Chapter 3: Unexpected Help
Kira waited patiently at the Strike's feet for the pilots to appear over the ridge.
The first one to reach the top was the priest. "Well I'll be damned. Wufei was right! There is somebody with a mobile suit waiting for us!" He called to his friends.
Once all of them stood on the ridge of the sandy crater, they began to slide down towards Kira. The priest was the first one down, cursing as the short haired man and the black haired man slid down close to him, coating him in the dust from the disturbed sand.
"Your luck seems to be pretty poor today." The blonde chuckled as he and the tall man slid down. The priest shook his head as he brushed himself off.
"That looks like an official uniform pilot suit… I guess that means we really aren't home… unless the situation's worse than Milliardo thought it was." The tall man observed with a frown.
"Are you guys with ZAFT?" Kira asked warily. He knew they wouldn't openly admit it if they were, but something felt off about them. They really didn't seem like they knew his mobile suit and it was apparent that everyone in ZAFT knew the Strike and the Archangel.
The tall man, the blonde, and the priest looked at him in confusion. "ZAFT? What the hell is ZAFT?" The priest blurted out without thinking.
"Obviously, this ZAFT is the enemy faction of whatever organization this kid is with. Whatever we got dragged into appears to have thrown us right into the middle of a war." The short haired man said in the same icy tone.
"We're not with anyone, kid; you don't have to worry about that." The black haired man said with a dismissive wave.
"You want proof? Hell, I'll introduce everyone." The priest said. "I'm Duo Maxwell; the cold-hearted jerk beside me is Heero Yuy." He motioned to the short haired man who glared at Duo. Duo didn't seem to notice as he moved on. "This is Quatre r-…somethingorother Winner." He said as he motioned to the blonde.
"It's Quatre Raberba Winner, but I doubt middle names will be of any significance." The blonde said, chuckling in amusement.
"Thanks for reminding me. Anyways, this is Trowa Barton and Chang Wufei, although we just call him Wufei. Now if we were enemies, would we go telling you our full names?" Duo asked as he motioned to the tall man and the black haired man respectively.
Kira nodded slightly. "I'm Kira Yamato, pilot of the Strike." He said, wondering if they simply didn't know the appearance of the Strike.
However they merely looked up at the machine with examining eyes and, after a few moments, seemed to nod in approval of it, confirming his suspicions they weren't with ZAFT.
"You wouldn't mind helping us get our suits out would you? I doubt they're going to be able to free themselves at this point."
Kira nodded. "I'll see if I can. If I can help you out, then the Strike will be in the crater before you know it. If not…"
Quatre nodded. "We understand. We'll wait for you at our machines."
Kira nodded again as he climbed onto the lift back to his cockpit.
Once inside, he watched as the others climbed the slope of the crater. "I doubt Miss Natarle will be happy with this…" He muttered as he opened a line with the Archangel.
Murrue nervously waited for Kira to contact the Archangel. The kid was far too trusting of people and if they were experienced ZAFT secret operatives, they could easily fool him and capture him. As she looked around, she realized she wasn't the only nervous wreck on the bridge.
Kira's friends Sai, Tolle Koenig, Miriallia, and Kuzzey Buskirk sat at their stations exchanging nervous glances with each other.
Natarle seemed more agitated than nervous, but occasionally a flicker of worry crossed her face.
Mwu was back on the bridge and seemed the calmest of everyone.
Moments ago, he had said that Kira had good instincts, even if they were untrained, and that he would take every precaution necessary in case they were ZAFT soldiers. The doubt in Mwu's voice when he spoke of Murrue and Natarle's fears made Murrue wonder if he believed what Kira had said.
"Archangel, this is Kira!" Everyone jumped when Kira's voice sounded in the bridge.
"Kira, we read you! Go ahead!" Miriallia said. She was unable to hide the relief in her voice, which echoed the relief on everyone in the bridge's faces, including Mwu's.
"They aren't from ZAFT… in fact… I don't even think they're from here."
Murrue frowned in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"
"It's hard to explain… It's just this weird feeling I have… Anyways, can I go help them? They want to get their mobile suits free. It looks as though they collided with a great deal of force: what's visible of their suits is pretty banged up."
Murrue sighed. "All right, Kira. Just be careful, even if they aren't with ZAFT, there may be ZAFT lurking around. Remember: we are in their territory…"
"I will ma'am. I'm out."
Murrue shook her head. "It looks as though you were right, Lieutenant La Flaga."
Mwu simply shrugged. "If that kid had been raised as a soldier of ZAFT… the Earth Forces wouldn't stand a chance… Just be glad he's on our side. Although… I should probably train him a bit so he doesn't get into trouble when the battles get even rougher."
Kira's friends looked at each other worriedly as they listened to Mwu's comments.
Murrue sighed and nodded. "Let's just hope it doesn't take too long to get those suits excavated. I want to be away from this area as fast as possible." She said.
Mwu and the others nodded in agreement; Northern Africa was ZAFT's territory. It was too dangerous for them to stay in the region for too much longer without the wrath of the infamous Desert Tiger falling on them.
Duo sighed as they waited to see if Kira was given permission to help them. "Do you honestly think they'll believe us?"
"Probably not… let's face it: our reactions and answers were pretty questionable." Trowa answered.
The others nodded in agreement before the Strike appeared over the crater's edge.
"Well I'll be damned…" Duo said in surprise.
"You're already damned a thousand times over, Duo; don't make it any worse." Trowa wryly said as he ignored the look Duo gave him.
The Strike landed near the head of the Deathscythe Hell and knelt to let its pilot off. "I'm allowed to help you guys. How are we going to work this?"
The others glanced at each other quickly before Quatre answered. "The Heavyarms and the Deathscythe Hell don't seem to be buried too deeply, so we'll clear them first and then you can pull them out with your mobile suit. We'll worry about the rest after that."
Kira was amazed by how they seemed to have that figured out by just a glance.
They don't seem like people we'd want as enemies…
He thought warily.
"We'll get to work now. When one of the suits is clear enough to be pulled out safely, we'll wave to you, all right?"
Kira nodded as they split up and began immediately clearing the sand from the black and red mobile suits. Kira quickly climbed back into the Aile Strike and waited patiently for their signal. He was amazed at how quickly they got to work without any apparent fuss or need for a leader to direct their clean-up effort.
The pilots laid in exhaustion as the Deathscythe Hell and the Heavyarms laid flat on top of the sands. They had just completed cleaning out all the sand from the important places of the two machines and decided to take a break in the shadow of the Strike before the desert heat killed them.
"Duo, we should get the Deathscythe Hell and Heavyarms operational and help speed up the process. We didn't expect to end up in a desert and too long out here will kill us without proper provisions." Trowa said as he stood up, brushing the sand off him.
Duo nodded in agreement and proceeded to do the same. "You guys stay here and get some rest until we can get them operational."
The others nodded in understanding: each Gundam had a climate control system built into their cockpits, which enabled them to fight without worry about heat or cold in extreme climates like the desert or space. The faster they could be operational, the better off their pilots would be.
They quickly moved towards their Gundams and were surprised when their Gundams' cockpit hatches opened with ease.
Trowa surprised himself when he made a crossed fingers gesture to Duo, who replied with the same gesture before leaping into the Deathscythe Hell, his braid falling in just as the hatch began to close.
Trowa shook his head as he climbed into the Heavyarms' cockpit. He was surprised to find himself nervous about trying to activate it. Then again, with all that had happened to them, he was surprised he could still be surprised about such trivial things.
They knew nothing about the anomaly that brought them here, and they didn't know what kind of internal damage the Gundams could have sustained. He inputted the right sequence of commands to get his Gundam operational and waited for the results.
After a few minutes of dead silence, things within the cockpit began to come to life.
Trowa unconsciously held his breath as he waited for the start-up to complete.
However, as the process reached the main control panel, it suddenly stalled. Sparks began to shoot out from the control panel, causing Trowa to shield his face as the sparks were quickly replaced by small explosions that shut down the Gundam.
Coughing from the acrid smoke he inhaled, he left the cockpit, leaving the hatch open to clear out the smoke. When he could see clearly, he saw Duo waving smoke away from his face as he too climbed out of his Gundam.
The others came rushing up to them in concern as they met on top of the Sandrock, away from the smoking machines.
"What happened?" Quatre asked worriedly.
"It was a little slow to start up, but everything seemed to check out… then it started sparking and exploded, shutting down the Gundam." Trowa explained.
"That's what happened to mines too. I don't know what the hell is wrong with it, and we barely know these Gundams to do much about it." Duo grumbled in irritation.
They were stuck in this situation because of him and the guilt seemed to be weighing heavily on him.
Heero stared at the Heavyarms while Quatre tried to calm Duo down. "Let me try." He finally said.
"Tsk… go nuts, o' Lord of the Gundams." Duo said with bitter sarcasm.
Heero seemed to ignore Duo as he looked at Trowa, who nodded.
Once Heero went to the Heavyarms, Trowa glanced at Duo. "I do believe you have cost yourself a free repair job."
Duo shook his head. "If he can get the Heavyarms running, he'll do the same for the Deathscythe Hell no matter what I said to him. He wants to get out of this heat as much as the rest of us." He said, wiping his forehead.
"Duo has a point…" Quatre said, looking at the sky with concern.
After a few moments of impatient silence, the others were surprised when the humming of activation came from the Heavyarms and it was able to slowly get to its feet before kneeling shakily to allow Heero to exit.
"It's all yours, Trowa. Be careful: the Heavyarms' structure took more damage than we thought." He said calmly before heading over to the Deathscythe Hell and climbed in.
"See? I told you that he'd do it." Duo said with a smirk, causing Trowa to shake his head and walk over to his Gundam.
Kira stared in surprise at how quickly the man known as Heero worked to repair the two freed mobile suits.
Once Duo was inside his Gundam and the others on the ground began clearing away the Sandrock and Altron, Trowa's voice came over his communication system.
He had given the Gundam pilots his communication code so they could talk to each other without having to try and figure out a sign system.
"All right, kid… let's move as quickly as we can. Can you try and clear out the Wing Zero without help? It's the jet over there."
His Gundam pointed to the more than half-buried jet lying in the sands.
"I would try, but I don't think we should trust any careful movements to our Gundams in their condition. And asking the others to try and dig it out seems like an impossibility considering how deep it appears to be buried. We can't risk having any of them die in this heat for one suit."
Kira nodded in understanding. He was quickly taken aback by Trowa calling their mobile suits, and the plane-like mobile armour, Gundams.
"Damnit!"
"What is it, Duo?"
"Don't expect any stealth recon missions from me for a long while; the Deathscythe Hell's Hyper Jammers are gone."
"I'm not surprised. I can't even open the Gatling hatches on Heavyarms' chest. Just be thankful the climate control system is working."
"Damn straight I am."
"Anyways, be careful with Wing Zero, Kira. It was the first one to crash and is probably has the most damage of all of our Gundams. It's pretty venerable in its Neo-Bird Mode… despite how Heero pilots it."
Heero's past reputation as a reckless pilot brought out some amusement from Trowa as he wondered how Heero would act nowadays.
"I understand." Kira said as he moved the Strike towards the jet-like Gundam while the others worked feverishly to free the other two machines.
Author's Notes: The first few chapters are very similar to the original version, but things change once the Gundams have been freed and repaired. Old readers please be patient for the new content, and new readers enjoy the old and new content!