8 Chapter 6

"That's enough Athrun, I think the mission was to received Ms. Lacus Clyne from The Strike, not to engaged in battle with any of Alliance Mobile suits." A smooth voice cut over an open channel

"Commander Le Creuset…!!" Athrun, Yzak and Nicol shouted at the same time, surprised why the commander come out.

The battlefield become calm with the incoming new mobile suit. Ryu could see that the blitz and the duel positioned themself behind the white CGUE and Aegis.

Ryu then retrieved the GN sword he throw earlier and maneuver Barbatos in front of the Strike in case the battle continuous.

"I believed, i've to apologized. I never intended for them to engaged in battle with the Strike. But lookslike our pilot misunderstand the term 'assist' as 'engaged into battle if the term is possible'. As their Commander, I'm really sorry for their conduct. I hope you can forgive us" Le Creuset said faking his voice into apologetic tone.

Ryu just calmly observe the white CGUE in front of him. He knows the person in that cockpit was Rau Leu Creuset, the one behind all messed up for now and later on the future.

"Because the misunderstanding is being cleared, we can continue the transaction, right?" Le Creuset said suggesting to the strike to released Lacus Clyne immediately.

The Strike then move forward, steadying his speed so it was not fast enough nor too slow. But suddenly Ryu stretch Barbatos left hand in front of strike path, halting the strike to move forward any further, this makes the atmosphere become tensed again.

Le Creuset keep his calm, but behind his mask clearly his left eyebrow quickly raised. He pondered what was the Beast pilot gonna do. He knew that the pilot was not Earth Alliance military based on his conduct (a.n : he destroyed the EA before clash on with ZAFT), so either he is a mercenary or a ZAFT fugitive. But to his surprised, before he could asked the meaning of Ryu action, Yzak voice out his displeasure.

"Oy, Kisama !! Why you'd blocked his path !! Are you ignoring what's your order!!"

Leu Creuset couldn't help but cursed at the young coordinator behaviour, he don't know where's that cocky attitude come from. What if, the Beast pilot attack them?Can't he see, that his Mobile Suit already a dead meat?

"Yzak, can't you please be quiet? and that's apply to the rest of you too." Leu Creuset clearly don't like the situation he's right now. "Please ignore what happened earlier, also Mr. Zero, I'm curious what's the meaning of your action? Didn't the captain clearly stated that, they'll returned Ms. Lacus Clyne to us?"

Ryu shook his head. "Well, I've a better suggestion. It's not that hard to listening it first, right?"

-Versaillus-

Le creuset couldn't help but cursed at his own bad luck as he remembered what was happened earlier. Everything seems fine, not only they'll get the chairman's daughter back, but they can also sunk the Strike Mobile Suit. Though things were getting ugly now that the new mobile suit showing up, and demanding them to returned the stolen Mobile suits in exchange with the chairman's daughter. Of course he just laugh it off, and think of it as a mere bark. But the situation had turned around rapidly, with how the new machine having cleaved off both his CGUE arms and disabled one of his barrels with ease, he was lucky that he didn't die from fighting the damn thing, but he could feel it, the presence of something terrifying from within that machine. It unnerved him how casually it managed to handle those G-Units easily.

He took a moment to breathe deeply, his hands shaking with nerves frayed, his medication, in one hand, he took a dry swallow of the pills.

'Fuck! So close... so damn close.' He thought darkly as he continue watching the footage of the Beast thrashing the other G-Units.

-Conference room, Archangel-

"I'm just acting according to the situation, didn't you give me the permission of it? Or are you already in that age?" Ryu said mocking Murrue

Murrue frowned at that. She didn't like the idea of him using a human hostage as bargaining chip, not to mention it was the ZAFT chairman's daughter. "But I never…"

"To begin with, the moment they sent more than one Mobile Suit to retrieve her everything is become null." Ryu said cutting through Murrue words. "Don't you remembered what Le Creuset said? He'll send one to retrieve her, I believed you guys understand what's 'one' stand for, right?"

"Then what're you gonna do with her !!" Murrue clearly annoyed "We can get rid off her earlier, but you suddenly demand something like that!!"

"I believe, I just act to our benefits. To begin with, that's Alliance Mobile suits, I just asked them to return it. And for your information, I bring back the last G-unit that turn his back towards you guys. The strike pilot got swayed by the aegis pilot speeched, and turn into traitor"

Murrue winced when hearing the information, imagine the worst possibility if the Strike really turn his back.

"I don't know if you guys an idiot or stupid, but I know for sure that the strike pilot knew the identity of the Aegis pilot, and he don't give that information." "Well then, if you'll excuse me. I think I need a little rest." Ryu said and walk out towards the door.

"I'll prepared the room for you…" Murrue said, then proceed to walk alongside ryu.

"No need" Ryu said while looking behind towards Murrue direction. "I'll sleep on my Mobile Suit, you guys can't trust me right? The same goes for me, I can't trust you all" "As long as you guys don't get in my bad side, I'm not gonna antagonist you". "And about that girl, I believe the Alliance have a better idea what's they gonna do with her."

Ryu then proceed walking towards the door, leaving behind Murrue and Mu that seemed a bit in deep thought.

Murrue clearly don't look happy with the situations, Moebius Zero was still under repair and the last she saw of Kira, he didn't look to happy and she could understand why after his attempt to released lacus was failed. She glanced to Mu, and he seemed deep in thought. "Lieutenant," she spoke, looking to the armor pilot. "What do you think?"

Mu chuckled and crossed his arms. "What do I think?" He paused in thought, thinking over everything that had just been discussed and his observation of the man. "Hard to say. I've never met a spook before."

"A spook?"

"Intelligence operative. A spy basically."

Murrue blinked at that, and looked to the door. "Him? A spy? I thought he clearly said he was a mercenary"

"Well, he is. But that doesn't mean he's not a spy either. To be honest, he doesn't look the part, but he's extremely calm for a man in his situation. Not to mention his knowledge of the Strike's systems. You'd either have been part of its programming or was informed of it. And lets not forget his own machine. It's similar in appearance but design seems more ZAFT's style."

"So you believe him?"

"Oh no, I don't believe him for a second. But we're in a tight spot right now. We're low on supplies, moral is low. The Zero is still under repair, leaving only the Strike as our only means of mobile defense against ZAFT should they decide Ms. Clyne isn't worth keeping alive… not that we'd actually do anything to the girl." He paused as the door opened and Ryu stepped out. "We need the help, and if he's willing to assist…"

"Give him the benefit of the doubt?" Murrue asked, looking to Mu from the corner of her eye. His only reply was a shrug.

-Archangel-

Ryu then walked away towards the door, leaving the room while Mu and Murrue stay behind with stunt expression on their face. He then proceed to walk towards Hangar for resting in the cockpit of Barbatos.

Ryutaro knew that this wasn't what he was expecting or what he was hoping for, this entire situation was pretty much blowing everything out of proportion to the point he wasn't sure if he could call this a viable result. In any case, he had to shoulder the fact that he couldn't avoid to get involved with the ship, not with his suit having a limited amount of food and water.

He could reach the Earth, but he'd have few places to go, as he didn't know anyone in many countries and powers throughout the world that was Gundam SEED. And most of them would be more than happy to exploit his abilities or use him for their own goals, something he wasn't particularly interested in; it would be prudent to avoid those places.

Orb was his best chance, but then again, he didn't have a lot of people he knew he could defer to, also it would draw a lot of attention from a few people he knew that would try to get to him.

Joining the Archangel now would present plenty of short term issues, but he couldn't deal with the long term effects, hopefully without killing tons of characters in the process. He knew that this was Gundam though, and with Gundam, characters will die, or wind up in all kinds of situations, some less fortunate than others.

'Got to play this carefully if I don't want to change the story too much…' Ryu thought to himself.

This notion that he was stuck in the Gundam Seed universe, was like a weird kind of scenario to end up in, beyond the way ludicrous bullshit that anyone would ever expect to endure. Still it was better than the incident a few years ago when the final World Gundam Championship Battle where an entire stadium was affected by an uncontrolled burst of particles.

His situation seemed a little less crazy and stranger than most, he knew that he would be forced to face down a multitude of threats, but it wouldn't be the worst thing to happen. He didn't survived 7 years of hellish training through dumb luck, but with work hard. He'll not cry just because he killed someone, after all his hands already soaked with blood in the past.

Ryu finally stopped moving after he was in front of his Gundam, the dock finally open indicating he welcomed ryu to get into the cockpit.

-Hangar, Versaillus-

Back with the ZAFT fleet, Le Creuset had returned back to his normal state, the transportation of lacus, the chairman's daughter has been failed. last day had been a brutal rush, one which had cost valuable manpower and time, and resources. The fleet had been almost depleted of strength, with virtually the entire fleet's resources of mobile suits having been exhausted, their ships now damaged in one way shape or form, and his Altair have been crippled.

'So much for the brilliance of our engineering.' Rau inwardly grumbled as he looked upon the damaged experimental unit.

His machine looked worse for wear, numerous burn marks scarred the surface, the missing both of arms and damaged leg reduced to a blackened stub, his wire guided beam barrels had been damaged with the left funnel missing. It was frustrating to know that his plans for a quick and decisive victory had been utterly thrown out the window with a costly loss of half the strength of a battle group, not to mention almost all the stolen Mobile Suit are being repaired too.

No doubt ZAFT Central Command would demand his recall and investigate into the sudden loss of so many machines, the only good news was that he found Lacus Clyne, which was hardly a consolidation prize, given that it was well within the realm of possibility that they'd end up losing the daughter of Clyne to the Alliance. However it wasn't like he cared for the young woman, but a great deal of the blame would no doubt be shifted to him, given that this was his operation and his responsibility.

The more troublesome issue though was that the new Mobile Suit had proven full of surprises, more than he would have liked, he never thought that it can move that fast, catching him off guard and utterly wiping the remaining strength of his forces.

It might have been possible to win out if he send the entire fleet, but doing so would probably have resulted in the loss of virtually the entire fleet, and not to mention he would have died in the process. It wasn't like it mattered any longer though, what had been done was done, and now he was faced with a deadlock, one which was giving him a headache.

There was no doubt that they would have to act soon, either risk losing Lacus Clyne to the Alliance and facing political hostage crisis, which was a real possibility given the situation. But he knew that there were a few ways that they could try to coerce the Archangel into giving Lacus back, not easy ones, and he'd probably get into more than hot water if such things became public.

It might work, of course he'd need the support of the other officers to make it happen, Athrun would no doubt object, but the young man was already torn between his feelings for his friend and his fiancé, not to mention his duties to the PLANTs. There was a way to manipulate him, but his emotional duress might cause him to snap back at him, depending on how this was handled.

'My, my, isn't this so dramatic?' Le Creuset thought to himself mockingly.

"Commander." The dark navy haired man said as he move towards Le Creuset and saluted.

"Ah yes, Lieutenant Athrun, I heard you wished to speak with me?" Le Creuset said showing a little concern.

"That I was sir."

"I can assume that this is about the life of the Chairman's daughter?" Le Creuset said while slowly moving towards athrun direction.

"I know that this is difficult, but there must be…" Athrun can't say more words as Le Creuset signal him to stop.

"I believe, this is not the right place, we can talk about that in the conference room. Is that okay with you?" Le Creuset said without looking back and proceed to the conference room.

"Yes, sir…" Athrun then walking behind Le Creuset, following him.