Gundam Fire Still

"Better we move together, it'll be hard to break through them with just your men, besides, I just happen to be going after that Kruse guy." The man from the ship with the odd red paint job offered his companionship, the captain shrugged, he had no reason to refuse, and judging by the reaction of these adjuster warriors, the new man was at least quite reputable.

In fact another reason for his affirmative answer was that after ten minutes of gunfire there had been a marked improvement in the efficiency of the combined forces and Adjuster cooperation here - at the cost of several wounded men being patched up and three bodies dragged to the wall covered in uniforms, two of them natural and one of them an Adjuster.

"We can confirm the approximate location of the Major's landing here and have confirmed that he left the ms and locked down the cabin." As someone who had just arrived from the Combine with a mission, Borgman's terminal brought updated data and a blinking yellow dot appeared on the far side of the satellite's internal map.

"Hell, that's already in the research area," the Captain pointed to the map, pulling a planned course of action from it, "There's only a barrier between where we're staying here, the port area, and the research area where he landed," he paused, then used the Finger on the barrier wall on the map, "And an entire Zaft assault squad."

"We have to break through."

"How are their fighting strengths?" Newcomer Borgman has yet to see the field.

"Very strong, very good in single combat, like an Adjuster Special Forces unit should be."

"That's for sure, the ones under Kruse are definitely elite, old Sara's son was on his team back in the day." Balthazar added out loud, "But my men are no worse than they are."

As he said that, he looked around at his team, and the PLAnt warriors who were resting from their shifts nearby gave an approving look.

"Very well, then first, how is the evacuation of those involved in the negotiation going? There won't be enough men to defend the place if we choose to break out."

"The men who came on our shuttle have pulled back and the oRB's are heading for the port." The waste dealer's holdout gave his answer.

"I'm sure you still have the shuttles hidden, if not let them make another flight to get the wounded and heavy equipment out, can you do that?" It was a questioning tone, but the Captain didn't seem to want to hear a negative answer, "Then we'll move lightly, break through to the research area, and have a small boat from the Archangel meet us after the fight."

He attached himself to the map and finished pointing at it, then raised his head towards Baltfelut, "What about your men?"

"No problem, we've got boats and contacts too."

"Great, update data orders, have the front line drop shock and smoke bombs for cover, then pull back and set up all the automatic machine gun towers and leave without them. After rendezvous take channel c13."

Balthazar Falut squinted at the map for a few seconds, locked eyes with the woman with the eye patch then nodded, "A workable plan, but my suggestion is to have my men take the lead."

==============================

About 100 metres away, near the gate of the satellite port area, Zaft temporary command point

Izak. Joule was confused, he had thought his captain was engaging enemy ms outside the satellite, but instead saw his captain, pistol in hand, running up behind him.

"Captain Sara? Why are you here."

"I was looking for Captain Kreuzer, he parked his ms by a building outside and left, have you seen him?"

"What?" Itzhak looked bewildered, he had never had anyone catch up to him from behind as he directed the squad to push forward.

"Hell, what's going on."

Aslan didn't like the situation, the fact that the masked man hadn't chosen to rendezvous with the raiding party in some way deepened his suspicion that the man might have an ulterior motive. And with that came the question, if he hadn't come to rendezvous, what would have been the attraction in this deserted colonial satellite?

A large cloud of smoke suddenly appeared from a corridor in the front where a firefight had been taking place, and the green-suited soldier guarding the corner of the t-corridor came to report, "They're using a lot of smoke bombs!"

"No, their men have withdrawn," Izak's keen ears had heard the truth, and the rhythmic firing of the Union assault rifles had been absent from the remaining gunfire, only the softer, sharper bursts of automatic machine gun towers, "Have the men they were trying to cover left? "

"Wait," Aslan pulled his white-haired friend aside, "There's a Crozier team here, find a reason to check their terminals and see what's on their orders, it might be different from what I told you."

"What?" Izak was confused, but took a bloodstained terminal out of his pack, "Team Kruse, killed on the road, I only left this."

Opening the contents of the orders in it, the two opened their eyes wide, unlike the instructions they had been advised to scout the inside of the satellite and figure out what the traitors were doing, it clearly stated, stop the traitors from making contact and trading with the Combine or the oRB, fire freely, he even had a list of names, those on the list needed to be killed without hesitation.

They looked at each other, Aslan looked up and waved for the other two of their four partners, such classified information could only be controlled for the time being between the four trusted individuals with some background, the masked captain covering up something more than just his face apparently.

Just then, there was a violent explosion somewhere off to the side, punctuated by the sound of metal ripping and crashing.

"They're blasting the wall?" Too late to continue thinking about what was going on behind the scenes, the four men with the rest of the men around them sought out the sound and could already see smoke billowing from the walls somewhere farther down the corridor, but then came the rain of splitting bullets, and they saw a few rather light looking but apparently providing cover panels set up on the ground, with the figures hiding behind them firing suppressing fire in their direction in a rhythmic fashion.

After firing a few rounds at each other, they recognized from their opponents' marksmanship and tactical movements that these enemies they were shooting at each other seemed to be adjusters as well, and that there were some figures moving backward behind their cover.

"Quickly, quickly," a male voice that sounded familiar to them seemed to be directing the movements of these enemies, and after a few seconds Aslan identified the owner of the voice from the depths of his memory.

"Captain Baltefelut? Did you really betray?" He shouted towards the end of the corridor, and at the sound of it, the rain of bullets between the corridors thinned out instantly.

"Yo, it's Sara Junior, glad to hear you're still alive. But sorry, can't let you pass." On the other side of the corridor, the man replied in a loud voice.

"Why? Why is it that even you..."

"Betrayal? Betrayed who? We never betrayed the PLAnt that was the home of the Adjusters, who made the PLAnt what it is, who tried to cram the inhabitants of the PLAnt, young and old, into Ginn's cockpit? Oh yeah, and then the original owners of those Ginn have switched to new machines."

The teen was stunned, he did have his doubts about PLAnt's previous frenzy, but still such a question slapped in his face made him grit his teeth.

"That was to... To end this war."

"Good point about ending the war, so how are you going to end this war?"

"Kill every natural that appears before you to resist you?"

"........"

"What do you think, Patrick . Speaker Sara - His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief of Zaft, how would you treat the natural population of the Earth, which is over 90% of the population? If you do manage to end the war as he wishes, Aslan . Sara."

The young man didn't reply, he didn't like the first thing that came to his mind and worse, his subconscious told him that it was probably true.

"Why do you think that Sigil is wanted by him?" The man known as the Desert Tiger added heavier weight to his words.

"No. Even so, even if that's the case, why are you with Blue Perestroika's lackeys, Eunius 7's revenge...."

"Perestroika? Haha, if that's how ZAFt knows their opponents, you'll hardly win this war."

An unfamiliar, laughing male voice said this, he could make out the male's Earth accent and it was clear that he was a natural. Then someone threw a smoke bomb into the hallway.

"Eunius 7? yes, the beginning of this war, so Aslan," the tiger's voice wavered a bit over the noise of machine gun bullets hitting the walls, the retreating figures moving in front of his vision could barely be seen in the smoke, "So did you ever suspect the truth about the U7? Ever wonder why when the fleet was out-fired on the satellites, no one, not even one, from the satellites entered the sanctuary?"

He knew they were stalling for time, but he felt that he should listen.

"And the explosion at Copernicus, do you ever wonder who made Siegel . Klein's shuttle malfunctioned, allowing him to escape the explosion by not arriving on time? If you really want to end this war, the truth about how it started..."

The rest of the words were lost in the blast of air, and Aslan realized he had his hand on the trigger, but didn't fire for a long time.

18. Dead men don't talk.

Passing through the depressing port area made up of corridors and walls, one was confronted by a vast plain, the inner region proper of the colonial satellite, which for some reason was obviously abandoned, but the artificial sunlight overhead remained bright, causing the strange fishbone shaped buildings in front of it to cast long shadows on the ground.

"Ah, that's the institute I'm investigating," Borgman said.

"It should be nearby," Captain Mathis looked around, easily seeing the three ms that had landed nearby with damage to each, and the unsightly scar on the inner wall of the satellite that had apparently been banged out by the ms, "Check the oxygen situation!"

"Oxygen status is normal, the waste dealer's people have been maintaining the satellite's emergency repair system." It was a PLAnt soldier who replied, pointing to the scar on the inner wall of the distant satellite, where some sort of gelatinous substance could be seen to be releasing from the interstices between the inner and outer walls, crawling and then solidifying at the satellite's break, the satellite's airtightness having been largely restored.

"Yes, the air pressure is normal and the oxygen levels are sufficient to sustain human needs." The combined commsman nodded in agreement.

"Cut the crap and find someone."