How well will Commander Natarle Badgiruel and the crew of the Mobile Assault Ship Dominion face the hard reality of their own nation betraying them to the harsh reality of war? Answers to that and more as the war takes a new path. A Diverging Path. [Fully Edited Old Story] [Part One of Diverging SEED Series]
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Divergence
- Thread starter deathzealotzero
- Start date
- Created
- Status
- Ongoing
- Watchers
- 3
- Recent readers
- 30
- Threadmarks
- 9
-
Statistics (8 threadmarks, 35k words)
User Total deathzealotzero 8 -
Loading…
An Introduction
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Okay.
First of all, before I get to the story, I need to mention that, yes, this story is a very old story of mine that I wrote and finished years ago during one of my first years doing National Novel Writing Month. Over the years I have tried to rewrite it, but something always came up to distract me from the whole thing. Either something with my life or another whole story idea. Then recently I found out that since the events that happened with NaNoWriMo since last year's NaNo the writing group I am part of decided to go their own way. As such, they are going to host their own month-long writing session in October or allowing its members to do a typical NaNo November writing session. Or you could do both months basically doing a back-to-back writing session between the two months. This mainly has both excited and scared me but I am going to try to do both months this year. And maybe get a bit further into some of my projects.
Hence, over the past few days, I have started to look into ideas that I could write for the purpose of this double writing session, and with the recent release of Gundam SEED Freedom on Netflix and watching said movie I decided to see about maybe doing a Gundam SEED project. Including maybe getting a bit further into my own Queen of Space Project or even branching off from that to continue my recent July Project. However, I may still end up getting a few chapters further into Queen of Space I made the mistake of looking over some of my older Gundam SEED stuff and I stumbled back onto my Diverging SEED project. A series of stories that would have totally rewritten the last third of the Gundam SEED story. Mainly, the major change being that Natarle Badgiurel and the Dominion ends up joining the Archangel and company to bring an end to the war. Then it kind of spirals off from there and becomes truly its own story. Still, the major thing I noticed with this old story of mine was that the sequel to this current story, the first story in the series, Gundam SEED Resolution was only around three to four chapters from being finished. That particular bit of news surprised me, and maybe made me a bit excited. Therefore, I have decided to see about trying to finish the said story for a portion of this back-to-back writing session before getting back to Queen of Space. However, before I do that I figured I should see about going through this story, Gundam SEED Divergence and edit it for it has been a few years since I touched it after all. Not to mention I wanted to make a few different small changes and such to the earlier chapters of Resolution. As after rereading it, I noticed there were minor mistakes and such therefore needed some basic checks along with a lengthy editing process.
To bring this somewhat lengthy little story to an end, the following is an edited, using both Grammarly and a basic Word Grammar Check, version of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Divergence. I shall be editing the chapters as I go and posting them here over the course of this weekend. Then I shall see about getting through Resolution and posting that story here on Spacebattles as well after going through it to edit and fix a few things about it. That said, please remember this is an older project of mine therefore may have issues, even with my editing process. I didn't want to completely rewrite everything with the story after all. Sigh. Still I do hope you all enjoy it. Till then!
Links to Original Story On FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5481043/1/Mobile-Suit-Gundam-SEED-Divergence
First of all, before I get to the story, I need to mention that, yes, this story is a very old story of mine that I wrote and finished years ago during one of my first years doing National Novel Writing Month. Over the years I have tried to rewrite it, but something always came up to distract me from the whole thing. Either something with my life or another whole story idea. Then recently I found out that since the events that happened with NaNoWriMo since last year's NaNo the writing group I am part of decided to go their own way. As such, they are going to host their own month-long writing session in October or allowing its members to do a typical NaNo November writing session. Or you could do both months basically doing a back-to-back writing session between the two months. This mainly has both excited and scared me but I am going to try to do both months this year. And maybe get a bit further into some of my projects.
Hence, over the past few days, I have started to look into ideas that I could write for the purpose of this double writing session, and with the recent release of Gundam SEED Freedom on Netflix and watching said movie I decided to see about maybe doing a Gundam SEED project. Including maybe getting a bit further into my own Queen of Space Project or even branching off from that to continue my recent July Project. However, I may still end up getting a few chapters further into Queen of Space I made the mistake of looking over some of my older Gundam SEED stuff and I stumbled back onto my Diverging SEED project. A series of stories that would have totally rewritten the last third of the Gundam SEED story. Mainly, the major change being that Natarle Badgiurel and the Dominion ends up joining the Archangel and company to bring an end to the war. Then it kind of spirals off from there and becomes truly its own story. Still, the major thing I noticed with this old story of mine was that the sequel to this current story, the first story in the series, Gundam SEED Resolution was only around three to four chapters from being finished. That particular bit of news surprised me, and maybe made me a bit excited. Therefore, I have decided to see about trying to finish the said story for a portion of this back-to-back writing session before getting back to Queen of Space. However, before I do that I figured I should see about going through this story, Gundam SEED Divergence and edit it for it has been a few years since I touched it after all. Not to mention I wanted to make a few different small changes and such to the earlier chapters of Resolution. As after rereading it, I noticed there were minor mistakes and such therefore needed some basic checks along with a lengthy editing process.
To bring this somewhat lengthy little story to an end, the following is an edited, using both Grammarly and a basic Word Grammar Check, version of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Divergence. I shall be editing the chapters as I go and posting them here over the course of this weekend. Then I shall see about getting through Resolution and posting that story here on Spacebattles as well after going through it to edit and fix a few things about it. That said, please remember this is an older project of mine therefore may have issues, even with my editing process. I didn't want to completely rewrite everything with the story after all. Sigh. Still I do hope you all enjoy it. Till then!
Links to Original Story On FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5481043/1/Mobile-Suit-Gundam-SEED-Divergence
Last edited:
Opening Phase: It Begins
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related in any way to the popular Japanese Anime known as Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, including its sequel Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. I only own my own story, the plot of said story, and any characters that I have created. So please no lawyers I have no money to give them.
Author's Foreword
With Honor of a Knight now officially Discontinued and NaNoWriMo fast approaching I decided to start a smaller project able to be easily produced in the thirty days I had for NaNoWriMo. So I decided on this which was an older story idea I had back when I first started Honor. Basically, this story follows the series and canon in general all the way up to the aftermath of the Battle of JOSH-A, where it then goes off differently from the series. I am going to have the Dominion having a very different fate than what it was in canon. In fact, this idea originally came to me from three sources, the first is that I always wanted to do something similar to bondfan's Story of Heroes which has the story starting similar to how I have it here, and secondly, the idea to do something different with the Dominion came from Maileesaeya's excellent Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Dauntless before finally my original idea to shift the point of view to a different set of characters, granted the original idea had it for the crew of the Kusanagi but I have since decided to do it on the Dominion. So credit is where it is due, so please no flames telling me that I am ripping off someone, for I am acknowledging that these people had the same idea I did but before I even thought of it. So I am giving credit to those who really deserve it.
Anyway with that out of the way I must mention a few other things before getting on to the story itself. First of all some characters introduced in this story are ones that I am sort of borrowing from other animes. For those who have read some of my other fics, I sometimes like to borrow other anime characters and fit them into my stories. Secondly, this story should be from the point of view of Natarle and her crew, therefore it is not on the Archangel or any other ship from the TSA. This is of course very different from other stories which mainly have the POV of the Archangel like the series itself. Next several of my ideas from Honor or some of other stories shall make appearances in this story. For example, the Odin Class ships shall make many appearances throughout this story. This is thanks to many of these ideas becoming a sort of catch-all for all my stories, and I can not resist changing around the last half of the series. Finally, I like to mention that thanks to this story starting later in the series and then other stories, it shall be a lot shorter than you are used to. So some fair warning before someone asks me about it.
Anyway that is about it I think it is time to get to the main event, and I hope everyone will enjoy this new story from me. Thank you all in advance!
Opening Phase: It Begins
Many have asked me over the years since the First War: Why did I do what I did? Or What Started it all? Well, the answer to those questions is pretty simple, for while I was on board the Archangel during its journey from Heliopolis to Alaska I learned much from not only my captain Murrue Ramius, someone that I now gladly call my friend, but from others on the ship as well. This was perhaps the beginning but what started it all was like an avalanche it was just one tiny pebble that started it all when I first started to learn the overall truth behind everything…
- Taken from the introduction to Captain Natarle Badgiruel's A Soldier's True Duty
Officer Quarters
Heaven's Base, Iceland
May 12, CE71
On the coastline of Iceland is a small Naval base, though it looked small compared to other bases around the world. It is a far bit larger for much of it is built underground with various labs, workrooms, and other facilities to support the base. In one of the small officer's quarters located in the base's residential section, a short black-haired woman wearing an Earth Alliance uniform stared at the computer screen on her desk with a frown. On the screen was all the known data on the AFS Archangel her old ship before she was transferred off the said ship. According to the displayed data the Archangel was now considered Missing in Action and presumed destroyed along with the rest of the JOSH-A Defense Forces. The woman sighed before turning her head to look at the framed picture sitting on her desk showing herself along with two others, a long brown-haired woman with a large smile on her face and a short blond hair male who had a cocky smile on his face. In between the two of them was the woman looking very uncomfortable compared to the two others, but she was smiling slightly. The woman smiled softly at the picture before turning back to look at the data wondering if it was true, but she had a feeling that it was not. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door to her quarters, blinking in surprise she got up from her desk and moved to answer the door. With a press of a button on a panel beside the door, it slid open revealing an average-looking man with a dark brown hair and mustache standing at the other side of the door.
"Ah! Natarle, I got the info you wanted," the man said with a deep British accent and a smile on his face patting the pocket of his uniform jacket.
"Vasil! That was quick, I only asked you yesterday. Anyways come in," Lieutenant Commander Natarle Badgiruel replied waving her quest inside. The man Lieutenant Commander Vasil Tannith of the Atlantic Federation Military Intelligence, smiled once more before stepping inside the quarters.
"Well Nat the majority of it was easy to get, the only hard part was the report on the Archangel but I managed to get some info on it and a bit more that I found when I was digging. It did not make me happy at all, and I don't think it make you any happier as well. Not to mention I found something else much worse when I dug a bit further," Vasil said using his nickname for the woman in front of him before his smile disappeared as he sighed as he sat down in one of the two chairs in the quarters.
"That does not sound good," Natarle said with a frown of her own looking at her friend of many years. The two had been friends since they first met while in the Naval Academy with both of them First Year Cadets. Three years later at graduation, the two would go their separate ways with Natarle going to college on a service-bought scholarship while Vasil went into the Intelligence business. The two meet up a few times over the years before the war started, but when it did both friends were hard at work, though Vasil would keep in touch during the first year of the war. So when she heard about Vasil being assigned to Heaven's Base, she asked him to look up what happened to the Archangel.
"No, it does not. Here read it for yourself," Vasil replied with a frown as brought out a data viewer from underneath his uniform jacket and inserted the data chip into the slot on the side, before handing it over to Natarle to read. With a frown, the black-haired Lieutenant Commander took the offered viewer and started to read. As she read the reports Vasil had on the viewer, her face with through many different emotions from a blinking surprise, to brief anger, before settling on hard-core shock. Finally, she sighed and looked over at Vasil.
"It's all true Nat," Vasil said before she could ask him anything. Natarle sighed and looked back at the reports in the data viewer.
"Damn! The entire battle was an elaborate trap for ZAFT! I can understand springing a trap on the enemy, but this is ridiculous! They murdered the entire defense force, Eurasian mind you, as well as the attacking ZAFT forces," Natarle said ranting as she gritted her teeth in her anger.
"Not to mention seven or so thousand civilians living in the city of Fallbrook which was five miles from the base itself," Vasil said with a sneer as he looked angrily at the data viewer. For that bit truly angered him for like Natarle his family was a military one, with many of his ancestors in the military, and one thing that his family always taught him was that the military's job was to protect the civilians at all cost. It was one lesson he always took to heart and never backed down from it. For several seconds both officers glared at the viewer before finally starting to calm down. With a sigh, Natarle looked up to see Vasil starting to massage the bridge of his nose with his own sigh of defeat.
"I am almost afraid to ask what this extra stuff you found is," Natarle said finally with a fearful expression. With a sigh, Vasil picked up the data viewer and entered a few commands into the small computer-like handheld before handing it once more over to Natarle.
"I found this when I was digging through the various stuff on the Cyclops system, and while I always suspected something like this I never thought I would right in my suspicions," Vasil replied with a frown looking at the wall not seeing it but looking at something else entirely. With a sigh, Natarle braced herself mentally and looked at the viewer in question. Once more her face went through a few expressions before settling into shock.
"Thirty-five percent of the Atlantic Federation section of the Earth Forces is Blue Cosmos Members! Many of whom are senior officers!! This is unreal. Yes it has been much rumor and speculation ever since the Bloody Valentine that some members of the Earth Forces were Blue Cosmos but this is ridiculous," Natarle commented with a shake of her head. Vasil smiled sadly at her before nodding at her.
"Yes, but anyways enough of the bad news, check out the file under the name of Phoenix Angel and you should have your good news," Vasil directed as he got up and stretched a bit as Natarle looked back down at the viewer and typed a few commands herself before bringing up the required file. After a few moments of reading, she found herself smiling and sighed in relief.
"I can not believe it! The Archangel has done it again and come back from disaster. I wonder what is so special about the ship that has it coming on top every single time," she said with a wide smile before shaking her head.
"I know what exactly makes the ship so special but the Strike was all out destroyed and its pilot listed as MIA. What could have happened to bring back that infernal luck that has been on the ship's side since Heliopolis," Natarle commented out loud before shaking her head, harder this time, and looked up at the amused face of Vasil.
"Anyways I better get ready, I am finally getting some leave before I get my next assignment and I believe you need to get back to your post," Natarle said looking around the room and realizing that she had been so worried that she had not started really to get ready yet. Vasil laughed lightly before nodding at her.
"Yes I believe I need to get back, for my boss may wonder where I ran off to," Vasil commented as headed for the door with a smile, but paused looking back at Natarl who was smiling at him.
"Oh and Nat?" Vasil said not with a large frown on his face. Blinking in surprise Natarle looked at Vasil in confusion.
"Keep the viewer and show it to people you trust, perhaps that father of yours. The password is Avalanche," Vasil said before disappearing through the door without another goodbye or anything. Left in her quarters alone Natarle Badgiruel found that her world had changed once more and it was not very good. Looking at the viewer she picked it up from where she had dropped it and set it aside on her desk before she turned around to start getting ready for her leave.
Edwards Advanced Testing Facility
Atlantic Federation
May 14, CE71
Over the years since the Cosmic Era calendar various old United States bases and airfields were rebuilt to serve the Atlantic Federation's Military. One of these bases was the former Edwards Air Force Base, which had been rebuilt in the early years of the Cosmic Era to serve as a launching base for various extra-orbit packages during the early days of the Space Colony program before the Mass Drivers were built. For years afterward, it would remain unoccupied after the Mass Drivers made such bases obsolete. Years later the base would once again be brought back online and would once become a testing facility for new aircraft designs. The base had taken part in the early testing of the Mobile Armor prototypes before the mobile armor became only an extra-atmosphere project. Over the years following it would test various new fighter designs for the Atlantic Federation's growing military. Finally, when the war started it became one of the centerpieces in the Earth Alliance's attempt to create their own Mobile Suits. During the first months of the war various failed prototypes would be tested at Edwards and only when Morgenroete offered some help that the mobile suit testing was briefly moved from Edwards to the Morgenroete facility at the Heliopolis Colony. Now mobile suits had once again been brought back to Edwards and unlike before the base would now serve as a training base as new pilots were brought in to train on the newly produced Alliance mobile suits. While earlier mobile suit pilot training had taken part at other bases around the Earth Alliance, Edwards would be one of the two bases to train pilots on the GAT-01A1 Dagger Mobile Suit, unlike the other bases which trained pilots on the more basic GAT-01 Strike Dagger Mobile Suit.
The first group of pilots was now arriving as a VT-50 Preybird VTOL Personal Transport came in for landing on one of the base's helicopter pads. After a brief moment of judging the wind, the transport's pilot easily set the large VTOL transport onto the tarmac. After the transport safely shut down its engines a hatch on the side of the aircraft was opened and several uniformed people stepped out onto the tarmac. One of them a short blond-haired officer looked up at the sun and blinked at the brightness.
"Lieutenant Commander James Focker?" a voice asked of the blond officer. Surprised the man turned to see an officer of the Atlantic Federation Air Force fast approaching the group of arriving pilots.
"Yeah I'm Focker," the blond pilot said as he walked up to the jogging officer, who nodded at Focker before saluting.
"Sir welcome to Edwards, if you follow me I shall lead you and your men to the barracks to get settled before the briefing," the officer said waving his arm over to a group of barrack buildings. James Focker nodded at the younger officer before catching something out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head he saw ten kneeling mobile suits in front of a hanger. Blinking in surprise James turned to the Air Force officer.
"Are those the mobile suits we are going to be trained on?" James asked with wide eyes at the younger man. Surprised the Air Force man turned to look at the mobile suits as well before nodding.
"Yes sir, those are the GAT-01A1 Daggers. I know you and your men had for the last few weeks been training on the GAT-01 Strike Daggers but I believe you would like these a whole lot better than the rush job that is the Strike Dagger," the man replied with a hint of pride in his voice. Nodding James turned to look at the Daggers with almost glee before turning back to follow the young Air Force officer to the barracks with a smile on his lips, for things were now shifting and James was going to be in the middle of it. All it took was a small pebble to start an avalanche and while the Strike Daggers were the pebble these new machines were the avalanche that followed.
Post Chapter Notes:
Well here is the first chapter of Divergence and right off the bat things are starting to change. While Natarle may have known in canon about the Cyclops we never really saw her reaction but I can believe she was not too happy about it. Also, there is a reason for the data on Blue Cosmos which would affect the crew of the Dominion later on. Natarle may be a bit out of character, but I try not to make my writing match too much with staying in character for I manage to go overboard or too little so I just don't worry about it.
Anyway one of the other main characters gets a small introduction here at the end, and yes basically James is Roy Focker from Macross/Robotech. Just changing his name around and fitting him into the SEED universe. His past will slowly be revealed as the story goes on.
Also, I like to mention that there is no solid data on when the Strike Daggers started rolling out and I personally tend to believe that it had to be three to four weeks before the Battle of Panama for the Alliance had to have time to train those pilots. Therefore I put the rollout of the Strike Dagger around early May or late April, which gives the pilots time to train.
Anyhow that is about it and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I am quite proud of it myself. But please leave a review and tell me what you think of this. Anyway, time for this tired writer to head to bed. Ciao!
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Divergence
A Mobile Suit Gundam SEED AU Novella
Part One of the Diverging SEED Series
Written and brought to you,
by William R. Woods
aka "Deathzealot", or "deathzealotzero"
With input and ideas from SethMKlein
A Mobile Suit Gundam SEED AU Novella
Part One of the Diverging SEED Series
Written and brought to you,
by William R. Woods
aka "Deathzealot", or "deathzealotzero"
With input and ideas from SethMKlein
Author's Foreword
With Honor of a Knight now officially Discontinued and NaNoWriMo fast approaching I decided to start a smaller project able to be easily produced in the thirty days I had for NaNoWriMo. So I decided on this which was an older story idea I had back when I first started Honor. Basically, this story follows the series and canon in general all the way up to the aftermath of the Battle of JOSH-A, where it then goes off differently from the series. I am going to have the Dominion having a very different fate than what it was in canon. In fact, this idea originally came to me from three sources, the first is that I always wanted to do something similar to bondfan's Story of Heroes which has the story starting similar to how I have it here, and secondly, the idea to do something different with the Dominion came from Maileesaeya's excellent Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Dauntless before finally my original idea to shift the point of view to a different set of characters, granted the original idea had it for the crew of the Kusanagi but I have since decided to do it on the Dominion. So credit is where it is due, so please no flames telling me that I am ripping off someone, for I am acknowledging that these people had the same idea I did but before I even thought of it. So I am giving credit to those who really deserve it.
Anyway with that out of the way I must mention a few other things before getting on to the story itself. First of all some characters introduced in this story are ones that I am sort of borrowing from other animes. For those who have read some of my other fics, I sometimes like to borrow other anime characters and fit them into my stories. Secondly, this story should be from the point of view of Natarle and her crew, therefore it is not on the Archangel or any other ship from the TSA. This is of course very different from other stories which mainly have the POV of the Archangel like the series itself. Next several of my ideas from Honor or some of other stories shall make appearances in this story. For example, the Odin Class ships shall make many appearances throughout this story. This is thanks to many of these ideas becoming a sort of catch-all for all my stories, and I can not resist changing around the last half of the series. Finally, I like to mention that thanks to this story starting later in the series and then other stories, it shall be a lot shorter than you are used to. So some fair warning before someone asks me about it.
Anyway that is about it I think it is time to get to the main event, and I hope everyone will enjoy this new story from me. Thank you all in advance!
Opening Phase: It Begins
Many have asked me over the years since the First War: Why did I do what I did? Or What Started it all? Well, the answer to those questions is pretty simple, for while I was on board the Archangel during its journey from Heliopolis to Alaska I learned much from not only my captain Murrue Ramius, someone that I now gladly call my friend, but from others on the ship as well. This was perhaps the beginning but what started it all was like an avalanche it was just one tiny pebble that started it all when I first started to learn the overall truth behind everything…
- Taken from the introduction to Captain Natarle Badgiruel's A Soldier's True Duty
Officer Quarters
Heaven's Base, Iceland
May 12, CE71
On the coastline of Iceland is a small Naval base, though it looked small compared to other bases around the world. It is a far bit larger for much of it is built underground with various labs, workrooms, and other facilities to support the base. In one of the small officer's quarters located in the base's residential section, a short black-haired woman wearing an Earth Alliance uniform stared at the computer screen on her desk with a frown. On the screen was all the known data on the AFS Archangel her old ship before she was transferred off the said ship. According to the displayed data the Archangel was now considered Missing in Action and presumed destroyed along with the rest of the JOSH-A Defense Forces. The woman sighed before turning her head to look at the framed picture sitting on her desk showing herself along with two others, a long brown-haired woman with a large smile on her face and a short blond hair male who had a cocky smile on his face. In between the two of them was the woman looking very uncomfortable compared to the two others, but she was smiling slightly. The woman smiled softly at the picture before turning back to look at the data wondering if it was true, but she had a feeling that it was not. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door to her quarters, blinking in surprise she got up from her desk and moved to answer the door. With a press of a button on a panel beside the door, it slid open revealing an average-looking man with a dark brown hair and mustache standing at the other side of the door.
"Ah! Natarle, I got the info you wanted," the man said with a deep British accent and a smile on his face patting the pocket of his uniform jacket.
"Vasil! That was quick, I only asked you yesterday. Anyways come in," Lieutenant Commander Natarle Badgiruel replied waving her quest inside. The man Lieutenant Commander Vasil Tannith of the Atlantic Federation Military Intelligence, smiled once more before stepping inside the quarters.
"Well Nat the majority of it was easy to get, the only hard part was the report on the Archangel but I managed to get some info on it and a bit more that I found when I was digging. It did not make me happy at all, and I don't think it make you any happier as well. Not to mention I found something else much worse when I dug a bit further," Vasil said using his nickname for the woman in front of him before his smile disappeared as he sighed as he sat down in one of the two chairs in the quarters.
"That does not sound good," Natarle said with a frown of her own looking at her friend of many years. The two had been friends since they first met while in the Naval Academy with both of them First Year Cadets. Three years later at graduation, the two would go their separate ways with Natarle going to college on a service-bought scholarship while Vasil went into the Intelligence business. The two meet up a few times over the years before the war started, but when it did both friends were hard at work, though Vasil would keep in touch during the first year of the war. So when she heard about Vasil being assigned to Heaven's Base, she asked him to look up what happened to the Archangel.
"No, it does not. Here read it for yourself," Vasil replied with a frown as brought out a data viewer from underneath his uniform jacket and inserted the data chip into the slot on the side, before handing it over to Natarle to read. With a frown, the black-haired Lieutenant Commander took the offered viewer and started to read. As she read the reports Vasil had on the viewer, her face with through many different emotions from a blinking surprise, to brief anger, before settling on hard-core shock. Finally, she sighed and looked over at Vasil.
"It's all true Nat," Vasil said before she could ask him anything. Natarle sighed and looked back at the reports in the data viewer.
"Damn! The entire battle was an elaborate trap for ZAFT! I can understand springing a trap on the enemy, but this is ridiculous! They murdered the entire defense force, Eurasian mind you, as well as the attacking ZAFT forces," Natarle said ranting as she gritted her teeth in her anger.
"Not to mention seven or so thousand civilians living in the city of Fallbrook which was five miles from the base itself," Vasil said with a sneer as he looked angrily at the data viewer. For that bit truly angered him for like Natarle his family was a military one, with many of his ancestors in the military, and one thing that his family always taught him was that the military's job was to protect the civilians at all cost. It was one lesson he always took to heart and never backed down from it. For several seconds both officers glared at the viewer before finally starting to calm down. With a sigh, Natarle looked up to see Vasil starting to massage the bridge of his nose with his own sigh of defeat.
"I am almost afraid to ask what this extra stuff you found is," Natarle said finally with a fearful expression. With a sigh, Vasil picked up the data viewer and entered a few commands into the small computer-like handheld before handing it once more over to Natarle.
"I found this when I was digging through the various stuff on the Cyclops system, and while I always suspected something like this I never thought I would right in my suspicions," Vasil replied with a frown looking at the wall not seeing it but looking at something else entirely. With a sigh, Natarle braced herself mentally and looked at the viewer in question. Once more her face went through a few expressions before settling into shock.
"Thirty-five percent of the Atlantic Federation section of the Earth Forces is Blue Cosmos Members! Many of whom are senior officers!! This is unreal. Yes it has been much rumor and speculation ever since the Bloody Valentine that some members of the Earth Forces were Blue Cosmos but this is ridiculous," Natarle commented with a shake of her head. Vasil smiled sadly at her before nodding at her.
"Yes, but anyways enough of the bad news, check out the file under the name of Phoenix Angel and you should have your good news," Vasil directed as he got up and stretched a bit as Natarle looked back down at the viewer and typed a few commands herself before bringing up the required file. After a few moments of reading, she found herself smiling and sighed in relief.
"I can not believe it! The Archangel has done it again and come back from disaster. I wonder what is so special about the ship that has it coming on top every single time," she said with a wide smile before shaking her head.
"I know what exactly makes the ship so special but the Strike was all out destroyed and its pilot listed as MIA. What could have happened to bring back that infernal luck that has been on the ship's side since Heliopolis," Natarle commented out loud before shaking her head, harder this time, and looked up at the amused face of Vasil.
"Anyways I better get ready, I am finally getting some leave before I get my next assignment and I believe you need to get back to your post," Natarle said looking around the room and realizing that she had been so worried that she had not started really to get ready yet. Vasil laughed lightly before nodding at her.
"Yes I believe I need to get back, for my boss may wonder where I ran off to," Vasil commented as headed for the door with a smile, but paused looking back at Natarl who was smiling at him.
"Oh and Nat?" Vasil said not with a large frown on his face. Blinking in surprise Natarle looked at Vasil in confusion.
"Keep the viewer and show it to people you trust, perhaps that father of yours. The password is Avalanche," Vasil said before disappearing through the door without another goodbye or anything. Left in her quarters alone Natarle Badgiruel found that her world had changed once more and it was not very good. Looking at the viewer she picked it up from where she had dropped it and set it aside on her desk before she turned around to start getting ready for her leave.
Edwards Advanced Testing Facility
Atlantic Federation
May 14, CE71
Over the years since the Cosmic Era calendar various old United States bases and airfields were rebuilt to serve the Atlantic Federation's Military. One of these bases was the former Edwards Air Force Base, which had been rebuilt in the early years of the Cosmic Era to serve as a launching base for various extra-orbit packages during the early days of the Space Colony program before the Mass Drivers were built. For years afterward, it would remain unoccupied after the Mass Drivers made such bases obsolete. Years later the base would once again be brought back online and would once become a testing facility for new aircraft designs. The base had taken part in the early testing of the Mobile Armor prototypes before the mobile armor became only an extra-atmosphere project. Over the years following it would test various new fighter designs for the Atlantic Federation's growing military. Finally, when the war started it became one of the centerpieces in the Earth Alliance's attempt to create their own Mobile Suits. During the first months of the war various failed prototypes would be tested at Edwards and only when Morgenroete offered some help that the mobile suit testing was briefly moved from Edwards to the Morgenroete facility at the Heliopolis Colony. Now mobile suits had once again been brought back to Edwards and unlike before the base would now serve as a training base as new pilots were brought in to train on the newly produced Alliance mobile suits. While earlier mobile suit pilot training had taken part at other bases around the Earth Alliance, Edwards would be one of the two bases to train pilots on the GAT-01A1 Dagger Mobile Suit, unlike the other bases which trained pilots on the more basic GAT-01 Strike Dagger Mobile Suit.
The first group of pilots was now arriving as a VT-50 Preybird VTOL Personal Transport came in for landing on one of the base's helicopter pads. After a brief moment of judging the wind, the transport's pilot easily set the large VTOL transport onto the tarmac. After the transport safely shut down its engines a hatch on the side of the aircraft was opened and several uniformed people stepped out onto the tarmac. One of them a short blond-haired officer looked up at the sun and blinked at the brightness.
"Lieutenant Commander James Focker?" a voice asked of the blond officer. Surprised the man turned to see an officer of the Atlantic Federation Air Force fast approaching the group of arriving pilots.
"Yeah I'm Focker," the blond pilot said as he walked up to the jogging officer, who nodded at Focker before saluting.
"Sir welcome to Edwards, if you follow me I shall lead you and your men to the barracks to get settled before the briefing," the officer said waving his arm over to a group of barrack buildings. James Focker nodded at the younger officer before catching something out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head he saw ten kneeling mobile suits in front of a hanger. Blinking in surprise James turned to the Air Force officer.
"Are those the mobile suits we are going to be trained on?" James asked with wide eyes at the younger man. Surprised the Air Force man turned to look at the mobile suits as well before nodding.
"Yes sir, those are the GAT-01A1 Daggers. I know you and your men had for the last few weeks been training on the GAT-01 Strike Daggers but I believe you would like these a whole lot better than the rush job that is the Strike Dagger," the man replied with a hint of pride in his voice. Nodding James turned to look at the Daggers with almost glee before turning back to follow the young Air Force officer to the barracks with a smile on his lips, for things were now shifting and James was going to be in the middle of it. All it took was a small pebble to start an avalanche and while the Strike Daggers were the pebble these new machines were the avalanche that followed.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes:
Well here is the first chapter of Divergence and right off the bat things are starting to change. While Natarle may have known in canon about the Cyclops we never really saw her reaction but I can believe she was not too happy about it. Also, there is a reason for the data on Blue Cosmos which would affect the crew of the Dominion later on. Natarle may be a bit out of character, but I try not to make my writing match too much with staying in character for I manage to go overboard or too little so I just don't worry about it.
Anyway one of the other main characters gets a small introduction here at the end, and yes basically James is Roy Focker from Macross/Robotech. Just changing his name around and fitting him into the SEED universe. His past will slowly be revealed as the story goes on.
Also, I like to mention that there is no solid data on when the Strike Daggers started rolling out and I personally tend to believe that it had to be three to four weeks before the Battle of Panama for the Alliance had to have time to train those pilots. Therefore I put the rollout of the Strike Dagger around early May or late April, which gives the pilots time to train.
Anyhow that is about it and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I am quite proud of it myself. But please leave a review and tell me what you think of this. Anyway, time for this tired writer to head to bed. Ciao!
Phase One: Intermission
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Phase One: Intermission
Edwards Advanced Testing and Training Center, once known as Edwards Air Force Base, has a rich and legendary history, but in recent years it is the premier mobile suit testing facility for the Atlantic Federation. Later it would expand and start training pilots in advanced mobile suit training. Often enough pilots would receive basic mobile suit training elsewhere and when finished would move to Edwards or another base like it to get more advanced training, which included training on the various Strike Packs that became the weapons of choice for Earth Alliance Mobile Suits. Edwards would become one of the first and one of the best of these advanced mobile suit training bases, which also still tests many new mobile suit weapons or parts at this base as well. Very often the top trainees from the training squadrons would be allowed to test many new improvements alongside more seasoned Test Pilots.
- Taken from The Short History of Edwards Base
Edwards Advanced Testing and Training Center
Atlantic Federation
May 21, CE71
With summer in full swing in North America, the training squadron sat underneath a shaded awning outside the crowded hanger waiting for their mobile suits to be recharged for the next training exercise. The blond-haired leader of the group, Lieutenant Commander James Focker sat on a chair looking around at his pilots with a small smile on his face. First, there was his adopted little brother, Lieutenant Senior Grade David Hunter. The young man had been adopted by his parents when both James and David were little. David's parents had been old friends of James's father before their death, therefore was adopted by the Focker Family. The next pilot was James's second-in-command and old friend Lieutenant Senior Grade Logan Kramer who had been with James since his first command. The two of them along with one other had been the sole survivors of the squadron of twelve mobile armors. Then there is one Lieutenant Junior Grade Elena Mackenzie, one of the only female pilots in his squadron, but had been with James since his third command, VMA-96 or Mobile Armor Squadron 96. Red-headed and fiery Lieutenant Junior Grade Marcus Rush was yet another one of his pilots. He had a very large temper and it showed. He also lost his older sister who had been one of James original pilots in his original command. At first, the young man had started to hate Coordinators but under James, Marcus had started to calm down from hating them. Sitting beside Marcus grinning like a loon was his friend and wingmate Lieutenant J.G Alex Romero who kept looking over at Elena with a smirk on his face that was very grating for Elena. Then there was the Ensign Max Sterling and Ensign Ben Dixon, who were the newest pilots of the squadron. All seven of the other pilots had at least one mobile suit kill underneath their belts, with only Ben not having a kill though had three partial kills shared with Max, and all had been training for the last week or so. While originally James had nine other pilots under him, one had been transferred out for some reason and the other one had been heavily injured during a faulty training exercise, leaving him with these seven pilots who had become a well-tuned machine over time in the last week or so. All of them only Logan, Elena, Marcus, and Alex had been under his command before. Therefore David, Max, and Ben had been transferred to his command when they were asked to volunteer for the new mobile suit training program. Suddenly James was interrupted from his thoughts when Captain Mark Grant walked out of the personal door from the mobile suit hanger.
"Alright guys, the machines have been recharged. It is time for the next exercise. Also, Lieutenant Mackenzie your machine has been equipped with a new Launcher Pack; the Agni has been slightly modified from the normal standards. Therefore I want you to try out those new medications on the cannon. Everyone else shall be equipped with the Twin Swords Packs," the Air Force Engineer said with a nod of his head. James nodded back at him looking around at his pilots to see them stretching and started to talk to each other very excitedly. While Elena had got up and started to talk with the Air Force officer about the new Agni. While they had been training they also had been testing out new Strike packs that the engineers had been throwing out. The first one had been this Twin Sword Pack which had the beam boomerang and shoulder unit replaced with another anti-ship sword.
"Alright folks let's get saddled up and test out Grant's new toys, before getting back to training," James said heading for the door leading to the hanger. The other pilots nodded, some with eager expressions and others with scowls on their faces. With a smile, James opened the door knowing that he enjoyed this and having such great pilots under his command.
Badirguel Residence
San Diego, California
About a few miles outside San Diego, a large house stood near a beach with its back patio looking out at the ocean. Sitting on this mentioned patio is one Lieutenant Commander Natarle Badigruel looking out at the rolling waves as they came in. This had always been her favorite spot in the house when she was growing up in said house. As a girl, she loved watching as the surf rose and fell. She had particularly loved to watch it this part of the day, with the sun slowly sinking beneath the horizon showering the water and waves with reds, oranges, and violets.
"I thought I find you here Nat," said a voice from the patio's door behind her. The short black-haired woman turned to see her older brother, Charles, stepping onto the patio from the house itself. Her brother unlike the rest of the family had not joined the military at all, instead, he took a different route and learned mechanical engineering before being hired by the military.
"Yeah Charles, is dinner ready yet?" she asked with a frown on her face. The black-haired thirty-year-old man smiled softly at her before shaking his head.
"No not yet, but you have quite out of it since you got here. I know you talked to Dad about something that made him downright bitter about something. But even then you are still kind of out of it even now after talking to Dad for hours on end," the man said with a smile sitting next to his younger sister. Natarle smiled slightly before looking back out at the ocean. After a brief few moments, she sighed before turning to look back at Charles.
"It is just this god-awful war. Not to mention that over the months I was on the Archangel I learned a few things. Heck, I became friends with much of the crew over those long months running from the pursuing ZAFT forces. I am quite worried about them, Liam had given me info that said they were still alive but I had not heard anything that they arrived at any of our Bases or even allied ones," Natarle mentioned with a frown crossing her face. Charles blinked for a moment before nodding his head.
"I see Nat, you are just worried. Well, I wouldn't worry too much about them for if they managed to survive this long against the best ZAFT threw at them, then I am sure they are fine somewhere," Charles said with a hidden smile on his face. Natarle looked over at him before nodding in agreement.
"That is true, but now they do not have one of the main things that made the ship so lucky. The Mobile Suit known as the Strike and its pilot Kira Yamato," Natarle said with a sad smile on her face looking at the waves once more as Charles frowned in confusion.
"One Mobile Suit and its pilot? How is that possible?" Charles asked confusion lacing his voice watching his sister as she watched the waves rolling in and the sun started to set. At Charles question, she turned back to look at him before shaking her head with another smile on her face.
"Kira and the Strike are very unique compared to anything else. For it is thanks to Kira that I am alive right now. I can not tell you how many times he managed to single-handedly save the ship," Natarle remarked as her eyes glazed over as she looked into the past remembering those times. Charles blinks as he continues to look at his sister in confusion wondering where this is going.
"But what made this Kira and the Strike so special Natarle? Explain this to me?" Charles tried another approach wondering what was with this Kira. Natarle blinked at him for a moment before grinning slightly.
"Very well. Kira Yamato was a resident of Heliopolis Colony and attended the Technical College located there. He was a whiz at computer programming and was frequently asked by his Professor to help with some major projects that the Professor had been working on for Morgenroete. During the Battle, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He would be dragged into the Strike when my old Captain Murrue Ramius saw the need to get out of there before the entire factory blew up. After a while, Kira took over and started to reprogram the entire OS for the Strike. Once he touched those controls the Strike became something a bit more than just a mobile suit. Kira is a natural pilot and quickly gets better after each battle. He was almost unstoppable compared to the ZAFT Forces chasing us. The only thing that gave him a hard time was the four other G-Weapons that had been captured by ZAFT and turned against us. But even then he came through every single time. He would later after we landed back on Earth personally take on Commander Andrew Waltfield, ZAFT's Desert Tiger, and win! While we had other pilots on board, Mu La Flagga and Tolle Koenig two of the mentioned pilots, it was always Kira who was the ship's true protector," Natarle sighed looking over at her brother with tears in her eyes. Charles looked shocked to see his tough-as-nails and cold-blooded sister cry. Shaking his head Charles said nothing waiting for Natarle to finish her story.
"Then his luck ran out and would be killed at the Marshall Islands, but he managed to do his job and got us to Alaska. Granted we noted him as MIA but I knew that he was most likely dead. Though Captain Ramius still had hope he managed to live and asked the nearby Orb Union to see about searching for him. When we reached Alaska we got a message that they did not find him on the islands. They found the Strike pretty almost intact but no Kira and I watched as the rest of the crew including his friends who had volunteered to help run the ship alongside the regular crew cry. I never did, I just was pleased to get to Alaska with the Mobile Suit Data we gathered and the recaptured Buster. When I was transferred I suddenly realized that I was going to miss them, and knew that I should have done more to help Kira," Natarle finished with a tearful and sad smile on her face looking back to her brother staring at her.
"You loved him didn't you?" Charles asked with a frown and in turn surprised to see her gaping at him in surprise for a moment before laughing.
"Love Kira? God No! Kira was only sixteen Charles, and that is why I regretted not helping him, not to mention he was a Coordinator as well. No, I did not love Kira Yamato," Natarle said with a mirthful smile on her face and wiped her tears off her face before laughing once more at Charles's shocked look.
"Okay. Anyways moving on. Do you feel a bit better now that you talked about it?" Charles asked after shaking his head to clear the shock from his face. Natarle looked at him before turning to watch as the last light disappeared from the water and the sun was finally totally below the horizon.
"A little perhaps, but I shall get better before my leave is finished," Natarle said with a frown remembering that she had to return soon, and for the first time, she did not want to. With a thoughtful look, Charles nodded before getting up and setting a hand on her shoulder.
"Alright let's go see if dinner is ready yet Nat," Charles said with a small smile on his face. Natarle looked up at him before nodding and getting up to follow him. With a final look towards the now darkened horizon and the large stars that were the PLANTs that started to show with no sunlight to block them. Natarle paused a moment and sent a silent prayer for Kira before finally disappearing, not knowing that Kira was indeed alive and on one of those PLANTs she had been looking at. Which were now shining down at the house with reflected sunlight from their solar mirrors and metal construction.
Edwards Advanced Testing and Training Center
May 26, CE71
Little over a week later found the training squadron in the base lounge and staring at the monitor showing the fall of Panama. A few of the pilots looked mad or even shocked as the camera panned over the devastated base. Commander Fokker leaning against one wall only shook his head at the destruction being shown. While he never believed in all that crud against coordinators, he still was kind of shocked and mad over the destruction of such an important base. It also meant he would not be heading back into space like he wanted to. With a sigh, he turned to look over at his various pilots wondering what they all silently thought about this.
"Stupid Space Monsters! How dare they do this," Marcus Rush finally said breaking the silence-filled lounge. The other pilots, those more senior, turned to glare at him, while others, the younger pilots only blinked in surprise. With a frown, James pushed off from the wall and walked over to the young red-headed pilot.
"Marcus what I have told you about using that. I may not like this either, but I am not angry at the Coordinators all that much for I understand their reasoning behind this and if it was me I would have done the same," James said with a hard stare at the younger pilot who flinched but nodded knowing his commander was right.
"Sir may I ask you a question?" the glasses-wearing Max Sterling asked with a frown looking at James. Blinking in surprise turned to look at the brown-haired pilot and smiled at him.
"You just did, but go ahead anyways," James said with a smile and a light laugh followed by some of the other pilots. Max blushed lightly at that but nodded before taking a breath.
"Well I was wondering what made you so against the anti-coordinator views of much of the rest of the Federation?" he asked looking up at his senior officer who looked surprised by that question but soon turned thoughtful as he thought about it for a moment before smiling at Max.
"The answer to that is simple; it reminds me too much of some of the history I read about similar views against other humans. Not to mention David and I also had some Coordinator Friends when we lived on Copernicus for a while. You will not find many of the older pilots and some officers who hate the Coordinators so much as many of the younger ones do. Granted they may respect and fear them but not hate them. Does that answer your question?" James said with a smile on his face. Max only nodded politely before sighing and looking at the monitor again.
"You know something if I look at this without emotion or ignore the data on the losses I see a few things that are interesting," Elena mentioned with a frown staring at another smaller monitor which showed some raw footage of the battle taken from some cameras that managed to survive the EMP pulse.
"Do share Elena. What do you see?" James said staring at her with a frown on his face wondering where she was going with this.
"Well, the Strike Daggers performed far better than any expectations, but this is only against the GINNs. When they went against CGUEs they were still slightly better but since CGUEs are only handed to experienced pilots the Strike Daggers are usually bad against them. The only way to take a CGUE down would be to overwhelm them with numbers. I also noticed that many more Strike Daggers were lost to DINNs than to the GINNs. The majority of the losses were from DINNs and CGUEs, not GINNS. Some GINNs managed to destroy a few Daggers but that is it. I wonder how the battle would have gone if it was us there with our Daggers instead of the 13th," Elena said with a frown looking over some more data. A few of the other pilots stared at her before blinking in surprise and shook their heads. James looked thoughtful and moved to stare at the monitor over Elena's shoulder to see that she was right.
"You mean that those scrap heaps they call Strike Daggers managed to do something instead of falling apart," Alex said with a grin on his face. A few laughs and groans were his only answers. Suddenly David sighed and turned to look at James with a frown.
"What about the report saying that ZAFT troops gunned down surrendering pilots and troops after their damned Gungnir went off," he stated with a frown on his face that was soon copied by the others. James sighed before turning to look at his "little brother" and shook his head.
"Part of it true, ZAFT troops did gun down some surrendering troops but it stopped when some of the senior and more experienced ZAFT pilots got them to stop. Though according to our intelligence, no one was charged for the slaughter," James reported with a sad sigh while the others looked at him with wide eyes before shaking their heads at that.
"I also do not like some of the speeches this Zala guy has been giving out. It looks like he blames the entire Earth Alliance for the Nuclear Attack on Junius Seven and some of the speeches from our side are not much better," Logan said with a scowl on his face that made some of the others do the same for they too did not like some of the speeches that has been coming out after Panama. Suddenly before anyone could respond or say something else the door opened and in walked in Major General Samuel Chance the commander of the base. The gathered pilots immediately shot up to salute the elderly general. While the newer and greener pilots not that far from the academy tried to make their backs still as a board. The aging general simply chuckled before waving for the pilots to take their seats once more.
"Sorry to disturb your guys off time but I have just received your new orders," the general said in his Texan drawl that he was famous for. The others in the room straighten in their seats at this.
"Lieutenant Commander Fokker you and your squadron are to report to Vice Admiral Gloval at Herschel Shipyards where you shall receive further orders from him, but if I was a betting man, which I am, I would say you would be assigned to a new ship," the general said with a small smile on his face.
"Sir how are we going to get there with the Panama Massdriver destroyed," Logan Kramer asked with a confused frown on his face. The general sighed looking at the still-rolling footage of the destruction of the Panama Base before turning to address the other man.
"While we can not send any heavy cargo, like mobile suits, to the moon, we can still transfer personnel back and forth using simple shuttles. Luckily for you guys the Panama Massdriver for the weeks before ZAFT attacked it was launching loads of new mobile suits into space, including several A1 Daggers. Therefore, you shall leave the machines you have now here at Edwards and you shall receive new ones when you get to Herschel," the General replied with a small smile on his face. A few of the older pilots nodded before the war personnel was transferred via shuttle while cargo was transferred thanks to the mass drivers. Only during the war did the mass drivers start sending passenger shuttles into space.
"I almost forgot, Commander Fokker I am happy to say that your request has been granted and your squadron has now been reclassified as VM(S)-103 or Mobile Suit Squadron 103 (Special). Congratulations Commander you got what you wanted Skull Squadron revived," the General announced with a pleased smile on his face. The pilots cheered as their commander looked shocked but soon joined the cheering for it had been his idea to have his squadron reclassified that way to remember his first command VMA-103 better known as Skull Squadron which had been retired after its destruction early in the war. Now with it reclassified as a mobile suit squadron Skull was reborn better than ever.
"What about my other request sir?" James asked with an eager gleam in his eye. The general sighed before looking at him.
"That is being left to Admiral Gloval and later whoever your ship's commander is, but hopefully Gloval will allow you to do so," the General replied with a small smile on his face that made James nod. It would have been too good to be true if both requests had been granted.
"Anyhow I better get back to my office before my paperwork doubles. Sometimes I swear that people give me more paperwork than is required. Anyways you all leave at 0600 Hours tomorrow morning, so get some sleep and good luck," the General said before handing the hard copy of the orders to James before finally leaving the way he came in.
"Well, then we all better get packing and then get some sleep. So I want you all ready to go at 0530 understood?" he ordered looking around at the pilots.
"Yes sir!" came the reply from every single with a wave James dismissed them all before James himself took one final look at the monitor and followed his pilots out of the lounge room. The training was now over, and he was once again jumping into the war.
Post Chapter Author Notes
Whew! Finally managed to get this done but I managed to do it. Anyway some brief notes here for you all. Some more characters are introduced, some are cut and pasted characters from Robotech or Macross, and others are a bit mixed. David Hunter is a bit different from Rick Hunter, for one he is older, and his family had all been killed by something and later adopted by the Focker Family. Not the other way around as it was in Robotech.
Also before I get any reviews asking this question I need to say this: NO THIS IS NOT A KIRA/NATARLE FIC!! Granted I have never seen one and I would love to write one, but no I am not doing it here, the pairings should remain about canon for now. That may change in the future though so no promises. Even then Natarle is only regretting not supporting him more than she did in the past. And, now that I reading it all again. It does kind of seem like that way. Sigh.
Speaking of Natarle, she is a bit out of character here but like I mentioned last chapter, I just don't care. Even then I look at this version of Natarle and think that being with her family she has let down her hair a bit to relax. Cold-Hearted Natarle shall be back next chapter so no worries. Though I may screw that up as well. I'm not the best at keeping a character in character in my stories, I am sorry to say. Sigh.
Anyhow I hope everybody has enjoyed this chapter and I hope I can get some more reviews for this chapter, but thanks to those who have reviewed already.
Edwards Advanced Testing and Training Center, once known as Edwards Air Force Base, has a rich and legendary history, but in recent years it is the premier mobile suit testing facility for the Atlantic Federation. Later it would expand and start training pilots in advanced mobile suit training. Often enough pilots would receive basic mobile suit training elsewhere and when finished would move to Edwards or another base like it to get more advanced training, which included training on the various Strike Packs that became the weapons of choice for Earth Alliance Mobile Suits. Edwards would become one of the first and one of the best of these advanced mobile suit training bases, which also still tests many new mobile suit weapons or parts at this base as well. Very often the top trainees from the training squadrons would be allowed to test many new improvements alongside more seasoned Test Pilots.
- Taken from The Short History of Edwards Base
Edwards Advanced Testing and Training Center
Atlantic Federation
May 21, CE71
With summer in full swing in North America, the training squadron sat underneath a shaded awning outside the crowded hanger waiting for their mobile suits to be recharged for the next training exercise. The blond-haired leader of the group, Lieutenant Commander James Focker sat on a chair looking around at his pilots with a small smile on his face. First, there was his adopted little brother, Lieutenant Senior Grade David Hunter. The young man had been adopted by his parents when both James and David were little. David's parents had been old friends of James's father before their death, therefore was adopted by the Focker Family. The next pilot was James's second-in-command and old friend Lieutenant Senior Grade Logan Kramer who had been with James since his first command. The two of them along with one other had been the sole survivors of the squadron of twelve mobile armors. Then there is one Lieutenant Junior Grade Elena Mackenzie, one of the only female pilots in his squadron, but had been with James since his third command, VMA-96 or Mobile Armor Squadron 96. Red-headed and fiery Lieutenant Junior Grade Marcus Rush was yet another one of his pilots. He had a very large temper and it showed. He also lost his older sister who had been one of James original pilots in his original command. At first, the young man had started to hate Coordinators but under James, Marcus had started to calm down from hating them. Sitting beside Marcus grinning like a loon was his friend and wingmate Lieutenant J.G Alex Romero who kept looking over at Elena with a smirk on his face that was very grating for Elena. Then there was the Ensign Max Sterling and Ensign Ben Dixon, who were the newest pilots of the squadron. All seven of the other pilots had at least one mobile suit kill underneath their belts, with only Ben not having a kill though had three partial kills shared with Max, and all had been training for the last week or so. While originally James had nine other pilots under him, one had been transferred out for some reason and the other one had been heavily injured during a faulty training exercise, leaving him with these seven pilots who had become a well-tuned machine over time in the last week or so. All of them only Logan, Elena, Marcus, and Alex had been under his command before. Therefore David, Max, and Ben had been transferred to his command when they were asked to volunteer for the new mobile suit training program. Suddenly James was interrupted from his thoughts when Captain Mark Grant walked out of the personal door from the mobile suit hanger.
"Alright guys, the machines have been recharged. It is time for the next exercise. Also, Lieutenant Mackenzie your machine has been equipped with a new Launcher Pack; the Agni has been slightly modified from the normal standards. Therefore I want you to try out those new medications on the cannon. Everyone else shall be equipped with the Twin Swords Packs," the Air Force Engineer said with a nod of his head. James nodded back at him looking around at his pilots to see them stretching and started to talk to each other very excitedly. While Elena had got up and started to talk with the Air Force officer about the new Agni. While they had been training they also had been testing out new Strike packs that the engineers had been throwing out. The first one had been this Twin Sword Pack which had the beam boomerang and shoulder unit replaced with another anti-ship sword.
"Alright folks let's get saddled up and test out Grant's new toys, before getting back to training," James said heading for the door leading to the hanger. The other pilots nodded, some with eager expressions and others with scowls on their faces. With a smile, James opened the door knowing that he enjoyed this and having such great pilots under his command.
Badirguel Residence
San Diego, California
About a few miles outside San Diego, a large house stood near a beach with its back patio looking out at the ocean. Sitting on this mentioned patio is one Lieutenant Commander Natarle Badigruel looking out at the rolling waves as they came in. This had always been her favorite spot in the house when she was growing up in said house. As a girl, she loved watching as the surf rose and fell. She had particularly loved to watch it this part of the day, with the sun slowly sinking beneath the horizon showering the water and waves with reds, oranges, and violets.
"I thought I find you here Nat," said a voice from the patio's door behind her. The short black-haired woman turned to see her older brother, Charles, stepping onto the patio from the house itself. Her brother unlike the rest of the family had not joined the military at all, instead, he took a different route and learned mechanical engineering before being hired by the military.
"Yeah Charles, is dinner ready yet?" she asked with a frown on her face. The black-haired thirty-year-old man smiled softly at her before shaking his head.
"No not yet, but you have quite out of it since you got here. I know you talked to Dad about something that made him downright bitter about something. But even then you are still kind of out of it even now after talking to Dad for hours on end," the man said with a smile sitting next to his younger sister. Natarle smiled slightly before looking back out at the ocean. After a brief few moments, she sighed before turning to look back at Charles.
"It is just this god-awful war. Not to mention that over the months I was on the Archangel I learned a few things. Heck, I became friends with much of the crew over those long months running from the pursuing ZAFT forces. I am quite worried about them, Liam had given me info that said they were still alive but I had not heard anything that they arrived at any of our Bases or even allied ones," Natarle mentioned with a frown crossing her face. Charles blinked for a moment before nodding his head.
"I see Nat, you are just worried. Well, I wouldn't worry too much about them for if they managed to survive this long against the best ZAFT threw at them, then I am sure they are fine somewhere," Charles said with a hidden smile on his face. Natarle looked over at him before nodding in agreement.
"That is true, but now they do not have one of the main things that made the ship so lucky. The Mobile Suit known as the Strike and its pilot Kira Yamato," Natarle said with a sad smile on her face looking at the waves once more as Charles frowned in confusion.
"One Mobile Suit and its pilot? How is that possible?" Charles asked confusion lacing his voice watching his sister as she watched the waves rolling in and the sun started to set. At Charles question, she turned back to look at him before shaking her head with another smile on her face.
"Kira and the Strike are very unique compared to anything else. For it is thanks to Kira that I am alive right now. I can not tell you how many times he managed to single-handedly save the ship," Natarle remarked as her eyes glazed over as she looked into the past remembering those times. Charles blinks as he continues to look at his sister in confusion wondering where this is going.
"But what made this Kira and the Strike so special Natarle? Explain this to me?" Charles tried another approach wondering what was with this Kira. Natarle blinked at him for a moment before grinning slightly.
"Very well. Kira Yamato was a resident of Heliopolis Colony and attended the Technical College located there. He was a whiz at computer programming and was frequently asked by his Professor to help with some major projects that the Professor had been working on for Morgenroete. During the Battle, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He would be dragged into the Strike when my old Captain Murrue Ramius saw the need to get out of there before the entire factory blew up. After a while, Kira took over and started to reprogram the entire OS for the Strike. Once he touched those controls the Strike became something a bit more than just a mobile suit. Kira is a natural pilot and quickly gets better after each battle. He was almost unstoppable compared to the ZAFT Forces chasing us. The only thing that gave him a hard time was the four other G-Weapons that had been captured by ZAFT and turned against us. But even then he came through every single time. He would later after we landed back on Earth personally take on Commander Andrew Waltfield, ZAFT's Desert Tiger, and win! While we had other pilots on board, Mu La Flagga and Tolle Koenig two of the mentioned pilots, it was always Kira who was the ship's true protector," Natarle sighed looking over at her brother with tears in her eyes. Charles looked shocked to see his tough-as-nails and cold-blooded sister cry. Shaking his head Charles said nothing waiting for Natarle to finish her story.
"Then his luck ran out and would be killed at the Marshall Islands, but he managed to do his job and got us to Alaska. Granted we noted him as MIA but I knew that he was most likely dead. Though Captain Ramius still had hope he managed to live and asked the nearby Orb Union to see about searching for him. When we reached Alaska we got a message that they did not find him on the islands. They found the Strike pretty almost intact but no Kira and I watched as the rest of the crew including his friends who had volunteered to help run the ship alongside the regular crew cry. I never did, I just was pleased to get to Alaska with the Mobile Suit Data we gathered and the recaptured Buster. When I was transferred I suddenly realized that I was going to miss them, and knew that I should have done more to help Kira," Natarle finished with a tearful and sad smile on her face looking back to her brother staring at her.
"You loved him didn't you?" Charles asked with a frown and in turn surprised to see her gaping at him in surprise for a moment before laughing.
"Love Kira? God No! Kira was only sixteen Charles, and that is why I regretted not helping him, not to mention he was a Coordinator as well. No, I did not love Kira Yamato," Natarle said with a mirthful smile on her face and wiped her tears off her face before laughing once more at Charles's shocked look.
"Okay. Anyways moving on. Do you feel a bit better now that you talked about it?" Charles asked after shaking his head to clear the shock from his face. Natarle looked at him before turning to watch as the last light disappeared from the water and the sun was finally totally below the horizon.
"A little perhaps, but I shall get better before my leave is finished," Natarle said with a frown remembering that she had to return soon, and for the first time, she did not want to. With a thoughtful look, Charles nodded before getting up and setting a hand on her shoulder.
"Alright let's go see if dinner is ready yet Nat," Charles said with a small smile on his face. Natarle looked up at him before nodding and getting up to follow him. With a final look towards the now darkened horizon and the large stars that were the PLANTs that started to show with no sunlight to block them. Natarle paused a moment and sent a silent prayer for Kira before finally disappearing, not knowing that Kira was indeed alive and on one of those PLANTs she had been looking at. Which were now shining down at the house with reflected sunlight from their solar mirrors and metal construction.
Edwards Advanced Testing and Training Center
May 26, CE71
Little over a week later found the training squadron in the base lounge and staring at the monitor showing the fall of Panama. A few of the pilots looked mad or even shocked as the camera panned over the devastated base. Commander Fokker leaning against one wall only shook his head at the destruction being shown. While he never believed in all that crud against coordinators, he still was kind of shocked and mad over the destruction of such an important base. It also meant he would not be heading back into space like he wanted to. With a sigh, he turned to look over at his various pilots wondering what they all silently thought about this.
"Stupid Space Monsters! How dare they do this," Marcus Rush finally said breaking the silence-filled lounge. The other pilots, those more senior, turned to glare at him, while others, the younger pilots only blinked in surprise. With a frown, James pushed off from the wall and walked over to the young red-headed pilot.
"Marcus what I have told you about using that. I may not like this either, but I am not angry at the Coordinators all that much for I understand their reasoning behind this and if it was me I would have done the same," James said with a hard stare at the younger pilot who flinched but nodded knowing his commander was right.
"Sir may I ask you a question?" the glasses-wearing Max Sterling asked with a frown looking at James. Blinking in surprise turned to look at the brown-haired pilot and smiled at him.
"You just did, but go ahead anyways," James said with a smile and a light laugh followed by some of the other pilots. Max blushed lightly at that but nodded before taking a breath.
"Well I was wondering what made you so against the anti-coordinator views of much of the rest of the Federation?" he asked looking up at his senior officer who looked surprised by that question but soon turned thoughtful as he thought about it for a moment before smiling at Max.
"The answer to that is simple; it reminds me too much of some of the history I read about similar views against other humans. Not to mention David and I also had some Coordinator Friends when we lived on Copernicus for a while. You will not find many of the older pilots and some officers who hate the Coordinators so much as many of the younger ones do. Granted they may respect and fear them but not hate them. Does that answer your question?" James said with a smile on his face. Max only nodded politely before sighing and looking at the monitor again.
"You know something if I look at this without emotion or ignore the data on the losses I see a few things that are interesting," Elena mentioned with a frown staring at another smaller monitor which showed some raw footage of the battle taken from some cameras that managed to survive the EMP pulse.
"Do share Elena. What do you see?" James said staring at her with a frown on his face wondering where she was going with this.
"Well, the Strike Daggers performed far better than any expectations, but this is only against the GINNs. When they went against CGUEs they were still slightly better but since CGUEs are only handed to experienced pilots the Strike Daggers are usually bad against them. The only way to take a CGUE down would be to overwhelm them with numbers. I also noticed that many more Strike Daggers were lost to DINNs than to the GINNs. The majority of the losses were from DINNs and CGUEs, not GINNS. Some GINNs managed to destroy a few Daggers but that is it. I wonder how the battle would have gone if it was us there with our Daggers instead of the 13th," Elena said with a frown looking over some more data. A few of the other pilots stared at her before blinking in surprise and shook their heads. James looked thoughtful and moved to stare at the monitor over Elena's shoulder to see that she was right.
"You mean that those scrap heaps they call Strike Daggers managed to do something instead of falling apart," Alex said with a grin on his face. A few laughs and groans were his only answers. Suddenly David sighed and turned to look at James with a frown.
"What about the report saying that ZAFT troops gunned down surrendering pilots and troops after their damned Gungnir went off," he stated with a frown on his face that was soon copied by the others. James sighed before turning to look at his "little brother" and shook his head.
"Part of it true, ZAFT troops did gun down some surrendering troops but it stopped when some of the senior and more experienced ZAFT pilots got them to stop. Though according to our intelligence, no one was charged for the slaughter," James reported with a sad sigh while the others looked at him with wide eyes before shaking their heads at that.
"I also do not like some of the speeches this Zala guy has been giving out. It looks like he blames the entire Earth Alliance for the Nuclear Attack on Junius Seven and some of the speeches from our side are not much better," Logan said with a scowl on his face that made some of the others do the same for they too did not like some of the speeches that has been coming out after Panama. Suddenly before anyone could respond or say something else the door opened and in walked in Major General Samuel Chance the commander of the base. The gathered pilots immediately shot up to salute the elderly general. While the newer and greener pilots not that far from the academy tried to make their backs still as a board. The aging general simply chuckled before waving for the pilots to take their seats once more.
"Sorry to disturb your guys off time but I have just received your new orders," the general said in his Texan drawl that he was famous for. The others in the room straighten in their seats at this.
"Lieutenant Commander Fokker you and your squadron are to report to Vice Admiral Gloval at Herschel Shipyards where you shall receive further orders from him, but if I was a betting man, which I am, I would say you would be assigned to a new ship," the general said with a small smile on his face.
"Sir how are we going to get there with the Panama Massdriver destroyed," Logan Kramer asked with a confused frown on his face. The general sighed looking at the still-rolling footage of the destruction of the Panama Base before turning to address the other man.
"While we can not send any heavy cargo, like mobile suits, to the moon, we can still transfer personnel back and forth using simple shuttles. Luckily for you guys the Panama Massdriver for the weeks before ZAFT attacked it was launching loads of new mobile suits into space, including several A1 Daggers. Therefore, you shall leave the machines you have now here at Edwards and you shall receive new ones when you get to Herschel," the General replied with a small smile on his face. A few of the older pilots nodded before the war personnel was transferred via shuttle while cargo was transferred thanks to the mass drivers. Only during the war did the mass drivers start sending passenger shuttles into space.
"I almost forgot, Commander Fokker I am happy to say that your request has been granted and your squadron has now been reclassified as VM(S)-103 or Mobile Suit Squadron 103 (Special). Congratulations Commander you got what you wanted Skull Squadron revived," the General announced with a pleased smile on his face. The pilots cheered as their commander looked shocked but soon joined the cheering for it had been his idea to have his squadron reclassified that way to remember his first command VMA-103 better known as Skull Squadron which had been retired after its destruction early in the war. Now with it reclassified as a mobile suit squadron Skull was reborn better than ever.
"What about my other request sir?" James asked with an eager gleam in his eye. The general sighed before looking at him.
"That is being left to Admiral Gloval and later whoever your ship's commander is, but hopefully Gloval will allow you to do so," the General replied with a small smile on his face that made James nod. It would have been too good to be true if both requests had been granted.
"Anyhow I better get back to my office before my paperwork doubles. Sometimes I swear that people give me more paperwork than is required. Anyways you all leave at 0600 Hours tomorrow morning, so get some sleep and good luck," the General said before handing the hard copy of the orders to James before finally leaving the way he came in.
"Well, then we all better get packing and then get some sleep. So I want you all ready to go at 0530 understood?" he ordered looking around at the pilots.
"Yes sir!" came the reply from every single with a wave James dismissed them all before James himself took one final look at the monitor and followed his pilots out of the lounge room. The training was now over, and he was once again jumping into the war.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Author Notes
Whew! Finally managed to get this done but I managed to do it. Anyway some brief notes here for you all. Some more characters are introduced, some are cut and pasted characters from Robotech or Macross, and others are a bit mixed. David Hunter is a bit different from Rick Hunter, for one he is older, and his family had all been killed by something and later adopted by the Focker Family. Not the other way around as it was in Robotech.
Also before I get any reviews asking this question I need to say this: NO THIS IS NOT A KIRA/NATARLE FIC!! Granted I have never seen one and I would love to write one, but no I am not doing it here, the pairings should remain about canon for now. That may change in the future though so no promises. Even then Natarle is only regretting not supporting him more than she did in the past. And, now that I reading it all again. It does kind of seem like that way. Sigh.
Speaking of Natarle, she is a bit out of character here but like I mentioned last chapter, I just don't care. Even then I look at this version of Natarle and think that being with her family she has let down her hair a bit to relax. Cold-Hearted Natarle shall be back next chapter so no worries. Though I may screw that up as well. I'm not the best at keeping a character in character in my stories, I am sorry to say. Sigh.
Anyhow I hope everybody has enjoyed this chapter and I hope I can get some more reviews for this chapter, but thanks to those who have reviewed already.
Phase Two: Luna Dawning
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Phase Two: Luna Dawning
The Herschel Shipyards has an interesting history compared to any other facility or city on the moon. Originally built by the civilian-run Herschel Transport Yards, which is a company as its name implies builds civilian transports. It along with the small supporting city of Lucretia was annexed by the Atlantic Federation in the early Sixties of the Cosmic Era due to both being so close to their primary Lunar Base of Ptolemaeus, and several other minor reasons. After that the Shipyards would start building warships for the Federation Space Forces and later the Earth Alliance. While the Ptolemaeues Base had an internal shipyard able to produce its ships, the Herschel Shipyards were quite larger and could build about a few dozen similarly sized vessels at one time. This large shipyard was used to build up the Earth Alliance's combined orbital fleet in a matter of months thanks to this. Also, the Shipyards house the headquarters of the Alliance's Department of Personnel…
- Taken from the Atlas of the Moon: A Guided Tour of the Moon
Herschel Shipyards
Luna
May 28, CE71
The silver ball of dust and rock known to humans as Luna or just the Moon had always been a sight of peaceful exploration and later during the start of the Cosmic Era, it was a sanctuary for those who needed it. Now with the entire Earth Sperhe in the middle of a large war, it was the centerpiece of the Earth Alliance's presence in Space with no other base or colony anywhere else in the Earth Sphere under Alliance Control outside of some parts of Lagrange One anyway with its handful of remaining space colonies. Even then on the cratered and almost scared surface of the moon, the Alliance had small bases and outposts, many of whom are hidden in the various craters around the moon, but located in the Ptolemaeus Crater is the Alliance's Luna Headquarters. A little to the north of this large base is yet another large base; this is the Herschel Shipyards and its tiny supporting Lunar City of Lucretia, with the shipyards spread all across the main crater of the Herschel Crater and several of the smaller satellite craters. Meanwhile, Lucretia was housed in the small satellite crater called Herschel D, the largest of the various small satellite craters surrounding the main crater. Inside the massive shipyards, various ships were under construction with many brand new vessels being built at the same time across the entire shipyard. Overlooking one of the largest construction bays of the shipyard is a somewhat large office and a tall thin man stood watching as the ships were built under his careful watching eye. With a sigh the mentioned man turned to look at his desk and the load of paperwork sitting on the mentioned desk. Suddenly a tone sounded at the door. Blinking in surprise the man turned and took his seat at the desk before looking back at the door.
"Come in," he called out with his thick accent that would remind anyone hearing it of the old Russian Federation. Even though the man wore the white uniform of the Atlantic Federation instead of the light blue uniform of the Eurasian Federation which the old Russian Federation is now part of. With a hiss of hydraulics, the door opened letting a short black-haired woman into the large office.
"Sir Lieutenant Commander Natarle Badigruel reporting as ordered!" the woman said with a crisp salute at the man behind the desk, who hid a smile behind his bushy and not to mention large mustache before he saluted back then waved the woman towards one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"At ease Commander, and let me apologize for not seeing you when you first arrived but with the ruckus over Panama being lost I have been quite busy," Vice Admiral Henry Gloval said with a small grin on his face.
"That is alright sir I completely understand. I never have been here before so it was quite interesting exploring the shipyards," Natarle said as she sat down in the chair indicated by the Admiral looking past the Admiral at the window showing the various ships under construction.
"Anyways you most likely wondering while an Admiral like me is personally giving you your new orders, but your new posting is very important. Therefore took it upon myself to deliver them to you," the Admiral said with a nod of his head before shuffling a few papers in front of him before getting the one he wanted. With a cough, the Admiral picked up a pair of reading glasses and laid the orders in front of him to read.
"Lieutenant Commander Natarle Badigruel you have been chosen to become the captain of the AFS Dominion, the second ship in the Archangel Class. With this assignment, you shall receive a promotion to Commander. Do you have any questions?" Admiral Gloval asked looking over his glasses at Natarle whose jaw was now hitting the floor. With a chuckle, the old Admiral set the orders aside and placed his reading glasses back where he originally got them before turning to look at Natarle to wait till she recovered from her shock. Finally, after a few seconds, she started to shake her head before sighing and looking at the Admiral.
"Sir I understand the reasoning behind my command of the Dominion if it is an Archangel Class ship for I was on board the Archangel herself for a long time and was the XO on said ship, but even then I am too junior and not experienced to take command of such a ship," Natarle said while she was internally cursing herself for her little speech for this is what she wanted, but was leery on why she was getting this command. With a sigh, Admiral Gloval leaned back in his chair and looked over at the besieged commander before sighing once more.
"Truthfully Commander, originally Captain Boyer was supposed to be the commander of the Dominion with you as his XO, but Boyer managed to get himself killed in Panama therefore you are left to take command of the ship. Anyways here is your hard copy of your new orders and now with that out of the way time to drop all the formality and talk as a family. How is your family doing Nat, I haven't even managed to get out for a few days to visit them?" the old Admiral finally asked with a smile. Natarle relaxed and shook her head with a smile.
"They are doing fine Uncle Henry, I was lucky that Erina also had leave and Charles was visiting as well which meant the entire family besides Eric was at the house," Natarle mentioned with a fond smile on her face looking at one of the pictures on the wall of the officer which showed the entire Badigruel Family standing on the deck of the house, for Admiral Gloval was an old friend of Natarle's father Samuel.
"That is very good," Gloval said with a smile on his face, for his wife passed away very young leaving Gloval childless and his family all were killed in either the S2 Outbreak or various terrorist attacks. This left Gloval almost without any family therefore; the Badigruel family became his family.
"Yes everyone is so happy even with this war raging on, speaking of the war how is Lisa doing these days?" Natarle asked with a small smile on her face remembering Lisa Hayes her former roommate during the academy. Not to mention Gloval's adopted daughter after Lisa's father Donald Hayes was killed during a terrorist attack by Blue Cosmos he adopted young teenaged Lisa. Lisa would later follow both her father's and adopted father's paths and join the Navy where she would meet Natarle once more after a few times meeting when Gloval went to San Diego to visit Natarle's family.
"Lisa is doing fine and I was waiting for you to ask that," the old Admiral stated with a grin one that made Natarle very nervous for every time he had that grin stuff happened and not all of it was good. With that same grin on his face, Gloval picked up a folder and handed it over to Natarle. Eying the grinning Admiral Natarle took the folder before flipping it open to read. After a few seconds, her eyes widened in surprise, and her jaw once again dropped.
"You are assigning Lisa as my XO!!!" Natarle sputtered in shock looking at her honorary Uncle with almost comic disbelieve, which Gloval answered with a booming laugh and yet another grin.
"Yes, I am. I figured that you would need someone you are familiar with as XO," Gloval said before his mood changed as he picked up a very familiar data viewer that Natarle had managed to get to him when she first arrived at the shipyards. Natarle could only nod as she figured out why Gloval did what he did.
"I read all this and knew that you would not accept the idiot that the higher-ups assigned to you, not to mention the entire crew of the ship. So I pulled a few strings and managed to get you a crew that has had a few run-ins with Blue Cosmos before or had an extreme hatred of them. Granted it is a bit smaller crew than what it was originally but the Archangel proved that the Class could be manned by not as many as other ships. I believe you managed to run her with only a few dozen people?" Gloval asked with a frown looking at Natarle who only nodded in answer for her mind was still slightly shocked at this but she understood where Gloval was going with this.
"Well anyways here is the complete list of your crew, I think you should be quite happy with my selection but let me know if you want any changes," Gloval said handing over another folder. Natarle sighed and took it as well adding it to the folder for Lisa as well as the folder which held the hard copy of her orders.
"What about Mobile Suits Uncle? While the Archangel Class are powerful in their own right, only when combined with its mobile suits does an Archangel shine," Natarle said with a frown remembering a few times during her time on the Archangel when she wished she had a few more mobile suits. Gloval only nodded before picking up yet another folder and handing it over.
"That is quite correct, so I assigned you a very good mobile suit unit; one that granted has no real experience in mobile suit combat but all have plenty of experience fighting mobile suits," Gloval said with a nod of his head. Natarle only nodded with relief for she personally thought that if Lieutenant Commander La Flagga managed to get a mobile suit for his own use and be trained fully in its operation he would be quite a good mobile suit pilot. With a shake of her head at all the shocks she had received since she entered this office Natarle started to read the folder.
"Hmmm…VMS-103 why does that sound so familiar… OH! That is why I know this guy," Natarle said she as read the portfolio on the squadron with a smile on her face, seeing that once again she was going to know someone on the ship.
"Yes I believe he was the commander of Samuel Jr. before his death," Gloval said making Natarle frown at the reminder of her dead older brother who had been a mobile armor pilot and was killed during the early days of the war.
"Yeah. Lieutenant Commander James Focker was the commander of VMA-103 a well-known and almost famous squadron before their near destruction during the Blockade of '69," Natarle said with a nod of her head.
"I am glad to see it being revived in some way, though Lisa might not like it for if I remember right Focker is the adopted older brother of David Hunter a pilot cadet that we ran into during some of our off time during the Academy. That guy managed to piss off Lisa at that first meeting and it lasted throughout the time we were at the academy," Natarle said with a fond smile on her face at that memory. Gloval looked shocked at that for that was the first time he had not heard anything about that.
"I never heard about that. What did young Mister Hunter say to Lisa?" Gloval asked curiously with a confused frown on his face. Natarle grinned and chuckled lightly before looking at her sort of Uncle with a wicked gleam in her eye.
"Well, he was with a bunch of other pilot cadets when they ran into us when we were shopping. Since Lisa and I were Fourth Year Cadets while Hunter and his gang were all wet-behind-the ears First Years they all saluted us. At least all of them but Hunter who looked at Lisa and then the senior member of his gathered group before asking "Yeah who is the old sour puss?" which of course set Lisa off. His buddies nearly had heart attacks at that and tried to get Hunter away from Lisa but she was not going to let them. She then gave the poor guy a ten-minute lecture on respecting his superiors and mentioned he was lucky he did not say that to a real officer instead of a senior cadet," Natarle said with a laugh while Gloval sputtered before laughing as well for that was Lisa Hayes. He would not want to be this Hunter lad when he met up with Lisa once more and now that Lisa was now his senior officer it would be quite an experience.
"Anyways why don't I treat you to some lunch in Lucretia before I introduce you to your new command?" Gloval asked as he got up from his seat. Natarle smiled before getting up as well.
"That would be lovely Uncle," Natarle said with a smile tucking the folders under one arm. Gloval smiled as well before leading his sort of niece out of the office. Natarle only shook her head before grinning evilly wondering what those Blue Cosmos bastards going to do when they found out what Admiral Gloval did, it was not going to be pleasant, at least not for them anyway.
Hanger 27
Herschel Shipyards
Luna
In one of the small hangers set on the edge of the large shipyards, Lieutenant Commander James Focker grinned as he looked up at eight mobile suits lined up along one side of the hanger. All of them were GAT-01A1 Daggers instead of the more common and simple GAT-01 Strike Daggers. Also, all eight proudly wore the colors of the old VMA-103 Squadron, which meant straight white overall with black and yellow lining. They also had the Skull and Crossbones (better known as the Jolly Roger) which gave VMA-103 its squadron name on their chest. With a grin, James chuckled and shook his head for it felt good to see his old squadron's colors on these mobile suits. Granted he never asked for it when he arrived for he had yet to get a chance to meet with Admiral Gloval or his new commander, heck he not even received his assignment yet, but when he arrived to check on the machines all of them had already been repainted. Suddenly some noises behind him drew him from his thoughts and made him turn around to see the rest of his squadron walking into the hangar talking with each other. They all suddenly stopped in shock as they saw their new machines. James's adopted younger brother David Hunter summed up the squadron's collective feelings with some very simple words.
"Awesome! We are now diffidently Skull Squadron!" he said in awe for while he grew up James would tell him of the actions that his Skull Squadron took and before that the old US Navy's VF-103 Jolly Rogers as well as its various descendants over the years since those years of the old Common Era.
"It does look good I admit but what I do not get is why painting them in different colors from the normal when we could still all have the emblem on the shoulders of the mobile suit or something similar to that," Elena Macekneize said with a frown looking up at the Daggers. James looked at Elena with a hurt look on his face along with David, while Logan Kramer the old fossil he was simply smiled at the other pilot.
"You know of ZAFT's aces and how they paint their machine in their own personal colors, correct?" Logan asked with a smile on his face. Elena confused turned to look at the older pilot before nodding at him.
"Yeah, I do. What of it," Elena responded with a frown on her pretty little face. Logan simply chuckled and looked up at the machines as well.
"The reason they do that is something called Psych-Warfare. As if a green Alliance pilot saw a paint job he knew was of an Ace. He would be nervous and scared of the mentioned ace when they attacked," Logan explained with a smile looking over at James for the two of them had various arguments over it. Elena looked surprised but slowly started to nod as she got what Logan was trying to say.
"And if we paint our machines in the well-known colors of an old mobile armor squadron which were reasonable for over seven destroyed mobile suits during the Blockade, some green ZAFT pilot will fear us no matter if that same squadron was almost nearly destroyed," Max Sterling said with a nod of his head and a grin on his face. His buddy and wingmate Ben Dixon chuckled beside him.
"That is half the war right there," David mentioned with a grin of his own as he looked up at the Daggers.
"Well it is a lot better than that ugly orange and white paint job of the Daggers at Edwards," Elena finally mentioned with a shake of her head as she mentioned the Daggers that they had piloted at Edwards which were painted in an orange and white paint job that the Alliance adopted for its training squadrons. Laughter answered her statement as the others nodded.
"Excuse me, Commander Fokker," a lowly Ensign asked as he ran up to the group which interrupted the group's laughter. James frowned before turning to look at the young man standing respectfully a bit away from the group.
"Yes Ensign I'm Commander Fokker. What do you need?" he asked with a frown looking at the sixteen-year-old-looking Ensign, who nodded before saluting James who soon returned it with one of his own.
"Sir Admiral Gloval would like you and your XO to report to him. He will be waiting for you at Dock Nine," the Ensign said delivering his message to the older man. James simply nodded racking his brain to remember where that Dock was and suddenly stiffened.
"But Ensign that Dock is under heavy Marine Guard," James stated with a frown not wanting to be beat up by Marines just because he arrived there for some odd reason instead of the Admiral's office. The Ensign simply nodded at him at that statement.
"Yes sir, the Marines will be expecting you and your XO," the Ensign replied with a nod of his head before heading off with another exchange of salutes between James and the Ensign.
"Well, Logan and I better be off. David have the rest of the Squadron check out the machines and then settle down the squadron somewhere, perhaps the pilot lounge in Corridor 15-A," James ordered before making his way out of the hanger with Logan following behind him leaving David and the rest of the squadron surprised behind them in the hanger. James personally wondered what was so important that they were meeting the Admiral at a Dock not in his office, whatever the reason it would be pretty interesting indeed.
Post Chapter Notes:
Well here is the latest chapter. This was supposed to be longer but a few things got in the way so I am posting a bit shorter than I wanted it to be. Anyways if anyone is interested in what the Skull Squadron's Daggers look like in their new paint job here is a link to a piece of lineart I asked someone to do:
https://www.deviantart.com/deathzealotzero/art/1103678723
The Herschel Shipyards has an interesting history compared to any other facility or city on the moon. Originally built by the civilian-run Herschel Transport Yards, which is a company as its name implies builds civilian transports. It along with the small supporting city of Lucretia was annexed by the Atlantic Federation in the early Sixties of the Cosmic Era due to both being so close to their primary Lunar Base of Ptolemaeus, and several other minor reasons. After that the Shipyards would start building warships for the Federation Space Forces and later the Earth Alliance. While the Ptolemaeues Base had an internal shipyard able to produce its ships, the Herschel Shipyards were quite larger and could build about a few dozen similarly sized vessels at one time. This large shipyard was used to build up the Earth Alliance's combined orbital fleet in a matter of months thanks to this. Also, the Shipyards house the headquarters of the Alliance's Department of Personnel…
- Taken from the Atlas of the Moon: A Guided Tour of the Moon
Herschel Shipyards
Luna
May 28, CE71
The silver ball of dust and rock known to humans as Luna or just the Moon had always been a sight of peaceful exploration and later during the start of the Cosmic Era, it was a sanctuary for those who needed it. Now with the entire Earth Sperhe in the middle of a large war, it was the centerpiece of the Earth Alliance's presence in Space with no other base or colony anywhere else in the Earth Sphere under Alliance Control outside of some parts of Lagrange One anyway with its handful of remaining space colonies. Even then on the cratered and almost scared surface of the moon, the Alliance had small bases and outposts, many of whom are hidden in the various craters around the moon, but located in the Ptolemaeus Crater is the Alliance's Luna Headquarters. A little to the north of this large base is yet another large base; this is the Herschel Shipyards and its tiny supporting Lunar City of Lucretia, with the shipyards spread all across the main crater of the Herschel Crater and several of the smaller satellite craters. Meanwhile, Lucretia was housed in the small satellite crater called Herschel D, the largest of the various small satellite craters surrounding the main crater. Inside the massive shipyards, various ships were under construction with many brand new vessels being built at the same time across the entire shipyard. Overlooking one of the largest construction bays of the shipyard is a somewhat large office and a tall thin man stood watching as the ships were built under his careful watching eye. With a sigh the mentioned man turned to look at his desk and the load of paperwork sitting on the mentioned desk. Suddenly a tone sounded at the door. Blinking in surprise the man turned and took his seat at the desk before looking back at the door.
"Come in," he called out with his thick accent that would remind anyone hearing it of the old Russian Federation. Even though the man wore the white uniform of the Atlantic Federation instead of the light blue uniform of the Eurasian Federation which the old Russian Federation is now part of. With a hiss of hydraulics, the door opened letting a short black-haired woman into the large office.
"Sir Lieutenant Commander Natarle Badigruel reporting as ordered!" the woman said with a crisp salute at the man behind the desk, who hid a smile behind his bushy and not to mention large mustache before he saluted back then waved the woman towards one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"At ease Commander, and let me apologize for not seeing you when you first arrived but with the ruckus over Panama being lost I have been quite busy," Vice Admiral Henry Gloval said with a small grin on his face.
"That is alright sir I completely understand. I never have been here before so it was quite interesting exploring the shipyards," Natarle said as she sat down in the chair indicated by the Admiral looking past the Admiral at the window showing the various ships under construction.
"Anyways you most likely wondering while an Admiral like me is personally giving you your new orders, but your new posting is very important. Therefore took it upon myself to deliver them to you," the Admiral said with a nod of his head before shuffling a few papers in front of him before getting the one he wanted. With a cough, the Admiral picked up a pair of reading glasses and laid the orders in front of him to read.
"Lieutenant Commander Natarle Badigruel you have been chosen to become the captain of the AFS Dominion, the second ship in the Archangel Class. With this assignment, you shall receive a promotion to Commander. Do you have any questions?" Admiral Gloval asked looking over his glasses at Natarle whose jaw was now hitting the floor. With a chuckle, the old Admiral set the orders aside and placed his reading glasses back where he originally got them before turning to look at Natarle to wait till she recovered from her shock. Finally, after a few seconds, she started to shake her head before sighing and looking at the Admiral.
"Sir I understand the reasoning behind my command of the Dominion if it is an Archangel Class ship for I was on board the Archangel herself for a long time and was the XO on said ship, but even then I am too junior and not experienced to take command of such a ship," Natarle said while she was internally cursing herself for her little speech for this is what she wanted, but was leery on why she was getting this command. With a sigh, Admiral Gloval leaned back in his chair and looked over at the besieged commander before sighing once more.
"Truthfully Commander, originally Captain Boyer was supposed to be the commander of the Dominion with you as his XO, but Boyer managed to get himself killed in Panama therefore you are left to take command of the ship. Anyways here is your hard copy of your new orders and now with that out of the way time to drop all the formality and talk as a family. How is your family doing Nat, I haven't even managed to get out for a few days to visit them?" the old Admiral finally asked with a smile. Natarle relaxed and shook her head with a smile.
"They are doing fine Uncle Henry, I was lucky that Erina also had leave and Charles was visiting as well which meant the entire family besides Eric was at the house," Natarle mentioned with a fond smile on her face looking at one of the pictures on the wall of the officer which showed the entire Badigruel Family standing on the deck of the house, for Admiral Gloval was an old friend of Natarle's father Samuel.
"That is very good," Gloval said with a smile on his face, for his wife passed away very young leaving Gloval childless and his family all were killed in either the S2 Outbreak or various terrorist attacks. This left Gloval almost without any family therefore; the Badigruel family became his family.
"Yes everyone is so happy even with this war raging on, speaking of the war how is Lisa doing these days?" Natarle asked with a small smile on her face remembering Lisa Hayes her former roommate during the academy. Not to mention Gloval's adopted daughter after Lisa's father Donald Hayes was killed during a terrorist attack by Blue Cosmos he adopted young teenaged Lisa. Lisa would later follow both her father's and adopted father's paths and join the Navy where she would meet Natarle once more after a few times meeting when Gloval went to San Diego to visit Natarle's family.
"Lisa is doing fine and I was waiting for you to ask that," the old Admiral stated with a grin one that made Natarle very nervous for every time he had that grin stuff happened and not all of it was good. With that same grin on his face, Gloval picked up a folder and handed it over to Natarle. Eying the grinning Admiral Natarle took the folder before flipping it open to read. After a few seconds, her eyes widened in surprise, and her jaw once again dropped.
"You are assigning Lisa as my XO!!!" Natarle sputtered in shock looking at her honorary Uncle with almost comic disbelieve, which Gloval answered with a booming laugh and yet another grin.
"Yes, I am. I figured that you would need someone you are familiar with as XO," Gloval said before his mood changed as he picked up a very familiar data viewer that Natarle had managed to get to him when she first arrived at the shipyards. Natarle could only nod as she figured out why Gloval did what he did.
"I read all this and knew that you would not accept the idiot that the higher-ups assigned to you, not to mention the entire crew of the ship. So I pulled a few strings and managed to get you a crew that has had a few run-ins with Blue Cosmos before or had an extreme hatred of them. Granted it is a bit smaller crew than what it was originally but the Archangel proved that the Class could be manned by not as many as other ships. I believe you managed to run her with only a few dozen people?" Gloval asked with a frown looking at Natarle who only nodded in answer for her mind was still slightly shocked at this but she understood where Gloval was going with this.
"Well anyways here is the complete list of your crew, I think you should be quite happy with my selection but let me know if you want any changes," Gloval said handing over another folder. Natarle sighed and took it as well adding it to the folder for Lisa as well as the folder which held the hard copy of her orders.
"What about Mobile Suits Uncle? While the Archangel Class are powerful in their own right, only when combined with its mobile suits does an Archangel shine," Natarle said with a frown remembering a few times during her time on the Archangel when she wished she had a few more mobile suits. Gloval only nodded before picking up yet another folder and handing it over.
"That is quite correct, so I assigned you a very good mobile suit unit; one that granted has no real experience in mobile suit combat but all have plenty of experience fighting mobile suits," Gloval said with a nod of his head. Natarle only nodded with relief for she personally thought that if Lieutenant Commander La Flagga managed to get a mobile suit for his own use and be trained fully in its operation he would be quite a good mobile suit pilot. With a shake of her head at all the shocks she had received since she entered this office Natarle started to read the folder.
"Hmmm…VMS-103 why does that sound so familiar… OH! That is why I know this guy," Natarle said she as read the portfolio on the squadron with a smile on her face, seeing that once again she was going to know someone on the ship.
"Yes I believe he was the commander of Samuel Jr. before his death," Gloval said making Natarle frown at the reminder of her dead older brother who had been a mobile armor pilot and was killed during the early days of the war.
"Yeah. Lieutenant Commander James Focker was the commander of VMA-103 a well-known and almost famous squadron before their near destruction during the Blockade of '69," Natarle said with a nod of her head.
"I am glad to see it being revived in some way, though Lisa might not like it for if I remember right Focker is the adopted older brother of David Hunter a pilot cadet that we ran into during some of our off time during the Academy. That guy managed to piss off Lisa at that first meeting and it lasted throughout the time we were at the academy," Natarle said with a fond smile on her face at that memory. Gloval looked shocked at that for that was the first time he had not heard anything about that.
"I never heard about that. What did young Mister Hunter say to Lisa?" Gloval asked curiously with a confused frown on his face. Natarle grinned and chuckled lightly before looking at her sort of Uncle with a wicked gleam in her eye.
"Well, he was with a bunch of other pilot cadets when they ran into us when we were shopping. Since Lisa and I were Fourth Year Cadets while Hunter and his gang were all wet-behind-the ears First Years they all saluted us. At least all of them but Hunter who looked at Lisa and then the senior member of his gathered group before asking "Yeah who is the old sour puss?" which of course set Lisa off. His buddies nearly had heart attacks at that and tried to get Hunter away from Lisa but she was not going to let them. She then gave the poor guy a ten-minute lecture on respecting his superiors and mentioned he was lucky he did not say that to a real officer instead of a senior cadet," Natarle said with a laugh while Gloval sputtered before laughing as well for that was Lisa Hayes. He would not want to be this Hunter lad when he met up with Lisa once more and now that Lisa was now his senior officer it would be quite an experience.
"Anyways why don't I treat you to some lunch in Lucretia before I introduce you to your new command?" Gloval asked as he got up from his seat. Natarle smiled before getting up as well.
"That would be lovely Uncle," Natarle said with a smile tucking the folders under one arm. Gloval smiled as well before leading his sort of niece out of the office. Natarle only shook her head before grinning evilly wondering what those Blue Cosmos bastards going to do when they found out what Admiral Gloval did, it was not going to be pleasant, at least not for them anyway.
Hanger 27
Herschel Shipyards
Luna
In one of the small hangers set on the edge of the large shipyards, Lieutenant Commander James Focker grinned as he looked up at eight mobile suits lined up along one side of the hanger. All of them were GAT-01A1 Daggers instead of the more common and simple GAT-01 Strike Daggers. Also, all eight proudly wore the colors of the old VMA-103 Squadron, which meant straight white overall with black and yellow lining. They also had the Skull and Crossbones (better known as the Jolly Roger) which gave VMA-103 its squadron name on their chest. With a grin, James chuckled and shook his head for it felt good to see his old squadron's colors on these mobile suits. Granted he never asked for it when he arrived for he had yet to get a chance to meet with Admiral Gloval or his new commander, heck he not even received his assignment yet, but when he arrived to check on the machines all of them had already been repainted. Suddenly some noises behind him drew him from his thoughts and made him turn around to see the rest of his squadron walking into the hangar talking with each other. They all suddenly stopped in shock as they saw their new machines. James's adopted younger brother David Hunter summed up the squadron's collective feelings with some very simple words.
"Awesome! We are now diffidently Skull Squadron!" he said in awe for while he grew up James would tell him of the actions that his Skull Squadron took and before that the old US Navy's VF-103 Jolly Rogers as well as its various descendants over the years since those years of the old Common Era.
"It does look good I admit but what I do not get is why painting them in different colors from the normal when we could still all have the emblem on the shoulders of the mobile suit or something similar to that," Elena Macekneize said with a frown looking up at the Daggers. James looked at Elena with a hurt look on his face along with David, while Logan Kramer the old fossil he was simply smiled at the other pilot.
"You know of ZAFT's aces and how they paint their machine in their own personal colors, correct?" Logan asked with a smile on his face. Elena confused turned to look at the older pilot before nodding at him.
"Yeah, I do. What of it," Elena responded with a frown on her pretty little face. Logan simply chuckled and looked up at the machines as well.
"The reason they do that is something called Psych-Warfare. As if a green Alliance pilot saw a paint job he knew was of an Ace. He would be nervous and scared of the mentioned ace when they attacked," Logan explained with a smile looking over at James for the two of them had various arguments over it. Elena looked surprised but slowly started to nod as she got what Logan was trying to say.
"And if we paint our machines in the well-known colors of an old mobile armor squadron which were reasonable for over seven destroyed mobile suits during the Blockade, some green ZAFT pilot will fear us no matter if that same squadron was almost nearly destroyed," Max Sterling said with a nod of his head and a grin on his face. His buddy and wingmate Ben Dixon chuckled beside him.
"That is half the war right there," David mentioned with a grin of his own as he looked up at the Daggers.
"Well it is a lot better than that ugly orange and white paint job of the Daggers at Edwards," Elena finally mentioned with a shake of her head as she mentioned the Daggers that they had piloted at Edwards which were painted in an orange and white paint job that the Alliance adopted for its training squadrons. Laughter answered her statement as the others nodded.
"Excuse me, Commander Fokker," a lowly Ensign asked as he ran up to the group which interrupted the group's laughter. James frowned before turning to look at the young man standing respectfully a bit away from the group.
"Yes Ensign I'm Commander Fokker. What do you need?" he asked with a frown looking at the sixteen-year-old-looking Ensign, who nodded before saluting James who soon returned it with one of his own.
"Sir Admiral Gloval would like you and your XO to report to him. He will be waiting for you at Dock Nine," the Ensign said delivering his message to the older man. James simply nodded racking his brain to remember where that Dock was and suddenly stiffened.
"But Ensign that Dock is under heavy Marine Guard," James stated with a frown not wanting to be beat up by Marines just because he arrived there for some odd reason instead of the Admiral's office. The Ensign simply nodded at him at that statement.
"Yes sir, the Marines will be expecting you and your XO," the Ensign replied with a nod of his head before heading off with another exchange of salutes between James and the Ensign.
"Well, Logan and I better be off. David have the rest of the Squadron check out the machines and then settle down the squadron somewhere, perhaps the pilot lounge in Corridor 15-A," James ordered before making his way out of the hanger with Logan following behind him leaving David and the rest of the squadron surprised behind them in the hanger. James personally wondered what was so important that they were meeting the Admiral at a Dock not in his office, whatever the reason it would be pretty interesting indeed.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes:
Well here is the latest chapter. This was supposed to be longer but a few things got in the way so I am posting a bit shorter than I wanted it to be. Anyways if anyone is interested in what the Skull Squadron's Daggers look like in their new paint job here is a link to a piece of lineart I asked someone to do:
https://www.deviantart.com/deathzealotzero/art/1103678723
Phase Three: The Dominion
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Phase Three: The Dominion
The Mobile Armor Squadron of VMA-103 "Skull" Squadron while it was utterly destroyed during the Blockade of CE69 was already famous by then. Not only was it using a legendary and old United States Fighter Squadron Designation from the Common Era, but the squadron managed to get involved in more than a few famous acts throughout its history. One of the more famous instances of VMA-103's famous acts was during the Blood Dawn Pirate Incident in Cosmic Era 64 where a civilian transport on the way to one of the Colonies was brutally attacked by the Blood Dawn Pirates. The nearest military unit was VMA-103, a Federal Space Forces Mobile Armor Squadron that was testing their newly produced TS-MA2 Moebius Mobile Armors when the distress call went out. VMA-103 immediately responded to the call and arrived to find the transport dead in the water with not a single pirate around. When Senior James Focker, one of the more senior pilots of VMA-103 along with a handful of other pilots went EVA and boarded the transport they found the remains of the brutally attacked crew with all their cargo stolen. Angered beyond belief at this the squadron knowing thanks to the transport's records of another transport not far off would lay in wait in a nearby Resource Asteroid Cluster. Then when the Blood Dawn Pirates started to attack the second Transport the Mobile Armors jumped out of the Cluster to defend the Transport from the attack. VMA-103 utterly wiped out the opposing pirate forces and managed to handily capture their carrier with no losses on their side. They would be rewarded for this and many news agencies clambered to interview them, so the legend of Skull Squadron was born…
- Taken from a News Article titled Skull Squadron: The Legend Behind the Skull
Dock Nine
Herschel Shipyards
After a fulfilling lunch at a fancy yet still very good restaurant in the City, both Admiral and Commander found themselves standing on a long catwalk that was suspended over the entire breadth of the bay looking down at the ship lying almost innocently in one of the dock's dozen main bays and several smaller secondary bays. The ship looked very similar to the Archangel but had a different paint job, basically a dark and brooding paint job, and was slightly longer than the first ship of the class. The Dominion measured 425 Meters about five meters longer than the Archangel, this was due to having been designed to carry A1 Daggers and their Strike Packs. Hence, needed a bit more cargo room to store said Strike Packs. Not to mention some better hanger equipment and a slightly larger hanger due to the front of the ship being slightly wider than the Archangel giving the Dominion a larger hanger to carry more mobile suits. This gave the Dominion a compliment of somewhere around sixteen or so Mobile Suits over the Archangel's complement of a more simple twelve Mobile Suits or Armor. One main reason behind this is the rapidly expanding mobile suit technology and the Alliance learning about proper mobile suit operations over time. Therefore, the Dominion and the later sister ships would be completely different from one another, though it would most likely be in small internal or hanger differences instead of any exterior differences besides some very minor hull extensions. The Dominion would also have a slightly different sensor system and radar than the Archangel. All this was on Natarle's mind as she looked over her new command with almost awe on her face.
"This is amazing, granted I have seen the Archangel many times before but this is the first time that I commanded such a ship and it is almost awe-inspiring to me," she said breaking the long silence between the two as they observed the berthed ship right below them. Natarle being the always on top of things looked over the specs on their way back from lunch at the City. It was quite an amazing sight to the young and newly minted commander such as her. Gloval only smiled as he remembered his first command, the Washington Class Missile Frigate Gates over nearly ten years before. He would command that ship for over six years and he knew her like the back of his hand. The Gates would be the first and last command of his career as he was fast-tracked to Rear Admiral as the increasing tensions between Earth and the PLANTS grew hotter. With a sigh, he turned to look at his young sort of niece with a fond smile on his face.
"Yes, it is indeed amazing to see your first command for the first time. I was the same way with I first saw the Gates, but I was lucky and got to see it being built as I recovered from my almost fatal crash," Gloval finally responded with an almost nostalgic-looking smile. Natarle blinked at this before looking over at him with a certain glint in her eye.
"But Uncle you never commanded such a ship like this, a ship that can and most likely will tear through any other ship like its tissue paper including your Gates. Not to mention what it could do to non-military targets if given the chance with its main guns," Natarle replied with a hysterical look on her face before turning to look at the Dominion once more in a new light. Gloval nodded with a sudden serious look on his face knowing that this ship, not including any embarked mobile suits, was a battleship in its own right and could slug it out with any other ship. The damage it could do to something like a city or even a colony if it fired its main guns would be quite disastrous. Suddenly the old Admiral smiled soft and wistfully as he just remembered something amusing and a bit crazy. Something he was sure would bring his pseudo-niece down from her bits of hysteria.
"You know Natarle I once had a weird dream where I commanded a very large battleship with a main cannon that could most likely destroy this moon, it was pretty weird but it was a fun thing to see," Gloval mentioned a bit wistfully with a grin while Natarle only rolled her eyes for she had heard of this before turning towards him with a glare on her face. The Admiral only laughed and raised his hands to defend himself from her making the young Commander snort at him before turning back to visually inspect her new command.
"Anyways back to business Commander, when you were browsing your new command specs, I took the liberty of having Lieutenant Commander Focker join us here. He should be arriving pretty soon," Gloval suddenly after a few moments of silence between the two of them getting back to business. Natarle nodded towards him as she looked up from her new command before her eyes started to slide toward the ships occupying the other bays in the dock. This dock was one of the largest in the base with an even dozen or so separate bays whereas others usually had four to eight bays. However, these other ships in the other bays were not either of the Drake, Nelson, or Agamemnon Classes, in fact, they looked almost like an Archangel but were quite smaller and sported a front end that had a strange similarity to what she knew to be the front half of a Izumo Class Carrier Battleship of the Orb Union's National Defense Forces. At least only of eight the ships were of this class while the last few bays sported still under construction Archangel Class ships. With a shake of her head, Natarle turned to look at Gloval with a frown on her face.
"Sir, what are those other ships, they kind of look like a mix between the Archangel and Orb's Izumo Class Carrier Battleships. Making them look like a one-legged smaller version of an Archangel?" she asked looking back at the ships with a frown. Gloval simply smiled at her and with a proud look in his eyes.
"Oh, you know about the Izumo Class? Impressive Commander," he mentioned with a chuckle before looking over the various ships himself with a certain eye.
"Well, those are Odin Class Mobile Escort Ships, they were designed to escort either Agamemnon Class Flagships or Archangel Class ships. As you can see they only have one "leg" and as you said a bit smaller than an Archangel, though it has more CIWS than an Archangel. As for its main weapons, it only has two of the Gottfried turrets sitting on top and bottom of that leg, though it does still have both Valiants along either side. The original plans did call for a single Lohengrin hiding in the front of the top part of the leg, but to keep the overall price down it was dropped from the design. Though it can carry eight mobile suits half that of your Dominion and any other Archangel after her. It is quite a ship that can handle itself and can handle other missions if needed, and for that reason, the Admiralty has ordered about twenty or so of these ships to be built, half here at Herschel and the other half at the new Solomon Yards located at L1," Admiral Gloval said looking over the nearest one with a small smile on his face, for Gloval had during his childhood he had loved warships and thanks to having lived next to a naval base. He would love to sit on the beach and watch those same warships steaming back and forth. Suddenly the elderly Admiral spotted something in the corner of his turned to look and saw two men approaching them with a pair of marines keeping pace with them. Neither man looked over the side at the ships below them.
"Ah! Looks like our guests have arrived Commander," Gloval noted making Natarle look up from her visual inspection of the Odin Class ships to see the two men fast approaching the two of them. The first man had unruly blond hair and blue eyes along with a handsome face, the mold for a perfect pretty boy image but this was marred by the long scar that ran across his face starting at his chin and running along the side of his nose before ending right under his left eye. It was quite a sight to see on someone like the man it appears on. The other man was shorter this his compatriot and had short black hair with dull gray eyes framing his face which looked nothing like the others for it was quite the opposite in fact. Both men wore the Atlantic Federation version of the Earth Alliance Uniform, though unlike both the Admiral and Natarle who had black panels on their shoulders showing that they were shipborne officers, these two had the same but had the dark blue patch on their shoulder panels which showed them as pilots in the regular forces. Natarle knew that Mu La Flagga only had black panels without the patch for he was in the special forces or at least had been before his stint on the Archangel. Both men soon stood in front of them and saluted the two of them, which was soon returned to the two pilots.
"Admiral, Lieutenant Commander James Focker, and Lieutenant Senior Grade Logan Kramer reporting as ordered sir," the lead man said as he put down his hand. Admiral Gloval simply smiled lightly before waving down at the Dominion below them.
"Yes Commander it is good to see, but I called you here Commander to get a first look at the ship you be assigned to, the AFS Dominion," Gloval said with a smile and watched with pleasure as the two men finally looked down at the ship below them before both their jaws dropped in surprise at the sight of the ship there.
"That is an Archangel Class. I did not know we were building any more of them after we lost the Archangel at JOSH-A," the pilot said in disbelieve and a large amount outright awe which made the Admiral smile in pleasure at it, while Natarle flinched at the bit about the Archangel being lost at JOSH-A.
"There are a couple of others over there James!" the second pilot, Lieutenant Kramer said with a shocked tone in his voice. Commander Focker looked up in shock to see his fellow pilot was right and there was yet another Archangel sitting in another bay which sported a third Archangel Class right next to it. Unlike the one below them, this one could be seen to be still being under construction with several shipyard personnel swarming all over the ship.
"I be damned, that is quite a sight to see!" James Focker said with a smile on his face and a chuckle before finally remembering the presence of the Admiral and his companion standing not far from him. With a light curse, the pilot turned and saluted the Admiral once more.
"I'm sorry about that sir," Commander Focker said with a grimace on his face. Gloval simply chuckled at the Commander before waving off the Commander's worries.
"That is fine Commander, I am usually the same way, but to business as I said earlier I called you here to get good luck at your new ship and to meet your commander. This is Commander Natarle Badgiruel the captain of the Dominion," Gloval said waving at Natarle, James simply nodded before nodding at her before her last name registered to him and he looked back at her in confusion.
"My brother was Samuel Badgiruel Commander and I believe he was a member of VMA-103 and was killed during the Blockade. I must say that my parents were quite impressed that you visited them with your left arm still in a sling and a bandage around your head," Natarle said with a small smile on her face. James blinked in surprise before nodding back at her and leaning forward shaking her hand.
"Yes I remember Sam, he was a good pilot and a good friend," James said with a saddened expression on his face. While Lieutenant Kramer behind him smiled sadly and nodded a greeting to her.
"It would be an honor to serve with his sister," James said after shaking his head and saluting her which she returned automatically.
"I also know another of your old pilots, Mu La Flagga I served with him on the Archangel," she said with a small smile on his face. Once again both pilots were shocked and simply smiled as well remembering Mu.
"Good old Mu he was always good for a laugh and was a great pilot. He had to be to survive that battle," James replied with a shake of his head and a fond smile on his face looking at something only he could see. During the Blockade where Skull Squadron was almost nearly destroyed, it was the first time that Mobile Armors faced Mobile Suits in any sort of large-scale battle which showed in the losses those same Mobile Armors took against the Mobile Suits. It was almost a slaughter, the only thing that prevented every single mobile armor from being destroyed was the sheer inexperience of the ZAFT pilots and the experience of the majority of the mobile armor pilots.
"Anyways Commander here are your orders and we shall see you in two days when the Dominion is ready for launch," the Admiral cut in handing over the mentioned orders to Commander Focker who took them and saluted the Admiral.
"Very well sir and thank you for giving us such a good look at our new ship," the pilot said with a smile on his face.
"It was nothing, but you should get going as we have some more appointments we have to go to," the Admiral mentioned with a shooing gesture with his hands. Commander Fokker simply laughed and after another round of salutes started to leave but was stopped by Natarle.
"Oh by the way Commander tell that younger brother of yours that old sourpuss is going to be on the ship. He will know what I mean and I think you shall enjoy his reaction," she said with a small smile on her face. With a confused look on his face, Fokker simply nodded before finally leaving heading down the catwalk towards the exit to the dock with his XO and the two escorting marines following him. After he was gone Admiral Gloval turned to look at Natarle with a frown.
"You are evil, you know that," the Admiral said with a shake of his head at her, Natarle simply smiled up at him reminding him of her younger days when she was quite a little imp towards others.
"I know, but speaking of the Old Sourpuss, let's go see her. I believe she is waiting in your office for us," Natarle said with a smile on her face eager to see her old friend once more. Admiral Gloval simply shook his head at her and waved for her to head towards the opposite exit of the dock.
"You know she still does not know that you are her new commander," Gloval said with a smile on his face and an eager gleam in his eyes. Natarle simply raised an eyebrow before with a shake of her head walking out of the dock with the old admiral chuckling lightly behind her.
Pilot's Briefing Room
Herschel Shipyards
In a briefing room not far from the hangar where their mobile suits were stored, the various members of Skull Squadron were spread out through the briefing room waiting for their commander to return with their new orders. They took time to look over their new machines and were quite impressed with them, for they were a bit different than the ones they had at Edwards. Mainly slight changes in the Operating System and a couple of the new Strike Packs stored here. Suddenly the mentioned commander walked in with a peculiar expression on his face, the entire squadron turned to stare at him waiting for him to say something.
"Alright folks we have been assigned to the AFS Dominion and it will be launched in two days so we have that time to get used to our new machines," he said after shaking his head about something. The others in the room nodded before David Hunter looked up at him with a frown.
"What class is this new ship of ours then sir?" the young pilot asked making the others nod for it had to be a large ship for the Nelson and Drake Class could not carry their machines, or at least all of them anyway. Not to mention they were sure their mobile suits wouldn't be able to even fit into the hangar of the Nelson Class even if they refitted it. While the Drake Class would most likely have to store its assigned mobile suits on its hull just like its mobile armors, for it only sported a very small mobile armor maintenance bay internally.
"Well it can not be a Nelson or a Drake, so it has to be a fully refitted Agamemnon Class or one of those new Saratoga Class ships," Elena Mackenzie mentioned looking at the Commander who only smiled serenely and crossed his arms over the his chest. The other pilots all made a face at the idea but still looked quite interested.
They all knew that while the Agamemnon Class had the room to store their mobile suits, they would need a large refit to allow the large primarily command ships to be able to carry mobile suits. Mostly, in their catapults the hangar of the command ships were easily quite capable of handling mobile suits already with some very minor changes. All of the pilots knew that this had already happened more than a few times during the early days of the war when they would sometimes carry mobile suits used by what are called Freelancer Mercenaries. Something that had become a thing to allow the Earth Alliance a better chance against ZAFT and their mobile suits. Still, those ships would often be kept behind the frontlines as they were command ships after all and that would make sense. Some Admiral or Commodore wanted a good mobile suit unit to protect their flagship.
Meanwhile, while the Saratoga Class was a new design they were still somewhat familiar to them all what with the design being heavily based on that of the older Walter Class Heavy Transports that the old Federal Space Forces used as their main auxiliary ship a few years before the start of the war. The Atlantic Federation simply refitted the large cargo bays of those ships to make them into dedicated mobile suit hangars and then to better defend it would add a few defense guns on its hull before calling them mobile suit carriers. Therefore, the pilots of Skull Squadron wouldn't be all that thrilled to work along such a ship design. Especially, they doubted that such a ship was capable of fully capable of supporting them with different Strike Packs, the outright strength of an A1 Dagger.
"That can not be right; the Saratoga Class are all named after notable famous Common Era Aircraft Carriers, while the Agamemnon Class is named after noted Common Era mythical and legendary heroes with a splash of Common Era military leaders like the rest of the Earth Alliance fleet. So it had to be something different," noted Max Sterling with a frown trying to figure out what ship they were on. This drew the others' attention and made them all frown in some thought of their own.
"Well then what would the name Dominion fall under I wonder," Elena commented with her own frown on her face and turned to look at Commander Fokker who simply just stood there looking at them with this serene smile on his face.
"Sounds something like what Blue Cosmos would name one of their ships," Ben Dixon said with a snort that made the others snort or laugh as well. Suddenly Max looked up and looked around at them all with wide eyes.
"Dominion is a rank in the Christian Angel hierarchy like the Archangel," Max said in almost a whisper that made everyone look at him in outright shock before they all got it at the same time.
"You mean we are going to serve on an Archangel Class!" Elena said almost excitedly while the others could only also look on in their own excitement while Commander Fokker laughed and clapped at them.
"Good job Max and yes the Dominion is indeed an Archangel Class," he noted with a smile on his face.
"That is great!" David said with a big grin on his face, for of all the ships in the Alliance inventory serving on an Archangel would be quite an honor compared to other ships.
"Oh! That reminds me David, our new commander, and the ship's captain told me to tell you that the Old Sourpuss is going to be on the ship. I do not know what she meant but I was hoping you would," he said and closely watched his little brother's face to see him look confused before suddenly something clicked in his head and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh Crap! I am so going to be dead! She is going to kill me I swear it," David said with wide eyes making the other stare at him in surprise.
"So are you going to tell us about this David?" James asked with a frown before sitting down in an open chair. David looked at him for a moment before sighing and launching into one of his most embarrassing stories from his past. When he was done the entire squadron started to laugh while James simply grinned and rustled David's already messy hair.
"Smooth move Brother, and you know I am going to give you a hard time about this right," he said with a fond shake of his head. David simply sighed and nodded knowing that his older brother was going to have quite a hard time over this.
"Well, anyways I want us to get something to eat in the city before coming back and shake down these new machines. Clear?" he said to his squadron who all nodded at him. James simply nodded back at them before getting up once more.
Admiral Gloval's Office
In Gloval's office, a long brown-haired woman sat in a chair waiting for the Admiral to return to the office. As she waited the woman looked around at the various plaques and pictures on the wall. She smiled at some of the pictures and scowled at others before going a little misty-eyed at another one showing her real father standing next to her now-adopted father. She smiled at this picture and shook her head wondering if her real father would be proud of the woman she became. With a shake of her head for it was not good to really dwell on it. Suddenly she was pulled from her thoughts as the door opened and her mentioned adopted father stepped into the office with another woman following behind him who smiled with pleasure when she saw the first woman.
"Nat! Oh my god! I didn't know you were here on base. Henry didn't tell me," the first woman said getting up from the chair she sat in before walking over and hugging the slightly taller woman.
"Lisa it has been a long while hasn't it," Natarle said with a soft smile on her face looking up at her taller childhood friend Lieutenant Commander Lisa Hayes, as she returned the hug.
"What's this you are a Commander! When did this happen? The last time I saw you, you were only a lowly Ensign," she asked in disbelief while Natarle went to college after graduation from the academy Lisa went right into the Navy and therefore was always a couple of ranks higher than Natarle. Now Natarle was the senior officer of the two. With a smile and a shake of her head, Natarle simply pointed at the Admiral.
"Well as you most likely know I was assigned to the Archangel during the first months of this year and when we met up with the Eighth Fleet Rear Admiral Halberton gave all the officers of the ship a promotion. I was made a Lieutenant JG, and when we reached Alaska finally I received yet another promotion but was a two-rank promotion from JG to Lieutenant Commander. I was a Lieutenant Commander for about a month or so before Uncle Henry here gave me yet another promotion. I think he wanted to give another two rank promotions but it would have been too much to do that," Natarle answered with a smile on her face and watched with a grin as Lisa turned her attention to her adopted father.
"Henry! Why didn't tell me all this at our lunch last week!" the irate brown-haired woman said glaring at the man who suddenly went pale in the face of his adopted daughter's temper, with a raised hand the senior admiral tried to calm her down.
"Lisa, you know I was quite busy with all the stuff happening after Panama fell," he said with a desperate plea in his voice. Lisa glared at him but soon nodded before turning her attention back to Natarle.
"Very well, but does this mean that I am being assigned to you? For Henry did mention I was going to get a new ship," she said with a bright smile on her face. Natarle simply smiled in return at the other woman.
"Yes you are going to be my XO, Uncle Henry pulled some strings to get you assigned to me. Though when did you lose your ship, for the last time we saw each other you were in command of that Patrol Boat?" Natarle asked with an inquiring look on her face. Lisa blinked in surprise but sighed and looked at Gloval who simply shrugged in response.
"Well Nat, the Lovell was set to be retired along with the other remaining Grissom Class ships," she mentioned sadly and a shake of her head. Natarle nodded knowing that the Grissom Class Patrol Ships were nearly ten years old and therefore were going to be retired even before the war started. A war that cut down the vast majority of the class, especially during the Grimaldi Front.
"The good news is that I managed to assign the vast majority of the Lovell crew to that of the Dominion. It might take a while for them to get used to the larger ship, but I believe you like having them with you," Gloval mentioned with a nod of his head at Lisa, who perked up at the mention of her crew. Like Gloval she commanded the same ship for a while, but for her, it was only about three years so she was still quite close to them. Natarle nodded but suddenly thought of something.
"Why are you transferring them to the Dominion Uncle? What is so special about them?" she asked with a frown. Lisa and Gloval simply looked at each other before turning to look at Natarle.
"All of them have deep grudges against Blue Cosmos in some form or another. We were all assigned to the Lovell as a sort of punishment I guess after what Henry has told me about the information about Blue Cosmos," Lisa responded with a frown on her face. Natarle only blinked but nodded knowing that it would be a good idea to have a crew that is hostile against Blue Cosmos and loyal only to her if munch of the Admiralty is indeed in Blue Cosmos' pockets.
"So I take it he showed it to you then?" Natarle asked with a nod to the Admiral now silently sitting watching the two of them.
"Yes, he gave it to me earlier today to read over," Lisa replied with a nod of her head throwing her brown hair around. Natarle simply nodded in response before looking over at Gloval.
"Anyways you are going to tell me about your crew, so I can get to know them somewhat before I get to meet them personally," Natarle said changing the subject and getting back on track. Lisa simply nodded before accepting a large folder from the admiral and opened it, before starting to brief Natarle on her crew along with the others chosen by Admiral Gloval to put onto the crew. Blue Cosmos is going to be quite surprised if they tried to pull their tricks with the Dominion.
Alright after some difficulties I managed to get this finished finally. I do apologize about the wait but had some problems with RL and writing. But anyway I am back now and I hope to get back on track and get caught up with my words on NaNoWriMo.
Anyways this chapter briefly introduces my new and modified version of the Odin Class ships. When I decided to rewrite Honor, I went back to the drawing board on several of my ideas, one of these was the Odin. The Original Odin had two Gottfrieds like Gloval mentions here, but I have since modified that to one cannon. It still has both its Valiants and the single Lohengrin, as well as the shitload of CIWS cannons. I also upped the MS Complement to Eight in the face of the larger complement of the Dominion of my other Archangels that are going to appear. These new Odins shall be seen in the last bit of the story during the Battle of Jachin Due, but they shall not get their proper introduction till I start on the rewrite of Honor in December.
I also need to mention that I never understood the reasoning behind making the Dominion so similar to the Archangel. When the Pegasus Class ships they are heavily based on are different from every ship built therefore decided to do something similar here. The Dominion as I mentioned has several changes mainly internal but still it's five meters longer and slightly wider in the front to fit the larger hanger. The Dominion was also built to support Strike Pack Equipped 105 Daggers instead of carrying only one Strike Pack capable machine along with a few other different machines as well. I hope everyone enjoys the new and improved Dominion. Many may wonder about the ability to support sixteen machines when the other eight appear. Well, that shall be answered a few chapters along and it shall be far different than what the Dominion carried in the series.
I hope everyone liked the nod I did to Macross in here where Gloval mentioned his dream. I decided to include that for a few reasons since I am taking so many characters from Macross/Robotech figured I give a few nods to the other series. Another one is the Old Sourpuss joke's last chapter which finished here. I could not resist putting that in here and I thought I did a good job doing it.
For those that were interested in the Skull Squadron Dagger here is the link once more with all the needed changes to give you a chance to see it instead of being cut off. Basically like before remove the (dot)s and replace them with periods as well as remove the spaces. Hopefully, that should do it:
http://i59 (dot) photobucket(dot)com/albums/ g298/strike_zero/gat-01a1-skullleader (dot)jpg
There we go everyone and I hope everyone has enjoyed the latest chapter in Gundam SEED: Divergence! Enjoy!
Next Time on Divergence! We take a peek at our friends on the Archangel and the Orb Forces with them in Phase Four: The Other Archangel!
EDITING NOTE (9/28/2024): So! Unlike the other chapters of this story so far, I have made a few minor and major changes to the overall narrative outside of simple edits from Grammarly. This was mostly due to my decision to make some things a bit more solid for some of the later chapters of this story and the sequel. Especially as I am already planning on making some major changes to some elements in the sequel. The changes made here reflect those major changes that I am making later on in the sequel. This mainly includes further expanding on a few of my planned ship designs, like the Odin Class and the Saratoga Class.
The former ship design is a change that I came up with a few months ago after stumbling onto an old background file I did for the Odin including a general description of its design which mainly followed the Amaterasu design from the anime Starship Operators. As such I have mainly abandoned the whole one-legged approach to the design of the Odin as while I think the Amaterasu design does look quite interesting it wasn't what I originally imagined the Odin to look like. Therefore, instead the new Odin Class design greatly resembles a hybrid design of the Archangel and the Izumo Classes. Take the front end of the Izumo and then attach it to the back end of the Archangel. If that makes any sort of sense to you all!
The Saratoga Class was a design that I originally imagined looking like a mix of the Agamemnon Class with the more arrowhead-like hull design of the Venator Class Star Destroyer from Star Wars. If I remember things correctly I was writing the sequel to this story after I finished this one where the Saratoga started to become more of an unusual addition to the Earth Alliance fleet. Not to mention becoming disillusioned with the whole hull design. Hence, I am now changing the overall design to resemble the good old Columbus Class Transport from Universal Century Gundam mainly in the form of its Antietam Class subclass or that one fanart seen on the Gundam Wiki page for the Antietam with those hull braces on top. This one!
With that said, the final ship design that I changed from the original version of this story would be the Sentinel Class Patrol Ship. At its core, it is not all that much an important design really, but I do not know what my younger self was thinking basing it visually on the old Kignus Class ship design from After War Gundam. It did not conform to any sort of ship design of the Earth Alliance. Sigh. So instead, I am going with it being heavily based on the Barracuda Class ship design from Gundam The Origin which does work far better. This does see a rename of the design to better reflect the general naming scheme used by the Earth Alliance space fleet. Though it may show up later in some other form.
Alright. That is about it for this chapter and I am now going to get started on editing the next chapter. It may also get more edits and minor changes, but hopefully, not as much as this chapter. Sigh. Till then!
The Mobile Armor Squadron of VMA-103 "Skull" Squadron while it was utterly destroyed during the Blockade of CE69 was already famous by then. Not only was it using a legendary and old United States Fighter Squadron Designation from the Common Era, but the squadron managed to get involved in more than a few famous acts throughout its history. One of the more famous instances of VMA-103's famous acts was during the Blood Dawn Pirate Incident in Cosmic Era 64 where a civilian transport on the way to one of the Colonies was brutally attacked by the Blood Dawn Pirates. The nearest military unit was VMA-103, a Federal Space Forces Mobile Armor Squadron that was testing their newly produced TS-MA2 Moebius Mobile Armors when the distress call went out. VMA-103 immediately responded to the call and arrived to find the transport dead in the water with not a single pirate around. When Senior James Focker, one of the more senior pilots of VMA-103 along with a handful of other pilots went EVA and boarded the transport they found the remains of the brutally attacked crew with all their cargo stolen. Angered beyond belief at this the squadron knowing thanks to the transport's records of another transport not far off would lay in wait in a nearby Resource Asteroid Cluster. Then when the Blood Dawn Pirates started to attack the second Transport the Mobile Armors jumped out of the Cluster to defend the Transport from the attack. VMA-103 utterly wiped out the opposing pirate forces and managed to handily capture their carrier with no losses on their side. They would be rewarded for this and many news agencies clambered to interview them, so the legend of Skull Squadron was born…
- Taken from a News Article titled Skull Squadron: The Legend Behind the Skull
Dock Nine
Herschel Shipyards
After a fulfilling lunch at a fancy yet still very good restaurant in the City, both Admiral and Commander found themselves standing on a long catwalk that was suspended over the entire breadth of the bay looking down at the ship lying almost innocently in one of the dock's dozen main bays and several smaller secondary bays. The ship looked very similar to the Archangel but had a different paint job, basically a dark and brooding paint job, and was slightly longer than the first ship of the class. The Dominion measured 425 Meters about five meters longer than the Archangel, this was due to having been designed to carry A1 Daggers and their Strike Packs. Hence, needed a bit more cargo room to store said Strike Packs. Not to mention some better hanger equipment and a slightly larger hanger due to the front of the ship being slightly wider than the Archangel giving the Dominion a larger hanger to carry more mobile suits. This gave the Dominion a compliment of somewhere around sixteen or so Mobile Suits over the Archangel's complement of a more simple twelve Mobile Suits or Armor. One main reason behind this is the rapidly expanding mobile suit technology and the Alliance learning about proper mobile suit operations over time. Therefore, the Dominion and the later sister ships would be completely different from one another, though it would most likely be in small internal or hanger differences instead of any exterior differences besides some very minor hull extensions. The Dominion would also have a slightly different sensor system and radar than the Archangel. All this was on Natarle's mind as she looked over her new command with almost awe on her face.
"This is amazing, granted I have seen the Archangel many times before but this is the first time that I commanded such a ship and it is almost awe-inspiring to me," she said breaking the long silence between the two as they observed the berthed ship right below them. Natarle being the always on top of things looked over the specs on their way back from lunch at the City. It was quite an amazing sight to the young and newly minted commander such as her. Gloval only smiled as he remembered his first command, the Washington Class Missile Frigate Gates over nearly ten years before. He would command that ship for over six years and he knew her like the back of his hand. The Gates would be the first and last command of his career as he was fast-tracked to Rear Admiral as the increasing tensions between Earth and the PLANTS grew hotter. With a sigh, he turned to look at his young sort of niece with a fond smile on his face.
"Yes, it is indeed amazing to see your first command for the first time. I was the same way with I first saw the Gates, but I was lucky and got to see it being built as I recovered from my almost fatal crash," Gloval finally responded with an almost nostalgic-looking smile. Natarle blinked at this before looking over at him with a certain glint in her eye.
"But Uncle you never commanded such a ship like this, a ship that can and most likely will tear through any other ship like its tissue paper including your Gates. Not to mention what it could do to non-military targets if given the chance with its main guns," Natarle replied with a hysterical look on her face before turning to look at the Dominion once more in a new light. Gloval nodded with a sudden serious look on his face knowing that this ship, not including any embarked mobile suits, was a battleship in its own right and could slug it out with any other ship. The damage it could do to something like a city or even a colony if it fired its main guns would be quite disastrous. Suddenly the old Admiral smiled soft and wistfully as he just remembered something amusing and a bit crazy. Something he was sure would bring his pseudo-niece down from her bits of hysteria.
"You know Natarle I once had a weird dream where I commanded a very large battleship with a main cannon that could most likely destroy this moon, it was pretty weird but it was a fun thing to see," Gloval mentioned a bit wistfully with a grin while Natarle only rolled her eyes for she had heard of this before turning towards him with a glare on her face. The Admiral only laughed and raised his hands to defend himself from her making the young Commander snort at him before turning back to visually inspect her new command.
"Anyways back to business Commander, when you were browsing your new command specs, I took the liberty of having Lieutenant Commander Focker join us here. He should be arriving pretty soon," Gloval suddenly after a few moments of silence between the two of them getting back to business. Natarle nodded towards him as she looked up from her new command before her eyes started to slide toward the ships occupying the other bays in the dock. This dock was one of the largest in the base with an even dozen or so separate bays whereas others usually had four to eight bays. However, these other ships in the other bays were not either of the Drake, Nelson, or Agamemnon Classes, in fact, they looked almost like an Archangel but were quite smaller and sported a front end that had a strange similarity to what she knew to be the front half of a Izumo Class Carrier Battleship of the Orb Union's National Defense Forces. At least only of eight the ships were of this class while the last few bays sported still under construction Archangel Class ships. With a shake of her head, Natarle turned to look at Gloval with a frown on her face.
"Sir, what are those other ships, they kind of look like a mix between the Archangel and Orb's Izumo Class Carrier Battleships. Making them look like a one-legged smaller version of an Archangel?" she asked looking back at the ships with a frown. Gloval simply smiled at her and with a proud look in his eyes.
"Oh, you know about the Izumo Class? Impressive Commander," he mentioned with a chuckle before looking over the various ships himself with a certain eye.
"Well, those are Odin Class Mobile Escort Ships, they were designed to escort either Agamemnon Class Flagships or Archangel Class ships. As you can see they only have one "leg" and as you said a bit smaller than an Archangel, though it has more CIWS than an Archangel. As for its main weapons, it only has two of the Gottfried turrets sitting on top and bottom of that leg, though it does still have both Valiants along either side. The original plans did call for a single Lohengrin hiding in the front of the top part of the leg, but to keep the overall price down it was dropped from the design. Though it can carry eight mobile suits half that of your Dominion and any other Archangel after her. It is quite a ship that can handle itself and can handle other missions if needed, and for that reason, the Admiralty has ordered about twenty or so of these ships to be built, half here at Herschel and the other half at the new Solomon Yards located at L1," Admiral Gloval said looking over the nearest one with a small smile on his face, for Gloval had during his childhood he had loved warships and thanks to having lived next to a naval base. He would love to sit on the beach and watch those same warships steaming back and forth. Suddenly the elderly Admiral spotted something in the corner of his turned to look and saw two men approaching them with a pair of marines keeping pace with them. Neither man looked over the side at the ships below them.
"Ah! Looks like our guests have arrived Commander," Gloval noted making Natarle look up from her visual inspection of the Odin Class ships to see the two men fast approaching the two of them. The first man had unruly blond hair and blue eyes along with a handsome face, the mold for a perfect pretty boy image but this was marred by the long scar that ran across his face starting at his chin and running along the side of his nose before ending right under his left eye. It was quite a sight to see on someone like the man it appears on. The other man was shorter this his compatriot and had short black hair with dull gray eyes framing his face which looked nothing like the others for it was quite the opposite in fact. Both men wore the Atlantic Federation version of the Earth Alliance Uniform, though unlike both the Admiral and Natarle who had black panels on their shoulders showing that they were shipborne officers, these two had the same but had the dark blue patch on their shoulder panels which showed them as pilots in the regular forces. Natarle knew that Mu La Flagga only had black panels without the patch for he was in the special forces or at least had been before his stint on the Archangel. Both men soon stood in front of them and saluted the two of them, which was soon returned to the two pilots.
"Admiral, Lieutenant Commander James Focker, and Lieutenant Senior Grade Logan Kramer reporting as ordered sir," the lead man said as he put down his hand. Admiral Gloval simply smiled lightly before waving down at the Dominion below them.
"Yes Commander it is good to see, but I called you here Commander to get a first look at the ship you be assigned to, the AFS Dominion," Gloval said with a smile and watched with pleasure as the two men finally looked down at the ship below them before both their jaws dropped in surprise at the sight of the ship there.
"That is an Archangel Class. I did not know we were building any more of them after we lost the Archangel at JOSH-A," the pilot said in disbelieve and a large amount outright awe which made the Admiral smile in pleasure at it, while Natarle flinched at the bit about the Archangel being lost at JOSH-A.
"There are a couple of others over there James!" the second pilot, Lieutenant Kramer said with a shocked tone in his voice. Commander Focker looked up in shock to see his fellow pilot was right and there was yet another Archangel sitting in another bay which sported a third Archangel Class right next to it. Unlike the one below them, this one could be seen to be still being under construction with several shipyard personnel swarming all over the ship.
"I be damned, that is quite a sight to see!" James Focker said with a smile on his face and a chuckle before finally remembering the presence of the Admiral and his companion standing not far from him. With a light curse, the pilot turned and saluted the Admiral once more.
"I'm sorry about that sir," Commander Focker said with a grimace on his face. Gloval simply chuckled at the Commander before waving off the Commander's worries.
"That is fine Commander, I am usually the same way, but to business as I said earlier I called you here to get good luck at your new ship and to meet your commander. This is Commander Natarle Badgiruel the captain of the Dominion," Gloval said waving at Natarle, James simply nodded before nodding at her before her last name registered to him and he looked back at her in confusion.
"My brother was Samuel Badgiruel Commander and I believe he was a member of VMA-103 and was killed during the Blockade. I must say that my parents were quite impressed that you visited them with your left arm still in a sling and a bandage around your head," Natarle said with a small smile on her face. James blinked in surprise before nodding back at her and leaning forward shaking her hand.
"Yes I remember Sam, he was a good pilot and a good friend," James said with a saddened expression on his face. While Lieutenant Kramer behind him smiled sadly and nodded a greeting to her.
"It would be an honor to serve with his sister," James said after shaking his head and saluting her which she returned automatically.
"I also know another of your old pilots, Mu La Flagga I served with him on the Archangel," she said with a small smile on his face. Once again both pilots were shocked and simply smiled as well remembering Mu.
"Good old Mu he was always good for a laugh and was a great pilot. He had to be to survive that battle," James replied with a shake of his head and a fond smile on his face looking at something only he could see. During the Blockade where Skull Squadron was almost nearly destroyed, it was the first time that Mobile Armors faced Mobile Suits in any sort of large-scale battle which showed in the losses those same Mobile Armors took against the Mobile Suits. It was almost a slaughter, the only thing that prevented every single mobile armor from being destroyed was the sheer inexperience of the ZAFT pilots and the experience of the majority of the mobile armor pilots.
"Anyways Commander here are your orders and we shall see you in two days when the Dominion is ready for launch," the Admiral cut in handing over the mentioned orders to Commander Focker who took them and saluted the Admiral.
"Very well sir and thank you for giving us such a good look at our new ship," the pilot said with a smile on his face.
"It was nothing, but you should get going as we have some more appointments we have to go to," the Admiral mentioned with a shooing gesture with his hands. Commander Fokker simply laughed and after another round of salutes started to leave but was stopped by Natarle.
"Oh by the way Commander tell that younger brother of yours that old sourpuss is going to be on the ship. He will know what I mean and I think you shall enjoy his reaction," she said with a small smile on her face. With a confused look on his face, Fokker simply nodded before finally leaving heading down the catwalk towards the exit to the dock with his XO and the two escorting marines following him. After he was gone Admiral Gloval turned to look at Natarle with a frown.
"You are evil, you know that," the Admiral said with a shake of his head at her, Natarle simply smiled up at him reminding him of her younger days when she was quite a little imp towards others.
"I know, but speaking of the Old Sourpuss, let's go see her. I believe she is waiting in your office for us," Natarle said with a smile on her face eager to see her old friend once more. Admiral Gloval simply shook his head at her and waved for her to head towards the opposite exit of the dock.
"You know she still does not know that you are her new commander," Gloval said with a smile on his face and an eager gleam in his eyes. Natarle simply raised an eyebrow before with a shake of her head walking out of the dock with the old admiral chuckling lightly behind her.
Pilot's Briefing Room
Herschel Shipyards
In a briefing room not far from the hangar where their mobile suits were stored, the various members of Skull Squadron were spread out through the briefing room waiting for their commander to return with their new orders. They took time to look over their new machines and were quite impressed with them, for they were a bit different than the ones they had at Edwards. Mainly slight changes in the Operating System and a couple of the new Strike Packs stored here. Suddenly the mentioned commander walked in with a peculiar expression on his face, the entire squadron turned to stare at him waiting for him to say something.
"Alright folks we have been assigned to the AFS Dominion and it will be launched in two days so we have that time to get used to our new machines," he said after shaking his head about something. The others in the room nodded before David Hunter looked up at him with a frown.
"What class is this new ship of ours then sir?" the young pilot asked making the others nod for it had to be a large ship for the Nelson and Drake Class could not carry their machines, or at least all of them anyway. Not to mention they were sure their mobile suits wouldn't be able to even fit into the hangar of the Nelson Class even if they refitted it. While the Drake Class would most likely have to store its assigned mobile suits on its hull just like its mobile armors, for it only sported a very small mobile armor maintenance bay internally.
"Well it can not be a Nelson or a Drake, so it has to be a fully refitted Agamemnon Class or one of those new Saratoga Class ships," Elena Mackenzie mentioned looking at the Commander who only smiled serenely and crossed his arms over the his chest. The other pilots all made a face at the idea but still looked quite interested.
They all knew that while the Agamemnon Class had the room to store their mobile suits, they would need a large refit to allow the large primarily command ships to be able to carry mobile suits. Mostly, in their catapults the hangar of the command ships were easily quite capable of handling mobile suits already with some very minor changes. All of the pilots knew that this had already happened more than a few times during the early days of the war when they would sometimes carry mobile suits used by what are called Freelancer Mercenaries. Something that had become a thing to allow the Earth Alliance a better chance against ZAFT and their mobile suits. Still, those ships would often be kept behind the frontlines as they were command ships after all and that would make sense. Some Admiral or Commodore wanted a good mobile suit unit to protect their flagship.
Meanwhile, while the Saratoga Class was a new design they were still somewhat familiar to them all what with the design being heavily based on that of the older Walter Class Heavy Transports that the old Federal Space Forces used as their main auxiliary ship a few years before the start of the war. The Atlantic Federation simply refitted the large cargo bays of those ships to make them into dedicated mobile suit hangars and then to better defend it would add a few defense guns on its hull before calling them mobile suit carriers. Therefore, the pilots of Skull Squadron wouldn't be all that thrilled to work along such a ship design. Especially, they doubted that such a ship was capable of fully capable of supporting them with different Strike Packs, the outright strength of an A1 Dagger.
"That can not be right; the Saratoga Class are all named after notable famous Common Era Aircraft Carriers, while the Agamemnon Class is named after noted Common Era mythical and legendary heroes with a splash of Common Era military leaders like the rest of the Earth Alliance fleet. So it had to be something different," noted Max Sterling with a frown trying to figure out what ship they were on. This drew the others' attention and made them all frown in some thought of their own.
"Well then what would the name Dominion fall under I wonder," Elena commented with her own frown on her face and turned to look at Commander Fokker who simply just stood there looking at them with this serene smile on his face.
"Sounds something like what Blue Cosmos would name one of their ships," Ben Dixon said with a snort that made the others snort or laugh as well. Suddenly Max looked up and looked around at them all with wide eyes.
"Dominion is a rank in the Christian Angel hierarchy like the Archangel," Max said in almost a whisper that made everyone look at him in outright shock before they all got it at the same time.
"You mean we are going to serve on an Archangel Class!" Elena said almost excitedly while the others could only also look on in their own excitement while Commander Fokker laughed and clapped at them.
"Good job Max and yes the Dominion is indeed an Archangel Class," he noted with a smile on his face.
"That is great!" David said with a big grin on his face, for of all the ships in the Alliance inventory serving on an Archangel would be quite an honor compared to other ships.
"Oh! That reminds me David, our new commander, and the ship's captain told me to tell you that the Old Sourpuss is going to be on the ship. I do not know what she meant but I was hoping you would," he said and closely watched his little brother's face to see him look confused before suddenly something clicked in his head and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh Crap! I am so going to be dead! She is going to kill me I swear it," David said with wide eyes making the other stare at him in surprise.
"So are you going to tell us about this David?" James asked with a frown before sitting down in an open chair. David looked at him for a moment before sighing and launching into one of his most embarrassing stories from his past. When he was done the entire squadron started to laugh while James simply grinned and rustled David's already messy hair.
"Smooth move Brother, and you know I am going to give you a hard time about this right," he said with a fond shake of his head. David simply sighed and nodded knowing that his older brother was going to have quite a hard time over this.
"Well, anyways I want us to get something to eat in the city before coming back and shake down these new machines. Clear?" he said to his squadron who all nodded at him. James simply nodded back at them before getting up once more.
Admiral Gloval's Office
In Gloval's office, a long brown-haired woman sat in a chair waiting for the Admiral to return to the office. As she waited the woman looked around at the various plaques and pictures on the wall. She smiled at some of the pictures and scowled at others before going a little misty-eyed at another one showing her real father standing next to her now-adopted father. She smiled at this picture and shook her head wondering if her real father would be proud of the woman she became. With a shake of her head for it was not good to really dwell on it. Suddenly she was pulled from her thoughts as the door opened and her mentioned adopted father stepped into the office with another woman following behind him who smiled with pleasure when she saw the first woman.
"Nat! Oh my god! I didn't know you were here on base. Henry didn't tell me," the first woman said getting up from the chair she sat in before walking over and hugging the slightly taller woman.
"Lisa it has been a long while hasn't it," Natarle said with a soft smile on her face looking up at her taller childhood friend Lieutenant Commander Lisa Hayes, as she returned the hug.
"What's this you are a Commander! When did this happen? The last time I saw you, you were only a lowly Ensign," she asked in disbelief while Natarle went to college after graduation from the academy Lisa went right into the Navy and therefore was always a couple of ranks higher than Natarle. Now Natarle was the senior officer of the two. With a smile and a shake of her head, Natarle simply pointed at the Admiral.
"Well as you most likely know I was assigned to the Archangel during the first months of this year and when we met up with the Eighth Fleet Rear Admiral Halberton gave all the officers of the ship a promotion. I was made a Lieutenant JG, and when we reached Alaska finally I received yet another promotion but was a two-rank promotion from JG to Lieutenant Commander. I was a Lieutenant Commander for about a month or so before Uncle Henry here gave me yet another promotion. I think he wanted to give another two rank promotions but it would have been too much to do that," Natarle answered with a smile on her face and watched with a grin as Lisa turned her attention to her adopted father.
"Henry! Why didn't tell me all this at our lunch last week!" the irate brown-haired woman said glaring at the man who suddenly went pale in the face of his adopted daughter's temper, with a raised hand the senior admiral tried to calm her down.
"Lisa, you know I was quite busy with all the stuff happening after Panama fell," he said with a desperate plea in his voice. Lisa glared at him but soon nodded before turning her attention back to Natarle.
"Very well, but does this mean that I am being assigned to you? For Henry did mention I was going to get a new ship," she said with a bright smile on her face. Natarle simply smiled in return at the other woman.
"Yes you are going to be my XO, Uncle Henry pulled some strings to get you assigned to me. Though when did you lose your ship, for the last time we saw each other you were in command of that Patrol Boat?" Natarle asked with an inquiring look on her face. Lisa blinked in surprise but sighed and looked at Gloval who simply shrugged in response.
"Well Nat, the Lovell was set to be retired along with the other remaining Grissom Class ships," she mentioned sadly and a shake of her head. Natarle nodded knowing that the Grissom Class Patrol Ships were nearly ten years old and therefore were going to be retired even before the war started. A war that cut down the vast majority of the class, especially during the Grimaldi Front.
"The good news is that I managed to assign the vast majority of the Lovell crew to that of the Dominion. It might take a while for them to get used to the larger ship, but I believe you like having them with you," Gloval mentioned with a nod of his head at Lisa, who perked up at the mention of her crew. Like Gloval she commanded the same ship for a while, but for her, it was only about three years so she was still quite close to them. Natarle nodded but suddenly thought of something.
"Why are you transferring them to the Dominion Uncle? What is so special about them?" she asked with a frown. Lisa and Gloval simply looked at each other before turning to look at Natarle.
"All of them have deep grudges against Blue Cosmos in some form or another. We were all assigned to the Lovell as a sort of punishment I guess after what Henry has told me about the information about Blue Cosmos," Lisa responded with a frown on her face. Natarle only blinked but nodded knowing that it would be a good idea to have a crew that is hostile against Blue Cosmos and loyal only to her if munch of the Admiralty is indeed in Blue Cosmos' pockets.
"So I take it he showed it to you then?" Natarle asked with a nod to the Admiral now silently sitting watching the two of them.
"Yes, he gave it to me earlier today to read over," Lisa replied with a nod of her head throwing her brown hair around. Natarle simply nodded in response before looking over at Gloval.
"Anyways you are going to tell me about your crew, so I can get to know them somewhat before I get to meet them personally," Natarle said changing the subject and getting back on track. Lisa simply nodded before accepting a large folder from the admiral and opened it, before starting to brief Natarle on her crew along with the others chosen by Admiral Gloval to put onto the crew. Blue Cosmos is going to be quite surprised if they tried to pull their tricks with the Dominion.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes:
Anyways this chapter briefly introduces my new and modified version of the Odin Class ships. When I decided to rewrite Honor, I went back to the drawing board on several of my ideas, one of these was the Odin. The Original Odin had two Gottfrieds like Gloval mentions here, but I have since modified that to one cannon. It still has both its Valiants and the single Lohengrin, as well as the shitload of CIWS cannons. I also upped the MS Complement to Eight in the face of the larger complement of the Dominion of my other Archangels that are going to appear. These new Odins shall be seen in the last bit of the story during the Battle of Jachin Due, but they shall not get their proper introduction till I start on the rewrite of Honor in December.
I also need to mention that I never understood the reasoning behind making the Dominion so similar to the Archangel. When the Pegasus Class ships they are heavily based on are different from every ship built therefore decided to do something similar here. The Dominion as I mentioned has several changes mainly internal but still it's five meters longer and slightly wider in the front to fit the larger hanger. The Dominion was also built to support Strike Pack Equipped 105 Daggers instead of carrying only one Strike Pack capable machine along with a few other different machines as well. I hope everyone enjoys the new and improved Dominion. Many may wonder about the ability to support sixteen machines when the other eight appear. Well, that shall be answered a few chapters along and it shall be far different than what the Dominion carried in the series.
I hope everyone liked the nod I did to Macross in here where Gloval mentioned his dream. I decided to include that for a few reasons since I am taking so many characters from Macross/Robotech figured I give a few nods to the other series. Another one is the Old Sourpuss joke's last chapter which finished here. I could not resist putting that in here and I thought I did a good job doing it.
For those that were interested in the Skull Squadron Dagger here is the link once more with all the needed changes to give you a chance to see it instead of being cut off. Basically like before remove the (dot)s and replace them with periods as well as remove the spaces. Hopefully, that should do it:
http://i59 (dot) photobucket(dot)com/albums/ g298/strike_zero/gat-01a1-skullleader (dot)jpg
There we go everyone and I hope everyone has enjoyed the latest chapter in Gundam SEED: Divergence! Enjoy!
Next Time on Divergence! We take a peek at our friends on the Archangel and the Orb Forces with them in Phase Four: The Other Archangel!
EDITING NOTE (9/28/2024): So! Unlike the other chapters of this story so far, I have made a few minor and major changes to the overall narrative outside of simple edits from Grammarly. This was mostly due to my decision to make some things a bit more solid for some of the later chapters of this story and the sequel. Especially as I am already planning on making some major changes to some elements in the sequel. The changes made here reflect those major changes that I am making later on in the sequel. This mainly includes further expanding on a few of my planned ship designs, like the Odin Class and the Saratoga Class.
The former ship design is a change that I came up with a few months ago after stumbling onto an old background file I did for the Odin including a general description of its design which mainly followed the Amaterasu design from the anime Starship Operators. As such I have mainly abandoned the whole one-legged approach to the design of the Odin as while I think the Amaterasu design does look quite interesting it wasn't what I originally imagined the Odin to look like. Therefore, instead the new Odin Class design greatly resembles a hybrid design of the Archangel and the Izumo Classes. Take the front end of the Izumo and then attach it to the back end of the Archangel. If that makes any sort of sense to you all!
The Saratoga Class was a design that I originally imagined looking like a mix of the Agamemnon Class with the more arrowhead-like hull design of the Venator Class Star Destroyer from Star Wars. If I remember things correctly I was writing the sequel to this story after I finished this one where the Saratoga started to become more of an unusual addition to the Earth Alliance fleet. Not to mention becoming disillusioned with the whole hull design. Hence, I am now changing the overall design to resemble the good old Columbus Class Transport from Universal Century Gundam mainly in the form of its Antietam Class subclass or that one fanart seen on the Gundam Wiki page for the Antietam with those hull braces on top. This one!
With that said, the final ship design that I changed from the original version of this story would be the Sentinel Class Patrol Ship. At its core, it is not all that much an important design really, but I do not know what my younger self was thinking basing it visually on the old Kignus Class ship design from After War Gundam. It did not conform to any sort of ship design of the Earth Alliance. Sigh. So instead, I am going with it being heavily based on the Barracuda Class ship design from Gundam The Origin which does work far better. This does see a rename of the design to better reflect the general naming scheme used by the Earth Alliance space fleet. Though it may show up later in some other form.
Alright. That is about it for this chapter and I am now going to get started on editing the next chapter. It may also get more edits and minor changes, but hopefully, not as much as this chapter. Sigh. Till then!
Side Phase One: The First Archangel
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Side Phase One: The First Archangel
The Battle of Orb was one of the main turning points of the Bloody Valentine War as it was the first major aggressive use of a large amount of Mobile Suits for the Earth Alliance, with both the GAT-01 Strike Dagger and the far superior GAT-01A1 Dagger making their true combat debut during this battle. Also, it would be the second major battle where both sides had used mobile suits, and by far one of the fiercest for that matter. On the Orb Side saw the first introduction of the superior and agile MBF-M1 M1 Astray Mobile Suits, along with its handful of variants. Including along the small amount of Astray Variants was the MBF-M1C Astray Commando, an Orb version of ZAFTs GINN High Maneuver Type and CGUE rolled into one, but Orb only had a handful of these machines. Other members of the Astray family of mobile suits were the Astray Marine, an underwater combat model equipped to handle enemy Marine types, and the Astray Cannon, one built for heavy combat though still remarkably retains the Astray line's lightweight nature giving it superior agility and maneuverability for such a type of mobile suit. As the battle became bleak for the Orb Forces they launched three ships into space to continue Orb's fight to stop the war…
- Taken from the Non-Fictional Historical Text, The Bloody Valentine War: The Mobile Suits and the People Who Flew Them
High Orbit
Earth
June 17, CE71
Floating in the emptiness of space was the blue shining jewel that was the planet Earth. For the last fifteen months or so it had been a silent witness to one of the bloodiest wars in the long war-torn history of the planet. Not to mention the first war ever to grace the space around the planet. It had touched almost everything, from the peaceful space colonies orbiting the planet to even the planet's single moon. Nothing was left untouched by the war, even the neutral country of the Orb Union, first it's only space colony had been destroyed earlier in the year then now it was taken over by the Earth Alliance for only saying no to join them in the fight against their enemy, ZAFT. ZAFT had been the ones who destroyed the Orb Colony and while had a good excuse to attack it they had no right to destroy it. However, the Lion of Orb still roars as some Orb forces made it out of the country before it was taken and they are now fighting to end the war instead of fighting to kill the other. Orbiting the planet in a high orbit around the planet below them were three ships. Space warships. Leading the other two was the Archangel Class Mobile Assault Ship Archangel, a ship that had been in the thick of the war for the past seven months since it had been thrown into the war at Orb's Colony of Heliopolis and was one of the reasons why ZAFT attacked for it was being built at the colony in secret. It had been part of the Earth Forces and had been fighting ZAFT ever since then, now it made a life-shattering decision and had defected to Orb a bit before the earlier Battle of Orb. It was now playing the part of flagship for the hastily formed 1st Space Defense Fleet. The other two ships of the small fleet were a pair of slightly smaller Izumo Class Carrier Battleships, a ship similar to the Archangel yet different at the same time. Now on the bridge of the Archangel, the fleet's future was being decided.
"Well Ame-No-Mihashira has reported that all of the transports have made it to the Station and are being taken care of," reported an older man in the blue and black uniform of Orb's National Defense Forces. The other gathered officers the majority in the same uniform sighed in relief at that report. Many had been scared that the Earth Forces would try to intercept the fleeing orbital shuttles carrying said refuges.
"Colonel Kisaka what's the status of the remaining Orb Forces?" asked a young woman sitting in the ship's command chair, one Captain Murrue Ramius the captain of the large battleship. The older man who had just made his report frowned before looking at an even younger blond-haired girl whose eyes were red from crying. She was Cagalli Yula Attha the new leader of Orb and the daughter of the previous leader of Orb who sacrificed himself to give the Archangel and her two companions a chance to retreat to space. Sighing the long-haired colonel turned to look over at the questioner before he closed his eyes in thought before nodding.
"Well, Captain besides the Kusanagi and the Susanoo there is the Murakumo and the Tsukuyomi which are ordered to protect the Space Station. Though however, the Izumo herself has left the station for unknown reasons," Colonel Ledonir Kisaka reported with a frown. The others frowned as well, even with both small fleets the Orb Forces were still outnumbered by their enemies. Even then the second fleet was assigned to protect the Space Station Ame-No-Mihashira where much of the refugees from Orb had been sent to before the start of the battle.
"Alright how about the Mobile Suits, Major?" the captain asked looking over at the young man leaning against a nearby bulkhead. His long silver hair floated gently zero-gee of the ship, though, unlike the others on the bridge, he wore a flight suit and a helmet floated gently next to him. The man frowned as well before sighing and nodding as well. He happened to be the senior mobile suit pilot in the entire fleet and therefore had the most knowledge of what was going on with the small fleet's mobile suits.
"Well as you know the Archangel is carrying a full load of Mobile Suits, first we have the two G-Weapons the Strike and the Buster, we then have the four Astray Commandos of my Omega Team, the four Astray Cannons of the Strike Cobra Team and finally the two former ZAFT Prototype G-Weapons the Justice and the Freedom. As for the other ships both are carrying a full load of M1 Astrays, twenty-four in total. The Susanoo also has a pair of Astray Commandoes included in its Mobile Suit Complement. Including the mobile suits here on the Archangel we have around thirty-four regular mobile suits and those four G-Weapons," the man Major Brian Carter, reported with a frown on his face. The brown-haired woman nodded at him before turning to look at a short red-haired young woman standing off to one side, while she wore an Orb Uniform like the others hers was slightly different with the sleeves rolled up to her biceps and several buttons on her jacket where opened.
"Captain Links, how is the Susanoo doing for you and your crew? Since she was just finished before the battle after all?" Captain Ramius asked the other woman Captain Nadia Links. Unlike many of the others in the room, she was not military. She usually captained a large space-born transport for the Orb Union and usually transported various materials between Heliopolis and the Mainland. Since the destruction of the colony, she had been making runs between the space station and the remaining Orb-controlled resource satellites located at Lagrange Three, as well as the small facility located in Copernicus City on the moon that is owned by Morgenroete. She had been visiting family in Orb when the Battle started and had along with her crew volunteered to crew the just-finished Susanoo. While the young woman was a civilian her ship had weapons to better protect itself from pirates. An ability that had saved the ship and its crew several times over the years. Therefore the captain and her crew were not all that much strangers to combat.
"Ma'am while it is not the Orion my crew and I are quite comfortable with her. Perhaps since she is so heavily defended and armored than the Orion," the younger woman replied with a shrug of her shoulders. The seated woman only nodded with a small smile on her face before turning to look around at the others.
"Very well then, thankfully the Chief Representative suggested a few locations of note that we could head for to regroup and to establish some sort of base there to support our needs. I along with Captain Links and Colonel Kisaka have looked them over and have since decided to head for the Mendel Colony located at L4. Many think that the colonies in that area our unstable as well as the biohazard incident that happened several years ago. According to Lord Uzumi's data whatever made the biohazard happen has long since disappeared and the colony still has working facilities as well as several other things we might need in the future," Captain Ramius suggested bringing up the mentioned data on the screen above the bridge's large viewport. A few of the others on the bridge nodded at her suggestion.
"Yes, that shall work, for it is out of the way and not to mention like you said Captain many do not go there anymore and have a large debris field there thanks to the almost destruction of the Colony Cluster located there. So it is the perfect forward base for our ships, we might even find some food and water there as well. For many of the colonies had emergency bunkers sealed against containments which should have food and water there," one of the men on the bridge said with a thoughtful look on his face, unlike the other on the bridge he was not wearing a military uniform. Instead, he wore a purple and black business suit that was common wear for Orb Union Representatives and aides. This man happened to be Nathan Carter, Major Carter's Uncle and chief aide to the former Chief Representative who had ordered him to board the Archangel for Cagalli and needed someone to help her in the years ahead. The others nodded as well to Mister Carter's words.
"Very well then myself and Captain Links should head back to our ships to get ready to depart for L4. With your permission Captain?" Colonel Kisaka said before looking at Captain Ramius who only smiled before waving him to go ahead. The man simply nodded before leaving the bridge and shooting a concerned look at Cagalli before finally exiting the bridge. Cagalli was going to stay on the Archangel for a while for many of her friends were aboard and could help her through the death of her father. With a nod to Captain Ramius, Captain Links exited the bridge as well heading back to her ships as well. After Captain Links left the gathered group slowly started to disperse till only Captain Ramius along with her own officers were left on the bridge. With a deep sigh of relief, the woman leaned back in her seat and took a breath.
"Something the matter Murrue?" asked one of her officers, Lieutenant Commander Mu La Flagga the pilot of the Strike G-Weapon, with a roguish grin on his face. Murrue looked over at him before shaking her head.
"Kind of, I just still can not believe Lord Uzumi put me in command of this small little fleet of ours. Granted it is not as large as the Eight Fleet or another Alliance Fleet but it is still pretty powerful compared to what I am used to. Only two weeks ago I was only commander of a single ship and now I am commanding a force of three powerful battleships with thirty-eight mobile suits embarked on said ships. I have sure come a long way from commanding a single ship, with one lonely mobile suit and mobile armor," Murrue mentioned to her new lover and sort-of boyfriend, who simply nodded with a smile.
"Remember Murrue, unlike Colonel Kisaka or the other Izumo commanders you have experience in not only directing a space warship but working with mobile suits. Not including Captain Links of course," another of her officers mentioned with a small smile on his face. This is Kira Yamato the former pilot of the Strike and now pilots the powerful Freedom G-Weapon or as he calls it the Freedom Gundam. His best friend and former rival Athrun Zala stood next to him uncomfortably wearing an Orb Uniform, for he had once been a member of ZAFT and therefore had fought against this ship along with Kira multiple times. Now to show his new loyalty to the ship and his old friend he wore an Orb Uniform instead of his usual red ZAFT uniform, a uniform that outside of the single uniform set that he had carried with him onboard his unit he had no further uniform.
"That is true Kira, but it does not make me feel any better. I am just kind of scared of this power in my hands," Murrue replied with a shake of her head throwing her long hair swinging back and forth.
"Captain I may not know you as long as the others have but I already know that you are one of the best candidates to command this group. I would not have anyone else commanding myself or my men," Major Carter mentioned from his position along the wall and smiled at her. Murrue smiled at the pilot before nodding her head to him.
"Yes thank you Major that means a lot coming from you," she said with a smile on her own before she sighed and turned to look see the support from the other officers around the bridge. All were smiling or nodding at her showing their support towards her. Many of them, Kira and Mu among them, had been with her since that fateful day in Heliopolis all those months ago. It almost seemed a lifetime ago for her and the other Archangel veterans. Cagalli was even smiling at her, and for the first time since her father's death looked happy.
"Should I set our heading towards L4 Captain?" asked her sort of XO one Ensign Arnold Neumann asked with a smile that was rare for the usual down-to-earth former non-commissioned officer. Murrue smiled at him before looking around once more around the bridge noting the supportive looks on the other's face before turning to look at the ship's pilot.
"Yes once both Colonel Kisaka and Captain Links have returned to their ship set your heading for L4 and the Mendel Colony," Murrue ordered with a nod of her head at the black-haired officer. With a nod and another smile to his captain turned around to wait for the orders he needed. After another few minutes, both ship commanders reported that they were ready to move out.
"Alright let's go end this war," Murrue said with conviction and a smile. With that said the engines of all three ships engaged with a flare of light and started to move away from the planet on a course towards L4 and their new mission: Bring an End to the War.
Well! There is the next chapter for you all. A look at what the Archangel and crew are up to. Since I had a few plans to some stuff around and knew I better introduce it sooner rather than later. Anyway, I never understood why we only had three ships along with their mobile suits that could take on both sides as they did without much more damage and deaths they had. Therefore I have added the Susanoo to the Orb/Archangel group which adds another dozen mobile suits and some more guns to the group. Also, the Clyne Faction shall have a few more ships as a result as well, giving my version of the TSA far more power to use. I may or may not add any more ships than those mentioned here. However, I have a few plans to add another faction or two to the Group overall.
Also to those Honor fans, there are some familiar faces in here, basically Brian but others may show up later down the road. As for Captain Link and her crew, they are yet another of the Third-Party groups that I have planned to use in the rewrite of Honor. They work for Orb and are reasonable for traveling between the mainland and Heliopolis Colony. Though they are quite used to going after pirates on their off time. I gave Links the Susanoo for a few reasons one of them I did not want to use anymore my planned Honor Characters coming in to command the ship or another burrowed or reborn character from another universe. Therefore I brought Links in for it.
Anyway, that is about it folks, I shall catch you all in the next chapter where we return to the Dominion. Till then Ciao!
Next time on Divergence, we return to the Dominion and her shake-down cruise but all is not as it seems during it. Find out what is in Phase Five: Trails and Pirates!
The Battle of Orb was one of the main turning points of the Bloody Valentine War as it was the first major aggressive use of a large amount of Mobile Suits for the Earth Alliance, with both the GAT-01 Strike Dagger and the far superior GAT-01A1 Dagger making their true combat debut during this battle. Also, it would be the second major battle where both sides had used mobile suits, and by far one of the fiercest for that matter. On the Orb Side saw the first introduction of the superior and agile MBF-M1 M1 Astray Mobile Suits, along with its handful of variants. Including along the small amount of Astray Variants was the MBF-M1C Astray Commando, an Orb version of ZAFTs GINN High Maneuver Type and CGUE rolled into one, but Orb only had a handful of these machines. Other members of the Astray family of mobile suits were the Astray Marine, an underwater combat model equipped to handle enemy Marine types, and the Astray Cannon, one built for heavy combat though still remarkably retains the Astray line's lightweight nature giving it superior agility and maneuverability for such a type of mobile suit. As the battle became bleak for the Orb Forces they launched three ships into space to continue Orb's fight to stop the war…
- Taken from the Non-Fictional Historical Text, The Bloody Valentine War: The Mobile Suits and the People Who Flew Them
High Orbit
Earth
June 17, CE71
Floating in the emptiness of space was the blue shining jewel that was the planet Earth. For the last fifteen months or so it had been a silent witness to one of the bloodiest wars in the long war-torn history of the planet. Not to mention the first war ever to grace the space around the planet. It had touched almost everything, from the peaceful space colonies orbiting the planet to even the planet's single moon. Nothing was left untouched by the war, even the neutral country of the Orb Union, first it's only space colony had been destroyed earlier in the year then now it was taken over by the Earth Alliance for only saying no to join them in the fight against their enemy, ZAFT. ZAFT had been the ones who destroyed the Orb Colony and while had a good excuse to attack it they had no right to destroy it. However, the Lion of Orb still roars as some Orb forces made it out of the country before it was taken and they are now fighting to end the war instead of fighting to kill the other. Orbiting the planet in a high orbit around the planet below them were three ships. Space warships. Leading the other two was the Archangel Class Mobile Assault Ship Archangel, a ship that had been in the thick of the war for the past seven months since it had been thrown into the war at Orb's Colony of Heliopolis and was one of the reasons why ZAFT attacked for it was being built at the colony in secret. It had been part of the Earth Forces and had been fighting ZAFT ever since then, now it made a life-shattering decision and had defected to Orb a bit before the earlier Battle of Orb. It was now playing the part of flagship for the hastily formed 1st Space Defense Fleet. The other two ships of the small fleet were a pair of slightly smaller Izumo Class Carrier Battleships, a ship similar to the Archangel yet different at the same time. Now on the bridge of the Archangel, the fleet's future was being decided.
"Well Ame-No-Mihashira has reported that all of the transports have made it to the Station and are being taken care of," reported an older man in the blue and black uniform of Orb's National Defense Forces. The other gathered officers the majority in the same uniform sighed in relief at that report. Many had been scared that the Earth Forces would try to intercept the fleeing orbital shuttles carrying said refuges.
"Colonel Kisaka what's the status of the remaining Orb Forces?" asked a young woman sitting in the ship's command chair, one Captain Murrue Ramius the captain of the large battleship. The older man who had just made his report frowned before looking at an even younger blond-haired girl whose eyes were red from crying. She was Cagalli Yula Attha the new leader of Orb and the daughter of the previous leader of Orb who sacrificed himself to give the Archangel and her two companions a chance to retreat to space. Sighing the long-haired colonel turned to look over at the questioner before he closed his eyes in thought before nodding.
"Well, Captain besides the Kusanagi and the Susanoo there is the Murakumo and the Tsukuyomi which are ordered to protect the Space Station. Though however, the Izumo herself has left the station for unknown reasons," Colonel Ledonir Kisaka reported with a frown. The others frowned as well, even with both small fleets the Orb Forces were still outnumbered by their enemies. Even then the second fleet was assigned to protect the Space Station Ame-No-Mihashira where much of the refugees from Orb had been sent to before the start of the battle.
"Alright how about the Mobile Suits, Major?" the captain asked looking over at the young man leaning against a nearby bulkhead. His long silver hair floated gently zero-gee of the ship, though, unlike the others on the bridge, he wore a flight suit and a helmet floated gently next to him. The man frowned as well before sighing and nodding as well. He happened to be the senior mobile suit pilot in the entire fleet and therefore had the most knowledge of what was going on with the small fleet's mobile suits.
"Well as you know the Archangel is carrying a full load of Mobile Suits, first we have the two G-Weapons the Strike and the Buster, we then have the four Astray Commandos of my Omega Team, the four Astray Cannons of the Strike Cobra Team and finally the two former ZAFT Prototype G-Weapons the Justice and the Freedom. As for the other ships both are carrying a full load of M1 Astrays, twenty-four in total. The Susanoo also has a pair of Astray Commandoes included in its Mobile Suit Complement. Including the mobile suits here on the Archangel we have around thirty-four regular mobile suits and those four G-Weapons," the man Major Brian Carter, reported with a frown on his face. The brown-haired woman nodded at him before turning to look at a short red-haired young woman standing off to one side, while she wore an Orb Uniform like the others hers was slightly different with the sleeves rolled up to her biceps and several buttons on her jacket where opened.
"Captain Links, how is the Susanoo doing for you and your crew? Since she was just finished before the battle after all?" Captain Ramius asked the other woman Captain Nadia Links. Unlike many of the others in the room, she was not military. She usually captained a large space-born transport for the Orb Union and usually transported various materials between Heliopolis and the Mainland. Since the destruction of the colony, she had been making runs between the space station and the remaining Orb-controlled resource satellites located at Lagrange Three, as well as the small facility located in Copernicus City on the moon that is owned by Morgenroete. She had been visiting family in Orb when the Battle started and had along with her crew volunteered to crew the just-finished Susanoo. While the young woman was a civilian her ship had weapons to better protect itself from pirates. An ability that had saved the ship and its crew several times over the years. Therefore the captain and her crew were not all that much strangers to combat.
"Ma'am while it is not the Orion my crew and I are quite comfortable with her. Perhaps since she is so heavily defended and armored than the Orion," the younger woman replied with a shrug of her shoulders. The seated woman only nodded with a small smile on her face before turning to look around at the others.
"Very well then, thankfully the Chief Representative suggested a few locations of note that we could head for to regroup and to establish some sort of base there to support our needs. I along with Captain Links and Colonel Kisaka have looked them over and have since decided to head for the Mendel Colony located at L4. Many think that the colonies in that area our unstable as well as the biohazard incident that happened several years ago. According to Lord Uzumi's data whatever made the biohazard happen has long since disappeared and the colony still has working facilities as well as several other things we might need in the future," Captain Ramius suggested bringing up the mentioned data on the screen above the bridge's large viewport. A few of the others on the bridge nodded at her suggestion.
"Yes, that shall work, for it is out of the way and not to mention like you said Captain many do not go there anymore and have a large debris field there thanks to the almost destruction of the Colony Cluster located there. So it is the perfect forward base for our ships, we might even find some food and water there as well. For many of the colonies had emergency bunkers sealed against containments which should have food and water there," one of the men on the bridge said with a thoughtful look on his face, unlike the other on the bridge he was not wearing a military uniform. Instead, he wore a purple and black business suit that was common wear for Orb Union Representatives and aides. This man happened to be Nathan Carter, Major Carter's Uncle and chief aide to the former Chief Representative who had ordered him to board the Archangel for Cagalli and needed someone to help her in the years ahead. The others nodded as well to Mister Carter's words.
"Very well then myself and Captain Links should head back to our ships to get ready to depart for L4. With your permission Captain?" Colonel Kisaka said before looking at Captain Ramius who only smiled before waving him to go ahead. The man simply nodded before leaving the bridge and shooting a concerned look at Cagalli before finally exiting the bridge. Cagalli was going to stay on the Archangel for a while for many of her friends were aboard and could help her through the death of her father. With a nod to Captain Ramius, Captain Links exited the bridge as well heading back to her ships as well. After Captain Links left the gathered group slowly started to disperse till only Captain Ramius along with her own officers were left on the bridge. With a deep sigh of relief, the woman leaned back in her seat and took a breath.
"Something the matter Murrue?" asked one of her officers, Lieutenant Commander Mu La Flagga the pilot of the Strike G-Weapon, with a roguish grin on his face. Murrue looked over at him before shaking her head.
"Kind of, I just still can not believe Lord Uzumi put me in command of this small little fleet of ours. Granted it is not as large as the Eight Fleet or another Alliance Fleet but it is still pretty powerful compared to what I am used to. Only two weeks ago I was only commander of a single ship and now I am commanding a force of three powerful battleships with thirty-eight mobile suits embarked on said ships. I have sure come a long way from commanding a single ship, with one lonely mobile suit and mobile armor," Murrue mentioned to her new lover and sort-of boyfriend, who simply nodded with a smile.
"Remember Murrue, unlike Colonel Kisaka or the other Izumo commanders you have experience in not only directing a space warship but working with mobile suits. Not including Captain Links of course," another of her officers mentioned with a small smile on his face. This is Kira Yamato the former pilot of the Strike and now pilots the powerful Freedom G-Weapon or as he calls it the Freedom Gundam. His best friend and former rival Athrun Zala stood next to him uncomfortably wearing an Orb Uniform, for he had once been a member of ZAFT and therefore had fought against this ship along with Kira multiple times. Now to show his new loyalty to the ship and his old friend he wore an Orb Uniform instead of his usual red ZAFT uniform, a uniform that outside of the single uniform set that he had carried with him onboard his unit he had no further uniform.
"That is true Kira, but it does not make me feel any better. I am just kind of scared of this power in my hands," Murrue replied with a shake of her head throwing her long hair swinging back and forth.
"Captain I may not know you as long as the others have but I already know that you are one of the best candidates to command this group. I would not have anyone else commanding myself or my men," Major Carter mentioned from his position along the wall and smiled at her. Murrue smiled at the pilot before nodding her head to him.
"Yes thank you Major that means a lot coming from you," she said with a smile on her own before she sighed and turned to look see the support from the other officers around the bridge. All were smiling or nodding at her showing their support towards her. Many of them, Kira and Mu among them, had been with her since that fateful day in Heliopolis all those months ago. It almost seemed a lifetime ago for her and the other Archangel veterans. Cagalli was even smiling at her, and for the first time since her father's death looked happy.
"Should I set our heading towards L4 Captain?" asked her sort of XO one Ensign Arnold Neumann asked with a smile that was rare for the usual down-to-earth former non-commissioned officer. Murrue smiled at him before looking around once more around the bridge noting the supportive looks on the other's face before turning to look at the ship's pilot.
"Yes once both Colonel Kisaka and Captain Links have returned to their ship set your heading for L4 and the Mendel Colony," Murrue ordered with a nod of her head at the black-haired officer. With a nod and another smile to his captain turned around to wait for the orders he needed. After another few minutes, both ship commanders reported that they were ready to move out.
"Alright let's go end this war," Murrue said with conviction and a smile. With that said the engines of all three ships engaged with a flare of light and started to move away from the planet on a course towards L4 and their new mission: Bring an End to the War.
-o-End-o-
Well! There is the next chapter for you all. A look at what the Archangel and crew are up to. Since I had a few plans to some stuff around and knew I better introduce it sooner rather than later. Anyway, I never understood why we only had three ships along with their mobile suits that could take on both sides as they did without much more damage and deaths they had. Therefore I have added the Susanoo to the Orb/Archangel group which adds another dozen mobile suits and some more guns to the group. Also, the Clyne Faction shall have a few more ships as a result as well, giving my version of the TSA far more power to use. I may or may not add any more ships than those mentioned here. However, I have a few plans to add another faction or two to the Group overall.
Also to those Honor fans, there are some familiar faces in here, basically Brian but others may show up later down the road. As for Captain Link and her crew, they are yet another of the Third-Party groups that I have planned to use in the rewrite of Honor. They work for Orb and are reasonable for traveling between the mainland and Heliopolis Colony. Though they are quite used to going after pirates on their off time. I gave Links the Susanoo for a few reasons one of them I did not want to use anymore my planned Honor Characters coming in to command the ship or another burrowed or reborn character from another universe. Therefore I brought Links in for it.
Anyway, that is about it folks, I shall catch you all in the next chapter where we return to the Dominion. Till then Ciao!
Next time on Divergence, we return to the Dominion and her shake-down cruise but all is not as it seems during it. Find out what is in Phase Five: Trails and Pirates!
Last edited:
Phase Four: The Start of The Journey
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Phase Four: The Start of The Journey
It would surprise many outside of the old Federal Space Forces but after a ship is officially completed at a shipyard it would at first run through various training exercises to break in the ship's crew before only then heading out on a brief shakedown cruise. This would often include some sort of minor mission to complete during said cruise. This would often be running patrols in a certain area of space for any sort of threat to nearby shipping or making a rendezvous with another ship. This small minor mission would further the crew's training and start them getting used to working together outside of a simulation or a live exercise. Over the years this had become a bit of a tradition for ships in the Federal Space Forces…
- Taken from a Non-Fiction Historical Book known as The Federal Space Forces: A New Force of Good for a New Generation
AFS Dominion
Near Lunar Orbit
June 20, CE71
With a grace not shown in many warships the AFS Dominion slowly glided across the cratered surface of the moon. The black and dark blue warship has in the past few weeks gone through several trials and training exercises though it has not yet gone through its shakedown cruise for the crew mainly focused on getting used to the larger warship and training themselves in operating said ship.
In the large ship's main briefing room deep in the ship's gravity deck its captain, Commander Natarle Badiruel took a seat at the head of the table while her various gathered officers took their seats after standing up respectfully when she entered. With a sigh, the commander took a moment to look around at the officers and mentally go over what she knew about them. She had been quite surprised at the experience shown by her officers, each was well-versed in their respective fields. Many of them had been previously posted on the Patrol Ship Loville and had been there for more than a few years which was quite a different overall ship than the beast of a ship that is the Dominion.
First, there was her XO and friend Lieutenant Commander Lisa Hayes, who had once commanded the Loville, granted it was a small patrol ship but it provided Commander Hayes with the experience needed to help her run the ship. There was the ship's Combat Commander and CIC Officer, the position Natarle herself had once held on board the Archangel, one newly promoted Lieutenant Commander Claudia Grant Lisa's own XO while on the patrol ship. While on the patrol ship, Commander Grant also was the operations and gunnery officer giving her the experience she needed to run the Dominion's CIC. Though she was not used to the level of firepower that the Dominion sported Natarle had spent more than a few hours with the short dark-skinned woman over the past few days to help her accumulate with the raw firepower that is available to an Archangel Class.
Then there was the ship's CAG and the commander of the Dominion's sole mobile suit unit on board, Lieutenant Commander James Focker who was quite experienced and had once been a Mobile Armor pilot for about eight years. He also was an old friend and flame of Commander Grant. Then heading up the Dominion's engineering department is one Lieutenant Senior Grade Thomas "Scotty" Lang, an experienced old engineer who worked his way up from Crewman 3rd Class and had once been a non-com for the old Federal Space Forces for a long time before being given a commission when he was assigned to Commander Hayes's Loville.
Then there was the officer heading up the ship's decently-sized marine detachment 1st Lieutenant Joseph "Joey" O'Neill who was yet another officer who worked his way up the ranks and started as a Lance Corporal. Though for him he had only recently been made an officer after a brief stint in one of the Atlantic Federation's so-called Mustang Academies for former non-commissioned officers to become full officers. This one is located over at the Ptolemaeus Lunar Base. Still, the man was quite an experienced Marine and someone who like many of the other officers onboard the Dominion had more than a few run-ins with Blue Cosmos. For him, it had been during the man's time in the pre-war Federal Space Force's Lunar Patrol when he had inspected a passenger transport heading towards Copernicus City where a pair of Blue Cosmos-aligned mining workers had killed a whole family traveling on the transport just for being Coordinators. Something that horrified the young marine at the time and something that became quite common in the years before the start of the war.
Then finally there was Doctor Lieutenant Senior Grade Marie Frasier, a young medical officer who had been one of the few officers who had not transferred from the patrol ship, though like many in the room had a deep settled hatred of Blue Cosmos when they killed her older sister one Janet Frasier who had been a Coordinator. She now held the post of the ship's Chief Medical Officer and while her department was smaller than any other on the ship it was quite larger than the medical department on the Archangel with its one doctor and one nurse. Something that Natarle was quite glad to have for the small medical staff of the Archangel had always unnerved her something during her time on the ship.
Those not sitting here currently were the ship's pilot and helm officer Lieutenant Senior Grade Andrew Ryan who was running the bridge while the other officers met. He like Commander Focker is a former Mobile Armor pilot who thought he was unlucky enough to get shot down and ejected though he left a piece of his left leg in the cockpit when did. He was taken off flight duty due to this, but now pilots large warships instead of mobile armor. As with many of the officers he had previously served on the Loville and while it was quite a change to go from a small patrol ship like the patrol ship to a larger battleship like the Dominion the Lieutenant did not let it affect his work.
Another officer not here was Lieutenant Junior Grade George Helme the ship's navigator who was helping Lieutenant Sheppard with running the bridge. Unlike Lieutenant Sheppard, Lieutenant Helme had not served on the Loville though had been highly recommended by Vice Admiral Gloval for not only his hatred of Blue Cosmos but his experience in navigation. Then finally Ensign Elizabeth Hailey the woman in charge of the ship's large hanger deck. While she was younger, and more junior than any of the other officers on the ship she ruled the hanger deck with a dreaded iron fist. Even Commander Focker who interacted with her more than any other officer, knew not to cross the short-tempered officer of the deck. She was yet another Loville veteran though she had only been assigned to the ship for about a year and a half but she was quite experienced in handling a hanger deck, though the hanger on the small Patrol Ship was quite small only holding four mobile armors. With a shake of her head, the black-haired commander dragged herself from her thoughts to look to see her officers patiently waiting for her to start the meeting/briefing.
"Alright everyone, I am sure it has been quite an interesting few weeks for us since our launch," she said with a grim smile on her face. It was indeed an interesting few weeks, with the Battle of Orb and the Third Battle of Victoria in those weeks. While it was good to have a mass driver under the Alliance flag once more, she was most worried and alright appalled at the Battle of Orb. Unlike many of her officers, she had been to Orb and knew some of its leaders. While the excuse for the Alliance attacking Orb was that it supported ZAFT during the Battle of JOSH-A, Natarle knew personally that it could not be true. She was quite shocked to hear the reports about the Archangel participating in the Battle but fighting against the Alliance. Not to mention the few reports on the Strike appearing and fighting against the Alliance's mobile suits during the battle. This made her more than ever suspect something was up with the Earth Alliance, specifically the Atlantic Federation.
"Interesting, yeah I could say that ma'am," James Focker said with a snort that was followed by a few grim smiles from the others around the table. This once again dragged Natarle out of her thoughts and she smiled at the pilot.
"' May we live in interesting times', it sure brings a sort of new meaning to that quote doesn't it," Lisa mentioned with a smile of her own. This made a few of the officers chuckle lightly in response.
"Anyways to get back on topic here. The Admiral wants us to head out on our shakedown cruise, this is to avoid the brass that is coming up from the Massdriver and not to give him time to head off any chance of reassigning anyone to the ship by the brass," Natarle said with a frown looking around at the officers, who all have gone over the info provided by both Natarle and the Admiral, along with Vasil Tannith who had been quickly reassigned by the admiral to become his new chief intelligence officer after his previous one had moved up. The officers gave her grim nods at her statement, and with one of her own Natarle brought up an image on the wall display located behind her chair at the table. It showed the Luna nearspace, as well as LaGrange Point One and Two, though L1 is kind of cut off to show L2.
"Our shakedown cruise shall take us to L2 and back to the Yards, where hopefully the Admiral shall take care of the problem with the brass. The entire cruise should take us around a week or two. Though while at L2 we are to investigate the claims of pirate activity around the Civilian Dock of Barnacle located here," she said making the mentioned space dock light up on the map. The other officers nodded as they looked at the map.
"Captain if I may jump into this. Isn't L2 a general hotbed of pirate activity?" Commander Grant asked with a frown on her tanned and pretty face. Natarle blinked at her before turning to look at the map and turning back to look at the Commander.
"That is quite correct commander, but overall the pirates usually steer clear of Barnacle for it does host the Junk Guild, and the pirates don't seem to want to piss off the Guild all that much. Therefore the reason behind our little side-mission we were given by the admiral," Natarle mentioned with a nod of her head at the slightly younger woman, who only nodded in understanding.
"Excuse me Captain if I remember right the L2 area has many resource asteroids around there, with several resource-rich ones gathered around the Space Dock. Many use those around the Dock to mine needed resources for whatever reason. One of the major groups who mine in the area is the PLANTs Resource Commission, therefore we may encounter some ZAFT ships in the area. Is that correct?" Commander Lisa Hayes asked with a frown for she was not too keen on going against a ZAFT ship with a crew that may be experienced but still not used to the larger ship. Natarle blinked in surprise at her friend's question before shaking her head.
"That is not correct for ZAFT seems to be mainly concentrated around the L5 area and with some patrols around the high orbits of Earth. Any ships assigned to L2 would have been reassigned to those patrols trying to intercept launches from Victoria. However, if we encounter any ZAFT ship we are not to engage them, instead, we are to back off and continue with our shakedown cruise. Does that answer your question Commander?" she responded before looking at the commander, who only nodded to answer her question.
"Are there any more questions?" she asked looking around the room to see if anyone wanted to say something and was surprised to see Commander Focker leaning forward a bit to get ready to say something.
"Ma'am what role would my mobile suits play during our time in L2?" the scarred mobile suit commander asked with a frown looking over at Natarle, who just nodded in understanding at the man's question. The black-haired commander took a brief moment to think about it before answering the other's question.
"Well Commander I believe we have a few of those new Recon Striker Packs on board, this would be the best time to give them a good testing and breaking them in. We shall launch a team of two Recon Striker Equipped units with a single escort piece to recon the area. The remaining four Daggers shall have a rotating close-in patrol around the ship, with two up and two down rotating every half-hour. I do not want to be jumped and surprised by pirates. So pick two of your best pilots who have some experience with the Recon Striker to fly on the recon mission. Does that sound satisfactory for you Commander?" she answered with a small smile on her face looking over at the pilot. Focker simply nodded and started writing something on the pad in front of him, most likely some plans for the patrols and the rotations.
"Alright with that out of the way any more questions at all?" she asked looking around at the officers around the table before nodding seeing no one jumping up to ask anything else. With a sigh, she nodded to the officers in front of her before clicking off the display screen and standing up making her officers stand as well.
"With that out of the way, our mission briefing is over and therefore I would like to have reports on your departments throughout the shakedown, as well as any suggestions on improvements to your departments. Thank you and you are dismissed," she finished and waited as the officers slowly exited the room to return to their departments or going off-duty for some of them. When the last officer, Commander Hayes, exited the room Natarle sighed before gathering up her datapad/viewer and some papers she brought in before exiting the room as well. With a sigh, she headed for her quarters to drop her stuff before heading to the bridge to relieve Lieutenant Sheppard and start the ship on her journey to L2.
Pilot's Lounge
AFS Dominion
In the large battleship's pilot lounge located above the ship's hanger the pilots of Skull Squadron relaxed while waiting for Commander Fokker to return with the orders for the much-awaited shakedown cruise. Over the past few weeks Skull Squadron went through several drills and exercises in conjunction with the Dominion, as well as several solo Zero-Gee exercises giving some of the newest members of the squadron some time to grow accustomed to fighting in the zero-gee environment of space. Many of the pilots had been quite happy with the recapture of Victoria Spaceport and the new Strike Packs being sent up for their use by the Habilis Mass driver. They only had been using vanilla Aile and Sword Packs during the past few exercises, therefore many wanted to try out some of the newer packs being tested at Edwards, which they now could thanks to the Massdriver. Therefore many of the pilots were laid out in the chairs reading up on the new Strike Packs in the newly updated Dagger Manuel which had a nifty section that talked about the various Strike Packs for the Dagger, while others stood at the large window that took one wall of the room showing those in the room a great view of the large hanger bellow. These few standing at the window could see the mentioned packs being stored in the overhead storage racks or the other storage areas attached to the main hanger. Those stored in the overhead racks were the more common not to mention tested Aile, Launcher, and Sword Packs with some of the newer packs included along their numbers. The pilot's relaxation was interrupted when the door to the lounge slid open and the Commander walked in.
"ATTEN-HUN! Officer on deck!!" the closest pilot, one Elaine Mackenzie, to the door cried out making the various other pilots drop their manuals on the floor of the lounge and stand up at attention as the Commander walked in surprising him.
"As you were. What made you guys so jumpy all of a sudden? Normally you are not that keen to jump up at a moment's notice," the Commander asked with a frown looking around the relieved and now once again relaxing pilots. Elaine sighed before looking over at her commander with a frown.
"Well, Sir the XO was in here earlier in the day when you were out talking with Ensign Hailey down in the hanger about the new Strike Packs we received yesterday and she tore us a new one for not showing the respect she deserved when she came in here during her morning inspection. However, it did not help that Marcus mentioned something to David that he was right about the old sourpuss. She then really got pissed when she heard that and assigned Marcus to clean the heads for the next week. It was hell sir," the red-headed pilot said with a frown looking around at the other pilots, Marcus Rush not among them, who all nodded in agreement with their fellow pilot. James looked around at the others before smiling slightly and shaking his head trying to contain the laughter in response to that statement.
"Well I shall have a talk with her about being too strict with my pilots, and if that doesn't work I shall go to the Captain instead. Though I really should go talk to her after I am done with briefing you folks, for I am going to need him in the mission the Captain assigned to us when we reach L2," he said instead with a small grin on his face. A few sighs of relief sounded around the room at this statement by their commander. After a few moments, James waved for his pilots to take a seat around the room, while James himself sat on the edge of one of the desks around the room. The group could have used the attached pilot briefing room for this small briefing but with only six pilots being brief it was kind of redundant.
"Anyways I have our assignments for when we reach the L2 area. Since the area is a hotbed of pirate activity the Captain wants a constant CIP around the Dominion with four of our machines, two up and two down with a half-hour rotation. The remaining four are going to be set up for a deep-recon mission to keep the Dominion appraised of any threats ahead of her. This Recon Mission will have one Recon Striker Equipped Dagger with another Dagger equipped to escort the Recon Dagger on its mission. I want our CIP to be equipped with an Assault Striker and Launcher Strike Combo which shall give us some heavy firepower to counter any pirate forces that are foolish enough to jump us. While the Escort Daggers shall be equipped with Aile Strikers giving the Escorts some longer range thanks to the Aile's extra batteries. Now for those in command of the separate groups, I shall be in overall command and command of the CIP, Logan shall be commander of the first recon element, and David shall be the commander of the second recon element. As for the pilots of the Recon Daggers, that of course should be Marcus who shall be the pilot for the First Element, and Alex will be the pilot for the Second Element. When one recon element has half power the other shall head back to the ship and recharge. This shall provide us with at least one recon element out at any time scouting ahead. Therefore I think the CIP pilots shall get cracking on getting familiar with the Assault Striker, god knows we are already familiar with the Launcher. Anyhow that is about it folks. Now I need to go convince the XO to spring poor Marcus early so he can get some simulation time in the Recon Striker," James finished with a smile and nod at the other pilots, who smiled back at him before the chosen CIP pilots went back to reading the manual, particularly the small bit about the Assault Striker Pack, a new Pack which gives the Dagger some heavy firepower in the form of shoulder-mounted missile launchers, heavy beam cannons attached to the flight pack and finally a shield mounted Gatling cannon similar to the one on ZAFT's CGUE, while the other pilots went on with whatever they where doing. With a fond shake of his head, James headed out of the room to go hunting for the XO.
Captains Quarters
AFS Dominion
With a hiss, the Captain's Quarter's door opened letting Natarle walk into the large quarters set aside for the Captain of the ship. With a sigh, the black-haired commander looked around seeing that they were a bit larger than the ones on the Archangel and quite bigger than her quarters on the mentioned ship as well. Taking a deep breath Natarle set her datapad and papers onto the desk before turning to get another look over the quarters silently wondering when Murrue Ramius would pop up and ask her why she was in the Captain's quarters. With a shake of her head, Natarle banished that thought and turned to look at the small couch located at one end of the room. Suddenly she frowned when she saw an old paperback book lying on the side table sitting on one end of the couch. With a frown, she walked over to the table and picked up the book before turning it over to look at the cover. She blinked in surprise at the title: The Road to Damascus by Linda Evans & John Ringo.
Three days previously after a long exercise, Natarle stepped into Admiral Gloval's quarters to find the old Admiral standing at one of his small bookcases that lined one of the walls of his office. He had an old paperback open in his hand and was silently reading something from said book. When the door closed behind Natarle the Admiral shut the book with a snap and a rustle of paper, before turning to look over at her.
"Ah! Natarle take a seat, I have something very important to discuss with you before the Dominion's shakedown cruise in a few days," he said before walking over to his desk and sitting down behind his desk with a sigh, before setting the book down on the end of his desk. He looked around the room for a moment before taking a small device out of one of his desk drawers and sitting it down in the center of the desk. He switched on something on the device and looked around once more before sighing in relief.
"This little gadget was given to me by your Commander Tanith after he swept my office for bugs the other day. Anyways down to business, I have done my digging to see if I find any more evidence of Blue Cosmos' involvement in the Earth Forces, and what I have found is not pleasant. But I did not call you here to hear it, but instead, I want to ask you a very important question Natarle. Are you willing to defect and fight against the Earth Forces?" the old Admiral asked very seriously looking at Natarle as she looked at her honorary uncle in surprise.
"Uncle Henry! Why are you asking me that? Granted the data on Blue Cosmos and the stuff about Alaska are horrific and not pleasant I admit that, but defection is a bit strong isn't it?" she asked in horror looking over at Gloval who sighed in response before picking up the book he has been silently reading when she came in before looking over at her with a nod of his head. He looked down at the anti-snooping device and flipped it off before setting it back into his desk drawer. With a sigh, he looked up at Natarle who still looked shocked at him.
"Very well then Natarle, but I ask you to read this book and imagine yourself in the character Sonny's position. Granted the mentioned character is a self-aware super tank, but it should be an interesting comparison. This is all I am asking to do now my dear," he said with a sad smile handing the book over to Natarle who looked at it before looking up at her Uncle when she did she realized that Uncle Henry was gone replaced with the hard face of Admiral Gloval. With a nod of her head, she got up and saluted the old admiral.
"Very well sir, if there isn't anything else. I would like to get back to my ship to prepare for the shakedown cruise," she said with a salute at the man.
"No there is not Commander. You are dismissed," he said turning to look at a folder most likely a report he had to look through. With a stiff nod, Natarle turned on her heel and walked out of the office with her thoughts swirling over the idea of defection and fighting against a nation she swore to serve. It was something not taken lightly and if Henry was not her honorary Uncle she would have reported him to his superiors for asking that, but on the other hand, if Blue Cosmos had the majority of the admiralty in their pockets then how could she serve her nation. With a sigh, she started to head back to the Dominion with a heavy heart and thoughts swirling around in her head.
When she had arrived in her quarters she simply sat it on the table and forgotten about it with many preparations for the shakedown. With a frown, she looked over at the clock to see that she was not supposed to be on the bridge for another half an hour, so she simply took a seat on the couch and opened the book to the first page before starting to read.
Post Chapter Notes:
/Big Yawn/ Whoah! Thank god this is finally done! This happens to be the largest chapter so far in Divergence and is the very first battle chapter. Though granted it is only a handful of pirates that got themselves wasted but still, I hope someone will enjoy the battle scenes anyway.
Anyhow, The Road to Damascus is a real-life book and is personally one of my favorite books. It is part of the long Bolo Series created by Keith Laumer but others have since started to write Bolo Books. One of them is The Road to Damascus, which is a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves sci-fi, heck read the entire Bolo series. Anyways the book shall feature heavily through the remaining story, for it shall help Natarle decide to finally defect.
Also, many different new characters have been introduced here but this should be the final new characters to be introduced for a while. Though expect the Blue Cosmos Thugs to appear in the next few chapters if not the next one. Honestly, many of these characters shall remain in the background and are only supporting the main cast.
Now I am sure many are wondering what the heck the Assault and Recon Striker Packs, well once I get permission to post them from the guy who created that nifty lineart of the Skull Squadron Dagger I've been mentioning, I shall post them on my Deviantart. Since links are not working I shall just say this, put Deathzealotzero into Google and my profile should pop out somewhere on the first page of the results. Then simply get to my Gallery and find the Gundam SEED Divergence Folder. Though to briefly explain the two new Strikers, the Assault has the shoulder pods of the Buster, the Cannons of the Mudrock, and the shield Gatling off the Strike Rouge that sure pretty much gives you an idea of this guy. The Recon Unit has the shoulder equipment off the GINN Recon Type, as well as a long-range gun camera and a shield unit that has other different sensor equipment as well. In the second battle scene Marcus simply just used his beam saber to get the pirate GINN off Diana's Worker, for he only has his beam sabers and the head guns to use against enemies. Therefore the reasoning behind having a Recon Striker escorted around.
I am sorry to those waiting for the interaction between Lisa and David but I needed to get the story moving. Though I hope you all enjoyed the scene with James arriving in the Pilot's lounge. As for the mentioned lounge yes it is similar to one aboard the Minvera in Destiny and since I like the idea I thought I should place it here as one of the Dominion's internal differences between the Archangel and herself.
Hmmm… anything else I need to go over. AH! One final thing before I sign off here, I think many are wondering about the Third Battle of Victoria, according to the Official Timeline it lasts over a week. I'm sorry I did not buy that, maybe in long time ago in the past, but in the age of mobile suits sorry no. Therefore in Divergence, the Battle lasts for a few days therefore the reasoning for the crew to be talking about it here.
Anyway I think that is about it I shall see it all in the next chapter; hopefully posted pretty soon once I recover from this all-nighter writing session. /sheepish look/
Next time on Gundam SEED Divergence! New troubles await the brave and faithful crew of the Dominion when they arrive at the Moon. Find out what is in Phase Six: A Dream and New Enemies!
EDITING NOTE (9/28/2024): Okay. This chapter originally was just under ten thousand words or so. So, when I was going through doing my initial edit along with making some minor but needed changes to the narrative during this, I saw that it was getting over ten thousand words. Therefore, I much the decision to split the chapter into two smaller chapters to maybe better make things easier with the other chapters of this fully edited story. Hence, I am going to be doing something interesting and going to have the last chapter which covered the Archangel and the Orb Remnant into an interlude chapter allowing this chapter to become Phase Four and the other half of this original chapter to become Phase Five. So, if you noticed this earlier then that is the reason. Also, it looks like I am not going to be able to finish editing and making the needed minor changes to the story before the end of this weekend, but I shall hopefully be finished with it all by Monday. Then I can get started on the edits and the larger changes to the overall story with the sequel Resolutions over the coming week. Sigh. Anyway that is about it from me for tonight!
It would surprise many outside of the old Federal Space Forces but after a ship is officially completed at a shipyard it would at first run through various training exercises to break in the ship's crew before only then heading out on a brief shakedown cruise. This would often include some sort of minor mission to complete during said cruise. This would often be running patrols in a certain area of space for any sort of threat to nearby shipping or making a rendezvous with another ship. This small minor mission would further the crew's training and start them getting used to working together outside of a simulation or a live exercise. Over the years this had become a bit of a tradition for ships in the Federal Space Forces…
- Taken from a Non-Fiction Historical Book known as The Federal Space Forces: A New Force of Good for a New Generation
AFS Dominion
Near Lunar Orbit
June 20, CE71
With a grace not shown in many warships the AFS Dominion slowly glided across the cratered surface of the moon. The black and dark blue warship has in the past few weeks gone through several trials and training exercises though it has not yet gone through its shakedown cruise for the crew mainly focused on getting used to the larger warship and training themselves in operating said ship.
In the large ship's main briefing room deep in the ship's gravity deck its captain, Commander Natarle Badiruel took a seat at the head of the table while her various gathered officers took their seats after standing up respectfully when she entered. With a sigh, the commander took a moment to look around at the officers and mentally go over what she knew about them. She had been quite surprised at the experience shown by her officers, each was well-versed in their respective fields. Many of them had been previously posted on the Patrol Ship Loville and had been there for more than a few years which was quite a different overall ship than the beast of a ship that is the Dominion.
First, there was her XO and friend Lieutenant Commander Lisa Hayes, who had once commanded the Loville, granted it was a small patrol ship but it provided Commander Hayes with the experience needed to help her run the ship. There was the ship's Combat Commander and CIC Officer, the position Natarle herself had once held on board the Archangel, one newly promoted Lieutenant Commander Claudia Grant Lisa's own XO while on the patrol ship. While on the patrol ship, Commander Grant also was the operations and gunnery officer giving her the experience she needed to run the Dominion's CIC. Though she was not used to the level of firepower that the Dominion sported Natarle had spent more than a few hours with the short dark-skinned woman over the past few days to help her accumulate with the raw firepower that is available to an Archangel Class.
Then there was the ship's CAG and the commander of the Dominion's sole mobile suit unit on board, Lieutenant Commander James Focker who was quite experienced and had once been a Mobile Armor pilot for about eight years. He also was an old friend and flame of Commander Grant. Then heading up the Dominion's engineering department is one Lieutenant Senior Grade Thomas "Scotty" Lang, an experienced old engineer who worked his way up from Crewman 3rd Class and had once been a non-com for the old Federal Space Forces for a long time before being given a commission when he was assigned to Commander Hayes's Loville.
Then there was the officer heading up the ship's decently-sized marine detachment 1st Lieutenant Joseph "Joey" O'Neill who was yet another officer who worked his way up the ranks and started as a Lance Corporal. Though for him he had only recently been made an officer after a brief stint in one of the Atlantic Federation's so-called Mustang Academies for former non-commissioned officers to become full officers. This one is located over at the Ptolemaeus Lunar Base. Still, the man was quite an experienced Marine and someone who like many of the other officers onboard the Dominion had more than a few run-ins with Blue Cosmos. For him, it had been during the man's time in the pre-war Federal Space Force's Lunar Patrol when he had inspected a passenger transport heading towards Copernicus City where a pair of Blue Cosmos-aligned mining workers had killed a whole family traveling on the transport just for being Coordinators. Something that horrified the young marine at the time and something that became quite common in the years before the start of the war.
Then finally there was Doctor Lieutenant Senior Grade Marie Frasier, a young medical officer who had been one of the few officers who had not transferred from the patrol ship, though like many in the room had a deep settled hatred of Blue Cosmos when they killed her older sister one Janet Frasier who had been a Coordinator. She now held the post of the ship's Chief Medical Officer and while her department was smaller than any other on the ship it was quite larger than the medical department on the Archangel with its one doctor and one nurse. Something that Natarle was quite glad to have for the small medical staff of the Archangel had always unnerved her something during her time on the ship.
Those not sitting here currently were the ship's pilot and helm officer Lieutenant Senior Grade Andrew Ryan who was running the bridge while the other officers met. He like Commander Focker is a former Mobile Armor pilot who thought he was unlucky enough to get shot down and ejected though he left a piece of his left leg in the cockpit when did. He was taken off flight duty due to this, but now pilots large warships instead of mobile armor. As with many of the officers he had previously served on the Loville and while it was quite a change to go from a small patrol ship like the patrol ship to a larger battleship like the Dominion the Lieutenant did not let it affect his work.
Another officer not here was Lieutenant Junior Grade George Helme the ship's navigator who was helping Lieutenant Sheppard with running the bridge. Unlike Lieutenant Sheppard, Lieutenant Helme had not served on the Loville though had been highly recommended by Vice Admiral Gloval for not only his hatred of Blue Cosmos but his experience in navigation. Then finally Ensign Elizabeth Hailey the woman in charge of the ship's large hanger deck. While she was younger, and more junior than any of the other officers on the ship she ruled the hanger deck with a dreaded iron fist. Even Commander Focker who interacted with her more than any other officer, knew not to cross the short-tempered officer of the deck. She was yet another Loville veteran though she had only been assigned to the ship for about a year and a half but she was quite experienced in handling a hanger deck, though the hanger on the small Patrol Ship was quite small only holding four mobile armors. With a shake of her head, the black-haired commander dragged herself from her thoughts to look to see her officers patiently waiting for her to start the meeting/briefing.
"Alright everyone, I am sure it has been quite an interesting few weeks for us since our launch," she said with a grim smile on her face. It was indeed an interesting few weeks, with the Battle of Orb and the Third Battle of Victoria in those weeks. While it was good to have a mass driver under the Alliance flag once more, she was most worried and alright appalled at the Battle of Orb. Unlike many of her officers, she had been to Orb and knew some of its leaders. While the excuse for the Alliance attacking Orb was that it supported ZAFT during the Battle of JOSH-A, Natarle knew personally that it could not be true. She was quite shocked to hear the reports about the Archangel participating in the Battle but fighting against the Alliance. Not to mention the few reports on the Strike appearing and fighting against the Alliance's mobile suits during the battle. This made her more than ever suspect something was up with the Earth Alliance, specifically the Atlantic Federation.
"Interesting, yeah I could say that ma'am," James Focker said with a snort that was followed by a few grim smiles from the others around the table. This once again dragged Natarle out of her thoughts and she smiled at the pilot.
"' May we live in interesting times', it sure brings a sort of new meaning to that quote doesn't it," Lisa mentioned with a smile of her own. This made a few of the officers chuckle lightly in response.
"Anyways to get back on topic here. The Admiral wants us to head out on our shakedown cruise, this is to avoid the brass that is coming up from the Massdriver and not to give him time to head off any chance of reassigning anyone to the ship by the brass," Natarle said with a frown looking around at the officers, who all have gone over the info provided by both Natarle and the Admiral, along with Vasil Tannith who had been quickly reassigned by the admiral to become his new chief intelligence officer after his previous one had moved up. The officers gave her grim nods at her statement, and with one of her own Natarle brought up an image on the wall display located behind her chair at the table. It showed the Luna nearspace, as well as LaGrange Point One and Two, though L1 is kind of cut off to show L2.
"Our shakedown cruise shall take us to L2 and back to the Yards, where hopefully the Admiral shall take care of the problem with the brass. The entire cruise should take us around a week or two. Though while at L2 we are to investigate the claims of pirate activity around the Civilian Dock of Barnacle located here," she said making the mentioned space dock light up on the map. The other officers nodded as they looked at the map.
"Captain if I may jump into this. Isn't L2 a general hotbed of pirate activity?" Commander Grant asked with a frown on her tanned and pretty face. Natarle blinked at her before turning to look at the map and turning back to look at the Commander.
"That is quite correct commander, but overall the pirates usually steer clear of Barnacle for it does host the Junk Guild, and the pirates don't seem to want to piss off the Guild all that much. Therefore the reason behind our little side-mission we were given by the admiral," Natarle mentioned with a nod of her head at the slightly younger woman, who only nodded in understanding.
"Excuse me Captain if I remember right the L2 area has many resource asteroids around there, with several resource-rich ones gathered around the Space Dock. Many use those around the Dock to mine needed resources for whatever reason. One of the major groups who mine in the area is the PLANTs Resource Commission, therefore we may encounter some ZAFT ships in the area. Is that correct?" Commander Lisa Hayes asked with a frown for she was not too keen on going against a ZAFT ship with a crew that may be experienced but still not used to the larger ship. Natarle blinked in surprise at her friend's question before shaking her head.
"That is not correct for ZAFT seems to be mainly concentrated around the L5 area and with some patrols around the high orbits of Earth. Any ships assigned to L2 would have been reassigned to those patrols trying to intercept launches from Victoria. However, if we encounter any ZAFT ship we are not to engage them, instead, we are to back off and continue with our shakedown cruise. Does that answer your question Commander?" she responded before looking at the commander, who only nodded to answer her question.
"Are there any more questions?" she asked looking around the room to see if anyone wanted to say something and was surprised to see Commander Focker leaning forward a bit to get ready to say something.
"Ma'am what role would my mobile suits play during our time in L2?" the scarred mobile suit commander asked with a frown looking over at Natarle, who just nodded in understanding at the man's question. The black-haired commander took a brief moment to think about it before answering the other's question.
"Well Commander I believe we have a few of those new Recon Striker Packs on board, this would be the best time to give them a good testing and breaking them in. We shall launch a team of two Recon Striker Equipped units with a single escort piece to recon the area. The remaining four Daggers shall have a rotating close-in patrol around the ship, with two up and two down rotating every half-hour. I do not want to be jumped and surprised by pirates. So pick two of your best pilots who have some experience with the Recon Striker to fly on the recon mission. Does that sound satisfactory for you Commander?" she answered with a small smile on her face looking over at the pilot. Focker simply nodded and started writing something on the pad in front of him, most likely some plans for the patrols and the rotations.
"Alright with that out of the way any more questions at all?" she asked looking around at the officers around the table before nodding seeing no one jumping up to ask anything else. With a sigh, she nodded to the officers in front of her before clicking off the display screen and standing up making her officers stand as well.
"With that out of the way, our mission briefing is over and therefore I would like to have reports on your departments throughout the shakedown, as well as any suggestions on improvements to your departments. Thank you and you are dismissed," she finished and waited as the officers slowly exited the room to return to their departments or going off-duty for some of them. When the last officer, Commander Hayes, exited the room Natarle sighed before gathering up her datapad/viewer and some papers she brought in before exiting the room as well. With a sigh, she headed for her quarters to drop her stuff before heading to the bridge to relieve Lieutenant Sheppard and start the ship on her journey to L2.
Pilot's Lounge
AFS Dominion
In the large battleship's pilot lounge located above the ship's hanger the pilots of Skull Squadron relaxed while waiting for Commander Fokker to return with the orders for the much-awaited shakedown cruise. Over the past few weeks Skull Squadron went through several drills and exercises in conjunction with the Dominion, as well as several solo Zero-Gee exercises giving some of the newest members of the squadron some time to grow accustomed to fighting in the zero-gee environment of space. Many of the pilots had been quite happy with the recapture of Victoria Spaceport and the new Strike Packs being sent up for their use by the Habilis Mass driver. They only had been using vanilla Aile and Sword Packs during the past few exercises, therefore many wanted to try out some of the newer packs being tested at Edwards, which they now could thanks to the Massdriver. Therefore many of the pilots were laid out in the chairs reading up on the new Strike Packs in the newly updated Dagger Manuel which had a nifty section that talked about the various Strike Packs for the Dagger, while others stood at the large window that took one wall of the room showing those in the room a great view of the large hanger bellow. These few standing at the window could see the mentioned packs being stored in the overhead storage racks or the other storage areas attached to the main hanger. Those stored in the overhead racks were the more common not to mention tested Aile, Launcher, and Sword Packs with some of the newer packs included along their numbers. The pilot's relaxation was interrupted when the door to the lounge slid open and the Commander walked in.
"ATTEN-HUN! Officer on deck!!" the closest pilot, one Elaine Mackenzie, to the door cried out making the various other pilots drop their manuals on the floor of the lounge and stand up at attention as the Commander walked in surprising him.
"As you were. What made you guys so jumpy all of a sudden? Normally you are not that keen to jump up at a moment's notice," the Commander asked with a frown looking around the relieved and now once again relaxing pilots. Elaine sighed before looking over at her commander with a frown.
"Well, Sir the XO was in here earlier in the day when you were out talking with Ensign Hailey down in the hanger about the new Strike Packs we received yesterday and she tore us a new one for not showing the respect she deserved when she came in here during her morning inspection. However, it did not help that Marcus mentioned something to David that he was right about the old sourpuss. She then really got pissed when she heard that and assigned Marcus to clean the heads for the next week. It was hell sir," the red-headed pilot said with a frown looking around at the other pilots, Marcus Rush not among them, who all nodded in agreement with their fellow pilot. James looked around at the others before smiling slightly and shaking his head trying to contain the laughter in response to that statement.
"Well I shall have a talk with her about being too strict with my pilots, and if that doesn't work I shall go to the Captain instead. Though I really should go talk to her after I am done with briefing you folks, for I am going to need him in the mission the Captain assigned to us when we reach L2," he said instead with a small grin on his face. A few sighs of relief sounded around the room at this statement by their commander. After a few moments, James waved for his pilots to take a seat around the room, while James himself sat on the edge of one of the desks around the room. The group could have used the attached pilot briefing room for this small briefing but with only six pilots being brief it was kind of redundant.
"Anyways I have our assignments for when we reach the L2 area. Since the area is a hotbed of pirate activity the Captain wants a constant CIP around the Dominion with four of our machines, two up and two down with a half-hour rotation. The remaining four are going to be set up for a deep-recon mission to keep the Dominion appraised of any threats ahead of her. This Recon Mission will have one Recon Striker Equipped Dagger with another Dagger equipped to escort the Recon Dagger on its mission. I want our CIP to be equipped with an Assault Striker and Launcher Strike Combo which shall give us some heavy firepower to counter any pirate forces that are foolish enough to jump us. While the Escort Daggers shall be equipped with Aile Strikers giving the Escorts some longer range thanks to the Aile's extra batteries. Now for those in command of the separate groups, I shall be in overall command and command of the CIP, Logan shall be commander of the first recon element, and David shall be the commander of the second recon element. As for the pilots of the Recon Daggers, that of course should be Marcus who shall be the pilot for the First Element, and Alex will be the pilot for the Second Element. When one recon element has half power the other shall head back to the ship and recharge. This shall provide us with at least one recon element out at any time scouting ahead. Therefore I think the CIP pilots shall get cracking on getting familiar with the Assault Striker, god knows we are already familiar with the Launcher. Anyhow that is about it folks. Now I need to go convince the XO to spring poor Marcus early so he can get some simulation time in the Recon Striker," James finished with a smile and nod at the other pilots, who smiled back at him before the chosen CIP pilots went back to reading the manual, particularly the small bit about the Assault Striker Pack, a new Pack which gives the Dagger some heavy firepower in the form of shoulder-mounted missile launchers, heavy beam cannons attached to the flight pack and finally a shield mounted Gatling cannon similar to the one on ZAFT's CGUE, while the other pilots went on with whatever they where doing. With a fond shake of his head, James headed out of the room to go hunting for the XO.
Captains Quarters
AFS Dominion
With a hiss, the Captain's Quarter's door opened letting Natarle walk into the large quarters set aside for the Captain of the ship. With a sigh, the black-haired commander looked around seeing that they were a bit larger than the ones on the Archangel and quite bigger than her quarters on the mentioned ship as well. Taking a deep breath Natarle set her datapad and papers onto the desk before turning to get another look over the quarters silently wondering when Murrue Ramius would pop up and ask her why she was in the Captain's quarters. With a shake of her head, Natarle banished that thought and turned to look at the small couch located at one end of the room. Suddenly she frowned when she saw an old paperback book lying on the side table sitting on one end of the couch. With a frown, she walked over to the table and picked up the book before turning it over to look at the cover. She blinked in surprise at the title: The Road to Damascus by Linda Evans & John Ringo.
-o-Flashback-o-
Three days previously after a long exercise, Natarle stepped into Admiral Gloval's quarters to find the old Admiral standing at one of his small bookcases that lined one of the walls of his office. He had an old paperback open in his hand and was silently reading something from said book. When the door closed behind Natarle the Admiral shut the book with a snap and a rustle of paper, before turning to look over at her.
"Ah! Natarle take a seat, I have something very important to discuss with you before the Dominion's shakedown cruise in a few days," he said before walking over to his desk and sitting down behind his desk with a sigh, before setting the book down on the end of his desk. He looked around the room for a moment before taking a small device out of one of his desk drawers and sitting it down in the center of the desk. He switched on something on the device and looked around once more before sighing in relief.
"This little gadget was given to me by your Commander Tanith after he swept my office for bugs the other day. Anyways down to business, I have done my digging to see if I find any more evidence of Blue Cosmos' involvement in the Earth Forces, and what I have found is not pleasant. But I did not call you here to hear it, but instead, I want to ask you a very important question Natarle. Are you willing to defect and fight against the Earth Forces?" the old Admiral asked very seriously looking at Natarle as she looked at her honorary uncle in surprise.
"Uncle Henry! Why are you asking me that? Granted the data on Blue Cosmos and the stuff about Alaska are horrific and not pleasant I admit that, but defection is a bit strong isn't it?" she asked in horror looking over at Gloval who sighed in response before picking up the book he has been silently reading when she came in before looking over at her with a nod of his head. He looked down at the anti-snooping device and flipped it off before setting it back into his desk drawer. With a sigh, he looked up at Natarle who still looked shocked at him.
"Very well then Natarle, but I ask you to read this book and imagine yourself in the character Sonny's position. Granted the mentioned character is a self-aware super tank, but it should be an interesting comparison. This is all I am asking to do now my dear," he said with a sad smile handing the book over to Natarle who looked at it before looking up at her Uncle when she did she realized that Uncle Henry was gone replaced with the hard face of Admiral Gloval. With a nod of her head, she got up and saluted the old admiral.
"Very well sir, if there isn't anything else. I would like to get back to my ship to prepare for the shakedown cruise," she said with a salute at the man.
"No there is not Commander. You are dismissed," he said turning to look at a folder most likely a report he had to look through. With a stiff nod, Natarle turned on her heel and walked out of the office with her thoughts swirling over the idea of defection and fighting against a nation she swore to serve. It was something not taken lightly and if Henry was not her honorary Uncle she would have reported him to his superiors for asking that, but on the other hand, if Blue Cosmos had the majority of the admiralty in their pockets then how could she serve her nation. With a sigh, she started to head back to the Dominion with a heavy heart and thoughts swirling around in her head.
-o-Flashback-o-
When she had arrived in her quarters she simply sat it on the table and forgotten about it with many preparations for the shakedown. With a frown, she looked over at the clock to see that she was not supposed to be on the bridge for another half an hour, so she simply took a seat on the couch and opened the book to the first page before starting to read.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes:
/Big Yawn/ Whoah! Thank god this is finally done! This happens to be the largest chapter so far in Divergence and is the very first battle chapter. Though granted it is only a handful of pirates that got themselves wasted but still, I hope someone will enjoy the battle scenes anyway.
Anyhow, The Road to Damascus is a real-life book and is personally one of my favorite books. It is part of the long Bolo Series created by Keith Laumer but others have since started to write Bolo Books. One of them is The Road to Damascus, which is a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves sci-fi, heck read the entire Bolo series. Anyways the book shall feature heavily through the remaining story, for it shall help Natarle decide to finally defect.
Also, many different new characters have been introduced here but this should be the final new characters to be introduced for a while. Though expect the Blue Cosmos Thugs to appear in the next few chapters if not the next one. Honestly, many of these characters shall remain in the background and are only supporting the main cast.
Now I am sure many are wondering what the heck the Assault and Recon Striker Packs, well once I get permission to post them from the guy who created that nifty lineart of the Skull Squadron Dagger I've been mentioning, I shall post them on my Deviantart. Since links are not working I shall just say this, put Deathzealotzero into Google and my profile should pop out somewhere on the first page of the results. Then simply get to my Gallery and find the Gundam SEED Divergence Folder. Though to briefly explain the two new Strikers, the Assault has the shoulder pods of the Buster, the Cannons of the Mudrock, and the shield Gatling off the Strike Rouge that sure pretty much gives you an idea of this guy. The Recon Unit has the shoulder equipment off the GINN Recon Type, as well as a long-range gun camera and a shield unit that has other different sensor equipment as well. In the second battle scene Marcus simply just used his beam saber to get the pirate GINN off Diana's Worker, for he only has his beam sabers and the head guns to use against enemies. Therefore the reasoning behind having a Recon Striker escorted around.
I am sorry to those waiting for the interaction between Lisa and David but I needed to get the story moving. Though I hope you all enjoyed the scene with James arriving in the Pilot's lounge. As for the mentioned lounge yes it is similar to one aboard the Minvera in Destiny and since I like the idea I thought I should place it here as one of the Dominion's internal differences between the Archangel and herself.
Hmmm… anything else I need to go over. AH! One final thing before I sign off here, I think many are wondering about the Third Battle of Victoria, according to the Official Timeline it lasts over a week. I'm sorry I did not buy that, maybe in long time ago in the past, but in the age of mobile suits sorry no. Therefore in Divergence, the Battle lasts for a few days therefore the reasoning for the crew to be talking about it here.
Anyway I think that is about it I shall see it all in the next chapter; hopefully posted pretty soon once I recover from this all-nighter writing session. /sheepish look/
Next time on Gundam SEED Divergence! New troubles await the brave and faithful crew of the Dominion when they arrive at the Moon. Find out what is in Phase Six: A Dream and New Enemies!
EDITING NOTE (9/28/2024): Okay. This chapter originally was just under ten thousand words or so. So, when I was going through doing my initial edit along with making some minor but needed changes to the narrative during this, I saw that it was getting over ten thousand words. Therefore, I much the decision to split the chapter into two smaller chapters to maybe better make things easier with the other chapters of this fully edited story. Hence, I am going to be doing something interesting and going to have the last chapter which covered the Archangel and the Orb Remnant into an interlude chapter allowing this chapter to become Phase Four and the other half of this original chapter to become Phase Five. So, if you noticed this earlier then that is the reason. Also, it looks like I am not going to be able to finish editing and making the needed minor changes to the story before the end of this weekend, but I shall hopefully be finished with it all by Monday. Then I can get started on the edits and the larger changes to the overall story with the sequel Resolutions over the coming week. Sigh. Anyway that is about it from me for tonight!
Phase Five: The Pirate Point
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Phase Five: The Pirate Point
Of the five LaGrange Points around the orbit of Earth, the Second LaGrange Point is one of the only ones that has not been developed that much, with the other four having many orbital colonies or stations being built there over the years since the start of the Cosmic Era. The L2 Point meanwhile, does not, it only has one major station and that is the Barnacle Space Dock Facility, even though it is located along the very edge of the Lagrange Point. The reasoning behind this is that L2 is the location of various large resource asteroids that had been placed there to help in the construction of the future Lagrange Five Colonies that become known as the PLANTs. Over the years since the end of the Space Colony Construction Plan, it has become a hotbed of pirate activity with various civilian transports traveling through and near the Lagrange point being attacked by pirates based in the area. However, with the war in full swing, neither side cared much about suppressing the L2 Pirates, leaving them to do whatever they wanted. Even though they do not attack anything within a certain radius of the Barnacle Space Dock, leaving it pretty much untouched by pirate attacks. The several small resource asteroids located in this range are usually mined heavily by various others. One of the major players in the mining game is the PLANTs which mine the asteroids to provide ZAFT with the resources it needs to continue fighting the far larger Earth Alliance…
- Taken from the Pirate Point: The History Behind L2
Bridge
AFS Dominion
Lagrange Point Two
Two days later
After a short two-day journey the Dominion entered the L2 area very slowly and carefully to avoid the numerous resource asteroids – and smaller pieces of further stellar debris that had broken off from said asteroids over the years – in the area. As they did so both catapults opened before launching the ship's mobile suit complement while a few tethered and normally suited personnel pushed off the ship to peacefully float away from the ship. These personnel had the mission of directing the large battleship through the mini-asteroid field that is the Lagrange Two area. Within a few minutes, six of the ship's eight machines launched, and the catapult doors closed shut behind the last mobile suit. The six machines soon shook down into three flight groups of two mobile suits; two groups sped off to scout ahead of the ship while the last group started a lazy path around the ship patrolling for any enemy threats. On the bridge of the ship, Commander Badgiruel floated in front of the bridge's view-port gazing out at the asteroids that are now floating past the ship, along with the odd piece of smaller chunk of rock or ice. With a sigh, she turned to look at the silently working bridge crew before looking up at the two operator stations above her command chair.
"Radar I want those eyes and those famous senses of yours on full alert, I don't want anything getting a drop on us understood," she ordered the young brown-haired man, one Warrant Officer Jacob Riley better known as Radar, sitting at the radar and detection station. He was called Radar because of his almost sixth sense of detecting enemies or threatening forces around him, not to mention his eyes could see stuff that no one else could on a radar screen.
"Aye ma'am," the young man said not looking away from his screens to look at the captain as she floated over to her command chair before sitting down. Nodding she looked down at the combined helm and navigation station situated at the front of the bridge.
"Mitchell, Helme I don't want to hit anything so keep your heads on a swivel and listen to those observers outside," she ordered the two men sitting at that station, who only nodded back at her almost together before turning their attention back to their station. She did not say anything further to them for she knew that the two were hard at work and did not need anything else from her. With a nod, she sat back in her comfortable command chair to wait for anything to happen. After a few moments of blessed silence, Radar at his station twitched slightly before frowning and adjusting a few controls on his station. This attracted the attention of Natarle and the XO, Lisa Hayes, who floated near the front of the bridge keeping an eye on the surroundings. Sometimes she used a pair of binoculars around her neck to scan around before putting them down to scan around the immediate area.
"Captain! I got twelve solid contacts bearing down on us from one of the larger asteroids to the Portside. Looks like they were hiding in its shadow. I can not get a positive match on their identity there is a lot of nearby interference," Radar reported with a grim frown on his face as he looked down at her from his position. Frowning Natarle leaned forward slightly to look into the CIC.
"Controller! Have…" she started to say but was beaten to the punch as one of the Skull Squadron's Daggers flew past the bridge to intercept the approaching contacts.
"Ma'am Jolly One reports that he has a visual on the contacts and confirms them to be TS-MA1 Raptor Mobile Armors. He is requesting weapons free at this time," the Controller reported from the CIC. Natarle blinked in surprise at this for the Raptor Mobile Armor where just less than a decade or so out of date and, therefore was usually used by pirates and third-party forces who could not afford more modern mobile armors like a Moebius or its offshoots. After a brief moment, Natarle was about to say something when the Controller held her hand to her headset once more to hear something.
"Captain! Approaching mobile armors are confirmed to be hostile they have fired on Jolly One, he is requesting weapons free once again ma'am," the controller reported looking up at her, Natarle frowned but sighed.
"Jolly One has Weapons Free, destroy that filth before they directly attack the ship," she ordered with a scowl, and mentally cursed the pirates who were stupid enough to attack a full-fledged warship using obsolete machines.
"Ma'am should I order Jolly Three and Four to launch?" the controller asked after relaying the orders to the two Daggers. Natarle thought briefly for a moment before sighing and looking down at the Controller.
"Yes but have them keep close to the ship and intercept anything that gets past Jolly One and Two," she ordered with a nod. For it was a good idea to keep the two other members of Jolly Flight behind in case of any leakers that got through the first element of Jolly Flight.
"Understood Captain relaying your orders now," the controller responded before turning back to her station to coordinate the launching of the other two Daggers. While she did that Lisa who had been making her way over to Natarle gently floated up next to Natarle with a frown.
"Should I order the crew to First Stage Alert Captain?" she asked with a frown on her face. Natarle looked over at her before looking out at the view-port thoughtfully before turning back to the brown-haired woman.
"Not First Stage, but bring the ship to Second Stage Alert, and warm up the close-in weapons. If anything got through Jolly Flight our CIWS should take care of them easily enough," she ordered load enough for the weapon officer to receive the order as well.
"Aye Ma'am!" soon came the twin responses from the weapons officer and Lisa, who sat down in her chair off to one side of the command chair and lifted the handset from the armrest of the chair.
"Now hear this, Second Stage Alert. I repeat Second Stage Alert. This is not a drill, all stations report when ready," she ordered over the internal communications, officially bringing the ship to battle. Natarle nodded at her before picking up her handset and pushing a button on the same armrest connecting her with the ship's senior non-commissioned officer, Chief Warrant Officer John Halsey who had been supervising the observers.
"Chief start bringing in the Observers I don't want any of them being hit by stray fire," she ordered before setting the handset back into its cradle. She then leaned back and watched as the ship's first battle commenced.
GAT-01A1 Assault Dagger – Callsign: Jolly One
James Focker Piloting
With a frown behind his helmet's face shield, the experienced pilot sent his mobile suit heading towards the approaching hostile mobile armors, which sported a forward sphere-looking cockpit and paired moveable thruster arrays flanking it. For weapons, the TS-MA1 Raptor sported either paired lightweight railguns or heavy Gatling guns, attached underneath the thruster arrays, and similar to the later Moebius it sported a pair of modular missile mounts underneath its main body behind its cockpit. As the squadron of pirate mobile armors continued its approach the forward units fired off their missiles towards the approaching Alliance mobile suits which were quite easily cut down by the CIWS of James' unit and the heavy shoulder-mounted Vulcan of his wingman's, Max Sterling's mobile suit. As this happened James eyed the old mobile armor with an experienced eye and briefly wondered why they fired their only missiles earlier when they first spotted the two Daggers approaching them. With a shake of his head, he turned to look at one of his monitors displaying the face of Max.
"Alright, Max stay back and snipe at any of them. I am going to straight in and mix up with them. If any get past you, let them go and the others shall get them. Understood?" he ordered with a frown.
"Aye sir, holding back," the younger pilot responded with a nod of his head at the senior pilot. With a sigh and a deep breath, the pilot pulled the targeting unit around to set against his face shield. After a few moments a long beep sounded around the cockpit announcing the target was locked on.
"Sweet Lock! Firing!" he said out loud following an engrained routine when he was a fighter pilot, years before he became a mobile armor pilot, before pressing one of the triggers on the stick held loosely in his right hand. As he did so the two missile pods on the Dagger's shoulders opened and twelve missiles spiraled out of the pods heading towards the approaching mobile armors. A brief moment later they hit five of the enemy mobile armors tearing them apart and leaving the other seven alone, but that soon changed as one was speared by a reddish-orange beam of a Hyper-Impulse cannon fired by Max's Launcher Dagger. Two more of the mobile armors soon fell to James thanks to the two light beam cannons attached to the flight pack of the Dagger. Only four remained and James was now in range of the enemy weapons, and they opened fire at him with their heavy Gatling cannons, but James skillfully evaded their almost frantic fire. The Dagger's shield-mounted Gatling cannon came up and started to fire on the mobile armor. One did not evade in time and soon followed his compatriots in death when the Gatling tore apart the glorified spacefighter. Frowning he turned his weapon onto the next target to see it explode into a fireball from yet another Agni blast. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted one of the remaining enemy units approaching from his side, with a shake of his head James snatched up one of the mobile suit's beam sabers from its waist storage rack and swung it to neatly bisect the mobile armor before it exploded showering the Dagger with debris. Turning he saw the last remaining mobile armor bugging out but it soon exploded into a fireball as Max got him with another blast from the Agni. With a nod of his head, the pilot replaced the beam saber in its rack and turned to look around him to see if any other enemy units tried to ambush the Dominion but only saw it slowly pushing its way through the asteroids, with the other two Daggers of Jolly Flight standing protectively over the ship. With a sigh, James turned his Dagger towards the Dagger and started to head for the ship.
"Gunsight this is Jolly One reporting twelve pirate bogies splashed," he reported to the mobile suit controller on the ship, whose face flashed onto one of his lateral communication monitors.
"Understood, the Captain wants you to return to the ship to personally report to her on the fight and thoughts on why those pirates attacked us like that. Leave Jolly Three and Four on CIP and bring yourself and Jolly Two home," the MS Controller ordered. James nodded before sending the Dagger toward the now-opening catapult doors of the ship.
"Understood Gunsight, Jolly One and Two are now returning," he responded before inputting a few commands into his communication panel and the faces of his three pilots soon came up onto his screens.
"Alright, Max and I have been ordered to return to personally report to the Captain, Elaine, and Ben you are to take over the CIP. Understood," he ordered these three subordinates, as he started to approach the opened catapult.
"Understood sir," Elaine responded with a simple nod of her head before taking a lazy turn and starting a patrol pattern.
"Ah, man! I didn't get any kills this time Boss," Ben said as he too sent his Dagger into a patrol pattern. James smiled and rolled his eyes at Ben's statement.
"Better luck next time Ben," James said with a smile as he gently set the Dagger down on the catapult before walking the large mobile suit forward as the catapult door closed behind him.
"This is Jolly One I am down and shall be up on the bridge momentarily Gunsight. Any word on Roger Flight?" he asked with a frown as his Dagger was attached to a rack in preparation to move further into the hanger. The MS Controller frowned as well on his center monitor before shaking her head.
"No word Commander, but their first scheduled check-in should be pretty soon," the Controller responded with a frown. James nodded and watched as his Dagger's Rack was led towards its assigned spot. After a few moments, James opened his hatch and pushed off towards the hanger's exit spinning slightly and watching as several normal-suited figures approached not only his Dagger by Max's as well. With a smile, he spotted a normally suited figure waiting for him by the exit. The rank tabs on the collar told him it was an Ensign and only one person wearing those tabs would be in the hanger.
"Yeah, Chief! Brought her back in one piece for you this time," he said with a light tone and a grin on his face. The mentioned person only rolled her eyes before pushing off as well and headed towards him.
"You want your new kills displayed?" asked one Ensign Elizabeth Hailey the Hanger Deck's chief and head mobile suit engineer. James frowned for a moment before shaking his head.
"We can do that later Liz, I need to report to the captain. I leave her in your delicate hands ma'am," he said before saluting her lazily and spinning around to float out of the hanger and into the ship itself.
Nearspace
Barnacle Space Dock
Not far from the spiky-shaped Barnacle Space Dock a few figures floated around a large asteroid, while one larger than the others stood on the asteroid and operated some sort of tool to mine the asteroid. A small chuck was broken off and one of the smaller figures, a small PLANT-designed work pod grabbed it before rushing towards a large boxy-looking ship hanging off to one side, a PLANT Registered Restorer Class Heavy Transport. The large figure's head turned to look at the Work Pod and seemed to nod before going back to work its red central eye flashing before focusing back on its job. In the cockpit of the large figure, a ZGWF-01 Worker GINN, the pilot turned their attention back to the work they were doing. Suddenly something caught their eye and they stopped working briefly as they looked around in some confusion just in time to see one of the Work Pods floating around the Worker GINN explode for no reason.
"NO!" the pilot, a young twenty-year-old Coordinator by the name of Diana Sterling, yelled out in shock. The young woman turned her attention towards the other Work Pods to see them scrambling towards the cover of the Transport Ship that served as their carrier, but they never reached it as one by one exploded due to what looked to be railgun fire.
Diana cursed and turned her Mobile Suit around to find the attackers, leaving behind the tools floating above the asteroid. The young pilot's eyes rapidly moved around trying to find the enemy. Suddenly the transport was hit in the engines as another ship dived down from the cover of another asteroid firing as they came, and two other mobile suits soon appeared from the same asteroid. Within a few moments, the transport was disabled and its light defenses taken out. The pirate ship then came alongside the transport before launching three launches towards the besieged transport. Diana just sat there stunned as she watched the whole thing, and could not do anything but watch. But suddenly her entire view-screen was red as a red mono-eye of a regular dark blue painted ZGMF-1017 GINN dropped in front of her own unarmed Worker GINN. Diana could only stare in shock and anger as the enemy GINN brought up its rifle in almost slow motion. Diana's life flashed through her eyes as the rifle lined up to shoot her GINN's cockpit, but before the rifle could fire a shaft of yellow light stabbed through the GINN's chest.
Blinking in surprise Diana watched in shocked silence as another mobile suit's hand reached around to grab the GINN's shoulder and pushed it off to the side showing Diana her savior. A white, black and gold painted mobile suit with a skull and crossbones on its chest, and Diana first thought it was yet another pirate trying to steal the first pirate group's catch, but that thought soon fled as Diana's mind finally caught with the shock and reported that it is one of those new Earth Alliance Mobile Suits. A machine that she and the others in the PLANT Resource Mission had heard so much about over the months since the collapse of Heliopolis Colony. Suddenly the mobile suit turned slightly showing yet another similar machine taking out the two pirate mobile suits with beams of red light before the launches followed the mobile suits. The ship tried to run but the other Alliance mobile suit simply held up its rifle and fired that same red light coring through the center of the ship destroying it in a large explosion. In a matter of seconds, the pirates were all out and destroyed. Diana could not believe what she had seen but was glad she managed to live but wondered why the Alliance of all people helped them out, and also why they were out at Lagrange Two. With a shake of her head, Diana saw that the first mobile suit seemed to nod before turning back towards her GINN and raising one of its arms. A thin wire shot out of the wrist of the other mobile suit which impacted the shoulder of the Worker GINN. Diana finally after a few seconds realized the wire was a communication line, which would allow the other pilot to talk to her.
"You alright in there?" the other pilot asked her through the line. With yet another shake of her head to clear it, the young pilot sighed before opening the line on her end a moment later.
"Yes, I am. Thanks for the save," Diana responded with a sigh of relief and knew that once she got out of the mobile suit she was going to collapse, but for now had to get herself together so she could get her machine back home, not to mention help her friends on the transport.
"No problem miss, I am just sorry that we did not get here sooner. We saw these guys earlier but our orders were to watch and follow them but we never imagined them getting this close to Barnacle. Anyway, my commander already sent out a distress call to Barnacle, if they haven't already noticed the battle. Till then we shall stay around till they get here," the other pilot soon replied in a respectful tone. Diana nodded for pirates did not usually attack this close to Barnacle, therefore would be quite a surprise to the resource missions around the Space Dock.
"It should not take too long for help to arrive. Though can I ask for your name good sir?" she asked wanting to know the identity of her valiant rescuer.
"Heh sure why not? I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Marcus Rush of the Earth Alliance Mobile Suit Squadron 103 - Skull Squadron -, my partner and commander is Lieutenant Senior Grade Logan Kramer also with Skull Squadron," the Alliance pilot replied before his mobile suit's hand pointed over to the other Alliance machine. Diana nodded but knew she had heard that name before but her radio soon squawked for her attention before she could ask the Lieutenant about it.
"Diana you still there, if you can hear me answer me!" a voice shouted and Diana flinched before flipping her radio back to broadcast. The Alliance pilot who could hear the communication chuckled lightly but only retracted his communication line.
"I am still here Mister Charles, but the pirates took out the others," she reported over the radio to her boss and leader of the Resource Mission. Diana soon heard a sigh over the radio from the man.
"Thank god. Thought I lost you too kid, but what is happening out there? First, we see the pods going up one by one then that ship appears out of nowhere and then our radar along with everything else is taken out. We were getting ready for boarders when one of the crew reported seeing explosions out of one of the viewports," the older man inquired with a bit of agitation in his voice at what was going on. Diana smiled slightly before shaking her head for the old man would not believe this, granted the man was not a big anti-Natural or anything like that but simply just didn't like the Alliance overall.
"Well we were rescued it appears, they took out the Pirate Mobile Suits, then the boarding launches, and finally the pirate ship itself. It was over in a matter of seconds. They have sent out a call to summon help from the Dock," she reported but purposely left the identity of the rescuers out for a moment. Diana always liked to wind up the old man and she was not going to resist this.
"What! There are no ZAFT ships in the area. Who rescued us then?" the man asked now with a bit of confusion in his voice. Diana simply smiled and chuckled lightly as she eyed the two Alliance mobile suits which since the start of the conversation loitered around the area looking out for more pirates.
"Would you believe Mister Charles if I said it was a pair of Alliance Mobile Suits?" she responded and started to mentally count down in her head till the man responded.
"WHAT!! Some Alliance pilots put their necks out to save us! That is surprising but I wonder why they did so," the older man said with a sigh. Diana was disappointed that he did not do more, but could only nod. Suddenly her radar started to blare and turned her machine to see surprisingly a single ZAFT Nazca Class ship fast approaching them. Diana's eyes widened in surprise for there indeed no ZAFT around the area, but since it was a Nazca she should not be surprised that it was in the area and heard the distress call before going full speed to help them.
"Well looks like help has arrived Boss and it's a ZAFT Nazca Class. I don't think our rescuers are going to stay around for much longer," she said in surprise, and indeed as she said that the two Alliance mobile suits saw the ZAFT ship and bolted towards the cover of the asteroids, though Lieutenant Rush's machine threw a lazy salute towards Diana's machine before he did so. Diana smiled and made the Worker GINN wave at the Alliance machine as it fled the area to avoid fighting the ZAFT forces. With a sigh, she reached up and took off her helmet before shaking out her short purple hair. She sighed sadly as she looked around the area seeing the debris from the dead pods and wondered what was going to happen. She watched as the catapult on the ZAFT ship opened and three GINNs launched toward her. As they approached she briefly wondered about that Alliance pilot and silently wished to meet with him.
AFS Dominion
In-Route to the Moon
Six Days Later
Almost a week after it entered the area found the Dominion on its way back to the Moon after a few days of going through a few exercises and maneuvers in conjunction with Skull Squadron. A few more pirate groups tried to attack them or simply just literally ran into them but were soon crushed by the overwhelming firepower of the ship and its mobile suits. In fact, during the latest attack, the Dominion would use its powerful Lohengrin Mainguns for the first time to take out a Pirate-modified Nelson Class Battleship that had stumbled onto them. They would surprisedly run into a few ZAFT ships over the course of the cruise and the Dominion would avoid contact with the ships every time. However, they did end up supporting a PLANT Resource Commission Restorer Class Heavy Transport and a pair of smaller Junk Guild registered transports to fight against a small pirate base that was located about fifty kilometers from Barnacle Space Dock where they provided the heavy firepower to the fight. Also during that fight, the marines onboard the Dominion managed to get some action when they boarded the base and captured a handful of pirate leaders which were handed over to the Junk Guild who themselves would most likely hand them over to the PLANT civilian authorities.
As the ship slipped out of the second Lagrange point, its captain could be found in her quarters going over a few reports turned in by the various department heads. After the last report was read Natarle sighed and stretched her body a bit. With a sigh, she looked around the quarters to see that unlike when she first got them, they now looked like they lived in. Her eyes suddenly fell onto the book sitting on her side table with a piece of paper sticking out marking her spot about three-quarters the way through the book. Natarle shrugged and turned to look at the clock to see that she was not going on duty for a long while. She soon settled onto the couch and opened the book to start to read. As she did the Dominion continued to sail peacefully towards the moon, its duty fulfilled and its honor intact.
Post Chapter Notes
Okay. This is the second half of the earlier edition of the fifth chapter of the older version of the story. Reading over the older version of the author's notes and a bit of my memories had this chapter supposed to have a bit more battles with pirates but I just glazed over them for some reason. Shrug. I still have it here in this version of this new chapter, but I may see about whipping another short interlude chapter that covers that mentioned battle with the pirate battleship but from another point of view in the future. Maybe even doing the other mentioned battle against the pirate base, which would be a fun little mini-story to do later on. Speaking of said battle, that along with the brief battle with the pirate battleship are actually mentioned later on during the sequel. So I really want to explore them a bit better. Grumble.
Though about the actual battle that is featured in this chapter I have replaced the older Fafnir Mobile Armors in this chapter with the newer Raptor Mobile Armors that I first created for my Queen of Space story. These units are heavily visually based on that of the Red Tail MONO Zipcraft from the anime Cowboy Bebop. It is a bit modified with the option to sport light railguns or the large Gatling cannons, similar to those on the Red Tail itself. The reason for this is that I always thought the Red Tail and Spike Spiegel's own Swordfish II MONO Racer did kind of look like Cosmic Era Mobile Armor in design with some slight tweaking. Again. I really need to come up with a Fanon Page for the Raptor. Chuckles.
That said, I also expanded a bit on the Lagrange Two area a bit more and included the likes of smaller pieces of stellar debris like smaller rocks and ice along with the larger resource asteroids of the older version. Also, I always loved the whole idea of outside observers being used to help in maneuvering a large spacecraft and such to move around such areas of space with plenty of things to damage said spacecraft. Hence, the reason that I kept that whole thing in this version of the chapter.
Alright. That is about it for these notes. I shall get right into editing the next chapter. Thanks for reading!
Of the five LaGrange Points around the orbit of Earth, the Second LaGrange Point is one of the only ones that has not been developed that much, with the other four having many orbital colonies or stations being built there over the years since the start of the Cosmic Era. The L2 Point meanwhile, does not, it only has one major station and that is the Barnacle Space Dock Facility, even though it is located along the very edge of the Lagrange Point. The reasoning behind this is that L2 is the location of various large resource asteroids that had been placed there to help in the construction of the future Lagrange Five Colonies that become known as the PLANTs. Over the years since the end of the Space Colony Construction Plan, it has become a hotbed of pirate activity with various civilian transports traveling through and near the Lagrange point being attacked by pirates based in the area. However, with the war in full swing, neither side cared much about suppressing the L2 Pirates, leaving them to do whatever they wanted. Even though they do not attack anything within a certain radius of the Barnacle Space Dock, leaving it pretty much untouched by pirate attacks. The several small resource asteroids located in this range are usually mined heavily by various others. One of the major players in the mining game is the PLANTs which mine the asteroids to provide ZAFT with the resources it needs to continue fighting the far larger Earth Alliance…
- Taken from the Pirate Point: The History Behind L2
Bridge
AFS Dominion
Lagrange Point Two
Two days later
After a short two-day journey the Dominion entered the L2 area very slowly and carefully to avoid the numerous resource asteroids – and smaller pieces of further stellar debris that had broken off from said asteroids over the years – in the area. As they did so both catapults opened before launching the ship's mobile suit complement while a few tethered and normally suited personnel pushed off the ship to peacefully float away from the ship. These personnel had the mission of directing the large battleship through the mini-asteroid field that is the Lagrange Two area. Within a few minutes, six of the ship's eight machines launched, and the catapult doors closed shut behind the last mobile suit. The six machines soon shook down into three flight groups of two mobile suits; two groups sped off to scout ahead of the ship while the last group started a lazy path around the ship patrolling for any enemy threats. On the bridge of the ship, Commander Badgiruel floated in front of the bridge's view-port gazing out at the asteroids that are now floating past the ship, along with the odd piece of smaller chunk of rock or ice. With a sigh, she turned to look at the silently working bridge crew before looking up at the two operator stations above her command chair.
"Radar I want those eyes and those famous senses of yours on full alert, I don't want anything getting a drop on us understood," she ordered the young brown-haired man, one Warrant Officer Jacob Riley better known as Radar, sitting at the radar and detection station. He was called Radar because of his almost sixth sense of detecting enemies or threatening forces around him, not to mention his eyes could see stuff that no one else could on a radar screen.
"Aye ma'am," the young man said not looking away from his screens to look at the captain as she floated over to her command chair before sitting down. Nodding she looked down at the combined helm and navigation station situated at the front of the bridge.
"Mitchell, Helme I don't want to hit anything so keep your heads on a swivel and listen to those observers outside," she ordered the two men sitting at that station, who only nodded back at her almost together before turning their attention back to their station. She did not say anything further to them for she knew that the two were hard at work and did not need anything else from her. With a nod, she sat back in her comfortable command chair to wait for anything to happen. After a few moments of blessed silence, Radar at his station twitched slightly before frowning and adjusting a few controls on his station. This attracted the attention of Natarle and the XO, Lisa Hayes, who floated near the front of the bridge keeping an eye on the surroundings. Sometimes she used a pair of binoculars around her neck to scan around before putting them down to scan around the immediate area.
"Captain! I got twelve solid contacts bearing down on us from one of the larger asteroids to the Portside. Looks like they were hiding in its shadow. I can not get a positive match on their identity there is a lot of nearby interference," Radar reported with a grim frown on his face as he looked down at her from his position. Frowning Natarle leaned forward slightly to look into the CIC.
"Controller! Have…" she started to say but was beaten to the punch as one of the Skull Squadron's Daggers flew past the bridge to intercept the approaching contacts.
"Ma'am Jolly One reports that he has a visual on the contacts and confirms them to be TS-MA1 Raptor Mobile Armors. He is requesting weapons free at this time," the Controller reported from the CIC. Natarle blinked in surprise at this for the Raptor Mobile Armor where just less than a decade or so out of date and, therefore was usually used by pirates and third-party forces who could not afford more modern mobile armors like a Moebius or its offshoots. After a brief moment, Natarle was about to say something when the Controller held her hand to her headset once more to hear something.
"Captain! Approaching mobile armors are confirmed to be hostile they have fired on Jolly One, he is requesting weapons free once again ma'am," the controller reported looking up at her, Natarle frowned but sighed.
"Jolly One has Weapons Free, destroy that filth before they directly attack the ship," she ordered with a scowl, and mentally cursed the pirates who were stupid enough to attack a full-fledged warship using obsolete machines.
"Ma'am should I order Jolly Three and Four to launch?" the controller asked after relaying the orders to the two Daggers. Natarle thought briefly for a moment before sighing and looking down at the Controller.
"Yes but have them keep close to the ship and intercept anything that gets past Jolly One and Two," she ordered with a nod. For it was a good idea to keep the two other members of Jolly Flight behind in case of any leakers that got through the first element of Jolly Flight.
"Understood Captain relaying your orders now," the controller responded before turning back to her station to coordinate the launching of the other two Daggers. While she did that Lisa who had been making her way over to Natarle gently floated up next to Natarle with a frown.
"Should I order the crew to First Stage Alert Captain?" she asked with a frown on her face. Natarle looked over at her before looking out at the view-port thoughtfully before turning back to the brown-haired woman.
"Not First Stage, but bring the ship to Second Stage Alert, and warm up the close-in weapons. If anything got through Jolly Flight our CIWS should take care of them easily enough," she ordered load enough for the weapon officer to receive the order as well.
"Aye Ma'am!" soon came the twin responses from the weapons officer and Lisa, who sat down in her chair off to one side of the command chair and lifted the handset from the armrest of the chair.
"Now hear this, Second Stage Alert. I repeat Second Stage Alert. This is not a drill, all stations report when ready," she ordered over the internal communications, officially bringing the ship to battle. Natarle nodded at her before picking up her handset and pushing a button on the same armrest connecting her with the ship's senior non-commissioned officer, Chief Warrant Officer John Halsey who had been supervising the observers.
"Chief start bringing in the Observers I don't want any of them being hit by stray fire," she ordered before setting the handset back into its cradle. She then leaned back and watched as the ship's first battle commenced.
GAT-01A1 Assault Dagger – Callsign: Jolly One
James Focker Piloting
With a frown behind his helmet's face shield, the experienced pilot sent his mobile suit heading towards the approaching hostile mobile armors, which sported a forward sphere-looking cockpit and paired moveable thruster arrays flanking it. For weapons, the TS-MA1 Raptor sported either paired lightweight railguns or heavy Gatling guns, attached underneath the thruster arrays, and similar to the later Moebius it sported a pair of modular missile mounts underneath its main body behind its cockpit. As the squadron of pirate mobile armors continued its approach the forward units fired off their missiles towards the approaching Alliance mobile suits which were quite easily cut down by the CIWS of James' unit and the heavy shoulder-mounted Vulcan of his wingman's, Max Sterling's mobile suit. As this happened James eyed the old mobile armor with an experienced eye and briefly wondered why they fired their only missiles earlier when they first spotted the two Daggers approaching them. With a shake of his head, he turned to look at one of his monitors displaying the face of Max.
"Alright, Max stay back and snipe at any of them. I am going to straight in and mix up with them. If any get past you, let them go and the others shall get them. Understood?" he ordered with a frown.
"Aye sir, holding back," the younger pilot responded with a nod of his head at the senior pilot. With a sigh and a deep breath, the pilot pulled the targeting unit around to set against his face shield. After a few moments a long beep sounded around the cockpit announcing the target was locked on.
"Sweet Lock! Firing!" he said out loud following an engrained routine when he was a fighter pilot, years before he became a mobile armor pilot, before pressing one of the triggers on the stick held loosely in his right hand. As he did so the two missile pods on the Dagger's shoulders opened and twelve missiles spiraled out of the pods heading towards the approaching mobile armors. A brief moment later they hit five of the enemy mobile armors tearing them apart and leaving the other seven alone, but that soon changed as one was speared by a reddish-orange beam of a Hyper-Impulse cannon fired by Max's Launcher Dagger. Two more of the mobile armors soon fell to James thanks to the two light beam cannons attached to the flight pack of the Dagger. Only four remained and James was now in range of the enemy weapons, and they opened fire at him with their heavy Gatling cannons, but James skillfully evaded their almost frantic fire. The Dagger's shield-mounted Gatling cannon came up and started to fire on the mobile armor. One did not evade in time and soon followed his compatriots in death when the Gatling tore apart the glorified spacefighter. Frowning he turned his weapon onto the next target to see it explode into a fireball from yet another Agni blast. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted one of the remaining enemy units approaching from his side, with a shake of his head James snatched up one of the mobile suit's beam sabers from its waist storage rack and swung it to neatly bisect the mobile armor before it exploded showering the Dagger with debris. Turning he saw the last remaining mobile armor bugging out but it soon exploded into a fireball as Max got him with another blast from the Agni. With a nod of his head, the pilot replaced the beam saber in its rack and turned to look around him to see if any other enemy units tried to ambush the Dominion but only saw it slowly pushing its way through the asteroids, with the other two Daggers of Jolly Flight standing protectively over the ship. With a sigh, James turned his Dagger towards the Dagger and started to head for the ship.
"Gunsight this is Jolly One reporting twelve pirate bogies splashed," he reported to the mobile suit controller on the ship, whose face flashed onto one of his lateral communication monitors.
"Understood, the Captain wants you to return to the ship to personally report to her on the fight and thoughts on why those pirates attacked us like that. Leave Jolly Three and Four on CIP and bring yourself and Jolly Two home," the MS Controller ordered. James nodded before sending the Dagger toward the now-opening catapult doors of the ship.
"Understood Gunsight, Jolly One and Two are now returning," he responded before inputting a few commands into his communication panel and the faces of his three pilots soon came up onto his screens.
"Alright, Max and I have been ordered to return to personally report to the Captain, Elaine, and Ben you are to take over the CIP. Understood," he ordered these three subordinates, as he started to approach the opened catapult.
"Understood sir," Elaine responded with a simple nod of her head before taking a lazy turn and starting a patrol pattern.
"Ah, man! I didn't get any kills this time Boss," Ben said as he too sent his Dagger into a patrol pattern. James smiled and rolled his eyes at Ben's statement.
"Better luck next time Ben," James said with a smile as he gently set the Dagger down on the catapult before walking the large mobile suit forward as the catapult door closed behind him.
"This is Jolly One I am down and shall be up on the bridge momentarily Gunsight. Any word on Roger Flight?" he asked with a frown as his Dagger was attached to a rack in preparation to move further into the hanger. The MS Controller frowned as well on his center monitor before shaking her head.
"No word Commander, but their first scheduled check-in should be pretty soon," the Controller responded with a frown. James nodded and watched as his Dagger's Rack was led towards its assigned spot. After a few moments, James opened his hatch and pushed off towards the hanger's exit spinning slightly and watching as several normal-suited figures approached not only his Dagger by Max's as well. With a smile, he spotted a normally suited figure waiting for him by the exit. The rank tabs on the collar told him it was an Ensign and only one person wearing those tabs would be in the hanger.
"Yeah, Chief! Brought her back in one piece for you this time," he said with a light tone and a grin on his face. The mentioned person only rolled her eyes before pushing off as well and headed towards him.
"You want your new kills displayed?" asked one Ensign Elizabeth Hailey the Hanger Deck's chief and head mobile suit engineer. James frowned for a moment before shaking his head.
"We can do that later Liz, I need to report to the captain. I leave her in your delicate hands ma'am," he said before saluting her lazily and spinning around to float out of the hanger and into the ship itself.
Nearspace
Barnacle Space Dock
Not far from the spiky-shaped Barnacle Space Dock a few figures floated around a large asteroid, while one larger than the others stood on the asteroid and operated some sort of tool to mine the asteroid. A small chuck was broken off and one of the smaller figures, a small PLANT-designed work pod grabbed it before rushing towards a large boxy-looking ship hanging off to one side, a PLANT Registered Restorer Class Heavy Transport. The large figure's head turned to look at the Work Pod and seemed to nod before going back to work its red central eye flashing before focusing back on its job. In the cockpit of the large figure, a ZGWF-01 Worker GINN, the pilot turned their attention back to the work they were doing. Suddenly something caught their eye and they stopped working briefly as they looked around in some confusion just in time to see one of the Work Pods floating around the Worker GINN explode for no reason.
"NO!" the pilot, a young twenty-year-old Coordinator by the name of Diana Sterling, yelled out in shock. The young woman turned her attention towards the other Work Pods to see them scrambling towards the cover of the Transport Ship that served as their carrier, but they never reached it as one by one exploded due to what looked to be railgun fire.
Diana cursed and turned her Mobile Suit around to find the attackers, leaving behind the tools floating above the asteroid. The young pilot's eyes rapidly moved around trying to find the enemy. Suddenly the transport was hit in the engines as another ship dived down from the cover of another asteroid firing as they came, and two other mobile suits soon appeared from the same asteroid. Within a few moments, the transport was disabled and its light defenses taken out. The pirate ship then came alongside the transport before launching three launches towards the besieged transport. Diana just sat there stunned as she watched the whole thing, and could not do anything but watch. But suddenly her entire view-screen was red as a red mono-eye of a regular dark blue painted ZGMF-1017 GINN dropped in front of her own unarmed Worker GINN. Diana could only stare in shock and anger as the enemy GINN brought up its rifle in almost slow motion. Diana's life flashed through her eyes as the rifle lined up to shoot her GINN's cockpit, but before the rifle could fire a shaft of yellow light stabbed through the GINN's chest.
Blinking in surprise Diana watched in shocked silence as another mobile suit's hand reached around to grab the GINN's shoulder and pushed it off to the side showing Diana her savior. A white, black and gold painted mobile suit with a skull and crossbones on its chest, and Diana first thought it was yet another pirate trying to steal the first pirate group's catch, but that thought soon fled as Diana's mind finally caught with the shock and reported that it is one of those new Earth Alliance Mobile Suits. A machine that she and the others in the PLANT Resource Mission had heard so much about over the months since the collapse of Heliopolis Colony. Suddenly the mobile suit turned slightly showing yet another similar machine taking out the two pirate mobile suits with beams of red light before the launches followed the mobile suits. The ship tried to run but the other Alliance mobile suit simply held up its rifle and fired that same red light coring through the center of the ship destroying it in a large explosion. In a matter of seconds, the pirates were all out and destroyed. Diana could not believe what she had seen but was glad she managed to live but wondered why the Alliance of all people helped them out, and also why they were out at Lagrange Two. With a shake of her head, Diana saw that the first mobile suit seemed to nod before turning back towards her GINN and raising one of its arms. A thin wire shot out of the wrist of the other mobile suit which impacted the shoulder of the Worker GINN. Diana finally after a few seconds realized the wire was a communication line, which would allow the other pilot to talk to her.
"You alright in there?" the other pilot asked her through the line. With yet another shake of her head to clear it, the young pilot sighed before opening the line on her end a moment later.
"Yes, I am. Thanks for the save," Diana responded with a sigh of relief and knew that once she got out of the mobile suit she was going to collapse, but for now had to get herself together so she could get her machine back home, not to mention help her friends on the transport.
"No problem miss, I am just sorry that we did not get here sooner. We saw these guys earlier but our orders were to watch and follow them but we never imagined them getting this close to Barnacle. Anyway, my commander already sent out a distress call to Barnacle, if they haven't already noticed the battle. Till then we shall stay around till they get here," the other pilot soon replied in a respectful tone. Diana nodded for pirates did not usually attack this close to Barnacle, therefore would be quite a surprise to the resource missions around the Space Dock.
"It should not take too long for help to arrive. Though can I ask for your name good sir?" she asked wanting to know the identity of her valiant rescuer.
"Heh sure why not? I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Marcus Rush of the Earth Alliance Mobile Suit Squadron 103 - Skull Squadron -, my partner and commander is Lieutenant Senior Grade Logan Kramer also with Skull Squadron," the Alliance pilot replied before his mobile suit's hand pointed over to the other Alliance machine. Diana nodded but knew she had heard that name before but her radio soon squawked for her attention before she could ask the Lieutenant about it.
"Diana you still there, if you can hear me answer me!" a voice shouted and Diana flinched before flipping her radio back to broadcast. The Alliance pilot who could hear the communication chuckled lightly but only retracted his communication line.
"I am still here Mister Charles, but the pirates took out the others," she reported over the radio to her boss and leader of the Resource Mission. Diana soon heard a sigh over the radio from the man.
"Thank god. Thought I lost you too kid, but what is happening out there? First, we see the pods going up one by one then that ship appears out of nowhere and then our radar along with everything else is taken out. We were getting ready for boarders when one of the crew reported seeing explosions out of one of the viewports," the older man inquired with a bit of agitation in his voice at what was going on. Diana smiled slightly before shaking her head for the old man would not believe this, granted the man was not a big anti-Natural or anything like that but simply just didn't like the Alliance overall.
"Well we were rescued it appears, they took out the Pirate Mobile Suits, then the boarding launches, and finally the pirate ship itself. It was over in a matter of seconds. They have sent out a call to summon help from the Dock," she reported but purposely left the identity of the rescuers out for a moment. Diana always liked to wind up the old man and she was not going to resist this.
"What! There are no ZAFT ships in the area. Who rescued us then?" the man asked now with a bit of confusion in his voice. Diana simply smiled and chuckled lightly as she eyed the two Alliance mobile suits which since the start of the conversation loitered around the area looking out for more pirates.
"Would you believe Mister Charles if I said it was a pair of Alliance Mobile Suits?" she responded and started to mentally count down in her head till the man responded.
"WHAT!! Some Alliance pilots put their necks out to save us! That is surprising but I wonder why they did so," the older man said with a sigh. Diana was disappointed that he did not do more, but could only nod. Suddenly her radar started to blare and turned her machine to see surprisingly a single ZAFT Nazca Class ship fast approaching them. Diana's eyes widened in surprise for there indeed no ZAFT around the area, but since it was a Nazca she should not be surprised that it was in the area and heard the distress call before going full speed to help them.
"Well looks like help has arrived Boss and it's a ZAFT Nazca Class. I don't think our rescuers are going to stay around for much longer," she said in surprise, and indeed as she said that the two Alliance mobile suits saw the ZAFT ship and bolted towards the cover of the asteroids, though Lieutenant Rush's machine threw a lazy salute towards Diana's machine before he did so. Diana smiled and made the Worker GINN wave at the Alliance machine as it fled the area to avoid fighting the ZAFT forces. With a sigh, she reached up and took off her helmet before shaking out her short purple hair. She sighed sadly as she looked around the area seeing the debris from the dead pods and wondered what was going to happen. She watched as the catapult on the ZAFT ship opened and three GINNs launched toward her. As they approached she briefly wondered about that Alliance pilot and silently wished to meet with him.
AFS Dominion
In-Route to the Moon
Six Days Later
Almost a week after it entered the area found the Dominion on its way back to the Moon after a few days of going through a few exercises and maneuvers in conjunction with Skull Squadron. A few more pirate groups tried to attack them or simply just literally ran into them but were soon crushed by the overwhelming firepower of the ship and its mobile suits. In fact, during the latest attack, the Dominion would use its powerful Lohengrin Mainguns for the first time to take out a Pirate-modified Nelson Class Battleship that had stumbled onto them. They would surprisedly run into a few ZAFT ships over the course of the cruise and the Dominion would avoid contact with the ships every time. However, they did end up supporting a PLANT Resource Commission Restorer Class Heavy Transport and a pair of smaller Junk Guild registered transports to fight against a small pirate base that was located about fifty kilometers from Barnacle Space Dock where they provided the heavy firepower to the fight. Also during that fight, the marines onboard the Dominion managed to get some action when they boarded the base and captured a handful of pirate leaders which were handed over to the Junk Guild who themselves would most likely hand them over to the PLANT civilian authorities.
As the ship slipped out of the second Lagrange point, its captain could be found in her quarters going over a few reports turned in by the various department heads. After the last report was read Natarle sighed and stretched her body a bit. With a sigh, she looked around the quarters to see that unlike when she first got them, they now looked like they lived in. Her eyes suddenly fell onto the book sitting on her side table with a piece of paper sticking out marking her spot about three-quarters the way through the book. Natarle shrugged and turned to look at the clock to see that she was not going on duty for a long while. She soon settled onto the couch and opened the book to start to read. As she did the Dominion continued to sail peacefully towards the moon, its duty fulfilled and its honor intact.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes
Okay. This is the second half of the earlier edition of the fifth chapter of the older version of the story. Reading over the older version of the author's notes and a bit of my memories had this chapter supposed to have a bit more battles with pirates but I just glazed over them for some reason. Shrug. I still have it here in this version of this new chapter, but I may see about whipping another short interlude chapter that covers that mentioned battle with the pirate battleship but from another point of view in the future. Maybe even doing the other mentioned battle against the pirate base, which would be a fun little mini-story to do later on. Speaking of said battle, that along with the brief battle with the pirate battleship are actually mentioned later on during the sequel. So I really want to explore them a bit better. Grumble.
Though about the actual battle that is featured in this chapter I have replaced the older Fafnir Mobile Armors in this chapter with the newer Raptor Mobile Armors that I first created for my Queen of Space story. These units are heavily visually based on that of the Red Tail MONO Zipcraft from the anime Cowboy Bebop. It is a bit modified with the option to sport light railguns or the large Gatling cannons, similar to those on the Red Tail itself. The reason for this is that I always thought the Red Tail and Spike Spiegel's own Swordfish II MONO Racer did kind of look like Cosmic Era Mobile Armor in design with some slight tweaking. Again. I really need to come up with a Fanon Page for the Raptor. Chuckles.
That said, I also expanded a bit on the Lagrange Two area a bit more and included the likes of smaller pieces of stellar debris like smaller rocks and ice along with the larger resource asteroids of the older version. Also, I always loved the whole idea of outside observers being used to help in maneuvering a large spacecraft and such to move around such areas of space with plenty of things to damage said spacecraft. Hence, the reason that I kept that whole thing in this version of the chapter.
Alright. That is about it for these notes. I shall get right into editing the next chapter. Thanks for reading!
Phase Six: Big Trouble in Little Luna
New
deathzealotzero
Mecha Guru
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
Phase Six: Big Trouble in Little Luna
The newly introduced Saratoga Class Mobile Suit Carriers were produced by the Atlantic Federation and the rest of the larger Earth Alliance to carry their new mobile suit units into battle instead of building more of the expensive Archangel or the smaller yet still somewhat expensive Odin Class Ships. Not to mention shelling out more money to convert existing ships to carry mobile suits. While theoretically, a normal Agamemnon Class Command Carrier could carry mobile suits with a handful of small modifications to hangar facilities and the ship's catapult, other ships could only carry a very small number of mobile suits if their hangars were fully modified to carry mobile suits. Something that was not practical to carry a large number of mobile suits into battle with ZAFT soon. Therefore it would be cheaper to produce a new series of carrier ships to carry and support mobile suits, hence the introduction of the Saratoga Class ships to the Alliance as a whole. A ship design that is heavily based on the old Walter Class Heavy Transports used by the Atlantic Federation Federal Space Forces as an auxiliary several years ago. A design that used that large amount of space came from being a heavy transport design to carry twenty-four mobile suits along with some needed supporting units into battle.
- Introduction to the Inside the Saratoga: The Aircraft Carrier of Space
Herschel Shipyards
Luna
June 29, CE71
All around the Herschel Crater of the moon and the large base that dominates the crater various large transport shuttles and slightly larger light transport ships buzzed all around re-supplying the shipyard with the supplies desperately needed for the base and its supporting town. Both could get much of their foodstuff and other needed supplies from Copernicus City. Other required supplies had to be sent from the planet, but with every Massdriver on the planet destroyed or captured by the enemy it was not possible to send the heavy transport shuttles into space carrying the required supplies to the moon bases of the Alliance. Smaller and lighter personal shuttles could still be sent into space but without a mass driver, the heavier shuttles could not be launched safely. Thankfully the Earth-bound Earth Alliance Forces managed to recapture the Habilis Massdriver located at the Victoria Spacesport and after about a week of cleaning up the base from the brutal battle to retake it, supplies were now flowing back into the base on a regular schedule. Even then larger Ptolemaues Lunar Base received their re-supply before the smaller shipyards could get theirs, and the Shipyards only just started receiving the supplies from the planet. All of this was on Vice Admiral Henry Gloval's mind as he watched from his office as the very first light transport ship started to land in the distant prepared dock. With a sigh, he turned slightly seeing his aide patiently waiting aide standing behind him waiting for him to acknowledge her.
"Very well Commander you were saying," he said turning towards the young woman who had been his aide, one Lieutenant Commander Henrietta Thompson, and confidant for over three years after he managed to save her career from the breakers when her commanders found out her entire family besides her were Coordinators and that they had been living at the PLANTs, many of them on Junius Seven. He was the only one to know of her seeing one of her old friends a Coordinator that lived in Copernicus City and the current pregnancy resulting in that relationship. He had been the one to provide support for her when reports arrived of a recent Blue Cosmos attack at Copernicus which took the life of her lover. Therefore like her Admiral, she has a deep hatred of Blue Cosmos and with the recent information delivered by Commander Tannith was rapidly losing respect for the Atlantic Federation.
"Well sir, the first batch of the new Saratoga Class Carriers are finally finished, and with the new supplies from Earth, the second batch's construction schedule should moved up to be done in a matter of weeks. While all the Odin Class ships being built here are as of this morning finished and ready to be inducted into the fleet," she reported making Gloval nod at this though he did frown a bit at the mention of the Saratoga Class. They were simply purebred mobile suit carriers that were heavily based on the old Walter Class Heavy Transports an old Federal Space Forces Auxiliary Ship. While they were not entirely converted from the Walter Class itself only using the basic hull design and much of the heavy transport to develop a new ship design. They still retained that transport pedigree with very thin armor and only a handful of defense guns on the deck of the ship. Internally sighing at this whole thing, Gloval would have preferred increasing the production of the Odin Class instead of using a transport design as a basis of a mobile suit carrier design. Shaking his head at this he turned back to listening to his aide's report.
"Our five brand new Archangel Class ships are just about finished. Give them another few days and they shall be done. That is all for my report on the current construction, is there anything else you need sir," Commander Thompson finished off her report reading out of a folder that lay open in her hands. Her pregnancy while not yet too advanced to show, still almost glowed with many who had called over the years the pregnancy glow. However, Admiral Gloval simply nodded at her before looking out of the window at the gathered ships below him, wondering yet again why he was doing this job instead of resigning or just dropping off the map and settling down somewhere so he did not have to deal with the idiotic stupidity of the world and the darn war. With an internal snort and a quick shake of his head, he once again remembered one of his own father's favorite quotes: "Do what is right and not what is easy." Which is why he had not done what he wanted to, with a deep breath and gathering himself together he looked over at Commander Thompson knowing that he had to make the world safer for her child and others like them, with a final nod he turned to look at his desk. As he started to head for it he stopped remembering something before looking over at the Commander.
"Henri when is the Dominion due back from her shakedown cruise?" he asked with a frown looking at the surprised Lieutenant Commander who quickly recovered but soon found the proper entry in her schedule PDA after she found out she was looking for groaned out loud surprising her Admiral.
"Well sir they arrive sometime tomorrow, and if you remember that is when you have that meeting with Rear Admiral Sutherland about his newly assigned command," she responded with a grim frown, the Admiral blinked in surprise before groaning as well for newly promoted Rear Admiral Sutherland was to take command of the newly formed 1st Mobile Attack Group which was to be made out of the Dominion and the first two Odin Class ships the Odin herself and the Thor.
The meeting had been pushed back multiple times with Admiral Sutherland in several other meetings and happily escorting Director Muruta Azerael of the National Defense Industry Association around both Ptolemaeus and Herschel much to his irritation, for the Director was not even a Civilian member of the government. Not to mention the rumors that he was the head of Blue Cosmos, but has not been outright proven just yet, though Commander Tannith was looking into it for the Admiral.
With a sigh the Admiral simply nodded before sitting heavily and wearily at his desk, for the Admiral had managed to keep much of the Blue Cosmos supporters in the High Command from finding out about the Dominion's crew roster, only he and Vice Admiral Charlotte Lorne head of the Alliance's Bureau of Personal which is reasonable for personal assignments knew of the roster of the Dominion. However, if the Dominion returned in the middle of the meeting Sutherland and his cronies would demand a tour of the ship. He would then know that the crew of the ship was not the ones he had highly recommended to Admiral Gloval and Admiral Lorne during the early days of the Dominion's construction. Sighing in exhaustion the Admiral wondered if his luck was going to keep going downhill, and wondered how he could keep Sutherland from knowing of the change in crews.
However, as if summoned by his thoughts on luck, shouting could now be heard from the Admiral's outer office, and exchanging a bewildered look with his aide the Admiral wondered what was going on when the double doors of his office slammed open surprising both Admiral and aide. One red-faced Rear Admiral William Sutherland stalked angrily into the inner office. Gloval blanched at his rotten luck but quickly recovered like the pro he was and adopted a bland irritated look on his face. He also silently noticed the two people following the admiral into office, as well as the handful of serious-looking young men and women waiting for them in the outer office. The senior admiral's eyes narrowed in anger as he knew both followers and wondered why they were there.
"GLOVAL!! What the hell are you trying to pull!" the angry admiral ranted as he slammed a folder down on the senior admiral's desk. Gloval narrowed his eyes at the other man before looking over at Commander Thompson.
"That shall be all Commander, looks like my meeting with Admiral Sutherland is going to be a bit earlier than planned," he ordered ignoring the Rear Admiral totally, as well as the two men who had followed the Admiral into the office, one a blond-haired man wearing a powder blue business suit who sported an amused expression on his face, while the other only wore an Earth Alliance uniform with the tabs on his shoulder panels showing him to be a pilot that only had a simple scowl on his face that made the large scar on his face look even uglier then it already was. With a nod and a small smile on her face, the aide quickly saluted and exited the office through a small side door leaving Gloval with the three others that remained in the office.
"Now what is your problem REAR Admiral Sutherland? Take a seat and let's talk about this like civilized men we are," Gloval ordered waving for a chair in front of the desk and stressing the rear part of the other's rank showing who outranked who in the scheme of things. Sutherland's face might have become even redder, but after a few moments, his face started to return to normal. With an angry sniff, the Admiral sat down in the chair while his blond-haired companion took the other chair, the other simply leaned against one wall of the room glaring around at the mentioned room.
"That is much better Admiral. Now what can I do for you this fine day?" Gloval asked with a small smile on his face and his hands folded on the table in front of him not looking at the folder still sitting on their side of the table. With a scowl, the junior Admiral threw the folder at Gloval who barely managed to catch it in time and looked at the two with an inquiring look.
"That is my problem Gloval. I swung by Admiral Lorne's office to see about picking up the crew roster for my new flagship and to find out about the status of said ship. While she told me she could not reveal it to me for I was not yet in command of said ship, I managed to get Fleet Admiral Houston's signed order to let her have me access to the roster. When I left the office and started to flip through the folder I found something very interesting! Do you know what I found Gloval?" the angry man said pointing at the folder in Admiral Gloval's hands, who hid a flinch for he did not know that Fleet Admiral Houston was in the pockets or one of the supporters of Blue Cosmos. His name had not been on the list given to him by Commander Tanith, though he was not surprised at all for the elderly Admiral was high enough that he could have various lockouts on his files as well as several other things. With a sigh, Gloval opened the folder and found that the folder did indeed contain the roster of the Dominion. With a confused expression on his face, Gloval looked up at the far more junior Admiral.
"Very well then Admiral. May I ask what the problem with this crew roster is? For it looks just fine with me, though the crew size is a bit small for such a ship, but I am sure they can handle it," Admiral Gloval said with a frown looking over his reading glasses at the once again red-faced Admiral Sutherland.
"Yes, I have a problem with it. I gave you a list of preferred crew for the ship and not a single one of those on that list is in that crew roster. That is the crew I wanted to have on my flagship Gloval and I am not very happy about this at all," Sutherland managed to spit out with grim distaste. Admiral Gloval frowned at him before sitting down the folder and taking off his reading glasses.
"First of all Rear Admiral Sutherland, it is Vice Admiral Gloval or sir to you! Second of all, it was not your ship when you gave me that list, and there were no plans for you to take command of her. Speaking of that list they were all green officers mainly right out of the academy with a handful of older officers who have shown incompetence or worse cowardice towards the enemy. I admit that a few of those green officers looked quite good on paper and had great potential but it was not such a great idea to put them on such an important ship as the Dominion, they would have been better off on another ship. Myself along with Admiral Lorne and Commander Badgiruel got together to handpick a crew that the Commander could work very well with. Not to mention we chose a crew that brought a lot of experience to the ship and one that could work well together. They have already shown that experience during their shakedown cruise and managed to destroy more than one Pirate ship or mobile unit that where stupid enough to attack her. Now is there anything else you like to say, Admiral?" Gloval responded as he got up from his seat and leaned forward with a frown on his face. Sutherland leaned back against the stare and angry frown of the elder Admiral. The now white-faced Admiral gulped before shaking his head and gritting his teeth as he looked over at the still amused blue business-suited person at his side.
"Yes, there is Admiral Gloval. Director Azrael here has requested from Admiral Houston the use of the Dominion for a special mission and since technically the Dominion is still under your command till she finishes her shake-down cruise, we thought to present it to you. That is the main reason for the meeting tomorrow. Director if you will?" the younger Admiral said on bordering contempt for the older man, but Gloval let it go for neither Admiral liked the other after all. With a raised eyebrow Gloval turned his attention to the blond-haired man sitting in his other guest chair, who with a sick-looking smile handed Gloval another folder. With a frown Gloval opened it and his eyes widened at what he saw in said folder before he glanced up at the two men in surprise.
"That image was taken by cruiser Long Beach of the Fourth Naval Fleet during the Battle of Orb and according to our analysts that is indeed the AFS Archangel. She managed to somehow survive the Battle of JOSH-A pretty much intact but for some reason she went rogue and decided to head for Orb where she helped in defending that country from the Fourth Fleet's operation to invade the country. Also, you might want to flip through the other photos in there as well," the Director mentioned with a smug look on his face Gloval did not like this at all but did as he was instructed and flipped through the other photos. As he did so he became even more surprised with each photo till finally his surprise turned to confusion and looked up at the still smiling Director.
"Those last two photos are most likely the most interesting of the bunch, though my favorite is the photo before that one which is of the Strike G-Weapon in Orb Colors fighting our Strike Daggers," the Director said with a small chuckle mentioning the photo of what looked like the Strike G-Weapon in different colors and the crest of the Orb Union on its left shoulder fighting Strike Daggers. Gloval shook his head and wondered what Natarle would think of that for if he remembered right she had thought the Strike's pilot was killed by the ZAFT captured Aegis G-Weapon. With a sigh, Gloval waited for the Director to describe the last photos the ones that made him so confused, which showed both a young man in what looked to be an Alliance Flight suit and another young man in a ZAFT flight suit. Both are shaking hands and have big smiles on their faces, the other photo after that showed the same young men being hugged by a blond-haired young woman in what looked like an Orb Uniform.
"The young man in the blue and white Alliance Flight Suit is none other than Lieutenant Junior Grade Kira Yamato, the former pilot of the Strike, while the other in the ZAFT Flight Suit is believe it or not Athrun Zala, the son of Patrick Zala the PLANT's new Supreme Chairman, and according to some intelligence we managed to get a Special Agent working personally for his father on some sort of secret mission, while that blond woman hugging the two of them is Cagalli Yula Attha the Princess of the Orb Union. Also interesting enough the parts of the two mobile suits we see in the background are the two machines you can see the third photo fighting alongside the Orb Forces. This is the proof we needed to show that the Orb Union had supported ZAFT during their attack on JOSH-A," the Director explained almost giddy with excitement, while Gloval felt almost sick at the explanation. While he was also extremely surprised, he knew that the idea of Orb supporting ZAFT was ludicrous based on only these photos. There could be another more logical explanation behind the photos but Gloval kept his peace and only shook his head at the photos.
"Alright, then Director what is the Dominion's mission going to be?" Gloval asked with a heavy frown though even then he knew where this was going and he did not like it. He was sure neither was Natarle and he hoped he was wrong.
"I am glad you asked that Admiral, the new mission for the Dominion shall follow a tip I got from one of my sources on the location of the Archangel. The Dominion shall capture the Archangel with specific instructions to arrest Lieutenant Yamato, and the Captain of the Archangel Lieutenant Commander Murrue Ramius for desertion and firing on allied units. Also if he is with the Archangel Lieutenant Commander Mu La Flaga is included in the arrest order. If not possible to capture the ship, the Dominion will then destroy her. Now all this comes from Admiral Houston's office with my recommendation. With how proud you are of the experienced crew of the Dominion I am sure you shall not have any problems with the Archangel and her crew. However, since she has two Orb Battleships with her there might be some further support maybe from ZAFT located with the group. Therefore the new Saratoga Class carriers the Saratoga, Langley, Reprisal, and the Valley Forge, as well as eight Drake Class Escorts and six the refurnished Washington Class Frigates that the Solomon Yards have been working on over the past few months would travel along with the Dominion to help her in the mission," the blond-haired Director said with a savage smile on his face, mentioning the older Washington Class ships that the Drake Class had replaced, one that made Gloval wanting to reach for his service pistol to shoot the blond-haired industrialist dead where he sat.
Gloval was all out horrified and knew that Natarle was going to be equally if even more so horrified to have to fight her former crewmates and friends. Luckily for Gloval, he managed to keep himself together and hide his real feelings behind a mask of polite interest. With a nod, Gloval leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face, before looking over at the still mute third member of the group who still was leaning against the wall of his office. After a brief few moments of looking thoughtful for the benefit of the three thugs in his office, he leaned forward with purpose.
"Very well, I shall approve of this mission, it shall derail my plans for the Dominion but like you said you have Admiral Houston's approval and after the shake-down cruise is over the Dominion will no longer be under my direct command. Though I do wonder if the ship's Mobile Suit complement be brought to full strength instead of the half strength it has been since she launched?" Gloval responded even though he knew full well he could not do anything to stop it with Houston's backing behind the mission, but hopefully, he could suggest another more sympathetic mobile suit unit to place on the ship. However, those thoughts soon fled thanks to the evil smiles on the thug's faces.
"Yes, it shall be. Originally my company's three new G-Weapon Prototypes and their pilots were going to be assigned to the Dominion, but I believe there is still some work we have to do with them. Not to mention the pilots need some experience in space combat, therefore Commander Gustav's squadron shall be joining the ship's complement. With his squadron added the Dominion shall have a full mobile suit complement. Commander care to give the good Admiral an overview of your squadron?" the Director said with an evil smile waving at the leaning uniformed pilot who had been silent throughout the meeting since his entrance. The man now simply nodded before pushing off from the wall and walking over to the desk and nodded a bit at the Admiral before standing at attention at the side of the Director who looked over at the pilot with a certain fondness.
"Yes, Director it shall be my pleasure. Admiral my unit is an experimental and testing unit used to test pilot various new experimental machines for future units that will be rolling off the production line very soon. As of right now, my unit consists of four modified GAT-01D1 Duel Dagger Fortessas with their shoulder cannon replaced with a lighter beam cannon, this is to test out the concept shown by Orb's Astray Cannons, also there are two brand new GAT-01D1/C Duel Cannons, which as you know sir is a modified form of the Duel Dagger's Fortessa Armor, and finally we have two prototype G-Weapons: my own GAT-X133 Sword Calamity and a new prototype just rolled off the production lines the GAT-X398 Lightning. We shall give the Dominion some much-needed heavy firepower to help take on those two new prototypes that the Archangel has," the pilot, one Commander Oliver Gustav, reported with a clipped formal tone though Gloval could detect some savage glee in his voice as he reported on his unit. Gloval frowned at the report for he expected more A1 Daggers or even some standard Buster Daggers but these experimental units were something else, though the addition of the two Duel Cannons would be welcomed.
What worried him though was that Gustav was a full-fledged member of Blue Cosmos and was even called the Butcher of Junius Seven for he had been the one to fire off the nuke at the farming colony during the Bloody Valentine. After that battle, it was reported he was found floating in his half-destroyed Moebius and had been laughing manically while he held one hand to his bleeding face. With a shake of his head, he made a note to warn the Dominion's crew on this mission. However, as ever Gloval simply held his true feelings behind a mask and gave the Commander an impressed nod of his head.
"Very impressive Commander. Now gentlemen is there anything else I can do for you for I have several other meetings with my division heads planned for today?" he asked silently hoping that it was over, but alas his hope was not enough as the Director nodded.
"Yes with some of the Commander's machines still in testing I am going to have one of my aides Justin Thanatos along with several techs from my company be posted on the ship to supervise them," he said with a grim smile on his face. Gloval flinched slightly and silently wondered what was with these Blue Cosmos thugs and their names. He then made a silent note to have Commander Tannith put more effort into finding out where Azrael was in the Blue Cosmos organization for it was diffidently evident that he was part of it now. With a sigh, Admiral Gloval nodded and stood from his desk.
"Very then I shall inform Captain Badgriuel of this new mission when she and the Dominion return early tomorrow. In that regard, if I may I would like to hold on to these photos to show the good captain so she believes me. She believes that all of her former crewmates are dead?" he asked looking at Azrael who simply smiled as he got up from his chair and nodded at Glvoal.
"Yes, there are other copies feel free to keep those. Now Admiral Sutherland let's leave the Admiral to his work and perhaps we can go inspect the other new Archangel Class ships. Perhaps the good Fleet Admiral will let you have one of those two to command," the Director said with a smile leading the still visibly enraged though pacified Rear Admiral who stayed pretty quiet throughout the briefing. With a final jaunty wave, the two disappeared through the door Commander Gustav soon followed them before shutting the door. Gloval waited a few moments before slumping in his chair, and for a few moments, he massaged his forehead before he sighed knowing he had to get back to work. He tucked the folder of photos along with another folder filled with briefing information into his office safe before leaning over the side of the desk and tapping a key on the communication panel built into the desk.
"Yes sir," came the voice of Commander Thompson through the tiny speaker in the communication unit instead of his secretary that Gloval was expecting to respond to his page.
"Commander? Good now I don't have to call you. Anyways go fetch Commander Tannith and the rest of the in-crowd before meeting me in the secure briefing room, we have a lot of work to do," he ordered with a determined look on his face, for he was not going to let those Blue Cosmos bastards get another one over him like they just did. He wanted to do something to get back at them and soon.
"Understood, but sir I took the liberty of calling them during your meeting. We shall be waiting for you by the time you get to the briefing room," the amused voice of Commander Thompson replied making Gloval smile in pleasure at the forethought of his aide.
"Good girl Hari. Anyway, I shall be seeing you all momentarily. Also if you have the time please reschedule the department head meetings for later today. This may take a while," he ordered with a frown suddenly remembering the same meetings. The commander simply double-clicked the COMM in response, something he taught her, the universal signal of affirmative or yes for pilots. With a chuckle, Gloval straightened his uniform and grabbed anything that he needed before pausing to look at his safe. With a sigh, he opened it again and took out the folders he had just placed there. Shaking his head at his short-sightedness the Admiral was soon out of the door and heading to a meeting that would most likely get him shot if anyone else knew about it.
Bridge
AFS Dominion
Nearspace of Herschel Shipyard
June 30, CE71
As graceful as her namesake the AFS Dominion came in on final approach to the Herschel Shipyards, her relief to be back after the long drawn out shakedown cruise and battles during the said cruise. While the battles were against pirates, there were quite many pirates located at L2 and they frequently attacked the ship over the time she was cruising through the Lagrange point. Even the Captain was relieved at returning to the shipyard, though quite proud of her crew for while they were inexperienced in running such a large ship they performed brilliantly against the pirates. With a hidden smile, Commander Badgriuel watched as both the ship pilots brought the ship effortlessly towards the shipyard most likely making many watching ship drivers green with envy at how easily the two were making it seem as they came in. Suddenly the Commander was drawn from her watching when the communication station squawked above her at the operator station. With a blink of surprise, dock control had already granted them landing clearance, therefore it was a surprise for them to call back, but the COMM operator leaned forward anyway before working the controls briefly before shaking his head in confusion at the message for it made no sense to him besides the origin of the message that is.
"Captain, we are receiving a hail from Admiral Gloval, though according to my equipment, it is coming through on Omega Channel. I never heard of that channel ma'am," the COMM operator reported in confusion and was quite surprised like many others on the bridge to see the senior officers who happened to be on the bridge at the time start cursing or groaning out loud. The Captain simply closed her eyes before sighing and nodding at the COMM officer.
"Very well Lieutenant if you please vacate your station. Commander Hayes please take the station and bring up the Admiral on the main screen," she ordered in a cold tone which made the COMM officer gulp before nodding and pushing off from the station clearing the way for the steel-faced Commander Hayes to his place at the station. Omega Channel was an encrypted communication channel that officially did not exist in the Alliance records, for it was one of two different channels for members of what started to be called the Valkyrie Faction by its members, to communicate to one another. Of which was a faction inside the Earth Forces that wanted a quick end to the war and the removal of Blue Cosmos influence from their operations. Omega was a code in itself that told anyone receiving it that something was very wrong and needed immediate reply. After a few more seconds Admiral Gloval's face appeared on the main screen, and everyone in the range of the pick-up stood up to salute the man that every single one of them no matter if they were part of the Faction respected above all else.
"Admiral, may I ask what the problem is that you have used Omega?" Natarle started before he could say anything. The old Admiral sighed before looking outside his pickup for a moment before looking back with a sigh.
"Everything. It appears that Fleet Admiral Houston is with Blue Cosmos and had permitted Admiral Sutherland to access the crew roster of the Dominion yesterday afternoon. After that, he stormed into my office angry as hell over the roster, but luckily I managed to turn his attention away from the ship. However, that is only the tip of the iceberg and I am not going to say anything else even on Omega. I am only giving a heads-up for Operation Turncoat maybe on the horizon. Anyways I shall see you on the dock and there I shall give you along with your officers a proper briefing. Gloval Out," the Admiral said almost quickly as if he wanted to get it out as fast as possible. However, the officers on the bridge did not notice for they were too busy being shocked at the announcement of Operation Turncoat, which like the name suggested was a last resort move that had the entire Faction defecting to the Orb remnant. It had only recently been written up and all the officers had been briefed on it before their Shakedown. With a shake of her head, Natarle wondered what exactly the Admiral was considering using Turncoat. While she was not as against it as she had been before they left thanks to that talk with Gloval and finished reading the book, still it was quite a surprise for her and her officers. With a sigh, she forced herself back to the present and knew that she would get her answers soon when they docked, but still, it was quite a big hurdle for the Faction to do this.
"Very well then let's get this ship docked so we can get some much-needed answers, but still I want you Lieutenant Sheppard to make any of those inferior pilots out there watching us very green with envy that they explode," she ordered with a grin on her face that was soon copied by the pilot Lieutenant Sheppard before turning his attention to his station. After a few moments the Dominion slowly and gracefully as an angel lowered herself into the large dock's hatch giving either side of the ship an equal amount of clearance putting the ship exactly in the middle of the hatch. With ease, it slid into its assigned dock and soon found the ship finally docked. They had finally arrived at the shipyard but many wondered if it was a good thing.
Post Chapter Notes:
Well! Here is Phase Six and things are starting to heat up! Not to mention a major shift in Canon Timeline with the vastly different mission given to the Dominion here. Instead of heading to Mendel and trying to capture Freedom or Justice, they are to head to Mendel to try to capture the Archangel and arrest Kira along with Murrue and Mu for desertion. As for Kira's rank mentioned here, many would point out that his rank was Ensign but when we see the Archangel arrive at JOSH-A we see one of the officers at that shadowed table look over Kira's file and on it has the rank of Lieutenant instead of Ensign. Therefore his rank here is most likely some sort of promotion he got after his supposed death. That is what I am going to stick to.
Also, we are finally introduced to the major BC Thugs here as well as Commander Gustav who was the one to fire the Nuke at J7. Since many other authors in SEED Fandom who include such characters, make them regret what they did or did not know it was a Nuke at all. I have since decided to do a complete 360 on that type of character and introduce one that knew all about the nuke. Also, this has been already done in Maileesaeya's Gundam SEED Dauntless and I think it was also in Akatsuki Leader 13's Gundam SEED: A Retelling. Therefore credit to the original idea should be given to those who deserve it. As for the guy's machine which is a Sword Calamity, I know that there are officially three units of that type. I am not going to change that, but I am going to say that it is Rena Imelia's Unit, for I never understood the reasoning behind giving her a close-combat unit like a Sword Calamity when she mainly spent time in longer-range machines, like the Buster Dagger. It would make more sense if she was given something like the Verde Buster, not the Sword Calamity. Heck, even a Strike E equipped with a Launcher Pack would be good.
Anyways, many are properly wondering about these new G-Weapon Lightning, well you all just have to wait till I get around to posting the Specs. I may put them into the next chapter's author notes just like Maileesaeya does or post them on a forum like MechaTalk or one here. I still have my Forum for Honor around I shall post it on that if I can. Anyhow I hope everyone can stay patient for a bit till I manage it I also want to include a lineart with it so you can get a better idea of what it looks like. On another note, the Duel Cannon is located on my Devianart account for those interested in seeing it. While these new carriers the Saratoga Class and her specs shall be posted with the Lightning when I get around it as well.
We also get a brief introduction to the Valkyrie Faction which is the Alliance Counterpart to the Clyne Faction, which is also why Gloval asked that one question to Natarle in the last chapter's flashback. We will get a proper introduction to them in the next chapter.
Now I would like to mention that in my version of events the Archangel officially defected to Orb, therefore the Strike was in Orb Colors and sported an Orb emblem on one shoulder. The other would have a white feather showing who is piloting it, but in the mentioned photo in this chapter the other shoulder is cut off, therefore no one knows who is piloting it just yet. Though the crew of the Archangel shall keep their ranks for now instead of getting the equivalent Orb rank, I am still having them use Army/Air Force Ranks.
I like to finish these notes to mention that some may notice a different chapter title than what I had mentioned in the Preview of the last chapter, but since this was getting a bit long. I decided to cut it off into two chapters therefore the second part of this chapter shall be posted next. I originally wanted to have the Dominion finally heading for Mendel but it shall be another chapter after the next instead. With that out of the way, time to sign off folks and I hope to see you all in the next chapter and in case I post before Thursday. Everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much folks!!
I would like to include a brief note to F-14 Tomcat Lover here, I am getting around to response to your many PMs but I have been busy with this chapter and other stuff in RL. Therefore expect a very, very PM from me in the coming days. Thank you.
Next time on Divergence, the crew of the Dominion gets their much-needed answers and their new crewmembers soon join them much to many others' anger. Also what is with this dream of Natarle's and what does it mean? Find out this and more in Phase Seven: Answers and a Dream!
The newly introduced Saratoga Class Mobile Suit Carriers were produced by the Atlantic Federation and the rest of the larger Earth Alliance to carry their new mobile suit units into battle instead of building more of the expensive Archangel or the smaller yet still somewhat expensive Odin Class Ships. Not to mention shelling out more money to convert existing ships to carry mobile suits. While theoretically, a normal Agamemnon Class Command Carrier could carry mobile suits with a handful of small modifications to hangar facilities and the ship's catapult, other ships could only carry a very small number of mobile suits if their hangars were fully modified to carry mobile suits. Something that was not practical to carry a large number of mobile suits into battle with ZAFT soon. Therefore it would be cheaper to produce a new series of carrier ships to carry and support mobile suits, hence the introduction of the Saratoga Class ships to the Alliance as a whole. A ship design that is heavily based on the old Walter Class Heavy Transports used by the Atlantic Federation Federal Space Forces as an auxiliary several years ago. A design that used that large amount of space came from being a heavy transport design to carry twenty-four mobile suits along with some needed supporting units into battle.
- Introduction to the Inside the Saratoga: The Aircraft Carrier of Space
Herschel Shipyards
Luna
June 29, CE71
All around the Herschel Crater of the moon and the large base that dominates the crater various large transport shuttles and slightly larger light transport ships buzzed all around re-supplying the shipyard with the supplies desperately needed for the base and its supporting town. Both could get much of their foodstuff and other needed supplies from Copernicus City. Other required supplies had to be sent from the planet, but with every Massdriver on the planet destroyed or captured by the enemy it was not possible to send the heavy transport shuttles into space carrying the required supplies to the moon bases of the Alliance. Smaller and lighter personal shuttles could still be sent into space but without a mass driver, the heavier shuttles could not be launched safely. Thankfully the Earth-bound Earth Alliance Forces managed to recapture the Habilis Massdriver located at the Victoria Spacesport and after about a week of cleaning up the base from the brutal battle to retake it, supplies were now flowing back into the base on a regular schedule. Even then larger Ptolemaues Lunar Base received their re-supply before the smaller shipyards could get theirs, and the Shipyards only just started receiving the supplies from the planet. All of this was on Vice Admiral Henry Gloval's mind as he watched from his office as the very first light transport ship started to land in the distant prepared dock. With a sigh, he turned slightly seeing his aide patiently waiting aide standing behind him waiting for him to acknowledge her.
"Very well Commander you were saying," he said turning towards the young woman who had been his aide, one Lieutenant Commander Henrietta Thompson, and confidant for over three years after he managed to save her career from the breakers when her commanders found out her entire family besides her were Coordinators and that they had been living at the PLANTs, many of them on Junius Seven. He was the only one to know of her seeing one of her old friends a Coordinator that lived in Copernicus City and the current pregnancy resulting in that relationship. He had been the one to provide support for her when reports arrived of a recent Blue Cosmos attack at Copernicus which took the life of her lover. Therefore like her Admiral, she has a deep hatred of Blue Cosmos and with the recent information delivered by Commander Tannith was rapidly losing respect for the Atlantic Federation.
"Well sir, the first batch of the new Saratoga Class Carriers are finally finished, and with the new supplies from Earth, the second batch's construction schedule should moved up to be done in a matter of weeks. While all the Odin Class ships being built here are as of this morning finished and ready to be inducted into the fleet," she reported making Gloval nod at this though he did frown a bit at the mention of the Saratoga Class. They were simply purebred mobile suit carriers that were heavily based on the old Walter Class Heavy Transports an old Federal Space Forces Auxiliary Ship. While they were not entirely converted from the Walter Class itself only using the basic hull design and much of the heavy transport to develop a new ship design. They still retained that transport pedigree with very thin armor and only a handful of defense guns on the deck of the ship. Internally sighing at this whole thing, Gloval would have preferred increasing the production of the Odin Class instead of using a transport design as a basis of a mobile suit carrier design. Shaking his head at this he turned back to listening to his aide's report.
"Our five brand new Archangel Class ships are just about finished. Give them another few days and they shall be done. That is all for my report on the current construction, is there anything else you need sir," Commander Thompson finished off her report reading out of a folder that lay open in her hands. Her pregnancy while not yet too advanced to show, still almost glowed with many who had called over the years the pregnancy glow. However, Admiral Gloval simply nodded at her before looking out of the window at the gathered ships below him, wondering yet again why he was doing this job instead of resigning or just dropping off the map and settling down somewhere so he did not have to deal with the idiotic stupidity of the world and the darn war. With an internal snort and a quick shake of his head, he once again remembered one of his own father's favorite quotes: "Do what is right and not what is easy." Which is why he had not done what he wanted to, with a deep breath and gathering himself together he looked over at Commander Thompson knowing that he had to make the world safer for her child and others like them, with a final nod he turned to look at his desk. As he started to head for it he stopped remembering something before looking over at the Commander.
"Henri when is the Dominion due back from her shakedown cruise?" he asked with a frown looking at the surprised Lieutenant Commander who quickly recovered but soon found the proper entry in her schedule PDA after she found out she was looking for groaned out loud surprising her Admiral.
"Well sir they arrive sometime tomorrow, and if you remember that is when you have that meeting with Rear Admiral Sutherland about his newly assigned command," she responded with a grim frown, the Admiral blinked in surprise before groaning as well for newly promoted Rear Admiral Sutherland was to take command of the newly formed 1st Mobile Attack Group which was to be made out of the Dominion and the first two Odin Class ships the Odin herself and the Thor.
The meeting had been pushed back multiple times with Admiral Sutherland in several other meetings and happily escorting Director Muruta Azerael of the National Defense Industry Association around both Ptolemaeus and Herschel much to his irritation, for the Director was not even a Civilian member of the government. Not to mention the rumors that he was the head of Blue Cosmos, but has not been outright proven just yet, though Commander Tannith was looking into it for the Admiral.
With a sigh the Admiral simply nodded before sitting heavily and wearily at his desk, for the Admiral had managed to keep much of the Blue Cosmos supporters in the High Command from finding out about the Dominion's crew roster, only he and Vice Admiral Charlotte Lorne head of the Alliance's Bureau of Personal which is reasonable for personal assignments knew of the roster of the Dominion. However, if the Dominion returned in the middle of the meeting Sutherland and his cronies would demand a tour of the ship. He would then know that the crew of the ship was not the ones he had highly recommended to Admiral Gloval and Admiral Lorne during the early days of the Dominion's construction. Sighing in exhaustion the Admiral wondered if his luck was going to keep going downhill, and wondered how he could keep Sutherland from knowing of the change in crews.
However, as if summoned by his thoughts on luck, shouting could now be heard from the Admiral's outer office, and exchanging a bewildered look with his aide the Admiral wondered what was going on when the double doors of his office slammed open surprising both Admiral and aide. One red-faced Rear Admiral William Sutherland stalked angrily into the inner office. Gloval blanched at his rotten luck but quickly recovered like the pro he was and adopted a bland irritated look on his face. He also silently noticed the two people following the admiral into office, as well as the handful of serious-looking young men and women waiting for them in the outer office. The senior admiral's eyes narrowed in anger as he knew both followers and wondered why they were there.
"GLOVAL!! What the hell are you trying to pull!" the angry admiral ranted as he slammed a folder down on the senior admiral's desk. Gloval narrowed his eyes at the other man before looking over at Commander Thompson.
"That shall be all Commander, looks like my meeting with Admiral Sutherland is going to be a bit earlier than planned," he ordered ignoring the Rear Admiral totally, as well as the two men who had followed the Admiral into the office, one a blond-haired man wearing a powder blue business suit who sported an amused expression on his face, while the other only wore an Earth Alliance uniform with the tabs on his shoulder panels showing him to be a pilot that only had a simple scowl on his face that made the large scar on his face look even uglier then it already was. With a nod and a small smile on her face, the aide quickly saluted and exited the office through a small side door leaving Gloval with the three others that remained in the office.
"Now what is your problem REAR Admiral Sutherland? Take a seat and let's talk about this like civilized men we are," Gloval ordered waving for a chair in front of the desk and stressing the rear part of the other's rank showing who outranked who in the scheme of things. Sutherland's face might have become even redder, but after a few moments, his face started to return to normal. With an angry sniff, the Admiral sat down in the chair while his blond-haired companion took the other chair, the other simply leaned against one wall of the room glaring around at the mentioned room.
"That is much better Admiral. Now what can I do for you this fine day?" Gloval asked with a small smile on his face and his hands folded on the table in front of him not looking at the folder still sitting on their side of the table. With a scowl, the junior Admiral threw the folder at Gloval who barely managed to catch it in time and looked at the two with an inquiring look.
"That is my problem Gloval. I swung by Admiral Lorne's office to see about picking up the crew roster for my new flagship and to find out about the status of said ship. While she told me she could not reveal it to me for I was not yet in command of said ship, I managed to get Fleet Admiral Houston's signed order to let her have me access to the roster. When I left the office and started to flip through the folder I found something very interesting! Do you know what I found Gloval?" the angry man said pointing at the folder in Admiral Gloval's hands, who hid a flinch for he did not know that Fleet Admiral Houston was in the pockets or one of the supporters of Blue Cosmos. His name had not been on the list given to him by Commander Tanith, though he was not surprised at all for the elderly Admiral was high enough that he could have various lockouts on his files as well as several other things. With a sigh, Gloval opened the folder and found that the folder did indeed contain the roster of the Dominion. With a confused expression on his face, Gloval looked up at the far more junior Admiral.
"Very well then Admiral. May I ask what the problem with this crew roster is? For it looks just fine with me, though the crew size is a bit small for such a ship, but I am sure they can handle it," Admiral Gloval said with a frown looking over his reading glasses at the once again red-faced Admiral Sutherland.
"Yes, I have a problem with it. I gave you a list of preferred crew for the ship and not a single one of those on that list is in that crew roster. That is the crew I wanted to have on my flagship Gloval and I am not very happy about this at all," Sutherland managed to spit out with grim distaste. Admiral Gloval frowned at him before sitting down the folder and taking off his reading glasses.
"First of all Rear Admiral Sutherland, it is Vice Admiral Gloval or sir to you! Second of all, it was not your ship when you gave me that list, and there were no plans for you to take command of her. Speaking of that list they were all green officers mainly right out of the academy with a handful of older officers who have shown incompetence or worse cowardice towards the enemy. I admit that a few of those green officers looked quite good on paper and had great potential but it was not such a great idea to put them on such an important ship as the Dominion, they would have been better off on another ship. Myself along with Admiral Lorne and Commander Badgiruel got together to handpick a crew that the Commander could work very well with. Not to mention we chose a crew that brought a lot of experience to the ship and one that could work well together. They have already shown that experience during their shakedown cruise and managed to destroy more than one Pirate ship or mobile unit that where stupid enough to attack her. Now is there anything else you like to say, Admiral?" Gloval responded as he got up from his seat and leaned forward with a frown on his face. Sutherland leaned back against the stare and angry frown of the elder Admiral. The now white-faced Admiral gulped before shaking his head and gritting his teeth as he looked over at the still amused blue business-suited person at his side.
"Yes, there is Admiral Gloval. Director Azrael here has requested from Admiral Houston the use of the Dominion for a special mission and since technically the Dominion is still under your command till she finishes her shake-down cruise, we thought to present it to you. That is the main reason for the meeting tomorrow. Director if you will?" the younger Admiral said on bordering contempt for the older man, but Gloval let it go for neither Admiral liked the other after all. With a raised eyebrow Gloval turned his attention to the blond-haired man sitting in his other guest chair, who with a sick-looking smile handed Gloval another folder. With a frown Gloval opened it and his eyes widened at what he saw in said folder before he glanced up at the two men in surprise.
"That image was taken by cruiser Long Beach of the Fourth Naval Fleet during the Battle of Orb and according to our analysts that is indeed the AFS Archangel. She managed to somehow survive the Battle of JOSH-A pretty much intact but for some reason she went rogue and decided to head for Orb where she helped in defending that country from the Fourth Fleet's operation to invade the country. Also, you might want to flip through the other photos in there as well," the Director mentioned with a smug look on his face Gloval did not like this at all but did as he was instructed and flipped through the other photos. As he did so he became even more surprised with each photo till finally his surprise turned to confusion and looked up at the still smiling Director.
"Those last two photos are most likely the most interesting of the bunch, though my favorite is the photo before that one which is of the Strike G-Weapon in Orb Colors fighting our Strike Daggers," the Director said with a small chuckle mentioning the photo of what looked like the Strike G-Weapon in different colors and the crest of the Orb Union on its left shoulder fighting Strike Daggers. Gloval shook his head and wondered what Natarle would think of that for if he remembered right she had thought the Strike's pilot was killed by the ZAFT captured Aegis G-Weapon. With a sigh, Gloval waited for the Director to describe the last photos the ones that made him so confused, which showed both a young man in what looked to be an Alliance Flight suit and another young man in a ZAFT flight suit. Both are shaking hands and have big smiles on their faces, the other photo after that showed the same young men being hugged by a blond-haired young woman in what looked like an Orb Uniform.
"The young man in the blue and white Alliance Flight Suit is none other than Lieutenant Junior Grade Kira Yamato, the former pilot of the Strike, while the other in the ZAFT Flight Suit is believe it or not Athrun Zala, the son of Patrick Zala the PLANT's new Supreme Chairman, and according to some intelligence we managed to get a Special Agent working personally for his father on some sort of secret mission, while that blond woman hugging the two of them is Cagalli Yula Attha the Princess of the Orb Union. Also interesting enough the parts of the two mobile suits we see in the background are the two machines you can see the third photo fighting alongside the Orb Forces. This is the proof we needed to show that the Orb Union had supported ZAFT during their attack on JOSH-A," the Director explained almost giddy with excitement, while Gloval felt almost sick at the explanation. While he was also extremely surprised, he knew that the idea of Orb supporting ZAFT was ludicrous based on only these photos. There could be another more logical explanation behind the photos but Gloval kept his peace and only shook his head at the photos.
"Alright, then Director what is the Dominion's mission going to be?" Gloval asked with a heavy frown though even then he knew where this was going and he did not like it. He was sure neither was Natarle and he hoped he was wrong.
"I am glad you asked that Admiral, the new mission for the Dominion shall follow a tip I got from one of my sources on the location of the Archangel. The Dominion shall capture the Archangel with specific instructions to arrest Lieutenant Yamato, and the Captain of the Archangel Lieutenant Commander Murrue Ramius for desertion and firing on allied units. Also if he is with the Archangel Lieutenant Commander Mu La Flaga is included in the arrest order. If not possible to capture the ship, the Dominion will then destroy her. Now all this comes from Admiral Houston's office with my recommendation. With how proud you are of the experienced crew of the Dominion I am sure you shall not have any problems with the Archangel and her crew. However, since she has two Orb Battleships with her there might be some further support maybe from ZAFT located with the group. Therefore the new Saratoga Class carriers the Saratoga, Langley, Reprisal, and the Valley Forge, as well as eight Drake Class Escorts and six the refurnished Washington Class Frigates that the Solomon Yards have been working on over the past few months would travel along with the Dominion to help her in the mission," the blond-haired Director said with a savage smile on his face, mentioning the older Washington Class ships that the Drake Class had replaced, one that made Gloval wanting to reach for his service pistol to shoot the blond-haired industrialist dead where he sat.
Gloval was all out horrified and knew that Natarle was going to be equally if even more so horrified to have to fight her former crewmates and friends. Luckily for Gloval, he managed to keep himself together and hide his real feelings behind a mask of polite interest. With a nod, Gloval leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face, before looking over at the still mute third member of the group who still was leaning against the wall of his office. After a brief few moments of looking thoughtful for the benefit of the three thugs in his office, he leaned forward with purpose.
"Very well, I shall approve of this mission, it shall derail my plans for the Dominion but like you said you have Admiral Houston's approval and after the shake-down cruise is over the Dominion will no longer be under my direct command. Though I do wonder if the ship's Mobile Suit complement be brought to full strength instead of the half strength it has been since she launched?" Gloval responded even though he knew full well he could not do anything to stop it with Houston's backing behind the mission, but hopefully, he could suggest another more sympathetic mobile suit unit to place on the ship. However, those thoughts soon fled thanks to the evil smiles on the thug's faces.
"Yes, it shall be. Originally my company's three new G-Weapon Prototypes and their pilots were going to be assigned to the Dominion, but I believe there is still some work we have to do with them. Not to mention the pilots need some experience in space combat, therefore Commander Gustav's squadron shall be joining the ship's complement. With his squadron added the Dominion shall have a full mobile suit complement. Commander care to give the good Admiral an overview of your squadron?" the Director said with an evil smile waving at the leaning uniformed pilot who had been silent throughout the meeting since his entrance. The man now simply nodded before pushing off from the wall and walking over to the desk and nodded a bit at the Admiral before standing at attention at the side of the Director who looked over at the pilot with a certain fondness.
"Yes, Director it shall be my pleasure. Admiral my unit is an experimental and testing unit used to test pilot various new experimental machines for future units that will be rolling off the production line very soon. As of right now, my unit consists of four modified GAT-01D1 Duel Dagger Fortessas with their shoulder cannon replaced with a lighter beam cannon, this is to test out the concept shown by Orb's Astray Cannons, also there are two brand new GAT-01D1/C Duel Cannons, which as you know sir is a modified form of the Duel Dagger's Fortessa Armor, and finally we have two prototype G-Weapons: my own GAT-X133 Sword Calamity and a new prototype just rolled off the production lines the GAT-X398 Lightning. We shall give the Dominion some much-needed heavy firepower to help take on those two new prototypes that the Archangel has," the pilot, one Commander Oliver Gustav, reported with a clipped formal tone though Gloval could detect some savage glee in his voice as he reported on his unit. Gloval frowned at the report for he expected more A1 Daggers or even some standard Buster Daggers but these experimental units were something else, though the addition of the two Duel Cannons would be welcomed.
What worried him though was that Gustav was a full-fledged member of Blue Cosmos and was even called the Butcher of Junius Seven for he had been the one to fire off the nuke at the farming colony during the Bloody Valentine. After that battle, it was reported he was found floating in his half-destroyed Moebius and had been laughing manically while he held one hand to his bleeding face. With a shake of his head, he made a note to warn the Dominion's crew on this mission. However, as ever Gloval simply held his true feelings behind a mask and gave the Commander an impressed nod of his head.
"Very impressive Commander. Now gentlemen is there anything else I can do for you for I have several other meetings with my division heads planned for today?" he asked silently hoping that it was over, but alas his hope was not enough as the Director nodded.
"Yes with some of the Commander's machines still in testing I am going to have one of my aides Justin Thanatos along with several techs from my company be posted on the ship to supervise them," he said with a grim smile on his face. Gloval flinched slightly and silently wondered what was with these Blue Cosmos thugs and their names. He then made a silent note to have Commander Tannith put more effort into finding out where Azrael was in the Blue Cosmos organization for it was diffidently evident that he was part of it now. With a sigh, Admiral Gloval nodded and stood from his desk.
"Very then I shall inform Captain Badgriuel of this new mission when she and the Dominion return early tomorrow. In that regard, if I may I would like to hold on to these photos to show the good captain so she believes me. She believes that all of her former crewmates are dead?" he asked looking at Azrael who simply smiled as he got up from his chair and nodded at Glvoal.
"Yes, there are other copies feel free to keep those. Now Admiral Sutherland let's leave the Admiral to his work and perhaps we can go inspect the other new Archangel Class ships. Perhaps the good Fleet Admiral will let you have one of those two to command," the Director said with a smile leading the still visibly enraged though pacified Rear Admiral who stayed pretty quiet throughout the briefing. With a final jaunty wave, the two disappeared through the door Commander Gustav soon followed them before shutting the door. Gloval waited a few moments before slumping in his chair, and for a few moments, he massaged his forehead before he sighed knowing he had to get back to work. He tucked the folder of photos along with another folder filled with briefing information into his office safe before leaning over the side of the desk and tapping a key on the communication panel built into the desk.
"Yes sir," came the voice of Commander Thompson through the tiny speaker in the communication unit instead of his secretary that Gloval was expecting to respond to his page.
"Commander? Good now I don't have to call you. Anyways go fetch Commander Tannith and the rest of the in-crowd before meeting me in the secure briefing room, we have a lot of work to do," he ordered with a determined look on his face, for he was not going to let those Blue Cosmos bastards get another one over him like they just did. He wanted to do something to get back at them and soon.
"Understood, but sir I took the liberty of calling them during your meeting. We shall be waiting for you by the time you get to the briefing room," the amused voice of Commander Thompson replied making Gloval smile in pleasure at the forethought of his aide.
"Good girl Hari. Anyway, I shall be seeing you all momentarily. Also if you have the time please reschedule the department head meetings for later today. This may take a while," he ordered with a frown suddenly remembering the same meetings. The commander simply double-clicked the COMM in response, something he taught her, the universal signal of affirmative or yes for pilots. With a chuckle, Gloval straightened his uniform and grabbed anything that he needed before pausing to look at his safe. With a sigh, he opened it again and took out the folders he had just placed there. Shaking his head at his short-sightedness the Admiral was soon out of the door and heading to a meeting that would most likely get him shot if anyone else knew about it.
Bridge
AFS Dominion
Nearspace of Herschel Shipyard
June 30, CE71
As graceful as her namesake the AFS Dominion came in on final approach to the Herschel Shipyards, her relief to be back after the long drawn out shakedown cruise and battles during the said cruise. While the battles were against pirates, there were quite many pirates located at L2 and they frequently attacked the ship over the time she was cruising through the Lagrange point. Even the Captain was relieved at returning to the shipyard, though quite proud of her crew for while they were inexperienced in running such a large ship they performed brilliantly against the pirates. With a hidden smile, Commander Badgriuel watched as both the ship pilots brought the ship effortlessly towards the shipyard most likely making many watching ship drivers green with envy at how easily the two were making it seem as they came in. Suddenly the Commander was drawn from her watching when the communication station squawked above her at the operator station. With a blink of surprise, dock control had already granted them landing clearance, therefore it was a surprise for them to call back, but the COMM operator leaned forward anyway before working the controls briefly before shaking his head in confusion at the message for it made no sense to him besides the origin of the message that is.
"Captain, we are receiving a hail from Admiral Gloval, though according to my equipment, it is coming through on Omega Channel. I never heard of that channel ma'am," the COMM operator reported in confusion and was quite surprised like many others on the bridge to see the senior officers who happened to be on the bridge at the time start cursing or groaning out loud. The Captain simply closed her eyes before sighing and nodding at the COMM officer.
"Very well Lieutenant if you please vacate your station. Commander Hayes please take the station and bring up the Admiral on the main screen," she ordered in a cold tone which made the COMM officer gulp before nodding and pushing off from the station clearing the way for the steel-faced Commander Hayes to his place at the station. Omega Channel was an encrypted communication channel that officially did not exist in the Alliance records, for it was one of two different channels for members of what started to be called the Valkyrie Faction by its members, to communicate to one another. Of which was a faction inside the Earth Forces that wanted a quick end to the war and the removal of Blue Cosmos influence from their operations. Omega was a code in itself that told anyone receiving it that something was very wrong and needed immediate reply. After a few more seconds Admiral Gloval's face appeared on the main screen, and everyone in the range of the pick-up stood up to salute the man that every single one of them no matter if they were part of the Faction respected above all else.
"Admiral, may I ask what the problem is that you have used Omega?" Natarle started before he could say anything. The old Admiral sighed before looking outside his pickup for a moment before looking back with a sigh.
"Everything. It appears that Fleet Admiral Houston is with Blue Cosmos and had permitted Admiral Sutherland to access the crew roster of the Dominion yesterday afternoon. After that, he stormed into my office angry as hell over the roster, but luckily I managed to turn his attention away from the ship. However, that is only the tip of the iceberg and I am not going to say anything else even on Omega. I am only giving a heads-up for Operation Turncoat maybe on the horizon. Anyways I shall see you on the dock and there I shall give you along with your officers a proper briefing. Gloval Out," the Admiral said almost quickly as if he wanted to get it out as fast as possible. However, the officers on the bridge did not notice for they were too busy being shocked at the announcement of Operation Turncoat, which like the name suggested was a last resort move that had the entire Faction defecting to the Orb remnant. It had only recently been written up and all the officers had been briefed on it before their Shakedown. With a shake of her head, Natarle wondered what exactly the Admiral was considering using Turncoat. While she was not as against it as she had been before they left thanks to that talk with Gloval and finished reading the book, still it was quite a surprise for her and her officers. With a sigh, she forced herself back to the present and knew that she would get her answers soon when they docked, but still, it was quite a big hurdle for the Faction to do this.
"Very well then let's get this ship docked so we can get some much-needed answers, but still I want you Lieutenant Sheppard to make any of those inferior pilots out there watching us very green with envy that they explode," she ordered with a grin on her face that was soon copied by the pilot Lieutenant Sheppard before turning his attention to his station. After a few moments the Dominion slowly and gracefully as an angel lowered herself into the large dock's hatch giving either side of the ship an equal amount of clearance putting the ship exactly in the middle of the hatch. With ease, it slid into its assigned dock and soon found the ship finally docked. They had finally arrived at the shipyard but many wondered if it was a good thing.
-o-End-o-
Post Chapter Notes:
Well! Here is Phase Six and things are starting to heat up! Not to mention a major shift in Canon Timeline with the vastly different mission given to the Dominion here. Instead of heading to Mendel and trying to capture Freedom or Justice, they are to head to Mendel to try to capture the Archangel and arrest Kira along with Murrue and Mu for desertion. As for Kira's rank mentioned here, many would point out that his rank was Ensign but when we see the Archangel arrive at JOSH-A we see one of the officers at that shadowed table look over Kira's file and on it has the rank of Lieutenant instead of Ensign. Therefore his rank here is most likely some sort of promotion he got after his supposed death. That is what I am going to stick to.
Also, we are finally introduced to the major BC Thugs here as well as Commander Gustav who was the one to fire the Nuke at J7. Since many other authors in SEED Fandom who include such characters, make them regret what they did or did not know it was a Nuke at all. I have since decided to do a complete 360 on that type of character and introduce one that knew all about the nuke. Also, this has been already done in Maileesaeya's Gundam SEED Dauntless and I think it was also in Akatsuki Leader 13's Gundam SEED: A Retelling. Therefore credit to the original idea should be given to those who deserve it. As for the guy's machine which is a Sword Calamity, I know that there are officially three units of that type. I am not going to change that, but I am going to say that it is Rena Imelia's Unit, for I never understood the reasoning behind giving her a close-combat unit like a Sword Calamity when she mainly spent time in longer-range machines, like the Buster Dagger. It would make more sense if she was given something like the Verde Buster, not the Sword Calamity. Heck, even a Strike E equipped with a Launcher Pack would be good.
Anyways, many are properly wondering about these new G-Weapon Lightning, well you all just have to wait till I get around to posting the Specs. I may put them into the next chapter's author notes just like Maileesaeya does or post them on a forum like MechaTalk or one here. I still have my Forum for Honor around I shall post it on that if I can. Anyhow I hope everyone can stay patient for a bit till I manage it I also want to include a lineart with it so you can get a better idea of what it looks like. On another note, the Duel Cannon is located on my Devianart account for those interested in seeing it. While these new carriers the Saratoga Class and her specs shall be posted with the Lightning when I get around it as well.
We also get a brief introduction to the Valkyrie Faction which is the Alliance Counterpart to the Clyne Faction, which is also why Gloval asked that one question to Natarle in the last chapter's flashback. We will get a proper introduction to them in the next chapter.
Now I would like to mention that in my version of events the Archangel officially defected to Orb, therefore the Strike was in Orb Colors and sported an Orb emblem on one shoulder. The other would have a white feather showing who is piloting it, but in the mentioned photo in this chapter the other shoulder is cut off, therefore no one knows who is piloting it just yet. Though the crew of the Archangel shall keep their ranks for now instead of getting the equivalent Orb rank, I am still having them use Army/Air Force Ranks.
I like to finish these notes to mention that some may notice a different chapter title than what I had mentioned in the Preview of the last chapter, but since this was getting a bit long. I decided to cut it off into two chapters therefore the second part of this chapter shall be posted next. I originally wanted to have the Dominion finally heading for Mendel but it shall be another chapter after the next instead. With that out of the way, time to sign off folks and I hope to see you all in the next chapter and in case I post before Thursday. Everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much folks!!
I would like to include a brief note to F-14 Tomcat Lover here, I am getting around to response to your many PMs but I have been busy with this chapter and other stuff in RL. Therefore expect a very, very PM from me in the coming days. Thank you.
Next time on Divergence, the crew of the Dominion gets their much-needed answers and their new crewmembers soon join them much to many others' anger. Also what is with this dream of Natarle's and what does it mean? Find out this and more in Phase Seven: Answers and a Dream!