Gundam SEED Reflex Blue- PHASE-01

The sounds of hydraulic-operated metal doors hissed as they slid open, before the light, gentle, pattering sounds of boots were heard, making contact with the wooden surface of the floor. This was, then, immediately followed by the thunderous stomps of heavy boots that entered through the doors and into the room. The doors then slid closed with a more, quieted hiss as they sealed themselves shut.

In the midst of the silence permeating the room, hushed breaths were elicited from the lips of the figures that stood tall. Boots clumped around the wooden floor, quieted significantly than they were when walking. Finally, a deep male voice broke the silence after a few moments.

"What's the sitch, Commander?"

Another few moments of silence passed by, before a different male voice was heard; this time, it was from the commander.

"Last night at around 2300 hours, our contact was last seen engaging a transmission with command central, just a few moments before he fell off the radar. Since then, we've tried to establish a signal with him…so far, no luck."

A tense moment of silence filled the air, the moment itself taking much longer than it was.

"Gentlemen, I need all of you to do me a favour: find our contact, wherever he is…whatever his condition, and bring back anything that may be critical to our cause. Can you do that for me?"

A few quieted breaths emerged out into the tranquil atmosphere of the room, each one of them differing in pitch and volume exerted by different men, followed by a different male voice breaking out in the air and answering the other male's question in his gruff tone.

"You can always count on us, Commander. We'll do whatever it takes to find this guy, alive or not."

The commander exerted his breath quietly, before he nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"…Good luck, gentlemen."

---

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Reflex BLUE

PHASE-01: Rogue Winds

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Cosmic Era 85.

A time of great political and social upheaval, spurred on by the ever-changing landscape of how the Naturals and Coordinators were intended to live—in peaceful co-existence, without anything that would break away at the binding seams of the societal fabric. However, it all didn't seem to be that way for the past few decades, when society's tolerance on Coordinators was way far different than what it was now. Animosities between the two genetic races burnt greatly in the form of bloodshed, violent conflicts and clashes had occurred during those times. Even worse, wars broke out…especially in the case of the early-C.E. 70s.

These wars were dubbed by the media as the "Bloody Valentine Wars", infamously named after the incident on February 14, C.E. 71, where almost a quarter of a million Coordinators perished from a series of nuclear attacks instigated by the former Earth Alliance. This was the incident that sparked the events of the first war, where peace was not achieved, but hatred and chaos was instead. Two years after that war in particular, another one started with a series of unfortunate events: a break-in on ZAFT's Armory One colony that was later combined with an attempted colony drop of Junius Seven by rogue ZAFT soldiers who were loyal to the ideals of the late Patrick Zala. Soon afterward, destruction and chaos followed, millions of lives lost to the unwarranted fighting between the two genetic races.

By the time the second war had ended, animosities between the Naturals and the Coordinators continued to flare up. Despite the events that transpired into the Third Bloody Valentine War, the Naturals continued to believe that the Coordinators were responsible for forging another war, and vice versa. Bloody clashes continued on, with no true peace having been reached in sight. The post-war conflicts worsened every moment, through the late-C.E. 70s, beginning with the dissolution of the Earth Alliance—and ending with the epic collapse of the Eurasian Federation's economy. It was at this point in time, where one of the most influential figures in recent history…had left the political scene in its entirety.

It was in the latter-half of Cosmic Era 79, when PLANT Chairwoman Lacus Clyne had announced her resignation from the highly-prestigious post she had occupied for long. An eclectic supporter of peaceful ideals, the former "Pink Songstress" made a quick exit from politics, after she was targeted—with prejudice—by those who had sympathized with the Naturals and the ideals that the former Blue Cosmos brought upon them. A few months prior, an attempted assassination was made on her life, initiated by armed radicals that had nothing to do with achieving true peace. Several people were let slain in the process, but Lacus Clyne was not one of them, and yet the overwhelming guilt was just too much for her to take in the burdens that grew. She had no choice but to give up the leadership, one that would bring the true peace amongst everyone that lived.

Right away, fears and concerns were brought up by those who lived in the colonies in space, and those who lived on the ends of the Earth. Who would be there for them to lead the way, for a world without violence and bloodshed? How will they be protected from those who are ill-intentioned enough to cause acts of terror and chaos? Most importantly of all, what will it take to achieve the true peace that all people of both genetic races demand in this world?

The ultimate answers would be dawned before their eyes. Before her resignation from the leadership seat, and PLANT Supreme Council itself, Lacus Clyne announced in a more private capacity, that she would do whatever it takes to achieve peace—by any means necessary. Speaking from the incident that changed her life imminently, her views had also changed slightly, but significant enough to realize that there was much more to do in order to achieve her ideals of a world with true peace. It was then, that she would approve plans to establish a new infantry unit in ZAFT's military ranks that would be highly unique than all others. It was in Cosmic Era 80, that the Specters were fully established as a Special Forces group of highly-skilled men and women in the force. Well-trained, and tasked in infantry combat that utilises covert tactics, the Specters were the unit deployed in times when international peace is threatened in the interests of PLANT and ZAFT.

The results of Lacus Clyne's creation yielded in monumental success, both strategically and offensively. Operations were carried out with the best intelligence provided from ZAFT's main intelligence agency, and from Terminal as well, at the discretion of the new administration. Over the next two years, radical Natural and Coordinator movements were disbanded by the covert spec-op infantries, hunting down those that wanted to bring violence to the world. Later on, most of the operations were expanded in ceasing the supply and flow of illegal weapons that would have fallen into the wrong hands. By Cosmic Era 82, all remaining elements of hostile Blue Cosmos belligerents and other radicals that sympathized with either genetic race were all eliminated, in part from the sweeping operations brought out by the Specters themselves.

Throughout the rest of the early-C.E. 80s, the long-term effects were felt from the decisions and the actions that the Specters made to reach the goal of true peace on the planet. Without any interference from the radical groups that cropped up through the past few decades, that goal became true over time. The leaderships of nations that favoured Naturals in the past began to fall, paving way for new administrations that embraced more open policies towards Coordinators. These political changes themselves led to a society that previously looked down on Coordinators, transformed into one that had now seen Coordinators as less of a threat than what was perceived in the past. True peace was finally accomplished in the world.

---

March 10, C.E. 85
Siberia, Russia, Eurasian Federation
0700 Hours

That was the world truly to be living in, at least, to those who had seen the changes…and that includes the few men who journeyed through the freezing depths of winter's lands.

Harsh crunching sounds were made in the air as boots stomped down on snow, as four men in arctic-patterned combat suits trudged through the ankle-deep snow in blustery conditions.

Temperatures were way below the freezing point, and it was an understatement to say that they were, when the strong winds began to factor in towards the more-than-chilly temps of the arctic climate. However, these four men in particular were not at all afraid of the deathly cold conditions in their way. In fact, they were braving the cold with all their might, their special combat suits having been intended to face such an environment they were in.

As the four hiked their way up a slight incline of an icy slope, they could hear crackles of static pierce through their headsets, before a male voice buzzed through their ears.

"Roman. Come in, Roman," the voice of a man spoke out. "What's your status, over?"

One of the men in front of the group, adorning UV-filtered goggles, had pushed down on his earpiece with two fingers to communicate back.

"Roman here. We are en route to the contact's last known position, about a couple of kilometres away from where we are. Over."

Another few crackles of static emitted over their headsets, before the same voice broke out again.

"Affirmative. Please be advised, we have picked up hostile signatures tracking along the contact's last known whereabouts from the north-west. Be careful out there, Roman."

"Roger that, Command," the man leading the pack responded gruffly. "Over and out."

He then turned his head to the rest of the group behind him.

"We may have company expecting us soon, so let's keep our heads up while we can. Stay frosty, gentlemen."

The male marching right behind him, equipped with the same goggles and other combat gear, had scoffed loudly at his notion.

"You wish!" He sarcastically remarked. "Especially with what we're dealing with here."

"Stow it, Raf," the leader of the group retorted. "I don't like dealing with the cold too, but we have to follow the Commander's orders."

"Yeah, Adams is right, man," the third male in the pack agreed. "It's pretty much our obligation to follow through and do what the Commander says, whether you like it or not."

The infantry soldier second in the group then turned back to the other soldier behind him.

"Just because he's right, Snowden," the soldier brusquely replied back, "doesn't mean he's actually right all the time. I'm just saying, that's all!"

"Alright, cut the chatter, men," Adams interrupted the argument with a hint of irritation in his voice. "We're only here to locate the guy, and get anything important he might have on him. No horsin' around."

"Yeah, I got it," Raf grumbled quietly as he followed Adams through the ice and snow.

Snowden let out a quiet, but derisive laugh, before he turned to the last man in the group behind him. He raised an eyebrow at the man dressed in his combat suit, but with a snow-white cloth covering his face, and wearing UV-filtered shades instead of goggles. The man behind Snowden only gave him a confused expression, raising both his eyebrows at him.

The team of four travelled for so long, until they had finally reached the location of where the contact was allegedly there before disappearing off the radar. The winds had died down considerably, while Adams scanned the area around them, as they stood on a snowy slope that declined at a slight angle. The other members of the group also searched around, treading away a metre from each other as they looked hard for where the contact may have been.

"What the hell, man?" Raf looked around, left to right. "Where is this guy? He should be right around here, somewhere."

"Keep looking," Adams commanded sternly. "There has to be a sign that he's here somewhere."

It was then that Snowden found a sign of where the contact was. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted what appeared to be a piece of coated fabric material sticking out from a large clump of ice and snow.

He turned around to call out for his teammates. "Hey, guys! I think I found him!"

Adams called back in response. "Where do you see him?"

The other three men came to the soldier, before Snowden pointed at the direction of the fabric jutting out from the clump of snow.

"There! Right beneath all of that ice."

Raf gave Adams a concerned expression on his face. "You sure he isn't dead already, Boss?"

"I hope not," he sighed deeply, taking in the soothing cold air as he inhaled. "At the same time, 'though, I highly doubt he's alive."

Raf nodded his head lightly. "Well, let's go dig up. See if we can salvage anything."

Adams nodded back, before the four men began to pile away the snow and ice that formed the clump that settled onto a declining slope. After digging away at the piles of snow with their gloved hands, Adams let out a quieted gasp of fear as he froze up, the sight in front of his eyes giving him chills down his spine…much colder than the frigid air itself. The eyes of the other three men were widened open, also reacting in the same way Adams did, as they discovered what became of the missing contact.

Uncovered from the piles of snow, a male body was laid down on the jagged, icy rocks of the slope, dressed in its winter jacket and matching pants. Devoid of all life, the body showed the severe effects of the freezing cold on the human condition, the skin becoming a much paler white. In addition, there were patches of blue all over the skin on his arms and face, signalling the first stages of frostbite. Based on the positioning of his arms and legs, the deceased contact had reacted to something that he couldn't have avoided—whether it may be gunfire directed at him, or anything that came after with a different weapon of sorts. The former possibility was much more verified than the latter, as the group discovered a large bullet hole having pierced through the man's left side of his chest, having opened up his winter jacket and exposing the flesh covered by blood that was now solidified by the cold.

Adams exerted his breath deeply a few times, slowly regaining his composure while the other men watched on. He then turned to them after staring down at the frozen corpse for a moment.

"Guys…I have a bad feeling about this."

Without warning, the sounds of a helicopter's propellers approached in the air from behind them, getting louder before a fixed-wing aircraft blew ahead of them. The four men ducked as the helicopter swooped down on them, as it banked to its right and flew off into the distance behind a small mountain. Adams could make out the chopper having a distinct jungle-patterned camouflage scheme on its exterior, identifying it in his mind as a light-assault transport chopper. The four soldiers then quickly got back up standing on their feet, before they looked around at the skies above them.

"What the hell was that?" Raf asked incredulously in a sharp tone of voice.

"Most likely an enemy chopper," Adams looked around at the skies before he turned to him. "They're probably going to find us out if we don't move quickly. Let's go find what this guy has, before we're made."

His reluctance put aside, Raf and the other two men searched the dead man's pockets on his jacket for any important belongings he may have. After they all turned up empty, Adams dug his hand in the jacket and began to search the inner pockets of the man's apparel. Having felt something solid, Adams reached it out from the jacket's right inner pocket, and pulled out what appeared to be a clamshell case the size of his palm extended outward. Opening up the case with his thumb, Adams fished out an object that turned out to be a microchip, along with a flash drive embedded underneath the piece of silicon. Closing up the clamshell box, Adams stowed the pieces of interest in a compartment of his combat suit.

Out of nowhere, a man dressed in darkened military fatigue spotted the four men ahead of him, and shouted angrily in Russian. The group of four immediately turned their bodies around, before they avoided a burst of gunfire coming off from the semi-automatic rifle drawn out by the hostile male. Some of the shots had broken away at a few large blocks of ice, the rest of it giving way to reveal a path deep in a crevasse down below. The fourth man in the group, the cloth covering away at his nose and mouth, instantly drew out his machine pistol with a suppressor attached to its barrel. He fired back at the hostile gunman.

The enemy rifleman gave out a pained cry as he fell onto the snowy terrain on his back, the bullets having pierced through his midsection and torso. Snowden cursed, followed by Adams, as they all knew that the sounds of guns being fired off had alarmed every hostile that was now coming their way.

Adams reached for two narrow strips of carbon metal from his backpack, attaching them to his boots with lockable bindings. The other three men also reached for their ski gear and equipped them as fast as they can. More shouts of Russian echoed off from their north-east, getting louder as all four of them got their skis fully equipped.

"Let's cheese it, guys!" Adams shouted. "Follow my lead! GO!"

He then glided off down the slope using the poles held on both hands, while the others followed him down as well. More shouts of Russian came from afar, echoing towards the four soldiers that broke away from the scene. Adams cornered to his left, dropping down from a 25-metre fall onto the snowy path lined by icy walls on both sides. Stumbling slightly, Adams managed to get himself balanced as he continued down the path, with his squad-mates right behind. Hostile gunmen situated at the tops of the glaciers fired down on the four men below with their semi-automatic rifles, while other gunmen on skis also shot away at the soldiers with their guns as they glided down the snow.

Avoiding the bullets that kicked up bits of snow and ice around them, the white-suited soldiers moved down the path before their leader took a sharp cut to his left, the rest of the group following him.

Static popped and hissed over their headsets, before the frantic voice of the head operator entered the airwaves.

"Roman, Command! What's going on down there?!"

"Hostiles are on our tail, Command!" Adams responded over his headset. "The contact's been iced, but we've got what you're looking for!"

"Roger that! Chopper's on its way for extraction; E.T.A., 15 minutes!"

"Copy!" Adams acknowledged. "On our way to extraction, over and out!"

"Hey, Boss!" Snowden hoarsely shouted from behind. "How're we gon' get these bastards off of our six?!"

Adams looked to his left, before turning slightly to face Snowden from the back. "Curve out to the left!"

Shredding out piles of snow as he carved a turn, the leader of the pack led them down a steep decline of a slope, where they withstood every bump downhill. Gliding onto a flat surface full of flaky ice, Adams continued to curve to his left, before taking another bumpy hill down the mountain. One of the Russian gunmen on skis attempted to go after them down the steep slope, but had instead collapsed and tumbled down the hill from the lack of control around the bumpy surfaces. Adams and his group jostled around another large set of bumps and uneven surfaces as they went down further, the team leader having lost control of his footing after making the landing down on another flat surface. He tumbled over before getting himself back up on his ski-mounted feet.

Likewise, Snowden rolled himself over as he made a hard landing onto the flat grounds of snow.

"Ahh, damn it! Shit!" He cursed as he picked himself back up.

"Son of a bitch, man!" Raf also cursed out, after he tumbled over a couple of times from the bumpy hill.

Out and away from around a couple of mountains, the enemy helicopter reappeared, firing off a few missile rounds as it swooped down upon them. The four men narrowly avoided the incoming missile rounds, as large chunks of snow and flakes of ice blasted skyward in the air around them.

"Move, MOVE!" Adams shouted hoarsely at them. "LET'S GO!"

Crackles of static burst through their headsets, before the head operator entered the airwaves, just as the four men glided downward whilst avoiding missile fire from the hostile chopper.

"Roman, this is Command!" The head operator blared out. "Are all of you okay?!"

"Yeah, we're alright, Command!" Adams responded at his loudest, before he jostled at the sound of a missile exploding right behind him. "I don't want to alarm you, but we've also got an enemy bird in the skies!"

"Copy that! We're sending in back-up right now!"

"Negative, Command!" Adams replied back. "We can take care of this one on our own, I swear!"

"Are you sure about that, Roman?"

"If I didn't tell you that, then I wouldn't be!"

Having missed the rounds of missiles fired by the enemy gunship from above, the group of four soldiers took a right, before they entered down a flat, declining slope at a steep angle. The chopper passed by them, before they blew over four hostile gunmen on snowmobiles. The gunmen on snowmobiles received instructions over the radio from the pilot inside the chopper, before they set themselves off to go after the four men. The hostiles on snowmobiles made their way towards where the four men were headed, before they stopped and got out of their vehicles as they attempted to cut them off.

As the four men on skis evaded the hostile men behind them, they began to spot the armed gunmen behind the orange snowmobiles to their right. Bursts of gunfire blew by them, causing them to flinch and tumble over a few times to avoid being hit by the bullet rounds coming from the hostiles ahead. Their ski equipment thrown off and away, the four men rose back up quickly before they engaged in a firefight with the gunmen by the snowmobiles. Drawing out his suppressed handgun in a flash, Adams fired a few well-placed shots that took down one of the four hostiles from a long range. Snowden scrambled to his right, firing away at another hostile with his light sub-machine gun. Raf also fired as he crouched, with the last man in the group firing from behind him to the right.

The three remaining hostiles were all dispatched by the four men, as they rushed towards the snowmobiles and boarding them. The motor engines of the winter vehicles revved loudly in the air, before the four men driving the snowmobiles headed out to their right, continuing down the path towards extraction.

Barrelling down the steep slope at a high rate of speed, Adams could spot a group of gunmen on snowmobiles to his right, with more of them converging from his left.

"Hostiles on our three and nine!" He shouted at his squad-mates behind him.

Bullets were fired at the four men travelling down on their snowmobiles, avoiding enemy fire as they zig-zagged along the hill sloping downward, firing back at them when they had the chance. A couple of gunmen on snow vehicles lined up in front of Adams, before he fired his pistol at them, taking them out as the hostile snowmobiles veered off-course and tumbled over and out. The team leader then adjusted the knobs on his snowmobile's control panel in front, turning on the radio and raising the volume up. It was then that the song playing over the speakers, happened to be an upbeat tune that sounded more like surf rock.

It was "California Girls" by The Beach Boys that happened to be playing on board the snowmobile Adams was riding in.

"Aww, dammit," he grumbled quietly before sighing deeply to himself. "Oh, the hell with it!"

More shots rang out in the air, as the three other men tried to fend off the hostiles that rushed behind them on snowmobiles. Snowden fired his sub-machine gun at a hostile riding on one to his left, successfully taking him out, as the gunman's snowmobile collided with a stationary tree and exploding in flames. The last person of the group trailing behind the three men also shot at the two hostiles who were to the left and back of him. A third hostile on a snowmobile rammed into him from his left, the assailant trying to knock him off the vehicle as he swung his fists at him. The white-suited man with shades then blocked a thrown fist from the hostile, before he blindsided him with an uppercut to the face, causing the hostile to fall off his vehicle and tumble out to his demise. The man with shades focused back on the sights in front, before he swerved and drifted around a large tree stump that he would've collided into.

Raf gave a loud holler of excitement, before he jumped his snowmobile off of a ramp of hardened snow, landing hard onto an unlucky hostile on a vehicle that was in his way. Following a loud, sickening crunch of bones breaking beneath Raf's snowmobile, the gunman gave a blood-curdling cry of pain as Raf managed to get his snowmobile off of the back of the deceased gunman's winter vehicle.

He laughed as soon as his vehicle touched the snow again. "Gotcha, sucker!"

Evading the small group of hostiles that remained, the group of four men on snow vehicles made their way towards the extraction point, which was down to their left.

"Roman, Command!" The head operator patched in. "How much longer?"

"We're just five minutes away from the L.Z.!" Adams replied back, before turning his head to look back. "So far, I don't think we have to worry about any more hostiles coming after us!"

"Roger that, Roman! Just try to get yourselves still in one piece!"

Suddenly, the enemy gunship that previously tried to attack the four men had reappeared in front of them, off to their far right. The chopper came in fast, swooping down on the four men below before it rose up and turned around.

"Hey, our buddy's comin' back for more!" Snowden remarked snidely. "Let's be sure he doesn't have a third-rounder!"

The co-pilot aboard the hostile chopper shouted in Russian, pointing down at their targets below. The pilot of the gunship fired the rotary gun mounted below the nose of the helicopter, the spattering of bullets catching up with the four men riding down the hill with their snowmobiles. Narrowly missing the bombardment of heavy bullet rounds, some of them had penetrated through the engine of the snowmobile Adams was riding on, thick and black smoke billowing out from the motor inside.

"Oh shit," Adams cursed. "Bail out! BAIL OUT!"

Adams then leapt away from the moving snowmobile as it caught fire, tumbling over and over before landing safely onto a soft embankment of snow. The snowmobile he was on then exploded into a fury of red, orange, and yellow, sending pieces of it everywhere. The chopper above continued to fire streams of bullets at the other three men on their vehicles, the bullet rounds also having struck through the engine blocks of the snowmobiles they were on. Right away, Adams, Raf, and the other soldier jumped off their moving vehicles and rolled themselves over to land safely on the snow. The three snowmobiles exploded as well, as all four men managed to get themselves up fast, just when the chopper fled away from the scene. Coughing up bits of snow in his mouth and spitting all of it out, Adams brushed himself off before he was joined by his other three squad-mates.

"Dude…Adams!" Snowden exclaimed as he approached him. "What're we supposed to do now?"

Adams faced him with a slight grin on his face.

"Hope you guys brought your back-up gear."

The team leader then reached for a black board of carbon fiber behind his back, before he set it down and attached the bindings to his boots. The other three men then did the same, equipping the snowboards they had carried on their backs.

As two hostile gunmen in dark combat gear skied their way towards the top of a slope to locate the destroyed snowmobiles, followed by another two sentinels behind them, they were taken by surprise in the form of Raf sailing up the inclined slope. Taking out a machine pistol, he fired down on the gunman to his left, before he swung both ends of his snowboard against the other hostile with his feet. Taking out both of them at the same time, Raf curved around and sailed down the same slope, with the remaining two sentinels hot on his heels.

The two gunmen on skis firing away at the men on snowboards with their semi-automatic rifles, they followed them down the steep hill they were on. Adams gained enough speed as he shredded down the hill on his snowboard, before he jumped high enough and sailed over a wooden log sitting next to a tree stump, landing perfectly as he twisted back to his original position. Raf made a half-pipe over the edge of a large ice block, before spinning around and landing flat without falling over. The man with the shades and face cover did a few slaloms around the declining hill, while Snowden gave a hollering whoop as he jumped over an icy ramp covered with snow.

"YEAH, GET SOME!" He boldly shouted while doing a 360-degree twist, sticking the landing flawlessly.

Coming down at the end of the declining hill, Adams could see a sizeable body of freezing water ahead. Not taking any chances, he gained enough speed along with the others, before he reached the end of the hill and sailed over the waters.

"COWABUNGA!!" Snowden shouted excitedly, as he made it through the body of water with Adams.

Raf and the other soldier had also made it through, with the two gunmen on skis having sailed over the waters, but had instantly collapsed right through the lake. Both of them shouted in Russian as they struggled to keep themselves afloat.

Getting off of their snowboards, the team of four rushed on foot towards their extraction point, hugging the walls of ice to their left as they did. The hostile chopper then came flying from far ahead to their right, where the co-pilot of the helicopter got out his light-machine gun and swung open the door. He fired a continuous burst at the four men that rushed forward, the group of four avoiding the bullets that blasted bits of snow and chipped away ice from the barriers of glacial chunks to their right. The pilot of the chopper then ascended the air vehicle upward, as he made another run at the soldiers on the ground.

Adams panted heavily as he got up on his feet, firing at the chopper with all he had. Pulling away at the spent magazine in his gun, he looked around all over himself to see if he had any remaining ammunition left.

"I'm all out!" He turned to the three men behind him. "Any of you got some mags?"

"Fresh out!" Snowden shouted as he searched for any remaining magazines on himself.

Raf inspected the magazine that was previously inserted into his weapon. "Got a few more on this clip!"

The man with the shades gave a shook of his head, indicating that he didn't have any spare ammunition on him.

"Dammit!" Adams cursed out. "All we have, is just a few bullets on us?!"

"Well, don't blame me!" Snowden retorted. "We weren't even supplied with enough ammo, especially at a time when those suits at the top are slashing the damn budget, for those damn fleet of ships!"

"Hey, wait! Hold up!" Raf signalled to them, as he reached for his bag. "I think I've got something!"

He searched through his bag, before he pulled out what appeared to be a flare gun. "I've been saving this thing up for emergencies."

"Where the hell did you get that?!"

"Don't know where, don't know how!" Raf answered, before he tossed it at Adams. "Catch!"

Adams caught the flare gun, before he ducked down from the bullet fire coming from the enemy chopper that made its sweep by where they were. The others had also hid behind the thick wall of ice that protected them from the incoming fire.

"Yeah, you better do something about that chopper, or we're all dead meat!" Snowden bellowed at Adams.

The team leader gave a loud growl of anger, as he popped his head back out at the same time the chopper had ascended upward. A hazel-coloured seed dropped in an abyss from the back of his eyes, before it bounced up and exploded into a series of "1s" and "0s" that rushed rapidly in a stream, outward from the impact. Time and motion slowed before him, as Adams aimed precisely at the chopper's open doorway, before he fired an orange flare at it. The flare leaked out a trail of orange smoke as it directly sailed through the open doorway, and bounced off of a wall, before it landed under the feet of the pilot.

The speed of time and motion returned back to its normal pace, as Adams could see thick orange smoke gathering up inside the canopy of the chopper. The pilot and co-pilot were in hysterics as they struggled to see what was going on through the windscreen, as the thick orange smoke was everywhere. The chopper swerved violently, diving down and hitting the icy ground before bouncing back up. Alarms wailed over the canopy as the helicopter flew out of control in the air. Screams of panic continued from the pilots of the chopper, right before the helicopter had blindly ran into the wall of a glacier, the gunship exploding into thousands of pieces as it slammed into it.

Raf and Snowden gave wild shouts of excitement and euphoria, as they saw the burning remains of the chopper hitting the ground and the water.

"OHHH YEAH!" Snowden hollered. "RAISE A LITTLE HELL!"

"You got 'em, Boss!" Raf added. "Great job!"

Adams could only muster a laugh as he grinned. "Yeah, I saved all of you guys."

Crackles of static buzzed through their headsets, before the head operator patched in again.

"Roman, Command. What's your status, over?"

"Command, this is Roman," Adams responded as he relaxed for a bit. "We're all accounted for; the enemy bird's done as dinner."

"Glad to hear that," the head operator acknowledged. "We're getting you guys back home, our bird should be there to pick you up any second now."

"Yeah, roger that," the team leader replied, as the sounds of propellers fluttering came from behind them, getting louder as it got closer.

Not before long, an olive-green transport chopper came exactly to where the four soldiers were. They waved at the helicopter in the skies, as it slowly descended down to hover right beside them. The door gave way, as a ZAFT soldier on board the chopper helped them up and onto the seats of the aircraft. Once all four men were on, the chopper lifted itself up and away from the mountains of Siberia.

---

Seven hours later…

March 10, C.E. 85
ZAFT Military Station (Headquarters)
1400 Hours

The four soldiers stood before a closed metallic door that hydraulically opened with a hiss. Stepping through the open doorway, they entered a dimly-lit room where they slowed to a stop before a table fixed to the floor. On the other side of the table was a man dressed in his black-and-white ZAFT commander uniform, fulfilled by the gold markings on the black sections of his suit, and adorning a matching peaked cap that covered the top of his head. The commander stepped forward towards the table, away from the shadows to reveal his locks of brown hair, his purple irises gazing upon the four men who came towards the opposite side of the table.

The four men in their regular military T-shirts stopped accordingly, before they saluted to the white-suited commander.

"Commander Yamato," Adams greeted quietly.

"At ease, gentlemen," Kira responded back with a salute, before putting his hand away.

Lowering their hands away to end their salute, the four men stood tall and still, Adams being the first to speak as he looked down upon what was on the table.

"What have we got, Commander?" He asked, looking at the classified documents and photos of persons in question, before tilting his head up slightly.

Kira raised his head to face Adams in the eyes. "It's definitely something that we now know all this time."

Adams gave him a stern look in his eyes, his facial expression remaining indifferent from the last.

"Our contact, a veteran field agent, was to look into suspicious activity perpetrated by a splinter group operating within the far-eastern part of the region," Kira explained. "Although details are very murky in identifying this group and its connections, it was alleged that this group was carrying a stockpile of highly-advanced technological components used in the creation of dangerous weapons, having been sourced from a high-profile technology firm."

"You mean that microchip we had found over there?" Adams asked.

Kira nodded. "Unfortunately, as all of you have already found out by going there, our contact was long gone before he can even return to us," he spoke in a dejected tone, resting his finger on the greyscale portrait of the field agent, the red stamp on top reading out 'K.I.A.'

"May Haumea be with him," the commander sighed deeply, as the three men behind Adams stared down in silence.

Adams raised an eyebrow. "So this microchip…and anything we may had found, what importance do all of them have for this mission?"

"That's where the pieces of the puzzle starts, gentlemen," the brunette commander elaborated. "Intelligence has it that this technology firm, based in the outskirts of Paris, is doing secret deals behind closed doors."

He elaborated further. "They're allegedly sourcing electronic components to black-market dealers, handing over pieces of silicon to the wrong hands in exchange for money," he paused. "This is no ordinary firm that's working in an industry like this."

Adams concentrated on him, as he continued to speak.

"Up until now, we had no substantialized claims that they were undergoing these types of transactions with these third-parties," Kira stated. "However, thanks to you, we were able to retrieve a heavy amount of data from the flash drive that was recovered off of the agent. We can confirm these claims through e-mails, invoices, and notes made between the group and the company that sourced them."

Adams queried. "This means we have look into that company, sir?"

"Affirmative," Kira answered before he outlined their new tasks. "Intelligence suspects that there will be another deal about to happen, and it's up to all of you to find out who is the client for that deal."

The commander then laid down a finger on the greyscale portrait of a man in a formal suit. "This is the highest-ranked executive of the company, Nicolas Luther. Mid-30s, married, and is believed to be the person responsible for the majority of those deals. All of you are to look out for him in monitoring everything going on with the upcoming deal."

"What about the client, Commander?" Adams questioned.

"After when the deal is reached between the parties, follow the client, and make sure he does not get away. Retrieve him, unharmed," Kira stressed the word, "otherwise we will never know where further this will take us to."

"Understood, Commander."

"I want all of you to remember that this is a recon mission," Commander Yamato sternly reminded. "We cannot afford to mess this one up. The deal is said to start in next 24 hours, so good luck out there."

"Yes, sir," Adams nodded with confidence.

"Dismissed, gentlemen."

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To be continued in PHASE-02: "Beyond Limits".