Gundam OO: The Meaning of Zero
Chapter 1: Celestial Being
It was a nice day, slightly sunny, calm and peaceful. This was however, not the case in the testing range for the AEU, as three turquoise machines swerved between false buildings of wood, glass and concrete, dodging rounds shot by automated machine cannons.
" Hah! is this really a test? I could do this asleep!" cried the pilot of the lead mobile suit, one Patrick Colasaur, self-proclaimed ace of the AEU military. The other two groaned, and continued their maneuvers as the lead machine pulled away to show off. "Yahoo!" cried Colasaur as he plunged his AEU-09 Enact prototype into the storm of gunfire, his defense rod spinning to block bullets. He shot past the machine cannons, using his Linear Rifle to pop the balloon targets in the air before fancily spinning to blast the targets mounted atop the cannons.
"What does he think he's doing? This is a demonstration, not a frigging ballet!" grumbled one Henry "Hit" Xavier.
"It could be worse," consoled Arsalan "Arse" McDane "We could be in an actual combat situation with him..."
"Now you've gone and jinxed us Arse," moaned Hit, "Somethings gonna come along and kill us all now."
In the stands, the Enacts were observed by a variety of military and political individuals from the member nations of the AEU, as well as two from the Union, one rather famous.
"Well, what do you think of them?" asked Billy Katagiri, expert mobile suit technician and technical adviser for the Union military.
"It's good, but except for the solar energy system, it's a copy of our Flag." replied Graham Acre, one of the two famed aces of the Union. At this, the lead Enact practically screeched to a stop in front of the stands, opening it's cockpit. Out climbed Patrick Colasaur, third closest thing to a rival Graham Acre had ever had.
"What was that? You wanna get over here and say that directly to my face ??!!!" "Good audio receptors too," commented Billy.
In the other Enacts, the aces groaned. "Yep, I told you so. Patrick's gonna set off Graham and he's gonna slaughter us." moaned Hit, who had gotten his nickname from the last Solar War, where he had used his AEU-05 Hellions fists and empty rifle to clobber Grahams VMS-15 Realdo.
"Well, at least it'd be quick." commented Arse, who's own nickname resulted from a retreat order where he had turned tail and used his Hellions thruster to scorch the other Union ace.
High in the sky, another mobile suit and its pilot were about to make their own debut.
"Setsuna F. Seiei commencing operation."
"O.K. Setsuna, now remember, just make an impression, and then go to phase 2." said a rather commanding voice from the speakers.
"Yes L-"
"Setsuna!" the voice interrupted.
"Yes Zero".
In the testing ranges command tower, an aid noticed a rapidly descending target.
"Commander!" he called.
"What is it?"
" We've detected an object descending towards the range."
"Well what is it?" asked the exasperated commander. Back in his day he wouldn't have had to ask. they would've just spouted out valuable information upon sight...
"We're unable to confirm sir, there's no radar signature."
"Use the camera then!" as the camera zoomed in, the command tower's crew gasped, and fell into shocked silence before: "What in Gods name is that thing?"
On the testing range, the spectators noticed a stream of what looked like glowing dust, and at the forefront, a mobile suit colored white, blue, and red.
"Well, this is impressive," commented Billy, "Two new units..."
"I don't think that's it Billy..." said Graham. As the new mobile suit landed, the AEU spectators stood from their seats and began muttering, and trying to contact the tower. Graham noticed as one opened his cell phone, only to receive a burst of static. "No communication...." muttered Graham "ECM?..."
Patrick climbed into his Enact, smirking as he prepared to defeat the intruder and bath in the following glory, and 'befriend' the women who would come.
"Who are you? Union? HRL?" he asked on loudspeaker, "Well, doesn't matter, only that you're intruding in AEU territory." Better make this flashy, thought Patrick, more impressive.
As Patrick's Enact pulled out its sonic knife, an AEU officer said
"Idiot, what does he think he's doing!?"
"Calm down," said his friend, "It's good publicity."
"What unit is that?" wondered Arse.
"Who cares, it's about to get trounced," sighed a bored Hit.
"What do you mean?"
"These are prototypes Arse, brand-new, theres no way it's about to get beat," replied Hit "And it's gonna be Patrick who gets to claim the first kill..."
Setsuna watched coolly as the Enact charged him, waiting for the right moment. As the mobile suit neared him, it thrust it's knife towards him. Now, thought Setsuna. His units right arm extended outward, the blade on it's shield sliding smoothly into place. just as the Enacts blade drew close to the mobile suit, the arm snapped forward, slicing off the machine left hand.
"Tch", grunted Patrick as he drew the Linear Rifle and fired off a pair of shots. The strange machine in front of him moved, gracefully dodging the shots, and dashing forward, slicing off the Enacts right arm. "I am-" another slice, and the left shoulder parted from the body "Patrick Colasaur-" a horizontal slice, and the Enact was decapitated "And I have never lost-" The unidentified mobile suit snapped it's arm to it's side, the blade sliding back to it's 'sheathed' position. "a battle!" Colasaur cried plaintively, as gravity overcame his Enact, crashing him to the ground.
"Not to your prediction, now was it Hit?" said Arse, staring at the strange mobile suit.
"It's Patrick" said Hit "He would screw this up. Now come on, let's pull the red carpet out from under his feet"
"The new guy beat us to it."
"Well, then, let's pull it out from under his." The two remaining Enacts circled the mobile suit, preparing their attack. "Now!" ordered Hit, and he and Arse unleashed a barrage of rounds, filling the space between them with heated magnetic lead. unfortunately for them, The unit evaded all of it, and dashed toward Arse, who flew to meet it. Arse's Enact drew its knife, and flipped over the charging mobile suit, trying to get at it's thrusters. To no avail, as the agile unit drew a device from it's back, and dodged under the slice. The device emitted a pink beam of light, and the mobile suit turned, slicing the Enact in half just above the cockpit before circling around, destroying the thrusters. As Arse fell, helpless, Hit chose this moment to make a try for the cockpit, in an attempt to finish the machine quickly. instead, the beam saber rose to meet him halfway to his target, and he too fell to the strangers blade.
The spectators gazed in awe, as the last of their three prototypes fell in pieces.
"Excuse me," said Graham as he snatched a pair of binoculars from the official directly next to him.
"Hey!" protested the man, only to be replied with
"I said excuse me." Turning to the strange mobile suit, Graham scanned the unit, until his eyes fell on an engraving upon it's forehead. "Gundam." he read.
"Is that it's name?" asked Billy.
"Who knows..." replied Acre, as the Gundam rose, leaving a trail of light. "Of more interest is that light..."
In high atmosphere, another Gundam waited, rotating. The pilot inside grinned.
"Perfect Setsuna, now for phase 2..." he turned on a communication link, saying "Allelujah, Tieria, get ready for phase 2."
Allelujah felt a sense of anticipation as he raced along the hallway. Now it begins he thought.
"Indeed Allelujah, now it begins. But can you go all the way? You and your bleeding heart?" came the thought. Hallelujah thought Allelujah. His ruthless alter-ego. As he reached the end of the hallway, the door slid open to reveal his Gundam.
"Our Gundam Allelujah, a weapon of war meant to kill, to destroy. Can you accept that?"
"Hmph" grunted Tieria. That Allelujah...I swear, he doesn't have what it takes to be a Meister. I wonder why Veda chose him..... As he waited in the space below the HRL's Tenchu elevator, Tieria turned his Gundams head to look where he suspected the commander was watching him from.
And he would be completely wrong, as a camouflaged eye watched him from kilometers away. Tieria's in position, Thought Zero, And Allelujah is launching. How about Setsuna?
Down on Earth, Setsuna raced his Gundam through the sky along the AEU's elevator, as squadrons of Hellions flew down to meet him. So Zero was right, they were concealing more forces than their allotment. Setsuna deftly moved his Gundam to avoid the rather badly aimed shots raining down from above, as his Gundams blade slid into combat position. As the Hellions approached, Setsuna put on a burst of speed, slicing as he passed the lead suit. The two halves fell towards the ground, before exploding. On cue, the other Hellions split, circling around the Gundam.
On the ground, a white and green mobile suit laid, a rifle's barrel extending over a dozen meters into the air. In the cockpit waited Lockon Stratos.
"Combat engaged, Combat engaged," spoke a small orange ball inside the cockpit.
"Well then," said Lockon "We can't let Setsuna have all the fun now can we?" Reaching towards the top of the cockpit, Lockon pulled down a rifle-like attachment, a small piece popping out to reveal a reticule. "Lockon Stratos, sniping the targets!"
Back in the air, Setsuna was swerving side to side, using his shield to block the occasional shots. Then, a beam struck one of the Hellions, blasting away some of the wing and fuselage. Lockon Stratos thought Setsuna, as he briefly looked down at where the clouds were blasted apart by beam after beam.
"Damn, damn, damn, damn. damn!" said one of the Hellion pilots, whose suit yawed to the left due to control surface damage from the beam. The pilot was frantically trying to contact the command tower, when a beep sounded, warning him of imminent collision. "Huh?" the pilot momentarily diverted his attention from the radio to gaze at the white, blue, and red mobile suit that dominated his view screen. The last thing the screaming pilot saw was the glowing edge of a blade.
Well, looks like I was right about pairing Setsuna and Lockon, thought Zero. Now, what of Allelujah and Tieria? Keyboards extended from the left and right sides of Zero's cockpit, and he began keying in commands to the eyes he had in space, positioning them around the HRL's elevator.
In the elevator, a party celebrating the HRL Tenchu's 10th anniversary was ongoing, and at the center was Wang Liu Mei, famous celebrity and Celestial Being agent. "How selfish, they're abandoning us." she commented as several HRL officers left the party.
"Miss," said Hong Long, her bodyguard, "It would seem that Sumeragis' prediction was correct. Shouldn't we evacuate?"
"No need Hong Long," replied the agent, "She and Zero planned accordingly."
In and around the elevator, Space-type Tierens swarmed like slow-moving wasps, scrambling to intercept the dozen or so Terrorist Hellions approaching with missile launchers.
"Heh," puffed one terrorist pilot "These HRL people are so slow, it's a wonder they saw us-" He was cut off as a barrage of beams pierced his Hellion, instantly destroying it and the missile launcher it carried.
"What the-" cried another terrorist, just before he too, was annihilated by a burst of beams.
"There!" said the terrorist next to him, pointing his Hellions rifle at a white and orange fighter approaching at a rapid speed, it's side-mounted gun spewing beams of energy.
"What is that? a new HRL fighter?"
"Who cares, just-" The force was quickly reduced to only three mobile suits and one missile launcher, all rushing to get to firing range of the elevator. To no avail, as a white and black Gundam, wielding a large cannon hovered in place in front of the elevator.
"Fire the missiles! Fire!" screamed one of the terrorists as he kamikazed towards the mobile suit. Moments later, six missiles fired from the launcher, accelerating rapidly toward the elevator. Slowly, almost uncaring, the mobile suit hefted it's cannon, ignoring the rounds from the terrorists' Hellions as they scattered off it's armor. A moment later, an enormous energy beam reached out, disintegrating the missiles and the Hellions.
"Show-off" muttered Zero. Just then, something in one of his camera's caught his eye. "Oh? a reserve force in case something goes wrong? Well," he grinned "This entire venture has indeed, gone terribly wrong. For you at least."
Dozens of kilometers away from the Tenchu elevator, a few more terrorists debated their next course of action.
"We should leave," argued one,, "Those mobile suits, whatever they are, would destroy us if we took any action now."
"Fool," retorted one, "We should attack! They aren't expecting us, and if all else fails, we can at least accomplish our objective."
"Sadly, you're mistaken." Silence reigned for a few brief seconds, before a belated reply.
"What? Who is this?"
Zero chuckled, sounding mechanical through his helmet.
"I am what lies at the end of your life." "Is that a threat?" Zero went on, ignoring the fool. "By shooting, you have shown that you are willing to be shot. And so, I, Zero, command you to die!" With the code phrase spoken, six objects appeared out of thin air, shards of metal about the size of a mobile suits arm. Immediately, the objects began moving, darting here and there, almost seeming to taunt the terrorists.
"Heh," chuckled one, "you'll need a lot more than some toys to kill us fool!" he lunged towards one of the objects, firing as he went. The machine ignored his rounds, accelerating towards him. Just before contact, a beam saber sprouted from the front of it, piercing the Hellion through. On some unseen command, the other objects began firing beams, shooting off limbs and thrusters, incapacitating the Hellions.
"Wait!" pleaded one, "We surrender!"
"It's amazing the change defeat can engender in a person," Zero replied, just before his weapons beam sabers pierced each of the cockpits. "Now," he said, "To finish this mission." He typed in a few commands, sending a message to a few news companies. "Lets see how the rest of the world reacts to us" Zero said "To the Celestial Being."