Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam SEED or any of its characters.
Chapter 10: To Slay the Beast
October 6, CE 72
"How far out is she?" Sanford asked.
"Still within visual range of the PLANTs," the nearest technician reported. "We're getting a lot of chatter too. It sounds like ZAFT or the Orb forces will be coming after the shuttle momentarily."
Predictable enough, the scientist thought. Since it was just the one shuttle, the girl she'd spoken to had probably left without permission, which was bound to make the people in charge upset.
"The shuttle is going to be overtaken," she said. "Do we have any ships nearby?" The technician nodded.
"Aye, Ma'am; a supply ship crosses paths with the shuttle in about eighty minutes."
"I'm going to get the lab equipment ready," Sanford said. "Tell the supply ship to intercept, and walk the girl through deactivating the shuttle's IFF transponder and emergency beacon."
Archangel, Bridge
"What's going on?" Roger asked as he entered the Orb ship's nerve center. Athrun and Cagalli were already there, and Captain Ramius was on the line to another ship.
"Track the shuttle's signal as far as you can, Commander Joule, and make sure your mobile suits are ready," the older woman said. "These people give you a reception you won't forget." She finished speaking and put the handset back into her chair's armrest. "Helm, take us out." Roger was jolted slightly as the ship accelerated out of the docking frame.
"Okay then," Roger said. "Let's try this again. What's going on?"
"Flay took one of our escape shuttles out," Athrun said. "She has Kira with her." Roger frowned.
"Where does she think she's going?" he asked. Athrun didn't respond, nor did Cagalli or Captain Ramius, but they all bore the same grim expression. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Cagalli shook her head.
"They probably engineered the virus Kira has," the blonde said, "so they probably have the cure." Roger shook his head in disbelief.
"Yeah," he said, "and they're probably going to kill Kira as soon as they get what they need from him. Not to mention that unless I missed something, Flay is a Natural, so they'll probably kill her as soon as possible." As though to make things worse, one of the petty officers, Tonomura if Roger remembered correctly, spoke up from the CIC.
"Captain, the shuttle's IFF signal just disappeared!" he exclaimed. Captain Ramius nodded solemnly.
"Commander Herikawa," she said, "can we estimate a heading based on the information we've got?"
"Aye, Captain," the reply came up from the CIC. "It'll just be a basic transfer orbit, though. It won't be possible to extrapolate course corrections."
"Understood," the captain replied. "It's the only thing we have to go on for now, so use it as best you can." Roger turned to Athrun.
"I take it she's at least going to get court-martialed when we get her back," the Alliance pilot said. "I mean, Flay's a nice girl and all, but Sara and four other soldiers died to rescue the guy she's currently returning; we can't just shrug this off." Athrun sighed.
"The situation is more complicated than you know," he said. Roger shook his head in exasperation.
"Why, because she's your friend?" he asked. "I've got nothing against her but come on!" Athrun didn't respond to this, and Roger turned and left the bridge. He understood bending the rules a little out of friendship, but there were limits, and this would put them all at risk. God only knew what was coming next.
A small pink object rolled up to Roger's foot as he tried to leave the bridge, moving its flaps a couple of times.
"Haro! This is a problem!" the machine shouted. Roger's eye twitched.
The Bouncy Ball from Hell is not helping!
Nelson-class battlecruiser EAS Churchill, Bridge
"We'll be entering Martius nearspace in just over ten minutes, Captain," Ensign Abby Myles reported from her station at the helm. Seated in the captain's chair, Captain Roland Harris nodded his approval.
"Alright," he said, shifting his attention. The bridge of a Nelson-class ship was a simple, open space, with a semicircular array of crew stations just in front of the windows, and the captain's chair mounted perhaps thirteen feet behind them. A small holographic generator sat just over six feet in front of the captain's chair, and a floor to ceiling combat grid was positioned just behind said chair, but otherwise the space was unobstructed. This allowed the commanding officer to address any member of the bridge crew directly. At the moment, he turned to the last station on the left, where Petty Officer 1st Class Lewis Packard sat.
"Send laser transmissions to the Johnson and Carter; they'll want to have their best diplomatic faces on," Harris said with a wry grin. None of them were particularly looking forward to the inevitable politics of working with ZAFT. "Send one to the Fitzgerald as well."
"Aye, Sir," Packard replied. "Two laser transmissions and one lost cause coming right up." This prompted chuckling from the bridge crew. Commodore Marcus Vaughn, the man in charge of the Agamemnon-class carrier Fitzgerald, wasn't known for being Coordinator friendly. Rumor had it that he was sympathetic to Blue Cosmos, and Harris suspected that it was only by virtue of his skill on the battlefield that Vaughn had been picked for the mission.
"Transmissions sent," Packard reported. "Messaged ships have confirmed receipt. Are we sending to the Eurasians as well?" Harris shook his head. The four Atlantic Federation ships were being accompanied by a Eurasian force: two Drakes and a Nelson. While they were ostensibly working with their Atlantic Federation counterparts, the Eurasians had been keeping to themselves thus far. Vaughn and the Fitzgerald were in overall command as far as standard military went, and the commodore would no doubt rein the foreign troops in if they did something out of line, but there wasn't much conversation going on otherwise.
That's par for the course, though, Harris thought. The Atlantic Federation and Eurasian Federation have never been on terribly good terms. Harris dropped the thought as the bridge doors slid open and a new officer entered the room.
"I hear we're getting close," the new arrival said. Harris nodded.
"I've had the other Atlantic Federation ships notified," he replied. "The Eurasians seem to prefer operating on their own, so I haven't said anything to them. How are your people doing, Captain Roanoke?"
"No complaints," the other officer said with a shrug. Neo Roanoke was well built and of average height. His truly distinguishing characteristics were his wavy blonde hair, his cheerful personality, which had surprised many of the Churchill's crewmembers, and the imposing, horned helmet-mask that he wore, covering his eyes and the upper half of his face. While Harris wore the standard white and grey Atlantic Federation uniform, Roanoke's grey and black attire marked him as a member of the Special Forces.
"I apologize if your machine isn't being serviced properly," Harris said. "Our deck crew is used to working with 105 Daggers, so your soldiers' custom models are no problem. The mobile armor, on the other hand…" Neo waved the captain's worry off.
"It's understandable," he said. "It's a brand new design, and they seem to be doing a fine job so far." The two soldiers discussed other goings on aboard the ship for the next few minutes, until Abby spoke up again, informing them that they were officially entering ZAFT-controlled space.
"Alright," Harris said, turning to address Packard, "Try hailing Martius. We'll need to get permission to dock and contact our ZAFT liaison." Lewis nodded quickly and spoke into his headset, and a moment later he looked back at Harris and Neo.
"Sir, they're requesting to speak directly to the commanding officer," he said, brow furrowing above his brown eyes. Harris looked over at Neo.
"Captain Roanoke?" he asked, but the masked man shook his head.
"I rank higher, but you're in charge of the ship for now," he said. Harris nodded and looked back to Lewis.
"On screen, Officer Packard." A moment later, the main view screen displayed the face of a green-uniformed ZAFT officer with blue eyes and short brown hair. "This is Captain Roland Harris of the EAS Churchill," the Alliance officer said. "You asked to speak to me?"
"Yes," the man on the screen replied. "I'm Chief Security Officer Erin Stroud. Apologies for the atypical contact, but we're still trying to sort out a few things here."
"What do you mean?" Neo asked from his position next to Harris.
"The terrorist organization hacked into our communication servers and broadcast a propaganda video across the PLANTs." Stroud grimaced. "We're still trying to figure out how they did it." Harris's expression darkened.
"Then that makes operations against them an even higher priority," he said. "Officer Stroud, I would like to speak to Ensign Roger Doolittle. He should be stationed aboard the Archangel." Stroud hesitated for a moment, as though sorting through the day's confusion.
"We can't get your man on the line, but we can patch you through to the ship you're after." Harris nodded for the officer to do so, and the screen went dark. A moment later, the face of a brunette woman in her late twenties appeared on the display, her lapels bearing the yellow and orange bars of a Captain in the Orb Navy.
"This is Captain Murrue Ramius of the Archangel," she said.
"I'm Captain Roland Harris of the Churchill. High Command has dispatched our group to render assistance as needed with the Advent Faction threat. Once we dock, my superiors and I would like to speak with you as soon as possible." On the screen, Captain Ramius sighed.
"I'm afraid that won't be possible," she said. "We're already underway. If you're not in immediate need of resupply, we can brief you on the details and you can catch up with us." Harris looked over at Captain Roanoke, who simply nodded.
"Alright," Harris said. "Send all transmissions to the Fitzgerald; it's the only Agamemnon-class in our group." At Ramius's look of confusion, Harris continued. "We contacted you because we were the first ship into communications range, but Commodore Vaughn is in overall command." The Archangel's commander nodded.
"Understood," she said. "Brace yourselves, though. Things have gotten a bit complicated."
October 14, CE 72, Space station Azathoth
Kira awoke under harsh light. Squinting at the brightness, he tried to move, only to be simultaneously held back by leather restraints on his wrists and a hand on his shoulder. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Kira saw that Flay was seated beside his bed, and that they were in an all-too-familiar hospital-style room. Again he tried to move, but Flay kept her hand on his shoulder to prevent any struggles.
"Stay still," she said. "She said it would take a few more hours before your body returns to normal." Despite her instructions, Kira was breathing faster, his heart beating more rapidly as he realized with growing horror just where he was.
"Flay," he said. "We're not…we're not—,"
"Indeed you are," a third voice added, and Kira slowly turned his head, knowing who he would see, but still dreading it.
Seated in a chair across the room, Elizabeth Sanford spread her hands slightly, as though welcoming him home. Her lips curved into a satisfied smile, and laughter gleamed in her ruby eyes.
"Welcome back, Kira," she said. "We were beginning to think we wouldn't see you again." Kira turned back to face Flay, shaking his head in disbelief.
"You brought me back here?" Flay lowered her head, averting her eyes from Kira's.
"You were going to die," she said quietly. "They were the only ones with a cure."
"It's amazing, really, the things one does for love," Dr. Sanford said. "Going against orders and taking you out here herself, your little Natural lover made things so much easier for us." With that, the scientist stood, smoothing the wrinkles from her lab coat. "I have some small adjustments to make on some of our monitoring equipment, so I must go. The restraints stay on you this time, and the door is locked, in case your girlfriend gets any ideas. Serena will be here to pick you up in due time." Sanford stepped out into the hallway, the door sliding shut behind her. Kira looked at Flay again, frustration rising within him.
"I can't believe this," he said. "I know I was sick, but—,"
"It's more than you know," Flay said, raising her hands to stop him. "I'm—,"
"No!" Kira cut her off this time. "I know how much you care, and I understand why you did it, but there are things far more important than me. These people are taking what was done to me and passing it on to others, to people who will use their power to destroy lives. By bringing me back here, you've helped them do that." Flay recoiled at his words, and her lip quivered for a moment. She fell silent after that, leaving anger and sadness hanging in the air.
Archangel, Hangar
"So," Cagalli said, looking up at the shuttle, "this is a strategy meeting?" Beside her, Athrun nodded.
"They know the general plan," he said, "but the commanding officers need to coordinate on the finer points." The officers in question had just arrived in a standard shuttle off the Fitzgerald, which had made stops at the Churchill and the Eurasian ship Bismarck. Gathered in the hangar to meet it were Captain Ramius, Commander Herikawa, Athrun and Roger, along with Cagalli herself. Roger, Cagalli noticed, was fidgeting a bit, straightening his uniform as well as his posture.
"What's up with you?" she asked. Roger shrugged.
"Sorry," he said. "I just don't want to meet my CO looking like I just rolled out of bed." The door on the near side of the shuttle's hull opened, and four men, two in white and grey Atlantic Federation uniforms with black shoulder pads denoting officers, one in the blue-tinted Eurasian Federation garb, and the last in a unique black and grey uniform, emerged and made their way down to the deck. The foremost officer, a man in his mid-thirties with brown eyes and hair a darker shade of the same color, settled to the ground in front of the Archangel group and saluted.
"Commodore Marcus Vaughn of the Fitzgerald, of the Earth Alliance Forces' Seventh Orbital Fleet," he said.
"Captain Roland Harris of the Churchill, also of the Seventh Fleet," said the second officer, a man in his sixties with a short, white chin curtain and integrated mustache. Cagalli noticed that this man had an accent distinct from that of his superior officer, marking him as someone from the British Isles as opposed to North America. The third officer, the Eurasian, was a tall man with a shaven head and intimidating gaze, whose goatee and mustache met in a brown circle beard.
"What's up with the facial hair and shaved head?" Cagalli asked, pointing to the Eurasian. "I mean you look like a professional wrestler." Beside her, she heard Athrun chuckle, and she immediately blushed slightly. She hadn't really meant to say it; it had just kind of popped out. The Eurasian smiled, and then proceeded to utterly destroy the air of intimidation he had built up.
"There are two kinds of people in this world who go about beardless," he said, "boys and women, and I am neither one." Turning back to Captain Ramius, he snapped a salute. "Captain Bernard Gruber of the Bismarck, of the Third Orbital Fleet." Murrue returned the salute.
As Cagalli focused on the last man, she lost some of her good humor, for the upper half of this officer's face was covered with a sort of decorative helmet, sporting vertical projections that looked eerily like demonic horns. The appearance was creepy enough, and the fact that the last masked man Cagalli had heard of had tried to kill the entire human species only made things worse. She took a quick glance at Athrun, and the look on his face indicated he felt the same way.
Before either of them could say anything, however, a trio of faces appeared at the shuttle door. Two boys and a girl, all apparently around the age of sixteen or seventeen, were looking out over the proceedings, their faces expressing curiosity and, at least with the boys, a good amount of appreciation for the relatively large space of the Archangel's hangar. The girl, on the other hand, a blonde with wavy hair that floated just above her shoulders, looked different. Cagalli couldn't quite pin down her expression, but guessed that the teen was weighing her situation, unsure of whether this place was good or bad. At least, she looked that way until her gaze fell upon their group, at which point her violet eyes brightened and her face broke out in a pleased, open-mouthed smile.
"Roger!" she cried out with joyful surprise, planting her feet on the shuttle's doorframe and launching herself at him. Roger grinned in response.
"Stellar!" he said, catching her in a fierce bear hug. "How's my baby sister?" The blonde giggled. Cagalli's eyes bugged out at that last bit.
"Stellar made new friends!" the blonde happily reported. "Roger has to meet Stellar's new friends!"
"Hold up, hold up!" Cagalli broke in, raising her hands for silence. Roger gave her a puzzled look, and the blonde, Stellar, gave her the same tentative expression she had given the hangar itself from the shuttle just moments ago. "This is your little sister?" Roger chuckled.
"We're not really related," he explained. "I just tend to think of her as my little sister. You remember a while back when I said I used to practice hand to hand with a girl named Loussier?" Cagalli nodded. "Well, this is her: Stellar Loussier." Cagalli didn't get to ask any further questions, since the masked man chose that moment to walk over to her and offer his hand.
"Captain Neo Roanoke," he said. "It's an honor to meet you, Commodore Athha." Cagalli didn't reply. Indeed, her mouth hung open in surprise, and Athrun seemed to have been left speechless as well. "What?" the captain asked. "Was it something I said?" He turned to look at the other officers, and saw Captain Ramius as white as a sheet, her eyes wide and one hand over her mouth.
"Is everything alright, Captain Ramius?" Captain Harris asked. Murrue opened her mouth to speak, and then shut it. Finally, she composed herself enough for a short reply.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I need to be excused for a while. Commander Herikawa will brief you." With that, the brunette turned about and headed for the nearest exit. Captain Roanoke, puzzled as ever, looked at Commander Herikawa.
"What was that about?" The Orb officer shook his head.
"I'm not entirely sure myself."
"It's your voice," Cagalli finally said. "You sound like someone who used to serve on this ship, and I mean exactly like him. Captain Ramius and he were very close, but he died at Jachin Due." The masked officer nodded in understanding.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I certainly didn't mean to bring up painful memories." While the officers had been talking, the other two teens had made their way down from the shuttle, settling down near Stellar. Both boys were studies in strange colors, one with short green hair and yellow eyes reminiscent of Roger's, and the other with blue hair that swooped out around the level of his sapphire eyes. "These are the soldiers under my command: Sting Oakley," he indicated the green-haired boy, who gave Cagalli an informal salute, "Auel Neider," the blue-haired youth waved, "and Stellar Loussier." The blonde nodded and made a small, happy "Mm!" of agreement. Cagalli frowned.
"No offense," Athrun added, "but you don't look quite like soldiers." The teens all wore the OMNI Enforcer volunteer uniform, but in a somewhat lax fashion. The green-haired boy, Sting, left his blue coat open, revealing the red shirt he wore underneath. Auel had the coat sleeves rolled up, and an orange shirt underneath, which gaped open down to his navel. He also wore teal pants instead of the standard beige ones. Stellar wore a blue skirt and white, knee-high boots, and the shoulders of her pink uniform coat had been cut off, revealing shapely upper arms.
"Yeah…" Cagalli said. "That's not standard issue." Roger waved the comment off.
"Extended aren't standard military," he explained. "So you guys are the Special Forces team Command sent us." Captain Roanoke nodded.
"The 81st Autonomous Mobile Group," he said. "We're operating from the Churchill for the time being." Roger frowned.
"Really?" he asked. Cagalli didn't quite get it.
"What's wrong with the ship they're on?" she asked. The masked man turned to address her.
"Over the last year, the Alliance has worked to retrofit Nelson- and Drake-class ships with linear catapults, and we've also changed the Agamemnon class. Instead of two deck-edge catapults, it now has one centerline catapult. It lets mobile suits launch standing up so they can equip Striker packs. The ship that's hosting us, the Churchill, is a Nelson, with deck-edge catapults, so our mobile suits have to launch prone and can't equip mission packs. So, normally, we'd be flying off the Fitzgerald, but that ship's taken." Roger frowned.
"By what?" he asked. A few meters away, Captain Harris stopped listening to Vaughn and Herikawa's tactical discussion and addressed the group.
"The Fitzgerald is currently housing the Delphinus Squadron. It's a test group piloting TS-MA2 Moebiuses." Cagalli almost laughed.
"Moebiuses?" she said. "The things ZAFT used for target practice during the war?" Harris nodded.
"The possibility was raised that the ineffectiveness of the Moebius may not be the fault of the machine, but rather that of the pilot and OS. Most Moebius pilots were former fighter pilots from Earth, and the machine's OS was designed around a jet fighter model. The thought is that even though the Moebius is built to operate in a zero-gravity vacuum, it was still acting as though it was limited by both gravity and aerodynamics, rather than performing the maneuvers the machine was really capable of. Our ZAFT adversaries, having spent most if not all of their lives in space, were not hampered by such mental restrictions, and flew their mobile suits as true zero-gravity vehicles. Anyway, Command drew up a list of some of the best pilots, had the OS revamped and designed a new training curriculum so that—,"
"Oh, God," Roger groaned. "Simpson's on this team, isn't he?" Captain Harris chuckled.
"Well, at least we finally got him off the Churchill," the older man said.
"Who are you guys talking about?" Athrun asked. Roger shook his head.
"Trust me," the Alliance pilot said, "you do not want to know."
"Anyway," Harris picked up, "the team has managed to improve the numbers quite a bit. It used to take an average of five Moebiuses to destroy a single GINN. The Delphinus boys have it down to just two in practice runs with Strike Daggers and captured GINNs. We're looking at a contract with Adukurf Mechano-Industries if everything goes well."
"My personal mobile armor is also a part of that program," Captain Roanoke added. "It's essentially an upgrade of the Moebius Zero." He didn't elaborate any further, and the side conversation seemed to end there. Roanoke and Harris rejoined Gruber, Vaughn and Herikawa, Stellar grabbed Roger by the hand and excitedly towed him over to meet Sting and Auel, and Athrun approached Cagalli.
"You think they can handle this?" he asked, indicating the three teenagers talking to Roger. Cagalli shrugged.
"If what Roger said about them is true, then they should be okay," she responded, "but I don't know. I guess we'll see when we get there."
While the others went about their business in the hangar, Captain Murrue Ramius stood in a hall not too far away, leaning against the wall.
"It's not him," she said, her voice far less steady than it should have been. "It can't be him." Her eyes grow hot with tears, and Murrue reached up and brushed them away as quickly as she could. She had seen the Strike explode, and she knew no one could have survived, not even Mu.
But she wanted to believe. It was hard to wake up at night and simply realize that there was no one to talk to; that Mu wasn't going to be there to make some joke to try and cheer her up. It might not have been a good joke, but the fact that he tried was what had made it so special. Murrue wanted to think that maybe, just maybe, there was hope. She wanted it so badly.
"But it's impossible," she repeated to herself. "Impossible." The captain released a shuddering breath, wiped her eyes one more time, and then moved toward the hangar again.
Space station Azathoth
The door to Kira's room hissed open, and Serena Ridley stepped in, quickly brushing some of her short brown hair out of her eyes. When she noticed Flay, the medical technician opened her mouth as if to say something, and then shut it. Even though she said nothing, it seemed to Kira that she was a little hurt to see his girlfriend in the room. After only a moment, however, Serena moved to the bed and began undoing Kira's restraints.
"I think I can get you to the elevator without them noticing," she said, speaking quietly and not looking at Kira, probably to hide the fact that she was talking to him from the security camera in the room. "The shuttle is still down in the docking bay. There should be extra normal suits in a room pretty close to the airlock; I think it's the second door on the left."
"Alright," Kira said, standing up.
"What about you?" Flay asked. Serena hesitated for a moment.
"Can I come with you?" she asked. "I keep thinking it'll be dangerous for me to stay here." Kira nodded.
"I don't see a problem with it," he said.
"Okay," Serena said, smiling a little. "Now, let's go." With that, the trio left the room, heading to the right along one of the curving hallways. They passed a pair of guards, and for a moment, Kira thought they might be found out, but Serena simply showed the armed men her ID badge, and they nodded and let them pass. After another few minutes, they arrived at the elevator, and Serena pushed the call button. Kira looked over at Flay, who was still sullen after their exchange in the holding room. While he couldn't bring himself to believe that what she had done was right, he didn't want her to think he hated her, so he reached over and took her hand. Flay looked over at him, and Kira gave her a reassuring smile. The elevator doors opened, and Kira's smile disappeared.
Standing in the elevator, pointing a pistol at them, was the blue-haired girl from the kidnapping group.
"Going somewhere?" she asked. Serena stumbled over herself, searching for words, and Flay's grip on Kira's hand tightened to an almost painful degree.
"You…" she said, catching the kidnapper's attention. The woman's golden eyes fixed on Flay, and she smiled mirthfully.
"Red!" she exclaimed, as though seeing an old friend. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" She looked back at Serena. "The Doc figured you'd try something like this." Flay moved to the left slightly, and without taking her eyes off Serena, the blue-haired woman trained the pistol on her in the blink of an eye. "Don't even think about it, Red. This one's a real handgun, bullets and all, and I could kill you before you made it two meters. Now, come with me."
Archangel, Bridge
"Is everything alright here?" Lacus asked Murrue, floating over to the captain's chair and grasping an arm to steady herself. Captain Ramius nodded.
"Commodore Vaughn requested that the Delphinus Squadron be allowed to engage older model mobile suits, like GINNs, but other than that, they agreed to the plan we'd already worked out with the Joule team." The pink-haired girl nodded.
"Is Captain Waltfeld participating in this operation?" she asked.
"Yes," Murrue replied. "He's on the Voltaire now, acting as a co-commander on the Joule team." After a moment, the Coordinator touched on a more personal topic.
"Are you alright?" she asked. "I heard that one of the Earth Forces officers bore a resemblance to Mu." Murrue sighed, looking at the floor for a moment.
"I was…unsettled," she admitted with an apologetic smile. "There's nothing that can be done, though. It's something I have to deal with on my own." After a moment of silence, the older woman grinned, switching topics. "You might be interested to know that your present for Kira is aboard." Lacus smiled slightly.
"Do you think he'll be alright with it?" she asked. "It might be a bit much to ask of him after all he's been through." Murrue shook her head at that.
"In my experience, Kira is most frustrated when he can do nothing to help his friends. You're just allowing him to do that." Lacus nodded in acceptance, and the two women relinquished themselves to silence for a while, watching the stars outside the windows.
Space station Azathoth
A little less than ten minutes after being intercepted at the elevator, Kira was strapped to an examining table in a fairly nondescript room. Electrodes and a small MRI setup were arranged about his head, another set of electrodes monitored his heartbeat, and a bizarre device was connected to his arm. A needle had been inserted into one of his veins, and blood flowed from that needle through the tube, through a monitoring device of some sort, and down another tube back into his arm. Dr. Sanford currently stood beside this machine, and after pressing a few buttons and bringing the device online with a soft hum, she turned to address her captive.
"Alright, Kira," she said. "I have multiple samples of your genome, and the vast majority of your traits can now be successfully implanted into others. However, there are some things that the scientific community still doesn't fully understand. In this case, I'm referring to the SEED factor. In order to find out exactly what initiates it, I'll be monitoring your cerebral activity, as well as the hormone levels in your bloodstream, the neurotransmitters in your cerebrospinal fluid and the expression of your genes as observed by a microarray. All you have to do is activate your SEED factor." Kira stared at her for a moment.
"It doesn't work like that," he said. "The factor just turns on and off depending on things happening around me. The scientist focused her gaze, and that unpleasant sensation returned: the feeling that she could see his innermost secrets.
"You're lying," she replied coolly, and for a moment Kira had the horrifying thought that she really could see into his mind. However, Sanford quickly dispelled that notion. "I have little data on the genetic expression of the SEED factor, but I know quite a bit about its use, and it's come to my attention that you, along with Athrun Zala at the very least, are capable of activating your factor consciously. I'm merely requesting that you do that." After a moment, Kira responded.
"I'm not helping you," he said defiantly. "I know what you're going to do with that information." Sanford smiled.
"Oh, I doubt you know what I'm doing, but that's irrelevant." As if to punctuate her statement, Dr. Sanford pulled a small remote control from her pocket and turned on a video screen mounted on the far wall. In spite of his distance from the screen, Kira could clearly see Flay and Serena standing in front of a closed door. The blue-haired soldier stood behind them, keeping her weapon at the ready. Reaching over to a desk beside her, Sanford picked up a radio and pushed the "speak" button. "Miss Cromwell, can you hear me?" On the screen, the armed woman picked up a communicator of her own.
"Loud and clear, Doctor Sanford," she replied. Sanford turned back to Kira.
"You're familiar with the CS-M25 Eviscerators," she said to him. "I created them by recombining human DNA with that of Tursiops truncatus, Isurus oxyrinchus and Pteropus vampyrus, along with a few other species." Kira said nothing. "Due to their human and dolphin genetic heritage, they are highly intelligent, and like any intelligent creature, they require entertainment, generally in the form of challenging hunts. We remodeled what used to be a mess hall as a maze to accommodate them."
"No," Kira breathed. "You're not—."
"Should you decide not to activate your SEED factor and provide me with the information I need, I need only say the word, and your lover and my traitorous subordinate will be ushered into the maze." Kira couldn't respond for a moment, his mind too busy processing just what would happen to Flay and Serena if…
"I—," he started, and then hesitated, thinking of what could happen to the world if people like the Advent Faction gained full access to Ultimate Coordinator abilities.
After a few seconds had passed, Sanford frowned, brought the communicator up and opened her mouth to speak.
"I'll do it!" he almost shouted, cutting Sanford off before she could speak. The scientist smiled, turned off the video screen and took the radio away from her mouth. As she watched, Kira closed his eyes and reached back into his mind, building tension within himself. When it reached a high enough level, he "flexed" mentally, almost like opening a door within his mind. All the pent up tension discharged along Kira's nervous system, his pupils contracting to pinpoints, and a purple seed exploded behind his eyes, expelling a ring of crimson light.
They'll have their data, Kira thought. When they decide to use it, I'll just have to be there to stop them.
"Excellent," Dr. Sanford replied, and stepped out of the room. Kira thought of all of his friends, of Athrun, Cagalli and Captain Ramius, and he wondered what they were doing now.
Whatever it is, you guys had better do it fast.
Flay looked over at the other girl, Serena, as they stood outside the door. She wasn't sure why they were here, but she could see Serena breathing faster and trembling slightly. She knew this place, and it scared her, and that knowledge alone scared Flay.
"Doctor Sanford?" their captor spoke into the radio. "Doctor, did it work?"
"Yes it did," the doctor's voice emerged from the communicator. "This should be all the data I need."
"So, what should I do with these two?" the blue-haired soldier asked.
"Send them into the maze." Serena drew a shuddering breath, holding one hand over her mouth, her green eyes beginning to tear up. "I suppose you could shoot them, but that would be a waste of two bullets and a good amount of viable protein. Besides, the Eviscerators need their recreation time." Their captor shrugged.
"Okay," she said, clipping the radio back onto her belt and pressing a button on the wall. The door in front of them slid open, and the soldier grabbed Serena by the arm.
"No!" Serena pleaded. "Please don't do this." Unsympathetic, the blue-haired woman shoved Serena through the open door, the force sending her sprawling on the metal floor beyond.
"Come on," the soldier ordered, pointing her handgun at Flay. Cringing slightly at having the weapon pointed at her, realizing that she would be given no choice, Flay stepped through the door. As she did so, the young woman on the floor decided that being shot was preferable to whatever was in here. Getting to her feet, Serena lunged for the exit, but it was too late, and the door slid shut just as she reached it. The brunette pounded on the door, crying openly now.
"Please!" she called out through her sobs. "Please don't leave us in here!" She pounded her fists on the cold metal again, and then sank to the floor, shuddering as she cried. Just looking at her in this state had Flay breathing unevenly, on the verge of desperate tears herself.
Tick-tick.
"Nooooo…" Serena whined, turning with wide eyes to face into the room. Her heart hammering, Flay followed her gaze.
The single light on above the door illuminated a small portion of the room. Low walls, like what you might see around office cubicles, gave form to the space, creating branching, twisting hallways inside of the larger room. They were at a T-intersection. Halls led away to the left and right, and a third stretched off into darkness in front of them.
Something was coming from the hall directly ahead of them, and as it stepped into the light, Flay backed away from it in instinctive, skin-crawling fear. Her back hit the closed door, and still she tried to get further away from it, soft whimpering sounds emerging from her throat of their own accord.
The thing emerging from the shadows might have been some nightmarish form of cave life, or a picture of a demon from some Sunday school book designed to frighten children. It was vaguely humanoid, with two arms, two legs and a head, but that was about it. It was big; it would have stood well over six feet tall when upright, but it was hunched over, walking on all fours with a patient, powerful gait, and its skin was white as death. The thing's hands had two fingers and an opposable thumb free, all tipped with scythe-like claws. The two outermost fingers on each hand were lengthened and integrated into the membrane of an immense bat-like wing. The monster's wings were tucked away now, wing fingers folded back against the arm and the slack in the membranes pulled tight by elastic tendons so as not to hinder movement, but if they had been fully spread, Flay imagined they would have stretched twelve or thirteen feet. A serpentine tail swept through the darkness behind the creature, its dexterous length ending in a diamond-shaped tip, from which projected two bone spikes seven or eight inches long.
But the worst thing about the abomination was its head. The vaguely cetacean visage was completely eyeless, a featureless white plain sloping forward and down toward a mouth with a dolphin's grin.
The lips on that grinning mouth abruptly peeled back, revealing row after row of teeth like curving needles, and Flay screamed, the fear within her reaching a state of utter panic, and the creature answered her, throwing open its jaws and releasing a keening shriek that could have come from Hell itself.
And then the lights went out.
Archangel, Bridge
An observer would have noted that silence was the dominant characteristic of the Orb warship. The vessel made no sound from the outside, although such was the normal state in a vacuum, and conditions inside were similar. There were the usual noises: the whirring of ventilation fans, the sound of footsteps as people went about their jobs, and in the aft section of the ship, the low, pulsing thunder of the fusion reactor. However, the ship's crew was quiet. On the bridge this was even more prominent. There was none of the lighter conversation that normally served to keep the daily routine from getting too boring. The captain and her crew sat mute at their stations. Yet this silence was not empty. Rather, it was the calm before a storm; the wait before a momentous event.
And then, suddenly, the wait was over.
"I've got something!" Jackie Tonomura called out. Murrue leaned forward in her chair. After a moment, Tonomura nodded to himself and looked back at her. "It's the beacon." Murrue nodded in acknowledgment. She looked back at the petty officer manning the communications console.
"Send word to the Earth Forces ships and the Joule team," she ordered. "Coordinate our data and use it to triangulate on the signal's point of origin." A few seconds later, Tonomura spoke up again.
"We've got it," he said. "The beacon's transmitting from a point in the debris belt about nine hundred kilometers from our current position." The signal's point of origin flashed into existence on a map on one of the overhead screens.
"Ensign Neumann?" Murrue asked, looking at her helmsman.
"We can be there in about forty-five minutes," he replied. "We're going to have to pull about five gees for five seconds to get up to speed though." Murrue nodded.
"Understood," she said. "All hands, brace for acceleration. Once acceleration ceases, go to Level Two battle stations. Operation Perseus commences now."
Roger held onto the armrests of his cockpit seat as the Archangel fired its massive thrusters. As a pilot, he'd been trained to handle g-forces much higher than this, but it was still an uncomfortable sensation. Once the pressure of the acceleration eased, he got out of his seat and leaned forward, out of the Sword Calamity's cockpit. On either side of his mobile suit, Cagalli and Athrun were working on fine adjustments to their own machines.
"What's up with the burn?" Roger called out. "What's Operation Perseus?"
"We're getting our machines fueled and armed," Cagalli answered as she climbed out of the Strike Rouge. "After that, we're going to get my brother back."
Azathoth
Flay came to another wall. She couldn't stop to think about which direction to go, so she went right, acting completely on impulse. In the darkness, her searching hands encountered another wall.
No!
Turning around, she lost her balance and fell, landing hard on the metal floor. She started to get up, but froze when she felt something on her face.
Air. Hot and sour-smelling. A few drops of warm liquid fell on the back of her left hand, and panic spread its icy tendrils through her body as she realized that the creature was right in front of her, breathing on her, its drool falling on her hand.
Flay squealed in terror and scrambled backwards as a loud hiss erupted from the demon in front of her. A twisted hand flashed out at her as she struggled to her feet, talons carving white-hot lines of pain across her shoulder. The blow knocked Flay back onto the floor, and she screamed and lashed out with her leg, feeling her foot connect with thick, rubbery flesh. Stumbling to her feet, she rushed forward through the darkness, not caring where she was going; only that she was moving away from the aberration.
Coming to another intersection, Flay almost stopped, but the decision of which way to go was made for her, as another hellish shriek blasted through the darkness, coming from the hall to her right. Pushing against the near wall with her hand, Flay went left, and then something hit her hard, knocking her to the floor as fingers clamped over her mouth.
"It's me!" the new arrival said. Flay recognized the voice of the other girl, Serena, and stopped trying to claw her way free. After a moment, she managed to catch her breath and calm down somewhat, but her senses remained hyper-alert, trying desperately to pierce the darkness around her.
"Wh-where do we go?" Flay whispered nervously.
"I don't know…" Serena said, trying to keep her shuddering breaths as low and inaudible as possible.
Tick-tick.
The clicking footsteps nearly caused Flay to jump, and the action aggravated her wounds, causing her to gasp and clutch her shoulder. A low growl sounded in the dark, emanating from the same direction the footsteps had come from, and both girls shrank from it, feeling terrifyingly exposed.
"Come on!" Flay forced out. "You work here. Isn't there any other way out of this room?" In the darkness, she could see Serena bite her lip, struggling to think quickly.
"Well, this wasn't always our station," the brunette whispered. "This room used to be a mess hall, and I think it originally had two entrances. We need to go toward…" she hesitated, and then pointed off into the dark "…that wall." Slowly, Serena rose to her feet, and Flay followed. A moment after their trek started, Flay heard a soft, sliding noise coming from behind them. She tensed, inhaling sharply.
"What about them?" she asked, not sure if Serena could even hear her. The other girl leaned back, struggling to talk between nervous, ragged breaths.
"The Eviscerators echolocate," she said. "They see with sound."
"So, if we're really quiet, they might not find us?" Flay asked hopefully. Serena nodded.
"If they have a line of sight, they'll still see us, but being quiet can't hurt," she said. "Okay, we're going to go through that intersection and head left. I think that'll get us to the wall." With no further speech, the two young women began to move.
To Flay, each second seemed an eternity, each step seemed horribly loud. But slowly, surely, they began to make progress. They moved six feet, then ten, and nothing emerged from the darkness. They passed the intersection, and a few moments later, the wall they sought materialized from the shadows.
Still no signs of their monstrous pursuers.
Serena looked back at Flay, her face barely visible in the dark, and gave a reassuring smile. They were almost there. Through her fear, Flay felt a small but definite swell of hope. Maybe they could do this.
Then something moved in the tenebrous space ahead of Serena: a shape, ghost white against black, whose face split apart into rows of dagger teeth.
The creature screamed, the sound jangling Flay's nerves and sending her shrinking back. The girls turned to run, only to be confronted with a second shrieking abomination rushing at them from back the way they'd come, claws outstretched. For a moment, Flay lost all sense of direction as the space around her was filled with ripping claws and flailing limbs. One of the creatures crashed into her, sending her spinning to the ground, and Flay scrambled away on all fours, not stopping until she'd backed into a small alcove.
Suddenly, the maze fell completely silent again. The creatures had vanished, and the darkness seemed empty, but she knew they were out there; she knew the demons were crouching in every shadow, grinning their razor blade grins. They could have had the girls at any time, but they wouldn't be satisfied with that. No, these monsters were having fun, playing with their food like a cat that had pinned some small animal.
Flay started to move forward, maybe even to leave her sheltered nook, when the silence was pierced by screaming. This wasn't the shrill cry of the monsters; it was Serena. The sound was almost worse than seeing one of the monsters, seeming to permeate Flay's entire body and fill it with panic. The redhead stumbled back against the rear wall of the alcove, wrapping her arms around her knees and curling into a ball. Less than a second later, the screams were cut off, and silence reigned once more.
"File this with my other work," Elizabeth Sanford instructed, passing the data card holding the Yamato boy's medical data over to a technician.
"What about the captive?" he asked. Sanford mulled it over for a moment.
"We'll load him onto a shuttle and send him to one of the—," she was cut off as Squadron Commander Sabato came jogging down the hall, no small amount of anger evident on his face.
"We have a very serious problem," he said. "Approximately five minutes ago, we discovered that the shuttle the boy arrived on was broadcasting a signal."
"What?" Sanford asked, her mood souring.
"After Flay left with Kira, she activated a countdown on her shuttle," Athrun stated, emerging from his machine. "When the countdown reached zero, a beacon on the shuttle started transmitting a pulse on a predetermined frequency. Given N-Jammer interference, it wouldn't reach far, but the plan was that if we were close enough, we could use multiple ships to triangulate its position and locate the Advent Faction's base." Roger paused for a moment.
"When did you come up with this plan?" he asked hesitantly.
"We came up with it just after finding out Kira was sick," Cagalli put in from her position, floating just beside the Strike Rouge. "We didn't want to hand him back to those terrorists, but we couldn't just fly in there with the Archangel. We had to make them think Kira was being brought to them with no strings attached."
"How did you fail to notice this before now?" Sanford asked, as calmly as she could.
"Do not take the accusatory tone with me, Doctor," the former ZAFT officer snapped. "The signal was on a frequency well outside the spread normally used for communications. Besides, your people gave me the distinct impression that Yamato's female friend brought him to us on her own."
"Flay volunteered," Athrun added, his voice quiet enough that Roger almost didn't hear him. "She did a very brave thing taking Kira out there."
"And that was why you shouldn't have jumped to conclusions when we told you the situation was complicated!" Cagalli stated with some amount of fire in her voice.
"Well excuse me, Princess," Roger shot back. "Maybe somebody could have let me in on this."
"We wanted to keep this as secret as possible," Athrun replied. "The Advent Faction would likely be listening in on general transmissions, so the docking authorities' reactions had to be genuine. Yzak was informed before we left, and he used a coded transmission to explain it to the National Defense Committee after we launched. We gave the Alliance officers a summary when we met them in the hangar."
"And I didn't notice it then because…?" Roger asked.
"You weren't listening," Athrun replied. Roger grimaced.
"I guess that works," he said.
"How long do we have before the Orb ship arrives?" Sanford asked. Sabato gritted his teeth.
"I can't be sure, but it will be soon," he said. "I'm stepping up our evacuation procedures, but I'll probably have to mobilize the MS forces." Sanford nodded, sighing.
"I'll have my people work as quickly as possible." She turned to the technician she had been speaking to earlier. "Go to the control room and sound the ultrasonic chime; call the Eviscerators back to their pens. We'll move them onto the shuttle as soon as possible."
They were moving again.
Flay had been sitting in the alcove for a while now, trying to stay calm. No matter how she tried, though, she couldn't think of a way out. The door Serena and she had sought was, in fact, right across from her little shelter. It looked so easy; she would have to run six feet at most.
But it would be six feet of open space, and they were out there, waiting for her to move. If she ran, they would be on her in an instant, but if she stayed where she was, they would find her anyway. When they came for her, she could fight, but that was hopeless. Flay had no combat training; she'd last less than five seconds.
This room used to be a mess hall.
Flay's eyes opened. If this room had been built for animal training, then it should be empty save for the maze itself. But if it wasn't…
They see with sound, Serena's words repeated in her mind. Slowly, Flay began to formulate a plan. Reaching down, she untied first one shoe, then the other.
Tick-tick.
The noise came from both sides of the alcove. Flay was out of time. Shifting into a crouch, she hefted one shoe back.
"Alright," she muttered, and threw the shoe out from the alcove. She wasn't aiming at the door; the projectile hit the wall beside it and fell to the floor, but it still hadn't hit what Flay was hoping for. There was an abrupt scuffling as the creatures in the darkness retreated from the thrown shoe, then one pale hand snaked out and picked it off the floor. The monster's misshapen head came into view, and it seemed to stare at the foreign object for a moment, before releasing a truncated hiss that could almost have been a laugh. Dropping the shoe, the Eviscerator began moving into the alcove. With an involuntary cry, Flay threw the second shoe, and hit what she was aiming for: the small box beside the door.
The piercingly loud blare of the fire alarm crashed over the room like a tidal wave. The alarm was painful, but hearing the monsters shriek in pain and confusion under the sonic assault more than made up for it. As the pale creatures shrank back, Flay ran forward and slammed against the door. To her relief, it opened readily, and she burst from the darkness into a lit hallway. She took a moment to catch her breath, and then began looking for a sign or some other way to navigate the station.
Come on, there has to be a way to find the shuttles, or to find where they're keeping Kira or—
The door burst open behind her.
Flay turned around slowly, to find that one of the creatures had left the maze. It shook its head, as though to clear it, and then fixed its eyeless gaze on Flay and snarled, its lips and teeth smeared with blood.
Please, God, no.
Before the creature could charge, however, something stopped it. It cocked its head to one side, as though somehow listening to something in spite of the alarm, and after a moment's hesitation, it returned to the maze.
Flay wasn't going to count on another run of luck like that, and she started off down the hall. She would look for a guide of some sort later.
"We have a fire alarm on Level Ten!" a technician called out.
"What about the Eviscerators?" Sanford asked. They were back in the control room now, and the tech had but to hit a few keys at his console.
"They've returned and are being transported to the shuttles as we speak, Ma'am."
"Have a security team perform at least a cursory sweep of the area," Doctor Sanford returned. Sabato, however, felt otherwise.
"Belay that order," he barked, turning to Sanford now. "Why should I be wasting men at this time?" Elizabeth sighed in frustration.
"The fire alarm will have unlocked all doors on that level, so the Natural girl and my former subordinate could be loose down there." Sabato grimaced. The Natural meant nothing, but a former member of Sanford's team was a potential intelligence breach.
"I'll have a three man team search the area, but we can't spare many. That damned Orb warship will be here, soon."
Author's Note: Abby Miles, helmsman (helmswoman?) of the Churchill, is named as a tribute to Abby Maitland, a character from the UK series Primeval. As for the ships, I shouldn't have to explain the Churchill's name, but the Carter is named after US president Jimmy Carter, and the Johnson is named after either Lyndon Johnson or Andrew Johnson (I never really decided). The Bismarck is named after Otto von Bismarck, Prussia's resident Magnificent Bastard. The Fitzgerald, on the other hand, is named after a high-ranking Army officer, although I can't remember who. For those of you who are worried that we didn't meet the Joule team this chapter, they will be introduced in the next, along with some of the Churchill's mobile suit pilots.
As I said in an earlier chapter, I had a scene planned where we get to see exactly what an Eviscerator looks like, and the maze sequence was it. While it may not be obvious, they owe some of their visual design to the Mass Production Evangelions from The End of Evangelion, particularly their eyeless nature, white coloration and wings (although Eviscerators don't have the physically impossible disappearing wings the MP Evas did). The twin barbs at the end of an Eviscerator's tail are modeled on the twin-pronged spears the MP Evas use with such brutal efficiency.
Next Chapter: The Second Battle of Azathoth.