Chapter 17: Storm Hawk
Kevin was simply awestruck by the winged mobile suit that stood before him. "The most powerful piece of machinery...?" he echoed. "Erica, what is it?"
"That," Simmons replied with quiet pride, "is the MBF-M1000 Sturm Falke."
"Stormhawk," he translated softly.
"It was designed and constructed four years ago," she went on. "By the late Baron Onishi. Your father. He was the most brilliant design engineer Morgenroete ever had."
Snake glanced at her. "So there was more to him than politics after all," he murmured, somehow not surprised. "I never saw that side of him."
"Well, he gave up the engineering side after the M1000 project was canceled." Simmons shrugged. "He wasn't too happy when the M1 Astray beat out this design, but while I can't blame him, I can see their point. The materials it's made of are so rare, and the machine costs so much, that it simply isn't practical to mass-produce. So this prototype was built, then immediately put into storage. Some were frightened by its sheer power and advanced technology."
"Advanced technology... Erica, just what makes this thing so different? And why was it pulled out of storage?"
"To answer your second question first," she replied with a smile, "Miss Cagalli mentioned the heir to John Tyler Onishi needed a mobile suit, so naturally we went to the Baron's old design and reactivated it, and added phase-shift armor."
"Phase shift?" Kevin was perplexed. "I'd heard Orb hadn't managed to duplicate it. How...?"
"The phase-shift module was one of the pieces we recovered from the Punisher," Cagalli said. "I arranged for it to be brought here this morning."
"Incredible..." Kira murmured beside him.
"Now, you asked about its technology. Well," Simmons began, "just about everythingis more advanced than anything else. The alloy it's made from, for example, is a radar-absorbent material that can only be made in zero-gravity; that's why it's so rare. It's also light-weight, making this barely a tenth the weight of, say, the Aegis. The Aegis weighs in at 79 tons; this is only 8."
"And the weaponry?" Snake pointed at the double-barreled rifle. "Some new kind of beam rifle?"
"Not exactly. That's actually two weapons, connected to form a more powerful variant. Singularly, they're called buster rifles, and their power is comparable to a hyper-impulse cannon." She pointed. "Connected as they are now, they form a beam cannon, whose power is nearly comparable to a positron blaster cannon."
His face registered shock; a positron blaster cannon was an antimatter weapon. The only ship he knew of that carried them was the Archangel, and the thought of something the size of a mobile suit having that kind of firepower... "Is that it?" he said, when he regained control of his vocal apparatus.
"No, there's more. For instance, mounted in its shoulders are a pair of beam sabers, also more powerful than standard. There are also machine cannons in the shoulders -they lift open when in use- and vulcans on the wings; the Stormhawk is a thoroughly lethal machine." Simmons motioned for the two Coordinators to follow her over, stopping at the Sturm Falke's feet. "Another thing that makes Stormhawk a complex weapon is the fact that, like the X300 frames, it's transformable. It can fly in mobile suit mode, true, but in its secondary mobile armor mode, it can reach speeds of upwards of Mach 10, and fly in and out of atmosphere on its own."
Cagalli, too, was hearing most of this for the first time. "And they shelved the design?" she said incredulously. "This is more powerful than any other weapon in existence!"
"It's also far more complex, and far more expensive, Miss Cagalli. But even that isn't all of it." Erica's face assumed a peculiar expression. "The one time this was flown, the test pilot was nearly driven insane by something called the 'Zero System'. After recovering, he reported having seen 'visions', among them his own death in a ball of fire." She shook her head. "Baron, we truly have no idea what the Zero System does, or how it does it. The only man who understood it was your father, and we can't exactly ask him, now can we? If you fly this thing, I strongly recommend that you not activate the Zero System."
"I'll keep that in mind," Kevin said, staring at the mobile suit. But I will discover its purpose, he told himself. My father designed this weapon, and if he created the Zero System, he did so for a reason.
Erica continued, unaware of the young man's thought. "So, Baron. I need to get Kira here up to speed on what he's to be doing. While we're doing that, care to take it for a test drive? I'm sure Miss Cagalli can keep an eye on things."
"Just try and stop me," Snake said. He could hardly wait to strap on this piece of mechanical perfection.
Simmons motioned for him to climb aboard. "There's a test area set up for you already; Stormhawk will be moved there once you're aboard. Miss Cagalli, you can observe from the control room." She walked away, Kira in tow. "By the way," she said over her shoulder, "I'd appreciate it if you don't try out the beam cannon in here; the walls are treated with anti-beam coating, but I doubt they'd stand up to something that powerful."
Snake settled into the pilot's seat, examining the cockpit with care as he did so. At first glance, it seemed quite similar to what he'd flown before, with the displays differing mainly in weapon data. He also noted that an additional modification had been made: the Sturm Falke had been designed before the advent of N-jammers, so it carried a nuclear fission generator. Now, it supplemented it with an energy battery with about twice the endurance of a standard unit.
It took a moment before Kevin noticed another strange device, built into the seat; the controls were labeled "Zero System", with a simple activation switch. The corresponding display on the instrument panel showed what appeared to be the pilot's brainwaves, and he wondered again just what the system was designed to do. Just what did you have in mind, Father? Why create a system that drives people insane? Once more, he promised himself he would learn the secret.
The communication system lit up, projecting a hologram in the air before him. "Strapped in, Kevin?" Cagalli asked.
"Affirmative. Ready to transfer." There was a jolt, and Snake felt the mobile suit being moved, until the display showed a large, open room clearly meant for mobile suit testing. "This is Stormhawk. In position and ready for testing." He gripped the controls. "By the way, this is one fancy radio rig."
"State-of-the-art, Kevin," she reminded him. "Just too expensive to mass-produce."
"Ah, yes, the eternal bane of the professional soldier: government budget oversight." He took another moment to familiarize himself with the controls, then nodded. "Okay; I'm going to start with the basics. Before I do anything fancy, it would help to make sure that it can walk."
For the first few minutes, Snake ran the powerful mobile suit through its paces, making sure none of the joints were sticky or anything. Finally, he nodded in approval. "Whoever reactivated it did a superb job; everything's nice and smooth."
"Great." In the floating screen, Cagalli smiled. "Now you're going to try the weapons, right?"
"Da. Got some targets ready?"
She glanced off-screen, then nodded. "Target drones, with low-powered beam weapons. Since your mobile suit was designed without phase-shift in mind, the basic armor's actually stronger than any of the G-weapons; these won't even burn the paint."
"Glad to hear it." Kevin armed one of the buster rifles, quite interested in finding out if they were as powerful as promised.
"Targets entering," another voice, presumably an engineer, said. "Fire when ready, Baron."
"Don't call me Baron," he muttered absently, then targeted the rifle on the first drone, waited for a solid lock, and fired. His main display immediately darkened over a small area as a beam, bright blue, as opposed to the standard green, lanced out from the weapon and struck the target, vaporizing it.
"Cool!" the unidentified voice said. It sounded like a teenage girl.
Snake cocked his head. "Who's this?"
"Oh, sorry." A second holographic image appeared, showing a blonde-haired girl in a test pilot uniform. "I'm Asagi," she said. "I'm one of the M1 Astray test pilots. It's an honor to meet you, Baron; they still talk about your father's work here."
"Pleased to meet you," he responded, slipping briefly into his aristocratic persona. "Don't call me Baron, though, okay? You probably know by now that I just spent three years away from Orb, so I'm not used to it and don't like it. I settle for Snake these days."
"Why don't you two chat after the test?" Cagalli said dryly. "I'm sure you'll get along famously. Care to get on with things?"
"Of course, Your Highness," Snake said with mock respect. He nodded to Asagi. "I shall look forward to speaking with you later." She nodded back, and her image disappeared. "So. Looks like the guns work as promised. Is there enough room in here for me to test the mobile armor mode?"
Cagalli checked a monitor. "Barely; don't expect much headroom. It's enough for you to get a feel for it, at least. The test pilot's report says you should brace yourself during transition, by the way."
"I'll keep that in mind." Test pilot, right. A pilot who only flew it once and thereafter refused to have anything to do with it. "Beginning transition."
He hit the appropriate switches, then held on as the entire mobile suit suddenly rearranged itself around him; legs folded, arms moved, the shield turned into a canopy, and the wings snapped into position. The Stormhawk hovered a moment on vertical engines as it extended landing gear, then set down on the floor.
"Whoa." Snake couldn't tell exactly what his craft looked like now, but Cagalli looked impressed. "How's it look?"
She blinked. "Not much like a mobile suit. Did it land on its own?"
"Yeah; there's a switch here labeled 'Disable Autolanding'; nice of the designers to remember autopilot's a badthing in combat." Like most field troops, he had a low opinion of engineers; they built things and tested them, got the bugs out of them, then told the soldiers the weapons were perfected... only to have the soldiers discover perfect in the lab was far different from perfect in the field. "Okay, let's try flying."
Snake quickly discovered flying Stormhawk in mobile armor mode wasn't much different from flying a Skygrasper; a Natural could do it. It was far more responsive, and better armed, but in principle easy to fly. Even in vertical flight, flying like a helicopter, he easily blew the remaining drones away without being touched by their low-powered weapons.
At last, he transformed again, returning to mobile suit mode, and powered down. "I think that's enough for now; besides, I'm running low on power. Tell 'em to get me back to the hanger."
Inwardly, as Snake unstrapped and climbed out of the Sturm Falke, he was exhilarated; outwardly he appeared almost as calm as usual, with his augmentation regulating heart rate and other such factors.
"So, Snake," he heard as he reached the floor. "How was it?"
Somehow he wasn't surprised to see Ramius and La Flaga coming toward him. "If I'm not mistaken, that's the best mobile suit in the world," he replied. "And just how many people knew about this before I did?"
La Flaga grinned. "Well, let's see. Cagalli needed the Captain's authorization to get Punisher's remains moved, and I happened to be in the same room; Murdoch and his people loaded the pieces, Crewman Koenig did the transport, Crewman Allster did the paperwork, and Crewman Haw entered the transponder codes and heat signature into the Archangel's computers. In fact, just about everybody knew, as of this morning, except you and Kira."
"Figures." Snake muttered something Russian under his breath, probably obscene. "Well, it should give ZAFT pause when next we meet."
"In more ways than one," Ramius said. She smiled. "Orb has intercepted radio traffic, and it seems ZAFT believes you to be dead. They'll be expecting us to be short a pilot." Motion caught her eye, and she nodded to Snake. "I believe there are some people who'd like to speak with you, Ensign. We'll leave you to it."
He raised an eyebrow as they left, then turned and saw three female test pilots coming toward him, one of them the girl he'd spoken to earlier. Snake tucked his helmet under his arm, straightened, and saluted.
The three returned it, somewhat sloppily. "I'm Asagi Caldwell," the first said, introducing herself more fully.
"Juri Wu Nien," said the second, a dark-haired girl with glasses.
"And I'm Mayura Labatt," the third, a girl with short red hair, finished.
Snake shook their hands. "Baron Kevin Onishi," he said in turn. "But these days I go by Kevin Walker, and my friends call me Snake."
"An honor to meet you, Baron- uh, Snake," Mayura said. "Your father was a legend here, with his brilliant work."
No one would have known it by looking at him, but inside, Kevin was quite nonplused by the attention; over the past three years, he'd lived and fought anonymously, with none knowing his true identity. Now, to have people actually being honored to meet him...
"Thank you," he managed. "I'm afraid, though, that I had no idea about my father's work until about an hour ago. I knew he was an important Morgenroete executive, but I never knew he was an engineer."
"The best," Asagi assured him. "He got out of the theoretical side years ago, when the M1000 project was terminated, which I guess is why you never knew about it. But he helped get the M1 program as far as it has. The only problem was..."
"The OS," Juri finished for her. "Since the late Baron wasn't a Coordinator, he had no more success than anyone else in creating an OS a Natural could use. That's why we need you and the Strike's pilot."
Snake shrugged uncomfortably. "Well, I'll certainly do my best, but I have to say I didn't inherit Dad's engineering talents. It's been a few years, so Orb may have forgotten, but I used to be a fencer; my strengths are on the battlefield, not the laboratory. I was enrolled in a technical college on Heliopolis for a year, sure, but I must admit I was more interested in building a better bomb than actual design work."
Mayura cocked her head. "Had a rough few years?"
"You could say that." He laughed quietly. "If I survive this war, maybe I'll write my memoirs. But they wouldn't exactly be for the faint of heart. The tale of a cybernetically-augmented super-soldier created by ZAFT, chased across the globe and the colonies by Blue Cosmos, ZAFT assassins, and a third party who wants me dead for yet another reason." Snake half-smiled. "As it happens, I'm the person Blue Cosmos wants dead more than any other. Remind me to tell you sometime about the true Crimson Tiger."
Evidently they'd already heard some of the tale, since they didn't even blink, but Asagi glanced about as if checking for eavesdroppers. "By the way, Baron, about your, uh, augmentation... There are rumors you're wanted here for more than just programming." She lowered her voice. "They say Morgenroete wants you in order to test the Zero System. Since you're already connected to a computer system..."
He froze, eyes turning to jade ice and momentarily frightening the pilots (Cagalli had once told him he could scare a grizzly to death with that look). Then they warmed. "I see," Kevin said finally. "Thanks for the warning; I'll keep it in mind." He smiled again; these three pilots, while a little too perky for his taste, were quite likable, and for once he felt like telling war stories. Nothing too nasty, of course; none of the darker tales that would warp young minds not already warped by trial by fire. "Actually, that reminds me of the last time I ignored a warning. I made the mistake of flying a mobile suit I'd been told wouldn't survive the battle, and... well you know" that was when Kevin noticed someone behind the girls working on a laptop. The guy had silver hair like Yzaks but his hair was shorter. "Who's he?" Kevin asked pointing towards the man.
"Oh him, he is Garret Nexus, he is one of the Astray pilots, he is the only one good at it right now because he is a coordinator." Juri said looking at him.
"We don't know him very well, he usually keeps to himself, something about his father and brother." Mayura said with a shrug. That was when Kevin remembered the things was said about Aelan being part of a project called Omega, which was a mix of Nexus and Abaddon project.
"When did he arive here in ORB?" Kevin asked as he never recalled seeing the man.
"Hmm, I would have to say about a few days before the bloody valentine, he says he was a resident there till about three days before it." Juri answered as Kevin nodded.
"Well I have to go, got to do some work for you, you know." Kevin said walking by Garret who looked up at the man.
"So that is the Baron Kevin Onishi, interesting." Garret said to himself as he closed his laptop to go to another location.
Some days later, Kevin entered the Morgenroete hanger in flight gear once more, preparing for another round of tests. So far, the M1000 had performed brilliantly, above and beyond all expectations; the only negative factor they'd discovered was essentially insoluble: if fired in beam cannon mode, the Sturm Falke's primary weapon would drain the mobile suit's energy battery dry after just three shots. It was a weapon of last resort. Hmm I wonder if that could penetrate Aelan's Umbrella Shield, Artemis never faced an attack like it. Kevin told himself.
He sensed something different about this test the moment he walked into the hanger, and that was confirmed when Cagalli walked over to him, a worried expression on her face. "Something wrong, tovarisch?" he asked.
She held up a clipboard with the test schedule. "They want you to test the Zero System. I thought Simmons said it wasn't safe."
"So she did." Snake shrugged. "It's not exactly unexpected; Asagi warned me they were planning this the first day I got here."
"But it could drive you mad!" Cagalli protested. "What good would that do you? It's too risky!"
"Cagalli, you're talking to a man who once tried to blow himself to atoms with a fusion bomb," he said dryly. "Don't talk to me about risk."
"And if it does drive you insane?" she challenged. "Then what?"
"Then Kira becomes the Archangel's only hope of reaching Alaska." Kevin smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, mon ami. I'll be fine."
"You'd better be," Cagalli muttered as he climbed aboard the Stormhawk. "Or I'll never speak to you again."
Soon, Snake was ensconced in the Stormhawk's cockpit in the test area. "Stormhawk here. All systems green. Ready for Zero System activation."
"You're sure about this?" Cagalli still looked concerned. "If anything happens, I'm going to shut it down from here."
"No, you're not," he replied sharply. "Not right away. I expect there'll be a period of adjustment, till I figure out just what the computer's trying to tell me, but I will figure it out. Just give me a minute or two."
"You'd better be right." She glared. "Okay, try it."
"Activating system." Taking a deep breath, Snake flipped the switch. And the cockpit around him vanished, leaving only himself and his flight controls.
Instead, he saw a mind-boggling view of the world around him, as seen from all angles. His mind twisted into a pretzel as he tried to make sense of it, and he dimly realized he was screaming. Then it got even worse, as he saw everything moving, over and over, always starting from the same point but taking a different path each time.
Then Snake saw his own past, the way things would have happened had some little thing been just slightly different. He saw himself on a shuttle, crushed by G-forces with his parents; vaporized in the destruction of Junius Seven; burned up on reentry after the Eighth Fleet's destruction; torn in half by his own brother in Banadiya; and finally, the way things would have been had he succeeded in destroyed himself two and a half years earlier.
Then he was back in the present, slumped in his seat. He became aware of Cagalli shouting at him. "Kevin! Kevin, answer me! Are you okay? I'm shutting it down!"
"No," Snake croaked; he realized his throat was raw from the screaming. "No," he repeated. "I'm okay. I think I figured it out."
"Well, that's a relief," she said, sarcasm resurfacing now that he was clearly sane. "At least you got the test done. So what is it? Some crazy radio system?"
Kevin smiled. "Send in some target drones, and set them to random fire. If I'm right, this should be interesting."
"Uh, okay; activating drones."
In the control room, Cagalli stared at the Stormhawk, wondering just what her old friend had in mind. Random fire... and he was just standing there.
Then the drones opened fire, and the Stormhawk moved; every time a beam was fired, the mobile suit was already somewhere else, and after a few seconds of dodging, Snake opened fire, vaporizing everything in moments. "Stormhawk; test concluded. I think we got what we were looking for, tovarisch."
Cagalli met Kevin in the hanger. "Okay, Kevin. Just what were you doing? What is the Zero System?"
He smiled. "As near as I can tell, it feeds tactical information directly into the pilot's mind, giving him a far better view of the tactical situation than anyone else. That's what caused the initial disorientation. But what's more interesting is this: I dodged those beams because I could tell where they were going to be before they were fired. Something that will come in handy when I fight Aelan again"
She gaped. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about a system that predicts the next few seconds of battle with uncanny accuracy. It's not perfect, but- Cagalli, that machine is psychic! It takes tactical data, processes it faster than just about any other computer on the planet, and shows the pilot what it thinks is going to happen next."
Cagalli would have been skeptical, had it been anyone else and had she not seen the results for herself. Still... "But that's crazy."
Snake smiled again. "So was my father, apparently. It works, though." Then he frowned. "But I do wonder just what he had in mind, creating a system that only a few can use without going completely insane; it wasn't like him to do something so... risky."
"Check his papers," she suggested. "The mansion is still undisturbed; if he left anything behind, it would be there, right?"
He nodded. "You're right. Tomorrow, after I get off-duty, I'll check things out. There's something going on that I'm missing."
A/N: Kevin now has his lovable Storm hawk, which will meet its demise in A New Saga lol. Besides that I don't have much to say instead of this being number 2 of the three chapters I am posting today.