Gundam Wing & Gundam Seed:
Winged Destiny
Chapter 1: Missing in Action
After Colony 201: Four years of quiet, yet tense, peace have reigned supreme after Dekim Barton and his ambitious schemes to rule the Earth Sphere were brought to an end thanks to the people of the Earth Sphere and the Gundams. The destruction of the Gundams symbolized the true end of what had now become widely known as the Eve Wars. The reasoning behind the name was due to the way the wars' major events always seemed to occur on New Year's Eve. The president who had been in charge before Mariemaia Khushrenada's attack had been ousted because he was believed to be unfit to lead the Earth Sphere. Amongst the political turmoil that followed, the Earth Sphere United Nation, more commonly known as the ESUN, gained a new leader: Relena Peacecraft. She had stepped forward out of sheer frustration due to the constant arguments amongst political parties seeking to take control through various unsavoury means. Despite claiming to only be in office on a temporary basis until a better leader was selected, she has held the office ever since with no sign of any changes to come…
Duo Maxwell yawned in boredom before he double-checked the automatic guidance system. Once he was finished making sure he was still on course, he checked his radar. Five other signals were visible on it, but they were quickly dismissed as he leaned back against his seat. "Is it me or do these escort missions seem like they're going to be pretty damn boring?" He asked into the air.
"Duo, we agreed to take this job on the side of our normal lives, so stop complaining." The cold voice of Heero Yuy echoed in his cockpit.
Duo rolled his eyes as he looked at his visual monitor to see a new Wing Zero hovering near the front of a shuttle.
"Just remember Duo: if we didn't agree to take on these escort missions, these new suits would probably be in the hands of somebody less experienced, and less trustworthy, than we are." Trowa Barton's voice cautioned. A new Heavyarms flew behind the shuttle, occasionally shifting to check below it.
"Yeah, yeah… I know. I still have the right to complain though!"
Quatre Raberba Winner's laughter came through. "We should consider boring to be a good thing. That means that things are proceeding smoothly and there is no danger to the shuttle." A new Sandrock took up guard on the other side of the shuttle.
Duo chuckled in amusement before a thought hit him and he tilted his head in curiosity. "By the way, who thought we were trustworthy? We used to change allegiances quite quickly back in the day. You could never really be certain whose side we were on."
Before anyone else could speak, another voice came into the conversation. "I wish all of you would shut up and do your jobs! It'd be your rotten luck if we get attacked while you guys are chatting idly!" Chang Wufei yelled. A new Altron was visible from above the shuttle, making agitated gestures to the other Gundams around it.
"Don't worry, Wufei, we are doing our jobs… we're just chatting to pass the time." Duo said as he glanced at the radar again. After stretching as much as the cockpit of the new Deathscythe Hell would allow, he rested his hands behind his head and stared out at the shuttle that bore the emblem of the ESUN. Despite his laid back attitude, he was fully alert for anything that could potentially hurt the important people on that shuttle.
The pilots stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs leading to the open hatch of the shuttle once they were safely in the colony's hangar.
Relena Peacecraft smiled as she came down the stairs. "Thank you for volunteering to take up your weapons again. I'm sorry we had to rebuild the Gundams and call back their pilots, but Milliardo got word that some terrorist groups may have finally started to spring up. He didn't want to take any chances, even though the Defence Council is trying to weed them out before they can really become a problem."
"So the peaceful times are finally coming to an end…" Heero remarked idly.
Everyone glanced at him warily before Duo made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "Don't worry about a thing, Relena! We wouldn't be here if we didn't want to be."
"Duo's right, Relena, we're here of our own free will." Quatre said as he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, ignoring the warning glares he received from her bodyguards.
Relena nodded happily. "Thank you…" After a few moments, she let out a resigned sigh. "There are a lot of meetings that will be going on here. I expect we'll be here for at least two weeks, so you can return to Earth on standby."
The pilots nodded in understanding as she began to follow the colony's escort.
As though suddenly remembering something, she turned back to them just as they were getting ready to return to their Gundams. "Since these Gundams are brand new, you should use the two weeks to get used to them and break them in. If there are any flaws, I want them to be taken care of before we run into a serious issue."
"We will." Heero said simply.
Relena nodded before she allowed herself to be taken away by the escort.
Wufei noticed a barely visible leg holster wrapped around Heero's black jeans. "When did you get that?" He asked as they made their way back to the Gundams.
"I picked it up a while ago. There's no need to hide who we are anymore, so it's a lot easier for us to move around with a gun out in the open."
"It certainly is easier for us, but with it out in the open, you lose the element of surprise. Plus, it definitely is easier for somebody with ill intent to steal your gun…" Trowa said worriedly.
Heero casually produced another gun from behind his back. "I have that covered. The gun in the holster is almost always filled with blanks, just in case somebody tries to use it to kill me. This is my real weapon."
Duo couldn't help but laugh as Heero returned the gun to behind his back. "See Trowa? You were worried over nothing! After all, this is Heero we're talking about."
A relieved chuckle escaped from Trowa. "That's true. It's been a while though. I think I've begun to worry about our skills…"
The others fell silent as they boarded their Gundams. Trowa was the first to admit out loud something they had all secretly been worried about since Milliardo requested that they take up arms to protect the Earth Sphere again.
Duo cracked his neck as the Gundams made their way back to Earth. "You know… I'd hate to admit it, but I'm almost itching for a fight. That's always been the best way to 'break in' a new weapon."
"Be careful what you wish for, Duo. You never know who may be waiting to grant that wish." Heero cautioned half-heartedly as a hail of bullets forced Duo to override the automatic guidance system to dodge them.
"Damnit Trowa!" He yelled as he looked up at the smoking Gatling gun that was aimed right at the Deathscythe Hell.
Trowa smirked. "Heero's right, Duo… You really don't know who'll show up looking for a fight."
A warning alert flashed on the Deathscythe Hell's console just in time for Duo to react and dodge the incoming slash from the Sandrock's Heat Shotels.
"Not you too, Quatre!" Duo growled in irritation.
Quatre chuckled in amusement as the Deathscythe Hell's beam scythe activated and it began fighting back.
When the Wing Zero and Altron joined in, it became a somewhat friendly free-for-all match to test the limits of the new Gundams against something of equal strength.
Duo frowned as he noticed a new signal appear on his radar. "Hey, do you guys see that?"
The fight promptly ended as the others checked their radars.
"Yeah… what do you suppose it is?" Quatre asked warily.
"I don't know. Nothing's coming up in the database… it's an unknown." Wufei confirmed.
"It's not moving… should we go check it out?" Duo asked.
"Lead the way." Heero said.
Duo nodded as the Deathscythe Hell began moving towards the radar signal.
"We should report in first. It would probably be wise of us to let Relena know whenever we're checking anything suspicious out." Trowa said worriedly as the others followed.
"Don't worry, Trowa. We won't get too close to it. We're just going to observe it." Duo said, trying to sound reassuring. However, he was just as worried as Trowa.
Space still kept many of its secrets to itself and away from the humans who had taken up residence within its vast regions, and nobody knew when space would reveal any of the secrets it was keeping…
A few of the pilots cursed under their breaths as they arrived at the location of the signal.
The Wing Zero had gone into its Neo-Bird Mode in order to gain a speed advantage over the other Gundams as a precaution in case it was a trap and one of the Gundams needed to get away to report what had happened.
"It's gone…" Wufei said warily.
"This is strange. Everyone be on your guard. We were practically on top of it before the signal vanished. It couldn't have gone too far." Quatre warned as the Gundams looked around.
The sense of wariness from the pilots echoed in the movements of the giant machines.
"It's behind us…" Heero couldn't hide the shock from his voice as the signal reappeared on their radars.
Zooming in on the signal to get a visual, Duo quickly paled. "You've gotta be kidding me…" He muttered.
The area where the signal was coming from was pitch black; no stars visible anywhere. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that the black space was swirling.
Suddenly, alarms began sounding in all of the Gundam's cockpits.
"It's pulling us in!" Quatre yelled as the Wing Zero, which had been closest to the anomaly's reappearance point, began to move towards it.
"Heero get out of there!" Trowa yelled.
"It's no good. Cut your thrusters or else they'll be destroyed." Heero said calmly as the Wing Zero's thrusters stopped functioning, allowing the Wing Zero to be pulled into the anomaly.
The Heavyarms and Altron quickly followed suit, allowing the Gundams to be pulled into the anomaly without a fight.
The pull seemed to get stronger as the Deathscythe Hell and Sandrock struggled against it.
"Damnit! What the hell is this thing?" Duo roared in frustration.
"Duo cut your thrusters! They'll be pulled off the Deathscythe Hell at this rate!" Quatre ordered before following his own advice.
"Quatre are you nuts?"
"Duo it's the only-" Quatre's words were cut off as the Sandrock vanished.
Duo muttered a stream of curses as his thrusters screamed in protest.
Finally, he decided to give up and cut the thrusters, allowing the Deathscythe Hell to follow the other Gundams into the anomaly.
Relena was deep in discussion with the colony representatives when a soldier suddenly burst into the room. He froze as they looked at him with varying degrees of concern, irritation and down right anger at the interruption.
"What is it?" The head representative snapped in irritation.
The soldier jumped. "I'm sorry sir, but I need to speak with Lady Relena. It's a very urgent matter that requires her immediate attention!"
The representatives looked at Relena in surprise as she stood, following the soldier out into the empty hallway in concern.
"What is it?"
The soldier saluted her before sighing reluctantly. "We were monitoring the Gundams as per your request…"
Relena nodded. She had a feeling they would take her words of 'breaking in' the new Gundams literally and would end up fighting amongst themselves in space.
"It appeared as though they began fighting each other, like you guessed."
Relena nodded again, wondering if one of them went overboard and did some severe damage to one of the Gundams.
"As they were fighting, another signal appeared on our radars. It appears as though they went to investigate and the signal vanished. It suddenly reappeared in a different location… and the Gundams began vanishing."
Relena paled as she stared at the soldier in shock. "What are you getting at…?"
"Uhm, well, it looks as though the Gundams and their pilots should be considered 'Missing in Action' for the time being, ma'am." He suggested weakly.
His superior officers weren't actually asking for her approval on the situation, he was just being sent to tell her that was their intentions regarding the strange matter. All they needed was the approval of the Defence Council, which was being notified of the situation at the same time as Relena was.
The strength left Relena's legs and the soldier quickly grabbed her before she hit the floor.
One of the representatives peered out into the hallway. "What happened?" She asked worriedly.
"The Gundam pilots are being considered as Missing in Action…" The soldier explained.
A gasp of horror escaped from the representative, but Relena didn't notice.
She could only stare at the floor as shock took over.
Heero and the others… are gone…? It's my fault… I shouldn't have allowed Milliardo's request for them to return…
The shock of the news turned into a faint, forcing the soldier and the representative to call for medical help.
As their Gundams were pulled through the pure darkness of the anomaly, the pilots were helpless to do anything but struggle to stay conscious from the extreme force of gravity being generated by the pull.
"Wha-…goi-…on-…?" Quatre's scrambled voice echoed in their cockpits as a blinding white light appeared. The white light faded to reveal a sea of white sand.
However, the pilots were still reeling from the trip through the anomaly and had almost no time to respond as the Gundams plummeted towards the sand. The only thing they could do was manoeuvre their Gundams to allow escape from the machines once they crashed.
The resulting impact of all five Gundams crashing caused an explosion of sand that buried most of the Gundams' bodies deep. The chest and heads were the only parts of many of the Gundams to be safely above the sand. The Wing Zero landed on its back, the cockpit hatch barely visible in the surrounding sand. However, no movement came from any of the Gundam's cockpits…
Author's Note: It's here! The new and improved 3rd version of Winged Destiny! This story was actually my first creation before the 'accident' that wiped out my stories. It's been fun to go back and re-do everything, although it is insanely hard work. I hope you enjoy reading it! Winged Destiny will update every Monday until it's completion.