Yeah, Yeah, I know. Your fears have been realized, for I am… the notorious late updater! I'm really sorry about it, but I've been super busy lately trying to get a job till my summer gig rolls around and so far it hasn't been going very well, so I'm kind of stressing out a bit. I've also been thinking about enlisting a lot lately to, since I've been obsessed with the military since forever. Plus military service might really help my writing, some of the best stories I've seen on this site have been written by people in the military. On another note, I've completely overhauled my profile page, in case some of you are interested in something like that.

I'll also be changing my update time up to a month guys, sorry. But with my new writing system you should definitely at least get regular updates now.

It's really nice to see many people are so interested in my story! I've gotten quite a number of messages asking me when I was going to update, so here you go! You truly flatter me with your kind messages and continued support. As well I thank those who added my story to their favorites and alert lists, even if you didn't leave a review, though I strongly encourage you to do so.

And before I forget, I do believe that once this story reaches a certain point that I will just periodically update it with Kira and Lacus drabbles. I can't really think a grand master plot idea to put behind this story, at least yet anyway, I may change my mind.

Anyway: chapter four. Hope you enjoy it!

Space is truly a unique place, it's an utterly empty environment yet it is also where literally everything we've come to know exists. Its infinite depths reach farther then anyone can ever imagine, its sheer size dwarfing everything that resides within it. Yet despite that fact, space is a place were giants roam…

Eight vast ships glided through spaces' vast blackness, engines glowing bright blue as they propelled the larges masses of metal to their destination. All of them smooth and sleek, elegant and streamlined.

"Destructive and deadly…" Kira couldn't help but think grimly.

He was currently commanding the forces of his first battle group, Battle Group A, which consisted of five Nazca class destroyers and two Laurasia class frigates as well as his overall fleet flagship the Eternal. His battle group was investigating suspicious deep space radar pings out at the sixth lagrange point. It could be just a stray group of asteroids, but it was highly unlikely, four contacts never showed up at the same place at the same time.

"Are you sure you want to do this so soon Commander?" a woman behind Kira asked.

Kira swiveled his chair, the captain's chair, around to face the woman better. She was Rear Admiral Elyse Zender and the top ranking Navy officer under his command, it was her job to oversee the ships and coordinate them in detail in combat operations. She was a woman of average height, with light green eyes and shoulder length dark purple hair that matched the secondary colours of her black coat uniform well. She could be considered old by ZAFT military standards at only 27 years old, at least amongst the pilot divisions; she was still quite young by ZAFT navy standards as most high ranking officers in the fleet were usually in their late thirties. On another note, she was one of only nine Admirals that had not been aboard Messiah at the time of its destruction. She was currently sitting in the Admirals chair, which was where Lacus had sat when she had commanded the ship.

"You haven't exactly had the time to prepare for this sort of thing." Elyse continued, "You don't have to do this."

"It's all right Admiral." Kira replied, "I'm only doing this because it's something I want to do, not because I feel have to."

"So you're absolutely sure?"

"Completely."

"All right then…"

Kira turned his chair back towards the bridge windows and stared out into space briefly, contemplating if he should resume his entertaining philosophical musings upon the expanse before him. Unfortunately, he didn't even get a chance to decide before his radar officer spoke up.

"Commander Yamato sir." The officer addressed professionally, "We are entering the contact area inside the debris belt as designated by deep space radar."

"Thank you lieutenant." Kira said quickly.

Before Kira had the chance to speak again, Elyse cut in quickly.

"Nervous?" Elyse couldn't help but jab at the young commander, a small smile on her face.

Kira looked over his shoulder back at Elyse and gave naught but a small confident grin in reply, before turning back to address his bridge crew.

"All hands…" Kira began, "…Level two battle stations!"

Lacus was currently sitting in her seat inside of the PLANTS supreme council chamber, reading over documents and reports submitted to her from each and every corner of her government. She was reviewing the information mainly to just better help her understand the various topics that the council would no doubt be discussing soon. That was her current reason to be in the council chamber top begin with, a meeting was to beginning very soon, she had just arrived a tad early and had to wait on the other council members to arrive. Lacus couldn't help but let out a bored sigh as she read all the data on the screen before her, the only noise in the huge empty room was the clicking of her nails on the table's metal surface.

Thankfully she did not have to wait for long, as Ali Kasim, Tad Elsman, and Orson White strode through the chambers open doors. They were respectively the representatives from Januarius, Februarius, and Sextilis cities. They exchanged polite greetings to Lacus before sitting themselves in their proper seats and likewise doing what she was doing. Eventually the rest of the council members had arrived and took to their shimmering white seats themselves; Lacus sat in the one chair that was jet black, a subtle pronunciation of her status as Chairwoman. Eileen took it upon herself to officially start the meeting by clearing her throat loudly, hushing all the members that spoke to each other in low voices.

"Now that we have all arrived, let us begin." Eileen began, "The first item will be the Januarius situation. Would you please begin Ali?"

Lacus watched as Ali stood to begin his report on the subject. If he were saddened at all by the horrible atrocity that destroyed a near third of his city then he hid it extremely well; his demeanor was calm, his voice professional, and his expression emotionless. But Lacus knew that he must still be torn on the inside, and sadly it would likely remain that way for some time. The more logical side however knew to be cautious, if anyone was likely to become another Patrick Zala it was to be Ali. To her benefit though, Ali had been one of members in her father's camp during the first war, and a strong advocate of peace. Hopefully he would remain as he was, but there was no doubt that the tragedy to befall his city would change him somewhat. Similarly she would also have to watch Ricardo Orff of December city.

"The men I've sent have just about finished removing readily processed resources from the ruins of all damaged and destroyed PLANTS. Soon enough we will begin full recycling procedures on the Januarius one and two as well as December one and two, stripping them apart back into basic materials. Also we've already collected nearly all the Exoglass panels, but we've no where to store them. So for now they're just floating as a massive ball of glass in space until they can be reused on the construction of the new expansion PLANTS, but I guess they're going to be replacements PLANTs rather then new ones.

"Now the good news is that the engineers I've sent to check on the status of Januarius three and four have confirmed that the PLANTS are indeed completely stable, and not in danger of collapse. The central spire in each is completely pristine for now, but since a significant piece of each was cut off of it's putting a fair amount of stress on them. Stress levels are rising slowly, and if they get to high then the PLANT will eventually collapse, though luckily the rate of build up is so slow that point if over fifty years away. The bottom line is that both three and four can be completely restored, which will be considerably quicker then scrapping them and building new ones. Besides, we have no where to put the 500,000 people that survived on the other halves of those PLANTS anyway."

Once Ali had finished he sat back down and the discussion started amongst everyone, Tad Elsman was the first to begin.

"Unfortunately there are issues to address with repairing the PLANTS as well." He began, "500,000 thousand people have perished in the sides Requiem have struck, it may prove very difficult to have any citizens of our population to even consider going back to live what could be considered a mass grave."

"Although our population is for the most part very understanding and dedicated to resource efficiency…" Ezalia spoke up, "I have to agree that it is likely that the citizens will be extremely hesitant, if not downright resistant, on this matter."

"There are other solutions…" Lacus spoke up, turning all attention to her.

Lacus was surprised at the curious yet stern expressions they gave her; it was so hard to believe that they were taking her so seriously already. Then again, they did ask her to be Chairwoman for a reason right? Not breaking face, she elaborated upon her comment.

"There is no way your going to convince the people to go back inside the PLANT if you just repair it, and though my solution requires considerably more work, it's still quicker then just building a new colony. We'll likely have to completely bulldoze the city inside the damaged half, and rebuild a new one to replace it; maybe even landscape the land inside a bit for good measure. That way we're rebuilding that side of colony as something new, rather then just repairing it. Hopefully it'll eliminate the vast majority of moral and ethical issues of letting people live inside them."

The council members seemed to internally think it over for a moment before Ali spook up again.

"I see no problem with this." He started, "Rebuilding the surrounding city sections will not actually be that time consuming, a matter of a few months actually. Perhaps we can also displace a river… hmm…"

Ali rubbed his chin in thought briefly, brainstorming some basic plans in his head before Eileen cut in.

"Is there no objections or other routes somebody else would like to propose?" she asked, when everyone shook their heads are waved their hands idly she continued, "So it's settled then. The next issue is whether or not we should begin a short term food rationing plan across the nation…"

Lacus listened carefully, ready to put out her opinions as needed.

"All hands: level two battle stations! Repeat! All hands: level two battle stations!"

"Gahh!" Shinn exclaimed, disturbed from his sleep from the intercoms booming.

He immediately jumped out of bed and spun around the room looking for his uniform; once he spotted it he immediately scooped it up and started to put it on. When he just about finished doing up his coat buttons, a sudden certain female voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Jeez Shinn! Where's the fire?" Luna asked him.

Shinn looked over at Lunamaria, who was wearing some female ZAFT issued pajamas. She sat at the desk that was on her side of the room, the desks built in screen lit up and brightening her face some. She was looking at him with an amused expression on her face, but when Shinn saw her in her nightwear he nearly fell over.

"Magnetic containment field is stable and angling rotary motors are functional, venting plasma from reactor to main cannon."

"Hello!? Is that enough of a hint!?" He replied quickly, "Get dressed already!"

Luna sighed and shook her head quickly, her amused expression remaining.

"Shinn… if it weren't for your amazing piloting skills, you'd be useless."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Didn't you read the memo?"

"What memo!?"

Sighing again, she typed on her computer terminal a bit and when she was finished she gestured toward it with her hand, silently telling him to read. Shinn, read as quickly as he could in the stressful situation but once he finished he instantly felt glad he did.

"All missile pods are open and safety locks removed, firing tubes are now ready to receive live warheads. Deploying CIWS turrets, linking ammo belts to receivers… belts connected, CIWS system is online."

"Oh man! What a relief!" He exclaimed, falling back onto his bed on his back, undoing his coat buttons, "I was wondering why you hadn't changed."

Luna huffed indignantly and gave Shinn a sharp look; he cowered inside a little when he met her angry gaze.

"As if I'd change in front of you!" she finished hotly.

"Damage control crews: stand by."

"All ships are heading to their designated search areas captain." Spoke the Eternal's communications officer.

"Are the patterns overlapping?" Kira asked the man.

"Aye sir." The officer quickly replied.

"Good, begin our own search then."

The Eternal once dormant engines flared up in the darkness of space, the giant thrusters firing brilliant blue flames for a moment before heating up to a hotter white. The engines propelled the massive pink ship forward through its search patterns, the smaller maneuvering thrusters occasionally firing to steer the ship around various asteroids and space debris. Eventually along the ships flight path, they came across the giant pieces of the destroyed GENESIS laser, as well as numerous derelict ship hulks and large asteroids. The ships bright pink hull contrasted deeply with the drab colours of scorched rock and steel that surrounded it. After quite some time the ships radar technician started getting some reading amidst all the debris.

"Captain, faint heat source detected!" the man shouted, "Attempting to classify… thermal patterns inconsistent with any known warship classification, it's too small. In fact it's really small…"

Kira sighed inwardly; finally glad something happened even despite the nature of his mission. And though Kira was happy something had happened he let no indication of it slip through his serious demeanor, which he was actually getting really good at nowadays.

"Helm: bring us closer to that heat source." Kira ordered, "But maintain a 1000 meter distance at all times."

"Aye sir, charting course." The helmswoman responded.

The Eternal navigated its way around one of GENESIS's gargantuan mirror blocks, until it was close enough to the heat source that one of the external cameras could see it. The main ceiling mounted screen lit up and displayed the heat source they had detected.

"It's a flare motor…" The helmsman spoke stupefied, watching the motor on the screen slowly fly through space at a rate slower then 10 meters per second.

What would a lone flare motor be doing by itself in space? It didn't take long for anyone to find out, and for those more slow minded found out just seconds after the first people realizations.

"A trap." Kira stated simply.

"Contact!" The radar technician shouted suddenly, "Four thermal signatures detected, attempting to classify… matched! One Agamemnon class carrier! Three Nelson class battleships! Referencing relevant data… ships are not known in any current database!"

A large holographic array lit up in front of Kira eyes, and a network of uncountable thin green lines connected to each other in a three dimensional grid. Several objects were brought to life on the grid, mostly the surrounding debris in space around them, but four crimson red contacts appeared. The icons pulsed almost menacingly, accentuating the threats that much more, information rolled next to them displaying their location and status. All four were coming in different directions, bee lining for the ship and attempting to cut off safer escape routes, they used the terrain to their advantage in that regard. The radar technician continued to inform Kira of important information.

"Neutron Jamming detected!" The technician finished.

Fully appraised of battlefield status Kira began to give his crew direction.

"Raise condition to level one battle stations! Activate N-Jammers and load all dorsal and ventral missile tubes with Parsifal heavy missiles! Load all starboard and portside missile tubes with Dispar interceptors! Designate targets: Carrier One and Battleship One, Two, and Three!"

While Kira gave those orders he studied the holographic map in front of him intensely, scanning for the best strategy. Four ships: the carrier heading off the Eternal's aft side exit, while the battleships cut off the portside, bow, and ventral exits. They were close to a large and densely packed cluster of asteroids that was angled to them, cutting off both the starboard and dorsal exits, effectively boxing the ship in. No matter which way they moved now, the Eternal was going too be brought into firing range of at least one vessel. Cleverly enough, they used they're most powerful warship behind them in an attempt to heard the Eternal even farther away from any nearby friendly ships. The first order of business was simple: call for help. The second was likewise as simple: break out; but in which direction? Looking further past the massive asteroids on his starboard side, Kira noticed the debris wasn't as closely clustered together, spacious enough to allow warship movement at least, he decided that would be his destination. He could use the debris to assist him in evasion, while simultaneously use the environment with the ships METEORS to great effect. He glanced at the asteroids angle quickly and immediately decided what to do, right after the words 'Dispar interceptors' rolled off his tongue.

"Fire heat flare!" Kira began, knowing that communication was unfeasible through N-jamming levels with his allied ships distant enough.

The heat flare worked exactly as it sounded, naught but a superheated phosphorous and magnesium cored missile designed to show up on the sensors of every spaceship in a million kilometer radius. Though thankfully with the search patterns, the two closest ships would likely be in communication range in a matter of a couple minutes, hopefully on the battlefield in no more then five.

"Change heading to Delta seven-four-five, we'll break through the ventral route! Don't slow to battle velocity until we reach that point! Acquire a firing solution on Battleship Two for the main cannon, and prepare to volley fire a mixed missile barrage! Prepare to fire anti-beam depth charges on my mark!" Kira shouted, battle excitement bleeding into his voice a little.

Immediately the helmsman had the ship moving, changing the ships pitch downwards with the maneuvering thrusters. And while up and down were very inaccurate terms to be used in space, they were now facing the ship that was previously directly below the bridge. The Eternal's massive engines took their turn, accelerating the large pink warship to speeds to well past that of any other known class to date. The Nelson they were heading for held its course, but the other ships changed course to compensate for the Eternal's movements.

"Distance to enemy vessel?" Kira asked, lowering his voice and fighting the adrenaline.

"2500 kilometers sir." The radar tech replied quickly, "We'll be in extreme firing at 2000 clicks distance in about ten or eleven seconds."

Kira knew a situation like this would likely go one of two ways. The first was that the enemy warship would immediately fire all weapons, or perhaps only beam cannons since missiles fired at extreme range tended to get shot down long before they made contact with the target. The logic being to slow down the enemy ship and buy time for your allies to catch up, that way you could pound on your enemy from all directions and overwhelm them. The second option was entering a deadly game of chicken, waiting to see who fired first. If the enemy threw their punch first then Kira would know exactly how to best effectively punch back, it was almost like warship style rock, paper, scissors. Kira hoped for the former option, because in a straight up one on one warship fight he knew the Eternal would have the upper hand on the Nelson. His ship was not only better armored and maneuverable but it was now much better armed with the METEORS still coupled to the ship, working as additional beam cannons.

"Now within extreme firing range of Battleship Two." The radar tech informed.

Battleship Two did nothing at first as they entered extreme range, but then fired its beam cannons at them. Though the beams were smaller, Nelson class battleships had more energy weapon firepower at seven cannons, Kira watched on the holographic display as the beams, represented as orange lines, sped for his ship at tremendous speeds.

"Change pitch angle to thirty, portside down." Said Kira.

"Aye sir." The helmswoman replied.

Once again the Eternal's maneuvering thrusters lit, changing the ships angle to evade the approaching beams, then more thrusters lit up to eliminate the spinning momentum. A scant few seconds later the condensed plasma blasts shot by, passing just under the starboard section of the pink ship then continuing past them and into the depths of space.

"Return fire, main cannon only." Kira requested calmly.

A single large blast of green energy suddenly lanced out of the Eternal's main cannon, heading for the battleship nearly 1800 kilometers distant. Battleship Two, slow and cumbersome as it was, evaded the deathly plasma beam to its portside.

"Compensating…" A woman from the weapon operations section informed.

The Eternal's cannon operator, knowing the enemy ships low maneuverability, angled the main cannon just a scant few degrees to the ships starboard side. Knowing the sheer distance to the target was enough to make up for fact that the Eternal's main gun only had a 30 degree lateral firing arc, rather then a full 360 degree turret mount like most ships. When the cannon was positioned, another massive beam shot forth from the Eternal towards the Nelson they were facing off with. With its thrusters just disengaging from dodging the last shot, the other thrusters would not be able to move the warship out of path of the Eternal's second attack quickly enough. Evasive maneuvers no longer an option; the Battleship Two fired an anti-beam depth charge to block the beam. A large powerful magnetic sphere came to life in front of the enemy ship, causing the Eternal's second shot to split and bounce harmlessly off its surface, the magnetic fields containing the plasma beam unable to overcome the considerably stronger field emitted by the depth charge. The Nelson class once again returned fire with their own beams, but with the Eternal being a much more nimble ship, even at a velocity far above normal combat speed, dodged every beam.

"Distance now 1200 kilometers to enemy warship, now within optimum missile range of hostile contact." Spoke the radar tech.

Battleship Two did nothing, opting to wait for the Eternal to shoot its missiles first. Kira, determined not to be first to slip his hand, waited as well. Kira knew he didn't have to wait long; at their current velocity the Eternal was going to pass by the battleship in about 25 seconds. Sure enough, the enemy ship fired its missiles first at just fewer than 900 kilometers distant.

"Thirty missiles detected sir!" the radar tech shouted.

"Launch Dispar missiles to intercept them." Kira ordered quickly, "Then fire a mixed missile volley on my command."

Thirty thin missiles streaked out of the sides of the giant pink warship, heading for their individual enemy missiles. Quickly enough the missiles collided, lighting up into bright and short lived orange explosions as they destroyed one another.

"Fire!" Kira commanded.

50 Dispar missiles shot out of the Eternal's lateral firing pods, while twenty Parsifals emerged out of the ships dorsal and ventral surfaces. The Dispar missiles rode ahead of the Parsifals, acting as a sacrificial shield to the heavy missiles, giving them a better chance to damage the enemy ship. All 70 missiles rocketed towards the enemy battleship ahead with a deadly purpose, miniature engines speeding them ahead of the pink warship. Battleship Two returned fire with its reserve missile pods, but because the ship was equipped with less launch tubes only twenty missiles were fired to meet the Eternal's barrage while the first tubes were reloaded. The missiles collided with twenty of the forward Dispar intercepting missiles, igniting space in brief fiery explosions. The missile threat still not yet eliminated, the enemy battleships CIWS system came to life and spat hundreds of 20mm exploding shells at the oncoming missiles. Unfortunately for the enemy warship, its CIWS system was not designed to handle an enemy with the amount of missiles the Eternal was capable of firing, and numerous heavy missiles slipped through its defensive screen. They slammed upon Battleship Two's nose with righteous fury, tearing through the thick steel hull with high yield explosive warheads and into the ships internal structure. Fire and atmosphere blasted out of the warships wounds in large geysers, sending thousands of glittering metal shards in every direction. Quickly enough however, the enemy ships internal sensors detected the catastrophic decrease in pressure and sealed bulkheads to the compromised areas, ending the flaming plumes. Better still, though the Eternal was still more then 600 kilometers away from the hostile ship they had now passed its frontal firing zone, meaning they had effectively escaped the enemy trap.

"Status of enemy ship?" Kira requested.

The young woman manning the ships CIC, who happened to be Meyrin, brought up the enemy images of the enemy warship on her screen using the ships numerous external cameras. Her trained eyes scanned the real time image of damaged battleship as it listed through space, inspecting it for damage.

"Enemy bow section heavily damaged." Meyrin began, "At least two beam cannons are confirmed destroyed. Unknown amount of its forward mounted missile tubes have been disabled. Its bow thrusters have been damaged, severely compromising their evasive maneuverability. However, Battleship Two is still combat operational and is not withdrawing."

"Understood, maintain current heading." Kira stated, studying the new information displayed on his holographic battle map. He knew the ship was damaged heavily from so many missiles impacts, and as much as he didn't want to, he knew he couldn't give it time to recover when it was still a threat, "Fire METEORS and remaining loaded heavy missiles."

The METEORS spun around to face the damaged ship, firing as soon reached position. A quadruplet of pink high energy beams erupted from the barrels, all heading towards Battleship Two's position. Likewise, the remaining twelve of the Eternal's heavy launch tubes fired their payloads while the expended twenty tubes finished reloading. This time the weapons headed for Battleship Two practically at slow motion, crawling across space to their target at a sluggish pace. Since the Eternal had escaped the enemy ships frontal firing zone, they too were now free of Kira's frontal area, this meant that because now the ships were heading away from each other, their weapons did not get a super boost in speed via inertia.

Though even with that handicap, Battleship Two's severely hampered maneuverability, gave it no option of evading. It could only shield itself as it waited the agonizing time it took for the Eternal fire to reach them. When they finally did arrive, the beams were ahead of the missiles and Battleship Two fired another anti-beam to disperse them. The missiles being next, the warship fired its reloaded and undamaged missiles pods at the oncoming ones and its CIWS system lit up to get what the intercepting missiles didn't. At the end, Battleship Two barely managed to fend off the Eternal's attack.

During that time, the Eternal had now completely circumvented the denser asteroid cluster and was entering the less densely packed area. Breaking jets engaging and slowing the ship down to normal warship velocities during battle, speeds generally 100 to 300 kilometers an hour and engagement distances ranging from less then one kilometer to as much as a 100. This was how warships usually fought, the lower speeds made evasion significantly easier since no significant power and time had to be invested in slowing the massive ships down. Not to mention when ships were fighting in a place such as a section of the debris belt, lower speeds made it significantly safer from collision threats. Now the Eternal had fully braked, they started to weave throughout the loosely packed debris and waited for the enemy to come to them.

"Sir, we've received contact from the Nazca class destroyers Ferris, and Hymn of the Wind." The communications officer rattled off, "They're ETA to the battlefield is roughly over four minutes."

Kira replied a quick acknowledgement to the information before looking back to his battle map, watching the four red contacts reform into a group and pursue him into the thicker debris area. Kira looked at the holographic debris around his ship with grim satisfaction.

"Now we fight on my terms."

"The last official item we shall be discussing is how to best reorganize our military and defense budget." Eileen announced, "Please put forth your ideas."

Lacus immediately noticed all eyes set upon her, she couldn't help but blush, feeling flattered at how highly they respected her opinions. She stood up in her chair, as the current talking representative always did, and gave her opinion.

"If we must continue the development and production of technologies for the military, then we should definitely attempt to bring it about in a more defensive manner. Perhaps we could construct defensive measures such light wave barrier shields that the Eurasian Federation employed in the last war. We could equip them to ships or even the PLANTS, so if another tragic incident is to occur, rather them immediately fight back and cause an uproar we could stay safe behind our shields until we could sort out what happened."

Her current opinion voiced, Lacus sat down and decided to hear every one else views.

"I agree with Miss Clyne." Ezalia added, "However, solar energy will not be enough power to make sure a light wave barrier can protect us from a nuclear missile. We'll have to equip nuclear reactors to the PLANTS to power these shields, in order to protect us from that potential WMD threats."

"As much I hope such events shall never happen again Councilwoman Joule..." Lacus added, "I am inclined to agree, nuclear reactors will be necessary."

"Then everyone is in agreement about the subject of light wave barrier shielding?" Eileen asked, no protests were made, "Anyone else have ideas?"

Orson White and Parnell Jesek, respectively of Sextilis and November cities, stood and took the floor.

"Parnell and I have been discussing ways to overhaul our fleet, and we have a proposition to put fourth." Spoke Orson, "Parnell shall discuss the details."

Orson sat back down while Parnell remained standing; he cleared his throat quickly then began to talk.

"Our Fleet has always been compromised of a large number of generally smaller ships, compromising of more separate units that make up a bigger more versatile military force. If we are going to outfit our military for a more defensive stance, I propose we develop a series of much larger warships like the Gondwana, but to be superior in all ways. These warships will be designed not only to replace the aging Nazca class destroyers, but to replace entire battle groups in our fleets.

"Now before you go and remind me of the Armory One incident, these ships are especially designed with defensive purposes only. For one, they'll have low hanger space for their size; this will make them impractical carriers. They will also not be capable of atmospheric operations, making them of little threat to anything on Earth. Furthermore, they will play a critical role in our defense grid, each one upholding the cornerstones of our defensive abilities."

Quiet murmurs ran through the council members are they discussed they're immediate thoughts. Soon enough, Ali decided to voice everybody's immediate concerns.

"To replace entire ships battle groups with single ships is a very risky Parnell." He began, "If one were to be lost for any reason, it would leave us considerably open to attack!"

"We plan on making a considerable amount of the ships." Orson rebutted quickly, "Each one will make up a significant portion of our defensive abilities, but should the loss of one or a few ships occur then our defensive perimeter should still remain strong. However, we do not plan on making an unreasonable amount of them; a fleet of about twenty ships for every city will make sure we are well protected."

"Do you plan on having these ships completely replace our fleets?" Ezalia questioned.

"No, of course not. But it will more then likely be the new mainstay ship of our military forces."

"As much as we are all glad the second war has just ended, it is still too soon to rely on a completely defensive military." Tad Elsman outlined, "We will still need an offensive capable military force to pursue the interests of our people beyond our borders if necessary, and I could not in good conscience send men and women out into the field without giving them every advantage I could."

"I had planned to make a variant of the ship without the weaknesses of the first, to serve as a part of a more flexible military force, well suited to both offensive and defensive roles. But the all purpose variant will be significantly less in number to the defender variant though, probably only one former for every ten of the latter. But even then, twenty or so ships like this will be far too little to look into all foreign matters, so we should continue to maintain a fleet of smaller more versatile vessels like we still currently employ. This fleet will be low in number comparatively to the bulk of the new fleet, but more then enough to make sure we have many arms to reach many places. This way we will have a significant offensive combat force suitable to our own needs, but it will simply be too small to uphold any long term military campaign against the Earth Alliance."

"As sound as your argument is, I cannot say I am thrilled at putting ourselves at a deliberate disadvantage in terms of offensive capability." Ezalia said.

"Then it falls to us to make the first step." Lacus spoke, turning all eyes turned to her, "If he must put ourselves at a disadvantage to show that we are making the effort for peace, then so we shall. It has to begin somewhere. As much as I loathe weapons of war, I find myself agreeing with Parnell's points and see this as a logical path."

"Are you sure that is wise Miss Clyne?" Ezalia asked.

"Yes, I do." Lacus said, confidence infused in her tone, "There are other ways we can benefit from this disadvantage, ways that fall outside militaristic boundaries. By not maintaining a large offensive military force and utilizing a mostly defensive one, we significantly cut down on the ways that those who desire war can accomplish their wish. This way we can avoid tragedies such as incident at Armory One, and though that was not the direct reason that the second war started it was definitely the spark that ignited the fire. If we maintain a military focused on defense, they cannot start a war if we do not provide to them the setting to make an excuse for one. Additionally, any attack made merely because we have low offensive capabilities would be folly on the Earth Alliance's part, their own populace will turn against them seeing it as nothing but a war of hate. That is why I support Parnell's idea; by building these ships we will return our military back to its core values: the defense of its people. Besides, the basic description of how the ship sounds appeals to me, a ship best served as a shield rather then a sword."

"Quite correct Miss Clyne." Parnell said, looking visibly more resolute now that he had Lacus's support, "They are designed to be hardened targets that specialize in defense. With their immense firepower coupled with their massive size, they will be intimidating and demoralizing opponents to any invading force. I assure you we'll be well protected."

"Then I see no outstanding issue. We will have to hammer out the terms of use and the exact numbers we can produce at the peace talks. Is there anyone else who wishes to say anything?"

"These ships sound like they will take quite some time to build, and not only will he have to build them, we'll have to build the facilities to build the ships first."

"It will take some time to be sure." Parnell spoke, "But I believe it will not take as long as it sounds. In the time between the first and second war we completely rebuilt our military forces and then some. I believe we can be nearly be finished in three or four years, despite the amount of work involved. And after all, as much I don't want to sound like a bigot by saying this, we are Coordinators."

"Then it's settled." Eileen said, "Who else has ideas?"

"Well…" Orson White began, "I've been thinking of some budget reallocation plans..."

"Math…" Lacus thought disdainfully… "I wish Kira was here."

"Enemy ships have regrouped and are now pursuing us in formation." The radar tech informed.

"Good." Kira acknowledged, staring at his battle map, "Are the missile clusters retaining position?"

"Aye sir, all missile clusters are remaining in position, no significant drifting has taken place." The missile operator at the weapons section responded.

"ETA of friendly arrival and reengagement with the enemy?"

"Still three minutes till arrival of friendly contacts sir, reengagement in approximately 35 seconds." Said the radar tech.

"Then let's not waste time." Spoke Kira resolutely, "Acquire a firing solution for the main cannon and the METEORS, fire missiles on my command."

Kira watched on his holographic map as the four red blips representing the enemy force crawled to his position, the less nimble ships taking their time to make sure they sustained no collision damage from the debris that surrounded them. But now that all the ships had slowed to battle velocities, they still made towards the Eternal with good speed. They advanced in a pyramidal formation, Carrier One, Battleship One, and Battleship Three forming the base while Battleship Two, being the damaged ship, trailed behind them. Kira knew his first priority would have to Carrier One; after all, destroying the flagship was the most logical course of action. Kira watched as the seconds ticked by and watched as the enemy group neared his position, getting ready for a combined force strike. He didn't have to wait long.

"Enemy ships now within firing range." The radar tech announced.

Kira didn't skip a beat.

"Fire main cannon." He ordered.

Three beams of superheated plasma consecutively jumped from the Eternal's main cannon, set on Carrier One. The even less mobile ship had no where to dodge in the particular area it was in, surrounded by debris and its own allies. It resorted to using a duo of anti-beam depths charges to defend itself, causing the beams to deflect harmlessly away. The ships continued to approach in formation, no doubt preparing to fire their own beam weapons. Luckily the enemy warships beam guns did not have barrels as long as the Eternal's main gun did, which meant they had less magnetic containers and ultimately shorter range. The Eternal sent shot after shot at the enemy ships, but they altered firing their depth charges making sure none of the shots could get through. Soon enough the enemy ships entered the maximum effective range of their own beam cannons, and promptly begin their return fire upon the Eternal, sending streams of plasma towards the pink ship.

"Evade!" Kira commanded.

The Eternal's starboard thrusters activated full burn, sending the ship out of the way of the imminent threat. But like before, the enemy ships altered their fire and sent calculated blasts to their predicted destination.

"All stop!" Kira shouted, "Counter our thrust!"

Immediately the Eternal's portside thrusters burned while the starboard ones cut out, quickly halting the ships momentum in the void. The ships far more advanced and efficient thrusters halting the ship before it reached where the enemy predicted they would be. Green beams sailed past the Eternal once again, missing by several hundred meters.

Then the last ship at the front of enemy formation opened fire at them, and unfortunately Kira found himself unable to maneuver further. His ventral and dorsal escape routes were blocked by debris, his lateral thrusters had been expended and required at least ten seconds to cool down after full burn. He would have to resort to built in defenses this time.

"Fire an anti-beam depth charge!" Said Kira.

A depth charge shot out of one the Eternal's four anti-beam depth charge tubes, it quickly headed to the front of the pink ship and detonated, dispersing the beams. Now all the enemy ships had fired, Kira prepared himself for inevitable missile exchange that was about to follow. The warships crept closer and closer to the Eternal's position and all eyes were on the numbers that shrank rapidly, waiting for those numbers to fall to optimum missile range

"Fire all missiles when they are in range." Kira told his missile operator, "And prepare to activate missile clusters on my mark. Helm: get ready to circumnavigate around the nearby asteroid and use it as an impromptu shield, when we emerge on the other side head all speed across the front of the enemy formation. Keep a distance of at least ten kilometers from the enemy ships as you do so. Cannon operator: make sure the beams are ready to fire at Carrier One when we pass by; hopefully we can cripple her, but if not we can at least drive her away from her own escort ships."

"Yes sir!" the addressed crew chorused.

The Helmswoman changed the ships pitch as needed, preparing to make the ship bolt when given the order. While the canon operator made sure no fault came to the beam cannons as he vented reserve plasma into the cannons system, making sure lots was available for consecutive beam blasts. The missile operator had already designated targets upon the three lead ships and waited for the fire order.

"Missile range reached." The radar tech informed.

"Mark!" Kira said immediately.

Both the Eternal and the enemy battle group immediately unloaded full salvos upon each other, sending hundreds of missiles streaking across space through the sparse few dozen kilometers. The Eternal had emptied all her loaded missiles tubes, sending a grand total of 152 missiles toward the hostile warships. While the enemy warships, though having less missile capacity individually, together launched a combined wave of a 180 missiles towards them.

"Helms: go!" Kira ordered.

He watched as the holographic missile icons streaked towards their targets, the icons briefly intermixed for a moment as the passed each other, but none had collided due to the vastness of the combat zone. The Eternal made good speed towards it's destination, currently accelerating at a rate faster then any other known warship of the time. Despite that however, Kira would not escape all the enemy missiles in time and did not want to leave anything to his CIWS system if it could be helped.

"Activate the defensive missile cluster!" he continued.

During the brief time Kira had waited, he had the time to set up a few clusters of inactivated missiles, much like the Dominion had done in the first war. This allowed him to have brief boosts in combat efficiency during battle, as he had more available firepower to call on as he needed it. His first missile cluster was used as a solution to the flaw to his bait and hook: immediate defense to hostile missiles. The Eternal had to take a more precarious position in space to lure the enemy ships in, but had they been closer to the asteroid intended to shield them the enemy ships would easily seen through the ploy and likely try a different approach. This way, the enemy thought they could best the Eternal in a mutual exchange; confident in their greater combined firepower, but the defensive cluster Kira had laid would protect the Eternal from the enemies lead missiles as it dashed for safety. Normally the enemy would have considered such a strategy; however the time it took to lay such traps was usually upwards of five minutes, reasoning that more then likely caused enemy to dismiss the idea. Thankfully the Eternal, being a warship designed with extensive use of missiles in mind, had a very efficient missile loading and deploying system that had allowed them to lay such traps in times as low as half a minute.

The cluster of 60 Dispar interceptors drifting just off the Eternal's aft side came to life and immediately rocketed away, heading off the 60 lead missiles as their name intended. The warheads collided in space, lighting up in dirty orange explosions as the weapons canceled ach other out and served their purpose. The remaining enemy missiles continued on, determined to strike at their target, but the Eternal's speed bested them as the ship disappeared behind a large piece of drifting rock. The missiles guidance systems tried to make them veer around the target but it was too late, their inertia was too great and the missiles slammed into the asteroids surface, detonations sending thousands of half molten rock bits in every direction.

The enemy ships meanwhile had their hands full dealing with the Eternal's missiles, though luckily for them their close knit formation had caused the effectiveness of their CIWS systems to exceptionally more effective, creating a wall of explosive shells barring the path of Kira's own warheads. A few missiles had slipped through but most of them had been Dispar missiles, warheads designed to destroy more lightly armored targets such as other missiles or mobile suits, against warships the smaller missiles did nothing more then superficial damage.

When the enemy ships were just finishing off the missiles the Eternal reappeared on the other side of the asteroid it had hid behind and rocketed towards their foes. The warships immediately begin to swivel their weapons towards the Eternal, but Kira had other things in mind.

"Activate the flanking missile clusters!" He ordered.

For the enemy 32 more sudden contacts showed up on radar, all of them Parsifal heavy missiles; half of them on their portside, the other half on equally starboard side and dipped ventrally a ways. The ships were caught off guard by the sudden close range two-pronged attack, but like true soldiers adapted quickly and shifted their CIWS systems to compensate. Luckily again for the enemy, they had once again fended off all the Eternal's missiles, however barely.

"So far so good." Kira thought neutrally.

During the enemies brief distraction the Eternal had gotten the time it needed to skim in front of the enemy formation in relative safety. The pink warship had changed its pitch to face the enemy head on with the cannons, inertia still carrying the ship sideways at a rate of over 2000 kilometers an hour.

"Fire all beams cannons at Carrier One." Kira droned, trying once again to reign in his excitement and resisting the urge to shout.

All the capable cannons, including the METEORS, fired a mixed volley of green and pink plasma towards Carrier One. But rather the shoot consecutive blasts the cannons aim immediately shifted to the most likely place the enemy ship could evade to and fired again, trying to cut off that route. One more aim shift and shot later a total of three beam volleys were shooting towards Carrier One, and while a fourth was ready it couldn't be shot due to debris getting in the way. Of the three fired volleys, the first aimed at Carrier One's starboard flank, the second at her current location, and the third towards her portside flank. Being the 'top' part of the triangular formation Carrier One could not evade ventrally lest she crash into her own allies, but dorsally she was free and clear. Of course normally a depth charge would be used in such a situation since retaining formation was key, but at this distance the projectile wouldn't be able to launch and detonate quickly enough to save the ship that only had a few seconds reaction time. Seeing evasive action as the only option of survival, Carrier One's ventral thrusters fired up at full burn, sending the ship up and apart from her escorts and as it so happens the same direction as the Eternal was drifting.

Carrier One made sure that her thrusters were lit long a good enough to clear the chunks on debris that were in her path, and immediately sought out a route back to her escorts. But before the carrier could make any progress with that, the next thing they saw as they cleared the large debris chunk was the Eternal, not more then a few kilometers away.

And the Eternal still had a fourth volley to use.

Not giving the enemy much more then a whole second to realize their doomed situation, Kira gave the order to fire.

Five beams lanced out of the Eternal's cannons, crossing the short distance before the enemy captain could even say a word let alone an order. The superheated gases cut through ships hull as if it were nothing more then the space it passed through, leaving glowing gaping holes in their wake and sending small globules of molten metal straying away. Of the beams, two had cut through the ships center and hanger areas, doing the least damage. The third beam had pierced through the bridge tower, definitely scoring a critical hit and immediate disablement. The last two beams had hit the ships engines compartment at the back, and evidence of that was immediately shown. The back half of Carrier One immediately belched green and white flames from the holes the Eternal's beams had inflicted, plasma escaping from the engines. But even with the those holes serving as a pressure release the superhot gasses expanded to quickly, and the carriers back half exploded in a brilliant explosion of intermixed green, white, and orange flames. Chunks and shards of metal flew in every direction while the front half of the ship, looking akin to an arrowhead, drifted off into the debris spinning out of control.

"Carrier One is confirmed destroyed sir." Spoke Meyrin.

"Battleship Two is appearing to take up Carrier One's position on the line sir." The radar tech told him, "They are advancing in speed and are almost directly below us."

Kira looked at the battleships moving across the battle map, coming to block off the way he had used to escape the return fire of the ships when he had skimmed across their line and separated their flagship. They were quickly coming about the corner of the debris in their way that barred them from shooting the Eternal. Kira considered his options.

"I could take the way Carrier One took here out, but even with the Eternal's speed the enemy ships have a shorter distance to cross and will likely cut off either side I go to. I should escape now, before they finish reloading their missiles."

Seeing the enemy ships getting nearer and nearer to the corner, the main reason Kira even came to the debris field immediately jumped to his mind.

"Helms." Kira addressed, "Turn us around back the way we came. When the enemy tries to block the path, I want you to turn the ship broadside to them and let us drift straight through the middle of their formation while simultaneously firing the dorsal bow and the ventral aft thrusters."

The helmswoman visibly paused for a moment, Kira's words sinking in. She let out a deep breath and pushed a few buttons before putting her hands back on the steering wheel.

"Aye sir." She responded evenly, deciding to keep her professionalism, "We'll more then likely take a hit though if we expose ourselves in such a way."

"The Eternal has laminated armor lieutenant; it'll take more then a few shots for them to do any damage, and a few shots are all I plan to let them have." Kira reassured.

"Of course sir." She acknowledged, then started to move the ship.

"Weapons." Kira addressed once gain, "Prepare to activate METEORS."

And once again a split second pause.

"Activate sir?" the beam operator asked.

"Activate." Kira repeated calmly, yet steely.

Everyone on the bridge pretty much had a good idea of what Kira was trying to do now, but couldn't help but feel a little nervous attempting such a bold move. Nothing like it had ever been done before! Then again that wasn't really so surprising, in all ships ever produced by humanity, the Eternal was currently the only one capable of performing such a feat.

Again the Eternal's rear engines fired up and propelled the ship towards their awaiting foes, mustering up a good speed until letting the engines cut off. The maneuvering thrusters then took their turn and turned the ship so that its starboard side faced that of the almost in position enemy formation. When that was done opposite thrusters on the Eternal's dorsal and ventral sides fired up, starting to spin the ship.

Battleships One, Two, and Three continued on unimpeded with the Eternal's movements, determined to cut them off. The formation changed its angle to face that of pink warship directly, and then drifted the rest of the way. When they were close enough to getting past the debris in their way they began to counter thrust to eliminate their momentum and begin a stand off between the pink ship. Eventually they arrived at their destination, slowly cutting the Eternal off, but when the lead warship that first cleared the debris fixed its cameras on pink ship saw a wild sight.

The Eternal's spin had increased dramatically when the enemy position had arrived at their position, looking a kin to a windmill blade spinning out of control. The Eternal was currently spinning as fast as she safely could without putting too much G-forces on the ships crew inside. But despite the limitations on spin they could do, they had more then enough spinning velocity for what they needed it for.

The lead ship, Battleship Three, did the first thing that seemed logical in this situation: fire. It sent salvo of neon green beams at the Eternal and struck the ship dead on its side, but the ships advanced armor absorbed the mass amounts of heat in stride, spreading the temperature across the ships surface and ensuring no one structural weakness.

""No significant damage." The ships damage control officer rattled off, "Hull temperature is at178 degrees Celsius, well within tolerable limits."

"Good." Stated Kira, "Activate the METEORS then."

Plasma sprung from the tips of the METEORS barrels, but did not shoot towards the enemy. Rather the METEORS were activated in the function that Kira and Athrun had most often used them with their mobile suits.

As giant beam swords...

500 hundred meter long plasma blades were now attached to the Eternal, neon pink blades glowing and giving the warship a menacing and deadly look despite the strange colour. The look was only made even deadlier by the ships movements as the oversized beam swords spun with the ship and left a glowing and blurring wake, appearing much like a spinning glow stick at night, only much, much more frightening.

As the other two Nelson battleships came from behind the debris and in the way, they to fired their beam weapons at the Eternal, but it was too late. The pink ships present velocity and distance being too much and too close, the beams passed right by the pink warship to zero effect. The enemies CIWS shifted into the direction of the Eternal, but turrets did not make it.

The enemy could do nothing as but wait the couple agonizing seconds it took for the pink shipto pass through their formation. And once those two seconds had passed, the Eternal blazed right through with deadly results.

Battleship Three was the first to be hit, and the beams swords did not disappoint. The blades passed right through the ships middle section, cutting the ship into three large sections. The pieces immediately began to tumble apart, propelled as they were by minor explosions from ruptured pipes spilling gases onto superheated metal.

Battleship Two was next, and the blades seemed to spare the already wounded ship a bit of mercy, meaningless as it was. Since the Eternal did not pass through the exact center of the formation the Nelson was saved being carved into pieces, but none the less the swords bit deep into the ship if not all the way through. Two large gashes were present on the ship, and secondary explosions immediately caused fire and metal to erupt from the wounds. Across the ships surface lights flickered on and off unevenly, before going completely dark as all power was lost. The catastrophically damaged ship started to list through space slowly, completely dead in the water and barely even holding together.

Battleship Three was the last to be hit, but was not any luckier because of it. She suffered having her aft section cut off, separating the bulk of the ship from the engine. The frontal section immediately went dark as all power was lost, gone with the engine, while the aft piece remained active. Green plasma spilled out of severed conduits that brought it to the beam weapons on the ship, now uncontained it started to melt the other piece of the ship briefly before the no longer contained gases quickly dispersed. After a few moments, engine pressure was reduced to the point where the gases could no longer spin the engines massive turbines and automatically shut down, and the aft section shut down as well. The two pieces starting drifting apart from each other, surrounded with rapidly cooling metal bits.

After the Eternal passed through the enemy ships position she immediately began to reign in her speed and spin, beginning an all stop.

"Status of enemy?" Kira asked.

"All enemy ships are confirmed destroyed sir." Meyrin informed him.

Kira looked at his battle map with satisfaction, now containing naught but the Eternal and the environment that surrounded him, no red contacts in sight. At the maps edge however, two blue contacts fluttered to life.

"Receiving message." The communication office reported, "Allied ships Ferris and Hymn of the Wind have now arrived."

"And that all took place in just three minutes, before my backup even arrived…" Kira thought, before returning to the tasks at hand.

"Deactivate the N-jammers and then send a fleet wide message to regroup at this position." Kira ordered, "And tell them to avoid the flare motor should they find it, it's more then likely a bomb."

"That, Commander, will be quite enough." Elyse suddenly spoke up from behind Kira, the first time the Admiral had said anything since before the battle began.

Before Kira could reply the lights on the bridge turned green for a moment and a brief loud alarm rang through the ship. All the screens on the bridge turned red for a moment and the words 'Simulation Ended' appeared in bold white letters. Quickly enough the screens and lights returned to normal as the ship ended its simulated battle, returning back to standard operations with the simulated battle over. A brief look out the window and Kira saw his ship floating alongside a PLANT in the Aprilius cluster, as well as the Nazca class ships Hymn of the Wind and the Ferris, the other two ships in simulation with him while the rest of the battle group patrolled the PLANTS defensive perimeter. Then remembering he was being addressed, turned his chair around so he could face Admiral Zender.

"I was unsure of the outcome of this simulation since you said you have never commanded a warship before, doubly unsure since you only had five days official training." She had begun, "I was mostly certainly not expecting to see what I just saw Commander, that was quite a remarkable performance. Are you sure you've never commanded a warship before?"

"I've never commanded a ship from the captain's chair before, but I do have experience with warship strategy and operations." Kira explained to her, "I was in command of Orb's 2nd fleet, the one that attacked Messiah and Requiem. I never personally commanded any ship, but I was apart of creating the fleets attack strategy, with the assistance of several others of course."

"Well that certainly explains a few things then." Elyse nodded, "I'm still impressed at how you learned the finer points of warship combat so quickly though."

"I…" Kira started to say, his mind internally going over data he had seen at Mendel. He shoved the thoughts from his mind immediately, knowing they were they irrelevant if not just downright depressing.

"I…?" Elyse repeated, looking at him with curious and slightly amused eyes.

"Have a knack for learning." Kira finished.

"It most certainly seems so." She replied, "It almost appears I've been to easy on you. I'll definitely include mobile weapons in the next exercise, rather then strict warship combat."

"Of course, even if only to give Meyrin something to do."

Meyrin immediately felt eyes on her at the CIC station, and turned to face Elyse and Kira.

"Yes, not a lot for CIC operator to do with no mobile suits to direct." Elyse said, "Must've been a pretty easy exercise for you."

"Well… Yes ma'am it was." Meyrin admitted, "I can't say I really minded though."

Elyse simply nodded in agreement, before turning back to Kira.

"I do believe that is enough for today then, let's get some rest. We'll be doing this all again tomorrow after all."

"Yes, I'd like that." Kira replied.

Kira released himself from the captains chair and vaulted himself towards the bridges exit, Elyse doing the same. When they exited they began heading the short distance to the officers quarters, before they made it far however Elyse spoke up.

"Well that's the first mistake you've made all day Commander." She said.

"I'm sorry?" Kira asked, looking at her with a confused expression.

Elyse gave him a small smile before nudging her head back in the direction in the bridge.

"You forgot to place someone in charge." She explained.

"Aw!" Kira huffed, then thanked her and headed back to the bridge, internally berating himself for such a simple oversight the entire way.

"So all the final preparations for both ceremonies are all concluded then?" Lacus asked the collected council.

They were just finishing up the final subject of the day and Lacus couldn't be anymore pleased about that fact. Not that she minded being in the council meeting of course, but she had been sitting in the same chair for over ten hours now and was quite looking forward to moving, not to mention eat something as well. All she had to do was listen for a couple more minutes, and keep her breathing shallow so that her stomach didn't gurgle.

"Yes." Ezalia informed her, "The only thing that isn't ready yet is that the ship elevator pneumatics haven't been calibrated at the military base for a mobile suits weight, but we cannot do that until the Archangel arrives with the Freedom so we can put it on the lift."

"Won't any mobile suit do? They generally all weight about the same."

"As we've said before Chairwoman Clyne." Ali said kindly, "We want this to be absolutely perfect for the populace, right down to all the subtleties."

"But won't that only cause a change of a few seconds at best?"

"That's correct." Orson answered for Ali.

Lacus was about to press the issue, but then thought better of it. She was hungry, and she wasn't going to prolong this meeting any further by asking pointless questions about minor issues. She changed the subject instead.

"What of the Archangel then?" she asked.

"The Archangel has already sent word that they'll be here the day before the inauguration ceremony." Eileen told her, "We'll have lots of time to prepare the elevator for Commander Yamato's own swearing in ceremony."

"Anything else?" Lacus questioned.

"Yes actually." Eileen said, "They have also said that Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha is also on board, with the intention of viewing the coming ceremonies for political purposes as well as personal ones. Quite bold of her to admit any personal reasons I must say."

"Cagalli tells it how it is." Said Lacus, "She isn't much for beating around the bush."

"Well then, if no one else has anything to say then I do believe we're done here." Eileen finished.

No one said anything.

"Then this meeting is adjourned, see you next week everybody."

The collected council immediately rose from their chairs, some having small talk with others as they exited the council chambers. Lacus as well rose from her seat and headed for the door at brisk pace, when she was outside she immediately turned to Dearka, who had been waiting for her outside the chamber wit her armed security escorts.

"Where to ma'am?" He asked immediately.

"Home please." Lacus told him politely, "And please don't call me ma'am Dearka, it makes me feel old."

"Of course Chairwoman Clyne." He obliged.

Lacus let out a sigh and crossed her arms, tapping her fingers on her forearms patiently while giving him a neutral look.

"Of course Miss Lacus." He corrected himself.

"Thank you Dearka." Lacus said, smile returning to her face.

Dearka led the way through the capitol building and Lacus followed, anticipating getting home. Not to mention food.

Well I do hope you enjoyed that, I worked really hard on this chapter to make it as realistic as I could. Though I'm also afraid I may have gone a bit overboard and made the warship battle a bit drawn out and boring, tell me what you think so I can fix it! I aim to please. Don't forgot to point out any other mistakes and stuff to, I'd appreciate it!

Don't forgot to leave any idea's you may have! You never know what I might like! And if I do like it, I'll let the contributor know I'm using it and they can be privy to a small spoiler, if that any encouragement.