- Part 3: The Gundam Team Reborn
OZ Asteroid Base, Third Level, MS Bay. Monday March 11th, 7:30 p.m.
Sitting in the Ballista's cockpit, Collins couldn't believe his luck. "And 'ere I was all set for a fall."
The Ballista was referred to as the 'Heavier-Arms' around the base, because of its disturbing resemblance to the XMSG-03H (G) Gundam HeavyArms. Predominantly red, it sported a huge 180mm shell based rotary cannon akin to the original Heavyarms' beam gatling in design, right down to the shield on the outward side of it. It's shoulder plates were nothing but menacing, coming up almost parallel with the Gundam's V-Fin, and carrying a beam cannon in the center of them. The chest gatlings were replaced with a pair of beam cannons as well, and the left arm had a trio of vulcans mounted in the upper wrist, with a small 'beam jitte' on the other side for it's melee weapon. The head carried four vulcans instead of two and there were an extra two on the legs. The top-of-the-line XMSG-N3B Ballista Gundam stomped over to the exit elevator and prepared for combat in the depths of space.
Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier, sat in silence in the Wing Gundam ZERO. The devastating Twin Buster Rifles sat in the dormant position on its back, between the Gundam's majestic angel wings. Just as it should be, Heero thought grimly. What could Treize be thinking? We've achieved peace and now he's going to destroy it with these weapons of war... It's pointless.
"Hey, Heero!" Duo yelled. "Here he comes!"
"I see him. Is it the Tallgeese II?"
"Not if you call that thing the Tallgeese II!" Quatre yelled from the Sandrock.
The Hydra Gundam came floating over. "I hope you don't mind, Zechs. I got this one from a man named Valdor. Shame he died before exploiting the full potential of this Gundam Suit," Treize smirked.
"Shut up and duel."
"That's right, Zechs. Show me that you haven't forgotten how to fight."
"Enough talk!" Zechs yelled, igniting the Epyon's beam sword and charging at the Hydra. Treize's grin never left his lips as he tasted again the fury of open combat. The blades touched, crackled and withdrew more times than any of the other Gundam Pilots could see.
Then the inevitable happened, as Epyon's ZERO System was activated. Zechs was only momentarily stunned by the flood of data into his mind, but in that moment, Treize regained the upper hand. The Hydra's rifle stalks unfurled and fired. At such close range, all Zechs could do was take the hit, but lashed out with his heat rod in retaliation. The Hydra was knocked back as the superheated whip struck him broadside with more force then even Treize expected.
The ZERO System reached its apex and Zechs fought to keep control of himself, but in doing so, he lowered his defenses. Treize took the initiative and charged in with his beam saber, right arm back to get the most energy out of the blow as possible. Suddenly a flood of emerald energy washed between the Epyon and the Hydra. The left arm of the Hydra now floated freely in space, severed by the immense beam scythe of the Gundam Deathscythe Hell. It maintained its slicing position and the head turned to Treize, daring him to come further. Steam hissed from the vents on the side of its head and the batwings closed around the torso as it withdrew from its active battle mode.
"Try it. I dare you," Duo glared.
"Very protective, aren't they, Zechs?" Treize joked through a closed circuit. Zechs' reply was merely a groan as he continued his battle with the ZERO system.
A blazing beam blast streaked through space, striking the scarlet Suit in the stomach. Zechs' head was thrown through the ZERO's sensor globe, which Treize had put in as an upgrade to the helmet based System in the original Epyon. The long haired man's forehead effectively stopped the ZERO system and control returned to him.
Heero called Zechs on his own comms line. "Zechs! What'd that come from?"
"Morven thwibble... Ow..." came the muffled reply, from inside the sensor globe.
Dutra grinned from in the base. An OZ soldier approached him. "Sir?"
"What?"
"Are you sure that it's a good idea for the Virgos to attack ANYTHING made from Gundanium? We've got two of our own out there, and one of them is our commander, sir!"
"He's fought Virgos before. He'll be fine." And if not, then what's it to me?
Rico sat in the XMSG-N1D Darkon Gundam, not particularly enjoying the Tallgeese class vernier's immense thrust. The Gundam bore little resemblance to any previous design. It's V-fin had a pair of arrows on it and the helmet had a very wide faceplate, coming down almost to the mouth-plate, then arcing up at a 45 degree angle and around to nearly the middle of the side of the head. From there, it lanced back around to a cheek guard of sorts, and down to form the face. The head had four red bands around the back, like the Leo and the helmet came back down in a wicked curve. The torso was divided into three parts, two large on either side of a smaller middle section. Partially hidden by the middle chest plate was a large green crystal 'search eye' flanked by two yellow vents. The cockpit was covered by a down-folding armored plate, which followed the curvature of the torso and search eye. The skirt armor was shaped about like its ancestor Wing Gundam's, except it was divided into black and white stripes. The legs were white, and the foot plating was black.
The weaponry on the Darkon was quite extensive as well, a giant beam cannon, a Dober rifle on right arm, along with a concealed 90mm gatling in the forearm, and a pair of beam kamas, essentially mini-scythes, made up the armament. But the most impressive weapon was the massive ten meter Gai-var blade on the left arm. Refined from pieces of detonated Gundams, the angled blade could slice through any metal known to man, and was covered in an I-field to block any beam melee weapons short of the Epyon's beam sword. But guns weren't going to help poor Rico against G-forces.
"You know..." he said to no one in particular. "This wasn't what I was expecting..."
Hideo chuckled. "What's the matter? Never ridden in a Tallgeese before?"
"Sorry, I wasn't born when that model was out, old man!" Rico sniped back.
Hideo glared at the young man.
They both received a message from the XMSG-N2N Gundam Nightstalker. The smallest of the new Gundam models, its design was rather basic. It carried no guns, and had merely a pair of longswords on either leg. However, its shoulder, elbow, knee, and foot joints each carried a beam blade, and the right wrist was overlapped with three mounted beam sabers. Highly effective and maneuverable in close combat, but mostly useless without its Torreto Type 100 Mega-Vernier Engines, specially designed for the dark green Nightstalker.
"Stop fighting yourselves and destroy those dolls," Jestre snarled. Said flight of Virgo and Taurus class mobile dolls were approaching rapidly from the rear, headed by a Gundam type. Predominately long range too...Shit. Without my engines online, I won't be much use to the others.
"We'll take real good care of them, so don't you worry your crazy little head about it," Rico said, readying his combat systems.
"You know, you're not really helping yourself by being such an asshole."
"Can we argue about this later?" Rico retorted. He prepped his Vayeate-class beam cannon, inserting the peg into the slot in the side of the Gundam. The barrel extended and the tip glowed brightly with megaparticles. "Yeah, now I gotcha!" He pulled the trigger and the saffron beam lanced out at the dolls, wiping out the entire Taurus squadron, and two Virgos. The enemy Gundam remained unharmed, if not a bit shaken.
Collins swore as he dodged the onrushing stream of energy and returned fire with his rotary cannon. The Ballista was just right for this sort of bombardment, while the close-combat units were stuck in the back he was free to tear apart the entire field. First I'm a Gundam pilot, then I get such an easy job. How much better does this get?!
Hideo boosted his XMSG-N4M Gundam Mantis towards the attacking Gundam, transforming the folded up mantis like arms and reconfiguring them to regular MS arms, equipped with massive curved blades called shotel. The Mantis' head was shaped like an upside down teardrop, with a pair of antennae and two yellow bug-like eyes. It also appeared that the head had a helmet, the underside of it being a bit smaller and jet black. It looked, essentially, like a repainted XMSG-04S(G) Gundam Sandrock, before its conversion to the purple and white XMSG-04S(S), although its feet were clawed for better ground traction. It removed its beam pistol from its rear skirt holster and took aim at the red suit.
Treize was quite irritated. He thought back to what the brown haired man had described it as once. As pissed as a mongoose in springtime, I believe the quote was. Whatever the hell that means... He grabbed his radio and called in the asteroid base.
"Dutra, what in the 9 hells are you doing?" he heard Lady Une yell.
"I'm retrieving those Gundams, either intact or in pieces!" Dutra returned.
"Lady, feel free to shoot him, if need be," Treize stated calmly.
"Thank you Mr. Treize," she said, holding back a grin.
"You're too soft, Commander Treize. You should take better care of your toys."
"And you're an tactless oaf. Lady, reset the dolls and bring them back in."
"You're a fool, Treize," Dutra continued to rant.
"We shall see, dullard."
Trowa was feeling a lot less tense, now that he had his Heavyarms back. Much as he hated to admit it, it was sort of relaxing to have the power to rip apart something that every other pilot in the universe feared. Heavyarms' blue and green armor was lit up temporarily by flashes of its twin double gatling cannons, piercing the Virgo dolls attacking them. "Something isn't right here, guys," he spoke.
"Yeah, it's easier than I remember it being," Heero answered, as he plunged his beam saber through the faceplate of a Virgo then spun and decapitated two others.
"Ah, you guys are just underestimating them!" Duo yelled, sweeping his scythe around and clearing away the pieces of the Mobile Dolls. "This is like old times!"
Wufei rolled his eyes as he thrust his huge, red-coiled dragon fang into a group of three dolls, damaging all of them. "He's got a point. We're fighting to kill this time."
"Can we worry about this later?" Quatre said, slicing a Doll down the center with his shotel.
Zechs shook his head. "Why are you guys complaining?"
Heero finished off the rest of the dolls. "Something is up. I'm positive."
Duo scoffed. "Whatever, man. I've got a friend that owns a hanger on L2, we can crash there for the time being, I'll bet."
Meanwhile, the Mantis dodged a volley of wrist cannon fire from the Ballista.
"You're pretty damn good, for an old man!" Collins called.
"I'll give you an old man, you punk!" Hideo retorted, quite annoyed.
They continued to fight tooth and nail as the Rico and Jestre plugged away at the Virgos. Both man and machine alike were being pushed to their limits by the waves of drones. Suddenly, however, a dragon fang exploded through on of the approaching Virgos. Rico looked to the cause and saw that is was in fact what he had seen. There, as the smoke cleared, was another Gundam.
"What the hell?" Rico asked no one but himself. The Gundam, which he now recognized as the XMSG-05S Shenlong Gundam, was ripping through the Virgos at lightning speed. He looked at it again, but noticed something was different about it, from what he'd seen. It was darker, and looked a lot slimmer, almost feminine. That dragon fang looks a hell of a lot nastier than what I've seen too, he thought, continuing to assess the situation.
A gout of flame snapped him out of his silent monologue.
"Hey what are ya shootin' at me for?! Huh?" A message flashed on the screen. A computerized voice read it.
"You are OZ troops aren't you?"
"No!" Rico returned. "We're stealing these suits!"
"What about the red one with the cannon, fighting the bug?"
"The red one is an enemy, but--" A smart-ass Virgo decided to blast him to shut him up. The jet black Gundam doubled over as the "Lady Shenlong" opened its chest and twin bursts of plasma 'flames' exploded the Virgo like a giant firecracker.
"I will end the fighting here," the computer informed him. With that, the XMSG-N5T Tiamut, as it came up on the Darkon's screens, blasted off towards the battle.
Collins dodged another beam pistol shot and saw the attacking MS heading in his direction. He raised his cannon to open fire, but the Gundam twisted and smashed it with the dragon fang in the midsection. The Ballista was curled into a ball, and the Mantis slammed both fists into its back. The Ballista spun backwards into the center of the Virgo company approaching from the rear.
"Ok, that's good. They'll attack the..." he looked around to the Virgos, as they all turned to him and charged up their beam cannons. "Shit!" He boosted up as the Virgos fired. The beams interlaced and the Virgo company all destroyed each other. Collins punched up the command hub on the monitor. He was met with, not his superior General Dutra, but Dutra's superior, Lady Une. "Well, it's certainly an improvement..."
"If this is about the Virgos attacking you, there's nothing I can do about it. Dutra put a lock on the system."
"Didn't know he was a hacker..."
"Well, more literally, he put a lock through it," she said, holding up a large steel padlock.
"Ah..."
"Sorry that I can't be more help."
"Don't be," said Trieze, popping up on screen. "Escape with the other three for now, while I sort everything out. You're no longer an OZ Lt., but a mercenary on OZ's payroll."
"Roger that, sir," said Collins. "Oh sir, there's another Gundam out here, too."
"What?"
"Here," Collins brought up the picture and sent it to Treize.
So, Kusato wasn't the pilot after all... I wonder if it's her piloting that machine... Treize wondered. "Go now, Collins. Just stay alive." Treize signed off.
"Roger that," Collins said, radioing the other four Gundams. "Attention, Gundam pilots, I am not an enemy. Repeat, I am not an enemy."
A message from the Darkon popped up. "Good. I won't have to scrap you now."
"You're pretty cocky."
"When you're as good as I am, you can be cocky if you like."
Collins rolled his eyes at this. He joined the others
"So you're the fourth pilot, huh?"
"Huh?"
"You know, the dude in the shadows said we'd be working in a group of four. One of them was an undercover agent."
Collins wasn't sure what to think about this. "Ok, but what about the girl Gundam over there?"
"That one I'm still in the dark about."
The five continued to head for L2. Hideo piped up. "So where are we going?"
"I've got an MS bay on L2's main colony, we can crash there."
"Right."
The Lady Shenlong confirmed its course was the same, as did the Nightstalker.
"All right, then," Rico said, opening up the comms channel to the L2 bay. "Yo, angel, this is the Rev Raptor here."
"Go on in, Rev. The bay's all cleaned up."
"Better get some rooms ready. We've got company coming."
"I've got four slots open, but the others are full of Leo and your Taurus. And my Gemini is leaving this hanger over my dead body!"
"Whatever, Gabrielle. Jettison the Leo and Taurus."
"Roger." The seven MS floated out. A wave of energy washed over the suits as Rico, Collins, and Hideo scrapped all seven in a single wave.
Quatre picked up the heat spike and radioed the other four, Zechs having drawn off the Virgos so the others could escape to L2.
"Trowa, do you think that it's those other suits?"
"Could be. I've never seen any of those green things before in my life, so we don't know what they're capable."
"Yeah, what about the rifles they had? It wasn't a beam weapon, so what are they thinking?" Quatre added. He thought back to the large green MS that he had seen in the hanger with the four newer Gundam models. They had a shield on one shoulder and a spiked pauldron on the other. They looked way too low-tech for OZ, cables on the head and torso like that. Powerful looking jetpack though, and what was with the big pink eye? "Why would they use such outdated looking Mobile Suits? With out beam rifles, nonetheless," Quatre continued to wonder.
"Quatre, could they be the new Gundams?"
"That may be true too," Quatre noted.
"Whatever they are, we won't do much good just sitting here," said Wufei from the Altron, which stood dormant, arms crossed. His Gundam's giant dragon fangs uncrossed and the pine green Gundam's eyes lit up. He blasted off towards the source of the heat spike, the other four in tow.
Jestre saw the vernier flares in the distance and hit his high output mode, igniting all his beam blades and charging up his thrusters. The XMSG-02DH Gundam Deathscythe Hell came into view and Jestre blasted off at maximum speed towards it in a ball of molecular fury.
Duo saw a green ball fly at him and barely had time to hit its active cloak before the ball revealed itself to be a Gundam. "Whoa. What is that thing?!"
The Darkon blasted past Deathscythe Hell, spun and opened fire with the concealed 90mm gatling on its right wrist. The high speed shells peppered the wing of the hellish looking Gundam.
The Wing Gundam ZERO charged in at the Darkon with its beam saber but was instead backhanded away by the Ballista. The Ballista in turn suffered a volley of vulcans from the Sandrock, who was then scorched by the Tiamut. The Tiamut was shot back by Heavyarms' gatlings, but then a missed dragon fang from Altron at the Mantis ended the Crying Clown's attack. The Mantis then attacked Deathscythe Hell, who had knocked the Darkon into the Nightstalker as it fought Wing ZERO.
"ENOUGH!" screamed all ten pilots at once.
"Wait. Duo?"
"Rico! What are you doing out here, you merc?"
"Heero Yuy."
"Jestre."
"Who's piloting that Nataku wannabe?!"
"WUFEI!" the others yelled.
Back at L2, Gabrielle Catalinia was checking the purple hair spikes that framed her face, when the alarm buzzed. She adjusted the black vest over her white half shirt, which framed her large bustline, and grabbed her glasses. She laced up her boots and gave herself a quick once over in the mirror, making sure that her black skirt wasn't too short for any faint-hearted friends that Rico might bring. Like anyone that knows Rico is faint of heart, unless it's a medical condition. She dashed to the bay and grabbed her work gloves as the outer airlock hissed open. After seeing that the airlock was full of menacing MS, she closed the outer lock and opened the inner one.
Ten new Gundams stomped in and it was all Gabrielle could do to keep from passing out as they passed her control room.
She opened the door and slid down the banister. Rico landed from the black Gundam and whipped off his cloak, revealing a solidly built young man of 17. His entire upper body was covered by a black sleeved vest made of a once in a lifetime combination of kevlar and fabric. The shoulders flared out and the neckline of the suit went all the way up to his neck in a priest collar. As Gabrielle came running to him, he wrapped the cloak around himself and the girl. After receiving her customary kiss, she looked up at the looming figure of the Darkon Gundam.
"That's gonna be a pain in the..." she started.
"Don't sweat it. If you can figure out fiber optics for a right hand's nervous system, you can fix a dent."
"Ok, point taken."
"All right guys, come on down."
Hideo and Collins hopped down and joined the other five pilots.
"Ok, folks, this is Gabrielle. Gabrielle, you remember Duo, right?"
"Hard to forget someone like Duo, dear."
"True."
"Hello, miss. I'm Thomas Collins," Collins said, bowing at the waist fancily.
"Shinitama Hideo," Hideo introduced himself, bowing in Eastern style, and stating his name in the traditional Eastern style as well.
"Heero Yuy, Ms. Relena Dorlian's bodyguard."
"Wow, the Heero Yuy. The man that saved the entire galaxy twice," Gabrielle mused. "Impressive repertoire."
"Hn. Just doing what I was told," Heero returned flatly.
"Trowa Barton."
"Chang Wufei."
"My name's Quatre Rebarba Winner," stated Quatre with a smile.
"Winner? As in the Winner family?" both Rico and Gabrielle asked.
"The same."
"I feel like I should kneel or something," joked Rico.
"Please, I'm as human as the rest of you."
Rico removed his right glove, revealing the technological jumble of metal that was his right hand. "You're more human than some of us, I'd say. Besides, you've never met Jestre before."
Jestre's cockpit opened up, and the Laughing Man hopped down from the Gundam. He didn't say a word, but instead stalked past the group and went out into the colony to find a place to contact his employer.
"That was Jestre for you, ladies and gentlemen," Rico said, rolling his eyes. He proceeded to scale the Taimut and open the cockpit. There inside sat a Chinese girl, not more than 15 or 16, by Rico's guesses, with brown eyes and raven black hair. She stepped out and Rico stepped back. Giving her a quick look over, she wore a traditional Chinese dress, the upper body covered, which was a good bit to cover, Rico noted, and the dress cut back to reveal her long, shapely legs.
He gulped as she gave him a glare that could cut Gundanium. He asked her name, but all he got in return was a kick in the stomach that sent him careening off the hatch.
Below, Collins was watching the proceedings when a black mass fell from the sky into his arms. When he looked again, there was a dazed Rev Raptor in his arms.
"Blimey, looks like got on the wrong end of that 'un, eh?" Collins said, in a harsh exaggeration of his usual British accent.
"Ouch..." was Rico's simple reply. Collins dumped him on the floor as Wufei laughed mercilessly at him.
"What are you laughing about, Wuffie? She could kick your ass too!" Duo smirked.
"Bah! That woman couldn't--"
"DIE!" screamed the girl, leaping down onto Wufei in a flurry of fists and feet. "My name is Lei Ming! Not Woman!" she yelled as she administered a well-deserved beat-down on Wufei.
Ming decided to get off, decided that Wufei had been pummeled sufficiently, and walked past Rico and the others. "Weakling."
"You are the one that is the weakling!" yelled Wufei with the last of his strength. Duo walked over and kicked Wufei, who groaned and passed out from it.
Gabrielle twisted a lock of purple hair idly. Rico walked to her side and asked her to remind him not to piss her off. She nodded.
Meanwhile on L1, at Treize's temporary home, Casval entered, in full combat gear. "Mr. Treize?"
"Yes, Casval?"
"I found where the Gundams are staying. Shall I follow them?"
"No, I think you can wait for it."
"Yes, sir." He turned to leave. "Oh and Mr. Treize?"
"Yes?"
"The name's Char," the Red Comet said with a smirk.