Chapter 2: Confusion
Just a few seconds before the beam saber connects with the grey Strike, Sven managed to make it to bend down with a press of a button, thus a scratch was just caused on the shoulder by the beam saber.
"Man, for a 20 year old girl, you sure are heavy," The brunette grunt while pushing the unconscious blonde aside that just blocked his main screen. Quickly, he pushed the thruster handle in front, resulting the Strike Rouge to tackle the Dagger with its shield.
The Dagger shoot with its head-vulcan while being dragged behind after receiving a forceful tackle by the MBF-02. The Vulcan caused some damage to the brunette's mobile suit.
Sven pulls in a key board and begin typing something on it, "Weapons, amours, system, there must be something useful in this piece of metal," As he type, the Dagger was already back onto its ground and took out its beam rifle. Without hesitations, the Dagger shot a few beams towards its target.
A warning beep snapped him out of his typing, "Ack, damn," Sven stepped on the pedal and made the grey Strike fly with it's thrusters and successfully avoided the beam. While in the air, another warning beep indicates an incoming missiles coming towards the him. "Phase Shift armour? No time to go through the instructions," the brunette pushed a red button which had a label on top of it that reads 'Power On'.
An explosion occurred as the missile impacted the grey Strike. However it wasn't destroyed and heck the missiles didn't even caused any damage at all as the mobile suit landed back on the ground safely. This time the grey mobile suit changed its colour into red, possibly caused by the button that the brunette had just pushed a moment ago.
As the Strike Rouge lands, it drew out its beam rifle and made a shot which accurately hits the head of its enemy, blowing off the head of the Dagger and exposing its mechanical structure within.
"Bull's eye!!" Sven shouted happily "Hmm, the radar shows that there is still 5 more mobile suits in this area," Overlooking the whole base with his Strike Rouge, he spotted 2 GAT-04, Windam, shooting out missiles from its shield to the hangars nearby them. There are still 3 more but he couldn't spot them anywhere.
"This is weird, all these mobile suits are all from the EAF. So, the naturals still hates us coordinators after all, eh?" Sven was annoyed as he made another shot from its beam rifle, thus alerting the enemy mobile suit and they manage to avoid it in the nick of time.
The two Windams lifted their beam sabers and dashed towards the Strike Rouge. Sven tried to shoot them down before they could reach him with the Strike Rouge's beam rifle but the Windams professionally avoided every single shot that he made. "What?! These pilots are no ordinary pilots, must be an ace pilot or something," He looked worried. Sweat flooded his face. "Close range weapons, where is it?" The brunette typed as fast as he could, "Ah, here it is. Beam Rifle, Head-Vulcan and Assault Knife. What, only knifes?!!"
"Ahh!! Screw it!!" With that, the Strike Rouge places its beam rifle onto the side of its compartment and took out an assault knife from it. He then dashed towards the Windams. A Windam swung its beam saber outwards when it's enemy was in close-range. The Strike Rouge lowered its body and manage to avoid the incoming beam saber and slashed the Windam's torso with its knife. Disabling the Windam but did not caused an explosion.
Another Windam appeared behind the Strike Rouge and jumped onto the air, ready to deliver a blow to the red Strike. But before it could manage to do so, the Strike Rouge performed a back-kick and kicked away the beam saber that the Windam is wielding, thus disarming it. The Windam tried to reach out for its beam rifle but was stabbed in the chest by the MBF-02's knife, causing it to function cease.
"Ok, 3 down, 3 more to go" Sven wiping off his sweat.
A warning beep sounded again as 3 Astrays landed in front of him. Sven was relieved as the radar indicates that the Astrays were companions. But the brunette's relieve was only for a moment when the Astrays aimed their beam rifles towards him. "What? What the heck are you doing? I'm one of you. Ergh, the radar must have something wrong with it, it keeps indicating the Astrays as friends."
Confused and angry at this situation, Sven placed the red Strike's knife back to its compartment and took out its beam rifle. The Astrays, aware of the brunette's intention, took a head start and shoot the red mobile suit.
Using its shield, the Strike Rouge was able to block the beams from the Astrays' beam rifle. Counter-attacking, he returned fire towards the Astrays. The Astrays flew off separately. The brunette did the same and flew away. The red mobile suit then successfully shot off all three Astrays's important body part, the head, the left and right hand.
"Hah!! Take tha-.." Sven shouted in a 'Hah, I win!!' tone, before getting interrupted by an impact at the back. "What was that?" The Strike Rouge turned around only to find out that it was stabbed, but didn't penetrate the armour of the Strike Rouge, by a Japanese katana wielded by a ZGMF-1017M2, Ginn High-Maneuver 2. "Even ZAFT was involved in this attack too?!! Whats wrong with you people? What grudge do you bear against ORB?" The brunette shouted in frustration.
Out of the blue, another High-Maneuver 2 Ginn appeared behind the Strike Rouge and fired its beam rifle. The warning beep once again snapped Sven out of his frustration and manage to dash away, avoiding contact with the beam. He tried to return fire but every shot made did not hit anything. The two Ginn HM2 flew around the red Strike and slash it with their katana's whenever they have the chance, even though it does no damage to him but its enough to annoy the heck out of the brunette.
"Grr, why can't I shoot down any of them," A lavender-eye brunette grunted in annoyance
As he keeps shooting the beam rifle and unsuccessfully hit anything, Sven did not notice the 'WARNING' sign at the side of the controls that indicates the power level. "Fall down! Fall down!! FALL DOWN!!!" Each shot that he made lowered the power level. However, Sven did not notice it at all, his concentration are fully onto the two High-Maneuver 2 Ginn.
The Strike Rouge kept shooting and shooting until when nothing came out, only a click sound was heard from the beam rifle. Sven looked confused "What's happening, why isn't it shooting anything?" Then, a long beep was heard. He turn his attention onto the screen beside him. The power level of the mobile suit has been used off completely, causing it to change its colour back to grey.
"Huh? What the hell is happening, how come it changed its colour back?" The grey Strike did not make a move as the pilot was in the state of confusion. The deactivated Strike Rouge stopped moving in the air, the enemy took this advantage to themselves.
A warning beep turned Sven's attention back onto the main screen, only to find out that one of the High-Maneuver 2 Ginn was just a few meters in front, ready to deliver a heavy blow with its deadly katana.
The High-Maneuver 2 Ginn delivered a forceful heavy blow with its katana. In the nick of time, the Strike Rouge was able to intercept the attack with its shield but was dragged back down on the ground at the forceful blow and caused it to impact hardly onto the solid ground.
Sven grunted, trying to make the mobile suit to stand, until he felt something dripping on his face. "Huh? Blood? ….Shit!!" Completely forgot about the representive, he just remembered and took a look at Cagalli and found out that her head is still bleeding and this time slightly heavier than a moment ago. "Damn," He cursed himself. Not long after that, a small screen popped out at the main left screen, showing a small figure standing there. But Sven was able to recognize her as she was... "Kaoru-chan?"
The magenta brown-haired girl was just standing still there, numbed at what she's seeing.
Another warning beep sounded, warning him of another incoming attack from the enemy Mobile Suit. The two High-Maneuver 2 Ginn aimed their beam rifles at the motionless grey Strike Rouge.
"Damn, if I fly away with its thrusters now, Kaoru-chan might get hurt in the process, but if I stay here, they'll blow me up and blow her up in the process too. Bah, what difference does it make? I'm done for anyway…. No, I swore to protect her and I WILL protect her till the end!!" At that, he covered the magenta brown-haired girl with the MBF-02, Strike Rouge's body, protecting her.
The brunette closed his eyes, awaiting everything to end. "I'm sorry, Cagalli-sama. I couldn't protect my country's representive, I couldn't protect anything,"
Just when the High-Maneuver 2 Ginns were about to shoot their beam rifles, their beam rifles were shot and exploded by another light of beam out of nowhere. Soon later, one of the High-Maneuver 2 Ginn got sliced into half by a white mobile suit with only one eye behind it. While the other High-Maneuver 2 Ginn tried to escape but soon confronted with a rain of missiles and was hit at it's every part of it's mechanical body and later exploded into pieces.
The radio in the Strike Rouge was turned on to public channel, receiving a voice contact "MBF-02, Strike Rouge, do you copy? This is Yzak Joule from the Joule team. Do you copy?"
Sven looked up to the screen. His eyes filled with hope. The grey Strike Rouge stood up and turned around to see his saviours. There was a white ZGMF-2000, Gouf Ignited, a black ZGMF-1001/M, Blaze Zaku Phantom, and a YFX-200 CGUE type D.E.E.P. Arms with a rose symbol on its left shoulder. The brunette pushed on a few buttons on the radio "This is MBF-02, Strike Rouge, I copy you. I need a medic here. Orb's representive, Cagalli Yula Attha, is in here with me and she is unconscious and there is another female civilian there. Repeat, I need a medic here,"
"Don't worry, the medics are on their way," A female's voice was heard from the radio.
Sven gave out a sigh of relief and closed his eyes, taking nap after a long tiring battle, his face imprinted with a small smile.
C.E. 75, Onogoro Island, Orb Parlimen.
A day had passed since the confusing incident whereas enemies consist of units from all EAF, ZAFT and ORB, launched an unexpected attack onto Onogoro Island Base. Many mobile suits were destroyed and many workers were killed by a bunch of unknown mercenaries.
"Steven Volfield, according to the report that Captain Joule gave yesterday, you were piloting the MBF-02, Strike Rouge and faced with a GAT-0212, Dagger L, two units of GAT-04, Windams, three MBF-M1, Astray units and two ZGMF-1017M2, High-Maneuver 2 Ginn, is that true?" An ORB officer asked.
The lavender-eyed brunette starring at the paper report on a desk in front of him "Yes, that is true,"
The officer closed his eyes, thinking something in his mind, "Ok, thank you for your cooperation. You may leave now." The officer gestured at a guard beside the door, signaling him to open the door.
As the brunette walked pass the door. Three people were waiting for him outside.
"So, how did the report session came along, kiddo?" A blonde man jokingly asked.
The brunette place his hand at the back of his head "Nothing much, Dearka-san. But the room was rather creepy, the room was dark and it doesn't help out much that they shine you with a table-lamp,"
"Haha, you'll get used to it soon," The blonde man whose name was Dearka patted the brunette on the shoulder.
"Oh yeah, Yzak-san, how is Cagalli-sama's condition?" The brunette asked out of the blue, looking at the silver-haired man.
Yzak did not gave out any response instead, a long silky brown-haired, tied with a ribbon at the end, female answered the brunette's question "She's fine, although she does need to spend a few days at the hospital,"
Sven gave out a relief sighed, recalling what he 'accidentally' did to the 'Representive of ORB' yesterday. "What about Kaoru-chan, the girl yesterday that was with me?"
"She? Hmm, the doctors don't know what happened to her. She was in some kind of coma-state since yesterday. Now she is still in the hospital. Judging by her state, I think she will stay at the hospital for a long time," the brown-haired female replied.
Sven was speechless at the news of the girl he had a crush on. "There is still one thing that I don't understand. Why is there an attack launched onto ORB, not to mention that the enemies had mobile suits from EAF, ZAFT and ORB itself?"
Yzak folded his arms "This we don't know. But according to our information, the terrorist were well-organized, well-trained and well-equipped in forms of weapons, ammunition and mobile suits. Reports came in yesterday that not only Onogoro was under attack, but other several places in the world as well at the same time. The politicians had just discussed and came to an agreement to conduct a survey program today to spot any suspicious activities,"
"Can I…. can I join your team for this program too?" Sven asked.
"I'm afraid you can't, Sven-kun," the brown-haired female patted the brunette's head.
"Why not, Shiho-san?"
"Because its too dangerous and you're not a soldier unless…"
"Unless you become one now," Dearka joked again.
Shiho pinched Dearka in the arm, warning him not to give any dumb ideas to the brunette "Dearka!!"
Sven was filled with hope when he got that idea from the blonde man. "Yeah, I'll become one now!!"
"Look, Sven-kun, aren't your parents worry about you? You shouldn't join the army like this, there are risks of death or serious injuries with this job," Shiho bend down to the brunette's height level.
The brunette had a sad facial expression on his face. "My parents are long dead. They died two years ago in PLANT when Januarius 4 was hit by a giant laser. Onegai!! I beg you, I want to come along too. I want to protect this earth!! I don't want war to start off again!! I don't want many lifes sacrificed to the violence of war anymore!!" Sven kneeled in front of Shiho and Dearka. (see note below)
"Okay, I approve your request. But we will not be responsible for your safety, you should take care of yourself at the battlefield," With that, Yzak searched for something in his uniform. "Regroup at the launching hangar in 35 minutes. After that, we'll begin the survey. Here, give this approval letter to the officer standing over there," Yzak handed out a piece of paper with his signature below.
After hearing what the silver-haired man said, Sven jumped around in joy and took the paper. The silver-haired man then walked away.
The two soon followed Yzak back to the base while Sven went separately, probably heading to the small procession where several ZAFT officers were recruiting new soldiers to join their ranks.
"Are you sure about this, Yzak?" Dearka asked.
Shiho looked worried "He's just a kid, how would you expect him to survive in the battlefield?"
Yzak grinned "Don't worry, that kid have potential. I can feel it. Besides, he's 16, that's the minimum age required to join the army," His blue eyes shows confidence in the brunette.
C.E. 75, Orb Hospital, Room 105
There, a blonde sat on the bed, hear head covered with a bandaged, signing some paperwork when the door knock snapped her out of her busyness.
"Cagalli-sama?"
Cagalli rearranged her scattered paperwork. "Ah-Hem. Come in,"
As the door opened, Sven entered the room, wielding a bouquet of flowers. "Koninchiwa, these are for you. Sorry…for what happened yesterday," He placed the flowers into a vase.
"Ah, its OK, I'm tougher than that. After all, I wasn't entitled 'Representive of ORB' for nothing," The Representive gave out a smile. "Now, what's your name again?"
"Steven, Steven Volfield. But people just call me Sven,"
"I believe that you haven't answered my question yesterday, Sven-kun,"
"Eh?"
"You piloted very well yesterday at the stimulator and with the Strike Rouge, have you ever piloted anything similar to this before?"
"Umm, to tell you the truth, I've never done anything like this before. Its just that when I started to control the stimulator, I felt like that I had already mastered the controls by just a touch at the controls..." the brunette scratched his head, not sure of his own answer.
"Are you a coordinator?" Cagalli asked suddenly
Sven was confused at the questions thrown to him. "Eh? Emm, yes I am,"
"No wonder you could pilot a Mobile Suit that well,"
The word 'Mobile Suit' reminded Sven of the survey program. "Uhh, Cagalli-sama? May I ask you a favour?"
The Representive smiled "Sure,"
"May I land your…Strike Rouge?" Fearing that the blonde will shout towards the brunette as a disagreement, he closed his eyes shut and bit his lips.
Cagalli took no time to think about Sven's request and came out with an answer. "Sure, after all, its least I..no, the country can do after you saved my life yesterday. Besides, I'm not using it anymore as I am now managing ORB full-time. You can keep it with you. But, why in the world would you need a mobile suit for? You're not even a soldier, heck even in the army,"
"Well, I just officially joined today and I participated in a survey program with Yzak-san and his team," The brunette answered.
"Yzak Joule? Hot-head Joule?"
"Yeah, but the problem is that I don't have a Mobile Suit to launch with, so I thought…."
The Representive gave out yet another soft smile, "You thought of lending my Strike Rouge. Well, its yours from now on. Take good care of it,"
"Thank you, Cagalli-sama," He smiled.
"Good luck and take care of yourself," Cagalli patted Sven on his head.
"You too, Cagalli-sama," With that, Sven left the room. Leaving the Representive with her paperwork alone in her room.
C.E. 75, Orb Hospital, Room 303.
Before leaving for the survey program, Sven used his extra time to visit an important friend to him, Minatsuki Kaoru.
He knocked and entered the room. As he stepped into the room, he could see a magenta brown-haired girl laying on a bed, motionless.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Sven gently touched her face. However, he did not receive an answer, heck even a single movement.
Kaoru was just laying there, her blank eyes starring into the emptiness space. Not even blinking once.
The brunette sat down on the bed beside her, stroking her brown hair from covering her bangs. "I…I uhhh…I joined the army today and I'm… starting my first mission later. I got the grey mobile suit from Cagalli-sama, she gave it to me. Isn't it cool? Once you've recovered, I promise you to bring you to the place you've always wanted to go with it. Just promise me that you'll move again and continue on with our normal lives, you can annoy the heck out of me if you want to. I like what you always do, always smiling beside me, cheering me up whenever I'm not in the mood," He gently spoke, tears rolling down to his cheek.
Soon, he could no more bear the tears inside him and broke down. "Why don't you say something for Christ's sake?!!" Sven buried his face onto the bed, muffling his voice as he cries on.
Only 10 minutes left before the survey program begins, he stood up, wiping away his tears. He swore "This time, I promise I'll protect you for sure," He left the room and quickly head back to the base. As he leave the room, Sven did not notice that there are tears rolling down from the magenta brown-haired girl too. The girl probably heard what the brunette said the whole time….
C.E. 75, Onogoro Island, Orb Mobile Suit launching hangar.
"Whats taking Sven-kun so long? We're gonna start the program at 5 minutes," Shiho Hahnenfuss walked around in circles, worried at the absence of the brunette.
Dearka Elthman folded his arms. "Could it be that he's scared and went home and hide under his bed?"
"I'm getting sick of your joke, Elthman, stop it! I'm gonna give him 2 minutes, if he is still not here after 2 minutes, we're taking off," Yzak Joule barked.
After two minutes, Sven was still absent.
Yzak grunted, "That's it, we're taking off," At that, the silver-haired man walked towards his white GOUF Ignited.
"HEY!! WAIT FOR MEEE!!" a familiar voice came out. Thus turning the trio's attention to the source of the voice.
As Sven arrive in a red ZAFT combat suit, Dearka gave him a 'friend to friend' muscle-lock. "What took you so long, kid? You had us worried there for a minute,"
"Sorry, the worker here had some problem finding a suitable size suit for me, I guess being a soldier at the age of 16 isn't all that good when they couldn't find a suitable size suit for you to go to battle," The brunette wore his helmet on.
The silver-haired man fold his arm. "Better late than never, I suppose. Anyway, I'm somehow concern that we will confront with some enemies with the same units as we do during our survey, like Dearka's black Blaze Zaku Phantom, Shiho's CGUE DEEP ARMS, My White GOUF Ignited and even Sven's Strike Rouge. We need a strategy to confirm who-is-who during this kind of situation,"
"Like identifying each other's characteristics?" Shiho added. "One can recognize me by the symbol on my CGUE DEEP ARMS's left shoulder, One can easily recognize Yzak by his white commanding GOUF Ignited, and we can especially recognize Dearka by his endless annoying jokes,"
"Hey!! Whats that suppose to mean?" Dearka asked in annoyance.
The brown-haired girl bit her lips. "But how do we recognize Sven in his Strike Rouge?"
Sven grinned, "Note that when I activate the Phase Shift Armour, Orb's national symbol will appear on the Strike Rouge's left shoulder,"
"That's it!! Good eyes you have there, kid," Dearka patted the back of Sven.
"Well, I think we should split in two groups. Me and Shiho will lead 10 ZGMF-1000 Zaku warriors and 5 MVF-M11C Murasames. While Dearka and Sven will take the remaining 5 Zaku warriors, 5 Murasames, and 5 M1-Astrays. Understood?" The silver-haired man's voice was clear, his body flowing with aura of seriousness.
The four saluted "Roger that, Captain Joule!!" The silver-haired captain saluted back.
At that, they head to each other's mobile suit. As Sven finishes the Strike Rouge's system checking, a screen popped out above in the 'communication screen', revealing a female in green ZAFT uniform. "Koninchiwa, I'm Yomiko and I'll be your support on this mission. Your Strike Rouge will be equipped with an Aile Striker on this mission. The Aile Striker will increase your thruster's power, giving you a faster speed while in the air,"
"Thanks," As Sven prepares to lunch, an Aile Striker was equipped on its back, a beam rifle was attached to the Strike Rouge's right compartment and lastly, a shield attached itself onto the Strike Rouge's left hand.
"All system cleared, ZGMF-2000, GOUF Ignited, you may launch now,"
"Yzak Joule, Joule Team, LAUNCH!!" The white GOUF flew out of the hangar.
"All system cleared, ZGMF-1001, Blaze Zaku Phantom, you may launch,"
"Dearka Elthman, Zaku, going out!!" the black Blaze Zaku Phantom flew out of the hangar secondly.
"All system cleared, YFX-200, CGUE DEEP ARMS, please proceed,"
"Shiho Hahnenfuss, CGUE, launching!!" The brown-haired girl's CGUE D.E.E.P. ARMS flew out of the hangar and followed Yzak's GOUF.
"MBF-02, all system cleared, Strike Rouge, you may launch,"
"Steven Volfield, Strike Rouge, move out!!" With that, the Strike Rouge flew out of the hangar and changed its colour as the Phase Shift Armour was activated.
To be continued…
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End of Chapter 2
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Note : Sven's parents died during the part where Djibril shot the Requim towards PLANT's capital, Aprillius One, attempteing to eliminate PLANT's supreme council but unsuccessfully hit it's target and instead hit Januarius 1 to 4, with Januarius 4 colliding into December 7 and 8 in its destruction in Gundam Seed Destiny.
Next chapter will be concentrating on Sven's past.
Thank you Blood ridden path and Lambda123 for guiding me.
Thank you for your support!! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Once again, reviews and ideas would be much appreciated.