I'm ba-ack! After a weekend of performing and two subsequent days recovering, I have finally found the time to return to this story. I'll be attempting to recapture my previous pace. Sorry if this chapter feels a bit wrong, I'm regaining the threads of my plot. Hope you've all been nice and stuck around. Enjoy as the epic resumes! *derisive snort* Sure… epic…

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Lady Une stared at Trent blankly. "What?"

He dropped the cell prints into her hands and said again. "Clones."

She looked at the top sheet of flimsy.

PROJECT JEHOVAH

DOCTOR J PROFESSOR G DOCTOR S INSTRUCTOR H MASTER O

PROJECT BEGINS AC 174

WE HAVE BEEN GODS

BEHOLD OUR SIN

Lady Une looked at Trent pointedly. "What the hell is this?"

"When I attempted to find information on Duo Maxwell's genetic markers, to try and get into the locked codes, I found a information block that had been full wired into our entire data base. I jacked into the Hard-line and spent twelve hours sifting through our core data base. I found out that there is a sub-server that has been a part of our operating procedures since the creation of the organization. No doubt because we used so much of Oz's old hardware. After solving the riddle that guarded the sub-server, I opened it and found this. Project Jehovah."

Lady Une nodded and flipped to the next page.

IN RESPONSE TO THE OVERTURES OF DEKIM BARTON OF THE BARTON FOUNDATION, WE HAVE AGREED TO HELP DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT THE CREATION OF MOBILE SUITS CODE-NAMED '"GUNDAMS." WE DO NOT TRUST BARTON, NOR DO WE BELIEVE IN HIS PLANS. WE WILL NOT HELP HIM DOMINATE THE EARTHSPHERE. INSTEAD, WE WILL USE THE WEAPONS WE CREATE AGAINST HIM, USING HIS OWN MATERIALS TO BRING HIS DOWNFALL. BUT THE GUNDAMS WE CREATE WILL NOT BE THE ONLY WEAPONS OF OUR CREATION. THEY WILL ONLY BE TOOLS FOR OUR TRUE WEAPONS.

WE WILL CREATE PILOTS, IDEALLY SUITED TO COMBAT IN ALL SITUATIONS. THEY WILL BE PRODUCED FROM CAREFULLY ENGINEERED GENETIC COCKTAILS. AFTER AN ACCEPTABLE GERMINATION TIME, THEY WILL BE SECRETED AWAY TO SURROGATES, GIVEN SECRET LIVES, PASTS TO DRAW ON. THEN, AFTER A CERTAIN TIME, THEY WILL FIND THEMSELVES ALONE, ADRIFT, THEN WE WILL COME TO THEM. WE WILL EMERGE FROM OUR HIDDEN PLACES AND SHOW THEM THE TOOLS THEY WILL NEED, GIVE THEM TRAINING, ERASE THEIR HUMANITY, CHANGE THEIR ORDERS. THEN THEY WILL FREE THE EARTHSPHERE. DEKIM WILL BE SURPRISED TO SAY THE LEAST.

SHOULD ONE OF OUR CREATIONS DIE, A BACKUP WILL BE GROWN AND REPLACE IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. UNFORTUNATELY, IT WILL TAKE MANY YEARS BEFORE THE SECOND CLONE WILL BE READY TO BEGIN FIGHTING.

Lady Une steadied herself against a desk. "Someone has to tell them."

"The pilots, you mean?"

"Yes, someone has to tell them that they're clones. And someone's got to tell them that Duo's alive, just not the Duo they knew."

* * *

The armored limousine cruised serenely through the deluge of rain. Releena sat in the back seat, opposite her husband. She had her face cupped in her hand and a sad look upon her face. She watched the rain drops pummeling the bullet proof glass dejectedly. She sighed but did not turn. "I thought you said they wouldn't do it."

Heero was silent.

There was no accusation, only bitter sadness in Releena's voice as she continued, "You told me that I should just trust Sally and Noin. That Zechs and Wuffie would take care of me. That Midi would respect my authority and not turn this situation into martial law."

Heero nodded. "I still say we should trust them. The Preventers are there to help us, not hurt us. It's Duke that we can't trust."

"Yes, that's true. But as long as Lady Une and the rest of the Preventers have their attention pointed skyward, Duke is given free reign down here."

"Neither Zechs or Wuffie is going to allow him to run free for long."

"But it might be too late all ready, we don't know where he's taking us, and the troops under his command don't know if he's lying about the orders or not."

Heero reached out and took her hand. She finally turned to face him, and there were tears in her eyes. "I will protect you."

"Oh Heero," she sobbed and buried her head against his shoulder.

He reached behind her and stroked her back. Softly, he murmured into her ear. "I will always protect you."

* * *

Twenty-four hours later, in the command center of Lake Victoria, disturbing reports began to filter through the lines. In the current situation, disturbing reports were almost expected. But no one had expected them to come from the ground.

The first report came from the Preventer base in southern Jordan. It said that several members of the base staff had become horribly ill with what appeared to be influenza. A one Corporal Jack Stevens was all ready dead, and it seemed that several others were about ready to give up the ghost. The unfortunate corporal had lasted less than forty eight hours from when he first began to show symptoms until his demise. While, alarming, this would not be an extremely worrisome incident if it had been an isolated one. The base would have been quarantined and a bio-chem team would have been dispatched as soon as possible to assess the situation.

But it was followed by a report a little over an hour later that there was a deadly form of influenza sweeping through Las Angeles. And that followed twenty minutes later by a tip that people were becoming violently ill in Tokyo. Interspersed with these major reports were smaller ones. Tips from civilians who claimed to have seen strange mobile suits in the night.

Lady Une had been holding back on full out Martial law on the Earth's surface, but after these reports began to increase in frequency, she pulled out all the stops. Tanks and Mobile Suit divisions were dispatched to quarantine affected areas. Military testing and research stations were set up quickly, in hopes of detaining and studying the pathogen.

Three hours after the first report had come in, Lady Une called an emergency meeting. Zechs, Noin, Wuffie, Sally, and Trent all rushed to the conference room to see what was going on.

Lady Une turned her chair to face her subordinates. "First off; let's drop the formalities, we're all friends here. What the hell is going on?"

"Germ Warfare." Zechs said simply.

"And the reports of Mobile Suits?"

Sally shook her head. "Too soon to tell. We get reports like that all the time."

"But this many at once?"

Noin nodded sympathetically. "It is unusual. Another thing that worries me are the similarities between the reports."

Wuffie nodded. "And all so close to the breakout sites. This whole situation reeks of a set up."

Noin looked helplessly at Zechs. "Yes, but who?"

"I believe I have an idea." Midi leaned forward and steepled her fingers in front of herself. "Senator Jackson Brays, representative of the L3 colony cluster."

Zechs looked at her curiously. "Why him?"

"Because before we learned of the aliens, the situation in the L3 cluster was beginning to look increasingly grim. Brays is an eloquent demagogue, easily able to play to the wants and fears of his people. His record's clean but the man's powerful and ambitious. He openly supports autonomy for the colonies. If he has so much support through the legitimate sectors of his cluster, it stand to reason that he could have control over the resistance they have brewing out there."

Trent shook his head. "I didn't think it was that bad."

Midi shook her head. "Neither did I, before I went. They've covered their tracks very well. The only reason that I found out was because the propaganda was being distributed openly. We're looking at a net work dating back to the pre-Marimaia era. Very dangerous."

Wuffie nodded again. "So we're saying that Brays is ignoring the pending alien assault and going through with his original plans?"

Midi nodded. "It looks that way. If it is Brays." She paused. "That reminds me," she turned to Trent, "Trent, I want you to run a thorough back ground check on our good friend the senator."

Trent nodded. "Yes ma'am."

Midi turned to the rest of the group. "This is where we part ways, I'm afraid. Sally and Wufie, the two of you will be leaving for Jordan immediately, along with a pair of our new Orion class mobile suits. You're to investigate the reports of unregistered Mobile Suit activity. Zechs, take the Talgeese III and Noin, take the Apollo. You two are going to be doing the same thing in San Francisco. All of you are going to take contamination suits and follow the strictest quarantine procedures. I don't want any of you getting sick out there."

They all stood at once and saluted. "Yes, Ma'am!"

She leaned back tiredly. "Good luck to you all."

* * *

The aircraft carrier Adirondack plowed through the icy brine. The northern Pacific was freezing cold and all crew that were not devoted to the unenviable duties of deck patrol were bundled up below decks.

A shadowy shape propelled itself easily upward through the murky depths. In the cockpit, Private Cadin Rowanoak gave a predatory smile. It was so easy, this big, lumbering craft would have no defense against the awesome power of his suit. It was time to show the ESUN that they were here, it was time to tell them this in no uncertain terms.

The watery outline of the destroyer's hull grew even closer.

Cadin flipped several switches and the helmet around his head closed. The familiar matrix of the ZERO system glowed to life. The destroyer appeared as an expanding red framework, with glowing icons representing the reactor core, coolant hubs, and torpedo magazines.

The predatory grin widened as a gloved thumb flicked a witch on the control yoke. A sulfurous yellow blade sputtered to life at the end of the suit's wickedly twisted staff. At this point he penetrated the sonar bubble surrounding the ship. The controller had just about enough time to begin the illustrious comment "What the fuck?" before Cadin's monster hit.

The scythe cleaved a melted arc through titanium plates and bulkheads. The arc widened enough for a Gundanium hand to reach through and lever aside the thick plates as if they were a heavy sheet. Water proceeded to rush into the compartment. Hatches immediately dogged shut on automatic circuits, but it was too late. The horrible figure was inside, and cutting it's way into the compartment above lie a malevolent cancer. Within a minute, it was clawing its way onto the flight deck, its angular and evil shape silhouetted by billowing flames.

The monster had clawed through a main coolant hub on it's way to the deck, and the deck guns were just coming to bear on the mobile suit when the reactor suddenly found itself without means to control it's destructive heat. The mobile suit spread it's wings and leapt into the night sky, with a white-hot beam of pure energy close on it's heels.

The frigate that had been accompanying the carrier turned it's guns upon the suit as it turned haltingly and prepared to flee towards reinforcements. It did not detect the two black canisters that were dropped to about a hundred feet above it's deck, before exploding and covering the entire ship with invisible spores.

Plaguescythe folded it's wings and plummeted into the black waters, it's most potent weapon all ready rushing toward Preventer Pacific fleet headquarters.

Two hours later, the first members of the deck crew began to get sick…

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Hope ya'all enjoyed that, I should be back to normal for next chapter. Again, I beg of you to review, but not spoil in your review. Flamers are accepted.

Next chapter: Zealots and War Pigs