If Braids Could Kill...

Chapter 3

About a week after that horrid incident at the Maxwell Church, I finally found out the truth: the attack was a mistake - the Church was to be left alone. But, when the rebels decided to overrun the church, more or less forcing me to get that damned mobile suit, that was called off.

I was able to find news records about what was labeled 'the Maxwell Church Incident,' but that didn't help at all. What I saw was what I ran into soon after the event - bodies and wreckage. What I did find out, though, kinda shocked me: 245 people were killed in that melee in the colony, and it was called a victory by the Earth Alliance and their crack troop organization, Oz. Think the black-ops group for the United States military from the 20th century AD, and you'll have a decent idea as to what they were.

In the years that followed, I merely wandered the L2 colony area - stowing away on the occasional cargo shuttle or passenger craft. I was able to train myself in the art of stealth and sneakery - you know, the quiet stuff. I taught myself how to pick locks, hide in cargo containers and sneak food off without being caught.

Yeah, yeah, I was caught at first, I only got slapped on the wrist because I was a kid. But I got used to it - and was determined as hell to just meander about the L2 colony area. Eventually, though, I got caught – in a rather bad way – and something rather odd happened with my life.

---

I was trying to break into one of many civilian shuttle-carrier things traveling about the L2 area. Ok, ok, nothing new, right? Well, as I said before, this one was kinda different - there was an actual security system on the lock for the auxiliary door. It was one of those electric keypad locks, with the numbers 0-9 as well as a # and . Of course, it wasn't really secure. Within about a minute, I had the lock 'picked,' and was in. What I found, though, was a little more unusual...

Or, rather, what I didn't find.

I was expecting the interior to look a lot like one of those old passenger airlines from a while ago. You know, an aisle or two right down the center of the plane, separating rows of comfy seats. Things like TV and movies would be shown on the multiple TV screens and so forth. Of course, there would also be the impatient passengers, as well as the occasional crying child and crap like that. Well, there were just a few different things here...

One, there was none of the stuff I just described. The plane was mostly empty, with only a few seats and computer consoles scattered about the damn thing.

Two, there were no passengers in the literal sense. Well, there were, but... these guys were in military uniforms. Most of them, anyway - I'll get to that other guy later. But the remaining guys? They were all in crisp uniforms, and in crew cuts and so forth.

And third? They all had guns. Many guns, pointed at me.

You know, if I was 7 again - instead of 12 like I was now - I would have needed a new pair of underwear. I got an odd sense of nostalgia at that feeling, too.

In the center of the military men sat this old geezer. It was one hell of an odd sight: this grizzled old man who's head bore more resemblance to a freaky mushroom than a normal human head. His face, what little I could see from the mushroom-like style of his hair, had a large scar running down the side of his face, as well as a huge nose. The old guy didn't seem perturbed by my rather sudden entrance, either.

"I'm impressed, kid." the old guy said, waving aside the many guns, "You snuck aboard - my security system should have been near-perfect. How did you do it?"

Yeah, that was the key word: 'near.' It was rather easy for me: people leave fingerprints whenever they touch something with ungloved hands. Using a simple children's fingerprinting kit, I was able to find out what 4 buttons made the combination for the lock, and it took about a minute total for me to get in.

"That's a trade secret," I remember smirking happily, then added, "If it helps your pride, though, I'll say it was pretty tough."

The grizzled old guy only smiled as he replied, "You're a pretty interesting kid, what's your name?"

I could only beam with pride as I told him what I had told so many before, "I'm no kid! My name's Duo, Duo Maxwell, who may run and hide, but I never tells a lie."

Mushroom-head smiled grimly, "Maxwell? As in the demon who survived that church massacre?"

"Nope, not just a demon - I'm the God of Death."

My career as someone more than a drifter or a thief had begun anew. Of course, I had no clue what was gonna happen to me, but at least it would be interesting.

---

For those of you who are wondering exactly what this turn in life had in store for me, you're about to find out. Turns out that this old dude went by the name of 'Professor G,' and was in the process of building a new form of Mobile Suit - something called a Gundam.

From what I would later learn, it's almost the same as the Leo - that suit I mentioned earlier - but it's not. It's about the same height, 17 meters high, but a lot more ornate. Well, at least this one was. When I looked at the design plans for this thing, I noticed that it was actually a number 2. That meant there was at least one other 'Gundam' being built.

Sorry, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm betting you're thinking what the hell is going on, right? Well, it turns out that Professor G was working for a well-known company in space, the Barton Foundation. And that the leader of the Barton Foundation, a man named Dekim Barton, wanted revenge against the Earth Alliance for the death of Heero Yuy from so many years ago.

Boy, now that I look back at the entire situation, it really sounds cliché. You know, a conspiracy of vengeance against a government for a conspiracy that killed a man who advocated peace. Like a bad TV show or something.

Anyway, Professor G took a liking to me and, despite Dekim Barton's objections, made me the pilot of his Gundam - the Deathscythe.

---

Ok, now I'm getting nostalgic...

Deathscythe, as it's name suggests, had a scythe. Dead serious. Deathscythe had a semi-gothic look to it, with mostly black and white colors and yellow trim.

The head of Deathscythe looked very ornate, looking somewhat like a roman centurion helmet, minus the frilly red crap on top, but there was a yellow 'V' shape on the forehead that made it look somewhat like the helmet off a Samurai Warrior. Unlike the Leo, or any other Oz Mobile Suit, Gundam Deathscythe had a face. It wasn't much of one - just two eyes and a plate that looked like it was covering the rest of the face - but it was enough to look completely different.

The torso was mostly black, nice and stealthy. There was some yellow detailing around the edge of the shoulders, but the primary color on the shoulders was black. There was a 'backpack' on the back of Deathscythe as well - this was a jetpack, allowing Deathscythe to either glide through space or jump through the atmosphere. The door to the cockpit was in the middle of the chest, like with all Mobile Suits, was well-armored and pretty much an open target. At the very least, the armor surrounding the cockpit would protect the pilot from any radiation from the nuclear core powering Deathscythe.

On the left arm, there was a nice shield-like thing. It was bigger than the forearm of the Mobile Suit, and was also mostly black. However, there was a yellow cross on the shield itself, as well as a steel-colored pair of scissors attacked to the end of the shield. The rest of the body looked semi-normal, again with the black and white color scheme.

The weaponry for Deathscythe, as I already said, was a scythe. With the color scheme, it really invoked images of Death - something that I assume Professor G had to do with. However, unlike all those images of Death in the past, Deathscythe's scythe was not a physical one. What I mean is that it was a beam-based scythe. You know, like one of those Star Wars lightsabers. A similar thing would happen when the scissors on the shield were used - a dagger-like beam would slide out and the shield could be used as a projectile, or as another melee weapon.

Something else I should mention: attached to the so-called backpack of this Mobile Suit were two little shoulder-mounted flashlight things that Professor G called 'Hyper Jammers,' an item that was supposed to jam radar and sonar.

Oh, crap. One last thing: The reason why it's called a Gundam - and not a Mobile Suit. See, in about 183 AC, a scientist discovered a way to combine several metals into an alloy that he called Gundanium. This material was lightweight, semi-flexible, and resistant to most forms of attack - including the usual machine-guns and the Star-Wars-like laser pistols for the normal Mobile Suits.

---

Anyway, the days I spent in training with the Barton Foundation turned into months. But, you wanna know something? In all this time, training for three years, no one told me what the true objective of all this conspiring and plotting was for.

Hell, when I asked what we were doing, all I got was a cryptic response involving something called 'Operation Meteor.' Well, in 195 AC, I finally got to see what the hell this was all about. It was just me and Professor G, and we were doing some of the final tests on Deathscythe's movement system deep within our hidden 'garage.'

"W-wait..." I remember saying in complete disbelief, "Operation Meteor involves not just one, but five Gundams going to Earth?"

Professor G nodded in reply, then decided to tell me everything, "That's not quite all, Duo. See, not only are there five Gundams - one from each sector - there's also gonna be another thing going on at the same time..." clearing his throat, the old professor continued, "A colony deep within the L5 sector is scheduled to undergo demolition. Dekim Barton has decided to not blow it up... and put it to 'better' use."

I blinked several times, my brain struggling to figure out what else it could be used for, when it hit me, "He... he's gonna drop it onto Earth?"

Professor G only nodded, then filled me in on the rest. See, Dekim Barton had the idea that if we drop a colony onto Earth, he could follow that up with sending 5 Gundams (mine included) down and take over in the resulting anarchy. There was, of course, a major problem with the whole idea behind Operation Meteor:

"But.... God only knows how many people will die!"

The professor's head lowered sadly, "Too many - but it's a price we will have to pay at one point or another..."

---

As Professor G walked off, I stayed in the cockpit of Deathscythe, trying to make sense of the plan, maybe even rationalize it. No matter how much my mind wrapped around it, no matter what I tried to do, there was no way my conscious brain would let me do it. As much as I wanted vengeance against the Earth's government, I just couldn't be involved in a massacre that would claim the lives of many more innocents - making more orphans like myself.

It was at that moment that my mission became clear - to stop Operation Meteor, at all costs.