Well, after a mid-week bout of the dreaded block, I had some inspiration and wrote a few thousand words to come later. Now I just need to get the story that far...
And the total now clocks in at just over 35,000 words. More than 2/3rds of the way!
"So it seems that news will have reached our friends the Militias," Gloval observed once the report from the Sidhe finished. "Bad luck with that freighter, but that happens sometimes. Alright, let's pull back to our jump point. We can hold that until Admiral Waltfeld's fleet arrives and keep the Ukievoe cluster cut off."
"It's a shame to lose Zoet, sir," observed Lisa. "Those jump points would let us threaten half of the Ezoe cluster."
"Very true, Colonel," Gloval conceded. "But we have only five ships and if we split our forces to hold both jumpoints, we would be defeated in detail. But so long as we hold the jump point from Ovluvizoe, we can take the rest of the system at our leisure."
Lisa flushed. "Sorry sir."
"It's worth the consideration," Gloval assured her. "But it's one thing to be bold when you have the advantage of surprise. Without that, boldness can become recklessness. We're hit the Confederacy on several levels - apart from anything else, they'll need to reinforce their nodal defences to protect themselves from similar attacks in the future - but if we can't hold them out of Ovluvizoe all our gains are for nothing."
One of the communications officers behind him blinked and tapped her headphones for a moment. "Brigadier!" she said sharply. "I'm picking up multiple distress signals from Heliopolis."
"What!?" Gloval exclaimed, spinning his chair to face her. "What sort of distress signals?"
The officer flinched. "Lifeboat signals... Sir, those signals won't get though our jamming. Unless we drop it no one in the system will receive it."
Gloval groaned. "What a wonderful choice," he muttered. "It could be a trick to make us drop the jamming... but we can't risk it with tens of thousands of lives at stake. Can you make out anything else?"
"Just general... Sir, they're saying that there is major structural damage to Heliopolis. They've evacuated completely."
"Cancel the jamming," Gloval said grimly and settled back into his seat. "What a mess."
Indeed it was, and those aboard the Girty Lue with access to windows watched in horror as the entire surface of the colony cylinder broke apart into the seperate panels that it had been constructed out of. "Dear God," Murrue whispered. "How many people..."
The other Militias officer shook her head. "There was almost an hour's warning, Lieutenant," she said. "And there are literally thousands of escape pods. I'm not saying that nobody would have been caught in this - there is always someone left behind no matter how well drilled the population are - but the vast majority were confirmed as being aboard lifeboats or in spacesuits if they couldn't be spared. The real problem is in getting someone to come and pick them up."
"What? But the emergency beacons..." Murrue said and then groaned. "The jamming. It'll be blocking the emergency bands as well."
"Exactly," Natarle Badgiruel nodded. "We can only pick them up because we're right on top of them. When we leave..."
"Ping them all," Murrue interrupted.
"What?"
"Check them all for status, Ms. Badgiruel," Murrue ordered, sitting down in the central chair. "We can't stay here until rescue arrives, but with all the debris there's a very good chance that some of the lifeboats took damage when the station collapsed. If any of them report damage, or don't reply, we can provide aid."
"Ma'am," Natarle protested. "Every minute will count if we're going to trace the enemy to their jump point."
"Then you'd better get cracking," Murrue said. "I suggest you get those college kids I brought aboard involved. They should be able to work a radio and it'll keep them busy and out of trouble. Mr Yamato can assist search and rescue in the Freedom if need be." She glared at Natarle when the other woman continued to hesitate. "The Militia tradition does not include abandoning civilians in need just because it's expedient, officer."
There was really only one answer that Natarle could give. "Aye aye, ma'am."
Murrue nodded absently. The younger officer wasn't a fool by any means - she was a shipboard officer by training and probably better qualified to command the Girty Lue than Murrue was - but she lacked the field experience to know when the Book had to be ignored. As a recruiter, that didn't matter much, but it had probably irritated her to be filling that sort of role when her fellow officers were fighting a war and now that she had her chance to show what she could do she was over-compensating. In a junior officer that wasn't a major problem, but as fortune would have it, Natarle was the de facto executive officer of a battleship - a much more responsible post with correspondingly less room for error.
The Lieutenant was still looking for a solution to that when she fell asleep, alone on the bridge.
In the end only three lifeboats were damaged and with the sudden lack of jamming, two of them would be alright until the ships from the nearest planet, Aube, arrived. Kira went out in the Freedom and carried the lone exception into the hanger and before the hatch was fully closed behind them, the engines began to propell the Girty Lue after the Enforcers. The first battle of this campaign might have been a defeat for the Confederacy, but it was a long way from being over yet.
After napping for six hours, Kira was feeling at least fifty percent better and when he dismounted from the Freedom he stopped to watch the lifeboat's passengers disembark.He almost choked when he saw a familiar head of red hair emerge. "F-Flay?"
She looked up and he saw that it was indeed his crush. "Ah, it's you - Sai's friend," she called, kicking off from the lifeboat to coast up through the microgravity to meet him halfway to the gantry.
"Uh, yes. Um. Sai will be glad to know that you're alright. He and Mirialla are aboard already."
"Sai's here? That's wonderful! But what happened? I heard the alarms and went into the shelters, but I got seperated from the others and no one knew anything. What happened to Heliopolis?"
Kira gulped. "Flay, Heliopolis collapsed. It was damaged by the Enforcer attack -"
"Enforcers!" Flay exclaimed. "But that's ridiculous! We're three systems away from any of the Enforcers and besides, Heliopolis is a civilian colony - why would they attack here?"
"They were after the Morgenroete factories, I guess," Kira said. "They made off with military research and wrecked the port. This ship is another prototype apparently, one that they didn't find before they withdrew. I don't know how they got here but we're going to follow them - hopefully they'll be heading to whatever jump point they used."
"'We' are going to follow them?" Flay repeated quizically. "Since were you in the Militia? And where will we get off if you're going chasing after Enforcers."
Kira flushed. "I don't know," he admitted wretchedly. "If your lifeboat hadn't been damaged then the Captain wouldn't have had it brought you aboard. There might not be any chance to leave."
"What!"
Had Patrick Zala been a lesser man, he would have been slumped in his chair after hearing the latest news. This was not the way that he had wanted to begin his tenure as Chairman. A freighter had jumped into the Zoet system only to see a heavy cruiser blown apart almost on top of the jump point by two light cruisers with Enforcer markings. Fortunately, the captain had had the wit to jump back immediately and transmit a warning to the local Militias. Unfortunately, the local picket had nothing like the force necessary to reclaim the jump points.
"How could the Enforcers possible have reached Zoet!" Ezalia Joule exclaimed. "Has Kpove fallen and no one told us?"
"Calm down, Ezalia," Tad Elsmann said. "They've outflanked us before, at Zjevlovecoe. Kpove's still holding steady."
"True," Zala agreed. "However, losing Zoet would threaten our forces there as well. We need to act swiftly to contain this. Losing Zoet means losing the Ukievoe cluster to all practical purposes."
"What can we do?" Siegel Clyne said calmly. The outgoing chairman had retained his seat on the Committee and now he commandeered the hologrpahic display above the circular table that they sat around. "We need to work out what resources are available and mobilise them immediately. Patrick, you're the strategist."
Zala nodded. "I've ordered the reserves being amassed for a strike at Retkpebxe mobilised to respond to this," he said. "In addition, we have several recommissioned ships ready to leave docks in the Meaxo Eleve system, only two jumps away. I've ordered both fleets to set out for Zoet immediately with the objective of securing the jump points into the system. That probably won't be enough to drive the Enforcers out but as long as we control the jump points we can prevent further expansion of their beachhead and feed more troops in when we can muster them."
"It may not be enough to hold the jump points," Clyne said soberly. "One of the Project Gundam sites was in Zoet. If they manage to get hold of the equipment there, then they'll have a roadmap of our best technology. We have to get that equipment out of there."
There was a ripple of concern and Zala frowned. "Alright. We'll mobilise the other two Project Gundam teams then. Order them to into Ovloe to spearhead a counter-offensive. We'll pull le Creuset out of Alpha Iayuvi to command - he's the best we have. With his Confederate and the battleships from Project Gundam, plus the modified Nelson-class ships from Meaxo Eleve that will give him a dozen ships and almost a hundred mobile suits. We had a dozen cruisers earmarked for the Retkpebxe operation so once they arrive, and they can pick up mobile suits from the systems en route."
"That's not a very large force," Eileen Canaver observed.
"We'll have to bank upon quality," Zala said flatly. "Let's hope that the Gundams are everything that Morgenroete promised, Siegel - because the Enforcers aren't stupid enough not to have sent a battlefleet."
"Ma'am?" asked Arnold Neumann from his seat at the helm. With the small number of personnel available, sensor readouts were being channelled through his secondary displays.
"What is it, Arnold?" Murrue asked. There had been enough time since they left Heliopolis for her to sleep a while, wash up and then finally replace her battered coveralls with a uniform, even if it was not quite that which she was used to. Like most Iayuvi Militias, her own unit had worn quite short double-breasted jackets, but the only uniforms aboard were of the Ezoe pattern, with a wrap-around tunic although at least, by Confederacy regulation, the colours were right - basic black with the tunic emerald green to denote a member of one of the technical arms.
Arnold had donned a similar uniform, with the grey tunic that marked him as naval personnel, although he was not technically a Militiaman, instead being one of the merchant spacemen that Murrue had drafted. "Ma'am, the cruisers appear to have made rendevous with another vessel - it's much larger."
"A flagship?" Murrue asked, calling up the sensor readouts for herself. "Wait, it's how big?"
"I don't recognise it, Ma'am," he confirmed. "But it's large. Bigger than even a bulk carrier. Of course, it could be some sort of mobile supply base for them..."
Murrue snorted. "Possibly. But the Enforcers adapted to variable fighters mostly because it meant they could cram more mobile suits aboard their ships. I guarentee that the minute anyone proposed a ship that large the first thing their High Command thought was 'I wonder how many fighters it can carry?'."
Arnold chuckled. "It makes sense that they might have some sort of collier aboard, to carry supplies if this is a long range operation," he pointed out. "But if it's this close to the front then it's almost certainly well armed and carrying plenty of fighters, for replacements if nothing else. Are you sure that they can't see us?"
"See us?" Murrue asked. "No. The new Mirage Colloid system's reliable about that. Detect us by some other means?" She shrugged. "We don't know of any passive sensors that can pick us up, or any active sensor that can detect us in a vaccum. But there's an awful lot that we don't know, so they might have a way. Let's not give them a reason to come looking, eh?"
"They're heading to the Ovluvizoe jump point then," Murrue said two days later. "Interesting choice."
"Perhaps they're continuing operations," Natarle suggested. "There are enough units still in the cluster to pout up a fight, but they'll all be scattered around in penny packets. A task force this heavy could pick off a ship here and a mobile suit squadron there while a fleet comes through their hidden jump point to secure Zoet."
"It's a possibility," Murrue agreed. "On the other hand, they could have come through this jump point, if their little ace in the hole is inside the cluster. The Ovluvizoe system probably. If that big ship of theirs is configured for jump point defense, they could withdraw through it and have us break their teeth on their flagship while the cruisers clean out our forces."
"I don't think that there's anything that we can do to decide which it is," Natarle said. "Except guess. Maybe we should return to Aube to protect them against whatever comes through."
"That would be the safe thing to do," Murrue agreed. "But it gives them the initiative. And maybe we can find out what their plans are. Mr. Newman, how close do you think we can get to their formation?"
"With the Mirage Colloid, we could be deck to deck with them," Arnold replied. "In theory, anyway. In practise, their combat patrols seem to be about a hundred kilometers out, so we could get almost that close without any likelihood of someone flying into us."
"That would be a little embarassing," Murrue agreed. "Get as as close as you feel is safe, Mr Arnold. If we can get close enough to them, there are some tricks that we can try. If nothing else, it would give us a good idea of what the ship looks like."
They were only a few hundred miles away from the Enforcer ships when Kira reached the bridge. "You sent for me, uh, captain?"
Murrue nodded, not taking her eyes off the blue and white hulled ship that dominated the screen. "Yes. As you can see, we're closing in on the Enforcer units. Obviously, there's a risk that we could be detected, and while we seem to be faster than they are - the large ship in any event, our best guess is that we're well inside their weapons range. If they're detected we'll have to fight our way free."
Kira frowned. "I don't see... oh. The Freedom."
"That's right. I realise that you're not part of the Militias, but you're the only person aboard, except the captured Enforcer, who has any experience with flying a mobile suit. And unfortunately, to come this far, we've - I've - put you and the other civilians in danger if we are detected. I want to maximise our chances to escape if we need to and the best defense against their mobile fighters would be the Freedom."
"I'm not a soldier," Kira protested.
"I know. But you're the only one who can do this. We won't be here long, and we may not need you. But will you help us if we need you?"
Kira looked trapped. "I don't want to kill anyone," he said.
"That may not be a luxury that we have," Natarle interjected from the CIC deck behind them both. "Because the Enforcers will certainly want to kill us."
The Girty Lue had only been in position for an hour when they hit paydirt. A small courier vessel jumped in and quickly began exchanging tight-beam communications with the larger ship, the SDF-1 according to its hull markings. There wasn't enough of a sideband to the communications for the Girty-Lue to decipher, but there were other means. One of the whisker lasers normally used for it's own tight beams had been reconfigured slightly and with both vessels at rest, it had been possible to train it precisely upon the bridge windows of the SDF-1.
It was a very old intelligence method, dating back to the days when humanity had been confined to Terra, and if either ship had been moving relative to the other, it's usefulness would have been almost nothing, but Arnold had been able to match velocities almost perfectly and the laser, measuring the exact distance between it's emitter and the glass, was able to measure even the miniscule vibrations caused by sound within the bridge. And unless something interupted the beam, it was almost impossible to detect.
"...so now we have a timetable," said the voice that they had identified as the ship's commander, and the leader of the little fleet. "It is unfortunate that Admiral Waltfeld has been delayed himself, of course, but once his advance force reaches us, the additional carriers should make it possible for us to detach a force to begin securing the rest of the cluster."
Murrue's eyes widened. That little snippet of information was enough to justify the risk of coming this close all on it's own. If the courier had a message from a follow-up force then then that force - and thus the Enforcer's secret jump point, had to be in the other star system since that was where the courier had come from.
"That's still a little later than I would like, sir," said a female voice - one of the senior officers, she guessed. "It's unlikely, of course, but once news of us reaches Kpove they could send ships straight for us. They'd be starting later, but they'd also be closer to us than the Admiral will be if he's on shedule. That's a race that we can't afford to lose."
"True," the commander replied, "But there's very little that we can do about that. And they won't find us easy to dislodge. But make sure that a full download on our new prizes is included in the dispatches we send. We need to get that out of the Ovluvizoe system and behind our lines as soon as possible."
"Should I order the courier to make all speed, sir? That could have us a lot of time, but..."
"No, no. Not at the expense of security, Lisa. You're quite right, we absolutely cannot afford to let Confederacy find out about Class-III jump points, much less actually locate one of them. Make sure he knows how important the information is, but he shouldn't risk the security of the jump point for it."
Murrue jumped to her feet. "Cut the beam," she said, her voice little more than a whisper, although there was of course no way for the Enforcers to hear her - unless they were spying on her, the way that she was spying upon them! "Nothing we're likely to hear is more important than what we already have."
Arnold obeyed promptly. "Should I take us out, ma'am."
"Yes! But slowly, carefully. If they had any idea what we discovered, they'll stop at nothing to prevent us from reporting it."
Slowly, the Girty Lue backed away from the little squadron. Murrue watched as the courier boat was covered by the halo of an active jump drive before vanishing abruptly across the gulf of stars. "Cut the engines," she ordered once they had built up a respectable speed. "We'll coast away from them until we're well out of their sensor range."
It was an hour later and they had almost relaxed when Arnold looked up from his controls. "There's a cruiser heading in our direction, Ma'am."
"What?" Murrue said, rising from her chair where she'd been waiting tensely for the time to come when the ship could get back under power and start it's run for the next jump point. "Are they on to us?"
"I don't think so, ma'am. From their course, I'd say that they are making for Aube."
"Aube," Murrue mused and returned to her seat, pulling up records of the planet. It looked pretty run of the mill - the fourth planet out from the sun, rather warmer than Mars, it had been terraformed during the interregeum before the rise of the Terran Union, by the planetary government of the system's more habitable third world, Sanq. It remained cold, with large ice caps and island chains in the temperate and tropical zones near to the equator, but the seasons were mild and the planet enjoyed a healthy income from tourism as well as from the numerous high tech industries that it had attracted. Probably it's most significant value was that since the fall of the Peacecraft family on Sanq, the Athha family on Aube had taken up the leadership of the Confederacy's pacifist movement."
"I wonder what they want there?" Murrue muttered. "It would be impolitic to attack Aube outright - the pacifists aren't much of a threat so why stir them up?"
"Perhaps they're looking for some more of the Project Gundam technology?" Natarle suggested. "There is a Morgenroete research station located down there - no factories on the same scale as Heliopolis, but there could still be some information there - they'd want to know what the Freedom can, and the same for the suits built at other locations."
"That's possible," Murrue agreed. "And the Athha would probably hand it all over and be glad it was gone, damn their sanctimonious hides."
"What do we do?" Arnold asked. "We're still in sensor range of the Enforcers at the jump point."
"Keep the Mirage Colloid up," Murrue said. "But power up the engines. We'll get out of their way and trail them to Aube. If they're up to what we think they're up to, then we'll stop them. Besides, once we're at Aube we can get a courier boat or two to carry our intelligence to the rest of the Militias, and disembark our passengers."
"That will be a relief," Natarle observed. "No offense to yourself, Mr Neumann, but I'd really rather minimise the number of civilians belowdecks."
By tradition, that refered to the parts of the spaceship that were below the conning tower and Murrue chuckled, the tension unwinding inside her. "Well that's easily managed," she said. "We could invite them up onto the bridge to take a look around."
Natarle gave her an irritated look. "That's not very funny, captain," she said and then her frown deepened as a thoughtful look crossed Murrue's face. "Captain, that's really not a good idea. The ship is supposed to be a secret, you know."
"Not once it's launched," Murrue replied. "Although that's not what I was thinking, actually. It was more about that Enforcer officer. He's stable, from what I understand, but we're not really equipped to confine anyone in the long term."
"What are you suggesting? That we hand him over to Aube? He'll be back aboard a ship and spilling his guts within minutes."
Natarle, if we have to engage the Enforcer cruiser over Aube then everyone in the system will know about it within hours. Beyond that, what is he going to tell them? That we have a sickbay? That we were undermanned for a while? Because Im not planning to just go running out without pulling some of Aubes Militia detachments aboard for a crew, Murrue explained. And I really think that hes dangerous enough to cause us some trouble if hes still aboard once hes made more of a recovery. He didnt get sent after the Gundams because he was expendable he was probably one of the team leaders and handpicked out of hundreds of pilots for the job. I do not want someone with those skills running around unless Im one hundred percent certain that they wont be measuring my back for a knife.
Cagalli Athha was not having a good week. Her efforts to discover whether the rumours of military research for the Confederacy going on at Morgenroete having borne fruit, she was somewhat at a loss as to what to do about it. The fact that her discovery had been coupled with the capture of that research by the Unity Government's armed thugs (as opposed to the Confederacy armed thugs that it had been paid for by) and the destruction of an entire orbital colony did not put her in the best of bargaining positions with her father.
Coupled with this was the departure of Ambassador Darlian and his family. Of the two ambassadors sent by the Confederacy Council to try to patch up relations between the factions currently controlling the central government and her father's pacifist faction, she much prefered Darlian to Ambassador Allster, and not merely because she got on surprisingly well with Relena Darlian - well enough to have persuaded her to join her in the disasterous expedition to Heliopolis.
The aftermath of that had been to persuade Darlian to depart with his family aboard the next ship back to the current meeting place of the Council, since the presence of the Enforcers changed his role significantly. She could only hope that Relena would stay in touch - perhaps near the Council she could find out more about what had brought Uzumi Athha to allow Morgenroete to break with his lifelong policy of barring more than the barest minimum of military activities in Aube's territorial holdings.
Ambassador Allster had relocated to Sanq, but refused to leave the system until his own daughter, who had been on Heliopolis, was located. He was therefore bothering their Militia on the assumption that Flay had been on the lifeboat picked up by some Militia warship that had turned up at Heliopolis just long enough to ping the flotilla of lifeboats for their condition and then hared off in search of a fight. Given that Sanq had only had two cruisers, both of which had fallen afoul of the Enforcers, there really wasn't anything that the local Militia could do for him, but at least he wasn't on Aube any more.
The news that an Enforcer cruiser was in orbit and making demands was just the icing on the cake.
Not only had Morgenroete been testing new mobile suits at Heliopolis, but several other prototypes that had not been selected for final construction had been cached in storage facilities and two of them were on Aube. The Enforcers were demanding that the Athha family demonstrate it's commitment to the pacifist ideals by handing over the equipment and disbanding their Militia. The last was a particular insult - the Athha Militias were configured to support the emergency services rather than a war and by the particular ters that bound them to the Confederacy, they could retain them for that purpose, which was why none had been committed to the war.
But the Enforcers apparently thought that a tradition of two centuries was no guarentee and were demanding the abolition. The rest of the Confederacy, no doubt, would be laughing their heads off once they heard this.
In front of her, Uzumi Athha looked as majestic as ever as he took his place at the head of the table where the Five Families that dominated Aube's government were represented to respond to the demands. He looked at the camera operator and nodded slightly, to confirm that he was ready.
"Uzumi Athha, addressing Captain Azonia of the UGE cruiser Sluagh," he began. "We have considered your demands. Allowing the military hardware illegally developed on Heliopolis to remain on Aube would violate our principles. However, to provide it to you - the self-declared enemies of the Confederacy, would be a violation of the treaty that binds us to the Confederacy. Accordingly, I have ordered that the equipment be seized and destroyed. As regards your threats against Aube, I suggest that you remember that while our principles do not support aggressive military action, the Attha have never renounced the principle of self-defense - and we will protect the homes of our people."
He made a discreet gesture and the camera switched off. Within moments, the recorded message would be transmitted to the ship above them.
"Was that wise?" asked one of Cagalli's cousins. "Our Militias might be able to repel a direct assault by the Enforcers, but they cannot be everywhere."
Uzumi clasped his hands in front of him on the table. "The two mobile suits Morgenroete developed have been obtained and completed," he explained. "If the Enforcers are reasonable, they can be disassembled as easily. If they persist... then they may was well be destroyed by Enforcer guns as by our hands. They have the speed to react should the Enforcers attempt a landing."
"We're caught between a rock and a hard place, for sure," muttered another of the Athha.
Cagalli grimaced. "Shouldn't have let them be built at all," she spat out. Uzumi's eyes hardened and he rose to leave the room.
"Stupid girl," her cousin snorted. "He didn't know - it was the Sahaku who let Morgenroete build at Heliopolis. But he can't admit that one of the other families did this sort of thing with out his knowing - they could use it to maneuver him out of office."
The girl paused. She'd not even considered that anything could happen without her father knowing about it.
"And he's still responsible, and holds himself responsible," one of the Yuuna added. "You're such a little girl, Cagalli. Still throwing tantrums to break his heart."
"They'll destroy the suits?" Milia snorted. "Yes, of course they will. In full view of the flying pigs, no doubt."
Only a short distance across the command deck of the Sluagh, Azonia chuckled from her command chair. "Oh calm down, Milia. There was never all that much chance that the Athha would agree to break with the Confederacy - which is what giving us the suits would have been - and neither I nor the Brigadier really thought that they would. But it was worth the attempt. After all, however unlikely it would have been convenient if they had, and it's not as if they can stop us from enforcing our demands."
Now it was Milia's turn to laugh. "Oh, indeed not. With my Justice, I think that it's safe to say that the miserable handful of GINN's down there won't be a problem. We won't even need Sterling's Calamity."
"That would be nice," Azonia agreed. "But it's nice to have him along anyway. It's possible that a military operation might have failed for using too many troops at some point, but I can't conjure up any examples off the top of my head."
"It can't even fly," Milia protested. "So it won't be any use down there, no matter what."
Azonia chuckled. "Humour me, Milia. I know I'm only your commanding officer but it would be nice to think I can have my own way every now and again." She pulled up a holographic display of Aube and tapped one island chain. "We'll use the Komusai to land Sterling and our jump infantry, with you flying escort in the Justice. The Morgenroete complex is on the west coast of the island, so the Komusai can land safely behind this ridge -" She expanded the view to show the island in detail, pointing out the contours of the geography. With you and Sterling there, there's not much chance of any serious resistance."
Milia shrugged. "If you say so, Azonia." She grinned. "I really hope that they resist. Those damn GINN's think they're invincible and it's time we taught them better."
"Well, I guess that this makes it official," Murrue noted as she watched the Komusai dropship detach from where it had formed the prow of the Sluagh and enter the atmosphere. "That flight path will drop them right on top of Morgenroete's Aube facilities."
"Is there any chance that they'll be held back?" Natarle asked. "I know Aube's Militia's isn't that formidable but a Musai couldn't be carrying more than a squadron of mobile suits at the worst."
Murrue gave her an amused look and pointed at the little speck that was descending alongside the Komusai. "That's one of the Gundams. Looks like the Justice. Could you enhance that, Mr. Neumann?" The image sharpened, revealing the purple suit in more detail. "Yes, that's the Justice. I seriously doubt if the entire Aube Militia could stop one Gundam, never mind a Gundam plus whatever they have loaded aboard the Komusai."
Natarle gulped. "The Gundams can't be that powerful, can they? They're just mobile suits!"
"Just mobile suits?" Murrue said with a raised eyebrow. "Even a lone GINN can pose a threat to a warship, and the Gundams are rather significantly more dangerous that a GINN. If we had the full squad that was built at Heliopolis and pilots for them, I wouldn't heistate in launching an attack on the Enforcers at the jump point. Individually, they're about as dangerous as battleships - not as heavily armed of course, but far more difficult targets."
The look on Natarle's face was skeptical. "Even if a mobile suit could be so powerful," she protested, "it could hardly be feasible build them in any number."
"They aren't - there are only fifteen of them," Murrue said. "There only needed to be fifteen - although that may change now that some are in Enforcer hands." She looked out of the bridge's window and shook her head. "But that doesn't matter now. Pull us back to extreme sensor range, Mr Neumann and prepare to deactivate our Mirage Colloid. There's no point revealing its existence if we don't have to, and I don't want to attack until the Justice is deeper inside the atmosphere."
"Captain! A Confederacy warship!"
Azonia cursed as she saw the tactical display update. "Where the hades did that spring from!" she shouted. The ship was in their rear quarter and very nearly inside beam range. "Bring us around to fire on it! Get me an ID on it!"
"No ID!" the sensor operator replied grimly. "It must be a new design - power and mass readings are consistent with a battleship!" His face was pale. A cruiser would have a good chance of outpacing a battleship in a straight race, but the ship had neatly entrapped them against Aube and there was no way that they could break away before the enamy was in range to fire."
"Get Milia on the radio," Azonia ordered. There was a flash of light as a beam cannon shot past the bridge window - a narrow miss and just luck that it hadn't decapitated the Sluagh's conning tower. "Tell her that there is prey here worthy of her talents."
"It'll take her at least five minutes to get back here," Azonia's second advised her. "And the Calamity can't make it back without the shuttle."
"Then we'll have to last five minutes?" Azonia snorted. "Take an evasive flight pattern, helm. Let's see if that big clumsy bastard can hit us when we don't let him!"
Five minutes is a long time in a battle between warships, she knew. And with the firepower this badly mismatched, Milia might not return in time to do more than avenge us.
It was surprisingly easy for Cagalli to obtain access to the mobile suit hangers.
Aube had never had very many mobile suits, but the hangers had been built against the possibility that large numbers might have to be brought in at some point, so there was enough space to leave many of the bays empty. It also made it quite easy to hide a couple of extra suits - or for a teenage girl to penetrate the security. It would have been more difficult, of course, if she had not already had a good idea of the layout. Uzumi Athha was committed to the pacifist movement, but he was also pragmatic and had ensured that Cagalli was trained in piloting, just as she was trained, to a degree, in escape and evasion skills.
The Morgenroete facilities were on the same island, so the hangers were the logical place to locate the suits in order to keep them under the control of Aube's government rather than of the corporate executives that had gotten the planet into the mess in the first place.
With only two bays in this part of the structure occupied, Cagalli only had to follow the movement of techs to locate the two suits that she sought. They didn't look exactly like the suits she had seen before, she realised. Only one of them had the helm-and-face arrangment of the others, and it had much less defined features, while the latter simply masked it's sensors behind a window-like arrangement. The first was blue and white, with a shield and a recoilless rifle, the other green and grey with a pair of massive gatlings held in one hand, and what looked like several internal missile launchers in the shoulders. They would be effective against variable fighters, but she had her doubts about their usefulness against a Gundam - the armor systems suggested that those were almost immune to direct damage from kinetic attacks.
She moved closer to the bays. The technicans were wearing emerald green coveralls, much like the one she'd obtained from Milita stores, and she pulled a cap low over her face as she crossed into the active area as the personnel prepared their charges for battle.
A trailer rattled past, towed by a tractor and she recognised the load as a pair of beam rifles. A second trailer was following, this one loaded with the flat disks of beam rifle energy cells. "There's a report from orbit," came a quiet voice from behind her and Cagalli whirled to find the tall frame of Commodore Treize Khrushrenada stood behind her.
Treize was something of a legend in the Confederacy Defense Militias, a gifted pilot and swordsman who'd worked his way up to flag-rank through the mobile suit corps, even though a tour as ship commander was usually a prerequisite. Until recently he had been chief of staff to the Chairman of the Committee, but in the aftermath of Patrick Zala's election, he'd been assigned a role in the Ezoe Cluster.
        "Apparently a previously unknown Confederacy battleship has arrived in orbit," he continued, "and is engaging the enemy cruiser. They have confirmed that the Enforcers have a Gundam escorting their dropship, so we'll be carrying beam rifles rather than the cannon. Princess."
        "Don't call me that," Cagalli growled. She hated being called that almost as much as she hated the gowns she'd occasionally been forced into for formal balls... like the ones where she'd ended up meeting Treize.
        Treize chuckled. "As you wish, Officer Athha. Should I take your being here as volunteering as my wingman for this little bout?"
        She blinked. "You're flying?"
        "Rank has its privileges," he said with a slight smile. "And I must admit, I've been itching to get hold of one of these ever I heard of them. Go get in a flight suit - you'll have the Serpent, over there," he pointed at the grey-and-green suit, "and I'll have the Tallgeese."
        Cagalli nodded her understanding and headed for the nearby pilot rooms. Somehow, Treize suspected that anyone trying to get between her and a flightsuit would be nursing a black eye or two when they woke up. Youthful enthusiasm was a wonderful thing when harnessed, he mused.
        "Kira," Murrue said, as she watched another salvo from the big forward batteries reach out for the Enforcer cruiser. Most of the shots missed - the gunnery team was a scratch job by any standards, but two scored on the forward hull, digging deep gouges into the green ovoid shape. "We're picking up a mobile suit coming up from the surface. It looks like the Justice. Are you ready to launch."
        The boy's voice was nervous. "Yes ma'am. What should I do?"
        "Just keep it away from us," she replied. "As long as it doesn't get involved in this fight, we should win. And without a mothership, it won't be able to do anything much. So, just keep it busy. And be careful - whoever's flying it will probably be one of their better pilots so don't give them any openings that you can avoid."
        "I understand," he confirmed. A moment later she could see one of the linear catapults open up and the readouts on the flight control officer's workstation flicked from amber through to green. "Kira Yamato, Freedom, launching!" Kira shouted and the last word trailed into a startled yelp as for the first time he felt the effects of having a linear catapult pick him up and hurl him out at a speed that he would have taken almost a minute to reach under the thrust of even the Freedom's powerful engines.
        Natarle blinked and then saw a twinkle appear in Murrue's eye. "He hadn't made a catapult launch before, had he?" she asked.
        "No," Murrue admitted, and then she and Neumann cracked up in a totally inappropriate fit of giggles.
        Kira saw beams criss-crossing space between the two ships. The Girty-Lue's shooting was noticeably less accurate than that of the smaller ship, but it had twice as many beam turrets and the heavier beams did more damage, which more than swung the balance. A volley of missiles erupted from the Musai, but most were picked off by countermissiles fired out of the Girty-Lue's missile tubes and the few survivors ran into a wall of fire from the point defenses. It was obvious even to Kira that since Murrue was keeping her missiles for defense work, that it was the beam weapons that would settle this battle.
        Then he grimaced as two pairs of variable fighters launched from the rear of the cruiser and came around to approach the Girty Lue. "I can't let you do that," he whispered apologetically to them, although they could not hear of course. "My friends are aboard that ship." The Freedom's targeting computer found it easy to mark out the fighters and he fired the hip-mounted railguns once, then a second time. The first pair of fighters simply exploded. One of the second went pinwheeling away as one side of the fighter was smashed, the other simply drifted, the shot having gone completely through the cockpit and the pilot before exiting the other side of the variable fighter.
        Kira could not and did not ever perceive the shock that went through the commanders of both vessels as they saw an entire flight of Valkries blotted out of the sky in a single moment.
        "What was that!" Azonia demanded of her sensor operator.
        "That is the power of a Gundam," Murrue whispered to Natarle.
Soon the upper atmosphere of Aube was party to several fast moving examples of huamn ingenuity. The fastest moving was of course the Komusai, since gravity was on its side. The dropship, loaded with a short platoon of jump infantry, Ensign Max Sterling and the Gundam that had been designated as Calamity was still descending towards their island target.
Moving in the opposite direction and cursing the improvident fates, Captain Milia Fallyna was redlining the powerful thrusters of the Justice Gundam to try to break free of the gravity well. The mobile suit was actually marginally capable of this however powerful a suit was, the gravity of a planet was not something easily countered but to anyone familiar with the speed and agilty of mobile suit combat, her efforts looked slow and clumsy.
        Above these two and descending cautiously were their enemies. The nearest was Kira and the Freedom Gundam, but closing in from behind them was one of Aubes few mobile suits. It was a non-standard model bearing a more than coincidental resemblance to the Gundams, it was painted gold and white and inside it was one of the political figures behind Project Gundam. His name was Ghina Sahaku and whatever might have been said about him, the man was no coward.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
And the total now clocks in at just over 35,000 words. More than 2/3rds of the way!
"So it seems that news will have reached our friends the Militias," Gloval observed once the report from the Sidhe finished. "Bad luck with that freighter, but that happens sometimes. Alright, let's pull back to our jump point. We can hold that until Admiral Waltfeld's fleet arrives and keep the Ukievoe cluster cut off."
"It's a shame to lose Zoet, sir," observed Lisa. "Those jump points would let us threaten half of the Ezoe cluster."
"Very true, Colonel," Gloval conceded. "But we have only five ships and if we split our forces to hold both jumpoints, we would be defeated in detail. But so long as we hold the jump point from Ovluvizoe, we can take the rest of the system at our leisure."
Lisa flushed. "Sorry sir."
"It's worth the consideration," Gloval assured her. "But it's one thing to be bold when you have the advantage of surprise. Without that, boldness can become recklessness. We're hit the Confederacy on several levels - apart from anything else, they'll need to reinforce their nodal defences to protect themselves from similar attacks in the future - but if we can't hold them out of Ovluvizoe all our gains are for nothing."
One of the communications officers behind him blinked and tapped her headphones for a moment. "Brigadier!" she said sharply. "I'm picking up multiple distress signals from Heliopolis."
"What!?" Gloval exclaimed, spinning his chair to face her. "What sort of distress signals?"
The officer flinched. "Lifeboat signals... Sir, those signals won't get though our jamming. Unless we drop it no one in the system will receive it."
Gloval groaned. "What a wonderful choice," he muttered. "It could be a trick to make us drop the jamming... but we can't risk it with tens of thousands of lives at stake. Can you make out anything else?"
"Just general... Sir, they're saying that there is major structural damage to Heliopolis. They've evacuated completely."
"Cancel the jamming," Gloval said grimly and settled back into his seat. "What a mess."
Indeed it was, and those aboard the Girty Lue with access to windows watched in horror as the entire surface of the colony cylinder broke apart into the seperate panels that it had been constructed out of. "Dear God," Murrue whispered. "How many people..."
The other Militias officer shook her head. "There was almost an hour's warning, Lieutenant," she said. "And there are literally thousands of escape pods. I'm not saying that nobody would have been caught in this - there is always someone left behind no matter how well drilled the population are - but the vast majority were confirmed as being aboard lifeboats or in spacesuits if they couldn't be spared. The real problem is in getting someone to come and pick them up."
"What? But the emergency beacons..." Murrue said and then groaned. "The jamming. It'll be blocking the emergency bands as well."
"Exactly," Natarle Badgiruel nodded. "We can only pick them up because we're right on top of them. When we leave..."
"Ping them all," Murrue interrupted.
"What?"
"Check them all for status, Ms. Badgiruel," Murrue ordered, sitting down in the central chair. "We can't stay here until rescue arrives, but with all the debris there's a very good chance that some of the lifeboats took damage when the station collapsed. If any of them report damage, or don't reply, we can provide aid."
"Ma'am," Natarle protested. "Every minute will count if we're going to trace the enemy to their jump point."
"Then you'd better get cracking," Murrue said. "I suggest you get those college kids I brought aboard involved. They should be able to work a radio and it'll keep them busy and out of trouble. Mr Yamato can assist search and rescue in the Freedom if need be." She glared at Natarle when the other woman continued to hesitate. "The Militia tradition does not include abandoning civilians in need just because it's expedient, officer."
There was really only one answer that Natarle could give. "Aye aye, ma'am."
Murrue nodded absently. The younger officer wasn't a fool by any means - she was a shipboard officer by training and probably better qualified to command the Girty Lue than Murrue was - but she lacked the field experience to know when the Book had to be ignored. As a recruiter, that didn't matter much, but it had probably irritated her to be filling that sort of role when her fellow officers were fighting a war and now that she had her chance to show what she could do she was over-compensating. In a junior officer that wasn't a major problem, but as fortune would have it, Natarle was the de facto executive officer of a battleship - a much more responsible post with correspondingly less room for error.
The Lieutenant was still looking for a solution to that when she fell asleep, alone on the bridge.
In the end only three lifeboats were damaged and with the sudden lack of jamming, two of them would be alright until the ships from the nearest planet, Aube, arrived. Kira went out in the Freedom and carried the lone exception into the hanger and before the hatch was fully closed behind them, the engines began to propell the Girty Lue after the Enforcers. The first battle of this campaign might have been a defeat for the Confederacy, but it was a long way from being over yet.
After napping for six hours, Kira was feeling at least fifty percent better and when he dismounted from the Freedom he stopped to watch the lifeboat's passengers disembark.He almost choked when he saw a familiar head of red hair emerge. "F-Flay?"
She looked up and he saw that it was indeed his crush. "Ah, it's you - Sai's friend," she called, kicking off from the lifeboat to coast up through the microgravity to meet him halfway to the gantry.
"Uh, yes. Um. Sai will be glad to know that you're alright. He and Mirialla are aboard already."
"Sai's here? That's wonderful! But what happened? I heard the alarms and went into the shelters, but I got seperated from the others and no one knew anything. What happened to Heliopolis?"
Kira gulped. "Flay, Heliopolis collapsed. It was damaged by the Enforcer attack -"
"Enforcers!" Flay exclaimed. "But that's ridiculous! We're three systems away from any of the Enforcers and besides, Heliopolis is a civilian colony - why would they attack here?"
"They were after the Morgenroete factories, I guess," Kira said. "They made off with military research and wrecked the port. This ship is another prototype apparently, one that they didn't find before they withdrew. I don't know how they got here but we're going to follow them - hopefully they'll be heading to whatever jump point they used."
"'We' are going to follow them?" Flay repeated quizically. "Since were you in the Militia? And where will we get off if you're going chasing after Enforcers."
Kira flushed. "I don't know," he admitted wretchedly. "If your lifeboat hadn't been damaged then the Captain wouldn't have had it brought you aboard. There might not be any chance to leave."
"What!"
Had Patrick Zala been a lesser man, he would have been slumped in his chair after hearing the latest news. This was not the way that he had wanted to begin his tenure as Chairman. A freighter had jumped into the Zoet system only to see a heavy cruiser blown apart almost on top of the jump point by two light cruisers with Enforcer markings. Fortunately, the captain had had the wit to jump back immediately and transmit a warning to the local Militias. Unfortunately, the local picket had nothing like the force necessary to reclaim the jump points.
"How could the Enforcers possible have reached Zoet!" Ezalia Joule exclaimed. "Has Kpove fallen and no one told us?"
"Calm down, Ezalia," Tad Elsmann said. "They've outflanked us before, at Zjevlovecoe. Kpove's still holding steady."
"True," Zala agreed. "However, losing Zoet would threaten our forces there as well. We need to act swiftly to contain this. Losing Zoet means losing the Ukievoe cluster to all practical purposes."
"What can we do?" Siegel Clyne said calmly. The outgoing chairman had retained his seat on the Committee and now he commandeered the hologrpahic display above the circular table that they sat around. "We need to work out what resources are available and mobilise them immediately. Patrick, you're the strategist."
Zala nodded. "I've ordered the reserves being amassed for a strike at Retkpebxe mobilised to respond to this," he said. "In addition, we have several recommissioned ships ready to leave docks in the Meaxo Eleve system, only two jumps away. I've ordered both fleets to set out for Zoet immediately with the objective of securing the jump points into the system. That probably won't be enough to drive the Enforcers out but as long as we control the jump points we can prevent further expansion of their beachhead and feed more troops in when we can muster them."
"It may not be enough to hold the jump points," Clyne said soberly. "One of the Project Gundam sites was in Zoet. If they manage to get hold of the equipment there, then they'll have a roadmap of our best technology. We have to get that equipment out of there."
There was a ripple of concern and Zala frowned. "Alright. We'll mobilise the other two Project Gundam teams then. Order them to into Ovloe to spearhead a counter-offensive. We'll pull le Creuset out of Alpha Iayuvi to command - he's the best we have. With his Confederate and the battleships from Project Gundam, plus the modified Nelson-class ships from Meaxo Eleve that will give him a dozen ships and almost a hundred mobile suits. We had a dozen cruisers earmarked for the Retkpebxe operation so once they arrive, and they can pick up mobile suits from the systems en route."
"That's not a very large force," Eileen Canaver observed.
"We'll have to bank upon quality," Zala said flatly. "Let's hope that the Gundams are everything that Morgenroete promised, Siegel - because the Enforcers aren't stupid enough not to have sent a battlefleet."
"Ma'am?" asked Arnold Neumann from his seat at the helm. With the small number of personnel available, sensor readouts were being channelled through his secondary displays.
"What is it, Arnold?" Murrue asked. There had been enough time since they left Heliopolis for her to sleep a while, wash up and then finally replace her battered coveralls with a uniform, even if it was not quite that which she was used to. Like most Iayuvi Militias, her own unit had worn quite short double-breasted jackets, but the only uniforms aboard were of the Ezoe pattern, with a wrap-around tunic although at least, by Confederacy regulation, the colours were right - basic black with the tunic emerald green to denote a member of one of the technical arms.
Arnold had donned a similar uniform, with the grey tunic that marked him as naval personnel, although he was not technically a Militiaman, instead being one of the merchant spacemen that Murrue had drafted. "Ma'am, the cruisers appear to have made rendevous with another vessel - it's much larger."
"A flagship?" Murrue asked, calling up the sensor readouts for herself. "Wait, it's how big?"
"I don't recognise it, Ma'am," he confirmed. "But it's large. Bigger than even a bulk carrier. Of course, it could be some sort of mobile supply base for them..."
Murrue snorted. "Possibly. But the Enforcers adapted to variable fighters mostly because it meant they could cram more mobile suits aboard their ships. I guarentee that the minute anyone proposed a ship that large the first thing their High Command thought was 'I wonder how many fighters it can carry?'."
Arnold chuckled. "It makes sense that they might have some sort of collier aboard, to carry supplies if this is a long range operation," he pointed out. "But if it's this close to the front then it's almost certainly well armed and carrying plenty of fighters, for replacements if nothing else. Are you sure that they can't see us?"
"See us?" Murrue asked. "No. The new Mirage Colloid system's reliable about that. Detect us by some other means?" She shrugged. "We don't know of any passive sensors that can pick us up, or any active sensor that can detect us in a vaccum. But there's an awful lot that we don't know, so they might have a way. Let's not give them a reason to come looking, eh?"
"They're heading to the Ovluvizoe jump point then," Murrue said two days later. "Interesting choice."
"Perhaps they're continuing operations," Natarle suggested. "There are enough units still in the cluster to pout up a fight, but they'll all be scattered around in penny packets. A task force this heavy could pick off a ship here and a mobile suit squadron there while a fleet comes through their hidden jump point to secure Zoet."
"It's a possibility," Murrue agreed. "On the other hand, they could have come through this jump point, if their little ace in the hole is inside the cluster. The Ovluvizoe system probably. If that big ship of theirs is configured for jump point defense, they could withdraw through it and have us break their teeth on their flagship while the cruisers clean out our forces."
"I don't think that there's anything that we can do to decide which it is," Natarle said. "Except guess. Maybe we should return to Aube to protect them against whatever comes through."
"That would be the safe thing to do," Murrue agreed. "But it gives them the initiative. And maybe we can find out what their plans are. Mr. Newman, how close do you think we can get to their formation?"
"With the Mirage Colloid, we could be deck to deck with them," Arnold replied. "In theory, anyway. In practise, their combat patrols seem to be about a hundred kilometers out, so we could get almost that close without any likelihood of someone flying into us."
"That would be a little embarassing," Murrue agreed. "Get as as close as you feel is safe, Mr Arnold. If we can get close enough to them, there are some tricks that we can try. If nothing else, it would give us a good idea of what the ship looks like."
They were only a few hundred miles away from the Enforcer ships when Kira reached the bridge. "You sent for me, uh, captain?"
Murrue nodded, not taking her eyes off the blue and white hulled ship that dominated the screen. "Yes. As you can see, we're closing in on the Enforcer units. Obviously, there's a risk that we could be detected, and while we seem to be faster than they are - the large ship in any event, our best guess is that we're well inside their weapons range. If they're detected we'll have to fight our way free."
Kira frowned. "I don't see... oh. The Freedom."
"That's right. I realise that you're not part of the Militias, but you're the only person aboard, except the captured Enforcer, who has any experience with flying a mobile suit. And unfortunately, to come this far, we've - I've - put you and the other civilians in danger if we are detected. I want to maximise our chances to escape if we need to and the best defense against their mobile fighters would be the Freedom."
"I'm not a soldier," Kira protested.
"I know. But you're the only one who can do this. We won't be here long, and we may not need you. But will you help us if we need you?"
Kira looked trapped. "I don't want to kill anyone," he said.
"That may not be a luxury that we have," Natarle interjected from the CIC deck behind them both. "Because the Enforcers will certainly want to kill us."
The Girty Lue had only been in position for an hour when they hit paydirt. A small courier vessel jumped in and quickly began exchanging tight-beam communications with the larger ship, the SDF-1 according to its hull markings. There wasn't enough of a sideband to the communications for the Girty-Lue to decipher, but there were other means. One of the whisker lasers normally used for it's own tight beams had been reconfigured slightly and with both vessels at rest, it had been possible to train it precisely upon the bridge windows of the SDF-1.
It was a very old intelligence method, dating back to the days when humanity had been confined to Terra, and if either ship had been moving relative to the other, it's usefulness would have been almost nothing, but Arnold had been able to match velocities almost perfectly and the laser, measuring the exact distance between it's emitter and the glass, was able to measure even the miniscule vibrations caused by sound within the bridge. And unless something interupted the beam, it was almost impossible to detect.
"...so now we have a timetable," said the voice that they had identified as the ship's commander, and the leader of the little fleet. "It is unfortunate that Admiral Waltfeld has been delayed himself, of course, but once his advance force reaches us, the additional carriers should make it possible for us to detach a force to begin securing the rest of the cluster."
Murrue's eyes widened. That little snippet of information was enough to justify the risk of coming this close all on it's own. If the courier had a message from a follow-up force then then that force - and thus the Enforcer's secret jump point, had to be in the other star system since that was where the courier had come from.
"That's still a little later than I would like, sir," said a female voice - one of the senior officers, she guessed. "It's unlikely, of course, but once news of us reaches Kpove they could send ships straight for us. They'd be starting later, but they'd also be closer to us than the Admiral will be if he's on shedule. That's a race that we can't afford to lose."
"True," the commander replied, "But there's very little that we can do about that. And they won't find us easy to dislodge. But make sure that a full download on our new prizes is included in the dispatches we send. We need to get that out of the Ovluvizoe system and behind our lines as soon as possible."
"Should I order the courier to make all speed, sir? That could have us a lot of time, but..."
"No, no. Not at the expense of security, Lisa. You're quite right, we absolutely cannot afford to let Confederacy find out about Class-III jump points, much less actually locate one of them. Make sure he knows how important the information is, but he shouldn't risk the security of the jump point for it."
Murrue jumped to her feet. "Cut the beam," she said, her voice little more than a whisper, although there was of course no way for the Enforcers to hear her - unless they were spying on her, the way that she was spying upon them! "Nothing we're likely to hear is more important than what we already have."
Arnold obeyed promptly. "Should I take us out, ma'am."
"Yes! But slowly, carefully. If they had any idea what we discovered, they'll stop at nothing to prevent us from reporting it."
Slowly, the Girty Lue backed away from the little squadron. Murrue watched as the courier boat was covered by the halo of an active jump drive before vanishing abruptly across the gulf of stars. "Cut the engines," she ordered once they had built up a respectable speed. "We'll coast away from them until we're well out of their sensor range."
It was an hour later and they had almost relaxed when Arnold looked up from his controls. "There's a cruiser heading in our direction, Ma'am."
"What?" Murrue said, rising from her chair where she'd been waiting tensely for the time to come when the ship could get back under power and start it's run for the next jump point. "Are they on to us?"
"I don't think so, ma'am. From their course, I'd say that they are making for Aube."
"Aube," Murrue mused and returned to her seat, pulling up records of the planet. It looked pretty run of the mill - the fourth planet out from the sun, rather warmer than Mars, it had been terraformed during the interregeum before the rise of the Terran Union, by the planetary government of the system's more habitable third world, Sanq. It remained cold, with large ice caps and island chains in the temperate and tropical zones near to the equator, but the seasons were mild and the planet enjoyed a healthy income from tourism as well as from the numerous high tech industries that it had attracted. Probably it's most significant value was that since the fall of the Peacecraft family on Sanq, the Athha family on Aube had taken up the leadership of the Confederacy's pacifist movement."
"I wonder what they want there?" Murrue muttered. "It would be impolitic to attack Aube outright - the pacifists aren't much of a threat so why stir them up?"
"Perhaps they're looking for some more of the Project Gundam technology?" Natarle suggested. "There is a Morgenroete research station located down there - no factories on the same scale as Heliopolis, but there could still be some information there - they'd want to know what the Freedom can, and the same for the suits built at other locations."
"That's possible," Murrue agreed. "And the Athha would probably hand it all over and be glad it was gone, damn their sanctimonious hides."
"What do we do?" Arnold asked. "We're still in sensor range of the Enforcers at the jump point."
"Keep the Mirage Colloid up," Murrue said. "But power up the engines. We'll get out of their way and trail them to Aube. If they're up to what we think they're up to, then we'll stop them. Besides, once we're at Aube we can get a courier boat or two to carry our intelligence to the rest of the Militias, and disembark our passengers."
"That will be a relief," Natarle observed. "No offense to yourself, Mr Neumann, but I'd really rather minimise the number of civilians belowdecks."
By tradition, that refered to the parts of the spaceship that were below the conning tower and Murrue chuckled, the tension unwinding inside her. "Well that's easily managed," she said. "We could invite them up onto the bridge to take a look around."
Natarle gave her an irritated look. "That's not very funny, captain," she said and then her frown deepened as a thoughtful look crossed Murrue's face. "Captain, that's really not a good idea. The ship is supposed to be a secret, you know."
"Not once it's launched," Murrue replied. "Although that's not what I was thinking, actually. It was more about that Enforcer officer. He's stable, from what I understand, but we're not really equipped to confine anyone in the long term."
"What are you suggesting? That we hand him over to Aube? He'll be back aboard a ship and spilling his guts within minutes."
Natarle, if we have to engage the Enforcer cruiser over Aube then everyone in the system will know about it within hours. Beyond that, what is he going to tell them? That we have a sickbay? That we were undermanned for a while? Because Im not planning to just go running out without pulling some of Aubes Militia detachments aboard for a crew, Murrue explained. And I really think that hes dangerous enough to cause us some trouble if hes still aboard once hes made more of a recovery. He didnt get sent after the Gundams because he was expendable he was probably one of the team leaders and handpicked out of hundreds of pilots for the job. I do not want someone with those skills running around unless Im one hundred percent certain that they wont be measuring my back for a knife.
Cagalli Athha was not having a good week. Her efforts to discover whether the rumours of military research for the Confederacy going on at Morgenroete having borne fruit, she was somewhat at a loss as to what to do about it. The fact that her discovery had been coupled with the capture of that research by the Unity Government's armed thugs (as opposed to the Confederacy armed thugs that it had been paid for by) and the destruction of an entire orbital colony did not put her in the best of bargaining positions with her father.
Coupled with this was the departure of Ambassador Darlian and his family. Of the two ambassadors sent by the Confederacy Council to try to patch up relations between the factions currently controlling the central government and her father's pacifist faction, she much prefered Darlian to Ambassador Allster, and not merely because she got on surprisingly well with Relena Darlian - well enough to have persuaded her to join her in the disasterous expedition to Heliopolis.
The aftermath of that had been to persuade Darlian to depart with his family aboard the next ship back to the current meeting place of the Council, since the presence of the Enforcers changed his role significantly. She could only hope that Relena would stay in touch - perhaps near the Council she could find out more about what had brought Uzumi Athha to allow Morgenroete to break with his lifelong policy of barring more than the barest minimum of military activities in Aube's territorial holdings.
Ambassador Allster had relocated to Sanq, but refused to leave the system until his own daughter, who had been on Heliopolis, was located. He was therefore bothering their Militia on the assumption that Flay had been on the lifeboat picked up by some Militia warship that had turned up at Heliopolis just long enough to ping the flotilla of lifeboats for their condition and then hared off in search of a fight. Given that Sanq had only had two cruisers, both of which had fallen afoul of the Enforcers, there really wasn't anything that the local Militia could do for him, but at least he wasn't on Aube any more.
The news that an Enforcer cruiser was in orbit and making demands was just the icing on the cake.
Not only had Morgenroete been testing new mobile suits at Heliopolis, but several other prototypes that had not been selected for final construction had been cached in storage facilities and two of them were on Aube. The Enforcers were demanding that the Athha family demonstrate it's commitment to the pacifist ideals by handing over the equipment and disbanding their Militia. The last was a particular insult - the Athha Militias were configured to support the emergency services rather than a war and by the particular ters that bound them to the Confederacy, they could retain them for that purpose, which was why none had been committed to the war.
But the Enforcers apparently thought that a tradition of two centuries was no guarentee and were demanding the abolition. The rest of the Confederacy, no doubt, would be laughing their heads off once they heard this.
In front of her, Uzumi Athha looked as majestic as ever as he took his place at the head of the table where the Five Families that dominated Aube's government were represented to respond to the demands. He looked at the camera operator and nodded slightly, to confirm that he was ready.
"Uzumi Athha, addressing Captain Azonia of the UGE cruiser Sluagh," he began. "We have considered your demands. Allowing the military hardware illegally developed on Heliopolis to remain on Aube would violate our principles. However, to provide it to you - the self-declared enemies of the Confederacy, would be a violation of the treaty that binds us to the Confederacy. Accordingly, I have ordered that the equipment be seized and destroyed. As regards your threats against Aube, I suggest that you remember that while our principles do not support aggressive military action, the Attha have never renounced the principle of self-defense - and we will protect the homes of our people."
He made a discreet gesture and the camera switched off. Within moments, the recorded message would be transmitted to the ship above them.
"Was that wise?" asked one of Cagalli's cousins. "Our Militias might be able to repel a direct assault by the Enforcers, but they cannot be everywhere."
Uzumi clasped his hands in front of him on the table. "The two mobile suits Morgenroete developed have been obtained and completed," he explained. "If the Enforcers are reasonable, they can be disassembled as easily. If they persist... then they may was well be destroyed by Enforcer guns as by our hands. They have the speed to react should the Enforcers attempt a landing."
"We're caught between a rock and a hard place, for sure," muttered another of the Athha.
Cagalli grimaced. "Shouldn't have let them be built at all," she spat out. Uzumi's eyes hardened and he rose to leave the room.
"Stupid girl," her cousin snorted. "He didn't know - it was the Sahaku who let Morgenroete build at Heliopolis. But he can't admit that one of the other families did this sort of thing with out his knowing - they could use it to maneuver him out of office."
The girl paused. She'd not even considered that anything could happen without her father knowing about it.
"And he's still responsible, and holds himself responsible," one of the Yuuna added. "You're such a little girl, Cagalli. Still throwing tantrums to break his heart."
"They'll destroy the suits?" Milia snorted. "Yes, of course they will. In full view of the flying pigs, no doubt."
Only a short distance across the command deck of the Sluagh, Azonia chuckled from her command chair. "Oh calm down, Milia. There was never all that much chance that the Athha would agree to break with the Confederacy - which is what giving us the suits would have been - and neither I nor the Brigadier really thought that they would. But it was worth the attempt. After all, however unlikely it would have been convenient if they had, and it's not as if they can stop us from enforcing our demands."
Now it was Milia's turn to laugh. "Oh, indeed not. With my Justice, I think that it's safe to say that the miserable handful of GINN's down there won't be a problem. We won't even need Sterling's Calamity."
"That would be nice," Azonia agreed. "But it's nice to have him along anyway. It's possible that a military operation might have failed for using too many troops at some point, but I can't conjure up any examples off the top of my head."
"It can't even fly," Milia protested. "So it won't be any use down there, no matter what."
Azonia chuckled. "Humour me, Milia. I know I'm only your commanding officer but it would be nice to think I can have my own way every now and again." She pulled up a holographic display of Aube and tapped one island chain. "We'll use the Komusai to land Sterling and our jump infantry, with you flying escort in the Justice. The Morgenroete complex is on the west coast of the island, so the Komusai can land safely behind this ridge -" She expanded the view to show the island in detail, pointing out the contours of the geography. With you and Sterling there, there's not much chance of any serious resistance."
Milia shrugged. "If you say so, Azonia." She grinned. "I really hope that they resist. Those damn GINN's think they're invincible and it's time we taught them better."
"Well, I guess that this makes it official," Murrue noted as she watched the Komusai dropship detach from where it had formed the prow of the Sluagh and enter the atmosphere. "That flight path will drop them right on top of Morgenroete's Aube facilities."
"Is there any chance that they'll be held back?" Natarle asked. "I know Aube's Militia's isn't that formidable but a Musai couldn't be carrying more than a squadron of mobile suits at the worst."
Murrue gave her an amused look and pointed at the little speck that was descending alongside the Komusai. "That's one of the Gundams. Looks like the Justice. Could you enhance that, Mr. Neumann?" The image sharpened, revealing the purple suit in more detail. "Yes, that's the Justice. I seriously doubt if the entire Aube Militia could stop one Gundam, never mind a Gundam plus whatever they have loaded aboard the Komusai."
Natarle gulped. "The Gundams can't be that powerful, can they? They're just mobile suits!"
"Just mobile suits?" Murrue said with a raised eyebrow. "Even a lone GINN can pose a threat to a warship, and the Gundams are rather significantly more dangerous that a GINN. If we had the full squad that was built at Heliopolis and pilots for them, I wouldn't heistate in launching an attack on the Enforcers at the jump point. Individually, they're about as dangerous as battleships - not as heavily armed of course, but far more difficult targets."
The look on Natarle's face was skeptical. "Even if a mobile suit could be so powerful," she protested, "it could hardly be feasible build them in any number."
"They aren't - there are only fifteen of them," Murrue said. "There only needed to be fifteen - although that may change now that some are in Enforcer hands." She looked out of the bridge's window and shook her head. "But that doesn't matter now. Pull us back to extreme sensor range, Mr Neumann and prepare to deactivate our Mirage Colloid. There's no point revealing its existence if we don't have to, and I don't want to attack until the Justice is deeper inside the atmosphere."
"Captain! A Confederacy warship!"
Azonia cursed as she saw the tactical display update. "Where the hades did that spring from!" she shouted. The ship was in their rear quarter and very nearly inside beam range. "Bring us around to fire on it! Get me an ID on it!"
"No ID!" the sensor operator replied grimly. "It must be a new design - power and mass readings are consistent with a battleship!" His face was pale. A cruiser would have a good chance of outpacing a battleship in a straight race, but the ship had neatly entrapped them against Aube and there was no way that they could break away before the enamy was in range to fire."
"Get Milia on the radio," Azonia ordered. There was a flash of light as a beam cannon shot past the bridge window - a narrow miss and just luck that it hadn't decapitated the Sluagh's conning tower. "Tell her that there is prey here worthy of her talents."
"It'll take her at least five minutes to get back here," Azonia's second advised her. "And the Calamity can't make it back without the shuttle."
"Then we'll have to last five minutes?" Azonia snorted. "Take an evasive flight pattern, helm. Let's see if that big clumsy bastard can hit us when we don't let him!"
Five minutes is a long time in a battle between warships, she knew. And with the firepower this badly mismatched, Milia might not return in time to do more than avenge us.
It was surprisingly easy for Cagalli to obtain access to the mobile suit hangers.
Aube had never had very many mobile suits, but the hangers had been built against the possibility that large numbers might have to be brought in at some point, so there was enough space to leave many of the bays empty. It also made it quite easy to hide a couple of extra suits - or for a teenage girl to penetrate the security. It would have been more difficult, of course, if she had not already had a good idea of the layout. Uzumi Athha was committed to the pacifist movement, but he was also pragmatic and had ensured that Cagalli was trained in piloting, just as she was trained, to a degree, in escape and evasion skills.
The Morgenroete facilities were on the same island, so the hangers were the logical place to locate the suits in order to keep them under the control of Aube's government rather than of the corporate executives that had gotten the planet into the mess in the first place.
With only two bays in this part of the structure occupied, Cagalli only had to follow the movement of techs to locate the two suits that she sought. They didn't look exactly like the suits she had seen before, she realised. Only one of them had the helm-and-face arrangment of the others, and it had much less defined features, while the latter simply masked it's sensors behind a window-like arrangement. The first was blue and white, with a shield and a recoilless rifle, the other green and grey with a pair of massive gatlings held in one hand, and what looked like several internal missile launchers in the shoulders. They would be effective against variable fighters, but she had her doubts about their usefulness against a Gundam - the armor systems suggested that those were almost immune to direct damage from kinetic attacks.
She moved closer to the bays. The technicans were wearing emerald green coveralls, much like the one she'd obtained from Milita stores, and she pulled a cap low over her face as she crossed into the active area as the personnel prepared their charges for battle.
A trailer rattled past, towed by a tractor and she recognised the load as a pair of beam rifles. A second trailer was following, this one loaded with the flat disks of beam rifle energy cells. "There's a report from orbit," came a quiet voice from behind her and Cagalli whirled to find the tall frame of Commodore Treize Khrushrenada stood behind her.
Treize was something of a legend in the Confederacy Defense Militias, a gifted pilot and swordsman who'd worked his way up to flag-rank through the mobile suit corps, even though a tour as ship commander was usually a prerequisite. Until recently he had been chief of staff to the Chairman of the Committee, but in the aftermath of Patrick Zala's election, he'd been assigned a role in the Ezoe Cluster.
        "Apparently a previously unknown Confederacy battleship has arrived in orbit," he continued, "and is engaging the enemy cruiser. They have confirmed that the Enforcers have a Gundam escorting their dropship, so we'll be carrying beam rifles rather than the cannon. Princess."
        "Don't call me that," Cagalli growled. She hated being called that almost as much as she hated the gowns she'd occasionally been forced into for formal balls... like the ones where she'd ended up meeting Treize.
        Treize chuckled. "As you wish, Officer Athha. Should I take your being here as volunteering as my wingman for this little bout?"
        She blinked. "You're flying?"
        "Rank has its privileges," he said with a slight smile. "And I must admit, I've been itching to get hold of one of these ever I heard of them. Go get in a flight suit - you'll have the Serpent, over there," he pointed at the grey-and-green suit, "and I'll have the Tallgeese."
        Cagalli nodded her understanding and headed for the nearby pilot rooms. Somehow, Treize suspected that anyone trying to get between her and a flightsuit would be nursing a black eye or two when they woke up. Youthful enthusiasm was a wonderful thing when harnessed, he mused.
        "Kira," Murrue said, as she watched another salvo from the big forward batteries reach out for the Enforcer cruiser. Most of the shots missed - the gunnery team was a scratch job by any standards, but two scored on the forward hull, digging deep gouges into the green ovoid shape. "We're picking up a mobile suit coming up from the surface. It looks like the Justice. Are you ready to launch."
        The boy's voice was nervous. "Yes ma'am. What should I do?"
        "Just keep it away from us," she replied. "As long as it doesn't get involved in this fight, we should win. And without a mothership, it won't be able to do anything much. So, just keep it busy. And be careful - whoever's flying it will probably be one of their better pilots so don't give them any openings that you can avoid."
        "I understand," he confirmed. A moment later she could see one of the linear catapults open up and the readouts on the flight control officer's workstation flicked from amber through to green. "Kira Yamato, Freedom, launching!" Kira shouted and the last word trailed into a startled yelp as for the first time he felt the effects of having a linear catapult pick him up and hurl him out at a speed that he would have taken almost a minute to reach under the thrust of even the Freedom's powerful engines.
        Natarle blinked and then saw a twinkle appear in Murrue's eye. "He hadn't made a catapult launch before, had he?" she asked.
        "No," Murrue admitted, and then she and Neumann cracked up in a totally inappropriate fit of giggles.
        Kira saw beams criss-crossing space between the two ships. The Girty-Lue's shooting was noticeably less accurate than that of the smaller ship, but it had twice as many beam turrets and the heavier beams did more damage, which more than swung the balance. A volley of missiles erupted from the Musai, but most were picked off by countermissiles fired out of the Girty-Lue's missile tubes and the few survivors ran into a wall of fire from the point defenses. It was obvious even to Kira that since Murrue was keeping her missiles for defense work, that it was the beam weapons that would settle this battle.
        Then he grimaced as two pairs of variable fighters launched from the rear of the cruiser and came around to approach the Girty Lue. "I can't let you do that," he whispered apologetically to them, although they could not hear of course. "My friends are aboard that ship." The Freedom's targeting computer found it easy to mark out the fighters and he fired the hip-mounted railguns once, then a second time. The first pair of fighters simply exploded. One of the second went pinwheeling away as one side of the fighter was smashed, the other simply drifted, the shot having gone completely through the cockpit and the pilot before exiting the other side of the variable fighter.
        Kira could not and did not ever perceive the shock that went through the commanders of both vessels as they saw an entire flight of Valkries blotted out of the sky in a single moment.
        "What was that!" Azonia demanded of her sensor operator.
        "That is the power of a Gundam," Murrue whispered to Natarle.
Soon the upper atmosphere of Aube was party to several fast moving examples of huamn ingenuity. The fastest moving was of course the Komusai, since gravity was on its side. The dropship, loaded with a short platoon of jump infantry, Ensign Max Sterling and the Gundam that had been designated as Calamity was still descending towards their island target.
Moving in the opposite direction and cursing the improvident fates, Captain Milia Fallyna was redlining the powerful thrusters of the Justice Gundam to try to break free of the gravity well. The mobile suit was actually marginally capable of this however powerful a suit was, the gravity of a planet was not something easily countered but to anyone familiar with the speed and agilty of mobile suit combat, her efforts looked slow and clumsy.
        Above these two and descending cautiously were their enemies. The nearest was Kira and the Freedom Gundam, but closing in from behind them was one of Aubes few mobile suits. It was a non-standard model bearing a more than coincidental resemblance to the Gundams, it was painted gold and white and inside it was one of the political figures behind Project Gundam. His name was Ghina Sahaku and whatever might have been said about him, the man was no coward.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.