Sorry, folks. no witty intro this time round.
So, let's get right to it, shall we?
Copyright: Sunrise inc.
Gundam SEED: 2002, 2013
Gundam 00: 2007
Chapter 4
"Excuse us." Jonathan said as he entered the room with Kira.
"Yo." Ian replied. "What brings you here? Something wrong with the Freedom?"
"Nah, not really. Just thought I'd take break, and show the kid the 00 while I was at it."
"Oh….so this is the guy Ian was talking about"
"Oh, right, this would be your first time meeting the others. This guy here," Ian followed up, and pointed to the guy next to him. "is Lasse."
"Yo. I'm Lasse Aeon, but just Lasse is fine. Nice to meet you, kid." Lasse said, sticking his hand out for a handshake.
"Same here. Nice to meet you too." Kira said, shaking Lasse's hand.
"The girl in pink is Feldt, and the one to her left is Mileina."
"Nice to meet you." Feldt turned to greet Kira.
"Nice to meet you-desu!" Mileina replied with a cheerful voice.
'she, she's young!' Kira thought in surprise. 'She can't be older than I am!'
"Come on, Mileina, don't tease our guest too much."
"Roger, Papa!"
"PAPA?! She's your daughter?!" Kira exclaimed in shock. Jonathan swore he heard a couple of snickers from the other members in the room following that statement. Well, he was barely holding it in himself...
"AHEM." As Ian cleared his throat, everyone went back to their work, allowing him to continue. "Moving on. This beauty to my right here is my wife."
"I'm Linda Vashti, nice to meet you."
"N-nice to meet you too." Kira replied, feeling a little embarrassed by his little outburst.
"Well, then." Ian continued. "I'm sure you've got a lot of questions, but we'll have to save them for later."
"Ok…but-" But before Kira could continue, a call came through on the terminal.
"GN Drive, linkage complete! GN Drive, linkage complete!"
'Is that…. a Haro? They have those here too?'
"Connection confirmed. 00, all components reading satisfactory."
"Both Solar Furnaces are operating at normal parameters!"
"Good. Let's begin the matching test."
As Ian finished, a pop up appeared on the screen, showing a man in a purple pilot suit.. 'Probably from the unit's cockpit.' Kira thought.
"Do it, Tieria."
"Are you sure, Ian? Showing the 00 to-"
"It's fine, Tieria. He's already seen it before. Now, let's begin."
"Roger" The pilot replied. "GN Drive, disengaging Repause."
At that moment, Kira noticed that the two cones on the machine ("00", they called it) started up. Is that the GN Drive he's been hearing about from the others here the last few days? Even so, when he saw those lights, he could only think of how pretty it looked.
"I knew it'd catch your interest"
"Topological defect changing from ground state to high output."
"Eh?"
"Twin Drive's particle Synchronization rate is at 35%...37…."
"Since your world didn't have anything like the GN Drives, I thought I'd show you one that's working while we're doing the matching test."
"47…49…"
"But, from what I've heard, the Mobile Suits developed by your organization so far only needs one drive. Why does this need two? And why the need for synchronization between two of them?"
"55…"
"Well, how do I put this…This guy is a little….."Special"."
Before Kira could continue asking, Feldt's callout got his attention, along with Kira's.
"We have now gone past 60%."
"Good." Ian said, "If it makes it past 80%, it'll be within the stable operational range."
"It's looking good." Lasse said with confidence.
"I'd rather not jinx it, though."
"Oh, don't be such a downer, Jon."
Before Jonathan could reply, an error alert went off on the console.
"What happened?" Jonathan asked.
"An instability has occurred within the Topological Defect!"
"What?!"
"Twin Drive's synchronization rate is dropping. Fusion rate is falling as well."
As the meters on the screen started dropping, the drives themselves also started to come to a stop.
"…With this, we have tried every possible combination with what we currently have…"
"WHY?! Why won't it stabilize? Just what are we lacking?!"
"All that's left is Exia's Solar Furnace, huh?"
"Dammit! We need to get it working before THEY make their move!
""They"?" 'Just what kind of enemy are they fighting to require this kind of machine?' Kira thought.
"Oh yeah, guess I haven't really briefed you on our enemy, eh?"
Before Jonathan continued, he took out his personal terminal, and pulled up a file.
Among those files, there were some machine whose design Kira hasn't seen before. It looked like both the GN-X the UN forces first used four years ago, and the publicly known GN-XIII used by the Earth Federation Army. It looked like a mix between the two designs.
Behind that picture was another, one depicting the aftermath of a VERY one-sided battle.
"They aren't known to the public yet, but their official designation is the "Autonomous Peacekeeping Task Force", also known as A-LAWS."
"A-LAWS…."
"So far, we know of at least 12 cases of their so-called "suppression", where they just slaughtered anyone who stood against the current Earth Federation's policy. We even got information that they committed terror attacks themselves, and then used information control to pin the blame on the anti-Federation force, "Katharon"."
"Wait, Anti-Federation forces?"
"Yeah. Even with all the information control, there are still people out there who aren't buying their lies. But in the end, they still got the short end of the stick, and got labeled as terrorists."
Seeing the files again, seeing the atrocities of this "A-LAWS", learning that many of these people who got caught up in theses acts just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, he was once again reminded of how he got dragged into the war in his own world.
The sudden loss of innocence. The everyday that you took for granted, disappearing in a cloud of smoke and ashes.
Heliopolis. The G-Units.
After seeing everything, Kira has made up his mind. And this time, and he knew it perfectly well, it won't be like when he was forced to pilot the strike to protect the warship his friends were on, it won't be him being forcibly drafted because he was the only one who could pilot a mobile suit.
This time, it'll be by his volition, by his own will, that he CHOOSES to fight.
"Mr. Garfield, I've made up my mind."
"Hmm? About what?"
"About joining this organization. I've decided; I want to join Celestial Being."
"…..you sure you've got the resolve? To be hated by the world? To attain peace even if it's by force?"
"Yes."
"Even if it means becoming the evil that the world unites against? To take the lives of others?"
"I'm still not sure about killing…. I'd much rather avoid unnecessary bloodshed if possible. But even if it's not by fighting, I still want to help you all, to stop more tragedies like those you just showed me!"
"*sigh*~ And that's why I said that you're still too naïve."
"But-"
"That said; we COULD always use more engineers around here, isn't that right, Ian?"
"Eh?" Kira said, confused by what Jon meant.
"Well, you're not wrong there." Ian replied. "But as much of a quick learner he is, he still has a lot more to learn about our world's technology. And we're not too sure about how well versed he is in engineering."
"Actually, about that, Mr. Ian; I was actually attending college as an engineering student when I got dragged into the war, even if I was still in my first year. But I've learned a lot more when I was working on many other mobile suits."
'Huh, so his homeland uses THAT kind of education system, eh?' Jon thought to himself. "So you're confident that you could pick it up fast, eh?"
"Yes."
"Well then, I suppose that settles it, then. What do you say, Ian?"
"Hmm…I guess you have a point there. And we could use an extra pair of hands around here."
"So…does this mean….?"
"Yup. Usually, we'd do a little through background check on you, but considering your situation, I guess we'll make an exception." As Jonathan finished, he stuck his hand out.
Seeing this, Kira reached out too, and shook Jonathan's hand.
"Welcome to Celestial Being."
Back in the 00's cockpit, Tieria was still thinking about the results of the test.
'As I thought; the drives sync compatibility rate is too low. Even if we got it past the stable operation mark, it might just destabilize on its second launch.
It seems that the simulations were right; we're down to our last, and most optimal option….'
"…Our last hope. Exia's GN Drive."
And that's the end of chapter 4
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Uploaded: 25/08/2018
Next upload: 25/10/2018