Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Odyssey of Altair ❯ Red Rose ( Chapter 2 )

"...In political news, President Samuel Clint of the Atlantic Federation is urging the Earth Alliance to pass a bill that increases the jurisdiction radius of OMNI Enforcer deep into PLANT for the next decade. President Clint justifies the reason this bill is for Earth to be 'better safe than sorry', claiming even if it is still unknown if Patrick Zala fighters are still within PLANT, the bill would gurantee the safety of both the Earth and Space. When asked if this action had to do with the development of nuclear weapon technology in the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, the President had no comment on the matter..."

"That's because the bastard sold them nuclear technology for a hefty Nobel Peace Prize." Marko blurted at the radio, "And now look, nuclear weapons are in the hands of the Zala Faction! I wonder how it got there, fucking politicians."

Tilly looked up from her console to glare at Marko, specifically for ruining the silence that was on the nearly unoccupied bridge. Fargus was in the mess having supper and Lyn was currently off duty right now, either taking a nap, or nagging on Vale, Mayer and Martin about the shape of the lounge. Marko was at his radar station, Rouri was at the helm staring off into deep space while keeping the Altair on her course, and Tilly was leaning back against the communication helm reading a magazine. Since this was one of the rare quiet moments, all three had decided to go about and do their own things while on duty. In fact, compared to all the activity happening recently.

The date was March 3, on the year 76 of the Cosmic Era. After the First Coordinator War between OMNI and the PLANT's ZAFT organization, peace had been acquired as both sides had lost most of their military power. With the deaths of Azrael Mukata and Admiral Sunderland on the Earth side, the Earth lacked any strategic intellegence to fight against the colonies. And at the same time, the destruction of the Genesis cannon and the death of Patrick Zala had left ZAFT without a driving force to fight against the Earth. Still, it wasn't entirely peaceful.

Three years ago, few former-ZAFT members were still fighting the Earth Alliance under Patrick Zala's banner as the Zala Faction, had started up a crusade against the Earth, first by stealing nuclear technology that had been traded to PLANT by the Atlantic Federation President Samuel Clint. Through under-the-table negotiations with ZAFT commanders, the terrorists also managed to gain N-Jammer Canceller technology, allowing them to use the nuclear bomb. Their target was originally the Atlantic capital of Washington D.C., according to what the Earth was putting out, but in the end, the target had changed to Manhatten due to a meeting being conducted by the EA on that date. While the attempt to kill all the EA leaders with the bomb was unsuccessful, due to a last minute change in meeting location, the attack left Manhatten in ruins and most of its population dead. Therefore, just as ZAFT had used Bloody Valentine as a martyr for the Colonial War, the EA used that attack as a reason to ZAFT to increase OMNI's operational radius into their space to clear out said terrorists. Not only that, but they demanded ZAFT's cooperation.

Since ZAFT wasn't fond of Patrick Zala fascist groups, they agreed, on the condition that the EA use already established military outposts for their operations rather than civilian colonies. Thus, Operation Jihad began, and both OMNI and ZAFT combined their still rebuilding militaries to strike down terrorist nation that opposed either side. Some thought it was the best act of alliance that Earth and Space could make. However, the outcome of the operation was quite different from what many people had hoped for.

While there were indeed anti-Earth and anti-PLANT factions running rampant around the Earthsphere, some of which were quite well organized and equipped as in the days of Al-Qaeda, most were merely activists who had gotten their hands on a machine gun or anti-mobile suit rocket launcher on a backwater colony. Both Earth and ZAFT saw no contempt for such people, and those that weren't killed were arrested and tossed away into a prison, promptly forgotten. Encounters consisted of full blown mobile suit and even ship battles as in the days of the War, or mere shootouts between a thug with a machine gun and unused plastic explosives. Either way, the 'good guys', being OMNI and ZAFT, won each battle.

Despite tracking and eliminating a large number of terrorist factions, incentive to rebel had not been quinched, thus dropping the original reason behind the pact. On the other hand, the conflict had also given a reason to Earth and PLANT to refit their military forces faster than anyone expected. Because more weapons were needed to combat the so-called threats, both sides began to experiment with technology that had been forgotten in the war. Soon, mobile suits and ships equipped with Phase Shift Armor, Trans-Shift Armor, high powered energy weapons, nuclear fission reactors and even stealth technology were either brought back or just brought into being. In relatively no time, both sides had nearly recovered from the war.

Still, nothing could deny that Operation Jihad was at that timeand still was ineffective at best*. And thus, negotiations between PLANT and the Earth Alliance began to falter. The evidence was clear to the Earth Alliance that members of ZAFT were supporting terrorists, even if not for the ideals of Patrick Zala, they saw Earth and Naturals as a pathetic race worthy for contempt. Atleast, that's how many politicians and officials within the government felt. OMNI was back in full power, but thanks to military advisory, any intentions for a second invasion on PLANT were halted, as ZAFT was also back in full bloom. This all happened over the last three years, and even today, both sides are as hostile to eachother as ever.

Fargus himself had commented that things would never end, and that as long as humans existed in either Earth or Space, hostilities would remain. It was human nature. Marko assumed that was the reason why he left OMNI, despite his position, and formed the Altair Pirates. In fact, most of the pirate, bounty hunter and privateer organizations out there had been formed either by officers who held contempt for their home governments or civilians that didn't want to take sides on the projected next war. On the other hand, not many of them had access to an Izumo-class battleship or a whole legion of mobile suits from both sides. Marko had to thank his luck on that one, picking a pirate group that had all the high level living conditions. Even if the ship was possessed by suits like Lyn and Fargus, or wierdos like Vale and Mayer. Not to mention stowaways...

Adlai woke up and shot up in his bed, opening his eyes and not knowing where he was. He looked around and began to remember that he was on board the Altair; after all, he wasn't use to waking up from naps inside a crew room on a battleship. Taking off his glasses and rubbing his face, he slid to the side of the bed and put his feet on the floor. It was a fairly standard crew room with four beds and shutters that slide shut, painted a dull yellow with white sheets on the beds. The lights were dim, so Adlai stood up and put his glasses back on at midway up his nose, as usual; he slid the small switch on the wall and raised the lights. He grabbed his bag and shoved it under the bed, then turned to the door. He opened it and took a step outside, too groggy to notice Vale leaning against the opposite wall of the hallway.

"So you're the 'newb', eh?" Vale said, smirking. He had his arms folded and legs crossed.

Adlai raised an eyebrow as the door shut behind him. "'Newb'? What?"

"You're new here, right? Mayer said some idiot shot one of those rivals of ours and was forced to jump on board," Vale explained. "I'm assuming you're that idiot, right?"

"Your captain said to make myself useful if I wanted a ride, so it all worked out," Adlai said, smiling a little. "And what do you mean by 'rivals'?"

"We're pirates. Freelancers we prefer to be called, but since all we ever do is steal stuff from other peoples' ships..." Vale said, shrugging. "What? You didn't know that?"

"All I know is that I needed a ride and a ship was here, so I did what I had to. Besides, your captain didn't get the time to tell me anything, your competition in the business interrupted my conversation," Adlai explained.

Vale began to laugh. "Man, this is rich. You realize that by killing that guy around Fargus that you'll never be able to go anywhere near a spot owned by our competition without getting shot at, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"They now think you're part of the crew if you'd go so far as to defend Fargus," Vale said, rolling his eyes and chuckling. "I mean, how stupid was that?"

Adlai rolled his eyes as well and began walking to the right.

"Hey, don't take it so hard, you'll learn to like it here. As long as you work, that is," Vale said, standing up off the wall. "Besides, I didn't even catch your name."

Adlai stopped within two steps and turned around. "Adlai. Adlai Dayso."

"Vale Hunter, resident ace combatant," Vale said, approaching Adlai and extending his right hand.

Adlai glanced down and saw that Vale was wearing a pair of white gloves. Curiousity struck him, but he decided to ignore it and just reply with a handshake from his own right hand.

"Better go wander around some and find something to do. Unless you're a pilot, I'm afraid they don't let you sit on your ass much," Vale advised.

"Is it really that bad?" Adlai asked, worried.

"No, not really," Vale replied, then laughed. "Things are pretty slack here, actually, but if Lyn sees you goofing off, she'll scold the hell out of you."

"Lyn?"

"The green-haired woman in the OMNI outfit. She's a strange one, you know. Seems that's the only thing she'll wear and claims it's the only thing that looks good on her," Vale said, shrugging. "But I really don't mind, she's incredibly hot," Vale said, giving a thumbs-up.

"Fantastic," Adlai replied, indifferent.

"What, you have a problem with women? You like men?" Vale asked, smirking.

"No, I like women, just not her. She seems a bit...well, anal," Adlai said, grimacing.

"Eh, she has to, she manages things around here. Can't be a softy on a ship full of bloodthirsty pirates," Vale said, smirking.

"If you say so," Adlai said, scratching the back of his head.

"Tell 'ya what, go wander around some and get your bearings. I'm on my way to do something as we speak. See 'ya later," Vale said, nodding then heading in the opposite direction Adlai was.

"Hey! What if I get lost?" Adlai said loudly.

"What? You want a map? Come on, it's not that hard to figure out," Vale said in reply, then stepped around a corner to a connected hallway.

Adlai sighed and turned around. With a shrug, he wandered back down the hall, studying the layout as he walked around aimlessly.

In the span of his twenty minute journey, Adlai had managed to find four bathrooms, several storage closets, several alcohol storage areas (which were really suppose to be munitions rooms), the hangar, the rear observation deck, and the strangest looking sanna he had ever seen; how it worked, he didn't want to bother to ask, all he knew was that it was a room full of steam and someone in a towel in it. Heading upstairs, he passed by the lounge, spotting Ellis laying on a couch painting her nails and Martin typing something on his laptop. Calvez was there too, playing something on a handheld game console.

"'Bloodthirsty', my ass," Adlai mumbled to himself in the doorway.

"What? Oh, hey, you're the idiot who-" Ellis began to say, looking towards the doorway.

"Idiot who jumped on board after shooting one of those guys, yeah, I am," Adlai said, finishing her sentence.

"How'd you know I was going to say that?" Ellis asked, curious.

"That 'Vale' dude already talked to me. I hope you people aren't the kinds to brand me as 'that idiot who blah blah blah' the rest of the time I'm here," Adlai said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, if you tell us your name, I won't," Ellis said, looking back down at her hand and stroking her brush across her middle finger nail.

"Adlai. Adlai Dayso," Adlai said, stepping inside and leaning on the back of the center couch.

"Yo," Martin said simply, not looking away from his computer.

"What a weird name, just like Vale. Man, outsiders are weird," Calvez said to himself.

"Calvez, be nice," Ellis said, sighing,"I wonder if this color is too 'loud'. After all, this shade of purple matches my top, but it might not fit with my hair."

"I'll be nice when I can trust him. Both he and Vale are suspicious, you know. We've all been around since this whole thing started, but Vale's only been here, what, a few months? A year? I forget. And you, 'Adlai' have only been here half an hour. I'm not speaking to outsiders, got it?" Calvez said, looking away from his game momentarily.

Adlai was momentarily distracted; he had a nice view of Ellis's cleavage. He stared with a smug smile on his face. Thank heaven for immodest women; she had to have been a nice B-cup, perhaps close to a C...

"What are you looking at?" Ellis said curiously, looking back up at Adlai.

"Er, nothing, nothing," Adlai said, momentarily panicking and looking away.

Calvez groaned. "Great, he's probably going to rape you, Ellis, and steal all our money and then just toodle off in the Captain's GuAIZ. I'm out of here, I can't stand being around this weirdo," he said, then got up and stormed out of the room.

Ellis sighed, rolling her eyes. "Don't mind him, he's like the upset little kid who doesn't like his new stepdad when it comes to newcomers."

"Or he's just a dick. Whatever way you want to put it," Martin commented, reading over something on his laptop.

"So what's your business on the ship?" Ellis asked, looking back down at her nails.

"Just wandering around, really. All I really wanted was a ride off port, I'm not even sure where to go," Adlai replied.

"Vagrant, eh? We don't get many of those," Martin said, not looking away from his laptop.

"So what do you do?" Ellis asked, interested, but not taking her eyes off her painting.

"What?" Adlai replied, taken back a little.

"What do you do? You know, your job. What do you do best?" Ellis clarified.

Adlai thought for a moment, looking down at a couch cushion.

"Son of a bitch!" Martin suddenly shouted.

Adlai and Ellis stared at him.

"Why does it keep giving me a 'user error' and this crap about '40459 input interruption'?" Martin asked the laptop angrily.

"Let me have a look," Adlai said, walking over and peeking over his shoulder.

"If you can fix this thing, I'll eat my shoe. It's been doing this for a week," Martin said, sighing.

Adlai reached over him and slowly pecked a few buttons. The screen began to show different screens, Adlai scrolling through them and selecting different settings and lines of the programs.

"What are you doing? What just happened?" Martin asked, curious.

"Hmm," Adlai hummed, stopping to think. He tapped a few more keys and selected something else, then began closing windows. "Try it now," he said, leaning back.

Martin reached down and attempted to run the program he previously did. It started up without a hitch. "Hey! How in the hell?"

"Simple problem, really. You had two system support aspects running in the background and the program needed only one. It couldn't decide which, so it picked one and then the other attempted to access it. By setting one to idle, I even opened up a chunk of your memory too," Adlai explained, folding his arms.

Martin laughed to himself, smiling. "Dude, we got ourselves a computer guru! Fargus has been looking for someone to fix up the machines around here for months!"

"Well, looks like you could come in handy around here," Ellis said, dipping the brush into her nail polish.

"Where'd you learn to do that anyway? You a Coordinator or something?" Martin asked.

"Nah, Natural. I just took some of those operating system certification classes. I did a little bit of that 'tech support' stuff back when I lived on Earth," Adlai said, shrugging.

"Martin here is a Coordinator, yet he couldn't even figure out how to fix that computer. Sad, isn't it?" Ellis said, smirking.

Martin made an angry look. "Hey, look, I can kick ass in my mobile suit, but I don't know the first thing about computers, alright? Coordinators aren't good at everything, you know, Miss I-Should-Talk-I'm-One-Too."

"Hey, there's no need to be hateful. So what if I was born with natural grace and beauty of a Coordinator but can't make a supercomputer out of a banana peel and paper clip? You're right, Coordinators aren't good at everything, so what?" Ellis pointed out.

"You started it," Martin mumbled.

Ellis rolled her eyes in reply.

Martin smiled again and gave a thumbs up to Adlai. "But, damn, just wait until I tell the Captain about you! He'll have a heart attack when he hears the computers around here will finally work right," he said, smiling and shaking his head as he began pulling up pictures of women in bikinis on a beach.

Adlai watched over Martin's shoulder, smiling as well. "Looks good to me," he said, replying more to the picture than Martin's statement.

"Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. This is the shit," Martin said, looking back at Adlai and nodding while pointing to the screen.

Ellis rolled her eyes and closed her bottle of nail polish. She got off the couch and stood up. "Well, you two have fun, I'm going to go take a shower," she said, smiling and she spoke; then sighed as she walked out the door. "Men."

As usual, the hangar bay was busy, just as Vale expected it to be. After all, Bobbinem Garban was the chief engineer of the Altair, so the hangar had to be active twenty-four seven. Otherwise it would mean Lyn would be down yelling at Bob for 'slacking off'. And of all the people on the battleship, Bob had the hardest time taking Lyn's bitchy attitude. Ignoring the chatter around him, Vale stepped off the elevator and started to walk into the mess of equipment and technicians that all but littered the hangar deck. In the current day and age, mobile suits fielded by 'civilian' groups was considered illegal, but both OMNI and ZAFT had their hands full eradicating splinter groups left over from the First Coordinator War. So, to make all the lives on the Altair a hell lot easier, Fargus kept his own little militia.

The Altair had four teams or Platoons of mobile suits, roughly a full Company in military terminology. The pirates' forces consisted of six MBF-M1 M1 Astrays that had either been captured, salvaged from space or 'liberated' from other pirate and smuggler forces that used the mobile suit, three GAT-01 Strike Daggers that were taken after the Altair destroyed a Montegomery-class battleship and threatened to strand the surviving OMNI pilots in deep space unless they surrendered, and finally, three ZAFT mobile suits: two ZGMF-1017 GINNs and a ZGMF-600 GuAIZ. GINNs were a common mobile suit fielded by mercenaries, because they were simpler to operate and maintain than the later Strike Daggers and Astrays, but the one's Fargus had on his battleship were provided by ZAFT defectors like Ellis Tarat. The GuAIZ was salvaged from the ruins of Yakin Duue, its pilot dead but the mobile suit in otherwise good shape considering the location. Fargus personally supervised and took part in the reconstruction of that suit, and after it was rebuilt, he took it as his own personal unit. Nobody argued with his decision except for Calvez Menaba, who ended up having the verbal knife of Lynsie Schneider forced into his throat.

Aside from the mobile suit, the Altair also possessed two old model TS-MA2 Mobius mobile armors and Vale's personal unit: a dark red, black and gold FXet-565 Cosmograsper fighter. The latter being the reason Vale had took time from his 'slacking schedule' to inspect. The Cosmograsper was parked in the middle of the hangar, its landing gears latched down to clamps built into the slick gray deck rather than hanging on racks like the Mobius armors. Bob and two other techies were currently working on it, the two in the process of reloading one of the side gatling guns and Bob was inspecting the right wing. Vale casually turned and threw his scarf along his midback, browsing over to the Cosmograsper. "So, Mr. Garban, is my little girl behaving herself?"

Bob looked down at Vale over one of the flaps, "She's doing fine, but it's getting alot harder to keep her in shape, 'Mr. Hunter'." Bob replied, as he got off the wing and climbed down a ladder that extended to the deck, "I fixed the right stabilizer and all the bullet holes from your last sortie, but..."

"But?" Vale raised an eyebrow.

Bob grumbled, "Vale, I still don't get why you won't switch to a mobile suit. Just ask the Merlin to get you a Strike Dagger or something."

"Now, now, Bob, you know what I think about mobile suits." Vale said. Though he managed to keep his smart alleck tone, Bob could tell he had struck a nerve in the fighter pilot's skin. A deep one at that.

"So you got shot down in a Strike Dagger. Come on Vale, every pilot gets shot down once. Or in the case of Zack and Calvez, lots of times." Bob said.

"I was trained for three-dimensional manuevering, not to run around, shooting guns on the deck." Vale explained, "I'll tell you now, I wouldn't have gotten shot down by that damn Astray pilot if I were in a fighter."

"Yeah, then you would've gotten shot by one of those three flight model Gundams." Bob said, "Look, you were at a disadvantage, Vale. Orb not only had better technology and mobile suits, but they also had former Atlantic Federation and ZAFT personell operating for them. Invading Orb wasn't exactly the best time to operate at ground level."

"I tried it once, it didn't work out that well." Vale said, shrugging his shoulder in an 'Ah well' manner, "Besides, I joined OMNI to be an air jock, not pilot some crappy ground pounder."

"Ok, ask Merlinius to get you a flight capable model like the DINN or better yet, one of those Aile Packs that can fit onto Strike Daggers." Bob said, "Problem solved. You get to stay in the air, and my job of maintaining our little army becomes easier. Plus, you won't have to listen to me moan and groan about it again."

Vale laughed at that, his normal cheery demeanor recovering from the blow Bob had given to them. "Unlike you, I don't let things like green-haired woman and grizzled old men get on my nerves. You should learn to lighten up a little, Bob, after all, it takes a lot less energy to be happy than it does to be upset."

Bob glared at him, "You think I answer to that green haired suit wearing bimbo on the bridge?"

Vale's grin seemed to grow a few inches on either side. "That's not the green haired woman I'm talking about."

Bob's face turned a deeper shade of red, which Vale took as a cue to continue. "I tell you what, you make up with that certain somebody, and I'll ask Merlin to buy me a Dagger. If he can't do it, then I'll 'steal' one of the GINNs."

"Don't say such things to the guy fixing your damned rocket plane, kid." It was now Bob's turn to get unnerved.

"Then I suggest you don't say such things again, Mr. Garben. Make sure to get my Cosmograsper and the rest of our mecha in the best shape you can, in case we go on another raid." Vale chimed at the still annoyed Bob. Without giving him a chance to respond, Vale decided he had better things to do. "Auf Wiedersehen für jetzt, lieber Ingenieur."** He finished in one of his German utterances. His point made, and victory assured, Vale spun on his boot heel and again threw back his red scarf, which had 'magically' shifted over his shoulder while talking to Bob, and continued back to the elevator.

Bob just shook his head, "Sometimes I wonder, just what kind of alcohol the Captain was drinking when he made that boy a team commander."

Mayer yawned, wandering one of the decks of the ship, looking for something to do. He held his head down and his hands in his pockets, the typical 'bored-like-hell' posture displayed by non-military personell like himself. Eventually, his wandering had taken him into the observation deck, which was just below the bridge in the ship's 'neck' area. To his small surprise, there stood the guy that had stowed himself onboard the Altair, Adlai, or whatever his name was. Mayer couldn't help but groan at the presence of this man.

Adlai was currently practicing an oriental Earth-based fighting style involving a bokken (wooden sword). At first, Mayer thought it was basic kendo, but some of the stances and the wind-like sway that moved with Adlai's apparent sword told him it was a more advanced variation of kendo. "You really are a idiot." Mayer said outloud, "Practicing swordplay in this day and age."

The stranger didn't reply, he took a moment to reseathe his sword into an invisible seathe at his left hip. He then laid the wooden sword against the wall, and turned to look at the kid, slightly annoyed. "Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot the other day. My name is Adlai Dayso, not idiot, bloke, baka, dummkopf or whatever Coordinators use to describe 'person with lacking brains'," he said with a sigh. "And what's wrong with swords? I like swords."

"If you want to live longer, you'll practice with a gun or just plain hand-to-hand." Mayer said, "The only people that can survive with blades are Fargus and Vale, and even they use guns more often."

"Why are so concerned? I know enough to survive on my own, you saw me pick off that guy at the dock." Adlai said, smirking a little, "Are you afraid of my dying? Is that it?"

"Right." Mayer rolled his eyes, "I'm only saying this because Martin told me how good you were with a computer, for a terran. If you die, that means we'll have to hire an actual computer programmer instead of taking in some stranger."

"You don't have something against outsiders, do you?" Adlai wondered.

"Nah, I just don't trust you." Mayer stated.

"Right. Don't blame you there, kid." Adlai chuckled a little, "So tell me, why do they keep you around here? Are you like the official mascot or something?"

"I'm a mobile suit pilot." Mayer replied.

This managed to gain some interest from Adlai's part, "Really?"

"Yeah, I got one of the M1 Astrays left over from the war six years ago. Got a few mobile suit and fighter kills, even downed myself a Laurasia at one point."

"Interesting." Adlai said, laughing a little, and in the back of his mind, thinking, "ZAFT must be in worse shape than ever if a mere pirate like yourself can down one of their battleships..."

"Not ZAFT." Mayer corrected, "The ship was part of Joseph McCartney's fleet. Atleast I think, he has a thing for Laurasia-class battleships..."

Adlai rose an eyebrow, "Let me guess, got it off the black market? Or did some ZAFT officer defect over to him?"

"Off the black market." Mayer said, "That's the main way of getting hardware now a days. Hand weapons, guns, mobile suits, ships, all either stolen or left over from the war. ZAFT and OMNI don't really give a damn about pirates running around, as long as they don't take up terrorism or the like."

"Can't say I blame OMNI for not getting involved, since its really ZAFT's problem, and while they do go after pirates, they've got better things to do with their time like hunt down terrorists and stuff." Adlai shrugged.

"CNN?" Mayer questioned.

"Fox News, Time, Zodiac, Reader's Digest..." Adlai said, shrugging, "I strive to keep up with current events."

"I noticed." Mayer rolled his eyes again, then looking past Adlai and out the window, "Heh, looks like we're going hunting again. I better get down to the hangar bay and suit up, just in case they need me out there." Without saying farewell, Mayer turned on his heel and walked out of the room, heading down to the hangar deck.

At first, Adlai wasn't sure what Mayer meant. Then, a piece of debris floated past the viewport, followed by more debris. Scraps of metal, glass, a frozen corpse or two, and interesting enough, a yellow origami flower. "Ah, I see." Adlai grinned silently, seeing where their destination was. He slowly pushed his glasses up over his eyes, "Looks like I can see if you are capable, little ace."

"Captain on the bridge." Lyn announced, as Fargus exitted the elevator. The former OMNI commander let out a small smile at how his XO still kept military procedure, even on a ship as bootlegged as the Altair. Rouri and Tilly had caught the 'warning' before hand that the Captain was coming up the bridge, sitting at their stations at attention, but Marko was still listening to the radio when Lyn gave off her trademark scowl. Marko immediatly jumped up and stared back at his radar display. The rest of the bridge crew did the same. Usually, Fargus hated military procedure more than anything, as it was too great of a reminder of his previous job. However, he always found it amusing when Lyn used it, not only did it bring chaos to order, but it was also funny watching his crew jump like children sneaking into a cookie jar.

"As you were." Fargus nodded and slowly paced over to his seat, gazing at the viewport ahead of him. "Let's bring her in slow, boys." he said grimly, tapping into his innercomm. "This is the bridge, we have entered Junius 7. All decks, stay on full alert. Steady as she goes." An eerie silence came upon the crew at that point, as almost all activity on the ship seemed to halt.

They had now entered ZAFT territory, specifically near the colony of Junius 7. Now that Marko was at attention, Fargus could tell he and the other ex-ZAFT and coordinators in his crew were having stomach pains right about now. Six years ago, Junius 7 was the sight of the infamous Bloody Valentine attack made by OMNI in an attempt to silence the threat of the rebellion over George Glen. The war had started before that point, but at the same time, it didn't ignite until Valentine. Under strict orders from the Alliance and OMNI High Command, a squadron of Mobius mobile armors had been deployed to this area to use nuclear weapons upon the colony, under the belief that Junius 7 was construction site of a terrible weapon. Only after the nukes were used, did intellegence report Junius 7 was a civilian colony, meaning it had no military presence whatsoever, but it was still the sight of an anti-Earth uprising. High Command and the Alliance dismissed it as a justified attack, but the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty didn't. Thanks to the loss of Patrick Zala's wife, and hundreds of families, ZAFT now had the martyr they needed to provoke a fight against the Earth besides George Glen. Most of Fargus' associates in OMNI had claimed the war began after ZAFT invaded the Earth in search of natural resources, but to Fargus and most of his crew, this was where the war truly began. Originally, the so-called 'war' was merely a guerilla engagement as ZAFT only wanted natural resources for their own use and nothing more. Junius had the same effect on PLANT as Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Center attacks did on the United States hundreds of years ago, being the straw that broke the camel's back. It was one of the reasons he left OMNI, but it certainly wasn't the only one...

Now, ZAFT had deemed the colony as a non-military zone in respect for the men, woman and children that were resting in space. Thus, making it the perfect area for illegal activity, and a favorite spot for the Altair to go hunting. Fargus respected the loss here, so he usually kept his pirate ship on the outskirts of Julius, but they were desperate now, and despite his loathing the thought, most of the illegal activity took place within the colony. He prayed that the dead would understand his need, and in return, he would allow them to rest easier by hauling their trespassers out of the zone.

Lyn was the first to break the silence, "Shall we deploy a patrol group into the colony, Captain?"

"No need to waste fuel. If they're in there, they'll come out." Fargus said, "Still, put Vale and Ellis' teams on standby." Tilly turned to make sure she heard right, to which Lyn looked over to Tilly and nodded, confirming the order. With that, the communication girl relayed the orders to through the ship.

Marko growled silently at the sight as the Altair loomed closer to the colony, waiting for that one red dot to show up on his display. His mother, father and girlfriend were all resting here, so naturally he'd be pissed at the sight of somebody 'peeing' on their graves. "Relax, Marko." Lyn said from behind him in an uncharacteristic soft voice. She peered over his chair and looked at the radar display, "They're at peace now, and no one's going to take that away from them."

The young radar operator calmed a little, taking a breath of air at the first officer's words, "Yeah, I know, but I still can't help it. I mean, you'd feel the same way in a situation like this, ma'am."

"Don't worry, I know the feeling very well." Lyn replied, "Just concentrate on your duties. Your parents would be upset if they saw you slacking."

Marko laughed slightly at that, "They'd be upset anyway if they saw me on an OMNI battleship, much more under a pirate flag."

He sighed, looking back over his radar display. He remembered all the fond memories he spent on Junius with his parents and high school girlfriend, "My family were firm believers in George Glen's proposal, and they knew how corrupt the Earth was at the time. They would support these anti-Earth rallies and political movements, all the non-violent, pure verbal groups that had something against the Alliance, but they were against the idea of open war. Martin and I were on a short high school break on another colony when it happened, so we managed to survive the blast." The bridge crew's attention all seemed to turn to Marko's story; even Tilly looked up from her display to listen. "They paid for our trip, set up a savings account for our college tuition and even got us an apartment for our vacation. I don't know how, but I think they knew what was going to happen."

"Heh, you're lucky," one of the tactical officers, Otto Swanson, came in, "My parents were visiting family up here when it happened. I was in OMNI at the time, so I could survive without them, but damn, you can't imagine how pissed I was knowing I was on the side that killed them. I mean, after they died, I had to go live with my berserk uncle in a ghetto somewhere."

"Yeah, me too!" another one, Luke Armos, called out, "My brother had settled on this colony, got a good wife, some kids and a nice house, after spending all of his life trying to get into outer space. My parents will killed off when we were younger, so I didn't have alot of people to turn to. Ended up living with my Aunt Lily, later found out she was whoring so she could support me and her own children."

"Okay, okay, enough already," Lyn ordered as Marko was about to say something else, "We wouldn't be pirates if our lives were peaches and creme, but this isn't a 'who had the worst experience growing up' contest people. Return to your posts and stay alert, before a ZAFT patrol fleet pops up and adds us to the graveyard."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, funny you should mention that," Marko chimed, now grinning ear-to-ear, "I'm picking up a signal bearing nine o'clock, emerging from the colony. Looks like a freighter."

As Marko said that, all attention to the bridge turned again. "Has the IFF code been identified?" Fargus asked.

"Checking..." Marko said. If it were physically possible, his smile would grow even more. "It's our old friend, the Red Rose."

Fargus' brow furreled, a light bit of interest coming across his face. "Kenneth Spade," he muttered, "Helm, turn us forty five degrees port and take us closer to the colony. Tilly, contact Vale, Calvez and Ellis and have all of our mobile suits and armors deploy."

"Oh man, this is too perfect." Marko said, hardly being able to contain his excitement. What a perfect way to end his depression.

"Enemy freighter sighted at nine o'clock, 37 klicks and closing! All hands, battlestations! All hands, battlestations!"

Ellis exitted the changing room, clad in her green ZAFT normal suit minus the helmet, which was tucked under her arm. She stood in the elevator, waiting to land on the hangar deck. However, for some reason, she couldn't help but take a glance at the twin golden wasp emblems on either side of the ZAFT helmet. She solemnly brushed her hand against the left side emblem, recalling how she earned the nickname 'Queen Wasp'. It was the nickname her squadron mates gave her after she downed her fifth kill, originally for the way she shot the Mobius down. After slashing the cockpit of her victim Mobius open on a speed attack, she noticed that the armor's pilot was still alive and the armor was still capable of combat. To correct her mistake, she swung around and landed on the back of the Mobius, stabbing her battlesword through the open scar she made and killing the pilot inside. One of wingmen joked that it reminded him of a hunter wasp on Earth, which will sting a tarantula with a paralyzing venom and then lay her eggs in the tarantula, so when the eggs hatch, the larva could feast upon the helpless spider. As disgusting as it sounded, the name caught on, and from that point on, Ellis used Wasp as her callsign. That was of course, before she left ZAFT for her own reasons, but she still used it today, since the Altair's mobile suit pilots kept the military callsign system in outside combat, so that no one would be identified by the enemy or worse, OMNI enforcer units. Besides the callsign, Ellis started to flashback to the war before...

After the elevator finally came down to the hangar deck, she floated over to her waiting GINN. One of the techs was making last minute adjustments to the mono-eye camera, but turned away long enough to see her fly up. "Is she ready to go?" Ellis questioned. The tech nodded and handed her a clipboard, which held the maintenance report on the GINN. Ellis looked it over, seeing that everything had been repaired and her ammunition fully loaded. For this mission, her weapons load consisted of the standard MMI-M8A3 76mm machine gun, MA-M3 heavy sword and a pair M68 'Pardeus' triple missile launchers on the GINN's legs. She arched an eyebrow at that last one, since she was rarily given Pardeus missiles as they were rare to find and very expensive on the market. Either the Captain wanted them to attack the enemy freighter or there was something special about their prey. Or both.

"Miss Tarat, we don't have time!" the tech said, pointing at his watch, "Your GINN's ready for combat. Bridge says deployment in four minutes, tops!"

"You weren't in the middle of a shower when the battle alert came on!" Ellis protested while waving the clipboard at the tech. "I had no time to check anything!"

The tech folded his arms and gave her a stern look.

"Alright, I'm going." Ellis said with an aggravated sigh, slipping into the cockpit of her GINN and closing the hatch. Tying her long hair back into a quick bun, and slipping her helmet on, she proceeded to activating her mobile suit's operating system. It took a few moments, but eventually, the familiar hum of her suit's batteries' warming up echoed around her cockpit. Another brief moment, and the viewscreens all activated, followed by her control panel and display monitors. Almost immediatly, Tilly's face appeared on the upper corner of her main screen, clad with a headset, and her channel set on broadband. "Ok, ladies and gentlemen, I'll make this short and quick. We found the Red Rose, and as you have all guessed, it's emerging from the colony. Yes, your objective is to disable it and destroy any resisting mobile suit. No, we haven't detected any other freighters coming out or within the colony, which means no third party intervention. Just watch out for Strike Daggers and maybe a Mobius or two, and all of you will be fine. Good hunting." Tilly signed off, just after Ellis tested her mono-eye focus and movement.

"Heh, wow, she's rather talkative today." Calvez replied with sarcasm on a vidwindow to Ellis' GINN, clad in his white and orange OMNI flight suit. Signifying his callsign, a pair of dice were painted on each side of the helmet, with the one sides most visible, "Any idea why we're being rushed out into combat, Wasp?"

"What, you've been here since the beginning and you haven't heard of the Red Rose, Snake Eye?" Vale piped in on another vidscreen to both Calvez's Strike Dagger and Ellis' GINN from his Cosmograsper fighter. Unlike Calvez's regular OMNI flight suit, Vale's was a black and dark red tone, matching his fighter's colors, with a pair of 'demon eye' decals painted over the helmet, inbetween the small hub. Interesting enough, the helmet had a mouth piece all of Vale's lower face area and nose, but left his eyes uncovered, sorta like a 21st Century fighter pilot helmet without an oxygen tube.

"Of course he wouldn't, Phoenix, he was out on vacation when the Red Rose incident happened." Ellis replied, as she stepped her GINN mobile suit out onto the launch deck, followed by her wingmate, Tony Martinez in the second GINN, "About a few monthes back, we raided one of Kenneth Spade's freighters, and as usual, we took everything, let the crew abandon ship and then destroyed it. Some days later, five of our crewmembers were found dead in a hotel room when we were last on Sweetwater for resupply, their blood being used to write on a warning on the wall not to raid anymore freighters and stuff. Kenneth was already one of our rivals, but that little 'warning' elevated him to deadman in the Captain's eyes."

"What do you mean? The Captain doesn't get emotional over anything!" Calvez shot back.

"Oh, he didn't show it as always, but you could tell it pissed him off." Vale replied brightly, "You see, one of Kenny's associates is a former ZAFT interrogation specialist, and thus, quite skilled in their form of chakra torture. An official autopsy showed that these five had some of their organs removed, probably remaining alive for a good sixteen hours before dying. Kenny wanted to make a point, but all he did was piss Fargus off."

"Why didn't anyone notice the crew missing?" Calvez asked.

"You try keeping track of a good two hundred fifty or so people over a two day shore leave." Ellis shot back with a harsh tone, "This isn't a daycare, and as much as I hate to say it, not even Lyn can manage to keep an attendance of the crew while off duty. We're big boys and girls, Snake Eye, so its assumed we can take care of ourselves."

"Hey, I noticed the big boy and girl part a long time ago Ellis." Calvez said smugly.

Ellis had her GINN's head turn to face Calvez's Strike Dagger, which was behind Tony's GINN, her mono-eye flashing a deep red, "How would you like to have your beam saber scrapped before you'll ever ignite it?"

"Hey, hey, save that for combat, Queen." This time, it was Mayer who came in, from his Astray that was standing directly behind Calvez's Strike Dagger team. As with his mobile suit, he was dressed in the male version of Orb's flight suit, painted in a darker shade of red, "We've got bigger fish to fry, anyway."

"Cosmograsper Alpha One is in position for deployment." Tilly came in over a private channel to Vale up ahead, her voice being picked up by the channel attached, "All final checks in the green, Alpha One is clear for launch."

"Right. Vale Hunter, Cosmograsper launching!" Vale replied to the bridge, immediatly hitting the boosters on his fighter and flying out of the Altair's hangar.

It was Ellis' turn to deploy, "We'll settle this later." she said, closing the channel, just as Tilly came up again on her monitor.

"Delta One, step up to the catapult." Tilly ordered, a bit more serious than when she gave the 'briefing'.

Ellis complied, letting the catapult clamps attach around the GINN's feet, then firing up her back thrusters. "Systems look green here, Tilly." Ellis said.

"Confirmed, Queen. All system checks in the green, Delta One is clear for launch." Tilly said.

"Ellis Tarat, GINN launching!" Ellis acknowledged, hitting her thrusters to full power and letting the shock from the G-forces push her back into her chair. Now it was a good day for hunting.

The primary monitor on Vale's Cosmograsper flashed as it began, essentially almost lighting the entire cockpit as image after image of ships and mobile suit displays filled the screen in rapid sequence. First came the Red Rose herself, a Lockheed Martin Drake-class freighter converted into a space carrier for mobile suits like many others in her class used by OMNI. The Drake-class was a product from the later part of the war, where OMNI's main fleet was still utilizing Mobius type mobile armors and true mobile suit carriers like the Archangel-class were too expensive to mass produce in quantities. A few battleships, mainly ships of the higher command, were modified to carry Strike Dagger mobile suits, but for the most part, OMNI had to rely on these converted freighters to transport mobile suits. And as with many of OMNI's machines, the Drake-class would end up on the black market for privateer factions, like Kenneth Spade here.

Offensively, the Red Rose was like a fat pig, being that it was large, slow and lacking in any armament capability. Vale's sensors only detected a few CIWS emplacements around the hull, as well as two box missile launchers mounted on the starboard and port sides of the ship. Against mobile suits, it would prove hazardeous to make an assualt on, but Vale saw the Altair was moving against the Red Rose. Seeing as how the Izumo-class was armed with four Gottfried cannons, four Valiant seconadary cannons and twenty Igelstellung 75mm CIWS, the Red Rose would be no match for the more combat oriented battleship. Trouble was, the opposing ship could carry twenty-eight mobile suits against the Altair's fifteen mobile suits and the one fighter. The enemy Strike Daggers scattered into a spread formation, since after all, there was no point in staying close together and making it easier for the Altair teams to shoot them all down. Still, Kenneth's pilots were probably regular mercenaries rather than ex-military personell like Vale and the mixed mobile suit teams, and deep down, Vale hoped this was true.

Vale decided to phase off his doubts, punching up the main frequency, "Ok ladies and gentlemen, you can see we're outnumbered nearly two times, but if Kenneth's reputation is true, then they're not very good. Just concentrate on the mobile suits and let the Altair take care of the weed. Everyone has to at least down two mobile suits before calling it quits."

"Sure, sure, focus on the moving targets, no problem already." Calvez quipped.

"We know the drill, Vale. Just let us do our jobs." Ellis said with irritation, her GINN pulling up beside Vale's support fighter, shifting its mono-eye over.

"I know, but I felt like doing that." Vale smirked, sitting back in his cockpit, "You know, that whole 'command speech' before combat to rile the troops."

"Whatever." Ellis rolled her eyes, as the two GINNs that made up Delta team flew past Vale, diving into the mass of enemy Strike Daggers, "Delta Team, engaged."

"Gamma Team, engaged." Calvez announced, his team of Strike Daggers firing their beam rifles.

"Omega Team and Theta Teams engaged." one of the two Astray team commanders broadcasted.

"Alpha One, engaged." Vale said, confirming all teams were now in the fight. Immediatly, he targetted one of the Strike Daggers, and fired off bursts from his gatling guns, shredding his target's left leg. The Dagger must've targetted one of the Theta Astrays or either of the Delta GINNs, because judging by the reaction, it didn't see Vale coming at all. It fired two shots from its M703 beam rifle at the Cosmograsper, at which Vale rolled onto his starboard side and flew past, letting the green bursts sail under his fighter's belly. He then pulled his fighter into a Split-S, in which he pulled his fighter upward and into an aerial U-turn, bringing his medium cannons to bear on the Strike Dagger and firing three shots. His target engaged its verniers and ascended, dodging the first shot, but Vale corrected his aim before he fired the last two, the second sheering off the left shoulder and arm, and the third breaking through the cockpit and effectively killing the pilot. Vale turned away to his port side before he could confirm the Strike Dagger exploding, since it didn't really matter, its pilot was dead anyway. Targetting another Dagger some distance away, he corrected his flight path so he was above the target, going into a dive and almost immediatly painting the Dagger with his target, and bringing about his fighter's long cannon. While the long cannon was generally designed as a long-range support weapon, it had a devestating power at close-range, which Vale loved to combine with his fighter's mobility. His target icon went red, but Vale waited until he was mere meters away from the pre-occupied Dagger before letting off a shot. The energy burst shot out and slammed into the left side of the Strike Dagger at point blank. Similar to the first victim of the random support fighter, was firing shots at Ellis' GINN, before the black and red Cosmograsper seemingly came out of nowhere. The cannon shot ripped through the hip and out the other end, effectively splitting the mobile suit in half before a short circuit caused the battery generator to explode, engulfing the mobile suit in flames.

Vale flew straight through the explosion, pulling a barrel roll, and then pulling a tight loop and targetting another victim. However, by this point, his adversaries had taken notice of the black and red Cosmograsper that had taken down two of their comrades in under a minute. Three more Strike Daggers were gunning for him, raining his fighter with green bolts of beam energy. He broke his loop and banked away from the bursts, effectively barrel rolling to the starboard side and trying to circle around. One weakness that his fighter had compared to mobile suits was that mobile suits could manuever in all three dimensions, while his Cosmograsper could only fly forward and correct direction. On occasion, Vale would try to cover for this weakness with superior piloting skills, but he knew his fighter would never match a mobile suit in manuevering. The Strike Daggers split up, trying to surround and track the Cosmograsper as it circled like wolves. Vale knew a direct attack at any of three would fail, so he pushed the joystick forward and brought the Cosmograsper into a dive. Naturally, the Strike Daggers followed, firing off rounds from their beam rifles and Igelstellung vulcans. Vale increased the angle of the dive so the shots would fly over him, and eventually performing a downward loop. The manuever managed to reveal one of the pursuing Strike Daggers with its back open to his medium cannons. Vale fired off a linked-fire shot from both cannons, blowing two holes through the Dagger's vernier pack and then vaporizing it in a flash explosion.

Before the other two could react, a hail of 76mm machine gun bullets plowed through one of the Daggers, some of which hit the cockpit. The third Dagger jetted away from his comrade, and turned its attention to the now incoming GINN above it, bringing its beam rifle to bear. Before it could fire, Ellis drew her GINN's battlesword for a dive slash. The Dagger pilot jetted back to avoid the sword, saving his mobile suit, but Ellis managed to slash his beam rifle in half. He drew his beam saber, anticipating a close combat duel with the 'inferior' GINN, that is, before the Cosmograsper made a quick snap turn and sniped the Dagger with its Long Cannon. "Thanks for the assist, Wasp."

"Gratitude acknowledged, Phoenix." Ellis replied, as she flew off for another target, "Don't get your back vaped, you're too fun to have around."

"Same goes to you to, 'my lady'." Vale shot back, altering his flight course. He had to admit, these guys were pretty decent. His radar still detected at least nineteen unfriendly contacts in the combat zone after the one Ellis downed, not including the Rose. Thinking about the freighter/carrier hybrid for a second, he switched his display over for damage assessment on the enemy ship. Currently, the Red Rose was performing a ninety degree turn port as the Altair closed in, probably in an attempt to run for the colony. The captain knew his or her ship wouldn't be a match for an Izumo-class battleship in a direct fight, but the shards of Junius were big enough to hide an entire fleet from patrol, with all the junk floating around to confuse sensors. Fire from the Altair's Gottfrieds and Valiants stretched across space toward the Rose, scoring hits on her bow and her starboard side hull, but the ship still continued to turn. Vale, deciding his fighter would have a better chance against a fat ship than a swarm of mobile suits, changed direction and flew straight at the freighter carrier. "This is Alpha One, I'm going for a strafing run on the weed. Somebody cover my back."

"Acknowledged, Alpha One. Theta Two will provide cover." Theta One replied. In less than a moment, Mayer's Astray flew up beside Vale's Cosmograsper, brandishing its beam rifle.

"Got the short end of the stick, eh Venom?" Vale grinned underneath his mouthpiece, "Be nice to me, and I'll let you have some shots at the marijuana's bridge."

"Can't even act serious in a battle, can you Phoenix?" Mayer said.

"Hmmm..." Vale pretended to think for a second, "Nope!" he chimed ever so brightly. He adjusted his dive at the Rose, aiming at the already damaged starboard hull. When he was in range, he opened fire with a hail of cannon and gatling gun fire. The assualt managed to blow some holes into the freighter-carrier, and even into the open wounds left over from the Altair's Gottfrieds, causing explosions in its converted mobile suit bay. Mayer assisted by firing shots at the Rose's CIWS points and missile launchers, allowing Vale to have much trouble from the Rose. Still, a few of the CIWS managed to survive the assualt, and continued to fire bursts at Vale's Cosmograsper and Mayer's Astray.

Just as he pulled out of the pass, an explosion shook Vale's fighter, immediatly making him shift away from the Red Rose. One of the Strike Daggers had managed to slip through, and had nailed him with a beam rifle shot at sniper range, since Mayer didn't notice any approach, searing off his left wing and stabilizer. Despite not being in a vacuum, the Cosmograsper's wings were equipped with small verniers within the flaps, allowing it to be controllable even without an atmosphere. Also, the very fact he felt the explosion meant his inertia compensator wasn't functioning, probably an added bonus to the Strike Daggers hit. He growled to himself, trying to keep his damaged fighter under control. Before he could manuever away, machine gun fire from the Red Rose's CIWS ripped into the port side of his space fighter, making him veer off. He tried to maintain control, but more fire came in, forcing his damaged plane to shoot across the Rose's bow. More machine gun fire rattled his cockpit, blowing more debris from his fighter. One shard came from his fighter's nose, which flew upward and into his canopy, effectively breaking it open. Fortunately, Vale was still wearing his spacesuit and helmet, thus keeping absolute zero from touching his body, but the shard, being no bigger than a baseball, had barely missed him, bounced off the back of his cockpit and rebounded into his front control panel in only seconds. The panel fizzled and sparked, sending more debris floating around Vale. All this in only a matter of seconds.

"Alpha One to Theta Two, I've been hit, losing power fast." Vale contacted Mayer, "I'm going to ditch under the Rose. I'm no good now."

"Will cover until your safety is confirmed, Alpha One." Mayer replied, having his Astray fly beside the Cosmograsper, taking shots at the Rose's bow.

Now, his Cosmograsper was in a descent, flying under the Red Rose and along its belly. Vale manuevered with his barely functioning motor controls and brought his main thruster power to zero, functioning on verniers alone, trying to find a blind spot in the Rose that he could ditch his fighter and spend the rest of the battle trying to fly back to Altair on his jet pack. Assuming that he wouldn't get vaporized by the Altair's cannons, of course. He was now breathing heavily, the adrenaline from being shot down beginning to catch up to him. The feeling he always loathed, that sudden shock one gains from a delayed reaction, overcoming his mental barriers and beginning to seap into his body like roots going through soil. Silently, Vale wished he could atleast hear the sounds of the cannons and explosions, but the lack of air in space meant the sounds couldn't carried far. All he could hear was his own breathing and some broadband communication that managed to enter onto his radio. Cold and silent.... he thought, Just like Alaska....

Vale decided that this was as close as he could go, as he was now drifting away from the Rose. Even though he couldn't see Mayer's Astray, he knew this was his only chance. Unbuckling his safety harnass, he floated out of the ruined Cosmograsper and engaged his suit's thruster controls, floating up onto the main hull of the freighter. He couldn't see any CIWS or observation posts on the Rose's belly, but neither could he see any airlocks. Still, something did catch his eye. On the Rose's dull gray hull, he could see a little spot of pink caught on ridge in the ship's armor. Curious, he floated up to it. Much to his surprise, he picked up a small, pink origami flower off the hull of the ship. For some reason, he felt a chill run down his spine as he grabbed it, some sort of reaction. The paper wasn't frozen over with ice, but he could still feel a cold reaction coming from the piece, as if a waterfall of ice had erupted onto his hands. The cold spread all over his body as fast as the adrenaline, as fast as fire consumed oil, but he couldn't let go of the little flower. Deep inside, confused thoughts came within Vale's mind, crying out why he was feeling this and what he had done to feel this bitter feeling. The atmosphere around him... It was starting to turn into an aurora of blue-ish green... Reality itself seemed to start fading...

"Mayday, mayday! This is Theta Two, I've been hit! Going to ditch in the Rose's mobile suit hangar!"

This snapped Vale back to reality, The hangar? He spun around to see Mayer's smoking Astray fly into an open port in the ship's belly. Why didn't they close it? he wondered. An explosion followed, close enough for Vale to feel the shockwave erupt around the hull. That's when his pilot's instinct kicked in, that which you don't ask questions, you take every shot at survival as you can get.

Adlai leaned on the railing of the observation deck, watching the battle rage outside. He didn't even notice Zack stroll in, being completely glued to the scene.

"What 'cha doing?" Zack asked, curious as he approached Adlai.

"Tell me, are they always like this? This ship's combatants, that is," Adlai asked, tapping his right index finger on the railing.

"Well, yeah, of course. They're all really good because some are ex-military while the others just train a lot. They won't let me do anything though," Zack said, frumping at the last statement.

A smirk curled up Adlai's cheek. He reached up and moved his glasses all the way up his nose, the lenses glaring brightly from an explosion in the distance.

"Hey, you okay? Why'd you get all happy all of a sudden?" Zack asked, puzzled as he leaned over the railing a bit to look at Adlai's face.

"I'm just glad I found my way on to such a well-defended ship, that's all," Adlai replied, keeping his gaze at the battle outside.

"Man, the others are right, you are pretty strange," Zack said, shrugging as he began to leave. "Hey, is that a bok-"

"Don't touch my sword," Adlai interrupted. His command came without even looking to his side at Zack as he reached out for the bokken.

"How'd you guess I was going to grab it?" Zack said, laughing.

"Everyone always wants to touch my damn sword. Get your own," Adlai said impatiently, gazing up at a short duel between two mobile suits.

"Fine!" Zack whined, then hurried off the deck.

"Just as expected, I have such good taste it's almost uncanny," Adlai said, smiling as he kept watching the battle.

Mayer managed what many would call a "1-point landing" inside the open port. His Astray slammed into one wall and went head-over-heels into the opposite before finally going motionless as Mayer powered it down and opened the hatch. He reached under his seat and grabbed a small machine pistol and leapt out the front into the open hangar. As expected, there were a few guards in plain white spacesuits and large one-piece helmets firing up at him, but Mayer had enough speed from pushing off his seat to get behind a mobile suit rack for cover just in time. He returned fire quickly and accurately, taking the two within his eyeshot out. If there were others, they hadn't opened fire yet, so he pushed off the tip of the mobile suit rack and towards the "floor" where he grabbed on to a crate to stop himself.

He quickly reviewed his options, seeing as he probably had few to choose from at the moment. Tilly would have caught his mayday and told Fargus that he was in the ship, so Fargus wouldn't be gunning to shoot down the Red Rose just yet. But in that instance, he was holding up things by being there defenseless. So he figured he'd look for another Strike Dagger, it was a mobile suit hangar anyway; unless dumb luck made it so that all the suits in the hangar just so happen to have been taken out. He quickly decided to stop thinking so much and just improvise; have a look around, work with what he could get, and get the hell out of there.

Activating the built in Heads-Up Display that was built into his visor, he scanned the area for any other human presence. Strangely, the place was deserted, aside from some faint he signatures his infared sensors were picking up. Probably left over exhaust from the Strike Dagger's launching out. As he had experienced before, the "Helmet HUD" was very accurate for its short range, able to pick up things from an asteroid fragment in a storage room to detecting human presence in the area. Only problem was, unless the detected presence is wearing a HUD himself, and is tuned into the same IFF code that Mayer's HUD is on, then there was no way he could identify friend from enemy.

Mayer looked back where his Astray was and saw that the hangar ended about three racks down on each side from the opening he entered in. To the other direction, there was a large bulkhead that would have made up the opposite wall. It was slightly cracked and offered his only means of finding anything to escape on, so he pushed off the top of the crate and towards the crack. As he got to it, he grabbed the side to stop himself and looked around for any hostiles. Two more with assault rifles poked up from behind two crates and fired on him. Mayer reacted quickly and floated off to the right with a quick push, returning fire. He got the guy on the right, but the left one got lucky and ducked behind his cover in time. Mayer reached the opposite wall and pushed off for the ceiling, firing overhead at the other guard until he was quite obviously dead. Mayer stopped himself on a lighting structure and pushed off of it for the floor, once again stopping himself on a crate. He sighed, knowing that as soon as the battle outside was over, the others would be in here picking the place clean before Fargus shot the thing to pieces. A small twinge of sympathy for his targets ran through his mind, knowing the irony of the situation; after all, he knew what it was like to be one of Fargus' victims.

Suddenly, he looked down the storage hangar to see three mobile suits lined up against the wall. With a relieved sigh and smile, he shoved off the crate and floated in front of the three. He stopped and looked up at them in the Red Rose's dimming and flickering light, a look of awe coming to his face. Never in his life had he seen mobile suits like these, and all he could ask himself was: "Oh my God, what the fuck?"

"Whoa, holy shit!" Vale exclaimed, moving up next to Mayer, brandishing his own Colt M73A1 hand gun. It was loud enough for that Mayer's communication device picked it up, and made him jump. "Those can't be what I think they are..."

Mayer couldn't understand what Vale meant, until his mind started to recognize the mobile suit design. Clearly, they were OMNI design in origin, since they were too slim and basic looking to be ZAFT. At the same time, they were too bulky looking to be Strike Daggers. They all had the same basic structure, the same gray color scheme, but at the same time, each one was clearly a different model. One of the designs was a heavily armored model, with a mounted right shoulder cannon and what look liked a missile launcher on the opposite shoulder, a shield in its left arm, a beam rifle being clutched by its right, and two beam sabers on its back. Another had less armor, but it mounted a pair of box missile launchers on its shoulders and possessed two different types of beam cannons on its back. The last was a bit more angular and narrow than the other two, armed with a heavy shield on its right arm, that mounted three needle like projectiles and a cone shaped pod on its left. Despite the advanced weapons, it wouldn't be until Mayer noticed the human like faceplates and V-fins on each of the mobile suits that he would figure out what design they each were.

"Gundam-type mobile suits!?" Mayer called out in as much amazement as Vale, "How the hell did that asshole Spade get a hold of these!!?"

"Better yet, why aren't they out on the battlefield right now?" Vale contemplated, "You'd think his pilots would be killing eachother to get a hold of these things."

"I don't think he owns them, Vale, now that I think about it. They're put in the very back of the hangar, where they would be well away from the battle." Mayer said, "They're probably cargo."

Vale gave off his trademark smirk, "Mayer, you know how much these things are worth?" he closed his eyes, as if dreaming, "Just the price on one of these things would get me a new fighter, the kind of machine you draft corporations to make for your use instead of Black Market shit."

A single bullet flew past the two, signifying that reinforcements had arrived. Both Vale and Mayer jumped to the sides and went into cover, firing off their handguns at the Red Rose's security personell. While flipping in the air, Vale managed to gun two men down before landing in cover, as well as an additional one from Mayer before he landed. "So which one do you want, Mayer?" Vale called out while returning fire.

"I'll take the one with the armor! You pick another and 'the vultures' will just have to get the third one later," Mayer replied, just before shooting another guard through the forehead. By 'the vultures', he was referring to the small band of grunts among the Altair crew who picked their target ships clean of cargo in what Fargus boasted as "record time" among pirates.

"Alright, I got dibs on the twin-cannon model!" Vale said, ducking down behind his cover. Mayer did the same, looking over to Vale for the signal. "Count of three, Mayer."

"One." Mayer started.

"Two." Vale answered.

"Three!" Both sounded off, jumping up from their spots and floating over to their chosen Gundam's cockpit. As luck would have it, the entry code to the cockpit hatch had not been entered, and thus the cockpit on Mayer's MS opened at the turn of a knob, allowing him to slip in. Before he closed the hatch, he peeked out one last time to see if Vale made it into his Gundam, only to see the cockpit hatch closing up.

Mayer closed his own hatch and locked it, then immediatly began the accessing procedure to his Gundam's operating system. He folded down the mobile suit's keyboard device and began typing away, inputting commands into the computer. "General Unilateral Neuro-Link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver" displayed as the computer started up, followed by "GAT-X102D Duel Gundam" at the bottom of the screen. Though Mayer wasn't much of an electronic whiz, he typed away as fast as he could, selecting the activation function for the main battery generator, then began to configure the Gundam's power distribution, as well as customizing the control system so it was similar to his Astray's. The familiar hum of a battery drive sounded around the cockpit, completely overlapping the fist poundings on the cockpit. He grinned, almost finishing the power distribution to the weapons. Mayer knew he could spend hours programming this thing and enjoying it, like a small child playing with Lego blocks; but unfortunately, he could only get it to basically turn on the Phase Shift armor, walk out the door and shoot stuff with the amount of time he had. He stopped himself midway and just activated the ignition procedure. "Big D, it's Showtime!" he yelled triumphantly.

Duel Gundam's eyes flashed in an emerald flare, much to the fear of the Red Rose's security personell. Beside it, the Buster Gundam's eyes also ignited into a fierce yellow. Then to the bitter dread of their assailants, the Gundam's armor began to phase from their dull grey color into Duel's white and blue scheme and Buster's tan, black and red scheme...

Both Gundams ignited the room with head vulcan fire, shooting apart anything that moved against them. The assailants soon found that the situation had greatly changed, and those that weren't gunned down flew away to the nearest elevator. With the room cleared, Vale's newly acquired Buster Gundam slowly walked out from its holding rack, opening its box missile launchers and firing two missiles into where the main observation area. It then continued to fire its 75mm vulcans at different supply boxes and containers, anything that could hold supplies. Mayer's Duel Gundam soon followed, firing its beam rifle into containers and the mobile suit parts that laid all over the hangar. Through a cascade of flame, the two Gundams walked out of the hangar bay, the intense flame making them into black outlines with green and yellow eyes, moving closer and closer to the hangar bay door.

(WZA)
*- No, I am not making a political statement about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the War on Terror. This is just one (of many) projected futures of CE made by fans.

**-"Goodbye for now, dear engineer." in German.

***-For a good example for what the Red Rose looks like, think the ARMD-class space carrier in Macross.

****Some will notice that the Altair has an additional pair of Gottfried 225cm guns and Valiant 110cm linear guns to its arsenal. This is because the Altair is a different type of Izumo-class from the Kusanagi, it has some added gadgetry that I doubt Bandai would ever consider giving to a Gundam-esque ship. Plus, me and JamesEdwards0079, a fellow mecha designer working with Silvace and I, wanted to take a more UC approach to the Altair, since most of the SEED ships are lacking in firepower compared to their UC cousins. Personally, I like the general CE ship design better than UC (aside from the Musai-class and Alexandria-class which remain among my faves), but they seem to be geared more toward enforcement (atleast in OMNI's case) than fighting an actual war. The only ship that seems to be a true warship is the Archangel-class, as it has an armament profile similar to the Yamato-class and ill-fated Montana-class battleships from World War II. That being, it possesses 3-4 main cannons for anti-ship combat, two back-up cannons and an onslaught of smaller, AA (anti-aircraft) machine gun and missile weapons. This probably has to do with the fact that mobile weapons are the dominant force the battlefield in CE, just like in the Universal Century, but unlike the latter, both ZAFT and OMNI recognize this early on. Whereas throughout the One Year War, mobile suits are seen merely as a support weapon for ships. A little ironic, since we rarily see any ship-to-ship battles in UC, but in CE, the Archangel has fought in combat against ZAFT ships and the Dominion.

Back to the subject at hand, the two additional Gottfrieds are mounted on the sides of each wing on a ball mount, giving the cannons a half sphere worth of fire radius. This is based on the Alexandria-class from Z Gundam, which mounted two of its main guns each of its nacelles. Since the wing on the Izumo-class seems to lean more toward decorration, additional propulsion (I don't remember if it mounted any engines) and/or aerodynamics in an atmosphere, then I think there's more than enough room for the guns. The Valiants are mounted on a pair of pivotal points on the wing bases, able to provide 180 degrees (a full circle) worth of fire. While this won't give the Altair an edge in firepower against a Magellan-class, it does protect it on all sides and angles.