Gundam Seed- Alternate Plot twist

Escape from Artemis

In which I really begin to question the sanity of the higher-ups in the Earth Alliance.

The Earth Federation space-based fortress known as Artemis was a unique one. As established in the previous scene, Artemis is a mainly defensive installation. The beloved "Umbrella of Artemis" is a supposedly invincible shield of energy that surrounds the station – shielding the good, God-fearing men and women of the Eurasian Federation forces with an unstoppable barrier protecting them from their enemies.

That is, if their enemies ever bothered to show up.

Lagrange Point 3, where Artemis and the debris field once known as Heliopolis are located, also happens to be out in the middle of the proverbial space-boondocks. It lies literally opposite to the Moon at all times, which puts it far away from the few resources that the Earth Alliance happens to have in space. It's also far enough away from ZAFT that only a few rare patrols have come this way to make sure that the base still exists.

Still, the Earth Federation has kept the base around. Some suspect just as an annoyance tool, seeing how the fortress used to only run the Lightwave barrier whenever the enemy was in visual range... and now runs it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week like a demented bug zapper or Super-8 Motel.

Still, now there seems to be an audience to this delightful Umbrella. The Archangel has been docked for the last 12 hours, with ZAFT parked right outside the proverbial door.

We find our heroes deep in the bowels of the good ship Archangel, held alongside most of the crew inside the Mess Hall. However, the many armed guards currently standing at each entrance make the implied a little more blatant: the ad-hock crew of the Archangel are being held against their will.

Kira Yamato looked back and forth conspiratorially as he, Sai, Tolle and Miriallia looked over the various tablets, schematics and rough sketches lying across the table between them. A quick glance could at least tell that the Strike Gundam was involved, although what those design sheets covered could be anybody's guess. Flay couldn't make heads nor tails over the schematics she could see, as she'd not yet changed her major over to engineering or any related subject, but was doing her best to help organize them all.

"...huh." Tolle picked up one of tablet computers lying off to the side and pulled it over to him, scrolling through a bunch of images labeled "'rejected,' "Looks like whoever designed this had some other ideas for backpacks on our Strike." He paused to turn the tablet around to face everyone else, "Look at this one. It takes a Moebius Zero unit, like Commander la Flaga's, and uses the Gunbarrel units as remote weapons while leaving the arms free for dishing out more pain."

Flipping it back around to himself, Tolle flipped through the details of why the project was scrapped, then sighed, "And it was canned because only a select fraction of the populace is actually able to make use of the Gunbarrels. Something about enhanced spatial awareness or precognition, I can't really figure out what they're talking about here."

Sai Argyle pulled up a file of his own in another tablet's database, "Found another one. Makes use of extra battery packs, theoretically improves performance for the Strike by 150%. Extra energy is used in an 'Electromagnetic Cannon,' made of two guns on the forearms."

Miriallia grabbed the tablet right out of Sai's hands, a cry of surprise on her lips as she looked at the schematics for the cannon, "No way... this looks like a prototype for a lightning gun."

Kira raised an eyebrow, "You mean a gun that literally shoots electricity?"

"More or less," Miri explained as she zoomed the tablet over to the shoulders of the Strike in the sketch, which had two massive attachments that looked like shields lashed onto them, "These actually gather up electric charges in the atmosphere and boosts it to obscene levels before firing it from the arm-mounted guns."