You did warn about violence, and you indeed do have it. I just want to point out that when writing, try to avoid using gory details for their own sake. If you use them to make a point, like giving Shinn some serious angst as you apparently are doing here, then it is acceptable. But please be mindful there is always the threat of overdramatizing scenes like that.
-We will not be caught by surprise!
*Almost everyone I've killed uttered similar last words.
-Then I am glad once again that you are on my side.
*They've often said that too.
In my little opinion this is much better than Destiny, a lot. Having earth hit by Junion and Junious reminds me of Gundam X were the Space Revolutionary Army dropped colonies resulting in 90% of earths population being decimated.
On to mecha, I'm not really sure what the impulse looks like, you don't say whether or not its the same as the blast pack or what, so draw it! . you should finish all the mecha designs for the current episodes and the next two, so we can see what they all look like.
It's a little slow but the quality of the writing is very good, save for the mistakes per paragraph... so I recommend you ask us to peer edit it. (We can catch things you miss.) I'm really glad that you gave Izak and Deraka (please forgive any misspells) a lot more screen time than Destiny did. Their really cool characters that deserve more attention.
Relationships, I don't see to much progress in this area, Classical Gundam always has some very interesting relationships. Oh and before you go and rant on how I'm so oblivious this is a review for Episode 1-8.
Overall, so far I like this series a lot better than Destiny so I'm hoping that you don't screw it up like Destiny or take it too far (no Ideon endings please!!!) Well keep at it and expect a review of 9-16 soon, I hope.
Hows this for my second post eh?
“The school of the undefeated East!”
“The winds of the king!”
“Zenshin!”
“Keiretsu!”
“Tempa Kyoran!”
“Look! The East is burning red!”
-Master Asia
@Antares: I try to make sure everything has a point, one of the reasons I'm simply summarizing instead of full-out writing the story is to keep it as concise as possible... I have an unfortunate tendency to ramble with it comes to writing. I'm hoping to use violence as effectively in Fates as Tomino did in F91 and Victory... to really bring home just how horrible war is. Gundam Seed and Destiny may have been themed "anti-war" ...but they still romanticized war, which is a very unfortunate thing to do.
@SolidSpidr: Whoops... sorry 'bout that, I've updated the encyclopedia with a bunch o' stuff, including the art for the Impulse--which was actually one of the first ones I drew! I'll probably re-draw it in a "pose" of some sort, and possibly modify the backpack. I also suggest you check out the GIANT "Image 4" of the Black Tri-Star Vandal... it's pretty cool, I think. I find myself looking at it far more often than I should. As for the rest of the mobile suits... a lot of them are the same as they are in destiny, like the Gaia and Saviour... so making images for those isn't high on my priority list.
I haven't seen Ideon so I can't say the ending won't be similar... if you were to compare my planned ending with the ending of any other anime, I'd say it is most similar to the ending of a certain Gundam series, though if I were to say which one it would spoil everything. By using other series' as points of reference (and borrowing various plot elements) I hope to create a solid story all-the-way through... I don't forsee any ~big~ problems with that.
As for relationships... Yeah, I guess I really haven't developed them near as much as I probably should have... of course, since I'm just summarizing maybe it means that certain interactions are the reader's responsibility to imagine? I'll try and work on the characterization, even if I only have a little it'll still be more than Destiny... I have BIG plans for Luna, which I think will turn out cool, if depressing.
*ahem*
And here's episode 13... since we've pretty much caught up to the point where I am, writing this, the rate-of-release is going to drop somewhat... there won't be any more instances of me posting multiple episodes at once (sorry). I'm having a bit of trouble with ep.15, so that's slowing me down a bit.
As for typos/spelling mistakes... PLEASE let me know about them when you find them; I'm writing this in Open Document Text, and the spellcheck sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Also, mid-way through writing it I switched the language from English English to American English.
To the readers, once you're caught up with what I've posted (especially now that Im getting into a 1-episode-at-a-time pace) it'd be really helpful if you simply posted some impressions of each new episode after I post it... if it's too slow, too fast, too hard to follow, too confusing, etc. Peer-edit it, so-to-speak, but not as detailed as real peer-editing (which can be a mess). That way I can hopefully fix up problems with a new episode before I post the next, which is a helluva lot easier than working several episodes back.
A Strike-II Gundam breaks down from the clouds and flies over the coastline. The pilot examines multiple screens that pop up and disappear on the monitor displaying enhanced zoomed-in images of the terrain below. The pilot presses a button and all of the small screens disappear save one, which expands to a much greater size; on the coast of the Andaman Sea, no more than a dozen kilometers north of Phuket Island, lies the Minerva, dead in the water. Because of the loss of one of its wings, the Minerva lies at an slight angle, smoke lazily pouring out of the side of the hull and into the sky. The Strike II descends and circles the Minerva in a lazy oval; the pilot visually confirming its ZAFT registry. The Strike II makes one final fly-by of the Minerva, ascends, and returns to the Takemikazuchi.
Shinn Asuka is led into a small camp in the forest--no more than a haphazard collection of tents--and is thrown to the ground, bound and gagged. He tries to lift himself into a sitting position, but his legs are bound together as well and he falls back down. The men that brought Shinn to the camp laugh derisively and walk past the captive ZAFT pilot. Shinn groans, and tries to lift himself again. This time, a young girl (appearing to be roughly 10 or 11 years of age) approaches Shinn and helps him shift his weight. Shinn starts to thank her, but she runs away without saying a word. Shinn leans his back against a tree and has a short flashback of his fight with the Windams. Shinn quietly calls himself an idiot, and asks himself how he's going to escape.
Shinn observes the small camp: all of the men carry automatic weaponry, some guns in better condition than others, and most of them are scarred or bandaged or injured in some other way. Contrary to what he expected from a military camp, most of the people Shinn saw were either women or children. A thin man holding a slightly-rusted AK-47 automatic rifle stands a few meters away from Shinn, watching his every move. Shinn sighs, and closes his eyes. In the center of the camp, near a small cooking fire, a trio of large, older men converse. One of them thinks they should let Shinn go because they don't want any trouble with ZAFT, the other toys with the idea of holding Shinn hostage and using him to get weapons, food and medical supplies. The third and shortest man, speaking with an air of authority the other two lack, speaks up and says that they will keep Shinn in the camp until ZAFT comes for him, if they come, and what happens to him will depend on the situation. The other two men bow their heads slightly in acquiescence
An old Alliance model Strike-Dagger steps out of the jungle and onto a rocky outcropping. Three short beams lance out from within the dense forest and strike the Dagger in the torso, melting through the armor and killing the pilot. The Dagger falls to its knees and then collapses on the ground with a thundering crash. A single ZAKU-prototype mobile suit exits the forest and stands on the same rocky outcropping the Dagger had been, and rotates it's large pink mono-eye sensor back and forth to get a good survey of the area. Inside the cockpit, Heine Westenfluss wipes sweat from his forehead and sighs, complaining that the jungle is too humid. The ZAKU's foot kicks at the downed Dagger, and Heine wonders what the Alliance military is doing in the middle of the jungle. From his position above the tree-canopy, Heine spots a pair of Daggers, painted dark green-and-brown to match the terrain, move down the slope of the hill toward the coast. One of the Daggers spots the second ZAKU and opens fire. Before the ZAFT pilot can respond, the two Daggers fire off a half-dozen shots, cutting through the ZAKU's left shoulder, severing the arm, and incinerating several nearby trees.
Trying desperately to escape, the ZAKU boosts upward and tries to fly backward in the air, but is hit in the lower-chest region and crashes into the dense forest. The two Daggers approach the incapacitated ZAKU, but a pair of short beam-blasts destroy the head of the first Dagger, and a beam-tomahawk penetrates all the way through the second Dagger's torso from behind. Heine pulls his beam-tomahawk out from the Dagger and angles the barrel of his beam rifle at the cockpit hatch of the first Dagger just as the pilot emerges with his hands up. Rather than a traditional pilot-suit, the Dagger's pilot is clad in an archaic olive-drab uniform. Heine wonders what the Dagger pilots were thinking, to fight in such an unmanageable place, and looks up at the perpetually-gray sky above.
A tiny green light trailing smoke streaks up from a point east of Heine's position, igniting and expanding into a signal flare. Heine fires his beam rifle three times, destroying both of the Dagger's arms and one of its legs before shouting at the enemy pilot to leave. As the Dagger's pilot flees, Heine opens up his ZAKU's cockpit hatch and shouts at the allied pilot, now struggling to extricate his one-armed mobile suit from the dense foliage, ordering him to return to the Minerva and inform them to head to their current position to recover the Impulse Gundam and its pilot. Heine then helps the other ZAKU stand, and watches it fly back to the Minerva before leaping above the trees and making his way to the source of the signal-flare.
A long line of officers snap salutes and Cagalli Yula Atha as she leads Talia Gladys across the deck of ORB's flagship, the carrier Takemikazuchi. Captain Todaka orders a large company of engineers to help with repairs to the Minerva, and to provide the ZAFT vessel with any additional resources they need for repairs. Talia looks across the narrow gap of sea separating the Takemikazuchi from the Minerva and sighs, saying that for all the faith Durandel put in the Minerva, her first mission as a member of FAITH is off to a poor start. Cagalli tells her not to worry too much about it; the Minerva will be as good as new in no time. Talia laughs a bit at this, and reminds Cagalli that the Minerva is new.
Inside of a meeting room on the port-side of the Takemikazuchi's bridge-tower, Talia and Arthur sit down at the table. Cagalli looks out across the Andaman sea through one of the wide floor-to-ceiling windows for a moment before joining them, her finger softly running across a small pearl-ring on her left hand. Sitting down opposite Talia, Cagalli motions for the captain to look outside. Cagalli comments that in the half-month since the impact the skies have been cloudy. The sun has not been seen anywhere on the Earth since the asteroid fell. The trees will die soon, and much of the planet's farmland is completely unusable--it's only a matter of time before famine and disease claim more lives than the impact Cagalli frowns and continues her description of the planet's status, informing Talia that the political situation might be just as bad.
Electromagnetic interference has utterly disabled all forms of long-range communication; even radio waves can scarcely cover more than a few kilometers Because of the perpetual cloud cover no one can establish a direct laser-link with any of the communications satellites, and it doesn't look like any real form of mass-communication will be present on Earth until long after everyone is dead. Cagalli's frown worsens as she continues; the Earth Alliance is all but destroyed. Shortly after the impact the Eurasian Confederation seceded and the Atlantic Federation simply ceased communication with anyone. There are reports of various inter and multi-national wars throughout Europe and Africa, and given that most of the undamaged food supplies and agricultural centers in eastern Asia (controlled by the Eurasian Confederation and the Democratic Republic of China, respectively) escaped direct harm, that area will become a battleground soon. The Chinese government is holding its people together fairly well, but the story is different in the surrounding nations.
Cagalli motions at the window again, this time directing Talia's gaze to the coast. As Cagalli speaks, fleeting images of camouflaged soldiers creeping through the jungle appear. Cagalli says that many South-east Asian countries have fallen into a state of civil war: the nations have severely limited resources that the government wishes to keep for itself to the detriment of the common man. This oppression has forced many civilians to take up arms against the government in order to survive. Cagalli grimaces at this point, commenting that the civil war in the Thai peninsula has been getting increasingly violent. It's almost enough, she says, to long for the days when people fought each other over petty ideals of humanity, rather than food.
As the sun sets behind the trees, Shinn sits cross-legged in the dirt. The girl that had helped him earlier approaches him again, bringing him some soup. Shinn thanks her from before and asks for her name; she introduces herself as Sumalee Narong. Shinn asks her if she knows what's going to happen to him, and she says she doesn't know. Shinn doesn't say anything else, but Sumalee simply stands staring at him for a long period of time. Sumalee eventually musters the courage to ask Shinn if he's really from space, and Shinn laughs, asking her if "that's all it is." Shinn smiles and starts telling her about life in the colonies. When it gets dark, a woman calls Sumalee over to her to help her carry water to the camp from a nearby stream. The little girl leaps up and turns to smile at Shinn, saying that he's now her friend and calling him a "space-man". Shinn shrugs and makes a non-committal response as Sumalee runs off towards her mother.
At the site of the crashed Impulse Gundam, Heine helps a group of ORB engineers lift the fallen mobile suit up from the ground and load it onto a large skiff. A ZAKU pilot runs up to Heine and tells him that there's still no sign of the pilot. Heine groans and stares at the Gundam, commenting that the pilot sure is troublesome; it's appropriate that such an impulsive pilot would be given the Impulse Gundam. Heine sighs and tells the ORB workers to hurry up; they will have to wait to continue their search for the missing pilot until the morning.
Shinn watches absently as the little girl's mother returns to the outskirts of the camp carrying the water from the nearby stream; Sumalee, also carrying water runs past her mother to the center of the camp. The Woman stops for a moment at the edge of the forest and sets the bucket of water down, sighing; Shinn stares in shock as a brown hand seems to appear from out of nowhere, reaching out through the trees with a sharp knife and cutting through the woman's throat. With a soft choking sound the woman's headfalls backward, spraying a fountain of blood forward at a group of small children that had been playing on the ground nearby. Before anyone has time to scream, a company of soldiers rapidly emerge from the forest shooting a hailstorm of bullets around the camp. Tents fall to the ground as the wooden poles supporting them are shredded into a cloud of splinters.
The guerrillas rush toward the attacking soldiers, attacking them with bullets, knives and their bare hands as the woman and children flee the camp. Shinn ducks and tries to crawl away. Shinn manages to find a stray knife and cut his bonds, but before he can run away a small figure rushes past him. Turning, Shinn sees Sumalee running into the fray crying, shouting "mother" over and over again. Sumalee makes it to her mother's body and presses her head against her mothers (which was cut through with such force that it was nearly completely severed from the neck) and drenching herself in her mother's blood. As the guerrillas chase off the attacking government forces, a lone soldier approaches Sumalee with a knife in hand--preoccupied with the other attackers, none of the defending guerrillas notice.
Shinn shouts a warning and runs at Sumalee, pushing her out of the way just as the soldier thrusts his knife forward, burying the blade deep in the soft flesh in the center of Shinn's elbow. Shinn screams in pain and punches the soldier in the face, and a defending guerrilla--the old man that seemed to be the leader of the group--fires his pistol at the back of the soldier's head splattering blood across Shinn's face. Shocked by the carnage, Shinn takes a step back. Shinn trips and falls down; his hands hit the ground in an effort to support his weight and land in a warm, sticky material. Shinn's eyes dilate and his body freezes. Slowly, he looks down to find his hands resting inside the hollowed remains of a massacred child. The child's chest has been completely torn out; Shinn's eyes rest on his pale, lifeless eyes and Shinn screams in horror.
Next Episode: Shinn's Sorrow
Last edited by Mwulf on Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ideon ends with a bang...a BIG bang, the origanal ending Tomino proposed and used it the second ideon movie, everyone and everything dies. Yeah please don't pull an Ideon. after everything blows up it is eventually reformed into a new universe, aka U.C. century of Gundam, and if you wanna know Amaro and Judau actually save the U.C. from Ideon in the manga Mobile suit Gundam vs Giant God: Counterattack of Gigantis. On a less grim note of everything dieing, can't wait for the next Episode, The man from Jupiter, irony is I'm currently writing a fanfic about the C.E. era centered around Jupiter called Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The War beyond The Stars, cheeesy title, I know.
“The school of the undefeated East!”
“The winds of the king!”
“Zenshin!”
“Keiretsu!”
“Tempa Kyoran!”
“Look! The East is burning red!”
-Master Asia
Interesting... Jupiter plays a decent role in my story... I've added descriptions of some of the jovian stuff--as well as a map of the Jupiter Sphere--so let me know if it makes sense... I was kind of rushed and distracted writing it up, so I'm not sure how it reads.
And without further ado, I present the next episode!
A dull orange sun slowly rises over the sea; a small white bird squats and flays past. Leaning against a tree watching the waves crash against the beach below, Shinn Asuka closes his eyes and clenches his jaw as he tries to forget the scenes of the previous night.
A large man approaches Shinn from behind and tosses a simple handgun at his feet; Shinn lifts the weapon and stares at. Rotating it around in his hands, he marvels at how an object so small and lightweight could create such pain and sorrow. Shinn tosses the gun back down on the ground, recalling the feeling of his hands as they unwillingly buried themselves in the flesh the children who had been killed in the night. Their faces had been frozen in smile--all of them were killed before they had time to feel even the slightest twinge of fear.
The large man that brought Shinn the gun stares at the ZAFT pilot and sighs before sitting down beside him. Introducing himself to Shinn as Klahan, he thanks Shinn for saving Sumalee's life during the attack. Shinn fails to respond. Klahan picks up the pistol Shinn had discarded and asks him if he will fight with them. Shinn opens his eyes and glares at Klahan for a moment before turning away. Shinn tells Klahan it's not his fight. Klahan tells Shinn that the government is hoarding all of the food for themselves--the people are starving. He says that their former leaders would sooner see all of the people die than share what little resources are left. Shinn leans back and states that it has nothing to do with him. Klahan stands up, sighs, and tells Shinn that he won't force him to do anything he doesn't want. Shinn says nothing; Klahan tosses the gun onto the dirt in front of Shinn and tells him it's a gift.
Shinn leans back on the tree and closes his eyes. Sumalee walks up to Shinn and sits down beside him, but says nothing. Shinn opens his eyes and looks at her; the girl's face is expressionless. Shinn frowns as he remembers Sumalee's mother collapsing in a pool of blood as the soldiers attacked the camp the night before, and does not speak.
In the port of Penang, inside the borders of the ORB-allied Malaysian Kingdom, dozens of mechanics in small, aquatic mini-mobile suits swarm across the hull of the Minerva welding new armor plating across the vessel. Hundreds of tiny cables are strewn from the dock to the ship as it is thoroughly repaired and resupplied. To ORB fleet led by the Takemikazuchi sits at anchor just outside the port. On the Minerva's mobile suit launch deck, the remains of the Impulse Gundam are lifted into an upright position. Walking down from the catwalk to the deck of the hangar, captain Talia Gladys asks a mechanic how long the repairs will take. He responds that the Impulse will not be operational for another month with the resources they have. Though the physical form of the Impulse Gundam escaped harm, much of the internal circuitry and mechanics were damaged in the crash; it's a miracle that Shinn survived.
Talia sighs at the mechanic's last words as Heine approaches her, saluting. Talia asks Heine if the search teams have found any evidence of Shinn. Heine informs her that Shinn Asuka's parachute had been located, but there was no sign of the pilot. Further exploration into the coastal jungles will prove difficult as the Thai Republican Army has mobilized it's troops in the area for the task of rooting out and eliminating "rebels" but the government troops are also targeting the ZAFT search teams. Talia sighs and Arthur asks her if they should list Shinn as officially MIA--missing in action--but Talia tells him to wait just a little while longer.
In the break-room of the Minerva, Rey za Burrel and Lunamaria Hawke talk to each other about Shinn. Luna asks Rey if he thinks Shinn really survived, to which Rey responds that Shinn is most certainly alive. Rey is utterly serious when he declares Shinn's status, prompting Luna to groan and ask him how he can be so certain. Rey's face loosens and he smiles at her slightly, saying it's just a feeling. Lunamaria sighs and leans back in her chair, commenting that Rey's smiles always seem fake; Rey laughs softly and tells her he can't help it. Meyrin wanders over and starts to speak with her sister; Rey picks up his drink and prepares to indulge when the sound of a loud explosion is heard--the shock of which causes Rey's glass to fly out of his hand and shatter on the deck. Rey quickly regains his composure. Luna and Meyrin, startled by Rey's actions, ask him what's wrong. Rey smiles and shakes his head, telling them it's nothing. Luna and Meyrin leave it at that and resume their conversation; Rey's gaze intensifies and he softly tells Shinn to be careful.
Running through the Jungle, a giant explosion shakes the ground, sending Shinn flying upward through the air and crashing into a mound of dirt. Sumalee runs to Shinn to help him up, but Klahan grabs her arm and then proceeds to forcibly extricate Shinn from the ground and drag him away at breakneck speed. A pair of heavy-artillery shells slam into the ground nearby, exploding into tiny craters and sending chunks of dirt, rock and wood flying in ever direction. Dirt from a blast splatters across Shinn's face and he looks around. The ground continues to shudder as round-after-round of artillery slam into the area. Shinn shakes, terrified--he is barely able to stand so great is the shock. Shinn haltingly manages to ask, at no one in particular, what is going on. Klahan grimaces and slaps Shinn across the face with a large, gloved hand. Klahan shouts at Shinn, saying "you're a soldier, aren't you! This is war." And Shinn simply stares at the increasing violence around him, seemingly unable to comprehend the reality of the situation.
Grimacing, Klahan grabs the mumbling ZAFT pilot by the collar and drags him off. Shinn's face is frozen with he eyes open; his mouth opens and closes but no sounds come out. The shelling stops for a moment and Klahan looks up and asks himself if it's over. Sumalee grabs onto his leg and looks at Shinn sorrowfully. A high-pitched screeching noise starts in the distance and quickly gets louder and louder. Klahan throws Shinn and Sumalee into one of the blast-craters and jumps on top of them, covering the two with his considerable torso. A pair of Skygraspers fly overhead at low altitude and fire off pairs of tiny rockets. the rockets scream over the jungle and erupt into long trails of bright-orange liquid fire--incinerating everything they touch. One of the guerrillas runs past a flaming tree and his shoulder catches the flame. When he tries to smother the flames with his hand, the fire spreads to his hands; everything the flames touch is consumed.
Several women and children huddle down on the ground beside a large outcropping of rock. Klahan prepares to lead Shinn and Sumalee to the sheltered group when the sudden rumbling of a dozen tanks roars over the battlefield. The women and children look up in horror as the treads of a tank rise out over the rock outcropping and come smashing down on top of them. Klahan screams in anger and sorrow at the sight, dropping to his knees. A guerrilla runs at the tank with a bomb strapped to his chest and detonates himself in front of the armored vehicle--but the tank emerges from the blast unscathed.
As the tanks and fighters continue to bombard the fleeing guerrillas, killing them indiscriminately, Klahan takes Sumalee and Shinn and together the three of them run as fast as they can away from the battlefield. Small tears fall from Klahan's eyes and the burly Thai man mutters a swift prayer for the comrades he's leaving behind, though it is almost a certainty that all of them will die. Sumalee grabs on to Shinn's sleeve, and for the first time Shinn notices his her. He looks into Sumalee's eyes and he sees himself, back in ORB, watching his family die. Tears run down Shinn's cheeks and he asks himself what the hell he's been doing.
On the bridge of the Minerva dozens of Malay news reports flicker across the various monitors, displaying foreboding news of rising military tensions with the Thai Republic. Talia frowns and says that the Minerva cannot afford to stay in the country any longer, and orders the Minerva to set sail for the United Emirates of ORB. Meyrin notifies Talia that the Takemikazuchi and it's fleet will form-up around the Minerva for the voyage, and Arthur asks Talia if she's certain. Talia says that there's no helping it; they had already delayed far too long. Talia orders Arthur to officially list ZAFT pilot Shinn Asuka as Missing-In-Action as of November 1, CE 78.
On a burnt out portion of the Andaman coast, on a ridge overlooking the sea, a vast section of forest has been scarred and burned beyond recognition. Craters litter the landscape, bodies lie everywhere in varying shades of black and red; small fires still linger at the periphery and tank-treads criss-cross the area. Hundreds of black ravens--crows--squawk loudly as the flap through the air and hop along the ground from body to body, picking at the burnt and twisted flesh with their sharp beaks. Near a blasted-out tree stump at the edge of the ridge a single black crow lands on an abandoned pistol--with a small human finger clutched in its beak.
Next Episode: The Man From Jupiter
Last edited by Mwulf on Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Well since 15 is going to be done any day (not really as you've stated) I will just put in my two cents for 8-14.
Mecha: The Jupiter guys are here so we get to see some Janissaries, Hussars and Centurions but they don't do to much, just float around. Shinn barrows a ZAKU and looks like he's going to fight back.
oh and Windams!!!
Story: Well I figured I would see Neo, but the fact he's in cahoots with Durundel is just great! Also like the fact you gave him more than a little line across his face for a certain accedent. Yzak and Deraka kill more terrorists, again but for the good of the world! Good job having Meer not become lascus, that was just odd in Destiny. Oh yeah I remebered, the only person from seed that has said anything is Cagali, really thought I would see some others, oh well, good job focusing on Shinn and not diverting to the other guys.
Romance: Well Durundel did tell Talia to be careful, so......ROMANCE! otherwise not much but it IS something.
Gore: well this is simply to tell you this: I know your trying to replicate F91 on the war is bad factor but really? Did Shinn have to put his hand in that!? That I think was a little over the top but otherwise its alright.
Well its another good run of episodes and I'm egarly awaiting the next one, altough that may take a few weeks
so current grade: four shocked smilies out of five.
“The school of the undefeated East!”
“The winds of the king!”
“Zenshin!”
“Keiretsu!”
“Tempa Kyoran!”
“Look! The East is burning red!”
-Master Asia
News! I have ingested the requisite quantity of garlic to ignite my tertiary creative drive! Huzzah! Now commencing episode 15!
I have a slew of tests coming up next week, as well as a couple MG models, so the pacing will keep it's slow pace for a while even though I have the next few episodes written.
zak and Deraka kill more terrorists, again but for the good of the world! Good job having Meer not become lascus, that was just odd in Destiny. Oh yeah I remebered, the only person from seed that has said anything is Cagali, really thought I would see some others, oh well, good job focusing on Shinn and not diverting to the other guys.
Yeah, Shinn is by far the main focus of the story. As for Seed characters... Cagalli's role is actually pretty minor; I think Yzak has had more stuff going on than her at this point. Though Cagalli will be coming back earlier than Yzak. The only other Seed characters that are important are REALLY integral to the story. As you'll no doubt gather from ep.15, Kira will be one... and once the war starts up Sai will be another. Lacus will probably have to have some important role... but I haven't figured it out yet. In terms of the geopolitical arena, the 2 most powerful and important characters we've seen thus far are Durandel and Meere. Both of which, it turns out, are "up to something".
Gore: well this is simply to tell you this: I know your trying to replicate F91 on the war is bad factor but really? Did Shinn have to put his hand in that!? That I think was a little over the top but otherwise its alright.
Shinn needs to experience war. What is war? War is death. To experience it he needs to be aware of it on a very intimate level--all five senses. He needs to see it, hear it, smell it, taste it and, yes, he needs to touch it.
Shinn's philosphy isn't going to develop; his character is. The person Shinn is at episode 38 is very different from the one we have now who is already very different from the Shinn we saw in episode 1. By 52 he'll be even more different.
~___~
Someone compared my Junon-dohicky with the post-apocolyptic world of Gundam X. Yeah, that's pretty accurate. Basically, think of the Earth as a giant hunk of clay the size of a basebal. Now imagine yourself driving your fist into the ball of clay with all your might--that's the level of destruction I was going for.
Shrouded in the eternal black of space, a trio of gleaming GuAIZ mobile suits painted dark-blue fly forward in a tight corkscrew-maneuver. A pinprick of light in the distance expands, only to morph into a violent stream of silent gunfire, passing harmlessly through the gaps in the formation. A squadron of jet-black JINNs approach the ZAFT squadron; attacking furiously. The blue GuAIZs immediately boost outward in separate directions, leaving the attackers clumped together. Before the black JINNs have time to react a pillar of red energy lashes out, enveloping the mobile suits in a fiery torrent. As the mobile suits explode, the wide beam of light narrows and dissipates, streaming outward from the overly-long barrel of a ZAKU-Gunner.
Inside the blue ZAKU[g] Dearka Elsman smirks triumphantly. One of the black JINNs, however, escaped the blast and boosts toward Dearka's suit with vengeful haste. Approaching the ZAKU from behind, the JINN closes in too quickly for Dearka to counter-attack; a second blue ZAKU, this one with a "Slash-type" WIZARD striker pack lifts its arm and cuts through the last JINN with its beam axe in one clean, swift swipe. The resulting explosion knocks Dearka's ZAKU[g] forward into space where it is caught by a pair of allied GuAIZ.
Dearka tells Yzak not to be so impulsive, and in the cockpit of the ZAKU[s] Yzak Joule tells him to shut up and return to their ship; the Joule-team's mission is complete. The five blue ZAFT mobile suits then fly toward a tiny speck of light that slowly gets larger, revealing itself to be the Chasseur de Têtes. Inside his cockpit, a small screen opens up on a monitor displaying the the Nazca's communications officer; she informs Yzak that their rendezvous with the Autonomous Fleet has been moved up; Yzak groans and orders the Chasseur de Têtes to move out.
On the outer ridge of a large crater, surrounded by the demolished ruins of a former metropolis, Shinn, Klahan and Sumalee walk past a large mound of rubble and move into a large crowd of refugees moving slowly northward. Sumalee trips on a piece of debris and falls face-forward, but Shinn catches her; he tells her to take it easy, and grasps her hand. Klahan grunts and motions to the center of the crater--amid the rubble, dozens of white-and-green tents are set up as various men and women clad in ZAFT uniforms rush about trying to help the throng of refugees.
Sumalee and Klahan stop in front of the larger tent and lean against the rusted remains of an abandoned car; Shinn tries to brush off the thick layer of dirt and grime clinging to his clothing and starts to head to the command tent. Sumalee grabs onto Shinn's shirt and gives it a tug; looking at the displaced pilot worryingly. Shinn smiles and tells her that everything is going to be all right. Shinn walk toward a woman in the center of the tent who is barking out orders and starts to snap off a quick salute, but before he can say anything a pair of ZAFT soldiers knock him out of the way and he falls onto the ground.
Wiping a small trickle of blood off of his lower lip, Shinn looks up to see the two soldiers fervently whispering something to the woman-commander. The commander's eyes widen and her face pales, and she turns her head to look above the ruined skyscrapers beyond the rim of the crater and shouts orders for all of the ZAFT soldiers to find the refugees shelter immediately. Shinn jumps up and runs toward the commander, hurriedly asking her to tell him what's going on; she brushes him aside and tells him to find shelter, and then orders a nearby soldier sitting in front of what appears to be a gigantic radio transmitter and asks him if he can contact the ZAFT's Myanmar base; the communication officer tells her that he's having difficulty establishing a clear signal with all the interference. The commander tells him to hurry up and request immediate reinforcements as soon as possible.
A giant explosion rocks the ground, knocking Shinn off his feet once more; the skeletal remains of a building in the distance collapse in a plume of dust, and the faint silhouette of a gargantuan aircraft appears on the horizon. A flurry of missiles streak out from the distance toward the refugee camp; Shinn's eyes widen and the missiles hit. The vast numbers of refugees packed into the area break into panic, screaming and crying and running. Shinn makes eye contact with Klahan and runs toward his two companions, but is thrown back as a missile impacts between them. Shinn tries to stand up, but his left leg erupts in blood and gives out beneath him. Crawling forward, Shinn looks to the point where he last say Sumalee and Klahan, only to see the ruined car they had been near bent and twisted beyond recognition. Shinn's eyes roll back in his head and he passes out.
Approaching the giant cylinder of the Delphi Colony, a giant red Gwazine-class warship comes to a halt outside the Colony's port flanked by a trio of large rectangular cargo-vessels with giant bell-shaped rocket thruster protruding from the rear. On the opposite side of the dock, the Nazca-class Chasseur de Têtes hold position as the Joule-team disembarks in their mobile suits; Yzak and Dearka in the lead. From the central hangar of the Gwazine-class, a single shuttle slowly launches and makes its way toward Delphi's port. A pair of Janissary mobile suits follow the shuttle at a close distance, maintaining a defensive posture, while two squadrons of Centurion mobile-suits and a single squadron of Hussar mobile-suits also launch from the Gwazine and begin flying in slow-formation around the red starship.
The shuttle lands inside of Delphi, and the two Janissaries drop to the deck on either side of the small transport, kneeling down on the deck. A cluster of men clad in the white-and-blue uniforms of the Independent Terran Colonies approach the shuttle nervously; the hatch opens and a single man clad in a dark helmet emerges, followed by a trio of young attendants: a silver-haired man, an man with green hair, and a young short-haired blonde girl. One of the ITC officials steps forward and offers to take the envoy to their rooms, as they are no doubt tired from the long journey from the belt. The masked man raises his hand in soft objection and replies that he would much rather meet with Durandel as soon as possible.
The masked man and his three attendants a large roundtable meeting room high atop the colonies "mountain" with a giant row of large floor-to-ceiling window looking out across the interior of Delphi. Meere Campbell, sitting at one of the chairs, turns to face the masked visitor and greets him, asking him to have a seat. Gilbert Durandel, supreme Chairman of Plant, turns around from examining the view to greet the guests. The masked man bows to Durandel and introduces himself as Neo Roanoke, and then motions to his companions whom he introduces as Sting Oakley, Stellar Loussier, and Auel Schneider. Durandel smiles and says that he is pleased that the Autonomous State responded to his proposal so swiftly, and motions for Neo and his entourage to sit down.
Durandel introduces Neo to Meere, whom he introduces as the First Citizen of the newly formed Independent Federation of Terran Colonies--and the civilian leader of Delphi. Meere smiles at the introduction and bows her head slightly, saying that this was the first time she met a Jovian. Durandel asks Neo how things are going on the rim, to which Neo responds that piracy has been getting worse since the Bloody Valentine war, but thanks to President Durandel's efforts, the industrial production of the Jovian Autonomous Colonial State remains steady. Durandel leans back in his chair and asks Neo how well his older sister is faring; to which Neo responds Guiette Durandel is just as strong minded as ever. Durandel laughs and tells Neo that he respects the man's tact.
Neo turns to Meere and states that he brought with him twenty squadrons of mobile suits, from the older-type Centurion mobile suits to the newer Janissary models. He asks her if the Independent Colonies really require such a strong defensive force, Meere replies that terrorism and piracy in the area are reaching record-levels--the ZAFT vessel that escorted Neo to Delphi, she tells him, has been hunting down and fighting terrorist groups in the area virtually non-stop for the past month. Neo shrugs and says that if the situation was really that bad, why couldn't ZAFT simply give away mobile suits to the colony; Durandel states that ZAFT's military is still weak from the damage of the Bloody Valentine war, and virtually all of their resources are being put into the implementation of the Destiny plan. Besides, any overt support of the Independent Colonies could be seen as a power grab, and the ITC needs to retain it's image of complete neutrality as long as possible. Meere's eyes narrow at this comment, but before she can say anything Durandel asks her if she thinks it's time to begin making preparations for the transfer of supplies from the Autonomous fleet to the colonies. Meere sighs under her breath and leaves the room.
Durandel tells Neo that he would very much like to speak to the man alone, and Neo makes a single gesture at which Sting, Stellar and Auel stand up in silence and leave the room. Durandel asks Neo if the three were "candidates" for the program, to which Neo replies that they are merely potential candidates. The current criteria they have for detecting candidates is too wide he says; even he has expanded spatial awareness. Unfortunately, Neo says, the technology for utilizing candidates has exceeded their abilities to actually find the candidates. Many of the new devices for utilizing that potential Neo brought with him to be tested in actual combat with the potential candidates. Durandel asks Neo how effective the new technology is, to which Neo responds that it is just as effective as any other new breed of weapon--they won't know for certain until they try. It does look very promising, however, Neo states.
Durandel stands up and walks to the window; the colony's angle has turned to the point that only a small amount of sunlight is filtered inside, giving the illusion of a deep-red dusk. Neo stands up and walks to Durandel's side and kneels on the floor in front of the Chairman, bowing his head deeply. Neo then tells Durandel that, as per their previous conversations, he lives only to serve Durandel's purposes. Durandel softly states that he will require a man of capability--someone he can trust--to be an agent of discord in the world. . Durandel then says that he cannot trust anyone who is always hiding his face. Neo's mouth curls slightly in a grin that Durandel cannot see; his eyes obscured by the unemotional opaque lenses of the helmet.
Neo tells Durandel that it's not a pretty sight, but Durandel says nothing. Standing up, Neo places his hands on either side of his neck and presses his fingers on a pair of tiny buttons on either side of the helmet. A brief hissing sound ensues followed by a few metallic clicks, at which point the front-half of Neo's Mask pops outward slightly, allowing him to grab onto it slightly and remove it from his face. Durandel's eyes widen in slight shock as he stares at Neo's face. He leans forward slightly, moving his hand forward as if to touch it; he asks Neo what happened. Neo stands up and faces Durandel at an equal level; his eyes are pure-white; bare circuitry rims his brow line and his left cheekbone is made of steel. A deep scar runs down his face from his left eye, ending just above the edge of his mouth. Durandel asks him what happened, and Neo simply responds that he had an accident some time ago--they don't have time to talk about the past--the two of them have far more important issues to discuss.
Shinn floats unaware in a sea of darkness. His head begins to rock to the side violently, and his eyes open. Sumalee is clutching Shinn's chest and crying; the ground shakes but no noise is heard. Shinn starts to sit up and Klahan sees him, and runs at him with his mouth moving, though Shinn cannot hear any of the words. Shinn ignores the burly Thai man and stands up, only to be forced by a loud cracking noise as his broken leg erupts in a cacophony of pain. Shinn falls back down and can hear Sumalee's crying and Klahan's irritation, as well as the sound of screaming, gunfire and explosions nearby. Shinn is lying in a deep ravine, protected from the combat by a rusted metal plate leaning against a rocky embankment.
Shinn brushes aside Klahan and crawls up, ignoring the pain in his shattered leg. A giant Garuda-class Aerial Battleship hovers above them, ominously silent, as a trio of Earth-Alliance Windam model mobile-suits take slow, deliberate steps on the ground, crushing the refugees underneath their giant mechanized feet and incinerated the ZAFT relief forces with overwhelming firepower. A group of refugees walks slowly toward one of the attacking Windams, hands raised in surrender. The Dagger kneels as if to accept the surrender, only to open fire with its giant head-mounted machine cannons and blast the refugees into mere specks of dismembered flesh. On the bridge of the Garuda, Lord Djibril surveys the massacre below. He smiles and licks his lips at the carnage; stating that fools who run to Coordinators for help don't deserve to live. A man in an EA uniform approaches Djibril and informs him that a pair of mobile suit squadrons are approaching the Garuda from ZAFT's Myanmar base. Djibril smiles and comments that it's just like a Coordinator to underestimate naturals--they're like lambs running up to the slaughter.
A trio of DINNs fly above the blasted refugee camp, opening fire on the attacking mobile suits. A high-powered beam-turret located below the nose of the Garuda swivels and fires at the DINNs, engulfing one of the suits in a field of superheated plasma. One of the Windams opens fire on the DINN squadron, and two of the ZAFT mobile suits erupt in flames, crashing into the fleeing refugees below. Shinn's eyes widen as he watches the scene of death before him. He clenches his fists and asks himself why it is that people fighting never think about the people that get caught up in their battles. A half ZAKU mobile suits jump into the crater to join the fray. Shinn is surprised that the ZAKU is already in mass-production, but doesn't have time to dwell on it as one of the ZAKU's lands just beside Shinn's partial shelter, shaking the steel plating loose and revealing Shinn, Klahan and Sumalee to the battle. Sumalee stops crying and grabs Shinn fiercely. A pair of missiles streak out and slam into the nearby ZAKU's leg, throwing the mobile suit of balance. The ZAKU crashes down on top of Shinn and his companions. Shinn stands up quickly, ignoring his leg as the blood runs out past his clothing, grabs on to Sumalee and leaps away. Klahan, however, is unable to escape in time and is crushed under the wait of the mobile suit. Sumalee calls out to him and reaches toward him, but Shinn pulls her away.
Shinn runs up to the ZAKU and forces the cockpit hatch open; the ZAFT pilot was still alive, but the force of the impact had knocked him unconscious. Shinn apologizes to the man and pulls him out of the cockpit, laying him on the ground. Shinn tells the pilot that he hopes he will survive, and then takes Sumalee with him as he enters the ZAKU's cockpit and closes the hatch. Shinn quickly establishes control of the mobile suit and gets it to stand up. Because of trauma from the fall, the monitors are filled with static. Shinn manages to clear up the static as the mobile suit is righted only to see the battlefield--the ZAFT relief forces were being decimated by Djibril's fearsome onslaught. Sumalee clutch Shinn and stops herself from crying for a moment and looks at Shinn pleadingly. Shinn smiles at her reassuringly and tells her not to worry; he will protect her.
Next Episode: The Uncertain Horizon
Last edited by Mwulf on Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The ZAKU's left leg slams into the soft dirt of the crater as Shinn struggles to right the large mobile suit; squeezed into the small area behind the pilot's seat at the back of the cockpit, Sumalee clutches the metal innards of the war machine fearfully. Sensing Sumalee's distress, Shinn tilts his head to the side and smiles reassuringly. He tells her not to worry; he will protect her.
The remaining two ZAKUs refrain from entering the battlefield, choosing instead to crouch behind the rim of the crater and fire their beam rifles at the attacking Windams from a safe distance. Breaking through the garbled static of the ZAKU's radio, Shinn hears one of the ZAFT pilots asking why the Atlantic Federation has mobilized it's mobile forces so far east into the continent. The transmission breaks off and Shinn scans the area near where the ZAKU fell looking for the beam rifle: he spots the beam rifle, but unfortunately it was bent into an L shape by the mobile suit's fall. A fierce volley of beams shoot down from the edge of the crater and slam into the ground near the Windams' feet, erupting into geysers of superheated dirt and molten rock. Two of the three Windams turn toward the attacking ZAKUs and begin a slow trek up the wall of the crater, firing their beam rifles at the entrenched ZAKUs but unable to score any hits. The third Windam, however, ignores the attacking ZAFT mobile suits and deliberately lowers its massive pointed foot down on top of a huddled brown mass scurrying across the battlefield, desperately trying to flee. With an almost inaudible, muffled crunch, the refugee is crushed, his bones pressed into the dirt.
Shinn, taking advantage of the enemy pilot's inattention, lunges toward the Windam and rams the ZAKU's spiked shoulder into the Alliance mobile suit's right arm, piercing through the armor and mechanical tendons and half-way severing the arm. The Windam steps away from Shinn, peeling its shredded arm off of the ZAKU, and prepares to withdraw its beam-saber to counterattack. Before the enemy pilot has time to ignite the saber, however, Shinn lunges at the Windam, rapidly closing the distance between the two, and kneels in front of it; removing his beam-tomahawk from its rack on the rear skirt-armor of the ZAKU and makes a single, clean slash across the Windam's torso, melting all the way through the thin armor of the cockpit. The pilots blood pours out of the molten gash in the Windam's torso, dripping in chunks onto the ZAKU's knees and the ground below before the mobile suit falls facedown in the dirt. Shinn, breathing heavily, exhales in relief and turns his head to Sumalee to ask her if she's okay. Sumalee doesn't respond; her eyes are clenched shut as she tries to block out the battle from her mind.
The other two Windams momentarily pause their advance on the entrenched ZAKUs just in time to turn and see Shinn--piloting the ZAKU mobile suit they thought had been disabled at the very start of the battle--seamlessly kill their comrade. Incensed, the Windam pilots forget their situation and fly toward Shinn's ZAKU beam-sabers drawn and poised to attack. Shinn barely avoids the attack by stepping to the side, and then attempts to flee from his attackers by leaping into the air and firing his thrusters and their maximum output. The ZAKU flies upward toward the Garuda high-above, and the two Windams leap into the air as well, peppering the rear of Shinn's mobile suit with a hail of machine-gun fire. Perched high-above the battlefield in the Garuda, Djibril looks down on Shinn as his ZAKU flies upward. Djibril's eyes narrow as he examines the two Windams a little further below; Djibril calls the Windam pilots fools and turns away. The two allied ZAKUs take full advantage of the opportunity and leave their cover to fire their beam rifles at the two distracted Windams. A volley of beams envelope the flying Windams, cutting through the Earth Alliance mobile suits and sending their broken remains crashing to the ground.
Inside the Garuda, Djibril's brow furrows in frustration. An Alliance officer approaches Djibril and asks him is he would like to launch the Garuda's remaining complement of Windams; Djibril declines and orders the Minerva to withdraw. He says that the fight was a fair one, and they would have won if not for the inability of their pilots. Djibril states that there would be no honor in continuing the fight; the victory clearly belongs to ZAFT. Shinn continues to fly upward at the Garuda, even as the large booster on the ZAKU's back erupts in flame and begins spewing smoke out behind him. The two allied ZAKUs on the ground below watch in awe as Shinn grabs on to the Garuda's port wing and the weight of his mobile suit throws the giant aerial carrier off-balance. Clutching onto the swiftly-weakening metal with a single arm, Shinn swings the ZAKU close to the hull of the Garuda and punches a hole in the main airframe with his mobile suit's clenched fist. On the bridge, a ruffled officer orders the remaining Windams to launch, but Djibril stops him.
Djibril looks down at the ZAKU as it punches the main fuselage and calls Shinn and impudent child. The steel frame of wing that Shinn's clutching bends and breaks, sending Shinn's ZAKU careening downward. The Garuda rebalances itself and turns to leave the area. Djibril watches as the two allied ZAKU's leap into the air to catch Shinn's suit and bring his ZAKU safely to a landing, commenting that he probably will not die well.. On the ground Shinn watches as the Garuda disappears over the horizon; the two allied ZAKU's lower Shinn's suit into a kneeling pose. Shinn fumbles to unbuckle himself from the pilot's chair and helps Sumalee extricate herself from the back of the cockpit. He wipes some sweat off of her forehead and tells her that everything is all right; it's all over. Using a small laser-cutter the two ZAFT pilots manage to pry open the ZAKU's cockpit. Shinn, holding on to Sumalee, exits the mobile suits cockpit and thanks the two ZAFT pilots for helping him. The two pilots look at Shinn, dressed in ragged clothing, and then at each other. They look at Shinn again, and ask him who he is.
Meere Campbell enters her private office and falls into her chair, sighing melodramatically. Her aide, Dorris Yung tries to ask her if he can get her anything, but before he can finish his sentence Meere glares at him and raises her voice, complaining that chairman Durandel is impossible to deal with. Yung says he knows that, but they have to deal with it for now. Meere frowns and waves her hand dismissively; she says it's like Durandel knew everything that would happen years before it actually happened. If she didn't know any better, she might even be tempted to think Durandel himself was responsible for the Junon incident. Yung is a bit shocked at this statement, and Meere continues to say that the Independent Colonies are far too-well prepared for Durandel's Destiny Plan than coincidence could allow for. It doesn't feel right.
Yung asks Meere if that means she agreed to it, Meere says that she signed the Ghent Papers an hour ago and the Independent Colonies are now officially committed to the Destiny Plan. Yung says that the Destiny Plan, regardless of Durandel's machinations, is a good thing. Meere says she knows that, but it still doesn't feel right. Yung says he guesses he understands how she's feeling, but that things ought to get a bit less hectic when Phantom Pain leaves. Meere, confused, asks Yung who Phantom-Pain is. Yung tells her that he overheard Durandel call the delegation from Jupiter a "phantom pain task force". Meere is surprised to hear that the emissaries from Jupiter will be leaving Delphi so quickly, and, upon thinking for a moment, asks herself what Durandel is thinking. Durandel must be up to something, Meere says, groaning. Yung shrugs, saying they are up to something too.
Inside a dimly-lit room on the lowest-level of the Delphi Colony, surrounded by tall narrow windows looking out onto a vast starfield, Auel Loussier reclines on a large red-cushioned couch reading a book. Stellar Loussier and Sting Oakley are nearby, absently playing a video game while their masked superior, Neo Roanoke, brings up various documents on a computer monitor at the far end of the room. Stellar shouts at Sting, breaking the quiet, saying that he cheated. Sting rubs his forehead and tells Stellar that she's not a good enough player for him to need to cheat. Stellar grabs Sting's face with her hands and begins pulling at it roughly; Sting yelps in pain and tries to push her away.
Auel sets down his book, irritated, and tells Sting and Stellar to shut up. Stellar tells him to shut-up and tosses one of the game controllers at him. Auel angles his head to the side to avoid it and yawns, scratching his head. Stellar knocks Sting over and kicks at him; Sting grunts and starts to get ready to fight back, when Neo--without turning around or looking up--comments that it's not right to hit a lady. Sting and Stellar stop fighting and sit up, looking toward Neo alertly. Auel straightens up and looks to Neo as well, though with a slightly bored expression on his face: Neo tells the three to come to him and look at something interesting he found.
Sting, Auel and Stellar walk up behind Neo. Auel and Stellar stand behind him and look at the computer screen, while Sting walks up from the side and puts his hand on the back of Neo's chair as he leans in to look at the computer monitor. Neo tells the trio to watch closely as he brings up a small, grainy video clip of the battle of Jachin Due--the Strike Gundam engages in combat with a squadron of EA Dagger and ZAFT GuAIZ mobile suits, deftly defeating dozens of foes with single-shots. Sting asks when the battle happened and Neo tells him it was nearly seven years ago. Stellar asks if the pilot had the S factor, and Neo responds that the pilot did indeed possess a very strong S factor, and exhibited significantly-developed S potential before he died. Stellar remarks that it is strange that the factor appeared in the Earth Sphere so early; Sting tells her not to be stupid--the pilot they're watching was probably the only one. Auel shrugs and starts to go back to his book, saying that since the pilot is already dead it doesn't matter if he had developed his S factor or not.
Neo smiles and says that he found one other; Sting, Stellar and Auel are all surprised. Another video of the battle at Jachin Due appears on-screen, this time showing the Freedom Gundam engaged in a duel with the Providence Gundam. Neo states that the pilot of the Providence is confirmed to have partially awakened his S-factor. The four Jovians watch the fight in silence; Auel is the first to speak up just as the Providence Gundam is defeated, asking how developed the S-factor of the Freedom's pilot is estimated to be; Neo smiles and says that analysis of the battle does show the Freedom's pilot to have the factor, but it has not yet awakened. Stellar is startled and says it's impossible than an unawakened pilot could fight that well. Neo smiles and says he told them it was interesting. Sting asks if the Freedom's pilot is still alive; Neo smiles, but says nothing. Stellar asks Neo if they will be able to find the pilot on Earth, and Neo states that since they're going to Earth anyway, it couldn't hurt anything if they looked around a bit. Sting smiles and says he'd like to fight the Freedom's pilot, and Stellar glares at him. Neo tells them to rest well; Phantom Pain ships out in the morning. Stellar asks what Phantom Pain is, Neo says it's their new code-name. Stellar says it's weird; Sting says it's cool; Auel shrugs.
Lunamaria Hawke enters the Minerva's break room and collapses into a chair, sighing softly and using a towel to wipe sweat from her face. She unzips her normal suit halfway down her breast and starts gulping down a glass of water. Rey walks into the break room and stops, he turns to Luna and complements her. Lunamaria asks him what he means and Rey gestures at her chest. Lunamaria looks down to see her shirt, too, is soaked in sweat. She angles her chair away from Rey and says if she wasn't so tired she'd give him a pounding. Rey shrugs thanks god that there weren't any ladys present. Luna zips up her normal suit a bit more to conceal her cleavage and tells Rey he's disgusting. Rey tells her it's part of his job description.
Rey walks over to a small television monitor set up in the corner of the break room; activating the device he switches to a news program. The picture is distorted and grainy. Lunamaria complains that after all the work they put into setting up that damned communications antennae they ought to at least get better reception. Rey looks at the screen and says that it's old news. On the monitor a woman in a suit comments on the recent Eurasian invasion of North American and the increasing war between the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Confederacy. The picture switches to a pitched mobile suit battle in a mountainous region. Luna sighs and comments that the news is at least a week old. Rey turns the device off and sits down at the table opposite Lunamaria.
Lunamaria says that at least when they were at ORB they got to leave the ship every once in a while, and the view was a lot better. Rey smiles and tells her to shut up; she sounds like a child. Luna frowns and asks Rey if he thinks they'll be setting up another communications tower at Gibraltar when they get there. Rey says he doesn't think so--Gibraltar was the first place to set up of of the new communication boosters. The Minerva's orders, he says, are simply to reinforce the ZAFT forces already stationed at Gibraltar; not even the captain knows exactly what they're supposed to do there. Luna stands up and heads toward the exit, Rey asks her where she's going. Lunamaria says she's going to her quarters for a shower and a nap. Rey stands up and follows her, offering to join her. Lunamaria states that even jokes can go too far and empties the contents of her glass over Rey's head before walking out the door.
At the cracked runway of an old airport within ZAFT's Myanmar base, Shinn Asuka, kneeling down in front of a woman in a green ZAFT uniform, talks with Sumalee. He asks her if she has everything he gave her and she nods. Sumalee suddenly says she's scared and grabs on to Shinn: she doesn't want him to leave her. Shinn tells her that she's going to be okay, he'll see her again soon. He takes a letter from Sumalee's hands and gestures at the names written on it. Shinn tells Sumalee that they are his foster parents and that they're good people--when Sumalee gets to Adrianapolis she will be safe and they will look after her.
Sumalee starts to cry and tells Shinn she doesn't want him to leave. Shinn says he would like nothing more than to go back home with her, but he cannot. He tells her that PLANT isn't actually at war with anyone, so it's likely he'll be able to return to space soon. Sumalee doesn't seem to understand what Shinn is saying, but she trusts him enough to stop crying. The woman in the green ZAFT uniform takes Sumalee's hand and Shinn grabs her shoulder, telling her to take good care of Sumalee. The woman says that she will be with Sumalee all the way up until the little girl boards the shuttle. Shinn thanks her and watches as Sumalee is led into the airplane. Shinn waves at her and watches the plane take off. Glancing at his watch Shinn realizes that he is late for his briefing and runs toward the command center at the opposite end of the base.
Shinn runs past a pair of standing ZAKUs outside the command center and rushes inside. He makes his way to the briefing room where he hastily sits down in the back; there are five other pilots in the room. The base commander glances at Shinn and continues with the briefing. Shinn and the others, he explains, will be transferred to the 13th mobile suit squadron. One of the other pilots asks what type of mobile suits they will be getting--the commander tell them they will be piloting DINNs. Shinn asks what their first mission will be and the commander states the the 13 mobile suit squadron is being assigned to ZAFT's Gibraltar base to assist in an unspecified future operation. As Shinn and the others leave the command center, Shinn stares at the dark, overcast skies and wonders how well the Minerva is faring.
In orbit of Earth, alone in a dark room staring out over the white and blue planet below, Gilbert Durandel observes the Earth's slow rotation. Closing his eyes, Durandel directs a question to a man that is no longer alive. He addresses Rau le Creuset, and refers to him as his good friend. Durandel tells Rau that he took the opportunity when he saw it. He asks if Rau thinks his actions are evil; if Rau would have done the same thing in his shoes. Durandel sighs; Rau does not respond since he is not there, and Durandel softly tells himself that it does not matter what the world thinks of him, he will either be remembered as the savior or humanity or one if its many villains. So long as his goal is accomplished--so long as he can ensure his own destiny and the destiny of humanity--nothing else will matter. Durandel opens his eyes and looks out across the the Earth, saying that events are progressing far more rapidly than he ever imagined possible. More than anything else, Durandel says, he wishes Rau could be there to help him through it.
Next Episode: Premonitions Of The Grand Design
Last edited by Mwulf on Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I have read 1-16 episode in one sweep. and it just simply amazing. its far more interesting than the original (the original is just some fan service, I think) The SEA(SOUTH EAST ASIA) part is a good one (because im a Malaysian) not to mention its quite new. The others set in South America or Africa its just getting old. Shinn role is expaned, nice but im just wandering what MS would Shinn be piloting at the end of the story(Destiny? or something else).
Thanks. I was a bit unsure with that particular setting... I'm not as familiar with the region over there as I am with the areas further east. I tried to keep environmental descriptions simple/vague to avoid embarrassing myself too bad.
And kudos to reading through all of it in one sitting. That's quite an achievement of patience.
As for Shinn's final MS... for a while I was debating whether or not he should get one at all. I've finally decided that he will, in fact, have a grand total of 3 MS in the series. The three units, however, will all be markedly similar.
1. What we already have; a spiffy space-bound Blast-Impulse redesign. Perfect for space combat, not-so-good for terrestrial operations.
2. Impulse-refit. Basically a retooled Impulse gundam, geared toward terrestrial combat. It will actually make it's appearance in the upcoming episode (which I hope to post sometime tonight).
3. Unnamed gundam. Design-wise it's a cross between, say, Impulse Gundam, Destiny Gundam, and the Tallgeese. I think it'll look pretty cool, but then again I've yet to draw it. For new drawings, the only one's I'm DEFFINITELY going to do are the 2 new Shinn-gundams and a revised ELMETH.
In the break-room of the Minerva, Rey, Luna and Heine stack their trays on the counter and don their helmets, preparing to board their respective mobile suits. Luna starts to head to the back of the break room to turn off the television in the corner, but Heine tells her not to bother with it--they need to launch as soon as possible. Luna shrugs and follows the other two pilots out of the room. Under random bursts of intermittent static, the television continues to play a news report to the empty room. A reporter states that the ongoing war between the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Confederation has escalated; both sides are now engaged in full, total war in multiple theaters. Another reporter mentions that PLANT's orbital drops and refugee relief efforts are continuing, despite the increasing acts of anti-coordinator terrorism.
In her office outside the Minerva's bridge, Talia Gladys watches the same report on a small fold-up screen on her desk. She taps the screen, irritated, and Arthur Trine--the second-in-command--asks her what's wrong. Talia asks Arthur if he heard anything strange in the broadcast; he says he doesn't know. Talia then mentions that all of the news is about the events following the Junon disaster--but no one is talking about the events that preceded it. Arthur suggests that since ZAFT was responsible for reestablishing a planetary-communications network perhaps they were censoring the reports. Talia looks thoughtful, and then rubs her hand against the desk, looking around the room. Talia then comments that lately there have been far too many things kept secret. Arthur looks at his watch and tells Talia that the operation will begin shortly: Talia nods in affirmation and Arthur excuses himself from the room.
The Saviour Gundam readies itself on the Minerva's catapult deck; inside the cockpit, Lunamaria goes over the mission objectives with the Bridge crew; Talia tells Luna that the canvas balloon is very fragile, and if her mobile suit so much as nudges it, it will rupture and fall. Luna says she knows that and the Saviour launches. Talia then orders Rey's Gaia Gundam and the ZAKU team to launch as well and support the Saviour from the ground; Atlantic Federation mobile suits have been spotted in the area and it is possible that they might attack. Heine asks if the Atlantic Federation can really afford to attack ZAFT now that their war with the Eurasians has gotten so much worse--Talia cuts off communication from the bridge and Heine yelps in surprise as his mobile suit is catapulted off of the Minerva's deck without warning. Rey laughs and tells Heine to pay more attention to the mood.
The Gaia and two remaining ZAKUs launch, slamming into a field of mud on the ground below. The mud splashes up and covers the knees of the mobile suits: the Saviour Gundam--transformed into its mobile-armor mode--flies overhead and Luna laughs at her fellow pilots, telling them to stop rutting around in the dirt and get to work. The ZAKUs trudge through the field and boost up a steep incline, approaching a wide metal structure no more than two meters in height, shaped like a smashed pyramid. A massive tightly-wound cable (nearly as wide as a mobile suit) reaches out from the apex of the pyramid and stretches skyward. The Gaia arrives at the location a bit after the others, and all four ZAFT mobile suits arrange themselves with their backs to the structure; facing outward in all directions. Rey tells the pilots to keep their eyes open and their heads on a swivel; they're in enemy territory. Heine snorts and comments that he doesn't need to be told how to do his job--he's an ace. Rey ignores him and looks up to see the tiny red form of the Saviour disappear in the clouds above as it gains altitude.
Above the choppy seas of the Mediterranean, a pair of ZAFT transport planes lower their back hatches and release a total of six mobile suits; all DINNs painted in dark gray-blue colors with the red-cross symbol of Operation Endurance. Emblazoned across the left shoulder of each mobile suit is the simple insignia of the 13th Mobile Suit Squadron. The gleaming metal helmets lock down over the heads of the ZAFT mobile suits and they spread out their wings, flying away from the transport planes and toward the coast and the mountains beyond. Inside the cramped, dirty cockpit of one of the DINNs Shinn Asuka checks over his controls and adjusts the mobile-suits heading slightly. He sighs and leans his head back, activating the radio and asking how long it will be before they arrive at the operation area. A curt female voice blasts through the radio telling Shinn to cut the useless chatter; another voice--a gruff, male voice--laughs and tells Shinn not to mind the woman: they've got a good hour-long flight ahead of them so they might as well relax.
Shinn asks why ZAFT is so keen on protecting a radio tower our in the middle of nowhere; the commander's voice cuts in over the radio informing the team that one of the drop-ships loaded with relief supplies--mostly food and medical equipment--sustained some damage in low orbit, and is being forced to crash-land in the wilderness. The radio-tower is the only active one close enough to maintain communication with the drop-ship and because the area it's projected to crash-land in is currently controlled by the Atlantic Federation, there's a high-possibility it will be attacked. Shinn groans and says he still doesn't get it. Why, he asks, does ZAFT even have a radio tower inside the borders of the Atlantic Federation to begin with?
The commander states that even he doesn't know that. Ever sense operation "Endurance" began one of the first priorities was to reestablish a global-communications network that could circumvent the massive electromagnetic interference caused by Junon's impact. In some cases construction of the giant, floating radio-boosters was prioritized over refugee relief. The commander then says that Durandel or some other higher-up in PLANT must have something to say and make certain that absolutely everyone on Earth hears it. The female voice from before asks what could be so important. The squadron commander exhales and says he has no idea. Shinn scratches his head and sighs, leaning back in the cramped cockpit as the six DINNs streak across the dark-gray sky.
Lunamaria Hawke's Saviour Gundam transforms back into a mobile suit as it reaches the top of the cable. Suspended high in the air is a large circular platform with dozens of satellite dishes, radio antennas and high-tech equipment held aloft by a large ring on inflated plastic underneath. The large cable was attached to the bottom of the platform through the hole in the balloons, tethering the atmospheric satellite to the ground. Luna whistles to herself and comments that the radio tower was a lot bigger than she expected it to be. She moves the Saviour in close, being very-careful not to touch the device while the large, heavy mobile suit is buffeted back and forth by the high-altitude winds.
The Saviour extends it's left arm and the forefinger of the mobile suit dislocates itself, moving up over the back of the and to reveal a tiny magnetic plug attached to a cable. Luna takes careful aim and the plug fires from the hand of the Gundam and attaches itself to a small metallic control plate at the edge of the radio tower. Connected to the Gundam by a very narrow wire, the plug allows Lunamaria to access the communication network directly. Glancing down at the dark-gray clouds just below and the light-gray clouds above, Luna asks herself if the radio-tower is really strong enough to boost a radio signal from the surface of the planet all the way up to space.
Tiny gaps of the upper cloud layer have parted, displaying a hazy blue sky above. Luna stops working for a moment to stare at the sky, wondering to herself just how much longer it will be until the planet's surface will see unfettered sunlight again. Lunamaria's daydreaming is cut short as a jarring burst of static fills the cockpit, preceding the garbled transmission of the damaged drop-ship. Lunamaria acknowledges the drop-ship's transmission and scans the skies above to make a visual confirmation of the ship's location and trajectory. After a bit of searching, Luna spots a tiny speck of movement in the sky above; it's the drop-ship, trailing a thin tail of smoke as it descends into the atmosphere.
Lunamaria inputs the ship's trajectory into the computer and tells the drop-ship to make several adjustments to it's course. Stabilizing its flight path, the drop-ship falls near to the location of the radio tower; Luna transforms the Saviour into it's flight-mode and flies toward the drop-ship, arcing around the gargantuan landing-craft as it ignites its landing thrusters and releases a dozen tiny parachutes from above to slow its rate of descent. Luna makes on more pass of the falling drop-ship, confirming that it is on a safe trajectory, before signaling down to the Minerva that the mission was a success.
Expecting to hear her younger sister's voice at the other end of the radio, Luna is surprised to hear nothing but static. She starts to wonder if something is wrong on the surface, but doesn't have time to finish her thought as a trio of Alliance Windams equipped for atmospheric flight burst upward out of the cloud-layer below firing their beam rifles at the drop-ship. Luna curses and moves in to attack the Atlantic Federation mobile suits. On the surface, Heine curses as a stray beam from an attacking Windam lances out and pierces through the upper left-torso of a ZAKU, disabling the mobile suit and forcing it to fall to it's knees. A heavy blast of Vulcan fire peppers the backside of the disabled ZAKU.
The pilot scrambles out of the cockpit of the fallen ZAKU and runs for cover; Heine moves to take the pilot back to the Minerva, but Rey yells at him to stay focused on the mission. Rey's warning is too late: an eager Windam pilot skids around and leaps at the cable, slicing the thick mass of metal and plastic in two with its beam saber, cutting the tether. Heine watches, dumbfounded, as the thick cable rises above the molten lower piece and slides to the side, moving upward before swiftly falling downward. Heine then gets control of himself and tells everyone to back away; they don't know where the tower will land, but they don't want it to hit them.
Rey grimaces as he cuts through one Windam only to be forced to recklessly duck down to avoid the attack of another. Transforming the Gaia Gundam into it's quadrupedal terrestrial-combat form--a mobile armor with an uncanny resemblance to a canine--and leaps between two more Windams, severing the attacking mobile suits at the hip. Rey slams his fists on the cockpit controls in frustration, however, as the Gaia falls headlong into a large patch of mud, sinking into the ground. An allied ZAKU approaches Rey's mobile suit to help him extricate the Gundam. Rey looks around as his mobile suit is helped out of the mud, watching as dozens of Windam assault the Minerva. Lunamaria flies down and joins the battle, flying under the massive, writhing cable just as the radio tower slams into the ground with a thunderous impact.
Luna shouts at Rey that they're are too-far outnumbered--there's no way they'll be able to defend the drop-ship during its crash-landing. Rey starts to agree, but suddenly stops talking and swivels his mobile suit to look at the distance. Rey smiles, staring at the empty clouds. Luna asks him if anything is wrong; Rey tells her not to mind it--they will definitely win this battle because Shinn is coming. Lunamaria asks Rey if he's gone mad, but Rey just tells her not to worry and resumes to fight. Luna grimaces and follows Rey back into battle, telling herself that even if Shinn is still alive, there's no way he would show up all the way out here.
The Minerva starts to leak smoke as it takes more and more fire. No matter how many are destroyed, it seems like the number of Windams attacking the ZAFT ship never decreases. Arthur starts to ask Talia if they should withdraw from the battle, but Talia says that it is imperative that they recover the damaged drop-ship. The supplies it carries is crucial to the refugee-relief efforts. Talia's train of dialog is cut short, however, as a pair of Windams fly toward the drop-ship--now at a very low altitude--and fire on it, destroying one of the large transports landing rockets. The drop-ship begins to veer off course and Meyrin announces that it is set to collide with the Minerva. Talia asks if they can evade it and Arthur tells her it's impossible; Meyrin shouts across the radio for her sister to help her, but the Minerva's mobile suits are too far away to help in time.
Less than half a kilometer above the Minerva and falling fast, a thick rain of golden tracers fly at the side of the drop-ship, igniting one of the massive thrusters in a spray or orange flame. As the engine erupts, the drop ship loses balance and crashes to the Earth very quickly, narrowly missing the Minerva. A team of six DINNs fly past the Minerva as the drop-ship settles in the wet ground, burning, strafing the Atlantic Federation Windams below. Talia glares at Arthur and asks him why he didn't alert her to the presence of allied mobile suits in the area. Arthur starts to say that there was too much interference for the radio to work properly, but one of the bridge officers leans over a console and shouts that Arthur simply wasn't paying attention. Talia glares at him, and Arthur lowers his head, apologizing.
The 13th mobile suit squadron joins with the three remaining mobile suits from the Minerva and attacks the Windams, quickly repelling the Atlantic Federation mobile suits. Rey tells Shinn it's nice to have him back, and Luna is stunned to see him at all. The Windams begin to withdraw, using the crashed drop-ship for cover. Lunamaria leaps into the air and lands on top of the drop-ship to attack the fleeing mobile suits, but stops firing as soon as she lands, allowing the Atlantic Federation mobile suits to escape. Rey asks her what's wrong, and Luna tells him to come look at something. Shinn and Heine follow Rey up to the top of the behemoth drop-ship, and the four pilots stare through a massive gash in the hull of the vessel at the innards. Rather than the food and medical supplies that was supposed to be inside the cargo hold, there is nothing but ruined machinery. Heine looks at it and scowls, asking why it is that refugee supplies would include industrial machinery.
Lunamaria is shocked, and wonders (out loud) whether or not the rumors of ZAFT preparing for another land-invasion were true after all. Shinn tells her it's impossible; it must be some kind of mistake. There's no way, he says, that Durandel would invade the Earth after what happened with Junon. Rey frowns and tells Shinn that a lot of the machinery--though damaged in the crash--can be identified as military-grade material. Shinn starts to say something more, but his commander interrupts and tells him to head to the Minerva for resupply and repairs. Heine tells Rey and Luna that if they weren't told something about the mission, it's because they didn't need to know, so they shouldn't bother thinking about it too much. Lunamaria says she doesn't like it and Rey tells her that, at the very least, it's not something they need to dwell on right away. With those words, the Saviour and Gaia head back to the Minerva.
As the sky darkens overhead, Talia orders the Minerva to set course back to Gibraltar. In the mobile suit hangar, Rey and Luna greet Shinn enthusiastically, asking him what he's been up to all this time. Heine watches the three friends from the distances, and then leaves. Shinn tells Rey and Luna that he's been all over the place and seen a lot of things; he'll tell them all about it later. The Minerva lifts up into the air and activates its engines, leaving the rocky ruins below. A dozen of dirty, ragged people approach the ruined drop-ship once the Minerva is out of site, scouring the wreckage for anything they can eat or sell. A few hours later, as the disparaged refugees finish stripping the ship of what little marketable circuitry it had left, a high-pitched noise echoes through the night. A ZAFT mobile suit--a BABI--painted solid black flies overhead and leaves without doing anything overtly. In response from a signal from the mobile suit, a small red light on the ruined radio-tower begins to flicker on an off. A heavy explosion is heard, one after another, as the crushed drop-ship self destructs. The radio booster then falls silent.
Next Episode: The New Destiny
Last edited by Mwulf on Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I like Durandal's ploy (as I am sure he has one) much better in this one. His message is delivered as it should be the skillful politician I always liked to think he was (until proven otherwise in GSD).
-We will not be caught by surprise!
*Almost everyone I've killed uttered similar last words.
-Then I am glad once again that you are on my side.
*They've often said that too.
why has the AF and EC got to war. the AF has abundant resources. Did it heartland get hit by junius 7 because north america produces a lot agriculture.
lordyu wrote:why has the AF and EC got to war. the AF has abundant resources. Did it heartland get hit by junius 7 because north america produces a lot agriculture.
Mcwulf's earth got hit by Junon, a resorce astoriod. they use junious 7's engines to push Junon into earths atmosphere and then they broke it up for maximum damage, leaving earth veiled in semi-darkness and burning. This destroyed almost all of the avalible food supply and farmland, turning Allies against each other, fighting for what little resorces are left on earth.
“The school of the undefeated East!”
“The winds of the king!”
“Zenshin!”
“Keiretsu!”
“Tempa Kyoran!”
“Look! The East is burning red!”
-Master Asia
I'm busy with finals all week, so I don't have much time to write. Sorry. ~__~
For the story setting:
The time frame I chose for the story has a LOT of stuff happening. There are quite a few story arcs. Shinn's story, Kira's story, Durandel's Story, Meere's story, & Phantom Pain's story. (plus one other).
There are also three major stories I simply don't have enough room to incorporate--even though they are well defined in my mind. I may describe them later, or write them up as an OVA type thing. Basically the three are Athrun's story, Guillette's story, and Shinn's MIA story. Shinn's MIA story is heavily involved with the political situation on Earth and the escalating war between the EU and AF. It takes place in the one-month period when shinn is MIA before Klahan is killed and he rejoins ZAFT.
As for the reasons for the war itself....
Remember, at the start of Seed the Earth Alliance was dominated by the AF. The only natiion-state in the Alliance of equitable political and military power was the EU. As we saw at Artemis, the two did not get along very well.
Fast-forward a few months and we see the Atlantic Federation sacrifice Alaska base and all its defenders--the vast majority of whom belonged to the EU.
They don't like each other at all. The political relationship was strained, and once the BV war ended it dissolved. (the Earth Alliance, as a result, collapsed).
The Junon Incident destroyed most agricultrually viable areas on Earth, save for parts of eastern Europe and northeast Asia (& a little bit in north africa). So much farmland was destroyed that the vast majority of the human race would die from starvation. Things are really very, very bad. If left unattended, Earth's population would drop by more than 95%. It's bad. Worse than Gundam X. Equal or worse to the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout.
The AF and EU didn't HAVE to fight for resources. In fact, the war was a pretty stupid move. It was mutually suicidal. Fighting for resources & food is little more than a pretext for war--since so many people are doomed to die regardless.
Amid the bleak landscape of the Siberian wasteland, a pair of old GINNs stomp across the ice. The armor of the mobile suits is dull and scratched; parts of it are rusted beyond repair, and neither unit has any active weapon systems remaining. One of the GINNs makes a grotesque scraping noise and falls to the ground, the armor around the mobile suit's "knee" slamming into the densely-packed ice and snow, blasting a thick plume of white powder up into the air. The cockpit hatch of the fallen GINN opens with a hiss; dressed in an ungainly fur parka, Sting Oakley removes himself from the mobile suit's interior and climbs down to the ground. The GINN's armor has a thick layer of ice coating it; climbing down, Sting loses his grip and falls backwards onto the snow.
Grunting, Sting stands up and brushes the ice off his face, glaring at the operation GINN, Sting grunts and makes a curt gesture, sarcastically thanking Auel for the help he didn't bother to offer. Auel's GINN lowers it's hand to lift Sting up toward it's cockpit. Sting joins Auel within the old, decrepit mobile suit and complains, asking himself why it is that they have to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere. Auel sighs and says there's no helping it; they'll get their fill of action soon enough. Auel continues to force the GINN further and further across the tundra, stopping at the edge of a steep frozen cliff--no more than a sheer wall of ice twice the height of the GINN, Auel mutters to himself that they've probably come far enough; now all they have to do is wait.
Auel grows impatient, and begins tapping his foot against the side of the cockpit. Sting comments that Auel can't seem to calm down when he's away from his "precious" sister. Auel tells him to mind his own business. After a few more moments of silence, Sting asks Auel if the PICES will really work over such a long distance. Auel shrugs and starts to say something, but stops. Sting tries ask what's the matter, but Auel cuts him off, telling him to help calibrate the special sensors. Small windows open up across the Ginn's cockpit, detailing zoomed-in images of a small black speck in the distance.
The object gets close and closer, revealing itself to be a small, unassuming flying-craft in the shape of a flying-wing--or an excessively wide triangle. The flying craft flies over the GINN, and then turns around for a flyby sweep. Sting is surprised, and Auel's eyes widen as the craft flies in tight loops, and performs various aerial acrobatics; Sting comments that it's impossible. Watching the craft intently, an image of Stellar running through a field of grass, laughing and jumping, appears in Auel's head. He smiles slightly, and then resumes his work.
Shinn's newly refitted Impulse Gundam landed on the Minerva's deck with a thud. Outside the ship's hangar, the muffled sounds of furious battle shook the vessel. In its sleek flying-form, Lunamaria Hawke's Saviour Gundam flew past the Bridge of the Minerva, missing a collision by no more than a few meters, and flies toward a pair of old Alliance Garuda-type mobile suit carriers, painted a vibrant shade of purple. Rey's Gaia Gundam and the ZAKU team also fight. Shinn hastily lowers the Impulse to the deck and waits for the maintenance crews to get to work on the resupply. Firing her twin beam cannons through the center of a Garuda, Lunamaria's Saviour flies through the gaping hole she blasted in the aircraft's hull, twisting back into mobile-suit mode as the Garuda exploded.
Luna smirked and watched as the Garuda's broken hull sank down, watching as Rey leaped his canine-shaped Gaia (in mobile-armor mode) across the wreckage, leaping into the air and slashing through the torso and legs of two Windams, respectively, with his wing-like beam swords. Lunamaria comments that it will be an easy victory. Lunamaria smirked confidently, returning the Saviour to it's mobile-armor configuration before it lost too much altitude. Shinn, in the Minerva's hangar, opened up his cockpit hatch to scream at the mechanics, who were failing to resupply the Impulse Gundam. One of the mechanics shrugs at Shinn, causing the young ZAFT pilot to redden with anger. Before he can fling another barrage of insults at the mechanics, a trio of bright blue signal flares shoot out from the prow of the Minerva--the signal to retreat. Seeing the signal flares, Luna, Rey, Heine and the other pilots grudgingly obey.
Getting out of her mobile suit, Luna asks Shinn if he has any idea what's going on. Shinn tells her has has absolutely no idea. Heine and Rey, meanwhile, have spoken to the mechanics on deck. Rey looks at Shinn and Luna, nodding, and then leaves the hangar; Heine approaches his two comrades and tells them that ZAFT has announced a complete cessation of operations. Shinn, surprised asks what that means. Heine states that all ZAFT forces on Earth are prohibited from acting in any capacity for an indefinite period of time. Shinn looks confused; Lunamaria groans loudly and runs her hands through her hair. Luna says that she doesn't care anymore and walks out of the hangar. Shinn watches through the open deck of the Minerva's catapult as the ship turns away from the Atlantic Federation military. Heine asks Shinn if he wants to get something to drink; Shinn agrees.
In a dimly lit apartment in the oldest part of the city on PLANT's Aprillius-2 colony, a narrow man with medium-length messy black hair and a pair of narrow, rectangular glasses sits hunched over a flickering blue computer screen. The man mutters in the darkness, telling himself to stay calm. To make sure he gets as much data from the archive as possible before he's detected. The man's name is Noah Jung. A small rectangular piece of hardware clunks and whirs as it transfers terabytes of data from PLANT's secondary archive to a small, glittering disc. There was no telling how much of the information would prove useful, but Noah would only have one chance to get it and he intended to be as thorough as he could.
The computer screen flashed twice in rapid succession, the blue light replaced with a large red "X" over a blank black screen. Noah tore the disc out from the transfer device and grabbed his coat, heading for the apartment door. Hearing the screeching of tires in the streets below, Noah ran to the window and looked down to see a trio of solid-black sedans pulling up to the base of the building; each vehicle unleashed a half-dozen large, buff men clad in solid black suits and dark sunglasses. Noah sighed to himself and comments that PLANT's security network is far more capable than he though it would be. Noah stared as the men surrounded the base of the building and forced their way inside.
Slapping his hands against his face (hard) Noah tells himself that he doesn't have time to just sit and wait. Noah lowers himself out the window and onto the fire escape. One of the men in black spots Noah crawl out and draws a large pistol from his coat pocket. Jumping onto the railing of the fire-escape Noah manages to avoid the first four gunshots fired in his direction. Noah jumped off of the fire escape and landed one floor down on the fire escape of the nearest building. Climbing insides an open window, Noah hid inside, peering out into the streets below. The black-suited men gather together and sweep outward, flocking toward the building that Jung flew into.
One man remained in the alley between Jung's apartment and the other building, keeping watch. Noah kept still for a moment, and the leaped out of the window, over the fire escape and fell straight down into the street below. Using the drag created by his coat to angle his trajectory, Noah landed on top of the black-suited man keeping watch in the alley, knocking the man unconscious with his feet while simultaneously reducing his impact-force. Straightening his hair, Noah brushes some dust from his shirt and checks his coat pocket to ensure the data-disc is undamaged. Yawning, Noah absent-mindedly steps on the body of the man he knocked out and walks away from the scene.
Several blocks away, Noah Jung steps behind a small brick cafe on a busy street. Walking through a narrow alley Jung comes to a dark blue car, the door opens and a woman with shock-white hair motions for Noah to get inside. Noah sits in the car as it drives away, and hands the data-disc, brimming over with confidential data stolen from PLANT's secondary archive, to Ezalia Joule. Ezalia Joule asks Noah what he found. Noah shrugs and says he doesn't really know himself.
At the very least, he says, the disc contains proof that Chairman Durandel helped various military personell--including several of those responsible for the Junon-Incident--escape the justice of the postwar treaty. Durandel allowed the ZAFT remnant to live at the abandoned colony Mendel, and hid their existence from the rest of the world. Ezalia frowns and says that it's not enough to act openly with; Noah Jung shrugs, telling Ezalia that whatever he found out, it was more than enough for ZAFT to want him dead.
Durandel smiled to himself as he approached a large, white podium. Dozens of cameras floated on narrow mechanical arms, capturing the Chairman's image from dozens of different angles. Hundreds of highly-sensitive microphones were scattered on the podium itself, as well as the floor and ceiling around it. Every word he spoke, every gesture he made, would be captured and recorded and remembered for eternity. Twenty or so members of PLANT's supreme council sat in the room with Durandel, just as anxious to hear what Durandel had to say as the rest of the world. The day before--Christmas Eve--PLANT had suspended all media broadcasts (both on Earth and in Space) in preparation for a special announcement by the Supreme Chairman the following day: December 25, CE 78.
In the Minerva's break room, Shinn, Luna, Rey, Heine and dozens of other crew members pushed against each other as they all tried to get the best view of the television screen as the countdown to Durandel's address came closer and closer. Sitting on a large flat rock, a few meters up from the beach, Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne leaned on each other as they stared at a small, portable television set, waiting to hear what ZAFT had to say. People all over the world, the rich, the powerful, the poor and the powerless. Soldiers and refugees, tyrant and peasant--everyone waited in silence to listen to the speech. In the white walled room Durandel set his hands on the podium, staring confidently forward. With a singular desire in his heart, Gilbert Durandel spoke to the world.
"Five months ago a great tragedy befell our world. Every man, woman and child of the Human race felt the pain of Earth. The distinction between Natural and Coordinator dissolved in a single instant when we were all united in our grief. Earth, our home, the cradle of humanity, is scarred. She will never be the same again. Countless lives were lost when Junon fell on Earth. Countless more lives perished in the flames of war that spread across the planet in the violence that followed. Many have died; many more will die."
"As the elected leader of PLANT, I have acted as any other human would do. I have forgotten the evils of the past; the crimes committed against us and our own sins. We have come to Earth to help those who survive, to do as much as we can to ensure the well-being of our fellow humankind. But this is a task where we cannot succeed. Seven days ago I announced a general cessation of all relief operations on Earth. PLANT cannot save the planet from it's slow death; we cannot even afford to try. We came with food, water and medicine. We were met with violence and war. The Eurasian Confederacy and Atlantic Federation committed a greater atrocity in Bloody Berlin than the whole of humankind throughout the entirety of our history. Where you should work together, you fight amongst each other like rabid dogs. Where you should share what little you have, you hoard everything you can find. It pains me to say it, but even among those in ZAFT's supreme council the opinion that the people of Earth should be left to a miserable fate is a common one."
Interspersed through Durandel's speech were images of fighting and misery on the ruined earth. Dirty refugees, wrapped in bloody rags greedily eating the smallest portions of food. Short videos of the massacre in Berlin, and the various atrocities committed by the Eurasians and Altantics in their bid for the dwindling resources of the planet.
"Do not despair. I cannot help the Earth, that is true, but I can help the people of the Earth--and I will. Humankind has a destiny to fulfill, a destiny to survive and fill up the universe with more and more humans! Too many times have we been brought to the brink of extinction; no more. I have a plan, a plan to embrace our destiny to fill the cosmos. Over the past two months, two out of every three drop-ships landing on Earth has been empty of medical supplies. Empty of food. Empty for freshwater. Instead, vast quantities of industrial supplies have been sent to Earth. By not sending down refugee supplies many more have died than would have otherwise; this is a burden that I bear, and it is one that I must bear for by doing so even more lives will be saved."
"At various points on the Earth's surface, the industrial materials we sent down have been used to construct twenty orbital-launch vehicles. Each ship can hold a cargo of twenty-thousand people. It is my aim to transfer as many denizens of Earth to Space as possible before death claims everyone left. Each refugee will receive free passage, and with the gracious help of the sovereign Independent Colonies, each refugee will be provided with a place to live and food to eat. We will survive; we will all survive--that is our Destiny."
Durandel's speech concluded; the members of the assembly present in the room stared at the chairman dumbstruck. On the Minerva, the crew watches in awe as the video screen displays a giant tower of scaffolding at ZAFT's Carpentaria base crash to the ground, revealing a massive steel-gray colony ship, ready to take tens of thousands of refugees to a new life among the stars. In refugee camps across the world the squalid survivors of a doomed planet let loose a loud cheer, resounding across the surface of the planet with hopeful vigor.
Next Episode: On Whose Mighty Shoulders The World Stands
Last edited by Mwulf on Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
so I recommend you ask us to peer edit it. (We can catch things you miss.) I'm really glad that you gave Izak and Deraka (please forgive any misspells) a lot more screen time than Destiny did. Their really cool characters that deserve more attention. 
I'll try and work on the characterization, even if I only have a little it'll still be more than Destiny... I have BIG plans for Luna, which I think will turn out cool, if depressing.
called Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: The War beyond The Stars, cheeesy title, I know.
