Episode 7: Unexpected Developments

The year is After Colony 205. After successfully carrying out a coup d'etat, Mikol Esroni has Mars secede from the ESUN and begin building up military force. On Earth, the Preventer Corps and the Gundam pilots prepare for war. It has been only eight years since the Mariemaia Coup, and already, the peace is fading…

Lady Une was in her office when Quatre walked in. She looked up and said, "Hello, Quatre. What can I do for you?"

"Actually, I came to tell you that we, that is, the other Gundam pilots and I, are offering our services, should this unrest turn to war."

"Oh… I suppose you'll want your Gundams rebuilt, then?"

Quatre nodded. "One thing, though. You won't have to rebuild Wing. Heero won't be piloting."

"Okay," Une made a mental note. "Do you have the blueprints, or are we going to have to make this up as we go?"

"Right here," Quatre held up a disk.

"Thanks," Lady Une said, taking it. "I'll give you a call when they're finished."

"Glad to be of service," Quatre said, and left the office.

Duo was working out in the junkyard when Hilde shouted to him from the house, "Duo! Phone!" He came in. As she handed he receiver to him, she whispered, "It's Lady Une."

Duo held the receiver up to his ear and mouth and said, "Yo!"

"Hello, Duo," came Lady Une's bemused reply. "Listen, I need you to gather up some MS parts suitable for use in Gundams. Do you think you could do that?"

"Sure thing," Duo said. "How do I get them to you?"

"I'll send someone to pick them up. Thank you, it will really speed up construction." Lady Une hung up.

"Aaaall righty then," Duo said, putting the receiver down and cracking his knuckles. "To work!"

Mariemaia entered the house where she and Lady Une, her adoptive aunt, lived and walked upstairs to her room, where she collapsed, face up, onto her bed. Why did I react that way? She thought to herself. It's not as if I didn't suspect that he liked me…… maybe what it was, was that I was so thrown off balance by how much he was willing to spend on me, that when he said, 'I love you,' it just sort of overwhelmed me, that instant where I glimpsed how deep his feelings for me are. It was scary. Of course, Zhacque probably has no clue why I acted the way I did. He's probably mentally beating himself up right now, all over my stupid reaction. Mariemaia groaned and rolled over onto her stomach. You've managed to royally mess things up again, Mariemaia.

Zhacque was, in fact, mentally beating himself up. God, you stupid human, he thought, tears of anger and frustration welling in his eyes, why did you have to fall in love with her? Hewaited for an answer from himself, but knew there would be none.

Why do I always feel so strongly for women, he wondered miserably, who will never return my feelings? Why is it that no one can love me? he asked, but no answer came. Zhacque lay on his bed, crying silently and wallowing in depression. Through it all, one question echoed painfully in his mind: Why can't I be loved?

Governorof Mars Mikol Esroni looked over the assembled fleet of brand-new Medusa mobile suits. "Very impressive, General," he said to the man standing next to him. Edmund Remek of the Aresian Military Service was a wiry man with a perpetually stern expression and eyes that gleamed with anticipation.

"I have your approval to go ahead, then, Governor?"

"Yes, you do." Esroni sat silently as Remek passed the order to proceed with the operation on to the pilots in their MS.

In Mars orbit, 4 MS carriers fired up their drives and moved off in the direction of Earth. A shuttle departed from one and fell back to the planet.

The next day found Roche Nattono's unit fighting not themselves, but computer-controlled opponents.

"Be warned," Roche had said, "that I will be controlling one of the enemies."

Mariemaia was in charge of their unit for this mission, and she had designated Zhacque as her second-in-command and to lead the second squad.

"Alright, people, we're in Preventer Virgos. The thing we have to remember is, Do not, under any circumstances, let the enemy get you into melee combat. Understood?"

There was a chorus of affirmatives.

"Good. In that case, let's-" what she was going to say, she completely forgot, because the enemy chose that moment to arrive. Their screens went black, their cockpit hatches opened, and Roche shouted: "Follow me! Our main fleet is under attack and has called for reinforcements!"

Derec Sanjer fidgeted with his controls as the MS carrier began disgorging its Medusa troops. His squadron was furthest aft in the hold, and he was afraid that they might miss the battle. He glanced at the countdown on one of his display screens. "15 minutes to go," he muttered to himself.

Roche Nattono led the training unit into the hangar at a run. "Take those Virgos!" he shouted. Once they were in their cockpits, he rapidly hammered out a chain of command. "I command the unit and First Squad. Kushrenada, if I die, you will be in charge. As it stands, you will take Second Squad. Ensign Peters, you are part of Second Squad. Sullivan, welcome to First. Other than those changes, everyone stays in place." By then, their turn in the launch queue had come. "Launch!" Roche shouted.

Derec Sanjer launched from the carrier with his unit and immediately began scanning his screens for threats. To his right, about 50 km away, the main body of the Martian force was battling the missile-laden fleet of Preventer cruisers. Directly ahead and much further away, Vulkanus floated against a backdrop of stars. His comm crackled. "Squadron Remus, we have detected MS launches from Vulkanus. Intercept them."

"Roger that," he heard the voice of his CO reply. "Okay boys, let's go mix it up."

"Reports from the fleet indicate that the enemy suits are equipped with planet defensors, a dual-function beam rifle/sabre, shoulder-mounted missiles, and multiple additional missile launchers mounted on the head," Roche was telling the trainees over the comm. "Hold on-VCI (Vulkanus Combat Intelligence) just alerted me that an enemy squadron is headed our way. Stay on the defensive until you get a feel for the Virgo's handling."

Mariemaia looked at her displays. Because of the amount of power needed to run the life-support, displays and controls in the cockpit, the Virgos' beam cannons are only slightly better than standard beam rifles, Mariemaia smiled grimly. It's gonna be a contest to see who can destroy or overload the others' defensors first...

Sanjer snorted when he saw the Virgos clump together and deploy their defensors. So predictable. He reached for the switch that would reconfigure his beam bayonet to sabre mode.

Roche's brow furrowed. Why haven't they deployed their defensors? Oh well. I'm not one to complain when Fate hands me an opportunity. "Trainee Squadron, prepare to concentrate fire on the first enemy to attack a defensor."

Sanjer's Medusa darted forward, raising the beam bayonet to slice the defensor in two.

"FIRE!" roared Roche. Ten beams of destructive energy blasted Sanjer's MS into very hot plasma.

"Don't let your guard down!" Roche shouted. "The others might try to charge us all at once."

The Medusas had remembered to deploy their defensors by now, and charged the group. "Steady," Roche said. "Alright, begin rapid fire. We'll do less damage, but we might push them back. Go!"

Mariemaia heard Roche's orders and began firing, careful to neither overheat nor drain her weapon.

"Mariemaia," a voice on her comm said. A part of her brain not actively involved in the battle noted that only Zhacque ever called her that in the unit.

"Yeah Zhacque? What is it?" she concentrated on the MS in front of her. It had a dome-shaped head and shoulder guards like those of a Virgo.

"I have an idea that might save the unit. I've set my AI to do the shooting so I could think about it. What we need to do is reprogram our defensors to block blasts coming from inside the sphere. Then we scatter and trap the enemy inside the sphere, where we can destroy them at our leisure."

"Good idea, Zhacque. Hang on," Mariemaia commed Roche. "Sir, could I take command of the unit for a minute? There's a trick Zhacque came up with, I want to try it."

"Go ahead, Kushrenada. Trainees, Kushrenada is now in command of the unit."

"Alright, on my mark, scatter, and leave your defensors behind."

"But…!"

"That was an order," Mariemaia said coolly. "I am in charge here, and I expect my orders to be followed."

"Yes, Lieutenant," came the sheepish reply. Mariemaia paused momentarily, as if waiting for anyone else to dispute her orders, then said, quite calmly, "Mark."

The squadron scattered in multiple directions. However, some, doubting in the soundness of the plan, lagged a little bit behind the others, and were picked off by the Medusas, who then turned their attention to the surviving members of the squadron.

"Damn! Casualty report!" Mariemaia snapped at her comm. No... it was my fault... I should have explained it to them...

"Zhacque here. We've lost Peters and Nadeau."

"Sullivan reporting. Your brilliant plan got Grey killed."

"Zhacque's brilliant plan," emphasized Mariemaia, putting her grief aside, "is the reason the Martians aren't shooting us up as we speak. Fire at will."

In the cockpit of his Virgo, Roche Nattono sat back and watched, impressed, as the training unit destroyed the Martian squadron.

It later turned out that despite the brilliant tactic employed by the trainee squadron, the Martian units sent to delay the arrival of reinforcements to the cruiser fleet had served their purpose; while the Preventer Virgos were in pitched combat with the Medusas, the cruiser fleet had been all but annihilated. Worse, it was clear that the Virgos were inferior to the enemy Medusas; even discounting the fleet losses, the Preventers had suffered 59 casualties; overall, they had taken 82 losses. Only talent and luck had saved the trainee squadron from complete destruction. Oddly enough, the Martian force had retreated after destroying the fleet instead of pressing their advantage. Plans for the mass-production of the Taurus IIs were being finalized, and Preventer R&D was already hard at work designing a new mobile suit for use on the ground and in the air, the Pegasus.

That night on Vulkanus, the training unit was talking over the day's events. Suddenly Zhacque noticed someone missing.

"Where's Mariemaia?"

"She said she wanted to 'check out the hangar under less stressful circumstances.'"

Mariemaia was indeed in the hangar, looking up at the one MS still in pristine condition after the battle. Wing Zero stood poised, an angel of battle, ready to spring to action at any moment.

"Wing Gundam Zero," Mariemaia breathed. Looking around to see that that no one was watching her, she climbed up to the cockpit, opened it, got in, and closed the hatch. Her heartbeat quickened when she saw the orb in the center of the control console. Withdrawing her handheld computer from her pocket, she plugged it into Zero's computer and began searching for the Zero system software.

Zhacque looked around the hangar. Huh. It doesn't look she's here… He wasn't entirely sure why he had come looking for Mariemaia, but he had. A glint of white caught Zhacque's eye. He turned to face Wing Zero.

Mariemaia grinned gleefully. She had found it! She entered the command to begin copying the program to her handheld's memory.

Zhacque looked at the cockpit hatch, indecisive. Just a peek, he told himself. Just to see what it's like. He punched the control, opening the hatch.

Mariemaia looked up, startled, as the hatch hissed open. She found herself face-to-face with an equally startled Zhacque.

"What are you doing here?" they asked each other in unison.

Continued in Episode 8: Last Hope for Peace