Gundam SEED: Witches of the Cosmic Era
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 1: Prologue
May 19th, CE 69
Orb Union, Onogoro Island
It was a sunny day in the Orb Union. The ocean waves were gently beating the beaches where numerous people have gathered for the day to enjoy the waves and soak up some sun as the temperature was a pleasant 87 degrees. In the cities, people were out and about on their daily business, either commuting to work or going shopping for various needs.
But underneath a fenced off building, things were not so simple.
In an underground room was a group of people wearing pilot suits gathered together for an announcement the likes of which the high commands of both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT would kill to overhear.
The first person was a girl who looked to be 16 years old and had long red hair that went down to the middle of her back, as well as auburn eyes. This person was Lieutenant Colonel Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke of the Orb Army, a First Generation Coordinator who hailed from the Orb O'Neill Type 3 space colony Karlsland.
The second person was also a girl who was around 18 years old. She had long black hair that was tied in a ponytail that went down past her shoulders, and a pair of sharp brown eyes. This girl was Lieutenant Commander Mio Sakamoto of the Orb Spacy, a Second Generation Coordinator who was born in the Orb space colony known as Fuso.
The third person was a girl who looked to be around 15 years old, was sporting long blonde hair that was as long as Minna's, and a pair of golden-colored eyes. This girl was Lieutenant Junior Grade Pierrette-Henriette Clostermann of the Naval Militia, a First Generation Coordinator who hailed from the Orb colony known as Gallia who also went by the name Perrine.
The fourth person was a girl who looked to be around 16 years old. She had brown hair that was tied into small twin ponytails and had hazel colored eyes. This girl was First Lieutenant Gertrud Barkhorn of the Orb Marine Corps, a very rare Half-Natural/Half-Coordinator with a Natural mother and a Coordinator father who was born at the Orb space colony Karlsland who was also known as Trude to her friends.
The fifth person was another girl who appeared to be 15 years old who had short blonde hair, the tips of which were black, and had blue eyes. This girl was Second Lieutenant Erica Hartmann of the Orb Marine Corps, a rare Natural genius (although she usually didn't act like such) who possessed an IQ of a solid 250 hailing from the colony of Karlsland like Trude.
The sixth person was a young girl who looked to be 14 years old. She had skin that was as white as snow, pale silver hair that was only slightly longer than Erica's, and a pair of emerald green eyes. This girl was Lieutenant Junior Grade Aleksandra Vladimirovna Litvyak of the Naval Militia, otherwise known as Sanya, a First Generation Coordinator hailing from the Orb space colony Orussia.
The seventh person was yet another girl who appeared to be 15 years old. She had long silver hair that went down to the middle of her back and a pair of greyish-blue eyes. This girl was Ensign Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen of the Naval Militia, a Second Generation Coordinator who was born at the Orb colony of Suomus.
The eighth person was also a girl who was around 15 years old. She had her light brown hair tied into a braid that went down to the middle of her back as well as a pair of blue eyes. This girl was Sergeant Major Lynette Bishop of the Colonial Militia Guard, a Second Generation Coordinator who has her origins in the Orb colony known as Britannia.
The ninth person was a girl who looked to be only around 13 years old, making her the youngest in the group. She had short brown hair and pair of hazel nut eyes. This girl was Ensign Yoshika Miyafuji of the Orb Spacy, a First Generation Coordinator who was adopted by the Miyafuji family from an orphanage at the age of six, and had lived with them ever since.
The tenth person was another girl who looked to be around 17 years old. She had sandy blonde hair that was tied into a short ponytail and a pair of blue eyes. This girl was Second Lieutenant Adolpha Malan of the Orb Army, a Half-Coordinator/Half-Natural like Trude who had a Coordinator mother and a Natural father who hailed from the Orb homeland of Onogoro Island.
The eleventh and final person was standing in front of the gathered people. She too was a girl who appeared to be around 22 years old, possessing long black hair that went down to her lower back and a pair of teal colored eyes. This woman was Adolfine Galland, a Second Generation Half-Coordinator/Half-Natural who possessed two Half-Coordinator/Half-Natural parents, and was also the youngest person in the history of Orb to gain the title of Major General in the Orb Army who also hailed from the Orb mainland like Adolfa.
"Listen up, everyone!" The Major General yelled out, getting the attention of the other ten girls quickly. "The ten of you, due to you all possessing the highest scores in the Mobile Suit combat simulations, have been chosen to be a part of a top secret operation."
Before Adolfine could go on, she saw Lynette raise her hand slightly. "Do you have a question, Sergeant Bishop?"
"Y-Yes…" Said Sergeant replied hesitantly before asking. "How were you able to create the simulators? Orb doesn't have Mobile Suits of its own…" The other nine girls nodded at this, as they too were curious as to how Orb did it.
"An excellent question." The Major General replied, internally impressed with one of her favorite girls present. "The answer to your question lies just beyond that door." Here, she pointed towards the door that was behind her. "But first, you must all swear to keep this as much as a secret as possible; you are NOT to tell ANYONE what you are about to see or hear, under penalty of death. Do I make myself clear?!"
The ten girls hastily snapped a salute. "Y-Yes, Ma'am!" They didn't want to anger their superior officer after what they just heard.
Seeing this, Adolfine smirked. "Now then, follow me." With that, she turned around and opened the door, walking through it as the other ten girls followed her… only to be greeted with a sight that they never thought possible.
Mobile Suits.
Eleven Mobile Suits were lined up against the wall of the underground hangar, and the girls were instantly able to identify ten of them as ZAFT's ZGMF-1017 GINN. The eleventh unit, however, was completely different.
This Mobile Suit looked nothing like the other ten GINNs present. For one, the head, which was white in color, was completely different from the GINN's; it lacked the large sensor array that was on top of the head, and replaced it with two white-colored antenna on the back of the head. There were also heat vents on the sides of its face, and unlike the GINN's single pink monoeye, there was a green visor that had a red armor piece above it, and above said armor piece were two head-mounted Vulcans. There were two large cannons equipped to the Mobile Suit, with one on each shoulder. Its torso was a lot blockier than the GINN's and was primarily red in color. On the sides of the torso were two yellow heat vents, and the cockpit was red in color as well. There was also a yellow piece in the middle of the waist that had a small red V-fin engraved onto it. The arms and legs were also a lot blockier than the GINN's which were rounded, and had black armor pieces on the shoulders, lower arms, knees and ankles while the rest of the arms and legs were red sans the grey and black feet.
"GINNs… but what's that eleventh unit?" Erica asked.
A new voice spoke up in response. "That unit is the result of eleven months of reverse-engineering and simplifying the ten GINNs we were able to acquire from the black market." Walking towards them was a girl who looked to be around 15 years old. She looked exactly like Erica, with the exception of her glasses and Morgenroete R&D uniform. This girl was Ursula Hartmann, a Natural who possessed an IQ of an astounding 300 and was Erica's twin sister.
"Sissy!" Erica exclaimed, running up to her and tackling her in a hug, which Ursula was glad to return even under the confused looks the other nine girls were giving them.
"Allow me to introduce you to Ursula Hartmann, one of Morgenroete's top researchers and the twin sister of Erica Hartmann." Adolfine said, getting shocked looks from the other nine girls present.
"I didn't know Hartmann had a twin sister!" Trude stated in shock.
"It's not like I tried to hide it or anything." Erica responded as she broke the hug. "You just never asked."
That annoyed several of the others, but they kept any comments to themselves.
After a minute of silence, Adolfine spoke up again. "Back to what I was saying before. The reason as to why the ten of you have been selected for this operation is to gather both technical and combat data for Morgenroete to mass-produce Mobile Suits for Orb's use should a war break out and some idiot tries to drag our country into it. And before you ask, the eleventh unit is, right now, a proof-of-concept machine to see if it can match up to the GINN." She explained. "That unit is known as the RX-77-1A Guncannon A, the pinnacle of Ursula's and Dr. Ichiro's Mobile Suit research and the first true Mobile Suit developed under the Infinite Striker Project. As for the rest of you, pick any of the GINNs here for your own use; I was already chosen to pilot the Guncannon A by Dr. Ichiro himself." The Major General told them.
"Hold up a minute…" Minna said, stopping the others before they could pick a machine. "What is this all about, anyway?"
"That is what I was about to tell you, but I'll get it out of the way now." Adolfine began. "As of this moment forward, you ten have been assigned to Orb's new black ops test team, the 13th Azad Task Force!"
Next Time: Crossbone Vanguard
A/N: This idea, originally presented to me from worldwanderer2.0, has been in the planning stage for a while now, and we have enough of it planned out to begin the first arc. In case you haven't noticed it yet, the countries that are in Strike Witches canon are now space colonies belonging to Orb, which will have gotten a head-start in colony construction ahead of the other Earth nations during the old calendar era. These include Liberion, Romagna, Karlsland, Fuso, Belgicia, Helvetia, Gallia, Suomus, Orussia, etc.
Me and worldwanderer2.0 have BIG plans for this story, and the real action will begin during the next chapter. Also, there will be several surprise twists, as well as some characters getting their personalities altered and some changes to events. And I know that I left out Charlotte "Shirley" Elwyn Yeager and Francesca Lucchini, but this is deliberate; they'll be making their debut somewhere else, and I highly doubt anyone will guess right on the first try.
Oh, and expect characters from the series Infinite Stratos to be appearing as well... and not all the protagonists from Infinite Stratos will be protagonists here.
And before anyone asks; no, Mio does not have her eye-patch yet. She'll be getting one later, but that's all I'm telling you right now.