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Chapter Text

January 25, C.E 71

Heliopolis, Morgenröte Facility

The colony was at peace, even with a war between Naturals and Coordinators, Heliopolis was seemingly untouched; Naturals and Coordinators lived together in peace as civilians, safe from the war.

However, deep inside the Morgenröte facilities, it was a different story, war had already reached the colony, and the civilians just didn't know it.

A teenage girl with long, butterscotch-colored hair in a wavy ponytail, fair skin, and aqua-blue eyes quickly walked through the facilities, an electronic clipboard in her hands. She was wearing a dark magenta shirt under the standard Morgenröte red jacket and close-fitting light blue jeans with mid-calf light brown boots.

She was so absorbed in her clipboard that she didn't notice the other person until she crashed into him; the clipboard slipped from her hands and her heart stopped as she watched it fall. Before it crashed to the ground however the person she walked into caught it by the corner.

She let out a relieved sigh before glaring at the offending person. He was slightly above average height with broad shoulders, lightly tanned skin, tousled dark brown hair, and dark teal eyes. Like her, he was wearing the Morgenröte uniform, but he had on a white shirt instead.

"Good morning Olivier." He said, a small smile on his face as he offered back the clipboard.

Olivier snatched it out his hand, a blush on her cheeks at her clumsiness. "Kellan," She greeted, inspecting the clipboard for any damage. "Watch where you're going."

"Uh, you were the one who knocked into me," Kellan pointed out, giving the younger girl an annoyed look. Technically, she was one of his supervisors, but they had both started working in Heliopolis at around the same time, working for Morgenröte for nearly a year, both their projects were slightly different; Olivier was helping to manage the Astray Projects while Kellan was working on the top secret Earth Forces G Project.

"What's this? A spat between colleagues?" An aristocratic voice asked from behind them. They both turned to see a man with pale skin, long, silky black hair, and narrow red eyes. The man wore a high-collared light blue dress shirt with dark purple pants and a matching dark purple cape with gold trimming, polished black shoes, and along his neck, he wore a light purple cravat.

"Good morning, Lord Sahaku," Kellan bowed politely towards the man and the noble nodded in return.

"Mister Hallowell, how is my sister lately?" Ghina asked.

Kellan blinked in confusion, "I'm not sure, I haven't seen her in a few days."

"Hm, odd I thought you and Lena were friends. It was with my younger sister's persistence that you were stationed here for the G-Project. She tried very hard to convince Mina and me to let you be here."

"And I am grateful, but I've been busy with work. I'll visit her soon if that's okay with you?" Kellan asked. He never knew how he stood with the Sahaku siblings; one moment it was like Ghina was glad his youngest sister had a friend and another moment it seemed like Ghina thought he should be breathing the same air as her. He didn't know how Mina felt about him.

"That's fine as long as she wants you around her." Ghina nodded before his attention shifted to Olivier who was standing to the side rather impatiently. When she noticed she had his attention, she spoke.

"Lord Sahaku," Olivier said, brows furrowing slightly when she saw him. "It's nice to see you've arrived." Even as she spoke, there was no hiding the displeasure in her voice at seeing him.

"Hmm," Ghina ignored the teen's tone for now, "How is the Astray Project coming along?"

"All of the Astrays are ready. They came along pretty nicely if I do say so myself, it's just a shame we weren't able to get any of the Phase Shift armor," Olivier reported to their boss. "We should be able to transport them out in a few days."

Ghina smiled at the report, "Good, even without Phase Shift armor, our machines will be an even match for those Earth Force machines... but to transport them out in a few days won't due. I want them transported out now."

"Excuse me?!" Olivier hurried after Ghina as he started to walk away, leaving Kellan behind them, his destination, the secret hangar where the Astrays were.

Olivier struggled to keep in step the noble, "Why do you want us to start transporting them now?" She demanded.

"Somehow ZAFT has heard of the Earth Alliance's little project in Heliopolis, they've sent a team to capture the Earth Alliance machines, I want our machines to be out before ZAFT has a chance to get the Astrays," Ghina ordered.

Olivier stumbled as they reached the hangar, seeing the machines all lined up with technicians and engineers working on them.

"I should also inform you that since ZAFT's attack is imminent, Orb has ordered us to destroy the Astray prototypes."

Olivier's eyes widened in horror at Ghina's statement. "What?! No! They can't do that! Not after all our hard work!"

"For once you and I are on the same page Olivier," Ghina smiled smugly, "I've worked too hard to get this Project off the ground and I will not allow it to be destroyed. We'll have Gold Frame transported out first. Copy all the data you have into the Gold Frame's computer."

"Sorry, but that's impossible," A young woman said as she joined them. She had thick, wavy deep burgundy colored hair that barely brushed her shoulders, slightly tanned skin, and jade-green eyes with a ring of gold around her pupils. She was dressed in a dark gray vest under a thin, dark blue coat with sleeves rolled up to her elbows, dark brown fingerless gloves, black pants, and black combat boots.

A nine-year-old girl with fair skin stood at her side, short bright gold hair pulled into a curled side ponytail and periwinkle-colored eyes. She wore a puffy white Morgenröte jacket with a purple collar, a light purple shirt, and jeans.

"There's not enough space on the Gold Frame memory drive to copy everything we have for the Astray Project." She explained.

"Then split the data and download it into the Gold, Blue, Red and Silver Frames. Get the Gold Frame ready to launch and grab me the Duel's bazooka." He walked away before she could respond, needing to take care of a few other matters.

"He's as bossy as ever," The woman sighed, glancing at Olivier. "I suppose I'll get started on the download?"

Olivier nodded. "Thanks, Bryn," She then glanced at the girl, "Evie, can you tell the techs ne need Duel's bazooka?"

The blonde nodded before hurrying away, glad that she would be able to help. Once the girl was gone, Olivier turned to Bryn worried, noting the blank look on the older woman's face as she took in the Astrays.

"Do you think we can get away before the attack starts?" She asked.

"Unlikely," Bryn sighed, walking towards a computer to start the data transfer.

Heliopolis Civilian Area

A teenage boy with rich chestnut brown hair and amethyst-colored eyes typed away on a laptop as he listened to the news of the latest events of the war. "Kira!" a male's voice called to him, causing him to look up, his eyes meeting the green eyes of another teen boy as he dragged along a teenage girl with short light brown hair and ocean blue eyes.

"So here you are! Professor Kato was looking for you," His friend, Tolle Koenig said, stopping next to him.

"Again?" Kira asked, he was already working on something for Professor Kato.

The girl, Miriallia Haww. nodded, she was Tolle's girlfriend, and her arms hooked around his. "He said to drag you there when we found you."

"What is it now? Does he need your help with something again?" Miriallia asked curiously as Kira put his laptop back onto the table.

"Damn, I haven't even completed the one he gave me yesterday," Kira sighed as he leaned back after looking at the notepad of paper in his hand. Tolle came over and looked at what Kira had been listening to.

"Something on the news?" Tolle asked him, looking over Kira's shoulder at the computer screen.

Kira nodded as a green mechanical bird landed on his shoulder. "Yeah, something about Kaoshiung..." Kira told them, as the two watched the news, as a Reporter told them what was going on. In the background, there was a GINN, a mobile suit that was used by ZAFT.

"Eh!" Tolle let out a shocked cry as he saw what the news broadcast was about, "If this is from last week, then Kaoshiung has probably already fallen," Tolle commented, glancing at his friends.

"Hm," Kira sighed, as he closed the laptop, turning it off.

"Isn't Kaoshiung pretty close to us?" Miriallia asked, glancing at the other two worried. "Will we be alright?" She asked when neither of the boys answered her worries.

"Mir, you shouldn't worry about that," Tolle said, "Even though they're close by, we are a neutral territory after all," He gave her a reassuring look. "There's no chance Orb would get involved with the war." He added, voice full of confidence.

"Really?" Miriallia asked as she watched Birdy fly off. "Then it's okay if that's the case." She continued, but there was no missing the concern that was still in her voice.

Kira just listened quietly, remembering a conversation he had with a friend before the war began.

C.E 68

Copernicus

"There's no way a war will break out between the PLANTS and Earth," A young boy with navy blue hair and emerald, green eyes said to a younger Kira. He handed Birdy to the brunette, the mechanical bird jumping from his hands into Kira's. "There's no point in evacuating." The other boy continued.

"You'll eventually come to the PLANTs, too. Right, Kira?" The boy asked smiling at him.

January 25, C.E 71

Heliopolis

"Kira?" Tolle's face was suddenly in front of his, pulling Kira out of his memory and startling him, causing him to fall backward and then to the side. "What were you doing?"

However, Tolle did not wait for an answer and continued, "No matter, let's go. The Professor is waiting for us." Tolle said.

Kira quickly grabbed his things and the three of them left, heading toward the transit station.

Once they reached the transit station, they saw three girls waiting in line, two girls playfully teasing one particular girl who had bright red hair and light blue eyes, catching Kira's attention, and causing him to let out a surprised sound. Flay Allster, a girl he had grown to have a crush on.

"Oh, Miriallia," Flay called to her when she noticed the three approaching, a happy smile on her face as she turned to them.

"Hey!" Miriallia greeted back happily as the two groups met. That was when one of the two other two girls looped her arm around one of the other girl's necks.

"Hey, Miriallia, you should know right?" The black-haired teen asked.

"Know what?" Miriallia asked curiously, unsure of what was going on.

"Come on! Stop it!" Flay pleaded, looking at her friends, she sounded flustered.

"She got a letter from Sai Argyle," The other friend said excitedly, causing Flay to blush, "But she says nothing's going on, and won't tell us anything."

Kira looked surprised and Tolle leaned back slightly, knowing that the brunette had a crush on the red-head. They were all so absorbed in the news that none of them noticed the three people coming up from behind them.

"That's enough you two!" Flay told the girls, looking embarrassed.

Someone behind them cleared their throat, causing the teens to finally notice the group of adults. "If you're not getting one, mind if we go in?" The woman asked as Tolle and Kira let her go by them.

"Sorry, go ahead," Tolle told them.

Flay watched them go before turning on her friends, "What's the big deal anyways? Forget about it!" She snapped getting back in line for the transit.

As soon as the car with the three adults left another pulled up and Flay and her friends quickly hopped in, happily talking to each other before taking off.

"Who were they?" Kira wondered silently to himself.

"A letter from Sai..." Tolle began, knowing about Kira's feelings for Flay, "How surprising for Flay Allster." He mocked as Kira looked at him with surprise. "Sai sounds like a formidable enemy," He teased, slapping his hand against Kira's shoulder. "For you Kira!" He said as Miriallia pushed Tolle into the car, that would take them to the Morgenröte facility.

"Hey! I don't really!" Kira protested, hurrying after his friends.

A while later, Kira and the others arrived at Morgenröte. Kira swiped his keycard through the reader.

"Fine Mir, if you won't ask I will," Tolle said as the security wall went down and the car drove through.

"You're being a pest, Tolle." Kira sighed as the car drove into the facility.

The three friends walked through the main lobby and headed towards Professor Kato's lab. Once they entered they saw Sai Argyle and Kuzzy Buskirk already working while there was another unknown person in the room.

"Ah, you're finally here," Sai said, he had short light brown hair and orange sunglasses. He was peering at them from behind a computer screen.

"Who's that?" Tolle asked Kuzzy, noticing the stranger leaning against the wall by himself, he had on a black cap and brown coat.

"The Professor's guest," Kuzzy answered, "He was told to wait here." He informed his curious friend.

"Where is the Professor?" Kira asked, looking around. He was the one who had asked for him but he wasn't there.

Sai held up a disc towards Kira, "He handed me this, I'm assuming it's work for Morgenrötea."

"It's nothing special," Kira said, looking over the disk, "It's regarding improving the frame setup module, It's simply a program analysis."

Tolle came up behind Kira, suddenly catching him in a headlock, "Never mind about that, ask him about the letter."

"Letter?" Sai asked.

"N-no, it's nothing," Kira quickly reassured.

"It's not nothing!" Tolle teased, pulling Kira back and tightening his hold against Kira's neck causing the brunette to squirm in protest.

"What is it?" Sai asked as he watched his two friends in confusion.

"It's nothing! Nothing!" Kira protested, none of them noticing as the blonde started to move, golden eyes on a door.

"What is it, Tolle? Just tell me!" Sai said.

"Stop it already!" Miriallia ordered the three of them, growing exasperated by her boyfriend's antics.

None of them noticed the blonde go to the door and try to open it, but it was locked.

"Stop it, Tolle! You're choking me!" Kira protested.

Morgenröte, G-Project Hangar

"Okay, the Duel, Blitz, and the Buster are all on their way to the transported to the Archangel," Kellan said, looking at his clipboard. He was standing beside a woman with shoulder-length brown hair and eyes and wore an orange mechanics uniform; Murrue Ramius, the on-site development lead. She was urging the others to hurry to the Archangel.

Murrue spared him a smile even though she was in a rush, "Thank you for all your help, Kellan. I'm sure once this is all over you can take a deep breath and relax."

"I'm not so sure, you've met Olivier, right?" Kellan smirked back. "If it's not this project it'll be something else." He looked at his clipboard again before glancing at the four remaining G-weapons. "Do you know when the trucks for the Strike, Aegis, Siege, and Pincer will be here? We should be moving faster than this." He said, worry in his voice.

He had heard whispers that ZAFT was approaching and wanted the G-weapons all on board the Archangel before hostilities could start. If ZAFT attacked...

"They're on the way now," Murrue reassured him, seeing his worry.

Kellan nodded, not taking his eyes off the gray armor. They were rather imposing weapons and even though he had helped make them he was eager for them to be transported to be gone. They were more trouble than they were worth and would tarnish Orb's neutral stance, even an idiot would figure that out if they were seen.

It seemed like a bad omen that they had been developed on neutral territory, the same with the Astrays.

"Is everything okay?" Murrue asked, noticing his silence.

Kellan nodded, watching as other supplies were loaded out, "It's like you said, it's been a long project, I'm glad it's over." And that you're taking these machines out of Heliopolis. He added silently to himself.

"Lieutenant Ramius!" He was pulled out of his thoughts when another officer called down to her from the ramp, "ZAFT mobile suits are approaching!"

"What?!" Kellan demanded. He had thought that they would have more time.

Murrue acted quickly, looking at all the transports that were going past them, "Hurry up! To the Archangel!" She ordered just as a series of explosions went off throughout the factory.

Murrue stumbled and grabbed onto a box to keep herself from falling while Kellan was able to keep on his feet. "Too late..." He muttered as Heliopolis shook with another explosion; war had finally reached them.

Morgenröte, Astray Hangar

Bryn was in the Silver Frame, making sure that the data had been transferred properly from their main computers when Heliopolis began to shake, causing the engineers to panic.

Her head jerked up as the colony shook again from the tremors the explosions caused. "I guess the battles started," Bryn muttered, focusing back on the keyboard. Her fingers flew over the keys as they rushed to optimize the OS of the Silver Frame.

She heard sirens blare through the colony as it went into alert, telling civilians to head for the nearest shelter.

She was in the middle of optimizing the OS when she saw the Gold Frame stand and grab ahold of the Duel's bazooka. "He wouldn't..." She muttered to herself, brows furrowing when she saw the Gold Frame aim the weapon at the ceiling.

Without a word, she sat the Silver Frame up from where it was docked before slowly raising the machine to its feet, quickly getting used to the controls.

"What are you doing?!" Olivier demanded she was standing a few feet away, glaring up at the Gold Frame as if her gaze could burn Ghina through the armor.

"If there's no feasible transport route here, I'll just make one myself. I'm heading out first. Make sure you don't die and shame your family, Olivier," Ghina said. Fired the bazooka without warning, causing the ceiling to crumble down on some of the workers.

"Ah!" Olivier closed her eyes when she saw debris start to fall towards her.

"Jackass," Bryn muttered, maneuvering the Silver Frame over Olivier and shielding her from the debris with Silver Frame's body.

Ghina glanced at the Silver Frame, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Good. Make sure you get the other Astrays ready for transfer." Without another word, he flew the Gold Frame out, but before he got far, the right arm became faulty, forcing him to rip the arm off and discard it.

"Hey! Don't damage the machines!" Olivier yelled after him in frustration. She sighed before looking up at the Silver Frame. "Thank you, Bryn."

"I'm paid to protect you. If you got crushed by the ceiling, I'd be fired." Bryn sighed. "Now let me concentrate," She started typing on the keyboard again, trying to finish reprogramming the OS to fit her fighting style more. She had never piloted a machine like this... but she figured she could do it.

Olivier stared up at the machine again before looking back to her workers, "I hate to agree with that stupid noble but... start getting the Red and Blue Frame ready for transport! We need to get them on a ship before the real fighting starts." She ordered.

Murrue was quickly talking with Kellan and some other technicians when someone interrupted her, "Lieutenant Ramius! We've lost contact with the ship! The situation's unclear!" The man said urgently, just before another explosion rocked the ground and Murrue gasped when she saw GINNs flying towards them, firing their beam rifles.

They ran for cover as the beams hit their trucks, causing explosions to surround them.

Kellan found himself on the ground next to Murrue, glancing up just as the GINNs flew overhead, firing at anything in their path.

"It's ZAFT," Murrue said, starting to rise to her feet. "Prepare X105 and X303 for combat." She ordered. "Whatever the case, we'll get them out of the factory district!" She pushed to her feet and started running towards the two machines.

"Wait!" Kellan pushed to his feet and ran after her, heart beating fast in his chest. "There's no way you can pilot those!" He protested, pulling her back behind a truck as the GINN started to open fire freely with bullets.

Sai began to lead his friends out of the area, opening an emergency stairwell and seeing a line of people rushing up the stairs.

"What's happening?" Sai asked the first person he saw.

"I don't know," The first man said as he hurried up the stairs after the rest of the civilians.

"ZAFT is attacking us!" Another one said hurriedly. "Mobile suits have entered the colony! You people should hurry too!"

At the man's words, the blonde gasped and ran the other way, catching Kira's attention.

"Hey, you!" Kira ran after the blonde, stumbling when the hall shook again.

"Kira!" Tolle called after him.

"I'll be right back," Kira promised, chasing the blonde. He quickly caught up to her and grabbed onto her arm, pulling her to a stop. "What are you doing?!" He demanded.

"Why did you follow me?" She asked him, "You should hurry up and return to the others." She ordered him just as an explosion happened behind the two of them, leaving nowhere to turn back to.

It also caused the blonde's hat to fly away, revealing her features more clearly.

"A... girl?" Kira wondered, surprised.

"What did you think until now?" She demanded, glaring up at him despite the situation. Another explosion happened behind them, "Just go! There's something I have to check here first!" She told him.

"That's easy to say, but where do I go? I can't exactly return." Kira protested.

The blonde turned to glare at him but Kira was already looking around, thinking about the best option. "Let's see. Here this way!" He grabbed onto her wrist and started to drag her the way she was heading.

"Let go you fool!" She protested angrily.

"Fool..." Kira glanced back at her in surprise.

"I never expected to get stuck in here," She said softly, looking teary-eyed, her gaze dropping to the floor as they ran.

"D-don't worry. I'll help you. There should still be some shelters left in the factory district." Kira promised, unaware that there was a full-blown battle happening at that very moment.

"This is crazy," Kellan said, ducking back behind the leg of the GAT-X406 Siege Gundam as a ZAFT soldier fired at him.

Once the coast was clear, he pulled out of his cover and repeatedly fired at the ZAFT soldiers, shooting one straight through the head while nicking another green-coat pilot in the arm before shooting him through the neck. He ducked down again to reload.

"I'm going to go deaf." He complained softly before firing another round of bullets at ZAFT, downing another soldier in a green pilot suit. He shot a grenade out of the hand of another enemy soldier, causing it to explode at his feet instead of behind the Siege Gundam.

Is Olivier alright? He wondered silently as he fired shot after shot, he flinched when one of the Earth Alliance officers beside him was taken down, blood squirting from his chest before it pooled on the floor. She's probably fine. She's with the Astrays and she has Bryn with her. She may be a brat, but I don't want her to die here. He thought. Hopefully, ZAFT wouldn't stumble upon those machines too.

"Father, you betrayed us all!" Kellan turned at the voice and saw two teenagers up on the catwalk, looking down at them. The brunette was staring down at them stunned while the blonde was leaning against the railing, tears falling down her face.

Wait... was that...? Before Kellan could gather his thoughts, Murrue turned and instinctively fired at the teens. She would have hit them if the brunette hadn't pulled the blonde up and forced her to run.

"Children...?" Murrue asked in disbelief before she was forced to turn her attention back to the ZAFT enemy.

Kellan also started to return fire, shooting one of the red-clothed ZAFT pilots through the head. The downed ZAFT pilot's ally let out a cry of surprise and anger, the voice sounding surprisingly familiar to Kellan and causing him to stiffen.

He saw the ZAFT soldier start to charge closer, avoiding all the shots Kellan fired at him and returning with his wild volley of bullets, hoping to hit him. It looked like the pilot's intention was to get the GAT-X407 Siege.

"Kellan, can you start up the Siege?" Murrue called to him, also seeing the ZAFT soldier get closer. "We can't let them claim these mobile suits."

"I can try," Kellan said, starting to climb up onto the dark gray armor, hoping to make it onto the Siege's cockpit. If only he could start up the mobile suit...

"Hamada, Brian, get them started!" He heard Murrue order the others to start up the other mobile suits, but neither of them noticed the ZAFT soldier aiming at her from the catwalk.

"Watch out! Behind you!" A young voice called down and Murrue ducked just in time to avoid the gunshots that would have ended her life. They both glanced back to see the brunette teen from earlier looking down at them.

"That kid from earlier? Why?" Murrue questioned as she checked her ammunition. She gasped when Hamada was gunned down, jumping out behind her cover and firing a handgun at a remaining ZAFT soldier and hitting him.

"Come here!" Kellan heard Murrue call to the teen. He was curious to see why she was calling him but decided getting inside the Siege was more important.

"Thank you but I'm going to the shelters in the left block! Please ignore me!" The teen called back.

Kinda hard to when you're yelling like that. Kellan thought to himself as he neared the cockpit, he was forced to duck down to avoid gunshots.

"There's nothing but a door there!" Murrue called back, just as an explosion went through the hallway he was hoping to reach.

Kellan ignored the rest of what they were saying and launched himself for the cockpit of the Siege, but before he could reach it, a ZAFT soldier tackled him, a wicked-looking knife in his hand. He pinned Kellan down and was about to stab him when Kellan got a good look at the soldier's face.

Inside the ZAFT helmet was a face eerily similar to his own, same skin and dark brown hair, the only difference was that the soldier's eyes were a few shades lighter than his. "... Adrien?" He asked, causing the soldier to freeze, his own eyes widening.

"... Kellan?" As the soldier spoke his name, Kellan's mind went back to two years ago.

ZAFT Military Academy, C.E 69

"I can't believe you're just going to leave!" His brother Adrien snapped as he hurried after Kellan through the halls. "We said that we would protect the PLANTS together!"

"I don't think being in the military is the way anymore," Kellan said, glancing at Adrien. "I don't like that some of the instructors keep saying that we're superior to Naturals."

"But we are! You especially, you're one of our class aces!" Adrien said in frustration.

"That doesn't mean much to me." Kellan scoffed, looking at his brother in disinterest. "And being an ace seems too troublesome, it feels like I have to do more work."

"But think of mom and dad! What they would have wanted!" Adrien pleaded, causing Kellan to stop and turn on his brother.

"They would have wanted us to treat Naturals like human beings, equals. That's what they taught us." Kellan said sternly.

"It was the Naturals who killed them." Adrien scowled back.

"It was Blue Cosmos," Kellan said as he continued to walk, leaving Adrien behind.

"Where are you going?!" His brother demanded, but he was no longer chasing him.

"Orb," Kellan responded.

January 25, C.E 71

Heliopolis

"What are you doing here?!" Adrien demanded.

Before Kellan could respond, he heard a gunshot and saw Murrue go down while shielding the teen on the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam.

"I could ask you the same thing," Kellan growled, kicking Adrien off him and dropping down into the GAT-X407 Siege Gundam's cockpit before his brother could stop him.

He started up the mobile suit and immediately started it up. The word GUNDAM came up on the screen and split itself into an Acronym known as:

General

Unilateral

Neuro-Link

Dispersive

Autonomic

Maneuver

Kellan took a breath and then started to rewrite the OS, needing it to fit his fighting style and abilities. Once he was done, he started to move the Siege onto its feet as the entire facility began to burn around them. The flames were becoming too intense for him to stay there.

He activated the Siege's phase shift armor, dark gray metal shifting into silver, dark forest green, and hunter's green, the mobile suit's green eyes lighting up.

He piloted the Siege out of the facility, letting out a breath when it landed on the ground. He watched the Morgenröte factory burn to the ground, gray variations of the last three remaining mobile suits escaping just as the building exploded.

The GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam, GAT-X209 Pincer Gundam, and GAT-X105 Strike Gundam all looked unharmed despite not using the phase shift armor. Though Kellan noted that when the Strike landed, its walk was staggering, as though a newborn was trying to pilot it... or a Natural.

He immediately opened a communications channel with the Strike, "Miss Murrue, is that you?" He asked, hoping the transmission went through.

"Kellan? Yes, thank goodness you were able to get the Siege." Murrue answered, sounding like she was in pain.

He looked at his monitors and frowned, they weren't out of the woods yet. In front of him, he saw three standard ZAFT GINN, the Aegis and the Pincer, obviously contemplating on what to do.

He took this moment to think, he was sure the ZAFT soldier who shot Murrue was the one piloting the Aegis just because it was the closest mobile suit next to the Strike, and with that logic, he was fairly certain Adrien was piloting the Pincer. Unless getting kicked and falling off the Siege was enough to kill him, Kellan was sure it wasn't.

He was still thinking about what to do when the three GINNs charged at him, one going for the Strike while the other two went for him. "Damn it..." Kellan muttered, dodging the shots the GINNs fired. He quickly glanced around and saw both the Aegis and Pincer making their escape.

He blocked one of the GINNs heavy dagger with the Siege's arm, smiling when the dagger practically shattered against the metal. Besides the Duel, all the G-weapons had one unique trait; the Siege's unique trait was that it had harder and slightly thicker armor than the rest of the G-weapons, being harder to penetrate with normal GINN weapons. It also helped with close combat situations like now.

He grabbed onto the GINNs arm and detached the standard beam rifle from the Siege's hip, firing it directly into the GINNs cockpit before kicking it away so it exploded safely away from him.

He then turned on the other GINN, parrying its blow with the rifle. They were at a standstill until Kellan forced the GINN away by firing the igelstellungs mounted on the Siege's head, causing the GINN to fly back into the air. He switched back to the beam rifle, waiting until he had a clear shot and firing; shooting through the GINN with a few shots.

"Not bad," Kellan muttered to himself before looking at the Strike. It was moving much smoother now, fighting off the last GINN with a bit more ease, but there was no mistaking the fact that the pilot was an amateur. "How did Murrue get better so fast?"

He watched as the hip compartment of the Strike ejected two Armor Schneider knives before charging toward the GINN. The GINN opened fire but the Strike was able to dodge and drive the two knives deep into the GINN disabling it.

Kellan was about to praise the Strike when he noticed the pilot escape from the machine. "Strike move back now!" He ordered.

Kellan watched as the Strike fell out of the air, crashing into the ground next to a group of teenage civilians who hadn't been able to escape. He quickly went over to the Strike, powering the Siege down and dropping out of the cockpit to help Murrue out.

Just before he reached it, the Strike's cockpit opened and the brunette teen pulled himself out, his amethyst eyes wide. "She needs help!" He said insistently, pointing down into the cockpit.

Kellan nodded and hurried over, peering down to see that Murrue was bleeding from her shoulder and unconscious. "She'll be alright," He promised the teen as he gently got Murrue out.

As he slid down the Strike, he saw the four teens running towards the brunette, "Kira!" The girl hugged him tightly. "I didn't know you were in that thing."

"I had no other choice. I'm surprised anyone can pilot that, I was having trouble." Kira confessed to his friends.

"You were the one piloting it?" Kellan asked, eyes wide, he glanced at Murrue and realized it was a possibility. There was no way she could improve that fast. He shook his head, "We need to get somewhere safe, follow me." He ordered, leaving no room for the kids to argue.

"Wait just a minute, who are you?" Tolle demanded, glaring at him and pushing Miriallia behind him protectively.

"He works at Morgenröte," Sai said before he could answer. "I've seen him around before."

Kellan nodded. "Yeah. You guys can trust me." He said, glancing back at them.

"If we can trust you, tell us what happened," Tolle demanded.

"ZAFT attacked if it wasn't already clear," Kellan said sarcastically. "These machines are top secret and they somehow found out about them. Can I trust you kids to keep this a secret?" Kellan looked at them and one after another, they nodded, but it was clear they were reluctant. "Good, because these machines belong to the Earth Alliance."

A while later, both the Siege and Strike were in some sort of park, Kellan was in the Siege, ready for ZAFT to attack again while the kids watched over Murrue and tried to find supplies... or even someone to contact. Heliopolis had quickly turned into a ghost town.

"Oh, she's up!" Kellan blinked when he heard Miriallia speak, "Kira!" She called for the brunette, and he hurried over to Murrue's side while Kellan stayed situated in the Siege, deciding he needed to see how the OMNI officer would react to the situation.

Kira went over to Murrue just as she tried to move, "You better not move yet." He told her. She looked at him, remembering him from the battle a short while ago. "I'm sorry for doing something irresponsible." He added as Miriallia came over with a cup of water.

Kellan snorted as he heard the kid. Irresponsible. What he did probably saved both his and Murrue's life.

"Would you like some water?" Miriallia asked kindly, offering Murrue the cup.

"Yes, thank you." She said, taking it and slowly drinking with Kira and Miriallia's help.

"Wow! This machine is amazing!" Tolle's voice sounded, drawing Murrue's attention to the Strike.

"Can you move it or not?" Kuzzy asked.

"Hey, don't be playing around with that thing!" Sai called up to his two friends, treating them like they were children.

"Why did these things become gray again?" Tolle wondered just as Murrue regained her full awareness.

"Maybe it's a sign that they're out of power." Kuzzy mused.

"Get away from that!" She yelled, grabbing her handgun and firing at a spot that was between the two teens' heads.

"What are you doing?" Kira asked, stunned as Murrue stood, aiming at the teens. "They were the ones that found a place for us to rest!" He told her, "They helped treat our injuries!" He pleaded with her but took a step back when she aimed her gun at him.

"I'm, grateful that you saved me," Murrue said, "But that thing is a top military secret! It's not something that civilians should touch carelessly!"

"Give me a break, it was Kira piloting it a moment ago," Tolle said gaining Murrue's attention. She raised her gun at him, Sai, and Kuzzy. Tolle raised his hands in the air.

"All of you, this way," Murrue ordered, pointing in the direction of Kira.

The boys did what they were told and that's when Kellan thought it was best to interfere.

"Murrue, there's no need to need to be pointing a gun at those kids," He said, finally jumping down from the Siege's cockpit.

Murrue frowned at him but kept the gun pointed at the kids. "All of you, tell me your names now."

"Sai Argyle."

"Kuzzy Buskirk."

"Tolle Koenig."

"Miriallia Haww."

"Kira Yamato."

"And I'm Kellan Hallowell, but I think you already knew that. I'm a Morgenröte engineer."

"I'm Murrue Ramius, a commissioned officer of the Earth Alliance Army," she told them, "I hate to say this but I cannot allow you to leave."

"Oh, come on Murrue," Kellan took a step towards her but faltered when she pointed her gun at him again.

"Regardless of how it happened, the fact is that you have seen a top military secret. Until I reach the appropriate authorities and it is determined how the situation will be handled you have no choice but to remain with me at all times." Murrue stated.

"You're kidding!" Sai said.

"Are you out of your mind?! That's ludicrous!" Tolle demanded.

Kellan sighed, he saw her point, but it didn't sit well with him. They were civilians after all. Kids. "I suppose I have to stick around too then." He sighed and Murrue nodded.

"We're citizens of Heliopolis! We're neutral!" Sai protested. "We have nothing to do with the military!"

"Besides, why are Earth Forces present in Heliopolis in the first place?" Kuzzy asked.

"I'm sorry to say this, but you are no longer neutral," Kellan said, looking at the teens, this was what he had feared. "Orb may still be neutral, but there's no doubt that ZAFT thinks Heliopolis is neutral no longer."

"We're only being attacked because the Earth Alliance is here, that's the reason why all this started." Tolle protested, flinching when Murrue fired her gun into the air to get the teens' attention.

"Be Quiet!" She ordered them, "Like Kellan said, you have no idea. By declaring that you're neutral and have nothing to do with this... you can still distance yourself from what's happening! You don't really believe that do you?"

"This is unbelievable..." Sai muttered.

"Unbelievable? Well, now it's time for you to believe it. We're at war!" She announced to them. "A war between the PLANTS and Earth, Coordinator and Natural." She told them.

Kellan sighed when he was sure she was done, "Lieutenant Ramius," He switched to her title instead of her name, "Now that you're up, is it alright if I take the Siege and check on Morgenröte and the manor of the Sahaku family? I want to make sure everyone evacuated if I can."

Murrue nodded, "Go ahead, but don't take too long,"

Kellan landed the Siege in its gray form down on the ground next to where he believed the Astray Hangar would be. He looked around silently, noticing the complete destruction of the factory.

"Olivier, you better be alive," He muttered, coming down from the cockpit and looking for an available entrance into the Astray Hangar, unfortunately, all the entrances he knew about were destroyed, blocking his access.

He took another look around the blackened and destroyed walls with a sigh, he hoped she and the others had managed to escape, she loved to nag him but she was also his friend, one of the first people to welcome him formally onto the team when he arrived to work on the G-Project.

He went to the last entrance that could lead to the Astray hangar; it was blocked by fallen pipes and metal bars, the ceiling of the hallway also had collapsed, but even still, he tried to move the debris out of the way. "Olivier!" He shouted down the hallway, despite knowing that no one down in the hangar could hear him. "Bryn! Evie!" He waited but sighed when he realized he was right and there was no response.

"You guys better have made it to a lifeboat." He muttered, making his way back to the Siege and taking off again, flying across Heliopolis and entering the residency area.

He landed on a burned lawn, the remains of a once lavish mansion now destroyed from the attack. Once again, he left the cockpit and entered the mansion through the destroyed door, looking around cautiously. "Lord Sahaku, are you here?!" He called through the building as he walked. He walked through cracked marble hallways, sidestepping the glass chandelier that had fallen and shattered on the ground.

"Lil' Lady Sahaku, are you alright?" He asked, calling for the one Sahaku child he was friends with and did like. Even as he searched the mansion, he felt ridiculous. If anyone was evacuating right as the attack started it would be the Sahaku; they were one of the five noble families of Orb after all. Ghina and his little sister were probably halfway back to Ame No Mihashira.

That's why when he heard footsteps behind him, he was surprised to see the youngest Sahaku standing there, a relieved smile on her face. Rondo Lena Sahaku was eighteen years old and had the same straight black hair as Ghina, but instead of being free it was pulled into a simple ponytail, and unlike her older two siblings she had warm mulberry-colored eyes instead of crimson red. She was dressed in a light blue dress shirt a purple skirt and black boots, she also had on a purple cape with gold trimming.

"Lena," Kallen said, surprised to see her, "I thought you'd be in your family's lifeboat."

"I was." Lena nodded, "But we didn't launch yet and I saw you on the monitors. Since you're walking around, I'm sure it's safe to be out."

"Not really," Kellan said, rubbing the back of his head, "I'm sure ZAFT will attack again to get the last two G-weapons." He led her out of the house and showed her the Siege. "We also still have the Strike with us, the other mobile suits were captured by ZAFT." He explained when he noticed two of Lena's attendants hurry out.

"Lady Sahaku please go back inside the lifeboat. It isn't safe here!" The blonde attendant insisted.

"Your siblings will be most displeased if you get hurt!" The other red-haired one said.

Lena simply waved them off, "I have Kellan here to protect me. Plus, my brother already left. If he wanted me safe, he would have taken us with him."

"Lord Sahaku is no longer on Heliopolis?" Kellan asked surprised. "And he left you here?" He knew Ghina was a focused man but he always thought he at least cared about his sisters. To just leave Lena...

Lena nodded, "He took the Gold Frame and headed out first." She smiled at him, "But that's how he is, business first. Do you know if the other Astrays made it out?"

He shook his head, "I tried to access the hangar, but all points of access are destroyed. There's no way in." He sighed.

"Hmmm," Lena sighed, "Well if Olivier was there, I'm sure she figured something out. She was about to say something else when an explosion rocked through Heliopolis again, a black cloud of smoke appearing through the sky. "What's that?"

They both turned to look just as a TS-MA2mod.00 Mobieus Zero and a ZGMF-515 CGUE burst from the smoke and started to fight in the sky of Heliopolis. "Shit, that's not good! Lady Sahaku, please go back to your shelter." Kellan ordered as he ran for the Siege, starting it up and turning on the phase shift armor.

He flew to where the CGUE and Mobieus were fighting, reaching them just as the CGUE sliced off the linear cannon of the Zero unit. The CGUE then charged at the Strike just as the Launcher Strike Pack was attached to its back and phase shift armor was activated.

"I think not!" Kellan fired his beam rifle at the CGUE, causing it to halt in its tracks and turn to him.

"Just my luck, both units are in the same place," The pilot said, aiming the CGUE's rifle back at the Siege and firing.

Kellan dodged out of the way of the attack, trying to get a clean shot with his beam rifle.

But before he could fire another large explosion rocked through Heliopolis, this time from below, stopping him in his tracks. "What the...?"

He could only stare in shock as the giant red and white ship cleared the smoke. "The Archangel survived?" He wondered in amazement, staring in awe at the ship.

Mobile Suit Specs

Mobile Suit Serial Number: GAT-X407 Siege

Unit Type: Prototype Assault-Defense Mobile Suit

Powerplant: Ultracompact Energy Battery

Special Equipment: Phase Shift Armor, Reinforced Impact Absorbent Armor and Shield.

Armaments: 2x "Igelstellung" 75 mm Multi-barrel CIWs, 1x 60mm high-energy beam rifle, DES-G07D+ short anti-armor sword, DES-G07D+ long anti-armor sword, Anti-armor shotgun.

Pilot: Kellan Hallowell

Colors: Silver, Hunter green, and Forest green

Appearance: It looks like the GAT-X103 Buster, just with thicker armor along its shoulders and back.

Info: A mobile suit that focuses on a balance of defense and assaulting the enemy. The Siege has thicker armor than any of the other GAT-X first-generation series, making it extremely durable, capable of surviving drops from great heights, and a few rounds of bullet from high-powered rifles and beams. The Siege's main armaments are to break through the enemies' defenses or armor, which is why it has many armor-piercing weapons.

Chapter Text

January 25, C.E 71

Heliopolis

Five crew members dressed in the OMNI uniform of the Earth Alliance sat within the bridge of the Archangel-Class battleship, LCAM-01xA Archangel. Two men sat at the helm while a woman with short black hair and purple eyes sat in the middle Captain's chair, and two more men sat behind her, facing opposite directions with screens in front of them.

"We made it through the exit," The Helmsman, Arnold Neumann said, he had short dark blue hair and green eyes. "We're in the colony's interior."

"Morgenröte has been destroyed! The Strike and Siege have been activated," Another crew member, Jackie Tonomura added, he had brown hair and yellow eyes. "No! They're in combat!"

The woman, Natarle Badgiruel, looked surprised before noticing the CGUE flying toward the Archangel. "Evade! Starboard!" She ordered.

Neumann steered the Archangel sharply to the right, allowing the large ship to maneuver out of the way of the CGUE's MMI-M7S 76 mm heavy assault machine gun line of fire.

The CGUE changed tactics, charging towards the Strike on the ground, its blonde-haired, masked pilot, Rau le Creuset intent on destroying the machine. "Phase shit? Then how about this!?" He fired the CGUE's machine gun at the teens and Murrue who were standing at the Strike's feet.

"Get down!" Murrue ordered, pushing Miriallia towards the ground and covering her body with her own.

"Hey!" Kellan charged at the CGUE, slamming into the unit with his shield, surprising the pilot, he didn't even try to fire his beam rifle, not when he was this close to civilians. He kicked the CGUE away before firing the igelstellungs mounted on the Siege's head. He frowned when the CGUE dodged and fired its machine gun at him.

Kellan quickly twisted the Siege out of the way, which allowed Rau to fire at the Strike again, almost hitting Murrue and the teens.

Kira saw this and moved the Strike in front of the group, allowing the Strike to take the bullets which harmless ricocheted off the Strike's armor.

"Not even enhanced APSV?" Rau wondered as he looked at the machine, slightly surprised that the bullets had done no damage.

As the mobile suits fought, the Archangel rounded back towards where they were, Natarle quickly giving orders, "Prepare stern missile tubes seven through ten for firing! Target the enemy mobile suit!" The missile hatches in the oval section trailing the stern opened up, revealing pairs of missiles.

"Laser designator," Natarle said, looking at the crewman sitting behind her, he had short brown hair and blue eyes. "Listen! Under no circumstances are you to hit the shaft or the ground! Fire!"

The missiles fired from the Archangel and headed for the CGUE. Rau fired at the missiles, destroying two and evading the others, causing the missiles to impact against the colony's support shafts.

The group on the ground gaped as they saw the damage done to the colony. "Damn, don't use missiles in here," Kellan muttered, he took aim with his beam rifle and fired repeatedly at the CGUE, hoping to take the ZAFT unit out before the Archangel could try and fire again. Better a beam rifle than missiles in his opinion, but to his frustration, the CGUE unit easily evaded and returned fire with his machine gun.

Instead of raising his shield, Kellan allowed the Siege to be hit dead on, the thicker armor easily absorbing the impact and he continued to fire on the CGUE.

"Wha…?!" Kira looked stunned as he took in the continued damage to the colony, "You've gotta be kidding me!" He had enough, activating the AQM/E-X03 Launcher Striker equipped for the Strike. He raised the "Agni" 320 mm hyper-impulse cannon under the machine's left arm, locking it into a different position before he aimed.

Kellan was still trying to hit the CGUE but the movement of the Strike pulled his attention away and his eyes widened in a mix of shock and horror when he saw that the cannon was aimed at the CGUE. "Wait! Kira! Don't fi-"

"Wait! That's too…" Murrue also tried to stop him when she noticed the "Agni'' building up energy, but it was too late. Before they could stop him, Kira fired on the CGUE when he got a lock on it.

The "Agni" let out a concentrated energy beam as it fired. Rau saw the beam and dodged in the knick of time, but he still lost his gun and the right arm of his machine to the blast. The beam continued onwards, blowing a hole in the exterior wall of the colony.

Kellan could do nothing but stare stunned. "That thing has more firepower than I thought…" He murmured, he noticed the CGUE escape through the hole, but didn't move to stop it. Not like he could…

Kira on the other hand, could only stare in disbelief as he looked at the damage caused. He had only been trying to stop the damage to his home and caused even more than everyone combined.

From inside the archangel, Natarle listened to the reports of the crewmen, "The enemy mobile suit is retreating!"

She sighed, shoulders sagging in relief, "We're landing. Adjust speed to match ground rotation." She ordered. "Be cautious of gravity kicking in!"

Space area outside of Heliopolis, ZAFT Nazca-Class Ship, Vesalius

"All unauthorized personnel are restricted from access to areas designated for captured mobile suits,"

A young man with lightly tanned skin, tousled brown hair, and bright turquoise eyes barely paid attention to the announcement as his fingers flew over the keyboard of the cockpit, he was currently in. The GAT-X209 Pincer Gundam…. "It's no surprise Morgenröte was able to come up with this," He muttered to himself, thinking about the core members of the company and who led it. "But what were they thinking with this OS?" He shook his head and pushed himself out of the cockpit and into the hangar, floating just in front of the Pincer as his mind on his encounter in Heliopolis.

He remembered how he had tackled the brunette Morgenröte engineer as he tried to get into the cockpit of one of the mobile suits, he had been so close to stabbing him before he stopped, realizing that it was his older brother.

Had that really been Kellan? Why was he of all people helping Morgenröte and the Earth Alliance?! Did he not care that if the mobile suits had gone to the Alliance as planned countless Coordinators would die?! These questions flew through his mind, frustrating him with the lack of an answer.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as Commander Rau le Creuset's CGUE unit returned missing its arm. He stared in surprise as the mechanics started to cool the heated armor.

"Was it Kellan…?" He wondered, knowing that his brother was skilled enough to fight off any pilot with the right equipment.

Heliopolis, Onboard the Archangel

After the Archangel landed both the Strike and Siege were given clearance to land within the hangar; but before he did, after clearing it with Murrue, Kellan went back to get Lena and her attendants, knowing that he couldn't just leave the Sahaku child by herself. He held all three in the Siege's hands as he landed the machine in the hangar. He also noted that the Mobieus that had been fighting the CGUE before had also landed on the Archangel.

As Kira and Kellan gently allowed their extra passengers off the mobile suits, Natarle and the rest of the remaining crew ran to meet with them.

"Lieutenant Ramius!" Natarle called, a mixture of relief and surprise in her voice when she saw the other woman mostly unharmed.

"Ensign Badgiruel," Murrue greeted back.

Natarle saluted the brunette, "I'm relieved to see that you're safe."

Murrue nodded and returned the salute, "And you. I'm pleased to see that you were able to protect the Archangel. You saved us."

The cockpits to the Siege and Strike opened and both pilots started to descend to the ground, both cautious of the eyes on them.

"Come on. What's going on here? He's only a kid." A man with tanned skin, wavy blue hair that was pulled back in a ponytail and blue eyes grumbled in disbelief. He was the Chief Mechanic of the Archangel, Kojiro Murdoch; and wore a standard orange and white mechanic uniform of the Earth Alliance but had a green handkerchief around his neck. "... and is that the Morgenröte engineer that's helped with the project?" He shared a glance with Jackie. "Those kids piloted those things?" He asked skeptically.

"I'm not a kid," Kellan protested, hearing what Murdoch said, frowning at the older man. He turned when he heard Lena laugh softly. "What? I'm not."

The crew looked at the pilots as their friends gathered around them. "Lieutenant Ramius, what's going on?"

Murrue looked surprised at the question before frowning, unsure.

"Wow, what a surprise." They all looked up when an Earth Alliance officer dressed in a light purple and white pilot suit joined them. He had short, wavy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. "I'm Lieutenant Mu La Flaga of the 7th Orbital Fleet." He saluted the crew, "Nice to meet you."

The crew immediately returned his salute, "I'm Lieutenant Murrue Ramius of sector 2, 5th Special Division."

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel of the same division." The black-haired ensign responded.

"I'd like authorization to board this ship. Who's in charge here?" Mu asked.

Natarle looked down at his question and the brunette glanced at her. "The captain and the top officers of this ship have all perished in battle." She reported. "Therefore, I believe Lieutenant Ramius is now in the position of responsibility."

Murrue turned to Natarle in shock and Kellan looked at the Ensign in surprise too. Everyone was gone? He looked at Murrue with sympathy, he wouldn't want to be thrown into a leadership position. But he guessed if it was the worst-case scenario and Olivier was dead, he'd have to step up and reach out to Morgenröte and tell them what happened.

"Only a dozen or so of us were saved. Mostly non-commissioned officers," Natarle continued. "Fortunately, being in the shaft, I was able to escape danger."

"The captain? How could that be?" Murrue asked, not wanting to believe it.

"Oh man, what a disaster," Mu sighed, "In any case, please permit me to be on the ship, Lieutenant Ramius. The ship that I came in has been shot down."

"Ah," Murrue turned to Mu, surprised by the request, "Sure, I give you permission."

Mu then turned to the civilians, looking particularly at Kellan and Kira. "And who are these two?"

"As you can see, one is a civilian teenager. The other is Kellan Hallowell, he's a Morgenröte engineer and was assisting with the G Project," Murrue explained. "For some reason, the teen was in the factory district while we were under attack."

"Talk about bad timing, huh, Kid?" Kellan asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"I let him on the Strike while Kellan took control of the Siege," Murrue explained, becoming flustered when she noticed Mu turn his full attention on the pilots. "T-thanks to them, we were able to fight off the GINNs… and protect these two machines."

"Fight of GINNs?" Natarle asked. "These two did that?"

"You don't have to look so surprised," Lena spoke up from beside Kellan, stepping forward despite his attempts to shield her. "Kellan did a few simulations for the machine, so in a real-world scenario, he should be able to pilot one of the mobile suits with no problem."

"I came here as an escort to the young pilots trained to pilot these machines. Where are they?" Mu asked.

"We were bombed when they were in the control booth…. Being welcomed by the captain. So, they too…" Natarle trailed off regretfully.

"I see…" Mu nodded before making his way to the pilots, the rest of the Archangel crew trailing behind him. He looked at them both closely.

"W-what is it?" Kira asked, nervous and Kellan pushed Lena behind him again, ready to protect her if anything happened.

"You're both Coordinators, aren't you?" Mu asked.

There was a shocked silence before Kellan nodded, noticing that Kira had grown uncomfortable. "I am. What of it?" He stood tall and met Mu's gaze.

Kira looked at Kellan before nodding, "Yes." He noted some soldiers aimed their guns at him when he confirmed what he was. Tolle pushed his way in front of Kira defensively, glaring at the Earth Alliance soldiers.

"W-what do you think you're doing?!" Tolle demanded, "They may be Coordinators but they're not the enemy!" He insisted. "Didn't you see what went on earlier? You've gotta be out of your mind!"

Murrue sighed, "Lower your rifles!" She ordered, looking at the soldiers who had their guns aimed at Kira and Kellan.

The soldiers hesitated and Lena stepped forward when she saw that, shoving Kellan out of her way and walking towards them, back straight and chin held high. "This is ridiculous, lower your weapons! Despite the circumstances, this is still a neutral colony."

"And who are you?" Natarle demanded.

"I am Lady Ronda Lena Sahaku, my family is one of the five noble families of Orb. But more importantly, it's my family who's in charge of Heliopolis. Do as I say and lower your weapons."

Immediately there were murmurs among the crew and civilians. A Sahaku? What was one still doing in Heliopolis after the attack? Should they follow her orders?

The soldiers glanced at Murrue, and she nodded. Finally, they lowered their weapons, but Natarle didn't look too happy about it. "Lieutenant Ramius! Please explain yourself!"

"There's no puzzle is there? The Heliopolis Colony like Morgenröte belongs to a neutral nation. Naturally, some Coordinators would come here to avoid being involved in the war. Am I wrong, Kira?"

"No, you're right," Kira confirmed. "Especially with me being a first-generation Coordinator."

"First generation?" Fire control operator Romero Pal asked.

"Meaning your parents are naturals," Mu summarized before glancing at Kellan.

"I'm a second-generation Coordinator," He shrugged. "My parents moved to Orb when I was a kid."

"But why would a Coordinator agree to help with the G weapons even if you're part of Morgenröte?" Romero asked.

"Because I was asked too," Kellan sighed, "Lena pushed for me to be part of the G Project and since she pushed so hard for it, I couldn't say no."

"The Sahaku family is in charge of Morgenröte," Murrue said, "It makes sense that they would do what they requested."

Mu looked satisfied with the answers he got and walked away, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, I apologize for causing such a stir, I was just curious. Nothing more."

"Lieutenant la Flaga," Murrue didn't seem to like his flippancy, but instead of answering her, he looked up at the machines.

"On my way here, I observed a fair number of simulations... involving the guys who were expected to pilot these... but not one of them could do much more than get it to move." He started to walk away, "Man, oh, man." He sighed.

"Lieutenant! Where are you going?" Natarle asked.

"Where? To plan, I landed after being shot down and the team waiting for us outside is Le Creuset's." He noted their surprised gazes before continuing to walk. "He's one persistent fellow, if you ask me, I don't think we can afford to spend too much time here."

"Man, this is problematic," Kellan sighed, he was in the crew quarters of the Archangel a few rooms away from Kira's group. The teen had looked exhausted and needed rest. Hopefully, he could get some before things became even more hectic, but first, he had to make sure that Lena and her attendants were getting situated. Due to Lena's status, she had demanded a private room for herself and her attendants, glaring up at Natarle when she tried to protest. "I never thought I'd be pulled into the war this way..."

Lena sat straight in her chair as she gazed up at him, "It can't be helped... maybe we should have foreseen this happening. My brother should never have gone behind Lord Izumi's back and made the deal with the Earth Alliance." She looked down at her hands in guilt. "I'm sorry you're being pulled into this Kellan."

Kellan shook his head, "I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to work for the G Project. And you had my back and believed I could be of help here. I didn't want you to be proven wrong. Praise from a Sahaku is hard-earned after all."

She smiled at him, "Do you think we'll have to stay with the crew? I can demand they release us."

Kellan shook her head, "I think they're being polite right now. They technically have no reason to listen to you since they have no allegiance to Orb or the Sahaku. They may also be our only way out of here, so I think it's our best bet to stay with them." Especially if Le Creuset and Adrien are out there. It would be a blood bath to get out themselves.

Lena huffed at his words, "And you weren't able to get a hold of anyone in the Astray Project?"

Kellan shook his head, "Hopefully they were smart and decided to go to the shelters."

"Doubtful," Lena said, "Olivier may hate my brother. But she'd be against destroying the Astrays as much as him. She'd probably try and get them out."

"Endangering herself and Bryn probably." Kellan finished. He knew that she was probably right. The one thing Olivier loved more than being bossy was her machines. "I hope we can see her again..."

Lena was quiet, and for a moment he swore she looked a bit put out. "... I'm sure that she's fine. She's harder to get rid of than a bug."

"Persistent too." Kellan laughed, about to say something else when raised voices further down the hall caught his attention.

"Look Kira," Kellan peeked out of the room he was in to see Murrue talking with Kira and his friends, "I can't let any of you off the ship now, not only were you and your friends shown top military secrets, but now there is nowhere to let you guys go to."

"What do you mean?" Kuzzey asked.

The Lieutenant didn't get a chance to answer, Sai answering before she could, "They must have locked down the shelters," He explained glumly, "Makes sense, after the first round of attacks."

"So, what do you want from Kira?" Tolle asked, worried for his friend.

Murrue closed her eyes for a moment, knowing that Kira wasn't going to like what she was going to say next, "Kira, I hate to ask this of you, but I'm afraid you're the only person we have who can pilot the Strike-"

"You've got Lieutenant La Flaga," Kira interrupted, "And you have Kellan piloting the Siege. You don't need me." He said, looking to Kellan for help when he noticed the older boy was listening.

"We do have Kellan and the Siege... but, Kira, with the OS you designed he won't be able to pilot the machine," Murrue said.

"Captain Ramius, bridge to Captain Ramius!" Natarle called out through the comms of the ship. Murrue went to the closest communications panel.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

Mu then came onto the communications line, "ZAFT mobile suits have been detected, you have to come up here and take command!"

"ME?!" Murrue asked stunned.

"Yes, you are the captain after all," Mu told her. "Even though I am the more experienced Lieutenant, I know nothing of this ship."

"Understood," Murrue told him, lowering her head in defeat. Kira may not realize it, but they were both in the same situation; in positions they didn't even want. "Prepare the ship for take-off. All hands, to level one battle stations," Murrue ordered the ship. "What of your mobile armor Lieutenant?" She asked Mu.

"Useless, unless Murdoch somehow pulled off a miracle and fixed my machine, I will have to sit this one out. We'll have to rely on Kellan and Kira for this one." Mu sighed.

"Alright, then I leave the CIC in your hands," she told him. With that, the panel shut down and she turned to the civilians as well as Kellan. "As you just heard, this ship is going into another battle. As the shelters are already at Level Nine, I can't allow you to leave." She informed them, "If we can somehow overcome this and escape Heliopolis..." She began watching as Miriallia and Tolle held hands.

"You people are not being fair!" Kira said, his hands tightening into fists.

"Kira..." Sai sighed.

"Kira," Murrue turned back to him.

"And you'll tell us that there are only two mobile suits on board this ship... and that right now Kellan and I are the only ones capable of operating them, right?!" Kira demanded, distressed.

"Well, it's the truth kid," Kellan stepped in, running a hand through his hair. "I don't like it either, but the reality is that we have to fight right now or we won't survive. The only other option you have is to sit back and do nothing... but then all your friends will probably die."

"Kellan!" Murrue scolded him and the older pilot shrugged.

"Now isn't the time to whine," Kellan said from over his shoulder as he made his way toward the hangar. "ZAFT is here."

The Archangel lifted off the ground of Heliopolis, Murrue in the Captain's seat. "Our top priority is to escape Heliopolis," She said, "Be careful not to damage the colony during battle."

"That's impossible," Jackie muttered, looking up from where he was sitting.

Elsewhere in the ship, the Siege and Strike were getting ready to launch. "Open number three container! Attach the Sword Striker!" Murdoch could be heard yelling at his engineers. "Hurry up and get that beam sword attached to the Siege!"

"Hey Kid," Kellan called to Kira from the Siege's cockpit, looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry if I was harsh back there."

"It's fine, you're right. If I don't fight right now, my friends will get hurt..." Kira looked down at his lap, images of his friends and Athrun flashing through his head, "But I... I don't want to fight. It's why I came here to Heliopolis."

"I understand," Kellan sighed again. "Honestly, fighting is troublesome. It gets me so stimulated, and I'm left with a banging headache after. Man, what I wouldn't give to have a nap right now."

"Are you fighting to protect your friends too?" Kira asked.

"Of course," Kellan smiled, "I wouldn't be where I am now if it weren't for Lena. She stuck her neck out for me to get me here, the least I can do is protect her." He was about to say something else but Mu interrupted him from the bridge.

"Get ready to launch Kids, we've detected a GINN and it's equipped with heavy bombing equipment."

"What?! Do they plan to completely take out Heliopolis?!" Kellan asked, he couldn't even begin to imagine what ZAFT must be thinking. "Kira, are you ready for this?"

"I am," Kira said, the certainty in his voice causing Kellan to relax a bit, he knew he'd be shot down if he was worrying too much for the kid.

"Good, things can get hectic out there so be careful," Kellan said, tightening his grip on the controls.

Without another word, the two mobile suits were launched out of the Archangel, their phase shift armor activating.

He looked around and besides the GINN he saw the GAT-X303 Aegis and GAT-X209 flying through a newly created hole in Heliopolis' exterior.

"Well, that's not good..." Kellan trailed off, his mind flashing to Adrien and their unhappy reunion.

"They're already sending the Aegis and Pincer back into battle?" Murrue asked in disbelief over the comms.

The Archangel started firing its lasers against the GINNs and stolen mobile suits but they dodged easily.

"Kira! Here they come!" Kellan said as he charged the Siege at the GINNS carrying the heavy bombing equipment, he pulled out the Siege's DES-G07D+ long anti-armor sword and easily cut through the nearest GINN. He saw Kira going for the Aegis but he was blocked off by a GINN carrying a Heavy Ion Cannon. "What the hell is he doing?" He muttered, he never expected Kira to go after one of the stolen mobile suits.

He dodged the strike of another GINN, forcing it back with the igelstellungs mounted on the Siege's head before activating his beam saber, slashing through the missiles the GINN fired before bursting through the smoke, the beam saber cutting through the GINNs cockpit before the pilot could react.

He glanced at his monitors and was relieved to see that the Archangel was keeping any GINN that got too close at bay, and even better, they were somehow able to fight without destroying the colony. Good. I don't know how much more Heliopolis can take.

He checked up on Kira again and saw that he was still facing the same GINN, while the Aegis kept back. Why aren't they using their Ace? He wondered for a moment before catching the flicker of movement to his right.

He shifted the shoulder-mounted shield on the Siege just in time to block the anti-armor lance, his eyes widening when he saw the Pincer in front of him.

The mobile suit almost looked like the GAT-X102 Duel, but it was colored black, cerulean, and deep navy blue. The Pincer also had more weaponry attached to it and shoulder-mounted binders on either side of it, as long as its arms.

"Kellan, is that you?" His eyes widened when he heard Adrien's voice through the comms and shoved the Pincer away from him. "Why are you fighting for the naturals?" He demanded, charging back at him, his lance poised to strike.

"I'm not fighting for the Naturals," He shot back, not bothering to answer Adrien's question. His brother wouldn't be here if he wasn't certain that it was Kellan piloting the Siege. He fired a volley of blasts from his beam rifle before quickly switching it out for his anti-armor long sword as the Pincer neared. Their weapons clashed, pushing against each other until one would give way. "I'm fighting for the Neutrals."

"Heliopolis is no longer neutral." Adrien shot back, shoving the Siege away only to slam the Pincer's lance down on its head again. "If they were ever... if anything this proves that they never were! And you're protecting them!"

"Not everyone on Heliopolis worked on these machines. Maybe get the full story before you judge them!" Kellan snapped back, dodging out of the way. He fired the Igelstellungs again, forcing the pincer to dodge. Kellen quickly took the opening he created, grabbing onto the Pincer's leg and tossing it as far away from him as possible.

The Pincer fell through the air before using its thrusters to forcefully right itself. "Kellan!" Once the Pincer was steady Adrien charged at him again.

However, the Pincer stopped once a large explosion shook through the air. Both brothers looked just in time to see the remnants of the explosion.

"Miguel!" Kellan caught the distressed cry through his comms and blinked.

"Miguel... no way..." Adrien sounded shaken as he looked to where Miguel's GINN used to be before shifting his attention to the Strike. "You!" He charged at the Strike but Kellan moved in between them, blocking the Pincer's attack with the Siege's shield.

"Kira, are you okay?" Kellan asked, knowing that the teen must be a bit shocked that he had taken a life. "Back off!" He snapped, slamming the shield against the Pincer's cockpit, forcing his brother away. I'm sorry about your friend. He added silently.

"... yeah..." Kira's face appeared on his monitor, looking a bit shell-shocked at what he had just done.

"Kira! Kira Yamato!" The pilot of the Aegis suddenly called out over their comms.

"Athrun...?" Kira asked weakly, then more loudly. "Athrun? Athrun Zala?!"

"They know each other...?" Kellan questioned quietly, his eyes going to the Pincer which was floating a few feet behind the Aegis, ready to strike.

What were the chances of both of us knowing someone on the enemy's side? He wondered silently, his attention leaving the Strike and Aegis and turning to the Archangel just as it shot the last GINN down, however, it had already launched its last missiles, but they were off course. Instead of flying towards the Archangel, all four missiles hit the support structure, causing it to become destroyed.

"Shit!" Kellan cursed as the pillar came apart, crashing down on the colony's ground, breaking the buildings and roads apart, the exterior of Heliopolis splitting open before anyone could do anything. "Kira! Kira! We have to retreat!"

Kira ignored him and impressively, ignored as Heliopolis ripped apart below them, "Why, why are you here Athrun? Why did you join ZAFT?!"

"That's what I should be asking you!" Athrun shouted back. "Why are you in that thing?!"

Kellan looked over at the Archangel and saw that it was struggling to stay upright, fighting to stay inside Heliopolis. "Damn it! Kira, we have to leave!" He grabbed onto the Strike's shoulder and started flying towards the Archangel but the pull from the vacuum of space was too strong and both mobile suits began to be sucked out of the colony.

"Son of a-" Kellan cursed as Kira yelled as they pulled out of the colony and tumbled through space. He made sure not to lose his grip on the Strike and once they were far enough away, both of them were able to steady their mobile suits.

They were silent, unable to do anything but stare in stunned shock at what remained of Heliopolis. "Kellan, is it really gone?" Kira mumbled.

"Yeah, Kira, it is," Kellan admitted. It felt surreal if he was being honest. Despite the battle, he had believed that Heliopolis would have made it through intact. Olivier, Bryn I hope you two made it out alright. He thought silently.

"X105 Strike! X407 Siege! Kira Yamato! Kellan Hallowell, if you two are okay please respond!"

Kellan blinked, "This is the X407 Siege, we're both okay, if not a bit traumatized." He responded, hearing Natarle's call.

"X105 Strike... Kira here," The teen said after a moment, taking a deep breath to calm himself.

"You both are alright? No injuries?" Natarle pressed.

"Yes," Kira replied.

"Do you know our location?" She asked over their comms. When she got his confirmation she continued, "Then return. You can return right?"

"Yes." Kira nodded again though he knew Natarle couldn't see him.

Mom. Dad. You're safe, right? Kira wondered as he stared out into the void of space.

"Kira, what are you waiting for? Come on, let's go." Kellan said, already moving the Siege in the direction of the Archangel when he heard a series of beeps coming from the Siege. "What is it now?" He sighed, scanning the debris in front of him.

"It's a Heliopolis lifeboat," Kira said in amazement.

Kellan zoomed in on the Siege's monitor and saw that the teen was right. A Heliopolis lifeboat was floating helplessly through the debris. "Huh, are they stuck here?" He wondered, "H-hey! Wait a moment!" Kellan called in alarm when he saw the Strike shoulder the sword from the Sword Striker and fly to the lifeboat. "What are you doing?"

"They need help, there's something wrong with the pod! I'll bring them back to the Archangel with us." Kira insisted.

Kellan sighed again, he knew that the crew of the Archangel wasn't going to like that one bit, but still, he trailed after the Strike. Maybe he'd find Olivier in there.

Archangel Bridge

"So, what do we do now?" Mu asked, he had left his CIC station and was looking at Murrue.

"Our ship is still in battle. Can you detect the ZAFT ship's movement?" Murrue asked.

"Impossible. There are lots of heat sources among that debris." One of the crewmen reported. "So our laser and thermal detectors are of little use here."

'The same will be true for them too," Mu said when he saw Murrue sigh. "You expect they'll come after us?"

"I think we should move based on that assumption," Murrue said, "Although if they attack us right now we'd be finished."

"You're right, all we have is those two precious mobile suits, the Strike and Siege... and my damaged Zero. We may have held them back once, but I doubt our luck will last against the mobile suits ZAFT stole and any other GINNs they may have with them."

Mu sighed, running a hand through his hair. "It also doesn't help that the ship itself is greatly understaffed. We're in no shape for a fight. Shall we sail at maximum speed to shake them off?"

Murrue looked at him and Mu continued, "This is quite a speedy ship, I understand."

"Their Nazca class is a high-speed ship as well," Murrue immediately countered. "There is no guarantee that we can shake them off."

"Then shall we surrender?" Mu asked, glancing up at her, almost daring her to. He laughed lightly at her incredulous look, "That's also an option you know."

"A surrender should never be an option," Lena said as she entered the bridge, her two attendants flanking her. "Not as long as you have the will to fight and win."

"Lady Sahaku!" Murrue said in surprise when she saw the teen. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm checking on the situation, you did send one of my engineers out into the battlefield." Lena sniffed. "I assume the Kellan and Kira are on their way back."

"Yes, they're on their way back now," Murrue informed her.

"Good," Lena nodded. "Kellan and I need to regroup and figure out what we'll do."

"There's not anywhere you can go right now," Mu said. "May as well stick with us." He shrugged.

"For now we will," Lena agreed. "Like you said, we can't get anywhere easily. But when it's safe, I'll have to contact my siblings to let them know I'm safe."

"Of course," Murrue conceded. She was about to say something else when Natarle's shocked voice brought all their attention to her.

"What did you say?" Natarle demanded. "Wait a minute! Who gave you such authorization?"

"What's the matter Ensign Badgiruel?" Murrue asked, glancing down to where she was.

"The Strike and Siege have returned. But the Strike brought a lifeboat." Natarle informed the captain.

"A Heliopolis lifeboat?" Lena asked softly while Murrue and Mu looked surprised.

Outside of the Archangel

"You can't accept it? What do you mean you can't accept it?" Kira asked stunned, the lifeboat held protectively in the Strike's hands.

"I told you that's what they would say," Kellan sighed, but he agreed with Kira. They couldn't just leave the lifeboat like that, especially with the state it was in. "The Archangel is a secret battleship, after all, I doubt the crew wants more civilians to be on it."

Kira ignored him and continued, arguing with Ensign Badgiruel. "The propulsion section is broken. It's drifting out of control." He glanced down at the pod in his hands. "Are you telling me to throw this back out there again? People who have evacuated are on this ship."

"Reinforcements will be here right away! But the Archangel is fighting a battle!" Natarle insisted, "There's no way we can accept refugees at this time!"

"Captain, if I may?" Lena's voice crackled over their communication channel and Kellan blinked in surprise. Hadn't he told her to stay in the room she'd been given until he came and got her? He sighed, he should have known she wouldn't listen to him.

Lena was a much kinder Sahaku than either of her siblings, but the one thing she did share with them was that she never took orders. She was more used to giving them.

"Go ahead Lady Sahaku." Murrue allowed.

"Take the civilians in. They are Orb civilians who chose to live in Heliopolis, and now their home is gone. The Sahaku family oversaw Heliopolis so the people who evacuated are my responsibility. I must protect them to the best of my ability, as is my duty. Right now, the Archangel is the safest place for them." Lena said.

There was a long silence on the other end of the comms, but finally, Murrue sighed. "All right. I authorize it."

"Captain," Natarle protested.

"I don't want to waste time arguing over such things. Bring it in quickly!" Murrue ordered. "We still have ZAFT on our tail!"

"Thank you, Miss Murrue!" Kira said thankfully, flying back into the Archangel when the catapults opened, letting the mobile suits back in.

Archangel Bridge

Murrue looked at the crew on the bridge around her, "I'm well aware of the severity of our situation. But I have no intention of surrendering." As she spoke, her eyes specifically met Lena's, the teen looked approving.

"There's no way I'm going to hand over this ship, the Siege or the Strike to ZAFT." Murrue continued. "We must take them safely to Atlantic Federation headquarters."

"Captain, I suggest that we make our way to Artemis," Natarle spoke up.

"Artemis? That's a Eurasian military satellite, isn't it?" Murrue asked surprised.

"Artemis and its umbrella." Mu mused, looking at the two women.

Natarle nodded and looked at the monitor in front of the captain's chair. "From our present location, it's the easiest allied forces location to get to."

Lena nodded along, "If the goal is for protection, then Artemis' umbrella is the best bet."

"But you realize that we're in a situation where neither G-weapons nor this ship has a recognition code acknowledged by allies forces. Would Eurasia?" Murrue questioned.

"I'm aware that the Archangel, Siege, and Strike are all regarded as top military secrets of the Atlantic Federation. However, should we set our course for the moon..."

"We wouldn't make it," Lena finished thoughtfully, looking at the map.

"Rather, we can't expect to get there easily without confrontation," Natarle said. "We also need supplies badly since we left without sufficient provisions."

"I realize that," Murrue nodded.

"I'm sure Eurasia will understand our situation." Natarle pressed. "As things are, the most realistic measures would be to avoid confrontation, replenish at Artemis, and try to contact the lunar headquarters from there. Lady Sahaku can also try and reach her family from there as well."

"Artemis huh? I wonder if things will go as we hope." Mu said.

"However, it truly appears to be our only option," Murrue said, as she glanced at Lena. "Is that alright with you Lady Sahaku? We can't contact your family right now."

"That's fine." Lena nodded, "As long as I can eventually reach them, I won't be on your backs to get me in contact. There is a place I can think of where we could resupply this ship... but if you don't want Eurasia to know about these G-weapons... then you most likely wouldn't want to go to where I suggest. So Artemis it is."

Archangel Hangar

Kira looked out from the Strike's cockpit as the mechanics worked on prying the door of the lifeboat open. Once the door was open a familiar girl with brilliant red hair immediately floated out, looking around uncertainly.

Kellan was also looking down at the girl from a catwalk, curious. He didn't know her, but she was pretty.

"What?" Kira asked himself, unable to take his eyes off her. He made his way to the pod and that's when Birdy left his shirt and began to fly to the girl too.

"Birdy!" It chirped, as it flew to the redhead.

The redhead looked up and smiled, "It's you! Sai's friend!" The girl said happily as she pulled herself from a mechanic's grip and launched herself towards Kira, hugging him tightly.

"F-Flay!" Kira mumbled, blushing deeply. "Is it you, Flay Allster? So you were on this boat!"

"You know her, Kira?" Kellan asked, pushing off the catwalk and joining the two teens. He watched as the other civilians filtered out and felt his shoulders drop, Olivier and Bryn weren't on the lifeboat.

"Hey, what happened to Heliopolis? What happened there? What went on?" Flay asked Kira question after question, completely ignoring Kellan after a glance at him. Tears were slipping out of her eyes.

"I... I... I got separated from Jessica and Misha in a store in Florence. And I ran to a shelter alone and then...!" Flay cried. "This is a ZAFT ship, right? What's gonna happen to us? What are you doing here anyways?"

Kellan watched as Kira floated away from him with Flay and ran a nervous hand through his hair. Man... that girl just wouldn't stop asking questions. He didn't think he'd be able to handle a girl like her.

"T-this ship belongs to the Earth Forces," Kira revealed.

"You're lying! There's a mobile suit on board." Flay said, turning to look at the Strike.

"No, these machines are ones designed by the Earth Forces and Morgenröte." The doors to the hangar opened and Lena floated in, immediately grabbing onto Kellan's shoulder to steady herself. She had left the bridge as soon as their destination had been decided. She needed to speak with Kellan immediately.

Flay turned to look at her and froze. "Aren't you Lady Rondo Lena Sahaku? You're here too?"

"Yes, they saved me when we were still in Heliopolis, you can trust these Earth Forces soldiers," Lena said reassuringly.

"I-I see," Flay said before turning back to Kira uncertain. "Well, if that's the case..."

"Sai and Miriallia are here as well, you'll be fine," Kira said, noticing her attention back on him.

Kellan and Lena let the two teens eagerly talk to each other before turning towards each other. "So, what's next for us Lady Sahaku?"

"You may call me Lena, Kellan. I've told you multiple times." Lena said, giving him a small smile.

"Lena... what's next?" Kellan asked again, blushing slightly when he saw the pleased look appear on Lena's face.

"Artemis. We're heading towards Artemis."

Chapter Text

January 25, C.E 71

Heliopolis, A Few Hours After its Destruction

Outside the destroyed colony three Kimeras were making their way towards it, hoping for a large score of reusable junk. These machines belonged to the Junk Guild, a non-governmental organization devoted to the upkeep, maintenance, and salvaging of technology found in the Cosmic Era.

"What's our path of entry?" One of the pilots asked. He was Lowe Guele, a young man who had been with the Junk Guild since he was sixteen. He had spiky brown hair and warm brown eyes and wore a simple black t-shirt under a yellow vest and blue jeans with black boots. Most noticeably, he had on a light blue headband.

"Forward on course 4C-R3." Liam Garfield, a fellow junk tech, responded he had long, straight black hair and deep blue eyes. He wore a long-sleeved light gray shirt under a short white tunic and black pants.

"Okay! Roger." Lowe said happily, changing the course of his Kimera to follow his fellow junk tech's instructions. The three machines found entrance through an outside shaft and quickly made their way into the immobile colony. "Entrance all clear," Liam called.

"Excellent! We got here first!" Lowe cheered as he raced into the colony.

"This place is a wreck..." The last member on their excursion finally spoke up. Kisato Yamabuki hesitated. She had short, auburn hair in a spiky pixie cut and brown eyes. Unlike the two men, she was wearing a proper space suit that was mostly white, but the middle was red. "EEK!" She let out a scared shout when her Kimera almost crashed into a piece of debris.

"Kisato! Be careful! Don't get all nervous on me!" Lowe called through their comms.

"B-but..." Kisato stammered, tears pricking at her eyes. "Are-are we sure we're safe?" She asked nervously. "The Earth Alliance and ZAFT were fighting here a few hours ago, right?"

"The evacuation was complete. Trust me, we're all alone in here." Liam reassured her, "For Junk Techs like us, this colony is a veritable gold mine!"

'Hey Kisato, you should listen to Liam," Lowe smiled. "That guy's hardly ever wrong! Now let's move! We gotta get the goods before the other guys get here. You can leave, Kisato. But we're staying!"

"Don't kick me out, guys!" Kisato yelled after them, hurrying her Kimera along, but she was still hesitant. "B-but... w-what if the soldiers come back?" It was a fair question.

"Simple, we'll run away." Lowe shrugged. "Besides, if we get mixed up in a fight, good ol' 8 will bail us out!" Lowe grinned, looking at the hand-held artificial intelligent computer that was hooked up to his machine. It was about the size of a tablet and had a handle on the top.

"Affirmative. I am a combat pro. I have the entire history of human warfare in my database. The first rule of combat is..." Words flashed across 8's screen.

"Yeah, yeah," Lowe patted the tablet as if it were a pet, "I'll listen to ya when we're actually in combat."

"Lowe, can you hear me?" A new female voice spoke through the comms of 8.

"Yeah, what's shakin' Professor?" Lowe asked.

In the Junk Guild's ship, the HOME, their last member, simply known as the Professor communicated with them. She had long, wavy, dark brownish-red hair, and brown eyes and wore narrow, rectangular glasses. "Advance about eighty meters in your Kimera, then turn right. Judging by the structure of the colony, there should be a factory that way."

"I'm looking forward to the lovely souvenirs you bring back." The Professor added.

"Yup! You can count on me!" Lowe promised.

"Let's land down here for a little while," Lowe said, landing his Kimera in an open space.

"Roger, please wait for the atmospheric analysis," Liam said, landing his own Kimera.

"Hey! Lowe's already outside!" Kisato cried, alarmed that he had gone out without checking the oxygen levels.

"The air's a bit thin, but it's nothing my lungs can't handle!" Lowe reassured his teammates, holding 8 in his hand. "C'mon Kisato, don't be a baby! Get outta yer tin can and help!"

"Erm... okay..." Kisato agreed nervously, moving out of her Kimera.

Underground Morgenröte Facility

"Damn… I hate ZAFT…" Olivier grumbled, she looked around the ruined Morgenröte factory, frowning at all the destroyed equipment. "Why did they have to come back and destroy Heliopolis?!"

She was uncovering an MAW-01 Mistral she had found buried in the debris. Thankfully, it was undamaged from Heliopolis' destruction.

"I doubt it was their intention," Bryn said, she was looking for any equipment that she could hook up to the Silver Frame. She felt they would need all they could take with them if they wanted to leave Heliopolis in one piece. Hopefully, they wouldn't run into more trouble when they left. "From the reports I heard before the evacuation shuttles were launched, they tried to get the last G-Weapons but failed. I think two of them escaped with the Archangel."

Olivier sighed, "We should have gotten out when we had the chance too! Where the hell is everyone else?! Didn't that idiot Sahaku order us to get the Astrays out? If he wanted them moved so badly, he should have just moved them himself instead of destroying our ceiling!"

"Didn't you order everyone to evacuate?" Bryn asked, unbothered, "I think we're the only ones left here." She looked back up at the MBF-P06 Gundam Silver Frame. It was a good thing that she had been in the Astray when the colony was starting to rip apart if she hadn't shielded Olivier and Evie, then they would have been flattened like a pancake.

"Olivier! Bryn! It's no good!" Evie called out; she had been looking around the area. "I can't find a larger ship to get us out! We only have the pod ship so far!"

"Then how the hell are we supposed to leave?" Olivier demanded.

"Well, we have the Mistral and the Silver Frame. It's enough to get us all out." Bryn said. "We can head to Ame no Mihashira and make our way to Orb from there."

"You want to ask the person who left us to die to give us a way back to Orb?!" Olivier demanded irritated. "Trust me, Sahaku would rather take the Silver Frame and throw us back into space."

Before Bryn could reply, one of the computers they had managed to get back online suddenly beeped rapidly, the monitor showing footage from one of the factory's remaining cameras.

"What is it?" Olivier asked, floating away from the Mistral to look at the screen. Evie was already there, trying to focus the feed. The footage was fuzzy but she could see three people moving about the factory, looking through the debris. "Do we have audio?"

"I'm working on it," Evie said, typing in some commands on the keyboard. It took a few minutes, but eventually, she was able to get audio, even if the voices were drowned out by static and constantly cutting out.

"I found- chips! Brand new!" That was an excited female voice.

"Trash them!" A male voice ordered.

There was a garbled sound of protest, and Olivier exchanged a look with Bryn when the older woman finally joined them.

"We ain't here for little trinkets! We gotta find something big!" The male voice insisted.

"Pirates already?" Bryn asked, her eyes narrowing, she reached along her hip, relief going through her when she felt that her gun was still with her. If they were dealing with looters, then things were bound to get violent.

"Whatever- sell the chips- dress- fancy restaurant- and not invited Mister!" The female huffed. Her voice was cutting out, but there was no denying how young it sounded.

"We'll- discover a fortune! I can just- it!" The male cheered, clearly ignoring his companion.

"Those are the most cheerful pirates I've ever heard," Olivier observed, watching as the fuzzy male on the screen walked further away from the camera.

"Oh? How many space pirates have you met?" Bryn asked, glancing at her charge.

"None, but I'm sure that's a good thing," Olivier huffed. "Besides, I'm not sure they are pirates. Evie, can you zoom in on their machines? I think I saw something."

The nine-year-old did as she requested, though, for a moment, the image just looked like broken pixels before clearing up to show the Junk Guild emblem.

"Junk Guild already? Talk about a fast response time." Olivier muttered, leaning against the desk. "Don't they feel any shame for raiding a newly destroyed Colony?" She muttered annoyed. It hadn't even been a whole day since Heliopolis was destroyed.

"Well, they have to do their jobs," Bryn shrugged. She pushed away from the monitor and headed for one of the hallways leading out of the hangar.

"Where the hell are you going?!" Olivier demanded, hands on her hips. "We still have to figure a way out!"

"Those Junkers are the way out," Bryn called back, a plan already formulating in her head.

With Junk Guild

"Look at that!" Lowe cried excitedly, staring at the sight in front of them, Liam and Kisato were stunned speechless at what they saw. "It's an arm from a gold mobile suit!"

"I've never seen one like this before... And it looks brand new!" Lowe said, lifting the fingers of the arm and examining them.

Kisato hid behind a piece of debris as she watched Lowe, "Why would a neutral colony have something like this?!"

"It's not possible! Orb doesn't have any mobile suits!" Liam protested, unable to believe his eyes.

"Well, here it is, right before our eyes," Lowe said, excited. "This was probably a secret factory."

"In secret... I wonder if it was destroyed to hide evidence..." Liam wondered.

"Let's get outta here!" Kisato pleaded she was clinging to the rubble desperately, fear in her eyes.

"We found the arm, the body's gotta be close. We can't pass this baby up!" Lowe countered, eager.

He hopped back into his Kimera and started to drill into the ground. "Stand back guys!" He called cheerfully as the Kimera started to dig. In truth, he was going a bit wild in his excitement, the drill digging into the ground more forcefully than it should have.

"He's going crazy..." Liam observed from inside his own Kimera.

"What an idiot..." Kisato sighed, shoulders drooping.

"Keep it up!" Lowe cheered, not paying attention to his surroundings, so when the ground started to crumble and break below him, the feet of the Kimera lost their grip, causing the machine to plummet down the hole it created.

"Lowe!" He heard Kisato scream his name as he fell through a black void.

"Shit!" He cried, bracing himself for impact, his body bouncing against the cockpit once it his solid ground. "Ow..." He rubbed his head, before checking himself over, relief flooding him when he realized he came out of the fall relatively unscratched.

"Lowe! Are you okay?!" Liam asked over comms.

"I'm good, but the Kimera won't budge," Lowe said.

"We're coming to get you. Can you get out?"

"Yeah, yeah but hold yer' horses. Let me look around first." He said, pulling himself out of the busted Kimera. He turned the flashlight around his wrist on and looked around the pitch-black room, freezing in shock when he saw something unbelievable.

He made his way further into the room, being careful of where he walked, but each step was more eager, and he couldn't help the large grin that formed on his face when the flashlight illuminated the heads of two brand-new mobile suits.

He laughed, unable to help himself. "Lowe! Lowe! What the hell are you doing?!" Kisato's frantic voice sounded from his comms.

"8! Give our coordinates to Liam! Liam! Kisato! Get yer asses down here!" Lowe's voice was practically vibrating with excitement as he looked at what was in front of him. "My friends, we have just hit pay dirt!"

Once Liam and Kisato were down, the headlights of their Kimeras helped to illuminate the room, allowing all three Junk Techs to marvel at what they had found.

"Whoa! A red and a blue one!" Kisato said in amazement.

"See? I was right." Lowe sounded pleased with himself as he took the two mobile suits in. They were amazing. "Hey 8, run a systems check!" Lowe said excitedly, turning to the computer that was already hooked up to one of the machines.

"Wow! Look at this! They even work, it even has a beam rifle! Hell yeah!" Lowe cheered.

"Unbelievable. These are brand-new, fully intact mobile suits. Why are they buried down here?" Liam asked.

"Maybe because there was no time to move them," A voice floated from the darkness behind them, causing both Liam and Lowe to jump. Kisato on the other hand, let out an ear-piercing scream, and she quickly hid behind Lowe.

A surprised laugh filled the air and eventually, a woman stepped into the light of the Kimeras, a smile on her face, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Slowly, Kisato peeked out from behind Lowe's shoulder, tears in her eyes. "A-are you a ghost?" She whimpered.

"When I need to be," The woman shrugged. "But nowadays, I'm just a glorified babysitter. Name's Bryn," She moved closer, gently brushing her fingers against the sleek metal of the blue mobile suit. "I'm surprised you found these..."

"Of course we did!" Lowe said proudly, hands on his hips. "I'm the luckiest guy in the universe!"

"Why are there mobile suits here?" Liam broke in, face serious. "Orb is supposed to be neutral. They aren't supposed to have mobile suits."

"Only a fool would believe Orb could stay neutral, but it is a nice thought," Bryn sighed, regret in her voice. "Naturally, ZAFT and the EA will eventually turn their sights on us, after all, the Earth Forces already forced South America into their Alliance, no doubt they'll eventually force neutral states to join them. Some want to be ready when force is used against us." She finished, once again looking at the mobile suits.

"You shouldn't be so cynical," Lowe waved his hand through the air. "Either way, if you know about these mobile suits, can you-" He cut off when a message from the H.O.M.E flashed across 8's screen, the Professor's face flashing onto the monitor.

"There's a mobile armor headed your way, watch out." The Professor said seriously.

"A business rival?! Lowe demanded.

"No. It's a mercenary. Fully armed. He's got a boatload of weaponry, don't fight him, you don't have a chance of winning." She said before cutting off the communication.

"No! We're going to die!" Kisato screamed.

"What is a mercenary doing here?!" Liam demanded.

"Probably to destroy these machines," Bryn observed, looking thoughtful. "Damn... those higher-ups are persistent." She turned to the Junkers. "You guys may not be able to win, but I can. I suggest-" She blinked when she noticed that Lowe was gone and the Blue Frame was powering up. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Lowe?" Liam looked equally alarmed.

"Our Kimeras aren't made for combat, but this Blue Frame thing is!" Lowe said as he started the machine up.

"But-" Bryn started to protest before she laughed, "I like the way you think kid." She said smiling. She pushed off the floor and started to head back the way she came.

"W-where are you going?!" Kisato demanded, she was shaking in her boots.

"To get something that'll help in the fight, you Junkers have the right idea." She said before disappearing into the darkness.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to run from a lost cause?" Liam demanded as the Blue Frame started to stand. "Naturals have such a strange sense of logic."

"Guys! Haul that Red Frame out of here for me, thanks!" Lowe said from the Blue Frame's cockpit.

"Roger," Liam said.

"Be careful!" Kisato pleaded.

"I'm always careful Kisato! I'll even try not to scratch this baby's fresh paint job." Lowe reassured her, " I wonder what that person will bring to the fight..." He mused before he turned on the mobile suit's thrusters and blasted out of the room.

Junk Guild Ship, H.O.M.E

Outside Heliopolis, a Marseille III-Class transport ship with the Junk Guild symbol and a customized GINN with a serpentine emblem and a "2" on its shoulder floated nearby. Inside, a man and woman stood, facing off.

"I've warned my team about your crew," The Professor said to a teenage boy with fair skin, silver hair, and blue eyes, he was beautiful, the only thing that marred it was the scar that went vertically down his right eye. He was wearing an altered version of the green ZAFT uniform.

"That's fine," he said, keeping his gun pointed at her. He was the mercenary group, Serpent Tail's second, Elijah Kiel.

"Yes, but... why did you let me?" She questioned.

"We're mercenaries. For us, combat is our bread and butter." Elijah explained. "Besides, most people surrender in the face of such overwhelming superior firepower."

The Professor smiled back, "Yeah, most people do."

Underground Morgenröte Hangar

"Get ready to move!" Bryn said the moment she returned to the hangar. "Olivier! Evie! Get in the Mistral!" She ordered.

"Did I hear that right?!" Olivier demanded. They had been listening in on Bryn's conversation with the Junkers through her communicator. "Mercenaries are here?! Those stupid old farts don't know when to stop!" She snapped, knowing that it must have been someone high up in Orb who had sent them.

"Your Uncle is one of those old farts," Bryn commented, seamlessly sliding into the Silver Frame's cockpit and activating it. She noted that there was a "Panzer Eisen" rocket anchor now attached to the Silver Frame's left forearm and a "Midas Messer" beam boomerang attached to the left shoulder. "Where did you find these?"

"We weren't idle when you were chatting," Olivier huffed, "They're extra from the Sword Striker package. Be careful when you use them,"

"Of course," Bryn nodded, there was an unmistakable hum going through her veins. She was excited for the thrill of battle.

She couldn't deny that being Olivier's guard had its perks, and working for Morgenröte on a secret mobile suit project was fun, but simulated battles didn't cut it for her. First and foremost, she was and had always been a soldier, her body always ached for action, it was just how she was programmed.

"Bryn, are you really going to fight with that Junker?" Evie asked as she got into the Mistral, Olivier behind her.

"She better." Olivier huffed. "It's fate that Red and Blue weren't destroyed. After this, I'll buy them both off the Junk Guild if I have to. They're coming back to Orb with us."

Bryn laughed, "Good luck with that, I'm pretty sure that the Junker in Blue Frame is already attached. "

"Shut it." Olivier huffed, she stumbled into the Mistral's controls when they felt something rumble above them. "And get going, the mercenaries are here, don't let my mobile suits get destroyed!"

"Yes, brat!" Bryn did a mock salute before shooting off.

In the deserted halls of Heliopolis, a lone, well-equipped Moebius flew through quickly and silently, looking for its target; the Moebius was marked by a serpentine emblem and a "1" in the center. He didn't have to search long since the mobile suit jumped out of a hatch on the floor, surprising him.

"There you are!" Lowe cried, aiming the beam rifle at the mobile armor. "The first to strike wins!" He fired the rifle.

He was sure he'd hit his target but he let out a shocked cry when the Moebius dodged low while simultaneously firing its turret gun at him.

"Woah!" Lowe barely dodged the attack from the Moebius, "Tsk." He glared at the mobile armor before flying the Blue Frame up through another opening.

"What the hell! He dodged my beam?! That ain't fair!" He complained as he ran from the Moebius. "He didn't hesitate to fire back, so he must not be interested in getting this mobile suit back unharmed, right? He mused to himself, thinking quickly.

"Well, he might be a combat pro, but we're pros at making good use of junk! I'll show him a different way to fight!" Lowe said encouragingly to 8 who was hooked up to the Blue Frame's cockpit and acting as his co-pilot.

Once he exited into a large open space, Lowe placed the Blue Frame into a squatting position and exited the cockpit, but left 8 hooked in. He floated a few feet above the Blue Frame's head, smiling confidently.

It didn't take the mercenary long to catch up, but the sight before him confused him slightly. What was the pilot doing outside the mobile suit? "Hm?"

Unknown to him, inside the cockpit, 8 was doing a silent countdown: 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1!

"Do it now 8!" Lowe ordered.

"OK!" 8 immediately complied and reactivated the Blue Frame, causing the mobile to lift its beam rifle and fire directly at the Moebius.

The shot destroyed the Moebius, but the mercenary jumped out of the machine at the last second, stunning Lowe.

"No way!" Lowe shouted in disbelief. He watched in stunned awe as the mercenary jumped from different pieces of debris, launching himself closer and closer to him. "For real?!" He shouted just as the mercenary collided with him, grabbing onto his wrists to restrain him.

"That was a pretty good plan," The mercenary admitted, his deep voice slightly muffled by his helmet. The visor was so dark that Lowe couldn't even see his face.

"What's your aim here?" Lowe demanded he lost this round but Bryn should be back with a weapon soon, right?

"I'm here to destroy that mobile suit," The mercenary said before throwing Lowe through the room.

"Shit!" Lowe cried as he flew through the large space until he hit a large chunk of floating debris. "Ouch! You asshole!" He snapped, rubbing his head.

"Our objective is to destroy that thing," The mercenary said, standing on the top of the cockpit and pulling out a gun, which he aimed at Lowe. "And get rid of any witnesses along with it."

Lowe swung his arms frantically when he saw the gun, looking around for a place to hide, but there was nowhere, he was floating in open space. Oh well, if he couldn't hide then...

"That thing is mine!" Lowe protested. "There's no way I'd hand it over to someone who'd destroy it! It'd go against my pride as a junk dealer! And it'd be a big waste!"

The mercenary pulled off his helmet, revealing tanned skin, thick, wavy dark brown hair, and orange-tinted sunglasses that covered his eyes. He was Gai Murakumo, leader of Serpent Tail.

"Ah, such an interesting way to view things but... considering the situation, what exactly can you do to stop me?" He asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but I'm the luckiest man in the cosmos," Lowe said confidently. "After all, I struck gold by finding these mobile suits just a little bit ago, today."

"One does not survive combat with luck alone," Gai countered, readying himself to pull the trigger when Bryn in the Silver Frame burst in, shocking them both.

"He may not be able to do anything, but I certainly can." Lowe grinned at Bryn's voice, and he grew even more excited when he noted that the mobile suit looked exactly like the Blue Frame, but silver, and it also seemed to have extra equipment.

Gai for his part was finally looking surprised.

"Bryn!" Lowe called cheerfully, "You're right on time."

"What business do you have here?" Gai questioned, he still held his gun out but everyone there knew it would be useless against a mobile suit.

"My orders are to protect these mobile suits at all costs," Bryn replied, slowly looking him over. She recognized his face. Serpent Tail, huh? The bigwigs certainly went all out in trying to destroy the Astrays. Meaning, the people who hired him weren't ones she would normally associate with, and neither would Olivier. "Who hired you? Orb? Or Morgenröte?" She asked, the Earth Alliance was also a possibility but she was certain they never found out Orb was developing their mobile suits.

"None of your concern," Gai said coldly. He could still shoot the boy before the woman could react. But before he could pull the trigger 8 suddenly beeped with an incoming call and Elijah suddenly appeared on the screen, looking panicked.

"Gai! We've got an emergency! Elijah cried, his face close to the monitor, allowing Gai to see how nervous he was.

"Elijah!" His voice didn't hide his surprise.

"We've been double-crossed! Our clients are attacking us!" Elijah cried, seeing a cluster of Moebiuses on the monitor of the H.O.M.E. He was clinging to the keyboard of the monitor, body visibly shaking. "I need backup now! Come back here!" Elijah practically screamed into the monitor while the Professor was glancing back at him, looking embarrassed by his panicking.

Lowe smiled, "Seems like, according to these clients of yours "get rid of any witnesses" applies to you too!"

Bryn sighed, "That doesn't surprise me. If it got out that Orb created their own mobile suits there'll be hell to pay." She then remembered the G Projects and what had happened to Heliopolis. "It's too late to clean up anyways..." She added to herself, louder she added, looking at Gai. "Guess you have to reap what you sow."

Gai glowered at her before suddenly tossing 8 to Lowe. "Do not toss me!" 8 snapped as he flew through the air, crashing against Lowe's stomach.

"H-hey!" Lowe cried, catching 8.

"I'll be borrowing this!" Gai said, sliding into the Blue Frame and activating it.

"What the?!" Bryn stared stunned at the sudden change of circumstances, she never thought the mercenary would take the Blue Frame.

"If you damage it in any way, you're paying for it!" Lowe yelled after him as the Blue Frame took off.

"Bryn!" Olivier's voice suddenly crackled across her comms. "What the hell is happening? We were able to get out with the Mistral, but there's a fight happening outside!"

"On my way," Bryn promised, she looked at Lowe. "I'm heading out. You okay to get out by yourself?"

"Of course," Lowe grinned, giving her a thumbs up. "Go take care of your friends."

Bryn smiled back and took off after the Blue Frame, seeing a GINN trying to fight out a group of Moebiuses next to a tan-colored Marseille III-Class transport ship.

"You... you Bastards!" Elijah cried out as he fired shot after shot at the Moebiuses, but they all evaded him.

"C'mon, you're a mercenary." The Professor was saying from the safety of her ship. "Can't you fight a bit better than this?" She couldn't hide her disappointment in him. "I said that I'd pay you if you could protect me." She said over his comms.

"I'm already doing that!" Elijah protested, tears in his eyes. Or he was trying to, but he was failing miserably.

"... you've got a pretty face, kid. But your skill leaves something to be desired." The Professor observed.

"Ugh... what a Bitch! Loretta was a total angel compared to you!" Elijah grumbled, glaring at the screen. He was so focused on his conversation that he failed to notice the mobile armor that was charging at him from behind.

Elijah let out a shocked shout and prepared himself for the shot when a beam shot past his GINN, destroying the Moebius that had been charging at him.

"What the?!" Elijah looked behind him and saw the Blue Frame coming up from behind him. Gai?!"

"Looks like I made it just in time," He observed, keeping his eyes on the Moebiuses. But he also noticed a Maw-01 Mistral floating nearby, trying to avoid as much attention as possible.

"That mobile suit... was that our target?" Elijah asked, taking in the brand-new tech.

"I'll explain later, right now..." Gai refocused on the Moebiuses that were charging at them. "These damn traitors are gonna pay!" With that, both Gai and Elijah started firing on the mobile armors that were trying to surround them.

"What is the Blue Frame doing out?!" Olivier's sounded through all the comms. "Bryn!" She called when she saw the Silver Frame burst out of Heliopolis.

"I'll explain later," The burgundy-haired woman said, easily dodging a charging Moebius and firing her beam rifle at it. She blocked bullets from another Moebius with the "Panzer Eisen" rocket anchor before launching the anchor at the mobile armor, crushing it with the anchor's claws.

"Who's that?" Elijah asked, glancing at the silver mobile suit in shock. He watched as the Silver Frame drew its beam sabers and slashed through two of the Moebiuses.

Gai's brows furrowed as he also watched the pilot of the silver mobile work, she was certainly skilled. "I have no idea." He then went back to destroying the Moebiuses, Elijah trying to cover him until the leg of his GINN got blown off. "Get outta here! I'll take care of them!"

"Thanks, Gai..." Elijah said, pulling back until he was closer to the H.O.M.E.

This mobile suit... Gai thought to himself, he was amazed by how well it ran. It was the best mobile suit he had ever piloted.

On the H.O.M.E the Professor was having similar thoughts, "That boy's partner is good... so is the girl... These mobile suits are a hell of a lot more than Erica led on, which means..." Her eyes narrowed slightly. So, I don't think this is just a regular old pick-up job.

"Bryn! Use the 'Midas Messer'!" Olivier called through comms.

"Sure," Bryn muttered, she pulled out the beam boomerang and threw it at one of the remaining Moebiuses, the Moebius dodged but was destroyed from behind as the boomerang came back to her.

"Gai! Take out that last ship!" Elijah called.

"Got it, just one more shot," Gai said, but before he could fire he felt a presence behind him and glanced back to see another red mobile suit. Before he could react the red mobile suit fired its beam rifle at the last Moebius.

"It can't be..." Gai said in disbelief.

"Great job kid," Bryn said, a small smirk on her face.

"Keep your hands," The Red Frame charged at the last Moebius, "8! Which weapon?"

"Use the beam saber!" 8 instructed.

Lowe did as he was told and destroyed the last Moebius with the saber. "How's that? See what I mean by luckiest man in the cosmos?"

"Heh," Gai gave a smile back and Bryn let out a soft sigh of relief, bringing the Silver Frame closer to the Mistral.

"How are you guys?" She asked, speaking to Olivier and Evie. "No injuries?"

"We're fine, just confused," Evie admitted. "Why are the Red and Blue Frames out?"

"Things happened?" Bryn shrugged. "What do you want to do now?"

"Why don't you guys come to the H.O.M.E?" The Professor suddenly contacted them. "The mercenaries too, it seems like we all have a lot to talk about."

There was a moment of silence before Olivier finally agreed.

"Fine," Gai said after a moment, leading the broken GINN back to the H.O.M.E while the Silver Frame and Mistral trailed behind.

Once everything was explained, Lowe stretched out his back before grinning at Gai and Bryn. "Looks like we're all on the same page. They'll be coming after you guys too."

"Seems that way," Gai agreed.

Olivier huffed, "They'd regret it if they came for me." She crossed her arms and started to pace. "I'll have their jobs..." she muttered to herself, brows furrowed.

Everyone watched her pace for a moment before Lowe spoke, quickly looking at Bryn, "About the blue mobile suit... and if it's alright with you guys... you can keep it."

"That's probably for the best," Bryn agreed, she didn't think it would be good or plausible to have two Astrays with them. No one besides her could pilot any of them today.

Gai glanced between the two, slightly suspicious. He weighed his options, making sure to think the offer through; it had been a nice mobile suit. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, after all, you protected our ship too. A debt owed must always be repaid." Lowe shrugged. "That's what my late grandad used to say." He grinned.

"... in that case, I'll accept without reservation." Gai smiled back.

"Gai," Elijah stepped to his side, a communicator in his hands. "We have to meet up with Reed and the rest of the crew."

"Okay, let's go." Gai nodded and the two of them started to walk away.

"What will you guys do?" Lowe asked, turning to Bryn.

In response, Bryn looked to Olivier who was still pacing thoughtfully. "I don't know... the best course of action would be to go to the orb Satellite, Ame no Mihashira. We can get to Orb from there."

"No!" Olivier's protest was loud, it even stopped Gai and Elijah from leaving, both men stopped and turned back to look at her in confusion.

"Olivier..." Bryn sighed, looking annoyed. She knew the teen didn't like the Sahaku but that was their best chance to get to Orb. Ghina would have gone there after leaving Heliopolis, we can make it."

"I'll go..." Olivier said, staring Bryn straight in the eyes. "If you can say that you have absolute trust in that family here and now."

The silence was deafening as the two young women stared at each other. Finally, Bryn sighed in defeat, "What do you suggest then?"

"We gather battle data." She said determinedly and she marched up to Gai, back straight. Bryn stared after her, a headache forming in her head. "Hey, you, you're a mercenary right? You've probably been in all kinds of battle situations."

"Yes." He said, looking down at her neutrally.

"Then I have a proposal for you," Olivier said confidently, "Take us with you."

"Huh?" Elijah looked dumbfounded at the suggestion.

"We need to collect data from how the Astrays perform in battle. How about you take us with you during a few of your future jobs, give me a copy of the data recordings from each mission, and then take us to Orb." Olivier explained.

"T-that's ridiculous!" Elijah snapped at her.

"It's not. I'd also pay you for the time spent with you and the extra supplies you'd need to gather. It'll also make up for the payment you lost from the clients who told you to destroy the Astrays. And I'll also lend you her if you need extra help on jobs." Olivier nodded to Bryn, catching her by surprise.

"Don't volunteer me for stuff." Bryn huffed annoyed. But unfortunately, she had to admit it didn't seem like a bad plan. Morgenröte could do a lot with legitimate battle records, especially from a skilled mobile suit pilot.

Gai stared impassively at Olivier before switching his gaze to Bryn. She wondered what he was thinking, his eyes were thoughtful, once again weighing his options. Was he upset that he had lost a payment from his previous clients?

"What do you think?" He asked, surprising her. Was he considering Olivier's deal?

"My job is to protect Olivier and this kid." She patted Evie's head, much to the nine-year-old's annoyance. "If you accept her deal, I'd have to agree." She shrugged.

There was another moment of silence, "I get the final say on what data you get to keep from my jobs," Gai stated, no room for negotiation in his voice, "Also if we need any information about the mobile suit, you'll answer it," Gai said, looking down at Olivier.

The teen nodded. Realizing that it was probably the best deal she'd get. "Just tell me your price. It's no issue."

Gai smirked back, "We'll discuss the price for tagging along with my team once we get back to my ship."

"Is this really, okay?" Lowe asked, leaning closer to Bryn in confusion.

Bryn laughed slightly. "It should be fine. Her Uncle will kill her when we get home though."

"Gai," Elijah spoke up again, "We need to go."

Gai nodded again and started walking again, "If you're coming, then we're leaving now."

Olivier nodded and Bryn quickly followed with Evie at her side.

"See ya," Lowe called after them, "Though, I feel like we'll probably meet again."

"Yeah, but at that point we may be enemies." Gai acknowledged.

"Hey, that's life." Lowe grinned back.

With that, the group broke apart, the Junk Guild one way and the mercenaries the other. Bryn turned back towards the H.O.M.E before it disappeared, feeling like Lowe was right; they'd see each other again.

Bryn was silent as she flew the Silver Frame, trailing after the Blue Frame and the damaged GINN. The Mistral was flying at her side, Evie in the pilot seat instead of Olivier; she always thought it was funny that while Olivier was a mechanical genius, she couldn't fly anything.

Her monitor beeped and she blinked, confused when she saw a private comm request from the Blue Frame. She accepted the request and Gai's face flashed onto one of the smaller monitors.

"Are we almost to your ship?" She asked, glancing at him, cautious; she didn't trust him and part of her was expecting a betrayal when they got to his ship. She was tempted to fly away and get to Ame no Mihashira despite how Olivier felt, but she also knew the teen had a point about the Sahaku. If they hadn't kickstarted everything, would Heliopolis still be standing?

"Almost," Gai nodded, he looked like he was trying to get a read on her through the screen, she couldn't blame him, she was doing the same thing. "I have to ask; are you really okay with this deal? I know you wanted to go elsewhere."

Bryn shrugged, "Only an idiot outright trusts a mercenary. But I'll go along with what she wants. Just so you don't think she's a complete idiot, I'll let you know that Olivier is being cautious too. But she's never been someone to let an opportunity slide by her. It would have been better to get to Orb, but she just can't let the chance go to collect battle data." She shrugged again.

"She also trusts your ability to protect her," Gai said, catching her off guard. "After seeing you fight, I understand why."

"She has more faith in me than I do," Bryn agreed, before going silent, wondering what Gai's plan was. Why was he talking solely to her? What was his end game? Question after question shot through her head and with each new question came a plan in case, he decided to turn on her. She hadn't survived this long by openly trusting others.

"I won't do anything," Gai said, reading her expression through the monitor, an almost smile appearing on her face when she gave him a distrustful look. "If you don't do anything."

"Truce then," She sighed, eyes going immediately to a different monitor when she got an alert that they were approaching a Laurasia-class vessel with the Serpent Tail emblem on it. "Did you steal that from ZAFT?" She asked.

"It was part of a payment from a job we did," Gai explained as the hangar of the Serpent Tail ship opened to allow them to land. "Follow me." He said, cutting off communication as he began to dock land inside the hangar.

"As if I have any other choice," She muttered, she entered the ship and docked the Silver Frame next to the Blue Frame, watching silently as Elijah maneuvered the one-legged GINN into a space opposite them.

Once she was sure the Silver Frame was properly secured to the hangar Bryn opened the cockpit and floated down to the Mistral, feet touching the platform just as Olivier and Evie came out. The teen looked annoyed at her while the nine-year-old looked exasperated. "What's wrong with you?" Bryn asked innocently.

"Evie didn't let me pilot the ship," Olivier huffed, glaring at the nine-year-old.

Bryn laughed, "You're letting a kid bully you? And if you piloted, the Mistral would have been lost to space." She beamed at her two teammates but all traces of mirth vanished when Gai joined them.

"Come on, you need to meet the rest of my team, then Miss d'Quintus we can talk about payment for your job offer." He said.

Olivier silently nodded and they followed Gai to the bridge, taking in the ship as they went through the halls.

When they reached the bridge, they saw that Elijah was already there with four other people. The first was an older man with short blonde hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and blue eyes. He was leaning against the captain's chair and even though he had a beer in his hands, Bryn could still see the calculating glimmer in his eyes.

The next member was a woman with light brown skin, wavy dark brown hair in a ponytail, and brown eyes, next to her stood a young female child with short lighter brown hair and brown eyes. The child wore a black t-shirt under a denim vest that looked like it had wool lining the inside and tan pants with knee-high creamy brown boots.

In contrast, the man and woman wore altered versions of the OMNI uniform like Gai. Elijah on the other hand wore an altered version of a ZAFT uniform. What an odd set of clothes for a mercenary group to wear. Or at least, that's what Bryn thought until her name pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Bryn?" The last member of Gai's group pushed to the front, eyes wide. It was a teenage girl with creamy-fair skin, light brown hair that brushed her shoulder blades, and large cinnamon-brown eyes. She was dressed in a long white medical coat, light blue shirt, and black pants.

Even though she was caught off guard by the teen's appearance, Bryn made sure her face remained neutral. "It's been a while Leigh," She allowed a small smile to form on her face as she looked the teen over.

"You know her?" Olivier asked.

"She was a medical apprentice under a friend of mine," Bryn explained, "I never thought I'd run into her again, especially on the ship of a mercenary group." She kept her gaze on Leigh as she spoke before glancing at Gai when she felt his gaze on her face, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Well, we have to all follow our paths, right? That's what my teacher always said." Leigh grinned, "I never thought you'd become a babysitter-test pilot."

Bryn's smile became more genuine, "Neither did I," She turned her attention to the rest of Serpent Tail, catching their confused gazes, "Sorry, Bryn Westalyn, nice to meet you." She held out her hand and the dark-haired woman immediately shook it, a smile on her face. "Loretta Azure and this is my daughter Kazahana." She looked at the girl who stepped forward eagerly, curious eyes on Evie who met her gaze shyly.

"I'm Reed Weller, Captain of the ship." The man said, shaking her hand next.

"It's nice to meet you," Kazahana said excitedly, holding her hand out for Evie to shake.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Evalyn Tayte, but please call me Evie," Evie said, a small smile on her face as she shook the younger girl's hand and Bryn couldn't help but smile. Evie didn't get the chance to interact with people her age often so hopefully, interacting with Kazahana would help her open up.

Leigh looked surprised to see the young girl and shot Bryn a questioning look. Bryn caught her gaze and quickly shook her head, signifying that she would explain later.

"I'm Olivier d'Quintus, your new client if you guys want to finally talk price," Olivier stepped up, holding her head proudly, she looked at Gai and he nodded.

"Reed," Gai said, and the older man fell into place beside him. "We can finalize the details of our agreement in our briefing room. Kazahana, show the other two around.

"Bryn," Olivier motioned for her to join them as they left the bridge, but she shook her head.

"I trust you to make this deal and I'll enforce it," Bryn said dismissively, she then gave the teen an amused grin. "Just don't break the bank. Your Uncle is already going to kill you for delaying your return to Orb."

"You'll protect me." Olivier shrugged.

"Not from my employer." Bryn shot back, amusement glittering in her eyes as she imagined Olivier's Uncle's reaction.

Olivier scowled at her but trailed after Gai. Once they were gone Bryn turned an easy smile toward the rest of the crew. "So, about that tour for the ship..."

Serpent Tail's Laurasia-class Vessel, Briefing Room

Olivier sat silently across from Gai and Reed, feeling slightly intimidated by the looks they gave her, but she still held her head high. She was an engineering prodigy, which was why she was allowed to assist with the Astray project even though she had been much younger than most of her fellow engineers and mechanics. She was also the proud niece of the Lion of Orb and head of the d'Quintus family.

"How long do you plan to travel with us?" Reed asked, looking through an electrical tablet. Before they had arrived, Gai had sent him a message about their new potential client and the interesting details of her request: To be allowed some of the data Blue Frame collected through their other jobs... honestly, he was surprised Gai agreed, it wasn't like the man at all.

Olivier thought silently, she wanted to stay for as long as she thought she needed but knew if she had her way, she'd become a nuisance to them sooner rather than later. "How much longer do you plan to be in space?" She countered.

"We've had other job offers since Gai's been gone," Reed said, looking through the tablet. "We'll be in space for a few months before heading down to Earth if that's what you're asking."

Olivier nodded, "Then if you don't mind, we'll tag along until you decide to go down to Earth."

"That's a high price to pay mercenaries, and a large burden on the group," Gai noted.

"I understand that three additional people on a ship will add to the price of supplies, but I'm willing to help pay for that too," she said, she had a long time on the ride over to think of her offer and needed to word it perfectly to get them to agree. "If you're comfortable letting me, I'd also be willing to help upgrade or fix any of your current mobile armors or suits and help maintain them."

"You're not allowed to do work on the units we already have or the Blue Frame. Work on the Silver Frame as much as you please." Gai rebutted, distrust in his gaze. For all he knew, she would try to sabotage their units, for what purpose, he couldn't say.

Olivier sighed, "Fine. That's understandable. And finally for price how about..." She thought for a moment and offered an obnoxiously large sum of money and watched the two men exchange neutral gazes. It was a bit too generous, even for the job she offered.

"Olivier, we're going to need the room to discuss your contract," Gai said, dismissing her. "Wait outside."

"Sure, sure." She stood and left, leaning against the wall of the briefing room as the two men talked. She was certain it was a fair and solid deal; she didn't see any reason why they'd reject her... unless they didn't want any tag-a-longs. If they wanted to keep their group close and protected, that was reason enough.

She didn't know how long she was waiting in the hall before Gai ordered her back in. "So?" She asked, suddenly feeling nervous, Reed was grinning but Gai's face was neutrally cold, giving nothing away.

"We'll accept you as an extended client." Gai finally said, "But, if your group causes trouble, we will drop you off at the nearest space station at any time and you will not protest. And you offered up your guard to assist us with jobs if we needed the support, I assume that's still on the table."

Olivier nodded. "She's a skilled pilot and can take care of herself."

He nodded back, "I saw a bit of her skill outside Heliopolis but I'd still like to test her out for myself before agreeing to have her out on the field. And for the price..." He told her a lower number than what she had originally offered and Reed laughed.

"This is a fairer price than what you said. Yes, it's a long-term contract but the price you offered was still a bit too much. How does a kid like you have so much money?"

Olivier nodded, "I'm from a well-off family," She shrugged, but she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. "So, we have a deal?" She asked to make sure.

Gai nodded. "We accept you as our client."

Olivier beamed, "So what now?"

"Now, I test that pilot of yours," Gai said, the barest hint of a smile appearing on his face.

Bryn once again found herself in the cockpit of Silver Frame, her bullets and beam weapons replaced by blanks and stunners. She had also removed the "Panzer Eisen" and "Midas Messer" so that their spar was fair.

"You really want to do this?" Bryn asked uncertainly looking at the Blue Frame through her monitors.

"Yes," Gai said, a calculating look on his face. "If there's a chance that you help us with missions I need to know your skill. I need to make sure Heliopolis wasn't some fluke. Ready?" He asked.

"I guess I don't have a choice," Bryn sighed, getting herself ready for the battle. But she felt a bit insulted by his comment, of course, her skills at Heliopolis weren't just luck!

Without warning Blue Frame charged her and she fired a volley of shots at the machine.

Blue Frame easily dodged the valley and charged at her with his beam saber drawn, swinging down towards the Silver Frame from the top.

Bryn scowled, raising the shield and allowing the saber to crash against the metal. The force of the impact pushed her back slightly and she quickly shoved him back, firing another volley of blanks at him before charging forward, switching out the rifle for the saber.

Gai used the Blue Frame's shield to parry her attack before switching the beam saber into the other hand and slashing at the unprotected side of the Silver Frame.

Bryn quickly maneuvered the Silver Frame out of the way, propelling the mobile suit back with its thrusters and allowing the saber to safely sail over the mobile suit's head.

The Blue Frame charged towards her again and Bryn used the Silver Frame's thrusters to throw the machine back, flipping the machine backward and kicking out at the other Astray, the leg of the Silver Frame connecting hard against the cockpit of Blue.

Blue Frame stumbled through space before righting itself and Bryn allowed the Silver Frame to simply flip through space before righting the mobile suit, a small smile forming on her face. She had the advantage in that she was the test pilot of the Astrays while the suit was still fairly new to Gai. Though from what she had seen at Heliopolis he was a talented mobile suit pilot and had already adapted fairly well to piloting the Blue Frame.

"Not bad," Gai murmured, reattaching the beam saber to switch it out with the riffle. He fired a volley of shots at her, forcing Bryn to dodge. As he fired at her he closed the gap between their two machines and slammed the shield against the body of the Silver Frame, causing the mobile suit to tumble through the air and the cockpit to shake slightly at the impact.

Bryn immediately righted the Silver Frame, drawing her saber to clash against Blue Frame's shield as Gai tried to swing it at her again.

Her grip on the controls tightened as she forced the Blue Frame back, raising one of her mobile suit's legs and having it kick out and pushing the Blue Frame away, she followed by repeatedly shooting at the Blue Frame before hiding behind a piece of debris to regain her thoughts.

"He's not a bad pilot at all..." She murmured to herself before she suddenly felt a tingling sensation on the back of her neck. She piloted the Silver Frame away from the debris just as the Blue Frame burst down from above her, missing the Silver Frame by just inches.

As the Blue Frame passed her Bryn fired on it again, a small smirk forming on her face when a few of the bullets grazed against the Blue Frame. She then charged forward, chasing the Blue Frame through the small debris field around Serpent Tail's ship until Gai turned around and faced her.

He swung the Blue Frame's arm out, trying to smash it against the Silver Frame's middle to throw her off balance but she maneuvered the Silver Frame out of the way, twisting the mobile suit around Blue Frame and firing a few blanks into the Blue Frame's back.

The thrusters came to life on the Blue Frame and the suit burst away, spinning around when there was a good distance between them. Much to her shock, Gai threw the Blue Frame's shield at her before she could react, the momentum of his turn and thrusters gave the shield more momentum before Bryn could properly block, causing the Blue's shield to smash into her cockpit with enough force to make her justle in the seat.

"Owww..." Bryn muttered, feeling like a bruise was forming on the back of her head despite her helmet.

"That's enough," Reed's voice sounded through the speakers just as the Blue Frame started to charge at her again. "I think we've seen enough for today. No need to wreck those mobile suits before any jobs can get done."

Bryn sighed and relaxed, loosening her grip on the controls. "You're not half bad," Bryn said, when she saw Gai's face appear on her monitor, there was a small genuine smile on his face.

"I was going to say the same," Gai said, allowing her to dock with the ship first.

The two of them made sure that both Silver and Blue Frame were secured properly to the hangar before pushing themselves through the hangar until they reached the catwalk, slipping into the hallway of the ship.

"So do I pass your test?" Bryn asked, a small smile on her face, though Gai's face had returned to a thoughtful look.

He nodded. "I don't see any problems with you joining Elijah and me for some missions. You'd be good to watch our backs."

"As long as you watch mine too, I'll gladly help," Bryn reassured. She had been reluctant to join them on missions at first, but after sparring with Gai, she was honestly starting to feel excited. The subtle hum that flowed through her veins was back, it was like an electrical charge, and she had missed it.

"Of course, I'll have your back." He said, stopping her and meeting her eyes. "As long as we work together I will."

Bryn held his gaze, trying to get another read on him but she couldn't tell anything about him, though she did see the outline of a pendant she hadn't noticed before under his uniform.

"Then you have yourself a deal," Bryn said, nodding at him one more time before she started walking away. "Let me know when we start our first mission together."

"Our mission starts now." He called after her.

Bryn stopped and turned, of course, she supposed mercenaries didn't sleep or rest. She sighed, "Then let's not waste time."