Seeing that Sting, Stella, and Auel had successfully docked in the Girty Lue, Neo extended his Exus's gunbarrels and flew towards the two pursuing ZAFT suits. Shinn, having read about the Earth Alliance's outdated mobile armors from the first war at the academy, assumed this pink and white unit would be no different, only to find himself subject to a multi-directional attack by the four gunbarrels. He wasn't able to dodge every beam fired at him, and each shot he deflected with his shield pushed him towards another gunbarrel, creating a relentless cycle that seemingly would only end in his death.
Smiling a predatory smile, Neo prepared to close in for the kill before being interrupted by the pressure from earlier returning. Trying to locate its source, he quickly found it in the form of whoever was piloting the white ZAKU Phantom that flew in front of the Impulse and blocked the killshot intended for it.
"Hmmm… he even has a white mobile suit," Neo thought to himself as he redirected his gunbarrels toward the ZAKU, now more certain than ever that its pilot was somehow related to his gene donor's rival and therefore the greater threat.
Trying to ignore the sudden pressure in his head, Rey swiftly wove through the mobile armor's enveloping attack before destroying one of the gunbarrels with a well-placed shot from his rifle. Seeing his friend gaining the advantage over the enemy, Shinn ignited a beam saber and charged back into the fray, the battle remaining a stalemate until the three pilots picked up a new signal, the Minerva's, on their sensors.
"A ship?" Neo asked aloud as he saw ZAFT's new battleship on the approach, its vector suggesting it had detected the Girty Lue.
Deciding further battle would jeopardize the mission, Neo withdrew to his ship as their pursuers opened fire, pushing the Exus to its limit as he narrowly avoided several shots that came in too close for comfort. Reentering the Girty Lue so fast that his mobile armor nearly tore through buffer netting deployed for it, the first thing Neo did was order Lee to get them out of there, which the commanding officer obliged by gunning the ship's engines as the Minerva locked on to them.
Seeing the Girty Lue fleeing, the Minerva launched return flares to signal Shinn and Rey to return to the ship. Once the two mobile suits were clear, the ZAFT battleship accelerated and fired its beam and projectile cannons as its quarry went hard to port and detached its gas propulsion systems.
"Bogey One has detached part of its hull," one of the Minerva's helmsmen alerted Captain Talia Gladys, using the codename given to the Earth Alliance ship until it could be properly identified, as the two objects drifted towards them.
"Break off firing! Ten to starboard! Maximum thrust!" she quickly ordered, having already realized the discarded parts were some sort of propulsion device. Unfortunately, it was too late, and the gas propulsors impacted against the Minerva before exploding in a bright flash of light, temporarily knocking out its sensors and sending tremors throughout the entire ship.
"All stations, damage reports immediately!" First Officer Arthur Trine frantically requested in an attempt to help his captain regain control of the situation as the flash subsided.
"Sensor officer, get me the enemy ship immediately!" Talia demanded, anticipating a counterattack at any moment. "Activate CIWS and anti-beam depth charges, they'll be firing on us any minute now!"
"Found it!" the officer declared as the systems rebooted. "Red 88, Mark Six Charlie. Distance, five hundred."
"Did they get away?" Arthur asked as Talia realized Boogey One had never intended to fire on them. In the meantime, Rey, having wondered what could cause the Minerva to shake so violently, entered the bridge to find out. Durandal, turning his head to see who had come through the doors, smiled at his adopted son when he saw it was him.
"Chairman!?" Rey asked aloud in confusion as he briefly forgot the reason he came to the bridge in the first place, not knowing he had come aboard the ship before it left port.
"We seem to be facing a first class unit, Captain," Durandal said to Talia after returning his attention to her, wanting to gauge how she would handle the unfolding situation.
"That is precisely why we need to pursue them," she replied, having already decided what needed to be done. "It's too late to have you disembark now, Chairman. I believe we need to pursue that ship now. What do you think, sir?"
Despite what he knew, Durandal couldn't help but fondly smile at Talia's simultaneous decisiveness and deference, traits he had appreciated in their past relationship.
"Captain, there's no need to worry about me," he assured her, suppressing his nostalgia as he slipped back into his role as Chairman and architect. "We must recapture or destroy these machines as soon as we can, lest this situation escalate into a new war."
"Thank you very much, sir," Talia replied, suppressing her own feelings before turning her attention to the bridge. "Then this ship will renew its pursuit of the enemy vessel known as 'Bogey One.' Set course, Yellow Alpha. Engines at maximum! Raise the bridge!"
Hearing her orders, the bridge crew set the Minerva's engines to maximum thrust and began the raising sequence while Arthur opened the ship's intercom.
"Attention, all hands!" he began, doing his best to emulate the captain's authoritative tone. "The Minerva is continuing its pursuit of Bogey One. As a result of unforeseen circumstances, our maiden voyage has become a combat mission. This is your opportunity to demonstrate everything you've learned during training. Do not disappoint us!"
"What did he say!?" Athrun asked aloud in the ship's sickbay as the chief medical officer finished dressing Cagalli's wound, the two of them and Lunamaria having heard the announcement. Hearing his outburst, Luna went over to the room's communication panel and opened a line to the bridge.
"Captain," she began in a professional tone, drawing Talia's attention to the screen. "The battle prevented me from submitting this report until now. As the Minerva took off, we took aboard a ZAKU that was piloted by two civilians, who we took into custody."
"I see. Have they identified themselves?" Talia asked in response.
"Yes ma'am. They claim to be Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha of the Orb Union and her bodyguard," Luna answered, deciding not to risk an uproar by naming Athrun. "They requested medical attention and a meeting with Chairman Durandal."
"The princess?" Durandal rhetorically asked as he rose from his chair, hiding his amusement at the coincidence of it all.
"I acted on my own initiative and took them to the sickbay, where they are currently receiving the medical attention they requested. That is all," Luna concluded before signing off, Durandal immediately heading to the bridge afterward.
"Would you care to join me, Captain?" he asked Talia, not mentioning the identity of Cagalli's bodyguard because he was curious about how she would react. "In situations such as these, I believe it would be good to have a bodyguard as well."
Talia briefly bit her lip to keep from smiling at Durandal's apparent gesture, even though she knew he had some ulterior motive for specifically asking her to attend him. Conversely, Rey put up a dispassionate expression between briefly scowling at the captain.
"Of course, Chairman," she answered as she rose from chair, briefly turning her attention to her first officer. "Arthur, you have the bridge."
"Uh, yes ma'am," he stammered, distracted by his own jealousy over the effect the Chairman had on Talia.
With the bridge squared away, Talia followed Durandal out the exit, with Rey leaving and returning to the hangar soon afterward.
Neo wore his mask for two reasons. The first was to hide that he bore the face of his gene donor, and the second was to conceal whenever he felt disgust, and right now, he certainly felt disgust as he watched the Cradles tamper with Sting, Stella, and Auel's memories. Unlike him, they had been normal children once, with families and aspirations, only to be stripped of their innocence and molded into human weapons, their thoughts not even their own anymore. He looked away from the sight, his composure slipping by just being there, and returned to the bridge.
"Somehow, we managed to pull this off," Ian drily commented as Neo entered the bridge and took the seat next to him. "Do you think that new ZAFT ship is coming after us?"
"I don't know," Neo admitted, smiling at the prospect of another battle to silence the turmoil in his head. "But since I don't know, let's assume it is and keep on our present course."
"Hmmm… and how are the Extendeds doing?" Ian asked after considering his peer's course of action.
"Currently asleep in their Cradles," Neo replied, his smile giving way to a more neutral expression. "They seem to be alright, but it appears Auel used Stella's block word."
"Does the Lab truly think pilots who need their memories edited after every mission will be of use to us?" Ian inquired, having heard of how unstable the Biological CPUs were in the last war, a question which privately annoyed Neo.
"Unlike the last batch, Lee, these guys know how to follow orders," he sharply insisted out of a sense of protectiveness for the three kids, cowing the Girty Lue's commanding officer. "And besides, everything seems to be in its trial phase these days. This ship, the mobile suits, their pilots, our world."
"And me…" Neo added in his head before rising from his observer's chair, going to a nearby console to review the data on the three captured machines, certain their armaments and combat capabilities would be worth more to the Earth Alliance than the casualties and treaty violations they incurred to steal them.
"But don't worry," he assured Ian, slipping back into his identity as a captain of Phantom Pain. "When all of this is over, when the trial phase gives way to proven results, it will be Earth, not the PLANTs, that come out on top."
"For the preservation of our blue and pure world!" Ian proudly replied, inflaming the morale of the bridge crew and reminding Neo of the second reason he wore his mask.
Talia normally considered herself an unflappable woman, but even she was surprised to see that the Chief Representative's bodyguard was Athrun Zala, the son of the late Patrick Zala.
"Is this why you wanted me to come with you, Gilbert?" she wondered to herself, still unsure of what his actual motives were.
"Words cannot begin to express my regret over what has happened, Princess," Durandal began to say after the four of them moved to the officers' quarters and took a seat, already patronizing Cagalli again. "I ask for both your forgiveness and your understanding."
"Have you learned anything about these enemy units yet?" Cagalli bluntly asked in response, frowning at the Chairman's choice of words but trying to ignore them.
"Unfortunately, we haven't," he admitted, "which is why it's imperative that we pursue and neutralize them before it's too late."
"I agree," she replied, feeling strangely relieved to find actual common ground with her fellow head of state. "We must do everything we can to preserve our world's fragile peace, no matter what."
"I'm glad you see things that way, Princess," Durandal said, his tone quickly dispelling the begrudging respect Cagalli began to feel for him. "You do not disappoint."
Athrun silently ground his teeth at the way the Chairman treated his girlfriend, his subtly irritated expression briefly drawing the man's curious gaze before he returned his attention to Cagalli.
"If you'd like, I'd be more than pleased to give you a guided tour of the ship while we have the time," Durandal offered as he rose from his seat, drawing Talia's ire.
"Sir, is it really wise to let foreign dignitaries tour the Minerva!?" she asked in protest, concerned about further military secrets being compromised after the theft of the three new mobile suits.
"As temporary as it might be, we are asking them to place their lives in our hands, Captain," the Chairman explained to placate her. "Surely, we can afford to give our friends this gesture of good faith."
Cagalli glared at Durandal after he called her his friend, wondering if the PLANTs had replaced Eileen Canaver with him because they preferred being led by slimeballs.
"I… understand, sir," Talia conceded. "Then, with your approval, I'll return to the bridge."
"Granted, but would you please tell Rey to accompany us?" he formally requested, a polite smile on his lips.
"Of course," she replied before saluting him and leaving the room, letting him turn his attention to his guests.
"Chief Representative, Athrun, please come with me," he told them as he also left the room.
Feeling a mutual sense of deja vu, Athrun and Cagalli exchanged perplexed looks before getting up and following him.
"Wait, you're telling me Athrun Zala is the Chief Representative's bodyguard?" Shinn asked Luna as the two of them floated in front of her ZAKU in the Minerva's hangar, realizing he had piloted the green ZAKU that tried to help him back at Armory One.
"I know! It's such an amazing coincidence!" Luna enthusiastically replied, finally able to express her excitement over meeting two war heroes in a single day. "I'd heard Athrun had moved to Orb with Lacus Clyne after the war, but who would've guessed he'd be guarding Cagalli Yula Athha now!?"
While Shinn hadn't come to the PLANTs until after the Junius Treaty was signed, he heard plenty of stories about Athrun Zala at the academy. The up-and-coming squad leader who turned against his genocidal father, supposedly out of love for his fiancé, Lacus Clyne, and helped the Clyne Faction end the war, only to drop completely off the grid afterwards. Now he was on the Minerva, not as a ZAFT soldier, but as a citizen of Orb, his former homeland.
Shinn opened his mouth to respond to Luna, but he then saw the doors to the hanger open out of the corner of his eye, from which four individuals emerged. He immediately recognized Rey and Durandal, and knew who Athrun was based on what people had said about him, but his gaze narrowed on the blonde girl with a bandage wrapped around her head, a face he had seen many times back when he called Orb home.
"Cagalli Yula Athha…" he venomously whispered between gritted teeth, an ember of hate and resentment burning within him as he unconsciously floated towards the four of them.
"Hey Shinn, what's the matter?" Luna asked her friend as she followed him, her question left unanswered. While Shinn was well known for having a short fuse, she had never seen him so single-mindedly angry before, and it frightened her.
"The ZGMF-1000 Zodiac Alliance Keeper of Unity, also known as the ZAKU," Durandal explained to Athrun and Cagalli as the three of them, accompanied by Rey, entered the hangar. "At present, it is our primary mobile suit."
Neither Athrun or Cagalli said anything as they listened to Durandal, both of them dismayed at his seeming enthusiasm over these weapons of war, while Rey simply observed from the rear.
"And then, of course, there's the Impulse," he remarked, gesturing towards the divided prototype as it rested in its special docking system. "You must've seen it in action at Armory One."
"Yes, I did," Cagalli replied, suddenly realizing she had an opening to discuss a pressing matter from a position of strength. "I also saw the three stolen units in action, and noticed something disturbing."
"Oh, and what would that be, Chief Representative?" Durandal inquired with a thin smile and an arched eyebrow.
"Why would the PLANTs, a nation located entirely in space, need to develop advanced prototype mobile suits that appear to be intended for use on Earth?" she rhetorically asked in response, alluding to the Abyss, Gaia, and their respective mobile armor modes.
Athrun and Rey both shifted uncomfortably at the implications carried by Cagalli's question, while Durandal simply retained his smile.
"Need I remind you, princess, that ZAFT operates bases at Carpentaria and Gibraltar?" he inquired, quickly working around the unexpected question. "Those bases, while on Earth, are as much part of the PLANTs as the colonies we call home. Why shouldn't we do our utmost to defend them?"
Athrun continued listening to the conversation, finding it hard to argue against the chairman's point.
"Defense is one thing, provocation is another," Cagalli insisted, refusing to back down. "Your attempt to shore up your defenses backfired, and now whoever stole those mobile suits could use their capabilities to start a new war."
"Cagalli, please!" Athrun intervened, concerned that his girlfriend had overstepped her boundaries. Still smiling, Durandal prepared to counter with what happened at Heliopolis two years ago, but was cut off by Shinn, who had been eavesdropping on their argument the entire time, his anger reaching a boiling point.
"We don't need the Athhas telling us how to defend ourselves!" Shinn yelled, drawing the attention of the four individuals towards him.
"Shinn, what the hell!?" Luna indignantly asked from behind while Rey floated towards them. She knew about what happened to his family at Orb when the Earth Alliance invaded, but the scope of his rage never occurred to her.
"Not in front of the Chairman!" Rey admonished, sympathetic to his friend's anger, but not if it embarrassed him in front of Durandal.
Her own temper flaring, Cagalli met the piercing gaze of the young redcoat who had the gall to insult her family, but the intercom stopped her before she could say anything.
"Enemy vessel detected! Distance, eight thousand!" Meyrin announced from the bridge, drawing everyone's attention. "Going to Condition Red! Pilots are to standby in their machines!"
Still angry but aware of the situation, Shinn went to the locker room to put on his pilot suit, with Luna following suit, a concerned look on her face. Rey, on the other hand, briefly remained behind to address Durandal and his guests.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. He will be disciplined for his actions," he apologetically promised before saluting and floating off to prepare for battle.
"My sincerest apologies, princess," Durandal said to Cagalli as he turned to her and Athrun, his words somewhat shaking her out of her rage. "That young pilot is from Orb, so that kind of statement is something I hadn't expected from him."
Cagalli felt unsure of what to say as she processed this information, silently following after Durandal as he went towards the bridge, with Athrun taking up the rear. He considered saying something about her prior comments, but chose to keep his silence until they were somewhere private instead.
Despite the Minerva being on red alert, Luna lingered outside the locker rooms until Shinn had suited up and came out, after which she floated towards him, blocking his path. As his squadmate, she was concerned about his anger affecting his performance on the battlefield, but more importantly, as his friend, she wanted to help him if he needed it.
"Shinn, what's going on?" she asked him, hoping he would give her something of an answer.
"Nothing," he brusquely replied as he brushed past her before coming to a hesitant stop and turning back around to face her, a regretful look on his face. "I don't want to talk about it now, okay?"
Luna detected the undertone of anger in Shinn's voice, but before she could say anything else, he turned around and went towards the Core Splendor, leaving her alone with Rey as he finished suiting up.
"Now's not the time, Luna," he advised without stopping. "Come on."
"Fine," she conceded, following him towards their ZAKUs.
"I don't expect the enemy to enter the Debris Belt on purpose, but it's a dangerous area for fighting nonetheless, so be careful," Talia remarked as the Minerva entered the sea of detritus left behind from the war and mankind's prior expansion into space before turning to Meyrin. "Are the pilots ready?"
"Yes ma'am!" the young communications officer enthusiastically replied.
Before she could say anything else, Talia heard the sound of doors opening behind her. Turning around, she saw Durandal, accompanied by Athrun and Cagalli, entering the bridge, the sight of them turning the heads of the rest of the bridge crew
"Chairman?" she asked, not entirely surprised by his presence but still wondering why he was there.
"I have a request to make, Captain," he began, ignoring her confusion. "I'd like our guests from Orb to observe the battle. Both of them are combat veterans, so I believe we might benefit from their perspective."
Athrun and Cagalli simply listened and said nothing while awaiting the captain's answer, both of them having spent enough time interacting with Durandal to know there was an agenda in his praise.
"If that's what you wish, Chairman, I'll allow it," Talia eventually replied, not liking his idea but disinterested in starting an argument when the enemy was nearby.
"Thank you, Talia," he gratefully said in a vaguely patronizing tone before gesturing for Athrun and Cagalli to join him on the observer platform's seats.
"Lower the bridge!" Talia commanded once the guests were seated, dismissing the chairman referring to her by her given name as an unimportant concern. "All hands, prepare for anti-ship and anti-mobile suit combat! We will sink Bogey One!"
As the bridge lowered and lights dimmed, Durandal, sensing an opportunity brought on by Talia's choice of words, turned to Athrun, his characteristic thin smile across his lips.
"Ah, Bogey One. A designation applied to something we don't know the actual name of," he started to say, his lips curling at the confused look his guest gave him. "But what if that name gives it something to hide behind, to pretend to be something it isn't? What would that mean, Athrun?"
Cagalli could feel the discomfort rising from Athrun at the chairman's words like a miasma. She was almost tempted to take his hand to calm him down, but reluctantly decided against it for the sake of decorum.
"I… I don't know, Chairman," Athrun eventually lied, realizing Durandal was talking about him. "It's just a military designation."
"Hmmm… I see," he politely replied before turning his attention to the Debris Belt, having gotten exactly what he wanted from Athrun's response.
"Impulse, fourteen hundred from Bogey One," a helmsman reported, much to the surprise of everyone on the bridge.
"It hasn't changed course yet?" Arthur asked while Talia and Athrun processed this information, both of them eventually coming to the same conclusion.
"A DECOY!" they simultaneously exclaimed, spurring the bridge crew to determine what was going on and regain control of the situation before it was too late.
Sting smugly smiled as he watched the Impulse, a red Gunner ZAKU Warrior, and two GuAIZ Rs fly past him, Stella, and Auel in pursuit of the Girty Lue, which had deployed a decoy and used an asteroid to reposition itself, giving the three of them ample time to set up an ambush.
"Auel, Stella, let's get them!" he declared before the three of them emerged from the debris they were hiding in. Letting Auel provide covering fire with the Abyss's cannons, Sting loosed the Chaos's weapon pods and set them towards the enemy, overwhelming and destroying one of the GuAIZ Rs before it could even react.
"Damnit! Scatter and take them on one-to-one!" Shinn quickly ordered Luna and the other GuAIZ R pilot as he dodged beam shots from the Chaos's pods before he noticed a new single appearing on the Impulse's sensors. "Bogey One!?"
There were times where Neo could enjoy his work, and this was one of them. Through a mixture of quick thinking and manipulation of the Debris Belt's environment, the Girty Lue had successfully outmaneuvered the Minerva and could attack them from behind, using the sea of junk around them to ward off most counterattacks. Engrossed in the moment, he signaled the attack with a simple gesture, which Ian noticed and acted accordingly.
"Deploy the Dagger teams! Start the engines!" Lee ordered, looking forward to an opportunity to sink ZAFT's newest battleship. "Load missile launchers one through eight! Target that ship with the main guns!"
At his command, the Girty Lue's weapons and engines roared to life, the battleship thrusting forward while two Dagger Ls, both equipped with Doppelhorn Strikers, launched from its linear catapult.
"Heat source at Blue Nineteen Mark Charlie!" one of the Minerva's helmsmen reported as he turned to face Talia. "Captain, it's Bogey One and two mobile suits. Distance, five hundred! Detecting targeting lasers."
"Fire anti-beam depth charges thirty degrees starboard!" Talia commanded, having no time to be taken by surprise. "Aim Tristans, now!"
"No can do! The mobile suits are flanking us!" the helmsman replied.
Thinking fast, Talia scanned the debris field around her ship, quickly noticing a nearby asteroid that she could use to her advantage.
"Engines to maximum! Turn us around using that starboard asteroid as a shield!"
The helmsman obliged, swerving starboard and aiming the Tristans accordingly. Despite the resulting bumpy ride, the missiles that weren't shot down by the Minerva hit the asteroid instead of the ship, just as Talia predicted. "Meyrin, call Shinn and the others back and launch our remaining machines immediately! Helmsman, use the asteroid to protect us from direct hits! Arthur, return fire!"
"Yes ma'am!" Arthur frantically replied. "Launchers 5 and 10, load and fire interceptor missiles!"
Despite the battle unfolding around him, Durandal kept his eyes on Athrun and Cagalli, waiting to see how they would react to the situation, if at all.
"Gotcha!" Auel sadistically declared as he fired the Abyss's beam cannons at a large piece of debris, destroying the GuAIZ R that had taken cover behind it.
"DAMMIT! They've already taken out two of us!" Luna cried out in frustration as she and Shinn now found themselves outnumbered by the three stolen prototypes. Hearing a ping, she quickly looked down to see an urgent text dispatch from the Minerva ordering them to fall back. "The enemy set a trap for us, and we walked right into it!"
"I know, but how can we get back to the Minerva when we're pinned down here!?" Shinn rhetorically asked in response as he continued dodging the Chaos's weapon pods, having received the same dispatch.
Finding the Gaia on her tail as it transformed into its mobile armor mode for increased speed, Luna veered towards a cluster of pre-Cosmic Era satellites. Landing on one of them and turning around, she aimed her beam cannon at the charging mobile suit and fired. Anticipating the attack, Stella leapt out of the way at the last minute, the beam blast vaporizing the satellite she had just been running on.
"You're finished," Stella dispassionately remarked as she dodged a second shot from the red ZAKU before firing her own beam cannon at it. Gunning her thrusters, Luna dodged the attack and took off, only for the Gaia to pounce on her and send her machine hurtling towards the windows of an abandoned colony, her sensors picking up the Blast Impulse on the other side.
"Shinn!" she cried out to alert him as she crashed through the windows and slammed into the wall, just barely avoiding a collision.
Despite having been chased into the colony by the Abyss and Chaos, Shinn, seeing his friend crash in front of him, immediately swerved to the left, unfurled the Blast Silhouette's beam cannons, and fired both of them at the Gaia, forcing it to fall back.
"You okay, Luna?" he quickly asked, still aiming his guns as he saw her ZAKU stand back up.
"No, but I'm still alive," she quipped back, needing to find some humor to cope with what could be her impending death. "God, this sucks."
"I know, but we need to keep moving," Shinn sympathetically insisted before taking off, Luna following him.
The smile of a hunter cornering his prey crept onto Neo's lips as the Girty Lue and its two Dagger Ls chased the Minerva around the asteroid that quickly became a double-edged sword for it. While the asteroid provided some degree of protection, it also prevented the ZAFT battleship from deploying mobile suits or firing most of its weapons. All he needed to do was neutralize it before it could escape, and he already had a plan.
"That ship's still in it," Ian observed, shaking Neo from his thoughts.
"Yes, but once it stops moving, it's finished," Neo replied as he rose from his seat. "Fire missiles into the asteroid! I think we should treat our prey to a spectacular rock show, one that will become their tomb!"
"Yes sir!" a helmsman replied while Neo turned his attention to Ian.
"Have the hangar crew prep my Exus for launch," he left the bridge, unable to deny his bloodlust anymore. "I want to personally finish them off!"
"Understood," the Girty Lue's commanding officer said, concealing his annoyance at his departing superior's apparent vainglory.
"Incoming missiles!" a helmsman reported as the Earth Alliance battleship launched another salvo at the Minerva.
Having an unobstructed view of the sensors, Athrun leaned in to see where the enemy's attack would hit, only to notice that the missiles' trajectory seemed off. Looking up at a viewscreen, he saw that the Minerva was dangerously close to the asteroid and extrapolated where the missiles were actually going to hit.
"Hey, they're aiming at the asteroid! You have to get us away from it!" Athrun yelled at the helmsmen, getting even more agitated when they and the rest of the bridge turned to look at him.
"Don't just sit there!" Cagalli impulsively added to back her boyfriend up, even though she hadn't actually registered what he said. "Do it now!"
Agitated at her command being interfered with by foreign civilians, Talia opened her mouth to silence them, only to be interrupted by the missiles detonating against the asteroids, sending shockwaves of rocks slamming into the Minerva, damaging the linear catapult, two thrusters, and several port and starboard weapons.
"GET US CLEAR, NOW!" she ordered, but the helmsmen were unable to follow her commands before a fragment larger than the ship itself crashed in front of it, trapping them.
No longer disoriented from the shower of rocks slamming against the Minerva, Meyrin checked her instruments, discovering a mobile armor had joined the two mobile suits flanking them.
"Ma'am, we have an Exus-class mobile armor incoming!" she alerted Talia, who opened a line to the hangar deck.
"Hangar deck, launch Rey's ZAKU immediately," she calmly ordered, but the deck officer only had further bad news to share with her.
"No can do, ma'am," he replied, "the linear catapult isn't clear!"
"Walk him out if you have to, just hurry!" she irritatedly commanded before closing the line and turning back to Meyrin. "Where are the Impulse and Gunner ZAKU!?"
"They're still engaging the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss," she replied.
"Captain, what if we shatter the rock with the Tannhauser?" Arthur nervously asked, desperately wanting to get out of this deathtrap.
"Even if we blew it up, we'd just be scattering the same amount of rock in smaller pieces!" Talia reminded her first officer, eliciting nothing but a dejected "oh" in response from him.
In the meantime, despite the situation he was in, Durandal once again eyed Athrun with an anticipatory glance, having noticed how he quickly reacted to the changing battlefield and wondering if he might do something to get them out of this bind. He wouldn't have to wait long.
"How many starboard thrusters are still functioning!?" Athrun loudly asked Talia.
"Six, which means we'll be target practice if we go out into open space," she replied, wondering what he had in mind.
"Fire all your guns along with the thrusters, right against the asteroid!" he ordered, eliciting another round of confused looks from the bridge crew that made what he said next sound more deferential. "The explosion will push away this ship and the surrounding rocks in a single motion."
Talia didn't like being outright ordered around by Athrun, but in the absence of other viable options and an approving nod from Gilbert, what else could she do?
"Prepare to synchronously fire starboard thrusters and guns on my mark!" she commanded as she opened a full broadcast to the entire ship, knowing they only had one chance to pull this off. "All hands brace for impact! FIRE!"
At Talia's mark, the helmsmen simultaneously fired the Minerva's guns and thrusters against the asteroid, creating a massive explosion that violently launched the ship portwise and surrounded it with a protective curtain of rock and dust as it recovered and turned to face the Girty Lue.
Rey, who had manually launched from the Minerva to engage the pursuing Exus and Dagger Ls, dispatching the latter two in the process, was dumbfounded as he watched this occur, as was Neo.
"The Minerva!?" Rey confusedly exclaimed, wondering how it even pulled that off.
"What the actual hell?" Neo thought to himself as he pulled his Exus back, realizing the Girty Lue was vulnerable now.
"TURN OUR BOW THIRTY AND FIRE THE TANNHAUSER AT BOGEY ONE!" Talia commanded, wanting to capitalize on this opening before it slipped away.
Several seconds after Talia issued the command, the Minerva's positron beam cannon charged and fired at the Girty Lue, which, despite turning hard to port to dodge, was still grazed by the blast, which warped the starboard of its hull. Temporarily knocked out of commission, the Earth Alliance battleship continued drifting portside while its ZAFT counterpart sailed by, lacking any ammo on its starboard guns to finish them off.
"DAMMIT!" Neo exclaimed in frustration as he gunned his mobile armor's engines towards the Minerva, hoping to draw its attention away from the Girty Lue while its systems came back to life.
Just as the battleship came within firing range of his linear cannons, however, Rey flanked him with his ZAKU Phantom, forcing him to fall back. Quickly regaining his composure, Neo realized the battle was lost and flew back to the Girty Lue, launching flares to signal Ian to do the same so Sting, Stella, and Auel would fall back with him.
"I suppose this is goodbye for now, but I look forward to our next encounter," Neo smugly remarked to himself as he left the ZAKU's maximum firing range.
Despite having failed to sink the Minerva, he couldn't help but be happy to have opponents he couldn't easily kill. If nothing else, they would help him suppress his gene donor's influence.
Even though she wanted to destroy the Impulse and ZAKU, Stella couldn't help but coquettishly smile at the sight of the Girty Lue's signal flares, imagining Neo himself was calling her back.
"Game over with only two kills!" Auel complained, acting as if he were at an arcade as opposed to a battlefield.
"It's out of our hands," Sting assured the Abyss's pilot before turning his attention to the Gaia. "Stella, we're pulling back!"
Saying nothing, Stella contentedly giggled as she followed the Chaos and Abyss back to their ship, leaving Shinn and Luna alone amidst the Debris Belt.
"Hey Shinn, you asked if I was okay earlier, right?" Luna asked now that the battle seemed to be over.
"Yeah, Luna, I did," he replied, her transparent attempt at humor helping take the edge off some of the stress he felt. "How are you feeling now?"
"All things considered, a lot better," she assured him, though her relief quickly gave way to a reminder of the two comrades they lost. "I just wish Shaun and Dale hadn't died."
"Me too," Shinn morosely agreed.
The two of them lingered in space for a while longer before they saw the Minerva launch its own signal flares, which they followed back to the ship.
"Once again, I must apologize for what happened, Representative," Durandal told Cagalli as he and Talia escorted her and Athrun to their guest lodgings. While the Minerva had survived the battle against Bogey One, the ship sustained severe damage, forcing them to call off the pursuit until repairs could be completed.
"Likewise, Mr. Chairman," Cagalli politely replied, once again wary of her counterpart, especially after what he said to Athrun. "I sincerely hope you'll be able to resolve this situation quickly."
"Thank you," Durandal drily remarked as the four of them came to a stop in front of Athrun and Cagalli's quarters.
"Apparently, rescue and investigative teams have been dispatched to Armory One," Talia commented. "I've requested a transport rendezvous with us to pick you and Athrun up and take you back to Orb, Representative."
"Thank you, Captain," Cagalli appreciatively said, finding Talia much more tolerable than Durandal, before she and Athrun turned to enter their quarters.
"Wouldn't you say we were saved by Athrun's efforts, Captain?" Durandal smugly asked Talia, who replied with a hesitant nod, stopping Athrun in his tracks as he turned around to face them. "I was greatly impressed, Athrun."
"Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman," Athrun awkwardly replied, uncomfortable with the attention Durandal gave him, before turning his attention to Talia. "I'd like to apologize for acting out of turn, Captain."
"Apology accepted, but your actions did save our lives, and I thank you for that," she replied with an appreciative smile, her expression reminding Athrun of Murrue Ramius, before, much to his surprise, saluting him. "Excuse me."
Dropping her salute, Talia walked off, with Durandal giving Athrun a respectful nod before walking off, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Initially wanting to join Cagalli in their room, Athrun instead found himself walking to the Minerva's lounge, taking a seat, and thinking about what the chairman had said to him. He loved Cagalli and was grateful to her for giving him a home in Orb after the war, but at the same time, part of him couldn't help but wonder whether or not he could be doing more. Had he, Cagalli, Kira, Lacus, and everyone else just rested on their laurels and wishfully hoped the legacy of Junius Seven and GENESIS would scare mankind into avoiding a new war? Trying to shake these thoughts away, the sound of a young girl talking as she walked towards the lounge drew his attention.
"You really should've seen him! He even got the captain to- OH!" Meyrin eagerly explained to Shinn, Luna, and Rey before seeing that the subject of her story could hear her.
Letting out a panicked yelp, Meyrin immediately swung behind Rey, who reacted dispassionately, while Shinn derisively snorted at the ZAFT ace-turned-citizen of Orb. Luna, by contrast, seemed pleased to see Athrun.
"Well, we were just talking about you, Athrun Zala, and now here you are," Luna remarked in a friendly tone before approaching him. "Aren't coincidences like that funny?"
"So what if he was a war hero, Luna?" Shinn dismissively asked his friend, who turned back to face him, an annoyed look on her face. "He's part of Orb now, and they have no idea what's going on out here."
"Oh, come on, Shinn," Luna chided, but he ignored her as he walked off.
"Excuse me," Rey awkwardly said with a brief salute before following Shinn, leaving Luna and Meyrin alone with Athrun.
"Sorry about Shinn," Luna told Athrun, who shrugged in response. "Still, you saved us and this ship, and we owe you our lives."
Punctuating her gratitude with a salute, Luna then turned and left the lounge, with Meyrin quickly following her, neither of them seeing the ghost of a smile that appeared on Athrun's lips before he got up and went to join Cagalli in their room.
Author's Note
I know I've made it apparent, but I feel I should explain why I made Neo a separate character from Mu. While I love Mu and appreciate how SEED Freedom embraced his status as a memetic badass, I still think he should've stayed dead after going out like a badass in SEED. Neo being a separate character from Mu isn't the big secret, the secret is what he exactly is and why he has his memories. Moreover, writing him as a reluctant blood knight with an identity crisis is fun.
Also, while I think Athrun hiding his face while visiting the PLANTs makes sense, I never really liked the Alex Dino alias, so I did away with it and did my best to work around it. I hope you guys found it acceptable and enjoyed this chapter. Until next time.