Author Note: Well, after seeing all the reactions to Indigo Release (including a very lively and interesting debate in the forums, under RW Discussions: the Story As Is topic) I decided that it just wouldn't be fair to keep rolling on full steam ahead into the events of Crimson Justice without giving you all a breather and a chance to see the reactions to both City of Tears and Indigo Release from various perspectives. Too much action, too quickly, makes for overload and that would diminish the impact of the kick butt chapters later in this arc, and I just can't have that. So I'm adding a chapter, this one, Emerald Remorse, between Indigo Release and Crimson Justice, to be then followed by Black Ghosts, Silver Hell, Ochre Sky and Golden Devils. There may be another additional chapter added between Ochre Sky and Golden Devils, it all depends on how chapters turn out, and if I feel that all the proper plot points have been getting the proper amount of attention and stage time. In any case, now for some aftermath, angst and plenty of anger, the three A's of a good reflection chapter.
xxxx
Earth, Orb territorial waters, roughly 10 km out to sea from Villa Pacfica, Jan 2nd, dusk
From his current altitude, loafing along in the Simurgh's Mobile Armor mode at about fifteen thousand feet, Orb's main island and clusters of satellite islands looked like nothing more than a great big emerald and grey shelled beetle, half crushed by a careless footstep before being incased in a massive droplet of amber sap that was the Glasshouse shields. And the analogy of a crushed beetle was more apt than Athrun liked to admit, considering the soul searching and sick-at-heart confusion that had overtaken at least the nation's leadership and military forces after the disasterously inconclusive battle at Victoria Spaceport, and then, of course, the unprecedented catastrophe of the Blue Monday attacks! The entire nation was reeling, emotionally and intellectually, and no one knew what to say or where to stand on any of a host of frighteningly important and distrubing matters! No one had any answers, perhaps least of all Athrun himself, and so he had retreated to a place of solitude in order to confront his own personal feelings and get his head on straight again, under the pretext of making sure the Simurgh's repaired parts were all functioning correctly.
Unfortunately, he'd been making slow circuits of Onogoro and Kaguya islands for almost three hours now and his heart and mind didn't feel one iota closer towards closure, acceptance or even understanding! He'd already far exceeded the most conservative estimate he'd given to Cagalli, and knew he was probably in for quite the scathing talking to when he finally did return the Simurgh to the concealed hanger built into the hillsides near the Pacifica, and connected to the house secure bunker via underground tunnels. On the other hand, Cagalli knew better than just about anyone exactly how badly the confrontation with Kira had messed him up on an emotional level, she was likely to cut him some slack, just this once, as long as he didn't keep her up till midnight or some ungodly hour. Allister was waiting to see him too, and he certainly didn't want to disappoint his son... that was something Cagalli WOULD definitely rip him a new one for, and deservedly so. They were already placing too much stress on the young prince as they were, he deserved to spend time with both of his parents while he had the chance!
The sun was an enormous bloody ball quickly sinking towards the horizon, already casting much of Orb's landmass into shadow, and Athrun could not help a chill crawling up his spine as he watched the sun's radiance dye the water the color of blood in long streaks that seemed to reach out from the horizon like the trembling fingers of a dying man, to brush against the amber shell of the Glasshouse, unable to penetrate Orb's shield, which kept it safe and... isolated... from the rest of the world and the events going on in it. Orb had always prided itself on its non-interference in the squabbles and conflicts, petty or powerful, of other nations, save of course when those nations tried to involve Orb via force, but Athrun was beginning to wonder if they had not somehow crossed the line between "cautiously distant" and "willingly blind" sometime in these past eight years. A part of him had always known there was more going on behind the scenes of the USN, personal experience with Durandel made that a conclusion that was impossible to ignore. But the sheer scale of the inhumanity displayed towards those who differed only subtley in genetic structure from the accepted "norm" of the USN was simply inconceivable to him. Durandel was a Coordinator who'd lived through both Valentine Wars. If anyone should be against genetic discrimination, one would think it would be him!
Inconceivable it might be, but irrefutable it was not, though he had not seen the evidence of the MAIDEN attack with his own two eyes, having made the decision to check in on Yzak and Katie after being shot down by Kira, Athrun had actually missed pretty much the entire battle of Victoria Spaceport, something he was actually glad for. From Dearka and Miriallia's description, it hadn't been anything to be proud of being part of. And then had come the reports from the Stormhounds and the Endymion, stating that they were conducting a tactical withdrawal because of "damage suffered", a bald faced lie, even though the Stormhounds had suffered several losses, they were more than capable of continuing the battle. The damage suffered had been to their sense of moral confidence, to the idea that this was a regretful but still righteous battle over a site of strategic military importance. That idea was very hard to maintain in lieu of seeing a Nanoweapon with no other purpose other than the express extermination of living things affected by Green EDEN deployed behind enemy lines and over a enemy city, albeit an evacuated one.
A Nanoweapon that took the form of a sparkly white mist deployed from the air from the upper atmosphere or low orbit, which ignited any Green EDEN infused matter it came into contact with, burning down structures in minutes that could take multiple beam cannon strikes without even smouldering, and turning people into instant torches and then blackened skeletal outlines. In other words, a Nanoweapon that EXACTLY matched Kira's descriptions of how the fire had progressed at Rex Lodge, the fire that had claimed the lives of Lacus, Akira and Aoi! Which had convinced Athrun, and a good many others, that Kira had been right... the deaths of his family were intentional murder, sanctioned by someone high up in the USN power structure, a thought which got his blood boiling even in passing! Cagalli had already authorized a thorough investigation into MAIDEN and its prior uses via Orb's intelligence services, and even Lexi as well, but the USN had covered its tracks well, and they'd made frustratingly little progress. But they WOULD find out, and Athrun would see justice done if he had to take the Simurgh out to do it himself! It was far less than Lacus and the children deserved, but it was all they could now offer.
Furthermore, Mu, Katie and Yzak had all reported feeling a large scale psychic trauma event short before Kira had completely suprassed himself and practically singlehandedly routed the remaining USN forces. Athrun still found it hard to accept talk of "death echoes" and the like, even though he really knew he should be used to it by now, and he had no reason not to trust his friends. It just went against the grain of his upbringing, the desire to rely on facts he could personally see, feel and experience in order to make decisions, rather than relying on the testimony of others, even trusted others. There hadn't been time to investigate the cause of this psychic event, but given that all three Clyne Faction... now Royalist Faction... Newtypes had reported a sensation like that of thousands upon thousands of people of all ages being burned to death rapidly all at once, Athrun didn't have to be half a smart as he was to figure out what had happened, especially once he backdoored his way into the USN strategic command plot, with some help from Lexi and found out where some of the RIP units had been deployed, away from the battle but right in the middle of the city.
It had been Mu who had stopped Athrun, in a moment of incandescent rage, from seeking out Supreme Commander ze Burrel and slowly atomizing the treacherous louse into gritty red paste beneath the heels of the Simurgh. Such an action, no matter how justified, would only result in a irreconcilable gulf opening up between the USN and Orb, and that was no decision to make hot headedly. Besides, what would killing Rey really accomplish in the long run? Such an act of blatant mutiny during time of war would only polarize the USN officers, many of whom might be otherwise sympathetic to Orb, against them and result in Orb being declared a rogue nation by Durandel, who would be certain to be less than understanding of what he would see as his adopted son's murder. And the USN had already demonstrated its willingness to ignore any and all rules of civilized warfare during this conflict, if it suited their purposes, and the thought of SPF warships raining orbital bombardments down onto Orb's shores made his heart clenched with mingled rage and panic, because there was little Orb could realisticly do to prevent such a thing, at the current time!
Even with the loss of the Monolith and the crippling of its escort fleet, the main Solar Protection Fleet still had three Incarnates, almost twenty Myrmidons, and hundreds of Armstrong, Nazca, Gamow, Nelson, Agammemnon and Drake class ships to back them up, plus the Rememberance, ZAFT's supercarrier. Against that, Orb could conceivably muster five Izumi class ships, two Archangel II class ships, 6 Defender class heavy destroyers, the Endymion and the Dawnblade battlecruiser, which might... MIGHT... be able to go toe to toe with an Incarnate as long as the dreadnaught's escorts didn't get involved. Even then, it was iffy, the Incarnates were just so blasted powerful in a ship vs ship scenario, it might come down to as much luck as skill or technology. At best, Orb could hope to tie up maybe half of the SPF, the other half would be free to do as it wished, and those wishes would be Orb's doom. Distasteful as it might be, caution was clearly the only rational course of action, though Athrun had vowed to one day personally "discuss" matters of honor and good conduct with Rey ze Burrel, if at all possible.
On a more personal, private level, the confrontation with Kira before the battle proper could hardly have gone much worse than it had, in Athrun's opinion. He didn't really know what he'd been expecting to have happen, just... not that! Yzak was still completely unapproachable on the subject, as far as he was concerned, Kira was siding with Frost against Orb now, and that was something that could not be forgiven nor excused, not even for a trusted friend and ally of more than a decade. Athrun held out some hope that Katie would eventually get him to back down a bit, once he'd started coming to terms with the loss of his mother, heartless as it was to say. Athrun knew very well what it was like to lose a beloved parent to a senseless act of hatred, he'd been pretty out of control himself during the wake of the Bloody Valentine. Of course, he had been fifteen at the time, and Yzak was a married man in his early thirties now, but Ezalia had been the only parent Yzak had ever known, and the way Frost had killed her and dumped her... that made it a bit more traumatic than hearing your mother had died in a nuclear sneak attack. Sort of. There was no non-traumatic way to lose a mother to an act of incomprehensible violence, whatever the scale.
So Yzak had retreated into anger and confrontationalism, as he ever did when he was feeling hurt and confused and betrayed, while at the same time Dearka had resorted to his old persona of detached sarcasm and biting comments, nitpicking at his friends in order to cope with his own stresses and issues, not least the recent news from the PLANTS, that listed his parents and three older sisters as still MIA in the wake of the Blue Monday attacks. And Athrun himself just found himself feeling hopelessly out of his depth, not sure what to think about who. On one level, he still held unshakeable faith that Kira was and alway would be his friend, that recent events were just an unfortunate misunderstanding, or Kira being misled by others. On the other, he realized that Kira was a grown man who had made his choices, and those choices put him at odds with his friends and family, a regular civil war scenario, and that no matter his or Kira's personal desires, there was no going back to the innocent, happy times they'd shared before. It was unnerving how similiar everything was to how it had been during those months late in the First Valentine War, following the infiltration of Heliopolis and the pursuit of the Archangel! Kira was once more his enemy, and once more, Athrun could not bring himself to fully harden his heart against his wayward friend.
Which was one reason why he'd lost their little scrap earlier, he just couldn't bring himself to really go all out against Kira. He'd done that once before and both of them had almost ended up dead because of it. Even back then, Kira had been the better pilot between them, the Aegis had just lost power to its armor when Athrun had utilized his most desperate ploy, grabbing hold of the Strike and activating his self destruct sequence. It had only been the slight difference in the capabilities of his machine and his training as a soldier that let him push his boundaries a little further than Kira had expected that had allowed him to prevail in that battle, if destroying both machines and ending up in a hospital bed for days could be considering winning! He'd always had an edge over Kira back then, especially in that fight, in that he had chosen to be a soldier, while Kira was still just a bit reluctant in his heart. Now the situation was reversed, now Kira was the one with far more experience and a better attitude, and unless Athrun found some way of coming to terms with treating Kira as a deadly foe, he was doomed to never even standing a chance against the Lucifer in combat.
In the aftermath of Victoria, Athrun had tormented himself with the idea of instead finding a way to set aside his entirely rational hatred for Frost to accept Kira's offer, to stand together once more, though on the side of the Edenites. After seeing the sort of war the USN was actually trying to wage behind the scenes, Kira's arguements about Durandel being a greater threat and monster than Frost had been making an uncomfortable amount of sense. Enough so that Athrun had been resolved to trying to convince his friends once more, in Kira's stead, that perhaps siding with the USN was not what they should really be doing, that the Edenites were undoubtedly the aggrieved party here, and while that still didn't excuse their attack on Orb, at least there might be a slight chance for talks of some sort between the nations, right? Nobody in Orb would appreciate the idea of being the USN's unwitting patsy and accomplice in a war of genocide, and to continue supporting Durandel's regime now that they knew the truth of the Reclamation War's purpose was unthinkable for any morally righteous person or government!
And then New Years eve and day had rolled around, and the entirety of human space was rocked by the events of the Blue Monday attack by Edenite special forces on Aeon 1, 5 and 12, and especially Second Earth 3! The greatest single event loss of life not just of modern history but of ALL history! Carried out on a target with next to zero military value, during the height of a public holiday, when the colonies were bulging with families getting together to celebrate the passing of another year. Using the most horrificly destructive weapon system yet devised by man, Blue EDEN, a substance many of the Royalists had far too much experience with themselves. It was nothing short of mass murder, on a scale even Frost might have trouble comprehending! Compared to the atrocity of Second Earth 3, the attack on Aeon City was barely a blip in the casualty statistics, though already, barely a day later, food panics were beginning in the remaining Second Earth colonies.
The USN stock markets had been placed under emergency freeze in the wake of the attacks, in order to prevent a complete economic collapse, instead they were merely dealing with economic panic as people sought to hoard as much money and supplies as possible, putting enormous strains on the banking and food sales sectors, stretching them to the breaking point. Jiro had already begun instituting price regulation fixes across Orb, and freezes on inflation rates as raw currency bled out of the system in whole sale lots. These were just stopgap measures though, sooner or later the USN was going to have to face the unavoidable results of losing almost ten percent of its working and tax paying population. If it weren't for the unimaginably cheap manufacturing industry provided by Red EDEN, and the ability of Namara and to some extent Lexi to step in using the networks and semi-autonomous robot fixtures to pick up the slack, things would already be at a standstill up in space! And what happened to space would eventually trickle down and hit Orb too. Entire nations would have collapsed in past eras if they had lost the same percentage of their population, much less in a single event!
As bad as what had been done to the Edenites by elements of the USN government was, in no way would it ever justify an attack like Blue Monday, in Athrun's eyes. He recalled all too well the unreasoning hatred that had taken hold of his own father after the Bloody Valentine, and to this day Athrun was still struggling to personally atone for the shame that was GENESIS and his father's actions in utilizing it. Striking back with a weapon of even greater magnitude didn't solve any problems at all, all it did was project suffering onto more people, and make them want you to suffer in turn. Athrun was truly frightened to think of what the next step of the escalation process might be, since Blue EDEN, a weapon considered unthinkable even by the man who created it, after its initial use, had just be re-introduced on a massive scale. If the Eddies were willing to start throwing Blue EDEN around, just about the only WMD to top that was pure anti-matter, and THAT was a weapon with absolutely no margins for error. Even a tiny bit of pure anti-matter, barely enough to fill a sewing thimble, could wreck a city as badly as a good sized nuclear bomb! The main cannon of the Great Endeavor had fired kilogram sized bits of anti-lithium, and those blasts had been big enough to be seen from the Moon, and felt across half the planet! The might literally be no upper limit to the damage unleashed by a large anti-matter bomb, the planet would just break apart in the aftermath!
Athrun struggled to think of a reason for the Eddie attack, but try as he might he could see no logical thought process behind the strike. It was almost enough to make him think that maybe Frost actually had been behind the whole thing, but that really didn't jibe with his knowledge of Frost. Frost hated WMDs, he considered them to suck all the fun out of life, and especially something completely cold and remorseless like Blue EDEN, that was totally fire and forget, was just not Frost's style. Besides, the Kratos had a large AMP cannon already equipped, Frost had no need for Blue EDEN if he wanted to cause mass destruction. It was just a sensless lashing out and brazen display of power. Maybe it was meant to cow and terrify the population of the USN, and had the target been some military superfortress or the SPF, maybe that might have worked. Seeing the pride of your military disintegrate into toxic dust in front of your eyes would not be good for confidence in the government's ability to win a war. But by hitting a civilian target, you would generate some fear... and one HELL of a lot of outrage! Volunteer recruitment in the USN military had jumped up by fifty thousand persons per day already, a six thousand percent increase over only three days ago!
Everyone was hot eyed and out for blood, and thus, any possibility of talks with the Edenites was simply out of the question. Much as Orb could not stomach being a patsy to the atrocities of the USN government, neither could they associate themselves with those who would launch such an attack as Blue Monday! Athrun was reasonably certain, given time and necessity, that he could have gotten over the whole "working with Frost" issue, despite what the monster had done to him and his family and friends. After all, Kira had said they only had to tolerate him as long as the war lasted, maybe only a few months, and then they could kill him with no regrets. Blue Monday... there was no getting over that. To ally with the Edenites now would be to condone the slaughter of over 456 million almost totally innocent men, women and children just trying to live their daily lives. It would be to rub shoulders with modern history's worst psycopath, and still be working for those more vile still. Anyone that used Blue EDEN deserved nothing more than to be fed to it themselves.
But to stay with the USN was to condone eight years of covert genocide and human rights violations on a scale that boggled the mind, and to stay was to be star participants in a war of genocide against people who's only real crime was to be be "born" different. Neither choice was acceptable. And option three, a forcible succession from the USN, would mostly likely end up with Orb going the way of ancient Atlantis, being blasted apart and sunk beneath the sea by the wrath of gods in heaven, or in this case, massed warships and WMDs. Jiro had let slip that "alternate plans" were being discussed, but since neither he nor even Cagalli had been invited to participate in such discussions told Athrun he really didn't want to know what kind of options were being considered in last resort. Orb was a cornered rat at the moment, and a cornered rat would fight and do anything to survive. Even if it meant forcing a "regime change" in its parent government. Get rid of Durandel's administration and most of their problems would go away. All it required was assassinating a man who, like it or not, was the legally elected highest representative of Government in the Solar System. Which would also lead to Orb's annihilation if they were caught doing it, or even after doing it. Not to mention completely sullying every aspect of Orb's national character for generations.
The sun sunk below the horizon, the bloody tinge finally fading from the water's surface. Athrun remained uncheered as he turned the Simurgh for home. Illuminated by the bloody light of dusk, Orb had been a remorseful, emerald green beetle, a fly trapped in amber with nowhere to escape. Now, in darkness, Orb was simply gone, all lights blacked out for wartime concerns... he might as well have been flying through the starry void for all that he could see with the unaided eye. He could not help but feel a bad premonition about it all. Orb was definitely trapped in the dusk right now... what would become of them when darkness finally did fall? And what would be revealed when dawn's light eventually did return? Would the beetle stay vibrant and green, preserved within its amber prison? Or would the prison be gone, the beetle dried and dessicated, little more than a picked over husk of brown and black and grey? There were no easy answers. Only choices that were wrong, impossible or stupid. "I hate to say this..." Athrun mumbled through dry lips. "Lacus... we might be lost without you..."
xxxx
New Eden, Garden City, Praetorian Enclave, Jan 2nd, just before midnight
Alex held the door to Kunai's sanctum-office-warden post open as a courtesy to his superior, who looked extremely worn out after his efforts in the Exemplar the day before, and the long and tiring stealth flight back to New Eden, avoiding the USN patrols as well as any of their own people. The need for secrecy remained paramount, though there would undoubtedly be some questions about where Kunai and eleven Praetorians had been for the past three days, questions for which he had already extensively briefed and coached his chosen few on how they could and could not answer. As a more long term solution, he was going to have Yggdrasil memory wipe their recollections of the events, as he had done for the same crew during the Lacus Clyne and children extraction mission, but that would take several days, maybe even weeks, to covertly arrange one or two at a time, so for the meanwhile they would have to avoid suspicion on their own.
Kunai stomped into the room with a heavy nod towards Alex, settling himself into his desk chair with a barely audible groan of relief. Not only was there a lot of exertion involved in fighting with the Exemplar, but it, like most MS, was not designed for long distance continuous travel, and what was comfortable for a few hours quickly turned unbearable after almost seventy two hours in the same cramped cockpit, with only a few swallows of nectar and a dried ambrosia patty for substenance. You didn't want to eat or drink too much either, since MS lacked waste disposal facilties, and the Exemplar especially required that he maintain as much skin contact with the Sapling as possible to maximize the boost ratio, so he had stripped down to little more than a loincloth. Had he not been careful to regulate his food and drink intake, he would have been forced to sit in his own wastes until the end of the mission, which was something he was prepared for, but preferred to avoid, obviously.
So now here he sat, tired, cramped, hungry, thirsty and with yet another long day ahead of him in another six hours. Welcome to the Praetorians, as they would say to new hopeful recruits. He and Alex were the last of the team to arrive, the others set to arrive in ones and twos, from all different directions and different times over the past twelve hours, so that it would appear that they'd all been off on seperate, unintegrated missions or personal business, just in case anyone thought to check or pay attention. Lilia especially was already somewhat suspicious of some of his actions, after she'd noticed the delivery of the massive amount of Refined Deathstalker Venom to his desk a while back, and though it pained him to see her hurt, Frost's brutality towards her had actually panned out well for Kunai in this case, Lilia was still recuperating and thus wouldn't be snooping around for the next day or two.
Likewise, his other two senior lieutenants, Heine and Haman, were still deployed at Urbanis with Legio Direcat, aiding in the reconstruction efforts, since Urbanis and Garden City had signed a formal treaty of alliance between the two City-States after the end of the battle. Urbanis's military force, such as it was, had been nearly eliminated by the fighting, but after having a shelter bombed, military recruitment lists were full of hot eyed youths determined to find a way to protect their families and friends, and accelerated boot camp programs were already coming on line. The programs wouldn't make Custodians out of the new recruits, but would easily bring them up to the level the recruits of the USN were at upon completing their own training, where they would be able to serve as auxiliary and support forces for the better trained and experienced Custodians, who would then recruit from among the top performers of the militia battalions to replace their own losses. Who knew, they might even pick up another Praetorian or two among the lot, though that would be years down the line.
In any case, the important thing was that the only real meddler he had to worry about at the moment was Kira, and since Kira already fairly despised him, it wasn't like he had to worry about running into the Executor socially except by extreme accident. Kira spent most of his time with Hiero anyway, or off seeing Leviathan, whom he'd somehow managed to form quite a close bond with, which was troubling. Kunai's own relationship to Yggdrasil was cordial, in many ways, but there was still no question as to who was the master and who was the servant between them, it was nothing like a friendship of any sort. It was an alliance of convenience in the interest of the Greater Good. Recently, Kira had also been spending time with the Urbanis representative to Garden City, the heroic Sheriff-General Daveron Hales, who had been badly burned by MAIDEN exposure during the battle, but had survived and was now in the process of having his skin regenerated and his left arm and leg re-cloned. Strategos Gregory of Legio Ironhide also had joined that little clique, won over by his awe of Kira's performance at the end of the Urbanis battle, as had been most of the other Custodians. Kira was their hero now, and already GreenCo was losing political ground to the Children because of it, which was one of many reasons Alex, as a champion of the GreenCo philosophy, continued to openly dislike and scorn the first Executor.
It was, however, imperative that Kira did NOT learn of the mission up in space, not for a goodly while anyways, and Kunai would also pefer the general population not to know either. Many of them simply wouldn't understand the necessity of what had been done, all part of Yggdrasil's great plan. Kira in particular would freak out, and as Kunai knew better than most, when Kira was extremely pissed off, he tended to act even less rationally than usual. He didn't think Kira would abandon the Edenite cause, no, his old friend was truly committed to his role now. Too committed even, as Kunai well remembered Kira's threat to police the actions of his own side as well as those of the USN. Anyone who commited acts of genocide, which he would undoubtedly misinterpret Kunai's recent mission as, was on Kira's kill on sight list, and that, especially after the show at Urbanis, was not a comfortable place for anyone, even Kunai, to be.
Keeping it a secret wasn't as hard as one might expect. There was hardly any media from the USN that made it down to the surface of New Eden, because of the jamming effects of the high metallic content in the air due to Green EDEN particles, and what was, no one listened to, not after listening to seven years of spouted drivel, lies and propoganda while experiencing the reality of the USN's feelings in person. No Edenite would really lend any credence to USN claims of a WMD attack on their populace, they would see it as just another excuse the USN was using to escalate the war still further, for no good reason at all. In a way of putting it, it was rather like the old fable... the boy who cried wolf. The USN had been crying wolf for seven years now, even the most compassionate and reasonable Edenite knew better than to come running to help the loudmouths now. All that got you was a one way trip to space and horrors unimaginable. And unless an Edenite had been carefully watching the Moon on New Year's eve, with the right kind of light filtration and telescopic equipment to cut down the reflected glare from the light side of the Moon, there was no way anyone could have seen what had been done to the Second Earth colony.
And by now, most Edenites had grown used to the presence of objects moving in the sky, the ever present USN war and quarantine fleets always overhead, always watching. No one like stargazing anymore, it was always unfailing depressing. No one liked being reminded of the odds stacked against you when they were this bad. Kunai was not himself entirely sure why the attack was such a desirable thing though, since it had fallen short of a decapitation strike by quite a margin. Instead, all they would get was an acceleration in the USN's secret military projects and a stiffening of their resolve to fight to the end. Yggdrasil's motives remained opaque to him right now, all he could do was trust that the reasons would become clear with time. Kunai looked up from his introspections as Alex handed him a tall cup of hot, golden nectar broth, with small chunks of rehydrated ambrosia floating in it, the chicken noodle soup of New Eden. He nodded gratefully at his subordinate, careful to hold the steaming cup with his mind rather than his hands, as he telekinetically reduced the vibration speed of the molecules in the drink, cooling it far faster than any mere blowing or ice chunks could manage.
Kunai was just about to indulge in a little bit of small talk before he sent Alex on his way so they could both get what rest they might, when he chanced to look past Alex's imposing bulk and into one of the corners of the room, near the coat and cloak rack that he used so infrequently. He had just taken a sip of his now merely warm drink, and ended up spitting the contents all over his desk in stunned shock when he saw the two, glowing red eyes staring at him from that shadowed corner, the lanky shape of Frost appearing as if by magic from the background of the cloaks, from where he'd been standing in total silence ever since before Kunai had even sat down! And it was total silence, Frost did not even breath, his heart did not even pump, all life functions that might generate noise taken over by nanites to maintain stealth, and with his mind empty of complex thoughts and a cloak draped across him, he'd been invisible to both Alex and Kunai, weary as they were!
Still somewhat loggy, and lulled further by the pleasantly warm sensation of the nectar broth sliding down his throat, Alex was a fraction of a second too slow in his whirl towards whatever it was that had so shocked his boss, and he barely managed to turn before his jaw met Frost's swinging fist, and the next thing Alex knew, he was on his side on the ground, spitting blood and tooth fragments onto the floor, his jaw feeling broken and his head spinning crazily as he stared woozily up at the second Executor, whos eyes continued to glow a demonic red in the dimly lit office. Despite himself, Alex gulped slightly, well remembering the last beating he'd suffered at this man's hands. Back then, Frost had been smiling, joking even, cordial even as he was cruel. Tonight he was not smiling at all, his face twisted into a bestial mask of displeasure that would have had Alex evacuating his bladder, were there anything in it to evacuate! He'd never seen the second Executor ANGRY before!
"Executor." Kunai said, hoping the quaver in his tone wasn't as apparent as he feared it must be. Like most predators, Frost had a sense for weakness in his prey, and instincts that prodded him to slay those he considered vulnerable. And right now, tired, shocked, off guard and drained, Kunai realized he WAS vulnerable, he could barely even muster the TK to keep his soup warm, much less fend off this malevolent superman should he attack! "Can I help you with something?" Kunai asked, forebearing mentioning his annoyance at Frost ambushing him in his own office. It was pointless to complain to the man, he would just think it funny at best, and a disrespectful challenge at worst. He also forbore mentioning the assault upon Alex, who was now practically pinned against the side of his desk, as Frost towered over the much bigger man, who'd gone down like a boxer after twenty rounds with the champ, with just one punch to the jaw!
"I know what you've done." Frost intoned, his voice like the slither of a blade being drawn from a sheath, as he leaned forward and put his hands on Kunai's desk, putting his face right up close to the seated Praetorian leader's. Kunai wanted to disbelieve that statement, but like most people, he found Frost could be quite intensely convincing at times, even if he was spouting gibberish. "Up in space, your little partycrashing." Frost added, and Kunai definitely went a shade paler than usual at that detail.
"So you know then." Kunai replied, figuring evasion was pointless and counterproductive. "I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd have been interested in such a thing, or else I would have asked you to come along. I'm sure you would have found it... glorious."
Kunai missed what happened next, one moment he was sitting in his chair, the next moment he was being hauled up over his own desk, his nectar broth spilling all over his lap and legs, blood pounding in his head as Frost's hand around his neck clenched tightly enough to make his neck vertebrae ache, as the second Executor pulled Kunai's face up until their noses were practically touching, Kunai's bugging eyes staring straight into Frost's glowing red backlit ones. This close, he could almost swear he could feel the heat from the fires of hell pouring out of those orbs. "You know nothing." Frost hissed, his teeth bared in a snarl. "Glorious? What you've done? GLORIOUS?" Frost spat loudly, right into Kunai's face, though he did manage to deflect the saliva with a telekinetic push before it could get in his eyes. "There is no glory in using a nanoweapon to kill millions of civilians! There's no conflict in that! I am here to sharpen the blade of humanity, and by your actions, you have punched out a whole section of the blade, gotten rid of it entirely! The blade can never be as sharp with a piece missing! Not for generations! I ought to pop your head like a pimple for this, Tree-Bitch!" Frost emphasized his ability to easily accomplish that by tightening his grip on Kunai's throat for a moment, making his bald head flush dark purplish with trapped blood.
"I joined this little war of yours because I want it to end, quickly and decisively, with relatively minimal casualties on both sides. If people are to die, it should be by my hands, at my feet should the bodies fall, upon my face should the blood spatter! And you think I would be pleased that you would eliminate over 450 MILLION potential kills, potential conflicts, and furthermore, not just NOT end the war like you could have done with, but instead increased their desire to fight it longer?" Frost shook Kunai like he was a rag doll, using one foot against Alex's broken jaw to pin the bigger Praetorian against the floor, whimpering in unmanagable agony as shards of bone ground against the bottom edges of his tooth nerves, a piteous whine all the protest the massive man could manage as blood ran freely down his jaws and puddled on the floor. "I'm half of the mind to tattle to Yamato about this, just so I could see him tear your skeletal structure out through your nostrils by hand!"
Frost brought the semi-conscious Kunai back up so they were face to face once more, the red glowing eyes narrowing piercingly. "But I won't do that, Tree-Bitch. Not because I care about what happens to you or the Turkey, but because when he does find out, the shock may just very well push him towards becoming the Boytoy again. You might think I would want that quickly. In ways I do. But at the moment, there exists a teensy little issue that bothers me. His new Seed. He's killed me once with that. I'd rather not let him do it again. Until I can figure out how he does that, and replicate it, it behooves me to deal with Yamato, not the Boytoy. However, do not try my patience with your little schemes again, or I will tear you into bite sized gobbets with my bare hands, and consume you whole. I would do it now, but the prospect of seeing you flinch every time we lock eyes in the future tickles my fancy. Yes... you only live because I think its more humiliating for you to know you survived by my "mercy" alone. You think you're so smart, Tree-Bitch. You think the Tree knows it all." Frost put his mouth next to Kunai's ear. "But the Tree cannot see what the Abyss hears. Remember that."
Frost slowly began easing up on his grip around Kunai's neck, letting the paralyzed man gasp loudly for air. "Oh yes." Frost added, tightening the grip again. "Here's a little forget me not. Can't have you bragging that you got off scott free. The Turkey will need a new beak, but you, Kunai... you're the telekinetic superstar ain't ya? You must think you're real hot shit, those little stunts like holding your soup without touching it. You wanna live a hands free lifestyle, Kunai? I can help you with that." Frost's snarl turned into a rictus grin, as he closed his other hand around Kunai's right hand, like a handshake. And then he squeezed. As hard as he could. With his enhanced strength, Kunai's muscles and bones might as well have been made from silly putty, indeed, that was kinda how the hand looked after Frost was done, like a putty hand that had been stepped on. Kunai was gargling his screams through his constricted throat, but Frost wasn't done. He grabbed Kunai's left hand next. Seconds later, a second pulpy fist remnant lay on the granite desktop, skin and blood and muscle and bone all smeared together by Frost's inexorable grip. He tossed Kunai roughly back into his chair, the all powerful Praetorian's mewls of pain music to his ears.
"How..." Kunai gasped, as Frost turned to nonchalantly walk away. "How did you know...?"
Frost turned and smirked, tapping the side of his head. "The voice of the ferryman. He talks to me sometimes. Tells me things. There's more to me than you know, Tree-Bitch. Even the Mouse has only scratched the very surface. I look forward to her scratching some more here soon. Perhaps I should have called her Moth... she is so drawn to the flames of her own destruction after all..." Frost eyed Kunai's two crippled hands. "I hope you got some velcro pants and shoes. Though I suppose you could always get the Turkey to zip you up... 'bout all he seems to be good for after all. He's already got his lips firmly puckered round your asshole anyway." Frost turned away, and then turned back one final time, his smirk as malicious as the devils himself. "Oh yeah, last little tidbit. Charon tells me that you fuckups hit the wrong target. The TAS program is based out of Second Earth 2, not 3. Congratulations, you hit the wrong colony. Hehehehhehe..." Frost strode away for good, though his chuckles seemed to linger behind him for a very long time.
xxxx
New Eden, Antarctica, Nifelheim FEAR Base, Extended Barracks F, Jan 3rd, 3:15 am
Contrary to the popular belief of some of the human and Coordinator soldiers assigned to the highly secret FEAR base on Earth's most desolate continent, when not performing maintenance tasks on their Mobile Suits or participating in various laboratory tests with FEAR technicians and scientists, the Extendeds were not stored in plastic tubes or inert on metal slabs, both rumors spawned by talk about the recuperation beds the Extendeds slept in once a month or so. But though their superiors might sometimes wish it were so, Extendeds were not mindless zombies or robotic drones, and their highly secure quarters had more in common with a hotel than Frankenstein's dungeon lab. Though perhaps hotel was the wrong word, more like a cross between a hospital for the criminally insane and a juvenile delinquent rehabilitation center.
The common sectors of the barracks complex were austure and spartan, all white acoustic tile and plain steel walls lightly covered with sheet rock painted light blue, with plenty of ceiling lighting recessed behind retractable grates in the ceiling. The furniture was made of white plastic, durable but not so durable it could easily be made into a weapon, either for use against other Extendeds, or worse, against their human caretakers. Not that brawling or psychopathic tendencies were common amongst the Extended, unlike previous super-soldier programs, outside of battle most of them were quite normal and stable. The greater majority of them were even content with thier lives, proud of the important and unique role they filled in the USN's military roster, and unceasing in their respect and loyalty to Doctor Roanoke, their creator and mutual "father", who had raised almost all of them since they were very little.
Dr. Roanoke had loved his Extended children back, though in his own manner, never would he admit to being fond of them, certainly never where an Extended could hear it, but his adoration for his surrogate family showed through in the personal freedoms he allowed them, once they had proven themselves personally capable of handling them without issue. It might be argued that the privileges he allowed them were merely what any other person of their approximate age would normally take for granted in their personal lives... the ability to dress in what clothes they liked while off duty, to decorate their private bunkrooms, to own private media like books or video games or music players, limited and closely monitored access to some of the online networks, and the ability to pursue interpersonal relationships, usually within the Project, but occasional exceptions were made in special cases. But for those raised as Supersoldiers from a young age, with the only laws being those of the Project, even the most normal seeming of "rights" was an incredible and highly valued privilege. Because they were not humans, they were property, at best with the rights of pets, maybe... that Father would allow them human things anyway was like a gift from God himself!
Since all Extendeds were sterlized just as they reached puberty, Roanoke had not been overly limiting with how they conducted themselves in response to their hormonal urges, as long as they kept these "experiments" confined within the Project except with his special permission. It was true that the special nature of some of the Extended enhancements could seriously aggravate the hormonal urges experienced during puberty, but for the most part, the Extended's exhaustive training and the subtle conditioning of the Recuperation beds meant that compared to most teenagers, they were quite collected and chaste. Few Extendeds developed much in the way of sexual interests until they were well over sixteen, many not even before hitting 18 and full maturity, and this was true of both sexes. Perhaps it had something to do with being raised together, most relationships between Extendeds tended more towards familial rather than romantic, though as they grew older and recognized that they weren't actually related, some sexual bonding was inevitably going to take place. Rather than fight it and risk problems, Roanoke had encouraged it as long as the Extendeds cleared it with him first, which had just earned him that much more respect in their eyes.
He even allowed involved pairs to be bunked together, as long as they showed they could handle the responsibility without it affecting their other duties, and while most Extended romantic relationships were basically what normal humans would call "friends with benefits" and no long term fidelty was experienced or even expected, some deep bonding did occur, two Extendeds falling in love and becoming fanatically monogamous in their attentions. With no possibility of children, Roanoke had not been overly bothered by these rare pairings, even postulating some theories that "mated" Extendeds often functioned better in teamwork situations than their more liberal and dionysian peers. The data sample was still too small to make any conclusions from, but Extended pairs did not suffer the same near crippling worry that human soldier couplings often did, each partner trusted the person they cared for to be able to take care of themselves, and could focus on tasking even when seperated while their partner was in danger.
Of course there was the case of Stella Loussier, the eldest female Extended and widely recognized as Roanoke's favorite amongst his "children", a hierarchal position that was much envied by the other Extendeds, though envied more in the way a younger sibling would envy a successful and idolized older sibling, rather than true jealousy. All the Extendeds knew that Stella dully deserved her position, she was one of the highest scoring Extendeds of all time, and, along with her "brothers" Sting and Auel, were the most combat experienced of all the Extendeds. No one would step into the ring with Stella for a friendly knife fight anymore, she was the undisputed queen of the short blade fighting style taught to Extendeds. If Extended society could be said to have a heroine, that heroine would undoubtedly be Stella. All the other female Extended, to some extent, dreamed of emulating Stella, who was allowed more personal freedoms than any other Extended, even to the point where she was allowed to live OUTSIDE the Project bounds, with her boyfriend the Solar Knight. There had even been the rumor going around that Father had been considering allowing Stella to have babies, an idea that had rocked Extended society to its core!
Opinions were still a bit more mixed on Stella's chosen mate, the Solar Knight Lain Debora, though by and large he was accepted, more through exposure than anything else. He'd been a semi-frequently visible part of the Project for longer than a good quarter of the Extended had been on deployment status after all. He might just be a norm, but there must be SOMETHING more to him, or Stella wouldn't be so infatuated with him. Female Extendeds could grudgingly admit that he was pretty handsome and amusing, male Extendeds could grudgingly admit he was pretty tough and likable, and both sexes could admit that he was a pretty hot hand in a MS, for a norm. And he had the respect of both Sting and Auel, besides just Stella's feelings, and that counted for a lot right there. But he was still a Normal, and that would always make him a bit of an outsider among the Extendeds. Then again, Father was a Normal too, in some ways. Thoughts like that tended to make an Extended uncomfortable.
However, all of that was now in the past, because Father had been removed from control of the Project recently, and now they had a Mother instead. Unlike Father, Mother was not kind and considerate of her Extended's feelings, to her they were nothing more than tools of war, and replacable ones at that! Where Father was considerate though firm, Mother was draconian and demanding, and even a hint of sulking, rebellion or backtalk would send her into a dangerously angry state. Already she had stripped away almost all of Father's privileges, even for those Extendeds that had performed well on the battlefields. Perhaps her most hated change was the strict gender segregation of the Extendeds, with a females only barracks and a males only barracks, and no intermingling or socializing was allowed. The only time Extendeds of opposite sex, even mated pairs, were allowed to be together was during training sessions or missions! One Extended girl had already complained to Mother about not being able to see her boyfriend, since neither of them had ever failed a test or performed less than "above average" in evaluations, and she was just the tip of the iceberg. The mature Extendeds depended on their social experimenting to balance out the stresses of wartime footing, an understanding shoulder to hang onto, and now that the support was taken away, unfamiliar feelings of anger and resentment were building in everyone.
Mother's reply to their representative concern had stunned the Extendeds, who were used to Father's style of punishments, the revoking of some privileges, a stern talking to, and remedial training to fix whatever was deficient. Perhaps at worst some time spent in isolation from the others, or being removed from deployment status, which meant losing access to their beloved Mobile Suits. Mother was different, she reacted as if the complaint was a deliberate attack on her authority, something that the Extendeds had never and would never normally question. They just wanted to know what they'd done wrong, so they could do better next time. No one would forget what Mother had done to Kell, the one who had complained. Shortly after Kell had gone to complain, all the Extendeds at Nifelheim had been called to one of the secure hangers, where there had been armed guards waiting for them. They had lined up in formation, wondering what was going on, when Mother had appeared, her icy cold presence smothering any hope they might have had that things were okay.
Mother had lectured them, screamed at them more like it, that she wasn't going to tolerate any more insubordination from them, that they had grown far too lax and sloppy under Dr. Roanoke's watch, and that obviously they had somewhere gotten the false impression that they were even partly human, which Mother said was not true. They were nothing more than biological weapon systems shaped like humans, organic computers used for piloting Mobile Suits! They had no need of human rights, privileges or relationships, any more than a rifle in a rack did! These words had not been well recieved, but the conditioning of absolute loyalty to the head of the Project, which was now Mother, was not easily overcome. Even without the armed guards, no Extended could have made a move against Mother. Not even when she ordered Kell dragged out, naked and beaten up, and held in front of her gathered friends and "kin". If Extendeds could not contain their biological desires, Mother had all but screamed, then she would find them a proper, productive outlet for them. And that was when she ordered the armed guards to take turns raping Kell, right there in front of everyone, while Mother coldly looked on and dared anyone to protest or complain.
Being an Extended, Kell was inured to physical hardship, and even after being beaten by these selfsame guards before being dragged out with Mother and the others, her body held up well against the repeated sexual assaults, actually the second round of such she had suffered, after Mother had called the guards to her office when Kell had made her plea for understanding. The concept of taking sex via force was alien to the Extendeds, they might be able to understand it intellectually, but emotionally, that sort of thing was beyond them, both in doing and understanding. Kell was thus more confused with the unasked for touching and sex than hurt or frightened by it, but the gist of what Mother was saying was what really hurt. Her relationship with Steven was now over, a dream fading into the past. The Extendeds had no rights, not even to their own body's privacy, the one thing that Father had never even considered taking from them. Deep down inside, the Extendeds knew they were still Human, and Father had never tried to dissaude them from that. They were not Normals, but they were still important as individuals above and beyond being Extendeds. Mother obviously disagreed with that idea. Mother was wrong, but unlike Father, she didn't seem able to realize that. For the first time, the Extendeds realized... Mother was fallible. They HADN'T done anything wrong after all, Mother was the one who was wrong!
To a Normal, that might seem to be a farily mundane conclusion, but to the Extendeds, it was like having the foundation of the world half broken! And Mother kept excaberating the problem, she wasn't just wrong once, she continued to be wrong actively, segregating the Extendeds yet further, keeping most of the males in isolation at Nifelheim, while she sent the greater majority of the females abroad to serve under the Solar Knight Supreme Commander. And "under" was a literal term, judging from the stories of the few girls that had trickled back to Nifelheim in the time since, the Supreme Commander, who everyone had assumed was mated to Mother judging by how much time he spent alone with her, liked to use Extendeds as bed warmers for himself and his top subordinates, enjoying their athleticism, stamina and obedience as much as he did their often obvious shyness and inexperience. The Supreme Commander was not cruel in bed, but neither was he considerate, he just... used you like you were a toy. As long as he had some fun, he wouldn't do anything bad to you, other than a little humiliation in the morning, but embarassment was another emotion Extendeds weren't terribly familiar with anyway.
All the same, constantly being on call for duties that had nothing to do with being an Extended was deeply troubling to the Extendeds, who had been raised since toddlerhood knowing they existed to fight in wars against Coordinators, or Psychics, or whatever enemy Father had in mind. If Father had intended them to be used as sex toys, he would have told them so, and provided training for it, in which case they would have been okay with it. But he hadn't, and even Mother seemed to be trying to use it as a punishment, rather than a true duty, and she just didn't seem to understand that while the Extendeds would accept any order from the Project Leader... Mother in this case... including acting as sex toys if need be, instead they were being continually punished for just being who they were! Mother didn't understand them at all. She was trying to fix a problem that only really existed in her head! Indeed, many of the unattached Extendeds were even coming to regard this sexual ""punishment" as a unique opportunity to learn more about Normals outside the normal bounds of the Project. Now if Mother would just allow those who were mated to forgo the "duty", everyone would be happy, almost. Faithfulness and loyalty were EVERYTHING to an Extended, being forced as an undeserved punishment to be unloyal and unfaithful to sworn partners was what was really causing the stress amongst the Extendeds.
In their confusion, the Extendeds thus turned to the leadership of their most experienced brethren, Sting, Auel and Stella, who herself had actually been the first to suffer under Mother's misguided attempts to dominate her already fanatically loyal subjects. This was not learned from Stella herself, but rather from pillow talk heard from the Supreme Commander, who was apt to brag to his freshest bedmates about previous "conquests", though "surrenders" would probably be a better term. Truly this was a dilemma...the Extendeds would never be disloyal to Mother, but how could they show her that what she was doing was only diminishing the effectiveness of her Extended children without just making her more angry? Complicating matters was the fact that Stella could not become directly involved in anything Mother might even suspect as rebellion, since Mother had already threatened to kill Lain unless Stella kept it a secret that she was now a sex slave as well as an Extended.
It was so frustrating to them all, insulting even... if a mission called for seduction or sexual submission, any Extended, even a mated one, would do so in a heartbeat, no questions asked, all Mother had to do was command it be done. It was only since Mother refused to make it an mission, instead making it a punishment, taking away their one expected freedom of choosing what to do with their own sexual urges during non-mission time, that things were problematic. In essence, Mother was making them perform mission tasks on their free time, without proper orders to make free time into mission time. It was all just a big misunderstanding. Little did the Extendeds know though, such reasons were how most major wars tended to start...
xxxx
New Eden, Nifelheim FEAR base, Dr. Dostanya's personal suite, Jan 3rd, 3:30 am
"Having trouble sleeping?" Natalia asked, with a raised brow, as she returned from the bathroom after cleaning herself up from her latest bout of lovemaking with her precious little clone. Rey was currently reclining in her bed, the sheets covering him from waist down, his eyes instantly drawn away from the classified military readiness reports he'd been browsing while she was in the bathroom, drawn like lodestone to a magnet as he stared at her perfectly sculpted body, blond hair unbound and flowing down to tickle the tops of her buttocks, and Natalia could not help but pose a little, female ego eagerly absorbing the covetous glares of her young pet. "Usually you just drop right off afterwards, something bothering you, love?" Natalia added, softening the lightly stinging observation with a personal question. It wasn't Rey's fault that even a stud Coordinator's stamina couldn't match up to what Natalia's primarily Extended... and a very advanced and personalized Extended at that... body was capable of.
"Just the world starting to fall apart at the seams." Rey replied, his voice a mixture of weariness, anger and shock. Natalia could tell that the events at Victoria had really hit his personal pride hard, losing fully half of his elite Paladins, all fifty he brought with him, and a goodly portion of the rank and file Solar Knights as well, in addition to having the huge USN army driven from the field, if not quite destroyed entirely! And mostly because of the actions of a mere handful of enemy defenders, chiefly their two Gundams! Rey himself had survived only because of a timely "tactical withdrawal" from the Paladin melee to kill the Kratos, in essence, her little stud had turned tail and run when he saw he had no chance, and that fact was eating him alive. Natalia thought about doing something to help him recover that confidence, but in the end, decided against it. It better suited her plans to have him broken and angry and looking for a target to blame for his inadequacies. If it ended up breaking his spirit completely by the end, well, she'd get over it. In about as much time as it took to fish a dildo out of her bedside tablestand.
Or maybe she'd trawl amongst the male Extendeds for a change, there were a few that had definitely caught her eye, especially the two elder males, Sting and Auel. Auel she would enjoy breaking to her will, he was a wild one, but secretly insecure as well, which would make him a quick and easy warmup. Sting presented more of a challenge, he was perhaps the most emotionally mature of all the Extendeds, and he was a cagey, careful one too, it would take time and effort to bend him to her whimsy. But that could be a very diverting distraction, assuming all her efforts weren't tied up with Durandel. And it might even help get the rest of the Extended more firmly under her thumb, if their two most experienced "siblings" gave the new "Mother" their vote of unequivocal support. Not that she really cared whether the Extended liked her or not, they were just tools to her, but she supposed making some effort to assuage their emotional well being might be in order. Even the best trained attack dog would turn on its masters eventually, and she didn't need that kind of hassle, at least until she was much further along in the creation of her Paragons.
And then of course there was the events of Blue Monday, two nights past, which had the whole of the USN screaming bloody murder, which Natalia was perfectly fine with. FEAR's funding was safe, if anything, they were almost certain to soon be finding additional resources arriving in bucketfuls, because FEAR was the go to source for advanced new weaponry that would allow the USN to more efficiently combat the increased Eddie threat. Already Gilbert had instructed her to speed up the development of the BALORs, which she had duly passed on to Dr. Magnus, who had tried to quibble, saying he still needed some months to properly calibrate and test his first generation creations. Natalia thought that Dr. Magnus was probably right about that, actually, but that didn't matter. What mattered was providing for Gilbert's needs, indebting him to her, and if the First Generation ended up doing what she was pretty sure it would do, well, that was no skin off her nose. By then the Second Generation should be nearly ready, and they could put down the rampaging Firsts for her. Failing that, a judicious deployment of MAIDEN would be enough to clean up any BALOR mess.
The Second Generation of BALORs, produced using Oktar's biological genius, and Sammual's cybernetic and technological genius, would be the true answer to the enemy Gundams. And she had already taken actions, as was her usual wont, to advance Oktar's program even further under her own guidance. She had ordered the appropriation of Oktar's prized "Generation Zero" test Meisters, and had them safely sequestered in her own top secret labratories, buried hundreds of meters below even the deepest military base levels of Nifelheim, and accessible only via her own personal elevator, keyed to her alone. Like most top end scientific geniuses, she preferred to do her best work alone, with only the aid of robotics for heavy lifting type tasks. Already, her research into the potentials of BALORs and the forced breeding of Chimerae had advanced years beyond anything Oktar could imagine, the poor man was still confining his efforts to the study of base animals, when plainly true psychic power was related to those creatures with innately higher mental and emotional states. Creatures like humans. Her project, Codenamed Typhon, would be the ultimate weapon of war, alongside her perfect soldiers, the Newtype-Extended hybrids, the Paragon!
At the same time as she'd ordered the two GZ Meisters appropriated, Natalia had ordered the liquidation of Meyrin Hawke, seeing no reason to continue providing for a girl who's only real purpose as far as Natalia was concerned was keeping her sister in line, and now that Rey was no longer interested in Lunamaria, Meyrin had become expendable. Indeed, perhaps she might arrange it so that Lunamaria learned of her sister's disposal, of course ordered by Rey and not Natalia, which would no doubt serve to distract Rey quite nicely whenever Natalia decided the time was ripe to cast him aside in her pursuit of Gilbert. Assuming she just didn't have him killed, of course, there were plenty of possibilities there too. Not wanting any possible connection between FEAR and Meyrin's fate for Lunamaria and her boyfriend to latch onto and potentially make themselves a minor thorn in her side, Natalia had decreed that Meyrin be taken to Reclaimer Initiative Rehabilitation Center 1, in England, on Earth, which was basically the same thing as a sentence of execution for any Edenite.
Camp 1, as it was colloquially called, was managed by a man named Arnold Zala, an estranged cousin of the far more famous and righteous Zala living in Orb, who had formerly been the worst sort of delinquent and gang banger, before a last gasp of effort on behalf of his family brought him into the film industry, where he somehow became quite a popular star, and then a spokesperson for the Reclaimer Initiative. Natalia was not a fan of contemporary movies, she much preferred the things from the forties and fifties, before the Valentine Wars ruined cinema. The main point though, was that Arnold Zala, who had the idiotic appellation of "Hazy", was a worm, plain and simple, and an utterly disgusting human being. She could almost admire his business sense though, because soon after taking control of what was basically designed to be a concentration camp and setting for the occasional propoganda documentary, Hazy had turned it into a thriving center of the black market, an operation he was making millions from!
The chief money maker was the harvesting of Edenite plants and animal parts in the making of drugs, many more placebo than effective, but a few were quite potent psychedelics, hallucinogens, depressants and stimulants that made the drugs the USN populace were used to look like aspirin pills. By utilizing Eddies, usually children, as forced labor, there was little risk in the gathering or cultivation of raw materials, the Eddies already knew all about the dangers of the plants or animals in question, so they didn't need to be trained. Nor provided with safety equipment, since they were prisoners of war after all, and not even humans. And with their parents and youngest siblings held hostage back at Camp 1, there was no chance of a rebellion or escape attempt, the psychic anguish of having their families executed would send most Eddie children into a coma, at least if the execution was done properly. It had been scientifically proven by FEAR.
While most of the money came from the drugs, the most popular "attraction" of Camp 1 was the fleshpots, where a person with the right connections, or enough money to spend, could, for a price, buy a certain block of time alone with an Eddie of their chosen age group and sex, usually the mothers and sisters of the same Eddies who were sent afield in the drug search efforts. Complimentary Red EDEN pills were provided on the house, so any kind of intercourse with the "item" would have no serious consequences for the buyer. Given that Eddies were often extremely physically beautiful, and of course also extremely forbidden by USN law, the dual draw was enormous. Everyone wanted to have their own "Eddie bareback ride" to brag about to the other snobbish rich bastards back home. Others were ranking military officers, who just wanted to "fuck up" an Eddie on their own terms, though Camp 1 did not permit snuff type activities... you had to pay an extra fee, and travel to Camp 2, if you wanted to torture or kill your purchase before, during or afterwards. The prostitutes were kept in line via threatening their children and siblings, same as the drug gatherers, a neat little arrangement with both ends cooperating against threats from the middle. They were also generally chained to their beds or to the the walls, just in case, you could never be sure with the subhumans.
In any case, a little digging into Hazy's past had revealed a rather personal brush with the famous terrorist organization, The Brotherhood Of Man, which of course was the group Noah Borander had created and led, in which Hazy had lost his girlfriend, Meer Campbell, to an attack via Noah's robotic bodyguards. More of an assassination attempt actually, since Meer Campbell was a highly successful Lacus Clyne impersonator that had been tapped by none other than Gilbert himself to provide a legitimacy figurehead for his early political maneuverings. Apparently Noah Borander hadn't approved of such a thing, and Meer had ended up clawed to ribbons and with her head burnt into a greasy stain on the floor of her apartment, and Hazy had never really gotten over that, which had turned into a full fledged hatred of all things of Noah's, including Edenites. And Meyrin was Noah's girlfriend, a tidbit Natalia had made sure to pass along. She was sure Hazy would do his very best to keep Meyrin "entertained" for however long his attention lasted, and she doubted anyone would ever hear of Meyrin Hawke ever again either way. And her hands were almost spotless, definitely a job well done.
Natalia climbed back into her bed, making sure to disarray the covers and brush up alongside Rey in a very distracting and tantalizing manner. "Don't worry so much, Rey, you may have suffered a little setback, but things are still very much in our court. I promise you, the BALORs will be ready in less than two weeks, and then those pesky Gundams won't be a threat to anyone anymore!" Natalia felt a conversation change might be productive, she couldn't have him getting depressed just yet. "What about our little Extended arrangement? Everything still working out there? I hope you've taught them all their proper place."
"They're very popular." Rey answered slowly. "Some of them almost seem to be enjoying themselves... its kind of creepy. I thought this was supposed to be a punishment for them, for their insubordinative tendencies? I'm not getting many complaints about their enthusiasm, it just seems strange... its almost like they're... seducing the men who use them. I've already had to break up a few squabbles over who gets which Extended when, and these between some of my highest ranking and most sober subordinates! The idea was good at first, but they're becoming an issue to good order and discipline amongst my men, and after Victoria..." Rey trailed off, his eyes hooded.
"And after Victoria?" Natalia prompted, finally recieving the lead in she'd been hoping for all night. Though she did make a mental note to step things up another notch, if the Extendeds were going to treat her actions like some sort of game, by all that was holy, she'd really give them something to cry about! Maybe then they'd finally settle down and learn their places again! Sammual had been entirely too soft on them.
"And after my, uh, less that sterling actions at Victoria..." Rey blushed furiously with same. "My authority is not what it once was, let's put it that way. I'm already hearing reports of people questioning my ability to serve as Supreme Commander, this little situation with the Extendeds isn't helping matters. Especially if it gets out to the rank and file, they'll completely blow a gasket if they think I'm sexing it up while they're out dying. They just don't understand the stresses of my job require me to have a destressor as well, but trying to explain it to them will just end up with..." Rey shook his head again. "Let's just say it would be bad for everyone. Matters are balanced on a knife's edge right now, Natalia, I shouldn't even be with you, here, right now, but..."
"You're such a sweetling, Rey." Natalia patted him in a personal spot, before turning serious. "But I'm afraid things have already gotten worse than that, my love. Some of my own operatives witnessed a late night rendevous between Gilbert and Talia Gladys..."
"Gil's been doing that for years." Rey shrugged. "Talia has always been discreet about it..."
"More than you know, Rey. She wasn't just going to his bed, she had something with her that she wanted him to look at." Natalia continued on. "Something she didn't want you or any of your Section Nine subordinates knowing about. I still don't know what it was, but I can tell you, anything that Talia thinks that she needs to show Gil that she can't trust to an open forum concerns me, given her recent subversive activities, and your misfortune at Victoria. I'm afraid she might be trying to move against you, my love, trying to push you out of Gil's spotlight so she can take your spot at his side!"
"Gil would never let that happen." Rey said resolutely, but Natalia could see the doubt in his eyes, the cracks in his confidence after his poor showing at Victoria. Deep down inside, Rey knew he probably WASN'T worthy of Gil's trust anymore after such a massive screwup, but he could never admit that to himself. Especially not with a convenient scapegoat in the form of Talia Gladys to focus his ill feeling upon. "But all the same, you're right, if Talia IS trying to backdoor me, her flings with Gil would be a brilliant way to do it. Who knows what sort of lies and half truths she's been bringing him, while I kept my eyes politely turned away! If Talia has concerns, it is her DUTY as my subordinate to follow the chain of command and go through proper channels, to do otherwise is little better than mutiny! Thanks for the tip, Natalia, I just don't know how I'd survive without you! I'll find out what Captain Gladys is hiding from me, and when I do, not even Gil's favor will stop me from stripping her of her command and busting her down to midshipwoman again!"
"Are you sure that would be enough?" Natalia asked quietly, turning her face away so he couldn't see her triumphant smile. "Gil is totally infatuated with her, he'd just wipe the charges and re-instate her after publicly embarassing you. You may be his son, but trust me, Rey, she has him by the balls, literally, he won't let anyone, even you, damage her career, no matter her crime. If she really has betrayed you, then you'll have to take more... permanent actions to ensure your safety and continued authority, don't you think?"
"Let's not talk about this." Rey said firmly, his face almost as pale white as her creamy sheets. "I understand what you are saying, Natalia, and I understand why, but this is... just conjecture right now. I would be happiest if this was all a big fuss over nothing, you know? Until I have proof that Talia has undermined me for her own ends, we will not mention this again, do you understand?"
"Of course, love." Natalia shrugged nonchalantly. "I just don't like it when people set you up to take a fall, is all. Sometimes you have to strike first, in war and in love."
"The discussion is over." Rey reminded her. "I shouldn't be here, but there is one more thing I would like to do before I leave..." He said, his voice husky and intent.
"That's my Rey." Natalia smiled at him, as he pulled her towards him. Everything was still going perfectly according to plan. By this time next year, the USN should be hers...
xxxx
