CHAPTER ONE. DISCOVERY.
DISCLAIMER: Once again, if I owned Transformers or Gundam Wing, this fic would be being made into a TV show.
AUTHOR NOTE: Currently, this fic is more GW than TF. Gradually this will change as the Autobots and Decepticons wake up. I also will not be likely to update until I've finished writing this fic. However, if I get a lot of reviews, I might change my mind.
Mount St. Hillary had not erupted in over 300 years and was considered dormant by the world government. So it was hardly surprising that eventually, people would seek to exploit its rich geological treasures.
One thing that had made St. Hillary so attractive to mining companies was that many of the ores needed to manufacture the super-alloy gundanium could only be found in volcanic rock. Rich seams of diamonds and other precious stones also promised to make any enterprise with the tenacity to mine the mountain very rich indeed. And it had.
But today, the miners that had hacked and tore out the heart of the mountain, by their blood and the sweat of their labours, were about to unearth a treasure of a very different nature.
*
The figure flew over the Rocky Mountains with a surprising grace despite its artificial nature. Humanoid in shape, yet covered with spiked armour plating and lethal weaponry, the Taurus Mobile Suits was a marvel of engineering. Yet it's technology was insignificant in comparison to it's former opponents, the spectacular Gundam Mobile Suit, the most powerful weapons in a remarkable civil war that had engulfed the whole of the earth and outer space and had nearly ended in the destruction of the Earth.
Gently, the suit gently landed in a clearing some miles from St. Hillary, the powerful retro-rockets churning up the ground beneath, the massive metal feet making contact with the ground causing tremors that could be felt from hundreds of feet away. The suit knelt down and disgorged it's pilot onto the ground.
Zechs Marquise stood in the open door and gave a little smile. It was a fine day to be out, even in the frigid cold of winter. The snow lay heavily on the ground and pine trees. On the other side of the clearing a single figure stood watching, her long hair whipped by the thrust from the Taurus. Behind her stood a large jeep, Une's motorcycle leaning against it. The car's driver was sitting on the bonnet casually watching the Taurus. Zechs knew instantly that he was seeing someone who worked with mobile suits on a daily basis, often enough to not be intimidated or impressed with just seeing an average Taurus.
Lady Une stepped up as Zechs vaulted down from the cockpit, "Preventer wind," she nodded. He nodded back, "commander." He then broke into a grin and they hugged like old friends. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
"How's Marimaia?"
Une groaned. "Back on her feet and a real handful. At least I don't have to push that dratted wheelchair everywhere now." Marimaia Kushrenada was the deceased Treize's only living legacy, and Une had taken it upon herself to raise the seven year old as best she could.
"So what's this all about?"
"You know as much as me. Last week we had a call from this mine asking if we could send down an explosive's expert. We sent Preventer Flame."
"Chris Latta. I thought he was working with Howard on the Tallgeese."
"Howard gave Chris a month off. Chris got bored and came to me for something to do. I gave it to him."
By now they had reached the car, a very impressive if old Humvee 4X4, lovingly maintained. Zechs realised where he had seen the man on the bonnet before. Chris Latta aka. Preventer Flame a handsome if somewhat laid back man, was currently reading a rather cheap novel, not paying any attention to the impressive suit not a hundred feet away. He looked up, and gave a little nod to Une, before scrambling off and giving Zechs a high five.
"Hey Zechs."
"Chris you devil. Why'd you pull us two out? Your communication gave no details."
"Yeah well I thought the information was a bit too sensitive to risk interception."
"What information?"
"Easy Une," Zechs interjected, "I'm sure we'll found out soon enough."
*****
The St. Hilary mine contrasted starkly to the spectacular surroundings. Despite the mine's importance to the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, it was worked by mostly second-hand or outdated equipment, which nerveless, was kept in pristine order.
As Latta's personal Humvee pulled into the site, it stopped to allow a small train charge ahead of it at a grade crossing. Unlike most railroads of the year AC 198, it was not a Maglev, but a traditional railroad down to the harbour built to ship the ore. The four outdated locomotives that thundered past the Humvee, churning up the first of the winter snows were old, noisy, dirty and... magnificent to behold, Zechs thought. He was not a railroad fanatic of any kind, but even in a time of peace he saw all things as potential weapons, and the four black monsters looked like they could do a powerful amount of damage.
The truck pulled up at the main shaft entrance and Latta led the two into the heart of the mountain. As they journeyed deeper into the bowels of the earth, he began to explain.
"Three days ago, the miners were cutting a new cross tunnel to connect this shaft with another half a mile to the north, when they came across a metal wall...Despite their best efforts, they could not cut through the alloy, so the mine manger called the preventers, as you know Lady. You sent me down, and I blew it with C4. What was on the other side was...well, amazing."
"And that was?"
Latta looked Zechs seriously in the eye.
"An army of mobile suits."
***
After some half-hour of silent walking, they came to a smaller, unlined tunnel, "This was the shaft that was being dug. The entrance to the cavern is right here."
A hole big enough for a man to slide through had been blown in a metal wall that lay right across the tunnel. Sheer blackness lay beyond. Zechs fingered the metal. It had a strange greasy feel to it and seemed to give off a faint gold light. Latta quickly slung himself through the hole.
"Careful, there's a sheer drop on this side. The first man through broke a leg falling, so we set up a simple rope ladder to get down."
One at a time, the two preventers followed him. The ladder down seemed to go on forever. Une was amazed that the man in question had not broken his neck falling rather than just his leg. The air was still and dry, but was good enough to breathe. When both reached the bottom, Latta produced a flashlight.
"This chamber that we're standing in is nearly 200 ft height and is as big as a football pitch. There's a network of tunnels down here that stretch nearly half a mile in all directions. All the rooms we found to be empty, except one."
Once again he led them into the darkness. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness the torch became unnecessary, all the walls gave off the same golden glow. Eventually, they came to a massive sliding door, which had been pried, open by a few feet. The three easily slipped through the gap. Latta watched on amused as Une gasped. Even the usually stoic Zechs mumbled "Oh my God!"
Chris and the miners had set up several banks of floodlights in the massive room that stretched away for at least 500 ft. Raised platforms lined the walls, divided by a central corridor. On each platform, lay a massive mobile suit.
Still grinning like a child showing off a new toy, they were led onto a makeshift raised walkway that had been set up along the corridor to allow humans to view the Mobile Suits from above. As he led, Latta gave a run down.
"None of these suits bear any markings with one exception. All of them have a symbol branded on them. There are two symbols, and the two groups seem separated by them. On our left we have a group, which is branded with a red symbol, and on the right the remainder have a purple one. Most of these suits have an individual design; there are only six that share a similar one. I also think they can assume alternate forms, like Gundam 01. and the Wing Zero." With a touch of pride in his voice he concluded the brief tour, "and here we have the big boys."
They had reached the end of the room and it was evident that the two robots that ended each row were larger and more powerful than the others. One was a massive red, blue and white monster with a chest that resembled a...
Une wheeled on Chris.
"This one's a truck!"
"I know."
"But a mobile suit that becomes a truck! It makes no sense."
Zechs turned. "It's genius. The element of disguise. No need for massive convoys of obvious vehicles transporting suits. Instead, the vehicle is the suit. Remarkable. If the war was still on these could have been quite useful. Might still be"
As Zechs admired the red beast Une turned and walked a short way along the line of suits. "All of these red-symboled ones seem to be configured for a vehicle mode. Chris?" He nodded. "Yes, but that's where it becomes odd. All of the vehicles seem to be models that have not been seen since the first colony was put into space. They all date from the 20th century."
"How'd you work that out?" Zechs had rejoined the conversation.
"One of the miners, a guy called Witwicky, collects and restores classic cars. He was able to identify them. Because he's a skilled mobile suit mechanic, we let him loose on these to try and find out whatever he could. He's right here."
Une and Zechs noticed a man who must have been working there the whole time. His legs were sticking out from underneath the chassis of the red mech Probably the only thing that drew their attention to him was that he was cursing the air blue. Snickering, Latta leant over the railing.
OI! SPARKPLUG! Cut the sailor talk we've got guests."
The man rolled out from underneath. He was a barrel-chested man in his late forties, with a slight beer belly around his waist. The arms however, bulged with muscles. The overall look was that of a powerful man gone slightly to seed. This impression was heightened by the copious amounts of oil smeared over the tan overalls he was wearing.
"What's the problem?" The accent was pure American North-west.
"Head down to the red jet would ya. These people are getting the grand tour."
"Yeah sure. The man called Sparkplug tossed away the stub of the cigar he'd been smoking and walked under the gantry. Une leaned against the railing and cocked an eyebrow at Latta, "the red jet?"
"Yeah. All these purple ones seem configured for aerial combat, with two exceptions." He turned and gestured at a massive grey and black mech. We can't figure this guy out right now, but there's a blue one which looks like well...a tape deck."
"A tape deck?"
"Yes."
Zechs sighed with the enormity of it all.
"Have you managed to open any of their cockpits?"
"That's another thing. Several of the purple ones have cockpits on them that are lifted off old fighter jets. We only managed to open up one of them. We haven't been able to open any of the red-branded ones, apart from a few maintenance hatches, and there are a few mechs that don't seem to have a cockpit at all." He paused, "Down here." He took them back to the end near the door. On the purple symboled side, lay a red, blue and white mech with an orange cockpit, which lay open. White wings protruded from it's back. Witwicky was climbing over the robot in question's torso. Latta gestured at the machine.
"This one's cockpit was partly forced open by a spur of rock that had pierced the wall."
Zech's scrambled onto the platform and slipped into one of two seats in the open cockpit. He fingered the odd control configuration. There was a single joystick, rather than the two usually seen in a mobile suit cockpit. Other smaller levers and gauges lined the cockpit. He leaned to wipe the dust off some of the gauges.
"Pitch, yaw, altitude, airspeed. You're right, this one's a plane." He found the switch that usually ignited the engines and flicked it up and down several times. Nothing happened.
Zechs cocked an eyebrow at Latta, who grinned.
"Out of gas."
Une turned.
"There's no fusion reactor providing power?"
"No, it's configured to take some form of liquid fuel. We managed to find the fuel tank and found it almost empty. We did get some of the fuel, but it's like nothing I've ever seen..."
"What do you mean?"
"It glows pink"
"PINK!"
"Yes pink!" Witwicky's head appeared from inside the portside air intake, his face streaked with oil. Une sniggered at the sight. Witwicky realised something was streaked across his face and, perturbed, wiped it clean on an even filthier rag. Zechs shook his head.
Witwicky approached the group gathered round the cockpit and proffered a hand. Surprisingly, Une slipped her small hand into his meaty paw and shook it firmly.
"Irving Witwicky. Call me Sparkplug."
"Lady Une."
'Sparkplug' nodded his head and pulled another cigar from his pocket before greeting with Zechs.
"So Chris, what do you want me to show them?"
"Just the interesting stuff."
Sparkplug walked them around the suit, giving them a rundown.
"All in all, it looks like a standard mobile suit. Inside though, it's something else. And then there's the face..."
"Face?"
"Yeah. During the war I serviced nearly every class of mobile suit the alliance ever built, but these are the first ones I've ever seen with a proper face."
Latta by this point had pulled himself onto the suit's head.
"Sparkplug's right. I don't get this either."
The two preventers and the mechanic watched in curiosity.
"With only a few exceptions, each suit has proper, moveable faces, with mouths, noses, individual facial structures. All other mobile suits in the world have pretty similar heads, even the Gundams I'm told, but these ones... And this 'skin'. Look."
Latta rapped his knuckles on one of the suit's pursed together lips. "Solid metal." But if I push against it just so..."
He perched himself over the lips and pushed on one with his legs and the other with his arms. He grunted briefly and the lips suddenly open apart beneath him. Yelping, Latta vanished into the open mouth.
Although he was concerned for his long-time friend, Zechs couldn't help but laugh at his predicament. Grabbing the side of the black helmet that framed the mech's 'head', he leant into the gaping cavity, noting with some surprise that the robot even had a moulded set of dentures. He grabbed the upper jaw. Now that it had been freed, it moved with ease. Sparkplug however meanwhile, was helping the somewhat battered preventer up out of the suit's innards. The fall however, seemed to have only bruised his pride, rather than hurt him
Zechs was beginning to feel something stirring within him, an excitement he had not felt since the war.
"Chris, can we get a truck in here?"
"Yeah. There's a cave on the surface, which comes less than fifty feet to this room. When we found this place, I had the miners survey the whole mountain. We can enlarge that cave to get this suit out".
"Great. Then I want this suit shipped out to the Genesis to be compared with the Tallgeese 3. Call back Noin from the terraforming project on Mars, and pull together the best chemists we can to analyse that fuel. There's something going on here we need to know about, technology far in advance of what us or the colonies have developed."
Zechs paused and Une took up command, displaying her impressive organisational skills.
"Zech's is right, we need to know more about what's going on here. I want the sample of fuel shipped out to the Genesis with the suit for analysis. I will sent a team of preventers to try and extract any information from this place, and try and get some of the other suits in action."
She wheeled on Sparkplug..
"You will of course be in charge of any work here Mr. Witwicky. I trust you will take the right course of action to keep any operations here secret?"
"Me? Wouldn't Chris here be better?"
"Of course not. Chris is going to be heading out with this suit here. He's going to be in charge of it"
Now it was Latta's turn to be dumbfounded.
*
As Chris drove back Zechs to the Taurus, Une having ridden her motorcycle off in the direction of Seattle, his phone rang. Latta gestured for Zechs to answer it.
"Hello. This is Zechs Marquise."
"Zechs my boy. I was expecting to be talking to Chris." Zechs smirked at the familiar voice.
"Hey Howard. Actually I wanted to talk to you. Chris is driving."
"Well can you tell him to get back to the pacific, he was due back last week!"
"The good Ms Une is over-riding you on that. You're not gonna see him for at least a week," he could well envision Howard's reaction. Howard and Une had never really got along. It was great fun to further fuel the private war between them, "but when he does turn up, he'll be bringing you a little gift from the preventers to play with."
"I am intrigued. This gift you speak of. Is it hypothetical or does it exist."
"Oh it exists all right," Zechs chuckled, "look Howard, this thing is a bit under wraps so we won't be sending this 'gift' to your ship. We'll want the Genesis."
The surprise in Howard's voice was evident.
"Then I'll head over to Murmansk right away. It'll take me a week to get Genesis close to America though."
"A week'll be fine Howard. See you soon." Zechs hung up. Everything was in motion.
DISCLAIMER: Once again, if I owned Transformers or Gundam Wing, this fic would be being made into a TV show.
AUTHOR NOTE: Currently, this fic is more GW than TF. Gradually this will change as the Autobots and Decepticons wake up. I also will not be likely to update until I've finished writing this fic. However, if I get a lot of reviews, I might change my mind.
Mount St. Hillary had not erupted in over 300 years and was considered dormant by the world government. So it was hardly surprising that eventually, people would seek to exploit its rich geological treasures.
One thing that had made St. Hillary so attractive to mining companies was that many of the ores needed to manufacture the super-alloy gundanium could only be found in volcanic rock. Rich seams of diamonds and other precious stones also promised to make any enterprise with the tenacity to mine the mountain very rich indeed. And it had.
But today, the miners that had hacked and tore out the heart of the mountain, by their blood and the sweat of their labours, were about to unearth a treasure of a very different nature.
*
The figure flew over the Rocky Mountains with a surprising grace despite its artificial nature. Humanoid in shape, yet covered with spiked armour plating and lethal weaponry, the Taurus Mobile Suits was a marvel of engineering. Yet it's technology was insignificant in comparison to it's former opponents, the spectacular Gundam Mobile Suit, the most powerful weapons in a remarkable civil war that had engulfed the whole of the earth and outer space and had nearly ended in the destruction of the Earth.
Gently, the suit gently landed in a clearing some miles from St. Hillary, the powerful retro-rockets churning up the ground beneath, the massive metal feet making contact with the ground causing tremors that could be felt from hundreds of feet away. The suit knelt down and disgorged it's pilot onto the ground.
Zechs Marquise stood in the open door and gave a little smile. It was a fine day to be out, even in the frigid cold of winter. The snow lay heavily on the ground and pine trees. On the other side of the clearing a single figure stood watching, her long hair whipped by the thrust from the Taurus. Behind her stood a large jeep, Une's motorcycle leaning against it. The car's driver was sitting on the bonnet casually watching the Taurus. Zechs knew instantly that he was seeing someone who worked with mobile suits on a daily basis, often enough to not be intimidated or impressed with just seeing an average Taurus.
Lady Une stepped up as Zechs vaulted down from the cockpit, "Preventer wind," she nodded. He nodded back, "commander." He then broke into a grin and they hugged like old friends. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
"How's Marimaia?"
Une groaned. "Back on her feet and a real handful. At least I don't have to push that dratted wheelchair everywhere now." Marimaia Kushrenada was the deceased Treize's only living legacy, and Une had taken it upon herself to raise the seven year old as best she could.
"So what's this all about?"
"You know as much as me. Last week we had a call from this mine asking if we could send down an explosive's expert. We sent Preventer Flame."
"Chris Latta. I thought he was working with Howard on the Tallgeese."
"Howard gave Chris a month off. Chris got bored and came to me for something to do. I gave it to him."
By now they had reached the car, a very impressive if old Humvee 4X4, lovingly maintained. Zechs realised where he had seen the man on the bonnet before. Chris Latta aka. Preventer Flame a handsome if somewhat laid back man, was currently reading a rather cheap novel, not paying any attention to the impressive suit not a hundred feet away. He looked up, and gave a little nod to Une, before scrambling off and giving Zechs a high five.
"Hey Zechs."
"Chris you devil. Why'd you pull us two out? Your communication gave no details."
"Yeah well I thought the information was a bit too sensitive to risk interception."
"What information?"
"Easy Une," Zechs interjected, "I'm sure we'll found out soon enough."
*****
The St. Hilary mine contrasted starkly to the spectacular surroundings. Despite the mine's importance to the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, it was worked by mostly second-hand or outdated equipment, which nerveless, was kept in pristine order.
As Latta's personal Humvee pulled into the site, it stopped to allow a small train charge ahead of it at a grade crossing. Unlike most railroads of the year AC 198, it was not a Maglev, but a traditional railroad down to the harbour built to ship the ore. The four outdated locomotives that thundered past the Humvee, churning up the first of the winter snows were old, noisy, dirty and... magnificent to behold, Zechs thought. He was not a railroad fanatic of any kind, but even in a time of peace he saw all things as potential weapons, and the four black monsters looked like they could do a powerful amount of damage.
The truck pulled up at the main shaft entrance and Latta led the two into the heart of the mountain. As they journeyed deeper into the bowels of the earth, he began to explain.
"Three days ago, the miners were cutting a new cross tunnel to connect this shaft with another half a mile to the north, when they came across a metal wall...Despite their best efforts, they could not cut through the alloy, so the mine manger called the preventers, as you know Lady. You sent me down, and I blew it with C4. What was on the other side was...well, amazing."
"And that was?"
Latta looked Zechs seriously in the eye.
"An army of mobile suits."
***
After some half-hour of silent walking, they came to a smaller, unlined tunnel, "This was the shaft that was being dug. The entrance to the cavern is right here."
A hole big enough for a man to slide through had been blown in a metal wall that lay right across the tunnel. Sheer blackness lay beyond. Zechs fingered the metal. It had a strange greasy feel to it and seemed to give off a faint gold light. Latta quickly slung himself through the hole.
"Careful, there's a sheer drop on this side. The first man through broke a leg falling, so we set up a simple rope ladder to get down."
One at a time, the two preventers followed him. The ladder down seemed to go on forever. Une was amazed that the man in question had not broken his neck falling rather than just his leg. The air was still and dry, but was good enough to breathe. When both reached the bottom, Latta produced a flashlight.
"This chamber that we're standing in is nearly 200 ft height and is as big as a football pitch. There's a network of tunnels down here that stretch nearly half a mile in all directions. All the rooms we found to be empty, except one."
Once again he led them into the darkness. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness the torch became unnecessary, all the walls gave off the same golden glow. Eventually, they came to a massive sliding door, which had been pried, open by a few feet. The three easily slipped through the gap. Latta watched on amused as Une gasped. Even the usually stoic Zechs mumbled "Oh my God!"
Chris and the miners had set up several banks of floodlights in the massive room that stretched away for at least 500 ft. Raised platforms lined the walls, divided by a central corridor. On each platform, lay a massive mobile suit.
Still grinning like a child showing off a new toy, they were led onto a makeshift raised walkway that had been set up along the corridor to allow humans to view the Mobile Suits from above. As he led, Latta gave a run down.
"None of these suits bear any markings with one exception. All of them have a symbol branded on them. There are two symbols, and the two groups seem separated by them. On our left we have a group, which is branded with a red symbol, and on the right the remainder have a purple one. Most of these suits have an individual design; there are only six that share a similar one. I also think they can assume alternate forms, like Gundam 01. and the Wing Zero." With a touch of pride in his voice he concluded the brief tour, "and here we have the big boys."
They had reached the end of the room and it was evident that the two robots that ended each row were larger and more powerful than the others. One was a massive red, blue and white monster with a chest that resembled a...
Une wheeled on Chris.
"This one's a truck!"
"I know."
"But a mobile suit that becomes a truck! It makes no sense."
Zechs turned. "It's genius. The element of disguise. No need for massive convoys of obvious vehicles transporting suits. Instead, the vehicle is the suit. Remarkable. If the war was still on these could have been quite useful. Might still be"
As Zechs admired the red beast Une turned and walked a short way along the line of suits. "All of these red-symboled ones seem to be configured for a vehicle mode. Chris?" He nodded. "Yes, but that's where it becomes odd. All of the vehicles seem to be models that have not been seen since the first colony was put into space. They all date from the 20th century."
"How'd you work that out?" Zechs had rejoined the conversation.
"One of the miners, a guy called Witwicky, collects and restores classic cars. He was able to identify them. Because he's a skilled mobile suit mechanic, we let him loose on these to try and find out whatever he could. He's right here."
Une and Zechs noticed a man who must have been working there the whole time. His legs were sticking out from underneath the chassis of the red mech Probably the only thing that drew their attention to him was that he was cursing the air blue. Snickering, Latta leant over the railing.
OI! SPARKPLUG! Cut the sailor talk we've got guests."
The man rolled out from underneath. He was a barrel-chested man in his late forties, with a slight beer belly around his waist. The arms however, bulged with muscles. The overall look was that of a powerful man gone slightly to seed. This impression was heightened by the copious amounts of oil smeared over the tan overalls he was wearing.
"What's the problem?" The accent was pure American North-west.
"Head down to the red jet would ya. These people are getting the grand tour."
"Yeah sure. The man called Sparkplug tossed away the stub of the cigar he'd been smoking and walked under the gantry. Une leaned against the railing and cocked an eyebrow at Latta, "the red jet?"
"Yeah. All these purple ones seem configured for aerial combat, with two exceptions." He turned and gestured at a massive grey and black mech. We can't figure this guy out right now, but there's a blue one which looks like well...a tape deck."
"A tape deck?"
"Yes."
Zechs sighed with the enormity of it all.
"Have you managed to open any of their cockpits?"
"That's another thing. Several of the purple ones have cockpits on them that are lifted off old fighter jets. We only managed to open up one of them. We haven't been able to open any of the red-branded ones, apart from a few maintenance hatches, and there are a few mechs that don't seem to have a cockpit at all." He paused, "Down here." He took them back to the end near the door. On the purple symboled side, lay a red, blue and white mech with an orange cockpit, which lay open. White wings protruded from it's back. Witwicky was climbing over the robot in question's torso. Latta gestured at the machine.
"This one's cockpit was partly forced open by a spur of rock that had pierced the wall."
Zech's scrambled onto the platform and slipped into one of two seats in the open cockpit. He fingered the odd control configuration. There was a single joystick, rather than the two usually seen in a mobile suit cockpit. Other smaller levers and gauges lined the cockpit. He leaned to wipe the dust off some of the gauges.
"Pitch, yaw, altitude, airspeed. You're right, this one's a plane." He found the switch that usually ignited the engines and flicked it up and down several times. Nothing happened.
Zechs cocked an eyebrow at Latta, who grinned.
"Out of gas."
Une turned.
"There's no fusion reactor providing power?"
"No, it's configured to take some form of liquid fuel. We managed to find the fuel tank and found it almost empty. We did get some of the fuel, but it's like nothing I've ever seen..."
"What do you mean?"
"It glows pink"
"PINK!"
"Yes pink!" Witwicky's head appeared from inside the portside air intake, his face streaked with oil. Une sniggered at the sight. Witwicky realised something was streaked across his face and, perturbed, wiped it clean on an even filthier rag. Zechs shook his head.
Witwicky approached the group gathered round the cockpit and proffered a hand. Surprisingly, Une slipped her small hand into his meaty paw and shook it firmly.
"Irving Witwicky. Call me Sparkplug."
"Lady Une."
'Sparkplug' nodded his head and pulled another cigar from his pocket before greeting with Zechs.
"So Chris, what do you want me to show them?"
"Just the interesting stuff."
Sparkplug walked them around the suit, giving them a rundown.
"All in all, it looks like a standard mobile suit. Inside though, it's something else. And then there's the face..."
"Face?"
"Yeah. During the war I serviced nearly every class of mobile suit the alliance ever built, but these are the first ones I've ever seen with a proper face."
Latta by this point had pulled himself onto the suit's head.
"Sparkplug's right. I don't get this either."
The two preventers and the mechanic watched in curiosity.
"With only a few exceptions, each suit has proper, moveable faces, with mouths, noses, individual facial structures. All other mobile suits in the world have pretty similar heads, even the Gundams I'm told, but these ones... And this 'skin'. Look."
Latta rapped his knuckles on one of the suit's pursed together lips. "Solid metal." But if I push against it just so..."
He perched himself over the lips and pushed on one with his legs and the other with his arms. He grunted briefly and the lips suddenly open apart beneath him. Yelping, Latta vanished into the open mouth.
Although he was concerned for his long-time friend, Zechs couldn't help but laugh at his predicament. Grabbing the side of the black helmet that framed the mech's 'head', he leant into the gaping cavity, noting with some surprise that the robot even had a moulded set of dentures. He grabbed the upper jaw. Now that it had been freed, it moved with ease. Sparkplug however meanwhile, was helping the somewhat battered preventer up out of the suit's innards. The fall however, seemed to have only bruised his pride, rather than hurt him
Zechs was beginning to feel something stirring within him, an excitement he had not felt since the war.
"Chris, can we get a truck in here?"
"Yeah. There's a cave on the surface, which comes less than fifty feet to this room. When we found this place, I had the miners survey the whole mountain. We can enlarge that cave to get this suit out".
"Great. Then I want this suit shipped out to the Genesis to be compared with the Tallgeese 3. Call back Noin from the terraforming project on Mars, and pull together the best chemists we can to analyse that fuel. There's something going on here we need to know about, technology far in advance of what us or the colonies have developed."
Zechs paused and Une took up command, displaying her impressive organisational skills.
"Zech's is right, we need to know more about what's going on here. I want the sample of fuel shipped out to the Genesis with the suit for analysis. I will sent a team of preventers to try and extract any information from this place, and try and get some of the other suits in action."
She wheeled on Sparkplug..
"You will of course be in charge of any work here Mr. Witwicky. I trust you will take the right course of action to keep any operations here secret?"
"Me? Wouldn't Chris here be better?"
"Of course not. Chris is going to be heading out with this suit here. He's going to be in charge of it"
Now it was Latta's turn to be dumbfounded.
*
As Chris drove back Zechs to the Taurus, Une having ridden her motorcycle off in the direction of Seattle, his phone rang. Latta gestured for Zechs to answer it.
"Hello. This is Zechs Marquise."
"Zechs my boy. I was expecting to be talking to Chris." Zechs smirked at the familiar voice.
"Hey Howard. Actually I wanted to talk to you. Chris is driving."
"Well can you tell him to get back to the pacific, he was due back last week!"
"The good Ms Une is over-riding you on that. You're not gonna see him for at least a week," he could well envision Howard's reaction. Howard and Une had never really got along. It was great fun to further fuel the private war between them, "but when he does turn up, he'll be bringing you a little gift from the preventers to play with."
"I am intrigued. This gift you speak of. Is it hypothetical or does it exist."
"Oh it exists all right," Zechs chuckled, "look Howard, this thing is a bit under wraps so we won't be sending this 'gift' to your ship. We'll want the Genesis."
The surprise in Howard's voice was evident.
"Then I'll head over to Murmansk right away. It'll take me a week to get Genesis close to America though."
"A week'll be fine Howard. See you soon." Zechs hung up. Everything was in motion.