Gundam Gear Solid
Quincy007
***Millardo was pushing the button to blast his way forward when I cut the last chapter. Now… To the end!***
The explosion is deafening. I feel the concussive wave pass by me. I glance back down the hall. There is a hole about ten feet wide. "Note to self. Four pounds of C-4 may be a…bit excessive."
The door amazingly enough is still intact. With no door frame to support however It works just the same.
I whistle a tune I learned at Lake Victoria. That makes me think of Noin. I still whistle it though. We are going to get through this.
I see the target. This Tallgeese is fucking huge! 100 feet tall. The gun is a weapon I've never seen before.
"Millardo?" Its Heero. I walk around this bastard Mobile suit.
"Yea?" I find a ladder to climb.
"Have you found the Tallgeese?"
"Yea, and its really huge! 100 feet at least. I wish I knew what was so damn special about it."
"I'm hacking into the files right now. I can see what I come up with."
I walk up along the catwalk about calve high. I see the next ladder that takes me to waist level. I climb that one.
"I got some info for you. The giant gun on the right arm is a rail gun. It uses magnets to fire bullets at extremely high velocities. Also armed with the standard two beam sabers. No Vulcan cannons or anything. Pretty bare bones model."
I shake my head. I'm pretty sure that there is some secret thingie to killing people en mass. I climb the next ladder to the hatch. If it were open I might steal it.
"So how does he launch the nukes?"
"Through the rail gun. It flings the missiles like a bullet. No exhaust. Undetectable. Ingenious really."
"Dandy."
"My best advice is to kill the pilot before he can get into it."
"Kill the head and the body will die."
"Sort of."
Brilliant strategy. Kill the pilot he says. Like its an extension of my will. I shake my head and move to a control booth. I see a shadow inside that could be his, Zechs. That son of a bitch, whom I decided must die the most painful and slow death I can imagine. Which to record, lasts 56 hours.
I peek my head in and look inside. Zechs is having a telephone conversation. I try to hear him more carefully.
"No. I want a billion dollars. No more no less. If you try to weasel your way out of it I'll nuke your pitiful little country." He hangs up and laughs manically. Joy.
I pull my pistol. I jump into the room, holding him at gunpoint. Now a smart man might have killed him there. I however, want him to suffer and I need to know where Noin is. So I point threatingly and ask him, "Where is Noin?"
"Ha, Like I'm going to tell you. Don't bother with the gun, I love pain."
I shoot him in the arm. Pity the bullet went through. He smiled and giggled. "I don't mind being shot. So Ha!"
"Where is Noin? I will kill you."
"No doubt. You want to kill me for touching your precious Noin. You are awfully possessive for a mere friend. I can kill you anytime I want to."
"I can kill you before you even get two feet"
He makes a motion with his fist. The glass wall explodes. Ducking my face to avoid being sliced up He runs out towards the Tallgeese-Giant.
I let the bullets fly as I run after him. He makes it to the Mobile suit though. The bottem floor begins to rise putting the suit in a large hanger. Don't forget me too. I am about three feet from its giant foot.
"Do you like it? I'm sorry I couldn't get it painted white."
"Go to hell!"
"You first. Your bitch second."
I wasn't thinking clearly. Really. I take the stinger launcher and fire them as fast as I can load them. SAMs are meant to pop aircraft not mobile suits. I can't aim for the gun, nor can I aim for the eyepiece.
I load another and duck the machine cannon fire, which were crude additions to the head. A pod. How quaint.
I am desperate enough to see if Une or Duo has advice "Help, please."
"I can assume Titanium alloy. Stingers won't have a great deal of impact. Umm…Tallgeese only twice as big. The cockpit of a mobile suit is like a VR simulator, no outside access. So If you can destroy the sensory inputs…"
"I can take him out."
Une broke in, "Negative. You of all people should know that-"
"The suit can be controlled visually too. He is forced to open the hatch but he can still kill lots of people. If I launch a few Stingers in the cockpit or that general area, then he dies."
"About time you came up with something on your own. I was worried that
you were incapable of thinking."
"I blame lack of sleep."
"Yea, well we stopped caring, get on with the slaying of him."
I hope they are joking. "You're kidding right?"
"A little."
Really that's all I wanted to hear. I heft up the stinger and concentrate on thinking about the location of the sensory inputs. Most assume they are located in the head. No. While they can be, and some are, the tallgeese is designed to run without its head. I could pilot the thing with a body, legs, and an stumpy arm. Not that I'd be that successful in defeating my enemies.
I launch one at the Stingers at an armored port that covers a chest sensor pod that is subtly blended in. I am aim again and fire. While no apparent damage is being done, I can tell he lost some visuals.
"Where are you?" He yelled, as if I'm going to respond. I ready another stinger and look for more sensor packs. With the Tallgeese back at home there are about twenty five different sensor packs leading to all kinds of information layouts. Right now I'm just trying to destroy the visual layouts. Not much luck though if one is in the head. It's a dance we begin. Strike back up he strikes And I have to get another shot off. I'm losing I can tell, because he isn't having trouble finding me.
I run out of stingers, I only had 20, and am left with the hand held explosives and firearms. The machine gun is useless as is my pistol. Perhaps If I could throw the explosives. Yea right. I couldn't throw those things one hundred feet.
What other choice did I have? He was still trying to stomp on me and occasionally shoot at me. I didn't have place to run. The Nikita launcher doesn't let the missles change altitude. What if I aimed them up? That could work.
More out of desperation than anything else I pull out the Nikita launcher I aim up kinda praying I hit a good angle. I fire. Trying to steer that and run away is very hard. I would have missed but he took a step back to leap in front of me. The missile hit the face plate and damaged the cameras because he stopped moving. "Did that do it?"
"Nice try!" The suit pulled at the gun on its arm. Oh shit.
I had just about finished swearing myself for having it end this close, when I was saved by Heero.
The Leo he stole was dwarfed by the huge Tallgeese, more so than usual. Still, he used the rifle to get Zech's attention. "Run, Get away!"
I do just that. I'm not stupid enough to watch Heero fight in a mobile suit. The boy is a tad talented in that area. Almost as good as I.
He rushes the suit who promptly backs away and fires the rail gun. It tears the gun arm off of the Leo. Unfazed Heero pulls a beam saber out from the shield and uses it left handed. The Tallgeese pays it no never mind and readies to fire again. The saber slices into the poor gun and wreaks any more chances of a nuclear strike.
The suit gets kicked to the side and Heero jumps out. Landing next to me he mutters, "You don't look good Millardo."
"Thanks, but what are we gonna do now?"
"I have no idea. I got these though." He hands me a pack of stingers. I smile.
"We have to get the hatch open. If we destroy the visual inputs in the head…"
"You can get a stinger in there. I'll stop it from moving."
"Heero! Wait!" He ignores me. Figures. I load a stinger and pray that he is as good as he thinks he is.
The Leo powers back up and he rushes Zechs. Bam. The huge suit sticks out its arm and pins him to the wall. "It's a pity you pilots die so easily or I might have a sense of satisfaction now."
"You wouldn't get to have any if we were hard to kill."
He takes the saber and swings it horizontally at Tallgeese's head. The saber sparks as it cuts the titanium and the head explodes in a shower of sparks and fiery metal.
The hatch pops open. "Impressive. You are indeed worthy of the name perfect soldier, but now your finished! Millardo are you just going to sit by and watch him die?"
"Now! Fire the stinger!"
"Can you really shoot? You'll kill him too!
I heft the stinger launcher, and I try to pull the trigger, but that nagging voice in my head who sounds a lot like Relena whines at me. Don't do it! Blah blah. I try really hard, but I can't do it.
Heero yells at me "I knew you couldn't do it."
I guess that pushed me over the edge. I pull the trigger. The stinger flew towards the cockpit of the Tallgeese. I watch intently, but Zechs just pulls the Leo into the way. He tosses the suit aside and it clatters to the ground. I can't see the boy anywhere.
I find the best shot I can get with him waving a beam saber around and still trying to step on me. It hits the corner of the cockpit hatch and explodes in a bright fireball. The suit wobbles to the left and right He sticks out an arm to prop himself up and fails. The arm locks, but the suit's knees give out forcing it to a kneeling position. The as the saber hits the ground it explodes slamming me back into the wall. As I lost consciousness I see a figure walking towards me. I pray that it is Heero, As I see the figures height. I know I am wrong. I still feel my head hit the back wall again.
I feel an aching in my head. More than that actually. It hurts like…words can't describe the pain my head is in. He open my eyes and see that bastard Zechs.
"Sleeping late as usual, eh Millardo?"
"Why aren't you dead?"
"I won't die, as long as you still live."
"Dandy. Now can you hurry up and kill me then? IF that is what it takes to kill you I'll gladly do it."
"I'm not surprised." I never got a really good look at him before, but its true he does look exactly like me. Even my eyes. He just has hair black as night. I shudder.
"Looks like your plan failed."
"Just because Tallgeese was destroyed, doesn't mean I'm done fighting."
"Great."
"Look behind you."
I turn my head a tad and see a familiar head of purpleish hair. "Noin!"
"Its sad. She just kept calling your name."
"Is she alive?"
"Well, she was a few hours ago. Stupid woman. Falling in love with a man who is a complete failure."
"What!?"
"C'mon, when have you once ever truly succeeded? You failed as a pacifist. You failed as an OZ soldier, you failed to dissuade the colonies from arming themselves, you failed to stay on one side, because you chose to destroy the earth, which you failed at, then you failed at killing the boy, and you then saved him and the earth failing even more, You tried to stop the Mariameia coup d'état and you had to rely on the Gundams. You have yet to stop the assassination attempts on your sister, whom you barely see, failing as a brother, and you can't even decide what you feel about her. Tell me, when were you ever successful at something?"
"…I'm going to kill you. I'll be successful at that."
"Eh, I'm not worried, even if you kill me you will die in the explosion."
"What explosion?"
"The nuclear bombing runs of course. Now that the threat of a nuclear strike from Tallgeese is over the Governments turn to the Preventers saying hey, bomb them back to the Stone Age. If you don't believe me ask your precious Lady Une."
I key the codec, which he left in, "Lady? Is this true?"
"We don't have a say in the matter. The new boss has decided the best way to do this is nuke the island and make like it never happened. I'm sorry."
"Not your fault."
I look back at Noin and swear. I'm sorry I couldn't save her.
"We still have time to finish this. See that Bomb next your lady? Its set to detonate at the precise moment of her death. Or in three minutes whichever comes first. You might be able to enjoy one brief moment of love, before the end. If you cross this line, you'll fall. At this height it will kill even you."
I look around. I'm not surprised to see we are on the Tallgeese. What surprises me is that we are on the arm, still clutching the wall. He has freed the rope on my hands and he pulls a detonator. He hits the trigger, before I completely stand up. "Have at you Millardo!"
He puts up his dukes. I keep my hands unclenched, and resting on the balls of my feet. He swings his left, I side step and drop my elbow onto his head. He stumbles to the ground. I kick him twice before he sweeps my feet out. I do a handspring before I hit the ground and land back on my hands. He kicks me in the chest. I step back absorbing the blow. I swing my foot up and knee his chest, then kick with my other one sending him back. He swings again. I grab his arm and leverage it flipping him over me. I'm beating his ass. Before he is finished his 'Ow' I slam my foot onto his chest hearing ribs crack..
"But I cannot lose, I am the warring brother."
"You touched my girl. You can burn in hell after I'm done." I punch his face once twice, three times and double fist his chin. He flies back and off the side of the arm.
"Noooo!" he screams.
I smile, but I feel like I didn't break enough bones. I run over to Noin, unconscious. I turn off the bomb he had there and cradle Noin. "Noin. Hey. Luc'. Hey."
I feel a sudden dread. More than that, deeper. Like my reason for living has been ripped from me. My heart aches so badly I feel like it would split in two and I wouldn't know.
"No. No." I give her a shake. "Nooo!" I scream, I scream until my lungs burn and I think I'll pass out. This can't happen to Noin. Not now. I slam my fist into the metal.
"Damn! Damn! I'm a loser. I sold your life to save my own. I tried to be the hero and I failed. You always believed in me. But I failed you. Forgive me."
I am too depressed to worry about escaping. I hear a quiet clanking "Noin can't forgive anyone anymore."
"What do you know!?"
"Are you going to stay here and die? Is that what Noin wanted for you? Listen, Millardo, People die, but death is not defeat. That's what Hemmingway said. You shouldn't do this to yourself. You owe it to Noin to get out of here alive."
"Heh. You've changed Heero."
"Not much. We should get out of here."
As gently as I can, I set her down. I can't believe I lost her. "Good bye…my dearest, most valuable friend, I'll continue to love you."
I close my eyes and I feel some tears crawl down my face. I don't care. A hand. Gentle, brushes it away.
"It only took you 10 years."
My eyes snap open. She's not dead! Not only does part of me feel like an ass, but the more powerful response is joy. I grab her and pull her into a hug, "Oh god. I though I lost you."
"I'm not gonna die here. I wanted to though. It was horrible."
A small cough interrupted us. "So much for our love scene." I mutter.
"Relena was supposed to secure some jeeps at the motor pool. We can all not die here."
Noin tries to stand and is a little wobbly. I help her up. Heero is obviously worried about Relena, Now that I think about it I am too, but still. Heero hops down the suit. I remember the spots and jump. Noin follows me and I make sure she doesn't fall.
We leave through a small side door. The building begins to collapse. How convenient Relena did secure two jeeps. Nice to see she is good for something. "Noin! I'm glad to see you!"
"Thanks Relena." She seemed to be better. I make for the jeep and she yells, " I'll drive!"
I shrug and man the 50 cal on the back of the jeep. Heero is driving and Relena is in the seat next to him. They go first. And Noin pulls up behind them al little to close for my tastes.
We get about three hundred yards and we hit a checkpoint. I let loose a few bullets and tear down the guard. We speed on.
We hit two more check points when a bullet whizzes by my face. I see a third jeep speeding up. "Its not over yet!"
"Zechs!" I swear. Firing at the jeep, I take small pleasure in making him swerve. He fires back. We trade meaningless blows like this for few more hundred yards. He pulls along side us and smiles. I fire at his chest but he slams the brakes. He is too annoying to kill. He won't die.
"Look! Daylight!"
I risk a look. The tunnel is at an end. And Zechs is pulling ahead of us. He swerves and side swipes us. That bastard. "We're gonna crash!"
The two jeeps collide in a large and confusing way. Our jeep tipped onto its side. And skidded almost to the edge of a cliff. I had held on as long as I could but I fell to the side and got pinned. Zech's jeep slid off the far edge.
"Noin? You okay?"
"My leg is stuck."
"I can't move either. Can you see Zechs?"
"No, but I hope he is dead."
"Me to. Or at least paralyzed below the neck, deaf, blind, mute, and numb."
"I like that."
Unfourtunitly he isn't dead. He stumbles out from behind his jeep. "Milliardo!"
"God. He just won't die."
He takes the machine gun he was using and points it at me. I look right at him. And I watch his face explode. Brain mess and blood spill out everywhere. Heero. It had to have been Heero.
I yank my leg free, and that hurt. I lift in the jeep until Noin can get her leg out. I look over my shoulder and see Heero putting away a gun. Relena is almost shocked. I smile and nod.
He understands, and doesn't say anything else. I look around for the familiar sight of bombers or something, but there is nothing. "What's up? I thought we we're being bombed to the Stone Age."
"Use your fancy radio and find out."
"Okay. Hey! Guys! Why aren't we nuclear ashes?"
Duo answered. "You can thank Trowa for that. He shot down the bombers, no one's been hurt though."
"I will have to thank him."
"Happy ending?"
I smile. "You can say that."
"I knew you could do it."
"Thank god somebody has confidence in my abilities."
"Oh, uh…Quatre's Helicopters are there in about four five minutes."
"Thank you."
"No prob."
I look around and see the faint specks of the helicopters. I also see two smoke clouds further back next to a familiar silhouette. "I owe Trowa one I guess."
"You owe a lot of people favors for this one." Noin added.
"Yea. Yea." I walk to tipped jeep and dig around for the spare gas can.
"What are you doing?"
"While I realized part of my overall plan was impractical-I can still part B section A."
"Being…"
I dump the gas onto Zechs's body. "Light him on fire and dance a jig on the ashes. I don't have the time to dance the jig." I pull out a zippo lighter. I had a picture of Tallgeese III put on it. Very nice.
"You will not!" Relena and Noin tell me.
Noin looks at me sternly. "Give me that lighter."
I hand it over glumly. Noin opens it with one hand and snaps the sparker lighting the light. "I take it you wanted to do that?"
"Yup." She hits the lighter to the trail of gasoline I poured.
I don't think that was why Relena wanted to stop me. I can see her staring at us. "Uh…Noin, that's going to smell." Heero says a little amused.
"We're leaving soon. It won't matter much."
I stare at the flaming carcass. I look at Noin who seems to be a little better "Do you feel better?"
"A little. I kinda wanted him to suffer more."
I put my arm over her shoulders, "Me too."
The helicopter showed up in a few minutes. We scrambled into it and I sighed heavily. "Well. I believe I wouldn't care to do this again."
"Yea. Are you okay?" Noin asked. I guess she knew she wasn't 100% but I didn't know really.
"No. I've had a miserable day."
"Me too. I bet we can out bitch Wufei tomorrow."
"Nobody can out bitch psycho-justice boy."
"Its worth a try, right?"
"Eh." I shrug. I notice Heero and Relena are staring at us. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to know where we were going."
"We should get back to HQ…Oh wait. We're wanted at HQ. Ummm…How about Hawaii?"
"We're in Alaska, just a wee but to far south."
"Oh. Ask Quatre where his nearest, unoccupied vacation house is. I just want to crash somewhere."
Heero nodded and spoke into the comm. I leaned back and closed my eyes. I feel Noin close to me, and I tell her, "Until recently I use to live only for myself. Survival was the only thing I cared about in my life."
"That's not just you, that is every crazy mobile suit pilot."
"I just hadn't realized how much there is to live for, to see, and experience. Now I look at things and they've never seemed more beautiful. Especially you."
"If I didn't know you any better I'd swear you were just hitting on me."
"Well, That's one way to put it."
"You should be careful, I just got out of prison."
"I'm throwing caution into the wind. Lets see where that gets us." I look at Noin again, and our eyes meet. And for the first time I see a future that holds true happiness. We slowly pull each other closer and we kiss, our first passionate kiss, of which I hoped there would be no end.
The end.
