After Colony: Revelation
Part II: Verse III
000
"You are truly marvelous," Moira sighed lovingly while pulling off her headpiece and setting it down next to her holographic keyboard.
"Why yes, I am fully aware," Isabella replied. Her half sister had been on the earth for all of six hours, and she was already secluded in one of the CSO labs, toying with the stolen Zero system.
The dark haired woman pursed her lips. "You are a genetically modified and neurologically enhanced project; the science that made you is marvelous, you are nothing more than a product. I, on the other hand," Moira said and swiveled her chair, crossing her legs, "am truly a gift from God."
"Modest as ever," Isabella replied with a bitter smile. "Why do I continue working for you, again?"
"Because you want to be on the winning side of this little skirmish."
"This little skirmish involves hundreds of thousands opposing you—us. Did it ever occur to you that maybe we're the ones who are wrong?" Isabella leaned on the side of the chair, playing with a few strands of hair that had fallen from her messy ponytail. It was only because Moira seemed to be in a good enough mood that she chose to bring up the topic.
"Humans as a whole are vile, primitive creatures who will not hesitate to destroy themselves if given the chance. It is up to those of us who have surpassed the rest of mankind to help move us into the next era. Our species will not survive otherwise. I would say, 'you're either with me, or against me,' but you're smart enough to know what will happen if you're against me." Moira watched her younger sister for a few moments with her cool smile still planted to her face. When they did not speak again, she spun back to her monitor.
Isabella stood and headed back to the door. "Phase One of Revelation is set to being in eighteen hours. The Gen Twos we sent should be arriving in Rio de Janeiro in just a few. By the time we start into Phase Two, hopefully you'll be done with the Hades enhancement."
"It will certainly be ready for Phase Two," Moira said, and started to tap away at her keyboard. Isabella watched her for a few moments before she started to walk away. She only managed to get about two feet away before Moira called to her once more. "Isabella, I wonder, how many times did it cross your mind to betray me, once you had Edan with you? Surely the thought of her, with the Gundam pilots fighting, against me and winning came up at least once."
Isabella did not respond. Moira could not see her, of course, since she was in the hallway. Still, the younger Adelphie child's pause was enough to give Moira exactly what she wanted. Isabella clenched her jaw, which still ached with the rest of her once perfect face from Edan's punch, and walked away to find her own seclusion.
The pilots, including Edan, gathered in Carlino's command tent after breakfast to hear the plan he and Heero had created. There was just enough room to fit the seven of them, plus a few other rebels coming in and out.
Wufei looked visibly tired, with dark circles beneath his eyes. Even so, he did not utter a word in complaint. Edan stood in the corner, repeatedly tossing the black and red angel figurine back and forth between her hands.
"You were so loud coming in last night," Duo said, yawning loudly, "don't you have any common courtesy?"
Wufei shot him a glare, but keep his mouth tightly shut.
"Alright, listen up," Carlino called out, cutting off any confrontation the pilots may have had before it could start. "We started receiving alerts to CSO movement in our active South American regions. Just two hours ago, well known reform politician Natalia Vitore touched down just outside of Rio de Janeiro. Her return to Brazil is sudden, and completely suspicious. To make matters worse, there are two individuals believed to be CSO spies accompanying her. Any attempt to warn her security has been rejected."
The rebel leader took a file from one of the entering soldiers and flipped through the pages. He pulled out two and tossed them onto the map, disrupting the remaining figurines. The sheets of paper were enlarged photos of a middle aged woman with dark hair and rich, tan skin wearing a pants suit, and two suited men on either side of her.
Wufei craned his neck to look at the pictures, then moved past Quatre to pick one up. "This one," he said, turning it and tapping the man on the left, "I know him. I fought against him on the Lunar base. Here, take a look."
He passed them over to Edan. She tilted her head to the side, and held her hand up, signaling for a pen.
Carlino, who had not yet interacted with the woman, look clearly confused. "What's wrong with her? Why isn't she talking?"
"Miss Edan is mute, Lieutenant," Quatre said quickly. He pulled a pen from his pocket and clicked it.
Tomas Bourque and Nicholas Metzier. Gen Two.
Edan scribbled on the back of the photos before giving them back to Wufei.
"Yes, that does sound familiar. Lieutenant Carlino, she says that these two both are CSO projects from their super soldier program. That being said, Vitore may be held hostage," Wufei said, tossing the images back on the tabletop for Heero to see next.
"You said you couldn't get a message through her security," Heero said flatly. He waited for the rebel leader to nod before he continued. "My gut tells me she's working with CSO—or part of CSO."
Carlino shot a glance at the now-idle Edan before turning to Heero. "I don't understand the difference."
The pilot didn't answer right away. Instead, Quatre was the first one to gasp in realization. "You can't possibly think… You do, don't you? You think she's one of them."
Heero shrugged, "we can't be sure, anymore."
"I realized you've been deeply involved with CSO and have more information than the rest of the rebel forces," Carlino said loudly, drawing attention back on him. "But feel free to elaborate any time now."
"Apologies, Lieutenant Carlino, we often get ahead of ourselves and forget to explain." Quatre, ever the diplomat, stepped forward. "What Heero is getting at is the fact that we can no longer be sure who has been subjected to the CSO sleeper cell program. Of course she may be willingly allied with the organization, but what if she isn't? If she has been activated in a similar fashion, she would be acting against her will, but would show no signs of being coerced."
The rebel leader did not seem to buy into the theory as easily as the others. "That seems rather improbable. Doesn't it seem more likely that she has just turned traitor."
"You would rather think that a well known reform leader and activist has suddenly turned? All we are saying is that we should be considering all of the possibilities," Quatre said.
The rebel leader seemed to concede, even if he had more to say on the topic. "Beyond the fact that we can't get in touch with Vitore or any of her security, there has been an increase in CSO activity. While Vitore and these spies have returned to the city, most of the soldiers stationed in and around Rio de Janerio have started to leave. We are currently tracking their movements, and though we can't be completely sure, it almost appears as if they are creating a perimeter within a ten mile radius."
"This sounds like siege warfare," Duo finally said. He had been quite content to sit in his chair, which was backwards, and rest his head in his arms. Heero suspected it had less to do with disinterested in the conversation, and more to do with disliking Carlino. "Though that's pretty hard to do when there are not walls to keep people."
"Men with weapons can make quite effective walls," Carlino replied coolly.
"What about the other photos you have—anything we need to know about?" Quatre asked, nodding to the two remaining papers in the Lieutenants hands.
Carlino paused for a moment before deciding to throw the photos down, face up. They were different images, taken in different areas, but they both showed the same thing: a metallic, white device that appeared to be a filter. Judging by their surroundings, they weren't very large—maybe only a yard or so wide, and just about as tall. At first glance, they could have been commercial air filters.
"I've seen this," Quatre said, brows furrowed as he turned the images to get a better look.
"Yeah," Heero replied, "so have I."
000
An hour later, the pilots were working together with their limited equipment to remove one of the large, lower back panels to Red Horse. The rebel crews had chosen to steer clear after they saw the gundam flare to life and tower over them. Edan had maneuvered her mobile suit into the clearing she and Wufei used for sparring, and awkwardly laid the suit on its front, barely leaving enough room for her to get out of the cockpit.
"You're sure this is where it is? Heero asked, using an industrial drill to quickly unscrew some of the bolts that held paneling in place.
Quatre shrugged and ran his free hand through his blonde hair, "well, yeah, that's what the schematics say. Edan seems to know exactly where to look. We're just going to have to pull a few sections apart before we can get to it."
Between the other four pilots and Edan, they managed to reach their goal after about forty-five minutes of labor. They were covered in dirt and oil, with a few scrapes from the exposed metal plating as well. The woman immediately pushed her torso through the small opening they had created while Trowa held her legs in place, and a 'click' was heard.
"I think she's released it, we just need the crane to pull it out," Trowa called out from over his shoulder.
"Here it comes," Duo shouted back from his spot on the ground. The rebel mechanics had provided them with a portable crane usually used in military vehicle repair. The pilot tested the joystick before carefully sending it over to Trowa and Heero, who guided the claw down and around the device. Once he had the thumbs up, Duo withdrew the claw and brought the crane neck back over the grass.
Wufei waved his arm, directing Duo and watching as the device was lowered down to the ground. The metallic white casing was a bit scratched, but it seemed unharmed otherwise. "Alright, we're good," he said, signaling the others to join him.
They gathered on the ground once more, surrounding the piece they had retrieving from Red Horse. "Well that's great," Duo said, scratching the back of his head, "now, uh, what is it?"
Heero dropped a smaller tool kit at his side and knelt down, inspecting the device. "Howard said something about this when we were rebuilding Red Horse. This part, this filter here, is a design that is similar to a biological warfare dispersal unit. According to the schematics, this particular piece is used to help filter and diffuse some of the tainted energy after it's passed through the core unit."
Suddenly, the other pilots took a quick step back. "So what you're saying… is that this could potentially be radioactive," Trowa said, giving a glance to Quatre. They slowly took another few steps away from the device before them.
"Theoretically." Heero ran his hands along the edges, looking for the metal seams to try to dismantle the metallic white casing.
Edan reached out and placed a hand on his arms, stopping him. The two pilots looked at one another for a few moments before Heero nodded and stood again. He slid the tool case over to the woman and then stepped away to join Quatre and Trowa while she sat cross-legged on the ground.
"She thinks it's dangerous," Quatre whispered, more to himself than anyone else. Trowa placed a hand on his shoulder and allowed himself to be reluctantly guided away. "Shouldn't we at least try to do a bit more research before we let her tear it open? Maybe it's completely harmless…"
"We don't have time," Heero replied. He stared straight ahead as he continued to walk, putting more distance between his self and the device. "Someone has to open it."
Even if the kind hearted pilot disagreed, he continued walking, casting his eyes to the side sadly. They entered the tree line and soon, Edan was out of sight.
"Come on, Wufei, we don't want to be standing right here if that thing blows of something," Duo said, urging his fellow pilot to put some distance between him and Edan. He reached out to try to pull Wufei away, but all he managed to get was an indignant glare. "Fine, man, it'll be your funeral."
When Duo was behind him, Wufei gave that same glare to Edan, who simply stared back at him. They remained like that for a good few moments before he finally gave a 'hmph,' and turned his back to her. "I hope you know what you're doing. I would rather not have this camp site go up in an atomic blast."
He waited for just one more moment. Perhaps deep down he was hoping she would change her mind and give them a chance to examine the device before cracking it open. When he heard no signs of her attempting to back off or even moving at all, he walked away.
Once she was left alone, Edan picked up with Heero's search, looking for the section that was screwed together. The case itself was too heavy for her to move, but there was just enough space beneath the edge for her to use a short, hand screwdriver to remove the pieces one by one.
"Well, there's no explosion, that's a good sign," Duo sighed and wiped his hands on his pants. While the pilots waited on the results of the device, he had taken it upon himself to break every twig within his reach to little pieces. He reached for the last one at his side, but Wufei quickly stepped on it. Duo him an annoyed scowl, but then jumped up and stretched. "Should we go check on her?"
Heero's head shot to the side, and his eyes narrowed as if focusing in on something. "She's coming here." He continued watching the section of trees they themselves had walked through, and indeed he was correct. Edan barely broke through the tree line before he saw her waving them back. "We're set, let's go look."
When the men cautiously approached the now-disassembled-device, Edan was holding something up to the sky, watching as the light refracted off of the piece.
"No explosives, that's kind of a shock," Trowa said, looking down at the device's insides. "It actually looks just like a flirtation system. What are those pieces inside? A cooling system? Sort of looks like cooling gel…"
Quatre frowned and raised a brow. "I don't think so. If it was a cooling gel, I think the viscosity would be different." There were small, cylinder vials filled with a yellow-gold liquid set in the center of the filtration system. There were ten vials, all about two inches in diameter, secured in place by tubing that connected them to each other. Below, there was another layer of vials of a light blue color.
"It looks like the white shell is just a coating," Trowa said, running his hands along the inside of the device. "This is a different metal. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this came back as gundanium."
Duo crouched down and tried to pull one of the blue vials out, since Edan was holding a yellow one. "That doesn't make sense—damn, these are really in there tight—Heero said that they were being massed produced, according to Howard. Anything with even a piece of gundanium alloy is extremely hard to get a hold of. Ah! Got it!" He stood up against and held it against Edan's vial for comparison.
"Be extremely careful," Quatre warned, "we don't know what's inside of those. I wish I could say that I believed this was just a simple filtration system, but I have a bad feeling in my gut."
"Well, we all know to never doubt your gut, Q," Duo replied with a shrug, "but if it's a CSO project, I don't trust it… Uh, no offense Edan."
The woman looked confused, for a brief moment, but then seemed to glare at the braided pilot. Quatre thought she might have scowled if she had the ability to show that much emotion. "Let's get this back to camp and see if we can dig up information—where it was made, who made it, and what happened to other units produced with it. I will track down a lab that will let me use their resources to try to figure out if we need to be concerned."
"Do you want me to go with you?" Trowa asked as he took the vials from both Edan and Duo.
"No," Quatre replied with a soft smile, "no, I will be okay. I think it would be more inconspicuous for me to travel alone. I will see if perhaps Rashid can meet up with me. I'm going to have to leave Sandrock behind. If trouble breaks out, you will likely all be needed."
000
The closest, fully equipped lab Quatre could access was across the Portuguese boarder and into Spain. He had to line up a few different rides with rebel contacts to manage to get through without suspicion. While CSO currently showed no signs of military action, he simply couldn't find it in himself to think Moira any better than her father.
"Don't worry Rashid, I will be fine," the gundam pilot said with sigh, "meet up with me outside of Seville if you have a chance. I will hopefully be at Villafana Laboratorio. I will stay in touch as much as I can. Stay safe."
He ended their conversation and slipped his phone back into his pocket while his driver turned up his music just a little bit louder. Quatre tried to put his head back and rest, but it was terribly difficult with the poor stereo system's pounding bass. Since the driver was gracious enough to risk his own safety to help the gundam pilots, Quatre felt he had no right to ask for him to turn the music down.
He had been on the road for a good few hours, though only with this particular driver for about an hour. Quatre knew he only had a little over an hour left before he would reach his destination, and hopefully, his paranoia would be at ease.
Until he could say for sure what was in the supposed filtration unit popping up in CSO control cities, Quatre would continue to glance behind him, just to make sure his carrying case was safe.
Just as he thought he could rest his eyes for a few moments, the gundam pilot's phone started to buzz from his pocket. With a barely audible groan, he rolled his eyes and pulled his phone out once more. "Unbelievable," he muttered and put the phone to his ear, "Quatre here."
"Emergency broadcast," Heero's voice said from the other end of the line, "flip through the radio until you catch it."
Quatre didn't hesitate to start channel surfing, to the annoyance of his driver, until he caught what sounded like a Hispanic news station. His Spanish was a little bit rusty, but he was able to get the majority of the broadcast.
"-we are still waiting for updates on the Brazilian attack. We do not know the details, but we do know that the first wave of rescue crews are unresponsive. Communication ceased once they reached the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. News crews have been banned from the area, and all air traffic has been restricted. It seems—one moment, we are receiving and update."
The announcer's microphone was cut off briefly while Quatre assumed he read whatever information was coming in. The gundam pilot sat on the edge of his seat, as if leaning closer to the car's speakers would help him hear and understand better. Even the driver was now paying attention.
"Okay, we're back. It seems it was some sort of biological warfare agent that was released into the air from numerous points through the city. Whatever it was, it has affected nearly a five kilometer diameter from the heart of Rio de Janeiro. Reports are coming in of CSO soldiers aiding in the evacuation of civilians. With rising winds, the warfare agent is expected to spread. Please, stay with us while we wait for more information."
Quatre was absolutely speechless—more so than he was with Moira's sudden coup de tate.
"You there, Quatre?" Heero's voice said, reminding him that he was still on the phone.
"Yeah—yeah, I'm here," Quatre replied, his voice catching as he cleared his throat. "This is exactly what Carlino was afraid of. I cannot believe CSO would fall to attack civilians."
"Moira," Heero corrected, "some of the soldiers look genuinely shocked, according to the video coverage. Find out what's in those filters as soon as you can."
Quatre nodded to himself, rubbing his eyes. "What are you guys going to do? Are you going to try to get over there?"
"No point. By the time we could make it to the other side of the world, another attack could have happened. We're going to try to stop the next one before it starts."
They disconnected without another word.
From the very beginning, Quatre had known that this was not like the other wars they had fought. In the past, even their most ruthless enemy had some semblance of honor. CSO's usage of their 'supercomputer' to suppress uprising, Adelphie's human testing, and now terrorist attacks… Everything had been done due to a desire to control, rather than rule.
The Adelphies didn't take over because they thought they could govern better than the Earth Sphere Unified Nations, unlike Mariemaia. They did it because they wanted to. That was it; that was all. They did it for their own amusement.
As Quatre quickly used his phone to do a search for further information on the attacks, there was only one thing that crossed his mind…
While his horse continued galloping, he was bending his bow in order to spread pestilence abroad. At his back swung the brass quiver filled with poisoned arrows, containing the germs of all diseases.
000
Author's Notes: Phew, now we have the plot of the second arch started! Hopefully it's easy to see why the pilots are more necessary than their actual gundams now. There will certainly still be instances where the gundams make appearances, but if the pilots want to attempt to save civilians, they'll have to do it themselves and not with the giant mechas! I hope that this will not turn readers off from the story. If you were to read, say, the first two chapters, then the final two chapters, I think you would find the overall tone to be very different, which is why I broke the story up into two parts. Additionally, there will be events taking placing in multiple cities across Europe. I apologize now if I am inaccurate. At the very least, I tries to make the travel times realistic!
Anonymous Pat: I still haven't decided what to do with the ending. I can tell you now... Duo's ending will be... hm... Well, it wouldn't lend itself to Frozen Teardrop, I will say that!
I always appreciate questions/comments/concerns, so please let me know what you think!
Ever your servant,
A.F