SD Gundam Force GF
An SD Gundam Force fanfiction by Preventer Void
Episode 4: Brothers of Darkness - the Mercenary Duo!

The General looked over the figures and fumed. After a week, things were still looking pretty grim. Despite the fact that they had had ample time to rest, his subordinates were still recovering from the damage the Gundam Force had inflicted upon them. He clenched his massive fist angrily. Damn those Gundams...

Then he remembered the messenger who had delivered the bad news. With an almost imperceptible nod, he bid the Doga leave the room. He could have taken his anger out on the little soldier, but that would have made for poor leadership, and it would give him an undue aura of fear. He didn't want his own people to be afraid of him, just his enemies.

There was a sudden knock at the door. This was a complete surprise; he hadn't expected any more reports yet. "Who is it?"

"It's me," came Lady Qubeley's voice from through the thick stone door. "There is a matter to which I believe you need attend."

"Enter."

The doors swung open and into the room strode Qubeley. Except for some scuffs still on her armor, she looked almost at fighting strength. After briefly bowing, she got right to the point. "General, our soldiers apprehended a pair of unidentified Gundams entering the homeland. They're in the dungeon at the moment. I figured you would want to interrogate them, but bringing them up here seemed foolish."

"A cogent decision," the General replied. "Alright then, activate the screen."

The main screen lit up, displaying the image of the two Gundams in the holding cell. One was primarily colored magenta with gold and black details, while the other was black with red and gray details. The magenta one, apparently the leader of the two, stood and bowed. "You are the General?"

"I am. And what are you two doing in our land? You should be warned, I have a low opinion of Gundams."

The black one stood and bowed as well before replying. "We mean you no ill will, sir. Our intention was to offer you our services."

That caught the General by surprise. "Services?"

"My brother and I are soldiers of fortune, traveling the dimensions and plying our trade," said the magenta Gundam. "We observed your last battle and thought that you might be needing some assistance, at least until your men recover."

"And how do you intend to prove your worth?" asked Qubeley as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"With your permission, we will lead an attack on Neotopia. If we cannot do anything to impress you there, then we will leave you be."

The General was silent as he thought this over. After a minute of thought, he nodded. "Alright. We have only to gain from this venture. Will you require soldiers?"

"No, thank you," said the older brother as he shook his head, "we have our own force. We'll be off presently."

"One more thing," the General said before the two Gundams left. "Your names?"

The magenta Gundam waved to his brother with one hand. "My sibling is Ashtaron the Dark Soldier, and I am Virsago the Ghost Mercenary."

Captain Nu entered the rec room on Blanc Base, shaking his head. Double-Zeta, who was busy playing foosball with Javelin, nodded to his CO. "Did you learn anything from the other one, sir?"

"Nothing Alise didn't get learn from the other one," Nu said as he shook his head. "He gave us the same story: he comes from a peaceful country that was attacked by the 'horrible, war-mongering villains' from the other country and they had to go to war to protect their civilians. The only big difference is that this guy is the leader of the knights in his country, while his opponent is just another member of the army."

Sil leaned against the window. "So, what are we going to do with these two?"

"The only thing we CAN do is to return them to their home dimension as soon as we perfect dimensional travel," the Captain replied.

"You know, it seems odd..." said Ensign V as he looked out the window at the flowing white clouds.

"What do you mean?" asked Javelin as everyone turned to look at V.

"If both these nations are as peaceful as they say, why would either of them attack one another? It seems a lot more likely that a third party attempted to start a war between the two nations."

Alise sighed. "It seems obvious, but those two refuse to see it."

"Don't forget about national pride," ReGZ added as he got a soda from the mini-fridge. "One of the hardest things to do for someone with that much pride is admitting that you or your superiors were ever wrong."

Before anyone could add anything else, Ensign X came into the room, shaking his head. "I don't believe it...the bigwigs in the government are limiting the number of active members we can have at a single time. They don't trust us after that last incident."

Captain Nu put his head in his hands and sighed deeply. "Great, what else could go wrong today?"

The dimensional gateway opened out into the sky above Neotopia, allowing a boxy crimson ship to glide through the air and towards the hand-shaped cloud that disguised the bulk of Blanc Base. Virsago stood on the deck, letting the wind whip past his face. He slowly unfolded his arms as his brother stomped out next to him, followed by their Footsoldier Octaves.

"So, what's the plan? Are we going to destroy their base?" asked Ashtaron.

The magenta Gundam shook his head.

"But brother...!"

"All we have to do is prove ourselves to the General," Virsago said finally. "If we destroy that base, we deny him the pleasure of doing it himself. All we really need to do is destroy at least one of their members. We save the more spectacular for later."

Ashtaron grunted with annoyance. "Fine."

"Besides, the General will be happy enough that we're basically handing him the SDG's base on a silver platter. That in and of itself will be more than enough."

"Sometimes, I wonder about you, brother..."

Virsago wasn't listening. As he saw the far walls of the SDG base appear through the clouds, his first thought was "It's been too long..."

The Gundams ran through the halls as the alarms screamed at them. "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong..." Captain Nu muttered under his breath.

As he joined the group heading for the bridge, Gunstriker looked over at the Captain. "I thought the Secretary said we were to only have so many active members at a time."

X grunted at that. "Well, if he's fine with the base falling to Earth and crushing the city, then we'll listen. But if the old man wants us to do our job..."

"That kind of talk can be pretty dangerous, you know," commented V as he glanced over at his fellow ensign.

"Honestly, I agree," said Nu. "There are two ways of doing things in today's world: the right way, and the bureaucratic way. If Mr. Hymem wants us to do things the bureaucratic way, then he can be the one to take the blame when Blanc Base comes crashing down to the surface. As for me, I'm going out there to stop them myself, and anyone who wants to stay behind is welcome to do so."

Nobody took him up on his offer.

The anti-aircraft turrets ringing Blanc Base began hammering away as the Octaves flew towards the hand-shaped base, their beam rifles and bazookas blazing. Swirling and darting around to confuse the gunners, the red warriors took deliberate aim and started taking the turrets out at their leisure. When the immediate threat was neutralized, the Octaves began landing on the deck one by one. After they were all assembled, the two brothers followed.

"This is what was giving the Dark Axis trouble?" Ashtaron snorted. "I wonder if they're even worth our time."

"Don't be so unfair," Virsago replied. "I'm sure if they knew where Blanc Base was, they would have done this to begin with."

The black Gundam looked at his brother. "So how do you know where it is, not to mention its name?"

Virsago pointed towards the main base. Ashtaron looked in time to see the Gundam Force come running out, weapons at the ready. "That will have to wait."

Captain Nu leveled his beam rifle at the crimson Gundam and glared through its sights. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"Just a little business for the Dark Axis, my dear boy."

"Dark Axis!" cried X in surprise.

"Correct, and their general asked me to deliver a message. He says 'Fire'."

Sil blinked in surprise. "Fire? What does..."

And then, the Garbera started firing its beam cannons at Blanc Base.

The Gundams dodged just in time for the beams to go searing by them, tearing into the base. Without even waiting for the order, most of the Gundam Force fired their beam rifles at the red ship, aiming for the gun turrets. Within seconds, the beam cannons were destroyed, but they found that the Octaves had worked their way into their midst, making ranged combat an impossibility.

Ensign V leapt back as one Octave slashed at him with its beam saber, cutting through the metal. With a wordless grunt of frustration, he threw away the damaged weapon and drew his own beam saber and began clashing with the red enemy. As each tried to force the other's saber backwards, the Octave began firing his chest machinecannons, catching V off-guard and causing him to stumble. The Octave drew back his beam saber...

And a black sphere rocketed out of nowhere and caught it in the side of the head, sending it sprawling. Even before V could stand up, X was at his side. "You okay?"

V looked down at his scarred chest. "It's nothing major. What was...?"

"Oh, this?" said X with a tone of pleasure in his voice as he held up what looked like his beam sword's handle, except that the blade was replaced with a spike-covered head. "G-Hammer. I decided to try it out, and I..."

"Behind!"

Without breaking stride, X swung the hammer like a mace, striking another Octave in the head. "...I'd say it's a success. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Not waiting for anything else, the ensign charged back into the fray, spinning the hammer over his head before pitching it at another Octave. V picked up his beam saber and followed his friend into the morass of battle.

Captain Nu used his shield to knock down the last Octave that stood between him and the two enemy Gundams. Virsago drew his own beam saber and pointed it at the captain. "Brother, go help the grunts."

"But!" Ashtaron started to protest.

"You heard me," interrupted his brother. "I want to fight this young one by myself."

With a resigned sigh, Ashtaron charged past Nu and went to fight his own enemies. Nu raised his beam saber and glared the crimson Gundam down. "Who are you?"

Virsago chuckled. "You'll just have to force it out of me...Alex."

Nu's eyes went wide with shock. "That's...how do you know that! Who the hell are you!"

"Wait and see, my dear boy, wait and see..."

Deep within the bowels of Blanc Base, the two Knight Gundams sat in their cells. After the initial impact, nothing much had happened except for some people running by the door.

"So what do you think is going on out there?" Strike asked as he glanced at the activity outside.

"I don't know," Wing replied, "and I'd rather not talk to an enemy."

With an angry grunt, Strike heaved himself up off the palate and went to the door. "How many times do we have to tell you hotheads in Cinquede? We're just defending ourselves against your attacks!"

Wing laughed. "That's a good one. You Orbians are the ones who started this by attacking that village!"

"No, YOU attacked OUR villages!"

Despite the fact that they couldn't look at each other, the tension between the two Knight Gundams was rising rapidly. But just as suddenly, realization struck both of them. Wing was the first to talk. "Wait, do you know what the attackers looked like?"

"From what I hear, they're light green with large fins on their helmets and they wield broadswords and hand crossbows."

"That's what I heard, too," Wing said as he leaned against the wall. "But my country doesn't have any soldiers like that, and I bet yours doesn't either."

Strike thought this over, then slapped his forehead with his palm. "I can't believe it! Why didn't anyone see this sooner?"

"Because in a war, people tend to get stirred up thinking about national pride and nobody likes admitting that they were wrong."

As they ruminated on this, the Gun Zetas ran by the door. Taking the initiative, Strike called out to them. "Hey, what's going on out there?"

Gun Zeta Two stopped and looked at the two captives. "Some ship just appeared and started attacking us. They're pretty skilled, and they've managed to pin the others down. We're going to help." With that, he ran off.

After a minute, Wing looked over towards the other cell. "So, do you feel like making up for what we've done?"

"How do we do that?" asked Strike. "We're locked in here, and..."

The sound of metal on metal interrupted him. Looking up, he saw Wing standing outside his cell, sword and shield in hand.

"You mean you could have summoned those whenever you wanted to? Why didn't you escape earlier?"

Wing shook his head. "The same reason you didn't - it's rude."

As Strike stood, a blue cape appeared on his back as a smallshield, boomerang and greatsword materialized in his hands. With one swing of the blade, the lock on his cell shattered. After exchanging a quick nod, the two Knight Gundams ran off towards the deck.

With a cruel laugh, Ashtaron fired his claw beam cannons at the deck of Blanc Base, causing burning shards of shrapnel to burst outwards towards the Gundams fighting him. Almost too late, Sil activated her beam shield and blocked herself and Leopard from the hail of jagged metal.

"How are we supposed to fight this guy when he keeps us pinned down like this!" cursed Mudrock as the metal shards punched into his shield.

"We'll just have to figure something out," replied Sil. She turned to Leopard. "Can you lob some of your homing missiles over at him, maybe make him put his head down long enough to let us counterattack?"

Leopard nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"Don't worry, this one is mine!"

Much to the surprise of the Gundams, a gray-blue streak flashed overhead and flew straight for Ashtaron. Swearing, he drew out his beam saber just in time to intercept a glowing blue blade that had been aimed at his chest.

"Striker!"

Gunstriker smiled. "I'll take care of this punk, you deal with their little red assistants."

The sheer weight of his opponent forced Ashtaron to land, his feet scrapping across the scarred deck and pushing him almost to the edge. "You think that just because you're bigger, you can beat me?"

"I don't think," replied Striker, "I KNOW."

The black Gundam laughed viciously. "Well, you certainly are proud, but you know what they say..." Interrupting himself, he lashed out with his claws, one knocking the beam sword from Striker's hands, the other smashing him in the face and disorienting him. Then, each claw grabbed one of the Gundam's arms. Still laughing, Ashtaron spun around and threw Gunstriker off of Blanc Base.

"...And THERE'S the fall."

Virsago jumped backwards, barely avoiding Nu's beam saber, and lashed out with one of his strike claws. Cursing, Captain raised his shield, only to have the claws punch through it before they clenched down and ripped it off of the mount on his arm. Throwing the shield aside, Virsago looked around at the battle. He caught his brother's eye, and Ashtaron nodded. Looking over at the base, he saw the two Knight Gundams rushing out to aid them.

"It appears that we've overstayed our welcome. Well, young Alex, until next time..."

With a wordless yell, Captain Nu pulled out his beam rifle and started firing it at Virsago. The crimson Gundam dodged as he jumped off the deck and began flying back towards their ship, followed by Ashtaron and the Octaves. As they flew away, the ship began firing a salvo of missiles towards Blanc Base. Dashing up next to Captain, Alise leveled her beam smartgun towards the center mass of missiles and fired. The wide blue beam cause most of the projectiles to explode in huge bursts of pyrotechnics. When the smoke finally cleared, the enemy ship was nowhere to be found.

"High-explosive missiles?" asked X with wonder in his voice.

Captain Nu looked around, first at the damage to the base, then at the two recently escaped Knight Gundams, then at all the damage the Gundam Force had incurred. "We're really going to need to re-assess our battle strategy after this...but first, I need some sleep."

Without saying anything else to the others, he stomped off into the base.

"How was our performance, General?"

The leader of Dark Axis looked over the data taken during the battle once more. Despite the fact that they were weaker than the Soldier Dogas, the mercenary Octaves were obviously better trained and more experienced; after all, expecting a single Doga to go toe-to-toe with a member of the Gundam Force was practically murder. Additionally, they had managed to do severe damage to the SDG base, and had even killed one of the Gundams. Closing the window, the General nodded. "Quite excellent. Although it pains me to say so, you performed better than any of my subordinates have up to this point."

Off to the side, Zssa growled but was restrained by Dreissen. Zaku kicked at the ground and Jarja tapped her fingers against the hilt of her beam sword. Standing behind them all, Qubeley folded her arms over her chest and shook her head slowly.

Virsago smiled. "Then with your kind permission, we would like to stay on and help you defeat the Gundam Force. In addition to leading attacks, we could use the benefit of our experience to help train your own soldiers, and we would be glad to help you with your worthy cause."

The General relaxed in his seat. "Excellent."

Zako...Zako...Zako...

It's the Zako Zako Hour!

Zako 1: Ladies and gentle-bots, welcome to the Zako Zako Hour! Today's subject is...

Zakos: (together) "Important People of the Dark Axis!"

Zako 2: Zako! Last time, these new mercernary Gundams interrupted us when we were talking about the great and powerful leaders of the Dark Axis!

Zako 3: That's right, but this time nothing will keep us from telling the viewers about them!

(long pause)

Zako 2: (to Zako 1) Well?

Zako 1: (surprised) Oh, sorry! I was just expecting an interruption, anyway, first we'll talk about...

(The screen lights up with images of Lady Qubeley in battle.)

Zako 1: Lady Qubeley, one of the two military leaders of Dark Axis! In battle she's fierce and ruthless, using her remote Funnel weapons to attack the enemy from all sides! She's especially devoted to the General and reveres him as a leader and a mentor.

Zako 3: And then there's...

(The screen changes to show Captain Bawoo.)

Zako 3: This is Captain Bawoo, the other military leader of Dark Axis! He's as tough as Lady Qubeley, but he's more noteworthy for his post-battle celebrations, which are sprawling and wild! He also loves to talk about his military exploits to anyone who'll listen.

Zako 1: That's true, but he looks after the little guys like us all the same!

Zako 2: And last, but most certainly not least...

(The screen shows several silhouetted shots of the General.)

Zako 2: This is the General himself! He keeps himself shrouded in mystery, and only his top aides know what he really looks like!

Zako 1: It's rumored that he has a special grudge against the organics, which is part of the reason we've launched this war in the first place!

Zako 3: But what's the main reason, then?

Voice: A-HEM...

(Qubeley and Bawoo walk onstage.)

Zakos: (sweatdropping) Um...Zako?

Qubeley: We'll save that little revelation for another day, shall we?

Bawoo: Indeed, what's the fun in showing all your cards at the start of the game?

Zako 1: (still sweatdropping) Well, I guess that's all for today...

For the future of the Dark Axis, ZAKO SOLDIERS, FIGHT!