Gundam Wing:
The Four Gundams of the Apocalypse
Chapter 4: Apocalypse Now!
*All copyrights belong to their respective owners. * * *
The Gundams had been dispatched to Colony L-2. The threat had been established and now was the time to neutralize it. The distance between Colony L-4 and L-2 was great, but for the safety of the colony it had to be covered in the least amount of time. Even if time was short the Gundams were ready to fight to their deaths. The threat that the unknown Gundams made was that they would release a chemical agent into the colony air ducts. The threat was only made halfway, they did announce what they were going to do, but they didn't make any demands. This was the only part that made most of the Gundam pilots very suspicious of what the true intentions are.
Still, even with these suspicions hanging over head the duty had to be carried out for the colonists.
The Gundams had finally arrived at Colony L-2 keeping a watch on what the unknown Gundams were doing. Four of the Gundams were present in space but one was missing. For the plan had to go smoothly and without a single hitch. Quatre took the first step, he opened a channel to the Colony.
"Unknown Gundam," He called. "This is Quatre Raberba Winner of Preventer, pilot of Gundam Sandrock. What are your demands?"
The response was instant.
"I am Famine," a woman's voice came back, "I am one of the Four Gundams of the Apocalypse. I demand that you sit back and watch the colonists here on L-2 die."
"I can't accept those terms." Quatre responded
"You'll have to, Preventer Gundam."
Inside the colony, The Gundams Famine and War stood still outside the colony hall. Below at their feet the colonists were scrambling. Each running in different directions, pushing to get through, and falling over one another. It was true Pandemonium.
Up in the cockpits of War and Famine, they waited. Each of them was patient and calm. Their hands on the controls ready to move with any kind of lighting speed they had. Though the pilot of the Gundam War was growing impatient. Then again, War was always the paranoid one, the kind of person who would continually look over his shoulder to make sure if he wasn't being followed.
His patience in the cockpit was growing thin with each passing moment. Then again, War did have an itchy trigger finger with good reason since he was sitting on the most heavily armed mobile suit known to humans.
Not even the Gundam Heavyarms was this heavily armed and War was itching to try it.
"How long will Death have us sit here?" He asked out loud in annoyance.
Famine answered, "You know our mission, we wait."
War gritted his teeth even more annoyed with such an unsatisfactory answer. He lay back in the pilots' seat, taking his hands away from the controls. He figured that he could relax his trigger finger or maybe it was because he was utterly and completely bored with waiting. As he stewed in his frustration and boredom he had to say something.
"I really would like to get this over with." He said
"I don't think so!" A cocky young voice called out.
Famine and War turned around and there floating in mid-air with its Beam Scythe out was the Gundam DeathScythe Hell. The beam scythe was right in between Famine and War, it wanted to make sure that whoever moved first would be sliced in half like fresh produce at a Gallagher show. Both Famine and War were shocked and surprised when they found the DeathScythe right behind them and they never saw it coming. Death warned both of them about the DeathScythe in that it was very sneaky and its pilot is even more so. They had failed their leader, then again maybe they hadn't.
"Alright, folks." Duo called out from DeathScythe, "either you back down right now or you're gonna die!"
"I don't think so." Famine smiled cat-like, she reached forward to her controls and pulled its trigger. Outside the Gundam Famine had its Long Shield pointed downward, the shield looked almost like the Wing Zero's buster shield but more sleek in its design. When Famine pulled that trigger in the cockpit a gas began to spurt out of the shield. Their threat was real, they were releasing the chemical agent. Below at the Gundam Famine's feet the people began to panic even further, they began to run and dash around each other like they were cattle on a stampede.
Duo in the DeathScythe felt his heart nearly jump out of his chest as he watched the chemical agent spurting out of the shield. This was the greatest mistake that Duo Maxwell, pilot of the Gundam DeathScythe Hell would ever make. He had let his guard down.
In an instant he was knocked off his feet, Duo looked back up and found that the Gundam Famine had extended a heat rod from its right forearm. It gave him flashbacks to the Gundam Epyon. He could even see the Epyon being super imposed onto the Gundam Famine as he looked up at it with wide surprise. He expected to be thrown against the ceiling as Gundam Famine had DeathScythe by the leg in its heat rod. Then it did something that Duo never expected, he saw sparks coming from the heat rod. Then the unexpected became fear as Duo made the connection that those sparks on the heat rod were part of its weapon design, electrical shock. It reached the cockpit, the screens were disrupted, blue sparks of electricity arched from on side of the cockpit to the other and Duo felt the shock.
"AHHHH!" He screamed as the current ran through him like water in a river. It was painful to every nerve ending that he had in his body. He couldn't block out that kind of pain like Heero could. The only thing that he could do was scream, scream, and then scream some more.
"That's enough Famine!" War shouted, "We have what we came for."
Famine withdrew her heat rod from the Gundam DeathScythe, it recoiled back into her forearm like a retractable plug for a vacuum. Famine was slightly annoyed with War, and she was rather surprised since it was War who was bored to death of being on this colony waiting for their objective to be done. Famine did have to put aside her annoyance and look at the larger picture of the mission, this part was done, and there was no need to torture DeathScythe any further.
"Very well, let's proceed to Colony X-18999." Famine stated, "Apocalypse now."
"Apocalypse now!" War repeated.
In an instant as if by magic, the Gundams War and Famine were gone. Inside the DeathScythe Duo regained himself and brought his mobile suit back up to its feet.
Knowing what the Gundam Famine did he couldn't bear to look and see what it had done, but he had to. There in front of him was the most unlikely of sights, the people were still alive. The gas was still there, it was like a yellow dust cloud inside this space colony. What was going on? Duo asked himself. Even with the yellow gaseous cloud still lingering no one was hurt, the people were still running around but no one was dying. Why?
Duo opened the cockpit door and came out of his mobile suit. The next breath of air he took in was a sweet smell, it smelled like.like vanilla. Vanilla gas, that's all it was, it was a hoax, but why? Duo scratched his head thinking about why this was going on and what for. In his mental search for answers he kept looking down at the colony citizens who were in just as much confusion as he was. Then he remembered something while he was trying to recover from that electrical shock the Gundam Famine gave him. Writhing in his cockpit in pain, Duo overheard them talking about Colony X-18999.
"X-18999" Duo realized. "That's where they're heading."
Beep! Beep!
A call was coming inside the cockpit, Duo jumped back into the pilots seat still feeling the searing pain in his nerves. He opened the COM channel still feeling every muscle, every nerve and even his hair was aching. The screens came back up and there in the screen he saw Quatre's face.
"Duo, the unknown Gundams are leaving the colony." He stated, "We're going to follow them."
"I hear you Quatre," Duo smiled, "I'm on my way."
* * *
On colony X-18999, deep within its bowels among the generators, pipes, wires and other unknown parts lay the Gundams Conquest and Death. The two stood side by side like demons of the shadows. Under the few laps of this dark dank place, the pilots of Conquest and Death met to discuss the next phases as well as what had happened.
Conquest was kneeling to Death who stood looking down at his little hostage, the young girl, Mariemea Kushrinada who was tied to a chair, gagged and asleep under the overhead lamp. She looked like a rag doll in some sort of sick version of playing house, the young girl as the object of someone's abuse, but she was to be the key in the plans of the Horsemen. Death came closer to her, extending out his clawed glove covered hand like a fairy tale monster. He reached to a small trinket around her neck; it was a golden cross that sparkled against Death's black glove. From under the skull-like mask, Death's eyes grew wide and hungry like looking at sweet buns in a bakers display case. He even licked his lips under the mask thinking about what could be done, but his ecstasy was interrupted.
"Death." Conquest called, "I have just received word from Famine and War."
Death had allowed the golden cross to drop against Mariemea's chest as he backed up into the darkness with Conquest, "What do they have to report?" He asked.
"They have come into contact with the Gundam DeathScythe." Conquest reported,
"They have fled Colony L-2 and are heading this way. They will be here within the next hour. Our plan is proceeding as we had planned Death, we already have opened two of the seals. Soon we will have opened all seven seals."
"Yes, Conquest." Death said seductively as he moved towards his Gundam Death,
"Remember, when they get here you may do with the others as you like, but DeathScythe is mine."
Conquest was still kneeling to his master, even though his master was somewhere in the dark like a childhood monster. Yet there was something about what he said, about the Gundam DeathScythe, they had already come into contact with it. Conquest was confused, "But why?" He asked
"This is a matter of pride, Conquest." Death explained, "Now, have we begun the next part of the operation?"
"Yes, the colony is moving."
In the dark, under the cover of the cloak and mask, Conquest didn't see his masters' stern face. He looked up at the Gundam Death with thinned eyes, he was planning something in his own twisted little mind. It was a look of contempt, a look of defiance that Death had, and he wanted revenge. If Death had studied Chinese philosophy it would have said that when seeking vengeance, dig two graves. In Death's mind, he only wanted to dig one grave.
* * *
Back in space, the chase still went on between the Gundams of Preventer and the Gundams of the Apocalypse. The Gundams engines burned in the cold space like stars but no matter how hard they burned they couldn't keep up with the enemy Gundams.
Not even the expeditious Wing Zero could keep up with them, it was as if those mobile suits were possessed by the devil himself, that the pilot sold their souls to become faster than the Gundams themselves. The taunting images of the enemy Gundams were only small figures in the screens of the Preventer Gundams. It annoyed all of them to have the enemy flaunt their speed, like watching a rich kid flaunt his wealth by counting his money in plain sight.
Heero in his frustration gritted his teeth watching the engines burn in front of him and not being able to catch up. The anger was from the knowledge in thinking that someone could be better than he could.
It's true that Heero is a proud person, but he wasn't as out spoken about it as Wufei. Yet, the undeniable pride was still there in Heero, sitting silently and quietly as Heero himself.
At last Colony X-18999 was within view of the Gundam scopes. As the colony came within distance of the Preventers they watch the Horsemen Gundams disappear into the colony. They entered through one of the doors open to space and from that very same door four Gundam came out. They jetted out like water skiers with the wakes of water trailing behind them. There were Gundams Death, Famine, War and Conquest.
Unbeknownst to the Preventer Gundams, the Horsemen suits were concocting their own devious scheme. Death called out to his minions.
"Remember" He reminded, "the other Gundams are yours, but DeathScythe is mine."
"Understood." The other Horsemen Gundams acknowledged.
The battle had begun.
The first two to engage in the fight was the DeathScythe Hell and the Gundam Death.
From the point of view of the others it looked as if both Gundams had vanished. Except both sides knew that neither Gundam vanished, they simply used their active cloak.
With that in mind the fight with the other Gundam continued. Both sides cam at each other with the deadliest of force. That was for the exception of the Wing Zero, it zoomed past the other Gundams like a high-speed car blowing past tumbleweeds on a desert road. It passed the Horsemen Gundams and headed toward the colony.
As a Preventer Officer, Heero's first rule was the safety of the people before fighting the enemy. He knew for a fact that the colony was falling to the Earth with how far from its original position it was moving.
With that fact Heero knew the consequences if the colony were to fall to Earth. It would be like an enormous nuclear bomb and once it hit it would throw so much dust into the atmosphere that the sunrays wouldn't shine. The earth would become cold, it would be thrown into another ice age. The thought of how many people would die as a result of this act of lunacy set Heero to stop it at once.
Except the Horsemen Gundams had other plans. The one who acted was the Gundam War. He made a sharp turn around and opened fire from the twin Vulcans installed in the Gundams head. At first the bullets missed the dodging Wing Zero, then the bullets hit their mark but did no damage to the Wing Zero.
"Damn." War cursed to himself, "I knew I should have loaded the uranium bullets."
Heero overheard War cursing himself but came to a series of thoughts. Before, these Gundams hadn't failed to do their missions but War did something that made Heero scratch his head. One of the Horsemen Gundams, Gundam War had made a mistake.
Still, he couldn't allow his mind to be distracted; there was a colony that needed to be saved. Heero landed the Wing Zero in the Colony and proceeded to do his job.
Meanwhile back in space the battle raged.
The invisible DeathScythe and Death firing unseen shots and having unheard explosions.
Quatre immediately went after War who was firing at Heero. He brought about the Gundam sized Uzi and fired as many rounds as he could at War. This was the only advantage that Sandrock had over War: it's maneuverability. With all the amounts of weapons Gundam War had, it was slowed down in conventional combat. War may have had the advantage between Colony L-2 and X-18999 but in battle Sandrock had the upper hand.
Even with speed on his side War still had two other advantages on its side: Its weapons and armor. The bullets Quatre fired only bounced off of Wars armor. Quatre threw away the Gundam-sized Uzi and took out his curved swords and both blades burned like metal out of a fire. Quatre brought them down together as if he was going to do in the Gundam War like a doomed Oz mobile suit. But to Quatre's dismay a bright beam in his 30-inch view screens blocked him.
Quatre saw that his blades were being held back by a beam which he found out to be the Gundam War's beam weapon. It wasn't pink like the Tallgeese it was a dark crimson, a kind of red that in a macabre way reminded Quatre of blood.
Elsewhere the Gundam Nataku and the Tallgeese III were met with a good deal of resilience from the Gundam Conquest. Wufei used his dragon fangs but Conquest dodged both of them. The Tallgeese tried firing its enormous gun at the fast little suit but the Conquest was too quick for it. Both Preventers watched as the Gundam Conquest brought up its beam rifle and fired. Within fractions of a second they saw the end of the beam rifle light up like a light bulb filament trying to burn. Then the beam fired, Milliardo in the Tallgeese immediately got out of the way, but Wufei didn't act as quickly. He got out of the way of the beam but it grazed the left arm of the Nataku. The searing heat of the weapons fire seared and burnt off the paint of Nataku like paper.
"You'll pay for damaging, Nataku!" Wufei vowed
Conquest only mocked, "Hi! My name is.what? My name is.who? My name is.Slim Shaddy!"
Last of all there was the fight between Gundam Heavyarms and Gundam Famine. Trowa shot out all his bullets and missiles. He was fighting as hard as he could against Famine, because of how he felt. HE felt betrayed, robbed and violated after what Lucia Lynn had done to him. Trowa wanted her to feel everything he had, his anger, his hate and all his sorrow. To make her suffer just as he had.
At the same time that Trowa fought he felt a great sadness. For the first time in a very long time he felt sad about what happened. It was because felt loved, lobed by Lucia. It wasn't the kind of love that he had from Catherine. The kind of love that a brother and a sister could have for each other, this was different. The love Trowa felt was something only two people could have for each other and Lucia betrayed that.
"Why?" He asked, "Why did you do this to me Lucia?"
Only a momentary pause when Trowa desperately wanted an answer regardless of what it would be.
Famine laughed, "I was just doing my job."
Trowa's teeth began to grind together, his fists clenched around the controls ready to break them, and his eyes full of tears.
"Just doing your job!?" He sobbed, "you selfish bitch! You will die for violating me! My anger! My hate! And all my sorrow! All for you!"
Trowa fought the fiercest he had ever fought as his heart broke with his falling tears. One could say that it was as if Trowa Barton, the Silencer, had been possessed by the devil himself. Nothing mattered to him as his tears became sparkles within the cockpit of the Gundam Heavyarms.
* * *
As the battle grew more and more fierce outside in space, Heero was finding his way into the colony control room. As he passed through each hall to it he began to scratch at that thought again. Something was amiss to this particular situation. There were no guards, no minions to the enemy Gundams, but why?
Through each hall that Heero past there were still no guards. Not a single one, it's as if the colony was abandoned. It made Heero more suspicious to something deeper to all this, but what?
Suddenly, Heero felt the whole hallway shake, he knew that the colony was getting close to the Earth's atmosphere. There was no time to waste, Heero dashed to the control room. After running for who knows how long he found it. It was as empty as what he had seen of the colony, like a ghost town. Still, there was no time to loose, Heero sat at one of the computers and stopped the colony and sent it back to its original position.
With the colony moving back to its place, Heero still had that feeling. It was like an assurance of taking a certain fork in the road. Heero had that exact feeling that something else was going on but it still asked the question of what. Heero didn't' want to find out he dashed out of the control room and back to his Wing Zero in the mobile suit bay.
* * *
Back in space the battle grew ever more fierce between the Preventer Gundams and the Horsemen Gundams; the Gundams DeathScythe against Death, Heavyarms against Famine, Sandrock against War, Nataku and Tallgeese against Conquest. The fight had turned into an all out war, with Gundams against Gundams but a new player in this dangerous game was about to make his appearance.
From Colony X-18999 came a stream of light that the Preventers knew could only belong to one person.Heero Yuy. He came blazing from the colony ready to fight anyone who would come within his path.
"Gundams of the Apocalypse." Heero called, "The colony is not going to drop on the Earth and I'm going to kill all of you."
Heero drew closer to the raging battlefield but as he did he heard laughing.
It was a kind of maniacal and sinister laugh that eerily reminded Heero of himself during Operation Meteor. The laugh lasted for nearly a minute before it annoyed Heero so much that he had to have an answer. He knew that the person laughing was Death, but why?
"What the hell are you laughing about? He asked
Death answered still with a chuckle, "All of you are suck fools. We have what we came for and very soon Pandora's Box will be open and the Apocalypse will soon begin!"
Death continued to laugh as the Horsemen Gundams all vanished into the blackness of space. Though they did not fly out into space, they disappeared in the same quality and manner as Duo's DeathScythe. Simply melting into the blackness like an illusion, the Horsemen Gundams were gone without a single trace. All the Preventer Gundams heard was the maniacal laughter of Death.
The laugh wasn't annoying like a James Bond villain, it was truly insane and the Preventers were left with even bigger questions than before. One of the biggest was, "How bad has this situation really gotten?"
To be continued.
The Four Gundams of the Apocalypse
Chapter 4: Apocalypse Now!
*All copyrights belong to their respective owners. * * *
The Gundams had been dispatched to Colony L-2. The threat had been established and now was the time to neutralize it. The distance between Colony L-4 and L-2 was great, but for the safety of the colony it had to be covered in the least amount of time. Even if time was short the Gundams were ready to fight to their deaths. The threat that the unknown Gundams made was that they would release a chemical agent into the colony air ducts. The threat was only made halfway, they did announce what they were going to do, but they didn't make any demands. This was the only part that made most of the Gundam pilots very suspicious of what the true intentions are.
Still, even with these suspicions hanging over head the duty had to be carried out for the colonists.
The Gundams had finally arrived at Colony L-2 keeping a watch on what the unknown Gundams were doing. Four of the Gundams were present in space but one was missing. For the plan had to go smoothly and without a single hitch. Quatre took the first step, he opened a channel to the Colony.
"Unknown Gundam," He called. "This is Quatre Raberba Winner of Preventer, pilot of Gundam Sandrock. What are your demands?"
The response was instant.
"I am Famine," a woman's voice came back, "I am one of the Four Gundams of the Apocalypse. I demand that you sit back and watch the colonists here on L-2 die."
"I can't accept those terms." Quatre responded
"You'll have to, Preventer Gundam."
Inside the colony, The Gundams Famine and War stood still outside the colony hall. Below at their feet the colonists were scrambling. Each running in different directions, pushing to get through, and falling over one another. It was true Pandemonium.
Up in the cockpits of War and Famine, they waited. Each of them was patient and calm. Their hands on the controls ready to move with any kind of lighting speed they had. Though the pilot of the Gundam War was growing impatient. Then again, War was always the paranoid one, the kind of person who would continually look over his shoulder to make sure if he wasn't being followed.
His patience in the cockpit was growing thin with each passing moment. Then again, War did have an itchy trigger finger with good reason since he was sitting on the most heavily armed mobile suit known to humans.
Not even the Gundam Heavyarms was this heavily armed and War was itching to try it.
"How long will Death have us sit here?" He asked out loud in annoyance.
Famine answered, "You know our mission, we wait."
War gritted his teeth even more annoyed with such an unsatisfactory answer. He lay back in the pilots' seat, taking his hands away from the controls. He figured that he could relax his trigger finger or maybe it was because he was utterly and completely bored with waiting. As he stewed in his frustration and boredom he had to say something.
"I really would like to get this over with." He said
"I don't think so!" A cocky young voice called out.
Famine and War turned around and there floating in mid-air with its Beam Scythe out was the Gundam DeathScythe Hell. The beam scythe was right in between Famine and War, it wanted to make sure that whoever moved first would be sliced in half like fresh produce at a Gallagher show. Both Famine and War were shocked and surprised when they found the DeathScythe right behind them and they never saw it coming. Death warned both of them about the DeathScythe in that it was very sneaky and its pilot is even more so. They had failed their leader, then again maybe they hadn't.
"Alright, folks." Duo called out from DeathScythe, "either you back down right now or you're gonna die!"
"I don't think so." Famine smiled cat-like, she reached forward to her controls and pulled its trigger. Outside the Gundam Famine had its Long Shield pointed downward, the shield looked almost like the Wing Zero's buster shield but more sleek in its design. When Famine pulled that trigger in the cockpit a gas began to spurt out of the shield. Their threat was real, they were releasing the chemical agent. Below at the Gundam Famine's feet the people began to panic even further, they began to run and dash around each other like they were cattle on a stampede.
Duo in the DeathScythe felt his heart nearly jump out of his chest as he watched the chemical agent spurting out of the shield. This was the greatest mistake that Duo Maxwell, pilot of the Gundam DeathScythe Hell would ever make. He had let his guard down.
In an instant he was knocked off his feet, Duo looked back up and found that the Gundam Famine had extended a heat rod from its right forearm. It gave him flashbacks to the Gundam Epyon. He could even see the Epyon being super imposed onto the Gundam Famine as he looked up at it with wide surprise. He expected to be thrown against the ceiling as Gundam Famine had DeathScythe by the leg in its heat rod. Then it did something that Duo never expected, he saw sparks coming from the heat rod. Then the unexpected became fear as Duo made the connection that those sparks on the heat rod were part of its weapon design, electrical shock. It reached the cockpit, the screens were disrupted, blue sparks of electricity arched from on side of the cockpit to the other and Duo felt the shock.
"AHHHH!" He screamed as the current ran through him like water in a river. It was painful to every nerve ending that he had in his body. He couldn't block out that kind of pain like Heero could. The only thing that he could do was scream, scream, and then scream some more.
"That's enough Famine!" War shouted, "We have what we came for."
Famine withdrew her heat rod from the Gundam DeathScythe, it recoiled back into her forearm like a retractable plug for a vacuum. Famine was slightly annoyed with War, and she was rather surprised since it was War who was bored to death of being on this colony waiting for their objective to be done. Famine did have to put aside her annoyance and look at the larger picture of the mission, this part was done, and there was no need to torture DeathScythe any further.
"Very well, let's proceed to Colony X-18999." Famine stated, "Apocalypse now."
"Apocalypse now!" War repeated.
In an instant as if by magic, the Gundams War and Famine were gone. Inside the DeathScythe Duo regained himself and brought his mobile suit back up to its feet.
Knowing what the Gundam Famine did he couldn't bear to look and see what it had done, but he had to. There in front of him was the most unlikely of sights, the people were still alive. The gas was still there, it was like a yellow dust cloud inside this space colony. What was going on? Duo asked himself. Even with the yellow gaseous cloud still lingering no one was hurt, the people were still running around but no one was dying. Why?
Duo opened the cockpit door and came out of his mobile suit. The next breath of air he took in was a sweet smell, it smelled like.like vanilla. Vanilla gas, that's all it was, it was a hoax, but why? Duo scratched his head thinking about why this was going on and what for. In his mental search for answers he kept looking down at the colony citizens who were in just as much confusion as he was. Then he remembered something while he was trying to recover from that electrical shock the Gundam Famine gave him. Writhing in his cockpit in pain, Duo overheard them talking about Colony X-18999.
"X-18999" Duo realized. "That's where they're heading."
Beep! Beep!
A call was coming inside the cockpit, Duo jumped back into the pilots seat still feeling the searing pain in his nerves. He opened the COM channel still feeling every muscle, every nerve and even his hair was aching. The screens came back up and there in the screen he saw Quatre's face.
"Duo, the unknown Gundams are leaving the colony." He stated, "We're going to follow them."
"I hear you Quatre," Duo smiled, "I'm on my way."
* * *
On colony X-18999, deep within its bowels among the generators, pipes, wires and other unknown parts lay the Gundams Conquest and Death. The two stood side by side like demons of the shadows. Under the few laps of this dark dank place, the pilots of Conquest and Death met to discuss the next phases as well as what had happened.
Conquest was kneeling to Death who stood looking down at his little hostage, the young girl, Mariemea Kushrinada who was tied to a chair, gagged and asleep under the overhead lamp. She looked like a rag doll in some sort of sick version of playing house, the young girl as the object of someone's abuse, but she was to be the key in the plans of the Horsemen. Death came closer to her, extending out his clawed glove covered hand like a fairy tale monster. He reached to a small trinket around her neck; it was a golden cross that sparkled against Death's black glove. From under the skull-like mask, Death's eyes grew wide and hungry like looking at sweet buns in a bakers display case. He even licked his lips under the mask thinking about what could be done, but his ecstasy was interrupted.
"Death." Conquest called, "I have just received word from Famine and War."
Death had allowed the golden cross to drop against Mariemea's chest as he backed up into the darkness with Conquest, "What do they have to report?" He asked.
"They have come into contact with the Gundam DeathScythe." Conquest reported,
"They have fled Colony L-2 and are heading this way. They will be here within the next hour. Our plan is proceeding as we had planned Death, we already have opened two of the seals. Soon we will have opened all seven seals."
"Yes, Conquest." Death said seductively as he moved towards his Gundam Death,
"Remember, when they get here you may do with the others as you like, but DeathScythe is mine."
Conquest was still kneeling to his master, even though his master was somewhere in the dark like a childhood monster. Yet there was something about what he said, about the Gundam DeathScythe, they had already come into contact with it. Conquest was confused, "But why?" He asked
"This is a matter of pride, Conquest." Death explained, "Now, have we begun the next part of the operation?"
"Yes, the colony is moving."
In the dark, under the cover of the cloak and mask, Conquest didn't see his masters' stern face. He looked up at the Gundam Death with thinned eyes, he was planning something in his own twisted little mind. It was a look of contempt, a look of defiance that Death had, and he wanted revenge. If Death had studied Chinese philosophy it would have said that when seeking vengeance, dig two graves. In Death's mind, he only wanted to dig one grave.
* * *
Back in space, the chase still went on between the Gundams of Preventer and the Gundams of the Apocalypse. The Gundams engines burned in the cold space like stars but no matter how hard they burned they couldn't keep up with the enemy Gundams.
Not even the expeditious Wing Zero could keep up with them, it was as if those mobile suits were possessed by the devil himself, that the pilot sold their souls to become faster than the Gundams themselves. The taunting images of the enemy Gundams were only small figures in the screens of the Preventer Gundams. It annoyed all of them to have the enemy flaunt their speed, like watching a rich kid flaunt his wealth by counting his money in plain sight.
Heero in his frustration gritted his teeth watching the engines burn in front of him and not being able to catch up. The anger was from the knowledge in thinking that someone could be better than he could.
It's true that Heero is a proud person, but he wasn't as out spoken about it as Wufei. Yet, the undeniable pride was still there in Heero, sitting silently and quietly as Heero himself.
At last Colony X-18999 was within view of the Gundam scopes. As the colony came within distance of the Preventers they watch the Horsemen Gundams disappear into the colony. They entered through one of the doors open to space and from that very same door four Gundam came out. They jetted out like water skiers with the wakes of water trailing behind them. There were Gundams Death, Famine, War and Conquest.
Unbeknownst to the Preventer Gundams, the Horsemen suits were concocting their own devious scheme. Death called out to his minions.
"Remember" He reminded, "the other Gundams are yours, but DeathScythe is mine."
"Understood." The other Horsemen Gundams acknowledged.
The battle had begun.
The first two to engage in the fight was the DeathScythe Hell and the Gundam Death.
From the point of view of the others it looked as if both Gundams had vanished. Except both sides knew that neither Gundam vanished, they simply used their active cloak.
With that in mind the fight with the other Gundam continued. Both sides cam at each other with the deadliest of force. That was for the exception of the Wing Zero, it zoomed past the other Gundams like a high-speed car blowing past tumbleweeds on a desert road. It passed the Horsemen Gundams and headed toward the colony.
As a Preventer Officer, Heero's first rule was the safety of the people before fighting the enemy. He knew for a fact that the colony was falling to the Earth with how far from its original position it was moving.
With that fact Heero knew the consequences if the colony were to fall to Earth. It would be like an enormous nuclear bomb and once it hit it would throw so much dust into the atmosphere that the sunrays wouldn't shine. The earth would become cold, it would be thrown into another ice age. The thought of how many people would die as a result of this act of lunacy set Heero to stop it at once.
Except the Horsemen Gundams had other plans. The one who acted was the Gundam War. He made a sharp turn around and opened fire from the twin Vulcans installed in the Gundams head. At first the bullets missed the dodging Wing Zero, then the bullets hit their mark but did no damage to the Wing Zero.
"Damn." War cursed to himself, "I knew I should have loaded the uranium bullets."
Heero overheard War cursing himself but came to a series of thoughts. Before, these Gundams hadn't failed to do their missions but War did something that made Heero scratch his head. One of the Horsemen Gundams, Gundam War had made a mistake.
Still, he couldn't allow his mind to be distracted; there was a colony that needed to be saved. Heero landed the Wing Zero in the Colony and proceeded to do his job.
Meanwhile back in space the battle raged.
The invisible DeathScythe and Death firing unseen shots and having unheard explosions.
Quatre immediately went after War who was firing at Heero. He brought about the Gundam sized Uzi and fired as many rounds as he could at War. This was the only advantage that Sandrock had over War: it's maneuverability. With all the amounts of weapons Gundam War had, it was slowed down in conventional combat. War may have had the advantage between Colony L-2 and X-18999 but in battle Sandrock had the upper hand.
Even with speed on his side War still had two other advantages on its side: Its weapons and armor. The bullets Quatre fired only bounced off of Wars armor. Quatre threw away the Gundam-sized Uzi and took out his curved swords and both blades burned like metal out of a fire. Quatre brought them down together as if he was going to do in the Gundam War like a doomed Oz mobile suit. But to Quatre's dismay a bright beam in his 30-inch view screens blocked him.
Quatre saw that his blades were being held back by a beam which he found out to be the Gundam War's beam weapon. It wasn't pink like the Tallgeese it was a dark crimson, a kind of red that in a macabre way reminded Quatre of blood.
Elsewhere the Gundam Nataku and the Tallgeese III were met with a good deal of resilience from the Gundam Conquest. Wufei used his dragon fangs but Conquest dodged both of them. The Tallgeese tried firing its enormous gun at the fast little suit but the Conquest was too quick for it. Both Preventers watched as the Gundam Conquest brought up its beam rifle and fired. Within fractions of a second they saw the end of the beam rifle light up like a light bulb filament trying to burn. Then the beam fired, Milliardo in the Tallgeese immediately got out of the way, but Wufei didn't act as quickly. He got out of the way of the beam but it grazed the left arm of the Nataku. The searing heat of the weapons fire seared and burnt off the paint of Nataku like paper.
"You'll pay for damaging, Nataku!" Wufei vowed
Conquest only mocked, "Hi! My name is.what? My name is.who? My name is.Slim Shaddy!"
Last of all there was the fight between Gundam Heavyarms and Gundam Famine. Trowa shot out all his bullets and missiles. He was fighting as hard as he could against Famine, because of how he felt. HE felt betrayed, robbed and violated after what Lucia Lynn had done to him. Trowa wanted her to feel everything he had, his anger, his hate and all his sorrow. To make her suffer just as he had.
At the same time that Trowa fought he felt a great sadness. For the first time in a very long time he felt sad about what happened. It was because felt loved, lobed by Lucia. It wasn't the kind of love that he had from Catherine. The kind of love that a brother and a sister could have for each other, this was different. The love Trowa felt was something only two people could have for each other and Lucia betrayed that.
"Why?" He asked, "Why did you do this to me Lucia?"
Only a momentary pause when Trowa desperately wanted an answer regardless of what it would be.
Famine laughed, "I was just doing my job."
Trowa's teeth began to grind together, his fists clenched around the controls ready to break them, and his eyes full of tears.
"Just doing your job!?" He sobbed, "you selfish bitch! You will die for violating me! My anger! My hate! And all my sorrow! All for you!"
Trowa fought the fiercest he had ever fought as his heart broke with his falling tears. One could say that it was as if Trowa Barton, the Silencer, had been possessed by the devil himself. Nothing mattered to him as his tears became sparkles within the cockpit of the Gundam Heavyarms.
* * *
As the battle grew more and more fierce outside in space, Heero was finding his way into the colony control room. As he passed through each hall to it he began to scratch at that thought again. Something was amiss to this particular situation. There were no guards, no minions to the enemy Gundams, but why?
Through each hall that Heero past there were still no guards. Not a single one, it's as if the colony was abandoned. It made Heero more suspicious to something deeper to all this, but what?
Suddenly, Heero felt the whole hallway shake, he knew that the colony was getting close to the Earth's atmosphere. There was no time to waste, Heero dashed to the control room. After running for who knows how long he found it. It was as empty as what he had seen of the colony, like a ghost town. Still, there was no time to loose, Heero sat at one of the computers and stopped the colony and sent it back to its original position.
With the colony moving back to its place, Heero still had that feeling. It was like an assurance of taking a certain fork in the road. Heero had that exact feeling that something else was going on but it still asked the question of what. Heero didn't' want to find out he dashed out of the control room and back to his Wing Zero in the mobile suit bay.
* * *
Back in space the battle grew ever more fierce between the Preventer Gundams and the Horsemen Gundams; the Gundams DeathScythe against Death, Heavyarms against Famine, Sandrock against War, Nataku and Tallgeese against Conquest. The fight had turned into an all out war, with Gundams against Gundams but a new player in this dangerous game was about to make his appearance.
From Colony X-18999 came a stream of light that the Preventers knew could only belong to one person.Heero Yuy. He came blazing from the colony ready to fight anyone who would come within his path.
"Gundams of the Apocalypse." Heero called, "The colony is not going to drop on the Earth and I'm going to kill all of you."
Heero drew closer to the raging battlefield but as he did he heard laughing.
It was a kind of maniacal and sinister laugh that eerily reminded Heero of himself during Operation Meteor. The laugh lasted for nearly a minute before it annoyed Heero so much that he had to have an answer. He knew that the person laughing was Death, but why?
"What the hell are you laughing about? He asked
Death answered still with a chuckle, "All of you are suck fools. We have what we came for and very soon Pandora's Box will be open and the Apocalypse will soon begin!"
Death continued to laugh as the Horsemen Gundams all vanished into the blackness of space. Though they did not fly out into space, they disappeared in the same quality and manner as Duo's DeathScythe. Simply melting into the blackness like an illusion, the Horsemen Gundams were gone without a single trace. All the Preventer Gundams heard was the maniacal laughter of Death.
The laugh wasn't annoying like a James Bond villain, it was truly insane and the Preventers were left with even bigger questions than before. One of the biggest was, "How bad has this situation really gotten?"
To be continued.
