Disclaimer: Don't own anything except one OC in this story and probably the story idea? (shrugs)
I had this idea while writing a Gundam Seed x Macross x XCOM story and didn't help that I wrote that particular story while listening to Macross: Frontier songs. Some elements from the other story are in play here. I consider this a what-if scenario.
My sister convinced me to post this... so without further ado, I present to you whoever you, reader, are to:
MACROSS Frontier:OZ
The ZAFT Nazca-class destroyer Voltaire, modified by IMC with a second generation Fold Drive, de-folded deep in interstellar space, along with Rousseau. Commander Yzak Joule, with a scowl on his face, bark orders at the radar operator.
"Ensign Karr, where the hell are we!" Everybody in the bridge knew that something went horrible wrong with the Fold Drive test. Voltaire was suppose to exit a million kilometers away from Pluto. Instead, the only thing they see through the bridge windows is a vast expanse of empty void of space.
"I- I don't know sir" the operator replied nervously. Yzak was nearly on the verge of spitting fire when he took a deep breath and sighed. He turned to the CIC operator.
"Get Zechs and his pet engineer here right now!"
"Right away sir."
Yzak stared hard at the void of space. A million stars twinkled before him.
Zechs Merquise, known as the Lightning Count among the regulars, stood before the messy figure of Lily Shen. He lifted an eyebrow at her, silenlty giving her a question.
"You know, I can't see that eyebrow behind your mask, right" Lily said as she pried open a panel, revealing dozens of scorched wires. Some of the wires still retain an electrical charge as they produced small arcs of electricity. She squinted at the mess, it was obvious the Fold Drive overloaded itself. "Well, that's a fried Fold Drive we have here. An obvious kink to be fixed later."
"A kink that almost killed everybody on this ship" Zechs pointed out to her.
"Oh that was obviously not the case as the fail-safe protocol worked perfectly, Mister I-Have-No-Faith." Lily pulled out a small device and held it at arms length towards the open panel. After a minute or so, she placed it back inside her tool belt and announced, "This thing is going to need an extensive overhaul to get it up and running again."
A ZAFT technician floated towards the and called out, "Lt. Marquis and Ms. Shen, Commander Yzak is calling for you."
"Commander Joule, I'm getting something on one of the communication frequency" the CIC operator named Mark Bourne announced to the rest of the bridge. "It sounded like combat chatter, but we are far enough that we couldn't get the whole conversation." Yzak floated next to Ensign Bourne and grabbed an extra headset and listened intently at the recording.
"N...ing ..eamer eight's ..n."
"Gaa.."
"Bravo... Behi.. Pul. ... Fire!"
"Two! Miss... N. Lo.."
"We're bei.. Slaugtered h... Reinfo—"
"Roger! Vaj.. Loc..ed"
The bridge doors opened admitting a mask man with a long platinum blond hair and wearing a distinct long-sleeved red uniform which is not a Zaft Red uniform, white gloves, cream-colored loose-fitting pants and black boots. Following him is a woman with distinct asian characteristics and charcoal chin-length bob cut hair. She wore an orange tank top and sleeveless open dark green jacket. The top half of her grey engineer's jumpsuit was tied around her waist. Both waited for the commander to finish what he was doing. Lily tapped her foot impatiently while Zechs stood at ease. Shen occasionally tap Zechs mask just to annoy him.
Yzak put the headset down and turned to the two new arrivals. "Shen, pray tell what happened to make us appear where ever here is."
"The Fold Drive overloaded and the safety protocol kicked in" Shen simply laid it out to him. No technobabble, no excuses.
"Can it be repaired?"
"Not with the current materials we have. Besides, we can't take out the drive out of its housing safely. We just don't have the necessary equipment for it."
Yzak sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose out of stress. "Our food supply is limited to a few months. We need that drive to get home before we starve to death."
"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem." Shen answered brightly, "I could whipped up a matter-converter machine within a month with our current materials. It should solve the food supply problem."
"But, you can't repair the fold drive?" Shen just shrugged her shoulders. Yzak turned to the IMC lieutenant standing beside her. "Lieutenant, we may have another situation going around here besides our problem. I need you to check on something out there."
"Anything specific you want to tell me?"
"We detected radio frequencies a distance away from here. Artificial signals and judging from the snippets we got, they're in some kind of combat."
"How curious." Zechs smiles and said, "of course I'll go."
"Voltaire, I have control." Zechs sat relaxed at the controls of his mobile suit. He forgo to wear the DS3 helmet as he believe that if he is shot down. He didn't like to have a second chance and is also an incentive to do his best.
"Copy that, Lt. Merquise. Shutters closing. Good luck." The comm's screen blinked out. The linear catapult indicator tick down to zero.
"Launching!" Zechs metallic grey armour turned pristine white as the phase shift armour activated. The two housings that each held two large thrusters at the back opened and spooled up. Zechs Chimera Jäger bolted out of the ship, leaving a white streak.
"Time until interception 10 minutes."
Saros Graves, an unfortunate bystander, got stuck with the mission of standing guard over the Voltaire and Rousseau. He locked in placed his helmet as he jumped towards his mobile suit. It was unfortunate that Voltaire doesn't have enough space for a CAS station. Which is why, his Chimera mobile suit is still in its Zero format. He spotted Chang Wufei waiting besides the cockpit opening. Beside him is his fiancee Meilan Long, a SPECIALs operative under Marshall Kushrenada.
He sighed at the sight of both of them. He considered Wufei one of his close friends, but Ms. Long has a sort of rivalry with him. To what, he doesn't know. "Wufei!" He waved at him. "Ms. Long" he politely greeted the woman while bowing his head slightly.
Meilan smirked and said jovially, "Commandy Boy." Saros eye twitched at the accursed nickname. He had to give Vi a piece of his mind someday.
"Um. What is it that you want Wufei?"
"We packed with us a LRS Beam Rifle. You want it?"
"The Mark two?" Saros grabbed the edge of the cockpit to halt his momentum. "What's wrong with the Mark one?" Meilan rolled her eyes at his asinine question.
"Nothing really" Wufei shrugged and said, "The Mark Two is just an overall performance upgrade to the Mark One. I added a special attachment on the rifle; its a dedicated sensor and targeting computer with it's own dummy A.I.."
"That... Is certainly special. Thanks Wu."
"Anytime." He patted his shoulder and turned to face Meilan. "C'mon Mei, let's get you to your mobile suit. Both of them kicked off and floated away. Saros watch them go and saw Meilan turned her head to look at him. She had two fingers up and made a jabbing motion to her eyes and pointed them at him. Saros just sighed, why can't he get a break with annoying women. He had put up with Vi and her incessant teasing and now he have to watch his back to an overly competitive Meilan.
Saros shook his thoughts out of his head and went inside his mobile suit. The cockpit of the fourth-generation Chimera is radically different than the third-generation Chimera. Whereas the third-generation retains the fighter cockpit like design, the fourth generation uses a neural interface for mobile suit movements. Though, it still have manual controls if the interface fails for whatever reason. The pro for such system is to make the mobile suit human-like as well as increase the fluidity of the mobile suit's movements and increased reaction time. The neural interface itself is in its fifth-iteration. The first four iteration is used to squash bugs and problems that came up during development as well as create failsafes design to protect the pilot.
Once Saros sat on the chair and buckled up. The seat reclined into position. A single small text hovered above his face. It read "Establishing Neural Handshake..." Several seconds later, it change into "Neural Connection Established" and the message disappeared and replaced by single sky blue horizontal line.
"Oh its you" a computerized voice said in conjunction with the blue line mimicking the sound wave. The line expanded vertically and it showed his profile on the holographic monitor. "Graves, Saros. ID number: 041092T03C20. On a mission are we."
Saros sighed and said, "Trouble seems to be everywhere this days Arty."
The voice laughed boisterously and said, "Oh you humans and your never-ending problems." Arty paused and reported the status of the mobile suit "Chimera Zero activating. Nuclear Reactor spooling to peak efficiency, Neutron Jammer Canceller online, hyper-deuterium power bank at 30% and rising. Frame integrity at 100%, PSA on standby. AMBAC online. Thrusters all green. Sensors online. Comms online." The A.S.I then laughed and said "I'm ready as I'll ever be. Commencing Neural Dive. See you on the other side." The blue line disappeared and is replaced by a green circle with a number counting down from 15.
As Saros watch the count tick down to zero, he open up one of the DS3 and patted the book housed inside. As the count hits five. Saros took a deep breath and slowly breathed out, relaxing his body. Neural Diving isn't for the faint hearted. The count hit zero and he felt himself plunged downward faster and faster until his vision snapped like a rubber band and the darkened cockpit is replaced by the hangar deck of the Voltaire. Saros felt he had cross his eyes and fixed it.
"Synchronization at 85%" a blue spherical object appeared overhead. "Your synch rate fell by 2%."
"That happens if you go back to using third-gen Chimera."
"True. Ready for launch?"
Saros nodded and open a comm link to Voltaire's bridge. "Voltaire, this is Chimera Twenty ready for launch."
"Copy that Chimera Twenty. Transferring to linear catapult."
Around the two Nazca-class, four ZAKUs were launched from the Rousseau as an escort unit along with Saros and Meilan's Chimera mobile suits.
Commander Yzak didn't like their current situation. They have in total eleven mobile suits not counting his own personal GOUF, eight are ZAKU machines while three are IMC mobile suits with a performance that outclasses anything ZAFT or Orb can make in the foreseeable future. What worries him more is their supply of food, water, and oxygen. Lily Shen assured him she can make a matter-converter machine in a couple of weeks with materials already on hand. When he asked about the fold drive earlier, she shrugged and said she didn't have the necessary equipment to safely dismantle and repair the drive.
"Commander, Lt. Merquise is on the line."
"Put it on screen, then." Yzak stood behind the captain of the Voltaire as the CIC operator transfered the line. The bridge screen lit to life as the masked visage of the Lieutenant came into view.
"We may have situation" said the Zechs as the bridge screen switched to the external camera of Zechs mobile suit. On screen were dozens of old-style jet fighters dogfighting what looks like giant insects. "As you can see, we're dropped in the middle of a conflict of unknown nature." The screen switched to a still shot, capturing what looks to be a very human pilot inside the jet's cockpit. "What they're fighting for is unknown. Do we interfere or we let it be?"
"What kind of question is that lieutenant," Yzak snarled "Of course we're helping." Zechs grinned at the white-haired commander of the ZAFT task force.
"Commencing Intervention."
Frontier CIC
The CIC operators were hard at working relaying orders to the NUNS squadrons scrambling towards Reamer-08's last location.
One of the operators squinted at his console. "Unknown contact! Bearing 317. It—it's fast!"
"Where's it heading?" ask the commander.
"Reamer-08's last position!"
"Somebody get me a visual of that unknown!"
The Nightmare Variable Fighter weaved its way in the empty expanse of space, trying to lose the Vajra behind him. "Nononono." He whispered to himself. The Vajra fired its main weapon, almost hitting him. The giant insectoid slowly closed in and was almost at melee range when, suddenly the Vajra broke off. The pilot dared to look behind and saw a green streak of light cross in front of the Vajra. He blinked and next thing he knew, a white and green streaked across and behind the Vajra, cutting the bug in half.
"What in god's name is that?"
Zechs Chimera weaved around the battlefield like greased lightning. He found the jet-style fighters seems to be able to transform into mobile suits and a half-fighter half-mobile suit amalgamation of the two. Which he found quite interesting to say the least. In three minutes since he entered the battle, he downed four of those insectoids. About dozens or so were left.
"Artemis, did you make heads or tails about how to 'speak' to the insectoid? I don't like killing anymore of them if I can help it." Zechs noticed a bug closing in from behind. He flip his mobile suit, its head as the center and fired a couple of shots from his shoulder-mounted beam rifle. The insect staggered and it seems to Zechs, quite angry.
"Obviously normal means of communication is out. Though, I am getting minute fold wave signals from the alien. Should I try to use the experimental fold wave communicator?"
"By all means, go ahead." The insect lunged again. This time, Zechs didn't opt to kill it but held it in place.
In the mean time, Meilan Long watched the battle from afar. She grimaced at being sidelined along with Saros. She itched to go and be in the thick of things while Saros followed orders to the letter. This irked her as she knew he followed orders only because its easier that way.
The rivalry she initiated just after graduating MSPP (Mobile Suit Pilot Program) is one-sided at best. Both were the youngest pilots to be inaugurated into the best of the best. Difference is, she was hand picked by Lt. Merquise to be a member of the Marshal Kushrenada's SPECIALs while Saros was ushered to the Chimera training program under the direct command of his father. Most of their peers believed it to be some sort of favoritism. By having his son at his direct command, the commander can keep Saros out of danger.
This was of course, a false assumption. She followed his career almost religiously. He has so far seven sorties. Three were basic patrols, two escort missions, the mess during the Second Alliance-PLANT war, and this. Typical missions given to new recruits.
"Penny for your thoughts, Meilan?" Artemis inquired as it felt a disturbance in the Neural connection.
"Seeing red that's all." Meilan shook her head to dispel her errant thoughts. "Connect me to Commander Yzak."
"Right away." The blue sphere changed shape into a curved monitor. On it was the standing figure of the commander of the joint task force.
"What is it?!" Yzak all but snarled at her.
"I'm going in." Before Yzak could give a response or spit fire, she cut off the connection. Meilan's Chimera Panzer mobile suit activated its thrusters to full power and blasted forward.
"Incoming secure transmission." Artemis alerted her, "it's from Chimera Twenty."
"Ms. Long, we're suppose to stand and guard the ships. Where are you going?"
"Backing up, Lt. Zechs. Now, if you don't mind. Get off the comms if you please." She watched him heave a small sigh before cutting of the connection.
Meanwhile, Saros crossed his arms deliberating his next move. He knew Commander Joule didn't have jurisdiction over him as well as Lt. Merquise. He sighed and cursed silently at his luck with teammates. "Connect me to Voltaire's bridge, Arty."
"Voltaire, this Chimera Twenty. Requesting permission to back up Specials Operative Long."
"Um Chimera Twenty, permission granted" the CIC officer answered which Saros found slightly suspicious but he didn't well on it for too long.
"Copy that Voltaire." The Zero broke off formation and Saros began searching for a suitable overwatch position. With the combat area near an asteroid field, he is bound to find plenty of hiding spot.
Meilan's Panzer reached the battlefield, the insectoids were all over the place. "Artemis, designate those insects as targets."
"Targets acquired, 24 targets within range." Meilan watched as twenty-four red circles hovered before her.
"Burn!" The Panzer's hulking armoured frame contained dozens upon dozens of Havoc-class missiles. Each missile packs a lot of punch and can down a small Zentradi ship-of-the-line using its entire arsenal. The missiles shot out of its rack before firing its small engines to each of the twenty-four targets.
Meilan watched as only a third of the targets were shot down by the Havocs. "Tougher than they look." Meilan chose the two back mounted hi-powered beam rifles and took a bead at the closing insect. She let loose two powerful green plasma bolt. One of the bolts clipped its side. However, the second shot bore a huge hole through the giant bug. All fifteen targets were now coming for her. She cursed, and said "eject spent missile boxes." The bugs started firing projectiles eerily similar to bullets but only bigger and more organic in nature. The Phase Shift Armor all made physical projectiles rendered almost useless especially for the heavily armoured Panzer. Meilan took out another two before one got too close.
Meilan pulled out a beam saber, standard to all Chimera mobile suits, and cut the bug vertically in half. She pulled back and aimed at another alien with a hi-powered beam rifle. The powerful bolt only grazed the side before the Vajra tackled her. She swung her left arm holding the beam saber, but one of the bug's opposable appendage caught her swing. Before she could grapple her way out of the sticky situation. The Vajra's head exploded, blood boiling due to the lack of pressure.
Saros knelt on an asteroid, the LRS barrel, emitting a cloud a smoke that lingered around the muzzle end of the barrel. He chose another target, a Vajra coming behind Meilan. "Distance, 485km." He lead the target, calculating how far ahead he needed to aim and fired. The powerful plasma bolt travel through the empty expanse of space unhindered and hit dead center of the Vajra, leaving a small but still visible hole as the bolt went through the organism.
"Saros, finally man enough to get into the thick of things." She said on the secure comm channel.
"Just backing you up, Ms. Long."
"Sure, sure." She grinned, "I got nine more than you." She blasted another one with her beam rifles, "ten."
Saros sighed. Which, he slowly realized, he has been doing constantly as of late. "Three" as he absently aimed and fired at a closing insectoid.
"Well would you look at that" Arty pulled out the image of something small that look like train cars flying in a 'V' formation. The A.S.I. zoomed in real-time and noticed the turtle-shell like lead ship housed what looks like a—
"Is that a city?!" Saros could see roads and buildings and things common in a planet-side city. "Arty broadcast this to the IMC comms and as well as ZAFT's."
"Broadcasting."
Back in the Voltaire, the bridge crew gaped at the sight of a huge space-going colony. Even though, most of the crew lived inside the PLANT colonies which are in fact humongous. They were stationed in a Lagrange Point and by all intents and purposes is stationary. What's more, no humans had ever went interstellar space before, except for IMC but that is not common knowledge.
"That Shen and her accursed device." Commander Joule growled under his breath "she either jumped is into the future or into another reality altogether."
Skull Squadron Leader Ozma Lee of the SMS found himself and the rest of his team in a battlefield with three sides in the fight. The first were the Frontier's run-of-the-mill pilots with the local NUNS fleet, which is the side he's helping with. The second is the Vajra, which he and the rest of SMS have been preparing for. Finally, a third mysterious faction with oversized battlesuits. Frontier High Command believed them to be an independent Zentradi faction. So far, that theory remains unproven as there is no sign of ships in the vicinity. As of right now, they're calling them 'knifeheads' for very obvious reason.
What surprised both SMS and the NUNS about the unknown faction is the ease in which they killed the Vajra. Both organizations so far had only a few kill counts of those oversized bugs and the Vajra can take down a VF Fighter easily.
"Gilliam, you're with me. Mikhail, Luca back us up!"
"Artemis, how much longer?" Zechs had a hard time keeping the captured Vajra from outright killing him and from escaping altogether. He also had to avoid other Vajras from trying to help their captured brethren.
"Only have fifteen percent of it decoded but, from what I can tell they are trespassing on their territory and something about a nest and danger." Zechs cursed and Artemis playfully wag a digital finger, "cursing is very unbecoming lieutenant."
"Can you tell them to back off? I'm sure if the humans know they're in their territory. They'll leave for greener pastures."
"That's a mouthful to say in GIiS, lieutenant." If an A.S.I. can sigh, Artemis did the equivalent "I'll do what I can, but no promises."
"GIiS?" Zechs was intrigued by the wierd acronym.
"Giant Insects in Space, lieutenant. Where have you been this past fifteen minutes." Zechs just smirked at the ASI's cheeky remark.
"Ghee-ee-yis." Saros tried to pronounced the acronym as one word. "Saying 'giant insects in space' is a mouthful. So, should I even worry about looking for a disabling shot instead of a lethal one?" he directed to Arty. The ASI just gave him a shrugged.
"Oh, what's this." Arty zoomed in again, this time it was a battlesuit any member of the IMC is loathe to remember. "We got what look to be a Zentran battlesuit squadron coming in." Arty gave them an enemy designation. Saros trained his beam rifle at the red battlesuit in the lead.
Klan Klang, a Meltran with a micronization problem, went into a fast intercept course with a Vajra gunning for the hapless NUNS pilot. The pilot weaved about expertly trying to loose the bug on his six. Klan fired her weapon at the back of the Vajra, though it didn't do a significant amount of damage. "Take this!" The missile pods opened up and she let loose a flight of missiles. Klan twisted her suit and suddenly flew in another direction away from her target. She then circled around firing her cannons at a rapid pace. The Vajra seems to cry out in pain and went into a desperate charge at Klan. She let loose a volley of missiles to slow down its charging attack. With a determined look, she aimed her beam gun dead center and she fired shot after shot, slowly peeling away its tough protective carapace. The Vajra latched itself to Klan's battlesuit and was about to fire its primary weapon point blank at her face. Klan pushed her beam gun at the damage layer of armour and fired bolt after bolt until she felt very little resistance. The bug squirm desperately as Klan finished the job with a final pull of her trigger. She kicked the Vajra away from her and looked around in search for another target.
"These bugs are hard to kill" she said under her breath before flying off. Her plan, however, halted on its tracks, something latch onto her from behind. Klan tried desperately to get it off from her. "What the heck!" Klan twisted and turned, even trying to aim her beam gun to whatever it is on her back. It was by pure chance she faced the right direction. From a distance away, a flash of what looks like a green short-lived star appeared momentarily. Seconds later, a green streak almost grazed her battlesuit and she felt whatever latched onto her lost its grip. She quickly turned around to find a Vajra with a mangled head. This one was different from the red one she fought. The floating corpse got shot again with a green streak, this time, a hole the size of her head remained on the bug's chest.
Klan turned around to face whoever helped her. The battlesuit's camera zoomed in. She found a white-colored battlesuit of unfamiliar design kneeling on the surface of an asteroid. She wondered why the higher-ups called them knifeheads and now she knows. The battlesuit's forehead came to a horn-like point, greatly resembling a knife's edge. The white battlesuit, didn't lower its rifle while whoever is behind the battlesuit gave a single short wave. Klan pumped her hand wielding the beam gun above her head as a reply before going off to save another hapless NUNS pilot.
"Who would have thought. A Zentran helping a human" commented Arty as the ASI change all Zentran battlesuit designation as allies. Saros shrugged his shoulder, having nothing to say.
Back in Frontier CIC, most of the operators were busy relaying combat orders and information to and from the presiding commander.
"Enemy has breached another defensive line!" An operator called out. The Vajra were making their way towards Island-1 faster than anybody expected. The NUNS fleet having a difficult time repelling the insectoids.
"New unknown contacts detected!" Everybody glanced at the new bleep on the holographic map. "Four unknown battlesuits and— two unknown vessels!" A real-time image popped out for everybody to see. The four battlesuit didn't resemble any known Zentran battlesuits. They however had some resemblance to the three unknowns that is currently helping the Frontier fleet. What's more interesting to most people were the two lightly armed teal ships with a light metal grey coating across it's cross-section trailing behind the battlesuit screen.
"Message from lead unknown vessel. It's in all frequency. Everybody can hear it, sir." On every communication band across the 55th Super Long Range Emigration Fleet. The image of a young man with straight silver hair standing straight up in a commanding posture appeared, wearing a white military uniform with black and gold trims on the shoulder and wrist. On his chest is an unknown rank designation.
"To the unknown fleet. This is the Commander Yzak Joule of the ZAFT's Joule Task force. I along with the IMC contingent attached to my task force stumbled upon your plight and decided to give a helping hand."
The commander of the Frontier's NUNS fleet responded, "Commander Joule. All of Frontier appreciates your help. What do you need?"
"Direct us as needed and a resupply afterwards."
"Copy that, Battle Frontier out." The commander then bark a set of orders. "Give them access to our TacNet and FleetNet!"
Back on the bridge of the Voltaire, the CIC officer called the attention of Commander Yzak. "Recieving combat data from Battle Frontier—the computer's having a hard time assimilating the data!"
"Get Wufei here!" Yzak loudly ordered the CIC officer. "I suspect our computers are not going to be enough for this. Also, launch all of our remaining mobile suits. Have Hahnenfuss take command when she launches."
"Yessir."
Everybody in the CIC of Battle Frontier watch as the unknown vessels belonging to this Zaft Organization opened a hole on the ships' center and something extended outward from the hole. To many it looks like a linear catapult for a Valkyrie fighter. Except for a Valkyrie fighter launching, it was a green battlesuit with a shoulder-mounted shield on the left shoulder and a rifle equipped on the right hand. The CIC dubbed the green battlesuits 'monoeye' In total there were eight 'monoeye' battlesuits flying in formation. Six of them flew off directly towards the Macross fleet while two remained to guard the vessels.
Shiho Hahnenfuss took lead of the six ZAKU Warriors, chasing a flock of GIiS. She snorted when she heard it the first time. Shaking her head of such errant thoughts she ordered, "Shaw, Reese. You're with me. Our objective is to protect the large domed structure they called Island-01." Her comm crackled to life and the familiar helmet with a reflective visor appeared on screen.
"ZAKU Lead this, Chimera Twenty. There's a NUNS destroyer-class in trouble to your right, at 2 O'clock distance 128km I can't shoot at the GIiS without destroying the ship"
"Copy that, Chimera Twenty. Watch our backs." Shiho watched as Chimera Twenty nodded in affirmation without saying anything and cut off the comms.
"Bart, you Mel and Paul go ahead towards Island-01. I have to take care of that hapless destroyer." Shiho and her wingmen broke formation and steered towards the endangered ship. Shiho hefted the beam assault rifle and let loose a short burst. The Vajra stopped its rampant assault of the destroyer and turned its focus on Shiho. Shaw took the distraction as a chance to hack one of its legs with the beam tomahawk. The Vajra pulled out from its attack and aimed its machine-gun-like weapon towards Shiho. Reese quickly went in front of his commanding officer and block the attack with his shoulder-mounted shield, while Shaw charged from behind with her tomahawk at hand.
"Artemis, anything?" Zechs said as he kept the Vajra within his tight grip.
"It's not listening. I believe this insect is just a mouthpiece for something else. Maybe a hive queen if were going by insect analogy. The 'queen' is overriding our conversation with a command of protect." Zechs heard enough and released the Vajra and kick the insectoid away from him before aiming his shoulder-mounted gun and firing two shots at the still dazed Vajra.
"We will examine the data later, Artemis. We have people to protect." Zechs contacted Saros, who he knew is somewhere in the nearby asteroid field. "Chimera Twenty, you there." He knew Saros has an exceptional situational awareness due to him being placed in overwatch positions constantly.
"I'm here Lt. Merquise." Artemis noted Chimera Twenty's position for the lieutenant with a small green circle with a line extending out ending with 'CHIMERA 20'
"What's the situation?"
"GIiS are forcing themselves through the Frontier Fleet defensive line. Commander Joule has sent his six MS to defend the main island. Half are on route while ZAKU Lead has taken two other mobile suits to help dispatch a GIiS attacking a destroyer-class capital ship. Operative Long is currently on the outer perimeter helping a NUNS squad."
Zech's raised an eyebrow at Saros, "Wait. You said NUNS right? Isn't the same four letter acronym your teammate wanted ICM as."
"Lt. Merquise. Please don't remind me. It's the same mission where Vi misunderstood why Ms. Hawke was inside my mobile suit." Saros face behind the gold-tinted reflective went to a very deep shade of red.
"Oh, I didn't know that please do tell." Zechs opened up the four huge thrusters of his Jäger and blasted through the fleet defensive line in record time. The beam saber popped up into the waiting hands of Zech's mobile suit. With one swift motion, Zechs cut a Vajra in half while passing through.
"I rather not lieutenant, it's embarrassing enough as it is. Vi is probably spreading such lies right... now..." Saros went quiet when realization struck him. He hit his helmet with a smack of his gloved hand. Zechs lightly chuckled at his junior's dilemma before cutting off the comms.
He spotted a red Vajra making a bee line towards Island-01. Zechs aimed his beam rifle at the back of the Vajra. He pulled the trigger, careful not to hit the colony. The shot hit the bug square on the back, but it didn't stop. It landed on the domed surfaced and aim its lance-like protrusion at the surface of the protective dome.
"Gilliam, we need to protect the city." Ozma Lee transformed his VF-25 into battroid mode and fired his gunpod at the red Vajra. It was, however, futile as the lance-like appendage begin to fire it's beam-like weapon. The resulting damage created a hole big enough for the Vajra to go through as well as damage apart the city below. Ozma and Gilliam watch the lightning fast white battlesuit went into the hole, going after the Vajra with no hesitation.
"Okay!" Gilliam bellowed as he shed the extra pack of his fighter and went full throttle after the Vajra. He was just in time as he went through the hole seconds before it was sealed behind him. "Now, where is that bug."
Zechs felt the gravity's pull as he entered the domed city. He slowed down to a hover, taking in the sight of a literal city in space. "This a far cry from IMC's colony ships. So much space." He noticed the Vajra unfurled a set of wings and began flying in the air. "Artemis, call it will you."
"Should I insult its mother then?" The Vajra stopped mid-air and looked at him. Zechs shot it a few times, the last beam punched through like a warm knife through butter. The red Vajra fell and crashed onto a set of buildings. "Hmm. Hopefully no one's there at the moment. Artemis spotted dozens of the Vajra coming towards him. Zechs pulled out another beam saber and activated both of them at the same time. The green blade hummed with energy as Zechs waited for the Vajra to come to him.
Gilliam flew in a lazy circle as he spotted the white battlesuit shot down the red Vajra with four shots. "I gotta get me one of those" said Gilliam as he envied the powerful weaponry the battlesuit possess. He noticed a Vajra swarm converging on the white battlesuit's position. The battlesuit activated two of what it looks to be some kind of green energy sword. The SMS pilot whistled at the weapon straight out of science fiction.
The Vajra let loose a swarm of missiles heading for Zechs. Zechs flew up, the missiles following him and dived in a steep arc towards the nearest Vajra. The Insectoids let loose what looks like machine gun fire at Zechs but the Phase Shift Armour shrugged it like nothing. The Lightning Count of IMC went to work as he sliced each Vajra in half. Fifteen Vajra's went inside the domed city and none came out alive when the Count landed on the center of the city. At the same time, the Vajra began to pull out of its attack.
Skull Squadron Leader Ozma Lee along with Mikhaill finally entered the city and is stumped to find it free of Vajra. He spotted Gilliam flying patrol around the city.
"Gilliam! Where's the Vajra?" Ozma's Valkyrie floated on the streets in GERWALK Mode, ready for a sudden attack.
"You're late to the party, Ozma. The white knifehead did all the work for us." Gilliam sent the pictures of the decapitated remains of the giant insects that laid around the city.
"You mean the pilot did it all on its own?"
"With goddamn energy swords! Ozma, why don't we have one? I want one now."
"H-how did the battlesuit do it?" Ozma didn't believe that one battlesuit with strange weapons could somehow take on an entire swarm of Vajra when NUNS and SMS could hardly kill one without concentrated fire power.
"It's better to watch it yourself. I couldn't believe my eyes either and I was there for the whole entire thing."
"Commander, the enemy is fleeing" Shiho had said to Yzak.
"Good work return back to the ship."
"Copy that. Shiho out."
Meanwhile, Saros watched as the remaining Vajra pulled out and folded away from the Emigration Fleet. Surprising him as to how they achieved folding while made of flesh and blood. The Voltaire and Rosseau fired their flares indicating to retreat back to the ship. However, he noticed the Specials lieutenant was nowhere in sight in his entire field of vision. Saros decided to contact the lieutenant. "Lt. Merquis. This is Chimera Twenty. Please Respond."
"Saros I'm fine. I'm inside Frontier's Island-01 when I pursued a Vajra into the city."
"Can you get out, lieutenant?"
"I don't think they'll appreciate it if I create another hole on their colony. I'm staying put for the moment until authorities arrive."
"Copy that. Chimera Twenty, out" Saros lifted his rifle pointing it up relative to his mobile suit. He stood up and kick his way away from the floating rock. With a short blast of thrusters, he slowly meandered his way towards the ZAFT ships.
Saotome Alto rolled through the devastated buildings with his fly suit carrying the strawberry-haired Galatic Fairy on his arms. Both were shell shock by the harrowing experience of being chased by giant insects. It was only by luck and sheer coincidence that both escape unscathed with only a few scratches. What had save them is the fact the bug stopped its chase. As simple as that. Sheryl realized she's been holding onto the long-haired man and squirmed to free herself from the surprisingly warm protective clutches.
"H-hey!" Alto struggled to keep her from falling, but finally relented and released her onto the ground. Sheryl stood in front of Alto, her back facing him and gathered her wits about. The two stopped, when they felt the ground slightly shake. The unlikely pair gazed at each other, wondering the same thing.
"You!" Sheryl pointed at Alto with a commanding tone, "get me up there." She pointed at the top of the building to his left.
"Wait! Why would I do that!" Alto argued back.
Sheryl gave him a sly grin and flipped her hair back on her shoulder and said, "Because, you work for me. Silly fly boy." Alto's mouth opened but no words came out. The former-kabuki actor could not refute her words. His shoulders slumped in resignation and slowly rolled his suit behind her to pick her up. Sheryl gingerly held on to the Alto's neck as he lifted her back into his deceptively warm clutches.
Alto stared straight up, the cry of the suit's small engines disturbed the eerie silence that has befallen the once vibrant and bustling city. The two shot upwards and in one elegant arc landed on top of what looks to be an apartment building of sorts. The two had a good view of the city and a new addition to the city skyline drew their undivided attention. Standing tall and proud at the city center is a white humanoid figure. It's white armor gleaming protectively for all those who can see. Alto could hear Sheryl breathed out in amazement. He couldn't identify what kind of battlesuit it was. Alto followed all the developments of the latest Valkyries and by extension Zentran battlesuits. He knew the VF-25 is currently undergoing rigorous performance testing by a private military contractor here in Frontier. He wasn't aware of any new Zentrandi battlesuit in development, let alone a fully functional combat-ready battlesuit.
He studied the battlesuit's characteristics. The battlesuit stood taller than any known battlesuit. It also looks to be heavily armoured. A small circular shield is mounted on its left shoulder while an unknown type of weapon is on the right. The most unique feature Alto found is the two huge black protrusions on its back. He could only conclude that it is either a missile pack or its engines.
A glint in the sky caught his attention. He squinted at the tiny object but couldn't identify it. 'It's probably a NUNS Valkyrie Fighter doing a patrol' Alto thought to himself.
"Fly boy" Sheryl broke the silence, she pointed at the white battlesuit and asked "Do you know what that is?"
Alto shrugged and answered, "I believe that is a battlesuit. Though, I'm not familiar of its classification, but the design is closer to a humanoid than anything I've seen built by the Zentradi." He looked at the girl on his arms. "Why are you asking?"
"No reason" she replied while still mesmerized by the white armoured knight.
The aging Frontier president and his senior staff watched the recording captured by the many camera dotted around the city as well as the gun camera footage of an SMS pilot of the white 'knifehead' battlesuit as it slaughtered the Vajra mercilessly with each slash of its energy sword.
Everybody in the room stood frozen in surprised at the ease it killed the Vajra. Compared to the NUNS contingent that fought the Vajra, the machine's performance and its weapons far outclasses even the latest Valkyrie models. Other footages is of the pale green 'knifehead'. The difference between the two is how bulky the green knifehead is compared to the others. The green knifehead wielded two back-mounted oversized rifle that swivels to the front. One shot of either rifle can blow a huge hole through the Vajra. A more interesting note is the similarities of the missile packs it carried and Valkyrie fighters packs. The third and final knifehead is the white sniper. No footage exists showing what it fully looks like nor its combat capability in a close quarters fights. Its long rifle is not as powerful as the green one but is more powerful than the white knifehead's shoulder rifle. It is also capable of firing at great distances and hit a target with pinpoint accuracy. Reports from various pilots and ship crew and captains tells a tale of a sharpshooter with impeccable aim and precision. Many pilots hailed him as the only thing that let them return from the battlefield.
The next set of footages is the 'monoeye's' combat performance. Comparing the monoeyes to the knifeheads is the same as comparing a world war II fighter plane to a Valkyrie Fighter. Both can fight but one is just infinitely better than the other by a very large amount. That is not to say they perform worse. What set them apart from the overwhelming fire power of the knifeheads is their incredible teamwork and skill with lesser weapons. Though, marginally less manueverable compared to the Nightmares, they can take a few beatings especially with its large shield mounted on its shoulder. A captain gave credit to a group of three monoeyes for saving his ship from certain doom when a Vajra closed in started tearing his ship to pieces.
President Howard Glass leaned back on his chair, contemplating the timely arrival of the Zaft ships. He turned his eye to his aide Leon Mishima. "How are they settling in?"
The black-haird man glanced at the report on his hand and answered "We've given them a berth in one of Island-01 docks. The NUNS are more than happy to accommodate them. Given their performance." The president nodded, turning to look at the now peaceful city below. "Commander Joule has requested a meeting with you, President Glass."
"Do you know the purpose of his request?"
"He didn't deemed to clarify as to why but he said its urgent." Howard sighed wearily and stood up. Leon seemed to be wondering about the president's sudden action.
"I'll meet with Commander Joule right now to express my thanks." Howard walked briskly towards the door. Leon froze for a second before snapping out of his stupor.
"President Glass, I'm sure the good commander can wait after a day. After all, you as well as everybody are tired due to the ordeal we just went through." Leon caught up to the president, now being followed by bodyguards. Both men spotted a familiar female approaching.
"Cathy." President Glass greeted his daughter, "Care to join me for a stroll along Dock 13?"
"Dock 13?" Catherine Glass gave her father a quizzical look. "Isn't that where the Zaft group currently are docked?"
"Yes. I'm going to meet them to express the gratitude from all of Frontier for their actions." President gave a rare smile to his daughter and added, "and good walk will do wonders to the body I hear."
"I'll go with you too. I'm curious about them as well. I have never heard of Zaft before. From what Ozma and the rest of SMS are whispering about, this Zaft organization has some very advance technology and very capable pilots." Howard noticed a small smile that graced her lips when she mentioned Ozma. He knew both of them were in a relationship before and seemed happy with each other. Due to unfortunate circumstances, they broke up. He considered Ozma a fine man even though he never knew him personally.
He turned to Leon, following him from behind. "Have you ever heard of Zaft before today?"
"No sir. I'll be sure to dig more info about them." Mashima cluck his tongue. This Zaft fellows were an unknown card thrown into the mix. He didn't know what their purpose is nor why they just appeared out of thin air during the Vajra assault. Could he gain their trust? If he could, they'll be a very powerful ally and if not a very troublesome enemy. Meeting the young Commander Joule surprised him to say the least. With a sharp tongue and a sharp mind, he detected his subtle attempts to get information out of him and all but demanded to meet the President after he let slip the president's name accidentally.
Lt. Zechs zipped down his mobile suit as soon as his Jäger is docked inside the hangar they have given to Zaft and by extension IMC. He studied his surroundings and found the docks sparse with clutter and is large enough for two 255 meter long Voltaire and Rousseau to sit comfortably in their berths with plenty of space to spare. Most of the dock workers who saw him emerged from his mobile suit gape at him with wonder and curiosity. Zechs took note of their behavior for later as he spotted his other junior, Meilan walking briskly towards him.
Meilan reached Lt. Zechs and saluted her superior officer. Zechs returned the gesture and both relax. "Anything to report, Operative Meilan?"
"Nothing of note. However, Commander Joule requested your presence at his ready room." Both started to walk towards the docked Voltaire.
Zechs nodded at the ZAFT security team standing guard at the walkway. The two guards saluted him as he passed by. "Do you know what for?" Meilan shrugged as both continued on in silence.
A team of technicians operated a crane and hoisted the malfunctioned fold drive out of its housing. Lily and Wufei watch the operation as the fold drive is placed on a large dolly specifically used to transport fold drives easily and safely.
"Do we have everything we need to get started?" Lily pushed herself up on the railing and turned to face Wufei.
Wufei scrolled down the long list of needed parts to repair the fold drive. "Most of the things we requested are as we speak being delivered. The earliest we could start is in two days from now." He pushed his round glasses up and continued, "Several important pieces can be manufactured with the right supplies, but the problem would be finding fold crystals of the specified dimensions and tune length." Wufei turned to look at Lily with a serious expression plastered on his otherwise calm face. "Apparently, they consider Fold Crystals a sort of precious resource and are pretty strict with its distribution. Currently only a few companies have access to a small amount for experimentation."
"You're telling me, they can't manufacture their own?!" Lily was flabbergasted at the information. It was the first thing IMC tried to solve after the discovery of Fold Technology. With no way to find a steady supply of Fold Crystals, IMC tried to replicate its properties with common materials. It took over a decade for them to develope AFC or Artificial Fold Crystals. While normal Fold Crystals are known for their longevity, the downside is finding the right tune length and dimensions to be used as the core for Fold Drives. With AFCs, you can set its tune length and dimensions to fit any need. Although, the average lifespan of an Artificial Fold Crystal is around four and half years, it can be easily replaced. Negating the advantage of a naturally occuring crystal.
"They didn't say it outright, but its hinted they don't or can't." Wufei tuck the datapad in his arm and stood upright still looking at the assistant Chief Engineer, or the Chief Engineer as of right now. "Building the machine to create AFC will take considerable time. A month at least and more materials."
"Might as well, I did promise Mr. Spitfire to build a matter-converter machine. We'll just make that the base." Lily tried to rub away the sleepiness in her tired eyes. "Still, I can't believe the Fold Drive safety protocols sent us to another reality." She remembered the gaping faces of the Frontier Engineers when they saw for the first time the mobile suits parked inside the Voltaire's hangar. Though she was proud at the dumbstruck look and awe they gave to her Chimeras. It was afterall her brainchild they're gawking at. It did irritate her when they called them battlesuits. Ha! Her Chimeras as mere battlesuits, they couldn't compare. Speed, power, agility, and unparalleled adaptiveness, it's not at all a mere battlesuit.
When one of the engineers, a young man whose name she had forgotten, asked the name of the battlesuit. She proudly answered "it's the Fourth-Generation Chimera-class mobile suit. We simply call it the Chimera."
"Mobile suits?" The young engineer mouth the unknown designation. The rest mirrored his confusion. "It's not a battlesuit at all?"
"No, no" She tried to clarify, "battlesuits are piloted by the Zentradi. It is literally power armour for the big lugs they are. This is our answer to that problem, Mobile Suits. Nearly twenty meters of cold Vahlenium Alloy, layered with a thin composite compound for PSA, blood, sweat, and human ingenuity all in one package."
Every Frontier Engineer look at each other with very confused expressions. One of them spoke out loud the same question each of them had on their head. "It's built for a human pilot? I thought the Variable Fighter was our analogue to the Zentradi battlepod during Space War One." Now it was IMC and ZAFT personnel that are confused.
"Can you clarify what Space War I is?" Wufei stepped up from behind Shen. He unconsciously pushed his glasses up as his habit.
"It's the war that define humanity as it is now. It's a war between us and the Zentradi due to a misunderstanding. You should know this as it happened almost a half-century ago." That statement took the breath away of every ZAFT personnel within earshot. Lily, Wufei, and the other IMC personnel looked at each other. Realization starts to set in to the nature of their predicament.
"What's the year right now, in terms of earth?" Wufei calmly asked the Frontier engineers.
"2059." Lily swore under her breath and turned around. Stomping out of the hangar, while she swore louder and louder. "Is everything alright?" Genuine concern colored the tone of his voice.
"I wouldn't worry about her. She'll probably kick something to relieve her tension and then looked over the test data for the Fold Drive." Wufei sighed and continued, "To alleviate some of your confusion, when our group encountered the Zentradi for the first time, more than a thousand men and women died at their unprovoked attack. We later learn that the fleet responsible for it is the so called Supervision Army. The mobile suit you see before now is the byproduct of a failed genocide of a peaceful exploration fleet." After saying that Wufei walked away to nurse a growing headache.
Commander Joule sat behind his desk inside his ready room. He read the report from one of the technicians and the strange line of questioning that happened. The result solidified his hypothesis of another reality altogether. Combined with the subtle information digging one Leon Mishima tried to extract from him, it almost made him wish to start drinking alcohol. He is now the de-facto leader of misplaced humans in an unknown place and time. Joule's thoughts were interrupted when somebody knocked on his door.
"Come in." Yzak put down the datapad on the table as the door slid open to admit Lt. Zechs Merquise. He observed Zechs face as he entered his ready room. The white mask obscured half of his face making it difficult to gauge the man which greatly reminded of his crazed commanding officer during the First Alliance-PLANT War. The only thing that set him apart from Le Creuset, aside from how different their physical mask is, is the fact he isn't crazy enough to plan both the annihilation of Naturals and Coordinators.
Zechs crisply saluted Commander Joule. Yzak stood from his seat and replied back with a salute of his own. Yzak dropped his hand and motioned Zechs to make himself comfortable. The lieutenant complied and lowered himself to the surprisingly comfy chair. For a minute neither men spoke, Zechs refuse to break the silence that befallen the room. He gave the younger man the time he needed, no matter how long, to gather his thoughts.
"Lieutenant," Yzak broke the stillness and said, "This seems far fetched to believe but the fact of the matter is we are far from home. Very far." The young commander tried to decipher Zechs reaction, so far nothing. No even a tilt of his head nor a twitch on his face to indicate a reaction. "Evidence points to one conclusion to what happened and we basically folded not just far from earth, but to another reality altogether." Zechs mouth formed a thin line and raised his right gloved hand to rub his chin.
"Is this information conclusive?"
"The year right now is 2059 AD." Zechs raised an eyebrow unbeknownst to the Yzak. "They went through what they called Space War I against the enemy they called Zentradi. The term Mobile Suit is new to them and judging from their reaction to your mobile suits, they called them battlesuits." To Yzak's utter surprised, Zechs sighed before squaring his shoulders and lifted both his hand up to his mask. Zechs slowly removed his mask and placed the white helmet on the Yzak's desk.
"I believe, It's time you learn about the true reason why IMC meddled during the Second Alliance-PLANT war, Commander Yzak."
It took more than an hour for Lt. Zechs to tell Yzak of the truth pertaining to the first contact of an alien species and the unprovoked attack that followed moments after IMC broadcast the first contact package. The result of which, the Supervision Army fleet found itself routed with IMC taking very significant lost of both manpower and machine. The only silver-lining through it all, is the miraculous capture of a Supervision Army cruiser and the treasure trove of technology and captured prisoners that lies therein.
Yzak kneaded the side of his temples, trying to fight off the throbbing headache. "So, you're telling me your people have prepared Earth of a coming threat that no one outside IMC knew about?"
"We did send a message back to the our spokesperson inside UN with the information we gathered about the Supervision Army and a blue print of our first generation mobile suit." Zechs slowly ran his hand on his white mask, "We didn't know what the UN prepared for the upcoming war against the Supervision Army, but judging by the announcement of George Glenn, the advent of Coordinators and the creation of the PLANT colonies. Operative Cato really did plan ahead even at the small chance that UN is dissolved or incapacitated. Which it did just shy of a few years before our arrival." Zechs watched Yzak with concern as the young commander's shoulders slumped, his eyes far away. "When we reached the outer planets of the home system, many months before the Treaty of Junius Seven was signed. We tried to contact Cato and by extension the UN for an update. You can imagine our trepidation when all we got in the old frequency was static. We feared the worse and it would be another month before we could send a reconnaissance team to check on the homeworld." Zechs paused to take a breath before continuing, "To our surpise and delight, Earth is still alive and what's more we spotted our mobile suit technology being widely used by a group you are very aquainted with. However, to our shock, the same technology built to push back Zentradi battlesuits is being use as tools against the humans it was suppose to protect. Instead, of announcing our presence to the whole world, the war pushed us to hide in the shadows. Slowly building up what we lost, while we raced to find what's going on with Earth."
Yzak saw red and jumped from his seat, "we're not just some tools for war!" He wouldn't believe it, he couldn't believe it. Zechs calmly looked at Yzak, his face neutral.
"No you are not, Commander Joule. No one is. You may be born with genetic augmentation, but you are human so is the rest of your crew and by extension every coordinators in existance. You have a choice of joining your military, unlike the Zentradi we met who were just born to fight and die for the civilization which created them." Zechs sighed, rubbing one of his shoulder. "Remember Yzak, you are human and are free to make a choice." Zechs grab his helmet and placed it back on his head. "Now, that you are aware of that information, feel free to share it with anyone with discretion of course. I believe you need time to acclimate yourself before we discuss anything more." The lieutenant gracefully stood up from the chair he sat on and briefly saluted the slightly dazed commander before leaving his ready room.
Yzak watched the lieutenant leave the room. He placed his forehead on the palm of his hand. He narrowed his eyes, no the information doesn't change anything besides having the knowledge of the greatest conspiracy back home inside his head. Yzak took a deep breath, now is not the time go ballistic. He have people to take care of.
Lt. Zechs smiled as he walked farther and farther from the ready room. He knew Yzak would make a fine commander. Zechs wondered if he could recreate IMC in this reality with Commander Joule at the head. Probably, with Lily Shen as Chief Engineer and Chang Wufei in Dr. Vahlen's position; With the two of them, they can create anything. He wondered who will fill the role of Central. So far, he haven't found anyone with Bradford's exceptional organizational skills. Although, he already have three ace mobile suit pilots including himself for the new SPECIALs squad. He could make the ZAFT pilots as base for the Regulars. All he would need is time and a big enough ship to house everything the new IMC would need. He paused and remembered what one of his Juniors said. IMC is already taken, as well as NUNS and UNSpacy. UNSC is a mouthful and doesn't roll off the tongue. They all need a new name for a new organization. Zechs thought of many names as he turned around the corner and disappeared out of sight.