Sorry for the delay on this, there may be some future edits. I hope everyone enjoys it and as always I welcome feedback!

Tiberium: the Fires of Terra Chapter 16

March 30, CE 70/AD 2070

The Equatorial Union, New Republic of Myanmar,

Armed Forces of Myanmar (Tatmadaw) military base, Kayin State

Private Sven Einarsson Ford glared spitefully at the disgustingly lush vegetation just outside the beaten perimeter of the camp, wishing all the time that he was back home in his native Scandinavia and not this... humid green hellhole. 'Unfortunately' for the former Scandinavian supply specialist, he had decided to join the rest of the Scandinavian 40th division attached to United Nations Protection Force Myanmar (UNPFORMYA), when they decided they had a job to finish here; forming their own mercenary company in the process... though technically, they were more of a brigade nowadays.

It was a choice made knowing full well that in doing so they were basically deserting their homelands.

So here he was patrolling the perimeter of some godforsaken camp in the middle of a bloody jungle, looking at the stupid trees around the camp as if they are going to sprout goddamned insurgents at any moment. Which was a good thing, the private decided. Back when the UN mission began, those terrorists were hiding among the civilian population, making dealing with them near impossible. Now, three-quarters of a decade later with the UN-brokered peace deal firmly in place, the only ones left to fight were the extremists cowering in their holes in the jungle.

Now it was just a matter of hunting them down and killing them all.

And it would be a job well done. The private grinned savagely, remembering the differences and improvements to the people's lives he'd seen over just the two and a half years of his tour here. A far better accomplishment than returning home to an empty house in the Kingdom with no family, that's for sure. It almost made this patrol in this godforsaken jungle worth it.

Almost.

"Something on your mind Sven?"

"Eh, nothing, Lia," he answered dryly, glancing over at willowy form of the team's designated marksman who was peering boredly into the jungle, her DMR slung loosely by her side. "Just thinking about how I ended up in this green hell, you know, where did I go wrong in life and all that stuff."

Lia laughed. "So, did you find an answer?"

"That I must have been a sinner of epic proportions in a previous life to be sentenced to God's own manure heap with you lot?" he deadpanned. "Yes."

"Hey, look on the bright side," Lia chirped cheerfully. "At least this Green Hell is terrestrial and good and all that crap instead of that shit over in Italy. We don't have to deal with monsters that eat tanks for breakfast."

"No," he snarked back, "We just have to deal with insane fanatics who-"

"Halt. You guys saw that?"

"Huh? No. You got something, Olivia?"

The leader and point (wo)man of the fireteam nodded, her features shadowed by the setting sun as she peeped through her binoculars over the gabion parapet.

"Yeah, looks like movement outside the outer perimeter to the north. Lia, check with guardhouse, see if they are ours. Rest of you, get ready."

"HQ says we aren't supposed to have any assets in the area at this time and the military has nothing in the area either," Lia reported after a moment. "You sure you saw something? The lookout at the tower says there's nothing there. I mean it could be an animal or something... It is what, 400 meters away?"

"You mean those guys who are so high on the local weed of the week that they probably can't tell a sheep from a woman when they are fucking it?" Mikhail, the team's usually silent SAW gunner chuckled. "Ha, good one."

"Eh, point," Lia answered, peering at the indicated area through her riflescope. "I got nothing."

"Let me try something," Olivia grunted, pulling out a torch from her belt, switching it on and directing its surprisingly powerful beam at the jungle to the north.

Nothing.

"ALRIGHT! I KNOW YOU ARE THERE! COME OUT AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO YOU!"

Nothing.

"THIS IS A MILITARY FACILITY OF THE TATMADAW! WE ARE AUTHORISED TO OPEN FIRE ON UNAUTHORISED PERSONNEL TRESPASSING ON MILITARY PROPERTY! IDENTIFY YOURSELF OR WE WILL SHOOT!" she yelled, repeating herself in Burmese for good measure.

Nothing.

"Lia, tell HQ that we'll be firing a warning burst in 20 or so seconds. Mikhail, on my mark, fuck everything in that general area."

"Da. I will show them the song of my people," the man smirked as he flipped out the bipod and rested his machine gun on the chestwork. "Ready."

"You sure this is a good idea, Sergeant?" Sven asked.

"Best case nothing happens and I get yelled at for wasting ammo. Worse case I get to be a hero who flushes out an ambush," Olivia replied. "Yeah, I'll take the chance. Lia, you told Sarge Dag?"

The marksman gave a nod, her attention now solely concentrated on her firing zone.

"Good. Mik, fuck everything."

The SAW gunner nodded - only to stumble back with a pained roar as his upper left biceps opened up in a spray of blood. A split second later a river of angry red and green tracers erupted from the treeline, some blasting large craters around them.

"HQ, SUNDOWNER! I SAY AGAIN, SUNDOWNER!" Olivia yelled into her radio. "ATTACK ON THE NORTH WALL! I COUNT ABOVE PLATOON STRENGTH MOVEMENT ON THE NORTHERN PERIMETER, MG AND ACK-ACK SUPPORT! REQUEST IMMEDIATE REINFORCEMENTS!"

"GOT THAT BASTARD!" Lia snarled triumphantly, letting loose a quick trio of shots before ducking back under cover. "Enemy sniper down, boss!"

"Good!" Olivia yelled, peeping up and letting loose a quick burst with her assault rifle before ducking down again. "How's Mikhail?"

"I am going to shove so much hot lead up their ass that-"

"Goddamnit, stay still!" Ford snapped, shoving the bigger man back down gently by the shoulder as he finished dressing the wound. "There, that should help with the bleeding."

"Spasibo," the other man grunted, reclaiming his fallen SAW. In the background, the base sirens were going at full bore as the first streams of tracers sailed over into the jungle from the guard towers at the corners of the camp.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Lia suddenly asked. Now that she mentioned it, Ford could swear there was something underneath the metallic cracking of the rifles and machine guns and the deeper 'st-oomp' of the autocannons. Some sort of deep metallic screeching and rumbling?

Then one of the towers blew up in a chest-slamming explosion.

"YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" Olivia yelled as she stared slack-jawed at the perpetrator rolling in at the back of the rebel lines, its harsh angular form emerging from the darkness of the jungle like some prehistoric beast. "ARMOUR! THEY HAVE ARMOUR! WHERE IN THE NAME OF FUCK DID THEY GET THAT ANTIQUE-"

The rest of her words were drowned out as the tank's main gun silenced the other guard tower.

"-OFF THE WALL," Ford heard Olivia screaming as his hearing returned. "GET OFF THE WALL NOW! MOVE!"

No argument from him there, Ford thought, grabbing his rifle and following the rest of his fireteam in leaping off the walkway, and not a moment too soon. Mere moments after he'd hit the ground running, the sandbag wall behind him blew apart, pelting him with sand and pebbles and sending the team sprawling.

"To the airfield trenches! Company is regrouping there!" he vaguely heard Olivia yell when the ringing in his ear subsided. "Come on! Go! Go!"

Giving a groan and a nod of thanks as the SAW gunner hauled him to his feet, Ford followed them in running as though his life depended on it. Which it probably did.

"Glad you can join us today corporals, private," a rough voice gruffed as they vaulted into the trenchline by the airstrip. "I hear you're having an interesting day."

"Oh can it Sarge," Olivia groaned. "Where's the rest of the company?"

"Captain sent Platoons 1 and 4 to admin and cookhouse. Tank-hunting, pity those fuckers," Sergeant Dag grinned from behind his heavy machine gun. "5th is getting their Puma IIs up so that leaves us and the 3rd holding this patch of land. It's a great day to be a hero, huh?"

"Here they come!" someone yelled.

"STAND TO! WEAPONS FREE!" Sarge Dag yelled, racking the charging handle on of his 14.5mm HMG.

His orders were punctuated by explosions above them as the C-RAM units stationed around the airfield began to, finally, swat mortar shells and rockets out of the air.

Even with the C-RAMs working overtime, more than a few rounds impacted, spraying dust everywhere.

Ford pushed himself off the ground once the dust settled, giving himself and his rifle a once over to make sure both were working. Once done, he poked his head up, quickly taking aim and letting loose a quick burst at the nearest enemy, sending the man, honestly more of a boy, his mind noted with practiced detachment, tumbling down and screaming in pain.

Ford heard the sergeant's machine gun coming to life nearby, its deep report filling the air, cutting down enemies in front of them in sprays of blood and gore. Meanwhile, Ford picked out another group of enemies and opened fire, wounding a man on the right side of his body and another center mass.

An unlucky mortar hit made mincemeat out of the trench line further down.

He had no idea how long the first assault went on for, it felt like hours but it was more likely minutes. All he knew was the rhythm of aim, fire, aim, fire, duck and reload, aim, fire, ad infinitum.

At some point, he became aware of a cheer going up as a massive explosion and a column of smoke rising up from behind the insurgents' lines followed by a bigger cheer as the company's Puma IIs pulled up to the trench line, disgorging reinforcements while letting loose with their autocannons and grenade launchers.

"Fucking Asian hellhole!" Ford heard Olivia swear tiredly as the sounds of fighting faded away into the distance. "You alright Ford?"

"Huh?" He blinked then laughed shakily, only noticing now that his hands were still clutched in a shaky death grip around his rifle. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

It was a moment of silence that marked the end of the battle.

Or at least this one part of it, Ford thought, as he heard pop music playing in the distance. It was a song that he recognized, hell it was even quite popular here, despite who was responsible for its creation.

"We were so close together, but the twilight has a different color now. The abundance of kindness only keeps a distance between us."

The formation of four gunships flew overhead, their downwash rumbling over him and everyone else in the base. It was enough to cause everyone to break into cheers once more as they started raining hellfire on the fleeing enemy.

"Our coldly ignored hearts are wandering in the midst. If this awkwardness is what it's like to live"

An RPG shot skywards out of the hills in front of him, joining MANPADS heading for the gunships only for them to be shot out of the sky.

"We shall close our eyes under the cold sky..."

Alive one more day.

00

March 30, CE 70/AD 2070
Mali, African Community
Base Camp of the Army of the Provisional People's Government of Mali

General Nobia was a man few liked and even fewer cared about but he did have one thing that mattered: power and with it, the ability to make a difference in his country. What counted as the sorry excuse for one at least.

Alone in his command center, he could at least admit to himself just how FUBARed the situation was. Three years into the rebellion, Colonel Asha's forces controlled the capital and two-thirds of the cities worth having. The Islamic Revolutionary Front was running amok unchecked throughout the entire northern half of the country, and half of what was left of the national Army was stuck in a pocket defending the Guinea Highlands.

Honestly, if it wasn't contrary to her ideals and an insult to her memory, he would have joined the rest of the provisional government in exile over the border. As it was, the forces under his command were the only thing standing between the Tuareg people and some good old fashioned ethnic cleansing.

Not that Colonel Asha wasn't going to give it a try anyway, he thought glancing at the map table and the icons representing the three rebel armoured battalions that were according to their spies massing at the crossroad town of Anefis. He wasn't too worried about the infantry but but he was fresh out of miracles to deal with the armour and artillery, especially with his usual suppliers having gone quiet due to that clusterfuck up in Cairo.

The only good news were that according to the various news networks the African Community was flexing its muscles now that the Eurasian Federation was focusing inwards thanks to the SJZ. Rumour had it that they were going to redeploy some JDF and ZAFT elements elsewhere in the Community to finally bring some semblance of the rule of law to some of the more... troubled regions.

If that were the case, he'd be more than happy to have both the JDF and ZAFT show up and end this bloody civil war, preferably before another genocide took place on his watch. For too many had already died in this pointless continuation of ancient grudges. But for now he was willing to do anything to ensure his people's survival...

Anything - even if it mean making a deal with the devil, he thought with a mental grimace, carefully maintaining his neutral facade as the white-cloaked woman literally stepped out of thin air in front of his desk as though summoned by magic.

"Commander White," Nobia said, more of a statement than a greeting.

"General Nobia," the lady in white answered serenely. "Have you considered our offer?"

He eyed the woman warily. The woman, this "Commander White," for whatever reason wanted information on an arms trader he had worked with previously and she was offering a substantial amount of aid and weaponry for it. He couldn't afford to not take her seriously, not with her method on ingress and especially not when... whoever she represented "disappeared" an entire coup military camp as a "demonstration" the last time she had contacted him.

"I don't see what this has to do with anything, but here," Nobia answered curtly, all but throwing a folder across his desk. "Alex Olan, last I heard he's based out of Tunisia and has high-level contacts within the government."

"Excellent." White nodded, flipping through the file lazily. "Now about your armour problem... Hmm. It would be truly unfortunate if a fire broke out at the munition stockpile they are building. Even more tragic when those chemical weapons they were planning to use leak because of that."

"Chemical weapons? Yours or theirs?" Nobia asked flatly. "I don't recall us even having the industry to make chemical weapons on a large scale."

"Do you really want to know general?" White smirked. "All that matters is what the world sees. And the world will see what they want to see."

"Yes." Nobia glared at the woman, silently wishing he could just draw his sidearm and double tap her face. The only thing that stayed his hand was that the last time he tried, all he'd gotten for his trouble was a sprained wrist and a bruised arm. "Yes it does! Gassing an entire village just because th-"

"The needs of the many outweigh the sacrifice of a few," White injected smoothly. "You should know that better than anyone else, General. "

"And where does the line stop, huh?! Would you nuke your own-" Nobia ground out. "You know what, fuck that. Who the FUCK are you people?"

"..." White remained silent for a moment, her expression hidden by her cloak. "Lets just say we are a Brotherhood of like-minded people dedicated to peace. Right now, that involves dealing with Blue Cosmos and the cabal of death dealers who are their backers."

"What," Nobia said flatly.

"Do you really think all those suspiciously well equipped and organized revolutionaries and hate groups pop up on their own? Do you really think it should be that easy for arms dealers to get their hands on military hardware? Do you not see a pattern?" White asked rhetorically. "What use are weapons, if there is no war? What use is surplus food, unless there are starving people? A world at peace is not profitable, it cannot be manipulated. Therefore they will not cease their attempts at forcing us to fight. "

"They? Forcing us to fight?! Lady-"

"Believe what you will General. But what you just heard will not leave this room. Otherwise..." White shook her head. "Aside from that, if I were you, I would start making plans to march on Bamako. Colonel Asha and her top generals will be having an unfortunate accident in a month's time so you should probably take advantage of that."

"Why?"

"Think of it as repayment for this." White idly waved the file she is holding. "Besides, the Brotherhood has no reasons not to remove an opponent's pawn. And having someone who genuinely wishes for the stability of the African Community in a position of power is another bonus."

She chuckled at the general's stony-faced glare.

"Yes, General, we do know of your and your late wife's views on the Community over your own nation, a rather unique view for a potential leader of a member state of the Community wouldn't you say? After all it is not every day that anyone would wish to impose limits on their own nation's power. I doubt your leaders would be happy if they learned of this." White smirked again as she faded from sight. "Don't worry, we can consider another favor between friends once you have taken the reigns here."

"Lead?" The General snorted at the empty space before him. "Why the hell should I do that?"

"Yes, lead," the reply seemingly echoed from all around him. "How else will you change the course of your nation, General? How else will you change the course of the African Community for the better?"

00

April 10, CE 70/2070
ZAFT combined Third & Fourth Fleet, en route to Lunar orbit

"A quick recap of what we know so far; elements of the Third and Fourth Defense Fleets departed L5 earlier this week in what is possibly the largest deployment of ZAFT military thus far. There has yet to be any official response from ZAFT about the destination or mission of this fleet, but analysts and military experts speculate that the most likely targets are the Earth Alliance fleets and installations at L1 or even the Moon itself-"

Miguel Aiman straightened his tunic, taking in the green uniform reflected in the mirror at the far end of the mess hall with a tinge of pride.

He wished that his brother could see him now but it was impossible between the medical treatments and working to help with the bills. Hopefully he'd get some leave after this op to go see him.

He'd heard the rumors about this operation, a direct attack on one of the Earth Alliance's forward supply bases. Endymion, if the rumors were to be believed, would certainly be a target-rich environment. But on the same name note, he couldn't afford to get complacent. An attack on Endymion and the capture of its stores and facilities would open up Ptolemaeus to direct attack so he could expect the naturals to send what passed for their elites there.

That said, he would be lying if a part of him wasn't looking forward to testing his mettle against the Earth's elite instead of the trash ZAFT had driven off the PLANTs in the early days. The naturals' performance against the Second showed that they had some fight left in them.

Either way, this was the largest ZAFT operation launched to date and he suspected it was going to make history.

"...the latest information we have concerning the movement of the combined Second and Sixth Fleets is that they were forward deployed sometime last week, probably with orders to keep an eye on any Earth Alliance fleet that tries to attack the L5 point. That leaves what's left of the Fourth and the Fifth, which leaves the correlation of force dangerously-"

Miguel suppressed a snicker, whoever that talking head was, he had done his research. Not many people even inside the fleet knew that the combined Second and Third Fleet had been secretly dispatched to support this operation two weeks ago.

"Sooooo guys, you heard the news, right? The newsman thinks the 'the correlation of force' is dangerously against us!" he started, pantomiming a swooning woman. "The Alliance fleet only 'outnumbers' us three to one! We're all doomed!" he finished, clutching his heart over-dramatically.

A wave of laughter rumbled at the pilot's antics from the assorted pilots, crewmen, and officers in the mess hall.

"To Victory, guys!" He yelled, raising his mug up in a toast.

"AVE VICTORIAM!"

00

April 10, CE 70/2070
ZAFT Independent Exploratory fleet (TF14A), Low Earth Orbit, currently over the SJZ

Behind the privacy afforded by his mask, Rau wasn't a happy man. Then again, he was never one to be happy in the first place. Still, being stuck out here unable to meaningfully affect anything as those beasts who called themselves humans in the PLANTs and Earth Alliance plunge the world into chaos? It was almost akin to torture... well not that he needed to actually do anything.

Still, that did not mean he was helpless.

His 'friends' in the upper ranks of ZAFT were as informative as ever, finding out what the grand operational plan was. Now it was just a matter of getting the information to the right people -if he could.

It wouldn't do for ZAFT to achieve a knockout blow like the destruction of the Earth Alliance space command this early in the war after all, not before the fighting really got started.

Not that it would make any difference to him and the ships under his command, no matter how well the fighting went on the Moon he had little doubt that if a battle started here, he would have little hope of winning or even escaping - not without GDI interference anyway.

Either way an unprovoked attack on this fleet would be yet another spark feeding the flames of war. His only regret should he fall was that he wouldn't be able to see the end of this conflagration, this twisted world restart from zero with his own eyes.

He mentally shook his head again.

That's if a battle did start and that wasn't a sure thing, GDI had 'advised' the warring parties that they would rather not see, to quote, 'shit going down in Earth orbit' near their colonies and assets. To that end, his fleet had been told, politely to be sure, but rather firmly, to leave Earth orbit lest 'unforeseen incidents' happen, a request that happened to be rather unsubtly underscored by the dozen or so of those missile battleships just a few thousand kilometers aft and starboard of his fleet.

Unsurprisingly, ZAFT had ordered him to drag his heels for as long as possible while still complying with GDI's request. As far as they were concerned, the more information they could gather on Earth and GDI before they were booted out, the better. That much he agreed with, although for another reason. Then again, perhaps they were playing some mind games as well, you could never tell with those fools.

Perhaps an attempt to overstretch EA forces by making them defend Earth orbit as well? If so... well, they shouldn't have bothered.

Rau focused on the main holographic display.

The Alliance's forces in the orbit of Earth were reduced to just one fleet while the rest had been sent to reinforce their holdings elsewhere. According to intelligence, the Earth Alliance Fourth Fleet had been sent to the L4 Point, while the Second and Third were re-deployed to the Moon.

Yes, that would make sense.

That left only the EA First Fleet, a collection of new ships undergoing shakedown and semi-obsolescent ships. Currently they were spread out into 7 battlegroups, six consisting of lighter ships picketing the approaches to Earth in high orbit with the seventh built around a heavy core of old Nelsons being held in reserve in low orbit.

Considering the situation, it was a fair move on the Alliance's part; it provided good sensor coverage of Earth's orbital space against any potential ZAFT smugglers or raiders while any ZAFT force big enough to defeat them in detail would have to fight pass the fleets gathered at L4 first anyway.

But that also let the 'reserve' fleet act freely against his supposedly defenseless command.

And he couldn't forget about the Eurasian Federation fleets which were leaving the Earth orbit and heading to their L2 base for upgrades according to the European media. Though having theoretically 'withdrawn' from the Alliance, he couldn't count on them not helping their former allies if push came to shove.

Then, of course, there was the elephant in the room: the GDI Navy. Aside from the GSTs still ferrying supplies from the Pacific to Italy and smaller groupings of GDI ships in various orbits, the vast majority of their 400 strong Fleet was massed in geostationary orbit south of the SJZ, the grand array of ships making his command and his EA opposite numbers look like children playing by comparison .

A statement in his opinion, that GDI was making in regards to the war turning hot. A show of force which all sides should have seen. Through how they deciphered GDI's intent remained to be seen.

He snorted quietly beneath his mask, at least GDI weren't ones to hide their strength and desires behind empty platitudes and self-deceiving facades, unlike this universe's humanity. Perhaps it was that blunt and apathetic honesty, that by laying bare their hatred, their prejudices, their wants for all to see, for all to confront and reflect upon instead of letting it fester behind closed doors that their timeline had managed to master their own desires and avoid the mindless hatred and craving for power; that madness that LOGOS, Blue Cosmos and the various extremists in power were but symptoms of.

Now to see if they would act upon-

"Sirs, Bravo 1 is passing through the tower," the rating manning the comms station announced, breaking his train of thought, referring to the mobile suit that was doing another past through the tower, with the sensors adjusted in the hope that it would be able to detect anything about the alien structure.

"Signal lost!

...

Wait!

...

Signal reacquired! No change sir, it came out the other side instantaneously, no delay recorded."

"Almost as if as far as the universe is concerned, the tower doesn't exist..." Captain Nero muttered from beside him.

And there was the 'Scrin', Rau thought, staring at the main viewscreen showing the chitinous alien spire stabbing through the sea of purple clouds, through the atmosphere itself. A cautionary tale of what awaited humanity should people like himself and perhaps GDI fail; a species that, instead of mastering its desires, became consumed by it, spreading through the cosmos like an unstoppable cancer, consuming and destroying all in its path.

A beautiful ideal in its own way, much in the way that a wildfire could be considered beautiful...

A glimpse of why Gilbert, for all of his valid points, could not and never would sway him from his chosen path.

He took a deep breath as he slowly relaxed his subconsciously clenched fist.

"Well, no help for it then," he announced calmly, his voice giving no hint of his mental monologue. "That was our last scheduled experiment. Signal the-"

"Sir! The Earth Alliance just fired on Bravo 1!"

"What happened?" he demanded, his face showing no sign of the smugness currently dominating his mental landscape as he quickly adjusted the holographic displays to the tactical plot.

"We don't know! Bravo 1 is damaged but still mobile. It is returning now!"

"Hold one! Sir! The Alliance flagship is hailing us! They are claiming that Bravo 1 violated the no-fly zone around their fleet and are demanding for us to either leave Earth orbit immediately or stand down and prepare to be boarded!"

"Have they cleared a route for us with GDI's Orbital Traffic Control?" Rau asked.

"No sir!" the man answered.

Rau smiled. It was not a pleasant thing to see. "Then inform them that unless GDI Orbital Traffic Control has cleared a path, we can't leave. Nor under article 14 paragraph III Act 6 of ZAFT's Articles of Engagement can I let officials of a hostile power freely enter ZAFT ships in neutral space."

"It's not working, sir. They are demanding that we leave the Earth's orbit, without waiting for GDI to clear a path for us - GDI is hailing them, telling them to wait 25 minutes for Orbital Traffic Control to clear the civilian traffic but they are not responding!"

"Then it looks like we have a problem," Rau said neutrally. "Ready all the GINNs we have and have all ships move to action status. Get ready to run."

"Yes sir!" his communication officer answered, getting to work. Meanwhile, he focused on the Earth ships on the display before him. Not a good situation to be in, Rau thought, as he looked at the plot. ZAFT ships may be newer and faster but that meant little with cold engines and the enemy having that much initial velocity.

"Sir, both we and the Earth Alliance are being warned by GDI Traffic Control on all channels to stand down, there is civilian orbital traffic all around us and more are still coming up from the surface!"

"Sir! GDI's ships are powering up their active sensors and ECM!"

It didn't take Rau long to make up his mind. "Order our forces to drop to alert II but maintain our current acceleration. If the Earth Alliance fires on us, I want all ships to accelerate to combat levels!"

"Sir! The Earth Alliance ships are increasing their acceleration and moving towards us!"

"Try and match their speed and have all ships move in the opposite direction," Rau ordered, changing the holographic display so that it showed their position over the Earth. "Ready all ships and launch all of our GINNs. Secure all data as per contingency Southern Vacation and ready all drop pods for drop on orbital path 130. Make sure all non-essential personnel are evacuated to the pods before they drop. Only combat-essential personnel are to remain."

Losing the drop pods wasn't good news since the hangars for the GINNs were inside but his orders were clear; the data gathered so far couldn't be lost, not to mention the scientists, no matter how much he wished otherwise.

"Affirmative!..."

Rau paused for a moment, as he quickly flickered over the holographic display before him.

"Sir, all ships are ready for drop, but they need a destination," Nero announced a few minutes later. "The AC? or try for the Oceanic Union?"

"The African Community, just outside ZAFT African Command's current locations," Rau said with a nod of approval. "Let ZAFTAC know that we're dropping the drop pods and inform Orbital Traffic Control that we're dropping them in..." Rau said as he checked the next available window, "...8 minutes."

"Yes, sir," the officer replied as Rau turned back to his display, watching the civilian craft scrambling out of their projected flight path. Minutes passed as he worked.

"Sir, the Earth Alliance is issuing their last warning, if we do not leave the Earth Orbit or halt immediately, they will open fire on us."

"Signal all ships to commence the drop," Rau ordered with a nod. "Broadcast that the pods contain civilian contractors and dependents on all open frequencies as you do so. Also, signal that we are trying to leave Earth orbit with all due speed."

"Acknowledged! Transmitting now!"

And just like that, a roar echoed through the ship's body as the drop pod detached.

"Sir! The Alliance ships are firing on us! And an Alliance detachment is going after the drop pods. They are demanding that the pods stop and prepare to be inspected!"

"Scatter, pattern Nova! Nevermind the pods, the naturals can't catch them without destroying them now," Rau ordered, g-forces pressing him back into his seat seconds later as his orders were carried out with coordinator efficiency. "Activate ECM and warm up all defensive armament! Captain, you have command of the fleet."

"Sir?!"

"I am an ace pilot you know," Rau said dryly. "Ready my GINN for launch, I'll buy us time with the pilots. You know your orders."

"Sir..." Captain Nero gulped. "Give them hell if they chase us and ensure the survival of the command?"

Rau smiled reassuringly at the man. "Close captain, but not quite, your orders are to surrender to the GDI squadron and seek protection from them if you have no other means of ensuring your survival. Otherwise, see you back at the PLANTs."

"Yes, sir!" The Captain snapped off a formal salute. "You wouldn't need it but good luck sir!"

"Same to you," Rau nodded before leaving the bridge and headed down to what was left of the hangar deck, which wasn't a lot now that the drop pod had been detached. The secondary hangar wasn't that large, actually more of an alcove for a lifeboat and a few GINNs but for this mission he'd had one of the GINNs replaced with his own.

Rau took a moment to look over his GINN before making his way inside. Everything looked to be in order. The crew had done excellent work on maintaining it since they were deployed from L5. The moment he was inside and secure in the cockpit, he started the process of turning on the GINN's systems with the cockpit coming to life around him. Satisfied with the feel of the joysticks and pedals, he launched his mobile suit and pushed his throttles to full.

"Gold Lead, good to have you join us, Commander, we could really use the help!" Rau heard as he accelerated away from the ship.

"Happy to join the fight," Rau replied.

Ten minutes later, Rau had finally succeeded in catching up with the rest of the task force's GINNs, not an easy feat considering that he lacked the delta-v boost the catapults provided.

Then again, considering the sheer amount of bullets, beams and missiles flying around as the GINNs engaged in vicious dogfighting with almost twice their numbers in Moebius supported by the Earth ships, maybe arriving late was a good thing. Even GDI was involved in the furball, with long-ranged yet murderously accurate beams and missiles leaping off their ships... to destroy any stray munitions leaving the battlezone and threatening to hit the still fleeing civilian shipping. Rau mentally noted that down, the performance of GDI AA was going to be an issue if they ended up on the opposing end of the battlefield.

"All flights, this is Seaborg. Additional bandits and vampires detected direct earthwards! All available mobile suits please assist intercept!

"Wilco Seaborg," Rau acknowledged, adjusting his course accordingly with taps of his GINN's main booster. "Gold flight, continue here, I'll intercept."

As promised, there were the Moebius climbing 'upwards,' two entire flights of them, escorting a crapton of missiles... Where did they come from? Something wasn't right.

Frowning, Rau flicked on his command GINN's active sensors, searching for-

There.

5 Drakes and a Nelson in a lower orbit, low enough that they were practically skimming the top of the atmosphere. What-

Any further thoughts were rudely interrupted as the Moebius's reached linear gun range, kinetic slugs flashing past on the viewscreens of his cockpit.

Morons.

Rau grunted from the g-forces as his MS neatly sidestepped the incoming rounds before boosting forward and gunning down the three Moebiuses that hadn't let loose with their linear cannons, probably waiting for him to do something stupid like close into melee. The remaining quintet of Moebius panicked and broke formation as their oh so obvious plan came apart. With their only weapon capable of really hurting him still reloading, he closed in with a burst of his engines, allowing him to leverage his GINN's superior performance to pick them off one by one over the next few minutes. Once they were dealt with, there was nothing between him and the missiles which detonated like so many harmless fireworks under the fire of his experimental 28mm secondary 'handgun'.

Rau could only shake his head, how the mighty had fallen. Usually, unless you had a way to take out their damned networking, Earth Alliance's Moebius's actually required some effort on his part to fight. But this bunch? Calling them green would be an insult to rookies, these muppets fought like they had just stepped out of flight school.

Still, something was off about the situation. Why was the Earth Alliance pushing with this pointless battle for example? All it did was antagonize GDI and all the other neutral powers and shipowners caught in the crossfire. Besides it was not like his task force could have stayed for much longer, not with GDI, neutral powers like Orb and Scandinavia and even their own allies in Oceania putting diplomatic pressure on the PLANTs for him to leave. And come back with a real battlefleet in the case of Oceania. So why now?

Then there was that Earth detachment that looked as though it was trying to commit suicide via botched reentry... It only took a second for Rau to make up his mind. He opened a line to captain Nero.

"Captain, I trust that the situation is under control?"

"Yes Sir!" the other man nodded. "At current rate of closure, we can put the UN ships between ourselves and the naturals in twenty or so minutes. Assuming that none of us get crippled in the meantime of course."

"Good. Now I want you to deploy every sensor you can without compromising your escape. Also divert any mobile unit you can spare to me."

"Commander? What are you planning?"

"Have you stopped to wonder why they attacked us, captain?"

"No, sir," captain Nero said, confusion evident in his voice. "Though now that you mention it, it does seem a bit odd that they would force a confrontation at this time..."

"In any case, inform me when the preparations are complete, I'll send over the telemetry for your main targets. In the meantime, I'll try to investigate as much as I can."

Pulling a deceleration burn to drop into a lower orbit, Rau flipped his GINN around, orientating it to a high speed attack towards the Alliance battlegroup below. As expected, the CIWS on the Nelson and the Drakes reacted as soon as he was within range, throwing up streams of proximity fused 76mm shells onto his position - or rather they would have if his had been a standard GINN. Over 25 gees of acceleration slammed Rau back into his seat as he engaged the overboost function of his GINN's ridiculously overclocked custom engines, the sudden burst of acceleration spoofing the CIWS pre-configured for standard GINNs. By the time the natural's gunnery computers found their range, he was already within the effective range of his own 76mm rifle, squeezing off precise shots into the Drakes, something made exponentially easier by the utter lack of any attempts of evasive maneuvers on the naturals' part.

Six fireballs bloomed into existence; five as the quintet of Drakes went up in magazine detonations, their paper-thin 'armour' utterly failing to prevent his 76mm rounds from breaching their munitions bunkers. The last from the Nelson as one of its beam turrets blew up... for no reason at all as far as Rau could tell.

Curious, very curious, Rau thought, especially since he had been going out of his way to not shoot anywhere near that ship.

Rau followed the ship, using a quick boost of his thrusters followed by deft application of his sword and shield to smash his way into the hangar. Once in, there wasn't any resistance to speak of; the ship or at least the hangar seemed deserted.

Cautiously, Rau popped open his hatch, keeping his issued sidearm ready as he dropped onto the airless deck. Moving warily but quickly, he made his way out of the hangar through a hole made sometime during the battle. He wouldn't need to have bothered though, the corridors were as dark and deserted as the hangar.

'Alright. What is going on here," Rau muttered as he finally found the crew as he crept into the CIC, or at least what remained of them. Judging by the number of bodies and blood still floating around, there were at least 30 corpses, all killed by close-range gunfire and close combat if the wound patterns, spent casings and discarded improvised melee weapons were anything to go by. From the position of the bodies, it looked like the crew had split into two groups, one of which attempted to storm the CIC with the CIC crew fighting back...

Rau shook his head, quickly scanning the CIC to see if there were any clues or working consoles he could pull information out of. One of the perks of having the contacts he had was having pretty much the entire library of codewords of both sides...

There, apparently the comms station was still operational if the flickering screen was anything to go by. Wiping away the thin layer of blood that obscured the display, he got to work.

'Well. Operation Dispatch Down, huh? This should be interesting."

00

In hindsight, taking that bitch's offer was the worst mistake of his life, David Jae decided. Though it wasn't like he had a choice on the matter, with the orders coming through official channels. Still, that didn't mean he could have foreseen being backstabbed by his own side.

Of course, he should have known that bitch would have another team sulking around to make sure the operation happened when and how she wanted to rather than following the bloody plan and letting the dice falls as they will.

Grimacing, he applied more pressure to the tape on his left leg, trying to staunch the blood flow that bubbled out of the hole where the bastard that was the CWO had knifed him.

He had reservations about Dispatch Down and he knew that she was aware of them. And in truth he had anticipated her having done something behind his back, what caught him and his men off guard was the sheer number of operatives she had snuck aboard the ship.

There, that will probably buy some time, he decided, finishing off the improvised pressure bandage before half-tumbling towards the helm at the front of the bloodsoaked armored bridge, grabbing one of the guns on the way. The status reports he found there made him wish he hadn't bothered.

What in the actual FUCK!

The other Phantom Pain team changed Saltash's re-entry profile successfully before the last of them were killed. Now instead of just slicing above the SJZ and collecting airborne samples of Tiberium on the way towards a deserted part of the Greek countryside, the Saltash was reprogrammed to crash directly into the city of Tirana.

For a moment he just stood there, refusing to believe his eyes. Why?! What the fuck do they hope to achieve by killing an entire Eurasian city with an Atlantic Battleship! Worse, it made absolutely no sense! The recovery teams were already waiting at the pre-selected location and the local garrison had already been bribed to look the other way as the team waited. So what the FUCK did they hope to accomplish beyond meaningless mass murder!

At that moment, he contemplated joining the rest of the crew who were undoubtedly fleeing to the lifeboats, those who weren't dead anyway. He couldn't ride the ship down as originally planned, did the recovery crew have orders silence him? He didn't know, and didn't care at the moment.

No. David shook his head as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He'd had enough of this shit. He recalled his oath from when he joined the military, a vow to protect the people and constitution of the Atlantic Federation from any enemy, foreign or domestic. And with this stunt, that bitch was clearly in the latter category.

...

He had to report this to high command, he had to let them know what she and her band of traitors did.

...

And then he was going to hunt her down and kill her. Even if it was the last thing he did.

...

He opened his eyes, and got to work on reverting the ship's course to the pre-selected location. He was almost done when the hatch leading to the rest of the ship opened. Twirling around, David leveled his SMG at the door, hissing slightly at the pain. He was rather surprised when an armed figure clad in a ZAFT military spacesuit stepped through.

"Don't move!" David yelled, toggling his radio for all frequencies. "Drop your weapon!"

"Interesting," the ZAFT pilot said, unphased. David noticed that he was wearing a half-mask of some sort beneath his helmet for some inane reason. "I take it that you are with the 81st?"

"Who the fuck are you and how the fuck do you know about Phantom Pain- no, fuck that shit, why are you on my ship?"

"It was acting rather strangely so I came to investigate," the masked pilot replied. "Besides, don't you have bigger problems? Like the entire ship going down in uncontrolled reentry?"

"You don't know the half of it," David grunted after moments of uncertainty, having made up his mind. "Especially considering where it will land."

"You know what, fuck this." He lowered his gun slightly. "Phantom Pain and this operation can go fuck itself. Look we don't have time for this. Work with me and I'll find some way to help us all call this clusterfuck off. No more people have to die for this stupid shit."

"Oh? You don't hate Coordinators?" The masked man seemed to frown, it was hard to tell through the helmet and mask.

"Surprised? Most of us lowly 'naturals' don't hate your stuck up coord ass," David grunted. "We're mostly pissed about how billions of our investments went up in smoke in your little 'rebellion'. Aside from that, we can't care less aside for some fucktards"

He snorted, gesturing with his gun.

"So how about it, we work together, save a city, ZAFT gets good publicity and I get to stick it to that bitch who wanted this stupid fight?"

"Sounds interesting," the masked man nodded, lowering his gun. David breathed a sigh of relief and mirrored his actions-

Fast! David could only blink as the mysterious ZAFT pilot suddenly reversed his actions and a lance of pain and blood blossomed from his shoulder, courtesy of the man's gun.

"However, there is only one type of peace I want."

No!

Still reeling, the Phantom Pain operative threw himself backwards at the console behind him, desperately reaching for the Return key which would initialize the engine's burn. To where, he don't know but anywhere was better than giving this ZAFT bastard the propaganda coup of-

He never felt the bullet which perforated his skull.

00

McNeil wasn't happy – then again that had been her default state ever since the post of Director had been forced upon her. One day, she had been in command of the most powerful military force in human history, the next, she had to do pretty much the same job but with the added threats and politics and a mere fraction of her usual resources available.

Alright, enough bitching, she thought with a sardonic grin, cracking her neck to work off the past hour or four of just staring at the screen which contained her paperwork. Pages and pages of paperwork unconstrained by trivial limits like the structural strength of her table had it actually been physical paper-paperwork.

Whoever said that computers and AIs would decrease paperwork had lied. They had lied most grievously.

At least it was dealt with now, everything was in place and hopefully she could hand off all this to whoever won the elections in August, the only thing she had to worry now about now was the planned meeting with all of the candidates running in the elections and making sure they were briefed on what they were getting into.

After, she could finally focus on rebuilding GDI's military into something capable of dealing with the Scrin or any other threat to mankind, alien or otherwise, while the new director dealt with all the politics and national decisions and other crap.

As it should be.

Speaking of military issues, McNeil gave a quiet sigh, tapping open the file containing the armed forces' proposal. While she had no objections to the Army's and the first half of the Navy's plan, which was to focus on recruitment and autonomous drones in support of human forces for the former and reconnaissance-in-force/fortification missions of the surrounding star systems for the latter, InOps' and the latter half of the Navy's proposal would have certainly raised some eyebrows back home. After all, despite the Sapient Rights Act, unrestricted AGIs were still a sensitive subject, never mind giving said AGIs sole control over military hardware which was virtually taboo after what CABAL was able to do with Nod during the Firestorm Crisis.

And yet that's what InOps and the Navy were proposing – the lifting of some restrictions on Eva; the Philadelphia II's EVA node, and the development of new combat AGIs, additional reduction in the human crews required by future warships and eventually the creation of a self-contained, AI-directed, Von-Neumann battlefleet.

That said, she groused while chewing absently on her stylus, their points were valid, as much as she wished she could dismiss them. Even back home there were groups in GDI command who campaigned for unrestricted AI research, arguing that a host of superhuman AIs was the only thing which could give humanity a fighting chance against the full force of the Scrin. Here, with the same strategic outlook but with only around three percent of the total population available and surrounded by natives who could suddenly turn hostile, if not to GDI then to themselves at any time?

It was a small mercy that at least some of the locals were willing to at least maintain peaceful relations but that still left the local superpowers on a path towards total war. With all of their models predicting that a protracted war would likely push both sides to extreme measures, it was something she couldn't risk deferring too heavily. Push come to shove, GDI had to have a clear path to victory planned out, be it picking a side or something else. There was no way she or GDI was going to stand and watch humanity, even if it was not their humanity, destroy itself. Not on her watch.

She let out a sigh, calming herself. Idly, she wondered what her old man would've done in her shoes... She giggled slightly at the mental image; she was pretty sure that he would have dealt with it the same way he'd dealt with Kane and as tempting as it was, she doubted that feeding those SOB politicians their own guts via a spike of Tiberium would really help.

A small smile fleetingly graced her lips at that image. But at least, she thought, the minor powers like Orb, Scandinavia, the Equatorial Union and Mars were much more reasonable.

Speaking of Mars...

The red planet was also colonised in this reality but less so compared to back home - which meant that at least there was space still available. And further differentiating this reality for their home universe, this Mars also had a set of ancient, presumably alien, ruins according to the ODIN system in orbit. Furthermore the existing Martian administration... apparently already knew this and were actively keeping it a secret both from Earth and their own public for some reason. So far, they hadn't found anything worthwhile besides crumbling buildings underground but still...

GDI too had a few secrets which it kept from the public, off the top of her head she could already name three: the Tacitus, what the Tower and the Scrin invasion force really were and just how far ahead Nod was in some areas... all kept secret both for national security, the good of humanity, and for stupid political reasons.

She had to admit that it did make sense, no point announcing it to the world when one of the superpowers on Earth could decide that said ruins should be in their hands just in case, should they find any pieces of technology.

"Director. Incoming priority message. On screen now."

"Huh?" McNeil blinked as Eva interrupted her music playlist. What's this - InOps is calling a meeting tomorrow about some Earth Alliance 'battleship' crashing in Greece?

"Eva, what's the current situation?" she asked. "Did we try to intercept that thing."

"An attempt to intercept the wreck was made by elements of the First Fleet once Fleet Command realised what was happening but local commanders decided not to engage with ODIN and the planetary defense centers in Red Zone 01 as per standing orders," the AI's calm voice answered. "ZOCOM quick reaction forces are moving to the location of the crash site now."

"Good, good," she nodded absently. "Can you get me Sandra on the line?"

"Affirmative."

"Verena," the distracted voice of the InOps director replied a moment later. "I am presuming that you are calling about the shitshow in Greece at the moment?"

"Yes. I am guessing there's something suspicious enough to warrant a meeting?"

"Very. According to all of our simulations, a ship of that class shouldn't have the mass nor the structural integrity to make it all the way down. The only possible explanation my people have is that the ship was a modified variant," Sandra explained. "Also, Naval Intelligence and InOps are reporting some unusual activity from that ship before it went down."

"Eva?"

"That is correct, director," the cool female voice answered. "In addition, sensors indicate that two additional vessels of the same class also suffered uncontrolled re-entry in the battle. Both disintegrated in the upper atmosphere as predicted by our models and publicly available data. However, InOps reports indicate that the Earth Alliance was using elements of the fleet involved as a testbed for prototype anti-DEW defenses, which may explain the discrepancy."

"I see. Bottom line, is it enemy action?" McNeil sighed.

"It might be sheer coincidence but it could also an attempt to nab some Tiberium samples or 'punish' the Eurasians for staying out of this war. We're treating it as the latter until we have more information."

"Right, keep me updated then. If it is deliberate, I want InOps to make whoever is behind it understand how... displeased we are with this development. Understood?"

"Yes, director"

00

April 2, CE 70/2070

Eurasian Federation, Italy, Civitavecchia,

Operation base Shepard/ Interim Outer Zone Local Airport 02

"- A state of emergency has been declared across Greece as emergency services and GDI responders battle to contain wildfires and Tiberium outbreaks caused by the crash of the Earth Alliance battleship Saltash during the skirmish between Alliance and ZAFT forces yesterday. Over 77 casualties have been reported thus far, with more expected in the coming days as thousands of residents flee their homes.

"While official investigation is still underway, a senior military officer who wished to remain unnamed has told Euro-Zone Press that the circumstances behind the crash are 'highly suspicious' and that investigators are still trying to determine if the crash was 'even accidental at all.' Furthermore, several pictures of the debris fields left by the crash released on social media by members of the Greek emergency services appear to show what has been identified as the remains of ZAFT GINNs which raises further questions about the possibility of foul play."

"Eurasian and GDI officials have remained silent on the issue thus far."

"In related news; the deployment of Joint Task Force Kratos to Greece under the command of ZOCOM has drawn criticism from a number of opposition politicians. Quoting Aleka Silas, spokesperson of the Rassemblement Nationale Party; 'It is an outrage that the the years of neglect of our civil and armed forces by the Federation government have caused us to request the aid of the United Nations and their aerial fleet to contain the situation within our own borders,' end quote.

"Now we're connecting with Anna Dusk from the European Times, who is in Greece covering the cleanup. Anna, what is the situation like?"

"... the situation here is very busy, with ZOCOM and EDF army personnel out in force. I'm currently in the nearby town of Fragko which has rapidly become the base camp for ZOCOM and EDF forces in Karditsa region and as you can see behind me it is like a scene out of a war movie. While there have been some complaints at the local level at the amount of matériel and personnel being moved through this formerly sleepy township, for the most part residents here are in equal parts reassured and intimidated by the sheer amount of force being moved in to deal with the crisis, especially with GDI's aerial warships massing overhead."

"What is the situation on the ground in the disaster zone itself?"

"Since Task Force Kratos arrived, they have coordinated with local civil defense and law enforcement to secure the sites and are currently containing the forest fires and Tiberium outbreaks within the area. Once done, they plan to secure any evidence before starting the process of decominating the sites, a process which is expected to take up to a six months.-"

"God, what a mess," Jess Rabble muttered dully as he set down his cup of coffee. With all flights, including suborbital and orbital, out of southern Europe halted since the day before due to that clusterfuck over in Greece, there was little he could do but to sit down at a cafe and catch up on the news until flights resumed again. And what a ride that had been;

The Africans were still crowing about "Abel's" tomb and how that proved that Africa was the birthplace of civilization with it pre-dating anything in the Middle East, the Atlantic Feds were basically declaring war on the USSA over Panama without actually declaring war and for once the USSA government wasn't putting up with that bullshit with several border clashes already reported. The Eurasians were losing their shit over the Tiberium-induced ecology and refugee crisis and that crap up in Greece, a big chunk of ZAFT's fleet was on the move and the PLANTs were buzzing about some sort of upcoming counter-offense on the Moon and the rest of the world was either sabre-rattling or trying in vain to keep their head down and GDI was being as standoffish as ever.

...

With a groan, he pushed his laptop shut, resting his forehead on its warmish metal surface, just winding down in the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Honestly, after all the crap he'd seen over the past weeks, he just wished that he was already napping on the flight to home sweet home, Brasília.

"-'ve received word that the convoy ferrying the Atlantic Federation's mission to South Africa has been attacked by truck bombs and suicide bombers. While details are still unclear, Representative James T. Robinson, the Atlantic Federation's chief representative to the Earth Alliance, as well as Morgan Harrison, the Atlantic Federation's ambassador to South Africa are believed to be among those dead or wounded. No organization has claimed responsibility for the attack thus far, though it is believed that ZAFT sympathizers are behind it and the string of truck bombs and suicide bombings which have plagued the region since the war began.

"Representative Robinson was touring the Victoria mass driver complex and its Earth Alliance-South African garrison at the time of the attack. More on this story as it unfolds "

Well, there goes another one, Jess thought flatly. These days it seemed like there was an attempted assassination every other month. With another jaded mental sigh, he straightened himself up, finished off the last of his coffee and lazily glanced at his watch; three more bloody hours until his flight was ready. God help him, at this rate he was going to murder someone, probably himself before he got on the plane.

He just wanted to get some rest before his next assignment. Was that too much to ask for, God?

"Do you want more coffee?" he heard, drawing his attention back to reality.

"Yes, please," he drawled, giving the waitress bearing a fresh pitcher of the life-giving liquid a grateful smile. "Thanks!"

"No need," She smiled in return. "The delays really hit everybody hard. Have you been here long?"

"Yes," Jess groaned, taking a sip of the hot bitter liquid. "Been here for over 30 hours, can't find any accommodations."

"Ouch," the waitress grimaced sympathetically. "Wait here, I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Huh?" Jess mumbled intelligently as the waitress walked off.

"Here," the waitress announced when she returned, placing a plate of scones and jam in front of the freelance. "Boss noticed that you were here for the last four hours with nothing but a half a dozen refills of coffee and half a sandwich. Don't worry, it's on the house." With a wink, she walked off.

"Thank you," Jess muttered, staring dumbly at the pastry for a minute before shaking his head to clear it. And those scones were actually quite good. With but a moment's thought, he pulled out his card and sent a rather hefty tip using the console on the table. And it was nice actually being able to afford to do so, he made 20,000 Real from all of the videos he'd sent to his usual clients back home and another 15,000 AF dollars from Matias.

Granted, the majority would be going into replacements and new equipment to work with the powered suit he got from GDI but that still left a substantial remainder in his savings account and a decent amount to live on until his next assignment.

If only he could earn this much money on regular basis, he thought, taking another sip of his coffee.

Speaking of money, for some reason he couldn't stop himself from thinking about the camps, the ones GDI had set up. The memories were of a mixed flavor to him, there was nothing there but people, just mostly ordinary people trying to move on with their lives and all that came with it. It meant pain, suffering, and happiness all mixed into one under the military's watchful eye, their weapons a wall as much to defend them as to keep them in.

Then there was that other camp, where a riot broke out and turned bloody due to mistreatment by the local police and Italian soldiers, leading to a very rapid response by the Eurasian Federation on the issue - basically making an example of the people responsible for causing the riot with GDI and federal troops being sent in to restore order-

"Sorry, mister but can I sit here? The other tables are full."

Jess looked up from his rumination in surprise to find a little girl, maybe 7 or 8 years old, more of a preschooler really, holding a plate of pastry and tapping her foot impatiently. He'd almost missed her, that's how short she was.

"Um. Sure, go ahead. Are your parents with you?"

"Nope," the short-haired, brown eyed girl replied cheerfully, settling into the opposite seat, munching on a tart all the while. "Mom's working so I took the chance to explore."

"Alright," Jess nodded thoughtlessly, taking a sip from his cup before almost spitting out his coffee as his mind caught up with the little girl's words. Thankfully he managed to hold it in. "Wait, no! That's not alright! Does your mom know where you are?!"

"Yes, and it really is alright," the girl giggled cutely. "Besides, I got Eva with me. GDI's computers are actually smart enough to know if I am in trouble." She continued, tapping her watch. Only it was not a watch, Jess realised, but a smaller version of GDI's data slab, just like the one he had on his own power suit but smaller, and if he was not mistaken the watch was likely linked to a larger unit.

In fact, considering the base, he wouldn't be surprised to learn that this place had an EVA unit too. "And Uncle Gai would personally blow away anyone who hurt me."

"Huh? You're with GDI then?"

"Ah? No," she answered between bites. "Kazahana Adja, Serpent Tail, mercenary company. You pay for it, we blast it."

"Er...Nice to meet you," Jess answered, his overworked mind still trying to decide if this was just some odd dream brought on by too much coffee. "Jess, Jess Rabble, I'm a freelance journalist."

"Ah?" Adja paused mid-bite, "Jess Rabble as the person who did the piece about the people inside the SJZ?"

"Yeah, that's me," Jess admitted ruefully.

"It's a good piece, Mom, Uncle Gai and the rest liked it."

"How about you though, aren't you a little young to be a mercenary?"

"I am," Adja answered, "but my mother is a member and we don't have any other relatives for me to stay with."

"Huh? Well..." he started but in the end simply shrugged. Since he'd started working with Matias, having the ability to travel more as a journalist and seeing more of the world...

At least this girl still had her Mother and a rather caring if unconventional family with her merc company, going by the rather annoyed looking mercenary entering and looking pointedly at their table before sighing and ordering himself a coffee. At least he knew that they were looking out for her.

"Oh and you can see the hangar we're based out of, there," Adja said, pointing out the window.

He followed her finger to the facility in question; a nondescript hangar that was located in an isolated corner of the airport, not far from a still growing joint EF & GDI military base. In fact, if Adja hadn't pointed it out, he would have assumed it was part of the base despite being located in the 'civilian' part of the airfield, given the aircraft contained within;

A quartet of GDI's VTOLs, Orcas those were called... just not in GDI colours.

How on Earth did they get their hands on those? And with GDI's approval too judging by the lack of supersoldiers storming the hangar to get their tech back.

The little girl named Adja smiled at his reaction. "By the way, I liked your piece on what life is like in Italy now, it really had heart it in."

"Thanks?" he answered.

"It was nice to get a view into one of the camps," Adja said thoughtfully. "Especially with our operations, we lose sight of the bigger picture. It was nice knowing how our contributions worked out."

Contributions? Jess frowned trying to recall if there was anything even tangentially related to mercenaries in the pieces indicated... If he recalled correctly that one was about the problem that the Federation and GDI were having in moving and resettling people out of Italy and the SJZ. An unmitigated mess of a job if he were to be honest but one that couldn't be helped... At least they were staying ahead thanks to GDI's help, especially those forty or so Global Stratospheric Transports the GDI government and a civilian consortium whose name he can't recall at the moment had effectively loaned to the Eurasians for this task.

It was apparently akin to having their own mass driver on call according to one Eurasian engineer involved with the project and they were making use of it both for transporting the refugees and by using it to deliver material to build the camps and upgrade their own transport infrastructure.

...Ah right, the GST drop zones in Greece and Cyprus were protected by PMCs instead of government troops due to some old treaty or something.

"I guess It is huh?" he agreed, turning to look at the Orcas, which weres now out of the hangar and in the open.

"Erm...You look tired, we have beds if you want to get some sleep?" Adja pipped.

"No," Jess smiled tiredly, shaking his head. "I'd love to but my flight is in three or so hours. Possibly. Besides, you've already done enough with that wake-up call. Thanks."

"Huh? Alright...Then do you want a tour?" Adja asked hopefully.

"Is that really alright?" Jess asked, a bit skeptical about the whole thing.

"It's fine, as long as mom says it's OK," Adja answered tapping on her EVA-watch. "Besides, Uncle Gai would probably think of it as free advertisement if you do a piece on us or something."

"Huh?"

"Mom says that it's OK but you'll have to wait 30 minutes, they're prepping some gunships for patrol and they want to look their best if there's someone visiting."

"That's fine," Jess answered, not worried about the wait.

"By the way, are you going to South America?"

"Yes?" he answered slowly. "How did you know?"

"The first scheduled flight out in three hours is to the USSA and I guessed. Sooo, do you need protection? It's getting quite chaotic there and we've got a bunch of new rookies who are willing to do it for cheap."

"The USSA government needs it more than me," he joked to the girl's half-mock scowl. "Alright, alright, seriously though. I have a friend over at the DSSD main base, he's the head of security maybe he'll know someone."

00

Unknown location, Unknown time

When Rau woke up, it was to a world of pain. Well, far more pain than usual at least. His entire body felt like someone had thrown him into a meat-grinder and haphazardly patched up the chewed up remains while a infernal light sent spikes of agony hammering through his eyes and into his brain before he hurriedly closed his eyes.

What the hell happened? The last thing he remembered was... was... being on the bridge of the Earth Alliance battleship as the thing slammed into the atmosphere. He had stayed too long on the bridge trying to collect information and send it back to his fleet. A foolish decision given that the Earth soldier had succeeded in his final act... And that he hadn't bothered to reverse it.

He had tried to get back to his GINN or an escape pod only for the bridge to seal itself in preparation for reentry and...

He carefully cracked his eye open. Featureless gray ceiling enclosed by more featuress grey walls greeted him. The only features in the room were a naked lightbulb, the bed he was strapped to and the chair next to it. At least that's how it looked, if there was a door, it must have been in the blind spot behind him.

CLANK-CLUNK

A man walked silently into his field of vision. Newspaper in one hand, a briefcase in the other, he silently took a seat on the chair, studiously ignoring Rau's presence save for a momentary murderous glare. Making himself comfortable, the man simply unfolded his paper and started reading.

Rau closed his eyes, taking the time to get his mind into some semblance of order. Opening them again, he focused on the newspaper, trying to spot the date. Of course it wasn't reliable since something like that could be fabricated or the man could be reading a old paper but it was a start.

And wherever he was, he wasn't with GDI. For one, all of his sources said that they didn't even produce newspapers anymore, at least not paper kind anyway. And even if they did, it probably wouldn't have headlines like ''ZAFT Warships Driven from Earth Orbit, UN Powerless to Stop Battle'.

That and an opinions headline that read, 'Dogs are evil, cats are gods'

Huh.

"So Zafie boy's awake huh?" The man absently turned a page on his paper. "So how's Da Flaga's little boy doing nowadays?"

For an instant Rau saw red, trying to leap up and wring the man's neck. The only things that stopped him were the half-forgotten restraints tying him down.

"Oh sorry, did I say boy?" The man put down his paper, smiling mockingly at Rau's reaction. "I meant Da Flaga defective little puppet. I'm surprised that ZAFT allowed trash like you to join them. Then again, I guess you can't expect standards from coordinators."

Rau stayed silent, electing instead to simply glare hatefully at other man who simply shrugged unapologetically, returning to his paper as though Rau wasn't a concern.

"What do you want?" Rau grunted after a few minutes of silent glaring.

"Rude," the man snorted, neatly folding his paper. "But then, we can't blame a defect for not knowing it's place, can we."

He sneered.

"You should really be thanking me you know. The recovery team wanted to just shoot you. But after that stunt you did up in orbit and the data drive you've got on you, I've managed to convince them that you have a higher purpose than that."

"Can we get to the point or are you going to monologue some more?" Rau spat.

"Very well then," the man smirked, putting away his paper and reaching beneath his chair, revealing the briefcase which he then flipped open. Inside, surrounded by intricate machinery, was a glass orb... and suspended within that orb was a shard of something, glowing with a sick green light. "Do you know what this is? We went through a lot of trouble to get it."

"A Tiberium crystal," Rau snorted. "You fool, you've killed us both."

"Not quite," the man smiled thinly, closing the briefcase again. "Tiberium as GDI calls it, is an enigma in many ways. But it does answer to the same fundamental forces as everything else."

"Keep telling yourself that," Rau snorted, thoroughly unimpressed.

"One of the things we had figured out, is that electromagnetic suspension works for small enough samples, though it is disproportionately energy-expensive for some unknown reason." Ignoring Rau, the man continued with a mirthless smile. "Like this case. It has enough batteries to power my car for half a week but at the rate that this thing is going, I doubt it'll last another ten minutes."

The man gave a particularly sadistic smile as he gently placed the case on Rau's bedside table, ignoring the other man's futile struggles all the while.

"Enjoy."

With that, he walked out the door, the hatch sealing itself behind him with a resounding thud. A few minutes later, a subtle green glow filled the room as the briefcase... crystallized for the lack of a better word.

Rau screamed as the burning started.

00

"You think that fucker is still alive?"

"You think? Bloody crystals ate all the monitors but having oh I don't know, having goddamned radioactive alien Von-Neumann crystals growing out of your brain seems rather hazardous to me."

For the second time in the day Rau woke up to pain... though strangely, this time it was muted. Even the lifelong pain that was the curse of his existence seemed to have lessened. Somehow he was still alive... and feeling better that he had in a long time. Either that or the afterlife was stranger then he had thought. Judging by the muffled conversation in the room, he'd say it was the former.

"Bloody disgusting is what it is. Bravo team got picked off by those damned blue helmets, I hope all of this is worth it."

Rau lightly cracked open an eye, finding the darkness of the room to be... strangely bright all things considered, a sentiment not shared by the two hazmat-clad figures standing over him judging by the helmet-mounted lights.

I need to escape, Rau thought while trying to stay calm as one of the figures closed in, holding a... hacksaw. He took a slow but shallow breath, trying to conceal his breathing.

"Hey is that coord fucker still movi-"

Rau surged up, punching the closest figure with all his might, hoping to disorientate him. To his surprise, he somehow instead managed to drive the spike of Tiberium growing out of his forearm through the figure's chestplate and out the other side in a spray of blood. Still, he did not hesitate, using the impaled man as a shield as he charged the other figure with a beastial roar, slamming them both through the closing hatch into the bulkhead beyond with a wet splat. Barely coherent through the red fog filling his vision, he was dimly aware of the klaxon and the rhythmic thuds of combat boots echoing in the background - and that he had been mauling the already dead corpse for a while now.

"GODDAMN! WHAT IN GOD'S NAME! SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT!"

Snapping around, Rau saw another pair of figures backlit by sunlight against an open hatch, this time armed but fumbling with their rifles in shock. Running out of options, he grabbed the nearest object and flung it as hard as he could at the newcomers with a savage roar. The armored disemboweled corpse flew through the air faster than a baseball thrown by a professional athlete, bowling the unprepared soldiers off their feets. Acting more on instinct than rational thought, Rau seized the chance offered, covering the distance in three rage fueled leaps, lifting up the first trooper and smashing him into the second in an explosion of bloody gore.

Then he staggered backwards as a trio of bullets shattered against his chest, each feeling like muted hammerblow. Coughing, he rolled back into the cover offered by the hatchway as more rounds started sparking off the metal deck.

'Two rifles, elevated position, slow three-round burst fire,' Rau noted detachedly, vaguely aware that the pain in his chest was already fading, 'probably guards in a watchtower trying to conserve ammunition, to keep me suppressed for as long as possible. The only reason why they would do that is to keep me pinned for more troops to arrive considering they didn't hesitate to use lethal force earlier. Which means I need to get out of here soon.'

Nodding, he peeked over the edge of the entryway. There, about half a dozen meters left, rope railings before a vast blue expanse with land in the distance. Ship, he realised, he was on a actual wet water cargo ship. How quaint. Still, that was his only means of escape. Decision made, he took a moment to gather himself, waiting for one of the shooters to reload.

Then he sprinted.

00

April 6, CE 70/2070

Eurasian Federation, Vatican city

In the heart of the Holy See, two intelligence agents of very different backgrounds strode down St. Peter's Square, having accomplished their tasks for the day.

"So you were saying the Church didn't make it?"

"Yes and no. Christianity the religion still exists." The InOps agent known only as 'John' replied, staring pass the cross-tipped obelisk which dominated the square at the grand facade of St. Peter's Basilica. "But all of this? My generation has never seen this outside of old pictures or digital recreations. Nod made especially sure of that."

"Is that so," Hamazh grunted non-committedly. "I am guessing that they did a little bombing with that deadly green crystals of yours?"

"No," the InOps agent sighed. "Back in 2020s, the Noddies hit the place with an entire Black Hand division, including several cyborg commandos. The Swiss Guards and GDI garrison took heavy casualties but Nod got their asses kicked so badly that them ass lickers fell back and hit the Basilica with cluster missiles to save face."

"Cluster missiles?" Hamazh asked before shaking his head. "Nevermind, not important. Still, seems like your Nod went into a whole lot of trouble over nothing. I mean terrorism, sure, but attacking a church, even St Peter's, with an army?"

'John' shrugged. "Like you said, Nod's usual MO with rival religions is usually terrorism like when they bombed the Kongmiao back in 2018 and targeted other religious targets around the world. They stepped up their campaign after the Second Tiberium War by targeting the remaining religious sites within their Yellow Zones. This attack was so outside of their usual methods that there was probably more to the Vatican assault but we've never been able to prove or disprove it."

"So that's why you were so suspicious when they kept denying access," the Eurasian agent nodded slowly in understanding. "You think they are trying to hide something?"

"Maybe. Or maybe they are just buying time to come to an internal decision," John shrugged. "Not too sure if you know this but the church back home only decided to officially move to the UK in 2011, almost a whole decade after most of Rome had been um... evacuated."

"Yeah, I can see that," Hamazh said, giving a nod to a passing pair of Swiss guardsmen. Unlike the rest of Southern Italy, the ancient streets of Rome still throng with life, with locals indispensable to the functioning of the Italian national government, allied relief efforts and pilgrims from all around the world. "I mean this is the Vatican. It's not something which could be abandoned easily."

"Easily or not, it had to be done, even before Nod's attack," John shrugged.

"Speaking of what has to be done, what's the status on that mutant clone the Navy picked up?" Hamazh asked as the pair passed the colonnades which marked the end of the square.

"You mean Rau la Flaga?" 'John' blinked, "last I heard he's still recovering on the Amaterasu. But shouldn't you know that since there's a bunch of your co-workers keeping an eye on him?"

"It's compartmentalised to hell and back on our end," Hamazh shrugged. "Can't blame a man for being curious since that is one heck of a political shitstorm we're going to be dealing with if the medical analysis and his testimony got out. Especially with what it means with Blue Cosmos."

Political shitstorm would be an understatement indeed, Hamazh thought, feeling a chill run down his spine. Human cloning was illegal in the Earthsphere and for a good reason. To think that the ZAFT commander was allegedly a failed clone of Al Da Flaga, the same Al Da Flaga whose name still meant something in the Atlantic Federation despite his death years earlier and whose staunch opposition to gene-engineering had became one of the largest rallying cry for the anti-coordinator movement?

To learn that the man had been associated with Doctor Ulen Hibiki, yes, that Doctor Ulen Hibiki of the ultimate coordinator fame? And had been funding the latter's research to use 'perfect' clones in some sort of demented bid for immortality? Yes, political shitstorm would be an understatement, if he hadn't seen the unmasked clone and the medical results first hand as Eurasian Intelligence liaison to InOps at the time, he'd have long ago dismissed that bombshell as the rambling of some conspiracy theorist.

The only thing that fit with what they knew was that Blue Cosmos was responsible for putting an end to that project - which only deepened the sense of paranoia that his higher-ups had about the organisation.

"After all, they would have to have had powerful backers of their own if Hibiki was still silenced even with the protection of someone like Al Flaga..."

"Be careful," John suddenly tugged on his shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts, though not quite in time to stop him from colliding with a group of passing nuns and tripping one of them.

"Mi scusi," he quickly muttered, quickly grabbing the stumbling woman before she could fall.

"Oh my. Thank you," the elderly woman replied after getting back on her feet. "God bless you son, these old eyes weren't what they once were."

"Anyway, we already know that, or at least you should," John shrugged after they continued on their way. "Outside of lone wolves, terrorists always have some kind of backers. Also check your pockets."

"I think you don't really understand how powerful Al Flaga was," Hamazh shrugged, feeling a small object in his coat pocket that was most decidedly not there before. With careful casualness, he took off his coat and draped it around his arms before continuing walking as though nothing happened." And I suspect that someone in the Vatican have gotten tired of waiting."

"Figures," John grunted. "In any case, rumors from high is that we are going to work with you guys on the Blue Cosmos connection. Elint in exchange for humint. That sort of things."

"And the Earth Alliance, Atlantic Federation thing?"

"Investigations are still ongoing," John shrugged. "But I am pretty sure that nothing will come out of it."

'Which means it is probably classified to hell and back and I should shut up unless I want to get burnt,' Hamazh thought. "Right, no news so far. Got it."

After all, accusing a fellow superpower of staging a battle just to steal some hell-crystals was something done with mountains of evidence and only if one was willing and ready to fight a war.

And that was without mentioning the 'conspiring to destroy one of their of their allies' cities, operating black sites inside said ally's borders and just general conspiracy to destabilise said ally's government'-part...

He shook his head, stepping off the streets and into the lobby of the hotel they were officially based out of.

"Okay, you want to do this on your systems or on ours?" he asked as they entered the elevator.

"Yours. I doubt the data format is compatible without networking to an EVA node with the gear I have on me."

"Right then," Hamazh nodded, unlocking his hotel room. Once inside, he carefully set his coat on the table, reaching into a nearby drawer to produce a box-like device which he placed on the coat.

"Alright my sniffer read clear," he announced a minute later when the device beeped. "You got any toys you want to use to verify before we touch it?"

"Is this standard procedure?" John nodded approvingly as he scanned the coat using handphone-like device. "Clear."

"You'd be surprised at the amount of chemical weapons that went 'missing' during the Reconstruction War," Hamazh said, fishing the 'package' out of his coat after donning a pair of gloves.

It looked like a standard USB drive, just like any other found in gift shops all around the city. Shrugging, the Eurasian intelligence agent simply reached into another drawer for a disposable "burner" notebook, one without any wireless capability whatsoever.

"Alright... it looks like it is just PDF scans, a couple terabits of them." Hamazh announced a few minutes later. "The first one looks like records of the Knights Templar just after the First Crusade, and I'm betting there's other stuff too. This is probably the parts of the Archive the Vatican want us to have."

"Or a very good falsification," John nodded, looking over his shoulder at the latin script on the screen. "Can you make a copy now? I need to forward this to my superiors."

"Sure." Hamazh blinked as one particular highlighted phase caught his eye. "Huh? That's interesting."

"What is it?"

"I'm lacking context but this phase here says 'darkened blades wielded by the Black Hand, they who seek to end our exile from the land of Nod.' ".