Chapter 10

Ghost Town

"It's abandoned…" spoke Ryan as he walked out of the battleship onto the pier.

"Something's not right, just the other day, intelligence told us that there were many people on the streets," replied Jack as he stares into the empty town. "Either way, we have to set up camp."

Later that night, Jack, Ryan, and three other Ireland soldiers stood outside of the ship to stand guard.

Ryan looks at the screen of a laptop to read the information on the disc that told important information about the Zent 2 Unit. Jack, leans on a nearby wall, snoring away. The remaining soldiers, playing poker on top of a trash can.

As watch person does their own thing, a door from the ship opens, and Sheila, in a military uniform that resembles a guerilla warfare captain suit.

Sheila steps onto the port of the pier and sees the snoring Jack. Sheila steps up to Jack and stares at him in a disgusted look, then slaps him at the side of his head to wake up.

Jack quickly wakes up and looks around him, and sees Sheila, and instantly salutes in embarrassment.

"Commander Jack, no sleeping on the job, otherwise you'll find yourself in the brig for not doing your job!" yelled Sheila into Jack's right ear.

"Right, Captain Sheila, sir!" replied jack, trying to keep a steady face after almost losing his hearing.

Sheila walks up to the poker playing soldiers, and kicked over the trashcan, holding their card game. Sheila gives a good screaming at the ensigns for their failure to do their job. Ryan sees this and quickly puts away the laptop in hope to avoid being yelled at.

Finally, Sheila walks over to Ryan, and he quickly salutes, trying to avoid any rule he broke that he did not know of. "Stand down, Ryan, I'm just hear to ask some questions," replied Sheila to Ryan's salute.

Ryan puts his hand down, and Sheila sits down, Ryan does the same.

"Ryan, I don't know how the colonist military works, but on earth, I have to know about all mobile weapons on my

vessel, including yours."

"Huh? Well, what kind of things do you need to know about the Gundam?"

"For starters, the basics…"

"It's name is the Gundam Magna, model number CGS-001, it uses a beam saber, used to have a beam machine rifle, and Vulcan cannons. It's a fairly simple design."

"I noticed," replied Sheila who sighs after her sentence. She looks up and said, "I can't allow you to stay on the ship for long, you bring too many enemies along with the ride."

Ryan looks at Sheila with a stunned look, then looks away with a blank face. "I… I understand, the people of your ship are more important."

"You understand, good. However, we will need the power of the Gundam in the eastern hemisphere for a while, so we'll drop you off after Russia."

Ryan smiles at Sheila's reply, then says, "I have to tell you something…"

Sheila looks at Ryan and gives her full attention.

"The colony military set two outcomes of Operation M1, the operation of sending me here in the first place. If Magna is destroyed, seven high powered nuclear missiles are launched to hit the vital sections of the planet to create a chain reaction to completely end all life on earth, and make it uninhabitable for human beings."

Sheila stares at Ryan in disbelief, then looks down to her boots, then replies with, "you… the colonies are… are just like the Earth Empire…" Sheila stands up, shakes her head, then walks towards the ship. Jack walks up to Ryan and puts a shoulder to the seated Ryan.

"Ryan, is that true?"

"…yes…"

Jack sits down next to Ryan and says, "You know, there can be peace without the expense of billions of peoples' lives."

"That's why I'm here, to prevent the second option of Operation M1."

"Ryan, you have a strange set of guts… That's neither a good thing or bad."

An explosion is heard in the center of the city, Ryan, Jack, and the other three soldiers head inside the Sword of Lucifer.

Several minutes later, Ryan, in the Gundam Magna, appears outside of the Sword of Lucifer. Jack then appears

inside his blue Buster Armor. The two boosts towards the sender of the explosion occurrence.

As the two mobile suits arrive at the scene, they see carnage, destruction, and rubble from the explosion.

"What was it, Ryan?"

"I don't know, but--" the Gundam Magna turns his head towards a building with a large hole that is aimed at the location of the explosion, "this explosion was caused by a beam blast, a Zent 2 or… the Black Gundam."

"Let's head back to the ship and tell them of what we found before--"

A beam blast hits Jack's Blue Buster Armor, and causes it to explode.

"JACK!" screamed Ryan as he saw the flames of horror engulfed Jack and his mobile suit.

A long hum, sounds from thrusters, grows loud behind as Ryan heard, "It's you again, Ryan…"

The Gundam Magna turned around to come face to face with the Black Gundam.

"You! I will kill you!" Ryan yelled as the Magna reached and pulled out it's beam saber to reveal a red blade of light and charges towards the Black Gundam.

The Black Gundam reveals it's beam saber and blocks Magna's slash attack.

"Ryan, why are you so angry? These are just Earthlings!"

"He was my friend! I will have my revenge!" screamed Ryan, freeing the Magna Gundam from the closed clash between both sabers.

As Magna stands still, the beam saber's body changes a bit, then the beam blade changes from the color red to gold.

"What the hell is going on!" yelled Kyle.

"This is for Jack!" Yelled Ryan, as he slashes through the armor plating of the Black Gundam , slicing it in half. The Black Gundam's ejection system activates and a pod holding the cockpit is released and heads away from the town.

The remains of the Black Gundam short circuits, then explodes, taking the entire city with it, and the Gundam Magna.

After an hour, a search party heads towards the cloud that now exists where the city once stood.

Through the cloud, a figure forms and exit's the city remains, the Gundam Magna.

"Captain Sheila, the enemy already knew about our presence, they must've told the civilians to leaves days ago, The Black Gundam has been destroyed…"

There was a sigh of relief throughout the entire ship and pier, until Ryan finished his report. "And Jack has died in battle…"