Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Queen of Space [Novella]

deathzealotzero · Nov 16, 2023

Story Summary: The last thing Captain Caridad Yamato, of the newly formed Orb Space Defense Force, expected when she arrived home in her brand new command was a growing debris field that had once been the Orbital Space Colony of Heliopolis and her mentioned home. Now it is up to her, her crew, and her ship to discover what actually happened at Heliopolis and why it was chosen as the location of the Earth Alliance's secret G-Project. Not to mention find out what happened to her missing son, Kira Yamato, and his friends.

Foreword

Okay. First of all, I need to mention that this story is quite different from any other story that I have done in the past. As I am going to take a single character from the series, one of which wasn't all that important in the story, and vastly expand on said character into something far more fun to write. This character being Caridad Yamato, Kira's Mother, who in the series was a typical stay-at-home mother and in the background of the anime at large. We only really see the woman a handful of times in both the Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny anime. I do believe we only really hear her talking once or twice. Hence, I decided to do something a bit different and expand on her character into something far more interesting in my opinion. Captain Caridad Yamato, of the Orb Defense Force and commander of a space warship of the newly formed Orb Space Defense Force. Something, that is, quite different from what we saw of her in the series itself.

Overall, this idea originally called for Captain Caridad Yamato as a naval officer on the planet itself during the later stages of the Bloody Valentine War, but when I was working on something else for another project, I was working on I started to get the idea to change things around with Caridad becoming captain of a space warship. The result of which would become this story which follows a somewhat modified version of the original series story from the perspective of Captain Yamato. Unlike the original idea which did not have that instead having the story focused on the usual main characters of the series, Kira and Athrun. Caridad Yamato was only a military officer in the background of a vastly modified version of the start of the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny storyline. That said, I think this version of events and the focus on Caridad would make things interesting as I tie her storyline with that of the rest of the main storyline which follows Kira and his friends.

With that said I need to mention that the character of Caridad Yamato is quite different from her portrayal in the original series with her becoming a passionate and courageous warrior but also a compassionate mother figure for Kira at the same time. In the original idea, Caridad had a so-called "Glance of Doom" of which could quill Kira and later Athrun with just one glance. That is kind of drawn from my experiences with my mother and from fictional mothers out there like Molly Weasley from Harry Potter Fame. However, in this story, I am going to tune that down a bit for mother and son will interact only a handful of times in this story. All that said I need to mention that thanks to this story Caridad Yamato is quite different from the original version of her character I am visually basing her character on Mirellia Q Melromarc from The Rising of the Shield Hero anime just with green eyes. This is mainly because of their similar hair color and that Kikuko Inoue her voice actor, also portrays Caridad much to my own amusement.

One last thing to mention here before I end this foreword. While much of the large story overall and the background of said story remains similar to that of the original I have changed a couple of things. The first of course, is that like many of my other Gundam stories, I am going to be adding extra factions and third parties to the story. That is not all that important to later in the story but what is important is that I am adding a warship design that becomes a sort of the primary ship design in use by the mentioned extra, smaller, factions, along with that of some pirates. This ship design will actually be based on that of the Salamis Class Light Cruiser from the Universal Century Gundam. I did this because I was kind of tired of having the known ships from the Cosmic Era Gundam either in some modified form or not, being used for other factions in the Cosmic Era. Like, say the Serpent Tail mercenaries using a Laurasia Class ship. I then decided to use the ubiquitous Salamis Class because I am a fan of the design and I had previously used it for my old Angelic Dawn story in a similar role. Not to mention the newer versions of the ship in both the Origin OVA and Thunderbolt anime look very good compared to the older animation of design in my humble opinion.

That is about it for me talking about this story and time for the story itself. I hope you all enjoy this story for it was quite an interesting idea in my opinion. See you all later and thanks for reading.

deathzealotzero · Nov 16, 2023

Phase One: The Fragile Peace

When I was placed in command of my own space warship, I was quite nervous and out of my element since I knew that while I did have experience commanding a ship. That was a naval ship on Earth and not a spaceship floating through space. Yeah. It was thanks to a paper that I wrote on a whim about the need for a Space Defense Force for Orb that saw me in command of such a ship. Still, trying to get used to commanding a spaceship while similar to what I was used to commanding a blue water ship, there were still numerous differences. The most major difference? Zero Gravity! It took me ages to get used to floating around the ship instead of walking around. I was thankful that the Myoken and her sisters had a gravity deck, a small one, but still a dedicated gravity deck, or I would have gone crazy with all that darn floating around I had to do to get around my ship. Eventually, I did get used to the Zero Gravity, and I did get used to the other differences in commanding a space warship. However, those early days really were irritating and if it wasn't for my executive officer, Commander Malcolm Reed, I think I would have gone insane within those first few weeks. Especially after the Heliopolis Incident…
- Taken from The Queen of Space: A Look into Captain Caridad Yamato – Unabridged
Published in, The Heroes and Not, Of the Bloody Valentine War, A Short Historical Series, Circa May of Cosmic Era 73

Command Bridge
OSDS Murakumo
Lagrange Three, Earth Sphere
January 25, Cosmic Era 71

In the black ocean of space, a lean and large-looking warship approached a vastly larger asteroid anchored alongside a few smaller asteroids at one of the points of stability in space that is called Lagrange Points. This warship sported many weapons across its hull with what looked to be a pair of deployable turrets gracing the forward hull with another two unknown deployable weapons on either side of the ship's back end and a dozen of what looked to be some sort of machine gun turrets were spread across the hull of the ship. All of this made the ship look quite powerful yet at the same time graceful. Meanwhile, its hull was painted in a light blue coloration with some white breaking up the blue colors in some areas. While a bold black hull number of SCC-103 graced the ship's bow and the ship's name, Murakumo was painted in lovely, graceful-looking hand along either side of the ship's forward hull instead of a more militaristic-looking text. Finally, the golden sun-like emblem of the Orb Union graced not only one side of its superstructure but in a smaller format in a few other different places across the ship's hull.

On top of the superstructure of the Murakumo was its bridge which inside saw its bridge crew go about their duties with lowered voices while sitting in the large chair at the center of the bridge the figure of the ship's captain, one Captain Caridad Yamato, calmly observed them all. The captain was almost statuesque and lean-looking, giving her a graceful but commanding look to her as she stared over the bridge like a queen. After a moment the captain looked up in some brief confusion as the stout but somewhat pudgy figure of her second in command, one Commander Malcolm Reed, floated towards her command chair from the now opened entrance to the bridge. The man sported a slowly balding head with what hair he did still having a mix of dark brown and gray showing his age along with the crow's feet at the edge of his eyes. Still, that did not prevent him from being a great officer of the new Orb Space Defense Forces.

"What brought you to the bridge Commander Reed, I thought you were terrorizing the forward weapon crews after their conduct during that last simulation we had?" the captain asked with a small smile on her lips making the older officer snort in some contempt which almost sounded like a snarl to her ears. As he brought himself to a halt next to her chair, she could hear him mumbling under his breath.

"Damn kids," the man was saying before shaking his head and turning his attention to the captain now with a small smile on his face.

"Well, first your Steward found me and bid me to pass this on to you. Since he was busy getting the junior stewards up to his standards," the aging Commander said with a short chuckle as he reached over the left armrest of the captain's command chair, bulky with the phone-like handset, small display monitor, and other minor controls, to hand her a zero-gee thermos making the green eyes of Captain Yamato blink in some surprise and a bit of pleasure as she read the label on the thermos.

"That man spoils me so much," she mentioned popping up the cap and taking a generous sip of warm green tea that filled the thermos almost humming in pleasure at the taste. She knew that the new Orb Space Defense Forces gave their captain and other senior officers personal stewards mainly to help take care of them for unlike the ships of the much larger Orb Naval Defense Forces which were not often far from the shores of the homeland the ships of the OSDF would often be off on cruises lasting up to a couple of months. Therefore, such stewards were assigned to take care of the officers which included keeping their assigned officer able to quickly get into normal suits during a battle.

"That is kind of his job ma'am," the XO amusedly mentioned in reply before chuckling at the somewhat relieved looks of the totally not listening in members of the bridge crew, "Besides I do not think anyone on this ship wants you without your tea after what happened the last time."

The captain grumbled under her breath at this being reminded about a previous incident during the time they were working up the ship and its crew. It saw her being edgy and upset after tasting the very weak tea with a bunch of sugar in it that had been included in the standard rations of the ship. This saw many of her crew did not want that to happen again due to her bad temper and annoyance at the weak tea. She took another sip of the tea and was glad she managed to get some of her favorite tea onboard after that incident. Not to mention her new personal steward was quite capable of making tea even in zero gravity which is one main reason she hadn't complained all that much about him being on board.

"I know that, but do you know that he is from a family that has long been part of the Attha Family Household Staff? He was trained from since he was young to be a servant of a noble family and now he is taking care of someone like me," she mentioned with a sigh looking over at her second in command to see him chuckling under his breath making her huff in some irritation before she looked out the bridge viewport at the fast approaching surface of the resource satellite and space colony that was hidden behind it.

"Can't wait to be back home ma'am?" Commander Reed asked softly seeing the look of nostalgia on her face.

"Yes, it has been around a month since I was pretty much yanked off the colony and taken to the mainland to enter talks with the Chief Representative and his top military advisors about that damn paper that I had written months ago," the captain replied with a chuckle remembering that time for she had written a small minor paper about the need for a space defense force for the Orb Military after a few incidents with pirates across the Earth Sphere including a daring raid directly on a space colony at Lagrange Four. This paper, much to her own surprise somehow managed to get to the top of her country's leadership and ignited a sort of desperate need for the country to start the formation of such a force as quickly as possible. She was contacted by a representative of the government and brought down to earth to start discussions about such formation of a new Space Defense Force.

"I remember that as well. It is not every day that a family spacer like me is literally dragged from their family's ship to help a country that had done good to us over the years to help form a dedicated Space Defense Force," the commander mused with a chuckle of his own remembering that time late last year. Unlike the captain and the majority of the ship's crew, he wasn't really an Orb-born citizen instead being from a long line of independent space haulers that often worked with Orb over the years.

"Wasn't it because you also read my paper and volunteered your services?" the captain questioned with a smirk on her face as she took another large sip of her tea. The commander only rolled his eyes and nodded his head at his captain's question. However, before he could answer the captain the ship's helm officer seated almost directly in front of the bridge's command chair turned their chair slightly towards the two senior officers.

"Captain, I am now adjusting course from relative Green 14 to Green 20 to get us around the Erebor Resource Satellite and on a direct course towards Heliopolis," Junior Lieutenant Mirai Yashima reported with a calm expression on her youthful face making the two officers look down at the young woman.

"Very well, go ahead with your course correction, and thank you helm," the captain replied with a nod to the younger woman and a brief smile at her youthful senior helm officer making her smile slightly herself before turning back to her controls. This brought the captain's eyes to look over to her second in command to see him shaking his head with a sigh, but he was smiling as well.

"Still Commander it has been weeks since I have seen my family," she said continuing their earlier conversation with the older officer.

"It did not help that I was pretty much dragged from my home on the evening of Christmas Day," she continued on with a grumbling frown on her face. The Commander was silent during this and only nodded his head in answer to his captain's almost wistful-sounding comment.

"You have a son if I remember right?" the Commander finally mentioned after a few moments of silence between the senior officers.

"Yeah, Kira he was so excited that he managed to get accepted in the Advanced Technical College Program of the Morgenroete Sponsored Heliopolis Industrial College," the captain replied with a wistful look on her face making the commander smile himself as he remembered his own son who was now an adult and starting his own family.

"He also started dating his childhood friend Fiona when I left," the captain then mentioned a short laugh and a shake of her head. She really liked Fiona Alexander, Kira's longtime friend and now girlfriend. That girl was quite tough and stood up against Caridad one time a couple of years ago about something or another that Caridad had forgotten about. One of the few times that Kira actually got in trouble with her over the years. She took another sip of her green tea as she turned towards her executive officer with an almost motherly look on her face.

"So what about…" she started to say but was brutally cut off by the scream of shock from her helm officer and the sudden cursing of the navigation officer sitting next to the helms officer making the two officers snap their heads to look down at the helm station. This brought the attention of the rest of the bridge crew up towards the helm station.

"CAPTAIN! The Colony!" Lieutenant Yashima finally managed to say, and Captain Yamato's eyes snapped towards the forward viewport from staring at the straightened back of her helms officer and her heart suddenly seemed to jump straight from her chest to her throat as she saw the massive expanding debris field where the colony that happened to be her home had once stood in space. She barely could hear the gasps and screams from the rest of the bridge crew or the angry cursing on her second-in-command. She could only watch the debris field and be fearful for her family. Suddenly she heard a cold and sharp voice she briefly acknowledged as her own voice before the professional Captain Yamato took over from the simple Caridad Yamato, wife to a lovely man and proud mom to a Wizkid teenaged son. Now the disciplined and military-minded Caridad Yamato was in control.

"Bring us to Alert Level-One! Action Stations! Full sensors sweep of the surrounding area! I want to know what the hell happened here," that cold and sharp voice of Captain Yamato called out not even noticing she had dropped the thermos of her favored green tea in shock sending it floating away from her chair with droplets of tea escaping the straw as it spun through zero gee atmosphere of the bridge. Her cold voice brought the others on the bridge to action, and they went about their orders. The form of Commander Reed soon echoed the order to the rest of the ship, and he pushed off from the command chair to take position behind the main tactical section of the bridge right below the captain's chair. A brief moment later alarms started throughout the ship bringing the crew of the ship to their stations. The forward viewports usually sporting open views of the surrounding space were suddenly cut off as armored shutters started to fall down over the open viewports blocking off the view for a brief moment before three large view screens suddenly lowered from the bridge's ceiling over that of the now closed shutters and turned on to show similar views of earlier. However, what was different was various readouts and such displayed alongside the view of the surrounding space around the ship. Outside the ship's two main weapon systems deployed from their mounts, with a very large double barrel cannon turret being deployed from the mounts along the top and bottom of the forward hull. Meanwhile, a long-looking single-barrel weapon was deployed from that of the mounts along the back end of the ship. It was around a minute or so later after that first order that the sensor officer seated to the captain's left turned his chair away from his station.

"Captain I cannot detect anything in that debris field there is just too much interference between all the debris and the remainder of whatever jamming was used to cut off the colony from sending off a distress call," the officer reported in a similar cold sounding voice reminding the captain that a good portion of her crew were also from the colony originally.

"Understood sensors keep looking please," the captain replied making the young officer nod in understanding before he turned back to his station. The captain meanwhile turned to other matters as she waited for the rest of the crew to race to their battle stations.

"Captain! The crew is now reporting that they are all at battle stations! All weapons are reported to be crewed and ready. The Murakumo is now ready for combat," Commander Reed reported from the bridge's tactical section making Captain Yamato frown slightly before nodding at her second in command as he popped his head from the tactical section built underneath the larger upper bridge area before he returned to hovering over the officers assigned to the tactical section.

"Understood. Helm continue on course for the remains of the colony, while sensors continue with full spectrum scans around us," she directed her crew and she watched the view screens silently as the ship continued on towards the growing debris field that was all that remained the colony she had called home. A few minutes later a beep sounded from the sensor station making the sensor officer cry out in some success before turning his chair to report.

"Captain! I am now detecting a large heat source that my instruments are reporting to be a warship. We would need to get a bit closer to get further data on the unknown ship," the man reported making the captain frown at him.

"I need a location Ensign!" she barked at him making him blink before blushing and turning back to his station.

"Yes ma'am!" the man barked back before reading his screens for a moment and then entering a few commands into the station. He then took a brief moment to read the resulting information from his screens before turning back to look at the captain.

"The unknown ship is located at Green 332 Alpha by Blue 285 Charlie," the man reported back making the captain nod before looking down at the helm station to see her helm officer already at work directing the ship towards those coordinates making a small smile to appear on her face before going back to a cold more business-like expression.

"Ensign Tomas, can you get anything else from the sensors about our friend out there?" she asked as she turned back to look over at the young sensor officer.

"Yes ma'am! He is hovering just outside the nearest section of the colony's debris field. He is also looking to be scanning the debris with not only normal sensors but fire control radar as well," the man reported without turning away from his station making her nod slightly to see that the man was learning. However, she soon frowned at that report for it seemed like they were looking for something and it surely wasn't trying to rescue any colony lifeboats if they were using fire control radar. So, it may not be any sort of rescue effort from the nearby ports, but she may be looking a bit much into that report. Her thoughts were cut off when further beeping from the sensor station saw her turning her attention back to the sensor station.

"Aha! We now have a match for the unknown's thermal pattern," the Ensign reported before a moment later he seemed to blink in some sort of surprise before continuing his report, "Looks to be a ZAFT Laurasia Class Mobile Frigate!"

"What in the world is a ZAFT Frigate doing all that way out here!" the voice of Commander Reed came from the tactical section in some confusion. The captain meanwhile hummed a bit as she stared out at the view screens trying to see if she could see the distant ship.

"Well, we did that info packet from the Orb Intelligence about ZAFT having stationed a couple of ships out here to keep an eye on the Eurasian's military facility Artemis," she mentioned out loud answering her second's earlier statement.

"Still Captain I do not like them using Fire Control Radar on the debris field. They are surely not assisting in any rescue effort," the man replied back looking at the screens down in the tactical section.

"I do agree for it seems like they are searching for something in that debris to attack," the captain mused out loud in a thoughtful tone, "So let us go over there and ask them what had happened here and what they are searching for so thoroughly."

"Captain! If it is actually ZAFT who had been in some way reasonable for attacking Heliopolis they may attack us as well," the Commander said in a somewhat shocked tone poking his head out of the tactical section once more to look at her and making a small savage smile to appear on her face.

"Oh. If that is the case, I am looking forward to it! Still, let us be a bit cautious in our approach," she mentioned in a voice colder than space itself before looking down at the helm station and Lieutenant Yashima.

"Lieutenant, I want you to bring us into his aft arc and a bit below his current orientation," she ordered the young woman who simply nodded her head at her before turning towards her controls to follow her captain's orders. The Commander blinked in some surprise at those orders before his own savage smile appeared on his face.

"Oh. I get it. Since the Laurasia Class has the majority of its armament on its dorsal hull you are going to have us come in at an angle that prevents them from firing on us," the man mentioned with a chuckle before with a hum of thought he dropped back into the tactical section.

"Correct. While we will have a good amount our own weapons already locked on his aft ready to fire if he decides to maneuver in any way to bring his own weapons into action against us or start launching mobile suits," she mentioned in reply before she leaned forward now with a concerned look on her face. "Still I am quite worried that he hasn't detected us yet."

"Ma'am. I doubt he can since he is directing all of his sensor sweeps in the debris field and what sensors he still has directed in our direction is somewhat affected by the nearby debris," Ensign Tomas the sensor officer replied to her statement making her turn to stare at him in some surprise before she chuckled.

"Understood Ensign. Still, helm keep on your course towards our new friend out there," she said looking back down at the helm station.

"Aye Ma'am! We shall intercept the other ship in about five minutes or so," Lieutenant Yashima replied without looking over at the captain.

"Understood thank you helm," the captain mentioned before leaning forward in her chair staring out at the still-expanding debris that was once her home in some thought before she looked back over at the sensor station.

"Sensors if I am not mistaken that pattern of debris from the colony looks to be destroyed from something internally," she mentioned out loud making Ensign Tomas swing his chair away from his station with a thoughtful look on his face before he too looked at the viewscreens and that of the debris field.

"I am not much an expert ma'am, but it does look quite different from the images I saw in the past of the destruction of Junius Seven, and the collapse of the Shepard colony at Lagrange Four two years ago," the man replied with a look of some intense thought on his face making the captain nod in understanding for both of those colonies had been destroyed by something hitting them externally. Junius Seven from a large anti-ship nuclear warhead launched at the colony while the Shepard Colony was in fact destroyed via an intense meteorite storm that shredded the colony's skin with dozens of small holes from the impacting meteorites which soon saw the colony ripping itself part a few hours after the storm stopped. Each of the resulting debris fields from those destroyed colonies along with of smaller incidents Caridad could remember from her own childhood was quite different from this debris field.

"I think you are correct captain. I remember the destruction of the original Zodiac Station at Lagrange Five. Blue Cosmos Agents had somehow managed to smuggle numerous high-end explosives into the interior of the station, which was basically a small Bernal Sphere, and set them off," the voice of Commander Reed said as he rose from the Tactical Section and steadied himself by grabbing a bar attached to one side of the captain's command chair.

"The debris field spread from that is quite similar to what we are now seeing with the destruction of Heliopolis," the man finished with his own cold look as he stared towards the viewscreens. The captain nodded at this, looking over at the face of the sensor officer who had a look of some amazement before shaking himself and turning back to his station which had just started to beep something at him.

"Hmmm… Captain looks like some of the heavier jamming has stopped or faded for I am starting to pick up numerous lifeboat signals at these points," the man mentioned now with a bit of hope entering his voice before touching command which some data to one of the sub-displays on the main screen which showed large red dots on the display. The captain blinked at this report and saw her previous icy look of anger start to melt with some relief. She leaned forward slightly to study the sub-display before nodding.

"Those look to be the three of the four main emergency evacuation points programmed in the flight system of the colony lifeboats," she mentioned out loud in some relief as that meant that there was enough time for the colony's population to make it to the colony shelters. It also meant that it was not a sudden destruction but a slow collapse of the colony.

"Ensign, do you have a count of those lifeboats you can detect?" she asked the sensor officer who after a moment of studying the gathered data on his screens turned his seat to look at the captain.

"As of this moment Captain I am only detecting five hundred forty-three lifeboats gathered at the three evacuation points that we currently have in sensor range. That also does not include any damaged lifeboats at the evac points or in the debris field itself which I cannot detect right now due to the overall heat and such given out by the debris," the man mentioned with a worried look on his face which was reflected in the face of his captain for that was just under half of the lifeboats/shelters built into the colony's skin. Still, there could be dozens of lifeboats damaged in the debris field or at the evac points themselves which means they couldn't be detected due to those damages, or there could be a lot more at the final evac point which was a bit deeper into the Lagrange Point. The captain studied the display for a further few moments eying the icons showing the lifeboats before sighing and shaking her head turning her attention towards the large yellow icon on the main viewscreen showing the location of the ship from ZAFT.

"We shall put off any further search for any other lifeboats for the moment. Let us take care of that "friend" of ours from ZAFT first before we send anything or anyone into the debris field to search for more lifeboats," she ordered with a sigh making the others on the bridge turn their own attention to the icon of the ZAFT ship as it started to grow larger in the view screen.

"We should be in range momentary Captain," was the statement from the helm station making the captain nod before she turned to look at Commander Reed who stayed at her side.

"I know that common courtesy would be to send off a message to our friend out there Commander, but I really want to make things clear on how displeased I am about finding my home in such a state," she nearly whispered to the man who raised an eyebrow at her statement before he too stare at the slowly growing figure of the ZAFT ship before turning his attention towards her knowing somewhat what she wanted to do.

"Well ma'am we really do not know if they actually had a hand in the destruction of the colony just yet, so I think a direct video message would be the best of this moment, but if they refuse to mention to us what had happened here then I can see us sending them a more direct message," he mentioned nearly under his breath to her making her frown slightly but nodded knowing he was right.

"I want you to set up our more direct message then Commander," she replied back with a nod towards the open space on the floor leading to the tactical section. The commander smirked slightly down at her before following her unsaid order and heading down toward the ship's tactical section once more. That done she turned her attention towards the ship's communications station which sat next to that of the sensor station at one side of the bridge.

"Comms get ready to send our friend out there a tight beam communication if you please," she ordered with a scowl on her pretty face making the young woman in that position nod at her order.

"Captain we are ready down here," came the voice of the Commander. Outside, away from the view of the bridge crew the ship's weapons all started to lock on the still distant figure of the ZAFT Laurasia Class Frigate. The forward missile launchers open their doors showing torpedo-like anti-ship missiles ready to fire, and the forward three high-energy beam cannons focus their barrels right onto the ZAFT frigate. The stubby-like weapons along either side of the ship started to hum and extend itself to its full size revealing the weapons to be some form of linear cannon.

"Ma'am, we are now in range of the ZAFT ship, and starting to slow us down," Lieutenant Yasima mentioned from her own position at the helm. This made the captain nod in understanding before she turned towards the communication station.

"Start broadcasting Comms and get me whoever is the commander over there," she ordered out loud with a glare on her face which saw her former icy expression to return to her face. A moment went by before the large multi-purpose screen that had covered the former viewport on the ship's port side started to flash replacing the view of the outside with that of the focused view of the ZAFT ship before it suddenly flashed once more, and a black uniformed youthful looking man appeared on the screen.

"Captain, I am Captain Caridad Yamato of the Orb Space Defense Ship Myoken and I really want to know what has happened here," she mentioned in the same cold-like tone of voice she used before as she leaned forward in her seat almost threateningly. The man seemed to blink in some surprise at her appearance before he seemed to sneer at her for a moment before his face became quite neutral and started to talk.

"Captain Yamato I am Captain Zac Walker of the ZAFT Ship Ziegler, and it appears that the Morgenroete Facilities on the colony were in the process of developing new mobile suit prototypes for the use of the Earth Alliance. Therefore, my immediate commander, one Commander Le Creuset ordered an attack on the colony to either capture or destroy the prototype along with a prototype assault warship to carry them all. In the process of the battle between the Commander's forces and that of the colony's defense forces including elements of Earth Alliance Marines the colony was destroyed," the man said in a haltingly almost arrogant-sounding voice making the hands of Captain Yamato to squeeze the armrests of her chair in some anger at the tone before she blinked in outright surprise at what the man was saying.

"Excuse me?" she angrily managed to say in response to the man's speech before she took a couple of deep breaths and returned her attention to the screen.

"Let me get this straight Captain. Your Commander violated the neutrality of my nation because he believed that we were producing weapons for the Earth Alliance?" she replied with an even icier tone of voice. However, that did not appear to matter to the man on the other side of the communication line.

"Correct Captain Yamato, and now I, along with my ship, are currently along with the rest of my Commander's forces are in the process of hunting down that prototype assault ship of the Alliance and the single remaining prototype mobile suit that managed to escape from the colony before its destruction. So, you can start rescue operations at your leisure while I must get back to my mission," the man replied with an almost grand nod of his towards the camera and started to raise a hand however he could use it to signal the cut-off the communication line between the two ships Captain Yamato raised her hand and quickly snapped her fingers. This saw Commander Reed having been following the conversation in the tactical section pressing a single button on the main tactical station. Outside of the ship, the portside linear cannon fired a single shot towards the ZAFT ship which thundered passed the ship with only a couple of inches of clearance between the ship's hull and the glowing projectile. This saw the surprise and a little bit of fear appear on the face of the ZAFT Captain as the shot disappeared into the blackness of space. Caridad simply leaned forward in her chair to stare at the man on the video screen.

"No, Captain. What you are going to do right now is that you are going to remove yourself and your ship from Orb-claimed space immediately. I do not care if you continue your search in the debris field opposite from this position for those Alliance units or even head on home. Really, I do not care. What I do want is for you and your ship to be nowhere near Orb space while my ship starts our rescue operations for the now displaced civilians of my nation. If you are not started leaving in thirty seconds I shall order the total destruction of your ship," the captain angrily snarled to the now white-faced Captain Walker on the screen.

"Filthy Natural! Are you siding with the Alliance now, after we were willing to allow you to start rescue operations without interference from our forces" the man said after recovering from his shock and fear from the near miss of his ship. However, Captain Yamato only sighed and leaned back in her chair shaking her head at the outright stupidity shown by the ZAFT Captain.

"Captain Walker, let me make one thing clear. I am not supporting the Alliance and in fact kind of furious they were willing to use a neutral and civilian colony in this matter when there were plenty of other places, where they could develop their new weapons. Including a couple of places elsewhere in the Earth Sphere, not to mention the many places on the planet itself. However, you did admit you had a hand in destroying a civilian colony and displacing the inhabitants of said colony therefore the reason for my current animosity towards yourself and your ship," she said using a tone she had once used to explain something to her then seven-year-old son and his pair of best friends when they got into something that they shouldn't have.

"Also, your Commander had no legal right to attack Heliopolis even if it was developing weapons for the Earth Alliance. He should have reported it to your Supreme Council who would complain to that of the Orb Ambassador to the PLANTs which may have led to things like censures or trade tariffs between our two nations," she continued on with a sigh of exhaustion as she stared at the too young man on the screen in front of her.

"That would mean nothing against the Earth Alliance they would still have their prototype G-Weapons and that Assault Ship which would lead to the mass production of new mobile suits for the Alliance," the ZAFT Captain nearly snarled in answer to her own statement. Caridad nodded at this in agreement before she shook her head with a sigh.

"Captain did you know that Morgenroete has been producing weapons for the Earth Alliance since the start of the war," Captain Yamato simply replied in an almost bored tone of voice making the ZAFT captain blink in some surprise.

"What?" the man said in shock making Captain Yamato simply smile almost coldly in response.

"Since the start of the war and even before Morgenroete was producing the M2 Bulldog Armored Fighting Vehicle, its variants, and the LRV-10 Linear Artillery Vehicle for the use of the Earth Alliance. Morgenroete also had a hand in producing some parts for both the TS-MA2 Moebius Mobile Armor and the F-7D Spearhead Fighter Craft. That is not even considering the production of the MAW-01 Mistral Mobile Work Pods used by many ships in the Earth Alliance Combined Orbital Fleet for non-combat duties. While Morgenroete's facilities on the now destroyed colony we are next to currently had a hand in producing reactors and some minor parts for various ships of the Orbital Fleet. However, ZAFT and the PLANTs never complained about any of that in the past. No, it is only when we had a hand in producing new mobile suits for the Earth Alliance that gets you up in arms like this for you are scared of the Alliance getting a weapon that will even the score in the war between you and the Alliance," she replied shaking her head a frown on her face which made the ZAFT man sputter in shock at this statement.

"Now you will leave Orb Space immediately captain!" she said after some moments of silence between the two captains, allowing the other captain to recover from the shocks that she had delivered him.

"Understood Captain Yamato. I shall lodge a complaint against you with your ambassador for high-handed response against my ship and myself," the man now calmly mentioned though still with a sneer on his face. Making Caridad sigh in some annoyance and a bit of sorrow over such blatant racism that was on both sides of the war.

"That is your right Captain. Farewell," she mentioned before slashing her hand at the communication officer who cut off the link between the two ships. The captain and the rest of the bridge crew then watched as the ZAFT ship lit its engines and started to head away from the debris field on a course that would take the ship away from Lagrange Three itself. A few moments of silence went on as they watched the ship move away before everyone was sure they were really going to leave.

"Think that was wise Captain," came a light tenor voice from behind the captain's chair interrupting the silence in the bridge. This saw the captain rotate her chair to stare at the officer who was now floating into the bridge from the hatch leading to the rest of the ship.

"No, I do think it was wise at all Lieutenant Commander, but that ZAFT officer and his commander are idiots in thinking that we would let them be so dismissive in having a hand in destroying our colony like that," the Captain answered almost tiredly leaning back in her seat as she looked at the taller, yet younger, red-haired figure of Lieutenant Commander Brianna Carter, the ship's aerospace commander which included nothing at the moment.

"I agree with you, ma'am. However, that commander the captain mentioned is in fact Commander Rau Le Creuset and he is a very dangerous man. He is also the main hatchet-man of Patrick Zala, the Chairman of the National Defense Committee and overall commander in chief of ZAFT as a result," the other woman dryly mentioned making Captain Yamato raise an eyebrow in interest. She knew that like the rest of the crew that the Lieutenant Commander happened to be a Coordinator and had once been a member of ZAFT till she returned home to Orb due to the death of her parents in an accident.

"That would also mean that the Commander would be part of the Radical Faction of ZAFT since Chairman Zala is also the man in charge of the PLANT Government's Radical Faction," she replied to the younger woman.

"Correct. However, I do know where you are coming from with your little speech, it may still end up backfiring later on," the Lieutenant Commander replied in turn making the captain nod in some thought before she suddenly frowned as something in her memories demanded her attention.

"Zala. Is he related to Lenore and Athrun Zala?" she asked remembering the other childhood friend of her son, and the mother of said friend that she had befriended during their time at Copernicus City on the Moon. The former ZAFT officer blinked in surprise at that before sighing and leaning against the unused secondary command chair along the right side of her own chair.

"Yes, Lenore Zala was the wife of Patrick and Athrun is their son," Brianna mentioned making the captain frown at the other woman as she picked up the word choice of the statement.

"Was? What happened to Lenore?" she shot back and was taken back by the sad sigh of the other woman.

"Lenore Zala was on Junius Seven when it was destroyed Captain," the coordinator mentioned making the captain gasp in some surprise at the news of an old friend of hers being killed in one of the worst terrorist acts in history.

"Oh, God. Poor Athrun," she whispered under her breath before shaking herself and looking over at the other woman.

"Anyways, Lieutenant Commander I need to start getting our pods ready for we are going to be starting to see about recovering any damaged lifeboat in the debris field," she ordered the other woman.

"Understood Captain," the former ZAFT officer said with a short almost lazy salute and started towards the bridge's main hatchway.

"Captain, ZAFT Ship Ziegler is now at the ten-kilometer mark and on a course taking them out of the Lagrange Three area," the sensor officer reported a few moments later drawing the attention of Captain Yamato towards the viewscreen seeing the distance from of the ZAFT ship making her nod.

"Understood Sensors. Commander Reed, bring us down to Alert-Level Two and prepare for the start of rescue operations," she ordered as she got up from her command chair.

"Yes ma'am," came the reply from the Commander and she watched momentarily as tensions started to leave the rest of the bridge crew.

"The bridge is yours, Commander, for I need to make my report to Lord Uzumi. If you need me for anything further, I shall be in the radio room," she ordered as Commander Reed removed himself from the tactical section once more.

"Yes captain," he mentioned with a nod towards as she pushed herself from the chair and started to head towards the bridge hatch towards the nearby radio room which sported the advanced communication equipment needed to make a report back to the mainland even through the remains of the ZAFT jamming and the N-Jammers placed in orbit of Earth to cut-off contact between the Earth Alliance Forces on the planet with that of their forces on the moon. The Commander took the command seat and started to talk to the sensor officer about something or another. However, Caridad did not hear them as she turned briefly to stare at the viewscreens and the debris of the colony that had once been her home.

'Please Haruma, Kira be safe,' she thought to herself before she shook her head and started to move away letting the bridge hatch to swish shut behind her.

-o-End-o-

Post Chapter Notes

So! That is the first chapter of this story that really kind of came out of nowhere for me. As I mentioned in the foreword this story was originally supposed to have Caridad working for the blue water navy forces of Orb instead of the black water navy. However, I think this does work a bit better since we really do not focus all that much on the naval battles in the story. Also, this story kind of took a new life after about halfway through this chapter. I originally had planned for this story to really follow a very slightly modified version of the original story but that changed halfway through when I started to include some bits in the background of the story from my now failed story Angelic Dawn. A few other things were added but not included in this chapter but the next couple of chapters, including a completely reworked version of the Astray Project. Also included would be the character of Lieutenant Commander Brianna Carter who is a different, female version of my main original character Brian Carter. For this story, I am basing her more on my head-canon for one of my created characters in my playthrough of SD Gundam Cross Rays.

That said. This chapter really kind of fought me while I was writing it, not including the addition of old ideas into the story. I believe I cut out two to three different scenes because they did not work with my plans for the chapter. The first was the original opening of the chapter which had Caridad Yamato reading a book about space naval tactics which would spawn a lengthy discussion with Commander Reed about how Caridad is still learning the ropes of space combat after spending much of her career on naval blue-water ships of the Orb Navy. It would have been the start of a small subplot about Caridad trying to get herself up to snuff in space combat. I dropped it when it seemed a bit unprofessional for the two officers to be discussing something like that while on the bridge of the ship with the ears of the bridge crew listening in. This again became a thing a bit later when they start discussing about their family lives which I cut that out as well and then we get the bit about the two of them shooting the breeze right before they reach Heliopolis. I kind of just said fuck it and let them ramble on since that is what the story wants to happen. Sigh. Although, there were a couple of things I wanted to include in the story but kind of got cut off thanks to the chapter ending up longer than I really wanted it to be. One such element was the chapter ending with Caridad reporting via a communication line with the Orb mainland on what has happened with Heliopolis. However, as mentioned the chapter was getting a bit longer therefore, it was dropped before I could even start writing it. It may be just something that happens off-screen. The second main thing that I wanted to include was a discussion on zero gravity between Caridad Yamato and Commander Reed. It just never ended up being included in the chapter and before I knew it the ship was now at Heliopolis. Shrug.

Okay. One more thing to mention here is that if you can not tell I am really not a fan of how Le Creuset got away scot-free from attacking Heliopolis. I know he had Patrick Zala "sanitize" his report before presenting it to the Supreme Council, but still, he should have gotten at least a little bit in trouble for that move. Hence, here in this story, things are going to be different. The first happens with the conversation between Caridad and the Captain of the Ziegler at the end of the chapter. I always found it odd that Orb and the Alliance had the same exact armored support vehicles between the two of them. Both had the Bulldog Missile Truck, the Linear Artillery Platform, and the Linear Tank in their inventories. However, the latter vehicle will not appear in Orb's hands in this story if I get that far in the story. Therefore, I went with the idea of Morgenroete actually being the one who produces those vehicles for the use of the Earth Alliance. ZAFT didn't really make that much of a fuss because they were quite confident that their new mobile suits could easily counter these new vehicles. Therefore, when Morgenroete starts helping the Alliance develop new mobile suits we have ZAFT finding out through the Le Creuset Team and who then attacks the colony of Heliopolis. It looked as if they panicked about the existence of such a program. I was also going to have Caridad point out that the United States had provided the British weapons, ships, and vehicles during the early parts of World War II while claiming to be neutral. Therefore, it really shouldn't be that much of a shock since while much of the higher-ups in the Orb government are sympathetic in some way with the PLANTs much of its population are much more sympathetic to that of the Earth Alliance since they live on Earth after all and have seen the chaos caused by the April Fool's Crisis. However, the chapter and the conversation itself were getting a bit long therefore I cut that out. I am maybe going to go that route if I do something about the Orb Ambassador to the PLANTs doing a lecture in front of the Supreme Council.

Okay. That is about it for these notes which went way beyond what I plan on mentioning like normal. Anyway, I shall see you all in the next chapter! Thank you for reading.

EDIT: I am planning on posting the next, completed chapter either next Tuesday or Wednesday depending on some things. That will allow me to get a few more chapters finished in that time. As I am adding a new chapter between chapter two and my half-written chapter three. Also planning a few other things in the future!

deathzealotzero · Nov 23, 2023

Phase Two: Rescue and Recovery

One of the major things we were supposed to do when we arrived at the colony was to start combat trails in conjunction with the newly built Astray Project Prototype Mobile Suits that Morgenroete had developed for Orb. Mainly working together and getting the crew used to working alongside mobile suits. I remember being kind of surprised that the Orb Union was developing their own mobile suits when I was briefed on their existence, but I really shouldn't have been since I knew that the leaders of the country were quite aware that eventually we would be dragged into the war. It was only a matter of time really. That said, I was furious when we all arrived at the recently destroyed Heliopolis and learned that Morgenroete was also developing mobile suit prototypes for the Earth Alliance. In fact, Morgenroete was using the Alliance's own G-Project in developing our own superior mobile suit prototypes in the form of our own Astray Project…

- Taken from an Interview with Rear Admiral Caridad Yamato by Independent News Reporter Jess Rabble, Circa. June of Cosmic Era 75

Main Hangar
OSDS Murakumo
Lagrange Three, Earth Sphere
Two Hours Later

A couple of hours later found Captain Yamato standing on one of the many walkways suspended over her previously almost empty and flawless-looking hangar. Now said hangar sported two of the six Mistral Workpods assigned to the ship, two half-destroyed hulks that once were fellow Mistral Pods, whose injured crews were managed to be rescued, and a trio of damaged Colony Lifeboats cluttering the hangar. Not to mention the various scuff marks, stains, smells, and other such examples of a now well-used hangar bay. Said lifeboats had a small stream of harried and bedraggled civilians exiting and being led further into the ship. The captain frowned at this knowing that they couldn't afford to take any other lifeboats because their life support would be overwhelmed by all the extra bodies. Still, she couldn't leave such damaged lifeboats out in the debris field. Luckily, she wouldn't have to since ships from both the nearby Green Noa Independent Space Colony and of the independent Junk Guild had arrived to help in the rescue operations. She turned her attention to that of large bear-like form of Senior Chief Petty Officer Jona Halsey the senior non-commissioned officer of the ship's company and the man in charge of the ship's hangar bay. His own heavy normal suit was barely able to cover his massive body which seemed to flex slightly as the man came up alongside her on the walkway.

"So, Captain, we managed to account for nearly three dozen Lifeboats spread across the debris field all damaged in some way. Including one, that I am sorry to say was pretty much a hulk with all of the poor folks inside dead from exposure from a hull breach," the large man mentioned in a voice like a pair of bricks grinding together. The man sighed sadly, and Caridad closed her eyes in some pain before waving the man on with his report.

"The three most damaged lifeboats we brought onboard as you ordered. The others looked to be in enough decent condition to wait for the arrival of further rescue ships. Still, it looks like we managed to find all of the damaged lifeboats in the debris field," the man finished with his report making Caridad nod at him before looking back down at the hangar floor.

"Thank you for the report Senior Chief, but with that done it is time to turn other matters," she looked back at the man with a small smile on her face before she sighed and looked a bit more serious before asking, "What about the secondary mission?"

The Senior Chief blinked at this before scratching a cheek with a large finger as he looked away from the captain towards the two Mistral Pods that remained in the hangar and the most prominent parts of the hangar: the three large scaffold-looking pieces of equipment that hung from the hangar's ceiling. As of one the main missions of the ship and its crew was to further the development of the prototype mobile suits in production at the colony including going through shipboard trails of said mobile suits. Hence, one of the main new objectives given to Captain Yamato and her crew was to investigate what had happened to these prototype mobile suits in the collapse of the colony. A moment later his gaze drifted back towards his captain who was waiting patiently.

"Well, after we got these lifeboats into the hangar, the Lieutenant Commander took four of the Pods and a couple of our space launches towards where the colony's former factory block is projected to be located at to see about recovering anything from the Project," the large man reported making the captain nod in some understanding at the man's report. She really shouldn't be surprised for she had known that Lieutenant Commander Brianna Carter had been quite worried at what happened to the prototypes. As she had a large hand in their development after all.

"She also took along a couple of squads of First Lieutenant Gurumin's grunts with her," he mentioned now with a scowl on his face mentioning the name of the officer in charge of the short company of Orb Ground Defense Force infantrymen serving the ship as Marines. The captain hummed at this knowing that the man wasn't upset over the idea of such ground-bound infantry working alongside naval personnel like many in the past would have, he instead was upset that they may be needed. The Murakumo and her crew had already chased off two ships picking through the debris for whatever they could find and selling to whoever wanted to buy such scrap. Such a thing was a fact of life in the modern world, and it was even more of a headache that one of those ships was actually a Junk Guild Registered Transport. Other Junk Guild ships had started to arrive to help in the rescue operations while one of their fellows was picking through the debris like a rat to find decent salvage.

"Understood. Keep up the good work Senior Chief and let me know if you have any further news on the Lieutenant Commander's mission," she mentioned patting the man on his tree-like forearm with a smile.

"Yes ma'am!" the man replied with a salute.

"Now I have an unruly hotheaded Princess to meet," the captain mentioned with a groan of annoyance and exasperation mentioning the real reason why she was in the hangar in the first place. The heir of their country's leader having been one of the first ones off the first lifeboat and making a ruckus. The senior chief only smirked at her and pushed from the walkway towards a cluster of his crewmen gathering in one corner of the hangar. She scowled at his back before sighing and pushing off herself heading towards the nearby hatchway leading deeper into the ship.

Factory Section 22-B
Morgenroete Incorporated – Heliopolis Facility
Former Heliopolis Space Colony
Lagrange Three, Earth Sphere

While the Heliopolis Space Colony had been destroyed and collapsed into a large debris field that now started to spread across a good chunk of Lagrange Point Three. They're remained large intact pieces of the colony's skin which still had buildings, and such attached to said skin. One such piece of the colony retained one of the main factory facilities of the Morgenroete corporation that was partly owned by the Orb government and in such facility would be the jewel of the corporation's project to produce mobile suits for the Orb military. Such intact buildings and such were quite a draw for scavengers as there are bound to be intact pieces of equipment in such buildings. Therefore, it was no surprise to see a single transport anchored to the large piece of debris that was once part of a space colony along with a few work pods buzzing around the buildings. In one of the buildings, a trio of normal-suited figures searched through what was left of the interior of the now-ruined building for any sort of valuable loot to be retrieved.

"I really do not think there is anything left out here Lowe," buzzed the intercom of one of the bulky normal suits in what seemed to be a young woman's voice. The lead figure could be heard scoffing in answer to that statement as the figure moved the beam of a high-powered handlight across the nearest portion of the ruined interior of the building.

"So far, we only found some key pieces from the factory line in this building and a few other different pieces of valuable tech like those Acceleration Chips Kisato found earlier," a man's voice came from the third figure as he aimed his own high-powered light opposite direction of his companion as said companion scoffed once more through his own suit's intercom.

"I smell that there is something big that this place is hiding and that will be the jackpot that we need!" the first figure could be heard excitedly saying as he looked around the area and spotted a collapsed building nearby aiming his light over towards it. This saw the figure walking over to that of the collapsed building.

"All I smell is that the air quality in my suit is stale," the female figure almost deadpanned at this before aiming her own light over towards the walking first figure. Therefore, she was the first to notice the damaged floor the lead figure had stepped on and saw the said floor start breaking apart.

"Watch out!" she yelled out grabbing the man at her side pulling him back from the now falling apart floor around the collapsed building and the falling lead figure through the now large, opened hole in the floor.

"Lowe!" the other man called out as he recovered from being pulled back from the edge by his female companion. The two quickly moved towards the edge of the new hole to look down into the large open space that was now revealed to be underneath the collapsed building.

"I'm okay!" came the faint answer from the hole making the two other figures sigh in some relief, "All checks on my suit are coming up normal. I am going to check the area around this area."

The two figures still on the top looked at one another through the faceplates of their normal suits with almost matching exasperated looks on their faces as both knew that their friend had some of the best luck ever. That said, the man was almost like a bull in a china shop when they were going through wrecks like this in the past. He just had that peppy and ever-something-over-the-rainbow type of altitude that often got him in trouble like this.

"Damn! I lost my hand light in the fall," the faint voice said a moment later drawing the attention of the two looking down into the hole.

"Do you want me to throw down my handlight Lowe to help you?" the female figure asked making the other figure look over at her in some surprise.

"Nah. Looks like my helmet lights are still good," the voice of their friend came back up a moment later making the two shake their heads once more at their friend. Suddenly they saw a brief light flare up below them and both nearly fell into the holes themselves in surprise as even the dim light of their friend's helmet lamps, they could see several large figures of what looked to be mobile suits laid out on the ground in dedicated storage scaffolds. A moment went past between the three as they tried to come to terms with what they were now seeing before the first figure in the hole start to whoop and laugh in celebration.

"Jackpot! I told you guys that there was something here!" the man said excitedly as he started to climb over the nearest prone mobile suit.

"Liam! Kisato! Head back and get your pods over here! We are going to need some help in getting these machines out of this hole," he yelled up at the figures of his friends as he inspected the mobile suit he was now standing on.

"This doesn't make any sort of sense," the man up on top mentioned almost in a daze as he continued to stare down at the mobile suits below him, "Heliopolis was a Neutral Colony!"

"You forget Liam that plenty of equipment and weapons were constructed here for Orb's Defense Forces and the Earth Alliance thanks to contracts signed from before the start of the war. So, it sort of does make some sense that Orb and Morgenroete were developing their own mobile suits here" the female figure said with a scoff in her voice as she turned to follow the suggestion of their friend Lowe. However, she suddenly froze in some surprise at what she saw behind the two of them.

"Ummm Liam…We are not alone anymore," the female figure found herself saying making the man look up from his surprise to find that his friend was quite correct several figures had managed to sneak up on the two of them while they were distracted by the antics of their friend, Lowe down in the hole. All the figures wore the more streamlined, military model Normal Suits which were festooned with a couple of web belts with carried military equipment, at least all but one who wore a more skin-tight military pilot suit, who simply had a pistol belt around their waist. All of the mysterious figures were armed in various ways and all their weapons were pointed at the two.

"Ummm…Hello. I am Liam Garfield and this is Kisato Yamabuki. We are both with the Junk Guild," the man mentioned after a couple of moments of strained silence between the two parties.

"I am quite aware of who you are Mister Garfield and why you are here. I already met your leader earlier," the figure wearing the military pilot suit mentioned almost dryly still pointing what looked to be a heavyweight pistol at the two of them.

"Okay. Then why are you so hostile to us?" the man, Liam, mentioned a moment later with a confused look hidden by his normal suit's faceshield.

"Because Mister Garfield, one, you are trespassing on Orb Government-owned property, and two, you are not with the rest of your fellows helping with the rescue effort of the colony's lifeboats alongside the Orb warship Myoken. Therefore, all I see right now is some salvagers and pirates," the figure coldly mentioned making the two figures, Liam and Kisato, blanch in some sort of shock at this statement.

"What! But the Professor mentioned it was okay!" the figure of Kisato mentioned in some surprise at this statement.

"Not to mention ma'am, it looked like your ship and the other ships arriving had everything well in hand in rescuing the lifeboats. Therefore, we decided to do what we do best and salvage wrecks," Liam now calmly mentioned looking at the lead figure who he saw was a woman.

"Oh. Normally I would have no problem with you going through wrecks and such, as I have a few friends who are Junk Techs, but this colony hasn't even been destroyed for a day, Mister Garfield. And we found your team already going through the remains like you are some sort of rats," the woman mentioned in reply making Liam pretty much flush in some shame at that statement.

'Damn it, Professor! And while I am it damn you Lowe!' he thought angrily at the leader of their crew who had said it was alright that they were not helping the other Junk Guild Crews with the rescue effort and the man who had dragged them into the wreck of the colony.

"Yeah! Where are those Pods? These machines are not going to dig themselves out after all," as if summoned by Liam's thoughts the voice of their friend Lowe came up from the hole behind him. This saw the figure in front of the two of them stiffen in some anger before she seemed to sigh and turned towards the figures at her sides.

"Corporal you go ahead and take these two into custody. I shall take the rest of the troops into the factory section to take possession of the remaining prototypes," the woman mentioned placing her weapon back into the holster at her side.

"Yes Commander!" the man mentioned waving a pair of his fellows towards the figures of Liam and Kisato. The lead figure then led the rest of the armed troops past the two of them towards the hole and the now unhidden mobile suits. After inspecting the sides of the hole, the female figure easily jumped down the hole due to the lower gravity of the remaining piece of the colony. As one of the armed figures brought his arms behind his back he watched as the rest of the armed figures followed behind her jumping down the hole where his friend had found some prototype mobile suits.

"Who the heck are you guys?" came the voice of Lowe before a struggle could be heard, "Yeah! Get your hands off me!"

Liam heard as he and Kisato were gently led away from the collapsed building and the hole towards what he was surprised to see a standard Mark-15 Launch, painted in Orb colors, that had been landed nearby to their position. He hadn't even heard it landing and what were bound to be Orb infantry departing it. He could only shake his head in some shame and a bit of anger at what was happening to them. A moment later he could see a trio of Mistral Work Pods starting to descend towards the hole their larger work lights lighting up the entire area showing that the entire series of buildings that they had been exploring had once been a large industrial complex. He sighed as he pushed into a seat along one side of the launch along with Kisato. Then as the side door of the launch started to close, he could just see Lowe being escorted out of the hole. The other man was struggling in the grips of two large Orb infantrymen making Liam shake his head in brief amusement before the launch took off. A moment later he could see through the window built into the side door of the launch that their transport the Home had another launch docked with it along with a couple of further work pods swarming around it making him sigh once again.

"Liam what is going to happen to us?" came the almost whisper-like voice of Kisato at his side making him turn to look down at her scared-looking form. He tried to smile down at her for she had never been in a similar situation after all, but he really could not. They really got themselves in a mess this time.

"I do not know Kisato. I do not know," he managed to say instead with a sigh before turning and watching as the launch swept past the Home on a heading towards the outskirts of the new debris field that had once been the colony Heliopolis.

Captain's Quarters
OSDS Myoken
Lagrange Three, Earth Sphere

Deep in the ship and built into the ship's very small gravity deck were the quarters for the overall commander of the Myoken, Captain Caridad Yamato. The quarters took up just under a quarter of the gravity deck and even then, were not all that large. Basically, one decent-sized rectangle-looking room with a small one-person bed taking up one corner of the room. Right up next to the bed was an armoire-looking cabinet complete with several drawers. A comfy-looking couch and similar looking comfy chair took up the opposite corner/wall from that of the bed. While a large desk took up the rest of the wall next to that of the sofa. Then a small door leading to a tiny bathroom facility was in the corner above that of the bed before finally, a large hatch took up the final corner of the room. Up on the walls of the room were a few pictures, mostly of the captain's family and a couple of comrades from the military, while a penciled sketch of the Myoken herself took up the wall next to the room's desk. It was these pictures that drew the attention of the single person now in the room, a blond-haired young woman who was frowning at one picture right next to the room's sofa. It showed a young short purple-haired woman in an Orb Naval Defense Uniform alongside a familiar-looking brown-haired woman in a simple dress but had what looked to be a gradation robe over one arm. She was suddenly drawn from the picture when the hatch opened to admit the older form of the uniformed woman in the picture she had been observing.

"Lady Cagalli. I hope Andre took care of you," the woman mentioned as placed her naval cap on a hook by the hatch before walking further into the room.

"Andre is quite used to taking care of me Captain," the young woman mentioned with a snort and a shake of her head. The last thing she expected to find on an Orb Space Warship was the figure of one of her family's servants in the uniform of the Orb Defense Force.

"Yeah, I was quite shocked that your father assigned him to be my steward when I took command of this ship," the captain replied as she took a seat on the couch before waving to the young lady that was the heir of her country's leader to the comfy-looking chair that was angled just right next to the couch. After a brief moment of hesitation, the young woman took the offered seat and looked at the woman who leaned back on the couch with a deep sigh.

"I do apologize My Lady, but I haven't got used to zero gravity as of yet therefore take any moment on the gravity deck to relax some. Not to mention I had to use my sea cabin over the past couple of days as I needed to get used to sleeping in zero-gee," she mentioned a few moments later looking over at Cagalli who blinked at that admission before she looked around at the surroundings of the cabin.

"I did notice that this ship had a very small gravity deck when Andre showed me around," she mentioned with a frown, "I would think that our new space warships would have better accommodations than this."

This saw the captain blink in some surprise at this before snorting in some agreement. As she too looked around at the surrounding cabin and the rest of the ship's gravity deck beyond the walls of the cabin itself. Beside her own quarters the gravity deck also a slightly smaller version of her own quarters for the ship's executive officer who also sported a vastly smaller quarters up in the superstructure below the ship's bridge. However, unlike her own pair of quarters, the XO's quarters here in the gravity deck weren't really used all that much for sleeping instead was a sort of office space for the executive officer to deal with the needs of the crew. Combined this pair of quarters took up a quarter of the gravity deck's space. The rest of the gravity deck was given over to a dedicated exercise room to keep the crew in needed fitness, a combined crew lounge and library, a single small visiting officer quarters, a dedicated private pantry/mess area that served both the captain's quarters and that of a separate dining room/state room that made up the last bit of the gravity deck.

"Agreed, but I am formerly an officer of the Naval Defense Forces which sometimes has worse crew amenities than what we now have onboard. Though from what I understand some other ships do not even have what we do have here on the ship for amenities. For example, the Alliance's Drake Class Missile Frigates do not even have a gravity deck and barely any amenity for its crew, while ZAFT's Laurasia Class Frigates do not have a gravity deck but does have some basic amenities for its crew," the captain mentioned in a thoughtful tone of voice making Cagalli look on in surprised interest.

"Our Naval Ships do not have dedicated crew amenities at all?" Cagalli asked in some concern, making the captain look at her in some surprise before shaking her head with a chuckle.

"My Lady you have to remember that ships of the Naval Defense Force are often at sea for a few days at most. Therefore, the designers and the builders of the ships believed that such amenities as say a dedicated crew lounge or a crew library are not needed when the ship is only at sea at most for a five-day-long patrol," the captain explained making Cagalli blink in surprise at this explanation.

"While our new space warships of the Space Defense Forces will often be away from ports for a couple weeks to a month at a time. Hence the need for more dedicated amenities to keep the crew on their toes and their morale high," the captain went on to explain before she got up from the couch to stretch a bit.

"That said, from what I understand the next production run of these ships will have their hull extended by ten to fifteen meters to make room for a similar gravity deck to that of those onboard the Alliance's Agamemnon Class Command Carriers. They are a bit more expensive to maintain but they are far easier to place in a hull than these small cumbersome rotating gravity decks that these ships inherited from the Izumo and her sisters," the captain finished up her explanation and sat back down in the couch now a bit more relaxed then she had before now.

"That is great, but I believe need to change the subject," Cagalli mentioned after several moments of a comfortable silence between the two as she stared back over that photo that she had been inspecting when the captain had entered the room.

"Oh?" the captain replied with a raised eyebrow and noticed the attention of the younger woman shifted to one of the photos on the wall of the room.

"This woman looks quite familiar to me, but I do not know the reason for it," the confused-looking young woman as she continued to stare at the photo. The captain smiled a bit sadly as she looked over at the photo herself before shifting her attention back to the young woman.

"That is a photo of myself and my younger half-sister Via Kuwa at her graduation from MIT at twenty-two with a Ph.D.," she managed to say with a sad sigh and a thoughtful look on her face as she remembered that time. Before she suddenly smiled and looked down at Cagalli who was listening in some confusion as she was staring at the photo.

"And she happens to be your birth mother from what I understand," she mentioned with a hint of mischief on her face as she stared at Cagalli who jolted in complete shock at this statement.

"What?" she managed to say after a few moments of looking over at the captain in surprise and a bit of shock.

"From what I understand your father mentioned to you that you were adopted a few months ago, but never told you anything about your birth parents or if you had any other family," the captain continued with her story. This saw Cagalli barely managed to nod in answer to this through her shock making Caridad nod herself before turning to look at the photo once more.

"We had the same father a notable Atlantic Federation Navy officer, Geoffrey Kuwa, and different mothers, her mother was his actual wife from New York in the Federation. We grew up as only children till when we were teens when Via's mother found out about the various affairs that Geoffrey had when on deployment. This led to a very messy divorce between the two and is when the two of us first met one another along with two other older half-siblings from Geoffrey's other affairs," Caridad mentioned with a sigh of memory before continuing with her story, "The two of us pretty much clicked, as we loved the idea of having a sister, and kept in contact after the divorce. Then when both Geoffrey and Via's mother were killed by someone unknown party during a meeting between the two things changed. That was when Via came to live with my mother and her family in Orb. Which saw our relationship grow as we both entered the final year of high school together and started to think about what to do with the rest of our lives."

Cagalli listened to the older woman in some awe and watched the face of the captain as he remembered her sister. A moment later she shook her head to clear the memories and focused on Cagalli seeing the surprised look on her face. This amused the Orb Captain for the young teenager looked more like Via right now than ever before now. She turned back to look at the photo on the wall that showed the two of them with a sad sigh escaping her lips before she turned to look back down at Cagalli, who looked a bit confused.

"Can I ask the reason why I was adopted by my father instead of going to you? Since you are my Aunt therefore I should have gone to my closest family after all," she asked, making Caridad frown in concern for she knew the real reason but she couldn't mention that to Cagalli without the permission of Lord Uzumi. However, still she had the perfect half-truth to tell the confused-looking young teen.

"The reason was that I had recently had my son and since I wanted to keep with my military career, I couldn't put the time for a second child. That said, for the first year or so of your life I did meet with Lord Uzumi a couple of times to check on you when I was on leave, and you did spend time with my son as he was often at the Attha House with you as my husband worked at the Government House as an aide. Since there was some relation between the two of you it was seen that it would be better for Kira, my son, and yourself to be together during the day," she mentioned with a wistful smile on her face as she remembered those days while Cagalli kind of blushed in embarrassment a bit at this statement. However, after a moment she recovered from the embarrassment and looked thoughtfully at Caridad.

"Do you have a picture of your son Miss Caridad?" she asked out loud making Caridad blink at this before smiling and moving off the couch heading towards her desk.

"Of course, I do! I am a mom after all!" she mentioned in a teasing tone of voice before looking over a couple of photo frames on her desk before nodding and picking up one of them with another smile on her face. She then walked back over to the couch and handed the photo frame over to Cagalli who took it. She looked down at the three people standing in the photo and she nearly dropped it in some shock as she recognized all three people in the photo. The tallest and center person was obviously the woman now standing in front of her but with her hair longer and wearing simple pants and a shirt. The two shorter people on either side of her both wore fancy dress as if they were going to a party or something like that. However, she knew these two people, she didn't know their names of course but they had been in Professor Kato's lab when she had been waiting for the man.

"I know these two," she mentioned slowly in some shock and Caridad looked down at her in some shock at the admission. "I had been waiting in Professor Kato's Lab for him to arrive to answer a couple of questions I had about the Alliance's G-Project. I found out about it when I was visiting the Top-Secret Weapon Development Lab at Morgenroete's Site-B Facility."

Cagalli continued to say looking down at the photo in her hands before looking up into the surprised face of Caridad who managed a single-word reply, "What?"

"I was so angry and everything about it. Oh. I had known about the Astray Project for a couple of weeks by this time since a couple of my older friends from my school had been recruited into the project. However, I hadn't known about the G-Project which was being worked on alongside our own Astray Project. Therefore, I wanted to get some answers myself directly from the source therefore was waiting on Kato and these two teenagers had arrived at the lab with another pair of teenagers. They then started to work on some sort of mobile suit cockpit block while I continued to wait for Kato along the sidelines. Then about an hour or so after I entered the Lab the ZAFT attack started," she said before setting down the photo frame on the table in front of her not noticing Caridad had barely managed to make it to her couch and pretty much dropped into it as she listened to Cagalli's story.

"We all exited the lab and headed towards the emergency stairs where we learned of the ZAFT attack on the colony. I was shocked to learn of this, but unlike the others in the group, I had a pretty good idea of why ZAFT was attacking the colony. Therefore, I started to run towards the Morgenroete's Main Development Facility however these two told their friends to go ahead and run after me," she mentioned with a sigh leaning back in her chair as she stared up at the ceiling of the quarters. Caridad was literally in the corner of her seat listening to this for this was something she hadn't expected to hear from her niece.

"In hindsight now that was kind of a stupid thing to do really but still, I needed to know if everything was true. True that my father had agreed to use Heliopolis as a development facility for the Earth Alliance mobile suit development program. Still, though the two of them managed to catch up with me pretty quickly and something exploded behind them cutting them off and myself from returning to the group. Still, after some talk between the three of us the boy, Kira was it, grabbed my hand and started to pull me in a random direction. The girl followed behind us and eventually, we arrived on a catwalk over the main development hangar of the facility where two of the remaining Alliance mobile suits were being readied to be moved out towards their new ship. However, the ZAFT commandos had arrived before they could and started fighting the Alliance personnel in the hangar. One of which tried to shoot at us after I kind of broke down and loudly proclaimed that my father betrayed us all. This other girl pushed me down making the shot miss while Kira ducked down beside me. Then the girl kind of unloaded on me about attracting the attention of trigger-happy soldiers in the middle of a fight for their lives," she mentioned a bit sadly at what she had done. Caridad meanwhile had started to be a bit fearful for her son and the young lady in the story that she was sure was her son's childhood friend and now girlfriend Fiona Alexandar. She also was surprised at Cagalli's mentioning her father betraying their country to the Alliance.

"They then dragged me off the catwalks towards one of the facility's emergency shelter locations where they then managed to push me into the shelter. However, the shelter was already pretty much at full capacity. From there, I knew there was a large explosion that happened in the nearby development hangar as the emergency level had gone up and loud noises from what I was pretty sure was a mobile suit battle of some sort going on nearby. Then everything was quiet for a while before more explosions started and another larger battle was taking place not far from our shelter. Then the emergency level was rapidly increased with the shelter being sealed and then finally the destruction of the colony," she mentioned pretty much finishing up the story and looking up at the shocked face of Caridad before looking back down at the face of her -what- cousin in the photo in front of her.

"Something about him was familiar to me when he grabbed my hand and now, I know why he was so familiar," she managed to say almost softly as she stared down at the photo. Caridad had managed to slide off the couch and position herself in front of the seated Cagalli. She grabbed the hands of the girl and smiled up at her with tears in her eyes.

"Thank you, Cagalli. I have been worried and everything about Kira since I first saw the colony destroyed. While I do not know what happened afterward since you got shoved into the shelter, I still know that he was okay then," she mentioned with a smile on her face. However, she soon sighed and looked back up at Cagalli.

"Also, Cagalli your father did not betray Orb in the matter you are thinking. He did not know about the G-Project at all," she mentioned making Cagalli straighten up in her seat in some surprise at this admission looking down at Caridad.

"After we arrived here at the destroyed Heliopolis and chased off a ZAFT ship from the debris field I reported personally to your father about the destruction of the colony. Along with what the captain of the ZAFT ship had mentioned to me in our discussion. Since I managed to contact him while he was still meeting with the council, we got to witness the almost guilty looks of the Seiran Family Representative when I mentioned the reason for ZAFT to attack the colony," she continued with her own story making Cagalli look in some confusion.

"From Lord Uzumi got from the Representative it was the Seiran Family who had made the deal with the Earth Alliance through the upper management of Morgenroete. An extension of the pre-war production contract between the Alliance and Morgenroete for both the Bulldog Missile Truck and the Linear Artillery Vehicle. Since the former Governor of Heliopolis was in debt to the Seiran Family and the overall man in charge of the Morgenroete Facilities on the colony was part of the Seiran family no one knew what was going on behind the scenes," Caridad angry shook her head before continuing on with the story, "Also apparently the Sahakus knew about the G-Project and used the data from it to develop the Astrays."

Cagalli was staring off into space with wide-eyed shock and some surprise on her face while Caridad shook her head in some anger at what had happened. After a couple of moments of silence between the two Caridad got up from the floor of her quarters and looked down at the still shocked-looking Cagalli.

"All that said I do believe we need to get you back to the mainland," she mentioned with a frown looking up in some thought jolting Cagalli from her shocked daze.

"What why?" Cagalli said once more with some passion and a glare on her face. Caridad smiled down at her with some sadness on her face as she really did look like a blond-haired teenage Via.

"Right now, my own Myoken is the only Orb registered ship in Lagrange Three and needed to continue the investigation into what happened here. Also, I may have to chase after that new Alliance ship that was built at the colony to further figure out what happened here. Hence, you cannot stay onboard for much longer and I cannot transfer you over to one of the independent ships now helping us for we cannot have anyone know you were on the colony as of the destruction of the colony," she explained with the careful patience of a mother and a bit of command authority of a military officer. This saw Cagalli calm a bit down and blink in some confusion at what her aunt was now saying.

"Why shouldn't I have been known to be on the colony when it was destroyed?" she asked in her confusion, making Caridad smile once more sadly.

"Because with the destruction of the colony and what happened with the Alliance on said colony, it is a political hot potato right now. Therefore, we cannot let it be known you were on the colony for that may make said potato a bit hotter in the scheme of things. Besides I do not think your father would want any of this to splash on you politically," she mentioned making the young teen who only had recently been made Lord Uzumi's heir take a few more moments to get what Caridad was telling her at this moment.

"Okay, then. How am I going to be snuck off the ship and back home?" she asked with a frown on her face. She did not like it, but she understood, barely, what was going on. Her aunt smiled a bit and chuckled as she remembered what she had planned to get Cagalli back to the mainland promptly.

"Well first of all I need you to retell that story you told me along with whatever data you managed to find out about the Alliance's project on the colony to one of my officers to further help us with the investigation," she mentioned with a more military manner and bearing looking down at Cagalli who looked kind of a bit annoyed that she had to talk to someone about what had happened to her over the past couple of days. She understood the reason why but was still kind of annoyed.

"Then we load you onboard the ship's Pinnace Class Shuttle which with some exterior boosters attached to the side of the shuttle will allow it to make it back to Earth orbit in record time and from there onto the mainland itself. Meanwhile, we will be telling everyone around here that we sent it off back to the mainland with what we currently know about what had happened. As with the Blackout N-Jammers Units ZAFT has in orbit has cut off direct radio communications from making it to the planet an in-person report and such would be needed. You will be disguised as a junior officer from my ship's company and since not many know your face right now you can easily slip past anyone observing what is going on here," Caridad continued with a small smirk on her face. While those living in space had other means to communicate with those on Earth itself, like laser links and other such means, Orb recently introduced a new communication system that allowed free instant communication between the different units of the new communication system.

"What's a Pinnace Class?" Cagalli mentioned with a frown and tilt of her head in some confusion making Caridad blink in some surprise before sighing and moving across the quarters to look at the pencil sketch of her ship.

"When the new Orb Space Defense Forces was first being formed some idea for a new space warship design was being considered. Including a variant of the popular and ubiquitous Nike Class Light Cruiser which sports a Pinnace Class Shuttle docked externally underneath the ship's bow. However soon afterwards it was decided that the new space warship design for the OSDF would be based on that of the Izumo as it was already around and very simple to build with its modular nature. Still, when the new ships of the class were being constructed someone had the bright idea to include a Pinnace Class integrated into the new Izumo Class design which is located here on the ship right in front of the ship's ventral turret bay," she mentioned pointing at the sketch of the ship which clearly showed a weird looking attachment at that part of the ship. An attachment that did indeed resemble some sort of lightweight shuttle design. However, before Cagalli could question anything further an alarm started up surprising the two of them.

"Action Stations! We are now at Alert-Level One! Action Stations! Captain Yamato to the bridge! Captain Yamato to the bridge!" came the call over the ship's intercom making Caridad blink in some surprise before looking over at her niece to see her confused as well and a bit scared of what was going on right now.

"Stay here Cagalli. I shall see what is going on right now," Caridad directed her before retrieving her cap from the hook and running out of the quarters towards the distant bridge of her command leaving Cagalli to blink in some confusion.

Radio Room
OSDS Myoken
Lagrange Three, Earth Sphere
Over an Hour Later

"Basically, if it wasn't for the assistance of Mister Lowe Gear and his Team there would have been further damage to the remaining prototypes. Not to mention whatever those pirates had originally planned on doing here," the figure of Captain Yamato said to the large video screen on one wall of the ship's radio room, located right behind the ship's bridge. Thanks in part to Orb's new advanced communication system she could provide her superiors with dedicated reports without any interference from any jamming or anyone listening into said report. On the video screen in front of her was the figure of her country's leader Lord Uzumi Nara Attha and the figure of a red-vested woman that she did not know but was introduced earlier as Erica Simmons of Morgenroete and the leader of the Astray Project.

"Very good Captain. I am quite glad you managed to recover four of the prototypes, but you mentioned that you had passed on the MBF-P01 Astray Red Frame Prototype to that of this Mister Gear and his team. Any particular reason for that?" Lord Uzumi asked with a frown on his bearded face, while the face of the woman at his side looked a bit thoughtful. The captain sighed at this question before shaking her head.

"Honestly my lord, I only had room in my hangar for three of the prototypes with all the extra parts and such for said mobile suits my men recovered from the chunk of the colony's factory district. We also managed to recover numerous supplies and parts from the Alliance's G-Project, therefore my hangar and cargo bay are quite full at the moment. That is even with loading the remains of the sixth prototype and whatever parts recovered that I did not have room for in the Pinnace before I launched it. Also, Mister Gear was quite persuasive about him keeping the Red Frame in his possession. Besides he did help us even though we had taken him and the rest of his team into custody," she answered a shrug of her shoulders at her leader. He nodded at this with a frown before sighing and looking over at Miss Simmons at his side.

"Do you have any objection to this Chief Simmons?" he asked her with a concerned look on his face. The woman simply chuckled lightly before looking through the camera at the captain.

"No. I do not have any objection to Captain Yamato and her crew retaining the Blue, Silver, Green, or Yellow Frames Lord Uzumi. As that was part of her original mission after all. I also do not have any objection to this Mister Gear retaining the Red Frame for their own use. I just require that the captain and her crew keep be appraised of any data on the four prototypes under her command," she mentioned before looking back at Lord Uzumi and continued, "I shall see about sending a courier to Barnacle to have my old friend send the data on the Red Frame sometime tomorrow."

This made the leader of the Orb Union nod at the woman before turning his attention back to Captain Yamato who remained standing at attention in front of the radio's room camera. He now looked a bit less of a leader and more like a concerned father.

"That said, what of my daughter Captain?" he asked in some concern making Caridad settle back from attention.

"She is on the Pinnace disguised as one of my junior officers overseeing the parts and such, we shoved into the cargo bay of the shuttle. Therefore, she should be back home in a few hours' time Uzumi," she mentioned with a nod of her head before eying the woman at his side and deciding to give a hint at what was coming his way with his daughter now knowing a bit of her remaining true family and past.

"I also let her keep a picture of my sister as we had a lengthy discussion about her before this little pirate attack of ours," she mentioned with a small smile on her lips making Uzumi on the other end of the camera blink in some confusion for a moment before his eyes widened at what she was telling him. Miss Simmons just raised an eyebrow in some confusion before she got that whatever was just said wasn't for her ears to hear therefore ignored the look on her leader's face.

"Understood. I think that is about it captain," he mentioned with a nod and started to reach for the control to end the communication between the two of them. However, the raised hand of Caridad stopped him, making him frown at her.

"My lord what about my earlier request?" she asked making the man look a bit surprised before he looked off camera in some thought for a brief moment before looking back at the camera.

"Can you do this without making things worse for us?" he asked making Caridad look a bit offended, but she understood what he was saying to her.

"Yes, they will have the most complete story on what happened with the colony. Besides I figured I return what my people took from their G-Project," she mentioned with a shrug of her shoulder making Lord Uzumi smile slightly a bit at this before nodding at her.

"Very well, once the Serpent Tail Mercenary Group and the Izumo arrive then you can start tracking down the Alliance's new Assault Ship. I too think they would have the most up-to-date story on what the heck had happened on the colony," he mentioned making her nod with a smile on her face. This saw Uzumi once more reach for the control to shut off the communication before he stopped once more but at his hand.

"That said, go get some rest Caridad. You look like you need it," he mentioned before tapping the control making Caridad blink in some surprise before she nodded knowing that he was most likely quite correct. A moment later, the screen went black as the communication link was cut off between the ship and the mainland. Caridad sighed at this before rubbing her eyes everything going on since she first discovered the destruction of her home hadn't really gotten her any sort of rest outside of that brief discussion with her niece. Therefore, Lord Uzumi would be quite correct, before she suddenly smiled as a thought entered her head. A moment later, she pressed a button on the controls of the nearby internal communications unit.

"Yes Captain?" the voice of Commander Reed came through the hidden speakers in the room a few seconds later.

"The report on the pirate attack and everything else going on is now finished, Commander. That said, I shall take a few hours to rest in my main cabin, so you have the bridge and command of the ship till this evening. Though please if anything further goes on with the search or the appearance of the Izumo feel free to contact me," she ordered the man before turning away from the advanced communication equipment that dominated the small room.

"Understood Captain. Have a good rest, I shall take care of things here," the amused-sounding voice of the commander soon came back before a click sounded signaling the end of the connection making her roll her eyes before exiting the room entirely and making for her main cabin to get some actual rest in some form of gravity.

Post Chapter Notes

Well, that was the second chapter of this new story of mine. And I must say I was really surprised I managed to get it finished. I was kind of coming to a stop with the whole idea before I recently decided to come back to the whole idea. The whole thing was quite frustrating to me as many parts of this story kind of fought me to write. This included the mentioned parts in the last chapter and the whole main battle scene with the pirates in this chapter. It only gets a brief mention at the end, but I really couldn't get the whole darn scene to work correctly. As I took the basic idea of the battle from the Astray Manga and inserted the Murakumo into the story replacing that of the Serpent Tail group. I also put in a few neutral ships into the whole thing and everything kind of fell apart in the long run. Therefore, I kind of lost any sort of interest in the story, but I have since gotten a bit more interest in the whole story and come back to it. Still, a few quick things to go over before I try to start on the next chapter of this story of mine.

The first bit is that since I first wrote this whole thing, I have made a few different changes to the overall storyline. The first major thing changed would be the change of Captain Yamato's ship from that of my own created Nike Class design to that of a design based on a modified form of the canon Izumo Class design. As I mainly questioned the reason for a second entire class of ships alongside the Canon-built Izumo Class ships at this point in the story. Therefore, made the decision to change the whole ship design, and I came up with the Izumo Class Space Battlecruiser design, for those tech-hounds and such feel free to hit up the Gundam Fanon page on said design. It is a bit different from that of the original Izumo Class design, with one new feature seen in the previous chapter, and a second one seen here in this chapter.

The first of course was the linear cannons replacing those of the Lohengrin Cannons along either side of the ship. These weapons make up the secondary armament of the ship alongside the canon Gottfried Turrets along the front end of the ship. They are used briefly in the last chapter and will be a main part of the ship's offensive options in the rest of the story. That said, they kind of fold up similar to the Valiant Guns on the Archangel Class though instead of mainly pointing forward with the Archangel they unfold pointing backwards. If that makes any sort of sense at all really in the scheme of things. Shrug.

Anyways. The second major change to the design was of the addition of the Pinnace Class Orbital Shuttle, Salamis/Magallan Style, on the ship's ventral bow. Though for the Murakumo and her sisters, this would be right in front of the ventral main turret. This also prevents this bottom section from having the same new torpedo launchers built into the top portion. This mainly was kept in the story from the first version to get Cagalli back to Earth in a timely matter, along with the canonically half-destroyed Gold Frame in its cargo bay.

This brings us to the change to the Astray Project. As in canon, there are five official Astray Prototype frames produced by the project. However, here I mentioned there are six prototypes instead of five. The Silver and White Frame are brand new designs I created for this story which are based on ideas I had for similar named mobile suit designs for some of my other Gundam SEED story ideas. The MBF-P04 Silver Frame is a dedicated command machine, while the Green Frame goes from the MBF-P04 model number to that of the MBF-P05, which it along with the new MBF-P06 Yellow Frame is pretty much the same as the other canon Astray Frame Prototypes. Basically, bog-standard X100 series machines complete with head guns, beam rifles, beam sabers, and shield combo. The only difference between them all is their different colors, and the Gold and Silver Frames are rated Command-Level machines complete with a few extra pieces of equipment included in their designs. This does include the canon ability of the Frame Prototypes to raise their backpacks for extra equipment.

All that said, I bet you are wondering about why Orb is keeping the Blue Frame, while Lowe still gets the Red Frame. Well, if you noticed the Serpent Tail are arriving a bit late to the party, as I replaced them overall in the larger Astray story with that of the Murakumo and her crew. So why not have the Murakumo keep the Blue Frame? This does give the ship and her crew a compliment of four mobile suits. A basic squad of mobile suits really. Which does allow Captain Yamato and her crew an easier time in the future. As I do have some plans for what is going to happen to the ship and its crew after all this mess with Heliopolis is finished.

That said. Yes, the Murakumo will indeed catch up with the Archangel eventually, but outside of that meeting and the addition of some surprises, briefly mentioned in the last part of this chapter, there will not be all that much difference overall with the general storyline of the Archangel and its crew. Kira will remain as the Strike's Pilot and the Archangel continues on with its journey to JOSH-A. However, I do want to mention some bits of the story will change in the background as I do have plans for some consequences happening to that of the PLANT Supreme Council and such for what happened at Heliopolis. So, things will change in the long run. Somewhat.

Alright, that is about it for this lengthy bit of notes, and I really need to get started on the next chapter of this lovely story of mine! Till then then folks.

deathzealotzero · Dec 1, 2023

Phase Three: A Rude Interruption

The so-called Second Battle of Heliopolis, something that many others call this particular little fight, wasn't really all that much of a battle compared to say the First Battle of Heliopolis or the more expansive Battle of Orb. No, it was more of a skirmish, one that would have the aerospace commander of the Murakumo, one Lieutenant Commander Brianna Carter, in a brand-new generation three mobile suit prototype against a dozen or so pirate-controlled aging TS-MA1 Raptor Mobile Armors. Considering that such a number of more modern TS-MA2 Moebius mobile armors couldn't stand up against even a handful of first generation ZGMF-1017 GINNs in a battle things were quite already uneven. And when said the aerospace commander is already a veteran mobile suit pilot things got even more uneven. Hence you can see why I do not place all that much importance on such a battle outside of who these pirates happened to be and who actually managed to sick them on us…
- Taken from The Queen of Space: A Look into Captain Caridad Yamato – Unabridged
Published in, The Heroes and Not, Of the Bloody Valentine War, A Short Historical Series, Circa May of Cosmic Era 73

Factory Section 22-B
Morgenroete Incorporated – Heliopolis Facility
Former Heliopolis Space Colony
Lagrange Three, Earth Sphere

Lieutenant Commander Brianna Carter smiled slightly to herself, as she turned away from the futile struggling of the unnamed Junk Tech that found this hangar as he desperately tried to fight off the two burly Orb Ground Defense Force infantrymen, and their own buddies, holding him and towards the five large figures that were a large percentage of the entire Astray Project. That does not include the two dozen MBF-M0 data development and pilot training machines located on the mainland. A project that she had put a lot of work into over the past several weeks into and one she thought would have entirely been destroyed due to the stupidity of the higher ups of Morgenroete putting what looked to be two high-scale secret mobile suit development projects right next to each other. After a moment she paused with a frown as she glanced around the hangar with that same frown on her face as she wondered what had happened with that of the final prototype before spotting what looked to be an arm of the unit off to side of the hangar which looked to be collapsed slightly from the factory located on top of the hangar somewhat collapsing. Frowning a bit at this she figured that the missing unit was trapped underneath this particular part of the building.

Looking up she watched as a pair of the Murakumo's Mistrals started to come down towards the now exposed hangar with their large work lights streaming down enlightening the entire place now that they managed to make the hole a bit bigger allowing them through and the prototypes to be carried out of the hangar. Still the light coming from the world pods gave her an easier time to see everything in the hangar making her nod in some relief for everything for the prototypes, spare parts, weapons, and other such materials appeared to be intact along the one side of the hangar that wasn't collapsed inwards, much to her own relief. Still they needed to get that debris off the final prototype, what looked to be the MBF-P01 Gold Frame thanks to the extra lighting allowing her to see the colors of the machine's intact arm, and see what state it could be in after a building fell on top of it. Therefore, her hand started to go for the radio switches on her normal suit's controls built into one forearm of the suit to contact the two Mistrals and maybe even the other two she managed to grab from the ship down to start getting the debris off when two things happened that surprised her. First the radio clicked on by itself, blaring out some sort of warning from the Murakumo that was slightly garbled in some form, while the second thing that happened was that something zooming above the now floating piece of colony wall that she was on.

"Commander! This is Lieutenant Kano from Mistral 5 relaying from the Murakumo, apparently a single Marseille Series Transport that was approaching the colony debris field acting like it was racing to help suddenly opened its central bay to dumped eighteen mixed mobile armors into space. A dozen are now attacking the ship and the recovery operation while the rest of them are now advancing on our own position!" then from her radio suddenly came the voice of one of the Mistral pilots detaining the Junk Guild Transport, over her radio making blink in outright surprise and a bit of anger as she glanced up to see yet another something flash past the piece of colony wall. She saw enough of the speeding craft to quickly identify it as an ageing TS-MA1 Raptor Mobile Armor with its almost spherical looking cockpit section. Different from that of the more streamlined main cockpit from a modern TS-MA2 Moebius mobile armor.

"Warrant Officer! See about checking that other mobile suit prototype?" she called out through her helmet speakers towards the other pilot suited figure who had accompanied her down towards the hangar. The figure gave a quick nod of their head before bounding over to one of the two nearby mobile suit prototypes. Turning around she advanced quickly towards the now still figure of the Junk Tech and the group of Orb infantry gathered around the younger man. All of whom were not looking up through the hole as yet another mobile armor flashed past the open hole.

"Yeah, Junk Tech! Please tell me you are capable of piloting a mobile suit?" she asked the young man hoping he would be a Coordinator, therefore could manage to pilot a mobile suit equipped with that of a regular-old Coordinator-Use Mobile Suit Operating System. As the Junk Guild didn't really care if you were a Natural or a Coordinator when hiring you, just if you are willing to get involved in the whole Natural vs. Coordinator debate. Not to mention they were one of the few third parties to operate Coordinator-operated mobile suits in their various mission across the entire Earth Sphere.

"Wait what?" the man asked confused for a brief moment, before he shook his head and looked over at her.

"Yes, I can with the help of my good friend 8. We actually to manage jointly pilot a stripped down Works GINN a couple times, and once a non-combat rated STF-01 Wyvern unit," the man replied with a bit of spark in his eyes as he start to lean towards her as he reached behind his back, a bit difficult with his hands handcuffed, and retrieved what looked to be a modified standard computer tablet. A tablet that displayed a very interesting looking display that made Brianna stare in some surprise for it did look quite familiar to her. She visually inspected the tablet for a brief moment before gasping in further surprise as she eventually managed to recognize what it happened to be supposed to be, something she didn't even think was possible.

"A Full-On AI Driven Mobile Suit Operating System? Where in the world did you manage to get that??" she managed to say to him nearly yelling at the man before looking back at the tablet with an almost greedy look on her face. For it could be the missing link in developing a full-on Universal Mobile Suit Operating System which would complete the Astray Project. However, she soon shook her head as, yet another pirate mobile armor flashed past their little hiding hole making her shake her head with a deep sigh.

'We don't have time for questions, Brianna!' she chided herself before turning to look at the senior of the squad of the OGDF Infantryman.

"Corporal let him go," she ordered with a frown making the young, burly looking infantryman look at her in some surprise before sighing and giving a nod to his men. That done Brianna quickly got in the face of the young Junk Tech.

"Alright Junk Tech! I am letting you take one of those Mobile Suit Prototypes for I do not have any other trained pilots to get them moving and I really do not know if there are going to be more pirates jumping us later on. Not to mention I do not have time to really sit around this area protecting your mothership as not only my own ship is under attack by these guys, but so is several unarmed civilian transports helping in the recovery effort," she calmly mentioned to the man as she stared down at him with a frown on her face. That soon disappeared as she pressed her pilot suit's faceplate with the Junk Tech's own helmet's faceplate and glared at him through both of their helmet faceplates.

"However! If you do something stupid or run off with the damn thing. I shall shoot you down myself! I will then tear your ass out of the cockpit, if you managed to still be alive, and then kicked said ass from here to the Orb mainland. You hear me!" she growled out at the young Junk Tech who reared back from her angry looking face and gulped in some fear. While the computer tablet that held the AI Driven Mobile Suit Operating System displayed a single message of: SCARY! On its main screen. Not that Brianna actually noticed it, as she was too busy glaring down at the poor Junk Tech.

"Yes ma'am!" he managed to say making her nod and leaning back from him. She then turned to look at the nearest of the prototypes over the shoulder of the man. Thanks to the light still coming from the hovering Mistral Pods she could see that it is the MBF-P02 Red Frame due to its red colored inner frame.

"Go ahead and take the Red Frame, the prototype behind you and get ready to protect your mothership," she ordered the man before turning back to the clearly amused looking Corporal at her side. Not noticing the Junk Tech scrambling away from her and towards the mentioned prototype.

"That said Corporal have your men starting to look through some of this clutter for anything interesting," she ordered the man looking at the half of the hangar that was collapsed. She was sure there should be something in there somewhere outside of the damaged Gold Frame. Not to mention from she understood the located at that particular side of the hidden hangar facility looked to be some sort of warehouse storing extra pieces of equipment, weapons, and such for the Earth Alliance's own G-Project. Something she didn't even know about till a few engineering personnel and OGDF infantry going through the various buildings stumbled onto said storage warehouse.

"Yes ma'am!" the man replied before waving his men towards the debris. That done Brianna turned her attention to the other nearby prototype and the communication that she had received earlier before securing another pilot for the prototypes.

"Understood Lieutenant! Are they attacking the Junk Guild Transport or your own Mistral?" she asked the man as she started bound over to that the nearest of the prototypes, which by the color and a bit of shine looked to be the MBF-P04 Silver Frame.

"No ma'am. They are just buzzing the transport and us, but it does seem like they are looking for something in the debris field," the man replied to her a moment later making Brianna frown in some thought at this before glancing once more upwards in some thought not even noticing the Mistrals started to land along either side of the hangar.

'That doesn't make any sense at all! Pirates would be attacking us to either get pieces of our advanced military-grade equipment to salvage, as that would be the only reason for them to directly attack military units like this, or in this case trying to get some half-way decent salvage from the colony debris. Just like the earlier scavengers we chased off earlier. So why would pirates be here searching for something in a dead colony debris field?' she thought with a frown as she started to climb up the torso section of the Silver Frame. It also didn't make any sort of sense for a large number of mobile armors to attack a space warship, like Murakumo, as it was quite armored. As unless those mobile armors had heavy weapons like heavy anti-ship missiles or a largescale beam weapon of some sort, they wouldn't even be able to do any damage to that of the ship. Especially as the armor on the ship wasn't just normal titanium ship-plate style of armor every other space warship design in the Earth Sphere sported but of the new laminated armor style which gave it quite an improvement in overall defense.

"Oh. Just got another update from the ship Commander. Apparently from the markings on their mothership, these guys appear to be members of the Clan," Lieutenant Kano spoke up once more, a bit confused, making Brianna pretty much freeze in some surprise at this reveal.

For the organization known simply as the Clan were well known throughout the Earth Sphere as a mysterious group that had their own goals and such that are not known outside of the organization itself. Thanks in part to much of its membership drawn from the equally mysterious Roma Group which sported several different so-called ark ships, which were in reality vastly different types of ships from large aging colony builder type transports to small transport shuttles, that roam along the edges of the Earth Sphere. It is unknown the reason for these people to just roam along the edges of the Earth Sphere and even some sources claim they move between that of Mars and Earth. However, both the Clan, and that of the Roma, remain quite mysterious and outside of their outright pinpoint attacks on different groups in the Earth Sphere there is no real information on them. At least to most people, for Brianna had some inkling on what they stood for as her mother had once been a member of the Roma who had told young Brianna stories about what both the Clan and that of the Roma people believed in. Along with the connections both the Clan and the Roma maintained with that of several people on Earth itself.

'Of course! Should have expected them to get involved in all this! The bastards!' she angrily thought to herself. For she knew, from the tales of her mother told her, that the Roma and therefore the Clan had two major goals, the purification of humanity from so-called undesirables, including coordinators, and saving humanity from itself through whatever means, including removing anything that they believed was an obstacle to what they believed what humanity happened to be, including the existence of coordinators. Therefore, it should come to no surprise that one of the natural allies of the Roma people was the mainline Blue Cosmos Group on Earth due to this attitude.

"Understood Lieutenant! I am currently trying to get a couple of these mobile suit prototypes up and running to see about either destroying or chasing these rats off," she managed to say to the man as she finally managed to scramble up to the top of the prototype's chest and the cockpit.

"So, stay put and keep that Junk Guild transport secure till I do so, though I did have one of the Junk Techs access to one of the prototypes. So please don't attack it when it arrives," she then ordered as she opened the cockpit of the Silver Frame and before visually inspecting with a pleased look on her face.

"Very well ma'am. I shall stay put and keep an eye on the Junk Techs then," the Lieutenant replied to her a moment later, sounding almost annoyed but Brianna was his senior officer. Snorting at this she looked over at the other nearby prototype to see the waving figure of the earlier Warrant Officer waving over at her.

"Good. Good luck out their Lieutenant," she mentioned to him with a small smile one her face before she switched her radio from connecting to the distant Mistral Pods back to the common frequency used by many Normal or Pilot Suit built-in radios.

"How does it look over there Warrant Officer?" she asked the other pilot over the radio as she reached into the cockpit to find the start-up switch and pressed it. Smiling in some pleasure as the machine some to start hum loudly as it started up from standby mode.

"Nothing looks damaged or anything Commander from what I see here. Either in the cockpit or the machine itself," the youthful voice of Warrant Officer Rinna Sera Iyasaka reported a moment later making Brianna nod and looked back over to the other, younger woman.

"Very well, go ahead and jump into the cockpit then. Let's get these machines up and ready for combat," she mentioned as she did just that and jumped into the cockpit of the Silver Frame. A moment later she settled into the cockpit seat watching as the screens started to boot up.

"What! I only have solid piloting experience in smaller Work Pods and Mobile Armors Commander! How can I take one of these guys into combat!" the other woman squawked out in some surprise to her making Brianna somewhat sigh and shake her head.

"And a single simulation of piloting an old STF-01 Wyvern mobile suit from you told me earlier Warrant Officer. That should help a lot," she mentioned to the younger woman over the radio as she started to flip switches on her controls to finish starting up the mobile suit, "Besides you have some things going for you, with having some sort of combat experience and being a Coordinator."

"That is quite true ma'am, but that was never in one of these new and shiny mobile suit prototypes. What if I get one damaged or something?" the younger woman mentioned almost nervously as she entered the cockpit even still somewhat arguing with Brianna. This made Brianna chuckle slightly before starting to get the mobile suit up from its prone position. At the corner of her eye, she noticed that the Red Frame was doing the same thing and that the two Mistral Pods had finally settled down two of the corners of the hangar shining theirs lights away from that of the three mobile suits, towards the infantrymen now carefully going through the scattered debris from the collapsed building.

"You will be fine Warrant Officer. These prototypes have a top-of-the-line Support AI to get pilots like you up to speed in some way. It should automatically trigger when you start up the mobile suit," she mentioned as she had the Silver Frame pick up the shield and beam rifle attached to the mobile suit support bed that had formerly supported the mobile suit.

"Oh. Yeah, this will help greatly," the other woman managed to say after a few moments of silence from her making Brianna nearly chuckle to herself at this whole thing. However, she soon looked up once more and grinned grimly as the two of the earlier buzzing Raptor Mobile Armors looked to be coming back around. She quickly sighted the beam rifle on the two incoming mobile armors through the hole and let off two shots from it destroying them in nice and simple explosions before then bracing the mobile suit.

"Brianna Carter! MBF-P04 Silver Frame Launching!" she called out loud and then boosted the Silver Frame upwards out of the hole and the hangar itself towards her enemies. A moment later the Blue Frame did the same behind her though it looked like it only managed to retrieve its shield making Brianna worry for a moment but that soon changed as the Blue Frame quickly slammed its shield into one of the incoming Raptor Mobile Armors sending it spiral off course before slamming itself into a nearby piece of debris destroying it. The Blue Frame then seem to almost discard its now heavily damaged shield before reaching up and retrieving one of its beam sabers from its rack which soon quickly came down to slam into another passing Raptor Mobile Armor slicing cleanly through one of the combined gun/thruster pods that flanked the unit's cockpit. Again, the pirate mobile armor sent off course before it slammed into a piece of debris destroying that one as well making Brianna raise an eyebrow in some interest.

"Impressive!" she said before looking around for the remaining pair of enemy mobile armor and saw them now racing away from the two of them. The Blue Frame seemed like it wanted to go after the two of them, but the Silver Frame simply shook its head at the other mobile suit. Before looking back down at the hole and the hangar said hole led to seeing that the Red Frame far more slowly makes it way out of the hole. Complete with its own shield and a beam rifle.

"Let them go Warrant Officer. They are no real threat right now. Besides we need to get back to the ship and the recovery operation. Who knows what such pirates could do the displaced colonists," she mentioned with almost a growl in her voice as she knew, personally, that a good ten percent of the population of Heliopolis happened to be coordinators. Therefore, a threat to what the Clan and their Roma supporters believed to be true humanity.

"Understood ma'am," the voice of the Warrant Officer replied after a moment of silence from her before Brianna suddenly looked over at the Red Frame.

"Alright Junk Tech. Just use that machine to protect your mothership and the crew that are still onboard it. The Warrant Officer and I will take care of the rest of this scum attacking our ship," she said over the radio to the other mobile suit.

"Understood," the man managed to say to her after a moment of silence making Brianna nod at him before turning her attention to that of the Blue Frame, again eying it what with it holding a single beam saber and no other weapon.

"Are you going to be okay without a beam rifle?" she asked the younger woman with a frown on her face as she eyed the other mobile suit for a moment.

"I should be yes, as I am good with a beam saber, as the rifle racked alongside the mobile suit looked to be damaged in some way therefore didn't take it along with the shield," she explained after a moment making Brianna nod in some understanding. It really shouldn't surprise her that something was damaged in the collapse of not only the colony, but the factory building on top of the hidden hangar facility. After a moment of thought she smiled slightly as she looked over to her own machine's shield.

"Still here take my shield maybe you can use it as a weapon again when needed," she mentioned disconnecting the shield from the Silver Frame's forearm mount before pushing it slightly over to the Blue Frame, who reached out to snag the slab of armor that is a mobile suit shield with one equally large hand before connecting to its own forearm mount.

"Alright let's go!" Brianna then ordered and blasted off towards the distant battle with the Blue Frame, easily keeping up with the other mobile suit. Behind them the Red Frame seemed to look around slightly before slowly making its way over to the side of the Junk Guild Transport and its attached Mistral Pods. Neither of which made any move against the now Junk Tech piloted mobile suit.

Command Bridge
OSDS Murakumo
Heliopolis Debris Field

"The ship's Laminated Armor saturation is now at ten percent!"

"CIWS Mount Two is currently damaged and out of action! Currently now retracting it back into its storage silo for repairs!"

"Incoming long range weapon fire from Enemy Mothership!"

"Bogies Ten and Twelve are coming back around for another pass!"

"Damage Control Center reports that CIWS Mount Two can be back in action within the next thirty-five minutes or so!"

"Launching Hornet Missiles from Launcher Alpha and Bravo!"

"Bogies Three and Four are now making another run for the transports!"

"Hornets have locked onto the Bogie Nine!"

"Transport Free Lance is reporting to damage to its engines from the fire from the enemy mothership!"

"Bogie Six destroyed! Bogie Nine destroyed!"

"Enemy mothership looks to be preparing to fire another salvo at the transports!"

Captain Caridad Yamato heard all of this rapid fire of various reports as the battle continued on around the Murakumo as it tried to fight off around a dozen attacking mobile armors and their hodge-podged armed mothership. However, while the mobile armors really weren't doing any sort of serious damage to that of the Murakumo what with its advanced laminated armor pretty much holding up against the tiny pinprick attacks from the mobile armors. As apparently there were not equipped with any sort of heavy anti-ship weapons, like heavy missiles, hence they were just barely able to weather down the ship's armor. Though they could still go after the ship's less-armored weapon hardpoints, as shown by one of the ship's numerous CIWS mounts was damaged by a shot from one of the passing mobile armors. However, what was going bad with this whole battle was that the mobile armors were not just making attack runs against the warship but that of the relative unarmored transports that had arrived to support the rescue operation of the now displaced residents of Heliopolis from their tiny lifeboats. So far, they haven't lost any of the transports or the other smaller craft to the enemy attacks but more than a few were now damaged including the Freelance one of the heavy Walter Class Container Transports that responded to the distress call, which just received a linear gun round to its engines from the pirate's mothership's own limited armament, a pair of lightweight linear cannons running along either side of the ship.

"That's it! CIC, I want that mothership out of my sky yesterday please!" Captain Yamato called out with a snarl from her command chair after snapping orders to another portion of the bridge crew about the damage to one of their CIWS Guns.

"With pleasure captain! Gottfried One now locked on and firing," came the smooth-sounding voice of Commander Reed from the CIC a moment later. Outside through the now covered viewports and the bridge display screens the bridge crew could see Gottfried One, the top-mounted cannon of the ship's main battery, turned slightly before then suddenly firing two large green-colored beams of high energy particles at the somewhat distant pirate mothership, a modified Marseille Series Transport. A moment later the beams could be seen suddenly stabbing into the front of the transport through the very weak regular ship-plate based armor that the ship sported. Soon afterwards a series of explosions happened along the entire length of the transport before it started to break apart into a much larger explosion. The ship has now totally sunk, making the bridge crew cheer slightly at this before once more turning to their jobs.

"Looks like they didn't manage to put up an anti-beam field in time to prevent that from happening," the Commander's voice could be heard saying from the CIC with a harsh snort and a mumbled, "Amateurs!"

This was mostly thanks to modern-day space combat, thanks in part to the still ongoing war, has started to come to an overall mature outlook since the days before the start of the war. With not only dedicated heavy ship-grade armor or defensive weapons protecting a space warship during combat, but things like anti-beam fields and flak charges to defend itself from enemy weapon fire. Either high energy beam fire or faster magnetic based projectile weapons. Then there were things like dedicated jamming tech and various types of electronic countermeasure which had started to become a thing on the modern space battlefield due to the introduction of the N-Jammers and its various more regular-old jamming-based off-shoots. Something that prevented the overall longer range combat styles of the smaller space battles that happened before the start of the current war. Therefore, taken all together, a properly fought modern space warship was a far tougher nut to crack during a space battle than the days before the start of the war. Then you could expand that to larger battles with more than one space warship on each side, basically complete fleet battles which combined all this together to really make things harder for ships to be sunk in battle. It still happened, but harder to do so.

"Sensors! What about the rest of the mobile armors?" the captain suddenly asked, ignoring her XO's mutterings and just focused on her sensor officer who at the question turned away from his station with a frown on their face.

"They are still attacking us ma'am," he replied with a frown making the captain hum in some thought of her own at this information.

'These Clan bastards really are hardcore! And look to be not the standard pirates! As normal pirates would have run when their mothership or support ship was taken out like this,' the captain thought to herself with a scowl of her own. As she eyed one of the screens along the sides of the bridge which currently showed that of the huddled civilian transports that had managed to arrive to help in the rescue operation.

'I really do not know if we can hold them off from the transports! Even with that Mothership sunk!' Caridad worriedly thought to herself as she watched as another pair of pirate mobile armors flashed past the viewports of her ship's bridge on a heading towards one of the nearby smaller transports that was trying to use the Murakumo CIWS guns as a cover against the attacking pirates. However, she really shouldn't have been all that worried as two, smaller, beams of high energy particles suddenly appeared from nowhere and speared right through the engine pods of one of the mobile armors trying to attack another of the CIWS guns of the Murakumo engulfing that particular machine in a small fireball destroying it.

"Huh. Bogie Three destroyed!" came a surprised and confused sounding voice from the bridge's sensor station.

"What was that?" the captain said with a blink of surprise turning to look at her sensor officer for a further answer, however a cheer from the CIC prevented the officer from replying.

"Looks like the MBF-P03 Blue Frame and the MBF-P04 Silver Frame are now active and joining the battle!" Commander Reed called out with a gruff yet excited sounding voice while the rest of the CIC crew seem to cheer once more at this statement. The captain hearing this widening her eyes just in time to watch as a pair of mobile suits race after the earlier buzzing pirate mobile armors. The Silver-colored machine raised its hand-carried rifle once more before firing off another one of those lighter high energy particle beams at one of the mobile armors, this time right through the machine's centrally mounted cockpit destroying it, while the Blue-colored machine raced ahead of its wingman before slashing what looked to be some sort of sword made out of pink-colored high energy particles through the center mass of the second mobile armor destroying it as well. A moment later Captain Yamato heard a shout of excitement from the CIC's tactical section as three of her ship's CIWS suddenly tore apart another of the pirate mobile armors in a three-way crossfire.

"Bogies Ten, Twelve, and Two now destroyed!" came the shout from the sensor station making another cheer go through the bridge's crewmen.

"Huh. Well looks like the Lieutenant Commander did indeed manage to finish her own mission after all," the captain mentioned with a sigh of relief and watched as three further pirate mobile armors fell to the two prototype mobile suits. Including one that was suddenly smashed aside by the Blue Frame's shield sending said mobile armor into a death spiral where it would be then picked off by one of the ship's CIWS cannons. The other two, the ones trying to attack the defenseless transports, fell to a simple one shot from the Silver Frame's own beam rifle while another pirate mobile armor fell to her ship's own lightweight anti-craft missiles.

"Huh. Looks like the Commander and that other pilot are herding the poor bastards towards us ma'am. Giving them less options to evade the fire from our CIWS guns and anti-craft missiles," came the impressed sounding voice of Commander Reed from the CIC Pit. Something that made the captain snort at this statement.

"Did you forget that simulation we went through right after she came aboard commander? And the whole overall strategy discussion the three of us had after said simulation?" the captain mentioned back with a small smile on her face. A moment later she heard her XO's groan as he suddenly remembered both the simulation and that discussion.

"That was the one where we simmed out a pirate attack on the ship, complete with a pair of Nike Class Cruiser both with full Mobile Armor complements, against the Murakumo also with a full complement of six mobile suits?" he asked her soon afterwards, making her laugh slightly. While the discussion was quite interesting, as it covered Brianna Carter's own experiences operating mobile suits with full on space warships, and her own ideas to use the Murakumo alongside her deployed mobile suits which were drawn from said experiences.

"Correct Commander," she replied after calming down from her laughter.

"Oh. I had forgotten about that in the poor excuse of simulations that followed it. Not to mention I kind of blanked on the whole strategy discussion we had afterwards," the man mentioned with a snort of laughter from him making her snort as well before she looked up seeing that last of the pirate mobile armors getting shredded apart from her ship's CIWS guns. A moment later the two mobile suit prototypes entered a close escort formation around the Murakumo.

"That does remind me Commander. Make sure the Damage Control Teams know my displeasure, for they should have been able to repair that CIWS mount faster. There is a reason all of our weapons sport the ability to retract into storage silos after all," she mentioned to the man as he floated out of the CIC Pit with the battle pretty much now finished. Unlike other space warships the new Izumo Class ships sported the ability to retract its weapons into storages silos, mainly to get them under the ship's armor, and also, an easier time to repair them in the field.

"I did notice that myself ma'am. Though it all depends on what sort of damages were done to the mount, but I shall see about discussing it with them soon and if the damage was something that could have been quickly repaired, I shall let them know of your displeasure," the man mentioned with a nod of his head towards her. However, Caridad reached out and grabbed the man pulling him over to her side.

"However, before you do that, please go check on Lady Cagalli who is locked up in my stateroom. I am sure she is quite worried about what had been going on," she directed him in an almost whisper to him making him nod once more to her.

"Understood cap'n," he said to her before pushing off against her command chair and floating over to the main bridge hatch. That done the captain turned to look at her communications officer occupying one of the stations that hovered above and slightly behind that of her own command seat.

"Communications. I want to talk to Lieutenant Commander Carter and after I am done with that I shall do a quite conference call with the captains of the various transports," she directed the young woman who occupied that particular station.

"Yes ma'am, I shall set up a connection with the Commander's mobile suit in just a moment," she replied back a moment later, however, before she could the captain frowned and look back up at her.

"Also, when you set up that conference call, see about getting a damage report from the captain of the Free Lance. For it does have one of the largest cargo, therefore passenger, capacity of all of the transports after all," she told the young communications officer making her nod once more at her captain.

"I shall see about getting that report from them then ma'am," she replied and then returned her attention to her station. A moment later she mumbled something into her communication headset and then looked down at the captain.

"I have Commander Carter and transferring her to your handset ma'am," the officer replied few moments later making the captain nod up at the young woman before picking up the phone shaped hand set of her command chair's own built in communication unit. Soon afterwards the unit's own very small communication screen flashed and started to show a small video shot of the lieutenant commander's helmeted head shown on the screen.

"I see that you managed to complete your own mission Commander," Caridad mentioned to the other woman who seem to smile, almost proudly, at this statement from the captain.

"Correct ma'am. Though I must report that the first prototype looked to be heavily damaged, though repairable, from the results of whatever battle happened inside the colony. The other five prototypes remained pretty much intact and active as you can see with the two units I brought to the battle," the aerospace commander reported making the captain nod in some understanding.

"Understood. Still quite relieved you managed to get two of the prototypes online and readied for combat so fast. That battle was going to start getting a bit ugly if you hadn't stepped in when you did," the captain replied back with a sigh and shake of her head.

"Yeah, kind of noticed that when I arrived ma'am. Glad I managed to head off any further attempt by the pirates to further attack the transport and the rest of the rescue operation," the other woman said with a sigh of her own as she looked off to one side for a brief moment before looking back at the camera.

"Still Captain. Do you have any orders for me and my wingman?" the mobile suit pilot then asked her making the captain briefly look thoughtful as she give a quick glance at the now uncovered bridge viewports and the surroundings around the ship itself.

"Yes Commander. Keep your two mobile suits out front of the fleet in a defensive stance and ready for any more surprises. At least till the overall larger rescue operation is quite finished," the captain said with some authority making the younger woman nod in agreement with this order.

"I shall be talking to the various transport captains momentarily in a conference call therefore hopefully we should finish up the entire thing as soon as possible," the captain continued on making the mobile suit pilot look in some interest at this before she nodded.

"I understand captain. I shall set up my units to defend the fleet from any sort of further surprises from pirates or otherwise," the mobile suit pilot said to her captain making the older woman sign in some relief at this before a motion from her communications officer saw her looking over her shoulder at the young woman to see her looking down at her. When the officer saw that she had caught her captain's attention the officer quickly tapped her headset and a jerk of her head towards her own station.

"Alright Commander looks like the conference call is set up and ready. So, I shall see you later," the captain mentioned as she turned back to the tiny communication monitor built into one of her command chair's handrests. A moment later the screen went black as the communication link was shut down when the captain placed her handset back onto its place. She then looked up towards the communication officer and gave her a quick nod of her own.

"Yes, captain I have the conference ready and waiting for you I am also now sending the so called quick and dirty damage report from the Free Lance to your secondary screen right now," the officer said mentioning the second of the two screens built into armrests. One was for the purpose of communications while the other mainly used a sort of tiny computer screen to display different pieces of information. The captain smiled up at her communication officer at this before giving the screen a quick look and raised an eyebrow in some surprise. For according to the report, the damage to the engines of the Free Lance wasn't as bad as she feared, and appears what damage that was done could be repaired in matter of a few hours.

"I heard that the Walter Class transports were rugged and such but jeez did not expect something like this," she mumbled to herself before sighing and looking back up at the communication officer one more time.

"Alright transfer the conference to the main screen please Ensign," she ordered the woman before straightened up in her command chair as the bridge's main screen, located just above the bridge's main viewport, flashed as it connected into the conference call, and then smaller windows started to pop up as the captains of the other ships started to connect themselves to the call. With that Captain Yamato got into the deep discussion with her fellow captains, as the rescue operation continued ever onwards with several Mistrals and other types of Work Pods started the work of getting the gathered lifeboats onboard the numerous transports and other small craft gathered just outside of that of the new Heliopolis Debris Field.

Main Hangar
OSDS Murakumo
Few Hours Later

A few hours after the end of the brief battle with that of the pirates from the organization known as the Clan saw Lieutenant Commander Brianna Carter, aerospace commander of the OSDF Murakumo, standing on the catwalk above that of the ship's main hangar looking down on the five prototype mobile suits that now called the hangar home. Though the fifth wasn't one of the prototype designs that was developed by Morgenroete for the use of the Orb National Defense Force, but that of the Earth Alliance and its own Forces. It along the several different sized containers that were stacked neatly in the hangar's sixth mobile suit scaffold had been recovered from the remains of the storage warehouse used by the Earth Alliance's secret G-Project to store various parts and such for the project's own prototype mobile suits. Apparently, the Earth Alliance didn't manage to recover any of it before they left the colony behind. Brianna eyed the now entirely covered fifth mobile suit with a frown on her face. She had known about the G-Project and that the Astray Project Prototypes where heavily based on that of the X100 Series Frame of the G-Project, like this particular mobile suit, but still she was surprised by the sheer similarity between the prototypes of the two mobile suit development projects.

"Should have guessed that something was going on when I first saw that G-Project data," she mumbled to herself angrily staring down at the G-Project Prototype.

"This could be further evidence to ZAFT and the PLANT Supreme Council that Orb has finally fully sided with the Earth Alliance and would see ZAFT fully gunning for us," she continued on with what could almost be called a full-on snarl of anger at the covered mobile suit prototype. As she along with other Astray Project personnel onboard the ship had been quite shocked at the glaring resemblance between the two different series of prototypes.

"God, what in the world did the Sahakus think they were doing in setting up on the project? At least they could have done something similar to Sphinx with their Wyverns, what with them only slightly based, design-wise, on that of the YMF-01 GINN Generation One mobile suit design and go on a slightly different design route to the G-Project prototypes. No, they had kept an overall same overall design base as the G-Project X100 series machines," she went on with her little hushed rant as she continued to glare down at that of the prototype G-Project machine. Suddenly she sighed and shook her head at her anger at this entirely stupid idea.

"I really hope that this doesn't blow up in our faces," she managed to say looking back down at the five mobile suit prototypes.

"Lieutenant Commander? Can you come here a minute we are having some difficulties in finishing up the loading of the Gold Frame into the Pinnace," came the outright loud bellow of Senior Chief Petty Officer Jona Halsey, the overall man in charge of the hangar of the Murakumo from the near the front of the hangar where both the ship's catapult and the loading station of the ship's docked Pinnace Class Shuttle were located.

"On my way Chief!" she bellowed back before pushing off from the catwalk and started to float down towards the 'floor' of the ship's hangar without a single worried or angered glance back at the covered fifth mobile suit in the hangar.

-o-End-o-

Post Chapter Notes

Okay. Before I say anything else about this chapter. I need to apologize to you all, as this really should have been somewhat covered during the last chapter. However, I was having some issues with the battle and such while writing chapter two over a year ago when I first started to write this whole story. I could not really to work right in the chapter, and when I decided to get back to writing this story and start preparing it to post online, I made the decision to kick what I planned for the original chapter three to that of chapter four and place the battle in this chapter. Still it was a bit difficult to actually sit down and write it. I noticed right off the bat when looking over the single scene I had already written for this battle that I really didn't use all of the weapons of Caridad's ship correctly. As I really didn't use the darn missile launchers like I should have, for it is something that I actually liked about SEED space battles, the ability of missiles to not only be used for anti-ship duties but defending a warship from attacking enemy craft. Still don't think I gave the missile launchers of the Murakumo an overall proper introduction in the combat scenes. Shrug. Still tried to make them viable in some way. Hope I did okay with that. Sigh.

Moving on.

Okay. First of all, I have introduced a few more of my older Gundam SEED ideas, the first of which would be the TS-MA1 Raptor Mobile Armor which is the precursor design to the TS-MA2 Moebius we see the Earth Alliance using in the series. For the purpose of this story the Raptor is heavily visually based on the Red Tail Zipcraft from the Cowboy Bebop anime series, as it does, kind of, have the looks of a Gundam SEED mobile armor design. The bubble cockpit design has been changed to be fully enclosed as a result. I do know that apparently in some sources the main mobile armor design before the introduction of the Moebius was actually the Mistral. Something that I am not a fan of really, so I introduced my own old mobile armor design. I may or may not eventually make a Gundam Fanon page for the design in the near future. If I do so I shall include a link on any of the forums I am posting this story on. Readers on FFN will have to go to one of the forums to follow the link to said fanon pages for this story.

The second major idea I introduced, which shall be explained a bit more in future chapters, is that the Marseille III Class Transport, seen with Mu's mothership in the first couple of episodes and more so with the HOME original mothership of Lowe's Junk Guild Team during the first couple volumes of the Astray Manga, is actually part of a larger series of ships. Basically, the Marseille Series of Ships shares the same basic hull design and only differs on their main overall mission. For example, the ship that was used by the Earth Alliance to transport Mu and the G-Weapon pilots to Heliopolis is the Marseille III Class Merchant Carrier which sacrifices a tiny amount of its cargo capacity to carry a small squad of mobile armors for its protection. It also sports a half-dozen CIWS guns for direct defense of the ship. Meanwhile, the HOME is a modified version of the Marseille II Class Medium Transport that pretty much uses the main cargo bay to not only carry cargo but some mobile work pods and a mobile suit or two. Finally, the Marseille I Class Spacecraft Carrier is a half-decent carrier for mobile armor, launches, and work pods, which appears as the Pirate Mothership in this chapter. There are other ship classes in the entire series, like a dedicated medical transport which makes an appearance in one of the ASTRAY Shorts, though they are not all that important right now. Again, I may end up writing out a full-on fanon wikia page for the series on the Gundam Fanon Wikia in the near future.

The final overall old idea that I am using in this story is the introduction of another first-generation mobile suit design to the overall larger story, the STF-01 Wyvern. An idea that is supposed to go hand-in-hand with that of the Nike Class Light Cruiser that I mainly introduced in the last chapter, as a third-party use mobile suit design. The only difference from the older version of this idea is that I am using a vastly different base for the mobile suit design, and it also sports a different development background as I am, kind-of, tying its development into that of the basic GINN design, somewhat. It is also not produced in any decent number as there is only a small number of customers interested in a solely Coordinator-use mobile suit, especially with the GINN, and its different variants, around in larger numbers. Still, it does allow me to give another faction mobile suits that are not a GINN, which I never understood how that worked. As the GINN during the majority of the first Bloody Valentine War was a top-of-the-line mobile suit that is used in large numbers by ZAFT. Therefore, it is a bit hard for any sort of third party to get their hands on such mobile suits, outside of salvaging damaged machines. Hence, the reason I created such a mobile suit design.

Okay. A couple of things to mention and that should be it for these notes.

So, I actually like the whole idea of the last scene in this chapter, as I have always wondered the reason Morgenroete decided to make their Astrays look so similar to the Alliance's own G-Weapons. They could still have used the G-Project data and the basic X100 Frame, and made it look different from a G-Weapon. However, they instead just copied the X100 Frame almost entirely and then built a new mobile suit design on top of the frame. A design that did burrow numerous design elements from the X100 Series G-Weapons. Speaking of which, those who have read my previous Gundam SEED stories, or read my various posts on Gundam threads on a few different online forums, will have a very good idea on the mentioned G-Weapon now being carried by the Murakumo. That said, it will be a bit different from another instance of it in my other stories or ideas. And yes, it is the mentioned surprise that would be given over to the Archangel when the Murakumo finally catches up with it.

Then I need to mention that if you haven't noticed it, I am using some story elements from that of the Astray manga series. I am sure you noticed this over the past couple of chapters what with the Astray Junk Guild Team making an appearance in the last chapter and Lowe getting his hands on the Red Frame in this chapter. This includes the introduction of the Clan, though I have expanded on it a bit in this story, over what it is in the latter Astray mangas. This will continue on with the coming chapters, including a very different version of the Artemis arc, and the saving of the Silverwind. This was mainly to give my muse and myself a better idea of how to write the story. Originally, I wasn't sure on how I would write such a story outside of the main storyline of Gundam SEED and the idea of using bits of the Astray storyline to give my own story a bit more of a foundation.

Shrug.

The other thing I need to mention to you all is that with this chapter and the next one. I am no longer writing it as part of National Novel Writing Month. So, while I try to keep writing the story, I may lose interest in writing it. Or at least my Muse getting distracted by yet another bright idea. Grumble. Decided to give you all a warning about it before something happens to distract me.

Okay. That is about it! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the battle. I shall see about finishing up the next chapter as soon as possible and post it as well. Till then!

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Queen of Space [Novella]

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