Title:
Human Touch
Chapter 2: Memories
Source: After War: Gundam X
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam X or any of it's characters.
Brief description: The second chapter, this is actually where the story
starts.
URL: go here for pics and info on the character and Mecha of this story.
http://www.akurei.50megs.com/mecha/index.html
Author's notes: I chose the title of this fic when listening to the 1st
ending song to Gundam X "Human Touch". Since this story was based
on the human struggle for survival and the need for contact in ones life, it
seemed appropriate.
It had been 5 days since the last battle. A vacation as far as the Freeden's crew was concerned. It had been getting colder the past few days, and that always seemed to bring out the worst memories. After the mass colony drop there was a nuclear winter that covered the Earth in cold darkness for several years. It was only a couple years ago that spring returned, but for Garrod it was his whole life. His father died during the war, most of his friends died during the long winter and the rest along with his mother died in the spring when his village was raided by rouge mobile suit pilots. It was a fact that the war was over, but the individual wars have not ended. To this day pointless conflicts and battles still plague the Earth.
Some members of the crew sat watching light flurries begin to fall. It was always something that worried people, they always wondered if this time the snow wouldn't stop, as it did for so many years. Kid saw with the others taking a rest of all the work he had been doing on the gundams. So far Airmaster was back up and running but GX and Leopard still needed more work done. It was quiet a strain on the 12 year old but he was the only one that could get the job done in such a short amount of time.
The Captain came to the decision that it would be best to keep heading north toward the mountains, they would have better cover there. With any luck they might run into other Vulture ships and get more repairs done. Jammil walked down the halls and corridors of the Freeden thinking of how the large land battleship had seen better days. Soon after the winter ended the water level was still very low. Many naval ports had lots of ships now stranded on land. The Vultures, who took every chance to survive converted these ships so that they could move on land. Jammil could remember the day he first saw the Freeden. It was a cold day, much like today. Some Federal forces that were still in the area were hunting him and his small band down for the theft of some weapons. At that time he was so eager to keep his people safe. He managed to hide them all in an ship that had been washed ashore and abandoned for many years. They were all so young at the time, orphaned by the war and it's after effects, orphaned by HIS war. He was one of the Gundam X pilots, one of the only ones that lived through the war. He never wanted anyone to know he was involved with that, the most terrible tragedy in human history.
Witz and Roabie, the two gundam pilots hired by Jammil pretty much kept to themselves at times like this. They didn't really think of themselves are part of the crew, mostly since they were freelancers. Though they had been working for Jammil for quite a while now. Witz was off trying to kill boredom with sleep while Roabie was hitting on every female crew member.
Tifa, still alone, was trying to think of someway to help everyone. They had all been fighting so hard to keep her safe. Her past was a mystery even to herself. Why were they so determined to keep her away from the Federation? And for that matter, why did the New Earth Federation want her for? All she knew was it had something to do with her abilities. She knew Jammil was a newtype as well and perhaps that is why he was protective of her. The others are just following his orders....except for Garrod. Even with her empathic abilities she wasn't sure why he was so protective of her. As she looked outside the falling snow reminded her of the first time she could recall being in the Federation's custody. She was locked away in some lab and spent each day being studied and examined. The process of creating artificial newtypes was lost during the war. It was believed that studying a living newtype would unlock the answers to replicating them. Whatever the reason, the thoughts of her past made her shiver. As she was about to enter her room a sudden feeling of dread overtook her. She nearly fell as images of a battle flooded her mind. In her thoughts she could see the Freeden destroyed and Gundam Airmaster falling from the sky. As soon as she could regain her composer she ran as fast as she could to tell someone what she saw.
As she was about to enter the bridge a sudden explosion from outside caused her to fall. The entire ship shook with the force of the impact. "Report!" yelled Jammil as the crew scrambled to figure out what happened. "Mobile suits detected, incoming from the mountains. Suits confirmed, Gundam Virsago and Ashtaron." replied one of the crew. "The Frost brothers" Jammil thought to himself. "What is the status of the gundams?" Kid's voice could be heard over the intercom, "Airmaster is 98% repaired but the others aren't combat ready yet." Without order or hesitation Witz shot out of the ship in Airmaster. There were still some light cracks in the armor but otherwise it was fine. Passing the Freeden Witz could see the flaming hole produced by the megasonic cannon housed in Virsago's torso. This would be no easy battle, the Frost brothers were virtually unbeatable when working together. Their ability to read each other's thoughts gave them a great tactical advantage over any opponent. They also had the reputation of defeating every gundam pilot they had ever faced with the one exception of Garrod.
As the gundams fought Tifa could only watch and fear that her latest vision was coming to life. It was believed that the brothers were working for the Federation but their true motives were never known. It took about six crew members to hold Garrod back as he tried to get into Gundam X. After punching out two of them, he himself was punched out by Roabie, "There is nothing we can do now" he said calmly. Airmaster dodged the two enemy suits as they double teamed him. Ashtaron attempted to clamp onto Airmaster with it's scissor arm but missed as the variable mobile suit changed into fighter mode and took to the sky. Witz brought Airmaster around for an attack but only one of the gundams could be seen. Suddenly we felt a major jolt as Virsago dug it's dragon claws into one of Airmaster's wings, causing it's armor to rip up even more.
The gundam slammed into the ground and crew gasped at the sight, hoping the pilot was still alive. Through all the fighting no one had noticed that Tifa had left the battleship. Not until Jammil caught a glimpse of her walking on the battlefield. Virsago dug it's claws into the ground to brace itself for another shot of it's megasonic cannon. The two gundams stopped when they noticed the girl walking toward them. To many had suffered for her. She was determined to not let her vision of the Freeden's destruction come true. The only thing she could think to do to save her friends was to surrender herself.
. . . . . .to be continued
~Akurei_GX