"Are these the so-called 'mercenaries'?"
Four men looked up at the sound of that voice, a man dressed in a white officer's uniform.
"Yes sir." His aide said, looking down at the documents in his hands. "They've only recently arrived on base. Central command says we are to outfit them for battle."
The officer scoffed. "Pah. Damned Eurasians, sending us pilots without wings." He then raised his voice, addressing the four pilots. "I don't know who you are, and I frankly don't care. My aide will show you your quarters and your assigned units. Dismissed." He turned and left.
The aide waited until the man was out of earshot, and then sighed.
"I apologize for our commander's brash words. The situation in space is quite trying as it is."
The oldest of them waved it off. "It's understandable."
The aide then motioned for the four to follow.
…
"These are your crafts; they've been inspected and are in good working order." The aide said, standing in front of four rather odd looking crafts.
Said crafts had a cockpit attached to two large "legs" of engines, along with a pair of hard point arms mounted near the front. They were painted a silvery grey.
"TS-MA2 Moebius." The aide said, missing a sideways glance shared between two of the men in the back. "These are our workhorses of space. Familiarize yourselves with the controls within the following weeks." Nods all around. "Very good, your quarters are…"
…
…
"Now then, now that we're all settled in… how about some introductions all around?" One of the pilots, the youngest looking one, said.
It was several hours later and the four pilots spent their time reading the manual to the Moebius crafts that they would be flying, noting how one of the pilots would seemingly twitch every time he saw the word "Moebius".
None of the pilots knew each other; they had, after all, only came up with the term "Mercenaries" as a cover story and let the eldest one do all the talking. Now they had to make that cover story stick.
"I'll go first, then." The youngest pilot said, after getting lukewarm response from the rest of them. "My call sign is Garuda one, TAC Name Talisman. I serve in the Emmerian Air force, 8th Wing, 28th Fighter Squadron."
The name –Emmerian— got a stir. "A pilot from Emmeria? Out here in god knows where? Looks like we have a little more in common than I thought." One of the other pilots said, smiling slightly, before extending a hand.
"TAC Name Blaze, call sign" He hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Wardog Leader." The younger pilot looked at him in shock. "Osean Air force, 108th Tactical Fighter Squadron."
"The Ghosts of Razgriz." Talisman whispered in awe.
Blaze looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I didn't know we were called that."
"My turn next?" The not-oldest one said, after everyone else turned and looked at him for a moment. "I don't have a TAC name. Callsign Mobius one, I'm attached to the ISAF 118th Tactical Fighter Squadron."
Blaze got up. Apparently his discomfort among strangers vanished, once he realized he was among people he knew, in some fashion. "We're not worthy." He said, comically worshipping the man while standing up.
"Looks like we're all Aces in Strangereal." The oldest man said, smirking. "6th Air Division, 66th Air Force, Galm Team Number One, Cipher."
Cue shocked looks from everyone at the table, although part of them expected something to that effect.
"Looks like we're all Aces, indeed." Mobius One mused.
…
Stories were swapped, and timelines were confirmed.
Cipher was fresh off his victory party after the destruction of the Excalibur, the super weapon deployed in the Belkan War. The Demon Lord of the Round Table, as he would have been called later, is famed for his brutal and total annihilation of all targets on the field. Cipher looked a bit cowed by that last bit, as he himself made sure to spare unnecessary targets from destruction when he could; it was a waste of ammo anyways.
Mobius One, given the New TAC name "Ribbon" (much to his bemused chagrin) was preparing for an attack on Stonehenge, a massive ring of anti-air cannons that would have marked his meteoric rise to fame and popularity as the most famous Ace on the planet. Ribbon became extremely uncomfortable once he was told by Blaze that he would be considered the equivalent fighting force of an entire squadron.
Blaze, comparatively less known than the two (as he sees it) gods before him, was nevertheless known as of the "Four Wings of Sand Island" or, alternatively, "Demons of Razgriz." Having just returned from his attack on the large scale submarine Hrimfaxi, Blaze was certainly aware of that second nickname.
"But why a ghost?" He asked.
Talisman clarified that, at some point, Wardog squadron was branded traitors of Osean and shot down, but a mysterious squad of four fighters later rose up out of nowhere and ended the second Belkan war, the Unsung war. It is believed by many pilots (Talisman among them) that the second squad was indeed Wardog, and that they simply were not shot down at all. Upon hearing this, Blaze simply shrugs.
Talisman, being the youngest of the group, had no one to fill him in on the roles he would play in the Anean Continental War. While he had more flight time than at least Blaze and Ribbon (having had around two years of experience prior to the Invasion of the Emmerian Capital of Gracemeria besides basic training) his pride was in tatters due to the loss of said Capital and the barely executed defense of the Air Force Base on Vitoze. The Angel of Emmeria had yet to earn his wings.
…
"Still, I can't believe we're all Strangereal Pilots." Blaze muttered, changing into his flight suit.
"We can worry about that later." Ribbon replied, doing the same.
"Yeah, it's odd enough already; ever flown in space before?" Blaze was starting to feel a bit nervous.
Ribbon shook his head.
A single thought rang through both their heads at that moment. Shit.
…
"Razgriz squadron, you're cleared for takeoff, deploy immediately." Blaze heard over his communication set in the cockpit of his Moebius craft.
Razgriz was the name the four aces of Strangereal decided for themselves; in all honesty none of them (except maybe Talisman) expected to use said moniker except as a formality. They were, after all, Aces who earned their wings on individual flying.
"Razgriz Leader, roger." The few hours spent with the manual was paying off, as nobody managed to crash.
Immediately upon clearing the ship, the four aces started testing everything about their crafts.
"I have to admit this isn't how I thought space would be like." Cipher said, putting his craft into a spin for a moment before getting it back under control.
…
"What the hell are they doing?" The aide deadpanned, looking at the four Moebius crafts flailing through space, behaving for all their worth like decorated space junk.
…
"All Razgriz crafts report in." Blaze said, having been nominated as the leader of the squadron.
"Razgriz two." Cipher.
"Three." Ribbon.
"Four." Talisman.
There was a discussion on which pilot is better, Cipher or Ribbon, but no conclusion was reached due to a distinct lack of atmosphere to fly in and compete.
"We're coming in to the Endymion Crater, stay on your toes." Blaze said, looking at the flashes in the distance. "Two's with me, three and four stay together."
Nobody questioned it; they're not the aces of space yet.
Soon enough, the four saw the enemy in their sights: ZGMF-1017 GINN units.
All of them expressed some level of shock and indignation at having to fight against highly mobile humanoid weapons: going against a target that can turn a full 180 degrees in a matter of seconds was not something any one of them relished doing, especially for the three that were aware of the exploits of a certain Phoenix.
"Razgriz squadron, join the battle." Blaze heard over the comms.
"Roger that. Razgriz squadron, cleared to engage. Don't get cocky out there."
As every one of them expected, nobody used the Razgriz moniker at this point.
"Blaze, engaging."
"Cipher, engaging."
"Garuda One, engaging."
And then everyone felt a slight chill.
"Mobius One, engage."
…
"Ginn sighted, vector zero-two-zero. Talisman?"
"I'm on you. Let's do this."
"Copy." Mobius One, Ribbon, leveled his craft's nose at the enemy at turned off the auto-tracker, and fired two shots from the linear gun. The Ginn shook from the two shots hitting its back, and turned around in a hurry with its Heavy Machine Gun raised.
The Ginn pilot saw a blur of silvery grey race past his target screen and started to turn to catch the target, before being forced to stop after taking another hit on the wing.
"Talisman, target hit." Talisman said as he flew across the Ginn while taking a moment to inspect the damage. "Geez, these guns are horrid. No visible damage done."
"Flank him."
"Roger."
The Ginn pilot paused for a moment and sighted the Moebius to his left, and fired a short burst. The Moebius craft jinked out of the way in a large, exaggerated movement.
Talisman swore, before wrestling back control of his craft. "Damned lack of air."
"I have him." Mobius one said, firing three shots and hitting the Ginn's head with one of them, before darting by. Talisman regained control of his craft, and kept the enemy in his sights until the auto-tracker gave him a tone of lock.
The Ginn immediately went into evasion mode, flying as erratically as he could to dodge the supposedly incoming fire.
"Figured." Talisman grumbled and turned off his auto-tracking, and chased after the Ginn.
"Hey! You guys having fun? Give us a piece!" Blaze's jovial voice came over their unit speakers.
Nobody needed to say it: The lone Ginn was giving them trouble, and they knew it. Better to fly together and kill it than to spread out and do nothing.
"Copy that lead." Talisman chuckled, "watch your locks."
Cipher and Blaze promptly turned their gun auto-trackers off and headed after the now slowing down Ginn.
"Man, evasive flying isn't their forte, isn't it." Blaze shook his head. "Razgriz, let them have it!"
Four Linear guns roared in reply, blasting the Ginn's extremities into scrap.
"These things are built really well." Talisman said, surveying the damage. The Ginn's torso cockpit section was largely intact, but its arms, arm shoulder pads, legs (from the knee down), and head were all blasted off.
"Well, this means we just need to cut off its arms." Cipher said.
"Affirmative on that. Razgriz, let's go." Blaze said, as the four crafts headed into the battlefield.
Or, rather, the four crafts stayed on the outer edges of the battlefield, looking for a target of opportunity rather than diving into the fray.
As Talisman could see, the need to be extra cautious was rubbing the Demon Lord and Mobius One the wrong way.
"We got another one. Razgriz, engage." Blaze said suddenly, having picked up a Ginn that strayed just a little too far from the action. The four crafts turned and dove after it.
…
"What's with these guys?" The ship-bound operator exclaimed in a mix of confusion and exasperation; the Earth Alliance training handbooks said nothing about squad-based combat operations, and this was his first time seeing a Ginn actually get taken down by Moebius crafts at close range.
…
"Cipher, break off."
The Ginn fired his giant rifle, which Cipher dodged with an exaggerated action. The Ginn taking the shot showed his back to another craft while Cipher cursed the lack of air.
"Mobius One, firing." His craft lurched as his gun found its mark in the back of the Ginn.
This particular Ginn pilot was smart enough to realize that standing stock still on the battlefield was a hilariously stupid idea, and engaged his thrusters to lose the circle of Moebius crafts.
"He's running." Blaze fired two shots at the Ginn, who dodged it with its exceptional maneuverability.
The Ginn turned around while mobile, and received a shot to the chest for its troubles.
"Keep flying straight." Blaze said lightly, as the Ginn turned around to evade some more, but not before taking another shot to its back. "Makes our jobs easier."
"I have a lock." Mobius One said suddenly, "Mobius One, fox two!"
His Moebius craft fired one of its four missiles, and the Ginn responded by trying to evade even harder.
"Take the shot, gentlemen." Mobius one said, as the missile exploded, barely grazing the Ginn, who was trying to regain control after his wild evasion tactics.
The instant the Ginn stopping flying erratically it was struck by a barrage of linear gun fire.
Now missing its head, left arm, shoulders, and half of the left leg, the Ginn turned and accelerated away at top speed.
"Are we letting him go?" Cipher asked; it was money down the drain, after all. He then silently reminded himself that he wasn't a real mercenary at this place.
"Affirmative. We're…what the hell was that?" Blaze said, suddenly experiencing a strange tingling sensation in his stomach.
The other three felt it too, and the combination of familiarity and omen struck them hard, before Mobius One had an epiphany.
"This feels the same as Stonehenge." Mobius One inhaled. "We need to get out of here. Right now."
Cipher nodded, despite no-one being there to see it. "Feels like the Excalibur to me. We're out, let's move!"
The four crafts turned tail and ran.
Moments later, the crater was engulfed in a huge explosion.
…
…
*Months later*
…
…
"Razgriz squadron, you're cleared to land."
Razgriz One, Blaze, lead his flight into the cargo carrier.
"Nicely done, Razgriz. Welcome to Heliopolis."
…
"We're 'peacekeepers'." Talisman said again, for about the fifth time this hour.
"Yeah, might as well get used to it." Blaze muttered, reviewing in his mind for the fifth time how the faces of the Earth Alliance officers fell after they justified their retreat as "a feeling they had". He had zero doubt that they were sent to this particular station as a reward for that "feeling".
Cipher managed to do some fast talking with the officers to let them do some modifications to their crafts per their status as mercenaries. He had (along with Blaze) deduced correctly that the officers had something else in mind with the "peacekeeping" force they were sending to a neutral station, thus the Razgriz squadron were allowed to modify their crafts as they please, and to operate independent of the Earth Alliance chain of command unless otherwise specified.
Which meant all the crafts are now painted with their insignias, since silvery grey was already an unusual color for the Earth Alliance Moebius crafts.
"Oh? More Moebius pilots? Are you guys new?" The four heard a voice behind them. Blaze turned and saw a blonde man in an officer's uniform with a confident and friendly grin on his face.
No reason to be hostile. Blaze reasoned. "Yes sir, we're transferring here as an independent peacekeeper force."
He saw the man scowl for a fraction of a moment. "For a neutral colony? Man, high command is getting more arrogant by the day. What did you guys do?" The man laughed.
"We had a bad reason to get away from Endymion." Cipher said from up front; the entire wing had stopped for the chat.
"A bad reason? Wait, you guys were at Endymion too? Which wing were you attached to?" The officer said with genuine shock.
Mobius One, Ribbon, shrugged. "We came in at the tail end of the battle."
"Huh, how interesting. Ah!" He looked a bit sheepish. "I haven't even introduced myself. Mu La Flaga, pleased to make your acquaintances, gentlemen."
"Blaze."
"Cipher."
"Ribbon."
"Talisman."
"Are those your real names?" Mu laughed.
Blaze grinned in response. "They might as well be."
…
…
"Shit, seriously? The hell is ZAFT thinking?!" Blaze swore as he quickly strapped himself into his craft.
"Guess they didn't like how we looked. All units! Intercept the enemies as soon as you take off!" Mu La Flaga said, pulling out of the dock in his orange Moebius Zero.
"Razgriz, check in." Blaze said, pulling out of dock quickly, followed by his squadron.
"Two." "Three." "Four."
"All Razgriz units, cleared to engage all ZAFT forces. Stay together for this one." Blaze said, watching a Ginn cut a friendly Moebius craft in half with a sword on a fly-by. "These guys look skilled."
"Sounds interesting, this squad combat thing." Mu said lightly, using the Gun barrels that were a signature to the Moebius Zero to perforate a Ginn. Said Ginn promptly exploded and destroyed two of the barrels in response. "They're self-destructing. Must be a special ops force." He muttered.
"Razgriz lead, copy." Blaze had seen the unit explode, and turned on his auto-tracker. Soon enough it sounded the lock-on tone as it locked on to a Ginn. Said Ginn pulled a sharp turn and leveled its large recoilless rifle at his Moebius.
The Ginn was then promptly shot in the face by Talisman's Moebius fighter.
"They're pretty good." Blaze said after regaining control behind the now head hurt Ginn. "All units watch out for the enemy explosions. They're a bit suicidal."
The Ginn responded by pulling out its Heavy Machine Gun and spraying bullets ineffectually all over the place in front of him. Blaze put it out of its misery with a stream of Vulcan fire into the Ginn's back.
"These Naturals are oddly skilled." A pilot in a white mobile suit mused.
Mu La Flaga felt an odd flash. "Is that…?"
"That looks like a commander unit." Mobius One remarked upon seeing the white mobile suit.
As if in consensus all four units chased after it.
Two Ginns flew to the aid of the white command unit as it headed into the colony.
Mu La Flaga's Moebius Zero flew past them at top speed.
"Man's got a one track mind. Razgriz, spread out."
"Two." Cipher locked onto one of the Ginns and fired a missile.
The Ginn turned on its burners and rose higher, only to be intercepted with a shot from Cipher's Linear Gun. As it staggered in space he fired another missile at it, and it struck the Ginn in the torso, likely killing the pilot.
Mobius One flew behind the second Ginn that had its overlarge gun aimed at him, and pulled a very sharp 180 degree turn in the zero gravity, and as the Ginn turned around to intercept, Mobius One fired a missile at the Ginn without bothering to wait for a lock.
The Ginn kicked its engines to full and avoided a direct impact with the missile by dodging to his right.
Blaze intercepted said Ginn's evasion by firing a missile into the Ginn's path of evasion, hitting it square in the back and totaling the craft.
The entire exchange took about thirty seconds.
"Alright, we're done, Flaga might need our help." Blaze called, already moving onto the next battlefield in his mind.
Historians have often argued about the capabilities of the Aces of Strangereal. Opinions ranged from "they use drugs" to "they are all the same person". What most people fail to account for is one, quite simple, fact.
The Aces of Strangereal are all fast learners.
…
…
"I'm gonna be honest, the insides of a colony amaze me." Talisman said, taking a moment to look around at the ground all around him.
"Same here; now where did that command unit go…" Cipher muttered, before catching himself.
"All units, this is still space, don't get complacent." Blaze laughed, catching Cipher's odd action.
"I see it, Command unit at zero-five-zero." Talisman suddenly said. "Looks like it's fighting with some other units."
"Whoa, wait. They stocked combat weapons in a neutral colony?" Mobius One raised an eyebrow.
Guess they did have something up their sleeve." Blaze grunted. "Razgriz, we're taking that Command unit. Watch your fire." Three affirmatives came in reply.
"Shit, Jink!" Mobius One suddenly said, and the four broke formation.
…
"They're quite good." The pilot of the white command unit said, having just sprayed fire in the direction of the incoming Moebius unit. "I didn't know Earth still had pilots of that caliber; just where were you hiding them, Mu La Flaga?"
Mu smirked, firing a Gunbarrel gun at the Command unit. "They're a surprise gift, Rau Le Cruset!"
Rau raised his shield-mounted Gatling gun and fired at the Moebius Zero, largely ineffective as the small orange craft zipped out of the way. Before hearing the Earth Alliance communcations from the Moebius crafts. Apparently the Moebius pilots don't know their encryption. Rau thought.
"Flaga, you alright?" Blaze said.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm taking this bastard down right here, right now." Mu replied, turning around for another run.
"Give it your best shot, Flaga." Rau said mockingly.
"We'll assist. Razgriz."
"We're here. Let's do it." Mobius One responded, turning to put a little more distance between himself and the white command unit, before needing to evade a little harder to dodge some shots from said command unit.
"Blaze, I'm with you." Talisman said, putting himself a little behind Blaze.
Rau sighted one of the Moebius units and opened fire with his machine gun, forcing the Moebius to dodge to the side. He then fired his shield-mounted Gatling and raked the Moebius with fire.
"Shit, I'm hit! Right engines are down." Mobius One detached the single missile attached to the right hard point; it exploded behind him. "I'm still in the air."
"I got him." Blaze said, having maneuvered behind Rau's unit in the meantime. A single Linear Gun round flew at the Command Unit...
And Rau quickly dodged out of the way while twisting to bring his machine gun to bear on the Moebius behind him, only to need to dodge again due to a shot from Cipher, aimed at his side again.
Cipher, for his part, had to break off the attack to avoid flying face first into a burst of fire.
"These guys are good." Everyone muttered about everyone else.
Rau fired both of his guns wildly around him, forcing all the Moebius crafts to break off their attack runs. He then took the advantage and made a quick exit out of the colony.
"Not a commander for nothing." Blaze muttered, restraining himself from firing a parting shot after the Command Unit. "All units stand by."
"Roger. What's that thing down there?" Talisman said, looking down at the giant humanoid unit.
"That's our secret." Mu La Flaga said. "The Strike."
"Not much of a secret if you told us what it was." Cipher turned his Moebius a little, and frowned. He then frowned harder. "Look at those things. I guess they were carriers for those weapons."
The other Aces turned to look at the five empty Mobile Suit carrier trucks. "Guess there were more than one. What happened to the rest?" Mobius One wondered out loud. Good thing there's no atmosphere; otherwise I'd be crashing and burning. He thought to himself.
A beep caught his attention. An unregistered ship appeared on his radar behind him. He twisted to look and caught the sight of a large, oddly shaped space ship that looked as if it had legs.
"Looks friendly." Talisman said, before changing his communications to a general Earth Alliance channel. "This is the Independent Earth Alliance Fighter Squadron Razgriz; unidentified ship, state your affiliation."
A brief pause, before a woman's voice came over the line. "This is the Earth Alliance Battleship Archangel; I've never heard of a Fighter Squadron with that name."
"We're a bit new to the neighborhood." Blaze said. "Archangel, this is Razgriz leader, requesting permission to land." He watched as the Moebius Zero went to dock without getting clearance. Must be emergency times.
"Uh, Roger, Rasgrease. You have permission to land."
…
…
"This boy was in that thing?" Mobius One was shocked.
The boy in question happened to be the one and only Kira Yamato. Surrounded by his friends and facing down a wall of guns.
"I was unaware the Earth Federation employed child soldiers." Cipher said with a slight edge in his voice.
"I wasn't piloting it because I wanted to." Kira said.
"He did it to protect all of us." A brown haired girl said, looking a bit hurt and lot angry.
"So it seems. So why are we pointing guns at him?" Mu La Flaga walked in with a sigh of exasperation.
"He's a Coordinator." A severe looking woman with black hair said, as if that explained everything.
"Someone clarify why that's dangerous?" Talisman asked.
"We're currently at war with the Coordinators." The same woman replied, looking annoyed.
"Yeah? And he saved all your asses. You should all be thanking him instead of pointing your guns at his face." Cipher growled. A few of the soldiers looked sheepish at this, and lowered their guns.
Mobius One scowled as well; racial prejudice was not something he was used to seeing, considering the nature of his previous employer. "Regardless, can we be briefed on the current situation?"
"What's there to brief? The Earth Alliance used a neutral colony to develop weapons and ZAFT found out." Mu laughed bitterly. "And now we're paying for it."
"In any case, we need to chase down the four stolen suits and report back to headquarters." The woman with long brown hair said. "Lieutenant Flaga, being the ranking officer, will you take command of the ship?"
He shook his head. "You know more about this ship than I do; besides," He glanced at the four Aces of Strangeal. "Their crafts aren't combat worthy right now, and we need all the guns we can get."
The four aces almost sighed in unison: After the attack by the enemy command unit all four Moebius crafts almost simultaneously blared warnings in the cockpit about engine troubles. Their best guess was that the Moebius crafts simply weren't built to handle the erratic flying the Aces employed in combat. Either way, the Moebius crafts in question are currently stored in the Archangel's hangers, smoking slightly.
…
…
"So how are we getting this ship out of the colony?"
The four Aces looked out of the bridge window; the severe looking black-haired woman (Natarle, her name was) shot them a few disapproving glances every few seconds but didn't say anything.
"If you have any good ideas, I'd love to hear it." The brown haired captain of the ship (Murrue Ramius) sighed; they had just confirmed the destruction of the military dock that would normally have allowed them to get out of the colony.
The bad news was topped off by the hesitation to blast the debris away for fear of damaging the colony further. Cipher scoffed at that justification, and when pressed said the colony's already damaged beyond repair. Nobody asked why he thought so.
"Considering ZAFT's attempts to get this ship and the mobile suits, we can assume that they will use whatever tools at their disposal to do so." Ribbon said, scratching his chin.
"So you think they'll blow the colony?" Blaze said, surprised.
Cipher pointed to the captain of the ship. "Their attempt number one almost succeeded."
Murrue frowned. Cipher had found out about the attack on the Archangel's original crew in around thirty seconds of talk with the captain and executive officer, and had zero issues with vocally expressing his distrust in the experience of the current ragtag crew.
"Besides, this colony is already screwed beyond repair." Cipher continued. "Wouldn't put it past anyone to claim that it was destroyed as an act of" he raised his hands to do air quotes "accidental fire."
"So we wait until they bust us out?" Talisman said, a slight edge to his voice.
"What choice do we have?" Cipher shrugged. "The only things we have are a Zero and a child."
Blaze sighed. Kira Yamato, the brown-haired, supposedly super-human coordinator, was adamantly refusing to pilot the mobile suit he was previously in. The X-105 Strike, then, was currently sitting without a pilot as Mu tried to talk him into going into battle.
"The four of you are ace pilots, are you not?" Natarle suddenly said. "Couldn't one of you pilot the Strike?"
"Would love to, but none of us have experience in a Mobile Suit." Ribbon responded.
"Even if they did, that OS the kid wrote is insane." Mu said, coming into the bridge. "Did you see that thing? Only someone like him could pilot it."
"Have him rewrite it then." Cipher said instantly.
Mu shook his head. "Kid won't do it, and the mechanics won't let him do it either."
Blaze raised an eyebrow.
"They said they'd let him do it after they're done copying it to a backup."
Faces met palms on the bridge.
"Now's not the time to be thinking about something like that." One of the weapons operators said as he got up and left.
"Murdoch, don't leave your" Natarle said as Murdoch raced out of the bridge. "station." She sighed.
"Can't be helped; he was a hangar crewman before we got hit." Murrue said, adding the last bit as an explanation.
Suddenly, warning sirens blazed in the bridge.
"Heat signatures detected!" All hands were alert. "ZAFT is…attempting to shoot through the colony!" A nameless operator said.
"What?!" Natarle and Murrue said.
"How can you tell?" Ribbon wondered.
"The Archangel has connections to a sensor array on the outside of the colony in case we needed to deploy. Damn ZAFT." Natarle explained, adding the little bit at the end in an undertone.
Murrue scowled. "All hands condition one, brace for impact; we'll break thorough in one go." The communications officer relayed her orders to the rest of the ship. "Weapons, arm Gottfried. Prepare to fire."
The ship shook.
Or, rather, the view outside the bridge shook.
The four Aces of Strangereal looked on in shock as the ground before their eyes trembled and broke apart, revealing the seams of steel that held them together.
"Missiles incoming!"
"Intercept!" Murrue said.
Through the bridge they could hear the dull whirr of the anti-aircraft guns, and the area in front of them lit up with explosions, shredding the pieces of the colony down further.
"Gottfried, fire!" Natarle said.
The ship rumbled as four green beams of light streaked through the ex-colony air (now very much so space) and caused more explosions to happen.
"Archangel, full speed ahead! All weapons fire at will!" Murrue said.
"Second shot incoming!" A second shot hit the colony debris and burned it up, and didn't reach the ship.
"Counter-fire!" Natarle commanded.
The Gottfried cannons swerved to the direction where the enemy fire came from and returned in kind.
"I don't know if we got a hit." The weapons operator commented.
"It's fine; we just need to get out of here." Murrue waved him off, as they watched the colony's debris float past them as the ship shook with debris impacts.
…
"That ship's escaping the colony debris." The captain of the opposing ship said, watching said ship on monitor.
"Well, let them run a little; pursuing through colony debris isn't good for our ship or our status." Rau Le Cruset said, his voice doing the shrugging for him.
"Yes sir." The captain said, "Have all pilots on standby."
"Yes sir." The executive officer said, before relaying the order.
"Have the captured units on standby as well." Rau added in, thinking of the unrecovered Mobile Suit.
…
"We've cleared the Heliopolis debris, where do we go next, captain?" The helmsman of the Archangel said.
The bridge felt oddly empty now that the four Aces weren't standing around, Murrue mused.
"Captain, the ship wasn't fully supplied when it was under attack; I advise that we head to Artemis." Natarle said, looking at a map on her screen.
"I agree. Set course for Artemis." Murrue commanded.
"Will they actually help us?" The communications officer mused, "They're the Eurasian branch, after all."
"We're still Federation, bad blood aside." Murrue mused.
…
"Oy! You guys came at just the right time! How did you burn them out that badly?!"
The four aces were in the hangar, being hailed as they watched their Moebius crafts go through what seemed to be a total overhaul.
"You guys actually have the parts for that?" Blaze wondered as he descended down to the hangar floor; not having gravity is great for jumping off of railings.
"We don't; these are reserve engines for the Mobile Suits that we're not gonna use any time soon." The Chief Engineer Murdoch said with a sigh.
Cipher whistled under his breath. "Pretty good work for a rush job." The Moebius craft's old engines were stripped off entirely and the new ones looked like they were forcibly bolted on to its two "legs", which they were.
Murdoch grinned. "If you got some requests for these babies I'd love to hear them."
The four Aces looked at each other for the briefest of moments. "Well…"
…
"The four pilots from before can fly again, right? So why do I have to keep piloting that thing?" Kira demanded.
Mu sighed. "We're up against a ZAFT ship with a full complement of Ginns; Moebius crafts have never done well against those things. Your Strike is the only—"
"It's not mine." Kira said.
"I know." Mu corrected himself. "The Strike is our only shot at getting out of here alive."
Kira fumed on the inside. He wasn't a soldier, why were they making him fight?
Mu read the look on his face. "I know what you're thinking, but if this ship goes down your friends would die too; it's not like they'll be left alone even if we could get them to an escape pod on time."
…
"Heat signatures confirmed!" The weapons officer said, staring at the readouts. "Enemy ship confirmed to be a Nascza class destroyer. Enemy will be within probable weapons range in twenty minutes."
"We can't outrun it, I see." Murrue sighed; the damage taken from the sabotage meant two of the Archangel's engines were offline. "Alert all pilots. If we can damage it enough we can get out of here just fine."
…
"Wait, that's her plan?!" Cipher was incredulous.
"Yep. Lady's got balls, that's for sure." Blaze laughed.
They had just been briefed that Murrue battle plan was essentially "ignore everyone and hit the enemy ship's engines".
"Shouldn't be too hard; ZAFT's got shit gunners." Ribbon mused.
All four of them were changing into pilot suits in a hurry, before hearing Natarle's voice on speakers.
"All crew, brace! We're taking fire!"
Immediately they felt the ship shake.
"Let's hurry." Blaze motioned to the others, and hurried by Kira as he came in to change.
…
"We took a hit; missile impact to port side, light damage." Natarle said. "Weapons, what are you doing!?"
"Roger!" The weapons officer gritted his teeth; the Igelstellung CIWS were not designed to target behind the ship, and the lighter Helldart missile launchers were still non operational. Poor man has his work cut out for him.
"Is the enemy ship launching units?" Murrue looked at the screen display of the enemy ship.
"Additional heat signatures detected, probable launch of combat units; estimated time of arrival, fifteen minutes." The Search and Detections officer said.
"Just great. Launch all we have. We need to stop the enemy ship!"
….
"Blaze! We got the launch order!" Murdoch said, as the Four Aces arrived to their respective Moebius crafts.
"Roger that. Razgriz, let's rock and roll." Blaze entered his Moebius craft, refitted with a pair of wings outfitted with missiles mounted on external pylons. A picture of a man in a black winged helmet was on his ship's body.
"About time." Cipher grinned like a feral beast. His Moebius was upgraded with a second linear gun, both mounted on the legs of the craft. Where the gun used to be was replaced by a large anti-ship missile. A picture of a bright red dog chewing on its chain emblazoned his craft.
"Roger that." Talisman's craft was emblazoned with a bird emblem, and mounted wings with external pylons with additional missiles, as well as an anti-ship missile.
"Copy." Mobius one showed no emotion, his craft carried both the wings and missile-armed pylons along with an additional Linear gun. His craft carried his symbol, the Mobius strip, on its body.
All of them were also armed with a grapple hook and wire.
…
"Razgriz squadron," Natarle said over the communications, still having some trouble with getting the pronunciation right, "you are to engage the enemy ship, ignore the rest of the enemy units."
Blaze laughed. "Not happening, girly."
Cipher cut her off before she could interject. "If we're up against Mobile suits we can't leave 'em alone. They want to sink our ship, and they hit harder than we do."
Natarle fumed for a moment; having orders blatantly ignored wasn't normal for her.
"Razgriz, you're cleared to launch." She said a moment later.
"Aye aye. Razgriz, let's do this!"
…
"Looks like they have Moebius crafts, though they look different from mass production models." The search and detections officer on the Nasca-class ship said, and the Moebius crafts were brought into view.
The captain looked at the insignias for a brief moment, and then promptly sighed in despair as he saw the status of those crafts in question. "Looks like they rigged a piece of garbage to float; this is what we're fighting against?"
"All mobile suits, you're cleared to launch." The Combat Information Officer said.
"Roger that, Cruset team, deploy!"
…
"Whoa, whoa, what?" Blaze looked at his display. "Is this a joke?"
"They're deploying the stolen G-Weapons? Damn them." Murrue said under her breath. "All pilots, capture the stolen G-weapons if you can."
"That's a joke, right?" Talisman said with a slightly shaky laugh.
"Shit…alright, Razgriz!"
"Two."
"Three."
"Four."
"We're taking down the Ginns; launch your Anti-Ships at the enemy carrier if you can. They can't fight if they're out of energy. Copy?" Three affirmatives came in reply.
"Enemy units are within range; Razgriz squadron, take them down." Natarle said as missiles exploded over the ship.
"Roger that. Wardog one, engaging."
"Galm one, engage."
"Garuda one, engaging."
He took a deep breath. "Mobius one, engage."
…
"Why do they have different callsigns?" Mu wondered.