Captains' Meeting

Bartfield said, "Put all energy into acceleration. Aisha, how are the decoy beacons coming along?"

Standing beside him, Aisha wore a fitted ZAFT officer's uniform, her expression calm. She adjusted the communicator by her ear and replied, "Ready for deployment at any time, Andy. Three different deceptive flight paths have already been set."

"Good." Bartfield nodded. "Deploy them in five minutes as we pass through this asteroid field. Then immediately make a maximum-angle course correction—heading grid 0-8-5, directly beneath the ecliptic plane. We're going to vanish like ghosts."

"That will consume a great deal of propellant. Our margin for the rest of the voyage will be very low," the navigator voiced his concern.

"Better than becoming a pile of space junk here." Bartfield's tone left no room for argument. "Besides, we're not fighting alone."

His words gave the crew on the bridge a measure of reassurance. Many of them had left PLANT in pursuit of Lacus Clyne's ideals, and now they were staking their lives on this breakout.

Five minutes later.

"Deploy the decoy beacons!"

"Beacons deployed! Signals normal!"

"All hands, prepare for a high-G course correction! Countdown: five, four, three, two, one! Execute!"

The tremendous inertia pinned everyone firmly to their seats. Eternal's bow suddenly dipped downward at an unbelievable angle, while the ship's main engines erupted with dazzling blue flames.

Only after another long half hour did the atmosphere on the bridge truly begin to ease.

"We... made it?" a young crewman asked softly.

"For now." Bartfield answered in a low voice, sweeping his gaze over his subordinates. "But don't let your guard down. Before we reach L4, we may encounter enemy patrols at any time. All personnel will rotate shifts and maintain Level One combat alert. Set course for L4, full speed ahead."

"Yes, sir!"

Eternal's route