Chapter 13- Commission
Disclaimer- I am not the owner of the Gundam Series. Let's leave it at that.
Author notes- Well, I've been lazy/busy/stressed out with this past semester. I'm sorry about the delay. Enjoy the chapter. I did 'try' to make this chapter serious, but it went a different direction on me. shrugI tried but I failed, besides just think of one of the lines in here and you'll understand that you'll need this non serious chapter. Good day.
Alex stretched out in his seat, and began to relax. Free at last. I finally escape that place. Known as the Sank Kingdom. Thank goodness. The brunette got more relaxed at that thought.
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The dark-blue haired Lumin let out a sigh at the sight of Alex in a very relaxed position. He seems to be happy… She glanced over at Toki who was busy with his laptop. He had the face of no return. He'll be out of it for some time as well. This is going to be an uneventful ride, I hope at least. Her sight went back to Alex, who was still stretched out, seemed to be asleep now. Snow, I still wish I could tell you what you'll be asked to do. It doesn't seem fair that any of us should, but I still have confidence that you'll do your job nonetheless.
Alex fell onto the seat next to him, and didn't attempt to get back up.
He is definitely asleep. Lucky guy, I can barely sleep nowadays. Things are only going to get worse from here on out. Hilde yawned. She stretched out and sank her head off to the side. Must be the atmosphere….
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Orza stared out a shuttle window at the earth as he left the earth's atmosphere. It looks more beautiful out here, anyway. The blonde-haired pilot couldn't resist another look at the planet. He had just been ordered back to headquarters now that his preparations were done on earth
A stewardess pushed a cart along the alley with beverages and an assortment of food. All of the soldiers were sound asleep as she walked by them. "No one is awake at this hour." She mumbled. As she got to the next to last seat at the back of the shuttle, she saw the only person that was awake in the entire cabin, beside her. She sighed heavily. "Sir, would you like a beverage or something to eat."
The red-eyed pilot didn't hear her speak as he continued to look out the window.
"Sir."
Orza finally saw the reflection of the stewardess in the window and turned around to face her.
Got this guy's attention… finally. She forced a smile on her face. "Sir, would you like a beverage to drink or something to eat?"
The pilot hesitated for a moment. "I'll pass, but thank you, anyway."
"Alright." The stewardess began to push again. It's only my job. You jerk.
As Orza looked at the earth again, he had other things on his mind more than a drink or a sandwich. The teenager was happy to head back. Alex is… alive… Yet, at the same time…. an enemy… I'm not sure what to do… I promised both of them, that I would avenge them. But, he is alive… Why does life have to screw around with me?!
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Icedig stood straight up in a mobile suit hangar. Toki sat on the catwalk in front of Icedig, and typed away on his laptop.
Toki wiped the sweat off his forehead as he looked at schematics of Icedig were plastered onto the laptop screen. This heat is becoming unbearable. He typed another line of code and the right arm of Icedig rose to its side. Another stroke of the keyboard and the arm went down. The technician wiped more sweat off his forehead. The tests are complete. About damn time. As he got up, the cockpit of Icedig opened up and Alex poked his head out of the cockpit.
"Are we done, yet?"
"That's why I had you open the cockpit door…" Genius…
"Awesome." About time… it's getting too hot in here for me… The brunette jumped out of the cockpit and landed on the catwalk. It shook a little bit, and the laptop slid.
Toki panicked as he saw his laptop slid a little and grabbed it before it could go anywhere. He shut his screen and gave Alex an evil eye. The kind of eye where it told a person, don't you dare do that again!
Alex nervously laughed as he saw Toki's eyes, "I'm sorry about that. Just don't give me that look."
"Just be grateful that it didn't go anywhere." The gray-haired technician stood up and turned his back. Very lucky that it didn't go anywhere.
"I'm sorry, OK?!" Alex sighed as Toki continued down the walkway. Nice one Alex.
A static sound echoed the hangar, and both men looked up at the speakers closest to them. "Preventor Snow and technician Watari, please report to Room 235." A familiar female voice spoke over the PA system.
Alex blinked at the speaker, and then turned to Toki. "Do you have a clue what's going on here?"
Toki looked back at Alex. "Not a clue."
Alex began walk along the catwalk. Sheesh... Hilde, you could have at least come and get us yourself.
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The blond-haired pilot leaned on the rail of the catwalk, and mobile suits lined the maintenance bay. Orza had spotted a new suit almost immediately after he entered the bay. The mobile suit had a great resemblance to Toteis, but it wasn't the same. Orza's look turned to disbelief as he continued to look at the suit.
The gold plated armor glistened from the work lights. Black rubber eerily clashed with the armor. A spike covered each hand, and each joint had a protective spike that covered it. The head had two antennas in the back with two spiked ears on the side, and the top of the head came to a point in the front. Also, the red eye of the suit seemingly stared at Orza's red eyes.
They made a new model without telling me? .. Orza glanced around, but saw nothing more. There is only one... who is gonna pilot it I wonder.
A hand grasped Orza's right shoulder and the pilot almost leaped back in shock. His glance went straight to the man's eyes, Jarrett Amuza.
"Isn't it a great looking mobile suit?" Jarrett looked in awe of the new model. "Who would have thought it was possible?"
"It's just a gold plated looking mobile suit. What else is special about it?" Animosity went into every word he said.
"It's the technology behind it. It's superb."
"Excellent technology means nothing without something to back it up."
Brat... Amuza looked back at Orza. "The technology is not only in the weaponry, but in the AI as well."
"AI?! That thing is a mobile doll!" More disbelief filled Orza's face.
"Yes." Amuza smirked as he turned his head away. Consider yourself fortunate that you'll live long enough to see this thing in action.
"But a single mobile doll? That's ludicrous. Thousands of mobile dolls didn't save Battleship Orion. And, it won't help us now!"
"Calm down, Orza. Do you believe that the scientists here would let us down with a weak suit? That thing will have the strength of a Gundam, and will have the strategy of an ace pilot. It won't be very easy to defeat, if at all."
"That is still preposterous." Orza pounded his fist into the rail, and pain rang through it. But, it didn't faze him. Anger was in bloom in his eyes, and they began to almost flame. Those bastards, how dare they try to replace a human with machines... Can't believe this...
Orza fumed a little more then walked off toward a locker room to let out even more steam.
Jarrett just chuckled as Orza left. Angry that they are replacing your family? That's rich. Especially, since you weren't human in the first place. The rose emblem on Amuza's jacket eerily glimmered as the black haired man looked back at the golden mobile suit. Though, you have the right to be afraid, since well... The twenty-five year old stopped in mid-thought and looked at the suit more closely. It is your family.
Jarrett turned his back to rail and began to walk away. And, I'll love to see it when it's at full potential. Should be quite the show, to see those pilots faces when they see this thing in action.
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Alex stared at the screen in front of him. Images of crumbled, devastated buildings all around screen. He sighed lightly. These images aren't real, but they still bother me. Why does Hilde insist on this simulation anyway? Haven't I proved that simulations don't do much for me? Alex paused for a second as the screen scanned for enemy suits. I guess not.
A blip appeared on the radar, and was headed toward him. His blue eyes at the blip, then back to the screen. "Let's do this."
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Icedig thrusted upward and struggled against the gravity of the planet. After a few seconds of flight, it landed roughly roughly on what was left of a collapsed building and the cement crumbled under its weight. It ignited its green beam saber and waited for its opponent to arrive.
Out of corner of the screen, a blue Taurus flew around the corner of what was left of a grocery store. The Taurus had a rifle in hand, and began to open fire on Icedig. Icedig off to the one of the sides, and barely missed the shots from the Taurus.
The blue Taurus went after Icedig, but, when it got to where Icedig had vanished from its sight, there was nothing to see. The Taurus stood there perplexed with a street with nothing to hide behind, but this thought disappeared from the pilot's mind as the building it stood next to began to tremble. The Taurus looked up, and Icedig descended upon it with its gundanium sword about to bear down on the helpless Taurus.
For both pilots, time seemed to slow down as Icedig came closer and closer, but Taurus didn't react. The pilot was simply dumbfounded. As the sword came closer to the camera, out of nowhere a beam energy shot smashed into Icedig's head and tore off the head completely. The mobile suit was thrown like a rag doll into the asphalt street, and the street was torn up as it continued down the street. A cloud of rumble rose up after the out of control Icedig, and the suit disappeared until a loud crashing sound echoed down the street.
The Blue Taurus glanced at the cloud for a moment, and then its head turned to look where the shot came from. A Dark Green Taurus stood down the road with a upgraded version of the Taurus beam rifle, and that Taurus almost appeared to have a smirk on across the lower part of its head. The Blue Taurus shifted its attention back to the downed mobile suit hidden by the cloud of kicked up rubble.
As the dust began to settle, a building appeared with robotic legs similar to Icedig that stuck out and laid on the street. Concrete and steel bars dug into Icedig, and it was hopeless.
The fight was over, and Icedig was defeated once again.
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Alex stared up at the ceiling of his simulation pod. The lights that were normally there, were dead and none of the switches responded. His brown hair dripped sweat, and his blue eyes continued to blankly stare at the ceiling. His hands had a death grip on the joysticks. He just didn't know what to think of with that simulation. "But.. But..." Alex's eyes snapped out of their blank stare, and his right hand moved over to open the pod door. "Hidle!"
"That's Lumin to you." Hilde's voice projected over the PA system.
His blue eyes glared the PA speaker for a moment. He didn't want to blow up, but it would make him feel better if he did. Alex forced himself to calm down in his mind. "Lumin, you said I was only dealing with one Taurus in that simulation."
"That is what I said."
"Then, why was a second Taurus there?"
"Because a second pilot decided to help out a friend. That person overrided our control. It just went from there."
Alex let out a heavy sigh and looked down from the PA. "Why can't you just tell me that you allowed another pilot to join in on the fray. How am I suppose to trust her when she doesn't tell me anything?!" He let out a huff then began to walk toward the exit. "Just tell me that the pilots were Duo, Heero, or Quatre and I'll be happy."
"Neither of them were the pilots, Snow."
"You had the codes, so it must have been you."
"Negative." The voice sternly said.
Alex had his fingers on the buttons to open the door, but stopped dead cold when he heard Hilde's words. "Okay. If those guys weren't in the simulation, then who was it?" He shook his head and pressed the buttons in order.
The doors slid open and Alex took a step forward, then stopped. A person stood on the other side of the door. His semi-short red hair glistened with sweat, and his green eyes gladly stared into Alex's blue eyes.
"Snow, you are a sight for sore eyes. Its been several months since I last saw you." The red haired teenager stepped into the room and glanced around. "Yep. Definitely the same kind of simulators back at San Jose."
Alex couldn't help but stare down at his friend, since he was taller. "Yeah... I agree." His right arm reached behind his head to loosen the tense in his neck. "Misao, do you have any... " Alex hesitated for a moment, and his eyes avoided eye contact with Misao's eyes. "bad feelings about what I did back at San Jose? I mean... I..."
"None." Alex's attention snapped back. His expression had disbelief all over it.
"None?"
"Yep. Thanks to you, I gained my confidence for fighting in mobile suits. I have even rose to be the best mobile suit pilot cadet at San Jose."
"Beat out Kaori, I see."
"Correct, she is grudgingly at second with the intent of being first again."
"Not bad..." Alex thought back to that brief period there, a thought came to mind. "I just hope that Kaori doesn't hunt me down for getting her rank down. Definitely not going back to San Jose or a hundred mile radius of her anytime soon. Especially after Toki explained what happened with the student that pranked her." Alex shuddered, then his mind came back to the conversation.
"You had nothing but a positive influence on me. Thank you." Misao's hand extended out. The brunette reached out and shook the cadet's hand.
"Your welcome..." Misao let go of Alex's hand and began to leave the room. "Why are you here, anyway?"
"Oh, right." The redhead turned around and devilishly smiled with a victory sign formed in his right hand. "I piloted that Blue Taurus that you fought against."
Alex stared in dumbfoundment, and couldn't bung a muscle, not even his mouth. "Well, that figures... testing cadets against me... a new low for me. What are the Preventors gonna do next to me?" His muscles were able to move again, and his mind kind of relaxed. "You know what?" Alex walked over to Misao and patted him on the shoulder. "That was much better than last time I saw you, but I would have won if it weren't for that Green Taurus." He stopped in the middle of the track of the door, and had his back to the east part of the hallway.
Misao nodded. "I owe my victory to that Taurus."
"Yeah, I should have kept an eye out, but I was so focused I forgot. How stupid of me to get cheap shotted like that. Has to be the worse thing that any pilot could feel." A shadow loomed over Alex with burning eyes just over his left shoulder.
"Um... Snow..."
"I mean come on, they should have left me alone so that at least it could have had a fair simulation...."
"Snow..." The redhead took a step back from the Preventor.
"They had no right to do that...." The shadow's burning grew in intensity. "to interfere like that..."
"If you know what's good for you... stop speaking Snow..." Misao took another step back.
"Just let me get this off my chest, okay?"
"I would be concerned about your health more... than your opinion..."
Alex looked at him odd, then noticed the floor had a second shadow besides his own that came from behind him. "Right. I understand, Lumin I apologize for my comments...." He turned around to face the person he thought was Lumin. "about... that pilot..." His blue eyes locked with a pair of gray angry eyes. "You're... not Lumin...." He pointed his right index finger at the person, and it kind of limped to the side.
"Got that right." Her short dirty-blonde hair seemed to flail up at those words.
"Kaori long time no see...." Alex choked up on his words.
"You too..." The anger filled eyes didn't leave his eyes.
"One question, were you the..."
"Yes. I was the pilot of the other Taurus." A joyful anger look filled her eyes as she continued to stare at him.
"Okay... then..." Fear had paralyzed him and his words were shuddered. Misao just kept his distance as Kaori had her sights on him. "Sorry?... And mercy?"
"Apology accepted...."
Alex let out a sigh of relief.
"Mercy denied."
"Crap."
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Toki sat in an armchair right next to Preventor Lumin as she looked over the last part of files on her desk. The last page was flipped, and she closed the folder. A small smile went over her lips, and the dark blue haired Preventor leaned back in her desk chair with her arms crossed on her chest.
Misao and Kaori stood in military posture in front of her desk. Their glance was directed above Lumin, out of respect and nervousness. "She has to like my record. We girls got to keep ourselves secure." "Don't discard my files please..."
After she made the cadets sweat a bit, Hilde came out of her relaxed position and rested her arms on the desk. "I received these files from Colonel Une herself. I have looked over both of them, carefully. And after your simulation with Snow, I have made up my mind."
"Lumin... I hope you know what you are doing..." "She'll keep me and discard what's his name there." "I know I would be a valuable asset, I'll prove it... I know I will."
"Even though, the Colonel said I could only pick one of you. It was a tough decision. Not one anyone would make. Both of you have qualities that this team needs. Ensign Misao Okita, you have tactics and the ability to use them."
"Thank you ma'am."
"Ensign Kaori Enoki, you have the stubbornness of a bull and the ability to pilot almost on par with the Gundam pilots."
"Thank you." An invisible smirk went across her face. "I got it."
"These qualities work well together, but seeing as I could only pick one. I decided to..." Both cadets' emotions raced with excitement, but they stayed still. "So, I called up Colonel Une, and she granted my request. You are both part of this team now. Because of your combination as a team that brought down Snow."
The cadets looked at each briefly and then back to Lumin. "Stuck with what's his face." "God... why did you have to stick us together?... I know I'm going to lose a few years for this."
"Enjoy tonight and tomorrow, after tomorrow you will not have the freedom you had coming in here." The Preventor stared intently at them, and they stared back just the same. "You'll be briefed on your team role when you come back. Enjoy your time."
The gray-haired technician looked at both of them, and sighed. "Both... are gonna stay. Why me?"
Lumin displayed an energetic smile as the other three let their minds think. Yet, this hid her own thoughts. "Where is Alex? I told him to come directly here after that simulation. I'm soooo going to send his butt to kitchen if he disobeyed orders again! He better have an excuse, or else."
Meanwhile in the simulation room
Alex laid limp on the ground. His left arm by his left side, while his right was planted by his back of his head. The legs were just spread out. His head was on its side with a small of blood on the floor by his mouth. It was just a pathetic sight to see.
The Preventor tried to lift his right hand up, but it fell limp. His eyes looked up at the PA speaker and he quietly said. "If nobody minds, I'll just rest here for a little while and hope that the internal bleeding swells down."
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"So, its AI system is 100% complete. That's welcomed news." Eizo let out a puff of smoke into the air as he relaxed in his armchair. "How long until its body is ready for combat?"
"At least another month, sir." A voice over the intercom spoke.
"Excellent. Just keep the Seelen on schedule. You understand?"
"Yes, sir."
The old man reached over and killed the intercom. He slowly inhaled another puff of smoke and breathed it out. "With Seelen nearly complete, those Preventors will never know what hit them." He chuckled a little bit, and then snuffed out his cigarette in an ashtray.