Previously:

Ryder and friends managed to excape to freedom after a heated confritation. Now they must find the Ronin Gundams

before the Nexis Union does. The four friends are racing against time and with one of their own injured, makes things

slower. Will they manage to recover the Gundams in time?

Episode Four: Federation Assination

Miho opened her eyes to find herself in a brightly light medical room and her three friends standing around looking worried.

She didn't know how long she had been out, but it looked like it had been at least a day due to the old bloody bandages that laid

in a trashbin by her bed. Miho then grinned slightly, no one had noticed she was awake yet-even though her body was in pain she

knew that her friends had done the best they could to help her and that made all the pain in the world disappear.

'so, who died?'

Miho said as normally as she could without having pain waver throughout her voice.

'Miho! you're awake!'

Avi and Kyo smiled as they walked up to Miho's side-Kyo placed a hand on miho's shoulder. Ryder was leaning against a wall

staring out the window-he looked as if he were lost in thought. Miho tilted her head and watched Ryder for a while, He pushed

himself off of the wall and looked at the other three. Miho had a feeling she knew what he was planning on doing, she knew that

he knew more then either Kyo or Avi did about what was going on and about that mysterious woman.

'Ryder...'

"I'm glad you're alright, Miho. I'll see you guys later...'

Avi and Kyo looked at each other confused as Miho tried to leap out of bed to stop him, but was shoved back by Avi, which only

caused Miho to feel the full pain of her injury.

'Ryder...you know it's too dangerous to go out....'

'I have to.'

With that Ryder dashed out of the room and Miho tried to get out of bed again, this time succedding only to have Kyo grab her

by the shoulders and force her to sit back down on the bed. Avi growled angerly and ran after Ryder, she wasn't impressed that

he was just leaving them and at a time like this.

'Ryder! Where the Hell are you going!?'

she shouted at him down the long white hallway-Ryder paused briefly to glance at her.

'Miho knows.'

with that he had dashed down another hallway and out of sight and ear shot of Avi. Confused and annoyed Avi returned to Miho's

room to see Miho and Kyo wrestling on the edge of the bed, one move and either one of them would end up on the floor with a

bloody mouth.

'Miho, why'd Ryder take off? what do you know?'

Avi demanded while crossing her arms infront of her chest, she sat on a table and watched as Kyo tried to restrain Miho who was

still trying to stop Ryder. With a sigh, Miho stopped and leaned back with a shudder of pain,much to Kyo's relief.

'He's gone to do two things, both are very dangerous and stupid of him to go alone....firstly, he's going to confront the woman

who shot me, which I'm shocked that neither of you reconized. and the second thing is that he's gone for at least one of the

Gundams.'

Avi and Kyo stopped and thought about what they had just been told, and why it was odd that they hadn't reconized the woman

who shot Miho, even if they could neither of them got a very good look at her face to begin with.

'so, why didn't he tell any of us?'

'He didn't want any of us to get injured, or killed by following him.'

replied Miho pointing to herself as proof of what could happen to them if they had tagged alone with him.

'heh, and what's so important about this woman...'

Avi huffed, not liking Miho's last answer.

'before I tell you who she is and why you should have reconized her, can one or both of you answer me this....How'd we get out

of that base alive?'

She looked from Kyo to Avi and back again waiting for an answer from either of them.

'we Nearly didn't after we excaped that hanger...'

replied Avi as she recalled their struggle to excape the base only hours earlier...

Kyo sped across the grassy path towards the security gates-Avi and Miho were in the back of the truck and the blood

from Miho's wound hadn't stopped yet. Ryder was sitting beside Kyo reloading his stolen gun and remaining silent, just then the

truck went into a skidding hault and the group was thrown foreward in their seats. Standing in a long line infront of the truck was

two dozen or more soldiers, who all had their guns aimed at the truck.

'Surrender now or prepare to be shot!'

one of the men yelled at the four. All eyes where on Kyo as he staired angerly out the front window, with a strange and almost

twisted smirk Kyo looked back at his friends.

'Not Bloody likely.'

He grinned and hit the gas pedal, sending the truck into a spin until it was parrallel with the soldiers, he raced just inches from the

guns as the truck went as fast as it possibly could.The soldiers slightly stunned that their warning had been ignored began to open

fire on the truck, however it's armour wasn't damaged from the bullets. When they got a good view the soldiers began to aim and

shoot at the wheels of the truck hoping to send it into a rolling crash. Kyo had to put all his driving experience to the test to avoid

being shot and probably killing them all. The truck went flying over a small hill and was out of range of the soldier's gunfire, but

the four knew that they weren't out of dangerous grasp just yet, they still had to make it off of the base grounds.

'Miho's still bleeding! we need to get out of here and soon or she'll die!'

exclaimed Avi as she tried to keep pressure on the wound with bandages she had found in the backseat.

'I know....'

Kyo was cut off as a large explosion infront of them made him swirve and keep all four wheels on the ground at the same time

as trying to figure out what and where the explosion had come from. He glanced in the rearveiw mirror and saw strange metalic

objects rising from the ground, that's when he relized what they were and that he had to get the truck out of there as fast as

possible.

'Lazer Cannons...'

He declared as more explosions errupted all around the truck and Kyo cursed profoundly as he kept spining the truck to avoid

the shots. He turned sharply and managed to get past the last explosion fine, however, they were now coming up to the back of

the base and he figured this was were he would have to put his driving to the max test.

'I don't like how the cannons have stopped.'

Kyo sighed, glancing down at the gas gage and seeing that the truck had three quarters of a tank left, if they lived through all this,

it should be just enough to get them back to town. Then again, he didn't know how far they were from town and if they were even

still in the same country. He was trying to figure out how they would survive if they had a long way to go when suddenly a large

explosion in the back of the truck made him come to a stop and the others cry out in surprise.He spun around in his seat to see the

whole back of the truck was damaged badly, the back seat was torn open and one of the wheels had been blown off. the air was

thick with smoke and exhaust. Kyo turned back to the front as if expecting to see more cannons, but it looked clear all except for

the odd shaped mounds in the ground.

'Mines...'

Ryder noted as he looked at the many mines in front of them and of those behind them, he then looked at Kyo who was silent and

at a loss of words for a moment. Kyo shook his uncertainity away and drove on with more caution then he would liked to have

used, but to evoid being blown to bits, he had no other choice. It was a long and heart renching few minutes as Kyo slowly drove

past the mines,knowing that any disturbance and they would detinate, sending them into oblivion. Kyo was so intensly concintrating

on his driving that he didn't notice Miho give a small whimper of pain as Avi tried to move her closer to the front seat. It didn't seem

possible, but as soon as Kyo started to speed up the others knew that he had gotten them through the mine field and was now

racing straight towards the gates and hopefully freedom.

'Hey, Ryder-after all this you'd better remember that code.'

Kyo glanced over at Ryder as he floored it all the way to the gate and the security panal which was on Ryder's side of the truck.

It would appear that the soldiers were certain that they had been killed by one of the traps, not a single personalle worker was to

be seen, which made their excape eerily easy. Ryder punched in the numbers into the panal, it hadn't been more then half an hour

ago when they had snuck into a room just before the hanger fight and accessed a computer to see what data the chip that Ryder

was given held. It had many access codes and plans for various Nexis projects, but they had only been interested in knowing how

to get out and where to find the Gundams. They would have been in that room longer , if only they hadn't of been spotted by a

minor soldier, which they easily disposed of.

'Hurry up, before they realize we're not dead.'

Avi growled impatienly

'Done!'

Ryder leaned back and waited for the access code to go through, he hoped that he hadn't made a mistake, for he knew that the

alarms would ring and with all of them tired they wouldn't be able to dodge the soldiers or any other attack this time.

'Thank you.'

came a computerized voice and the gates opend, the group breathed a sigh of relief as Kyo drove them off the grounds and down

a small winding path. They were safe for now, but needed to find a place to take Miho, who looked worse and worse as the

minutes ticked by . Luckily when they finally got back to town they found that the old hospitel was still in use and they were able

to get Miho the medical assitance that she needed. The doctor had pulled the bullet from her, and not a moment too soon as if it

had stayed in her body any longer she would have to deal with blood poisoning and with a limited amount of instruments, she

would have most likely died from that ailment.

A shot rang out, sending all the world's leaders into a confused state of panic-they had all been sitting in a theatre like room

waiting for the man who had asked them all to gather here on this day. The room was filled with worry and concern as they all

knew that for them to all be in one area like this was just asking for a major strike from the Nexis Union, who wouldn't miss an

opertunity like this to take a major lead in the war. Several more shots rang out and by this time the Prime Minister from Gernovia

was about to leave when the door's flew open. Standing in the door way was a tall skinny man with crooked glasses-blood dripped

from a large wound in his chest; the room fell silent. This man had been the President of the Earth Militaria's second hand man.

'The...The...President....Is...Dead....'

with a shuddering gasp of breath the man topled onto the ground, now also dead. This sent everyone in the room into chaos-they

were all trying to leave before they were the next one's to be killed, the only thing on their lips was 'Nexis Assines.' Now that the

president was dead the Earth would be weakened and Nexis would take the next step in their plan. with Limited weapons on Earth

and all space compatable weapons still being tested- Earth was at a very serious disadvantage.

Standing over the body of the dead president was a young woman with long brown hair-her pink and white gown stained with

tears from her and the blood from the president. She was trembling all over as she tried to figure out why this had happened. the

president had called this meeting to talk about a peace treaty he had planned, hopefully to end the war. He knew that too many good

men and woman had died and would die if this war carried on; so he had proposed to make peace with the enemy. It was clearn now

that Nexis didn't want peace-they wanted world domination and would do anything to acheive it. The woman pulled the roll of

parchment from the president's hand and held it to her chest, glaring out a window and into the clouds.

'There will be peace, or my name isn't....'

'Miss Columbus, We must leave at once.'

'Yes, of course.'

she nodded and followed the well build body guard out of the room-it was now her time to be strong and show the world that they

still have hope. she would moarn the loss of her father later, now was not the place nor the time to do so.

Meanwhile, Ryder was running along the empty halls, having just watched everyone leave. He had to find the right door and quick

before more soldiers arrived to do a thorough search of the building.He knew that he was on their side, but figured that they wouldn't

understand why he was sneaking around right after there had been an assination. Ryder was certain that the door was on this side of

the building, the side the murder had happened in. This building had only been built one year before the war had started and had been

used as a convention center during that time.

'Hurry Up!'

Ryder froze for only an instant as he heard the voice of a man approaching, he then threw open the first door he could and flew

into that room. Remaining as silent as possible as he listened to the footsteps walk past and out of range-he breathed a sigh of

relief when he turned around to look at what room he had run into. This was it, this was the room he had been searching for.

With a bitter sweet grin, Ryder walked to the center of the room and looked around, it was large library type room and he knew

that just beyond one of the walls was the secret entrence to the room the held a Gundam. He closed his eyes and tried to recall

which wall it had been, with everything that had happened in the past twenty four hours it was hard for him to concintrate. was it

the right wall with the duck painting or had it been the left wall with the mouse head mounted on it, he decided to try both, he had

a few minutes to spare. He walked over to the mouse head wall first, he ran his hand along it, pulled and poked at everything that

looked odd, he even went as far as to pull the mouse head off of the wall. Nothing. He was about to try the other wall when he

heard the door handle begin to rattle as it was being turned open. he looked around the room, there was no place to hide, no

way to excape, he was trapped and whoever was on that other side of the wall was not going to be happy to see him in this room.

Next Episode

Ryder is confronted by the President's assine and must make a quick excape if he plans to

survive to help defeat the Nexis Union. The war is far from ending as the Earth forces go on a

sweeping rampage looking for any or all suspecious people-will Miho and Kyo be caught in this?

Also Avi, has tried to follow Ryder but has gotten herself into more trouble then she can handle.

With the four seperated,their chances of survival thin. But there is a glimmer of hope as the first

of the hidden Ronin class Gundams appears to bring light to the darkening day.

Episode Five : The Chronos Revealed.