MS Gundam Wing: Revolution

Book Three: Part Eight

Dorothy Catalonia was preparing to duel Akio Ohtori.

She was, of course, aware there were other candidates wanting to face him. Juri Arisugawa was one, of course. And the mysterious Utena Tenjou. But given a chance, Dorothy intended to be the one to drive a beam saber through his mobile suit.

"Yaaa!" Casval Winner yelled as she attacked.

Their beam sabers locked together, energy coursing between them. They broke apart, Casval going for distance and bringing her Gemini gun into play, blasting at Dorothy as she dodged. Dorothy bobbed and weaved, then closed the distance as she attacked again. Casval tried to bring her heavy shield around, but she just wasn't fast enough.

Dorothy's saber blazed across the Gemini, and Casval noted, "If that was at full power, that'd be a kill, ma'am."

"Huh," Dorothy grunted, Some part of her wondered if Casval was holding back against her. Mind you, the Tallgeese based units were powerful, but the Gemini was more advanced...

"I should have kept more distance, used my main gun," Casval admitted thoughtfully.

The former Oz pilots were practicing in an area near the colony headquarters. Quatre Winner had given them permission, and her whole surviving team was out working with their Mobile Suits. They had dialed back their weapons power, of course, but were otherwise fighting to win.

Meuller engaged her, the two Tallgeese units clashing. Epyon, the Gundam they were assuming Akio now had, was a superior unit to Tallgeese or Gemini. But fighting an 'ace' in a Tallgeese was still quite good practice.

They bounced back and forth, blades striking in flashes of powerful energies, both pilots going for the win. "Come on, ma'am!" Meuller encouraged her.

Dorothy forced him back, lashing out with her suit's chain-whip. He was good though, evading most of the attack then charging in with beam saber.

Blades crossed in a flare of energies, the Gundam based mobile suits clashing in a blaze of destructive power. Meuller surprised Dorothy with a kick to the midsection, but she recovered fast. "Ha!" she cried, attacking with her chain-whip.

"You're getting predictable," Meuller said as he caught the chain on his arm. While he took damage, she was unable to pull back. Then he used his other arm to bring around a standard rifle, and opened up on her.

"Shit," Dorothy cured as the 'Simulated Kill' message came up on her screen. "Well done, Meuller," she said.

"You're not going to kill him for that, right?" Casval teased.

"Oh shut up," Dorothy sighed. "I'm not THAT bad."

Both pilots were deliberately quiet.

"Thanks a LOT," Dorothy said, but smiled wryly.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Someone tried to shoot Dorothy when she and her team were coming in from training," Hilde reported mildly. "Her aide, Casval, disarmed him, Dorothy was uninjured."

"Shit," Quatre sighed.

"The worker's been placed under house arrest, though I'm not sure what we should do with him," Hilde admitted.

"Because we both know that half the colonists would give a medal to someone for shooting Dorothy," Quatre mused.

"Exactly," Hilde agreed.

Quatre thought about what to do with the shooter. "Lock them up for now," he decided, "we'll call it pre-trial custody or something. Depending on what happens with Libra..."

"It may all end up not mattering anyway," Hilde agreed.

The two of them ran through various issues. At this point Quatre was more or less overseeing the Gundam pilots and their allies. By extension, he also was running the coordination between them, the White Fang and other colony related forces.

"So we'll end up with Libra in near Earth orbit in two days. We'll have our forces there, along with Earth/Oz," Quatre murmured.

"Assuming we don't kill each other," Hilde noted.

"Don't joke," Quatre sighed, "I'm SURE Wu-Fei would try to take out Treise if he thought he had any chance of success."

"He ain't the only one," Hilde nodded.

Quatre sighed, just praying this whole operation didn't turn into a huge clusterfuck.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"What I don't get is Akio's goal in all this," Releena admitted. "What does he hope to gain from this all?"

She, Utena, Anthy and Juri were 'debriefing' in the slightly larger quarters she and Juri shared. Along with a bottle or two of wine to loosen everybody up. Anthy seemed especially amused by the tea cups Releena dug out for them to drink out of.

"I'm not sure he has a goal at this point," Utena admitted.

Anthy nodded seriously, "I think he's realized he's never getting back what he's lost. Now, all he wants is to tear everything down."

Juri leaned forward as she asked, "So he's bringing Libra in to burn the Earth, and go out in a blaze of glory?"

"And probably fight a duel to the death with someone," Anthy mused.

"Not it," Utena deadpanned.

Releena looked over at her in surprise, "I though you wanted to face him?"

Utena shook her head, "That's exactly the scenario he wants and expects to happen."

"And giving my brother what he wants is a bad idea, for many reasons," Anthy agreed.

"And here I thought you were going to steal the Wing Gundam, go out and face him," Juri mused wryly.

"I say we let Treise and Miliardo kick his ass," Releena suggested.

Utena shook her head, "We're pretty sure Akio has the Epyon. It's going to take a Gundam to bring him down."

"Juri, you're up," Anthy deadpanned.

"I need more to drink," Juri sighed as she refilled her wine teacup.

"Ditto," Utena agreed as they all refilled.

Releena sighed as she sipped her own drink. She HAD hoped to quiz both women on Akio and what he was capable of... but they were all too tipsy for that. Oh well. She could try asking tomorrow once everyone sobered up.

"You know, I always DID find you kind of hot, Utena," Juri murmured, as she looked at Utena somewhat owlishly.

"Ok, time to go," Releena decided instantly.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

There were a LOT of troop movements going on as they readied for war. Shuttles of colonists and engineers, pilots and so on. Just then a group of people were leaving the shuttle, glad to be home...

Sally Po watched the people coming aboard, then smiled as she saw the slim, black bhaired woman. "Noin!" she called, waving.

"Sally," Noin smiled back, then swept her up in a embrace.

They got a few amused glances as people streamed around them. "Way to go," one young man gave them a thumbs up.

Sally laughed as they pulled apart. She teased, "We're making a scene."

"Don't care," Noin said firmly and kissed her again.

The two women walked off (eventually) as Noin carried her luggage. "It's good to have you back," Sally noted.

"Sorry I was away," Noin sighed. "Someone had to be there keeping an eye on everyone," she said, referring to their various 'allies' assembling for the battle against Libra. With everyone on the move, they were close enough Noin could just come there...

"Well, things haven't been quiet here too," Sally said.

"I heard," Noin agreed, "I understand there's issues with Catalonia's Tallgeese Wing?"

"Well, everyone hates them. Oh, and someone tried to shoot Dorothy," Sally observed.

"Missed?" Noin asked. "Pity."

Sally snorted in amusement. Both knew Noin intended to duel Dorothy, eventually, but it would be a fair fight.

"Let's get some dinner," Noin suggested, "then we'll go back to our quarters..."

"To bed?" Sally asked.

"But not to sleep," Noin teased cheerfully.

To be continued...

Notes: AT SOME POINT I will actually get around to the actual big space battles.

Really.

Eventually.