Last Resistance to Peace
Chapter 17
by Scarlet Eve
A.C. 205
March
Heero and the other Gundam pilots were in the OZ training facility, doing their own workouts to increase their strength and stamina. It had been several months since they'd been ordered out in their Gundams, and Heero was concerned that they'd become weak. He ordered the others to work out for several hours every day, to maintain their ability to pilot the Gundams.
Lying on the bench press machine, he could hear Wufei and Trowa sparring, while Duo and Quatre were running on treadmills. Heero lifted up the bar over his head and pulled it out of the rack. The metal weights on either side clattered together with the movement. He brought the bar down to his chest and pressed up, feeling his muscles pull and strain with the extra weight. He brought the bar back down and pressed up again. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and trailed down to his ears.
"What the hell is that?"
Duo's voice ripped Heero from his concentration. He almost lost control of the bar, but he managed to press it up over his head and drop it back in the rack. He sat up on the bench and glared across the room at Duo.
But Duo wasn't paying Heero any attention. The other four were staring up at one of the television. Heero crossed the room to join them.
On the screen was a news report, and the footage they showed made Heero freeze up in surprise and annoyance. A maroon-colored mobile suit was attacking a base that belonged to OZ. Heero thought it looked similar to Duo's suit, Deathscythe, but it had a long, devil's tail that it used to wrap around towers and pulled them down. In the other hand, the suit held a beam saber.
"Is that a Gundam?" Heero asked. The others glanced at him.
"It sure looks like one," Quatre commented. "But there's a ban on anyone creating suits like the Gundams." Duo laughed.
"Since when have bans ever stopped people from doing anything?" he asked. "I just want to know where it came from."
"Who has the resources to build something like that?" Wufei asked.
"Maybe the Colony Alliance?" Quatre offered. "They could probably find enough gundanium in space."
"I thought they weren't a real army," Duo said.
"OZ is just telling people that so they won't get more support," Wufei said. "The Alliance has mobile suits and other resources, but they don't want to start a war with Earth. They know they'd lose."
"It's not really Earth, though, is it?" Quatre said. "It's just OZ."
"And OZ controls the Earth," Trowa added. "Even if the rest of the planet doesn't think so."
The five fell silent for a moment, watching the footage on the screen. Heero was about to tell them to get back to working out when the P.A. system in the facility crackled to life.
"All Gundam pilots, report to OZ briefing room one-zero-zero-two!"
It was Une's voice. And she was pissed.
Still in their training clothes, the Gundam pilots sat around a conference table. Une stood at the front of the room, beside a screen that was showing images of the maroon mobile suit. Other OZ officials had joined the meeting as well, though Treize was curiously absent.
"Do any of you know anything about this?" Une asked, roughly gesturing towards the image of the suit.
"Looks like a mobile suit," Duo said. Une shot him such a withering glare that Duo actually shrank back in his seat. Heero shook his head at the other pilot.
"We have begun the investigation," one of the other OZ officials said. "But so far, we can't place where this suit came from." Une's face was slowly turning from pink to red.
"And what about this?" she asked, and the picture on the screen changed. It was a closeup of the chest panels of the suit. It looked like a symbol had been painted in white. Though the image wasn't clear, Heero thought it looked like a feather and a sword, crossed in the middle in a shape of an X. It wasn't anything he'd seen before. None of the others in the room spoke up. Une glared at each person in the room, as if she could force them to come up with pertinent information.
"Where was this suit sighted?" Heero asked. Une stared at him, but she clicked a small remote in her hand, and a map appeared. It showed a glowing light at a base in the northern most point of the African continent, in the city of Tunis.
"Northern Africa. The suit destroyed almost the entire base, including the mobile suit hangers and several of the barracks. The suit disappeared when the base began to return fire," Une said. For just a moment, Heero thought he saw a glimmer of something her eye. It was out of place, and it left him feeling strange. "We're going to continue to investigate this. Gundam pilots," she said, turning to address the pilots. "Be ready at any moment to leave here and engage that suit."
All five pilots nodded in understanding.
"Dismissed."
A.C. 205
March
Marshall Noventa and Zayeed Winner sat across from each other at a small table, drinking tea. Behind them stood two women - Sylvia Noventa and Catherine Bloom. Catherine had returned to their headquarters for a status update, while Sylvia had become her father's assistant. A television, built into the wall, displayed a news program that was covering the sightings of the new Gundam-like mobile suit that was terrorizing OZ bases. Stills and video cycled on an endless loop while the news anchors appeared occasionally, talking over the footage.
"Where do you think it came from?" Zayeed asked, lifting his cup to his lips. Noventa shook his head.
"I can't fathom," he said. On the screen, a close up image of the mobile suit appeared, showing a white painted symbol on the chest plate. Noventa narrowed his eyes. "Or perhaps I can." He turned in his chair to his daughter. "Sylvia, darling. I need you to do something for me." She leaned down, and he whispered in her ear. Zayeed watched with an eyebrow raised.
"What are you up to?" Zayeed asked, but Noventa shook his head.
"Call me paranoid, but I don't want to say it out loud until I can be sure," Noventa said, his eyes trained on the television once more. Sylvia left the room, closing the door quietly behind her. Zayeed chuckled.
"You should think about retiring, my friend," Zayeed said, lifting his tea cup to Noventa, who smiled.
"My work hasn't finished yet. There is still too much turmoil."
It wasn't until later that evening that Sylvia returned to Noventa's side, bearing a slip of paper. He glanced at it, and nodded his head.
"That's what I thought. Thank you, Sylvia."
"What are you going to do?" she asked him, seating herself beside him. Noventa continued to look at the scrap of paper, his hand smoothing out his graying beard.
"If this is her secret, I'll keep it. I doubt it can remain a secret for very long," he said, glancing up at his daughter. She nodded solemnly. Noventa sighed to himself, wishing he daughter could be living her life without worry of war. But the nature of her birth would put her in danger if anyone found out. So for now, Noventa kept her by his side.
-SE