At Artemis, Eurasian soldiers board the Archangel and detain its crew and refugee passengers at gunpoint. An Artemis claims that the ship is being locked down as part of standard security measures, given that the ship does not appear in their records, but the crew is skeptical. Artemis' commander speaks with Mu, remarking on his record during a lunar campaign, where although the Earth Alliance was eventually defeated, Mu received the nickname "the Hawk of Endymion" for managing to destroy five GINNs in his Mobius Zero. Murrue requests that the Archangel be resupplied so that they can proceed to the Atlantic Federation's lunar HQ as soon as possible. The commander informs them that even if they were resupplied, they would not be able to leave, as the Gamow is waiting outside the Umbrella of Artemis, Artemis' protective lightwave barrier. Mu suggests that they leave quickly before Artemis is damaged, but the commander tells him that ZAFT is powerless to breach the umbrella, and the Gamow will leave eventually.
On the Gamow, Dearka, Yzak, and Nichol discuss their options with the ship's captain. Nichol notes that Artemis shuts down the Umbrella when there are no enemy units in the vicinity, and suggests that his captured machine, the Blitz, will be able to take advantage of that. In addition to the phase shift armor shared by all of the Gundams, it has an additional feature — Mirage Colloid, which renders the Blitz invisible, though Nichol notes that the system is limited to 80 minutes of activation. The Gamow withdraws from Artemis in order to provoke them into dropping the Umbrella.
In Artemis, the Eurasian soldiers discover the lock on Strike's OS. Artemis' commander demands that the Strike's pilot reveal himself. The Archangel's chief mechanic tries to stop Kira from saying anything, but Kira ignores him and announces that he's Strike's pilot after the Artemis commander threatens Miriallia. The commander refuses to believe him at first, and tries to hit Kira for lying, but Kira blocks and counters, throwing the commander to the floor. In the scuffle that follows, Flay tells the soldiers that Kira really is the pilot, because he's a Coordinator. Kira is taken away by the Eurasian soldiers, while Tolle harasses Flay for telling them.
The commander brings Kira to Archangel's hanger, planning to have him unlock Strike's OS. He muses on Kira's value as a Coordinator that has betrayed ZAFT, doing things like designing additional mobile suits, despite Kira's protests that he's simply a civilian with no interest in doing anything like that. While Kira is working on the Strike, Blitz attacks, destroying the Umbrella's projectors as they're activated. The Archangel crew uses the distraction to overpower their guards and take control of the ship; inside Artemis proper, Mu, Murrue, and Natarle manage to convince their guards that battle damage has caused the room they're being held in to leak air, prompting them to investigate, which allows Mu to knock them out and give them the opportunity to escape. Meanwhile, Kira (literally) kicks his own guards out of the Strike's cockpit and activates it, launching with the Sword Striker.
The Blitz enters Artemis' harbor, destroying Eurasian warships as he searches for the Archangel and the Strike. The Blitz and the Strike begin to fight, Kira insisting that he's not a traitor to the Coordinators, as the Duel and the Buster launch to aid in the attack. Murrue, Mu, and Natarle make it back to the Archangel and the ship launches. Artemis' commander struggles to repel the ZAFT Gundams, but a damaged Eurasian Mobius crashes into the control room, killing him and his senior staff. The Archangel has Kira withdraw as they escape; he returns to the ship, but blows off the congratulations offered by Mu and the chief mechanic after he lands. He returns to lay alone in his dark bunk, beginning to cry as he's joined by his pet robotic bird, insisting that he's not a traitor.
Tropes used in this episode:
- A Day in the Limelight: For Nicol.
- Antagonist Title: The title refers to the Blitz, Nicol's Gundam.
- Badass Nickname: Mu's is first mentioned in this episode.
- The Comically Serious: The display to get the guards' attention shows how Natarle is seriously far from the wavelengths of other two, given how readily Murrue catches on to what Mu's doing.
- Cute Machines: Kira's robotic bird, which was clearly programmed for maximum adorableness.
- Deflector Shields: Artemis' lightwave barrier.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: How Murrue, Natarle, and Mu escape. Especially odd in that, if the room was leaking air, you'd want to seal it to prevent the damage from spreading, rather than opening the door and risking Explosive Decompression.
- Interservice Rivalry: Though in this case it's between military allies the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation, rather than two branches of the same government.
- Invisibility Cloak: The Blitz's Mirage Colloid technology.
- We ARE Struggling Together: You'd think that the Earth Alliance forces would be more worried about ZAFT than about each other, wouldn't you?
