G-Element
Part 2: The Gundam
It could only be one thing, there was no denying it. No matter how many times Maria rubbed her eyes or blinked the massive Mobile Suit didn't disappear. It was not a dream, it was as real as it could get.
'Is, is that what I think it is?" She stammered, still in awe. She turned to look at Thomas, who nodded an affirmative. She slowly walked up to the machine, and unsurely reached out a hand to touch it as if it would vanish if she did. "More importantly where did you get it?"
"It's real don't worry about that, and to answer your second question, it belonged to my Great-Grandfather back in the days of the war. One day I was reading one of his old journals and it mentioned he had hidden something important in this cave, since he used to own the cabin I live in. I didn't believe at the time until one day I decided to investigate and lo and behold look what I found." When he first saw the MS he was in just as much in a state of disbelief and shock as Maria was right now. He too, had to touch it to believe it. Inside the cave, he found another journal, this one a technical manual. Written in the manual was a note from his Great-Grandfather, explaining his motives for not allowing his prized machine to be destroyed. He knew the peace wouldn't last forever, so he took out a kind of insurance policy, though one Gundam against an entire army isn't exactly a fair deal.
The Gundam itself was a spectacular machine, and in the mind of not only Thomas but anyone else who ever had the distinct pleasure of piloting one, it was perhaps one of the greatest of mankind's creations. It could do anything, it could nearly fly, it could do heavy lifting, it could be used for construction and it could be used for…..killing. That was the most unfortunate of its many uses. It was massive, seventeen point five meters tall, and had to be at least seventy to eighty tones. The eyes had an eerie life too them, even when the machine was shut down. More than once Thomas had gazed into them and expected them just too just open up without even activating the suit. The color scheme was simple; the majority of the Gundam's body was obviously once pure white, now slightly marred from so many years spent in a cave. Parts of it prominent "wings" were colored black, whilst joints and a few other random parts were blue or red. From what he learned from the journal its weapons were slightly altered from the original beam weapons favored by the forces of old. The lightning laser held in its left hand supposedly fired a powerful bolt of electricity, while the solar flare cannon shot a power-full heat beam that was capable of melting the sturdiest of metals. Supposedly, because Thomas had never actually attempted to fire the weapons for fear of being discovered so he had to go by what was written in the journal. The thruster output and the resulting speed was beyond imagination for a machine the size of this one, the thruster output nearly equaling that of the larger starships!
"It used to belong to someone in my family, I've been spending a good portion of my time finding parts and trying to repair it. Although there are still a few things that I still need to get in order to finish." His eyes momentarily lit up, as an idea apparently popped into his head. Maria reasoned that he wasn't rebuilding this death machine simply to put it on display in a museum. He was planning on using it against the Kabal!
"If you think I'm going to help you get parts for that just so you can go and get yourself killed, you've got another think coming!" Arguing with Thomas was a futile effort; once he put his mind to it he couldn't be convinced to do anything else. Unless he had changed drastically he would still be as stubborn as ever.
"Maria, this is why I hesitated, because I didn't want you to know what I was going to do." He fell silent for a second and turned to gaze upon the still machine behind him. He seemed to study it, but then he sighed and once again turned to face her. "I know what I must do, whether or not you help me doesn't matter. Even if I'm destined to fail miserably, I must do something no matter how insignificant it might be." Maria opened her mouth to speak, but no matter how hard she tried, nothing would come out. Thomas was the most dangerous kind of man, one that had nothing to lose and everything to gain. It didn't matter to him if he killed one or one million enemies, as long as he didn't just sit and watch and let everything pass him by. That was just the kind of man he was. Her head hung in total defeat, there was nothing short of killing him right then and there that would stop him, and that was something she could just never force herself to do.
"You win, Thomas, you win, I know I can't convince you to change your mind, so I might as well do whatever I can to help you stay alive" She saw Thomas smile, though only for a brief moment, still it eased her mind to see the Tom of old even if it as quick as this. "The parts won't be much of a problem, but I don't know how you plan on finding ant of the Kabalites bases, short of randomly flying around hoping to stumble upon them."
"Honestly, I was hoping that since you're with intelligence that you could give any information about suspected cells" Thomas said shrugging his shoulders.
Maria groaned, "Why did I expect you to say that? I'll see what I can do, but if I'm caught I'll lose my job…or worse.' An image flashed through Maria's mind, one that illustrated what happened to those who spoke out too much or decided to overstep their boundaries. She shuddered at the thought, but she told herself that if she was cautious enough she would never be caught. In reality it wasn't completely clear to her as to why she agreed to help him, but her heart was positive of the reason.
"Thanks Maria, that really means a great deal to me, but if you don't mind I have quite a bit of work to do and I'd like to get right back to it."
"You really know how to treat a lady, Thomas Cane, so I'll leave you alone with your precious pet. "But I will keep in touch with you, oh and I'll have the discreetly parts sent to your cabin, be sure to contact me before you do anything stupid" She chided him. Not even sure if he was still listening to her.
"Yes, mother" Maria snorted and turned to walk out of the cave, intent on leaving Thomas alone to his repair work. However much she tried she couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going bad was going to happen to,
"Don't think like that, girl." She told herself aloud. 'He knows what he's doing, I hope." She stopped to turn and look back at the dank cave one more time before she continued on her way. Back in the cave Thomas pondered the whirlwind of events that occurred in just a few hours. Poor girl he thought, this whole thing must be tearing her up inside. He really couldn't blame her however, who would have expected all of this, and she came her to apologize for a past event to her former lover, only to get sweeped up into an insane one man war against a nearly unbeatable enemy. He made a vow to himself, right then and there, he swore that both of them would survive this conflict, they would live to see the end of this sure to be bloody war, they would no matter what he had to do to ensure it, no matter what.
