Gabriel listened to the radio chatter of the battle monitoring the situation as best as possible from the hanger. Overall things seemed to be going according to plan, at least until enemy reinforcements arrived. It wasn't long until the order to mobilize came and Gabriel quickly took the zip line up into his cockpit. With his systems already of Stand-by it wasn't long before he was ready to launch. "Gabriel in the GX moving to assist Lt Black Star" he said before launching his suit into the battlefield. He wasn't to far behind Puru and Graham "Well I don't think I have been able to see you fight first hand Graham, this should be entertaining." Gabriel commented as they made their way to Paul's location.

"B-beam bazooka?!" Mask said as he realized the impending firepower headed for his mobile suit. He quickly tried to dodge into the air and to the left, but the result damaged his right arm's Beam Guns.
"D-damn you!" He shouted activating his leg beam sabers. "I can still take down at least one ace. For the Earth's Capital Army!" He shouted charging and spinning his Elf Bullocks legs towards the mobile suit, becoming something akin to a giant beam shield himself.
"I'll prove the Kuntalas Worth by defeating all in my way!"

"I look forward to working with you too Gabriel. Let's see if your gundam can go head to head with Puru." Graham said chuckling as Puru shouted that she was ready for anything that could come onto them. "Come on Graham this isn't the time for joking." Paul growled as he quickly reminded them of what exactly was going on down there. "Sir what's Trinity's status?" asked Paul as he landed in the middle of a plain nearby. "Trinity is regulated to back up. Too much friendly damage is possible in this situation. She will help you if you need it. For now hold out." Williams told Paul in Jason's place. Paul figured Jason was keeping his eyes on the prize. "Do you three sense that powerful presence coming? There's a newtype coming for us." asked Paul as he looked towards the horizon. "Yeah it feels strange like the person on the other side is...wrong. Not distorted but wrong I don't like it." Puru said quietly her sudden change in attitude made apparent to Paul and Graham, "It's really that bad? Well that should make this interesting..."
===
How very annoying...he left Gyunei and Martin with one job...and that was to protect the base when he went off to negotiate with those fools. Paptimus Scirocco was more than a little bit peeved when he heard from Gates that he saw a large amount of smoke coming from the site where his base was formerly located. "So Lunamaria tell me do you think our friends are alright?" Paptimus asked his companion in the ironically colored Red Zaku Warrior. Lunamaria was an interesting young woman and he had managed to convince her to work with him on a account to his excellent leadership abilities and some promises to find her friends Athrun and Shin. She had proven herself useful to say the least and he had taken her in order to build up her trust in him. Well now he'd see how this young woman proved in real combat. "Three newtypes are nearby including one cyber newtype it seems. All of them are rather impressive but nothing special." Paptimus commented idly to Lunamaria as she flew along next to him. "Mr. Scirocco sir...I honestly can't say that smoke...there's so much of it. I can only hope we're not too late." Scirocco listened to Lunamaria's attempts to stay calm despite knowing that she was very much worried about the situation of things. He simply smiled and reassured her calmly that everything would be fine. As he cleared the hills he found himself staring at three suits...two were clearly gundam classes. The other was a suit like Haman Karn's. The thing that was that ancient looking suit was beneath his notice.

"Stop who goes there friend or foe!?" the boy in the gundam shouted. "Wait is that a...a ZAFT Zaku Warrior?" The boy shouted angrily as he aimed his rifle at them. "Hold there child there's no need to raise your gun at us. Unless you're the one responsible for what is going on behind you." Scirocco said patiently as he calmly raised his own rifle at the boy. He could feel...rage...anger...hate...whoever this boy was this he clearly didn't like Lunamaria. "How do you know that name?! Who are you?" Lunamaria said suddenly as she pulled out her own rifle. "If you make a move I'll kill you boy. I sense a lot of power in you don't make a mistake and make me kill you. It'd be a shame to waste your potential. You're a newtype and so are you friends aren't you?" Scirocco commented as Paul growled, "In order: Yes I am responsible for the mess behind me, I'm Lieutenant Black Star of OMNI Enforcer. It's none of your business what I am newtype or no, and I know what your disgusting organization is because I've spent my whole life fighting you bastards! You....YOU PEOPLE ROBBED ME OF EVERYTHING!" Paul growled in anger as he raised his rifle at Lunamaria who responded in kind. "What about you two? Do you share you friend's irrational hatred?" Scirocco asked the other three suits. "I don't care about you people. All I've seen is that you're the one who's been attacking us and I owe you a beating for that. Besides I've got my own commitments." the man in the ancient suit commented boldly as Scirocco chuckled and called it such. "I don't like hurting people but you people hurt us first! Besides you give me the creeps! You're not a nice man and I don't trust people like you!" the young girl in the black suit responded as Scirocco chuckled, "Aren't you a precocious child? Hmph fine be that way young lady. But what about you? Do you think that whatever you did back there too my men is deserved?" asked Scirocco towards the other Gundam.

====

With the other suit out of the way Glemy shot and missed the Airmaster with a wave of funnels shots from the shoulders and some of his beam rifle shots before engaging in close quarters combat with the machine. "You're nothing but a pain!" Witz growled at Gyunei as the two broke off and fired shots at the other both of them dodging just in time. "I'm annoying!? You're the one who's raiding us you bastard!" growled Gyunei as the two engaged in combat. "Funnels...fly!" Gyunei called out mentally as he directed them towards the gundam emitting strange particles. He had lost a few funnels thanks to those bastards below him but he had to do something. Reinforcements would be here soon! If they weren't they were doomed! "What the hell!? Those things again you sure love those fucking things don't you?!" growled Witz as he looked around in anger noticing his enemy has unleashed them again. "You are just lucky I didn't unleash them on you!" Gyunei countered as the two resumed firing at one another.

"Enough of this! I am an Earth Federation Ace Pilot Martin Harrison and you will not beat me!" Martin growled as he unsheathed his beam saber. "No gimmicks! No more tricks fight me like a true man!" Martin taunted at Captain Mask as he used his own beam shield to block any shots directed at him while waiting for Mask to come closer so he could gut him.

"Someone needs to take out that enemy mobile suit!" cried Beta 3 as he tried to retreat from newly arrived suit that continued to spray out shots at them. Unfortunately 3 was quickly gunned down in their attempt to take cover behind what was left of the enemy hangers. "NO DAMN IT!" shouted Beta Leader as he angrily shot at the enemy with a beam rifle. "You are not threats to me...you're just dogs!" cried the enemy pilot as he charged towards them. "We need assistance!" cried Beta 2 as Beta Leader to hold to themselves and not falter. The enemy suit approached them...only to suddenly get stopped as a massive beam shot exploded in front of her. "Damn it looks like I need more target practice." Nena Trinity complained to herself. "You...I feel you. You're part of this distorted world aren't you!? I'll destroy you!" Gates shouted.

"Ahaha~ Look at all these weaklings! You're worse than-" Sensing something coming close, she dodge automatically. A shot just barely missed Exia, one she was sure none of these people she was slaughtering can do. "Tsk, Fangs? Here?"
It looked odd though; it doesn't seem to have a structure strong enough to ram and tear into a suit by itself.
"Oi, thats annoying." Bringing up the wrist vulcans to bear, she shot down two of those things, before blocking one beam and dodging the rest. Exia was almost dancing from the maneuvers she was doing, trying to avoid numerous attacks not only from the Fangs, but from the MSes as well, though they were more predictable and thus easier to avoid.

"..tch.."

Now thoroughly annoyed, she set Exia's GN Blade to rifle mode, shooting rapidly at both the MSes, and the Fangs.

Gyunei managed to call back his remaining funnel but before he could even budge he was smashed into by Airmaster hard and started to spiral out of control hitting the ground hard he landed in front of the building and forced his Jagd Doga's screeching body to try to get up. Only to be fired upon by Airmaster's beam rifles taking out it's left shoulder and right leg preventing it from moving besides it's thrusters. "Gyunei!" shouted the mysterious pilot as he wheeled around from the daggers only to get shot at by Nena Trinity once more. "Damn it!" Gates growled as he looked around in a panic. His allies...most of them were dead or dying. His other allies and Lord Scirocco were not here yet...He...he couldn't...he WOULDN'T DIE HERE! "I'm not just going to let you bastards stop me!" the mobile suit growled as it targeted all possible enemies in the area as it could and unleashed a massive wave of beam fire at all of them. Nena was unable to dodge it and Virtue took a hit but thanks to Virtue's heavy armor it survived. SIGMA Team's MVF-M11C Murasames managed to use their jet modes to dodge the shots if barely and two of them took hits that forced them to crash land into the ground. Beta Leader's remaining units all were in cover and Mariemaia's units managed to tank the shots if barely receiving heavy damage from the shots. "Commander Kenta we can't hold on much longer!" said one of the Mariemaia soldiers as Kenta frowned, "This battle is won hold on as long as you can. This mindless butchery is almost at an end." Kenta said harshly as the soldiers fell in line but didn't open fire for fear of being targeted in specific. Lucky for Mask the shots aimed at him missed due to an error in the targeting system. After firing he prepared to do it again channeling his newtype energy when suddenly a large red beam smashed into the suit disabling it's right arm and severely damaging the rest of the machine. The only reason for it not being completely out right being destroyed was due to a split second reflexive dodge by the pilot and the strength of it's gundarium armor. "What in the world who!? WHAT IS THIS DISTORTED FEELING!? SHOW YOURSELF!" The pilot hollered in a panic as the sight of a with a green paint scheme with red GN Particles dispersing from it's sides floated down from the sky.

"You know you're lucky I only used half a shot on that...you'd be dead otherwise you pathetic piece of trash." said the pilot over a speaker. Beta Leader and SIGMA Leader both transmitted signals from their screen too the Sundown as the crew started to panic. "Is that a friend or a foe!?" Wilks shouted as Williams said the unit had evaded their scanners by being above the normal range and that the GN Particles being dispersed were similar to the ones used by Trinity except somewhat stronger. Luckily the countermeasures made by Engineer Yuri Boris still held up and they didn't lose communication stability between their suits. The group looked through a data based and confirmed it matched no known enemy suits they had stored on the base networks. "Damn it...if the pilot chose to shoot them then...no better not to think about that now. If the Sundown was lost then all of them were dead. That suit though it has the same particles as Trinity then..." Jason thought to himself quickly as he quickly ordered James to switch communications to Trinity. "Trinity do you know who or what that pilot is!?" Jason asked keeping a sort of dreaded calm about him. Much to his surprise Trinity didn't answer immediately. But she did answer before Jason asked again. "That pilot...is an A-Law." growled Trinity as she aimed her GN Bazooka at the machine. However she stopped when the machine seemed to turn to look right at Virtue. I wouldn't do that if I were you. Why bother shooting down a friend?" the pilot said softly with a slight edge as if goading her to actually fire. Jason told her to stand down. The suit down below merely stared up at the two suits. "YOU...YOU'RE ALL DISTORTED! YOU'RE ALL WRONG! I WON'T LET YOU KILL ME!" The suit growled as it fired a shot at the new suit who simply threw a beam shield around itself protecting it from harm. "How pathetic..."

With most of the grunts units looking like they are too little to be little threat, Donna noticed Jack being forced to retreat due to damaged. "I will take over in fighting a commander unit!" She declared as she dashed past to face Harrison Martin's Jamesgun. Examining the enemy Mobile Suit it was notably smaller than the Mobile Suits she saw before, requireing her to adjust her targeting AI. "I will show that the Sandrock is more than an outdated Mobile Suit!"

Before she can attack however she was surprised of the appearance of a weird looking Mobile Suit that fired scattering beams at every direction. The Gundam brought it's snake-like shield and it took most of the shtos with a few hits that were non-fatal hitting the armoured parts of the Gundam. "A new foe?!" She can only respond.

Jack grumbled about the quick fix repair job that Yuri had done, but he tested it and found he'd still be able to contribute to the battle. Or battles, if the comms chatter was anything to go by. "This is Gundam Duel, ready to get back out in the field. Where do you need me?" Loading onto the catapult, Jack used his thrusters a little more heavily to keep his Gundam's knee from going out on him when he landed, otherwise he'd be back to getting another lecture from Yuri about not taking hits or being reckless. Looking around, he noted that the enemy aces were being bested by the large group of MSs and MAs converging on them. Aw man, I missed the best parts too...

"Earth Federation? Then you're an Earthnoid yourself?" Mask asked as he jumped his intended target. "That explains your tenacious honor. It grieves me to see fellow earthnoids slaughter one another. As a Kuntala, I hold honor very high." Mask said. His suit extended a hand towards the Jamesgun.
"I am Captain Mask of Earth's Capital Army, sworn to protect it from the threat from space." He proclaimed proudly, expecting a warriors pride to shine through the fog of war.

That person was annoying. She hated those sort of little things shooting beams at her. There was no satisfaction bringing them down, and they were usually so numerous and annoying she wanted to rip out whoever was shooting those Fangs at her and tear into their heart.

"Ok, I'm kinda annoyed now."

Cleaving through another one of those fools that dared approach Exia, she opened up the throttle on the boosters, heading for that odd looking MS. Reve didn't get the chance to actually take it down however, as a new MS appeared on field. She gasped as she saw the familiar red GN particles, but the design and shape was nothing like she had ever seen before. Was this a fake? Or was it another one of Celestial Being's MSes? There was that time when the Thrones showed up after all. She had admitted then that she had known nothing about them, but since they were on their side and all, she took a shine to them.

Inquisitively she started probing at the pilot inside.

"Who...who is that?"

"Paul let me handle this guy." Gabriel said suddenly as Paul went to question him Gabriel stopped him. "This man...he's a strong newtype I can feel it in my bones, and I'm sure you can too. Puru be a good girl and keep out of this." Gabriel said valiantly as he stepped forward and aimed at the enemy. "I may not have been with these guys long but I from what I've seen they're all good people even if they do terrible things like what is behind us." Gabriel said to Scirocco who simply chuckled. "The answer of a man who is loyal at the very least. Regardless what do you intend to do to me gundam pilot?" Scirocco asked politely as Lunamaria Hawke fidgeted in her seat uncomfortable to say the least. Puru spoke up demanding to know why they shouldn't just take them both out. Graham replied in a very simple manner, "Because this is his fight Puru. Tell me if you were to fight a person you didn't like would you want people to ruin it for you? What if they got hurt because of it too? Let those two fight by themselves." Graham said as Paul started to speak up in defiance once more before a large blast was registered on his sensors. "What the hell was that!?" Paul questioned getting no reply immediately but it was one of the stand ins that came up informing Paul that there was an unknown mobile suit attacking their enemies. "What in the world? Friend or foe?" Paul questioned but before he could do anything Jason came up on his screen, "Paul get back here leave Graham and Gabriel to take on the enemies. Bring Puru back with you." Jason said as Paul sighed. "As you command my captain." Paul said bitterly as he turned his back on Gabriel. "Lieutenant we can't just leave him!" Puru said as Graham chuckled. "Don't worry Puru we got this." Graham commented with a smile at Puru as he appeared on her screen. "But...Mr. Gabriel...good luck Mr. Gabriel!" cried Puru as she launched into the sky. "Let's go Puru we got orders...and Gabriel be it you win or die do it fighting at your best. This man isn't some fool. I can hear it in his voice." Paul said as he launched into the air as Puru took one look at Gabriel and Graham and then flew away herself.

===

"This pilot is a member of the Autonomous Peace-Keeping Force Reve be careful. In other words they're a force made to stop Celestial Being." Nena warned Reve as suddenly the enemy unit that was shot aimed at Reve and shot at her but the shot was clumsy due to the severe damage to the suit and the rifle was shot out of it's hands by Beta Squad and SIGMA landed on the ground disabling the suit further by shooting it's hands and remaining parts trying to avoid major systems. "This is SIGMA we've in-capped the enemy's suit." SIGMA Leader said kicking the machine as the pilot growled and kept shouting at them.

===

Martin Harrison engaged Mask in one more heated series of dueling strikes after Mask proclaimed himself a member of the federation he felt strange trying to murder the man but at the same time he had attacked him first and now Gyunei was down. The clash was brief and was short but when the new mobile suit showed up he decided enough was enough. "If you're a real pilot and a true federation soldier you'll let me go. I have no other choice now to abandon the field. I can't save anyone by being captured." Martin said turning his back to the Mask. "For what it's worth you're a strong pilot Mask." Martin launched into the sky taking only what was needed with him and dropping his heavier equipment. The new pilot noticed him flee but didn't try to attack him. Mariemaia's men didn't try either as a good chunk of them had taken a lot of damage and had spent a lot of ammo trying to gun down the enemy grunt suits. Lucky for Mask, Witz didn't notice.

===

The new pilot turned to look over at the Sundown and saw a gundam jump out of it. The pilot smiled and chuckled. "Well then there really are a lot of strange new suits here aren't there? You have no GN Drive yet your suit is clearly a gundam model or something close to it. Tell me are one of the higher ranking members of this group or not? I would very much like to speak to your captain and seeing as I just helped you take care of a pesky little problem here I believe I'm more than entitled to that." the pilot said to Jack with confidence and a sense of superiority as if the pilot was looking at Jack more or less as a middle man if not less. "Well come on speak up or are you deaf?"

Jack bit back his initial reply and took a moment to calm himself. This guy had come in of his own volition and nothing more. "You wanna speak with out captain, fine, I'll see what I can do. Outside of that, you showed up and assisted of your own volition and choose to assist us. Not sure he'll agree with your sense of entitlement." Turning off his external speakers, he opened a line directly to the Sundown. "Sundown, this is Lieutenant Jack. The pilot of the unknown suit wishes to speak with Captain Jason."

"This is James Axer Jack I hear you what's up?" James asked Jack as he looked hesitantly out of the window trying to get a view of Jack. What a hell of a battle this was...I mean how many people died down there...and from what Jason was gathering they'd just eliminated a group of Earth Federation ships. The uniforms of dead soldiers, and the logo on gunned down suits it made it abundantly clear who they just fought. But...they weren't OMNI. Another group of Earth Federation soldiers? Jason hated what just went down and how he had just proceeded over this butchery but at the end of the day Jason knew he had just secured, hopefully, an alliance with Khushrenada. Jason's face was clearly one of distaste but he made it clear that it wasn't due to his crew that he was unhappy. It took James six attempts to knock his captain out of his inner thoughts. "What is it James..." Jason said tiredly rubbing his eyes. James explained that Jack was saying the new pilot wanted to talk to him. "Let the pilot into the ship." Jason said in exasperation. "Have a compliment of guards bring the pilot to meeting room. Treat the pilot with respect and if the pilot shows any signs of trouble inside of the ship blow it up." Jason said with finality which made Jame's skin crawl. "Um Jack I'm not sure if you heard what the Captain just said but he gave the all clear. You're to bring the pilot to one of the docking bays. Once there you're free to do as you wish." James said to Jack as he turned off the com but left it open if Jack had more to say.

"So then big boy what's the news or are you still waiting for an answer? I've only got a limited patience you know." the pilot said to Jack as it hovered in the air.

"Copy that sir." Jack gave a heavy sigh and made a mental note to try and find SOME form of alcohol during his down time later that day. He was starting to get a headache. Reactivating his external speakers, he beckons the suit towards the Sundown. "Captain's given you permission to board, but don't think you've free reign of the ship. Follow me to one of the hangars." Directing the Duel back towards the ship, Jack mentally curses for missing out on all the good stuff. Now he was on baby sitting duty instead with the random guy who blew the shit out of an enemy ace. Ah well, better than latrine duty I guess...

"Heh good to know. Oh and don't talk down to me unless you're looking for a fight got that?" the pilot said as it floated past Jack it's red particles flowing behind it. It was at this time that Puru and Paul arrived on the field. "Hey what the hell happened here?" Paul asked to Jack as Puru's suit turned to look at the mysterious pilot's suit. "That pilot gives me a weird feeling...like Reve and Nena." Puru mumbled as Paul looked over to her. "Puru please I know that you didn't want to leave Gabriel back there but you can't just assume that a pilot is bad based off of similarities to those two." Paul said as he looked at her face on his screen. Puru looked back at him. "Lieutenant Black Star...those people...they're bad I just know they are. But...I'll trust you. That's what newtypes like us do right?" Puru asked to Paul who sighed. "I suppose you're right." Paul said as Williams chimed in, "Sir you're acting a bit hypocritical don't you think? You think anything marked with a ZAFT Logo is a problem right?" Williams said as Paul gripped his chair. "Objection. Noted. Now Williams get back to work."

"This pilot is a member of the Autonomous Peace-Keeping Force Reve be careful. In other words they're a force made to stop Celestial Being."

"Ah. Is that so? Hmph. Can't be that good si-"

Her instincts flared suddenly, warning her of danger. Almost before she could even think, Reve moved Exia quickly, just barely dodging the shot.

"HOW DARE YOU!?"

Screaming the word 'die' over and over again in her cockpit, Reve shot at the downed MS repeatedly, not stopping until the red mist cleared from her mind a little. Breathing raggedly from all the screaming, she started laughing hysterically as she started to calm down.

"Right. Where was I?"

Mask watched as his opponent flew off, knowing that they now had a warriors agreement, as well as pride as men of the earth. He watched in a mix of hope to face such a great opponent once again and anger at the countless casualties between the two earth based factions.
"I'm starting to be like those damnable pirates." He stated. "No, I will find a way to unite the Earth's might, and leave no tyrants in my wake." He stated only to himself. He then refocused on the task at hand.
"My shoulder beams are damaged. I'll need to head towards that ship for quick repairs. Besides, I have some interesting new info on how these other mobile suits work. Be they Earthnoids, I can share the info and find a way back to Manny."
He slicked his hair back, wiping the sweat away in one swoop as he headed for the Sundown, drinking from his canteen.

Donna brushed her sweat away with her keffiyeh, glad that the battle is over. It was short compared to her other battles and the enemies were remarkably weaker, but she was also glad that the casualties on her side means minimal. Her heart sank slightly though when she found out they are supposed be on the side of Earth, but remembered their Earth is not the same as hers. Finding visible signals on the radar, she expanded her main camera to see the Serpents of the Mariemeia Army. It looked like they were battered with the battle as well, damages visible. The Gundam pilot waited for any orders for withdrawal or anything else to do such as communicating with their allies.

"Are you fucking nuts lady!? We could've fucking recovered that suit for study and captured the prisoner. Thanks for freaking killing him you fool!" Beta Four growled as Beta Leader sighed and opened his visor to rub his sweaty head. "He tried to kill her so I'll let it slide this time. The punk would've been hard to keep in prison anyway and we already have the other prisoners. Get that funnel wielder secured so we can keep him prisoner. Not you Reve. I'm ordering you back to ship." Beta Leader said disappointed in Reve. "I was hoping you'd prove to the Captain you had a cooler head but it seems I was wrong." he said plainly as Nena grumbled that she too was returning to the ship since he job was done.

====

"Fine then Mask I'll inform the Sundown that our crew needs docking. All units capable of moving however secure what you can and return to base. Our mission is done here. Let the Sundown haul the prisoners back to us." Kenta said to all of the Mariemaia units. Witz wasn't too pleased to be a part of this and less pleased at how poorly he had faired in battle. "I don't know about you Mask but I feel like I could've done more." Witz confessed as he landed on the ground next to Mask to regain his equilibrium before going back to the Sundown. "Man what happened to that Gundam X Unit?" Witz wondered as he looked around confused at not having it seen in the fight.

===

"Hey Donna this is Williams. Captain is ordering SIGMA Team to take care of prisoners and we're approaching the base to pick up the prisoners. Captain Hiyan wants me to than you for your performance in this battle and requests you help SIGMA with herding the prisoners into a place where we can pick them up. The brig will be a bit filled but we can handle this many prisoners until we drop them off at Mariemaia's Compound. After your done with this please dock. If you require anything else please inform me I'll happily tell you anything. Williams out." Williams vanished from the screen and turned back to Jason. "Sir all things are clear but we're receiving no signal from Gundam X? Should we send the footage we got from it to the meeting room?" asked Williams as he told them they should and Williams went about setting up the task.

===

Paul landed in the hanger and pulled off his helmet breathing in calmly. "This day was brutal. Not for me but for everyone else. I hope they all understand what they did today was the right thing." Paul thought to himself as he pulled himself out of Raigo and turned off the power source. As he did he looked towards the other side of the hanger where a stranger was docked. Was it a part of Mariemaia's corps? Regardless a group of soldiers approached it and out came a pilot in some strange green piloting armor. The soldiers asked for any weapons the pilot had and the thing pilot gave them a pistol and then was escorted by the soldiers out of the hanger. "Who is that?" Paul asked aloud to no one but got an answered by Graham, "A member of Celestial Being. I recognize that armor it's not something normal soldiers wear and that machine definitely makes those strange particles the former pilot of Virtue called GN Particles." Graham said to Paul as he nodded. Good to know someone at least knew what was going on.

Jack was mad, both at himself for taking those shots and because that random pilot was going to get away with acting like he was superior to the Sundown's crew. Making sure the Duel wouldn't move during takeoff, he powers it down and opens the cockpit, removing his helmet and sighing. It had been a slaughter house, one that he'd willingly taken part in. And he personally hoped he didn't have to do it again.

Climbing free of the Duel's cockpit, Jack stretches a bit and looks around, noting that Paul and a few others were back as well. Seems we all...wait...where's Gabriel? Jack remembered that he hadn't launched with the rest of the attack force at the operation's start. And Jack admitted to himself he'd been more concerned with getting back in the fight when he'd gotten the quick repairs. "Hey, where'd Gabriel go?"

"That's the million dollar question isn't Lieutenant?" Paul retorted to Jack as he picked up his helmet from his cockpit and shut it. Turning his back to Jack he walked down the hall as Graham walked up to Jack his helmet stuck between his hands. Graham was wearing his Union outfit making him stand out from the other pilots. "Gabriel wanted to stay behind and challenge an enemy who questioned his beliefs. He also called out me and Puru but Gabriel was the one who wanted to fight him one on one. Jason ordered us back to see about that pilot over there was hostile leaving Gabriel to challenge the pilot alone. Puru and Paul objected but it's not their place to question a warrior's choice in challenges and that was what Gabriel is, or was, a warrior. I hope we see him again but if not that may mean we are down yet another pilot Lieutenant Jack." Graham said to the gundam pilot frankly as if he was talking to him over tea.