Armored Seed

Chapter 1

Enter the Ravens

Disclaimer: I own neither Armored Core or Gundam Seed.

A/N: this is a fusion of both Armored Core and Gundam Seed.

Some characters may seem a little OOC but it is necessary for my fan fiction's plot development.

-Armored Core carrier Zeus of the Black Skulls Raven Unit en route to Orb space colony Heliopolis-

Captain Nigel Hackett sighed, if there was one thing he hated about being the captain of a ship it was sitting around waiting for what felt like several damn hours for some permission to dock at a neutral port but at least this time it had only taken them a little over an hour and a half for them to get a "Parking space" as Lieutenant Adam Michaels would have called it. Not to mention some of the other members of his crew were getting antsy to get off the Zeus and have a decent shot at some R&R after a long and rather tiring series of deniable ops missions for both Orb as well as ZAFT. After all those missions that they had been on, the ship and its crew had earned more than their fair share of downtime.

Besides they had taken a small amount of damage earlier in the week when they went up against a rival Raven group's carrier. Several of their anti-air guns had also taken some damage during the fighting. At least most of the hull the hull hadn't been damaged save for some scratches to their paint job but that wasn't really a priority at the moment. They needed to effect repairs at a neutral port like Heliopolis and begin to recruit new crewmembers and pilots ASAP.

The captain of the Zeus was broken out of his thoughts One member of the bridge staff looked over at him and said "Captain Hackett the colony just sent us a message, they're saying that we'll have clearance to dock within a few minutes." Hackett gave an internal sigh of relief, it seemed that their patience was finally starting to pay off.

-Zeus, Mess Hall-

The main squadron of the Black Skulls; Black Team was sitting down eating their breakfast. "Man the second I hit Heliopolis I'm going to hit the first bar I see and get so damn wasted," Ensign Drake Mabuto all but announced to his comrades. Drake Mabuto was a regular wild card among Black Team. Drake had grey eyes and long blond hair that was done into a ponytail that in simpler terms almost made the man look like a hippie. If there was only thing that Mabuto enjoyed more than combat it was drinking and going to strip clubs. While Drake was in combat he was somewhat of a berserker normally charging headlong into fights and he enjoyed every single moment of it.

"Ugh the last time you got that drunk Drake I was the one who had to pay for the damages done to that bar from the fight that you started" groaned Commander Donavon Cross. Cross had a short military styled crew cut and had piercing blue eyes. Donavon was a no nonsense soldier and the leader of Black team. And although he was more of a direct to the point kind of soldier he could be a somewhat charismatic leader at times.

To his left there was first petty officer Adam Michaels. Adam had green eyes and dark blue hair, Adam was the team's long range sniper support and while he wasn't a career Raven like Cross was he was still much more of professional in the field than Mabuto, although when he was off the field of battle he frequently joined Drake on his drinking escapades. "Oh come on sir I was just having a little bit of fun, and besides it's not like I knew that hot lady was that guy's wife." Adam silently laughed as he remembered that night. Although it wasn't Drake's finest moment, it was quite possibly the most entertaining to watch.

To Cross' right sat Li Wan Kai who was calmly eating her breakfast while reading one of her many romance novels that were in her possession. Kai had long black hair that was tied into a bun and emerald green eyes. Li wasn't what one would expect in a female soldier and had a number of bizarre hobbies that one normally wouldn't associate in a soldier let alone in a mercenary team. While Li was off duty she liked to shop for trashy romance novels that most people would normally just overlook as well as other items that.

She also enjoyed trying to pair up certain members of the crew who she thought would make good couples and despite the odds at times it normally worked rather well. Li had even attempted to do it to the youngest member of the team, Nathan Fletcher but after nearly two and a half months of little to no results she had all but given up on him. Nathan Fletcher was the only member of their team not sitting at the table with the rest of the unit. Instead he was sitting alone at a nearby table at the edge of the room.

Nathan Fletcher had almost blood red eyes and black hair. At first glance most would initially think that Fletcher was a Coordinator due to his unusual eye color. However the red eyes were actually a type of ocular implants after his old eyes had been rendered useless when he was in combat against a certain terrorist organization. Since ocular implants were getting to be commonplace now it was much easier to spot a person with that kind of an implant due to the red or yellow colored iris' that different manufacturers used.

Fletcher was arguably one the best pilots that they had on the team despite the fact that he was only seventeen years old and the rest of the unit was easily in their early twenties to mid thirties. In fact Nathan was one of the most famous Raven operators in existence because of his skills that were demonstrated when he was only thirteen years old. The most disturbing thing about Fletcher was that he was almost always had a cold air about him it was almost as though he had had detached himself from caring about anyone or anything. Due to Nathan's kill count along with his attitude on and off the field he had earned himself the moniker "The Red Eyed Devil" which suited the boy just fine.

Most of the crew knew about the reasons that he had acted the way he did but didn't speak about it due to their respect for Nathan's privacy, or they were afraid that he'd probably kill them in their sleep which they'd prefer to avoid.

A few moments later they were all given permission to disembark from the craft and most the crew immediately left the ship to get some much needed R&R.

-Heliopolis Park-

After waiting around for what had felt like an eternity for permission to dock with the massive space colony almost all of the crew members that were off duty had left the ship for their shore leave like they had been promised by the captain. Michaels and Mabuto headed out to the local bars since the strip clubs weren't open until later in the evening. Li would simply head for the local bookstore and began to acquire more of her romance novels before she headed out for the clothing departments. Most people found that kind of activity to be strange in a soldier but they didn't seem to notice or really care after all everyone on the Zeus had their own set of personality quirks and rather than judge each other for each and every quirk they simply accepted it.

Cross however would normally just stay onboard the Zeus simply because he was a workaholic. Nathan however enjoyed someplace that was booth quiet and peaceful when he went on shore leave. In fact whenever the unit got shore leave on the colony known as Heliopolis he headed for a park that was located nearby a local Tech School that was practically on the school's premises. He managed to ignore the large group of students that were socializing away and the Raven operator sat down on a nearby bench, closed his crimson colored eyes and allowed his head to roll back and relax.

Nathan was seconds away from dozing off he heard someone loudly yell out "Hey Kira!" Nathan's eyes popped open and he looked around to find the source of the speaker and saw a couple of students running towards their friend who was sitting nearby looking at his laptop while he watched some news reports about the war that had been going on for the last year and a half.

"So this is where you've been Kira, professor Kato's been trying to get a hold of you for a couple of hours now" a female student stated before the student called "Kira" looked up at his friends.

"Again?" he said giving a sigh of exasperation. It would seem that this "Professor Kato" really had need of Kira lately judging by the boy's reaction to the statement from the girl. Nathan continued to watch the exchange and it appeared as thought that this "Kira" was in high demand as of late.

"He asked us to bring you to him right away" said one of them while Kira groaned "But I still haven't finished going through the stuff he dumped on me the other day." One of his friends walked over and had a look at what it was he had been watching before they arrived "If this is footage is from last week they may've already taken Kaohsiung" said Kira's friend.

It really wasn't any of his business but the Chief Medical Officer Carmen Leone had repeatedly told him to try and socialize with people his own age and when he simply refused to comply with that order she had managed to convince Commander Cross to give Nathan a direct order knowing that would probably be the only way for him to do as he was told in such a regard.

"They have already taken it" said Nathan loudly enough that the other three students heard exactly what he had said.

Kira and his friends looked questioningly over at the strange boy who looked to be about a few months or even a year older than them continued "I just came from there" he said truthfully.

The boy had piercing red eyes and short pitch black hair "You did, what happened?" asked Mir "Let's just say that there were a lot of unnecessary deaths," said the boy as he looked up at the artificial sky.

"Well even if they've taken Kaohsiung ZAFT doesn't have any reason to come here I mean Orb is neutral right?" Tolle asked hopefully. The boy looked like he was about to say something else but a second later they heard a cell phone ringing "I'm sorry but could you please excuse me for a moment," said the boy as he took out the communications device and put it up to his ear.

"Yeah?" Nathan asked having already looked at the caller ID and he instantly knew who was calling him and he had a pretty good idea what it was those two wanted from him.

"Hey Nathan how you doing man? Eh listen I need to ask you a huge favor?" said the voice who he recognized as Adam. Nathan sighed irritably.

"If this is what I think it is just call Li for it." The young Raven pilot was sick and tired of having to go to the local bar or strip club that Drake and Adam normally went to and he ended up having to drag their drunken asses back to the Zeus so that the two idiots could sleep it off. The last time that this had happened the car he had taken to get them had its back seat area completely covered in vomit. Nathan nearly shuddered at that memory.

"It's nothing like that. This is actually about Li, she needs some help with her latest shopping spree and quite frankly I'd rather not subject myself or Drake to that kind of physical torture." Adam pleaded while he waited for Nathan's response.

'So you'd rather subject me to that kind of torture,' Nathan thought with a scowl. Whenever Li went shopping and dragged someone along it was tedious and annoying and since Drake and Adam had been repeatedly asking him favors to do things that were similar to this sort of situation he said the first thing that came to mind.

"It's not my problem Adam, have fun," Nathan said simply and he hung up on his squad mate while Adam began to shout out threats of pain and suffering towards Nathan. Nathan looked over to the students who were looking at him strangely "Sorry about that it was just a slight…disagreement between coworkers."

Thankfully that explanation had managed to satisfy everyone's curiosity. Nathan was about to leave to find someplace quiet to sit and think when he heard that girl's voice from earlier "Hey I don't think we got your name."

"The name's Fletcher," he stated not wanting to let a bunch of kids know who he really was. Although it wasn't common knowledge among most civilians, Nathan had built a name for himself among military circles, more specifically ZAFT and the Atlantic Federation and its allies as a near ruthless and unstoppable killing machine.

The girl stepped forwards and gestured to herself "Well my name's Miriallia but everyone calls me Mir, this is my boyfriend Tolle and this is our friend Kira" she said introducing everyone to the mercenary.

"Nice to meet you all," Nathan replied. Shortly after the introduced themselves Kira's friends invited him to tag along with them to the Morgenroete headquarters where Kira helped the professor from his school and since Nathan's choices were either hanging out with them or pulling Drake and Adam out of shopping duty with Li, he quickly and easily chose the former option. Besides he had been ordered to start socializing with people his own age and he never disobeyed a direct order especially when it came from Cross or Hackett.

The group eventually made there way to a bus stop where there were three teenage girls who seemed to be gossiping about some love letter. Unfortunately for Nathan they turned and saw their group walking in their direction. Nathan really didn't want to deal with what looked like three ditzy girls "Hey Miriallia I bet you know" one of the girls gushed "Know what?" the brown haired girl asked totally puzzled by the other girl's question.

The girl who had just spoken gestured towards the red haired girl that was standing next to her and said "Flay here got a letter from Sai Argyle and now she's claiming that there's nothing's going on" the girl explained. Kira seemed to pay much more attention after that last statement.

Looking at Kira, Nathan almost immediately could tell that the boy clearly had one hell of a crush on Flay it was so blatantly obvious to him but not so much to the others. The young soldier however supposed that no one noticed it because he had a rather uncanny knack for reading someone else's emotions.

One of the girls from Flay's group had finally managed to notice Nathan and walked straight up to him before she leaned in towards him and asked "Well hello there. Who're you?" she asked with a grin on her face almost suggestively making him very uncomfortable.

"His name is Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher" said a voice that Nathan almost instantly recognized. He turned around and saw commander Donavon Cross along with the Zeus' chief medical officer Carmen Leone. Carmen was a dark skinned beauty with long light brown hair and blue eyes she was also something of a surrogate older sister to Nathan. Protocol immediately set in and Nathan gave his commanding officer a sharp salute "Commander sir."

"At ease kiddo the captain just sent for us to pick you up since you weren't answering your cell" said Cross. Nathan mentally smacked himself for making such a mistake.

"Sorry sir but I got a call from Michaels and Mabuto and I turned it off because I knew that they would just keep calling until I did as they asked sir," he apologized and the Raven commander just chuckled at that. Those two almost always asked Nathan for some kind of a favor whenever it was they went on shore leave.

"Not a problem now hurry up and get in soldier!" he ordered now with a serious look on his face. Fletcher immediately climbed into the car's backseat. The commander then all but floored on the gas pedal and they sped off leaving several teenagers wondering what the hell had just happened.

"So Fletcher's a soldier?" asked Flay looking over at Miriallia and her friends "He never told us anything about that," Mir assured her "But for who I mean they didn't look like they were wearing Earth Alliance uniforms" said Tolle "Maybe they were just off duty," Kira theorized. Eventually everyone just decided to drop the matter for the moment. A few minutes after that, Flay and her entourage left on one of the taxis that had just pulled in.

Once the three girls had driven away and out of earshot Tolle looked at his friend and elbowed him while he grinned confidently "Don't worry buddy you know as well as I do that arranged marriages almost never work out and then it'll be your best chance to go in and grab her."

Kira blushed a little at that last comment, it seemed as though that almost everybody in the colony knew about his crush on Flay Allster but to him she was just way out of his league but that didn't keep the young Coordinator from waiting and hoping that they could one day get into a relationship.

Kira thought about the red haired girl for a second or two before another cab parked nearby and the three friends entered it and set a course for the Morgenroete compound.

Upon entering the compound they saw that security had been tightened rather heavily since they were there last and Kira thought he caught a glimpse of tanks and other military vehicles over near a few of the classified hangers that Morgenroete had been keeping a very tight lock and key on. Kira just supposed that it wasn't that important after all he had seen some military vehicles around the complex before. The car pulled up by the front of the main building and let the students who were riding off of it.

"So are you going to ask him about that letter or am I?" Tolle remarked. Kira almost groaned, the entire way to the Morgenroete compound Tolle had been irritating the young Coordinator about that little rumor that they had gotten from two of Flay's friends "Will you just drop it?" he asked. Tolle then shrugged "Well if you're not going to ask him about it then I guess I'll have to," he said nonchalantly as he started to make his way towards Tolle.

Kira got a nervous look on his face and turned to face his friend "No you're not, now let's just focus on finishing this up for the professor" Kira suggested.

They quickly made their way to the testing area where Sai and Kuzzey were busy typing things into the computers that they were stationed and there was another person wearing a trench coat and a little hat that kept the person's face somewhat obscured. Tolle walked over to Kuzzey "Who's that?" he asked gesturing to the person who was standing by the entrance to the lab.

At first Kuzzey didn't know what he was talking about before he saw the girl that was leaning against the wall by the entrance "Oh that's the guest of the professor apparently she was told to wait here," Kuzzey explained not looking up from his work station and continued to type into the keyboard.

"Hey Kira you finally made it" said Sai before he handed him a disk "The professor asked me to give you this." Kira looked at disk for a few moments before looking back up at the spectacled teen.

"So what is it?" Kira asked "I'm going out on a limb here and saying that it's probably related to the work that Morgenroete's been doing lately"

Kira took another look at the disk again and as if he already knew what it contained he corrected his friend "Actually it's probably just some program analysis," he said before the whole building began to shake violently.

-Zeus hangers-

It only took Nathan and the rest of his squadron only a few minutes to reach the Zeus but by that time ZAFT had already made themselves known to most of the local population and had stolen several prototype mobile suits that were being developed the Earth Forces and had been killing anything and anyone that stood in their way. It only took Fletcher a few seconds to get his pilot uniform on and get for him to be ready for combat. The Raven operator ran towards the hanger pushing anyone who was in front of him out of the way. He rushed through the hanger doors and saw that his AC known as the Lucifer had just finished launch preparations and was just waiting for him.

The Lucifer is an AC based primarily on medium to close range combat and is capable of using wrist mounted energy blades that have been upgraded to last for a near indefinite period of time instead of being simply used as a burst weapon. It also carried a high powered precision energy rifle on the left arm while in the right the machine carries a short range hand held sub machine gun that was shaped like an Uzi. Both shoulders also mounted mid range missile launchers.

As Nathan got into the AC a voice came over the radio "This is Lieutenant Scott Davidson call sign Sky Eye I'll be your support officer for this mission. Currently the enemy has acquired an unknown number of Earth prototype mobile suits but until the situation changes you are to assume that all MS outside are hostile and please do try to minimize civilian casualties remember we're the good guys here" Sky Eye ordered

"What about the rest of my team?" Nathan asked "Their orders are to assist in the space battle going on outside the Earth Alliance and the Orb security forces need all the support we can give em your current orders are to break off the attack that's currently going on inside the colony" he explained.

"Orders received Sky Eye, Black Five is moving out!" Nathan said as he flew out of the hanger of the Zeus and into the colony. It took only a few minutes for the Lucifer to get from the combat zone out in space and back into the colony and the moment that he had reentered the formerly peaceful place Nathan almost instantly spotted the enemy soldiers. There was a single GINN near the hanger opening fire on several retreating infantry and vehicles. The Lucifer raised its beam rifle and aimed.

"Die!" Nathan said over an open channel.

The GINN turned it's head just in time for it to see the Lucifer fire it's beam rifle. The concentrated energy from the weapon melted the steel joints that connected the machine's right arm to the rest of the mobile suit causing the whole arm to be blown clean off the shoulder that connected it to the torso of the mobile suit. The GINN was about to reach for its heavy sword with its one remaining arm but Nathan quickly closed the relatively short distance using the thrusters built into the legs and back.

The Lucifer pointed its SMG at the GINN and opened fire with its sub machine gun at point blank range which easily pierced the GINN's head and torso shredding the pilot inside almost two or three seconds after Nathan had finished pulling the trigger. Once the volley of gunfire was finished the ZAFT GINN swayed back and fourth for a moment or two before it fell back in a smoldering heap of metal.

"This is Red Eyed Devil one target confirmed down!" said Nathan as he opened fire on the ZAFT infantry that were nearby. The high powered SMG began to shred the remaining invading ZAFT infantry to pieces all the while he heard several radio messages from the other pilots who had stolen the G weapons and their fellow pilots that had been using space based GINNs

"What the hell is an AC doing here?"

"Does it matter? Just shoot the bastard."

"He killed Shotter!"

"Wait a second I recognize that insignia it's the Black Skulls!"

Nathan turned the Lucifer around and saw that another mobile suit was nearby its dull grey armor had changed to red and flew off to join the other stolen prototypes "Coward" Nathan muttered while he saw an dusk colored GINN opening fire with its machine gun on the Lucifer making the pilot use the thrusters in an attempt to strafe the enemy target while a blue and white colored prototype G-weapon had just gotten out of the hanger.

Kira's day had just gone from bad to worse ever since the attack had started and now to make things even worse he had just found out that his childhood friend Athrun was working with ZAFT. At least he had managed to get that girl who was supposed to meet with the professor out into one of the few remaining shelters so he did something right at least.

Kira looked at one of the monitors that showed what was going on outside of the Gundam and saw an armored core with the emblem of a skull with a sword going through it fighting off a GINN so Kira decided that the pilot of the AC was probably a friend rather than an enemy.

The Strike charged at the GINN with the Armor Schneider combat knives. The knives penetrated the joints of the GINN's armor preventing the machine from moving around.

"Attention Atlantic Federation pilot get out of the way now!" ordered a voice that sounded disturbingly similar to that Fletcher fellow that Kira had met earlier but Kira did as he was told and quickly backed up away from the GINN before an energy blade erupted from the AC's wrist and it charged at the ZAFT mobile suit and the blade went straight through the armor and out the other side of it. The Lucifer then deactivated the energy blade and pulled back right before the GINN exploded.

"This is Black Five the enemy is retreating shall I pursue them?" the pilot of the AC asked. Kira deduced that the man was most likely talking with his commanding officers "Negative Black Five your new orders are to protect the inside of that colony at all costs until all civilians make it too the shelters."

"Orders understood I'm moving out" he said before heading back to where Kira's friends had begun to gather nearby.

The Armored Core went into a kneeling position while the Gundam did the same. The AC's chest hatch opened up and a man in a black colored pilot suit with the same emblem as the Armored core stepped out and headed down towards where Murrue was being treated by Kira and Mir for her gunshot wound. He walked up to her and knelt beside her "You okay ma'am?" he asked his helmet still obscuring his face.

"Yeah I'm fine it's just a scratch, hey aren't you with the Black Skulls?" she asked before the mysterious pilot took off the helmet he was wearing and Kira instantly recognized that face from earlier it was that guy Fletcher "Yes my name is Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher of the Black Skulls Raven unit"

Most of Kira's friends were surprised, they had figured out that he was in the military but they didn't know that he was a pilot.

"Hey you're that guy we met earlier. Why you didn't tell us that you were a soldier" said Mir in complete shock that someone that they had just met only less than an hour before was part of a PMC.

"You didn't ask and no I'm not a soldier I'm just a Raven," he explained. before anyone could try and gather more information about Nathan the group heard a gunshot. They turned around immediately and saw smoke emanating from the barrel of Murrue's pistol. She had been aiming at the Gundam, more specifically the students who were inside looking at the cockpit.

"Get the hell away from that machine!" she ordered this time adjusting her aim so she wouldn't purposely miss if she had to fire again. Before Murrue Ramius could bark out another warning she felt cold steel on the back of her neck. She immediately that the Raven operator had a gun aimed at her head.

"Drop your weapon you have fifteen seconds to comply!" Nathan ordered sounding almost like a machine as he spoke while Kira and Mir looked at the two of them with shock evident on their faces they certainly weren't expecting this from Nathan despite the fact that they had just met him less than an hour and a half ago.

"That's a classified machine and a top secret-" Murrue started but Fletcher didn't seem to care for that age old excuse.

"Five, four, three..." Fletcher counted but before Nathan could get to one Murrue had slipped the safety on the pistol back on and lowered the weapon ground. Murrue felt the gun's barrel come off her neck

"Smart move" said Nathan said picking up the gun that Murrue had discarded and ejected the magazine which hit the ground with a slight clacking noise. He then pulled back on the slide ejecting the one remaining bullet left in the weapon. He then took the slide off the gun and removed the firing pin and what connected the gun to the slide mechanism.

"If I catch you pointing a gun at civilians again next time I'll just blow your damned head off instead of giving you a warning," he promised as he tossed Murrue's now useless weapon and the remaining pieces of it to the side. All the while Mir and Kira looked completely dumbfounded at what Nathan just did, sure they had only met him a couple of hours ago but it was still somewhat surprising for them that someone who was around their age would be capable of doing something like that. Murrue sighed.

"Okay then, could one of you kids please go and get the number five trailer out we need to attach the Strike package while their's still time?" she asked politely.

As the teenagers did as thy were told and while most of them worked Mir turned to Murrue and asked "Just out of curiosity what's a Raven?" Mir asked. Murrue looked a little surprised by that, she had assumed that someone her age knew about those who fought primarily for profit. "A Raven is someone who fights for whoever has the most money, word has it that Fletcher over there's probably one of the more famous Ravens in the business."

"One of the more famous?" Mir asked genuinely interested. She hadn't been expecting to meet someone that was famous when she and her family came to live at Heliopolis.

"Yep he's been piloting armored cores since he was about fourteen years old and just about everyone in both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance militaries call him the Red Eyed Devil because of his skill and determination in combat." Murrue explained.

"Why doesn't the Earth Alliance just use armored cores I mean they seem to be just as good as mobile suits?" Mir asked before Murrue just chuckled at the girl's question but reminded herself that Mir wasn't in the military

"Every individual armored core is unique and customized by the pilot plus the parts to build them are very expensive, you could build at least five GINNs for the price of just one AC. As a result Armored Cores normally end up in the hands of mercenary or Raven groups like the Black Skulls because of the amount of money that they end up making during times of war," she explained.

Nathan meanwhile had just put his helmet back on and got back into the AC's cockpit and noticed an explosion and saw a white CGUE fighting with a Moebius Zero class space fighter. The white CGUE seemed to have noticed the Strike and flew down to intercept it. The Strike activated its phase shift armor and was about to open fire on the GINN When everyone heard another explosion and this time out of the smoke and debris came a massive white and red warship that was easily the same size as the Zeus if not slightly larger "It's the Archangel" said Murrue.

'Well this battle just got a whole lot more interesting' thought Nathan as he looked at the massive warship that had just blown its way out of the interior of the colony.

To be continued

A/N: If you're wondering why it is that Natural's can pilot armored cores the answer is simple. The Skulls not only have an operating system to allow Naturals to pilot them but they almost always train in between battles to hone their reflexes to near perfection so that they're reaction times are almost the same as a Coordinator's anyways.