The Lucky Conference Room.
After the incident with Mariemaia, the Preventers had deliberately stopped using it. It was just like any of the others in the headquarters. It was the same size as all of the other regulation rooms. It had the same chairs, the same tables, the same technology, the same everything. What made it the Lucky one was, well, luck. It was the room they had been standing in when Mariemaia had made her declaration of war. It was the room they were standing in when it seemed like everything they had fought and suffered for was about to fall apart. It was the room they were standing in when, for the first time in a year, they had felt that smallest twinge of fear for the future.
It was only one incident, one thing that happened one time, but it had been enough to make the Preventers never want to set foot in it again. Most of them hadn't even been present when it had happened, but the room was so closely associated with an abrupt war and near catastrophe that it had been put off limits. Unless, of course, history was repeating itself.
Noin let out a sigh as she pushed open the conference room doors. She didn't want to come off as afraid. She wasn't. But given the circumstances, she couldn't help but feel a tad nervous. After all, Une was the one that had deemed the room off limits. Either it had finally been long enough for the elder woman to stop caring…or something was very, very wrong.
As she walked in, she relaxed slightly at the sight of her fellow Preventers. Heero, Wufei, Trowa, and Une were already in there, sitting at the central table. None of them were smiling, but Noin wasn't sure she had ever seen any of those people smile, so she paid it no mind.
"Miss Noin!" called Quatre, coming in behind her. "It's so good to see you again!"
Noin felt a wave of relief wash over her as Quatre hugged her. If something had been seriously wrong, that young man would have come in with a look of worry in his eye, not smiling and hugging. She hugged him back, grateful for his presence. He had always had this odd, calming sense about him, and it always soothed her. Well, maybe not when she was being shot at, but it seemed to work at virtually all other times.
He had grown a fair amount over the course of the last few years, now the same size she was. His voice had also lowered, by almost an octave. Noin couldn't help but smile as she remembered how high his voice was when they had first met. In all honesty, she hadn't been a hundred percent sure that he was, in fact, a he.
"It's good to see you too, Quatre," she smiled at him. She turned and gestured to the table. "Shall we take our places?"
"Of course," the Arabian heir responded, still smiling gently. He approached the table and sat in his chair as Noin took her place across from her as Une rose from hers.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the hour is 2100," Une opened in a very no-nonsense tone. "I hereby call this meeting of the Preventers…"
The door burst open as Duo plowed his way inside, a sandwich sticking out of his mouth. "I'm here," he muttered, his words muffled by the food in his mouth. He slid into his chair, his cheeks stained bright red.
Une glared at him over her glasses. She didn't wear them often, but she was intimidating as hell when she did. "Maxwell, it is bad enough that you dare come to a military meeting late…"
"By thirty seconds," he mumbled. His eyes bugged out as he realized that he had said those words out loud and slunk down in his seat.
"…but you dare come in late, and then you have the audacity to make smart ass comments to a superior officer?" she finished.
Duo opened his mouth on automatic reflex, but upon feeling Heero stamping down on his foot, he decided to snap it shut again. At that exact moment, he felt more like a child with his hand caught in the snack jar than a war veteran. After a moment, he quietly responded with, "Sorry, ma'am."
While Une felt an almost overwhelming urge to reprimand him, there were significantly more pressing matters at hand. "This meeting has been called due to an urgent matter," she began again. "At 1900 hours today, a message was received from one Martin Malthis. As some of you may know, former General Malthis was once one of the heads of the United Earth Sphere Alliance, and deemed a major player in the political world." Une pressed a button on the table to bring down the projector screen, and another to bring up the first slide.
The six gathered pilots all leaned forward to get a good look at the man on the screen. He was a seemingly large man, dressed in an old UESA uniform. His hair was pure white, and his face was well covered with a beard and a mustache. His eyes were dark green, and seemed to be full of anger.
"He is apparently displeased with the Preventers, and has issued a demand that we disassemble immediately," Une continued. "In his message, he stated that we hold too much power for a new organization, that we are too young to know what to do for this planet, and that if we care about the wellbeing of future generations, we will disband and turn our jurisdiction over immediately."
Duo snorted, glaring at the screen. "So, some crazy, washed up general from a now defunct military group thinks we're just going to hand over everything we've been maintaining for the last few years because he says so? That's what this meeting is about?"
"Duo!" Quatre mildly scolded.
"What?" Duo responded. "He's a loon! Tell him no, arrest him, and call me in the morning!"
"Maxwell!" snapped Une and Wufei simultaneously. Une went on with, "Are you really so idiotic as to think that I would bother involving any of you if this were not a pressing matter? Do you honestly believe that I would have summoned six of the seven best pilots in the world if this were a simple case of a single raving madman?"
Again, Duo slunk down in his chair. "Well, then can we at least know why this loon is a scary loon? And where, by the way, is the seventh one of us?"
Heero wordlessly smacked Duo in the back of the head, glaring at his copilot. The other Gundam pilots seemed slightly confused by this action, but figured that there was an explanation for it. Noin simply looked down at her hands, and Une looked like she was just about ready to pull her gun on pilot 02 yet again.
"Preventer Wind has been working under cover for us for the last six weeks," Une answered through clenched teeth.
Forty four days and counting, Noin thought.
As Une tried to go on, Duo raised his hand.
"What is it, Maxwell?" she shouted, a vein ready to pop out of her head.
Duo just smiled at his commander. "Since we're not the enemy, and we all know each other's code names and everything, can't we just say Zechs? I mean, that's what we all know him as. Isn't it just easier that way?"
Une didn't bother giving him a direct response. "We have suspected Malthis for several weeks now, believing that he was forming some form of militia with the tattered remains of the UESA. He has made comments to the media before about his feelings about the Preventers, claiming that we are nothing more than OZ reincarnated. His accusations at us and slanderous statements have increased steadily over the years, and we have recently had reason to believe that he is, in fact, a major threat to the planet and the colonies alike."
With the press of a button, a new slide popped up. "As you can see here," the commander continued, "we were, unfortunately, correct in our beliefs. The image you are seeing before you was taken by our undercover agent. The weapons in this hangar have the capability to take out an entire colony, each. What we are seeing before us is, we believe, only the beginning. They hold eight completed ones in their possession, and are reportedly working on at least two dozen more."
No one was making comments any more.
"In his message," Une said, a grim look on her face, "General Malthis also said that, should we attack or simply refuse to surrender within the next seventy two hours, he will fire one of them at a random colony. If we hold out for ninety six hours, a second colony goes." Drawing a tense breath, she continued. "Should it take us five days, he claims to be prepared to release a form of biological warfare upon the Earth."
"Biological warfare…" Quatre whispered, his eyes wide with fear. "If they're threatening to release biological warfare in five days, that means…"
"That it's prepared partially, if not fully, now," Une concluded.
Trowa slightly raised his hand, signaling an intent to speak. "If they are, as they claim to be, doing this for the good of the future, them why would they blow up a colony or release a biohazard on the Earth?"
Une grimaced. "We don't know," she answered honestly. "Our undercover agent…"
"Also known as Zechs," interrupted the braided pilot.
"…has not yet been able to find any real rational explanation behind that threat. However, we all know that logic and reason are not always the basis of this sort of decision."
The room grew silent, all of them taking a moment to remember instances where reason had been overrun by passion and/or insanity. Three of their own had been at the helm of some of the most infamous of all time: Une targeting the colonies to get the Gundams, Quatre behind the controls of Wing Zero, and Zechs' legendary stint as the leader of the White Fang.
The pilots knew that, if this Malthis character did have a screw or two loose, and had that much power, they were in for a hell of a battle.
Trowa spoke again, asking, "So what, specifically, is the mission? I assume that, since a head on attack could provoke him to fire upon the colonies, we will be doing something more subversive?"
Une nodded. "We need to get at least three of you in there for the full plan to work. I will brief you all in the morning, after all of you have had your exams done."
"Exams?" Quatre asked. "What exams?"
"Medical exams," Une responded. "Any of you who manage to get in to their stronghold run the risk of being exposed to what they plan to release on the Earth if they get desperate. We have an experimental inoculation that should, in theory, protect against ninety percent of all known toxins and diseases known in biological warfare. The other ten percent have been deemed, unfortunately, completely impossible to withstand. With a single exception, the inoculation hasn't been used on humans yet, but if it's going to be handled by anyone, it will be you seven."
Yet again, Duo felt compelled to speak. "I take it that the only one who's tried it so far has been..."
"Yes, Maxwell, now shut up!" she snapped. Une glared at the young men in the room, knowing they were likely to argue with her next statement. "Every single one of you, between now and 1100 hours, is to get a full physical examination done before we even consider risking giving you such a concoction."
Just as anticipated, both Wufei and Heero put up resistance. "I am fine, woman," Wufei insisted. "I am more than healthy enough to handle whatever it is that you plan to give me, so you may disregard your doctors and their exams."
"No exceptions," Une said.
When Heero glared hard at her, Une glared just as hard back. "I will say this once. You get the exam, or you don't go on this mission. It is non negotiable, and that is the end of discussion." She closed the file in front of her and got to her feet. "I will send each of you a page when it is your turn in Exam Room C. You are to report there within five minutes of my sending for you. Noin, you are going first, so don't bother going to your room. You are to let me know as soon as you are done. Understood?"
Noin simply nodded, pretending that she didn't have an exploding headache at the moment. Of all the times for me to catch a stupid cold, she thought. I'm going to end up kicked off of active duty and stuck on desk duty for this mission because I have the freaking sniffles!
Near wordlessly, the seven Preventers filed out of the room. The only sound that could be heard was Duo, quietly asking Heero, "Why did we send a six foot one, platinum blonde haired, crystal blue eyed schizoid who's had his face all over the media as our under cover agent?"
Noin closed her eyes for a moment, suddenly remembering the day he was sent on his mission. It was a day she would never forget…