A/N: Well, this took way longer than it should've. Partially due to army life, and admittedly the holiday mood sneaking up on me. Time to make up for lost time, I suppose.
Chapter 3: The Legend Reemerges
"Gundams?!" Hazel's voice blared out of the comms. "We were transporting friggin' Gundams?!"
Her surprise was shared by the rest of the crew, their eyes fixated on the figures that just emerged from the containers the Valstork was towing. And who could blame them? The existence known as 'Gundam' was one that shaped much of history in just the last couple of years. As space-dwellers themselves, the Gundams were symbols of liberation, of the very freedom that the Trailers had fought for!
Horris however, had other concerns.
"They're not going to leave while we intercept the enemy, are they?"
"No, somehow I doubt that." Nicholas gave a small grin.
"Jaune, Amber, can you hear us?!" A voice came through on an open channel, startling Jaune. A display popped to life over on one of his side monitors, revealing two familiar teens.
"You two are…" Amber gasped. "Mr. Schnee and Mr. Yuy?!"
"You guys were Gundam pilots this whole time?!" Jaune couldn't help but blurt out in surprise. Thankfully, the appearance of the two Gundams was equally a surprise to his unknown assailants, giving him the opportunity to retreat closer to the Valstork.
"Yeah, well, this is hardly a time to be hiding our mechs." Heero shrugged. The two Mobile Suits lined up to each side of the Valhawk, facing off against the unidentified enemies who continued to observe them.
"My bad, Jaune." Heero suddenly said. "Looks like we misunderstood you guys."
The black Gundam's head turned towards the Valhawk to its right, as if it were Heero himself. "You've shown me what real Trailers are like."
"Heero, you…"
"Enough with that, Heero ain't my real name!" The grey-haired teen laughed. "The name's Mercury Black. Though my enemies call me the God of Death!"
"I'm fairly certain only you call yourself that." Whitley sighed. Or was that a fake name too?
As if reading his mind, Whitley turned towards Jaune. "Don't worry, my name wasn't a lie."
"Anyway, we'll provide support, Jaune." The white-haired teen smiled gently, yet firmly. "I won't let people like you die."
"I'll be counting on it then!" Jaune grinned back.
"Then let's kick some ass!" Mercury roared.
"Do take caution, you three." Whitley noted. "These unknowns may just represent yet another threat towards humanity."
"Roger that!" Amber chirped. "Leave support to me, Jaune!"
And with that, the three humanoid weapons charged towards the aliens. Jaune aimed at their formation with his Beam Shot Launcher, bursts of green energy streaking across space. The alien lifeforms immediately scattered, each of them flying off in a different direction.
Manoeuvring across the vacuum of space as if they were jets in the sky, leaving trails of red light in their wake, the aliens chose their targets. One started firing at Mercury while another swiped at Whitley. Two of them took the opportunity to approach the Valstork, while one of the aliens made a turn and charged straight Jaune.
Amber reacted swiftly, dodging the charge with ease and letting the creature sail past them. As it started adjusting its trajectory for yet another charge, Jaune fired at it again. The beams trailed the alien, though not quite reaching it as it swerved around the projectiles. It did, however, cause it to slow down.
That opportunity was all he needed.
"It's our turn to charge!" Jaune shouted as he holstered his rifle in favor of his Ray Blade.
"Got it!" Amber replied as she activated the Valhawk's thrusters. Flying forward in a burst of motion, Jaune stabbed at the alien's head. The creature raised its arms up to block, the beam sword crashing against the chitin-like armour covering them. Sparks burst out brilliantly in the ensuing clash, but the attack ultimately failed to pierce through the creature's armour.
Not letting up, Jaune drew the Valhawk's hand back and slashed again, this time against its lesser-armoured upper arm. In a bright flash, his Ray Blade bit viciously into its arm, cleaving through it. Thick black liquid burst forth from the wound. Unrestricted by gravity, it bloomed out like a demented parody of a flower.
It also had the unfortunate side-effect of obscuring Jaune's vision.
As a large red beam suddenly burst forth from behind the cloud of black liquid, Jaune barely reacted in time to bring up the Valhawk's shield. The beam crashed into it, the force sending him flying backwards a few hundred meters. The torrent finally relenting, Jaune grimaced as he noted the heavy scarring on the shield.
Hopefully he could get it repaired before Uncle Port finds out, otherwise he was going to get another hour-long lecture!
Focusing back to the battle, Jaune watched as the creature kept its distance away from him, seemingly warier of him now. Instead, it opened up its remaining arm to reveal two gun barrel-like protrusions. Red needle-like projectiles shot out from them towards Jaune, forcing him to back off.
Realizing that firing back at it wouldn't do a thing, Jaune instead tilted his head back towards his sister. "Amber, any ideas?"
"It's too agile for our beams to hit it, and I don't think it'll let us get close after it lost its arm." She frowned.
"I see…" He mused, turning back towards wounded alien. "If speed's the problem, then we just need to close the gap on that front."
"Ah, Code Phoenix?" Amber's eyes lit up, catching on to Jaune's idea. "The Valhawk's good to go!"
"Good. I'll leave it to you then!" Jaune grinned as he gripped his controls tightly. It was risky, but he had to try it! "Use the asteroids as cover after I distract him!"
With that, he brandished the Beam Shot Launcher once more, firing a few shots at the creature. As expected, it dodged the beams with relative ease, returning fire at the Valhawk.
However, Amber had already begun to move.
Maneuvering behind a nearby asteroid, the needle-like projectiles crashed harmlessly against the sturdy space rock. Amber then began accessing one of the Valhawk's many subsystems. The Valhawk was made via blueprints that were found within the Valstork's databanks. That meant that its existence was intrinsically linked with the Valstork's. The same could be said for some of its functions.
One of which was being able to remotely receive visual feed from the Valstork's cameras. It was a relatively mundane function, but it truly shone in situations like these where the enemy was obscured from view, intentionally or not. It was thanks to that ability that Amber could see the alien open its mouth, revealing a cannon.
Strange biology aside, Amber relayed the information to Jaune's monitor. The two watched with bated breath as the alien's mouth-cannon charged up, an ominous red light beginning to glow from within its barrel.
The moment the cannon fired, Jaune and Amber reacted.
"Air Force Mode!" The two shouted in unison as the Valhawk transformed back into its jet-like form. Thrusters set to their maximum output, the mech-turned-jet rocketed upwards out from the cover of the asteroid just as the alien's beam crashed into it, breaking it apart into tiny shards.
Taking advantage of the cannon's cooldown time, Jaune charged at the alien at full speed.
"Take this! Heat Edge Exploder!" Jaune yelled as he activated the Heat Edges that made up the nose of the Valhawk's Air Force Mode. An angry red hue - generated from the Heat Edges - wrapped around the Valhawk, giving it the appearance of a flaming bird. With barely any time to react, the alien could do nothing but futilely bring up its remaining arm up in a vain attempt at defense. The Valhawk crashed into the alien with great force, pushing it back with little to no resistance.
"Not over yet!" Amber tilted her control stick, causing the Valhawk to revolve around rapidly like a drill. The makeshift drill dug deeper and deeper into the alien's armor, until it could take no more. With a final burst of speed, the Valhawk pierced through the alien's whole body; the alien's body exploding in a burst of flames.
"…Is it over?" Jaune asked tensely, not quite willing to let go of his adrenaline just yet.
"W-we did it!" Amber cheered. "Enemy destruction confirmed!"
"Oh, thank god." Jaune sighed as he slumped in his seat. Just as he did however, he suddenly shot up. "Wait, no, what about the others?!"
"R-right!" Amber squeaked, clearly having forgotten about it herself. "Hold on, let me check."
It was a strange feeling, Whitley thought. He'd never expected to find himself in the cockpit of his Gundam so soon after the previous war. Why, if it hadn't been for the recent turmoil, he might've never piloted in his life ever again.
It was meaningless to think about what could've been, however. What mattered the most right now was that the world needed him again. The world needed them. For the sake of reclaiming the peace that they had so desperately fought for in the previous war, Whitley Schnee would fight once more.
And to do that…
"Lend me your strength…" Whitley whispered as he grasped his controls. "Gundam Sandrock!"
An alert blared on his monitor, notifying him of the rapidly approaching alien enemy. Rearing its large arm back for a punch, the alien charged at Whitley. Activating the Sandrock's leg verniers, Whitley dodged the attack with ease, kicking the creature away in response.
The blow staggered the creature, giving the Schnee heir a chance to grab the Heat Shotels mounted on the Sandrock's back. Pulling the large, curved blades out with a flourish, Whitley uncoupled the sandy cloak from his Gundam's shoulders, letting it drift off as he shot forward.
Finally recovering from the kick, the creature noticed Whitley's approach. In an oddly human gesture, the creature frantically raised its arms and fired at the Gundam, backing away as it did.
Whitley hid a grim smile. Unfortunately for the creature, his Sandrock would not be deterred by attacks of that caliber. Each of the five Gundams that had participated in Operation Meteor a year ago were outfitted with Gundanium Alloy, a specially-made metal that could only be produced in the zero-gravity nature of space. And out of all of said Gundams, the Sandrock had the sturdiest armor, a feature that lends itself to the Mobile Suit's role as a melee specialist.
Needle projectiles plinked uselessly against the Sandrock's purple-painted armor. Having closed the distance, Whitley brought up the heat-radiating blades and in one fluid motion, sliced the alien, leaving an 'X' in its wake. The creature sparked and exploded soon after.
Sheathing the shotels onto the Sandrock's back once more, Whitley let out a pondering hum. Who were these aliens? Where were they here? And for what purpose? Questions after question swirled around Whitley's mind.
The light from a nearby explosion shook him from his musings.
It would seem that he needed to get used to be being on the battlefield again. Especially now that he didn't have the Maganac Corps to back him up. Hopefully they were all doing fine back in Earth.
Shaking his head to focus, Whitley started moving back towards the Valstork. As he did however, a stray thought entered his mind:
(If these are alien bioweapons, why do they explode?)
Mercury Black grinned as he dodged another volley of needles from the alien attacker. For good measure, he activated his Gundam's Hyper Jammer along with its Active Cloak's invisibility, disappearing from the alien's sight.
It was a strange feeling, to be back in his Gundam once more. It wasn't an unpleasant one though, that's for sure. He and his partner have been through a lot, after all. He had been heartbroken when the decision was made to eventually dispose of the Gundams after the war, but he had accepted it for the sake of peace.
Now though? Now that alien threat after alien threat have come crawling out of the woodwork, and with yet another war looming on the horizon? He'd reckon that he wouldn't be saying goodbye to his partner anytime soon.
That's why…
"This is far from our last rodeo." Mercury said as he slowly approached the confused alien. "So let's show them what we're made of, Gundam Deathscythe Hell!"
Disengaging his Active Cloak, the Deathscythe reappeared right behind the alien, looming over it much like Mercury's (self-given) moniker. Green light curved downwards from the Gundam's Beam Scissors, completing the image of a God of Death.
The alien could barely turn around before Mercury slammed his scythe down onto it, reaping it of its life in a single blow. The bisected remains drifted off and exploded, leaving Mercury behind to stare at the fireworks.
"Well, that was easy."
"Somehow, I knew you'd say that."
"Hm?" Mercury turned towards the approaching mech. "Oh, hey Whitley. Looks like you had an easy time yourself, huh?"
"Naturally." Whitley smiled. "We should hurry back though. Two of them went for the Valstork early. While I trust in Captain Nick's capabilities, the Valstork might not be equipped to deal with enemies as agile as these…creatures."
"I guess you're right. Lead the way then."
As it turned out, the Valstork was more than well-equipped to deal with the alien creatures.
When Jaune and Amber made it back to the Valstork, they were met with the sight of one of the aliens getting obliterated by the ship's Dual Proton Cannon, with the other's corpse drifting around motionless. Watching the cannons fold back into their compartments in the ship's bow, Jaune breathed a sigh of relief.
Leave it to his father to know how to handle fast-moving unknown enemies with a battleship, he supposed.
"Looks like everyone's alright." Whitley said. Turning around, Jaune watched as Whitley and Mercury approached in their respective Gundams.
"Not half-bad, Jaune!" Mercury grinned. "Maybe you didn't need our help after all!"
"Please don't joke about that…" Jaune laughed nervously. He and Amber had barely made it out alive against one of them. He shuddered to think what would've happened if he had to pull out a victory against all five of them at once.
"Jaune, we should board back onto the Valstork." Amber said. "I'm worried about everyone."
"Right."
Jaune directed the Valhawk towards the battleship he called home, passing by the corpse of the alien as he did. That was when he realized something: This one didn't explode.
Jaune turned around as fast as he could, but the alien had already moved. Jetting forwards at high speed, it charged straight at the Valhawk…only to completely avoid it.
"It's trying to get away?" Amber gasped.
"Is it trying to call for help?" Jaune grimaced. "We can't let that happen!"
Even with Gundams by their side, Jaune doubted they'd be able to make it all the way to Earth if they had to deal with a swarm of those aliens at their tail. No, the best option here was to get rid of it before it could summon any reinforcements. Just as he made to transform the Valhawk into Air Force Mode however, a beeping alerted him to a new entity entering the zone.
"Is that Tekkaman Blade?!" Mercury blurted out upon seeing the new figure.
"No, that's not it!" Whitley replied tensely.
"Another unknown, then?!" Hazel complained.
"Take caution, its appearance is strange!" Nicholas warned.
True to his father's words, the mysterious new entity was similar in appearance to the aliens that they had just fought, only much more distinctly humanoid. With a body covered in blue and white armor, it stood imposingly on one of the nearby asteroids. An insect-like head with two bunny ear-like antennae stared at their direction.
Somehow though, Jaune felt as if its attention wasn't on them.
Leaping up from the asteroid, the light blazed out from the back of the humanoid's shoulders as if they were thrusters. Within a few seconds, the being crossed the distance between it and Jaune, blazing past him towards the fleeing alien.
Jaune watched in amazement as two blades suddenly manifested themselves on the being's forearms, as if created by magic. The humanoid's intentions were clear. It crashed into the fleeing alien and began unleashing a flurry of blows upon it, blades puncturing through its armor like a fist through wet paper. Inky black blood spurted out of the many wounds the creature soon gained, unable to escape nor withstand the onslaught.
As the creature exploded like the rest of its kin, the humanoid – now caked in black blood – turned towards Jaune.
"I-it just killed that thing like it was nothing!" Jaune said, still reeling from the display. "Is it friendly then?"
"Look out Jaune, it's headed your way!" Mercury yelled out a warning.
Jaune gritted his teeth and braced himself for yet another battle, only for the humanoid to completely ignore him once more. Instead, it flew past him and off into the distance.
"The white unknown has left radar range." Sapphire reported.
"What the hell was that guy…?" Hazel asked.
"Are you alright, Jaune?" Nicholas asked, concern evident in his voice.
"Y-yeah," Jaune stammered, unused to his father's tone. "Yeah, I'm alright. That guy…It didn't seem like he wanted to harm us."
"Father, the radar no longer detects any unidentified entities."
"Right." Nicholas hummed deeply. "For now, let's get everyone back onto the ship."
"Roger that, Father!" Amber replied, moving the Valhawk back towards the hangar.
"Man, didn't think the first day of this journey would turn out like this…" Jaune groaned as the last of his adrenaline finally faded away. "Guess I'll have plenty to talk about in my log."
"First of all, I have to apologize." Nicholas said as he addressed Mercury and Whitley. Standing up from his seat within the Valstork's bridge, Nicholas lightly bowed. "Even though it's our job to escort you back to Earth, we ended up needing your assistance."
"To be fair, they did launch on their own…" Jaune pointed out.
"You be quiet." Nicholas scolded, his previous concern nowhere to be seen. "The Valstork Family has a reputation to uphold."
"Not to mention…" The Arc patriarch fixed his only son with a stern look. "I'm the leader of this family."
"Ahh…" Jaune weakly protested, though no words came out. His father was right, after all.
"Captain Nick, what Jaune's saying is true." Whitley interjected. "We launched of our own volition."
"Personally, I'm just happy to have met and fought alongside the legendary Hawkeye." Mercury grinned lazily.
"Oh my, it seems the tales of your bygone youth are rather popular, Captain." Horris jovially added.
"Mind your words, Horris." Nicholas smirked confidently. "I'll have you know that I'm still in my youth."
"Ah, my bad, my bad." The blonde man apologized noncommittedly.
"Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, I hope there isn't any hard feelings, Captain." Mercury said.
"Still, on our part…" Nicholas tried, only to be cut off by Whitley.
"Rather, we would like to apologize for the rudeness we displayed to Jaune earlier."
"Yeah, my bad, Jaune." Mercury sheepishly picked at his cheek. "Looks like I confused you with those pirates you fought today."
"Well, so long as you get it." Jaune shrugged. "It's a fact that a lot of people have tainted the Trailer name with their actions. In fact, old-fashioned Trailers are pretty much dying out. But you can tell that a true Trailer is completely different from those guys we just fought."
"After seeing the pride you've displayed as a Trailer today, there's no doubt in my mind about that." Whitley smiled.
"Ah well, you're giving me too much credit…" Jaune flushed, scratching the back of his head. "Who knows where I'd be without Amber's support."
"Hmmm…" Nicholas hummed in thought, before opening his eyes. "Well, I understand how you two think now. So how about this?"
Nicholas turned towards the two Gundam pilots, folding his arms. "To personally repay you for your help in the previous battle, the Valstork Family shall escort you to Earth for free."
"W-wait a minute, Captain!" Horris loudly protested.
"Are you sure, Dad? This is the only job we have right now!" Jaune added.
"Whatever happened to that Trailer pride of yours, Jaune?" Nicholas asked drily.
"That…uh…"
"We were saved by the clients we were meant to be escorting…" Nicholas shook his head. "If word of this were to get out, our hard-earned reputation as the Valstork Family would go down the drain."
"I see, so you would rather sacrifice rewards than to lose face." Horris sighed. "That's so like you."
"We're not exactly paying for this job out of our own pockets, so it doesn't really matter to us," Mercury shrugged. "But hey, since you're offering!"
"…But is this really fine, Father?" Sapphire asked.
"Don't worry about it." He gave a small smile. "Just think of this as a family vacation. Besides, it's a good opportunity to let Jaune and Amber see Earth for themselves."
"Thank you, Father!" Amber chirped, giggling happily as the Arc patriarch reached down to ruffle her hair.
"That being said, we'll have to keep an eye on other expenses like food, water, and other supplies."
"I understand." Whitley bowed. "We'll be in your care until we reach Earth then, Captain Nick."
"So this means that we're no longer under a Trailer-client contract, huh?" Jaune mused.
"Seems like it." Mercury playfully punched Jaune's shoulder. "We'll be counting on you, Jaune."
"Same here!" Jaune paused for a moment, humming as he thought about something. "Say, that's something I wanted to ask you about. You've heard about my dad, right?"
"Yeah, the name 'Hawkeye' is pretty infamous around the colonies." Mercury recalled. "Since he saw through my hidden identity pretty easily, I'd say that his reputation was well-earned."
"Dad rarely talks about his past." Jaune grumbled. "And while Uncle Port loves talking about himself, he refuses to talk about Dad either. They only ever go into the basic stuff."
He then turned towards Mercury excitedly. "So now that you're here, let's hear about some of his stories!"
"If you say so!" Mercury grinned. "There's this one that you just HAVE to hear about!"
"Okay, that's enough!" Nicholas suddenly interjected. "Enough with the mindless chatter!"
He approached the two with folded arms and a stern glare, one that Jaune was all too familiar with. Grimacing, Jaune fervently prayed that his father wasn't about to launch into another sermon.
"Don't give me that look!" Nicholas scolded. "We're already behind schedule! Since we no longer have any reliable income, expenses will have to be cut down! As per our maxims, time is money, money is time!"
"Aye, aye Captain! Now there's the World's Greatest Trailer I decided to follow!" Horris chuckled.
"Let's get to work! Mercury, Whitley, the two of you are in charge of the systems check and sub-piloting!"
"Eh, us as well?!" Whitley blurted out in a rare moment of losing his composure.
"It's just like Jaune said." Nicholas grinned impishly. "We're no longer under a contract with you. Sorry, but we can't afford to let you two freeload now."
"I knew you had something up your sleeve!" Jaune laughed. "There's the World's Stingiest Trailer I know!"
"World's Stingiest, eh?" Nicholas' grin widened. "I like the sound of that."
"I, er, don't think the God of Death is suited for this sorta job, y'know?" Mercury nervously said as he slowly started inching his way towards the bridge's exit. His attempts were cut short however, as Jaune's hand clamped down on his shoulder.
"Don't sweat the details, Merc!" Jaune's grin mirrored his father's. "You can totally make it as a Trailer!"
"Shut up! Forget the limo ride I wanted; this is just plain work!"
Ignoring Mercury's complaints, Nicholas moved back to his captain's seat. "Perform system check!"
"Running total check!" Hazel replied. "SBLS, CCM, RPM, confirmed. No abnormalities."
"Lifting deck online." Sapphire followed. "System startup standing by."
"Valhawk, online system check." Jaune said, checking the remote display. "No problems."
"Life support system, check complete!" Amber exclaimed excitedly.
"Keeping thruster output at 80%." Horris stated. "Total check, no problem!"
"Alright, Valstork!" Nicholas commanded. "Full speed to Earth!"
As the ship lurched forwards to its destination, a realization dawned on Jaune, one that hadn't truly sunk in until now: He was really going to Earth.
Excitement and anticipation rose within him, making him unable to keep a smile off his face.
(Wait just a bit longer, Earth! I'll witness you with my own eyes!")
Within the darkness of space, far, far away from Earth, a few figures stood within a shadowed room.
"We should be arriving in the solar system soon, right, Applicant?" One of the figures asked.
"Sailing program at 99.962% completion." The man addressed as Applicant replied.
"To think that we would return to this edge of the galaxy." Another man mused.
"This system is currently undergoing a power struggle between multiple factions." A woman calmly stated. "Radam, Mechanoids, and even the Evoluted are present."
"That's ideal." The first figure replied. "In addition, if what Applicant is searching for is here…Then this journey will be worthwhile."
Applicant remained silent, causing an empty quietness to settle over the room.
"Well then, shall we?" The second man asked, finally shattering the fragile silence. However, he was denied.
"No, we have to stay put for eight Earth months before we can act." The first figure shook his head. "Until then, Applicant, use your dolls to eliminate any uncertain elements."
"Acknowledged."
The first figure then turned towards a large monitor before one, one that was displaying a live camera feed of a certain blue planet.
"For the sake of all knowledge and civilization, let us hope for a fruitful journey."
A/N: And there we have it! Chapter's a little shorter than the last one (especially if you consider the previous 2 as a single chapter like I do), but this was a good enough stopping point to me. How did you guys find it? I'll admit, I was a little disappointed to see the lack of reception so far, but I guess that's life. Hopefully the few of you that make it to the end of this chapter would be willing to share your thoughts, criticisms, feedback, etc. In a review perhaps, hint hint.
With that said, I hope you all have a wonderful day ahead of you. Crazy to think that it's well into 2022 already.
Take care!
~Sul