GUNDAM SEED ETERNITY
Editor: xlandar
Episode 14: Trial Run
"ORB?" Ralph laughed, "ORB is going to be a goner. That was just a warning. It goes to show, they can't even protect themselves well!"
"But attacking with tankers." The man frowned slightly. "You may have underestimated ORB."
"Underestimate them?" Ralph sneered, "did you see how shocked they were? That we can actually hide our tankers there. They didn't expect that."
The man nodded slightly. Irina scowled in disgust and Ain laughed silently at her reaction. That was when the man turned to them, "I am privileged to be able to meet your pilots. I had not expected you to bring them along as well."
"The past practice was to hide our contacts from each other and that was why we had never succeed all this time," as he spoke, Ralph's eyes looked meaningfully at the two pilots.
"Do you mean to say that we have been doing things the wrong way?" the man asked sternly.
"No, I do not. But there has to be some other way of doing things that may yield better results." Ralph answered anxiously.
"We had a lot of success. To be able to do so many things, it is a breakthrough."
"Yes, a breakthrough…." Ralph looked around anxiously. If that man refused to work with him, then he is left all alone again! Irina and Ain would refuse to help him, and Xan could care less. He needs their support. That was the reason why he is out here on the moon now. "But what's after that?"
"Are you sure you know what is going on, Mr. Ralph?"
"Yes, of course I do. But after the big bang and everything, there is nothing else. What is on the news now? ZAFT trying to make peace with EAF and EAF soldiers rescued by ZAFT. What else is there? Nothing else! Our plot is almost over. We need to do something. If Earth and ZAFT work together to root us out, their strengths will be more than doubled."
"Which is why we are so secretive. Truth to tell, Mr. Ralph, I had objected to meeting you. Only the news of the death of Rayzak had led me to accept your proposal of meeting. If you are truly the man who killed Rayzak, you must be capable of something more. If that is the case, I shall be waiting for the news of your success." The man stood up and made to leave. Ralph stood up instantly. How can he let him go without even knowing his name? That shall lead to more teasing by Irina and Ain!
"I heard," Ralph called, "that you had secured the ultimate system against the ZAFT and the EAF. I am very interested to see what it is like. That was the reason behind my request to see you. It was a huge success, I heard, and I am here to celebrate your glory with you."
"If that is the case," the man smiled, "then you are welcome as our guest. We shall show you and your team what we have." The man looked now at Irina and Ain, who smirked back. "It may be on a testing stage now, but I shall invite our pilots to try them out themselves."
"Interesting." Ain grinned.
The man nodded and left. He walked into his office, and summoned Spensers to his room. "Spensers," he said when they are alone in the room, "have your son prepare to pilot the O tomorrow. We shall have a test with our partners."
"A test?"
"We have yet to test the O's system in a fight, haven't we? Well, one of our partners, our counterpart from PLANTS has arrived. They brought some pilots with them. We will test the system against their pilots."
"You say arrived?"
"Yes, of course."
"But haven't we always kept our distance? We, the lunar group, do not meet the PLANTs or Earth groups unnecessarily."
"Well, time has changed. They are here, and we need to test the system. So we'll make use of it."
"Yes, I will have Zack prepare for it then."
"Good."
Because of this arrangement, the lunar group of the terrorist had to prepare for the stay of the PLANTs group. Irina could not have wrinkled her nose more about the conditions in which they had to stay in, but Ain merely laughed it away, stating that he had lived in smaller rooms and with lesser food. "Xan is lucky he is to stay and protect our base." Irina grumbled as she kicked the chair out of her way.
"He is missing out, in my opinion." Ain objected. "What ultimate system? I would want to try it out on my own! I shall kick its ass tomorrow, you shall see."
"Be careful yours aren't kicked."
"You could not be damper in spirits." Ain teased.
"I will have you know. I have seen Mott before. He is a man who knows what he is doing. If he says it is the ultimate system, then I have high expectations of the system."
"You met him before?" Ain tilted his head to face Irina.
"Of course. I was always by Master's side, I will have you know."
"Even in the bed, I see!" Ain grinned.
"I won my position with my skills!" Irina snapped, glaring at him with her might.
"What are you so uptight about? This is nothing new. Everyone's been saying it since forever."
"Prepare yourself for tomorrow." Irina said irritably. "I, for one, would love to see your butt kicked."
"Siding yourself with dear Mott already?" Ain called as Irina left the room. His comment was answered with the bang of the door meeting its frame.
When tomorrow arrives, Ain was full of confidence. He looked at the tiny machine facing him and grinned. There is no way this machine can win his GUNDAM. And he bet the pilot does not know how to fight in space. It will be a good warming up exercise, but not more than that, he regretted. Still, it is better than nothing, and he waited for the command to start.
The command came in a form of a shot from the Lunar group's spaceship. Ain charged forward without hesitation and the other unit follow suit. Ain raised his sword, for guns are not allowed in this trial run. The pilot was slow, but able to keep up at least. He could tell that the pilot was not used to battle. Each move was painfully carried out, as if something was pulling him back. But that was no surprise. Zack has no wish to fight at all. He was only following the orders of his father, who follows the orders of their leader, Mott. He was ordered to fight, and he must fight. The other side was not only fast, but also strong. Zack was having a hard time keeping up.
"Zack, you only need to keep up, that is all." A voice came over the communications system. "We are only testing the system. Just keep up until the other unit runs of battery."
"Yes." Zack replied as his unit was locked sword to sword with the other. He breathed out when they finally pulled apart. That was when he realised that he had been holding his breath all along. He lifted his hand to wipe it against his face, and realised that he was wearing the helmet when his hands hit glass. "There he comes again," Zack muttered, almost groaning. He is not used to this at all.
They entered into the sixth hour of battle. Zack knew that both of them are running out of energy physically. Their movements were slowed considerably. While the O can still run without problems, he wondered how long he will last.
By the time he heard his father's voice, he had already lost count of the time. "Zack, good job, my boy. The other side has surrendered. They ran out of power."
"The O is still at full power," Zack replied though he felt tired.
"Good. Now, come back." Zack followed his father's orders and docked the O properly before resting against the seat. It was when he came down that one of the technicians told him to meet up with the others. His father came down to fetch him, which was a surprise to him. When they reached the room, his father reminded him not to speak unless told to.
They were to dine with their counterpart. He heard from his father that the experienced pilots of the PLANTs group who had been successful in the attacks of PLANTs were there as well. They were to meet up with the new leader and his men as well as with Mott. There was nothing to worry about, his father had promised. Yet, he could feel the eyes of everyone on him as they entered the room.
"So you are the pilot of that puny GUNDAM. Is that a GUNDAM?" A man in denim jacket spoke first.
"That is an O." Zack tried not to show any sign of weakness.
"It is only a little smaller than your GUNDAM." His father added, his power shown in his voice. That man looked up at him.
"This is Ain Mursil, the pilot whom you fought with earlier." Another male's voice put in. Zack turned to look at him. He does not look as if he is the leader of the PLANTs counterpart. Yet, Zack knew that the seat in which he sat was reserved for a man in that position. "My name is Ralph, and I am intrigued by your machine."
"Your unit is certainly fascinating." Ain interrupted. "How could it had gone on and on without running out of battery, I wonder."
"It runs on a CPS system that allows using the JCS (Jocus) so that the power supply is continuous." Zack replied.
"CPS? Jocas?" Ain repeated. "In other words, you are saying that this system will run on endless power supply?"
"If it is launched right."
"What is the right way to launch?" Ain continued.
Before Zack could answer though, Mott interrupted. "Let's all sit down and have dinner while we chat." Zack and his father sat down and dinner was soon served.
"So what is the right way to launch?" Ain reminded Zack as he cut his beef, "you have not answered my question."
"You need to pump the Jocus with the CPS when you launch. Once that is done, the power will run on infinite supply."
"Pump? Where? Does it pump on the inside or on the outside?"
"Inside the O itself. There is a mechanism that will pump in the particles in the CPS."
"Particles?" Ain laughed, "so you are a scientist now? You talk particles?"
"It is the particles that made the system run on infinite power supply." Zack tried to ignore his mockery.
"What particles?"
"Molecules." Zack said, feeling uncomfortable.
"So, we are on molecules now! What's next? Oxygen? Hydrogen?"
"Those are molecues." Zack held onto his fork and knife tighter.
"Nevertheless," Ralph interrupted, "I am amazed that you can actually come up with something like this. I heard that you were part of the team who invented it?"
"The girls were the ones who worked on it."
"What girls?" Irina asked immediately, "your girlfriend?"
"Zack is too young to have girlfriend. He remains devoted to the Lunar group, and does not get distracted," Spensers immediately answered.
"Nobody is saying anything about distracted, right, Ain?" Irina turned to her comrade.
"That's right." He agreed. "There is no need to get so uptight."
Zack did not like them at all. They laugh and tease and mocked them. Even as Mott remains silence to all these, he can tell that his father is upset about it. Their leader, the man who introduced himself as Ralph, did not stop them. He merely watched along with Mott. At the end of the day, Zack watched as his father confronted Mott in his office. Mott did not offer any explanation, but merely said that they are comrades, and a little teasing is fine. Personally, Zack did not feel any comradeship from them. Instead, he felt as if they are enemies who came to make fun of them. Mott seems to be watching their leader though. From what he knew, Mott never did offer his name to Ralph, who tried to be amiable and encouraging.
"What did you think of them?" Mott asked him suddenly.
Zack was surprised but answered as truthfully as he could. He had learnt to respect his leader. "I think there is some internal struggle. Their leader seems to be trying to get our support, but their pilots are very arrogant. They don't even look at their leader once other than to mock him."
"And openly they do too." Mott remarked. "We may do well to watch them carefully."
"I will ask someone to watch them," his father replied immediately.
"That will be good." Mott replied. After some casual talk, they departed from the room and his father told him to rest for the day. Alone, he walked down the corridors leading to his room. When he heard some noise coming from ahead, Zack stepped softly ahead. It was Ralph and the pilots.
"So you think you are so great now huh?" the female pilot mocked.
"You had better to learn your respect for me, Irina!" Ralph thundered at her, his face red with rage.
"Respect? What respect is there? You know anything, Ain?" Irina turned to Ain.
"I have no idea. Where is it?" Ain pretended to look around.
"Where is it?" Irina turned back as if to ask Ralph.
"You!" Ralph charged at Irina, but was stopped by Ain.
"Wocha!" He exclaimed, holding Ralph's fist in his palm.
"Me?" Irina interrupted, "I am respect? Looky here! He called me Respect!"
"That is a good name, but unfortunately, it doesn't suit you, Irina." Ain laughed along.
"Let – GO! I warned you –" Ralph struggled and pulled himself away.
"Warn? You don't know anything about warning." Irina now stepped closer to him. She stick his face right up to his, with barely one centimetre between them, "I had warned you before, hasn't I? You traitor who killed Master should watch out before your own throat is cut!"
--End of Episode 14--