Chapter 6: Recon
"Relena and the others ain't going to be too happy when we get home, but…" Duo trailed off as he jumped from the Deathscythe Hell's leg.
"About what?" Quatre asked curiously as he worked on the Sandrock's shoulder.
"About the damage we've done to our Gundams. Sure we may be able to fix the interior structure of our Gundams, but the external structures can't be replaced unless we find Gundanium, which doesn't seem to exist here."
"Who cares about the external structure? As long as Nataku is mobile and can fight on Earth and in space, that's all I care about." Wufei growled as he worked on the flamethrower unit of the Altron's right arm.
"You should care! If the external structure is compromised and we have to do something insane like pass through the atmosphere without a shield or mobile suit transport, we could be screwed! You know that!" Duo snapped as he grabbed some tools.
"Duo has a point, Wufei. With the external structure the way it is, we'll be able to fight like we usually do and not have to worry, but any of the other insane actions we're notorious for doing on a whim could be out of the question." Trowa said calmly as he worked on the hatches that hid the chest Gatling guns.
"Who's got their weapons systems online yet?" Heero asked as he changed the subject while Wufei and Duo exchanged glares.
Apparently Wufei had kicked the top bunk during the night and caused Duo to end up on the floor, however since none of the others were awake at the time, there was no proof that Duo didn't somehow roll off the bunk in his sleep and blamed Wufei instead. The incident had caused a lot of friction between the two pilots, which had held up even though they were busy working on their Gundams.
"Unfortunately, I am already up and running in that department." Quatre said. "However, the rest of my systems are still nearly non-functional."
"I'm not surprised. The Sandrock isn't as mechanized-weapon heavy as the rest of our machines are. Since the Heat Shotels are your primary weapon, so long as they aren't shattered, you can continue to fight no matter what the rest of the Sandrock's body is like." Trowa said. "The Heavyarms however… it's going to take a while." He said, cringing.
"I haven't even bothered to look at the Deathscythe Hell's scythe. The rest of its weapons seem to be perfectly fine though."
"The flamethrowers will be ready in another few minutes, but I haven't checked the rest of Nataku's weapons." Wufei frowned at the suddenly pale Heero. "What?"
"Those flamethrowers… they were fully loaded with fuel weren't they…?" He asked. A slight tremble in his voice had everyone caught off guard before they realized what he had thought of.
A heavy silence fell over the pale group as they all stood frozen.
Duo finally broke the silence with a shaky whistle.
"We were lucky… I had almost forgotten about them when we were going through that anomaly. Had the extreme heat from that warp or the impact of hitting the sands ruptured the Altron's flamethrower fuel tanks…" Trowa said, but his voice was barely audible.
Quatre looked at his fellow pilots worriedly.
This is the first time I've ever seen all of us so scared… this new incarnation of the Altron can fire continuous streams of flames for up to an hour before a single tank is drained, and there are backup tanks ready in case of a prolonged battle… Which means had any of the tanks ruptured, nothing would have been left of us or even the surrounding area…
"It looks as though the real God of Death still hates us and doesn't want to see us at his doorstep anytime soon…" Duo said grimly. "I'm going to see if I can eat something. Anyone wanna join me?"
The others nodded. They needed an excuse to get away from that terrifying revelation.
Death was something they were familiar with to the point that they didn't fear it anymore, but dying in a different universe, where the people they cared for would never know they were gone, was something they didn't want to think about.
After getting breakfast and returning to their room, the pilots discussed various things as they tried to keep their minds off of how close to a forgettable death they had been.
The topic they focused on the most was what the situation in the A.C. universe could be like if there isn't a difference in how time flows between the universes. However, the conversation quickly turned to another topic that was imprinted deep in their minds.
"While we're waiting for a way home, what should we do? Should we help them fight their enemy?" Duo asked, knowing the conversation would have steered in that direction eventually, so he figured he would turn the conversation to it so they could get it over with.
"Considering we know nothing about the situation, for all we know we could be sheltering with a group like OZ. Would you want to fight for a group like that?" Trowa asked.
The others shook their heads in disgust.
"Well then, I guess it's time for a bit of research…" Heero said as he stood and left, abandoning what remained of his breakfast.
Duo slapped his forehead in exasperation. "And by research, you know he means hack this poor ship's computers to shreds…"
Trowa couldn't help but chuckle. "You have to admit, it is the fastest way to gain information for our purposes."
"It's also the best way to make them believe we're enemy spies. I wish he'd think things like that through before making them throw up more red flags about us." Quatre said in concern.
"The question is: can he really hack the systems of such an unfamiliar place?" Wufei asked with a frown.
"Well, if an alert's sounded or we're suddenly being questioned, you'll know he can." Duo said as he leaned against the wall.
"Considering he accurately analyzed the hangar's monitoring system, I'm sure these computers will make him feel right at home." Trowa said casually.
"So he was right, eh? Tsk, why am I not surprised?" Duo said, shaking his head.
"Yes, I checked the system thoroughly last night. And he was right for about how long it should take you to disable it."
Duo stared at him in surprise. "Jeeze, you mean it's that easy for enemy forces to infiltrate this ship and disable everything from the inside?"
"For experienced infiltrators like us, yes it is. I don't think they ever really considered that option when they designed this ship. It's designed purely for combat and mobile suit transport, nothing aboard it except the Strike is of enough importance that they felt an internal security system was really all that important." Trowa said as he drank a cup of coffee.
"I just hope Heero doesn't get caught." Quatre said worriedly.
"This is Heero, he won't get caught." Wufei said dismissively. "They may have a detection system that Heero may get in trouble with, but they'll never catch who it is or where he is."
"True, Heero has never been caught before…" Trowa said with an amused smile on his face.
"Well then, let's just sit and wait for him to get back to us." Quatre said as he leaned back on his bed.
As Sai monitored the area around the ship for incoming ZAFT forces, an alert light flashed. "What the…?" He trailed off as he examined what the alert light was for.
Murrue and Natarle were speaking by the captain's chair.
"Captain!"
"What is it? Is it ZAFT?" Murrue asked as she and Natarle ran over to him.
"No, it's worse. Somebody's hacking into the Archangel's databanks!"
"Can you tell from where?" She snapped.
Jackie Tonomura, one of Sai's fellow CIC operators, answered. "I'm trying, ma'am." After a few moments of tense silence, he paled. "It's from inside the ship…"
The others grew pale as they wondered what was going on.
"Somebody find those pilots… especially that Heero person!" Murrue ordered.
Dalida Chandra and Romero Pal bolted from their stations and ran off the bridge just as Kira was coming in.
"What's wrong?" He asked Miriallia.
"Somebody from inside the Archangel is hacking into the Archangel's databanks, and Captain Ramius thinks it's that Heero guy you brought in."
Kira's expression darkened. "I'll go find him…" He said grimly as he turned and left the bridge, leaving Miriallia with a worried expression.
"Petty Officer Tonomura, try and get a lock on the hacker's location!"
"Already trying ma'am!" Sai and Jackie replied.
"He's really fast, I don't think I've ever seen somebody move this fast…" Sai said in surprise. He suddenly remembered Kira did it once on a dare, and he was as fast as this hacker was, but he decided to keep that information to himself.
Could they really be Co-ordinator spies?
He thought worriedly.
"Do you know what the hacker is after?" Natarle asked.
"They're all over the place. The detection system caught them as they were looking at the schematics of the ship and the Strike, but then they moved on and we haven't been able to find them since." Jackie said frowning.
Kira started by going to their room and asked the others where Heero was. When they were unable to tell him, he ran quickly in an attempt to find an access terminal.
As soon as he left, Duo and the others could only grin in amusement. "Told ya…" He said.
Back on the bridge, the frantic attempt to track down the hacker was still going.
Suddenly, Sai slammed his fists on his console. "Damnit!"
Natarle and Murrue looked over at him.
"What's wrong, Sai?" Murrue asked.
"The hacker's gone. The detection system can't find any trace of the hacker at all now."
"He's right, ma'am. I can't find the hacker anywhere, and all traces of where they were hacking from or what they were looking at are gone. Whoever it was, they knew what they were doing…" Jackie said with a shake of his head.
Murrue muttered some curses under her breath. "Can you find out what they could have been after?"
"We managed to trace them to the Archangel's logs, but that's all."
"The Archangel's logs? What use could they have for examining what the Archangel has been through?" Natarle asked in confusion.
"I don't know…" Murrue said with a shake of her head.
Chandra and Pal returned, shaking their heads. "You couldn't find him anywhere?" She asked.
"No ma'am and I don't think Kira has had any better luck in his search of the ship." Chandra said.
Murrue sighed in frustration. "Well, now we're forced to have a wait and see approach thanks to those guys…" She muttered, ignoring Natarle's demands for the pilots to be sent to the holding cells for interrogation.
"What'd you find out?" Trowa asked as Heero walked into their room.
"Quite a few interesting things…" He told the others what the Archangel and its crew had been through since it fled the neutral colony of Heliopolis, as well the events leading up to the war they had been thrown into the middle of.
Trowa shook his head. "No wonder they're so understaffed…"
Wufei frowned. "It sounds like; once again, the Earth Forces are in the wrong… Why does that not surprise me?"
"I don't know… ZAFT doesn't sound like it's in the right either…" Quatre said thoughtfully.
"So what should we do?" Duo asked grimly.
"We're caught between two factions that are both equally wrong. How do we choose what side to fight for from that?"
"The only thing we can do at this time is to go with Quatre's idea. Protect the Archangel until it's out of ZAFT territory, then leave to find a similar anomaly to send us home. I have a feeling they may soon find the right path that's different from both the Earth Forces and ZAFT. All they need to do is to survive long enough to realize it." Everyone looked at Heero in surprise.
"Quatre, check to see if he has a fever… he's talking crazy." Duo said with a hint of worry in his voice.
"Shut up, Duo. I'm fine. It's all we can do until we can get the hell out of here." Heero said icily. "Besides, you were the one who wanted to test the new Gundams. What better time to test them than now? That way we know how they function should we run into a situation where we can only do rough, temporary patch jobs on them."
Duo chuckled. "I knew there was an ulterior motive in there somewhere."
"What if they try and stop us?" Quatre asked worriedly.
"Then you know what we'll have to do…" Heero said grimly.
Quatre's head lowered as he nodded in understanding.
"Despite its advanced state, the technology they have is very similar to ours at the core, where it counts. Once I figured that out, everything else was easy."
The others glanced at Heero in surprise. "Come on, we need to get our Gundams up and running as fast as we can." The others nodded and followed Heero.
Quatre sighed. "I really wish we didn't have to…" He muttered before following the others quickly.
Author's Notes: We're back in the C.E. side of things! Showing a bit of the human side of the A.C. pilots with the first part, and the second part is about showing how similar the two Universes' technology is at it's core. C.E. technology is more advanced than that of the A.C. technology, but they both grew out of the same source: technology from the A.D. timeline. At their heart, they'd still have enough similarities that it would be possible for somebody experienced with A.C. technology to handle C.E. technology. I hope this is a good enough hand-wave for the critics, but if it isn't, I'll be glad to elaborate my theory more.
Author's Reply: Usually I would reply to reviews in the next chapter, but I will address Technologymaniac burnig eagle's many comments now.
1. I am sticking with the way things were in the original series. Which means everyone's sexual orientation is ambiguous (sorry Yaoi fangirls) and so are their relationships. The only one I've advanced is Duo/Hilde, and those who read the third story in the previous version of the trilogy would know what happened there. Heero and Relena still have their understanding/keeping at a distance relationship going, and Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei's relationship status will remain a constant mystery as to whether they are or are not seeing anyone.
2. Yes, A.C. has more advanced technology when it comes to the production of mobile suits, but the C.E.'s computer technology is far more advanced. It's a tedious balancing act that I'm trying to maintain to keep both Wing and Seed fans from flaming my story to pieces like they sometimes did in the first two incarnations of the story.
3. I have my internet sources, so please don't worry about me. I have the first volume of the Gundam Wing manga, Ground Zero, Endless Waltz, and Episode Zero. I also own the series on DVD. As for Seed, I'm not as thoroughly sourced as that. I have only the manga. Oh yeah, and is very finicky about linking offsites.
4. As for their potential Newtype status, I'm playing that down. They're older and they've been out of the fight for four years. They won't be insanely powerful even if they were Newtypes. Plus remember that the "laws" governing the two Universes are probably different, so they could have been affected in an unnoticed way when going through the warp to compensate for those "laws".
I would have replied to you quickly if you had an account, which would have saved you from trying multiple times.