Disclaimer: I don't own anything though I wish I did.
Gundam Wing: A New Threat
By: timaru2003 (Revised by HeeroYuy1995, a.k.a. Matt-chan)
Chapter 14
Tim's day had gone straight to hell. First, he blows the beta straight to hell; then he wakes up and nearly gets ran over by a Star Destroyer; then he finds himself in some weird hospital without his gear, and then finds himself in every fan-boys ultimate fantasy except it's his ultimate nightmare; and to top it off he's now facing off with two Jedi.
Even if Tim's mind was not partially fried, he knew the odds of defeating a Jedi with just his little boot knife were just laughable. He knew it would be suicide. So he took the only option that allowed for a less than violent ending. He put the knife away.
"Ok, I know this is a fight I can't win, so why don't we all just calm down and discuss this like normal thinking people," Tim said. "I just want to find out where I am and what is going on."
"I sense truth in his words master." spoke the younger Jedi, which Tim had pegged as the Padawan.
"I agree," replied the older Jedi, obviously the master. This said, the Jedi shut down their light sabers and put them away.
"Whew - dodged that one," thought Tim upon seeing this.
"Soooo, My name is Tim Rau and I'm from the planet Earth located in the Solar system. I pilot a Gundam and I'm afraid that I'm a little lost," Tim said.
"Well then, welcome aboard the Star Destroyer Warsprite. My name is Admiral Pickett, and the two Jedi are Master Rickel and his apprentice Jorel," he said as both Jedi bowed slightly. "Judging by you craft and equipment you are not from around here are you."
"Nope, I'm from nowhere near here," Tim replied.
Later In the Admiral's Ward Room…
Tim was sitting drinking a cup of tea that came from a planet with a name he couldn't pronounce if his life depended on it. He had to admit he was impressed when he found that he had arrived after the 'Vong invasion and was in an era of temporary peace. He looked up from a report he had gotten from the Alpha's computer when he had his Spectersuit returned to him and was surprised that the damage was mostly cosmetic and that it was fully functional. The only structural damage was the personal effects compartment and he had lost both of his pistols and his M-14. This left him with his PPK, his .50 cal, a pair of P-90 submachine guns, and some explosives; but ammo was at a premium, and so were spare parts. Luckily the damage was limited to that.
"Well the other ships have left with the Jedi to return to port for re-supply and we will have to return soon also," Admiral Pickett said as he walked in. "This leaves little time to locate your home system and return you there, seeing that we have to give you a ride because you ship doesn't have a Hyperdrive. So what is your home system like anyways, it's not every day that we find a separate human species?"
"Nothing special, single star system with 9 planets with only one habitable, though we had started a terraforming project on the fourth planet, and we have several orbital colonies. On that note it seems every bad guy that shows his face always wants to drop them on earth for some reason, and if that happened it really suck. Cultural wise, we're not as advanced technically as you, but we're getting there," Tim explained.
"So what were the colonies like?" asked the Admiral.
"Big, round, few million people living on them each; marvels of engineering every one of them," Tim said.
"So if we can't get you back to your home, what will you do?" asked Pickett.
"I really don't know, but it is a big universe so I might just go around and find unsolved mysteries and ancient artifacts and solve them. I might make it a business," Tim answered.
"Well it sounds like a plan, and I might just have your first mystery right here in this system. When we first arrived we found around the third planet, which happens to be an ice ball, a series of debris fields and a sing large structure that sound much like one of your colonies. Here's a holo of it," he said as a projection sprang to life in the middle of the table.
"We have no clue as to what it is but it seems to be in a stable orbit. We have no name for it but off hand we call it the ring," Pickett continued.
Tim stood up and studied the holograph closely. "Do you have a orbital projection?" Tim asked.
"Yes we do," answered Pickett as he pressed a control and a line appeared to circle the third planet. "Why do you ask?"
Tim Said: "The object has a name and I pray that this is just some weird dream but that object is the remains of colony X18999."
"Emperors black bones! How?" asked Pickett.
"I don't know, but I have to get over there to make sure, and if it is, then I won't be needing that ride," Tim answered somberly, his face devoid of color.
"I will have a shuttle prepared at once. If that is the colony, does that make the planet?" Pickett remarked.
"Yes, that makes it Earth, my home." Tim said as he walked out
Colony X18999…
Tim stood on the outer skin of the dead colony in his Spectersuit. The suit had after all had been designed to operate in extreme environments so space wasn't a problem. All it had taken was an addition of a thruster pack that Q had designed and had placed on the Alpha. He was however going in alone even though Pickett had wanted to send a squad of troopers, Tim had declined. It was his way of paying his respects to the dead.
He moved towards a hole in the skin. "Admiral, I am about to enter the colony," he reported.
"Be careful and good luck," was the reply.
Tim entered and activated his light. He felt like being sick, there were bodies floating everywhere. With the entire colony vented to space, the dead had been perfectly preserved and the colony, without power or gravity, which turned it into a bizarre tomb.
"Admiral, I have multiple bodies floating here and it looks like they had no warning, and judging from the damage, this was no accident. Continuing with my mission," Tim said. He didn't stop for a reply, he just wanted to get to the main control center, recover the data banks, and get out of there.
Soon he had arrived at the control center and located the data storage system and was returning to the shuttle. "Sir, I have to data and am returning to ship," Tim reported.
The reply however was unexpected. "Understood, however there has been a development, 10 minutes ago we picked up a radionics signal from the fourth planet, and it appears to be a live signal, not a beacon. Are you up to investigating?" Pickett asked.
"Hell yea!" Tim answered.
"Good, the shuttle crew has the coordinates and will deliver you immediately. We'll send reinforcements as soon as we finish this orbit," Pickett answered.
Mars…
"Well I always wanted to go to Mars… and well, here I am!" Tim silently remarked as he stood at the foot of the shuttles boarding ramp. Tim pulled the charging handle on his P-90 back and locked the Spectersuit's helmet in place, leaving the face plate up. He breathed in the Martian air and was surprised that even though it was a bit thin, it had a sweet smell to it. But he wasn't there for the view; his target was a underground complex where the signal was originating.
He turned and signaled to the shuttle crew that he was going in and they nodded back. He moved towards the armored door that had rusted in place and allowed him easy entry. After entering, he brought the face plate on his helmet down and brought his gun up to the ready. After a few meters it had gotten so dark that he had to turn on the light that was attached to the P-90 just to see.
After going down several floors, he couldn't shake with the feeling that he was being watched even though the scanners and a visual scan with night vision had shown that there was no one. He stopped in front of the door leading to the room where the signal was originating. He steeled himself up and gave the door a swift kick. As the dust settled he became aware that the scans had missed something, and it was leaving him horrified, he found himself face to face with: Himself.
"I see you made it, though I expected you a few years earlier," the other Tim said, sarcasm in his voice.
"Just who the hell are you?" THE Real Tim demanded.
"Just look in the mirror and find out," other Tim retorted.
"How about I just blow you fucking brains out and then take a look huh?" real Tim asked.
"You can't, I'm an endangered species," the other Tim said.
"Sorry to disappoint, but humanity is spread throughout the galaxy," real Tim spat back.
"Who said I was human?" other Tim shot back. "A human couldn't survive this long even with assistance."
"I should have known, you're a damn Invid, a simulagent to be precise. Am I right?" real Tim demanded.
"Right as rain, I'm the only remaining Invid in the system… in fact I was the only remaining creature until you showed up. The war was going bad for you humans, even with me flying again and Dorothy flying a rebuilt Beta and even Matthew's sister helping, you were losing. It didn't help that I assassinated Relena and blew Miranda's Gundam to kingdom come with his own self- detonation system, or that Osama and Treize succeeded in a large scale colony drop program, leaving Earth uninhabitable and they never realized I was the enemy until it was too late. By then of course, Quatre and Miranda's sister had come up with this whacked out plan to send the remaining humans off to other habitable planets outside our solar system. The plan would have failed, but the Regent had to return to our home dimension and he never returned. The gate on our side was destroyed, stranding us here, but in the end it became a blood bath. When I reported the plan to abandon this system, the Remaining troopers decided to attack and carry out their mission to destroy humanity.
"So what happened?" asked real Tim, feat creeping into his voice.
"Oh it was big. The attack was flawless however I miscalculated the desperation of the Gundam pilots. Every time we took one out, the rest would destroy dozens. In the end with their ammo depleted they took to self detonating and when it was over all that were left was Me, Quatre, Dorothy, and Miranda's sister. I killed Miranda's sister first, a point blank shot with both beam cannons on my new Alpha, right at the cockpit; I can still hear her scream. Quatre was a bit of a challenge, but in the end it was a beam saber to the back that made him fall for good. And finally Dorothy, I just disabled her because I had plans… big plans. Unlike Mathew and Relena, we never married; we had fun, but never married. Here, stranded on Mars, I had so much fun. I know you know what kind of fun I'm talking about. She finally couldn't take it and she killed herself," Simulagent Tim said.
"You sick fuck, didn't anyone notice any changes and get suspicious?" The real Tim said.
"Well not really, you see, they found me lying in debris and with a little acting and some easily repaired damage to my body, had them convinced that any changes were from massive head trauma. Later on however, Q got suspicious and ran some tests on the gate and recreated the incident. He found out that you had traveled to the right coordinates, however the EMP blast overloaded the gate and caused it to open a temporal rift, sending you forward in time. He of course was going to use the gate on earth to try and rescue you, but he had a fatal accident courtesy of yours truly here. Later after earth had fallen, the idea resurfaced to use the gate here on Mars, but it never happened. So, what do you think of the future we helped create?" He asked mockingly.
"It sucks, but it's not staying that way," real Tim answered.
"How so?" Simulagent Tim asked.
"It's quite simple, you remember the Trunks saga from DBZ don't you?" real Tim asked.
"Yeah, Duo and Jason watched it religiously," Simulagent Tim answered.
"It's like this - Trunks came from the future to warn the DBZ crew that the androids were coming. After the androids had been defeated in the past, when Trunks returned to his future, nothing had changed. The way I see it, trunks traveled to a different Timeline that had subtle differences from his own, such as the third android. Of course Cell had come from a different timeline where he had killed Trunks and stolen his Time machine. And in the main timeline, the third android was created. So all I have to do is recreate the same conditions and I should return to my own timeline and now that I know everything can stop you in just one minute," real Tim said as he turned to leave.
"Why don't you kill me now?" shouted simulagent Tim.
"Won't do any good because I'm going to kill you anyway," real Tim said over his shoulder as he walked away.
The Simulagent then let loose a roar and pulled a hidden gun from a concealed holster. The real Tim heard the sound of the gun slipping out of its holster and spun around, brought his P-90 up and let loose with the whole clip. The other Tim never had a chance, and when it was over, all that was left of him was a misshapen mass of tissue and purplish blood. Tim walked over to it and saw that the head was still showing signs of life. Tim brought his boot up and said, "You know, I was wrong… I feel better now." With that he brought his boot down, crushing the Invid's head and then Tim then walked away.
"Now where it that gate?" Tim now pondered.
Several days later…
The Imperial and Alliance engineers had outdone themselves. In a matter of days they had figured out how to operate and set up for the jump back into Tim's timeline and had discovered a large array of dishes located on the opposite side of the planet. Tim figured that these were used to open a portal in space that could allow ships to pass through. The Alpha had been prepped for his return and Tim was packing his things in his temporary quarters on the Warsprite. Tim was almost done when the door chimed and Admiral Pickett walked in.
"Admiral, I can't thank you enough for what you have done," Tim said.
"If I was in your shoes I would feel the same way, however I came to se if you would let us do a favor for you," Pickett said.
"A favor?" Tim asked, perplexed.
"Yes, from what I understand, anything you do in your timeline will not effect ours, so the engineers have informed me that the large array is operational and I am requesting that you allow the task force to accompany you back to fight these Invid," Pickett said.
"I don't understand," Tim said.
"From what you have said about this time line, the planet earth is the forgotten home of humanity, and once the spy is discovered the enemy will more than likely attack with even more numbers then were used here, and that would mean that history and quite possibly several of the atrocities that have occurred over time will occur again," Pickett finished as he and Tim began to walk towards the bridge.
"I see where you coming from and I think that an Imperial Star Destroyer, two Defender Star Destroyers and a bunch of Gundams Vs. The Invid Horde, it's going to be one hell of a party, and I'm guessing that the Jedi are going to miss out since they didn't come back." said Tim as they arrived on the Bridge. "When do we leave?"
"As soon as I give the word," Pickett said as he motioned Tim to look out the window. Tim saw that a portal was already opened and had figured that Pickett had gambled that he would take up his offer. He noticed the portal getting larger as the ships approached it.
"One question, when and where are we going to arrive?" Tim asked Pickett as they drew closer to the portal.
" Our best calculations predict that we will arrive a couple of months after you left, and will are going to emerge a couple million kilometers outside the solar system to get a handle on the situation, from there we will execute a micro jump into the system when the time is right," Pickett answered.
"Cool," said Tim as the ships entered the portal.