The Minerva, with the help from Junk Guild and Serpent Tail, was heading to the Kingdom at a steady pace. Their first relay of supplies worked out. The mysterious Archangel was still hot on their trail, following behind them.
Inside the Minerva, Miriallia and Jess were taking turns on watching the torpedoes. Zaft soldiers were also taking turns. Neither of the groups trusted one another with the package.
It was when the three vessels were passing through the North Atlantic Sea, that the battle station was at a level 2. The three vessels were no longer in the safe territorial waters of PLANTs. They were now surrounded by both sides of Earth Alliance territories.
Ra was waiting for them to tread through the territorial waters. The vessels had only a narrow passage way. Between Iceland and the United Kingdom, they only had almost 40 nautical miles that wasn't in the exclusive economic zone where the Earth Alliance could make any excuse to commandeer them. The three vessels trekked a bit slower, keeping steady in the passage.
Ra commanded Earth Alliance to get ready for an attack on the three on his command. He was watching and waiting with anticipation for the Minerva to cause one mistake so he could signal for the rest to pounce.
Over at Orb, Athrun and the rest were watching the three vessels as well. It made Athrun anxious just watching knowing that something may happen. It almost seemed like a trap to him. Selena was in ties with this mysterious Earth Alliance affiliation group. The Minerva was heading through Earth Alliance to get to her neutral nation. They couldn't go anywhere else since the mysterious Archangel was relentless in trying to take it down. They wouldn't jeopardize the rest as everyone knew how much of an impact a single Archangel vessel could make. As the first of its fleet with the same namesake, Archangel was a formidable vessel with Captain Murrue Ramias at the helm. The Dominion held its own but alas could not withstand, and only one Archangel was left standing. The only one, the first of its namesake.
Murrue, Mu, and Andrew did chat amongst themselves whether or not to bring out their Archangel, however Lacus had given them no word on any sort of help from the Three Ship Alliance. It was an endurance test to see what would happen next.
On the Minerva, Declan was ready to react. He had ideas of how to go about the attack. The three captains had a few meetings about how they were going to fight back if there was an ambush.
"Do you think the Kingdom will relent once more to Earth Alliance?" Arthur asked.
Declan was notified by ZAFT on this expedition about possibility that the Princess Selena was conspiring with the newest enemy. That this journey may be a trap. However, Declan preferred the trap over being gunned down by that Archangel. He heard how Commander Joule was being investigated but was confined to a private estate, where he was recuperating. If the princess was really on the enemy's side, she wouldn't have given him such a nice prison. Although, the last skirmish Commander Joule was in, they wanted him to lead the Silver Brigade. Declan could only guess that the silver Providence ZAKU was one of the leaders, and Commander Joule would then be the right hand under them.
"No," Declan finally answered. "They only relented due to the King Regent's decision. They were forced to join due to the threat of military invasion."
"However, the Princess has the royal military strength," Arthur countered.
Declan smirked. "She does, however you have forgotten, her twin disappeared, causing the princess to go into hiding as well. My guess is that the Kingdom didn't have her to back them up. It was all they could do to keep their people safe."
Arthur started to sympathize. "Do you think Earth Alliance or this new enemy has the missing prince?"
"Who knows?" Declan mused. It could be a possibility. The Kingdom never officially declared his death. There was no funeral. People thought it was because the princess did not want the truth. That she was denying any possibility of his death, as if she could not handle the grief of losing her twin. The prince being in the hands of the enemy seemed more plausible than the princess joining them out of her own will.
Alarms started to sound off. Declan and Arthur headed into action. The crew followed the command to level three battle station. Miriallia thought it would be the perfect chance while ZAFT was distracted to get a better look at the torpedoes.
"There are two Spengler Class," the communications officer relayed. "Six Des Moines Class, six Arkansas Class, four attack submarines, and one transport submarine. The Archangel is gaining on us as well."
"They really don't want us to go to the Kingdom," Arthur muttered.
"Pick up the speed," Declan commanded. "Launch mobile suits, however, keep them on the vessel. We must not let them deter us from the Kingdom. Junk Guild and Serpent Tail will keep them off of us while we make a run to the territorial waters. From there, we'll let the Kingdom do the rest."
Arthur nodded to the order. He relayed the commands. ZGMF-1001 ZAKU Phantoms were launched. Serpent Tail launched their MBF-P03 GUNDAM Astray Blue Frame and LV-ZGMF-X23S Vent Savior GUNDAM. Junk Guild launched their MBF-P02 GUNDAM Astray Red Frame, ZGMF-1017 GINN.
Mobile weapons were launched from Earth Alliance fleets and the mysterious Archangel. However, the three vessels braced for the two shiny Providence ZAKUs, they never showed. It was a bit of relief.
In the Astray Blue Frame GUNDAM, Gai was cutting down mobile weapons getting closer. He kept his eyes keen on the Minerva as it was gaining speed. They blasted against missiles headed their way. Gai watched his team and Junk Guild keep the rest at bay.
He entered a communication line with Lowe. "We're banking on Selena helping us, but do you really think she would?" Word had spread to his team about possible rumors of Selena teaming up with the mysterious enemy.
Lowe let out a chuckle while he took down a mobile suit. "Are you getting cold feet? You're not the type. Besides, Selena betraying us, I don't think so."
Gai frowned. He shot out oncoming missiles. "She knows I don't tolerate betrayal, and anyone that interferes in any of my missions is an enemy." He struck another mobile suit down.
"So, what's the problem?" Lowe shot down an Earth Alliance vessel.
Gai saw the smirk on Lowe's face. Lowe knew something. It was a relief seeing that smirk. Gai didn't want to go against this client. Gai couldn't count on ZAFT but he could count on Lowe. That's one person Selena would never double cross. She could double cross him but he knew he would lose. The Tech Goddess wouldn't betray the man who enjoyed recycling technology as much as she did.
Gai sighed. "There's no problem, except when is Her Highness going to show?" The two continued to battle it out against Earth Alliance.
As the Minerva shook and vibrated against the missiles and waves hitting against it's hull, Miriallia took the time to fumble around the torpedoes. She didn't know that Shinn and Lunamaria had been watching them. The other ZAFT soldiers had left to their stations; however, Shinn and Lunamaria took over since the two didn't have any mobile suits to pilot. Jess had a small camera ready. She gave him a signal to start recording.
Miriallia came over to the first torpedo that was closest to them. She undid the straps around it, getting a better view. It had some scuff marks due to the movement of the straps and the plywood keeping it together. That was only natural. Miriallia placed her ear upon the metal. She knocked on it. It had a bit of a hollow sound. Miriallia didn't know much on weapons but she did know enough that the hollow sound was throughout this particular torpedo. She moved her ear along, continuously knocking on it. Jess and her were focused on the torpedo, not seeing that Shinn and Lunamaria stealthily moved closer to them. They were on the other side of the pallet, waiting to move around to stop them from what they were doing.
Miriallia placed both hands on the torpedo, steading herself as the Minerva rocked due to the battle outside. Her hands stuck to the torpedo as they were a bit sweaty. The vessel rocked again, causing her hands to lift part of it up. Her eyes grew wide in amazement. Shinn could see her discovery as he watched from corner.
Just as he stood up with a gun in his hand, aiming it at her, Miriallia moved the torpedo again, to reveal a hatch that opened. Lunamaria stood up on the other side, pointing a gun at her too but stood frozen, watching the torpedo opening up.
The Minerva shook, causing the three to fall to the ground. Miriallia looked up to see the hatch had stayed open. She stood back up trying to see what was inside. Her hands trying to cling onto the side, only to rip something like a cord as the vessel shook again, violently bringing her back down.
The light inside the vessel illuminated the inside of the torpedo. Jess had been up high enough to get a view but the shaking of the vessel made his focus off. He needed a steady hand. He didn't realize what had happened. The cord that was pulled away was the one hooked to an oxygen tank, to keep the person asleep. The shaking of the vessel, the light, and the fresh air had started to wake the person asleep in the torpedo.
Miriallia noticed Shinn and Lunamaria around her. She saw they had guns but didn't care. She wanted to know what was inside that torpedo. Shinn got up faster than her, trying to block her from seeing what was inside.
Canard blinked awake. He felt groggy and heavy. He could see the insides of a vessel, as if he was in a bay of some sort. The shaking and jarring helped him to realize what he needed to remember. He shot straight up into a sitting position. He turned around to see the first person who was there, Shinn. He grabbed onto Shinn, shaking him.
"Did you open these?!" Canard demanded an answer. He saw two more people around Shinn. Shinn was confused on why a person was in a torpedo. "Tell me!" He glanced around to see some of the ZAFT soldiers had stopped to see what had happened. Canard was still groggy from the sleep but his adrenaline kicked in. He wasn't getting an answer as Shinn was perplexed. He looked around to see another torpedo was next to him, still closed. "Don't open any of these! You hear me! Don't play roulette with our lives. If any of you try to open any more of these, we're all going to DIE!" His voice echoed a bit.
Miriallia saw that it was Canard, the missing mercenary. "What were you doing in these?"
Canard glanced over to her. "Doesn't matter. Just don't open these at all! Do you hear me?" He looked at Shinn who had the ZAFT uniform. He let go of him. "We're on a ZAFT ship." He let out a laugh. "We're on a ZAFT ship." He was a bit happy about that. "You, where are we going?" He aimed his question at Shinn.
"We're battling our way to the Kingdom," Shinn picked up his gun. "We're close."
"How close?" Canard became serious.
"We'll be closing in on the territorial waters in a few hours," Lunamaria answered.
"Hah," Canard let his shoulders droop. He was still fighting against the affects.
Miriallia tried to move around to another torpedo but Shinn and Lunamaria pulled their guns on her. Canard watched them.
"There could be more people in these," Miriallia argued.
"Didn't you just hear him?" Lunamaria countered. "If we open any more of these we will die. These are for the Kingdom of Scandinavia. How are they going to react when these have been tampered with?"
"So, you trust the Kingdom then?" Miriallia narrowed her eyes.
Lunamaria frowned. "Stop playing mind games. We're not going to allow you to continue with what you are doing."
"We could be jeopardizing the lives of innocents if we don't know what's going on in these things," Miriallia pointed out.
"We would be jeopardizing the innocent lives upon this vessel," Shinn countered. He signaled for a group of soldiers to surround them. Miriallia knew she had been defeated. She complied. "He knows more about them then we do. If we don't take his word on it for now, we could forsake everything that we have worked for up to this point."
"Do as he says," Canard added in. "I can tell the two of you have been in a draw over these. I'm here to tell all of you, that if any of you try to open these, I will stop you. Even if my life depends on it." He moved out of the torpedo. He climbed up on the part that didn't open. He shut the hatch back down, before sitting on top of it. "I'm going to guard this until the Kingdom has come to officially take it over."
The crew saw that he was not going to budge, which made it a bit easier. Miriallia stared at him. He was in clothes from a middle eastern region. She took mental notes. She hoped Jess had gotten the footage.
At the Kingdom, Yzak was having dinner with his mother in the common area. The room was moved around to have a small formal dining table. The two were enjoying their meal, not knowing what was going on outside. The two had been catching the other up on their lives.
As the two were finishing up with dessert, Luka had opened the door unexpectedly, making the two flinch. He wore a serious expression.
"My apologies for interrupting your dinner, Director Joule, Commander Joule," he started. "I have come here to inform Director Joule that it's time."
Ezalia stood straight up. She knew exactly what that meant. Yzak watched the scene unfold. Ezalia nodded to Luka who nodded back. He stepped to the side, allowing her to head out first. She turned to Yzak. "I'm sorry we have to cut it short. I'll be back another time."
Yzak stood up. He knew that something must have happened. He understood that she needed to leave quickly. "It's alright." Ezalia gave him a hug before she left. Yzak watched had the two quickly left. He heard their muffled voices after the door shut. It must have been something very important.
"Finally," Mikael came walking out of the hallway. "They had to leave to go attend this situation." The walls in the room around them moved to show several paneled screens. The screens showed a battle between ZAFT and Earth Alliance. Yzak was shocked. He didn't think he would be able to know what was going on outside. Mikael explained the situation to Yzak.
"Why are you showing me this?" Yzak watched the screens. Some panels had focused on vessels. Others on fights.
"Things will start to make more sense if I do," Mikael smirked. Yzak didn't see the smirk, or else he would have noticed how odd the smirk was on Mikael. That same smirk was natural to someone else, but it was weird on another person.
Sven and Mikael were watching the battle in Mikael's hospital wing. The two had no idea that Yzak was being informed of the situation outside. They didn't know that Yzak had learned about the Minerva needing to deliver a package to the Kingdom.
At the secret compound, Ra was getting furious on how poorly the Earth Alliance vessels were doing. He yelled his opinions out in frustration. He didn't want Selena to escape his clutches. However, Earth Alliance was crumbling as the three vessels trekked on. He wished he was fighting with them but being a leader put him away from the fight. It was one of the downfalls. He wanted to be there to personally take her back.
The Minerva was the first to enter the territorial waters owned by the Kingdom. There were no fleets or vessels to greet them. Declan wasn't liking the outlook of things. He kept the crew pushing forth into the waters. The Junk Guild and Serpent Tail had finally made it into the waters. Earth Alliance didn't back down. They continued to pursue them. The Archangel was the furthest away and did not tread any closer.
"Where are they?" Arthur looked on the screens. "No sign of the Kingdom."
"Keep going on," Declan commanded.
As the Earth Alliance mobile suits pursued with the fleets behind them, passing into the territorial waters, objects shot out of the water, taking down mobile suits.
Underwater were submarines that had spines all down its hulls. It was built in a way to let out mobile armors. The mobile armors were designed after a sea creature. The pilots were in a cylinder torso with working tentacles and a back propellor in the shape of a fin. The tentacles latched onto the mobile suits, crushing the frames, and locking in place. The propellor would turn in the opposite direction, backing them up. The mobile armors would head back to the odd shaped submarine.
The mobile armors that did not capture mobile suits, would attack vessels, sinking them as the tentacles cut through the vessel or crunching the vessel down.
Small vessels surfaced from underneath. Surrounding the three large vessels.
A soldier from the royal military showed up on the screens of the three vessels. "We have taken down the enemies around you. Please make your way to these coordinates. We will be making sure no one else follows you." They were instructed to submerge to get to the coordinates then to breach to dock.
"These aren't the coordinates for any of the military bases," Arthur pointed out.
"We have a special package aboard," Declan reminded him. "We'll probably be at the royal military base."
The three vessels followed the instructions after they got the mobile suits back inside the hangers. Since the battle was over, there were ZAFT soldiers swarmed around the torpedoes. Canard could hear the whispers. Shinn and Lunamaria stayed near incase something happened again.
The vessels came to an underwater cliff. Hidden doors opened, allowing all three to move inside at once.
"This is larger than I expected," Arthur commented. It was large enough for all three vessels and had enough room they could fit a few smaller vessels.
The vessels breached in underwater cave, as the door closed behind them. Ahead was a very large tunnel with several doors. It seemed liked the three vessels weren't made for this dock. As if they were too small. The vessels were instructed to hold steady as metal conveyor belts pulled each vessel further into the bay. Each vessel was pulled in enough to be able to work it without being submerged in water.
Two doors of the large bay opened up with teams of people coming in. There were mobile armors with catwalks to place around the vessels.
Luka was on the screen of the Minerva. "Thank you for bringing us those torpedoes. I understand it was not something you had wished to take on, but you had fulfilled your end. Allow us to come aboard to take them off your hands."
Declan nodded in agreement. The sooner he was rid of those things the better. He did get word of the two snooping around and opening one up to reveal a missing person. "Will you also be taking those that nabbed the torpedoes?"
"Yes," Luka nodded. "We would like to investigate them."
"Sounds good," Luka nodded. The screen turned black. He got out of his chair. He wanted to meet Luka in person, and see those torpedoes for himself.
The hanger opened up to show a team of royal military was waiting outside. Royal military soldiers surrounded a telehandler forklift. The group headed inside. ZAFT soldiers backed away to let them come in. Luka had a group of soldiers behind him. Declan had Arthur and one soldier behind him, as the two groups met up.
Canard jumped off the torpedoes. He walked over to the group of soldiers, wanting to leave with them. Miriallia and Jess complied with a few soldiers were asking them to leave. Another soldier got into Jess' mobile suit.
"High Chancellor Ivanov," Declan greeted.
"Captain Brostmern," Luka greeted him back. "My apologies for meeting like this. We did not want ZAFT to be in the middle of this mission."
"Is that why those two were hired?" Declan moved his head to view through the opening, Gai and Lowe talking to royal military soldiers. Declan could see the friendliness between them.
"It is as you said," Luka answered. "We were wanting one of them to carry them, while the other helps. You and this group were caught in the cross hairs. Once the torpedoes are placed in a hanger, we'll get to work on your vessel. Meanwhile, we can send up your soldiers in groups to the surface to visit the Kingdom. We want to make your stay as hospitable as we can. Food, supplies, ammo, and such will be replaced by us, free of charge. We apologize again for dragging you into this."
"We will take you up on your offer," Declan was curious how the Kingdom was doing. He wondered if the civilians heard about the rumors.
The group watched the telehandler back out with the torpedo pallet. The soldiers formed around the whole machine. A group was around Jess, Miriallia, and Canard, with the mobile suit walking behind them.
"Your crew can meander around the dock here," Luka continued. "However, they will need special passes to get past the soldiers. Serpent Tail and Junk Guild are regulars, so they know the procedures. If you need anything, let one of the soldiers know, and we will try to accommodate the best we can." Declan nodded in understanding. The group watched the telehandler turn around to move to the hanger. "If you shall excuse me then, I need to be with the package at all times now."
Declan and Arthur bid him farewell. The two watched as Luka caught up to the group. All of ZAFT watched as the giant door closed behind them. Shinn and Lunamaria could see a special set of soldiers wearing all white gear that looked more for hand to hand combat. They formed in close to the torpedoes, while the royal military stood back.