He stared at the beached mobile suit. How he wished that it was one of the 'Gundams', elite ZAFT prototype mobile suits whose nickname came from their operating system: General Unilateral Neuro-Link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver and were easily distinguished by their 'samurai heads' and Phase Shift armour. However, the mobile suit in front of him was totally white in color and had a 'head' that resembled a knight's helmet, faceplate and all. All it needed was a metal horse and a lance to be a giant Don Quixote of the Cosmic Era.
Kira sighed. He must have missed his friends to be remembering Tolle's penchant for useless jokes and sarcasm. But he had no choice as when the peace talk broke out a year earlier, Cagalli's foster father saw it fit to bring him back from Heliopolis, no doubt due to urging from her. Even though she was adopted by the Attha royal family while he was adopted by the Yamatos, the two of them still maintained close ties.
He wondered whether he would finally find out their real parents. Not even Lord Attha knew who they were.
Deciding that he was wasting his time being melancholic rather than investigating the mobile suit, he exchanged his pants into shorts and wadded through the water to reach the mobile suit. After shaking as much water as he could, Kira opened hatch which wasn't even locked and entered the cockpit. He felt so out-of-this-world as he sat in the cockpit, and he wasn't thinking about the extreme giddiness in his gut. Military mobile suits were different after all, he reasoned while he tentatively touched the main console. Although he was against war and a self-admitted pacifist, he was very much enamored with mechatronics; he even intended to take double majors in mechanical and electronic engineering when he entered college. His hand moved toward what seemed to be a trigger button to fire some kind of weapon. Even though he was a pacifist, Kira wasn't stupid enough to acknowledge the fact that most technology related to mobile suits development, his favorite subject, would certainly end for use by the military months or even years before they found their way into civilian models, if ever.
For example, the use of the tandem arrangement for the mobile suit he was in. While Kira had wrote an article comparing the merits of tandem mobile suits against its single-seater cousins, the one that he was way ahead in the implementation of mobile suit's functions segregations that he couldn't understand why both seats seemed to have similar functions. Without switching on the mobile suit, he could only hazard the guess that the configuration allowed for control by both pilots. However, that conclusion seemed incorrect since the seats were placed back to back.
Perhaps he could switch on the mobile suit to see what it had…
No, he chastised himself. Even his curiosity wasn't as an excuse to gawk over a killing machine. He looked away when his forefinger moved toward the power button.
"Oops," he remarked as the main screen came to life along with the quiet humming sound of cooling fan, probably for the main computer. Since he had 'accidentally' switched on the machine, he might as well look at the screen to figure out the way to switch it off, he reasoned to himself.
The first thing he saw in the screen was a prompt was a menu indicating the absence of the default 'PANDORA' key and asking whether the system should be started in absence of it. Not knowing what the prompt meant, he chose starting the system without the so-called PANDORA, making sure to select the option for the system to use his selection as the default choice in the future.
Then, as the main operating system booted up, he noticed that there was something off with ZAFT's logo. Sure enough, the tell-tale hourglass-shaped 'Z' logo was still there but there were two additional curved lines between the top and lower edges, forming a red circle with an hourglass in the middle. Also, there was no 'Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty' slogan on the logo.
Dismissing the peculiar logo as irrelevant, he continued twiddling with the controls. To his amazement the whole cockpit lighted up before displaying outside world. He had believed that military mobile suits had advanced technology but to have an all-around panoramic view was rather exciting. If a normal military mobile suit had such a feature, he couldn't very much imagine what was inside the Gundams.
Kira was wrong because such display was just a concept among ZAFT mobile suit designers due to the prohibitively complex as well as expensive system needed to fully support such a display.
He browsed through the operating system and to his annoyance, he found out that the system barely completed with no optimization being carried out; it was rather insulting to see such a half-baked system controlling such a fine machine. He entered some subroutines to fine tune few parts, cursing the shoddy codes in contrasts to the operating system's kernel which was as solid and fully encrypted that he was rather sure that he couldn't hack it.
"Okay… Let's try to get this thing standing," he said, carefully pushing the control lever. The whole mobile suit shook before it slowly moved to right itself. "Wow!" Kira uttered as he could see the beach clearly from the cockpit.
If he had looked at the display behind him, he would have noticed a silhouette of a mobile suit watching him for a few seconds before discreetly moving away.
"Damn those Alliance bastards... When I get my hands on them, they would pay for it." Yzak said while his finger idly traced a scar line across his right eye. Fortunately the injury wasn't deep enough to end his career as a mobile suit pilot permanently.
If not for the matter being a serious one and Yzak was itching to vent his frustration on someone, Dearka would have joked about 'getting his hands' on the enemy pilots.
"I still don't understand why we lose to those assholes." Yzak said, continuing his rant. He had seen the news about the so-called Alliance's victory over ZAFT. While even idiots would know that the broadcast was a pure propaganda on the faction's behalf, there was no denying the fact that their attack had succeeded to a certain degree.
"Maybe it's because all of you didn't work together; I certainly can see that from your battle tactic," a female voice remarked.
Yzak snapped his head toward the origin of the voice and within a second was already in front of the person, wanting to grab her collar.
However, the newcomer easily swatted his hand away and said, "I would suggest restrain on your behavior, Ensign Joule or do you really think that your mother's power would allow you to act as you please?"
The man held the hand that was pushed away and was about to retort back when he finally realized who the person was. "Talia Gladys…"
Talia clucked her tongue in derision, "It seems that the rumors about this group members being so full of themselves are true after all."
Yzak felt his vision turned red. "Why you…"
"Stop it!" Athrun reprimanded. "Can't you see her rank?"
The silver-haired Coordinator stopped and examined her closely. While he knew that Talia was a ship's captain judging from her white uniform, him being a redcoat elite meant that he was almost at par with her rank. Then he saw the small badge on her lapel. It was the FAITH badge. Known as Fast Acting Integrated Tactical Headquarters, a person bestowed with such honor would operate outside the regular ZAFT command structure and report directly to the PLANT Supreme Council. A FAITH also had the authority to plan operation and issue orders to the regular military as long as the orders wouldn't conflict with the higher chain-of-command's directives. "Why are you here?" he huffed.
"Because all of you were busy sulking here, you weren't there to see my ship's arrival,"
"Minerva!" Nicol said, referring to the new ZAFT flagship that was designed as a naval space vessel. It was rumored that Minerva's design was derived from Earth Alliance's Archangel-class ship plans. "Wait, aren't the ship is supposed to land the next week?"
"That's why I said you weren't paying attention; the higher commands decided to speed up deployment of Minerva since what happened."
Dearka bowed in a gentlemanly manner. "So what does the fair lady wants with the ragtag group of self-absorbed brutes likes us?" He felt that he already knew the answer but would like her to clarify it.
"The four of you would be put under my command."
As usual, Dearka's guess was right on the money.
Yzak however was furious. "You can't just waltz here and…"
Talia tapped a letter on his nose. "This is a transfer order approved by PLANTs. If you want to appeal, you may do so. But regardless of the council's decision, your mobile suit would be in my command. In case you're wondering, I'm fine with anyone else piloting Duel."
"Fine," Yzak conceded grudgingly. To be assigned to a grunt after piloting Duel was tantamount to demotion.
The captain smiled. "Good. You're to prep up and report onboard Minerva at 0600 hours tomorrow. We're going to Cairns to do some investigation."
"Cairns?" Athrun asked. "Why?"
"Archangel was spotted there."
"Maybe it was recovering their mobile suits?" Nichol asked.
"No. It wouldn't make sense to do so near the city's outskirt. Besides, we have reports of a ZAFT facility there being attacked by Alliance's special force."
Dearka held up his hand lazily. "Forgive me for asking but as far as I remember, we have no ZAFT facility over there."
"Precisely."
Rey Za Burrel was known for being level-headed at all times but even he felt reluctant being tasked with telling the man in front of him the bad news; the man was indulging in his own private time, gazing on Earth from the glass panel of his room. However, it had to be done. "Gilbert…"
"We lost Spectrum," the other man said.
"You knew."
The man named Gilbert gestured toward the blue planet. "Even from here I can feel its activation by someone."
"What should we do about it?"
"Nothing. For it to be activated by a 'key' even before we find such a person is something rather unexpected. Right now, I'm interested with what will happen next. Will the 'key' find someone who will use her to open 'it'? I would like to think not. Without having to strain ourselves, we will regain Spectrum."
"But what if the so-called 'key' managed to find such person?"
"Then, it is destiny."
Rey didn't like the rather short and vague answer. He was about to comment on it when he realized something. "How do you know that the person who stole our prototype is a woman?"
Gilbert turned toward him. "Rey, do you know the story about how Prometheus gave humans the gift of fire?"
The blonde man nodded. "The myth started around 7-8 BC where he stole the fire hidden by Zeus and return it to mankind. In return Zeus punished him by having his heart be eaten by an eagle everyday only to have it regenerated at night time. Heracles eventually freed him from his curse."
"Yes, but I'm talking about Pandora, the supposed first woman fashioned by Hephaestus to live with men."
Rey narrowed his eyes. He knew that she was made of clay and brought to life by four winds; she was the one who released into the whole world all evils that had been contained inside a vase she was carrying. However, he didn't see the connection between the disappearance of their prototype and the ancient mythological character whose appearance was similar to those of Prometheus. "I don't see what you're hinting."
Gilbert smiled mysteriously. "Patient, Rey. You must remember that Greeks was a paternal-based society. Let's say a woman carried out a heroic deed. Wouldn't it be beyond imagination to say that her deed would be 'edited' by storytellers?" His smile widened when Rey frowned even further. "Yes. You can see the possibility. Now, wouldn't it be much a stretch to suggest that perhaps Prometheus was actually Pandora? Imagine this version: Pandora stole a vase containing all the 'evils in the world' from Zeus. She then took out one of the 'evils' and gave it to mankind, warning that just as it could be beneficial to them, it could also become their worst enemy if not properly controlled and harnessed."
"You're saying that Pandora was the one who gave mankind fire?"
"No, I'm not insinuating such; I'm merely pointing out the plausible possibility that perhaps a storyteller would changed his story a bit to make it more interesting for his audience, that's all," he said while smiling.
"Then…"
"Imagine that one day, perhaps one hundred years ago, someone found the vase belonging to Pandora and studied its content. The result of such study is the birth of the first Coordinator, George Clenn. Even as the world was torn asunder by the man's selfish creation, another Coordinator who saw the error of his brother's way cloned himself in order to continue studying the vase. Three generations later, his newest clone finally rebelled." Gilbert coughed and put a hand to his mouth. When he stopped coughing, he pulled away his hand only have droplets of blood floating out of his mouth. "This will be a hassle to clean," he remarked.
"That's why you created Spectrum?"
"My great-grandfather, if I'm to refer him biologically, was content to play gods, controlling everyone on Earth and PLANTs from the shadows, just like a skilled puppeteer. His 'son' and 'grandson' also did the same. But I am different. I will give the vase to mankind in hope that it would be used accordingly."
"But what happened if your prediction is wrong and the vase is used wrongly?"
"Let me make it clear to you that I don't predict anything with what I did. My time is almost up and I've decided to end the curse of Durandal on humanity with my life. If, like you suggest, mankind is not worthy to receive the vase, then perhaps mankind doesn't deserve to rule Earth. However…"
"However?"
"Perhaps the old-types, the defiant Naturals and the arrogant Coordinators could be shown that their evolution paths would amount to nothing; the only way forward would be shown by another…the new human" Gilbert shrugged. "But I'm not going to interfere because my work is done. From now on, I will bear witness to the destiny of humankind."
"How about me?" Rey asked, narrowing his eyes.
The older man put his hand on the man's shoulder fondly. "It is up to you to fork out your path."
"Even if my path would interfere with your work?"
"If you wish it to be."
"Very well," Rey said as he turned to leave. "I will do what I see to be the right thing."
"Oh, by the way…"
"Hmm?"
"Everything that I said is just a conjecture. The mythological 'Pandora' might, in fact be a man. Perhaps it would help you to remember that."
"I will."
Murrue was about to enter her cabin when Mwu popped seemingly out of nowhere."
"A word with you in the private, Colonel?" he said.
Normally, such question from a man in that place and time would imply that it would lead to something else that had little to do with words and more with action; Mwu was a normal man. However, he could be business-like and serious and at that time Murrue could see that he really have something to say. "Come in." Even if he really had something else in mind, Murrue wasn't sure that she would be totally against it.
As the door closed behind them, Mwu took the seat near the table, leaving her to sit on her bed. He really had something serious to discuss, Murrue realized with a small pang of disappointment. "So, what do you want to talk about?" she asked.
"Since we already lost contact with command, maybe it's time we discuss our separate orders from Admiral Halberton," Mwu said.
"Separate orders?"
"Yes. I have to admit that your records are quite good, Murrue but you have to admit it is a bit strange why someone as young as you was promoted to be a colonel and was given this ship. Halberton had to pull lots and lots of strings to achieve that and you know about the rumor mill."
Murrue wanted to let out an exasperated breath. She did hear about the rumor regarding Admiral Halberton and her having an affair. But she flipped her hair and smirked "You know that the two of us was an item so I have to wonder why you bother with all that flirting?"
Mwu smirked back. "Ah, making the impossible possible is my specialty." He then turned serious. "Besides, no man would simply promote his woman just so that he could send her away on a suicide mission; sending his mother-in-law, yes, but not his woman. Plus, you're not the only person who knows him personally."
"I guess."
"So, let's start with the mission given to me. "I already know from the very beginning our ship is going to land on Earth."
"I know that as well. Even though we're supposed to sacrifice the PIXIE squadron in the first place, Admiral Halberton told me that we're going to recover them along with the order to retrieve our so-called agent."
Oh," Mwu said before fishing out a small table computer from his cloth and switched it on. "Actually, the real order is to retrieve whatever the agent is carrying and if required, I'm to kill her."
"What?" Murrued asked.
The man handled the tablet to her. "Flay Allster, the love child of the Senator Allster with a scientist from PLANTs.
"A Coordinator?"
"Not sure. Remember, despite all that craps our own media are spouting, PLANTs have a rather significant number of Naturals as well and the dead senator isn't known for being friendly to Coordinators. But that's irrelevant. Whether she's a Coordinator or not, the fact is she is a Blue Cosmos sleeper agent in Ocenia and for her to be activated, something major must have happened. My job is to ensure that whatever it is, it wouldn't fall into the hand of the likes of Djibril and Azrael."
"I see. I probably wouldn't have the heart to do such a thing."
"That's why I'm here. But the problem is now."
"Huh?"
"I take it that you don't know what to do next? The same thing with me. Well, we can search for the agent but maybe she was killed off or something so it's out of our hand. But what should we do next? Head to Alaska or maybe Pearl Harbour?" He sighed. "The communication problem is really a pain in the ass."
Murrue took out the memory disk containing her orders from the admiral and look at it closely. "Maybe there's something else… I remember seeing some gibberish on mine."
"Just like mine." Mwu expression changed into one of realization. "Maybe we're supposed to put it together or something?"
"Let's try it. Give me yours."
The man handed his memory disk, not bothering to make a joke regarding her statement.
Murrue entered both her and Mwu's memory disks into her computer and began a decryption program. "It is possible that my orders and your orders would lead to a new one." A text box appeared, telling the two of them that the decryption was completed before a new appeared, revealing the coded message.
"This…" Mwu trailed as he tried to understand the ramification of the order being given to him and Murrue.
Murrue put her hands on lower half of her face as her body began to tremble. "Impossible…" she said as tears began to slide down her face. "Impossible…"
Her training had taught her that having Coordinator-like skills wasn't required to know that she was inside a small room without having to open her eyes. All she needed to do was to listen attentively the movement of air to know it as air movement inside a small confined place is different compared to a bigger area. She could also hear the distant roar of waves which indicated that she was close to a beach. The acoustic of the sound as well as the temperature of the place she was in allowed her to guess she was inside a structure made out of wood. Of course, the prevailing smell of wood in the air helped her to achieve that conclusion. The young girl continued listening a sudden movement of air and after a minute, she was satisfied that either she was alone in the place or the people in the room had remained immobile, probably sleeping.
Flay Allster opened her eyes slowly and cautiously, letting them get used to light. As she had suspected, she was indeed inside a room. Slowly, she looked around the place. From the plain looking bed sheet beneath her and the ornaments placed on the wall, she surmised that she was inside a civilian home. Then she got up and tiptoed inside the place, making sure that she wouldn't make any creaking sound walking on the wooden floor. Flay searched all around the room for something that she could use as a weapon. To her disappointment, she found none.
The door to the place opened and fueled by adrenaline, she launched herself toward the person who had just entered the room. She quickly adjusted her body movement to match with the newcomer's profile which was a young adult. She didn't need to think but her body already knew that she would apprehend the person and force him to tell her where she was.
The man managed to slide out of the way.
"Coordinator" she thought but her body was adjusting itself to launch a roundhouse kick at the man.
The man raised his left hand to block the kick.
"Not really well trained." With her left leg still in the air after it was blocked by the man, Fllay jumped, folded the left leg and performed a snap kick using the right leg at the same spot. With the man's arm already touching his head, the kick imparted some of shock to his head. "A civilian."
As the man fumbled to the left, Fllay brought out her hands to land on the floor and then spun her body to stand up. "I can defeat him!" she thought as her punch was already halfway toward his face.
Then there was a flash and she felt as if her brain was stabbed with millions of pins. She didn't even register the fact that her body crashed next to him as the pain began spreading all over her body.
"Ah, it seems that you're finally awake," a man asked with a pleasant voice.
Fllay opened her eyes, realizing the futility of pretending to be asleep. The enemy had caught on to her charade so there was no point in doing so. The first thing she saw was a man in priest cloak man standing next to her bed. "You know."
"Your breathing was becoming more frequent."
It was then she noticed that his eyes were closed. "You're blind," she stated flatly.
"Hopefully not in heart. I'm Malchio and the young man behind me is Kira."
Fllay spied the young man she had attacked a bit further. Did she saw a blush on his face? "Flay."
It was rather rude not to give the person her real name, not that it would matter much. As a Blue Cosmos member, she had no illusion that she would be treated lower than scum. She entered not because she would be saving the world but avenge her father's death on the hands of the Coordinator terrorists by killing every single one of them.
The priest gestured toward the man name Kira. "Kira found you on the beach and brought you here for treatment."
"Thank you," she said in a fake thankful manner.
"Um… you're welcome." Kira
"Well, then, Miss Flay, perhaps we can talk later." Reverent Malchio turned toward Kira, "Since I have something else to do, I'll leave our guest in your hands," he said before leaving the room.
Flay watched him leaving and only turned toward Kira after she was satisfied that the person was out of earshot. "Why didn't you say anything?" she asked him, referring to her attack.
"Em… because it was an accident, I'm sure," the man who's about her age replied, smiling at her.
"I'm a Blue Cosmos," she said.
"Oh," the man said dejectedly. Then he brightened up a bit. "But I still believe that all people are inherently good in nature."
The naïve statement sickened her to the very core. How could anyone as stupid as him exist, she could never know. Besides, if human beings are inherently good, her father wouldn't have been killed, would he?.
"By the way, the mobile suit you piloted is awesome."
She got up only to fall back again due to pain racking her body. "Where is it?"
"I managed to move it to the hill nearby and hid it there."
Again, Fllay tried to get up and this time she succeeded. "I remember now. You're the one whom I told to destroy the mobile suit. Why didn't you do it?"
"But I didn't how to do it!" Kira protested. Sure enough, he had an idea on how to do it but he felt that it would be a waste to destroy something like that. "That's why I bring it here."
"Idiot!" the redhead spat. "You haven't realized the consequences of your action. Where are we right now?" she snapped, wincing a bit at the pain the action caused her.
"We're at the orphanage, in Marshall Island."
"Marshall Island?" Vague memories of what had happened assailed her. "No, I was supposed to wait there in Cairn! I must go back to the mobile suit!"
"But you're not in the position to move around!" Kira said as he put a hand to steady her.
"Shut up!" she said as she slapped away his hand. "I must get the prototype back or at the very least destroy it. Tell me where it is."
"I'll lead you there."
She growled in frustration. "Just tell me and I'll be on my way. You have put your life in danger already," she said as she swallowed the rising bile in her throat. Somehow, she could feel her perception distorting.
This time Kira put his hands on her firmly. "You need help to go there." When her body gave way, he held her up and put her on his shoulders. He then moved forward, passing some orphans with a few older ones whistling at his action while the younger children talking about him going to get the cooties.
It took a bit out of his stamina but Kira and his ward finally arrived at the mobile suit. While he stood by the entrance, watching her sitting on the cockpit's seat, he had some reservation in regards to his action. The woman clearly admitted that she was a Blue Cosmos and was piloting the mobile suit before she had crashed it at the island. Perhaps she was testing it for use against Coordinators?
"I've contacted the Alliance's ship that's supposed to pick me up and it's on its way here," Flay announced from her console.
"I'm glad for you."
"I hope they could get here as fast as possible. I can't pilot this, not in my state."
"You're keen to this machine to Alliance, aren't you?"
"Yes," she replied as she continued checking the systems around her.
"Do you really hate Coordinators that much to give your superiors a machine to kill them?"
She snapped toward him at the accusation. "Maybe I am an evil person but this machine was built by ZAFT," she pointed toward him, "your kind. Would you dare to claim that this would be used for a peaceful purpose, or in truth to kill more and more of Naturals?"
He didn't know what to say to counter that statement.
"Furthermore, I don't know what will happen to this," she hesitated to think of the mobile suit's name, "Spectrum. All I know is I must get this away from the island as soon as possible before…"
She was cut off as the whole place shook up. The tremor also caused Kira to be thrown inside and the cockpit's hatch close.
"Get off me," she growled as she pushed his face away from her chest.
"Sorry," Kira said as he retreated a bit.
"Go take the other seat," Flay commanded as she entered some commands to magnify something she saw flying toward them. It was already too late as a flight of ZAFT's mobile suits were coming toward them.
"It looks like Jerek is right in his report," Marco remarked to his wingmen. "Probably an Alliance prototype. Looks like it's a cigar room for him instead of cleaning the bathrooms using a toothbrush."
"Damn lucky break," Azyzy, one of his wingmen retorted. Being based on a submarine, it was downright taboo to smoke and to be given a room to smoke a cigar was considered a full privilege even by non-smokers.
"But the mobile suit seems different than the ones attacking the base," the other one commented.
"Well, you have a point there, Kim. We have to capture it or at least brings it head to the high command," Marco said, already thinking about a medal he could receive for the deed. After all, Marco Morassim was known to be a proactive person. A commander of Costeau, his own Vosgulov-class submarine, the seasoned veteran often entered battle, piloting his own flight-capable DINN, like he was presently doing, or naval based ZnO, depending on the situation.
"Should we give it a chance to surrender?" the first wingman asked.
"Sure," he said before licking his lips in anticipation, "but if it resists, it would be pretty interesting too."
"They're asking for our surrender," Kira said franticly from his seat as he reread again and again the message on his console.
"Ng? no… must move it a… away and self… destruct," Flay moaned from her seat.
Kira couldn't see her face but he could hear her heavy breathing. It was strange but she seemed fine a while ago. There was a small whirring sound and he found that his seat had rotated to the front, exchanging places with Flay. "What happened?"
"Move it away… set the… auto-destruct and go… out of the cockpit," the woman behind her said in a delirious manner.
"How about you?"
"Pandora…" Flay mumbled.
"Huh?" Kira asked as he pushed the controls, half-expecting the mobile suit not to control since Flay was the one on the pilot's seat. To his surprise the mobile began to move away from the hill. "It probably had redundant control but it's rather weird."
"To the pilot of the unknown hostile mobile suit," a voice announced through an open frequency. "You are to stop and dismount the mobile suit or face the consequences."
"What should we do, Flay?"
In response, the hatch opened slightly. "Get out…" she said, seemingly regaining her mind. "After you get down I will continue to move on."
"But what will happen to you?"
"Probably getting what I deserve. I'm a Blue Cosmos, after all." she said ruefully. "Now go!"
He only moved toward the hatch only to pull it close.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm not going to leave you just like that!"
The three DINN began to fire their machineguns around the mobile suit as a warning.
"Can't you see that they mean business?"
"Well, yeah!" Kira said as he pushed the throttle forward and the mobile suit began to walk faster and faster. "I'm not going to let them get their way."
Marco's interest in the white mobile suit was increasing and increasing as he watched it breaking into a small jog. The frame's design was extremely advanced to allow it to move on land at a rather surprising speed. "Snipe down its legs!" he commanded.
"It's too fast!" his first wingmen said.
"And it changed vector easily!" the other remarked, surprise evident in his voice.
The commander had to agree that capturing it fully intact was unlikely. "Very well, if we can't take it then no one will! Destroy it!"
"You're moving in the wrong direction!" Flay said in alarm.
"What are you talking about? We're avoiding their attacks!"
"No! We're back toward your place!"
"What?!" he uttered before he realized that she was right. His mobile suit was only around a hundred meters away from the orphanage. The shock of what he had done had caused him to pause in panic.
"Move!" Flay shouted as she wrenched control of the mobile suit.
The mobile suit rolled to the side just as one of the DINNs performed a strafing run. As a result, the DINN missed it and accidentally hit the orphanage instead. The shots perforated the wooden building, causing massive damage to everything inside.
"YOU IDIOT!" Marco shouted at Azyzy who did the strafing run. "That's a civilian building!"
"I'm sorry. I didn't expect it to be able to evade the attack," the attacker apologized.
"Whatever. Just get the mobile suit and this time, don't fail." He was quite certain that the building was being inhabited and as a result of his man's idiocy, innocent civilians might be hurt. It would be rather problematic explaining the situation to ZAFT the collateral damages unless unmarked mobile suit could be captured intact.
"NO!" Kira screamed
"This is not the time to cry, Kira," Flay said coldly. "We must leave the area. You can pilot this thing better than me so get to it!"
"You!" he sputtered. "This is your fault!" he cried.
"Yes," she said resignedly even as the cockpit continued to shake from shots rained on it. "This is my fault, my sin. But now the situation has degenerated to this, I don't know whether we can just let them killed us," she continued. "Maybe…"
"No. I'll protect them…" Kira said softly as his eyes shone in determination. "I'll protect them."
"Warning, damages above acceptable level. Initiating forced Pandora Key synchronization with the main pilot." The onboard computer's metallic voice announced.
Kira didn't what the computer meant but suddenly he felt his senses being enhanced to a very level that he could perceive everything around him! But strangely he didn't feel himself being overwhelmed by the stark increase of perception.
"Initiating defense protocol. Selecting Phantasma Schwert as main weapon."
If he wasn't familiar with Phase Shift armor, Marco would have pegged the prototype as being equipped with one. However, the armor on the mobile suit he was attacking wasn't Phase Shift. Phase Shift armor would changed color but only in segmented block. The mobile suit didn't change its white color. However, glowing red trimmings began appearing all over it, lending an overwhelming aura to it. The head also reconfigured, revealing a face similar to those 'Gundams' stationed at Carpenteria.
When he saw it bringing out and activating its beam saber, he nearly choked on his saliva. ZAFT had just achieved a breakthrough on Beam Saber technology and installed it on the few of the Gundams but from the intensity of the beam, he could see that the beam saber on the white mobile suit was at least two generations ahead of the ones on the Gundams.
But Marco was a calm man, knowing very well that battles were not won on technology alone. He had the advantage of numbers and could play the waiting game with his team keeping their quarry busy, until reinforcement arrived from Costeau. "Azyzy, Kim, we'll pin it down until helps arrive."
While Kim acknowledged the order, Azyzy didn't. In just two seconds, the white mobile suit had jumped and slashed his mobile suit into two.
"Azyzy!" Kim cried out. It was a mistake on his part. The white mobile suit had turned toward him and quickly closed the distance before stabbing through cockpit.
Marco was the only one left after Azyzy's DINN crashed into the ocean while Kim's DINN exploded in the air over the island. Undeterred by his opponent, Marco fired his DINN's shotgun to push it away. It was apparent that the pilot was inexperienced and in despite losing his team, Marco was sure he could defeat it. When the white mobile suit reared back to perform a stabbing attack, he quickly seized the chance to kick it into the sea.
He smiled. The goddess of victory was smiling on him that day.
The assumption was proven wrong, however, when the radar warned him of incoming four hostile mobile suits, no doubt the white mobile suit's reinforcements. He could probably deal with one with two being a stretch. Four? It was better to retreat to fight another day. He looked at the beached mobile suit and cursed its pilot. Marco then engaged his DINN's full throttle to leave the area.
It wouldn't matter because he would prevail in the end.
1
Author's note (28 March 2010)
1. Still no ending in sight but at the very least I keep the story open rather than having perpetual cliffhangers just in case I couldn't continue.
2. Sure, some would like to point the similarities Spectrum and Gundam Unicorn. I'll be candid and admit GU did inspire me in some aspect. However, I would like to clarify some facts:
a. The white and red trimming isn't inspired by GU's Destroy Mode but came from my fiction Fallen Angel's ZGMF-X16S Fallen's trimming. Fallen had black body with red trimming all over it and the story mentioned about it as early as October 2005.
b. 'Pandora Vase' seems similar to Laplace Box. I neither knew about the existence of GU novels nor can I read Japanese. So I never knew that what I'm writing in Chapter 3 in Soaring Above (as early as August 2008) about Pandora Vase Pandora Box is similar to Laplace Box concept Vist Foundation is protecting.
c. Spectrum's non-Pandora mode is inspired by 'Grey Moth' in Soaring Above. Originally, I opted for the Grey Moth to be a Gundam but had its head covered by a 'mask'. Of course, in my original draft, Kira was supposed to be in normal UNITY military while Flay was part of UNGARD, along with Grey Moth. However, with Grey Moth already a transformable mobile suit, putting in another 'hidden' mode seemed to be a rather tall order. Besides, the story had clearly changed into a different path and the Flay's role changed from the one supporting Shinn from the shadow to his antagonist. Weird.
d. While Pandora mode seems like GU's NT-D, I actually followed Fallen's Vue Divine. Besides, NT-D is highly advanced as it allowed the pilot to control the mobile suit by his thoughts alone. What Pandora mode do (at least in this chapter) is transforming Kira into a temporary 'Newtype'.
e. Anyway, I would like to reuse the GM's mode again in this story and with Gundam Unicorn's transformation being awesome as it is, I don't think will mistake Spectrum's alternate mode as a copy of GU.
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