Lake Victoria had been almost instantly transformed from a beautiful and massive lake to a steaming, muddy crater. At almost the center of the lake was a hulking, twisted spire of metal. Its graceful form had been destroyed beyond recognition. The fluted neck had been compressed and the drive spires and been pushed into the engine compartment. two off the graceful wings had been shorn off completely during the ship's uncontrolled descent. The other two had been twisted and melted by the heat friction of the fall.
The pilot and crew had been killed, and the ship registered this fact. Commands began to stream through the no longer functioning psi-link controllers.
Blethrow nassadi am kendri (Crew is now dead) Feirwashi Pfescaltin huksre ingatiton (Final protocols now commencing)
The leaking coolant from the drive spires began to gush faster, flooding the chamber. Chain reactions began to pick up pace in the small scale fusion generator. The engine casing began to glow, first red, then yellow, and finally white. The heat expanded outward and the metal surrounding the engine. Soon the entire ship seemed to be made of light and the temperature began to rise. Mud was baked to clay in instants, air bubbles within the mud expanded and exploded, throwing slabs and shards of clay into the air.
From the observation tower and from the surveillance plane overhead, the ship began to resemble a spire of pure star-light. The sensor officer looked up in alarm and turned to the pilot. "Holy shit sir, it's still getting hotter, that thing's gonna take half the lake-bed with it when it goes!"
The pilot nodded, "Tower, this is Hawk-eye 9, position has become hazardous, going evasive."
The comm crackled, "Copy Hawk-eye 9, cleared for evasive."
The pilot, who had not bothered to wait for confirmation of his orders, (survive now, court-martial later, eh?) threw the heavy tailed plane into a desperate climb.
An edge of panic began to creep into sensor officer's voice. "Captain!"
"What?" The pilot snapped as he attempted to send his lumbering craft even higher.
"We need to get away from the epicenter now!"
"Got it, hang on!" The captain yanked the yoke down and to the right. The plane began to peel off towards the base.
But it was too late.
Far too late.
Eight point seven seconds too late, to be exact.
A spire of pure white light and burning heat lanced upward from the center off the craft. It missed the plane by several meters but the wash of superheated air that surrounded it blistered the paint from the metal frame. The plane leveled off and began to flee towards the base, but the beam of light was rapidly expanding.
"Tower, this is Hawk-eye 9, Get the hell out of there!"
An evac-alert siren began to howl throughout the base.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The wall off light exploded outward. It consumed the surveillance plane in an instant and the metal walls of the plane were instantly atomized. "Oh my goaaaahhhhhhhh!" In the tower, a final scream resounded across the comm line, but there was no one there to hear it as technicians had all ready begun to pour down the stairwells and out of the building. The scream changed pitch and became a static filled whine as the line was destroyed.
Then, the expanding mass of energy began to slow, slow and falter. It ground to a halt almost halfway to shore and began to flicker. The glow began to subside and disappeared.
The last technician out of the tower turned towards the screens. "Um guys," he called. "I think it's done."
* * *
Quatre Rabberba Winner knew of the "attack" an hour after the ship had hit. The general public knew nothing of the incident, as it had occurred on a secluded military base. Quatre however, was anything but the general public, and his lines of communication were definitely not ordinary.
Another hour after receiving word, the billionaire executive found himself being herded onto an military speed transport. One hour after that, he found himself stepping onto the hardened tarmac of Lake Victoria's air strip. The wind had picked up viciously and night had fallen. The temperature had dropped and Quatre sourly reflected that the military escorts had not even given him enough time to grab a jacket.
A woman in a cold weather parka came rushing across the field towards him. He raced to meet her, hopping that he could retain some circulation in his all ready freezing limbs. As he approached her, a smile blossomed on her face. He opened his arms wide and embraced her.
"Noin! How have you been?"
Noin smiled back and shook her head wearily. "Just fine Quatre, thank you for coming on such short notice."
Quatre nodded. "How's Zechs doing?"
Noin laughed, "Just as well as always. Seems like he hasn't aged a day!"
Quatre laughed, "I can believe that, we should all be so lucky!"
Noin nodded, but sobered quickly. "Well, anyway, you need to be briefed."
Quatre drew up short, despite the biting chill. "Why?"
"What?" Noin turned her confused gaze upon him.
Quatre looked at her fiercely. "I mean it. Why me? I'm a forty year old business man and a pacifist to boot, why in the world would you want to brief me on an attack?"
Noin began to walk again, forcing Quatre to follow. "Because you are a Gundam pilot."
"Noin, the Gundams are ghosts twenty years dead. And I'm just a businessman now."
Noin shook her head as they drew closer to the command post bunker. "It wasn't the Gundams Quatre, you know that even if you don't want to accept it."
Quatre nodded slowly. "Yes, I guess I do, lets get in, I'm cold."
"Right."
* * *
The briefing room was massive, but there were only a few people in it. Quatre took a seat next to Trowa at the mahogany table that had replaced the podium at the front of the amphitheater. Wuffie and Sally sat at the head of the table along with Zechs. Noin hurried to take the chair waiting for her next to her husband. There was an air of waiting in the air and the non-military members of the meeting shifted uncomfortably.
Then the sound of booted feet marching in lock step penetrated the thick door. The door opened grandly and a herald and honor guard entered. A herald stepped forward. "Announcing the President of the United-"
A flustered looking woman in a dress suit pushed her way through the honor guard. "They know who I am Lewis!"
The head guard stepped forward. "Ma'am, we need to clear the chamber first."
The woman shook her blonde hair angrily. "It's the Gundam pilots and the leaders of the preventers, no secret service! Come on Heero. The rest of you, out now!"
The guard opened his mouth to complain but seemed to recognize the hopelessness of the argument. The honor guard spun on their heels and marched out of the room. Releena and Heero strode swiftly across the room to take their places along the table.
Sally had a ghost of a smile flitting across her features. "Are you always so adept with the help?"
Releena shot her a rather sour look, "The 'help' can be a bit trying after a time."
Wuffie nodded curtly. "Right, let's get down to business."
Sally stood and pointed to the screen which showed the view from a surveillance plane that was circling the impact crater from a more conservative distance than the first had. "At approximately 1635 hours United National Earthsphere Space Force relay and observation outpost YTL-70999 filed a report of numerous anomalous readings followed by a near miss by what they believed was some sort of ship. The anomaly entered the Earthsphere sensor zone only twenty minutes later, showing that the object was moving at incredible velocity. It then entered the Earth's atmosphere and impacted the with the surface at 1701 hours. Less than half an hour after it was first detected."
Her audience looked stunned. Heero smirked in a shallow, oh-dear-god-this-sucks-but-we-gotta-try-and-be-funny sort of way. "By incredible velocity, I assume you mean-"
"She means," a voice drawled from the upper tiers of the amphitheater, "damned chicken shit fast." Heero whirled around reaching for the gun that the secret service hadn't allowed him to wear in the presence of his wife for two years.
"Who the hell?"
Sally gave a brittle smile. "Get down here Derek, these are not the guys to fuck with."
A deep laugh boomed from the shadows above them. "Listen Sal, I was shootin guns and screamin orders when these babes were sucking their missions out of a bottle." A burly shape resolved from the shadows, wreathed in musky cigar smoke.
Zechs growled, "You know you can't smoke in here."
The man grinned as he came fully into the light. His bald head shone dully in the light of the projection screen. He had a pig-like expression and his eyes shone malignantly from within his fat features. "You always were a piss assed liddle bitch."
Wuffie glowered at him. "How did you get in here? This is a secure briefing."
Derek made a vague gesture with his cigar, causing smoke to snake and waft in a halo about his head, "New doors don't beat old tricks. And the oldest is simply to wait in the dark until they think the room is empty and lock the door. You're security could use a bit of a whompin'."
Noin shot him an icy look, "Security's your department."
Derek gave another chuckle, "So it is, guess I gave my boys a bit of a slip now didn't I?"
Zechs placed a calming hand on Wuffie's shoulder. "All right, Derek, best case scenario; you get the hell out of here now, along with anyone and anything you've brought with you and we'll bargain on your court-martial, worst case scenario; Wuffie shoots you where you stand."
Derek ignored this last and turned to Releena and Heero. "Awfully nice to meet you folks, I'm afraid I've just about flubbed the proper introduction, what with my rude colleagues and all." He extended a meaty hand towards Releena. "You of course are her Queen-ship President Darlain, and I," he cast a insolent look at Zechs, "am General Derek Redman Duke. General at least, until Zechs here finally gets his way and kicks me out of the service entirely."
Releena shook his hand firmly with a guarded look. "You can't be here." It was a statement, not a question.
Duke let out a braying laugh. "I would be sorely tempted to reconsider if I was you ma'am. Seein' as I'm just about as close as you're gonna get to a security advisor in this whole mess."
Wuffie slammed his hand down onto the table, "What the hell are you implying, you rusted old battle hog!"
Those southern cross, blue bombardier eyes turned balefully towards the Chinese pilot. "You may be good at startin' revolutions boy, but you and you're friends don't know pissed shit about stoppin' an invasion."
Noin cleared her throat and cocked an eyebrow. "Cobalt?"
"Was an ass." Duke ground out flatly.
Sally put up her hands in a placating manner. "All right, everybody sit down, you too Duke. Honest to god, Une leaves for two days on a routine check mission and you all start bickering like fools. We've got a god-damn briefing to conduct."
They looked in surprise at the angry agent's blazing eyes. When they had all seated and, after a particularly baleful look on Sally's part, Duke had extinguished his cigar, she began again. "Thus far, the incident has only resulted in three deaths, the crew of Hawk-eye 9 aerial surveillance unit. There is even a possibility that these deaths were accidental.
"The facts as they stand thus far are; We confirmed one anomaly, believed to a ninety percent probability to be a ship, said anomaly impacted the Earth's surface two and a half kilometers from the perimeter of this base."
Heero nodded, "Let's drop the 'presume' and say that we have a ship here, an alien ship. This thing was small, presumably a scout."
Duke grinned broadly, "Someone up there fucked up."
Zechs tossed him an irritated glare. "What?'
"Someone screwed up, pretty big too, was going too fast, blew past the rendezvous and couldn't slow it's ass down enough to stop from slamming down in our front yard."
Wuffie nodded. "That would make sense. The station reports that from the Earth, the rendezvous point of the other anomalies would be hidden by Jupiter's mass shadow."
Quatre shook his head. "I think it was an attack, look how close it came to destroying the base. Perhaps they messed up, but only in that they missed."
Duke snorted with contempt. "And I thought you Gundam boys was up to par on combat protocol."
Noin took a more helpful approach. "Well Quatre, that tactic would destroy any element of surprise that the force would hope to have, as would be indicated by their hiding behind Jupiter."
Quatre steepled his fingers before him, "I see."
Heero nodded, "And it can't be an accident. They were definitely headed for Earth. The chances of them just hitting the planet at all are astronomical in the extreme."
Cigar smoke drifted across the table.
"Put that damn thing out!" Zechs screamed.
Duke ignored him. "Bottom line, boys and girls, is that they're here, and they aint commin for the beer or the hamburgers. So what the hell are we going to do about it?"
The silence was a death pall, the only motion in the room was the vague drifting of the cigar smoke.
Zechs and Noin looked at Sally pointedly, she rubbed her face and nodded tiredly.
"All right." Sally turned to Releena. "Code Beta." She said simply.
"No." Releena's voice was full of flat denial.
Sally shook her head, "No choice ma'am."
Releena sighed and put her head in her hands. When she spoke, it was barely a whisper. "Confirm Code Beta."
Zechs nodded decisively, "Code Beta witnessed as confirmed, to be enacted immediately."
* * *
Interlude 3
The most dangerous spy is the inside spy. The fighting bull dog that lives in the opponent's pen is the one most likely to bite you. Duke hates the preventers too much to betray me. But he hates being used to much to be faithful. Even now, I must rely on his reports to prepare my offensive, for the time is almost at hand.
Events are reaching a head in Jordan province and my agent there has done his job well. Soon, this paltry insult of a government will be replaced by the rightful heir of the Barton empire. when Duke makes his report, I will need only one more thing…
Before I rain all hell down onto these fools. So came God's wrath.
* * *
It had been the most harrowing four hours that had ever been spent at the edge of the asteroid belt. tensions had run high to the breaking point. Rand sat hunched over his screen, perspiration pouring down his brow.
"Holy shit."
Tina looked up sharply. "What?"
"We should probably clear it with Gloval first but I think you should call Earthsphere command again."
"Why?"
An icy trickle of terror crept into his voice. "Because we have contacts at the sensor perimeter."
"Contacts?"
"Yes." His voice sounded hollow. "One million contacts, to be precise.
