Chapter 12: Bael

Sarashiki Tatenashi watched the battle between Mikazuki and Lafter with great interest. If she still has any doubts, this battle had cleared them all with how… intense they are. The Devil of Tekkadan in particular is as vicious as she had seen in videos she watched after the conflict ended and while she doesn't know anything about Lafter apart from the fact that she's part of the Turbines, the blonde is definitely a true fighter, not just some wannabe soldiers like some pilots she knew.

Being a pilot herself this time made her glad that she won't be facing him anytime soon, if ever. It took a special kind of man to not even flinch after being shot at point-blank range, shielded or not. Then again, this is the legendary devil who didn't stop fighting even when he's half dead and his Gundam was severely damaged. Only a fatal strike to the cockpit was what managed to finally stop him.

Though Tatenashi noted that Mikazuki seem to be less agile than when he was using the Barbatos. She had committed the combat data of all Gundam pilots active in her previous life in her memory and she remembered Mikazuki performing much better back then. The current him fights more like he did during the early days of Tekkadan when he had just started piloting the Barbatos, like he's not at all used to the unit. Then again, piloting a Gundam and piloting an IS are two different things.

She piloted Gundam Kimaris Vidar after the conflict ended and her brother returned. Back when she was Almiria, her relation with her brother remained strained until the end of their life, which was not long for her since she died around the forty due to illness. She became a pilot when she was of age and inherited Kimaris since her brother quit piloting forever for various reasons, though she suspected the main reason is because he does felt something after killing Mcgillis back then and focused the rest of his life supporting the reform started by Rustal by supporting Julietta Julis.

Piloting an IS and piloting a Gundam are similar but different in a way Tatenashi simply can't put. She will admit that she would prefer Kimaris over Mysterious Lady though even if it is mixed feeling because Kimaris Vidar was used to defeat Bael that Mcgillis piloted. A simple way to describe it is that her IS is a partner in battle while her Gundam is herself. A Gundam pilot who is used to the Alaya Vijnana system would be able to feel the difference between Gundam and IS when they piloted one.

Tatenashi saw the monitor depicting how much remaining shield energy each unit has. Both Byakushiki and Ortelinde are low on energy. No surprise because they've been beating each other black and blue since the battle started. This will be the last round and even if Byakushiki is weaponless, it is still extremely dangerous knowing how its pilot could fight.

A sudden vibration from her phone interrupted her thought and her enjoyment. A bit miffed at the interruption, Tatenashi fished her phone from her pocket and saw who is calling her. To her surprise, it is Kanzashi, her little sister. Knowing that Kanzashi will not call her for no reason, Tatenashi answered the call.

"Hello Kanzashi-chan."

"Onee-san, we have a problem."

Those simple words turned Tatenashi's expression from her usual cheerful one to a deadly serious one. Without saying anything else, Tatenashi left the stadium. If the situation warranted Kanzashi herself calling her, then this is something she must see.

A large black machine is nearing Tokyo airspace. Its destination; IS Academy. There's not much distance between it and the Academy and with an IS' speed, it will enter the academy airspace in about a minute… if nothing got in its way. A beam shot nearly hit it if it hadn't stopped at the last second. The machine's head searched for the source of the beam shot and it found the culprit floating slightly above it.

There floating a little bit above it is a fully armored unit that looks like a knight at first glance wielding a long-barreled rifle that has smoke coming out of its muzzle in its right hand and a western longsword with beam serving as its 'blade' held in its left hand. The black unit tried to identify the white machine using its sensors but it failed. The white machine possess a signal that identify it as an IS but oddly its core number cannot be identified.

Inside the white unit's armor, Mcgillis Fareed smiled as his sensors revealed several interesting things about the black unit he is intercepting. For one thing, the thing is all machine with no human pilot. His sensors did not detect any signs of life coming from the unit.

"No life sign identified. This is an unmanned unit. I will bet five grand that this is Shinonono Tabane's work."

He said from inside his helmet. His HUD display two screens, each showing a face he is familiar with. One displays Alan in his submarine's command center and the other displays Akira inside her room.

"It's a sucker's bet."

Alan replied with slight sarcasm.

"It core is also unregistered. I have checked. We found no match with the signature of any known core."

Akira said as she worked on the real-time data sent from Bael's sensors. The first thing she did is of course to identify the core to see which country it belongs to and since it is unidentifiable, then it would mean only one thing…

"Alan, prepare the lab for when I return. I'm bringing in an early christmas present."

Alan looked very pleased with what Mcgillis had promised before cutting transmission followed by Akira who mouthed a small 'good luck' to him. Mcgillis acknowledge her words and prepare himself for battle.

"It has been a while since I last have a taste of real combat. Now then, let's see what Shinono Tabane has made. Bael, Mcgillis Fareed, engaging the enemy!"

The new incarnation of Gundam Bael spread its wings as Mcgillis put his rifle away and draw another weapon from his leg armor. The weapon unfolded and extend to show a sword identical to the one he's holding in his other hand. With both its blades equipped, Bael moved.

Bael charged straight at the black machine. Seeing that it is under attack by an unknown enemy, the unmanned unit get ready to defend itself. It fired its enormous cannons at Mcgillis who easily evaded the shots by maneuvering over them without decreasing his speed even a little. The unit shot Bael a few more times but the white demon easily evaded them.

"Too slow."

Mcgillis commented with a smug grin as he slashed at the enormous cannon arm with his sword. His movement is quick and precise as he dealt massive damage to the right arm even with the shield protecting the enemy unit. The black unit try to get him with its left hand cannon but Mcgillis had seen it move and already moved out of the way when the unmanned unit open fire.

The black IS fired at the Bael but Mcgillis shows that his skill had not deteriorated by easily dodging all shots with ease. He made sharp turns without decreasing his speed as he circle around the black unit and lunge at it once he got close enough. He pushed the beam blade hard to penetrate the black IS' defense.

Mcgillis disengage as his opponent counterattacked with a punch that missed him. The unmanned machine open fire once again and like before, Mcgillis manage to dodge them easily even in such close distance. The reaction time and responsiveness provided by the Alaya Vijnana system to both the pilot and the machine made dodging a barrage by a mere machine child's play to Mcgillis and Bael.

Bael then positioned its wings upward, giving it a quick downward push as its pilot make his counterattack. Mcgillis performed an uppercut slash from under the Golem and dealt critical damage. The Golem tried to punch him but with Bael's speed and his reaction time, Mcgillis dodged and got behind the black IS.

Mcgillis hacked and slashed the IS on its back, depleting even more of its shield energy but according to his sensors, it still has some more, a lot more. He frowned. The black unit has a lot of energy. But no matter. It will fall in time. Besides, he is still taking it easy. He is, after all, also testing Bael in live combat situation.

So far Bael had performed remarkably. Its speed and agility is very high and its responsiveness is top notch. Mcgillis would even say that the unit is too responsive for anyone not used to the Alaya Vijnana system. All in all, those sleepless nights working on the Bael's propulsion system paid off.

The swords also performed rather well though it will still need improvement in terms of penetrative power. That is what he is having Akira worked on right now. The Bael's sword so far had done a lot of damage even when he's not hitting as hard as he could and he knew he had hit part of its armor when he did hit hard but it still had not cut through the shield.

He had wanted the swords to be able to cut through shield energy like the famed Reiraku Byakuya one-off ability used by Orimura Chifuyu and somehow installed in Byakushiki that now belong to Mikazuki. He has the data thanks to Mikazuki but so far they had not made any progress in making a weapon that could cut through shield energy without it being a one-off ability. The special property of the beam sword that cuts through energy is very unique and very hard to decipher. For now, he has to make do with what he has.

'Now to test my defense and ranged weapons.'

Mcgillis slowed down his movement among the barrage of cannon fires. He store both of his swords in the leg compartments and pull out his long rifle. It has variable output that can be changed on command but the standard setting is semi-auto with normal firepower.

The old Bael has very little options in terms of ranged weapon, or overall weapons to be honest. A pair or old swords and electromagnetic cannons hardly makes for an impressive arsenal. It works only because Bael was means to be piloted by a pilot with inhuman reaction time that would dominate any opponent with skill alone and as much as he doesn't want to admit it, he is not Agnika Kaieru who was said to be such an individual. So the current Bael is equipped with more weapons and features than the old one.

As another blast came towards Bael, Mcgillis held out his left hand. He caught the beam with his hand and crushed it as he block another blast with his wrist. The beam dispersed when it hits his armor. The blonde pilot smiles as he watch how only a little of his shield energy had been drained. Another work finally paid off.

One of the biggest project he had in the past with the advent of IS is the nanolaminate armor that saw widespread use in his old world. With people going crazy with beam weapons, Mcgillis knew that he would need the nanolaminate armor technology to further increase his advantage in battle. It took him two years to finally make the nanolaminate armor paint and now it has proven its worth in combat.

Mcgillis knew he cannot rely solely on the IS' shielding technology, especially if he were to create a barrier-voiding weapon, so recreating the nanolaminate armor was on top of his list before he could go on to make his own IS units. With the nanolaminate coating, should his shield be breached, he would still have additional defense compared to other IS units. It also has the additional benefit of saving energy as with the additional coating, he could safely decrease the output of his shield and redirect the energy to other functions.

The nanolaminate armor still cannot fully replace IS shields though since it has been proven that solid attacks are effective against it but for the early stage of the coming conflict, until his enemies caught on to said weakness, it would make for a small advantage. In a world where beam weapons are popular and IS shields are the default defensive measure against it, nobody would expect that he has something like an anti-beam coating to counter beam weapons.

Of course, people will caught up to this if he got hit enough times and those who are particularly sharp would notice that the beam disperses right as it hits his armor, not before it like if it hits a shield. But until then, this will be his advantage. The shield has always been the largest drain on an IS' energy supply but with this, he can minimize the use of energy for shielding and redirect the excess energy to other functions. Gundams, and even Graze frames had never had energy problems. As a source of energy, Ahab reactors are definitely superior to IS cores.

But IS cores produce a more unique and malleable energy that could do a lot of things. One such example of this property is the one-off abilities. They can be anything that fits the pilot and the core would somehow configure the hardware to respond to the pilot's wish as in the case with the 'shifts'. This is no longer merely about technology, it is nearly magic. The energy produced by the core interact with the world in quantum level.

Though that is a thought for another time. He still has a battle to win.

Mcgillis return fire with his rifle. He shot the Golem three times. The Golem dodged the first two but the third shot hit it on the chest area. Bael reengage its thrusters and began flying while shooting the black IS. While Mcgillis had mainly practiced with swords, he is still a great shot with a rifle.

He flew around the Golem, shooting at it leisurely while the black unit try its hardest to get a lock on Bael and hit it. So far, it is not having much luck in even scratching the paint of the white demon. Mcgillis scoffed. It's too easy. He's not even trying to fight seriously and the Golem is already being pushed back. It may look intimidating due to its size and appearance but its capability is pathetic. It may have impressive firepower and defense but its computer's skill level is not even comparable to Iok Kujan and that said a lot. Only a novice would have trouble fighting this… which would probably make it good as training dummy to test new pilots.

'I should probably finish this soon.'

Mcgillis decided to end the fight. The Golem had accumulated some damage and its shield energy is nearly depleted. So he would destroy it with his strongest weapon. But first, he needed to create an opening. Flying towards the Golem in high speed, Mcgillis then kneed it on the stomach, or what would be the stomach if it is piloted by a human. When the knee made contact though, a section of the knee opened and a spike shot out, heavily damaging the Golem and disorienting it from the point-blank pile bunker attack. With it staggering, Mcgillis found the opening he needed and act fast.

A compartment opened on the Bael's wings and a small cannon fold out. The cannon then rotates until it is positioned just slightly above the Bael's shoulder. A grip also folded out from the long rifle's barrel, allowing Mcgillis to hold it steady with both hands. He grabbed his rifle and charge all his weapons to full power. He aimed all his guns at the black IS and pull the trigger.

'It's over.'

Three powerful energy blasts struck the Golem, depleting its shield energy and then directly hitting its body. The armors melted from the intense heat of the blasts and the whole unit exploded. Mcgillis folded his cannons and store his rifle once his opponent exploded. He then rushed down to catch the remains before it could hit the ground, mainly the body where the IS core is located.

"The unmanned unit has been destroyed. Mission accomplished. I'm bringing the remains back to base."

Mcgillis said through his communicator, reporting his success. But before he could leave though, his HUD alerted him that something is approaching him at high speed, likely an IS. Has Shinonono Tabane come to retrieve her creation? He checked his HUD and noted that his current energy level is at 72%. He had not taken any meaningful hit so the tri-blast must've took a good chunk of his energy since he did fire them at full power with the intent to destroy.

The Bael moved just as a barrage of beam machinegun shots came. It will be hard fighting this new opponent while carrying the black IS' remains. When He stopped to see who his opponent is, both pilots' eyes widened, recognizing each other. Mcgillis recognize the newcomer piloting a blue IS unit immediately. How could he not? He met her not long ago and she had been occupying his mind for a while.

And while she could not see his face, Sarashiki Tatenashi will never forget the appearance of this particular machine. It might be an IS now but its appearance is no doubt based on a particular Gundam.

"Bael…"

So here is Bael's first battle. I hope I'm doing good with the mechanics, though I usually prefer to follow my own instinct when it comes to these mixing stuff. Anyway, Bael received several upgrades and will be further upgraded as thing goes with Mcgillis developing more technology. Now, I have written a basic comparison of Ahab reactor and IS core here and this will be important in the future but for now, it's just a footnote.

Now, for Bael itself. Its upgrades are foldable swords stored in its leg armor. The swords are based on Tempest Beam Sword used by Gouf Ignited in Gundam Seed Destiny. Bael also get a rifle based on Sinanju's rifle from Gundam Unicorn. And its last weapon upgrade is the wing-mounted beam cannons configured similarly like Freedom Gundam's Balaena Plasma cannons from Gundam Seed. These are the Bael's upgrades so far. Bael is classified as a 4th Gen unit based on performance but with more upgrades, it will be as powerful as a 5th Gen unit in theory (since 5th Gen doesn't exist) but its most dangerous component is no doubt the pilot. I hope I'm doing Mcgillis justice in this fight. The Golem is really nothing impressive in terms of combat ability so he would be able to beat it easily. Hell, Ichika who is a total novice can beat it so Mcgillis definitely can play around with it. I mean in Gundam, ace pilots are all highly skilled and can fight multiple high class opponents without taking much damage. Mcgillis is definitely a high-class ace pilot even if he is not Mikazuki so a Golem that can be beaten by Ichika who is a total novice would be a trivial opponent for him.

Spartastic 4: Akihiro will definitely appear along with Shino. The plans have been made.

HolyKnight5: Your idea have some merits. It got me thinking. This chapter have also given me some materials. Now, here's a hint of what I have in mind. What did Milliardo use as his army in Gundam Wing?

tsun: Good point. It's just an idea anyway.

BrotherCaptaiSheperd: Should've noticed that. I should look for a Beta since I don't have one for this story... not like I have one for any story. As for Kudelia, you're right, there's more use to Kudelia than as a fighter, but she will still have her own unit.

GBF93: As you can see, Mcgillis interrupted the Golem first before it could interrupt anything.

AGundamFan: I decided not to include Agnika after some consideration. And there will be more of Chifuyu in the future.

GuestGundam: I use Strike Noir as inspiration when upgrading Ortelinde. The wings are the Noir Striker pack from Gundam Seed Stargazer. Laura is more of a super soldier than a child soldier here. Child soldier is more like a child who is influenced by outside force to become a soldier while Laura is born/created to be one. As for who sent the drone, definitely Tabane.

Stratos263: unlike the kiddy pilots who are still wet behind the ear featured in Infinite Stratos, Mikazuki and Lafter are veterans with bloody history and live combat experience. Of course it will be nothing like the battles in IS.

Czar Joseph: Don't worry, Barbatos is already under construction along with Akira's personal IS which will be another Gundam but with modification. As for the sword, it's not like Mika dislike it completely. Barbatos' sword is just better. I mean, have you seen the Yukihira Niigata? The solid blade open up to make a beam sword. It looks awkward as a weapon.

TrimusicaDrag00n90: That remains to be seen.

NeededSomething: Thanks for the constructive criticism. I suppose it's because of my tendency to want to get to the point quickly that I kinda try to fit in only the important bits and only mention needed but otherwise unimportant stuff in passing. I've been trying to improve on my contents. As for Agnika, I got the idea because IS has a severe lack of important male characters and I'm not planning to use everyone in Tekkadan but I also need someone as a neutral force. Agnika would be a male neutral force who doesn't side with anyone. But I think it's just an excuse to make an OC. I decided against including Agnika in the end though.

Guest: About the limiters, I'm not sure about it but if I do, then I can include them later.

JameyoftheMegacosmos: Ein and Carta maybe... I have an evil idea about Carta.

HolyKnight5: No, the name of Kudelia's devil unit have been determined and I am not changing it. It will purely be a defensive/support unit.