Episode 4: The Gathering Storm
The year is After Colony 205. After successfully carrying out a coup d'etat, Mikol Esroni has Mars secede from the ESUN and begin building up military force. It has been only eight years since the Mariemaia Coup, and already, the peace is fading…
"Wufei, I'm picking up an unidentified MS on the long-range scanners. Preliminary analysis of the radar echo indicates Gundanium armor," Sally Po said. "Contact Vulkanus Central Command and inform them that we've got a bogey on our patrol."
"Gundanium?" Wufei replied. "Damn. I trust you are preparing to release the missile pods in the quite likely event that it is hostile?"
"Roger. Ah, it's just come into visual range," Sally brought up the image on hers and Wufei's monitors.
"… Shit," Wufei said. "Wing Zero."
"My sentiments exactly, Wufei," Sally said. "What the–? Wufei, they're calling us."
Relena appeared onscreen, looking worn-out, sweaty, wild-eyed, and not a bit like her public persona. "Hello, Sally, Wufei," she said. "How do I land this thing?"
"… Tell you what. Just follow us to Vulkanus, okay, Ms. President?" Sally said.
"Okay…" Relena said, adjusting her grip on the controls.
"Right," Sally turned to Wufei. "Wufei, take us in while I get a replacement out here to cover the rest of our shift."
"Roger," Wufei acknowledged, punching in the necessary course changes. The Preventer cruiser swung around to point at Vulkanus's primary docking bay, then fired its main boosters. Behind it, Wing Zero also turned toward Vulkanus.
In the primary docking bay of the Preventer Corps's orbital base, Vulkanus, crewmembers who were doing various tasks cleared out of the bay. As the cruiser and the Gundam approached, the air in the vast chamber was pumped out. The magnetic field that kept the air inside was then deactivated. In airless silence, first the cruiser, then the Gundam entered the docking bay. The two masses of metal settled onto the deck, causing vibrations to spread from them through the deck plating, to the bulkheads of the adjacent chambers, and from there to the air and throughout Vulkanus.
The magnetic containment field reactivated, and air began being pumped back into the docking bay. Wing Zero was quickly surrounded with scaffolding. Technicians opened the cockpit hatch to see an unconscious Heero slumped against a barely conscious Relena Darlian, who proceeded to collapse from exhaustion into them. They caught her and Heero. "Get two stretchers over here, quickly!" one of the nameless techies shouted.
Relena opened her eyes. She was lying in a hospital bed, looking at the ceiling. She sat up and saw, sitting up across from her, Heero.
"How long have I been unconscious?" she asked hoarsely.
"Only a week and a half," Heero replied.
"Only a week and a half?" Relena echoed incredulously.
"I was expecting you to be out for at least a few more days."
"But when you first used the Zero system, you were only out for a couple days," Relena reminded him, realizing what had happened to her.
"True, but I had been trained to deal with the mind-shattering realities of war," Heero explained. "You weren't."
"Oh," Relena digested this. Silence fell in the room.
Governor of Mars Mikol Esroni was sitting behind his desk in his office looking over some official documents when someone knocked on the door. "Come in," he said.
One of his aides entered. "Governor, the military just sent word that their R&D dept. has finished the design for the Medusa. Also," The aide consulted his clipboard, "Construction on Oni Gundam has been completed."
"Excellent," Esroni said. "Was there anything else, or…?"
"No, Sir, that was all."
"Very well. Send the usual acknowledgement message, and add that production is to begin immediately."
"Very good, Sir," the aide said, and left the room.
Just a few moments later, Esroni's niece, Julia, came in through the door. Julia was an attractive young woman of 17, with long, beautiful hair of a brown so dark it bordered on black, and startlingly blue eyes.
"Hi, Uncle Mikol," she greeted her uncle. "I heard the aide say something about Oni Gundam. Is it finished?" Julia had joined the Aresian Military Service the second it came into being, and had shown promise as a MS combat pilot. The officer who had observed her in simulations said she was a natural.
"Yes, Julia, it is. Now," Esroni said irritably, brandishing his sheaf of official documents at her, "if you could leave me in peace long enough to get some work done?"
Julia smiled indulgently. "Sure thing, Uncle Mikol." She left, closing the door behind her.
Mikol Esroni sighed and went back to reading the latest intelligence reports about the Preventer Corps's state of readiness.
Julia walked into the hangar and looked up at Oni Gundam. It looked like pictures she had seen of Wing Zero, with two major differences: 1) the color scheme was blood red with gold trim, and 2) it had no wings. Putting on a flight suit she found in the pilot ready-room, she climbed the scaffolding and opened the cockpit. Sitting down in the chair, she activated the suit's systems.
"Launch Control, this is Julia Esroni in Oni Gundam. Requesting authorization to go out on a spin."
"Launch Control here. Request granted."
"Roger that, Control. Esroni out."
The scaffolding drew away from Oni Gundam, and the massive machine took a few steps forward to the center off the hangar. The hangar ceiling still hadn't been repaired, so Julia activated the main thrusters and blasted off, soon breaking through the cloud cover and disappearing.
Preventer Corps agent Roche Nattono was unhappy with his current assignment.
"This skulking and sneaking around is no job for a knight like me! And if that weren't bad enough, having to take orders from Une…"
"Perhaps it wouldn't irritate you so much if you considered that Lady Une is, after all, quite a good commander. I agree that she can be—hold on! Something just broke through the clouds over Onrinj." Aretha Walker, Roche's partner in many ways, broke off her rebuke. "Magnifying the image," she said, Roche coming over to look at the screen over her shoulder. Aretha let out a gasp.
"That's a mobile suit," Roche said, narrowing his eyes. "You don't suppose they know—Shit. It's a Gundam."
"And it's heading straight at us," Aretha confirmed.
Roche went to another console. "I'm going to try and bring our missiles online without giving away our presence."
Aretha rose from her chair. "I'll prep the lifepods," she said, going aft.
In the cockpit of Oni Gundam, Julia scanned her sensor readouts.
Let's see… Just empty space around here. Background radiation normal… Wait! What's this? Julia spotted an area of increased radiation on a nearby asteroid. That's weird, she thought, that asteroid's not in the charts. And it's giving off radiation of a type found around fusion generators…
"Control, this is Oni. I've picked up fusion radiation from an uncharted asteroid and am preparing to investigate, over."
"We copy that, Oni. Report anything that you find."
"Roger," Julia said, moving towards the asteroid.
"Damnit! Aretha," Roche called back, "they noticed our fusion emissions; I've got a tap on their communications. Get up here and prepare for combat."
"Yes, Sir. The lifepods are ready to launch," Aretha sat back down at her console and began running passive sensor targeting solutions to the missile pods.
"Control, this is Oni. In addition to the fusion emissions I'm getting a radar-dampening effect. I'd say it's a pretty good bet that this is a Preventer remote observation type thing."
"Got it, Oni. We'll get a salvage ship out there so we can get some of their encryption procedures. Do not, repeat, do not attempt to damage it in any way."
"Roger wilco," Julia replied.
"They think we're an unmanned remote," Roche noted. "On my mark, jettison the shell and the missile pods. It's a long shot, but if we surprise them we might be able to take them out."
"Right. Standing by to jettison the shell and missile pods," Aretha said.
"Huh?" Julia said as a jagged crack appeared on the surface of the asteroid. "Control, I think I've activated some kind of proximity self-destruct device."
"MARK!" Roche shouted. Aretha hit a button on her console. The irregular rock shell that had disguised the Preventer cruiser flew apart, the rectangular missile pods close behind.
"DAMN," Julia yelled as several dozen missiles slammed into Oni Gundam's armor. Her screens went yellow, then cleared. "Control, the asteroid was concealing a Preventer cruiser. I am engaged with the enemy." Jetting back, Julia fired the beam emitter in her suit's right arm. The beams missed, and another volley of missiles erupted from the pods, impacting on Oni Gundam's battered armor.
"Diiie," Julia hissed through her teeth. "PX, engage!"
Onboard the Preventer ship, Roche's eyes widened as he saw the Martian Gundam suddenly start reacting at an increased speed.
Julia punched a series of buttons on a control panel and the beam bracer on her suit's right arm reconfigured itself to sword mode. A brilliant argent blade of pure energy sprang forth therefrom. Dashing forward, she prepared to slice the enemy cruiser in half.
Roche grabbed Aretha's arm the second he saw the sword appear. Rushing aft, he shoved her into one of the lifepods and ducked into the other. The doors to each of their 'pods sealed, and they blasted out just in time to see their ship disappear in a flash of light.
In the cockpit of Oni Gundam, Julia sat sweating as the PX system automatically disengaged. Looking around at her displays, she saw one of the lifepods and grabbed it with Oni's huge hand.
"Control," she said, "I have successfully eliminated the enemy cruiser and am returning to ground for repairs. I have captured a lifepod; its occupant will need to be questioned."
"Control copies, Oni. Come on home."
Oni Gundam, battered and scorched, zoomed off toward Mars.
Unnoticed by Oni Gundam, Roche's lifepod drifted through space toward Vulkanus. Through the window he had watched the Martian Gundam snatch Aretha's 'pod.
You'll pay for taking her away, Mars, Roche thought darkly as he activated the tiny vessel's pitiful thrusters. You'll pay…
On Earth, Zhacque panted as he parried Mariemaia's blow. The pair of them were in fencing class. Zhacque, ever the odd one, had introduced the rest of the class to kenjutsu fighting techniques. Mariemaia was the only one who ever beat him at normal fencing. He said it was because her father had been good at it, but she suspected that it was more because he let her beat him. As today, when her blade knocked his thrust aside and leapt to his throat.
"Touché," he said, sword hanging at his side.
"Dammit, Zhacque, I know you're letting me win. Let's duel again, and this time, don't hold back." Mariemaia removed her mask and glared at him.
Zhacque held up a hand. "A moment, then, please," he said. Closing his eyes hard, his breathing became normal. Then, opening them again, he grabbed a water bottle and took a quick gulp. Donning his mask, he raised his blade to a guard position and said simply, "Ready."
Mariemaia, having caught her breath and drunk from her own bottle, lowered her mask as well and settled into her favorite starting position.
For a long moment, neither moved. Then, with furious speed, Zhacque moved to the right. Mariemaia, expecting a feint, did nothing, and was able to parry Zhacque's true attempt at a strike. Reacting quickly, Mariemaia counterattacked with a slash at Zhacque's legs. Stepping back and forward, Zhacque took advantage of the opening in Mariemaia's defenses to strike her arm. Drawing back, Mariemaia found herself parrying desperately as Zhacque pressed the attack. Once, she caught a glimpse of his face through the mask. His expression was one of intense focus, his green eyes dispassionate and void of any sign of recognition.
Abruptly Mariemaia found her back to the wall of the gymnasium. Zhacque disarmed her with a quick twist of his sword and whipped his blade up to lie across her throat. As the pressure on her throat began to increase, Mariemaia swallowed hard. Tentatively, she said, "Zhacque?"
Zhacque's eyes at once regained their warmth, and he stepped back, removing his mask as he did so. "S-sorry," he replied, shaken by his own ferocity. "I just got carried away. Did I injure you?"
"No," Mariemaia answered, "but… you were scary. Your expression…" she shuddered, "it was like you didn't care about anything or anyone."
"Sorry," Zhacque said again.
That night, Zhacque lay in bed, awake, and contemplating. Geez, Zhacque, why did you have to focus all your resentment and crap on that duel? It's not like you got rid of it that way.
I didn't mean to, he defended, I just… did. Anyway, it didn't do any harm. Not really.
Oh yeah? Well, I can think of at least one way it did harm. By scaring Mariemaia half out of her mind, you probably just blew away whatever miniscule chance you ever had of having a relationship with her.
… Well, she's probably better off that way. It's not like she needs a sometimes-homicidal sometimes-insane sometimes-maniac as a boyfriend. With that comforting thought, Zhacque rolled over and tried to get to sleep.
Continued In Episode 5: Ominous News