“Oh my goodness…” said Lacus.
“This food looks amazing!” commented Kira.
“I’m drooling just looking at it…” said Athrun.
“The aroma is so pleasant…” commented Cagalli.
“You’ve outdone yourself, Leon. I still can’t believe you made all of this with your bandaged hands.” commented Andrew.
The whole group stood in awe at the feast Leon had prepared for everyone. A spicy seafood stew containing lobsters, clams, and scallops was placed in a large bowl on the middle of the table. Next to it was a fried rice dish made with crabs, potatoes, carrots, onions, and roasted bell peppers. Next to the fried rice were some barbequed beef ribs that were so tender that the juice would dribble down one’s chin.
“This is my farewell gift to all of you. I wanted to thank you for your hospitality, and for helping me realize what I need to do.” Leon replied.
“We were glad that we were able to help, Leon. Come back and visit any time.” said Lacus with a smile.
“Stay with us…and be our cook!” said Kira, whose eyes were still focused on the feast. Lacus gave him a punch on his arm. “Ow…I was just kidding…”
“Goodbye everyone. It was nice seeing you again.”
“Take care of yourself Leon. Good luck.” said Andrew.
“Thank you.”
Leon walked out to the Orb ship and watched the house get smaller as the ship ascended off the ground. He had a newfound confidence that burned throughout his body; he was intent on saving the girl he loved.
“I’m coming, Rhap. Wait for me.”
-------------------
The ship arrived in Morgenroete after 2 hours of flying. Leon walked off the ship and was greeted by a very ecstatic Erica Simmons.
“Leon!!!” yelled Erica as she ran up to Leon, giving him a powerful hug.
“Er…Mrs. Erica....you can let go of me now…I’m happy to see you too…please let go…I can’t breathe…” said Leon.
“I’m so sorry!” Erica released Leon from her hug and he collapsed onto the floor, short on breath. “I’m just so happy to see you. I heard what had happened…I’m going to miss Alex and all his fun little comments.”
“Yeah…”
-------------------
“Get in there!” yelled a Blue Cosmos soldier as he shoved Landon and Vale into a dank jail cell. He locked it and left the area.
“Wonder why they kept us alive…” said Landon.
“Beats me.” replied Vale as he attempted to relax on the floor.
“How can you stay so calm, Jung Won?”
“No point in worrying about things. You’ll end up with too many wrinkles on your face. You know, it’s been a while since you’ve addressed me with my first name.”
“Well, we’re no longer in the military, seeing how Atlas is gone now. No point in formalities.”
“Good point, Scott.”
The two let out a chuckle and sighed. They realized that they weren’t probably going to live long being imprisoned, so they decided to make the best of it. That is unless; they found a way to escape.
“Hey Scott, wanna test how stupid these guards are?”
“I’ve got nothing better to do. What do you have in mind?”
“You’ll see…”
-------------------
“You know, I heard Commander Arcadia has blueprints for 3 nuclear-powered mobile suits.” said one of the Blue Cosmos guards.
“Yeah, I heard that they’re supposed to be extremely powerful! Damn, I wish I could pilot one of those…I could really strike fear into all of those filthy Coordinators!” said another.
“Pfft, with your piloting skills I doubt you’ll even be able to clean the dust off of them. Come on, we need to check on the prisoners.”
The two guards walked over to Landon and Vale’s cell, but noticed that it was empty. Unknown to them, the two had hidden under the beds. The cell was poorly lit, so it was a bit easy for Landon and Vale to hide. The guards quickly unlocked the door and rushed in.
“Damn it! How the hell did they escape?!” yelled a guard.
“We’re still here you dumb bastard!” Vale replied as he jumped from underneath the bed and delivering a hard punch to the stomach of the first guard, who grunted in pain before passing out. The second guard attempted to shoot Vale with his rifle, but Landon grabbed the guard’s arms from behind him, forcing him to drop the rifle. Vale jumped towards the second guard and delivered a kick to his face, knocking him unconscious. Landon grabbed the two rifles and handed one to Vale.
“I’m surprised Blue Cosmos has gotten this far with such pathetically stupid soldiers.” Landon commented.
“I guess this is why they needed to use A.I. units, haha.” Vale commented.
“You know, we should find those mobile suit blueprints those guards were talking about. They could be vital tools for us.”
“Hmm…we need to disguise ourselves then. Let’s take those guys’ uniforms. They won’t need them.” Vale took one of the uniforms and noticed two flash grenades on the belt. “These might be useful…”
“This place is an old Earth Alliance base…I might have a good idea where they might put the blueprints. If Fahren operates like the old EA did, then he’d upload all the blueprints in the data collection room near the mobile suit hangar—which is convenient because we can also steal one of their mobile suits to make our escape.”
“Kinda risky, don’t ya think?”
“You worry too much. Have some faith in my plan.”
“Argh, why does everyone say that?!”
-------------------
“Sir!” said Estelle.
“What is it, Estelle?” Fahren asked.
“I want to know why I had to keep the Chairman and that filthy Coordinator alive. I’m beginning to doubt your methods.”
“They were the commanders of Atlas; they may have some useful information.” Fahren began walking towards the mobile suit hangar. “Oh, and one more thing—I won’t tolerate insubordination. Question my methods again and I’ll see to it that you leave this place in a body bag. Understand?”
“…yes sir.”
“Now, make sure to keep a close eye on those two and force some information out of them. I’ll be heading to the lunar base with my experiments.”
“Of course, sir.” Estelle replied as she walked off towards the prison.
“Naturals…how they disgust me…” Fahren thought to himself.
-------------------
Vale and Landon walked quietly towards the mobile suit hangar. Even though they were wearing disguises, they still had to hide their faces to avoid being discovered.
“Are we there yet?” Vale whispered.
“We should be at the hangar soon. Just watch my back.” Landon replied.
The two nervously walked passed a group of soldiers near the hangar. Luckily, the soldiers were too focused on their duties to notice Landon and Vale sneaking into the data collection room. Landon grabbed a chair and sat in front of the main computer and attempted to find the data on the prototype mobile suits.
“I hope I still remember how to hack into computers…” said Landon.
-------------------
Estelle walked over to the cell and noticed the door was left open. She quickly ran inside to discover two soldiers unconscious on the floor in their underwear.
“Damn it!” Estelle yelled as she ran out of the prison and sounded the alarm. Fahren heard the alarm from the port and contacted Estelle.
“Estelle, what the hell is going on?!” Fahren asked.
“The Chairman and that Coordinator are gone!”
“Have everyone search the entire area! We can’t afford to let them escape!”
“Yes sir!” Estelle closed the comm. link and made a broadcast to everyone in the area. “Search every corner! Make sure to keep them alive!”
-------------------
“Ha! I got in!” Landon grabbed a disc and inserted it into the computer. “Now this mobile suit looks interesting…model number ZGMF-X14L…alright, time to start downloading…”
Suddenly, the alarm blared and Landon jumped up from his seat. Estelle’s broadcast was shouted throughout the whole hangar: “Search every corner! Make sure to keep them alive!”
“Damn it! I still need to download the blueprints of the other 2 models!”
“Forget about it! We need to get the hell out of here!” Vale replied.
“I won’t let Blue Cosmos use these mobile suits to harm the world!”
Five soldiers barged into the data collection room and pointed their rifles at Landon and Vale.
“I suggest you come quietly. Even though I’m not supposed to kill you two I can still shoot a non-lethal area. So put the guns down.” said a Blue Cosmos soldier.
“I’d rather eat shit than to stay here.” Vale replied as he threw a flash grenade at the soldiers.
“AAH!!! My eyes!!!” yelled a soldier.
“Don’t let them escape!!!” yelled another. Vale quickly grabbed his rifle and shot all of the stunned soldiers, killing them.
“Come on Scott, forget the other blueprints! Just grab the disk and run!”
“Ah damn it, fine.” Landon replied as he forcibly ripped the disk out of the slot, causing the computer’s screen to flash, “Error: Download Incomplete.” The two ran towards the mobile suit hangar but were met with a large group soldiers who were ready to fire at any moment.
“Shit!” Vale yelled as he dived to the left, dodging the gunfire. Landon didn’t have the same quick reflexes Vale had and was shot in the shoulder, forcing him to drop the disk. Vale quickly retrieved the disk and put it in his pocket. “You alright, Scott?”
“Just a flesh wound. Still have anymore flash grenades?” Landon replied.
“Just one.”
“We’re going to have to make this one count. On my signal, throw it and run towards the mobile suits. We have no choice but to force our way out of here.” The gunfire ceased for a moment because the soldiers had to reload. Landon yelled, “NOW!!!” Vale threw the flash grenade and stunned the soldiers. The two of them ran towards two Ghosts, quickly activated them, and flew out of the base.
“So where are we headed?” Vale asked.
“We’re going to Morgenroete. I need Erica Simmons to build that mobile suit.” Landon replied.
Fahren rushed into the mobile suit hangar, grabbed one of the soldiers by the neck and lifted him off the ground.
“Where the hell are they?!” Fahren asked angrily as he began to tighten his grip on the soldier’s neck.
“Th…they escaped with two of our Ghosts…” replied the soldier, who was struggling to breathe. “P…please sir…forgive me…”
“Forgiveness is for the weak…” Fahren retorted as he snapped the soldier’s neck, instantly killing him. Fahren threw the dead soldier’s body on the ground. The other soldiers stood in fear at the scene they witnessed. “Now, hurry up and capture them, or you’ll end up like this fool.”
“Y…yes sir!” replied the now nervous soldiers as they took off in the Ghost units.
Fahren walked into the data collection room, stepping over the dead bodies of the fallen soldiers. He noticed that the screen flashed the error message, “Error: Download Incomplete.” He turned off the error message and noticed that one of the mobile suit blueprints were gone.
“Damn it!” Fahren yelled as he slammed his fists on the desk. Even though he was furious, he still let out a sly smirk. “I suppose I can have more fun if Sieghart gets his hands on that mobile suit somehow…as long as I still have the X15R and the X16F…”
-------------------
“Shit! We’re being pursued!” Vale yelled.
“Just keep flying towards Morgenroete! There’s too many of them for us to fight on our own.” Landon replied.
“So we’re going to let Orb get involved in this fight? Are we going to allow innocent lives to be involved?!”
Landon paused for a moment and contemplated his previous statement. “…you’re right, Jung Won. I promised myself that I wouldn’t let the blood of the innocent to be shed.” Landon turned his Ghost around and prepared to fight the Blue Cosmos soldiers.
“What are doing Scott?!”
“You have the disk, right? Take it to Erica. I’ll try to buy you some time.”
“But…”
“I’m an old man, Jung Won. I’ve already taken my life as far as it can go. You’re young…you have your whole life ahead of you. Just let this old fart settle his peace with the world. Just promise me one thing. Don’t let Blue Cosmos win. Fight your hardest, and never give up.”
“I will Scott. Don’t worry.” Vale replied as he flew away from Landon.
The large mob of Ghosts and Specters appeared in front of Landon, who prepared his Ghost’s beam rifle. He began firing at all of the mobile suits rapidly as they charged in towards him. Landon was able to take out 13 of the mobile suits, but eventually the rifle’s energy depleted. The Specters quickly fired their beam machine guns at Landon, disabling his Ghost and forcing it to crash onto the ground. The other mobile suits walked over to the fallen Ghost to retrieve Landon and take him back to the base.
“I’m never going to allow myself to be taken in by these fools…” Landon said as he pulled out a handgun from under the mobile suit’s seat. “Goodbye everyone…” Landon raised the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Bang. Blood leaked onto the floor of the cockpit and Landon’s face had a peaceful expression on it.
-------------------
Vale flew frantically towards Morgenroete, hoping he would get there in time. As he was flying, his mobile suit’s sensors picked up multiple beam signatures from the right of him, forcing him to dodge left. He looked behind him and saw multiple Ghosts and Specters flying towards him.
“Shit…”
