smile, "We may not have numbers, but boy do we have firepower. And now the other four Gundam pilots as well… I wonder if the Cosmic Era will be able to survive that."

"Who knows?" said Natarle, "It barely survived Heero."

Murrue smiled. "We're fortunate that they arrived when they did. The appearance of four mobile suits similar to Wing Zero may increase tensions, but given what's at stake here we desperately need the power of the Gundams and the skills of their pilots. There's no way that the radicals could've planned for them."

"I almost feel sorry for them," said La Flaga with a chuckle, "Almost."

Natarle shook her head. "Patrick Zala would be rolling in his grave if he knew just who was flying against his faction's remnant."

"I imagine the same would be true for Azrael, at least as far as these Alliance black ops forces are concerned," said Murrue, "Being confronted with those four machines and the Wing Zero Albion had to have been a serious blow to their morale in addition to the casualties they took."

"It'd be even worse for them if they knew just who was flying those four machines," said La Flaga, smirking, "Four pilots on the same level as him... I'm still having trouble believing that."

"It'll be interesting to see them in action," said Natarle, "I just hope that they're ready for what's coming."

Murrue smiled. "If anyone can handle a fight like this, it's the Gundam pilots. Of course, we won't be letting them do all the work."

Natarle nodded. "Copy that. So, how should we play this?"

"Timing will be critical," said Murrue, "It'll be best to make ourselves known after the ZAFT force has engaged the radicals. We can hit the enemy with maximum surprise, and by that point ZAFT will be far too occupied to do anything about us if they don't appreciate our help."

"Sounds like we've got our bases covered," said La Flaga.

"Almost," said Natarle, "Murrue, how should we deploy the battleships?"

"That'll depend on how the radicals have their forces arrayed," Murrue replied, "I'd like to do a pincer attack, but we may have to alter that plan. Much of this is also dependent on how ZAFT opens up the fight. Heero should be able to keep us up to date on their movements though. We can use his intel to make last minute adjustments before we engage."

"And we're still having the Kusanagi and Eternal sit this one out?" asked La Flaga.

Murrue nodded. "If the Kusanagi scrambles without a direct order from Cagalli it'll make her situation even more difficult. As for the Eternal, her hideaway is pretty far out, and Heero still wants to keep her as an ace in the hole for future developments."

"The improved firepower of our two battleships should more than make up for their absence," said Natarle.

"Agreed," said Murrue, "Not to mention the new mobile suits we have."

La Flaga smiled. "No kidding. I really wish we had those things on our side in the last war. Especially the Valkyrie's new machine. Whew… talk about one wicked mobile suit."

"Perhaps," said Murrue, "You two already know my concerns about that thing, so I won't reiterate them. Heero says Shemei's ready to use it for real now, and I trust his judgment."

"He's not wrong," said Natarle with a smile, "I've been observing her exercises. She's all set, Murrue."

Murrue nodded. "Very well. I'll see you both soon enough. Archangel, out."

As Murrue disappeared from the screen, Natarle turned to La Flaga. "Well… here we go again."

La Flaga chuckled. "You mean us charging off to face long odds with impossibly high stakes riding on the outcome?"

"What else would I mean?" said Natarle dryly, "It's more or less in our job description."

La Flaga nodded. "True enough. Saving the world from fanatics and maniacs… try putting that on a résumé."

"It would certainly be an interesting one to read," Natarle replied with a smile, "At least we're getting some help from others who have experience in this sort of thing."

"Always nice to be working with fellow professionals who specialize in insane missions," said La Flaga, "Fighting alongside all five Gundam pilots… now that's going to be a battle to remember."

"You mean we don't have our share of those already?" asked Natarle.

La Flaga smiled. "Good point."

Natarle sighed. "Seriously, Mu… are you ready for this?"

Her lover nodded. "You bet. Tallgeese III's in peak condition, and so am I. Sure, this isn't the fight we were planning on, and it's definitely winner-take-all, but we've got this, Natarle. Don't doubt that for a minute."

I always wonder where you get that confidence from, she thought as she looked at him with a smile, No matter what the odds or the stakes, you're always ready to jump right into the mess. That's just one of the reasons I fell for you…

"All right," she said, "In that case, I'd say it's time for the Dominion to get back onto the world stage."

"Got that right," said La Flaga, "Her and the Archangel… and they're far more powerful than they were before. Our enemies have no idea what's coming their way."

Natarle nodded, her confidence growing. "We beat the extremists of both factions when they were at the height of their power two years ago. Let's go find the trash they left behind and take it out."

La Flaga grinned. "Copy that, Natarle."

….

October 8th, C.E. 73

I shouldn't be here, Meyrin thought as she nervously looked back and forth, I really should be heading to the bridge.

Her shift hadn't started yet, so it wasn't like she was breaking any rules by coming down to the hangar. However, Meyrin was aware that she would need to get to her station soon, and making it there on time from down in the hangar would be tricky.

Still, she had been unable to stop herself from coming down here. The Minerva would soon be taking part in an operation unlike any that Meyrin had ever imagined that she would be involved in. She knew how high the stakes were, what the cost of failure would be, and she was scared. She'd barely slept the night before, and sometimes it was all she could do to keep her hands from shaking.

That was why she'd come down here, looking for Duo. He always seemed so relaxed and confident, regardless of the situation, and Meyrin needed some of that right now. She'd only known him for a few days, but she knew that he was the person that she wanted to see right now. If anyone could help her calm her nerves, it was him.

There he was, floating in front of his Gundam. His arms were folded and he was looking up at his machine. There was a smirk on his face, as if he and his mobile suit had just shared a private joke. The atmosphere of the hangar was tense as the ZAFT crews prepped the Minerva's mobile suits for battle, but Duo looked completely unfazed by it.

I wish I could be like that, she thought, So at ease, so cool. How in the world does he do it?

She took a deep breath and moved forward. It didn't take the Gundam pilot long to notice her; despite how relaxed he looked, his senses were very sharp.

He turned to her and smiled as she approached. "Hey, what's up? I thought you'd be on the bridge right now."

Meyrin shook her head. "I've got a little bit of time before my shift starts. I… I wanted to see you."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "Really? What for?"

"I…" she said, fidgeting, "Well… promise you won't tell anyone?"

Duo nodded. "Sure thing. You okay?"

Meyrin sighed. "No, not really."

"Ah," said Duo, "Nerves, right?"

Her eyes widened. "How did you know?"

"It's obvious on you," he said, "You're not hiding it very well."

Meyrin flushed with embarrassment. "Oh no…"

"Hey," said Duo as he put a hand on her shoulder, "There's nothing wrong with being scared before a fight."

She looked up at him, her heartbeat quickening. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah," said Duo casually, "I'd be worried about you if you weren't nervous. Anyone who isn't at least a bit afraid before a battle is a damn idiot. If you're scared, it means you're smart. You appreciate what you're flying into, and you'll be better prepared to deal with it."

"How do you know?" she asked, "What if… what if I freeze up? What if I make a mistake and let everyone down?"

Duo smiled. "You won't. I may not know you well, but you've got a good head on your shoulders. Just stay calm and trust your friends. Follow your training. Focus on your role and you'll do fine."

Meyrin returned the smile. "You make it sound so easy."

"Hey," he said, "You haven't choked in the last two fights, have you?"

Meyrin shook her head. "No."

"Good," said Duo, "You did fine with those, and I see no reason to think that you won't do fine here. You got this, kid."

Meyrin nodded, and while she was still nervous she could feel herself becoming noticeably calmer. This was exactly why she had come down here. Duo had helped her settle down enough to focus on her job.

"Okay," she said, "I should get going. If there's a god, I hope he's got our back."

Duo chuckled as he looked at Deathscythe Omega. "There is only one god, and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to the God of Death."

"What's that?" asked Meyrin.

Duo turned to her and grinned. "Not today."

….

Zipping up her crimson pilot's suit, Lunamaria looked over at her two friends. Rey looked as calm as usual as he changed into his pilot suit, but Shinn looked agitated. Normally Lunamaria would've chalked it up to nerves; this was a high-stakes operation, after all. However, it could sometimes be hard to tell what was bugging Shinn; it was all too easy for something to get under his skin.

Athrun Zala was with them as well, and he had a strange look on his face. He didn't really seem nervous, but there was definitely something on his mind. Lunamaria wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that they were about to fight people who subscribed to the same ideology as his late father had.

There was a tense silence in the pilots' locker room, and Lunamaria decided she had to be the one to break it. "You guys ready for this?"

"Yes," Rey replied coolly.

Athrun nodded but didn't say anything, while Shinn looked like he hadn't heard her at all.

"Hey," said Lunamaria, "Earth to Shinn! What's up?"

Shinn looked surprised as he turned to Lunamaria. "Sorry… I kinda spaced out there."

"You doing okay?" she asked.

Shinn nodded. "I'm fine. I just want to stop these guys before they can hurt anyone."

"So do the rest of us," said Lunamaria.

"We will," said Athrun calmly, "You're flying with the best pilots in the Earth Sphere. The enemy won't succeed."

"The Gundam pilots are formidable," said Rey, "but even they can't stop a falling colony without help."

"Which is why they're fighting with us," said Athrun, "This won't be like the last two battles. You'll be up against veterans of my father's regime. They all survived the Bloody Valentine War. They won't be easy pickings. Having Heero and the others with us will help level the playing field."

"Are you saying we couldn't win without Heero's help?" asked Shinn, "We're ZAFT Reds. We're the best in the fleet!"

"The best in the fleet with only two battles on your belt," Athrun replied, "The guys you're about to fight against survived entire campaigns. Take the help of experienced pilots when you can get it. Trust me, you'll need it."

"And I suppose that goes for you as well?" said Rey, his eyes narrowing, "You survived the last war too, after all. However, since these are people that once served your father, will you really be able to go all out in this fight?"

"I fought my father's soldiers in the last war," said Athrun forcefully, "I can fight these people too."

Lunamaria thought that both Athrun and Rey had good points. Athrun had proven that he was able to fight against his father's regime in the last war, but Rey was also right in his concerns as to whether or not Athrun would be able to fight at his best today. The son of the late Chairman seemed to be somewhat distracted.

She saw Rey shrug. "Whatever you say."

"Come on," said Shinn, "Let's get to our mobile suits."

Lunamaria nodded, and the four pilots made for the exits. As they left the pilot's locker room Shinn split off from the group; Impulse would launch from its own dedicated catapult, so Shinn's mobile suit was kept in a separate part of the hangar.

Making her way through the hangar, Lunamaria found herself looking for Wufei. She didn't know why; now was hardly the time to be getting into another argument with him. However, a part of her did want to see him before the fighting started.

It wasn't too hard to find him; she could see him floating in front of the Gundam Altron Custom… or Nataku; Lunamaria still wasn't sure what she was supposed to call it since Wufei hadn't bothered to explain the second name to her. It did seem to hold some special significance to him though.

Maybe I should look it up when I get a chance, she thought, There might be something on the net about it. Maybe it's from history or his culture's folklore or something…

She split off from Athrun and Rey. The two pilots looked at her for a moment before moving on to their own mobile suits while Lunamaria headed over to Wufei.

She waved and smiled at him as she approached, hoping she looked more confident than she felt. "Hey, Wufei!

He looked over at her and nodded. "Lunamaria. What brings you over here?"

"Well," she said, trying to think of a good excuse, "I figured I'd see if you had any useful advice for the coming fight. I mean, this isn't like anything I've ever flown into before."

The Chinese pilot looked at his Gundam for a moment before turning back to her. "What are you fighting for?"

Lunamaria was caught off guard by the question. "What do you mean, 'what am I fighting for?'"

"I mean exactly that," said Wufei, "What are your reasons for fighting here today?"

Lunamaria took a deep breath. "To protect peace in the Earth Sphere."

"If we're fighting then wouldn't you say that peace has already gone out the window?" he deadpanned.

"You know what I mean," Lunamaria shot back, "Yes, we'll be fighting a battle, but we can still stop this from turning into a full scale war."

"Perhaps," said Wufei, "but that remains to be seen. More to the point, that answer's not good enough."

Lunamaria folded her arms. "What do you mean, not good enough?"

"It's too impersonal," Wufei replied, "Peace in the Earth Sphere is an abstract concept. It's a nice thing to put on a banner or in a speech, but in my experience people tend to fight for things that are much closer to their hearts. The same goes for you; don't bother to deny it."

She wanted to do so just to spite him, but she realized that he actually had a point. Lunamaria wasn't being true to herself with the reason she had stated; she was just saying what she thought she was supposed to.

"All right, then," she said, meeting her gaze, "I'm fighting to prevent billions of people from getting slaughtered by fanatics who should've died in the last war. I'm fighting because my sister is on this ship, and I'm going to protect her along with everyone else on it. I'm fighting because Shinn and Rey, my friends, are also fighting in this battle, and I want to do all I can to help them make it out alive. I'm fighting because it's the right thing to do. There, how's that?"

He looked at her for a moment, and Lunamaria would've given every bit of money in her savings to know what was going through his mind right now. It was only for a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity had passed before he finally gave her an approving nod.

"That's better," he said, "Those are real reasons. They matter to you far more than the platitudes and politics you were fed at your academy. Those mean more to you than the words of politicians ever could."

Lunamaria nodded. "That's right. So, how does that help me here?"

"They're what're driving you," said Wufei, "It's the motivation that you need to focus on. Those are your stakes in this fight. Use them to push yourself to accomplish your mission, and you'll make it through this."

"All right," said Lunamaria, "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

Wufei shook his head. "Don't mention it."

Not knowing what else to do, Lunamaria held out her hand. "Hey, Wufei? Be careful, okay? I'm still going to prove myself to you, and you need to stay alive so I can do that."

Wufei raised an eyebrow; he seemed almost amused by her statement. Lunamaria thought he'd simply shrug off her words, but he surprised her by taking her hand.

"Fine," he said, "but you'd better do the same. I can't show you how a real warrior fights if you're dead."

Lunamaria smiled. "Got it."

….

From her seat on the bridge of the Minerva, Talia watched with relief as the shuttle carrying Durandal entered a nearby Nazca-class destroyer.

He'll be taken back to the PLANTs, she thought, He'll be safe in the capital, and that's where he belongs as Chairman… although it was good to see him again.

While her nation's leader was no longer on the battleship, another nation's was. Lady Cagalli was now in the seat that Durandal had once occupied; she had been determined to stay on the Minerva while Athrun Zala was fighting for it. Talia had protested the young ruler's decision, but Lady Cagalli had been adamant in her resolve. Privately, Talia admired the girl's strength of will, although her remaining on the Minerva did up the pressure on the Captain to perform well and guide her ship through the coming battle.

Glancing towards the back of the bridge, Talia's eyes narrowed as she saw the independent journalist Marilyn Peterson in her spot as well, studying the bridge intently. Marilyn had insisted on remaining with the ship as well; her desire to observe the coming battle was quite strong. Surprisingly, Lady Cagalli had also asked Talia that Marilyn be allowed to stay on the ship, and eventually the Captain had relented.

At least they'll both be going the same place after the battle, she thought, Since Marilyn is also from Orb I can drop her off along with Lady Cagalli at the end of the operation. Carpentaria's not too far from there, so we can go to that base after we've returned them both safely home.

The destroyer carrying the Chairman would be underway soon enough, but that still left two other vessels of the same class to accompany the Minerva as she raced to catch up with the rest of Task Force Aurora, the battle group assigned to what had been titled Operation Redemption. It was a fitting name for the mission as far as Talia was concerned; the people who were trying to drop the remains of Junius Seven onto Earth were fellow Coordinators, and it was only through stopping them that Talia and her comrades could redeem their government of the sin of letting them gather enough power to pose such a threat in the first place.

Including the Minerva and the two Nazca-class destroyers that would be following her to catch up with the main group, Task Force Aurora was composed of twenty-three ships. Aside from the Minerva and the Hel-class cruiser Freya that was leading the main force, the battle group was made up entirely of Nazca-class destroyers. Their mobile suits were a mix of GuAIZ Rs and the newer ZAKU and ZAKU Phantom units, and while they were technologically superior to the enemies that they would be fighting against that did not change the fact that they would be outnumbered nearly two-to-one. To make matters worse, Talia was well aware that the ZAFT forces would be split between driving through the enemy's formation and safeguarding the engineering teams with the breaker drills.

We need more ships for an operation like this, she thought, I know that Task Force Aurora was put together hastily, but still… could we not commit more? This is the Earth itself that is at stake here! It may not be the home of the Coordinator people, but it's still the cradle of humanity!

Talia sighed. She was only a Captain; she did not sit on the Defense Council and had no power over how warships were assigned. She could only hope that her superiors knew what they were doing… and that the aid of the Gundam pilots would be enough to make up for Task Force Aurora's shortcomings.

"Captain," said Meyrin, "the Dirac confirms that the Chairman's shuttle is secured. They're getting underway now."

Talia nodded. "Any updates from the Freya or the Defense Council?"

"The Freya and the main body of Task Force Aurora are moving forward to engage," said Meyrin.

"Damn it," Talia growled, "Commander Roussin was supposed to wait until we linked up with him!"

"Looks like he decided he couldn't remain on standby," said Arthur.

Talia's eyes narrowed. "Helm, all ahead full. Get us to the engagement zone as quickly as possible!"

The helmsman nodded. "Aye, Captain!"

"Meyrin," said Talia, "contact the Gundam pilots. See if they're willing to launch early."

"Ma'am?" said Meyrin.

"Their mobile suits are nuclear powered," said Talia, "They have greater range than the Impulse or the ZAKUs, and they're faster. They can aid the main force until we catch up."

Meyrin nodded. "Aye, Captain!"

Here we go…

….

Her mid-length black hair matted to her brow with sweat and her green eyes narrowed in concentration, the seventeen-year old ZAFT pilot Allison Reynolds was flying headlong into the first battle of her career. Her green pilot's suit matched the color of her ZAKU Warrior, which was equipped with a Gunner pack, and she knew that it was a fitting color for her given her rookie status.

Keep it together, she thought, Focus on your training, your comrades, and the mission. You can do this!

At least, the native of Junius Two hoped that she could do this. Her older brother had been a mobile suit pilot in the last war, but he had died in battle. Allison had joined ZAFT after the war to honor his memory… even though her brother had died fighting for the renegade Clyne faction. No, it was because he had died in the service of Lacus Clyne that Allison had volunteered. ZAFT was different now; it was a force that could fight for the ideals of the songstress of peace, not for the beliefs of a genocidal madman. Allison knew that her brother would've fought against the radicals that were trying to drop the ruins of Junius Seven onto Earth, and she could do no less now.

This one's for you, Oliver, she thought, Wherever you are now, wish me luck… and put in a good word for me in case this goes south.

She had just launched from the destroyer Amundsen, and was bringing up the rear of that vessel's mobile suit formation. All six of the ship's mobile suits were ZAKUs, with the flight lead piloting a ZAKU Phantom with a Blaze pack while Allison and the other four pilots flew ZAKU Warriors. Two more had Blaze packs and two had Slash packs; Allison was the only one with the Gunner pack. She was the long-range muscle in the group, and while her simulator skills were solid she knew that there was a big difference between practice targets and the real deal.

Her team was moving up front to act as part of the vanguard. The mobile suit squads of Task Force Aurora were split into two groups, with roughly half serving as the forward assault force while the other half were bringing forward the large breaker drills that would be needed to split up the ruins of the colony into smaller pieces. Most of the ZAKUs were with the forward units, while GuAIZ Rs made up the bulk of the machines handling and guarding the breaker drills. Allison could understand the deployment, but she had her misgivings. ZAFT was already flying into this fight outnumbered, but the way their forces were set up meant that they would essentially be cutting their mobile suit striking power in half.

Behind the ZAFT mobile suits, the nineteen Nazca-class destroyers and the Hel-class cruiser Freya were spread out and moving forward, with the larger black warship at the center of the formation. Allison knew that the new battleship Minerva and two more destroyers were moving to join the rest of Task Force Aurora, and she could only hope that they arrived sooner rather than later.

Out ahead, Allison could see the frigates of the renegades arrayed to screen the ruins of the colony. Most of the forty green warships were set up in front of Task Force Aurora, although a handful of the vessels were spread out around the rest of Junius Seven in order to buy time in case an attack came from another direction.

"Heads up everyone!" said Peter Hall, her flight team lead, "They're launching mobile suits!"

Focusing on the forward enemy warships, Allison could see the telltale blue flares of mobile suit thrusters. Concentrating her sensors on the individual machines, she was able to identify them as modified ZGMF-1017M2 GINN High Maneuver Type IIs. Purple and black mobile suits using the same basic frame as the original ZGMF-1017 GINN, the big difference between the two units was that the High Maneuver Type II had additional and more powerful thrusters to improve flight performance. The units wielded MMI-M636K beam carbines for ranged combat, but rather than having a metal sword for short range fighting these units were actually equipped with beam sabers.

Looks like the renegades did some retrofitting, she thought, Those might be older model units, but their weapons are modern and deadly. This won't be easy.

"Okay, people, this is it!" said Hall, "Blaze and Slash units, up front! Allison, back us up with that cannon of yours!"

Allison nodded, her M1500 Orthros high-energy long range beam cannon already raised and looking for targets. "Got it, sir!"

Ahead of her she could see the ZAKUs with the Blaze packs igniting their beam tomahawks, raising their rifles, and readying their missile launchers. The Slash units had likewise activated their beam axes, and their beam gatling guns were ready to rip into any hostile that got in range of them. Across the forward ranks of Task Force Aurora the other front attack teams were mirroring Allison's, and to the rear she knew that the warships would be sighting in on the renegade vessels.

Over the task force-wide tactical channel came the voice of Commander Armand Roussin, head of Task Force Aurora. "Forward assault teams, engage at will! Punch a hole in the enemy's ranks for the drill teams. All warships, pick targets and fire at will!"

On Allison's sensors she could see a series of red lines appear; the firing lanes for her side's warships. Making sure that she wasn't caught in any of them, she proceeded to lock in on her first target and opened fire.

A blast of crimson energy flew across space; hers was the first shot of the battle. Much to her disappointment, though, her target was able to evade the blast. Allison guessed that the renegades had upgraded the sensors on their mobile suits to improve their effective range and resolution; she had done a textbook job of sighting in on her target, so to her that was the only thing that could explain how her shot had been dodged.

Damn it, she thought, I can't miss again!

She didn't have time to worry about her failure; the rest of the mobile suits had opened fire mere moments after she had. Space lit up with a lethal light show of particle beams, missiles, and explosions from the inevitable impacts. Allison went into a wild series of evasive maneuvers to keep from getting hit, and whether it was by luck or skill she managed to survive the opening barrage. Others were not so fortunate; Allison could see strings of small explosions going through the ranks of both sides.

Then the capital ships on both sides made their first salvos. Now the beams and missiles crisscrossing space were on a larger scale, and any mobile suits unfortunate enough to get in their way were ripped apart regardless of allegiance. The battle for the fate of the world was now truly underway, and Allison had found herself caught right in the center of it. It would be nothing short of a miracle if she survived it.

She shook her head and focused on acquiring her next target. It didn't take long; there were plenty of the modified GINNs flying around to choose from. She saw one heading right for her flight lead, and she opened fire with her heavy rifle almost on instinct alone. This time her shot found its mark, and the GINN was blown apart.

"Nice save, Allison!" said Hall as he shot down another GINN with his beam rifle.

Allison nodded and smiled. "Anytime, sir!"

She didn't have time to celebrate; with the enemy upon them, a second's distraction could very easily mean death. Allison focused on trying to maintain some distance between herself and the renegades, continuing to provide long-range support while her comrades engaged the enemy at mid and close-range. It was much harder to do than it sounded; the modified GINNs were swift despite being older models, and their pilots were handling them with considerable skill.

Allison fired two more blasts with her rifle, but both shots failed to find their mark. All they seemed to do was draw the attention of other modified GINNs towards her, and she found herself frantically trying to either evade their shots or block them on her ZAKU's shield. One looked like it was about to get into beam saber range of her when it was shredded by a hail of small emerald particle beams.

A male voice came over her squad's tactical channel. "You okay, Allison?"

She nodded. "Thanks, Tom!"

"You got it," replied the pilot of the Slash ZAKU that had just bailed her out.

Relief turned to fear as she saw two more modified GINNs quickly approaching her comrade. "Tom, look out!"

She trained her rifle on the lead machine and fired. The enemy machine managed to evade the shot, but it did give her teammate a chance to ready himself for the new foes. Tom cut loose with his beam gatlings, and more tiny emerald particle beams filled the space between him and the modified GINNs. However, like Allison before him, Tom's shots did not find their mark; the two enemy mobile suits had immediately split up and were coming at him in a pincer attack.

Tom faced one of the mobile suits head on while Allison took a shot at the second machine. This time Allison's crimson blast of energy hit its target dead center and the modified GINN was blown apart. However, Tom did not fare so well against his foe. He took a swing with his beam axe, but the pilot of the modified GINN expertly blocked the attack before swiftly pulling back and then nailing the Slash ZAKU Warrior in the cockpit with a quick beam carbine shot.

Allison's eyes widened in shock and horror as her comrade's mobile suit exploded. "No! Tom!"

The modified GINN then turned on her, but before it could make a move another green ZAKU Warrior, this one with a Blaze pack, hacked into it from behind with its beam tomahawk and ripped it apart.

"Allison, focus!" came the male voice of another one of her teammates; the pilot of the Blaze ZAKU that had just helped her.

She nodded. "Right. Thanks, Fred."

Allison's team wasn't the only one that had taken losses. The renegades were proving more than capable of being a threat despite their outdated mobile suits and warships. Across the battlefield Allison saw ZAFT mobile suits go down, and while the renegades were taking casualties as well she was well aware that if this became a battle of attrition then it would favor the enemy.

We can't let them win, she thought as she took another shot with her heavy rifle, only for the targeted GINN to dodge the blast, No matter what happens, we can't let them drop that colony!

That was easier said than done. The ZAKU teams were still pressing forward, but Allison realized with growing alarm that the attack was already beginning to stall. The renegades had managed to force ZAFT's front formations to break up as a vicious mobile suit brawl continued to unfold, draining Task Force Aurora of its forward momentum. Allison noticed that the frigate screen had pulled back slightly, but that was an organized tactical move designed to maintain a defense of the ruins rather than the first sign of a retreat.

The mobile suits weren't the only units taking losses; Allison cringed as she saw ZAFT's first capital ship casualty of the fight, a destroyer, succumb to a concentrated barrage of heavy particle beams. The renegades lost a frigate mere seconds later, but seeing as they still held the numerical advantage it was a loss that they could afford.

"Damn it," she hissed, "We have to turn this around!"

Determined to turn words into action, Allison cut loose again with her rifle. The crimson blast of energy found its mark, obliterating another GINN. She didn't have time to celebrate her kill, though; another GINN was rapidly closing in on her. Knowing that she'd never be able to draw a bead on it in time, Allison readied her beam tomahawk instead.

She caught the enemy's beam saber on her melee weapon and deflected the blow. Following her training, she then hit her thrusters and slammed into the GINN shield-first in a textbook charge. The impact knocked her foe back, and Allison quickly followed up by hacking into the GINN's torso with her beam tomahawk.

"One less to worry about," she said as the machine exploded.

There were plenty more to go, though. Three more GINNs rushed in, and Allison found herself rapidly falling back, firing as she went. The crimson beam from her rifle caused the enemy trio to scatter, but that only bought her a second as her adversaries were now coming in from different vectors.

An emerald beam caught one of the GINNs in the back, and Allison saw that it was Fred's Blaze ZAKU that had fired the shot. Emboldened, Allison took another shot of her own, but she failed to hit either of the other two GINNs. Both of them were now moving in on Fred, and before Allison could do anything about it the two mobile suits fired in unison and turned her comrade into a fireball.

"No!" she screamed, "Fred!"

Both GINNs had already turned away from the exploding GINN and were coming back at her. Acting on instinct, Allison pulled the trigger again, and this time her shot caught one of the GINNs head on and destroyed it. The second one had its rifle aimed square at her, but before it could fire a green Blaze ZAKU Phantom slammed into it shield-first before cutting it down with its beam tomahawk.

"Keep it together, Allison," said Hall grimly, "There'll be plenty more death before today is done."

Allison nodded somberly. "Understood, sir."

There was enough death to go around as it was. The clash between the ZAFT mobile suits and those of the renegades was bogging down in a brutal brawl, and Allison knew that her team was far from the only one to have taken casualties. ZAKUs and GINNs raced across space, tearing into each other with particle beams, energy sabers, and missiles. So far the loss ratio appeared to be even, but that meant that the battle was still one of attrition, and that was a contest that Allison knew her side just could not afford. ZAFT appeared to have lost its forward momentum; the renegades were not yielding any ground. Their defense of the falling ruins was fanatical, and Allison was appalled that they seemed so eager to give their lives in the name of genocide.

Is this how they fought in the last war?, she thought, This is the enemy my brother died fighting against? They're completely insane!

During the war all the news networks had always played up the zealous hatred that Blue Cosmos had for Coordinators. Patrick Zala's propaganda machine had gone into overdrive to not only emphasize the threat they posed, but to associate them with the rest of the Natural population as well even though any sane person could tell that Blue Cosmos was a minority. A very extreme and very vocal minority, but a minority nonetheless. Allison had to wonder how the Naturals would view her own people once they learned that a minority group of Coordinators were once again trying to wipe them out; Patrick Zala had given them enough of a bad reputation as it was, and that wasn't counting the stigma that some already had towards them with regards to how they were born in the first place.

"Damn it," her flight lead said over the tactical channel, "We've got to regain the momentum! Allison, stick with me!"

Allison nodded. "Right behind you, sir!"

The two of them moved forward, with the other two survivors of their team quickly joining up with them. Reformed, Allison's team opened up in a coordinated barrage, and four modified GINNs fell to their fire. The enemy didn't take the fire lying down though; a counterattack took out the last Slash ZAKU on Allison's team.

Damn it!, she thought as she took particle beams on her shield, Not Andre too!

Now her team was down to half strength, and it was making no further headway. Quickly glancing at her sensors, Allison saw that the rest of the ZAFT mobile suit squadrons were still bogged down as well. All the while the ruins of Junius Seven continued down their inexorable path to Earth, a looming reminder in the background of the battle of what the cost of failure would be.

Like the mobile suits that they had launched, the capital ships of both sides continued to trade fire as well. Their salvos of particle beams, railgun slugs, and missiles lit up space in a lethal pyrotechnic display, ripping apart any mobile suit unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire. Losses remained attritional here as well; the renegades had lost two more frigates in exchange for the same amount of ZAFT destroyers, and other warships on both sides were sporting varying degrees of damage.

We need help!, thought Allison, Commander Roussin's frontal assault isn't working! Where's the Minerva?

If they were going to continue to attack the enemy head on like this, only something truly game-changing like ZAFT's newest battleship would be able to punch through the renegades' lines. Allison might not be assigned to the Minerva, but every member of the fleet had studied the new warship when her schematics had been released to the rank and file. Less information had been released about its mobile suits, and if rumor was to be believed then two of them had been destroyed during the fighting at Armory One, but even then the sophisticated ship and its machines would go a long way towards turning the tide right now. Allison mentally cursed Commander Roussin for launching his assault before the Minerva had joined Task Force Aurora. Yes, she understood full well that they were on a time crunch for this mission and that the stakes were phenomenally high, but surely remaining on standby until the Minerva had rendezvoused with the rest of the task force wouldn't have cost them too much.

Allison shook her head. It was too late to worry about that now. All she could do was fight to the best of her abilities and hope that the reinforcements they needed would arrive before it was too late.

She pushed forward with her two comrades but quickly ran into fierce opposition. Multiple GINNs fell upon them, unleashing a rain of fire with their beam carbines. Allison's team was immediately put on the defensive; it was all they could do at this point to simply stay alive. She cut loose with her heavy rifle, but there was no time for her to properly line up her shots, and all her blasts of crimson energy did was force the enemy to briefly go evasive before lining up for another shot at her. The same went for her comrades, and she saw that even her flight lead was struggling against the onslaught. If this kept up then eventually the renegades would begin to punch through ZAFT's forward assault squadrons, and then they would be able to attack the teams carrying the drills. The battle was only minutes old, but already the tide seemed to be in favor of the enemy.

Start "Ambiguous"

Suddenly a male voice came across Task Force Aurora's tactical channel. "ZAFT squadrons, clear this lane now!"

Before Allison could wonder who the speaker was she heard a beeping coming from her sensor board. Checking the display, she saw a broad red line suddenly running across it. Acting on instinct, she quickly moved to make sure that she wasn't in the lane, and the rest of her comrades did the same.

She was still wondering what was going on when a massive blast of golden-yellow hellfire ripped across that very firing lane and tore into the renegades' formations. At least seven modified GINNs were blown apart, and the blast didn't stop there; it slammed into a Laurasia-class frigate and turned it into a fireball.

Allison's eyes widened in shock. Only one weapon in the entire Earth Sphere generated that kind of blast.

No way, she thought, It can't be…

She frantically scanned her display and quickly found the source of the blast. The entire battlefield seemed to freeze with that one shot, and Allison knew full well why. A blast like that hadn't been seen for over two years.

"Impossible…" she whispered.

Rumors had been circulating throughout the fleet that it had returned, and that it was more powerful than ever. Allison had never put much stock in rumors; all too often they were as far from the truth as possible.

But this time they were dead on.

It may have been upgraded, but even with its four white wings the mobile suit could not be mistaken for anything other than what it truly was.

Wing Zero.

The Demon Lord of Avalon had taken the field…

…and he was not alone.

Four new mobile suits were flying right behind him, units unlike any that Allison had ever seen before. There was a black machine that might as well have been a mechanical Grim Reaper, complete with a wicked-looking emerald beam scythe. There was a dark blue mobile suit that looked like nothing less than a flying artillery battery, and Allison could only imagine what it would be like to get caught on the wrong end of its fearsome array of weaponry. There was a machine that looked like it would be more at home in the desert with its tan shroud and curved metal blades, but the way it was flying made it clear that its pilot was certainly not out of their element in outer space. Last but certainly not least was a green mobile suit with a blazing double-ended beam trident and two strange dragon-like devices mounted at the end of its arms, clearly another close-combat oriented unit. The group of five unique machines was coming in fast, and they were heading right for the center of the renegades' line.

As the five mobile suits flew through ZAFT's ranks the voice of Heero Yuy came over the radio again. "We'll punch through their lines. Task Force Aurora, once we've cleared you a hole get the drill teams inside!"

It didn't take Commander Roussin long to reply. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Your only hope at success," the legendary pilot replied curtly, "Heero Yuy, out."

The Demon Lord of Avalon apparently didn't feel like waiting for the ZAFT commander to respond. The upgraded Wing Zero and the other four mobile suits continued to move forward, and this time when the famous machine engaged the renegades it was joined by its four companions. Allison watched in awe as Heero Yuy opened up with his mobile suit's hip-mounted rail guns and shoulder-mounted machine cannons, ripping four modified GINNs to shreds. The black mobile suit rushed into a trio of GINNs and took them all down with a broad slash from its beam scythe. The unit with the twin curved blades had moved to the front as well and proceeded to carve up two more GINNs in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile the blue unit with all the artillery cut loose with a hail of bullets and a stream of yellow particle beams, blowing apart five mobile suits in rapid succession. Not to be left out, the emerald machine rushed forward at lightning speed, and with its whirling beam trident tore apart three GINNs before demolishing two more with the dragon-like devices at the end of its arms.

"Sir?" said Allison nervously, "What do we do?"

Her flight lead chuckled. "I don't know what Commander Roussin's thinking of, but I know what we need to do in order to win here. How do you feel about backing up a living legend, Allison?"

Allison smiled. "Sounds good to me."

"How about you, Sergei?" Hall asked their surviving teammate.

"I'm game," the pilot of the Blaze ZAKU replied in his deep bass tone, "Always wanted to see what all the fuss was about with this guy."

"Agreed," said Hall, "All right, you two. I'll take point. Let's move!"

"Got it!" Allison and Sergei replied together.

As her team began to move forward Allison saw that it wasn't the only one; other forward assault teams had apparently decided not to wait for Commander Roussin's instructions. They were regrouping and redoubling their attacks, fighting with a new sense of energy and vigor that they didn't have earlier, and Allison knew exactly what the source of it was.

As the new tip of the spear, Allison saw Wing Zero once again open up with its unholy rifle. The bane of Avalon and GENESIS cut loose with a fearsome blast of golden-yellow hellfire that utterly obliterated six GINNs before annihilating a frigate. Two GINNs actually managed to open fire on Wing Zero, but their shots didn't come anywhere close to their target. Propelled by waves of azure light and blue fire emanating from its four white wings, the famous mobile suit easily evaded the shots as it closed the distance with the two machines that had fired them. In the blink of an eye and a flash of emerald light the unit's beam saber had sliced both GINNs in half.

Keeping pace with the Demon Lord of Avalon, the other four unique mobile suits were no less lethal as they carved a swath of destruction through the ranks of the renegades. Allison watched as the black machine brought its beam scythe down in a hard chop and sliced a GINN in half vertically. With a blast from its energy cannons the blue artillery unit blew apart a GINN before shredding another with a hail of bullets from its gatlings. The unit with the twin curved blades cut down one GINN while blocking a beam saber strike from another, the blade deflecting the blow crackling with energy as it redirected the attack before countering and ripping apart the renegade mobile suit. Meanwhile, the green mobile suit had let fly with both its strange dragon weapons, and the mechanical serpents slammed into two GINNs and crushed them.

All across the battlefield Allison could see the ZAFT forces rallying. With the arrival of those five machines, Task Force Aurora had regained its momentum. Allison also saw the renegades frantically redeploying their forces, clearly trying to concentrate their might against the new arrivals.

We can do this, thought Allison as she sighted in on a target, We've got a chance now! I never thought I'd be fighting alongside the Demon Lord of Avalon, but I'm not about to complain!

Let's do this!

….

Sighting in on his next target, Heero raised the Twin Buster Rifle and pulled the trigger. A tsunami of energy ripped forth, wiping out five of the renegades' GINNs before nailing a frigate.

Six capital ships down, he thought, but thirty-four more to go. I'd really like to know how these guys got their hands on so much hardware.

That would be a matter that he'd have to discuss with Eric Bristow and Andrew Waltfeld once the fighting was done. Right now the only thing that was important was making sure that the enemy fleet was not allowed to complete their dark mission.

Fortunately the Gundam pilots were off to a good start on turning the battle around. Their entrance had bought Task Force Aurora some much needed room to regroup, especially since the bulk of the enemy forces were now reorienting themselves to face Heero and his friends. This was no surprise; if the renegades were all adherents of Patrick Zala's ideology then it stood to reason that most if not all of them had served that regime in the last war, and that they all knew exactly who Heero was and what he was capable of. Wing Zero Albion was by far the biggest threat to their plan, so they would stop at nothing to take it down.

As Heero stabbed a GINN through the cockpit with his emerald blade he saw his fellow Gundam pilots wreaking havoc of their own against the enemy. Duo had vanished from sensors a moment ago, only to reappear behind two GINNs. As his cloak deactivated he swung his beam scythe and sliced both mobile suits in half. Beam trident whirling like an emerald cyclone, Wufei mauled three mobile suits in a matter of seconds, while the incredible maneuverability provided by his upgraded engines kept him well ahead of any fire that the enemy could throw his way. Quatre had just hacked one GINN to pieces with his Heat Shotels before whirling around and splitting another one in half. Not to be left out, Trowa was filling the sky with bullets and particle beams, and a group of four modified GINNs was turned into a string of firecrackers.

Checking his sensors, Heero could see the forward mobile suit squadrons of Task Force Aurora moving to back up the Gundam pilots. They were moving faster than Heero had expected given Commander Roussin's reaction to him taking the field and issuing orders. Apparently the mobile suit team leads had decided that it was better to be proactive and support the Gundam pilots rather than wait for their Commander to give them the order, which Heero was definitely grateful for. However, it now seemed that the task force Commander had come around; the sixteen surviving destroyers and the single cruiser were moving up again, continuing to trade fire with the renegade fleet.

As long as no one shoots us in the back, Heero thought, The last thing we need right now is a two-front fight.

He got on his team's tactical channel while ripping apart a modified GINN with a quick burst from his machine cannons. "I'll stay on point. Duo, Wufei, take the left flank. Quatre, Trowa, you're on the right. Let's try to widen the path for the ZAFT squadrons."

"Copy that," said Quatre while hacking another GINN to pieces.

"Sure," said Duo as he sliced a renegade mobile suit in half, "but do you really have to put me with him?"

"What's the matter, Duo?" said Wufei with a chuckle as he impaled a GINN with his beam trident, "Afraid you can't keep up?"

"Oh, it's on, Wufei!" said Duo.

"Keep it together you two," said Trowa while pulverizing an enemy machine with his beam cannons, "We're supposed to be a team here, remember?"

"Nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, right?" said Duo.

"Whatever," said Wufei, "Just don't whine when I win."

Another flight lead might be worried about two teammates talking like that, but not Heero. Gundam pilots as a rule were independently-minded, and that did foster some competition from time to time. However, when the chips were down they were more than capable of working together even if outwardly they only seemed concerned with outperforming each other.

Heero's concern was not his friends; it was his enemies that had his attention. Wing Zero had fought against ZAFT longer than it had against the Earth Alliance, and thanks to people like Eric and Shemei Bristow Heero was well aware of the reputation he'd had with them during the Bloody Valentine War. He had repeatedly played a vital role in foiling their attempts to destroy the Archangel, had annihilated entire task forces and savaged fleets, had obliterated their most powerful battle station and had turned their secret weapon into a fireball. He had torn through the ranks of the Special Operations Squadrons, Patrick Zala's Praetorian Guard, and had defeated the best mercenaries that the radicals could recruit. It was not out of ego that Heero believed that he was the single deadliest combatant the forces loyal to Patrick Zala had faced in the conflict; it was an observation based on information gathered from ZAFT defectors both during and after the war.

If the renegades concentrate on me specifically it should make our operation easier, Heero thought, It'll give the others more room to operate, especially the drill teams. However, my very presence here could also make their defense of the ruins more fanatical. We'll just have to play it by ear.

Sighting in on his next target, Heero opened fire with the Twin Buster Rifle. The powerful blast of energy ripped through space, incinerating four modified GINNs before hitting a frigate head on and obliterating it. To his left he saw Duo and Wufei tearing into a group of renegade mobile suits. Despite their earlier banter they were working quite well together, with Duo actually closing his Active Cloak Beam Deflection Barrier and using it along with the built in Micro-Defensors to block beam fire for Wufei while Altron Custom let fly with its Dragon Fangs and crushed a pair of GINNs. Wufei then rushed forward and impaled another GINN through the cockpit, giving Duo room to reopen his cloak to improve his mobility before Deathscythe Omega charged in and took a broad swing with its beam scythe, slicing two modified GINNs in half.

To his right he saw Trowa and Quatre absolutely going to town on the enemy. Multiple panels had opened up on Heavyarms Arsenal, revealing its smaller Gatling Guns and missile launchers. Trowa unleashed a storm of bullets and missiles, wiping out no less than a dozen modified GINNs. Two renegade mobile suits tried to attack him up close, but before they could attack with their beam sabers they were intercepted by Quatre. Sandrock Saladin immediately tore into them, cutting down one GINN with a diagonal slash before stabbing the second through the cockpit.

The Gundam pilots weren't the only ones tearing into the enemy. The ZAFT mobile suits were continuing to press forward. To Heero they seemed to be fighting harder now than they had before he and his friends had taken the field. Eric Bristow and Andrew Waltfeld, to just name a few, had mentioned to Heero in the past the kind of affect he had on peoples' morale whenever he entered the battlefield, but he'd never really paid attention to it until now. However, the renegades were still very much holding their own against Task Force Aurora, and Heero knew that the ZAFT pilots would take plenty more casualties before this fierce fight was over.

Task Force Aurora's capital ships were still trading fire with the renegade frigates, but unlike the mobile suit fight the clash of warships was still very much an attritional affair. Two more renegade frigates had been destroyed by salvos from Task Force Aurora, but the ZAFT battle group had also lost two more destroyers. The renegades still had thirty-one warships to Task Force Aurora's fifteen, and Heero knew that unless he could draw more attention his way the losses among the ZAFT ships would only get worse.

They're soldiers, he thought as he cut a GINN down with his beam saber, They know what they signed up for. They know that they may have to lay down their lives in service to the PLANTs. All I can do is make sure that the ones that fall today do not die in vain.

Deflecting beam carbine fire with his energy shields, Heero quickly targeted the two GINNs that had taken the shots and took them down with a salvo from his railguns. He then took aim with the Twin Buster Rifle and opened up, taking down four more GINNs and a frigate. On his sensors he could now see a very distinct gap in the renegades' lines thanks to the shots from his rifle, and he knew what to do next.

He got on his team's tactical channel while transmitting them his data. "We've got an opening now. Let's focus on widening this gap."

"You got it," said Duo, "Let's go, Wufei!"

"Who put you in charge?" Wufei quipped, but Heero could see Altron Custom forming up with Deathscythe Omega all the same.

"Understood," said Quatre, "Trowa, cover me!"

"I've got your back," Trowa replied.

Heero switched over to Task Force Aurora's tactical channel and sent them the data he'd just given his friends. "Attention ZAFT squadrons. We're going to concentrate our efforts here. If you want your drill teams to make it to the colony then help us widen this breach in their lines."

To his surprise he actually got a response. "This is flight lead Peter Hall. We're moving in now!"

Other ZAFT team commanders sounded off as well. There was no response from the task force Commander, but given the reception Heero had gotten from the man earlier he hadn't been expecting one.

As he continued to move forward he noticed a shift in the renegades' formation. The frigates that were between him and the colony were moving into a crescent-shape, and Heero realized that they were trying to set up to hit him and the others in crossfire as they went for the gap in the lines.

Their commander's no amateur, Heero thought, but their move has limits, especially since they still have other ships positioned at different parts of the colony to hold off an attack from another angle. They're too spread out, and they're vulnerable from the Y-axis. Let's use that.

He got back on his team's channel. "Let's shift and hit the right arm of the enemy fleet. That should take the heat off the drill teams when they make their run to the ruins. Attack them from above and below."

"Copy that," said Duo.

"Understood," said Wufei.

"We're on it," said Quatre.

"Affirmative," said Trowa.

Heero took Wing Zero Albion into a climb, and he was joined by Duo and Wufei. Meanwhile, Quatre and Trowa dived as they prepared to hit the enemy from below. The affect on the renegades was immediate; the modified GINN squadrons were already moving to intercept them, and Heero noticed that more were coming towards his group than at Quatre and Trowa. The enemy capital ships were likewise splitting their fire, and again more of them were aiming at Heero's trio than at Heavyarms Arsenal and Sandrock Saladin. That was fine with Heero; as long as the frigates and mobile suits were attacking him and his friends that would give the ZAFT mobile suit squadrons a better chance to move forward and eventually break through to Junius Seven.

Duo and Wufei moved out ahead of Heero to intercept the incoming GINNs. They wasted no time in tearing into their foes. Two fell to a broad swing from Duo's beam scythe while another was impaled on Wufei's beam trident before a Dragon Fang flew forth and crushed another mobile suit. Down below he saw Quatre performing a similar role for Trowa, slicing apart two GINNs with his Heat Shotels. Using the room provided by Quatre, Trowa cut loose with his Gatling guns, beam cannons, and missile launchers, wiping out a dozen mobile suits in a hail of fire.

Now it was Heero's turn. He started with a quick and precise burst from his machine cannons, shredding a GINN. Two more mobile suits fell to a salvo from his railguns. Heero then took aim and opened fire with the Twin Buster Rifle. The blast only took out a single GINN, but that mobile suit was not his target; the frigate that the shot subsequently annihilated was.

A beeping came from his sensors. Checking the display, Heero nodded in approval when he saw the new contacts. It was three warships coming in fast, and they were all launching mobile suits.

And the lead vessel was the Minerva.

End "Ambiguous"

….

"Captain," said Arthur, "the Tannhäuser has its target locked!"

Talia nodded. "Fire!"

A crimson blast ripped forth from the Minerva's positron cannon. The wave of energy slammed into a frigate and turned it into a fireball.

One down, thought Talia, and plenty more to go.

There were still twenty-eight renegade frigates left on the battlefield. Twenty-one of them made up the crescent-formation that was trying to catch the Gundam pilots and the mobile suit squadrons of Task Force Aurora in crossfire, while the remaining seven were still scattered around the rest of the colony to provide advance notice and to buy time in the event of attacks from other vectors. The main body of Task Force Aurora, on the other hand, had been reduced to thirteen Nazca-class destroyers and the Hel-class cruiser Freya. Talia knew that the arrival of the Minerva with two additional destroyers in tow would immensely help the situation, but as she checked the data on her personal monitor she noticed that almost all the warships of the battle group's main body, including the Freya, had suffered varying degrees of damage. Even with her battleship, the other two destroyers, and their mobile suits now on the scene, ZAFT still faced an uphill battle.

She hoped that the new mobile suits racing into the fight would be up to the challenge. Shinn was using Force Impulse for this sortie; Talia had judged that its maneuverability and versatility would be valuable assets for this battle. Lunamaria was once again using the Gunner pack for her ZAKU Warrior, while Athrun had a Blaze pack for his and Rey had the same mounted on his ZAKU Phantom. The mobile suits launched from the two destroyers were a mixed bag. One ship had carried only GuAIZ Rs, while the other had a ZAKU Phantom and five ZAKU Warriors, with four of the latter using Blaze packs and one with a Gunner pack while the former had a Slash pack. It was a formidable fighting force, but Talia knew that the pilots from the two destroyers were all green, and her own subordinates only had two battles under their belt, and neither of them were anywhere near the scale of this clash.

Be careful, all of you, she thought, Don't underestimate the enemy just because they're using older units. These are people who were willing to fight and die for the monstrous ideals of Patrick Zala. They survived the hell of the last war; their experience and fanaticism will more than make up for any technological gap.

Looking over at the chair occupied by Lady Cagalli, she saw her staring intently at the battle unfolding on the main monitor. She was quite tense in her chair, and with the way she was braced Talia could tell that it was taking all of her self-control to remain where she was and keep her composure. Talia recalled that Lady Cagalli had actually fought on the front lines during the last war as a mobile suit pilot; doubtlessly she wished to be out there now rather than the bridge of the Minerva. Talia though that it was quite irresponsible for a nation's leader to be anywhere near a battle, but she still admired Lady Cagalli's bravery and commitment.

Towards the back of the bridge, Talia saw Marilyn Peterson studying the battle as well. For a civilian she was proving to have a remarkable tolerance for battle. She looked quite calm as she watched the fighting on the main monitor, and if she was at all concerned about the potential risk she faced being on the bridge of a warship flying into the clash she did not show it. That sort of nerve did not come from nowhere, but now was hardly the time for Talia to speculate on where the independent journalist had acquired it from.

Turning back towards the fight, Talia watched as Heero Yuy and the other Gundam pilots did what they did best; wreak utter havoc against the enemy. They were concentrating their efforts on the right wing of the renegades' formation, and judging from the amount of fire the enemy was pouring at them Talia knew that they were the only reason that Task Force Aurora wasn't on the verge of annihilation.

As impressive as always, Heero Yuy, she thought, Thanks to you, Operation Redemption still has a chance at success.

There was still time to get the drill teams through the gauntlet, but ZAFT would have to act quickly. The Minerva needed to wade into the thick of the fighting and draw sufficient enemy fire to keep the renegades from plugging the gap in their lines that had been opened by the Gundam pilots.

"Helm," she said, "all forward! Weapons, target the closest enemy warships and fire at will!"

Here we go…

….

"Listen up," said Athrun as he and the Minerva's pilots rushed to join the battle, "Our top priority here is to secure the breach in the enemy's lines for the drill teams and then make sure they're able to position and activate their equipment. To do that we need to get to the front of the pack and do some damage. The Gundam pilots have already made the breach in the renegades' ranks; let's make sure it stays open."

"Copy that," said Rey.

"Affirmative," said Lunamaria.

"How do you want to do this?" asked Shinn.

"Rey, Shinn, and I will be the spearhead," Athrun replied, "Lunamaria, we'll be counting on you for heavy fire support."

"I won't let you down!" said Lunamaria.

"Shinn, you're point," said Athrun, "I'll cover your left flank. Rey, take the right. Lunamaria will stay behind us."

Athrun honestly would've preferred to take point himself, but Shinn's mobile suit with the Force Silhouette pack was the fastest unit in their group. When that factor was combined with the Impulse's Variable Phase Shift Armor it made sense for that unit to take point even if Athrun had far greater skill and combat experience.

For his part, Shinn seemed all too psyched up at being made the tip of the spear. "Got it! Let's take these guys down!"

Force Impulse rocketed to the head of the pack, and Athrun and the others were hard pressed to keep pace. Renegade mobile suits were already moving to intercept them.

"Engage at will!" Athrun ordered.

Shinn was the first to attack. Opening fire with his beam rifle, he picked off a GINN before rushing in to clash beam sabers with another. Rey and Athrun likewise opened up with their guns and took out targets of their own while Lunamaria cut loose with her heavy rifle and destroyed another mobile suit.

More units were coming in fast, and Athrun braced himself for close-quarters-combat. Raising his beam tomahawk, he blocked a saber strike from a GINN before retaliating with a swift chop to the enemy's cockpit. Up ahead he saw Shinn deflect an enemy's saber strike on his shield before cutting the GINN that had attacked him in half. Rey and Lunamaria were still managing to keep their foes at long range though, and were letting loose with a near constant stream of fire from their rifles.

They've improved since the last fight, he thought, I just hope that they can keep this up.

Athrun was just relieved that they were only drawing a small part of the enemy's attention. Heero and the other Gundam pilots were up at the front of the fight, and the renegades were clearly doing everything they could to try to take them down. So far all they seemed to be getting for their efforts was a lot of destroyed GINNs. Task Force Aurora was taking full advantage of that as they continued their drive towards the gap in the renegades' lines, and if things kept going at this rate Athrun was sure that the drill teams would make it to the ruins with time to spare.

Seeing those ruins floating in the background, slowly descending towards Earth, threatened to make Athrun's blood boil. This wasn't the bulky scrap of a decommissioned colony that the renegades had turned into a weapon of mass destruction. This was a mass grave for nearly a quarter of a million people, including his mother. That fellow Coordinators, of all people, would repurpose such hallowed ground as a tool of murder on such a titanic scale was beyond the pale.

These people…, thought Athrun, They all believe in father's madness? They really think that this is justified?

Were these renegades the ghosts of the last war? Was this the legacy his father had left to him; to be the one to confront his followers and send them to follow their late master to the grave? Was this how his family name would be used from now on, as a banner for those consumed by the call of vengeance and Coordinator supremacy?

Would Athrun Zala spend the rest of his life trying to combat the sins of his father?

He shook his head. Now was not the time to be thinking like that. If he didn't stop the renegades here and now then mankind on Earth would be paying for his father's legacy in a way that Athrun could never atone for.

"Go to hell!" he growled as he hacked into a GINN with his beam tomahawk, "Go to hell and take my father's ghost with you!"

He pressed his assault against the renegades, fighting much more aggressively than he had been mere seconds ago. A small part of his mind told him that he needed to let up just a little bit, to cool down and fight rationally, but right now he would have none of it. He was dead set on racing to the front of battlefield and making the renegades pay for repurposing his mother's grave as a makeshift meteor.

A trio of GINNs rushed in to take him down, only to be wiped out by the flurry of missiles Athrun unleashed from the Blaze pack's launchers. Beam fire from his rifle scattered more machines, making them easier targets for Rey and Lunamaria. Athrun was now moving forward so quickly that he was now even with Shinn despite the Force Impulse being the faster unit; he was forgetting that his role in this fight was supposed to be to cover the ZAFT pilot's flank.

If Shinn had noticed that his wingman was moving to supplant him at the front he apparently didn't care. The ZAFT pilot had his hands full carving himself a path through the renegades' ranks. For a new pilot fighting against veteran foes, Shinn was doing quite well for himself. It was hard to say how much of that was due to his advanced mobile suit and how much was because of his apparently natural talent. Had Athrun been a little calmer he would've been able to appreciate Shinn's excellent use of both his beam saber and rifle as he took down one renegade mobile suit after another. Rey and Lunamaria were helping considerably by keeping the enemy off his back, but there was no denying that Shinn was definitely holding his own and certainly proving that he had talent worthy of a ZAFT Red.

The front of the fight got closer every second as the four pilots powered their way through the enemy mobile suits. No ZAFT team on the field could match Athrun and the three pilots with him for effectiveness despite the fact that Athrun was paying less attention to working with his comrades than he should be. The only group of mobile suits that was doing better than them was Heero's team, and Athrun wasn't particularly concerned about failing to clear the bar set by them.

The mobile suits may have been pressing forward, but the capital ship fight was still a brutal slog. The arrival of the Minerva and the two destroyers accompanying her was a much needed boost for Task Force Aurora, but their progress was still much slower than those of the mobile suit squadrons. Streams of heavy particle beams, railgun rounds, and missiles continued to crisscross the space between the two forces. Another Nazca-class destroyer from the main body of Task Force Aurora succumbed to enemy fire, leaving twelve of those ships left not counting the two that were with the Minerva. The Hel-class cruiser Freya was still in the fight, but like the other surviving vessels in the main body the flagship was sporting its share of battle damage.

The renegades had lost another frigate in exchange for taking down the ZAFT destroyer, but with twenty-seven ships still left in the fight they remained in a better position than Task Force Aurora. Their modified GINNs may have been dropping like flies against the Gundam pilots and Athrun's group, but they were still making the main ZAFT squadrons pay for every bit of ground that they gained.

All this death, he thought as he shot down another GINN, All this destruction… and all in the name of my father. This has to stop!

"Athrun," said Rey, "you need to slow down!"

"You're too far forward!" cried Lunamaria, "I can't cover you!"

Athrun was surprised to realize that they were right. Shinn had slowed down to avoid leaving his teammates behind, but Athrun had continued to power forward in stubborn determination. Now it was costing him; a group of GINNs was about to surround him, and Athrun's teammates were racing to catch up to him before it was too late.

Suddenly two railgun rounds came flying in from out of nowhere, and a pair of GINNs went down. As Athrun took out another GINN with his beam rifle he saw one more fall to a quick burst of machine cannon fire. It didn't take long to find the source; it was Wing Zero Albion.

The helmeted face of Heero Yuy appeared in the upper right corner of his monitor. "You're not flying the Justice, Athrun. Stop acting like it."

"Heero!" he said, "Why'd you come back here?"

"Because I saw you flying like you're trying to end this whole battle by yourself," he replied as he cut down a GINN with his emerald blade, "You can't do that here, Athrun. You're going to get yourself killed."

"These people are fighting here because of my father!" he shouted as he hacked into a GINN with his beam tomahawk, "It's my responsibility to stop them!"

"Will that be any comfort to Cagalli when you go down in flames in the attempt?" asked Heero pointedly as he deflected beam fire with his energy shields, "Somehow I doubt that. She lost her father two years ago, Athrun. Don't make her suffer the pain of losing you, too."

Athrun was ashamed that he hadn't considered that earlier. "Damn it. I… I just want to stop this, Heero!"

"So do the rest of us," Heero replied, "and we will. We defeated Patrick Zala at Jachin Due two years ago, and we'll defeat his phantoms today."

"But we're going too slow!" said Athrun as he dodged beam fire, "We have to pick up the pace!"

"And we will," said Heero calmly while blocking more particle beams with his shields, "Check your sensors, Athrun; the cavalry just showed up."

Start "Realize"

Athrun was about to do that when two pillars of crimson light came out of nowhere and slammed into a frigate on the renegades' left wing, turning the ship into a fireball. It only took him a moment to find the source of the shot. Even with its upgrades, the incoming battleship was unmistakable. The large central fuselage, the two 'legs' at the bow, the upraised bridge, the stabilizer wings running underneath, the vertical U-shaped fins behind the command tower, the heavy missile launchers protruding from the rear… everything about that ship was absolutely iconic.

It was the Archangel.

….

"Direct hit with the Lohengrins!" said Lieutenant Kimi Tsukino, the raven-haired Executive Officer of the Archangel, "First target's destroyed!"

Murrue nodded. Observing the results on the main monitor from her perch in the Captain's chair, she knew that they had no time to pat themselves on the back.

"Commence follow-up barrage on the second target!" she ordered, "Gottfrieds, Valiants; open fire!"

The large beam cannons mounted on the ship's 'knees' and the two heavy linear cannons mounted towards the rear of the vessel cut loose. The precise salvo of emerald particle beams and golden slugs nailed their target dead center; the bridge of a frigate was blown apart, along with most of the front of the ship.

That's two more down, she thought, and twenty-five ships to go, not to mention their mobile suits. We've still got a long road ahead of us before this battle is won.

Fortunately Murrue was confident that her battleship had the power needed to help get them through the fight. The iconic white vessel retained its formidable array of Lohengrin positron blaster cannons, Gottfried heavy beam cannons, Valiant linear cannons, light and heavy anti-air and anti-ship missile launchers, and Igelstellung CIWS, along with its incredibly tough laminated armor, powerful engines, sophisticated communications array, anti-beam depth charges, and the advanced targeting system developed for it by Heero and Shemei during the last war. However, several major modifications and upgrades had also been made to the battleship that took her into a whole new level of lethality, thanks to the combined efforts of Erica Simmons, Heero Yuy, and Eric Bristow.

The ship's engines and power generators had been completely overhauled. Now the Archangel was powered by a brand new and highly sophisticated nuclear reactor, with no less than four N-Jammer Cancellers to ensure that it could function regardless of countermeasures deployed by ZAFT. The battleship could now reach speeds rivaling that of the swift Nazca-class destroyer, and the increased power from the reactor also meant more juice for the beefed up weapons array. The warship's superstructure had been strengthened and could now withstand even more punishment than it had previously been capable of taking, and that upgrade played a key role in another modification; the Archangel was now capable of travelling not just in space and on Earth, but also underwater.

The amount of Igelstellung 75mm automatic multi-barrel CIWS had been increased from 16 to twenty, tightening the ship's anti-air screen. At the very bottom of each of the two bow 'legs', just below the Lohengrin positron blaster cannons, were mounted two Mk. 56 torpedo launchers for underwater warfare. The Lohengrins themselves had been upgraded; they could now fire 'cleanly', avoiding the environmental radiation damage that was a side effect of the cannons during the last war. Mounted at the ends of the stabilizer wings running beneath the vessel were two turrets, each equipped with an MMI-M15 Xiphias rail cannon, the same type found on the ZGMF-X10A Freedom, which could be used both in normal combat and underwater, much like the heavier Valiant guns. As impressive as these improvements in the Archangel's armaments were, though, they all paled in comparison to the crown jewel of her weapons upgrades.

Set upon the central hull, in front of the bridge and between the two Gottfried heavy beam cannons, was the most powerful weapon to ever be mounted on a Cosmic Era warship. Anchored in a turret mount that allowed for a degree of elevation and rotation was a large, dark grey cannon. Its main barrel was a utilitarian rectangle, but towards the end of the weapon it opened up like a tuning fork. This weapon, called the Buster Cannon, was one of the most carefully guarded secrets of Terminal, and one that would finally be revealed in all its fearsome glory if today's operation went according to plan.

From the communications station, Flay Allster turned to Murrue. "Captain, Heero's on the line!"

He didn't waste any time, thought Murrue with a smile, That's so like him.

"Put him through," she ordered.

Her boyfriend appeared on the main monitor with a small smirk on his face. "Nice entrance."

Murrue chuckled. "I aim to please."

"Your timing's perfect," said Heero, "With your firepower we can provide the cover the ZAFT teams need to get to the surface of the ruins. Where's Natarle?"

Murrue smirked. "She's coming from the opposite side of the colony. I thought a strike at their flank would work for this situation."

Heero nodded. "I like it. Can you keep the heat up on the left wing of their forward force?"

"You know I can, Heero," Murrue replied, "If the renegades think the upgraded Archangel is bad enough, wait until they see the mobile suits we've got. They won't know what hit them."

"Agreed," said Heero, "Let's get to it."

Murrue nodded. "Be careful, Heero."

"You too," said Heero, "Zero, out."

As Heero disappeared from the screen Murrue turned towards Lacus, who was fulfilling Miriallia's duties as the ship's mobile suit flight coordinator in the latter's absence. Murrue had been worried about whether or not the pink-haired songstress could handle such responsibilities in combat, but Andrew Waltfeld had assured her that Lacus would be up to it.

"Get our pilots out there!" Murrue ordered, "The Waltfelds will act as our escort; the rest will attack the left arm of the enemy fleet!"

Lacus nodded. "Right away, Murrue!"

All right, she thought, Let's get to work!

….

Sitting in the ZGMF-X10A Freedom's cockpit wearing his white and blue flight suit, Kira saw the Archangel's bow doors open up in front of him. Even from his position on the ship's starboard linear catapult he could see the rippling explosions and the crisscrossing fire of the ongoing battle, and he knew that he had to get out there as quickly as possible to help put an end to this insanity. He powered up his Phase Shift Armor, and although he could not see the outside of his mobile suit he knew that the Freedom was changing from dull gray to white, black, and blue.

In the top right corner of his main monitor he saw Lacus appear. "Kira, are you ready?"

Kira nodded. "I am. Let's do this!"

"All right," said Lacus, "You're clear to launch!"

Kira braced himself as he saw the signal lights for the linear catapult shift from red to green. "Kira Yamato, launching!"

The Freedom shot out of the starboard leg of the Archangel, and it was not the only mobile suit taking flight. From the left catapult flew a new model mobile suit, one of the many fruits of the collaboration between Heero Yuy and Erica Simmons over the past two years.

It was a crimson machine with a single green sensor 'eye' in its head. Unlike the Freedom, this mobile suit's armor was Gundanium alloy. Mounted on its shoulders and back were ten black disk-like devices; the shield drones known as Planet Defensors. Embedded in its head were two Igelstellung 75mm CIWS. In its right hand it held a circular shield, and from the emitter in the center of disk a yellow beam saber flared to life. Its left hand held an Orb Type 71beam rifle. The mobile suit's thrusters had been upgraded from the original model that it was based on, and it was capable of not only space combat but also full flight in Earth's atmosphere. While this unit's predecessor had been designed primarily as a defensive mobile suit, this new incarnation was considerably more versatile. It bore the numerical designation OZ-13MSX2R, and it went by the name Mercurius Kai.

Kira got on the tactical channel that Terminal's mobile suits would be operating on to contact the machine's pilot. "Yzak, are you ready?"

Yzak Joule appeared on his screen. Even through his black helmet's visor his silver hair and blue eyes were clearly visible. The scar Kira had given him in the last war was gone; the nineteen year old had it surgically removed as a sign that he'd gotten over the grudge he used to bear towards Kira back when the young man had flown the Strike against him.

His old enemy-turned-friend nodded. "Go on ahead, Kira. I'll wait for Dearka to launch and then we'll catch up with you."

"All right," said Kira, gunning his engines.

Even as he moved forward he kept one of his displays focused on the Archangel, and it wasn't long at all before two more mobile suits flew from the battleship's linear catapults. From the left catapult flew a yellow, black, and red mobile suit; an Orb MVF-M11C Murasame piloted by none other than the Desert Tiger and pained in his colors. From the right catapult flew a unique blue mobile suit piloted by Dearka Elsman that, much like the Mercurius Kai, was another fruit of the design collaboration between Heero Yuy and Erica Simmons; the OZ-13MSX1R Vayeate Kai.

Andrew Waltfeld's mobile suit was an evolution of both Orb's first mass production mobile suit, the M1 Astray, and another design provided to Morgenroete by Heero during the last war; the OZ-12SMS Taurus. The primary contribution from the latter was the Murasame's ability to transform into jet fighter-like mobile armor. That was a configuration that primarily saw use in atmospheric combat, and could utilize four wing-mounted M2M5D 12.5mm CIWS, a Type 72 High-energy Beam Cannon mounted in the tail stabilizer, and four Type 66A Hayate air-to-air missiles mounted in the unit's front skirt. In space and in most combat situations on Earth the machine operated in its mobile suit form, which was also capable of full atmospheric flight, although the mobile armor form was faster. The mobile suit form was armed with two head mounted M2M5D 12.5mm CIWS, a Type 70J Kai Beam Saber, a Type 72 Kai Ikazuchi Beam rifle, and a shield mounted on the left forearm. The shield also served as the nose unit of the mobile armor form, and if it was damaged or destroyed the mobile suit could not transform.

Meanwhile, the Vayeate Kai was a one-of-a-kind heavy assault mobile suit with considerably greater firepower than its predecessor from Heero's old world. Like the original unit it was constructed from Gundanium alloy, and its primary weapon, the heavy Beam Cannon, was roughly equal in firepower to that of the original Wing Gundam's Buster Rifle. The mobile suit's combat capabilities had been considerably expanded though, with two head mounted Igelstellung 75mm CIWS and two hip mounted MMI-M15 Xiphias rail cannons augmenting its primary armament. Like the Mercurius Kai, the Vayeate Kai was equipped with improved thrusters to allow for full atmospheric flight, and in the capable hands of Dearka it truly was a formidable artillery platform. The blue mobile suit was rapidly accelerating alongside its crimson partner, and Kira slowed up just a bit to allow them both to catch up to him before he engaged the renegades.

The last mobile suit to emerge from the Archangel was another MVF-M11C Murasame. This machine bore a custom black paintjob with an emerald trim; the same colors Aisha Waltfeld had used on her old GuAIZ during the last war. The Desert Tiger's lover quickly took up position with him over the Archangel, ready to intercept any mobile suit that tried to attack the white battleship.

Looking ahead, Kira saw an enemy force that was completely unprepared for what was about to hit them. A few of the renegade frigates were frantically coming about to try to get the Archangel in their sights, and Kira decided to make them his first targets. Scattered GINNs were moving to intercept them, but they hardly counted as serious opposition.

As Dearka and Yzak formed up on his flanks, Kira was already sighting in with the Freedom's formidable array of artillery. He made sure that he was transmitting his targeting data to his friends so there would be no needless overlap.

"Here we go!" said Kira as he unleashed his barrage.

A torrent of crimson plasma lances, emerald particle beams, and yellow railgun rounds ripped across the stars. The bombardment hammered a frigate, knocking out its heavy weapons.

At the same time, Yzak and Dearka also opened fire. An emerald beam from Yzak's rifle pierced a GINN and blew it apart. Dearka launched a much more powerful barrage; two railgun slugs tore through a pair of GINNs, while a blast of yellow energy from his rifle slammed into a frigate and annihilated it.

As more mobile suits rushed in, Kira ignited his violet beam saber. It wasn't long before he had to use it, and he swiftly parried a strike from a GINN before counterattacking by slicing off both its sword arm and its head. The Mercurius Kai was likewise engaging in close-quarters-combat now; Yzak had already speared a GINN on his yellow blade before utilizing his ten Planet Defensors to deflect a barrage of particle beam fire. Dearka had pulled back slightly to allow his comrades to fend off the enemy units that had closed the distance while he provided supporting fire, taking down another machine with his railguns.

"Kira!" shouted Yzak, "Look out!"

Kira's eyes widened as he saw the GINN that he had disabled earlier charging right at him, beam rifle blazing. The Freedom's pilot blocked the shots on his shield before slicing off the GINN's rifle arm. As Kira pulled away from the GINN he thought that would be the end of their little clash, but he was stunned to see the mobile suit charge again despite now having no weapons whatsoever. Kira brought his shield up, and as the GINN hit it the mobile suit exploded.

He self-destructed!, thought Kira in shock, He was willing to kill himself just for the chance to take me down!

The renegade's move was futile; the Freedom's Phase Shift Armor was more than capable of standing up to the kind of power an explosion from a self-destructing GINN could generate, and the same went for his shield. However, it was a very ominous sign of the kind of battle he was involved in now… and a dark feeling settled in his gut as he realized that he could not hold back at all here.

A trio of GINNs rapidly approached him, and Kira cut loose with the Freedom's artillery. The barrage of particle beams, plasma lances, and railgun slugs blew apart the rifles wielded by the individual units, but they kept on coming, beam sabers blazing. Putting his beam rifle away and drawing his second beam saber, Kira met the GINNs head on. With a quick slash he took away one unit's sword arm while blocking a strike from another. He quickly countered and sliced off that GINN's sword arm as well before taking away the third GINN's beam saber with a railgun shot.

All three mobile suits were now completely disabled, but just like with the previous machine their pilots did not seem to care in the least. They all charged at Kira, and he opened fire…

…this time shooting to kill.

The three GINNs were torn apart by plasma cannon and railgun fire. It was three quick kills that Kira was in no mood to celebrate, and he had a sinking feeling that they would not be his last in this fight.

It doesn't matter right now, he thought grimly, We have to stop them from dropping those ruins onto Earth, no matter what!

End "Realize"

….

"No way…" said Lunamaria softly as she evaded enemy fire, "That can't be…"

But it very much was. Not only was the Archangel now on the battlefield, but the legendary battleship had also launched its mobile suits, and those included new models and a machine familiar to any soldier in the Cosmic Era.

The Freedom's here, thought Lunamaria, I hope Shinn's okay…

Lunamaria didn't know the details, but ever since their history lessons back in the ZAFT academy she was aware that Shinn had a strong dislike of that particular stolen nuclear powered mobile suit. She'd tried to press her friend for more information, but he'd always changed the subject, and after a while Lunamaria had just given up. She assumed it had something to do with his past, particularly the Battle of Elysium, but she had no way to confirm that. Trying to figure it out now would just be a pointless distraction, and she could only hope that Shinn would be able to stay focused on the battle.

Keep it together, Shinn, she thought, I want us all to get through this mess in one piece!

Lunamaria knew that she had to do the same. Just because the Archangel had arrived and was now attacking the renegades didn't mean that she was out of the woods quite yet. She had to focus on moving forward with her friends and punching through to the ruins of Junius Seven.

The combined assault of the Gundam pilots, the Archangel, and her mobile suits had shifted the momentum of the battle back in the favor of ZAFT. Task Force Aurora was pressing forward, and the gap in the renegades' lines was growing with each passing second. The five Gundams had the renegades' right wing in complete disarray, while the Archangel and her mobile suits were hammering the left. GINNs were dropping like flies, while the amount of frigates had been reduced to twenty-four, with one of those ships mostly disabled by the Freedom. Some of the renegades' mobile suit squadrons were beginning to fall back towards the surface of the ruins; they clearly intended to make ZAFT fight to secure every inch of Junius Seven before the drill teams would be allowed to safely plant their devices.

Her eyes narrowing, Lunamaria saw a GINN rushing in to attack Shinn from behind. Raising her rifle and pulling the trigger, she took the mobile suit down with a stream of crimson energy.

"Thanks, Luna!" said Shinn as he shot down a GINN with his beam rifle.

Lunamaria nodded. "No problem. Let's keep this up!"

"Agreed," said Rey as he hacked a GINN to pieces with his beam tomahawk, "We're making good progress."

"We're almost there!" said Athrun while shooting down a GINN with his beam rifle, "We can do this!"

Athrun had pulled back from where he was earlier and was now working with Lunamaria and her friends again. The ZAFT Red was glad that Heero Yuy seemed to have talked some sense into Athrun; having him cooperating with the rest of them was really helping their progress. As for the Demon Lord of Avalon, he had already carved a fresh swath of destruction through the enemy squadrons as he had pushed back forward to join his fellow Gundam pilots.

It was one of those Gundam pilots in particular that Lunamaria would periodically glance at. Even in this rapidly shifting battle it wasn't hard for her to pick out Wufei from the others. Altron Custom was ripping through renegade mobile suits like a buzz saw. His whirling double-ended beam trident was like an emerald cyclone of death, cutting down one GINN after another while the two Dragon Fangs mercilessly crushed machines that were out of the former weapon's range. The few particle beams that looked like they might hit Wufei were blocked by his Dragon Fangs, while his mobile suit's incredibly agility easily allowed him to evade the bulk of enemy fire.

Even after seeing his skills in two prior battles, Lunamaria could not help but be in awe of his abilities. The confidence he'd displayed since coming aboard the Minerva may have gotten on her nerves, but she could not deny that he was more than capable of backing it up. A lesser person might simply chalk up his power on the battlefield to his advanced mobile suit, but Lunamaria knew that there was far more to it than that. Every move he made was with purpose; there wasn't a bit of wasted energy. He was efficient and precise, always able to spot an opening and exploit it with lightning speed. There was a very brutal sense of beauty to the way he fought, a kind of terrifying grace in how effortlessly he appeared to be absolutely mauling his opposition.

The instructors at the ZAFT academy had heaped praise on the skills of Lunamaria, Rey, and Shinn, but she knew that if they could see the sort of people that she was fighting alongside now those compliments would be going in a different direction. She'd always known that she and her friends were new to being soldiers even if they'd scored high enough to be made ZAFT Reds, but it wasn't until she'd witnesses Wufei and the other Gundam pilots on the battlefield that she'd realized just how big the gap was between her and the true aces.

If only I could be that good, she thought as she watched him slice a GINN in half, but… what's the price?

Wufei had obviously paid one big time if their conversation in the Minerva's mess was anything to go by, but it was driving Lunamaria crazy that she didn't have any idea as to the details behind it. He'd been way too cryptic about what he'd gone through, and Lunamaria was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery that was Wufei.

Of course, first she had to survive the battle she was currently fighting.

Up ahead she saw a familiar blast of golden-yellow hellfire as the Albion cut loose with its fearsome rifle. The wave of energy disintegrated two GINNs before hitting a frigate head on and turning it into a fireball. A torrent of bullets, punctuated by the occasional particle beams, was flowing from Heavyarms Arsenal, and Lunamaria saw trio of GINNs fall in the blink of an eye. Another was eviscerated by a swing from Duo Maxwell's beams scythe, while two more were hacked to pieces by Sandrock Saladin's curved blades.

A flash of crimson energy ripped forth from the Minerva's positron cannon and obliterated a renegade frigate. At the same time Lunamaria saw another renegade vessel fall to a hail of particle beams from some of the capital ships of Task Force Aurora. Now the enemy was down to twenty-two warships, and their mobile suit squadrons were continuing to suffer heavy casualties, but they were not taking the beating lying down. Task Force Aurora had lost another destroyer, leaving eleven Nazca-class ships, the cruiser Freya, and the battleship Minerva to continue the fight. Were it not for the Gundam pilots and the Archangel Lunamaria was sure that the ZAFT casualties would be even worse.

"Lunamaria!" yelled Athrun, "You've got incoming!"

"Crap!" she hissed as she saw a GINN coming in fast.

She brought up her beam tomahawk and managed to block the strike, but she was unable to effectively counterattack. Close-quarters-combat was not her specialty, and her foe was able to come back at her for another attack.

She then saw a violet beam saber spear the GINN through the back. As the mobile suit exploded she saw the Impulse behind it.

"Thanks, Shinn!" she said.

"Anytime!" he replied.

Lunamaria then raised her rifle and fired, destroying a GINN that had been attempting to attack the Impulse from the flank. She looked around for another target, but she realized that there were none around. The bulk of the remaining renegade mobile suits were falling back to the ruins of Junius Seven now, and while it would mean a hard fight on the surface it also meant that the ZAFT teams could now finally start landing on the colony.

"Check it out!" said Shinn, "They're retreating!"

"Not quite," said Lunamaria, "They're just setting up a new defense line. We've got the initiative, though."

"We've got a good opening now," said Rey, "We should get to the colony."

"He's right," said Athrun, "Come on, let's move!"

Their group of four was already close to the front of the ZAFT force, and Lunamaria saw that they had almost caught up with the Gundam pilots. She was determined to close the rest of the gap so she could fight alongside one of those mobile suits in particular.

Watch me, Wufei, she thought, Today I'll show you that I can fight on same kind of battlefield that you say you're used to. I might not be at your level yet, but I'll get there someday, and I want you to watch my journey there!

….

Even through the visor of her black helmet, the excitement on Lan Zhao's face would've been very hard to miss. Sitting in the cockpit of her ZGMF-X08A Wraith, the Chinese Coordinator was chomping at the bit to get in on the action that was playing out in front of her. It wasn't a hunger for battle that was at work here; it was her desire to finally meet the four legendary pilots that had come over from Heero's old world to the Cosmic Era.

So close, and yet so far, she thought, I know the Wraith is a perfect machine for forward recon, but still… I'm pretty sure Shemei gave me this assignment just to torture me. She can really be an evil genius when she puts her mind to it.

To be fair, Lan wasn't the only one with orders to observe the battle for now. Adaline and Priscilla were out there with her, and all three girls had their Wraiths' Mirage Colloid stealth systems activated. They had arrived a little while ago, having launched early from the Dominion, and had taken up positions on the opposite side of the ruins from where the main clash was taking place. All three young women were sending data back to the stolen battleship so that when it arrived it would be able to act immediately and effectively.

Not just the battleship, she thought, Shemei, La Flaga, the Wolf… they'll be counting on the data that we send them when they launch their mobile suits. What we're doing's important, I know, but still… damn it, I want to get in there!

She could hardly take her eyes off the five Gundams as they continued to lead the charge towards the ruins of Junius Seven. Heero Yuy was as impressive as ever, if not more so thanks to the upgrades that Wing Zero Albion had at its disposal, but Lan had seen him in action before. He wasn't exactly old news, but he was familiar, known territory, and it was the newcomers to the Cosmic Era that really had Lan hot and bothered.

It was small wonder that the colonies of Heero's old world had chosen these five young men to serve as their agents of rebellion. They were utterly dominating the renegades with their upgraded Gundams, and their skills were beyond impressive. They truly were a group of one-man-armies, the exact kind of soldiers you would want fighting for you when you were up against nothing less than the might of the world.

She'd read the dossiers provided by Heero, but she knew that he had held back on the personal details of each pilot. Lan was fine with that and respected how Heero was being mindful of his old friends' privacy, but there was still so much that she wanted to learn about them. This battle would be as good as any place to start; there was much one could discover about someone when they fought alongside them.

Deathscythe Omega, Heavyarms Arsenal, Sandrock Saladin, and Altron Custom… each Gundam was as unique as the pilot that wielded it. The mobile suits were exquisite killing machines, and Lan could hardly wait to get to know their pilots. If nothing else, the dossier photos had given her plenty to drool over.

Come on, Shemei, she thought, Hurry up and get here! We've got a front row seat to one hell of a show, but I want to get up on the stage! I'm sure Adaline and Priscilla feel the same way, and if you were here I bet you would too.

….

"Shemei," said Eric, "are you sure you're ready for this?"

Shemei sighed. "Eric, for the third time, yes, I'm ready. Come on, don't you trust me?"

Her husband nodded, though he still looked nervous. "I do, you know that. It's just… this machine… you know I don't like the system on it."

The two of them were down in the hangar, both clad in black flight suits, and were floating right in front of her mobile suit. The Dominion would be arriving at the battlefield quite soon, and her mobile suit pilots were preparing themselves for deployment.

Shemei reached out and touched his cheek. "I know, dear. You were with me every step of the way as I trained to master this mobile suit, so you know how hard it was to get a handle on this thing's system. It wasn't a picnic, but I've finally got this thing down. Eric, I need you to believe in me now. Otherwise how am I supposed to believe in myself?"

Her husband put a hand on her shoulder. "I've always believed in you, you know that. This thing just makes me… uneasy."

Shemei smiled. "Well, I can't blame you for that. Still, we both knew this day would come. It's time, Eric. Do you have my back?"

Eric smiled and kissed her. "Always, Shemei."

Shemei nodded. "Good. Let's get to it, then. I love you, Wolfie."

He chuckled at her affectionate nickname for him. "I love you too, Valkyrie."

She watched as he floated off towards his mobile suit, the black and dark blue ZGMF-600 CCM GuAIZ Werewolf he'd stolen from ZAFT during the last war. Next to his machine was Mu La Flaga's blue and white Tallgeese Kai, and the Valkyrie knew that the Hawk of Endymion was already inside that mobile suit. Those were the only other mobile suits in the hangar since the three Wraiths had already deployed, and Shemei couldn't wait to catch up to her girls.

Shemei looked up at her fearsome machine and smirked. "All right, you demon. Let's go raise some hell."

She climbed into the cockpit of her mobile suit and closed the hatch. The Valkyrie strapped herself in and powered up her machine. The main display flashed with golden light, and then a numerical designation appeared on the screen followed by a name and an ominous inscription.

OZ-13MSR

Gundam Epyon Revenant.

Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.

Ain't that the truth, she thought, but I don't plan on dying anytime soon! Come on, you mechanical devil, let's get out there and drag these sons of bitches down to hell!

….

"Well, now," said Colonel Nazara as he watched the battle continue to unfold on his screen, "That is interesting. I knew the Demon would be here, but the Archangel… that was unexpected."

Unexpected and troublesome, he thought, It was formidable enough in the last war, and it appears to have been upgraded since the final battle. Plus it has new mobile suits, along with the Freedom… the traitors have been busy. It looks like we may have to make our move ahead of schedule.

He was sitting in the cockpit of the Nosferatu, which was still in the hangar of the Girty Lue along with the rest of the warship's mobile suits. The vessel's mobile suit complement had been restocked before it had made its way undetected to the ruins of Junius Seven. Two of those new machines belonged to the Extended that had been sent over to replace those he'd lost. Their names were Dwayne and Joseph, and the Colonel wondered if these two would serve any better than their predecessors had. Their skills were promising, but then again those of the other Extended that had served on the Girty Lue had been too, and that had not been nearly enough to save them once Wing Zero and its companions had taken the field.

The two mobile suits that Dwayne and Joseph had been given were not exactly new models, but they were formidable when compared to standard mass production units. They were Strike-Avengers, mobile suits that had been developed and deployed during the last war as upgraded versions of the original Strike constructed at Heliopolis. Both would be utilizing the Sword Launcher augmentation pack, which combined anti-ship sword of the Sword Strike with the Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon of the Launcher Strike to create a configuration that could be well utilized in both close and long-range combat. When combined with the improved batteries and engines of the Strike-Avenger it made for a formidable front line unit, and the Extended's enhanced abilities would make it even deadlier, but Nazara still had his doubts.

The Sword Launcher pack's nothing more than a pale mockery of Wing Zero, he thought grimly, and one that Heero Yuy soundly defeated in the last war. The four Dagger Ls that were sent over as well aren't exactly machines that Wing Zero's had trouble with recently, either. Djibril, you didn't exactly set me up for success here… although I suppose since my mission isn't actually to fight against Wing Zero here I may still be able to accomplish our objective.

That objective was rather complicated. The idea of the mission was to perform a partial sabotage of ZAFT's Operation Redemption, disabling some of the drills in order to ensure that sufficient portions of Junius Seven were able to fall to Earth and inflict sufficient damage while at the same time preventing all-out Armageddon. LOGOS saw the colony drop as an ideal crisis, a pretext to whip up a major frenzy on Earth and start a new war against the PLANTs, but they needed Earth to be reasonably intact for both practical and sentimental reasons. The slogan of Blue Cosmos was 'For the preservation of our blue and pure world', after all, and allowing the catastrophe that would be the bulk of the ruins of Junius Seven impacting the Earth and the subsequent apocalypse was hardly in keeping with that motto. Balance and timing were the keys to success in this mission.

Based on the data that he was getting from the Girty Lue, the Colonel knew that he would have to accelerate the operation if it were still to succeed. Thanks to the combined intervention of Wing Zero's team and the traitors on the Archangel, ZAFT's Task Force Aurora was now starting the landing phase of their mission. Even with the renegades taking up positions amid the ruins they would not be able to stop ZAFT from setting up their drills, especially with Heero Yuy and his comrades running amok on the battlefield. They would need a little help, and that was what Nazara was here to provide. The irony of agents of Blue Cosmos aiding the remnants of Patrick Zala's radical faction was hardly lost on him. Such cooperation, however covert, might not sit well with some of the higher ups of LOGOS and Blue Cosmos, but Nazara wasn't particularly bothered by it. The ends justified the means, after all, and this was an ideal opportunity to spark the war that they so dearly longed for.

It was time to intervene. The Girty Lue was ideally placed to launch her operation. She was positioned on the opposite side of the ruins from where the main battle was taking place, just behind the scattered Laurasia-class frigates that the renegades had positioned there in order to fend off or at least slow down a flank attack. Of course, the fact that the Girty Lue had made it past them meant that they had already failed in that task even if they did not know it, but fortunately for them Nazara did not plan on stabbing them in the back. The Nosferatu, Gaia, Ronin, and one of the Strike-Avengers were already in position on the battleship's four mobile suit launch catapults, and the rest of the vessel's machines would be ready to follow them shortly.

There was only one problem with the plan; the launch of the mobile suits would briefly expose the Girty Lue. The Mirage Colloid would remain activated, but it would be partially disrupted when the hangar doors opened and the mobile suits took off. Not only would this result in a partial visual distortion that anyone nearby could see, but there would be a blip showing up on enemy sensors as well. It would be small, and if all nine mobile suits were able to launch quickly enough it would not be on scopes for long, but it would be there regardless, and someone in the right place at the right time could potentially take advantage of it. It was an unavoidable risk, but the odds of anyone on this chaotic battlefield actually making a strike on the Girty Lue during that small window were quite remote.

Nazara contacted the bridge. "Captain Lee, open the hatches."

"Understood," the ship's Captain replied, "Good hunting, Colonel."

Nazara didn't both to respond. His focus was solely on the main monitor as he saw the front doors begin to open up. He glanced at the launch indicator in the upper right corner, and as soon as the doors were all the way opened it switched from red to green.

"Nosferatu," said the Girty Lue's combat flight controller, "You're clear for launch!"

The Colonel nodded. "Nazara, launching!"

The Nosferatu shot out of the battleship, along with the Gaia, Ronin and one of the Strike-Avengers. As soon as he was clear of the Girty Lue Colonel Nazara banked towards the ruins of Junius Seven, and the other mobile suits quickly moved to form up with him.

Checking his sensors, the Colonel saw the nearby renegade frigates already beginning to react, but he was unconcerned. The Girty Lue only had five more mobile suits to deploy, and four of those would be coming out shortly. After they and the last machine cleared the ship the vessel would once again be fully concealed and the renegades wouldn't have a clue where to look for them. More to the point, they wouldn't even bother engaging Nazara's units once they saw that he was gunning for the ZAFT drills.

A few seconds later he saw the next four mobile suits, one Strike-Avenger and three Dagger Ls, fly out of the ship. Nazara smiled. All that remained was that last Dagger L and then the battleship would be in the clear.

Soon enough, the last Dagger L left the battleship, and the Colonel was about to breathe a sigh of relief…

…only for his eyes to widen in shock beneath his mask as a storm of eighteen missiles appeared from out of nowhere and slammed into the Girty Lue before her cloak could completely reengage.

"What the hell?" he snarled, looking around frantically for the source of the missiles.

The warheads had been relatively small, not nearly enough to put a battleship as tough as the Girty Lue out of action, but then again they didn't have to be. Sure enough, Nazara saw that the impacts had damaged the Mirage Colloid system to the point that it was forced to deactivate, revealing the battleship for all to see. At the same time there was still no sign of whoever had fired the missiles, and Nazara realized that the missiles that had been fired at the ship were of a very familiar design.

As the Girty Lue's cloak failed another volley of eighteen missiles was unleashed, once again from three invisible sources. A series of explosions ripped across the battleship as CIWS and missile launchers were destroyed, and Nazara saw that this second volley had also knocked out the top two Gottfried heavy beam cannons. The Colonel quickly froze an image of one of the missiles on his monitor and zoomed in on it. His eyes narrowed beneath his mask as his suspicions were confirmed.

Lancer Dart missiles.

Only two types of mobile suits used those particular munitions, and only one of the first type and three of the second type had been built in the last war. The single unit from the first class had been confirmed destroyed, while the three from the second had disappeared at the end of the war.

They're here, he thought grimly, quickly checking his sensors, which means that she is not far behind.

As the Girty Lue opened up with wild fire from its undamaged CIWS and missile launchers, Nazara saw the ZGMF-X08A Wraiths of the Valkyrie Team decloak and activate their black and red Phase Shift Armor. What few bullets from the battleship found their marks were deflected by the armor, and if any missiles came close to hitting the three mobile suits they were quickly shot down by beam rifle and railgun fire. The three stolen ZAFT mobile suits danced around the Girty Lue, peppering the battleship with particle beams and railgun rounds. While it would take far more than potshots from the Valkyrie's three subordinates to take the warship down, the attacks were doing damage, taking out more of the vessels anti-air weaponry and hitting its engines.

Nazara's sensors were already going wild, but now a fresh set of beeping caused him to recheck the display. His eyes widened as a new, much larger contact appeared, but before he could zero in on it he saw two crimson pillars of energy rip through space and slam into the Girty Lue. Even the battleship's tough armor was no match for the power of the twin positron blasts, and the vessel was ripped in half by a spectacular fireball.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Nazara growled, "Is this some kind of joke?"

If this was a jest of fate, the Colonel certainly wasn't laughing. Appearing on his screen, in a display of grand irony, was a battleship. It had clearly been upgraded it, but there was no mistaking that it was a member of the Archangel-class.

A black Archangel-class battleship.

The Dominion.

….

"Direct hit!" said the sensor officer, "Bogey One is confirmed destroyed!"

Talk about a lucky break, thought Natarle with a smile, Sure, we just lost any hope of capturing it and getting access to its data banks, but given what's at stake here we just can't afford to have that ship running around this battlefield causing trouble.

The attack would not have been possible were it not for a combination of skill, quick thinking, and a considerable amount of luck. When Bogey One had begun launching its mobile suits it had unwittingly done so right in the vicinity of the three cloaked Wraiths. Adaline had taken the lead, sending the data to the Dominion while simultaneously ambushing Bogey One with Lan and Priscilla. Their missile attacks had completely knocked out the ship's Mirage Colloid, and since Natarle's ship had just arrived at the battlefield it was in an ideal position to deal a decisive blow against the battleship.

She could see the nine mobile suits that had launched from Bogey One still rushing towards the ruins of Junius Seven. Whatever plan they had was apparently still ago even without their battleship, and while Natarle had no idea what their objective might be she doubted it involved helping out Terminal or ZAFT.

"Ma'am!" cried the sensor operator, "The renegade warships on our side of the ruins are reorienting towards us!"

"What about their mobile suits?" asked Natarle.

"They're splitting up," the officer replied, "Some are heading for the ruins. Others are preparing to engage us."

I thought that'd be the case, she mused, They want to make sure one way or the other that the ruins keep falling and need to reinforce their units on the other side thanks to the Gundam pilots, but at the same time they want to stall us here, too.

Fortunately the Dominion was more than prepared to take them on. The black battleship had the undergone the same upgrades as the Archangel, and that included the fearsome Buster Cannon. Also, only half of the ship's powerful mobile suits had taken off, and Natarle knew that it was time for the rest of her machines to get into the fight.

"Launch our remaining mobile suits!" she ordered, "Valkyrie and Hawk will advance while Wolf remains as our guard. Have the Wraiths move forward; they're to engage the renegade mobile suits until their leader joins them, then they can fight as she deems fit."

"Aye, Captain!" the ship's mobile suit flight controller replied.

"Weapons," she said, "target the nearest frigate and fire at will!"

"Yes, ma'am!" yelled her chief gunnery officer.

All right, she thought, Time to show the world what we can do!

….

Her hands tightly gripping the controls, Shemei had an eager smile on her face as she watched the hangar doors open. At long last she'd get to put her new Gundam through a trial by fire, and a high stakes one to boot. She may not have prayed for this particular battle, but the last thing she would ever do was shy away from it.

She saw the launch indicator flip from red to green, and the voice of the Dominion's flight controller came over the radio. "Valkyrie, you are clear for launch!"

Shemei nodded. "Gundam Epyon Revenant, launching!"

Her mobile suit shot out of the starboard leg of the Dominion, revealing itself to the Cosmic Era in all its unholy glory. Like its predecessor, it was a true Gundam by the standards of Heero's old world in that its hull was made of Gundanium alloy. Said hull bore a crimson and black paintjob, which when combined with its menacing silhouette worked wonders for its intimidation factor. Mounted on its chest was a green Search Eye exactly like the one that Wing Zero Albion was equipped with.

Also like Wing Zero Albion, the Gundam's propulsion system had been considerably upgraded from that of the original model. Where once the mobile suit had two wings, now there were four. They followed the basic layout of the Albion's wings; a smaller inner pair and a larger outer pair. However, unlike the angelic design of the Albion's wings, these were of a much more demonic design and were blood red, making the mobile suit look nothing less like a devil free from Hell and ready to wreak utter carnage on the battlefield. The inner wings contained the conventional thrusters and the modified Hyper Jammer ECM Suite for distorting the Gundam's sensor profile, while the outer wings housed DSX-1 Shakō-tai energy shield generators and a Voiture Lumiere electromagnetic-light-wave propulsion system. In contrast to Wing Zero Albion's blue energy shields and light waves, the barriers and waves generated by Gundam Epyon Revenant were scarlet.

Like its predecessor, the Gundam was built as a dueling mobile suit, and its armaments reflected that quite well. With the flick of a switch, the Gundam's beam sword held in the mobile suit's right hand sprang to life in a fountain of green light. The energy blade was larger than those of conventional beam sabers, and unlike the melee weapons used on most mobile suits the handle for the beam sword was directly linked to the Gundam by means of a long and flexible cord. This allowed Shemei to funnel additional energy to the blade straight from the reactor, increasing both its power and length as the situation demanded. It could cut through incredibly thick armor, and the Valkyrie was looking forward to putting the weapon through its paces.

The beam sword may have been the Gundam's primary weapon, but it wasn't the only one. Mounted on the mobile suit's left forearm was a red and black shield, and within that shield was the unit's fearsome Heat Rod, a superheated whip that was capable of melting through armor and ripping machines apart. The control system for the Heat Rod had been refined and improved over the previous model, allowing it to be used with greater precision. At the same time, this Heat Rod was half again longer than the weapon used by its predecessor, enabling the wielder to take down more mobile suits with a single attack. Rounding out the mobile suit's weapons were two head-mounted Igelstellung 75mm CIWS. While at first glance such weapons may have appeared to go against the dueling mentality that the mobile suit had been designed around, Shemei didn't really feel as if that was the case due to the fact that the guns were primarily meant to shoot down incoming missiles.

Gunning her engines, Shemei rocketed away from the Dominion on a wave of blue thruster fire and crimson light. Checking her display, she saw a blue and white mobile suit flying out of the black battleship's left leg; Mu La Flaga's Tallgeese Kai. The unit's batteries had been upgraded since the last war for improved power efficiency and operating time, but beyond that the machine hadn't changed since the last war. The mobile suit shot forward as it raced to catch up with Shemei and engage the enemy. La Flaga's machine may not have been quite as fast as Shemei's, but for a battery powered mobile suit it was still quite the speed demon, and with the Hawk of Endymion at the controls its maneuverability was almost unrivaled.

A few seconds later the last mobile suit flew out of the Dominion; her husband's black and dark blue GuAIZ Werewolf. The machine quickly took up position just over the battleship, ready to intercept any mobile suits that tried to attack.

Shemei could feel Epyon Revenant's ZERO System egging her on, urging her to get into the thick of the action. The Valkyrie smirked; she didn't need to be told twice.

You want a fight, Epyon?, she thought, Don't worry, you'll get one!

The mobile suit's unique operating system was unlike anything Shemei had ever encountered before. Her first taste of it in a simulator trial over a year ago had not gone well; the Gundam's variation of the ZERO System had completely taken control within minutes, and if she'd been on a real battlefield she knew that she would've slaughtered friend and foe alike. The mental discipline required to rein in such a beast was incredible, and her respect for Heero had increased tenfold once she'd realized that he'd been fighting with the original version of the system since well before arriving in the Cosmic Era. Were it not for his guidance and the support of Eric and their friends Shemei doubted that she would ever have gotten a handle on it. The key breakthrough had come once she'd truly grasped the nature of Epyon Revenant's ZERO System, thanks in no small part to Heero telling her about the man who had overseen its construction and what he had envisioned.

"Epyon was designed by Treize as a dueling mobile suit," said Heero, "but there's more to it than that. When Treize modified the ZERO System he made sure his own ideals were embedded in it. Epyon's ZERO System is built around Treize's belief that mankind needs to witness the full brutality of war in order to truly have a chance to forge a lasting peace. The mobile suit's armaments are meant to force the pilot to put themselves in the center of that brutality; the beam sword and Heat Rod compel the pilot to fight very aggressively due to the lack of long range weaponry. The pilot has to channel that aggression in the pursuit of total victory. You have to have absolute clarity of purpose when you fight; you can't doubt for a second who your enemies are what you have to do to defeat them. The instant you do that, you give the System the opening it needs to take control."

That actually goes a long way towards explaining why Treize wanted the mobile suit to appear so demonic, thought Shemei, In a way, for a pilot to really master it they have to embrace something very dark inside them; the thrill of battle. The pilot has to take the excitement that they get from a fight and use it to inflict maximum damage on the enemy. At the same time the pilot has to recognize that they're essentially channeling something wrong, even evil, in the pursuit of their goals. If they can't accept their role as a necessary evil and keep that in perspective then they don't deserve to pilot the Epyon. The System will recognize them as unworthy and reject them, turning them into nothing more than a mass murderer. This Gundam truly is a demon, and it's up to the pilot's strength of will to turn that demon's power towards a noble end.

Start "Gensou no Kekkai / Necrofantasia"

Up ahead she saw a group of GINNs moving to intercept her. Behind them was one of the seven frigates the renegades had positioned on this side of the colony. Shemei decided that they would be her first targets.

The enemy mobile suits opened up with their beam rifles, but Shemei had started going evasive the moment they'd raised their weapons. Their particle beams flew through the space around her, but none found their marks. The Valkyrie raced to close the gap, and within seconds she was upon them.

A lightning-fast slash from her beam sword sliced a GINN in half. Another tried to cut her down, but she swiftly blocked the attack before countering and stabbing it through the cockpit. Shemei then unleashed her Heat Rod. The red-hot whip whirled around her and ripped two GINNs to shreds. She pulled back to avoid a particle beam before turning on the mobile suit that had fired the shot and cutting it down with her emerald blade.

You're next, she thought as she raced towards the frigate.

The warship poured particle beam and railgun fire at her. As she got closer the ship's CIWS joined in, but no matter what the vessel unleashed it couldn't touch her. Making her final charge, she stabbed her beam sword through the bridge. As she made contact she surged power through the blade from the mobile suit's reactor. The energy sword rapidly extended inside the ship and gutted the vessel.

One down, she thought, and six more to go back here!

Six quickly became five as the Dominion cut loose with her Gottfrieds, Valiants and Xiphias railguns, along with her Sledgehammer anti-ship missiles. The barrage was as precise as it was lethal, and the renegade Laurasia-class frigate was consumed by fire.

At the same time the Dominion was making her strike, Shemei saw her three girls ripping apart another frigate. The trio of Wraiths was dancing around the ship, evading its anti-air fire with almost contemptuous ease. As they did so they continued to hammer it with beam rifle and railgun fire until the ship crumbled under their withering and relentless assault.

Five was now four, but even that number would not last long. The Hawk of Endymion was zeroing in on another frigate at breakneck speed. A quartet of GINNs had moved to intercept the Tallgeese Kai, but even their improved mobility was nothing before the phenomenal agility of the blue and white machine. What few shots from their beam rifles came close to the mobile suit were deflected by the unit's four Planet Defensors before Mu La Flaga made his counterattack. Two GINNs fell mere seconds apart from each other, the victims of precise beam rifle shots to their cockpits. Before the last two could react the Hawk of Endymion was already in melee range, and they swiftly fell to quick slashes from La Flaga's beam saber. Then the Tallgeese Kai moved in on the frigate, weaving its way through a barrage of particle beams, railgun rounds, bullets, and missiles as the stolen warship opened up with everything it had in an all-out attempt to take down the famous pilot.

It wasn't nearly enough to stop the Hawk. Mu La Flaga wasted no time in going in for the kill, striking the two front 125mm cannons with his beam rifle before taking a shot at the bridge. The command center was engulfed in fire while the Hawk proceeded to take out the warships heavy weapons and then attack its engines. Mere seconds later the warship was torn apart by a vicious explosion.

All right!, thought Shemei as she raced to join her girls, Three down back here, and three more to go! Looks like the enemy's frontal force isn't fairing so well either.

That was a considerable understatement. While ZAFT's Task Force Aurora was battered and bloodied it was still in the fight, and the fire it was pouring at the renegade's forward warships had taken down two frigates, although it was at the cost of another Nazca-class destroyer. The rest of the twelve ZAFT warships on the field, with the exception of the battleship Minerva, were sporting moderate to severe damage, but whoever their commander was seemed determined to keep them in the fight. Normally Shemei might object to that, but given just how high the stakes were in this battle she knew that withdrawal was not an option.

The Valkyrie was impressed as she saw the Minerva take down a frigate with a combination of her beam turrets, triple cannon, and missile launchers. The prototype ZAFT warship may not have been as powerful as the upgraded Archangel or Dominion, and her crew might have been relatively new, but there was no denying that the vessel was holding her own in this fight. The same went for her mobile suits; Impulse, the two ZAKU Warriors, and the ZAKU Phantom that had launched from the ship were at the front of the ZAFT squadrons, and for pilots who'd only had their first taste of combat days ago were doing fairly well on this chaotic battlefield.

As well as they were performing, though, Shemei knew that by far and away the stars of this show were the five Gundam pilots. Heero Yuy was right at the center of it, ripping into the renegade fleet with the full might of Wing Zero Albion. A brilliant yellow flash ripped across space as his fearsome rifle took down a frigate, and mere seconds later a GINN that tried to take him on up close found itself impaled on the Gundam's emerald beam saber. The other four machines were nothing to sneeze at either. Deathscythe Omega, Sandrock Saladin, and Altron Custom were ripping into renegade mobile suits up close while Heavyarms Arsenal was pounding the enemy from a distance with bullets, beams, and missiles. It was thanks in large part to their efforts that the surviving mobile suits of Task Force Aurora were landing on the ruins of Junius Seven in earnest now, securing spaces for them to plant their drills.

Of course, the other factor in Task Force Aurora's progress was continuing to make itself felt on this battlefield. Fire ripped from the Archangel's Gottfrieds, Valiants, Xiphias, and missile launchers as the white warship continued to pound the renegade warships. Another frigate succumbed to fire from the battleship, leaving just thirteen of the Laurasia-class vessels to continue the fight. Murrue Ramius was on a role, and with the renegades' attention split between her, her mobile suits, the Gundam pilots, and Task Force Aurora there was no way that the remnants of Patrick Zala's radical faction could concentrate fire against her.

The Archangel's mobile suits were making the lives of the renegades even more miserable than they already were. Andrew and Aisha Waltfeld were hanging back with the battleship to intercept any GINNs that tried to attack the vessel, but given just how much of a beating the renegades were taking only a few isolated mobile suits had been able to make an attempt to strike the warship, and they were swiftly dealt with by the Desert Tiger and the Tigress. As for the mobile suits on the offensive, Kira Yamato was leading the charge in the Freedom. The stolen ZAFT mobile suit cut loose with its considerable artillery, ripping apart a Laurasia-class frigate's main weaponry. The vessel was quickly finished off by precise beam rifle fire from Yzak Joule's Mercurius Kai. Mere seconds later the crimson Gundam deployed its Planet Defensors to block beam rifle fire from a GINN before Yzak rushed in and impaled the mobile suit on his yellow beam saber. Rounding out the group was Dearka Elsman and his Vayeate Kai, and with a blast of his heavy Beam Cannon he turned a renegade frigate into a fireball.

Looks like the others have things well in hand on their end, she thought, I need to focus on mine!

The remaining three renegade frigates of the rear guard had formed a final defense line between the Dominion, her mobile suits, and the ruins of the colony. A handful of GINNs were with them, but the majority of the surviving renegade mobile suits had already pulled back to the ruins themselves to make their last stand. Shemei saw her girls going for the lead frigate, and she gunned her engines to catch up with them.

"Room for one more?" she asked as she formed up with them.

"Shemei!" cried Adaline.

"What took you so long?" Lan teased.

"Good to have you here, boss!" said Priscilla.

Shemei smiled. It had taken a lot of work to get her girls to stop using her old ZAFT rank of Commander. Old habits did not die easily, but with considerable effort they'd finally managed to kick this one, much to the Valkyrie's pleasure.

"Looks like you three jumped into quite the party!" said Shemei, "Don't worry, ladies, your chaperone's here now!"

"Hey!" said Adaline, "We can handle ourselves!"

"That was mean!" said Lan.

"Cheap shot, boss!" Priscilla pouted.

Shemei smirked; she knew just how to tease her girls, and they knew just how to take it. It was one of the many benefits that came with working together for so many years now.

"All right, all right," she said, "Come on, girls, let's mop these saps up and get to that colony. After all, there're some very special boys waiting for us over there!"

"Damn right there are!" said Lan, and Shemei was sure that the Chinese Coordinator wanted nothing more than to make a beeline for the Gundam pilots.

"I'll say," Adaline chimed in, "Those five have really been tearing it up over there!"

"No kidding," said Priscilla, "They're on a roll."

"Indeed," said Shemei with a grin, "but this isn't just their show. Come on, girls; let's show the boys what we've got!"

"Roger that!" all three replied as one.

….

Quite the entrance, Natarle, thought Heero as he observed the advance of the Dominion and her mobile suits, and the same goes for you, Shemei. Very well played.

While the Gundam pilot had anticipated Bogey One showing up on the battlefield at some point in this fight, but with its Mirage Colloid system exactly where that would be had been hard to pin down. Natarle had been given a golden opportunity when the Valkyrie's three subordinates had caught the mysterious battleship as it had been launching its mobile suits, and she had taken full advantage of it. Bogey One's machines might still be racing for the colony, but the battleship was out of the fight, and Heero would chalk that up as a win. It would've been nice to capture it and get access to whatever data it held, but given the chaotic battle they were in the middle of and the sheer stakes involved Heero certainly wouldn't complain about how Natarle had so efficiently destroyed the vessel.

Heero knew it wouldn't take Shemei and her girls long to break through the enemy's final line and get to the ruins. Three Laurasia-class frigates and a handful of upgraded GINNs were a poor match indeed for the Gundam Epyon Revenant and the three Wraiths. The demise of the renegades on that side of the colony would be swift in coming.

However, by the time the Valkyrie and her subordinates mopped up those frigates and GINNs Heero knew that the mobile suits launched from Bogey One would already be on the ruins. Heero didn't know what their endgame was, but he had a feeling it wasn't to help ZAFT stop the colony from falling.

Taking a shot at a frigate with the Twin Buster Rifle and annihilating the vessel, Heero quickly checked the positions of his fellow Gundam pilots as he considered his next move. Quatre and Duo had joined the forward Task Force Aurora mobile suit teams down on the surface of the colony and were working to clear out places to plant the drills. Trowa was above them acting as a one-man anti-air battery, taking down any GINNs that tried to drop in on them. Wufei had been hunting down and picking off mobile suits amidst the surviving frigates, but with the arrival of Bogey One's mobile suits he seemed to shift his priorities; he was making a beeline for their old adversaries from their previous battles.

That's where I should go too, he thought, The renegades' lines are shattered; Murrue and Task Force Aurora should be able to deal with what's left here. The real fighting's on the surface now, and if those mobile suits from before manage to interfere they could cause a lot of trouble.

Gunning his engines, Heero rocketed across the battlefield. Raising his rifle, Heero quickly cut loose with a blast of golden-yellow hellfire. The shot was aimed at the violet mobile suit with the gunbarrel drones and the Gaia, but at this distance both units were able to evade the blast. It certainly grabbed their attention, though, and the former unit was already reorienting itself to face Wing Zero Albion. With the exception of that unit and the black and red mobile suit with the beam katana, the rest of the machines that had launched from Bogey One remained on course for the surface of the ruins.

The others will have to deal with them, Heero thought, I have my target, and this time he's not getting away!

His foe certainly seemed to welcome a rematch. The violet mobile suit was gunning its engines and racing towards him at full throttle. For a moment Heero thought the machine with the beam katana would join it for a two-on-one clash, but then the Gundam pilot realized that the mobile suit in question had a slightly different vector and it didn't take long to figure out where it was heading.

He's all yours, Wufei.

Indeed, a quick glance showed Heero that the Gundam pilot from L5 was rushing towards the black and red mobile suit as fast as Altron Custom's engines could carry him. Wufei was clearly eager for another round, and that wasn't surprising; if someone had managed to hold their own against him in the past, Heero knew that Wufei would stop at nothing until he had a rematch and the chance to prove his skills to be superior.

Heero quickly returned his focus to his own impending duel, and it wasn't a moment too soon. The violet machine approaching him had already released its gunbarrel drones and was opening fire with the, its beam rifle, and its two linear guns. The Gundam pilot immediately went evasive and deployed his energy shields to block the shots that he couldn't dodge. It was a thick barrage, but Heero was able to push forward, and he countered with a shot from the Twin Buster Rifle.

The blast ripped through space, but just like before the enemy was able to dodge the shot. Heero's foe was swift in their response, once again filling space with particle beams and linear gun slugs. Gunning his engines, Heero swiftly closed the gap and lashed out with his beam saber. The enemy was able to deflect his opening slash and swiftly counter, but Heero was able to parry their return strike and make one of his own. A dance of blades quickly unfolded as the Gundam and the violet machine traded blow after blow, neither one able to land a hit.

He's moving better than last time, Heero thought as they continued their exchange, Every duel with me that he survives gives him greater insight into how I fight. Granted, that cuts both ways, but still… his gunbarrels make him a tricky opponent.

The Gundam pilot was forced to pull back as his foe tried to catch him in crossfire with his four gunbarrel drones. As he put some space between himself and his enemy Heero raised the Twin Buster Rifle again and opened fire, but his adversary was able to dive and avoid the shot. The move did give Heero a temporary respite from the gunbarrel drones though, and he used that to charge right back in for another beam saber exchange.

He led with a hard overhand strike, but the enemy was able to deflect it. His foe then countered with a diagonal slash that Heero parried before countering with a thrust. The enemy managed to redirect the attack before responding with a thrust of their own, but Heero was able to sideslip the strike. Heero then gunned his engines and climbed as his adversary brought their gunbarrel drones to bear again, forcing him to break off in order to avoid getting caught in their web of fire.

That's right, he thought, keep focusing on me. As long as you're fighting me, you're not interfering with the rest of the battle.

Said battle was definitely going poorly for the renegades now. On the far side of the colony the Valkyrie and her subordinates were ripping into the final line of frigates and mobile suits between them and the ruins. The three Wraiths were concentrating their fire on a single ship, tearing apart its defenses before the Epyon Revenant dived in for the killing strike, impaling the vessel through the bridge and extending its beam sword to maul the warship from the inside out.

A second frigate quickly fell to fire from the Dominion's formidable arsenal. A pair of GINNs attempted to attack the black battleship, but they were quickly intercepted by Eric Bristow and his GuAIZ Werewolf. The stolen ZAFT mobile suit impaled one machine on its violet beam claws before shredding the second unit with a hail of emerald bolts from its Beam Gatlings.

The third and final frigate on the far side of the colony now found itself and its handful of GINNs to be the targets of the Dominion and its mobile suits. Mu La Flaga made the first move, picking off one GINN with his beam rifle before impaling another with his violet blade. Shemei was next, shredding a third GINN with her Heat Rod before swooping in on the frigate and mauling its beam cannons with her sword. Lan downed the fourth and final GINN protecting the frigate with her Wraith's railguns before joining Adaline and Priscilla in pounding the ship with the beam rifles mounted in their Trikeros shields. The deathblow came when the frigate was hit by a salvo from the Dominion's Gottfried beam cannons, Valiant linear cannons, and Xiphias railguns. The warship crumpled under the barrage before an internal explosion ripped the vessel apart. Now the way was clear for Natarle and her forces to launch a full assault on the renegade forces operating on the ruins of Junius Seven.

Things weren't much better for the renegade forces on the side of the colony where the majority of the battle was unfolding. The enemy had now pulled back all of their surviving mobile suits to the ruins in an attempt to disrupt Task Force Aurora's drilling operations, but while it might mean a harder fight on the surface it also meant that their remaining seven frigates were now operating completely without mobile suit support. In modern warfare this was a virtual death sentence for any ship, and the combined forces facing the renegades were carrying out that sentence in earnest.

Twin pillars of crimson fire flew forth as the Archangel unleashed her Lohengrins. The two positron blasts slammed into a frigate and turned the ship into a fireball. Murrue's attack was swiftly followed by a barrage from the Freedom's artillery, which quickly stripped a frigate of its heavy weaponry. Kira's bombardment was quickly succeeded by a volley of beam rifle fire from Yzak's Mercurius Kai, further mauling the targeted ship. Yzak then swooped in to make his coup de grace, stabbing his yellow beam saber through the frigate's bridge. A blast of yellow energy from the heavy Beam Cannon of Dearka's Vayeate Kai washed over another renegade warship and obliterated it.

Another blast of crimson energy, this time from the Minerva's positron cannon, ripped a frigate to shreds. Now there were only three of the renegade warships left, and the surviving ten destroyers and the cruiser Freya of Task Force Aurora were pounding away at them, with the Minerva joining them in the bombardment. The trio of warships eventually succumbed to the ZAFT vessels' fire, but they did manage to take down one last destroyer before they were eliminated.

As Heero continued to trade fire with the gunbarrel machine he saw Athrun, Shinn, and Rey down on the surface of the colony. They were spread out but still within sight of each other in order to provide overlapping fields of fire. They were well positioned to cover the drill teams, and while they were managing to fend off attacks from the renegade GINNs Heero knew that things would get trickier for them once the mobile suits launched from Bogey One prior to its destruction joined the fray. Fortunately Duo, Trowa, and Quatre were down there with them as well, leaving Heero reasonably assured that operations down on the surface of the ruins were in good hands.

He realized that he'd missed a machine when he'd been scanning the ruins; Lunamaria's crimson Gunner ZAKU. Checking his display he quickly found the mobile suit, and was surprised to find it heading towards Wufei as Altron Custom began its clash with the black and red mobile suit wielding the beam katana.

Wufei and his foe swiftly engaged in a furious exchange of blows. Altron Custom's double-ended beam trident danced like a thing possessed, moving seamlessly from offense to defense at the blink of an eye. What was even more impressive in Heero's eyes was the fact that the black and red mobile suit was managing to match Wufei blow for blow. Its beam katana moved like lightning despite the fact that the machine wielding it was technologically inferior to Altron Custom. That spoke volumes as to the skill of whoever was piloting that machine, although Heero wondered how long they would be able to keep up such a display of fighting prowess against Wufei. The L5 native could be relentless once he commenced a duel, and Heero didn't expect him to break with that tendency any time soon.

Lunamaria's going to get herself killed if she flies into that fight, Heero thought as he evaded fire from his foe, but there's nothing I can do about that right now. Hopefully Wufei will be able to keep her alive, although he'll hate playing guardian when he's in the middle of a fight like that.

In the meantime, all Heero could do was focus on his own duel. Sensing an opening, he rocketed forward, working his way through the enemy's barrage with blinding speed, propelled on a wave of blue light. He quickly made a horizontal slash with his emerald blade, only for his foe to deflect the strike on its violet saber. The enemy then struck back with a diagonal slash, but Heero was able to swiftly parry and counter with an overhand strike. His foe was able to block the blow, but this time Heero was able to press his assault. He made a quick forward thrust, and while his enemy managed to avoid most of it his emerald blade did succeed in taking out his target's left linear gun.

That's a start, thought Heero as he pulled back to avoid beam fire from the four gunbarrel drones, but it's not nearly enough. This guy's still in the fight, and I need to take him down fast!

End "Gensou no Kekkai / Necrofantasia"

….

What the hell am I doing?

That was what Lunamaria kept thinking to herself as she gained altitude, leaving the ruins of Junius Seven beneath her as she ascended towards the unfolding duel between Altron Custom and the black and red mobile suit. Her place was with her friends and comrades down on the surface of the colony, defending the drill teams as they set up their devices. Wufei was a highly skilled pilot in possession of a powerful mobile suit; he could handle himself just fine, as he had already proven in the two previous battles she'd witnessed him take part in. Logically, she knew that he didn't need her help, much as that might sting to admit.

Still, Lunamaria couldn't help but fly towards that fight. There was some overpowering need within her that she couldn't deny. It was a thirst to prove herself to this newcomer, this strange pilot who'd come into her life barely a week ago and had proceeded to leave her in doubt of everything she had every learned in her training. She wanted to demonstrate that she had the potential to fight on his level, and her desire to do so was driving her well past the point of logical arguments.

I'm sure you don't want my help, Wufei, she thought, but damn it, you're getting it anyway!

As she approached the fight she saw that he wasn't using his Dragon Fangs. She supposed that made sense given that they'd had no effect in the last battle against his foe's Phase Shift Armor. Still, Lunamaria had to wonder if part of that was also due to pride. After all, Wufei's foe only had a beam katana and its CIWS to do battle with, and from what she'd learned about him so far she wouldn't be surprised if Altron Custom's pilot was limiting himself to his melee weapon out of some sense of honor.

Whatever the reason was, it appeared that Wufei's foe was taking full advantage of the Gundam pilot limiting himself. The pilot of the black and red mobile suit was bold in his efforts, charging right in to meet the Altron Custom head on without any feints or attempts at misdirection. For his part, Wufei seemed to be returning the favor, and if the fight were taking place between just the soldiers themselves as opposed to them and their machines Lunamaria felt that the contest she was witnessing would not have looked out of place in some ancient Roman arena. Both the beam katana and the double-ended beam trident had a certain exotic air about them; there were no other beam melee weapons like them in the Cosmic Era.

They were moving incredibly fast, and for every strike one of them dished out the other always seemed to be ready with a counter. A thrust from the black and red mobile suit's beam katana was caught on one end of Wufei's beam trident before the Gundam pilot expertly twirled the weapon around and brought the other end to bear on his foe. However, his enemy managed to pull back just in the nick of time to avoid a hit, only to make another attack with an overhand strike. This time Wufei parried the blow before countering with a horizontal slash, but the attack did not connect; his adversary was able to deflect the strike and counter almost seamlessly. It was almost artful, the way offense and defense was seemingly effortlessly merged by the two combatants. They were able to alternate between one and the other at what felt like a simple flick of a switch. Their moves were beyond anything Lunamaria had witnessed from her instructors during her time at the academy; the only thing that could compare was the old footage she and her fellow trainees had been shown of duels that took place in the last war, and without fail the best of those fights had included none other than Wing Zero.

Amazing, she thought as she watched the fight, It's like their mobile suits really are extensions of their bodies! Is it their operating systems? No… it's gotta be more than that!

Lunamaria would be the first to admit that close-quarters combat was not her strongest point, but she'd done fairly well in her basic training courses. However, what she was witnessing now was leagues beyond anything she could ever imagine herself achieving. It didn't seem fair; why hadn't their instructors told them just how outclassed they would be by some of the soldiers out in the Cosmic Era? It may not have been good for the trainees' morale, but at least they would have some idea as to what they might run into out there and perhaps take some measures to prepare for it. Since Wing Zero had disappeared at the end of the war their teachers had acted like that meant Heero Yuy was gone for good, but not only was he back on the field two years later but he apparently had friends that were just as powerful as he was.

Lunamaria shook her head. It didn't matter right now how strong Wufei or any of the other Gundam pilots were. All that she cared about was proving that she could hold her own alongside them, that she had the potential to be as good as them someday.

Her eyes narrowed as she studied the latest exchange between Wufei and his foe. The two of them had developed a pattern where they would charge each other head on, engage in a series of strikes and counters, and then break off for a moment before heading right back in to go at it again. When they were close together Lunamaria knew that there was no way she could take a shot, but that moment where they broke off would give her the opening she needed.

Come on, she thought, her finger tensing over the trigger as she watched them attack and defend, Come on, break, damn it!

His double-ended beam trident whirling like an emerald tornado, Wufei launched a series of blindingly fast slashes. The enemy was able to block them, but they were pushing them back; the Gundam pilot definitely had his foe on the defensive. Lunamaria wondered if maybe she'd misread the fight. Now it seemed like Wufei might just be on the verge of landing a decisive blow.

However, mere seconds later she saw the black and red machine catch one of the slashes on its blade and smoothly deflect it. This gave the enemy the opening they needed to counter with a thrust, forcing Wufei to bring his weapon down to parry the strike. With that block Wufei was able to make a thrust of his own, but just like before his foe was able to redirect the attack. This time the black and red machine made an overhand strike. Wufei managed to block the blow, and in an instant Lunamaria knew that she was about to get her opening.

She smiled as she saw the two machines pull back, and she shifted her aim to track the black and red machine. A second later she pulled the trigger, sending a crimson stream of energy at the enemy.

Amazingly, her foe was able to dive in time to avoid the attack. Lunamaria was stunned; she'd thought for sure that her shot would catch the enemy by surprise. She didn't have long to dwell on it, though; the enemy was already charging towards her.

"Oh, crap!" she cried, readying her beam tomahawk while gunning her engines in reverse.

She thought for sure the black and red mobile suit would close the gap and strike, but before it could do so a familiar green mobile suit interposed itself between the crimson ZAKU and its foe. Lunamaria sighed with relief as she saw Wufei deflect a diagonal slash that was meant for her before pushing the black and red mobile suit back and going on the offensive.

That was close, she thought as she watched him and the enemy go at it in a fresh exchange of strikes, I guess I owe him one… well, another one. This is the second time he's saved my hide.

She was surprised to see Wufei's face appear in the upper right corner of her screen as he continued to engage the black and red mobile suit. "What the hell are you doing? You should be down on the colony!"

Lunamaria glared at him, her earlier gratitude for his rescue rapidly evaporating. "Hey, I came to give you a hand!"

"I don't need help," said Wufei as he continued to exchange strikes with his foe, "I can handle this guy on my own!"

"But you could take him down faster if you had backup!" Lunamaria replied as she tried to line up another shot at the enemy.

"I don't want your help," said Wufei, "I can't fight this guy if I'm trying to protect you at the same time!"

"I don't need protecting," Lunamaria shot back, "and you're getting my help whether you like it or not!"

Wufei shook his head as he parried a diagonal slash from his foe. "Stubborn woman… just don't blame me if you get yourself killed!"

"Oh, yeah?" yelled Lunamaria, "Well, the same goes for you!"

She saw Wufei and his foe break off again, giving her the opening she needed to take another shot with her rifle. Once again a crimson blast of energy flew through space, and just like last time the black and red mobile suit managed to evade it. However, this time as it tried to charge Lunamaria it was knocked off course by one of Altron Custom's Dragon Fangs.

Even if those things don't affect Phase Shift Armor, they still come in handy here, she thought as she watched Wufei rush back into beam trident range, I bet that pilot really felt that impact.

Watching Altron Custom and the black and red mobile suit go at it again up close, Lunamaria knew she had to do something to hasten this fight's end. Neither party had landed a decisive hit on the other yet, and while Wufei certainly seemed confident in his ability to ultimately defeat his foe by himself Lunamaria would rather take advantage of their numerical superiority and wrap this affair up quickly.

Come on, she thought, use your head! You've got the whole arsenal of a Gunner ZAKU Warrior at your disposal. There's gotta be something you can do to help Wufei beat this guy!

It would've been so much easier if Wufei would just agree to cooperate with her here. Unfortunately his pride was getting in the way of that, and for the life of her Lunamaria could not figure out a way to work around it. All she could do for now was take shots when she had openings and hope that one of them connected.

He's so stubborn, she thought, I really don't get it…

Of course, Lunamaria wasn't about to admit that it was her own stubbornness that had brought her here in the first place.

In that respect, she and Wufei were more alike than she cared to think about.

….

"Damn it, Luna!" yelled Shinn, "What the hell are you doing?"

He was down on the surface of the ruins along with Athrun and Rey defending the drill teams. Lunamaria was supposed to be with them, and while Shinn could say from firsthand experience that the mobile suit with the beam katana would definitely qualify as a threat to them he could also see that Wufei had that threat under control.

"Forget about her for now, Shinn," said Rey, "We have to worry about things down here."

"Rey's right," said Athrun, "Concentrate on the surface. At least Lunamaria's making sure that that guy can't come down here."

Shinn raised his shield to block incoming beam fire. The fighting on the surface of the ruins was definitely more intense than the scattered clashes going on up above. The renegades were now severely reduced in numbers, but they were making up for it by taking advantage of the colony's terrain. There was plenty of cover, and the enemy was using that to wage a furious defense. The mobile suits of Task Force Aurora were forced to split their focus between protecting the drill teams and rooting out the surviving renegades one by one. It was a lengthy affair, and it was one that Shinn knew that they did not have time for.

They did have some help, though, in the form of the Gundams Deathscythe Omega, Heavyarms Arsenal, and Sandrock Saladin. Duo, Trowa, and Quatre had proven to be absolutely invaluable in the efforts to defend the drill teams and give them the time and space they needed to set up their equipment. Duo and Quatre were operating on the ground, positioning themselves near the most forward of the drill teams to fend off enemy assault, while Trowa was hovering overhead and providing aerial fire support. The trio was very effective, but with their current tasks being defensive as opposed to offensive in nature they were considerably limited in the amount of damage they could inflict on the enemy.

A frantic male voice came over the task force channel. "This is Lowell Team! We're under attack! It's not the renegades, it's… oh, god, help!"

There was a scream followed by static , and Shinn grimaced with the knowledge of what that meant. Checking his sensors, he quickly found Lowell Team's position and saw that they were being assaulted by a familiar mobile suit.

The Gaia.

The stolen black unit was currently in its wolf-like mobile armor form. It was a configuration the Gaia was not supposed to enter during combat in outer space, but given the vast size of the ruins of Junius Seven this configuration was not only viable but devastatingly effective. Shinn saw the unit running across the surface of the ruins at incredible speed, taking down two GuAIZ Rs with pinpoint fire from its shoulder-mounted beam cannons. It then rushed forward and proceeded to slice a third GuAIZ R in half with one of its wing-like Griffon 2 beam blades before tearing apart the drill Lowell Team had been protecting with the other one.

Shinn knew that the Gaia had to be stopped in its tracks as quickly as possible, and he wasted no time in charging in.

"Shinn!" yelled Athrun, "We have to hold here!"

"That thing just wiped out Lowell Team and destroyed their drill!" Shinn shot back, "We have to stop it!"

"I know it's a threat," said Rey, "but we have to maintain our defensive standing until the drill teams we're defending finish their task."

"If we keep waiting that thing will take out more drill teams!" Shinn replied, not slowing down in the least.

Athrun relented. "All right, Shinn; that thing's all yours. Rey and I will continue to maintain our defensive position here. Good luck."

Shinn nodded, glad that he was able to get Athrun to see things his way. "Thanks. I will. Impulse, out!"

He rushed in, eager to take on the stolen machine. Raising his rifle, Shinn unleashed a volley of particle beams. The emerald beams punched into the surface of the colony around the Gaia, but the unit was very maneuverable and able to avoid taking any direct hits. Shinn did succeed in getting the enemy's attention, though, and the black mechanical wolf wasted no time in charging at him. The amount of firepower it could bring to bear in a frontal assault was considerably greater than that of the Force Impulse, and Shinn found himself hard pressed to block or evade the volley of emerald beams it unleashed on him.

Fortunately what Force Impulse might lack in raw firepower it more than made up for with mobility. Shinn hit his thrusters and gained altitude while raining down fire on the Gaia with his beam rifle. The enemy returned fire, but now that he was airborne it was easier for Shinn to keep one step ahead of his foe. However, Shinn knew that he couldn't stay up high for long. It might give him an advantage, but it also gave the Gaia room on the ground to charge another one of the drill teams.

He dived, beam rifle blazing as he approached the Gaia. None of his shots connected, and Shinn was forced to bring his shield up to block return fire from the Gaia, but he was swiftly closing the gap. He raised his beam saber and brought it down in a hard chop, but the enemy was able to reposition itself to catch the strike on one of its beam blades.

The Gaia quickly pulled back; its mobile armor form was ill suited for a traditional clash of blades. Shinn's foe began running around, seemingly erratically but in fact with movements that were designed to keep him off balance as the black machine took shots at him with its beam cannons before rushing in to try to slice him in half. Shinn raised his beam saber and was able to block the attack, but the sheer momentum behind the Gaia's attack was enough to push him back. The Impulse was nearly knocked off its feet, and in order to avoid losing balance Shinn was forced to hit his thrusters and take off.

His move gave the enemy the chance they needed to transform the Gaia into its mobile suit configuration. Now the unit was much more able to confront him in a regular duel, and its pilot wasted no time in taking off to meet him in the air. Shinn raised his beam saber to parry a diagonal slash from the black machine before responding with a thrust, but his foe was able to redirect that attack and counter with a vertical strike. They were incredibly aggressive, so much so that at times Shinn almost felt like he was fighting himself.

Come on, he thought, You can do this! You have to!

Quickly glancing at his sensors, he saw that the six mobile suits that had accompanied the Gaia down to the surface of the ruins were doing quite a bit of damage. Since there were still renegade GINNs on the battlefield trying to attack the drill teams Task Force Aurora and the three Gundam pilots down on the surface were concentrating their efforts on them, leaving the two Strike-Avengers and four Dagger Ls a chance to wreak havoc. One of the Sword Launcher units annihilated a drill with its Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon, while the other sliced a GuAIZ R in half with its anti-ship sword. The Dagger Ls backing the up were providing cover fire against ZAFT mobile suits that tried to attack the Strike-Avengers, and Shinn knew that he had to end his fight with the Gaia quickly so that he could get down there and prevent the enemy from destroying any more drills. He didn't know if the Gaia and its cohorts were in league with the renegades or if their own plans coincidentally involved sabotaging Task Force Aurora, but the results would be the same either way if they were not dealt with immediately.

However, despite his urgency, in a way Shinn was glad for the distraction of the duel. It kept him from focusing on one of the new arrivals on the battlefield.

The Freedom.

The stolen nuclear powered mobile suit that had become almost as famous as Wing Zero in the last war may have been aiding ZAFT in this battle, but Shinn hardly considered it to be friendly. Whenever he looked at that machine he felt nothing but a deep seated resentment bordering on utter loathing. It wasn't at what that mobile suit had done in the last war, but rather what it had failed to do… or what it could have done.

Not a day had gone by when he had not thought about the death of his family during the Earth Alliance's assault on Orb's Elysium colony. He remembered with perfect clarity the blast, the collapsed building… and his mother, father, and sister crushed under slabs of concrete and rubble. He remembered the Freedom fighting overhead with the attacking Earth Alliance mobile suits, and while that famous machine had taken down the invaders Shinn was well aware that not all of its shots had found enemy targets; some had impacted the colony.

It didn't matter to Shinn that the Freedom had been acting in the name of defending Elysium. Not only had it failed to save his parents and sister, there was the very real possibility that one of its errant shots had actually caused the building collapse that had killed them. That was why he was trying very hard to focus on anything other than the Freedom at the moment; if he looked at that machine for too long there was the very real possibility that he'd lose himself to his anger, and he knew that he could not afford that right now.

He continued to trade beam saber strikes with the Gaia over the ruins. The two mobile suits gradually descended back towards the surface, making strikes and counters as they went. Hitting his thrusters, Shinn charged forward and slammed into the black mobile suit with the Impulse's shield. The blow temporarily knocked the stolen machine off balance, but when Shinn tried to follow that up with a killing thrust the enemy was able to evade the strike at the last possible moment.

The two mobile suits pulled back and began trading beam rifle fire. However, while both pilots were accurate in their shots their respective foes were both fast and skilled; whatever beams weren't blocked by shields were dodged. Shinn was surprised that his enemy was able to hold out for as long as they had; they were better than he'd originally given them credit for.

The Gaia then charged him, making a downward left-to-right diagonal slash. Shinn was able to parry the blow and respond with a horizontal slash, but the Gaia managed to deflect the strike and respond with a quick thrust. Shinn redirected the blow before making an overhand chop, but his foe was able to block the attack.

I won't let you defeat me here, he thought as he continued his clash, I'll take you down, and I'll stop this colony's fall. I'll save everyone!

….

"So what's our next move?" asked Lan over the Valkyrie Team's tactical channel.

It was a very good question. The four women were racing towards the surface of the ruins, but it was hard for Lan to tell where they should engage first, or even if they should be heading for the surface at all. While their top priority was of course to make sure that the ruins did not fall to Earth, just their joining the fighting on the surface was not necessarily the only means to ensure the success of the mission.

Lan in particular thought that they might perhaps be better off intervening in the two duels that were raging up above the ruins. While she certainly didn't doubt the skills of either Heero or his fellow Gundam pilot there was no denying that the foes they were both facing were skilled by virtue of the simple fact that they were both managing to tie up two incredibly deadly soldiers.

Heero appeared to be making some headway in his clash with the violet mobile suit. One of his foe's linear guns had been destroyed, and the Perfect Soldier was not stopping there. Lan had seen Heero put some considerable distance between his foe just a few seconds ago, and the answer to the question of why he had done so became readily apparent when he put away his beam saber and split the Twin Buster Rifle in half before opening up with two consecutive shots. The initial blast with one of the guns caused Heero's foe to veer sharply to the right, only to be driven right towards Wing Zero Albion's second shot. The purple machine was able to evade that second blast at the last possible second, but it was not without cost; the unit's right two gunbarrel drones were caught in the wave of energy and obliterated. Already Heero was rejoining his guns into their combined form and reigniting his emerald blade, preparing to charge back in to make use of his new advantage.

The second 'duel' was really a two-on-one matchup, but it was still grinding on regardless. From earlier briefings Lan knew that the green mobile suit was the Gundam Altron Custom, while the black and red machine remained unidentified. The red mobile suit fighting alongside the Altron Custom was clearly a ZAFT Gunner ZAKU Warrior, and intelligence relayed from Heero had identified the pilot as a ZAFT Red by the name of Lunamaria Hawke. Lan remembered that Wufei was the pilot of the green Gundam but had no idea who was flying against.

The fight had become all too predictable to Lan's experienced eyes. Wufei and his foe would engage in a sequence of melee strikes, blocks, and counters, only to break off for a moment to catch their breath before charging back in. It was during that break that Lunamaria would take a shot with her heavy rifle, but at this point the pilot of the black and red mobile suit was expecting such a shot and was more than able to anticipate and evade it. Lan was sure that Wufei could end the fight quickly if he tried to cooperate closely with Lunamaria, but from what she had observed so far he did not seem willing to do that.

Gundam pilots must be a proud lot, she thought, Or maybe it's just this Wufei now; the others seem to have no problem working together, and Heero's been quite cooperative with us in the past.

Lan was always down for a good fight, and she knew her friends were the same way. Either of those duels looked like they would be fun to crash, and there was no denying that they needed to be wrapped up in a hurry.

However, that did not seem to be what the Valkyrie had in mind. Epyon Revenant's course was still set for the ruins, and the three Wraiths were following dutifully in its wake. In the distance she could see Mu La Flaga heading for Junius Seven as well, albeit from a different approach vector.

"We'll split up," said Shemei, "We need to take out those units from Bogey One that were able to get to the surface."

Lan nodded. That was a reasonable call, and from what she could see those seven units were definitely doing some damage. The Impulse was keeping the Gaia occupied in a duel that looked like it wasn't slowing down anytime soon, but the same couldn't be said for the two Strike-Avengers and the four Dagger Ls. They'd already destroyed a handful of drills, along with several ZAFT mobile suits, and if they were not dealt with quickly they had the potential to jeopardize the entire operation. While the other three Gundam pilots were down on the surface as well, they were preoccupied with defending other drill teams from the renegades.

Looks like it's up to us, thought Lan, Time to kick ass!

"Sounds good," said Adaline.

"So who gets who?" asked Priscilla.

"I'll take out one of the Strike-Avengers," said Shemei, "Lan, the second one's yours. Adaline, Priscilla; you two are on the Dagger Ls."

"Roger that!" all three of them replied.

"Don't underestimate them," Shemei cautioned, "They're using battery powered units, but those pilots look like they've got plenty of experience. Keep your guard up and watch your backs!"

"Affirmative!" the trio responded as one.

"All right!" said Shemei, "Engage at will!"

Lan nodded, and the four mobile suits immediately split up. Shemei made a beeline for her target, while Adaline and Priscilla set up to strike the four Dagger Ls. For her part, Lan isolated her target on her display and rushed in, ready to fire as soon as she was within weapons range.

It wasn't a moment too soon. She saw the Strike-Avenger she was tasked with engaging take its anti-ship sword to a Blaze ZAKU Warrior and slice the mobile suit in half. It then cut loose with its Agni and blew apart a GuAIZ R. One of the ZAFT drills wasn't too far away from the mobile suit, and Lan was determined to deal with her target before it destroyed the device.

"All right, you," she said as she locked on, "Why don't you try mixing it up with a real pilot?"

With that she cut loose with her beam rifles and railguns. The particle beams and slugs ripped through space, but the Strike-Avenger was able to evade the salvo at the last moment and the shots ripped into the surface of the ruins. That was fine with Lan though; now the enemy would be focused on her instead of trying to attack the drill teams.

The enemy didn't waste any time in responding. Her foe raised its Agni and quickly opened fire. Lan slipped to the left, easily able to avoid the stream of crimson energy. Igniting the beam saber embedded in her right shield, she rushed in to engage her adversary.

She led with a thrust, hoping to spear her foe through the cockpit and end the duel with one strike. Unfortunately that did not succeed; the enemy was able to redirect the strike, and despite the size of the anti-ship sword they managed to smoothly transition into a counter attack. Lan blocked their wide swing and pulled back, firing her beam rifle and railguns as she did so. The enemy was able to evade her particle beams, although two railgun slugs did hit the mobile suit. However, its Phase Shift Armor kept the impacts from being fatal or even damaging the machine. The enemy then opened up with its Agni, forcing Lan to go evasive.

Okay, she thought, looks like this guy actually has some moves!

That wouldn't deter her, of course. Lan charged back in, bringing her beam saber down in a vertical chop. The Strike-Avenger managed to parry the blow and respond with a slash, forcing Lan to redirect the attack. Her adversary quickly followed that up with a horizontal strike, Lan was surprised to find herself on the defensive.

As she pulled back a bit to analyze her foe, she realized that they were much more aggressive than a typical mobile suit pilot. When the enemy charged forward and made a thrust, Lan was able to redirect it, but the enemy then followed that up with a diagonal slash. Lan deflected that blow as well, and as she continued to engage her foe she remembered where she had seen this sort of behavior before.

The Strike-Avenger pilots we fought at Jachin Due moved like this, she thought, Hyper-aggressive, no appearance of tactical planning or efforts at coordinating with teammates… it's just like two years ago. Is he one of them? We killed all the ones that we encountered, although I think one of the guys that fought Heero limped away. Is this guy that survivor, or are they another pilot that we just didn't run into on that battlefield?

After a moment's consideration amidst the clash of energy blades she ruled out the possibility of this pilot being the one that had gone up against Heero two years ago. She hadn't seen much of the clash between Wing Zero and the 'Perfect' Strike-Avenger at Jachin Due, but what glimpses she had caught had revealed a foe with greater discipline than the enemy she was facing now. Her current adversary had skill, but their ferocity was more akin to a rabid dog than a calculated pilot.

A quick glance revealed her commander to be engaged in a similar duel with the other Sword Launcher Strike-Avenger, although the Valkyrie appeared to have a greater degree of control over her clash than Lan did. Shemei's attacks and parries flowed so smoothly it was unbelievable; the only other pilot Lan could compare it to was Heero. Epyon Revenant's larger beam sword most likely gave Shemei a better weapon to engage the Strike-Avenger's anti-ship sword with than Lan's conventional beam saber, but the Chinese Coordinator knew that the Valkyrie could've engaged her current foe with a normal beam saber just as well as with her new weapon.

Meanwhile, Adaline and Priscilla were mixing it up with the four Dagger Ls. Much to Lan's surprise the quartet of enemy machines had survived her comrades' opening salvos; the pilots were better than she'd first thought. They had split by pairs, with one pair engaging Adaline and the other tangling with Priscilla. Just the fact that they were cooperating was enough to tell Lan that those four pilots weren't of the same mold as those wielding the Strike-Avengers.

Despite their skill, though, they were outmatched in both machine and ability. Adaline and Priscilla's Wraith's by far outclassed the Dagger Ls they were squaring off against, and it didn't take long for the lethal duo to draw first blood. For Adaline it was by shoving her beam saber through a Dagger L's cockpit, and that was quickly followed up by Priscilla taking down a mobile suit with a pair of precise railgun rounds. The two of them quickly moved on to their next foes, and Lan doubted that those two machines would remain in the game for long.

They're doing fine, she admonished herself, Focus on your own fight!

Following her own advice, she pulled back from her foe before opening up with her left beam rifle and both railguns. While her particle beam failed to find its mark, both railgun slugs hit the Strike-Avenger in the torso, knocking the mobile suit back. Lan used that as an opening to charge in and lash out with her beam saber, but her foe was able to recover at the last moment and deflect her strike with their anti-ship sword. Pressing her assault, Lan thrust out with her blade again, and while her enemy succeeded in parrying the strike it was a very near thing.

Sensing an opportunity, Lan continued to attack. Her foe was still able to block her beam saber strikes, but from the frantic way they were defending themselves Lan could tell that they weren't used to being put on the back-foot like this. They were accustomed to offense, not defense, and that was something that Lan could exploit.

She lashed out with her violet blade, and as the Strike-Avenger blocked the attack she fired her Wraith's chest-mounted rocket anchors. They wouldn't do anything against the unit's Phase Shift Armor, but the mobile suit itself was not her target; its Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon was. The right anchor caught the weapon, and Lan immediately triggered its pullback mechanism. It wasn't enough to make the Strike-Avenger release the cannon, but it did put the mobile suit off balance.

As the mobile suit was pulled forward Lan pulled back and opened fire with her beam rifle. The particle beam nailed the Agni and destroyed it. Now she only had to worry about the anti-ship sword.

Come on, Lan, she told herself, Time to wrap this up.

Her teammates certainly weren't wasting any time with their respective foes. The Valkyrie had apparently decided to stop toying with her enemy and was moving in for the kill. Epyon Revenant lashed out with its Heat Rod, wrapping around its Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon and shredding it. The Strike-Avenger opened fire with its CIWS, but the bullets bounced impotently off of Epyon Revenant's Gundanium ally frame. She then rushed in and thrust out with her emerald beam sword. The Strike-Avenger managed to catch that attack on its blade, but it was too slow in trying to block her follow-up slash, and Shemei sliced the Strike-Avenger in half.

Meanwhile, Adaline and Priscilla were wrapping up their clashes with the last two Dagger Ls. Adaline blocked beam rifle fire on her left Trikeros shield before opening up with the rifle mounted in the right one, nailing the Dagger L in the cockpit. As for Priscilla, she had he foe pinned with railgun fire, and before it could make a counterattack she rushed in and cut it down with her beam saber.

"All right, pal," said Lan as she crossed blades with her foe again, "You're mine!"

As the beam saber in her right shield kept the enemy's anti-ship sword at bay, Lan ignited the one mounted in her left. The enemy pulled back at the last moment to avoid getting impaled, although the blade did stab into the Strike-Avenger's right leg. Lan then gunned her engines and pushed forward, swiping aside the anti-ship sword and impaling the Strike-Avenger through the cockpit.

"Gotcha!" she yelled triumphantly as the mobile suit exploded.

However, as she celebrated her victory she forgot to check her surroundings. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized that a GINN had snuck up behind her during the duel. Its rifle was already raised and aimed square at her, and even as Lan reacted she knew that she would not be able to dodge or block the shot.

No!, she thought, Not here!

She was defiant even as she braced for the end…

…but it was an end that never came.

At the last possible moment a mobile suit interposed itself between the Wraith and the GINN… and not just any mobile suit.

The Gundam Sandrock Saladin.

The GINN fired a volley of particle beams, but they all hit the tan cloak the Gundam was wrapped in. The cloak disintegrated, but it had served its purpose; the mobile suit beneath it was completely undamaged. Sandrock Saladin then rushed forward and brought its two Heat Shotels together in a scissors motion, cutting the GINN in half.

A second later a young man appeared on her display. Even through the visor of his black helmet Lan had no problem making out his features. Platinum gold hair, bright blue eyes, a face that just seemed far too gentle to belong to the pilot of such a fearsome mobile suit…

…in short, a dream boy for Lan.

Quatre Raberba Winner, she thought, remember his name from the brief files Heero had shown her and the others, I always thought he had a cute picture in that file, but… wow!

He's hot!

"Lan Zhao, right?" the young man said, "Are you okay?"

Her eyes widened. "You know my name?"

Quatre nodded. "Heero gave us a rundown of his associates back on the Minerva."

Lan smiled. "Of course he did. Thanks for the save, Quatre. I owe you one."

"Anytime," Quatre replied.

Lan's eyes narrowed as she saw movement behind Sandrock. "Quatre, go right!"

To his credit, the young man didn't stop to question her. He simply hit his thrusters and dodged to the right, giving Lan the opening she needed to put a particle beam through the cockpit of a renegade GINN that had been trying to sneak up on him.

"Nice shot," said Quatre, "Thanks!"

Lan smiled and winked. "You got it. Can't let a cute guy like you die on me right after you just saved my life!"

Even through his helmet visor the young man looked flustered, and Lan could swear that he was blushing. It just made him even cuter in her eyes, and she couldn't wait to spend some time with him after the battle.

"Uhm, sure," he said, "I, uhm, appreciate that!"

Aw, he looks so innocent, she thought deviously, Quatre, you and I are going to have some fun once this fight's over if I have anything to say about it!

Looking around, she saw no immediate threats in their area. "What's next?"

"I'm pulling back towards the surviving drill teams," said Quatre, "You should check in with your flight lead."

Lan nodded and did just that. "Hey, boss, what now?"

"The Gundam pilots have the right idea," said Shemei, "Fall back and guard the remaining drill teams while they finish setting up their equipment."

It was a good move, and with a glance at her display she realized that that was where La Flaga had gone in the chaos; Tallgeese Kai had already taken up position hovering over one of the drill teams. With its combination of agility, precision and the protection offered by its Planet Defensors it was actually an ideal unit for such a role.

"Do you think enough of them made it?" asked Priscilla, "They took some serious losses."

"How much of the colony can they break up with their surviving drills?" asked Adaline.

"We'll find out soon enough," said Shemei, "and we'll have to hope that the others are ready when the time comes for bombardment."

Lan nodded. Checking her sensors, she saw that the Archangel and the Dominion had ceased advancing towards the falling ruins a little while ago. The two battleships were maintaining an appropriate distance so that when the colony began to break apart they would be ready to hit the largest of the pieces with their new guns.

The public debut of the Buster Cannons, she thought, Now that's going to be something to see.

The battleships wouldn't be the only ones targeting the debris. Lan knew from the briefing sessions that Dearka would be joining the bombardment with the Vayeate Kai's heavy Beam Cannon, and Heero was supposed to take part with the Twin Buster Rifle. However, since the Perfect Soldier was still locked in his duel with the violet gunbarrel mobile suit Lan had to wonder just how that part of the plan would pan out.

Hurry up, Heero, she thought, You gotta take that bastard down, and fast!

In the meantime, at least she had something to occupy herself with. As she pulled back Lan made sure to follow the Gundam Sandrock Saladin. The mobile suit's cute young pilot had certainly caught her attention, and she wanted to stick around to see what else he was capable of.

I'm gonna make sure we both make it through this fight, Quatre, she thought with a smile, After all, we still need to get to know each other… and I'm sure that's a process I'm going to immensely enjoy!

….

Damn it, thought Wufei as he watched Rodrigues dodge another shot from Lunamaria's heavy cannon, Why does she have to keep interfering? This is my fight!

Wufei was not the type of warrior who let someone in on a duel that he was determined to fight to the finish. Samuel Rodrigues had shown great skill in their original duel; he'd been capable of holding his own for a considerable time in the fight despite the fact that Nataku outclassed his mobile suit. That sort of ability deserved nothing but respect in Wufei's eyes, and for him the way to show that admiration was to fight Rodrigues one-on-one. However, Lunamaria had inserted herself into the fight and was showing no willingness to back down, forcing Wufei to accommodate her in a battle that by rights was his alone.

Once again he saw Rodrigues angle to attack Lunamaria, to try and take her out quickly before getting back to Wufei. Once again those efforts were thwarted by Wufei, who swiftly interposed himself between Rodrigues and Lunamaria before the former could strike down the latter. The proud Gundam pilot may have wanted the girl to stop interfering in his duel, but his sense of justice would not allow him to simply let Rodrigues cut her down so they could settle their score without an interloper.

The Gundam pilot was in a very strange place. On the one hand he was quite annoyed with Lunamaria, but on the other he found that a part of himself respected her courage. She may have been new to the battlefield but Wufei had no doubt that she was aware of how outmatched she was against the black and red mobile suit that he was now fighting. Even if her interference was at strictly long-range she had to know that it would be little effort for Rodrigues to close the gap, and indeed he would've done so already had Wufei not stopped him. Yet she had not hesitated to take her first shot and every subsequent shot, waiting only for an opening so she would not hit Wufei.

Her spirit was undeniable… and for Wufei it hit a little too close to home. It threatened to drag up memories and ghosts that he had long thought settled and dealt with. To deal with it he was focusing completely on the duel at hand, and at this point he had simply adapted to Lunamaria's presence and adjusted his fighting style to be ready to ward off an assault on her at the first hint of trouble.

She's like her… too much like her, thought Wufei as he went on the offensive, Damn it all…

His double-ended beam trident whirling, he fell upon Rodrigues in a flurry of lightning fast blows. His foe's beam katana danced with incredible grace and speed, deflecting every single strike that Wufei sent his way. It didn't seem possible, but his enemy actually seemed to have gotten even better than the last time that they had done battle, and that had been merely days ago. Wufei couldn't say yet if his adversary was as skilled as Treize, but if he wasn't it certainly didn't stem from lack of trying.

He would've been right at home in our old war, thought Wufei as his foe countered and retook the offensive, Treize would've recruited him on the spot.

Wufei fell back as Rodrigues attacked, waiting patiently for an opening to counter. As Rodrigues finished a sequence Wufei seized the opportunity and lashed out with his weapon, stabbing forward. His foe was able to redirect the attack but Wufei immediately followed that up with a horizontal slash. Rodrigues pulled back, but the strike did manage to graze the machine and leave a scorch mark along the upper torso.

First blood's mine, thought Wufei with a smirk, If he had been just a split second slower that would've ended the duel right there. He's good.

He couldn't ask for more in an opponent. It was abundantly clear to Wufei why Heero had remained in the Cosmic Era rather than return to the After Colony world; here there were worthy foes aplenty to keep him sharp. Wufei was fulfilled here and now in a way that he never could've been during the peace that had taken over After Colony, and he was sure that Heero felt the same way. The spirit of the warrior had left After Colony, but it was alive and well in the Cosmic Era.

As he and Rodrigues broke off again another flash of crimson energy served to remind him of the only problem he had with this duel. Rodgrigues gunned his engines after dodging the shot, intent on eliminating Lunamaria immediately. Wufei would have none of it, and fired his Dragon Fangs. One of them hit Rodrigues in the back, not doing any damage but knocking the enemy off course and giving the Gundam pilot the chance he needed to close the gap and once again driving him away from Lunamaria. Wufei was scowling in irritation all the while, but he knew that he wouldn't forgive himself now if he let her die.

"You know," he told his unwanted ally, "you really should back off."

"Not a chance!" she shot back.

Despite his annoyance, for some reason Wufei couldn't help but smirk. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"I'll take that as a compliment," said Lunamaria, "Now let's kick this guy's ass!"

Wufei's eyes narrowed as he crossed blades with Rodrigues. "I'll be the one kicking this guy's ass. You can just sit back and watch."

"Not gonna happen!" yelled Lunamaria.

Wufei shrugged. "Suit yourself."

With that he gave himself over completely to the fight, emerald double-ended beam trident whirling in a tornado of death. He was fully on the offensive, pushing Rodrigues back with each strike… and he was starting to land more glancing blows. A graze to the mobile suit's left leg; another to its right shoulder; a third to the right foot. None of them did anything more than add another scorch mark, but to Wufei they were all the evidence he needed to know that he was wearing Rodrigues down.

You've fought well, he silently saluted his foe, and I really think it's a shame to end our budding rivalry here, but I won't let you escape. This ends here!

….

Tall, rail thin, and with short-cropped black hair, the thirty-year old French Coordinator Commander Armand Roussin leaned forward in his seat as he studied the ongoing battle on the Freya's main monitor. Now that the enemy capital ships had been dealt with the engagement was really a mobile suit affair; the warships of Task Force Aurora had repositioned themselves for their eventual bombardment of the debris.

I never expected the Demon Lord of Avalon to intervene here, he thought as he watched Heero Yuy's duel with the unknown violet mobile suit, Him or the two rogue legged ships, really. When this battle first started, I actually had my doubts, but now… we might just be able to pull this off.

He turned to his communications operator. "How many of the drill teams are signaling readiness?"

"Checking," said the blonde woman in her mid twenties from her station, "Sixty percent were able to assemble their equipment, sir!"

Barely more than half, he silently fumed, Damn it, is that enough? It'll have to be… we're out of time.

"Very well," he said, "Signal the drill teams and give the activation order. Once all the surviving devices are going I want all mobile suit teams to withdraw from the ruins!"

"Aye, Commander!" she replied.

….

Damn it, thought Heero as he dodged a volley of emerald beams, I do not have time for this!

Here he was, still trading fire with the violet gunbarrel mobile suit from the last two battles. Heero cut loose with his Twin Buster Rifle, but his foe was able to evade the blast of energy and continue the duel. It was true the enemy machine had been reduced to its two left gunbarrel drones, and he had knocked out its left linear gun earlier in the fight, but his progress was just coming far too slowly. Under different circumstances the Gundam pilot might be fine with gradually wearing his foe down, but in this battle time was not on his side.

The ruins of Junius Seven fell further with each passing second. It would not be long now until Task Force Aurora's drills activated and began to cut the ruins into smaller pieces. Heero's place was not here in this duel; it was as part of Terminal's bombardment force. However, he doubted that his foe would let him get out of this duel even if Heero had the upper hand. It was clear that the pilot of this machine and the others from Bogey One wanted to sabotage ZAFT's efforts here, and keeping him tied up in this fight would go a long way towards accomplishing their goals.

Billions of lives are riding on this battle, thought Heero as he rushed in for a beam saber exchange, I can't fail them now!

Emerald blade met violet and sparks of energy flew. The strikes were swift and furious, with Heero steadily pushing his foe back. A quick thrust eliminated the right linear gun, but it was far from a decisive blow when the mobile suit still had its beam rifle, saber, and left two gunbarrel drones to play with.

His enemy broke off, and Heero braced to evade a volley of fire from the two remaining gunbarrel drones. However, the violet mobile suit never got the chance to use them; a flurry of emerald beams, crimson lances of plasma, and yellow railgun slugs forced to go fully evasive and abandon its counterattack.

"Kira!" said Heero as he saw two familiar mobile suits coming in fast, "Yzak!"

"Heero!" yelled Kira, "You've got to get out of here!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Heero.

"The order just went out," said Yzak, "Task Force Aurora's firing up their drills!"

"We'll keep this guy busy," said Kira, "You need to set up for the bombardment!"

Heero nodded. "Right. Thanks."

"Anytime," said Kira.

Heero broke off as Kira and Yzak moved in to engage the violet mobile suit. Mercurius Kai was up front, its Planet Defensors deployed to deflect enemy fire, while the Freedom was sighting in with its formidable array of artillery, ready to unleash a fearsome barrage at the drop of a hat.

Confident that his friends would be able to handle themselves, Heero turned his attention to Junius Seven. Using both his sensors and the ZERO System, the Perfect Soldier quickly mapped out the active drills, and swiftly realized that there was a problem.

Not enough of them are active, he thought, We've got to find a way to make up for that

The answer came as he was studying the surface of the ruins and found the Gundam Epyon Revenant. His mind racing, Heero quickly contacted the Valkyrie, and his former rival appeared on his screen.

"Shemei," he said, "is your drill secure?"

"Secure and powered up," she replied, "I'll take off as soon as she makes a serious dent in these ruins."

"I need you airborne now, actually," said Heero as he sent her data, "and I need you to go here."

He saw Shemei's eyes narrow on the monitor. "Got it. I'll get into position and wait for your signal."

"No need to wait," Heero replied, "Start cutting as soon as you get there."

"Roger that," said Shemei, "Epyon Revenant, out."

Confident that she would make it in time, Heero then used the ZERO System to try to map out the most likely dispersal of the colony fragments once the drills and Shemei did their job. This was far trickier than simply utilizing the System in normal combat, but the Gundam pilot was able to come up with a reasonable predictive model that fit his needs.

After that came the real hard part. Immersing himself in the ZERO System, the myriad firing vectors of all the ships and mobile suits that would be involved in the bombardment assembled themselves in a complex, interlocking latticework. Every single unit had a part to play, and the real trick was making sure that each one got the exact data it would need to perform its role in the barrage. Isolating and organizing those key data fragments, packaging them and sending them out… for any other soldier a task of this scale would've been impossible. It was only through his mastery of the ZERO System that Heero was able to tackle this challenge, and even then he was keenly aware of the strain it was putting on his mind.

All right, he thought as he assembled the data and prepared to send it out to everyone involved, Let's do this!

….

"Captain!" cried Flay, "Heero's on the line!"

Murrue nodded. "Put him through, Flay!"

Heero appeared on the main monitor. "Murrue, what's your status?"

"We're in position for bombardment," Murrue replied, "The Buster Cannon's ready to fire on my command."

"Good," Heero replied, "I'm sending firing data across our forces. ZAFT didn't get enough of their drills online, but I found a way around that with Shemei."

Murrue nodded; she was fully aware of Gundam Epyon Revenant's capabilities and thus had a pretty good idea of what Heero had in mind. "We'll keep an eye open for her. I imagine it won't be hard to spot her contribution."

"Yes," said Heero, "I'm moving into position now. I'm setting up a separate channel for all the bombardment units. When the time comes, I'll give the order to fire."

Murrue smiled. "We'll be ready whenever it comes through. Good luck."

Heero nodded. "You too. Heero, out."

As Heero vanished from the screen Murrue turned back to Flay. "Did we get Heero's data?"

Flay nodded. "I've got it!"

"Good," said Murrue, "Set up a separate link for that bombardment channel, and get the firing data to weapons. We're only going to get one shot at this, so let's make it count!"

"Aye, Captain!" Flay replied.

"Lieutenant Tsukino," said Murrue, "Be ready to fire at a moment's notice!"

"Understood, ma'am," her XO replied.

"Lacus," said Murrue, "Have the Tiger move forward to cover the Vayeate Kai when it joins the bombardment. The Tigress will remain with us."

"Understood, Murrue," the songstress replied.

We're so close, she thought, It's all coming down to the wire now.

Come on, Heero!

….

All around him, Athrun could see the surviving ZAKUs and GuAIZ Rs taking off from the colony as the drills they were guarding activated. Athrun was ready to join them, but Shinn was still mixing it up with the Gaia and Athrun was hesitant to leave him behind. Rey was still on the surface as well, and Athrun wondered if it was because of Shinn too.

He can't still be down here once the colony begins to break up, he thought, He'll be blown to bits with the amount of firepower Heero and the others are going to throw at the debris!

He was about to go help Shinn when he caught sight of a fallen drill at the edge of his sensors. The mobile suits guarding it had been destroyed earlier by the renegades, but the device itself was still intact; it had only been knocked to the side by an explosion.

Athrun immediately began to move towards it. "Rey, go help Shinn! I'm going to setup and activate that drill!"

"Understood," Rey replied, and his white ZAKU Phantom took off and headed straight for the Impulse and the Gaia.

Confident that Shinn would be out of trouble soon enough, Athrun focused on his own objective. As he approached the drill he saw that it was partially caught in some of the debris; he would have to carefully extricate it to avoid damaging it.

"Here we go," Athrun muttered, sweat building at his brow as he concentrated on his task.

It was a delicate balance between speed and precision. It would be so much faster to use his rifle to blow away the debris, but that would destroy the drill in the process. However, if he took too long in recovering it and setting it up there was no way he would survive the colony's breakup and the ensuing bombardment from Terminal and ZAFT.

His ZAKU Warrior began to vibrate around him as he cleared the debris from the drill; the other devices were really starting to bite into the ruins. Soon they would begin to fracture, but if they were going to prevent catastrophic loss of life down on the planet then the pieces needed to be smaller.

A glint of green light caught Athrun's attention. Looking over at a section of the colony where the drill teams had not fared well, he saw a familiar crimson mobile suit. The Gundam Epyon Revenant had its beam sword thrust into the surface of the ruins, and Athrun's eyes widened in shock as he realized what was happening.

The Valkyrie's using her blade in place of one of the drills, he thought, That… that's impossible!

Impossible for any conventional mobile suit, but the Gundam Epyon Revenant was hardly a conventional machine. With the beam sword having a direct link to the Gundam's reactor it could be fed enormous amounts of power, and Athrun reflected that the weapon almost seemed like a melee-equivalent of Wing Zero Albion's Twin Buster Rifle.

Her efforts came not a moment too soon. Athrun could see the edges of the ruins beginning to glow red. It was soft right now, but it would grow brighter all too soon; the ruins were starting to enter the atmosphere.

"Gotta hurry," he muttered as he finished clearing the debris from the drill.

Satisfied that the machine was in working condition, he positioned the device upright before studying the controls. Athrun had never worked with any sort of equipment like this during his time in ZAFT, but supplementary briefing materials provided by Captain Gladys had given him a good idea as to how to get the unit operational.

At least I don't need to worry about the enemy, he thought, We've just about mopped up the renegades, and Shinn and Rey are keeping the Gaia busy.

Indeed, from the look of things it seemed like the Gaia was ready to quit the field. Shinn and Rey were keeping the stolen mobile suit on the defensive through a combination of beam rifle fire and close-quarters assaults. Shinn was focusing primarily on the latter while Rey leaned towards the former. Their teamwork wasn't as tight and seamless as the kind that Athrun had built up with his comrades in Terminal, but it was still showing remarkable improvement from where it had stood just a few days ago.

The Gaia's comrades looked like they had just about had enough too. Wufei was still mixing it up with the black and red mobile suit with the beam katana while Lunamaria provided long range fire support. The mobile suit was sporting a few more scorch marks from close shaves with Altron Custom's double-ended beam trident, not serious blows by any means but enough to tell Athrun that Wufei was wearing his foe down. From the way the enemy was moving it looked like they were starting to tire from the fight; if they didn't withdraw soon they'd probably make an error from sheer exhaustion and give Wufei the opening he needed to take his foe down for good.

Meanwhile, Kira and Yzak definitely seemed to have their foe on the ropes. With Yzak playing the shield to Kira's sword the violet gunbarrel machine was hard pressed to find any opening to attack. As the Mercurius Kai's Planet Defensors blocked a salvo of particle beams Kira cut loose with the Freedom's artillery. The barrage of fire actually knocked out another one of the unit's gunbarrels, leaving just one of the weapons left at the mobile suit's disposal.

Don't worry about the others, he thought, They've got things taken care of on their end. Focus on your own work.

Concentrating on the drill, he carefully entered the priming sequence on the large control pad in front of him. Once he saw a green light indicating that the device was good to go he hit the activation key. The drill immediately began digging into the surface of the ruins, throwing up bits of debris in the process which bounced harmlessly off the ZAKU Warrior's armor.

Athrun smiled. "Mission accomplished."

Unfortunately, he'd gotten careless. He'd been so focused on his drill and so convinced that the renegades had been dealt with that he was completely unaware that one of their modified GINNs was still in play. It had stayed low among the ruins to avoid detection, and Athrun only noticed it when it came flying out of cover, its beam rifle blazing.

"Shit!" he snarled as particle beams dug into the ruins around him.

He whirled around to bring his shield up to block the fire, but before he could do so one of the particle beams hit his ZAKU in the right leg and blew it off. Normally that wouldn't have mattered much since this was a space battle, but Athrun knew that if he took off now he'd give the enemy the perfect opening to destroy the drill.

Hitting his maneuvering jets, he tried to maintain a delicate balance while returning fire with his rifle. Unfortunately his foe was able to evade his shots and came in with its beam saber raised and ready to strike. Having no choice, Athrun rushed forward with his beam tomahawk; if he blocked the attack back here he would be pushed back onto the drill and would disrupt its vital work.

"Stop this!" he shouted at his enemy over an open channel, "This is pointless! The battle's over; you've lost! Do you really want to be responsible for the murder of billions of people?"

"This is justice!" a male voice yelled back, "The Bloody Valentine Tragedy has gone unanswered for far too long! This is our just revenge!"

"You idiot!" Athrun shot back as he blocked a beam saber strike with his beam tomahawk, "You're repaying a massacre with genocide! That's not justice!"

"This is what those animals deserve!" his foe shouted, "Those barbarians murdered my daughter! They'll all burn for their crimes! The will of Patrick Zala shall be done!"

"My father is dead!" Athrun growled as he worked furiously to keep his enemy away from the drill, "Fighting under his name is meaningless!"

"You're his son?" the man asked incredulously, "Then you of all people should understand my rage! Does not the soul of Lenore Zala cry out for vengeance, just as surely as that of my daughter?"

"You're wrong!" Athrun yelled, "The people who died here would want justice, not vengeance! They wouldn't want their grave to be used as a weapon!"

"This is the only weapon that they have!" the man defiantly replied, "It is their only means to strike back against those who murdered them! Those who died here will finally see true justice! If you are too weak to carry out your father's will, than I will do it for you! Go on and laugh with the rest of the killers in a world in denial if you will! The only path for Coordinators is that of Patrick Zala!"

Father, thought Athrun as he struggled to keep his foe at bay with his damaged mobile suit, is this the legacy that you've left me, that you've left the world? Is the only use left for your name that of a banner for mass murder? Will I have to spend the rest of my life fighting the lost souls ensnared by your rage?

It was such a sad mark for a man to leave on the world, but Athrun didn't have time to contemplate how he would deal with his father's legacy going forward. All he could do right now was fight the enemy in front of him and keep them from trying to accomplish his father's twisted will.

Behind him the drill continued to bore its way through the ruins. Fissures were growing around it like a spider's web; the device was making progress. At the same time Athrun could see the increasing red glow at the edges of the ruins, indicating their further descent into the atmosphere.

I've got to get out of here, he thought as he fended off his foe, I'll die if I don't.

He could withdraw now; only his ZAKU Warrior's leg was damaged, not its thrusters. However, the enemy he faced was clearly a fanatic, and Athrun was sure that if he left now his foe would destroy the drill even if it meant he would lose his chance to escape the ruins. He had to find a way out of this mess, but how?

The answer came in the form of a superheated whip tearing into the modified GINN. Athrun heard his foe scream for a split second before their voice was overtaken by static and their mobile suit exploded. The whip quickly receded back to its source; the Gundam Epyon Revenant.

"Come on!" said the Valkyrie, "We need to get the hell out of here!"

Athrun nodded and hit his thrusters. However, he found that he was climbing far too slow for his liking.

"Damn it!" he said, "Gravity's stronger now. I'm too far down!"

"I got you," said Shemei, bringing the Epyon Revenant alongside him and adding her engine power to his.

Athrun sighed with relief as he began to rise. "Thanks."

"No problem," said Shemei.

Surveying the colony as they ascended, Athrun could see severe fissures coursing across it as the ruins began to break up. A great, glowing gash marked where the Valkyrie had cut through with Epyon Revenant's powerful beam sword. Slowly but surely the ruins were splitting up into fragments. However, those pieces were still large enough to do plenty of damage when they crashed down to Earth.

"Did we do enough?" he asked.

"Relax," said Shemei, "We did our part just fine. Now the bombardment group will be taking over, so I suggest you just sit back and watch the fireworks."

Athrun nodded as he checked his display. It looked like the enemy had finally been dealt with. There were no more renegade GINNs visible, while the interlopers looked to be making their withdrawal. Shinn and Rey had forced the Gaia to finally call it quits, Wufei and Lunamaria's foe was hightailing it out of there, and even Kira and Yzak's enemy was making their retreat.

Around the falling ruins he could see the myriad assembly of allied warships and mobile suits taking their places. The nine destroyers, single cruiser, and the battleship Minerva were all arrayed in a rough crescent on one side of the colony. At the opposite end of Junius Seven was the Dominion, while closer to Task Force Aurora was the Archangel. All the allied mobile suits had withdrawn from the ruins, with most maintaining a watchful vigil in the event that any enemies were still lurking in the area.

And floating up above the descending ruins, seemingly at the peak of it all, was the mobile suit that the coming bombardment would center upon.

Wing Zero Albion.

….

"Captain, the Tannhäuser is fully charged!" said Arthur, "We have our targeting data and are locked in. We're ready to fire on your order!"

My order?, thought Talia with some amusement, Hardly. It's Heero's order that we'll be firing on.

When the Demon Lord of Avalon had contacted her and informed her that he would be the one coordinating the bombardment for the allied forces, Talia had had a hard time believing it. Heero Yuy's skills were renowned, but even that seemed like too much for a single pilot to handle, regardless of how advanced his mobile suit was. Nevertheless, Talia had realized that the Gundam pilot was quite calm about the idea, and it was that quiet certainty that convinced her that he really could pull this off. Bringing Task Force Aurora's Commander Roussin around to the idea had taken some work, but the stubborn Frenchman had eventually relented.

"Where's Athrun?" asked Cagalli worriedly, "He's not still down there, is he?"

"Meyrin?" asked Talia.

"Just got a confirmation burst transmission from pilot Zala a few seconds ago," Meyrin replied, "His drill's active and he's outbound."

Cagalli sighed with relief. "Thank heaven. He's all right."

"And the rest of our pilots?" asked Talia.

"Outbound as well," said Meyrin, "They reported that their foes are withdrawing."

The scale of what Heero was attempting to do was remarkable, all the more so considering he was just one pilot. It wasn't just the surviving warships on the field that would be taking part in the bombardment; Heero had explicitly requested that all surviving Gunner ZAKU Warriors also participate. Talia was sure that a few mobile suits from Heero's allies would be taking part as well; the blue one with the heavy beam cannon in particular seemed like a prime candidate. He would be feeding firing data to so many different sources at once that Talia was half-convinced that the Albion's computer would crash from the effort, but Heero didn't seem to be worried about that possibility at all.

If only we had access to that mobile suit's secrets, she thought, Hell, I'd even be fine leaving out its rifle if we could learn about the Albion's hardware and software; the processing power of its central computer alone must far surpass anything our mobile suits have if he's confident that he can pull this off. Just being able to replicate that single feature for our forces would give us a huge advantage over any of our rivals. Not to mention the operating system the Albion must have… how the hell would something like that work?

Unfortunately, those secrets remained well beyond the grasp of ZAFT. Heero seemed quite determined that they stayed with him. For now Talia supposed it would be enough to have the wielder of such sophisticated technology just fighting on their side, even if it was only part of a temporary alliance.

On the main monitor Talia could see the ruins of Junius Seven breaking up. The drills were doing their work well, but far fewer of them had survived the battle to perform their roles than Talia had hoped. The fragments of the colony were still quite large and were now burning red hot; if Task Force Aurora and their unexpected allies did not fire soon they would lose their only chance to prevent utter slaughter.

Come on, Heero, she thought nervously, Anytime now…

After what seemed like an eternity but was probably no more than a few tense seconds she heard Meyrin cry out. "Group wide transmission coming from the Albion! Patching it through now!"

Heero's voice came over the bridge speakers. "All designated bombardment units, prepare to fire on my mark. Five… four… three… two… one… mark!"

"Fire!" shouted Talia.

A storm of fire the likes of which had not been seen since the Bloody Valentine War erupted. A stream of crimson energy flew forth as the Minerva's positron cannon opened up. It was joined by the heavy beam cannons of the other Task Force Aurora warships, along with smaller blasts of crimson energy from the surviving Gunner ZAKU Warriors.

As impressive a lightshow as the ZAFT survivors gave, it paled in comparison to the awesome power of their allies. Albion's fearsome rifle had split into two, and at the mark Heero Yuy unleashed twin streams of golden-yellow hellfire. The blue mobile suit with the heavy beam cannon that Talia had spotted earlier cut loose as well with a large beam the same color as the Albion's, and while it did not look quite as powerful as a maxed out blast fired from the combined Twin Buster Rifle was it was still quite potent. The Freedom joined them with a storm of particle beams, plasma blasts, and railgun rounds from its powerful array of artillery.

However, the true crown jewel of the bombardment came from the rogue warships Archangel and Dominion. Talia had wondered since the two ships had first appeared what those sinister looking cannons mounted on the upper hull of their central structures could do, and she was stunned to realize exactly what they were; the Albion's rifle on a battleship's scale. The white and black warships cut loose with titanic blasts of golden-yellow hellfire, the likes of which dwarfed even the full power of the Albion's Twin Buster Rifle.

The rain of fire hammered the fragments of Junius Seven, and a series of massive explosions erupted over the Earth. Massive chunks of the colony that could've done grievous harm had they fallen to the surface were blown apart by the incredibly powerful and precise barrage, and when the dust settled Talia could see that the surviving pieces were now much, much smaller.

Some would continue down through the atmosphere and make landfall, but their mass was so reduced now that Talia knew the risk of heavy casualties had been all but eliminated. Most of the bits left were already crumbling into ever smaller pieces, tiny bits of metal and concrete that would utterly disintegrate on the way down.

I don't believe it, thought Talia in stunned silence, We actually pulled it off…

We won!

"Captain!" cried Meyrin, "Task force-wide transmission coming from the Freya!"

"Put it through," Talia ordered.

Commander Roussin's voice came over the speakers. "Attention all vessels and mobile suits, this is an order from the flagship; stand down. We've accomplished our mission. Well done, everyone."

The bridge erupted into cheers, and while Talia wasn't given to such enthusiastic displays of emotion she did allow herself a smile as she continued to watch the small fragments of Junius Seven burn in the upper atmosphere. The victory had been costly, but given the enormity of the stakes involved Talia knew that the sacrifices they had made were worth it.

"Rest in peace," she whispered, a quiet tribute to both the ZAFT soldiers that had fallen today and the nearly quarter-million people whose mass grave had been hijacked and nearly turned into a weapon of mass destruction.

A ghost from the last war had been banished today; the strongest remnants of the Zala regime had been purged by fire. A few isolated pockets might exist back at L5; hard line believers who could not denounce their hatred and lust for vengeance no matter how far behind the rest of the world left them. However, Talia was confident that the tiny fragments that remained would never be able to mass the same sort of resources and power that the renegades had today.

Patrick Zala's phantom had been vanquished, and billions of lives had been saved. As far as Talia was concerned, it was the greatest victory of her career.

Well done, all of you, she thought as she watched her bridge crew celebrate, You've done your duty and performed exemplary work today. You've earned this victory. Today, you are all heroes, and no one can take that from you.

….

Heero gave a small smile as he watched the small fragments of debris burn in the upper atmosphere. "Mission complete."

The damage to the surface from those small bits of the ruins would be minimal, if any at all. His sensors were showing that the trajectories for many of the fragments would have them crash down in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, with a few heading towards the Mediterranean Sea. Some would still land on the ground somewhere, but they lacked the mass to cause major damage and casualties and the likelihood of them touching down in an inhabited area was remote.

The operation had been successful, albeit at a severe cost to Task Force Aurora. Apart from those casualties the only sore spot for Heero as far as this battle went was that the Gaia, the violet gunbarrel mobile suit, and the black and red machine that Wufei had been fighting had all managed to escape. Their battleship may have been destroyed, but Heero had a feeling that this was not the last time he'd be seeing those three mobile suits.

Another day, he thought, Another fight… one way or the other, those three will have to be dealt with.

There was nothing he could do about it for now. Now he had to focus on his next move, and that involved contacting Murrue.

His lover's beautiful face appeared on his screen a few seconds later. "We did it, Heero! You were outstanding!"

Heero nodded. "Thanks. So were you, Murrue. Good shooting."

Murrue winked. "Well, it's not hard when you're feeding my crew targeting data. All we had to do was point and shoot."

Heero chuckled. "Good point. Still, well done, to you and your crew."

"Thank you, Heero," Murrue replied, "You know that we've always got your back."

"Speaking of back," said Heero, "I think it's about time we got back home."

Murrue nodded. "Agreed, especially before the ZAFT forces here decide to start asking us questions. Will you be riding with us?"

Heero shook his head. "I'll head down to Home One ahead of you."

"What about the other Gundam pilots?" asked Murrue.

"I'll invite them along," said Heero, "but whether they come or not is their decision."

"Got it," said Murrue, smiling again, "I'll see you at Home One soon. I can't wait."

Heero gave her a small smile. "Same here. We've got a lot to catch up on."

Murrue laughed. "It's only been about a week, Heero."

"True," said Heero, "but it's been a busy one."

Murrue nodded. "I can't argue with that. See you dirt side, Heero."

"Roger that," said Heero.

….

Duo grinned as he watched the debris burn to cinders in the atmosphere. "We came, we saw, and we kicked ass!"

Stopping an object from falling to Earth and causing mass devastation gave Duo a certain sense of déjà vu. There were plenty of parallels to draw between what had happened here today and the final battle of the Eve Wars, and having him and his friends play a key role in stopping a potentially catastrophic impact in both this world and After Colony made Duo feel very satisfied.

Man, he thought, wait until Hilde and the others here about this when we get back.

It would certainly make for quite a story, but it would be a while before he'd be able to tell it. For now they were stuck in the Cosmic Era, but at least they'd earned themselves some goodwill with the locals. Helping to save the world had to make for a positive impression, after all.

His thoughts were interrupted by Heero's voice coming over their group channel. "Everyone all right?"

Duo nodded. "Good to go here."

"All systems operational," said Trowa.

"No problems here," said Quatre.

"I'm fine," said Wufei.

"Good," said Heero, "Listen up; I'm heading down to the surface. Terminal has a base we operate out of called Home One. It's a good place to rest up and plan our next move, plus there are some people I need to introduce you to. Are you guys in?"

"Sure," said Duo, "Why not?"

"All right," said Trowa.

"Sounds good," said Quatre, "We'll follow your lead."

There was a notable silence after that, though, and a few seconds later Heero was forced to address the source. "Wufei, did you copy that?"

"I heard you just fine," Wufei replied, "However… I think I'll stick with the Minerva for a while."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "What? You serious, Wufei?"

"Why?" asked Quatre.

"I have my reasons," Wufei replied curtly.

Duo was surprised to hear none other than Trowa chuckle. "Huh. I bet you do."

"What am I missing here?" asked Duo.

"It's nothing," said Wufei, although he sounded a bit forceful to Duo, "This is just what I feel like doing right now. I'll catch up with you guys later."

"Suit yourself," said Heero, "Duo, Trowa, Quatre; form up on me. I'll give you the exact coordinates once we're through the atmosphere."

"Copy that," said Duo as he moved towards the Wing Zero Albion, "Right behind you, buddy."

As Duo, Quatre and Trowa entered formation with Heero their Gundams began to glow red from the heat of atmospheric entry. There was some shaking too, but Duo knew that it was nothing to worry about.

Burning bright like shooting stars, the four Gundams descended to Earth.

Preview for next time!

With the radicals' attempt to drop the ruins of Junius Seven onto Earth thwarted, the respective members of both Terminal and the crew of the ZAFT battleship Minerva take a well deserved break in the nation of Orb. For Heero and Murrue it's an opportunity to not only relax but facilitate some very important introductions between the other Gundam pilots and the core members of Terminal. However, for Cagalli the reprieve will be short lived as she is soon confronted by the politics of an officially neutral nation in a world of rapidly building tension. Manipulated by LOGOS and Lord Djibril, the Earth Alliance casts blame for the attempted colony drop on ZAFT and threatens to reignite the fires of war. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Six: Fragile Peace.

"As long as mankind exists in this world there will always be battles."

Heero Yuy.

Author's Notes: Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the firework show! Next chapter's gonna be a bit more low key, focusing more on character interaction, romance, and politics. Don't worry, the action will heat up again after that one. We've had a pretty eventful story so far, so it's good to take a bit of a breather before diving back into the inferno.

On a minor note, I'm sure you noticed the name I had the radicals give their attempted colony drop. The battle itself will still be referred to as the Break The World Incident even though events played out quite differently than they did in SEED Destiny canon, but I wanted to use the title of Operation Meteor as a way to demonstrate how similar ideas exist in both the Cosmic Era and the After Colony world even if those that come up with those ideas have no clue that others in completely different worlds have tried the same thing. Plus, it's always fun to drop my pen name into one of my chapters!

Until next time, everyone! Please review!