GUNDAM WING: THIRD ACT/ Chapter 1b: THE SHOOTING STARS THEY SAW
L4 Winner Residence 5:23P.M. L4 Time
"The casualties now predicted in the Sanct Kingdom have been estimated in the
triple digits." Said the reporter on the screen of the 20inch TV of the Winner
family's living room. Sitting in one of the their big lounge chairs, typing on his
laptop, Duo looked up at the screen annoyed. For the last half hour after they had
left from the lake area they had been watching the news for any relevant
information, and for the last half hour all they had learned was that there had
been massive casualties.
Pushing the computer off his lap he snapped up the remote from the end
table next him and hit the off button. Rubbing his forehead he looked over in the
chair next to him to see Hilde still fast asleep.
"Oi, I guess it is a little late." Said duo checking his watch. It was
only half pass five on L4, but for them it was still eleven thirty L2 time. Guess
Hild' was more tired then he thought, although she certainly had a right to be
after all that's been going on today. He just wished they had actually had some
fun before the day had gotten trashed.
Picking up a blanket from a nearby couch, he tucked her in before walking
off towards the bedroom where Relena had been since he had arrived. Noin had said
that she had fallen asleep in the car on the way and had carried her into the
house about an hour ago. Hopefully she was still sleeping since they still didn't
have anything to tell but bad news about her Kingdom.
Heero nodded to him as he came around the corner. There was a small group
consisting of him, Dorothy and Quatre outside the door. Noin, Zechs, Wufei and
Sally had already left to see what they could glean from the local preventers and
Trowa and Catherine had gone to perform at the circus. Although after what had
just happened Duo guessed that the two had a tough act to follow.
"She still asleep?" said Duo quietly as he settled in next to Quatre.
"Apparently so." Heero turned to Duo. "Any luck on finding any information
on the White Star?"
"Nada," Duo shook his head and sighed. "I hacked into a few satellites and
tapped a few of my sources, but none of them have heard anything about them. I did
learn that a few of the smaller nations have decided to openly accept these guys's
cause, several of them even have small stockpiles of decommissioned mobile suits."
"At least those can be dealt with." Said Heero standing up from where he
was sitting on the floor. He stretched out his arms before continuing. "I'm not so
worried about that, it's the White Star that I'm worried about."
"How are we going to do something about them if we don't even know where
they are. Sally said that they had no warning of this happening what so ever. They
weren't even aware of the group in till today" Said Quatre. He let out a sigh and
slid down the wall into a sitting position.
Dorothy looked over the young pilots seriously, "You all talk as if you
could actually do something to stop them. You have to remember that you no longer
have the Gundams. In a sense you're as powerless to stop them as me, or even
Relena."
"We are never powerless." Said Heero. He still looked slighty worried,
especially since this was no small force they where talking about.
There was a long silence before anyone spoke again as their thoughts went
to the destruction of the Gundams nearly two years ago. In an unprecedented manner
they had destroyed the suits in the name of peace after having defeated a group
trying to appoint Treizes apparent daughter as Queen of the Earth. Since then
there had been only one known Gundam left, that being the preventer Zechs
Marquis's Talgheese.
Suddenly Duo pushed himself off the wall and stood in the middle of the
hallway smiling, "You all sound like this is the end of the world! Cheer up! We'll
beat this just like every other time before this!" He smiled even wider and
shrugged, "And if we don't at least we won't be around to see the consequences."
Dorothy smiled a little despite herself, "Well that's an awfully gloomy
pep talk."
"Actually it's a rather realistic one." Said Heero emotionlessly.
Capitalizing on this Duo pointed at him, "See Heero agrees with me."
Dorothy and Quatre laughed as the dark boy raised an eyebrow at him.
Down the hall in the living room the phone started ringing and they could
hear a drowsy Hilde climb out of her chair and pick it up. "Hello? Oh Hi Sally."
There was a short pause as they heard her walk over to the entrance of the
hallway. "Duo, Heero its for you."
"Thanks Hild'" said Duo. As he walked by her on his way to the phone he
gave her a hug. "Go ahead and go back to sleep, I think we're going to be here a
little while longer."
"That's alright I kinda like Quatre's chairs here." Said Hilde walking
back into the living room with him. She gave him a kiss before going back to her
chair, a few moments later he could hear her sleeping.
Smiling at the thought of a well deserved nap he watched her for a little
while longer and then followed Heero over to the vid phone. On the small screen he
could see Sally clearly with Noin and Zechs off in the background working on
separate computers. Heero was already skimming through a data file on his computer
that had been sent over the line.
"This data looks corrupted." Said Heero looking up from the laptop and at
Sally. He tapped a few keys on the computer, which caused the phone's screen to
split in two. On the right side was a high-resolution camera shot from one of the
preventer's satellites orbiting the earth. After a few seconds of nothing but
ocean the fleet of mobile dolls that had attacked the Sanct Kingdom appeared
heading west when suddenly they disappeared halfway across the screen. The screen
seemed to glitch for a moment in the area surrounding the dolls.
"What the hell?" said Duo. He immediately toned down his voice as he heard
Hilde stir on the chair. On the screen Sally nodded.
"That's exactly what I said." On screen they saw her type in something on
a keyboard. Heero's computer screen changed and after a small lag so did the image
on the right side of the phone. "Thinking exactly what Heero just said I checked
another one of our satellites thinking that it wouldn't be affected." On screen
the same scene replayed only at a different angle.
"Could it be someone hacking into the data base?" asked Heero. He turned
back to his laptop and started typing away. Various windows popped up with binary
code and topographical maps running across them. "Maybe changing the data around
and inserting a repeating image into that time frame?"
"I ran an image scan before calling you," Sally punched in some more keys
and a complex stream of data ran across it. Duo could already see that it hadn't
been tampered with by the first few lines of text. If it was manipulation of the
satellites images it was done by someone with more skill then he had ever seen
before. "I haven't been able to detect any trace of manipulation, splicing or even
of the electronics of the satellites being tampered with. I also called up some
favors with friends of mine and they're reading the same thing. Apparently what
ever is happening its originating from the dolls themselves."
Duo felt a twinge go down his back at the mention of this. Something about
the whole thing bothered him in a way he couldn't place just yet. Running back to
his chair he picked up his laptop and brought it back to the table and plugged it
into the phone line. "Sally could you upload the data to my computer?"
Sally nodded and after a few seconds of her typing Duo saw his computer
flicker various windows as it downloaded the satellites files. He closed the lid
as it finished downloading the rest of the data.
"Was there anything else of importance that we should be aware of?" asked
Heero. His eyes remained trained on the computer in his lap as he talked.
"Nothing that we're aware of at the moment." Sally smiled, "It's been
pretty hectic down here so I'm not sure of what the preventers all know yet. I
even had to send Wufei home after he got what little information we had available."
Heero nodded still looking at his computer. "Acknowledge. I'll send you
anything that I find."
"Same here." Said Sally. Suddenly her face fell as she remembered to ask
something. "Hows Relena holding up?"
"She's been asleep since the car trip." Said Duo looking back at the
hallway. "Quatre and Dorothy are keeping a watch on her room. Hopefully she'll
sleep until tomorrow and feel better for it."
Sally nodded. "So should I contact you here if I find anything?"
"Nah," said Duo shaking his head. "Me and Hilde will be heading back to
the scrap yard pretty soon since we hadn't made any arrangements for the night."
Heero nodded, "I'm going to head out to for my things. But I'll be
returning here afterwards to safeguard Relena."
"Alright then, either Noin, me or Zechs will contact you when we find out
anything relevant." Sally hit a button off screen and the phone blipped off."
Pulling a cd from his computer Duo placed it in it's case and pushed it
into his pocket. Putting the computer back in its own case he slid it into the
storage area he had got it from. After the war with the White Fang and several
visits afterwards to his home by the other pilots, Quatre had decided to try and
lighten their loads on the their trips by buying them spare laptops that remained
stowed away until one of them visited. At times like this it happened to come in a
whole lot more user then they had originally imagined since none of them had
brought their own for Relena's speech.
Stretching out his sore muscles as he walked into the hallway where Quatre
and Dorothy were, Duo began to realize again just how late it was. Even knowing
that it was still daytime on this colony it was starting to seem very late.
Looking back at Heero he smiled as he saw the dark boy still typing away at his
computer oblivious to everything else.
"So what did Sally say?" said Dorothy looking up from the chair she was
sitting in. Quatre who was sitting across from her turned and looked away from
Relena's door, apparently they had gone into another room and pulled out some
chairs since Duo had left.
Sitting down in one of the two vacant chairs Duo sighed and slid down till
his back touched the seat of it. "Not much, apparently the satellites lost track
of the entire fleet of mobile dolls after they left the Sanct Kingdom."
"How is that possible??" Quatre sat upright in his chair looking concerned.
"Didn't the preventers have anything that caught their movements or told us where
they were headed?"
"We know they where heading west directly after the attack but apparently
they just disappeared." Duo pulled himself up slightly in the chair and rested his
head in his hand. "They just seem to disappear off the satellites camera's."
Duo shook his head and gave one of his smiles, "So what are we going to do
about 'lena in there?"
Quatre looked at the door a worried expression on his face. "I'm going to
let her, Dorothy and Heero stay here till they can find a place to stay. For the
moment its probably the safest place for them."
"Duo nodded sleepily at this and yawned, "Well I better get going then. I
have the feeling I'm going to need a goodnights sleep before tomorrow." Getting up
and waving goodbye he walked back out into the living room and woke up Hilde.
Reading Duo's sign that they were leaving, Heero took a cd of the information he
had, saved and stored his laptop in its case. After a couple of minutes the trio
walked down to the airport for their trip home for the night.
Location: Unrevealed 4:30P.M. L4 Time.
"General Aika sir?" said the young man peering around the open door. The
man in the room turned around and nodded at the man from his position in front of
the window. Pushing up his glasses the long dark haired man sat down behind his as
the young officer sat down in a seat in front of it.
"I take it the mission went smoothly?" Gen. Aika looked at the man
distractedly. The whole sordid affair sickened him, especially the loss of life,
but he knew it had to be done.
"Yes, sir." The young man nodded. "There was no resistance from the
Peacecraft's nation. There were no casualties on our side." The man fidegeted in
his seat at the word casualties and Aika could see in his eyes that he was
thinking about the other side of this war. The innocent casualties that had
happened today.
"That's good to hear." Reaching into his desk he pulled out a cigar from a
small tincan. Looking at the soldier he lit it with concern in his eye. War was no
place for someone who thought about the "other" side, it caused to much pain. Yet
this had to be done and each and everyone of these soldiers have accepted their
cause without complaint.
Finally he spoke again, "How are the rest of the men handling it?"
The young man cheered up a little as his attention was diverted from the
earlier bloodshed. "Their taking it well. Most of the troops are a little...
trouble....…. by attacking a peaceful nation. A few are celebrating though."
Aika nodded and took a puff from his cigar. He'd have to pick out the
celebrators and have them watched. He didn't want to have anyone who did this out
of pleasure on his force if he could afford it. Hopefully the majority of them
where just celebrating a victory and not the battle.
There was another bit of silence before Aika spoke again, "Tell the
soldiers that we will implement the next part of our attack in six hours."
The young cadet nodded and got up to leave."
"Oh and cadet?"
The young man turned to the general.
"I'm sorry that you have to go through this."
The cadet smiled, "Thank you, Sir." After a few moments he left.
Getting back out from behind the desk the long dark haired man, pushed his
glasses up and went back to looking out the window. Looking over the water of the
ocean on the outside of the town he kept repeating to himself, "It's for the best.
It's for the best."
Author's note: Sorry about having to split the first chapter into two parts, but
as they say on star trek "My notepad coulda 'nae take it cap'n" it kept spouting
"memory too low" and all that junk. Anyway I hope you all liked the first chapter,
I hope to get chapter2 "The Rebirth of the Deathscythe" done soon. Well write what
yae thought of it in thee's reviews and maybe i might be able to tailor the next
a little better. Well eyb eyb! I got to go feed fluffy. That dang toaster just won't
stop eating.
L4 Winner Residence 5:23P.M. L4 Time
"The casualties now predicted in the Sanct Kingdom have been estimated in the
triple digits." Said the reporter on the screen of the 20inch TV of the Winner
family's living room. Sitting in one of the their big lounge chairs, typing on his
laptop, Duo looked up at the screen annoyed. For the last half hour after they had
left from the lake area they had been watching the news for any relevant
information, and for the last half hour all they had learned was that there had
been massive casualties.
Pushing the computer off his lap he snapped up the remote from the end
table next him and hit the off button. Rubbing his forehead he looked over in the
chair next to him to see Hilde still fast asleep.
"Oi, I guess it is a little late." Said duo checking his watch. It was
only half pass five on L4, but for them it was still eleven thirty L2 time. Guess
Hild' was more tired then he thought, although she certainly had a right to be
after all that's been going on today. He just wished they had actually had some
fun before the day had gotten trashed.
Picking up a blanket from a nearby couch, he tucked her in before walking
off towards the bedroom where Relena had been since he had arrived. Noin had said
that she had fallen asleep in the car on the way and had carried her into the
house about an hour ago. Hopefully she was still sleeping since they still didn't
have anything to tell but bad news about her Kingdom.
Heero nodded to him as he came around the corner. There was a small group
consisting of him, Dorothy and Quatre outside the door. Noin, Zechs, Wufei and
Sally had already left to see what they could glean from the local preventers and
Trowa and Catherine had gone to perform at the circus. Although after what had
just happened Duo guessed that the two had a tough act to follow.
"She still asleep?" said Duo quietly as he settled in next to Quatre.
"Apparently so." Heero turned to Duo. "Any luck on finding any information
on the White Star?"
"Nada," Duo shook his head and sighed. "I hacked into a few satellites and
tapped a few of my sources, but none of them have heard anything about them. I did
learn that a few of the smaller nations have decided to openly accept these guys's
cause, several of them even have small stockpiles of decommissioned mobile suits."
"At least those can be dealt with." Said Heero standing up from where he
was sitting on the floor. He stretched out his arms before continuing. "I'm not so
worried about that, it's the White Star that I'm worried about."
"How are we going to do something about them if we don't even know where
they are. Sally said that they had no warning of this happening what so ever. They
weren't even aware of the group in till today" Said Quatre. He let out a sigh and
slid down the wall into a sitting position.
Dorothy looked over the young pilots seriously, "You all talk as if you
could actually do something to stop them. You have to remember that you no longer
have the Gundams. In a sense you're as powerless to stop them as me, or even
Relena."
"We are never powerless." Said Heero. He still looked slighty worried,
especially since this was no small force they where talking about.
There was a long silence before anyone spoke again as their thoughts went
to the destruction of the Gundams nearly two years ago. In an unprecedented manner
they had destroyed the suits in the name of peace after having defeated a group
trying to appoint Treizes apparent daughter as Queen of the Earth. Since then
there had been only one known Gundam left, that being the preventer Zechs
Marquis's Talgheese.
Suddenly Duo pushed himself off the wall and stood in the middle of the
hallway smiling, "You all sound like this is the end of the world! Cheer up! We'll
beat this just like every other time before this!" He smiled even wider and
shrugged, "And if we don't at least we won't be around to see the consequences."
Dorothy smiled a little despite herself, "Well that's an awfully gloomy
pep talk."
"Actually it's a rather realistic one." Said Heero emotionlessly.
Capitalizing on this Duo pointed at him, "See Heero agrees with me."
Dorothy and Quatre laughed as the dark boy raised an eyebrow at him.
Down the hall in the living room the phone started ringing and they could
hear a drowsy Hilde climb out of her chair and pick it up. "Hello? Oh Hi Sally."
There was a short pause as they heard her walk over to the entrance of the
hallway. "Duo, Heero its for you."
"Thanks Hild'" said Duo. As he walked by her on his way to the phone he
gave her a hug. "Go ahead and go back to sleep, I think we're going to be here a
little while longer."
"That's alright I kinda like Quatre's chairs here." Said Hilde walking
back into the living room with him. She gave him a kiss before going back to her
chair, a few moments later he could hear her sleeping.
Smiling at the thought of a well deserved nap he watched her for a little
while longer and then followed Heero over to the vid phone. On the small screen he
could see Sally clearly with Noin and Zechs off in the background working on
separate computers. Heero was already skimming through a data file on his computer
that had been sent over the line.
"This data looks corrupted." Said Heero looking up from the laptop and at
Sally. He tapped a few keys on the computer, which caused the phone's screen to
split in two. On the right side was a high-resolution camera shot from one of the
preventer's satellites orbiting the earth. After a few seconds of nothing but
ocean the fleet of mobile dolls that had attacked the Sanct Kingdom appeared
heading west when suddenly they disappeared halfway across the screen. The screen
seemed to glitch for a moment in the area surrounding the dolls.
"What the hell?" said Duo. He immediately toned down his voice as he heard
Hilde stir on the chair. On the screen Sally nodded.
"That's exactly what I said." On screen they saw her type in something on
a keyboard. Heero's computer screen changed and after a small lag so did the image
on the right side of the phone. "Thinking exactly what Heero just said I checked
another one of our satellites thinking that it wouldn't be affected." On screen
the same scene replayed only at a different angle.
"Could it be someone hacking into the data base?" asked Heero. He turned
back to his laptop and started typing away. Various windows popped up with binary
code and topographical maps running across them. "Maybe changing the data around
and inserting a repeating image into that time frame?"
"I ran an image scan before calling you," Sally punched in some more keys
and a complex stream of data ran across it. Duo could already see that it hadn't
been tampered with by the first few lines of text. If it was manipulation of the
satellites images it was done by someone with more skill then he had ever seen
before. "I haven't been able to detect any trace of manipulation, splicing or even
of the electronics of the satellites being tampered with. I also called up some
favors with friends of mine and they're reading the same thing. Apparently what
ever is happening its originating from the dolls themselves."
Duo felt a twinge go down his back at the mention of this. Something about
the whole thing bothered him in a way he couldn't place just yet. Running back to
his chair he picked up his laptop and brought it back to the table and plugged it
into the phone line. "Sally could you upload the data to my computer?"
Sally nodded and after a few seconds of her typing Duo saw his computer
flicker various windows as it downloaded the satellites files. He closed the lid
as it finished downloading the rest of the data.
"Was there anything else of importance that we should be aware of?" asked
Heero. His eyes remained trained on the computer in his lap as he talked.
"Nothing that we're aware of at the moment." Sally smiled, "It's been
pretty hectic down here so I'm not sure of what the preventers all know yet. I
even had to send Wufei home after he got what little information we had available."
Heero nodded still looking at his computer. "Acknowledge. I'll send you
anything that I find."
"Same here." Said Sally. Suddenly her face fell as she remembered to ask
something. "Hows Relena holding up?"
"She's been asleep since the car trip." Said Duo looking back at the
hallway. "Quatre and Dorothy are keeping a watch on her room. Hopefully she'll
sleep until tomorrow and feel better for it."
Sally nodded. "So should I contact you here if I find anything?"
"Nah," said Duo shaking his head. "Me and Hilde will be heading back to
the scrap yard pretty soon since we hadn't made any arrangements for the night."
Heero nodded, "I'm going to head out to for my things. But I'll be
returning here afterwards to safeguard Relena."
"Alright then, either Noin, me or Zechs will contact you when we find out
anything relevant." Sally hit a button off screen and the phone blipped off."
Pulling a cd from his computer Duo placed it in it's case and pushed it
into his pocket. Putting the computer back in its own case he slid it into the
storage area he had got it from. After the war with the White Fang and several
visits afterwards to his home by the other pilots, Quatre had decided to try and
lighten their loads on the their trips by buying them spare laptops that remained
stowed away until one of them visited. At times like this it happened to come in a
whole lot more user then they had originally imagined since none of them had
brought their own for Relena's speech.
Stretching out his sore muscles as he walked into the hallway where Quatre
and Dorothy were, Duo began to realize again just how late it was. Even knowing
that it was still daytime on this colony it was starting to seem very late.
Looking back at Heero he smiled as he saw the dark boy still typing away at his
computer oblivious to everything else.
"So what did Sally say?" said Dorothy looking up from the chair she was
sitting in. Quatre who was sitting across from her turned and looked away from
Relena's door, apparently they had gone into another room and pulled out some
chairs since Duo had left.
Sitting down in one of the two vacant chairs Duo sighed and slid down till
his back touched the seat of it. "Not much, apparently the satellites lost track
of the entire fleet of mobile dolls after they left the Sanct Kingdom."
"How is that possible??" Quatre sat upright in his chair looking concerned.
"Didn't the preventers have anything that caught their movements or told us where
they were headed?"
"We know they where heading west directly after the attack but apparently
they just disappeared." Duo pulled himself up slightly in the chair and rested his
head in his hand. "They just seem to disappear off the satellites camera's."
Duo shook his head and gave one of his smiles, "So what are we going to do
about 'lena in there?"
Quatre looked at the door a worried expression on his face. "I'm going to
let her, Dorothy and Heero stay here till they can find a place to stay. For the
moment its probably the safest place for them."
"Duo nodded sleepily at this and yawned, "Well I better get going then. I
have the feeling I'm going to need a goodnights sleep before tomorrow." Getting up
and waving goodbye he walked back out into the living room and woke up Hilde.
Reading Duo's sign that they were leaving, Heero took a cd of the information he
had, saved and stored his laptop in its case. After a couple of minutes the trio
walked down to the airport for their trip home for the night.
Location: Unrevealed 4:30P.M. L4 Time.
"General Aika sir?" said the young man peering around the open door. The
man in the room turned around and nodded at the man from his position in front of
the window. Pushing up his glasses the long dark haired man sat down behind his as
the young officer sat down in a seat in front of it.
"I take it the mission went smoothly?" Gen. Aika looked at the man
distractedly. The whole sordid affair sickened him, especially the loss of life,
but he knew it had to be done.
"Yes, sir." The young man nodded. "There was no resistance from the
Peacecraft's nation. There were no casualties on our side." The man fidegeted in
his seat at the word casualties and Aika could see in his eyes that he was
thinking about the other side of this war. The innocent casualties that had
happened today.
"That's good to hear." Reaching into his desk he pulled out a cigar from a
small tincan. Looking at the soldier he lit it with concern in his eye. War was no
place for someone who thought about the "other" side, it caused to much pain. Yet
this had to be done and each and everyone of these soldiers have accepted their
cause without complaint.
Finally he spoke again, "How are the rest of the men handling it?"
The young man cheered up a little as his attention was diverted from the
earlier bloodshed. "Their taking it well. Most of the troops are a little...
trouble....…. by attacking a peaceful nation. A few are celebrating though."
Aika nodded and took a puff from his cigar. He'd have to pick out the
celebrators and have them watched. He didn't want to have anyone who did this out
of pleasure on his force if he could afford it. Hopefully the majority of them
where just celebrating a victory and not the battle.
There was another bit of silence before Aika spoke again, "Tell the
soldiers that we will implement the next part of our attack in six hours."
The young cadet nodded and got up to leave."
"Oh and cadet?"
The young man turned to the general.
"I'm sorry that you have to go through this."
The cadet smiled, "Thank you, Sir." After a few moments he left.
Getting back out from behind the desk the long dark haired man, pushed his
glasses up and went back to looking out the window. Looking over the water of the
ocean on the outside of the town he kept repeating to himself, "It's for the best.
It's for the best."
Author's note: Sorry about having to split the first chapter into two parts, but
as they say on star trek "My notepad coulda 'nae take it cap'n" it kept spouting
"memory too low" and all that junk. Anyway I hope you all liked the first chapter,
I hope to get chapter2 "The Rebirth of the Deathscythe" done soon. Well write what
yae thought of it in thee's reviews and maybe i might be able to tailor the next
a little better. Well eyb eyb! I got to go feed fluffy. That dang toaster just won't
stop eating.