Phase 30: Sand storm in a bottle

As the prince in distress, Athrun didn't expect to be rescued by his beautiful princess, as the red string of fate between them began to ravel. However, the final battle between ZAFT and EA in the region had began, and his best friend Kira was spearheading the effort to defeat his force. How will he react? Will he meet the princess once more, this time at the other side?


"Where did the two of them go?" Athrun asked himself as he walked around the town, looking for his companions. He was looking at some trinkets at the glass window of a shop, wondering if he should buy it for Lacus, and went he turned back to the street, Nicol and Miguel had already disappeared, off to wherever they were.

"Hey, my good man," a male voice called out to him.

Athrun turned toward the voice and saw a local man. "Yes?"

"You want to get some gems for your special one?"

"Er…"

"I have some beautiful ones for sale at very attractive prices," the man glanced looked around. "We don't have them on display in this shop since the tax is quite high in this region. If you'll follow me,"

Still distracted and lost in thoughts, Athrun followed the man into an alley, and that was when his vision became dark and the last thought he had was his mother telling him not to talk to strangers. When he came around, he found his hands and legs were bound and his eyes were covered in a blindfold.

"Damn, am I really cursed? Couldn't I go get some groceries without some excitement?" a female's annoyed voice said.

"You get them good, Your Highness," a male's voice said.

"I told you not to call me that," the female complained. "On to Mr. Charming. Hey, you! The blindfolded one,"

"Me?" Athrun asked, not sure if he was the one the female was addressing.

"There's no one blindfolded here, is there?"

"I don't know, is there?"

"Are you blind…ops, my bad. Anyway, we're going to remove your binding, so can we trust you not to lash out?"

Athrun nodded and felt something cut through the rope tying his wrists. After the bound had unraveled, he removed the clothing covering his eyes. As he felt his eyes getting used to the light, he found two visages slowly coming into his view, revealing a girl with short blonde hair with a knife in her hand, and her companion, a bespectacled young man with dirty blonde hair carrying some bags. The young man seemed very familiar, but Athrun, his mind still muddled, couldn't, for the life of him, recall where he had seen the man before. He glanced around and saw four unconscious men.

The girl gestured toward the four. "They were trying to carry you to somewhere in a bag. Good thing that they're just some small-time kidnappers, trying to sell your pretty face to some buyers in other parts of the world. If they're one of those syndicates, even the two of us would run to the cave, er, hills,"

"She is joking, by the way," the man stated.

The surroundings suggested they were in a large building warehouse. Deciding to talk to the two, at least for the moment, Athrun asked. "Where are we right now?"

"In an abandoned warehouse, in the city, three kilometers from your base," the girl said as she and the man took a few steps back. "Here you go," she said, while throwing something toward Athrun.

Athrun caught the item, and by reflex, his right hand pressed the release lever on it, dropping something. His left hand grabbed the dropped item, brought it close to his eyes, and then pushed back the dropped item into the first item. Only then, his brain registered what had been given to him. "A gun?"

"One of them had it, the rest were carrying knives. We're going to leave, so at least that helps in case they have more friends along the way,"

Athrun pointed the gun at the girl and then at the man. Even if his self-testing prior revealed that his reaction had slowed considerably, he could still fight if the two had malevolent intent toward him. "Maybe the two of you are in cahoots with them?"

The girl snorted. "What, you want to shoot your benefactors?"

"I can't let you go just like that,"

Her face scrunched. "You're inviting me over some coffee?"

Athrun's face reddened and his heart skipped a beat as the implication of her words sunk in. Yes, she was attractive, in a wild kind of way. But that didn't explain why she thought he would invite her over to his place for some in-depth exploration, just like that? Did she think he was easy? Wait, was she being easy? Both were easy? Or maybe this was love at first sight? What about the man with her, did she intend him to watch over them? Was he experiencing the Suspense Bridge Effect or was it the Stockholm Syndrome? A horrifying feeling hit Athrun hard as he realized he was thinking about cheating on Lacus.

All the while Athrun was going through the thoughts, the girl was staring at him with a hand on her hip. She smiled and said, "Your expressions look funny. I like you,"

"I… like you too,"

The girl was surprised by the sudden admission and turned her head slightly away while fidgeting. "Really? Well, some introduction is in order, I guess. I'm…"

Before the girl could introduce herself, the door to the place was kicked down, and two seconds later, Athrun, the girl, and her counterpart were surrounded by a squad of ZAFT soldiers.

"Shame on you, princess," Andrew said as he entered the place, along with Nicol and Miguel. "I had such a high opinion of you," he turned his head toward Nicol and stage whispered, "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well,"

Despite being surrounded, the girl merely rolled her eyes. "Yorick told me he didn't know anyone remotely resembling you. And did anyone tell you that you can't read the room well? Maybe a few minutes later next time?"

"Ouch! Hit me square in the guts."

"I would like to add my fist there as well, if you let me. But, pleasantries aside, since you're here, it saves us some effort," the girl said while gesturing toward Athrun. "Let me guess, a bait?"

"A bait?" Andrew asked back.

"A bait to get the human traffickers into your trap, just like you used yourself to get those Blue Cosmos?"

"Hey, even I wouldn't stoop to the level of using someone else… as a bait…" Andrew paused for a moment, "…so far. Something to ponder," He then nodded at the bespectacled man, "and let me guess, this gentleman here is Buster's pilot,"

"I'm not," the man answered.

"Ah, guess not. So, Princess, you mind if I go there so we can talk?"

'Princess' made a shooing gesture and said, "You can just talk from there. We have good hearing,"

Athrun looked at her incredulously. She treated the famed Desert Tiger like a mangy cat. While his military training stated the action incorrigible and disrespectful, the other side of him found her defiance refreshing.

"Unfriendly, as always," Andrew remarked as he gestured for his soldiers to lower their weapons.

"Just like the last time?"

Andrew shrugged. "Oh, no, of course not, unless you want to. Despite how it looks, we were really searching for Athrun here, and running into you is a coincidence. While we can arrest you and come up with something, I don't want your friend watching us from the sky to decide to do something and escalate the matter further. Probably has infrared sensor as well, given that you're comfortable being out of sight,"

"So, how do we go about to settle this?"

"How about my team do the customary bag check just so that we can put on record that you're not attempting some culinary terrorism with your chili sauce, and set you on your way with six hours of truce?"

"Sounds good. Sai, let them check the bags,"

A soldier took the bag from the man named Sai and started rummaging through them. Meanwhile, Athrun finally recalled the actual identity of the man. "Sai, right? Kira's friend?"

Sai smiled, "It's been a while, Athrun,"

"How is he?"

"He's doing fine,"

"I see,"

"You know each other?" 'Princess' asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Er, we were involved in a soup kitchen service once," Sai hastily answered. "And I was going to bring that up after it's my turn to introduce myself."

Athrun wryly noted that while misleading, the description wasn't really wrong since Sai, Kira and others had at once distributed soup to him and the Silverwind crew. "And we collaborated to produce some media for public broadcast,"

"Ye…yeah, that as well," Sai said.

Athrun wasn't lying, since Archangel assisted in the production of Lacus' remembrance video of Junius Seven, even if the ship and its crew would never be credited for their contribution.

"It's clear!" the soldier examining Sai's bags announced.

'Princess' turned toward Andrew. "We're free to go, right?"

"You have your pumpkin chariot?"

"Even better. Can go all terrain, and Sai's riding shotgun," she said as she and Sai started walking to the entrance without anyone stopping them.

"Wait!" Athrun called out. "I've yet to thank you…"

"Cagalli," 'Princess' smiled while waving at him. "See you later, Athrun Zala. Maybe then I'll take you up on you offer,"

After the two had left, Miguel asked, "Who are they?"

"I met the man when I was onboard Archangel. He is, was, a civilian caught up during the attack on Heliopolis," Athrun said.

"And the princess is from a totally neutral nation in the Indo-Pacific region that its name I shouldn't mention," Andrew added.

"You're allowing them to leave just like that? I even heard you refer to the Sai person as Buster's pilot just now!" Miguel asked incredulously.

"I like my head attached to my shoulder in this current state," Andrew said, "Remember your explanation that day? Turns out, she gave the order for the sniping attack that day. And the fact that Sai is not Buster's pilot means another one is, and that someone is probably having this whole place scoped, with the drone up there providing firing solution,"

"They probably wouldn't try anything,"

"They probably would. They knew we were coming. The moment I saw them standing in the middle, I knew they were prepared to fight their way out, assisted by their friends. They probably would have died, but we would have lost half of the people here, putting our own mission at risk. On their side, they probably will lose the princess, and Aegis' pilot,"

"I recall Aegis' pilot is someone else," Miguel said.

"Doesn't matter much to me," Andrew said while shrugging. "Point is, we let them go so we can fight another day, as I would say, and trust me, it would be sooner than you think,"

When the day ended, Athrun didn't really put much thought into the famed Commander's Waltfeld's comment about their upcoming fight would be sooner than they thought. Yet, just a day later, he was already in the cockpit of his mobile suit. He maneuvered his mobile suit to the front gate of the carrier he was off. Lesseps was an impressive land battleship, but while it had a lot of weapons and equipment, a linear catapult was not one of them. Once it reached the opening, Athrun announced, "Athrun Zala, GuAIZ Custom, launching!"

He engaged the GuAIZ's boosters, and it took to the sky, joining Miguel and Nicol's units that were already airborne. Athrun's eyes looked at the weapons equipped with his unit. Even though the three GuAIZ were customized for each of their pilots, for the duration of the current mission, they were equipped with the same weapons: two CIWS, a composite shield, and a beam rifle. Not even the arrestors were included. Nicol's unit still maintained the radar dome, but that's all. The reason given to them was the same set of weapons allowed simplified logistics. It also had the additional advantage of keeping the weight down, allowing for better airborne capability.

"Hey, you two," Miguel's voice over their personal communication network attracted Athrun's attention. "Do you have any idea what's this Operation Paperclip is all about, rather than you know, 'protecting our people from Earth Alliance scums'? The commander's pretty sketchy when asked."

"He's not cleared to do so, I think. As for the personnel, I think they're researching on nuclear fission."

"Someone obviously didn't get the memo. Still," Miguel said as a drop pod disintegrated above them, and three GINNs deployed their parachutes to land near the facility, "Looks important enough that we still want to protect it even though Buster used the buildings as target practices,"

The early warning receiver beeped as a dot appeared on the radar. "Incoming enemy unit, a Skygrasper," Athrun announced. Then another dot appeared. "Aegis as well,"

"Aegis's mine," Miguel proclaimed.

"Not to be nitpick, but didn't you fight Aegis the last time?" Nicol said.

"We're destined rivals…" before Miguel could finish his words, a shot from the side barely missed his cockpit and instead hit the boosters' pack, sending him careening to the ground. He managed to regain control of his mobile suit and it landed safely. "What the heck happened?" Miguel said as his unit walked on the sandy ground.

"Buster happened," Nicol said as his unit dropped its altitude. "I'm tagging its last known position on radar,"

While Nicol reduced his altitude to prevent attack on him, Athrun decided to take another approach and engaged his unit's boosters to chase after the Skygrasper and Aegis, banking on Buster would be reluctant to take a shot when he's close enough to the two.

He was vindicated when there was no attack by Buster. That vindication left him when he saw how his opponents were reacting to his action. His GuAIZ slowly climbed toward their positions. Rather than trying to engage when he got close enough, the two simply performed dives downward. The dives caught him by surprise, that he lost three seconds, enough for them to gain speed and distance. With Aegis in front and attracting a lot of fire from other defenders, the Skygrasper behind it fired two air-to-ground missiles, each targeted at different buildings. The fighter then performed a strafing run, attacking three buildings in succession using its rear mounted beam cannon and wing mounted medium caliber cannons. After it had broken off its attack, five buildings were damaged.

Athrun examined the attacked buildings. They were the main research buildings, and from the situation, still had people inside them; people who were trying to back up important information. It was clear Archangel was trying to finish the job it had done earlier. However, only one was heavily damaged, with the other four suffering from superficial damage. As more and more friendly units began appearing on radar, it became less likely Archangel would succeed.

"Incoming!" Nicol announced.

"Yeah, I can see the reinforcements!" Miguel said.

"Not them! Enemy units appear!"

Five minutes prior,

Lieutenant Junior Grade Jenny "Bauernbrot" Berger recalled reading a joke about an idiot who was given a propeller aircraft to fly and ended up flying it better than experienced pilots until he crashed twenty minutes later. When asked why it happened when he was doing so well, he replied that when he got too high, he got chilly and so switched off the fan. She didn't know why the story crossed her mind after so long. Maybe it was the loud buzzing sound of the A4000-M turboprop engines filling her open cockpit that tickled her memory. Or perhaps it was her mind, being bored, seeking a release by escaping reality.

"I say again, Brat, Com check," an annoyed voice reverberated through the comm link.

Forced out of her reverie, Jenny silently fumed about her commanding officer mispronouncing her callsign on purpose. She was German, and was serious about two things in her life, bread being the one of them. That was the source of her callsign, duly bestowed on her after a heated argument with a mess cook about the latter's attempt to pass off abominations he made as bread. But Jenny took up the callsign with pride, which was why she didn't like the way it was being mispronounced. Then again, her flight leader was Swedish and Sweden wasn't known for its bread. "Marbleman, this is Bauernbrot, loud and clear, over," she said, mispronouncing his call sign on purpose.

Möblemang, her squadron leader, wasn't fazed. "Okay people, we're 100 klicks to AO. Ready to hit the silk,"

Despite her earlier annoyance, Jenny, and the rest of her platoon answered in affirmative. She gripped her joystick with baited anticipation. This was what they had trained for. The mission was on a volunteer basis since it was a one-way mission, at least until the higher-ups got their act together and cobbled together for a proper reinforcement to be sent. Meanwhile, they would be on their own. Jenny and her team volunteered for different reasons. Money, personal vendetta against ZAFT, seeking glory, they were there for those reasons; one psychopath even joined so that she could commit 'lawful killing'. Jenny, on the other hand, was there because she adored mobile suits. Despite them being tools for murder, there was a certain romance with it that if ZAFT came up with one that could be operated by Naturals, she probably would have joined it.

A few minutes passed by. Then a red light turned green and Möblemang's voice echoed. "We're above the DZ. Go! Go! Go!"

Then, the back door of the A4000M opened and Jenny felt her machine, and the glider it was lying prone on, being dropped. Once it had cleared the A4000M, the glider deployed its wings and parachutes. Jenny monitored the screen. The system showed her altitude was 100 feet, and the vector was within tolerable vector. Even though the whole process was automated, she maintained control over the stick until the glider landed on the ground, causing her to almost bite off her tongue at the jarring impact. Once the shaking had ceased, she quickly went through the diagnostics screen. No error found on the screen. It was done. She had survived the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System, or LAPES as they called it, the crazy mission planners had thought of. The same couldn't be said regarding one of her squad mates who didn't stick to the landing correctly, and crashed horrifically on the ground, leaving only eleven units operational, including hers. Still, mourning could be done later, as her squad had to continue the mission.

Jenny pressed a touch button on the main screen, and her mobile suit went through the routine of getting up, reached for its weapon, and stood. Meanwhile, the glider detached its wings and raised itself to form a pop-up barrier. She immediately took cover behind the barrier which was none too soon as indicated by a 76mm shell exploded again it.

If she was to describe her EMS-01 Panzer, it looked like a typical anthropomorphic machine, like ZAFT's units. The marked difference was the way its main camera, or 'head' as people called it, resembled a jousting knight's helmet, with visors instead of a single eye in the middle. The designers probably committed to the giant knight design as it sported a red-colored thin and flat communication antenna that resembled the ornament on a Trojan helmet. The samurai looking G-weapon prototypes were better looking in her opinion, but beggars can't be choosers.

"Brat, suppressive fire!"

"Roger!" Jenny couldn't prevent herself from grinning maniacally as her Panzer raised its MG-42 30mm 'Spandau' portable cannon and grasped the barrel grip with its left hand. A press on the trigger button and the whole cockpit vibrated slightly as her Panzer fired off a burst of ten shots at the indicated position. It didn't hit anything, but she had forced the hostiles to take cover. While ZAFT's machinegun had larger caliber and range, able to punch through her Panzer's armor at the current range, the auto-cannon had its own distinct advantage.

"Repeat for effect!"

Another burst of shots. This time, a shot hit the shield of an orange-colored mobile suit. The orange mobile suit fired a beam shot, but the shot missed. She retaliated by firing another burst at it, and it ducked to a nearby dune.

According to combat data, most engagement on Earth with ZAFT's humanoid and quadrupedal type mobile suits, occurred in the range of less than 1500 meters. Spandau had 2500 meters effective range, almost twice that range. In return for less range and penetrating power, her Panzer could carry 2000 rounds of munitions, which to her was a good trade off. Even if it couldn't penetrate the thickest armor on ZAFT's mobile suit, there were a lot of vulnerable areas that could be affected. At the very least, it would be an unpleasant experience to be on the receiving end of the shots, even if they failed to damage anything. Plus, her squad mates were equipped with the HK4160 120mm rifle, which packed stronger punches for properly engaging ZAFT GINNs and whatever the two unnamed mobile suits fighting alongside them.

A warning tone broke her out of her concentration, as she automatically assumed cover. A quick glance at the screen showed that her mobile suit was heating up faster than the cooling system could keep up. If she wasn't careful, she could end up baked inside the cockpit. It wasn't just a matter of air-conditioning in the middle of blistering heat either. If not properly managed, the overheating could cause havoc in her system. "Möblemang, Brot here. On ice for sixty, over,"

"Roger, Over and out,"

He sounded so professional over the communication network, but Jenny knew he would be chewing her hide during the debriefing session. He had reminded her so many times to keep the Panzer's temperature in check.

But as they said, times flew by when one was having fun, Jenny was having fun of literally her life, and she wouldn't change it for the world. Maybe Sonia the card-carrying psychopath was correct when she said that Jenny was crazy as well.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Miguel concluded that neither side has yet to get the upper hand in the last 30 minutes. His forces have minimized research personnel casualties, even if he had to issue the order for them to abandon and destroy everything that they couldn't take with them. Even though his team of fifteen mobile suits was facing more than thirty Alliance mobile suits, through judicious use of cover, damage has been minimal. Despite the initial advance, their enemies have been pinned down. The only blight on their record was a trio of custom GINNs that dropped during the battle, team Harken, if he was not mistaken. Acting like a group of drunken latecomers to a party, the pilots didn't immediately take evasive action upon reaching the ground. Heck, one of them had the gall to complain about how troublesome the Earth's gravity was!

The Alliance mobile suits blasted the three of them to oblivion faster than Miguel could say 'shut up'.

"Good thing that they don't have aerial superiority," Nicol commented.

"We don't have it as well," Miguel said as he aimed his rifle at Aegis and fired. Due to atmospheric blooming and convection, the shot missed the mobile suit. He clucked his tongue. If he knew in advance how annoying it would have been, he would have asked for his GuAIZ to be equipped with a machine gun, just like those GINNs were carrying. "Good thing your system work without having be airborne,"

"I prefer to be airborne though,"

Miguel understood what he meant. Nicol had repositioned behind the rest of the ZAFT forces. While he knew his friend would rather be at the forefront, that would risk his unit being damaged and impacting situational awareness. The enemy squad machine gunners were troublesome foes. "Well, I wanted a horse and a cowboy hat when I was small, too."

"Incoming bombers! Clear the area!"

Cursing, Miguel looked heavenward as a squadron of bombers began approaching their location. Their defense was so successful that their enemy was forced to change their tactic. The only solace he found in the situation was whatever tactic Commander Waltfeld came up with to deal with Buster's sniping, it was working as the mobile suit had not opened fire since the start of the battle.

Kilometers away, Andrew was looking at the blue and white mobile suit on his screen intently.

"Down, Andy," Aisha, his lover and gunner of the TMF/A-803 LaGOWE he was piloting remarked.

"What are you talking about?" Andrew said as the mobile suit took a step back warily. Aegis and the Skygrasper were involved in the attack on the research facility. Buster and Archangel were tied up trying to handle his BeCUE units. That left Strike alone with him, just as he wanted. "I didn't say anything,"

"You're smiling now, aren't you?"

His hand went to his helmet but was stopped by the glass. Despite that, he could feel his facial muscles were a bit taut; he probably had a wistful smile on his face. "I guess I am,"


TERMINOLOGY

Bauernbrot: Farmer's Bread (German)

DZ: Drop Zone

Hit the silk: Ejecting from aircraft and performing a parachute drop.

Möblemang: Furniture (Swedish).

LAPES: Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System.


A/N


1. 30mm caliber used in this fiction is inspired by M230 chain gun mounted on Apache helicopter. Assuming a mobile suit has armor like a tank and similar engagement range, which is around 1000 meters, the 30mm munition can damage significantly damage mobile suits. 76mm munition used by GINN is more powerful, with higher penetrative capability and range, but that is offset by a smaller bullet capacity.

2. A4000M is inspired by the real-life A400M transport aircraft.

3. Operation Paperclip is inspired based on the real Operation Paperclip, where more than 1600 German experts were transferred to the US after World War 2.

4. Something to ponder about. If Accord introduce in Gundam Seed Freedom can mind control someone, does it mean there's a possibility an Accord could mind control someone unconsciously? For example, if Flay Alster is an Accord, and she wanted Kira to pay attention to her so that she can manipulate him, does her intend translate to an unconscious mind control command to Kira to pay attention to her? Think what will happen if she use it to gain more followers to support her ascension through Earth Alliance, eventually becoming its head, calling for global peace? Is that okay or not? She may unknowingly brainwash everyone, but it is for a benevolent reason. To me, that's what the Foundation Kingdom was supposed to do, brainwash their way up. Now, the only thing to do is change Flay to Lacus, and suddenly her role in Gundam Seed's universe look suspect altogether.