Declan brooded over the screens as he watched the mobile pods with the help of the mobile armors get the next piece for the mission. He waited with a deadening calm for the two enemies to appear. He knew the radicals would appear first and when they were distracted that unmarked, white GUNDAM would swoop in to steal their object. He was going to try to stop that. He stationed machines behind debris, waiting for the enemies to make their move.
As the mobile pods were making their way back, just as Declan predicted, the radicals came into view, firing off rounds, trying to grab haul they just found. Declan ordered armaments to fire off from different sides of the ship. No unmarked, white GUNDAM showed up but they did get the collected debris inside the hanger safely. No mobile pods were taken and had to be stolen back. It was successful but Declan believed something else was still wrong.
The crew was split working on the debris and working on the machines. Selena was called off to work on a mobile armor that needed a more experienced engineer to work on. She headed off from the debris to work on it.
The two teams kept moving onto the next coordinates. The four commanding officers met up for another meeting.
"You seem apprehensive," Yzak noted at Declan's brooding stare.
"I am," he nodded. "This unmarked, white GUNDAM seems to have no pattern, popping every other mission but it may go back to being there again at each mission as it did in the beginning, who knows. At least that's what is making us worry the most, but it may be a distraction to our actual enemies. These extremists only seem to fight us once we capture the target. They're waiting for us to have it in our hands before attacking. Like they're baiting us. I say we try to bait them. We have the debris from the last mission, we can use that as a diversion. We'll revise our plan. Let them take our bait. This would need more planning and more stealth."
"I agree," Yzak liked that idea. It could throw off the others. "The next target are parts from another facility. We don't need the whole facility."
The four continued to discuss the plan to counteract both enemies, mainly the radicals. They would choose the next coordinates and come back to this one but it would slow their trajectory as headquarters need this in a timely matter.
At the hanger, the engineers were progressing on their work. Shinn was next to the debris, listening to an engineer explain about this debris. Selena was floating by the shoulder of a mobile armor. Vino was floating up to her with a tablet in hand. He had a question for her.
Mikael was still working on the debris. Lunamaria was floating over them watching them as her machine was going through a checkup.
"Is this right?" Vino gave her the tablet. "I've recalibrated it after the fix, but I keep getting a macro-prompt when the pilot and I login."
"What kind of prompt?" Selena was going through his work.
"Just an error, not something finite, just a weird error," Vino scratched the back of his head. "I went through the usual and nothing ever prompted this. I then went through standard troubleshooting and again the weird prompt. Here I am to you, asking about this. Good thing you're a specialist."
"Good thing indeed," she kept looking at the tablet.
On the medical vessel, a bridge officer was typing away. "Sir, its ready."
Dr. Landry drank from a bottle with a straw. He smirked after setting it aside. "Start it."
"Yes, sir," the bridge officer typed away. "Starting in three, two, one." He pushed a button.
Selena was staring at the tablet when a prompt told her to hold onto something. She was hovering by the shoulder. It took a few seconds but she reached out, grasping onto the shoulder's edge while her legs wrapped around Vino as the micro-gravity was turned off while the artificial gravity was turned on.
"Ah!" Vino felt himself falling but thanks to something holding onto him he didn't. He saw the tablet fall to the ground, smashing into pieces. He thought to himself that it could have been him. He followed what has holding him to see Viola grasping onto the ledge. "Ah! Don't let go!"
"Don't worry," Selena gritted. "I won't."
Mikael had been glancing at Selena. He noticed her ditching the tablet. He looked up to see people falling. Mikael ran to catch Lunamaria. He caught her in time. Shinn fell to the ground as an engineer fell upon him. It wasn't a long fall for that engineer. There were gasps and short screams as people fell to the ground or onto the machines.
People fell in the corridors, kitchen, bridge, anywhere in the vessel that were floating. Some had minor injuries while others needed immediate help.
"Thanks!" Lunamaria was shaking as she stood on her own. She was high up and could have been hurt critically like some of the engineers, calling out in pain on the ground. Mikael helped others that were struggling in pain.
The four were still going over the plan when an officer came running in. "Sir! This is an emergency!"
"What is it?" Declan turned around in his chair.
The officer kept in a salute while rushing out the words. "The artificial gravity was switched on. We have reports coming in on the causalities from all over the vessel. The most concerning are from the hanger with the engineers!"
"What?!" Declan stood up. He could feel the artificial gravity was on. "Who ordered it?"
"No one sir!" The officer continued.
As Selena was moving her body slowly up with Vino in tow, the micro-gravity came back on. People started to float again. "Huh?" She pulled Vino onto the shoulder.
"What's going on?" He saw some people start to float upwards.
Declan started to float. "What's happening?"
Selena found Mikael. The two stared at one another with the same look. This wasn't the end of it. The two nodded to one another, agreeing on that thought. Mikael shouted to others to grab the severely injured and grab onto something.
Selena looked over to Vino. "What machine were you working on?" She pushed him down to a kneeling position and made him grab onto the ledge.
"Uh-ah, that one," he pointed with is other hand.
"Stay here, don't let go of this ledge," Selena warned.
"Okay!" Vino grabbed onto the ledge with both hands.
Selena pushed herself off the ledge to drift over to the ledge of the open cockpit. She made it over as the artificial gravity came back on.
Declan and Arthur jolted back to the ground. Declan came over to the screen, seeing Yzak and Dearka shocked and concern. "We-will speak about this after this situation." Yzak nodded as the video closed off, showing a blank screen. "Let's get back to the bridge as safely as we can." The group held onto the railing of the corridors.
Selena made the chain drop out of the machine. It started to float instead, meaning the artificial gravity turned off. She grabbed onto the chain with both hands. She pushed off with a steady pace as she slowly drifted down the chain when the artificial gravity came back on. She gripped onto it when she felt the tug of gravity. Selena glanced around as she could see the fear in her fellow crewmates' faces. She needed to stop this fast without help as well.
Mikael followed her line of sight. He kept close the injured person next to him as he gripped onto the railing of the second floor. He had made sure to get others on the second-floor side since it was easier to hold onto compared to being on the ground floor of the hanger.
The gravity was gone again as she started to float back up. She gripped onto the tool box with one hand as she grabbed a crowbar with another. Selena pushed herself back down onto the floor. She headed over to the machine as fast as she could when her body felt heavy again. This machine was the one that was giving Vino problems. Quick glance showed that it was ready to go back out again. Nothing out of the ordinary caught her eye. She made her way to the back. There she spotted it. On the back of the leg near the bottom was a protruding spot that could be ordinary but it wasn't for her. It blended in with the machine. It had its own mirage stealth colloid system. She placed the chiseled end between the machine and the foreign object.
At the bridge, several officers were looking through the system to see if they have been breached by a hacker. There wasn't anything. They tried everything they could but nothing worked.
Selena finally got the thing off of the machine. It fell to the floor with a loud thud making everyone stare in her direction. The machine sparked a bit as the mirage stealth colloid system disappeared. She took the crowbar lifting it high above her head then bringing it back down on the box, destroying most of it. She did it a couple more times until it was no more showing any lights off of the control boards.
The microgravity came back on. People stated to float again. Mikael and a few other officers came over to her. They stared at the broken box then to a panting Selena who was holding a crowbar.
"Check any and all machines," she breathed out. "This one had prompts saying there was still an initial error. Since its plugged into the main computer, that's why we were experiencing those glitches. Someone was controlling it." She was about to shout out commands when Mikael placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Good job," he gave a squeeze. "You saved us." He brought her back to reality. She was undercover, hiding her true identity. She was about to spout out commands as she would usually do, but Mikael stopped her. She placed a hand upon his.
"It was nothing, that's the duty as a soldier," Selena looked over to him, showing him that she was okay.
An officer in the hanger spoke through the video message to the bridge.
"Sir, we found out the problem," he started to speak.
"What was it?" Declan needed to know.
"On one of the machines was a device with cloaking technology," he explained. "It must have been planted the by enemy. It was thanks to two engineers noticing it and destroying it. We are checking all the machines to see if there were any more. We also advice the Joule Team do the same."
"Understood, I will speak with them about this," Declan nodded. The screened turned black. "Give me the reports of all the causalities, Arthur. I will be at my desk."
"Yes, sir!" Arthur saluted. Declan headed back to his desk. He got back online with Yzak.
"The situation is under control," Declan started to explain. "The enemy planted a device that could control the gravity from one of the mobile suits. This mobile suit was plugged into the mainframe. Two engineers spotted a problem from that machine and fixed it. I don't know all the details yet but right now those that are able to are searching for more like it. I would advise you to do the same."
"Dearka," Yzak looked off to the side. "Have the engineers on both vessels start looking for anything out of the ordinary on the mobile suits."
"Right away, Sir!" Dearka saluted before heading out.
"This changes our plans, we may need more of your help if our crew is injured," Declan clasped his fingers together. Yzak nodded. The two started to discuss changes to the plan.
Arthur came into the room an hour later with files in hand and Vino and Selena behind him. "Sir, I have the reports as well as the two engineers who found and solved the problem."
"Speak, Commander Joule will need to know the details as well," Declan moved to side to show the three of them.
Vino gulped. Arthur could see he was stressed. He saluted. "Sir, the problem arose when a macro-prompt error kept popping up on the tablet and on the machine when I recalibrated the system. I headed to Private Orsino with the tablet, asking her about the problem since she is a specialist-or will to become one. When we were discussing over the problem that's when the first artificial gravity came on. I survived the fall thanks to Private Orsino's quick thinking." He put his hand down.
Selena saluted next. "Private Dupre did as mentioned. I looked over his work as he stated, the machine was repaired, calibrated, but with an error prompt. Everything seemed as usual, nothing out of the ordinary besides the error prompt. I was about to ask what machine he was working until I felt the pull of the gravity. I grabbed onto Private Dupre and held onto a machine shoulder's edge. After getting to safety, I asked about which machine it was. I headed there as quick as I could. There was nothing out of the ordinary from the font. I check around back. I only noticed the change in silhouette as ZGMF-1001/M Blaze ZAKU Phantom left leg by the descending armor. Not a noticeable change. It could have gone undetected. It was equipped with mirage colloid stealth system that changes to the color of the machine. It only stopped after I broke it. After looking at it closely, it was controlled by an outside source, but it could only be turned on. It had a timer for turning the artificial gravity on and off. Who ever it was, waited until the machine was repaired and plugged into the main frame before switching it on."
"We searched but there was no evidence of any sort of a hack," Declan cut in. "Thank you, both of you are dismissed."
"Yes, Sir!" Both of them saluted before heading out.
"Arthur, please tell me the casualties," Declan commanded. Arthur recalled all of the casualties. Yzak and Declan discussed the plan over again. Dearka came in stating they have not found anything different. Yzak relayed what he heard from Selena. Dearka headed back out to make sure there was another search.
Vino breathed out a sigh of relief as they drifted through the corridors. "That was stressful."
"People in authority intimidate you?" Selena asked.
"A little," Vino bowed his head.
"Everyone is human," she turned to him. "No amount of status makes someone else above another."
Vino raised his head. He gave her a smile. "It's going to be lonely without you and Sebastian here. We're halfway through our missions."
"More than half," Selena corrected. "We've gotten more pieces at the last pickup. We just have two more stops before heading back to Amory One."
"What? This doesn't make it better," Vino groaned.
On Aprilius One, Kira was looking for Lacus at their home. He entered a room with a chess set on a small table. There were two chairs. The table and chairs were next to a large window looking over the garden. He saw that it was a game still left in play. There was a white pawn on E4, a black pawn on E5, and a white knight F3. Someone must have started the game. He was thinking of how it may play out when a black knight moved on its own to C6.
"Ah!" Kira jumped back.
Lacus heard his yelp. She came rushing into the room. "What's wrong?"
"No-nothing," Kira turned around. "I must have thought the chess game moved."
Lacus glanced at the board before comforting Kira. She hooked his arm. "Oh hm. I'm sorry you to had to look for me. I am starting to be late for our afternoon tea time."
"No, don't worry about it Lacus," Kira comforted her. "You're Chairwoman. You can't help but be busy all the time."
She let out a sigh as the two walked. She leaned on his shoulder. He blushed. "I knew that when I started to advocate for peace, I would have to step up to help change the world for peace but like all work it takes its toll."
Kira smiled. "You are still doing amazing. I think everyone can rest easy now that they know someone who wants peace and actually works for it is in charge. Now to make sure everyone keeps that."
"Yes, that's the hard part," Lacus sighed again. The two headed to the nursery to have afternoon tea. Lacus had started to enjoy being amongst the plants for their afternoon tea. She kept Kira busy with other subjects but the back of her mind kept going back to the chess board. She had checked on the game in a while but will have to check on it more often.