Co-written with Monarch Actual (u/2372441/)

You can view this work with illustrations on Ao3 (/users/Bravura_Atma/)


We see a myriad of things in various colours

But becoming obsessed with these fleeting days

We grow used to being alone, hiding in our shells and waiting

Waiting

Waiting for our opportunity


John grunted, grabbing his helmet and slipping it over his head. His report to Noa could wait. Plugging the interface bundles up and closing the cockpit, he keyed the comms to May. "Looks like things are about to get interesting. Prep for sortie, but don't launch until we're confirmed ready for a fight. This ain't our place but we need to be ready in case it becomes our place." Leaving it open, the Starburst's loudspeakers went next. "Gundam Starburst, ready to arm. Request anti-ship armament." With that done, he switched back once more to talk to WOLF only, hands flying across the console as the reactor powered up. "Watch the reactor, make sure we don't suffer a flare or a loss of power like we did after transit."

Across the hangar, the cockpit closed on the Silver Bullet, and May's comm channel opened up. "Silver Bullet, ready to arm."

"Silver Bullet, Starbust, " Noa asked over the comm system, as Jegans and GMs launched around them. "Do you both have callsigns I can refer to you as, or should I assign you some?" His words were fast, but controlled.

"We've already got some in place. Starburst operates on callsign Darkstar, Silver Bullet's is Eight Hearts, refer to us however you'd like. We can form an element to act as a diversion or an attack force, task us as needed."

Mechanics continued to run through the hangar, getting GM suits and the few Jegans ready to launch while those already operational started launching off of either of the two catapults. The hangar was quickly emptying out, but after a few minutes, the warning klaxons shut off and the sound of activity took over. Weapons and armor covered the floor, with the Starburst's shield coming out a minute later, scorched still but structurally sound, attaching to the anchor point on the wrist. Another crane pulled a large bazooka out from the stores, and Starburst reached out to grab it without issue. Armed and armored up, he called back to WOLF, hoping she had seen something going right. "Status on the reactor? We're prepped for launch if you think we'll be able to fight."

She didn't hesitate. "Reactor's good. Clear for flight."

"I don't think I need to warn you twice to be careful. I'm not sure who leads Neo Zeon in your time, but Haman Kharn is a force to be taken very seriously - and I'm gathering more unusual readings." Noa ordered. Alongside them, the Silver Bullet moved to the next catapult, leaving the Starburst last – at least out of all the active Mobile Suits.

"Another rift." WOLF's eyes narrowed.

"Eight Hearts, Silver Bullet, launching!" May sounded like she was full of vigor before taking off into the battlefield.

"Copy all, Starburst is gonna launch then. Darkstar to Actual, we'll try to hit the ship if we can, neutralize its major batteries, and force a retreat. I doubt we wanna go toe to toe with her flagship." The Starburst broke away from the wall, lining up on the second catapult a moment after the Silver Bullet launched. He looked back to Wolf next. "Watch the rift, I'll keep us in the air." With his suit on the catapult bar, he prepped, and pushed the throttles forward, waiting for the catapult to launch.

"Darkstar, Gundam Starburst, launching!" With that, the control center pushed the button, and the Starburst was shuttled forward until it launched off the catapult, shifting into forward flight with no issues and returning to a formation next to the Silver Bullet. "Eight Hearts, on your three, same as we did on the test run." He did notice there was something in the back of his mind, something that sounded like muttering, talking through a can or a radio with a broken antenna. It wasn't important as far as he could tell, pushing it to the back of his mind for the time being.

The battlefield had only been active for less than five minutes, but suits were already ripping each other apart. Jegans and Zaku IIIs exchanged beam rifle fire; and even a couple Döven Wolf units could be seen – ironic, as they were the forebear of the Silver Bullet. Yet, the mobile suit battle was nothing compared to the Sadhalan. It was a beast of a ship, even compared to the Naehl Argama – Noa had the right idea to stand his ground. Turning his flank or his backside to such a thing would only serve to get the battle cruiser torn to pieces from broadside fire. The enemy ship's weapons went into point defense mode, fire shooting out around it, cutting down Federation mobile suits who were unable to outmaneuver them.

But even that was nothing compared to what John saw standing before the ship. It was a woman; a giant hologram of Haman Kharn, standing at the bow of the Sadalahn. She stood straight, her shoulders back and her eyes down on the fleet before her. She was clad in a Zeon uniform with high peaked shoulders, a full cape and a crown atop of her bed of pink hair. She looked like some sort of queen, which she may as well have been with the absence of any of the Zabi family. And it was her booming voice that spread across the battlefield; powerful and commanding as it cut across multiple comm channels.

"Go forth!" Her hand was aloft, fingers spread like a witch during an invocation. "Bring me the newtype, for the glory of Neo Zeon!"

Pressed against his seat while the Starburst continued forward, John stuck close to the Silver Bullet as they weaved through the opening salvos of the battle. A GM off to the right was shorn in half by a beam shot, detonating an instant later, and he frowned. He had seen battles during the Laplace Incident, but very little, and he had come out of flight school only a week after the end of the Second Neo Zeon War. That left him trying to get back into the swing of things. Enough time in simulators had him going through his paces, but simulators were never as good as the real thing in terms of experience. The large hologram of Haman Kharn was intimidating, but nothing that would slow them down. Another shot from one of the main batteries on the enemy cruiser passed over the bow of the Argama.

"Eight Hearts, we're gonna keep our distance, circle around until the bazooka is out. I'll cover you after." His orders cut, he hefted the launcher on the Starburst's shoulder, eyeballing the crosshair on his HUD as it flickered about, computerized sensors judging it with every new calculation until it centered on one of the main battery mounts on the enemy ship. Pulling the trigger, the rocket launched, impacting against the turret housing and detonating, sending it up in flames. Four shots left. "One down, a few more to go."

It was going smoothly so far. While the Silver Bullet didn't have a launcher, it seemed Eight Hearts had some sort of anti-ship missiles mounted on her back. She remained nearby, using rifle fire to keep away Zakus.

An odd pressure hit John all of a sudden, some nausea accompanying it. It wasn't debilitating, like it had been with Kamille, but it made the hairs on his body stand up. Even WOLF's avatar, which was already alert, started pointing again as she had with the Qubeley. A slightly familiar suit zig zagged toward them, this one an olive green with large wing-like protrusions on its shoulders. WOLF identified it as a NZ-000 Queen Mansa. The mobile suit folded in on itself, diving like a falcon toward the Starburst; the feeling of apprehension rising in his body as it neared.

The sensation of bile crawling up his throat was overcome by the instinctive urge to move, but it felt like he was moving through quick sand, then something else changed. He stopped trying to force it, knowing he would drive himself mad if he continued, and let his body move on its own. A blink, and when his eyes opened again, the world shot forward, back into real time, and the sticks jerked back in his hand. The Starburst moved, twisting as the Queen Mansa blew past him. The head mounted vulcans opened up, sparking against the retreating mobile suit as it got distance between them. "Jesus that was close. WOLF, did you catch that?"

"Yes." She flicked her ear and looked up. Haman Kharn was looking down at them, a smirk on her face. The Queen Mansa turned, flaring the wing-like apparatuses, drawing a massive beam weapon. It was less of a beam saber and more of a beam broadsword, as if they'd strapped four blades together to make one broad surface. Thrusters alight, the mobile suit swooped in for another attack, this one leading with the broadened blade.

Slipping the bazooka onto his back while he had the chance, he ejected the beam saber from the left forearm and grabbed it with the right hand, even while the right forearm's armor opened up and exposed the four barreled arm gatling that sat waiting. With the blade's hilt in hand, it ignited, coating the white and red Starburst in a bright pink glow. The sword was up and ready to block the attack that came in, fighting back against the large blade that seemed like it would be enough to overpower the smaller one, but it wasn't, and the beam saber held on until the broadsword was deflected. Another pass and the Queen Mansa flew by, only to be harried from the stronger rounds fired by the wrist gatling, leaving much deeper pock marks in the Queen Mansa's armor, but none of them penetrating as far as he could tell.

What was perhaps more troubling, was that the Queen Mansa used its wing-like sections to block the shots. While he damaged these parts of the mobile suit, it seemed that these parts were reinforced for all sorts of fire. Stray beam shots from the Silver Bullet bounced off the pieces entirely. Around them, it felt like the Federation Forces were quickly being overwhelmed - it felt like more Zakus and Qubeleys were occupying space than Jaegans and GMs. "Press forward!" Haman Kharn ordered. "Their forces weaken!"

He was distracted with the Queen Mansa, too much so to notice they were likely overextending, but at the rate they were going, they'd need to push the Queen Mansa and win, or be swarmed. With his beam saber in hand, he charged after the green mobile suit, brandishing the saber in preparation for a strike even as the vulcans opened up, aiming for any unarmored spot they could find to try and force either a defensive stance or enough minor damage to snowball into something worse.

The channel with the Silver Bullet opened again. "May! If this doesn't work, we're gonna need to fall back! Take the bazooka!" Ejecting it even as he charged, the propellant charge that released the bazooka stopped its forward momentum, and left it hanging halfway between them. If he could distract the Queen Mansa for long enough, maybe she could get the bazooka and continue what he had started.

"Copy that." May's usual jocular attitude had faded entirely. As the Queen Mansa moved away, it suddenly lifted a smaller, arm-like section on its back - similar to the Qubeley's funnel holders.

"Incoming contact." WOLF told him, highlighting a section in his 360 degree cockpit. He'd see a familiar streak of white, blue and gold, but something was different. At least it brought no sickening feelings like the other suits had so far. It looked like a Gundam, and John could only spot it for a second.

A familiar armored face, an enlarged v-fin, but it didn't look like anything he had seen before. The next second the new suit extended its hand, brandishing gold fingers like a set of claws. With one heavy boom the claws made contact with the Queen Mansa, digging into the armored wing, and flung it. The enemy suit flew head over heels, freewheeling until it impacted with Haman's ship - hard. But then the new suit turned its gaze to the Starburst, eyes flaring. The shoulders and knees trembled. Its fingers flexed around the handle of some sort of club. It rocketed toward them, its club raised up for an obvious attack.

"Suit unknown!" WOLF barked.

The new suit entering an aggressive charge brought an end to his own charge, and immediately the legs flared forward, calf thrusters flashing as they attempted to stop the large mobile suit from continuing forward. With the Mansa out of the fighting for the time being, the Starburst was all that was left in the vicinity, the Silver Bullet still repositioning and the newcomer more than keen on attacking the Starburst at close range.

"New contact, not friendly!" He called over the radio while the Starburst started backpedaling, the vulcans and wrist gatling firing and sending out a multicolored hail of shots that did little to slow the new contact down, even failing to outrun it until suddenly a burst of speed sent it forward.

Pure instinct was all that kept the massive club, looking almost like a maul, from smashing into the cockpit block. The shield on the arm rotated to cover the body, the left forearm crossing over the cockpit block and being knocked away by the impact even as the first blow was deflected with a grunt from the Starburst's pilot, another attempt at backpedaling already in effect. "He's fast!"

"What the hell is that thing?!" shouted May. She didn't have anything attacking her - at least for the moment.

The vulcans seemed to have no effect. One moment he'd dodge a club, but the next second, the new suit spun a small shield around on a wire on its backside, like a combined tail and bullwhip. The damage was shallow - but somehow he could tell that this wouldn't last. He knew this new suit wanted to tear him to pieces. Its fingers and toes flexed as if they were muscle, not steel. It drew in further, spinning its club in one hand and bringing its claws down on the Starburst's opposite wrist, cutting it deeper. John swore that he could hear growling but he felt no pressure or nausea from a newtype. The suit itself made the sound.

Options were running out far too quickly for him. He was fast, and the Starburst was as good as any mobile suit he knew of, but this other thing was faster, almost animalistic in its fighting style and build. Brutality had been made graceful, and with every new hit, deeper dents and tears formed in the external armor. Stress was building up quickly, and even if the armor didn't give out, components would break.

Then that feeling overcame him again, but it was different. It lasted only an instant, then what could only be equated to a lightning bolt shot through the neural interface link. His vision went white, and he screamed against the unyielding pain that filled his mind. At the same time, all six of the fin funnels shot from the Starbursts hangars, circling the new mobile suit and firing on it rapidly, looking as if they were being controlled by someone completely at ease with them, rather than the pain driven mess currently in the cockpit.

Bio sensors showed heart rate had spiked, mental stress was through the roof, adrenaline filled his veins and he was experiencing something almost like REM sleep, but he was fully awake. The cage of laser fire was rapid and unpredictable, multiple bright red beams firing all around the new enemy, narrowly missing and some glancing hits happening every now and again, but the pressure left the Starburst itself clear of any further attacks for the time being.

The flurry of funnel attacks at least made his opponent turn to defend itself – some of the movements of the new suit's fingers and club that were obviously meant to strike the Starburst, were instead diverted to protect its chest and head from funnel fire. Through all the screaming, the clanging of metal and the funnels made a cacophony of terrifying noise and light that John could barely hear himself.

Like an orchestra tuning up, it all came together in one explosive burst; the sound of a loud, terrible snarl. In his mind's eye he could see WOLF's avatar, though instead of the usual blank expression, she had pulled back her lips to expose her fangs and emit a hellish sound.

The image faded quickly, and had not been intrusive… but the single sound had stopped the new, deadly enemy in its tracks. Though it kept its claw and club at the ready.

The fin funnels continued to circle the enemy mobile suit, jittering and jinking like flies around a carcass, but the screaming had stopped. In the Starburst's cockpit, Darkstar was left gasping for air, sweat trailing down his face and inside of his suit. Green eyes were wild with what might have been fear or animal instinct, and they were locked on to the figure in front of him.

An urge to fight, to keep going until the enemy suit was destroyed, was deep inside of his mind. He had been slighted, been damaged, possibly nearly killed, but now they were at a stalemate. Something told him he wouldn't be able to keep this up. Already, his mind was filled with that searing pain, nearly forcing his eyes closed against the invisible hand, the lightning bolt chasing the rabbit through his veins. Two Gundam type mobile suits stared each other down, one made of bright red and stark white, angular, almost arrogant curves forming the main body and the funnel hangars; the other was far rounder, yet still sleek and looked organic in a sense. Both of them were ready for another fight, but with the fin funnels in play, still angrily buzzing around, waiting for another shot to score this new enemy, neither would move without the newcomer being destroyed, or Darkstar's mind being the victim of the crossfire.

He could see it – the other suit heaved. It was breathing deeply. It looked around, at the funnels, the wire-guided shield lashing in irritation. The voice that spoke to him from the open channel held no emotion. Yet he could tell the voice was young; too young to see a battlefield. The pilot uttered three words with the cadence of a robot, but with the tones of someone who in all sense of the world should not have been here.

"You're not him."

He had been fighting a child.

An alert lit up his cockpit and the controls at his hands pushed back – drawing the Starburst further away from the suit. It wasn't his mind or his body controlling the suit, but it was WOLF. A solid column of light came in from the horizon and consumed the suit – and part of the Sadalahn. Haman's hologram wavered as the light tore one of its wings off almost as easily as the new suit had ripped through the Starburst's arm.

There was no time to respond to the statement, and the fin funnels immediately shifted away from the enemy suit to return to the hangars on the Starburst, their strain finally easing from his mind, but there was no time to rest. Darkstar struggled to find his breath, but there was little he could see aside from his HUD. Sweat was in his eyes, his head felt like it had been hit by that hammer rather than the Starburst or its shield. All he could see was the avatar of the wolf that had made his HUD its home. Warning alarms deafened him to almost everything, high pitched ringing reporting high heat coming off of the beam in sheets, enough to be something to worry about.

"John." WOLF's voice came to him, and her eyes appeared on the cockpit. It wasn't an avatar, but instead something less cohesive-looking. The image itself held odd pixels and shifted. But he could dully see the edges of her ears and the top of her head. "Breathe."

WOLF's voice seemed like it was the first touch of warmth on a cold night, a guiding hand in the darkness that had suddenly come over him, despite the brilliant light in front of the Starburst. His breath caught in his throat, stopping the panicking breaths that had been struggling to come in and out, and he felt his lungs empty, refill, empty again, before they settled into a calmer pattern. Her avatar was little more than a series of unknown shapes and forms, but his eyes locked onto it, watching it. It was all that grounded him at this point.

Something had changed, he could feel it. Time seemed to stand still, slowing down just as it had during the initial surge of activity that had led the two of them into the dream world that he had been forced into. Almost on reflex, he reached out to the form of her avatar, lips parted slightly in what could have been either awe or confusion.

For a moment, it almost felt like he'd reach something else that was moving, breathing, and listening with him. But his fingers would reach out and touch the protective glass on his 360 degree monitor, warping the screen slightly when he did. His hand was now overtop of the normal shape of her avatar, which had returned to a rather neutral looking pose. The whole battle had halted around him. Suits moved in visible confusion like a murder of startled crows. But the Sadalahn was turning away, sputtering plumes of white and yellow from the broken part of its body. Most of the remaining Zakus and Qubeleys followed it. He couldn't hear anything over the open line, but it was such a shocking experience that it was hard to react otherwise.

"-Jesus, Darkstar! Do you copy?! Answer me!" May shouted back at him over the comm system.

Balling his hand into a fist to keep himself from doing it again, he pulled his hand back down to the control panel, slowly breathing out. The crackle of a comm line breaking through interference sounded, May's voice filled with concern finally reaching him. He didn't respond immediately, looking back at WOLF one more time before he settled into his normal piloting stance, his head hurting and his throat raw from the initial screaming.

"Thi-" His words caught, his voice cracking, but clearing his throat, he went on. "This is Darkstar, I read you." It was as if nothing had happened to him, and his calm, collected facade had taken to stage once more. "What happened?"

"A tear saved all our asses. Nobody knows what the fuck came out and attacked you, nobody's seen anything like that. " She explained. The Silver Bullet approached - looking relatively untouched. Just like how he'd left it. Though the same couldn't be said about the mobile suits that were torn in half all around them.

"Haman's retreating fairly quickly - but we've taken losses on both sides pretty equally." Noa explained. "Return to base."

"Understood." His response was clipped, and he offered no further explanation as to what had happened to him or why he'd gone radio silent. He wasn't even sure he knew, and he had experienced it firsthand. Another quick glance at WOLF and he shifted his mind to focus on piloting. She would have an explanation when they got back. Hopefully.

"Let's go. I don't wanna stay out here any longer than I have to. Search for escape capsules on the way back, grab what you can." Already, he was scanning for escape capsules, but he doubted he would find many, friendly or otherwise. There was no sign of the pseudo-Gundam that had attacked him, and it hadn't returned to the Nahel Argama. That meant it had either run to the enemy ship, or it had disappeared in the flash of white, destroyed or transported elsewhere, but at least it was gone.

The Starburst had suffered moderate damage, dents and holes in the armor in the forearms and shoulder armor had left it looking worse for wear, and the shield had been mulched by repeated hammer blows and the occasional claw strike, bearing several large tears down its length. It would need to be repaired… again.

It didn't take long for both of them to return to the ship, landing lights guiding them both in, where they were able to slow down and stop on their own power before moving to their assigned spots. Very few allied mobile suits had made it back, easily half of the allied force having been shot down and lost. Now, a handful of GMs and a pair of Jegans were all that accompanied the two, with the shadows of the golden mobile suit and half of the Zeta Gundam in the far end of the hangar.

A hush had overtaken the crew by the time the two Gundam types had settled into place. The mechanic that guided the Starburst in was stone-faced and quiet. Another mechanic approached the Starburst, looking over the chassis and the armor. He was a middle aged man with short blond hair and rather tired features.

"I have some good news for you. Looks like we can fix him up," He told Darkstar over the comm system, his finger to his ear. "Stuff's not too different from some other stuff we've got going on, but the bad news is – to get the materials for repair, we'll have to do some traveling. Bright's already called for it, but we'll have to get to our mission later."

The cockpit block remained sealed up for a few moments, but his voice transmitted back to the mechanic. "Roger, do what you need to do the armor and components. I'll be in the cockpit block for a few minutes more."

Shutting the comms off, he looked back up at WOLF, eyes questioning. "What happened back there? What happened to me?"

"It seemed that you reached a level of cognition beyond normal, temporarily - induced by stress." She told him. Her avatar was resting now. "The unknown suit was fast. Faster than anything I have in my files. Faster than us."

"Faster than us is right," he muttered. "Did you keep data on it? Cockpit footage, bio scans, anything that we can analyze for later?" It was troubling to think about, to find that another mobile suit had so quickly outpaced them and nearly outfought them. The only thing that had saved them was his sudden stress induced funnel usage. Had that not happened, it was possible they might have been destroyed.

"I did to a point. I have programming that takes over to ensure your survival and all of my resources were refocused to that once you had set out the funnels. As for bio scans, the other suit was not a newtype. But instead they seemed to be a hard wired interface, like yours, given the natural movements the suit exhibited." WOLF said, her avatar having stood up to pace. "I do have cockpit footage if you would like to see. But my other scans were inconclusive."

He thought for a few moments, watching the wolf pace around. It was almost mesmerizing in a way, and he realized that he could sit there and watch for some time. But he didn't have endless amounts of time, despite their sudden detour and his damaged mobile suit. "Yeah, copy it over, send it to Doctor Mass, let her inspect it and see if she can't come to some conclusions of her own." A shrug and he unhooked himself from the mobile suit, only to sit back and close his eyes for a minute. It felt different than the usual post mission time, but he couldn't exactly say how.

"Understood." She replied, and just... Lay down. For a moment they were allowed to just exist in the same space. While logically, he knew that WOLF was a collection of programs, zeroes and ones, learning to move and fight with him, at least he didn't feel alone.

He'd be unfortunately snapped from his short period of rest when something collided with the cockpit door, issuing a heavy clunking noise.

His eyes eased open, an irritated look on his face as he reached over and fingered the cockpit release button, the hatch unsealing and revealing whatever had decided to break him out of his reverie. He just wanted a few seconds to relax after that last battle. Was that too much to ask?

The two kids had run down the elevator that had been raised beside the Starburst, as well as another red haro floating in mid air, near John's face. The boy in the cap had the original green Haro in his arms. He jabbed his elbow into the girls side.

"Apologize, Qum!" He hissed.

"Sorry." The girl looked down, arms behind her back. "I was using the other haro as a ball 'cause it didn't work."

The Commander frowned, unbuckling his restraints and pushing out of his seat before floating towards the open hatch to snatch the red Haro and turn it over in his hands. Looking it over as he did, an idea came to mind.

Surprisingly, the toy wasn't scuffed up at all despite Qum claiming that she was using it as a ball. Closer inspection of the green Haro showed that it had a sizable scuff on it. The kids exchanged glances. "Do you want that one?" The boy asked, tilting his hat up to regard John. "Astonage said its programming was broken since he accidentally dropped it on one of his computers, but the parts all work."

"Yeah, I do," he replied, putting the red Haro under his arm where it remained inert for the time being. "I think it'll be a nice little tinker toy for the time being, keep me busy. Why don't you kids run along for a bit, let me figure out where to start on fixing it." Without waiting for a response, he waved goodbye to them and shut the hatch behind him, sitting back down in the seat.

"Well make sure you talk to Astonage if you need to fix it-" The boy began, but abruptly raised the green haro over his head when the other child reached for it.

"Shinta!" She whined - but the boy kicked off further info the hangar.

"Qum if you break this one, you know who is gonna get mad at you!" He fired back. Qum gave chase.

"I don't caaaaaare!"

Back in the cockpit, sealed away from the squabbling children, he settled into the seat. "Hey WOLF, you remember when you were talking about a smaller chassis than the Starburst? I think I just found it, if you can handle a downgrade in bodies," he said, a hint of a smirk appearing on his face.

"I can see it from here... It's a children's toy?" She asked, the avatar tilting its head at the haro, to and fro. "I suppose all you need to do is turn it on. I can interact with technology wirelessly."

"Perhaps. They said the programming got messed up, but I don't know if that means it'll have trouble storing you, or a copy of you." Fiddling with the children's toy, he had to find where the controls to it were, before he flicked the switch and the Haro came to life. Rather than the normal flapping of its ears or the welcoming sound of its voice, the Haro sat dormant. There was a light on in its eyes, but nobody was home. "Well, have at it, I guess. Whenever you finish, I'll take you with me to do that report Noa wanted. It'll give you a chance to scan, if you can. Does this thing even have scanners in it?"

"Ah, I see. The hard drive was fried." She explained, going back to pacing on the cockpit display and looking as she had done just moments before. "It's actually quite sophisticated for a toy, but then again it was developed by one of the best engineers of all time-" Her avatar vanished. The haro's beady eyes flashed out of sync with each other, before WOLF's voice came from the much smaller speakers in her new chassis. "Amuro Ray."

The sudden switch startled him, and had they not been in zero gravity, he would have dropped the toy. "Impressive," he muttered dryly. "Well, now you'll have a change of scenery, I think. Come on, let's go for a walk." Opening the cockpit again, he held the Haro under his arms, ensuring that it – and WOLF now – didn't float away or get lost. Across the bay, he saw the Silver Bullet's cockpit was open, a pair of legs sticking out of it as usual. He called out to May. "Hey, sweatpants, you wanna come with me to do that report or you wanna keep lazing around?"

"That's a new one." May admitted, sitting up. Her eyes behind her yellow lenses fell to the red haro fenced under one of John's arms. She spoke with an amused tone, but wasn't really admonishing him. "Sure, I can come with you... Maybe after we can have a sleepover and swap haro cards... Just kidding, I was too poor for a haro." She stepped off the Silver Bullet, drifting to the elevator that would bring them further into the Nahel Argama.

Pushing off the floor and moving to the same elevator, he arrived around the same time. "You were too poor for a Haro? Why not get one now? You can make your wildest dreams come true with a Haro, ain't that right, WOLF?" He asked, holding her new body up to look at May.

"I mean, I don't see the need for one now, unless it can kill people..." A wry smirk overtook her features. "In which case; gimmie that haro."

WOLF didn't move, but her eyes turned on and off, as if she were blinking. "I am not compatible with the firmware in Silver Bullet models of Mobile Suits."

May let out a single loud laugh. "It's a joke!" She attempted to explain as they were all whisked down a hallway, following signs to the Nahel Argama's bridge.

The big man let out a snort, chuckling at how her plans, regardless of sincerity, had been stamped out. "Put a damper on your plans pretty quick. Don't worry, WOLF will learn how to joke eventually so your efforts aren't wasted." Several twists, turns, and a change in orientation led them up to the bridge of the battleship-carrier, emerging into a readiness center that was, even now, finding their paces after the chaos of a battle. Damage control personnel were ordering teams to damaged areas, calling extra maintenance techs up from standby to try and make what few mobile suits were left ready in case of another fight, and finally, Captain Bright Noa sat in his command chair waiting, a dour expression on his face. With the door to the bridge opening and admitting them with a hissing noise, he glanced back at the newcomers.

"Darkstar, reporting for that report you wanted earlier," John started off, giving a quick salute.

"I'm glad you've made it out as well as helped us. Your help was invaluable. But for now, just relax and give me your report."

Readjusting WOLF to get a better grip on her new housing, he cleared his throat. "Incident from earlier, before the battle, some kind of issue with the Newtype on board. Doctor Mass said he had… issues. Apparently seeing me made them wake up." Frowning, he thought back to it, but all he got was a flash of the boy's face. Continuing, he started the battle. "Standard launch, for what it was, got engaged by a Queen Mansa, looked like an oversized Qubeley. Had it on the back foot for a minute but then that new mobile suit came in, a design I've never seen before. Nothing comes close. It was faster than the Starburst, which shouldn't be possible in its current configuration, and there was something else that happened in the cockpit. I'll have to forward you the cockpit footage, Doctor Mass should have her own copy by now to look at. Another one of those beams of light came in, probably another tear, and the new mobile suit was gone." Glancing back over his shoulder, he looked at May. "That concludes my report. Igarashi? Anything from you?"

"That's everything I saw, though I didn't know tears could dismantle a ship like that." May admitted, pulling her legs up to take a 'seat' while floating.

"That's troubling," Noa's hands parted. "Of course it is. This whole situation is extremely bizarre. But I will tell you that we have seen suits come out of these tears with capabilities that we simply do not understand. Be glad it left. And be cautious if we see it again... and I appreciate the cockpit footage. That should assist us immensely."

That caught his attention. "Other suits have come out of the tears? I shouldn't be surprised, given our own came out of one, but that means there's a likely possibility it only gets worse from here. I'm not interested in being around when some Zeon super-suit comes out like the Neo-Zeong and decides to tear into us. If we see it again, I'll keep my distance. If that's all, I'm gonna make a visit to Doctor Mass, otherwise I'll be in the hangar bay if you need me." Another salute and he turned, floating past May and back into the corridors that led to the rest of the ship, and the medical bay in particular, but he made sure to keep a distance from where he had run into the Newtype earlier. Another encounter like that was sure to make him go gray faster than anyone else on the ship.

"The what?!" Noa faltered at the word Neo-Zeong, but didn't stop John from leaving.

May didn't follow him. Sayla was in her med bay with Shinta and Qum, though when the Starburst's pilot entered, the two children departed after the blonde snapped another "Out!" at them. The medic was massaging one of her temples with her fingers and had a disc in the other. "I knew you'd turn up. I just received the footage from your cockpit." She told him.

A half smile came to his face, amused at how quickly she exiled the children when he turned up. "Figured as much. I hope it's an entertaining watch, at least. Wouldn't recommend doing it again though." Letting WOLF's Haro body go to float around the room, he watched her, although she didn't move too far. Taking up a position near Sayla, he gestured to the disk with a nod of his head. "Hopefully you can figure something out about whatever happened out there."

"Well," She slid the disk into a nearby computer that was bolted to a table. "We'll see." She gave WOLF a suspicious side-eye, but the AI wasn't chattering or flapping its panels like the other one. After a light click and some tapping on a very loud keyboard, they received the footage as it was. Sayla watched as the animal-like suit rapidly approached. The footage was taken from the eye cameras, specifically, but had bio readings and an audio feed. Her icy blue eyes scanned the statistics closely as a sound made itself apparent in the video; it was John screaming. The medic paused the playback. "... I've seen something like this before, if you're wondering about your reaction to this, physiologically."

"Do tell, I'm all ears." Glancing at the Haro again, he wondered what WOLF was thinking seeing it played back. She had undoubtedly been through it more than once in some way or another, but a doctor onboard a mobile suit carrier and experience with other Newtypes was just as good as a still-learning AI. Being the first time he'd seen it himself though, it left a pit in his stomach, his own screams sounding in his ears, as if they weren't his own.

"Back when I was serving on White Base, during the One Year War. I was seventeen, conscripted as a pilot, and I was reckless." She straightened up, and looked to a view of space outside a nearby porthole. "Prior to the battle of A Baoa Qu, I was in a Core Booster assisting the first Gundam, when Char attacked in a Gelgoog."

He could almost see it. The original Gundam, the RX-78, the White Devil – so much older than the Starburst but rocketing through space, a streak of white among a sea of stars and debris. Blades clashed with a large red mobile suit, a mass production unit from the Principality of Zeon.

"Char had brought his young protégé in an experimental mobile armor as his wingman. What I didn't know was that said protégé had already connected with Amuro."

A familiar void of stars and colours entered his mind, though it wasn't as obtrusive as when he last saw it – with WOLF's avatar. It was the same, some sort of spatial mindscape where one could join another, but this time it was a sixteen-year old Amuro Ray, and an Indian woman clad in a yellow robe, her hair in loose buns on the back of her head.

"Why?! Why did I meet you now, after it's too late?" The woman begged, her hands clawing at her own face, bright green eyes wide with fear and anger.

"If it's fate," Amuro gazed down at her. Despite being so young – he sounded even younger than the pilot that had attacked John just moments ago. Yet his face held a great sort of pain and weariness. "It's a horrible one. Cruel."

"Nothing can come of our meeting each other. Nothing!" Rigid in his seat – a familiar helmeted man in a zeon uniform tensed behind the Gelgoog's controls as a bolt of lightning flashed through his mind. He shouted-

"Lalah!"

A few of the bridge of white base also perked up; an explosion of sound like an alarm bell ripped through their minds.

"No! Amuro!"

In the core booster, Sayla looked sidelong at the battle, eyes flashing. "Amuro-"

"Char!" Amuro snarled, having been torn from his vision. The Gundam spiraled tightly toward the Gelgoog, who deftly brandished a double beam sabre to deflect the Federation suit.

In real time, the medic's knuckles tightened, turning white as she recounted the story that unfolded in his mind.

A frown cut across the big man's features, his eyebrows knitting in consternation as the vision played out in his mind's eye. It was as if he had been there, had seen it all happen, but he had only been a child at the time the White Devil and the Red Comet engaged in that fateful battle. He still remembered those iconic figures, cutting their silhouette across the skies and space during the One Year War in their own ways. He knew all about both of them. One didn't become a Gundam pilot without realizing the stories of those that came before, of the young boy thrust into a war with little more than a decision based on a moment of panic, or others that had been chosen by the machine itself.

A look over at the ball, and he reached out to grab the Haro before it could get too far. Something told him to keep it close, to keep the AI inside close. It was like an itch at the back of his mind, something that bothered him, but he couldn't reach. A moment of that touch again, of the formless hand in the void that had brought them together for only a moment. Turning back to Sayla, he hummed in thought, making the connection easily enough, but there was still a shroud over it all.

"What happened next?" He knew what happened, the mobile armor had been destroyed in the fighting, its pilot killed. It had been looked over and repeated time and again, each new eye on the incident raising different questions and suspicions, but rarely were they from members of the actual battle, a truth clearer than those that used hindsight to express opinions.

Sayla's icy blue eyes held no coldness as she recounted that moment. "I flew in to assist Amuro, and Char would have sliced my fighter in half and killed me instantly. But his mobile armor pilot stopped him. He..."

Char hesitated, his beam saber hovering over the craft that Sayla piloted. Amuro's mobile suit severed the arm of the Gelgoog his rival piloted with a sickening, rending sound. The White Devil swept in for a fatal blow, but at the very last second Lalah's ship surged in the way, pushing Char to safety.

"Char's protégé gave her life defending Char, but in doing so, she turned Amuro into her murderer." Sayla told him, allowing her words to hang as she told her story.

"Captain!" Lalah pushed Char's suit upward, just in time for Amuro to plunge the Gundam's beam saber into the cockpit. A brilliant explosion of orange and gold followed, showering the Gundam in a spray of flames and debris.

"Lalah!" It was nothing compared to the backlash of light, and sheer emotion that followed. It was almost like a wave of grief itself gripped the battlefield. Amuro drifted in mid air, spinning slowly toward White Base. Tears flowed openly down the young Sayla's face, and Char let out a roar of despair and punched a panel in his cockpit. The mobile armor's explosion had left trails of spiraling light that quickly faded with the vision itself.

"…What I felt afterward," Sayla pressed her hand to her head. She seemed to be unaware that John seemed to be feeling her memories, experiencing them as if he were viewing them through a television. "It was as if time itself stopped to let us grieve for a century, but it happened in a second. And everyone on White Base felt it too - even oldtypes. In times of stress, it's as if... newtypes - or things similar to them unleash a backlash of energy and become consumed by it. Everyone else can feel it if it's strong enough."

The final sounds seemed to echo against the interior of his mind, the roar of the Red Comet, the anguish of the White Devil, all of it forming into a ball of emotions so powerful that he could feel it in himself, almost like a surge of empathy that welled up in his core. It was weak, barely more than a thought, but he could feel it inside. Her explanations of it all wasn't lost on him, not completely, and he was already connecting dots of his own. "Strong enough Newtypes can project their thoughts and feelings on others in a wide range, then. I take it you're telling me all of this because it's similar to what you experienced when you were there that day?"

Below, WOLF's servos whirred as she opened the panels on the 'head' of the haro, like ears. "Yes. It's difficult to document without footage because you can't feel that sensation through a recording." explained Sayla, flicking her gaze back to John. "I've felt similar things. Before, but less intense. When I was even younger and in a colony, I felt like I could sense -" She furrowed her brow and swept her hair aside. "It was as if I could sense a long lost sibling of mine watching me, I knew he was. I haven't told anyone about that encounter, because it sounded foolish at the time. But perhaps it was a newtype's intuition."

"Perhaps it is. Newtypes constantly seem to be evolving, their powers unique for the most part even among each other. It's getting hard to say exactly what they're capable of, but researchers have always called it a sixth sense, man's way of adapting to the dangers of space and their own actions. It's never been determined if we're destined to grow into it as we age, or if it's something we have from birth. During the recording, after the screaming, and the stalemate in the fighting, the Starburst juked backwards, just before the light struck. I think it nearly took me with it, but I didn't move the mobile suit. It just… happened."

"Then you might have had some sort of... awakening?" She ventured with a small shrug. "Perhaps you had a lower level of newtype abilities that have been enhanced by your suit, or perhaps it has something to do with the tear. I cannot speak for every newtype, but I've always felt this way. Amuro told me that his sense didn't intensify until he met Lalah for the first time. And he was born on Earth, So nothing is consistent."

"Apparently not, but it means that I'll have to be wary of it cropping up in the future. The Starburst is equipped with prototype psychoframe tech designed to give Oldtypes the capabilities of Newtypes, or cyber Newtypes without the mental issues that come with them. It was designed to be a weapon to combat future Newtype rebellions without needing to employ Newtypes themselves in case of a conflict of interest." He crossed his arms, rereading the information on Project STARBURST that he had committed to memory during his introduction to the mobile suit and its capabilities. It was like he had a manual open in front of him again. "The suit's only way to connect without frying a pilot's brain is using a buffer in the system, like the neural interface cabling connected through a secondary computer array and other measures. Maybe that's why everything is suddenly coming to me when the simulations never had issues like it."

"I see." Her eyes narrowed at the information. "Our head mechanic is meeting with Amuro Ray in a few hours. Gundam units are fixed with a special alloy, or so I've been told. Perhaps you can ask Amuro yourself. Either that or you can ask our mechanic, as he is very interested in psycommu technology."

"Maybe if I'm lucky I can ask him for his autograph. You think he'll give it to me?" He asked, reaching out and grabbing at the Haro that WOLF inhabited. It was a scramble at first, his fingers glancing off of the smooth metal housing, before he managed to grab her and pull her closer.

"He will, he's too nice to say no." The medic chuckled, the ice finally leaving her eyes for a moment. She spoke with a sort of fondness that only came with an intimate familiarity. WOLF didn't protest about being manhandled, but it seemed she could barely move in the zero gravity setting anyway. The flapping did little to actually propel her.

"Perfect, I've always wanted to meet him. I wonder if we can do poses together too. You think he's big and muscular enough to make a whole calendar's worth of pictures?" Glancing back over his shoulder at her, he had a bit of a smile on his face, despite the heaviness of the conversation they had been sharing. It seemed like they both had some answers to go off of, and with the footage she had been forwarded, there was plenty of time for her to analyze it. His next destination would likely be the mechanic, figuring out how to properly record the psycoframe status without the technology it had been built to work alongside.

"He'll twist you into a pretzel." Sayla called back as he traveled out of the med bay. Shinta and Qum slipped in after him.

"If only we were all so lucky. Thanks for the help, Doc. I'll come torture you with my presence another time." With a wave over his shoulder, the commander and his Haro left, skirting through the corridors until the hangar bay yawned open in front of them.

The head mechanic had his own office in the hangar which was fairly easy to find. Off to the side sat a small office, clearly the head mechanic's, and John made his way over to rap on the metal door. It slid open and admitted him inside, shutting as he slipped in. It was lined with metal filing cabinets and computers. John would actually spot some simply drawn schematics of the Starburst clipped to a wall. Astonaige Medoz had dishwater blond hair and rather sleepy-looking features that only perked up when John entered. "Woah! Nice to meet you." He extended his hand for a handshake, grinning.

Grabbing the offered hand while keeping the other wrapped around the WOLF Haro, he nodded. "Pleasure is all mine. I see you've gotten around to drawing up the Starburst pretty quickly. Do I already warrant upgrades to it?" He paused for a moment. "Please don't start messing with the internals. I don't want to accidentally fry my brain because you plugged in the overlord."

"It's funny, it's pretty similar to what Amuro Ray is working on at the moment." The mechanic said, flattening out the schematics. "All I'm going to be doing is repairing the chassis for now. But it's not quite like anything else I've seen… like the neural interface. I know nothing about that except that it's similar to a psychoframe. Just way more invasive. I tried to have a look at the programming but there wasn't a whole lot there. I didn't mess with any of it because that's not quite my forte – I'm more of a mechanics guy." WOLF opened and closed her top panels. "I found something strange. Do you know what it is? It seemed to be some sort of failsafe system."

"As long as you don't go piddling about in the computer system, we're fine. Neural interface, though, I don't think I could tell any of your engineers about it myself. Too complicated and they didn't like letting me know about the most important stuff, I guess." In his arms, WOLF flared her panels, bumping into his arms and causing him to look down. "Someone's energetic. Quit that, or I'll go put you back in the cockpit to cool down." Looking back up at the mechanic, he released the Haro, merely teasing the AI inside. "Anyway, failsafe system. What do you mean?" His suspicions were rising, unsure of whether or not they had found any of WOLF still inside or something related to her working.

"It looked like a separate OS, actually." Astonaige said, looking out of one of the windows of his office, and down at the Starburst. "It was locked down and not in use, so I decided not to touch it just in case it messed things up, but I think it's pretty unusual to put two operating systems inside one suit."

There it was. He had found WOLF's current den, the AI having locked it down tight during her transfer. "Probably for the best. The AE techs that worked on it said not to bother it if I didn't absolutely have to, so I guess that'll stand for now. Might be some type of additional mode for later on. What else have you found out about it? Has there been any internal damage after that last sortie or is it all superficial?"

"The right wrist joint is pretty pooched," He admitted through gritted teeth. "But the rest is pretty minimal. Looks like your shield took the brunt of it. If you have to go into battle again I wouldn't rely on that arm to do anything until we've replaced it."

He released WOLF, letting her float about in a way that allowed her eyes to look over the office in a slow spin, conscious of the fact that he should probably be letting her figure out what the interior of the ship looked like. Turning to the Starburst, he looked it over. Already, the shield was removed and gone, returned to the maintenance bays, and the damage on the right arm could be seen easily. Rips and tears, large dents in the border where the red and white coloring merged, and splits in the plating. "What about the right wrist gun? Is it still functional? If I end up getting caught out without a true mobile suit weapon again, that's all I'll have for ranged combat that isn't the funnels. They're not exactly fun to use."

"Yeah - but you can't rotate the wrist or move the fingers for now." He told John, demonstrating with his own hand, arm straight. "You could hold it out and shoot, but you couldn't tilt it. If I were Sayla, I'd say your wrist tendons were cut. But if you have psychommu technology in the chassis, you could move the hand like you would the funnels."

"Better than nothing, but let's hope it doesn't come to that," he replied. "Long as the gun works, it'll keep the enemy at range. Stronger than the vulcans, at least." Turning back to the mechanic, he gestured to the Silver Bullet. "What about the other one? Any problems with it that'll impede combat capabilities? I'll be surprised if you didn't have to fight May off to get a look at it."

"That one was fine, though that hellcat gave me some guff for getting close." He laughed. "But it seems to be pretty similar to the Zeon Döven Wolf so I'm not concerned about it too much. I can fix it in a jiffy."

He nodded, pleased to hear that not only was he right about her, but that he wasn't the one in her crosshairs. "Good, it'll be a decent fighter in case the Starburst is out of commission during another attack. Lastly, what about the other two Gundams that are sitting idle? The Zeta is still only half of the overall form, but what about the golden one? I don't think I remember seeing it before."

"Oh, that's the Hyaku Shiki. We have it on standby - but the pilots for both the Zeta and the Hyaku Shiki are missing. They had flown their core fighter through a rift, so that's why we only got the legs." said Astonaige. "So we've been without Gundam pilots 'till you showed up." He looked down at the gold suit in question. "The Hyaku Shiki looks gaundy, but it's actually resistant to beam weapons."

"I guess gaudiness is the price you pay for better defense." Admittedly, he didn't like the golden paint scheme, but if looking like a gold bar won him more sustainability against a violent enemy, then he'd paint the Starburst gold in a heartbeat. Unfortunately for him, just painting it wouldn't do the job. Reaching out and grabbing WOLF again, he pulled her close. They'd be going to the Starburst next, to plug her back in and see what she'd found on their little adventure.

"I'll get out of your hair. I know you must be busy..." Another glance at the drawing. "...Drawing me from a distance. As long as you get my good side you can keep doing it."

Astonaige let out another amused laugh. "I'll do it as long as you take a sexy pose. And as for the Hyaku Shiki, maybe you can rub it for luck - Char Aznable piloted that thing when he was with the AEUG."