Alternate Past Chapter 3: Restrained Thoughts

Gotten escorted into the room that Mannequin showed me, I started to feel nervous even more. I decided to look at the surroundings that I was in. First, I saw that there were two identical shelves on each side of the room, filled with books. There was a large, wooden desk in the middle end of this room, and there, a man with dark red hair sat in the desk. Before I tried to grasp my surroundings, Mannequin called out to me.

"Well, this is Commander Katagiri." Mannequin introduced.

Without hesitation, I marched over to the middle of the room. The man with long brown hair, with his menacing eyes started at me. He then placed his elbows on his desk and took out a piece of paper. The man then grabbed a pen that was located on a box that was on top of his desk. Noticing my presence, he then placed his pen and paper down, and glared at me.

"So, you're the pilot of that mobile suit?" Katagiri questioned.

"Yes sir. I was the pilot of that mobile suit." I firmly answered.

Hoping that I would not end up getting punished for this, I prayed. Katagiri, seemingly unsatisfied with my answer asked me another question.

"Do you realize what you just did? Your incompetence let all of the Katharon forces know our secret!" Katagiri then suddenly screamed out.

Fiercely smashing his fist on the desk, Katagiri stood up, and walked over to where I stood. He gave me a strong glare, making me anxious about what he was about to do in the process. Katagiri then pointed his finger directly to my face.

"You and your damn mobile suit! Why the hell couldn't you wait for our forces to come down instead?" Katagiri kept screaming as he said this.

"Your forces were too slow. By the time your forces arrived, the people inside that city would've been all exterminated." I countered.

"It still doesn't eliminate the fact that Katharon now knows about our secret mobile suit." Katagiri groaned out in frustration.

Frustrated, Katagiri then clenched his fists. Letting out a sigh, he marched over to his table, and sat down. Getting a bit uncomfortable myself, I decided to interrupt Katagiri.

"So, what's with my mobile suit that makes it secret?" I asked.

Hearing my question, Katagiri then stopped what he was doing. Grabbing his pen and paper from his desk, He walked up to me with his imposing figure and glared into my eyes. I forced myself backwards, feeling intimidated by the red-haired man's expression.

"Your password, what is it?" Katagiri requested.

Suddenly, my face expression changed from nervousness to worry. It seemed obvious that he was trying to hack into my mobile suit, although I wasn't really sure at the time. Clenching both my fists, I stood my ground. If this was some guy in a street asking me the exact same question, I would ignore him. But this was A-laws. With their imposing, striped green uniforms, they looked like were probably created to intimidate bypassing citizens rather than to protect. I didn't have a choice; I had to meet their demands unfortunately.

"GRIEVES" I answered.

"That's your password?" Katagiri asked again."

"Yes sir." I answered back firmly.

Katagiri, having heard my answer then walked back to his desk. He quickly took out his pen and started to write down the password on his piece of paper.

"Hey hey, you're not going to do anything with my mobile suit are you?" I asked, feeling concerned that the A-laws forces might destroy it.

"We'll see about that. Meanwhile, I'll assign you as a warrant officer here, due to the fact that you managed to save an A-laws headquarters from destruction." Katagiri ordered. He then shoved the piece of paper in his pocket.

"Commander, how can you just give away a position like that?" Mannequin protested.

Katagiri, hearing Mannequin's protest let out a tiny smirk. This caused Mannequin to slightly let down her guard.

"Louise Halevy is a worthless excuse, unlike this man here." Katagiri retorted with a smirk.

Katagiri then tapped me on my shoulder. Still having his smirk on his face, he handed me out a blue ID card.

"Here, use that to access your cabin. It should have the room number and access key included with it." Katagiri told me.

I generously accepted the card that Katagiri offered. Kati, obviously starting to get upset, protested again with a frown on her face.

"SIR! How do we know that this man is trustworthy to our forces in the current situation?!" She screamed out.

"Why? You don't want me accepting this position?" I sarcastically interrupted.

"Of course not! I can't just replace Louise with a novice like you!" Mannequin scowled.

"What? You can't be serious?" I argued back, feeling frustrated.

Katigiri, who was starting to feel under pressure, once again smashed his hand against his desk. Feeling that this argument was pointless, he quickly stood up from his desk. Katagiri then marched over to where Mannequin and I were standing, with an irritated look on his face.

"Stop this bullshit now!" The man yelled out.

Hearing that, Mannequin and I immediately stopped arguing. We both turned around to where Commander Katagiri was, and immediately saluted. Katagiri, noticing that we stopped arguing, went back to his desk, keeping his look of frustration on his face.

"Your room is C204. Go there, and stay there until I say so." Katagiri ordered.

Obeying the commander's orders, I quickly walked out of Katagiri's room. Realizing that I've been given permission by Commander Katagiri, I slowed my pace; there was no reason to rush. Walking through the hallway outside of Katagiri's room, I began reminisce about what happened this morning. Everything happened so quickly, from the grisly death of Dr. Porter, to finding the Gread. An adrenaline of mixed feelings arose from my mind as I thought about what happened today.

First I was just a patient in a hospital, and now I was a soldier in A-laws. To me, it all happened so fast that, I could not comprehend what had happened today. Stroking my long brown hair, I continued to walk down through the hallway. Turning over to the right, I looked at the sign beside a metal door, which had a intercom and a few set of buttons underneath it.

"Let's see, Room C207." I said.

Realizing that this was not the right room, I walked away from the door, feeling unsatisfied. I kept walking further, trying to find my designated room. I looked at my ID card that Commander Katagiri gave me, looking for some clues. Not knowing where I was going, I accidentally encountered someone else on my way. Unfortunately, I couldn't react to the person in front of me in time, and we both ended up colliding. We both fell backwards, not knowing what just happened. When I got up, I looked to see who it was that I bumped into; a girl. Her golden-blonde hair made contact with the floor immediately when she fell.

"Watch where you're going!" The blonde-haired girl yelled out.

Looking at her, she had a slim figure. Although she leaning towards the short side, the girl's lean, slender figure almost made up for her height.

"Sorry. I didn't realize you were in front of me." I uttered out apologetically.

Staring at me with her aqua-blue eyes, she stood up. She then reached inside her pocket, and took out an ID card. Looking at her ID, I noticed that it had the same color as mine. Taking out my own ID, I compared it to the blonde girl's. Seeing that it was the exact same except for room numbers, I had to ask what these IDs were for.

"Hey, what are these IDs for?" I quickly asked out.

The blond girl then pointed her finger at the bottom of her ID card. She had a somewhat monotone look on her face when she called me again.

"Look at the bottom of your ID card." The blond-haired girl answered.

I quickly held my ID in front, and looked at the bottom of it. Seeing that it had my room number on it, I was just about to blurt out a useless comment, until I noticed something else beside it; a code of some sort.

"What's this code here at the bottom?" I asked again, hoping for an answer.

"That's your mobile suit code." The girl answered immediately.

Louise then took out a piece of paper from her pocket, and unfolded it. Laying out the paper flat on the floor, she pointed out a certain section on the paper.

"Look here." The girl ordered.

"Uh, sure." I complied.

I looked at where the blond haired girl pointed her index finger at. I started to read that specific section to see what it was about. A moment later, a small frown arose from my face as I continued to read the section. I could tell that it wasn't very good new. Still, I kept reading along, eventually finishing the section that the girl pointed out to me.

"Why do I have to pilot a GN-X?" I whined with disappointment.

"Well, see here. It depends on your ranking in this group. Higher ranked soldiers pilot better mobile suits, while the ones in the lower ranks pilot the…..worse suits. There are exceptions though." The blond girl explained with a hint of disappointment.

Acknowledging the blond girl's words, I grabbed my card and placed it back inside my pocket. I was just about to walk further into the hallway, until the girl stopped me.

"Hey, what's your name?" The blond girl requested.

"Earl Grieves. What's yours?" I answered, and then asked back.

The blond girl then refolded her sheet, and placed it in her pocket. She then stroked her short, golden hair with her right hand.

"Name's Louise Halevy. Just call me Louise though." The blond girl replied. She then started to walk away in opposite direction from where I stood.

"So Louise, where's Room C204?" I hurriedly asked.

Suddenly, Louise immediately halted. She then turned around, raised her arms, and pointed at another metal door that was immediately beside me.

"Right there." She responded.

Louise continued to walk away after she responded to my last question. I stood there, watching Louise walk further and further away. After she completely disappeared from my sight, I turned over to my right. Looking at the door that was right in front of me, I looked at the number located on the intercom.

"Let's see, Room C204. This is it." I said to myself.

Seeing that the door that was in front of me lead to my room, I pressed one of the buttons on the intercom. Suddenly, the intercom started to buffer, and a card slot popped up. It then asked me to swap my card for access. Taking out my card inside my pocket, I quickly swiped it on the card slot.

"Access granted. Opening Door C204." The intercom buzzed out, accepting my card.

The door immediately opened, and I headed inside.

"So this is it huh?" I asked myself.

Looking at my room, I tried to grasp the surroundings in the area. No matter how I looked at it, my cabin seemed to be empty. At my right, there was a small bunk bed, with another intercom at the side. At the left side, there was another pathway, but there wasn't a door in place there; probably a bathroom. Looking straight ahead, there was a large pair of windows with adjustable curtains. I flickered on the extra light switches right beside me, since the room was quite dimly lit. An array of light quickly shined upon me.

Feeling bored, I slowly jumped onto my chair. Dragging myself over to my desk, I located a small laptop that was connected to a power source. I opened the laptop, and activated it. The laptop, having been started, sent out a message to the monitor.

"Windows Delta. A-laws version" The monitor read.

"Well well, what do we have here?" I asked myself sarcastically.

The monitor quickly showed its main screen. Wondering about what to with my laptop, I used the mouse beside the laptop to navigate. Clicking on the "Mobile suit list" function, I tried to check what types of mobile suits were in this base. When the monitor responded to my request, it showed a list of specific mobile suits. I thought that each mobile suit was tailored to a specific rank when I first saw the list at the time; the list wasn't fully correct though.

After navigating through my laptop, I shut it down. I then decided to take a quick break at the bathroom at the left end of my room. I walked into the bathroom a minute later, trying to dampen my boredom. Later, I finished using the bathroom and was just about to wash my hands until,

"Warning! All A-laws forces to their mobile suits." The intercom suddenly blurted out.

Quickly, I washed my hands, and immediately rushed out of my room. I ran out to the hallway, hoping to find the mobile suit corridor before something worse happens. I didn't notice anything when I tried to find the corridor, so I kept moving on. I ran straight ahead, passing Commander Katagiri's room. Looking at my front, I could see the mobile suit hangar just ahead. It was the same place as when the A-laws group first dragged me here.

I finally arrived to the hangar, expecting everyone to just crowd up at the hangar. When I observed the hangar, there were greenish-steel plates that surrounded all sides; workers and other robots frantically moved around trying to get their jobs done. I ran over the hangar, and spotted a spare GN-XIII that was located on the left side of the hangar. Quickly, I ran over to the red mobile suit, and jumped inside the cockpit. Suddenly, one of the workers at the hangar approached me just as I was about to start the mobile suit.

"Hey you! Be careful with that!" One of the workers called out.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me okay?" I assured.

Starting my GN-Xs, I looked over to the side. My Gread was located just at the end corner of the hangar. A few workers and their robots approached the Gread, observing and repairing the greenish mobile suit. My mobile suit then turned to the right, directly facing a steel gate. There were a few other GN-XIIIs that were in front of me, and a GN lance immediately popped out in front of where the GN-XIIs were. Grabbing the GN lance, the gate at the very front quickly flung open, making way for takeoff.

"5, 4, 3….." A large intercom on the hangar's roof counted as the GN-XIII squad prepared for takeoff.

"All right, let's see what this baby can do." I said to myself.

"2, 1, 0, Blast off!" The intercom then shouted out, right after it counted to zero.

The GN-XIII squad then soared off through the hangar gate. Each of the GN-XIIIs flew off with one mobile suit leaving right after the front one has left the gate. Eventually, it was my turn to take off. Activating my thrusters in my GN-XIII, I soared into the dark, night sky as I took off from the hangar; all sense of thought rushed out of my mind at that brief moment.

Finally, my current mobile suit stabilized, and I regained my sense of thought. Controlling my GN-XIII, I flew straight towards the other GN-XIIIs, with others catching up to me in the process. All of the GN-XIII forces soon gathered up, eventually forming rows of four. At the very back of the rows, four Aheads were dispatched in place to keep the formation in check. One of the Aheads approached forward, directly catching up to my GN-XIII in the process.

"You're new here aren't you?" The pilot of the Ahead asked.

"Well yea, I got recruited here today." I replied.

Listening to my answer, the pilot then asked me another question.

"I heard that you got a head start because of what you did today?" The pilot asked again.

"About what?" I questioned back, feeling confused.

"You know, the meeting with Commander Katagiri." The pilot verified.

Thinking that the Ahead's pilot might be suspicious of me, I tried to answer in a modest tone. I didn't want to offend a superior; it would be against my nature to do such a thing.

"Yea, I guess. I've been assigned as a warrant officer by Commander Katagiri." I answered back.

Although I felt suspicious about telling the Ahead's pilot about the "head start" thing, I didn't feel too bad about it. I was one of the lowest ranked soldiers in A-laws, seeing that I was just recruited here.

"Name's Barrack Zinin. Call me Captain Zinin." The pilot introduced himself.

"Weren't you the guy that punched me?" I questioned, feeling annoyed.

"Sorry about that. I thought that you were a criminal at first." Barrack apologized.

Normally, I would be feeling pretty sour, but for some reason, I decided to let it go this time. He is my superior at the time anyways.

"I'm Earl Grieves. Warrant Officer Grives to be exactly." I introduced back, showing a tint of gratitude.

With the pilot seemingly satisfied from my introduction, he slowed his Ahead down, and moved back to the very end of my row. We then continued forward into the seemingly endless horizon. Soon, the four groups separated for some reason, as each group headed in different directions from each other.

"What are you doing? Come along with us." The pilot in the Ahead called out.

Listening to the pilot's orders, I followed my group. Unfortunately, my group was quite a bit ahead of I was, and it took me a while for me to catch up with them. After I rejoined with my forces, I tried to ask one of the GN-XIII pilots in my group.

"So, what's going on?" I urgently asked.

No one answered. Instead, my group simply kept going to their direction. Knowing that it was useless, I quickly moved on along. Suddenly, a blue beam approached, and hit one of the GN-XIIIs in my group, knocking it backwards.

"Katharon forces!!" Barrack yelled out.

A sudden alert ran through my head, as I quickly took out my GN lance. When I looked down, a dozen Flags started to fire at my group. One of the flags then took out its blade rifle, and shot it. Our GN-XIIIs swiftly evaded the attacks in response. Taking out its lance, the GN-XIIIs started to fire back at the Flags. Barrack hurriedly flew behind the GN-X group, trying to give support.

"Keep up the pressure!" Barrack commanded.

The GN-XIIIs started to fire more rapidly as a response. With my GN lance in hand, I quickly approached one of the Flags and skewered it, taking it out. In response to my attack, the Flags then aimed their rifles at my mobile suit. The Flags then fired at my mobile suit, causing me to fall backwards as pieces of my mobile suit fell off from the attack.

"Hey! Keep yourself in control!" Barrack shouted out as he fired on one of the Flags.

"Yes sir." I answered back.

Getting my GN lance, I quickly fired it at the opposing Flags. The remaining GN-XIIIs continued to fire their rifles, eventually destroying all the Flags in the process.

"Regroup!" Barrack shouted out again.

All of the GN-XIIIs gathered around Barrack as a response. I headed to where Barrack was, curious to what the next order would be. When all of our mobile suits gathered around, Barrack's Ahead then pointed downwards to the right. Looking downwards, I spotted a large rectangular building located at the ground. Just as I was about to fly down to check, I was stopped.

"Don't go down there! I'll handle this part of the mission on my own." Barrack commanded.

He fired his rifle at the building on the ground, causing a small explosion in the process. Barrack then slowly flew down to where the building was, and stopped. The rest of our GN-X squad flew down to where Barrack was, to see what he was up to.

"Watch this." Barrack told everyone.

Barrack's Ahead then took out a long, octagonal container and opened it. Inside, there were small square boxes. Looking closer, I noticed that the boxes had two blue dots on the middle. All of the pilots that were in our group seemed to wonder what the boxes were as well.

"Listen up everybody. These are called Automatons." Barrack said as he pointed inside the container he was holding.

"What do they do?" One of the pilots in the GN-XIII asked.

"Is it cute and cuddly?" Another pilot asked curiously in a feminine voice.

I facepalmed at the question asked by the second pilot. Just as I was about to remind the second pilot how stupid her question was, Barrack interrupted.

"4th Squad! Pay attention!" Barrack yelled out, causing all the GN-XIIIs to look at Barrack's Ahead as a result.

Barrack then dumped his container into the newly formed hole in the building. Small square boxes quickly dropped from the container, and eventually landed inside the hole.

"We're done here. Let's leave the area." Barrack ordered.

Barrack's Ahead then started to fly away from where he was. Listening to Barrack's orders, our group quickly followed Barrack's Ahead, trying to catch up to our leader in the process. Eventually, we managed to catch up to Barrack's Ahead. Feeling curious, I decided to ask a question.

"What was that rectangular building?" I asked.

"It's a Katharon base." Barrack answered.

"So, what were those Automatons do?" I asked back.

Barrack then stood silent for a minute. Wondering what happened to Barrack, I sent him a transmission.

"These things just keep our area in check." He answered.

Our group continued to travel through. Looking at the sky, it was still pitch-black, with the moon shining out in the dead center of the atmosphere. Feeling bored, I decided to set my GN-X on autopilot. Feeling sneaky, I hid the monitor inside my GN-X, and opened the network system.

"Well, hope this thing has internet." I snickered.

Just as I was about to browse the internet inside my GN-X, my monitor popped out again. I was just about to see what was up with my monitor, until a transmission popped up.

"Don't browse the internet on your GN-X. You'll get reprimanded for that. This goes for all of you others in the group as well." Barrack warned.

"Yes sir." We answered back in unison.

After a while, our group then noticed our base. Knowing that our group would be arrived soon, we turned on our thruster to speed up. Suddenly, a red, bulky approached out of nowhere, and crashed onto my mobile suit, knocking both of us back in the process; an Ahead.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

Barrack sighed with disdain.