I will protect my Gundam story till the day I die. I fear Bandai will do the same.
Gundam:
The dark era:
Chapter 1:
Poor lost souls:
It was quite a sight. Up near the shoreline, an entanglement of wrecked ships clung to each other. There were battleships, cruisers, missile boats, destroyers, just about anything you would expect out of a military fleet. The sailors who had sailed on these ships were floating face down in the water, being slowly eaten by sharks. The blood attracted sharks from miles away, and now had grown to a feeding frenzy. Up on the shore, dead soldiers, thousands of them, lay sprawled over each other like beached whales. There were smoldering machine gun nests further up shore and a wrecked reconnaissance stalled in the trenches. But even beyond that there was an even beyond that an even bigger sight was left to behold. For many miles beyond that you could not see any bear ground. That's because the ground was littered with bodies and mobile suites.
"God, what happened in there?" Asked one of the rookie recruits, pushing up to the cockpit from the rear.
"That is man in his most primitive form." Rapter answered. For no apparent reason, he had nervous tick. "That's man when all he knows is KILL! KILL! KILL!"
"Christ..." Taylor swore under his breath. "I don't think I can look at this anymore..."
"Get used to it." Rapter said, almost sounding annoyed. "You'll be seeing a lot more of it when we land."
"Yes, I know..."
"L-land?" Asked the now nervous rookie. "Y-you mean we're going in there?!"
"Yes." Rapter answered. "Now I suggest you get your gear, we'll be landing soon."
"Y-y-y-yessir!"
Rapter tapped Doc.'s shoulder, who was standing with him and Taylor in the cockpit. "You better get your stuff too, Doc.. I want a medic with me, just in case."
Doc. saluted Rapter. "Right, sir!"
A few minutes later, they were on the ground. Rapter began to brief his comrades. He held up the pictures of two men. One was a young, blond, happy looking guy. He looked like a pretty carefree guy. The other was a red haired guy about the same age as the other, but his demeanor appeared to be very different from the other. He appeared cold, determined, even moody. It seemed as though he was the type of guy who always had some sort of problem he had to contemplate. Some burden he had to carry.
"Remember these faces." Rapter told his comrades. "We're looking for them."
"Do you seriously think they're alive?" Asked the rookie, pointing at all the slaughtered soldiers. "I mean, what are the chances they're still alive?"
"These are VIP.'s, kid." Taylor scolded. "Besides, boy, you've got a lot of nerve questioning your superior officer. A good soldier is always supposed to follow orders WITHOUT QUESTION."
"But what makes them so important?"
"Aye!" Doc. answered, taking full advantage of his British accent. "Let's jus' say that you'd have to 'ave been there to know. Right, mate?"
"What's the story?" Asked the rookie.
"Long story." Said Rapter, drawing out his handgun. "Ask later. We're almost certain to find them together." They began their hike up a steep hill, but the only real reason it was steep was the dead bodies.
"Why?"
"Another long story..." Answered Taylor, who was scrolling up the hill while cautiously pointing his minigun in a safe direction. "You know what? Don't ask about it. Keep your mind focused on the mission."
They walked up the hill into a shack that looked like it might have been a building a few hours ago(If it hadn't been for all the explosions during the night.). A large, white, circular object that resembled an oversized telescope lay on the ground, long side up, diagonally. But there was someone underneath it. Doc. noticed.
"Right! Everyone get outta' my way! We've got a survivor!" Doc. Rushed up to his patient. He got his medical kit ready. But, as it was already clear, his wounds were too serious. He would not survive.
"What's his status?" Rapter inquired.
"Right." Said Doc., having taken his analysis. "This is no good. He's got third degree burns on his whole right half of the body. Massive internal bleeding." He lifted the man's scalp, revealing his brains'. "Brain damage. You might want to ask your question's quick. I'd say he has less than a few minutes to live."
"Alright." Said Rapter, rudely shoving Doc. out of his way while shoving the pictures of the two young men in the injured man's face. "Have you seen these two?" The man looked up and groaned. Rapter noticed the Rebel patch he wore. He coughed up light red blood. It was obvious he wasn't going to last much longer. "Have you seen them?" Rapter asked again, impatient. Apparently, the man's eyes had just focused in. He coughed up more light red blood in an attempt to laugh and pointed at the picture with the guy with the red hair. "So, have you seen him? Where is he?"
The man tried in a futile effort to speak. He repeatedly opened his mouth, but instead of words coming out, it was thick, dark red blood instead, indicating now that he was now very close to death. With his last breath, he whispered"Bastard.", then died.
Rapter stood up from his kneeling position. "Well..." He said. "...At least we know one of our comrades might still be alive. Come."
"Wait a second." Corrected the rookie, tossing away a cigarette he had been smoking. "You mean one of your comrades." Rapter frowned.
"No matter. Come." They left the destroyed shack and continued through the malodorous pile of bodies, the battlefield. But it wasn't just your average battlefield stink. It had rained during the heat of the of the battle, which meant the malodorous stench even more malodorous. The bodies were also in varying states of dismemberment and decay. The smell could easily make a person sick. As it was getting into noontime, the temperature began to rise. Rapter watched the sun beaming as if were proud sitting atop the thunder heads of last night's storm.
The rookie was in the back of the line scribbling on a little, crinkled piece of paper. Taylor fell back to see what he was writing. "What'cha doin', Honey?" He said in an obvious attempt to mock him.
"Shut up!" Rapter commanded them. "We're getting into a dangerous area and we need to stay alert!" Very quickly the layout of the land changed, and they did not need a second warning to heed his instruction's. A whole unit of leo mobile suites, it seemed had been taken down there. They lay there like toppled gods because of their immense size. Even on their back's or on their face's, they were still gargantuan statues. To fight one on the battlefield was to realize how puny and small human beings really were. You had never known pain until you had seen their bullet's mow down your closest friend's, blowing them to tiny pieces, and it was unlikely that you would ever find any of those. You never knew sorrow until you had seen one of them step on a few of your friend's, squashing them. The only thing you would find after that was a bloody jelly and some pieces of torn clothing. A battlefield afterwards was gruesome enough to make a grown man break down and weep. Rapter had seen it many times. Rapter had grown accustomed to seeing these kinds of things.
They appeared to have entered a area with smaller hills than the previous area, but they were still there. This was probably used as a choke point for the leos during the battle the night before. The hill like points was the raised ground of 8-by-9 yard squares in the ground. Upon entering the first square, Rapter noticed stairs to his left that lead up to a small shack. It was the most complete structure they had seen so far... it seemed miraculously undamaged. Rapter motioned everybody to follow him with a little nod of his head toward the shack. He cautiously walked up the steps, with a little jerk of the head to the left or right on occasion. Any step he took could be followed by an ambush. When he was sure that there was nobody there to ambush him, he walked up to the door and tried to turn the knob, but it was locked. "Locked" he said, and he clicked his tongue. Then there was a loud crack and Rapter spun around. All he saw was a large plum of smoke. It seemed like a good idea to him to investigate. He put his finger's over his lips to signal his teammates to be quiet and pointed to the area where the explosion was set off. It was only a few blocks away. So they went to investigate. It was two blocks south and one block east that they encountered an obstacle. When they were a few feet away from the next block east, Rapter noticed an ultra-thin gleaming object between two poles. He could barely see it, but it was there. After a closer inspection, he found that it was wire. And that wire was rigged to explosives. Rapter swore under his breath. "Dammit."
Suddenly, there was a loud crashing noise and mechanical sounds. Rapter knew what it was. In the southern block adjacent to their's, a leo had risen up. It had just pretended to be destroyed!
"Fuck!" He heard his rookie cry out frantically, grabbing the peace of paper attached to his belt. "We're screwed!"
"And now for the FUN part!" Taylor said, raising his minigun toward the leo. "Aim for the yellow part, the eyes! If we can do that, we can knock it's sensor's offline and he won't be able to track us!"
But Rapter knew it would be useless. The leo already had them in his sight's. Any moment now he could open fire and that would be the end of them, torn to pieces. It seemed the leo was about to fire. This is the end, he thought...
Suddenly, the leo recoiled, and many explosions covered it's hull.
"What's going on!?" Rapter said, in shock.
After a few seconds, the explosions stopped, and the leo slumped down. Rapter was wondering how and why they were spared, but...
The leo arouse again. "Damn!" The leo, seeming triumphant, leveled it's cannon back at Rapter and his comrades.
"Well..." Said the Doc. "It was good knowin' ya', mates."
Just then, a last, final explosion destroyed the cockpit.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The leo's pilot was thrown out by the explosion. He was thrown so far that he fell behind them. They turned to watch him hit the ground, to make sure he was dead, and when they did, they saw someone else on the hill, holding an explosives detonator. And he was a guy from one of the photographs.
"Fex! Fex! Is that you, Fex!?"
It was definitely Fex, but it didn't look like the Fex that Rapter knew. He ran up and grabbed him by the shoulder's. "What the hell happened, man!? Tell me!"
Fex spoke for the first time. "The calvary, I presume. You are a little late." His voice seemed a little more heavy, solemn.
"Fex, quickly, have you seen-"
"Forget about Howie." Fex interrupted. "We need to get out of here...now."
They heard explosions in the distance.
Fex had already started to make his way down to the beach. "You guys coming? I wouldn't suggest staying here."
"I've only completed one-half of my objective here, Fex! My order's say to find both you and Howie and bring you back!"
Fex stopped. He didn't turn around. "Well, I guess it all comes down to this...Which is more important...Your order's or your life." Then he continued towards the beach.
Only one half of my orders complete? Rapter thought, wondering what his superiors would do to him. But then there was another explosion in the distance and this one sounded louder. In this moment, Rapter decided he would not lay down his life and the lives of others just to obey some orders. He followed Fex.
A few minutes later, they were on the helicopter flying away from the battlefield. Fex sat in the back, a rather far distance from the others. A man from the front came back with some coffee.
"Want some coffee, sir?"
Fex gave him a look as though he was odd. "No thanks."
Then he came up and offered it to Rapter and he gladly accepted. He then looked over at Fex, who was taking a swig out of his canteen. But the water was warm and foul-tasting, so he put the cap back on. He took out his handgun and started cleaning it. He was doing it very slow and methodically. This is definitely not the Fex I know, Rapter thought.
"What happened to you?" Rapter blurted out.
Fex looked up, looking almost disgusted. "You do not want to know."
"What about Howie?"
Fex came back with a question of his own. "Does it really matter?"
"Yeah, it does!" Shouted the rookie, totally ignoring the levels of command.
"Soldier, stay in line!" Rapter told him.
"No, let the kid talk." Fex ordered Rapter. "What's your name, kid?"
The rookie saluted him. "Ensign, second class. First name, Walker J.. Last name, Johnson.."
"Okay. At ease." Walker finished his salute. "Was this your first mission?"
"Yessir. How did you know that?"
"Rookies always tremble a lot on their first mission." He looked him dead in the eye. "Always." He look over to Rapter. "So, I take it the J.T.M.S. bill passed, right?"
Rapter nodded. "Wednesday."
Fex leaned back on the bench. "If I were there, I wouldn't have let it been passed. Now, two members of the J.T.M.S. are K.I.A.(Killed in action), two of the others are M.I.A.(Missing in action), and I..." Fex sighed. "...am still here."
"?What's all this?"Walker asked.
"You seem rather uninformed." Said Fex, leaning even farther back into the bench. "All right, I'll tell you."
__________________________________________________________
That's the end of chapter one. What happened in the battle? Who is Howie? What is the J.T.M.S.? If you keep reading, you will (eventually) find out. Review, please.
Gundam:
The dark era:
Chapter 1:
Poor lost souls:
It was quite a sight. Up near the shoreline, an entanglement of wrecked ships clung to each other. There were battleships, cruisers, missile boats, destroyers, just about anything you would expect out of a military fleet. The sailors who had sailed on these ships were floating face down in the water, being slowly eaten by sharks. The blood attracted sharks from miles away, and now had grown to a feeding frenzy. Up on the shore, dead soldiers, thousands of them, lay sprawled over each other like beached whales. There were smoldering machine gun nests further up shore and a wrecked reconnaissance stalled in the trenches. But even beyond that there was an even beyond that an even bigger sight was left to behold. For many miles beyond that you could not see any bear ground. That's because the ground was littered with bodies and mobile suites.
"God, what happened in there?" Asked one of the rookie recruits, pushing up to the cockpit from the rear.
"That is man in his most primitive form." Rapter answered. For no apparent reason, he had nervous tick. "That's man when all he knows is KILL! KILL! KILL!"
"Christ..." Taylor swore under his breath. "I don't think I can look at this anymore..."
"Get used to it." Rapter said, almost sounding annoyed. "You'll be seeing a lot more of it when we land."
"Yes, I know..."
"L-land?" Asked the now nervous rookie. "Y-you mean we're going in there?!"
"Yes." Rapter answered. "Now I suggest you get your gear, we'll be landing soon."
"Y-y-y-yessir!"
Rapter tapped Doc.'s shoulder, who was standing with him and Taylor in the cockpit. "You better get your stuff too, Doc.. I want a medic with me, just in case."
Doc. saluted Rapter. "Right, sir!"
A few minutes later, they were on the ground. Rapter began to brief his comrades. He held up the pictures of two men. One was a young, blond, happy looking guy. He looked like a pretty carefree guy. The other was a red haired guy about the same age as the other, but his demeanor appeared to be very different from the other. He appeared cold, determined, even moody. It seemed as though he was the type of guy who always had some sort of problem he had to contemplate. Some burden he had to carry.
"Remember these faces." Rapter told his comrades. "We're looking for them."
"Do you seriously think they're alive?" Asked the rookie, pointing at all the slaughtered soldiers. "I mean, what are the chances they're still alive?"
"These are VIP.'s, kid." Taylor scolded. "Besides, boy, you've got a lot of nerve questioning your superior officer. A good soldier is always supposed to follow orders WITHOUT QUESTION."
"But what makes them so important?"
"Aye!" Doc. answered, taking full advantage of his British accent. "Let's jus' say that you'd have to 'ave been there to know. Right, mate?"
"What's the story?" Asked the rookie.
"Long story." Said Rapter, drawing out his handgun. "Ask later. We're almost certain to find them together." They began their hike up a steep hill, but the only real reason it was steep was the dead bodies.
"Why?"
"Another long story..." Answered Taylor, who was scrolling up the hill while cautiously pointing his minigun in a safe direction. "You know what? Don't ask about it. Keep your mind focused on the mission."
They walked up the hill into a shack that looked like it might have been a building a few hours ago(If it hadn't been for all the explosions during the night.). A large, white, circular object that resembled an oversized telescope lay on the ground, long side up, diagonally. But there was someone underneath it. Doc. noticed.
"Right! Everyone get outta' my way! We've got a survivor!" Doc. Rushed up to his patient. He got his medical kit ready. But, as it was already clear, his wounds were too serious. He would not survive.
"What's his status?" Rapter inquired.
"Right." Said Doc., having taken his analysis. "This is no good. He's got third degree burns on his whole right half of the body. Massive internal bleeding." He lifted the man's scalp, revealing his brains'. "Brain damage. You might want to ask your question's quick. I'd say he has less than a few minutes to live."
"Alright." Said Rapter, rudely shoving Doc. out of his way while shoving the pictures of the two young men in the injured man's face. "Have you seen these two?" The man looked up and groaned. Rapter noticed the Rebel patch he wore. He coughed up light red blood. It was obvious he wasn't going to last much longer. "Have you seen them?" Rapter asked again, impatient. Apparently, the man's eyes had just focused in. He coughed up more light red blood in an attempt to laugh and pointed at the picture with the guy with the red hair. "So, have you seen him? Where is he?"
The man tried in a futile effort to speak. He repeatedly opened his mouth, but instead of words coming out, it was thick, dark red blood instead, indicating now that he was now very close to death. With his last breath, he whispered"Bastard.", then died.
Rapter stood up from his kneeling position. "Well..." He said. "...At least we know one of our comrades might still be alive. Come."
"Wait a second." Corrected the rookie, tossing away a cigarette he had been smoking. "You mean one of your comrades." Rapter frowned.
"No matter. Come." They left the destroyed shack and continued through the malodorous pile of bodies, the battlefield. But it wasn't just your average battlefield stink. It had rained during the heat of the of the battle, which meant the malodorous stench even more malodorous. The bodies were also in varying states of dismemberment and decay. The smell could easily make a person sick. As it was getting into noontime, the temperature began to rise. Rapter watched the sun beaming as if were proud sitting atop the thunder heads of last night's storm.
The rookie was in the back of the line scribbling on a little, crinkled piece of paper. Taylor fell back to see what he was writing. "What'cha doin', Honey?" He said in an obvious attempt to mock him.
"Shut up!" Rapter commanded them. "We're getting into a dangerous area and we need to stay alert!" Very quickly the layout of the land changed, and they did not need a second warning to heed his instruction's. A whole unit of leo mobile suites, it seemed had been taken down there. They lay there like toppled gods because of their immense size. Even on their back's or on their face's, they were still gargantuan statues. To fight one on the battlefield was to realize how puny and small human beings really were. You had never known pain until you had seen their bullet's mow down your closest friend's, blowing them to tiny pieces, and it was unlikely that you would ever find any of those. You never knew sorrow until you had seen one of them step on a few of your friend's, squashing them. The only thing you would find after that was a bloody jelly and some pieces of torn clothing. A battlefield afterwards was gruesome enough to make a grown man break down and weep. Rapter had seen it many times. Rapter had grown accustomed to seeing these kinds of things.
They appeared to have entered a area with smaller hills than the previous area, but they were still there. This was probably used as a choke point for the leos during the battle the night before. The hill like points was the raised ground of 8-by-9 yard squares in the ground. Upon entering the first square, Rapter noticed stairs to his left that lead up to a small shack. It was the most complete structure they had seen so far... it seemed miraculously undamaged. Rapter motioned everybody to follow him with a little nod of his head toward the shack. He cautiously walked up the steps, with a little jerk of the head to the left or right on occasion. Any step he took could be followed by an ambush. When he was sure that there was nobody there to ambush him, he walked up to the door and tried to turn the knob, but it was locked. "Locked" he said, and he clicked his tongue. Then there was a loud crack and Rapter spun around. All he saw was a large plum of smoke. It seemed like a good idea to him to investigate. He put his finger's over his lips to signal his teammates to be quiet and pointed to the area where the explosion was set off. It was only a few blocks away. So they went to investigate. It was two blocks south and one block east that they encountered an obstacle. When they were a few feet away from the next block east, Rapter noticed an ultra-thin gleaming object between two poles. He could barely see it, but it was there. After a closer inspection, he found that it was wire. And that wire was rigged to explosives. Rapter swore under his breath. "Dammit."
Suddenly, there was a loud crashing noise and mechanical sounds. Rapter knew what it was. In the southern block adjacent to their's, a leo had risen up. It had just pretended to be destroyed!
"Fuck!" He heard his rookie cry out frantically, grabbing the peace of paper attached to his belt. "We're screwed!"
"And now for the FUN part!" Taylor said, raising his minigun toward the leo. "Aim for the yellow part, the eyes! If we can do that, we can knock it's sensor's offline and he won't be able to track us!"
But Rapter knew it would be useless. The leo already had them in his sight's. Any moment now he could open fire and that would be the end of them, torn to pieces. It seemed the leo was about to fire. This is the end, he thought...
Suddenly, the leo recoiled, and many explosions covered it's hull.
"What's going on!?" Rapter said, in shock.
After a few seconds, the explosions stopped, and the leo slumped down. Rapter was wondering how and why they were spared, but...
The leo arouse again. "Damn!" The leo, seeming triumphant, leveled it's cannon back at Rapter and his comrades.
"Well..." Said the Doc. "It was good knowin' ya', mates."
Just then, a last, final explosion destroyed the cockpit.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The leo's pilot was thrown out by the explosion. He was thrown so far that he fell behind them. They turned to watch him hit the ground, to make sure he was dead, and when they did, they saw someone else on the hill, holding an explosives detonator. And he was a guy from one of the photographs.
"Fex! Fex! Is that you, Fex!?"
It was definitely Fex, but it didn't look like the Fex that Rapter knew. He ran up and grabbed him by the shoulder's. "What the hell happened, man!? Tell me!"
Fex spoke for the first time. "The calvary, I presume. You are a little late." His voice seemed a little more heavy, solemn.
"Fex, quickly, have you seen-"
"Forget about Howie." Fex interrupted. "We need to get out of here...now."
They heard explosions in the distance.
Fex had already started to make his way down to the beach. "You guys coming? I wouldn't suggest staying here."
"I've only completed one-half of my objective here, Fex! My order's say to find both you and Howie and bring you back!"
Fex stopped. He didn't turn around. "Well, I guess it all comes down to this...Which is more important...Your order's or your life." Then he continued towards the beach.
Only one half of my orders complete? Rapter thought, wondering what his superiors would do to him. But then there was another explosion in the distance and this one sounded louder. In this moment, Rapter decided he would not lay down his life and the lives of others just to obey some orders. He followed Fex.
A few minutes later, they were on the helicopter flying away from the battlefield. Fex sat in the back, a rather far distance from the others. A man from the front came back with some coffee.
"Want some coffee, sir?"
Fex gave him a look as though he was odd. "No thanks."
Then he came up and offered it to Rapter and he gladly accepted. He then looked over at Fex, who was taking a swig out of his canteen. But the water was warm and foul-tasting, so he put the cap back on. He took out his handgun and started cleaning it. He was doing it very slow and methodically. This is definitely not the Fex I know, Rapter thought.
"What happened to you?" Rapter blurted out.
Fex looked up, looking almost disgusted. "You do not want to know."
"What about Howie?"
Fex came back with a question of his own. "Does it really matter?"
"Yeah, it does!" Shouted the rookie, totally ignoring the levels of command.
"Soldier, stay in line!" Rapter told him.
"No, let the kid talk." Fex ordered Rapter. "What's your name, kid?"
The rookie saluted him. "Ensign, second class. First name, Walker J.. Last name, Johnson.."
"Okay. At ease." Walker finished his salute. "Was this your first mission?"
"Yessir. How did you know that?"
"Rookies always tremble a lot on their first mission." He looked him dead in the eye. "Always." He look over to Rapter. "So, I take it the J.T.M.S. bill passed, right?"
Rapter nodded. "Wednesday."
Fex leaned back on the bench. "If I were there, I wouldn't have let it been passed. Now, two members of the J.T.M.S. are K.I.A.(Killed in action), two of the others are M.I.A.(Missing in action), and I..." Fex sighed. "...am still here."
"?What's all this?"Walker asked.
"You seem rather uninformed." Said Fex, leaning even farther back into the bench. "All right, I'll tell you."
__________________________________________________________
That's the end of chapter one. What happened in the battle? Who is Howie? What is the J.T.M.S.? If you keep reading, you will (eventually) find out. Review, please.