After Colony: Revelation
Verse II
"Everything ready?" Heero asked as he started up the transport shuttle holding his temporary mobile suit.
"We're ready for launch," Trowa responded from a separate shuttle.
The three gundam pilots were all preparing to launch from a CSO military base in the LX-1066 district. They were disguised as CSO cargo shuttles transporting suits to the main base. It had taken a while to procure all of the necessary utilities—the actual shuttles being the hardest ones, and even harder to reprogram so that they wouldn't be noticed as stolen. Whenever the order came in to their district, they blended right in with the other soldiers flying off to deliver their loads.
Their suits, bearing the new system to block the viruses from their enemy, were safely resting within their carriers. The pilots shot off, soon filing in with the other shuttles.
"Carriers 1492, 1493, and 1494 checking in," Heero stated as they neared the mass of other transporters. A screen popped up, requesting visual transmission. He had no choice but to accept. A female soldier's image appeared and eyed him suspiciously. Yuy's gaze never wavered. He even saluted to her, deciding that her uniform indicated that she was a ranking official.
"I was not aware that the 1066 base as also sending in suits to the main district," she replied cautiously, waiting for his response.
"Ma'am, our suits were under repair here and currently require system procedures that are not available from our base. Our approval for main base maintenance just went through a few hours ago," Heero replied, relaying their story. Trowa had hacked into the system and did some snooping to find a believable reason for them to get into the main base.
"What, exactly, is wrong with this set of mobile suits?"
"Virus, or so we think. We need to have it corrected and an antivirus created in case the rebels try to use it on more troops," said Wing Zero's pilot. His response warranted him a shocked expression.
"Your suits have also been infected?" The female soldier asked and then continued, "we thought we were an isolated case… Permission to join the fleet is granted. Fall into place."
The transmission ended. The conversation had taken an unexpected turn—Heero was not aware that there actually were viruses plaguing some of CSO's troop. They had counterfeited their story. He did not dwell on this new fact and instead he rejoined the, with Barton and Winner behind him. Once they were in the transport carrier fleet, they were surrounded by escort mobile dolls.
It took about forty-eight hours to travel to the main base. They stopped for an hour to refuel in a military owned resource satellite, but the gundam pilots avoided all contact with any other soldiers. While that was hard enough, Quatre also had to keep his head down, since many of the workers had worked for the Winner family at one point or another.
They continued on and eventually docked. When they did, the three met up and agreed that it was best to return with their friends within an hour. They had five suits stored for their getaway and they didn't want to risk the maintenance workers discovering their antivirus firewalls. If anyone were to look too closely, they would surely be discovered as rebels.
Heero set off to search out Duo while the other two went to find Wufei. They went right, to the facility where the prisoners were held. Their Chinese friend, for the majority of the time, was retained in his cell. They hoped it wasn't going to be too difficult to convince his guards to at least move him from his high security room. Maxwell, on the other hand, was in the medical wing, being prepped for something that surely wouldn't be good.
Yuy navigated his way to the opposite end of the base's facilities to where pilot 02 was supposed to be. He passed a few soldiers and doctors on his way, but no one questioned him. Down one hallway, left through another, right down another. He stopped eventually, and looked between two rooms, G-34 and G-35. He had watched someone walk into 34, and Duo was scheduled for 34. Carefully, he approached the door while he reached beneath his uniform jacket and pulled the gun he had hidden.
Not all soldiers were given permission to carry a gun, and the poor fool who had been knocked out so that Heero could have his uniform was not supposed to have one.
As he reached the door, he momentarily contemplated trying one of the many key codes he had memorized, but that idea passed. The security pad was blinking green, and all he had to do was press enter. Whoever had just walked in had used a temporary bypass code that gave access for a short period of time. The door slide open and he pointed the gun at the only person in the room as he walked in.
"If you move, I will shoot," he stated quite seriously. Sitting at a computer about four yards in front of him was a young blonde woman, reading the information scrolling down the screen. "Duo Maxwell. Where is he?" He had been expecting to find a handful of doctors and a few soldiers, as well as the other pilot. But she was alone.
"G-35," the blonde replied, quite casually. "He's usually scheduled for this room, but they moved him because intruders were detected. I'm assuming that means you."
"Hn."
"You won't be able to get into the other room," she continued, "they've changed all of the codes since you were detected. I'm sure they're waiting for you to go in. They have a camera outside of the door. Walk me out with the gun to my head, and I'll enter the code to open the door for you. They won't shoot when the door opens if they see me. "
"And why would you agree to do that?"
"Because," she carefully swirled around in her chair to look at him, "I'm not heartless. I don't approve of what they're doing to him. He should get out of here as soon as he can."
While Heero would have liked to ask the young woman more questions, he knew that he didn't have time. He waved the gun, indicating that she should stand and come to him.
She nodded, quickly typed something that looked like a sort of command, and then closed out of whatever she was looking at on the computer screen. Once she stood, she walked with her hands behind her head and her fingers laced together. The pilot of Wing Zero watched her intently before allowing her to exit, staying only a step or two behind her. They crossed the hallway together and she reached to the key pad to enter a long sequence of numbers. He suspected that it was the same sort of bypass code that she had used to get into the other room.
When the door opened, the first thing he saw a small line of soldiers aiming to shoot him. However, just as the girl had predicted, not a single one budged while she was standing in front of him.
The second thing he saw was Duo, strapped down to a medical chair. His eyes peered at the two of them and he smiled weakly. "Isabella, hey." It was clear by the way he spoke that he was under the influence of drugs, probably to weaken him. At that moment, Heero pushed the blonde forward, into a soldier, who was pushed back and into a metal table, causing him to pull the trigger on his weapon. The bullet hit the wall, and the fighting started.
The pilot shot one soldier immediately, who fell backwards, sprawled out on the floor. The blonde, that Heero now discovered was called Isabella, was ducked down to avoid the flying bullets. Out of the corner of his eye, Yuy could see that she accidentally slid her leg out from under herself, causing another soldier to trip over her when he backed up. Heero used that moment to his advantage and shot that soldier as well. It didn't take long for him to finish with the other three, one of whom was the male who he had shoved Isabella into.
When they all lay on the floor motionless, Heero made his way to the braided young man, unstrapping him. The girl stayed on the floor so that if she was seen, it did not look like she was aiding in their escape.
000
While pilot 01 was busy rescuing pilot 02, pilots 03 and 04 were busy trying to spring pilot 05.
"Trowa."
"Yes, Quatre?"
"Do you find it a little odd that we haven't encountered any other soldiers? We are in the prison wing after all," Quatre asked his partner. Trowa sighed and nodded.
"In fact, I was just thinking the same thing. Something isn't right. I'm starting to suspect that they know we're here," Trowa replied as they turned a corner.
They faced the hallway where apparently Wufei was housed. To their surprise, they were met not with guards, but with a single person—a young woman who was crouched down and leaning against the cell door that surely had Chang behind it. Her eyes were closed, and it looked almost like she was sleeping. She wasn't dressed as a soldier, but rather as a civilian. She had a tank top on and she was wearing jeans, but she wasn't wearing any shoes.
The two pilots looked at one another oddly and slowly stepped forward. Once they were within about two yards of her and the steel door, she flared to life and she leapt at the two pilots, tackling Quatre. Trowa tried to grab her bare arms, but she easily slid through them.
She was on one knee, her slender fingers wrapped around the blonde's neck as she stared at him with little expression. He started to choke from her tight grasp, but was released when Trowa grabbed her by her hair and dragged her away. Quatre sat up, holding his own hands to his neck as he tried to breathe.
"The door!" Barton insisted as he struggled with the girl. She elbowed him in his stomach, and while he barely flinched, the little bit of wind knocked out of him was enough of a distraction to allow her to twist in his grasp.
She snatched his left wrist, twisting it in such a way that it was immediately dislocated. The brunette male sucked in sharply, but showed no other signs of registering the pain. He decided that the best thing to do was distract her long enough for Quatre to open Wufei's cell.
With his free, uninjured hand, Trowa used the pad of his palm to hit the girl square in the jaw. She stepped back because of the force but recovered immediately. She should not have been able to—it should have caused enough pain that a normal person would at least stop to hold the side of their face. It looked though she had barely registered it. She started to swing with her right hand, and, while he was focusing on that hand because he was expecting her to hit him with it, she brought her left hand up, ready to break his nose.
However, neither blow came. She froze in place, her hand inches away from causing severe damage. Trowa, at that point, could see that the right hand had only been a distraction. Still, she didn't fall through with her hit. He looked at her hard, questioning what was going to come next. It looked for a mere second that she was thinking about something. Without another moment's notice, she pulled her hands back to her, dropping one at her side and the other behind her back, and watched the two men before her.
"What's going on Trowa?" Quatre asked as the cell door popped open, and Wufei hurried out to see what was going on.
"They know you're here—they had her wait for you to come," the Chinese male stated, holding out his shackled arm for Quatre to pick the lock on, "She was supposed to kill one of you and keep the other one as a captive."
"Which one was supposed to stay alive?" Trowa asked, more out of curiosity than anything. Wufei shrugged.
"They didn't specify, or, if they did, I didn't hear them. How did you get her to stop?" The shackles fell to the ground and Wufei rubbed his wrists. He walked up to the young woman he knew to be called Edan and leaned forward so that he was at her eye level.
"We didn't," Barton replied, "she stopped on her own. Just. Stopped."
"We really need to get out of here and try to get back to our suits—if we're lucky, they haven't figured out our entire plan," the blonde said, his voice showing that he was a bit nervous. "Hopefully Heero and Duo are still okay."
"I'm sure they're fine," Chang replied casually and frowned. "I owe you for the embarrassment that you caused me in our last battle. I would have won if you had not been so deceiving." He directed his last comments to the woman, who barely blinked in response. He raised his arm and backhanded her across the same cheek that Trowa had hit her on. Her head turned to the side from the force and then continued to look straight ahead. No movement. No attempt to defend herself. "We're even."
"Come on," Quatre insisted again, shifting his weight to show that he was uncomfortable with what Wufei had done, "we really need to get out of here."
The Chinese pilot turned as he started to walk away, down the hallways he had come to know so well. Trowa and Quatre shared questioning glances before following after the other young man. They took a moment to look over their shoulders to see that the woman who attacked them did not budge and inch—she stood quietly at attention.
As they retraced their steps, the gundam pilots made their way back to the hanger where their mobile suits were stored. It seemed that everyone was in an uproar, probably over their intrusion. However, that no one was able to particularly identify them as the intruders, being in their stolen CSO uniforms and all.
"We have mobile suits with modified systems to hold up against CSO's disabling. We have to get out of here fast though because we aren't sure how long it will be before they manage to break through our system," Quatre explained as they ran towards their transport carrier. The one that he and Trowa had entered in was right where they had left it, and their weapons were thus safely secured inside of them.
"I hope it will be enough," Wufei replied seriously, "I definitely don't want to come back here again as a prisoner."
"I wonder if Heero and Duo have made it to their carrier yet," commented Trowa as they closed in on their ship. They did not reach it easily; there was someone standing in their way.
"You there!" A soldier called out, his gun aimed at the pilots. "You three, stop! The intruders, they're here! They've got a prisoner with them!" Finally, someone had noticed that Wufei had escaped with the two intruders dressed in CSO uniforms. Wufei and Trowa both went after the soldier, avoiding the gun shots. They knocked him out and continued on to retrieve their suits. They couldn't wait around for the other two now.
They climbed up, avoiding more gunfire, and dove into the back section of the shuttle. The mobile suits were covered with large tarps, and they had to take a few moments to uncover each of the mobile suits that were suspended above one another for transport. Trowa hopped into the lowest suit as Quatre opened the bottom hatch to drop him out. His suit slid through the opening with ease and he landed onto the ground of the base. Immediately, the CSO soldiers panicked.
Wufei followed after Trowa, and Quatre dropped down last. Their timing was pretty good, considering they could just see Heero pulling a limp Duo into the base's hanger with a great deal of force. While most of the soldiers would have paid attention to the two men, they were preoccupied with the rampage the other gundam pilots were on.
"Duo," Heero said to the other pilot he was practically dragging towards the shuttle he had brought in, "assess yourself. Will you be able to pilot a mobile suit? If so, how long until the drugs wear off?" They had not planned for Duo to be drugged when they found him. They would have to change their plans if he wasn't in any condition to pilot.
"I think I should be okay," replied the braided male, his voice still weak. "Walking is just hard right now, that's all." It was a lie—everything was hard. He was barely able to keep his eyes open and wanted nothing more than to just lie down and sleep.
"I'm trusting you on that. We're all going to be in danger if you can't pilot your suit." Heero continued to lead the other to the transport carrier. He was going to have to try to get Duo up to the level of their shuttle, and he wasn't entirely sure how he would do that since Duo was feeling like nothing more than dead weight at the moment.
As Heero and Duo neared the metal staircase however, Trowa blocked them with his suit and leaned forward, his hand outstretched for the two to climb onto. Yuy complied and pulled Duo onto the large hand. Slowly, the former Heavyarms pilot lifted the two and set them on the appropriate level for their shuttle. Duo managed to slide off by himself to show that he was well enough to pilot, though Heero was still skeptical. Either way, they went in and to the back of the carrier. A few minutes later, they were joining the battle to escape the Caligo Sese Joint World-Colony Organization's main space base.
They had to force their way out of the hanger. The main base was set up like a small colony. It had many different facilities and even a little bit of green space, but basically everything was connected. The hanger was the one way to get out of the colony since it had the only entrance and exit doors. The pilots forced their way out, bursting open the thick metal.
Of course, the pilots knew that there were back up doors in case of an accident that would seal to protect the rest of the base. When they exited, more mobile suits and dolls were waiting for them.
000
Their rendezvous point with Rashid was at a disposal satellite. One by one, each pilot docked to prepare to meet up with the transport ship. When Duo followed in last and had a rather rough time landing, the pilots rushed over to help get him out. They were shocked by what they found.
It seemed that the self(-)proclaimed God of Death had passed out at some point during their trip, and his head was hanging limply to the side. He was lucky that he was strapped in, or else he could have been seriously injured. "Get him out," Heero demanded of Trowa and Quatre, and together pulled the young man out. "If he's been passed out, how was he flying the suit?"
"Heero, you should look at the screen," Quatre replied, nodding towards the screens in Duo's cockpit. The Japanese male moved over so that he could see.
There was an image of a white horse's head revolving on the screens. As soon as the suit was shut down, however, it disappeared.
When Rashid picked them up, they watched as the trash satellite went hurtling towards the sun. They wouldn't risk CSO finding the only traces of their software, since it had the starts of a permanent antivirus on it. Along those same lines, their temporary base back in the LX-1066 region had to be moved so when soldiers started searching for them after tracing their movements, none of their work would be found. It was back to Earth—back to the desert, actually, where the four other pilots would crash with Quatre until their new suits were completed.
They had been able to survive so long without their gundams since they destroyed them about four years earlier. Now, it seemed that it was necessary for the return of the weapons.
The gundams had been under construction for the past year and a half, but there was no hurry on their completion. After all, it didn't matter how powerful or how indestructible they were: CSO's supercomputer would still be able to shut down their systems until they had ample technology to counter the viruses. At least now, though not perfected, they were on the right track.
000
'Project Black Horse:
Experiment three out of four. Neuro-computer chips are inserted into subject's brain to maintain control over the subject. Computer chips in this case are not as advanced as in Project White Horse, nor as numerous as in Project Red Horse. If subject proves to be as resilient as Red Horse subject, however, more will be implanted.
Subject has thus far completed up to stage three of the experiment. Actual testing in Black Horse has yet to commence. Basic control has been set up and can be used if necessary, though it is discouraged until stage four has been completed. Connection to Project Green Horse not yet established; this can be done through Project White Horse subject.'
There was much more contained within the file, but Isabella wasn't interested in all of the technical medical procedures. What she was concerned about was the fact that her father was continuing the experiments that he assured her he had completed with Edan, the Red Horse subject. She had seen what had come from this experimentation and she didn't think anyone deserved to go through that again. So, Isabella decided to help in the escape of Duo while he still had some hope of being saved.
She watched from her workstation's monitors as the chaos unfolded in the hanger. As soon as the other gundam pilot had taken the braided fool away, she took off to go back to her apartment. From there, Isabella observed the screen and saw as the two prisoners left with the intruder.
She just let them go.
In fact, she continued her aiding. The young blonde tapped into the system of the mobile dolls, as she often did as her father's private supercomputer. She managed to set up a form of autopilot so that Maxwell's suit would stay constantly within the range of Heero Yuy's suit, since she knew that the pilot was in no condition to try to maneuver on his own.
Considering that she actually had to break through a firewall, Isabella knew that they would escape on their own from there on out. She had built a virus that would shut down mobile suit systems a few years back, and her father had been using it to disarm his enemies. It seemed that the gundam pilots had pulled together their resources to make a temporary antivirus to counter her program's effects. However, that didn't mean they stood a chance against her—she could still worm her way into their systems on her own. But, as long as she wasn't told to do it, she had no intention of doing so.
As for helping with Chang's escape, well, perhaps Isabella also had a bit of a hand in that as well. Right before she closed out of her work in the medical wing, when Heero caught her, she had sent out a stand down command for Edan. Isabella accessed Edan's connection and saw that she was supposed to kill one of the intruders and capture the other. Sadly, it sometimes took a while for the commands to be registered by the semi-robotic girl, who held the code name War. The blonde simply hoped that it wouldn't be too late to save some lives.
"I hope I don't end up regretting this…"
000
Their plans did not proceed as fast as they would have liked, but they did proceed.
With their advanced Gundam systems, the program that the pilots used was strengthened. It had taken a few tries to succeed using a test system, since they were a bit weary in loading it right into their Gundams. Wing Zero was the first to take to the firewall, though it came as no surprise. Its already advanced system automatically altered the program to work at maximum efficiency.
When it was decided that the five pilots were prepared for their battle, or as prepared as they could be, at least, plans were formed to start and assault against CSO.
They would wait for Dorian Adelphie to leave his safe haven in the civilian colonies. Their aim was to ultimately destroy the dictator, but they had no desire to involve any non-military personnel. After all, the gundams needed the support of citizens to be able to effectively counteract CSO, and they could not risk being seen in a negative light by anyone other than Adelphie's organization.
So, they were forced to wait for the Prime Minister to make his way back to a military colony—there were a few different colonies, but one was most ideal. It was the smallest of the four with the least amount of weaponry at its disposal. Theoretically, it was the easiest way for the pilots to access their target.
000
"I thought you said this would be easy," Duo said through gritted teeth over the communication link between the other gundams. He was busy trying to grapple with one of the steel grey, CSO mobile suits called a Seal (which seemed like a ridiculous name to the pilots. Why would someone name a powerful mobile suit 'Seal?') He managed to get Deathscythe Hell's hand to the head of the suit, and crushed it.
"I said it would be the easiest," Heero corrected and raised his buster rifle to shoot down a group of six Seals coming his way.
Though he stood by the fact that the military colony, which was more or less just a larger version of the military bases within certain colonies, on the Moon, or on different resource satellites, it still had at least a hundred suits for its use.
"As long as we are persistent, we can destroy all of the suits and get inside to Adelphie," Chang stated and went on the full offense as he tried to near the colony. "We are already making progress."
What they did not know, however, was that Prime Minster Dorian Adelphie was watching from a control room with an icy smile. He had been under the suspicion that the gundams were being rebuilt for a period of time, and in fact allowed himself to be placed into the position that they wanted. "Plague," he announced over his headset, "board White Horse and prepare to activate Black Horse subject, Famine."
The 'soldier' who received the command went to her mobile suit without a second's hesitation and sat back in the cockpit. With a crack of her knuckles, she let everyone else around her make the necessary preparations for her launch while she went ahead and started to carry out her first orders.
[-…]
[-Black Horse: Activated, test run in process]
[-Destroy targeted enemies]
The braided pilot was overwhelmed suddenly by a headache. He actually had to grasp his head and squeeze his eyes shut. He cried out in pain, but only for a moment. His shoulders then relaxed and he sat straight up, hands on his controls. His eyes were heavy lidded, and it seemed that Duo wouldn't concentrate on anything else other than attacking absolutely everything around him. Sadly, it was not any of the CSO dolls or suits around him; Wing Zero was the closest object to Duo. Without any warning, the braided young man turned on his comrade, rocking forward, weapon drawn. He took a swing hoping to land a blow.
After a few moments, the other pilots stopped what they were doing and turned their attention onto 01 and 02. "Duo!" Quatre shouted at the pilot of the new Deathscythe Hell, "Duo, stop! Please! You don't want to be attacking us! We're your friends!"
"He can't hear you," Yuy replied as he used his wings as a shield against the thermal weapon. He used the jets on the back to shoot up and away from the other gundam. "Something's wrong. I don't think he's in control." Trowa and Quatre tried to help and interfere, however Duo continued to fight all of them.
As they did, all of the attacking mobile dolls started retreating. Apparently, they didn't want to be near the rogue Deathscythe, who was attacking anything in his path. Something caught Heero's eye as the mass of retreating dolls disappeared back into the purely military colony. He wasn't the only one to notice it.
"That can't be," Wufei muttered over their com link, "that looks like another Gundam." He was right. There was a white mobile suit, looking sleek, shiny, and brand new, hovering idly by in the distance. "It's got to be CSO. I'm going after it." The pilot of Altron didn't wait for any response. He took off, leaving the other three pilots to deal with Duo. Heero wanted to tell him not to go, but he had learned that it wouldn't have mattered very much. He didn't waste his breath.
000
"White Horse, are you connected?" Dorian Adelphie asked into his headset. It was the first time his projects had been in combat with the Gundam pilots, and he was eager to watch the display.
"I am, Lamb. I'm attempting to regain control of Famine as we speak. It won't be easy since project Black Horse wasn't completed," the blonde female pilot (Isabella, so readers know exactly who it is) responded to her father as she typed away at her laptop. "Also, the Gundam pilots have apparently developed software that I'm going to need time to get through."
"Don't give me that, Isabella," Adelphie growled, "you're supposed to be able to break through any software, firewall, anything."
"Well, of course I can," Isabella replied, over the intercom, "it's just going to require a bit of time to decode this algorithm—time that I don't have while I'm trying to establish a solid connection with the neuro chip of project Black Horse." Her cockpit wasn't the same as the other Gundams in existence. She did not have any manual fighting controls. Everything, all of her attacks and defenses, were computerized and at her fingertips. She was truly the only one capable of piloting her Gundam, the White Horse.
"Fine then, I will send out Red Horse to keep the others off of you while you work on getting the connection."
"Father, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, it could interfere with the connection and—"
"Don't question me," Adelphie's voice warned, "just obey. Edan will be along shortly. She was already standing by to ship out." From the control room, Adelphie raised his hand, signaling to one of the soldiers working the controls to radio the hanger holding Red Horse and Black Horse, even though Black Horse was currently pilotless. The solider did as he was told, and soon a second CSO Gundam was on its way.
000
Wufei raised his right arm, letting one of his Dragon Claws release, his attack aimed for the white gundam. It moved away to miss the vital hit to the head of the suit, but its arm was caught and he started to pull. He was ready to try and rip the gundamium appendage clean off when his sensors on his right side started going off, signaling the arrival of a new combatant. He let his dragon loose and drew back, just in time to miss the swing of a long blade. The white suit backed away, putting distance between itself and Wufei. Even if he wanted to continue to try and attack, he couldn't—a red gundam now faced him, and it was clear that it intended to attack.
Activating his thermal double trident, Chang swung at his new opponent. With one blade, because it had a set of dual blades, the metallic red Gundam met his weapon. They were locked, both trying to push the other one off. Finally, they both pushed back for just a moment before clashing once again. "Since when did CSO have Gundams?! This is just unbelievable!"
They had destroyed their own gundams in hope that it would help stop violence, but it did nothing to help, clearly. As the two battled on, none on one, it seemed as if they were equally matched. In truth, however, both were holding back considerably. The red gundam with two blades was only using one, and Wufei was still more or less testing out his opponent. Mentally, it was difficult for him. The gundam he was facing showed so much resemblance to Epyon, the Gundam built by his biggest rival—Treize.
The three remaining pilots, obviously not including Duo who was still rampaging, swinging his scythe at anything that got too close to him, were still fending him off. Finally, Heavy Arms (Heavyarms) got behind the dark Gundam and locked his arms under Deathscythe's and over his shoulders. No matter how hard he struggled, Duo was unable to get out of such a grip. Suddenly though, the braided pilot stopped moving around and Deathscythe shut down.
000
"White Horse! What happened?!"
"I—I don't know!" Bella shouted at her father over their communication line. "I had managed to established a connection with Famine, but the signal suddenly disappeared. For all I know, the subject could have just had a brain aneurism and died! The surgeries weren't completed and it seems that any long distance communication could be impossible!" She could hear her father shouting and swearing, obviously aggravated by the situation.
"Fine then. We'll have to bring him in by force and complete the procedures—if he's still alive, of course. Red Horse, retrieve subject Famine from the Gundam Deathscythe Hell," Adelphie ordered the pilot of CSO's second Gundam, and one of his best soldiers.
"Sir," one of the men dressed in CSO uniform called from his spot at one of the communication terminals, "we've lost communication with Red Horse. It's been shut down."
"Isabella Vespasian Valentinian, you better explain yourself right now." Dorian Adelphie, Prime Minister of CSO, remained very calm. His daughter, however, could tell by his tone of voice that he was likely suppressing his fury. While she couldn't see his face, she was also very sure that he had a very dark look in his green eyes. It was a trait both her father and half sister shared. He had terrified many a people with that look, as had Moira. Bella was sure that it was part of the reason he had chosen her older half sister to take over for him when he retired.
"I didn't do anything wrong!" The Isabella shouted at her father. "Maybe the sudden attempt to connect aggravated the chip, and since Edan's on a similar frequency, it temporarily shut her down as well. I'm going to have to try to fight off that one Gundam if he tries to attack her. If you could send some suits or dolls to retrieve her..." Her father reluctantly agreed.
Isabella smiled to herself, glad that her father couldn't see. In reality, it had only taken her moments to establish the connection to pilot 02, Duo Maxwell. Her father had used the very, very basic functions of the chip implanted into Black Horse subject Famine to attack, but she was able to disable him just as easily. She shut him down and then tapped into Edan's system to shut her down so that she would not obey Dorian's orders either.
000
In the middle of their close range battle, Wufei's opponent stopped. Just stopped. "Come on, fight back!" The Chinese pilot snapped in frustration. He raised his weapon and brought it down to attack. He stopped just before he made contact with the other Gundam. It was cheap to take a shot like that, and he wouldn't drop himself to such a low level. "Fine. We'll fight again, and when we do, I won't hesitate to land the blow." With that, he retreated, leaving the red Gundam in the white one's hands.
Heero had just directed Trowa and Quatre to guide Deathscythe back to their carrier so that they could see what was going on with the braided pilot and if he was even alive, when a familiar image appeared on one of his monitor screens. A white horse's head was revolving around in the center, much like a screen saver. He had seen this in Duo's temporary escape mobile suit when they found him passed out after returning safely with the others. Heero switched to his manual computer controls and clicked on the message. It was an encrypted file, but his Gundam's advanced system was able to decode and translate it so that he could easily read it.
[To the pilot of Wing Zero:]
[I trust that you have realized that CSO has something of a super computer that has the ability to shut down basically all systems, including those that each one of your Gundams run off of. While you may have been able to reconfigure your current systems to temporarily evade CSO's viruses, upon your next advance you will be shut down. Also, you should be aware that once CSO has made it into your systems, they will also be able to terminate you at any given time with your own self destruct capabilities. Therefore, I would like to direct you into a more productive plan of action.]
[On the evening of June 27th, outside of Florence ,Italy (to be more specific, Dorian Adelphie's newly renovated manor,) the CSO's main weapon will be held. Look in the southern tower. It would most likely be in your best interest to steal it then, and use it to your own advantage. ]
[Until then, don't plan on attacking any bases with the intent of surviving, because you probably won't. Oh, and also, I would try to keep pilot 02, Duo Maxwell, out of direct range of the CSO communication satellites. You wouldn't want him going haywire on you again, now would you? ]
When Heero had finished reading the message, he was sure to save it and close out. He would wait until he had investigated it a bit more before telling his fellow pilots about it. "We need to get Duo back and see what's wrong. We're lucky they aren't continuing to attack how that they have the chance. We're going to have to re-evaluate our plan of attack," said the Japanese pilot to the others over their com links. There were voices of agreement from the others, though Wufei was particularly silent, Heero noticed. They all turned their backs on the CSO base, not in defeat, but thinking of their attack was more or less just a test run.
000
Author's Note: So... I am alive. A lot has happened in the past year- I've bought a house, a new car, got married, actually traveled to Italy (good reference material for this piece,) and started a new job. I hope to get back to this. My goal was to have this finished in 2014, but that didn't happen. I have over 200 pages written for this, and many more to go. I will finish someday!
If you are interested this story, please review and let me know! It will keep me motivated to work and post more chapters!
A.F