Mobile Suit Gundam: Against The Twelve

[Dendrobium Stamen]

This must be setting a new record for rewrites, somewhere... anyways, while Into The Abyss goes on temporary, writer's block related hiatus, here's v3.0 of my original Gundam fic, Against The Twelve!

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Mobile Suit Gundam: Against The Twelve

Prologue: In The Beginning…

Command Centre, Global Defence Space Station Gagarin.
In Geosynchronous Orbit Above New York City.
May 22, A.D. 2047. 1836 Hours GMT.

“Report!” demanded General Charles Gray, the commander of GDSS Gagarin. At forty-two years old, he was surprisingly young for his rank: Gray was Supreme Commander of the United Nations global defence agency Verteidiger, the military force that kept the peace across much of Earth. Looking down on the vibrant, life-filled rock that spawned humankind from space, Gray had the capability to rain hellfire and destruction with orbital artillery – coilguns firing slugs the size of a bus – and undo thousands of years of civilisation with no more effort than most people dedicated to checking their email.

Right now, his priorities were turned far away from events on Earth, however. A young female communications officer replied to his demand for information. “Sir! We just received a Priority One message from Armstrong, decoding now.”

“Put it on the main screen.” Gray ordered, wondering what could be happening on the Moon to demand a P1 transmission. As soon as he found out, Gray wished he’d never seen the message.

“Lunar Station Armstrong under heavy attack from unknown aggressors!” exclaimed a panicked Colonel, from what appeared to be a ruined control centre. “Command destroyed in the first wave, along with the docks and all our ships! Oh my gods, we’ve got incoming – ” The message cut out abruptly there.

Gray wasn’t stunned. Armstrong wiped out with barely any resistance? It was unthinkable; Lunar Station Armstrong had been built to withstand damn near anything, even plasma-burst weapons and hyperkinetic coilgun fire. Worse, its commander, General Keynes, had been a close friend since their days at West Point. Both of them had been infants during the First War of Assimilation and teenagers during the Second, had fought during the Third, and were well aware of their duty to maintain peace on Earth, even if it meant fighting a Fourth.

“Get me satellite monitoring for Luna, now!” Gray yelled, his calm breaking as he contemplated the massive casualties that Verteidiger had just suffered. The images of the Moon just made it worse. The image’s captions, intended to show the location of major locations, was a joke. The box marked ‘Lunar Station Armstrong’ now pointed merely at a debris-strewn crater, obscured by a rising mushroom cloud of dust. It wasn’t a cheerful sight. The worst, however, was in lunar orbit.

It was a fleet, but not a human one. There were half a dozen ships visible, bulbous things which looked more like opaque rubies than spacefaring vessels. Long-range radar passes suggested they were at least a dozen kilometres long, dwarfing Gagarin and its sister stations. Built around a two kilometre long central shaft, the Gagarin-class stations supported four rotating habitat rings six kilometres in diameter, with a single non-rotating eight kilometre docking ring at the centre. Capable of supporting the variety of transport ships that plied the space lanes between Verteidiger orbital facilities and transferred people and material between Earth and the stars, the docking ring currently only had a few small personnel carriers aboard.

On the other hand…

“Captain Fox,” Gray said, turning to his long-serving aide, James Fox. “the artillery satellites were designed to be capable of space targeting, were they not?”

Fox nodded. “Yes, sir. You’re suggesting that we…”

“I am. Have the entire network repositioned for space interception, let’s see if they can do anything.”

“Aye, sir.” Fox replied, saluting before he left to give the appropriate orders.

Gray prayed his plan would work. Since the early days of Verteidiger’s spaceborne superiority program, the GDSS network had included twenty-four massive MAC systems, capable of firing a 75-ton shell to speeds far beyond the even the top-end hyperkinetic coilguns of Verteidiger’s land battleships. The main screen in Gagarin’s expansive command centre came to life again moments later, showing a three-dimensional model of Earth and the GDSS network, highlighting the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon network in red and the six Gagarin-class Command Stations in amber, as well as deployed Verteidiger assets within the Earth orbital zone.

“Transmit to Earth,” Gray ordered, “inform Ops of the situation and tell them to prepare ground forces, all sectors.”

The blonde communications officer who had informed him of Armstrong’s fall nodded, looking nervous as she did so. She knew from the order General Gray had just given that he was convinced that the fleet and the MAC stations were merely to buy time for the planetside defences and emergency procedures – time to do what she had no idea, since if the aliens pushed past the Space Forces, there wasn’t much Verteidiger down on Earth could do.

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The battle was over before it started.

Sixteen MAC stations had made it into the right hemisphere when the alien ships had entered range. Even firing simultaneously on the lead ship, none of them made so much as a dent. Gagarin, Shepard, and Glenn were in position also, and opened fire with their own plasma burst missiles; none left even a scratch.

Then the aliens returned fire. Eight sapphire beams of superheated plasma lashed out from tiny gun ports across the surface of the leading alien vessel; the effect they had was monstrous. Before the command staff could even blink, eight MAC satellites had been reduced to atoms. Faster than anyone could imagine, another eight beams reached out and laid waste to the remaining stations within firing range.

General Gray’s last thought was of his wife and son, as another set of beams lashed out and destroyed Gagarin in the blink of an eye.

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With the space defence network wiped out, the Verteidiger Army took over, for what it was worth. The entire ground-to-space missile system in the north-western hemisphere opened fire with brilliant coordination under the direction of control centres in New York and San Francisco, firing plasma burst missiles at the enemy craft as if they were fireworks on Bonfire Night. Even firing every last missile in their stockpiles, the terrestrial batteries barely left a scratch.

And with that, the occupation of Earth began. Alien warships began dropping their forces, establishing a base within Siberia. Verteidiger’s Russian forces, combined with the Chinese Republic’s forces, launched a massive offensive to hold off the alien forces; two of the world’s leading armies were wiped out within weeks.

Faster than anyone would have imagined possible, the remaining world nations chose to merge with the United Nations and fall under the protection of Verteidiger. Humanity had come to the brink, and that brought them together. It would take the resources of the entire planet to combat the alien menace.

In most battles, Verteidiger armies could usually force a draw against an alien army of equivalent strength. When they outnumbered the aliens, Verteidiger’s tanks and aircraft could sometimes even achieve victory. It was The Twelve that posed the greatest threat.

There was no stopping them. Bipedal tanks, each around twenty metres tall, The Twelve were both better armed and better armoured than anything else the aliens had to offer. While their more conventional compatriots carried fairly powerful lasers, the titanic robots carried scaled-down versions of the plasma beam weapons used by their warships, in various forms. No two were identical; though they seemed to have been based on a common frame, the armour and armaments of each were wildly different, their only common factor being the devastation they caused. Fortunately for humanity, The Twelve were used very sparingly. Verteidiger came to know them as “Wraiths”.

After twenty years of fighting losing battles, however, humanity was finally getting back on its feet. The pace of technological advancement in the unoccupied zones had been astounding, and defences against the aliens had been quickly developed. Every surviving major city was protected by an advanced energy shielding system, a massive undulating amber dome that preserved human life against alien weapons. As long as the Barriers were powered, there was no getting through.

By 2068, humanity was on the verge of fighting back. Based on the classic principle of “fight fire with fire”, Verteidiger had incorporated their greatest technological advances into a humanoid combat robot. Under the project name of Guardian Utilities Neutralising Deployment Armoured Mecha, Verteidiger developed their own mobile suit technology, codenamed Gundam. Just after the twenty-first anniversary of Contact, the first Gundam was finishing development, ahead of a fully-fledged counterattack.

The aliens decided to celebrate the occasion by sending Wraith-01 to New York…

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Phase-01: City of Infernal Hope

Verteidiger Neue Hoffnung Base, Level 42 Testing Facility.
Five Kilometres Below New Manhattan Island, New York City.
May 25, A.D. 2068. 1136 Hours ET.

Far below New Manhattan, a Wraith exploded in a flash of light.

Unfortunately it was only a simulation, as testing continued on Verteidiger’s latest humanoid weapon. While the hardware element of the first Gundam had been completed over a year ago, development of an OS capable of coordinating its actions in a combat situation had not. And so, while it was otherwise ready for battle, GP-00, Gundam “Unit Zero”, remained incomplete. Still under development was the requisite OS, codenamed ACROBAT – Advanced Combat Robot Operation Balancing Automation Terminal, to give its full name. The simulated combat exercises being carried out within the cockpit were designed to train the computer system and create automatic responses and procedures to simplify the job of a combat pilot in a real battle; ACROBAT was there to run in the background so the person fighting could concentrate on fighting, rather than the machine’s balance, or walking, or how best to hold its weapons.

At the moment, however, the adaptive artificial intelligence in the OS was still learning to do these things, so the first Gundam remained unsuitable for combat.

Nineteen metres tall, with angular armour, GP-00 was built to resemble a giant human soldier. Thanks to its human hands, the Gundam could operate any weapon that could be built or adapted for it, all it needed was a suitably-sized trigger. To complete the human look, “Unit Zero” had its main visual sensors grouped into two eye-like sapphire sensor arrays in a head-like turret, which from the front resembled a bone-white human face, albeit with cooling vents for a ‘nose’ and a cobalt antenna ‘chin’, and a distinctive golden V-fin antenna above its eyes. Painted mostly in white, aside from cobalt detailing on the body and limbs, the Gundam lacked the more menacing appearance of a Wraith, but its sheer size made it a formidable-looking warrior even before its arsenal was brought into the equation.

The major issue with the Gundam, however, was not its armour or its weapons, but its power supply. It had been discovered very early on in the development phase that to power the machine and its high-output energy weapons would require a huge amount of energy. Producing that much energy in a frame the size of a Gundam would be quite a challenge, however. Batteries could provide sufficient energy, but not for long enough. A nuclear fission engine could provide the energy, but it wouldn’t have enough shielding to operate without frying the pilot as soon as the engine turned on. Nuclear fusion reactors could provide the power safely, but weren’t yet advanced enough to provide the power a Gundam needed in a reactor compact enough. So as a stopgap measure, humanity’s possible saviours would be reliant on external power; a series of nuclear fusion reactors located in Neue Hoffnung, which would provide power via laser systems in transmission stations across the city. Batteries had been installed as a backup measure, also.

Zero’s testing was being undertaken in one of the lowest levels of Verteidiger’s global headquarters, the Neue Hoffnung Base. After most of the original Manhattan was reduced to a crater sixty years before, the city spent years in decline before Verteidiger took the opportunity in 2031 to put something new in the ruins. Three miles above Zero’s head, people worked, and lived, and socialised around New Manhattan, fully aware of the city beneath the city that was the heart of humanity’s resistance to the alien invasion.

It was hard not to notice, after all; New York City was the most heavily defended human location on Earth, with literally hundreds of anti-air and anti-ground defences standing as sentinels just outside the defensive Barrier that surrounded New York. When the firepower of the Eighth Combined Force, comprising Army, Navy and Air Force units was added to the fixed defences, New York’s defences vastly exceeded those of some small countries, a fact not lost on those countries’ administrations. Verteidiger’s forces were so concentrated in only a few other places on Earth – all of them vital for humanity’s continued survival.

“Okay Lieutenant, shut down Zero. We’re done for now.” the Parisian accent of Major Mauvais Loup always sounded far prettier in person than over the comms system, but it was still rather pleasant to hear.

“Roger, shutting down.” came the reply. Lieutenant Alexander Gray, one of hundreds of Verteidiger Army technical officers assigned to the Special Operations Corps, had been given responsibility for training the ACROBAT combat system. Some claimed it was because he was a computer genius, a man who clicked with machines as easily as machines clicked with each other. Others claimed he was being groomed as a combat pilot, to avenge his father, General Charles Gray.

Nobody could agree on the matter. Alex was fully aware of the rumours and the snide comments – “we’re all on the same side” was a propaganda fantasy – but chose to simply not give a flying damn. As far as he was concerned, his father would be avenged when Verteidiger had regained control of the Earth, and that was that.

Running through the shutdown sequence, Alex pondered some of the major questions of the time – what to have for dinner, what movie to see next, and such. Bringing the Gundam to an idle setting had become so routine that he didn’t even have to think about it; press this button, then this one, then flick these switches… it was instinctive by now. Humming a tune to himself, trying to remember exactly what it was, Alex wondered if he was imagining the buzzing noise in the background…

“Lieutenant, reactivate Zero immediately! There’s a Wraith incoming. We have no idea how it slipped past our defences!” exclaimed Major Loup; she wasn’t known for her practical jokes, so Alex knew this one was for real. It was still hard to believe, though.

“Dizzy!” he exclaimed over the comms line.

“Excuse me?”

Alex smiled sheepishly, despite of himself. “…ah. Sorry, was thinking of a song. Reactivating Zero now, you can’t seriously be expecting to put this thing into combat though?”

“That is the plan, Lieutenant. Even the conventional forces in this city can’t handle a Wraith.” even over the comms channel, Loup sounded tense.

“This thing isn’t ready for a fight, Major. The combat system still isn’t anywhere near battle-worthy!” Alex found it difficult to agree with his orders, if only because he knew he was right.

“Lieutenant,” a new voice appeared on the comms channel, a gravel-toned man, “you have your orders. They may be ill-advised, but this is the best we can do for now.”

“Sir?!” Alex replied, stunned. “Yes sir, I’ll try. Tell the engineering staff they may want to get working on a new prototype, though…”

The man on the line gave an amused grunt. “You can tell them yourself when you get back, Lieutenant Gray.” The voice turned serious. “Prepare for deployment.”

“Yes sir, General!”

Alex set to work bringing Gundam “Unit Zero” online and setting its incomplete OS into combat mode.

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In the sprawling five-level Combat Intelligence Centre that formed the heart of Neue Hoffnung, Major General Reed Yoshihara smiled to himself. Charles Gray’s son was a good man, he was sure the young man could handle himself in this situation, unfamiliar as it was. He had his father’s talent; Yoshihara hoped he didn’t have his father’s weaknesses.

The experienced officer noticed a figure approach behind him. It was the only man here – or anywhere in Verteidiger – more experienced than himself. General Wyatt Bismarck was a large man, built like a rugby player; his premature lack of hair made him look far more intimidating than he was, though the man did have his fearsome moments.

“You’re sending the Gundam into combat?” he asked, though he knew the answer.

Yoshihara nodded. “Alexander Gray is piloting it. He knows the OS inside and out, he’ll win.”

“We can only hope so… even if he weakens it, there’s not much the Army will be able to do.”

“He’ll win.” Yoshihara repeated. “He’s his father’s son after all.”

Bismarck could only nod at that.

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On the outskirts of New York, the Wraith hovered across the water, propelled by thrusters on its legs, toward the city’s Barrier defence. As soon as it was in range, batteries of Barrier perimeter defences came to life. Dozens of 380mm coilguns and surface-to-surface missile launchers exploded into action, firing a hail of 15-inch slugs and guided rockets that would have laid waste to a whole flotilla of even the most heavily armoured warships.

The Wraith was untouched.

Not a single coilgun shell struck its armour, and any missiles which got close enough to the Wraith exploded before they could deliver their explosive payload. As one of The Twelve, the machine was almost demonic in combat, despite its relatively ordinary appearance. Standing twenty metres tall, the purple Wraith was relatively thin, with angular armour. Each shoulder mounted a cannon, to add to the rifle it carried in its right hand. A circular shield was fixed to its left forearm, to complete its loadout.

Thirty seconds after the first wave, a second lashed out from New York’s powerful defensive array. This wave was just as effective as the first, as missile after missile exploded harmlessly around the Wraith and not a single coilgun shot hit home. The pattern repeated time after time for several minutes, Verteidiger’s coilguns continuing to fire even after the 25-tube missile batteries fell silent for lack of ammunition. None of their shots hit, though not for trying; hundreds of 380mm slugs cut through the air faster than any mortal human could possibly avoid; the Wraith, of course, was no human, and how mortal it may be was still up for debate.

By way of response the Wraith, which had so far done nothing but shift out of the line of fire, opened fire with its rifle on the coilgun turrets which were still attempting to track it. In a few moments, a dozen guns had been put out of action, virtually silencing the fixed defences’ resistance. With the Wraith so close to the Barrier, the remaining guns would have a near-impossible time hitting their target now.

Especially after their target passed through the Barrier.

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“Report!” exclaimed General Yoshihara, more out of shock than anger.

“We have no idea!” one of the Barrier management techs reported. “It just fluctuated as the Wraith came into contact, then returned to normal once it passed through!”

“****! Loup, change the Gundam’s deployment orders, have it intercept downtown!”

Major Loup nodded, still looking shocked herself. “Yes, sir!”

Bismarck nodded, returning to what we was doing. He was standing in the core of the Combat Information Centre, the tactical planning area. Situated on the lowest level of the chamber, the four levels above centred on it on three sides, as if it were the playing surface of an ice hockey rink. Hundreds of people worked on the upper levels of the CIC, and the most important information from their sections was relayed down to the central area to assist the senior staff in forming battle plans.

“Zero! Change of deployment orders! Engage inside the Barrier. Use track seven, launch from catapult seven-alpha!” Loup ordered over the open comms channel. She had moved from the testing facility to the CIC as soon as they confirmed a Wraith being present, and was presently at the third level’s force deployment block. Loup was presently the most qualified person to oversee a Gundam’s operations, and as such was doing just that.

“Roger that!” replied Alex, from Zero’s cockpit. His answer was transmitted to monitors around Loup, as well as a section of the huge main screen that consumed the fourth wall of the CIC.

“Looks like we’re in for a hell of a day…” mused Bismarck.

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“Unit Zero” had moved from the testing centre to the newly-developed launch centre by now, and was preparing itself for a fight. Standing on an arming platform in a relatively small chamber, panels in the walls opened up to reveal the Gundam’s available equipment. A panel to its left revealed a long shield which ended in two points, which was attached to the left forearm by a robotic manipulator arm. A beam rifle was extended from the right side, which the Gundam automatically took into its hand. Finally, a panel extended from the ceiling to attach a much larger – and more powerful – beam bazooka to an equipment latch on Zero’s rear skirt armour plate.

Once that was complete, the circular section of floor Zero had been standing on began to descend, rather like an aircraft carrier’s deck lift. It was being lowered to the shuttle tracks, a set of twelve catapults similar to an aircraft carrier’s which would propel the Gundam to various launch points around New York; the lift would act as a turntable once it reached ground level. As it descended, the umbilical cable that had been connected to the Gundam’s backpack automatically detached, taking with it the external energy supply.

Sure enough, once the platform locked into place on the lower level it began to rotate, pointing Zero towards track seven. Once the rotation was complete, Alex moved the Gundam off the turntable, and placed its feet in the catapult plates.

“This is Gundam Zero, ready for deployment on track seven!” he exclaimed.

“Confirmed. Fire track seven!” ordered Major Loup. A split-second later, Zero began hurtling down the track towards its destination. It was a few kilometres away, but the journey took less than a minute. I’m being deployed near Battery Park then… mused Alex. He knew the area fairly well, there were a few bars nearby which he and some friends often visited.

Having reached the end of the track, the Gundam stepped off, to find itself in front of another catapult, this one vertical. Turning Zero around to place its back against the wall, Alex found himself not feeling overly nervous; his lack of worry… worried him, almost. As soon as the Gundam had stepped onto the footplates, its back automatically locked onto the back plate, connecting it to another umbilical line.

Alex took a deep breath. “Zero, catapult ready!”

“Firing catapult now! Godspeed, Lieutenant!” replied Loup, in a confident tone. Alex hoped her confidence was in his ability.

Immediately, the Gundam began flying up toward the surface of New York, several miles above. As it hurtled up the catapult, armoured shutters opened to clear its path; if one didn’t open it would be disastrous. Fortunately, they all did their job and moved clear, allowing Alex to regret being in the cockpit. Oh damn, here I am approaching the surface, and my stomach’s still down there…

With incredible speed, Zero reached the surface, the catapult coming to its end within one of Verteidiger’s many heavily-armoured fake skyscrapers that disguised Gundam launch catapults. Generally they didn’t stand out too much amongst the generic skyscrapers in Manhattan. Well, not until a seventy-foot-high section of its façade rolled up like a garage door to reveal a giant robot within, anyway.

Quickly checking the monitor panels that made up his view of the outside world, Alex surveyed the situation. Sure enough he was in the Battery Park district, looking out onto a fairly wide street. A compass readout suggested he was facing east. He assumed everyone had evacuated to shelters within Neue Hoffnung by now. If not, they’d be on a battlefield, and with the prototype Gundam in its current incomplete state Alex had no illusions about being able to save the people foolish enough to remain on the surface.

Walking “Unit Zero” out of the catapult building – stepping on and crushing an abandoned yellow cab in the process – the Gundam turned to its right, to face the direction its attacker was approaching from. A quick check of the centre console’s status screen confirmed that the laser receivers on Zero’s backpack had connected to a power-transmission station. Walking down the street toward the end of Manhattan, Alex found a good firing position and had Zero rather awkwardly kneel, latching its rifle to its left thigh as it did so. Unlatching its beam bazooka, the pilot pressed a button on the right console near the control stick to lower the precision targeting scope.

Locating the Wraith with the optical zoom, Alex began establishing a target lock for the high-powered beam cannon. As soon as the two sets of crosshairs merged, he fired. A huge red-purple beam shot out from the bazooka rested on Zero’s right shoulder, tearing toward the Wraith…

…Which had shifted out of the way. The beam went on to strike the Barrier a few kilometres away, doing as much damage to the energy shield as it had to the Wraith. The Wraith returned fire a few moments later, firing its rifle towards Manhattan. Fortunately its aim wasn’t perfect, and instead of striking Gundam armour it tore through a nearby skyscraper; the buildings owners would be angry. Snapping off another shot, Alex realised he had rushed it, as the Wraith didn’t even need to evade this one. Fortunately its second shot wasn’t much better, striking another skyscraper and creating more angry property owners instead.

Realising he didn’t have time to line up another shot, Alex dropped the bazooka and unlatched his beam rifle, retracting the precision scope as he did so. Taking a few steps back, Zero raised its shield, and prepared for combat. The machine felt sluggish, its reaction times less than they could be. In the cockpit, Alex couldn’t tell if it was because of him or the incomplete ACROBAT system, but either way it was troubling. Still, he hadn’t the time to muse on such things; the Wraith was about to land on Manhattan.

Falling back slightly into the maze of skyscrapers that formed downtown Manhattan, Alex prepared for close combat. He hoped the Wraith wouldn’t force a melee; with its OS incomplete and its pilot lacking actual combat experience of any sort, the Gundam’s chances seemed fairly slim. The combined radar/map display on his centre console showed that the Wraith was on the ground, and walking towards him. Keeping the Gundam’s shield between its body and the Wraith’s position, Alex walked carefully along Manhattan streets, hoping to delay the engagement for as long as possible.

No such luck.

As if sensing his intentions, the Wraith fired its shoulder cannons, a pair of blue beams tearing through the buildings between it and its human opponent with incredible ease. One beam slammed straight into the Gundam’s shield, its beam-defensive coating taking the force of the impact just as it was designed to. The second burned across the top of the Gundam’s shoulder armour, narrowly avoiding tearing the whole arm off. Despite his feelings otherwise as a guardian of the city, Alex quickly returned fire with his own beam rifle, blasting another hole through several buildings as the Gundam ran to a new position.

Alex soon found himself facing the Wraith directly on 4th Street, separated only by a couple of blocks. Keeping his shield raised, he fired half a dozen shots from the beam rifle, hoping to end the battle quickly. The Wraith jumped into the air, the only shots that connected burning a few unimportant armour plates off its right leg. Landing a block or so closer than where it started, the Wraith slowly walked toward its opponent, almost lazily. It didn’t seem to take the battle seriously in the slightest.

It started taking things slightly more seriously when Alex’s next shot ripped straight through its right shoulder cannon, destroying the beam weapon completely. The purple machine took a step back, as if in shock, and then retaliated with its beam rifle. What could have been a fatal shot was taken by the Gundam’s shield, which Alex had raised in the nick of time. Seemingly angry, the Wraith continued to fire, but its shots were blocked by Zero’s shield; worryingly, the shield seemed to be feeling the strain, its beam-defensive coating starting to melt under the heat.

Falling back, Alex moved the Gundam uptown, crossing a few blocks as he did so. The Wraith followed, its beam rifle taking more and more of Zero’s shield integrity as it did so. Finally the shield could take no more, as sensors within the protective device registered the coating’s effectiveness had reached a mere 1%; not enough against the beams it was trying to block. Abandoning his shield, Alex fired a quick blast from his beam rifle, while firing the 35mm Vulcan cannons in Zero’s head. By a total fluke, the beam cut straight through the Wraith’s upper left torso, near the shoulder. It didn’t take the limb off, but certainly did enough damage to count as a fairly good shot.

Sure enough, the arm seemed to be hanging limply; Alex reasoned he must have cut its power lines, or motors, or both. Either way, it was a big advantage. Angrily, the Wraith returned fire, leaving Alex to duck out of the line of fire with a quick burst from the Gundam’s backpack thrusters. The urban environment got the better of him, however, and between his own inexperience and the machine’s incomplete software, Zero’s balancing system failed it, leaving the machine to topple back-first into the lower levels of a skyscraper. The impact smashed several of the machine’s laser receivers against the building, leaving Zero on battery power – which it only had four minutes of.

Practically sitting in the street, Zero was vulnerable, its opponent closing in. Dropping its own rifle, the Wraith reached across its body to the underside of its shield, and pulled out a beam sabre; whatever mind controlled it wanted to take its opponent down with a blade. A moment later, the blue blade plunged toward the Gundam, aiming for its torso. In a quick-thinking move, Alex brought Zero’s arm up in front of its body, leaving the energy blade to rip through forearm instead of cockpit. As weapon energy lines and mechanics within the arm were torn apart, the energy supplied to the arm reacted with the sabre blade, causing an explosion which temporarily blinded the Wraith’s single large camera.

Taking advantage of this situation, Alex opened fire again with the Vulcan cannons, this time smashing the main camera as he brought Zero back to a standing position, latching the beam rifle to its thigh and drawing its right-side beam sabre as it did so. Igniting its red-purple blade, Alex slashed toward the Wraith; it managed to step back just in time, but the blade’s tip still cut a fierce gash across purple Wraith armour.

A beep brought Alex’s attention to the power supply display in his cockpit. Zero had re-established its laser lock with the remaining receivers, and was recharging its batteries now it had its preferred energy source back. It was a good thing too, the timer had reached 1:05 before it started cycling back up to 4:00. The distraction was almost fatal however, as the Wraith swung with its own sabre. Zero blocked, but only just. The two pressed their blades against each other, each hoping to gain the upper hand, but neither would relent.

Zero broke off the duel first, making a short powered jump backwards. As the Wraith advanced, Alex flicked a switch to modify Zero’s beam sabre hilt; in the blink of an eye, it telescoped into a far longer pole, with three smaller blades at its tip. Before it could react, the purple Wraith found its torso impaled on the blades of the Gundam’s beam trident, skewered like meat on a fork. Seconds later, the Wraith exploded with all the force of a bomb, the force of which threw Gundam Zero into another skyscraper in a quite undignified manner.

******************************************

With their cameras temporarily blinded by the explosion, nobody in Neue Hoffnung had any idea what was going on.

“Come on…” muttered General Bismarck, hopefully.

General Yoshihara nodded, silently praying as he did so.

A few seconds later – which felt like an eternity – the cameras’ vision was cleared. From a dark cloud of smoke, the battered form of Gundam “Unit Zero” emerged, holding its collapsed beam sabre hilt like it was nothing more than a metal pipe. Its armour had been scorched from the explosion, partly melted in places, but it was intact. And its pilot was alive. Throughout the CIC, Verteidiger personnel broke out in applause and other expressions of joy.

They had won.

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Phase-01 End

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Author’s Notes

So, we begin again… after a hiatus of over a year and a half, Against The Twelve is back, with new ideas, a few new characters, and (hopefully) a better story.

For the curious, the first draft of ATT v3.0 began on May 22, 2007. So the whole AD calendar thing has nothing to do with Gundam 00, it’s just an annoying coincidence! Still, this is a lot closer to the present day than the new series, so there. And given that the first version of ATT debuted in September 2002, the battery-powered Gundam thing barely predates SEED, too. I seem to be getting ahead of the curve with a few things…

Anyways, for the curious, Ryujin’s excellent 2002 illustration of Gundam “Unit Zero” is here

So, hope you all enjoyed the beginning of a new version of an old fic, and will stick around for Phase-02: Relative Dimensions, coming soon to a forum near you!

[Mwulf]

I'd write a long response, but my thumb's cut open and I want to keep blood off my keyboard.

(bandaids are for pansies).

It's a pretty interesting read, though I think it may start into the action a bit fast... but I like it. I did cringe every time I read "fox," but that's a wholly unrelated matter. I don't really have much to say in the way of the story yet--too soon IMHO--but this is a fic I'm looking forward to seeing more of soon.

The calendar thing didn't thow me off, but the title did. "Mobile Suit Gundam" makes me think UC stuff... "Against the Twelve" (nice title, BTW) is more of a sub-title... so I'd recommend changing the "Mobile Suit Gundam" a bit just to make it more unique. Just a minor (very) suggestion.

And kudos on giving good ol' Yuri some recognition.