Hello everyone! I'm back! Mwuhahahahaha!

Okay, joy at updating at a reasonably faster pace than the past several years out of the way. Let's move on!

I'm going to presume I have no one but myself to blame for the lack of reviews last chapter, having been away for so long and this story being decidedly less popular than the other one I've returned to, The White Queen. I suppose the only thing that really disappoints me about it is that I really wanted to see what the reaction to the scene with Miriallia would be like.

Anyways, not going to spend too much time up here, other than to say that I've been looking forward to this update, I expect to have my head bitten off, and I apologize that Amelia doesn't really contribute anything, she's actually a really hard character to write!

Note: Any underlined dialogue is being spoken in Japanese.

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. I claim ownership of all OCs that appear in this chapter.

Seventh Phase: The Valentine Memorial
January 26th, Cosmic Era 71

The Archangel

Miriallia and Mu stared at one another after his question, the cold, uncomfortable silence stretching on for a moment before the teenager let out a sigh… and before Mu's eyes, her entire body language shifted, and the mobile armor ace suddenly felt nervous standing in the office with her.

"Yes," said Miriallia. "Identification number 178229, Crewman Miriallia Haw, flight control officer of the Laurasia."

"The Laurasia?" gasped Mu. She nodded.

"My parents were Naturals," she said. "We lived in the PLANTs for most of my life, and I ultimately volunteered for ZAFT. After the Bloody Valentine, we were all so angry, but… I didn't agree with it." She glanced away from him, a bitter smile on her lips. "I was the fleet-wide flight control officer for the Carpentaria orbital drop after the April Fools Crisis. It was all becoming too much, so I went AWOL at the first opportunity after that. I didn't have a lot of access or anything, so I wasn't an important enough deserter to attract attention, especially not with all the chaos going on around the Grimaldi Front."

"So you ran to Heliopolis, I'm guessing with your parents, in order to escape the war… until ZAFT and the Atlantic Federation brought it right back to your doorstep," said Mu, shaking his head. "Man, oh man. Sorry about that."

"It's fine," she said. "So what gave me away? Was I doing too much or was I too knowledgeable? Though I'll admit, it's not as though I felt like I could do any less under the circumstances."

"Lots of little things that eventually added up to something big," he said. "Don't worry; I'll keep quiet about you being ex-ZAFT. Might be better to confess to being a Coordinator sooner rather than later though, but I won't spill that either."

She smiled.

"Thank you lieutenant."

"No problem, and thanks for answering my question honestly," he said. "There is something that confuses me, though: why didn't you volunteer to pilot? You clearly have a good idea about mobile suit combat. Did you just want to keep quiet about being a Coordinator?"

Miriallia shook her head at that, a distant look in her eyes.

"I can't fly," she said. "I did try to train for it, but it turns out I'm a total klutz in a mobile suit." She tapped the side of her head. "My abilities are mostly mental rather than physical. It lets me pass for a Natural pretty easily, and makes it easy for me to handle and process a lot of information. Makes me great at handling shipboard systems. Mobile suits? Not so much."

Mu chuckled slightly, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder and giving it a light squeeze.

"Well, I'm grateful for it," he said. "I don't know that the ship or those kids would've made it through that last battle without your skills and experience. From the sound of it, I think you might be more experienced than any of our other officers."

"Yes, well, let's keep that part to ourselves."

Several hours later

The battle with the Le Creuset Team had taken place not long after midnight going by Coordinated Universal Time, which was used on all ships and orbital structures. As such, many of the crewmembers and refugees had ultimately gone to sleep not long after the battle, many just sleeping in whatever bunks were available in the regular crew quarters.

After waking up, Makoto had been informed by Arnold that he'd worked out quarters assignments for the crew and refugees with Murrue, and he'd wanted to double check with her if she had any objections.

The ship had the captain's quarters, five single-occupant officers' quarters, six dual-occupancy pilots' quarters, and fifty regular crew quarters with four bunks each.

Since the crew was, to put it very generously, a skeleton crew, there was plenty of room for everyone aboard.

Murrue would, of course, be taking the captain's quarters. Mu, Natarle, Arnold, Makoto, and Murdoch would be taking the five officers' quarters. Kira and Ayane would each be getting pilots' quarters to themselves, as would Doctor Katsu and nurse-in-training Rei Kamachi, in recognition of the additional help they were contributing. Another had been assigned to Silvia Newman and her daughter, Elle, who was only seven years old. This left one pilots' quarters unassigned, but the decision had been made to leave that one unoccupied at this time.

The remaining crew—security officers Roman Hathaway, Garrett Buckley, and Raymond Graham, as well as the mechanics Timothy Valdez, Gabriel Willett, Riley Irizarry, Tiffany McMullen, and Caden Sinclair—would be using the regular crew quarters, along with the volunteers and the remaining refugees.

The redhead sighed as she sat down on her newly assigned bed, trying to relax a little. The last twenty-four hours had been nothing short of crazy, and she wanted nothing more than to pass back out and not have to worry about anything for a week.

Unfortunately, things weren't that simple. She'd only have a little bit to relax before she'd need to head for the hangar to make sure the Dauntless was in functioning order and see what she could do to help with repairs to the ship.

She'd probably need to see the officers about what supplies were like onboard. The ship's life support systems would be able to recycle the oxygen for weeks, possibly even months without any concerns. But food and water represented a far more valuable and limited resource.

Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since before all of this had started. That couldn't be helping her exhaustion.

Standing, Makoto cast one last glance at her new quarters before departing for the mess hall.

The Mess Hall

Kira let out a sigh as he idly stared at the food on the tray in front of him.

He had to eat, he knew that… but despite not having eaten in over twelve hours, despite his stomach growling at him… he just couldn't work up an appetite.

After getting a proper night's rest, everything about yesterday had caught up to him properly. He'd taken a life yesterday and contributed towards any number of deaths… but at the same time, many lives would've been lost by a refusal to act.

Was this really the path of a soldier? Was that how they justified the taking of human lives?

"Hey, you holding up okay?" asked Sai softly, sitting across the table from Kira. The brunet shook his head.

"Not really," he said. "I'm still… I'm still having a hard time believing all of this. Just yesterday, everything was normal, and now…"

"Yeah, it's a pretty sudden change," said Sai. He glanced away. "I don't like the confirmation of what we were working on either. This whole situation is just…"

He trailed off with a small shrug. Kira understood regardless. Their lives were in the hands of the Atlantic crew. The only real comfort Kira took was from Mu and Makoto. The mobile armor ace had been earnest, open, and kind, reassuring them at every step and promising to get them through all of this. And Makoto… as much as Kira hated thinking about it regarding his childhood friend, she was an Orb soldier, their protector, and she would fight tooth and nail to keep them safe from both ZAFT and the Atlantic Federation.

At that moment, the door to the mess hall opened and the redhead in question stepped inside, letting out a small sigh.

"Makoto!" said Kira, standing up. She blinked at him, and he got the distinct impression that she hadn't gotten enough sleep.

"Kira-san? Is something wrong?"

"Ah… no," said Kira, sitting back down. "Just… it's been stressful."

"Now that I understand," said Makoto as she headed over to the counter to grab some food. "Honestly, I'd like nothing more than to pass back out, but there's just too much to be done. Not to mention I need to eat." Makoto grabbed a tray of rations and walked over to sit down next to Kira. "Have either of you seen Honda-san?" As she sat down, her breasts bounced slightly, catching the boys' off-guard, both of them quickly glancing away.

"Not today," said Kira softly. "But I can't imagine Ayane is doing all that well."

"It's not easy," murmured Makoto. "For all my training, it was only yesterday that I actually took a life. I admit, I emptied my stomach afterwards. That probably isn't helping with how hungry I am." As if to punctuate that statement, Makoto's stomach emitted a loud growl at that moment, causing the redhead to blush intensely.

"Are you going to be okay on these rations?" asked Kira, staring at the food on her tray. Over the past three weeks, it had been made obvious to the brunet that his redheaded friend ate a lot—there hadn't been leftovers from dinner in the Yamato Household since she'd arrived on Heliopolis.

"It won't be pleasant," said Makoto with a weak smile. "We occasionally had to operate with little food during training, but it was the exception. To be honest, I suspect my metabolism would've been a problem in any other military, but the operational nature of the OSDF means that we'd lose, win, or die long before food rations became a concern."

Silence followed for a few minutes before Sai spoke up.

"I should probably check on Flay," he said. "I can't imagine how she's handling all of this."

"Before you go, is there anything you'd like me to address with the captain?" asked Makoto as he stood up. He shook his head.

"Nothing specific I can think of."

She nodded in acknowledgment before focusing back on her meal.

"You really should eat," she said softly to Kira, drawing her friend's eyes. "You're going to need as much energy as you can get. It's going to be a busy day."

"Yeah…"

Meanwhile

Ayane was lying on the bed of her newly assigned quarters, listless and exhausted, struggling just to comprehend it all, with both Sora and Misako sitting on the room's other bed.

It had been foolish of her, volunteering to fly the Adamant the way she had. She wasn't a trained soldier like Makoto, nor did she have the kind of crazy ability Kira had (truthfully, she didn't know anyone else with his level of ability). She'd been counting on what she'd heard about the armor on the mobile suits to keep her in one piece.

To be fair, it had done so… but only against that GINN she'd destroyed. In the last battle though, against the Buster and Blitz… she'd gotten lucky. She'd gotten so incredibly lucky, and some part of her still shook at the thought of it.

But even so, she'd already committed to this course and planned to see it through. She knew that no one would fault her if she chose to abandon piloting and help out some other way—never mind the fact that she was a civilian refugee, she was only fourteen years old. Even by Coordinator standards, she was barely more than a child.

She wouldn't though. She'd at least keep fighting until Kira and Makoto could stand down. She'd taken a life already, stained her hands forever with the blood of an enemy soldier. She had no innocence left to protect.

But if she fought alongside Kira and Makoto, then she could keep her friends safe while keeping them from having to lose their own innocence.

That was all easy to recognize from a purely intellectual point of view. But emotionally, it wasn't so easy. That was why Sora and Misako were here. She needed her brother and friend right now. Their presence alone was helping her.

She'd take comfort in that for now, but eventually she'd have to talk to the other pilots. They understood, in a way that others couldn't.

Beyond that, though, they'd also be able to help her improve so that she could continue to protect her friends, without having to rely on the insane luck that had kept her alive so far.

She turned over slightly, her thoughts swirling, but taking comfort in the quiet presence of her brother and childhood friend.

Later

Makoto stood in the captain's office, arms folded in discomfort, facing Murrue and preparing to ask a somewhat awkward question.

She'd become aware of a particular problem the refugees—including herself and the volunteers—would have to contend with, something she suspected wouldn't have even crossed Murrue's mind.

That wasn't a slight against the junior officer who'd been thrust into a position of command way over her head. It was just a matter of slightly different circumstances between the crew and the refugees that would leave Murrue quite unintentionally overlooking a bothersome detail.

The issues with food and water were obvious enough. Only slightly less obvious were issues such as the parts needed for maintenance on the ship and mobile weapons, as well as the matter of ammunition. They only had so many missiles and bullets, after all.

But the issue Makoto needed to address with Murrue now was different, and she was feeling a little embarrassed by it.

Not counting Murrue, Natarle, or the mechanic Tiffany, there were more than a dozen women aboard the ship, as well as a child. That complicated things.

A personal part of the problem for Makoto at that particular moment as well was the fact that she was taller than Murrue, and neither Natarle nor Tiffany were anywhere near as busty as Makoto was.

"Ramius-kancho…" said Makoto, dropping her arms and letting them deliberately brush her breasts, sending them bouncing slightly and confirming her current lack of any undergarments to hold them still. "Would you have any spare bras I could try to fit into?"

The Vesalius
February 3rd

Rau stared at the giant, hourglass-shaped colonies known as PLANTs, each one comprised of two disks thirty kilometers in diameter and tethered to the central hub by a sixty kilometer central shaft and network of high-tension cables. Even after living on one for over a decade, he still couldn't help but admire them as the crew skillfully guided his broken and battered flagship into docking position.

It had been more than a week since their battle with the legged ship near Artemis. Ordinarily, the trip would've taken at most three days, but in this case, he considered it a stroke of luck that they didn't end up needing to call up help and have the ship towed all the way to the Homeland.

Being honest with himself, he wasn't sorry to have been recalled. It had been over four months since he'd last seen the Homeland, and some small part of him was a little homesick. More than that, though, he was looking forward to seeing his daughter again. Along with the other children he'd looked after before the war began, she was a bright spot in his life, a beacon of hope in a world shrouded in darkness.

"Will you have Zala and Hawkins accompany you for the inquiry?" asked Ades, interrupting his thoughts.

"Athrun yes, Amelia I'm not so sure of," said Rau. "Athrun was present for the incident and is capable of calm and objective analysis. Amelia is normally quite capable in that regard as well, but this situation seems to have gotten to her quite a bit."

That was understating things—Amelia, regardless of her personal feelings on orders she received, had never once displayed insubordination beyond noting a calm official protest in all her time with ZAFT, right from the moment she was drafted and started training at the Academy.

That had changed when she was ordered to transfer back to the Vesalius for a return to the Homeland, loudly objecting to the order and cursing at Rau for it. She'd ultimately obeyed with nothing more than that uncharacteristic emotional outburst, but it was a shock, and in any other military would have resulted in her suspension.

It concerned Rau. What was it about Whiplash's pilot that had so badly set her off? He'd never imagined, even after his meeting with her about it, that she'd lash out so badly.

"From the reports I've seen, it seems that Orb has been protesting rather emphatically over all of this," said Ades. "Though I admit, it's a little hard to blame them for it."

"True, but we have enough leverage to keep the international community cowed on this," said Rau. "Words, nothing more. The Alliance would like nothing more than for this to drive Orb into their arms, our allies will stand with us, and the other nations can't do anything without revoking their neutrality, and none of them want to do that." He grimaced. "It would be even less of a concern if those fools hadn't drilled N-jammers into the Earth's surface."

"Commander? But isn't that the only reason we've made it so far on Earth?"

"Ades, I'm afraid that kind of small thinking is the reason this war has dragged on," said Rau gently. "You're smarter than that. Look at the big picture. We had public support on Earth after the Bloody Valentine. We might've been able to persuade Scandinavia and the Equatorial Union, maybe even Orb, to revoke their neutrality and ally with us, and having the citizenry of the Alliance nations opposed to the war would have been in our favor. Then the April Fools Crisis turned public opinion against us. By our actions that day, we've murdered at least as many as died on Junius Seven. More than ten thousand of our own deserted in the wake of that, several even outright defecting to the Alliance. On top of all of that, the Alliance was able to acquire the technology for themselves and develop some countermeasures to it." He turned his focus fully to his gaping subordinate, idly noting most of the bridge crew lending him their ear as well. "Consider all of that and tell me that it was the right call. Ades, we could have won this war by now if we'd been smarter about our use of the N-jammers."

"I… I see."

"At any rate, it's a messy political situation all around, but the Athha and Seiran are too spineless to do anything about it," said Rau. "Again, the Imperial Family might've been a concern, but at the end of the day, the Empress is little more than a figurehead. The Sahaku will be trying to deal with the consequences of all this—they're Morgenroete's majority shareholder after all—and the Labatt have almost no influence on foreign affairs." He shook his head. "In the worst case scenario, I will take full responsibility and bear the consequences. If that should happen, I'll recommend Rusty take over as commander, or perhaps Commander Thompson, if she can be spared from the Academy."

Rau turned to leave the bridge.

"We've been given some leave, but I want to get back out there as soon as we can," he said. "Ades, please try to have the resupply and repairs done as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I'll be taking both Athrun and Amelia with me, see if she's in condition to report to the Council. Some engineers will be sent to retrieve the captured weapons as well."

"Yes sir, I'll see to it."

The Archangel

Murrue let out a sigh, idly twirling her bangs around her finger as she sat in the captain's office, contemplating everything that had been going on since their escape from the Le Creuset Team.

She'd been as embarrassed as Makoto when the latter asked about borrowing a bra. The question had rather driven home a logistical issue Murrue had overlooked.

Unfortunately, it turned out that Murrue's bras didn't fit Makoto properly. Raiding the laundry of the crewmen who died during the ZAFT raid, though uncomfortable, had yielded at least some results. Most of the refugees had spare undergarments they could use, with most of the women able to fit into some of the bras, if somewhat uncomfortably.

The little girl, Elle, had ended up having to go without panties of any kind, since they obviously had nothing to fit her and lacked any means of refitting anything. As it was, they'd had to tear up the uniform coats of deceased crewmen in order to make what amounted to a few extra oversized, improperly fitting dresses for her.

Most of the refugees were wearing shirts, pants, and skirts raided from the uniforms of deceased crewmen or some of the spare cadet uniforms, like what they'd given to the volunteers.

Ayane and Misako, younger and less developed than most of the other women aboard the ship, hadn't been able to find any bras that fit them properly, but had also had an easier time going without due to that same lack of development.

Makoto and Flay, unfortunately, were left to go entirely without. None of the original crew had a figure like Flay's—petite with large breasts—and Murrue was the only one with a figure even close to Makoto's, but was both shorter and bustier than the redhead, resulting in her bras so badly fitting Makoto's chest that she was better off grabbing a uniform jacket slightly too small for her and buttoning it up.

And unfortunately, it wasn't as though they had the water supplies to just keep washing everything for reuse. They had to be conservative.

Which brought them to their current situation.

While Miriallia had managed to save the engines from any kind of catastrophic failure, it had taken them several days to effect repairs, due to only having five mechanics and a handful of engineering students who could contribute to the work, while also having to keep up on everything else. While plenty of the refugees had been helping out in small ways, the reality was that the lifeboat shelter had been for a sector rather far from the engineering sector, so few of them had skills to contribute that were useful in the current situation.

By the time the engines had been repaired and they were able to get the ship under power again, it was no longer a practical idea to try and turn around towards Artemis. Instead, they'd tried plotting a course around the Debris Belt for Lunar HQ, only to determine supplies wouldn't last long enough. Going through the Debris Belt at sufficient speed to avoid that problem would've resulted in them getting shredded though.

Mu had hit upon the solution.

They were now combing through the Debris Belt, looking to scavenge supplies, with water being priority number one.

They couldn't get food this way, but their rationing had left them with sufficient supplies on that front, though there had been some juggling involved where Makoto was concerned. Within a few days, it had become clear that the smaller portions were having a big impact on Makoto's health, which Murrue felt was unacceptable for one of their pilots. She'd ordered Makoto's rations to be increased, something both Natarle and Makoto herself had initially objected too… at least, until Natarle had taken a close look at the redhead and noticed her haggard, gaunt appearance and the bags under her eyes. Afterwards, Natarle had personally ensured that Makoto was getting enough food, even if it was over the redhead's objections against getting special treatment.

But while the Debris Belt couldn't help them with their food situation, it could help with other supplies: over the course of months and years, plenty of the larger pieces of debris had accumulated at least some ice that they could purify for use as drinking water, and the remains of both ZAFT and Alliance warships floated in the Debris Belt, recent enough additions that collisions hadn't reduced them to scrap metal. From there, they could retrieve parts that may be compatible with their mobile suits (though Kira and Murdoch had been a bit skeptical of that), and if nothing else they'd be able to stock up on seventy-five millimeter ammunition for the Igelstellungs on both the mobile suits and the Archangel itself. Plus, they might be able to retrieve some Korinthos missiles from any mostly intact Drake-class escort ships they found.

One thing was for damn sure: the volunteers were proving their worth again. Ever since they first entered and began combing the Debris Belt, Misako had been working expertly with Arnold to navigate through the hazardous space. Sai, meanwhile, had taken the time to study and familiarize himself with the fire control station and all of the ship's weapons. The kid was a genius—pressed with a few differing scenarios, he'd quickly managed to calculate the behavior of the ship's weapons without computer assistance, and they'd verified his accuracy with computer simulations.

As such, if they ended up in battle again, Sai would be taking over fire control from Natarle, letting the deputy captain focus instead on coordinating the CIC and assisting Murrue with the task of command. Sora had assured them that he'd be able to handle electronic warfare solo, but they'd simply decided they had to take his word for it.

Really, all things considered, they were doing pretty reasonably. Still, Murrue wouldn't really feel better until they could rendezvous with some kind of allied forces.

Outside the Archangel

The Strike, Adamant, Dauntless, and Moebius Zero moved through the debris field surrounding the Archangel, pulling double duty as lookouts for both unusual activity and any potential useful salvage. Back aboard the ship, the mechanics and volunteer refugees (both the students who'd volunteered for the bridge and others who'd volunteered to help with this job specifically) were familiarizing themselves fully with the Mistral worker pods.

The exceptions to that were Sai and Murdoch, who were near the Archangel in one Mistral pod already. Thus far, salvage had been minimal, small things that the mobile suits could quickly retrieve and hand off to the single pod to return to the ship.

That would change soon though: they'd detected an enormous piece of debris several hundred kilometers away and were currently approaching it. It might be nothing, but odds were good they'd find something there.

"Kira-san, Honda-san, how are you two doing?" asked Makoto as the four mobile weapons rotated fields, the Dauntless moving from point position to the Archangel's starboard side, the Adamant moving from starboard to aft, the Zero from aft to port, and the Strike from port side to the point position.

"I'm doing okay," said Ayane. "Thanks to all of you, I'm starting to actually feel pretty comfortable flying this thing."

"Same here, though I don't really like the idea," said Kira.

"Like it or not, it's a good thing you're getting used to it," said Mu. "Lieutenant Arata, how about you?"

"Honestly? I think the cockpit layout needs to be seriously redone, but other than that, I'm good. At this point, I've managed to adapt to the differences from a GINN. Thank you for your help with that, Kira-san, Flaga-chūi."

"Yeah…"

The four fell silent after that, wrapped up in their own thoughts.

While nothing that had happened since the ZAFT attack on Heliopolis had sat right with Kira, this whole salvage operation especially turned his stomach.

The Atlantics argument for it had been well-reasoned, rational… and coldly practical. But to Kira, it was still grave robbing. The fact that Makoto was totally onboard upset him as well. Wasn't this whole thing disrespectful to those who had lost their lives?

Didn't any of them value human lives?

A sudden gasp over the comm. line drew Kira from his reverie. He looked around, trying to figure out what might've caught someone off-guard when he noticed the large object visible directly ahead. He frowned, pressing a switch to zoom in on it… and gasped in shock.

"No way… it can't be…"

"It's just a coincidence, right? Right?!"

"I don't think so," said Makoto. "Archangel, can you confirm the object?"

"Yes," said Mir, her voice tight. "It's a PLANT continent. It's the part of Junius Seven that remained in Earth orbit."

PLANT Transport Shuttle #N27

When Rau, Athrun, and Amelia floated onto the shuttle, they found a surprise waiting for them, one that prompted them to quickly move to attention, saluting the individual seated onboard, a tall man with graying hair and dark eyes.

"Defense Committee Chairman Zala," said Rau, his voice not conveying any of the surprise he felt. "I hope you will permit us to accompany you."

"No need for formalities," said Patrick Zala. "As a matter of fact, you never saw me on this shuttle. Is that clear, Athrun?"

"Yes sir," said Athrun as the three stood at ease. "It's been awhile father."

The three soldiers moved to separate seats, Rau across the aisle from Zala, while Athrun and Amelia sat next to each other behind their commander. Once they were all belted in, Rau signaled the shuttle crew to launch and set course for Aprilius One, the capital colony of the PLANTs.

"Needless to say, I wholly agree with the opinions expressed in your report," said Zala. "The fundamental problem is that they've managed to develop such advanced mobile suits. We'll forget all about the pilots." Athrun turned to stare at his father in shock. "I took it upon myself to omit that detail."

"I see," said Rau softly. "I admit, I was uncertain as to the best course of action on the matter."

"All that information would do is give the moderates something to argue about and waste time," said Zala contemptuously. "The Naturals have developed mobile suits so powerful that they are effective even with Natural pilots. That's what the report will say." He turned to face the three pilots. "Is that understood?"

"Ah… yes," said Athrun uncertainly.

"Understood," said Amelia, leaning back in her seat—she'd never cared about the genetics of those pilots.

"Yes, we'll keep that in mind," said Rau, turning to look back at Athrun. "Truthfully, the danger has been the mobile suits themselves. Their power is quite clear."

The Archangel

"You can't be serious!"

Kira was the most vocal about his objection, to the surprise of pretty much no one. He'd always been uneasy with their salvage operations. But what they were looking at now…

"Hey, we don't like this anymore than you do," said Mu. "However…"

"There's nearly a hundred million tons of ice on it," said Natarle softly. "It will completely resolve our water issue."

"But that PLANT is where hundreds of thousands of people died!"

"Kira-san, calm down!" said Makoto. "You're being irrational. Calm down and think, I know you're smarter than this."

"Makoto…"

"Kira, absolutely no one is happy about this," said Miriallia, turning in her seat to face him. "But this is what we have to do to survive. We've set aside no water for anything but drinking, and as it is, everyone is only getting three half glasses a day. We're dehydrating here." As the ship's operations officer, Mir was familiar with every single supply issue the ship was having.

That made Kira look away, suddenly feeling guilty for his objections.

"We won't disturb the dead or pillage anything," said Murrue. "We'll only take the ice we need to provide us with water in order to survive and take care of ourselves and all the refugees as well."

"Yeah… yeah, okay."

Everyone was silent for a moment after that before Murrue spoke up again.

"Then in that case, let's get out there and get this over with," she said softly. "Miss Haw, I'd like to talk to you about our supplies. I think there is a little something we might be able to do here."

Aprilius One

After arriving at the PLANT, Zala had parted ways with the Le Creuset Team, taking a separate elevator to the colony's first continent, where the Supreme Council Chambers were located.

As the elevator descended down the shaft, Rau reviewed his report with Zala's edits included, and somehow hid a grimace. While he'd planned to spin things in a way that largely let him off the hook, this was a bit much. The report framed things in such a way that it basically claimed them as being totally blameless for the incident, placing the blame for the collapse of Heliopolis entirely on the Earth Forces and Orb.

Political dishonesty was one thing, but this was just plain stupid. The only thing that would allow Zala to get away with this would be his fellow radicals jumping on the opportunity to blame the Naturals for everything. It would be unlikely to do much to address the larger political issues, and hiding the information about the pilots would result in the deaths of many good soldiers, he was sure of it.

Still… it couldn't be helped. Rau liked the current Supreme Council Chairman, Siegel Clyne, a hell of a lot more than he liked Zala, but the Defense Committee Chair was useful for Rau's own long-term goals. Besides, ever since the April Fools Crisis, Rau had found it hard to care about the lives of anyone he didn't have a direct connection to. The tragedies had left him numb.

And speaking of the tragedies…

"Now our next story," said the newscaster on the television mounted on the wall. "Prior to a ceremony to mourn the lives lost in last year's Bloody Valentine Tragedy, Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne made this statement."

They all turned their attention to the TV at that just as the screen changed to show a tall man with blond hair and mustache and black eyes.

"That unfortunate incident has left us with a deep sorrow that we will never forget," said Clyne as he appeared on the screen, standing at a podium and surrounded by officials of the Supreme Council, with a young woman with pink hair standing at his side.

"By the way," said Rau, diverting attention from the broadcast as he turned to face Athrun. "You're engaged to that young woman, right?"

"Ah… yes, that's right," said Athrun, glancing away uncomfortably.

"The daughter of Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne and the son of Commander-in-Chief Patrick Zala," mused Rau. "It will be inspiring to the next generation."

"If the next generation needs something like that to inspire them, then what's the point of that generation?" said Amelia idly. That drew a shocked look from Athrun. She shrugged. "If an entire generation needs something so fragile to inspire it, then it doesn't speak highly of them." She refocused on the broadcast. "Though honestly, the current state of the world speaks to how pointless everything is."

"What do you mean?" asked Athrun.

"After the genocidal acts that have been committed in this war, you don't feel a bit cynical about humanity's future?" said Rau before Amelia could answer. "I admit, I used to be more optimistic about the future. It's hard to be now." He looked back to the broadcast. "But she's inspiring. I hear she's actually supposed to be visiting the remains of Junius Seven right now as a memorial representative. Hopefully she'll return before we have to depart. It would be wonderful if you could see each other again."

Athrun said nothing in response. Truth was, he'd grown up with Lacus and saw her more as a sister. This engagement had never sat right with him, but… he really couldn't go against his father.

He didn't think he needed to either: from what he'd gleaned from Lacus talking about her friends in Orb, he strongly suspected she'd be trying to get her own father to call off the engagement soon.

As they approached the spaceport station at the bottom of the shaft, Rau spoke up again.

"I'll give the main body of the report," said Rau. "Athrun, if they want to hear about the mobile suits, I'll have you report on it. Amelia, if they do have any questions about the pilots or the incident, I'll let you handle it, but do not forget that Chairman Zala wants us to keep the identities and genetics of the pilots quiet."

"Yes sir."

Chambers of the Supreme Council
One hour later

As Rau finished giving his report to the Council, Athrun was left stunned.

He'd expected it to be a bit skewed, but the report as given… it was filled with half-truths at best, outright lies and fabrications at worst.

Just how much had his father edited that report? Why was Rau accepting it? If the truth ever became public…

"Tell me, Commander Le Creuset," said Zala, standing up and interrupting Athrun's thoughts. "The prototype mobile suits of the Earth Forces. Are they worth all the sacrifices that were made by our ZAFT forces in order to secure them?"

Athrun detected the emphasis, noted the way his father didn't seem to care about the civilians who'd undoubtedly lost their lives in the attack. All that mattered was his military force. Athrun had to consciously order his fist not to clench as he recalled Kira's harsh words to him that day…

"The moment you attacked Heliopolis… you became my enemy."

"To illustrate to you their phenomenal capabilities," said Rau, "I have brought Athrun Zala with me. He captured one of the machines, flew it into battle, and has studied the data of those we captured and our observations of the remaining three. I'd like permission to allow Pilot Zala to brief you on all the details."

Nothing was said for a moment as all eyes turned to Clyne before the Chairman nodded.

"I will allow Athrun Zala to present his report."

Nodding slightly, Athrun stood up from his seat next to Amelia and approached the Council Table and the report board that would allow him to control the council display screens and show the written report alongside the verbal one. He passed Rau as the commander returned to take his own seat, and briefly saluted the Council before he began.

"First," said Athrun, "I would like to present this machine known as the Aegis. One major characteristic is its transformation system." The screen began to display the Aegis itself in action. "GAT-X303; its structural frame is fundamentally different from most of the other machines. This allows it to transform into a mobile armor. While in this configuration, its main weapon is the Scylla, a five hundred and eighty millimeter multi-phase energy cannon. As with the other machines, it incorporates a feature known as Phase Shift armor, which we have yet to fully test the capability of, but have observed to render the machines virtually impervious to attack from conventional weapons, including armor-pentrating ammunition and explosives. At present, we are reprogramming the OS to maximize its potential, and, judging from its specs, this machine we believe is superior in both mobility and power to ZAFT's main weapon, the GINN."

The screen switched from displaying the Aegis to displaying the Duel during its fight with the other prototypes.

"GAT-X102, the Duel," said Athrun. "We believe this machine was developed as a general-purpose mobile suit and served as the basis for the development of the other seven models. Like the others, it is equipped with the anti-air vulcan system Igelstellung. The machine carries two beam sabers and an anti-beam shield, but its primary weapon is a high-energy beam rifle, which unlike the others is also equipped with an underslung grenade launcher."

The screen switched again, this time showing the Buster.

"GAT-X103, the Buster," continued Athrun. "This machine was designed to be capable of long-range artillery attacks. It is believed that its main purpose was to provide covering fire from the rear, and to perform sniper attacks. It is not equipped with a shield; however, it has a three hundred and fifty millimeter gun-launcher capable of firing a wide-range of ammunition and a focused beam rifle. According to the specs, by attaching these weapons in different combinations, one can form a hyper impulse long-range sniper rifle or an anti-armor shotgun."

The screen switched yet again, to display the Blitz, as viewed from the Buster mid-activation of its stealth system.

"GAT-X207, the Blitz," said Athrun. "This one has a feature called Mirage Colloid, whereby gas particles are released over the armor's surface. In the eyes of the enemy, this machine becomes virtually invisible, which makes it effective for search and destroy missions. We had a brief opportunity to test this system in battle, but one of the drawbacks is that the Phase Shift armor cannot be used while the system is activated. As our enemy was aware of that, they were able to respond with heavy machinegun and Gatling gun fire that minimized the system's effectiveness. It's believed that this model was developed for blitzkrieg warfare, and the stealth systems will likely be far more effective at sneaking up on unaware enemy bases. It is also equipped with its own weapons, Trikeros and Gleipnir."

This time, the screen switched to show a fighter-like mobile armor firing multiple beam weapons before it suddenly transformed into the Guardian.

"GAT-X308, the Guardian," said Athrun. "This is the last machine we captured. Similar to the Aegis, it has a frame designed for transformation into a mobile armor. The main difference between this unit and the others is that it appears to have been designed with combat on Earth in mind. It is armed with beam sabers and a heavy beam rifle, as well as grenade launchers. The specs indicate it was not intended for sustained atmospheric flight in mobile suit mode, but would be fully capable in mobile armor form."

The screen changed once again, this time displaying three different mobile suits.

"These are the machines we did not capture," said Athrun. The display switched to just one of them, the blue one carrying an enormous Gatling gun. "We've designated this one as 'Gunner', as it appears to primarily be a ranged combat type. However, we've observed far less about this machine than any of the others. What we have seen is that it appears to be armed with beam guns mounted on the arms and this Gatling gun seems to be its primary weapon."

The display then switched to the unit with silver wings.

"We've designated this next machine as 'Whiplash'. It appears to be a high-mobility unit designed for close-range combat. We've observed it in battle more than any of the others, and in addition to the whip mounted on its shield, we've observed it using beam sabers and some kind of wrist-mounted beam launcher, as well as a beam rifle. Any more regarding its capabilities is pure speculation."

The screen then switched to the white and gray suit, but showed four different images—one with almost no equipment, one with it wearing some kind of huge gray backpack, one where it held a giant cannon, and another where it held a giant sword.

"We've designated this one as Tuner," said Athrun. "From our encounters with it, we've determined that it appears to be designed to be adapted to various types of combat using specific equipment modules. The first of these we observed equips a large beam cannon, which was powerful enough to blast through the more than one hundred meter outer wall of Heliopolis. The second equipped a sword nearly sixteen meters in length, which I can confirm is capable of cutting a GINN in half; it also appears to equip some type of beam boomerang. The third appears to be a thruster array, which we believe is intended for more general-purposes and arms it with beam sabers and a beam rifle. We believe the combat potential of this machine may surpass that of all other units, and believe it is the most likely to be adopted as a basis for mass production."

"That is all."

With that, Athrun shut down the screens and stepped back as shouting matches began between the Council members on how to address the matter. He hid a wince when one Councilman called the weapons 'disgusting', and felt a pit form in his stomach when his father stood up.

Based on everything else up to this point, this didn't bode well. But Athrun bit his tongue—he knew his duty. No matter how much he hated it.

Later

It was to Amelia's relief that she wasn't called to speak before the Council. Once Patrick Zala gave his speech—one designed to slander Naturals as a whole and remind the Council that Coordinators were the victims—the meeting had swiftly ended, with no one caring to hear anything she might have to say.

That was just as well. It seemed everything lately had just been a series of orders and events that she didn't like, but had no choice to go along with.

She hated that. No, more, she despised it. The feeling of having no control… for someone who'd always known her place in the world, it was unbearable.

Of course, it probably didn't help that she cared nothing for Zala's attitude. The man was a bitter, vengeance-driven lunatic who probably needed to actually look in a mirror before he threw around accusations of genocide.

Amelia had never cared about the distinction of Natural and Coordinator. To her, they were all the same, all human… and she'd never really held any respect for humans. Rau was an odd exception—he was so brilliant, so cunning, so much more than others that she actually could respect him, but he'd been the only one. Not even her parents had ever garnered her respect.

She hated to admit it, but she felt a kind of grudging respect for that redhead as well. Whoever she was, she'd done something no one had done just by dent of her mere existence: she'd gotten under Amelia's skin.

She was grateful that they'd still be pursuing the enemy, with additional reinforcements on top of that. She still needed that girl to die—a week to think it all through had done nothing to change her mind on that front.

But the downtime was beneficial—she could do a bit of self-care and checking, see if she could figure out why the hell her heart started to pound at the thought of that bitch.

Aprilius One Spaceport

The news had been a shock to Rau. They hadn't spoken in months, an unfortunate consequence of his duties, and he knew her better than almost anyone else, but he still hadn't even considered this possibility.

That he'd need to take transport to another colony was a given—his home, their home, had been on Martius Three after all. But contrary to that, he instead had to take transportation to December One, the location of ZAFT's main military academy.

What had possessed her to join the military?

Ruins of Junius Seven

They'd created a small tribute to the dead. It wasn't much, but it was all they could so.

Miriallia stood outside the ship in a space suit, staring out over the ruins, clutching a bundle of paper flowers in her arms. The refugees, Flay included, had made them as some small memorial for those who had lost their lives.

It was all she could do not to let tears flow. This moment reminded her all too clearly of just why she'd left ZAFT, as if their attack on Heliopolis hadn't been enough of one.

She'd been shocked when Murrue had approached her to check and see if they had the supplies to do this. The paper wasn't really important right now, something they could afford to just throw away, but even still… it was touching, to her, someone from the PLANTs, that the Atlantic officer had wanted to do this.

Not a single voice had been raised in objection either.

With a faint, sad smile, Mir tossed the paper flowers out over the ruins. The PLANT continent massed enough to generate just a miniscule amount of gravity that would eventually pull them down to rest on the surface. But right now, they floated through the void, the only tribute the Archangel crew and refugees could make to the victims of the Bloody Valentine.

And then the moment passed, and Mir returned to her Mistral pod. They had work to do, and if she was honest with herself, she was looking forward to having sufficient water for everyone to properly wash themselves.

That in mind, they all returned to the duty of cutting off chunks of ice for transport back to the Archangel.

Later

The Mistrals were the primary units tasked with gathering ice. The mobile suits helped out a little as well, but their primary task was to patrol the area, just to be on the safe side. It was close to the anniversary of the Bloody Valentine, and it would surprise no one if any ZAFT forces were to come by.

Makoto however, had other concerns. There was a feeling in her gut, that something important was about to happen, something that mattered a great deal to her. It was a familiar feeling too, the sort she sometimes got around Kira, Misako, or some of her childhood friends.

It was only a little different from that weird feeling she'd had just before the attack on Heliopolis began. That certainly wasn't offering her any comfort.

"Makoto, you're moving a bit out of position," said Mir suddenly, drawing her from her thoughts. "You're moving into Kira's patrol area."

She glanced around and realized the brunette was correct, and frowned slightly. She'd had herself set on an automated course. Had she changed it without realizing?

Her attention focused on the Strike, just before Kira suddenly moved his machine up against the remains of the PLANT central shaft.

"I just saw a ZAFT mobile suit," he said, shocking them. Makoto quickly moved herself up against a large piece of debris floating above Junius Seven, and began to slowly move around it to try and spot what Kira was aiming his rifle at. "It's near the remains of a civilian transport ship."

"I'm receiving the data," said Mir. "Everyone, go low and hide. Kira, that GINN is a two-seater long-range reconnaissance model. Operating time is sufficient that it could be out here alone, but keep hidden."

As she spoke, Makoto got into position to see what Kira had: a white and green transport shuttle, and a GINN that seemed to be investigating it.

"I've got a lock on it, but I'm holding fire," said Kira, trying to keep his breathing steady as he stared at the GINN with his red targeting reticule locked onto it.

"Good, we don't want to shoot it down unless absolutely necessary. If it fails to report in…"

"Yeah…"

It was silent after that as everyone waited to see what would happen. After a few minutes, the GINN began to move away, and Kira breathed out a sigh of relief.

The GINN paused and dodged away from a large piece of debris moving in its direction, turning slightly as it did so… and then it stopped, leveling its sniper rifle.

"It's spotted the Archangel!" called Ayane.

"Kira, shoot it down, now!"

The order from Mir was so sharp and spoken with such authority that Kira didn't hesitate more than a split second, taking two shots in rapid succession.

One of the beams pierced straight through the GINN, causing it to detonate. Kira's breathing pitched at that.

Everything was silent for a moment.

"No evidence of other activity," said Mir. "Looks like they were alone. Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah," said Ayane.

"Affirmative. Kira-san?"

"Yeah… yeah I'm okay," said Kira, his breathing a little ragged.

"You don't sound okay," said Mir.

"It's just… I didn't like having to kill them."

"You did what you had to do to protect all of us," said Mir. "But it's a good thing that you feel guilty Kira. You shouldn't just callously take lives after all."

"She's right," said Makoto as she moved away from the debris she'd taken cover behind and started towards the transport. "Kira, we're not asking you to become a remorseless killer, but you've done well."

"Yeah… thanks," said Kira as his breathing evened out. What they were saying… it did help. "Makoto, what are you doing?"

The redhead frowned at Kira's question.

"I'm checking the transport," she said. "I want to make sure of why that GINN was here." Actually, that was just an excuse. There was something about this transport that made her gut clench. That feeling, in the pit of her stomach, in the back of her mind… it was screaming at her.

And beneath it, it was like a familiar voice was calling out to her.

Help…

Makoto shook her head, turning the Dauntless slightly… and froze as she spotted something. It wasn't sending out any kind of signal, but the blinking lights indicated it was still powered.

"A life pod…" whispered Makoto, flying over to it.

"Makoto, what did you say?"

"I found a life pod," said Makoto, stowing her rifle and gently taking hold of it. "I'm bringing it aboard."

There was no response for a moment as she started back towards the Archangel.

"Roger that. Ensign Badgiruel's grumbling a little about you joining Kira in picking up strays though."

"Hey, you weren't supposed to tell her that!" shouted Natarle.

Makoto giggled slightly at hearing that from the ensign, and she swore she could hear others giggling and chuckling over the comm. lines as well.

"Makoto, the captain and Ensign Badgiruel will meet you in the hangar to check out the life pod," said Mir. "Hopefully whoever's aboard is still alive."

"Kira, why don't you head in as well and take a break?" said Mu. "I'll keep patrolling with Ayane."

"Sure. Thanks Mu."

ZAFT Military Academy, December One

Rau walked through the halls of the academy, heading for one of the outdoor training facilities. When he'd signed in as a visitor, he'd been told where to find the person he was looking for, and that another person he'd been thinking of seeing would be there as well.

He stepped out, and saw a field full of cadets in the middle of doing laps. Several instructors were overseeing them, most wearing purple ZAFT uniforms, designating them as part of the more bureaucratic side of ZAFT, but Rau's attention focused on the young woman wearing the white commander's uniform. She turned her attention to him along with a few of the other instructors as he approached.

"Commander Le Creuset," she said with a slight nod. "This is a surprise. I hadn't expected you to return from your previous assignment for at least another month."

"It was a rather radical change of circumstances I'm afraid, Commander Thompson," said Rau with a gentle smile. "It's good to see you again, Eliza." She smiled at him.

"Likewise, Rau."

Eliza Thompson was a lovely young woman, five foot eight and a half inches tall, with straight silver hair that just brushed her shoulder blades and bright blue eyes. Her frame was a little slight, with narrow shoulders and mid-sized breasts, but wide hips and long legs. Well-defined muscles, though hidden by her uniform, spoke to years of physical training that let her throw around much larger Coordinator soldiers like rag dolls.

She was also, technically, ZAFT's youngest commander at two weeks shy of seventeen years old. Circumstances had given rise to that—her commanding officer on Earth had died in the line of duty, and without ready support from friendly forces, she'd ended up taking charge of the team and getting them through. She was also an incredibly skilled mobile suit pilot, among their best, earning the nickname 'Paladin' during her time on the frontlines. All of this had landed her a formal promotion and a transfer to the Academy to serve as a combat instructor. Her first students would be hitting the frontlines in two months, tops.

Rau had known Eliza for several years, having first met through Rau's daughter, who'd attended school with Eliza. The young woman had a maturity to her that astounded Rau, and he'd been honored when he'd finally met the man who raised her, Daniel Thompson, becoming good friends with the man in short order. They'd all ended up volunteering for ZAFT together (despite Daniel's firm protest to Eliza joining up), but unfortunately, Daniel had been shot down in battle with the Moebius Zero Corps. during the Grimaldi Conflict.

The first of the panting cadets began to pass them, drawing their attention.

"As good as it is to see you again, I doubt you're here to see me," she said, nodding at the other instructors, who stepped away to give the two a little privacy and focus on the cadets so that she could focus on the conversation at hand.

Rau chuckled slightly.

"I admit, you're not the one who brought me here," he said, glancing at the cadets. There she was. "Not that I'm not looking forward to chatting. It's been awhile. But…"

"Yeah, I understand."

Eliza stepped away from him and closer to the cadets.

"Cadet En Creuset! You can stop now, get over here."

One of the cadets diverted course towards them, slowing to a stop just as she reached the two. She was panting a little, but she still managed to smile.

"Welcome home… daddy," said Mariah En Creuset, smiling sweetly at her father.

The Archangel

"Honestly, what are we going to do with you two?" said Natarle in exasperation as she, Murrue, Kira, Makoto, and the security officers floated around the life pod. The security officers were armed, just in case. Murdoch floated directly by the pod door, getting ready to pop the hatch open.

"Lecture them, then let them do as they please," said Murrue lightly, a playful smile pulling at her lips. That was a surprise to all of them, but she was in a good mood overall—as grim as the source of it was, the simple fact of the matter was that their water issues had been resolved.

"Alright, I'm opening the hatch now," called Murdoch. The security officers double-checked their weapons as everyone focused on the life pod, but Makoto knew—she wasn't sure how, but she knew—that there wasn't any cause for concern.

The hatch popped open… and then a pink ball came floating out, with little flaps opening and closing on the sides as it emitted a robotic voice.

"Haro! Haro! Lacus! Haro!"

Makoto's eyes widened. She recognized that robotic ball.

"Thank you. I appreciate your assistance," came a gentle, sweet voice, one that was burned into Makoto's memories as everyone refocused on the life pod after being distracted by the robot.

A young woman—girl really—floated out. She was five foot, two inches tall, with small breasts, a thin waist, and wide hips. She had long pink hair that fell to her hips, gentle blue eyes, and a bright smile. Her outfit was a white dress with a layered skirt in two different tones of purple and detached sleeves with purple frills.

"Lacus-chan…"

Author's Notes: Okay, so yeah, I had Makoto rescue Lacus instead of Kira. I fully expect cries of fury over it. Sorry, but the friendship between Makoto and Lacus is going to be a central part of their characters, so… sorry, not sorry?

Moving on, I did enjoy this overall. I liked bringing up the logistical issue of laundry, something that generally goes unaddressed (including by me before this story), but it's actually a pretty big issue when you stop and process it, especially when the crew doesn't have enough water to be doing a bunch of laundry. And I shudder to imagine the nightmare of women with large breasts in zero-g and nothing to keep them under control.

Beyond that, Makoto is revealed to be a big eater here. I wanted that bit in the first chapter, but there really wasn't any easy place to include it. There is a reason for it though, despite being an issue that's "resolved" in the chapter where it's introduced. That reason isn't special treatment for Makoto either—I just realized that it made no sense for Murrue not to make concessions and adjustments to keep one of their mobile suit pilots healthy. Malnutrition is a dangerous thing under normal circumstances—you don't want someone flying who's malnourished.

On the ZAFT side, we have political machinations and more insight into Rau! I'm having far too much fun with him. I'm just sad that Athrun and Amelia got such small roles—Amelia is especially awkward, given that you could remove her without actually affecting anything that happened in this chapter. I'm sorry about that, like I said, she's actually kind of a tough character to write.

Alright, enough of that! Time for the obligatory "begging for reviews:"

PLEASE REVIEW! I want to know what everyone thinks about this chapter! Constructive feedback is welcome, flames or rants about how the OCs are mary sues because you don't like them will be ignored!

Hope to see you all soon!