Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Fan Fiction
Episode One: False Peace
Date: January 25th, Cosmic Era 71
"GRANTED," the voice reverberated through my skull, waking me from what felt like the darkest sleep I'd ever experienced.
I sat up in my bed, the last image of the dream seeming to float in front of my eyes – a being made up of thick, oily black smoke with dark blue flames for eyes – as my heart rate slowed and the dream faded away. Having had that dream before, I passed it off and went to the sink in my room to wash my face, trying to be quiet so as not to wake my roommate, Tolle Koenig.
"Birdy?" a small robotic bird chirped from my dresser.
I whispered back, "Go back to sleep, Torii."
The bird ruffled its mechanical wings before settling into the nest that Tolle's girlfriend, Miriallia Haw, had made for it.
There was a moment, when I first looked in the mirror, that I didn't recognize my own reflection, but the moment passed as I cataloged my appearance. Brown hair and purple eyes, I had a clear complexion and features that some would describe as 'delicate', I stood only 165 centimeters (5'6") but weighed in at 68 kilograms (143 pounds) – which was mostly muscle and the last vestiges of baby-fat. This was due, in part, to my genetics – increased muscle density was common among coordinators – and in part to the regimen of physical activity that I'd kept up nearly all of my 15 years. I put on a pair of shoes and slipped out of my dorm room, heading for the gymnasium on the college campus where I lived.
Pre-dawn in the space colony of Heliopolis was marked by the opening of the massive mirrors that reflected sunlight into the interior of the Island 3-type cylindrical colony. Artificial gravity was achieved by means of centrifugal force, and breathable atmosphere was provided by a combination of oxygen scrubbers and living plants. The 20 kilometer long interior space had forests and wetlands, farms and orchards, and was almost self-sustaining. At such an early hour few people were around to gawk as I set a sprinting pace and maintained it for an impressive distance.
After doing 20 laps of the half-kilometer long track, I headed inside and started pushing weights before finishing up with an aerobics exercise. When I was little I had asked my foster-parents to let me learn martial arts, but they had refused to send me, not wanting me to 'show off' or 'stand out' too much. Coordinators, human beings who had been genetically modified as zygotes, were considered second-class citizens on Earth, and were often targeted by racist groups like Blue Cosmos. I understood their concern, and tried not to advertise my genetic status, but I needed to push my body every few days to stay healthy.
Back in the dorm, I showered, scraped off what peach-fuzz I had, and then headed back to my dorm to get dressed for the day. My roommate, Tolle, was still asleep, so I shook him awake before opening my closet to figure out what to wear.
"Uh, it's too early," Tolle complained.
"You forgot to set your alarm clock again," I pointed out. "You're actually running five minutes late."
He groaned, "I didn't forget to set it – I remembered not to set it."
I chuckled good-naturedly as he climbed out of bed and shuffled off to the bathroom down the hall.
Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to do my laundry, so I was stuck with a black jacket, the sleeves and lapel held closed by red buckles and mint pants. The jacket was considered 'stylish', but the pants were a mismatch. Finding a pair of small red belts – belts and buckles being the current fashion – I wrapped those around the pants, under my knees, and finished the outfit with black shoes, a red shirt, and a black choker.
"Come on, Torii," I called out, and the mechanical bird, green and yellow, winged its way over to my shoulder. Once we were out of the building, though, it took off on whatever birdy errand that occupied its days.
I headed to the cafeteria for some food before my first class.
I was studying Robotics, but was actually a multi-disciplinarian, having already earned degrees in Structural Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Programming. Advanced intelligence was also a common trait among coordinators, but I only knew of a few who were multi-disciplinarian – most focused their intelligence towards a single science, or the arts. Normal humans also had excellent intelligence – either due to their genetics or just hard work – and most of the people in my classes were older. The only one my age in my class was Sai Argyle.
A year older than me, 10 centimeters taller, and about the same weight, he was the prime example of selective breeding. He was also working on a degree in Robotics, but this was only his second degree. Still, he was tall, good looking, and popular – yes, I was jealous of him – but he was also a pretty nice guy once you got to know him.
"Hey, Kira, did you get that program done for Professor Kato?" Sai whispered during the lecture.
"No, haven't even started," I groaned, which was a partial truth. My plan was to work on it out in the commons later today so that the professor wouldn't be able to hand me more stuff to do.
"Well, you'd better not be late," Sai replied conspiratorially.
I nodded and focused on the lecture at hand, flagging any part of the material I didn't understand or caught my interest, either so I could pose a question or research further. Professor Kato actually had five students working under him: myself, Sai, Tolle, Kuzzey Buskirk, and Miriallia Haw. We were working on an EVA suit for use in colony development in hostile environments, like asteroid fields or unstable planetoids. The project was interesting, the people were fantastic, and the project would look great on my resume, but it sometimes felt like Professor Kato expected more from me than the others.
When that class let out I went to my second, and last, class of the day, and then went out to the commons to eat lunch and work on Professor Kato's project. On a separate window I played a news program, just as background noise, really.
"The refugee camp in South Africa has been suffering from a chronic lack of food and aid items putting the lives of 1.2 million people at risk," the male anchorman on the screen was saying.
His female co-host then took over, "We'll now bring you images from the Kaohsiung front where heavy fighting is taking place."
With my notes in my left hand, I typed with my right, mostly ignoring my surroundings, but I was aware of Torii landing on my laptop.
"Birdy?" the little robot seemed to ask.
"Kira," someone called out, and I looked up to see Tolle and Miriallia heading my way.
Tolle accused, "So this is where you're hangin' out. Professor Kato was looking for you."
"Again?" I exclaimed.
Miriallia chimed, "He's asked us to bring you to him immediately." Going on, she asked, "What is it about? Are you helping him out with something again?"
They favored each other, Tolle and Miriallia. He was short, like me, just 163 cm tall, though he had a lighter frame than me, dark brown hair and green eyes. She was shorter still, I think that was what drew Tolle to her initially, standing 159 cm, with light brown hair and eyes that were a strange shade of ocean blue. I liked them both, very much, as people and coworkers.
"Darn," I complained, "I'm still not finished with the stuff he handed me yesterday."
The window displaying the news program was still going, displaying recorded footage of a battle in eastern Eurasia. "It's begun!" someone was yelling. "Hurry! Hurry! Run away!" To which someone else exclaimed, "That way's just as dangerous!"
"Some breaking news?" Tolle asked, coming around the picnic table I was sitting at to see the feed.
"Yeah. Kaohsiung, apparently." I wasn't really interested since the video was a week old. Early in the war between the Earth Alliance and the PLANTs, the PLANTs had seeded the Earth with Neutron Jammers, devices that prevented all forms of nuclear fusion or fission, and blanketing the atmosphere with interference that made long-distance communications difficult. So, news of the attack on Kaohsiung was a week old, but the footage of the attack was new.
I maximized the screen as the field reporter in a bullet-proof vest explained, "Here, about seven kilometers from Kaohsiung the sounds of severe battle continue to echo." The image had two ZAFT, the PLANTs armed forces, mobile suits in the background, moving through a city scape.
Tolle exclaimed, "If these are scenes from last week they may have already taken over Kaohsiung by now.
Not really interested, I shut down the news feed and closed my laptop, and my mechanical bird hopped onto my shoulder.
"Kaohsiung isn't that far away, is it?" Miriallia mused. She wasn't talking about Heliopolis, which orbited the Earth at Lagrange 3, but Orb, the island nation that owned Heliopolis, and where our parents and families were living. "Will the homeland be alright?"
"Birdy!" Torii cried, before launching itself off my shoulder to go check on something.
"Sure. There's no need to worry," Tolle was saying, "Although they're close, we're a neutral entity. It's unthinkable for Orb to become a battlefield."
"Really? Then I guess we're okay," Miriallia sighed in reassurance.
I was not reassured by Tolle's words, remembering a time a few years earlier, when I'd first been gifted Torii. Back when I'd been living in Orb, I had made friends with a fellow coordinator by the name of Athrun Zala. The son of a ZAFT officer, he had accompanied his father to Orb; his father being in charge of security for the treaty signing that had made Orb a neutral entity, as Tolle had explained.
The day before his scheduled return to the PLANTs, Athran had told me, "There's no way a war will break out between the PLANTs and Earth." At the time there had been an up-swell of anti-coordinator violence, but he'd commented, "There's no point in evacuating," and had gone on to add, "You'll eventually come to the PLANTs, too. Right, Kira?"
"Kira?" Tolle asked, calling me out of my memory.
He had his face really close to mine, and I jerked back in surprise.
"What are you doing? Let's go," he admonished.
"Right," I sighed, a little embarrassed at being caught daydreaming, and packed up quickly to follow the pair as they headed for the taxi terminal.
The taxi system on Heliopolis was all automated – the white convertible sedans and coupes were self-guiding, and the nearest available car would divert to a terminal when summoned. Ahead of us were two groups – a quartet of professionals in suits and ties, and a trio of girls that were giggling through an argument. I'd often wondered how girls could giggle while arguing but hadn't come to a conclusion. Normally I would have just ignored them, but then I realized that one of the girls was Flay Allster.
I'd had a crush of Flay since she'd arrived at the start of the Fall Quarter. Long red hair, curious blue-grey eyes, she always seemed to be smiling, even while arguing with her friends, and always dressed conservatively. Today she was wearing a pink dress with a couple of buckles holding the bodice to the shoulder, the pleated skirt falling to just shy of her knees, and her dainty feet clad in red shoes.
Miriallia's roommate, Flay was studying Fashion and Marketing, and often made outfits for bother herself and Miriallia, and I suspected that both girls were wearing Flay-originals. Her two friends, I didn't know their names, were dressed more traditionally – the black-haired girl in an school uniform, complete with tie and calf-socks, while the brunette in pigtails was wearing a princess-cut top and capris with three belts on each leg. I didn't recognize either girl from the college, and wondered if they were standard secondary school students, rather than in an advance placement program.
Flay giggled at something her friends were saying, and then looked up to exclaim, "Huh? Miriallia!"
"Hi!" Miriallia called back as we stood in line behind the group of girls.
The black-haired girl pounced on the back of the brunette, saying "Hey, I'll bet you know, Miriallia."
Hedging, my friend asked, "Know what?"
"Come on! Stop it!" Flay admonished.
Pig-tails revealed, "She got a letter from Sai Argyle! But she says nothing's going on, and won't tell us anything."
I was shocked – usually guys only sent letters when they were serious, but I hadn't noticed any change in Sai. The girls continued to prattle as I looked at Flay. For her part, Flay finally seemed to have enough, and admonished her friends, "Would you girls put it to rest?"
She'd raised her hand, as if to hit them, but the girls just danced away, giggling.
"Ahem," a woman standing behind Tolle and I cleared her throat. When we both turned to look, she asked, "If you're not moving on, mind if I do?"
The woman was right, of course, two cars had arrived while we'd been listening to the drama.
"Oh, sorry. Please," Tolle said, and we stepped aside so that the woman and her two companions could pass.
Flay's group also let the trio pass, and Flay admonished her friends, "What's the big deal, anyway? Let's go!"
"Hey! Wait!" one of her friends called out, the other echoing, "Wait!"
The two secondary schoolers followed their leader, the raven-haired girl suggesting, "Let's go to Ralsvy first before we go shopping. They may still have those parfait rolls they're making for a limited time."
Frowning, I tried to figure out where this left me with Flay. Sure, I had only met her a couple of times, but she was pretty, and funny, and modest, and beautiful – pretty much everything a guy could want in a girl.
"Sai wrote her a letter?" Tolle mused, "To Flay Allster? That's a surprise. But he could prove to be a strong rival for you, Mr. Kira Yamato."
Miriallia giggled, while I tried to lie, "But I'm not really interested in Flay."
They weren't falling for it, and ribbed me pretty hard from the back seat of the taxi. As I was paying, I sat up front, which was fine by Tolle and Miriallia as they sat next to each other in the back seat. Moving steadily, the car turned towards the Morgenroete facility where Professor Kato had his robotics lab.
Tolle was offering to play ice-breaker for me, saying, "What's the problem? If you can't ask, I will."
Running my security card through the popup barrier controls, I admonished, "You're being a pest, Tolle."
Morgenroete was a semi-nationalized company with its corporate headquarters on Onogoro Island in the Orb Union, with satellite facilities on various resource satellites throughout the solar system. It was notorious for being the Orb Union's major source of defensive weaponry, but most of its work was in legitimate scientific endeavors, like the work of Professor Kato. The company had a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, and employed most of the coordinators who hadn't immigrated to the PLANTs.
We entered the suite of rooms set aside as Professor Kato's lab to find that we'd been beaten there by Sai and Kuzzey. Both were busy with their work, Kuzzey calling out a, "Hi," as we entered without looking up from his computer monitor.
Leaning around his monitor, Sai cheered, "Oh, Kira. You finally made it."
Seeing him reminded me that I hadn't completed the program for the professor, and the reported letter that he'd sent to Flay. Before I could ask, though, I noticed that we had a guest – blond haired and brown eyed, wearing a trench coat and a news-boy hat. The really strange thing was that I felt like I had seen the young man before – the feeling being similar to what I'd felt while staring at my own face this morning.
Tolle stepped over to Kuzzey and stage-whispered, "Who's that?" while pointing rather rudely at the young man.
"Oh, a guest to see the professor. He was apparently told to wait here," Kuzzey responded dully, not enjoying being pulled out of his work.
Stepping up, I asked, "And? Where's the professor?" As much as I wasn't looking forward to being handed more work I hated being left waiting. I'd once heard the military described as 'hurry up and wait', and knew that wasn't something I could do.
Sai came to my rescue, holding up an SSD and happily announcing, "He handed me this. What is it? I'm assuming it's work for Morgenroete."
Reading the serial number on the label and explained, "Nothing special. It's regarding improving the frame setup module. It's simply a program analysis." The last I added happily, because that wouldn't take me long at all.
Tolle snuck up behind me and put me in a headlock. "More importantly," he stressed, "Ask about the letter!"
Sai looked confused, or maybe troubled, and asked, "Letter?"
"N-No, it's nothing!" I assured my friend.
"It's not nothing!" Tolle countered, tightening his grip to the point that he was almost choking me. I knew he was just being playful, but if the guy wasn't careful I was going to break out of the hold, and I wasn't sure if I could do that without hurting Tolle.
Sai was more direct, asking, "What is it?"
"Well, you see . . .," I dissembled.
Sensing that I was about to lie, Sai asked, "What is it, Tolle? Just tell me."
"Let go! You're choking me!" I warned, wanting nothing more than to get out of the embarrassing situtaiton.
"Not so fast! Not until you tell him!" Tolle said.
I slipped the hold, twisting Tolle's arm behind his back and forcing my roommate onto his toes with the sudden reversal. "I don't want to talk about it," I said, turning the boy to his girlfriend and giving him a slight shove forward.
"Well, if you don't want to talk then let's see the program you were working on earlier," Sai allowed – the professor had made him team leader, so it was his call to make.
Tolle, our usual test monkey, climbed into the frame we were using to simulate an Extra-Vehicular Activity suit, with Kuzzey helping to attach leads and Miriallia stood next to the kill switch in case the frame's actuator-enhanced joints tried to hyper extend again. Meanwhile, with Sai looking over my shoulder I transferred the program that I had been working on, and then completed it quickly. While we both ran the diagnostic program Tolle ran the frame through the basic movements.
"That's amazing," Sai said as he decoded the algorithms by sight.
"Let me see," Miriallia exclaimed, trading the watch detail with Kuzzey as she came over.
When she was halfway across the lab the ground shook, nearly spilling all of us onto the floor. "An asteroid?" Sai wondered, but a different thought leapt into my mind, and from the look of our guest he had the same idea: an attack!
Getting to his feet, Sai took charge, saying, "We need to head towards the shelter. Kuzzey, Kira, help Tolle out of the frame; Miriallia, help me back up the data, just in case."
"Okay," we all called out, and even our guest was caught up in Sai's charisma and deigned to help out.
We got out quickly and headed for the stairwell, as elevators were taken offline in the face of an asteroid strike or other disaster. If the colony was depressurized an unsealed elevator car was the last place anyone wanted to be. So, the cars deposited people on the nearest floor, and it was up to them to make it down to the shelters that were dotted across the colony in case of emergency.
The ground shook again, and Miriallia spoke for the group when she asked, "What was that?" Meanwhile, Sai managed to force the door into the stairwell open to find people heading towards shelters.
"What's the matter?" our defacto leader asked.
"I don't know," one man answered dismissively.
The next man explained, "We're under attack by ZAFT! Mobile Suits have entered the colony! You people had better hurry, too!"
I felt like something heavy had dropped into my stomach, and I turned to keep an eye on our guest just in time to see the blond boy take off down the hall. While Sai was admonishing the others to follow him, I called out, "Hey, you!"
Fairly sure the newcomer didn't know his way around, I took off after him, staggering against another ground shake and calling back to my friends, "I'll be right back!"
Quickly running down the boy, I grabbed his arm and demanded, "What are you doing? It's no use going that way."
"Why are you following me?" he countered. "You'd better run away from here!"
The threat fell flat, but as the ground shook again a back-blast of wind rushed past as, knocking the boy's hat off. Blinking past the dust, I looked up, and without the hat realized that the boy I was talking to was actually a girl. "I know you," I said, trying to think back to when I had seen this girl before, but coming up with a blank.
"Yea, well, I don't know you," she shot back, "Now, stop following me. Just go! There's something I have to check out here first!"
Whoever she was, she was really pushy, and had no clue how to get around, because she was heading straight for an emergency bulkhead that closed to funnel people towards the emergency shelters.
"That's easy to say, but where do I go?" I argued, gesturing towards a collapsed hall behind us, "I can't exactly return."
She stared at me fiercely, but I could see panic in her brown eyes. I could see in her eyes that she was scared but determined, and again I couldn't help but wonder where I knew her from. Unfortunately, the immediate problem was getting to one of the shelters, and I looked around to get my bearings.
"Let's see," I mused. "Here, this way!"
Grabbing her hand, I turned a corner and started running, ignoring her admonishment of, "Let go, you fool!"
"Fool?" I shock back.
Tears coming to her eyes, the girl admitted, "I never expected to get stuck in here."
"D-Don't worry! I'll help you," I promised. "There are still shelters left in the factory district," which was where we were headed.
We ran towards the end of a hall where we could see daylight only to find ourselves standing on a balcony overlooking a battle between Morgenroete technicians and ZAFT forces. The ZAFT forces, coordinators all, were wearing green and red vacuum suits, hinting that they had snuck aboard via one of the external hatches. Two massive mobile gantries were supporting 20 meter tall mobile suits, and realized that the two forces were fighting over the MS.
"Wh-Why this is . . .?!" I stammered, realizing that Morgenroete must have built the mobile suits, otherwise they would have been at the other end of the colony, at the shipyard where Earth Alliance and ZAFT forces sometimes docked to resupply food, water, and air.
Next to me, the girl sagged to her knees, bemoaning, "I knew it. The Earth Forces' new model mobile weapons. Father, you've betrayed us!"
Her exclamation drew the attention of one of the fighters, a woman in an orange jumpsuit who was clambering over one of the mobile suits. I grabbed the girl's arm, admonishing, "This is crazy!" before pulling her away from the scene. Behind us, a few bullets embedded themselves into the wall where we'd been viewing the skirmish.
Fortunately the woman recognized that we were non-combatants and stopped shooting as we dashed down another hallway, towards the closest emergency shelter. Unfortunately, my companion was half-blind for crying, slowing us down.
"Crying won't do any good!" I shouted at her. "Come on! Run!"
Industrial District Shelters 038 were ahead, and with relief I saw a green light over the middle of the three shelters. A lift would take us down to an armored, pressurized, shelter, and I pressed the button to open the doors, flashing a reassuring smile to my companion.
"See?" I encouraged, "Some people have evacuated here."
"Is there still someone out there?" a voice responded from the shelter's wall-comm.
"Yes! A friend and I need to get in!" I responded. "Please let us in!"
In my mind there was no reason for us to be denied.
"Two of you?"
"Yes!" Why was this taking so long?
"We're full here," the man on the other end of the comm responded. He wasn't telling the complete truth; if the shelter had been full the light above the door would have turned red. What he probably meant was that they only had one seat left.
In case of catastrophic damage to the colony, the shelters were designed to serve as lifeboats, but in that case the oxygen scrubbers could only manage to support a certain number of people. Too many, and everyone onboard would slowly suffer from carbon dioxide poisoning. Depending on how long it took for rescue and recovery teams to arrive, those in an overburdened shelter could end up dying.
"There are 37 shelters in the left block. Can't you make it there?" the man controlling the door asked.
I looked back the way I came, at the smoke rising from the Factory District, the sound of gunfire and the occasional flash of an explosive. "Then please take my friend," I requested, "She's just a girl!"
After a moment, the man replied, "Very well!" Recognizing the position he was putting me in, the man apologized, "Sorry!"
When the door opened, I told the girl, "Get in." When she didn't move fast enough I pushed her into the lift
"What are you . . . ? I . . .," she exclaimed, brought out of her reverie by my rough action.
"Just get in!" I told her. "I'll go to the other side. I'll be alright. Hurry!" With my genetically altered strength I pushed her into the lift, and before she could recover I pushed the button to close the doors.
"Wait! You . . .," the girl said as the doors closed and the lift dropped. The light over the door turned red – the lift would not be returning – so I turned on my heels and started sprinting to the far side of the Factory District.
Spotting a ZAFT soldier in a green pressure suit on the balcony, I called down to the Morgenroete technicians, "Watch out! Behind you!"
The woman who had shot at me earlier twisted into a crouch, brought up her rifle, and sprayed bullets in the general direction of the ZAFT soldier. At the extreme range of the rifle's accuracy, one or two of the bullets managed a lucky shot, bringing the soldier down, but the woman started fussing with her rifle. Either it had jammed or she was out of bullets, and when one of her fellows was shot she pulled out a pistol and took down another of the green-suits.
"Come here!" she called out to me.
I told her, "Thank you, but I'm going to the shelters in the left block! Please, ignore me!"
"There's nothing but a door there," she shouted up at me, perhaps meaning that the hall behind the door had collapsed.
As if to back up her words, fire, smoke, and debris, was ejected from another hallway, leaving me with few options. Taking a set of stairs down to a lower balcony, I leapt the rail and freefell to the mobile suit only to find that the armor plate wasn't quite horizontal. I stumbled the landing, and ended up sprawled on my chest staring down at the shoulder assembly.
On the factory floor, the skirmish had been whittled down to just two Morgenroete technicians and two ZAFT officers in red suits. As I scrambled to my feet one of the red suits stood up at the wrong time and took several shots to the chest had helmet. He collapsed back to the floor. In retaliation, his companion raced out of cover and shot the offending technician, coming around to shoot the woman as well before his rifle, too, ran out of bullets.
I skipped across uneven armor plates to the woman's side as the ZAFT officer abandoned his rifle and used maneuvering thrusters on his suit to leap onto the mobile suit with a knife in hand. Looking up, I had a vague notion of trying to protect the woman, but when I saw the face behind the transparent visor of the attacker I gasped, "Athrun?"
Hearing his name brought Athrun Zala up short, and he stopped just a couple feet away with his green eyes wide and the knife raised to strike. "Kira?" he said, as startled to see me as I was to see him.
There were explosions in the background, but the pair of us seemed frozen in the moment, each trying to figure out what the other was doing there. Athrun relaxed his posture, and I stood up, both of us waiting for the other to speak first. We probably would have stared at each other for another minute, but the woman with a bullet in her right shoulder managed to raise the gun in that hand and take a couple of poorly aimed shots that had the effect of sending Athrun, in his red ZAFT pressure suit, scrambling for cover.
He fled towards the other mobile suit, while the woman forced herself to her feet and pushed me into the cockpit before following. She triggered the cockpit closed as the fires set during the skirmish on the factory floor finally reached the nearby fuel depot, causing massive explosions. With the flip of switches and the manipulation of controls, the woman brought up monitors that showed the image going from vertical, staring up at the colony above, to horizontal, staring out at the Morgenroete facilities. My ears popped with the sudden change in altitude, and I realized that the mobile suit was standing up.
End Episode One: False Peace