Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 39
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam series, nor any of the various series which are used or referenced in my fic, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else, also, don't read this if you are not of legal age to read such material. The story contains possibly disturbing content and should not be read by close-minded people (i.e., people who are easily offended.) Everything in the story is fictional. I am also not responsible for any actions taken by people who read this story and society's problems. I do, however, own my original character; Hope Yamato.
Recently, Celestial Being had commissioned a holographic Artificial Intelligence assistant, run solely by the advanced AI programmed into the Excalibur's computer. Celestial Being's computer was female and was known as LEXI for Learning EXperimental Intelligence. One of Lexi's most unique tasks was functioning as a babysitter of sorts, both as an assistant in nurseries and hospitals onboard the massive ship, and more independently in the private residence of Celestial Being's leader and his family.
If there was a electronic or computerized device that was capable of communicating with other devices, and it was within 500 miles of the Excalibur, then Lexi was probably monitoring and controlling it to at least some degree. She functioned as a CIC for Celestial Being's combat forces, even down the individual pilot and soldier level. She regulated the internet, the communications lines, the video channels, the power, waste, water and air exchange systems, handled the automated transit lines and was generally underfoot and in your face, if not always bluntly, wherever you went. Lexi was also the only person, other then Kira Yamato and his family, who was allowed any access to the Inner Sanctum.
"Cagalli, Kira wants to know what you want to do with the Strike Rouge." A new voice, an electronically modulated one that people always said sounded like a mixture between Cagalli and Lacus, which was no real surprise given that they had both contributed example speech patterns to the LEXI project, said from behind Cagalli. She glanced over her shoulder, blinking a bit as she always did when confronted with one of Lexi's holograms. Lexi currently bore the appearance of an attractive young woman, somewhere in her younger twenties, fit, svelte and tanned, with dark brown hair which fell to her knees, and intent blue eyes, though in truth she could alter her hair and eye and even skin color pretty much as she wanted to. "Kira also wants to know when you plan to spend some quality time alone with him."
By installing holoprojectors throughout the Excalibur, Lexi could transmit herself anywhere and everywhere on the ship where she was needed, either to control various electronic appliances, or much more often, to act as an assistant in nurseries and hospitals throughout the ship.
"Am I a bad wife, Lexi?" Cagalli asked despondently, slumping against a wall, her responses to both of Kira's questions momentarily forgotten. "Am I putting too much of Celestial Being before my own family?"
"You do work too hard sometimes, according to my database on average hours worked of government servants." Lexi answered with a shrug. "I'm still working out the whole relative value of family acts, so I'm not sure I can quite put a numerical tag on the worth of your time with Kira. But he does miss you terribly, though he has stopped crying himself to sleep."
"Stop! You're twisting the knife!" Cagalli snapped, with an angry flush to her face, though her anger wasn't directed at Lexi. That was the final straw, she was going to take some time off and start being a wife again, rather than letting her largely self appointed duties tie her up all day and night! It simply wasn't right for Kira to go without seeing his lover so much! "Cancel my appointments for the next week, would you? Tell them I'm sick or something."
"Even the dinner with Representative Clyne and our envoys to the United Nations?" Lexi asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"Shit." Cagalli swore. "Okay, keep those two, and anything else rated as National Security level or above. But the buearacratic day to day bullshit, trash that."
The Excalibur was once more floating high above the Earth. The massive, dagger-shaped vessel had returned to a timeline which it had previously visited; the mid twentieth century. Celestial Being had returned to 1947, only two years after the end of the Second World War, in order to tie up a few loose ends, and to quell a few relatively small battles which had arisen.
"For the Preservation of our Blue and Pure World!"
In one of the hangers at Celestial Being's Armory One PLANT colony, a grenade suddenly landed next to a small group of workers, and before they could run, the weapon exploded. Four armed people rushed into the hanger, firing on the Celestial Being soldiers and workers. They never stood a chance. The four were fast, brutal and efficient. Erich Gerhard Barkhorn leapt into the air as Heinz Schmidt and Horst Ademeit fired on Coordinators and Naturals alike. Horst gunned down a pair of armed soldiers atop one of the mobile suits. Erich landed, slashing one soldier's throat and shooting several others. One soldier rushed to the alarm. But before he could reach it, bullets tore through his legs and he fell to the ground.
Adolf Galland finished the last of the Celestial Being personnel. Smirking, he approached the other three.
"Get into the machines." He ordered, climbing onto one of the four machines. "Deactivate the self-destruct first."
Adolf climbed into the cockpit of his machine, removing his sunglasses as he activated the mobile suit, the black screens in the cockpit lighting up.
MOBILE SUIT NEO OPERATION SYSTEM
Generation
Unrestricted
Nuclear
Drive
Assault
Module
G.U.N.D.A.M
_Ver.2.5.3 Rev.07_
Z.A.F.T.
Adolf quickly deactivated the mobile suit's self-destruct system, even as his teammates did the same. One by one, the Specter Gundam, the Endless Freedom Gundam, the Eternal Justice Gundam and the Redemption Gundam rose to their feet. Suddenly, a wounded Celestial Being soldier hit an alarm. Furious, Adolf gunned the man down with his machine's CIWS.
The poker game in the Excalibur's crew lounge was quickly intensifying. Kira and Shinn had both cut their losses and quit. But Athrun was still determined to defeat Setsuna's unbeatable poker face. Athrun glanced at his hand. A full house. Setsuna was going down, here and now.
"You're going down, Setsuna." He said. "I call."
Setsuna laid his cards on the table. Three eights, a two and a four. Finally, the poker king was beaten. Athrun's smile widened.
"I–"
"All hands report to Level One Battlestations!" Lexi's voice suddenly boomed from the PA system. "This is not a drill! Armory One is under attack! I repeat all hands to Level One Battlestations! Armory One is under attack!"
The four ace pilots instantly stood up, their game forgotten.
"What the hell? Who'd be crazy enough to attack Armory One?" Shinn asked in disbelief.
"Does it matter?" Kira replied. "We're under attack."
In one of the large hangers of the Excalibur, crewmen rushed to finish prepping the mobile suits for launch. Hundreds of mobile suits were quickly lined up in front of the many catapults of the warship.
Among the mobile suits stored in the Excalibur's hanger bays were machines from ZAFT, the Orb Union and the Earth Alliance, not to mention dozens of Gundam units. The Orb Union mobile suit compliment consisted of Astrays and Murasames. The Earth Alliance mobile suit compliment consisted of Dagger Ls, Deep Forbiddens and Windams. While the ZAFT mobile suit compliment consisted of GuAIZ Rs, ZAKUs and GOUFs.
"God damn it." Nicol Amalfi muttered as he quickly made his way into the massive hanger. "Two years. Two years and one month of peace, and it's already over."
"It's not like we could've done anything to stop it, Nicol." Athrun Zala replied sadly.
"It doesn't really matter." Shiho Hahnenfuss said firmly. "We're certianly not going to let anything happen to the PLANTs which we've already constructed in this universe. Too much sacrifice has been made to protect them to let it all go to waste now."
"Your right." Nicol nodded. "Hey, Athrun, you ready for this?"
"I might be a little rusty, but I'm certianly not going to get shot down here." Athrun said.
Shiho snorted. "You could sit there looking pretty with that nasty little twin buster rifle and twin beam saber of yours and you'd turn the tide of battle."
"I think you're exaggerating a little." Athrun frowned.
"Who cares?" Nicol asked, as the catapult doors opened up across the mammoth ship. "But then, you're not the type to sit there looking pretty."
"Everyone ready?" Athrun asked, and his team nodded.
"This is Athrun Zala." He called. "Justice Gundam, taking off."
"Shiho Hahnenfuss, DEEP Arms Gundam, launching."
"Nicol Amalfi, Blitz Gundam, heading out!"
The three Gundams launched, along with many, many more machines as the Excalibur shot out mobile suits like missiles. Within moments, literally thousands of mobile suits were racing towards the defense of Armory One.
The recently redesigned Blitz Gundam was one of the most hideous, fearsome-looking mobile suits ever designed by Celestial Being. Indeed, the Blitz Gundam, for all that it was a state-of-the-art brand new machine that had originally been slated to test a new stealth system, looked like it had been cobbled together from the remains of other Gundams that had seen dozens of battles, covered head-to-foot in scars, the shield mounted on its left arm looking cracked, cursed; evil.
But the most frightening aspect of the machine was its head; which was in fact, the head of the original Blitz Gundam, which had been built by the Earth Alliance. The left side of the Gundam appeared to be in pristine condition while the right looked like it had been run through a garbage disposal, then cobbled back together. The entire right half of the visor was gone, exposing the glowing camera eye. The left-side camera eye appeared blue, but without the cover, the demonic red light of the right-side camera eye was revealed without inhibition, and the fact that the machine was a legendary first-generation Gundam, only made it all the more frightening.
"Athrun, Nicol, Shiho." Kira Yamato's voice suddenly spoke through the comminucations line. "You three go to Armory One and assist them with their defense operation." Before the three pilots could reply, the Divinity Gundam had transformed into its mobile armor mode and streaked towards the planet below.