Chapter One: The World as it is Now
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed, but it is sort of a sequel dealing with decades into the future with new changes. Very few of the mobile suits from Seed will appear or Gundams anyway, and other mobile suits from other Gundams will be put into this as well as some characters. There are multiple main characters, though some are descendents of previous characters. Kira Yamato will be one of the main characters though and it is set like twenty years after Destiny. At first I didn't want to post this, but I thought why not. I hope this is something readers can enjoy.
A/N: Due to reports that it paragraphs are too long I have reduced them and just to inform you that Virgil's speech is long and broken up into three paragraphs that will be continued by leaving off the apostraphe marks that one would usually end a paragraph with while begining the dialogue in the next paragraph with an apostrophe so for that bit it is not two people talking but just one big speech. This is actually gramatically correct. Also, if you find it confusing then just bear through this one, I have to set everything up but it will make sense soon, i promise. No more of these long introductions like what I begin with.
With the end of the Second Bloody Valentines war came a period of peace that was funded by the organization known as the Foundation, a group of representatives from all the different colonies and all the different nations of Earth coming together to discuss matters. This in itself also helped mediate the rifts between Naturals and Coordinators by shifting identification from method of birth to the nation of birth or colony. The movement led to a surge in Nationalism and all prejudice was for a time, swept under the carpet of a bold new future promoted by the peaceful nation of Orb and backed by the most surprising supporter, ZAFT. ZAFT, now under the leadership of a new council that was founded by Athrun Zala five years after the recovery from the Second Bloody Valentine war, helped Orb shape a new universe of peace between Naturals and Coordinators, despite the presence of prejudice that still remained.
Though the United Earth Alliance was at first reluctant to join into the peaceful relations, the internal uproar in many of the Earth's nations forced the UEA into peace talks with the two organizations and it seemed like wars would no longer be threat to humanity. This led to a massive disarmament with many mobile suits being stripped and used for other applications and even the very gundams that brought peace, except for the one piloted by legendary hero Kira Yamato, were stripped or became museum pieces.
But as long as there is man, there will be wars, and just when it seemed like eternal peace had been reached, a new organization began to show itself on Earth and soon the colonies. Calling itself, the Thuel Civilization, founded itself under a showing of hatred to those of ZAFT and reclaimed the prejudice towards Coordinators to gain followers. Its leader, Duke Ivan Dermail, was assassinated due to the decline in prejudice that was becoming a deterrent to the growing nation and soon it began to feed itself off of alliances.
In no time, the new super power was ready to challenge the two super powers with a new mobile suit force comprised of the easily more mass produced Leo that allowed Thuel Civilization to overwhelm the other forces when war arrived. Despite the Leo being an inferior model it was easy to pilot so Thuel was able to crank out more pilots than the other nations and it was cheaper to produce than others. This was canceled out by a new mass production of Daggers that were made with a system similar to the Leos, but they were inferior to prior models of Daggers.
The term Gundam had long since lost its meaning since the system was found unnecessary to use and the special weapons lost their place on the battlefield as new systems took their place. The mobile suits of today have very few special mobile suits among them, but none could compare to previous models, as demonstrated by the final battle of Kira Yamato, as the legendary hero destroyed most of the Leos and elite mobile suits, Taurus's, before his ship was lost into space somewhere near the Venus colony. The Battle of Venus Colony 295 hinted the end to the current conflict and the truce between the Thuel Civilization and the Foundation.
It also marked the start of another organization founding itself in the UEA, the Order of the Zodiac, otherwise known as OZ, which overlooked many of the military aspects while incorporating special units of ZAFT and the few fighting units of Orb into it. This new power was kept under wraps and only saw fighting when losing battles occurred in key places. Its leader was a legend himself, a distinguished soldier of ZAFT who had attained the rank of captain at the end of the second Bloody Valentine War and then defected with the rank of Major. At the young age of 17 or at least young by normal standards since the biggest heroes were higher ranked than him, Virgil Kuschrenada, was the very image of a war hero, straight from the posters.
Virgil Kuschrenada was of Aryan descent with a striking difference in the red color of his eyes and platinum blond hair that was combed back into a hairstyle of nobility. His eyebrows were slicked into a slight arc that made his handsome face to be like a sculpture from marble. The one thing that marked him as a war hero was his scar that resided over his right eye, his worst wound from the Second Bloody Valentines war where he lost his eye while piloting a ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner Zaku Warrior. During the rearmament of ZAFT forces, Major Kuschrenada was one of the biggest proponents of restating the Zaku Warrior, even redesigning the systems and adding advancements to his old model that he continued to maintain, even in the current times.
The current issues of the times are the issues that the colonies have been having with the policies of trade with the Earth Alliance that were found to be little in the benefit of the colonies. This led to a major separation in the UEA with one side splitting from the foundation and conquering the now weak Thuel Civilization to become the Romanov Foundation backed by the Romanov family. The colonies under this ruling found themselves to be facing harsh realities of oppression and tensions mounted as armed forces of the Romanov Foundation spread across the colonies to threaten colonies under the protection of the Foundation.
ZAFT forces, backed by an OZ presence, now occupy the frontline colony of Jupiter Colony where the son of Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne, Toshiro Yamato, is training with the son of Athrun Zala, Mathias Zala. The two, though a month fresh out of the ZAFT academy, will find themselves far into the war.
Toshiro Yamato watched as the boots of the drill sergeant clicked at the wood of the stage that had been built for inducting new pilots into the ZAFT forces and some, those who qualified for it like Mathias Zala, would be inducted into the special OZ forces, the elite forces of the Foundation. Of course most of the inducting ceremony would go onto a description of the basic mobile suits and the elite mobile suits. Leos painted in the colors of crimson were the major workhorse of the armed ZAFT forces in the colony due to the forces that surrounded the colony provided enough Dagger XVs to support the colony and overlooking the battle for OZ was its leader and the best pilot of OZ with the most powerful mobile suit in use, an improved Zaku Warrior that was made with a new metal armor and improved the speed of it. Oddly enough, it was very much stronger than the old Zaku Warrior and any of its replacements, making it a very expensive piece of work so it was no mass produced, there was only one model of it.
Toshiro's eyes moved over to the silent figure of Virgil Kuschrenada, a figure standing in the very regal Crimson of a ZAFT military uniform with the emblem of OZ over the right breast along with the Silver Leaves to mark the rank of Major and medals that he had accumulated. What he knew of the man was only through the war stories that were shared in the academy, the books that Major Kuschrenada published on strategy, the appearances that he would make during the evaluation days in the academy, and his early memories of childhood when Kuschrenada would visit Toshiro's father, Kira Yamato.
From what he could gather, his father had a lot of respect for the Major and from what he could tell they were friends, but the meetings weren't as frequent as good friends would. They did have some respect and good feelings between each other, but the Major was a very secluded person with only two people who probably knew him completely. His young protégé, Michael Graziano, a young pilot from Italy who was orphaned at a young age from a small conflict and was only age 17, and his subordinate, Captain Selina Une, who served him loyally with one of the old Dagger L's though it was inferior to his own.
"Excuse me, Lt. Yamato, would you like to introduce the new pilots to the mobile suits they will be using for the duration of their posts here," asked the drill sergeant, a man by the name of Johanna Hicks who had a scar over his mouth.
"Huh, oh yes sorry," said the embarrassed and stunned Lt. Toshiro Yamato as he realized he had just been drifting off into his own thoughts during an important ceremony that would not only give his new subordinates a first impression of him, but give the leader of OZ who could decide his placement, a first impression of him as well. "Pilots, as you know, we have discontinued the Dagger L series in favor of Dagger XVs, now these are not the mobile suits many of you will be using. Instead you will all be piloting the Leos that we have; these are the workhorse around here with the ever reliable M703K beam carbine that has been in the military since the Dagger L's. Now of course these are not the superior of the beam cannons that are carried by the Taurus, there will be enough of you to overwhelm the Taursu which is only in a squad of 3, with only 2 squads per battle. Now there are thirty of you with support of fifty Dagger XVs, not counting the OZ forces which are ten Dagger XV's led by Major Kuschrenada, the head of OZ. If the, um, Major, does not mind me asking, I would like to ask for the Major's help with the discussion on his mobile suit if he would allow it."
As soon as he turned around to look at the Major his eyes found the crimson of the ZAFT uniform in his vision and he looked up to see the red of the Major's left eye and the black of the eye patch over his right. Kuschrenada was 6'7, a tall man to say the least and he was definitely a lanky man with arms that had his knuckles residing at his knees. Such an imposing man was standing in front of Lt. Toshiro Yamato and for the first time as far as Yamato knew, he was going to speak. Never had he done that in front of the Lieutenant so it was a bit of an event for Yamato to finally put a voice to the Major that seemed to be shrouded in legend.
"I thank you, for allowing me to give a speech on a platform that I wish could be heard more," said the smooth and composed voice of Virgil Kuschrenada, leaving little wonder as to why so many people wanted to hear him speak. "Throughout the history, humankind has fought bloody wars over things such as territory, resources, and the right for freedom. Our weapons have grown in size each year till we have reached this age of mobile suits that before recent times were all about getting stronger and more powerful while being mass produced, but now it seems mass production and cheaper costs have made these less powerful armor for your use. It used to take full artillery for a full scale defensive force to take out one mobile suit, but now it appears that artillery has only made fewer changes and has now come to rival our mobile suits. It is of course an undisputed fact that our mobile suits can fire, in a minute, more beams of firepower than any artillery gun by a large sum, it is however also undisputed that the improvements in missiles has also given more dangers for my mobile suit pilots than it did when I was just becoming a Lieutenant.
"If the costs continue to drop while the quality of mobile suits drops then we are looking at the possibility of computerized A.I. being the future of combat and that will only bring about a war in which our only casualties will be civilians when they attack manufacturing facilities. Such a war is dishonorable and all those participating in war must be those whose hearts can fully grasp human emotion or else we have a war in which no human will be a part of, but yet the war will be for a human's cause. This type of war is one that is ill founded and will someday lead to a great ruin for humanity. Those who decide these things may consider me to be an old soldier with a taste for nostalgia, but I am not so old as they are and I am in touch with my soldiers more so than any politician.
"I know if the soldiers of the future are these mobile dolls than war looses the beauty that it has amidst the bloodshed and tragedy. The flare of emotions that is the only thing that assures we will not be destroyed, but I have not talked about my own mobile suit. This one mobile suit has been with me during the entirety of my career, the ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner Zaku Warrior Ultimate, with increased speed, highly damage resistant armor made out of the strongest alloys, and a combat system that will reserve it for a certain margin of skilled pilots, but for those who can pilot it, this system will increase combat skills to heightened levels. I can assure you, that it has no rival today and that is something that I will stake my life on."
The level of respect that Toshiro had for the Major rose as he was impressed by the man whose philosophies were the most ideal and his words had won him the loyalty of every man who heard it. There was no wonder as to why this man was the head of the special forces of the most elite group of pilots, but there was wonder as to why he wasn't the head of every military force as well as the head of the Foundation. Only the lack of ambition of this man could have kept him from obtaining such a post or so it seemed to the young son of Kira Yamato and his friend, Mathias Zala.
The Major then simply made one guttural noise and every pilot and officer saluted him as they would salute the person of highest rank in the military or a king. Only Athrun Zala and Kira Yamato could inspire soldiers to such a loyalty, but only Athrun Zala would ever rival him in words to articulate such thoughts into an idea that every soldier could serve. As the Major stepped down the microphone was given back to Lt. Toshiro, who felt so awkward to receive the microphone since he was not at a point in his knowledge and wisdom to give off such a speech that would give off the same effect.
"I suppose now the only thing that is left is for me to take some of you to your posts in guarding the colony from a possible attack," said Toshiro as he started to pick up his helmet and then looked to the men who were going to direct his men to their docking bays to get into the Leos. He waited for each pilot to pass him before following them, but before he could head off with them he was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder. He turned to once again stare into the eyes of Major Kuschrenada.
"Excuse me for delaying you and separating you from your men, but I would like to ask a favor of you," said the smooth, yet firm talking Kuschrenada as he gestured to another pathway to the docking bay that was used by OZ pilots. "There is a special project that I would like to have you on that will hopefully realize my ultimate dream for the future of war and mankind. This mobile suit is actually a Dagger L that is equipped with our current systems that are used by OZ with our own mobile suits. I knew your father and I knew him to be a damn good pilot of such skill that I wonder if I will ever match up to him, but I have not seen your abilities to pilot a mobile suit. For years I have waited to see how refined your own skills were and I've noticed that you and Mathias Zala are the best in your graduating class and possibly, aside from Athrun Zala and his two friends, are the best in the entire ZAFT military. Please, allow me to see how much your skills have grown."
"I am honored that you would want to see my skills at piloting and would gladly accept the use of your mobile suit," replied Toshiro with a salute before following his superior to the docking bay that was used by OZ forces and found the Dagger waiting for him. It was just like he had seen in the pictures of the manual, except it had a sort of awe to it as he stood gazing longingly at the cockpit that was open and waiting for him.
"Go right on ahead, I will be there to back you up if you need it, but I doubt you will," said Virgil in a very calm and quiet manner, as if the two knew each other quite well. "This is your mobile suit for the time being, but I'm sure you will be able to use the one that we have prepared for you."
Toshiro was going to say thank you, but for some reason, the words seemed to bare little meaning as he found himself drifting in the zero gravity of the docking bay, drifting towards the Dagger that was prepared for him. He found his way into the cockpit and immediately sat at the controls of the mobile suit and found that most systems were started up for him. All it required as the interface be engaged to the pilot and he noticed that there was a helmet waiting for him so he put it on. Immediately encryption codes began to flash into the view of the helmet and he felt the system engage, shifting things to a new perspective as he found himself brought into a state between caution and ease, riding the knife edge of what felt like a momentary panic attack.
The sound of the catapult locking for discharge echoed through his ear like a thump in a long dark cavern and this was followed by the numbers flashing on the screen counting down the time until launch. Toshiro braced himself for the roar of the wind as his mobile suit was launched into the vastness of space and only half a second after it was launched he turned on the thrusters of the Dagger, directing his mobile suit towards his subordinates, all of whom were in Leos. The speed and ease of the mobile suit were just amazing to Toshiro, who had never expected the system to make this much of an improvement.
"Alright men, right now we are patrolling this area, but there is word of forces from the Romanov Foundation may be within the vicinity," said Toshiro in a commanding voice that immediately brought his subordinates to attention. "I want you to stay in groups of four, check each area for any forms of enemy presence and do not engage unless the enemy has fired on you or if I give the orders for weapons free. I do not want us starting an incident just because one of you got spooked by a civilian transport or some mobile space probe with scientists still in it. There is war coming and we cannot give the enemy the right of first blood."
The Leos gathered into the specified units of four, each group being shipped out to one side of the area so that they could check amongst the waste and asteroids that were surrounding the colony. In total, there were about five groups, each pilot was looking around with the hands of their Leos pushing away some of the space clutter and around the coordinates D37'G79, there was a small tiny device found.
The pilot who had found the object was a Coordinator, who was born in the United Northern America as it was called now due to the alliance that incorporated Canada to the United States, by the name of Duo Maxwell. Despite being a new recruit fresh from the boot camp that regular pilots came from, Duo was part of an ace group that had managed to draw the attention of even the great Athrun Zala.
"Sir I think I've found something," said Duo as he started to wave around the object in the hand of his Leo and just as Toshiro had sent his Dagger's thrusters into the direction of Duo there was fire from one an enemy Leo that was marked by the plain olive green colors that were standard for the Leos of the Romanov Foundation.
"Sir, the small recon ship Light Tower is picking up readings of incoming hostiles, a large force," said a woman who was in the young Lieutenants direct squad, a Cpl. Lucrezia Noin. "They'll be on us in a few minutes and they'll be about twenty men even on us, though they are probably less capable than us, sir."
"Don't let it get to your head, rookie, they may not be as experienced as us, but there is a possibility that we might screw up," barked Lt. Yamato as he started to push his mobile suit off a distance from the squad as the other members did so that the enemy couldn't get them all.
After overcoming the initial shock of how fast he was able to move his mobile suit, Lt. Yamato started to set his aiming system to track down each enemy Leo that was in the area. Of course this would take some time, longer than if he just shot back, but surprisingly it took only half a minute to lock on. Without a second thought, he started firing a three shot burst from his beam rifle into one of the asteroids, hoping to bring his target out to fire by causing enough disruption to make his enemy's cover unstable. With its proper cover gone, the enemy Leo used its thrusters to push it into a strafing motion around the squad while firing at them, but it was unable to get out of the way of the Lieutenant's fire as he moved his beam rifle with the Leo, shooting a blast right into its chest, left arm, and optical helmet piece. The enemy blew up in a blaze of fire that could be seen from a far distance in space, but there was no time to rejoice as many Leos soon took its place, swarming around the group. The Lieutenant regrouped with the rest of the new pilots to focus them around into squads that would flank and attack the front lines of the enemy.
"Well you have done well, Lt. Yamato, there is only a quarter of the forces remaining," said the smooth voice of Major Virgil Kuschrenada through the communication link and soon there was a flash of red through the helmet visor of Lt. Toshiro Yamato. "I believe that your squad has earned yourself a rest from being able to defeat your enemies without a single loss. You and I believe two of yours pilots have shown very exceptional skills that have earned you a spot in OZ, particularly in a special project that is going on. I shall speak with you later on this, that goes for you as well, Cpl. Maxwell."
Toshiro counted his breath in his mind as his mobile suit docked and as he finally felt the system release itself from his mind he finally fell back to being his normal self. After having the rush of awareness and perception taken away from his senses, he began to fill something similar to withdrawal and he craved to be back into that mobile suit shooting down more enemies. After waiting for the okay to dress himself into his regular uniform, Toshiro walked outside to see that there was a car waiting for him with two suited men in standing near the doors, each one with a pistol holstered under their black sports coats. Inside the car was the silent Major Kuschrenada, cutting open a letter with his letter opener shaped like a dagger. The Major turned his head and nodded for Lt. Toshiro to sit down inside, which the Lieutenant did as he stared at the other two silent figures that stood by the side of Major Virgil Kuschrenada.
"Hey wait up for me," said a loud voice from behind, the voice that belonged to the new recruit, Ensign Duo Maxwell, who was running towards the car, his braid trailing behind him. "Please forgive me for my lateness sir, I got my braid caught in the helmet sir!"
"No need to be so loud," replied Virgil as he motioned for the pilot to join them in the car and watched the young man, probably 16 years of age, wiggle his way into the seat. "It is of no consequence, there was not set deadline so you were perfectly in the right time for the matter, but shouldn't you get your hair cut if something is troubling it."
"Are you kidding, sir, this is my good luck charm, it's kept me alive in battle," protested Duo with a bit of a childish pout to his voice that inspired Virgil to tease him a bit.
"Oh and do I look like a person to joke around, especially when that sir didn't sound like you fully understood my authority," said Virgil in a voice that was slow and very powerful in an over done commanding voice. It did produce the desired effect as Duo sort of cowered, a bit unsure of what he should say and wondering if he had insulted his superior officer.
"I'm sorry, sir, I understand your authority sir, and I will cut my hair immediately if you want to, sir," squeaked Duo in fear that he was on his way to being court-martialed or being forced to cut his hair with a knife to this throat. There was a tense silence over the group and soon almost everyone was bursting out laughing save for the two pilots who were unfamiliar with the man known as Virgil Kuschrenada.
"It's perfectly alright, I was only joking in the matter, your pouty voice made it to irresistible," chuckled Kuschrenada as he waved away Duo's concern. "But I would like to inform you that there seems to be some development in the area where your father was last seen, some research teams have made an interesting discovery of one of the experimental cryogenic pods that were made to keep the inhabitant into a stasis for duration of travel or long periods until a cure for a disease can be found. It was also made known that the Freedom was found right next to it with its pilot missing from the cockpit."
"So you're saying you might have found my father," asked Toshiro as his eyes widened at the prospect of finally seeing his father since he had never met him. Oddly enough, he was born on the same day of his father's disappearance and he didn't know much about his father, just that Toshiro was his spitting image and was even had an innocent look in his eye. "But why did you also single out Ensign Duo Maxwell for a special project that involved my father when it just seems like a simple pick-up."
"The truth of the matter is, I would like to give you this one mobile suit that I have been overseeing the production for," declared Virgil as he pulled out a palm pilot to produce an image of a mobile suit that was built to have the same body as the Freedom but had a different paint job as well as wider wings that had was appeared to be something like a scorpion tail blaster attached in the back between the two wings. The blue was replaced by a red chest piece with yellow lacing the outline and the forearms were painted green along with the outline of the shoulder guards and there were two pieces on the head piece that stuck out that were painted green along with the rest of the torso. "This is a model that I've called Nataku after the Chinese god of war and then I have another model for your subordinate here."
"You seem so sure that I will be taking this mission or Duo."
"Please, I had you at the beginning before I even mentioned your father. I had as soon as you got in this car. As for Duo Maxwell, well I think this is a lifetime opportunity to see the bright future of mobile suits."
"So then I guess the only question is, when are we going," asked Toshiro.