Soldier's Return
"Zechs, you're here. Good. Oh. And good afternoon to you, Miss Relena."
"Good afternoon, Miss Une. So, what's going on?"
"Actually, I'm not sure. I just got here myself."
"Colonel Zechs, Colonel Une. Over here."
A young radar officer called to them from his station. The three made their way over to him and stood behind his chair as he explained what was happening.
"About half an hour ago we picked up a metal object on the radar entering the atmosphere. We thought it might be some of the debris in space falling back to Earth, but we put a track on it anyway. We've checked several times and it is not burning up as we expected."
"So what is it then? Some kind of meteor?"
"No, ma'am. It seems to be making course corrections. It's headed straight here, for the Sanc Kingdom. Low orbit satellite imaging shows that it could me a mobile suit."
"What?! A mobile suit?"
"Yes, sir. And if it is a mobile suit, it's not like any that we have on record."
"How long until it gets here?"
"We estimate just under fifteen minutes, sir."
"Alright. I'll go check it out."
"How will you do that, Miliardo? Miliardo?"
He never heard Relena's question. Zechs was already out the door and racing down the hall. He pressed a button on his watch to activate his comlink.
"Maiser?"
There was a brief pause before the chief mechanic answered.
"Yes, Colonel Zechs?"
"Is he ready?"
"Yes, sir. We're just finishing the refueling process now. We should be done by the time you get here."
"Thanks. I'll be right there."
He tapped the button again and continued down the hall, nearly plowing into a secretary with an armload of papers. A smile crossed his lips as a thought entered his mind.
*In all the time Relena has known about Noin keeping mobile suits in the Sanc Kingdom, she never once thought to look for the hangar. It's been kept a secret for so long. But I suppose Lady Une will tell her now. We can't hide it anymore, but I'm grateful our secrecy has lasted this long.*
Zechs ran into an elevator and quickly closed the door before anyone else could enter. He opened a panel and punched in a security code that took him to a level below the basement archives. When the door opened, he was greeted with the familiar smell of metal, grease, and rocket fuel. He quickly made his way past the technicians toward Maiser, shedding his long coat along the way. His friend saw him coming and ran toward him, grabbing the coat from his hands.
"He's all ready, sir. Just hop on in and get moving."
"Thank you, Maiser."
He quickly rode an elevator up to the metal walkway above him and stepped through the open hatch of Tallgeese III. Zechs strapped himself in while simultaneously bringing the systems online. In less than a minute, the hatch was closed and the walkway retracted. A green flash from the eyes and Tallgeese was moving toward the launch area. The mobile suit leaned over, verniers opened, and was instantly speeding down the launch chute. Outside, a hatch in the side of the cliff opened and the Tallgeese flashed out a second later.
In the situation room, Relena watched as a new blip appeared on the radar with the designation 'TG3' floating beside it. She smiled, knowing exactly what it was.
"That sneaky little"
Lady Une also saw it, her lips curling in a smile. She knew what Zechs would want her to do.
"Relena, I have something to show you."
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing. It is copyrighted by people who have a lot more money than I do. This was written for fun and for the fans of the series. All ideas concerning the storyline and new characters are mine.
NOTES: None for this section.
Comments and criticisms are welcome. Please send them to HeeroWZero@hotmail.com and be sure to include your name so I can get back to you. Thanks for reading!