12 Chapter 10

-Bridge, Versaillus-

"Who's this?" Leif asked whilst eyeing the young officer critically.

"FAITH member, Natsume Kisaragi, I was given orders to join with the battlegroup as soon as possible." Natsume said then gave a lazy salute.

She really doesn't care with such formality, 'so what if you're a rank higher than me? I can just shot you down with my Gundam'. Natsume thought while eyeing the woman in question.

Leif didn't seem to take the young officer very well, eyeing her as suspicious, either that or she was scrutinizing her appearance. Sato just didn't look at the young officer with a good impression, Captain Nader didn't seem to particularly care and Biden gave the young officer a smirk, he knew the officer in question.

Le Creuset was honestly amused that this young officer was an actual FAITH member, if anything she didn't really seem like a professional, then again, that might just be her personality. After all she was part of the FAITH not that long, and she seemed doesn't care about being famous or not.

"Lieutenant Commander Kisaragi, it is good to see you again, I do hope you will give your best on this mission too" Captain Biden said while took her hands and shook it.

"Okay, I'll do my best". 'To think she'd end up in the Alliance hands' Natsume thought as she shook her head disbelief with the information she got.

"As all are now present, we can begin." Le Creuset stated promptly interrupting before they had another distraction.

Their eyes turned to the digital display on the bridge, the display which had a layout of the surrounding space, it marked their patrol routes between the Alliance and the ZAFT forces, and it detailed the recent movement of fleets, along with outposts. So far things looked as though the Alliance was holding its forces back.

It made sense as most forays the Alliance dispatched against ZAFT were crushed quickly and brutally, sending out more ships would have been utterly futile, however there was indication that they hadn't entirely wiped out the Alliance forces, considering the remaining four fleets marked out on the map in bright red.

As they looked at the map, they noted the highlighted markings of the orbital debris zone, known as the shoals. Their current position was marked out not far from the shoals, there were also marked passages which indicated safe passages which had been documented by the recon units, either from previous excursions or recent ones.

"I'm assuming everyone has been briefed on the nature of our mission, correct?" Le Creuset inquired across the room.

"To search and recover Ms Clyne, preferably alive and well." Captain Nader stated promptly, his stern tone making it clear what his priorities were.

"Yes, at least that is the official reason for the dispatch of so many warships to locate and recover a single person, a feat easily accomplished by one Nazca-class and a pack of recon craft. Unofficially this operation was given a green light due to the nature of our enemy's recent developments." Le Creuset began as he brought up the intelligence files from their recent string of failed attacks.

The others looked at the display with scrutinising eyes, their minds crunching down on this new piece of information, though Le Creuset suspected that they had already come to learn that something was already out of place with recent battles ending in defeat of ZAFT forces engaging the Archangel or being repulsed repeatedly. He knew that these machines couldn't be left alone, not after all the effort he had put into trying to secure them, and the risks of this war dragging on into the many years ahead, before he could enact his plans.

"About the ship. I don't recall any ship having escaped so many attempts to destroy, especially a lone craft." Captain Biden commented.

"Seeing as it's a new warship and the fact that it has a mobile suit, this probably didn't factor into anyone's calculations." Le Creuset pointed out.

"Yes, we've all read the reports you've so graciously provided Commander." Leif stated in response.

"So, what are we looking at exactly?" Captain Biden inquired.

"The Archangel and the Strike, along with this new machine, so far we've dubbed it the Beast, though there are other terms being used, ours will be set as the Beast. This mobile weapon is quite a tiresome foe, having repulsed multiple attempts to destroy it, as well as managing to slip through every attempt to catch it." Le Creuset continued as he brought up the pictures of the machine in action, after the last battle, they had lost track of the Archangel and its complement of machines.

"So this new machine, The Beast, quite imposing isn't it?" Captain Biden said upon examining the 3D generated construction of the machine.

"It is more than anything the other G-weapons are, being able to utilize such impressive firepower and maneuverability. It's already making waves within our forces, some even call it the White Devil, thanks to its mostly white colours and the devastating power it's held" Le Creuset stated while he recalled his encounter.

"It managed to destroy almost one platoon GINNs and destroyed one of our Laurasia class ship, not to mention he can shred Aegis hand on phase shift armor with ease. And in our last encounter, he literally trashing all the G-weapon units Duel, Aegis, Blitz except Buster because it left mainly for maintenance, but I don't doubt that even if we deploy our remaining units, it would have been defeated as well, and maybe I'll not gonna stand up right here." Le Creuset said as he eyeing the expressions showing on each others.

"This is a very concerning development, for Alliance to have something like this. The operator of such a machine must be incredibly skilled." Captain Biden noted.

"Either that or they might be a coordinator." Le Creuset stated.

This comment certainly grabbed their attention.

"It makes sense, there's no way a natural human's reactions would be near the level of that of ours, not to mention the tremendous strain the body much be put under in order to achieve such speeds. They're either a traitor or just brainwashed, regardless, they're a threat, and a major one." Captain Biden said while nodded his head

"I can imagine the sentiment, no doubt that the Alliance might try taking more drastic measures to win this war, but I would not draw to that conclusion so quickly." Captain Nader stated.

The group of officers thought over this complication in their plans, the operation had a large number of them involved, and Le Creuset knew that the Gamow would continue the search for the Archangel, but chances were low they'd locate them on their own, and while he was looking for Lacus with his associated officers, they might miss any chance to hunting down the ship and its machines.

Le Creuset internally gritted his teeth he knew it wouldn't be so easy to just get out of saving the pink haired princess by running off to chase down a potential lead, especially under a hypothesis, he could get away with this if it wasn't for the public image on this, he could gamble it, but public backlash should he fail would be horrendous. He'd have to pull more strings than he could afford, and it might cost him more than his reputation if he failed. As if a God send or whatever it is pull the strings, Natsume spoke out an information that might help Le Creuset.

"I got a report from the Captain that responsibility on that area, there's a lot of activity around these areas, it said as they had dispatched a recon GINN out into the area, they immediately lost contact some time later." Natsume stated as she pointed out on the map.

The others were genuinely surprised as well at this new piece of information.

"Wait Leutenant Commander, you said that captain had a recon GINN out that far?" Le Creuset asked as he looked over the data.

"Well, I told him to dispatched one in response to the emergency message from the PLANT Council, after that, they got nothing, only the confirmation that the GINN was destroyed, likely by a beam weapon, judging by the impact the suit must have received." Natsume said as she read the data they got for her.

"A beam impact?" Captain Nader said clearly intrigued.

"Yeah, I'm honestly surprised, it's likely someone got the drop on the GINN and destroyed it before it could report back." Natsume said not even looking towards Captain Nader direction.

Leif can't help but frowned after looking at Natsume attitude, but she kept her silence.

"Not unless you're the Archangel." Le Creuset said aloud as he looked at the images from the destroyed GINN.

"You think the Legged Ship is in the area?" Captain Nader asked Le Creuset.

Le Creuset nodded before he turned his attention to Natsume. "Leutenant Commander,you said the Captain were monitoring the Alliance fleets in orbit over Earth right?" Le Creuset asked Natsume.

"Yes, the 8th fleet under the command of Admiral Halberton was sighted, about here." The Leutenant Commander indicated on the map in orbit. "They had their entire fleet performing a regular patrol, then there was spotted of a warships which were heading around high orbit, moving along this trajectory." Natsume marked out a passage leading out beyond the debris field.

"Looks like an advanced patrol heading to Luna HQ." Captain Biden said with scrutiny.

"No, there's something more…" Le Creuset said as he pondered over the potential routes.

"What are you thinking Creuset?" Captain Biden asked the commander.

"The Last we encountered the Archangel are around here, after that we keep during our distance to wait for the reinforcements before finally we lost contact of the Archangel. The ship could only go in a few directions, it's likely they passed through the debris belt, if that's the case…" Le Creuset said drawing up lines.

"Then they're heading to meet with the 8th Fleet?"Natsume guessed from the direction of which Le Creuset seemed to take the conversation.

"It's very possible." Le Creuset said as he suspected that this was the case.

Leif then interrupted. "Umm Commander, I'd like to point out that this sector is far outside of our designated search pattern and as much as we'd like to justify the risk of dealing a crippling blow against the Alliance, ignoring the risk of losing the daughter of the chairman is something I should remind you as a serious issue." She reminded the commander of their original objective.

"Bwahaahaa… hahahaa…"

There's a laughter, and everyone looked to the source of laughter. Only to see the young officer trying to hold her laugh.

Leif that from beginning doesn't like her being here, lash out. "What're you laughing at!!"

"Pfftt…no..nothing much. You're looking for Ms. Clyne right? I thought everyone here already know about the real situation, but lookslike there's someone that doesn't know the information."

"Huh …? What're you talking about?" Leif clearly doesn't understand the meaning of Natsume talking about.

"What I want to says is, you're not worthy for the secret information. Ms Clyne was on that ship, The Archangel. She was held captive"

Leif was shocked with the information she got, she then looked to her Captain as if to confirm the credibility of the information.

"It's true what she said" Captain Nader said

Leif can't believed what she was heard, she can't help but clenched her fist. Even Sato that doesn't seemed concern with the young officer, took a glance towards her.

"Well, moving on. Let's start the real meeting right now, shall we?"

Natsume said while adjusting her uniform. The look she gave was different from before, not her lazy attitude anymore.