~Death and Friendship~
By: Gahzskul Thruka Chapter 2Trowa and Quatra sat out on one of the many balconies on the third floor of the mansion they were staying in, sitting on either side of a chessboard. It was Trowa's move, and thus far the game was at a stalemate. The seventh game they'd played that afternoon, and they hadn't won a single one. Now, Trowa moved his hand to his queen, and moved it across to the same column as Quatra's king.
"Checkmate." Muttered Trowa, staring at the board. Quatra gave him a quizzical look and glanced down at the board. Sure enough, Trowa's queen sat on the edge column, and his rook sat on the next square over, giving him checkmate. Quatra sighed.
"Okay, you win. Now how about we go and join Heero Duo and Wufei in the swimming pool?" asked Quatra. Trowa nodded and they rose and started down the stairs to the ground floor. As they reached the ground floor, an alarm went off. Trowa and Quatra gave each other a look and then ran down the hallways towards the control center. Upon arrival at the control center, the found Duo and Wufei there in their swimsuits, and Heero already dressed in his usual black shorts and green tank-top. Lady Une sat at the computer desk, and Sally and Noin stood to one side, watching the computer screen. After a moment, Une turned and faced them.
"We have a serious situation, here," She stated in a worried voice, "we've just received a transmission from one of the outer colonies. It's been taken over by a rebel group calling themselves 'The Lunar Legion'. They have secured the colony and are moving to capture two more. If we don't stop them soon, they'll be too spread out to stop. Apparently they have quite a supply of mobile suits, and a few transports carrying missile launchers and beam cannons. They damaged the colony they took as little as possible, but enough to do some damage."
"We know we can tell their suits from any others," began Sally, "because they paint a blue eagle on the left arm of their mobile suits, and have a patch bearing the same image sewn to the soldier's uniforms."
"We're sending a large assault force out to try and stop them from taking the next two colonies. It left this morning, but we're afraid they won't be enough. We have another force leaving tomorrow morning. We want the Gundams as part of that force. We'll need all the suits we can afford to send to hold these guys off. We may still be short. Apparently these people have modified the suits they have to have shields, and strong ones at that. We need the stop them. They have stated that they will liberate all the colonies, then move on the Earth."
Heero glanced at the other Gundam pilots, "we'll go."
"Good, have your Gundams in the space pods and ready to go tomorrow morning." Said Noin, who had not previously spoken. The pilots were dismissed and left the room, going their separate ways to get ready to leave in the morning.
The next morning the Gundam pilots had their Gundams in the space Pods and the space pods loaded into transport ships, which were ready to launch. There were hundreds of transports, loaded with about twenty mobile suits each, plus the ones with the Gundams. Within an hour they transports had launched and were en-route to the colonies that were supposed to be the Lunar Legion's next target. It would take them two days to get there, and they would arrive a day after the first assault force. If it was still there when they arrived. Apparently the Lunar Legion had a massive armada of suits and ships, which could probably be an equal match for the force on a bad day. Heero sat in a seat, head down against his chest, eyes closed but not sleeping. He was fully awake, but trying to focus himself for the upcoming battle. In seats around him, the other four Gundam pilots were doing the same, except Quatra, who was staring out the window into space. Heero sighed and rose, walking up to the cockpit of the ship. He pressed the button and the doors hissed open, revealing Sally and Noin in the pilot and co-pilot seats of the ship, talking quietly. They both looked back when the door hissed open. Heero walked in and put a hand on each seat, watching the display screen on the control panel that showed the colonies they were going to defend. One was a pinwheel shape, and the other was a strange looking structure that was made out of block-shaped sections connected by massive cylinder-shaped pieces that ran between each block. The display showed defenses, launch bays, tactical weaknesses and tactical strongpoints.
"They're going to have a lot of firepower if they want to overrun those…" muttered Heero.
"Yes, they are. They're expected to arrive in two and a half days, only a few ours after we arrive. The first force is going to set up a perimeter around this colony," said Noin, pointing to the pinwheel colony, "we're going to defend the other."
"We're going to have to move quickly and deploy all of our suits as soon as we arrive. We won't have much time." Said Sally. Heero nodded and returned to his seat.
Two days later the colonies were in sight, as was the first assault force. Much to Noin and Sally's dismay so was the Lunar Legion, approaching from far off. Sally cursed under her breath and opened a channel to all the second assault force.
"Assault force 2, the Lunar Legion strike force is minutes away, launch immediately and prepare to defend the colonies!" she ordered. Through the cockpit windows Sally and Noin could see hundreds of mobile suits start pouring out of the ships, and could hear the airlock doors open ad the Gundam pilots used rocket-packs to get to the ships with their Gundams in it. After a minute, the Gundams launched from their ships and joined the force awaiting the Lunar Legion. The enemy suits and ships grew closer. Then they were in range and opened fire. The defence force from Earth returned fire.
Violent Battle insued.