Untitled 00 Prospect

[Imperial]

Pre-story ranting and raving: Proof reading Dean_the_Young's latest venture inspired this idea. While his story presupposes the lack of a Corner conspiracy, the most visible aspect of which is the Trinity siblings, this idea presupposes that the Trinitys are introduced sooner and more directly. This short is a prologue more than anything else and it gets bogged down in the dialogue a bit, but it sets the stage for the changes to come.

Given that this was something written on a whim and with no real end in mind, don't expect a whole lot out of it. That doesn't mean I intend to abandon it, as I'm very fond of the idea, but it's really an exercise in the hypothetical more than a serious project. For context, I have at least three more stories in the planning stages right now (if you care: one is UC Gundam, the other is Zone of the Enders, and another is the decidedly non-MAHQ-friendly Soul Nomad and the World Eaters project I've been working on...unless you count gigantic soul-eating golems as some form of mecha). Between sifting through these three and school starting up, I won't have a great deal of time to waste, so this may wind up on the backburner.

Still, here's hoping you're at least mildly entertained by something I have to say.

Alejandro Corner didn’t much care for The Gallery.

At least, that was the name he had concocted to describe this particular part of his job. Through the wonders of computer generation, he found himself seated in an ornate room that could have very well stretched on forever. Shadowed arches hid powerful men and terrible schemes behind the façade of beautiful pieces of art, be they spectacular paintings or flawless sculptures and everything in between. These were the Surveyors; a gaggle of decrepit old fools trying to make the world dance to their tune. They were a dime a dozen in Celestial Being, it seemed.

“Explain yourself, Corner,” a possibly Spanish man called out from the darkness somewhere above him and to the left.

“I realize I have committed something of a faux pas in convening the Surveyors so much sooner than scheduled, but I thought it prudent, given the circumstances,” he offered cryptically. He would make them court him, not the other way around. He was the Pied Piper, whether they knew it or not.

“You’re referring to the Gundam capture fiasco?” A bust of Aphrodite asked in a thick, possibly Germanic baritone.

“That particular incident was what sparked this emergency meeting, but the gears have been grinding toward this end for some time now.”

There came a slight rumble from the Surveyors before a portrait of Napoleon silenced them. “Enough. Allow Corner to explain himself more adequately.” When silence reigned, Napoleon prodded the young ambassador. “Continue.”

“Thank you, Madame,” he flattered in his best tone. True, acknowledging anything of another Surveyor’s identity (genders, in this case) was usually seen as bad form, but he didn’t much care.

“The matter I wish to address is the fitness of Celestial Being’s Gundam Meisters.” He paused for effect. “I find them lacking. The unveiling of the Gundam Nadleeh as well as Kyrios and Dynames’ previously concealed features have given our enemies a card they did not previously have.”

Another tremor of half-whispered complaints and breathy outrage rippled through the room. The Gallery briefly became less about the sight of beautiful art and more about the sound emanating from them. These facts were still news to some of the less astute members of the Surveyors. The Human Reform League’s operation and its subsequent failure were still fresh, only hours old. The same held true for the exact course of the battle and how dangerously close Aeolia’s house of cards had come to tumbling. Many of the Celestial administrators hadn’t had the chance to peruse the latest reports, having rolled out of bed to answer the Surveyor’s summons.

“You are referring to the shield-mounted claw and the surface-to-orbit bombardment equipment, correct?” So queried a piece of abstract art (was it a dog? A person? An elephant?) that betrayed itself with an accent placing the speaker from somewhere on America’s Eastern seaboard.

“Indeed,” Alejandro nodded for emphasis. “However, the willingness of certain Meisters to endanger the solar generators concerns me more than a mobile suit’s armaments. I’m sure my esteemed colleagues are more than aware of Kyrios Meister Allelujah Haptism’s unauthorized launch and Exia Meister Setsuna F. Seie’s decision to open his mobile suit’s cockpit during the Moralian intervention.”

The air grew stagnant for a moment as the implications circulated. The chosen pilots were not living up their promised potential. The plan could very well be in jeopardy. Even more distressing than the idea of failure was the possibility of fallibility on Veda’s part. Could Veda have chosen incorrectly? More importantly, what did that say about the agents who followed its every word?

Could they have placed their faith in a false prophet?

“What would you have us do, Corner?” A harsh, gravelly Russian’s voice resonated from its chosen avatar, The Mona Lisa. “I know you didn’t call us together to recite a list of grievances.”

“The answer is simple” he responded in a conversational tone. “Celestial Being needs new Gundam Meisters.”

For the third time, countless voices rose as one. However, this outburst could scarcely compare to the previous two. There had been mild shock and the kind of muttering you would expect of it. Now, the Surveyors all but exploded at this young one who thought himself so clever as to defy the word of Veda. He blasphemed in the house of Aeolia.

And yet there was just enough assurance in his voice, charisma in his bearing, and weight behind his name that there slowly came a clamor to counter and ultimately silence the naysayers.

Guernica was the first to address Corner once the cacophony passed. “You make bold claims, but have you anything worth saying? We can discuss the Meisters—even have them removed if the situation calls for it. It is easier to destroy than to build, just as it would be a much simpler task to strip any current Meister of that title than to locate a new one. Have any replacements actually surfaced or is this another of those bold claims?”

That earned a few raucous agreements from The Gallery.

Alejandro bit back a smile at the marvelous irony of someone with the horror of Guernica as his mantle discussing the simplicity of destruction. But lies came easily to a Corner. Years of politicking and generations of carefully concealing a conspiracy so expertly that the Corner name was second only to Schenberg in some Celestial circles had seen to that.

“I do,” he responded at length. “I would not waste our collective time with idle threats or empty promises. I take issue with the actions of each member of the current Meister roster, but some sins weigh heavier than others. Three promising candidates have recently come to my attention. I have submitted a more thorough report to Veda, which should be available to all with Surveyor-class access, but I will state their case in brief.

“My own intelligence agents have become aware of a now-defunct AEU (Advanced European Union) project roughly analogous to the HRL’s (Human Reform League) own Super Soldier program. It has since been cancelled due to pressure from the upper echelons of many AEU member nations finding the idea distasteful, but three subjects have outlived the program that spawned them. With their training and genetic makeup, these three siblings are more than qualified to step into the role of Gundam Meister.”

“Figures,” a longhorn statue spat with patriotic fervor. “The AEU gets its own elevator running once we prove solar power is the wave of the future. Then they decided to swipe the Flag and pass it off as one of their own.”

“At least they aren’t aping ideas from us this time around,” the abstract art added thoughtfully, putting forth another piece of circumstantial evidence that its master also called the Union home, if not America.

Corner could barely contain the urge to roll his eyes. How had men like these been selected for Surveyors? Between his distinctive voice (which he hadn’t even bothered to distort), his telltale accent, and the decision to choose his college’s football team mascot as his avatar, Senator Johnson of Texas of America, had a fantastically terrible poker face as far as the Surveyors went. Even if Corner hadn’t had Veda at his fingertips, the context clues would have been simple enough to piece together. The other Surveyors could hardly be considered Johnson’s better in that field, though.

Alejandro Corner had put together as many as half of his fellow Surveyors. He took them in piece by piece. He noted accents, favored phrases, seemingly innocuous comments that betrayed something of their past or station. All that he had accomplished through little more than his own detective work. With Celestial Being’s vast resources and intricate intelligence network, he would have the name, face, and residence of every other Surveyor at his fingertips by the end of the decade. His presumed peers needn’t know this, of course. None of them would know until it was far too late.

He filed that piece of assurance away for another time.

Mrs. Napoleon steered the conversation back on track. “What makes you so certain these three wunderkinds are ideal Meisters? The current four have been chosen by Veda.”

“True,” he ceded, “but, as I’ve said, I took the liberty of submitting their profiles to Veda. I realize it is not a Surveyor’s place to nominate new Meisters, that we have agents dedicated to that very thing, but they struck me as too good an opportunity to pass up. I don’t expect all of you to take my word for it. I am but one man. Rather, consider the matter for yourselves once Veda has made its decision. That should mollify any member of Celestial Being, I trust?”

A hostile silence settled over The Gallery. The irritation of the other Surveyors was almost palpable. Who was Corner to go straight to Veda with his findings? He should have put it to a vote before the Surveyors and only after having received their blessing would the three profiles be delivered to Veda.

Alejandro couldn’t have cared less for their petty jealousy. He was an ambitious man. He rarely made any attempt to hide it. And, in the end, didn’t he have every reason to smile his smug smile? Convening the Surveyors and submitting something of such gravity to Veda were both strikes against him, but neither were so sever as to warrant any real punitive action against him. The veterans of The Gallery might chastise or even resent his initiative (and were all but guaranteed to make it known) but they weren’t in a position to strip him of his clearance or order his assassination. He had too many safeguards in check even if one of them acted independently.

No, nothing bad would come of this. They would hem and haw and groan and grumble. Let them. Most would let the matter evaporate as the noble, if slightly misguided, efforts of a relatively young member. Even the greater part of those of what could be considered the anti-Corner camp would turn once they saw Veda’s seal of approval.

Of that, he had no doubt. How could he possibly lose to a bunch of narrow-minded zealots when he had Metatron, the angel closest to God, at his side? Veda would agree with Alejandro because Alejandro had Ribbons. The blond was certainly in the running for most useful accomplice of the millennium.

The possibly Spanish man, whose avatar Alejandro couldn’t perceive from his vantage point, had the final say in the matter. “We find these terms acceptable. While you have acted above your station, it was only ever in the interest of efficiency in the name of Aeolia Schenberg’s plan. For this, we cannot find you at fault.”

“I thank all the Surveyors gathered here for their vote of confidence.” Ever the politician.

“But let us hope your ambition does not exceed your ability.”

Alejandro felt the muscles in his cheek twitch at that. The old many just had to throw out that pot shot in the end, hadn’t he?

He put it from his mind. The Gallery had already begun its slow dissolution into darkness as the program was terminated. He excused himself from his office, moving out through the living room and onto the balcony. A bottle of fine wine lay chilling in a bucket of ice just as Alejandro had instructed along with the blond youth who had done it. He popped the cork, savored its scent, and took in the sight of a blood orange sunset as he passed the bottle to Ribbons so that he might fill a glass.

Glass in hand; the redhead tipped the glass toward the sun, now setting on his corner of the world and soon to set on Aeolia Schenberg’s outmoded ideals. There was a great deal to respect in that man—his genius, his foresight—but he made the mistake a great many visionaries did: He looked too high. With his eyes on the sky, there was no way to see the things bound to trip him at his feet.

No, the world couldn’t afford to have a steward such as Veda. That particular phantom had its uses, to be sure, but made a poor substitute for a true master. Veda was nothing more than a tool, however useful the tool had proven. The plan would proceed and Aeolia’s vision would come to pass. The Corner family would simply take the plan by the reigns and sculpt it into a lovelier form. Veda would never appreciate the beauty of it all. A soulless machine could hardly hope to accomplish such a thing in the place of a thinking, feeling, passionate human.

Alejandro smiled. The world was meant to be shaped by human hands.

[Antares]

The Gallery from Ergo Proxy?

[Dean_the_Young]

I was about to blast you for preempting my next 00 drabble concept of an earlier revealing of the Thrones, but you're taking this in a much different direction than I considered.

Kudos especially to Alejandro trying to deduce who everyone was; a nice touch, even if it seemed a bit odd for a CB member to be so upset about the Flag.

[Imperial]

The Gallery from Ergo Proxy?

I've never seen that show, so I'll have to plead ignorance.

I was about to blast you for preempting my next 00 drabble concept of an earlier revealing of the Thrones, but you're taking this in a much different direction than I considered.

That sounds like a great idea. I eagerly await it.

However, it's worth noting that the idea here isn't introducting the Thrones early; it's the Trinitys themselves that interest me. In fact, given how differently Alejandro is implementing his plan, I'm not sure if the Thrones will even appear. It's less about hardware and more about the clash of personalities between the Trinitys and the Ptolemaios crew.

Kudos especially to Alejandro trying to deduce who everyone was; a nice touch, even if it seemed a bit odd for a CB member to be so upset about the Flag.

As noted, he's an American Congressman. He may be a member of Celestial Being, but he still has enough ethnocentric zeal to be annoyed at the AEU.