Disclaimer: I don't own Crossbone Gundam and Infinite Stratos

Chapter 2: The Minovsky Drive Incident

Universal Century 0155 – Dark Side of the Moon

Somewhere on the dark side of the Moon, there lied a large operational research military base that belonged to the Strategic Naval Research Institute or SNRI for short. It's a testing ground for mobile suit development for the Earth Federation to create the next generation of weapons. Though other projects were under development as well, one of which was research for deep space travel, codenamed "Stargazer". I was one of the members in that project, and also the pilot of the development team, and in the meantime, inside the hangar and operating room, I and my colleagues were having a final check before carrying out the test flight.

"Final system checking, Minovsky Drive starting synchronizing process is currently at 50%, achieving sufficient statistics, over" A technical staff stated with a clear voice, observing the energy output wave showing on the monitors while typing the data for the main computer to process.

"Copy, we will now begin activating the Drive core. Increases the output to 80%, once the drive is synchronized with the Main reactor without issues, we will move to the final phase. The observing chief gave the instructions, he then turned towards the monitors and ordered me to begin the final phase. "Tobia, the Drive core synchronization has reached 80% sufficient. Reports on the Bio-computer and Phantom system reactions ?" He asked.

Inside the Cockpit

"Bio-computer and Phantom system's readings are stabilizing, no rough waves detected, the Gundam's functions are still regular" I answered while keeping my eyes on the Gundam's system screen and have my AI assistant scanning for any issues. "Haro, any faults in the readings?"

"No problem! No Problem! System readings, all clear !" Replied a spherical object the size of a soccer ball with a cute mechnical voice that is placed next to the control panels turned around towards me. I nodded at it and relayed the information back to the command center.

After that, the main hangar door opened, and inside it, was me and my mobile suit, the XM-XX Ghost Gundam, a prototype mobile suit designed and created to test out the new Minovsky Drive system, designed for long and deep space traveling or space voyage, which was based on that of the Victory 2 Gundam and Phantom Gundam system, and the concept of the Gundam F99 Record Breaker.

"Copy, we shall now begin the final test. Test flight finale, code 401, unit XM-XX, moves to the coordinated point." The chief replied ordered through the radio.

As the holding cage opened, all the pipes on my machine detached themselves and the vents on my suit automatically closed shut. I controlled the mobile suit to walk to the catapult system and used it to launch myself out of the hangar and out of the Moon orbit. After 15 minutes, I was at the designated position, I began checking around once more and began to start up the main booster unit.

"Minovsky Drive System, 100% synchronized, Phantom light ignited. Unit XM-XX acceleration is currently increasing at 500m/s and continue." As I finished, I could hear the sound of the engine and core synchronizing with each other. As this stage, the Gundam eyes beginning to turn from green to purple, its mouth vent opened up and releasing a purple flame, and the power coming out of the verniers and thrusters also indulged in the purple flame until they became big enough and formed into a pair of purple particle wings. Even though I couldn't fully see it, those were what had happened during the pass testing phase before this, and as I could spot some flickering purple flame at the edge of the camera, I believed those were what was happening.

I began turning up the Phantom system to 25%, which together with the bio-computer is used to fuse my senses with the mobile suit since space travel is very dangerous as you may never know when an asteroid could fly straight into your face. That was why you would need a highly accurate calculating system that relied on the mobile suit precise sensors to form up evasive maneuvers and equations while reporting back to the pilot with data to create a detailed traveling diary for returning path and future space flight plans. Overall, a complicated process that not any normal human pilot could handle, as thus, it required a Newtype pilot and 2 advanced system combining with the pyscho-frame built cockpit to actualize the concept, because you would be traveling through space with the speed of light and even faster as there is nothing to hold you back from accelerating even further.

"Copy, have the suit keep on accelerating until you reach point Delta, estimated time, 0300, over."

As the process went on smoothly, I couldn't believe it myself, the experiment had been advancing without any problems; I left out a small breath as all the built-up tension that I had been feeling from the start of the experiment seemed to be easing down.

After an hour since from the start of the finale test flight, I was finally able to bring myself to rest my body as I leaned back, then, a smile made itself on to my face and I just lazed back while keeping my eyes on the monitor screens.

'What a marvelous achievement for human advancement, with this, we can finally achieve space exploration beyond our solar system, possibly could be in less than a year if our system worked perfectly.' And from seeing how things were going, I happily thought to myself while closing my eyes for a bit and imagined about the endless possibilities that this system could bring for the future generation; but I soon realized a sad premise that sooner or later, human selfishness would taint the invention to suit their agenda, I couldn't help but feel sad and terror that one day, this very invention would be turned into a weapon of mass destruction of the very human civilization itself that created it. Since I had experienced first hand how human greed could destroy the world many times over, and as to how history itself had proven again and again, how nature had pointed out the folly of man; I could not bring myself to stop worrying about the assertion. 'Dad, Mom, Tobia-san, can this invention that I worked with many others so hard for just for the pure purpose of the advancement of the human race will one day come back to haunt us all ?'

"Banagher-san, it's this the beast of possibilities that you mentioned ?" I murmured to myself in silence. As I remembered about the image of a man that I once had a chance to talk to thanks to my mother. I could still remember vividly about what the man had said on that day when I was younger, about the beast of possibilities, despite the selfishness of the human hearts, he still trusted them to carry on the future of mankind, no matter what happens. 'If it's, I really must say that I'm both awe at it but also fear it at the same time, just thinking about what could have happened if things are to go wrong...' My hand trembled as the mere thought of it, my head kept repeating about the past conflicts that I had gone through and the insanity of many men I had met who sought to watch the world burned.

But when I pondered about the image of my friends that I had met, the people I had trusted to rely on, and those that I truly love and endear. 'Belle, Font, Nicole, Aila, everyone, I won't let something like that to happen, if it does, I will be the one to end it with these hands of mine.' I balled my hand tightly into a fist and made an oath that I would never let such a thing happen. But time is running by, so I cast my irrelevant thoughts to the side, and dived back into my mission.

Three hours later – Jupiter

I had finally reached point Delta, which is Jupiter. I had flown from the Moon to Jupiter when they were at their closest, which is roughly about 600 million kilometers away, I was able to travel to this place by flying at a quarter the speed of light since I was ordered to keep the engine output at only 20% when traveling for the test to be safe. And without meeting any single problem, it was crystal clear at that point that the experiment was an absolute success. I opened my mouth in shock and awe, I could see Jupiter in all of its glory as I flew pass some space colonies, and seeing many patroling mobile suits shocked as the speed I was flying at, I couldn't help but chuckled a bit and shook my head to see if I was dreaming or not, but no, I had finally made it, the hard works had been paid off. "I have finally done it... traveling 600 million kilometers in 3 hours, and at 25% output at that" I admitted to myself.

"You did it, Tobia! You did it, Tobia! Congratulations! Congratulations !" My AI assistant Haro flattered me while constantly opening and closing its 2 flaps on the side of its body; and despite hating to acknowledge it, I was proud of myself too.

On the radio, I could also hear the cheering of all the staffs about the success of the experiment, at last, after going through countless rigorous, tiring, muscle-aching and sleepless nights, they had finally succeeded, we had finally succeeded.

"Ahem...Tobia, the mission is finally over, you can return now" The chief appeared on the camera and was coughing into his hand as he turned around to speak.

"Copy, Tobia, Ghost Gundam, returning to the base using Minovsky Drive, over," I replied and received a nod from the middle-aged man as he turned around resuming with his works.

I began to redirect my Gundam back onto the course to return to base. As I was readjusting the suit for a new course, I also noted down the data that I had gathered from the past 3 hours. And then, and idea lifted inside my head, as I considered to use the Gundam Minovsky Drive at 75% output to get home since I was quite lazy now and I wanted to cut down on the returning time, which I thought to myself, 'It won't be bad if I return in only 45 minutes right? Yeah, they may criticize me for my lack of carefulness, but since the experiment is already a success and I can return faster while also collect for them more data about the Drive Core, I see it as an absolute Win I guess?' And damn did I regret that decision fast.

"Ok Haro, redirect the Gundam onto the most optimal path, set the Minovsky Drive core to 75%. After that set up an alarm clock to wake me up when we reach the base, during that, don't make any noise, I want to sleep, I will give you full control until then."

"Understood Tobia! Understood Tobia !"

As I was inputting the last few commands, I accidentally type in the wrong code without realizing it and moved on as it was normal. After finishing with the last touches, I laid back onto my seat and took a short nap. After 15 minutes, while I was taking a rest, I didn't notice the acceleration monitors were running haywire with absurd numbers and Haro was trying its best to bring everything back under control. The Gundam was accelerating so fast that it had just passed the speed of light from a moment unnoticed and had went passed the moon in 30 minutes after I just closed my eyes. The alarm clock I set up before rang up earlier than I expected, and as I woke up still having a sleepy face, I saw the Gundam flew through the moon in a blink of an eye and barely picked up the radio signal from the command center, which was barely audible. "Tobi...Wh...t !?...Tell me!...Y...r Gund..." And like that, I passed the moon and headed right for Earth orbit.

"HARO! WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED!? REPORT! SHUT THE CORE AND THRUSTER UNITS NOW!" I shouted out on top of my lungs, unable to have a grasp of the situation, I acted on instinct and adrenaline, memory training rushed in, doing my best to stir the Gundam trajectory out of the course of flying into Earth orbit. Haro wasn't responding either, perhaps being too concentrated on retaking the control system.

Despite just barely succeeded in bringing the Gundam out its the path of colliding with Earth, my efforts to take back control of the Gundam were futile, the whole system didn't listen to me.

The light was swaying, as though lifted by the wind. It was a sign. The moment I braced myself for impact, a light took my breath away, looming forth, dyeing my vision white.

The rainbow light was devoured by the overheated light, and my whole suit was parried aside, creaking away. I'll be burned to death.'' I felt the fear at that moment. My mind and flesh, embalmed in the mystical light, as I felt my body returned to space, floating in the void of emptiness.

Thud, thud thud…my heartbeats dying out, my senses were disappearing, followed by a weird stiff and mechanical sensation all over my body as if I and my Gundam had resonated. The Gundam was floating in the scorching wilderness, giving off a rainbow light that seemed to transcend both space and time. My existence was being devoided yet overflowing with this foreign feeling within the breath of time.

In a single moment, I saw the whole world, and then, I saw nothing as my consciousness had completely faded away.

Meanwhile, on an island, in a facility of an alternative universe

There were two women sitting in front of some main control panels with many others inside a room of what seemed to be a command center. A young-looking short green-haired woman wearing a pair of glasses was operating the main control panels that monitored the surrounding the whole facility complex. She was wearing a somewhat revealing yellow dress with short sleeves and knee-high boots. It was during nighttime and an ocean of stars could be seen in the sky, the green-haired woman looked at the beautifully illuminated Starsky and started giggled to herself and her black haired colleagues who were holding a cup of coffee and sitting next to her. The black-haired woman had her long hair tied into a ponytail, she wore a formal white shirt, with a black business overcoat and matching skirt, green tie, stockings, and high heeled shoes; giving her a businesswoman-like and high-borne lady impression.

"Today is quite a long day isn't it, Orimura-sensei? Seeing your younger brother joining in the class, and also being the main focus of all the girls like that." asked the green hair woman, while remembering about what had happened in the morning of the day.

"Yeah. Just hope that my dense brother won't cause any more trouble than usual for tomorrow." Said the blacked hair woman with a stern face. "Leaving him to share a room with another girl would make him quite nervous already, but having him being the only male in the dorm, like that is even more worrying. Though having Shinonono, who was his childhood, paired up is somewhat less problematic I guess."

"You do really care about your brother, don't you?" The green-haired woman said with a soft smile, while the black-haired woman just closed her eyes and drank the coffee.

The green-haired woman's name is Maya Yamada and the other is Chifuyu Orimura; both of them are teachers of the IS academy. They were talking while having some coffee during their night shift duty. Unfortunately for both of them, their quiet session is going to be cut short.

A warning signal was showing on the monitor screen, appearing to be an object that was falling from the sky towards their facility.

"Orimura-sensei! There seems to be something coming from above the academy with incredible speed" Maya quickly turned to the monitor with a worrying look on her face. "It also appears to be an IS too!"

"An IS? What is the estimated impact point?" asked Chifuya as she put on her headphones and looked at the tracking radar and camera.

"The target seems to be heading to the main IS Arena, having no signs of slowing down and the current speed is... Mach 1.5!?" Maya was surprised that an IS was heading down to their main arena at such a speed without slowing down.

"Have the student council members get in their IS at once! Tell the teachers to ready their's IS too! I'll move out to ensure everything is under control! In case it gets out of hand, set the alarm to level C!" Without thinking too much, Chifuyu gave her commands with a tone of authority. "Move !"

"YES !" everyone inside the room replied and immediately got to works.

At the main IS Arena – 11:35 P.M

I woke up in a crash site somewhere, my eyes couldn't see very well or open fully, there seemed to be blood dripping down from my forehead. I could somewhat see the light of the stars coming from the dark sky, I tried to hold myself up but felt no strength left in my body, I could barely even feel my legs. As I tried even harder to sit up, I ended up coughing out a spat of blood, wondering to myself what had happened. 'Did I somehow survive the crash miraculously or... maybe I had already died?' I thought to myself.

Then I saw brighter lights that illuminated over my body, but I couldn't see anything with my already bloody eyes. I raised my right hand upward, trying to grip onto something. "Who...is...?" I tried to spell out some words from my drying throat, which was barely audible. Then I heard something, but my head was so painful that I couldn't make out of what they're saying.

"...kind of IS... this!?"

"Did...made the... scene!?"

"Hey! Is the... a boy?"

"Another... piloting... an IS"

"Don't... like an idiot...! Brings... to the infirmary... he's... critical condition!"

At that point, I began to lose my consciousness again, feeling the final strength leaving my body, my eyes shut closed and I didn't know what happens after that, only to utter a few words before passing out.

"Dad, Mom,… Belle,...everyone..."