Crossover Fan Fiction / Gundam SEED Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Crossing Barriers ❯ Slaughter at Endymion ( Chapter 15 )

Crossing Barriers

 

Gundam Wing and Gundam Seed are the sole property of their creators and distributing studios. I have no financial interest in either series. Nor am I receiving any financial gain from this fan fiction work. I do however own all plot elements not part of the original and all self-created characters. Thank you. Enjoy.

 

Special note: Yaoi (homosexual pairings) is a plot element of this story. There will be NO explicit material but there will be sections where it is reasonably clear that sex is happening or has happened.

 

Beta Reader: T'Amara

 

 

Slaughter at Endymion

 

“Trowa! Hey Trowa! Find Zechs will ya? It looks like the Serpent Tail bunch is leaving!” Duo yelled down the hall before ducking back into the comm room and his station at the boards.

 

Merquise must have been close by because he was there in minutes. “What's happening Maxwell? Barton said something about Serpent Tail leaving.”

 

“That's what it looks like,” Duo agreed, throwing three views from different security cameras up on the centermost screens. “They've been loading that warship of theirs since yesterday. Today they brought the perishable foods aboard and both their smaller ships pulled in behind her and took on supplies too. They closed the cargo hatches on all three ships fifteen minutes ago and have been loading straggling personnel ever since. I've seen Murakumo himself out on the dock twice in the last half hour.”

 

“It would seem as though they don't want to be here when the Earth Alliance Foreign Minister arrives tomorrow,” Zechs said drily. Keeping up with the local news was now a daily assignment for them all; it occupied almost half of their language class time.

 

“Yeah, well if I had my way I wouldn't be here either,” Duo growled. “That guy's the kind who gave Crimson Dawn an excuse to take down the ESUN. He's a useless, self-important bag of crap surrounded by more of the same and they all waste air talking like they had something worth saying. I feel sorry for those ZAFT guys who got roped into being the dope's `honor guard'.”

 

He abruptly sat up straight and brought the Serpent Tail warship into a closer focus. “Ok, she's just dropped all but her power connections! And here comes Murakumo! Oh, yeah, they're leaving.”

 

He twisted around and yelled, “Heero! Hey! `RO! Ya wanna get in here and keep that power surge suppression program of yours under watch! We're about to get a nice one when Serpent Tail cuts their ships loose.”

 

“I'm already here,” Heero told him flatly from where he was sitting quietly at another board well across the room. “Try looking before yelling next time.”

 

“Power surge suppression program?” Zechs asked. “Do I want to know?”

 

“It's an experiment,” Yuy replied. “You remember last week, that power spike that cross linked the security net into the emergency network feeds? It seemed to attract a great deal of attention to the mainframe, too much of it directed at the security net. Duo and I had to work very fast to keep some of our earlier hacking from being discovered. I researched the history of the issue to find out how much of a problem it was likely to be for us, I'll give you a copy; it is significant. So I worked up a cascading series of small programs designed to control these spikes and to keep them from forcing those cross links even if they did get past the suppression efforts. Given the condition of the colony, especially it's power grid, we should have a good first test coming up when those ships uncouple from the docks power ports.”

 

“Hatches on all ships have sealed,” Duo warned less than ten minutes later. “And power couplings have dropped, . . . . . . . . now!”

 

“Spike suppressed!” Heero snapped seconds afterward. “No cross links detected.”

 

“Smaller craft disengaging from last docking bolts.”

 

“Secondary spike suppressed. Again, no cross links.”

 

“Smaller craft now both exiting harbor mouth. Warship disengaging last docking bolts, engines firing.”

 

“Second major spike suppressed. Cross link averted.”

 

“Warship now exiting harbor mouth.”

 

“No further power irregularities noted.”

 

“Nice work Yuy,” Merquise said quietly. “The fewer reasons there are for eyes to turn this way the better.”

 

“Thank you. The emergency network here appears to broadcast on frequencies in use by the active colonies. Preventing those small intrusions should allow them to return to ignoring this colony again.”

 

Zechs nodded, the logic was solid as Yuy's usually was. He turned his eyes back to the screen and the departing Serpent Tail ships. It gave him an odd feeling of vulnerability, seeing them leave. The group had a very significant reputation and having them here had been a kind of security in its own, rather dangerous way.

 

He shrugged slightly. It wasn't as though he could have afforded to approach Murakumo and hire him to play bodyguard to nine aliens from another dimension who weren't sure when they were going to be able to go home. The thought did make him smile slightly though. He wondered what the reputedly ruthlessly pragmatic mercenary would have made of such an insane job offer.

 

“So, Wind, you gonna have us run around with Fire this afternoon again to see if we can get past the blind hallway behind the sixth docking bay on our right, right?” Duo asked suddenly, apparently already unable to deal with the last ten seconds or so of silence.

 

“I'd rather have you try the corridor you found on those security level nine maps yesterday, the one that is supposed to run behind our docking bay to the next one on the left. I want to know if it's really there and what kind of facilities are attached to it.”

 

Yuy brought the referenced map up on a secondary screen without having to be asked for it. He understood the need to keep Maxwell's mind occupied as much of the time as they could. A carefully timed check with G had resulted in a sharp decline in the amount of all forms of sugar in all meals these last two days, with a corresponding lessening of Maxwellian restlessness to something everyone else could live with while he was cooped up inside with them. Winner or Barton were fixing his coffee for him, using J's reluctantly donated tiny stock of high quality decaf and only a small amount of sugar mixed large helpings of a carefully planned blend of other sweeteners.

 

Zechs wasn't sure if Maxwell knew about the sugar and caffeine reduction or not. If he did, he was cooperating with it because there were no raids on the candy going on or extra coffee being made without telling anyone. But then, Duo Maxwell was a lot more responsible than his general behavior would lead one to believe. He was, when you got right down to it, a Gundam Pilot after all.

 

He was also the resident expert at finding secret doors. Zechs hadn't intended to send him out with the exploration team at all; he was just too valuable on the computer teamed with Heero. But when neither Barton nor Chang had been able to work out where the door in a wall was, Maxwell had gone out to find it for them. It had taken him less than ten minutes. And it took him about the same time to find the corresponding one on the other end of the `secret tunnel'. After that, he was on the team. Winner, with his strategist's mind, took his place as Yuy's backup on the computer search; an arrangement that was working surprisingly well.

 

The three of them discussed the map, kept an eye on local space and in general killed time. Before long Duo's watch ended and Merquise's began. The scouting party headed out, Maxwell leading and briefing Noin as they went. Winner and Yuy went back to digging into the mainframe. Zechs, already a bit bored, turned on the local news and fed it to his station screen.

 

He discovered he'd timed it to catch the major international and space stories. He grimaced, these tended to be very depressing. The aftermath of a war usually was though and this one seemed to have been particularly brutal. It looked like he'd come in on the very end of one more report on the Foreign Minister's trip home. Good! He was quite tired of listening to that insipid man babble.

 

The image changed. Now he was looking out at what had to be a location on the Moon. But he'd never seen any lunar landscape that had that kind of cooked lava appearance. Something had happened here, something serious and something very wrong. Music that could only be called a dirge was playing as the shot panned across the large crater, the entire thing covered in this misshapen material. It stopped on a very large polished stone object shaped like a compass rose.

 

“What is this?” Quatre was standing at his shoulder, Heero beside him, both of them staring at the screen.

 

“I don't know. The beginning of a news report.”

 

“That looks like a war memorial,” Heero said quietly.

 

Yes, it did. And that went with the music and the ruined ground. So when the camera panned around and filled the screen with a very large temporary bubble housing a reviewing stand and a speaker's podium none of them were surprised. Nor were they startled to see uniforms from all the major powers of this dimension mixed in with civilian suits. A bit surprised at the folly of such senior officers and politicians in trusting the bubble enough to shed their space suits yes, but not that they represented old enemies and neutrals from two savage wars.

 

When the camera zoomed in closer though they could see that not everyone was as confident as the ones they'd noticed at first. In particular, they noted a tall blond in a purple and white suit with his helmet tucked firmly under his arm and a slightly shorter, quite slender young man with eyes so green you could tell it even from this second quality news shot who also wore a suit and had his helmet securely to hand. They seemed to have quite a bit of security around them. The camera was very interested in them and brought them into an even tighter close up.

 

“Does he have blue hair?” Quatre asked, sounding a bit appalled.

 

“Good God!” Zechs sat up sharply. “Mu La Flaga and Athrun Zala!”

 

“Or good doubles,” Heero suggested.

 

“He's had that scarring dealt with,” Zechs said thoughtfully. “You barely see it now and it was terribly obvious in those pictures J had of him that were taken just at the end of the last war.”

 

“Could be good make-up,” Heero noted.

 

“Yes, but somehow, I think these are the real La Flaga and Zala and I don't think we're looking at make-up.”

 

“What are the feeds saying?” Quatre asked practically. “And please, try to find us one that isn't either raging against one side or the other or gushing about how touching it all is.”

 

“Attended a few too many dedication ceremonies with Relena have you?” Yuy enquired.

 

“One was too many.” Quatre shuddered. “You know, it tells you something about the woman's fortitude right there, that she can go to so many of those things, listen to the same speeches reworded over and over, and never say a rude word to anyone.”

 

Merquise ignored them as he hunted among the smaller news feeds for one that wasn't ideology driven or dedicated to the fashions being worn or simply to the fandoms of any of the famous people attending the event. He knew the major news groups would be rather bland and pretty much alike. He wanted something more interesting, hopefully with more meat. He found it in the warm and oddly wise voice of a young woman working for one of the independent channels. There was a video feed with it and he changed over to it.

 

The view now came from inside the bubble and up in the far top right corner of the section of the press stand. This reporter clearly didn't have much status with the people seating the journalists. But she had a good eye for the composition of a picture and was quick to use her location to its best advantage in giving her audience a good overview of the situation.

 

“We seem to be waiting for the final members of the Earth Alliance delegation.” She told them calmly, casting no blame in her tone. “In the mean time, the organizers have managed to chivy the other delegates into their seats. Of those already present, only Captain La Flaga and Commander Zala have yet to be seated. I'm told they are waiting for the final delegates.”

 

The picture abruptly swung around, crossing a pair of small knees in a bright orange space suit before settling on a hatchway. “The Earth Alliance delegates apparently have arrived and are now expected inside the life shell momentarily.”

 

She proved correct less than two minutes later when the hatch opened and at least two dozen people poured through it. Most were obviously security types. They carried no visible weapons but Merquise didn't doubt they had them. When you considered the arsenal Maxwell could hide in his hair alone, well, these people undoubtedly had their own means of concealing equipment too.

 

In the center of this troupe was a tall, blocky Asian man in a full military rig-out. Zechs still wasn't all that good with the local uniforms of the various groups but he thought this might be a fairly senior Admiral from the number of bands of braid on his sleeve. His expression was quite neutral but the girl operating the camera knew her craft. She got the world and space a clean shot of his eyes.

 

“I wouldn't want to be under that man's command,” Quatre said evenly.

 

“No.” Heero agreed flatly.

 

Neither would Zechs. He'd known officers like this one. The kind who had powerful families outside the military and who used those family connections ruthlessly to advance themselves and to crush all potential rivals. Only the mantle of Treize Khushrenada had kept him from being the target of more than one of them. But the Khushrenada name eclipsed those who would have pulled him down, and they knew what Treize would have done to anyone who dared touch his friend. And so he had survived the Academy.

 

“Fleet Admiral Kim Jun Moon rarely leaves Washington. It is considered a significant honor that he is attending this dedication ceremony today, only the second such he has attended for either war.”

 

This time there was a faint tinge of opinion in her voice. She was too professional to let you hear what the opinion was but she couldn't completely block the fact that she had one. Zechs thought he could guess which way the woman might lean.

 

“Interplanetary News is kindly making these views of the memorial available to all.”

 

A crisp, hard edged image of the compass rose memorial replaced the interior shots. It really was a fine piece of work. And when the camera zoomed close enough, they could read the dedication to the Battle of Endymion. Ah, so that's why La Flaga and Zala had come. La Flaga, he remembered, was known as the `Hawk of Endymion'. Zechs frowned, trying to recall what Zala's part in that battle had been but it escaped him for the moment.

 

The view shifted back to the interior. La Flaga and Zala were standing with a handsome, one-eyed man, also smart enough to stay suited, and a striking brunet with the same good sense. Zala glanced up, grinned and gave a small wave. A space gloved hand at the very edge of the picture waved back. So, the reporter actually knew Athrun Zala! Interesting.

 

“Commander Andrew Waltfeld and Captain Murrue Ramius have come to support Captain La Flaga. This is not an easy or simple place for him to return to. But many of those lost here were his people, and he has never forgotten them.”

 

The image swung around once more to look out the front of the bubble. Admiral Moon was now over by the podium, security scattered out around him. It rather looked like the man didn't trust the air he breathed. Merquise could only wonder if he had cause not to.

 

“Admiral Moon is scheduled to be the first speaker today and . . . .”

 

The picture suddenly focused beyond the bubble wall. Three fuzzy objects in the distance appeared to have arrested the reporter's attention. The image sharpened somewhat but the objects still didn't look like anything Zechs had ever seen before.

 

“What are those?” The woman muttered. “And what are they doing in what is supposed to be a closed sky? Darn it! I know this lens can zoom tighter than this!”

 

The picture jiggled madly for several seconds, then settled again, much clearer and far sharper than before. It also had zoomed out a good deal further. The objects seemed to have large, solid looking centers with some kind of open work structure around them that supported some other objects that Zechs couldn't identify but had a feeling he should be able to.

 

“Why do those look familiar?” Heero asked slowly

 

“You too?” Zechs replied absently as he studied the image.

 

“Come on, you can give me one more zoom.”

 

The image jiggled again. This time when it settled the solid cores bore a disturbing resemblance to ships. But he wasn't sure what the things in the surrounding structure were even yet. But someone else was.

 

“OH MY GOD! MU!!!! ATHRUN!!!!!! PIRATES!!!!!!! THEY'RE BRINGING IN THEIR MOBILE SUITS ON SOME KIND OF CARRIERS MOUNTED ON THEIR SHIPS!” The girl screamed at the top of her lungs.

 

Then she turned and jumped off the press stand.

 

The one-eyed man she'd earlier identified as Andrew Waltfeld reached up and grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her down. She didn't reach the floor before he pushed her toward the now open hatch and Captain Ramius, who had secured her suit's helmet. As the reporter shot through the door, the Captain caught her and helped her put hers on.

 

“Outside Mir, now! Go hide in the rocks.” The words crackled over an open comm system and out to the universe.

 

“But Captain!”

 

“There's nothing you can do to help. Make sure you're out of the way. That's the best help you can give Athrun and Mu right now. Go!”

 

The reporter dived for the airlock and cycled herself out of the bubble. She turned right, then left quickly. The pictures were blurry but the massive legs of a mobile suit appeared on each swing.

 

“Right! Akatsuki and Infinite Justice! Hurry up guys! You gotta get to your suits before those pirates get here!”

 

“If you'll get out of the door Missy, it'll be easier to do that.”

 

“Sorry!” The picture scrambled forward then turned one eighty to pick up the Hawk of Endymion, helmet locked and a savage grin on his face. The shorter form of Zala was right behind him. Zala also had something in his hand.

 

“Mir! Turn around!” Athrun ordered. “I've got a ZAFT flight pack for you. Be careful with it, it's got a limited life. And stay away from the battle! Take your pictures from a safe distance!”

 

“There is no safe distance in a space battle Athrun, you know that.”

 

“Yes, but you can at least try. He's my friend. It would hurt him if you died.”

 

“Oh, well, all right.”

 

“I'll see if I can slow `em down kid. Don't be too long.”

 

“Justice will be right behind you, Captain.”

 

The picture jumped and jarred madly during the conversation. The odd strap drifted into sight only to be snatched away. Then it steadied again and turned to the woman's right. The Hawk was riding a zip line up to the cockpit of a tall, bright gold, somewhat strangely set up mobile suit with a rather spiky unit mounted on its back; he was almost there. She turned left and they saw Zala managing his low gravity jumps to stay close to the ground and cover it quickly. He reached his zip line as they watched and began the assent into his winged suit. So, the gold one was the Akatsuki and the winged red one Infinite Justice.

 

“Mir! You can't stay here! You're standing behind the primary target!”

 

Suddenly the ground fell away and they were moving over it very quickly. It seemed others had flight packs of some kind too. The girl squirmed around until the camera managed to get a look behind them.

 

The bubble was falling behind rapidly. People in space suits were still exiting the structure. Those already out were fleeing, some with skill but most without. Those who didn't know how to move in low gravity weren't getting very far very fast.

 

The enemy ships were backing out of the odd carriers now. The first ship was already clear and the mobile suits in that carrier were launching. The other two would clearly be free in the next two minutes. The Akatsuki was already up, a beam rifle of some kind firing. Infinite Justice was launching.

 

The three veteran mobile suit pilots could see it was going to be a very ugly fight. The two suits had the quality, but the enemy definitely had the quantity. Pilot skill was going to be a large issue in this one.

 

Zechs estimated the girl and her friends had gone about a kilometer when they landed. She'd managed to stay turned around in that awkward position most of the way, allowing anyone patched into her feed to watch the developing fight. It was still a mid-distance shoot out at this point, and the points were going to the two vets, hands down. They had taken out close to two dozen of their enemies so far without getting seriously hit in return. But that distance was closing fast and then the numbers were going to count.

 

“They're very, very good,” Quatre said quietly. “But they're not used to working as a team.”

 

“No,” Heero agreed. “But at least they both are used to covering someone else's back. You saw the red suit, the Justice, get that shield up before those shots could hit the gold one in the side?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Then the wave of pirate mobile suits crashed into the two defenders and it became a beam saber fight. Agility mattered now. Speed and accuracy with your saber were the keys to survival. Effective use of the shield would keep you alive a little longer.

 

It was instantly clear how the two heroes had earned their reputations. They were amazing pilots and savage fighters. The foolish pirate who let himself be drawn within the actual reach of their sabers did not survive the experience.

 

But that didn't change the fact that there were only two of them and close to sixty of the enemy left. Some just went past them and they had no means of forcing them to stop and join the battle. Zechs just shook his head. Whoever had planned this ceremony had done one of the poorest jobs with security he'd ever seen.

 

“Where are their security troops?” Quatre snarled. “They should have thirty mobile suits backing those two up by now!”

 

“Trust issues,” Heero replied drily. “Those are very senior people and very bitter enemies. Whose suits would you let get close? I wouldn't be surprised to find out that all mobile suits were deliberately kept out of the area for just that reason.”

 

“Damn!” Zechs growled. “Hadn't thought of that but you could well be right.”

 

The reporter and her friends had been silently watching the battle themselves. But as it got closer, it was getting more difficult for her to keep all of it in the frame of the picture. She'd zoomed out at least three times, losing detail each time to gain overall perspective. Yet as the first of the pirates approached the bubble, the mobile suit battle began to slip off the frame to the side.

 

“I've got to move, I'm losing image,” Mir muttered.

 

“We've all got to move,” A voice they could now identify as Waltfeld's said clearly. “We're too close and standing on open ground.”

 

“Right. Be safe, Miriallia.”

 

“Thank you Captain, I'll try my best.”

 

Then the image shifted around to the nearby crater wall, which was abruptly approaching rapidly. The girl clearly knew how to handle that flight pack she'd been given as she swooped up the face of the crater wall only feet from the rocks. Then the image did a fast one-eighty and she was dropping speed. In moments, she was standing on a rock perhaps two thirds of the way up the wall and the battle was spread out before them again.

 

Dead center in the picture was a blood red mobile suit they hadn't noticed before. It had to have come up among the mass of suits that bypassed the firefight. Most of which, interestingly enough, were now massed between that battle and the bubble.

 

The red suit was stalking toward the bubble, ignited beam saber in hand. Mir had moved not only back but to the left. You could see the edge of the clear front of the bubble, the mobile suit battle, the transport ships neatly parked behind the bubble, people running for those ships, and two pirate mobile suits clearly moving into position to begin to destroy them in the next few seconds.

 

In the next moments, a number of things happened at the same time. The pirate suits began to strike the parked transports. To Zechs amazement, they weren't destroying anything but the engines. The blood red suit leaned in and appeared to stare around the interior of the bubble. It paused suddenly, seemingly having found what it sought, then drove the saber through the fragile wall of the bubble, setting off explosive decompression and near instant death for anyone inside who wasn't wearing a sealed space suit. Lastly, the odd spikes abruptly detached from the back of the Akatsuki. He stared in shock as they turned out to be a remote weapons system and began firing at the pirates on their own.

 

“You have just, . . . . . . . , just witnessed the latest atrocity by Captain Ilene Terasawa. That blood red Windam is her personal suit so she is solely responsible for the deaths of everyone without a sealed suit who was still inside the life shell here in Endymion Crater.” Mir faltered only once, then her voice was even and steady.

 

“What are those things?” Quatre demanded to know.

 

Heero shrugged, he had no idea. He was watching them closely though. Merquise was trying to divide his attention too many ways and so couldn't really follow anything closely. Damn it! Combat always had too much you needed to know happening all at once! It was a dozen times worse when it all involved completely alien technology and situations!

 

“They're retreating,” Heero said suddenly. “They've still got the two superior suits snarled up in that fight but look, every other pirate out there is falling back.”

 

“Then they've accomplished their objective, what ever it was,” Quatre frowned.

 

“They're about to disengage from the Akatsuki and the Justice too,” Zechs said. “Watch the ships. See how they've begun to move? They're setting themselves up with a clear line of fire on the survivors. They're going to force the two of them to back off and let them leave.”

 

“I'm a bit surprised they don't just kill them both,” Heero remarked. “They have the fire power for it.”

 

“No, they're multi-national heroes,” Quatre reminded him. “They'd be signing their own death warrants if they did that. Not that they probably aren't already considered condemned, but if they shot that pair, the hunt would be immediate and unrelenting until they were all found and exterminated. There are people it is too dangerous to get caught killing. And thanks to the sheer number of news people around, everyone would know if it happened here.”

 

Quatre proved accurate. Less than ten minutes later it was over. The pirates were rapidly shrinking toward the horizon, only two of the ships mounting the strange carrier devices now. The Akatsuki had one hand on the Justice, holding the other mobile suit's pilot back from doing something stupidly suicidal. And among the damaged transports, it looked like someone was taking charge. People were no longer milling around aimlessly.

 

But it was the small file of purposeful men moving slowly toward the ruined bubble that caught the eyes of the three visitors. Ah yes, there had been a toll from this and someone had to pick up the pieces. None of them envied those men that task.

 

They left the system recording the woman Mir's feed. It was clear she knew some of the major players in this world and could get close to them. She gave a concise report and provided excellent video as well. They were likely to learn more from her than anyone else reporting from the Crater today.

 

Then they began to replay the combat footage, the first they'd had a chance at `live' as it were. Each suit's performance would have to be extensively analyzed; both to give them a good feel for how combat was handled here and to determine how much of a given suit type's performance was the pilot and how much was design limitations. There had been at least three different mass production type suits out there today as well as the two specials. There was a lot to work on.

 

The three of them dived into the data, oddly happy and completely unaware that they were. When the exploration team came back, they sucked the other three pilots into the evaluations immediately. Only Noin stood back from the fascination of performance parameters and weapons potentials comparisons. So it was Noin and Relena who noticed when the Alliance and the Aube warships gathered at the sites of their former stations and launched for the Moon: the ZAFT fleet leaving just ahead of the Aube. Each fleet left a single small ship behind to stand picket duty by their murdered base, ZAFT's patrol ship hovered closer to Mendel Colony than either base though.

 

Dorothy and Mariemaia came in with sandwiches and coffee for everyone. It was pointless to try to get the men to the table for a meal; you couldn't get the printouts out of anyone's hands long enough to get them out of the room. And approaching Heero at the computer was taking your life in your hands unless you were offering him more data to crunch. So Mariemaia just pushed enough paper out of the way to let Dorothy put the tray down safely and the two of them joined Noin and Relena at the monitoring station.

 

“They seem to be having a lot of fun,” Mariemaia said thoughtfully.

 

“They're Gundam Pilots,” Relena replied wearily. “All of them, even my brother. Put data on a strange mobile suit in front of them and they'll be up for three days straight tearing it apart until they're sure they know how to defeat it.”

 

“Relena, it's more basic than that,” Dorothy told her, watching as Duo, arms waving wildly, tried to convince Zechs of some point or other. “They're male.”

 

“Oh.” Mariemaia stared at the arguing menfolk doubtfully. “Is this what Mama means when she starts snarling about male bonding?”

 

“I'm not sure exactly what incidents General Une might have been upset about but, yes, this could be seen that way,” Relena agreed, smiling as Quatre and Wu Fei joined the lively `discussion' Zechs and Duo were having.

 

“So, how long do you think we have before the trouble really starts here?” Dorothy suddenly asked quietly.

 

Noin didn't pretend she didn't understand the question. “I would expect something during the Foreign Minister's fly-by. That should be twenty-six local hours from now. The Serpent Tail is gone, both the Alliance and the Aube have left. ZAFT pulled out right before the Aube. The merc's timing may or may not have had outside influences but the incident on the Moon is definitely what drew off the other three.”

 

“Yes, it was very well done,” Relena agreed. “The large gathering of important personages, the mutual suspicions that kept the security too lax in the wrong places, the pirate's strike itself! They killed only the people they wanted to. Then they made sure the rest were left in a dangerous situation and in need of immediate rescue. They've focused all attention exactly where they want it, away from L-4.”

 

“I wonder who they are after,” Mariemaia said thoughtfully, reminding them all that this child had once been brought up to believe she was going to inherit the rulership of the Earth, and had the political education that post required. “The Minister doesn't seem like he's worth all this trouble. Even if he is killed here, the ZAFT has made a very good faith effort in sending Commanders Joule and Yamato as his escorts. No one will overlook that.”

 

“It depends on just who “they” turn out to be,” Noin pointed out. “The actual enemy is unknown here. Anyone with enough money and dirty connections can hire the services of pirates.”

 

“What precautions should we take?” Dorothy asked practically.

 

Noin gave them all a grim look. “At the first sign of the Foreign Minister's ships, everyone gets into one of the space suits the foresighted Dr. J so thoughtfully provided and you keep your helmet in hand until they leave our local space. If the fight we're all expecting breaks out, you put that helmet on and it doesn't come off until either Zechs or Heero gives an all clear. This colony is decrepit as it is. If it gets hit in a battle, we could be without life support in a hurry.”

 

She looked over at the arguing group that had managed to pull Trowa into the discussion now. Only Heero was ignoring them, intent on his computer as usual. Then his head turned slightly and Noin saw something she'd never seen before. There was a very sly smile on Heero Yuy's face. It was gone before she could be sure she'd seen it.

 

“That is a very sensible precaution.” Relena agreed. She'd been watching the screen Noin realized and hadn't seen Heero. Darn, she'd wanted to ask her for conformation of what she'd thought she'd seen. Dorothy and Mariemaia had also been looking in the wrong direction.

 

“Maxwell, will you be reasonable?!” Zechs shouted in exasperation, making Noin grin. “They have to be on wires! The control is too fine!”

 

“Have you actually watched this fight, Zechs?” Duo was standing in her husband's personal space, glaring up at him. “Have you paid any attention to how those things moved? They'd have tied themselves in knots if they were on wires!”

 

“Explain the control, Maxwell,” Wu Fei snapped. “Explain that and I will listen to you.”

 

“We don't know enough about their tech yet, Chang,” Trowa reminded him. “Just because Duo can't explain it using our tech doesn't mean there isn't an explanation based in theirs.”

 

“True,” Quatre allowed. “But Trowa, the control is awfully good. The instructions those units were getting were exceptionally precise. Transmitted data would just take too long for the observed reaction times.”

 

“Not if it came from the pilot's mind,” Heero was suddenly standing beside the table, several pages of printout in hand. “You should really get your data before starting these arguments. It seems Captain La Flaga is quite well known as being very `gifted'. His sense of spatial orientation is considered amazing and he can track quite an array of things around him at the same time. Those `beam emitters' aren't on wires; they take their orders directly from his mind.”

 

He dropped the printouts on the table and sauntered back to his computer. He left shocked silence in his wake. But the four girls were positioned to see the wide grin on his face. Heero Yuy, it seemed, had developed a sense of humor in the years he'd been away. They weren't sure if they should giggle, or faint.

 

* * * * * * *

 

“I really don't care if you're disappointed,” Captain Terasawa snapped, her image on the comm screen flickering slightly. “I couldn't get Zala without having to take out La Flaga too. And if you think I'm stupid enough to kill the Hawk of Endymion at Endymion, you got another think coming! I'm not going to set every legal fleet in space on my tail for your convenience! You have your distraction, I got what I wanted, and we're even. Leave it at that.”

 

Hannam had no grounds to argue with her and he knew it. She'd done an outstanding job, grabbing public attention and locking it on the Moon for hours now and it would stay there for many more hours to come. The list of those confirmed dead was already dozens long and included some major names from all sides. Unfortunately, the biggest had escaped. He'd really hoped the woman would have taken both Zala and La Flaga. It was regrettable to find that she still had enough sanity left to know how big a mistake that would have been.

 

“Very well,” he said calmly. “You have managed to get both the Alliance and the Aube fleets recalled from L-4 to the Moon as well as the ZAFT contingent. Including both the Izumo battleships. You have indeed delivered the distraction you promised.”

 

Terasawa leaned forward, a dark, almost foreboding look on her handsome face. “You tell the others they better make that ambush work. Yamato isn't the kind you get two chances at. Once his allies know someone's after him, they'll start hunting you. And their track record is perfect so far. If you slip badly enough to call the Archangel back into space, I'm going to find a nice deep hole to crawl into and you won't see me again for a very long time, you understand? I'm crazy, not nuts. I won't help you against Terminal, Aube, and the PLANTs.”

 

Hannam jerked up and glared at her. The pirate stared flatly back. Then she shook her head.

 

“So, you do think you can take them on. You're a fool. Fine, you're a fool on his own then. Don't call me again. I won't answer.”

 

He stared in shock at the suddenly blank screen. Just how much had that bitch really understood all along? `Crazy, not nuts' she'd said. Did that mean most of her simple-minded bloodlust had been an act? Damn it! And she'd gotten away with more in supplies than any of the others too!

 

* * * * * * *

 

Kira shook his head slowly as he scanned the newest lists of the verified dead from the attack at Endymion Crater. “An awful lot of these people were just news staffers doing their jobs. I can see the military and political figures who attended as targets but I feel sorry for the innocents.”

 

“You've never had them in your face for a week,” Dearka said drily. “You'd rethink your definition of `innocent' real quick there if you did.”

 

The brunet looked up wearily. “Excuse me, but who am I planning to marry some day?”

 

“Walked right into that one didn't you?” Yzak asked with no sympathy as the blond winced.

 

Icy blue eyes picked out the names that were going to be ammunition in the political fallout of this disaster. “Admiral Leon Ziegler, ours. Fleet Admiral Kim Moon, theirs. Councilor Ari Har of Marius City, ours. First Lord for Space, Roland Whyte, Eurasia. Defense Minister Anton Gomez, theirs. Heron Lyle Sahaku, Aube. There are at least fifteen more that will be significant in one way or another here too.”

 

He tossed the list on the table in frustration. “At least Vice-President June Harper got away with nothing more than a broken arm! I can only imagine what the headlines would have been if that lady had been killed!”

 

“She is popular in North America,” Kira agreed quietly. “I've met her. She came to one of the early peace meetings. She's very reasonable. She would have been a real loss. I'm sorry about Heron Sahaku too. He was one of the few completely sane members of that rather extensive family. One of their few pragmatists too. Lady Mina will miss his support.”

 

“Yeah, well, it's the names that aren't there that relieve me,” Dearka admitted.

 

“Me too,” Kira agreed, grateful beyond measure not to have found Athrun, Mu, Murrue, Mir, or Andy Waltfeld's names on that sad roll. The only other person he personally knew who was there, ZAFT Commander Lance Thoms, had gotten off with a badly broken leg and several cracked ribs. Not much damage really for someone who'd had the reviewing stand smashed down on him by the pirate's beam saber. He'd just been lucky his suit hadn't been torn by the wreckage around him.

 

A knock on the cabin door distracted them all. The Irwin was a Nazca and they'd been given one of the two VIP suites aboard. It gave them this small private lounge to retreat to when the crew's polite curiosity got to be too much. It was generally respected too. Not many would bother them here. Since he was closest, Yzak answered the door himself. They were all surprised to see Captain Noda standing there; all the more so when they realized he was alone and making some effort not to be seen. Yzak stepped back and let the man in.

 

“Thank you Commander,” The Captain nodded. “I wouldn't bother you but I thought you should know, Lunar Command has recalled the Fleet elements from L-4. They just passed us.”

 

For a change, it was Dearka who understood what the man was implying first. “You have some reason to be concerned about being met by unfriendly people, Captain?”

 

“A reason, no. A well honed instinct that's brought me through two wars, oh yes,” Noda replied tightly.

 

Yzak began to nod slowly. “Right. All attention is pulled one way, the real attack comes from another. Classic.”

 

Kira snorted. “Yeah, you tried it on me and Archangel a time or two, remember?”

 

“Never worked as well for us as it did for you that time Commander La Flaga attacked the Vesalius with his Moebius Zero using that Lohengrin shot for cover!” Yzak growled.

 

“Considering how green I was then, that success was a Godsend,” Kira said fervently. “You'd have chewed me apart if I'd had to stand against you very much longer. I just didn't know enough then. I barely knew enough to make the Strike's systems work at that point! I sure didn't know how to make them work well!”

 

“Coulda fooled me!” Dearka gave a bark of rueful laughter. “We all thought you were some serious, hot-shot Natural pilot. Athrun, and now I can understand why, wasn't telling us a thing that he knew about you then. You have one hell of an innate gift for flying mobile suits, you know that right?”

 

“If we could get back to the point, the Captain suspects someone may be set to try that classic ambush on us.” Commander Joule noted coldly. “We should consider how we want to deal with that possibility, eh?”

 

Kira looked up at Captain Noda. “Have you tried sounding out Admiral Quiles yet?”

 

“I dropped a few hints as the squadrons passed us, theirs to starboard, ours to port, and the Aube trailing both at six o'clock low. He understood me, he made that clear. But he didn't seem to feel there is a serious risk. Either that or his hands are so tied by having that idiot aboard that he simply can't take reasonable military precautions. Having watched the man's eyes while we were talking, I'm inclined to think the later.” Like just about everyone else in the PLANTs, Captain Noda was not a fan of the Foreign Minister.

 

All three of the pilots could only shake their heads. They understood the situation only too well. The last four days of travel from the PLANTs out to these colonies had over-exposed them to the self-important little man hiding behind the title of the Foreign Minister's office. Yzak and Dearka came from political families; Kira had been given a crash course in the subject between the wars. It was crystal clear to each of them that the man was in that job, not for his own abilities, but as someone's cats paw. Finding out who pulled his strings would surely be very enlightening.

 

That was something to worry about later. Right now, his interference meant the Alliance ships were not going to be able to go into the colony cluster ready to jump to battle stations. They were going to be slow getting their mobile suits off their decks with nothing prepped in advance. Depending on how serious this suspected attack turned out to be, that would be either a nuisance or a deadly delay.

 

“We have to be off the ship before we approach Mendel,” Kira said bluntly. “We can't tie up the catapult launching the Gundams. We have to be out and ready before that.”

 

“Why Mendel?” Dearka asked.

 

Kira turned grim eyes up at the three in the room. “Because everything bad in the L-4 cluster happens there. More importantly, only Mendel has a cleared traffic lane. Which means the space immediately outside the lane is a death trap dense with trash lethal to a ship or mobile suit since that's where they pushed the junk that used to be in the lane. Once a ship enters the lane, it has to either turn around or go on through. Going through the side wall isn't possible. Not even a positron cannon will clear a path large enough for a capital ship to escape sideways. It's the only really good attack site in the whole of the colonial space. And you know that fool is going to insist on doing a fly past using that so-convenient lane. If he can't even prep his ships for a battle he knows is coming, the Admiral isn't going to be able to refuse to take the lane either. We'll all just trundle on into the trap like good little targets.”

 

“Well, this ship doesn't have to be that stupid!” Captain Noda snapped.

 

“Care to explain to the world how we weren't with the people we were supposed to be escorting when they were ambushed?” Yzak asked wearily. “It won't matter one iota that we were simply being smart to their being stupid. It will look, at best, like we left them to die. At worst, and you know a lot of Naturals will spin it that way, it will seem as though we were in league with the attackers. The peace process can't afford either impression. We're stuck. We're going to have to fly into this with our eyes open and our weapons charged. That's the best we can do. Any intelligent action on our part will be seen as treachery.”

 

Captain Noda stared at them, furious and oddly helpless. They could only stare back with very similar expressions. The political reality of the situation trumped the military one. It gave one a very hollow feeling to realize they were expendable when the prize was a lasting peace. The Captain didn't stay. He had a ship to prepare for a pitched battle that officially wouldn't happen.

 

Yzak closed the door behind him. “Have you got any brilliant ideas on how we should fight this one Yamato?”

 

“I have ideas,” Kira said calmly. “I don't know how brilliant they are though.”

 

“Well, I'm listening. You're the one who's used to fighting on the short end of the odds.”

 

“Fine. You and Dearka are used to working together. I haven't had a chance to practice with him yet. So for this fight, he's back to being your Wing. Our objectives are very simple, don't get killed, save all the ships we can, destroy every enemy we can. There isn't any point in elaborate plans for something like this.”

 

Kira grabbed some of the papers and laid them out on the table. “This is our flotilla. If they don't come at us from both ends, they're complete idiots. Knowing that coward, Pearson is going to demand the Alliance ships bunch up around him, rendering most of their firepower useless and making them one, big, fat, target. I trust Captain Noda to keep us out of that mess. We're going to end up on one flank or the other. I suspect which one will be immaterial. You and Dearka take bow defense, I'll take the stern and Lieutenant Keene and his two partners with their GOUF Ignited suits can take center. After that, we are probably going to be down to watching how the battle develops.”

 

Yzak studied the layout and nodded heavily. “Yeah, it's probably the best we're going to be able to do until we find out what we're up against.”

 

“You know, there just might not be anyone there,” Dearka pointed out chipperly.

 

“I will pray you're right,” Kira told him. “And we're all going down to the hanger right now and start prepping our Gundams just in case you're wrong.”

 

“Never hurts to be practical,” The blond agreed, holding the door open for the two who outranked him.

 

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