Disclaimers Note - I don't own Gundam Wing, or any of the characters therein. All of the unfamiliar characters are my own, but some unfamiliar ones might become familiar, in which case they are not mine, or they may not! You'll have to read this and find out! Any correlation of this story to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental, honest. Phew!
**The Original Age Part 3 – Fight for a Reason to exist
By Espion
Hayley spun around to face the approaching enemy. Only fifteen of them! They'd seriously underestimated her, and they'd pay for that. Her fingers hovered above the beam sabre control, then relaxed. Not yet. She hadn't fought for a while, and needed to limber up. She'd begin by getting rid of the leader; that was what she generally did. Although highly trained, there was always a couple of seconds' confusion when any squadron found themselves without a commander. Not a shred of emotion passed through Hayley's mind as she readied herself for the attack. She had been trained intensively, and felt no fear. It was hard to feel fear, once you knew how to shut it out. You had to 'become as a stone, and feel nothing; show nothing. A stone cannot be distracted from its mission….' Here the Doctor had paused in his attempt at philosophy and ended lamely, '…whatever a stone's mission may be…'
'Mission number forty-seven, Pilot's name – Hayley Reo, Outcome…Oh yeah, I'm supposed to do that at the end of the mission….' Hayley grinned sheepishly.
'Baka,' came Trensa's voice.
'Shut up,' said Hayley good-naturedly. The lead Leo was now only about a kilometre away, and she was ready for him.
*
'It's just standing there!' cried the Leo commander to Fiko, 'It isn't moving!'
'It'll move soon enough,' said Fiko morbidly, 'be careful.'
*
The battle began. Six Leos shot forward and attempted to pin Espion to the ground in order that the other two could get a clear beam cannon shot. Ten seconds later, only three were left. One lay in smoking pieces, ripped apart by Espion's powerful jaws, and the other two had taken the brunt of the blow that Hayley had unleashed with the hind pistons. In other words, she kicked them to bits. The other three retreated hastily, but not fast enough, as Hayley activated the beam sabre, lighting up the darkening sky, and pounced on them.
*
'Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!! It's on meeeeee……' Fiko's head hurt with all the screams pouring in through the com. system. He quickly flicked open all the Leo channels, which had suddenly been muted.
'Mauve Leader! Respond! Damage Report!' Fiko yelled. The com. system buzzed at him angrily.
'Shit! Retreat!! All troops! Haul butt!' The Aries Tan Squadron turned in air and began to power up their thrusters.
*
Hayley threw down the last Leo and stamped on it. Hard. It crackled and spat sparks at her, but she was no longer paying attention.
'Where are you…Ah,' she spotted the Aries Squadron retreating.
'I don't think sooooooo…' she said, and changed gear.
*
'Sir! Gundam Alpha is in pursuit!' The voice from Unit Twelve sounded panicked. Fiko fought to remain calm, for the sake of his soldiers.
'Gain altitude.' He instructed, 'I'm pretty sure that that monster has no aerial combat abilities.' He looked around at his troops, whose suits were beginning to rise, but agonisingly slowly, due to the fact that they were in a valley.
A valley that he's chased us into, thought Fiko frantically, He's good.
*
Espion had now caught up with the trailing Aries. The men inside gazed down at the gargantuan galloping gundanium mobile suit and tried to gauge the distance between them. It had to be at least twenty metres. Plenty, seeing as the thing couldn't possibly jump…right?
*
Hayley tilted Espion's head so that she had a good view of her targets. Then she powered the suit's hind legs and jumped.
'Aaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee!'
*
'Sir! Enemy Gundam can jump!' It was the voice of Unit Nine.
'What! How high?'
'Very high Sir, it just knocked Units Ten through Twelve out of the sky. They've been completely destroyed!'
'Continue trying to gain altitude with Units Thirteen and Fourteen. I will plant the device.'
'Yes Sir!' Unit Nine began to rise again, but Unit Thirteen, with a large beam sabre hole through it's mid-section, crashed into it and sent them both crashing to the ground in a fireball.
Fiko spun around and quickly loaded the device into his GRT rifle. This hasn't been tested, he thought idly, his brain beginning to fuzz, the rifle, the device, or whether or not one can fire the other.
He spun his Aries around so quickly that even Hayley couldn't dodge. The device shot out of the rifle and impacted on the underside of Espion's right hind leg. Hayley felt the jolt, but Espion didn't seem to be damaged. She turned Espion's head slowly towards Fiko's Aries. The rifle he was holding had obviously not been designed for what it had just done, and was slowly heating up, she could tell, by the slight reddish glow it was beginning to emit. Fiko's head slumped against the console of his mobile suit, his injuries finally taking their toll. Hayley suddenly twigged what was about to happen and turned on heel and pushed Espion into a gallop, trying to get as far away as possible.
As she thundered flat out over the undulating landscape, a small shape on the distant horizon caught her eye. As she drew closer, she saw it was another Aries, poor Unit Thirteen, who'd had engine trouble beforehand and had never reached the battle. Hayley didn't know this, and wouldn't have cared anyway. She plunged her beam sabre into the heart of the machine, and felt the ground shake as the machine exploded. She galloped on. After a couple more seconds, she turned and looked back at where she'd left the Aries Squadron commander. At that second, his damaged weapon reached critical point and exploded, taking the last of the fifteen enemy mobile suits with it.
*
'Good job 'Ley! Yeah!' Emma ran out into the hangar as Espion walked through the huge doors, looking slightly charred but not damaged. Hayley dropped gracefully from her suit and stood up, smiling. The Doctor stood about twenty yards away. He had that look on his face. The one where he wanted to show you something desperately, but wouldn't if you didn't ask. Trensa stepped up behind him. Over the last few months he'd grown a lot taller, and of course Hayley and Emma had teased him mercilessly about it. His face wore a rare smile. Emma noticed and smiled too. Having Hayley around was definitely improving Trensa's character. Emma suddenly took a sharp intake of breath involuntarily. Surely the Doctor didn't want them all to become cold and unfeeling?
Hayley shook Emma from her troubling thoughts by laughing and saying, 'All right, what is it? What have you got?' The Doctor tried to look nonchalant, but failed, as he just didn't have that kind of face.
'Emma,' he said slowly, 'I do believe it would interest you to know that work on Eron has been completed. Operation Umbra will now proceed at a much quicker rate.'
There was a couple of second's silence, and then Emma said, 'Really?' Suddenly Hayley felt uneasy, something wasn't right. She tried to remain interested in the conversation, but something was eating away at her, and she was sure that she could hear, at a very high frequency, something going – Blip, Blip, Blip. She suddenly looked at Trensa, who was looking at her, and mouthed, 'Can you hear that?'
'Yes,' he replied silently, 'and it's coming from Espion.'
'Uh oh,' Hayley said aloud, and began to run towards Espion. Trensa turned to follow her, but just then, the explosive device that Fiko Roshi had planted upon Espion exploded, ripping the hangar apart. The last thing that Hayley saw was Trensa flying through the air and landing awkwardly on his shoulder, then a piece of roofing fell, and everything went black.
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