I apologize for the very long delay. ;
This episode is dedicated to Flyercurse, a fan of the story who died recently. Rest in peace.
Episode 23: A Power Reemerges
It is March of After Colony 206. In the eight months since the Aresian Military Service captured Vulkanus, they have done nothing but reinforce its defenses, use its onboard automated construction facilities to build an invasion army, and raid Preventer shipments of war materiel. On Earth, the Preventer Corps has begun producing a new type of mobile suit, the Pegasus, equally capable of fighting on the ground or in the air, all the while casting nervous glances skyward. The Lunar Base has been repaired, and its garrison includes Excelsior and Knights of the Realm Squadrons. Lately, however, after so long without any sign of aggression, Earth's level of watchfulness had started to slip, providing the AMS with exactly the opportunity they had been waiting for.
Thus, the Earth Sphere Unified Nation received a rude awakening when, on March 15th, After Colony 206, the Aresian Military Service launched Operation Caesar, holding off the Preventer mobile suits scrambled from the Lunar Base long enough for the vanguard of their invasion army, under the command of Brigadier General Odel Bernett, to take over the Preventer base in Siberia. While the Preventers responded immediately to this development, the invasion caught the civilian leaders of the World Nation completely unaware. In the six days it took for the Senate and the bureaucrats to come to grips with what had happened, the initial invasion force was able to spread out and quickly gain control over a large area unopposed.
The AMS-11MS Tempests of Mongol Squadron aimed their shoulder-mounted beam cannons at the approaching carriers… and fired.
"All suits, drop!" the bridge crews in each carrier slammed the emergency release, and sixteen mobile suits began to fall through the cold Russian air.
Mariemaia felt the lurch as Wing Zero was released into freefall. Sensing this, Wing Zero automatically unfurled its wings and fired thrusters, stabilizing itself. Mariemaia quickly looked around, taking stock of the situation. Around her, the other Gundams, the Tallgeese, and the Taurus IIs were firing their thrusters, righting themselves. Knights of the Realm's carrier exploded and the shockwave slammed into the descending Preventer mobile suits, beating at them and forcing another round of stabilization. Excelsior's carrier was only grazed by the beam intended to destroy it, its aft lifted by the shockwave. Still, between the beam and the shockwave, the ship's engines failed, and the crippled ship tumbled out of control, crashing on the frozen shore, skidding, and taking out a pair of Tempests before coming to a stop against a low ridge, a pillar of smoke rising from the downed carrier's broken, battered hull.
"Sally!" Wufei shouted. Not again… First Nataku, then my clan, now her? His eyes fell angrily on the eight remaining Tempests, a growl sounded in his throat. "Have a taste of Nataku's new dragonfire!" Altron spewed deep blue flames from one dragon fang, destroying one of the Martian suits. The other dragon fang shot out, pulverizing another of the heavily armored mobile suits. Altron landed, retracting the extended dragon fang, and bathed the six surviving Tempests in fiery death.
"Weaklings," Wufei said, but his heart wasn't in it as he stared broodingly at the smoking wreckage of the carrier.
Coughing on the thick smoke, Sally climbed out of the downed ship, scorched, bruised, and favoring one leg. Sitting down heavily on the ridge, she began to feel her injured leg, wincing every time she found a bruise.
"Right," Noin said. "Knights, spread out and secure the area. Excelsior, let's get out of our suits and see what we can salvage from the wreckage."
Captain Ariadne Galloway, CO Sharktooth Squadron, watched the 16 Preventer mobile suits on the shore, thinking furiously: The Gundams? Damn! We can't go in against them. Wait! What're they doing? She adjusted the magnification on her screen. Huh. It looks like the Gundam pilots are checking out the wreckage while the Tauruses stand guard. She bared her teeth. Against the Gundams, we wouldn't stand a chance, but without their pilots, they're just hunks of metal. I'm confident we can take the Taurus IIs. "Listen up, Sharktooths! The Gundam pilots have left their suits, so we're only up against the Tauruses. That means we'll be able to do some damage, but we'll have to be quick. This is a hit-and-run strike. Get in, give it everything you've got, then get the Hell out of here. Got it?"
"Yes, Ma'am!" The 10 aquatic mobile suits submerged and began moving toward the shore.
"Hey!" Duo exclaimed, climbing over a twisted piece of wreckage and looking at a wide, flat truck, trapped by a tangle of metal beams. "I think the support truck might still be functional."
"That is good news," Noin agreed, following him. "But I don't think we'll be able to get it free ourselves. You guys look around for parts that we might be able to use in our suits; I'll go check the bridge."
"I'll come with you," Quatre said, scrambling over the debris.
Roche opened a frequency to Knights of the Realm. "You heard the Commander, Knights. We'll be standing guard. Spread out, stay alert, and report in every 5 minutes." The Taurus IIs began moving , surrounding the crash site in a roughly circular formation. Private First Class John Treadwell waded out into the Arctic Sea, his mobile suit crunching through the ice on the surface. "Knight Four in position. Nothing coming from the north."Sally breathed a sigh of relief. "No breaks," she muttered to herself. "Must be just a bad sprain, then. And a lovely collection of bruises." She shivered, not dressed to be outside in Siberia. I shouldn't have left the ship, I'll freeze if I'm out here much longer.
Captain Galloway's control panel beeped at her, and she glanced at her screen. "Sharktooths, hold up. It's getting too shallow for us to stay submerged and hidden for much longer. Everyone ready?"
The confirmations came back quickly. "Alright, let's do it!" she commanded, then activated her jammers and punched in the transformation sequence.
Standing knee-deep in the Arctic Sea, Treadwell saw the slim, alien-looking suits breaking through the ice a short distance away from him and leveled his beam rifle. "Leader, this is Four. I have multiple hostiles advancing on my position and need assistance."
Static answered him.
Quatre and Noin reached the bridge. The bridge was mostly intact, but both the pilots looked dead.
"Are they dead?" Noin asked, as Quatre pushed aside a twisted piece of bulkhead and went to check the pilot's vital signs.
Quatre shook his head. "No, they're just unconscious."
Galloway's targeting reticle went red, and she squeezed her trigger. A beam lanced out from her mobile suit's "mouth" and hit the power source for Treadwell's beam rifle. It blew up, destroying the mobile suit's hand and forearm. The second beam was aimed at the Preventer suit's cockpit block, but the explosion of Treadwell's beam rifle pushed the suit to the side, and what would have been an instantly fatal shot straight through the cockpit instead blasted through the mobile suit's side, producing a blast of heat, shrapnel, and concussive force that slammed into Knight Four like an enormous sledgehammer. The temperature regulators and armor plates of his flight suit protected him from the worst of the thermal bloom and the shrapnel, but could do nothing against the shock wave, which pummeled Treadwell into unconsciousness.
Ariadne Galloway smiled with predatory satisfaction as the Taurus II slowly toppled over into the water, unable to maintain a standing position with half of its control lines cut. "Sharktooth Squadron, this is Leader. Let's move in." The ten amphibious Xiphiasi mobile suits rose up out of the water, smoothly reconfiguring to humanoid mode, and began gliding quietly over the water on a cushion of air, heading inland. "Sally should have been in here somewhere," Duo said, examining the damaged support truck. "But I haven't found her body.""It is odd," Trowa said. "Could she have been thrown free, or gotten to the bridge?"
"Maybe, but Noin and Quatre would have told us if they'd found her, wouldn't they?" Duo responded, looking over at Wufei, Zechs, and Mariemaia sorting through the debris for usable parts.
Trowa nodded. "If they haven't found her, then it's likely she survived and got out of the ship."
"Have to hope so," Duo punched Trowa on the shoulder. "Let's go give them a hand." He went over to join the other three. "Good news, Wufei. Trowa 'n me figure Sally's probably still alive, so you can stop being sullen and angry at the universe."
Wufei gave Duo a sidelong glare, then sighed. "I appreciate your trying to cheer me up, but it's not working."
Duo shrugged. "Your loss."
"What was that?" Katrina said, looking around for the source of the explosion. Spotting John's toppled mobile suit and the squadron of Xiphiasi, she tried to comm the rest of her unit. "This is Knight Five, an enemy squadron is advancing on my position, unit type unknown. They have disabled Four. I am engaging." She opened fire on the approaching Martian mobile suits.
Quatre examined the remains of the viewscreen. "Noin, these shards are bloody, but neither of the pilots have cut themselves."
"That's odd. You think maybe somebody climbed out of the cockpit and cut themselves?"
Quatre nodded. "Probably Sally. She's not dressed for this kind of environment; we need to get to her fast."
"Right," Noin said decisively, opening her personal comm. "Captain Nattono, we believe that Major Po is exposed to the elements. I need your unit to use their heat detectors to locate her before she freezes."
Squeals and popping, hissing static issued from the speaker, and then the sound of an explosion burst in on them from outside.
"Damn it, they must have had another unit in the area." Noin turned off her comm. "Quatre, we need to get to our suits and…" The younger man was already running from the bridge. Noin followed him.
As Mariemaia heard the explosion, she gasped and abruptly straightened up, images of her dead squadronmates flashing before her eyes: Simus…Julia… Jesse…Brian and Andre… She stood stock still, staring into the distance, until Zechs put his hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?" he asked gently.
Snapping out of it, Mariemaia stammered, "Uh, yes, sorry. What's the plan, sir?"
"Get to our suits," the platinum blond replied, nodding to the other Gundam pilots, who were already racing out of the carrier.
Dorothy's gold limousine pulled up in front of a palace. She opened the door and stepped out, wearing a formal gown.
Marquis Weyridge stepped forward. "Duchess Catalonia, we're so glad you could make it. We were afraid that your new duties as the President's chief of staff would make you unable to attend our gathering here."
"Thank you, Marquis Weyridge," Dorothy replied graciously, curtsying. "Unfortunately, I'm afraid that one of the reasons Relena let me come here is because she has a request she would like to make of the Romefeller Foundation. And so, here I am, both as a Duchess and as an emissary."
"Oh? How urgent is it? If it requires immediate attention, I can call a halt to the festivities–"
Dorothy shook her head. "No, it's nothing urgent Marquis Weyridge, so there's no need to disturb the other guests yet."
"Ah, good. In that case, let's go and mingle with the others." He offered her his arm; she took it, and they walked inside.
Triggering his verniers, Roche leapt high into the air and came down next to Knight Five. Raising his beam cannon, he opened fire at the lead Martian suit. "Steady, Five."
"Shit! I didn't count on them having heavy weapons!" Sharktooth Leader swore as she dodged the beam cannon blast. She squeezed her trigger, and her mobile suit spat a flurry of beams at the two Preventer suits.
Katrina jumped up to avoid the Xiphias's beam attack and took aim at one of the other amphibious mobile suits. "John had better not be dead, you bastards!" Her three-shot burst hit home, and the enemy suit blew up.
"Damnit, Six… I told you to work on your evasion maneuvers," Sharktooth leader blinked hard, dashing to the left to avoid another beam cannon blast. "All right, let's close this up…" Her suit drew its twin superheated axes, and the head-mounted beam emitter reconfigured to continuous beam mode. With a blood-curdling war cry, Ariadne charged.
Roche dropped his beam cannon and whipped out a beam saber, then lunged forward in a classic fencing thrust.
Ariadne slipped out of the way and circled around the Taurus II. As Ariadne raise her axes to strike, Roche spun around, his saber slashing through the air to slice through her mobile suit's forearms. He cut through one, but before he could sever the other, the Xiphias's head angled itself and a beam blade sprang from it to block Nattono's blade. Ariadne's remaining axe came down on the Taurus II's right shoulder, and the superheated blade neatly severed the entire arm, and Roche's saber arm fell to the ground.
Growling, Roche pulled his triggers, and the Vulcan guns mounted in his suit's head began to fire, battering the Martian suit with a hail of bullets.
Marquis Weyridge led Dorothy over to a table and sat down. "So, what does Miss Relena want from the Romefeller Foundation, Dorothy?"
Dorothy sat down across from him. "It's quite simple, really. The Preventer Corps's mobile suit factories are running out of production capacity. She was hoping that the Romefeller Foundation would be willing to donate some of its remaining mothballed factories to the cause. I know I don't need to give you the numbers on what the Martians can do with Vulkanus."
Weyridge nodded somberly. "I see I believe that the current Foundation would be willing to fulfill Miss Relena's request, but most of the facilities we still have are outdated; and even those which are relatively modern will need to be inspected for safety. It's going to take some time before we can bring them online."
"Relena understands that, Marquis Weyridge. She doesn't expect you to start churning out squadrons of Taurus IIs by tomorrow. How long will the inspections and upgrades take?"
"The inspections shouldn't take longer than a week or two. Upgrading the outdated facilities will take longer, at least a month, probably closer to two months, depending on the technical details."
"That will do nicely. Thank you, Marquis."
Galloway slipped back under the barrage from Nattono's vulcans and scowled. The noise of the battle was drawing the rest of the Taurus squadron, and with the loss of the element of surprise, the battle was going poorly for her Sharktooths. Already the Preventers had destroyed another two of her Xiphiasi. "Sharktooth Squadron, this is Leader. Withdraw." The beam emitter in her suit's head spat at her opponent, forcing him to let up the barrage of bullets, and she slid back on her cushion of air, heading for the sea. "We'll regroup and try to hit them again later." Her soldiers followed suit, breaking off and retreating toward the water.
"That's right, run. You can't stand up to the Knights of the Realm!" Nattono called after the retreating Martian forces.. "Knights, secure Four's suit and begin S&R."
"Looks like we missed the action," Duo said, watching from Deathscythe's cockpit as the Taurus IIs surrounded the fallen suit and began searching the area for Treadwell.
"It's good that we didn't have to become involved. Now, we're pretty sure Sally made it out of the ship alive, but if we don't get to her fast, she's going to succumb to exposure. So let's find her," Noin ordered.
"I found her!" Mariemaia informed the others as she spotted Sally on the thermoscope. The older woman had curled into the fetal position in order to retain more body heat. Zero knelt down and laid out a hand next to her. "Major Po, are you injured?"
Sally uncurled and looked at the Gundam for a moment before answering hoarsely, "Nothing too serious. A badly sprained ankle and plenty of bruises, plus whatever the cold has done to me." She half-walked, half-crawled onto the Gundam's hand. "Get me someplace warm."
Mariemaia carefully lifted Sally up to her cockpit and opened the hatch, then helped Sally in and settled her in the pilot's seat. "Zero, activate voice command interface for Captain Mariemaia Khushrenada."
After a moment, the words "Voice Command Interface Active for Capt. M. Kushrenada" appeared n Zero's main display,
"Stand and assume new heading, 290 degrees. Proceed on foot until you reach the downed carrier, then come to a full stop."
The icon flashed twice, and the enormous machine shifted, getting to its feet and turning to the left, then advancing. Then it drew a beam sabre and cut an opening in the side of the carrier, stepped through, and removed the debris trapping the support truck.
"Now kneel down and pop the cockpit hatch," Mariemaia instructed, helping Sally out of the cockpit and into the support truck once Zero had done so.
"This is Seven, recovering Four's suit," Zhacque reported, his Taurus II lifting the damaged Preventer mobile suit from the Arctic Sea. A flash of light caught his eye, and he looked closer. "Leader, this is Seven. I've found Four, repeat, I have found Knight Four. I am bringing him to shore." Zhacque held Treadwell's suit more securely and fired his thrusters, lifting him and his cargo from the shallows of the Arctic Sea to shore. Once on land, Zhacque set the suit down gently, then popped his cockpit hatch and rushed to investigate Treadwell's condition.
The other pilot was clearly unconscious, held in his pilot's seat by his harness. The cockpit itself was half-full of water; only Treadwell's helmet had saved him from drowning. Zhacque reached into the freezing-cold seawater and hit Treadwell's harness release.
"Is he going to be all right?" asked Katrina. Zhacque looked up at her; he'd been so absorbed in his work, he hadn't noticed her suit's approach.
"I don't know," Zhacque said. "Give me a hand getting him out of the cockpit, would you?"
Katrina nodded, and together, they managed to pull him out of the water-filled cockpit.
"Well, he's still breathing, that's a good sign. But we'd still better get him to the support truck."
As if on cue, the support truck careened to a stop next to them. "I heard you guys might need this," Mariemaia said, getting out of the cab.
"Thanks, Mari." Zhacque and Katrina together carried John down to the truck.
"Well, we've salvaged everything useful from the carrier and Knight of the Realm Four's Taurus II, and Captain Nattono's right arm has been repaired," Noin looked up from her PDA at the assembled pilots of Excesior and Knights of the Realm Squadrons, occupying a makeshift structure inside the wrecked carrier, "and Surgeon-Major Po has recovered from her exposure and is treating Private First Class Treadwell for hypothermia, minor shrapnel wounds, and 2nd-degree burns. The Major informs me that the required treatments can be carried out on the move, and since it is imperative that we reach Moscow as soon as possible, we will be moving out immediately once this meeting has ended. Any questions?"
"Did Surgeon-Major Po say how long the treatments would take?" Katrina asked
"No, she didn't, Knight Five. You can ask her yourself the next time we stop, though." Noin paused, but no-one else raised a hand or blurted out a question. "Dismissed," she said, and they left to get back into their mobile suits.
"Lords and Ladies of the Foundation," Dorothy began, speaking from her seat in the assembly, "I have come here today not only as a Duchess and a member of this association, but also as an emissary for President Darlian. With the loss of the Vulkanus facility, the manufacturing capacity of the Preventer Corps has suffered, and the President therefore urgently requests the Foundation's assistance in the defense of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation and its citizens…"
"You think we'll run into much resistance on our way to Moscow?" Zhacque asked Mariemaia over the comm as the two squadrons began their march southwest.
"Probably," Mariemaia replied pessimistically. "There's an army of them between here and there, after all. Good job finding John when you did, by the way. Any longer and he probably would've died from the cold, flight suit or no flight suit."
"Thanks, although it might not have made a difference if you hadn't found Surgeon-Major Po."
Mariemaia shrugs. "I'm just glad they're both still alive."
To be continued in Episode 24: Blood on the Snow