Disclaimer: I do NOT own Mobile Suit Gundam SEED or anything associated with it. Sunrise does… The OCs Christopher Dante, Elizabeth Dante, Johanna Dante, Nick Dante, Saul Kessel, the GAT-X302 Raven, and the GAT-X204 Surge are the intellectual property of, and thus belong to, Akatsuki Leader13. The GAT-X308 Guardian belongs to Maileesaeya. Also, many of these scenes were borrowed with permission from Akatsuki Leader13's Gundam Seed: A Retelling and Maileesaeya's Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Dauntless. I do own Leon Vanyel and the GAT-X209 Sentinel.

Phase One: False Peace

January 25th, C.E. 71

In the vicinity of the civilian colony Heliopolis

ZAFT Nazca-class destroyer Vesalius, Pilot Ready Room

Athrun Zala sighed as he pulled on the gloves of his pilot suit. Without a doubt, this mission was absolutely insane and one that was most likely going to result in a diplomatic crisis with the neutral nation of Orb.

Athrun shook his head. Why was Orb helping the Alliance to begin with? Wasn't Orb the country that continuously held up its ideals of neutrality as a barrier that kept it isolated from either side of the war? Why, then, were they now aiding the Earth Forces in developing their own prototype mobile suits? It didn't make sense at all.

"What's wrong, Athrun?" Yzak Joule asked. Athrun turned to face his silver-haired teammate and self-proclaimed rival.

"Yzak…" the ultramarine-haired pilot muttered, idly wondering what his teammate was going on about.

Yzak raised an eyebrow questioningly. "You look nervous," he commented. "That's so unlike you."

Saul Kessel looked up from where he was fiddling with his hacking equipment, his brown eyes half-obscured by locks of messy black hair. It wasn't much of a secret that Saul Kessel was the laziest, most laid-back member of the entire Le Creuset Team. It was something that just came naturally to him as part of his temperament, much to the chagrin of his parents and older sister.

"Let him be nervous," he said lazily. "Are you saying you're not worried even when you know you're about to sneak into potentially hostile territory?"

Dearka Elsman smirked at Saul. "Sneaking into Heliopolis is going to be too easy," the blond Coordinator said. "The possibility that we would launch an attack hasn't occurred to them in their wildest dreams." He gave Athrun a slightly mocking smile. "You're not afraid of people like them, are you, Athrun?"

"That sort of attitude can get you killed, Dearka," Rusty Mackenzie said. "You shouldn't be so overconfident about this."

"Heh… chickens can stay behind if they like," Dearka replied.

"That's enough, Dearka!" came the voice of Nicol Amalfi. "This is a dangerous and important mission! We can't let our guard down simply because Orb is a neutral nation!"

"I agree with Nicol," came the voice of Leon Vanyel, the Le Creuset Team's seventh and final Red Coat. His piercing, icy blue-eyed gaze wandered over each of his teammates as he took a few steps towards them, his long, spiky golden-brown hair tied back into a ponytail that swayed along with his movements while several locks were left loose to almost artfully frame his features. "This mission could theoretically decide the course of the rest of the war. We can't afford to be careless or sloppy!"

"Nicol and Leon are absolutely right," a new voice cut in, drawing the attention of the seven pilots. They turned towards the door, watching as their enigmatic White Coat commander, the masked Rau Le Creuset, stepped in.

"Commander Le Creuset…" Yzak said, his features giving off an expression of slight surprise.

"This mission is of great significance," the masked commander continued. "The Earth Forces have been secretly developing new mobile suits at Heliopolis. It is our mission to capture them… or to destroy them."

Rau looked over each of his Red Coats, a bit of pride swelling through him. They were young, yes, but they were also some of the most brilliant pilots to have come out of the ZAFT Military Academy. Indeed, this mission was in good hands. "The results of this mission could greatly impact future battles… it could possibly even decide the course of the rest of this war."

He gave his pilots a slight nod of confidence. "The fate of ZAFT rests on your young shoulders," he said. "We're counting on you." With that, the masked commander saluted.

The seven Red Coats snapped to attention, saluting crisply as one, a testament to their excellent training.

"Yes, sir! For the glory of ZAFT!" they said resolutely… proudly. Yes, they were the best ZAFT had to offer. Anything but success was not an option for them.

Rau lowered his hand, his pilots following a moment later. "I wish you all the best of luck. I hold very high expectations for you all," he said, before turning on his heel and leaving the seven pilots to their preparations.

The seven Redcoats quickly turned back to their individual lockers and made their final preparations, strapping on jetpacks and holstering combat gear of all types, from firearms to explosives.

Unlike the rest of the team, who were arming themselves with standard-issue assault rifles, Leon looked over the tray of equipment he'd requisitioned for an operation like this: a set of throwing knives holstered on his right forearm, a razor sharp, fifteen-centimeter knife that went into a sheath on his left forearm, a pair of handguns holstered on his thighs, and a submachine gun holstered on his utility belt. Like the rest of the infiltration team, he also carried a variety of hand grenades for the likely event that they needed to blow something up on their way in.

Facing a small mirror inside his locker, Leon jerked his right arm forward, springing one of the throwing knives from the revolving holster and into his grip, the tip pointed at his reflection in the mirror. Satisfied, he looked the weapon over, nodded, and slid the weapon back in, the sheath locking the blade in place. He jerked his left arm forward, caught the knife as it launched itself into his waiting hand, and familiarized himself with the grip he had to use on his preferred weapon. He repeated the move two more times, getting similar results, and replaced the weapon before he nodded to himself.

Yzak looked at Leon, watching as the golden-brown-haired pilot practiced drawing each and every one of his weapons, his movements becoming sharper and more precise with each repetition.

"Are you sure you're going to be fine with just that?" he asked, his tone betraying a combination of amusement and mild annoyance. "I mean, having only a submachine gun and a pair of handguns isn't going to do you much good in a firefight."

Dearka chuckled. "C'mon, Yzak, you remember how combat training at the academy went," he said, a grin lighting up his face. "Leon wiped the floor with anyone—even our instructors. He was so good that no one wanted to even get near him. Please don't tell me that you don't remember what happened the one time you actually tried to fight him."

The other Red Coats chuckled at that—Yzak, eager to get one up over everyone else, had challenged Leon during one of their practical exams. Needless to say, it hadn't ended well for the silver-haired pilot. The only question people had been asking was whether Yzak was brave, insane, or both, because Leon was an exceptional combatant in close quarters combat, well above even the standard that Coordinators normally aspired to.

Yzak cringed as he recalled the memory. "Shut up, Dearka," he said, noticing that Dearka's grin was growing ever bigger, infuriating him even further. "I wasn't in the right frame of mind when we fought – of course I lost."

Dearka's grin looked ready to split his face if it got any wider, but Saul beat the blond Coordinator to the punch. "Just challenging him proves you weren't in the right frame of mind," Saul said. "I mean, who the hell is crazy enough to take on Leon in personal combat?"

"What was that?!" shouted the silver-haired Redcoat, getting some chuckles from Dearka.

"Whoa, easy there, Yzak. With all this shouting, it's no wonder your hair's already white," Leon suddenly said, not stopping his practice swings and draws for a moment. Dearka, Nicol, Saul and Rusty looked ready to laugh out right as they left the room, not wanting to have Yzak's ire directed at them.

Yzak scowled, and was about to grind out a reply when Athrun stepped in.

"All right, that's enough," he said. "Save the bickering for after we finish the mission."

Yzak measured Athrun's stare, and found the ultramarine-haired Redcoat meeting his gaze openly. Yzak simply grunted as he turned away and slung his rifle over his shoulder. Without another word, the silver-haired Coordinator shoved his helmet on and stalked out after Dearka and Nicol.

Athrun's shoulders sagged in relief, definitely glad that he was able to placate his fiery teammate's anger for now.

"That temper of his is going to get him into trouble with the wrong people someday…" Athrun murmured, picking up his own helmet.

"It certainly might, but the same thing will happen to you if you keep speaking your mind so openly," Leon saod, his helmet in his right hand as he shut his locker with the other. The golden-brown-haired pilot turned, and Athrun was quite surprised to see a troubled expression on his features. "I agree with what you think about Yzak… but that doesn't make saying it any more right, even if you do say it as quietly as you can. People have good ears, and things could quickly get out of hand if the wrong person hears you saying something you shouldn't."

Athrun nodded. "Right… I'll keep that in mind," he said. "Thanks, Leon."

"It's no problem," Leon replied nonchalantly as he tucked his ponytail into his pilot suit's collar. His troubled expression disappeared, leaving an amused smile to take its place. "Still… I do think Yzak should go get some anger management," he added, laughing lightly at his own words.

Athrun sighed. "Maybe you should listen to your own advice, Leon," he said as he pulled his helmet on.

"Maybe I should," Leon replied as he walked out, clear amusement dancing in his crystal blue eyes. "Maybe… just maybe… I should."

A park inside Heliopolis

Kira Yamato sighed as he typed away at his laptop. Professor Kato had given him a lot of work to do, and the guy who he was supposed to be working with had decided about thirty minutes ago to take a break and had yet to resume working.

"You know, you could actually start working again," he said as he looked up from his work at the only other boy in the gazebo.

The other person, a Coordinator named Christopher Dante, was currently playing his guitar. Chris, as he preferred to be called, was sixteen years old and a few inches taller than Kira. He had grayish-green eyes and dark brown hair that was styled into short, slicked back spikes. He was always clad in very casual wear, as he was right now: blue jeans with a simple leather belt, a black t-shirt, and an open gray jacket. A pair of dog tags hung around his neck.

Kira had only known him for a couple of months, but was actually quite surprised when he first met him. Kira had heard rumors that Chris frequently picked fights with people, leading him to believe that Chris was a violent person. It was something that Kira would later learn was a misconception. Though he did get into fights, he had never seen Chris start a fight. Rather, all of the fights he did get into were in the defense of someone getting bullied or in self-defense.

"I could," Chris replied as he continued playing his guitar. "But you're so much better at this than I am."

"Professor Kato asked for both of us to work on this. So could you please get back to work?"

"Alright, alright. Tell you what. You finish that page you're on and then I'll take over for a while and you can take a break. Deal?"

"Deal," Kira replied as he resumed his work.

As Kira continued to type furiously and Chris simply plucked at the strings of his guitar, a news report suddenly interrupted the program Kira had left running on the side. Taking a look, Kira noticed that it was about the ZAFT invasion of Kaohsiung before he noticed Birdy landed on Chris's head.

"Birdy! Birdy!" the mechanical bird chirped from its new perch.

"Hey! Get off of there!" Chris shouted as he tried to brush Birdy off of his head.

Kira chuckled at the scene as he half-listened to the news report.

"Hey, Kira! Chris!" a voice shouted.

Both of them turned their heads to see Tolle Koenig, Miriallia Haw, and Elizabeth Dante, Chris' younger sister, approaching.

Elizabeth was a year younger than Chris, and, like her brother, was a Coordinator as well. She stood about an inch shorter than Mir, give or take a few centimeters. She had green eyes and light brown, almost dirty blond colored, shoulder length hair, a bit of a contrast to her older brother. Like her brother, she was fond of casual wear, currently clad in faded blue jeans and a bizarre purple and black striped sweater.

"Hi, guys," Kira greeted as they walked up to the gazebo.

"Yo, Tolle, Mir, Liz," Chris greeted as Birdy flew off his head and landed on Kira's shoulder.

"So this is where you two are hangin' out," Tolle said. "Professor Kato was looking for both of you."

"Don't tell me... he's got more work us to do for him?" Chris asked in an annoyed tone as he set aside his guitar.

"I think so," Mir replied. "He's asked us to bring you both to him right away."

Kira sighed. "We're not even done what he dumped on us yesterday."

"Yeah," Chris said in agreement. "Why can't the professor do some of this himself?!"

"Why are you complaining? Chances are you would have had Kira do most of it anyway," Elizabeth – or Liz, as she liked to be called – said as she sat down next to her brother.

"Well, he should give it to Kira. He's the tech savvy one," Chris said in his defense.

Tolle and Miriallia sat down beside Kira, watching the news broadcast on Kira's laptop.

"Looks like some heavy fighting in Taiwan now," Tolle commented as he watched the news.

"Yeah... Looks like ZAFT has its eyes on Kaohsiung and its mass driver, if they haven't already taken it over," Chris said as he started playing his guitar once more.

"Taiwan... That's not far from Orb. Will the homeland be safe?" Mir asked with concern.

"Don't worry. Orb is neutral. ZAFT isn't going to attack it. And the Earth Alliance isn't going to do anything, either. At least, as long as they don't lose Panama and Victoria," Chris answered. "But even then, Eurasia will keep the Atlantic Federation and those Blue Cosmos bastards from doing something crazy."

"Yeah... I have to say we're pretty safe," Liz said in agreement with her brother. "Especially here in Heliopolis. After all, why would anyone want to attack Heliopolis? We're neutral and there's absolutely nothing here."

Heliopolis, Block Six

"We have now arrived at the Block Six Maintenance Hatch," said the comm. officer, alerting the Red Coats that they'd reached their mission point. Athrun looked to Nicol, who was nearest the hatch, and nodded.

Nicol nodded back before unsealing the hatch and opening it, giving the Le Creuset Team pilots an unobstructed view… of a decrepit colony block that definitely had seen better days. Athrun raised a hand and waved the team out the hatch.

Leon took the lead, being the team's infiltration expert, and descended down to the block's massive doors. Saul, Yzak and Dearka followed right behind him, with Athrun, Rusty and Nicol bringing up the rear of their squad. Behind them, two squads of Green Coat soldiers filed out of the other transport pod. While the success of the mission hinged on the Red Coats, it would amount to nothing if they all just went and got themselves killed. The Green Coats were there not just as a contingency plan in the case of stiff resistance, but also to safeguard the Red Coats and make sure that they reached their objectives.

As the last of the soldiers touched down on the surface, Saul cracked the block's entry codes before hitting the "Open" command. The massive doors shuddered as they opened, the roar of the loss of atmosphere combining with the doors creaking the whole way.

A slight smile crossed Leon's lips. "Charming," he said as he sprung his knife from its holster. "They made an effort to make sure we had a very warm welcome. Rust-bucket dirt crates for doors included."

Approximately ten minutes later

Heliopolis Interior

The Le Creuset Team silently proceeded through the bowels of Heliopolis, having already planted their high-explosive charges all around a hangar that housed a new Earth Forces warship. The first phase was done… and they were well into the second.

Yzak glanced at the timer on his forearm, bit back a curse, and called out to the man next to him. "Hurry up, Athrun! We're ten seconds behind schedule!"

"I got it!" replied the ultramarine-haired Redcoat.

Yzak smirked. "I can only imagine the looks of shock on their pacifist faces," he said as they turned another corner.

The Vesalius

Rau Le Creuset glanced at his watch and smiled. It was time. By now, his team should have successfully infiltrated Heliopolis, planted the explosives, and were ready for the second phase to begin.

"It's time," he told Frederik Ades, the captain of the Vesalius. Ades, on his part, nodded in reply before facing the bridge crew.

"Weigh anchor!" ordered Ades. "Vesalius launch!"

The instant the Vesalius and Gamow moved towards Heliopolis, alarms went off in the Heliopolis's Dock Control room, in the bridge of the recently docked Earth Forces ship and in the hanger control room of the Archangel.

While Heliopolis scrambled its defenses, the crew of the Archangel prepared it for takeoff if needed. Suddenly, explosions tore the through the Archangel hanger, killing the crew members in the hanger, the entire command crew and the pilots of the Earth Alliance's prototype mobile suits.

Morgenroete Factory District

Lieutenant Murrue Ramius braced herself as tremors from an explosion shook the colony.

"What the hell?! Did someone fire at the colony?!" Nick Dante shouted as the tremors subsided.

"I don't know! But we have to get the G-Weapons to the Archangel, now!" she replied to the Morgenroete crew chief.

"The Surge, the Blitz, the Buster and the Duel are all ready to go! But we need more time to prep the other five and the Striker Packs for transport!" Chief Dante replied.

Dante turned to a pair of Morgenroete crew members. "Mendez, Carter, take your crews and get those four machines out of here and to the Archangel!"

"Aye, chief!" the two men answered.

He then turned to several other Morgenroete workers. "Jenkins, Riley, Johanna, get the rest of the crews and the remaining teams and get those machines ready for transport!"

The two men nodded and quickly went about their tasks while Johanna looked at her husband with concern.

Nick put his hands on his wife's shoulders. "I know you're worried about the kids, but they're smart. They're probably already on their way to a shelter as we speak. They'll be fine. We have a job to do. We'll find them when we're finished here, I promise."

Johanna weakly nodded and joined the rest of the crews working on the remaining mobile suits.

Dante turned to Lieutenant Ramius as he drew his sidearm. "If it's ZAFT out there... how did they find out about this?"

Murrue shook her head. "I have no idea. Though I don't think it matters anymore."

Professor Kato's Lab

Tremors shook the lab, sending various pieces of equipment falling to the ground.

'What was that?' Chris wondered as he steadied himself by grabbing the edge of the desk that he, Kira, and Sai Argyle were at.

Once the tremors died down, he called out to the rest. "Is everyone alright?"

"I'm okay," Mir answered.

"Same," Liz replied.

"I'm fine," Tolle said.

The blond-haired guy that had been waiting for the Professor silently nodded. Honestly, Chris couldn't ever remember him having said a word this whole time.

"Did a meteor hit the colony?" Sai asked.

"I don't know, but we should get to the shelters just in case," Liz said.

"I have to agree with Liz," Chris said. "We don't know what's going on. The smartest thing to do would be to get to a secure location."

Elsewhere

"That's it," Yzak said smugly as he looked through his binoculars. "There they are… just like Commander Le Creuset told us."

"What? That if we prod them enough, they'll crawl out of the holes they were hiding in?" Dearka asked, chuckling.

"Of course," Yzak replied in a cocky tone. "After all, the Naturals are stupid and pathetic."

Leon sighed as Saul shook his head. "You really shouldn't underestimate your enemies, Yzak," Saul replied. "That can, and most likely will, get you killed. Remember, Naturals did create Coordinators."

"Hmph. Natural lover…" Yzak shot back, prompting a bit of a laugh from Leon.

"Me? Hardly," Saul replied. "I don't take sides based on who's a Natural and who's a Coordinator. At the end of the day, we're all people here."

"All right, that's enough of the philosophical debate, you two," Leon said. "We still have a job to do. Miguel and Matthew will be here soon, so we'd better be prepared for when they do get here."

A scarce few seconds later, two GINNs roared by overhead. They made a beeline for the nearby Morgenroete factory district and opened fire, destroying many of the military vehicles that were surrounding large trailers - trailers which the Red Coats assumed would be carrying the prototype mobile suits.

The ZAFT ground troops took the GINNs as their cue and activated their jetpacks, flying towards the three trailers.

"Our targets are in those trailers! Ignore everything else!" Yzak said over the comm. line. "Destroy anything you can't carry!"

"Intel said there were supposed to be seven mobile suits… but there are only four here," Leon said as he sprang a throwing knife from his forearm holster and tossed it. The blade struck true, sinking deep into a man's neck. "The remaining suits must be in the factory district!"

"Leon, Rusty and I will take the second squad and continue on to the factory!" Athrun called out. "Yzak, we'll leave these four to you."

"Alright. Don't screw up, Athrun!" Yzak called out before turning to the troops remaining with him. "Listen up! When you manage to take those machines, make sure you disarm the self-destruct first!"

Yzak, Dearka, Nicol, Saul and the first squad of Green Coats landed near the first trailer and quickly wiped out the remaining guards before advancing forward with only one of their own lost in the initial firefight.

"Nicol! Dearka! Saul!" Yzak shouted. "Hurry up and take the enemy mobile suits!" Saul made a quick dash forward and leaped into the side door of the first trailer, allowing the rest of the team to advance further.

"I got this one!" Saul shouted as he began hacking the locks of the hatch. "You guys get the other three!"

'Alright... time to see what Orb and the Earth Forces have come up with.'

Elsewhere

More tremors shook the building as the students from Professor Kato's lab reached the elevators and stairwell.

"What is going on here?" Chris asked, addressing no one in particular.

"Let's worry about getting out of here first. We can worry about that later," Sai answered as he pushed the elevator call button.

The second he did, the power failed.

"Well, it looks like we're taking the stairs," Tolle said as he opened the door to the stairwell.

They were greeted by the sight of other people were climbing the stairs towards the surface and shelter pods.

"Hey! Do you guys know what's going on?" Tolle asked them.

"We're under attack by ZAFT," a Heliopolis worker said. "There are mobile suits inside the colony."

"What?!" Chris shouted in disbelief. "Why the hell is ZAFT attacking us?!"

Suddenly, the blond haired guy that had been waiting for Professor Kato took off down a hallway in the opposite direction from the shelters.

"Hey, where are you going? Wait! Come back!" Kira shouted as he chased after the guy.

"Kira!" Tolle shouted at his friend.

"I'll go after them, you guys head to the shelters. We'll meet you there!" Chris said as he took off after the two before anyone could object. Liz followed her brother without hesitation.

"Liz! Go back and stay with the others!" Chris shouted back at his sister.

"No way, Chris! I'm not going to let you go off alone like this! Who knows what you might get into!" Liz countered as she caught up to her brother.

Chris sighed. "Fine, but don't leave my side, okay?"

It didn't them long to catch up with the two of them. Unfortunately, the second the siblings did catch up with them, part of the hallway behind them collapsed, sending the group stumbling to their hands and knees.

"You're a girl!" Chris heard Kira shout.

Chris looked up to see that the person he thought was a guy was, indeed, a girl. Her hat had been blasted off by the shock, leaving her long blonde hair to drop down and frame beautiful feminine features and amber eyes.

"Yeah. What the hell did you think I was?!" she asked rudely, an indignant blush on her features at the notion of her being a male.

Kira, looking embarrassed, weakly replied in his defense. "I...ah...just thought that-"

Another tremor shook the building, interrupting him.

"I think we should get out of here… now," Chris said as he picked himself up.

I agree," the girl said. "You three go back. I need to check on something… by myself."

"Are you kidding?! The entire hallway has completely collapsed! We can't go back that way!" Chris said.

"Yeah, there's no way for us to go back now..." Kira said. "But there should be more shelters in the factory district. C'mon!"

Morgenroete Factory District

Leon led Athrun and the squad of Green Coats around the building's perimeter. They had, for the most part, managed to avoid any combat, partly thanks to the distraction caused by Miguel and Matthew's GINNs, and also thanks to the roundabout route they had taken to ensure they weren't detected.

They were now at a weakly guarded side entrance, the Earth Forces soldiers no doubt waiting for them at the main gate.

Athrun quickly cracked the codes of the door, opening it wide enough for himself and Rusty to both toss in a couple of grenades.

A few seconds later, several explosions tore through the hangar, along with the blinding light of a flash bang.

"Go, go, go!" Athrun shouted. The ZAFT soldiers charged into the warehouse, guns blazing.

Elsewhere

"Hmm… how did the Earth Forces develop beam weapons before we did?" Yzak questioned. His features betrayed his apparent surprise. "All things considered… these mobile suits are very impressive… even if they were developed by Naturals."

He opened a comm. channel. "Dearka, how's yours?"

"Looks all right to me," the blond Coordinator replied.

"Saul?"

"Ready to move, Yzak," the lazy hacker replied.

"Nicol!"

"One more moment, please…" Nicol said, furiously typing away. "Reformatting NavData… AppsData activated!"

The GAT-X102 Duel, the GAT-X103 Buster, the GAT-X207 Blitz, and the GAT-X204 Surge stood up from their trailers.

"All right… Athrun, Rusty, and Leon should have no problem getting the other two…" Yzak said.

"Let's go and give 'em back-up with these suits!" Nicol said. Yzak chuckled at that.

"Hmph… that won't be necessary!" he said cockily. "Surely they can take care of themselves!"

"But…"

"Our mission is to deliver these units to Commander Le Creuset undamaged," Yzak continued. "Wouldn't you agree, Nicol?"

"Yes… of course…" Nicol replied quietly.

"Not to mention that this crappy OS isn't battle-ready yet," Dearka said. "Just moving around is a big deal!"

Morgenroete Factory District

Athrun fired off another burst of rounds at an armed Morgenroete employee. The man fell, blood immediately beginning to pool around him.

"Athrun, we have a bit of a problem," Rusty shouted as he crouched behind some cover. "We've got a lot more than just two mobile suits – there are five here!"

"What?!" Athrun's expression was one of surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"Take a look around," Leon said. Athrun glanced around, but found no trace of the other Red Coat. "How many mobile suits do you see?"

Athrun crouched behind some cover and quickly looked around. He hadn't paid careful attention to it before, but he realized that Rusty and Leon were right in saying there weren't just two mobile suits in the hangar. There were indeed five.

"Oh, shit…" he muttered. Had Intelligence screwed up? Or had Commander Le Creuset overlooked something when he was reviewing the data he'd received from the ZAFT operative here?

This is not looking good, he thought. How could we have screwed up this badly?

Gritting his teeth, he barked out orders. "We have to destroy the machines we can't steal!" he shouted. "Everyone just take whatever you can reach! If you don't think you can get one out of here, at least try and get into it and activate the self-destruct sequence!"

Rusty rose up, firing again, but was suddenly hit in the chest by a burst of machine gun fire. He dropped to the ground, his eyes staring emptily as blood poured from his wounds.

"RUSTY!" Athrun cried out.

When Chris, Kira, Liz and the blond girl reached the factory district, they found a war zone. Armed Morgenroete employees and Heliopolis security forces were fighting off ZAFT soldiers around five mobile suits.

The mobile suits were unlike anything Chris had seen before. ZAFT's mobile suits tended to bulky and simple looking things while these ones were slimmer and more elegant. They reminded him of sci-fi versions of ancient samurai warriors.

"Father, I knew it! You betrayed us all!" the girl cried out as she collapsed to her knees, bringing Chris from his thoughts.

Suddenly, an armed female Morgenroete employee spun around and aimed her rifle at them.

"C'mon!" Kira shouted as he grabbed both Chris' and the girl's arms and started running. "We have to get out of here!"

They quickly reached the nearest shelters. Two of them had red lights over the door, indicating that they were full. But the third had a green light over the door, signaling that there was still room in that shelter.

Kira pressed the call button and a voice came over the intercom.

"Is there someone out there?" the voice asked.

"Yes. My friends and I need to get in. Please open the door," Kira answered.

"Friends? As in more than one?"

"Yes."

"Sorry but we're full to capacity as it is. Try the shelters in the left block."

"There are two girls with us," Chris said. "At least take them."

The man sighed over the comm and said, "Okay, but we only have space for one."

The door opened and Chris and Kira looked at each other. Chris wanted to push Liz in, while Kira was torn between pushing Liz in or the blond girl.

Liz made the decision for them, grabbing the other girl by the arm and pushing her in.

"Hey! What are you doing?! Let me-!" the rest of her protests were silenced when the door closed, sealing the shelter.

"Come on you two, let's get going!" said Liz, grabbing the two by the arm and pulling them with her. Kira and Chris simply looked at each other with mirrored expressions as Liz dragged them off.

They quickly ran back to the warehouse. They were halfway across the catwalks when they spotted a ZAFT sniper on another catwalk, aiming at the woman that had pointed a gun at them earlier.

"Look out! Behind you!" Kira shouted.

The woman spun around and fired at the sniper, killing him.

"CHRIS! LIZ! KIRA! What the hell are you three doing here?" the voice of Chris's aunt, Johanna Dante, called out from on top of one of the mobile suits.

"Don't worry about us! We're heading to the shelters in the left block!" Chris shouted back to his aunt.

An instant later, an explosion came from the left block.

"All of you! Get down here now!" the woman Kira had saved ordered.

"Doesn't look like we have much of a choice," Chris said. "Now the question is, how are we gonna get down there?"

"I've got an idea," Kira replied right before he leaped over the railing and onto the middle-left mobile suit that the woman was on.

"I know I'm gonna regret this," Chris muttered before jumping off the other side of the catwalk and onto the machine his aunt was on.

Liz scanned the area, and spotted her uncle on a suit next to the one Johanna was on, promptly jumping down from the catwalk onto that one.

Chris landed on his target machine's left shoulder a little sore, but otherwise all right.

"What's going here?! Why is ZAFT attacking us?!" he shouted as his aunt fired off rounds from a pistol at a ZAFT soldier.

"Long story! Basically, ZAFT wants the machines we've been building!" Johanna replied as she fired the last rounds in her handgun, killing the soldier.

"Isn't that a treaty violation?" Chris asked.

Johanna was about to reply when an explosion tore through a part of the warehouse. Flames quickly spread across the warehouse.

"Damn! This place isn't gonna last much longer!" she said. "Get in the mobile suit! We need to get out of here!"

Chris nodded. The whole warehouse was going up in flames. He quickly scrambled into the cockpit, followed by his aunt.

As Liz landed on the mobile suit her uncle was on, Nick got hit by a burst of fully automatic fire from a ZAFT soldier, though his return fire killed the soldier.

"Uncle Nick!" Liz cried, running over to him. Nick, blood running from his mouth as he lay dying on the machine, reached up and grabbed Liz's shoulder.

"Get… this machine out of here Liz," he choked out through the blood. Tears ran down Liz's face. "Don't let ZAFT have it…" Nick trailed off as his arm went limp and his eyes closed.

Tears still running down her face, Liz did as she was told, and jumped into the mobile suit's cockpit.

On the machine Kira had landed on, he and a ZAFT Red Coat with a combat knife stared at each other in shock.

"Athrun?" Kira breathed.

"Kira?" Athrun asked, incredulous. Athrun's stance slacked, and Kira stood up, putting his eye level almost even with the blue-haired soldier across from him. The brunette woman lifted her gun, aiming it at Athrun, who jumped back, evading the two haphazard shots. The woman stood up and knocked Kira into the cockpit of the mobile suit before dropping herself in.

Leon sprinted across the hangar, leaping forward towards cover as the last remaining Morgenroete employee fired at him. He took hold of another throwing knife and twisted his entire body, using the momentum to toss the dagger. The man froze as the weapon found itself embedded in his chest. He stumbled for a moment, before he fell over.

As Leon picked himself up and scanned the area, he saw the cockpits of three machines close.

'Dammit, whoever is in those machines definitely isn't one of us... otherwise they'd have let the rest of us know. We also lost Rusty in all this… man, did we screw up big time...' he thought. Another explosion tore through the factory, separating the ZAFT troops from the three commandeered mobile suits. As Leon began backing towards the remaining two machines, one of the surviving ZAFT soldiers called out to him.

"Leon, we have to get out of here before this place blows! Forget the remaining machines and take that last one!" he shouted. Leon muttered a curse under his breath and sprinted to the last machine's cradle. The Red Coat leaped up, taking hold of a rung to swing himself up to the top of the ladder. He quickly ran towards the mobile suit's torso and jumped into the cockpit, grabbing the handlebar jutting out from the hatch to drop into the seat.

Dropping into the cockpit, he immediately started up the mobile suit's OS, going through the system's start-up sequence as fast as he could, bypassing anything that wasn't needed to start it up. His mind instantly went into overdrive, processing information as fast as it scrolled up on screen. He swore up a storm this time as he looked over the unit's spectacular failure of an OS. He was so distracted with the OS that he hadn't realized that he'd just let loose a stream of colorful expletives over an open channel.

"Leon! Are you okay?" Athrun asked over the comm, his voice easily portraying the surprise he was feeling at hearing his teammate curse, when in fact he was actually the one who never lost his cool, even under pressure.

"Yeah, no worries. I just want to have a little talk with the person who was designing this thing's OS," Leon replied, almost instantly reigning in his initial displeasure. "Let's get out of here before we get roasted."

A massive explosion tore through the warehouse as the GAT-X303 Aegis, the GAT-X209 Sentinel, the GAT-X302 Raven, the GAT-X105 Strike, and the GAT-X308 Guardian broke through their cradles and stood up.

Author's Note: Well, this is my rehash on Phase One. It's pretty much the same thing, but I've decided to clean up the dialogue and all.

Well, like Maileesaeya and Akatsuki Leader13 probably did when they wrote their Phase Ones, I love watching ZAFT look in horror at their crap intel. I've also decided to go with removing Kuzzey... over-all, I don't think he contributed anything to the series besides being an extra person to draw and animate.

Anyways, just let me know what you think... about the chapter, and the new OC I've added, Leon. He'll be a surprising one, but that's all I can say for now.