Gundam Wing
Seed Episode ZERO
Date: After Colony 213
Location: Planet Draconis IV, Rigel system
Warp technology was little than a decade old, but the human race had already began to mass produce its uses as a form of travel, and uses as a weapon against its enemies.
The planet Draconis IV was a frozen wasteland at the edge of the system. There were little uses for it except mining operations. Within a year of its discovery, the Imperial Starfleet sent miners to the planet where it became of the many major resource planets of resources that Sol system was beginning to deplete in such as metal and oil.
On orbit over this ice ball of a planet, a small fleet of ships, led by a corvette was flying around, surveying the surface. Inside the ship a young man, about the age of 17, was in the small hanger area of the ship. There were two Mobile Suits. There were Dread types, small, lightly armored MS's that had a longer lasting battery technology than the other MS's. They were designed for long duration air combat and can exceed speeds up to mach 2.
The boy was dressed in a pilot suit and he steps aboard one of the Dreads. As the systems onboard the suit activates, the pilot puts his helmet on.
"All systems green. Ready for drop." The pilot said
"You are cleared for orbital drop." A female voice said over the comm., "Be careful out there, Van, we're not sending you any escorts."
"Yes mother, dear. Don't worry about me. If it's here, all the dangers were worth it."
"Don't get too cocky, Van. This isn't a training Op. And don't refer to me by our relations when we are on duty, Major Fanel."
"Yes, ma'am. Beginning drop sequence."
The corvette opened up and a small pod containing the Mobile Suit began to descend onto the planet. The pod began to glow bright red as it enters the atmosphere.
"Retro rockets online in 5…4…3…2…1…igniting retro rockets!"
The retro rockets of the pod fired and the pod made it passed the upper atmosphere. As it began to further its descent, the pilot began to ready himself.
"Ready to deploy Mobile Suit into flight mode, beginning separation from pod."
The pod split into many pieces as it broke apart from the Mobile Suit flew out and into the night sky of the planet. The MS had its arms spread as if it was imitating a person freefalling. Then, its boasters came online and it flew at normal speed downward toward the surface.
"Whoa, that was fun. Let's do that again." Van laughed a bit at the ride he was enjoying.
"Stay focus on your mission objective. Intel informed us that the enemy are said to be here."
"Right, Right. I got you."
The Dread flew into the snowy mountains. Then, as it was beginning to sound too quiet for him, the screen blinked a bit as sensors locked onto something. Van looked at the screen and was a bit puzzled.
"What the hell is that?" He said to himself.
"Found something Van?" the same female voice from before asked
"Not sure. There's a faint power source up ahead, 500 kilometers. It's coming from the mountain, but the signature doesn't appear to be that of an outpost. In fact, the power source is identified as a nuclear power source."
"Nuclear? That's impossible. The Neutron Jammers that the Coordinators setup disabled the use of any nuclear technology."
"Well, this reading says otherwise. I'm going down to check it out."
The Dread landed and Van stepped out of his suit to look around. As he walked, he came across a large object before him. It looked like a huge metal box that was covered by the snow storm.
"Guess this must be it. What is this thing?"
Van went inside the box to see that it was a small hanger. There was something in the center of all this. As Van walked closer, he saw that it was a Mobile Suit.
"It's a Mobile Suit…no…this is not just any Mobile Suit…A Gundam…"
He touched part of it that was the cockpit door. The whole thing began to glow a bit from reaction to his touch and the cockpit door opened up. He sat on the cockpit and touched the controls that seemed to respond to him. The whole thing activated. The screens came to life before him.
"Damn, this thing is great." There was an explosion outside. "What the hell was that?"
"Van!" a voice from his communicator shouted
"What is it!?"
"It's the enemy. They've began to attack. Get out of there now!"
"I'm on it. Give me a second!"
The large box, that contained the Gundam he was in, began to slide and fall off the cliff. From the sky, about a dozen enemy Mobile Suits began to fire on his parked Dread and destroyed it.
"Damn, they've trashed my suit!" His new MS was only starting to get itself online, "Urg! MOVE!"
Just when the box was about to hit bottom, it began to float up in the center of the enemies. They surround it and watched. Then, the box exploded into pieces and out came a white colored Gundam. It had large dragon shaped wings on its back. Its head had two horn-like crowns that most Gundams had during the war. It was the marking of what they are. The one over its eyes were silver colored, and the two other horns sticking out from them were also silver colored. Its eyes glowed red. At the center where it's cockpit door was, there was a large red stone that glowed brightly.
After a short few seconds, the enemies attacked, firing their machine guns and rockets, but the white suit was extremely fast for them. Taking out a beam saber from its side, it tore through the entire squad of suits.
"Holy shit, this thing's amazing! What the hell is this?!"
Then, a voice from within the Gundam speaks to him.
"This is a fully functional assault type Gundam Mobile Suit, designed for long duration combat. Its operation strength exceeds the current types 100 times, and its fusion reactor gives it almost unlimited power."
"What the hell? Who are you?!"
"I am Merlin, the advanced battle computer for this unit. How may I be of service?"
"Why does that sound like a line from a video game I've played before?"
"I am the operating system of this Gundam. I also how a library of information that is so far up to date since the beginning of this year and information up to the start of this year."
"This year? I thought this Gundam was hidden a while ago."
"My last operation time was only a few months ago. I was transported by unknown allies to this planet and was hidden. This unit has been on Draconis IV for about 6 months, 11 days, 3 hours-"
"Ok, I get the picture."
"Whatever information you ask for, I will answer it."
"O…K. May you tell me if this unit has a name?"
"Your father named it after House Fanel's crest, which was a white dragon named Escaflowne."
"Escaflowne? Wait, did you just say my father named this? That means you know who I am, right?"
"Correct. You are Van Fanel, the son of Jacen Fanel, and the Duke of House Fanel and the leader of the Imperial Commonwealth."
"Hold on there, I'm not the Duke, yet."
The radar blinked a few times to reveal more enemies heading toward his way.
"Alert, enemies ahead, bearing 125, distances, 6 kilometers."
"I see them, Merlin. Give me a status check on Escaflowne's weapons and defenses."
"This unit has two beam sabers stored on its hips. There are 80mm Vulcan cannons on its foreheads and two 80mm Vulcan cannons on its left forearm. There's a beam saber built into the right forearm. The long shield that you are holding in the left arm contains a beam rifle…strange."
"What is it?"
"This unit's special weapon is missing."
"A special weapon? I wonder what that is. Uh-oh! Tell me about it later!"
Before he was able to finish his sentence, Van was attacked by some more of the enemy Mobile Suits. He jets forward and took out the beam rifle that was stored in the shield he was holding and began returning fire on the enemy. There were about 6 of them, Ginn types.
"Ginns…6 of them." A few of them began to shake a bit from the weather. "Looks like these weren't designed for this kind of terrain."
Escaflowne charged forward and fires a few shots at the ones that were looking shaky from the storm and downed them. After shooting down 3 of the enemies, Van dashes forward and rams one of the Ginns with his shield and knocks it into a rock wall, destroying it. The Ginn next to him started to fire and made a few hits on Escaflowne's body, but the shots didn't affect it.
"Damn, this thing's got some armor!" Van shouted as he jets forward, kicks the Ginn in the face, knocking it backwards. When the Ginn right itself up, it was staring at the end of Van's gun barrel as he fired it. "Good night."
The last Ginn flew away, seemingly afraid of its enemy.
"Running away are we?" Van made chase and followed the Ginn, shooting at it, but the enemy was dodging the shots. "Come on! Fly into my sights!"
The chase led Van into a clearing, but as Van was about to make a shot, another shot took the Ginn out. Van stops and looks up from where the blast came from.
"What the hell?" Van saw something floating up above him. "The fuck…"
What he saw was nothing he had ever seen, but in a strange way, it felt familiar. It was a Mobile Suit, but to be precise, it was a Gundam. The unit looked like some knight in armor; the head had fins on the sides of its head like big sharp ears. On its back was a pair of dragon looking wings, but they weren't like the wings that Escaflowne had. Its wings were huge, with spikes sticking out of it. Its forearms looked like there were claws on them. It held a rather large beam saber in its right hand. On its left forearm was a heat-rod. A heat-rod is a whip like weapon that is made of scale like segments and heats up. It can chop through most armor and is as deadly as a beam saber would be. In its left hand was a beam rifle. Its overall color is a deep, dark red.
"Merlin, give me an analysis." Van said and the scanners locked onto the mech.
"The unit appears to be similar to a Gundam suit that was in the Great War. its name was Epyon."
"Epyon…" Van repeated, as if the name rang a large bell in his head, "Oh, I remember! Trieze Khushrenada built that unit and it was once piloted by Milliardo Peacecraft. It was reported to be destroyed. Can this be a custom version of it?"
"No…my scans indicated that the metal and armor is too new to be just a fixed up version. Be careful, this one is powerful."
"Whose side is it on?"
"I am unable to identify any IFF signature from the unit."
"Then it has to be an enemy!" Van lights up his beam saber and prepares to attack, "Identify yourself!"
"I'm picking up a message from the pilot of that unit." Merlin said, "The message says to surrender and hand over this unit."
"Like hell. Tell him that!"
The Epyon unit then flies up higher and spreads its wings. Those spikes that were attached to its wings flew off and flew straight toward Van.
"Holy shit!" A few of the long spikes missed him and stabs into the mountains. The others flew around him and shot off lasers.
Van shields himself with his wings. He returns fire with his beam rifle, but the other spikes defended the Gundam. Then, the other spikes that stabbed into the mountain flew back and attached itself back into the Gundam. The Epyon powers up its beam, igniting a green blade. Van did the same with his and attacks.
Van attacks first, stabbing his weapon, but was blocked. When the Epyon attacks, he blocks it with his shield, then pushes it back.
"This guy's not that good with sabers….big mistake when going up with me." Van attacks again and knocks Epyon backwards. "Give it up. You can't beat me."
Then, the pilot of the Epyon responded to him,
"What do you know? You sound like some kid thinking he's one of the big boys," The voice was female.
"What, a woman?" Van was stunned a bit, and that gave the Epyon pilot an opportunity to attack.
The Epyon's thrusters sent it flying like a bullet at him, and she raised her saber to kill, but at he last second, Van back flipped his suit and knocked the saber off. He points his saber at the Epyon's cockpit.
"So you want this Mobile Suit, eh?" Van asked
"Maybe?"
"Well, maybe if you asked nicely, I'll think about it. Who sent you? Who's your commander?"
"You think I'd tell you anything?" Then, some dust caused by something massive from above caused Van to lose his focus and the Epyon escaped.
"Damn it." He looked through the clouds of dust and sees a huge ship, "That thing's big."
"We're receiving a transmission from the corvette ISS Avenger."
"It's mother. Answer it, Merlin." His screen turned to an older woman that looked like she was in her late 30s. "What was that about?"
"Friendly fire, Van. That ship up there is one of ours."
"What? It's one of ours and it attacked us?!"
"It didn't know who you were."
"Bullshit. I'm going up there and give that commander a piece of my mind."
"Wait! Van!" Van turned off his comm.
"I think you should listen to her. It's reckless to run off into the face of battle without the full knowledge of your enemies."
"Well you weren't built to tell me what to think. We're going up there."
"Your father said that you would be trouble. I'm glad he programmed me with much patience for you."
Escaflowne's boasters fired up and he launched himself into the massive flying carrier.
"Let's see who these people are."
Inside the ship, Van flew around a bit, but it was pretty quiet.
"Man, wonder where everyone is."
"My sensors don't detect much for Mobile Suits. This carrier seemed to be designed to hold an entire battalion of Mobile Suits and support units."
"Then where is everything. This thing's huge, but there's barely anything in here."
Van flew into another room where there was a large container in the ceiling, but Van ignored it. As he flew to the other side of the room, the doors closed on him. He turned to see that the other closed as well.
"What is this?"
"I'm detecting a massive energy surge from above."
Van looked up to see that the strange looking container separated into many segments and out came something.
"What?"
"It appears to be a Mobile Suit. Be careful, this one's not to be taken lightly."
Van zoomed to get a closer look. The unit was mostly white in color, save for its center areas. It had a pair of large metal bird like wings on its back and a large rifle on its back as well. It had a shield attached to its left arm.
"This can't be…" Van recognized the designs anywhere. "It's Wing Zero…"
The Wing Zero's eyes glow its green color.
"Excalibur?" a distorted voice said, "Target acquired. Here I come!"
"Wait!" Van defends himself as Wing Zero takes out a beam saber and attacks.
Van was good, but whoever is piloting Zero is a lot better than he was. Van blocks again, but just as he did, Zero deflects his sword away and stabs him with his shield. Van flies back and shoots off his Vulcan cannons, but the bullets didn't affect Wing Zero's armor.
"Merlin, give me an analysis. How do I beat this thing?"
"It is using an old type of armor, but it's much stronger than this unit's Phase Shift armor. Wing Zero's weapons consist of a beam saber, Vulcan cannons, and a powerful beam rifle. I have no advice in defeating this unit."
"What?"
"You have to use your own judgment to defeat him."
"Great, thanks for nothing."
Zero attacks again, but Van blocks with his shield and just as he did, he knocks away the beam saber and swung his own saber up at it, chopping off Wing Zero's right arm. Then, he spun to his right and kicked the suit in the chest, sending it flying into a wall.
One of Van's screens turned on to show who was piloting the Wing Zero, but the picture was distorted. Even so, Van was able to recognize who it was, or who he thought was.
"Is that you, Heero Yuy!?" Van shouted, but the legendary soldier didn't reply, "Why did you attack me, we're on the same side!"
"I don't think you'll get much a respond from this guy." Merlin said
"Why's that?"
"Because he is not real. My sensors don't detect any human presence within the cockpit. It is clearly an advance Mobile Doll modeled after the famous Heero Yuy's combat data. According to military records, Heero Yuy died 3 years ago in a battle, he was reported to be MIA."
Then, the lights inside his suit began to flicker and the power was going on and off a bit.
"What's going on?"
"Escaflowne is responding to the power of another Mobile Suit nearby. I suggest taking caution."
Van proceeds ahead and enters a dark room. He stopped when he floated into the middle of the room. The room was another large hanger for Mobile Suits, but there was nothing here. Columns were also around the center of the room, but Van didn't know what purpose they serve other than to get in your way.
"What is this feeling…" Van said to himself, "There's something in here…something…not good."
Just then, something appeared before him, and it was another Mobile Suit. The MS was dark in color, black all over. It was carrying a rather long beam saber handle that was 3 times the length of Van's in one hand, as it folds its arms, and spreads weird wings. There was also a skinnier look to this dark Mobile Suit compared to Van's.
"Surrender and I might think about not killing you." The pilot of the dark suit said.
"Whoever you are, you don't know who you're messing with." Van said back as he powers up his saber.
Just as Van was about to attack, the dark suit disappears and then reappears behind him.
"What the-" Van dodges the attack, barely.
"Hmmm, I missed."
The dark suit attacks again, but Van blocks the attack. The two crossed blades for a moment; both trying to force the other one back.
"You're pretty good." The pilot said again. "But not good enough,"
He pushes Van back, and ignites his twin blade beam saber. Red blades of energies sprout out from both sides of the long hilt. He spun it around his head and readies for close combat. Van takes his rifle out and fires several shots, but misses as the dark suit seemed to have dodged them and appears behind him. Van turns too late as the dark suit takes his saber and attacks with a downward slash, but Van blocks with his shield in time. Unfortunately, the defense made Van got his shield knocked away. He flies back to avoid another attack.
"Ha, ha, ha, you're fun. Pretty good. I'm impressed." The dark suit's point said to Van
"I know that voice…" Van points his rifle at him, but right then; the dark suit threw his ignited saber at him and knocks the rifle away. "Damn!"
Van takes out his beam saber and held it in his left hand, then ignites the blade on his right forearm.
"Come on, let's go." Van readies himself and charges towards his enemy.
The dark suit blocks his saber, but wasn't fast enough to block the other blade from his right that punched his face, messing up his suit's face.
"Son of a-" the dark suit flies right in front of Van and grabs his suit by the neck and held it up, then sends a shock of electricity into him, "Oh I see…I know who you are…"
Van was then able to recognize the voice.
"Drake?!" Van shouted
"It's…Van!" Drake threw Van back into a wall.
Van's suit was damaged, and he himself was also hurt. His screen turned to a picture of a man about in his late 30s. The man had a scar across his right cheek and had sort of a tough look to him.
"Well, well, I didn't expect to find you here, your majesty." The last part referring to Van's true rank had more of a sarcastic tone to it, but Van was used to that. "What are you doing here?"
"As you can see, I've found something interesting."
"Still a kid looking for an adventure…Get out of that and report to me."
Van had gotten off his suit. He was nursing his bruised body and walks down a hallway. As he walked, he saw another figure walking toward him, taking his helmet. It was a woman in her mid 20s. She had long red hair, and sky blue eyes. She was thin and slightly shorter than Van. The woman threw her helmet into the ground, but the area had no artificial gravity, so it bounced back a bit. She then punched Van in the face, but it didn't really hurt him.
"What the hell did you think you're doing?!"
Van then grabs her by the neck,
"Normally, this is where I say, 'shut the fuck up'. And you fired on me first. Aren't we on the same side?"
The woman shoves him off and fell back to the ground, and then readies for a fight, but then Drake walked from behind her.
"Back off, Meia." Drake said, "You're skills were crap; you've been slacking off."
"You're doing rather menial work since I left. Have you been demoted to the outskirts?"
"Shut up. I was ordered to look for you." Drake then looked at Meia for a moment, "Meia, I'm sure you know who this is…Well, for the moment, he doesn't look like much, but surely you remember Prince Van Fanel."
Meia was slightly taken aback from the realization.
"Van?"
Van smiles a bit, seeing that he also recognized her as well.
"Mariemeia…it's been a while. I've never thought you to be a pilot…just like your father."
"Well, you've certainly grown up, but I think your head has room for more maturing."
"You hurt me, why don't you sing one of your songs to cheer me up. I think I'm gonna cry."
"Why you little-"
"Enough of this…I've just received orders. You both are to be transferred. Van, you are ordered on a top secret mission at the neutral colony of Heliopolis."
"The Orb space colony? Why there?"
"You'll be debriefed on your journey. Have a nice trip."
Van grinned, and he walked passed Drake and Mariemeia.
"See ya later."
Van walked a bit and thought to himself.
"Of all the places to go to…I wonder what sort of top secret mission this one is."
He sat inside his Gundam when it was completed in repairs. He looked at the specs again and the found something really interesting.
"What the hell…this unit is equipped with a-…Merlin. Delete all data on this device at once. We must not let any one know about this thing in here. It might change the face of this war…"
"Done, all data on the NJC has been deleted."
"Power up, let's head out."
Van readies his unit and flies out.
"Alright, power up the warp engine. Course is Sol. System. We're going to the Space colony of Heliopolis."
"Course set. Warp drive engaging."
Time and space seemed to have blurred out as Van's Gundam warps space and exists the system.
As Van's Mobile Suit travels through warped space, he was debriefed on his mission.
"Your mission is to protect the facility for the production of the new Mobile Suits being built on the colony through the cooperation of the Orb Union. There are 5 Mobile Suits that were created."
"I hate this kind of work. Nothing exciting ever comes out of it." Van said to himself. "Merlin, how long until we reach Sol sector?"
"We'll reach the system in approximately 2 hours."
"Well, I guess I'll take a nap, then."
As Van closed his eyes, the system of Sol. Approaches.