April 10th C.E 71
Just as James said, the prototypes arrived on the early morning of the 10th and were secretly sent to the factory. Alex went up to check the specific details of the Prototypes. However, he designed the blueprints, most of the base was absorbed from the Aegis and Astray Black, so he went in to see the details to get a proper understanding of the MS. As he went in to check the MS, he first checked all its armaments other than the optional Beam weapon weapon to choose from and the Laminated shield the MS had two Beam saber in the leg compartments on both sides it also has the standard head Vulcan guns, a external connection port on each arm for adding special equipment such as grenade launchers, Mini beam guns etc. Alex also noticed that the prototypes now have a name not just it type code.
MSTV-00 Stratos Gundam and the three are differentiated by the designation of unit 1, unit 2, and unit 3. Alex, who got down from the MS, noticed the girls had somehow arrived at the Gundams without him noticing and were staring at the MS with curiosity.
Alex said, "What are you guys staring at? Get back to the M1's and finish fine-tuning the OS for them, as for these Gundams, you won't miss them, as I have had a word with Miss Erica and the Tomboy Cagalli. As for their OS, you don't need to worry, as it can be adjusted to perfection easily with the data from the current OS for M1's and Aegis that already exists. Also, they have cool gun options for you to pick for different situations, or for you guys to make team support easier with different weapons to cover each other's weaknesses."
The three girls were very happy to learn they get to have their own Gundams, even when Alex said that they are Guinea pigs for testing the data in real-time battle, and it means that the Ashford group thinks the Orb will be involved in war. The girls only said that if Orb does get involved in a battle their Gundams will only make them more useful in the battle and they don't care about being Guinea pigs if they are getting to be a Gundam pilot of stronger new prototypes which look more amazing than the M1's and with amazing look and performance to show their abilities to prove they are better than the rest in Orb military.
Alex realized it was hopeless to mock the girls with their eyes only for a Gundam, but he still knew how to make them restless and wish their M1's OS adjustments could be completed as soon as possible. As Alex told them these Gundam are also Variable MS with Plane type MA form for better flight capabilities in the earth's atmosphere it was just as Alex thought the girls immediately wish how good it would be to complete the M1's OS adjustments as soon as possible and as luck would have it the M1's OS adjustments were in their final stage which would be completed by this afternoon. When Kira informed them of the details, they immediately went to their M1's so that they could complete the adjustments soon.
In the afternoon, when the girls were done with the M1's OS adjustments, they immediately went to the Stratos Gundams, and each got into one and started the MS when the PS armor activated, all three turned Black with a golden yellow overlay. After they saw the PS armor color knowing Alex was good at changing the color of the PS armor they each asked Alex to change the colors of their MS with Asagi asking for her MS to be color with Main Golden Yellow and Blue overlay, Mayura asking for hers MS to be color with Main Red and Blue overlay, and Juri asking for her MS to be color with Main Blue and Golden yellow overlay, Mayura asking for hers MS to be color with Main red and blue overlay. When Alex heard their requests, he almost reflexively asked if they were the Blue band. The girls who heard his question looked over and told him if they were any Blue band, then he would be the boss, as his Aegis was the most famous for its bright blue colors and lightning-fast raids to the points that the ZAFTs were calling him the Blue Lightning.
When Alex heard what the girls said and recalled the recently gather information from the people placed in the Plants he realized it would be better for him to not use Blue color for his MS in the near future to avoid complications and when he look at Juri he felt pity for the girl's slow mind and not thinking if anyone would mistake her for him and try their best to target her. But he still changed the PS armor colors according to the girls request as for the OS when the girls tried it though they were a little slow in the process of MA transformation and some actions they didn't need the current OS to made from bottom up which made it easy for Kira and Alex as they could complete the OS adjustments to match a normal natural quickly in just about 1 day with the comparison of the M1's OS.
Kira helped with smaller adjustments till the evening and finally decided to take a break when his robot bird flew away from him, which caused him to run after it quickly, only to find it land on Athrun's hand on the other side of the fence of the factory. Athrun, who saw Kira, knew that the Archangel was here, and he decided to leave Orb to prepare to intercept the Archangel. Even though Kira said Athrun was an important friend, Athrun saw that Kira was still on the other side of the fence and not with him. Athrun took the team and left Orb to prepare for intercepting the Archangel, although the team couldn't understand why Athrun was so sure that the Archangel was here. Despite their worries of losing the chance to take down the Archangel, they still followed his orders as he was the captain, but only Nicol assured Athrun that he trusted him, and tried to comfort Athrun, thinking he was depressed because the others didn't trust him. Without knowing that, Athrun was depressed because of Kira.
While in Orb, Kira was also a bit depressed after the encounter, but he still completed the OS adjustments for the Stratos Gundams. Alex also took a copy of the OS so that it could be used in their mass-produced model, as the OS was truly better than his.
After this was done, Alex helped with the transport of Aegis Gundam to the Archangel while Kira took the Strike back. Alex left immediately after greeting Murdock and the other maintenance crew. Then the Archangel was escorted out of Orb with the Orb fleet covering its departure. And Kira, who knew Athrun, who saw would definitely attack the Archangel, was already in his combat suit and aboard the Strike, and told Murdock that the ship would be attacked by ZAFT immediately after it leaves the Orb territory. Murdock, who didn't know how to respond to this, directly contacted the bridge to let them decide what to do with the situation.
Murrue, who trusted Kira, decided to allow him to be on standby while also raising the alert level of the ship to face any sudden ambush by the ZAFT. The Archangel slowly followed the Orb fleet out to the open seas. The Orb fleet stopped at the edge of the Orb territorial water and said their goodbyes. Murrue also knew that this was the limit of Orb's escort to them, as any more would bring trouble to Orb, and also thanked them for the escort. Once out in the open sea, the Archangel started to quickly increase speed to leave here fast and to reach EA territory as early as possible, but as Kira said, the ZAFT forces launched an attack as soon as they ID-ed the Archangel once it left the Orb fleet's escort.
In the ZAFT ship, as soon as the radar detected the sign of Archangel, the Members of Athrun's team quickly launched out in their own MS with the Duel, Buster, Blitz, Aegis, and two DINNs, with Miguel's being Orange and Rusty's being Gray after each of them launched their support sub flight system the Guul followed allowing them to have a foot hold and to be able to fly in the earth's atmosphere properly. The DINNs, though, didn't need the Guul and flew by themselves to the detected spot of the Archangel along with G weapons that the ZAFT stole from the EA. Rusty and Miguel were the ones who were particularly angry as they had suffered a lot in the recent battles, and Rusty was even more unhappy because the Strike should have been his if all had gone well in their raid of Heliopolis.