Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
The Four Gundams of the Apocalypse
Chapter 1: The Horsemen Cometh
*All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Campbell Lane (voice) .... Narrator
MAIN CHARACTERS (GOOD)
Mark Hildreth (I) (voice) .... Heero Yuy
Scott McNeil (I) (voice) .... Duo Maxwell
Kirby Morrow (voice) .... Trowa Barton
Brad Swaile (voice) .... Quatre Rabera Winner
Ted Cole (voice) .... Chang Wufei
MAIN CHARACTERS (BAD)
Eminem (voice) .... Malcolm Meredith / The First Horseman - Conquest
Adrian Paul (voice) .... Jeffery Jameson / The Second Horseman - War
Eliza Dushku (voice) .... Lucia Lynn / The Third Horseman - Famine
Willem Dafoe (voice) .... Luther Durden / The Fourth Horseman - Death
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS (GOOD)
Saffron Henderson (voice) .... Lucrezia Noin
Brian Drummond (voice) .... Milliardo Peacecraft / Zechs Marquise
Lisa Ann Beley (voice) .... Relena Darlian / Relena Peacecraft
Monica Gemmer (voice) .... Catherine Bloom
Chantal Strand (voice) .. Mariemeia Khushrenada
Enuka Okuma (voice) .. Lady Une
Cathy Weseluck (voice) .... Dorothy Catalonia
Moneca Stori (voice) .... Sally Poe
Ward Perry (voice) .... Howard
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the Earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the bests of the Earth."
Revelations 6:8
December 30, A.C. 196
Noin set the flower down on one of the graves and standing up once more crossed herself. She had always come to this place ever since that Christmas Eve in A.C. 195 when Trieze Kushrinada had died in space. She would always bring flowers to the grave of Trieze, but she would bring none for her beloved, Zechs Marquise. Standing next to Noin as she stood up was Dorothy Catalonia who had just recently realized the follies of war.
"Noin... why is it that you don't bring anything for Milliard's grave?" asked Dorothy as she stared in curiosity at Noin.
"It's not necessary."
"Eh?" she asked dubiously.
"He's out there somewhere."
"True..." Dorothy giggled faintly as she answered.
"What about Relena?"
"She's even busier than before, flying hither and yon." Noin smiled sadly. Noin was still a guardian of the Sank Kingdom, but its ruler, Relena, wasn't there. "She's been so busy these months with the Mars Terra-forming project."
"When's phase one supposed to start?" asked Dorothy.
"It should be launching in four hours," Noin said as she stared up into the sky.
"Did you tell Relena about...." Noin bowed her head. "No, I didn't.
That's his prerogative, I'll understand if he chooses not to."
"I suppose so."
Dorothy smiled and stared up into the skies with Noin.
***
"Vice Foreign Minister Darlian!" A voice called out to Relena as she headed towards the Mars Terra-forming Project Launch ceremony, which had already started. The L2 Colony representative, Ted Narita, hurried over towards her. He seemed surprised to see her dressed in a pale pink colored suit.
"Is something wrong?" Relena asked
Ted closed his mouth at her question.
"It's just that... that suit looks incredibly like the one Colonel Une wore when I first met her. Er... She's not a colonel anymore is she - the leader of the Earth Sphere... right?" Relena smiled faintly at Ted. "I see... Does it not suit me?"
"Oh no! It looks very good on you!" He said that very seriously, and then quickly changed the subject.
"Actually... someone asked me to deliver something to you today..."
"To me? Who?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know."
"I see... I understand. I'll accept it." She took the letter that he pulled out, and after murmuring her thanks Ted bowed to her. She had been busy these many months working on the Mars Terra-forming Project. Living in space was a precarious thing, and she hoped that this would bolster their spirits. That had been one of the reasons why the colonists had turned to arms in the first place. That was why creating a solid, habitable world was such an important goal.
However, it wasn't just a matter of technology, it was also incredibly expensive. The Winners and the Dragon clan were helping with the latter. Their efforts had been rewarded; phase one was to start today. The first phase of the project would take 10 years to finish. The plan was to alter the orbit and surface of the planet, bringing it closer to the earth. After that, plants would be brought in. And finally, after fifty years, man would be able to live there without the need for masks.
Compared to the two centuries of suffering in the colonies, this amount of time would be a pittance. Relena perused the letter as she walked. Her face immediately paled and she broke into a run.
"We who know nothing but how to fight can't immediately adapt to this New World. It may be that the only way I can go on living is in battle. The red planet awaits us. I plan to lose myself in this new fight. But this is not a fight to kill... but rather a fight to stay alive. I will survive."
That was all that was written. There was no signature. But just reading it, she knew whom it was from. "Heero!" She headed towards the ceremony, surely the countdown had started. After the fight, Heero had never once appeared before her. No....it wasn't just Heero, she hadn't seen Quatre of the Winner family or Wufei of the Dragon Clan. She would have never have imagined that this was the reason. Relena who had dashed towards the ceremony found her progress blocked. Down below, she could see the people who were to depart on phase one walking towards the ship. At the end of the line were five boys. She pulled herself against the fence and called to those down below.
"Heero!" She called
Her voice penetrated past the cheerful music of the ceremony. Four boys and Heero, the last in line, turned around and looked up. Relena then took the letter and ripped it in half.
"Next time, deliver it in person!" she shouted.
Heero smiled and spoke something softly
"Wait for me." She was sure that was what he had mouthed.
Duo waved.
Trowa nodded.
Quatre laughed.
Wufei bowed.
And the five entered the shuttle without looking back.
"I'll be waiting for you, Heero." She said, "I'll believe in you... no matter how long..."
She gently held the letter against her as she watched the final countdown begin.
Time had truly passed quickly since the Christmas Eve when the tyrannical eight-year-old Mariemaia Kushrinada had declared war. It seems even longer to the events of when the Space Battleship Libra was falling to Earth. Humanity had come so close to killing each other completely. Yet, the five boys with rebellious wings of Gundanium had thwarted all of these events. These shooting starts that were commonly known as the Gundam Pilots. There was Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner and Wufei Chang. After these events that happened in the years A.C. 195 and 196 each had taken their won separate ways.
Duo Maxwell went on to manage his own scrap-pile with his lady friend named Hilde Schbeiker. Duo felt that this was the best way for him to make a living. He knew a lot about machinery and how each of them would work with the right parts. With the Alliance, Oz, and Romafeller gone, all of their mobile suit parts are lying around waiting to be used for a better purpose.
After the collapse of the Alliance, Oz and Romafeller, the World Nation was established. With this, a small organization was needed to protect the peace. This organization was called "Perventer", and it was there that Wufei Change had found his place. He had always felt that when peace would be achieved his warrior like ways would be discarded. With no battles to fight, he would simply be a useless weapon. That was until the offer came for him to be in Perventer. He had felt that he may not be a warrior anymore but at least he can use his skills for someone.
The traveling circus had always welcomed the silent Trowa Barton. More specifically, Catherine Bloom had always welcomed Trowa back to the circus. She always kept an eye on Trowa as if she were his big sister.
While Catherine kept her "big sister eye" on Trowa, he just continued to do his acrobat tricks for this circus.
Making people happy for an hour or more was preferable to killing.
Quatre Raberba Winner simply did was he had always planned to do, return to work at his family business. The Winner family had a lot of hands, both literal and metaphorical, in different resources. Quatre did in fact have 24 sisters, each of them controlling one resource satellite that belonged to the Winner family. His sisters would make sure that they're running fine while Quatre simply ran the business.
And Heero Yuy.? Heero is a very different story unto himself. He had always lived his life as a nomad, going from place to place and living from day to day. Never having exact plans of where to stay or what to do unless instructed to him. That was why he was the perfect soldier, he could follow his orders down to the final detail.
In the time of peace, there was no use for a perfect soldier anymore. So in Heero Yuy's words, he would go
"wherever his mind would take him".
All of the Gundam pilots went their separate ways, but what of their mobile suits? All of the Gundam mobile suits had been scattered across the globe and in space. The Wing Gundam, the very first Gundam mobile suit used by Heero Yuy lay somewhere within the widespread continent of Asia. It could be anywhere from the mountainous regions of Tibet, the snowy hills of Russia, or it could be in one of the islands of Japan. The Heavyarms lay somewhere in Europe, while the Sandrock was in the Middle East. The rest of the Gundams were in space; the Gundam DeathScythe Hell remained in the company of Duo Maxwell, well hidden on Colony L-2. The Altron was somewhere on the L-5 Colony. As a matter of fact it's a miracle that the L-5 colony survived, there were plans by the Dragon Clan to self detonate the colony. Though thanks to the efforts of Wufei Chang the Colony was spared. The last Gundam mobile suit and the most dangerous weapon of all, the Wing Zero was on Colony L-4. Though the only Gundam mobile suit that was never found was the suit built by Treize Kushrinada, The Gundam Epyon.
It is said that the price of freedom and peace is eternal vigilance. None of the Gundam pilots knew this, but soon they will.
***
October 13, A.C. 199
On Colony L-1, there are a number of different colleges. Each of them was varying in degrees of education. Some of them are general admission, while there are some who were very similar to that of the Ivy League colleges down on the Earth Sphere. This particular college catered to the rich, the high class, or royalty. This was Manchester University. The university itself was enormous, it had a track for horses as well as their stables, several tennis courts, a golf course, not to mention the numerous buildings that dealt in different sections of education.
The horses were out on the track on this particular day. They were running the tracks; some were galloping, trotting and eloping. Except there were two horse-riders that were catching a lot of attention from riders and onlookers alike.
"'Ere goes" Jeffery smiled as he prepped his horse for the jumps.
Jeffery Jameson was one of the horse-riders that were catching the attention. Jeffery was a young man of 27 years that when he was off of his high horse he would be six feet tall. He was wearing the prestigious riding clothes, the red coat with tails, balloon pants and high black boots. He looked pretty puffed up with those kinds of clothes but under them he was slightly muscular. He had dirty brown hair, hazel eyes, a goatee accompanied with a partial mustache. Most of the women students at Manchester University Jeffery had the looks of a Hollywood movie star. Coupling his good looks was his Scottish accent, which many of the women found extremely sexy.
Coming up behind Jeffery on another horse was a friend of his, a woman named Lucia Lynn who wore the same kind of riding clothes that Jeffery had but more feminine. She was 21 years old and stood at five feet 8 inches tall with her brunet hair coming down to her back. Usually it would just hang out but since she was riding she had it in a long ponytail. She watched Jeffery take the reigns of his horse with her hazel eyes and hoped that Jeffery wouldn't make an ass of himself. She too, like Jeffery was very attractive and with her Australian accent it intensified it even more.
She looked down the track and saw three sets of jumps that Jeffery was about to make. She came up along side of him and looked at him with a smile on her fair skinned face and voiced her hope.
"Try not to make an ass of yourself, Jeffery." She said concerned.
"Oi," Jeffery groaned, "quit acting like me mother." Jeffery had that Scottish grit sense of humor, where whatever he says may sound cruel but its his own kind of fun. He grabbed the reigns of the horse and sped off down the track and jumped over the first two jumps. Then came the last hurdle, this time Jeffery took the reigns of the horse and pulled hard back which sent the horse jumping high above the hurdle. He came back down in once piece and circled around back to the beginning of the track. As he stopped he heard the clapping and cheering from the ladies who watched from behind the fence.
"My turn" Lucia smiled as she trotted down the track through the first hurdle. As she came up to the second one she stood on the horses back as she made it through the final two jumps. Each time the horse jumped under her feet she never flinched or made any sign of fear as she came around to her friend Jeffery. She stopped and sat back down on the horse. This time there was even more clapping from the small audience at the fence, even Jeffery was impressed with his friends' skills.
As Jeffery and Lucia were basking in their small popularity they caught the disapproving eyes of her co-eds, Malcolm Meredith and Luther Durden.
Malcolm Meredith was wearing the school uniform that is worn by most of the students at Manchester University. The same tweed jacket with the school crest on the left breast. Malcolm himself was a man of 24 years and standing over the fence at 6 foot 1 inch tall. His strongly built body could be seen in the contours of his shoulders. His bleach blond hair and pale blue eyes blended finely into his fair skin that had no facial hair.
Next to Malcolm was the very shady Luther Durden, who was shorter than Malcolm was with his 5 foot 8 inch tall scrawny build and posture. Flowing past his eyes and over his school jacket was his long messy black hair. From behind the long black hair he looked disapprovingly at Jeffery and Lucia with one brown eye and the other no pigment so that it looks like his eye is pure white.
Both Jeffery and Lucia knew that they had done wrong. They dismounted their horses and lead them back to the stables. As they came back they heard their small crowd gossiping about recent events.
"Did you hear?" One of them said, "There have been numerous attacks on this colony."
"Yeah, I heard about it!" Another voice said, "I heard that there were four suits and they looked like Gundams."
"You must have been stoned, there are no Gundams anymore. They were all destroyed."
"Hey, chill out! I'm just telling you what I heard."
Jeffery Jameson, Lucia Lynn, Malcolm Meredith, and Luther Durden knew the truth of these attacks. Yet, their lips were sealed about those events, secrecy was of the utmost importance.
Later, In a small janitor's closet in the theology building of Manchester University, Jeffery, Lucia, Malcolm and Luther were having a small meeting.
The janitors closet was small but not cramped, the four of them did have enough elbow room. Under the single bulb lamp the meeting had begun.
Malcolm had removed his tie and unbuttoned his dress shirt. He opened it to show a tattoo on his left breast that read, "Victoria".
"Conquest" He said in a roll call tone. Jeffery did the same thing except his tattoo read the word, "Bullumi"
"War" he stated
Next was Lucia, she unbuttoned her dress shirt and opened it. She had the same tattoo written across her left breast but was placed in an area that was covered by her bra. She pulled it down just enough to show the word, "Famesis". "Famine" She said.
Luther had his shirt open already and upon his breast was the word, "Morte".
"And I, Death." He said, "We are the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse."
"Apocalypse now." The group said in unison and began to button their shirts back up. Luther was looking at Jeffery and Lucia with a very stern face like a disapproving father. His brown and albino eye darted between the two of them like slowly moving pendulums.
"What were you two doing showing off like that?" Luther asked calmly yet demandingly.
Jeffery and Lucia were terrified, both their knees knocked together and their eyes were wide waiting for whatever punishment Luther was going to give them. Jeffery tried to speak but his throat was so dry from fear that it was hard to get his explanation out. Lucia was having the same problem she knew the kind of atrocities that Luther was capable of and she didn't want to be his victim. "We're sorry, Death." Jeffery apologized, "we got carried away."
"It's no excuse, Conquest!" Luther snapped, "You and Famine must understand that we can't be discovered. All of you know that secrecy is of the utmost importance. If anyone was to discover our plans then it's all over for all of us. The will of God will not be carried out."
Jeffery and Lucia bowed their heads to Luther, "We're sorry, Death." They said together.
"Now then." Luther smiled like Hannibal Lecter; "We have a mission. I have two hits, but I'm going to go after them myself."
"Why can't we go with you, Death?" Jeffery asked.
"I have to make an appearance as the Angel of Death."
***
At the same time on Earth, Lady Une and Mariemea Kushrinada were coming to the graveyard in the Sank Kingdom to pay their respects to a fallen man; Trieze Kushrinada. The graveyard looked out towards the sparkling blue ocean. Lady Une and Mariemaia looked down at the grave marked Treize with the ocean sparkling in the background.
As Lady Une lay down a batch of yellow roses upon Treize's grave, a dark cloud passed overhead. It covered the sun sending the graveyard, Lady Une and Mariemea into shadow. Lady Une stood up looking at the cloud thinking that perhaps the heavens too were mourning for Trieze. For he was the one who steered the course of the world to peace and using the Gundams as his tools.
Then Lady Une looked back to the ground and saw a cloud of smoke curling up from the ground. It floated slowly up but it had a movement to it that suggested someone or something was controlling it. As if the smoke itself was a creature coming from the bowels of the Earth to do whatever evil it wished. It grew bigger and bigger around the graves and up the height of both Mariemaia and Lady Une. The smoke smelled stale, poisonous, and filled with ash. It was the same smell that
Lady Une knew when forests or a building was burning. It inflamed her nostrils and her eyes to even smell it let alone breath it in.
She tried to cover he mouth as well as Mariemaia's, then through her tearful burning eyes from the smoke she saw a dark figure moving through the smoke.
It was dark, slow moving, it crept in the same fashion that the smoke moved from the Earth. Then the figure spoke its voice slow, raspy, and purely evil.
"Lady Une." the dark figure rasped,
"Death.awaits you.time.to pay.for you're.sins."
Lady Une wanted to move away from the creeping evil, but she felt frozen in her footsteps. The figure drew closer, and even with her eyes watering, her nostrils stinging and her lungs coughing she wanted to know what this figure was. It came in closer and she was looking at a figure dressed in a flowing black robe. A hood covered the face of this creature, within the hood it was dark but with the little light from the sky Lady Une saw a skull within it. Her heart stopped as she looked into the hood of the foul thing. She watched still frozen from the absolute fear that overtook her. The figure of death pulled his hand out its robe, its hand covered in metal plates coming to its fingers in the shape of claws. In its metal hand was a flashlight shaped rod, it raised its arms and the rod extended to a staff sized rod. At one end of the rod was an odd device that Lady Une had a faint memory of. She remembered the Gundam DeathScythe Hell having something like that; it would emit a beam for its weapon. From that long thin metal rod that the figure of death held in its grip a shinning red beam came curving outward like a claw. The smoke made intensified the redness of the beam scythe that this figure of death held in its hands. The foul creature raised the scythe above its head.
Lady Une held Mariemaia closer to her as they both watched the creature about to make its fatal blow from the weapon it held in its hand.
"Lady Une!" A voice called from the distance
The creature made a short sharp screech as it lowered its weapon and looked to where the voice was coming from. A second later the beam of its weapon pulled back into the thin metal rod and the rod itself turned back into a flashlight sized rod. Then the creature turned around and jumped from grave to grave like a grasshopper from plant to plant. With the creature gone, the foul smelling and stinging smoke faded with it.
Lady Une looked and saw her bodyguards coming to her aid.
"Are you alright, Lady Une?" One of them asked
"Call Perventer." Lady Une stated,
"There's been an assassination attempt on me."
***
Above the Earth upon the populated moon life was going on peacefully and prosperously not knowing of the evil that was dwelling not more than a few miles away. For there was the abandoned mobile doll factory. During the year of A.C. 195 a member of the Romafeller foundation, Chief Engineer Tuberov, used this place to construct his "invincible mobile dolls". An army of machines with no souls or pilots, but simply mobile suits controlled by computers. It was within the bowels of this disused place that the Four Horsemen had gathered.
It was at the edge of the assembly line where previously half-built mobile dolls would roll by waiting to be completed. Three of the four horsemen knelt to the assembly line where the fourth horseman, Death, stood.
"The assassination attempt has failed!" He shouted, "but we will kill Lady Une. We must go ahead with our plans."
"Apocalypse now!" The Horsemen said in unison.
Luther reached to his side and took out a red leather bound book as thick as mathematics textbook. Embossed on the cover of this book was a golden hourglass with a cross on one side and the Star of David on the other. This was "God's Textbook" and this was the gospel of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Luther began to read from it.
"And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, "Come and see". And I saw, and behold a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer." Luther closed the book, "We must open the first seal. Famine, I have an assignment for you."
Lucia stood up and came forward the assembly line to her master, "Yes, Death." She said.
Luther knelt down to whisper his instructions to Lucia, "You are to infiltrate the Circus that is currently performing on Colony L-3. There's a certain Gundam pilot there and you are to get info on the Whereabouts of Perventer Headquarters. Use whatever means necessary, and I do mean any means."
"Who's the victim?" She asked
Luther reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet-sized photograph and handed it slowly to Lucia. She looked at the photograph and nodded to Luther.
"I won't fail you, Death." She said
To be continued.
The Four Gundams of the Apocalypse
Chapter 1: The Horsemen Cometh
*All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Campbell Lane (voice) .... Narrator
MAIN CHARACTERS (GOOD)
Mark Hildreth (I) (voice) .... Heero Yuy
Scott McNeil (I) (voice) .... Duo Maxwell
Kirby Morrow (voice) .... Trowa Barton
Brad Swaile (voice) .... Quatre Rabera Winner
Ted Cole (voice) .... Chang Wufei
MAIN CHARACTERS (BAD)
Eminem (voice) .... Malcolm Meredith / The First Horseman - Conquest
Adrian Paul (voice) .... Jeffery Jameson / The Second Horseman - War
Eliza Dushku (voice) .... Lucia Lynn / The Third Horseman - Famine
Willem Dafoe (voice) .... Luther Durden / The Fourth Horseman - Death
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS (GOOD)
Saffron Henderson (voice) .... Lucrezia Noin
Brian Drummond (voice) .... Milliardo Peacecraft / Zechs Marquise
Lisa Ann Beley (voice) .... Relena Darlian / Relena Peacecraft
Monica Gemmer (voice) .... Catherine Bloom
Chantal Strand (voice) .. Mariemeia Khushrenada
Enuka Okuma (voice) .. Lady Une
Cathy Weseluck (voice) .... Dorothy Catalonia
Moneca Stori (voice) .... Sally Poe
Ward Perry (voice) .... Howard
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the Earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the bests of the Earth."
Revelations 6:8
December 30, A.C. 196
Noin set the flower down on one of the graves and standing up once more crossed herself. She had always come to this place ever since that Christmas Eve in A.C. 195 when Trieze Kushrinada had died in space. She would always bring flowers to the grave of Trieze, but she would bring none for her beloved, Zechs Marquise. Standing next to Noin as she stood up was Dorothy Catalonia who had just recently realized the follies of war.
"Noin... why is it that you don't bring anything for Milliard's grave?" asked Dorothy as she stared in curiosity at Noin.
"It's not necessary."
"Eh?" she asked dubiously.
"He's out there somewhere."
"True..." Dorothy giggled faintly as she answered.
"What about Relena?"
"She's even busier than before, flying hither and yon." Noin smiled sadly. Noin was still a guardian of the Sank Kingdom, but its ruler, Relena, wasn't there. "She's been so busy these months with the Mars Terra-forming project."
"When's phase one supposed to start?" asked Dorothy.
"It should be launching in four hours," Noin said as she stared up into the sky.
"Did you tell Relena about...." Noin bowed her head. "No, I didn't.
That's his prerogative, I'll understand if he chooses not to."
"I suppose so."
Dorothy smiled and stared up into the skies with Noin.
***
"Vice Foreign Minister Darlian!" A voice called out to Relena as she headed towards the Mars Terra-forming Project Launch ceremony, which had already started. The L2 Colony representative, Ted Narita, hurried over towards her. He seemed surprised to see her dressed in a pale pink colored suit.
"Is something wrong?" Relena asked
Ted closed his mouth at her question.
"It's just that... that suit looks incredibly like the one Colonel Une wore when I first met her. Er... She's not a colonel anymore is she - the leader of the Earth Sphere... right?" Relena smiled faintly at Ted. "I see... Does it not suit me?"
"Oh no! It looks very good on you!" He said that very seriously, and then quickly changed the subject.
"Actually... someone asked me to deliver something to you today..."
"To me? Who?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know."
"I see... I understand. I'll accept it." She took the letter that he pulled out, and after murmuring her thanks Ted bowed to her. She had been busy these many months working on the Mars Terra-forming Project. Living in space was a precarious thing, and she hoped that this would bolster their spirits. That had been one of the reasons why the colonists had turned to arms in the first place. That was why creating a solid, habitable world was such an important goal.
However, it wasn't just a matter of technology, it was also incredibly expensive. The Winners and the Dragon clan were helping with the latter. Their efforts had been rewarded; phase one was to start today. The first phase of the project would take 10 years to finish. The plan was to alter the orbit and surface of the planet, bringing it closer to the earth. After that, plants would be brought in. And finally, after fifty years, man would be able to live there without the need for masks.
Compared to the two centuries of suffering in the colonies, this amount of time would be a pittance. Relena perused the letter as she walked. Her face immediately paled and she broke into a run.
"We who know nothing but how to fight can't immediately adapt to this New World. It may be that the only way I can go on living is in battle. The red planet awaits us. I plan to lose myself in this new fight. But this is not a fight to kill... but rather a fight to stay alive. I will survive."
That was all that was written. There was no signature. But just reading it, she knew whom it was from. "Heero!" She headed towards the ceremony, surely the countdown had started. After the fight, Heero had never once appeared before her. No....it wasn't just Heero, she hadn't seen Quatre of the Winner family or Wufei of the Dragon Clan. She would have never have imagined that this was the reason. Relena who had dashed towards the ceremony found her progress blocked. Down below, she could see the people who were to depart on phase one walking towards the ship. At the end of the line were five boys. She pulled herself against the fence and called to those down below.
"Heero!" She called
Her voice penetrated past the cheerful music of the ceremony. Four boys and Heero, the last in line, turned around and looked up. Relena then took the letter and ripped it in half.
"Next time, deliver it in person!" she shouted.
Heero smiled and spoke something softly
"Wait for me." She was sure that was what he had mouthed.
Duo waved.
Trowa nodded.
Quatre laughed.
Wufei bowed.
And the five entered the shuttle without looking back.
"I'll be waiting for you, Heero." She said, "I'll believe in you... no matter how long..."
She gently held the letter against her as she watched the final countdown begin.
Time had truly passed quickly since the Christmas Eve when the tyrannical eight-year-old Mariemaia Kushrinada had declared war. It seems even longer to the events of when the Space Battleship Libra was falling to Earth. Humanity had come so close to killing each other completely. Yet, the five boys with rebellious wings of Gundanium had thwarted all of these events. These shooting starts that were commonly known as the Gundam Pilots. There was Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner and Wufei Chang. After these events that happened in the years A.C. 195 and 196 each had taken their won separate ways.
Duo Maxwell went on to manage his own scrap-pile with his lady friend named Hilde Schbeiker. Duo felt that this was the best way for him to make a living. He knew a lot about machinery and how each of them would work with the right parts. With the Alliance, Oz, and Romafeller gone, all of their mobile suit parts are lying around waiting to be used for a better purpose.
After the collapse of the Alliance, Oz and Romafeller, the World Nation was established. With this, a small organization was needed to protect the peace. This organization was called "Perventer", and it was there that Wufei Change had found his place. He had always felt that when peace would be achieved his warrior like ways would be discarded. With no battles to fight, he would simply be a useless weapon. That was until the offer came for him to be in Perventer. He had felt that he may not be a warrior anymore but at least he can use his skills for someone.
The traveling circus had always welcomed the silent Trowa Barton. More specifically, Catherine Bloom had always welcomed Trowa back to the circus. She always kept an eye on Trowa as if she were his big sister.
While Catherine kept her "big sister eye" on Trowa, he just continued to do his acrobat tricks for this circus.
Making people happy for an hour or more was preferable to killing.
Quatre Raberba Winner simply did was he had always planned to do, return to work at his family business. The Winner family had a lot of hands, both literal and metaphorical, in different resources. Quatre did in fact have 24 sisters, each of them controlling one resource satellite that belonged to the Winner family. His sisters would make sure that they're running fine while Quatre simply ran the business.
And Heero Yuy.? Heero is a very different story unto himself. He had always lived his life as a nomad, going from place to place and living from day to day. Never having exact plans of where to stay or what to do unless instructed to him. That was why he was the perfect soldier, he could follow his orders down to the final detail.
In the time of peace, there was no use for a perfect soldier anymore. So in Heero Yuy's words, he would go
"wherever his mind would take him".
All of the Gundam pilots went their separate ways, but what of their mobile suits? All of the Gundam mobile suits had been scattered across the globe and in space. The Wing Gundam, the very first Gundam mobile suit used by Heero Yuy lay somewhere within the widespread continent of Asia. It could be anywhere from the mountainous regions of Tibet, the snowy hills of Russia, or it could be in one of the islands of Japan. The Heavyarms lay somewhere in Europe, while the Sandrock was in the Middle East. The rest of the Gundams were in space; the Gundam DeathScythe Hell remained in the company of Duo Maxwell, well hidden on Colony L-2. The Altron was somewhere on the L-5 Colony. As a matter of fact it's a miracle that the L-5 colony survived, there were plans by the Dragon Clan to self detonate the colony. Though thanks to the efforts of Wufei Chang the Colony was spared. The last Gundam mobile suit and the most dangerous weapon of all, the Wing Zero was on Colony L-4. Though the only Gundam mobile suit that was never found was the suit built by Treize Kushrinada, The Gundam Epyon.
It is said that the price of freedom and peace is eternal vigilance. None of the Gundam pilots knew this, but soon they will.
***
October 13, A.C. 199
On Colony L-1, there are a number of different colleges. Each of them was varying in degrees of education. Some of them are general admission, while there are some who were very similar to that of the Ivy League colleges down on the Earth Sphere. This particular college catered to the rich, the high class, or royalty. This was Manchester University. The university itself was enormous, it had a track for horses as well as their stables, several tennis courts, a golf course, not to mention the numerous buildings that dealt in different sections of education.
The horses were out on the track on this particular day. They were running the tracks; some were galloping, trotting and eloping. Except there were two horse-riders that were catching a lot of attention from riders and onlookers alike.
"'Ere goes" Jeffery smiled as he prepped his horse for the jumps.
Jeffery Jameson was one of the horse-riders that were catching the attention. Jeffery was a young man of 27 years that when he was off of his high horse he would be six feet tall. He was wearing the prestigious riding clothes, the red coat with tails, balloon pants and high black boots. He looked pretty puffed up with those kinds of clothes but under them he was slightly muscular. He had dirty brown hair, hazel eyes, a goatee accompanied with a partial mustache. Most of the women students at Manchester University Jeffery had the looks of a Hollywood movie star. Coupling his good looks was his Scottish accent, which many of the women found extremely sexy.
Coming up behind Jeffery on another horse was a friend of his, a woman named Lucia Lynn who wore the same kind of riding clothes that Jeffery had but more feminine. She was 21 years old and stood at five feet 8 inches tall with her brunet hair coming down to her back. Usually it would just hang out but since she was riding she had it in a long ponytail. She watched Jeffery take the reigns of his horse with her hazel eyes and hoped that Jeffery wouldn't make an ass of himself. She too, like Jeffery was very attractive and with her Australian accent it intensified it even more.
She looked down the track and saw three sets of jumps that Jeffery was about to make. She came up along side of him and looked at him with a smile on her fair skinned face and voiced her hope.
"Try not to make an ass of yourself, Jeffery." She said concerned.
"Oi," Jeffery groaned, "quit acting like me mother." Jeffery had that Scottish grit sense of humor, where whatever he says may sound cruel but its his own kind of fun. He grabbed the reigns of the horse and sped off down the track and jumped over the first two jumps. Then came the last hurdle, this time Jeffery took the reigns of the horse and pulled hard back which sent the horse jumping high above the hurdle. He came back down in once piece and circled around back to the beginning of the track. As he stopped he heard the clapping and cheering from the ladies who watched from behind the fence.
"My turn" Lucia smiled as she trotted down the track through the first hurdle. As she came up to the second one she stood on the horses back as she made it through the final two jumps. Each time the horse jumped under her feet she never flinched or made any sign of fear as she came around to her friend Jeffery. She stopped and sat back down on the horse. This time there was even more clapping from the small audience at the fence, even Jeffery was impressed with his friends' skills.
As Jeffery and Lucia were basking in their small popularity they caught the disapproving eyes of her co-eds, Malcolm Meredith and Luther Durden.
Malcolm Meredith was wearing the school uniform that is worn by most of the students at Manchester University. The same tweed jacket with the school crest on the left breast. Malcolm himself was a man of 24 years and standing over the fence at 6 foot 1 inch tall. His strongly built body could be seen in the contours of his shoulders. His bleach blond hair and pale blue eyes blended finely into his fair skin that had no facial hair.
Next to Malcolm was the very shady Luther Durden, who was shorter than Malcolm was with his 5 foot 8 inch tall scrawny build and posture. Flowing past his eyes and over his school jacket was his long messy black hair. From behind the long black hair he looked disapprovingly at Jeffery and Lucia with one brown eye and the other no pigment so that it looks like his eye is pure white.
Both Jeffery and Lucia knew that they had done wrong. They dismounted their horses and lead them back to the stables. As they came back they heard their small crowd gossiping about recent events.
"Did you hear?" One of them said, "There have been numerous attacks on this colony."
"Yeah, I heard about it!" Another voice said, "I heard that there were four suits and they looked like Gundams."
"You must have been stoned, there are no Gundams anymore. They were all destroyed."
"Hey, chill out! I'm just telling you what I heard."
Jeffery Jameson, Lucia Lynn, Malcolm Meredith, and Luther Durden knew the truth of these attacks. Yet, their lips were sealed about those events, secrecy was of the utmost importance.
Later, In a small janitor's closet in the theology building of Manchester University, Jeffery, Lucia, Malcolm and Luther were having a small meeting.
The janitors closet was small but not cramped, the four of them did have enough elbow room. Under the single bulb lamp the meeting had begun.
Malcolm had removed his tie and unbuttoned his dress shirt. He opened it to show a tattoo on his left breast that read, "Victoria".
"Conquest" He said in a roll call tone. Jeffery did the same thing except his tattoo read the word, "Bullumi"
"War" he stated
Next was Lucia, she unbuttoned her dress shirt and opened it. She had the same tattoo written across her left breast but was placed in an area that was covered by her bra. She pulled it down just enough to show the word, "Famesis". "Famine" She said.
Luther had his shirt open already and upon his breast was the word, "Morte".
"And I, Death." He said, "We are the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse."
"Apocalypse now." The group said in unison and began to button their shirts back up. Luther was looking at Jeffery and Lucia with a very stern face like a disapproving father. His brown and albino eye darted between the two of them like slowly moving pendulums.
"What were you two doing showing off like that?" Luther asked calmly yet demandingly.
Jeffery and Lucia were terrified, both their knees knocked together and their eyes were wide waiting for whatever punishment Luther was going to give them. Jeffery tried to speak but his throat was so dry from fear that it was hard to get his explanation out. Lucia was having the same problem she knew the kind of atrocities that Luther was capable of and she didn't want to be his victim. "We're sorry, Death." Jeffery apologized, "we got carried away."
"It's no excuse, Conquest!" Luther snapped, "You and Famine must understand that we can't be discovered. All of you know that secrecy is of the utmost importance. If anyone was to discover our plans then it's all over for all of us. The will of God will not be carried out."
Jeffery and Lucia bowed their heads to Luther, "We're sorry, Death." They said together.
"Now then." Luther smiled like Hannibal Lecter; "We have a mission. I have two hits, but I'm going to go after them myself."
"Why can't we go with you, Death?" Jeffery asked.
"I have to make an appearance as the Angel of Death."
***
At the same time on Earth, Lady Une and Mariemea Kushrinada were coming to the graveyard in the Sank Kingdom to pay their respects to a fallen man; Trieze Kushrinada. The graveyard looked out towards the sparkling blue ocean. Lady Une and Mariemaia looked down at the grave marked Treize with the ocean sparkling in the background.
As Lady Une lay down a batch of yellow roses upon Treize's grave, a dark cloud passed overhead. It covered the sun sending the graveyard, Lady Une and Mariemea into shadow. Lady Une stood up looking at the cloud thinking that perhaps the heavens too were mourning for Trieze. For he was the one who steered the course of the world to peace and using the Gundams as his tools.
Then Lady Une looked back to the ground and saw a cloud of smoke curling up from the ground. It floated slowly up but it had a movement to it that suggested someone or something was controlling it. As if the smoke itself was a creature coming from the bowels of the Earth to do whatever evil it wished. It grew bigger and bigger around the graves and up the height of both Mariemaia and Lady Une. The smoke smelled stale, poisonous, and filled with ash. It was the same smell that
Lady Une knew when forests or a building was burning. It inflamed her nostrils and her eyes to even smell it let alone breath it in.
She tried to cover he mouth as well as Mariemaia's, then through her tearful burning eyes from the smoke she saw a dark figure moving through the smoke.
It was dark, slow moving, it crept in the same fashion that the smoke moved from the Earth. Then the figure spoke its voice slow, raspy, and purely evil.
"Lady Une." the dark figure rasped,
"Death.awaits you.time.to pay.for you're.sins."
Lady Une wanted to move away from the creeping evil, but she felt frozen in her footsteps. The figure drew closer, and even with her eyes watering, her nostrils stinging and her lungs coughing she wanted to know what this figure was. It came in closer and she was looking at a figure dressed in a flowing black robe. A hood covered the face of this creature, within the hood it was dark but with the little light from the sky Lady Une saw a skull within it. Her heart stopped as she looked into the hood of the foul thing. She watched still frozen from the absolute fear that overtook her. The figure of death pulled his hand out its robe, its hand covered in metal plates coming to its fingers in the shape of claws. In its metal hand was a flashlight shaped rod, it raised its arms and the rod extended to a staff sized rod. At one end of the rod was an odd device that Lady Une had a faint memory of. She remembered the Gundam DeathScythe Hell having something like that; it would emit a beam for its weapon. From that long thin metal rod that the figure of death held in its grip a shinning red beam came curving outward like a claw. The smoke made intensified the redness of the beam scythe that this figure of death held in its hands. The foul creature raised the scythe above its head.
Lady Une held Mariemaia closer to her as they both watched the creature about to make its fatal blow from the weapon it held in its hand.
"Lady Une!" A voice called from the distance
The creature made a short sharp screech as it lowered its weapon and looked to where the voice was coming from. A second later the beam of its weapon pulled back into the thin metal rod and the rod itself turned back into a flashlight sized rod. Then the creature turned around and jumped from grave to grave like a grasshopper from plant to plant. With the creature gone, the foul smelling and stinging smoke faded with it.
Lady Une looked and saw her bodyguards coming to her aid.
"Are you alright, Lady Une?" One of them asked
"Call Perventer." Lady Une stated,
"There's been an assassination attempt on me."
***
Above the Earth upon the populated moon life was going on peacefully and prosperously not knowing of the evil that was dwelling not more than a few miles away. For there was the abandoned mobile doll factory. During the year of A.C. 195 a member of the Romafeller foundation, Chief Engineer Tuberov, used this place to construct his "invincible mobile dolls". An army of machines with no souls or pilots, but simply mobile suits controlled by computers. It was within the bowels of this disused place that the Four Horsemen had gathered.
It was at the edge of the assembly line where previously half-built mobile dolls would roll by waiting to be completed. Three of the four horsemen knelt to the assembly line where the fourth horseman, Death, stood.
"The assassination attempt has failed!" He shouted, "but we will kill Lady Une. We must go ahead with our plans."
"Apocalypse now!" The Horsemen said in unison.
Luther reached to his side and took out a red leather bound book as thick as mathematics textbook. Embossed on the cover of this book was a golden hourglass with a cross on one side and the Star of David on the other. This was "God's Textbook" and this was the gospel of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Luther began to read from it.
"And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, "Come and see". And I saw, and behold a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer." Luther closed the book, "We must open the first seal. Famine, I have an assignment for you."
Lucia stood up and came forward the assembly line to her master, "Yes, Death." She said.
Luther knelt down to whisper his instructions to Lucia, "You are to infiltrate the Circus that is currently performing on Colony L-3. There's a certain Gundam pilot there and you are to get info on the Whereabouts of Perventer Headquarters. Use whatever means necessary, and I do mean any means."
"Who's the victim?" She asked
Luther reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet-sized photograph and handed it slowly to Lucia. She looked at the photograph and nodded to Luther.
"I won't fail you, Death." She said
To be continued.