Soldier's Return
Once Heero retrieved the materials he needed, the group followed Zechs to a small, dimly lit room on the first floor of the mansion. In contrast to the decor of the other rooms, the room in which Heero and the others stood was ver modern and high-tech. In the center of the small room was a large, black table. The only light came from the single rectangular fixture that hung low and reflected off of the glossy tabletop. At one end of the long table, built into the wall, was a large viewscreen.
While his comrades busied themselves getting seated around the table, Heero set up his laptop at the screen end and connected it to the infrared projector link. The computer booted quickly and Heero opened his presentation materials. A logo appeared on the screen as Heero strapped his laptop command module to his wrist, grabbed a laser pointer, and stood next to the screen. Once everyone was settled, he began.
"Our latest threat calls themselves Thor's Hammer. Their leader is this man."
Heero tapped the wrist module and brought up the picture of a man in his mid- to late-forties. His thinning hair was slightly gray and he had a small moustache under his prominent nose.
"His name, oddly enough, is General Reginald Thor. With the Alliance he made it to Lieutenant Colonel and moved up to Colonel when he joined with OZ and then the Romefeller Foundation. He didn't join the World Nation Forces because of his hatred of Treize Khushrenada; Thor disagreed with him on almost everything. And where the White Fang's idea was to eliminate the Earth, Thor's is the reverse. He and his followers believe the colonies are and will be the only source of conflict in the Earth Sphere. Their purpose is to eradicate the colonies."
Duo raised his hand but didn't wait for a response from Heero.
"And can they do that?"
"Right now, no, they can't. In a few weeks time? Almost definitely."
Heero typed something into the command module and skipped to a display of the map of the colonies. The Earth and moon were made obvious while between them were numerous white dots and several red dots that more or less formed a perimeter around the L1 cluster with several toward the center of the plot.
"This map represents the major colonies and resource satellites in the L clusters. As you can see by the layout of these red markers, Thor's forces already have the L1 colonies surrounded and the battle hasn't even started yet. If Thor gets his way, the people of the colonies will have nowhere to run when the fighting does start. It seems he will start at L1 and work his way over to L5 destroying things as he goes."
"Hang on a sec, Heero. You said this guy wants to pick a fight in space and get rid of all the colonies. If he hates them so much, why is using them as his bases?"
Heero looked at Duo, who was genuinely puzzled. What was obvious to Heero was apparently not so to everyone else.
"Thor is a tactical genius. Think back to the end of the war. Treize had to move all of his resources to MO-2 to carry out an effective battle strategy. Thor doesn't. He already has his supply chain and refueling points set up close to what would be the battlefield. His troops can strike hard and fast while staying rested and ready. Thor doesn't hate the colonies enough to give up that kind of advantage."
"I see. And what of those forces? What are their numbers?"
To answer Wufei's question, Heero flipped to another display that listed many different sets of numbers.
"I wasn't able to get a complete or accurate count. By my estimates, they probably number anywhere from five to ten percent more than those that followed Dekim Barton and Mariemaia. As far as mobile suits are concerned, they have some of everything. Their largest force consists of Tauruses, both manned and mobile doll variants. They also have manned space Leos, Virgo and Virgo II mobile dolls, and this new model.
The display changed to show a schematic diagram of the mobile suit Heero had arrived in.
"They call it the Orion. It's basically a Serpent, probably built on the shells salvaged at Brussels. It has similar control response and firepower. The other components have also been salvaged from the debris floating around in space. There is evidence of Virgo technology everywhere and from what I can tell, the cockpit has a similar feel to our Gundams, probably taken from whatever remains of the Mercurius and the Vayeate. It handles about dead on with what I remember of the Mercurius. As far as armaments, the Orion carries either a beam cannon or a beam rifle, sixteen missiles, and two small machine cannons. There are no planet defensors as the Virgo dolls had, but the shield system is similar. It is not as powerful, but it covers the entire suit like a second skin."
"Is it a big threat?"
"In the hands of a good pilot, and they do have some, it could be an obstacle. Of course, now that I know the Gundams are still around, it shouldn't be too big a problem."
Wufei sat back, satisfied with Heero's answers, but Quatre raised an important question.
"What are their monitoring capabilities? Will we be able to get in close to them without being detected?"
"More than likely we should have no problem. The fact that Gundanium can't be detected by radar works to our advantage. Even in the case of the Tallgeese and Taurus there are those ECMs, am I right?"
Zechs gave Heero a confirming nod. He silently thanked Howard for being insistent about the jamming devices.
"I also managed to destroy a couple of their bases in the process of acquiring the new suit, so there are a few holes we can get in and out of easily. The real problem lies in our ability to destroy their bases before they can alert their comrades and begin an assault on the colonies. If we all attack in one area, that leaves other areas vulnerable. The only way we will be able to pull this off is to split into pairs and attack four sides at once."
Lady Une felt the need to point out the obvious.
"But Heero, there are only seven of you. With that plan, someone would end up on their own."
Heero turned off the projector and walked back over to his laptop.
"I'll be fine. I'll go alone."
Sally shot up from her chair and leaned over the table, pounding her fists into the hard surface.
"That's nuts, Heero! Even with your Gundam there's no way you'd be able to survive all those battles!"
Heero closed the laptop and looked down the table at Sally's hard expression.
"There's no other way."
"Sure there is. I can back you up in the cruiser."
"No!"
The show of emotion caught Sally off guard. Heero was getting angry, his speech coming quickly and harshly.
"The cruiser is to slow to keep up. You'll be dead in a matter of minutes and I'll still be on my own."
"Oh come on! Noin and I managed to got out alive after helping you and Duo get into X-18999, didn't we?"
*Shit. I'd hoped she would have forgotten that.*
"It takes two people to run the cruiser. More if you want to be effective in battle. There's no one else to go."
Sally looked defeated until Lady Une spoke up.
"I'll go with Sally. We can run a sort of mobile command center."
Hilde also chimed in with her offer of help as did Dorothy. Now it was time for Duo and Quatre to object.
"Oh no you don't! Sorry, Hilde, but you're not goin' this time."
"Put a sock in it, Duo. Like you could stop me anyway."
Hilde yanked on Duo's braid for effect.
"Wh-what...why do you want to go Dorothy? It's too dangerous."
"Oh, so you can risk your life, but I can't? Just remember, I was a Preventer before you were. Besides, I can help watch out for you and the others."
*Why the hell are they all so eager to die?!*
Heero decided there was no point to fighting this battle.
"Fine. Do what you want, but don't expect any help from me."
On that note, everyone stood from their chairs and left quietly while Heero packed up the rest of his things. They knew he was angry. If there was one emotion he had no trouble at all in showing, it was anger. Duo stopped in the doorway on his way out and turned back to his friend.
"Ya know, Heero, I'm exactly all that happy with the way that just turned out either. I know it's not the easiest thing in the world for you to do, but you could have been a little nicer. The war is over. There's no more need to be the perfect soldier anymore. Oh sure, there's still these little battles to take care of, but if you keep this up...I can't help but think that you'll end up on the wrong end of the fight some day. For crying out loud, man! We're your friends. We can help if you'll let us. All you need to do is ask."
Duo received only a curt nod and a grunt in reply. He sighed and hung his head slightly.
"Just pull it together before you lose it."
Duo spun on his heel and walked out leaving Heero alone in an all too familiar silence.
*Damn. He's right. I'm going to end up relying on them at some point. I will need their help and pissing them off isn't going to do them or me any good. Then again, I don't know how else to live. I don't know how to nice or friendly or whatever it is they want me to be. I've never had to before. Damn it. Where's Trowa?*
Idly, Heero wondered if Zechs had a firing range somewhere. He felt like putting a bullet in something.
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: Boy, took long enough, huh? Well, thanks to everyone who has been on my case to get this done. I was going to post another part of this as well, but I decided to change the story a bit and now I have to go revise the next part. Oh well. Such is the life of a writer. Should be done soon though. Gimmie a week or two and I'll start spouting chapters like there's no tomorrow! Getting back to the fic...one of these days I may get around to doing a sketch of this Orion I have created. For now, think Serpent. Think ugly. Think ugly (uglier?) Serpent. Also, for those confused about the Duo/Hilde and Quatre/Dorothy conversations. I decided to do this really nifty thing. I'm going to write four small fics about the pilots, other than Heero. Kind of like about what they were doing before we got to this point time. I'm not to sure about what to do with Trowa and Catherine, but I have a good idea what the Duo and Hilde one will be as well as the Wufei and Sally, which I plan to kind of base off of a song. The Quatre/Dorothy is already done. It's called Dangerous Game and should be posted in a couple places. If you're reading this fic, Dangerous Game should be in the same place. Well, that's it for now. Back to work for me...
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!