A/n

I hope you readers are liking the changes thus far, here is phase 3.

Phase 3: Harsh Reality

January 25th, 71 C.E.

Heliopolis Interior

Athrun along with Rusty had gone into the main factory to get the last two suits they were here to capture. There had been Alliance soldiers that had made things difficult which was expected. Athrun and Rusty had gotten within close distance of the suits before being brought to a halt in their progress. Rusty had signaled Athrun to go and get to the mobile suit he was assigned to get while he would cover him. Athrun had hurriedly done that and was going to cover from Rusty, but when his friend had sprinted toward the last Earth Forces suit, he was shot and fell. Athrun had managed to get a bullet in the Alliance officer, but that was it before the officer got into the last mobile suit.

Athrun had lowered himself to the pilot seat and sealed the cockpit, still processing having seen his friend killed. To try and ignore the pain, Athrun began going through the OS and fixing what he could to get the machine to work. Once Athrun finished the basic things, he got the mobile suit named the GAT-X303 Aegis to rise out of the dock it was in. He did catch sight of the last Alliance suit leaving the factory which the structure was collapsing to varying degrees around him. So, Athrun piloted the Aegis to the opening in the factory and got out before the wall fell behind him.

Athrun spotted two GINN suits around the general area, the GINN suit was the standard machine that the ZAFT forces used in combat. They were humanoid in shape and tended to be colored green over all other than the joints and torso section of the suit. The head had one main optic camera to work with and give the view for the pilot to see by. On the left forearm was a shield by standard while on the back hips was a clamp that held the reinforced titanium sword that GINN suits had for close-range fighting. For other armaments, the GINN could use an array of weapons, but the standard was an assault rifle and grenades.

"Rusty failed," said Athrun over the radio to Miguel Aiman, one of his ZAFT mentors as well as an ace pilot. "I saw the pilot that boarded, and they are an Alliance officer." Athrun didn't mention that he had tried to kill that said officer, but they had managed to make him have to duck or take a bullet. That had given them time to get into the titan and then things got to where they are now because of that.

"What, Rusty is gone," gasped Miguel before turning his attention to the stumbling gray mobile suit the Alliance officer had boarded. Sure, not all of the ZAFT pilots were the best of friends, but that didn't mean that none cared if one of their comrades was killed. Miguel fired a few rounds from his machine gun at the Alliance machine, yet after watching it stumble and get lucky, he decided to not waste the ammunition. He put his rifle away and pulled out his sword, "Alright then, I'll capture this machine. Athrun, go ahead and make sure you get yours out of here. Make Rusty's death count for something."

Athrun looked around and saw all the people fleeing in panic, and a twinge of guilt went through him. Still, he got down to making more modifications to the OS to make it more usable while Miguel charged at the grey machine ahead of him. The enemy suit sprayed bullets from its interception guns in its head, and they were easily evaded with their targeting not properly calibrated. Miguel swung his sword downward, yet the Alliance machine brought its arms up to block the blade. At the same time, the mobile suit suddenly shifted color, turning a brilliant white, blue, and red. Where the blade was pushing against the opposing suit, sparks flew off in all directions.

"What the?! What's going on with this armor and color change," cried Miguel in frustration and surprise.

"The Alliance suits are equipped with a system known as Phase Shift Armor," said Athrun as he continued to type away, recalibrating the OS to something that could be controlled and move with relative confidence and proficiency. "Once it's activated, it renders the physical blades useless as well as most projectiles," Athrun said activating his own voltage plate turning his mobile suit a brilliant red. He then used the Aegis's interception vulcans to destroy a few incoming missiles before taking out the artillery truck that fired at him.

The next moment, the front of the factory was blown outward drawing attention to the area. Athrun caught a glimpse of something shooting out of the interior structure before it was up in the air. He quickly identified it as a mobile suit and one he had never seen, definitely not one of those that information acquired had indicated the Alliance was making. Even from what Athrun was able to see, it said nothing definitive about the machine itself. An unknown machine was dangerous, but a suit where even its type/purpose was unknown is even more so as it was akin to fighting blind against it.

The mobile suit landed a short distance away and turned to face all of them and the first thing that Athrun noticed was the suit wasn't moving jerkily much at all. That implied that this suit could possibly have a working OS to utilize. If that were true and it had some of the systems Athrun had seen the mobile suit he was in had to work with, then this fight would be rough to say the least. The machine itself looked somewhat like the one Nicol went after, but also not entirely the same for there were differences.

"What the," Miguel exclaimed, "Lester, keep an eye on the unknown machine. Athrun hurry it up and get that mobile suit out of here. You can't stick around this place forever or the Naturals will find a way to get the machine you have back." Athrun knew that Miguel was right, yet the appearance of this unknown mobile suit wouldn't leave his mind as this was unprecedented.

Meanwhile, Tyler was looking around the area that had been the factory district of the colony but now was in ruins. The sight irked him as this was caused by those that wanted the war or the ideas that kept the war going. He saw that there were two of the ZAFT's GINN suits nearby along with both Alliance suits that had been in the factory when he had entered.

One was red overall, and still had the humanoid framework, yet the armor shape suggested that it could shift its body into a different form. From what Tyler saw and had read from the info acquired, the GAT-X303 Aegis suit would be a hard machine to take on. It had multiple beam sabers and also looked to have or be rifles as well that attached to rails on the hips. There also should be a beam rifle that was supposed to be second only to the buster rather mean from what Tyler had read through.

The other Alliance machine which was facing ZAFT forces implying that it wasn't under their control also had a humanoid framework. And from what data Tyler had seen it was the second general-purpose suit the Alliance had designed. Tyler couldn't see any visible equipment attached to it at the moment. And yet he also noted that the machines was moving jerkily saying the OS hadn't been changed or likely modified in any way.

Tyler's attention was brought back to his present situation as the ZAFT suits turned and faced him. Tyler took the time to activate the defensive armor system called Phase Shift armor to give him some help in this. The Shadow's coloration changed to being black overall with blue on the feet, sides, and back of the knee sections, both sides of the torso, and the thruster apparatus on the back of the suit. Then there were red accents at the ankles hip coverings, front vent on the hip section, vents on the chest and the outside of the shoulders. Tyler knew that the odds were essentially three against one as the other Alliance suit wouldn't be much help in a fight as it was.

Tyler gripped the controls and focused on the fight he was getting into. The first thing that Tyler did was grab the beam rifle and brought up his suit's shield for defense. What motivated him was that the citizens of the colony were counting on those like himself to protect them and their home from those fighting. To Tyler neither the ZAFT forces nor Earth Forces were innocent of the current situation, they both bore the blame in Tyler's view. Thankfully for Tyler, the Shadow had eight thrusters which were powerful and robust. The top two boosters which were housed on the upper back inside of either should set in shrouds and were a little heavier duty than the other six thrusters. Along the center line of the back were two sets of twin thrusters, one set near the top of the back and the other sat behind where the cockpit is. The last two boosters for this machine, were a little below the top two heavy boosters and pointed outward somewhat but were able to pivot. And all the thrusters could pivot somewhat to help in directing pushing power that came from them.

Tyler leaned the Shadow forward igniting most of the thrusters on the back, rocketing forward towards the Aegis. Tyler had the shield set in front, not for defense but for a surface to deliver impact to his opponent. The Aegis didn't move from its spot and so, the Shadow rammed into the upper section of the Aegis. Tyler used the momentum and transferred it to the Aegis sending the machine flying back a good distance before it righted itself with its own thrusters.

"What the hell," sounded over the field in the form of a demand from the pilot of the Aegis clearly caught off-guard by the brute force approach.

Tyler had little time to wonder who was in the Aegis as the voice sounded young, for one of the GINN suits dived down at the Shadow. The Shadow turned towards the incoming suit and two sections on either side of the torso flipped out and upward. Seventy-millimeter machine rifles slid forward on the rails now revealed to point at the GINN. The bullet barrage began and forced the ZAFT suit to back off and shield its cockpit from the weapon fire.

Athrun righted the Aegis, but when he looked up, he saw the unknown machine revealing it had hidden weapons. Two machine rifles had come out with the two sections that had flipped up and they quickly began unloading rapid-fire on the GINN that had been helping Athrun. His ally veered off from the weapon fire and while Athrun wanted to help his comrade, the suit he was in wasn't ready for that. That alone said an amount about this suit, it had a working OS and that the Aegis was missed and that was more than worrisome.

Athrun managed to grab the Aegis's beam rifles and point it at the unknown mobile suit and fire. Tyler managed to evade the beam by a margin, but then found himself facing an oncoming enemy suit. Miguel had shoved the other Alliance machine and charged over at the Shadow intending to disable the machine. Tyler was turning towards his new attacker, and raise the shield to defend himself, preparing for the impact. But then, something slammed into the approaching the GINN unit and knocked off its path towards the Shadow. Tyler found himself looking at the mobile suit that had been in the dock next to the Shadow. What the suit was doing up and out here, Tyler couldn't begin to guess nor who could be inside it.

The question was answered in a way that Tyler never expected, "Tye are you okay," asked the voice of Kira.

Tyler glanced down at the main display between his legs and found the message was coming from the suit that had just helped him. Yet, that would mean that his friend Kira was inside it and piloting it which shouldn't be the case in Tyler's mind. Granted, Tyler would bet Kira could pilot a mobile suit were he put to it, but Tyler's friend was no soldier. "Kira," Tyler questioned, "Are you really in that mobile suit?"

"Yeah, seemed the best way out of the structure," Kira replied.

Tyler wasn't exactly happy that Kira was piloting a mobile suit though he wasn't in a position to really complain as Kira saved him. Plus, with his friend here it was two against three and those were better than three against one. Tyler grabbed the beam rifle and pointed it at the Aegis and fired a bolt off to get the machine to back off a bit, "I think that catchup will have to be done later Kira," Tyler stated, "More pressing matters demanding attention."

Athrun had the Aegis leap back out of the way of the bolt that the black suit sent his way, which wasn't as easy with the OS in the state it was in. "Huh," uttered Lester, "Another mobile suit, and one that wasn't on reports either?"

"Yeah," said Miguel, "there was nothing about either of these machines at all and they are moving better than the others did." Miguel paused, "Okay then, change of plans Athrun, see if you can subdue the one with the flight system on its back quick, Lester help me with the Alliance suit we've been dealing with, then whichever one of us finishes first goes for the black machine."

The three ZAFT controlled suits split their attention between their opponents attempting to deal with them quickly. Tyler felt a bit put out when he realized that he was being ignored for the moment so the other two could be dealt with before he would be focused upon. It just added to the growing frustration that Tyler was feeling today, and it was mounting badly. So, while Kira was fighting the Aegis, Tyler decided to cause issues for the other two suits. Tyler brought the Shadow's assault rifles out again and started shooting at the ZAFT suits, adding the beam rifle to the mix. He wasn't helping whomever it was in the last Alliance mobile suit intentionally, Tyler was more interested in getting ZAFT forces to leave as well as relieve some of the stress he had.

Kira was keeping up with the fight that he was in with the other custom-looking machine that had aimed for him. He didn't like fighting, Kira detested the idea and so hated the war that was going on, but now the war had come to the colony giving little choice in involvement. And Kira noted that his opponent was not moving as efficiently as the suit he was using did. But then, the OS had been a garbled mess when Kira had first looked at it and his opponent could have the version of an operating system.

It took Tyler minutes to get the GINN suits to back off and start retreating from his attacks. Tyler wasn't aiming to kill either of the ZAFT pilots, just get them to leave the colony and stop the damage to the colony structure. Kira managed to get the Aegis to follow them shortly, Tyler and he watched them go but didn't pursue them as they headed for the colony's forward docks. After they disappeared, a voice came over the com channel snapping the teens out of their trance of watching the mobile suits go. "I don't know who either of you are but thank you for the assistance." The Strike glanced around, "If you don't mind, I would like to speak to you both face-to-face," the woman said.

Tyler observed the Strike still moving rather clumsily over towards a nearby park area which was the closest open area. He had to admit that driving a prototype with the junk OS was actually quite impressive. After a moment, Tyler and Kira followed the Strike at a short distance behind keeping an eye on the mobile suits as it went.

At the same time, with the sound of fighting dying down, Tolle poked his head out of the building he, Miriallia, Sai, and Kuzzey had hidden in. When he looked around, everything looked okay other than the ruins that were made from the mobile suits fighting. There had been the question of what such things were doing in the colony raised between the four teens, but none could come up with answers. The group had been looking Kira and Lacus as well as maybe coming across Tyler as the three had gone missing just as all the chaos began.

The streets were completely deserted as most had fled to shelters by this point leaving things laying everywhere. The four teens had thought about doing that, but each shelter they had come to had been full. They had gotten to the end of the street when the sight of three suits came before them and they quickly made themselves unnoticeable to the giant machines. The mobile suits moved past them to the open park area close by where the one in the lead looked to stumble and one of the others caught it before it fell to the ground. The catcher helped the machine to a kneeling position in the park as the four teens watched from their hiding places. The third machine moved over to the same general area turning from black and other colors to grey overall as it went. Then to the astonishment of the four teens, when the cockpit opened, and out came none other than their friend Tyler. The four teens began moving towards the suits slowly wondering what was going on.

Tyler descended from the Shadow's cockpit with the zip-line to the ground. He glanced around and then over to the other two suits as the Strike had turned grey and the hatch in the torso had opened. Kira after having helped the Strike moved over to be beside the mobile suit and then knelt down to bring the cockpit closer to the ground. To Tyler's surprise, behind Kira was Lacus coming out of the machine which made sense somewhat but not completely. Tyler shook his head and focused back on the Strike which had a woman in an orange jumpsuit coming out of it now. She had shoulder length brown hair and from what Tyler could see, her eyes were brown, and she was shorter than him by a couple of inches. Now, Tyler had seen a few of the Alliance officers here, but he couldn't recall seeing the woman he was looking at.

The female officer whose name was Murrue Ramius gained an expression of shock and surprise at seeing the three teens come out of the two unknown mobile suits. It made little sense that two of these three teens had piloted mobile suits let alone two that Murrue had never known about at all. Plus, the two suits had performed better than any of the prototypes had gotten close to at any point yet and Murrue couldn't explain how. However, regardless of how they did what they did, Murrue would likely be dead as most of her comrades were if not for these teens. No matter who they were or if they had seen things that they shouldn't, Murrue would be grateful for their actions right now. Murrue walked over waving at the teens, "You three," she called, "Thanks for your assistance."

Kira nodded, Lacus smile, while Tyler gave a loose salute which were he to give to one of his superiors, he would be in trouble for disrespect. But then again, Tyler was known for not giving a lot of respect to others until they've earned his respect. Still, as Tyler gazed around the immediate area and most of the friendliness he had been showing faded. Tyler took in the damage caused by the fighting was everywhere and he wasn't pleased with what he saw. That was because when it came time for a report to be written on what went down here, it would most likely fall to Tyler himself to write. And where Tyler had written a few non-nice reports about , this one would certainly be up towards the top of that list of bad reports. Tyler was left to wonder how things could get more complicated than they are now? He couldn't think of much that could make things worse right now other than ZAFT forces coming back.

"Kira," came a voice that only answered Tyler's unspoken question.

The four by the suits spun around and saw the four teens that had been making their way over who were the friends of Kira and Tyler. Tyler had known this would be a long day the second Lisa had told him ZAFT forces had decided to cause trouble. However, he wasn't liking how the day was going as it was heading downhill on a slippery slope. Tolle was in the lead of the four approaching teens as they came into the park area. However, the sound of something collapsing to the ground drew Tyler's attention and he turned to look back at where Kira, Lacus, and the Alliance officer had been. He saw that the officer had fallen to the ground and her left shoulder was red with blood which was rarely a good sign.

"What's going on? What were you three doing in these two suits anyway," questioned Tolle.

"Lacus and I got stuck in the factory," said Kira then pointed at the machine he had been piloting. "We came across this suit and decided to use it to escape."

Tyler knew time was of the essence, so he cleared his throat, "Uh, not to interrupt your catch-up session, but this woman needs medical attention if her shoulder that's bleeding is anything to go by," he said flatly with little emotion.

Tyler's comment had the effect of some carried the woman over to a bench and set her down softly. Miriallia did the dressing on the shoulder of this woman and Lacus was checking the lady over. Tolle and Kuzzey went over to the Strike where Tolle climbed up to the cockpit of the Strike while Kuzzey watched and Kira kept an eye on them both. As there was work to be done and Tyler being the responsible one, he grabbed Sai, then the two went to gather some supplies as well as check on the status of the colony.

While Sai gathered water and other basic supplies, Tyler took the time to access a colony console to check over the status of the colony. He wanted to assess the current damage of the colony interior but at the same time Tyler kind of didn't want to know. And what Tyler found was Heliopolis had certainly seen better times, the resource colony had taken a serious beating. Tyler knew the fighting would cause the kind of damage he was seeing, and unfortunately, the colony wouldn't be able to handle much more and stay in one piece. The abuse the space colony had taken was more than the tests she had passed to be considered safe had done.

As if there was more evidence of the issues, the threat level for the colony had gone to seven which would have the shelters lockdown. That being the case, Tyler knew that even if he or any of his friends tried to get to a shelter, it wouldn't help as they would be locked out. All there was to work with should things get worse was three mobile suits between eight individuals. Tyler figured that getting to one of the docks that the colony had would be pointless as launching a ship would be giving ZAFT something to shoot for practice. Things were certainly grim for those within the colony interior and truthfully, it would more likely get worse rather than improve from Tyler's educated guess.

Meanwhile, the ZAFT team or what was left of it were either back on their assigned ships or heading for them. The final three machines exited the colony through the ruins that were the forward docking area. Athrun was quiet processing all the things that had happened during the operation in this colony. The team had lost a few members, Rusty was only one, there had been two of those that had been watching their backs had fallen doing that task as well. But when he and his two companions came into range of the Vesalius, Athrun knew things needed to be said. "Commander, Rusty failed," Athrun said over the radio, a tone of pain audible, "An Alliance officer boarded the last prototype. Miguel, Lester, and I attempted to capture it when two more suits appeared."

Creuset perked up at hearing what Athrun said for it implied there was information that this operation hadn't acquired. If the Alliance had been able to hide not one, but two suits that information had nothing about, that could spell trouble in the future. "Two more machines, you say," he questioned.

"Yes sir," toned in Miguel. "I thought that Athrun, Lester, and I could handle them, so told Athrun to deal with one of them and then whoever got done would seize other. However, both the suits were moving very differently. We believe they probably had completed OSs, and the other issue was the prototypes have some kind of armor that rendered most weapons useless, so we felt it was prudent that we withdraw."

"Understood," said Creuset thinking to himself. "Your decision was sound and wise under the change in circumstances. Both of you are to come back to the ship, Athrun, make sure the captured unit is ready for data extraction. I want everyone else to withdraw for the time being and begin resupply. I'll head out myself to deal with the final Alliance mobile suit, and then investigate these… unexpected machines." Creuset then got up from his chair and headed to the hangar of the ship to get into his CGUE so that he could test these unknowns that had popped up.

Lieutenant La Flaga flew around the battlefield outside of the colony fighting a GINN. The battle had gone badly, the ZAFT forces had gotten the better of them, taken out the Apitus and kept the other mobile armor pilots and Mu busy. They had gone inside and from what glimpses he had gotten, taken most of the prototype suits. True, a small number of GINN suits had been destroyed, but the exchange hadn't been a fair one at all.

The GINN that Mu was fighting took damage from a shot from his linear gun, but the suit retreated back to its ship. Krystal Major McAlester was a distance away fighting off another ZAFT suit and held her own before it retreated too. As far as either could tell, they were all that was left of the defending forces for this colony. The Apitus had been hit and it had crashed into the colony's outer wall destroying it and their teammates had been shot down or what was inside it. But, as Lieutenant La Flaga watched, the GINN he had been fighting backed off and went back in the direction of the ZAFT vessels. It was then he saw three bright flares in the same direction the GINN had headed in, a signal from one of the enemy vessels perhaps? "They're retreating? At this point? Something isn't right about this, there's still something," he muttered to himself.

A blue zero armor came to flight near Mu's red zero, "Mu, are you okay," came Major McAlester's voice over the com-channel.

"Yeah Krystal, I'm fine for now, but it looks like we're all that's left," replied Mu.

"I'm well aware of that Dan and Cheryl got shot down and then the Apitus crashed into the colony," she paused, "things are pretty bad. Yet, any idea why ZAFT forces just suddenly retreated? It isn't like them to do normally."

Mu knew that Krystal was right about it being odd for ZAFT forces to do especially with the current circumstances as they were. They had the advantage and time would be of the essence for them as they had attacked a neutral colony. Orb wouldn't let this event be dismissed, not with the reputation they had earned themselves. Then the colony was near Federation territory and patrols would regularly pass by the colony. ZAFT would know that fact and they wouldn't want to draw the Federation's attention any more than the Alliance did. Then out of nowhere, a strange feeling came over Mu as if there was someone watching him and coming closer. He turned his zero fighter around and began flying towards whatever it was causing this odd unknown feeling in him.

At the same time, Rau Le Creuset was himself in a ZAFT CGUE making his way towards Heliopolis. The CGUE mobile suit was normally used by commanders in the ZAFT forces or by the most expert of pilots. It had been developed from the GINN, and so had a humanoid form over all. However, the CGUE had better mobility than a GINN due to its different armor distribution and a few more thrusters than the GINN. For its standard arsenal, it carried a shield with a gatling gun built into it, a 75mm assault machine gun, and a physical blade.

Creuset cruised around, clearly able to sense Mu La Flaga's presents, the child of one of the men he had detested and cursed. "Can you sense my presence Mu La Flaga just as I can sense yours? This link is an unfortunate twist of fate, wouldn't you say La Flaga? But to whom is this twist the more unfortunate, you or me La Flaga," Creuset mused.

Back in the colony, Sai and Tyler finished gathering the immediate supplies that were needed and so headed back to the park where the rest of their group was. The female Alliance officer was still out cold due to the blood she lost from the injury with her shoulder Tyler imagined. With the supplies in the car that Sai and Tyler had procured along their way, Sai walked over to the Strike and began chastising Tolle for goofing off. Meanwhile, Tyler went over to Kira who was sitting on a bench and appeared to be in deep thought. Tyler put a hand on his friend's shoulder and gave him a weak smile, "You doing okay Kira," he asked, real worry evident, which was a rare thing for Tyler.

Kira nodded slowly, "Yeah, I think so, there is just a lot to take in," he answered.

Tyler snickered a bit, "Ain't that the truth my friend," he replied putting an arm around Kira's shoulder.

A moan got Kira and Tyler to look over to the bench on the left where the Alliance woman was waking up. Kira briskly made his way over to the bench, whereas Tyler sat down on the bench nearest to him and grabbed the assault sub-machine gun from his pack that he'd taken from the ZAFT soldier and began inspecting it to make sure it was working right. His pistol was fine as he kept it in good working order if the need to use it came up. But with the possibilities there were ahead, Tyler wanted the rifle as good as it could be in case he needed to use it.

If memory served Tyler right and it normally did, a good portion of the Earth Alliance people. Specifically, Tyler had found that the Earth Forces officers and personnel he'd been around didn't think highly of those who were citizens of neutral nations including the Federation member nations. In fact. many of them tended to think that all should be involved in the ongoing war of the Alliance versus ZAFT. The Federation's stance of neutrality is challenged often by the other two factions, more the Alliance than ZAFT. Tyler had heard some of the argument himself and much of it was what he considered ridiculous among other terms he could think of. Although Tyler wasn't around the immediate area where the female officer was, he listened to the conversation very carefully. "You're with the Alliance," said Kira as a statement of fact.

Murrue put a hand to her head before sitting up and glancing around for a moment taking in that she was surrounded by teens and it was more than just the three teens she had seen before she fainted. Then the statement made of her being with the Earth Alliance wasn't wrong for she was a part of it specifically a Lieutenant in the Earth Forces. The issue was that these teens had seen one of the units from the Atlantic Federation's G-Project which was top secret or supposed to be. Per regulations, Murrue couldn't let these teens out of her sight until a superior officer cleared it. But these young people didn't seem like a bad sort at all, the opposite, in fact, thus was the conundrum for her. At least she could answer the statement, "Yes, I am," she said.

There was no immediate response, but the teens stared at Murrue and she did the same to them. One of the teens she found, the oldest looking one was a short distance away from the group but seemed to be listening. Murrue tried to think of how to explain to the teens why she had to keep an eye on them and not have it sound like she was suspicious of them. The reasoning for keeping these teenagers was foolish now as apparently ZAFT forces had somehow found out about the G-Project. Four out of the five prototypes had been stolen, pretty much all of her comrades were dead, killed in the attempted defense of the G-weapons. There were these two unknown suits, but Murrue hadn't a clue where they came from or who built them as they weren't a part of the G-Project. In the end, Murrue exhaled heavily, "We never wanted Heliopolis to get involved in this," she paused and shook her head, "definitely not have something like this happen."

Tolle gained a look of incredulity with the reasoning that the woman was using, especially with the damage done. Heliopolis was neutral as the Orb Union was, so the war between the Alliance and ZAFT shouldn't have come here. "Give us a break on not wanting the colony to be involved in damage and fighting. It's kind of too late to say things like that now, isn't it," he muttered.

Murrue could understand where the teen was coming from, but what she had said was the truth. The Alliance personnel hadn't wanted to put the colony or its citizens in danger, that was why the project had been such a closely guarded secret. And the work had been going smoothly up to today, the suits were about finished, the OS was all that's left to get working. The new battleship Archangel was as far as Murrue knew ready to launch as soon as the suits were onboard. The pilots trained and assigned for the suits had been arriving today and were supposed to be meeting with the Archangel's captain. Then ZAFT forces had shown up and brought things to what they were currently. "We just wanted Morgenroete to help us build the prototype suits and our ship before we left quietly," Murrue remarked, "but…"

Tyler wasn't feeling inclined to be nice at the moment, not with the mess around everyone that could have and should have been prevented. And where normally Tyler would call others out when an error was made, it was in a way that wasn't insulting or to be mean. However, at this point, Tyler was going to give the truth of the situation without being nice about it. "Well, we can all clearly see the results of your intentions, now can't we, messes everywhere," Tyler stated a tad coldly, but everyone heard him.

Murrue was a tad shocked at the tone the oldest teen had used just now for it sounded cold and calculating. What he had said was true and Murrue couldn't deny it even if she wanted to, yet it still hurt. There was an awkward silence as the teens and Murrue gazed over at Tyler after his comment, said teen simply exhaled at the attention but gave nothing else in response. Murrue looked over all the teens again, believing there might be a way to make the teens not get into trouble. "Listen, you've all seen something that you shouldn't have, yet you all appear to be good kids, so," Murrue started but she never finished.

The reason the was the case was Tyler interrupted her as he wasn't going to let her state crap, "Are you about to say go find a shelter," he asked flatly.

"We haven't been able too," said Miriallia, "Everywhere we've managed to reach so far has been full."

Tyler nodded not surprised, "That doesn't surprise me plus, with what crap that has gone down, all shelters have been locked down due to the heightened threat level to the colony. So, we're stuck in this crapshoot due to the actions of you and your colleagues, thank you very much," he remarked in the toneless voice he'd been using, now having gained a deadpanned expression now as he pointed at Murrue emphasizing that it was Alliance's fault.

"I see," Murrue said uncertainly since that left but one option to go with, "Well, I guess we'll just have to stick together for now." She glanced between the two suits Kira and Tyler had piloted while the rest stared at her.

Tyler had to admit that this woman was a different kind of Earth Forces officer than he'd been around for a while. Thus far, she hadn't shown signs that she would hold the teens including Tyler hostage since they'd seen things 'that they shouldn't have'. Of course, Tyler wouldn't let her if she tried as he still had the assault rifle with the safety on and a pistol he could use.

Murrue was doing some quick thinking and came to the conclusion that the best option would be to get in contact with the Archangel. But the Strike's battery was running low, and she assumed that the other two suits were likely in the same position. However, if one of the equipment sets the Strike could work with was fetched, that could be changed. One set of equipment had an external battery to work with and that would help tremendously. Yet Murrue couldn't say where the equipment was, contact had been lost with those transporting the extra equipment around the time ZAFT forces attacked.

"We'll probably need to rely on these things for the time being," Murrue spoke up after a moment. "I'm guessing we can't recharge the battery on the suits you have, but the one I have the Strike can be recharged with external power which there should be one in one of the trailers that went ahead. If we can retrieve that equipment set, then we can recharge the Strike in case we're attacked again. Meanwhile, we can try to call for assistance while looking for the trailer."

"Calling who," asked Kira shifting just slightly between the female officer and Lacus, but only Sai, Lacus, and Tyler took notice of his nervousness.

"Under the circumstances, Alliance forces may be our best bet," Murrue replied.

"I see," said Kira softly.

A snorted escaped Tyler again, "If you say so, that's if any are still alive right now. With everything that happened recently, who knows," he muttered somewhat bitterly.

"Excuse me ma'am, but who are you," asked Lacus suddenly.

Murrue blinked realizing that none had introduced themselves to one another yet, "Murrue Ramius, a lieutenant in the Earth Forces," she returned, "And yourselves?"

"I'm Kuzzey Buskirk," answered Kuzzey.

Sai was next for introductions, "Sai Argyle."

Tolle, who was standing next to Miriallia spoke next, "Tolle Koenig,"

"Miriallia Haw," she replied.

Miss Ramius's eyes went to Kira and Lacus, "Kira Yamato," said Kira, supplying his last name to her.

"Lacus Christopher," answered Lacus.

Murrue then turned to Tyler who sighed and wiped his face of the non-nice emotions, "Tyler McGregor."

It wasn't his real name, but an alias that Tyler used as his true last name was kind of well known. It was mostly because his father had been a fairly famous professor and scientist even after his death in the Bloody Valentine. Then his mother was in politics within the Federation, specifically in the political leadership of the Republic of East Asia. So, Tyler rarely used his real name often to avoid unneeded attention from others. None of his friends here knew his real name yet, Kira and Lacus did and they understood that Tyler had his reasons for doing what he did.

Murrue nodded slightly, "Well, unfortunately, for the time being, I can't really let any of you out of my sight since you have witnessed a classified military project, it's how it has to be. Once the proper authorities are informed, they can decide what will happen to you all, but until then, we'll need to stay together. Please don't take it personally," she said.

Tyler was irked at the statements, and his thoughts went back to the woman could try, but he would be doing his darnedest to make sure she didn't succeed. If that required him utilizing the military training he had received, then Tyler would do just that. One look at the rest of the group told Tyler they weren't interested in being babysat any more than he was. "What kind of lame excuse is that," exclaimed Tolle.

"In case you haven't noticed ma'am, we're citizens of the Orb Union as Heliopolis belongs to them and so, we're neutral," said Sai. "We have nothing to do with the military or anything associated with it!"

Technically, Tyler knew he couldn't claim such a reason like his friends could, as a soldier in the Federation Military his standing is different, but that was not the point at the moment. Tyler gripped the sub-machine gun in his right hand, ready to whip it up and use it should the need arise. "Besides, what is the Alliance doing here in Heliopolis in the first place? Even that doesn't make any sense," remarked Tolle.

Tyler kept silent even though he knew parts of what had brought the situation to what it was now. Before the Orb Union became a member nation of the Federation, someone in a high position had made a deal with a part of the Earth Alliance, or really with the Atlantic Federation. The deal as far as Tyler knew was for the development of suits and a new battleship for the Alliance while Orb got to keep the data that was gleaned from the work. As of a year ago, Tyler knew that such a deal would have become null and void with the Union a part of the Federation, but that had been ignored.

"You said it Tolle," piped up Kuzzey. "I mean, isn't that how all this started?"

Tyler glanced over at Miss Ramius and saw that she was having the mix of regret, but also anger, which he didn't like. "Quiet down, all of you! You kids haven't a clue, do you," she growled in anger. Tyler readied himself to raise one of the guns he had, both if necessary, but Murrue continued before he did. "You keep insisting that you're neutral and aren't involved, but can you really distance yourself from what's happening? You don't really seriously believe that's possible, do you? The Earth Alliance's most vital secret was here, and you people have seen it. That's the reality and you'll just have to deal with it!"

Tyler had to once again admit that this woman gave a hell of a first impression. It wasn't one he liked, but it was an unexpected one to be sure. "A little harsh don't you think," asked Sai.

"Harsh it may be, but the reality is that we're in a war, between the Earth and the PLANTs, Naturals vs Coordinators," returned Murrue saying what she had as if it was obvious.

The tension in the air was easy to feel, but as for Tyler, he was starting to find this in a way amusing. In fact, he couldn't hold back any longer on making his opinion known, so he began to clap. The clapping drew everyone's attention to Tyler, "I have to say, quite some speeching you were doing Miss Ramius, very rousing." Tyler took a breath and his face lost all emotion, "as rousing as it was extremely boring and idiotic. So black and white in your viewpoint wouldn't you say?" Tyler's gaze met Murrue's, "But then, that's one of the major reasons that ignited this whole war of yours and has kept it going for close to five years now, isn't it?"

Murrue glared at this teen that was talking back, and it was still a tad unsettling to see the control he had over his expressions. It wasn't a normal thing to see with teens, that much she could say with confidence. Still, she didn't let her feeling of being unsettled be seen as she gave a look of defiance to Tyler, "What do you mean by that, Tyler McGregor," Murrue Challenged.

Tyler shrugged indifferently, "I'm merely pointing out the fact that not all people share the same view as you or the Earth Alliance have, an idea that seems to have difficulty sinking in with some. Not everyone sees all Coordinators as enemies of Naturals and vice versa," Tyler iterated. "It is a fact that many in the Alliance never seem to understand or accept, I can't say why."

While that was going on, Mu and Krystal were cruising around searching for any sign of there being something wrong, for what exactly neither knew. Mu's feeling of being watched was one that he couldn't explain with words but couldn't ignore either. Still, they had split up when they had gotten close to the colony structure itself, Krystal taking the left side and Mu the right. They were looking for anything out of place, but the quiet was still deepening and it was eerie.

Mu was getting increasingly on edge as the silence of space kept up, that's until the second he felt the urge to move and he noticed a standard silver CGUE coming out from behind one of the colony's legs. He threw the throttle forward and sped up to avoid getting shot down by the enemy, "You back-stabbing scum, that's you Rau Le Creuset, isn't it," Mu shouted over an open com-line.

Dodging the incoming shots, Mu deployed two of his mobile armor's wired pods to counter his opponent. While he did that, Mu weaved out of the gunfire from the enemy machine hoping that Krystal was on her way. The man that was his opponent was not someone to take lightly, mostly because Creuset fought dirty often.

"You always seem to pop up and get in my way, Mu La Flaga! Although, I would imagine you would probably say much the same about me," replied the voice of Creuset

The silver mobile suit was forced to move out of the course it had set to attack the red armor as weapon fire came at it from a different direction. Creuset spotted the blue zero flying at him and moved out of the way. Normally Creuset wouldn't have much of an issue fighting the two mobile armors, but the situation changed rapidly. He was evading the weapons of the two machines when shots came from behind him. When Creuset turned to find who was shooting at him, but he saw nothing. That could and did imply that there was Federation space fighters around and those were dangerous. So, Creuset decided a change of field was in order and dived into the colony dock entrance.

"Dang it, Creuset has gone into Heliopolis's interior," Mu cursed.

"Then that's all the more reason to go after him Mu. Leaving him to his own devices is not wise, we both know that" Krystal shot back.

"Yeah," Mu replied, "but be careful, this guy doesn't fight fair if he doesn't have to." Then piloted his red fighter into the colony dock with the blue zero close behind him as they pursued Creuset.

While inside the colony, Tyler's voice and opinion were pretty much ignored by the others much to his frustration. Instead, under Murrue's suggestion, they attempted to make contact with other Earth Forces that could help. Kira got into the suit he piloted and tried to radio anyone and had no luck and he tried the same with the Strike with the same result. Tyler begrudgingly did the same with the Shadow, but he had the same luck as Kira did. The radio interference from the neutron jammers that ZAFT ships were putting out was making communication difficult.

So instead, plans changed to Sai, Tolle, Miriallia, and Kuzzey going out and finding the equipment trailer that held what Murrue called "Striker Pack sets". She explained that the sets of optional equipment for the Strike to attach, and one of had a battery with it. Murrue went with the teens to identify the trailer that was needed while Tyler, Kira, and Lacus stayed with the suits. When the others were gone, Kira turned to his friend, "Tyler, what is with you attitude just now," he asked.

Tyler took a moment to consider whether to tell Kira the truth or just refuse. Finally, after a minute, Tyler sighed, "If you're referring to me being cold, then look around you Kira," he replied gesturing around. "The Alliance soldiers played a part in what has happened to the colony." Tyler paused for a moment, "And honestly, they shouldn't be here doing what they are, I can't say more than that right now."

Lacus's head tilted a bit, "What do you mean they shouldn't be here Tye," she asked.

Tyler was stuck as he couldn't say the whole truth as the mission wasn't over and Federation military protocol stated to not reveal relevant info to those not involved. "Are you two aware that Orb is really a member of the Federation," he posed.

Lacus gained an expression of shock while Kira shook his head slowly, "A member of the Federation? When did that happen Tye," Kira questioned.

Tyler shrugged, "About a year ago, I have no idea why there was no public announcement myself. However, with that point in mind, there are a few treaties they are violating being here that I can name. And you Kira know that while I am not the fondest of politics, I know enough about them that treaties are serious business."

Tyler didn't say anymore, rather he turned and headed for the Shadow and got to work on its OS. Kira could tell that his friend wouldn't say more right now and to occupy his time Kira decided to do the same on the Asuka. Lacus followed Kira as thoughts ran through her mind only creating more questions that she didn't have answers to.

After delving into the Shadow's systems further, Tyler found that at least some of those that designed the mobile suit had also been involved with the construction of the other prototypes. The other thing Tyler noticed was evidence of technology that only the Federation had access to currently. That made him think that there might have been someone that had an understanding of Federation technology, but Tyler wasn't saying he couldn't just be seeing things. With this Alliance project, there were still a number of unknown factors that made it harder for Tyler to make an accurate guess about things.

The feature that he found rather intriguing was the Mirage Colloid system. The system that the Shadow and the mobile suit prototype called the Blitz had exclusively within the prototypes. The system was comparable to the Federation's stealth technology and systems though not a match to them. It was no secret that the Alliance wanted many of the systems and technology that the Federation uses employs for themselves to use. Tyler knew that and it was the reason that the Latinan Protocol existed, to prevent selfish individuals from using such for their own vendettas.

After around ten minutes, Kira and Tyler got together and exchanged information that they had learned during their work. The unit Kira had used was apparently the first in a series of suits being developed by Orb named the Auska. It was using some of the same technology as OMNI had been working on and was integrating into their machines. Yet, there were differences between what Earth Forces suits came with and what the Auska utilized much like the Shadow. The first notable difference was the Auska had two batteries built into its structure with one in the suit's back and the other contained within the backpack unit. The backpack system was called the Astral Flight system and was hardwired directly to and with the rest of the suit.

It didn't take long into the exchange of information for Tyler and Kira to agree that they shouldn't bring up what had been learned with just anyone, specifically not Miss Ramius until further notice. From Tyler's point of view, the woman didn't know about either mobile suit existing and unlikely other personnel of the Alliance did either. That made him wonder who had been responsible for their design and construction and why were they here working?

The current issue was that the Shadow and the Auska were both at less than half power or so and really needed to be recharged in the near future and both Kira and Tyler knew that. Tyler knew that trouble was still around and could show up at any time and he was sort of expecting it at some point.

It was around another ten minutes before a truck with a trailer pulled up around the park with Tyler assumed was the equipment that Miss Ramius referred to. Kira did convince Miss Ramius to let him do a bit of modifying to the Strike's OS to help streamline it a bit. And Tyler could attest that the original OS serious work before it could be a real working operating system. Although he didn't agree entirely with Kira making the OS more usable as the Alliance could try to use his friend to make something they could work with.

Murrue when the offer to improve the OS OMNI had come up with had hesitated for a bit. Kira Yamato and Tyler McGregor were clearly Coordinators with what they had done it was obvious. The truth was the operating system was technically incomplete due to the time restraint, it could be used and improved given time which there really wasn't available. To have Coordinators look at the system had risks, and even if she doubted that either Kira or Tyler would take information to the ZAFT forces, it was possible. The less about the prototype suits ZAFT forces knew the better really, but the system was just too clunky right now and Murrue couldn't deny that. So, in the end, Murrue relented and agreed to let the young teen make some improvements to the OS.

Kira got down to doing the job and Tyler not wanting to be idle at the moment quickly began helping him. Tyler pointed out a few things that he had recalled from the data he had seen and read about the machine. The two were interrupted by a quiet voice after a bit, "Kira?" Kira and Tyler looked up to see Lacus having used the zip-line and was now right outside the cockpit, "Do you think we'll be attacked again?"

Kira sighed and nodded while Tyler looked away yet also nodding at the truthfulness of the point. "Unfortunately Lacus, with the one Alliance suit here, I highly doubt the ZAFT forces will just let things be especially after attacking a neutral colony," Tyler stated. "They're already in trouble and so, until someone makes them accountable for their actions, it's going to keep happening, that's how I see it at least."

"I would have to agree with Tye, with the two GINN suits and the red machine that got away," Kira paused for a moment, "After all the trouble they've gone through… well, do you honestly expect them to just leave these last three machines alone?"

Lacus frowned, but nodded to the reasoning, "No, not with them being the Creuset Team," she said quietly, so no one but Kira and Tyler could hear her.

Tyler blinked at hearing the name Lacus stated, "Creuset," Tyler posed, "as in the ZAFT commander that is notorious for ignoring rules and then justifying his actions after waving off standing agreements, that Rau Le Creuset?"

Lacus nodded the affirmative, "He's the only one who would've done something like this. My father wouldn't have allowed this level of attack to befall a neutral colony, nor many other members of the Supreme Council," she confirmed.

Tyler's shoulders slumped dejectedly, "Great, we have to be facing one of the few ZAFT officers that records state there's nothing too low for him to commit and rules mean nothing to him. That makes things more difficult for all of us here," Tyler breathed out.

"Yeah," Kira said in agreement, "Hard to believe that Athrun's father might be the one that authorized this. After what happened with Junius Seven, he wasn't the same after losing his wife, but still this," Kira stopped and looked at Tyler apologetically. He knew mentioning Junius Seven would being pain to his friend as it was a reminder of Tyler losing his father and sister.

Tyler waved a hand at him, "Don't worry about bringing up bad memories Kira, you don't mean to and it's okay. Nonetheless, I can understand where the man is coming from even if I don't agree with the reasoning he uses. I think he sometimes forgets that he isn't the only one to lose loved ones in the Bloody Valentine. Yet killing innocent bystanders to get back at those who murder many doesn't change anything nor helps, it only makes things worse," Tyler mumbled quietly.

Kira could understand what Tyler was trying to say, to attack people that had nothing to do with an event that took live made no sense. Tyler may not show it often but Kira knew that he had changed after the Bloody Valentine. Kira paused in his work as his hands clenched slightly, "Damn it, I hate war."

Lacus smiled slightly, knowing that Kira's heart made sure he felt horror at the deaths of others. "That's because you are you," she said, "and don't you ever forget it."

Kira smiled back in response as Tyler did, "She's right, and I totally agree with you Kira one-hundred percent, war sucks and this one is no different in that. It just hits home more when you have to see what war does first-hand."

With the large trailer was parked next to the suits and Murrue opened it, the equipment was the set she had been hoping for. She then directed Kira to move the Strike to change and attach equipment to the suit. As the teens worked as directed by Murrue, Tyler happened to hear her muttering, "This would be faster on the Archangel."

"The Archangel," questioned Lacus, but Murrue didn't answer her even though she heard Lacus. The teens already knew too much about the G-Project and if they knew more it would only do harm for them. Granted, the captain of the Archangel would unlikely do anything horrible to the teens, the man was too honorable to do that.

Tyler viewed the internal argument that Miss Ramius was having with the question asked, so he decided he would answer instead. "The Archangel would be the first Alliance ship of a new class that was built here at Morgenroete and was supposed to work with the prototype suits." Murrue spun around and stared at Tyler incredulously for the older teen shouldn't have known that information. Tyler shouldn't know about the G-Project and yet there were clear signs that he did somehow. Tyler smiled a bit at Murrue, "Do feel free to correct me if I'm wrong," he dared.

Murrue had nothing she could say to that, and it irked her a bit that the teen was causing her to be unable to counter. The project was kept secret as far as she knew, but clearly something had been leaked. The stare off was broken by Sai scratching his head before speaking, "So how do you know that Tye?"

At the same time, Mu and Krystal were chasing the CGUE, shooting it when they got the opportunity to line up a shot. Both were using their gunbarrels but their shots were not hitting their mark effectively as Creuset was either evading or blocking. In exchange, Rau took out two of Mu's gunbarrels and on of Krystal's. The three machines kept dancing around each other as they moved through the docking area.

Back inside the colony, Tyler shrugged at Sai's question seeing no reason to not answer, even if it wasn't exactly the truth, "The journalist I've been working with got info on it within the last few months. They were having me do research on it and some of the workers at Morgenroete mentioned it," Tyler replied with the excuse he had come up with a while ago. The sound beeping from the com-link drew Tyler's attention, "Um excuse me for a moment," he said before he walked a ways off from everyone activated the device, "This is Tyler, what do you got?"

"Tyler, a CGUE suit just flew into the dock while the rest of the GINN suits were retreating. This one came from out of nowhere and ran when we tried to shoot at him so that he would go away, it was the best we could do, sorry. Also, two Moebius Zero armors are following closely behind the suit! Watch yourself in there with them coming your way," said Lisa in a worried tone.

Tyler had suspected another attack would come, but not what Lisa had just iterated was on its way. Dealing with both sides on this war wasn't nice Tyler would admit, but the current situation was getting bad and neither side seemed to care. And with a CGUE coming inferred that the pilot wouldn't be a novice and Tyler didn't like that development. In fact, Tyler turned around to face the rest of the group, "Kira," he shouted, "We got incoming! Everyone else RUN!"

Tyler received confused looks as he sprinted towards the Shadow however before any could question him the sound of an explosion disrupted an attempt. The explosion was around the pathway that led to the forward docking area and from the explosion came three objects, one a mobile suit, the other two mobile armors chasing it. That drew everyone's eyes up in shock as a silver suit flew in the direction the teens and Miss Ramius were in. The armors were trying to shoot down the suit, but it was obvious that the pilot of the mobile suit was better than the armor pilots.

While that was happening, Tyler had gotten to the Shadow and gone up the zip-line to the cockpit. He quickly strapped himself into the pilot seat and activated the OS along with closing the hatch. The forward screen moved into place and Tyler noted that the Shadow had around half its battery power left to work with. He didn't turn on the phase shift as it would be a drain on power, which would require him to evade and block efficiently. Tyler glanced in the fight's direction and saw that the tussle between the three machines was going strong.

Mu was becoming frustrated with this exchange with Creuset, it was more like the infuriating man was toying around because he could. Fighting around the docking area had been harsh enough and now that they were inside the colony brought its own set of difficulties. There was more to damage and the space that was much harder to maneuver in with the colony gravity. One glance around told Mu that the colony was pretty much empty, or the inhabitance had probably gotten to the colony's shelters. That was good as then Krystal and he could focus on Creuset without much distraction that the man could use to his advantage.

Mu was closing in on the CGUE planning to use his linear cannon to nail him, it was the most effective weapon his strike fighter had against suits in general. At point-blank range, one shot to the torso should do serious if not lethal damage to the opposing machine. Yet, Mu saw that the CGUE was looking not at him or Krystal, but down at the ground below. When Mu glanced in the same direction, he saw there were three mobile suits a distance away. One was one of the prototypes, yet the other two were ones that Mu hadn't seen specs for on the way here. Mu had no more time to take in the scene as Creuset moved forward towards the mobile suits. Mu went after him as Krystal moved to do the same nonetheless, Creuset evaded the shot Mu made and took out his suit's blade using it to slice Mu's linear cannon rendering it unusable. Mu had to throw his throttle hard left to avoid not getting hit by the blade directly and getting killed.

Krystal shot forward lighting up her remaining guns and directing them on the CGUE trying to give Mu cover. Yet, Creuset used his shield to block the weapon-fire and fired his own rifle to score a hit on the blue zero's underside and taking out her lower gunbarrel. Krystal knew the hit that her fighter took was bad, the main engine set's output was falling fast. It essentially meant that Creuset won the fight for the time being that had been going on. Having disabled both mobile armors, Rau thought that all that would be left was to find and handle the two unknown suits and then deal with the remaining prototype. As fun as it was to toy and mess with La Flaga and his companion, Creuset wanted to mitigate things that could be held against him in this situation.

He didn't kid himself, this event wouldn't be kept quiet, nice as it would be if it was. The Orb Union was far too much like the Federation so they would raise a great amount of stink about this whole chain of events. And he, the mission commander would then have to explain why things had ended out the way they had. So, the less he seemed at fault for this, the better things would be going forward. Rau may be a risk taker, but he was no idiot, it is always better to not look like you are the one causing the issue.

However, his attention was snapped back as an alarm began going off and when Creuset looked forward, a mobile suit rapidly approaching him. The appearance of the machine fit one of the two descriptions that those who had come back had given the unknowns. The difference was the machine was grey and not colored as had been stated, which meant that the armor system wasn't active at the moment. That in itself was odd to Creuset for either the pilot was very confident, or they were being stupid.

Rau pointed his shield at the oncoming suit aiming the gatling gun mounted in the shield's structure at his opponent. Yet, the rounds fired were intercepted by the grey machine's shield rendering them ineffective. In response, his opponent had two thin sections on either side of the torso flip upward and the next thing that Creuset saw two rifles were trained on him. The rifles began firing rapid-fire at him forcing Creuset to hold his shield in front to block the barrage of bullets.

Tyler was unloading rounds at the ZAFT machine as fast as he could as much to keep its attention off those on the ground as to get back at those who had been fighting. The barrage had the result of the CGUE veering off course and backing off a bit which was what Tyler wanted. But he also opened a com-channel to the Strike, "Kira, get that equipment on the Strike, I'm going to run out of power soon enough."

Kira heard Tyler and knew by the tone he wasn't joking in any way, the situation was too serious for that. The equipment set that Miss Ramius had gotten back had a heavy beam cannon with a battery in the backpack. The set was in the process of being mounted to the Strike as Tyler was buying time of not being the center of attention. The process was going what seemed really slow to Kira since he was worried about Tyler as he was putting his life on the line right now.

Creuset was somewhat impressed with the performance of the enemy mobile suit he was going against was no pushover. The gunfire let up for a bit, but that only led to the sight of the grey machine pointing its shield at him. On the front of the shield was a weapon barrel that looked to be for between sixty-five and eighty-five-millimeter caliber weapon. As if to prove his assumption, there was a flash and a split-second later a harsh impact to the CGUE's shield as a heavy round struck. Then alarms blared in Creuset's cockpit and when he looked ahead, the grey suit had closed the distance separating them and Creuset and it had ignited a beam blade on the front of their shield. Rau had just enough time to veer right, but the left forearm along with the shield was sliced off in exchange.

Rau was forced to momentarily pause at realizing what had just occurred as it was not what he had expected at all. The pilot inside this unknown machine was no novice in any way, shape, or form. From the approach to the smooth execution that led to Creuset losing his machine's left arm and shield showed that the pilot was experienced. With how Rau had just underestimated this machine and its pilot, he could have just been killed for the mistake.

Creuset shot with his assault rifle at the grey mobile suit as it was descending or rather falling towards the ground, but the pilot blocked the rounds with their shield. Then he spotted the last Alliance prototype titan sitting on some sort of trailer a short distance ahead. It didn't appear to be operational at the moment, so Creuset took the chance to attack while his opponent couldn't counter.

Tyler was made to focus on controlling the Shadow's thrusters to decelerate enough to not slam into the ground. The suit's battery was running lower than Tyler liked, so the landing was rough but not unmanageable. Still, Tyler kept his gaze on the CGUE to not lose sight of it as it was still a looming danger with even one weapon at its disposal. Nonetheless, he caught sight of the Strike rising to its feet and activating its phase shift armor. Tyler took a second look and saw that the machine also had a heavy looking cannon mounted on its back.

Yet before the fight between the Strike and the CGUE could begin, the entire colony shook hard for a second time as it did when this horrible situation began. The shaking was accompanied by an explosion that threw out the hillside that was next to the Morgenroete complex. Tyler gazed in the direction of the blast knowing that it was around where the dock below the complex was. From the smoke billowing outward came a white warship flying into the colony.

The ship had a central structure which had wings on the back and two legs on either side of the center section. On top of both legs was housed the linear catapults and heavy beam cannons the ship carried. Just below and connected to the central section of the ship were wings that could extend out for stability and better flight on Earth. The navigation bridge for the ship was located just being the center of the ship in a tower section.

According to the reports that Tyler had read and what he himself had found out about the new Alliance warship, it was not lightly armed. Its arsenal included beam cannons, linear cannons and a heavy beam cannon along with a collection of missiles. Tyler didn't know a lot of specifics about the weapons, but he had a feeling that he would be soon learning more than he would want to know. Now Tyler didn't feel a great deal of comfort, in fact, he felt no comfort with the Alliance warship coming into the colony, more so with how it entered. The current circumstances were bad enough in Tyler's opinion, so there was no need to add to the mix. And to Tyler, the Alliance personnel had done far more than enough already without sticking their nose into the current situation further than they had.

If he was frank and honest, the Alliance shouldn't be here at the Heliopolis colony, nor should they have been working with or rather using the Morgenroete complex here. Their action were in violation of treaties that the Alliance and the Federation had between each other. Then it was because of their work here that the current circumstances even came to be. So, Tyler wasn't feeling inclined to be nice and polite with OMNI personnel with what had been happening. Then depending on what arsenal the ship had to work with, and Tyler only had a marginal knowledge. His knowledge was with the ship systems and some of the specs, not what kind of firepower it had. And where the situation was bad already, it could be worse Tyler knew and that wasn't a comforting thought at all.

Creuset didn't miss the new Alliance warship any more than Tyler did. He was a bit wary of the vessel as there hadn't been a great deal of information gathered on it other than it was likely a fast ship and decently armed. The explosives were supposed to bury the ship in the dock but clearly that hadn't happened. To test and see what the response would be, Rau fired his assault rifle at the ship, yet was prepared to evade whatever should come his way. His shots missed due to the ship pitching to starboard, the scant crew members doing their utmost to keep the ship going. The Archangel did fire missiles back at the ZAFT suit from the stern launcher that had opened in the stern of the ship.

The CGUE flew back as the missiles zoomed toward it but Creuset flew behind the central shaft and the structure to the missiles impact and detonation. That added to the accumulating damage the colony shaft had taken already and made it even more difficult for it to keep the colony together. Should the shaft fail, the colony would collapse as it comes apart to be the seams without the shaft to hold it together.

Tyler didn't want that to happen, so he was determined to prevent more damage to the shaft itself. However, it was just after the detonation of the missiles that there was a loud snapping sound. The sound was one of the support cables separating from its mooring mount to the central shaft and it began falling. Tyler quickly estimated the path the cable was taking and that got him having the Shadow moving quickly into an interception path. He activated the phase shift along the way turning the Shadow black.

"No, guys," Kira's voice came over the com channel.

The Shadow barely put itself in front of where the teens were and raised its arms to block the falling cable. The cable hit the Shadow, but the mobile suit stood firm and stopped the cable from going further thereby Tyler saved his friends. The teen looked up to see the Shadow preventing the cable from falling on top of them to which they were grateful. Tyler shifted the cable to the side away from his friends though he was angry that his friends had been put into danger at all.

The Strike twisted to look back at where the Shadow was having just saved lives before facing forward. "Dang you, this is a neutral colony, not a battlefield," shouted Kira.

Tyler was in agreement with Kira, but with his clear and cool head, he was thinking about the full picture. He knew that letting anger sway you during a fight was unwise and could produce problematic results. The colony was already in dire straits with the beating it had taken, careful choices need to be made to not make that worse. So, when Kira brought out the heavy cannon which flipped down and forward to point at the CGUE, Tyler was wondering what kind of power level the cannons had as he wasn't aware of the specs he had read. Still, he was getting a bad feeling and he had learned to listen to those from past experience. "Um Kira, maybe you should take a moment to," Tyler began saying.

Nevertheless, Kira fired the cannon before Tyler finished his warning. The beam that came from the cannon was comparable to one-hundred-millimeter caliber projectile rounds. The beam shot towards the CGUE, and though it didn't make a direct hit on the CGUE it still did damage to the machine in the form of it losing its other arm. If the beam were to have scored a direct hit, then there would be no more suit where there was one.

There was a part of Tyler that kind of wanted the titan to have been nailed, then it might have been worth what came next in his view. What happened after that beam nicked the ZAFT suit was it kept going in its path and collided into the colony wall. The beam ripped a good size hole over fifty yards in diameter in the colony structure from what Tyler could estimate. "Wh-what kind of power is this," questioned Kira with a tone of horror in his voice.

Tyler was open-mouthed at what he had witnessed just now, and the results spoke for themselves. He had seen the choice-making that the Alliance and their OMNI Enforcers were fairly apt to make. And what had just occurred was an example, weapons with firepower that can be abused or rather would be abused and most not care. Then there was the destruction of a colony that wasn't technically theirs and the ruin they are responsible for bringing.

Tyler and Kira weren't the only ones that were in a varying state of shock at the view of the weapon the Alliance came up with. The other teens had expressions of horror and fear at the destruction they were seeing. Murrue was shaken at seeing the actual discharge of one of the Strike's "Agni" cannon. She had understood when told that the cannon's beam would be able to punch through armor and melt resistant material, it would be harsh, but not like this. That dwarfed the unreal performance of McGregor had done with the black suit and brought regret to Murrue.

Tyler shook himself out of the stopper as his com-link began buzzing in his ear, and he put his pointer finger to his ear, "This is Tyler, everyone okay out there?"

"Yes, I'm good though whatever weapon just made a hole in the colony wall certainly got me to jump," Lisa replied, "Knight, Lascy, what's your status?"

"No need to worry about me chaps, it'll take more than what ZAFT forces or the Alliance's Enforcers can throw our way to take this gentleman down," answered Alan.

"I'm alive mates. So, what's goin on in there Tyler? Certainly not like ya to make a hole like Lisa is describing," said Luke.

Tyler let out a long sigh of frustration and deep annoyance, "Trust me when I say it's complicated Luke for it is in ways that clean language doesn't get across. However, simply put, Alliance personnel have been idiots and don't have a clue how to properly use high-powered weapons," he returned in a flat voice.

Phase End!

A/n

And that's where this phase ends now. Please some of you take the time to write a review and either point stuff out or comment on what you think.