Jack started powering up the Duel as the engineers got it unhooked from the power core of the Sunset. "Copy that, Miss Williams. Give the go ahead when I'm good to go." As he waited, he could feel the familiar controls of the Duel under his hands, the familiar hum of it's own core powering up as he initiated the start up sequence. He was always prone to get jittery, even before a simple patrol mission. Might have been a side effect of fighting ZAFT for so long. Rare was even the patrol where you didn't see any GINNS running some kind of recon mission. Calm down, this isn't even a technically a patrol, just guard duty. With a deep breath, Jack slowly lets out his breath and waits for the go ahead to head out.

The days have been busy for the ESUN duo in the Sundown. Constant enemy attacks from Glemy and a new warband got them on alert. Donna's efforts were appreciated when she confirmed that the new warband was attacking Glemy's forces along with actively helping in the hangar, gaining some trust. The Instructor also supported with sorting the salvage for usable parts, segregating them from scraps he had plans for. Sandrock's damages have been light as the enemies it was thrown against were largely small-fries that never stood a chance. Saturnalia's death was taken moderately by Donna, who now seemed to be losing friends left and right like some sort of divine prank. She hoped that the ordeal will soon be over and another friend will not die in front of her.

The Gundam pilot left the cockpit, sweating as her training simulation was over. The Instructor did spike the difficulty as promised, adding new enemies such as the likes of those Geara Zulu. She looked back at the real world in front of her: Gabriel working on his GX, that new Gundam that had a similar armour system with Blackstar's Raigo and Saturnalia's converted Virtue. She got down from the catwalk and took a canteen from Instructor W's table.

Gabriel listened to Yuri as their conversation went on, "Well I must say Jason's trust is put into the right man, With your magic hands on these suits I don't see any problems coming up due to maintenance." Gabriel commented before Yuri went on with his talk about his world he didn't comment much on the destruction that Yuri mentioned because Gabriel didn't want to turn the conversation into a "I'v seen more destruction" match but did give a grin when Yuri said that Gabriel had fit in nicely. "Well its nice to know you feel that I have fit in here. It is nice to be in a structured environment again and not sleeping in my suit day in and out." He said then as the conversation moved to what was going on outside the ship. "Ya, just let me go get suited up and I'll keep an eye on them. Thanks for the talk I needed some down time, and I'm sure you did too." Gabriel said before heading to get changed out of his work close and into a real flight suit. By the time he got back it was about time for the patrol to head out. Gabriel got into the X and got ready to launch. "Alright heading out, lets hope for a quiet patrol." He said before launching out of the Sundown.

Yuri grinned and chuckled, "I'm glad you think so man. I've been fiddling with all the tech I could get my hands on since I was a wee little kid growing up in Berlin and Ontario." Yuri said wiping his nose clean of grease with a wet rag. "Hey man be careful out there! Who knows what's going to happen out there!" shouted Yuri at Gabriel before the men resumed doing their final duties. He just hoped the IT guys were doing their own jobs just as well.

Following Gabriel's Gundam X out of the hangar, Jack slides the Duel's combat shield into position and drawing it's beam rifle. "What was Graham Aker's last position? It occurs to me I didn't ask earlier." The country side was pristine, relatively untouched by any kind of war or conflict. It wasn't hard to see where the few skirmishes the Sundown's crew and their Gundams had engaged the raiders, with the scorched ground and toppled and crushed trees. {You know, Gabriel, I don't think being trapped here without all the hostile factions would be horrible. We could start over, all of us.} During the time that Jack had been trapped here with the others, he'd often entertained the thought of getting a new start.

{I mean, for me, the war goes beyond ZAFT versus Earth Alliance forces. The Blue Cosmos, an anti-Coordinator terrorist group, regularly launches attacks on civilian populations, all in an effort to take out the 'Patchworkers', as we're called. On top of that, Earth's occupied by ZAFT forces, or at least most of it is. Enough that going back to it isn't necessarily an encouraging thought.} He chuckles, realizing he sounded self-centered and sighs. {Sorry, can't help but worry about things back home. What about you? What are things like where you're from?}

She simply shrugged at that MRE thing, and went alone, waving goodbye to Nena. It didn't look like she was in any mood for anything at the moment. Well, it was unfortunate, but Reve was feeling a little bored. Graham was out either so she can't run out and tackle hug one of her better rivals just for sport. Singing to herself, she walked leisurely towards the mess hall.

"Oi, gimme food." After she got some food from the guy in charge, she sat down by herself. Exia was great. But there was MSes that even it can't defeat alone. What she needed was more power, more speed. Enough to even overpower that Graham and that Ali with no problems. If only she could experiment with all the spare parts about....

Gabriel grinned at Yuri, "Ya ill keep my eye open and be careful" He said before launching. After exiting the Sundown he waited for Nina and Reve to arrive for their patrol. While waiting Jack came up talking and comparing this world to his own. "You know this wouldn't be a bad place to start over heck of a lot nicer then whats left of my world." Gabriel said before listening to Jack describe his world and the wars he had to live through. Jack then asked about his world Gabriel just gave a half laugh to himself. "Well, my Earth is ruins of what it once was, The people who lived on earth and the people who lived in space couldn't get along. There have been 7 wars between the two sides and the last one ended with earth being bombarded with multiple colonies reducing civilization to rubble, killing 90% of life on the planet and throwing it into a nuclear winter. Those of us who still live on the planet have just barely been able to get our shit back together. So this place even as is with the idiots shooting at us is much nicer than what I have known. Different idiots shooting at me, but much nicer scenery to look at in between the chaos." He answered with a somewhat grim tone, but he smiled the whole way through so it came out a bit creepy.

Jack didn't say anything in reply at first, still busy trying to put together the reasoning for bombarding a planet with the places that you and your people live in. Of course, they might have been the older colonies..."Well, certainly pretty bad," was all he managed to get out before an awkward silence fell. Comparatively, their situations where kinda the same. Gabriel's enemy was more the land than the people though, even though in a post apocalyptic world like that, there had to be bandits and raiders trying to take advantage of the situation. For the people of Earth for Jack, the military of ZAFT was the enemy for the most part, though the Blue Cosmos were a major threat to everyone, with their unconcerned attacks on everyone in an area just to get a couple Coordinators.

Deciding to think more on it later, Jack yawns quietly and decides to speak up again. "So, uh, who are we waiting on? Thought we were just looking for Graham."

"You do understand they won't give you food if you've already eaten today right? I'm not sure if you have but hey-" Paul shouted over to Reve as he glanced at her distrustfully. "-I've got an apple I've been saving if you want some of that." Paul offered not out of courtesy to the girl but not wanting to waste any real substantial food on that bitchy little girl. Stella looked at him, "Where do you have the apple at?" she asked him as he pointed to his coat pocket. It had a clear bulge to it and Paul reached in and pulled it out along with a knife. "You want some too?" Paul asked as Stella smiled, "Oh uh sure I suppose if you don't mind that is." she mumbled as she looked at it. "Lieutenant you know the rules..." the cook said as Paul grunted, "Don't worry this is from my own food. Besides do you want to cook something for her big guy?" he asked him as the chief grumbled no.

===
Jason was just about to clear everything as suddenly an alarm went off on one of the consoles. It wasn't one from the maintenance crew but from James Axer's console. He quickly, if not ungracefully, got back into position after flailing about for a moment. "Yo talk to me man what's up!?" James said in a panic as Grant came onto the screen. Jason looked at the boy's face and it was clear that he was not very happy about whatever was happening. "Sir! Possible tango in range sir! Orders to engage? Conscript Graham Aker freaking charged it. It looks like a standard mobile suit type but it's design is alien to me sir!" Grant quickly spouted out as Jason raised an eyebrow, "Possible tango? Not anymore assume target is hostile until proven otherwise. Graham attacking it is unfortunate but it is possible it could be an advanced enemy scout. I'll have SIGMA Team ready up and head out but I will not be alerting Black Star or the other pilots unless we need to. I'm betting on this just being another miniature raid if anything We'll call back Beta Leader from the southern patrol to hold onto a defense around the Sundown. Calhone I want you to send a message to the staff down in the engine and defense rooms to get weapons and thrusters back online immediately. If enemies appear we'll get a full alert going, now I want you to hold the line and wait for reinforcements." Jason ordered Grant whom nodded at his Captain and exitted the com channel. "Now send orders to Gabriel and Jameson to reinforce Grant immediately Baker. Puru stay here we'll need you to tell us if you feel any newtypes coming." Jason orders the young girls as they both nod at the Captain. Baker immediately got to work and did it much easier than she had in previous days. It was all thanks to William's help in showing her how to do things properly and even quicker than most people knew was possible on such a complex machine. "Come in Gabriel! Come in Lieutenant Jameson this is Baker! Graham and Captain Grant have engaged an enemy giving you the location. Expect minor backup Captain Jason doesn't want to panic the crew and we're still not completely up to speed just yet. We'll be up soon though don't worry about us Puru will sense any of those newtypes coming this way!" Baker explained to the two of them as they received coordinates from Axer.
===

The long boring day had gotten more interesting than Graham could have imagined. The change of pace was all so sudden and it came so quickly that Graham Aker thanked his fortunes for being able to escape his dry and boring day of patrol. He and Grant were looking over the cliff area for the past half hour and were about to give up to boredom when suddenly a dot appeared on the edge of the radars for both suits. Grant was the first to acknowledge it saying that they should be ready for more enemies. But that was the least important thing on the mind of the enigmatic captain of the flag fighter's mind as he turned his flag hard around and headed straight for the target. "Hey what are you doing!? We need to radio-" Grant called out to Graham whom scoffed at the comment, "You do that then! I'm going to engage the enemy! I won't let them near the ship! I REFUSE to let anyone else get away with shooting at us! On my honor as a pilot I will defeat anyone who comes to fight me!" Graham shouted at Grant whom wasn't able to get another word in before he flew his flag forward to engage the enemy jet.

The enemy jet fighter was something brand new to Graham Aker but at the same time it felt like he was fighting another flag fighter. "Hey you! Are you a member of that ship from ne-Woah what the hell man!?" the man said to Graham but was quickly cut short when Graham opened fire. "Don't you dare think that I'll fall for such a casual ruse! I wasn't born yesterday! My name is Graham Aker and I will be the man who defeats you!" Graham shouted at the man as the enemy fighter dodged Graham's attacks from his 200mm New Type Linear Rifle and to Graham's surprise he didn't return fire despite the fact that his suit was almost as fast as Graham's own flag. "Hey buddy I'm not your enemy!" the man shouted as he dodged more rifle shots from Graham's suit. Graham grinned, "You are a tricky one aren't you!? Not many people are good enough to dodge my shots! But I won't be outdone by you! And I thought I told you to shut up and fight! I'm not going to be fooled by such an obvious ruse! If you were not my enemy you wouldn't be trying to sneak up on us like this! Gotcha!" Graham said as the two twirled and spun around Graham was the one clearly on the offensive as the two spiraled around the battlefield. "Fine if you want to be that way then I'll just have to beat some sense into your thick head I guess!" the man shouted back as the machine suddenly spun around in a quick twist forcing Graham to take a quick twist around as he noticed he was suddenly on the defensive and was being tailed. "Not bad at all pilot! Not many people can pull off a tight turn like that!" Graham complimented the man as he was fired upon by the other suit. Vulcan shots were the first to be used and then 2 missiles which Graham smiled at, "I won't be defeated that easy!" Graham said with his eyes wide open as he dodged the vulcan shots.

Some shots narrowly missed and scratched the black paint on Graham's suit but they hit Graham's pride just as if it actually damaged his flag. The other suit's missiles were dispatched by Graham's 20mm Machine Gun and the resulting explosive blast obstructed Graham's point of view for a moment. "Just because I can't see you doesn't mean I can't hit you!" Graham growled as he shot his XLR-04 200mm Trial Type Linear Rifle towards the enemy suit through the mist. "I'm not some rookie pilot you punk!" the enemy pilot suddenly called out as the suit came through the fog and almost rammed Graham if not for a last moment chance reflex that saved Graham from ramming into the suit. "Damn that was close! But I feel my blood pumping now! This...this is what it means to be a gundam pilot!" Graham said with renewed eagerness. "You are a worthy foe but I'm not going to be defeated like this!" Graham turned his suit around and fired some of his missiles at he enemy forcing the pilot to retaliate with more vulcan fire. "But I won't be outdone by the likes of you! This is what I call-" Graham said suddenly as he charged at the enemy full speed and then activated the transformation sequence that would transform his flag into a mobile suit in mid charge. He felt like he had a bag of bricks on his chest but he ignored the pain as he transformed and pull out his sonic sword.

The pain was almost unbearable but he'd beat the pain! He'd beat this enemy! He wouldn't lose! Graham felt a weight vanish and some blood roll down his mouth as he grinned wickedly, "-my Graham SPECIAL!" Graham said as he went to swing at the enemy suit only to notice the other suit also changed and pulled out a beam saber the two suits smacked into each other and the resulting clash of the beam sabers sounded like a musical to Graham as the two looked at each other through their suit's main cameras briefly before the other pilot broke off the clash by parrying the blade to the right as quick as he could before the two could do any real damage to each other, "What are you doing!? Are you a freaking nut job or something!? You could've killed both of us you know!" the other pilot demanded as Graham faced off against his foe whom was backing off. The two reasons Graham didn't charge him again was because he felt dizzy and was breathing in heavily as he clutched his chest with one hand. He also was wary of any other weapons the suits may have had now that he knew the jet could transform. "I-I don't care...as long as...I can keep living on and fighting I will never back down to anyone!"

Seeing the location pop up on his suit's map, Jack punched his thrusters into action, the Duel turning and speeding towards Grant's and Graham's location. "Copy that, en route now." Just in case the enemy warranted it, he prepped the Duel's Shiva railgun as well as charging up the beam rifle in it's right hand and prepping it for immediate combat in case the situation required they jump in to assist the pair in combat. Man, my day hadn't even started slow for a change. Not that I'm complaining. Initiating the jump boosters briefly, the Duel flies into the air to allow Jack to search for tail tale signs of combat. Not spotting any, he lands the Gundam unit once more and keeps moving, intent to arrive in time to assist the pair.

Jack's response was along the lines of what Gabriel expected, Although he didn't hide his past, for those who didn't know it and believed him his world was quite a shock. After the bit of silence Jack asked what they were waiting on. "Well, I was supposed to go out on patrol with Nina and Reve, but I don't exactly know whats holding them up." He answered before the transmission came in from the Sundown "Copy that, we will move in to cover Aker." Gabriel responded before setting off to Graham's last known readying himself for combat. "Looks like small skirmishes are never to far off in this planet. Wish we were fighting for some real purpose aside from your from a different group than me though." Gabriel said to Jack while the two were on their way to reinforce Graham

"Nena Trinity is a destabilizing element according to Saturnalia before she left Jason's not going to let her out until we need her or unless we have no other choice. Besides with Virtue's guns she can do some major damage. That thing has an internal skeleton structure meaning if we need to kill it we're going to need some serious fire power." Axer informed Gabriel as he turned his attention to Jameson, "Lieutenant if I could be so bold as to say don't give away your position like that. Reports from Graham's camera says Graham is engaged in a duel with the enemy pilot. You know I'm still surprised that Yuri's good enough to get that foreign piece of tech into our system. Normally engineers wouldn't even attempt to try and attach cameras or modify existing cameras to send feedback. It appears to be a jet based suit...What the hell...did it just transform!?" Axer's voice came with shock and surprise and Jason's more calmer voice was what came next, "Lieutenant, and Conscript Gabriel if Graham proves unable to fight this foe I want you to disable the suit and bring it to us. The pilot could provide valued info on the enemy. However...It seems that this suit is matching your own signal Mr. Gabriel. Meaning that this suit could possibly be a suit from your faction. Perhaps you could get them to back down even if you don't know them. Factional groups tend to stick together no?" Jason said as he complimented Williams and Calhone for detecting this anomaly. "All in a days work sir!" Williams said with a smile.
===
Paul felt uneasy as he put down the apple and breathed in deeply and he looked towards Stella, "Something is wrong...I feel uneasy. I don't feel this way unless there's something going on. I don't know how to explain it. But what...if Jason knew something was up he'd tell me." Paul said to her as Stella leaned her head to the left a bit and put her hand on the table, "Are you ok Lieutenant? Do I need to get Doctor Wilbur?" Stella questioned him as Paul shook his head, "No I guess all this constant fighting and stress is just getting the better of me. I'm sure everything is fine. Alarms aren't blaring so I guess that means I'm just being paranoid." Paul said as Stella nodded, "Ok I guess I don't really get it but there are many things I don't understand either." Stella said patiently.

"Just checking to see for signs of combat." Jack wasn't overly concerned with being spotted, seeing as even after two years of piloting the Duel, he still couldn't understand how they could go unnoticed setting up ambushes in atmo. As he got got closer, he could pick up on the combat happening in the distance, his outer audio detectors picking up the sounds of explosions. Then he remembered what Gabriel said about wishing they were fighting for something other than the people they fought were from a different group. "Well, Gabriel, look at it this way. It's less about fighting them because they're a different group and more about self defense. We'd all be dead if we didn't fight back."

Gabriel listened to the orders "Will do, were on our way, I'll make sure we bring it in one piece." Gabriel said as he tried to pick up his pace to reach the fight. Jacks next comment made him grin. "Well, I didn't say I wasn't going to fight, just that I wish there was a different reason to fight than we wear blue shirts and you wear red. I'm guessing no one really knows whats going on here so it would just be so much easier to pool our knowledge and figure this shit out. Then again I guess there are asshats out there who just love to cause chaos, I just wish one time when we meet another force there were some sort of diplomacy instead of just having to hit the deck and avoid fire from random people." He said racing to reach the battle. As the two got close to the battle Gabriel was quickly able to see that Graham was engaged with a Airmaster. He continued to enter the battlefield speeding ahead. "Graham fall back for a bit and catch your breath. I'm going to try and settle this." He said while moving into the battle before switching to his speakers. "Pilot of the Airmaster Stand Down. I am Major Gabriel Cross of the UNE who are you and whats your rank?" He questioned getting in between Graham and the pilot his shield ready just in case the pilot moved to attack, but didn't draw his rifle or beam saber.

"Shuddup! I haven't eaten anything yet." Reve shouted back at the man. "Also that apple's yours. I don't eat other people's food."

Tch, he had disrupted her train of thought. She was very sure there was a way to outfit the Exia with more armor, and yet give it more maneuverability as well.Reve was also sure she was to do something else today. Whatever it was, it certainly couldn't be that important if she forgot about it.

Reve swallowed the last bits of her meal, and stood up, walking over to Stella and Paul.

"Sup Stel, you look a bit better." She said before turning to the man. "Where's Aker?"

Nena doesn't look like she was in the mood for some games, so Aker would have to do. Granted it was mostly her jumping on him with every opportunity she can get and teasing him, but there wasn't much else to do in terms of entertainment. Those raids came too few and too far out between to even give her some moments of fun.

As Donna drank from her canteen, the Instructor looked at her white writing notes on a blueprint. He tried to think of something useful for her as the Sandrock is behind the other Gundam units in a way with the lack of flight. Their original Armadillo equipment they had were left in their own world they have to hope to find one here or build a new one from scratch. He looked at his student again, observing how she drank alone. "Donna, why don't you go find the other pilots?" He suggested. "It helps to know them better."

Donna nodded as she finished the drink. "Yes Instructor." She complied. She was worried with how she'll interact with them as the other pilots were... eccentric for a sheltered noblewoman. She however found Nalia and Naina quick to befriend but she didn't count on that for the other pilots. After walking a while around the ship she found Paul, Reve and Stella. "Hello." She greeted them. "I saw Gabriel leave the hanger with his GX. He might be at where Graham is now."

"What!? Fine I guess I need to reassess my strategy anyway! Hey you take this!" Graham said as he opened fire once more but this time just to fall back. He flew backwards and only looked back to confirm he wasn't being followed by the guy. He wasn't so Graham decided to let Gabriel handle the rest of this one. It was a good fight but in the end he wasn't used to fighting jets anymore. Besides that Gundam Kyrios but he never engaged that one directly. He was always more interested in Exia...except that the new girl piloting Exia wasn't like the young man he knew and he figured he'd not hold her to the same expectations as he had to the kid.

The pilot of the Airmaster looked down at the Gundam X and pulled it's rifle back, "Really you guys need to watch what you're doing if I wasn't...look my name is Witz Sou. I have no rank but I guess you can count me as a member of Vulture. Tell me Gabriel are you familar with a kid named Garrod Ran? He pilots a suit similar to yours and I've fought beside him before." Witz commented plainly as Grant moved in from the left hand corner and aimed the rifle towards the enemy suit from the shadows. Grant's voice came over the com, "Orders Captain?" Grant said to Williams over the com as she looked to Jason. Jason considered giving the kill order but decided to hold steady, "Stay steady and be prepared but do not shoot." Jason ordered to Grant as the man nodded and grumbled. "This is just great."

"Oh yeah I suppose I should state why I'm here shouldn't I. While I'm not the first one to take her side I am a representative of a group called The Barton Foundation. More specifically I am here under the orders of a young girl named Mariemaia whom leads a small contingent group of soldiers. I came here under the suggestion of one of our members who'd prefer to remain anonymous until you agree to come and meet with us. Does that sound reasonable to you?" Witz called down and it was clear that he was very unhappy about getting attacked by the tone of his voice and the fact that he was being forced out as a messenger boy as well.
===
"Uh hello Miss Reve how are you doing? I'm feeling a bit better myself. I'm just glad to be around familiar places. It's a bit different and larger than my own ship but it's undoubtedly an Archangel Class ship.by the looks on the outside. Have you adjusted well?" Stella asked sweetly as Paul rolled his eyes. Of course Stella would have to go and play nice with the possible terrorist. He still couldn't believe Saturnalia would just go off the deep end and try to kill a prisoner. But Paul wasn't regretful about the fact that he shot her. Order must be maintained on any ship. However an unexpected surprise came when Miss Donna came over, "Yuri's finally done his own modifications I see then? Have they figured out how to hook Nena up to the Virtue yet? I don't trust her with that thing but Jason seems to think that any help would be better than just keeping a hulking mass of steel around the hanger. And Vritue's too heavily armed to just discard." Paul said aloud when suddenly he realized he was talking to people who weren't OMNI and promptly apologized. "So yeah what's up do you need anything from me? Or is this a social visit?"

Donna shook her head. "It is more or less a social visit." She declared. "I was hoping to know you all more so we can coordinate better in the battlefield." She thought of what the Instructor said and paraphrased it. "I can agree that the Gundam called Virture is too valuable to be discarded when we need much specialist heavy weapons unit." She agreed with Paul. "I just thought of it as it is similar to one of our Gundam units in the role." The Gundam pilot had to remember that the pilot she's speaking to shot her second friend that died in this forsaken world, but refrained from speaking about it. The Prussian girl hoped that her next friend won't die in a horrible way.

Gabriel watched Graham fall back making sure that the Airmaster didn't persue his ally. Once the pilot identified himsc as a vulture Gabriel felt a little more at ease. Most people who actually identified themselves as vultures were good people and over the years they had helped out with getting supplies that Gabriel and his people needed. "Ya sorry about that with everyone's initial response being shoot at us that guy has been a little jumpy and I guess he wanted to attack before being attacked this time. As for Garrad can't say I have meet the kid." He responded before letting the man contine. After Witz explained his mission Gabriel gave a little sigh of relief. "Now I'm not one of the big wigs in my group either, but I can pass along the message I'm sure the captain will be glad to talk instead of just shoot at each other. Give me a moment and I'll talk to the big shots." Gabriel said as he switched to a comm line to the Sundown. "Captain it looks like this guy is a representative to a "Barton Foundation" it seems that they want to have a meeting with our group. The guy defiantly uses a suit I'm used to, but he is a scalvager so I can't really say much for him. So it's up to you, what do you want me to tell them sir?" Gabriel radioed in and waited for a response.

Jason smiled and chuckled aloud for a moment, "Of course as soon as Beta Squad arrives back that this information is brought to me. Well at least we can avoid a battle if this man is telling the truth. I'm going to trust your call in this Mr. Gabriel what do you think we should do?" commented Jason simply but before Gabriel could coutinue Graham cut in, "Sir are you sure? This could just be a trap. I already engaged the pilot what if he's just lying so his group can sneak attack us." Graham voiced his concerns as Grant agreed with that sentiment, "I agree even though allies are useful we have yet to meet a friendly face here since our inception why should these guys be any different?" Grant asked as Miss Baker suddenly broke into the conversation, "Sir. If we don't give them the chance then are we any better than those Zeon thugs who attacked Puru? Are we any different than Angelo when he fired upon Stella? I think we should trust them." She said as Jason chuckled, "Well that's two opposed, one for, and one neutral on my end. So Gabriel what have you?"