"We're not murders we're soldiers damn it! We signed up to protect not to destroy this is the creed many of us live by But if dogs wish to die like dogs then so be it. They were the ones whom attacked us first and now they chose this for themselves." Paul said to the new man as he used his rocket anchor to rip a Geara Doga's leg off then crushed the machine's cockpit with a quick curb stomp while Stella used her free hand to save him from another enemy, "You were my allies moments ago damn it don't throw away your lives!" Stella pleaded to them as Beta Leader called for Paul to keep moving and not look back as the Beta Squad began to pull back, "Let's get out of here before we waste ammo on these bastards! Recover whatever you can!" Beta Leader ordered as Beta Squad quickly pulled back as soon as they had room to do so, "This is war alright..." commented one of the soldiers as he picked up beam sabers in both his hands while Beta Leader put his sniper rifle on his back in exchange for taking two of those beam rifles. Paul himself took the time to grab a beam saber himself after putting away his own weapon. "Scavenging and retreating is one hell of a task..." Paul grumbled as the Zeon soldiers were held back by Graham and the remaining member of Beta Team not scavenging.

Donna saw that the fight with the Gold Astray was going nowhere with no ground gained or lost in her side of the battle. She wants to help the SIGMA team but there was Rondo and she might hit an ally by mistake. "So my only option is to continue fighting here..." She said to herslef as she thought of her limited options. As far as she remembers her opponent is more agile while she is superior in armour so any attack will have to be carefully coordinated. "I will help by taking you down." She declared. "Then I can assist my allies." Or Blackstar or anyone else can help her once this is over. Sandrock ran to the opponent with the shotels prepared for a certain attack. When close it looked like she was going to attack with the swipe of the blades but in reality it was a tackle with the blades at the front. If evaded, she will use the shotels to parry any counter.

GreenGoat said
"Virtue?" She jumped up in her seat, her quantum brainwaves expanding suddenly as she spoke both verbally and telepathically."Tieria!" She almost blacked out from that, being drained already from the recent exertion, so she switched onto the Celestial Being's commlink band. She gave a frown upon finding that it didn't connect immediately to Virtue. Perhaps Tieria was using a different band for a reason? Shrugging, she opened up the speakers once more. "Tieria! I see you are ok."

Arthanus said
Then Saturnalia showed herself, and her presence was a little confusing. "Saturnalia? what are you doing over here, our operation was successful and were getting ready to move back." Gabriel said over coms just before Reve used her speakers to call out the name Tieria. "Seriously? you had outer speakers this entire time and you instead decided to barrage my brain to talk instead of using your speakers." Gabriel said to himself watching and waiting to see what would happen.

vancexentan said
"Now what does Saturnalia want with us? You're supposed to be helping Lieutenant Black Star's assault wave! Shit-Do-" Grant said as suddenly one of his soldiers stepped in, "Sir with all due respect don't be a dumbass. It's clear she's like all the freakin' weirdos we've been getting and she 'sensed' this lady or some shit. As for how she talked to Gabriel it seemed that it was one sided but it's clear that they are at least able to get a one way thing going, Besides they have that same GN Drive dinky whatever. Maybe that transmits a signal only they can get." the man said to Grant as the man acknowledged this, "Now one of these guys showing up at our door step is ONE thing but two? What the fuck man....Cap' will need to watch'em." Grant muttered to his men through private com.

At first, Saturnalia chided herself for assuming that the pilot was Setsuna just because she saw the Exia, even though her whole reason for coming here was because of the quantum brainwave signal she had sensed, and she knew Setsuna F. Seiei was no Innovade. Yet the pilot was clearly Celestial Being, or at least, a friend of the Virtue's former pilot, Tieria Erde.

Responding to Gabriel, Saturnalia said across allied comms, "For the time being do NOT refer to me as 'Saturnalia', simply refer to me as 'Virtue'. Letting the pilot of the Exia, the blue sword gundam, know that I am not who they think I am may spoil our chances of recruitment. To answer your question, I have succeeded in my mission of causing sufficient damage to the enemy carrier, no more and no less." She thought about how to explain why she was here, and wondered if she could reveal her ability to detect quantum brainwaves as an Innovade. "A...very special signal...emanated from this location that I needed to confirm with my own eyes." If he knew what she was talking about, so be it, if not, he'd probably just assume it was a peculiarity of gundams with GN drives. As for not aiding Black Star's contingent, she offered Grant her very real excuse, "Mauling a carrier takes almost everything out of this suit; in this state, I'd be more of a hindrance than a help at Lieutenant Lyons' side."

The Virtue turned towards the Exia and flashed a message using Morse code blinkers so as not to let her voice be heard, "It is good that you are safe as well. Come back to the Sundown with me. This place is strange and we need to discuss further." Saturnalia decided to leave it at that and hope the pilot would willingly come along.

"A little late for that lady Gabriel has already dropped the beans on that part." Grant said after Saturnalia did her light blinking thing which made Grant's squad snicker, "However if you want to keep going with this 'play' then who the hell am I to deny you? It's not like she can do anything right now especially since Paul's got his bloodied hands on the enemy suits and besides why would I care at this point this is kinda out of my jurisdiction." Grant commented as he jumped up into the air using his jet striker pack. You guys and girls can round this out as you will we're taking our spoils of war and getting back to the ship. We'll take one of those downed machines for inspection. To bad those disk things go fried they were pretty useful..." Grant muttered as he and his men grabbed one of the enemy Virgos, but not before firing a couple of CIWS, into the cockpit of the machine and started to fly off. "Sir shouldn't we keep an eye on them?" commented one of Grant's men as he shrugged, "I got it covered. We got Baker listening in just in case." Grant mumbled as he didn't have full confidence on the little girl's abilities. She was greener than the fresh mowed grass back home at his ranch.

Rather than aid in the scavenging, Leo hung around the focal point of the battle, helping shoot down the suicidal rush. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, mister soldier", the F91 visibly shrugged while dodging the ever-lessening hail of gunfire from the Geara Dogas, only adjusting its position to block a pair of shots with its beam shield before returning fire with its VSBRs, the beams finding their mark and exploding the antiquated units to smithereens. The F91 might be smaller, but its weaponry was so advanced when compared to the Geara Dogas it really wasn't a fair contest. "I'm just saying, you might want to put an end to these people here before they come back to bite you and your crew in the ass".

"Saturnalia? Who are you?"

She had already taken Exia's severed arm off the ground, carrying it on Exia's shoulders like one would a fishing pole. Her tone was more inquisitive than anything, but if they had met under different conditions, there was no doubt she would be rampaging again. Perhaps Tieria was somewhere in the ship resting or something? It was hard to believe Tieria would ever abandon his own suit to be captured. Or entrust Virtue to another non Innovator.

Which means that person inside is an Innovator, and had access to Veda just like Tieria did. Reve didn't think he would entrust Virtue to anyone less. Feeling slightly confused by the whole thing, she prepped up Exia to go to their ship.

"Hm?" Rondo said suddenly as he looked down on his console and he grinned to himself, "Well it seems my work here is done...I'll see you later OZ dog. Give my regards to you fascist companions, OMNI Enforcer, will you? Tell them the ORB Noble Families send their regards if you like. Or say nothing. It matters not to me." Rondo said to Donna quickly before turning his back to her and using his thrusters to fly away. Before Donna could chase him a Geara Doga tried to use a beam axe on Sandrock only for it to be blocked by a SIGMA soldier, "Damn it don't get distracted finish this SOB off now!" Sigma said as he held onto the machine with his free hand desperately. By the time Sandrock did it's job there was a general signal sent out to fall back to the Sundown. Reports from Williams, Axer, and Baker were sent out to all soldiers saying they had lost a soldier in this raid and the stranger whom helped them called Rowan and even though it was only two that was two to many by Captain Jason's account. Likewise he sent out a report to no harm the machine known as Gaia Gundam piloted by the girl Rowan had informed Jason of and the pilot known as 'Leo' piloting a strange smaller suit.
===
"Hey rack'em and pack'em we're heading out to the pick up zone. In case you need a reminder we're not going to the battlefield but to the designated point away from it where we first launched some distance away. Let's get moving!" Grant called out as his men gave a cheer and a hurrah for a mission well accomplished.
===
"This whole battle was meant to be a scare tactic, and a power demonstration....but it turned into a bloody massacre. As per war usually tends to do...I just wished we could have avoided this all together. Zeon, from what we have learned so far at least, seems to deserve a good beating but not to this extent. For all they were they were still human beings." Jason commented to his men as he gave the order for the Hanger Bay to be opened and that the engineers prepare for the docking of more suits and scavenged weapons, mostly of the beam oriented kind, then they had started with. Williams stopped and twirled around as she mopped the sweat off her red haired brow, "Good job sir. I'm sorry it came to this." Williams said as Baker turned to the Captain, "Sir are all battles like this?" commented Baker as she looked at Jason. Jason sighed and brought his head into his hands, and breathed a heavy sigh, "It's about the same...but it can also be much worse than this. Miss...Baker you need to understand...all of you need to understand...that I only gave that order as a last resort...but if it comes down to it....I will always protect you over anybody and as Captain my job is to get things done. I always have...I always do...and I always will even if the solution is as bad as this one was today. Now Helmswoman bring us around as soon as Beta, and SIGMA come back we're moving out." Jason commented as he pulled his head out of his hands and adjusted his long white coat as the ship was turned around slowly. "Radio Doctor Wilbur, Mr. Calhone. I want the need girl checked out. I have my suspicions on why she acted the way she did towards Paul in that fight..." Jason said as the bald headed man turned around and went to page the ship's doctor. Baker sat in her seat holding her composure together very well...but inside she was shaking and despite her best efforts...she never knew that this is the life soldiers faced everyday of their lives.
===
Sometime later...

Paul, Graham, and Beta Leader all entered the Sundown one after the other. Paul had switched out to the spectulum striker pack in order to help Beta Leader pull Stella onto the ship's drive. However for all Paul's calmness he couldn't help but look at his screen and see the power battery was nearly empty..."I risked way to much in this fight." Paul thought to himself as he entered the Sundown, "I...I can handle my own from here. I know the inside of an Archangel ship like this..." commented Stella as she walked towards the power hook up station that originally held the machine used by Beta Team's fallen comrade. They didn't recover the body. Paul felt a morbid twinge in his gut but he had long since learned to deal with such feelings and he pushed them aside, "Those bastards...they threw away their lives. How dare they call themselves soldiers...They gave up everything not for their ideals but for a man. A man whom left them without complaint." Graham commented bluntly with anger in his voice as Paul entered his own power charge station Graham docked into the area which normally held Mobile Armors. Graham would dock there since they may need room for the new suits coming that would be scrapped by the Engineers. Luckily for them Engineer Yuri was not only quick but he was also the smartest man Paul had even known when it came to mobile suits. Well....short of his old man. "No I may have only felt a spark from that Angelo but it was clear that with his anger was some sense of vindication. He will try to pay us back for the lives lost today. But I agree that they shouldn't have just thrown themselves out like that. Even extremists should know that a simple pulling back would have sufficed." Paul commented as his suit turned grey and powered down and he pulled off his helmet and grabbed a nearby rag which he used to quickly wipe off the collective sweat off his brow that had started to wet his visor. Paul was short on breath for the battle had taken much out of him For the first time in a long time...Paul felt he may not be in full control of this situation. He was still so blurred on the fact that he was now back in his home that he barely heard Graham's retort and Beta Leader's attempt to comment on the Zeon soldiers.

Those Zeon suits...they were well made and the only reason they went down like dogs was because they had been surprised and overwhelmed. And...betrayed. Paul knew those feelings all too well. "Hey are you OK?" Paul tried to ask Stella whom had steadily exited the suit and walked over steadily to the Gaia Gundam, Paul had read the machine's inscriptions on the way into the ship, and looked at the machine. It was not opening. Paul felt panic surge through him but he stayed calm as he made his way to the machine's cockpit and pressed the button on the machine that opened the hatch for the cockpit and beheld the sight of a younger girl in a pink and black suit with her helmet pulled off panting and looking at Paul nervously with uncertainty on her face, Paul and her looked at each other before Paul offered his hand to her, "Well soldier are you going to come out or not? I've got all day." Paul tried to joke as Stella looked at him and took a deep breath, "My name...is Ensign Stel-Stella Loussier." she stammered out as Paul grinned, "So you do talk without screams? Lieutenant Paul Lyons of the OMNIS Sundown. Nice to have you aboard Stella and despite the trouble you caused us I'm glad you're alive now come on we should get you checked out." Paul stated kindly to her as Stella looked at him and took his hand slowly before Paul firmly pulled her out. "Don't worry Wilbur may be creepy but he's the best doctor I've ever had in my life. But first we'll need to get you a drink of water." Paul commented as he helped Stella out and walked out onto the walkway that was extended for him by Yuri.

Graham watched as the new Gundam piloted by that fast beam shield using pilot called Leo entered and he couldn't help but chuckle, "That things smaller than the average suit but size doesn't mean power and that thing has power to spare." Graham said with a grin. He was impressed with this guy and as engineers rushed to help Graham's flag he told them to take care of it before going onto a elevator which led up to the catwalks above. "I wonder if that guy's suit will fit in the suit spots?" Graham stated as Leo's suit was docked, just barely, into one of the usual spots held by a mobile suit. However it's small stature gave the crew trouble properly getting it in place before they decided they would use the lifts they normally used to boost suits up to fix the heels and feet to get it into place. Graham would wait up by the balcony and watch as SIGMA returned shortly after followed by Donna whom he had noticed had a bit more grey on her suit. Must've taken some hits out there. Good on her to get some more character to that middle eastern looking suit of hers. Damage was the sign a warriors wasn't afraid to take risks. Or the sign they didn't know what they were doing.

Regardless Beta Leader passed by Graham whom told him he did a great job out there, "I didn't do anything spectacular. In fact I think that fight was too easy....I would have been more satified if I has fought them by myself or if the man wasn't such a fanatic. Fighting people like that makes for passionate but idealistic fights. The best battles are that between two warriors with only their pride on the line." Graham told Beta Leader whom grunted in return, "You sound like one of those ancient knights." Beta commented dourly before Graham grinned, "I prefer to think of myself as one of the ancient Samurai. I fight for my nation and my own honor not just a cause." Graham stated which earned the ire of some of the Beta Soldiers. Paul came nearby with Stella on his shoulder as a medical crew rushed in to get her on a stretcher saying it was the Captain's orders before rushing her off through the door. Paul took his spot next to Graham soon after in the changing room for the male pilots but neither of them said anything and neither of them got changed. They simply stood there in silence mostly because Paul didn't feel like talking and Graham could feel the tired vibe coming off of Paul. The only thing the two said between them was good job out there.

===

About ten minutes later after fleeing from the field, Puru entered the hanger first as she had left much before the others did and had immediately rushed off to the cafeteria all the while grumbling about her funnels before demanding Yuri do something to fix them. Soon after came Beta, Gabriel, Saturnalia, and...Reve. Reve was especially watched as soldiers with missiles were brought into the hanger in case it did something bad and soldiers with pistols in hand were ready in case she did something she'd regret but thankfully it didn't come to that and the docking came off well. All of the pilots were informed by Baker that Jason wanted to see them all as soon as they got their barrings. They were also informed of Jason not being in the bridge but the medical bay if they needed him. Likewise Paul, Aka Black Star, had moved from the changing room to the cafeteria in the mean time.

Donna waited for her's and SIGMA Team's turn to return to the hangar. She saw new model enter, something she thought small for Mobile Suit standards. It looked like anything can be found here and the next week there can be one colossal Gundam ready to wreak havoc. That reminded her on to see how her Sandrock is doing and sccording to the OS damages have been light due to the intense duel with that Gold Gundam. She had a feeling she will be fighting him again and if so she will have to be stronger. She hoped SIGMA is alright.

A signal was given as a permission to enter by the Sundown. Sandrock sheathed it's shotels before the verniers propelled her to the level of the hangar and followed the instruction to dock close to where Instructor W was waiting. She shutdown the power and exited her Gundam, climbing down from the catwalk. A towel was nearby and she grabbed it to wipe her sweat.
The Instructor had a look at the light damages, his goggles reflecting light. "Must have been quite a battle." He remarked. "I've seen what's being carried back and it looks like we have more to join our ranks."
Donna looked to laugh it away. "You did say that a pilot's worth is determined by the damages." She said.
He smiled. "I can say you will be a great pilot." He assured her. "I will save our resources for something useful. This sort of damage in Gundanium can still hold." He was reminded of the news he was given by the Sundown crew. "The Captain wants to see all pilots, including allied pilots." He informed her. "I will attend the meeting as well."
The Gundam pilot nodded. "Thank you for the note." She gave her thanks. Thinking about the SIGMA team and how she fought alongside them, she realised that she should interact with them more often. "I think I should help around the ship as much as I can." She thought to herself while taking a break until the time of the meeting.

Their ship looks... old.

She had expected something else with much better equipments, a large crew, and a complement of at least two other warships accompanying it. And who was that Saturnalia person? She seemed to recognize Exia, and to top it off, she was piloting Tieria's suit. Did Tieria have a partner he kept secret from everyone?

Docking with the ship was much simpler than she thought; just park it right into an empty slot in the hangar and turn it off.

Reve sighed when Exia powered down, the cans and packets of food and drink clinking slightly as Exia settled. She opened the door to two of the crews equipped with rifles, who looked just surprised as she was to see them. Climbing out, she watched as the two looked inside with confusion.

"Er... Miss, where is the pilot?"

"Hmm?" She tilted her head. "I am the pilot."

The man was about to open his mouth to say more before his partner stopped him, simply shaking his head.

Hmm... Was it because of her stature? Well, it was true she was smaller than the other pilots, only standing up to Tieria's chin, but if they start teasing her like Lockon did.... . In any case, regardless of those goons behind her giving her wary looks, the first thing she should find was the kitchen.

***

A few minutes later, she had made off with a little token biscuit from their kitchen and lost the two tailing her. She should filch more things later on when her stash goes dry in the Exia.

"Ah!"

It was a familiar feeling running through her head, familiar but slightly different, and yet recognizable even then. Sprinting down the corner and entering a door, she tackled down the person, hugging him tightly.

"Graham Aker~! Ahaha, its really you!"

One of the aces she had fought before, time and time again, and yet she never managed to really defeat him. At first he had piloted a Flag, which put up a good fight but never really enough to best her, until he got into a new Flag unit. She was sure it was called something else, but in essence it was still a customized high spec Flag unit. Her blood was boiling again. She had half a mind to take out the Exia and fight him right there and now.

When the crew finally managed to get the F91 in place, the cockpit hatch opened and out came Leo, carrying his helmet in one hand, a small suitcase in the other and a space-cig between his teeth, using the hatch as a bridge into the catwalks and feeling the temperature coming from the large heat sink that made up a good part of the F91's torso. Ah, the unit's one achilles heel, its tendency to overheat. Though the ship's mechanics seemed eager to look into his Gundam, they all stopped when they felt the heat coming from its structure. "Don't worry gents, that'll dissipate in no time, the F91 is a bit of a hothead is all", he said with an amused look on his face, the metal cylinder swaying with every word. "Now, mind pointing me towards the locker room and the cafeteria?".

No amount of protests and mentions of heading towards the medical bay for a meeting could dissuade him, so eventually the mechanics crew gave up and provided the necessary directions and Leo was off to get out of his pilot suit and into his favorite clothes, all the luggage that he had managed to fit into the F91's cockpit along with his smoking supplies without arousing suspicion. He had been planning on leaving Angelo for quite some time and was well prepared for it. Then he'd grab himself some food, and then he'd head towards the infirmary, if the meeting was still happening.

"Hey Chica nice job out there." commented Sigma leader with a grunt as he pushed passed Donna. The majority of SIGMA team seemed to follow in suit but one of the members of SIGMA stopped suddenly and pushed himself against the catwalk, "Yeah they're not exactly impressed Miss. They expected you to be able to take on that golden suit but hey you can't have everything. If it means anything I'm impressed you could keep up with a suit that flexible. That suit looked like a gundam but it wasn't. Lieutenant would have told us about it before we launched if it was. Whatever it was it wasn't OMNI. We were too busy fighting but I think I heard that guy was from ORB right? Oh and hello Instructor wasn't it?" the soldier said plainly as he awkwardly leaned against the ramp and whistled when he noticed that the gundam they brought in was missing it's hand. "Shit, lucky I don't need to fight the lieutenant. To not only capture a gundam but to avoid majorly damaging it in the process? Shit man..." the soldier grumbled as he got back on track, "Oh sorry it's just...you know some of us were doubting the Lieutenant's abilities...and yeah. ignore that." the soldier said hurriedly.

====

The group led both Reve and the new guy down with an armed escort, more so for Reve than for Leo but both were strangers and the Captain had orders. The soldiers manning the kitchen were wary of giving out food normally but Jason had cleared the group for a late night snack. After all it was nearly morning meaning most of the crew had been awake for almost a whole day now. The cooks got together a small platter of food with Reve taking a biscuit and an apple and a bottle of water given to Leo. And that was all that the cooks were going to give out to the two of them and they would have gotten less if Jason hadn't told them to be cordial to the new comers.

When one of the engineers went to inquire about the girl's machine Reve managed to get away from the group and would have been shot if Jason didn't already have Williams and Calhone watching both Leo and Reve both. The crew hadn't been dismissed just yet because Jason needed the morning crew to keep on just in case they were ambushed by Zeon if they somehow managed to gather the men to chase them. But Jason had sincerely doubted that would happen unless Angelo was a complete fool. Regardless a group of soldiers tailed Reve quickly and she didn't get away far and had caught up to her in time to see her jump on Aker. The soldiers raised their guns but Graham gave them a sign to not do so. Graham had fallen backward due to surprise from being randomly hugged by a stranger but luckily for him he had managed to grab onto a nearby railing in order to stop them both from hitting the floor. Graham looked down at the small girl hugging him for whatever reason, "Um hey there I suppose you're one of the defectors? I also assume that you come from the same place as me since you know my name? Well whoever you are I guess it's nice to see someone who isn't a gundam pilot. I didn't see you enter the bay do you fly a flag or one of those new GN units?" Graham asked as he supposed this girl was a flag fighter like him perhaps from a universe where he was her role model or maybe she was from his universe and she looked up to his exploits. After all he was THE face of the Flag Pilots in his part of the Union.
===

The soldiers whom were escorting Leo had brought him to the med bay and as he came in he saw Stella laying on a bed next to a couple soldiers whom were waiting for the doctor to check them out. A few of them had shaking hands and were breathing heavily. Maybe exhaustion or perhaps it was just some sort of problem but regardless of what it was they were most likely secondary to Leo. When Leo walked in he heard Doctor Wilbur's words about Stella, "-...Yes we're working on checking her out right now...it seems you have someone here to either see you Captain...or is it this Stella girl you're here to see?." commented Wilbur in his usual dead pan tone as his thick glass lenses focused on Leo. Captain Jason nodded at Wilbur, "I see well coutinue your work as soon as possible Wilbur we need to know if she is one of those types of soldiers." commented Jason as he turned to Leo and looked him over with a perfunctory glance, "Hello there sir. I guess I should be the first to welcome you to the Sundown. However if you don't mind me saying that I have my reservations about you being on this ship. But since you saved my second in command I'm inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt I apologize if I seem ungrateful but you just betrayed that Angelo man with such casual ease...though I suppose it's to be expected that man called Rowan whom was with you was the one who set this mission up. If he was a friend of yours I give my condolences he was a good man from what I saw. But I'm always open to new soldiers...even if they did just betray their own commander." Jason said formally as he then offered his hand out to Leo without hesitation. "My name is Captain Jason Hiyan and this is Head Doctor Wilbur. He is one of three doctors on this ship and he will take care of any injuries you may have. If you don't mind if you're here to see Stella I recommend making it quick. She needs her rest and Doctor Wilbur has some important business with her involving her mental condition and her health. I can't inform you all about it because most details are classified but I will tell you that she could possibly be a member of a decommissioned super soldier project known as the 'Boosted Man' Project. If she is then she needs immediate treatment." Jason commented bluntly as Wilbur casually set up some medical syringes in the corner of the room while another doctor was strapping some devices onto her head and body. "If she is then she is either really advanced and or she has more willpower than anyone I've seen for years. Boosted Men have some nasty side effects." Wilbur commented over to the two of them.

With the situation with the sword Gundam figured out Gabriel helped with the salvage work before heading back to the Sundown. The trip was quick but quiet nut he remained alert in case the new Gundam tried anything or if any enemy units tried a counter attack. After they arrived at the ship Gabriel unloaded the salvage he had collected as well as his once again ruined shield. He then borrowed a rifle from the Sundown's armory before leaving the ship again, "Copy that Baker, I'll report to the captain when I come in, but I'll stay out for now and provide escort while we move the Sundown to safety." Gabriel said while moving out to take on the escort duty.

GreenGoat said
"Saturnalia? Who are you?"

In response to Reve's question, Saturnalia simply kept silent as they headed back to the Sundown. She had hoped Reve wouldn't catch her name, but fortunately, Reve seemed to be going along with them for the time being. When they had docked, Reve bolted out of her cockpit; Saturnalia figured she was probably looking for Tieria, but Reve running off so quickly gave Saturnalia some breathing space to think about how she was going to determine with certainty whether Reve was part of Celestial Being, and if so how she was going to deal with the situation. The Sundown will probably want to recruit her regardless, but Graham was on the ship, and so was Nena, both of whom were enemies to Celestial Being. The girl seemed like a loose cannon, given how easily her emotions caused her to send out long-range quantum brainwaves. Saturnalia sat back in the seat of her cockpit, with the lights dimmed, having not yet exited. Who was she, and why was she piloting the Exia?

Saturnalia finally came out, and a soldier notified her that the captain wanted to meet with all the pilots and as in the medbay. Ignoring a much needed trip to the cafeteria, Saturnalia made straight for the medbay to hopefully set up way to not only gain information from Reve, but also to possibly give her some disagreeable information without setting her off.

When she arrived in the infirmary, and saw Jason she spoke up, "Captain Hiyan, sir," she hoped she wasn't interrupting the new pilot, Leo. "I have something urgent to report, the blue sword Gundam, the Exia, like my Gundam, the Virtue, as I have explained before, originally belonged to a terrorist organization called Celestial Being. Captain Aker also has experience fighting them, the Exia in particular. However, the pilot is not the terrorist that is known to pilot the Exia. This is cause for some confusion; is she still part of Celestial Being, is she a terrorist like Trinity? Or is she like me, someone who acquired the suit through other means, but is not affiliated with CB? If she's part of CB, we'll have some trouble, first off, if she meets Captain Aker, she might attack him. Secondly, I think she recognizes my suit, and believes the original pilot is on this ship. I...sort of used the Virtue to trick her into following us, and if she finds out the original pilot, a man by the name of Tieria Erde, is not on this ship and that I am actually part of a counter-terrorist group...well, let's just say we let something dangerous onto the ship. We need a way to confine her, to interrogate her to find out her affiliation, without arousing suspicion." Saturnalia decided she had said enough and waited for the Captain to respond. She expected he might be a bit angry.

"You really should have brought this up during the meeting I have called for not now." Jason said easily as he turned to Saturnalia, "I do however appreciate your show of loyalty by telling me this. In your opinion what should I do with this pilot knowing this information? And how do I know that you aren't telling me a biased perspective and that you're lying to me?" Jason said patiently as he sighed and sat down on a nearby chair, "I recommend that you talk to Lieutenant Black Star about this not I. I have pressing matters to deal with with this good sir over here and Miss Stella over there. I will hear you out before the meeting if you desire but I can't exactly deal with this at the moment. I will think this over however I promise you that. Or perhaps you'd like to talk to a non-authoritative voice in this? If so Baker is not busy if you call up to the bridge and ask for her I'm sure she'd be glad to talk this over with you. For now however my job is to make sure everyone is safe and sound then I will deal with this enigma in our midst. However if she turns out to be a terrorist....then I may need to take extra precautions. Not to worry I got two of our ground soldiers following her around at the very least." Jason said with a smooth smile and a casual friendliness to his voice.

"I hate to break up your little sweetness party Captain sir but I'd prefer not to agitate Stella here with-" Wilbur stated as Stella looked up to Wilbur from her cot, "Excuse me sir but I have no interest in this...I just....I just want to get this over with please." Stella said uneasily as Wilbur looked over her, "And what do you mean by 'get this over with'?" Wilbur asked her firmly as Stella cringed a bit beneath his almost robotic like cold gaze. "I am not here to hurt you I'm simply seeing what your body scans reveal so that I may apply treat to settle any problems your body has. I don't intend to do anything to you other than help you. I may not seem like it little girl but I am not a man who enjoys prodding people like cattle..I had my fill of that already." Wilbur said with a cold informal tone and he chewed the last words as if the mere act of mouthing the words made him feel like disgusted. "Now all of you if you're not here for important business I must INSIST that you leave as soon as you will." Wilbur said with annoyance as Jason chuckled, "After all these years you still haven't changed at all have you Wilbur?" Jason asked him with a friendly familiarity as Wilbur sighed deeply, "I have changed so much Jason but I suppose that you would know about change better than others after all..." Wilbur stopped himself and turned around to look at Stella as Jason said that if Saturnalia/Leo wanted to talk to him they could talk to him in the hall before he inspected Nena Trinity. Jason walked out into the hallway with a whistle as Wilbur went back to his duty.

"Flag?"

She looked inquisitively at Graham for a moment, silently thinking of what he meant until it hit her. T Hey have never really met outside of their own MS.

"Graham Aker. Pilot and Ace of the Union, using a Flag that should by all means be obsolete against the Gundams and still able to hold his own by his sheer skills alone."

Letting go of Graham, she gave a twirl and laughed as she stood in front of him

"I'll be waiting for the time when I can fight you in the field again." A sly smile appeared on her face. "Or do you think you can fight me in my Gundam right now? I'll even give you a handicap. I'll just use one arm on it."

Veda might be gone. Celestial Beings might have achieved their goal to unite the world. But she was an Innovator, born and created to fight. As long as she lived, she will continue on fighting. Regardless of reason, regardless of morals, she would fight on to survive, she would survive to fight on.

Here at least, she had already found two people she could fight on equal terms.

Graham suddenly felt disappointment for the first time in this strange ordeal. He had assumed that this little girl was a flag fighter like he was or at least an aspiring one. But then she said she was a gundam pilot, "Oh so that means you're one of the Celestial Being pilots? Or are you from some different verse where the gundams were our allies or something? This whole thing makes me wonder about the possibilities of the people I will be fighting but yeah whoever you are I will look forward to meeting you on the field of battle one day. But for now let's not get into anything. I have an obligation to this ship's captain I owe him. And I also have a desire to show and fight alongside the gundams on this ship. There are powerful individuals here and I'd like nothing more than to see what they got. But there's a time for everything." Graham said to the young lady as he grinned at her, "Besides I don't fight little girls outside of the giant robots, video games, or sports. It makes me feel weird to punch a smaller individual like yourself...with all due respect gundam." Graham said with snark in his voice, "Maybe you'd find common ground with Puru and not someone like me." Graham said as he left the room he was in and started down the hall way.

She laughed to herself as Graham walked away.

"That's right mister... Keep on holding on to that feeling... or you just might lose your head next time."

Yes, that was it. It would be boring to fight someone that wasn't very passionate in piloting their own MS or at the very least skilled in it.

Speaking of which, where was this Saturnalia person? Why didn't she answer her question before? It wasn't really that hard, she had just asked where Tieria was. Then there was that Puru person. She was very close to an Innovator, and yet she was not. Perhaps the world she came in from had different people and Innovators? How many worlds were they? Her head was spinning from trying to think of all the different worlds that might exist.

Oh, was that Nena she felt? Reve could vaguely feel where she was, but without knowledge of the ship's layout, she can't really get there since she doesn't even know which way to go.

"Hey.. hey.." She tugged on one of the crew that kept on tailing her. "Do you know of a girl with red hair with kinda tight clothes around in here? She's called Nena. Nena Trinity?"

"She was allied with Neo-Zeon and we captured her after her suit was crippled. Why she someone else you know? You're free to try and get into the prison...not that you'll get past the guards because they'll know you're coming. Don't know what your deal is lady but remember by the Captain's good will are you not in a prison cell right now." The soldier said to Reve with firm bluntness as he pointed down the hallway. "Door on the middle section is where we're supposed to be. Captain Jason wants a word with everyone...including you miss." the soldier next to him said with less coldness but it was clear he still didn't like having her around either. Word spreads quickly on this small ship Especially with the loud mouth that is Grant Nimitz telling people through the com to prepare ahead of time in case of any shenanigans happening with new comer. Unlike the other two she was neither OMNI nor was she an ally. For all they knew she was still loyal to Angelo...if anyone at all.

Leo found himself more or less kicked out of the infirmary before he could really do or say anything about the whole situation. He barely managed to give a quick thumbs up to Stella, telling her to "chin up" before stepping outside to meet with the ship's captain in slightly more private terms, at least until someone else came along the hallway. "Right, where were we...I didn't personally know Rowan and I betrayed Angelo because, well, he was going to betray me sooner or later. I don't know about you but where I come from, your boss trying to kill you and take your mobile suit isn't exactly appreciated". Leo stopped to take a drag out of his space-cig before resuming. "Now, if you want to talk loyalty, I'm not an unreasonable man. I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here and I've no contact with my allies. All I'm looking for is a reliable crew to keep myself alive until I figure things out. You've seen what I can do, you've seen what the F91 can do. We can shake on it or you can draft a contract if you'd like, either works for me". Leo offered the man his hand.

"Oh I can certainly keep you alive good sir. But I'd appreciate if I at least know your name or what I could call you. It'd make this whole situation a lot less formal." Jason said casually pressing himself next to the wall. "As for Angelo's methods...well of course seeing a warrior about to defect would give any man the idea to at least try to deal with a possible threat. Not that I'm defending Angelo I'm simply stating the reason." Jason said as he looked back at the door they had come out of, "You know I'm surprised that you care for a girl you've known for what...less than a week I'm assuming. We've personally been...where ever we are for the past couple days. I myself am unsure about this whole situation. We tried contacting an OMNI Force but there are literally no sign of any bases. On top of that it seems that we have some sort of multiverse problem on our hands as strange as that must sound. Though I'm positive that you yourself have already figured that out seeing as this symbol on my arm is more than likely foreign to you completely. Unless you're familar with us already and I'm simply mistaken. This whole ordeal has me turned on my head but I'm doing my best to adjust as the crew needs me. A Captain is only as good as his crew...even if some of them are as green as grass. This whole situation was meant to be a scouting mission. I'm just lucky they filled us up on food, water, and parts before we left the base. And I was so indeed looking forward for a chance to take a breather..." Jason said practically throwing away most sense of formality at this point. It as more or less as if he was talking with a person over the events in last week's paper.