Codename: Lightning
A Shin Kidou Senshi Gundam
W fanfic by Preventer Void
Chapter 5: Ghosts of OZ
Relena flipped through the file folder. She closed it and leaned against a nearby wall, then opened it again. She sighed; it still said the same thing. The Preventers techs had managed to examine that new Virgo they had captured about as thoroughly as any human being could, and the results weren't pleasant. Instead of using the more advanced Virgo II employed by White Fang, this person had used the original "bulldoze over everything" Virgo OZ had used to destroy the Kingdom. However, there were quite a few changes: higher output on the beam cannon, upgraded planet defensors, anti-beam coating for the weapons that got through the defensors, and active jammers to give it complete invisibility...no matter whether you were a generic soldier or a Gundam pilot, fighting something like that was not fun.
Even worse was the fact that there were no manufacturing details to be found, on the armor or in the computers. Instead, all the places where such information should have been were left completely blank. Whoever had designed these had made sure not to leave anything leading back to himself. Relena ground her teeth in frustration. However much they learned about this new Virgo, she would have traded it all just to know the name of the person who ordered its construction. For a second, she thought about using her connections in the government, then she chided herself for thinking like a politician and not a Preventer. Tucking the folder under her arm, she walked on down the hall.
Since she was on the first floor, she had to take the elevator up to her office. However, she heard the sounds of combat from down a hall in the opposite direction. More than curiosity, she felt something else spurring her on to find out what it was. As she came down the carpeted hallway, she realized that the sounds were coming from the workout room; probably just someone sparring. That was almost enough to make her head back towards the elevator, but she felt obligated to look into the room all the same. Not wanting to disturb the combatants, she simply peeked in from the side of the door.
Standing a fair distance apart, she saw Heero and Wu Fei, clad in white gi with black belts, staring each other down. But for the sheen of perspiration on their flesh and the panting, one might have thought they hadn't begun yet. Before she could blink, Wu Fei dashed forward towards his opponent. They exchanged a series of punches, sweeps and strikes, seeming to be evenly matched. But then Heero feinted a sweep and instead performed a high kick, knocking the Chinese pilot on his back. Pausing to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, Heero reached a hand out.
Wu Fei took the hand, although it looked like he was unsatisfied. "You're getting harder to predict. Nice to see somebody around here improves."
"I've been doing martial arts for years, it's almost as much a part of me as piloting." Here, the brown-haired teen frowned. "Besides, you don't always have a gun. It's useful to know just in case."
"Right. Plus, I imagine it helps you with your little headaches?"
Heero nodded. "I barely have them anymore. It's a far cry from those fainting spells I had when I was younger."
Here, Wu Fei crossed his arms across his chest. "Out of curiosity, have you tried a spin in the prototype with those weapons?"
"You mean the one Relena used?" Heero looked out the wide windows as a sparrow landed on one of the trees planted around the parking lot. "No, I've been a little too busy with the current developments." After a brief pause, he turned to his companion. "Are you suggesting that she's..."
The Chinese teen shrugged. "Possibly. Have you tried a CAT scan?"
"It doesn't show anything abnormal on me, so it's no good. However..." His eyes went to a black-wrapped object over in the corner of the room.
Wu Fei rolled his eyes. "Right, right, how could I forget?" He retrieved the object, which turned out to be a slightly curved Chinese sword. He pulled out a black sash and handed it to Heero. The Japanese pilot placed a pair of foam earplugs in his ears before went to the center of the room and tied a black sash around his head, blocking his sight completely.
"Whenever you're ready," he said.
Relena watched in silent awe. What the hell was he doing? She didn't have to wait long to find out, as Wu Fei got to Heero's back and took a diagonal swing with his sword. To her wide-eyed shock, he dodged as perfectly as if he hadn't been handicapped. Wu Fei took a vertical slice, but Heero side-stepped out of the way. The next few minutes were a blur, as attack after attack was avoided with minimal effort. Relena knew she was gaping. This was incredible...how was he...
Then their words came back to her. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, she rushed off to the elevator. Maybe when she was back in her office, the world would make sense once more.
Heero sat on the bed that evening, cracking away at his laptop. The data they had obtained had been invaluable in not only weapons design and technological advances, but also in historical information. Although he had already read the data for the Universal Century, After War, and Cosmic Era periods throuroughly, he opened up the document for the Gryps Conflict. Something about the situation struck a chord within him, and he was still trying to learn about this Amuro Ray person...maybe he could finally figure out how to get that damn robot to call him by his proper name...
Before he could get into the deployment of the Gundam Mk-II, he felt the all-too-familiar sensation jolt in his head. Something blunt was flying at his head at a decent clip. Instinctively, he reached over his shoulder and caught it, and then took a good look at it.
"Trying to subtlety tell me I need a bath?" he asked, examining the bar of soap.
Relena shook her head. "I guess it wasn't a fluke. You really were doing that this afternoon, weren't you?"
He looked at her seriously. "You saw?"
She nodded slowly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to spy on you or anything, but I heard you two practicing and when I went to look, I saw...that. Sorry."
Sighing, he put his laptop in standby mode and placed it on the chair next to the nightstand. "I guess this is the part where I tell you how this all started."
"Only if you don't mind."
They leaned back against the pillows and Heero looked up at the ceiling and the fan as it spun, diligently stirring the muggy summer air. "The first time I remember getting that sensation...I was eight, and it was shortly after Doctor J took me in as a Gundam pilot. One night, I had a dream that there was someone stalking around the facility, killing everyone until he came to me. The dream was so real that I felt the knife running across my throat just before I woke up. I knew it was a dream...but the feeling of unease was still there. Since the guy snuck in through the hangar in my dream, I went there to check it out...and I got there in time to see him break a window and climb inside. I managed to subdue him, and everyone was suitably impressed that I managed to know he was there."
"I can imagine," she interrupted.
Heero looked at her for a second, then continued. "The next day, the doctor talked to me about it. I told him about the dream, and he explained that people developed their minds more rapidly in space than on Earth...but it seemed that the artificial reproductive methods people had to use early in the colonization period all but eliminated that growth, so the idea of people with superior abilities faded into obscurity."
Relena sat up quickly. "Does that mean that Doctor J knew about the past?"
"Probably, him and the other engineers as well. But who would believe some old crackpots raving about centuries of Mobile Suit warfare less than a decade after they created the 'first' military MS? Anyway, he told me that I should probably develop my abilities more, but to keep them a secret from the people in the Barton Foundation who came by periodically to check on our progress."
"Ugh...knowing Dekim, he probably would have held you up as an example of the superiority of space-born humans, like that Giren Zabi person."
Heero nodded, then looked back up at the ceiling. "Well, as I trained, I got stronger. I gained the ability to sense people by...well, I don't quite know how to describe it. I guess you could compare it to thermal imaging. When people experience different emotions, their brains give off different signals. I was able to detect and interpret those signals. When someone attempted to hurt me, I detected their hostility long before their attack and was able to avoid it. Eventually, I was able to pick up upon subtleties in peoples' mental waves that allowed me to sense particular people based off of the underlying image of their personality, so I could tell who a person was without looking."
Relena looked over at him, then shook her head slowly. "Wow."
He chuckled dryly. "There's more. Apparently, these abilities involve mechanical prowess. There's an example of a person who examined a few wires in a Mobile Suit and was able to pilot it perfectly afterwards without any prior training. Also, there's our old friend Amuro, who was 15 when he invented the advanced AI robot Haro. The list goes on."
"Gee, is there anything else?"
Here, Heero pulled out his computer and started it up. After crunching away for a minute or two, he handed it over to her; he had opened a document about the Babylonia Conflict and the Jupiter Empire. "Read about the biocomputer."
"'The next significant development was the biocomputer designed by the Federal Forces' Strategic Naval Research Institute, a complement to the psycommu system that allowed the Mobile Suit's computer to transmit raw data, sensory impressions, and tactical advice directly into the pilot's brain.'"
"Sound familiar?"
She looked up from the computer and his deep blue eyes. "Are you saying that the ZERO System and System EPYON..."
"...Seem to be further refinements of this technology, only set up so that non-psychic pilots can reap the full benefits. However, the tradeoff is that they cause mind-warping side effects, as the others can attest to."
Relena handed him the computer and flopped back against the pillows. "This is incredible..."
"Not really," countered Heero as he cracked away at the computer. "It seems that the Alliance kept a tight lid on the history, but Romafeller gave some of it out to their engineers working on the Tallgeese. That's why the Gundams have magnetic coating on the joints - from the One-Year War - and why Deathscythe's hyper jammers work. Some time before the transition to the After War era, scientists perfected a new type of nuclear fusion engine that eliminated the radar-hampering Minovski particle. However, Deathscythe has an additional Minovski reactor that it uses to release those particles and scramble enemy radar."
"This gets more confusing every second...and you think I'm one of these gifted people?"
He closed the laptop, paused before replying. "Yes. You told me that you experienced a form of danger sense during training...you were able to complete Haro despite the fact that you can't even change a flat tire..."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Bite me."
"Hey, you said so yourself." That got him a smack upside the head with a pillow. "Anyway, there's also this one thing...during the war, and then Dekim's attempted coup, did you ever just...say my name, for no real reason?"
Relena nodded.
"...And did you ever 'hear' me say yours back to you."
"Yes..."
He smiled. "Then that proves it."
"Oh really?" She sat up and looked him in the eye. "In that case, what am I thinking about right now?"
After a minute pause, his smile turned lecherous. "Apparently, the same thing I am."
"Excellent..."
Several hours later, they were sound asleep in each others' arms. As abruptly as a gunshot, she sat bolt-upright in bed, gasping for breath. Slowly, Heero rose and turned on the lamp on his nightstand.
"What is it?"
She clutched the sheets to her bare chest protectively as she struggled to find the words. "I just felt..."
He sighed before breaking in. "This is the part of these abilities that you won't like. Among the ability to sense peoples' presence...you can sense when they stop. In other words, you feel people die."
"And what are we doing here while people are dying! Come on!" Relena almost jumped out of bed, but Heero caught her arm.
"And this is the part where you're probably going to think less of me."
She looked at him seriously. "What is it?"
"...Ever since I was ten, I've sensed peoples' deaths. I stopped caring when I hit eleven."
"WHAT!" It was practically impossible to tell what was stronger in her voice, shock or outrage.
"Relena, look at it from my point of view. I've been at this for a while, so my abilities are more developed than yours. On Earth, I can sense everyone within a small nation or a medium-sized state. In space, I can sense an entire colony cluster. When I was ten, I wanted to be able to save everyone. But then I realized that eternal vigilance is impossible. People die. We CAN'T save everyone. Our job is to prevent people who want to harm others...but what about those who have serious diseases? Or heart defects? Or breathing problems? Or those who are just very old? We can stop anarchists and murderers, but we can't stop nature. If we tried, we would kill ourselves because every second we spent eating, or sleeping, or even using the bathroom is a second where someone dies. I hate to say it, but you're going to have to be a bit more cynical about it."
She gradually calmed down during his speech; by the time he was done, her shoulders were sagging in defeat. "It still hurts. I can hear them...those people were killed."
"I know." He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, kissing her cheek. "Deaths like that hurt the most. All we can do is stop whoever did it so nobody else suffers. But it's late. We should get some sleep."
Numbly, she nodded. They slid back under the covers, and Heero dozed off soon after. Relena was left alone, wondering how she could ever learn to ignore death when she could feel the void everyone left behind personally.
"I wonder if I could find a way to kill them and label it justifiable homicide."
The assembled Preventers stopped in mid-step on their way to the meeting room. That rather pleasant sentiment had been voiced by their leader. She looked up and saw them frozen in the doorway.
"Well, take your seats and you'll get to see what's bothering me," she said impatiently.
The cloud of people thinned out and got to their usual seats. The second everyone was settled, Lady Une slapped a stack of newspapers down on the polished mahogany table. Trowa picked one of them up and read from an editorial which had been outlined in red marker.
"'And where were the Preventers when this shuttle was attacked? Probably snuggled all warm in their beds, comforted by the thought that the taxpaying citizens were filling their pockets and they didn't have to lift a finger. What are we paying for, anyway? A glorified Space Police, or is it more sinister? Are these former "aces of the war" forming their own criminal syndicate and forcing the world to pay protection money, lest they swoop down upon us with their Gundams and conquer the planet?'"
Duo threw his hands in the air in disgust. "Someone buy that man a dictionary and underline the word 'gratitude' while you're at it."
"If that's your plan, you're going to need a lot of dictionaries," Rosshe observed as he skimmed through another editorial. "The way these people are writing, you'd think we were supposed to be invincible superheroes that never sleep and can solve any problem with a thought." At that comment, Heero and Relena exchanged a knowing glance.
Wu Fei grunted. "They're starting to take what we do for granted. Do you think they even remember the war, or Barton's little coup?"
"Probably not," Relena answered. "When it comes to politics, people are remarkably short-sighted. If you don't give out immediate and breath-taking results, they question your value."
Heero decided to change focus before anyone got too depressed. "Do we know what attacked the shuttle?"
Lady Une slid a monochrome photograph towards him. "The flight recorder camera managed to get this image...we were lucky to recover it."
Everyone crowded around and looked at the photo. Wu Fei slammed his fist down onto the table. "Son of a bitch..."
"So, whoever made those new Virgos isn't just satisfied attacking us literally, he has to do it personally too," commented Zechs.
"And his timing couldn't be worse," Lady Une fumed. "Tomorrow, I was going to go to the ESUN Senate to ask for clearance to...well, enhance the Gundams."
Everyone paused at that. Duo was the first to speak. "You mean you were..."
His boss nodded. "I was going to ask for some extra money and permission to make more Gundanium so we could see about upgrading your Gundams and possibly making more for Zechs, Rosshe and anyone else who might join. I was about to send a message to the Barnett brothers at MO-V..."
The former Stardust Knight shook his head slowly. "Best to not bother them. Those two said themselves that all they want to do is work on space exploration, like their father wanted. If the situation gets really dire, they'll probably join of their own volition."
"Alright, could I get two volunteers to go with me tomorrow? I'm going to need help convincing these people that we need the extra help."
Heero rose from his chair. "I'll go. I've been studying the new MD's design, and as near as I can tell, they're in a class beyond our Gundams. I'll explain that to the senators."
Relena stood as well. "Me too."
"Is that such a good idea?" Trowa asked as he looked at her. "What happens if someone recognizes you?"
The young woman shook her head. "It's been half a year, and unlike some celebrities, I didn't get any of the usual 'she faked her death' bull. It really seems that people think I'm dead. Besides," here she began smirking rather darkly, "I know how the political mind works. I ought to be able to help you get through those thick skulls."
Lady Une nodded. "We're certainly going to need it."
"Say, Relena."
"Hm?"
"Did I ever say your job with the government was easy?"
"Not to my recollection."
"Good."
Heero shook his head in disgust as he glanced around the Senate room. He and Relena were currently acting as Lady Une's bodyguards/assistants in her meeting with the governing body of the Earth Sphere United Nations. Nobody had ever thought that this would be anything but an uphill battle, but with the swing of public opinion, the Preventers had their work cut out for them.
The Vice-President banged his gavel for order, then pointed it into the crowded seats. "The chair recognizes the honorable Senator Williams of Austria."
The young senator straightened his tie as he rose, and then spoke. "Now, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about Preventer, especially given all the sterling work they've done for the past three years. But what exactly kept you and your people from stopping that shuttle from being destroyed?"
Lady Une looked the young senator in the eyes. "With all due respect, Senator, our agents are still human. As you'll note, the attack occurred at roughly four in the morning L1 time. All of my subordinates were in bed, and we had no way of predicting that attack."
Looking satisfied, Williams sat down. The Vice-President called for another senator to speak. Since they wouldn't be needed for a while, Heero leaned over and whispered in Relena's ear. "So, which of these guys was the one who..."
Before he could even finish asking his question, she shook her head decisively. "I'm not telling."
"Relena..." Even though he was trying to be quiet to keep from disturbing the meeting, there was an obvious tone of annoyance in his voice.
Relena looked straight at him, meeting his eye. "Heero, I know the way you think. If I tell you, odds are you'll go up into the seats and kick his ass here and now. People seem to really think I'm gone, so that means that that guy is basically free."
"What!"
"Look, only he and I know what happened. If you make a big deal out of it, he can deny it ever happened, and the only way we can confirm that it did would be if I revealed my identity. That's not going to happen."
"...Well, I think that question would be better answered by my subordinates." They looked up just as Lady Une turned to them. "Could you two explain why exactly we need this funding."
Nodding, Heero stood and stepped up to the podium. "Approximately a week ago, we were training some new recruits near the asteroid belt when they came under fire from a new model of the Virgo Mobile Doll. Since they were in low-level machines at the time, and there weren't many MD, only their skill allowed our people to survive." Here, he smirked. "In fact, I was there and I'm still not fully recovered from all that they did to me. The only reason I'm here to talk to you is because my girlfriend is very understanding. Anyway, during the battle we were able to capture one of the Virgos, so we took it back to HQ for study."
Impatiently, one of the senators interrupted. "I don't see why you can't just use those damned Gundams to beat whoever this is. It worked against White Fang and the Barton Foundation. All this song and dance just seems like an excuse to squeeze more money out of the taxpayers."
As several of the senators made grumbling noises of ascent, Lady Une leaned over to Relena and whispered, "I wonder how he can stay so calm...these old men are so hard-headed that I'm giving myself a migraine just by talking to them."
"I guess he's used to dealing with bothersome people," the young woman mused. Secretly, she was a bit impressed that Heero hadn't blown up on the senator. Then she remembered all the training Barton had put him through and stopped wondering.
His voice still as neutral as it had been before the rude interruption. "Reiko, the file?" Nodding, Relena handed him a CD, which he popped into the computer built into the podium. After crunching away for a second or two, the large projection screen that displayed the ESUN's logo changed into the data file they had compiled about the new MD.
"This is the machine in question. Until we learn its real designation, we've codenamed it the OZ-05MS Virgo IV. Its design is based after the original Virgo and the Perfect Peace People's Virgo3. The armor is made of neo-titanium, and thick enough to withstand most ballistic weapons. The silver coating you see is anti-beam coating, which works to dissipate ranged beam weapons as they hit the armor. The black and gold boxes on the shoulders are active jammers, which disrupt radar and make auto-targeting useless. The large beam cannon mounted over the right arm has higher output than anything employed by a mass production MS, and it has the ability to generate a beam blade for melee combat. Altogether, this machine rates on a level with the original five Gundams. When deployed in large numbers, they make a formidable opponent.
"Gentlemen, whoever made these machines sent them after that shuttle. We know because of a photograph recovered from the shuttle after it was destroyed. The person who attacked us is making it obvious that they're out to get more than just Preventer. The Gundams are tough enough to fight these things, but if there are enough of them, they'll overwhelm us and we'll get killed. If we get killed, then it'll be up to civilians with Leos and Tauruses to protect the planet. Tell me, would you still fancy your chances if that happened?"
That made the senators stop their unhappy chatter right there. They started muttering amongst themselves as Heero stepped away from the podium and went over to Lady Une and Relena.
"Do you think that'll do?"
Smiling, the head of Preventer nodded. "I think it will."
"After serious consideration, the Senate decided today to approve Preventer's request for more funding to deal with the new threat of..."
The man looked at the television in his office and scowled. In disgust, he turned it off, then slammed the remote down on the desk hard enough to crack the plastic. He took the newspaper off of his desk and ripped it in half with his bare hands before throwing the mass of paper into the trash can.
"Those useless old men...this ruins everything. Damn it all!"
He stormed around the office for several minutes, throwing around frustrated comments about the lineage of the governing body's members and their sexual preferences. In the middle of a particularly nasty rant about the Vice-President and his mother, the man stopped. He hurried over to the computer and prepared a line to the Virgo Quad plant.
"Rains!"
The chief engineer, who had been in the middle of some other activity, came around to look at the monitor as it blinked on. "Yes, sir?"
"Are the new toys ready yet?"
The mechanic pulled a document out of a manila folder and looked at it before replying. "We're gearing up to mass produce them, but so far only one unit has been completed."
"Can't be helped, I suppose...load up one hundred Virgos and the completed machine into dropships and sent them towards Earth."
Rains did a double-take. "But sir, we're starting now!"
"No...but the Senate just approved Preventer's request. If we don't strike now, then we'll have to deal with those damnable Gundams after they've been overhauled specifically to battle our new MD. If we attack with a sufficient force, we might be able to destroy them now...who knows? We might not even need to bring out the big guns at all."
"Yes sir, I'll get right on it." Rains reached over and deactivated the monitor. The man leaned back in his chair and smiled. Today might not turn out so bad after all...
"This is gonna be so cool!"
Rosshe sighed as he looked over at Duo, who was sketching away at a piece of paper. "Someone get that boy bib before he drools all over the table."
The braided teen stuck his tongue out at the former Knight. "You're just jealous because my new Deathscythe is gonna be a million times cooler than your old Tallgeese. It's gonna have fangs, and claws, and wings, and a whole bunch of other cool toys!"
Wu Fei shook his head. "When did redesigning the Gundams suddenly become a competition?"
"It really doesn't matter to me," Trowa commented. "Duo can have the coolest-looking one if he wants. But he's gonna be sorry when our Gundams outperform his because we focused on more than just appearance."
Relena looked at the guys and fought back a smile. In a sense, it was like watching a boy playing with new action figures or something. But then she stopped and wondered what she would use. All these guys had MS they had used before. The only thing she had was the prototype, which had been horribly outclassed by the new Virgos. So what would she pilot?
Just then, there was a knock on the meeting room door, pulling her back to the present. Everyone looked up and saw Howard, Hawaiian shirt and all, standing in the doorway. "Hey Duo, you done with your design yet? You guys realize that he's had about four or five different designs he's passed along to me so far. At this rate, we'll have enough blueprints to build an army of Deathscythes."
"As long as they don't come with their own pilots," Trowa mused.
Wu Fei gave an exaggerated shudder. "Thanks, now I'll be too scared to sleep tonight."
"You guys just plain suck," Duo countered. "Anyway, I'm trying to figure which of these designs I like better...the reaper or the demon."
Looking over the braided boy's shoulder, Rosshe shrugged. "Use both."
"Huuuuunh?"
"Look, just make it so that the claws on the hands and feet retract into shoulder and leg armor, and have the cloak wrap around the body. It's not that hard...in fact, one of my old MS did something similar."
Duo looked at the two sketches, then back up at the former OZ pilot, then back and the drawings. Without warning, he jumped up and hugged Rosshe tightly. "Dude, you are officially the man! That's brilliant!"
The blonde man grimaced. "That's nice...now get your face away from mine before I feed you those drawings."
Duo handed the papers to Howard, who looked at them and nodded. "Not bad...I suppose I'll have to talk to Dick and Sernan about helping me combine them like you suggested. But it could work." Just as he started to walk out, the mechanic's gaze fell upon Relena. "Ooh, I almost forgot. There was something I wanted to talk to you about in the hangar."
The young woman nodded. "Sure, lead the way."
The two of them took their leave of the others and walked down the carpeted hallways towards the hangar which had been built into the wall of the colony as a dedicated spaceport for Preventer. Howard took off his sunglasses and polished them on his shirt. "Now, I know that while the boys all have their toys to play with, you don't really have anything to call your own. Am I correct?"
Relena smiled. "You are, and I'm starting to think you're psychic. I was just thinking about that when you walked in back there."
"Well, I believe I have a solution. We're gonna see about making you a Gundam based off of Wing Zero's design. In fact, we already started work on the movable frame."
As he spoke, they walked into the vast expanse of the hangar. In addition to a couple of Preventer Cruisers and the officially christened Pegasus, there was a deck dedicated solely to the Mobile Suits. Standing against the wall were Wing Zero, Deathscythe Hell, Heavyarms Kai, Sandrock Kai, Altron, Tallgeese III, Tallgeese-S, and Noin's white Taurus. Relena looked over and saw something familiar being loaded into a container ship. "Isn't that...?"
Howard followed her gaze, then nodded. "Yep, since we've gotten the information we needed out of those prototypes, we're going to use some of their parts to work on the new Gundams. Lady Une figured that the less money we take from the UN, the less the senators will complain."
"That makes sense. Anyway, you were saying?"
The bald man pointed towards one of the empty hangars for a Mobile Suit - or, at least it used to be empty. Suspended from the ceiling by strong cables was the framework for a Mobile Suit's chest and arms. Even though it was nothing more than half of a skeleton, she instantly saw a strong similarity to Wing Zero. "That's mine?"
"It will be. But here's the problem...what are you supposed to pilot in the meantime? Well, I thought and I thought about it, and eventually I came up with an idea that I think you'll be pleased with. Take a look." As he spoke, he led her around to the ships' hangar, where a new MS was being unloaded. For a second, the thought that it was the Gundam Mk-II from the historical archives, but a moment's study made her realize that it was, in fact, her Gundam Historical Data Test Type 2, but heavily made over...
"You didn't scrap it?"
Howard shook his head. "We already had the base machine, so I decided to upgrade it so that you'd have something to pilot until the new Gundam is complete. Additionally, it'll serve as a testbed for the new mass production model MS we've been designing. Now, as for the specs..." He pointed to each of the weapons as he named them off. "Obviously, it has the mega beam rifle there, as well as the beam sabers-slash-hand launchers in each forearm. The shield mounts a pair of machineguns, there are beam cannons on the back...oh, and at Lady Une's request, we had those funnels installed as well. If you don't want to use them, I'll totally understand, but..."
"Don't worry about it," Relena said as she looked her new Gundam over. "It gives me a weapon that nobody's seen in ages, and I like the advantage. Besides, if I don't get used to using them, I'll never be able to use them when I really need them."
Before Howard could reply, the alarm started screaming at them. One of the mechanics ran up to them. "Sir, there's a small fleet of enemy ships approaching the Earth! All available pilots have been ordered to launch immediately."
Relena sighed. "I guess that includes me now. Thanks again." She dashed up to the Gundam and put her foot in the stirrup hanging down from the chest, and then pressed one of the buttons on the wire. With a mechanical hum, the winch started up, pulling her up to the cockpit. Once inside, she changed into a pilot suit and attached her helmet. After starting up, she loped towards the opening bay doors and saw the others getting ready to launch. "Do we know what we're dealing with?" she asked.
The voice that replied was her brother's. "No, at this point all we know is that they're sending a lot of OZ's old atmospheric dropships towards the planet. So, we get to intercept them before they can get there."
"Let's go...they're nearing the Earth sphere." That came from Trowa.
The Pegasus launched, followed seconds later by the Gundams and the two Tallgeese, which all flew into the box containers on the ship's sides. Once settled, Relena leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes, dozing off a couple of seconds later.
Before long, the scramble alarm sounded, rousing her from her comfortable nap. Activating the Gundam, she pushed out of the ship after the container door opened and linked up with the others, who were positioned a distance away from the approaching ships.
Heero spoke up first. "Duo, go to stealth mode and give us some recon."
"Roger that!" The ebony bat wings folded around Deathscythe Hell's body, and in a matter of seconds, its form blurred until it was completely invisible. The group waited with baited breath until Maxwell's transmission came back through. "Alright, thermal scans show a couple of pilots in the front and the heat from the engines, but there's nothing in the main body of the ship. I'd bet anything that this is a load of those new model Virgos."
"That's all I needed to hear," said Zechs. The megacannon on Tallgeese III's right shoulder opened up and began charging energy. "Heero, let's hit as many of them as we can before they activate and fight back. Maxwell, get back here before we fire."
"Right."
The two of them waited until Duo's Gundam reappeared near theirs, then Zechs nodded even though nobody else could see the motion.
"Ready...aim...FIRE!"
They opened up with their weapons...and instantly, the area around the Preventers turned into a glowing sea of plasma as countless Virgos uncloaked around them and began firing at the group.
"Holy shit!" cried Wu Fei.
"There are a hundred of them...can we each take fourteen of them," asked Trowa.
"That," Rosshe commented as he pulled out his beam sword and screw whip, "is what we call a day at the office, boys and girls."
Relena had the beam saber slide out of her Gundam's forearm and into its hand, then ignited the blade and made a beeline for the nearest group of Virgos. Having done some gymnastics when she was younger, she had a small idea of what an adrenaline rush felt like. But tumbling and parallel bars just couldn't compare to fighting a horde of mindless killing machines intent upon ending her life. The world seemed to slow to a crawl as bright golden beam shots screamed past her and struck her shield. Slashing through one Virgo, she punched her shield through another's defensor field and fired the machineguns, shredding its head and upper chest. One of the MD's beam cannons erupted with a gigantic beam blade as it charged her. Grunting as she jerked the control sticks, Relena reached her Gundam's left arm up and caught the barrel of the cannon, stopping the blade dead. Letting out an angry war cry, she reeled back and stabbed her own beam saber through the Virgo's chest and slashed upwards, tearing it nearly in half. Picking out a set of Virgos that was receiving less attention, she locked on and pressed the button on top of the right joystick. The two back beam cannons swiveled over her Gundam's shoulders and fired several shots at the enemy MD. As they turned to target her, she jetted forwards and scythed through them with her beam saber. The fighting, the madness, continued for what seemed like forever but turned out to be only two minutes and about fifteen seconds, according to her Gundam's heads-up display. After taking down fourteen of the MD, she stopped to look around. All of the Virgos were destroyed, but the guys' MS were in bad shape.
"Okay, I think that was my limit. If you don't mind, I'm gonna go crawl into bed and die," Duo remarked.
Before anyone could reply, their sensors started going off full-tilt. Something big was coming right at them, and fast. They all barely dodged out of the way as massive column of beam energy shot through the space they had once occupied, followed by an enormous green object that ripped past them and headed towards Earth.
Wu Fei was the first to speak up. "What the hell was that!"
Relena stared after it, wondering exactly the same thing. There was something distinctly familiar about it, but it was just barely out of reach.
"Scorpio!"
All the MS turned to look at Wing Zero; it was Heero who had shouted. "That thing...it's based off of the Scorpio we fought at Vulkanus. Based off of what little, I saw, I'd say that it's a stripped-down mass production model. Might not even be able to transform, but it's still a threat."
Zechs grunted. "We need to stop that thing..."
Looking around, Relena saw that that didn't seem too likely. Tallgeese III was missing its right arm - and hence, the megacannon. The twin buster rifle was nowhere to be seen, but judging by the burns marring Wing Zero's paint, it was gone as well. She looked over at the Scorpio as it raced towards Earth and sighed at her powerlessness. What was the point of being a Preventer if she couldn't protect anyone?
As she glanced down at the console in sadness, something clicked in her mind. She had told Howard that she would use the funnels if she needed them. Well, now more than ever... Restoring her beam saber and pulling the mega beam rifle off her Gundam's rear skirt armor, she turned towards the Scorpio and ignited her thrusters.
"...I'm going for it."
As the Mobile Suit streaked off, followed by a trail of glowing blue fire, Relena closed her eyes and concentrated. In her mind, she saw an image of the red Mobile Armor, retreating from her at top speed. Just as suddenly, her mental picture was filled with a cluster of miniature white objects surrounding it and firing beam shots that cut into its armor, damaging vital systems like the beam cannon charger unit and the fuel tank. As she looked up, still maintaining the picture in her head, she saw exactly that scene in front of her in the real world. One of the funnels' shots had indeed hit the fuel tank, causing an explosion and making a plume of brief black smoke stream from its side. Taking careful aim, she raised her Gundam's mega beam rifle and pumped twice the maximum energy charge through its barrel.
"Here goes nothing!"
Relena pulled the trigger. A collosal wave of gold energy, nearly as big as that from Zero's own twin buster rifle, erupted from the rifle's barrel and raced towards the retreating Mobile Armor. The brightness of the blast temporarily blinded her and would leave a bright streak in her vision for the next few minutes, but when she could finally see clearly again, there was nothing left of the Scorpio but large, glowing red pieces that were rapidly burning up in the atmosphere. All at once, the adrenaline left her, and she slumped over in her seat, exhausted. Issuing a mental command for the funnels to return, she leaned back. There were voices, and she saw that the guys had finally caught up and were asking how she was, how she had done that, and anything else they could think of.
Reaching a hand up, Relena pressed the button to open a comms line to everyone in the general area, then spoke up. "Guys, I'm really tired right now...can this wait until after I get some sleep?"
Nobody argued.
"Fucking HELL!"
The man slammed his fist into the desk. He was not happy, to say the least. If only he had sent a few more Virgos, or if the idiot piloting the Zodiac hadn't just rushed off without attacking them...then maybe...
He kicked the small waste basket sharply, sending it into the wall. That attack had been a complete waste. Not only had he lost one hundred MD and a perfectly good MA, they had failed to do any worse than roughing the Gundams up. More money down the drain. Why did he even bother...
Then he noticed his computer, which had a little blinking window telling him that he had an email. Opening it up, he saw that it was from Rains. The body of the message simply said "You might find this interesting...the Scorpius' radio picked it up before it was destroyed."
His interest piqued, the man opened the attachment contained within the mail; it was a short sound file. He opened it up and listened to a cacophony of voices shouting almost indistinctly, but one word kept coming through clearly. And right at the end, a voice he recognized as Heero Yuy's put all doubt to rest.
"Relena! Don't do it!"
The man grinned darkly. Maybe it wasn't a complete waste after all...