Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo *Official Status: Currently FUBAR*

Your own tale of two mecha.
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Folken Fanel
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Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo *Official Status: Currently FUBAR*

As you guys know, I like to dabble in fanfiction. Of course, my lack of an attention span rarely leads to me finishing my work...and any work of mine that gets past the tenth chapter always seems to wind up sucking. In my latest project, I hope to reverse this.

Dubbed Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo, this story takes place in a completely original universe, the Solar Age (the calender of which is the Solar Year). In this universe, you will see elements from UC and Seed (with a dash of 00, though this project was conceived after 00 had only aired two episodes). The world of Neo is divided between the Allied American Alliance, the European Advancement Community, the African League, and the People's Empire of China. Each of these super powers is governed by a version of today's UN, which enforces the peace using the all-volunteer Supervision Army. There are six cities on the moon (one for each major Earth-based power), and 112 colonies farther out. Mobile suits have been in use for almost thirty years, though no major advancements have been made in the last ten. Ten years before the story of Neo takes place, the colonies rebel against the Earth-based superpowers and win their independence after a five year long revolution. Though the Revolution (also known as the Great Independence War, the Sphere Wars, and the Colonial Revolt) was over ten years ago, many bitter feelings are still held between both sides.

The story itself starts in February of Solar Year 123 at the Colossus military colony. During a demonstration of a new line of mass-production model mobile suits (the Serpent Series), a heavily armed military force attacks the colony and, after causing much destruction, steals the four units of the Serpent Series. During the chaos, Willem Summers, a security guard who flunked out of the Flight Academy, is forced into piloting one of the two remaining prototypes at the colony by his friend Dustin Jackman, a highly-respect Sergeant Major. Meanwhile, as the battle in the Colossus colony rages on, wheels begin moving in the shadows.

Character List (will be updated as the story progresses):

Willem Summers
Age: 19
Height: 6'1
Weight: 145lbs
Pilots: GTX-002 Nova
Bio: Willem is a military brat, born and raised. His father fought and died in the Revolution, and Willem has wanted to follow in his footsteps and be a pilot ever since. However, he flunked every class once in the Academy. After dropping out, he became a ground-pounder in the infantry and has been relegated to being a security guard at the Colossus colony.
After the attack on Colossus, he is forced into piloting the Nova by his friend Dustin.

Dustin Jackman
Age 23
Height: 6'3
Weight: 165lbs
Pilots: GTX-003 Galaxy
Bio: Dustin entered the military straight out of high-school and graduated a year later from the Flight Academy at the top of his class. He progressed quickly through the ranks, and is now a test pilot for the Serpent Series. Although he is virtually the exact opposite of Willem, the two are close friends. During the attack on the Colossus colony, he uses the Galaxy to great effect. In the aftermath of the battle, he persuades an unwilling Willem to pilot the Nova in battle to protect not only himself, but the people on the Vindicator as well.

Louise Carter
Age: 35
Weight: 136lbs
Height: 5'7
Captains: Resolve-class Vindicator
Bio: Louise has had a long and prosperous career in the military. During the Revolution, she led her allies to victory many times and was instrumental in executing Operation Broken Chain, the military operation that won the colonists the war. She has earned her rank as a Rear Admiral through pure skill, and is now the captain of the advanced warship Vindicator. In the skirmish between her ship and the Colossus attackers, she quickly rallies the rest of the ship to fend off Vincent and the Finites, though it takes the intervention of the mysterious Kashim to save the ship from destruction.

Vincent Laurey
Age: 24
Height: 5'9
Weight: 150lbs
Pilots: F-92 Ortega; SMS-001 Cobra
Bio: The psychotic commander of the mobile suit forces that attacked the Colossus colony, this strange man has an insatiable lust for battle that will only be quenched when he destroys all of the machines called 'Gundam.' During an attack on the Vindicator, the appearance of Kashim causes him to become unstable, inadvertently saving Willem's life.

Christopher Finite
Age: 17
Height: 6'1
Weight: 145lbs
Pilots: VMS-002 Venom
Bio: One of a trio of pilots for the mobile suit forces that attacked the Colossus colony. Christopher is the oldest of his siblings, and is very aggressive. He doesn't get along well with his sister, Sonya, but is very protective of his siblings. During the attack on the Vindicator he remains calm and rational, providing support for his siblings and rallying them into shape to retreat once Kashim intervenes.

Sonya Finite
Age: 14
Height: 5'7
Weight: 134lbs
Pilots: VMS-002 Venom
Bio: The second oldest of the Finite siblings, Sonya is a vindictive young woman with a passion for warfare. Despite her outwardly vicious attitude, Sonya is actually quite motherly towards her younger brother. She is the second of the Finite siblings to be defeated by Kashim during the skirmish with the Vindicator, and her Venom is so badly damaged that Chris has to carry her out of the battle with hsi own suit.

Zachariah Finite
Age: 12
Weight: 140lbs
Height: 5'5
Pilots: VMS-002 Venom
Bio: The youngest of the Finite siblings, Zachariah is an overtly religous person, attacking and usually killing those he deems 'sinners'. He is the least cooperative of the Finite siblings, but can hold his own in combat. He is often used by his commanding officers, often without him realizing it, and as such it is up to his brother and sister to protect him. He is the first of the Finite siblings to be defeated by Kashim, but despite severe damage insists on fighting to the death. Only the strong hand of his brother, Chris, makes him give up the fight.

Ian Malcolm
Age: 41
Height: 5'11
Weight: 189lbs
Captains: Yamamoto-class Leighland
Bio: The apparent leader of the attackers of the Colossus colony. It is unknown what Malcolm's motives are, but it is apparent that he is working for someone.

Kashim
Age: 32
Height: 6'3
Weight: 167lbs
Pilots: XMX-001 Katana
Bio: A mysterious figure, Kashim apparently has a deep interest in the events set in motion by the Colossus colony attack. When Malcolm sends mobile suits to attack the Vindicator, Kashim intervenes with his custom mobile suit, the Kestrel, and singlehandedly defeats the Finite siblings and Vincent with seeminlgy no effort.

Wilhelm Darwin
Age: 49
Height: 5'5
Weight: 124lbs
Bio: ???

Jonas Ulrich
Age: 34
Height: 6'0
Weight: 150lbs
Bio: An ally of Malcolm's, Ulrich rubs many people the wrong way and has a bad reputation for what he did during the Revolution.

Mechanics:

F-92 Ortega
Unit Type: transformable mobile suit
Height: 16.5 meters
Weight: 45.6 metric tons
Armament: 1x linear rifle, capable of firing at semi- or fully automatic; x2 assault blades, stored in forearms; various missiles and bombs that can be affixed to wings or fuselage in fighter mode

GTX-002 Nova
Unit Type: close combat mobile suit
Height: 17.7 meters
Weight: 56.7 metric tons
Armament: x2 beam sabers, stored in leg armor; x2 head vulcans; shield; beam rifle

GTX-003 Galaxy
Unit Type: assault mobile suit
Height: 16.7 meters
Weight: 60.3 metric tons
Armaments: beam rifle, mounted on right forearm; chest beam cannon; mouth beam cannon; beam sabers, mounted on shoulders; longsword with beam edge, mounted on right hip; shield, mounts two vulcan guns, mounted on left forearm; grenade launchers, mounted in knee armor

CMS-001 Cobra
Unit Type: mass-production trial type machine
Height: 19.3 meters
Weight: 52.5 metric tons
Armaments: beam cannons, mounted on backpack; beam sabers, mounted on lower wings; beam rifle, hand carried in use and stored on rear skirt armor; shield, mounted on left forearm; vulcans, mounted in upper chest; various missiles and bombs, mounted on wings

VMS-001 Venom
Unit Type: next-generation mass-production machine
Height: 18.6 meters
Weight: 54.3 metric tons
Armaments: beam cannons, mounted on backpack; beam sabers, mounted on skirt armor; vulcans, mounted in upper chest; beam rifle, hand carried in use and stored in shield; shield, mounted on either forearm; combat knives, mounted in forearms and feet

MS-04T Arklight
Unit Type: mass-production type mobile suit
Height: 15.4 meters
Weight: 67.8 metric tons
Armament: heavy machine gun, mounted on right forearm; SMG, hand carried in use and stored on front skirt armor; heat saber, hand carried in use and stored on backpack; missile launcher, hand carried in use and stored on backpack when not in use

XMX-001 Kestrel
Unit Type: custom mobile suit
Height: 15.67 meters
Weight: 97.54 metric tons
Armament: heavy beam machine gun, hand carried in use, mounts beam jitte on barrel; x2 beam sabers, stored in forearms, hand carried in use; scattering beam cannon, mounted in chest; vulcans, mounted in head and on torso

AAA-X15 Zweihander
Unit Type: aggressor superiority mobile suit
Height: 17.65 meters
Weight: 78.67 metric tons
Armament: classified

Episode List (will be updated as new chapters are posted)


1. The Slumbering Giants (Complete!)
2. Baptism of Fire (Complete!)
3. The Midnight Rider (Complete!)
4. We Were Soldiers (FUBAR)
5. The Power of the Newtype
6. The Loyalists
7. Wars that Never End
8. Station Genesis
9. Shooting Stars
10. Falling Down
11. In The Hands of The Enemy
12. Facing Facts
13. Decisive Action
14. Crimson Ocean
15. Shattered Sword
16. Twin Giants
17. Children of War
18. Safety
19. London Calling
20. Anarchy in the UK
21. Heading South
22. Operation Loki’s Roar
23. Prelude to Genocide
24. Will of Willem
25. Enemies once Friends
26. Betrayal
27. True Feelings
28. The Things that Should Not Be
29. Killing Siblings
30. Forging a New Blade
31. Arctic Showdown
32. Choosing Paths
33. Israfil
34. Dustin’s Curse
35. Revealing Truths
36. Unity Through Defeat
37. Along the Razor’s Edge
38. Spacebound
39. Deadly Orbit
40. Armed Revolt
41. Revolution
42. Kashim
43. Torn Wings
44. The Dragon’s Teeth
45. Red Carpet
46. Magnificent Apocalypse
47. Traitor
48. Defining Loyalties
49. Monstrosity
50. The Way the World Ends

Chapters One and Two are finished, though Two is still in the initial editing stages. Three is on the way.
Last edited by Folken Fanel on Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:11 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo
It's common knowledge that 99.99% of users on Youtube are ZOINKING idiots.
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Folken Fanel
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Phase One: The Slumbering Giants
Mobile Suit Gundam Neo

_____________________________________________________________
February 5th, SY 0123 -Deras military base, Colossus Colony


The day was just beginning in the colony, the barest hint of sunlight floating down through the mirrors on the colony’s outer surface. Most of the people in the residential area would still be asleep, but the military base on the far side of the colony was already buzzing with activity. It was a typical day for the majority of the base’s occupants, but for several dozen it was anything but.

A small crowd of maybe thirty-six people was gathered in the control tower of the base. Of these, about twenty wore white lab coats that showed them to be scientists and engineers, while the remaining sixteen or so was roughly divided between flight personnel, uniformed officers, and three young men in flight suits.

One suited up soldier was intently watching the airspace above the tower, his gaze focused on the black and blue mobile suit performing stunning aerial feats, such as nigh-impossible turns, dives, and barrel rolls, while shooting down the bright orange AI drones with its beam rifle. Beside him, one of the engineers turned and smiled. “Well, Marcus is performing well today, wouldn’t you think? The new accelerator system on the Cobra must be working much better than we expected. The suit is bound to pass the higher-ups inspection, right Dustin?”

The pilot glanced at the engineer for a moment before returning his attention back to the mobile suit in the air. “I suppose, but if those drones were firing live rounds he’d be dead four times by now. Truth be told, Ennis, I’m not expecting Marcus to do too well this time. The higher-ups are strict, and he’s relying too much on the Cobra’s abilities.”

Dustin Jackman was a tall, muscular pilot, with sandy blond hair and bright blue eyes. His face was a gentle oval shape, and it gave off a sense of control that reflected his personality. Although he was wearing a flight suit at the moment, Dustin was usually found in a wrinkled uniform or casual jeans and a shirt. Ennis on the other hand, was wearing a white lab coat with a collared shirt and tie on underneath it and khaki slacks, with his lanky black hair was awkwardly combed to one side. All in all, he didn’t cut quite as impressive a figure as Dustin, who had every eye on him whenever he walked into a room.

“You really think so?” he asked as the Cobra shot down two more of the dummies. The machine was slim and streamlined, with a large semi-circular backpack, reminiscent of a cobra’s hood. Below said hood was a set of long wings, each with pylons for missiles or bombs and two large engines. Its head was crowned with a golden V-shaped fin, and it had two distinctive antennas on both sides of its face plate which looked for all the world like a set of fangs. Clutched in the suit’s right hand was a long rifle with a scope that covered almost three-fourths of the barrel. In its left hand was an oval shield with a black cross emblazoned on its storm blue face.

As the two watched on, the Cobra fired a shot from its rifle and a bolt of green energy leapt from the barrel and drilled into a drone, leaving a gaping hole in its torso before the thing exploded in a shower of shrapnel. Ennis heard several of the onlookers murmur how impressive it was. If they’d seen any of the suit’s baseline statistics, they’d know that the Cobra was only performing simple maneuvers that really didn’t show off the machine’s real potential.

Dustin turned to leave as the Cobra coasted down to the runway and stopped in front of the tower. “Well, I’m off. Tell me how the others do.” And with that, he was gone. Ennis shrugged and bent over one of the tower’s computer terminals to begin reviewing the flight data.

_____________________________________________________________

Just outside of the Colossus colony, the Yamamoto-class battleship Leighland


“Sir, we’ll be in position to commence the operation in approximately twenty minutes. Yellow, Green, and Red teams are ready to launch, and the jammers are working at seventy-four percent capacity. We’re completely undetected.”

“Excellent, ensign. Maintain the current course and keep the mobile suit teams on standby. Prep missile tubes A-K for launch at my command.” Captain Malcolm Stone surveyed the bridge of his ship, the Leighland. At every console and station was a crewman working away diligently at their task of keeping the ship undetected, and so far they were doing an amazing job at it. Malcolm hadn’t sent this ship through an asteroid field, into enemy territory and to the enemy’s doorstep just to have the whole plan shot to pieces because they were detected early.

The Leighland was a large battleship, capable of holding a full five mobile suit squadrons within her large hangar and traversing the distance between the moon and colonies in only a week and a half, making her the perfect candidate for a mission as dangerous as this one. The fact that it was also under the jurisdiction of the Mobile Suppression Corps and equipped with an electromagnetic jammer didn’t hurt either. Or maybe it did. If the Leighland was captured by the enemy during the course of its mission and the colonial military discovered that she had outlawed equipment onboard, as well as MSC identification codes and documents, then the hammer would be brought down on Malcolm’s sponsors back in the homeland, and possibly lead to all out war.

That, of course, begged the question why he was committing treason against both the colonial and Earth governments, an act that if caught would result in his death. The money, of course, and a lot of it. If Malcolm could pull this off, he’d get enough money to retire permanently and live a very luxurious lifestyle for the rest of his days. It was enough to convince the captain to take his crew (who would also be nicely paid) into the jaws of the beast and pull out one of its teeth.

He checked his watch and saw that there were five minutes left before their window opened. “Flight Control Officer, have the mobile suit teams on standby launch and begin heading towards the base to commence the operation. Put White and Silver teams on standby and have the ready to launch at my command. Have missile tubes A-K aimed at the spaceport and use them to mask our approach. Prepare the forward Howlers to fire at my command.” He barked out his orders quickly and clearly, knowing that his crew would respond seamlessly.

“Aye, aye, sir!” his crewman said in unison.

_____________________________________________________________

Barracks 27, Deras military base- Colossus colony

Yawning loudly and scratching his thigh as he stood up, Willem Summers realized just how much he hated living on the base. His clock said that it was eight-thirty, meaning he had a half hour to get ready before he went on duty. He pulled up his pants and threw on a clean undershirt while his small microwave heated up a ham and cheese Hot Pocket for breakfast. Ten minutes later he was walking out of the door of his small room and into the main hall of the barracks.

Located on the far western side of the base, Barracks 27 was one of the closest buildings to the residential sector, meaning that he got to watch people have normal, fun lives while he was stuck behind a barbed wire fence with nothing to do except sleep, eat, and do his twelve hour security shift in the main hangar complex. It was really quite boring, but Willem wasn’t qualified to do anything else, and it was an easy job. The best part though, was that he was around the new mobile suit prototypes almost all the time.

Willem jogged up the three steps and opened the door into the security room for the hangar complex next door. The previous security guard was just leaving, and Willem said a few words with him before the man left. After that, there was nothing to do except sit down in front of the monitors, kick his feet up on the desk and settle in for another day of watching technicians and mechanics crawl over the three new mobile suits.

He noticed that the Cobra was missing from its allotted place in the hangar, and that the Galaxy and Nova were being prepped for launch. Hmm, they must be performing some test flights for the brass today. Wonder why no one bothered to tell me. It wasn’t any of his concern though. He pulled his cap down over his eyes and decided to sleep through the first few hours of his shift. It wasn’t like the new suits needed anyone watching the surveillance cameras, what with the perpetual swarm of techs and mechanics that covered them day and night.

Willem was just drifting off into sleep when he heard someone calling his name. He opened one eye and lifted the edge of his cap to see who was talking to him and saw Dustin Jackman staring at him. “Uhh, what do you want?” he asked in an annoyed voice. Dustin was a good friend of Willem’s, and despite the rift that had developed between them after Dustin had become a pilot and Willem hadn’t, they were still quite close.

“I’m making sure you do your job. Now sit up and pay attention to the monitors.” Dustin was clearly annoyed by the fact that Willem had been about to sleep on duty, another of his personality quirks that had gotten to the point were it made Willem want to strangle the other man whenever he got that way.

“You expect me to watch must never see TV for twelve straight hours?” Willem replied sarcastically.

“You bet your ass I do. Remember, I’m quite a few ranks higher than you, so if I catch you slacking off I get to punish you. Get back to work, Private.” Dustin gave Willem a friendly smile and was turning to walk out of the room when the whole thing began to shake violently, so much so that Willem was thrown from his chair and Dustin fell to his knees.

“What the hell was that?!” Willem blurted as he heard explosions in the distance, accompanied by more violent shaking. Dustin opened his mouth to reply when Willem caught a glimpse of a mobile suit in flight. “Was that an Ortega?”

“What the hell are you talkin- you’re right, that was a Supervision Army mobile suit!” Dustin exclaimed as one of the mobile suits in question landed in front of the small security building. It was a fairly thin suit, with streamlined limbs and a torso that looked like a heavily modified aircraft fuselage. The suit was colored forest green with dark grey highlights and instead of a head it had an oval shaped bubble that had three glowing red circles where the thing’s mono-eye cameras were located. Its backpack consisted of two large rocket engines and four wings, and each wing had several missiles attached to it. In the Ortega’s hand was a long rifle, which it was currently using to fill the air with howitzer grade rounds. The mobile suit was a Supervision Army Ortega, and it was attacking the base with its buddies.

_____________________________________________________________
Darwin mansion, Washington, DC, capital of the Allied American Alliance

“Sir, the attack on the Deras base has started.”

“Good, Malcolm is right on schedule as always. Contact the other board members and set up a video conference.”

“At once, Master Wilhelm.”

Darwin Wilhelm was a tall, middle aged man who looked twenty years older than he actually was. The forty-eight year old man looked like he was seventy, with a wrinkled face and only faint, white wisps of hair left on his spotted head. He wore a black silk suit, with a faded red rose on his lapel and numerous streaks of mucus to show where he’d wiped his ever-runny nose with his sleeve. The man looked the part of a senior citizen and could act the part when the time called for it, but when you looked into his eyes you were greeted with the fierce, unwavering scrutiny of a mastermind.

A short time later, the six video monitors in Wilhelm’s conference room were hooked up to a video conference system. On each of the monitors was a different gentleman, some young some old, some black some white. No specific demographic had the majority, with each ethnic and age group represented fairly. Wilhelm smiled at the men and said, “Operation Kindling is underway as of ten minutes ago, gentlemen.”

There was a general wave of murmurs and gasps as Wilhelm broke the news. One of them spoke up, saying with a heavy African accent, “What? How could you give the go ahead for the operation without telling us? Do you realize how much of our future depends on this operation being a success? Wilhelm, your headstrong attitude will be the death of this organization!”

Several of the other men showed that they agreed, with the others merely looking on in silence. Wilhelm cleared his throat and replied, “Why, Prime Minister, I have nothing but this organization’s best interest at heart. The operation will be a success, and we will be much closer to achieving our goal.”

“Why do I get the feeling that your goals and our goals are two entirely different things, Wilhelm?”

_____________________________________________________________
Deras military base, Colossus colony

The Arklight was centered in his sights, the shot perfectly aimed thanks to a combination of the targeting computer and his own skills. Vincent Laurey fired his rifle and sent a blast of electromagnetic energy hurtling towards the colonial mobile suit. It hit dead in the center, tearing the Arklight apart and causing a large explosion. Its squadmates opened fire on him, and he swerved his Ortega to avoid the incoming rounds.

“Come on; show me the real power here. Show me the Gundam!” he shrieked he tore them apart with his linear rifle. Several more enemies appeared from a hangar, and Vincent came in low, whipped out an assault blade, and sliced off their arms with two graceful cuts. As he passed them, he pumped several more linear rifle shots into them, sending the Arklights to their knees before they exploded. “Where is he? Where’s the Gundam already!”

Vincent sent two more colonial pilots to hell before he saw his goal: the Gundam. It rose up above a series of buildings, exhaust flying out of its engines. The circular backpack split, and two large beam cannons settled into position over its shoulders. The Gundam raised its rifle and fired, sending a bolt of green energy flying towards the Ortega.

Vincent dodged to the right, returning fire with his rifle. The Gundam took the shot on the shield and came forward, firing its beam cannons as it did so. “I presume that when you shout ‘Gundam’, you are referring to me, Marcus Martell, the Ace of the CDF! Feel the might of my Cobra!”

Dancing around the incoming fire, Vincent stowed his rifle on his Ortega’s right thigh and switched his assault blade to the suit’s right hand. “That’s right, that’s the suit called Gundam. I won’t let you get away this time!” He rushed up to the Cobra and grabbed its shoulder with his left hand and swung the assault blade at the enemy suit’s torso, only to have it blocked by the Gundam’s shield.

“What do you mean this time? I have never met you on the field of battle before!” Marcus yelled as he struggled to break free from the Ortega’s grip. Several panels shot off the suit and then about a dozen short cables shot out from the resulting holes and impacted against the Cobra’s armor. Blue surges of electricity danced along the cables and along the surface of the Gundam.

“I have control!” Vincent shouted. He opened the hatches of both suits and pulled out a gun. A triumphant smile on his face, he jumped across and landed on the Cobra’s hatch. He fired a shot at the stunned pilot and threw him out of the suit, taking a moment to savor the sight of seeing Marcus hit the ground some twenty feet below them. Chuckling to himself, he sat down and rebooted the Cobra’s controls. “I…have….CONTROL!”

Two Arklights approached him, thinking he was an ally. Vincent shot both of them in the cockpit with his beam rifle. He enjoyed their final screams of agony.

_____________________________________________________________
Hamilton-class ship Astro Boy, just outside of Colossus colony

Captain James T. Richards was dozing in his chair while his bridge crew finished up their daily patrol around the perimeter of the colony. He often slept through this part of his day, as he trusted his XO and crew to run the ship efficiently, and because there was never anything for him to do during the long, boring trek around the colony. If any enemy force were to try and attack the colony, they’d have to make it through three other patrols and the ever-shifting debris field before they would enter the Astro Boy’s sensor range. There was no reason for him to be awake on a routine patrol like this.

“Captain Richards, Captain Richards, please wake up.”

James opened one eye and saw his XO, Tabitha Stray, standing over him. “I’m awake, I’m awake. What’s the problem?” James knew there probably wasn’t a real problem, but his pessimistic attitude always led him to draw the worst conclusions.

“No problem, sir, we’re approaching the dock and need you awake. The patrol is over, sir.”

Tabitha’s emotionless, military way of speaking annoyed James to no end. He didn’t want a crew of robots; he wanted a crew of humans. Unfortunately, most of his crew was made up of uniform military drones with no personality. James supposed it was what he got for being one of the more flamboyant captains in the colonial fleet. He’d always known that the top brass hated him and his attitude.

“Alright, naptime’s over I guess. Take the Boy in to dock, you know the routine.”

“Sir, taking the ship in for docking now. Everything’s steady, we’ll be within range of the docking arms in two minutes,” said the helmsman, a young recruit named Jackie Sumeragi.

“Wait a minute, sir; I’m picking up several dozen heat sources approaching the colony rapidly. They’re missiles!” exclaimed the radar operator, Sheryl Vaughn.

James bolted up in his chair. “What did you say, ensign?”

“Captain, there are several dozen missiles rapidly approaching the colony. They seemed to be coming from the debris field around the colony. They’re on a direct collision course for the dock!”

“Get me a visual, now!” James roared in a commanding voice. His drowsiness had left him, and he was wide awake with adrenaline pumping through his system. The main console screen of the bridge flickered a moment, and then there was a clear picture of a cloud of missiles approaching. “Move the ship in front of the dock and aim all starboard CIWS to shoot down the missiles. Find out where they’re coming from and patch me through to the base, move people!”

The crew scrambled to carry out his orders. The ship rocketed forward while firing its six starboard CIWS guns at the missiles. Many of the approaching warheads were shot down, resulting in massive pink explosions, which in turn destroyed other missiles. However, it wasn’t enough and about ten or eleven missiles made it through the fire. Several struck the Astro Boy itself, while others went around the ship and hit the dock. The fragile dock was completely destroyed, and the Astro Boy wasn’t far from destruction herself. The small and fragile Hamilton-class ships were the cannonfodder of the colonial fleet, and the few missiles that had hit the ship had nearly torn her apart.

“Find out where those missiles came from, now!” James ordered. His adrenaline was really pumping now, and he could hear his blood pounding in his ears. “Contact the base and find out what the hell is going on, prep the main cannon to fire, and seal off all the damaged sections!”

“Sir, the base is reporting that they’re under attack by a force of enemy Ortegas and are taking heavy damage!”

“Captain, there’s a vessel of unknown class approaching us from the point where the missiles fired. I’m reading active weapons pointed at us!”

Emerging from the debris field was a sleek, dark gray shape. Along its hull glowed charging cannons, each aimed at the Astro Boy. James instantly recognized it as a Yamamoto-class American Alliance battleship. “Mary mother of God…” James whispered as the Yamamoto-class opened fire on the smaller Hamilton-class and turned it into stardust.

The Leighland cruised by the vaporized remains of the colonial ship and moved towards the smoking remains of the dock. Its missile strike had done severe damage, but hadn’t completely destroyed it. Now Malcolm was going to finish the job. “Fire the Howlers and destroy the remaining sections of the dock. Then proceed to blast a hole in the colony for Vincent’s squad to escape through.”

____________________________________________________
Inside Colossus colony

Willem stared in awe as one of the hangars exploded from a torrent of beam fire. From the smoking wreckage arose three black shaped, but Willem knew them well. They were the Venom units, the mass production variants of the Cobra. They lacked the semi-circular main backpack and rear waist wings of the Cobra. Instead they had two rectangular boxes on their upper backs, with one end sticking up in the air and tapering to a vague point. Attached to the sides of the rectangles were folded wings, two engines on each wing.

One of them raised its beam rifle and fired, piercing the torso of an Arklight and killing the pilot. The other two followed suit and began to destroy the Arklights in the surrounding area. Soon they had demolished whatever forces were still in the area. The three Venoms took off in perfect unison and headed towards the east side of the base, were a small group of survivors were giving the Ortega’s a good run for their money.

Willem turned and looked at Dustin. “They got the Cobra and the Venoms. What are we going to do now! There’s no way a bunch of Arklights can stand up to that kind of firepower. Those things are state of the art, and the Arklights are almost twelve years old! Game over man, game o-”

He was cut off as Dustin slapped across the face. “Get it together soldier and show that you’re worthy of your uniform!” It’s obvious that the only way to stop the attack now is to fight fire with fire. If we can get the Galaxy and Nova up and running, we can buy enough time for the rest of the base to regroup. I’ll take the Galaxy and you take the Nova, got it?”

Willem recovered his composure and glared at Dustin. “Yeah, yeah, great plan. There’s just one problem, though.”

“And what would that be?”

“I’M A FUCKING SECURITY GUARD, YOU IMBECILE! I can barely pilot a mobile suit without crashing! Do you want me to do the enemy’s job for them?”

Dustin sighed and rubbed his temples. “That is why you’ll be piloting the Nova. It has a built in automated AI system that performs most the suit’s functions by itself. All you really have to do is push the throttle and pull the trigger.”

“Fine. I guess we better get going then. Which way was the hangar they were keeping them in again?”

The two made their way through the ruined base. They eventually arrived at the hangar were the Galaxy and Nova were stored. The only problem was that standing in front of it was an Ortega. If Dustin and Willem attempted to get to the hangar, they’d be seen and killed before they got halfway there.

“Well, best think of something else,” Willem said hatefully as they eyed the sixty foot tall behemoth before them.

“Don’t have to,” Dustin replied. He pointed, and Willem saw two Arklights approaching. The two slow, blocky units fired their machineguns at the Ortega, taking it by surprise and sending it tumbling down to the ground in a burning steel funeral pyre for its pilot. Without saying a word, the two soldiers hurried to the entrance of the hangar and stepped inside.

__________________________________________________________

The Venom shuddered as machinegun fire from the surrounding Arklights pelted its shield. Christopher Finite spiraled away from an incoming rocket and destroyed two of the enemy mobile suits with his beam cannons. The Venom alighted on the ground in the middle of a group of four mobile suits. He threw up his rifle and whipped out his beam saber. Christopher stabbed the first Arklight through the chest and ripped his saber outwards into the next mobile suit. Before the first suit had exploded, Christopher had eviscerated two other Arklights. The final suit backed away, firing its machinegun in vain. Christopher impaled it on his saber and laughed insanely as it exploded.

Two other Venom units landed next to him. On Christopher’s screen the image of a pale, white haired girl with deep violet eyes appeared. “So, Chris, are you enjoying yourself? I haven’t seen you this excited in a while.”

“Being quiet, little sister, or I’ll have Vincent give you a time out.”

Another figure appeared on Christopher’s screen. This one was of a young boy, with forest green eyes and hair. “Brother, sister, stop fighting with each other. We have to kill the sinners. They have to feel God’s righteous judgment,” said Zachariah, the youngest of the siblings.

A shadow fell across the three Venoms and in front of them landed the Cobra. Vincent’s face appeared on the three siblings’ screens. “Now, now, children. There’s no place for infighting on the battlefield. We have to finish off these wretched colonists.”

The three pilots replied in unison, “Yes, older brother.”

Vincent smiled. “Good. Why don’t we head over to the…What the hell?” Vincent threw the Cobra into the air, barely avoiding an incoming beam shot. In midair, he turned to return fire and saw just what he was about to face. Coming towards him were two Gundam units. One was a dark black color with red trim. Its eyes glowed a malevolent crimson as it attached its beam rifle to its rear skirt armor and gripped the longsword on its left hip. The black Gundam flew up into the Venom’s face and fired its chest and head mounted beam cannons (Which Vincent was just now seeing) at point blank range.

Vincent barely got his shield up in time to block the attack, and was pushed back significantly by the blast. “What the? I should’ve sensed them coming. This pressure…it’s coming from that Gundam unit. Is he suppressing my abilities? No, it doesn’t matter. He’ll die too!”

Vincent fired his beam rifle and cannons at the mysterious Gundam unit, which effortlessly stopped them with the shield mounted on its left arm. It charged towards him and swung its longsword, a bright blue beam glowing along its edge. The two mobile suits met with a clash, and the Cobra went flying back from the force of the enemy’s swing. “Damn you!” shouted as he struggled to regain control.

Inside the Galaxy’s cockpit, Dustin focused on the Cobra and formed a mental cage around its pilot, blocking their weak spatial abilities. He fired his chest cannon at the Cobra to take it down, but it was blocked by one of the Venoms. The Venom unit fired its beam rifle at Dustin, but he intercepted it with his shield and came down on the Venom, longsword raised. The stolen suit ditched its rifle and drew a beam saber. The two suits crashed together and flew apart. There was a long gash down the side of the Venom’s torso.

Dustin reared back his sword to finish the Venom off when the Cobra slammed into him, sending him spiraling away. The two suits aimed their rifles to fire at him, but a blue and white machine interposed itself between the beams and the Galaxy. The Nova stopped the beams with its shield, returning fire with its own rifle in the process. “Thanks for the help, Willem,” Dustin grunted hastily as he fired his head mounted beam cannon at the Cobra.

Willem raised his rifle to join in the fight, but one of the Venom units dropped down from above and sliced his rifle in half. Willem felt the controls respond automatically and the Nova went flying backwards away from the Venom’s follow up shot. Inside the Nova’s cockpit, Willem yelled with excitement and relief. “Wow, Dustin was right for once! This AI is something else!”

The Venom charged Willem, its beam saber raised for a killing strike. The AI of the Nova raised its shield and blocked the blow, and Willem brought his beam saber in from below. The Venom’s shield dropped down, blocking the shot. Inside the stolen mobile suit’s cockpit, Zachariah narrowed his eyes. “Be still and let me punish you for your sins! You have to feel my blade for the Lord to forgive you your trespasses!”

Willem fired the Nova’s chest mounted machineguns at the Venom, but the more nimble suit danced around the storm of lead and fired its beam cannons at Willem. He barely avoided the fire, and was moving the piper over the Venom when another of the stolen units appeared on his main screen and fired its beam rifle point blank at the Nova.

The Nova’s head went sailing away, a gaping hole in it. Willem yelped in surprise as the mobile suit was knocked back by the second Venom’s shield. Inside, Sonya grinned in anticipation and fired her beam cannons at the other suit. “Time to die!”

The two beam shots tore through the Nova, sending it crashing into the ground minus and arm and its legs. Willem felt warm blood trickle down his face, and sighed. “Guess I’m not cut out to be a pilot after all.”

He looked at the cracked main screen and saw the two Venom units standing over him. They raised their rifles to finish him off, but in the background a thunderous explosion occurred along the colony’s wall, and a storm of beam shots blazed through the newly formed hole in the colony’s side. His eyes widened in disbelief as he saw the inky blackness of space beyond, and the dozens of cracks in the colony wall that spider webbed away from the hole. The two Venom units paused, then took off in the direction of the hole. The two mobile suits slipped through the hole, followed by the Cobra and remaining Venom.

Dustin’s Galaxy landed besides Willem’s crippled suit. His face appeared on the screen, a scowl across his face. “Well, looks like the bastards got away, for now. You’re too damaged to be of any use now, and I can’t take on four advanced mobile suits by myself. The colony’s been badly damaged; we’ll have to get to the last safe place in the area.”

“And where would that be?”

Dustin picked up the Nova and turned it around. Willem’s jaw dropped open. Floating in the sky of the colony was a massive ship, with two sleek white wings extended from its hull. The hull ended in a point that was vaguely similar to a shark’s head. The center of the ship sported two massive three barreled cannons, with two more along each side. The bridge extended above the ship on a short tower with two AA guns on either side. The bottom of the ship opened up, revealing a launch catapult system.

“What the hell is that?” Willem asked, awestruck.

“That is the Vindicator, a Resolve-class ship and the first of its line. It was supposed to be the carrier for the Galaxy, Nova, Cobra, and the Venom units.” The Galaxy fired its thrusters and took off towards the Vindicator, taking the Nova with it.
_____________________________________________________________
Just outside of the Colossus colony

Ian Malcolm watched as the four stolen mobile suits docked inside the Leighland. The mobile suits were scarred from the fierce battle inside the colony, but were still mostly intact. Malcolm was more worried about the pilots. He turned to his XO and said, “Get a restoration team down there to make sure that Vincent and his team don’t go crazy. I don’t want to have to clean body parts off the hangar ceiling again.”

Malcolm sighed and sat back in his chair. Despite all their combat prowess, Vincent and those like them did have their drawbacks. He grimly remembered what had happened when they had returned from their first sortie. They’d been so mad with bloodlust that they’d killed four people before the restoration team had calmed them down.

He gave the order for the ship to fall back and begin the trek to the rendezvous and left the bridge. Malcolm wandered the halls for awhile before returning to his quarters. He floated over to his bed and fell down on it. Within minutes, Malcolm was in a deep, fitful sleep, his dreams populated with the dead and dying, with the Finite siblings reigning over the hell in his head.

_____________________________________________________________
Onboard the Resolve-class Vindicator, remains of Colossus colony

The two circumstantial pilots saluted briskly as the captain of the Vindicator walked into the hangar. She was a tall, fairly well-built woman, with short brown hair and blue eyes. At first Dustin took her for a man, because she was by no means attractive. However, despite her definitively male appearance, when she spoke it was like listening to ocean waves crash against the shore. “Well, looks like we have the two saviors of the colony, here. You know the drill: Name, rank, and serial number. You can also explain why you two where in those prototypes.”

Dustin promptly nodded and snapped off, “Corporal Dustin Jackman, serial number 3246-89A. I am assigned as the Galaxy’s pilot and was trying to fight off the attackers.”

Beside him, Willem did the same. “Private Willem Summers, serial number 5647-82C. I was forced into piloting the Nova by the situation.”

The captain nodded and replied, “At ease, men. I am Rear Admiral Louise Carter. As you both know, the colony, more specifically: the military base, is under attack from unknown enemy forces. They’ve stolen four highly valuable machines and laid waste to the colony. So far, the only survivors have been this ship, you’re prototypes, and a handful of Arklights and Arklight Hi-Mo types.”

Dustin was barely listening. He was more worried about the pilots of the Cobra and Venoms. Each one had radiated with weak pressure. In all his years, Dustin had never felt anyone else who shared his abilities. What did it mean?

“…so, in order to prevent further damage to the colony and its occupants, most of whom we believe to be dead or injured, the Vindicator will follow the stolen prototypes to their mothership and either recapture them or destroy them. I expect both of you to be ready to launch at a moment’s notice. Is that clear?”

Dustin nodded wordlessly, but beside him Willem spoke up in protest. His voice shaking, he said, “B-But, Admiral, I’m just a security guard! I can’t fly a mobile suit! The only reason I survived out there was because of Dustin and the Nova’s onboard AI!”

Unmoved, Louise turned and began walking away. She took several steps before stopping and, after a moment’s thought, turned and said, “Well, you’d better learn how. I guess you’re friend didn’t tell you, but the Nova has a security system that makes sure that only one person can pilot it. Since you were its first pilot, you’re the only one who can even start the thing up. I’ll have someone assign you your quarters. Until then, just stay in the hangar and don’t go wandering around the ship. I would hate for you to get lost.”

“But…I…that’s not fair!”

Dustin grabbed Willem’s shoulder to prevent him from going after the captain. “Don’t bother, Willem. Like it or not, you’re the Nova’s pilot now, and it’s you’re responsibility to protect this ship and everyone on it.”

Instead of the dejected sigh he expected, Willem shrugged Dustin’s arm off and turned to glare at him. “Shut up, you asshole! It’s your fault I’m in this mess! You knew that I’d end up being forced to pilot the Nova, and you just let me jump in the cockpit anyway! I thought you were my friend…I guess I was wrong.” And with that, Willem stalked off towards the foot of the Nova.

Dustin sighed and went over to the Galaxy. He climbed into its cockpit and set to work adjusting its OS to suit his preferences. As he worked, his thoughts turned inwards to what Willem had said. His words had stung, mostly because they were true. Dustin had known about the security lock on the Nova, and he had forced Willem to pilot it. It doesn’t matter know. The die has been cast, with my fate along with it. The road he travels is set in stone now.

_____________________________________________________________
Yamamoto-class battleship Leighland, Great Debris Belt

The Leighland ponderously made its way through the debris belt that floated between the colonies. It was treacherous to navigate and required the most up to date maps and charts to do so. Ships had been known to enter the belt and never return, lost forever in the swirling sea of waste and wreckage or smashed to pieces by some of the larger specimens of the debris belt. Despite the dangers, however, there were certain advantages to traveling through the belt. For one, it was nigh on impossible to track or find something within the debris field, and it made heavy fighting too dangerous to consider. Any pursuit forces coming after the Leighland wouldn’t risk trying to use their big guns in this terrain. No, it would be mobile suit on mobile suit action, and in that arena the Leighland was sure to dominate.

All this raced through the mind of Christopher Finite as he gazed out of the large window that dominated the wall of the observation deck. Behind him he heard Sonya telling Zach to calm down. He turned and saw her gripping the eight-year old’s shoulders. He was glaring at her, and she was glaring right back. “But, Sister, why didn’t we kill the sinners?”

Sonya was visibly irritated, but years of dealing with Zachariah had taught her to get over her anger. “Zach, you know that the mission is more important than killing those people. Remember what Vincent said? He said to steal the mobile suits and leave, and we always listen to Vincent, right?”

“Right.”

“Can you tell me why we listen to Vincent?”

“Because he’s our big brother, and he gets our orders directly from Father.”

Sonya smiled and patted his head. “That’s right. Why don’t you go and get something to eat before the doctors put you to bed?”

Zachariah smiled and ran off, leaving the room in a whirlwind of limbs, hair, and childish excitement. Sonya walked over to Christopher and crossed her arms. “I get so tired of having to calm him down after every battle. I honestly don’t know why Father lets him fly. It’d be easier to just keep him back at the manor.”

Christopher shrugged. “A lot of money goes into making one of us. Father wouldn’t spend eight years creating a weapon to never use it.”

“But he’s such a risk. He almost got us all killed during the dogfight with his crazy flying.”

“Yeah, but he’s an Super-class, and he has the highest sync ratio out of all four of us. Even Vincent’s score was ten points lower than his.”

Sonya’s expression darkened. “That doesn’t mean a damned thing. He’s our brother, and he doesn’t deserve to be put at risk like he is.”

_____________________________________________________________Great Debris Belt, near the Olympus factory colony; onboard Dreadnaught-class warship Eternal Silence

On a dark bridge the main screen flickered with static as it showed the battle in and around the Colossus colony. As the footage slowed to a stop, it ended on a frame showing a sleek and shining new colonial warship. A figure moved near the captain’s chair and walked up to the screen. His dark brown hair covered the man’s eyes as he turned and pointed at the ship. “Looks like the Sons of Liberty and Wilhelm have been very busy during these past ten years. With new Gundams and a new warship, Wilhelm must be looking to start something.”

The woman in the captain’s chair grimaced. “I agree, Kashim, but what? He damn near wiped out the human race during the Revolution and came away with a huge profit. Why would he want to start another war?”

“Its simple. The Sons want to maintain stability, so Wilhelm wants to bring about chaos. It’ll be good for business and he’ll have another chance to wipe out the colonies. Anyway, we have to keep an eye out on the situation. Even if we didn’t plan on revealing our prescence until we could openly move against the Sons, we’ll probably still have to save their warship from Wilhelm’s dogs. It’s a viscous cycle, isn’t it?”

“I guess. You go prep the Kestrel for launch and I’ll have the Silence begin to head towards Colossus.”

Kashim nodded and headed for the bridge door. On the other side he sighed. Even ten years later, I still have to save my enemies’ lives. Will I ever be able to escape war?

¬____________________________________________________________

To be continued…

_____________________________________________________________
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo
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Phase Two: Baptism of Fire
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo
________________________________________________________
Remains of Colossus colony, Resolve-class battleship Vindicator, February 5th, SY 0123

The Vindicator slowly slipped through the gaping hole in the wall of the Colossus colony. As space began to dominate the main view screens of the bridge, Rear Admiral Louise Carter surveyed the damage to the colony. The missile strike and ensuing battle had decimated Colossus. Smoke filled the air and the colony floor was covered in flames and destruction. Early casualty reports had placed the death toll in the hundreds of thousands, and it was steadily climbing. Wearily, she wondered how many people had died just so a group of people could get their hands on four prototypes.

Who were those people, and why would they attack this colony? They used Supervision Army mobile suits, but the UN would never attack a colony, would they?

“Trent, have you located the origin points of the missiles yet?” she asked the radar operator.

“Yes ma’am, they appear to have originated in the debris belt, at point Alpha Red 234506.”

“I see. Catherine, proceed to point Alpha Red 234506 at full speed. We’ll find out where those mobile suits went after they attacked us. Trent, keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. If the bastards that did this are out there, we’ll find them.”

The bridge crew set about their tasks and Louise allowed herself to relax for a moment. The attack had happened so fast, there had been nothing to do but let instinct take over and try and launch the Vindicator with a skeleton crew. Everyone had been running on pure adrenaline, and she was sure that they needed rest. Too bad I can’t let them have any, though. We have to keep going, have to keep working. This ship can’t rest until we’ve found our attackers.

Grimly, Louise wondered if the Vindicator’s maiden voyage would be her last…

_________________________________________________________

The best thing about the Nova’s cockpit, Willem decided, was the leg room. For a fairly small suit, its cockpit was pretty spacious. I shouldn’t even be in this cockpit. I’m not a pilot, never have been, never will be.

He didn’t even know what he was doing inside the Nova. It was probably because it was the only place onboard this ship where he felt like he was safe. The Nova had protected him during the battle, and it would hopefully protect him while he was on this ship. The captain had said that he and Dustin would be assigned rooms, but they would most likely end up bunking together, and right now Willem wanted to be as far away from the other soldier as possible.

What is his problem, anyway? What right does he have to trick me into piloting a mobile suit? This stupid security lock won’t let anyone but me pilot it, so now they’re going to force me to fight. I’m just a security guard; I can’t do any of this!

It suddenly dawned on Willem why he was sitting in the Nova’s cockpit. He was trying to find a way to undo the security lock feature that prevented anyone but him from activating the mobile suit. He felt like a mad rat, desperately trying to escape from some twisted maze.

A quick knock disrupted his train of thought. Willem looked up and saw a sight he really didn’t want to see. Dustin was standing outside the Nova’s cockpit, a mixture of fatigue and contempt written on his face. “If you’re going to pilot the Nova, you need to learn how to pilot it first. Here,” he said, handing Willem a thick manual.

“GTX-002 Nova Operations Manual? What’s this?”

“It’s exactly what it says. You’re going to learn how to fly this machine, like it or not.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“That is irrelevant. Like it or not, you are now this unit’s official pilot, and you will fight.”

“Can’t you undo the security system? There must be other pilots on this ship who can pilot this thing!”

“You can try as hard as you like, Willem, but you’ve got to play with the cards that have been dealt to you. Aside from me, there are only two other pilots onboard this ship, and they have no chance of being allowed access to something like this. Face the facts. You are the Nova’s pilot.”

“But Dustin, why me! You knew about the security system, and you still let me pilot it! I know enough to know that the Galaxy doesn’t have this system, so why didn’t you tell me to take it?”

“Shut up and read the manual, Willem,” Dustin snapped before briskly walking away.

_______________________________________________________________
Yamamoto-class battleship Leighland

The four stolen prototypes dominated the Leighland’s hangar. The towering, blue and white mobile suits stood out against the green and brown colored Ortega’s, their angular, polished surfaces gleaming menacingly in the dim light of the hangar. Vincent loved looking at them, almost as much as he did flying his Cobra.

The tall, brown haired soldier was standing on the gantry in front of his new mobile suit. The Cobra was an amazing machine, even for the colonies, and it preformed far beyond any expectations he’d had. Smirking to himself, Vincent quietly walked away. The Cobra’s time to shine would come soon enough. Soon, Wilhelm would give him the opportunity to take on the Gundam that had defeated him. It was enough to guarantee Vincent’s loyalty.

He exited the hangar and made his way to the four bunk room shared between him and his siblings. The three war orphans weren’t really his siblings, but the way they were conditioned meant that the little super-soldiers needed a ‘big brother’ for stability. Without him, the Finites would breakdown and go berserk. It had happened before, and the resulting mess wasn’t something Vincent wanted to see again.

________________________________________________________
Darwin mansion, Washington, DC, capital of the Allied American Alliance

Sipping his glass of red wine, Wilhelm watched as the reports slowly trickled in. Already, only hours after the attack, intelligence agencies around the world knew about the Colossus colony attack, and were working to make sure something like that didn’t happen to them. He could see that just about all of the reports thought that the colonial political faction known as the Loyalists were behind. That was exactly what Wilhelm wanted them to think.

Yes, let them prepare for the worst from the colonies. The Revolution is still fresh in their minds, and most of these countries would love a good reason to nuke those giant cylinders. What I have in store for them next will only fan the flames. Another war will come about, and the Sons will reap all the benefits of it.

Wilhelm was interrupted from his monologue by a servant. “Master Wilhelm, we have received a communication from the Leighland. Would you like me to put it on the main screen?”

“Yes, of course,” Wilhelm ordered. A moment later, the face of Ian Malcolm appeared on the wall-sized screen in front of Wilhelm. “Captain Malcolm, it’s a pleasure to see you again. I trust everything is going to plan up there?”

“Everything’s going according to plan, exactly as your people predicted. However, it appears that a colonial ship is following us into the debris field. Should we take care of them?”

Wilhelm smirked. Dustin was on that ship, and so was the other. “Send out the super soldiers and have them stall long enough for you to get to the rendezvous point. Try to damage it, but don’t destroy it.”

Ian saluted, although Wilhelm could tell he was confused, and said, “As you wish, Mr. Wilhelm. Malcolm out.”

_______________________________________________________
Great Debris Field, Resolve-class battleship Vindicator

The best thing about the Resolve-class was that it had a fairly simple design layout, making it easy to get around without getting lost. For someone like Katrina Carrillo, this was a good thing. Although she was a skilled pilot, her navigational abilities left a lot to be desired. Her friends would never let her forget that she’d gotten lost on the obstacle course during basic training.

Katrina rounded the corner and entered the Vindicator’s hangar. She walked past the two monolithic prototypes that the ship had taken on before leaving the colony to pursue whoever had attacked Colossus and to her own Arklight Hi-mobility type. The Hi-Mo type was related to the outdated, lumbering Arklight only in name. The Hi-Mo type was streamlined, with thrusters placed all over its body. The massive, thruster laden backpack on the Hi-Mo type gave the unit the speed it was famous for and the two thrusters on each shoulder made it extremely agile in space.

Katrina hopped onto the lift at the Hi-Mo’s feet and raised it up to the cockpit. She climbed in and turned on the suit’s computer. She’d told herself that it was to run system diagnostics, but in reality it was to be alone. The second she sealed the cockpit hatch shut, Katrina broke down and started crying.

“Mom…Dad,” she sobbed. Her tears streamed down her checks, staining her uniform’s collar. “You’re gone. It’s all my fault. I was the one who made you move here. I was the one who said Servirus wasn’t safe for people you’re age. Now you’re dead. Why?”

Her parents had lived in Colossus’s residential sector. Katrina had all but forced them to move there. She had said that their previous home, the lunar city of Servirus, was too dangerous for people their age. And now that residential sector they’d lived in for the past two years was covered in flames and rubble. Katrina had seen a missile blow the block her parents lived on to pieces, right before her very eyes.

“Those bastards, whoever they are, will pay. They’ll pay for my parents’ deaths with blood,” she vowed under her breath. As she said the words, Katrina felt her sadness replaces with cold, tempered hatred. Hatred for whoever had committed such an atrocity. She felt stronger than she’d ever felt before, and Katrina was going to use her new strength to kill.

_________________________________________________________
Great Debris Belt, near the Colossus colony; onboard Dreadnaughtt-class warship Eternal Silence

Kashim gazed at his reflection in the small mirror on his locker door. The past ten years had not been kind to him, as was reflected in his features. Gone was the youthful optimism that had shown in his features before, replaced with the heavy look of a man with nothing left to lose. Well, almost nothing, that is. Kashim closed the locker and finished suiting up.

He exited the locker room and entered the hangar. Although the Eternal Silence could carry up to twelve mobile suits, the only one currently occupying the spacious hangar was his own XMX-001 Kestrel. The hulking (some would say fat) red suit had served him well these past ten years. The most obvious thing about the Kestrel was the giant set of boosters on its back. The three boosters were huge and made the Kestrel look almost twice its size. They gave it unprecedented mobility, and the large beam machinegun clutched in its right hand packed quite the punch. The single, yellow eye staring out from its hemi-spherical head gave off a sense of malice, which was exactly what it was supposed to do.

Kashim ascended to the Kestrel’s cockpit via the lift at its feet and climbed in. He put on his helmet, which hid all of his face except for his eyes and nose. After checking his suit’s systems and seeing that they were all green, Kashim flipped the final switch and the machine vibrated as its fusion reactor rumbled to life beneath his feet. Kashim moved the Kestrel onto the hangar’s right launch catapult. Conduits along the length of the catapult glowed with energy, waiting to send the Kestrel out into space. He opened a line to the bridge and the image of a young red headed woman appeared on the HUD. “Kashim here, ready to launch.”

“Roger, Kashim. Initiating launch sequence. Control is yours in five seconds.”

Sirens blared and messages flashed across Kashim’s screen. A series of windows popped up and flashed from red to green; indicating that control of the launch sequence had been transferred to the Kestrel. He gripped the controls tightly and pushed the throttle, sending his machine flying forward and out of the ship. The moment he cleared the catapult he fired the main thrusters. The Kestrel sped towards the target area, leaving a bright white trail of exhaust behind it. Kashim and the Kestrel sped towards the battered Colossus colony.

_______________________________________________________
Great Debris Belt, Resolve-class Vindicator

Willem slumped as far as he could into the couch of the Vindicator’s lounge area. In his lap was the enormous manual for the Nova, and sitting in a chair across from him with his arms and legs folded was Dustin. The blond stared at Willem with his cold blue eyes, almost like he was looking through Willem and at the wall behind him.

The two sat like this for several minutes, neither willing to break the silence. Finally, Willem spoke. “I want to know everything. I can tell that you’re not telling me something, Dustin, and I’m sick of it. Why did you trick me into flying the Nova, even though you knew that I had failing scores on all of my mobile suit flight exams in the academy? Even if I did have at least passing scores, why did you make me pilot the mech with a biometric security system? Now I’m stuck with that damned thing!”

Dustin merely continued to look straight on ahead. Willem felt his anger rising and suddenly found that he couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed the Nova’s manual and threw it as hard as he could at Dustin’s face. To his surprise, Dustin caught it deftly in one hand. Dustin tossed it from hand to hand for a moment, and then threw it back at Willem. It landed at his feet.

“Well, now that you’ve thrown your little hissy-fit, do you still want me to answer your questions?”

Willem growled, “Yes, I want you to answer my goddamned questions! Start explaining right now, or I’ll shove my foot so far up your ass you’ll, you’ll…”

“I’ll what, Willem?” Dustin looked at him like a mother might look at a child who has been bad. It was infuriating.

“Just answer my questions,” Willem mumbled before returning to his seat on the couch.

“Fine, I will. It was in your own best interest that I took that actions I did, and in time you’ll come to accept that. Eventually, Willem, you’ll come to thank me for it.” With that, Dustin stood and left the room, leaving an angry Willem glaring at the manual on the floor.

Willem stood up and kicked the manual as hard as he could. “What the hell was that all about?”

He stormed out of the room and down the hall, not caring where he was going. Willem scowled at anyone he passed, and growled when any of the crew he passed tried to speak to him. Eventually he wound up on the Vindicator’s observation deck, though he had no idea how he got there.

Willem saw that he was alone and slumped against the wall. He slid down to the floor and sat there, head buried in his arms. “What am I going to do?” he asked himself.

“What are you going to do about what?” a female voice asked.

Willem looked up to see a short, fairly attractive redhead standing by the door to the observation deck. He stretched out his legs and replied, “It’s nothing important. You don’t really want to know.”

Katrina looked at the brown headed young man sitting against the young man questioningly. “Why do you say that?”

“Because it’s true, for one. Besides, no one gives a shit about anyone else’s problems. They just pretend to,” Willem spat, putting venom into the last words.

The words hit Katrina hard. She didn’t need to hear this little self-centered brat whine. “That’s a twisted philosophy. Why do you think that way?”

“Because it’s the truth,” Willem said. He looked at the girl closer. Something didn’t look right about her…had she been crying?

“Don’t say that! You have no idea how other people really feel, so why don’t you just shut up before you hurt someone’s feelings!” Katrina shouted. The tears were coming back; she could feel them welling up behind her eyes.

“Oh, did I hurt the little girl’s feelings?” Willem sneered, “Go grow up.”

“Fine I will. I don’t even know why I decided to talk to you anyway! You’re just a whiney brat!”

Willem watched her practically run away. What was her problem?

_____________________________________________________________
Great Debris Belt, Yamamoto-class battleship Leighland

Ian Malcolm surveyed the three-dimensional map on the table in front of him. It showed the debris belt and everything in it for twenty-five miles around. Just on the edge of the map, but still fairly close to his ship was the single Colonial warship that had been seen following them from Colossus. He looked at his communications officer and said, “What’s the ETA of the Redwing group?”

“Major Ulrich reported that they would be at the rendezvous in two hours, sir.”

“How long will it take for that Colonial ship to catch up to us, Ensign,” he asked the NAV operator.

“Sir, the computer estimates that they will be in range to launch mobile suits in forty minutes.”

Malcolm cursed under his breath. “Send word to Major Ulrich to hightail it to the rendezvous point. Increase the ship’s speed to full burn and ready all mobile suits and weapons for combat.”

Malcolm walked to his seat and sat down. As he watched the bridge crew go about their tasks, he thought, The things I do for you, Sylvia. Please don’t die before I come back.

“Sir, Major Ulrich has responded. He’s saying that at full burn, they can be at the rendezvous point in just under an hour.”

“That’s still not fast enough. Deploy decoy balloons on false courses to confuse the enemy ship. Have all hands go on high alert and have the Finite team launch. We’ll strike that ship before it even realizes that it’s being attacked.”

____________________________________________________________

Christopher stalled his Venom’s engines as he waited for Sonya and Zachariah to catch up. Ahead of him, Vincent’s Cobra did the same. The other two Venoms launched and caught up. Christopher opened a channel to Sonya’s Venom and said, “Slowpoke. You need to learn to keep up with the big boys.”

“Go to hell, Chris,” was the only reply he got.

The face of Ian Malcolm appeared on their screens simultaneously. “Alright, listen up! You’re objective is to keep the Colonial ship that’s following us busy until we can meet up with Major Ulrich’s Redwing group. You’ll ambush them at these coordinates. Once we have joined up with Major Ulrich’s troops, you will retreat into the debris and regroup with us. Understood?”

They all answered, “Yes sir!”

Christopher moved his Venom into formation alongside the others and armed his beam rifle and cannons. Thoughts of the battle to come filled his mind, and a wicked grin emerged on his face. Today was going to be fun. He could see the enemy mobile suits in front of him. He raised his rifle and fired off a shot…

“Hey, Chris, snap out of it!”

Sonya appeared on his screen. “Dammit, you jackass. Don’t go off daydreaming about fighting while you’re flying. You almost shot me!”

Chris blinked, then sighed, “Jesus, Sonya, do you always have to complain so much?”

“She’s right, Chris,” Vincent said over the com, “You can’t just randomly zone out like that.”

“It’s an error in my programming,” Chris replied, “I can’t control it.”

“Speaking of errors in programming, isn’t Zach being a little too quiet?” Sonya wondered aloud. She looked back at the last machine in the formation, Zachariah’s Venom.

“Yeah, what’s the little reverend up to?” Christopher said. He opened a line to Zachariah. “Hey, what are you doing back there?”

Zachariah’s voice replied, “Deciphering the Seven Seals.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Chris asked.

“Hell if I know,” Sonya said, butting into the conversation as always.

Zachariah, in a zombie-like manner, said, “It means that the sinners will soon be punished. Soon the demons of space will feel God’s Wrath.”

_________________________________________________
Great Debris Belt, Resolve-class Vindicator


The Galaxy was a very complex machine. Between the numerous weapons systems, computer feeds, and the controls, it was easily enough to baffle even a veteran of the Revolution. Fortunately for Dustin, he’d been designed for this machine. He was the only one who could bring out its full potential, and therefore was the only one who could actually make any progress working on the Galaxy’s OS.

Dustin took a sip from the water bottle floating near his head and continued to work on the Galaxy’s computer. A few clicks later, he leaned back and sighed a sigh of relief. “Finally, I’m done! This thing’s finally fully calibrated for combat.”

But, as Dustin finished with that technical challenge, his mind gave him an emotional one. “What am I going to do about Willem?”

The boy presented a problem. On the one hand, Dustin mused, he was under direct orders from Wilhelm to monitor and guide Willem into his full potential. On the other, Willem was being uncooperative and hard to work with. How was Dustin supposed to guide Willem along the treacherous road he was to follow when he was being so damned stubborn?

Dustin stepped out of the Galaxy’s cockpit and stretched. He swept a hand through his hair and leaned against the guardrails on the catwalk. Gazing up at the monstrous black form of the Galaxy, Dustin could feel the power and responsibility that Wilhelm had entrusted him with. He vowed for the hundredth time not to let Wilhelm down.

Dustin was just beginning to relax when the alarms began going off. “Oh shit,” he murmured as the hangar erupted into a frenzy of activity.

__________________________________________________

The bridge was thrown into chaos as the first shot slammed into the Vindicator’shull. Several more followed, causing further chaos and panic. Louise grabbed her captain’s hat, which had been thrown off by the force of the first blast, and shouted, “Get me a status report, now!”

“Ma’am, incoming fire from multiple angles! We can’t pinpoint its origin!”

“What’s been damaged?”

“The starboard engine and levitator are leaking fuel and there’s a hole in the portside ammo bay!”

Louise grimaced and struggled to get herself under control. This crew was just a bunch of rookies. She had to keep them calm. “Seal off the portside ammo bay and the starboard engine and levitator. Arm the CIWS and start a Mark IV Delta cover spread. Ready the Halberd missile launchers and prepare to fire on my mark.”

The crew obeyed with little hesitation. Within moments, the Vindicator’s twelve CIWS emplacements whirled to life and began spewing depleted uranium shells into the surrounding space.

“Incoming fire from above! Ma’am, it’s a mobile suit; one of the stolen units from Colossus.”

Louise looked at the main screen of the bridge as a white and blue blur swooped down on the ship. “Target the incoming mobile suit and fire the Halberds. Shoot the thing out of the sky!”

The missiles poured out of their launcher on the ship’s starboard hull and raced towards the solitary Venom unit circling the Vindicator. They got halfway to their target before a torrent of green light sliced into them, destroying the missiles before they reached their target. Another Venom unit flew in beside the first one, both firing their rifles at the ship before them.

“Ma’am, it’s another Venom unit. What should we do?”

“What the hell do you think?” Louise shot back at the crewman who had said that, “Shoot the bastards down. Target those two with the CIWS and launch a barrage of Longsword cluster missiles at them. Have all mobile suits launch immediately, even the two prototypes.”

____________________________________________________

Dustin ran through the halls of the ship, his normal suit on halfway. He rounded a corner and had to quickly sidestep to avoid running into two other pilots. He ignored them and raced down the hall. Dammit Willem, where are you?

He finally found Willem on the observation deck. “What the hell are you doing here? Didn’t you hear the order to launch?”

“Do I look like a damn pilot to you?” Willem asked.

The ship shook as something nearby exploded, and a mobile suit flashed by the window. Willem flinched and looked at Dustin, who continued to look at him like he was a convicted criminal. “I don’t have a choice, do I?” he asked slowly.

Dustin shook his head. “No, you don’t. If you want to live, if you want to see another day, then you must fight. Willem, if you don’t face the truth of things, then you and everyone on this ship will die.”

Willem looked away, and thought for a moment. Another explosion rocked the ship, and alarms started blaring. He could almost hear people dying. “Fine, I’ll fight. Not for you or anyone on this ship, but for me. Got it?”

“As long as you fight.”

The two walked out of the room and headed to the hangar. Willem wore a face of determination and anger; Dustin one of sadness and regret for the path he had just set Willem on.

____________________________________________________

Katrina desperately weaved through beam fire as one of the Venoms pounced on her. Its beam rifle flared and spat a flurry of shots at her Hi-Mo type, and she put her machine into a steep rolling dive to avoid the incoming fire. She managed to get her rifle up and fired a blast of depleted uranium shells at the stolen unit.

The shells from her rifle slammed harmlessly into the Venom’s shield, and it opened up with its beam cannons. Inside the unit’s cockpit, Sonya grinned wickedly. “Come on, bitch, show me what you got!”

Katrina’s machine groaned and creaked as she used every trick in the book to avoid the incoming fire. One shot from any one of the Venom’s weapons would be lethal, while anything she could throw at it would only scratch the paint. Katrina narrowed her eyes and decided to go on the offensive. She fired a burst from her rifle and a missile from her left leg mounted missile launcher at the Venom.

Sonya dodged easily and kept up a stream of beam fire from her various weapons. A shot tore through the Arklight Hi-Mo’s head and a second sent its right arm spiraling away into space. She laughed and switched to her beam saber. As she closed in for the kill, however, a bright red beam tore through the space between her and her target.

A dark shape interposed itself between her and the Hi-Mo type. Its chest cannon glowed a deep red. The Galaxy’s red eyes flashed and it drew the longsword on its hip. Dustin narrowed his eyes and said, “Face a worthy opponent, girl, or leave.”

Sonya charged the Galaxy and it raised its sword to meet her. The two machines clashed head on and stared each other in the face.

___________________________________________________

Willem had scarcely gotten out of the ship when he was forced behind his shield by a barrage of beam fire. He recognized the semi-circular profile of its backpack and knew it was the stolen Cobra. The Nova raised its rifle and fired a single shot at it.

The Cobra dodged the shot and returned fire with its rifle. Vincent laughed and drew his saber. He closed in and brought it down on the Nova’s shield. Willem grunted and fired off a spray of vulcan fire. The Cobra twisted away from the incoming bullets and brought his saber back around for another slash at the Nova.

“Dammit!” Willem shouted as the Nova rocked from the impact of saber on shield. He fumbled with the controls to grab a beam saber from the recharge racks on the machine’s thighs. As he did so, the Cobra savagely kneed the Nova in the chest, sending it back several meters and allowing Vincent to thrust with his saber.

The Nova’s AI was quick to react and parried the attack with its own saber. Willem fired the thrusters and hacked at the Cobra, but the stolen machine darted back and fired a salvo from its beam cannons. It swooped down on Willem and kicked the Nova in the head, shattering the machine’s V-fin and sending it reeling backward.

“Come on, Gundam; is this the best you’ve got?” Vincent asked as he slowly advanced upon the Nova. “You’re nothing like the one I fought ten years ago.”

Willem narrowed his eyes as his vision blurred. His head hurt from where it had hit the side of his cockpit, and blood trickled down his nose thanks to a shattered visor. “Bastard…” he murmured. Gripping the controls as hard as he could, Willem maneuvered the Nova into a defensive position. The Cobra charged and Willem thrusted the shield forward, slamming it into the torso of the Cobra. He brought up his saber to deal the finishing blow, only to have the Cobra’s shield stop the attack.

Vincent sneered. “Not today, Gundam.” The Cobra’s saber flashed and the Nova’s head was sent flying from its shoulders. “Heh, don’t lose your head.”

Willem’s screens became static. He panicked and propelled the Nova backwards as fast as he could. Finally, the auxiliary cameras came online, allowing Willem to see the Cobra charging at him. He tried to get his shield up in time, but the machine’s left arm was sheared from the Nova by the Cobra’s saber. A follow-up roundhouse kick smashed in Willem’s right shoulder armor.

The Cobra loomed above the Nova and prepped its beam cannons to deal the final blow. “Goodbye…GUNDAM!” Vincent roared as he prepared to fire. A white streak flashed across his eyes, accompanied by a thunderous pounding in his head. Vincent clutched his head and shook violently. “Ahhhhhhh, get out! GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HEAD! AHHHHHHHHHHH”

Willem saw the Cobra freeze and took his chance to retreat. “What the hell…the bastard had me,” he said as he watched the Cobra twitch and squirm. His radar pinged, and then Willem saw the source of the enemy pilot’s hesitation.

Floating at the edge of the battlefield was a red and black mobile suit, its single mono-eye glaring hatefully towards the Vindicator.

__________________________________________________________

Chris put a beam through the cockpit of a second Arklight and watched as Zachariah chopped the remaining two in half with his sabers. “Well, that wraps that up. I imagine that Malcolm and Father will be pleased with our performances. Let’s find Vincent and Sonya and get the fuck outta here.”

Zachariah paused and then turned to Chris’s Venom. “That would not be a good idea. The Behemoth approaches. We must face the servant of Satan.”

His Venom fired its thrusters and headed to the other side of the battlefield. Chris watched him go and said, “What the hell? More religious shit? Damn this kid is crazy.” He pondered whether or not he should follow, then shrugged his shoulders and followed Zachariah. “I’m gonna get shot again, I know it!”

________________________________________

Dustin smashed his shield against the Venom unit and hacked at it with his longsword. The enemy unit replied with a storm of vulcan fire as it swung its saber wildly in a vain attempt to hit the Galaxy. “Who is this guy…he’s such an amateur,” Dustin said as he stopped a beam saber attack from shearing through his machine’s torso.

The Venom’s pilot snarled and backed away from the black machine before it. Sonya cursed when it boosted back into close range and savagely swiped at her mobile suit with its sword. “Dammit, this guy’s too good for me! Close combat isn’t my specialty!” she exclaimed as the Galaxy forced her Venom behind its shield with a hail of punishing blows.

Sonya put her thrusters on full burn and backpedaled away from the Galaxy, firing her beam cannons as she did so. Dustin weaved through them, seemingly predicted where each blast from the cannons would be before it got there. He reached out to the enemy pilot with his mind and felt a distinct, oily presence masking her thoughts. What is she? Dustin wondered as he boxed in her mind’s thoughts.

As she felt the foreign, invading tendrils enter her head, Sonya’s head swam. The fact that another person was inside her head, herding her thoughts and emotions into one easy to read space was sickening. She bit back the urge to vomit and tried to concentrate. Sonya was trying to fight off the other person in her head when a sharp stinging sensation flashed through it. “The hell?! What now?”

Dustin watched as the Venom froze, then boosted away from him going towards the edge of the battle. A sharp stinging sensation raced through his head and he realized what was happening. No…not even they would come here! Not now!

The Galaxy wheeled around and headed towards the source of the stinging sensation.

__________________________________________________________

Kashim watched as four blips on his radar closed in on him. Three were the stolen Venom units from Colossus, while the fourth was one of the two that the colonists had retained control of. Regardless of who controlled them, all four were now closing in on his position. Kashim hefted his beam machinegun and waited for the first of his assailants to come within range.

One of the Venom units closed in on him from the right, its saber held in a stabbing position. Kashim poured beam fire on it and easily avoided its attempt to skewer him. He punched the Venom unit in the back of the head and sprayed beam fire at it to scare it off.

Two more Venoms came charging at him from different directions. One of them fired its beam rifle and cannons at him, while the other wielded a saber in each hand. Kashim ignited the beam saber on his machinegun and lopped off the hands of the Venom with the beam sabers as it tried to hack him apart.

“Idiots…they obviously don’t know how to work as a team, despite using units designed for cooperative fighting,” Kashim said as he used his beam machinegun to lead the one remaining Venom into the range of the Kestrel’s main weapon: a chest mounted scattering beam cannon.

He fired and sent a massive wave of energy at the Venom unit, forcing it behind its shield and scoring several glancing blows against the suit’s extremities. Inside the cockpit of his Venom, Chris cursed as armor plating was ripped away by the scattering beams. “Damn, this guy’s good, even for a Newtype. Zachariah, Sonya, we’re leaving!”

Zachariah’s Venom boosted up beside Chris and fired its beam rifle at the red machine, only to have it deflect the shots with the beam saber mounted on the end of its gun. Zachariah’s eyes widened in disbelief. “How did he do that? No one has reflexes that good! Brother, we must kill him!”

Chris shook his head. “No way. We’re getting Vincent and Sonya and getting the hell out of here. That guy is too good for us!”

Chris fired his boosters and grabbed Sonya’s Venom with his and ordered Zachariah to do the same for Vincent. As the two pairs met up, they could hear Vincent’s babbling over the comm. “He’s come for me…! The Crimson Eagle; the Slaughterer of Dubai! It…It’s him…Kashim!”

“What? Vincent, get a hold of yourself!” Sonya screeched as they exited the battlefield, “The Crimson Eagle was killed ten years ago at the end of the Revolution!”

_________________________________________________________
Allied American Alliance Clinton-class carrier Schwarzenegger, February 6th, SY 0123

A smile played across his lips as he spotted the allied ship at the rendezvous point. “Helmsman, move up to the rendezvous point. Have the ships return to non-combat status.”

The Schwarzenegger and its two escort ships slowly moved into position beside the Leighland. A communications line was opened, and Captain Ian Malcolm appeared on the screen. “Major Ulrich, I had not expected your battle-group to arrive so soon. Your transmission said that it would take you at least another thirty minutes to arrive.”

The raven haired man in the Schwarzenegger’s captain’s seat smiled and replied, “I apologize; we didn’t know how fast we could make this hunk of junk move. Seeing as how you’re men were in a battle not too long ago, I can see how you might be a little angry with us.”

Malcolm’s face tensed, then relaxed. “It’s fine. I’m just glad that we have finally met up. The cargo is secure, and we are ready to proceed with Phase Two of the operation.”

Ulrich’s face twisted into a smile. “Very well then. We’ll proceed as planned, and I’ll take over command from here. Nice meeting you, Captain Malcolm. Dismissed.”

As the screen went blank, Ulrich stood up and stretched. “I’ll be in my quarters. Lieutenant Santiago, you have the bridge.”

He walked off the bridge and headed down the cramped corridors of the carrier. The expression on his face was one of supreme malignant hatred, for he knew who had made an appearance this day. So, Kashim, you’ve come out of hiding, and it looks like you’ve taken an interest in Wilhelm’s affairs. Maybe now we’ll be able to finish our battle. This time, my Zweihänder will crush your pathetic Katana!

__________________________________________________________
To be continued…
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo
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DAG101
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so far, very interesting. a few minor spelling/grammar errors, but the chapters are still extremely read-able.
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Big B
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Yeah, this looks pretty good. I hope you keep up with it.
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Folken Fanel
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Yay, feedback! Thanks for commenting, guys. I'll try to get chapters three and four up over spring break, but since my parents got me a job I'm forced to wonder just how much free time I'll have. Nevertheless, I garuntee that Chapter Three will be posted within the next week.

Anywho, is there anything anyone feels I could do better besides the spelling? I feel like the character development is wonky, so either confirm or deny my fears.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo
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Big B
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Yeah, work does have that tendency, but the money is nice and makes you have to leave the house every now and then.

It's hard to say on character development. Only 2 parts in, so it's hard to get a grasp of the characters just yet.
DAG101
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I think Kashim could turn out to be a very good character. Will you be posting the stats for any other mobile suits yet?
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Dendrobium Stamen
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I like it! The little nods here and there to Gundam past and present are nice, as well as those to other things which I assume have had some influence on the story.

Good work, keep it up!
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing." - Sledge Hammer.
A Wind Raging Through, a Destiny sidestory.
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Folken Fanel
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I think Kashim could turn out to be a very good character. Will you be posting the stats for any other mobile suits yet?
I'll be adding some stuff to the first post soon, so you can look forward to that. Mobile Suit profile will be updated as new ones appear.

As for Kashim, I'll just say that not only is he Neo's obligatory badass veteran, he's also a major driving force of the story. Put simply, without Kashim's actions in the past, Neo would never be able to take place.
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Phase Three: The Midnight Ride
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo

_________________________________________________
Great Debris Belt, near the Resolve-class Vindicator, February 6th, Solar Year 0123


Dustin pushed the Galaxy’s thrusters to their breaking point. The black and purple machine roared towards the edge of the battlefield. Ahead of him, the bulky red mobile suit turned to leave. “Oh no you don’t! Get over here!” Dustin roared at the other unit. He stored the Galaxy’s longsword and slid the machine’s beam rifle out of its holster on the unit’s right forearm. He raised the weapon and fired several shots.

The red machine spun around and deflected the shots with a beam saber mounted on its gun. The mobile suit’s mono-eye flashed and it fired a spray of beams back at Dustin. The Galaxy’s shield went up and glowed red hot from the impact of the beams. Inside his Kestrel’s cockpit, Kashim’s face darkened. “So, there’s another challenger. This one’s just brimming with anger isn’t he, Kestrel?”

Kashim stashed the beam machinegun on the Kestrel’s skirt armor and a beam saber slid out of its forearm recharging rack. Kashim ignited it, and a bright blue beam sprang to life. The red mobile suit’s thrusters flashed and it headed straight for the Galaxy.

Dustin barely had time to block the incoming beam saber strike with his shield and fumbled to draw his machine’s longsword. When he finally did, the Kestrel easily avoided Dustin’s attacks. “Hold still, dammit!” he cursed as he struggled to hit his agile opponent. The Kestrel’s foot came up and knocked the longsword out of the Galaxy’s hand. A split second later, Kashim’s beam saber lopped off the other machine’s right arm and head.

Moving back from his opponent, Kashim chuckled at how easily he had disarmed his opponent. “If you can’t hold on to your weapon, how are you supposed to fight?”

Dustin’s anger exploded. He grabbed a beam saber from the Galaxy’s shoulder with his remaining arm and charged the Kestrel. Kashim parried his stab and delivered a punch to the Galaxy’s chest. His opponent responded by attempting to knee the Kestrel, but to no avail. However, as Kashim was moving to strike his opponent again, a grenade was launched from his opponent’s knee and exploded in the Kestrel’s face.

Alarms blared inside the cockpit and a message flashed across Kashim’s screen. “OUTER ARMOR CRACKED. ARMOR CAMOUFLAGE FAILING!”

“Shit,” Kashim mumbled. He stored the beam saber and fired a blast from the scattering beam cannon at the Galaxy. His opponent distracted, Kashim turned, pushed the Kestrel’s thrusters to the maximum, and headed in the direction he’d come from.

Dustin inspected the damage to his machine. It was too severe for him to pursue the red mobile suit. Growling with rage, he began heading back towards the Vindicator.

___________________________________________________

Willem watched the confrontation between the read machine and the stolen Venom units, and then he saw Dustin engage it with his Galaxy. Neither group faired well, and the red machine left the battlefield unscathed. He sighed and turned the Nova towards the Vindicator’s open hangar doors. It was a shaky landing, but the Nova’s AI did most of the work, and Willem managed to land in relatively one piece.

With the help of several mechanics, Willem managed to dock the damaged Nova into its place in the hangar. He powered down the machine and popped the hatch. As he was exiting the hangar to head to the pilot’s locker room, he saw a damaged Arklight type docking in the space next to the Nova. He lingered for a bit to see who would emerge from the out-dated model. The pilot emerged, and although their face was hidden by a helmet, Willem could tell that it was a woman.

He shrugged and continued on to the locker room. Several minutes later, as Willem, now in his regular uniform, was exiting the room, the pilot of the Hi-Mo Arklight entered the room. Willem barely had time to register the movement before the hit connected, and he was sent flying against a row of lockers. His head swam, and he could barely speak. “What the hell was that for?”

The pilot ripped off her helmet and a cascade of red hair fell out. Willem recognized her as the girl from the observation deck. She slapped Willem across the face as he tried to stand up, sending him falling back down against the lockers. “You idiot!” she said, “Where do you get off being such a lousy pilot? You couldn’t even make it off the ship before you got shot down. How do you expect to keep yourself and your teammates alive when you can’t even fight?”

Willem stood up, only to have Katrina punch him again. “What is your problem, bitch?” he remarked. She tried to punch him again, but this time Willem managed to avoid her fist.

“You wanna know what my problem is, smartass? My problem is that you got two good men killed today because you don’t know how to fight. In battle a soldier is supposed to protect their comrades! In the heat of battle, you let two other pilots get cornered and die!”

“What the hell are you talking about? I was the last one to launch, dammit!”

“That’s not the point, you were the closest to them, and you could’ve saved them! But because you’re such a crappy, selfish pilot, they died!”

Willem stood up and pushed Katrina aside. “I have no idea what you’re talking about! It seems to me like you’re just trying to put the blame on someone else, instead of accepting that it’s your fault your men died. Why don’t you grow up?”

Willem stormed past a stunned Katrina and left the room, disgusted.

________________________________________________________

“Crew, damage report, please,” Louise said as the armored bulkheads that protected the Vindicator’s bridge during battle unsealed themselves and returned to their storage positions.

“Ma’am, it appears we suffered no significant damage, though the right Eisenhower battery’s firing mechanism was damaged. Unfortunately, two of our Arklights were shot down during the battle. Neither pilot survived.”

Louise frowned. “I see. Have Lieutenant Katrina inform the pilots’ families of their deaths. Do we know where those enemy units came from?”

“The thruster emissions indicate that they came from the direction of the Boston Gravity Well. Should I plot a course, Rear Admiral?”

“What? The Boston Gravity Well is where Station Genesis is located. Why would these terrorists want to go to an abandoned Triple A military base? Plot a course immediately!”

The Boston Gravity Well was a unique occurrence in the Great Debris Belt situated above the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It was a miniature Lagrange Point, created by the opposing orbits of the Debris Belt and the Earth. Several decades ago, the Allied American Alliance, or Triple A, had built an orbital military base there. However, at the end of the Colonial Revolution the station had been abandoned due to integrity issues. What would a bunch of terrorists want there?

____________________________________________________
Allied American Alliance Clinton-class carrier Schwarzenegger, en route the Boston Gravity Well

The Zweihänder was a monster of a machine. The red and black mobile suit had thick, intimidating armor, and was covered in weapons. The machine was a tank, designed specifically to take down those few mobile suits that drew their power from a nuclear fusion reactor: the Gundams. An offensive powerhouse, the Zweihänder packed the firepower of an entire squad of mobile suits. In the hands of Major Jonas Ulrich, it was truly a thing to be feared.

Ulrich leaned against the railing of the gantry in front of his machine, staring the menacing face head on. The dim eyes of the Zweihänder glared back at him, as if the mobile suit despised its master. Of course, that wasn’t true, for the Zweihänder had saved Ulrich’s life many times in the Revolution. “Soon, my beautiful Zwei, we’ll have a chance to finish off that pathetic Kashim,” Ulrich whispered to himself and the machine.

“Major Ulrich? The bridge crew said I would find you here.”

At the voice, Ulrich turned around and came face to face with one of his pilots. The young man before him looked every bit the Triple A military poster boy. He was wearing a clean and pressed uniform, standing straight as an arrow, and had the blank look of a zombie on his face. Ulrich hated every inch of him.

“Yes, Chall, what is it?” Ulrich asked, unable to keep some sarcasm out of his voice. If the young pilot noticed, he didn’t show it.

“Sir, I was wondering when we would have a chance to engage the enemy in battle,” Chall said bluntly.

Warrant Officer Chall Toro was one of Ulrich’s newer pilots; a bright young man fresh out of officer’s training and eager to prove himself in action. How he had been drafted into a black-ops mission like this one was a mystery to Ulrich, but the Major suspected it had something to do with the fact that young Chall’s father was in Wilhelm’s inner circle, and therefore influential enough to get his idiotic son on the roster for this mission.

Ulrich sighed, “Listen, Chall, if you ask me when we’re going to go into battle one more time, I’ll send you back to boot camp. Understood?”

Chall nodded meekly and, temporarily cowed, walked away. Ulrich watched him go and glared at his back.

_______________________________________________________
Yamamoto-class battleship Leighland, en route the Boston Gravity Well

“There’s something I don’t like about the Major,” Malcolm said as his ship held formation around the larger carrier. Gazing at the Schwarzenegger, Malcolm could almost taste the presence of the ship’s captain.

“Sir, with all due respect, you don’t like anyone,” his second-mate, Victor Greenfield, said dryly.

“Still, there’s something about that man that just doesn’t sit right with me. I can tell he’s up to something.”

Victor sighed and continued his work on the holographic computer in front of him. “Sir, you punched me on the first day I was on this ship. What was your excuse again?”

The captain grumbled, “I thought you looked funny.”

“Exactly, Sir.”

Malcolm sunk into his seat and moodily glared at the view screen in front of him. “You know, they say he wiped out his own squad during the last battle of the Revolution. Maybe we shouldn’t trust him.”

“Sir, all the reports concluded that Major Ulrich’s squad was taken out by the Katana Gundam. He was absolved of all blame and promoted for his brave actions.”

“I hate you, Victor.”

“I know, sir.”

_____________________________________________________

“Brother, why must I go to sleep again?” Zachariah asked as he was escorted into the laboratory by his older siblings and an entourage of men in white coats.

Christopher looked at his brother with a pained expression, but quickly replaced it with a more heart-warming one. “Don’t worry about it, Zach. The doctors just need to run some more tests to see if everything is fine.”

“But they ran the tests the day before yesterday, and almost everyday last week, too! I wanna stay awake and play with you and sis!”

Sonya and Christopher placed a hand on each of Zachariah’s shoulders. “Don’t worry about it, little man,” Chris began, “The doctors just want to make sure that nothing’s that matter. Now, please, just go to sleep, Zach.”

The youngest sibling nodded meekly and let the scientists place him in the large grey pod that occupied one wall of the room. Straps were fastened all around him and several needles were inserted into various places on Zachariah’s body. The lid of the pod closed with a hiss, and there came a muffled cry from within.

A scientist walked up next to Sonya and Christopher. “Number 254 will be out of the pod by tomorrow, so feel free to enjoy your down time. We’ll be spending the next twelve hours re-working his combat protocols.”

Sonya fought back tears and said, “Is this really necessary? You’ve already put him in there three times this week.”

The scientist flipped through some papers on his clipboard. “Yeah, but we have to. All Super-class specimens have to be kept in peak mental condition. That means we have to put them in the pod so we have access to their internal code and data. If we let 254 go without this conditioning for too long, he’ll have a potentially fatal system crash.”

Zachariah’s white haired sister clenched her fist. “Please, don’t refer to my brother as a piece of equipment. Unlike you bastards, we actually care about what happens to him!”

She suddenly spun around and aimed to punch the scientist. Christopher barely held her back. “Jesus, Sonya! Come on, let’s get out of here. There are better things to do than pick a fight with some nerd.”

The elder sibling ushered Sonya out of the laboratory and let go once they were a few feet away from the door. The minute his hands left her, Sonya spun around and slapped her brother across the face. “Do you even care what happens to him? Do you care that what they’re doing to him is immoral and sick? Don’t you care that their fucking with our brother’s head?”

Chris glared as his sister. “Of course I care! It kills me when they put him in that monstrosity! Sonya, I’d kill to give Zach a better life, but there’s nothing we can do. Compared to those people in there, we’re powerless! There is not point in trying to pick a fight with a man who can press a button and reduce us to retards.”

Sonya shook her head at him. “You’re not the man I once knew. The real Christopher would never let anyone do this to his little brother.”

__________________________________________________
Great Debris Belt, en route to Boston Gravity Well, Dreadnaught-class warship Eternal Silence

Kashim wearily looked at the maps arrayed before him on the screen of his desk. No matter how he looked at it, there was just no way to approach Station Genesis and maintain the tactical advantage. The entire perimeter of the Boston Gravity Well was ringed with mines and booby traps, while the station itself was covered in AA guns and beam cannons. The whole thing was a deathtrap.

“Well, I guess we’re screwed,” he said to no one in particular. Kashim leaned back in his chair and covered his eyes. His senses picked up someone at the door. Sure enough, a second later a female voice asked to be let in. “It’s open,” he called back.

The door slid open and a woman in a captain’s uniform walked in. “Is it just me, or has this room gotten even messier since I was last in here?”

Kashim stood up and moved to stand in front of the woman. “What do you need, Caitlyn?”

She smiled and wrapped her arms around Kashim. “Just the warm embrace of my man to see me through the night.”

Kashim sighed and untangled himself from the wild brunette. “You know I can’t tonight. I’m swamped.”

“With what? Kashim, all you ever do is sit in this room and look at those maps! All you do is plan our next move, and then have us do it! You never take a break. I worry about you.”

“Don’t!” he snapped. “I’d love to take a break Caitlyn, but I can’t! Somebody has to find a way to stop the Sons of Liberty before they make themselves known.”

Caitlyn ran a hand through her hair, a sure sign that she was angry. “But is doesn’t have to be just you! You’re not alone, Kashim. We’re here because we know what we have to do, and we’re willing to do it.”

Kashim’s expression softened. “Have I told you how much I love you, Caitlyn?”

The two embraced and kissed. As they pulled away from each other and began moving towards the small bed in the corner, Caitlyn replied, “Not since yesterday, Hay-“

Kashim cut her off with a passionate kiss on the lips. Looking Caitlyn in the eyes, he whispered, “I love you.”

___________________________________________________
Washington, D.C., Darwin Mansion February 7th, SY 123

Wilhelm sipped at a glass of white wine. Arrayed on the screen before him were the eleven other members of the Sons of Liberty. “Gentlemen, I have some wonderful news. It appears our old friend Kashim has revealed himself. In fact, he has been so crass as to actually interfere in a battle between the Vindicator and the Leighland. So, I purpose a toast to old friends returning for round two.”

The faces on the screen remained stoic and stern. One, a heavy-set Canadian, spoke, “Wilhelm, it seems all you do is drink. Every time we see you, you’re downing wine and liquor like its water. Tell me, do you drink out your company’s board meetings?”

The other faces laughed, and Wilhelm felt the burning brand of embarrassment as he flushed. Struggling to maintain his temper, he said, “No, Charles, I do not drink at my board meetings. However, my taste for liquor is not the subject of today’s meeting.”

An Egyptian cut Wilhelm off. “No, everyone, today’s meeting is about a dead man coming back to life! Wilhelm, do you not remember the war of ten years ago? Major Ulrich killed the Crimson Eagle during the final battle. Now, you mean to tell us that the Slaughterer of Dubai is still alive? I think you’ve been drinking too much.”

“If you don’t believe me, watch the combat footage,” Wilhelm said as he pressed a button. On the other ends of the lines, Wilhelm’s cohorts were treated to images of the battle between the Vindicator’s mobile suits, the Venom prototypes, and the mysterious red machine.

There were gasps all around. Several of the members spoke at once, but the general gist of what they were saying amounted to, “How can this be? I thought we killed him!”

Wilhelm waited for the shocked cries of outrage to die down, and then spoke a simple sentence. “Yes, gentlemen, it appears we have quit the problem on our hands. Quit the problem, indeed.”

___________________________________________________
Resolve-class battleship Vindicator, en route to Boston Gravity Well

Willem was, as usual, staring blankly out into space from the observation deck when Dustin found him. “How’s it going, Willem?” he asked tentatively.

“Good, except for the fact that I almost died and was beaten up by a redhead. Jesus, Dustin, don’t you know when to leave a guy alone?” Willem shot back with venom coated words.

Dustin grimaced and sighed. He walked over to where Willem was and put a hand on his former friend’s shoulder. “Come on, Willem. You saved the ship and everyone on it! You’re practically a hero, and you should feel proud about it.”

Willem threw off Dustin’s hand and whirled around to face him. He glared at Dustin and said, “Fuck. Off. I don’t want you, or anyone else on this damn ship trying to be buddies with me! The minute we dock again, I’m out of here. I’m gonna be threw with you, the military, and everyone on this damn ship! You know, Dustin, this is all you’re damn fault, so don’t try and make things better. Just leave me alone.”

Heading for the door, Willem was stopped when Dustin sadly remarked, “You know, I didn’t want you to fight, Willem. I never wanted to put you through this.”

His attention on Dustin, Willem turned around to listen to what the blond pilot had to say. “Go on; tell me why you tricked me into piloting the Nova.”

Dustin turned to face Willem with a pained expression on his face. I can’t believe I’m actually going to do this. If I have a soul, it is surely going to hell when I die.

“Willem, I work for a very powerful group of people. This group of people has been around ever since the start of the Solar Years. They believe that humanity has begun to evolve into a new species now that we have colonized space. These evolved humans exist among us Willem, and these people believe that you are one of them.”

Willem raised on eyebrow. “Let me get this straight. You work for a bunch of people who think I’m some sort of evolved human?”

“I know it sounds strange, but hear me out, Willem. The people I work for had to find out if you really were one of these evolved humans, so they had me gain your trust and get close to you. The plan was for me to use my influence to make you the Nova’s test pilot. Once you were the machine’s pilot, we could find out if you were really what we thought you were.”

“Excuse me if I don’t believe you,” Willem said sarcastically.

Dustin’s expression showed his anxiety. “Willem, just hear me out. If it turns out you are a Newtype, you need someone to help you learn to cope with your abilities.”

“Bite me, Dustin,” Willem shot. The angry young pilot walked out of the room, thoroughly disgusted.

Now alone in the room, Dustin balled up his fist and punched the wall as hard as he could. Glaring through the pain, he continued to pound the wall until his knuckles were bleeding. I try and try and try, and still he refuses to listen. Why won’t that arrogant jackass understand that I’m trying to help him? Dammit!

________________________________________________________

Katrina leaned back in her chair in the pilot’s lounge. In front of her was a laptop with an open word processor and a cup of strong, black coffee. How am I going to do this?

Since two of her pilots were now dead, it was up to Katrina to send letters to their families, something that wasn’t easy. Add in the fact that Katrina had never had to do this before. All she had was an opening line, and it wasn’t very comforting.

“Why did this have to happen to me?” she murmured. She knew how these families would feel, and nothing would make them feel any better. In fact, anything she did write would most likely only pour salt into the wounds.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Katrina looked up and saw the face of Louise Carter, the captain of the Vindicator. “How’s it going, Lt. Carrillo?”

Katrina bolted up and saluted her captain. “It’s not going so well, Captain?”

Louise chuckled and waved her hand. “Don’t bother with formalities right now. I just came to tell you not to worry about sending a letter of condolence to the families of the men who died today. I just received a message from the higher ups to keep any casualties that have occurred so far from the public. No use in causing a panic in addition to the grief the people will be feeling because of the attack.”

To say the least, Katrina was confused. “Ma’am, I don’t understand. Why are we hiding the deaths of soldiers who died to defend the colonies?”

“Katrina, you’re too young to understand the way the military and politics interact. If the government acknowledges that people have died during the pursuit of the terrorists who attacked Colossus, then it will appear as if a mere group of anti-social extremists can defeat the proud Colonial Militia. We have to make it appear as though we have the situation under control and are going to swiftly punish the offenders.”

“But it just doesn’t seem right to lie to the public,” Katrina protested.

Louise nodded grimly and replied, “I know, but sometimes it has to be done. In the Revolution, the public was never told the truth about how hard fought the war was. It has taken ten years for just a portion of the truth to be revealed.”

“Maybe we got in over our heads when we joined the military, huh, Louise?” Katrina wondered.

“Maybe we did, Katrina. Maybe we did.”

________________________________________________________
Allied American Alliance Clinton-class carrier Schwarzenegger, en route the Boston Gravity Well

“What do you mean; they’ll catch up to us before we get to Station Genesis?” Ulrich said incredulously. He tapped his fingers on the arm rest of his captain’s chair and glared at Malcolm’s face on the view screen.

The lower ranking officer, unlike most people Ulrich glared at, matched the Major’s gaze with his own. “What I mean, Major, is that the enemy force pursuing us will not only catch up with us, but will actually be ahead of us by the time we reach the objective point.”

Ulrich growled. “And just what exactly do you want me to do about it?”

Malcolm flipped through some papers he held in his hand. “Well, sir, our orders just state that the stolen units need to be at the rendezvous point in time, not the whole fleet. Perhaps a detachment of our main force could break off and, by using dummy balloons, trick our pursuers into following them.”

There was a moment of silence while Ulrich thought over Malcolm’s proposal. The Major had a feeling that, if he attacked the colonial ship, he could draw out Kashim. Ulrich smiled a dangerous smile and said, “That just might work, Captain Malcolm. You, the Reagan, and the McCain will continue on to Station Genesis. Meanwhile, my ship, with the help of several dummies, will start heading to the moon and draw the enemy away from you.”

“Are you sure that you want to do this by yourself, Major?” came the uncertain reply.

There was no way to hide his anticipation of the coming battle. “Oh, Captain Malcolm, I’m quite sure that I want do to this. Don’t worry about a thing; just keep heading for the rendezvous point.”

Malcolm saluted and the screen went blank.

Ulrich grinned devilishly. Oh, Kashim, I’m about to do something extremely wicked.

Turning to his executive officer, Ulrich ordered, “Have Warrant Officer Toro placed in command of the advance team. When we go into combat, I want him to be the first in and the last out of the furball.”

Maybe that’ll teach the little brat a lesson, Ulrich thought evilly.

____________________________________________________
Great Debris Belt, en route to Boston Gravity Well, Dreadnaught-class warship Eternal Silence

Arrayed before him was a holographic map of the Great Debris Belt. A flashing blue triangle marked the location of the Eternal Silence, and a yellow one the location of the colonial battleship. Currently, the Silence was roughly six hundred kilometers behind and above the Vindicator, easily within arm’s reach of their mobile suit. A red triangle represented the terrorist ships that attacked Colossus.

“Alright, everybody,” Kashim began, addressing the bridge crew around him, “we know where they are, the question is: where are they going? Any thoughts?”

Caitlyn, in a noticeably ruffled captain’s jacket, pointed to the moon. “There are plenty of places to hide on the moon, and embassies for all of the major superpowers. Maybe they’re headed there. It’d make sense to me to hide behind my government.”

“Except you don’t have a government anymore,” blurted out the helmsman, a well-built man named Hans. “It’s obvious they’re gonna try and wait out that colonial ship in the Debris Belt. If you can’t find your enemy, you can’t kill him.”

“True, Hans, but remember that they stole the Serpent series prototypes,” Kashim retorted, “If they stole them, that means they probably intend to use them. Most likely, they’ll be taking their new toys to someone. The question is, who?”

The radar operator, a girl named Felicity, spoke up, “Well, they could be going to Station Genesis. It’s abandoned, no one ever goes near that area, and the station itself is relatively intact. Besides, that position is easily defendable from all angles of attack.”

Kashim shook his head. “No, they’d need Triple A military codes to get with a kilometer of Genesis. Unless these guys are actually supported by the Americans, I doubt they’ll go there. No, I think the moon is much more likely. Even though there are only six official cities on the moon, we all know its more like sixty. Between smuggling dens, pirate hangouts, and refugee centers, there’s virtually limitless ways of going undetected on the moon for a good long while.”

Caitlyn gripped the edge of the map projector. “So, should we start heading towards the moon?”

Again, Kashim shook his head. “No, we’ll stay with the colonists. Wilhelm’s up to something, and I can tell that ship is part of it somehow.”

Oh, Kashim, I’m about to do something extremely wicked.

The brown haired man’s eyes widened. Kashim stumbled backward and hit the wall, desperately trying to hold on to something to keep from falling down. Caitlyn and several other people rushed over to try and help him up, but Kashim waved them off. “Leave me alone, I’m fine. Just a little dizzy is all.”
Shit, Ulrich’s still alive. Dammit! I knew I should’ve checked for a body. That bastard’s probably behind all of this.
_______________________________________________________
Niflheim colony, capitol of the United Colonial Republic, Lagrange Point 3, February 8th, SY 0123

“My fellow colonists,” began the Prime Minister of the Colonial Republic, Martin Lawrence, “I grieve with you over the tremendous loss of life in the terrorist attack on the Colossus colony. The whole world grieves with you. So many lives have been lost, and so many families have been torn apart by these tragic events, it may seem like we can never recover and return to our former glory. It may seem like we will never be able to rebuild our colony, and bury our lost ones. It may seem like we have been brought to our knees, and we are now weak and wounded. I am here to tell you that no, that is not the case. The terrorists who attacked Colossus want you to feel that way, and only by thinking and feeling that way about our proud nation’s current state will we truly be weak and on our knees.”

Lawrence stopped and examined the massive crowd that filled the courtyard of the Colonial Parliament’s Capitol building. The people of the colonies waited for his next words, just as he wanted them to. Though the thousands of people before him each felt sorrow and grief over the attacks on Colossus, he was speaking today to change those feelings of mourning into a focused unity, with which he would lead the people to a new era. Today they would learn that pain and sorrow do not last, and that happiness and pride would come again.

“Rest assured, my fellow colonists,” he began again, “that I can hear your sobbing, the world can hear your sobbing, and the people who dared to commit such an act can hear you! You, despite all your pain and hardship, are the only ones strong enough to bring these foul beasts to justice! You shall have your revenge on the terrorists who did this, for even as we speak our military is combing the Earth Sphere, hunting down these criminals. They can run, but I can assure you that there will never be a place to hide. These people who harbor such feelings of hatred and anger towards us can flee to the ends of the Earth, but no matter what, we will find them. In fact, not only will we find them, but we will make them feel the pain you have had to feel. No, not just that. When we hunt these dogs down, for we will find them, I, no, we will make them experience our pain a hundredfold! And when we are done with them, they will beg for mercy, but will they receive any? No, they will not! Did they show us mercy? No! We have always been taught an eye for an eye. If that is truly the case, then we shall take as many eyes from them as they took from us, and we will let the whole world know that we will hunt down anyone who dares to defile our country and harm our people! We are the colonies, and we will have vengeance!”

Lawrence gripped the podium before him until his knuckles were white. He had the people on his side now. After the applause died down, he continued, “In response to the brutal and unprovoked attack on our people, I am announcing the formation of Taskforce Manhunter, an organization dedicated to securing our country against threats from both within and without, and hunting down those uncivilized savages that dared to earn our ire. Taskforce Manhunter will be the axe with which we execute our enemies, and the shield with which we shall defend our country! Now, my friends and fellow colonists, I will leave the rest of today’s event to the man in charge of Taskforce Manhunter, General Bradley Kimble!”

As a wave of applause and cheers went through the crowd, Lawrence stepped down from the podium and allowed a large, muscular man in a military uniform to take over. The General shuffled through some papers, and then began. “As the Prime Minister stated, Taskforce Manhunter is devoted to two goals. The first is to secure our borders against terrorist attacks from inside and outside of our country. This will involve increased security in and around all colonies, a build-up of the armed forces, and a much stricter foreign policy. To meet these needs, there will be a major restructure of the military in the coming months. There will also be much stricter security in all sensitive areas of colonies, with several other increases in security throughout other colonies. Do not be concerned, however, for all of these actions are being taken solely to protect the people of the colonies. Our second goal is to hunt down the terrorists who attacked the Colossus colony, and bring them to justice. Already, Taskforce Manhunter ships are scouring the Earth Sphere for these terrorists, and we will soon find them. In addition to the terrorists, who attacked Colossus, Taskforce Manhunter will seek out any terrorists who threaten the colonies and bring them to justice. We will seek out evil and destroy it, for that is our duty and mission. Thank you for your time; that is all.”

As Kimble left the stage, Lawrence whispered to one of his aids. “Wow, what a fantastic public speaker. He’d be such a hard act to follow.”

Lawrence got into his black limousine and motioned for his driver to head back to his estate. Looking at his aid, he said, “Contact Wilhelm and tell him that Phase One is complete. Also, have the people at Colonial Industries step up production of the Viper.”

The aid nodded and quickly rushed away.

______________________________________________________
Resolve-class battleship Vindicator, en route to Boston Gravity Well

Louise surveyed the information before her. According to the latest data, a majority of the ships they were pursuing had broken off from the rest of the group and were now heading for the moon. Glancing at her radar operator, Louise said, “Trent, are you sure this is accurate?”

“Yes ma’am, I just checked it a minute ago, and it’s right. They’re not even trying to hide their heat signatures.”

“It’s probably a trap…but we don’t really have that many options available to us. The odds of them having some hideout are better than them somehow having access to Genesis. Helmsman, follow those ships that are heading for the moon. Keep the crew on alert status and make sure that the ship’s weapons are ready to fire at a moment’s notice.”

“Roger, ma’am.”

As Louise sat back in her chair, she wondered if she was making the right choice. Despite all her years of experience, the past hours had been tense and full of stress. She highly doubted that she was performing at her best, and even if she was, the situation itself was cause enough for someone to make mistakes.

______________________________________________________
To be continued…
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo
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Strike Wing
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I hope to see more of this Gundam fic of yours, it's pretty good and a few spelling errors here and there can happen, and can be fixed easily, so that's no biggy. So far I'm very interested in this story. Keep it up. :D
"Ore ga...! Ore-tachi ga... -GUNDAM DA!!!!"
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Folken Fanel
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*Status Update 5/30/08*

I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that I have not abandoned this fanfic, nor will I anytime soon. I am working on completing Chapter Four and hope it will be ready within the next three weeks or so, if I take into account my writing habits. I still have a commitment to this project, and I won't stop until its finished.

The bad news, on the other hand, is that the story beyond Chapter Ten or so is really screwed up. I know how I want to begin and end this story (Chapters 1-10 being the beginning, and Chapters 40-50 being the end), but the middle has become something of a quagmire. Between adding and taking away key plot threads, changing the order of events, and introducing characters who weren't a part of the original storyline, Chapters 11-39 have become a sea filled to the bring with the flotsam and jetsam of my creative powers. However, I am taking steps to get Neo back on track and with regular updates. Wish me luck.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo
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Big B
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Cool.
I can understand the need for extra characters to make a story work.
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Strike Wing
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Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:27 pm
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Good luck man, hope you straighten things out. I too have the same problem with stories too.. the middle is jumbled and you're trying to make it all work. But you won't know until you do it. :)

Can't wait to read more. :)
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Folken Fanel
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*Status Update 6/22/08*

Well, I've been doing all lot of work on Neo since my last status update. I now have Chapters 11-20 completely planned out and outlined in their final forms. Some characters made the cut, others didn't. You won't know till you read it. Concerning Chapter Four, expect it up within the week. It is currently at 50% completion and by the end of tonight it should be at 60%.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to announce that after Chapter Four, next to the episode list in the first post there will be a constant status indicator thingy next to the episode name. It should look something like this:

Chapter Number/Chapter Title/Status (Planned, Percent Complete, or Complete)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Neo
It's common knowledge that 99.99% of users on Youtube are ZOINKING idiots.
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