There are things out there that are much stranger than what you believe.
Tekkaden!!
The Iron Flower that never wilts and never dies. Originally called the CGS (Chryse Security Guard) the one who founded the group was Orga Itsuka, the lilac haired man and his merry band of misfits made mostly of young boys were tasked to protect the Maiden Of Revolution named Kudelia Aina Bernstein, they also had a relic of the past in their possession, a Gundam Frame by the name of ASW-G-08, Gundam Barbatos. The nearly 300 year old Mobile Suit that stood 18 meters was piloted by Orga's closest Mikazuki Augus,the blue eyed boy followed his friends orders to a near superhuman accuracy.
Their main adversary in this escort mission was the organization that Kudelia was fighting against, Gajallarhorn, they saw her as a threat to their control over Mars and wanted her eliminated almost immediately, they failed multiple times due to incompetent leaders such as Carta Issue and Orlis Stenja or them not knowing where Tekkaden was due to them not using known routes. Regardless, Tekkaden soon were faced with a small conflict with a subsidiary group The Turbins, but after negotiations, they agreed to aid each other slightly.
With other machines in the possession such as ASW-G-11 Gundam Gusion and the EB-06/tc2 Ryusei-Go they were able to complete there first mission
We now see our unlikely hero Mikazuki looking at the Barbatos.
(In the Mobile Suit Hanger of the Isaribi)
Mikazuki looked longingly at his machine, the Barbatos 7th form, or as the Teiwaz chief mechanic, Eudo Trinko would call it, the Gundam Barbatos PreLupus, apparently it's a prototype version of the supposed 8th form of the Barbatos, the Gundam Barbatos Lupus.
The PreLupus was really just an overhauled version of the Barbatos 6th form, at least in Mika's eyes, right down to the repurposed Graze Ritter shoulder armor, with the side no longer had the singular blue section, it's now red with a white Tekkaden logo in the middle. The arms of the Prelupus, is much longer than the original 6th forms arms, minus the small blue shields on its forearm, the 170mm autocannons were replaced with 180mm arm mortars. They had a similar design to the older arm cannons, but the barrel is extended. The head of the Barbatos remained relatively the same, aside from the red chin extending and looking more akin to a beard. The legs however, were heavily modified, the knees were much more pointed, the vents were on the sides and not on the center, the pink symbol shaped in a V with a slash in the middle was located higher on the legs and was significantly smaller. The waist unit stayed relatively the same, the long waist boosters stayed the same ever since The Battle Of Edmonton.
Mikazuki still looked inquisitively at his Gundam.
"2 years." He muttered to himself, it's been two years since the completion of Tekkaden's very first mission. It was a long and honestly frustrating journey, but they managed and succeeded, but not without a few casualties, one of them being a close ally in Tekkaden, Biscuit Griffon, the boy saved Orga, but it cost him his life.
He sighed a bit at the memories all the while rubbing his unmoving right hand that was resting on a makeshift cast made of white cloth, he had lost the ability to move the entirety of his right arm and was partially blind in his right eye due to his fight in Edmonton against the EB-AX2 Graze Ein, he couldn't really remember what happened during that fight, he knew he saved Orga, Atra and Kudelia from the large axe of the black graze and fighting against it, but that was it.
"That's not enough Barbatos more, more, give me more of your power. ALL OF IT!!" Is what the young boy remembers, everything else was a complete blur……except.
"Is this it, Orga? The place where we belonged?" He asked, the yellow-eyed man nodded. Before Mikazuki could reminisce further, he felt a small tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw something rather pleasant.
"Atra." He muttered with a bit of happiness under his usual cold tone, his female friend, Atra was, like Orga, a very close friend of Mika, he locked eyes with Atra's red eyes, he felt calm to a certain degree. He then looked up and down, seeing that Atra was wearing a light ash brown Tekkaden half coat (that matched with her hair) on top of her light cyan sweater. The boy did contemplate on giving his large faded green coat that went down to his knees, but he decided not to, the coat was little too sentimental for him to part with.
The girl blushed a bit. She can admit that it was rather embarrassing that Mikazuki was (in Atra's eyes) checking her out. Before she could say anything, Mikazuki spoke first.
"So you're wearing the jacket I gave you?" He asked, Atra was taken aback by the comment, but still nodded.
"Yeah, you gave it to me as a gift…….j-just like your bracelet." She responded, Mikazuki looked down at his left hand, the black bracelet with a golden charm dangling on a string. The boy had a faint smile when looking at it. Atra noticed the expression and the red on her face grew. Mikazuki, however, didn't pay attention to the girl's burning face and looked at the machine behind the Barbatos, another gundam frame. He narrowed his vision as he then glanced at his Gundam.
"Just what are you?" He whispered, Atra took notice.
"You okay?" She inquired, Mikazuki only narrowed his eyes in response, his gaze fixated on the Barbatos. He then looks back at the other gundam frame with large cannons on its back and broken rifles on its hips, the main body was heavily damaged,multiple holes were littered throughout it and the cockpit was crushed, though the Ahab reactors did not look damaged. The V-fin on its head was chopped off and its large rectangular shoulders had scratches, dents and holes which showed the inner frame of it. The legs, or at least what's left of them, was nothing more than two caved in pieces of oversized metal with wires dangling from them. Whatever happened to it, it clearly wasn't pleasant for the user, if the Gundam was even functional to pilot safely or activate when they found it.
"Mikazuki?"
There was no response, for a long time the boy suspected the Barbatos was…..alive to a certain degree. He started suspecting this on Tekkadens way down to earth.
"I'm going to see that place, what about you Barbatos?!" The Barbatos "responded" with its eyes pulsating and moving its head (without Mikazuki using the controls) to the long sword still stuck on a Graze Ritters cockpit. Another was in battle in Edmonton.
"Sins, save? You have no right to say that!" Mikazuki says, he slowly lifted his head, his eyes dilated, "hey, Barbatos give me your power, and DON'T hold back." The Barbatos responded with the lights of inside the cockpit turning from a light green, to a pulsating blood red, the boy felt numb on his right arm and eye and began to lose consciousness.
"……"
Words were muffled, he couldn't hear anything properly he knew it wasn't Orga's voice, but something else.
"Zuki."
It got clearer and clearer over time, it sounded like an old man's voice, before he blacked out, he heard the voice once more.
"Once you make a deal with the devil, your final deal will involve your life."
The boy narrowed his eyes even more, remembering their most recent mission, it was a rudimentary task, take down a few enemies that the Turbins made. What surprised the members of Tekkaden was one of the machines that they found, was the very Gundam that Mikazuki was staring at right now. He remembered the code that the Ahab Reactors was giving.
ASW-G-64
After the Barbatos detected the Ahab frequency, he felt a sensation, an odd one, he felt, relief and sadness? Why would he feel relief at looking at a Gundam? He also remembered the Barbatos shaking violently, almost as if it was gonna cry or maybe it was upset? The boy couldn't really understand it at the time, and he still couldn't understand it now. Just what is his Gundam, what is it really like.
"Mikazuki, you alright?" Atra said whilst putting a hand on Mika's shoulder, the boy took a second to respond with a slow nod. The girl, however, didn't buy into that, sure Mikazuki was cold on the outside, but she knew better than that. After all, she was close to him and knew since they were kids.
"I really am, Atra." Mikazuki tried to reassure. The girl only shook her head in response.
"No, you're not, something's wrong, I can tell." The blue eyed boy slightly widened his eyes and raised an eyebrow, he never lied to Atra, and here was the same, though trying to explain his thoughts about the Barbatos would be….difficult to put into words and Atra would be left confused, furthermore it was more or less a feeling he had….if he could call it that.
Mikazuki looked back at his smaller female companion and just like before it put him at ease. It was a similar case with Kudelia, but with Atra it was significantly stronger, he would be lying if he didn't want to continue looking into Atra's eyes. It radiated a sense of calmness and sweetness, something that Mikazuki always wanted in his life. All of his life he knew fighting, it was tiring, annoying and finally heartbreaking, due to the fact that's all he's ever been good at. Mika always wanted to be a farmer like Sakura Griffon, a simple life is what he truly desired, not going out in a blaze of glory or ruling a country or running a government branch. He just wanted to rest from this, and live with Tekkadan, forever.
"Mika?" Atra began, but stopped as she reached to take his hand, Mika looked down at the gesture, and smiled faintly, Atra squeezed his hand slightly as she gave him a tender smile, though not without a small blush on her face.
"Yo, Mika." Rang a familiar flamboyant voice, Atra swiftly let go of Mikazuki's hand as the boy turned around to see-
"Shino." Mikazuki muttered with a usual cold tone, though the brown haired man with a gold ear piercing got used to his unnerving tone, but it still made him jump slightly. After the momentary sense of silence, Shino came back to his laid back personality.
"Sooooooo, that Gundam." The short brown haired man says "it's quite the steal dontcha think?" Mikazuki looked at the broken Gundam and looked back at Shino. Before he could speak however, the three members of Tekkaden that were on the hanger felt a tremor.
"What was that?" Atra said worriedly as another tremor was felt. The alarms of an impending attack blared out. Both Shino and Mikazuki looked at each other in confusion, this couldn't be an ambush. While it was possible for it to happen, it would be very difficult for the enemy to go undetected, furthermore, gravity wasn't deactivated. Mikazuki, Shino and Atra all head to the bridge of the ship to find what's happening,
Once arriving, they are met with a……rather distressing situation and sight.
(2 minutes prior, on the Resolute)
The Jedi Knight, Anakin Skywalker stood in front of the glass of the Resolute's bridge, hands behind his back. The man in black robes had his eyes closed, relieved that the meeting with Mina Bonteri and her son Lux had ended, despite the fact that the meeting was yesterday. It was something he wasn't fond of, but with him and Ahsoka being Padme's bodyguard, he had to keep a cool profile in the situation.
The door leading into the main communication/planning room opened as his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano and his second in command Captain Rex walked towards him. Anakin smiled at his surrogate little sister and brother in arms.
"I see that you're getting a sense of calm, general?" Rex asked with his unique phase 2 helmet tucked under his arm, Anakin chuckled at his clone friend.
"Yeah, as calm as weCAN get in this predicament." Anakin says with a bit of humor.
"Well the negotiations with the Bonteri's were entertaining." Ahsoka chimed to change the subject, Anakin rolled his eyes, annoyance painted across his face. Ahsoka then decided to take a jab at that "let me guess, it's because you couldn't fight any droids and therefore surpassing me in kills?" Her master's eye twitched.
"Ohhhhhh, is that so?" He shoots back, "in the off time, you were pretty comfortable talking to that Lux kid." Anakin almost sounded like a protective father towards his apprentice, Rex raises an eyebrow in complete confusion, he had suspicions of Anakin having a secret relationship with Padme, same was for Obi-Wan with Satine, but Ahsoka and this Lux kid? It was quite odd to know.
"What can I say, Lux is quite interesting to talk to and is pretty nice." She counters. Though she did feel a little awkward towards the young senator when she first met him, over time she has gotten a little bit more comfortable with him.
Anakin chuckled at her response, she was a little too innocent despite her fighting tirelessly since the near beginning of the Clone Wars, but he wasn't all that innocent either considering his relationship with Senator Amidala.
"Jeez Snips, you still have a LOT to learn, not just the Jedi way, but normal life." He says. The young female Togruta had a look of confusion and right before she could say anything, Rex pointed beyond Anakin.
"General Skywalker, Look!" Rex exclaimed, Anakin turns around and see two large ships, though those two ships are significantly smaller than the Venator, the marron one was around 300-460 meters long and 120-200 meters tall, the light yellow one looked to be around 500 meters long, 200 meters wide and 70 meters tall. Both ships had a symbol of a flower of sorts on the tops of them.
"The hell is that?" Anakin muttered "They weren't there a moment ago." Perhaps they had jumped from hyperspace, but even then, why would those ships be here? Turning to one of the clones in the communications pit.
"Try making contact with them, Chatter!" He orders.
"Yes, General!" The clone in dark gray attire, Chatter responds. "Sending transmission."
(In the Isaribi)
The 3 members of Tekkadan could not believe what they were witnessing in front of them. A ship that was much much larger than the Isaribi, the large triangle shaped ship with an elevated area in the middle.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT, ORGA!?" Shino yelled. The dark skinned man with lilac hair sneered an angry and terrified glare at Shino.
"How the fuck should I know Shino?!" Orga sneered, which shocked not only Shino and Atra, but Mikazuki. For all the years he has known the lilac haired man, this was one of the few times he saw Orga terrified beyond belief and confused. Mikazuki stepped forward.
"Should I get into Barbatos?" Mikazuki asked, Orga shook his head.
"Ye-." Before he could tell Mika to get into his Gundam and prepare to fight, one of the operators yelled out.
"Incoming transmission! It's coming from that large ship." Orga, completely bewildered by what was going on. Grimacing, he gives a simple nod to the operator. The screen projects and shows nothing, the words "audio feed" was the only thing shown.
"H-hello? Is this on?" The man from the screen says, he sounded laid back…..a little too laid back to the point that Orga thought that the person was joking.
"W-we can hear you uhhhhhh."
"Anakin, Akakin Skywalker, commander of the 501st legion." The man on the screen says.
Shino spoke before Orga could. "501st, is that apart of Gajallarhorn or something?" Orga sneers at the man with the piercing, who throws his hands defensively.
"Gajallarhorn? What's that?" Everyone in the main bridge of the Isaribi looked shocked, though Mikazuki looked mildly confused if anything.
"You don't know what Gajallarhorn is?" Orga asked, even more confused than ever. It was already off that this Anakin person was acting so casually, but him not knowing what Gajallarhorn is, was insane. The same could likely be said about Anakin, he was likely just as if not more confused than Orga.
"Is it a part of the Grand Army Of The Republic or the Confederacy Of Independent Systems?" Anakin asked with a bit of seriousness in his voice, pretty much demanding an answer, as if the thing they say next will be the deciding factor between life or death. Orga takes a deep breath before answering.
"Look….Anakin, Gajallarhorn was an organization we went against, let's just say that and no they're not a part of any side you just stated, same with us members of Tekkadan. In all honesty I don't even know what the fuck is going on or even how we got here."
(Back on the Resolute.)
After hearing that answer, Anakin remained silent. Was it a neutral system they were a part of, similar to Mandalore? But if that was the case, they should've said they weren't a part of The Clone Wars and wished to not be disturbed, yet they didn't.
"Master." Ahsoka begins to whisper.
"No,snips." Is all he says, which was more than enough to give her an answer "I don't think the council would help in this situation, not even Obi-Wan." The young Togruta nods.
"Soo did the connection fail orrrr." A flamboyant sounding voice rings out.
"No, I'm still here." Anakin says with annoyance in his voice.
"Oh shit."
"Shino, please for the love of god. Shut.The.FUCK. UP!" Orga's voice screamed.
"Please do, Shin, it's getting extremely annoying."
"Oh not you too Mika!"
"I'm actually getting annoyed as well, Shino." A young female voice says.
"Uh sir, did they forget we can hear them?" Rex says out of amusement as the crew on the other side begins to argue, mainly Orga and the flamboyant sounding man "because I don't know how much longer me and the communication boys can handle this without losing it."
"Likewise." Ahsoka chimes in. Anakin shrugs, almost tempted to let these morons argue with each other, but that unfortunately was not an option and considering how they look to be non hostile (for now) Anakin thought of something really really stupid…..which wouldn't be a surprise in a normal setting, but this was completely different.
"Look!" Anakin says in a commanding tone "considering how this is going nowhere."
He glanced at where Ahsoka was and she mouths "don't you dare do it Skydumbass" already knowing what the man will say. Anakin had a combination of a smug and reassuring smile.
"You should make your case, face to face, Orga."
He says, "or to put in the words of the child, we should talk in person." There was silence, an awkward silence. Anakin looks behind him and sees Ahsoka face palming with a smile and Rex was trying his absolute best to not laugh.
"Fuck, sure." Orga relents as the communication is cut.
"Skyguy, you might've made the biggest mistake of your life ever...of all time." Ahsoka says in a deadpan voice, the Jedi ma-knight shrugs.
"Maybe I did, I can't imagine being able to stomach longer with them while still in long distance communication." Anakin muttered, looking at the 2 smaller ships in front of The Resolute.
(In the Isaribi)
Orga inhaled an angered scream and looked at Mikazuki.
"Should I get into Barbatos?" the boy asked, Orga nodded, "should I have his weapons on him?"
"……"
"Is that a yes?" Orga closed his eyes and responded to the question.
"Just The Odachi, but keep it in its scabbard." Mika nodded and made his way out of the bridge, with Atra following him. Orga glances at Shino and the man with the earring had a slightly guilty look.
"S-sorry Orga."
"It's fine, besides being forced to meet this Anakin person, I saw it coming." He muttered, after hearing how well laid back he was at first, Orga was tempted to ask if they could talk face to face, Shino simply assisted.
(Elsewhere in the Isaribi)
Mikazuki zipped up his personalized orange space suit.
"H-here." Atra says while giving Mika his helmet, blushing ever so slightly after seeing Mika's body.
"Thanks Atra." Mika thanked with a shadow of a smile, Atra smiled at his gesture. As Mika begins to leave, she suddenly grabs his hand. "Is something wrong?"
"Be careful okay?" He gives her a small pat on the head.
"I will."
(In the hanger)
Mikazuki looked at what was on Barbatos's back, a Mobile Worker, the small vehicle had its mounted weaponry torn off, which Mika reckoned looked quite odd all things considered.
"Think you'll be comfortable riding on Barbatos's back?" Mika asked, Orga snorted at the question and closed his left eye.
"One way to find out." Mika closed his right eye.
"Ah." The two boarded their respective machines. The Barbatos is slowly lowered down flatly onto the launching pad, with a small locking sound, it was enough to tell Mika and Orga (more so Orga if anything) that the time for this sudden meeting was here and there was no turning back. Mikazuki closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"This is Mikazuki Augus, launching." He states. The mechanical wiring began to grow louder and louder as the launch pad suddenly sped up and propelled Barbatos out of the Isaribi.
The trip to the large triangle shaped ship was filled with silence, a foreboding silence, if Mika were to be honest he was tiny bit concerned about this whole thing, though it wasn't enough to completely drive him to a panic. The bastard went through so much that people might as well think that he went through hell and went back willing. Despite that, this small concern was enough to make him wonder why he was feeling this? Was it Barbatos warning him? Was it the fact they're nowhere near home? Or was it something else, something much much more sinister. The boy huffed and looked ahead and slightly increased the speed of his Gundam.
As the Barbatos got closer and closer to the ship, Mika tilted his head, the tilt would be unnoticeable if he was in a public area.
" Where's the hanger?" He muttered silently, almost to answer his question the the area where a large red stripe was, opened revealing a large and (from the looks of it in the Barbatos) linear hanger with a blue, transparent wall on its top. Mikazuki maneuvered the Gundam to ensure it had slow descent….relatively speaking.
(In the hanger of The Resolute)
The clones of the 501st have seen their fair share of messed up and weird shit, from the droid factories and genosion zombies on geonosis, The Battle Of Christophsis and even a weird rock like ship with weird growth on it in with scars on an asteroid belt, it escaped from them and looked to go beyond the galaxy, but those were nothing on the sight they were greeted. A large lightish gray droid with green eyes descended into the hanger bay. One of the clones, Doil, nudged at his friend.
"Hey loono, 100 battle droids or that." He pointed at the white droid. Loono turned his head to face his brother, despite the Phase 2 helmet covering the entirety of his face, Doil could tell that Loono was completely aghast by the statement.
"What kind of question is that?! 100 droids, I have a better chance fighting them then…..that." Loono said while looking at the large machine.
Anakin walked past the clones, with Ahsoka on his right and Captain Rex on his left. Rex eyed at the head of the white droid with green eyes, the captain looked at his commander and saw a small drop of sweat move down the side of his head. It was rare for the Jedi Knight to be outwardly afraid of something, even the most dire of battles he attempted to keep a calm exterior. Off battle it was obviously much easier to keep his calm (in certain cases), so for this one singular droid to cause arguably one of the most skilled Jedi to be concerned, was a sign that something much more sinister was within this thing. He also looked at Ahsoka and noticed her distressed expression underneath a cold exterior. The entire thing made the captain even more uneasy as the white droid knelt down, even with the thing kneeling, the hanger just barely accommodated for it.
The Gundam ejected a large screen of steam as Orga got out of the mobile worker and slowly climbed down the side of Barbatos, his helmet still on him, he walked towards the brown haired man in black robes whom he assumed was Anakin, the man began to walk towards Orga, along with the strange looking orange girl with weird sold white hair and soldier with white armor, after a 2-3 meters apart, Orga slowly reached for his helmet and began to remove it, the hissing sound came first as the rounded helmet fully came off of his face.
Seeing his face in full Ahsoka noticed that Orga had yellow eyes.
"Master you think he's-"
"No" is all Anakin said. Orga looked awkwardly at the pair and raised an eyebrow. "I sense it too."
"Sense what?" Orga thought to himself as Anakin looked beyond the lilac haired man and towards…….Barbatos?
"But, it's not the dark side, but something…..more chaotic….more destructive if you could say."
Was it Mika? No, it can't be, right?
Man I love cliffhangers, abrupt I know, originally I wanted it to end with Orga and Anakin meeting and ending right there, but having where Orga thinks that something is up with Mika felt more enticing so, yeah start of a new fic, welcome to this new trainwreck where I have an idea where this ends, kinda.