Phase 38: Kira

The person of him sighed theatrically, "Oh, woe is me, Jesus Yamato. It is providence that I must save everyone! Everyone should be sorry for me! Big news! The war broke out and will continue whether you're on in or not! If you want to fight, for whatever reasons those may be, fight to the limit!"

"You're right. Sea robbery," Kira said as Cagalli flew their Skygrasper a few hundred feet above sea level. Archangel had received a distress call from a merchant ship and since their unit was in the air conducting CAP, Murrue sent them to investigate.

"Of course. Inside national waterways, sea robbery, and international waters, piracy. Orb is a maritime country after all, so knowing the difference between piracy and sea robbery is a must."

"Space robbery and space piracy as well," Kira said as he craned his neck to look down through the glass canopy. "Four bandits tally ho," he said as he spotted four high-speed boats moving toward a large ship. He moved the onboard camera to focus on one of the boats. "Looks like small arms, and RPG or two,"

"Roger that," Cagalli said as she moved the Skygrasper right above the four boats. "Okay, let er rip,"

"Guns, guns, guns," Kira said as he pressed the trigger.

Multiple buzzing sounds echoed through the cockpit as the aircraft shook slightly. The 20mm bullets it fired caused ripples in front of four boats, and they quickly broke their pursuit of the merchant ship.

Cagalli laughed as she watched the boats moving in zig-zag patterns, seemingly trying to evade from being targeted by the Skygrasper. "See? Shock and awe. Your gunnery shocked them, and they're in awe of my piloting skills,"

Before Kira could say anything, a shrill alarm echoed in the cockpit as the infrared warning receiver cautioned them that a MANPAD had been fired at them.

"BREAK!" Cagalli said as she yanked on the stick, causing the aircraft to bank into a violent roll. "FLARES!"

Kira punched the countermeasure button, causing the Skygrasper's flare dispensers to release a group of flares behind it. The missile was duped by the countermeasures and explored a few meters next to a flare, spraying shrapnel in a spreading arc. A piece of the shrapnel hit one of Skygrasper's vertical stabilizers but barely left a dent.

"That was a close one," Cagalli said.

Far below, the group of sea robbers scrambled to reload their weapon, but Kira was already lining up his next move, maneuvering the targeting reticule on a boat, followed by another, until all boats were targeted. Each reticule meant targeting data had been inputted inside an inboard anti-ship missile. Once fired, the missiles would seek their targets and destroy them, wiping out the pirates and ensuring that the merchant ship was protected.

"So," Cagalli said as the Skygrasper gained some distance away from the boats, which made it their new target, "What are our rules of engagement?"

Kira's finger, that was about to press the trigger, froze.

"Hey, Wizzo? Moshi moshi? Kira?"

"I can hear you," The brunette took a deep breath to calm himself. "ROE stipulates proportionate response in an escalating missile,"

"And that's why we're starting with the anti-ship missiles first, since when in doubt, overkill?"

"Er… I misspoke. I meant escalating manner," Kira replied, embarrassed.

"Noted. So, maybe we should fire a few warning shots at them, and let them process we outgunned them?"

"I'll do that," Kira quickly lined up his shots and opened fired. The beam shots landed just a few meters away from the boats, and this time, the criminals were finally convinced to leave the area. "Think they'll return?"

"I don't think so. Go ahead and inform Archangel and the merchant that we have chased them away," As Kira did what he was told, Cagalli continued, "I'm not trying to whitewash them, but some of them didn't get into the business willingly,"

While there were sea robbers and pirates who committed criminal activity as a shortcut to enrich themselves, there were also some cases where normal people, usually from impoverished areas, did such a thing to make a living. Such problems were more prevalent in areas where governments were weak or corrupt, as the lack of law enforcement and political instability creates the situation where piracy and sea robbery were seen as an acceptable way to make a living.

"But that doesn't make it right,"

"True. Like I said, I'm not siding with them, but trying to understand their reasons for doing it. My father told me that if all of us try to understand each other, then conflicts wouldn't have started."

"Trying to understand other people is what they call tactics and strategies,"

Cagalli sighed loudly. "Radio's off?"

"Yeah,"

"Alright, what's the matter with you, Kira?" Cagalli asked in a slightly higher voice, annoyance evident. "I don't really expect you to just say 'Yes, I agree with you' all the time, but at least less of that snark? Or is it your way of getting back at my earlier comment about ROE?"

"You knew I misspoke,"

"Yes, but do you know what else I realized? I saw the reticules! I'm sure the debrief later would say according to ROE, it's legal to blast them to smithereens for that AA they shot at us, but at the same time it's not just that, isn't it?"

"Don't say it!"

"It's a slippery slope, Kira! That ZAFT unit I can understand, but those are just small boats! Once you started on those, it's easier to justify almost everything,"

"We almost got hit!"

"Yes, but still we're supposed to take the higher ground here," Cagalli coughed, "literally and morally, before you say anything, and yes, we're in the air right now,"

Kira would have smiled if it wasn't for the fact that his emotion was still raw from the whole situation. "They will be back to attack another, and this time, we wouldn't be there to stop them!"

"That's true," Cagalli said, her admission catching Kira off-guard.

"Then…"

"Because we also weren't there last week, and before that. Point is, we're only here in the Celebes Sea for a few days while we're transiting towards Orb. While I do agree we shouldn't let requests for help go unattended, we're not here to put a stop to criminal activities in the area. Equatorial Union is in charge, not us,"

The statement hit Kira like a brick. What Cagalli had said made a perfect stance. Whatever measures that they took in dealing with the sea robbers, it would be temporary at best since Archangel would soon leave the area. Even if they destroyed the boats, there will be no preventing new ones replacing them, as long as the root causes were not addressed. "We will sell them weapons but not intervene, right?"

"You still want to sneak in a low blow. But, what the heck, I'll give you that. I still can't believe we can say that with a straight face. I mean, we're assisting Kisaka with the problem in his hometown, but that's still hypocritical as it can be,"

"Not to forget Archangel and the prototypes."

"Ah, geez, throw me a bone or two, will you? I've already made some concessions. Just winning a verbal spare with me wouldn't change anything. I already went and whine to my father about how bullshit the situation was in Heliopolis, and you saw what he did. It was you who said he made my uncle a puppet ruler,"

"You went and complained to him about that? You didn't tell us about that,"

"Yeah, well, I can't go out of my way and tell the normal people what I felt about it; I hardly knew you people at that time,"

Cagalli's confession mollified Kira, and they settled the matter. With cooler heads prevailed, Kira admitted that what he almost did was too much and agreed with Cagalli that if he was willing to justify taking out small-time criminals, at least in terms of their equipment and capabilities, with deadly force, eventually, he would also end up dealing with everything with excessive response. It was an issue that was still haunting him, something that Cagalli had pointed out to him. He felt guilty for surviving the whole conflict, even as he had killed their opponents because he wanted to protect his friends. To do that, he couldn't show unnecessary mercy, not when it could cost the lives of his friends. Kira closed his eyes, recalling the conversation he had with her.

"You're saying showing mercy is an arrogant thing to do?"

"Yes, because you're not punishing your enemy, basically telling your enemy that it's okay to try again to harm you and the people that you're protecting,"

"But how are we going to determine which one we should spare and which one we shouldn't?"

"Good question. How would 'you' determine which one is which?"

In the end, Kira neither had the answer then, nor had he at the present time. When the Skygrasper landed on Archangel, and he and Cagalli were debriefed, he decided to do the best thing he could do regarding the situation, which was to procrastinate instead of facing it head-on. He had a very good reason to do so, which was trying to master the simulator that had been set up specifically for him.

According to Lieutenant Janina, the telemetry for Strike showed that his skills were above average, and that would have been good, if not a weird flaw he had developed. Whenever he was shooting at an opponent, he would always aim to maim it instead of taking it out. While that was an admirable, if somewhat foolish, in the Lieutenant's opinion, way to fight, he always paused for microseconds before taking his shots, as if confirming something. The moments where he targeted the difficult to hit 'head', other appendages, or the weapons, as well as the pause before shooting, were severely affecting his combat abilities.

When he argued against the assessment, she wondered out loud whether he could have defeated Freedom if he wasn't trying to disable it in the middle of a high-stake fight.

That shut him up and, shut him down.

In the end, he was assigned to a new simulator they picked up while in Ipoh. The simulator was supposedly based on Strike but differed a lot in terms of the operating system. Instead of the General Unilateral Neuro - Link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver he was used to, the simulator displayed the operating system as Global Unified Neural-networked Data-linked Adaptable Module. When he saw the term Neural-Networked, he thought that the mobile suit in the simulator had full automation, with Artificial Intelligence used to make controlling it easier. To his chagrin, Janina said the mobile suit he was thinking about was in another castle. Weird reference notwithstanding, she told him that he was to train himself, using the simulator to unlearn all the bad habits he had developed.

The mobile suit in the simulator was very difficult to control. Instead of libraries automating almost everything, the control was totally on the pilot himself, with a granular level of control needed to make even the smallest of a movement. After a few days of practice, Kira had succeeded in keeping Strike standing straight.

"I can do it!" he said to himself.

Then Strike fell on its face flat, causing the simulation to terminate.

"What happened?" he uttered.

The door of the simulator opened, and Janina peered. "Okay, later we'll get you used to keeping Strike standing while the wind is blowing, but for now, take a break,"

"Ma'am. Did you terminate the simulator?"

"No. It terminated because you crashed; in real world, you would have died, if not heavily injured, dropping from a height of 10 meters,"

"But Athrun…"

"Was in a space colony, so less force to crush his organs. I know, it's a shocker, but that's how gravity works,"

Not really having anything to say about that, Kira got out of the simulator and was handed a bottle of water. "Thank you," he said before partaking in the much-needed water.

Janina waved it off.

"I have some questions," Kira said after he quenched his thirst.

"Go ahead,"

"How will this help me?"

"If you think not, you will blossom. Nor shall you blossom if you think,"

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand,"

"You think too much. Even a simple thing, you want to overcomplicate. Everything. Even your response to the attack on your aircraft was unnecessarily convoluted,"

"How do… Did she…"

"Flight recording has been invented more than a hundred years ago, Kira. Don't need a human snitch when an electronic one will do just fine. And there you go again with overthinking," Janina turned away and muttered, "just like her,"

"Say again?"

"Really, over thinking, and over working because of the negative self-image, if the gap moe isn't so large, I probably think it's exasperating," Janina looked upward and put a hand on her face for quite a while before wiping it down. "You want to know, right?"

"Yes?"

"To make it crystal, you want me to help with the problem that you're facing right now, right?"

"I do,"

"Okay, next question. Fast or slow?"

"Sorry?"

"Do you want to 'get it' fast or slow?"

"Preferably fast,"

A loud smacked reverberated inside the hangar, causing the normally noisy place to quieten down as everybody's attention turned in their direction. Kira's face was a mask of confusion as his hand gingerly hovered over the stinging area on his right cheek. "What… why?"

"I always wanted to do that," Janina shrugged. "Slap you, I mean,"

"You… you hit me," Kira uttered, the situation still didn't catch up to himself.

"What's wrong with hitting you? You wanted it, don't you?"

"Even my father never hit me,"

Janina slapped him on the other cheek, and this time, it caused him to stumble to the ground. "That's why you're soft! Tell me, isn't this what you want all this while? Someone to blame you for what happened to McIntosh? Guess what? You get your wish! I blame you," She grabbed his collar and pulled him up until he had to tiptoe, "Now, tell everyone here, what you did wrong?"

"I… don't… know?"

"You don't know, or you don't want to say it?"

"I really don't know," Kira maintained. "But I know it's something I did,"

Janina released Kira and as he stumbled to stand, all the while touching the collar, he continued, "Yes. Let me enlighten you. You think yourself very special. That may be true, but you're expecting everyone else to put you on a pedestal. Your friends have their hands trying to survive against superior opposition to carry out their missions while you're wasting precious milliseconds trying to aim at legs, arms, heads, and weapons of enemy mobile suits," Janina scrunched her nose and raise her head up a bit and away, while putting the back of her hand on her forehead while sighing theatrically, "Oh, woe is me, Jesus Yamato. It is providence that I must save everyone! Everyone should be sorry for me! Big news! The war broke out and will continue whether you're involved or not! If you want to fight, for whatever reasons those may be, fight to the limit. If you have time to waste milliseconds to shift your target, then maybe you shouldn't fight,"

"I did target the boats!"

"It's fair, but that's because MB messed up in the first place, and short off me tossing her overboard during pitch black, I'm not going to risk my ass committing an international incident involving a VIP. But you… I can do this all day,"

A hand was put on her shoulder. "That is enough, Lieutenant," Mu said.

Janina brushed the hand off politely but firmly. "Commander, Ensign Yamato personally requested me to administer personal corrective action. You did, didn't you, Ensign?" she asked Kira.

Despite himself, Kira nodded.

"He didn't specifically ask you to hit him,"

"Neither did he list out what actions I could and couldn't. Besides, that's not the point,"

"So, what's the point of slapping him here in the hangar, and then giving him a brutal dress down in front of everyone?"

"To make him think,"

"What?"

"I said, to… make… him… think! If he died because of a stupid habit in a battle he couldn't unlearn, it's on you, Commander, because you didn't get him to get rid of it. But if anyone here died because of that same habit," Janina pointed at Kira's face, "It's on him,"

"But his action could have a positive effect later on," Mu said.

"That's what a delusional messiah character will think," Janina looked at Kira, "Well, there you have it, Commander intervened in the session, and I don't feel like continuing it more. Think about it more by yourself,"

With that, the Lieutenant left the hangar.

Mu looked at her leaving form and then at Kira, "You're okay there?"

"Did she say the truth?"

"Meaning?"

"I'm putting everyone in possible dangers?"

Mu was silent for a while. "Yeah,"

"Ma'am?" a woman's voice called out to her.

Natarle turned her attention toward it. "Elizabeth," she said, recalling that the woman was a helm, according to her file.

The woman named Elizabeth nodded.

Natarle closed the distance between the two of them, adjusted the crooked collar on the other woman's uniform to her satisfaction. Natarle didn't know from which woodwork the other woman crawled out of, but there were a lot of things to improve upon, particularly how the other person made the uniform she wore looked like a pajama. There must be a story or two about her, but Natarle was more interested in the reason why she was sent to pick her up. "You're going to bring me to the ship?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Elizabeth said as she turned toward a car waiting with them.

"Lead on," Natarle said as they got into the car. Once they were inside and strapped in, Elizabeth activated the navigation system, and the car began to move.

"You're not going to drive?"

"Don't know how," Elizabeth

"But you know how to pilot a ship?"

"Easier to move," the answer came back.

Normally, it would be easier to control the movement of something with the weight of one ton rather than 100,000 tons but Natarle had heard weirder things, so she let the matter slide and simply nodded, before realizing that her gesture was missed by Elizabeth as two of them were facing the front. "I see," she added, looking around the place. It was noticeably big, which was to be expected, as it housed the whole operation. There were buildings, hangers, and a lot more buildings, and hangars. "I didn't think a communication company would have this level of facility on the moon," she remarked.

"It's for maintaining services between Earth, the colonies and here,"

"And business picking up after the drop, I guess," Natarle still couldn't wrap her head around the idea of how NAGI quickly scaled up its research and manufacturing to meet the explosive demand for communication relay. "You're from Eurasian?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Atlantic. Former 8th Fleet actually, but got out before the war,"

"Huh," Natarle looked at the driver, no, a fellow passenger, next to her. "That's unexpected. The reason, if you don't mind?"

"Reckless driving,"

"Oh," Unbidden, Natarle's eyes moved toward the steering wheel, which remained untouched. That explained everything, and she was glad the other passenger kept her hands off it. The conversation between the two stalled, and the car hummed softly, as it made its way to an entrance. When the car was close enough, the door slid out of the way to allow entry. The car moved through the tunnel for quite some time, causing Natarle to say, "Are we going to the Bat Cave?"

"Some distance to ensure no one can say they bomb the place just now by accident."

"Make sense," Having a port located away from other facilities would reduce the risks of collateral damages, but doing so will increase costs. Besides, Orb didn't have any problem locating its military spaceport in Copernicus even if that would increase the risk of the city being attacked, so was there a need to be overly cautious? However, that was not her decision to make, and Natarle was willing to let sleeping dogs lie.

The car finally exited the tunnel into a space port. From the distance, Natarle could see a Drake-class, no, a line-layers whose class name she already forgot. Then she saw four ships of the same design that she didn't recognize. "Those ships…"

"Shokaku-class," Elizabeth pointed to each one of them. "Shokaku, Zuikaku, Ark Royal, and Formidable,"

"That sounds like carriers of the world war in the previous era,"

"The joke behind the naming is just that,"

Natarle frowned. "Sorry, say that again?"

"They were initially designed to carry mobile armors. So, in a sense, they do belong in the previous era, and hence the names. But, for one a price of one retrofitted Agamemnon that can carry mobile suits, we get four of these," Elizabeth pointed toward a ship they were heading towards. "As you may already know, that one will, and it will be your commission, and I'm your helm,"

"Let me guess, second star to the right and straight on till morning?" Natarle asked.

Elizabeth gave her a confused look for a moment until the other woman' eyes lit in understanding. "Not fueled by happy thoughts," she replied.

"They forgot to put the name in the information packet," Natarle said while grinning. "Looking at the weird idea the planners have, I guess they use Peter Pan as inspirations,"

The scene Natarle alluded to in the book was where the titular character told Wendy that to go to Neverland, she must think happy thoughts until she could fly. Then Wendy had to locate the second star from the right and then keep flying until morning came. The story was a powerful lesson about how sometimes, one had to abandon logic and common sense and instead follow one's faith and imagination. In a way, the ship defied logic and common sense, not necessarily in a good way. The technical data provided informed her that the 380-meter ship was a modular assault ship, but with the ability to carry a small number of mobile suits. Considering that ZAFT, the Earth Alliance and even Orb were moving toward armed carrier design, where the ability to carry mobile suits formed the basis of design, it was a wonder why the VSA's Multi-Mission Assault Ship was chosen.

But, as they say, beggars couldn't be choosers and Natarle knew that it was way better than any Nelson or Agamemnon-class of ships; it was just her ego wanting to have a better ship than Archangel so that she could prove herself to be better than Murrue.

The car stopped in front of a procession of assembled personnel near the ship.

"I'm told you're familiar with this," Elizabeth said.

"I am, but never part of one," Natarle said as she got down and was approached by a man she identified as her Executive Officer or colloquially referred to as XO.

Despite her misapprehension, Natarle went through the whole event like she was on autopilot, moving in front of the honor guard, as the band's music started to play.

There were many reasons that led her to where she was, but as Natarle strode in front of the assembled ranks with guard commander following behind her, one came to the forefront of her mind; responsibility and authority to come up with the uniforms.

The easiest was the working cloth for technicians. She chose long sleeve work clothes with color denoting the type of work being assigned, and reflective strips to increase visibility. When people complained about the uniform making them look like fire fighters, she offered the choice of digital camouflage, and that quietened the voices of dissent very fast. She purposely chose clothes that would make people wearing them more visible so they could be easily located, especially during emergencies. Of course, she had to give in other areas and allowed other more sensible suggestions, such as strategically located pockets on the jackets and pants, belt with reinforced loops, and multifunctional magnetic holders on the arms that could hold tools, screws or even a water bottle.

For normal crew members, Natarle decided to go through the archive and settled on a bright long-sleeve white shirt, and bright white pants, with bars on the shoulders they're indicating their functions. The leaders' attire was alike, each complemented by cufflinks of colored imitation diamonds. While it seemed easier than coming up the cloth for technicians, Natarle spent a week of sleepless night, fussing over every detail such as the dimension and material of the bars, whether to put pockets and, if so, where to put them.

Of course, during an honor guard inspection, the crew members and their leaders must wear blue-black suits, matched with white shirts, black neckties and white gloves. The differences between the crew members and the officers were that the former would wear single-breasted jackets matched with white berets, while the latter would wear slightly longer double-breasted jackets matched with white officer caps with black and gold trimmings.

To Natarle, looking smart probably wouldn't help in a battle, but if she was taken out, at least she looked stylish when that happened. As she walked past the group, she mentally patted herself on the back. While she had looked at herself in the mirror and was satisfied with what she saw, it was another thing to see others in the uniform she had designed; as they said, 'clothes make the man'.

And as she stood in front of the honor guard while the guard commander ordered the final salute, she couldn't help but be proud of herself, not only for coming up with the uniform but also for not faltering during the inspection itself. Even as she maintained a serious expression, inside, Natarle was congratulating herself for practicing the whole event for a few hours by herself when she found out about the event.

Apparently, someone had similar thoughts to her of instilling military values and traditions into the organization and had established an honor guard as one of those things they have to do. While she didn't expect it to go to that extent, Natarle didn't protest about it.

With her role finished, Natarle walked away from the group and toward the car, where Elizabeth was yawning while waiting. They then drove toward the open hatch where the supplies were loading onto the ship. "Why is the honor guard outside of the ship?"

"We're in the middle of finalizing installation, so the hangar is quite busy. Besides, having you inspect the crew with the ship in the background makes for a nice photo op, isn't it?"

"Makes sense,"

"Carreiras, VSA's CEO, is a fan of Shakespeare, and insisted on naming this ship and the class as Macbeth," Elizabeth said.

"That is stupid. Who wants to name a ship based on a man who got duped by three fortune telling witches?" Natarle did a double take. "It's not MacBeth or Lady MacBeth, right?"

"The name almost remained, as the late CEO liked it, But it was changed, don't worry," Elizabeth said as the car stopped at the ship's hanger. The two of them got out of the car and got in front of it.

Natarle's focus landed on a few large silhouettes. "Is that…"

"Yes. Those will be briefed to you later," Elizabeth put on a beret that she was carrying, marched toward Natarle, halting three paces away from the latter. Her right-hand snaps upward, fingers straight and firm, a textbook example of the Atlantic Federation's salute, made perfect after thousands of practices. The sloth was gone, and in her stead, stood a fully trained military personnel member, ready for anything.

Natarle responded with her own salute.

"Welcome onboard NCAP-01 Kairos, Captain Badgiruel,"

1

A/N

1. The slaps is a reference to Bright's slap.

2. The scene about Natarle suggesting that her ship is named 'Peter Pan' is a homage to a scene in the Robotech: The End of Circle, written by Jack McKinney. While it is a ending to the Robotech novels, which mostly follow the anime faithfully, the book is… weird, as is the author suddenly find new age religion just before starting to write the book.

3. The VSA CEO wanting to name Natarle's ship MacBeth is a reference to one of Macross's producers who insisted on naming the original series and ship Macbeth as he was a fan of Shakespeare. Given that MacBeth is a story about betrayal, it's a good thing the name wasn't adopted.