However, as Kira caused his MS to wind up for a punch, an orange-gold beam of energy slammed into the GINN's left shoulder from somewhere above and behind the Earth Alliance MS. Kira had a brief glimpse of the armour that had been struck melting, before it appeared to hit something flammable, causing an explosion that severed the damaged arm, and knocked the GINN's sword clean out of its hand. Acting on instinct, Kira pushed his MS forward, and grabbed the dropped weapon.
Jumping aside, he turned to look for the source of the shot.
He only caught a glimpse of it, a silhouette against the solar gathering mirrors that lit the colony interior, before the sound of the GINN clambering to its feet drew his attention again.
"Dammit, not here," Kira growled, as the ZAFT pilot drew the machine gun, and aimed at him. Worse, Kira knew the distance was too great to effectively use the sword.
A flash of bright violet and a flare of orange flame heralded the sudden arrival of Kira's unexpected ally. An energy blade carved through the GINN's arm as if it were butter, its other hand catching the arm, and the gun it held, before it could fall far, then a second flare of orange sent the new machine sliding sideways, towards Kira. A toss sent the hand, and, more importantly, the machine gun it held, towards Kira, who caught the flying object, startled.
"You OK, Kira?"
Kira jumped, startled.
"Jax?" he asked, "How did you know it was me?"
"The Strike holds a sword just like you do," came the reply, and Kira looked up at the small screen that showed Jaxamar, who he barely recognised in the armoured pilot suit he wore. An emblem (dragon over a shield and crossed swords) was emblazoned on the left upper part of his chestplate, and now Kira looked, it was also on the left shoulder of his machine (albeit upside down from his point of view).
The (literally) disarmed GINN backed up, even as Kira stored the blade and pulled the stolen machine gun free. Closing the Strike's hand around the machine gun's grip, he aimed it at the enemy MS.
Now facing two machines with no weapons, Miguel Aiman wisely decided to retreat.
"Huu… Glad he's gone," Jax sighed, lowering his rifle, "OK, Kira, put that gun away, and let's get to the park. We can talk there, and I've got a couple of thing I need to take care of."
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Jax levelled his pistol at the woman's temple, the click of the safety disengaging seeming disproportionately loud. A startled gasp emerged from her, then her eyes widened when she saw the emblem he held in his left hand.
"Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit treason, manufacturing illegal weapons, breach of the Orb Neutrality Treaty, and breach of visa," the young pilot said firmly, although the last came out slightly oddly, as if he couldn't quite believe that he'd said it.
"The GAT-X105 Strike, MBF-P01 Astray Gold Frame, MBF-P02 Astray Red Frame, MBF-P03 Astray Blue Frame, MBF-P04 Astray Green Frame, and MBF-P05 Astray Black Frame are being seized by the ORB military per Orb Neutrality Treaty Section Two Article Two," he continued, putting away the emblem and bringing his other hand up to brace his gun, "Along with the Assault Carrier LCAM-01XA Archangel under the same. Put your gun on the ground, slowly, and kick it away."
The woman did as instructed, kicking the pistol away. It ended up at Kira's feet.
"Kira, grab the gun," Jax instructed him, "Drop the clip, pull back the slide, and flick the little switch on the side of it up."
It took Kira a moment to figure out the magazine release, but once he did, the weapon was almost immediately unloaded and safetied.
"Do you have any other weapons," Jax continued to Murrue, "A holdout pistol, or a knife?"
"I have a Swiss-Army Knife in my breast pocket," the woman said, "And that's it. I couldn't bring anything else."
"Right then," Jax said, "Reach into your pocket, and bring it out. No sudden moves."
Murrue did as instructed, pulling out the knife and putting it on the ground. She then kicked it away. This time it skidded to a halt at Sai's feet, and he quickly stooped to grab it.
"Good," Jax said, removing one hand from his gun and pulling a set of handcuffs from where they'd been magnetically attached.
"Hands behind you back," he ordered, and Murrue did so without protest, allowing him to snap the cuffs on.
"There," he said, sighing and lowering, and then holstering, his gun, "For now, I think that should do. As long as you don't try anything, I won't have to get rough."
He gestured for Kira and Sai to hand him the gun and knife, and spent a moment examining the blade.
"A genuine Victorinox?" he asked, eyeing the white cross embossed onto the crimson casing, "This must be a personal item; the Atlantic Federation doesn't issue these. I'll make sure to return it."
He spent a moment examining the gun before nodding, and offering it grip-first to Kira. His other hand dug something out of one of the pouches on the belt of his armour and held it out as well.
"Kira Yamato, I am officially declaring you as an ORB volunteer pilot," he said, the white lion's-head badges gleaming in the sunlight reflected into the colony, "I am also issuing you this pistol as your sidearm until we can find you something of ORB standard."
Kira stared at the badges, then up at Jax.
"I don't want to be a soldier," he protested.
"Technically, you're not," Jax said, grimly, "And I don't want to put you in this situation, but you're the only one who can pilot the Strike effectively, given the lack of a Natural-use OS, and I can't legally send a civilian into combat. Legally speaking, if you accept this badge, you're a member of a militia force, meaning you can protect your friends using the Strike without having to worry about becoming a soldier."
Kira frowned, then sighed. He took the gun, and allowed Jax to pin one badge to his shirt, while the other went into his pocket.
"Lieutenant Ramius, I need your holster," Jax said.
"Right hip," Murrue said, "But could you…?"
"Right. Miriallia, could you handle that, please?"
Miriallia moved over to Murrue, and a moment later stepped away holding the holster, along with the gunbelt it was attached to.
"Thanks," Jax said, taking the belt from the girl, and helping Kira tighten it so it would fit him.
Kira finally holstered his newly-issued pistol, looking rather uncomfortable.
"What's the second badge for?" he asked.
"Your flight suit, when we find one," Jax said, "Until then, you're just going to have to go without. Now then, Lieutenant, where were the equipment packs for the Strike stored? I'd prefer the Aile or Sword Striker, mind. The Launcher and Lightning units are too powerful for this environment."
"The Sword, Lightning, and Gunbarrel Strikers were transferred to the Archangel only a few minutes before the attack started," Murrue replied, "We ended up a few trucks short, and the truck that would have carried the Aile broke down, so we had to wait for the other trucks to return for them."
"The Gunbarrel striker? I wasn't aware that you had completed it yet," Jax said, frowning, "I thought the third truck was carrying spare parts."
"The trucks had returned, and we had finished loading them," Murrue admitted, "We were just waiting to load the Strike and Aegis before heading out. The loaded trucks were two hangars down. The Launcher Striker should be in the number Five trailer, while Aeil will be in the number Six."
"Right. Sai, Tolle, I need you to go get the Aeil. Kira, I need you to try the radio, see if you can raise my comrades. I'm afraid I don't expect success, though. Someone's activated an N-jammer inside the colony. Likely Sahaku, trying to avoid Miria."
"Right."
::::::::::
It came as a pleasant surprise when Kira actually did succeed in making contact with Blade Dragon, Miria's NEXT, in spite of the interference that was preventing them from contacting either the Dragon's Wing or the Archangel.
"Miria, the Strike is secure, but all other GAT units were captured by ZAFT," Jax said, leaning in next to Kira within the Strike's cockpit, "I saw the Aegis flying out, and the other trailers are empty. We're currently in the park not far from Morgenroet. Both the Strike and the Dragoneye are undamaged. We're currently retrieving equipment for the Strike. What's your status?"
":It's no good on my end, I'm afraid,:" Miria informed them, her voice fuzzed by static despite the powerful communications equipment in a NEXT, ":This whole area is blanketed with N-jammer interference. ECM in this area is off the chart; my metre's showing maximum but it has to be well above that. There's no way in hell Blade Dragon's radar will be able to cut through this soup.:"
"Damn," Jax cursed, "Well, I expected as much given the interference I picked up here. You did your best, but we can't continue with this kind of problem; Sahaku's probably gotten to one of the Astrays by now, and that snake would have no compunctions about destroying the colony in order to escape. Rendezvous at my current position."
":Roger that, Jaxamar, I'm Oscar Mike.:"
The link closed.
"Ugh," Jax growled, slamming his right fist into his left palm, "Rau le Crueset, you bastard, your timing could /not/ be worse!"
"Rau le Crueset?" Kira queried.
"He's a ZAFT ace pilot and Commander of a small task force comprising of the Vesalius and the Gamow," Jax explained, "Tactically speaking, he's a good commander, and it's noted in his CSV that he's a chess grandmaster. He hand-picks the members of his team. I'll hand him this; all of the pilots he's chosen are skilled, but the four most recent were all the sons of Supreme Council members; Athrun Zala, Nicol Amalfi, Yzak Joule, and Dearka Elsman. Admittedly, having them together makes a level of sense; they have complementing skill-sets, they're familiar with each other, and all four are Redcoats... but something doesn't feel quite right about it, especially since le Crueset waited over a month after taking casualties before filling the gap with these specific people."
He shook his head.
"I've gotten off-topic. What I'm trying to say is that I believe that he can't be trusted. I saw him once on the PLANTs, and something about him put me on edge. Maybe it was that mask..."
"Huh?"
"Oh, right," Jax said, shaking his head slightly, "You probably wouldn't know. Rau le Crueset always wears this white masquerade mask with one-way lenses in the eyeholes; he never takes it off in public, and there's no pictures of him without that mask at all, not even in his CSV. Speaking of paperwork, that might also be a part of it; right up until shortly before enlisting in ZAFT, there's absolutely no record of him. No birth certificate, driver's license, or medical records, which given that he's got a long-term prescription right after appearing is particularly strange, especially since the dosage indicates he'd been taking it for some time and had built up a slight resistance."
Kira frowned.
"He's Athrun's commander?"
Jax blinked in surprise.
"You know Athrun Zala?"
"We went to lunar prep school in Copernicus together," he explained, "We lost contact after he returned to the PLANTs. I planned to go too, but... my parents sent me here instead."
"Damn..." Jax groaned, rubbing his face, "And now he's a ZAFT redcoat in the one team whose commander probably won't let us g-."
The man's head jolted up, and Kira felt a flicker of /something/, even as the trailer pulled up behind the Strike.
"The number six tailer, right?" Sai called, even as Jax jumped down to the knee of the Strike.
"Yes!" Jax shouted back, jumping down to the ground and sprinting towards the Dragoneye, "Hurry and get it mounted!"
The urgency of his tone jolted the teenagers into action. Seconds later, the trailer opened up to reveal the large thrusters that comprised the Aile Striker, plus a beam rifle.
"Just mount the backpack; Kira can grab the rifle manually," the pilot ordered, reaching his winch line. He grabbed on and planted his foot into the stirrup, before thumbing the up button, causing the winch to retract the cable at a suprisingly rapid rate. As soon as he reached the hatch, he clambered into the NEXT, grabbing his helmet and pulling it on.
":System; Activating combat mode,:" the Dragoneye's computer intoned as Jax threw himself into the pilot's seat, hitting the controls to close the hatch, brought the NEXT out of standby mode, activated its Primal Armour, and disengaged weapon safeties. Glowing particles surged out of the vents, electricity flickering as the particles concentrated into a sphere around the machine. The light-show was spectacular, but brief, as the particles quickly faded from visibility, and the electrical arcs disappeared.
The quad optics lit as they came online, the screens in the cockpit blinking on to show the Aile pack connecting the with the Strike.
The instant Kira confirmed the mobility package was attached, he moved the Strike, and just managed to pick up the beam rifle before an explosion erupted from the colony's central shaft.
Two machines emerged from the smoke, one after the other; a bright orange Mobius Zero that was missing all of its Gunbarrels, and a white CGUE.
"Kira, you're low on energy; use your targeting computer, and wait for confirmation of a lock before firing," Jax ordered, "And watch your fire; I'm going to be up there as well."
The NEXT jumped into the air, boosters igniting with a flash of blue, before the wings unfolded, covers popping open as the boosters inside charged with a whine.
The Dragoneye X2A's Overed Booster system ignited with a scream, sending the machine streaking towards the two mobile weapons as the CGUE cut the Zero's linear cannon, its last remaining weapon, in half.
"No you don't," he growled, raising and firing his rifle, heedless of the drain on Dragoneye's energy reserves, as the CGUE raised its sword for a finishing blow. The pilot was forced to abandon his attack to catch the shot on his shield, and turned to face him as he disengaged Overed Boost, a quick glance at his energy guage revealing it to be partwey depleted, but refilling rapidly.
The CGUE backed off, switching from his sword back to its machine gun, and aimed atthe Dragoneye. However, Jax noted that it appeared to glance down towards the park.
"Now, now, pay attention to the greater threat here," the LYNX muttered, rising a little bit so that he blocked the way, "I'm closer and my rifle works at the speed of light."
The CGUE shifted, aiming its machine gun at him.
Then, at one end of the colony there was an explosion.
Both of them paused to look as the white ship emerged from the cloud.
"The Archangel." Jax muttered, "Brilliant. Now confiscating it will be five times-."
He was interupted by a static-riddled voice.
":Sol Dios cannons charged! Firing!:"
A second explosion rocked the colony. This one was tinted green, and two objects emerged from it; one was Miria's slightly modified Type-LANCEL NEXT, Blade Dragon.
The other was far, far larger; an immense vessel that would only barely fit through the colony harbour with its wings folded.
The Arms Fort Dragon's Wing.