Archangel's Amazing Adventures

by CSS Stravag

Mass Crossover fic. Chapter 53 UP! Powerful magic draws the Archangel and the ZAFT Creuset Team into a world of magic and intrigue like nothing imagined by the straight-laced CE residents. Their battles on Cephiro are only the beginning of their nightmarish journey as they give Odysseus a run for his money in the 'bizarre trip home' category...

53. Shaping The Battlefield

(Archangel's Amazing Adventures, Set 6: Rampaging Blue Light)
(Story Chapter 53 / Section Chapter 11: Shaping The Battlefield)

(Day 330, 1630 Hours Local time)
(Inside Tarak Minefield, approaching the Tarak 6th Patrol Fleet)

Captain Wesley Ariyama was already quite nervous in approaching the rather significant warship Archangel, and more so when his shuttle entered it. Like any Tarak vessel, it had the energy shield entrances that prevented loss of atmosphere in a compartment or bay, but that quickly served to highlight the very crazy circumstances within rather than provide any sense of familiarity.

"Am I seeing this right, Captain? Port side," one of the Marines asked. Captain Ariyama had quickly conferred with the Admiralty and received clearance to meet with the renegades and mercenaries, but he had been cautioned to take a small detachment of his Marines with as a security protocol and not put much in the way of faith in the unknown crews.

"You are seeing this right, Sergeant," Ariyama said. The sight he was looking at was to the left (port) of the shuttle, on the starboard side of the Archangel hangar, specifically at one of the much-larger-than-a-Vanguard units. The point in question was not the large mechanized unit, but the crew working on it was four guys and a very clearly female section chief. "I've always suspected we weren't being told the whole story, and here we are."

"And what is the whole story, Captain?" The Sergeant of Marines asked.

"I don't know, but I expect we'll learn most of it before this is over — maybe all of it, if we live long enough to unearth the answers."

"You're a progressive? Didn't think any officers were, sir," the shuttle pilot noted as he started bringing his craft in for landing where the marshaller directed them.

"There are a few," Captain Ariyama said. "There are more that are willing to learn if it means they survive whatever shitstorm is coming our way," he noted. "The Admiralty told me not to put much stock in these unknown crews and especially be wary of the Nirvana crew, but I've always suspected the distrust is artificial."

"Huh," the Sergeant of Marines grunted.

"Most of the 'progressive' officers, the ones that don't consider shooting women on sight the proper answer, are assigned to the patrol fleets on the outer belt, so if anything happens we get killed off first. Simpler that way than it is to just drum us out of the military."

"Not enough bodies to fill military demands, eh?" the pilot asked as the shuttle started lowering to the deck.

"They want a bigger military but they can't deny the undercurrent in Tarak is starting to lean against policy. And one good look around this hangar explains why," Captain Ariyama noted.

The ship jolted as it hit the ground, bounced, and jolted again as it finished landing. "Shuttle 844 touchdown," the pilot reported by radio.

"844, Archangel Operations, clear to shutdown and disembark. Officer on deck is Warrant Officer-4 Kojiro Murdoch. Do you need any maintenance or fuel?" the operator asked. The Sergeant Major winced at the voice on the other end of the line being a lady, but Captain Ariyama wasn't hugely surprised to see the pilot or copilot did not react.

"Negative, Archangel, we're good at this time," the pilot answered as the copilot shut down the engines and the loadmaster prepared to open the hatch.

"Any recommendations?" Captain Ariyama asked the Sergeant Major before the Loadmaster opened the door.

The Sergeant Major sighed. "Sir, if you're right and the war between Tarak and Meijere is artificial, the first thing I can recommend is disregard what the Admiralty told you. Then we need to figure out what we really need to do to survive the coming invasion."

"And then we need to convince the rest of the Tarak military to join in," the pilot suggested.

"That's going to be a challenge, but first we need to see what is coming our way. Loadmaster?" Captain Ariyama signaled for the opening of the hatch.

-x-

Murdoch waved the aerial on his radio at the object in question. "Those crates need to go back into storage for the time being, Gomer. We won't need them until after the shooting is done, clear?" He asked as the door to the shuttle opened.

"Whips and chains, boss," Gomer answered.

"Take four from the machine inspections and get it done. We have a couple weeks before the party animals show up, but I want the small shit squared away long before that. Go, get to it," Murdoch dismissed him.

"On it," Gomer jogged off for the machines in the port side hangar cubicles.

"Captain Ariyama?" Murdoch asked after the first officer came off the shuttle.

"I am," he said. "You're Murdoch?"

"Aye, sir!" Murdoch came to attention and saluted quickly, which Ariyama returned in an older (Naval) form. "Commander Chevalier and Kira Yamato are on the way down to give you the full run-down on what bad tidings are coming this way," Murdoch said.

"Thank you, Warrant Officer. Before we begin, though, one question?"

"Sure, what's on your mind?" Murdoch asked.

"How much of your crew is female?" the Captain asked.

"Counting officers, the Magic Knights, and other personnel? Grand total of 48," Murdoch said.

"And that is normal from where you come?" the Captain asked.

"Pretty much, the OMNI female percentage in uniform was 7 percent as of when we left home on this mad quest, 48 ladies out of the total crew runs a bit above that percentage even if we've suffered some bad attrition over the years," Murdoch explained. He was expecting this question, and had considered his answer well beforehand, as well as an extension of it: "Hey! Athrun!"

"Yo!" Athrun peeked up from the crate he was rummaging in not far from where the shuttle had landed. While he was 'officially' tinkering with some gear, he was also specifically in the area as a security measure in case the Tarak visitors got unruly.

"What's the percentage of female personnel in ZAFT's military?" Murdoch asked, also himself curious because that number had not yet come up in other conversations.

"As of when we departed? Neighborhood of 35 percent, I want to say 36 or 37 or something like that," he answered. "Gender politics weren't as big a deal in ZAFT as they were in Alliance forces, we were too busy trying to bust ass and stay alive to worry about it too much," the Gundam Pilot commented. "Alliance was low twenties or something like that?"

"Lower, seven percent," Murdoch said.

"Makes sense," Athrun pointed out. "OMNI could be a lot more selective about inducting men versus women, ZAFT just needed bodies, plain and simple."

"Not an unheard story in just about any army in existence," Captain Ariyama commented with something of a sour tone.

"Recruiting trouble?" Murdoch asked.

"The Personnel Department always wants more than we normally induct," the Master Sergeant answered that question.

"Forced conscription works, for a time," Commander Chevalier said as he approached. "Captain Ariyama, I am Commander Morgan Chevalier, Archangel Team. This is Kira Yamato, one of our pilots and a systems specialist."

"Sir," Kira nodded.

"So, where do we begin?" Wesley Ariyama asked.

-x-x-x-

(Day 330, 2030 Hours Local time)
(Holding Zone, Tarak Space)

Commander La Flaga had opted to turn the briefing over to Morgan Chevalier with assistance from Kira on the visuals and technical matters. He was still involved, listening to the briefing from the rear of the briefing room, but had decided to stay silent unless necessary. That said, he did not expect to have to be involved; Morgan Chevalier was every bit the veteran he was, and would have more than enough gravitas to get the message across.

"Are we expecting anyone else, gentlemen?" Commander Chevalier asked.

"No, Commander, this is it for this briefing, but depending on circumstances and material, you may be asked to give it at least once more," Admiral Junkau Hollis said. He was one of three Admirals involved in the briefing, along with several of their senior Captains, and Mu suspected all of them of at least a somewhat progressive bent in the sliding scale of Tarak politics and ethos.

"Copy, I'll give it as many times as needed, because this wake-up call is definitely needed. So, this briefing is on Harvester operations plans pertaining to Tarak and Meijere, expectation of forces in play, and known or surmised objectives. Feel free to interrupt with questions at any time," Morgan started his briefing as he normally did so. "Before I get to the meat of this briefing, sources and methods since this information is critical to your evaluation. The Archangel has in prior operations secured the Quantum Communication Node from a Harvest Mothership and has tapped the enemy Quantum Communication Network for intelligence, sources, methods, schematics, the works. Our total haul of data from the enemy exceeded thirty-four exabytes, or roughly the same amount of written material as has been written by pre-spacefaring humanity. Most of the technical information comes from that pirated data feed, and has been verified in combat and subsequent salvage operations. On the operational side, we have communication penetration through the core of our ship, the Paxis Archangel, which can hear the instructions being sent by enemy command units through their Paxis cores to the lesser units. The Paxis Archangel is very willing to forward operational and situational intelligence as needed, due to the nature of the ongoing Harvest operations that it considers deplorable, and we have cross-confirmed those operational directives through their quantum communication systems so all intelligence is considered Grade 1A."

"Good Lord, you're reading their communication traffic in real-time and making sure the subordinate units are following orders?" Admiral Jun Takashi asked.

"That is the size of it, Admiral," Commander Chevalier noted. "We have been rather surprised how much distaste the Paxis Archangel has for the directives of the Terran Paxis units, and welcome its support in this matter. So, now that the baseline is covered, time to cover the operations intentions and plans. Again, feel free to interrupt if you have questions." The Commander took a sip of water and set his water bottle down with a clatter. "The operational intention of the Harvester Superfleet is to overwhelm and annihilate the defenses of Tarak and Meijere, harvest what usable biological material they can reasonably acquire, and destroy the planets to prevent further uprising from these worlds. Through repeated encounters with the Nirvana and extended intelligence gathering, the Harvest overlords have concluded that these two planets are simply too dangerous to be left intact for multiple reasons."

"We have a fallback plan," Admiral Hiroshi Makeru said. "Are you sure they intend to destroy the worlds?"

"Outright destruction of the planet is their final objective," Morgan confirmed. "That would, I believe, invalidate the use of the sleeping colonists still in stasis."

"How do you know about that?" Admiral Takashi asked with a bit of an edge to voice.

"We know about it because the Captain of the Nirvana was a colonist on the original colony ship that founded the separate planets. The Harvest knows about it through intelligence gathering efforts that we have not been able to ascertain source or method," Morgan said smoothly. "Either way, we know, and so does the enemy, so taking the kick in the balls now and coming back for a second round is not an option."

"Good God, Lord Grandpa will need to know soonest," a Staff Captain (Morgan figured him a spy in all but official duty assignment) said in a half-gasp.

"Please continue, Commander," Admiral Hollis requested.

"After completion of the destruction of Tarak, Meijere, and any remaining hostile forces in the area, the Harvest Superfleet is under orders to resume nominal harvesting operations throughout this sector. Kira, have a map of harvest targets in this AO?" Morgan asked Kira.

"Hai, one moment," Kira had to do a little digging, but found a map quick enough and displayed it on the main briefing display.

"We're not the only world at threat," Admiral Makeru said with some relief to voice.

"We have a request for assistance with Malanas, and Paxis Archangel and Paxis Nirvana both have tried calling out for help from other nations, but we don't have much in the way of positive response. Frankly speaking, the Harvest has been damn good at trimming resistance down as much as possible, nations such as Tarak, Meijere, Malanas, these are the exceptions that can fight the Harvest on an even or better footing. Most of the rest are lightly-defended at best, just breeding stock for the Harvest operation and not much more than that from a military standpoint." Morgan sighed. "Wars like this, you don't fight them with the army you want, you fight them with the army you have, and some days that's not enough army any way you stack it."

"And what is the Archangel's justification for joining this party? If you are not even from this universe, wouldn't it be in your interest to stay out of the fight?" the (likely Intelligence) Captain asked.

"In our interest? Probably," Morgan said. "Commander La Flaga? Want to tackle that one?"

Mu cleared his throat as a way to get their attention. "The Archangel has a reputation. We do not sit idly by while civilians are attacked, and we do not tolerate people attacking us. We have knocked out entire militaries for those offenses. And the Harvest has both strikes on their record, so we're in this to roast them to whatever degree we can."

"I can understand that," Admiral Hollis said grimly. "So, since we have intentions and plans, let's talk capability," Junkau leaned forward, toward Morgan. "If our execution is two weeks and a couple days more, I want to be laser-focused on how to do unto them before they do us."

Morgan kept the poker face of a long-serving veteran, but inwardly he was smiling brightly. With that declaration from the Admiral, he knew he had Tarak sold on the threat, which meant they would not be fighting alone.

-x-x-x-

(Day 331, 0215 Hours Local time)
(Ministry of Intelligence, Northern Continent, Tarak)

Captain Remius had sent in Yzak, Kira, Sai, Mu, and Pytor from the Archangel crew to speak directly to the Ministry of Intelligence and to 'download' the Tarak intelligence apparatus on the information that they had extracted from the Harvest Communication Network. Truth to tell, Murrue wanted to send Athrun and Nicol as well, to give her team the most available Coordinator and Magic Knight Squires possible in case things went sour, but Nicol had recommended they keep two of the Coordinator-piloted Gundams in reserve just in case. After all, even having imminent annihilation in just over two weeks on the menu was not likely to completely stifle the gender paranoia between the two societies, but at least Tarak was willing to take a cease-fire with Meijere for the time being. And while Murrue had initially wanted to send Natalya with them, Mu had recommended against it due to the same gender paranoia issue.

And, naturally, the story of how they came to Tarak had to start with the origin of the Archangel, so…

"And, if I may ask, with you being the senior field officer, why did you give command to Captain Ramius?" the intelligence Colonel asked Mu point-blank.

"Different specialization, Colonel," Mu pointed out. "I may have been the senior, but I've always been a pilot — back then I was a Moebius Zero driver, a specialized combatant Mobile Armor — I never trained in for Warship command, which in the Atlantic Federation is a wildly different skillset and something I knew I was not good enough to do. So, I deferred to the then-Lieutenant that actually knew what she was going to have to do to get the job done, and I took over command of our mobile forces compliment. Which at that time was Kira and myself, with Yzak on the OpFor in those days past."

"And you said the point where the ZAFT troops joined the Archangel was later, in Cephiro?"

"In body, yes," Yzak said. "We ZAFT guys didn't really defect to the Archangel in full until our time in the Inner Sphere, more or less. Second world set we visited," the Destiny pilot said for clarification. "That was also when we lost Dearka to a Clan Jade Falcon ambush, and from there the EA versus ZAFT grudge match was gone. We all wanted vengeance, Archangel and ZAFT troops, and those battles on Romulus pretty much turned two disparate groups of hotheads into one cohesive and very pissed off force."

"One of the data units I have for your intel troops is the records and recordings of our travels so far," Kira mentioned. "It will take you a few days to go through it, we have been traveling for years."

"And we have seen terrible things," Pytor said coldly. "Great and terrible things in our journey."

The Colonel waved them into a conference room. All five of the Archangel personnel easily noticed that it was recorded and probably heavily bugged, so they knew to watch their step. "Please be seated, troops. Coffee or tea?"

"Coffee, definitely," Mu noted.

"Nishino, two pots of coffee, please," the Colonel said as he took a seat opposite Mu, which they expected.

"Sir," the requested aide stepped out and turned toward where Mu had seen a breakroom in the distance.

"So, what I am about to tell you is not widely known in Tarak society, but will definitely make sense to you in the long run. We in the Intelligence Bureau have known that the split between Tarak and Meijere was artificial, but we have been tasked with keeping the split going by orders from Lord Grandpa. And what you have uncovered belies that the split was meant to deceive the Harvest in the long run."

"That is our read on it, Colonel," Yzak said calmly.

"Sell me," the Colonel said simply.

"The Harvest set up colony worlds with each colony engineered to accentuate certain traits or benefits from each group. Malanas as a nation was supposed to highlight their skin. We came across a colony that had been stripped before we got there, with the product being bone structures and cartilage. By Harvest record, Meijere and Tarak are accentuating the primary and secondary reproductive organs. The reasoning of the split is simple: split the groups, accentuate the desired traits, make it a convincing enough target and the harvest could, in theory, completely overlook the original colonists in their entirety. Then, when the Harvest moves on, the Colonists come out and either rebuild or get transport farther away from Terra, where the Harvest can't reach to get to them or won't even know to look."

The Colonel sighed. "I'm sold, but as you have already briefed the Admiralty, there is no surviving plan to escape or evade. They will destroy the worlds, and with it the colonists in stasis."

"So, what's the hangup?" Yzak asked as he received a cup of coffee.

"Can we defeat them?" Colonel Knox asked.

"Kira?" Mu asked.

"Three things have to happen to make victory a reality," Kira said. "I'm going to bet you will not like them."

"I'll take that bet," The Colonel put down a challenge coin on the table. "Do you trade in challenge coins?"

Mu snorted. "The Archangel Team doesn't have a challenge coin, will you accept a Figaro Gold as a down payment until I can have one milled?" Commander La Flaga placed a Gold on the table.

"Deal," the Colonel said. "Name it."

"One, this battle will have to be all hands on deck, including the lower orders of citizens. They try to Harvest by automated units, you will have to throw bodies and defenses at them to break their toys," Kira said.

"What kind of mechanical menace are we talking?" Colonel Knox asked.

"They have the Cube Fighters that can deploy up to four breaching units that Harvest the crew of ships and residents of planets. We can deal with the Cube Fighters in space, but the Harvest Breachers or any other ground harvest units will have to be dealt with as well," Kira noted.

"Message received," Colonel Knox noted.

"Second, There is enough combat power in the enemy formation that we all will need allies to do this job with a decent expectation of success. That means Meijere, and the Meijeran Pirates, and any 'outlaws' you have as well, and Malanas, and anyone else crazy enough to join the party."

"And inevitably that means women," Pytor pointed out the logical conclusion.

"You win," Colonel Knox slid the coin over to Commander La Flaga, which proved a point to the Commander that while the Intelligence Ministry knew the reason and the process, they were still somewhat mired in the ethos of the Tarak system, distrusting of women even after the fact. "Offhand, what was point three?"

"Bart, Duello, and Hibiki need to be intact and in good enough health to do their jobs for the Nirvana. Yes, I heard some of your subordinates talking about 'enhanced interrogation' or something like that, but the Nirvana will be needed on the frontlines to help beat them down. And that means Bart at the helm, Duello in the medbay and Hibiki in his unit, not in a jail cell or body bags."

"Huh, I did not authorize that," Colonel Knox grimaced. "I wanted them debriefed and held for further questioning, but not as hostile parties. Let's take a walk," the Colonel waved them out the door and down the hall to an elevator. The five from the Archangel, Colonel Knox, and two MPs piled into the elevator and started down floors.

"Expecting something, Colonel?" Pytor asked after they had descended a few floors.

"I hope I am wrong, but if you heard what you heard, I have a hunch this will not be pretty. MPs, stand to, we may be arresting a couple of the interrogation officers." The Colonel pulled his own sidearm and did a proper brass-check on it, then reholstered it.

"As ordered, Colonel," the lead MP said. Yzak and Kira glanced at each other and nodded.

The elevator stopped but did not have a typical 'ding' or 'beep' sound when it got to the destination floor. The Colonel led the way forward and into the hallway, and with it the MPs followed suit, then the Archangel Team troops. They passed several banks of prison cells, then took a left down a corridor toward some interrogation rooms. The Colonel stopped abruptly in front of one room that was listed as 'unused' by placard indicator, but he could hear noise inside.

A shout from the far side of the door caught Yzak's attention. "That sounded like Hibiki."

"Aff, it did," Pytor agreed. "Breach and make entry?"

"Colonel?" Mu asked, then heard another yelp from Hibiki.

"Get the door, please, and be prepared to rush them if things go sour," the Colonel admitted that there could be a major situation on the far side of the door.

"Yzak, Kira, stand to," Mu said in a directed whisper, then indicated for Pytor to open the door.

The old and wizened 'Mechwarrior took position at the door, nodded to the MPs, and slowly ratcheted the door handle open in such a way that it was as quiet as he could make it. The noise from inside the room covered the sound of the mechanical actuation, and once the latch was slipped he pulled it open and remained behind the door to allow the MPs to enter first.

"You! HALT!" One of the MPs shouted before a whip-crack sound was heard and Hibiki yelped from the strike.

"Stand down, Major Jesselton!" Colonel Knox shouted as he entered the room.

"NO! I started this interrogation, I will finish it! They will confess their treason if I have to beat it out of them!" someone inside answered the stand-down order. "Why did you defect?" He shouted at someone in the room, and cracked the whip again.

"How about fucking survival necessity, dumbass?" Yzak asked as he entered. "Why didn't you start by asking how far they had to travel to return to this world? That would explain a lot right there," he continued.

"I am giving you a direct order, Major. Stand down, right now," the Colonel repeated himself.

"There is too much treason in this room. Secure them, we'll interrogate them all," the Major waved his whip at the group that had entered.

"MPs, arrest them all," the Colonel ordered after Pytor entered the room. Both MPs pulled stun-sticks and applied them to the nearest two of the five mutineers, but in so doing the third tango drop-kicked one of the MPs toward the group to land on Sai. Number four of the mutineers squared up to the Colonel and they grappled, leaving only the Major to face off against the Archangel Team.

"Got a good one," Mu said with a smile, then ejected his halberd from his Magic Squire glove. "Here, catch," he tossed the polearm to the Major after it formed properly.

"What is — AAAAGH!" A second after he caught the wayward halberd, the enchantment on it took effect and he was pulled to the ground hands-first by the suddenly-five-ton weapon. Like a typical manly man, he made the mistake of holding onto it all the way to the ground, where the enchanted weight crushed his hands at the metacarpal bones and first knuckles. "AUUUGGGHHH! MY HANDS!"

"That one won't be whipping anything for a while," Yzak said as he moved forward and drew his sword. The long-blade Zweihander immediately caused the two stun-stick recipients to recoil in horror away from the blade and both backed up against the nearby wall, where Yzak pinned them to the wall by threat. "You two can stay right there," he said as he brandished his blade at chest level.

Kira did not pull his Magic Squire weapon, but instead quickly jump-grappled with the drop-kick trooper and wrapped him up on the ground in a Half-Nelson hold and drove his face into the ground. While the Tarak interrogator tried to fight back, Kira had no trouble maintaining control and looked up to Pytor and Mu, the latter of which was working on detangling the MP and Sai. "Pytor!" He said simply, and jerked his head toward the Colonel.

"Aff," the old Mechwarrior stepped forward, palm-clenched the face of the one trooper still active (trying to grapple with the Colonel) and forcibly yanked him away from the Colonel. A sweep of the arm put the mutineer against the wall back-of-the-head first, and was enough impact that he fell unconscious before Pytor had to do anything more to him. "This surat is unconscious," he said after he kicked the tango over with no reaction.

"Cuff him, please," the MP on the ground flipped Pytor a set of handcuffs, to which the old Mechwarrior was easily able to restrain the unconscious tango.

"Are you going to surrender quietly?" the other MP asked of the trooper that Kira was grappling with.

"I surrender! I surrender!" he said quickly. The Major let out a pained yowl when he tried forcibly pulling his hands out from under the polearm, but Kira didn't miss the instruction to release the captive so the MPs could detain him. True to his word, he did not resist after Kira let him go.

"Just two more," Mu said. "Flip me a pair?" one of the MPs tossed Mu some cuffs. "Brown-and-brown, face to the wall, bring your hands back and palms outward," Commander La Flaga ordered of the guy with brown eyes and hair, to which the indicated offender did exactly that. Mu had no trouble securing him, and the last was dealt with by MP a few seconds later.

"Now what do we do about the Major?" the Colonel asked.

"His hands are badly torn up, he'll need surgery if he expects to use them any time soon," Duello noted from the bench seat next to where the action had transpired. Since Bart and he were both shackled, they could not participate in the action, but he could clearly see what happened to the Major from where he was sitting. "How much does your polearm weigh?"

"Less than a kilogram to anyone tied to Rune God Windam," and Mu held his left hand up while pointing to the gem of his gauntlet. "To any other living being that holds this polearm, or tries to hold it, roughly five metric tons."

Duello sighed. "I hope you have a top-rated surgeon on retainer, Colonel Knox, or the Major may never regain proper use of his hands," the doctor from the Nirvana said.

"If he regains use, good for him. Doesn't change the fact that his ass is going to be before a Courts Martial for this, insubordination and assaulting a superior officer in the face of an enemy invasion are capital offenses," Colonel Knox said. "If we survive the coming invasion, that is. I won't waste time on legal proceedings in the face of imminent invasion. But your ass will definitely be confined to the stockade for the time being."

Mu picked up his halberd from the Major's shattered grip, which caused another yelp from the Major and a sigh of relief from him. While the Commander stowed the polearm, the MPs helped the Major to his feet.

"Sir! What's going on in here?" Another MP asked from the doorway, a fresh face in the engagement.

"Five mutineers against direct orders from me," the Colonel said. "Remand them to the stockade until further orders."

"Sir!" the fresh MP leaned back out the door and waved to some others.

"Now to release these others," the Colonel pulled a shackle key off a peg on the wall and started with Hibiki, who was chained to the wall standing so he could be 'interrogated' by the Major's whip.

"Do I run?" Hibiki asked weakly of Yzak.

"No, the guy with the whip was completely off the reservation, and now he's got a bad case of rubber hands," Yzak took Hibiki away from the wall by way of a one-man shoulder carry. "How long had he been working you over?"

"Couple hours," Bart noted. "Not enough to break Hibiki, I'm not sure I could have lasted that long," he concluded as the Colonel unshackled him. "Thanks, sir."

"You owe the thanks to Kira, he mentioned that he overheard someone saying 'enhanced interrogation' and your names. I would not have known for hours if that was not the case," the Colonel said as he unlocked Duello's shackles. "Now, let's resume our conversation upstairs in the conference room, and get you to guest quarters for the day so you can recover."

-x-x-x-

(Day 331, 1800 Hours Local time)
(Neutral Territory between Tarak and Meijere)

"Five and two," Colonel Knox grumped, referring to the incoming Harvest Capital Ships. "This is going to be a busy and very long day," he continued after he read through the report.

"The longest day," Yzak commented. Commander La Flaga had ordered him to take up the position of informal liaison to the Tarak Intelligence Bureau, and Yzak accepted readily. He figured himself a hard enough guy to earn some credit with them, and so far indicators were pointing in that direction. "Also a damn good old-school pre-spaceflight movie, The Longest Day. If you have a copy in archive, I highly recommend it."

"Don't recognize the title, do you have a copy?" Frederick Knox asked.

"I think I can copy it out of our storage for you," Yzak said. He opened his mouth to say something more, but was interrupted by the arrival and engine noises of the shuttle from Meijere.

"Well, here goes," Murdoch said.

"This is going to be a challenge," Gascogne grumped. "Meijere is an exceptionally vain society, even if they came to this negotiation table they may not play nice."

"Honestly, could work that way as well with the Tarak contingent," Yzak pointed out. "We'll see."

"I don't expect we'll have an easy time with either, but probably easier with Tarak," Voltage said. PO Alicia 'Voltage' West was tapped for the counterpart liaison position on the Meijere side, assuming they actually followed through as they said they would. After it had been communicated through back channels that the Harvest intended to annihilate both worlds, their attitude had changed drastically from the standoffish gender-divided nation to less-standoffish and slightly more willing to talk but still very-gender-divided nation.

"They both will come to the table. They will have to come to the table, if they expect to live through this," a voice said from behind Colonel Knox.

"Captain Vivon," Yzak, Murdoch and Voltage all saluted the Captain of the Nirvana. Hibiki was behind and to her right, and Commander Calessa was behind and to her left. "Commander," Yzak nodded to BC.

"I vote with Petty Officer West, neither will be easy, but Tarak is more likely to be reasonable about it," BC said deadpan.

"Hold a gun to their heads and still they will argue," Colonel Knox pointed out. "Embarrassing conduct, really."

Magno shrugged. "Too long separated to be sensible about it, unless we get lucky," she said.

The second shuttle entered the port-side launch bay, this shuttle from Tarak, and the assembled personnel watched it land in the designated position for this summit.

"We're about to find out," Voltage pointed out as the Tarak shuttle landed.

After the shuttles were on the ground for a few moments, they opened up at roughly the same time and the two heads of state of the two planets appeared at the cabin doors behind other personnel.

"Tarak contingent requesting permission to come aboard!" the lead person shouted.

Captain Ramius stepped forward. "Permission granted!" She shouted.

As the Tarak personnel began deplaning, the Meijere head of security stepped up to the cabin door of their shuttle. "Meijere contingent requesting permission to come aboard!"

Captain Ramius looked in that direction. "Permission Granted!"

"Now the fun begins," Magno said. "Hibiki, do you have your identification card?"

"I do, Captain, why?" Hibiki asked.

"Before this is over, you may need it," Magno said.

Captain Ramius stepped up to the table that had been emplaced for the summit in the center of the hangar. The table was rectangular, five meters wide by three meters deep, fashioned out of a plate of the old Laminated Armor that had been replaced by the Gundanium composite now in use on the ship. In the center of the table had been prepared the unit sigil: the top-down silhouette of the Archangel herself, in a black circle, with the surrounding text: 'Special Warfare Irregular Mobile Formation Archangel Team'.

The Archangel Team representatives had position on one of the long edges of the table, Tarak and Meijere had the ends of the table opposite each other, and the other long edge of the table was reserved for the Nirvana contingent. From Murrue's last declaration of permission granted, the two representatives took only two minutes to close up on the table.

"Lord Grand Pa of Tarak, Lady Grand Ma of Meijere, welcome to the Archangel. I am Captain Murrue Ramius, commanding officer of the Archangel Team and ship. Before we begin, do you need anything?" Murrue asked.

"Not at this time, Captain," Lady Grand Ma said.

"We are good as well," Lord Grand Pa answered.

"Then let us begin," Captain Ramius said. Magno, Hibiki, and BC took their seats for the Nirvana side, Murrue, Mu and Athrun took seats for the Archangel side, and the two planetary contingents had their respective leader with one attendant only at the table and two attendants each close by.

Lord Grand Pa started the dance: "Tarak has gone through what intelligence has been provided by the Archangel Teams and Nirvana Teams, and we have come to the same conclusion that you have, Captains. The Harvest Fleet from Terra intends to annihilate the planets as a way to prevent any further rebellion. Both planets, as it happens."

"Are the Archangel and Nirvana willing to provide the Meijere Intelligence Agency with the intelligence gathered as well?" Lady Grand Ma asked.

"We are preparing full copies at this time, the sheer volume of information is slowing the process but only to a small degree. They should be ready in two hours, Yzak?" Murrue asked the former-Duel-now-Destiny pilot.

"90 minutes at last check, Captain," Yzak said. "You'll have everything we developed on 'em, ma'am."

"Thank you. I do not expect our conclusion will be any different, but on matters of this importance, more eyes is necessary," Lady Grand Ma said, then sighed wearily. "They have well and truly gone off the deep end."

"We left the old world because of the rapidly-developing culture of insanity and privation, this Harvest operation is not a logical outcome of it but certainly within the realm of their insane desires," Lord Grand Pa said. "So, a response plan becomes a necessity if we intend to survive."

Lady Grand Ma was silent for twenty seconds, her lips drawn tight as she stared across the table at her Tarak counterpart. "I gather the original concept is off the table?"

"Not happening now that they intend the wholesale destruction of the planets," Lord Grand Pa said. "And we both know they have the capability of doing it," he said.

Lady Grand Ma looked down to the table surface roughly six inches in front of her chair and nodded twice. "I remember the first test fire of their Black Hole Generator. Proxima Centauri. Nine billion slain in less than an hour, only a handful of ships escaped that system. Whole system is uninhabitable because of the remnant black hole."

"God damn, that is messed up," Yzak said in a low whisper to Colonel Knox.

"No joke, trooper," Colonel Knox noted.

"Before we continue," Lady Grand Ma reached into her ceremonial robe and came out with an object she set on the table. It took the assembled persons several seconds to realize that it was her ID badge from the Colony Era — not a Meijeran ID Pin or a Tarak ID knife.

"So that's how it shall be," Lord Grand Pa said, then smiled. He set his own ID on the table after pulling it from his shirt pocket.

Magno was third to put her ID on the table, followed quickly by Hibiki. "Are the four of us the only presently-awake colonists?" Captain Vivon asked.

"That we are," Lord Grand Pa said. "When last we voted on this subject, you and Hibiki were too young to vote. Today, you two may be the deciding factor in how this happens."

Magno nodded quietly. "So you knew."

"We knew, Magno," Lady Grand Ma said. "We also knew they were watching, through various methods of spying, so we could not prepare a proper military response for them or they would have crushed us decades ago, maybe as far back as a century."

"All we could do was play along under the guise of following the Colonist Protocol, and silently build up our armies in the guise of a men versus women gender war in the hopes that we could hurt them when they finally came for the product," Lord Grand Pa said coldly.

"You planned to fight them from the beginning," Mu said.

"We were both military officers, Commander, and we were both horrified by the sealed orders given to us by the Harvest Command," Lady Grand Ma answered for the two heads of state. "We never intended to acquiesce but we could not have fought them outright. We had to make the century-plus of buildup look organic and inward-focused, even if the underlying purpose was always a fight against this monstrosity."

"Thus the constant low-intensity war between Tarak and Meijere," BC said. "Enough to be training for the big battle but not enough to look like outright preparations."

"And then there are pirate groups of both male and female origin," Lord Grand Pa said. "Probably some of the best light combat groups within a couple parsecs are pirates of one stripe or another. And your own exploits have already made your ships infamous in several circles."

"With the present state of the militaries, simply throwing the two planets together is not going to provide a proper defense," Lady Grand Ma noted. "Frankly, we need ships like the Archangel and the Nirvana to demonstrate that it can be done. Are you willing, Captains Vivon, Ramius?"

"Before we continue down this line, Captain, Commander," Magno said as she pinned Lord Grand Pa and Lady Grand Ma with each of their original ranks before she tapped on her Colonist ID, "Is the intention to simply fight this battle and return to status quo, or do you intend to put an end to the ongoing strife between the worlds? I became a pirate because I knew the split was artificial, at the time I did not know the reason but my original objection still stands."

"Your objection is heard and officially recognized, Magno Vivon. Hibiki, what is your position?" Lord Grand Pa asked.

Hibiki took no more than three seconds to answer. "I vote against the split, sir, ma'am," he said calmly. "I know it can be done and I am willing to help bridge the worlds."

Lady Grand Ma looked to the Captain of the Archangel. "Captain Ramius? Your ship is not part of the original flotilla that came to these worlds, but your record as a warship operator in defiance of the Harvest cannot be downplayed. What say you?"

"If Tarak and Meijere would enlist our help in integration, we will do so during and after the campaign against the Harvest is completed. That said, we are on a timer: once our ship is properly readied to jump out of this dimension, we will be going on to the next waypoint on our journey home," Murrue said.

"Then we will make use of your expertise to as much a degree as we can," Lady Grand Ma said. "So, Captain Tokai, three votes for. What is your position?"

There was zero hesitation in Lord Grand Pa / Captain Zen Tokai's answer: "Four votes for ending the artificial split. Your position, Commander Tokai?"

Lady Grand Ma / Commander Anri Tokai tapped twice on her ID. "Five votes for ending the split. With no objections, it is time for us to get to work."

"Agreed. Do we have anything else to sort out before we begin?" Lord Grand Pa asked.

"I can think of nothing at the state level, just a personal matter," Lady Grand Ma said.

"Captain Vivon?" Murrue asked.

"Only one question, who do I need to talk to about releasing my captured crews? They can do a lot more good in battle than in a jail cell, Lady Grand Ma," Magno asked.

"I will work on springing them forthwith," Lady Grand Ma answered. "As soon as we are prepared to release them, I will contact you for transport arrangements."

"Thank you," Magno nodded to the former Commander of the Ikazuchi. "Captain Ramius?"

"Archangel Team has no further matters," Captain Ramius noted. "As soon as you are ready to begin integration for defense and military, we will make technical personnel available."

"As shall the Nirvana," Captain Vivon said.

"I expect it will take a few days for our military to absorb the news, and a few days to assemble units who are willing to work together as opposed to units willing to at least fight a common enemy. Once we are ready for integration with your teams, we will want to move quickly," Lord Grand Pa said.

"I expect the same," Lady Grand Ma said. "No more than a week, since we barely have two to spare, though."

"Very well, I believe this meeting is adjourned," Captain Ramius said.

"Might I request a private side-bar between the five voting persons?" Lady Grand Ma asked.

"Can do," Murrue said. "Mu, Athrun, start assembling long-range communication gear for technical teams for both planets and prepare a list of at least four teams, two per planet."

"Will do, Captain," Athrun saluted and turned sharply to depart the table. Mu did the same just as quickly.

"BC, we'll catch up," Magno said. "Start planning out your recommendations for integration teams, we will want to get them ready ahead of schedule."

"Already planning it out, Captain," BC nodded and headed for the Nirvana's shuttle.

The attendant officers and personal details of each head of state stepped back toward their respective shuttles a respectable distance, but were still close enough to react if something went amiss. Still, the five persons congregated around Captain Vivon, and when closed up, Hibiki quickly realized that both Lord Grand Pa and Lady Grand Ma were older than Captain Vivon by a degree. Comparatively, Captain Ramius and Hibiki were the younger of the five by a wide margin.

"Before we go further, can it be done?" Lady Grand Ma asked.

"Oh yes, it can," Magno answered. "Between our two ships, the combined armies of Tarak and Meijere, the cluster of worlds that makes up Malanas, and any ringers or pirates we can bring in, the battle is eminently doable."

"Good," Lord Grand Pa asked. "And the cessation of hostilities?"

"Already happening," Magno said. "Leaving the Archangel aside, which was never gender-split as we were, the Nirvana is already integrating. It will take time, and most importantly willingness to do so, but when it is there, it works."

"How much so, if I may ask?" Lady Grand Ma asked.

"Most of the Tarak-Meijere animosity is already gone," Magno noted. "And I have several couples already, even if officially undeclared. One half of such a pair being right here." A nod of her head toward Hibiki gave away what she meant.

"And one pair that crosses the ships, sir, ma'am," Murrue waved a finger at Murdoch and Gascogne.

"Huh," Lord Grand Pa half-grunted. "This might just work."

"It won't be easy," Hibiki said before he could stop himself.

"True, son," Lord Grand Pa said. "And I — we — have not made it any easier."

"Well — what? Son?" Hibiki asked. "Wait — really?" He asked redundantly, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that the two elders of Tarak and Meijere had the same surname as he did.

"It is true," Magno said. "For the three of us, it was so far in the past that we had largely forgotten until recent events shook up old memories," Captain Vivon produced the worn picture of her much younger self holding a baby. "This was you and I on the trip here from Earth. The picture was taken by your mother, the XO of the Ikazuchi," and Magno pointed the corner of the picture at Lady Grand Ma.

"Aye," Lady Grand Ma said. "Commander Anri Tokai, XO of the lead colony ship," she said.

"That is now the core of the Nirvana, strangely enough," Lord Grand Pa said. "And I am Captain Zen Tokai from those days past."

"And I was put in stasis," Hibiki said. "Why?"

"Everyone that was deemed non-essential to the initial build-up was either left in stasis or put back in after their initial tasks were done on the new worlds," Lady Grand Ma said. "We didn't have a choice with you, son. We could not justify keeping you out of stasis on Tarak, and with the shift to single-gender society, I could not keep you with me on Meijere. There were days that I wished to take you and Zen away from the worlds on a shuttle, so we could be a proper family somewhere else, but we could not. We had to do what we had to do."

"Oh," Hibiki half-deflated when he realized what that meant. They had sacrificed any degree of normalcy to build a future in which they might just survive a very horrible fate at the hands of psychopaths from a distant world. "And that means you two never gave up on each other, or the hope of survival."

"True," and Zen held out his left hand toward Anri, who did the same. On their third finger was a simple gold ring — the same style of ring Hibiki had seen on the hand of Tolle Koenig and had asked about in months past.

"Wedding rings," Hibiki half-stammered the name of the ring type.

"So you do know," Anri said. "We never gave up on each other, even if we could only ever communicate back-channel."

"You can blame them," and Hibiki nodded to Captain Ramius. "One of the married couples on their ship is about my age."

"The only married couple, so far, not that there are not a few engagements above and beyond the first," Murrue said.

"You, Captain?" Lady Grand Ma asked in pure curiosity.

"If we can ever find a quiet place for a wedding, yes," Murrue said.

"I cannot guarantee such a place on Meijere, sorry," Anri answered.

"No such institution exists on Tarak any more, we will have to begin an education campaign on the matter if we survive the coming invasion," Lord Grand Pa said.

"Huh," Anri half-grunted herself. "Well, if we intend to survive, best we get back to our worlds and begin preparing for it."

"Good speaking to you, all of you, and we will need to catch up after the fighting is done, all of us," Lord Grand Pa said. "Thank you for the hospitality, Captain Ramius."

"Aye, give 'em hell, Captain, we'll do what we can to support," Lady Grand Ma noted.

"Thank you, both of you," Captain Ramius came to attention and saluted the two old and wizened naval officers, both of which returned the salute sharply.

-x-x-x-

(Day 333, 0600 Hours Shipboard Time)
(Nirvana, Captain's stateroom)

Three beeps at the door was typical for BC for her morning hand-off, so Magno thought nothing of the door chime. "Come in," she said automatically.

True to the door chime pattern, the first in the door was BC. Second in the door was a Meijere Orbital Prison Officer that Magno did not know was coming, but which Magno easily recognized the uniform.

"Captain, I have Commodore Elise Jensen, Prison 06, here to discuss prisoner transfers," BC said.

"Oh, that was the landing warning from earlier," Magno said after she put the two events together in her mind. "Please, Commodore," and Magno waved to the chair opposite the couch she usually had to herself.

"Thank you, Captain," the Commodore said before she took the offered seat.

"I know what you are feeling," Magno said. "It is insane that you are now on a pirate ship to discuss prisoner release from a Prison system that has never let a pirate out that was still alive."

"If you had asked me a week ago, ma'am, I would have laughed. After yesterday's announcement, I don't know what to think," the Commodore said. Magno guessed her at or around 35, easily half taller than herself (Magno figured her head height slightly below the Commodore's bust) and very physically fit. Which was also the driving factor in BC staying real close.

"I knew from the beginning the split was artificial," Magno said. "I only recently found the cause for the split, and that is even more terrible than the split itself. I turned to piracy because I thought Meijere had gone off the deep end, but now that we know it was preparation for this war, we are all in the fight."

The Commodore sighed. "Looking at it from the lens of other societies, even I can see the descent into what others would think is insanity," Elise shrugged. "It's what we've lived with."

"It's what we've fought against, in both societies," BC pointed out. "But now we know why."

"Do you hold it against us? Or the others?" Magno asked.

"A bit," Commodore Jensen said. "Had a few hours to think about it, and I can see the validity of your fight to a degree. I don't agree with the methods, though. I lost a cousin to Kikou's Marauders when I was a teen."

"And Kikou lost to the Meijeran Navy a few years after that incident, if I remember correctly," BC said.

"Terrible price, Kikou was a good Captain but overly-aggressive on boarding actions," Magno said. "We could have used her here, now, but I'll settle for her crew."

"We have all but a dozen of her crew still alive and ready to be released," the Commodore said. "Here's the manifest of captured pirates, grouped by the ship they were taken off," and Elise presented a tablet to Magno. "Entries in red were executed or died through other means in captivity."

Magno took a few to swipe through the list. "Good. We have enough surviving officers and crew to fill out at least six ships and associated Dread wings. Now, do you have their captured ships in mothballs somewhere? Or are we receiving new ships?"

"I don't know, Captain Vivon," the Commodore said. "My orders only go so far as to release and transfer all persons captured for piracy."

Magno nodded twice. "Might get a call after the transfer starts about the ships," she noted. "Whatever ships we are on, we will need to reactivate them, draw supplies, and work the crews back in on the ship and the Dreads."

"True, simply throwing a crew into a ship does not guarantee results," BC pointed out.

"We took months to get up to the point of working truly well as a team, and the Archangel took longer," Magno completed the lesson. "So, I see no need to quibble on who to deny release, since we need all of these survivors and more. Where do I sign?"

"Select anyone that you want to deny release, then sign at the bottom, Captain," the Commodore noted. Magno forewent leaving anyone on the table and simply signed off on it. "Very well, as soon as we can arrange shuttles, we will bring the crews over."

"We can start moving them now," Magno said. "BC, please see the Commodore down to Gascogne to coordinate the first transport run."

"Will do, Captain," BC answered immediately.

"Thank you, Captain," Commodore Jensen said with a slight bow. The two were out of the room in the moments thereafter.

Magno turned to her breakfast of scrambled eggs and went for her first bite, but was interrupted by the intercom. "Captain, Radio, we have incoming from Meijere, the Office of the Admiralty," Coco said.

"Put them through," Magno said and set her fork down before she gave into the temptation of her breakfast.

The view was that of the Admiralty Office, which Magno had seen a few times throughout her life as the backdrop of some rather hostile communiques directed at her by prior residents of the office. This time, though, it was a live communication and Magno was speaking to a live and very flustered Admiral. "Captain Vivon? Admiral Yolei Sellater," the officer said.

"Morning, Admiral. What is happening this morning?" Magno asked with some cheer.

"Honestly? A large dose of chaos. I have a lot of crews and personnel who are highly upset at the announcement from Lady Grand Ma yesterday, and a lot more panties ruffled by the orders from Lady Grand Ma to release pirates and ships. I take it you have been contacted by the Prison System?"

"Just finished with the Commodore of the prisons a minute ago," Magno said. "Busy morning."

"Well, I am about to make it more so, sorry in advance, Captain," the Admiral said. "Of Pirate ships captured, you only have two in mothballs worthy of fighting right now, ships Sister Star and Dragon," she announced.

"Those were good, solid ships, so they will do well. I have personnel for at least six ships, maybe as much as seven or eight if we can get extra Dread compliments," Captain Vivon noted.

"We'll go with seven for now, since I have a dozen in mothballs that will not be an issue. I have orders to release to you the Battlecruiser Freya, Cruiser Innana, Destroyer Helena, Frigate Madagascar, and the Corvette Shion. You will need to fill out what you can for the five I'm releasing to you and your own ships, then we will fill in any gaps in your crews as needed."

Magno stared at the screen in stunned silence for a few moments, then: "Wow, that is a lot of ship," she said after a moment for the names to sink in.

"As Lady Grand Ma pointed out, this is a huge battle to come. We are not leaving anything on the table for this one, Captain, and though at least a third of my personnel want to mutiny over the rapid change in circumstances, we all know this is either victory or death in a couple weeks. No in between, either they die, or we do."

"Too true," Magno noted. "Can you send me coordinates for where the ships are berthed? I might as well move the Nirvana over to begin recommissioning."

"Definitely, sending you the shipyard location now. I will alert the yard master that you are coming," and the Admiral uploaded the coordinates on a data channel attached to the transmission.

Once the coordinates were received: "Bart," Magno signaled for the Helmsman.

Bart only took a few seconds to respond and join in as a third party to their call. "Morning, Captain, what's going on?" he asked.

"We just received coordinates for several ships we will be reactivating with released crewmates from Orbital Prison. Let's get moving, I'm sending you the locations now." Magno slid the data packet from the Admiral's side of the transmission to Bart's side.

Bart tapped the data packet and slugged the coordinates to nav markers for the navigation system. "Got 'em, Captain. Moving now, anything else?"

"That will be all," Magno said. Bart closed out the transmission a moment later.

"Did not expect to see that," The Admiral noted. "Still, just goes to prove that overcoming the split is possible, if we survive the coming battle."

"One battle at a time, Admiral," Magno warned her. "This one will not be easy."

"Understood, and thank you, Captain. We'll be in touch if anything changes. Good luck in coming days."

"To you and your command as well, Admiral," Magno killed the link, then sighed. "In less than 20 minutes, all that is in motion, crews and ships." She picked up her fork and had her first bite of her breakfast. "And my eggs are cold."

-x-x-x-

(Day 335, 1815 Hours Local)
(Defense Factory 33A, Industrial Area, Tarak Capital City New Moscow)

"Three shifts," Newman commented as he looked down on the assembly area for the Vanguard units.

"We're running full out," Colonel Knox said. "On three shifts, each line produces a Vanguard a day, so this factory will produce two companies' worth."

"I used to work here," Hibiki noted. "Intake Line 17 was my daily post, unboxing parts and conveying them into the assembly area," Hibiki pointed.

"How did you end up on the Ikazuchi?" Colonel Knox asked.

"I'd like to say it was a bet, but really, I ran off at the mouth that I could sneak on to the ship and fly one of the units down to the planet that had a certain part of it. And I found the unit, but we were attacked before I could get into the unit," Hibiki said. "And shortly thereafter we had the whole pirate attack and disappearing ship incident."

"Wild days," Newman noted. "We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," the pilot of the Archangel noted. "We landed from our last jump not far from the Ikazuchi and were caught in its warp field. Cue long-ass trip home."

"Vanguard pilot for a company of pirates," Colonel Knox leaned against the catwalk rail and chuckled. "And one of the original colonists to boot. Did not know that when you were here a few days ago."

"I was an infant at the time, Colonel," Hibiki pointed out. "I definitely didn't remember it."

"True, I've seen the picture," the Colonel noted. "So, if you survive, what's the plan?"

"Depends," Hibiki said. "If the leaders are serious about ending the split, I'll help. If they go back on that, I go back to being a pirate."

"Makes sense."

"The word's out, I don't think they'll back out," Yzak noted as he looked down at Line 18. "The challenge will be surviving."

"So what's the plan?" Colonel Knox asked.

"Defense in depth," Yzak said. "If we put everything on the front line from the start, we lose. They'll concentrate force on one part of the line and punch through. If, on the other hand, we give them a deep field they have to push through, and that whole field is hammering on them every time they twitch, they will lose."

"That will be a challenge to set up, a good portion of the Captains are hotheads and they won't want to fight in formations," Colonel Knox said.

"Personal glory over battlefield necessity, where have we seen that before?" Umi asked rhetorically.

"I distinctly remember the Jade Falcons had a few hangups like that," Newman pointed out.

"We can calculate a portion of that into our battleplan," Yzak said with a smile. "It could work in our favor this time if we use it smartly — and we need to make sure that forces we know will not follow orders are not counted as part of the overarching strategies that rely on following orders and executing plans on a timetable."

"Damn, never thought about it that way," Colonel Knox said. "Never even considered the possibility of subdividing the deployments based on who would follow orders and who would go cowboy captain."

"It's not hard, just requires adjusting your strategies," Yzak said. "In fact, it can work to our advantage. Use the 'cowboy captains' as frag-bait and distraction for the enemy forces while the main body that knows how to listen to the plan maneuvers and hits them from key points of weakness. We won't have tactical control over those dumbasses anyway, might as well profit off their failures somehow."

"Wow, I really don't want to see you on the other side of a battlefield I'm on," the Colonel said with a smile.

"We Archangel Team troops, we get shit done," Newman piped up.

"Nirvana as well," Dita said.

The Colonel snorted. "Each factory around the planet is putting out a Company of Vanguards a night for the next weeks, but we don't have pilots," he said. "We'll conscript the loader pilots, they are already leaning how to control the Vanguards, but we'll exceed pilots by a fair amount." He paused while a completed unit stood up from Line 12 and started marching toward the delivery entrance. "Like that one. It won't have a pilot."

"Surplus units, have them on standby in the ships," Umi pointed out. "If pilots are the hard commodity, make all efforts to rescue them when downed and get them into a new machine. Get them back in the fight if they can still fly, that might be the best bet to keeping the battle going in our favor."

"Definitely have to pass that recommendation along," Colonel Fredrick Knox took a note of the recommendation.

The crew was silent for a few moments, watching the factory personnel do their jobs and assemble the weapons of war, until Hibiki crossed gaze with an old line buddy of his. "HOLY SHIT! IT'S HIBIKI! HE'S ALIVE!" the guy in question was pointing toward the group comically.

"Uh," Hibiki half-froze for a moment after he was called out, but quickly regained his nerve: "DAMN STRAIGHT I'M ALIVE!"

"This going to be a problem?" Newman asked quickly.

"Don't think so, that's the crew I used to work with," Hibiki waved them toward a cross-catwalk and a staircase down to the factory floor.

"I'll be damned! He did survive!" The Crew Chief for Line 17 said.

"Chief Willy! Man, glad to hear a familiar voice!" Hibiki vaulted over the side of the catwalk stairs and landed on the floor next to where the Crew Chief was.

"Man, you are a brave soul!" a parts handler jumped over one of the conveyor lines. "We'd heard you were killed with the loss of the Ikazuchi!"

"Did you get to your unit?" One of the welders asked.

"Yeah, I got to my unit, and then shit got weird. Very, very weird," Hibiki said. "I got to the unit we assembled with the marked chest plate, then ship's security pulled me off before I could get in and lock in. Problem is, before I could get away, the Ikazuchi was attacked by pirates from Meijere."

"You survived all that? Didn't know you had it in you, kid," Crew Chief Willy said.

"Oh, don't worry, that was just the easy part. The engine of the Ikazuchi launched us elsewhere in the galaxy and combined the pirate ship with itself into one ship — the Nirvana. You've probably seen some of the battle footage from it?" Hibiki asked.

"Yeah, the Military has been airing combat footage from the ships. That Vanguard, that was you?"

Hibiki nodded solemnly. "The Harvest has been a constant haunt for us," he said. "They started on us shortly after the ships combined, we really didn't know what to do or how to do it," the Vanguard Pilot noted.

" 'We' kid?" the Crew Chief asked.

"Yeah, I said 'we' deliberately," Hibiki said. "All that junk you've heard about women? It's bullshit. Most of those accusations can be left at the feet of the Harvest, they really do the horrible things like eat people. Those two are not the enemy," and Hibiki waved a finger between Umi and Dita.

"You sure?" a senior welder asked.

"I've lived with them for months, and they have been living with a few guys for the same months, and that is just on the Nirvana. The Archangel is captained by a lady, the CIC commander is a lady, and three of their pilots are ladies, and they don't have a fraction of the strife Tarak and Meijere do. Honestly, living in a combined environment isn't bad, just takes getting used to. And, big problem here, the Harvest is aimed at both Tarak and Meijere. We're going to have to work together."

"Is it that bad?" A Part Assembler asked.

"We've seen whole worlds left as cratered hellscapes by the Harvest. Space stations cleaned out and abandoned — only skeletons left in a few cases. Interstellar cargo vessels intact but with no crew — because the onboard security logs showed the crew Harvested. It's not bad, it's horrible. And that horror is going to land here in less than two weeks. So, let's introduce you to the team I work with, because this is doable but not by one or two or even a handful."

Hibiki took a few moments to introduce the Line 17 crew to the members of the Archangel Team and Nirvana Team. Colonel Knox, for his part, didn't fail to notice that Hibiki introduced Dita as 'his co-pilot for the heavy Vandread'.

-x-x-x-

(Day 336, 1130 Hours Tarak Time)
(National Communication Relay C-03, Outside Tarak's largest city (Northgate))

Yzak continued typing to create a cross-link API for the military center on Tarak to be able to link up with the relay node that the Archangel had provided for the two countries to properly interface their militaries. There were some jaws flapping loose at his typing rate, but most were watching the lines of code go by on the main monitor as he programmed furiously to meet the necessary deadline.

"What's the time?" Yzak asked his 'escort' without stopping his code.

"1131 hours, trooper," the escort said. He was not miffed by the presence of 'foreign' personnel in the control room for the National Commo Relay, but he was a little squicked out by the presence of two ladies therein.

"Good, looks like I'll be about 25 minutes ahead of schedule," Yzak said.

"Error trapping?" the lead software engineer for the facility asked.

"Doing it in real time as I block out a section," Yzak said. "So far nothing has broken."

"That is not common around here," the software engineer said with a chuckle. "System crashes are a weekly thing."

"We'll take a look at your system code after I'm done with the API and we've tested it working." Yzak had, in the process of offering to look at their code, finished the second to last block of code needed for the API.

"Do you always type this fast?" a MP Major asked.

"Old habit born of my family circumstances," Yzak said. "Coordinators from my homeworld are slightly genetically enhanced from generation to generation. Gives us higher potentials in certain ways, and I mastered programming at an early age. That's how I can program like this without stopping." He deliberately did not tell them that his intelligence was on the whole significantly higher than average human intelligence, and the programming speed was a byproduct of it. "And we're done."

"Ready to go with the test?" the software engineer asked.

"As soon as Nicol finishes up on the Meijere side, yes. While we're waiting, let's start digging into the master code for the relay."

-x-

(5 Minutes Later)
(Meijere Communication Relay R-G-08, Outside Meijere military base Nightingale)

Nicol finished up his last section of code and compiled the project. "Done, API is compiled and ready."

"That was insane!" Unlike over with Yzak, the Meijere side had assigned a full programming team to check over Nicol's work in real time, though any one of them would readily admit that Nicol typed way too fast for them to have seen everything as he was working down the code.

"Is that really a thing amongst Coordinators?" the senior software engineer asked.

"Being a Coordinator is still a throw of the dice, not every Coordinator can do what we do routinely with software and systems," Nicol noted. "Still, the Coordinator program was really designed to help humanity adapt to life in space with some enhanced capabilities. It's not a full makeover, shall we say."

"Oh," the Software Engineer Lead half-grumped.

"And it's not retroactive, the Coordinator modifications have to be applied before In Vitro Fertilization," Nicol continued.

"And?" the lead software engineer could sense there was a third glitch in the plan.

"And we four Coordinators on the Archangel, none of us are medical trained. We were all on mechanical or computer tracks before the Bloody Valentine War," Nicol noted.

"Well, that sinks that plan," one of the junior Software Engineers said.

"Anyway, everything is ready and no errors on compile. We're ready to test," Nicol said after the project finished compiling and gave him a report on the results. "Let's do it."

"Time to call," and the facility commander picked up a black phone from a desk that had no assigned person and dialed a number from memory.

-x-

(Same time as above)
(Warship Archangel, monitoring the relay satellite)

Kira was first to see the incoming dial from the Meijere side. "Miriallia, it's showtime," he said simply.

"Bring it up," Mir said. A short command on the console and the screen connected to a control room with all women except one guy — Nicol — sitting with a bunch of women arrayed around his terminal. "This is Archangel Combat Information Center, Nicol, can you hear me?"

"Copy, Commander Haww, reading five by five," Nicol answered.

"Bingo, we're half up and working," Mir said.

"Call in from Yzak's side," Kira said. "Connecting now."

The screen split to the second facility, the Tarak communication relay command center. Miriallia started the test in the same fashion: "This is Archangel Combat Information Center, Yzak, can you hear me?"

"We hear you, Commander," Yzak said a little less formally. "Tarak commo station is up and ready."

"Meijere station reporting ready," Nicol said.

"Excellent, thank you guys," Miriallia noted. "Tarak and Meijere, are your facility commanders available?"

"I'm here," the Tarak Commandant held his hand up. "Colonel Harald Mays, Signals."

"Major General Yvette Goldschlager," the Meijere lead officer announced herself. "What's on your mind, Commander?"

"Just wanted to warn you that, as more parties come online for the defense here, we will be adding them to this relay so they can coordinate with the other defenders properly and quickly, and so we can share intelligence and information during the battle. The two planets are just the beginning, but this is where it has to start," Miriallia had been thinking about how to explain this, and that was her best shot at it.

"Understood, Commander," the Major General said with a smile. "As soon as Naval Headquarters links into the communication feed, we'll be ready to begin planning and integration testing."

"Your pilot-slash-programmer has an appointment at our fleet base in three hours to begin coding the crossover on our side," Colonel Mays noted.

"Don't keep 'em up all night, Yzak, they'll need to be fresh for the first sim-ex tomorrow morning," Miriallia cautioned the former Duel pilot.

"No guarantees, Mir, but I'll do what I can as quick as I can," Yzak said.

"Nicol, same thing, get the interface prepared and get some rest, first sim-ex is 0800 Shipboard," Miriallia declared.

"Should be ready before that, Commander," Nicol said.

"All right, any questions?" None were offered in ten seconds. "That's that. Call through once you have the cross-links set up and are ready to test. Archangel is out."

-x-x-x-

(Day 339, 1230 Hours)
(Warship Archangel, Fleet Muster area, between Tarak and Meijere)

Captain Ramius watched the approach of the newly-released Pirate Captain out of the corner of her eye, but still had affairs of the ship to see to. "Divide this request up between Tarak and Meijere, both can provide at least part of it in trade for some salvage."

"Tarak will love that, anything they don't have to asteroid mine they pay top dollar for," Mu noted.

"Squeeze them for a bit, see if you can get some preferential rates, then," Murrue said.

"Can do. Anything else, Captain?" Mu asked.

"Not for now, see to it," Murrue waved him off in deference to the approaching Pirate Captain.

"Aye aye," Mu nodded and headed on his way.

The Pirate Captain opened with a decent anecdote for an icebreaker: "If I may ask, don't get too stingy with Tarak on the trade scene, Cap'n. We Meijere pirates did a good trade with some of their black market hucksters before we got busted."

"Huh, progressives even in the bad old days of the gender war?" Murrue asked in clarification.

"Part progress, part desperation," the tag-along lady with the Pirate Captain said. "Tarak wanted salvage and they weren't too picky about who they bought it from. We needed supplies because of the slim pickings around here."

"Bella Jack Daniels," the Captain held a hand out for a shake, which Murrue took. "This is my Tech Officer, Yuna Halver."

"Ma'am," the techie nodded.

"Murrue Ramius, Archangel Team. You're on the Madagascar, right?" Murrue asked the Captain as she took quick stock of the recently-freed lady. The lady in question was roughly Murrue's height, blond hair and violet eyes, slightly stockier than Murrue (likely due to an extended workout regimen in jail), and had measurements that would have commanded a premium in the nascent Hollywood scene back in the Atlantic Federation. Which, after the fact, made perfect sense given what genetic traits the Harvest had demanded be exemplified by Meijere.

"Aye," the Captain said. "Here to link up into the battle network and meet the Captain of a certain rather infamous warship, if you don't mind my saying."

"Mhm, you're in the right place," Murrie said before she grabbed a radio. "Kira Yamato, Captain," she prompted on the pilot's channel.

"Go for Kira," the response came back a few moments later.

"Need you down in the hangar to link up the Madagascar to the network. What's your availability?"

"Good to go, Captain. Be there in one-fifty," he said, meaning 150 seconds or two and a half minutes.

"So, an integrated ship," Captain Daniels semi-prompted the Captain. "They weren't joking when the Fleet Admiral said your ship never was split?"

Murrue decided that she could be a little more nuanced with the Pirates than she could be with Meijere in general (or Tarak, for that matter). "Well, there are different degrees of 'split'. Compared to Tarak and Meijere, we are an integrated ship. Does that mean shared quarters and bathrooms and such? No, we do have certain separate facilities for males and females, like our hot springs and bathrooms and personnel quarters."

"That's still way more integrated than even we Pirates," Bella noted with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, there are exceptions, of course," Murrue continued as a way to see how much this pirate was actually rebelling against the societal conditioning or was just a rebel without a cause, given that she had seen both types so far in the Meijere pirates — and at least one good case of 'rebel without a cause' from Tarak that had very quickly 'Come to Jesus' when he heard what was coming toward the planet.

"How salacious? The more, the better," the Pirate Captain noted.

"On Meijere, I believe it would have been an execution offense two weeks ago," Murrue said. "Top gantry level, back wall, between the two large standing armor units."

"One guy, one girl, I see them," Captain Daniels noted.

"The two of them are married. Their first daughter is in the nursery up by the bridge," Murrue concluded the lesson.

The Pirate Captain was silent about the matter. The next question came from the technical officer: "No gene splicing, I take it? This ship is easily big enough to house a genetics lab, but I get the feeling the lesson is gene splicing isn't needed."

"Exactly," Murrue answered.

"Weird, wild, and I suspect wonderful, given the way they are looking at each other," Captain Daniels noted. "So it can work, if you overcome all the decades of propagandizing."

"It works out pretty well, if you try," Murrue said. "You can't go into a relationship thinking it will be automatic, or you lose from the start."

"Same thing as we see on Meijere. The couples that work are the couples that really try," Yuna noted.

"Good, if you know that lesson, you're in a decent spot to try with a guy, if you're so inclined," Murrue needled them to see if she could get some kickback on the principle.

"Dunno, that guy you were talking to looked like he might be interesting," Captain Daniels said.

"Oh, he is. Our son is up in the nursery in the cradle next to their daughter," Murrue said.

"Oh, yeah, um, sorry," Bella backtracked quickly.

"At least you have an eye for the decent ones, that's another point in your favor," Murrue noted as encouragement, since she now knew this Pirate Captain (and likely most of her crew) was on the right track for reintegration. "If it doesn't feel right, chances are it probably is not right and you should bail out hard and fast. Personal relationships can go sour fast, man and woman as well as woman and woman, so always trust your feelings."

"Incoming," the tech officer said, nodding toward one of the personnel hatches. "And would he count as a good one?"

"That is Kira Yamato. And he would count as a good one, definitely, but again, he's already taken," Murrue said.

"Oh, drat," the Tech officer adjusted her glasses. "Worth a try, though."

"I strongly recommend against," Murrue cautioned her. "Hikaru Shidou is his girlfriend — and a Magic Knight. You don't want to mess with the Magic Knights, it won't end well for you."

"Oh," Yuna half-squeaked.

"Sorry I'm late, Captain. Power issues are causing some of the bulkhead doors to seize up, I've already reported it to Maintenance," Kira said somewhat winded from his circuitous run to the hangar.

"It happens. Kira, this is Yuna Halver, Tech Officer for the Madagascar. Please get their cross-link set up and tied into CIC so we can begin drills as soon as possible."

"Will do, Captain. Miss Halver, after you," he waved toward the door he came from.

Both Captains were silent for about 60 seconds while the pilot and the Tech officer disappeared into the labyrinthine innards of the Archangel. "We do have a chance at surviving this, right?"

"A pretty good chance, but it won't be easy," Murrue said.

"Good. Might need to call upon some of your crew to help educate ours on how to get along with guys," Captain Daniels said.

"You're not the first to ask, Captain," Murrue said with a chuckle.

-x-x-x-

(Day 340, 1230 Hours Local Time)
(Downtown Ketrel City, planet Meijere)

The participants were on the field. The system connections were completed. Three days of training thus far had proved that at least individually the various troops were up to a quantifiable standard, even if it wasn't much of a standard compared to the Archangel or Nirvana. Still and all, anything was better than nothing: the drilling thus far had proved that victory was entirely possible, and that at least part of the involved forces for all sides would survive the enemy encounter at +20 percent difficulty. Encouraging, certainly, but Murrue and Magno intended to use the next four days to continue drilling the combined force to sharpen up as much as possible, one day for maintenance stand-down, one day for crew rest, and then the battle.

Of course, between drill battles and while Murrue was grilling the other Captains for skills and methods, the remainder of the staff had some breathing room to go eat, get up and stretch, work out or rest. That included the contingent from the ships sent to Meijere to set up systems integration on that side and 'liaise' with the locals.

"Long time since I've been on Meijere," Parfait said. "At least eight, nine years?"

"I was ten when Captain Selene rescued me from that crappy orphanage," Paiway explained. "You, Commander?"

"I have no idea when I was last on this world," BC answered as cover for the fact that she/he had never set foot on Meijere. "Except for the Captain and Gascogne, I've been on the ship the longest and that means months without setting foot outside."

"Such is the fate of all sailors," Nicol noted, and with speaking he immediately drew attention to himself from the persons around the street. "That was quick."

"What's your longest time in a ship, pilot?" Commander Liana Blossom (Meijere Ministry of Intelligence) asked Nicol.

"Couple months, actually in this dimension," Nicol pointed out. "Everywhere else we go, we've been on a planet we could step out on, touch grass and stretch out. Comparatively speaking, there has been very little of that on our trip here," the former Blitz-then-GuAIZ-now-Savior pilot noted. "We're trained for it, ZAFT and OMNI both trained and prepared for long-duration deployments in years past. Probably a lot harder on the Nirvana contingent than we had it."

"Our deployment standard was supposed to be six months per sortie, but the Nirvana has done far better than that," Duello pointed out. "And that was just the trip home."

"Yeah, now we have the fight of our lives," Sai noted. "We've done some insane battles in the past, but this one is above and beyond anything else we've fought over the years."

"Here, let's duck into this restaurant, they're pretty decent," Liana waved the crew into one of her favorite haunts, a mediterranean-italian-style restaurant with fairly lax clientele standards. The Intelligence Commander figured she'd need to play on that since there were three men in the troupe she was 'escorting'.

"Mediterranean? Works for me," Sai said. "Haven't had any good Med cooking since we left Europe in the After Colony era."

"Makes sense, after AC was Halkegenia, then here," Nicol pointed out.

"Halkegenia had some very good cooking, in a few places," Fuu said. "Not enough places to visit on this trip."

"And months in deep space with just our rations on board," Dorothy noted. "That smell," she said with some cheer after they entered the restaurant.

"Smells wonderful already," Paiway noted.

Liana stepped up to the hostess station, who had frozen in dread at the sight of the three guys in the team. "Table for nine, please? Official business," and Liana waved her ID in front of the hostess.

"Uh, sure, ma'am," the petrified hostess noted. She grabbed menus and utensil sets by rote, and was able to lead them to a decent table by rote, but everyone in the team and their escort could easily tell that she was still mentally stunned by the fact that she had seen a man in her restaurant and he was not here to kill anyone.

Dorothy, being an old hand in affairs of intrigue and high-stakes negotiation, knew how to read the mood of the staff and the apprehension was very evident in their mannerism. At least a third of the staff she had line of sight to were gossipping and stealing looks toward the table, and that was a hint worrisome to her. Even a couple of the cook staff had come out of the kitchen area to observe, and there were more looks from them.

"I suspect the staff is a bit restless about the present of us three guys," Sai noted to Dorothy in a half-whisper.

"You are seeing it as well?" Dorothy asked.

"Some of 'em are obvious, some are not," Sai said as he received his menu. "Thank you, miss," Sai said as he received it.

"Thank you," Dorothy said as she received her copy of the menu and flipped it open. "Wonder if this is going to be an issue."

"Maybe, but I think not," Sai said. "They're probably suffering from some mental schism, in the past two weeks they've been told the old war between men and women is a lie, then they were told they have to join forces with the men to survive an attack from another world, then they see pirates released wholesale, now three guys show up in their restaurant," he noted.

"All very true," Dorothy acknowledged that the operator from the seat behind her common post had a very good point on the matter.

"Still, I don't expect trouble," Sai set down his menu. "I'm thinking lasagna."

"It looks good, but I keep coming back to, well, as odd as it looks, they have steak parmesan?" Dorothy noted. "They have options for chicken, pork, steak, and lamb?"

"I'm wondering how that would be done," Sai wondered. "Eyes up, four waitresses just convened on the far side of the hall."

"I see them," Dorothy said as she stole a look over the edge of the menu. "Looks like they're sorting out who does our table."

"I think we have a winner," Sai noted as the group broke up and one larger (and stockier) lady took up the task. She stopped the hostess briefly to discuss the matter, and was visibly surprised by the answer she received, then came over to the table.

"Good evening, Archangel Team, Nirvana Team, I will be your waitress for the afternoon. Before we begin, any wine orders?" the waitress asked.

"A bottle of Mami's Riesling down here, please," Commander Blossom raised her hand.

"White wine, down here, please," Nicol selected for himself and Fuu.

"We'll do a bottle of Mami's Riesling as well," BC selected for herself, Parfait and Duello. "You're still too young, Paiway, sorry."

"I'll settle for a malt milkshake," Paiway declared. The waitress chuckled at the substitute and took it down.

"And we will have a bottle of Jarten's Pinot Noir," Dorothy said, taking a guess at what would be a decent wine based on the listed price. "Unless you object, Sai?"

"I'm good for a red today," Sai agreed. He had learned something of wines from his family in years past, but hadn't had much opportunity to make use of that knowledge on the trip so far.

"I'll return shortly with your selections and to take orders, thank you," the waitress ducked into the kitchen area.

"I think we found the most progressive — or brave — of the waitress staff," Dorothy noted as she gave the menu another look-over.

"I'd say a bit of both," BC pointed out, as Dorothy's comment was a bit louder than prior whispering. "What's your plan if the Archangel ever reaches the end of its travels?"

"No idea, have not thought too much about it yet," Dorothy admitted, then deflected masterfully: "Sai?"

"I think if we ever make it back to the Cosmic Era timeframe, I'll join one of the mercenary units that works around the earth sphere. That is, if we disband the team, otherwise I'm staying with the ship," Sai took the deflection and ran with it.

"Stay with the team you know?" Parfait asked.

"Stay with the family I know," Sai responded with emphasis. "After a while, you stop being a team and become more than just a team, you become something of a family. And when I first joined up to hopefully save my own life on the Archangel, I thought I'd go until it was safe to walk away, but the more we've been here, the more we've learned that there is no such place. The safest place in Existence is in with your team, in with your ship, doing what you must to get the job done."

Dorothy nodded at what she heard from Sai and could easily sympathize. She had to make a similar choice when she decided to join the Archangel's crew, and now had realized that giving up a proper family was a hard thing to do. The meal was excellent to everyone involved, and Dorothy's three glasses of wine and camaraderie with BC, Parfait and Sai went a long way to cementing the prior realization of hers.

-x-x-x-

(Day 343, 1000 Hours Shipboard time)
(Nirvana Main Vanguard Hangar area)

"Commander on deck!" Barnette shouted as BC entered the main Vanguard hangar and made for the presentation podium that had been retained by the ship during the merger. Gascogne had put it in storage for want of a better use for it, and now it would help in this crucial final briefing.

"Good morning, Squadron Leads, Captains, Admirals," BC acknowledged the three groups that were part of this briefing. "Over the past few days, we have drilled hard, several times a day, and the drills of the past 18 hours have made it clear that we have the necessary skill and numbers to win this battle in a few days. That's the good news. Now for the less-than-good news: our intelligence gathering methods have determined what the enemy deployments will look like, and what extra assets they have brought along with the heavy ships."

"That's not going to be good," a Meijere Admiral noted.

"Not at all," BC noted. "The changes in enemy time tables won't affect our overall strategy to any large degree, but it will change up how we have to deal with straggler units. We were assuming that any bolt-on forces to the main ships would be coming in along with those ships to maximize striking power, but it turns out they have separate plans. Kira, first slide, please," BC pointed a laser at the briefing screen for the hangar a moment before Kira had the first slide up on the screen.

"Holy Bajeesus," Captain Kyril Arlek, a Tarak pirate that had thrown in with the defense, said after he had a few moments to take in the severity of the changes in enemy deployment.

"No joke, matey," a Tarak Admiral said in acknowledgement and as something fo a backhand at the Captain's prior occupation.

"Some of the identified add-on forces will be working with the major ships, but most of them are tasked for direct action against Tarak and Meijere," BC continued the briefing. "That means these ships will have Harvest drones, not just the Cube Fighters we expect to have to face in space. Kira, next slide, please."

"Hai," Kira flipped the display to the next intel slide.

"So, we have two major objectives in dealing with the unassigned units and direct harvest forces: one, we still need to make sure the capital ships are sunk quickly and completely, and two, we need to destroy as many of the independent ships outside the atmosphere before they can land and begin harvest operations. The more we sink here in space, the less hazard to the planets below."

"Tall order, especially if we're dealing with capital ships and they decide to cruise right by our line," a senior Meijere pirate noted.

"Tall order, yes, not impossible," BC said by way of encouragement. "The next simulations will have the independent ships added to the sim program, so we will have some time to rehearse dealing with the strays while we deal with the main enemy axis of advance, and there will be clear delineations for shoot / no-shoot situations."

"When are we next under the blade, Commander?" a Meijere Rear Admiral asked.

"Four hours to next simulation exercise," BC said. There were a few groans in the crowd for the fast pace of training, but they were ultimately few and quickly silenced. "Remember: today is it for simulations, tomorrow we go into maintenance stand down and refit, the day after we are on crew rest for the big day. Don't get antsy: we've already proved we can beat the enemy with the difficulty cranked up to an extra twenty percent. We just have to stay sharp enough to make it work in a few days time."

"So no alcohol," Captain Bella Jack Daniels said diffidently.

"Recommended, but yes. Save the booze party for after the victory," BC said.

"If we win in days to come, I'll finance the kegs," a Meijere Admiral said.

She was countered by a Tarak Admiral: "We're bringing the hard stuff from Tarak for the victory celebration."

"And we'll do the cooking, if we can get our hands on some good, fresh meat to grill out," Commander La Flaga volunteered the services of the Archangel and her crew for that purpose.

"If we survive, we'll 'liberate' some from the two worlds for the party," a Tarak pirate said with a half-snarl to effect.

"Damn straight!" The Tarak pirate was joined by another from Meijere in that plan.

"And then we have to talk about taking the fight to Earth, put a complete and ultimate end to this madness," a more wizened Tarak Admiral noted.

"Oh," BC said, but hers was more of a declaration than a question in this case. "There is already a waiting line to take the matter to Earth. You'll be lining up right behind the Archangel and Nirvana for that party."

"We'll be in good company, then," the Meijere Admiral over their forces noted with a wry smile. "Any word from Malanas?"

"Nothing more, their expected arrival time is still about an hour after the battle starts," Kira noted.

"Kira, next slide, please," BC requested. Kira dutifully flipped to the next presentation point. "Now, since the enemy is known to clone our machines on the Archangel and Nirvana, here's the briefing on the enemy clone machines and what to expect when fighting them. Please grab the folders under your seats and break seals. The flash drive on the front cover can be taken with you to provide this briefing material to your ship's personnel…" BC instructed for the personnel.

Kira, for his part, knew this was the last day to properly ready this force for the fight to come, and thankfully the assembled personnel and officers were taking it seriously, he noted.

-x-x-x-

(Day 343, 2030 Hours Shipboard Time)
(Nirvana, Hibiki and Dita's Quarters)

Hibiki exited the shower in his boxers and a tank-top t-shirt and simply flopped onto the bed with no hesitation. "Oh man, Maintenance Stand-Down is two lies for the price of one! Never believing that again!"

"Yeah, four hours of maintenance and eight hours of cleaning," Dita flopped down next to him and sidled up to her copilot / boyfriend. "We got everything done, though, so we can take tomorrow off!"

"Totally looking forward to it," Hibiki half-groaned.

"Do you want me to prepare some good food tomorrow?" Dita asked.

"I'd love it. What's on your mind?" Hibiki asked.

"Steak and onion burritos!" Dita had picked up the recipe from the Archangel Team, since both pilots had tried them in months past on a visit to the Archangel and loved the recipe.

"Okay, that sounds real good. I'll help, even," he said.

"And, well, don't know what else we could do," Dita noted.

"Sleep and some time in the hot springs sounds good to me. What about you?"

Dita stopped and thought about something for a moment. "Question for you," she said in a more serious tone.

"Shoot," Hibiki said.

"You said that guys from Tarak know when they love someone, right?" Dita asked.

"Yeah, something like that," Hibiki acknowledged. He had said that, given that was how Tarak handled matters of love, but such love was rare in Tarak society and not very public, if at all.

"When did you know with me?" Dita asked.

Hibiki took a few moments to consider exactly when he started growing fond of the lady beside him. "Been a while in the making, but I really first noticed a few battles back, I think the last battle before we landed in Malanas territory."

"Okay, when we first really started working seriously to break the Harvest," Dita said.

"Yeah, that sounds right," Hibiki nodded curtly, then slid his arm under Dita and hooked her close. "We've known for almost a year that something was wrong between Tarak and Meijere, but returning home, seeing both worlds, it's cemented it for me."

"You saw what it looked like after you learned the truth of your heart," Dita guessed.

Hibiki considered her thought for a moment. "Yeah, that's about the best way to put it, really."

Dita sat up to kneeling next to Hibki's waist. "Another question, and this one is probably a bit more private, but I think I have an idea."

Hibiki propped himself up on his side and regarded the Dread pilot that was now his rather-unabashed girlfriend. "Am I going to regret this?"

"Don't think so," Dita said.

A random thought came to Hibiki: "Does this involve what Jura was researching?"

"Same end point, different path," Dita said. "On Meijere, when two ladies love each other, they get married."

"I heard that, go on," Hibiki said, and after he said it the fact that he had no desire to say 'no' offhand was another flag on the course that he did completely love Dita.

"Well, another thing is, ladies sleep together, which we're partially doing," she said.

"I, erm, well," and Hibiki waved a finger at their two pillows.

"Well, there's sleeping in the same bed, and then there's sleeping together. We're not getting physically intimate, is what I mean."

"Oh," Hibiki said.

"Now, here's the thing. We know now that the way Meijere does it is partially correct: gene splice the eggs of two ladies and then one of the ladies carries the child," Dita explained.

"Okay, and since we know the outside story, that means that the splice part is the change-up from men working with women," Hibiki drew the necessary conclusion. "That's pretty much the same thing Jura is researching."

"Like I said, same endpoint, different path," Dita diverted the conversation from going down Jura's rabbit hole. "The thing is, Meijere couples get intimate with each other routinely as a way of showing and enjoying love."

"Oh, that's what you're thinking," Hibiki drew the conclusion quickly. "And you're thinking about doing it the traditional way."

"YES!" Dita half-shouted, then covered her mouth. "Sorry, got a bit excited there." Hibiki simply raised an eyebrow in some surprise, given that Dita had somewhat mellowed in her outbursts but was still very cheerful otherwise. "Or do you not want to?"

"I'm all right with it, but I don't know how and I am not about to ask Jura."

"She'd probably want to try, and I don't want that," Dita admitted.

"I agree," Hibiki noted. He had gone through at least that part of the mental exercise they were going through as a couple now, and he had come to the conclusion that while he wanted to know, he didn't want to know enough to involve Jura in it.

"But, I think I may have an idea, based off our battles in Vandread form," she said. "I remember feeling part of you getting bigger if I bounced around too much."

"Oh, okay, that makes sense," Hibiki said, then flopped back down to laying flat. "You're thinking it's about our waists."

"It makes sense, really, we just have to figure out how it works," Dita said. "I mean, I know how ladies do it, but how a man does, well…" she paused a moment while Hibiki's 'antenna' straightened up. "I think that's what happened when we were in battle?" Dita asked while pointing at it.

"Yes, and too much of a pounding on it means I have to change my underwear," Hibiki admitted.

"May I?" Dita asked.

Hibiki hesitated a bare moment, some amount of body modesty from his Tarak life still in play, but quickly overrode it. "Yeah," he said with some trepidation.

After Dita pulled his boxers down, she observed for a second. "Got it!" She said with excitement. "It all makes sense now. We can do this!" She pulled her pajama top off and tossed it aside quickly, then pulled her pajama bottom off and it went onto the floor as well.

Hibiki admitted to himself that he had been wondering what Dita looked like without any clothes on, but that wonder quickly flipped to elation when his girlfriend climbed on top of him. Hibiki would re-learn an untaught skill that night, and Dita would teach him how women on Meijere showed intimacy with their lovers, a skill he quickly found he loved sharing with Dita. While their first round wasn't any manner of perfect, both enjoyed it and endeavored to learn from it.

And in so doing, Tarak and Meijere took their next step in reconciliation, even if the worlds in question did not yet know that step had been made.

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Author's Chapter Afterword:

2024 Mid Year's greetings from the battle line!

I decided to move some chapters of AAA throughout this year as a way to get myself back into my heavy story writing. Now that I'm at a halt point with Sigma for the time being, I need to focus on my big ones in JW3, MMC2 and AAA to keep the big ones going. Of course this also includes doing a lot of side story work, which I will be engaging in to a big degree over the next couple months; particularly with JW3, I have two planned side stories and one good one to continue in for JW2.

So, onto the chapter! You'll note that things have gone almost completely 180 from the last episodes of the TV series. There are two reasons for that: one, the big one being the dice deciding that things will be different on this run, and two, the Archangel and Nirvana have a degree of infamy throughout the interstellar trade lanes and faster ships moved their stories around ahead of their own travels home. (One thing not explained so far: the Paxis Engines are extremely efficient because they are living beings of Dark Matter, but they are not as powerful as newer interstellar space engines, so the encounters with civilians spread the word faster than the ships got home.) So, as word circulated, it inevitably made it back to Tarak and thereafter to Meijere, so the exploits of the ships were well known.

The dice made the major decision for the change. The elements are all there in the backstory of the series, but they were pretty woefully underutilized, and with a few shakes of 'The Gods' (to borrow the old Dungeon Master's term), things change. Things come to the front that otherwise would not have made a showing or made much of a difference. Things go in directions that even I can only barely predict from minute to minute or dice shake to dice shake. That is both something of a challenge to an author, as what I envision is subject to change with a roll, but it is also a pure pleasure in that I don't always know what exactly I'll be writing from segment to segment.

So, in the grand scheme of things, when the Archangel showed up and hacked their way through the minefield, then provided evidence that the jig is up and that the coming enemies are coming to kill everyone involved and destroy whole worlds, the locals listened. The fact that the Archangel has MULTIPLE sunk enemy capital ships to its record already definitely weighed on the decision to listen to Captain Ramius rather than treat the Archangel as a hostile aberration. And the look at the history of the Archangel after the fact cemented their reputation as no-shit mercenaries and assbeaters. That combination pretty much ensured the Meijere and Tarak governments would cut to the bone rather than try to protect the illusion and continue the petty gender war. But mostly rolling a 93 for Tarak and 86 for Meijere on this decision point, natch.

The other segments around the chapter shifted things around a bit, but in the general direction of the initial rolls to one degree or another. The other major narrative point is the movement of relationships in a couple places, but those segments speak for themselves. So far, though, excepting the last scene (Dita and Hibiki), you haven't seen much in the way of interaction between Tarak and Meijere yet. You will see that in a couple coming chapters, of course, since right now the focus is survival. Integration will come later.

That's it for the writing front. On the personal front, I've got not too much to report, I am mostly just trying to write when possible and relieve stress otherwise. Work right now has a couple projects coalescing that have been needling me to a degree, but nothing major or whole-year such as what I had to deal with in '23. All in all, these are some decent months and I hope that things will go smoother over the next few chapters I write out.

Nothing else to really report. NEXT UP: The neighborhood bully swings by with a baseball bat, and the Archangel Team swings back with something akin to the stock of a shotgun. Who wins is yet to be seen…

Extra note: As of this posting, I have over 260,000 reads on the story and 900 reviews! I never expected this story would go this far, and I thank you for staying with me!

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Review Replies: TWENTY TWO! Even more reviews than my last Christmas present! Glad to see this story still touches so many hearts and minds even this long after I started it! WHOOO!

Sabaku-No-Yokho: You don't have to wait for the next chapter to Christmas! And I'll say this, the Crusaders are known tinkerers, so there are options even above and beyond what you guessed. You'll get to see everyone in action next chapter!

Infinite Freedom: The Destiny in use by Yzak is the Crusader's Fz (High Performance) Variant, so it will have all of the weapons of the original, only improved for the improvement of technology over the duty span of the Crusaders. You'll get a run-down of those changes in the next chapter as well, they will be very germane to the way the action unfolds!

BlazerRaylock: The travel speed will come into use in a future arc, but ST or Mass Effect are not the first place you'll see the throttle uncrack. Hope this chapter sets the stage properly for you!

EXpertUS: You didn't miss it prior, the Destiny is Yzak's machine upgrade that happened during the downtime of Chapter 52. As of the end of 52, everyone in the pilots has upgraded machines, though I've only revealed two at this time (Destiny and Savior).

Mega1987: Tallgeese is not a bad recommendation, but something of a step down for the Archangel Team — and most definitely not comparable to the machine that Mu has been set up with for the next battle. Turn A / Turn X are known to the Crusaders, but are restricted to only one very specific branch of the Crusaders: the Xenowarfare Specialists. That branch does not play nice with anyone, and they don't share their toys.

Deathzealot: Didn't have to wait a full year for this one! And you will note that I still have not properly named Mu and Murrue's kid, har har har! As to pairings, there is still a ways to go! Stay tuned for further!

UDLLORD: I have seen SRW30 advertised on Steam a few times, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. We'll see what we'll see…

Avtar Angel: The Ksatriya is a known suit to the Crusaders, but I decided to go with a different and much more poignant machine for Mu. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

Knightwolf 1875: It's fairly basic in procedure but very flexible in application. And, as is demonstrated in this chapter, it can change the narrative in a lot of ways. Thank you!

Korraganitar The Nightshadow: Code Geass is on the list of possibles. Genshin is not an option, I'm not playing that mobile game right now, but I am playing Arknights so that is also a possible — and a brutal one at that. The 'Trails Of' series is on my wishlist but I have a lot of games on my wait-to-play list so no telling when I'll hit those. Thanks for the recommendations though!

Chm01: Hibiki and Meia had their Vandread merge in Chapter 52 a couple scenes before the meet with the MV Twin Suns.

Kuflarger: And here's a midsummer present to help keep you in high spirits! Hope you enjoy!

DarkPhoenixJake: Yeah, I'm still terrible for not telling the tyke's name, but rest assured I have it selected! And on the meet with Tarak, well, the dice determined things went a little more sane than the original masquerade of the series. On Mu's machine, though, NO SPOILERS!

Psyraptor: You didn't miss Mu's kids' name, I just never gave it. And I'm still withholding for the time being. Your guesses are reasonable but not completely accurate. Everything will be revealed in the next chapter!

Drakensis: Aye, there is a lot of propensity for ship damage or mobile forces losses. We'll see how it all shakes out here in the next chapter, though!

Etienneofthewestwind: Not done yet, thanks for visiting in! I'm hoping to put more traction to it this year than my usual 1 chapter a year over the past couple.

Gulping: I don't do discord, but have been thinking about joining it. As to add-on packs, there are options from all of the Gundam series — remember that the Crusaders have insight into most of the Gundam realms, so…

Hexcalibur: Misty's fate is deliberately left off the table, along with Rabat, as those two were never encountered by the Archangel Team. Might dive down that rabbit hole at a later time, though. We'll see.

RandomBugger: I had a six-month battle with FFN about notifications to my email, it was a complete charlie foxtrot. I think most of that is sorted out, though. Check and make sure they didn't auto-deactivate your message settings.

KPheonix (Chap 51): Macross has a special place in my heart, being one of the feeder series for the original Battletech designs. That said, you won't see Magi-style tactics of music overload on the Archangel's tactics lists. I haven't dropped in on Gundam SEED Freedom yet, still considering if I want to take that dive. I'm planning on it before Christmas if I do, though.

KPheonix (Chap 52): Yeah, with the changing of how the four Vandread troops work together, I figured that one had to change to be more sensible. And, as it happens, I make it more lethal in the process. Har Har Har.

As to machines, Nicol has the Savior. I'm not sure if I'm going to do some of the more exotic variants the Crusaders have for the Savior, but they are options. As to Mu's machine, well, the choice has been recorded and it will make a loud noise in the next chapter!

Yep, I intended to do at least 2 this year, maybe 2 and a Christmas present. We'll see how things shake out in the next few story chapters I do.

Sabaku-no-Yokho (again): We don't have to wait a year! I swear! I'm more motivated this year!

Still haven't done Gundam WOM, but I have heard good things about it so I'm thinking about it.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REVIEWS AND FOR YOUR THOUGHTS! KEEP 'EM COMING, AS SHALL I!

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The Gripe Sheet:

CHM01 had a question on timings which I clarified in my review reply. And, as much needed motivation as he is assistance with prose, Takeshi Yamato is still working on keeping my writing straight.

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Footnotes:

Oddly, no footnotes for this chapter.