Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership: I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission.....well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine.
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.
The Megalodon design belongs to....well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.
Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm
Phase 28: Brutality, Part 3
PLANT Reentry Shuttle, Geosynchronous Orbit, Over the Indian Ocean
February 30, 71 CE
4:57 AM (Orb Time)
Athrun sat smack-dab in the middle of the shuttle, Cagalli next to him and Lacus in front of him, all returning from the L4 Research Colony, once known as Mendel, that was now being converted into a makeshift PLANT for the former ZAFT troopers and PLANT citizens that were loyal to Siegel Clyne and his supporters. All told, maybe just over two million had left to form the Loyalist Integrated Neo-Coalition, or LINC, which was at best a temporary refugee government. For the first few months, their lives would be rough, all crammed onto a single colony that hadn't even been intended for habitation by large numbers of people.
Luckily, Huynh Industries had picked up on the situation, lending the budding colony-state over thirty of its Magnetically-Attached Terrariums, or MATs, each capable of housing up to a thousand people each for a short amount of time. The MATs worked by generating a powerful magnetic field that locked them to a specific magnetic emitter attached to the surface of a colony just as the Earth and Sun's gravitational fields locked them to each other. Each was a spherical object that was half-hollow, the 'upper section' (relative to the colony) serving as habitation space while the lower section served as docks, life-support core, and giant photoelectronic battery.
Huynh Industries was also diverting some of its colony-builders to Lagrange 4 to start construction on new colonies.
As a lesser known job of Huynh Industries, as tasked by the Orb Government, the Royal Family in particular, they were also building fully automated self-defense emplacements on the colony, deploying sentry mini-stations exactly 5,000 kilometers away from the colony, outfitted with radar and LIDAR (LIght Distance and Ranging) systems, while solar-powered 150cm beam and 50cm gatling railgun turrets were affixed to the surfaces of the MATs, while mounting heavy 200cm Positron Blaster Cannons and Long-Range Cruise Missile Launchers to the colony itself, not counting the numerous CIWS turrets of beam, linear, and pulsed laser varieties.
"I can't believe that we would need to take such a measure....." Lacus whispered. Mentally, the pink-haired singer/diplomat had taken a hard beating over the past week or so, what with the revelation of the long-term betrayal of Patrick Zala, who'd been like an uncle to her for years, and the suddenness of the Loyalist evacuation. However, she couldn't imagine the pain Athrun was feeling, although he concealed it exceptionally well for someone in his position.
"It's not just the Radicals we're dealing with." Athrun commented softly. "There's Blue Cosmos and the Earth Alliance as well. We're lucky Orb is such a stout ally."
"Of course we are." Cagalli said, patting Athrun's shoulder. "You guys are the only ones other than us that have their head in a working condition." Both Coordinators smiled wanly at her.
"I guess that's why I'm lugging this along." Athrun said wryly, patting the steel-armored laptop on his lap.
"What's in it?" Lacus asked. She'd spent the time on Mendel performing live concerts to try and lift the spirits of the LINC citizens, and each one had been a big hit.
"The last of the technology LINC is trading with Orb." Athrun replied. "Some recent innovations in remote weaponry, a bit of data on nuclear reactor output modulation, but most of it is actually on an experimental interplanetary propulsion system."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, it uses a nuclear detonation to generate an enormous amount of gamma radiation and focuses it into a tight beam, which reflects off of a mirror attached to the back of a ship. Combined with the ship's engines and thrusters, it should allow fast transportation to Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and even Jupiter."
"Wow." Lacus said, charmed by the idea.
"Oh! Food's here!" Cagalli said as an automated cart wheeled it's way up, a big bowl of chicken ramen on its top. Cagalli snatched the bowl, somehow not spilling a drop of soup, and set it in her lap before laying into it. A few moments later, she noticed the bemused stare of Athrun. "What?"
"Now I see how you can be related to Kira." He remarked.
- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -
Orb, Mobile Pilot Training Facility X18999 'Enma's Locker', Visiting Pilots' Quarters
The trio of newly christened LINC pilots by the name of Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, and Nicol Amalfi, were at this moment fast asleep, with the latter two resting peacefully while the former wrestled with his pillow in a dream fight with Athrun, the news of his now-certain Commanding Officer's return sending his subconscious into spirals of aggressiveness.
Then they were awakened by the strange sound of rhythmic chanting, a decidedly strange item to hear, considering that the main-line religions pretty much imploded at the beginning of Cosmic Era and Orb has no minority religions.
Dressing and 'sneaking' out of their temporary assigned barracks, they followed the noise through ten hallways, two stairways, an elevator, and into what they had been previously introduced to as a information technology development lab. Previously, it had resembled a gathering of high-tech computers and extraneous attachments for the handling of said computers (ie, technicians). Now, it resembled a dank and dark cave made of titanium. In the center, was a literally Tetsujin-sized statue of Kira, made to perfect proportions with a wooden altar placed on a wooden dais in front of it. Before it was arrayed the entirety of the information technology specialists in the facility, dressed in dark blue robes with purple highlights.
"All praise Jesus Yamato!" Cried out one who was standing on the dais before the Kira-statue. Yzak recognized him as Bernie, the man in charge of the Artificial Intelligence Combat Assistant programming, while Dearka and Nicol recognized him as the 'guy who stuffed them in a scanner to analyze their brainwaves'.
"All praise Jesus Yamato!" Repeated Bernie's impromptu flock, bowing and scraping on the cold steel floor.
"He who delivered us from chaos and darkness into the light of logic and order!" Bernie roared.
"What the hell happened here?" Yzak muttered.
"Kira fixed the programming problem." Jack said from behind him, before promptly 'debriefing' him and running off with Yzak's pants, cackling.
Yzak stood there, his face slowly turning beetroot purple, in his shirt and heart-patterned boxers, and turned to face down the hallway Jack had run down. Suddenly, Jack ran screaming past the trio, running as though Kira and all of SpecOpsIntel's infantry section were after him, leaving Yzak's pants in his wake to smack into their owner's face.
"What the hell?" Dearka admirably summed their thoughts, as Jack quickly disappeared down the opposite end of the hallway, rounding the corner at nigh-unreachable speeds.
"JACK! Wait for me!" The trio of pilots' heads swiveled about, just in time to miss Juri crossing their field of view at a speed higher than Jack's, beyond even what they could accomplish, streaking down the hallway in a flash of blue hair.
"What-"
"-the-"
"-fuck?" They gaped, staring down the hallway as Jack cried in terror, before a muffled WHUMP was heard, followed by what sounded like a squeak of joy. For the next few moments, they looked at each other.
"Fuck no, I'm not getting involved." Yzak swore, turning his back on Jack, Juri, and the newly-created Cult of Kira while pulling his pants back on, and heading down the hallway away from the two J-named pilots, towards the center room. Without pause, Nicol and Dearka followed. Not three seconds later, the installation's intercom system blared, sending Liene's voice resounding throughout the complex.
"Would Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, and Nicol Amalfi please report to the first Pilot Briefing Room."
"How the hell do they know we're up?" Yzak frowned.
"I'm looking through the security system right at you." Dearka shuddered and glanced around, looking for the video cameras. "You aren't gonna find them."
"Shit Liene, that's kinda creepy." The former ZAFT pilot muttered, all the while following his two fellows.
Briefing Room
0519 Orb Time
A sad fact of the layout of the base placed the hangers and pilots' quarters on the farthest extent of the complex away from the main entry points - in case said entry points were discovered by hostile forces and subsequently targeted by high-yield weapons capable of penetrating the kilometer of dirt, rock, and space-grade hybrid hyperalloy armor; wherein only the briefing rooms and other less-than-necessary facilities would be destroyed.
It also meant a good twenty or so minutes of walking, through super-cold hallways stuffed with defensive measures on a figurative hair-trigger, and the trio of Gundam pilots were still in light pants and shirts. Which meant they froze. And that was before they saw what was being held in the hands of Karl and Liene.
"What in Glenn's name is that?" Yzak chattered, shivering as his eyes beheld what looked like a full-body suit with parts of a human skeleton made out of metal attached, including spine, ribs, limbs and joints. In the room was, besides the two, Asagi and Mayuri, Mu, and Kira, all wearing OMU-P armor.
"The Kanehada Powered Omni-Environmental Bio-Mimetic Exo-Survival Suit." Liene declared, handing the suit in his hands over to Nicol. "Everyone in the Orb military wears these, from mobile suit technicians to Shoki Team." Karl handed the two he was holding to Yzak and Dearka.
"They're graded against most small arms, and a good portion of the heavier anti-infantry weapons. Not as good as strapping a good ol' OMU to your body, but pretty damn close. And even in an OMU, you're wearing one under all that metal and ceramic." Karl said, grinning. The three pilots looked at each other.
'Er....thanks." Dearka said.
".......Well, what are you waiting for?" Karl, impatient. "Get 'em on! The OMU-P attachments don't glue onto your skin....well, actually....."
"Wait....what's going on that needs us to be in Orb-issue piloting armor?" Yzak demanded.
"What, you didn't hear?" Mu asked, slightly irritable. Between being led on about the new mobile suit that Liene had promised him, and feeling strangely abandoned, as though by some all-powerful creator, put the usually good-natured Natural in a slightly snappy mood.
"Well, I heard Kira fixed the Tetsujin's programs." Nicol said. For a few seconds, everyone in the room looked at the trio expectantly.
"Wait....that means.....Awesome!" Dearka gasped, grinning and started to look the Kanehada in his hands over for a zipper or something.
"Ah...Dearka." Liene started, "The Kanehada is put on similar to a wetsuit. And uh....it's worn under clothing." It took a few seconds for the three to process that last part.
"Oh....so...." Nicol muttered, turning red for a second.
"There's a changing room back here." Mu said, stepping back and revealing the door. Nodding their thanks, the three stepped through the door and started changing inside.
"There's also OMU-P parts in there, so stick 'em on and get out." Karl called.
Thirty minutes later
"Alright, what's taking them?" Karl scowled.
At that point, the entrance to the briefing room opened, showing in Athrun and Cagalli.
"Hey, no one came to see us at the spaceport." Cagalli mock-whined.
"I'm sorry Princess." Liene said sarcastically, drawing a threatening scowl from her. "We'll make sure your 150-man entourage is there next time."
"You actually only need 149 men." Athrun joined in, swinging an arm around Cagalli. Cagalli, noticing Kira forcefully looking away from them, decided to have a little fun....in two senses. She leaned over and started kissing Athrun passionately, like in one of those cheesy romance novels that described actions saved for X-rated television. Initially, Athrun struggled, before relaxing and holding Cagalli at her waist. After a few seconds, Cagalli opened her eyes and diverted an iota of her attention to see Kira's reaction.
And to her surprise, found that her brother was not at all perturbed by her tongue-in-mouth kiss, and in fact had the same expression as previous. Until he glanced over and chocked back a laugh, informing Cagalli that something amusing was about to happen.
There was a whir, a click, and both Athrun and Cagalli broke off to stare back out the door at Jack, holding his pen-cam.
"What?" He asked defensively. "Paparazzi pay a hell of a lot for pictures like these-" He ducked down and over when Cagalli reached out to grab him by the collar, and dodged Athrun's flying tackle to streak cackling down the hall, for the five-hundred and fifty-seventh time in the past week. Only to all of a sudden stop, and slowly back into view.
He shoved past Athrun and Cagalli, backing up from one of the very few people that could consecutively threaten him and his multiple personalities and get away with it.
Andrew Victor Payne, Tachi Katana in hand and crimson eyes steadied on Jack's, advanced on the schizophrenic, pushing him against the briefing room walls.
"Jack," he started, "I'm sure you only seek to amuse yourself, but selling pictures of the son of the PLANTS rather antagonistic leader and the daughter of Orb's Chief Representative kissing each other.....it's a very quick road to war. Well, quicker." Andrew amended, sparing a second to glance at Kira before returning his glare to Jack, holding his hand out for the pen-cam.
For all of a half-second, two of Jack's three personalities argued the merits of obedience and disobedience.
"The fun factor alone is worth it!" Chimamare hissed, "And besides, the Alliance is already after us anyway. It's not like things can get any worse."
"Chim, if the picture gets to the wrong people, ZAFT will be breathing down Orb's neck. Half of the population of Orb would likely balk at the sight. And then, Andrew will flay us alive and feed our remains to Gary in three pieces - skin, flesh, and bone - and then he'll somehow bind our ghosts to that creepy sword of his, and we'll be trapped in cold, nano-constructed diamond nanorod for ages. Now.......GIVE HIM THE FUCKING CAMERA!" Haji screeched, forcing Jack to extend his hand over Andrews, open the fingers, and drop the pen-cam into The Butcher's hand.
"Good." Andrew said. Then he crushed the camera in his hand, before stowing it in one of his pockets. "Now, if our good guests would exit the changing room, we could get the demonstration started....."
At that moment, the changing room door opened, and one of the three, now clad in OMU-P armor, flew out hard enough to slam his back into the wall. A second later, the other two stumbled out.
"Whoops." Dearka, one of the stumbling two, chuckled. "These things add a lot more strength than I thought." Yzak, the one who hit the wall, groaned.
- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -
Tetsujin Testing Complex
0552
Yzak suppressed a shudder at the sight of the eight Tetsujins. They were.....creepy. It felt like they were always watching him. Their ninja-like faces didn't help. He felt like they were going to sneak up and stomp him flat into the ground.
"Come on, we don't have all day." Karl called up from the one he was going to pilot.
After a few minutes, everyone was at their Tetsujin, entering the cockpit. It wasn't by a hatch on the torso, but rather one on the back of the Tetsujin's neck. Usually, a thick plate of the Tetsujin's hyperalloy armor covered the hatch, but the plate slid down onto the spine when the pilot was boarding or dismounting. When the hatch opened, it revealed especially viscous Non-Newtonian Smart Fluid, through which the pilots crawled to reach the command chair, an ergonomic design made of smart materials that automatically conformed themselves to the pilot's body. Unlike most mobile suits, which used forward-placed viewscreens, and were rather cramped, the Tetsujin's cockpit was a spherical design with the command chair floating in the Smart Fluid, and the entire inner surface was covered with hundreds of micro-screens that offered a 360 panoramic display.
Controls were a mix of age-old standard pedals and joysticks with new Morgenroete innovations. The foot pedals, attached to the chair, featured toe and heel hooks that clamp onto the OMU-P's boots and allowed a wider range of motion than the up-and-down pedals of Alliance and ZAFT designs. Likewise, the 'joystick' controls, if they could even be called that anymore, were no longer based on the arms of the command chair. Instead, they're pair of combined power glove/forearm armature/joy stick controller that offer a greater degree of control over the suit as well as a wider range of complex movements.
It took a bit of time for the LINC pilots to get used to it, and even Kira and the other Orbites too a second to acclimatize themselves.
In the control booth about twenty meters up from the floor, Andrew and Liene were with the Morgenroete technicians overseeing this. Andrew keyed the intercom, leaning forward into the microphone as he started speaking.
"Kira and the others have already been briefed on this, but the Tetsujin's control system utilizes a combination of standard mobile suit controls - if rather advanced - and a new device called a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device, short-named SQUID. The SQUID reads your brainwaves, partially as a security measure and partially to add an extra dimension to mobile suit control. The latter part involves pressure sensors spread throughout the Tetsujin's structure, with the SQUID relaying the information gleaned from them, essentially allowing you to feel what the Tetsujin does - to a point."
"That's kinda creepy." Dearka muttered as he tried to move the Tetsujin. It moved.....very slowly. Such that a aged vehicle could outrun it. "Alright, what gives?"
"The control system is designed in levels of ability from one to nine. Level one moves slowly. It's supposed to scale to each pilot individually, just keep moving it." Andrew explained. Dearka thus continued to slowly walk the Tetsujin forward.
"Mr. Elsman's Tetsujin has now switched to Level 2 operation." One of the techs dutifully reported. Then, a Tetsujin blurred past Dearka's mobile suit, blue-white plasma jet flares erupting out from its backpack as the Hybrid Plasma Pulse Jets kicked into gear. "Mr. Yamato's Tetsujin is already on Level 4 operation. Mr. Zala's suit is advancing rapidly through Level 3 operation - scratch that, he's level 4 too."
Athrun's Tetsujin, which had been starting up into a jog, suddenly fired off its jets and chased after Kira.
Dearka stopped, staring at the two. They started chasing each other around the square-kilometer or so of space, apparently just playing around.
"Damn it!" Yzak hissed over the comm, stuttering his suit forward. A second later, it fell over when he tried too hard, literally tripping the Tetsujin over its own feet.
It took about twenty minutes to get Yzak back up, Dearka and Nicol ever so slowly grabbing his Tetsujin's shoulders and lifting it up. At that point, Jack had gotten up to Level 3 and was jogging around the area, and sometimes detoured to hop over the slowly rising Yzak.
Mu and Karl kept along the wall, the more experience SpecOpsIntel Colonel coaching the former OMNI Lieutenant in the nuances of Tetsujin piloting. Unsurprisingly, the ace was quick on his feet and the quickly progressed to hand-to-hand sparring. Here, the blond pilot had the edge with his preternatural reaction timing.
Eventually, despite the interference of Jack, Yzak was righted. They then started doing their own things, Yzak trying out some of the martial arts he and the others had been taught in Redcoat training, while Dearka utilized a light to start making shadow puppets. Nicol, however, pulled up the Tetsujin's systems and equipment listing.
"Frequent Update Customizable Metaprogramming Extended System?" He frowned, studying the OS.
"It's a new operating system I developed." Kira explained, even as he continued his little game of tag with Athrun. "I used a prototype system in the Augury's OS to help with the Equipment Pack systems. The name basically says it all, it updates frequently with new data by linking to Orb's military servers, and is completely customizable by the pilot."
"What about the rest?" Yzak asked, slowly moving his Tetsujin through a pose. Damn if this thing isn't perfectly balanced........ Jack came in and sideswiped Yzak, using the Tetsujin's four taloned, multi-jointed toes to grab the leg of Yzak's Tetsujin while doing a break-dancing type spin on the mobile suit's hands. Yzak growled and broke the grip, before turning and pouncing on top of Jack's Tetsujin, bashing hyperalloy on hyperalloy.
"When in use, the system studies itself, its pilot's tactics, strategies and skills, and its enemies, and automatically modifies its programming to best suit all three as it develops. It's a learning computer basically."
"I notice that the acronym spells out F.U.C.M.E." Athrun noted. "Any subtle message there?"
"What would you say if you were confronted by a Tetsujin while piloting a ZONGS?" Kira grinned.
- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -
A/N: This time, it was Alex Yamato. Funny thing about me, even when I finish a design, I still obsess over it.
("I'll say. You took a few years with my design, back when I started out as a Transformer....")
Anyway, that finishes up the 'Departure From Brutality' Arc, next up is the Watchers/Argonaut/OMNI-focused 'Departure From Civility' Arc.
("Poor Theta 9. He didn't deserve the professional humility of what you did to him")
Shut up you idiot, no spoilers!
("The name of Kira's Gundam is the A- Um....is that a Covenant Carbine?")
This things puts out enough radiation per shot to cook a full-grown elephant inside-out. I suggest you shut up.
FraserMage: Yep.
Unleash the Shadow: Thank you
Alex Yamato: Actually, they don't. Mainly because whenever something 'combines' beyond something like and G-Defenser and 00/0 Raiser, it reminds me of Super Robot stuff, which causes me sickness. But, yeah, some definite Gundam 00 mentions in this story, and there willl be a heck of a lot more in S2. Note, however, that its not Canon G00.
G. Wagers: I wouldn't really say it was tech-devoted, more like....exposition.
Infinite Freedom: Two Jacks isn't so bad......erm.....well......
EternalKnight219: That he was.
The Baka Brigade: Trust me, it's a doozy.....and Minovsky Particles don't have mutagenic effects I believe.....didn't Newtypes come about as a result of human space colonization?
Mathiasosx: If it works....and it wasn't begging...I just said the magic word. Twice. With exclamation point. No begging this time, I swear. And yes, two Jack's are definitely going to be a bit.....well....messy.
EMT: It hurts my professional pride when I forget, or purposefully procrastinate. It was fun writing it too.
somebody: Have you seen Gundam 00? That's actually why Velshard made the Tetsujin so....so.....OP.
Mordalfus Grea: Yep. But I don't think there's going to be quite so many.....It was actually Yzak in his new simulated Gundam after dicing the Strategos, might want to go over that part again.
("THE GUNDAM IS NAMED-")
THEWW!BOOM!
(T-that's not the Carbine....thats the F-Fuel Rod G-")
THEWW!BOOM!
It's more satisfying. And be thankful I armored your CPU and black box.
Knightmare Gundam of Ni