Gundam Seed: The Federation ver 2

by Blackshadow999

Different telling of Gundam Seed. With the conflict between Naturals and Coordinators getting worse as time passes, some nations have banded together and formed the organization known as the Human Federation. Will the Federation be able to help bring peace or will the hatred between Naturals and Coordinators destroy everything and bring extinction of humanity? Cover by Saddle Patch

14. Phase 14: Race Towards Earth

A/n

I hope you readers are staying safe with COVID-19 going around. Anyways, like before, I don't own anything from the Gundam universe, just my musings, and characters. Enjoy the chapter.

---

Phase 14: Race Towards Earth

February 11th, 71 C.E.

---

The Archangel

Both the Strike and the Asuka were moved into the hangar just after the blue zero armor was taken in. After being put into the mobile suit docks, Kira and Lacus exited their cockpits before heading towards the locker room in a very somber mood. However, Lacus stopped halfway across the hangar and noticed that the Shadow wasn't coming in. Tyler had been not too far behind them so he should have been coming in by now. "Kira, where's Tye," she asked.

Kira came to a halt and also scanned around the hangar, pausing on the empty dock where the Shadow would normally be. Then shifted between both sets of airtight shutters that led to the catapults, which were closed for the moment. Seeing this, mystified Kira, for Tyler had been behind both Lacus and himself, "I thought he was right behind us," muttered Kira, before he shook his head. "He's probably coming in as we speak Lacus."

The two teens continued to the pilot locker room while on the Archangel's bridge, clean up from the battle was being seen to. The losses were harsh none would deny that but none said the fact out loud. "The Strike and the Asuka have returned," reported Miriallia somberly. Murrue acknowledged the report, reviewing over how things had come out for the battle had ended badly by pretty much all accounts. Even with the Archangel coming back to help in hopes of saving lives, they had failed to stop the destruction of the advance force. Murrue was lost in thought when Miriallia spoke up again, "Um ma'am, the Shadow is approaching the right catapult, but it seems to be carrying something."

Murrue glanced down to the CIC at hearing the Shadow had something with it. "Carrying something," asked Murrue.

Natarle felt a growingly familiar irritation with Tyler McGregor and what he did like she was now. The teen had been blatantly ignoring orders and mission guidelines consistently much as he did instructions given to him. Natarle had attempted to nicely and politely correct the misbehavior but all of that had been unsuccessful. If anything, the teen had been trying Natarle's military discipline and mentality more than any had previously and that was saying something. She seriously contemplated having McGregor spending time in a brig cell, but she had the suspicion it wouldn't change much with him. With her patience tried, she got on the com-channel that was connected to the mobile suit in question herself, ready to reprimand the pilot. "X209 Shadow, what the hell are you thinking?! Let go of whatever you're carrying and return immediately," she commanded.

Tyler blinked at what he heard Natarle just say to him as it was out of the expected norm for her in Tyler's view. Granted, Tyler hadn't missed that Natarle Badgiruel had issues with his attitude and mannerisms, but that wasn't Tyler's problem. Nor was it her needlessly uptight persona that she had thought it was annoying at times. Nope, it was that Natarle seemed to have the impression that Tyler himself did things for no reason. And in this, Tyler wasn't going to hold his tongue like he had been, "Did you just tell me to let go of what I'm carrying," he posed flatly. "You want me to chuck this Alliance lifepod back out to space and pretend that I didn't find it at all? To not take into account that there is likely someone in it and what they have gone through? Is that what I'm hearing from you, Acting Vice Captain?"

Tyler paused for a moment, knowing he was very likely embarrassing the woman, but with what she was demanding, she needed it. And while Tyler had been around some real strict officers during his two years of service, Natarle was definitely towards the top of the list. "Goodness gracious, I've been around some mean tight uniformed officers before, but just how heartless can you be woman," he challenged. Then Tyler sighed, "I recommend that whoever is at the controls to operate the catapults makes sure to keep the right one open for me to come in, and then, have someone around that can open this pod. It's coming into the Archangel with me regardless of whatever anyone else says, so shut up and accept that. Any of the commanding officers that wish to argue or reprimand me can feel free to do so later should any of you need something to do and feel inclined to waste the time. I guarantee that I won't be listening, but if that's how some of you get your kicks, more power to you."

By the time Tyler had finished, Natarle was fully ready to reprimand the teenager for the insubordination he was showing and get as close as she could to court-martial him! Granted, Natarle didn't think she could technically court martial the teen with him being a Federation soldier, but he would be reprimanded. The young man had not only called Natarle heartless, but he was completely ignoring the order he had been given once again! Natarle would get McGregor to shape up no matter what it would require or throw him off the ship when the time came. And if the tossing came, it wouldn't be soon enough for Natarle's sanity to have relief from Tyler's rebellious streak. However, Murrue cut in before Natarle could give Tyler a piece of her mind, "Ensign Badgiruel, it's clear he doesn't intend to leave the pod, and if it really is an Alliance lifepod as Tyler says it is, then we may have a survivor of one of the ships' destruction."

Natarle exhaled at having to accept Tyler's actions like she seemed to do lately and it frustrated her. Yet she still planned to tell Mr. McGregor how unwise his blatant disregard for orders was later. His challenge didn't intimidate her in the slightest and wouldn't be put off by it, so she'd ignore it. "Understood Captain, you're right," she returned evenly.

After Tyler came into the catapult, he waited for the outer door to close and the airtight shutters to open once the pressure cycling was complete. He was mulling over the display that Natarle Badgiruel had just put on as it was one of the sorrier displays he'd seen from her. Although Tyler had come to expect clashing with Badgiruel as she didn't like that he did things how he wanted and not what he was ordered, this was worse than usual. To tell Tyler to 'let go of whatever he was carrying', it was like she thinks he would pick up random junk or something like that. Tyler was left to wonder if the woman that was second in command of this ship would ever understand he followed orders that he saw reason to, not every single little ridiculous command he got told. It was a point of Tyler's profile with the Federation that he didn't mind elaborating upon when asked.

He switched off the Shadow's phase shift armor to conserve power and just because he didn't need the system running anyway. The shutters into the main hangar area slid open after around thirty seconds and Tyler moved his mobile suit in. As the Shadow came into the hangar, the first mechanics by the shutters noticed that the mobile suit was carrying an object. One of the mechanics sailed over to Murdoch and gestured to the Shadow and the object it had in its hands. Murdoch squinted at the object and a moment later he recognized that it was an Alliance lifepod. Where McGregor had found it among the wreckage of the Advanced Fleet, Murdoch couldn't guess. However, if the kid had gone through the trouble of bringing it back, Murdoch knew that he would make sure it was opened too. That was how the teen was from what Murdoch had seen thus far and so he had come to expect such from Tyler.

The Shadow set the pod down on the hangar floor before it moved to its usual dock. With the Shadow in the dock, the mechanics had the docking cage moved into place so work could be done on the mobile suit. Tyler unbuckled his restraints and hit the switch to open the cockpit hatch which hummed as it opened. Once the cockpit was open, Tyler pushed himself forward and sailed out of the suit into the hangar. Tyler floated along removing his helmet as he went before he glanced around the hangar seeing the mechanics busy with cleanup and maintenance. With the battle over, Tyler felt relief washing over him somewhat, he could get some time with less stress. "Whoo, thank God that mess is over and done with, was not nice out there really at all," Tyler said out loud, mostly to himself.

Where Murdoch could agree with the line Tyler had just stated, there was still work to do. The teen had put the lifepod right in the middle of the hangar and that hindered said work being done. "Hey McGregor," he shouted.

Tyler turned to face Murdoch and saw the man not looking the happiest about something. It took another moment for Tyler to look at the pod and realized he had set it down in the middle of things and it was not helping. Upon understanding the cause of Murdoch's expression, Tyler gained an apologetic look, "Oh deary me," Tyler commented, "sorry for putting that pod in the middle of the hangar chief, I didn't exactly know where to set it down." Tyler paused for a few seconds. "I hope you have the means to pop it open chief, and then if you need, I'll move the pod to somewhere else after escorting whoever it may be inside."

Murdoch wouldn't say no to having McGregor move the pod after it was dealt with, but he was curious why the teen would offer. "That's nice of you to offer, why do that McGregor," he inquired.

Tyler opened the collar of his pilot suit before he replied, "Truthfully, I would rather not tick you or your mechanics off. I have learned the mistake screwing with a ship's mechanics and their boss is, so I try not to do that, no offense."

Murdoch blinked at the reply as it was sort of a compliment to him and his boys from McGregor. So, he grunted in affirmative and hollered for some mechanics to bring the needed equipment to open the lifepod. Tyler stopped and watched as the mechanics work on opening the lifepod waiting to escort whoever it was inside. A few minutes later, there was a hiss from the pod and a hatch on the front snapped open, which was followed by a man coming out of the pod itself. "That was close," the man muttered, "But I can't believe we lost Copman with all of this."

Tyler didn't recognize the man, he was slightly older than middle-aged and was in a light brown suit. The man in the suit had dark brown hair and a healthy complexion but not much more notable features. However, Tyler floated forward over to the man, "So then, there was someone in this pod, makes me glad I picked it up then," he remarked coming to a stop in front of the man.

George Allster looked at the one who had just spoken and found it was a young man that appeared to be in his early twenties. He was in a spacesuit that looked very much like the kind the Federation's military used generally. However, by what the young man had just said, he had brought in the lifepod which George had been in, so he would be grateful for that. "You brought the lifepod in then," he asked.

Tyler smiled and nodded, "Yes sir, I did indeed. I do hope you didn't get bumped around too much in there along the ride, if so, then my apologies. My name is Tyler McGregor and whom did I help out if I might ask?"

George smiled a bit at the question as he was grateful to be alive and on a ship right now. What a potential Federation pilot was doing around the Archangel, he couldn't guess and at this time it didn't matter. As much as George may not appreciate everything the Federation and its military did or didn't do, one of them saved his life. "No, thank you for carrying the pod Mr. McGregor, my name is George Allster," he answered.

"Well then, since you're on board now, let's get you to the captain and go on from there, shall we," Tyler suggested putting the diplomacy skills his mother drilled into him while he was young to use. He gestured towards the door, but twisted around to glance at Murdoch, "I'll swing back once I get our guest to where he needs to go, I promise Chief."

Tyler then guided Allster out of the hangar and down the corridor to the lift that would lead to the upper decks. After the lift opened to the main crew deck, the two floated out and began to head towards the bridge. Tyler figured it would be best to get his escort to Miss Ramius as she was the one in charge. He'd learned that it was always better to get guests to those in charge as they were the ones to deal with them. IT was a position that Tyler didn't envy as it had lots of flak and just as much unwanted responsibility.

However, the two never made it to the bridge as they bumped into a group on their way. Said group consisted of Kira, Lacus, Sai, and Flay, Sai looking to be trying to comfort Flay. Tyler was about to speak up and greet them when George recognized his daughter, "Flay!"

Kira, Lacus, Sai, and Flay, turned towards the voice and Flay instantly locked her gaze on her father. "Daddy," cried Flay, tears of joy leaving a trail behind her as she pushed herself at her father.

"Flay," George exclaimed wrapping his arms around Flay as she crashed into him. He was glad his daughter was okay and that he could now see her. When the report of Heliopolis collapsing went public, George had been very worried about what had happened to his daughter. Flay was all he had since his wife died three years ago and neither had taken that well. George didn't think he could handle it if Flay died because of this ongoing war.

Tyler couldn't help the small smile that formed on his face at seeing the reuniting of father and daughter. But that made him wonder a bit as his mother had said Minister George Allster could be difficult to be around and get along with. Tyler hadn't seen anything that would lend credence to such a description and he knew his mother was an accurate judge of people. Granted, Tyler hadn't been around the man for long and so, couldn't accurately say if the man he was seeing was the one his mother dealt with. But his mother was uncanny with how she could predict people and with what she did she would have dealt with Allster.

Kira and Lacus moved over to where Tyler was, both in a far better mood than when they had come back onto the Archangel. And now why Tyler wasn't behind them made more sense as he was bringing in whatever had contained Flay's father. Tyler acknowledged Kira and Lacus as they approached as he kept watching the scene in front of him. "You're okay," Flay sobbed, clinging to his business suit. "Just like he promised," she smiled and turned slightly to look at where Kira, Lacus, and Tyler were watching from. "Thank you Kira," called Flay, to which Kira smiled slightly. "You too Lacus and you Tyler. My father is still alive because of all of you!"

Kira nodded in modest acceptance of the gratitude not saying anything as he didn't do enough out in the fight. Meanwhile, Tyler smiled in response, "You're quite welcome Flay, glad to be able to help your father."

"Don't worry about it," replied Lacus.

Minister Allster gained a confused look, "Flay, who are they," he asked, pointing to Kira and Lacus.

Flay smiled at him as the three Archangel pilots had done more than had been expected of them and even saved her father. Surely, he could appreciate the work they had done to protect the ship as she had come to. "Their names are Kira Yamato, Tyler McGregor, and Lacus Christopher," she said pointing to each as she named them. "They're volunteers from Heliopolis and they were piloting the mobile suits out there protecting the ship."

Shock replaced the confusion upon Allster's face as his daughter talked about the two teens and the young adult. The project to produce mobile suits had been important, but the pilots chosen weren't teens as far as he'd been told. Of course, there was the report that much of the crew and the intended pilots for the G-weapons had been killed at Heliopolis. Mr. McGregor made an amount of sense as a replacement, a young adult like him could be a pilot and that he was with the Federation's Military made it more likely. Yet, for the rest to be replaced by two teenagers was unexpected and an unwise decision, even George could agree with that. "What? A couple of kids did all of that," he murmured. "I can understand him," he said pointing at Tyler, "But how do these two teens, they're only civilians yet they did what even trained soldiers should've had difficulty…"

The lines Allster just muttered worry Tyler a tad for they were leaning towards what his mother described with George Allster. The man had seemed like a reasonable person when Tyler had talked with him before they had come upon the group. Yet, it sort of matched what Tyler had heard about the man from information within the profile the Federation had on him. However, the fact that his mom had mentioned was that Allster didn't like Coordinators and was rather vocal about it. Then Tyler knew he could be mistaken for being a year or a little older than he really was by some so could be seen as an 'adult'. But his friends were capable too and he wouldn't accept another talking down on them.

Flay could see the point of view that her father had, Kira, Lacus were young to be fighting in the war. Her father seemed to think Tyler could be a pilot even though there could be some doubt, it wasn't as much as with Kira and Lacus. But after seeing what they could do, Flay had begun having faith in what the pilots the Archangel had could protect the ship. And she had gotten to know that the three teens were good people so could be trusted. "They learn quick," Flay replied trying to help her father understand.

It was clear that his daughter Flay trusted these teens and the young adult to an extent, yet he couldn't say where that had come from. That these two children had piloted the mobile suits was still hard to believe to George. Plus, there were rules between the factions that civilians were not to be put into the position of fighting, he knew those well. The Federation had made sure that the Alliance and OMNI didn't forget that such was not acceptable. "But to put children in mobile suits," started Allster.

"They were the only ones," said Flay softly, looking down as she knew her father didn't like Coordinators. But as she had learned, not all of them were bad people, maybe she could help her father see that point too. "Only Coordinators could operate those machines," Flay trailed off. Tyler's attention sharpened, watching to see the reaction of the man and see how right his mother was about him.

"What?! Coordinators," exclaimed Allster, shocked at the fact his daughter stated. He glanced over the two teens and the young adult, his eyes focusing briefly on Lacus's distinctive hair, then over at Kira and Tyler before going down to Flay shaking his head. Tyler felt it odd, George Allster didn't appear to have any problem with himself when they had introduced themselves before, but he hadn't known Tyler was a Coordinator at the time. "Come on, Flay, I think we should talk," he said, "I can meet with the captain later."

Flay nodded, looking confused but she followed her father as he went leaving those in the corridor just standing where they were. Tyler was once again left to admit his mother's ability to accurately peg a person was incredible as it was uncanny. She'd been right on the money and though Tyler hadn't doubted his mother, just was once again impressed at how good she was at this. Mu and Krystal came up from behind the group having watched the scene, and they hadn't liked what they had seen. However, Kira was the first to break the silence, "But shouldn't he meet the captain first?"

Tyler came out of his thought and sighed at his friend's question as the answer was not simple. Technically yes, Allster should go and see the captain of the ship and get things squared away, that was sensible and wise. However, due to the man's views, he saw his own opinions as more important than common sense. "Indeed, that's normally what happens with one in politics coming on board a military ship. At least that's my understanding with ZAFT and OMNI, the Federation absolutely true." Tyler shrugged and continued, "Heck that's where we were heading before we bumped into all of you."

Mu would agree with Kira's question about Minister Allster going to talk with the captain being a good thing to do. And Tyler's explanation was true, political figures were to report to the captain of a vessel, it was protocol with OMNI and Mu would bet Tyler was right with ZAFT and the Federation. But Mu felt there was more to why the man had pulled his daughter aside though he couldn't say exactly what. "Yeah, Tyler is right, Vice Minister Allster should see the captain first as bigwigs normally do and it is the rule really," he said frowning, "I don't like this…"

Krystal agreed with Mu's thoughts for the man that had tugged his daughter off for a talk, there was more to it. Krystal had heard about the Atlantic Federation's Vice Foreign Minister and the things she'd heard weren't the nicest. Of course, she didn't pay all that much attention to politics, but she knew they could cause a lot of problems, especially if they had their own agendas. And if the rumors of Minister Allster were correct, he didn't like Coordinators, which could create issues for the Archangel's mobile suit pilots. Mu and Krystal would defend the teenagers if the Minister threatened them in some way. Although Krystal doubted that Tyler would need anyone to defend him, he could do that quite well himself and had proven it. "You're not the only one that feels this won't end well Mu," remarked Krystal.

Although the tension that had been present before George Allster exited the room, quickly lessened. "You three really outdid yourselves out there, you know that, right," said Sai smiling as he and the other volunteers crowded around Tyler, Kira, and Lacus in the mess hall.

Kira didn't think that Lacus, Tyler nor he had done a great deal out on the battlefield. They had failed to save their allies even though they tried as hard as they could. "N-no, not really," Kira replied, "We still lost the advance fleet…"

Lacus agreed with Kira, "And all Kira and I did were to keep the ZAFT forces occupied," she added. "If anyone outdid themselves back there, then it was you guys… the Archangel and her crew were the real heroes this time."

Tyler was of the opinion that his friends weren't giving themselves enough credit for their efforts out on the field. They had fought hard and Tyler had caught glimpses of the two fighting ZAFT forces intermittently. The results may not be the best scenario, but that's how life worked a portion of the time whether many liked to admit it or not. So, Tyler snorted at the replies, "I do believe we all need to give ourselves a pat on the back for a job well done. Kira and Lacus, you need to quit being extremely modest, good a quality though it is, there's a time and a place and this isn't it. So, give yourselves some credit for what you did out there would you?"

Krystal agreed with what the oldest teen was saying about all having done a good job, but he hadn't mentioned himself. Tyler had been the first out to the field by about five minutes which did make some difference. Also, Tyler not only struck the Nazca-class himself, but he also fought AND defeated the enemy commander. Mu and Krystal had been trying to beat Creuset and had never really managed it. However, Tyler hadn't just defeated Creuset, truthfully, Tyler had whipped the masked man if what she had seen was correct. The CGUE had been losing parts as the Shadow shot and sliced at its leisure. "Says the one who was the first out on the battlefield and struck the enemy ship directly along with beating the enemy commander," she remarked.

Tyler glanced at Krystal before he shrugged while he scratched his head, "I did just say that all of us should be patting ourselves on the back, did I not? As for me, I was just doing what is needed to save lives, that's my story and I'm sticking to it."

While Tyler had been giving his reply, Tolle and Miriallia entered the mess hall where the rest were and Mu left. "Hey everyone, glad the battle is over, all of us did awesome," Tolle said.

Tyler turned to Tolle and smiled, "Well said Tolle, true indeed. We all did extremely good with the circumstances."

"Well, how could we really do any less after Captain Ramius said that she believed in us and was counting on us?" asked Tolle trying to further lighten the mood. "I mean, how could you live with yourself if you failed to live up to expectations given like that?"

The other bridge volunteers chuckled, which made Tyler wonder just what Murrue Ramius had said to motivate them. The woman had been a toss up on doing things well and doing things horribly from what Tyler had seen. "And you shouldn't be so hard on yourselves," said Sai. He'd turned to face Kira, Lacus, and Tyler, "We all saw what the ZAFT forces were doing when we arrived. Kira, you managed to push back the enemy commander. And Tye, you were taking on the Aegis and for a bit were fending off the Blitz at the same time. Still, through it all, you managed to save Flay's father. We may have lost the rest of the advance fleet, but you gave them a far greater chance than they would've had otherwise. If we'd gotten there sooner… well, maybe you could've done more. But you did the best that you could under the circumstances, right?"

Kira smiled at Sai cheering them up, "Thanks, Sai."

"But," said Tolle, "I wonder what it is that Mr. Allster wanted to talk to Flay about? It sounded like he was awfully intent on talking to her before meeting with the captain. Even if she is his daughter, I'd expect a Vice Minister to place work a bit beyond that in this situation."

"Probably just because Flay was already here," said Miriallia trailing off.

Meanwhile, with the battle with the Alliance finished, in which ZAFT had been forced in the end to retreat assessments were being made at damages. The Gamow was relatively undamaged and its mobile suits were quickly repaired. The Vesalius was not as lucky as it had taken far more during the battle with enemy units reaching it. Yzak himself was more than a little irritated at the sight, "So, let me get this straight," he said staring at the Gamow's display screen, containing his fury and consternation. "Not only did you fail to do anything to the legged ship, but the unknown black mobile suit that was in the report about back at Heliopolis that is similar to the Blitz reappeared and disarmed the Vesalius?"

Athrun wouldn't deny that the OMNI ship that they were after got away and the Vesalius damaged in the battle. That the Shadow as Tyler called it had reappeared was something that Athrun expected at some point, though it was earlier than he had hoped. It showed to Athrun that Tyler was not someone that would be easy as an opponent. And while he had figured that with how his friend was, seeing the point was different than expectations. "That's partly true, we didn't manage to do damage to the legged ship and it was the Blitz look-a-like that did the disabling of the Vesalius's weapons however, there was also a Federation fighter assisting in that damage," Athrun replied calmly ignoring Yzak's temper that was flaring up.

The damage to the Creuset Team's flagship as extensive as most of its weapon systems had become unusable until repairs were finished. Clearly, that they wouldn't be able to participate in the next battle, so Creuset scheduled a rendezvous with the Gamow a distance away from where the battle with the Alliance had taken place. Once the meeting had occurred, the Aegis was transferred to the Gamow while the one GINN left, which was Miguel Aiman's stayed on the Vesalius. Engineers began the repairs to both ships, though the main focus was on the destroyer as it had the most damage.

"Yzak, the enemy warship possessed far greater combat capability than we had anticipated," Creuset said simply. "The two mobile suits we knew about with the legged ship are showing themselves to be very skilled. Add to that, the two mobile armor pilots who are known to be good and capable of taking on mobile suits by themselves. Then their pilots are improving a great deal between each battle, no doubt the work of the Hawk of Endymion and the Lunar Peregrine. None of them are repeating any amateur mistakes from the first few encounters we've had with them. Then, the reappearance of the second unknown mobile suit from Heliopolis changed a number of things. Finally, with the untimely appearance of Federation forces, the outcome was predictable in the end."

Yzak was silent with his commander's assessment for even he had to admit Creuset had a point. That black suit that was like the Blitz popping up had been unexpected, and though Yzak hadn't faced it himself, his comrade hadn't won against it, so he couldn't say much about it. But by what he'd seen of its performance, the pilot was either very lucky very frequently, or they weren't a novice at using the machine. In respect of the enemy pilots, whether they were just good at getting lucky or it was their skill was uncertain, Yzak leaned towards the former. Then the Federation's military forces popping up… well, they always made things more difficult for ZAFT, the Earth Alliance, or both. What irked him was Creuset saying that the winged suit's and the Strike's pilots were improving a sizable margin.

Creuset turned his attention away from those communicating from the Gamow listening to a damage report. McGregor and whoever else had helped him had crippled the Vesalius for a time along with showing up Creuset himself. Creuset looked back to the com-screen, "When you catch up to the legged ship, you are to do what you can to slow them down, preferably destroy them if you are able. The Gamow should be able to put up a sufficient barrage to keep the enemy warship preoccupied, so you can finish the mobile suits off in theory. The key to success will be how well you can keep the three enemy mobile suits and mobile armors busy. How you do this will be up to all of you, methods and means don't matter to me in this as long as you achieve the goal. The one piece of advice to all of you is not to underestimate that ship or the mobile weapons it carries, nor those who use them."

Nicol agreed with the reasoning that their commander was stating, more so after seeing how the black mobile suit had fought. "Sound reasoning commander, with how much damage the Vesalius took in the battle, it won't be able to actively participate in future battles without major repair. And yet, if the Gamow doesn't continue on, there's too great of a chance that the enemy ship will rendezvous with the rest of OMNI's orbital fleet. Should that occur, then we'll have to wait for reinforcements of our own before even attempting to do something about them," remarked Nicol.

"Nicol is quite right, and it's good to see that at least one of you is looking ahead to see what could happen," said Commander Creuset. He knew that Nicol was the cautious one of the pilots in his team and the level headedness would be best in the possible upcoming battle. Athrun would be like Nicol so Creuset wasn't worried about the two, it was Yzak Joule that could be volatile. "Very well then, I'll leave the mission of hunting the legged ship in the four of your capable sets of hands." Creuset paused for a moment, "And Yzak Joule do try to avoid another incident like the last battle you used the Duel in. I'm aware of your eagerness and though I appreciate your determination in completing a mission, show restraint. Your lack of it nearly cost you your life last time, even if you got out of it with only a damaged mobile suit to show for it. Such insubordination cannot be allowed to continue taking into account you being the son of Ezalia Joule notwithstanding. Do I make myself clear?"

Yzak knew that he was being told straight out to behave himself and do as suggested by others. And though he didn't like the idea, he couldn't deny the last time he went his own way it had cost him. So, Yzak gritted his teeth and swallowed his pride, and gave his reply, "Yes sir, crystal clear."

Rau nodded at the response, "Dearka, the same applies for you as well, do not be recklessly gung-ho like you have been. Nicol and Athrun, I'll be counting on you both to make sure that your companions exercise restraint while keeping their attitudes and pride in line," Creuset stated before severing the transmission before any could say anything else.

Back on the Archangel, Tyler sighed at Miriallia's comment as it was obvious that Mr. Allster wasn't just talking to his daughter. "I think most, if not all of us know that's not the reason the Vice Foreign Minister is having a private talk with his daughter," Tyler commented. Yet, he was stopped when Flay entered the mess hall, her eyes downcast, expression unreadable, her head hung uncertainly.

Everyone in the room could see that the girl was in a gloomy mood as it was kind of hard not to see it. "Uh, Flay? What's wrong," Sai asked worried with the look on her face.

"Huh," said Flay looking up and glancing around as though only just realizing where she was. The conversation with her father hadn't been a pleasant one at all. Yes, she knew that her father disliked Coordinators and would say as much when the subject came up. She'd had problems with them before she'd met Kira and Lacus, getting to know them had changed her views of Coordinators. And after telling her father that the Archangel's pilots aside from Lieutenant La Flaga and Major McAlester were Coordinators, Flay's father had pretty much told her to stay away from them. Upon entering the mess hall and Sai speaking, she caught sight of Kira and Lacus and looked away. "My," she hesitated, "my dad, he," she tried saying uncertainly, but was having trouble finding the words. "He isn't happy about how things are being run on this ship. He's actually pretty angry, about," Flay bit her lip nervously, "He hates Coordinators," she finally breathed her words causing all to stiffen slightly.

Lacus had never really gotten along with Flay at first, mostly stemming from Flay's obvious dislike/discomfort around the rosette. But ever since what went down at Artemis, the two had become somewhat tentative friends. "It's so… ugh… it's so stupid," said Flay frustratedly, startling everyone. "I mean, you saved his life, you've protected the people on this ship, and he's gone off to the captain to complain about it, and he's telling me to stay away from you and," her hands balled into fists, "it's so frustrating!"

This was a reaction that none had expected, not even Tyler. Flay had shown herself as someone that has at least a slight problem with Coordinators in general by what Tyler had observed. Her father had displayed much stronger signs of being against Coordinators and he assumed that it had been passed on to Flay herself, but apparently, that's not entirely true. This also showed Tyler that like he was used to, his mother was amazingly accurate at seeing how people are.

"Um," said Lacus drawing Flay's attention, "You don't," she hesitated, "you don't have to argue with him, or anything." Lacus cast her gaze down as everyone looked at her, "Not over us… you shouldn't…"

Flay wasn't going to let Lacus belittle herself, not after she and the other pilots had protected the ship time and time again. "Look at me," said Flay sharply floating over and slamming her open hand on the table in front of Lacus startling the rosette who did as she was told. "The two of you are my friends," she snapped. "It doesn't matter if you're Coordinators, or Naturals, or Hybrid! So what if I might think it's wrong to have your genes modified, that doesn't change the fact you two are my friends. That's something that has nothing to do with genetic modifications and without those changes, you wouldn't be able to protect us. All of us would be dead by now, and if my father can't appreciate that fact and blows up at me over who I choose as my friends, then I can be as angry with him as I want!"

Tyler like everyone else sat frozen as everyone stared in astonishment at Flay and how she was acting. The girl had completely transformed from the spoiled girl he'd been told about and had come to know while at Heliopolis. She was becoming an honest teenage girl who would stick up for those she considered friends even against her own father. Put simply, Flay was growing up and it was showing very promising possibilities in his view. Tyler's hands came up and came together in the action of clapping and that broke the silence and had everyone looking at him. "Now this is a healthy change, hope you keep it up, Flay. It takes courage to stand up and say that the views that you're taught are wrong."

While those in the mess hall were talking, Murrue had been dealing with George Allster and his "complaint". She wasn't sorry in the slightest to see Minister Allster leave as he was escorted out of her quarters. The man had been extremely different than Murrue or anyone else had thought he would be. The things that Allster had said had been beyond rude and mean which were about people that he didn't know. Not only had he shown he had a heavy dislike of Coordinators, but also had made his dislike vocal in such a way to leave no doubt what he thought.

The sound of both Natarle and Mu sighing in relief with the absence of Minister Allster, resonated with her. The man's obvious bigotry had begun to wear even Natarle's strong military discipline and patience thin. And with Natarle's upbringing, gave her astounding patience and discipline she had shown. Natarle would fully acknowledge the Coordinator pilots were the major reason if not the real reason, the Archangel had made it this far. While she'd had some reservations about them at first since they were civilians who shouldn't be in this situation, that had changed. Natarle herself had nothing against Coordinators personally as she didn't see what difference genes made with people. However, she'd come to trust Kira and Lacus with the safety of the entire ship. And she'd even been coming to trust Tyler with that, regardless of the teen having a way of getting under her skin unlike any other member of the crew.

Mu had entered the room about halfway through the rant made by Minister Allster made. The half the Mu had listened to was ridiculous and unfounded but Mu had kept his mouth shut while it had been going. Mu was the first to speak his mind out of the three in the room, "Well, at least that guy's out of our hair for now," he said. "Man, can you say stupid and stubborn? I mean, come on, if it weren't for those 'untrustworthy, filthy, monstrous Coordinators' who fought against ZAFT out there, he'd be lucky to be more than space dust. Heck, the Vice Foreign Minister would be still floating in that lifepod out in space if Tyler hadn't picked up the beacon's signal and retrieved the pod." Mu paused for a moment, "I'm starting to kind of wish he hadn't found it and brought it back after having to listen to the guy during his rant."

Murrue didn't disagree with Mu's comments but there was a good thing in all of this. "Agreed, but there's nothing we can do to change his opinion," Murrue remarked. "Fortunately, he's only a civilian, an influential one true, but he can't stop us from sending any of them out to protect the ship if ZAFT hits us again." She let out a sigh, "And here I was hoping that rescuing his daughter would have him give us his support if anyone wanted to make something out of our three pilots being Coordinators. But apparently, it will be the opposite, we'll just have to deal with it and go forward."

On the Gamow, three days went by since the pursuit of the legged ship had started and though they had made progress at closing the distance, there was still a distance to go. Now the pilots on board the ZAFT vessel were gathered around the tactical table display deciding what tactics to use to obtain the goal assigned them. To attack the enemy ship came with risks and rewards which is where the argument came into play. "I grant you, it is possible to catch up to our target before they join OMNI's Eighth Orbital Fleet," admitted Nicol in a reserved tone. He studied the data displayed still not liking what he was seeing. "But even were we to use that opportunity, we'd only have ten minutes at best before we are within firing range of the fleet. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather not see nor experience what it's like trying to dodge the firepower a full OMNI orbital fleet has to work with in only a mobile suit. Especially, not the one that is said to be one of the strongest and have a tactician that can outdo a number within ZAFT."

The four pilots of the Creuset Team had been using the last three days to come up with a plan to attack their enemy. In fact, they started upon separating from the Vesalius and going after the legged ship. With the Vesalius unable to continue, for the time being, the Gamow had gone ahead, however, its inferior speed meant that it had taken very close to three days to come into even a somewhat close range of the Earth Forces' warship. "You mean we'd have a full ten minutes," Dearka said smugly.

"I would suggest the cowards keep their traps shut," replied Yzak condescendingly, "before you say something embarrassing."

Nicol stood his ground and his eyes narrowed at his two teammates snapping back at the facts. This was not a situation to take lightly and the two were, they were showing signs that they were itching to fight and that was unhelpful. "There are five dangerous faults which may affect a soldier of any rank," Nicol stated calmly, but he was staring rather pointedly at Yzak. "Here are the three that affect you Yzak: recklessness, which leads to self-destruction, a hasty temper that can be provoked by insults, and lastly, a sense of honor and pride that are sensitive to shame." Nicol turned his attention back to the tactical board while everyone else stared at him in shock. "It's no wonder you scored so poorly in command abilities." 'If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him.' Nicol thought to himself as he observed his comrade's reaction.

As Nicol expected, Yzak nearly flew off the handle at that, yet Dearka held him back to keep him from completely losing it. Nicol had a bit of a point and most on the bridge knew it, even if they didn't want to admit it. Between the pilots there were from the start of this campaign, out of the ZAFT reds that had been on this mission from the outset, including Rusty, Yzak had scored the worst in command capabilities tests. Athrun had scored the highest, only very narrowly beating out Nicol for best in their academic class. However, it seemed at times like Nicol had taken the lessons from the Black Zephyr more to heart than any of them, which has served him well with the tactical mindset that he had.

Regardless, Athrun decided to try and diffuse the situation by turning back to their attack plan. "Moving on to the matter at hand, timing isn't the only issue that we face in this, whether we wish to say it or not. We've fought against the forces of the legged ship on several different occasions now," Athrun said drawing everyone's attention. "The ship itself is easily the strongest ever created by OMNI as is clearly seen with how it dealt with both Nicol and Dearka well enough in your first fight with it out of Heliopolis. The two mobile armors are piloted by two who can arguably be considered some of the best OMNI have. One is piloted by the Hawk of Endymion, a man who single-handedly brought down five GINNs at Endymion including one of the Champions of ZAFT, the Roc, and his forces. He even went head-to-head with Commander Rickteth as well as Commander Creuset, holding his own against both," Iterated Athrun.

He paused, still thinking about how to go over the relevant information and help the others understand, and yet not say the fact that he Athrun himself knew the two of the mobile suit pilots. "The other mobile armor pilot has a similar record of going against GINNs and good ZAFT pilots and coming off the better. Then moving on to the three mobile suits," Athrun said inputting commands into the display and bring up the known specs of the last Alliance machine. "The white and blue mobile suit, the GAT- X105 Strike. It has been able to match us in previous battles, and from what we've seen, it has different equipment sets that it can use. The winged suit, there's still little information on it, but what we do have is enough to say that it isn't one to underestimate. It has mobility better than GINNs that are built for the idea, an arsenal that makes it dangerous. Finally, we can't dismiss the black suit, first encountered back at Heliopolis and reappeared again in the recent skirmish…"

Nicol nodded in agreement as the last suit worried him about how it had performed in the recent battle. It had set itself apart, whether the pilot contributed to that, Nicol figured they did, but there was no evidence to prove his hunch. "Indeed, it may look very similar to the Blitz, but it has shown to possess capabilities that my suit doesn't. I'll say that ignoring that mobile suit will only bring negative consequences. That being said, we can't underestimate any of these forces," he added.

Yzak grit his teeth, feeling like Nicol and Athrun had stolen the spotlight from him, "That doesn't matter," he said irritably. "If we have a window of opportunity, we need to take it."

"I couldn't agree more," said Dearka, "The success of a surprise attack isn't determined by the actual time spent."

"We weren't saying we shouldn't make the attack," reasoned Nicol. "we're just saying that the window of opportunity is small, and with what we know of our opponents, we need to be cautious, right Athrun?"

"Yeah," murmured Athrun not trusting himself with saying more right now. There were facts he couldn't say or else he would be seen as unfit to go out to the field. Athrun didn't want his two best friends to be put in more danger than they would be already. Were he to tell his teammates about his friends, that would cause problems.

"It'll be fine," Dearka said confidently, "Yeah, sure, it won't be easy, but so long as we can hold off their mobile suits and armors, the Gamow stays safe, and one of our machines can get up close, we can take them out."

"You make it sound easy, but keep in mind that it'll be three mobile suits and two mobile armors versus our four machines. So then how do we do that," Athrun posed. "The way those pilots are improving, we may not be able to match them all at once. And other than the reports of the battle of Nova, I've only ever heard of the Hawk being taken down by lucky shots."

"Looking at it from a practical point of view," continued Nicol picking up where Athrun left off, a hand going to his chin. "The Duel and Aegis would be the best to lure away the Strike and the winged machine." Nicol paused thinking, "That still leaves the two mobile armors and the third suit. And out of the five machines, the black mobile suit worries me the most by far, it and its pilot are a different matter altogether which the others don't present."

Everyone was looking at Nicol, then Yzak scoffed, "You make it sound like this black suit is the most powerful."

"That black machine will be the wild card in this, I have no doubt about that. The mobile suit and the one piloting it, have shown to be the most efficient out of the five machines we will face. I would bet they'll be harder to lure away than any of the others if we can do that at all. I can't say how to plan for that one," Nicol stopped then continued, "Meanwhile, the Buster would be the best to use against the mobile armors. Dearka, think you can handle it?"

"That shouldn't be a problem," said Dearka, "The Hawk's a better pilot than me for sure, but he's in that outdated mobile armor. His weapons won't even scratch me, and his mobility has its limits."

"Good, still watch yourself out there. All it takes is a well-aimed shot from the armor's main gun and your mobile suit's armor to go down and they win." said Athrun before turning to the captain. "Captain Zelman, we'll need the Gamow to provide long-range fire support at the beginning of the battle, but you should pull back if it seems like the legged ship is going to seriously target you. If we lose the Gamow, then we'll be stuck as well."

"It should work in theory," said Zelman. "We'll definitely be cutting it close with the Eighth Fleet approaching, but this plan is the best we can come up with."

"In the meantime, the Blitz should be able to close in on the legged ship with relative ease," said Nicol. "If I can get in close, the battle should be over at that point."

"Fine, we'll go with this," Yzak remarked, "But I want the white winged machine, got it?"

There was silence for a moment, Yzak's three teammates all thinking about the demand that he made. "Yzak, are you sure that's wise," Dearka asked nervously. "Given what the data and what we've observed, I would say that the Aegis is better suited to fighting that machine out of ours."

Yzak glared at Dearka, "No, that one is mine," he said hotly. "That damn Natural… he's responsible for everything that's gone wrong since Heliopolis!"

Athrun sighed and conceded, there would be no getting Yzak to change his mind about this. Yet, Athrun said nothing about what he knew about some of the pilots or at least the two out of the three suit pilots. If he had, then Athrun knew that he would have to answer where he learned the information and he really didn't want to answer that question.

Back with the Archangel, it had been sailing along without further interference from others, and the mood onboard the ship had begun getting better. Once the sensors had detected the first few ships that were with the Eighth Orbital Fleet, a sigh of relief was released by many. "We'll reach the rendezvous point in about thirty minutes," said Murrue smiling. "Well everyone, we somehow managed to make it this far and are home free."

While a nice sentiment, Natarle would only relax the slightest degree when the Archangel linked up with the fleet itself. Until that occurred, there was still the chance ZAFT could attack, and relaxing would only help them with that type of idea. "Don't slack off on your monitoring," Natarle ordered sternly to Pal and surprisingly Tyler. It'd come as a shock when the oldest teen had asked if he could do some shifts on the bridge for none had expected him to do so at all. Not only that, Tyler had already known basic operation for half of the stations, not specific on all the control or operations, but he had learned quickly. Murrue hadn't a problem with Tyler's request, the Archangel was short on bridge crew, let alone one that had some experience to begin with. Natarle had been against it at first, yet after Mu and Krystal had vouched for him, she had agreed and relented. "Fleets are conspicuous and they'll draw the attention of the enemy. We may be in Federation territory right now, but that certainly didn't stop ZAFT before, and it unlikely would now. We don't want to get shot down just because we relaxed a moment before we were somewhat safe."

"Yes ma'am," Pal answered.

"Will do," Tyler replied after Pal in a loose tone.

Murrue shook her head slightly as she gave Natarle a reproachful look, even if Natarle didn't see it. They'd been on high alert for a while now, and while what Natarle said was true, if they didn't relax some, they'd all snap. "Natarle, you should calm down. We've made it don't be so uptight," remarked Murrue.

The Archangel would soon link up with the Eighth Fleet, once with the fleet, all of them would proceed to either Lunar HQ or down to JOSH-A. Honestly, who at this point would be stupid enough to attack this close to the Eighth Fleet? However, Natarle just shook her head and kept doing what she was. She wouldn't let what someone else told her to affect her judgment or how she did her duties. But the standoff didn't stop there as the voice of Tyler was heard, "Did you honestly just say 'We've made it' captain, or were my ears deceiving me?"

Murrue glanced in the direction of the sensor console where Tyler was stationed currently. She had learned that Tyler was one that stated his mind without care of what others thought. Such did cause problems around the ship, normally with Natarle specifically. But what Tyler was getting at escaped Murrue, "Yes, what of it Tyler," she asked.

Tyler didn't know if he should pity the acting captain of the Archangel or whether he should shut up and let her learn a serious lesson. Tyler had learned the idea already even before he enlisted in the Federation's Military, you don't jinx yourself. To think you were fine before you were at the end of a journey more often than not screw you over and sometimes royally so. What Murrue had just said was as prime an example as Tyler had seen of setting yourself up to have trouble come your way. "Those are some of the most famous last words that have been said before people get killed," Tyler finished simply.

Meanwhile, all four Heliopolis volunteers had gathered in the mess hall since for one of the rare times, none of the four of them had a shift right now. They'd agreed to meet together to talk about recent events as what had been happening was not what any had thought at the beginning of the year. "We've gone through a lot," Kuzzey said to Sai in the mess hall, "but we're almost there."

"Yeah," muttered Sai poking at his food thinking about their circumstances as they stood.

"It's hard to believe all that's happened since Heliopolis isn't it," uttered Miriallia.

The three boys gave sounds of agreement to the question. The chain of events that had led to where they were now was unbelievable. They were college students who had been worried about what most students, namely schoolwork, classes, and their social lives. "So, you don't suppose they'll let us off anywhere but on Earth, do you," Kuzzey asked. Sai looked at Kuzzey confused. "It's just that," he hesitated, "remember what Lieutenant Ramius told us?"

Sai thought back a bit and realized immediately what his friend was talking about. Just after first introducing themselves to one another, Murrue had warned them that they weren't likely to be allowed to just go anyway, not after having seen OMNI's prototype mobile suits. They'd have to wait for a decision from the appropriate authorities though, before being certain about anything. "Hmm, yeah," muttered Sai. "So, under the circumstances, wouldn't the leaders of the Alliance fleet be considered the appropriate authorities?"

"Guess you're right," said Kuzzey, "However…"

Sai stared at his friend as did Tolle, "However what Kuzzey," questioned Tolle, "What are you trying to get at?"

Kuzzey paused trying to decide how to put what he was attempting to say into words properly. "What do you think will happen to Kira, Lacus, and Tyler? Will they be allowed to leave too when we get to the fleet," he asked, "They did get involved in a whole bunch of stuff."

With their three Coordinator friends having been the pilots of OMNI mobile suits they were valuable. And the machines they used had been originally intended to be used by Naturals according to the crew. Also, some of those from the Earth Alliance had treated the three differently already, not bad necessarily yet not good either. So, now that the Archangel was close to being with the Eighth Orbital Fleet, there was the chance that their friends might not be 'released' from the job they'd been doing. Artemis had proven that OMNI officers weren't above using non-nice means to get what they wanted.

Sai looked down, frowning in thought as he knew that Kuzzey had a point in saying that OMNI officers. With what their friends had done thus far, it was unlikely OMNI would release the three pilots if given the choice. Sai didn't want to see his friends forced into something they didn't want or choose to do. Things were so uncertain right now for those that volunteered and weren't officially enlisted in OMNI. Sai was brought out his thoughts when he looked up and was surprised as two of the pilots in question entered the mess hall. They only shared a brief look before the two went to get food and water. Tyler was of course doing a shift on the bridge and so would be busy for hours. "Flay," exclaimed Sai, softly, as the redhead entered the mess hall soon after Kira and Lacus.

The rest of them had seen very little of Flay over the last few days with the girl spending most of her time talking with her father. That's what everyone believed since Allster himself had hardly been seen around the ship at all. They were correct as Flay had been forced to listen to her father go on about how horrible Coordinators were along with those that protected them. He had even gone off about the leader of the Republic of East Asia yesterday, which had lasted for a while. Flay figured that the prime minister of the Federation nation was one her father didn't get along with as he had rarely spoken nicely of them.

Kira looked at Sai at his exclamation before he followed his gaze and saw the mentioned redhead. "Huh? Flay? What's up," he asked as everyone looked over at her.

Flay glanced at those in the mess hall before looking away, "More problems with my dad," she replied. "He's," Flay hesitated, "refusing to leave his quarters. He doesn't want to wander around where Coordinators have been or me to do so either. He's just so," Flay paused in frustration, "oh, he's just so stupid!"

Lacus didn't like the fact that Flay was having issues with her father because of Kira, Tyler, and herself. A strained relationship with one's parents should be avoided so you didn't regret it later which Lacus knew by personal experience. "Should you really be fighting that hard with your father," she asked tilting her head a little. "I understand that you don't agree with him. I happen to agree with you about how our genes don't affect who we are. But still, he's your father, you should try to get along."

Flay wouldn't accept what Lacus was saying as to her, it was the pink-haired girl demeaning herself. "No," said Flay shaking her head. "You're right, I still want to be family with him, but I'm not going to share his beliefs about Coordinators, beliefs I now know are wrong!"

Kira and Sai both blinked at hearing that as it was something neither had really expected from the redhead. Flay apparently was becoming increasingly vehement about her disagreement with her father over the treatment of Coordinators. And by what they'd seen and just heard, things were getting worse. The question was how long would it be before things got ugly or worse than they were already and reach a breaking point.

Meanwhile, back on the bridge of the Archangel things were running as smoothly as they tended to run lately. All was quiet, yet things changed, which came in the form of sensor readings. "Hmm," murmured Pal as he saw a new signal on the radar detection screen, "Is that what I think it is?"

Tyler inspected the sensor feeds in front of him closely, and in a moment noticed what Pal was referring to. Neutron levels were on the rise, and from what Tyler saw, he had a strong hunch that at least one ship from Creuset's team was chasing the Archangel. And if Tyler had to guess, it was likely the Laurasia-class out of the two with how he and Lisa had damaged the Nazca-class. That would mean that likely two or more of the stolen OMNI prototypes would be assaulting the Archangel and that would spell trouble. So, Tyler sighed, "Yeah, it is. Did I not say we've made it are famous last words you shouldn't say?!"

Pal ignored Tyler's comment right as it was, "Electronic interference detected," announced Pal, "N-jammer levels are rising."

Murrue and Natarle both looked in Pal's and Tyler's direction, tensing up before rushing to their seats. That an attack happening just before the Archangel linked up with the Eighth Orbital Fleet was problematic. "All hands, level one battle stations," ordered Murrue as she took her seat, "Tolle, fire up the engines to maximum speed!"

"Yes ma'am," said Tolle who was currently handling the piloting since Arnold was off-duty at this time.

Murrue knew the crew would be rushing to their stations right now, so she would need Tyler to get to the Shadow. While the oldest teen's help with bridge stations was very nice, but his skills as a pilot were far more valuable. "Tyler, get to the hangar, Pal can handle sensor detection and fire control himself until the others get here," ordered Murrue.

Tyler had been about to leave the seat he was in with a fight coming, the Shadow's cockpit was where he would need to be. So, the order just sped things along for Tyler as he headed towards the elevator without further hesitation. "Laurasia-class identified at red charlie one zero three, orange alpha seven two," announced Pal as he temporarily ran an enemy search through the detection systems through the main sensor station since Tyler was making his way to the hangar right now.

Kuzzey would take over the station when he got to the bridge. Pal was looking over the data that was being displayed from the detection systems. "The signals coming in are mobile suit thermal patterns, comparing to the database to see if their matches." Pal paused and gulped before turning back to look at Murrue. "Thermal patterns all have matches, they're the Duel, the Buster, the Blitz, and the Aegis."

Hearing that their opponents included the four stolen prototypes didn't bode well for the Archangel. Before this, they had only faced three out of the four stolen machines, not all four of them at once. "Damn it, all four of them are coming at us," muttered Natarle, "And of course, this happens just moments before our rendezvous."

Arnold rushed into the bridge, Sai, and Kuzzey right behind him, all three throwing themselves toward their stations. They quickly got down to doing the operations of the station they were in, "The Eighth Fleet is at the border and will be meeting up with us soon enough," said Murrue as they focused on their tasks and duties, "We just need to hang in there."

"Activate CIWS Igelstellungs," ordered Natarle. "Load anti-beam depth charges, ready stern missile launchers with sledgehammer missiles."

The Archangel's "Gottfried" beam turrets rose up out of their storage position in the top of the legs of the ship and the barrels extended out, ready to be used. The "Valiant" linear cannons came out on either side on the back of the ship and then flipped around to point forward. And the defensive "Igelstellung" 75mm CIWS turrets deployed, ready to do their job of interception of incoming enemy fire.

Tyler sped up his pace to the hangar as an announcement came over the ship speaks, "All hands, level one battle stations! I repeat, all hands, level one battle stations!" Tyler spotted Sai and Kuzzey coming out of the Mess Hall straightening their uniforms as they went. Tyler sailed past them as he continued on to the locker room. When he got there, he changed quickly into his pilot suit, before pushing off to zoom towards the door. Tyler caught sight of Kira and Lacus coming to the locker room as he exited.

It didn't take long for the three teens to travel the rest of the distance to the hangar. When the three came into the large room, they caught glimpses of both Mu and Krystal getting into their Zero armors. Wasting no more time, Tyler, Kira, and Lacus boarded their respective mobile suits. The mobile armors moved to launch position in the catapults as Tyler went through the Shadow's OS boot up. It was when Miriallia's voice came over the radio that Tyler looked up to one of the com-screens, "Kira, Lacus, Tye," she began, "be advised the ZAFT force is made up of a Laurasia-class, the Duel, the Buster, the Blitz, and the Aegis."

Tyler's thoughts ground to a halt at the force being described for it wasn't what he expected as that implied that Creuset wouldn't be participating. That didn't sound right since Creuset had proven too persistent to give up on this hunt given the choice to do so. His earned reputation of being dogmatic and obsessive was established from what Tyler had learned. And Tyler couldn't let go of the question of Creuset missing from the attacking force.

Kira didn't like that they were about to go against four opponents in mobile suits, let alone the other four of OMNI's prototypes. They had only gone against three of them at a time and the Aegis only at Heliopolis and the last battle. Tye had gone against that one at Heliopolis and Kira had found out Athrun was its pilot in the previous battle. Kira was still uncomfortable about fighting Athrun and he didn't doubt Tyler was too even if he could ignore that enough to go out and defend the ship. But Kira knew that should he and the others not go out to defend the Archangel, then all on the ship would die including their friends. "So, all four of them at the same time now," asked Kira.

Tyler still had the nagging feeling about Creuset and so, made his voice heard, "Only the one Laurasia-class is detected? Are you sure the Nazca-class isn't just behind the Laurasia?"

All the pilots heard the suspicious tone in Tyler's voice and some on the bridge did too. Mu and Krystal fully could appreciate Tyler's paranoia with Creuset's Nazca-class missing, they were suspicious of the absence too. Miriallia took a quick moment to look over the sensor readouts again and still only saw the Laurasia-class showing along with the mobile suits. "The Nazca-class isn't in range, so it's unlikely that they'll be in this battle. They must've stayed behind with the damage they took and then just transferred the Aegis over to the Laurasia."

Tyler considered the idea of Creuset being unable to pursue and it was possible, but Tyler still couldn't see the man just sitting by unless he didn't have another choice. That made him think there could be more to the situation than was clear and visible. "Well, that means we're on our own on this one, meaning this battle will be five versus four."

The Asuka moved to the left catapult while the Strike went to the right for launching out first. When the question came about extra equipment, Lacus had chosen to have the Strike equip the sword Striker set. The set included the fifteen-point seven-eight meter "Schwert Gewehr" anti-ship sword, "Midas Messer" beam boomerang, and "Panzer Eisen" rocket anchor, good for close quarters. Kira didn't want any other equipment for this fight other than the standard for the Asuka.

The Shadow began moving to the left catapult, which Tyler assume Kira was launching out of. A moment later the Shadow moved through the airtight shutters to the catapult. Tyler had asked Chief Murdoch to equip different equipment than normal since Tyler wanted to test some of the new optional sets that had become available. With the intended set, the Shadow would still have the shield with rail cannon and beam saber, but it would switch out the medium-range beam rifle for another weapon. The rifle the Shadow would use a high-powered gun that would be stored on a pivoting rail system that was attached to the back-right side of the Shadow's frame, named the "Hallon" beam rifle.

The main difference between the long rifle and the normal rifle the Shadow could use was the long one was one and a half times the length of the normal one and had higher output. It would work well with the hidden scope the Shadow had since both were meant for an extended range. The price of the long rifle was that it would drain the battery of the Shadow more than the midrange beam rifle. Tyler knew that just meant he needed to make his shots count and he did that anyway. It was one of the pieces of equipment that had been transferred over from the Donnen for the Shadow before entering the Debris Belt. After the "Hallon" was attached to the Shadow, Tyler zoomed out to the field and joined his comrades.

Ahead of the Archangel, the nine mobile weapons were constantly decreasing the distance between each other. The seven mobile suits activated their phase shift armor, taking on their colors that made them more identifiable. The plan that Athrun and Nicol had come up with was to use their suits' heat sources to hide the volley that the Gamow would fire off. So, the four ZAFT machines moved to clustered together back-to-back, barrel rolling when they had positioned together. Behind them, the Gamow blasted off a shot from its main cannon, and the ZAFT pilots broke away from one another. The shot flying between them to crash into the Archangel, rocking the vessel. But the beam damage was minimized by the energy being converted into heat by the laminated armor the ship had.

Mu gritted his teeth at seeing what their opponents were doing to start off this fight they were insisting on. Mu figured the battle wouldn't be 'fair' per se, their pursuers hadn't shown themselves to be like that much. "Using their mobile suits to conceal the firing position," muttered Mu, his grip on the Zero's controls tightening, "that's very cute!"

As Mu locked-in the stolen G-machine that was the closest to him which was the Blitz, and he let loose a round from his Zero's linear gun. Mu then deployed the gunbarrels of his zero and let loose with the entire arsenal of his armor. Holding back wouldn't do much but give a slight advantage to ZAFT in this battle and they had more than enough of that already. Krystal joined in with Mu in shooting at the stolen Alliance suits deploying her own gunbarrels. There was a bit of satisfaction as the four opposing units broke apart to avoid the incoming weapon-fire. Although none of them would've suffered any real damage, every hit would've drained just a bit more precious battery life that was powering the phase shift armor.

Athrun knew that this battle would come down to which side had the best tactical execution. The mobile suits had a time limit, which was once power dropped enough for the phase shift armor to shut off. Once phase shift ran out, the mobile armor weapons would have an effect and the opposing suits' shots would do more. Not only would that figure into the battle's outcome, but the legged ship's pilots also were able to hold their own the last time, so could do so again. The plan Athrun had thought of from what Tyler had done to the Vesalius. Attacking your opponent's vessel had merit as it cut off resupply and Nicol had agreed with the mentality.

Once the formation of the four ZAFT suits broken, they picked their targets and headed towards their chosen opponents. The Duel went straight for the Asuka, Yzak engaging it without wasting any more time forcing Kira onto the defensive. The Aegis faced off against the Strike while the Shadow began clashing with the Buster. The mobile armors attempted to occupy the Blitz and stopping its progress forward. "Nicol, go ahead and get the ship immediately," Yzak called over the radio as he shot at the mobile armors forcing them to dodge and let up on Nicol. "We'll keep these damn Naturals off your back."

With the three OMNI suits and the armors occupied by his teammates, Nicol was free to go after the real target. Surprisingly, even the black suit was being kept busy, which surprised Nicol that one cooperating with the plan. Nicol had thought the black suit wouldn't fall for the distraction the same as the others had. The machine and its pilot had proven dangerous in the last battle which was why he and Athrun planned for it is problematic. Granted, the mobile armors did attempt to intercept the Blitz however, Nicol dodged them without much effort and continued to his goal. Even Kira and Lacus tried to go after the black suit but were stopped by the Aegis and the Duel. The Archangel fired the 'valiants' at the Blitz, but Nicol evaded and then the Blitz vanished from sight. "Captain, I've lost the Blitz," said Kuzzey.

"Its mirage colloid must've been activated," said Murrue. "Fire another spread of anti-beam depth charges and reload all missile tubes with anti-suit shrapnel missiles."

"Fire anti-beam depth charges," ordered Natarle, echoing Murrue. "Stern missile tubes, switch over to anti-suit shrapnel missiles."

Nicol got into range and fired the Trikeros beam rifle at the Archangel, but the beams never reached the warship, they were dispersed instead by the anti-beam curtain surrounding the warship. It was expected by the enemy, long-range weapons would be nullified by their anti-beam depth charges. That left two options for Nicol, which were to use the non-beam weapons which had a limited range or move past the anti-beam depth charges. Between the two options, Nicol chose to get closer as that would be in the long-run the option that would be the most effective. So, Nicol moved closer to get around the effects of the anti-beam depth charges.

Meanwhile, back with the Buster and the Shadow, both were still fighting one another and Dearka was quickly getting annoyed with his opponent. The Blitz's twin was evading out of the shots that Dearka lined up and made it look irritatingly easy. Granted, Athrun and Nicol had said for whoever faced the black suit to not let their guard down. Dearka wasn't as crazy and hot-headed as Yzak could be at times, and so he knew that his teammates didn't say that without a good reason. That by no means meant that Dearka liked being fooled around with but his opponent. "You're getting on my nerves black guy," Dearka said firing both the Gun Launcher and the high-energy rifle at the black suit.

The Shadow weaved out of the attacks again, which just served to infuriate Dearka more. "Black guy," Tyler muttered a little incredulously, "That's the best name he can come up with for me?" Getting caught fighting the Buster wasn't what Tyler had hoped for but had ended out with. If Tyler had the choice he wanted, he would either had gone against Athrun in the Aegis or Nicol Amalfi in the Blitz. Those two would be the harder ones to go against in Tyler's view and the safety of the ship was at stake.

It was then Tyler caught sight of the Blitz reappearing a lot closer to the Archangel than was comfortable in his mind. His response was to bring out the Hallon beam rifle and brought it to bear before the Buster had a chance to combine its two rifles. The weapon let loose a high-powered beam which the Buster just managed to dodge. Dearka had just caught sight of the black machine bringing out the rifle which it hadn't had before. He was forced to throw his control sticks hard to one side to avoid being nailed by the beam rifle.

While the Buster's pilot allowed his concentration wander, Tyler used the time to activate the Shadow's mirage colloid vanishing from view. Then he switched on a second system which was called the "Echo Trace Transmitter". Tyler had no doubt that the system was definitely proprietary technology of the Federation's Military. The system is designed to make the machine equipped, to disappear from sensors, and not show up at all. It was a better version than what the Federation employed currently that Tyler knew of. So, combined with Mirage Colloid, "nobody sees, nobody knows" where he was, and that's just the way Tyler liked it!

By the time Dearka righted himself, he looked around and saw that his opponent wasn't where they had been before. In fact, there was no evidence as to where the black suit had gone at all, no reading whatsoever. "What the" Dearka uttered, "Where did that black guy just go?!" Dearka wasn't dumb enough to know that an enemy that you didn't know where they were was dangerous. "Uh oh, um, guys we got a problem…"

Athrun was being kept rather busy with fighting the Strike and though he was holding his own, it was taking a lot to do that. It was the one enemy mobile suit that Athrun didn't know the pilot for, Tyler hadn't mentioned who it was and he felt that his friend had done so for a reason. Whoever the pilot was, they had skill, and Athrun was left to wonder if they had been taught by someone. However, with Dearka speaking up, it distracted him a little, "What is it Dearka, we are all busy with our parts of the plan." The effort in Athrun's voice was audible as he fought the Strike. Unbeknownst to him, Lacus was using the lessons that Sakura had given her to push Athrun back.

Dearka gulped hard before answering as he knew what he would say wouldn't go over well at all. "Well, that black suit," he began, "It's gone, vanished, haven't a clue where it is anymore," Dearka hesitated, "Sorry for losing sight of it."

Athrun realizing the implication of this change knew that Nicol was the likely target that Tyler would be aiming for. Tyler's goal was to defend the legged ship, and the Blitz was going for it directly, so it was the highest priority target. So Athrun shouted over the com-channel a warning to their comrade, "Nicol, watch your back! The other black suit just vanished and is probably coming your way!"

Nicol heard the warning that Athrun gave and he took it seriously as he knew Athrun wasn't joking. Nicol was nervous, the data there was on the twin of the Blitz was worryingly slim, and what there was had scared Nicol honestly. Still, that didn't stop him from closing the distance between him and the Archangel steadily.

Once Tyler had managed to get the Buster off his back and to stop bothering him, he'd changed course and got to chasing the Blitz as it went towards the Archangel. Admittedly, Tyler would say it was much easier to move around now that none could detect him and the freedom was wonderful. In front of him, Tyler caught a glimpse of his mobile suit's 'fraternal twin' before it disappeared for the second time. However, the glimpse was enough for him to be able to predict where the machine now was. It wouldn't be perfect for locating the machine, but it's close enough for Tyler to work with. The Blitz fired off some shots from its beam rifle in its shield, which the anti-beam charges were disbursing.

At the same time, those on the Archangel were trying to trace where the Blitz was, "Calculate the Blitz's position from the shot's angle," ordered Natarle. "When you have its position, link the data to the fire control station. Officer Pal, when you have the data, fire with shrapnel missiles and get the Blitz to show itself!"

"Yes ma'am," said Kuzzey and Pal. Kuzzey ran through several console commands as he narrowed down the stealth mobile suit's location, then linked it to Pal's station as ordered. "Firing anti-suit shrapnel warheads," announced Pal as he let them loose.

The missiles blasted off from the Archangel's stern missile tubes, and upon reaching their designated range, the outer shell of the missiles broke apart to reveal small, shrapnel-sized explosive-tipped darts that blasted away from the missile casing. Both Tyler and Nicol were forced to defend themselves even if in different ways. Tyler had to hit the brakes and reverse out of the shower of metal shards that the projectiles from the missiles. Since the Shadow wasn't using its phase shift, Tyler had to avoid rather than block right now as he didn't want his opponent to see him following. Seeing the shrapnel coming at him, Nicol immediately activated his phase shift armor, which required the mirage colloid to shut off. Nicol brought his shield up covering the cockpit, managing to block the shrapnel darts from putting him directly in danger. "That's right, this machine once belonged to you," muttered Nicol, as much a remark to the enemy ship as a reminder to himself, "of course you know its weaknesses."

Nicol learned his lesson, his enemies knew about the Blitz enough to counter and that could cause trouble if he wasn't careful. To be honest, Nicol had really only counted on the black machine being a real issue, that had been a mistake. With that in mind, Nicol reactivated the stealth system as the shrapnel fire died down, immediately moving to a new position to avoid further weapon-fire. Continuing his approach to the Archangel so as to get past the anti-beam particle curtain the warship had released. Nicol's eyes widened as the CIWS turrets all began firing wildly on randomized vectors, a barrage of bullets numerous enough to tear any mobile suit to pieces. Nicol reactivated the phase shift armor, his only hope to avoid being turned into Swiss cheese, and began maneuvering away somewhat.

Meanwhile, on the Archangel's bridge, there was growing panic as the Blitz got closer and closer to the Archangel. "Blitz is still approaching," exclaimed Kuzzey with tones of fear as the enemy black mobile suit weaved through the defensive fire being spat at it. The Laurasia-class was launching a long-range bombardment, and while only a few shots got close, much less hit, they were enough of a distraction for the Blitz to catch them off-guard.

For one enemy unit to get this close was very bad and Natarle knew that "What are our three mobile suits doing?! Their mission objective is to defend the ship at all costs," she demanded.

"Both the Asuka and the Strike are too busy battling the Duel and the Aegis," reported Sai. He looked over his display screen and at that moment noticed that there was a signal missing from before. The Shadow's marker was nowhere to be found, Sai hadn't seen it vanish and he doubted Tyler had been shot down. "And I've also lost the Shadow's signal."

At hearing that the Shadow wasn't showing up, the thought of it perhaps being shot down went through everyone's mind. "The Shadow couldn't have been shot down," Miriallia muttered in horror.

"No, it just vanished from sensors completely," replied Sai firmly, not willing to believe for a moment that Tyler was gone.

What was being said wasn't possible, the Archangel's mobile suits should always be visible to the ship's sensors. True, Murdoch and his mechanics had managed to confirm the Shadow had the Mirage Colloid system as the Blitz did. However, that wouldn't affect the Archangel's sensors with seeing the mobile suits, it's transmission code would make sure of that. Granted, neither the Shadow or the Asuka had been fully examined, there hadn't been the time to do that thus far. So Natarle didn't buy the Shadow wasn't detectable, and the teen was to stubborn to be beaten so easily. "But that shouldn't be possible," Natarle stated, "Even if it activates its mirage colloid, its signal should still show up to our sensors."

Inside the Blitz, Nicol smiled slightly in slight satisfaction and relief as the Blitz landed next to the Archangel's bridge tower, which put him out of reach of the ship's defenses. However, there still was a nagging worry in his mind, more so since Athrun had warned him that of the disappearance of the Blitz's twin. Its disappearance had put it back to the top of the list of the most dangerous machine on the battlefield and it had the top by a sizable amount in Nicol's view. That one mobile suit had been nigh impossible to predict in the battles it had been in previously, it was the point that Nicol had seen that the others besides Athrun had noticed. The only thing that made it somewhat worse was the pilot that flew it, which had proved to add to the unpredictability and was clearly skilled.

An opponent that's dangerous is one thing, yet when you don't know where they are or where they can strike from, that type of opponent could be and usually were lethal. From what Nicol had seen already, the machine had Mirage Colloid like the Blitz, yet had some advantages that the Blitz didn't. The unknown factors were just dangerous, but Nicol continued firing at the Archangel's bridge tower. He did keep an eye on his sensor screen hoping for there to be some kind of warning of incoming threats.

The bridge shook as the Blitz kept shooting the tower, "We can't get him with the cannons or the Igelstellungs," muttered Natarle frustratedly. She was getting irritated with how the Blitz was in a position that the Archangel could do little to nothing about it. "Where are our mobile suits?!"

"Kira, Lacus, Tye," called Miriallia desperately. "The enemy is beside the bridge! Get back here now!"

Kira glance back at the Archangel and his eyes widened as he saw that what was going on. The side monitor first zoomed in and then showed the Blitz firing on the side of the bridge tower. The black machine had managed to get to the ship while its comrades had kept them busy. "No," shouted Kira.

Lacus looked in the same direction as Kira and saw the same scene as him and it was bad. "The Archangel," she cried at the same time.

If they lost that ship, then all they'd done would've been for nothing, all on the ship would be lost including the refugees. Their enemies would be able to overwhelm them and who knew what could happen after capture. 'And Flay' thought both Kira and Lacus, thoughts straying onto the friend they'd nearly failed once before. Both tried to go back to the Archangel, but were blocked by the stolen suits, all they could do was watch as the Blitz kept shooting.

Neither Kira or Lacus was going to let those attacking them to destroy the Archangel, and that resolved solidified. Kira evaded the strike that the Duel was making and got on the right side of the machine drawing a beam saber as he went. Kira struck the torso of his opponent then followed that up with a hard kick sending the Duel flying. It took Yzak a moment to stabilize his suit from the sudden counter attack and that the winged suit had caught him off-guard irritated him. Yzak aimed his beam rifle at the winged-suit but as he began shooting, his opponent was dodging, but doing it by seemingly instinct which shouldn't be the case. Truthfully, that frustrated Yzak more, his enemy was outdoing him a ZAFT red pilot.

While Kira was showing up the Duel, the battle between the Strike and the Aegis also changed drastically. Athrun had been moving forward to attack the suit with a beam saber, but the next thing he knew the Strike vanished. Seconds later, an alarm alerted Athrun that his opponent had gotten behind him somehow. He twisted around pointing his rifle where his opponent was and fired only to find his enemy dancing out of the way with ease. Athrun glanced over at the Duel and saw the winged suit was also moving as if G-force had no effect on it anymore. In fact, Athrun had to watch as he saw the suit Kira was in dodge shots and then suddenly appear directly in front of the Duel. Athrun was forced to pay attention as the Strike vanished again and then appeared below him. He tried to pull back, but the Strike zoomed up at him cutting off his suit's legs before striking him and pushing him back.

Meanwhile, Tyler had followed the Blitz as close as he could without being discovered by his quarry. He spotted the Blitz appear next to the bridge tower and point its rifle at the bridge itself. Tyler wasn't going to allow that for long, he would complete his mission without lives being lost for it. Tyler soared forward gaining momentum and speed, aiming at the Shadow's look alike, with his shield out in front. And Tyler was starting to like the shield bashing he could do with the Shadow and the hit he got with the Blitz was satisfying. And the Blitz's tumbling away a short distance from the Archangel was no missed by the others on the battlefield.

Nicol managed to orient the Blitz back into a controlled flight and he scanned around to find what had hit him. A moment after looking around, the Blitz's twin appeared as it deactivated its Mirage Colloid. That alone seriously worried Nicol as it showed the enemy mobile suit had either a different version of the system or had improved from the original. One of the system's critical flaws the heat output from thrusters which could give away the mobile suit's position wasn't happening at all. And if the enemy machine somehow corrected the flaws of power consumption, then there was no telling how effective the application of Mirage Colloid could be. It would truly be undetectable and could strike before an opponent could have any warning of any kind which it had just done.

After appearing, the Shadow put itself between the Archangel and the Blitz. Tyler would make sure that the Archangel wouldn't fall, even if he didn't like all the officers on the ship. He switched the phase shift armor on as he faced his opponent and Tyler planned to give Nicol Amalfi the hardest fight he had ever had. With that in mind, Tyler rushed forward at the Blitz taking out the second beam saber the Shadow had in its arsenal. The second beam saber wasn't built into the shield like the other one, instead stored in a compartment that was under the beam rifle holster over the right hip joint of the mobile suit.

Nicol had enough time to see his opponent drawing a beam saber he hadn't seen before as the Shadow rushed forward. He managed to get the Blitz's shield in front and block the incoming saber but the force behind it wasn't small. The Blitz's twin had more thrusting power which Nicol hadn't been sure of in the last encounter, now he was. Nicol tried to push back and even used the Blitz's leg to shove his enemy away. However, the Shadow in response shifted to the side and pointed its shield at the Blitz's own. Nicol caught sight of the gun barrel at the end of the shield but was too late to get out of the way.

Tyler had the Shadow's railgun aimed at the Blitz's shield and began firing rounds off from it at his opponent's weapon system. At point blank range, Tyler wasn't missing and though the Blitz's shield was taking the pounding seemingly just fine. Yet, Tyler very much doubted the Blitz was taking the pounding he was giving. Tyler knew for a fact that the shields that the Alliance prototype mobile suits had didn't have phase shift, so can be affected by projectiles even when they were reinforced. After five or six shots from the railgun, the Blitz pushed the Shadow back with a kick. Nevertheless, Tyler didn't let his opponent gain much room to work with as he kept up the assault and pressure.

Within a minute, Tyler had to admit that Nicol had talent and skill as well as potential when it came to piloting a mobile suit. To be able to stand for a time against Tyler wasn't the simplest task more so when Tyler was serious. However, Nicol wasn't at the same level as Tyler was at this time nor was Tyler going all out. It was clear to Tyler that this young man had the mind of a tactician. However, on the battlefield one also needed to be able to react and adapt well when things throw off your plans a lesson that Tyler knew well. It was an area that he exceled in and very well when it comes to it and there was no real way he could deny that.

In a short period, Tyler made the Blitz fallback a distance from the Archangel even though Nicol had been doing his best to gain ground against Tyler. Nicol had to admit, the one flying the Blitz's twin was a hell of a pilot and that was no exaggeration. Nicol couldn't gain ground against this machine and it wasn't for a lack of trying. Tyler would give good marks for the effort being made by Nicol though Tyler felt there was more to the point. And by the way Tyler saw the fighting was going, he figured that their enemies wanted this skirmish to be done quickly. It took Tyler only a moment to realized what it was that they wanted to avoid was the Alliance fleet for it would come into firing range soon enough. The four don't want to have to deal with a full fleet's firepower and Tyler didn't blame them, he wouldn't want to either.

After getting some distance, Nicol aimed the Trikeros shield at his opponent and pulled the trigger for the beam rifle, but nothing happened. There then came a beeping from the main display by his knees and when Nicol looked down to see what was being said, he started to wonder if he would make it out of this battle alive. The Trikeros was not responding as it should, and Nicol saw why now from the readouts. Earlier, when his enemy had been up close, it had used its railgun which Nicol hadn't known about and shot the Trikeros with multiple rounds. Nicol had thought that it hadn't been too bad as there hadn't been visible damage, so his mobile suit shook it off. But he could see now that wasn't how things were at all and the assumption had been a mistake. The fifty-millimeter high-energy beam rifle was misfiring and the circuitry was damaged, so was unusable essentially. The Lancer Darts were now stuck or rather jammed to the point they couldn't launched. The beam saber was the only weapon system that worked at all in the Trikeros shield and Nicol couldn't tell how well it would perform.

Nicol had planned to rush forward and try using his beam saber hoping it would work right, yet then, the Buster fired off its combined rifles in their snipe configuration at the black machine. The black mobile suit had turned to face the Buster after Dearka had fired at them and Nicol would've taken the opportunity to attack but didn't. The reason Nicol didn't was he froze as he saw the rifle that his enemy had been carrying taken out and aim it at the Buster. It wasn't the obvious long-range rifle that made Nicol stop, it was the section of the mobile suit's head on the right side coming out revealing a camera that was similar to what a Reconnaissance GINN had with its sniper rifle that caused Nicol to pause. The black suit fired a beam at the Buster, thankfully Dearka moved out of the way in time, but the beam rifle the Buster had was destroyed in the process.

Nicol shook himself out of the stupor that he'd been in and sped forward igniting the Blitz's beam saber. His slash just missed as the other suit weaved out of the way, but it didn't stop there. The mobile suit spun around storing its rifle and when it faced the Blitz again, its right fist was coming at the Blitz's cockpit. Nicol's eyes widened and he braced himself for the blow coming. Nicol was thrown forward against the mobile suit controls as the impact came and it was hard! Phase Shift armor might block projectiles, but Nicol had believed that there were ways around that, and now being shown how right he was.

After a few seconds, Nicol regained control and stabilized the Blitz to find he ended out a short distance from his opponent. With only one option left for ranged attacks left, Nicol raised the Blitz's left arm, aiming the Gleipnir at the Blitz's twin. He pulled the trigger and released the rocket claw to zoom at the other mobile suit. Yet somehow, the black machine managed to evade the Gleipnir at the last second, and Nicol couldn't understand how the pilot had done it. Ice cold dread had been filled Nicol at seeing more and more that his opponent was no novice pilot and it increased quickly.

The feeling shot up when Nicol was about to recall the Gleipnir back to its mount but there came a jerk. Nicol looked up and saw his opponent got ahold of the cable that connected the Gleipnir to its mount. Nicol swallowed hard, genuinely scared to find out what would come next for his enemy had complete control of the current situation. This opponent had outdone him better than any he'd faced in his life period. Even with the one "spar" Nicol had gotten with the Black Zephyr where she'd whipped him horribly which had been the scariest fight of his life. Now, this fight trumped that previous experience by a horrible margin. Nicol for a moment believe this pilot could likely give the Zephyr a run and may even beat her if put to it! He had gone beyond being afraid of potentially dying in this battle, to being sure he was facing his last moments right now.

The Blitz was jerked and then pulled forward towards its twin, then put into a violent spin that Nicol had no control over. The Shadow used the cable of the Gleipnir to spin the Blitz around and around. The stress that was put on the cable had approached the breaking point, so much so that Nicol had to admit to himself that the Alliance had built an impressive cable for the Blitz's Gleipnir for it didn't break. Nicol tried to keep calm as possible while being pressed back into his seat by the G-force that the centripetal force from the spin his mobile suit was in. Those on the Archangel's bridge were watching open mouthed as the Shadow spun its opponent around. Granted, they had seen Tyler was skilled, but this went beyond that, he was whipping the Blitz. It was unreal to witness the idea and once again had them wondering just how good Tyler was.

While Mu and Krystal were still working on the Buster, they were trying to wrap their heads around how the hell Kira and Lacus were doing what they were. And when Krystal glanced over to the Archangel to make sure the ship was okay with Tyler fighting the Blitz, her mouth dropped open. The Shadow was whipping the Blitz around by a cable clearly showing that the Shadow had control of the fight. All the teens were owning their opponents more than they had done before today, with the exception of Tyler and he hadn't done it to the extent he was.

Tyler released the Blitz and it went flying and tumbling in a direction that Nicol couldn't determine. Nicol was definitely sweating a great deal as he worked to stabilize the Blitz from its out of control sail. His calm took a dive when the Blitz shook hard as the Shadow shot its railgun at the Blitz. That shot been aimed well enough to have the round strike the Blitz in such a way to increase its forward momentum. A second shot came a half a minute later and like the first hit the Blitz in a way to make it harder for Nicol to get the flight in his control. Minutes later, Nicol had regained control of his mobile suit's flight again after the insanity he was just in. The green-haired pilot forced himself to take a moment to both fully process what had just occurred and to regain his wits and calm down. It had been unreal what had just happened, Nicol knew that, but that didn't explain it nor help him stop shaking. Yes, Nicol was physically shaking, he brought his hands up and saw clearly that they were trembling.

He'd just been beaten so badly that it was as the old phrase goes, "placed on a silver platter" and so cleanly, that Nicol had seriously thought he would be killed! If the pilot he'd been fighting used their beam rifle instead of their railgun on the Blitz, then they wouldn't had needed the second shot and Nicol would be dead, he knew it! None of what had happened in this battle had even come into the ridiculous thoughts that had crossed Nicol's mind during the planning stage for any of the enemy suits, certainly nothing that the Blitz's odd twin had done. Although, it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to Nicol, the pilot of the black suit was the most dangerous out of the three enemy pilots and by a terrifying margin! Nicol had clearly underestimated them for he didn't doubt that his opponent could have killed him multiple time throughout their fight and could have destroyed the Buster too.

Once Nicol had gotten back his bearings, he took in what was going on around the rest of the field. He saw that the Duel had taken serious damage the Buster was having trouble only using its gun launcher against the mobile armors. Nicol flew the Blitz forward, grabbing hold of the Duel and began to drag it back to the ship, away from the winged suit. "Yzak?! Yzak are you okay in there," cried Nicol in an even voice. Yes, Nicol had said that Yzak had issues, but that didn't mean that he wanted his comrade hurt.

"It burns," Yzak exclaimed in a pained voice over the radio, "It burns, it BURNS!"

Nicol came to realize that this battle had done a full one-eighty from the outset and now he and the others were losing badly. It had occurred without any of them knowing it and much faster than any of them could've imagined possible. The Aegis was already heading back to the Gamow with both legs cut off. The Blitz had taken significant damage to its shield and Gleipnir while the Duel had taken an unknown amount of punishment, but enough to have Yzak crying in pain. The Buster was being swarmed by the two mobile armors with the gun launcher being the only weapon to fend them off. A tactical retreat was the best option and Nicol knew it, "Dearka," he called, continuing to pull back the Duel away from the battle.

The winged suit pressed forward towards the Duel and the Blitz, so Nicol grabbed the Duel's shield using it to defend them from the shots that were coming their way. "We have to retreat! Yzak has been injured and Athrun is falling back. Neither you or I have a lot of options to work with and the enemy fleet is almost here anyway. We've taken way too much damage between the four of us, it's time to cut our losses and leave!"

"Ugh, damn it," Dearka said as he realized that Nicol was right. So, shortly the Buster retreated back following the others back towards the Gamow.

On the Archangel's bridge, Murrue sighed in relief as the ZAFT forces retreated and she wasn't the only one doing so. The Strike and the Asuka came back to the ship and landed together on the upper deck above the hangar. While those two machines did so, the Shadow flew close to the Archangel appearing to look over the vessel as Tyler did so. By the sound of the heavy breathing coming from the Asuka and the Strike, both Kira and Lacus were tired from the skirmish. However, there was nothing like that coming from Tyler, but what he said himself, he was a Federation pilot, so perhaps he was somewhat used to this kind of thing.

Mu himself was reeling from what had come from the battle as it was unlike the previous ones. Each of the teens had outdone expectations of them from any on the Archangel, and due to the mock battles had set said expectations fairly high. Kira and Lacus has outdone their opponents, no other way to really say what they accomplished. Tyler, well he went farther in that than his friends had and Mu hadn't thought possible. "Wow," Mu muttered over the com-channel, "You three are unbelievable."

Kira had been trying to figure out what had happened as he couldn't explain how he had done what he did. It had been like a switch had been flipped and suddenly Kira could do things that were impossible before. The Duel hadn't been going easy on Kira, the pilot had been trying to take him down, there was no doubt about that. Yet, when the Archangel came under attack, something in Kira had snapped and everything changed. Kira couldn't explain what occurred any better than that, "What happened out there?"

Krystal was left to question if either Kira or Lacus realized what they had done moments ago. It sounded like they didn't fully recall how they had beaten their opponents which was odd. Granted, some would do things in desperation and while on adrenaline that they wouldn't fully remember, Krystal had heard of such instances. However, this was more extreme than any she had been told about before now. "You two piloted amazingly," Krystal paused for a moment before she continued, "no, it was more than that."

Tyler was listening to the conversation but had said nothing thus far. He had seen some of the things that Kira and Lacus had done. He would be the first to admit their performance was impressive, but there was more to it than that. Tyler could see the signs, what had happened to his two friends and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. It was clear that they had the Super Evolutionary Element Destined factor, or SEED factor as it was referred to as. The first time someone with SEED factor enters the SEED mode, they come into a state of enhanced awareness and peak physical ability, and when it ends, they are dead tired. It had happened to Tyler a few times, so he knew how it works to an extent. If one was unlucky enough fight someone that is in SEED mode, it tended to not end well at all. It will be like your opponent has eyes in the back of their head at the very least and their reaction time will be faster, those were the common traits. The two had shown signs of having SEED factor which Tyler knew of since he had the ability himself. In the end, Tyler sighed over the radio, "Kira, Lacus, no matter what anyone else says, you two did exactly what we launched out to do. Well done to us all."

Mu and Krystal planned to ask some questions of Tyler later about what he had done on the field. Yet, the kid had summed up the feeling all five pilots felt right at the current moment. Kira and Lacus closed their eyes to fight off the tiredness that was washing over themselves. Tyler brought the Shadow to set down in the middle of the upper deck, "The fight is over for now and we're still alive, that's what counts," Tyler remarked.

"While I can agree with what you're saying Tyler, I've never seen piloting like those two just did," Mu stated. He was still trying to wrap his head around what had occurred in the fight and wasn't able to figure out what had gone down. "And that's before saying anything about your performance Tyler."

Krystal would agree with Mu and what he was saying, but from past experience, they wouldn't get information from Tyler at the moment. The kid didn't tell about things he didn't see a reason to inform others about and his skills were a prime example. Before all that had been seen of Tyler's skills in piloting a mobile weapon or otherwise was glimpses of him using them, and right now wasn't the time to push, "At least it's over, we made it through the fight," she commented as the blue Zero slowly came alongside the Archangel. "And we finished just before the Eighth Orbital Fleet came into range."

"The Eighth Fleet is here," Kuzzey called to the bridge and over the radio drawing the eyes of all the pilots and those on board up to the massive collection of blinking lights that made up OMNI's Eighth Orbital Fleet. At long last, things were finally going well for the white warship and its crew and passengers. The sight of the vessels of the Earth Forces' Eighth Orbital Fleet glided forward a distance ahead of the Archangel waiting for the Archangel to join their ranks was a comforting one for most. The Alliance fleet was made up of fifty-one vessels, five Agamemnon-classes, twenty-five Drake-classes and twenty-one Nelson-class vessels.

Phase end

A/n

I leave off where I do for a good reason, it fits wonderful to transition into where the next starts and it leaves you to wonder. I know this chapter is long but some end out that way. As Always, please some of you take the time, write a review and tell me what you thought, good or bad. Thank you for reading and peace out until next time!