As the guards nearby Commander Sendo confirmed the identity of Augustus, twice, as well as making sure the man had no weapons on him as well as that they let him in only with a guard. When Augustus entered into the room he was followed by a man with a pistol who sat in the corner with it in ready position but aimed down at the floor, safety was off. The man's glare was all that was needed it said, 'So much as make a twitch towards the commander and you will die.' The doctor themselves were busy checking his vitals and or talking about other patients. The apparently head doctor turned around and looked at the man. "And I assume you were the man the guard mentioned was coming in?" the doctor said as he looked over the man with disgust and judgmentally about the smell of liquor on the man's breath. Commander Sendo himself was laying unconscious on the table, "I will be informing you that the commander is lucky to be alive . He won't have full use of his shoulder anymore and he had some tore muscles in his back and major laceration on it as well. They will scar and he will live in pain for a good long while we're assuming it may heal with time but it could be for the rest of his life." The doctor said to Augustus half expecting him not to pay attention or care. "THE ONLY reason you are in this room right now was because Lieutenant Satsuki vouched for you being the only person near Commander Sendo at the time of the incident. Quite frankly I'm surprise he survive this ordeal. A lesser man might have died and or gone into shock and then die but Mr Sendo seems not eager to leave this plane of existence just yet. Now then we can revive him for a couple of minutes to talk but only a couple of minutes he needs his rest. Say you piece and then let the man go back to sleep. Now then I'm waking him up it may take a couple of minutes." the head doctor said as he took a needle from the nearby table and injected it into the arm of Sendo that was not lacerated by metal. The process took four minutes and when Sendo finally came to be the head doctor was surprised it took only four minutes to do so. "So that's what happened to me huh?" Sendo said when he finally understood where he was. When the man finally heard what Augustus asked him the man looked angrily at Augustus, "Well aren't you a piece of shit? I took a rocket for you and you go and drink it up at the bar afterward? A soldier and a man knows when it's time to drink and time to do his duty. Escaping into the bottle is the work of a lesser man. Not a man under MY command." Sendo scolded Augustus immediately. Sendo sighed and if Augustus tried to mount any sort of counter comment he outright interrupted it, "Look at me do I look like I'm fine...I'm just glad I survived and any bed I'm on doesn't matter I've slept on rock and concrete before in the back alleys of Brazil once upon a time. Now is there a reason I'm being graced with your almighty presence or are you just hear to drunkenly whine at a crippled commanding officer about how he saved your life like some people are capable of doing." Sendo said bitterly as he looked at the ceiling.

His first order of business was to ignore anything the doctor has to say. His second was to give the one finger salute to the man with the gun. He did however flop himself into the nearest armchair. He listen haphazardly to Sendo's admonishments. It was fair, unwanted and harsh but it was all fair. He had it coming to him so there wasn't all that much he could say. Even now in his state of mind he knew he had it coming. Though it coming from Sendo was a little unexpected. Augustus had never known him to be the whiny or bitchy type, there was no telling what a hospital stay would do someone. "Well a bunch of shit happened, most of which I don't understand. But the long and short of it I'm leaving ORB and joining OMNI again. Anything more than that everyone in this room is going to have to leave. I'm just making the rounds and saying my goodbyes. I doubt I'll back here again." Augustus casually looked around like he was having a friendly conversation between people at the park. "Even if I did make it back I'd be allowed back on this island." He said with a slight chuckle. "Well old man you were always good to me, thank you for that. Also, I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

"Does anyone actually understand the true meaning of war? The grunts who fight it don't understand the concept of what they're doing half the time. The commanders who fight it don't understand true brutality at times, and the politicians who pay for both of them don't understand war outside of the political arena. There's more sides to this coin than there are people on earth kid." Augustus told him simply as he breathed in deeply as he looked around the room, "OMNI? Of all the god forsaken militaristic bastards besides ZAFT you've chosen that path? Fine it's your path you choose to live it. No matter what remember that it is YOUR hand that guides your fate. No one else is at fault but you. You're not like some kids in the middle east who have no other choice but to fight or die. When you got to ORB you chose to be a soldier in the defense of these islands. Now that you're with OMNI....Your job is to defend Earth from the space fairing peoples. Don't surrender, show no mercy, and never look back less you see the mountain of bodies that you laid to waste. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind....but is it better for everyone to be blind rather than judging each other? Or do you take the chance? Do you take the chance that they won't hate each other? Coordinator, human, clone whatever the hell you believe you are we're all the same on the inside. You shoot me and I bleed just like a coordinator." Sendo's words were to Augustus as he started to fade back into unconsciousness, "And....one other thing....you don't need to thank me. A commander's job....is to........is to save his men.......and if you're really my man......then........make this choice count." Sendo said before he fell back into unconsciousness as the doctor grunted, "Interesting set of words....but all philosophical bull crap if you ask me now get those bandages changed doctor brown." the head doctor said as the soldier looked at Augustus, "Alright so the commander's going to be out for awhile so unless you got some softy bull shit to say to the man when he's sleeping it's time for you to let the doctors do their jobs." the soldier commented as he gestured with his gun to the door. "Have fun in OMNI, you traitorous bastard....They brought this on us...." The soldier complained quietly as he waited for Augustus to leave.

====

Stan and Richard had parted way some half way towards the docks due to Stan needing to go and help re calibrate the suits in the Lucifer's hanger and do his rounds to make sure no OMNI Soldiers were lost in the battle. The bodies where still questionably leaning towards there being more dead than wounded and still no note of anyone being taken alive. As Richard walked towards the building that he and his friends normally gathered at he couldn't help but wonder if Yuri had made it out alive. Yuri....Yuri had apparently gone out of his way to make sure the person who got Sendo didn't get away....and hasn't been seen since then. The small island was covered in a underground network complex from some long outdated war period and it was entirely possibly he got lost or was killed down there when chasing one of the enemies. Yuri was the one among them who had a sense of humor while still being serious when he needed to...."Oh come on please don't be dead..." Richard said to himself as he clutched at his cell phone.

When he finally reached the building he was glad to note that while it was closed it wasn't structurally harmed. "At least the city doesn't have any major civilian casualties. If that was so...Selena....I will find answers from you..." Richard said as he looked at the building, when all of a sudden from behind he was nearly tackled and was quickly followed by sound of Toyo. "HEY YOU MADE IT YOU MADE IT HAHAHA! YOU BIG LUCKY BASTARD YOU! I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOUR SORRY ASS YOU KNOW!" Toyo quickly said as he hugged Richard tightly much to Richard's strange mixture of happiness and being flat out of uncomfortable. "You know one thing Toyo and that's how to show someone your happy you mini-sized little bastard. Glad to see the enemy mistook you for a child and let you live." Richard countered as Toyo slapped him on the back and pushed him forward. "Hey just because I'm small doesn't mean crap boss! We can't all be uber tier pilots like you! It's not my fault I'm small I drank a lot of milk when I was growing up it just didn't help me that much." Toyo pouted sarcastically which made Richard laugh only to be broken up when the familiar tone of Toyo being slapped came along. Satsuki had finally arrived, "Richard....Toyo....." Satsuki said solemnly as if she already knew what Richard was going to say when it hit him like a brick that Satsuki was particularly close to Yuri...."Hey Satsuki how's it going...?" Richard asked as Toyo rubbed his head and glared at Satsuki who sighed deeply, "Well the fact that we're missing one member of our fellowship doesn't make me feel any better for starters Richard. And the battle isn't doing me any favors....I'm just glad you survived you bull headed idiot. I heard that you were one of the people who managed to stop the hijacking of one of those prototypes. But you nearly got killed-" Satsuki said before moving over and grabbing Richard before shoving him onto her into a fierce hug while Satsuki rested her head over his shoulder, "DON'T. YOU. DARE. BE AS BRAVE AS YOU WERE THEN EVER AGAIN GOT IT!?" She growled at him as Richard wrapped his arms around her and clapped her on the back, "It's okay I'm not some suicidal guy I promise I won't be as crazy as I was then but I can't promise I won't be as brave, or rather stupid, as I was yesterday ever again. A soldier's life is danger you taught me that right?" Richard said as Satsuki gripped him tighter, "You stupid, inconsiderate, indiscriminate, jerkass do you know how much I worried about you when I wasn't nearby. I went into full soldier mode but your one of my best friends I won't let you go off and kill yourself. That goes for you two little man." Satsuki proclaimed as she let go of Richard and turned to Toyo, "I know I'm at fault for making Yuri run off but I'm hoping that he is out there somewhere on this island somewhere. What will I tell his little sister if he is really gone...." Satsuki said as Toyo choose to break her moody attitude, "Hey! IT'S GOD DAMN YURI! Of course he's going to be ok you silly woman! Have more confidence in him he's probably just got knocked out somewhere. It's not like we know he's gone. Once he's back we'll all have a god damn awesome party at my house!" Toyo said as Satsuki proclaimed loudly that she'd like that very much.

Richard sighed to himself and smiled at his companions. How much they meant to him was something he'd never be able to replace....but he knew that they may not enjoy the news coming out of his mouth...but he's going to have to break it one way or another...."Hey guys....effective tomorrow...I'm going to be a soldier for OMNI. I'm leaving the ORB military; Due to the fact that I piloted one of those suits so efficiently I'm going to be one of OMNI Enforcer's soldiers for the foreseeable future. But...I want you to-" Richard started to say before Toyo smiled at him, "Well boss I honestly expected that. You're good at your job....and I'm going to assume that your first mission is to make those bastards pay. I don't know all the details but hey I'm your man. And I will support you no matter what happens." Toyo said as Richard's face was forced to smile as he fought back tears, "And don't forget about me you imbecile. You better not get yourself killed or I'll fight my way down to hell itself to bring you back. And I will never forgive you if you die on me before we all meet back here together one day. Promise me you won't die." Satsuki said to Richard who breathed in deeply, "I promise I won't die Satsuki." Richard said as she grabbed him and forced him into another tight hug, "You better not break this promise. I'll be waiting for you to come home. ORB may no longer be your military faction but to me....you'll always be that little stump of a boy who stumbled off the ship and into me that one fateful day at military camp." Satsuki said to Richard as the two exchanged fair wells and finally they all pinky swore on it before walking away in their own directions towards their own fates.

Timeskip - Afternoon at 2:00 - Two days after the events of chapter one
Chapter 2 - The Island That Bled

It had been a long and troubling search for the pirates and even though they had a lead they shouldn't have been able to hide this effectively. Stan Stone had decided to stay on the island after all and gave Mizawa, OMNI doctor and coordinator of the GUNDAM Project control over the process. However him and Welsh seem to be disagreeing on a great many things, especially where they were going exactly. Some people on the ship expected there to be a base near Taiwan others say it was a small island somewhere in the ocean. They were currently going on the assumption of the former due to Welsh's insistence and Mizawa finally deciding the captain was going to do as he was going to do. Being stranded in the middle of the ocean was another problem. If they got attacked by aqua mobile suits they were done. Calamity couldn't function in the ocean and the others were not equipped for aqua marine combat..

Richard was in the hanger as he had been for the past day or so working on his handling of Calamity. Regardless of who was right and wrong one thing was for certain....they weren't going anywhere fast and that bother Richard greatly. Richard had intensely studied Calamity and even had it's full gear installed but due to the lack of Raider Gundam being available he wasn't able to practice with it as much as he liked. Instead he relied on a manual and practiced the basic movements inside the hanger. He wasn't an artillery unit user and it was proving to be a quick and painful adjustment to the Ensign's capabilities. "Damn this thing! Who built this things modules and workings?" Richard growled angrily as he gripped the leather seat between his fingers tightly. He was angry and not without good reason after all he was stuck in with a group of frustrated men and women some of which were creepy and or arrogant to the point where even he started to dislike them after two days. Especially their glorious Captain. However Welsh did it he certainly wished someone would take over when he hit the bottle. Despite this Mia insisted on defending Welsh no matter how stubborn the man was. "Hey you need to be more careful with Calamity you know!" Complained one of the engineers as Calamity nearly smashed the walkway. "Sorry I....I'm just a bit frustrated." apologized Richard as he went back to work on the systems.

"Guh...."

It was hot as heck, and she was already dripping sweat into the inner workings of Strike's left leg. She had already unzipped her jumpsuit and stripped down right to her tank top, and would have taken off the jumpsuit entirely if not for the fact people would see her bare butt if she did so. This was definitely not her ideal condition for working, but... she would have to examine everything for early signs of malfunction, especially from the weather. Everything should be able to withstand all sorts of weather in all sorts of terrain; the Gundams were designed with that in mind after all. But being designed for something does not automatically mean one can leave them out in any weather and expect it to run at full maximum. Designs were made to be tweaked and fine tuned after all.

She slumped outside Strike's leg, and reached over to the tool cart, grabbing a cold bottle of water from the cooler sitting on it. Most of the other technicians and mechanics couldn't be arsed to really work as well, with some of them watching that person practice moving Calamity. He's not really improving much from what she could tell. Milya would try to help him but... she suspected military types don't take well to techies like her telling them what to do. She did try to help from the data feed she received from his training sessions however, tweaking the Gundam and it's OS so it could be used easier by him.

Not that she couldn't understand his feelings however; she herself had hit the simulator when she could.

"Ah.... this weather is hell...." She took another gulp of water and just sat by Strike's leg, taking a break for the moment.

Pre-Time jump.

"Donald Sinclair?" Arsenio asked rhetorically, "a pleasure." On one hand, he blamed Milya and Donald for his failure in the previous mission. On the other hand, he knew better than to completely absolve himself of guilt and responsibility. At any rate the timing of the attack had not been in his favor. He decided not to hold their collective failure over their heads unless they managed to provoke him.

---

Post-Time jump.

A poker card flew towards Milya's face. "Milya~!" Arsenio called out from up on the catwalk of the hangar, "Do you want me to deal you in?" He continued flicking cards at her with surprising accuracy and made his way down to where she was working. "You wanna play Texas Hold'em?"

Donald was under stress like the OMNI personnel for the following day with future directions unclear. He tried to vent his anger on the training simulation but always lost at the third difficulty where GINNs equip mega-particle cannons. The simulation did help with how he was now able to use the MA mode of the Aegis, controllable like a fighter he used to pilot before the Gundam. He got out of the cockpit for fresh air and saw his comrades, Arsenio and Milya. While the latter was taking a break from working on the Strike, the snot-nosed teenager procrastinating fueled his frustration over the current situation. "Get back to work." He said to Arsenio. "You have better things to do don't you?

"Hey what's going on over here?" commented a soldier who walked in. It was a male about 5'10 and he had brownish tan hair with a faint tan. "You know we're going after the bastards that took out your comrades you could at least get your stuff together. Look at your friend over there in Calamity. He knows what's up he's figuring out how to move that thing properly. And you shouldn't you be with Mizawa's haunted lab or something?" continued the soldier whom looked at Arsenio with distrust. The man's name was Kaiser Patton and was the captain of the mobile suit division placed in the ship. He himself was a vaunted double ace whom fought in the various conflicts between ZAFT and OMNI in some major engagements as well. He was known for piloting a dagger suit with a jade colored shield and a orange paint job. He had no nickname however and was not particularly famous despite his ace status. Kaiser was well respected among the crew of the ship as one of their top pilots. "You get these fancy ass suits you should at least put them to use you know. Mr. Donald over there has the right idea." Kaiser commented.

Milya picked up a wrench and swung at a sudden incoming object. Oh, it was a card? Who would be throwing cards at-

"Milya~!" Arsenio called out from up on the catwalk of the hangar, "Do you want me to deal you in?"

"Deal me what?" she inquired, fending off the rest of the incoming cards, waving her wrench wildly. "Stop, stoooooop~!"

"You wanna play Texas Hold'em?"

"I must refuse unfortunately. I have no idea what that is." Truth be told, its a little too hot to do anything remotely exciting. It felt as if she'd melt under this heat. She felt like going back to the air conditioned confines of her room and just.... hibernate.

"Get back to work.You have better things to do don't you?" Donald called out suddenly. Oh? Do pilots have anything else to do than laze around or go on the simulations? She certainly didn't know, being busy with all these prototypes' maintenance and all. At the very least, those theory people got their stuff right. The parts were showing no signs of stress from the weather as of this moment, but of course she can't vouch for that until it is tested in rigorous combat conditions.

"-Mizawa's haunted lab or something?" Kaiser's voice shook her out of her reverie. Oh so that was the ace of the ship. He had a customized Dagger somewhere, with a custom paintjob to boot. She should meet him later on and tell him about the idea she had to maximize the Dagger's effectiveness. The first would definitely be a Gatling gun mounted on the shoulders, then perhaps in the chest area as well...

"Texas Hold 'em is a form of poker where..." Arsenio began to explain before Donald interrupted.

"Work?" Arsenio asked, feigning ignorance. "Pilots don't work, we play. We play the game of death, we either kill or train to kill. The simulation is, after all, just an over glorified video game, and this," Arsenio began shuffling the cards he had on hand at incredible speed, "though but a simple game, is a game nonetheless, and a form of training to kill in its own right. Besides, I expect we'll be fighting together as a team. Since we don't know each other at all, what could be more important than teambuilding and getting inside each other's heads through a game of poker?"

When Kaiser mentioned Richard, Arsenio simply shrugged, "If you were suspected of fraternizing with the enemy, wouldn't you put in extra effort to appear extra devoted and hardworking to dispel such suspicions? Or perhaps he really is a spy and is trying to familiarize himself with the Calamity's systems as soon as possible so he can steal away with it or stab us all in the back when we least expect it?" Arsenio smiled as if none of this concerned him. Arsenio actually respected Kaiser for his combat ability, but Arsenio talked back to everyone, regardless of his respect for them.

"Yeah because a spy would completely be willing to back stab his own uncle and kill his own comrades who were getting away with the robots kid. I'm high enough up on the food chain to read the basic report and it says that he helped gun down those mercs who tried to steal the suits then got into a battle with an enemy pilot. I don't care what Mizawa's been feeding you but you need to get off your crazed fantasy world and open your eyes Arsenio." commented Kaiser as he looked at Calamity. "Betrayal is something entirely different. If he was a traitor he'd be trying to figure out more about this ship. Maybe even memorize it's layout to give whoever's behind this crazy ass attack a chance to build a ship like this. Or if he was smarter than that he'd ask about how many ships are coming and where they're coming from and then try to relay that information to the enemy. If he's a spy he'd doing a pretty poor job at it considering the facts that he would now be stuck completely surrounded by his enemy." Kaiser said as he looked away from Arsenio. "On the off hand that any of you think otherwise, shows that ORB must really trust their fellow soldiers, then you're free to go and watch him. Me I got other stuff to do I just wanted to make sure you people weren't wasting your time." Kaiser said as he turned to walk away.

A raucous laughter was coming from the Blitz. The source of that was Augustus and the crew assigned to work on the Blitz. There wasn't much he could do with the Blitz right now. Hell even piloting it was a major challenge for him. The one thing he did know how to do was build team chemistry. It didn't matter if they liked him as long as they wanted to work together. He did hope however, that they did like him.

He was finally doing what he wanted. More than just a useless figure head. It was still a wonder how he even got the job, maybe he was just the only one that would do it. Sitting behind a peaceful desk preparing for assaults that wouldn't or couldn't happen. He was almost happy, at least he was being or trying to be useful now. He needed this and he got it. He was going to be sure to out do himself in way possible. He was starting with the crew assigned to work with him on the Blitz. There was no way he could get away with acting like he did back in ORB. He got a second chance and he wasn't going to piss it away.

He sat in the cockpit doing everything he could to keep his crew laughing. His actual job at the moment was making sure everything responded. It didn't even have to be the correct output, but it was at the moment all he could do. He didn't know enough about the Blitz to be tinkering around in its internal workings. He just did his job with quips coming out every so often. He was thankful that laughter from his crew seemed to follow each one.

Oh wow, that soldier was truly an ace. An ace at making people feel shitty. She didn't want to hear anything about being traitors and stuff. And besides... asking people probing questions and blatantly doing a survey of the ship while everyone was awake was not something a normal spy would do. It was too risky for too little gain. What she would do is blend in slowly, gain their trust, and basically get enough information in a plausible way to make people doubt you're a spy. And when it involves matters like state of the art prototype MSes? A few grunts would not be missed by anyone, least of all a spy whose mission came first. Just like back in the base... He seemed like a nice guy, served for quite a while, and then suddenly an attack out of nowhere.

Was he going by the same operation again? Milya did not know.

But in any case... she quietly packed all her tools, and closed Strike's leg armor. If the parts were causing problems, she could pinpoint them later on. These people were making her sick, though she showed no signs of it in her expression, still having the same pleasant smile on her face.

"If you guys don't mind, I'll be going off to see to Blitz now."

A blatant lie. It was too hot to continue working; what she wanted to do was simply go somewhere quiet and have her lunch. Socializing with her crew is a bit too much to do in this heat.

Meanwhile on an unmarked island...

Selena Oliver sat in her chair as she looked out the window towards the ocean where the small port used by the mercenaries, if you call this makeshift hole a port, and wondered how much longer it'd take OMNI to actually find out about what was really going on here. No matter how hard she tried to shake the feeling she couldn't help but feel that they were literally just inches away from her. In truth this was grossly wrong and she knew OMNI had no idea where to start looking for them as this place had top secret ZAFT equipment on it in the form of the G.U.N.D.A.M class suits Raider, Forbidden, Buster, and Red Astray as of now. They had failed to capture not only Calamity....for that she blamed herself....but also they had lost Strike, Duel, Aegis, and all the others. Hell they had even lost their commander. The team wasn't exactly all the fond of their new situation either. They had lost their leader....their BOSS. Captain Carson was their leader and he was killed by an enemy pilot. Selena watched carefully as Kai paced outside and kicked the sand occasionally. He had taken the loss especially hard seeing as he was personally close to Carson. Lyon....Lyon was himself as he usually was though it was a front partially for his disbelief and anger about how Commander Tyber had refused to let them choose their new commander from between themselves. Kai nearly cursed out Tyber and that was never any good. Commander Tyber....'why was he so calm about this?' Selena asked herself mentally as she got up from her seat as a black man and an Arabian man walked through the back door. "Can I help you soldiers?" asked Selena patiently as she looked at the men. "Aye the Commander wants to see you three. Lyon is already there. These damn mercenaries wouldn't know how to maintain this place if it shot them upside the head with the instructions." the black man said impatiently. Both of these men weren't 'mercenaries' or 'pirates' as ZAFT wanted them to be. They were ZAFT soldiers marshaled from Africa and the conflict in cultures was really taking a toll here. Intolerance cultures here on Earth was such a pain in the ass to deal with. Up in space you didn't need to deal with this. "Hey Kai we're moving out! Meet us by the mobile suit area in the middle of the island. It's important." Selena casually shouted towards Kai as the man grumbled something back at her as she lead her way out of the door and with the men towards the base in the middle of the island. As she walked she casually looked at all of the ZAFT soldiers arming themselves and preparing the mobile suits to be used or scrapped into the ocean to avoid showing this island was used as the planning base. The Commander had said that this place was used by pirates back in the day and was abandoned way before he great great great grandmother was born. All she knew now was that this place was the one place she didn't want to be at.

===

At the ship:

Mizawa brazenly entered the hanger area and was oddly enough smiling, "Good news everyone....the Chinese are sending aid to us and should be here within ten hours. Meaning that if this search gets out of hand and lasts for a ungodly amount of time then we have one thing we can fall back on. With the Chinese's help we should be able to quickly and efficiently find these bastards. How kind it is of me to come and inform you all of this." Mizawa said proudly as Kaiser walked up to Mizawa, "How is this good news the Chinese are horrid people and are barely affiliated with OMNI. If it wasn't for Mongolia being OMNI affiliated the Chinese wouldn't have any part of this and they'd probably side with ZAFT." Kaiser complained to Mizawa who chuckled as he watched Richard exit Calamity, "Got a complaint too boy?" asked Mizawa as Richard walked up, "No I don't have a problem with it...besides the fact that the Chinese are ruthless bastards. Their history should prove that much. What if they take the suits for themselves?" Richard asked Mizawa who chuckled, "Simple....we kill them." Mizawa said as if it were the time of the day that he was asked for, "Cold and brutal we don't need a world war right now and the Chinese know that. Siding with ZAFT would lose them half their nation because more than half aren't rich enough to pay for coordinators to do what they do for their babies. Besides there's way to many of them anyways." Mizawa said as if it were the plain truth which made Richard curb his tongue and vomit a bit in his mouth.

The Kaiser soldier quickly got Donald's respect for knowing the situation they're in. He returned to the locker room to place back his box of cigarettes as he tried to smoke at the hangar but he was told that in case of accidentally burning something it was forbidden and he will have to look elsewhere or stop smoking for a while. He planned to continue training but he can use a break and speak with the other pilots. Before he could Mizawa entered the room, announcing Chinese aid. "So China's willing to help us?" He repeated the question. "It's better than nothing for now." The lieutenant commented and entered the conversation between Mizawa and Richard. "Although Chinese aid will be good for us we need to keep a close eye on them. The Atlantic Federation, Eurasia and China do not really trust each other much because of our old wars." He was really tempted to smoke now.

Arsenio just looked at Kaiser with a cat-lipped smile as Kaiser walked away. He didn't care about being right, he only cared about getting under people's skin and in this case, he felt he had succeeded. He did wonder why Kaiser, an OMNI soldier, would be so quick to defend Richard, an ORB soldier, but simply shrugged it off. If anything, having ORB soldiers on an OMNI ship, piloting OMNI suits should be putting every OMNI soldier on edge. Maybe it was a 'respect between aces' thing, since Arsenio recalled that Richard was an ace within ORB.

After Mizawa's announcement, Arsenio asked, "But have we found the targets yet? Killing the Chinese if they should attempt to betray us is good and all, but I want to kill the MS thieves!"

So the Chinese are helping them look as well... Judging from the response from some of the others, they didn't look too favourably on that new info. Perhaps it was because of perhaps still fresh memories of the attack on the base; to quickly trust a new factor was not something they would do for quite a while yet. And if worse comes to worst, and the Chinese betrayed them for the prototypes, she was confident she could at least shoot down the prototypes before they got away, at least while the pilots were still trying to figure out the controls.

Anyways, judging from the way that unpleasant man just waltzed into the hangar, a mass effort would be put out soon, and she would duly be included, piloting Strike to beat around some islands. At least Strike had a regulated interior, so it should not be too hot in there. Probably.

"So... are we heading out soon as well?" she asked.

"Yes in fact there's a small island somewhere north of here where we will be searching for. The bastards got about a half day head start on us but they couldn't have gotten to far with that antique of a ship they probably are using. Unless those bastard mercenaries are really well off." commented Mizawa plainly as he adjusted his glasses. "In fact we have news that a group from Africa is already claiming responsibility on the attack stating that they were violating their neutrality purposes and being as Pro-ZAFT as those bastards on Africa are....you can see where this is going I hope." Mizawa said as he left "Oh and my boy to answer your question if the Chinese do somehow turn out to be traitors to the OMNI's charter then yes feel free to kill them. However you are to NOT attack them unless they attack you first." Mizawa pointed out before exiting.

===

Selena and her crew arrived at the small shack the housed their Commander Tyber and the leader of the group of Mercenaries named Malcolm McDonald. He was a decorated freedom fighter from what was Libya before the wars happened. The large man looked at their blonde haired commander and was telling him something about the Chinese. "What's happening and what is it you need me for Commander?" Selena asked Commander Tyber who smiled at Selena as she walked in, "Ah there's my girl! I need you to get ready for an attack. There's word coming that the OMNI forces have found us and the transporters won't be here for another hour or two at the most. There will be a fight and I need you to get ready to take out any enemy units that try to get to us." Tyber asked as the big man from Libya pounded his chest and grinned, "I'll see every OMNI rodent dead before they try and get near us." the man said but Selena shook her head defiantly. "Look without Captain Carson our men aren't going to pull this out. The men we supplied you are good but their suits are trash to make the disguise that much more plausible. Without proper equipment OMNI's fleet will overwhelm us. Commander my recommendation is that we stay put and fortify ourselves." Selena commented as Tyber nodded his head, "That will be the sound plan we follow unless you want to lead the charge on the large carrier ship we know they have and half the gundams we should have under OUR command." Tyber said venomously as Mcdonald shook his head. "I will do so immediately. This island will be a fortress!" Mcdonald promised as he pushed past Selena while fixing her with a glare as Selena turned to Tyber, "Sir I will be off myself I need to get to the mobile suits." Selena said but Tyber grabbed her by the arm and turned her around, "Oh not just yet Miss Oliver. Not just yet. I have something we need to discuss." Tyber said with a smile. Selena hesitantly turned around and listened to him with uneasiness deep in her belly.
===

Timeskip - 45 minutes later.

The OMNI fleet has arrived just slightly far from the island where the enemy was located at. Kaiser was given charger of the squads that were to attack the island coming from Lucifer and the Chinese fleet would be there within fifteen minutes. Of course their 'fleet' consisted of a couple ships only one of which was an Archangel class carrier but they had to deal with this as it came. "All hands to deck and prepare for battle!" Welshman commented as he sat in his chair, his captain hat was pulled on tightly and his coat was buttoned him. It was a rare instance where the Captain was actually serious as they had not seen the man in battle before. "Now I don't want any heroics out there you hear me? We get the suits or we scrap them. Kill ALL of them or capture them as you will and don't you bastards shoot at each other. Just because the island is tight doesn't excuse friendly fire. Kaiser I trust ya to do what needs to be done lad." Welshman said as Kaiser nodded his head, "Aye captain I will eliminate the enemies of the OMNI States and the Atlantic Federation." commented Kaiser as his group prepared to launch from the bay area. "Vanguard troops form up with me!" Shouted Kaiser as he got on the catapult. "This is mission control are you ready to go? All systems are ready here." said the communications officer as Kaiser nodded his head, "Yep I am ready. This is Kaiser launching to the battlefield!" he proclaimed as he rocked off the catapult followed by his dagger support forces.

"Eh? Ah, Milya Sveis, Strike Gundam. Launching now!"

A launch from a catapult was nothing to her. One of the earliest test they would run on a suit is whether it was good enough to withstand a catapult after all. A unit that cant withstand that would be an immediate failure for obvious reasons.A brief rush of speed, as well as increased pressure on her due to G-force, then a sudden jerk, prompting her to engage the verniers. Aile Striker was the first pack she had thought of using, due to its intended use as a versatile pack, and the lack of information about the enemy. It simply gave her the best chance of countering anything she may encounter, or at least, have enough versatility to not be seriously deficit in one area.

"Opening comlinks to... and done." She wasn't sure what sort of jargons they'd use in an MS squad, so she was probably better off being silent for the most part. Though having comlinks open to her squad would be helpful. They assigned Milya to the vanguard, probably so she could watch the pros in action, but also probably to have someone watch over the civilian-made-MS-pilot.

"Sir, what should I be looking out for?" She asked the Kaiser.

Arsenio shook off the jitters he usually got from having just had his gamma glipheptin as he sat in his cockpit. He had made sure to get a dose right before entering combat so he wouldn't timeout like last time. As the Duel was incapable of flight, he stayed on the ship as defense. The Duel stood on the prow of the Lucifer, with its shield on one arm, its beam rifle stowed away behind its hip, and the Gae Bolg Rail bazooka in its other hand, hefted on the shoulder. With this, he could easily defend the Lucifer from incoming, high-armor hostiles, like enemy ships. A grin crossed his face as he anticipated the coming carnage. He was but a player in this game of blood. "GL,HF; good luck, have fun!" he announced through the comm.