Gundam Seed: Kira Reloaded Chapter 7

PLANTs are made in a total of 120 hourglass-shaped colonies. They are named after Roman calendar months.

Since they all have a specific purpose, they are grouped into 12 groups. This makes 10 colonies per purpose, and their naming goes like Aprilius One, Junius Seven etc…

The capital PLANTs is situated on Aprilius One, where the PLANT Supreme Council is located.

The Politics of PLANT is considerably easier to navigate because there are only 12 members, and each member represents their respectful group of colonies.

However… even here, political groups exist. There are 2 groups since the beginning of the war.

The Moderate Faction is led by Siegel Clyne, father of Lacus Clyne and current Chairman, though his Chairmanship is ending soon.

The Radical Faction led by Patrick Zala, the founder of ZAFT and heavy supporter of this war, wants this to reach another level and that ZAFT would take a more…radical approach against those Naturals.

His dislike of Naturals turned into utter hate after Junius Seven's destruction, which took his wife's life. Now he is running for the Chairman position after Siegel Clyne's time ends as PLANT's leader.

"Now, the situation in Heliopolis, I want to know what happened. How did it end up destroyed?" Siegel Clyne asked the members of the Defense committee who are responsible for the operations.

"We have a report prepared by Commander Rau Le Creuset." Patrick Zala said from his side as the masked Commander of the operation walked in to give tell the report.

"The mission went as planned in the early stages, we infiltrated the compound and set explosive charges which destroyed the majority of Earth Alliance and their collaborators.

However, the explosion didn't destroy their new ship it was far more durable than we expected. In comparison, we did take four out of five machines. The fifth one… proved to be problematic." The blonde masked man showed the machines and videos he collected. However, the videos stopped on Strike which was at that time dismantling the Duel and cutting Blitz's head off.

"...So you saying… we have an international incident with ORB over slightly better models than our GINNs?" Patrick Zala said with a frown. He is displeased! The man expected a game-changer! What he got were machines which got wrecked on their first launch!!!

"There is an explanation for this. The pilot of that fifth machine, the GAT-X105 Strike, is an exceptional Coordinator. In truth, he is an elite pilot." The Masked Man gives credit where it's due. The boy will be a thorn in ZAFT's side if he continues to pilot that machine.

"A Coordinator? Why is he fighting against us?"

Whispering started in the council as they wanted to hear more about why one of them was fighting against them!

"One of my pilots will explain in more detail about the machines and the pilot of the GAT unit Strike."

Athrun Zala, who got put in the spotlight, walked forward. He had a full report on the four machines and all he knew about Kira Yamato.

"First, let me explain about the machines we acquired and their performance."

And so, the blue-haired teen started to explain about the four models, and eventually he reached the point where he started to talk about Strike and its pilot.

"I met Kira Yamato when we were attending school on the moon city of Copernicus. Back then, he was already obsessed with technology, robotics and learning anything he could put his hands on. To my knowledge, he mastered a multitude of fighting arts before moving on to different things. He would never stop, almost like he was possessed."

"Is it possible for us to get him on our side? What drives him? Why would he fight against his kind?" Siegel Clyne asked with a curious look. He wonders why he pilots a machine on a different side.

"...This… I only can speculate." Athrun was slightly nervous about what to say. He doesn't know himself.

"That's fine. The more we know, the better."

"...I believe it's his obsession with machines and robotics. Even back in the day, he said that huge machines and robots would replace regular military equipment. And he was right. However, I believe as someone like him, he doesn't care about the big picture."

"A self-service then! ZAFT could offer better than those Naturals. We are the ones who created Mobile Suits. And if you could persuade him to join us, then we will have an Ace pilot." Patrick Zala said with a slightly greedy tone. Such a pilot will bolster his ZAFT and help him in claiming that position as Chairman.

"Though if you can't persuade him, then simply kill him."

"...That would be difficult, sir. It took him a short amount of time to take us down." Athrun said with some nervousness. He remembered feeling the pressure facing him even when Strike had no weapons in his hands to speak of…

"Doesn't matter. It's only one person. Surround him and then make his machine battery run dry."

"As you command, sir." It is slightly strange for Athrun to call his father 'Sir' all the time, but they were in a Supreme Council meeting…

"Now, back to the matter of Heliopolis destruction." Siegel Clyne asked with a scrutinising gaze as he looked at Athrun.

Thankfully or not for the blue-haired teen… he doesn't know anything… he didn't sortie because his Aegis Gundam was damaged.

For that, Rau Le Creuset was grilled out. In the end, he stuck with the excuse that the colony was damaged because of their battle with Earth Alliance forces stationed there and Kira Yamato, mostly because of the Coordinator kid because the Council was more willing to believe that Heliopolis collapsed because of how dangerous was this kid with Strike.

~~~~~~Archangel~~~~~~

"How did you end up in an Escape Pod in Junius Seven ruins?" Kira asked curiously, he already knew, but it was more interesting to listen to her version of it.

"I was part of the memorial service for Junius Seven, it's nearly a whole year passed since the incident." The girl explains from her side of things.

Now that she mentioned that, the teen realised that it had been nearly a whole month since Heliopolis was destroyed!

'Damn, the time flow in space is wack! I barely noticed!'

"So you got attacked while being part of memorial services?"

She nodded at him.

"It was so fast that I didn't understand what happened! Before I realised, the ship crew put me into the escape pod." Lacus said with a sad tone as she realised what happened to that ship's crew, and the death count increased in Junius Seven.

"That's quite reckless. You do know that fighting is only getting more serious as time goes on."

"...But we are not part of ZAFT, and the people who were with me were all civilians…"

Kira sighed, hearing that.

"My home was neutral, but behind our backs, Morgenroete developed mobile suits with Earth Alliance. Do you know what happened?"

"...It got…destroyed?" She asked with uncertainty.

"Exactly. I am a Coordinator and civilian who is the only one who could pilot a mobile suit on this ship. While your intentions are good, holding a memorial ceremony is a show of respect for the dead. However, not in the middle of a war."

"... I see… I will keep that in mind. So, in the end, you are a good person Mr Yamato!"

Once again, Kira slightly grimaced. Being called good slightly rubs him wrong he ain't good two shoes. He had already killed, hacked, manipulated two forces and held hostage the whole military base.

His 'achievements' are only going to grow.

"Kira is fine, Lacus. Mr Yamato is my father, I am not that old." The teen said with a joking tone.

"Kira, it is then!"

He nodded at her, and they continued to walk. Thankfully specific interior sections of Archangel have gravity.

Which is a welcome reminder that such a thing exists.

"This is where you will be staying." Kira showed an empty room with fourth bunk beds.

"There is a shower over there as well." The teen pointed at the single doors inside the room.

"...but this is empty! It's going to get boring if I don't have no one to talk to!" She said that with a small pout as she took her seat.

*Sigh*

"I know. However, you can't wander off. But, if you want, you can spend some time in my room. I have some of my stuff before, you know… the incident. So, I have my music stuff and other things."

The moment she heard that, her eyes gleamed happily.

She clapped her hands with joy.

"I will gladly accept it! You ARE a good person Kira!"

"...I simply offered some of my things. Nothing good about it, Lacus."

"Yes, but we only meet, and you allow me to use your things! I think that's a good sign about your nature."

Kira could only roll his eyes at how she insisted on that.

"Fine. As long as you drop that and don't mention every five minutes."

She simply nodded to him. However, internally Kira could only grimace at how she trying to push on him that he is a good person. That's a tale sigh of minor manipulation on her part.

'As expected, even if she is behaving so nonchalantly, the moment she grows out of naivete, she will be seriously dangerous in her way.'

The teen continued to lead her to his room. Once he showed it to her. Her eyes went to the three laptops and a multitude of hard drives. All of his stuff was encased in protective gear. This is to make sure nothing gets damaged in case of an attack.

"...You got all this before Heliopolis got destroyed?" Lacus said that as she walked closer and checked out. Her eyes stayed on the background pictures, which were mobile suits…

These were the five GAT units from Heliopolis. Kira used the schematics of the machines to recreate them as Background pictures. He did that in his free time when he still lived in Heliopolis.

"I never leave without my stuff. I dislike losing my progress. So I will carry my things with me." Kira explained plainly, though there was steel in his tone. He was serious about that.

Lacus slowly nodded after hearing that.

"...I see. I can understand. I even know the feeling of something like that!" As she said that, she walked over and took her seat on the opposite bed.

She then waited expectantly.

The Strike pilot looked at her with a slightly raised eyebrow. She was waiting for his music player!

He sighed, pulled out, and handed over the headphones and the music player.

Lacus knew the model of the music player and quickly started to skim through the songs. Her eyes slowly grew bigger and bigger as she realised how many songs there were.

"...You don't do things halfway, do you, Kira?" She asked him with a slightly forced smile. There were over 8 thousand songs. She is pretty sure some of them are several hundred years old. Lacus only heard some of them from history as she is a singer herself.

"If I did hallway, I might be dead by this point. It's like a reminder to give your best. I have been giving my all of my life." He said that while looking at the computer screen, he saw his machine, the Gundam Strike.

Lacus's eyes followed his and she a familiar machine which she saw in the Hangar.

"...That machine… it's important to you?"

He smiled hearing that.

"How important to you are your songs?"

Now she frowned hearing that. This question was something no one had asked her before.

"They are an expression of you, aren't they? Like expressing your specific feelings through them?"

She slowly nodded at him as the girl had a thoughtful look.

"It's the same for me. These machines, like these specific ones. They can be either harbinger of destruction…" As Kira said that, he remembered Calamity, Forbidden, Raider, and of course, the elephants in the room. Destroy Gundam, a monster with an enormous size of 50 metres!

"...or bearers of one's ideology."