Disclaimer: Mobile Fighter G Gundam is owned by Bandai and Sunrise. I just write about it in my spare time.

On the Dark Side
Chapter 4: Disaster! The Darkness Reborn Once Again!

Everything seemed to be going well, at least at the moment. That's was the crew of the cargo ship transporting the Dark Gundam nervously thought to themselves.

The take off had all gone according to plan. So far, the trip to Earth was uneventful. However, everyone was on pins and needles anyway simply due to the nature of their gruesome cargo.

Right at the moment, it wasn't doing anything. It was just lying around in its "cage" of energy barriers, its severed arms piled next to it, and its mouth hanging wide open. But they all knew better than that; since last week, more of the smaller cracks in its armor had been sealed up. This thing was still trying to regenerate. Besides, the last time it had been in a cargo ship because it was seemingly offline, it ended up devouring an entire colony - and almost had the planet for dessert!

Therefore, everyone was being extra cautious around this thing. The floor of its cage was another energy barrier, as they knew its DG Cells could eat through normal floors. The cargo hold itself was unmanned, just so if the thing broke free, it couldn't immediately grab a new core life unit. And to be extra careful, there were no female personnel on board, as they knew that it was stronger with a woman as its core. There were extra barrier generators inside the cargo hold, just in case its cage failed. If it kept breaking free, lead partitions would come down, and an automated launcher would fire EMP grenades at it. And if that didn't work, the cargo hold could be jettisoned so that the freed Dark Gundam couldn't get to Earth again.

Despite the fail safes, many of the crew felt they'd be much safer if the thing had been destroyed the second they found it. Still, orders were orders. Maybe they were bringing it to Earth to be destroyed.

As they approached Earth, they stood by for a scheduled mobile suit count. Early in the mission, they received an urgent transmission that thirteen Busshi and two Fantomas had been stolen from the base only a few minutes after takeoff. They were claiming to be part of the cargo ship's entourage before going silent. A quick count of the entourage revealed no mysterious extra mobile suits. Just to be on the safe side, they would recount the entourage every thirty minutes or so, just to check and make sure that no one would sneak in during the trip.

Rumors were circulating that it was space pirates. After all, a big-time Neo Russian space pirate had escaped right after the last Gundam Fight. Maybe it was him? Others argued that it was an inside job. After all, the mobile suits were stolen right off the base; space pirates would just attack using their own ships. It might be another Major Ulube wannabe.

Whatever the case, the ship managed to reach Earth with no problems. The Busshi pilots put up their heat shields, preparing for re-entry.

But just before they reached the atmosphere, the cargo ship was suddenly fired upon. A lone beam struck them at an angle from above. The good news was that it didn't hit the cargo hold. The bad news was that it damaged the hull enough that they might have to make an emergency landing. The rear cannons were readied to fire back, but they couldn't pinpoint the location of their assailant. They seemed to know where to hide to be just out of reach of their radar. Besides, they had already begun to re-enter; firing the cannons could potentially overheat the ship and cause them to burn up, especially since they were already damaged.

During re-entry, their attackers also began to pick off some of the Busshi. Since they couldn't let go of their heat shields without burning up, they were sitting ducks. The fighter ships attempted to fire back in the general direction that the beams were coming from, but it didn't look like they hit anything. As long as these cowards stayed out of sight, there wasn't much they could do.

Their assailants paused their attack, allowing cargo ship to re-enter safely. Re-entry caused extra damage to the hull, and they were definitely going to need to make an emergency landing. The crew immediately radioed that they had been attacked, and they were not going to make it to the drop off point. There was a large, empty field about ninety kilometers away from their original destination that they were going to try to land in.

Just as they were about to request backup, more beams started raining down. One of them struck the back of the cargo ship, cutting their SOS short. Another struck a fighter ship right through the middle, causing it to explode. The enemy must have finished re-entry themselves. They were also bold enough to finally show themselves on radar. They consisted of a group of fifteen mobile suits - maybe the ones that were stolen earlier?

The entourage immediately began to fire back. Even with their diminished numbers, it shouldn't be too hard to take out a small squad of fifteen mobile suits, right? Apparently, it was. For some reason, these guys seemed to know exactly when they'd be fired at and immediately got out of the way. They also seemed to know exactly where the members of the entourage were going to position themselves and took them out just as they moved. It was like they were all psychics, or something! They were only able to take out one of those infernal things, and it seemed like a miracle that they did!

Pretty soon, the remaining fighter ships had been destroyed, more mobile suits had been picked off, and the cargo ship had taken a few more direct hits. The cargo ship made a very rough landing in that empty field, tearing through trees and carving out a long, deep ditch in the ground. Large chunks of the hull tore off as they came to a complete stop. The fire extinguishing system went off, quenching any fires inside. The ship had been trashed, but the power was still working, meaning their "precious" cargo was still contained. A damage report showed that they weren't in danger of exploding either, which was always a good thing.

The captain opened a communication link and tried to tell everyone that they had landed and that they needed backup. Just as he did, the ship took several more hits to the cargo bay. The enemy had caught up with them and was coming in for the kill.


The stranger landed his Busshi a good distance away, content to let his drones finish things for him. It turned out that yes, he could extend his ZERO system to his minions. The system worked splendidly, with only one of his mobile suits lost to the fleet so far. He felt a strange phantom pain when it went down; he questioned if it was even real.

He had been a bit surprised when the ZERO system told him to attack so soon. However, a quick investigation into other strategies showed him that if he allowed the cargo ship to reach its drop-off point, the chances of getting to the Dark Gundam would be infinitesimal. So he followed the system's advice, and here they were.

He wondered what he ought to do with the Dark Gundam after his drones freed it. He was originally just going to use it to repair himself, but the thing had other useful applications. He could use it to upgrade his now mobile suits, for one thing. There was also the chance that he might need it for repairs later if he ever got badly damaged again. Plus, its remains were relatively small at the moment, and therefore easy to hide; deep networks of caves wouldn't be needed like when Master Asia was in charge of it.

However, he'd have to make sure its AI stayed offline. That thing had a mind of its own, and had a bad habit of going off and doing whatever it felt like. There was no telling how much smarter it got between the time he was knocked offline and now. He wasn't about to let the thing take him over again, no matter how useful it was.

First things first, of course; he needed to get it out of the ship. His drones were now cleaning up what was left of the fleet on the ground. He began to position some of them to go after the ship's cargo hold.


I need to change course. This was the only thing Rain was capable of thinking about as she sped down the highway.

She just got word that the plans had changed. The cargo ship had been attacked by an unknown assailant, and had to make an emergency landing. While her "guide" could not get a visual, it knew the precise GPS coordinates. It was in a large, grassy field just up ahead. She immediately spotted it by the massive clouds of black smoke towering above the trees.

Rain made a hard right turn over several lanes, causing generally a lot of people to honk at her. She drove into the parking lot of a wooded picnic area. She then got out of her car and wandered past the empty wooden tables, right into the small forest beyond. Her eyes were glazed over the whole time. She could hear gunfire and explosions in the distance and smell the burning metal, but she didn't seem to care. All that mattered was getting to the downed cargo ship.

She came up to the clearing ahead, where military mobile suits seemed to be fighting each other. Beams and bullets flew everywhere, and wrecked mobile suits shook the ground when they fell. Explosions made her stumble and threatened to rupture her eardrums, but she continued on. She didn't care about the firefight. She needed to get to that cargo ship. She needed to set the Dark Gundam free.


The enemy proved to be just as slippery on the ground as they did in the air. They always seemed to know exactly when they'd be shot at and would always manage to get out of the way just in time. Meanwhile, they'd fight back with deadly accuracy. It was time to switch tactics.

The surviving members of the cargo ship's escort managed to take out one Busshi by ganging up on it, giving it absolutely nowhere to go. They took out another by faking it out - pretending to shoot right at it, then immediately firing at the place it dodged to. They still had a dozen of these guys left, however, and they didn't seem to fall for the same trick twice.

They also found out that these stolen mobile suits were unmanned. Once destroyed, no one ejected or crawled out. The cockpits were empty. Someone was controlling these things remotely. Maybe it they could find out who it was, they could end this quickly - before the enemy finished them off! They quickly radioed the ship's crew to let them know.

But just as they tried to come up with a plan to out the mastermind behind all this, a new problem showed up on radar. A civilian was aimlessly walking through the field, completely oblivious to their fighting. Distracted, the escorts paused. Even the enemy seemed to stop for a moment. What was she doing here?!


Meanwhile, some of the enemy units began their assault on the cargo ship itself. They mostly focused on firing at the cargo bay, no doubt trying to blow a large enough hole in it. The crew members valiantly fought back with the few guns on the ship that were still functional. They had finally managed to radio for backup, but they had no idea if it was going to arrive in time. These guys easily evaded cannon fire as if they were reading the gunners' minds.

The crew received word from what was left of the escort that the enemy was actually a bunch of unmanned drones. It seemed extremely hard to believe, as these things kept running around like they had to have minds of their own. However, the escorts told them that they blew up two of them, and there was no one inside. If they can figure out who was controlling them and how, they could possibly take the enemy mobile suits all out at once.

Acting quickly, a couple crew members immediately began searching for any suspicious radio or Wi-Fi signals that might be issuing the enemy units orders. They did manage to find an encrypted Wi-Fi signal that seemed to originate about a kilometer south of them. Using the only long-range rear camera that survived the attack, they managed to find a lone Busshi far out in the field. It seemed to be just standing there, watching the carnage. Perhaps one of the rear-mounted beam cannons could take it out.

But just as they were about to launch an attack on the mysterious mobile suit, two horrible things happened at once. First, the escorts started shouting over the radio that a civilian had wandered into the battle. Second, an enemy unit managed to land a direct hit at the ship's main generator. The ship went completely dark as the electricity went out.

The assailants actually stopped attacking them after that. They probably figured that the battle was over and that they could go ahead and plunder the ship. The crew desperately checked to see if backup power was operational, and if they could route it to their weapons. They were so close! They knew who the leader was, they just needed to shoot it down! Unfortunately, they never got the chance. The ship began to violently shudder as great clanging noises came from the cargo bay.

Something huge was beating against the damaged walls, trying to escape...


The stranger was so surprised, that his drones actually stopped in their tracks for a second. A civilian had suddenly wandered into the firefight, and it was somebody he knew. Rain Mikamura? What was she doing here?

The view from his drones' optics showed that she was making her way to the cargo ship. The Dark Gundam couldn't possibly be calling to her, could it? And if it was...why was it communicating with her and not him? Maybe it had to do with his damaged DG Cells - which was actually a good thing, as it prevented that monster from brainwashing him, too!

The ZERO system alerted him that the plans had changed. The ship's crew managed to spot him, and if he didn't act fast, they'd start firing at him. He sneered and quickly forgot about Rain for the moment. Very well, then. He didn't want to have to do this, as it had the potential to blow up the ship, but if he didn't, his mission would fail. He ordered one of his Busshi that was attacking the ship to fire upon the ship's generator. He used the ZERO system's calculations to pick the location that had the lowest possibility of causing an explosion.

Fortunately for him, it worked. The ship didn't detonate, and all of its cannons lost power. It was now safe to collect his prize. He wondered what Rain would do once he took the Dark Gundam. Would she mindlessly start following him? Was she even still alive? He couldn't find her in any of his units' cameras.

But just as he was about to send his Busshi into the cargo hold, the ship began to shake all over. A huge white forearm burst forth from the hull. The stranger quickly called his drones back as a familiar-looking set of red shoulders covered in round golden vents began to emerge from the ship...


"What am I doing here?!" Rain screamed as she suddenly found herself in the middle of a mobile suit shoot-out. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep on a chair back in her apartment. The next thing she knew, she was waking up to the sound of a loud crash. When she opened her eyes, she was standing around in some sort of grassy field with a fallen tree right in front of her. All around her, Busshi were firing their beam rifles at each other.

She quickly dived into the forest on her right and hid behind the nearest tree. What was going on here? Where was she? How did she even get here? Why were there mobile suits fighting each other? And most importantly, how could she get out of here?! It wasn't safe here either - a stray beam just scorched the ground a few feet to her left.

She began to head north, the quickest direction away from the fighting. She wasn't sure if it was the right direction, but the faster she got away from the beams, the better. If this wasn't the way out, she could always wait from a safe distance away until the Busshi pilots stopped fighting over...whatever it was they were fighting about.

Rain ran from tree to tree, cautiously peeking around them to make sure a pot-shot wasn't aimed her way. As she began to make her way away from the battle, she found herself running straight into a new peril. Up ahead and to her left she found more Busshi and two Fantomas standing around a huge, downed ship that had a few holes in its side. As she got closer, she saw that the ship was a cargo ship. It made her stop in her tracks. A cargo ship? It wasn't...that cargo ship, was it?

It was then that the ship suddenly began to shake and the sound of crunching metal rang out. The weakened walls began to bend outward. Something inside it was trying to get out - something huge. Rain backed away and prepared herself to run; there were very few things capable of doing that kind of damage, and she had a good feeling what it was.

Sure enough, the arm of what looked a gigantic mobile suit punched its way through the ship's hull. The other arm appeared shortly to help pull the hole it made wide open. The other mobile suits retreated as a massive Gundam began to crawl out of the wrecked ship. A Gundam with an unmistakable design of its upper body poking out of a larger Gundam's face. A Gundam that had severed set of extra arms that slowly dragged themselves along the ground after their main body. A Gundam that not only had a mouth, but long yellow fangs.

Rain had to grab onto a tree to stop from herself from falling over. She knew this was going to happen from the start. The Dark Gundam had been online the while time - and now it was loose! And by some awful twist of fate, she was placed right where she would see the whole thing!

She quickly turned around and ran as fast as she could. Was this another hallucination? She didn't care! The forest was real, the fighting mobile suits were real, nothing was made out of silver goo - it all seemed real enough to her! She would have to run past the fighting Busshi again, but she'd take them over the Dark Gundam any day.

She only made it a few yards before she heard the mechanical monster's booming growls. She nearly tripped over her feet as something kept pounding on the ground. She looked over her shoulder to find the fiend not only looking back at her, but trying to crawl after her. Thankfully, it wasn't going very fast; it could only drag itself along by its arms. Its continuous slapping of the ground and pulling itself was causing the ground to shake. For some reason, it wasn't trying to form cable tentacles or Gundam heads to try and grab her from a distance. Then she remembered Dr. Kasshu saying that this thing was probably only running on backup power. It didn't even have the energy to stand up, let alone perform its nasty tricks. Rain decided to take advantage of this and tried to push herself to run even faster.

Rain came up on the battle again, only to find that some of the Busshi were retreating. No doubt this was because they just spotted the gruesome Gundam coming their way. Still other Busshi were ignoring it and firing upon the ones that were retreating. She really wished they'd turn around and start firing Dark Gundam, but she had no such luck. Still, as long as they weren't firing at her...

No sooner did she think that than a stray beam struck a tree several yards in front of her. She skidded to a stop when she heard the cracking of wood tearing apart and saw the tree tipping over. With another awful crash, the tree landed right in her path. She ran up to it, thinking she might be able to climb over it. The trunk turned out to be way bigger than she thought it was - sure, maybe Domon and his friends could jump over it, but she didn't have superhuman strength like they did. It would take way too much time for her to climb over. Time to go around it!

Unfortunately, the fastest way around it was also the way that would expose her to laser fire or getting captured - she would have to run out into the clearing. However, it was either run out there and maybe be captured or stay where she was and definitely be captured. Even now, she could hear the growls and the sound of metal scraping against the ground as the Dark Gundam slowly began to catch up to her. With that, she ran out into the clearing to get around the fallen tree.

As she emerged from the trees, she was surprised to see a Busshi fly toward her. It then stopped a few yards away from her and readied its beam rifle. Rain found herself freezing out of fear. Was it going to shoot her?

No, thank goodness. It turned around and started firing at the Dark Gundam, forcing the vile machine to back off. Another Busshi swooped in, probably to join its comrade.

"We'll hold it off until reinforcements arrive!" a man's voice rang out over a loudspeaker from the Busshi closest to her. "Clear outta here, now!"

Rain nodded; he didn't need to tell her twice! But just as she was about to run back into the trees, the other Busshi raised its rifle and pointed it directly at the first Busshi.

"Look out!" she screamed.

Whether or not the pilot could hear her from down there was irrelevant, as it was too late. The second Busshi blasted the first one's head clean off. The pilot managed to eject, but the mobile suit was still falling...right on her.

Rain yelped and tried to dive out of the way. She landed in the grass and covered her head as a deafening crash shook the world around her. She wasn't crushed, so obviously she successfully got out of the way.

She opened her eyes. For some reason, she found herself surrounded by white metal walls that seemingly came out of nowhere. She stared at them confused for a second until she realized what they were.

Her stomach dropped and a chill ran up her spine. Those weren't walls...they were giant arms.

Rain really didn't want to look behind her, but she forced herself anyway. Just as she suspected, the Dark Gundam had trapped her by surrounding her with its arms. Its green optics were trained right on her, and its mouth was stuck in that toothy snarl. Lying on top of its shoulders was the ruined Busshi that almost fell on her.

Wait...did the Dark Gundam just protect her from getting squished?

No, no, of course not. This thing wasn't doing it out of the goodness of its heart, it didn't have one. It only defended her because it wanted to make her its core again.

Rain couldn't let that happen, but what could she do? There was no way out of its grip unless she tried to climb up its arms. However, just touching it was a good way to get infected with DG Cells!

Her racing mind was interrupted by another wave of chills and a disembodied voice ringing in her head.

You must come with me if you do not wish to die.

It was that distorted version of her own voice that Rain heard in her last hallucination. Was the Gundam speaking to her? How was it even doing that? It didn't sound like it was talking through a loudspeaker, and certainly wasn't moving its mouth. She felt herself getting angry again. Her anger quickly overcame her despair and she looked the monster right in its optics.

"I said it before, and I'll say it again - I wouldn't join you in a million years!" she barked.

Over the Gundam's shoulders and the downed mobile suit on top of them, Rain spied the other Busshi grabbing one of the Dark Gundam's severed extra arms. The arm immediately began to thrash around like a caught fish, and the Busshi was forced to let go before its face was scratched off. Several beams were suddenly fired in its direction. The Busshi somehow managed to dodge all of the incoming fire, and started shooting back. As the first group of shooters retaliated, some of the beams from the return fire struck the Dark Gundam instead. It growled loudly in response, and Rain fell to her knees from the impacts.

Do you not see that we are surrounded by enemies? the Dark Gundam messaged her again. If you do not get inside my cockpit, you will be shot to death!

"I think I'll take my chances with the death rays, thank you!" Rain shouted as she stood back up. "Besides, I'd rather get fried than let you form another Dark Colony!"

So you insist on behaving irrationally, the Dark Gundam said. In that case, I will give you no choice.

It lifted itself up slightly, exposing the huge hole in its chest. Thick green cables shot out of the hole and wrapped themselves around Rain's middle, ankles, and arms. She screamed as they dragged her right into the Gundam's body.

The Dark Gundam's eyes glowed ominously. With its core life unit back in place, it now had the strength to push the Busshi off of it and stand up. Green cables grabbed the wrecked Busshi and tore it apart. They took out the other mobile suit's generator and shoved it in the Gundam's body to replace the one it lost during the final battle. Afterward, it used its DG Cells to consume the Busshi's armor and turn it into liquid metal slurry. It then poured this liquid over its damaged chest. In seconds, the metal was solid again and the hole was sealed up. Finally the cables reattached the severed arms to their rightful places on the back of the Gundam's shoulders.

The remaining members of the fleet and even some of the drones took cover as the fiend let out a triumphant roar. The Dark Gundam was once again complete.