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

67. Phase 67: Out of the Frying Pan

A/n

Here is the last part of the battle scene. It is a tad longer than the others, but it will be worth it I assure you. I hope you enjoy the Phase.

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Phase 67: Out of the Frying Pan

October 2nd, 73 C.E.

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Outside Armory One, Lagrange 4

After launching out with the Aurora, Tyler had been closing the distance between the Normandy and the colony. He was aiming for the mobile armor for a couple of reasons. The first reason was the pilot was likely the leader of the Phantom Pain group causing the trouble in the area. The second reason was distracting said pilot could and likely would cause chaos among the enemy force, thereby decreasing effectiveness. If the troublemakers outside could be thrown into chaos, Tyler felt things inside might improve. He may not know what was going on with the colony's interior, but Tyler doubted it was good for the colony's inhabitants. But mostly, Tyler wanted to mess with the pilot and make them squirm if not more than that for what they had done at Milos. Thus, Tyler sailed to be above the armor, which was heading for the colony so he could begin his "plan."

Meanwhile, Neo was approaching the colony in his mobile armor. He was dodging the ZAFT mobile suits along the way, shooting at some of them as he went. His goal was to see if he could find out if the teen trio had found a way out. Neo had left dealing with expected ZAFT to the others in the mobile suits. The task should be well within their capabilities by this point with the practice OMNI pilots had gotten since the war's end. The operation was going according to the tactical plan set out well enough so far. There had been minimal complication that had arisen from ZAFT that had been noticed. Neo knew things could be going much worse than they were currently with the attack and the theft. ZAFT had been taken by surprise as hoped and was now in a state of near chaos from the start. The Girty Lue was keeping hidden as it attacked ZAFT's patrol vessels, giving it the advantage. The known factors which had been planned for had unfolded as predicted and countered appropriately.

Among the unpredictable factors, the Federation Military hadn't caught up to them yet after the work on their station. Their response time was normally prompt and so could've caught up with the Girty Lue. However, luck seemed to be with the Girty Lue so far which gave the operation a chance of success. Yet, Neo knew it wasn't if the Federation would catch up to them, but when they did, it was only a matter of time. Things would be bad should the Girty Lue still be around ZAFT's Armory One when the Federation reached them. Neo didn't kid himself with the odds of the Girty Lue escaping a Federation force hunting them. The chances of escaping them were slim at best and that would be with a serious price paid in exchange. Federation closely pursuing them would make getting to the moon and Alliance Lunar HQ was even less a possibility. It was a point that Neo had taken into account with his plans on the operation the Alliance had given him and the Girty Lue. Ideally, it was best if the Girty Lue finished up here as quickly as they could. They would need to collect the stolen Gundams from the colony for that. The moment the Gundams got to the Girty Lue, the ship would slip away from the colony area. Neo would order that if need be to get the point across. If they could avoid encountering the Federation before reaching the Moon, Neo would be more confident that the mission could succeed. Luck may be with them for the moment, but that could change in seconds.

To this point, there had been no sign or message from the trio which had infiltrated the colony yet. That point worried Neo since they were either starting to be or were close to being on borrowed time. Every moment they wasted gave the Federation more time to catch up to them and ruin everything. So, Neo had sent Sting a message saying they needed to hurry things up shortly after launching from the Girty Lue. There was a growing risk the longer the trio stayed inside the colony which Neo had told them about. ZAFT could and would work on wearing the trio down and recapture the Gundams soon after the attack started. The soldiers that had gone with the trio were supposed to have helped hamper ZAFT's response. However, that had been questionable if they could do much to delay ZAFT working against them inside the colony. Should the worst-case scenario occur and the three be captured, ZAFT could discover things the Alliance didn't want them to know. The project they were a part of had been a guarded secret of the Alliance for years now. There were rumors that the Federation could've potentially discovered the project's existence, but no proof of the point. In the teens' case, they would die shorty after potential capture. It wouldn't be ZAFT's doing as they would want them alive for information extraction. However, since they would be without their "needed" maintenance, that became fatal if it went on long enough.

The kids had made it clear they wanted to prove they could do what was expected of them. Neo couldn't say if that desire was engrained by the project they were a part of, or if it was something they wanted to do themselves. The notes he'd gotten from those who were involved with the project said the "candidates" would prove useful. The only other thing he'd noted was the stated need for maintenance for the teens. The consequences hadn't been stated, but the implications Neo had taken away had been nasty. Neo was all for giving them a chance to show they could do a task assigned to them. The performance notes said they were proficient in combat against Coordinators which Neo wanted to see. If they could bring the Gundams back, he would say the teens and others like them should be allowed to fight in the coming conflict. The first generation hadn't been bad from what Neo had been told, just not the most "stable" to work with. So this group was supposed to be an improvement from that first generation, though Neo would hold his judgement until the end of this operation.

Nevertheless, shortly after he was out on the field, Neo had begun to notice some "odd" things popping up. He'd not noticed the subtle signs he was now when he was on the Girty Lue. There were those fighting against ZAFT mobile suits from the patrols and those were being mopped up currently. However, while the Alliance pilots had been doing great against ZAFT at the start, that had changed. From what Neo was seeing, ZAFT pilots appeared to have improve suddenly with their accuracy, which had become uncanny. It caught his attention in the form of instances he'd glimpsed where ZAFT fired at a Dagger, and Neo swore they'd missed, but the Dagger still took damage. It didn't make logical sense for a beam or projectiles to fly pass the target and yet still do harm. Neo observed this phenomenon a few more times and found it was no fluke as he'd kind of hoped it would be. The oddity pushed Neo to be on edge and suspicious something was going on that wasn't being seen.

He quickly got the nagging feeling things may seem to be going the way of him and his group, but in reality they weren't. The feeling kept growing the longer Neo was out in his armor, and it sounded more plausible every second. The best explanation Neo could come up with for the oddities was "someone" else was working on the field. That none were seen suggested either Neo was being paranoid or someone was working unseen. Neo didn't think he was paranoid more than he was most of the time, which was calm compared to some Neo had met. So, that left the second explanation of there being others unseen working on the battlefield. Working unseen was the classic MO of none other than the Federation's military. Historically, past encounters had made it clear the Federation's use of stealth gave them an unfair advantage which they used effectively. The other side to that which had Neo more concerned currently, was it also meant a Federation force had caught up sooner than he'd figured they would after the attack on their outpost.

Should it be true that the Federation had reached the area of ZAFT's Armory One, that was a really bad sign for the Girty Lue. That implied the Federation had already sent some to their research outpost and seen what had been done. That alone presented two "valid" reasons for the Federation to be motivated to hunt them down. The first was all the people at the station dead from the boarding team cleaning up. The Federation didn't take kindly nor wave off their citizens being killed by some from the other factions. The Alliance-PLANT War had proven the Federation would pursue those that hurt their citizen or kill them. And the consequences that came from the Federation were close to inescapable as far as Neo knew. At least, Neo hadn't found anyone that the Federation had punished for something and talked to them, they normally just disappeared. The second point which caused issue was the explosives rigged to go off to kill those investigating the incident. Neo hadn't had high hopes such would stop the Federation from pursuing the Girty Lue. The Federation was far too stubborn to let an attempt to kill soldiers go without a response. However, he'd been hopeful the explosives would slow the Federation group down somewhat in relation to the pursuit of the Girty Lue. But with evidence pointing to them being here, the Girty Lue and its crew were out of time and needed to leave quickly if they wanted to escape capture by the Federation.

Neo sent a second message to Sting saying the trio needed to leave the colony now. Things were heading downhill and it would only get worse the longer it went on. If they heeded that message, the stolen Gundams could be collected, and the Girty Lue might escape before being caught by Federation forces. Neo expected the Federation would disable the Girty Lue should they get one of their ships in range. If they got onto the Girty Lue, they would undoubtedly go for the stolen data and make it unusable for anyone else. OMNI wouldn't be pleased if the data was corrupted beyond usable condition. The mission had been stated as a priority and worth "dying for" if necessary. Thus, losing the data would make the trip to the research outpost all for nothing and a failure. However, Neo would rather have a failure on his record being alive afterward and free than be captured by the Federation and deal with them. The Federation would probably judge them and then sentence them for life for what they'd done. So, Neo also contacted Ian to tell him to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Yet, when Neo got static from the Girty Lue, he started worrying the Federation had gotten farther than he feared.

Then, Neo's attention was shifted when a single signal flare came from the Girty Lue's direction. Neo swung his armor around and found the Girty Lue becoming visible to those around the colony. They should be using their mirage colloid to remain invisible from ZAFT, not dropping it. The flare said something was going wrong to Neo, and he was convinced the Federation had something to do with it. Should the Girty Lue have been reached by a Federation vessel, it was just as likely it had sent out mobile suits. Federation mobile suits being around would explain the uncanny improvement ZAFT appeared to get. Federation machines were doing the work and making it look like ZAFT was just getting lucky. The pieces of a puzzle were fitting together in Neo's mind and he wasn't liking the picture coming from it.

At the same time, Tyler noted the armor had turned away from the colony as he'd been closing in on it. The single flare from the enemy ship was enough for the Alliance group to know something was up. If the group leader were as smart as Tyler suspected they were, they would put two and two together, figuring out that the Normandy had caught up with them. The battle had become more time-sensitive with the Alliance becoming aware they weren't the only ones attacking another. It told Tyler it was time to get to work and grab the attention of the armor pilot while there was the opportunity. So, he got his 90mm Vulcans ready before he dove down at the armor. As Tyler was diving, he disengaged the Aurora's stealth system so he could further catch and keep the enemy's full attention.

Neo had been glancing back at the colony, wondering what was taking the trio so long to get outside. With the Federation having caught up with them, the Girty Lue and those with it needed to make themselves scarce. However, Neo's attention was forcefully shifted when weapon-fire came from above, which he had to evade. A moment after dodging, Neo saw something red in his peripheral vision passing by his armor. When he turned, Neo spotted a red fighter-like craft pulling out of a dive which had gone right past him. From what he saw, it was more like one of the Federation's space fighters than something ZAFT would come up with. And as the Alliance-PLANT War had proven, the Federation's space fighters were really mobile suits, Neo would assume this machine was one too. Federation mobile suits were also superior to ZAFT's and the Alliance's both in performance and technological standing. The Alliance had been forced to learn that lesson since the war had come to an end. Neo was no fool, so he wouldn't, as the old phrase went, "rush in where angels fear to tread."

Tyler came up to face the mobile armor, which appeared to be waiting for him to make the first move against it. He would applaud the pilot for being cautious, especially with all that was happening around them. From his experience, Tyler expected a good majority in OMNI not to be cautious as the one in front of him was. Most would charge in with guns blazing at their opponent and end out paying for it. That suggested to Tyler his opponent would be different from his first impressions he had of OMNI personnel. It also meant Tyler would have to "test the waters" and see what his opponent would do in response. Tyler hadn't an issue with such things, but it didn't happen all that often anymore. Thus, Tyler decided to start simply and work his way up from there to see the pilot's reactions and gage them.

The Aurora tilted right and fired its Vulcans at the mobile armor. Neo barrel-rolled out of the projectiles' path and used his twin linear guns to return fire. Tyler had to pull hard to the left to avoid the shots sent at him. The new mobile armor certainly had a more updated arsenal than the zero armors did. Not so say the linear guns were anything to scoff at. They packed as much of a punch if not slightly more than what the Zero's gun had delivered. The pilot certainly wasn't wasting time on reckless attacks or attempts against Tyler. It was clear to Tyler and his opponent tactics would be key in this fight. Although in a straight face-off, the Aurora would have the advantage as a Gundam, it would take longer as the armor pilot wasn't facing off that way. The fight would be more interesting than Tyler had figured it would be before getting into it. Yet, as along Tyler could keep the majority of the pilot's attention, he would chalk that up as a win for the time being.

Neo quickly found his opponent who had appeared out of nowhere was both classic Federation yet, also different than any he'd gone against before. They were classic Federation as they weren't straight forward and blunt like ZAFT tended to be. The space fighter was not staying still and seemed to be able to somewhat predict his attacks. The enemy pilot was not classic Federation as they were more unpredictable than Neo had come against before. As the dogfight began, Neo deployed his side gunbarrels, keeping the other two for thrusting power to have something to match this Federation pilot. Using the deployed gunbarrels' beam guns against the space fighter, the response was for the space fighter to evade his attacks. It wasn't the evasion itself that shocked Neo, for it was often expected with the Federation. It was the implied ease which the evasion was done by the Federation pilot which caught Neo's attention. It produced a nagging feeling, which he couldn't dismiss. That feeling was his opponent seemingly toying with him to some extent. To be toyed with irritated Neo as it heavily implied he was inferior to whoever he was facing.

As Tyler was dodging, it became apparent to him that the armor pilot wasn't an average top gun Alliance flyboy as he had expected. His opponent was definitely a "top gun" which was notable by itself, but that wasn't the only thing about this pilot which stood out. They were experienced with combat and with mobile armors which possessed gunbarrels. As far as Tyler knew, OMNI didn't have all that many pilots that could use gunbarrels to the competency Tyler was seeing. Those on record and even those that Tyler knew of which weren't on OMNI's records had left OMNI or were dead from the war. Thus, facing a top gun gunbarrel-trained pilot was more than odd for Tyler. It made him wonder who he was fighting and where they had been hiding. OMNI had either kept their existence a secret or had found them recently and had put them in combat. Much as Mu had said once that Tyler had heard, it took great spacial awareness to work with gunbarrels. Tyler's opponent's use of the gunbarrels had him drawing on skills not to be hit or have to switch the Aurora over to its suit mode.

It was as he was evading, Tyler had an idea to get things moving along and get to the prodding he wanted to get to. With PLANT-type colonies, the devices used to give the colony interior "Earth" gravity did a good job but did have another "unforeseen" effect. It caused a heavy gravimetric field around the colony with the exception of the control sector and harbor. And so, if a craft or mobile suit were around fifty meters or less from the colony's outer walls, the craft would experience heavier than Earth gravity due to the field. It would put any fighting in that field in a heavy-G environment where Tyler knew how to work in better than others. Thus, he was slowly pulling the armor along, closer and closer to the colony to get into that environment. It was also a test to how much Tyler could string this pilot along and get the range of desired responses from them. The idea created the risk of putting a hole in the colony, which came with its own problems to deal with. However, Tyler figured with Phantom Pain here, those inside the colony were already in danger from whatever they were doing. If they were here to steal Gundams, as was now suspected, the colony interior was likely a chaotic mess. So there was little more that could add to such things, though Tyler would do his best to prevent more damage to the colony. Yet, distracting the armor pilot was the point for Tyler as it prevented them from countering what was being done. Thus, the colony was getting closer slowly but surely as Tyler was returning fire and dodging. And his opponent seemed none the wiser to Tyler stringing them along into a harder situation.

Tyler still wanted to see what kind of reaction he could get from the armor pilot. It may be seen as a bit of a flaw Tyler had in his character, but he didn't let it be held against him. For one reason or another, Tyler got a kick out of those he got "good" reactions from with what he did. A prime example of the point was Natarle Badgiruel and how she'd reacted to Tyler's behavior. Tyler couldn't say why, but people like her who gave such amusing reactions to his behavior and action were fun to prod. He knew it was wrong to enjoy the prodding he did with some. Tyler had been told multiple times about the wrongness of the activity. And if the activity didn't give the kick and make Tyler smile as it did, he would drop the habit. However, that type of thing hadn't happened so far, and Tyler very much doubted it would change in the near future. Tyler admitted he was human and so imperfect and flawed in some ways. It was his justification not to have all the blame for what came about because of his action pinned on him.

So, once Tyler had the armor following him toward the colony, he typed up a message and sent it to the armor. The message was the first test of the armor pilot's temperament with their reaction. The message went something like, "Catch me and shoot me if you can, stupid idiot." It wasn't the normal gauge that Tyler would resort to with those he wanted to prod. Tyler normally would ignore or retort against someone who would react to his behavior, but he wanted a notable response. And if the message wasn't enough, the waving of the Aurora's rear end in a taunting manner should tick off those without decent emotional control.

Neo had been pursuing the red spacecraft as it had been moving more toward the colony. He couldn't say why his opponent was doing that, for it shouldn't make a difference in the fight. His opponent was doing better than he had assumed they would, and Neo had assumed the Federation pilot would be good. He was still being cautious with this Federation machine, for they hadn't done anything expected of them that Neo had seen yet. However, a beeping drew his attention to his forward display to see what it was alerting him about. What flashed on the screen made Neo pause, as it was a message he hadn't expected. The contents of it were as follows:

"Hey, tin can pilot, let's see your driving style be applied to catching yours truly. I'm so sure that you couldn't even nick my machine with a single thing in your pathetically rinky dinky arsenal that I'm willing to give you the chance. Your chances are as bad as your poor excuse for something that dunces call a mobile armor. You lot from Phantom Pain are such scum that the Alliance has to dig for it that it would be a sheer embarrassment for them if they could feel such for something stupid they do. So, if you have the balls males are supposed to be born with, I double dog dare you to catch me, ya under-barrel scum! And should you need any motivation, then look up punk and I give you more."

Neo read it twice to make sure he saw it correctly, for the message was unlike anything he'd seen before. After reading the message a second time, Neo became ticked at the blunt insult sent to him and Phantom Pain. And reading the last line, he did glance up and saw his opponent's space fighter was "waving" its back end in a clear imitation of waving one's rear end at another. This pilot was taunting him as much as the message had been. He, a captain within those handpicked for Phantom Pain who were doing the best with OMNI black opts, was being taunted. Neo wouldn't let that slide, even with a Federation pilot doing the said taunting. He would catch the fool and teach them the mistake of making an idiot of him and thinking they could get away with it.

The second Tyler saw the armor's thrusters light up, he knew his message and behavior had gotten the desired reaction and "hit pay dirt." He pushed the Aurora's throttle forward and surged ahead to lead the armor pilot on. His sensors assured him that the tin can pilot was following him as he drew closer to the colony. Tyler giggled at his success as he brought the Aurora to be within forty-five meters of the colony's outer walls. He felt the increase of gravity and knew he would have fun with this armor pilot before this fight was done. The armor was close behind the Aurora with its pilot focused on Tyler, which he wanted right now. The more distracted Phantom Pain forces were, the less chaos they could cause for the colony and ZAFT. ZAFT was already doing poorly with the surprise attack on them, many were likely dead already. Tyler didn't want to see those numbers climb higher if they didn't have to.

Neo was chasing the space fighter as it had closed the distance and came to fly close to the colony's outer wall. As he came to be around the same distance away, he quickly felt the effects of the colony's gravitation field. The gravitation force had Neo gripping his flight controls harder to keep his armor on the directed path. He realized that his opponent had led him into an environment where gravity would be a factor to take into account. Neo had to give them credit for leading him into this without him suspecting it. Neo tended to be cautious with Federation forces, but the taunting had thrown him off enough to ignore caution. But since he had come this far, Neo didn't intend to let this Federation pilot get away without making them work hard for it.

Tyler kept within the colony's gravitational field while zooming around the outer structure with his opponent behind him. They circled around the colony's upper portion over and over. Tyler was evading the weapon fire from the armor as it tried to hit him. The projectiles were being effected by gravity having their firing paths vary slightly. He made sure to do his best to keep far enough from the colony's outer wall so the armor's weapon didn't strike it. Tyler dealt with the increased G-force but did fine in high-G environments. And he was betting the armor pilot wouldn't do as well as him in the gravity-heavy area. Tyler kept ahead of his opponent as they circled around the colony.

Neo pursued the Federation machine as it clung close to the colony. He kept attention to the distance from the colony's outer wall and the effects of gravity he was under. Neo did take shots at the enemy space fighter when he could line them up effectively, but gravity was making that difficult. His opponent wasn't making any attacks nor making it an easy thing to line up. They seemed to be drawing attention to them and not putting the colony in direct danger for damage. And yet, the evasion the red spacecraft was doing appeared to be done easily enough that it was almost like an insult. It was scratching a nerve in Neo that he had difficulty ignoring. He had the urge welling up in him not to let this Federation pilot get the better of him and show him up, nor have the last word or laugh at his expense. That was the motivation that Neo pursued the Federation machine even when, in the back of his mind, a voice was saying he shouldn't.

Tyler was on his fourth lap around the upper part of the PLANT-type colony, keeping ahead of the mobile armor. His opponent had shot at him off and on, none of the projectiles or beams finding their mark with him. The pace at which they were doing the laps around the colony had picked up slightly with each lap. Tyler was now at a half-normal throttle with the Aurora and flying at an above-decent pace. The Alliance mobile armor was keeping up with the Aurora's pace, which had Tyler smiling a bit. It showed his opponent had reacted in the way he'd hoped and aimed for with his behavior. The armor pilot was focused on him, and their view narrowed to be obvious enough of all else that they were well-distracted from what was going on around them. The smirk that came to Tyler's face at the thought was smug, as he knew he still had the knack of putting another off when he tried to. Let others say his behavior got him into trouble and served little purpose when he "acted out." Tyler would show the armor pilot as an example of how his behavior could do when he put forth the effort.

Nevertheless, things suddenly changed as Tyler saw the colony's control sector coming closer to him as he lapped the colony structure. There was an explosion a distance below where Tyler and the mobile armor were circling. The smoke from the explosion disbursed with air pouring out of the hole the "explosion" had created. Out of the hole, Tyler observed three Gundams exiting the colony's interior. A green Gundam was in the trio's lead, with a black one slightly behind on the right and a blue one on the left. Tyler assumed the three were the stolen "ZAFT" Gundams Phantom Pain had come to Lagrange 4 to get. It was reminiscent of ZAFT taking the Alliance's prototypes that created the Gundam classification. However, the difference that Tyler would guess in this was the three stolen machines weren't doing well with power. ZAFT would've done everything they could to stop them or at least slow them down before they escaped. Thus, Tyler couldn't see the three Gundams being ready for a long, drawn-out fight with another. Plus, he had his nuclear reactor where they would be on batteries, and in that match-up, nuclear tended to win more often. Tyler wouldn't forget about the tin can pilot following him, but he felt ignoring the Gundams wouldn't end well. So, Tyler adjusted his course to have the Aurora crossing the three stolen Gundams' path.

Neo felt slight relief at seeing the three ZAFT Gundams the teen trio had been sent to retrieve coming out of the colony. It meant the three were alive and had succeeded enough the mission wasn't a failure by this point. However, his relief lessened when two more mobile suits came out of the same hole a moment after the trio had exited. One of the two was a Gundam-Type, and the other was a white ZAKU Phantom. That the trio had been followed said ZAFT was still trying to hamper the theft and stop them if they could. Such was another set of problems that Neo and the rest would have to deal with on top of the Federation dilemma holding their attention. After seeing them come out and being followed by two machines, it was clear to Neo that unexpected factors had come up during the theft. A margin was planned for that, mostly for the Federation's response since they were more unpredictable than ZAFT was. As Neo shifted his attention back to the red space fighter was heading for the trio. Neo shoved his throttles forward to catch up with the Federation fighter so he could stop it from attacking the teens.

The trio of Gundams came into the sites of the Aurora, and Tyler had his plasma cannons charged. Phantom Pain was clearly interested in the ZAFT machines, likely stolen by their agents. And as Tyler had learned, if you wanted your opponent's attention, you targeted something they either wouldn't or couldn't afford to ignore. The longer Tyler could distract the enemy leader, the harder it would be for them to organize their responses effectively. While the Normandy's boarding team had taken care of the stolen data, Tyler wasn't keen on letting Phantom Pain get away so easily. At least Tyler didn't want them to escape without paying the price for what they had done. Tyler opened a channel to Luke's Excel, "Luke, we're done being nice and making ZAFT look good. No more hiding, it's time to get down to business and start nailing these punks."

Luke had been behind a ZAFT GuAIZ R, making his attacks against the Alliance units seem they were coming from ZAFT rather than him. That had been the style Tyler had asked the Normandy's pilots to use for the time being. It was to hide the fact Federation forces were around, which would spook the Alliance group into doing something dumber than they already had. Tyler changing the fighting style meant things had shifted, and now the goal was delaying and stopping the Normandy's quarry. "Got it, mate," Luke acknowledged, "work with the more direct approach, and don't let them off easy."

Neo had zoomed at the Federation machine, aiming his twin linear guns. He also had his quadruple missile launcher pop up behind his cockpit for use. However, by the time his cross-hairs on his opponent, they had fired high-energy beams or plasma cannons at the trio. The beams from the enemy machine forced them to break apart to evade the attack. Neo shot off his linear guns at the Federation craft and fired two missiles at the red machine. Tyler saw the missiles and linear guns shooting at him. As he was around the control sector of the colony, Tyler could use that structure to avoid the shots. The colony was already in bad straits, likely worse than that from what Phantom Pain had been doing. So, Tyler swung the Aurora into the infrastructure of the control sector.

Neo adjusted his courses to follow the red machine, but didn't enter the colony structure as his opponent had. He wasn't so nuts to follow his opponent so blindly to go into an environment his armor would have issues in. That didn't stop Neo from turning his armor's thrusters to have him drifting almost sideways. He used his linear guns and beam guns to attack the red machine. However, the colony structure was blocking most of the shots Neo sent. The Federation pilot somehow evaded the rest even within the tight space they were in.

At the same time, the Osiris and the three with it came into the Minerva's hangar. Aila was glad the Minerva was still in its dock and hadn't left the colony interior yet for what was going on outside. She had worried Captain Gladys would have the Minerva depart to help the patrols fighting outside the colony. The Minerva would be able to help the Impulse and the ZAKU Phantom after leaving the colony interior. Aila wasn't in the condition to be able to help much on the battlefield, and she knew it. The Osiris wasn't any better off than her, so even if Matt were up to go out and fight, it wouldn't be ready for that. But Matt was injured like she was, so he couldn't help any more than she could at the moment.

Nevertheless, should the Minerva and her crew protect the Federation's representative, that could offer an option ZAFT normally didn't have. The Federation could help ZAFT in this and deal with the Alliance group who had attacked the colony. It wasn't an option that Aila wanted to resort to as it felt like using the Federation to fight battles ZAFT should be doing themselves. But with how ZAFT had been caught off guard, they needed any help they could get to turn things around. For all she knew, the Federation could already be around Armory One and were taking on the Alliance group. Getting to the Minerva had been difficult enough for her, so she would stand by that as long as she had been.

Those in the hangar were gazing at the four mobile suits which had come onto the ship. Nothing had been said about mobile suits coming onto the Minerva. The second-generation Gundams, two ZAKUs, and some GuAIZs were all that were supposed to be loaded onto the ship. Lunamaria's red ZAKU had made it back to the ship recently. Luna had said she had been helping with the evacuations along her way back. None of the other pilots assigned to the Minerva had shown up besides Lunamaria. Her machine would need some work before being sent out again for combat. There was damage to her suit likely from debris damage with all that was going on.

Rumors were flying around, ranging from believable to outright ridiculous about what was going on. Chief Aves had his mechanics keeping busy, so they didn't add to the rumors going around. He didn't want those under him wasting too much free time with rumors and gossip with what was going on. But then the four mobile suits had come into the hangar and that changed things. The two ZAKUs were welcome as the Minerva was lacking usable machines. They would need repair before deployment, but the spare parts on the ship could solve that. The GuAIZ R was nice as it was a step up from the regular GuAIZ model, which had been on the itinerary. Yet, seeing the Osiris had given Aves some hope as before it had come into the hangar, the Impulse was the only Gundam the ship had to work with. The Osiris arriving, even if damaged was still another Gundam that could be sent to the battlefield. Aves couldn't stop but comment on at least one of the Gundams making it to the Minerva. It would need repair before getting a pilot and going out to fight, but it was better than it being an enemy.

All in the hangar watched as the Osiris and the ZAKU Blaze were guided to docks while the other two just found space in the hangar. Most were further baffled when the ZAKU's and GuAIZ's cockpits opened, and people came out. The sight of Athrun descending the ZAKU's zip-line with Cagalli holding onto him was odd to the ZAFT personnel. Added to that, Quatre was lowering to the deck from the GuAIZ, which didn't make sense either. There were mutterings from some of the mechanics and soldiers there about the unknown people. Most of the muttering was questions about what was going on.

Aila was coming down the zip-line from the Osiris. She was doing her utmost to stay awake and focused. However, the world was going in and out, swimming out of focus as she tried not to faint. Aila knew she was beyond lightheaded due to blood loss from the bullet wound in her left shoulder. Her next stop would be the Minerva's infirmary, but she needed to tell Aves and others about those with her first. They weren't ZAFT personnel but needed to be seen as important guests. Being from the Federation, their treatment could reflect badly on ZAFT, which was the last thing they needed. Yet, with how the world was swimming before her vision, Aila knew she may not get that chance. It might fall to Matt to inform the crew about their guests since she may be unable to.

Quatre had scanned the hangar and found the woman that had come out of the gold Gundam. She was the one who could vouch for them with the rest of the ship. He and Athrun needed their cooperation to help Representative Athha. And by what he was seeing, the woman was doing poorly, needing a medical professional to assist her. At least, the wobbly legs and the cloth wrapped around her shoulder said things weren't good for her. Quatre had to squint to see the crimson blood stain on her uniform. Were he to guess, she had likely been shot by a handgun by the size of the stain. While Quatre was no certified field medic, he had picked up some know-how from some by observing them during missions. Quatre knew gunshot wounds weren't something one left untreated for long if one hoped to live through them. Should the woman die, Quatre feared Athrun, and he would be prime suspects of injuring her with the current atmosphere. The other pilot who had been with them could vouch for them should Miss Lakeen be unable. But Quatre didn't want suspicion to fall on him and Athrun with circumstances as they were. They already had enough problems to deal with without adding more to the list. Thus, Quatre moved forward and closed the distance between him and Aila. He got to her just in time to catch her and keep her from falling to the deck.

Matt had reached the hangar deck from the zip-line the ZAKU Blaze had. His side still burned from the shrapnel buried in it. The gashes on his head would also need attention before he got back to work. However, Matt wanted to check on Aila and make sure she was on her way to the infirmary. He would ensure things went okay with those who had helped them, with them being strangers on the Minerva. Aila had said she had been shot while trying to stop the theft, she would need medical assistance for that. He waved off offers for help and made his way toward where the Osiris had docked. Matt spotted Aila being held up by another he didn't recognize but assumed it was one of the two who had helped them. He quickly closed the distance and began checking Aila over. "How bad is she," Matt asked.

Quatre glanced at the man who had spoken and recognized the voice as the one from the ZAKU Blaze. The man was slightly taller than Quatre and had short brown hair and eyes. His face was rough, but with the gashes on the left side, Quatre couldn't say if that was normal. "She will need her shoulder looked at and patched," Quatre returned. "May even need a blood transfusion with how long she was out there fighting." Matt wouldn't let Aila die if there was anything he could do to prevent it. So, Matt grabbed the nearest person to him and jerked them to be eye to eye with him. "Go find or make a stretcher pronto," he ordered firmly. "I don't care how you do it. If the Chief has an issue with the point, direct him to me, and I'll explain it to him personally." The mechanic didn't argue with Matt and did what they had been told.

Aves had been handing out orders to his mechanics but caught sight of someone grabbing one of them and saying something. Whatever had been said had gotten the mechanic to go off to the supplies area. Aves didn't appreciate another ordering those under him around and potentially stepping around him. He approached the two to find out why one of his mechanics had been pulled aside. Aves didn't recognize either man at a glance and would have an answer for what another believed they could order around his mechanics. "What is going on here," Aves demanded. "I will not have another ordering around my mechanics." Matt turned to face Aves, "Now isn't the time to argue about territory," he replied. "I sent them to get a stretcher." Matt pointed at Aila, who Quatre still held, "Aila needs to be taken to the infirmary." Aves looked at the man pointing and was horrified to see Aila breathing shallowly and looking injured. She had cloth wrapped around her left shoulder, which was soaked crimson from what Aves could see. Aves grabbed another of his mechanics and had them go after the first to fetch a stretcher for Aila.

While that was going on, Lunamaria was wondering what the hell was going on. She had headed back to the Minerva with her ZAKU after helping the evacuations of the non-combatants along the way. Rey had gone to help Shinn and Aila by the orders of the Peters guy that had popped up at the hangar. She had wanted to follow Rey, but Peters had said for her to "assist" with the evacuations instead. In hindsight, it was the right thing as her suit's thruster had been damaged and could've failed while in the air. There were rumors that the stolen Gundams had run away, and some had taken up the pursuit. If that was true, Luna wished she could be with whoever was chasing the thieves. The thieves that stole the Gundams had caused chaos and serious death, and that angered Lunamaria. But she was stuck on the Minerva right now with her ZAKU unable to use its thruster properly.

Nevertheless, now the non-stolen Gundam had come onto the ship, accompanied by three other suits. Two were ZAKUs, and the other was a GuAIZ R, none of which were assigned to the Minerva. And it wasn't the suits that Luna wanted to know about since it wasn't the point of what was happening. Two of the people that came out of them had her scratching her head. The one that came from the ZAKU Blaze was in a ZAFT red uniform, so there's not much to wonder about with that one. But the other two machines had three strangers in civilian clothing exit them, one from the GuAIZ and two from the ZAKU. The three were two guys and a woman who looked only a year or two older than Lunamaria herself. The guys appeared also to be older but by a slightly bigger margin that the woman. The three shouldn't be on the ship, so they were to be seen as stowaways or intruders. "Who the hell are they," Luna muttered. She grabbed a gun from the nearest soldier and stalked toward the three strangers. She approached the young man and woman as they were the closest to her, "Hold it, you two, don't move," Lunamaria ordered, pointing the gun she had at them.

Quatre was glad to see a makeshift stretcher being brought over to where Miss Lakeen was waiting. She really did need medical attention to help her recover from her problematic condition with the amount of blood she had been losing. The man who had been with them also showed signs of injury, but from what Quatre saw, they wouldn't leave until they saw Miss Lakeen heading for the ship's infirmary. However, the two were the only ones who could vouch for Athrun, Representative Athha, and himself with this ship's crew. Having at least one of them would be best to help with any misunderstandings. And Quatre feared there would be some misunderstandings with them coming onto a ZAFT ship and clearly not being ZAFT personnel. With Miss Lakeen being carried off on the stretcher to the ship's infirmary, that just left Mr. Dems if Quatre remembered his name right.

Quatre glanced over to where Athrun and Representative Athha were, and he was concerned that one of those in the hangar was pointing a gun at them. It was likely the misunderstanding Quatre feared would occur to them. Miss Lakeen's intentions were appreciated, but without them being delivered to those on the ship, they weren't shared. So, Quatre hoped Mr. Dems could help his group out of the precarious situation they now found themselves in. If he couldn't, then things would be more difficult. The only other option that Quatre could think of was to call on Chairman Durandal for help. The man should be able to help explain how things had ended up as they had for their group to end out on the Minerva. After all, he had suggested they head to the Minerva when fighting had broken out.

The one pointing the gun as his colleague and Representative Athha appeared to be a young woman a few years younger than Quatre. She had shortish red-violet hair and was wearing a ZAFT red uniform. The uniform suggested she was one of the pilots of the ship. ZAFT pilots had some authority over the others on the ship, depending on how long they had been a pilot. Quatre didn't like the tension, nor a gun being pointed at his colleague and the one he was supposed to protect. So, he turned to Matt, "Excuse me, Mr. Dems," Quatre began but hesitated momentarily, looking at the standoff. "It would seem there is a misunderstanding with the crew of this ship about my colleague and the Representative being here. And with Miss Lakeen going to the ship's sick bay, I'm forced to turn to you for assistance clearing the matter. I would think both sides would like to avoid an altercation if possible."

Matt was still in pain and knew he should also go to the Minerva's infirmary for his shrapnel wounds. However, what the young man said caused Matt not to go to the Minerva's infirmary just yet. He and Aila had given their word they would do what they could to get the help they needed when they got to the Minerva. With the help they had provided against the stolen Gundams putting their lives at risk while doing so, it was the least they could do. And when Matt glanced in the direction the young man had, he saw some ZAFT soldiers led by a red uniformed girl pointing guns at their guests. It was the last thing that was needed for the Minerva and its crew. It definitely gave a bad impression to a representative for the Federation. If the Alliance was going to attack ZAFT in the future, then ZAFT needed what "good" relations it could get. "Yeah," Matt replied, "Sorry, we have some on edge doing stupid things."

Quatre shook his head, "With the attack, it is understandable." Quatre gave a half smile, "I just think it would be best if misunderstandings don't go too far. I assure you, my colleague and I can fight and will if needed. I hope that doesn't come up of course, but I believe you could help with that better than I." Matt wouldn't disagree with the point that he could bring the situation and its tension under control. It would be a tad difficult since Matt hadn't met much of the crew other than the officers. Yet, the sooner things were settled, the sooner Matt could get a doctor to look at him and get the shrapnel out of him. As the two began moving forward, Athrun moved to be in front of Cagalli to protect her from any guns pointed at her.

Luna had trained the gun she had on the guy who had moved to be in front of the young woman. As far as she was concerned, they were intruders that had managed to sneak onto the ship. There was enough going on right now without adding more difficulty to it. If needed, the intruders could be escorted to brig cells until they could be dealt with. If it came to that, there were enough soldiers in the hangar to do that escort. "Identify yourselves now," Luna ordered. "You're clearly not with the military or even with ZAFT. What were you doing in that machine."

Cagalli would've spoken for them and told the ZAFT personnel who she was. With her being a representative, they should calm down and at least listen to her. She could request to speak with Chairman Durandal and have him vouch for her group if needed. The tension was bad enough that mistakes could be made, and the consequences that followed wouldn't be good. She knew that Athrun would do whatever he felt necessary to protect her, and the same could be said about Quatre. Cagalli appreciated their willingness, but she didn't want that to be required of them. However, before she could say anything, Athrun got in front of her and put an arm out to prevent her from doing anything.

Athrun had been worried the moment his feet had touched the hangar deck. With the attack going on, ZAFT personnel would undoubtedly be on edge. That would make things harder for him and Quatre to do their job. The two who had offered assistance weren't within Athrun's range of vision at the moment. Thus, they couldn't do much to help explain their situation and tone down the tension. It would be up to him and Quatre to talk down the ZAFT soldiers from potentially doing harmful things. "Lower your weapons," Athrun replied. "This is Miss Cagalli Yula Athha, a representative from the Orb Union for the Federation. I'm one of her attendants and bodyguards, my name is Alex Dino."

Quatre and Matt reached the standoff in time to hear Athrun speaking and introducing himself. They had also heard the demand from the girl in the ZAFT red uniform, which had been less nice than Athrun's. Quatre was the first to speak of the pair, "Please, everyone calm down," he started. One of the soldiers swung around and pointed a gun at Quatre, who put his hands up, showing he had no weapon. "I'm Representative Athha's other bodyguard; you can call me Marcus Lune."

Matt strode forward, intending to get the soldiers off their high horses and not do something stupid. Enough death and destruction were going around because of the stolen Gundams, and there was no need to add to those stats. "Guns down, all of you," he ordered. The ZAFT soldiers hesitated at the order as it was coming from a guy in a ZAFT red uniform. They tended to have authority on the field, with them being pilots. Luna didn't recognize the guy, so she wasn't interested in him taking charge. Peters had done that earlier, which annoyed her, even if she hadn't said anything about it at the time. But with her in the hangar, only Aves had higher authority than her right now. Thus, she kept her gun pointed at Athrun as she replied, "I don't know who you are, but this isn't the ship you're assigned to, so butt out."

Matt recalled Aila saying the "three" red pilots under her had "quirks" that she didn't hold against them. Auska was the easiest to get along with, from what Aila had said in her communications with him. The other boy was stiff but listened to instructions given to him with little argument, which was fine like the first. The third, likely the girl in front of him, was emotional, which was not helpful at the moment. "The name is Matthew Dems," Matt stated firmly. "The pilot originally assigned to the Osiris Gundam, Missy. I'm a colleague of Aila, so you would do well to listen to my instructions." Matt paused, "Unless you want to tell the captain why you've been causing an unneeded issue."

Lunamaria paused at what the guy had said. If he was telling the truth, he was a superior officer, and she was going against him. Should this "Dems" really be a colleague of Aila's, she wanted to make a good impression for herself. Matt continued, "They are on the Minerva at the suggestion of Aila, and I fully agree with it." Matt gestured at Athrun and Quatre, "They helped fight against the stolen Gundams. They did so in mass-production models, which I assure you isn't easy to do. They held their own against them and assisted Aila and me out of a bind. We offered to help them as one of them was injured when we got to the Minerva. So, lower your gun before you potentially do something you would regret. ZAFT don't need an incident with a Federation representative being hurt by us."

Athrun was relieved one of the two who they had accompanied to the ship had appeared. Their vouching for them should help things along so Cagalli could have a doctor look at the back of her head. A fight was the last thing he or Quatre needed, with Cagalli potentially working against a concussion. But there was one other thing that could be said in their defense. "We were meeting with Chairman Durandal on the far side of the armory area when the attack broke out. A pair of soldiers were escorting us to this ship by the Chairman's orders when the battle got to where we were. The soldiers were killed by debris, leaving us to our own devices to fend off attackers and protect ourselves. Our only option was to use the mobile suits we could find," Athrun pointed to the ZAKU he had used, "That one for me." He then pointed to the GuAIZ R, "And that one for my colleague. We quickly fought to defend ourselves from the attacking Gundams."

Luna still wasn't sure she believed what was being said by the strangers who claimed to be bodyguards. Sure, it was possible they could be pilots and be around when the attack started. And with what the girl was wearing, it was conceivable she had been meeting with the Chairman. Chairman Durandal was rumored to be around the colony for something, and Luna had heard enough to believe the rumor was legit. However, Dems had said something about one of them being some sort of representative of the Federation. If that were true, politics would be huge, and Lunamaria didn't want to go near that type of thing any more than she had to. So, she lowered her gun so as not to do something potentially bad, but she didn't stow the gun.

Yet, one of the strangers had said something about the woman having the name Athha. The only "Athha" Luna had ever heard of was the current leader of the Federation's Orb Union. It hadn't been surprising for Orb to have joined the Federation during the war. From what Luna had heard, Orb's leader promoted peace but would show strength if needed. Perhaps that was why Orb joining the Federation had made logical sense. But why would a Federation representative be around the colony to see the Chairman? That was the part that didn't make sense to Lunamaria. Armory One was a long way out of the way for a simple meeting to take place. It would make logical sense for such a meeting to be around the PLANTs rather than a colony in a dead colony cluster. She faced Athrun, "You said Athha," she commented, "Is that related to Orb's leader?"

Quatre could understand the want to understand how things had come to be, he would be asking some of the same questions. However, there were more pressing matters to see to first before questions were answered. Representative Athha needed a doctor to look her over to make sure she didn't have a concussion she was dealing with. "As my colleague stated, the Representative has been injured and needs medical attention. She could have a concussion, and it would be best to treat her sooner rather than later." Quatre gestured at Matt, "Mr. Dems and Miss Lakeen mention and offer that medical help could be obtained onboard."

Lunamaria was back to not buying the story being given to her. Sure, the woman behind the blue-haired guy could be Miss Athha from the Orb Union. Yet, there was no sign of Aila, and Lunamaria would only take what was being stated as fact from her. It was nonsense for the blonde to claim that Aila would tell them to come on board. "Yeah right, until I hear that directly from Aila, I'm not buying it," Lunamaria challenged. Silence hung over the hangar for a moment until Matt sighed, drawing attention to him. "Aila can't do that right now as she fainted before being put on a stretcher to the infirmary. It isn't likely she will be awake for a while, and there isn't the time to waste on such things." Matt put a hand to his side as the pain from the shrapnel burned. "She and I approved them to come onto the Minerva. Should you have an argument, take it up with the captain." Lunamaria twisted to look at Matt, "What are you talking about? What do you mean Aila has been taken to the infirmary?"

Quatre cleared his throat, "Unfortunately, from what I could tell when I glanced her over, it appeared she'd taken a bullet through her left shoulder some time ago. She likely fainted due to blood loss," he said calmly, "it can happen." Lunamaria whipped to the sand-blonde guy as she was getting irritated at this guy's calm demeanor. If what he said was true, Aila was hurt and could be in danger, that was serious. She would make him more aware of his standing and situation. "And how would you know any of that, mister," she snapped. "It sounds more to me like you're lying to get out of what you've landed yourself in." Quatre smiled somewhat in response, which ticked Lunamaria off more. "It's not like that at all, I assure you," Quatre returned. "I'm not anything like a doctor or field medic. I've just seen enough gunshot injuries to know what the signs of them are."

Matt had had enough of the girl's questions and her argumentative tone. There were other things to attend to, and she was needlessly delaying getting to that. "Enough," Matt called, "This arguing is getting us nowhere, and there are more concerning things to worry about." Matt scanned the crowd over, "Chief, get your boys back to work." Aves moved forward to do as Dems asked, glad he'd suggested the point rather than him. The tension in the room had been getting beyond uncomfortable. Matt then gazed at the soldiers, "As for you lot, get to your patrols. There ain't anything to see here, so move along."

After the crowd disbursed, all that was left was Lunamaria standing there. Matt looked at her, "Unless you are volunteering to escort this trio to the infirmary, missy," Matt began. "Then the move-along order applies to you as well." Luna had intended to go to the infirmary to see if Aila was really there, so escorting the "visitors" would be something to do. Thus, she exhaled and dropped her shoulders, "Fine, I'll escort them," she replied. "The captain can decide how this is handled, it isn't my issue anymore." Luna gestured for the three to follow her, and she led the way out of the Minerva's hangar.

At the same time, those on the bridge had been working on making the ship ready to head out from its dock. Talia wanted to be as ready as possible for whatever waited outside. She didn't have high hopes that the patrols outside were doing well against the enemy group. With the harbor unreachable and the com-exchange down, it suggested the enemy had the advantage. The Minerva could be heading out into a trap by leaving the colony interior. However, their odds and circumstances weren't much better inside than they would likely be outside. Peters had said nothing had changed for the better when she had Meyrin contact him. Peters and those with him had been pulling back with the breach in the colony wall. He said they would head for the harbor and see what was going on there. Thus, the Minerva was lacking what she had been intended to have before heading out.

The Minerva was supposed to have the new Gundams and their assigned pilots, some ZAKUs, and a GuAIZ or two in its hangar. Instead, they had three ZAKUs, a GuAIZ R, and the Osiris. According to Aves, all of the mobile suits would need some repair before combat use. Aila was injured and couldn't pilot any of the machines the Minerva had to work with, even if they were in good working order. Matthew Dems had said he wasn't doing well and couldn't go out either; he was heading to the infirmary. That left the Minerva with Lunamaria and the two regular green pilots to defend the ship.

If that wasn't difficult enough to work with, not that the Minerva needed more, there was what was happening outside. The Impulse and Rey's ZAKU had been pulled through the hole by what Dems had reported. They had been pursuing the stolen Gundams per Aila's orders, which Talia didn't fault them for. Should the stolen Gundams get to the enemy ship, they would be officially lost and seen as enemies going forward. The Alliance could reverse-engineer the new technology in those Gundams. If the Alliance got that, it would only come back and be used against them to cause chaos and hardship. Then the Minerva couldn't afford to lose the Impulse or Rey's ZAKU. They were only down five pilots, two temporarily, but still unable to perform. Talia didn't want to think about what else could be going wrong or could start going badly.

Talia wasn't the only one worrying about what lay ahead of the Minerva, Arthur was doing much the same. The attack on the armory had been horrible and hadn't been contained as hoped. Allies from the harbor weren't responding and could very well be dead or trapped, so they couldn't assist them. Then the Impulse Gundam took off after the stolen machines with Rey's white ZAKU behind him. They would be on their own if nothing were done to change that. Losing the three stolen Gundams was already bad enough. If the Impulse were destroyed or, worse, captured, ZAFT would feel the consequences for a painful amount of time. "Captain," Arthur said, "The Impulse and ZAKU Phantom are heading out on their own after the stolen machines. The enemy ship is still out there, and we have little to no idea where it is."

Talia knew Arthur was speaking the truth as much as she wished it wasn't so. It just made it plainer that the time had come for the Minerva to head out. "I'm aware of that, Arthur," Talia replied. "I'm not blind or have been ignoring what has been going on." Arthur hadn't meant to imply Captain Gladys had been ignoring her duties. The woman had been doing better than the average captain would, with the Minerva being a new ship class. Others had held her age against her, yet Arthur didn't do so. He'd seen how much effort Talia put into making sure the ship would be successful on whatever task she would be given. "I wasn't implying you were, ma'am," Arthur began, but Talia cut over him. "I know, Arthur," she acknowledged, "Instead of stating the obvious, how about we get things going for moving out?"

Meyrin had been listening to the exchange between the captain and deputy. She had also been figuring out the chances of Shinn and Rey getting back to the ship AND dealing with the stolen machines. And the more she thought about it, the worse the chances looked. While the stolen Gundams were likely running low on power, the Impulse wouldn't be doing much better in that regard. The best she could guess, the Impulse would be at forty percent power left at best, likely more toward thirty percent with the fighting it had been doing. The battery had started with a thousand units of energy. The last reading she'd gotten had put Shinn at a little above four hundred units remaining when the force silhouette had been launched. The continued fighting would drain the battery to around three hundred to work with. The force silhouette would go through that power within a short period. If there were Alliance mobile suits outside, they could overwhelm Rey and Shinn and capture them. "The Impulse's energy was low when I got readings and is likely critically low by this point," Meyrin announced. "It would be at three hundred at the most, by what I can figure."

Talia had guessed pursuit would be a difficult thing by this point. The three stolen Gundams in Alliance's hands were a very bad situation to look at. However, it would be much worse if the Impulse were added to that count. The Alliance's "Striker packs" had already been used with their mass-production models. ZAFT had been finding that out the hard way, which had inspired the "Wizard-packs." Talia knew ZAFT couldn't afford to lose the Impulse to the Alliance, even if that meant they gave them the other three. She ended out sighing, "It would be a catastrophe if we lose the Impulse," Talia remarked. "It is time to launch the Minerva."

Gilbert knew Talia was right about the Impulse, ZAFT couldn't afford to lose it along with the other three. Losing the stolen Gundams was harsh enough as they were to attempt to match the Federation's transformation ability that they used to their advantage. The Alliance would find out about the Minerva soon enough if they didn't know about it already. "You are right in this, Talia," Gilbert admitted. "I authorize the launching of the Minerva in this crisis." Arthur nodded, "Commencing the launch of the Minerva," he announced. "All stations switch to combat status immediately." Meyrin got down to communicating the change to the rest of the ship, as was her duty. "All gunnery crews, prepare for FCS contact. Set all projectile configurations to grade 1."

Talia turned to face Gilbert as he was still on the bridge. It would be better if he were in the quarters set up for him right now. The Minerva was about to enter combat, and his safety was a priority. "Chairman," Talia began, "it would be best for you to head for your quarters. We can handle things here. Get some rest as you can, sir."

Gilbert could see what Talia was doing for him, and he appreciated the thought, but it wasn't necessary. He may not be a soldier, but he was responsible for doing everything he could for all of them to return home to their families. Gilbert had learned well how Admiral Treize had run ZAFT, and caring about the soldiers was part of the forefront. He wasn't one to sit around and wait for reports about what happened on the battlefield. The Minerva was the safest ship around Armory One, so him being on it was the best choice. "Talia, given the circumstances, I can't see myself sitting around waiting for reports about this event. If I haven't made it clear, like Admiral Treize, I want to make sure as many of our brave men and women return home as possible. Thus, with the attack going on, being on the Minerva is the best place for me to be. If this ship falls, the Alliance will have achieved horrible things." Gilbert gazed at Talia, "I trust you will make sure it doesn't fall to those attacking Armory One, Talia."

The Minerva was lowered into the port's main airlock tunnel system to transfer it to the outside of the colony. All the weapons were ready to deploy, and the CWIS system was ready to activate on command. The Minerva was as prepared as she could be before heading out into combat as the crew could make her. Talia ordered the bridge lowered to its combat position in case the ship was plunged directly into combat out of the tunnel. Docking spars and supply lines were disconnected from the ship as the airlocks below them were filling with air for the transition. The airlock opened, and the Minerva was taken down via the lift system toward the exit from the colony.

Meanwhile, Lunamaria escorted the group toward the infirmary, with Dems bringing up the rear. Luna wasn't the happiest with how Dems had deposed her and then dressed her down. Sure, her actions could've been better, she would admit that. Yet, she had been working to defend the ship, so she had been doing the best she could. With the infiltration of an enemy force, Luna was being cautious in case they tried coming onto the Minerva. Luna would be asking Aila about Dems to confirm his claims. If she said he was right, Luna would apologize to the guy. She said nothing to those she was escorting as she was lost in her thoughts. The group arrived at the Minerva's infirmary and saw the staff was busy. Luna looked up and spotted a figure on the work table the ship doctor and his assistants were helping. It was a moment later, Lunamaria recognized the one on the table was Aila. It showed that what had been said about Aila was true.

Athrun was explaining to the doctor what had happened to Cagalli and her hitting her head when things changed. Announcements were sounding throughout the ship of the launching procedure being initiated. Cagalli wondered if the mobile suits' damage was so bad that the colony had to be fully evacuated. The colony had been filled with non-combatants who had nothing to do with the attack. "Um, is this ship escaping," she asked. "Is the damage to the colony really to the extent that such drastic measures need to be taken?"

There was no answer, mostly since none knew the state of the colony specifically or entirely what was happening. Luna knew it was possible that the Minerva would be required to head out of the colony to help with whatever was happening outside. With Shinn and Rey still out from the ship, they could and likely were out pursuing the stolen Gundams. However, they would risk running out of power and losing to their opponents by this point. At her insistence, Aves had said he would give her ZAKU priority for repairs. But he was still working on that, so her machine wasn't ready for deployment. And none of the other mobile suits on the Minerva, including the Gundam, were in good enough condition to launch out either. In short, she was stuck on the Minerva until her machine was ready, and she didn't like that at all. However, she was distracted when Condition Red was declared. General Quarters were announced directly after that, and the crew was to report to stations. That didn't bode well for those on the ship, as it meant combat was more than likely ahead.

Athrun and Quatre looked at each other at the order to combat station, both somewhat worried at the development. Quatre was getting somewhat worried, for the announcement meant that battle was likely soon to come. On the other hand, Athrun was incredulous at the announcement and the implications that came with it. The damage to the colony was bad, Athrun wouldn't deny that with what he'd seen. Yet, for that to translate into combat for the ship they were now on, Athrun didn't want to accept that. "Is this ship taking off to go into battle," he exclaimed in slight disbelief. "After what went on inside the colony?"

Lunamaria turned and faced Athrun, unsure how to answer this guy or if she even should. He was an outsider, a bodyguard that had nothing to do with the current situation. What did it matter to him what ZAFT was dealing with beyond guarding his representative? It wasn't his business to care about the ZAFT soldiers and pilots dying to stop the Alliance group who had attacked. However, before Luna could reply or retort, the blonde girl in the red suit said, "Athrun!" The single name shocked Lunamaria and Matthew, for it was a name everyone had heard of before. Most ZAFT soldiers, especially pilots, knew the name Athrun in reference to Athrun Zala. He was one of the war heroes and Gundam pilots that helped end the Alliance-PLANT War. Yet, Lunamaria wondered if this guy could possibly be the same person as the war hero from the previous war.

Tyler shot out of the colony structure with flames and shrapnel blowing out behind him. He then resumed his laps around the colony with the armor close behind him as the Minerva headed out. Tyler knew he would soon run out of colony to wrap around and would have to face the armor soon enough. He planned to use some of the wreckage of ZAFT vessels to shield him while he turned around to fight the armor head-on. There would still be the Gundams to deal with along with the Alliance vessel, but Tyler could deal with those after the armor. He was confident that he could take on and win against ZAFT's stolen Gundams. They shouldn't possess nuclear reactors for power, but rather a battery. ZAFT had been following the provisions of the Treaty of Junius Seven, so it hadn't used nuclear reactors for mobile suits. Thus, Tyler saw no problem using the advantages he had to work with against Phantom Pain.

Tyler figured he had two or three more laps before changing his tactic with the armor. However, as he was circling the colony another time when something came into view and appeared to be coming from under the colony's underside. From a moment's glance, Tyler could tell the ship was of a new class, likely ZAFT-produced, with it coming from inside the colony. He estimated it was around three-hundred-fifty meters in length, though he could be off by a margin. It had wings extended out on either side of the forward third of the ship's structure. The ship kind of reminded Tyler of the Archangel a bit with some of its features. The ship had two linear catapults as the Archangel had, but they were on the back two-thirds of the ship. It appeared to have a similar weapon load-out as the Archangel had possessed.

Seeing the ship had Tyler wondering if ZAFT had tried to replicate the Archangel and put their own spin on it. It wouldn't be a surprise if some insisted on trying such a thing. The Archangel had proven in the war it wasn't a ship to be taken lightly. It could mean the ZAFT vessel was transatmospheric as the Archangel and Normandy were. And with it at the colony, it was more than likely the intended carrier of the Gundams Phantom Pain had stolen. The ship could have other features, but now wasn't the time to research that. Tyler had a persistent armor pilot on his tail. Granted, Tyler had prodded them into chasing him, but that just created the path, not the adventure it could take you on. The ship was likely the carrier for the other two that Tyler had spotted following the three Gundams.

This event was reminiscent of what happened to Heliopolis in Tyler's mind. There were some differences between that event and the current crapshoot. Instead of ZAFT doing the stealing, the Alliance was the thieves. But the theft of Gundams was essentially the same in both events, which didn't sit right with Tyler. And this event could only be the start of a chain that would ignite conflict and bring about another war. Of course, those like Tyler would work hard to stop a war from coming, but the Alliance was being real insistent. Instead of thinking of what could be coming, Tyler focused back on the armor pursuing him. He still had the attention of the group leader, and as long as he did, Tyler's side had an advantage.

Neo was still chasing the red space fighter as they had been lapping around the colony. He had told Ian to pick up the trio and their machines as quickly as the Girty Lue could. No, Neo hadn't missed two following the teens from the colony interior. It potentially explained why it had taken the trio so long to get out. ZAFT had delayed them better than predicted and may have had a Gundam of their own, which intelligence had missed. If he weren't handling the Federation machine, Neo would be getting the two off the trio's rears. But the space fighter had to be taken care of before it interfered further. Nevertheless, his attention was diverted momentarily as something much larger became visible from below the colony. It was clearly a new ZAFT vessel, probably the intended carrier for the Gundams. If it was supposed to carry Gundams, it was likely armed well and could hold its own in a fight. Neo's attention was drawn back to his opponent as the fighter broke away from the colony and went into a dive. He directed his armor to follow and began firing his linear guns at the fighter.

On the bridge of the Minerva, Talia did not like what she saw now that the ship was out of the colony. The damage to the armory had been horrible to see, but the patrol forces had been beaten by the enemy force worse. Wreckage and debris were floating around the colony of the Nazcas that had been destroyed. Around half of the patrol had been taken down thus far, which was better than all of it being wiped out, but not by much. She could already hear the calls for help and assistance coming in at Meyrin's station. It was clear the sooner the Minerva could seek out and destroy the enemy carrier, the better it would be for all. She was about to order the search for the enemy carrier but didn't get the chance. "Captain, an unknown is coming down from above," Heim called. "An unknown mobile armor is close behind it."

Talia was gazing ahead went something shot right in front of the Minerva's bow. The object was red and appeared to be some sort of spacecraft. She didn't get much else as it zoomed past toward the wreckage of a Nazca class below the Minerva's current position. The mobile armor flew by a moment later, which Talia got slightly more on than the spacecraft. It appeared to be modeled after the Alliance Zero mobile armor with the wired gunbarrels. The armor strongly implied the Alliance was behind the attack on Armory One. The red spacecraft could and probably was a Federation machine. The Federation being around would be helpful for the remaining ZAFT forces. And if Talia got the chance, she would personally thank the captain of the Federation force here for the help they were providing.

Tyler evaded the beams that came his way as he rushed toward the ship wreckage ahead of him. He planned to use the wreckage for cover, turning around and facing the armor head-on. Tyler was even considering playing the game of "chicken" with the tin can pilot. It was an intriguing idea, and Tyler was confident he would win that game. Plus, he could really get a read on the temperament of the tin can pilot. A person under pressure wouldn't be as inclined to use deception or lie to get out of things when their lives were on the line. Tyler hadn't gotten to that point with Natarle, but he hadn't needed to with the woman. The tin can pilot may be focused on him, but they hadn't "slipped up" with their actions yet. The slipping up was what Tyler measured since that was the honest reaction he wanted to see.

Neo was shooting at the fighter, to which it dodged in response, making his attacks ineffective. The continued evasion was annoying Neo, but he kept the irritation in check. He wouldn't let this Federation pilot get the better of him. He would beat them before pushing for this battle to end and have the Girty Lue leave before the Federation could stop them. Neo watched his opponent weave behind the wreckage of a Nazca and used it to block his beams from hitting them. He dismissed his frustration with the fighter using the environment to their advantage. Neo would get them when they came out from behind the wreckage. Thus, he waited for his opponent to come out so he could attack them again.

Tyler moved the Aurora with maneuvering thrusters so the armor wouldn't see his movements. He had one of his missile tubes open and ready to use. Tyler slid out from behind the Nazca wreckage and spotted the armor waiting for him. Tyler moved forward slowly, blending into the wreckage so his opponent didn't notice him coming. Neo was scanning the wreckage in front of him for the enemy spacecraft. He saw nothing, meaning his opponent slipped away or hid from sensors. The Federation was well-known for using stealth tactics against its enemies. So, sensors weren't very dependable on keeping an eye on the fighter he'd been chasing. Neo caught sight of the fighter just after it broke away from the ship wreckage heading for him.

Neo deployed the two side gunbarrels, but he only let them go halfway out the maximum length the wires would allow. He wanted to be able to recall them quickly if it became needed. Neo kept the upper and lower gunbarrel for thruster power to have some maneuverability to fight this Federation machine. He had his two deployed gunbarrels use their beam guns against the space fighter. Tyler did a barrel roll to evade the beams, but as he came out of the roll, he got the armor in his sites. Tyler didn't hesitate, he pulled the trigger on his flight array vulcans shooting at the armor. Neo was forced to pull away as the fighter used its heavy machine guns against him. Tyler was waiting for his opponent to pull away and give him an opening to work with. He launched a missile from his center tube, watching it zoom away toward the armor.

Neo had pulled away to avoid the machine gun shots from the fighter. However, he caught sight of a smoke trail coming from his opponent. It was a moment later that Neo identified a missile heading for him. Neo pulled his controls back hard and recalled his two gunbarrels to add their thrust to the other two and the armor's main engine. The missile kept closing the distance toward him as he pushed his throttles forward to their stops. Alarms were going off in Neo's cockpit as the missile kept getting closer. When Neo glanced back, he was not pleased to see the missile his opponent had sent at him had somehow become three missiles. He had to do barrel rolls and acrobatics to avoid getting hit by the missiles.

Tyler just sat and watched his work play out with a slight smile coming to his face. Tin can pilot was panicking as he'd hoped they would when under pressure. Tyler took that as a small achievement since it was fair that tin can pilot experience fear for their life. They and the rest of their group had done that to those at the Milos station before slaughtering them. It was amusing to watch the tin can pilot have to do all sorts of acrobatics to get away from the one shot Tyler sent at them. Granted, the tin can pilot managed to avoid having Tyler's missiles make contact with their armor, but blasting them wasn't the point exactly. Tyler brought the Aurora to face off with the mobile armor and began typing out a message for his opponent.

Neo righted his armor after getting the missiles not to hit him and detonate. He was ticked off that his opponent had pulled the trick they had. Neo had been humiliated by that stunt, and now his opponent was facing him again. Yet, Neo managed to calm down momentarily and realized that this pilot was intentionally prodding him. The actions of his opponent had been almost childish in their intention to draw out a reaction from him. Taking a step back allowed Neo to see the point where his narrow focus had blinded him to his opponent's aim. Thus, the question in Neo's mind was, why would they do that? To potentially gauge his reaction to see what they could do against him? His opponent might have been gauging his reaction, but his instincts told him there was more to this than just that. A beeping drew Neo's attention to his forward display, where a message was being shown.

"Hey, tin can pilot, if you've not had fun with our dance thus far, I've been doing poorly at this. But whether you've been enjoying the chase or not, I would bet you want some payback by this point. And if that is so, then do I have a challenge for you. Let's settle who is better by a game of chicken. We charge at one another, and the first to flinch and/or swerve loses. The winner gets a free shot from the loser. So, do you have the balls to play with me? Or are you just a coward that gets their kicks off of killing innocent people who can't defend themselves? What's your answer, tin can pilot?"

Neo glanced up at the space fighter and saw it waiting for him to make the next move. His opponent was waiting for an answer to the challenge they had sent him. Neo had heard of the "game" of "Chicken" that was being referred to. History called it a psychological game of risk with two sides facing one another. The two sides would charge at one another, trying to psych out the other. The aim was for one side to get the other to yield to the other in some sort of challenge. And in this case, Neo knew the Federation pilot meant they would fly at one another until one of them pulled away or crashed. It was a risky idea under non-combat circumstances. Pilots sometimes killed one another and damaged their machines for stupid things like this, but those weren't made public. And yet, his opponent had sent him quite the insult of murdering innocent people to goad him into doing this "game" with him. Neo wasn't sure he could beat this pilot in a straight competition.

There was a Dagger nearby that he could order to help defeat this space fighter. That would be the safest option for him to take. And Neo knew it was time for him to put aside his pride he'd been heeding while chasing this guy. The more time he spent on this, the more likely the Federation would ruin everything that had been achieved so far. It was likely that this Federation pilot's goal was to distract him from the battle going on. Neo had wasted enough time on this, there were things to do in order to succeed in the mission he was set with. Thus, Neo had the Dagger begin approaching where he was while he ignited his thrusters. He was curious what this Federation pilot would do in the "game" they had challenged him to.

Tyler noted that the armor's thrusters were lighting up. He took that as an acceptance of his challenge. However, the tin can pilot had taken more time than Tyler had expected of them. The armor pilot had been eager enough to chase him before, yet they seemed more cautious now. Something had changed, Tyler could see the signs of that. And he felt the tin can pilot had wised up a bit to what Tyler was doing with them. If that were so, then this move wouldn't be straightforward. Tyler hadn't missed the Alliance Dagger moving toward them. Not that the Dagger would fair any better against him should he be in his path. Both had laminated armor, while Tyler had phase-shift armor to depend on. Phase shift armor always won out against laminated armor in a head-to-head contest. So, Tyler still had the advantage in this "game," and he would use that to get the point across.

Neo was getting closer to the space fighter as it lit up its thrusters. The Dagger had positioned behind him to take the shot at the fighter. This "game" would end with the Federation pilot losing and the matter being settled. Tyler pushed his throttles forward and kept his course straight, even with the Dagger appearing behind the armor. He gained a slight smile on his face as the ending to this game wouldn't be as tin can pilot believed it would be. Neo pulled away slightly before his armor would meet the space fighter. However, the Federation fighter didn't deviate from its path, surprising Neo. The Dagger pilot fired its projectile cannons, and the shots made contact with the space fighter. Yet, a moment later, the red fighter came through the smoke and hit the Dagger. There was an explosion after that, and then neither the Dagger nor the space fighter was anywhere to be seen.

Neo didn't think the Federation space fighter was gone after the trouble he had with it. And he certainly didn't like the odd craft vanishing from all forms of detection as any other Federation ship or suit could. With what Neo had seen during the chase, the machine had more to it than the Federation's mass-production space fighter models they had come up with in the last year. Neo had learned the lesson that knowing where your enemy is located is better than not knowing already by personal experience. And with what luck his group had since the Federation seemed to catch up with them lately, the red machine could be a Federation Gundam. That would be a real horrible turn of events, and things were already going south for Neo's group. Instead of worrying about that troublesome machine, Neo moved to attack the Gundam ZAFT had hidden from Alliance intelligence. When he closed the distance, Neo deployed his armor's gunbarrels to throw the pilot off before getting to business.

Shinn was pursuing the three stolen machines as ordered by Aila. Rey was with him in the task, and they weren't too far behind their quarry. However, Shinn hadn't missed the scene of ZAFT forces that had been assigned to patrol the colony area were having problems. The enemy had ZAFT on the ropes and hanging on hard not to be destroyed. Seeing his allies in the position hurt even though he knew there was little he could do to change it. It led to the question of why none of the ships in the colony's harbor hadn't come out to help. The patrols would have called for help to the port control, so that they had received no reinforcements was odd. But there wasn't the time to get answers to that line of questions. The best thing Shinn and Rey could do right now stopped the three stolen Gundams from escaping. If those three escaped, it would only spell problems for many in the future. One thing the Alliance-PLANT War had proven was letting issues "stew" only made them worse when faced later.

Nevertheless, Shinn was ripped from his thoughts when beams came his way. He was forced to roll to the left to avoid the beams. Shinn didn't have much time to see where the attack was coming from as more beams came at him. As he evaded, Shinn did catch glimpses of objects at the edge of his vision. The beams seemed to come from them as the attacks kept coming at the Impulse. His attacker had forced Shinn onto the defensive, having him employ his shield while weaving the best he could. Out of the corner of his eye, Shinn noticed that the stolen machine was heading away, avoiding the fighting as they went. He was too occupied to do much about them, and Alliance Daggers had stopped Rey. Neither of them could do much to delay, let alone stop the thieves from getting away with circumstances as they were.

Neo was somewhat surprised by the effectiveness of his gunbarrels' assault on the ZAFT Gundam. With his opponent being a Gundam-type, Neo had expected the pilot to be able to handle his gunbarrels with relative ease. Gundam pilots were normally more than competent; they were skilled and hard to take on or down. History had proven Gundams and their pilots weren't to be taken lightly, or you would be defeated and usually killed. And yet, this ZAFT Gundam was not shrugging Neo's attacks off and pushing him on the defensive. It was strange, and Neo couldn't pinpoint why this Gundam pilot was being so odd and unlike others who had come before. They could just as easily be leading Neo into a trap so they could come down and finish him. Thus, Neo decided to be cautious, in case the Gundam pilot was faking being overwhelmed by his assault and leading him on.

Rey was working against one of the Alliance Daggers, which had popped up as he and Shinn had been pursuing the stolen machines. The Dagger pilot wasn't bad at combat, showing the quality of Alliance pilots had been improving. However, Rey wouldn't let an Alliance pilot beat him. Rey took out his beam tomahawk, still using his beam assault rifle against the Dagger to distract them. He approached the Dagger using his rifle, closing the distance to get close. Rey swung his beam tomahawk and sliced through the Dagger, finishing the Alliance pilot. Rey intended to slow down the stolen machines, but he got an odd sensation in his mind which had never happened before. When Rey turned in the direction the sensation seemed to be the strongest, he saw Shinn was going against an Alliance mobile armor. He began moving to assist Shinn so they could wrap up with the armor and continue pursuing the stolen Gundams.

Neo had closed half the distance between him and the Gundam by now. He was more suspicious of the Gundam pilot than before. Neo's attacks had still been effectively pinning the Gundam, which he still didn't like. Perhaps it had been the fight with the red "space fighter" that had Neo on edge, but he couldn't say. Neo hadn't heard of or read about a Gundam pilot being beaten by anything less than another Gundam or a squadron of mobile weapons overwhelming them. So, he was expecting a trick being played on him, and he wouldn't be taken in by it. However, Neo's attention was drawn away by an odd sensation that came to his mind. It caused pause within Neo and got him to scan around for the potential cause of the sensation. His gaze came to a stop on an approaching white ZAKU with equipment different from the default Alliance intel had gotten on them. The sensation was unlike anything that Neo could recall, but there was an uncanny familiarity to it that he couldn't place.

As that fight was going on, Tyler had moved away from the armor after plowing through the Dagger. He was miffed that the tin can pilot had "lost interest" in him and was now focusing on ZAFT forces. No, Tyler hadn't missed the armor and had gone for the ZAFT Gundam. Nor had Tyler overlooked the armor having success with fighting the Gundam, which was kind of odd. Tyler would expect ZAFT to give their Gundams to pilots they were confident would use them well. And yet, the ZAFT Gundam was moving as if it had a near-green pilot, which didn't make sense at all. The ZAFT Gundam avoided most of the shots sent its way and blocked the rest with its shield. But the jerkiness that Tyler was seeing just gave him a feeling that the pilot wasn't used to piloting a Gundam.

Tyler could've helped the ZAFT pilot and drawn back the tin can pilot's attention. He knew several ways to get attention to him when he felt like it. But Tyler had a better idea in mind to draw attention to himself than just going after the tin can pilot. It was a lesson Tyler had learned during his services. When you wanted your opponent's attention, you aimed for something they couldn't afford to ignore for long, if at all. And in this case, the enemy carrier would fit the bill Tyler needed for the point. So he brought the Aurora to face the ship and studied it for a quick moment. He'd seen ZAFT vessels taking shots at the Alliance vessel. Projectiles had been intercepted before hitting the ship, and beams had been disbursed before contact. Yet, Tyler had a method of how to get rid of the anti-beam field the Alliance ship had between it and other ships. So, Tyler got on a com-channel to the Normandy, "Lisa, would you start sending missiles at the enemy vessel? I have an idea how to shake and make them open to attacks."

Lisa heard Tyler and was left to wonder what he had in mind. She had been thinking of a means to attack the Alliance vessel effectively. ZAFT had shown there was an anti-beam field in front of the ship to stop beams. The ship's CWIS system stopped projectiles before they ever got to be a danger from missiles. The weapons of the Normandy would be affected much the same as ZAFT's attempts had. However, if Tyler said he had a plan for changing that, Lisa would take him at his word. Tyler had proven he could do things others would claim were impossible and not have an issue with it. "Any particular pattern of missile attacks you had in mind, Tyler," Lisa asked. "I don't doubt you have seen the enemy has a good interception system and an anti-beam field to protect them."

Tyler smirked at the "challenge" he was being extended on defeating an enemy's defenses. "Oh, I know they have a good defense at the moment, but the Normandy's missiles will serve as an excellent distraction for me to use," Tyler iterated. "I can punch holes in the anti-beam field the Normandy could use its beam cannons to exploit. I also plan to mess with their CWIS by seeing if the Alliance are still as stupid as I've come to expect them to be. Just watch for my plasma cannons as a signal to start really assaulting them." Lisa acknowledged Tyler's idea and then ordered the Normandy to come around and face the enemy vessel. She had the missile's four banks rise up to the active position. The upper missile banks fired their six sledgehammer missiles off rapidly at the Girty Lue. Tyler moved into line to have his missile tubes pointing at the Girty Lue. Once the Normandy's missiles were flying, he fired off three tubes. The sledgehammers would be focused on while his missiles would go unseen until they were in range. Tyler's target wasn't the Alliance vessel; he was aiming for the area right in front of it where the anti-beam field was. With his missiles having the remote detonation option, Tyler could use the explosion to clear the anti-beam field. So, he was watching his missiles as they zoomed toward their target.

The Girty Lue had recovered mostly from the Federation attack and boarding. The ship's systems had come back up, and Ian hadn't wasted time after they had. He'd ordered anti-beam depth charges be deployed. That had helped cut down the incoming beam attacks against them from ZAFT. The CWIS was intercepting the missiles that were being sent at the Girty Lue. The Federation vessel had vanished, which Ian hadn't been pleased about since they had to still be around the battlefield. That vessel had the most potential to cause problems for the Girty Lue from all on the battlefield. No, Ian hadn't missed the new ZAFT vessel coming from under the colony's lower half. He had glanced at it briefly and ordered an eye be kept on it should it move forward and assault them. Captain Ronoake had ordered the Girty Lue to pick up the three stolen machines exiting the colony. ZAFT forces were trying to delay the stolen Gundams but were failing. The three Gundams were fighting off those that were trying to stop them, and the remaining Daggers were assisting in that task.

Nevertheless, Ian was forced to focus back on the present as missiles were detected coming at the Girty Lue. The number of missiles totaled twelve, and when Ian asked, none of the bridge operators couldn't say where they had come from. The missiles seemed to just appear out of nowhere and fly toward them. That suggested they were from the Federation vessel employing its stealth system all Federation ships had. Ian ordered the CWIS to intercept the incoming missiles before they could reach them. By the time most of the missiles, identified as sledgehammers, were taken down, another wave of the same size had been detected headed for them. The second wave got closer as it had been close on the first, and the CWIS didn't have the time to reset. The Girty Lue shook with the second wave since they got closer than the first. One of the bridge operators called out nine missiles had popped up much closer than those that had been coming at them. Ian glanced at the sensor display and saw that the singles were smaller than the sledgehammers. Yet the smaller missiles appeared to be intercepted by the CWIS system, but it had been uncomfortably close.

Tyler had detonated his missile in the area of the anti-beam field, thereby creating holes in the field. Those on the enemy ship would think his shots had been intercepted by their CWIS system. Tyler surged forward with his stealth system still on so the enemy vessel had no idea he was coming at them. He shifted the Aurora into its suit mode as the Girty Lue dipped to the right to avoid ZAFT attacks. Tyler had the Aurora swoop behind the bridge tower, and he saw the same junction that the Dominion had. That implied the Alliance had not learned their lesson from what he'd done to the Dominion years ago. Tyler took out a beam saber as there was only one way to find out if the Alliance had been foolish and not changed the weakness he'd exploited once before.

Ian knew that while being assaulted, the Girty Lue couldn't go and pick up the stolen machines. They were closing the distance between the colony they had exited toward the Girty Lue. And the missiles were likely coming from the Federation vessel, which had attacked them before, preventing the ship from moving closer to the Gundams. However, the ship shook, but from what Ian had seen, nothing should've struck the Girty Lue. "What just happened," Ian called. The bridge operators scrambled to try to figure out what had shaken the ship. A moment later, one of them spoke up, "Commander, we've been attacked behind the bridge tower." Another took up after that, "The CWIS system is going haywire; it's starting to collapse in a cascade." Ian swallowed hard as that didn't spell out good things for the Girty Lue. If the Girty Lue's CWIS system failed, the ship would be open to attack and unable to intercept incoming projectiles. An enemy attack had somehow gotten past the Girty Lue's defenses and struck the ship where it counted.

Tyler lept off the Girty Lue after stabbing the junction he had been aiming for. The enemy ship was now without an interception system due to his actions. And he would use that to get the tin can pilot's attention back onto him completely. So, Tyler moved the Aurora over to the ship's port side upper Gottfried and got down to turning it by force. He had the cannon point at the ship's navigation bridge and then damaged the bearing system so the cannon couldn't be moved, with him having the weapon aimed where he wanted. That would make the ship's crew not use the weapon, and they would have to destroy the cannon with something else if they wanted to dispatch the threat. With that done, Tyler had the Aurora disengage its stealth system and pointed his beam rifle at the Girty Lue's bridge.

Neo had to shift his attention to the white ZAKU as it began using its beam assault right against him. The ZAKU pilot seemed a bit more competent than the Gundam Pilot had been. He recalled two of his gunbarrels so he could use them against the new machine which was attacking him. Neo was more put off by the white ZAKU when it had gotten closer; he had heard a voice talking to another, which didn't make sense. He couldn't figure out if he was just imagining things or if there was really something happening to him that he couldn't explain. Neo redeployed his two gunbarrels and had them go after the ZAKU. Rey nimbly dodged the gunbarrels' attacks and shot back at the mobile armor. Shinn would've helped Rey so they could continue the pursuit of the stolen Gundams, but the armor's two other gunbarrels kept him occupied.

Neo would've kept the two ZAFT machines busy while the trio got back to the Girty Lue, but things changed. The Girty Lue contacted him and said they were being assaulted, but Ian didn't think it was only ZAFT. Ian said missiles had come out of nowhere, which lent credence to the claim ZAFT wasn't the only one attacking the Girty Lue. Neo was left to wonder if the red space fighter had joined in assaulting the ship. However, a beeping drew his attention to his forward display, and he saw a message there as had been twice before now.

"Oh tin can pilot, I see you moved on from me to bully others. And here I thought you wanted to catch me to prove I was wrong in calling you a tin can pilot and insulting you. Apparently, your attention span is lacking, which I suppose I should expect from OMNI still since there are no signs of that changing. However, you seem to be forgetting the condition of our game of Chicken, which you agreed to by charging me. The loser gives one free shot to the winner, and you lost by pulling away first. The Dagger doesn't change anything with what the winner gets from the loser. And I don't like how the chase ended, so I say we aren't done yet. Thus, for my free shot, look up and at your vessel, you pansy."

Neo glanced up to where the Girty Lue was, and his eyes widened. There was a machine the same shade of red right next to it, but it wasn't the space fighter. No, what was in front of the ship was a mobile suit that Neo could tell straight away was a Gundam. It had a beam rifle pointed at the ship, specifically the bridge. There was beeping again, and another message popped up on Neo's forward display.

"So then, tin can pilot, you can clearly see I can take down your ship before you can do anything about it. I hope you didn't assume the said free shot would be only on the winner's opponent, did you? When I said a free shot, I meant any shot the winner wanted. How do you like them apples, punk? Yet, instead of just taking my earned free shot like I would bet you would, I will give you an alternative choice. You get your butt over here, and we pick up the fight we started with the chase, or else I pull the trigger and turn this ship into wreckage. Which choice do you want to go with, tin can pilot?"

Neo was both frustrated at how the Federation pilot had forced him into a corner and was kind of impressed by their daring. He couldn't deny he had taken the bait from the fighter pilot with the "game of Chicken" had extended. Neo had tried to outthink them by having the Dagger take them down as he got out of the way. Instead, his opponent had taken advantage of his attempt and put him into a tough position. It was certainly irritating as it showed the fighter pilot had been stringing him along from the beginning and was still doing so. However, Neo had to applaud the tactic as it worked well for him. He had thought himself prepared to not fall for tricks, yet the Federation pilot had pulled a serious one on him. The choice he was being given was one; he could only pick one choice to have any chance of succeeding. If the Girty Lue were destroyed, he and the trio would be captured after being worn down. So, Neo had to leave the ZAFT Gundam and the ZAKU to fight the Federation Gundam.

The fight ahead was one Neo would be at a real disadvantage in, and he knew it. His opponent would be a Gundam and a Federation one at that; ZAFT's Gundams had proven powerful, with the trio fending off ZAFT forces while traveling. Neo was pretty sure that a Federation Gundam would be on a level higher than the ZAFT Gundams. And then there was the pilot who had been stringing him along after encountering him. They had prodded him, and Neo, against his better judgment, had taken the bait and fallen into the trap. And now, he had to face the consequences of his choice and do as his enemy wanted. Neo recalled his gunbarrels and swung his armor around before heading for the enemy Gundam.

Tyler had known the tin can pilot would choose his alternative option. They couldn't afford to let their ship get destroyed, which was why Tyler had attacked it. He would leave the enemy vessel to the Normandy, and whatever ZAFT ships were still able to deal with it. Tyler would focus on the armor and get the enemy Gundams to come to him after that. So, Tyler brought out one of his plasma cannons, aimed at the enemy ship's rear, and pulled the trigger. The plasma beam didn't hit the ship directly but grazed the area, ripping up some of the engine housing and damaging one of the engines. The attack forced the damaged engine to shut down, preventing it from shorting and detonating. The beam was the signal that Tyler had told Lisa to watch for to say she was free to strike the ship as she liked.

Neo had been rushing over to where the enemy Gundam was. He recognized the machine from the Alliance's records from the war, for there had been images from some of the battles from during the latter part. It was one of the Federation Gundams which had been first sighted during the failed assault on the Republic of East Asia. It had popped up with the Federation's attacks on the Orbital Fleets. The final appearance had been during the Second Battle of Jachin Due, in which it had been instrumental in stopping the Alliance's nuclear strike force. In all those instances, the Gundam had proven to be powerful and dangerous to its opponents. Little technical information had been acquired on the unit; the only things that could be said were it had two powerful plasma cannons, a beam rifle, and a shield that could deflect beams much as the Alliance's Geschmeidig Panzer did. It just further iterated his disadvantage in the battle he was getting into, but there was nothing else he could do as the enemy had threatened to destroy the Girty Lue if he didn't.

At the enemy firing off one of its heavy cannons, Neo pushed his throttles forward to increase his speed. By what Neo could see, the shot had potentially damaged an engine or two since it had grazed the housing. Yet, as he was heading for the enemy Gundam, a sight caught the corner of his eye, and he couldn't help but turn. A section of space wavered, and a ship appeared in that space a moment later. It appeared similar to no previous Federation ship class that Neo had seen or read reports about. The ship was shorter in length that the Girty Lue by close to a half at around two-hundred meters in length, by what Neo could see. Granted, it wasn't the size of a Federation cruiser or their dreadnought class, but it was still a Federation vessel, and that was reason enough to be concerned. Its size said it was likely lighter than a Federation cruiser with power and armaments. However, that assumption could be off, and the ship could match cruisers or better. Most of its structure was in the center, with wings attached to the rear part of the ship structure.

It was definitely a new ship class for the Federation which the Alliance knew nothing about, which wasn't good. Of course, Neo wasn't fool enough to think the Federation hadn't made new developments since the war's end. The Alliance intelligence agency had been trying to find information to see what kind of advances the Federation could've made. However, they hadn't retrieved any credible information to say what they had created. So, this was the first real look the Alliance had at current Federation technology aside from the Federation's current mobile suit models. And with the Neo knowing of those along with the ship he was seeing, the Alliance was only scratching the surface of Federation tech as it was right now. And Neo had no doubt the Federation vessel had gotten to the Girty Lue and likely done something to the data they had stolen. It meant the work at the Federation outpost had been for nothing, as the data was lost. Neo had told his higher-ups the outpost should be second in the mission rather than first, but they had disagreed. He focused back on the enemy Gundam as that was his pressing task to make what he could of the mission successful.

Those in the Alliance group weren't the ones to take notice of the Normandy appearing on the field. On the Minerva, Heim called out an unknown had appeared out of nowhere a distance away from the ship's current position. Talia glanced in the direction indicated and saw the ship, and she could only stare for a moment. It differed from any Federation ship class she'd seen or read reports about that ZAFT had information on. Talia knew it wasn't out of the question that the Federation had developed new ship classes since the war had ended. Talia would be kind of shocked if the Federation hadn't developed/upgraded much of what their military used. The Federation had a technological advantage over the other two factions which was rarely stated publicly. They had kept it throughout the war, and Talia didn't doubt they worked to keep it even these days. It was the advantage along with their Information Network, which had made a serious difference for the Federation.

A Federation vessel appearing around Armory One wasn't odd either; from what Talia understood, it happened once a day. They checked in with the colony's control center as their patrols would pass. However, the timing of its appearance tickled Talia's mind with the Alliance group attacking the colony. She assumed the Federation would be willing to assist ZAFT in defense of the colony. Their principles would have them helping those in need against oppression and criminal acts. Yet, if the Federation was already targeting the Alliance vessel before even checking in with the colony, it made Talia think they had been chasing the ship. The question as to why the Federation would be chasing the vessel she had ordered, the record referred to as "Bogey One," did pass through her mind. However, there wasn't the time to wonder what reason the Federation had to chase the enemy ship.

Gilbert also studied the Federation ship, for it was one he'd never seen, nor had there been a report on such a vessel. From what ZAFT intel had been telling him, the Federation had been busy with "operations." Those included defending their territory and dealing with Alliance messes as of late. ZAFT agents had suggested the Federation had been improving their equipment the military used. But they couldn't acquire a great deal of detail on what those improvements were. That wasn't much of a surprise, for it was classic Federation mentality, "don't talk about what others didn't ask," and "If it wasn't the questioner's business, they didn't need to know." Gilbert respected the stance to an extent, for it had served the Federation wonderfully for much of its existence. He listened as Talia ordered her sensor operator to get a reading on the Federation vessel for ZAFT records. But Gilbert was unable to keep silent, "A new Federation ship class," he mused. "Interesting for one to be sent out here to, I assume, track down the attacking Alliance vessel. It makes me wonder if the troublemaker did something before coming to Armory One to draw their attention."

Talia turned to glance at Gilbert, "While that is an interesting question, Chairman," she replied, "We have more pressing matters." Talia knew the Minerva needed to focus on Bogey One and disable it to get things moving in a better direction. The Impulse and Rey's ZAKU were still in combat, the Minerva needed to get attention off them so they could fall back and resupply. Talia wouldn't complain if the Federation would assist in pressing the Alliance ship. "We'll attack Bogey One," she began facing forward. "Helm, maintain course Indigo Delta, accelerate twenty percent, prepare signal flares and anti-beam depth charges." Arthur was already giving the captain's orders to the relevant crew, "Launcher eight, load Neidhardts missiles, launchers one through four," Arthur ordered. "Activate Tristans one and two, activate Isolde, all stations stand ready."

The Normandy moved forward, launching missiles as it brought its beam cannons to bear on the enemy ship. The rail cannon also deployed to their active configuration. Lisa ordered an assault be sent at the Girty Lue, which the Normandy's crew had the ship do so. The Girty Lue was forced to reorient to avoid the incoming attacks. Ian also spotted the new ZAFT vessel coming their way and positioning itself to attack them. The Girty Lue was now facing a two versus one battle, and their ship was on the single side end. Ian ordered the working Gottfireds to aim at enemy vessels and return fire. He also told those at the multi-purpose launchers to reload with anti-beam depth charges. Ian then told the com-officer to contact their remaining Daggers to come back and help the Girty Lue. The enemy Gundam had turned away and was heading toward Captain Roanoke. Ian wished the captain the best of luck as he would need it with using a mobile armor against a Gundam.

Tyler had turned toward the armor after firing his plasma cannon, which was heading for him as he wanted. His goal was to keep the armor and any other mobile weapon the Alliance controlled on this battlefield away from their ship. That was the consequence of being greedy and putting innocent lives at risk. And if the tin can pilot, as Tyler suspected, then he wanted to punish them for the lives they had taken. Tyler was now in the mindset of treating the tin can pilot seriously, as they had shown they weren't reacting to his taunts. Plus, from what Tyler had seen with the armor fighting ZAFT, tin can pilot was pretty good with their gunbarrels. It again made Tyler wonder who the pilot could be with that level of skill. Tyler shot a bolt from his rifle at the armor, which barrel-roll to evade.

As Neo had been approaching the Gundam, he had been going through potential tactics he could use against his opponent. Most Alliance tactics were essentially useless against a Gundam with a competent pilot. With his gunbarrels, if used effectively, Neo felt he could hold off the Gundam for a period of time. Should he put the Gundam on the defensive and keep them on it, Neo would manage for a bit. Neo's attention was shifted to be in front when his opponent began heading for him. The Gundam then pointed its beam rifle at him, which got Neo to snap his flight controls to the left. His armor entered a barrel roll as the beam shot toward where Neo had been. The readings he got from the beam didn't encourage Neo, as it said the rifle was a high-energy one. Once Neo righted his armor, he deployed all his gunbarrels and had the fly forward at the Gundam. He fired his linear guns at his opponent, trying to drive the Gundam onto the defensive so Neo could breathe.

Tyler dodged the rounds from the armor's linear guns but kept an eye on the gunbarrels that were approaching. The gunbarrels began shooting their beam guns when they got closer. Tyler used his piloting skills to weave out of the paths of most of the beams. He had his shield deploy and deflected the beams he couldn't manage to dodge. Tyler would've loved to send the beams back at the armor, but beams coming from four different directions wouldn't allow that. And yet, something at the back of Tyler's mind was telling him something about this was familiar. Tyler couldn't place what was familiar, just something about the fight he was in currently. The feeling was nagging in a way that Tyler couldn't ignore completely. However, after a minute, Tyler was done being on the defensive. He shifted the Aurora over to its flight mode and surged up out of the shooting area.

Neo growled as the Gundam changed over to its space fighter form and got out of where his gunbarrels had them pinned. It was clear the machine gained an advantage in speed with its streamlined fighter form. He had thought he could keep the Gundam pinned for a bit and draw out the fight. The trio could use the opportunity of Neo's distraction to get back to the Girty Lue and away from the fighting. They would be likely running low on power for the Gundams. That was one of the weaknesses of the planned theft, the supply for the Gundams' power. If the opposing side could wear them down, then the trio would probably defeated and lost. Thus, the sooner they got the Gundams back to the Girty Lue, the better things would be. That was even more true with the Federation now being on the scene.

Neo had been keeping an eye on the trio as they were attempting to make their way back to the ship. However, since they had exited the colony they had been chased by two ZAFT machines. And they were still being pursued by the ZAFT Gundam and the ZAKU as Neo looked. Neo wasn't much in the position he could help them with him facing the Federation Gundam. Yet, he was trying to come up with a possible way he could flip the situation. But circumstances changed when signal flares came from the new ZAFT vessel. Neo instantly recognized the signal pattern as one of ZAFT's retreat signals. The two pursuing machines being required to fallback to their vessel was helpful for the Girty Lue's aims. The trio needed to get back to the ship for the low power of the Gundams they stole. The other reason they needed to get off the battlefield was their "maintenance" would be needed quickly before it affected their performance.

Meanwhile, Shinn and Rey had been chasing after the stolen Gundams after the mobile armor had flown off elsewhere. Why the armor had flown off, neither Shinn nor Rey could say with how suddenly it had occurred. Shinn had been closely monitoring his power levels as they had dropped worryingly low. The Minerva had appeared moments ago, so resupply would be available for the Impulse. However, something in Shinn said that if he went to the ship to resupply, the stolen machines would escape and be trouble in the future. Shinn wasn't comfortable with letting that happen if given the choice. If he were to fight smarter, he could wear down the stolen machines. Should they lose power and be unable to fight, then they could be recaptured and dragged back to the Minerva. Shinn felt he and Rey could manage disabling the thieves given some more time. And there were still enough allied mobile suits such was still possible to recapture them in this battle.

Yet, the Minerva fired off a retreat signal which were clearly visible to Rey and him. That signal changed the loose plan Shinn had been working on against the stolen Gundams. Shinn wanted to pursue the enemy and drag them back to the Minerva. But good sense told him that the chances of him winning against the three with the power he had left was slim to none. It was coming to the point it was time to cut the losses ZAFT was taking and not keep them going. There would be another opportunity to capture the stolen Gundams in the future. Shinn hoped it came sooner rather than later so the damage they caused would be minimized. "The return signal from the Minerva," Shinn stated in strained tones.

Rey had seen the signal as much as Shinn had. Orders took precedent over the urges those on the field had to continue. Those giving out orders tended to know better about what needed to be done and how than those on the battlefield did. They could see the bigger picture better than the soldiers did most of the time. It was why Rey rarely argued with orders given to him or the team he was with. "Yes," Rey remarked. "It's time to cut our losses and wait for another chance for this later. We did what we could in stopping the thieves today, Shinn. We'll get them next time." The Impulse and Rey's ZAKU then turned away from the three stolen Gundams and headed back toward the Minerva.

Back with Neo, once ascertaining the trio had resumed heading for the Girty Lue, Neo returned his attention to the Federation Gundam. His opponent had not been actively shooting at him for a bit. Neo had thought at first it was because his gunbarrels were keeping them busy, but he wasn't so sure now. He scanned around to locate his opponent but couldn't find any sign of them. Neo recalled his gunbarrels back to half length since they had no visible target to attack right now. He assumed the Gundam had likely activated their cursed stealth system to disappear from his sight. It was a standing advantage the Federation had been able to keep after the Treaty of Junius Seven. How they had managed to justify keeping that and not sharing it, Neo couldn't say. It gave the Federation an unfair advantage in battle which OMNI didn't have a way to currently match let alone beat.

The issue with the enemy Gundam vanishing came in two-fold to Neo. First, the enemy could use their stealth system to spring a surprise attack and Neo would have to rapidly respond. He was capable of that, but snapping from the hip wasn't something Neo liked to depend on if he didn't have to. Neo rather be the aggressor than be forced onto the defensive during a battle. And second, with the boast the enemy pilot had made in the messages Neo had seen, he didn't feel the battle would end so abruptly. The Gundam pilot hadn't come off as one that would just vanish without beating him in some fashion. They had been prodding him and had seemed to be enjoying "teasing" Neo as they had strung him along. Those types didn't tend to give up that pursuit unless they were forced to in some way or got satisfaction. Thus, he scanned around, trying to find anything that could warn or even tell him where his opponent was.

Tyler had engaged the Aurora's stealth system while tin can pilot's attention had wandered from him. From what Tyler had observed, tin can pilot had glanced over to the three stolen Gundams when they should've been paying attention to Tyler. Being ignored when he wanted attention on him had never sat well with Tyler, it was more an annoyance to him. Yet, then, he'd gotten an idea of what he could do to snap tin can pilot's attention fully back to him. It had been as the Exus retracted its gunbarrels partially that had brought a thought to Tyler's mind which had sparked the idea. Tyler had found the wires the Alliance used for gunbarrels and other specialized weapons tended to be quite strong and durable. And the Alliance certainly had boasted their "wires" could stand up to anything done to them before. They made quite a point about the strength of the wires and it had irritated Tyler with how they "arrogantly" claimed they couldn't break. Tyler felt that was BS and had taken it upon himself before this to put that claim to the test. However, his attempts had proven the wires were durable and tough he had to admit. Nevertheless, that didn't mean Tyler put stock into the Alliance's claims about their wires.

If anything, that motivated Tyler to do more to prove them wrong and be able to shove the point down their throats. And really, some of the attempts Tyler had made had been interesting to hysterical. The recent ones especially had been entertaining and freaking hilarious by the end to Tyler. Specifically, what he'd pulled off on the Blitz during the war was coming to mind. Granted, Tyler hadn't gone as far as he could've back at the time, so the wires had held up to the abuse he'd put them to. However, Tyler intended to go further with this mobile armor and truly test how much punishment they could endure. If they snapped, Tyler would see that as a victory and make sure it went on record. Should they hold up and not break, Tyler would try other things to see what could do that. So, Tyler moved to be by the left side gunbarrel and grabbed onto the section of wire that was next to where it connected to the barrel. He would wait until tin can pilot fully recalled his gunbarrels, which he would tug the wire to get a message across. That message would be "you're so screwed" and "enjoy the ridiculous ride I'm going to put you through."

Neo still saw nothing of his opponent as he kept scanning around the general area. But he was more sure now that the Federation pilot remained in the area. He decided to recall his gunbarrels so he had more thrusting power to work with when the Gundam attack him. Neo preferred mobility than firepower with the situation what it was currently. He was getting edgier the longer nothing happened to him and Neo didn't like that at all. However, while three of his gunbarrels followed commands and retracted to their docking spars, the other gave a hard jerk in response to commands. Neo glanced to his left and paled a bit at seeing the Federation Gundam had popped up and was holding the gunbarrel's wire. The Gundam gave one more jerk to the wire staring at him. Neo understood what was being said without needing any other form of explanation. He'd lost against his opponent, and there was little he could do to change that right now. They were in complete control of what would happen to him and he was screwed for the foreseeable future. Neo was then shoved to the right side of his cockpit as his opponent pulled the wire using it to bring his armor into a hard spin.

Tyler employed the wire to drag the mobile armor along and got it into a nice spin. It was much the same thing Tyler had done to Nicol when he faced the Blitz years ago. Tyler had apologized to Nicol for doing what he had when he'd had the chance. Nicol had accepted the apology and had said he understood why Tyler had done such a thing to him. Athrun's friend had then said how impressed he'd been with Tyler coming up with the technique. Nicol had said he'd never consider doing that to an Alliance machine that used the wires. But then Nicol had admitted the idea would be effective at disabling whatever used the wire. The stress to the wire had taken the weapon the Blitz had out of commission until it had been repaired. That had been a compliment to Tyler since Nicol was a realistic minded person he'd found.

The difference in this from what he'd done to the Blitz was Tyler had the gunbarrel point its weapons at the armor so the pilot wasn't tempted to use them. This stunt was both to embarrass the tin can pilot and to strike fear in them for the crap they had pulled. With that in mind, Tyler intended was going to enjoy seriously try snapping the wire through stress with how hard and fast he would be spinning the armor. If the tin can pilot wasn't panicking by the end of this, Tyler would say he hadn't been doing his job right. Tyler was determined to scare this armor pilot since he likely the leader of the Alliance group here. That implied tin can pilot was probably the Phantom Pain member Tyler suspected was with the group.

Should Tyler not be able to break the wire AND terrify the pilot, Tyler had a "backup" option he would resort to. Tyler knew of a "weak point" Alliance mobile armors tended to have in common. Their stabilizer unit was a necessity for them to have operational flight. Cormag had mentioned to Tyler a mobile armor was essentially screwed without the unit and would have to have others help them. It had been something about losing the auto-correcting controls that helped the armor to do forward flight. Without it the pilot would be responsible for all of it. And the Alliance pilots had become lazy and few if any knew how to fly a spacecraft completely in manual without any auto-assistance. While Tyler didn't tend to go so far as to leave another in a serious mess without reason or cause, this wouldn't go under that policy. The punk had done truly horrible things, so he was okay with leaving tin can pilot in the helpless position with what he'd seen at Milos.

Neo was pressed back into his seat and shoved slightly to the right as his armor forcefully maintained the spin his opponent put him in. The force which was pushing him was increasing steadily, which Neo didn't like at all. And it wasn't the feeling of being squished that was the problem, though it was an uncomfortable feeling. The heavy-G environment he'd been in before around the colony had been stressful for Neo. However, he'd dealt with the point and come out of that okay. This was worse than that by a growing margin and that more than worried Neo. It was more the breaking point of the wires which concerned Neo right now. For that was be a critical factor in how and when this would end.

The Alliance and its OMNI had tested the breaking strength of the wires they used for gunbarrels. It had furthered the development of the wire used by OMNI machines which had been made to the point the breaking strength was high. However, the actual figure when which the wire would break was kept a secret from the other factions. Instead, there had been promotion of the wires being unbreakable spread. While Neo knew that, the force reading on the wire being returned was getting worrisomely close to where the range the wires could break. Should they snap, Neo would go flying, and it would take him time to get his armor back in a stable order. That time his opponent could use to deliver the finishing blow with the weapon of their choice.

At the same time, the trio had been working their way back toward the Girty Lue as they had been told to. ZAFT forces were still trying to stop them, but there weren't mobile suits popping up left and right as there had been inside the colony. The two from inside the colony had been pursuing them off and on as others had distracted them. Sting knew they were in a dangerous position with their machines having low power. The sooner they reached the Girty Lue, the better they would be. The power of the Gundams wasn't the only issue for them either, they were running out of time before they would not just need maintenance but take a serious drop in performance from regular maintenance. Stella would need more work with Auel using her block word, so she would be down for hours more than Sting and Auel would be.

Nevertheless, as Sting focused back on the Girty Lue once more, he found the ship was under attack by two vessels. An odd ship that Sting had never seen was assaulting it along with a vessel he had glimpsed inside the colony. The ship from the colony was a ZAFT vessel, which meant it had used another way out than the colony's harbor. Others were supposed to have blocked the colony's harbor so ships couldn't come out to help their allies. It was yet another thing that intelligence hadn't accounted for, like the two other Gundams. The other vessel was likely a Federation ship since Neo had been insistent they would chase them. Neo had been right on most things with this mission, so Sting saw no reason to doubt him now. The Federation ship was firing swarms of missiles along with what appeared to be rail guns. The ship from the colony moved forward to join the Federation ship in attacking the Girty Lue. The weird thing was the Girty Lue's CWIS system didn't seem to be doing what it was supposed to.

However, Sting's gaze moved to where Neo's armor was fighting another a short distance from the ship. It wasn't that Neo was out and help that caused pause with Sting, it was his opponent was a Gundam. Sting wasn't the only one noticing Neo fighting a Gundam in his mobile armor. Auel spotted it, as did Stella. Stella still feared for her life, but seeing Neo in danger somehow overrode the fear and let her be a little calm. By the time the trio had gotten closer, the Gundam Neo had been going against had gotten ahold of a gunbarrel and was using that to spin the armor around.

Honestly, Sting was impressed at the trick as he hadn't ever thought about using wires a suit used to connect things that could be employed as a pull string. It was just such a radical idea that it never came into consideration. On the other hand, Auel was in slight awe of the move. He wanted to try that with a ZAFT machine and have fun making them scream in terror. Auel wondered how he'd never thought about trying something like that before, he wasn't a stranger to "radical" moves. And lastly, Stella was worried that Neo was in serious trouble with the enemy Gundam. She wouldn't let that stand if there was anything she could do about it. She would attack the red Gundam and get it off Neo if that's what it took.

Tyler had been speeding up the spin with each revolution. He kind of wished he could hear tin can pilot's voice as he was in this unending spin. Tyler didn't care if the guy was cursing him or screeching something else. As long as they had a panicked tone, Tyler would be satisfied momentarily with his move. He was impressed at the breaking strength of the Alliance cable, it was one tough cable. Tyler had figured the wire would've snapped shortly after he had begun picking up speed. He was spinning the armor around faster than he had the Blitz and would approach double speed in another minute or so. However, Tyler was brought out of his thoughts when there was a voice on an open channel, "You let him go and leave him alone!" Tyler looked down at his display and saw the signal was coming from his "right." As he was spinning, Tyler caught sight of a black Gundam racing toward him. The voice sounded female if Tyler's ears weren't deceiving him. The girl certainly sounded like she was agitated and giving out demands which Tyler wasn't the fondest of being given.

Normally, Tyler didn't have much of a problem humoring the demands of women that were made within reason, and the within reason was the key. For stupid but easy stuff, Tyler would grumble as he did whatever he was being asked of him, as long as it was quick and painless. Yet, if a girl asked something stupid and ridiculous of him, Tyler would ignore it unless there was a good reason not to. It was Tyler's version of being a gentleman, showing his manners taught to him by his dear mother. And the girl had said to "let go" of the armor, Tyler didn't have an issue with that. Of course, Tyler would be going with the literal meaning of let go rather than the implied meaning the speaker had. The speaker would want the armor slowed down before being let go, Tyler wouldn't be doing that. Plus, this was a golden opportunity to take on the three stolen ZAFT Gundams. Tyler was curious if the Alliance used some from their Enhanced Human Project. Tyler got on the same channel the female had used to demand things of him. He wouldn't miss the chance to give a fun retort that set up an even more hysterical scene. "Let him go you say," Tyler posed. "Well, since it's a girl asking me, certainly. I'll be more than happy to let go of the mobile armor, but are you sure that's what you want?"

Auel began laughing at Stella's screeching, but Sting wasn't so quick to dismiss what had been said or how it was stated. This enemy Gundam had little to no reason to do what Stella said. They likely had more power to work with than they did, so they just had to hold them until their power went dry if it came to combat. And the way they had replied didn't sit well with Sting. It had been worded carefully with the "let go" and the question which had followed. That made Sting more think that the release would occur while the spinning was still going. If that were true, Neo would tumble until he stabilized his armor. Sting knew that was not what Stella was asking for, even if she didn't understand the difference. He was going to tell Stella to hold on and think about what was being said, but he never got the chance. "I said let him go right now," Stella shouted.

Tyler smirked at the reply, hoping it was what he would get. He would use the response he would get to engage the three stolen Gundam. "As you wish," Tyler returned before he released his grip on the gunbarrel's wires. The moment the Aurora let go of the wires, the Exus flew in the direction it was released. The mobile armor was tumbling as it was sailing, having no control of its flight path. Tyler watched his work as the mobile armor cartwheeled and spun around in an uncontrolled flight. He enjoyed seeing a scumbag suffering as they should in whatever form it took. However, he wasn't given much time to take in his work as the Black Gundam rushed forward to attack him.

Neo had been jerked around as the spinning changed from a centripetal motion to a more chaotic one. Alarms were blaring in his cockpit as the Exus tumbled while it was sailing in a random direction. Neo attempted to use his flight controls to stabilize his armor, but what he tried did nothing to change his armor's situation. His machine's stabilizer unit was working on reestablishing directional flight, but input from the thrusters was scrambled. Neo tried his maneuvering thrusters to help the stabilizer unit and got little response. The force with which he had been thrown was hard to counter with what Neo had at his disposal. He would be stuck for a bit in the uncontrolled sail, and he could do little about it. Neo couldn't even know if he was being targeted by the enemy Gundam or if they were just letting him tumble for a while.

The long and short of the point was Neo had been beaten badly by the Federation pilot he'd gone against. It was something that didn't often happen to him since he had become part of Phantom Pain. The group was supposed to be the best of the best the Alliance had to work with and send out. And yet, Neo had been defeated by his opponent due to his underestimating and playing into their traps. He had few to blame other than himself for the loss, and he knew it. Neo was left to consider what changes he needed to look at so this kind of thing didn't happen again soon. He took losses as a learning experience that could teach him what he could improve upon.

Back with Tyler, he had turned to face the Gaia, who was rushing at him to attack. Tyler was prepared to receive his attacker and counter them. Stella drew a beam saber and raised it up to bring it down on the red enemy Gundam. Yet, as she was swinging down on the enemy, they spun out of the way and got behind her. The Aurora got behind the Gaia and kicked the Gundam away, sending the Gaia tumbling forward. Tyler had the Aurora bring up its plasma cannons to point behind him at the other two ZAFT Gundams. Sting and Auel had just enough time to glimpse Stella miss and be kicked before they found themselves facing beam cannons aimed at them. Sting rolled right while Auel moved left as the Aurora fired its plasma cannons at them. Tyler used his CWIS to pepper the Gaia to suck down its power further, as power was the key to when the battle with the three stolen Gundams.

Auel was mad that this enemy Gundam had not just outdone Neo who was supposed to be better than most, but they were making a fool out of them. They had sidestepped Stella and sent her away without her getting a hit. Then they got shots at Sting and him without them seeing it coming. The enemy Gundam was looking down on them and winning against all three of them right now. Auel didn't like or accept another outdoing him and his trio consistently, as that was a potential sign of failure. He would show that he could get a hit on this enemy Gundam and thus wasn't a failure. Thus, Auel took aim with his dual beam, 3-barrel beam, and multi-phase beam cannons at the red Gundam. Auel fired his nine beams at the enemy, looking forward to punching holes in the red machine.

After dealing with the black one, Tyler had twisted to face the other two stolen Gundam. He found the blue one had aimed weapons at him with its shoulder binders and cannons on its backpack. Nine beams zoomed at the Aurora, to which Tyler expanded his shield and activated its deflection system. Tyler calculated roughly the reflection point to have some of the beams hit the green Gundam. He was all for using his opponents' weapons against one another when he could. Turn them against each other and let them fight wearing them down so Tyler didn't have to do the work himself. It was an advantage and tactic which had proven useful against the Alliance a portion of the time. And if the trio had the same behavioral mentality as some from the Enhanced Human Project, then they would be easy to turn to each and fight. So, Tyler set his shield where he figured it would need to be and had the beams deflect off.

The beams redirected to head toward the Chaos just before hitting the enemy's shield. Sting managed to move his shield in front to block the three beams that were shooting toward him. He had been shocked when the enemy reflected Auel's beams, but he didn't have the time to react in any way other than blocking. The beams slammed into the Chaos's shield, but it forced him back a margin. Sting didn't let that throw him off, as he recovered quickly. He knew the battle with the red Gundam had just become more complicated. Not only had it reflected beams sent its way, but it was fighting in a way that would have him, Auel, and Stella using more power than them. Their opponent was correctly assuming they were running low on power. In comparison, the red Gundam had more power than they did, most likely. Thus, Sting knew this was a battle they couldn't win, and if they lost, things would be much worse for them. He used his shield's machine gun while getting on a channel with Auel and Stella. "You two, this is a battle we can't win," Sting stated. "I'll distract them while you both get to the ship."

Auel wasn't about to let Sting say this battle was already over when they had made a few attacks from the enemy. "You're claiming we've lost when we've barely attacked them," Auel challenged. "That's the coward's response, and I won't accept that!" Auel was forced to weave as the enemy Gundam used its beam rifle against him. The enemy Gundam rushed forward toward the Abyss, taking out a beam saber as it approached. Auel took out his beam lance and swung it down at the red machine. The shield caught the lance, and the Aurora reached and clamped down on the Abyss's right forearm. Auel noticed the action, but it didn't make sense as to what it gained for the enemy. The red Gundam began using its CWIS in the head, the shots making contact with the Abyss. An alarm started going off, which got Auel to look down at the display. The power level had started dropping faster with the peppering from the enemy machine. "What the" Auel exclaimed, "Its shots are draining my power faster."

Sting knew they couldn't win against the red Gundam, not with it having more power than them, likely combined. The deflection ability made the situation worse, with beam weapons being counter-able. And now the enemy had the means to drain power faster than regular attacks just added to the problems they had. The best option for them was for one of them to distract the enemy Gundam while the other two went to the ship. There was the chance that said machine that stayed behind would be captured. However, Sting was the most functional right now out of his trio and, thus, the most effective at being able to distract an enemy. So, Sting zoomed forward and crashed into the enemy machine, "Auel, I told you to get to the ship," Sting insisted. "I will be occupying the enemy Gundam while you go. I'll follow once you two are on the Girty Lue. The mission is done and we've done what we can right now, time to cut our losses and move on." Auel still didn't like the point, but with what the enemy had done, he couldn't argue with Sting effectively. If they faced the red Gundam again, they would team up and take it down to compensate for this. "Fine," Auel admitted, "I'll grab Stella and go. Just don't go doing something stupid that we all pay for." The Abyss moved away from the Aurora and headed toward the Gaia.

Sting focused back on the Aurora and shifted into a defensive position so he could conserve as much power as he could. Tyler could see what the three stolen Gundams were trying to do now. The green one was acting as a distractor while the other two headed for their carrier ship. Tyler had to admit the tactic was a good one, with the circumstances as they were. The green Gundam's pilot was likely the leader and had some qualities a leader needed. A leader needed to know when it was the time to cut losses and retreat. They also needed to know the time they needed to stand up and go into a dangerous position in order to help their team. Tyler felt the teen, or whatever age the pilot was, hadn't been involved with Milos. However, they had done things in the colony which no doubt put innocent lives at risk. So, while Tyler felt a tad sorry for his opponent, the fact was they were an enemy right now. Thus, Tyler swung the beam saber he had in hand at the Chaos.

Sting shifted his shield to catch the incoming saber and managed to stop the attack. Yet then, the Aurora double-kicked the Chaos in the torso sending it back a distance. Sting was jerked around though his restraints held him in the pilot seat. When Sting looked up at his opponent, they pointed their beam rifle at him. However, the beam rifle appeared slightly different than before, yet Sting didn't get much time to study it. Tyler fired his rifle in its stream mode at the Chaos. It was to see how durable ZAFT shields with anti-beam coating were now. It was one of the "flaws" shields with anti-beam coating, they could disburse, but they had issues with an unending beam. The beam slammed into Sting's shield, but it didn't disburse, it kept coming at the shield. His opponent had some kind of continuous beam to work with, which was bad. However, an alarm began going off, and Sting saw his shield was not taking the beam well the longer it went on. The beam was drilling into his shield, and it was only a matter of time before the shield would fail. Sting ended out spinning out from under the beam, shifting the Chaos into its armor mode, and flew toward the Girty Lue.

Tyler stopped his beam and watched the enemy Gundam running toward its carrier ship. Its shield had held up better than Tyler had expected, which said something for ZAFT development. Tyler noted the Alliance ship had turned away from the colony, showing they were preparing to run. The new ZAFT ship had joined the attack the Normandy had started against the Girty Lue. Tyler didn't like the Phantom Pain ship running away without more punishment they deserved. Yes, he damaged the ship somewhat, but that could easily be repaired, and they go forward. And the Normandy wouldn't be pursuing them with the stolen data taken care of now. ZAFT would be the ones who would like to hunt the Alliance ship rather than the Normandy.

Nonetheless, Tyler spotted the mobile armor heading back to the ship, signaling they were about to leave. Tyler doubted they would like any following them, and they did have fuel tanks they could detach, which could be turned into bombs. He wasn't going to let the Normandy take that kind of cheap shot from Phantom Pain. So, Tyler got onto the radio with the Normandy, "Lisa, target the fuel tanks on the enemy ship," he ordered. "With them leaving, they are likely to make those bombs, and I would rather they not get to use that against us."

Lisa had been looking at the fuel tanks with the same thoughts that Tyler was having. Fuel tanks could be made into explosive devices rather easily. But she had already ordered the positron banks to be charged for the ships Thor cannon to be used when needed. Now was as good a time as any to employ it against the enemy ship and prevent them from using their fuel tanks. Thus, the Thor cannon was brought out from its stored position, moving to be in line with the ship's bow. Lisa had Paris point the ship at the enemy starboard tank collection before she ordered the cannon fire. The Normandy's positron cannon fired its beam, which shot toward the Girty Lue.

Ian had started hoping the Girty Lue could still escape into the L4 colony cluster to lose their pursuers. The stolen mobile suits had made it back, and the captain's armor was returning. Having to see the captain whipped by being swung around by an enemy Gundam had been frightening. The Captain was an ace pilot, and he'd been beaten by a Federation pilot. Granted, it had been a Gundam pilot, but still, it was concerning for that to happen to a member of Phantom Pain. Then the Federation vessel had pointed its bow toward the Girty Lue after it had turned around to leave. Ian spotted a heavy cannon linked to the enemy ship's bow, now aimed at the Girty Lue. He ordered for the Girty Lue to evade and detach the spars and tanks. However, the positron beam struck the starboard spar before the detachment could happen. The port spar released just fine and was sailing back toward attacking enemy ships. Yet, the starboard spar stayed where it was. There was an alarm from one of the consoles, which Ian turned to, "What is going on." The console operator turned, "Commander, the starboard spar won't release," they replied. "The beam has shorted the release mechanism and won't respond to our commands."

Ian was sweating at hearing that, for that was very bad for the Girty Lue. If the spar couldn't release, an enemy could target and detonate the fuel tanks, damaging the Girty Lue. There was a message from the hangar from Captain Ronaoke, saying to detach spars and put the pedal to the floor. Ian hesitated on ordering the helm to push the remaining engines to get them out of the area. During that hesitation, the red enemy Gundam took the chance to nail the fuel tanks with its rifle. The explosion from the tanks detonating shook the Girty Lue hard. Ian told the helm to get the ship out of the area.

Neo had gotten out of his armor and told one of the hangar crew to tell the bridge to detach the spars and get them out of there. He headed toward the bridge after that so he could do what he could to keep the Girty Lue from being destroyed. Along the way, the ship shook hard, which worried Neo that either the Federation ship or the ZAFT vessel had scored a hit. He continued to the bridge to see what had happened and their potential trouble. When Neo arrived, he saw Ian was not looking the best, which wasn't encouraging. The Girty Lue had to leave and do so now, or they would be damaged further and likely lose. Neo glanced at Ian, "What shook the ship? Did we get hit," he asked.

Ian shook his head a bit, "Not exactly," he answered. "We were detaching one spar, but the other was struck before it could be. The shot shorted out the release controls and so couldn't be detached. Then the enemy Gundam shot the fuel tanks, which detonated, and we received damage to the outer hull." Ian sighed, "Our engines are at full output, so we should be able to get away for the moment." Things were bad, Neo knew that, but it was slightly worse than he wanted them to be. But they would escape, and that was better than being captured.

Talia saw Bogey One detach parts of itself which appeared to be a spar of some sort. The other was struck by the Federation vessel before it came off. That the Federation ship had a positron cannon was impressive and a tad concerning. For such a small ship class to have such a heavy cannon could mean other Federation ship classes had them now. But that was something to be looked at later and unlikely by her. Talia didn't like the action of the enemy ship, so she ordered the Minerva to bring out its positron cannon. The Tannhäuser fired and struck the tanks making them explode a short distance in front of the Minerva. The explosion blinded the ship's sensors for a moment, and that was long enough for Bogey One to gain distance away. Talia knew there was some cleanup to do before pursuing the enemy ship, so they had gotten away for the moment.

Tyler saw the enemy ship running, but the battle was over for the time being. As much as Tyler didn't like letting the scum getting away, there was little he could do about it right now. He turned to what needed to be done, which the ZAFT forces required help from the beating they had taken. So, Tyler told Luke and his colleagues to assist ZAFT with their recovery and cleanup. ZAFT had lost ships and mobile suits during the battle with Phantom Pain. Not that Tyler couldn't understand the results, ZAFT had been caught off-guard, and Phantom Pain had taken advantage of that. And Tyler still didn't know what had gone on inside the colony other than the Gundams being stolen. The mission he and the Normandy had been given had definitely been a strange one, as well as work involved.

His attention then shifted to the new ZAFT ship, which seemed to be leading the ZAFT forces in their recovery. Tyler got on the radio with the Normandy, "Lisa, see if you can get in touch with the new ZAFT ship," he said. "I think an information exchange is in order to get a fuller picture of what our quarry has been doing." Lisa agreed with Tyler, they needed to know what Phantom Pain had done while around Armory One. This group had been busy, and they needed to be tracked down and stopped. Thus, knowing their behavior could help in predicting where they would strike. "I'll get on it," Lisa replied.

Tyler moved on to helping the ZAFT mobile suits that were close to where he was. Many of them who had survived couldn't return to the ships they were supposed to. While Tyler was waiting for a message, the ZAFT vessel was willing to talk, and Luke and the others were doing the same. After Tyler helped the third ZAFT machine, Lisa contacted him saying Miss Alloy had gotten in touch with the "Minerva," the new ZAFT vessel. They had said they were willing to exchange information about the enemy group. With that in mind, Tyler flew back to the Normandy so he could head over to the ZAFT vessel. He landed back on the Normandy, welcomed back by the hangar crew with applause. Tyler took a bow, happy to impress those that had questioned what he could do in his Gundam.

Once back on the Normandy, Tyler contacted the bridge to see what message had been sent to the Minerva. From what Lisa said, Miss Alloy had told the Minerva not to rush off after the Girty Lue to hunt it down. Tyler would've ordered a ship to chase the Alliance vessel so as not to give it time to gain distance and repair their damage. However, the information exchange would help create a better picture of this group. That picture could help prepare those who would hunt the ship down. Phantom Pain was known for using deception to its advantage if they could. Miss Alloy did mention the Minerva had sounded begrudged about waiting. Tyler just hoped they would listen and take the information which could be put out seriously.

He asked Chief Volyon to ready the ship shuttle to head out that the Normandy had. Tyler would use that to get over to the Minerva to talk with its captain. As the shuttle moved into the hangar's center, Tyler heard the hangar's entrance open. He turned and saw Jenkins and a couple of the Normandy's boarding team come into the room. Tyler was curious why Jenkins was in the hangar as the boarding team had done their task with the enemy vessel and done it well. He was more mystified when Jenkins approached Tyler directly and saluted, "Captain." Tyler nodded to Jenkins, "What brings you and your colleagues down to the hangar, Jenkins," he asked. "Well, Captain," Jenkins started, "The word is you will be going over to the ZAFT vessel, is that right?"

Tyler did indeed plan on going to the Minerva to talk to its captain. But why that matter to the soldiers on the Normandy, Tyler couldn't figure it out. So, Tyler nodded to Jenkins, "That is the plan, yes," he returned. "Is there a reason, you ask, Jenkins?" Jenkins took a breath, "A commanding officer shouldn't go to a non-allied vessel alone, let alone the captain." Tyler blinked, "Are you trying to say you want some to come with me," he asked. Jenkins nodded in response, "Protocol states that a ship officer should be accompanied by soldiers."

While Tyler knew the protocol being referred to by Jenkins, it had never been applied to him. But then, Tyler hadn't been a ship officer until his promotion to captain, so it never came up until now. It was a reminder of how used to working with a small group, or alone Tyler had become with his work in SOLAS. And yet, Jenkins had been against Tyler going with any of the soldiers at first, so this was odd. "I must say," Tyler began, "This is a change. As I recall, you were quite against being around me going off the ship. What changed from then to now?"

Jenkins didn't reply immediately since Captain McGregor was right that he hadn't wanted an officer to accompany the boarding team. The ship officers he'd been around before had been annoying and didn't have field experience. The time on Milos had shown Captain McGregor wasn't like those officers. McGregor had field experience, and that had saved the boarding team. Jenkins would admit when he was wrong, especially when his team had been saved by it. "I admit you aren't like any ship officer I've met, as you said," Jenkins stated. "And because of your actions and observations, the boarding team members are alive with what the Alliance did to the station." Jenkins paused, "You have earned the respect of those of us on the boarding team. I know I don't want another ship officer to replace you, so it best to ensure you don't disappear."

Tyler wasn't aware he'd impressed the boarding team so much with what went down at Milos. He'd just been doing his best not to lose people due to Phantom Pain's actions back at the time. But Tyler had apparently earned more loyalty from the Normandy's crew than he thought he had. So, Tyler shrugged, "Fair enough," he replied, "Choose three to accompany me to the ZAFT vessel. I see no reason to argue this as I don't mind some backup even if it is unlikely needed." Tyler remained in his pilot suit and headed toward the shuttle as Jenkins chose some with him to go with Tyler. With the three chosen, they went to the shuttle and boarded with Tyler before it was sealed.

The Normandy lowered its electron rails along with a section of the ship's lower hull which was a launch track. It was meant for use with mobile suits on Earth and the ship shuttle on Earth and in space. The shuttle was lowered to the track and connected to the track's ram. The craft shot off the catapult and cleared the Normandy. The shuttle then changed its course to head toward the Minerva, which was among the ZAFT ships. Tyler was in the copilot seat with one of the soldiers driving the shuttle. He just hoped the information exchange went smoothly with the ZAFT captain. Both sides needed to have a bigger picture for the group they had been dealing with, even if for different reasons. And not all ZAFT captains were inclined to listen to potentially helpful information, which wouldn't do anything for anyone. The situation was bad enough already, having intimidation contests were the last thing needed. Plus, Tyler couldn't be intimidated by most, not after facing some of the women in his life.

A/n

Alright, I'll leave off there and pick up in the next phase. Now onto the highlighting and explaining about things from the Phase. There is an amount to talk about as there are some changes from the original version. Let me start with our first scene between Neo and Tyler as there so some things to point out. So, Tyler is out as he wants to be. Honestly, he wants to whip so rear and I can't really blame him due to what he saw at Milos. However, he does give a general view of what he believes is going on inside the colony. We know he isn't that far off with his assumptions but that is just how he is. He also has already figured out Neo is the leader of the Alliance group causing the trouble. And while it is obvious that Neo is the leader to the readers, in the story it isn't. As has been shown, Tyler has a knack for being able to tell who is the leader of a group he may deal with.

On the other hand, Neo went out to try to get things heading for a close so the Girty Lue could leave. I want to make it clear if I haven't done so already, Neo isn't dumb or blind by power and/or hatred as some are in the Alliance. Because of that point, Neo isn't so blind to think everything with his plan will go great guaranteed to happen. He planned for something's but not everything as some would claim. While his loose plan does go okay in the end, it hits some "hard rocks" along the way. Granted, we knew when the Normandy caught up such would complicate Neo's plans, but that isn't all that changed. We get a view of what Neo thinks of the Federation which also differs from many in OMNI. Neo knows the Federation shouldn't be underestimated. He's read between the lines and seen the Federation handles things proficiently with those that cross them.

Shifting to the actual fight between the two, Tyler being who he is, springs a surprise attack and puts Neo on the defensive. Tyler does note that Neo is different than those from OMNI he's dealt with previously. Of course, that doesn't discourage Tyler from "prodding" and "daring" another to react extremely to his behavior. Now, I won't give a blow by blow detailed commentary about the battle as I feel that would ruin it. Instead, I'll just highlight a few things that I felt were interesting. So, the first thing is Tyler's use of the colony's gravitational field. This was new from the original and I felt it helped wind up Neo during the chase. Remember Tyler wants Neo to be focus on him and not what is happening around them. The messages that Tyler sends Neo are intended to tick him off through insults, nothing more than that even if other implications could be seen. The waving the Aurora's backside is just the icing on the cake that Tyler is trying to shove down Neo's throat. Of course, when the stolen Gundams are spotted, the fight shifts momentarily. Tyler goes for the three and throws them off before returning his attention to Neo. Neo tries to stop Tyler but fails in that moment. Tyler then pulls Neo to chasing him into the tighter space of the colony structure. Neo doesn't follow but does attack from the outside. Tyler does dodge all of that further annoying Neo.

Pause with the battle for a moment, and moving to the next scene which is happening at the same time. Back with the Minerva, those that didn't pursue the enemy Gundams reach the ship and cause a ruckus. So the standoff is a tad different than the original and not the same as canon. I want to state I'm not a Lunamaria hater, she is a nice character in the story. But I would say that she's under a lot of stress from the situation. Aila is out before being able to do anything, but she's been bleeding since just before the fight had started. Matt is one of my newer characters which I will be using with the Minerva, so he is here to stay. He don't take guff for long if at all, you readers will see this as the story goes on.

The other half of the scene takes place on the Minerva's bridge. Talia is under stress with the situation that is going on. With the com-exchange down, the inside of the colony has no communication with the outside. Talia has already figured those outside are doing poorly if not worse. The Minerva would leave without the expert pilots they were to have which hurts the ship's chances. Plus, it would be carrying the Chairman for the time being which made it even more important for the Minerva to not be sunk. And yet, Talia knows letting the Alliance steal the Gundams will only bring more trouble later on. Now let's get to where the two scenes merge together and we get to the good parts.

So, Tyler is still taunting Neo and comes out of the colony structure without a scratch as proof of that. Tyler and Neo do a few more laps before the Minerva comes out, which both notice. AS we've come to expect from Tyler, he doesn't go small and buzzes right past the Minerva in clear view of them. The two keep fighting before coming to the "game" Tyler suggests. With phase shift armor, Tyler knows he will win the game as he could crash into the armor and not be concerned about damage. Of course, Neo doesn't know he is going against a Gundam with phase shift armor. However, it is at this point that Neo has the revelation that he is being led on by Tyler. The game puts the fight on pause for a bit letting Neo go to the trio and Tyler to do other things on the field.

Now, I would hope you readers have learned by this point that leaving Tyler to his own devices is a very bad idea for his opponents. In fact, he has a habit of making that point bite those who ignore him in the butt hard, and this time is no exception. However, instead of prodding Neo directly further, Tyler goes for the Girty Lue. I won't go into detail about the Girty Lue part as it is simple and needs little explanation. It was all meant for Tyler to get Neo's attention and get him to fight Tyler. Now, Tyler wins the fight, no real surprise there. Yet, unlike the original, Tyler uses the spinning trick he did against the Blitz which is more amusing.

Lastly, the "fight" between the Aurora and the three stolen Gundams. Remember, the three are running low on power at the time the fight begins. Plus, two of the three are not in the best emotional states to be fighting with. Anyways, to say Tyler whipped the three would be an understatement. He infuriates Stella with doing what she said instead of what she meant by throwing Neo. She then is humiliated as Tyler defeats her in essentially one move. Auel and Sting aren't safe either as Tyler uses his plasma cannons. We know Tyler isn't an ordinary pilot, but the times like this when he shows that can be funny but scary as well. Sting is the first to realize his trio couldn't win against the Aurora. He shows some courage by volunteering to distract Tyler while the other two escape to the Girty Lue.

Sorry this Phase is so long, it just ended out that way. But I hope you enjoyed the conclusion to the battle which has been going on for the last two phases and this one. As always, I ask that some of you to take the time to write a review and tell me what you think, ask questions, or bring up something you noticed. I read reviews, even if I don't answer them, work and school sucks down much of my time. The next phase will hopefully ready in two weeks, titled: "Exchange." Peace out until the next Phase!