Chapter One

Obsolete

That had been what they called MS-07B Gouf Custom, codenamed "Reaper". Despite his venerated service to the Principality of Zeon, defeating well over a hundred tanks, thirty Federation Mobile Suits, fifty Core-Fighters, and even one Mobile Fortress. They classified him as an obsolete mobile suit model, and relied on the more versatile Zakus and DOMs, not to mention the new Gelgoog models. The Goufs could not be used in space, their mechanics relying heavily on gravity to work.

"Reaper" had been sent to a space station, to be dismantled for spare parts, but his transport was ambushed by Federation Mobile Suits. Now, with the crew either dead or long gone, the transport drifted deeper and deeper into unknown space. No pilot to call his own, no way to fully deactivate within the low gravity, and absolutely no way to prevent his ill fate, aimlessly drifting into space.

Unknown to the transport bound mobile suit, his ship drifted towards a strange planet, with an unpredictable gravitational pull. But, there were slender warships, resembling body cells, surrounding its orbit. After it got too close, they all open fired on to it! This caused the transport's haul to shake violently, from the bombardment, Reaper nearly coming out of his harness. A lucky shot struck the ship's engine reactor, and scent it rocketing towards the planet! Will this be the end of "Reaper"? To be destroyed in some crash, by an unknown enemy?
And… Is he starting to actually think?

Reaper's one eye suddenly came online, shifting from side to side. "W-What? How is it…?" The ship shook again, harness breaking off of his armored body. "I'm free!" The Gouf Custom ripped his remaining harness piece off, and actually got up.

The mobile suit, slowly, stood up and noticed that his transport was not going to last much longer against whatever is attacking. Lifting his shield mounted gatling gun, Reaper quickly destroyed the bulkhead blocking where the ship's deployment hanger was located. Rushing through, Reaper's single eye locked on to the bay doors, lifting his primary weapon up again, and destroyed it without much of a thought! This allowed him to leapt through the self-made exit, Reaper using his thrusters to slow down his plummeting decent.

From what he could see, the land under him had been turned into a massive battlefield. Reaper's scanners instantly picking up several mobile suit grade signatures, along with humanoid ones trying to fend them off. Those mobile suits were not responding to Zeon hails, nor showing any friendly flags… Their organic-metal forms obviously alien to him and this planet.

Reaper brought his gatling gun to bare, red targeting icons locking on to the mobile suits. "Eat this!" His robotic mind yelled, before his primary weapon began to roar! Three of the mobile suits were destroyed by his surprise attack, causing the humanoids to look up, just as Reaper's thrusters fired one last time, and allowed him to land safely. "Humanoid signatures all over this battlefield. Tactical Objective: Eliminate all hostile mobile suits." Once again, his primary weapon took aim and fired on to the mobile suits! One, that started to charge, found itself within a hellstorm of cannon fire, being quickly torn apart and destroyed.

Strangely enough, after seeing Reaper engage the mobile suits, flying humanoids soared in and started to fight alongside him. A few used his armored body as cover, against their towering enemy. Regardless, Reaper continued to fire on to the invaders, their own energy weapons glancing off of his armored body. But one of the flying humanoids landed next to his head, causing the Gouf Custom to move his one eye towards them.

It was an obvious female soldier, much shorter than average, from what he could tell, with abnormally large wings. She had an orange coat, dark blue hair with purple and pink highlights underneath the golden helmet. The female's armor seemed tight on her, like it had either been custom made or forged too quickly. At his angle, Reaper could see the pink ascot around her neck.

Her purple eyes just stared up at him, but Reaper could not be distracted by the female soldier's presence, and refocused on to the hostile mobile suits. Taking notice of this, she quickly flew off and sped towards the nearest mobile suit to Reaper. With spear in hand, the female soldier quickly dodged its attacks and rammed her weapon into its visor covered eye, blinding it and allowing Reaper to fire a burst into its body! She smiled back at Reaper, the mobile suit falling back, and held her weapon in a warrior's salute towards him. The Gouf Custom held a closed fist towards her, in response.

However, her body suddenly locked up, eyes closing, before going into a sudden free fall. "Starburst!" A large male, that looked almost like her, suddenly yelled.

One of the mobile suits, seeing this, suddenly went for her! Reaper, noticing both actions, quickly disengaged his canon and sprinted towards the free falling "Starburst". Just before it could grab her, the Gouf Custom rammed his horned shoulder right into its armored face! His right hand catching Starburst, while the other mobile suit backed away from him. It joined three others, all drawing organic-metal melee weapons.

Reaper scanned each one, noticing their metal skin and organic joints, then to the unconscious female in his hand. The Gouf Custom knew, from their lanky and oddly shaped designed bodies, his mechanics made him far superior in melee combat. However, to employ this, he needed to free up his right hand… Disposing of Starburst being completely out of the question.

With his systems determining the best course of action, Reaper opened his cockpit. The metallic hiss and metal joints straining from the movement at the Gouf Custom's stomach caused the other mobile suits to back away, allowing him to place her inside. Despite the seat being a bit large for her, Starburst went in rather easily… A spark suddenly coursing through Reaper's system, one he's never felt before.

Not dwelling on it, the Gouf Custom closed his cockpit, locking it down tightly, ad went for his shield-locked sword. Drawing it, Reaper quickly took a shielded stance, the blade's edge glistening off of the sun's rays of light. Without warning, his speakers suddenly blared out what Reaper's A.I was thinking. "For the Principality of Zeon!" And the Gouf Custom exploded forward!

The four seemed shocked, at Reaper's sudden speed, barley catching as he leapt up into the air and brought his blade down on to the lead one. The sword slicing into its body, crimson blood spraying out of the cut and on to Reaper's form. One tried to retaliate, but received a shield edge directly into its visor covered eyes, blood seeping out as the edge broke through. The mobile suit backed away, an actual mouth opening, as it wailed in agony and held on to its blinded eyes. Reaper readied his tri-machine gun to fired, but one of the other mobile suits slammed its weapon on to his shield arm! This caused him to fall down on to one knee, the third quickly appearing and aiming to slam their weapon into his exposed back.

"Too slow!" Reaper roared, dragging his blade against the ground, in a reverse grip, and impaled it! More blood sprayed on to him, as the mobile sit went limp. He quickly shield bashed the second away, and open fired at it with his wrist mounted weapon, causing it to fall backwards from the sudden barrage. Reaper turned to the wailing mobile suit, staring at it. "Be silent!" Lifting his right arm up, Reaper fired his electro-cable at it!

The clamp struck it right on to the chest, biting down. Once attached, Reaper sent a surge of electricity through and caused his remaining enemy to revive in pure agony. All cross its organic-metal body, the mobile suit began to let out small explosions and trauma ruptures. Before long, it suddenly blew up in a burst of blood! The Gouf Custom having barely any time to shield himself.

"Hostiles eliminated." Reaper's eye scanned the battlefield, and destroyed mobile suits that littered around him. His mobile suit kill count had been bumped up by fifteen confirmed kills, now. "Seems I am not 'obsolete' after-!" The Gouf Custom had been struck in the shoulder by a beam of concentrated energy, nearly knocking him on to the ground. "What!? Another mobile suit!"

Quickly, Reaper swung his tri-machinegun around, ready to fire, only to find another one of the humanoids floating in front of him. Her coat had a navy blue hue to it, hair matching the night sky, and wore raven black armor. Her ice blue eyes were narrowed on to him, left hand outstretched to the mobile suit. "Release brave Starburst, immediately, metal cyclops!"

Reaper lowered his weapon, eye scanning the new humanoid in front of him. The high tech scanners quickly picked up the energy build up within her body, nearly matching a single signature recorded into his combat data. "She almost has the amount of energy found within the Gundam's beam weapons…" His mind went over the demand, adding how strong this one is. "If they wish for this 'Starburst', then I cannot give her up right away." He took the blade into a reverse grip, placing the tip into the ground, fully disarming himself. "Negative. Mobile Suit designation 07B 'Gouf Cutom' model, codenamed 'Reaper'." Reaper's sine eye did a quick scan around, noticing and surprising the soldiers around him, then going back to the obvious leader. "Requesting safe zone to eject current passenger."

His metallic voice did not seem to effect the navy blue humanoid. "We see…" Her voice sounded concerned, eyes locked on to the colossus still. "We are Princess Luna, our sister and ourself rule over Eqeustria, with young Princess Twilight Sparkle at our side! Whose daughter you now hold captive within your metal body!"

"Princess?" Reaper's mind echoed, before data started to stream all across his system, at the single word 'princess'. When his internal camera locked on to Starburst, the Principality of Zeon symbol appeared over her, flashing. "Acknowledged, Princess Starburst identified. Zeon Alpha Protocol initiated, please identify safe location to eject passenger. I shall escort her there."

Luna continued to stare up at the unwavering mobile suit, before nodding and looking towards the male, who looked just like Starburst. "Captain Sentry, inform our sister of our new 'guest', and your wife of brave Starburst's current situation."

"Right away, Princess!" Flash Sentry quickly flew off, with four other guards.

"Good." Luna looked back at the mobile suit towering over them. "Well then, 'Reaper', thee shall follow us." With that, the Lunar Princess flew off towards a nearby city. Reaper walked over to his waiting gatling gun, reattaching it to his shield, before the Gouf Custom's thrusters activated and allowed him to give chase.

-Canterlot-

Twilight paced back and forth, occasionally looking up at the, closed, throneroom doors. It had nearly been an hour, since Flash Sentry returned and reported back to Celestia. It has been nearly an hour, and there still has been no word about her beloved daughter, Starburst.

The alicorn did not want her to go, but there was no stopping the pegasus mare, once her mind has been made up. Somehow, despite having a bodily defect that causes it to shut down when over exerted, Starburst became a Royal Guard. With that, it meant she could be deployed at any time, and with these massive alien invaders suddenly attacking? That meant Starburst had been deployed to every engagement, and barely came back each time. The invaders had been kidnapping both citizens and any Royal Guardsmen that survived a battle with them, which left Twilight in a state of both terror and concern for her only daughter.

The princess about jumped out of her coat, when the doors suddenly opened up. When Flash Sentry walked out, Twilight was right on him. "Flash! Oh, Flash, are you alright? What happened, did everypony get out ok? Is Starburst alright?" Both of Twilight's ears fell back into her mane. "Please tell me she's alright? Is my baby alright!"

"Calm down, Twilight. She is fine, I'm sure of it." Flash Sentry assured, but his words did not go like he wanted. "During the battle, things were going bad, but something happened and a new giant appeared… After it showed up, Starburst had another episode and-!"

"Oh, Celestia, no! Please tell me she's safe! Please tell me that those things did not get my baby, and she's on her way here!" The princess was frantic, hysterical, as she stepped closer to the guard captain.

Flash Sentry rubbed the back of his head. "W-Well, you see, they did not get her, thank Celestia. She is also safe, so we do not have to worry about that. And, she is on her way here… I think?"

"You think!?" Twilight shouted, eyes wide. "How do you not know!"

"I can't explain it very easily, Twilight!" Flash Sentry started, trying to think of what to say. "It's rather… Complicated."

"Complicated? How can it be-!?" She was stopped by a powerful roaring sound and an earthquake-like shake, that shook the entire castle. "What was that!?"

Another two earthquake-like shakes nearly caused Twilight to fall, Flash Sentry quickly bracing her. "U-Uh, remember that new giant?" He asked, Twilight nodding. "Well, he has Starburst, and that was probably him…" The mare's eyes went wide, as dinner plates.

-Canterlot Castle's Courtyard-

Reaper landed within the courtyard, having to take a couple of steps before kneeling down. The stone cracked beneath his weight, but the Gouf Custom managed to keep stable. His single eye scanned back and forth, noticing the Royal Guards surrounding his position. While he could demolish them, Reaper's main concern remained on Luna, who stood beneath the mobile suit's metal body. She was waiting for Reaper's passenger, the only reason why she has not attacked him, yet.

"We are safe now, release brave Starburst, 'Reaper'!" Luna demanded, watching the mobile suit's eye shift back and forth, allowing her to notice the on-edge guards. "Guards, stand down! Show the cyclops we do not mean it harm!" She ordered, the Royal Guards, hesitantly, complying with it.

The mobile suit watched this, before his single eye went back to Luna. Slowly, his right hand went to the cockpit, as it hissed and opened. Without much warning, due to how Reaper was angled, Starburst's unconscious form rolled out on to the waiting hand, carefully taking hold of her. Many gasped, Luna's body tensing up, as they watched the young Starburst lay, defenselessly, within Reaper's metal hand. At any moment, the mobile suit could easily crush her small body… But, this did not happen, as he then held her towards Luna.

The Gouf Custom's single eye on her, as if studying the Lunar Princess. "We thank-?"
"Starburst!" A voice screamed, causing all to look towards its source, Twilight skidding to a halt when Reaper's single eye locked on to her.

Silence followed, as the two just stared at one another, both trying to figure the other out. "Ah, Princess Twilight Sparkle." Luna broke the silence, motioning for her friend to come over. "Brave Starburst is safe, thanks to…" Her gaze went up to the intimidating metal giant in front of her. "Reaper. Best retrieve her, and take our niece to her room."

Twilight looked between the three, her eyes constantly going to the one that had ahold of her daughter. Before long, the mare's instincts kicked in, and she flew over to the opened hand. "Don't worry, sweetie, mommy is here…" Twilight whispered, picking Starburst up and looking up at Reaper. "T-Thank you, Reaper…"

The mobile suit did not respond to her, only keeping his one eye on Twilight and closed his cockpit. When she carried Starburst away, Reaper closed his hand, using the fist to help prop himself up. "Now then, Reaper, with that handled? We are sure that our sister would like to speak with thee-?" Luna looked up, and noticed that Reaper's one eye being gone, the Gouf Custom not moving an inch and giving off a dormant feeling. "Huh… I guess even constructs require rest."