Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Other Oath
Chapter 3: Warriors
2301 A.D: Middle East
Soran opened his eyes. As his vision became focused, he saw that it was night. A truck was parked a few yards to his right. On his left, Soran felt the heat of a small campfire. He looked over and his eyes fell onto Ali-al Saachez. Anger boiled up within and was quickly followed by confusion.
"Why don't you just kill me?" the boy asked.
The man looked down at him. "Tell me, kid, how did you survive?"
Soran glared at him in silence. Even if he did know what happened, there was no chance he would tell this man. The same man had taken him and his friends and turned them into a guerrilla group all for his own amusement.
"Don't want to talk? Fine, I've got time," Ali said while he began to clean his fingernails with his knife.
"I want you to answer my question," Soran growled.
"You've graduated from the rest of the pack. They got themselves killed off and you lived. I'd say that makes you worth keeping."
"Worth keeping? That's all you have to say?" Soran shouted. Again, that man spoke of his friends so callously. They had dedicated their lives to his cause and he could brush them off so easily.
"It's simple business to make use of your best assets. Maybe you'll learn eventually," Ali remarked.
Soran sat up and found his knife in its sheath on his hip. Ali must have put it back there after knocking him out. Was he confident or foolish?
"Fight me," Soran demanded as he rose and armed himself. "Again like before."
Despite the thirst and exhaustion, Soran felt the urge to fight. Ali, for whatever reason, had brought him along alive. Soran needed to know how far he would have to go to get Ali to kill him. Either that or he would kill the man responsible for what had happened to his life. And he would be sure that he would beat Ali at his own game. He would make sure to see him regret keeping him alive. That was all he needed.
"Well I guess another schooling wouldn't be too much trouble," Ali said as he stood up, twirling his knife in his hand. "Lesson number one, you don't have what it takes to beat me."
Soran lunged at him.
2307 A.D: PMC Weapons Hangar
With Celestial Being continuing their armed interventions, the country Moralia had grown anxious. With its weak economy, the PMC trust was a vital resource for the nation. And in turn, Moralia was important for the AEU space development. It was common knowledge that the Union and HRL had made much more progress with their orbital elevators and space colonies. He wasn't keen on the details but the AEU had chosen to send their military forces to Moralia to support the PMC Trust.
Soran followed Ali and the AEU official to Ali's new mobile suit. A gift from the AEU to use in the upcoming battle. The lights turned on and gave them a view of the Enact that Ali would be using.
"I want you to use this machine."
Ali seemed to be impressed. "A new AEU model?"
"It was a development test machine but our company's engineering branch tuned it up."
Ali turned to the official. "You want me to beat a Gundam with this?"
"Capture one." Their escort stressed.
"Easier said than done," Ali snickered.
"We're prepared to pay you more money than you can imagine."
Ali whistled and placed his hand on the machine. "Now that is tempting indeed."
Soran rolled his eyes. There wasn't a chance that Ali would miss out on this opportunity. Celestial Being had already cost them a paycheck and Ali would be more than happy to make them pay.
Moralia
Exia stood over several fallen Enacts with a beam saber in each of its hands. Ribbons was slightly disappointed that Ian's gifts had proven to be unnecessary. None of the enemy's had proven to be worthy of bringing out the new GN blades. Such a shame.
Everything was proceeding as scheduled by Miss Sumeragi's forecast. The Republic of Moralia and the AEU had bitten off more than they could chew by drawing Celestial Being's attention. Although considering Moralia's type of business, it was only a matter of time before they became the target of an intervention. The scale of this mission greatly overshadowed the previous ones. If Celestial Being had yet to draw the world's interests, they certainly would now.
"Exia, phase one complete. Proceeding to-" Ribbons was cut off when Exia's sensors went off, alerting him to incoming fire. He quickly moved out of the way.
"A new model?" Ribbons pondered as his camera zoomed in on the new target. The Enact was slightly different from the others he had fought with. Ribbons dashed around the ground to stay out of the enemy's line of fire. Somehow though, the Enact was able to get a lock on his Gundam and continuously landed shots on him. It closed in and managed to knock Exia off balance before flying past him.
"He's good," Ribbons muttered grudgingly as he adjusted Exia's footing.
"Nice machine. Shame about the pilot though," the Enact pilot said. He had the gall to mock a Gundam Meister. "What do you say, Mr. Gundam? You're interfering with my business."
The Enact dropped down and landed a kick on Exia before grounding itself. "I've got a bonus riding on this."
Soran watched the engagement from the sky alone. For some reason, Ali had told the rest of their team to stay behind from the battle. Soran, on the other hand, wasn't one to stand by. They waited to see how the other PMC forces handled the attack before deploying themselves. As soon as they spotted a Gundam, Ali had ordered him to stay behind. Watching the battle, Soran could see that the new Enact had higher specs than the normal ones. With Ali as a pilot in that machine, the Gundam was in for some trouble.
Ali seemed to decide that his gun was ineffective as he chose to pull out his sword to engage in melee combat with the blue Gundam. The Gundam continued with its ineffective assault. Soran could read the Gundams moves easily. Every step and attack was telegraphed so obviously it was depressing. And if he could predict the Gundam's moves, then so could Ali.
It wasn't long before Ali smacked the Gundams beam weapons out of its hands. It drew a blade from its hip and continued its ineffective assault. As each strike failed to even leave so much as a scratch on Ali, the Gundam pilot's frustration increased. Ali closed in and locked blades with their target. A moment later he backed off and dropped his sword fell in to the ground in two pieces. Despite the pilot's weaknesses, he had to admit that those weapons were impressive. But it still wouldn't matter if it couldn't land a decisive hit.
Now if only Ali would finish the damn job.
"All right, all finished here," Lockon announced. The PMC forces had put up a fight but it wasn't enough. Dynames' new full shields were being put to good use. With Haro taking care of shield control, Lockon was free to shoot down all the mobile suits in the area. For such a big mission, it was turning out to be quite an easy fight.
"Next phase. Next phase," Haro exclaimed.
Lockon chuckled. "They're determined I'll give them that."
Dynames picked up an incoming call and Sumeragi showed up on screen. "Lockon, Ribbons has encountered a problem in his sector. I want you to provide support now,"
"Roger that," Lockon replied immediately. Exia was having trouble with its part of the mission? What did Ribbons get himself into?
No matter what he did, Ribbons was unable to strike down the new Enact. He had managed to cleave its sword in two, but now the mobile suit was focusing on evading his attacks and doing so easily. Ribbons charged forward once again and thrust his GN blade only for the Enact to fly out of the way.
His sensors went off again, alerting him to a new target just as it knocked him off balance from his right. The other enemy took advantage of the opportunity to grab onto Exia and throw it to the ground. It then pinned him down and the second Enact had its weapon pointed at Exia's head. Ribbons struggled against the Enact before he had managed to shake him off. Unfortunately, the second enemy fired on him and his ally soon had Exia in a grapple. The original had him in a hold and the other had its weapon pointed at Exia's head. How did things end up like this?
Suddenly, the second Enact took to the air and a moment later a beam flew by where it had just been standing. Dynames had come to his rescue. More shots came and the Enact was forced to release him and retreat. It was able to avoid Lockon's shots and took off to the skies.
Lockon appeared on his screen. "Ribbons, are you all right?"
"I'm-
Miss Sumeragi interrupted their channel. "Enough chitchat. Proceed with the mission plan!"
"You toyed with it too long," Soran said over their channel. The interference from the other Gundam forced them out of the battlefield. Now they were heading back to regroup with the rest of the team.
Ali snorted. "Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll just have to wait 'til next time. Might be a while though. I've got a feeling business is going to be slow."
"If you had let the others to join us we could have overpowered the Gundam," Soran stated.
"Please, they would have gotten themselves slaughtered in seconds by that thing. Those guys are worth more alive than dead," Ali retorted.
"And I'm not?" Soran asked.
"I didn't ask you to get involved. You did that on your own. Besides, if you got yourself killed out there, it would just show that I'm not much of a teacher."
"That's not funny."
"You never did have much of a sense of humor."
Moralian Capital
Alejandro enjoyed the view of the city from his balcony. He had just received word that the Gundam Meisters had completed their mission.
"Congratulations, Master Alejandro Corner," Revive Revival said.
"Thank you, but it is the Gundam Meisters who should be receiving all such accolades," Alejandro replied as he watched over the city from the balcony. "How will the world respond now?"
The Moralia mission had gone successfully. Barely five hours after issuing a state of emergency, Moralia had admitted defeat. Taribia had shown what became of those who attempted to take advantage of Celestial Being. Now Moralia had shown the world what happened to those who challenged them.
"Does it even matter?"
"The world is in no short supply of fools. At the very least the world's actions could prove to be quite entertaining," Alejandro said
"I suppose I understand."
Alejandro grinned at his companion. " I knew you would, Revive."
Pacific Islands
It was nightfall when the Gundam Meisters landed at the rendezvous point. They docked the Gundams and went out onto the beach. Tieria had wanted to discuss the mission. Judging from his expression, he had some choice words.
"Am I to understand you encountered difficulty on your part of the mission, Ribbons Almark?" Tieria demanded.
Ribbons shrugged. "More of a minor inconvenience,"
"Someone chosen to be a Gundam Meister should not be so incompetent," Tieria stated. "If anything like that happens again, I will finish you myself. That will at least protect the secret of the GN drives."
"My apologies," Ribbons said calmly. His words only seemed to make Tieria more cross.
"Hey! Listen up you guys, something terrible just happened!" Ian shouted as he ran towards them.
"What's going on, old man?" Lockon demanded.
"Seven major cities were attacked by terrorist simultaneously."
"How many?" Lockon questioned.
"Terrorist attacks," Ribbons muttered to himself.
"Were there any casualties?" Allelujah asked.
"Well, they used time bombs in train stations and business districts. They weren't large explosions, but they targeted places where people were gathered. I heard that at least a hundred people lost their lives in the blasts," Ian informed.
Allelujah's gaze fell to the ground. "That's just terrible."
Lockon's terminal began to ring and the meister "It's me."
Wang Liu Mei's voice came out of the terminal. "Attention, Gundam Meisters. Moments ago those responsible for the simultaneous attacks released a statement of responsibility to the networks. Unless Celestial Being ceases their armed interventions and disarms, they will continue to engage in indiscriminate retaliatory attacks around the world."
"So in fact, this was really aimed at us," Tieria noted.
"Which organization made these statements?" Allelujah questioned.
"That's unknown. Meisters, please remain on standby until we receive an investigative report from our agents," Wang Liu Mei ordered before ending the call.
"I don't know who they are or where they're from but they've stirred things up," Lockon said as he put away his terminal.
"Blackmailing us by mass murder," Allelujah added with disgust.
Tieria scoffed. "What did they think? That this would stop us from carrying out our interventions?"
"Are you serious, Tieria?!" Lockon snapped.
Ian was just as angry. "Innocent civilians were victims here and you don't feel anything."
"No I don't. All of our plans did forecast that there was a possibility of something like this happening," Tieria replied.
"Callous bastard," Lockon retorted.
Tieria looked slightly amused. "What's the matter? Usually you're the one acts like he doesn't have a care in the world."
Lockon grabbed Tieria by the collar. "Shut up, you bastard
"Do you despise terrorism that much," Tieria asked nonchalantly.
"You don't?" Lockon countered
"To the world at large, we're nothing but a bunch of terrorist too," Tieria answered with a hint of smugness.
"Do you have a problem with me hating them?" Lockon hissed. Tieria slapped his hand away and the two continued to glare at each other.
Ribbons stepped between the two. "Now, now. Let's not get carried away. We have a new mission. Terrorism is just another form of warfare. As Celestial Being, we wont' take this lying down.
Lockon stormed off into the forest.
Ribbons looked over at the others. "I better go check up on him."
He strolled through the forest and caught up to Lockon. The other man was stewing in his rage near the river.
"I never thought I'd see you losing your temper," Ribbons said.
"Couldn't help it."
"This has to do with your past, doesn't it? Something to do with terrorists," Ribbons concluded. Since their identities were classified information, none of the Meisters had gone into detail on their lives before Celestial Being. Given his comrade's reaction, Ribbons had reached a logical conclusion. Lockon's silence only answered his question.
"Give Veda some time. It won't be long before some information turns up," Ribbons said. "And while Tieria may have been out of line, he did have point. Something like this was going to happen."
"I know that, but it doesn't make it easier," Lockon muttered.
"Just be patient. As I said before, we won't let them get away with this. We are Celestial Being after all."
A week later, Celestial Being wiped out the terrorist group responsible for the attacks, La Edenra.
2308 A.D: Kingdom of Azadistan
"Are you really so eager to fight the Gundam again?" Soran asked Ali while the two got out of their vehicle. Close to them were two more vehicles full of their comrades.
"This is just another job, kid. Celestial Whatever isn't a part of it," Ali replied.
"They will be. You know that," Soran countered.
"All in good time," Ali said as the others prepared themselves. They had their rifles loaded and concealed themselves as best they could.
Soran scoffed. "You didn't need to come with us."
Ali chuckled. "I don't want you acting up and messing things up this early."
Soran remained silent as their men rushed pass them and stormed the mosque. The two kept up at a moderate pace while gunfire rang through the building. The men shot all opposition and found the room they were looking for. They rushed in and had their weapons pointed at the group inside. Soran and Ali came in right behind them. There were several men in the room. Only one mattered.
Rasa Massoud Rachmadi, the Imam and leader of the Conservative party. Most importantly, he was their target.
Rachmadi stared them down, unfazed by their weapons. "And who are you? Do you have any idea where you are?"
Soran stood and watched as the others got to work. He never took his eyes off Rachmadi.
Author's Note: I'm skipping the HRL capture and superhuman institute missions because there wouldn't be much to change. At this rate, I'd expect to finish season one at around ten chapters give or take.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.