B/N: Goodman is the fat guy from A-Laws. And Abra is the sadistic Count Dracula of A-Laws.
Chapter 12-Traitors in arms
Diego stood abruptly at attention in Kati's office. Kati's small but well organized office was devoid of any tacky items or trophies that so many officers decided to put up, she was a woman of functionality, and Diego was glad to relate. Standing at attention beside Soma he felt at ease among the stark surroundings as he watched their mission tech endure Kati's wrath.
Kati slammed her fist down on the table before her in anger. "What do you mean they've disappeared? This was their last monitored location."
A short and slightly shaken mission tech stood before her unable to come up with any reasonable explanation.
"WELL I'M WAITING SERGEANT, WHERE ARE THEY?" Kati yelled, trying to get a proper response.
"Ma'am....I..." He looked to the two super soldiers for help. Diego and Soma wisely stood at attention and offered no such solace. "I don't know what happened, but we will find them right away."
"Then get to it!"
With a quick salute the sergeant all but ran out of the room. The two super soldiers were already thinking out various scenarios of their enemy's escape, their first assumption was that a traitor had infiltrated A-laws.
After phoning in the order to call off all assault suits, Kati finally turned to the two soldiers still at attention in her office.
"At ease, you two."They obeyed, moving closer to her desk. "As you both know Celestial Being's mother ship is not here, somehow they've managed to evade us. How, I wonder, were they informed of all this?"
"Colonel, do you think we've been compromised from the inside?" Soma asked, gauging Kati's reasoning.
Kati nodded. "This is why I've asked for both of you. At this point in time you're the only two soldiers I can trust. I need you to figure out how this leak occurred, interrogate all the staff and bring any traitors to me."
"What about Celestial Being?" Diego asked.
"You will have two recon teams at your disposal, I need that ship found."
"If they put up-"
"Alive! I want Celestial Being brought in alive, Lieutenant Dyson." Kati added. There was no doubt in her mind, her old comrade Leesa Kujo was the enemy tactical forecaster. Still Kati was not one who operated on assumptions, if it was her then they needed to talk. She needed to understand why a woman who fought by her side would betray her very own country.
"Yes Ma'am." Diego replied, a bit puzzled by her sudden need of live captives.
"Good, I'll leave it to the both of you. Dismissed."
They both snapped to attention and saluted her. They were about to walk out when, Colonel Goodman suddenly walked in with Major Lindt. Both super soldiers saluted them as well, although not as enthusiastically. Kati stood up to welcome her superior.
"Colonel Goodman-"
"Colonel Mannequin, I'm afraid I have some bad news." The heavy man's eyes glinted with delight, as he walked in to stand before her.
"You two can leave now" Major Lindt said smugly, "These matters are for commanding officers only."
Diego's eyes met Lindt's, he hated the overconfident major and couldn't stand the thought of him giving out commands. Too many innocent people had died under his tactics and Diego would be dammed if his own men join that list.
The two soldiers left without a word, both of them pitying the colonel who would now have to sit through Goodman's politics.
(2 hours earlier aboard Ptolemy)
"Everyone get to your battle stations." Sumeragi ordered, as the crew around her adjusted. "Feldt what's the status?"
"All Gundams ready to launch; Almagest is standing by."
Sumeragi wondered how the A-laws could mobilize so fast, during their attack run she made sure all of their deployment bays were hit. Nevertheless A-laws were proving to be one difficult opponent, making a mental note of their positions Sumeragi called out countermeasures.
Tieria emerged from the water with Seravee, right behind the enemy squad. Allelujah and Lyle emerged with Arios and Cherudim, flanking the lead mobile suit. Just as Arios was about to attack, the voice of a man with a middle-eastern accent came through the comm.
"Celestial Being, stop, we're with Katharon."
"Katharon..." Allelujah stopped but still held his beam sabre at the throat of the suit.
"What the hell is going on?" Tieria yelled from his cockpit.
Ptolemy emerged before the Squad, Almagest's cannon was trained straight at their formation, however no other suit seemed to aim back at them.
"This is Sumeragi Lee Noriega speaking. If you are with Katharon then why do you have A-laws colors and transponders?"
"It was to avoid showing up on their radar, please we mean you no harm. We received intel that A-laws are closing in on this location, we're here to lead you to safety."
Lyle recognized the voice of his comrade Girard. Lowering his weapon he moved into their formation, "Sumeragi-san, if what this guy says is true then I'd rather avoid an A-laws encounter."
"Just hold on Cherudim," 'we still don't know their objectives' she thought to herself, why would Katharon want to help them?
"Ms. Noriega, we want to help Celestial Being, you don't have much time. We can offer you shelter and supplies while they are searching for you. Besides you guys have nothing to lose, you're suits are much more powerful, we would not risk fighting you."
Sumeragi pondered the man's invitation when Feldt cut through, announcing an A-law's fleet 30 minutes away from their location. Well at least they were right about that, she thought, before ordering her Gundams to stand down and retreat with the Katharon escort.
(Present-Katharon Base)
Neil stepped from Ptolemy's platform onto the earthy ground of Katharon's base. It looked like any other modern day mech facility, hanger bays lined the walls holding hundreds of mobile suits while many people scurried about with heavy equipment.
The three Gundams stood in a trinity at the far end of the hanger, with Ptolemy close by. Neil looked up at Cherudim, he really missed Dynames, despite the increased power of Almagest, the limited mobility was not as appealing. Sure he liked protecting the ship, especially more so now that he and Sumeragi were together but he missed fighting alongside the Gundams.
Lyle, Allelujah, and Tieria were up ahead, their helmets were now off as they talked to the excited Katharon soldiers. Neil was a bit hesitant; they always kept their identities as an S level secret, however with Veda technically out of their hands who knew what information the enemy already had. Taking off his helmet he came to join the group, almost instantly regretting the action when the soldiers fired off eagerly asked questions about the newly noted twins.
Inside Ptolemy's conference room Sumeragi looked at the images of a completely destroyed Azadistan, streamed to her from Setsuna. The flames engulfed everything, no building stood untouched and not a trace of human life could be detected. She stood horrified as Setsuna's voice broke through.
"Sumeragi-san, Azadistan is gone. I'm bringing Marina Ismail back to Ptolemy."
She nodded gravely, "That's fine, but how...how did this happen?"
"When we came here I saw a red mobile suit, it looked like a Throne, so it was probably-"
"Ali Al-Saachez....he's still alive!"
Setsuna looked grim, "I couldn't confirm it but that's what I suspect."
"I see..." She thought of Lockon and what he would do if he ever found out, trusting her instincts she turned back to Setsuna, "Setsuna, I'm going to ask you not to relay any information about Al-Saachez to anyone else, just until we confirm his survival I don't want to spread false information."
"Roger that." With that Setsuna signed off. Sumeragi was glad that at least for the meantime she could keep Lockon away from that bastard.
The images of carnage still lingered in her mind as a frame of Feldt replaced Setsuna on the screen, "The Katharon leaders would like to talk to you Sumeragi-san."
Perfect timing, she was just about to go pound on their door, she thought to herself. "Good, I'm coming down now."
Ten minutes later Sumeragi and all the meisters except for the still travelling Setsuna were gathered in a room with Klaus Grado, Shirin Bakhtiar and their lieutenants. In Sumeragi's eyes Klaus looked like a level headed man, the only thing that worried her was his actual motives.
Klaus stepped forward and welcomed them, "Celestial Being, welcome to our base. I hope my men did not cause any panic."
"No everything went well. Thank you, for the help back there." Sumeragi replied.
Klaus smiled, "It was not a problem, we're both fighting A-laws. Which leads me to our proposition, how would you like to form an alliance with us?"
Sumeragi and the Meisters around her grew uneasy; an organization with unclear motives such as Katharon was just too hard to trust. Not to mention their inferior mobile suits would prove to be more of a liability than an aide. Taking all of this into account Sumeragi politely refused, subjecting Celestial Being to an hour long meeting in which Klaus repeatedly tried to promote the value of his offer.
"Alright, I see that you've made up your mind, very well. But we still extend supplies and maintenance to your service whenever you need them."
"We also know that you are currently waiting for one of your pilots to come back. You can use this base as a hideout until you re-group." Shirin added brightly, secretly hoping the intel on Marina Ismail was correct and that she was indeed with the returning meister.
"Thank you, we really appreciate your help. Once my other pilot gets back we will be on our way." Sumeragi said, thinking how Ptolemy would be useless for interventions at anything less than full strength, plus their stay gave them the perfect opportunity to understand this organization's plans.
"Sumeragi-san, do you think it's wise to stay here? We're putting this base in danger with our mere presence" Tieria advised as they headed back to Ptolemy with Allelujah and Lockon.
"This base is protected by GN particle emitters; according to Lyle they render it invisible, Katharon will be fine."
"Yeah and this is the best place to lay low until Setsuna gets back. We need all the gundams for a proper intervention." Lockon added while Tieria still looked unconvinced.
"He sure knows a lot about this place" Allelujah spoke up at the mention of the Lyle. Tieria looked to him in agreement.
Lockon ignored them and noticed that Lyle had not followed them out of the interview room, he stopped and looked back.
"Lockon, are you coming?" Sumeragi stopped, while Tieria and Allelujah kept walking towards the ramp, engaged in a discussion about their new sniper.
"Go on, I'll be right there." Turning to her concerned gaze he added, "I'm gonna go get him, the dummy probably forgot where we parked Ptolemy."
She nodded passively. The truth was, she still had questions about Lyle and knew that Neil did as well. Honoring his wish she continued towards Ptolemy, deciding to focus on the ever present threat of Al-Saachez instead.
Lockon rounded the corner to the lower conference rooms when a Katharon militant skid to a halt in front of him.
"Jean-1, how did you hurt your eye?" he asked before the nature of his job hit him, he surely could imagine the details, "Nevermind that, what are you still doing here? I thought I told you Klaus is still waiting for you in his office." He said pointing down the hall to a closed door.
"Right, of course. I'll go there now." Lockon was caught off guard yet he played along carefully, something just wasn't right. He recognized the man's voice, as the leader of the escort party they encountered earlier.
"Good, I've gotta go back to those idiots at A-laws, let's grab a beer when we come back." With a smile and a quick pat on the shoulder Girard ran past Neil heading for the A-laws mobile suit which escorted them here.
What the hell was that about? Curious he started walking down his indicated path. As he got closer parts of conversation could be heard through a nearby door, he recognized his brother's voice as well as that of the Katharon leader Klaus, and his right hand Shirin. Quietly Neil stayed outside and listened to the conversation that he could not believe he was hearing.
"Not the response we expected from CB." Shirin spoke
"No it's actually the best we could have hoped for. Who knows, one day a time may come when we can finally join forces and fight alongside each other, right Jean-1?"
"I guess we'll have to wait and see, boss. So any plans for the time being?"
"Yes, keep me informed of their operations; we too will act accordingly on the battlefield. They can't be our future allies if they're dead." Klaus instructed.
"Also, your brother was quite the surprise, we never knew you had a twin." Shirin said, "I hope that it is the only information you've kept hidden from us?"
Lyle only chuckled, "As I recall I signed up to work, I didn't sign over my life."
Shirin and Klaus only exchanged respectful glances before concluding the meeting.
After the speech ceased Lockon slid for cover beside the door. Klaus and Shirin walked out and headed for the hangar as Lyle followed close behind. Once back in the hangar Klaus and Shirin left to oversee the hangar work leaving Lyle standing in the entrance as though nothing happened. Seeing that everyone else was distracted Neil swiftly came up behind Lyle.
"What THE-" Lyle was cut off as his head was forced down atop an oil barrel, the stench of the crude liquid below invading his senses.
"I heard everything. What the hell are you thinking?" The voice of his pissed off brother put him at bay. "When were you planning on telling me you were working with them?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Lyle struggled but Neil's hold did not waver.
"You idiot, why the hell are you spying on us?" He spat out before roughly forcing Lyle's head further along the lid. "What you fight for is your business, but if anyone from Celestial Being gets hurt because of your leak then I will gladly become last Dylandy."
Lyle hated being threatened, especially by his brother. Shaking Neil off he whipped around ready for a fight, but at the sight of his brother, the livid rage clearly showing on his face he thought otherwise. Neil was always quick to anger, and Lyle used that as an advantage to divert a possible cover blowing fist fight.
"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Lyle replied taunting him.
His comment disturbed Lockon greatly, but he didn't let it show as he headed back to Ptolemy letting Lyle's words hang between them.
A/N: Please be patient with me folks I'm still trying to craft out my writing style.
B/N: Aren't we all? Happy New Year!