Gundam Wing: Ended Waltz
By: Qasur Zephlar Exlarr
Chapter 5: Twin Massacres
It was a very stormy day for Moscow. They had been experiencing some major snow over the last many days. Winter was right around the corner, but yet Moscow had a clear view. The Preventors Agency office was over crowded with workers running everywhere in a huge mess. They had been dealing with the mess in outer space for a little more than a week.
The PPA (Preventor's Protection Agency) had brought in many old, retired Admirals and Generals. They had them around the Agency helping them try to figure out what the ORSCs were going to do next. General Otto believed they would try another attempt at coming to earth. They didn't have quite enough suits to completely take over all of the political cities, but they could come after a few. Admiral Necaise believed that they would try to take over Australia and Antarctica. The old military base on the icy land mass still existed. Nothing was done to remove it from existence. Australia became more a garage for the old military equipment. Most of the facilities were crowded with mobile suit equipment and the assembly plants weren't destroyed. The Preventors had a huge guard down under. They had to take precautions.
The people who were second in command to Sally and Wufei, who stayed on Earth, kept both of those ideas fresh in their heads as they made decisions as to what to do. They had put on a second guard in Australia. They sent two squadrons of mobile suits to the Antarctica Base, and put a squadron, each, of their most elite (well you couldn't call them really elite because most of their pilots were older guys who were once in the army) pilots in both, Moscow and Luxembourg.
One guy was starring outside into the gray-lit day. Clouds flashed as thunder could be heard. The snow was still rapidly falling down. He sighed before turning back around to his work. It was going to be another long, boring day. People were still running around the office. Some who were passing by just tossed more and more papers on top of his cluttered desk. The man's head dropped and hit the desk with a thud. Suddenly the building shook as a loud sound was heard coming from outside. He quickly tossed his head up with widened eyes and looked outside. He scanned the darkened city for a few seconds before a few explosions could be seen through the city.
Everyone in the PPA started running and screaming for help. A few people were calm enough to control themselves and they were calling Sally and Wufei. Suddenly a mobile suit dropped down right next to the PPA's building. The man inside was scared and slowly crawling backward onto his desk with his hands up swaying them around. "P..pl..please… don't shoot," he said. The suit's head turned around to face him, before the rest of the suit followed. The shoulders snapped open and the missiles inside were launched directly into the side of the building at point-blank-range.
The man's eyes widened and everything in his life flashed before his eyes. Time slowed down and paused as the missile's approached the building with their fiery and glaring rockets left a smoke trail behind them. The man was slowly moving backward with a freaked look on his face. Everyone was running and dashing for cover as others ducked under desks and jumped out of the way. Then suddenly time sped back up immediately. He let a last gasp as the missiles broke through the glass.
Each missile went through a different floor. They collided against the solid concrete pillars holding the building erect. It caused the middle 15 floors of the PPA building to be annihilated. The explosion and sudden erosion of the supporting pillars caused the top section of the building to come falling down into the rest of it. Smoke, dust, concrete and glass were seen slowly falling and exploding as the building shook and tumbled straight down to the street.
The mobile suit turned and flew off firing its dual gattling gun at a guarding mobile suit. The Serpent suit noted the event take place quickly and efficiently at best. The PPA building crumbled into a pile of rubble as the guarding Taurus suit was destroyed, sending parts of it on top of the destroyed building.
A Taurus suit hovering high above the city merely saw it collapse. Explosions were erupting here and there on the monitors. Serpent mobile suits were flying around and causing a massacre in the city. The suit caught a glimpse of one of these mobile suits. It was flying toward him. Being very inexperienced, he couldn't really fight back. He quickly fired off a few rounds from his standard issue beam rifle. His luck wasn't running strong. Not one shot even came close to hitting the bulky, yet swift, mobile suit.
The serpent's shoulder's flung open. It revealed a nearly empty missile bay. The pilot fired his 2 remaining missiles toward the Taurus. The pilot fired the thrusters and flew off in an attempt to escape the deadly path of the smoking syringes of death. Before long, the projectiles slammed into the back of the mobile suit and, blowing it apart into millions of pieces.
* * *
In the morning, everyone started to gather in the large command room aboard the space colony X-199987. They were presently unaware of the events taking place upon the earth. The pilots had slowly entered. Most of them had just woken up.
Duo yawned as he leaned back in a chair. Heero was resting against the wall standing up. He had his eyes closed. Wufei was sitting in a chair near the viewport starring out into space with his arms crossed. Sally had her arms draped around his neck from behind. Trowa was sitting across the room in a chair. Midii was sitting in his lap with her arms around his neck and her head resting on his left shoulder. Trowa had one of his rare smiles upon his face.
Relena slowly entered the room and moved toward the group. She covered her mouth as she yawned. She noted what everyone was doing in the room. Most of them were sitting around, with or without their companions. Everyone had been through a lot recently. The mars crew returned with all survivors and the operation went quite well, including Heero's massive, unexpected destruction of the colony. Things seem to be going well so far. They have weakened the defenses of the newly born Barton Foundation.
A few minutes later, a messenger entered the room and slowly progressed towards Relena. He held out his hand carrying a slip of paper. Her eyes widened while moving from left to right as she took in the note.
"Oh, my god…" she silently said. She brought her land hand up to her mouth in awe. Heero heard her and opened his eyes as he leaned away from the wall that he so comfortably liked.
"Is something wrong, Relena?" he asked. The other heads slowly turned toward her and looked upon what she was doing. "The Barton Foundation…. They…" she was saying, "… they attacked Moscow." Heero's eyes narrowed even more than they were. He said Barton Foundation under his breath with angered intentions. "It's gone… there isn't anything left," she said. Her hand fell down, as the note slipped out and hit the floor. A tear had formed in her right eye, and started to slowly fall down her light skinned cheek.
Relena whirled around to everyone else. "Serpents were spotted and they soon attacked the city. They destroyed the Preventors Agency and left it as nothing but rubble…. All those people," she said as she let another tear out. "The entire city is," she said sobbing, "just in ruins." Heero walked over to her. He lifted her face up with his right hand. Using his left hand, he rubbed away a few of her tears from her eyes.
"Relena," he said to her in a tone not noted for being the old-fashioned Heero, "they're gonna die." He had a deep gaze on her, until he turned and ran to the door. He pushed the button and the door hissed open. He jumped through and continued down the hallway. Everyone knew where he was going.
"Good thing we brought Nataku up here with us to space," Sally said toward her husband as she approached Relena. She hugged her and led her to a seat so that she may sit and recover from the disaster that has occurred. Relena cried against her shoulder as Sally was talking to her.
* * *
In the hangar, Heero was sprawling around inside of Wing Zero as he was making sure all of the components worked since he last used it. He always kept his Gundam in better than mint condition, unless he was using it to battle. Many a time he didn't return it in one piece… or two… and sometimes in more than a few thousand. While he was busy preparing his Gundam for launch, the other pilots entered.
"Hey, Heero," Duo yelled up to him, "I'm going to contact Quatre. If I'm correct, he's in Luxembourg." Heero came out of his suit.
"Ok, tell him to see if he can get some military support. It will take us a few hours to get there if we leave now," he replied back to him. He then disappeared back into his suit.
"Heero," Wufei said aloud to gain his attention, "Relena's note also mentioned that the Peacemillion has now reappeared on the opposite side of the Earth." Heero stepped out and narrowed his eyes at him. "It's in orbit directly above Europe," Wufei then added.
"I bet they have other plans then. I'm going after the Peacemillion then," he said to Wufei. "I destroyed the Libra, so this shouldn't be too difficult," he added as he laughed to himself. Heero had too much power, and he realized that he did. He still laughed at his insane gift, but he at least didn't' abuse it.
"Wind," Sally said to him as she crept up behind the pilots, "your mobile suit was fully repaired for you. It's ready to go." Wind turned to her and nodded his head in agreement.
"Father, I'll go to Earth. Please, let me," he said as he asked Milliardo. Zechs was sitting in a wheel chair that he was using to get around. Sally suggested he take it extremely easy in his current physical state and condition. Zechs closed his eyes; and he then nodded confirmation to his son. He believed that Wind was very capable of taking care of those mobile suits. He was his son after all.
"Thank you father," he said happily. "You know I've never been to Earth. This shall be my first time, and it being my first time and I am going to shed blood upon it. Wouldn't you consider that irony?" he asked, in generally to everyone. No one answered, but they all were thinking about what he said in their own minds.
It was true. People came to earth, to kill; no one came to live peacefully. That was the purpose of the colonies: safe places to live after leaving the battle scarred, blood raged Earth. Sad it was, but inevitable it was as well.
"You won't be the only one to go to earth," Solo said," I'll go with you."
He said as he patted him on the back, with that usual Maxwell grin upon his face.
"Like Hell you will!" Duo immediately chimed in. Solo turned to see Duo's hell-raged face starring him down. "You aren't going to go back out fighting," Duo said to him, "your mother doesn't even know where you are, let alone that you are fighting with a damned mobile suit! Hell, she doesn't even like it when I pilot one!"
"Dad, it's not like I can't fight! Look what Heero and I did back at home!" he exclaimed to his father. "We took out many mobile suits; and I did take some minor damages, but those were repaired in a matter of a few days."
"I know what you did, Solo. I'm not stupid enough to see your skills, but I won't let you risk your life again! I have a responsibility as a parent too! I won't see one of my children get hurt!" he yelled at him.
"I won't get hurt! Hell, I've done a lot of stunts since I was really little and I have only broken my left arm and my left collarbone!" he yelled back at him. "It's not like mother has to know about it, dad," he said coldly. He narrowed his eyes and then crossed his arms as he leaned on his left foot. It was an exact resemblance to the man standing across from him. "Dad, I know you love me, but please," he said, calming down a bit, " just let me go! I can go meet up with your friend Quatre. I'll be with Wind too, so it's not like I'm going alone," he said.
Duo sighed. He saw himself in front of him. The same stubborn and hardheaded 16-year old he had been. Hilde tried to keep him from fighting, but all she managed to do was fall in love with him and get pregnant.
Duo looked at his son with intense eyes, sighed, then he walked up to his son and placed his hands on his shoulders as he stood over him. Duo nodded his head slowly; signaling is final approval of it. "All right then son. If this is what you want to do, I'll let you. I've done my duty as a father to try and protect you; but it was you who decided," Duo said to his son, then added, "I hope that the God of Death lends his blood-stained to you."
"I know dad, but trust me. I'll be OK," chibi shinigami said to his father. "And about shinigami, don't need to worry about that. He was with me during my first battle," he said to his father, the original God of Death. Solo turned to Wind and said, "Ok, are we ready to go?"
"I am," he replied, "and I believe our suits are as well." Wind waved good-bye to everyone before he turned and pushed off the floor and floated up to his mobile suit's cockpit entrance. Solo turned to his father and nodded his head, and then he too turned and pushed off toward his suit. He had his father's sweeper friends run maintenance on the suit for him and Heero Jr. Both pilots entered their suits and the cockpits closed around them, locking them inside their metal sarcophaguses.
The two mobile suits proceeded to fire their engines and leave the mobile suit bay of the colony. Duo and everyone else just sat back and watched as they flew off toward the Earth. Heero and the others went back inside to determine what was to be done with the remaining Barton Foundation forces in the last few renegade colonies.
"I can attack their base colony directly and destroy it for all purpose," Heero said to his fellow comrades. Everyone looked at him with astonishment. He hasn't tried to fully save a life since he started out on his mission after the Barton foundation regained control and mobile suits. Heero took the looks from the others as a sign of what he has said and done over the past few days. "I'll try to save as many lives as I can in the process, but it's not guaranteed."
"I'll lend a hand again at attacking their main forces, and with the help of Wufei, we can stop this Barton Conglomerate for the last time," Trowa spoke up and said. "This has gone on for long enough," he began, "and I've seen what all they have done over the years since I was little." He turned to look at Midii and spoke, "It's caused a lot of pain and many losses for me and for people close to me, so I want to confront The Barton myself once this is all over."
"Well, I don't think I completely direct mobile suit attack would be the proper approach," Heero replied. "It's just too easy to put a lot forces our way and leave them well protected from within."
"I thought so," Trowa said with a sigh, "I guess I'll go back to my standard guard duty. This way I'll be able to get a hold of their chief." Trowa thought about the past and everything that he had been through with his mercenary buddies: From simple mobile suit combat to wars with the corrupted Earth Sphere Unified Alliance to the whole one-year-war with the White Fang organization. "It's time," he said to Heero. "I'm going to take a transport to their colony. I think I have some information that I can use to get us the proper ID to passage through their security," Trowa said to him.
"Relena," Heero said, gaining her attention, "I'll be back shortly. This shouldn't take too long at all. If things go as planned, this operation will complete within the next 5 hours." Relena looked at her husband with loving eyes knowing that he was trying his best to make things right after all that had happened. She was glad on her own accord because she finally had her son back. How she had missed him while he was gone.
"Dad, what can I do?" chibi-Heero asked his father as he walked up to him. "I still have my mobile suit that I built and it's here aboard this colony. I thought maybe I could help you out there in space with the forces of the Barton Foundation."
"I'm still extremely mad at you son because not only did you run away from home and scare your mother, but you created a dreaded mobile suit," Heero said to his son, giving him the same look of death Heero gave to everyone. "I don't want you to get involved like Duo's son did. Save for the fact that you probably feel the same, if not more, need to get involved in all of this," the father said to the son. "So, I've decided to already to let you go. I knew that you were probably going to ask," he said abruptly.
Chibi-Heero only nodded to his father for recognition of his answer. Relena had formed a small tear in her left eye. She didn't want either of them to leave her now. She spent most of her time during the one-year war trying to keep Heero safe. She loved him and she didn't want anything to happen to him. She knew that he was an excellent mobile suit pilot, but that still doesn't mean that he will always come back alive. He was one to risk everything to accomplish a mission… even if he was his life he was risking.
"Well, we'll be ready to go very soon. Trowa had already departed from here and is on his way toward the colony now to infiltrate. Heero Jr. will accompany me to the colony so that we can destroy the remaining forces that Barton has," Heero said, laying the plan before everyone else in the room. "Once we've taken the colony, we will call for a transport to come pick everyone up."
"Wufei and I will do that for you Heero, since it's the least we can do to help you without interfering," Sally said and she smiled at Heero. She had helped him the most that either of the two could recall. She could only remember that day Duo broke him out of the Alliance hospital. How strong he was and how well trained. Everyone always wondered why he was the best, well; he was built to be the best. Or at least that's the best Sally could come up with.
* * *
It was time. Trowa was approaching the base renegade colony. His transport was carrying a cargo of food supplies. Easily enough, his ID information worked well enough to get him passed two of the security posts that guarded entrance into the colony. The third of the posts was going to be hard to fake. He didn't know the password of the key-code to gain entry into the colony. Duo didn't have any of his handy tools to lend Trowa to get him access. He would have to improvise.
Trowa fired the reverse boosters to bring the aging transport to a stop in the loading-unloading bay before getting out. He pushed off from the dinged, scratched surface to propel himself toward the hatch leading inside the colony. Trowa stopped short of the door by grabbing onto some storage boxes near it. He slowly floated toward the door and glanced toward the keypad and the microphone. He took a glance up to notice the camera that was monitoring him as he completed this process of the mission.
"That can't be… is it?" the Chief of the colony said as he watched Trowa come toward the hatch. "Would he dare come aboard the colony? It's been so long since I've seen him. It's amazing that he's still alive. I thought I had him back when that blonde-headed girl tricked his mercenary group into that ambush I informed the Alliance about," he said in a mumbled voice to himself. "heh, well it is good to see him. Too bad I'm going to have to finally kill him," he said.
Trowa reached for the controls to try and break the code, but as soon as he typed a word, the doors swung open and the hallway slowly lit up light-by-light going down the hall. Trowa narrowed his eyes. "Someone knows I'm here," he thought to himself. He took the bait and started down the hallway toward the opposite end that was lit.
Heero in his re-built Wing Zero flew toward the colony at amazing speed. Along the way he picked up a few squadrons of mobile suits that were guarding this simple colony. "Such a bad setup. Not enough suits and a poorly trained crew of pilots and officers trying to conduct themselves in a military fashion," Heero mused about the matter.
"Dad," Heero Jr. said, "I've never killed someone before. Do remember, I was up against mobile dolls back on Earth." He had thought about the whole time they were flying toward the colony. His first kill, he knew it was near, for he could feel in deep within. He closed his eyes and let the Zero System guide him to the colony.
"Son, do not worry yourself. I'll make sure that nothing happens to you. As for your first kill," his father started to explain, "it shouldn't be as much murder as you should see it to be protection." Heero tried to explain that there many ways to stop one's enemies. Disarmament was one of the many methods and it was one that the Earth Sphere Unified Alliance opted for, but that only brought chaos.
"So, I should only target their weapon systems them or their main thrusters? Being adrift in space won't help them fight," chibi-Heero said to the gundam pilot.
"Yes, and that's all you should ever have to do. I know you can do it son, I trust your skills," Heero's father said to him. He was surprised that his father was so trustworthy of him. He had never actually seen him fight and he had never trained him for mobile suit combat. He taught himself all of the skills that he knew.
In the meantime, Trowa had found himself cornered on his way toward the command room of the colony. He was in the middle of a hallway surrounded by 4 guards carrying guns. They were ordered to capture him and take him to the Chief of the colony. "Well, at least I'll get to where I was going," he thought to himself. "But, who wants to see me?"
Before they started to go forward, a figure came out of the dark in front of them. He stepped into the light. Trowa immediately recognized him the Chief leader of the colony, Captain James Fenald of the 3rd Space Force for the Barton Foundation. Of course, that was years ago. He knew that Fenald was now a Commander in the Barton's ranks. "I knew it was you all along. I came here for you, you know," Trowa said.
"I know, Triton Bloom," he replied smiling. "Yes, I know who you really are. I knew your parents, young Triton. It was such a shame that we had to run a bombing test so close to your family that day," he continued to say. "Your father was a skilled mechanic and he wanted out of the Barton Foundations reach after he found out about Operation Meteor." The man laughed to himself knowing what he done in his past. "I'm getting old, but I've survived long enough to see that I made a careless miscalculation and didn't kill the entire family," he said. "Oh, and I know about your sister as well. The pretty woman she has become and how protective she is of you."
"Leave her out of this," Trowa demanded in a cold tone of voice. "So now I know what really happened to my family. It was your entire fault. After I heard from Cathy that they died from a bombing test, I looked into it. There shouldn't have been any mobile suits aboard our colony during that time. It was a peaceful colony not yet under the control of the Alliance. So, they had to be sent there for some sort of purpose other than a test," Trowa informed coldly to the murderer of his mother and father. "As I looked further into the records of the Barton Foundation, I saw that you, Captain Fenald, had ordered an attack upon the desert regions aboard colony L-4 at Lagrange point. You called it a mere exercise, authorizing the mission to the pilots under you. They could only follow orders, so they were not to be blamed. The command not to deploy troops from your colony was not followed by you it seems," Trowa said him.
"My dear Triton, it seems you have learned very much," Fenald said. "To bad I must kill you, because I'd love to continue our little chat," he said walking past him. "I'm on a tight schedule, as you can see, and I'm on my way to the earth to oversee the assault on Luxembourg, since my serpents did such a nice job in Moscow," he said laughing like a mad man.
Trowa took the opportunity while the guards were all standing around bored at the conversation in front of him. He spun around kicking the guard to the back right of him, knocking him out cold on the ground. He turned backhanding the one opposite to the guard behind him, then punched him in the stomach. The other two guards aimed their weapons at him. Trowa stood slowly and raised his hands shoulder high. "Well, it looks like we were trying to escape," the Chief Commander said.
"Actually I was trying to kill you," he said bluntly. This angered the man a bit. "To bad, but don't think you're going to get that lu--", he was saying as the colony shook violently, knocking them all off balance into the walls of the dark lit hallway. Trowa jump kicked another guard and took his weapon and shot the last one standing in the right arm, causing him to drop his gun and scream in pain. He now pointed the weapon at his parent's murderer. He stared coldly at him. "An eye for an eye just isn't my style," Trowa said. "Just do as I say," he told him. They traveled down the dark corridor. He took a pair of the handcuffs from a fallen guard and put them on Fenald.
Outside, Heero Jr. destroyed the command center of the colony from the outside as he blasted it with his twin laser cannon. It caused a huge explosion that rocked all the areas around that portion of the colony. His father had taken care of most of the suits that were guarding. Such inexperienced pilots. Heero had no problem not killing them. He simply blew off limbs of the suits or their weapons.
"Dad, I've destroyed the command center as instructed," chibi-Heero said to his father. "Oh, I'm getting a message from Trowa," he then informed. "He said that he has captured the Chief Commander of the colony as he was leaving for Earth," he said.
"Hey, Trowa," Heero said over the com system to him, "the transport is on its way. It should be there any minute now." Heero's re-built Wing Zero Custom was still looking bad after its accident with its twin buster rifle the previous day.
As soon as Heero sent Trowa the message, Sally rounded the corner into the landing bay of the colony. She docked and opened the hatch for entrance to the transport. "Hurry on, we don't have a lot of time," Sally said to Trowa. He floated onboard and went and locked the prisoner into a seat in the back. Trowa traveled back up to the cockpit. Wufei's daughter, Nataku, was now standing in the middle of the hallway entrance that led to the rear storage. She told her mother and father that she would look after their prisoner while they were traveling back.
Sally reversed the transport out of the bay and fired the engines. The transport boosted forward steadily back toward the colony. Heero asked Sally to open the storage hatch at the rear of the vessel. He couldn't fly the Wing Zero home in its condition. He glided the hulk of gundanium into the bay and closed the hatch behind him. Heero sat in his gundam's cockpit with his eyes closed and arms crossed pondering.
"Well, that leaves you out there alone, chibi-Heero," Sally said to him. "So, just make sure no one attacks us on the way back." She sat back in the chair of the cockpit with Wufei and Trowa behind her. They starred in front of them into the sea of starts. Each remembering their past and then retracing their history to the present. No one noticed when Nataku entered the cockpit.
"I think he's secure enough, so I decided to come up here," she said, getting their attention rather abruptly. They all eyed her, before Wufei spoke up, "Good work Nataku." Wufei was smiling because he was proud of his daughter. She was strong, and well taught in martial arts. Even a few times has she dropped him, but he doesn't talk about their training much. Heero Jr. was now flying out ahead of the transport. She eyed his suit and sighed. Wufei noticed her expression and just let it go.
On their way back, a group of taurus suits followed the transport. They attacked from behind. Their barrage of fire hit the back of the transport. Two of the 4 engines went out and started smoking. The quick, back attack caught young Heero off guard. The gundam's huge wings flapped instantly and it spun around with such grace, that it could have been a real bird. The suit flew directly into one of the oncoming taurus' and destroyed it. The wing zero flew right through it. As he flew past the other two, he fired his double laser cannon. It shot directly through the rear of the taurus and through the cockpit. He wings flapped again and he stopped in space, before firing the powerful vernia thrusters in conjunction with the wings to boost right at the last suit. He drew the sabre on his direct course to it, then slammed the sabre through the cockpit of the suit and he came rushing into it. He fired the reverse thrusters to slow himself so he wouldn't damage his suit more flying into the taurus. He powered down the sabre as he flew back from the exploding suit. Firing the vernias again, he regained his lead in front of the transport.
"Are you all right?" he asked them. "We're fine in here," Nataku answered. She was left in the cockpit as the others had drifted back to start questioning their prisoner, and to make sure that he hadn't tried to escape during the attack. "That was great fighting against those mobile suits Heero-san," Nataku mentioned, giggling over the com system to chibi-Heero in his gundam. Heero smiled to himself in his cockpit, but didn't verbally thank her. He continued to lead them back to the space colony.
* * *
Once back aboard the colony, Heero Jr. walked his gundam into a terminal for the technicians to look at and work on. He told them to wait on working on his until they have brought his father's suit up to at least 75% efficiency. He really did a number on his suit firing his twin buster rifle at that huge colony. From the stats that he read, that colony was nearly 12x the size of the Libra battle cruiser. He was amazed that even the full power of the cannon was able to destroy the colony, but it had been done. Now all that remains of the suit is just a bulk of gundanium with a hole in the middle for the pilot.
"I don't know why I took it out today, son," Heero said floating over to his son, after getting his suit into the hangar for its major repairs. "It was in pieces this morning. The wings weren't working, but at 37%. Even the targeting system was only at 73%," he said before smirking. "I'm going to stay out here and help the technicians fix the suit."
"Ok, dad," chibi-Heero said, "I'm going inside with the others." He looked down at Nataku, who was waiting for him at the doorway. Her parents had already escorted their prisoner inside and were taking him up to Relena so they could probe him for more information. He turned and jumped down from the cockpit hatchway and landed near Nataku. They then walked inside together and met up with her parents.
They all came to the elevator and got in. It ascended into the colony's main interior. Once it opened, Heero Jr. and Nataku lead the way down the hall, before hanging a left to come upon the door to the command room. The door to the command room hissed open to reveal Preventor officers scurrying about doing their tasks. Relena stood starring out into the dark, vastness of space. She stood their quietly; and oblivious of the surroundings presently behind her save for the distant, deep space ahead. Only one could wonder so much about the history of the colonies and the wars that they brought. Countless lives lost for such a pathetic dictatorship. Even the saddening act of a sibling to a martyr of peace brought the death of so many; and for what? Peace, of course; they all said. Relena could not think exactly how it was going to bring peace, but somehow they all thought it could. She continued her daze into the LaGrange Sea of Death. Absently she could see the physical evidence of the pasts dreaded history slowly float weightlessly through the aged graveyard that has claimed so many. Relena snapped out of the gaze as the remnants of an old Leo's camera brightly spun and reflected the sun's light into her eyes.
Wufei, accompanied by his daughter, Heero Jr., and his wife, along with their captive, walked toward Relena as she stood near the window. The reflection of the group gave Relena a hint of their presence, so she turned around to greet them.
"Wufei," she said, " I see all of you have returned from your successful mission." She looked around for Heero. "Where is your father?" she asked her son. "Father is helping the technicians repair his suit. He only had them do a minor repair on it after he almost destroyed it," chibi-Heero replied to his mother. Relena nodded in acknowledgement of his answer. She was getting afraid. Heero was risking his life and pushing himself way too hard lately.
Wufei forward, "We have brought back their chief commander of their colony." He turned around revealing Fenald behind them, still bound in handcuffs. Nataku was standing near Heero Jr. She was quite impressed at how he was so much like his father, yet much more friendly. She sighed as she admired him for his strength and willingness to help. Heero Jr. knew she was starring at him, but he didn't mind at all, but only stood smiling.
Fenald was an officer of the Baron Foundation and so he carries a few things in his belt. With his hands behind him cuffed, he slowly slipped the key out and unlocked himself. He held the cuffs in place though, not to startle anyone. Trowa had just entered the room and walked toward the crowd of people. He had the important documents of the most current events of the Peacemillion that just came in that Relena and the others needed to see. When he walked past Fenald, the Barton Officer dropped his cuffs and grabbed Trowa's gun from his left side, while pushing Trowa ahead, stumbling, into Relena. She screamed and then everyone noticed that he was ready to shoot Trowa.
"Well, again I have you at the end of the barrel of a gun, Triton," Fenald said to him. Trowa had stood up again and turned around. They were all standing fairly close. Heero Jr. was to Fenald's right side, while Trowa, Relena, and Nataku were right in front of him. Wufei and Sally were standing off to his far left. "I think it's time for you to die," he said smiling, before starting to laugh slightly. Right as he was pulling the trigger, Nataku pushed Trowa out of the way. Chibi-Heero's eyes went wide and leapt into the air. A loud shot was heard. Everyone in the room starred at the scene. Some were not yet aware of exactly was had been going on. Heero lay on the ground bleeding. "Heero!" Nataku screamed. He was shot in the right collarbone and it was bleeding everywhere on the floor.
"Someone get security!" a preventor officer yelled near the far back door of the dark-lit room. Damn! Fenald mentally said to himself as he looked back. He turned back to his current situation quickly to notice Nataku spinning at him. She had jumped up and spun, kicking the gun right out Fenald's hand. The gun flew across the room before hitting the floor, luckily not going off. Before he could get a hold on the situation, she pulled off a leg sweep that toppled the old man. He pulled his head up slowly, in pain, to notice her again. She was flipping in the air with her legs bent under her with rage written across her face. She came landing down with her right knee across his neck. Then she threw a fast right cross into his face, breaking his nose. Blood splattered the floor to her right. Satisfied with her work, she jumped up off of him and took a breath of relief. Blood was pouring from the old man's nose and he sat choking on the ground in immense pain.
Wufei stood their motionless for second. "God damn," was all he could say. Inside he was proud of his daughter. He then had a wicked smile cross his face. He thought of how he raised such a strong daughter. Sally spoke up, "Guards, get this man down to the med. lab for medical attention," she commanded. "Make sure you check his clothing this time and keep a eye on him before locking him up in a cell." Trowa grabbed the collar of the man's shirt and was dragging him toward the door. As he got there, he slammed the old heap against the door on the ground. "That served you right," Trowa said, before waiting for security.
Nataku was at Heero's side again. She had a tear coming down her face. "You jumped in front of the bullet to save me," she said. Heero coughed a little and then winced from the pain in his shoulder, where his left arm was pressed hard against his wound. He opened his eyes and looked at her and barely managed a smile. She smiled at him too. He reached up his right arm, painfully, and whipped her tear away. "Don't cry," he said, "I'm alright." His arm fell again, because he couldn't hold it up. The pain was over-whelming his arm now. Doctors and guards then flooded the room. They came to Heero's first to aid him. Relena had gone running down to the hangar to get Heero and tell him the news. She noticed that Nataku would stay with him.
* * *
In the morning, Heero awoke in a hospital room. His mother was asleep in the chair next to him and Nataku had fallen asleep on the couch near the door. The doctors did their best. They had to surgically remove the bullet from his shoulder and then try to place the fractured bone back into place before wrapping his upper-right arm and shoulder in bandages. They then gave him a large dosage of painkillers and they knocked him out. Nataku stirred awake and saw that he was awake as well. She yawned, then got up and went to his side.
"You're awake," she said looking at him. He looked deeply at her smiling. Her eyes were glittering. "I awoke early this morning when my mother was still awake and she told me what you did," he said to her. "I see that martial arts has paid off for you." He remembered back to the days where he would spend time at the Preventor's agency when his father would have work there. He and Nataku had become friends and lately they were getting really close. She had gotten worried when she found out he ran away.
"As soon as I get to see you again, you go off and get hurt," she said to him. He only smiled again, just glad to have her presence. She understood his silence, like his father's, but he was more open with his feelings. Nataku pulled up a chair and sat in it close to him. She laid her head down in his right hand and fell asleep again.
Later that day, everyone met in the command room again. They cleaned up the mess and took better care of making sure prisoners from the colony weren't armed. Trowa, Heero, Wufei, Sally, Relena, and Zechs had gone over the information about the Peacemillion. The attack on Moscow was launched from the colony, but only because the Peacemillion sneaked up to the Earth from the other side of the most populated colonies. Solo and Wind had set off toward Earth a day ago before Trowa, Heero, and Heero's son had regained control of the Barton Foundation's colony. At noon Max Barton was to have a speech toward the earth and the Preventors aboard this colony. Well, noon came very fast that day.
All of earth and space watched on as yet another dictator gave a broadband speech. "This is Max Barton. Last living relative of the true Barton family that began this glorious foundation many decades ago," he started. "I have now targeted Luxembourg with the mega-beam cannon aboard this space cruiser. If you ask what it is that I want, well, it's simply control of the Earth," he said to public. "The Preventor's, along with the Earth Sphere Unified Alliance have kept people from migrating toward Earth who lived in the colonies. All they wanted was for everyone on earth to come to the colonies and for the colonies to be happy. But how can they be happy when all many of them wanted was to come to the Earth?!" he exclaimed. "Our Foundation was created to create a peaceful colony under which we could control. We wanted something where we could say 'We have space superiority here' and everyone would listen… but it went further than that. My father wanted more. Once he had gained that, he wanted to control the Earth. He loved the dream of controlling earth so much that he hated it," the old Barton bellowed out. "So, he created Operation Meteor. He thought, 'If they don't want people from the colonies to come to Earth, let alone get into the earth's government; then I'll have to flatten Earth and start anew with the citizens in my colony'," he told them. He then finished, "My father, Dekim Barton, was a smart and powerful man. I am now going to fulfil his dream in life by taking over the earth by destroying each city one-by-one using this battle station!"
Nataku and Heero watched the broadcast from the TV in his room while their parents and the others watched from the control room. Heero got Nataku to help him get up and then he hurried as fast as he could to an elevator. She didn't know what was going on, but just followed close behind him.
The door to the command hissed open fast as Heero Jr. darted in and hurriedly found a computer terminal he could use. His parents noticed his fast intrusion and slowly walked over to him. He was typing as fast as he could with one good hand and a crippled arm that had the other. He muttered, "I've got to stop him, and I know how." He brought a remote targeting system that was located in Berlin, Germany. He had it set to track a projectile launch from a military base in New Edwards, California, in the U.S.A. He had cracked the security system on the guidance system and remote link to the base.
"Son, what are you doing?" Heero asked. He noticed that he was quite busy and took in the information before him. "What?! A Mk. 82 warhead!" Heero yelled out. The old Barton was just announced he was about to fire the mega beam cannon on Luxembourg. "No you don't!" chibi-Heero said as he pressed the enter button. The screen flashed green with a biohazard warning sign saying 'Warhead Launched - All Systems: Go'. People passing near the base that day were extremely startled as the base opened up and a huge missile rocketed out into the air at tremendous speed. Immediately the Berlin radar picked up the missile and was guiding it to its target: the Peacemillion.
As warhead approached, the old Barton caught onto his plan. The mega cannon from the Peacemillion was fired! The intense blue beam shot down through the atmosphere stirring clouds and life around. The blast intensified into a huge white arc of lighting as it came crashing down upon the capital of the world. "It has begun!" yelled the Barton from his broadcast. Right then, the communication cut off.
* * *
Luxembourg now had a huge crater in the center of the huge city. People were going crazy and things were a huge mess. Quatre, his wife, and the remaining members of the Maganac Corps watched the blasphemy on the television from the Luxembourg news. He already had them completing his custom-built serpent mobile suit. "I'm going to go after the troops coming from the north!" Quatre said to his wife. "Someone has to and I can't get a hold of any of the other pilots." Dorothy let him go. She knew he would take care of himself. She knew he could sense his presence was needed.
* * *
"Those damn Preventors! Firing a nuclear warhead at the Peacemillion! I never would have thought a day that I'd see it happen!" he ranted on as he hurried to his escape ship. It was large transport inside of the extremely large Peacemillion battle cruiser. The ship's engines fired and it slowly was launching out of the port. "They'll pay for this," he said as he stood before a massive machine before him. "No one would expect such a massive suit, but I pressed it on despite my fathers jabbering about it being a waste!" he continued, smiling at his massive hulk of what he called a mobile armor.
* * *
Everyone watched as the missile escaped Earth's atmosphere in one piece. They saw a close-up of the Peacemillion. "No!!!" Heero Jr. screamed. "He can't get away!" he said as they saw his transport in the lower portion of the screen going downward toward earth below the equator. "Sir, only 12 more seconds before impact," said a officer from the preventor agency to Heero Jr. He nodded. They all watched as the little flashing ball of light slammed into the direct from the battle cruiser. Immediately different sides of the Peacemillion were glowing bright yellow, but only before exploding into balls of fire. Then the entire cruiser took a shattering explosion that create millions of flashing particles of the ship that were slung through space and toward earth in the huge shockwave aftermath.
"He got away," each person said starring at the screen. Heero looked at his son, "A nuclear warhead." Heero's glare had death on it and he couldn't help but recall history about nukes. He never lived in a time where they were used, but he knew he would never sink that low. "I knew it would work, father, that's why I used it," Jr. replied. "I was taught to use what I knew that would work to stop my targets. You taught me that." Heero only nodded as his eyes widened a little from their narrow death glare. His son was right, he was taught to do what worked and yet, worked the fastest and most efficient. Though nuclear weapons were still uncalled for. Heero Jr. turned to Nataku, she didn't have a say on the matter, but remained close to him.
"Did you object to me using the nuke?" he asked her. He searched her eyes to find the answer, but she was always the same. He liked that about her. She was very strong and never let any situation get to her.
"It did protect us from any other harms that Barton could have pulled off with that battle cruiser," she replied, looking up at him. He only smiled like he always did at her.
"I would do anything," he said, coming closer to her, "to protect the people that I love." He bent his head down and gave her a sound kiss in the lips. She was quite shocked at what he did, but she kissed him back. Everyone around noticed them. Wufei didn't mind Heero's son at all because he was strong and from a family that Wufei trusted, unlike the Maxwell's. Wufei wouldn't have had a Maxwell come near his daughter without them being under the edge of a machete first.
Everyone settled in for the night and waited the morning to come to see how they could handle this new tragedy. Two of the main bases of operations for the Earth were destroyed today, but the Barton's colony was captured. They found this to be no good, except for that lack of evidence of major construction. They wanted to see what he had been building and new he would unveil it quite soon enough.
Chapter 6: Sortie on Earth
