Death of a Coordinator
Disclaimer: I own nothing except what I create. First time fic here, this has buzzed around my head a bit so i have decided to share it with you all.
Death of a Coordinator, Birth of a Sentinel
Prologue: Its been two years since the second bloody valentine war, and both Z.A.F.T. and the Earth Alliance and ORB are already close to rebuilding the nations that have been torn apart by the war. Those that wanted to help rebuild joined the military of there respective faction. The overwhelming response quickly filled positions to transport and protect supplies, resulting in some getting posted on patrol ships assigned to watch the outskirts of space. One such ship called the Freelance is a Laurasia class ship and its about to get a wake up call.
Chapter one: First Contact
Sasha Coulton was eighteen years old with short silver hair and brown eyes and right now she lay seated in the cockpit of her ZGMF-601R GuAIZ R bored out of her mind. "When I joined Z.A.F.T. I thought I was going to be helping people, but instead I'm stuck out in the middle of nowhere spending most my time wondering when we get leave" She thought with an aggravated sigh.
"I wondered if I would find you here," said a voice that held a hint of cheer to it, a voice that Sasha was all too familiar with. "And where else did you think I was?" she spoke back while looking up from the computer she was working on with a expression someone got when they were rudely woken up from bed. First Lieutenant Mark Coulton just smiled at the expression on her face "Well here of course, a big brother has to be keeping a watch on his little sis after all". " Her big brothers disposition managed to brighten Sasha's mood a little bit as she smiled while looking back at all the times he had been there for her, whenever she had a problem he would be there to listen, if she was being picked on he would protect her. He had taken care of her when their parents had been killed and he was here for her even now.
The thoughts of her parents brought tears to Sasha's eyes, that upon being noticed by Mark made him decide to change the subject. "Come on, let's get out of this hanger and get something to eat" he said in a casual mood in the hopes of distracting her from the painful memories. She snapped out of her memories of those painful weeks and while using the sleeve of her green and gray military uniform to wipe away the tears she responded with "OK sure, just give me a sec to lock this down". Mark just gave her a concerned look before saying, "I'll be at the exit so don't take too long" Sasha simply replied with a soft spoken "OK" and with that her brother drifted off.
"When will the human ship be in range?" questioned a tall figure shrouded by a large robe in a voice that sounded along the lines of a growl. "It will enter range of the beacon within five minutes my lord, Is that satisfactory?" replied the radar operator in a voice that held deep reverence and fear. "Yes it is, return to your other duty's" the figure spoke back, the operator simply nodded and turned back to his station. The robed figure then turned to the communications operator and ordered "Have all pilots get to there ships, I want them launched in twenty" the communications operator gave the figure a bowing of the head and immediately relayed the orders. With that done, the robed being looked around the command center of the ship he had controlled. There were several stations around him each being operated by a creature that any human would say came from a nightmare.
Each one was over six feet tall and with pale skin, where a human would have two eyes of varying color these creatures had six all the same bright gold color. With two eyes at the front on both sides and the other ones slightly raised and further back. The head had not a single hair on it and was larger and rounder than a human head. The mouth had no lips and unlike normal humans, who have teeth of both a meat and plant eater, these creatures had only carnivore teeth and each one was five inches long and extremely sharp. They didn't have noses just two holes for nostrils. Each one was in body armor that covered them up to the chest with the arms and head being the only locations truly exposed. The entire armor was black with the fabric under the armor a dark red. As if continue the display, attached to the creature's back were four black canisters with glowing yellow lines at the top and a glowing spot in the center. They were in turn separated by a black piece of metal that resembled a spinal column that went from the back of the neck all the way to the waste. Then to complete the look two short black pipes emitted from the strange pack and appeared to go right into the chest of the creature.
The stations they operated were made from a dark silver metal and covered in glowing yellow buttons which each had a separate symbol on it or a line of symbols in the rare cases. In the center of each station was a monitor that was separated into several small screens each displaying live information about the ship and the surrounding area. Suddenly the figure examination of the command center was interrupted by a voice very similar to his except this one was deeper echo inside his head "What is the statues of the mission?" Instantly the figure responded back through his own mind "Everything is going to plan, The human ship will be in range of the beacon soon" There was along pause before the deep voice continued in a cautious but confident tone "Then I shall leave the plan in your very capable hands, but know that we can not have a repeat of that…. Previous event all those years ago. If it happens again we must snuff it out before it can be a threat". The figure simply nodded and then responded with "If it happens again then it shall not live a day longer than it's birth" with that the figure broke the connection and without making a sound, left the command center with a trail of white mist following in it's wake.
Sasha sat in the mess hall of the Freelance ounce again bored. But all she was thankful for was that the painful memories of her parent's deaths were for now just in the back of her. The mess hall was like any other you would see on a ship, there were rows of benches where people could enjoy their meals. And in the west and east part of it were food dispensers. Currently the mess hall had only a few small groups in it, each had people of various ranks and jobs that helped keep the ship running. Sasha and her brother were not those people, their job was to defend the Freelance in case she got attacked or to check out anything suspicious. But with the war over the chances of getting attacked were the same as a natural being able to pilot a Z.A.F.T. mobile suit. In short that meant for a large amount of boredom for people like Sasha, even small scale attacks by Blue cosmos or Patrick Zala fanatics.
"Hey Mark I got a question for you" Sasha said to her brother in a somewhat serious tone. Mark stopped eating his meal that he had started a little while ago and responded with "What's the question?" with a look that showed he was truly listening. "Well" she began "Do you ever miss war?" "Not even for a second" he replied instantly "Could you tell me why?" Mark just looked at Sasha for a moment. Sasha was wondering if he was ever going to reply when he bluntly said "I lost some friends to war and I hope for as long as you live that you never have to experience war" it appeared now it was Sasha's turn to distract her brother. So she said "You got to admit though, peace is as boring as watching grass grow". Despite the fact that is was a rather bad joke it still got Mark to laugh "Yea it pretty much is that boring especially if you are in the military".
"Sir?" a member of the bridge crew asked the captain just looked at the communications operator and said "Yes?" he asked back "How much longer till we get out of here?"
Arthur Peterson current Captain of the Laurasia frigate Freelance simply gave a deep sigh
And said, "Dam it Hawkens how many times do I have to tell you the same thing over and over again!" he almost yelled at the young bridge lieutenant. "I swear I'm surprised that you even remember where the bathroom is" he continued while looking strait at him, his almost death like glare only caused a small twitch from the Lt.
The captain gave another sigh before speaking again, this time in a calmer form. "To answer your original question lieutenant we have twenty four before we are done here for now and then it will take an additional twenty four to get back to PLANTs, does that satisfy you?" Hawkens gave a quick "Yes sir, Thank you sir" before returning to his post. Peterson proceeded to rube his aching head as a result of Hawkens.
"That guy is really annoying, how the hell did he get through basic training?" he thought as he looked around at the rest of his crew until is eyes stopped on lieutenant Chris Badger, the weapons operator for the Freelance. Badger's personality matched his job perfectly, since he had a pretty common tendency to be giddy with excitement when ever he would see an explosion. Peterson saw and example during one of there times on leave, some idiot dock worker dropped a welding canister causing it to release the gas it was containing and propelled it right into a whole stack of acetylene canisters resulting in a very loud explosion.
And while pretty much everyone was pissed to a large degree at the worker. Badger was the only one who wanted to buy the man a beer. "Thankfully though Badger has enough sense not to try anything like that" Captain Peterson reassured himself. Next was his navigation Officer Salena Narsh, in Peterson's opinion she was the most dependable of his whole bridge crew. She was always at her assigned post at the designated time and she was capable of controlling the Freelance with as much skill as if she could pilot a mobile suit. But that didn't mean she was a by the books type of person on the contrary when she was off duty or in the mess hall she always seemed to have a joke or two up her sleeve.
After her was Luke Valdez the Freelances radar operator, no matter what time of day it was he seemed to always be mellow. The completely relaxed posture in which he sat at his station in would not have been accepted on any other ship, but Peterson didn't mind. Since Valdez could operate in any battle still in his relaxed posture and capable of spotting anything that posed a threat. Lastly was Hawkens, the only thing Peterson ever truly heard from his communications operator was when was it time for them to go back to PLANTs. "When I get back to PLANTs," Peterson thought "The first thing I'm gonna do is." "Sir" Hawkens said, interrupting Peterson's thoughts. The captain gave his communications officer a annoyed look before replying with "I swear Hawkens if you ask when we are going to get back PLANTs again I will" "No sir its not that." Hawkens interrupted this time the excitement in his voice was highly noticeable "I'm picking up a distress beacon".
Peterson was about patronize Hawkens when he heard mention of the beacon and instead said" Who does the beacon belong to." "Unknown sir!" Hawkens responded in now an even more excited voice. On the outside Peterson had a very calm demeanor but inside his head was buzzing with excitement "Unknown beacon huh, wonder whom it belongs to." Clearing his throat Peterson turned to his radar officer and ordered "Get me a visual on the source of that beacon" Valdez instantly straitened himself and replied with "Sir, Yes sir" in a mellow yet slightly excited voice and proceeded to locate the beacon source.
Peterson turned back to Hawkens and ordered "Send a transmission package to Z.A.F.T. control, tell them we are going to investigate a unknown distress beacon" Hawkens almost shouted, "Yes Sir!" the excitement in his voice starting to become more and more contagious. "Lieutenant Badger ready all weapons, I want to be ready in case we get attacked" "On it captain" Badger curtly responded. "Lieutenant Narsh" Peterson said now focused on his navigation's officer "Bring us to an all stop and prep the launcher." "Yes sir" she responded "Transmission away sir" Hawkens added. "Good now alert all crew member to level three battle stations and order the pilots to get to there mobile suits in ten" Peterson said "Roger, all crew level three battle stations repeat level three battle stations all pilots are to be prepared for launch in ten minutes." Hawkens said in to the ships Com. Returning his attention to his radar operator Peterson said, "Do we have a visual on that beacon source? Valdez responded with "Yes captain, I'll put it up." Peterson turned his attention to the main view screen just as the image came on "Is that some kind of mobile armor?"
While all of this was happening, down in the mess hall Sasha was becoming more and more aggravated while the smile on her brother's face got bigger "For the last time!" Sasha said in a voice that terrified everyone but her brother in the mess hall "I don't have a boyfriend and if you say that I do I'll." "Attention all personal to level three battle stations repeat level three battle stations immediately, pilots are to be in there designated mobile suits in ten minutes"Sasha and Mark along with everyone else immediately rushed out of the mess hall. Sasha and her brother ran through the halls of the Freelance on their way to the pilot's locker room. When they reached them they each choose a door that was denoted by their gender.
When they stepped out Sasha was wearing a standard green pilot's suit with the helmet held in her right hand, her brother Mark had a suit of the same color but with a blue streak on his helmet. "So what do you think is going on?" Sasha asked her brother, with out stopping Mark said "Your guess is as good as mine". When they finally reached the hanger two other pilots in the same green armor greeted them "Well look who decided to finally show up" the pilot closets to the door said, his dark blue hair providing a sharp contrast to his gray eyes. "If I remember correctly" Mark said with a smile "The last time we deployed it took you almost half an hour to find your helmet Mike." The pilot named Mike smiled "Well still your suppose to be our leader, and doesn't that mean you should have been here before any of us?"
"Could both of you shut up and we can get moving! No disrespect meant sir" the second pilot spat out while turning around showing her comrades her bright blue eyes that went with her short blond hair. " None taken Sira" Sira simply nodded and turned to Sasha and said with a smile "I heard you spent over two hours in your mobile tinkering with your OS" "What else am I suppose to do here?" she answered. "Well" Mike said, "we better mount up" the rest nodded and drifted towards their mobile suits. Sasha and Mike drifted towards there two GuAIZ R units while Markwent to his ZGMF-515 CGUE and Sira entered there only Millennium class mobile suit theZGMF-1000/A1Gunner ZAKU Warrior.
When each cockpit was sealed and the suits were powered up the captain's image came on each of the main screens of the suits. "Sir with all do respect what is going on?" Mark asked with a somewhat concerned voice "Well lieutenant we pick up a distress beacon" this news immediately brought amazed reactions from each of the pilots and Peterson couldn't blame them. Mark was the first to recover and asked, "What is transmitting the beacon sir?" "Well lieutenant its this" Peterson replied and the captain pressed a button. Instantly the Sasha's screen changed to show the thing Peterson was talking about. The mobile armor if that's what it was had three separate sections to it and was a dark silver metal.
In the middle was what Sasha believed to be the cockpit. It instantly reminded her of a pod of sorts, the bottom was even in an oval shape and very smooth. The top had the same smooth and oval shape except that where the bottom was straight the top slowly went up and ended at the back of the machine where it evened out. The look was completed with three white stripes. The sides of the armor were longer than the cockpit but lined up with the cockpit's back. They were the same oval shape as the cockpit but were straight, the fronts were bumped and had two holes which Sasha could only assume that was where the weapons were. On the open sides of the pods three thin pieces of metal were protruding forward on both sides of the ship which made it look like it was equipped with claws. As the mobile armor rotated Sasha could see three thrusters at the back with one on each part of the machine.
After looking over the mobile armor the only words that came out of Sasha's mouth were "Who the hell built this?" "Earth forces maybe" Mike suggested "Unlikely" Sira corrected "They have pretty much stopped making mobile armors altogether, perhaps pirates" "Way out here yea right." Mike spat back "That's enough both of you!" Mark interjected "Yes sir" they said in unison. "No matter who it belongs to we need to bring it aboard and see if there is any one alive in it" Peterson said "Roger sir will get it done" Mark reassured before severing the line.
"Alright lets do this people!" Mark yelled over there squad frequency "Sira and Mike your out first then me and Sasha" as one the three of them replied with "Sir yes sir!" and preceded to be loaded into the launchers. "All right everyone ready?" Mark over the com, ounce again they responded in unison with "Sir yes sir!" Mark nodded his head and said "Bridge control were ready whenever you are" "Roger that prepare for launch" lieutenant Badger said over the radio.
Outside the Freelance four hatches opened up revealing four mobile suits, two GuAIZ Rs, one CGUE, and one Zaku Warrior equipped with the gunner wizard pack. One by one they sounded off. "Corporeal Mike Norwell, GuAIZ R launching" and Mike shot out of the ship. Next was Sira "Sargent Sira Kigra, Gunner Zaku launching" and she shot out the ship. Followed by her was Mark "First Lieutenant Mark Coulton, CGUE I'm out" and Mark shot out. Lastly came Sasha, Before she gave the all clear to launch she thought, "Please will nothing happen"and finally yelled "Staff Sargent Sasha Coulton, GuAIZ R lets go!" and she shot out into the black void of space.
"My lords" the radar operator said, "The human ship has just launched four machines of unknown design" "What?" one of the three figures in the center of the command station said in surprise. "Please put their image up on the main screen," a voice to the left of the first asked, this female voice was young and soothing but held the ring of an opera singer. Relaxing from the outburst of the first voice which immediately brought forth images of a bloody and violent end for him the radar operator said, " Yes my lords" he pressed several buttons and a still image of the suits appeared. "Interesting" the same voice that sounded like a growl that belonged to the figure in front of the other two, said.
"I was expecting to see them have fighter craft, not some sort of humanoid tank" the first figure said his voice still conjuring up images of blood and death in the minds of the crew. "What do you think brother?" the female being asked her older sibling in front of her. The lead figure thought about it for several seconds before making up his mind and said "We shall test these machines, if they pass the test then we will modify and improve upon them for use by our forces" the other two nodded in agreement. With that the lead figure simply gestured towards the communications operator and the op instantly began to send the orders out.
"So" Mike said over the COM as they slowly drifted towards the mobile armor in a staggered formation "Who do you think built that thing?" when Mike's comrades didn't respond he decided to propose his own idea "I'm thinking aliens" Sira immediately responded. "Are your serious?" "Well…Yes" he said back "Wow Mike, never thought you were one of those sci-fi nerds" Sasha joked. "Cut the chatter all of you and keep you eyes open, huh I don't like this one bit" as the distance between them and the mobile armor decreased everyone especially Sasha were becoming nervous. When she was about to voice her concern when the mobile armor they were approaching blew up.
"What the hell!" they all said together "Mark what happened, we just read a energy spike near your location" it was Captain Peterson's voice sounding over the radio as Sasha recovered from the momentary blindness. "The mobile armor…it just blew up!" Mark spat out now one hundred percent sure they were in the situation he thought they were in "Captain I think we just fell right into a" "Contacts! multiple contacts inbound to the right!" Mike screamed over the COM as he fired away with his beam rifle at the approaching enemy mobile armors did the same with a barrage of orange colored balls of energy. As one the rest of the mobile suits turned and opened fire on the mobile armors. Instantly destroying several of them, while the rest scattered "Captain we are under attack by a large number of mobile armors this whole thing was a set up!" Mark said over the COM "Copy that lieutenant we will provide support" and the transmission was cut
"Hawkens get a transmission out to command, tell them we need reinforcements " Peterson ordered in as calm a voice that he could muster. "No can do sir something's jamming our long range communications" Hawkens replied now slightly afraid of the situation they were in "Keep trying, lieutenant Badger proceed to provide support for our mobile suits see if you cant scare them off."
Outside additional mobile armors had appeared and were beginning to put the Freelance team on the defensive. "Where the hell are these guys coming from?" Sasha yelled as she brought her beam saber down on one of the mobile armors that got too close. "Let's worry about that later after these ones are dead!" Mark responded as he opened fire with his heavy assault machine gun on another armor only to see the bullets deflect off the hull. "Dam these things must have phase shift or something" Mark said in annoyance "Staff Sargent, your beam rifle please" He ordered Sasha "Roger" she responded while putting away her saber. Ounce her sword was in the slot in her shield she pulled out her rifle from the slot on the right backside of her suit and passed it to her brother's CGUE. He took it and instantly flipped towards approaching enemy fire took aim and nailed the cockpit of the mobile armor while Sasha deployed her rail guns and shot down two more.
Sira's Orthros beam cannon was helping to keep the mobile armors away from their position while Mike covered her. Sira lined up another armor and let a beam of energy fly, but just as the beam was about to impact it the mobile armor barrel rolled out of the way. "What the" was all she could say before several energy rounds peppered her shield and she was brought into the fight. "Uh guys?" Mike said rather hesitantly as another mobile armor dodged several shots from his beam rifle "Is it just me or are these guys getting better…and faster?" "Its not just you!" Sasha spat as of her rail gun rounds flew past the now extremely fast mobile armors with out even coming close to hitting them. "Captain now would be a very good time for that support!" Marks voice blared over the COM."Roger that lieutenant" Peterson said as he shut off the COM, "Lieutenant Badger target the largest groups of enemy mobile armors and fire away with the 937mms!" he barked. "Copy that sir" Chris Badger replied before opening a COM to the mobile suits "Freelance team get ready for the fire works."
"My lords the enemy ship is opening fire" the radar operator informed them as streaks of green energy emitted from the Freelance and ripped through dozens of fighters. The lead figure turned towards his two siblings and asked, "Shall we end this?" both of them nodded and with that the lead figure turned towards one of the weapons operators and commanded "Use the pin-point beams on that ships weapons, destroy all of them!" "Yes my lord it will be done" the weapons op said in a snarling voice.
The crew onboard the Freelance and the pilots outside cheered at the sight of countless mobile armors being incinerated or completely vaporized covered the surrounding area. "Good job men" Peterson said before raising the Freelances mobile suits. "All right Lieutenant fall back to the Freelance and" "Sir multiple energy spikes detected!" lieutenant Valdez screamed "What?" was all Peterson could say before several beams of orange energy impacted the Freelance and destroyed all of its weapons and knocked the crew from side to side. At first Peterson thought he was dead but when that was not the case he said in a some what pained tone "Statues report" Badger was the first to reply "All weapons have been destroyed sir" all the while shaking. "Minor damage to the hull" Lieutenant Narsh added "Sir I have a image of what shot us" Valdez said in a deeply frightened voice that disturbed the captain "Show me" he said with great reluctance.
What popped up on the main view screen shocked Peterson more than any other battle he was ever in. "My god how big is that…ship" In a quivering voice Valdez answered "Its…its over 100km long." The ship resembled a giant spear since its front was pointed and spiked but the bottom was flat, it was made out of the same dark silver metal its mobile armors were made from. It had a very smooth surface that was covered with thousands of light blue lights and several square protrusions along its sides. Almost every part of the ship had weapons on it ranging from point defense guns to what Peterson could only think of were anti-ship cannons.
Narrow metal plates all perfectly lined up and raised above the ship's hull while pointing towards the front completed the whole look. "Sir!" Valdez yelled breaking Peterson's observations of the ship "Ye…yes?" he responded "The ship is launching additional mobile armors" his voice now filled with complete and utter defeat. Peterson looked back at view screen and saw that the square protrusions now had dozens of holes that released a white light. From what Peterson could tell two mobile suits side by side could be released at the same time with out any problem from them. But instead of mobile suits more of the unknown mobile armors flew out in-groups of eight and began to swarm towards their four mobile suits in mass. "How many mobile armors are out there" Peterson demanded "Well over eight hundred sir" Valdez answered.
The mobile suit team outside the Freelance looked in horror as they were slowly surrounded by mobile armors. Each machine appeared to move into a pre-assigned position until they formed a sphere around them. "So any one got a plan?" Mike asked but no one answered.
"My lords" the communication operator addressed his superiors again "The ships are in position and are on stand by until your word" "Good now open up a COM link with there ship" The lead figure ordered. Several seconds later the COM-op said, "Link established" he confirmed. Immediately the lead figure moved his hands from under his black robes and into the air, they vaguely resembled human hand except that the back of the hands were a black color and had the look of scales while the palms were pale white. He moved his hands across the yellow keys of the console in front of him and the symbols spelt out a three-worded message. With the message complete the figure had it translated by the computer and sent it to the Freelance.
Peterson looked at the large number of mobile armors that surrounded his men all the while thinking, "What can I do!""Captain!" Hawkens called, interrupting the captain's thoughts "Yes?" he responded "We have just received a message from the enemy ship sir." Peterson took a deep breath and said "Put it up on the main screen" "yes sir" Hawkens complied and bushed a button that brought the massage up for everyone to see. The message was only three words and it said Surrender or Die.
Authors notes: Next chapter, Fates worse than death.