[b][i]Athrun Zala[/i][/b] [i]"Oh all days, why launch an attack now?!"[/i] Athrun cursed under his own breath as he hurried outside of the Memorial hall as fast as he could. Even though the attack just begun, the amount of destruction that it caused in mere moments have been staggering. [i]"Cagalli, Terra... Hold on just a little longer. I'm coming."[/i] His momentum of speed changed directions. As he ran, he tried to make contact with Cagalli's transmitter phone-- to which was answered to a series of gun fire and explosions. "Cagalli! Where are you now?" He shouted into the phone as he ran. A series of gunfire followed close to her. "I'm by the Shopping District with Terra! She's defending my current position... The Actualisers are attacking us!" The call was abruptly interrupted as the sound of another explosion ensued. "Cagalli! Can you hear me? Cagalli!" Inside of his mind, that had sounded terrifying. [i]"Something's happened. I've got to get to the Shopping District fast."[/i] Athrun arrived at a large clearing nearby the area, to which he contacted a nearby ORB Union space ship. "Emergency Request Level RED from Athrun Zala to nearby Carrier, deploy [url=http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/MBF-M1_M1_Astray]M1 Astray[/url] to the following location: X - X - X - X. Repeat, Emergency Request Level RED!" Athrun prayed that a nearby ORB Union Carrier-class space ship would be nearby. He waited for response from his Satellite Transmitter-- to which one quickly responded to his distress call nearly immediately. "This is Izumo-II on orbit. We heard your Emergency Request. Deploying M1 Astray to location X - X - X -X. Stand by Commander Zala." Athrun looked up, observing an object from the sky descending at great speeds inside a tube-like structure. Athrun felt relieved that his distress call was answered nearly instantly. Perhaps this new technology developed by the Union wasn't bad after all. The drop-tube was seen air-braking approximately 1 kilometer above ground before crashing down onto the clearing with its door compartment opening, revealing inside an adequately equipped M1 Astray inside. The whole wait was approximately 1 minute and Athrun quickly climbed on the cockpit of the M1 Astray, powering up her systems and equipping it with Shields and a Beam Rifle. "Izumo-II, relay a message to mother ship Izanagi to enter into X Colony's orbit. Repeat, relay message to mother ship Izanagi into orbit!" Athrun pushed the boosters of the M1 Astray progressively as it took off into the sky and forward again towards the Shopping District. The radar inside the Astray indicated that there were three other Mobile Suits. If they had been paying attention, they'll realise that Athrun's temporary Mobile Suit had just arrived. That also means that he could be their immediate target. "Come on Izanagi..." He arrived at the Shopping District within seconds, thanks to the Mobile Suit. He could see that the platoon of Generics destroying the Shopping District with ease. The colonists were fleeing away from the barrel of their gunfire, and some could be seen already on the ground dead. "Bastards!" He shouted, pointing the Beam Rifle directly towards one group of Generics and pulled the trigger. The beam blast touched down quickly and exploded, killing a group of them before continuing his search for Cagalli and Terra with his main camera. "Where are you..." He searched the streets carefully. Athrun's presence himself shouldn't terrify the colonists around. --- [b][i]Terra Asterius Zala[/i][/b] "Mother... It's been an hour already! I'm supposed to be back at the Memorial!" "Come on now, Terra! I'm sure my brother would let you off the hook this time since we're here..." Terra was dragged around by Cagalli yet again as they continued to browse stores one after another until each one was visited. It seems like Cagalli wouldn't stop pulling her around if that wasn't yet done. Terra couldn't do anything about it though which only made her feel a little uneasy. They visited another clothing outlet, one after another and browsed along the selection of clothes until people gathered by the windows looking outside as if something's happened. Terra stopped which in turn made Cagalli stop as well. "Look there mother. Something's up." Terra pointed towards the window full of people and Cagalli stared at them... Prang! Boom! Soon, bodies of civilians flew into the floor below as an explosion ensued and gunfire could be heard. Glass were shattering everywhere and people were in confusion and terror. The alarm sounded, at which security officers began to appear or emerge from the adjacent stores trying to gain control of the rowdy crowd. The emergency door shutter closed on both the windows and main doorways of the building-- trying to contain and protect everyone inside. Terra jumped into motion with Cagalli. [i]"A terrorist attack?"[/i] Terra thought. That soon was cleared up as another explosion bursted through the shutter doors of the building and gunfire continued to resound. "What the-- What are they?!" Organic and humanoid-like soldiers began to march in guns blazing into the building. Some of the security guard who weren't quick enough to react was immediately gunned down and people began to panic once again. Terra pulled Cagalli out of the way as a Grenade was tossed towards the direction of them, at which caused an explosion that made a hole in the wall to the outside. "Are you alright mother?" Terra asked as they hid behind cover. A small firefight ensued. They had hid close to a security officer's dead body, to which Terra took his weapon from and began shooting at the Generics. Cagalli's phone rang, receiving a call from Athrun that she quickly answered. Terra continued to defend her mother's position and was successful in picking off the Generic soldiers with other security officers in the area. They looked ashamed to have a Pilot from AERO assisting them, or at least it seemed. The civilian's panic was unable to make them to clear out of the building quickly-- making engagement with the Generics even harder despite their creeping progress. Cagalli continued to speak to Athrun and Terra remained to shoot at the incoming enemy as carefully as she should. The toss of another grenade at their direction caught Terra's eyes-- and her reflexes led to Terra suddenly grabbing Cagalli abruptly, pushing her out of the grenade's way with her and her phone flying into the air. The grenade eliminated the phone, and the two landed with a thud closer towards the hole on the wall next to them. "I need to get you somewhere safe fast mother! Where's father?" Terra asked before moving out of cover and shooting at whatever was left of the Generics. "We can't stop them here security! Get the people to safety!" And so, the security officers attempted to evacuate the civilians of the shops while trying to keep the Generics off their backs. Cagalli stood up, loading a gun in her hand before assisting Terra with eliminating the Generics efficiently as a result. "Mother--" Terra gasped. "Don't think that just because I'm your mother I can't do anything..." Cagalli said, before shooting another Generics off their feet. "I used to be a soldier just like you." Terra looked at her mother's unrivaled firearms skills, shooting the Generics at ease as one by one fall to the ground. Terra snapped out of her thoughts before pulling her towards the exit. "Athrun is looking for us-- But I couldn't tell him exactly where we were." "Then we better go find a safe place and try to look for him. Let's go!" With that, Cagalli and Terra ran outside of the building, to the destroyed shopping district where they began their search for safety and Athrun. The sound of the beam rifle explosion had caught Cagalli's attention. The explosion sounded like it came from an Orb-Union technology. Cagalli made a run for that sound. "Mother! Where are you going?!" "This way! I heard a Beam-Rifle fire!" Then why does she proceed to follow it? Having no other choices to make, Terra scanned the ground around them and followed Cagalli. They kept running until Terra had her sights on a Mobile Suits and stopped on her tracks. "Mother! That's an enemy Mobile Suit in front of us!" "No, Terra! That's your father! Shoot your pistol against it so you can get his attention!" Cagalli was convinced that it was Athrun inside that red Mobile Suit. Although she had doubted her mother's ability to judge, she has been with Athrun this entire time and had affiliations with his affairs before. The Mobile Suit's insignia revealed to be the insignia belonging to Orb. It was making short work of the Generic attacking the district, so perhaps after all it was Athrun. She pointed her pistol and began firing towards the Mobile Suit, and its main camera soon turned with the beam-rifle pointed towards them and stopping all of a sudden. Later then, it quickly dived towards the direction of Cagalli, dropping the beam rifle on the ground and its palms open to Cagalli. Terra made her quick way to her mother, joining her up on the Mobile Suit's hands as the loud speaker resounded from the Mobile Suit. "Glad both of you are okay..." It was the voice of Athrun inside. "Hold on." The palm closed, but leaving enough room for Cagalli and Terra to just sit by without being squashed. Athrun who was now not armed with a beam rifle made his way out of the Shopping District, back towards the Memorial where he landed on top of the building, looking for the docking area of the Terminus and set the two down there. "I'm going to find Kira. I've sent word to my ship Izanagi to arrive here as soon as they can. Be safe here!" Athrun blasted away inside of his Mobile Suit towards the main entrance of the Memorial that was overrun with Generics. He made short work of them again using the head-mounted machine gun and stomping on them as they come in groups. "Mother-- I'm going to go to the Terminus and launch in my Mobile Suit. Come with me to the Terminus." With a short nod, Cagalli and Terra made their way into the Terminus where it was almost deserted except for the Engineering bay where the mechanics remained inside to maintain the Mobile Suit's adequate maintenance requirements.