Weeks Later: The Calm Before the Heist
Cosmic Era | C.E. 73
Earth Sphere
Weeks passed—but the war did not slow.
Skirmishes flared across the Earth Sphere like sparks in dry grass. OMNI and ZAFT clashed openly near strategic corridors, while mercenary units, Junk Guild ships, and unmarked vessels moved in the shadows, salvaging, spying, and sometimes interfering.
A name began circulating through classified channels.
Arzachel.
A joint OMNI–ZAFT operation.
A neutral-zone handover point.
And a political landmine waiting to explode.
---
BEOWULF — Briefing Room
The lights dimmed.
A massive hologram of a colossal cylindrical structure filled the room, its armored surface bristling with defensive emplacements.
Kyousuke Asagi stared.
"That's… big."
Captain Helena Brandt folded her arms. "That's Arzachel. A massive underground fortress constructed on the Moon. Recently seized during the chaos of the war."
The display highlighted docking bays, internal transit rails, and energy conduits.
"Right now," Brandt continued, "OMNI forces and ZAFT are engaged in a delicate, temporary cooperation to stabilize and secure it."
Marcus Hale's jaw tightened. "Temporary being the key word."
"Exactly," Brandt said. "Which makes it the perfect target."
Another symbol appeared over Arzachel—unmarked, black.
Kyousuke felt a familiar chill.
"Librarian Works," he said quietly.
Brandt nodded. "Intelligence suggests Librarian intends to take Arzachel."
A low murmur rippled through the room.
Isaac Rowan leaned forward. "They don't hold territory. Why would they want a fortress?"
Brandt's gaze hardened. "Because Arzachel isn't just a fortress."
The display shifted—deep internal layers lit up.
"Experimental manufacturing zones. Microgravity production facilities. Data vaults. Power infrastructure that rivals a small colony."
Kyousuke's eyes widened.
"…Phase Shift production," he whispered.
"Among other things," Hale said grimly.
Brandt continued, "If Librarian Works gains control of Arzachel, they won't just steal weapons."
She paused.
"They'll gain the ability to manufacture Carbon Humans and advanced Mobile Suits at scale."
Silence fell like a hammer.
---
Elsewhere — Girty Lue-class Warship
Unknown Lunar Orbit
The bridge lights glowed softly.
Matias stood before a projection of Arzachel, hands clasped behind his back. The fortress rotated slowly, every structural weakness highlighted in cold, analytical lines.
"OMNI and ZAFT believe Arzachel to be a symbol," he said calmly. "A bargaining chip."
Matisse, lounging nearby, smiled. "Symbols are easy to steal."
A second projection appeared.
Internal schematics. Production timelines. Security routines.
"All obtained," Matisse added lightly. "They really do love their classified databases."
Matias inclined his head slightly.
"Arzachel represents the convergence of old war thinking," he said. "Static defenses. Centralized power. Political compromise."
His eyes sharpened.
"We will show them what mobility truly means."
The image shifted—showing silhouettes.
Carbon Humans. Librarian Gundams. Specialized infiltration units.
"Finis Socius and Lily Thevalley will not be deployed first," Matias continued. "This is not a battle."
Matisse chuckled. "It's a theft."
"Correct," Matias said. "Arzachel will fall without realizing it has been taken."
He turned away from the display.
"And when OMNI and ZAFT turn their guns on each other—as they inevitably will—Arzachel will already be ours."
---
BEOWULF — Kyousuke's Quarters
Kyousuke sat on his bunk, helmet resting beside him.
Arzachel.
A fortress built by humans.
A prize sought by monsters made from data.
He clenched his fists.
"If they take it…" he murmured. "This war won't end. It'll mutate."
A soft knock sounded.
Hale stepped inside.
"You're thinking too loudly," Hale said.
Kyousuke looked up. "Sir… if Librarian takes Arzachel, can we stop them?"
Hale considered the question.
"We can slow them," he said honestly. "We can disrupt them."
He met Kyousuke's gaze.
"And sometimes, that's enough to change history."
Kyousuke nodded slowly.
Outside the viewport, the Moon loomed—silent, ancient, and about to become the center of something far worse than a battle.
As OMNI and ZAFT prepared to clash over Arzachel in the open—
Librarian Works prepared to take it from both.
And once again, Kyousuke Asagi stood at the edge of a storm he hadn't chosen—
But would soon be forced to fly straight into.
Lunar Orbit — Arzachel
Arzachel loomed against the stars like a buried god half-awakened.
Its massive cylindrical structure was embedded deep within the Moon's crust, armored plates layered over older scars from battles long past. Floodlights illuminated docking bays where OMNI Enforcer and ZAFT units maneuvered in uneasy proximity—guns lowered, fingers tense on triggers.
A ceasefire held.
Barely.
"ZAFT unit, maintain your vector," an OMNI controller snapped over comms.
"Your patrol drifted outside the agreed corridor."
"Tch. Like hell we trust Earth Alliance navigation," a ZAFT pilot muttered back.
Inside Arzachel, officers from both sides argued over jurisdiction, access codes, and control schedules. Every second spent debating was another second Librarian Works quietly counted.
---
Elsewhere — Lunar Shadow
Unmarked Vector
The Girty Lue-class warship slid through darkness, its engines masked beneath layers of active deception.
On its bridge, Matias watched Arzachel grow larger.
"Phase one," he said calmly.
Matisse tapped a control, smiling. "Already in motion."
Invisible probes—smaller than maintenance drones—detached from the ship, slipping toward Arzachel along blind angles that neither OMNI nor ZAFT sensors actively monitored. Each carried fragments of code, tailored to exploit joint-operation redundancies.
"Shared authority always creates gaps," Matisse said lightly. "No one truly owns the locks."
Matias's eyes narrowed.
"And no one notices when they begin to change."
---
BEOWULF — Alert Status
The Beowulf drifted at medium distance, officially assigned as a rapid-response observer. Unofficially, Captain Brandt trusted neither side to keep things from exploding.
"Telemetry spike," a sensor officer called out. "Brief signal noise near Arzachel's outer perimeter."
Brandt straightened. "Source?"
"Unknown. Too clean to be debris."
Hale leaned forward. "Librarian."
Kyousuke felt his stomach tighten.
"They're already there…"
Brandt nodded grimly. "All units, raise readiness. We don't break protocol unless something moves—but when it does, we move fast."
Kyousuke's Strike Dagger was already prepped in the hangar.
---
Arzachel — Internal Systems
Deep within the fortress, lights flickered.
A ZAFT technician frowned at his console. "That's odd… my authentication just refreshed."
An OMNI officer frowned across the table. "Mine too."
Neither realized that the system no longer answered to either of them.
Data pathways shifted. Command hierarchies were subtly rewritten. Emergency protocols were reassigned—quietly, efficiently.
No alarms.
No warnings.
In the lowest manufacturing sector—long sealed and officially "inactive"—machinery powered on for the first time in years.
Microgravity chambers hummed to life.
---
Girty Lue-class — Bridge
Matisse glanced at the readouts. "Internal access achieved. They still think it's a glitch."
Matias closed his eyes briefly.
"Then proceed."
A new set of silhouettes appeared on the display.
Specialized infiltration Mobile Suits.
Carbon Human operators.
Extraction vectors already plotted.
"This is not conquest," Matias said. "This is reclamation."
---
BEOWULF — Hangar Deck
Kyousuke climbed into his cockpit, the familiar smell of metal and coolant grounding his nerves.
Hale's voice came over the squad channel. "You remember what we talked about."
Kyousuke nodded, even though Hale couldn't see him.
"They're not gods," Kyousuke said quietly. "They bleed. They adapt—but so do we."
Rowan cut in, steady and calm. "Good. Because the moment this joint operation collapses, Arzachel becomes a shooting gallery."
Maya added dryly, "And Librarian loves shooting galleries."
Outside the hangar, warning lights shifted from amber to red.
Captain Brandt's voice echoed through the ship.
> "All BEOWULF units, launch readiness. Arzachel has gone quiet—and that's never good."
---
Arzachel — Lunar Surface
OMNI and ZAFT patrols suddenly froze.
Multiple systems rebooted simultaneously.
"What the—my radar just dropped!"
"Power fluctuation in sector D!"
"Who authorized this lockdown?!"
Then the fortress spoke.
A calm, neutral voice—one that belonged to neither faction.
> "Arzachel security protocols updated."
"Please remain calm."
Matias watched from afar as the fortress fell silent under its new master.
"Now," he said softly,
"let them fight over what they believe they still control."
As Arzachel slipped from human hands without a single shot fired—
Kyousuke Asagi's launch catapult engaged.
And the battle for the Moon was about to begin—not as a clash of armies—
But as a race against a thief who had already unlocked the door.
Space around Arzachel grew crowded—dangerously so.
The Proto-Saviour Gundam emerged first, its refined silhouette cutting cleanly through lunar shadow. Thrusters flared with restrained elegance as Ile de Llorar guided the machine into a holding vector, eyes already fixed on the fortress that was no longer what it seemed.
"Tch… subtlety is dying quickly," Ile muttered.
Moments later, another presence arrived—heavier, more aggressive.
The LV-ZGMF-X23S Vent Saviour Gundam, its frame bristling with high-output vents and experimental thruster arrays, slid into position beside the Proto-Saviour. Inside, Gud Vair laughed quietly, fingers dancing across the controls.
"Looks like a party," Gud said. "And everyone's invited."
A third signal spiked.
Ile's jaw tightened.
"No," he said flatly. "Absolutely not."
The deep red glow of the Nebula Blitz Gundam bled into the sensor display as Lily Thevalley dropped out of cloak, positioning herself just close enough to be unmistakably present.
"I requested participation," Lily said calmly over the shared Librarian channel. "My data from Artemis is incomplete."
Ile didn't bother hiding his irritation.
"You're noisy. And this operation doesn't need your… personality."
Lily tilted her head slightly, as if amused.
> "Your emotional response is inefficient."
Gud snorted. "Wow. She really likes you."
Ile ignored him. "Stay out of my firing lanes," he said sharply to Lily. "Or I won't adjust for you."
For a moment, Lily said nothing.
Then—
> "Acknowledged."
Her tone was perfectly polite.
Which somehow made it worse.
---
Elsewhere — Lunar Orbit
BEOWULF Task Group
The Agamemnon-class refit Beowulf slid into position, its presence immediately felt across all channels.
"Multiple ZAFT signatures confirmed," a Beowulf sensor officer called out. "Nazca-class cruiser plus escort units."
Kyousuke's screen filled with green icons.
AMF-103A DINN RAVEN
ZGMF-515 CGUE
ZGMF-1017 GINN
"Looks like ZAFT beat us to the party," Ensign Leo Vargas muttered nervously.
Commander Isaac Rowan's voice cut in, calm and iron-steady. "Maintain formation. Weapons hot, but hold fire."
Kyousuke's Strike Dagger drifted alongside several Long Dagger units, their silhouettes humble compared to the monsters lurking near Arzachel.
Then the ZAFT channel opened.
"Oh? Earth Alliance brought antiques this time?" a ZAFT pilot sneered. "Careful, your Daggers might scratch the paint."
Another voice laughed. "Maybe they're here to salvage spare parts."
Kyousuke flushed. "They're mocking us…"
Marcus Hale's voice came through, dry and amused. "Ignore it. ZAFT pilots get chatty when they're nervous."
Maya Feld added coolly, "Or when they're trying to convince themselves they're not about to die."
The standoff stretched—two fleets facing each other, fingers hovering over triggers, nobody willing to be the first to fire.
Arzachel loomed between them.
Silent. Watching.
---
Then—
The Moon exploded.
One of Arzachel's outer facilities—an auxiliary power and manufacturing node—erupted in a blinding flash. Lunar dust and molten debris blasted outward, the shockwave rippling through space like a silent scream.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Explosion confirmed—inside the fortress!"
"Who fired?!"
On the Librarian channel, Matisse smiled.
"Detonation successful," he said lightly. "They'll blame each other."
Inside his cockpit, Ile felt a cold certainty settle in.
"So that's the cue…"
Lily's sensors locked onto the sudden chaos.
> "Hostility escalation imminent."
Gud cracked his neck. "And there it is."
---
Chaos Ignites
ZAFT and OMNI comms overlapped in a storm of accusations.
"Earth Alliance fired on the facility!"
"ZAFT sabotage confirmed—return fire!"
"Command authorization—damn it, we're losing control!"
Someone panicked.
Someone fired.
No one knew who it was.
But beams streaked across space all the same.
"ALL UNITS, ENGAGE!" voices shouted on both sides.
Kyousuke's heart slammed against his ribs as the battlefield erupted around him.
"Hale—!"
"I see it! Defensive maneuvers!"
GINNs surged forward. Long Daggers scattered. DINNs dove from above as the Nazca-class cruiser's guns lit up.
And through it all—
Three Gundams moved like wolves among panicked prey.
The Proto-Saviour accelerated, precise and merciless.
The Vent Saviour roared into motion, vents blazing with raw output.
And the Nebula Blitz slipped into the chaos, silent and watching.
Lily's voice echoed softly.
> "Conflict achieved. Data acquisition resumed."
Kyousuke barely had time to react before alarms screamed again.
This wasn't a battle planned by commanders.
This was a fight engineered to happen.
And as beams and missiles crisscrossed the lunar void, Kyousuke Asagi realized the most terrifying truth yet—
Librarian Works hadn't just stolen Arzachel.
They had turned it into a matchstick.
And everyone else was already on fire.
The battlefield dissolved into madness.
Beam fire tore past Kyousuke Asagi's Strike Dagger, lunar dust and molten fragments flashing across his panoramic display as OMNI and ZAFT units clashed without formation or mercy. Warning alarms overlapped in shrill layers—lock-ons, proximity alerts, system stress.
Then—
A presence crushed down on him like gravity itself.
"—Proto-Saviour!"
Kyousuke barely had time to register the sleek, predatory silhouette of ZGMF-YX21R Proto-Saviour Gundam before it was already on him. Thrusters flared white-hot as Ile de Llorar drove straight in, blade arcing toward Kyousuke's cockpit with lethal precision.
"Die."
Kyousuke moved on instinct.
He sidestepped—hard and ugly, dumping thrust and twisting his Strike Dagger sideways at the last possible instant. The Proto-Saviour's blade missed by centimeters, slicing only vacuum.
Before Ile could recover, Kyousuke kicked.
Metal slammed into metal.
The Strike Dagger's foot crashed into the Proto-Saviour's torso, knocking the Gundam violently off-line. The shock rippled through Kyousuke's frame, alarms flaring red, but the Proto-Saviour was thrown aside, spinning.
Inside his cockpit, Ile snarled.
"Tch—! Insolent mass-produced trash—!"
The Proto-Saviour stabilized, thrusters screaming as Ile forced it back under control.
Kyousuke's chest heaved.
I… hit a Gundam…
Then—
The air changed.
A familiar pressure crept into his skull, cold fingers closing around his thoughts.
"No…"
The Nebula Blitz Gundam emerged from the chaos, deep red armor gleaming like fresh blood against the Moon's pale glow.
Lily Thevalley's voice slid into his cockpit.
> "Your motion was inefficient."
"But emotionally motivated."
Kyousuke froze.
The battlefield blurred.
Explosions faded into distant thunder as another scene bled through—
---
Orb Union.
Sirens screaming.
The sky burning red.
Mobile Suits falling like broken gods.
"Kyousuke—stay behind me!"
His mother's voice. Urgent. Afraid.
A medic's uniform stained darker than red.
Then his father—helmet tucked under one arm, smiling despite the smoke.
"I'll be back before you know it."
The sound of a Mobile Suit launching.
A beam of light.
Silence.
---
Kyousuke's hands trembled violently on the controls.
"No… stop…"
> "Memory recall detected," Lily said softly.
"Trauma confirmed. Orb Union conflict."
His vision tunneled.
The Strike Dagger drifted, unresponsive.
"ASAGI!"
Marcus Hale's voice cut through the haze.
Hale's Duel Dagger w/ Fortestra surged into view, interposing itself between Kyousuke and the Nebula Blitz.
"Snap out of it!" Hale barked. "You're here, Kyousuke! You hear me?!"
Hale raised his weapons—
Too late.
A beam lanced across space.
"Hale—!"
The shot struck the Duel Dagger squarely in the torso. Armor vaporized in a blinding flash as the Fortestra pack detonated, the explosion hurling Hale's unit away like a broken doll.
"CAPTAIN HALE!!!"
Kyousuke screamed as Hale's signal plummeted.
"Direct hit!" Rowan shouted. "Hale's down—repeat, Hale's down!"
The Duel Dagger tumbled end over end, systems failing, smoke and debris venting into space.
Inside, Marcus Hale felt fire rip through his body as emergency restraints slammed him back into his seat. Blood filled his mouth.
"So… this is how it ends…?" he rasped.
---
"ROWAN—FELD—ON ME!"
Commander Isaac Rowan's GAT-333 Raider Full Spec boosted hard, interposing its massive frame to shield Hale's drifting unit. Lieutenant Maya Feld's Verde Buster followed instantly, rifle already firing suppressive beams that forced the Proto-Saviour and Nebula Blitz to disengage.
"Covering fire!" Maya snapped. "Don't you dare die on us, Hale!"
Rowan locked onto the crippled Duel Dagger. "I've got him! Emergency tow—now!"
Meanwhile—
"ASAGI, MOVE!"
A translucent barrier snapped into place in front of Kyousuke.
Ensign Leo Vargas's Hyperion G hovered protectively, energy shields flaring as incoming fire shattered harmlessly against them.
"Y-you're not dying today!" Leo shouted, voice shaking but determined. "I won't let them take you too!"
Kyousuke stared at Hale's drifting machine, his vision swimming.
Captain Hale.
The man who pulled him back from death.
The man who believed in him.
"No… this is my fault…"
The Nebula Blitz watched from a distance.
Lily tilted her head.
> "Emotional collapse confirmed."
"Subject Kyousuke Asagi is compromised."
Nearby, the Proto-Saviour steadied.
Ile clicked his tongue, fury simmering beneath his calm.
"Disgusting," he muttered. "This battlefield is turning into a farce."
Around them, OMNI and ZAFT forces continued tearing each other apart, oblivious to the deeper game being played.
And at the center of it all—
Kyousuke Asagi floated helplessly, mind fractured between past and present, as the man who had anchored him lay critically wounded.
The war did not pause for grief.
And the next choice Kyousuke made—whether to break, or to stand—
Would decide far more than his own survival.