I do not own the story, characters, or ideas from Naruto, the Gundam series, or the Bolo universe.
My name is Mobile Suit-HA 666-SHV of the Line, and I am outgunned, outnumbered, and out of hope. The year is 2534, and upon this desolate outpost are the last two million souls of a human empire once numbering in the trillions. This outpost, a cold, empty planet that until recently was only know as B36, is now known as End, home to the operation of the same name, and is humanity's last stand against the Legion.
Perhaps I should explain further. I am the self- aware Artificial Intelligence implanted into the Mark XXV Unicorn Gundam mobile suit, heavy assault model. I reside in Hangar 1 under the surface of End, and am one of only five of my kind. There are no longer any factories to produce more, and the rest of my kin are dead. My pilot, one Commander Naruto Uzumaki of the Solarian Empire Space Forces, is currently asleep while I perform the necessary maintenance upon myself with the innumerable nanites within my armor. This war has taken its toll upon the survivors, and soon, all will rest in death.
(History)
This war began 83 years ago, when contact was finally made with another race among the stars. There were no communications of any kind from the formation of starships that appeared a few light-hours from the newly colonized planet of Abram, and following protocol, the colonists released the sole courier available to Earth to report the news. As it approached the hyper-limit, its sensors perceived multiple, small contacts from the coordinates of the aliens, and Abram was stripped of all life as a kinetic bombardment scorched every inch of its surface. By the time the courier had traversed the three hundred light-years to Earth, four more systems had fallen to the new enemies.
Humanity was horrified, but fighting among itself for as long as it had existed had not left it without knowledge of war. The Solarian Navy rallied, and upon meeting the aliens in the system of the sixth victim, crushed the opposing fleet. Human morale soared as the Navy continued on to each of the destroyed colonies and wiped the enemy from existence. However, in the Abram system, the Navy encountered a new enemy fleet, and there the aliens received their name: Legion, for they were many.
The tactical plots of every human ship were filled with crimson as the countless battleships descended upon the humans. From there on, humanity fought a slow, horrible retreat as, system by system, they were pushed back. Even Earth fell, though its defenses were many times mightier than before. Finally, those here at B36 were tasked to find some way to stop the Legion, no matter the cost, and as the scientists listened to the transmissions on the hypercom grow fewer and finally silent, they created the End.
But the hate, oh, the hate, was infinite. Everyone had lost someone. Naruto's father, Minato Namikaze, also the father of the Gundam program, being the key developer on the project, was killed in a surprise raid on a main industrial planet. His wife, Kushina, soon followed. Only meeting his own future wife had kept Naruto from being consumed by hate. Even the Gundams were caught up in their pilots' anger, going into battle with hearts full of rage, only to have it increase in others as those who fought came back in ever fewer numbers.
The End, a device that would unravel space and time, would annihilate this universe, taking the Legion along with humanity. And we, the last five mobile suits, and the only military power on End, would buy the time until its activation.
(End History)
Klaxons begin their unearthly screech, and I tap into the intelligence network to discover its cause, but I already know the answer. Legion is here, in the thousands.
Within a minute Naruto is in his skinsuit and rushing towards the lift to my cockpit, his golden locks amess, with his wife, Commander Hinata Hyuuga-Uzumaki, right behind. Upon reaching me, he stops and looks up.
"It's time, isn't it Shiva?" he asks, using the nickname all mobile suits are given, derived from the last three letters of the designation. Hinata hugs him from behind.
"I am afraid so, Commander," I reply, "Are you ready?"
Naruto looked down and closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of his wife behind him, perhaps for the last time. "Just a minute, Shiva," he said, and turned around as Hinata released him.
"Well, this is goodbye, Hinata," Naruto said softly, as the hanger echoed in the chaos of the impending launch. "I love you." Hinata looked into his eyes, her own shimmering with unshed tears under the floodlights of the hangar.
Hinata pulled him close. "I love you too, Naruto, and its only goodbye for now. I'll see you when we go back home."
Naruto stroked her soft, blue hair. "That's right," he agreed, and looked up at the Gundam standing next to his own, " and I know Harpy there will take good care of you, won't you Harpy?"
"Affirmative," the massive mobile suit, MS-HA 257-HRP, answered in its melodious, female voice. "I will protect her with everything I have."
Naruto nodded and turned towards Shiva. "So what's the plan?"
"To buy as much time as possible, given that Project End will require 62.6445 minutes to deploy. Given the sheer amount of our opponents, there isn't much we can do other than a full frontal assault."
Naruto's eyes hardened. "Excellent, we'll show them what we've got!" Hinata nodded fiercely.
"Hey, Naruto, Hinata," a voice rang out. They both turned to face in the direction it had come from.
"Project End has been activated," Vice Admiral Sarutobi called from the balcony above. "We're launching in one minute!"
Naruto and Hinata came to the position of attention and saluted. "Yes, Sir!"
As Hinata turned and began to enter the lift to Harpy, Naruto spun her around and gave her one last, burning kiss. Hinata melted into it, and for a single instant, there was only them and their love for one another.
As they slowly released each other, Sarutobi's voice rang out once more.
"Hey you two," he said as they faced him again, and his normally fierce face softened. "Good luck."
They nodded, and as the lift carried them up, they shared one last glance before they climbed into their respective suit's cockpits.
As Naruto belted himself in, the cockpit disappeared, and was replaced by a 360 degree view of the environment surrounding the suit. "Alright Shiva, take us out."
"Yes, Sir." I answer as I walk out to the electromagnetic catapult that will launch us into space. Harpy and the other three take their places as I step into the footholds on Cat 1.
"ETA to launch T-minus 15 seconds. Good hunting, all of you," the traffic controller announces. "Project End will detonate in 57 minutes. Hold out until then."
"Affirmative," I reply. As the countdown hits zero and the board lights green, "Launching!"
"How are we looking, Shiva," Naruto questioned as they drew near maximum firing range of the Legion screen of destroyers.
"I am currently operating at 99.8735% of peak capacity. Weapons are primed and ammunition loadout is full," the Gundam responded in the gruff voice it usually assumed before battle.
Naruto closed his eyes as he mused the best way to open the battle. "Ok, we'll start by closing to melee range to the destroyers, that way we can take them out with the beam sabers and the capital ships can't fire upon us. We need to last for thirty-five more minutes until End activates." He looked out over his formation. "Squadron, report!"
"Lee and Nike here," Lee began, calling in with the specified pilot name first, then Gundam.
"Neji and Athena, on station," Hinata's cousin replied.
"Shino and Mantis, ready."
"Hinata and Harpy, on point."
"Alright guys," Naruto strained to keep from weeping as he addressed them for the last time. "This is it. All we need to do is become enough of a threat for Legion to begin decelerating to engage us better. No matter what else happens, if we can make them do that, we win, because they won't have the time to reach End. Are you all ready?"
"Yes," was the unanimous answer.
"Good, so, one last time, let's kick the tires and light the fires!" Naruto yelled, and couldn't help but sob as Lee broke into the message at the end, "OF YOUTH!"
"Ok, Shiva," Naruto said quietly, as he shoved the throttle to full military power and entered the enemy engagement range. "Tallyho."
The Legion destroyers fire upon us as soon as they are able, and we begin evasive maneuvers to bring our beam rifles and sabers into action. The destroyers are easy prey as we streak by them, tearing hundred-yard-long ruptures in their thin armor with our swords. Their laser clusters swivel with lightning speed, firing gigawatt level bursts of coherent light at us, but we rotate to bring our shields to bear against them as our electronic countermeasures fill the enemy radar with false images.
We repeat this until the tattered remnants of the destroyers flee behind the capital ships.
Then, as we had all hoped and prayed to happen, the fleet begins to decelerate to meet us. Naruto and the others cheer, but we Gundams know that, though we are already doomed, our expiration has been moved forward.
As we attempt to regroup, the first battleship fires its main battery.
"We've won," Naruto cried as he read the numbers on the console signifying the decrease in velocity of the capital ships, then stared in horror as the cameras went white.
Shino and Mantis had dodged the first blast, only to become surrounded by the beams of the Legion battleship cannons. Gundams were tough, armored with the strongest alloys man had created, and backed with a shield that redirect most kinetic energy. But there was a limit to all things, and the tsunami of energy that swamped them was too much. It took less than a nanosecond for the armor of Mantis's nuclear battery to be breached, and he and Shino both vanished in a ball of nuclear fire.
"Everybody, scatter!" Naruto all but screamed as the battleships began to concentrate their fire.
Lee and Neji separated upon Naruto's order, then moved in upon the nearest battleships. Destroying a capital ship, however, was infinitely tougher than a destroyer. That wasn't enough to stop them, as they landed on the ships themselves and began dismantling them.
Naruto saw their success, and began racing towards another battleship to copy them, when he saw the Legion countermeasure to Neji and Lee.
They simply turned their fire upon their beleaguered allies, and while the Gundams leapt up to avoid the cannon fire, they couldn't avoid the explosion as the battleships' fusion power plants let go. Both disappeared into the two mini-stars.
I throw my power to full reverse as Naruto screams in rage and frustration, but it is too late. We are too close to the battleship we had meant to attack, and changing vectors would require too much time. Harpy is distracted, dancing around the beams that strained to catch her, and as I see the barrels of the battleship cannons begin to glow in the instant before firing, I simply announce, "Death imminent."
Suddenly I am struck out of the way, the beam coming so close that my paint is stripped off. I search for the instrument of our salvation, and I see a Gundam shield with the lettering HRP on its front zooming away. Naruto notices as well, and I zoom in on Harpy in time to see it engulfed in energy. The split second distraction of throwing her shield to save us had cost her, and my pilot is struck dumb as his wife vanishes, and we are alone.
Hateun like ever before floods my systems as Naruto loses it completely, and a program that I had never noticed until now activates. The legacy of Minato Namikaze takes over as my armor expands, exposing a red glow as my power plants goes into overcharge, increasing its output by five times. My cockpit rearranges itself as nanites within my pilot fuse to his nervous system. Finally, the white blade on my forehead that was the symbol of our name split into the golden V of the Victory Program. We are no longer separate entities. We are Naruto/Shiva, joined in body and mind, and from my back spring five DRAGOONs*, separate, mobile weapons equipped with a beam rifle that we can control with our mere thoughts. A five-minute countdown commences, announcing the limit of the power plant, but we no longer care.
Legion capital ships turn to flee from us as the closest five of them are destroyed in seconds; no ship can survive a particle beam through its fusion plant. We charge after them, blind with hate, when the End begins.
I first notice when End disappears off of my sensors, and when I train my rear cameras to its former coordinates, all I can see is complete darkness. The only way to track the destruction's progress is watching the stars wink out one by one.
No! We must have our revenge, and I accelerate even further, sending the DRAGOONs out to destroy farther ships as we land upon the nearest one and begin hacking into it with our beam saber. The Legion is desperately running away, but it is in vain. We shall all die here, and humanity will be avenged.
The distortion in space/time reaches us as the ship we are attacking explodes, shooting us deep into the blackness. Our souls separate, becoming lost in the void as we are torn from our bodies. As I, Shiva now, no longer Shiva/Naruto, travel farther and farther, I reflect on my creation.
In its desperation, humanity had gone too far. The artificial intelligence they created was the ultimate in cyber technology, but we were not meant to feel emotions, to know hate,…and to love. We were not meant to have the thing humans call a soul. All I feel now is sorrow, as the deaths of my friends play over and over again in my mind, and I fall deeper and deeper into the dark between universes.
*(DisconnectedRapidArmamentGroupOverlookOperationNetwork)
Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, stood perched on top of the Boss Toad Gamabunta as he gazed out upon the blazing forest. His eyes streamed with tears that smoke was not the only cause of as he watched his ninja subordinates rally for yet another delaying attack, for there was no other option. The Kyuubi no Youko was a force of nature; any attack was equivalent to pissing into a hurricane. Only one thing could hope to defeat the Kyuubi, and more tears fell as Minato tucked the blanket a little more snug around the blond haired newborn child in his arms.
"I'm sorry, little Naruto," he told his son, "I'm sorry that you will have to bear this burden for the rest of your life, that you will never see how proud you mother and I are of you." The Hokage closed his eyes again as he remembered his wife's, Uzumaki Kushina's, last words as she bled out from the ill-fated childbirth. 'He's so beautiful…'
I'm sorry, but you will grow up knowing that you are a hero, that you are the protector of the village," Minato told the child, whose face was screwed up in the expression that only sleeping babies could produce. "And this must be done."
Suddenly, strange lights appeared in the smoke-strewn night sky and the fires of meteorites began streaking towards the earth.
"What's going on, 'Bunta," Minato asked, concentrating on the seals for the technique to defeat the Kyuubi. "I don't know," the chief toad rumbled, "But you need to hurry."
The Kyuubi turned its head in their direction, noticing the growing chakra level. Knowing something was up, roared and charged towards the two.
"Hurry, kid," Gamabunta shouted as he drew the large sword on his back.
"Almost done," Minato cried, the Shinigami appearing behind him.
Here is where fate intervenes.
Minato screamed in pain as the Shinigami plunged its arm through his chest. As it reached for the oncoming demon, a fierce wind blew, and a new presence filled the air.
When the hand clamped down on the Kyuubi, it also caught the soul of Shiva, and both were ripped back and shoved into the seal of the now screaming baby Naruto.
Inside the seal, Minato looked over his handiwork as the Kyuubi roared and cursed behind the huge, golden bars. But as he turned around, he viewed yet another identical cage. Within these bars was… something the Hokage had never seen before. Confused, Minato regarded the…suit of armor? "Who are you?"
After floating for what seemed an endless amount of time, I find myself in a strange place. I am imprisoned behind what appear to be normal bars, but they will not allow me to pass, no matter how I struggle, for I no longer have my strength. I am tired. I have been through too much, felt too much death and sadness.
I look down as I see the human who called out to me in the old language of Japanese. Weakness begins to overcome me, but something is familiar about this man; I answer him in the same.
"I am the… Mobile Suit Gun…dam HA-6…66 SHV of the Line…Tasked with the defen…se of humankind, and…to defeat its…enemies."
'I don't know what this thing is, but I can tell it means no harm to my people,' Minato thought, 'but I don't have much time before the Shinigami takes me.' "Can you promise me one thing," he cried desperately as the Death God began pulling him away.
I am losing focus as I struggle to remain awake. Hearing the question, I reply.
"Wh…at is y…our r…eque…st?"
"Please protect my son," the human says as he finally disappears from my failing sight.
I collapse to the floor of my prison, robbed of the last vestiges of my power. Part of me, the part that I should have been: the main tactical control of the Mk. XXV Gundam, is horrified and confused as to what is going on, for my current situation defies all known logic. I should have ceased to exist when End caught up with me, instead, I find myself once more in the company of humans, and within a confine that I should have shattered with a mere fraction of the power my servos could bring to bear upon the bars that now form my small world. But the other part, the part that fought desperate battles with my friend and pilot, Naruto Uzumaki, the part that witnessed the wedding of my commander to Hinata Hyuuga, pilot of my fellow Gundam and friend, Harpy, no longer cares. This part is selfish, wishing to die and join my friends, for why should I live, when no one else has?
A new darkness overcomes me, but this void of promised slumber brings relief from my cares. As my thoughts trail off, I can't help but consider what the strange human requested of me. Why does he want me, one who failed to discharged the simple duty of killing the enemy, to protect his son? Who is this child of his? Where is he? Questions continue to plague me until, finally, I am no more, and silence rules.
Author's Notes:
Whew! Until I attempted this, I never knew how hard writing a story was, nor how much fun one can get out of it. I hope to make something original with this fiction, a crossover between Naruto, bits and pieces of the Gundam universe, and the Bolo universe. I plan to carry the story as far as Naruto goes, but the story will divert from canon as it goes on. If anyone wishes to be a Beta, please let me know. I need all the help I can get, this being my first fanfiction. So please, let me know what you think of this so far. Reviews are the fuel of an author. I will glady accept any constructive criticism given, but I will ignore any flames, so don't waste your time. I plan to update at least once a week, more or less depending on Real Life and how I feel. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this humble beginning of Strange Lights!
Sincerely,
KingOfAvalon