Gundam 00: Phoenix
Food for Thought
Author Notes: Sorry for the extremely long delay, but I've been busy over the past weeks, damn you life, and although this is probably currently my shortest, I tried to make it as best I could. You'll also noticed a difference in the style of writing, since I've learned quite a few things near the end of the school year so please don't take too much offense to some changes. The ending of this I was slamming my head on the table, so you can complain abit it, infact I approve it.
China, February 20, Chengdu Military District
Inside the military base's perimeter, four figures crept around in the darkness of night, heading towards a certain target.
They were all dressed in similar uniforms that the guards used here, but one could easily tell them apart upon closer inspection and without proper identification they couldn't afford to be caught. The only point of wearing it was to remain unsuspicious at a distance.
A domed structure was to be their target as they moved in on it, slowly and carefully, remaining out of the lights and under the cover of the numerous buildings that were scattered across the base.
One of them signalled for a halt behind one of the buildings across from the domed structure as everyone knelt down and waited for further orders.
"You sure it's a good idea doing this without the go ahead from Wesker?" one of them quietly said to the other three.
"If they decide to transfer we may lose the target, there are bound to be high-security prisons that we don't know about that the brass is itching to send people to," another said back. "Though is supposedly a rumour so we might be here for nothing."
"That's just fucking great, following a rumor is sure to lead us to the right place," one of them sarcastically said rolling his eyes.
The first man gave a nod, and then continued to speak commenting to the second. "This isn't high security? For Christ sakes man their holding a Gundam here."
Before any response could be made to reply, the person closest up front gestured for the others to be silent as a truck passed by their location before he gave the signal for them to get up and move out.
The four then took the long way to reach the domed structure, at a slow pace. There were guards patrolling all around the area with camera's scanning the area and one wrong move would mean detection.
The apparent leader, signalled for the group to stop again, looking at a small portable terminal showing the current layout of this base.
"Close up security camera dead ahead," he muttered just loud enough for the rest to barely hear before he looked to his right down a tight passage way between two mobile suit hangers. "This way." He continued before he began down the passage way.
As the last member emerged and regrouped with the small team they began to move once more, this time just straight ahead for the target was just within a short walk over.
Cautiously they walked towards the building, their uniforms helping them remain inconspicuous from a distance.
When they got up to the door one of them procured several handguns from a pack he was carrying and began to hand them out.
"So what was the plan again?" one asked loading his newly handed out pistol.
"Shut off most of the bases power from here and attempt to gain access to the hanger holding the Zesus," the leader told them. "Team two will rescue the prisoner and we'll meet them at the hanger. After that we find some way to get the hell out of here or die trying. Oh and try to minimize enemy casualties."
The team nodded their heads acknowledging the order.
"I still can't believe we're risking our lives just following a rumour."
"It'll have to do since it's the best we've got," the leader replied as he signalled them to move out to complete their task.
Pacific Ocean, February 20, Phoenix Carrier en-route to Arvineo
The hanger was all but silent, the sound of work long gone with most of the crew either asleep or relaxing from a hard day of maintenance and repairs, however, inside the Lancaster Daveral continuously went through onboard simulations trying to improve his skills so that he would be ready for next time.
He had gone through the simulations several times yet he never felt satisfied with the results, either he took too much damage or was missing with too many shots. If he wanted to take down that Gundam he was going to need to do it accurately and remain intact.
Finishing another simulation which involved shooting down fast moving objects that were attacking a specific target he checked the results that soon popped up on screen. There it read an accuracy ratio of seventy-five percent with the objective still intact, but only ten machines destroyed out of twenty, most being forced away due to damage or driven off course.
Sighing, he took another attempt at it letting the simulation come back on screen with the push of a button.
For the entire of the duration he sat back and fired with the Lancaster's beam cannon forcing most machines to pull off course when they neared the objective, doing what the Lancaster was designed to do.
The results then appeared once more when he finished the simulation, this time it was a seventy-two for accuracy while fifteen out of twenty mobile suits were shot down. A much better result, a quarter increase with only slight lose in accuracy.
Still, to him, the new results didn't help improve his opinion about himself or the idea of fighting the Gundam. Being far from skilled, it would take him atleast a miracle for him to take that machine on and live with most of himself intact.
After going over his results several more times he opened the cockpit and prepared to rappel down and get some sleep, leaving this off for tomorrow.
There was absolutely no one in the hanger from what he could see as he stepped towards the observation deck, climbing up the stairs before pressing the button for the lift.
It had barely even been over a week and yet so much has happened, with the capture of Nena, the fighting in Arvineo, the appearance of the white Gundam, and so many others things worth mentioning.
He began to think all of this was going too fast. The captain should have atleast given them a month before commencing anything after they had captured Nena. It would have given them more time to get to know her, solve issues, train, and give the Rising Phoenix more time to prepare.
The lift door then opened as Daveral entered still thinking to himself.
Would anything good come from this or to the country of Arvineo? They were probably causing more damage then they're trying to stop in the future. Was it truly worth it, for people were still only human and greed, jealously, power, lust, hate and all sorts of emotions made what Celestial Being's purpose extremely hard to try and achieve.
Human history was bloody, no one could deny it; they were always waging wars among themselves so why would it suddenly stop now due to what they were doing here? The violence may be less for some time if they succeeded, but eventually some group is going to get the idea fighting is the only answer because life wasn't perfectly fair for some and then there was religion. To this day people were still killing each other it. He bet that even in the next two hundred years they would still be trying to kill each other over religion.
There was just so much doubt in his mind over what they were doing wondering if it truly was the right thing to do. His parents thought it was and for awhile he did to, but ever since all of this with Helana getting badly wounded and the war in Arvineo approaching ever closer, it made his mind just wonder about everything that led up to here and what will come from all of this.
Why did even join the Rising Phoenix? Changing the world for the better should be the only reason he needed, yet now it felt like he was fighting without a cause or worse, for a lost one. The idea of fighting for a new world was beginning to fade away, for at what cost would have to be achieved? He had lost a friend and there's the chance he could lose the rest of his team due to it.
Why had his parents even let him do this? He wasn't as passionate or dedicated as they were about this even if they weren't on the front-lines. They supported the Rising Phoenix with information from time to time, helped recruit people during the early days and continued to arrange supplies for Phoenix bases. The only thing he could do was fight.
Speaking of his parents he hadn't spoken to them in a long time. He needed someone to talk to about this and no one was better for this then the people who raised and nurtured him from the start.
The slight rumbling underneath him then subsided as the door opened and he walked into the crew quarters before towards his room. Why pass up the opportunity?
Reaching the door to his room he opened it before grabbing his messenger from one of his pockets and searched for his parent's number before dialling it.
"Hello," came a soft feminine reply over messenger, "who is this?"
Daveral inhaled and exhaled quietly, mustering the will to say what was needed, before he replied to the voice. "Mom, it's Daveral. There are some things I would like to talk about," he began slowly. "Could you set up your computer so I can talk to you and dad at once?" he began as he grabbed his laptop from his desk drawer and began to set it up. "And it would be nice to see your faces again."
"Of course, but why are you calling now, has something happened over there?" his mother asked in a concerned voice wondering what her son had on his mind.
"Well, uh, ya...alot has happened." he responded back in a quiet, hesitant voice before he continued on in the quietness of the night.
Pacific Ocean, February 21, Phoenix Carrier en-route to Arvineo
stirring in her bed, Nena slowly woke up with a sigh as she rose out of bed.
The dreams were far less terrifying and depressing this time around, but they still made it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep, the reminder of guilt did not help either.
She also kept thinking about Helana, last time she checked she was still receiving extensive medical attention and it made her uneasy not knowing if the person who saved her survived or not.
Turning to grab the messenger, she opened it to check the time. It was early morning, being five forty-five, with time zone adjustments. Seeing that, she closed it and placed it back down before moving the bed sheets out of the way.
Seeing how she couldn't fall asleep, she got up and got changed, but left her hair untied, before leaving her room.
The hallways of crew quarters were relatively silent with only the occasional footsteps from individuals waking up early to get something done.
Deciding that she was going to check up Helana, she walked down the hallways toward the lift.
As she walked down she took a slight pause at Daveral's room wondering if he was going to continue with the idea of sacrificing himself for her. Hopefully the punch she gave him helped convince his mind not to do something stupid.
Being the closest thing she had to a friend, he had to survive. She just didn't want to think about being the only one left again. She felt the most comfortable around him since he was accepting of her, but she didn't know about the rest of the crew, for all she knew they hated her just like Helana, but didn't show it since she never really talked to anyone else.
After a passing moment she moved on towards the lift and went down to the medical bay in the hanger.
Walking into the med bay she looked to see where one of the staff was, and walked up to the closest person she could see and asked where she could find Helana.
The staff member pointed down a corridor and told her the room number.
"Just be careful, she's extremely weak and we had to put her on medication so don't expect her to wake up anytime soon," she heard as she walked.
Following the directions she entered to see Helana laying down on a bed asleep, with her forehead and parts of her arm wrapped up and hooked up to a machine monitoring her status.
Nena gave a sigh of relief as she took up a seat near the bed. She wasn't going to leave until Helana woke up and answered the questions she had for her, and hopefully, come to more friendly terms with one another.
Somewhere in AEU Territory, February 21
Inside the cockpit of the Virtue, Tieria went over the battle the white Gundam had with the Phoenix carrier. He had seen it first hand, but he just had to go over it again, especially seeing it in action.
"From what I saw the machine is fast and well armed while the pilot is amazingly skilled, managing to take on three Gundams and a small complement of aircraft," Tieria said to Ian who watched the footage from on his end.
"I can't say I've seen anything like it before," Ian stated slowly. "All I can really figure out is that it runs on a pseudo solar reactor, and that it seems to have a massive reserves of GN particles to operate all those Fangs, probably stored in that flyer. Doesn't appear to have much in the way of defensive counter measures either, aside from the handheld shield, it's just E-Carbon reinforced with GN particles," Ian commented on the machine as he rearranged his glasses. "Did you try to go after him when he retreated?"
"Unfortunately no, he managed to escape thanks its high speed over the Virtue, even in his condition he could outpace me," Tieria replied, wishing that he had done something about it other then just sitting back. "Something just doesn't feel right about this Gundam just appearing when the Rising Phoenix made its move," he then said. "It could be the same people behind the Thrones, but I'm not taking any guesses till I know for sure."
Ian cocked his head to the left with a questioning look noting Tieria's expression. "I take it you're going to head out and get him this time, am I correct?"
"You are; there's a chance it'll answer the question and maybe we can gain some allies in the Rising Phoenix; with the loss of Veda we'll need the help to figure it out. They could also act as our eyes and ears, minimizing our exposure."
"Well just don't get kill alright, things here are barely holding up as it is, we don't need to lose every Gundam Meister in under a year."
"Understood," Tieria replied as the Ian's image disappeared off screen leaving Tieria to prepare the Virtue for launch.
Unknown Location, February 21
In a small old hanger, Judgement watched footage of his battle with the Phoenix, awed how at the perfect moment he had been denied victory.
He continuously replayed the footage of when the Filvery came in right between them.
"What could drive someone to actually defend her?" he murmured to himself as he rubbed his chin still figuring out if she had become friends with that pilot or something else.
Watching through it one more time he finally turned the footage off. "Doesn't matter, I'll get her next time, and there'll be less interference now," he said as he turned to look at his machine.
It would be good the next time he faced them, he could focus more Fangs on the Drei while the flyer just distracted the Lancaster from assisting. The Drei's chance of survival in the next engagement had now drastically dropped, something that he could only be pleased about.
Numerous repair bots swarmed over his machine repairing the damage it had taken and replacing missing parts. It wouldn't be long before the Legacy was ready for action.
Just then, he heard the hanger open from above as red particles traced the air above before he saw what appeared to be a Gundam descend down and touch down on the floor.
In some aspects it looked similar to the Throne Zwei in design, but this thing was taller, a dark crimson red colour instead of orange, and bulkier with more plating along parts like the cockpit, head, and GN Fang holders.
To Judgment, it seemed like the Zwei Mk II, although he knew not to judge what he did not know, for there could be alot of hidden secrets to his machine like his. He could also just ask Ribbons for the specifications later to see what he would be working with.
The cockpit of the machine then popped open and the pilot exited removing his helmet taking a quick look the Legacy before walking up to him.
"So you're the one I'll be working with, hmph, I didn't expect your machine to get totalled before I even got to the party," Ali said with a crooked smile. "What did you do take on a fleet or something?"
"I took on the entire Phoenix," Judgment replied briskly as he crossed his arms.
The red headed man gave a whistle before he said anything. "You actually tried to take on a carrier? No wonder he paired me with you," he said with a chuckle, not surprised, before he face straightened into a serious manner. "Now let's get this straight...Judgement... That girl is mine, I'm getting paid extra if I kill her, everything else is yours."
Ribbons would pay this man to kill the girl? She must be more of a problem then I thought, was what went on in his mind.
He thought for several moments, he had been told not to interfere, but this was too important to him, his task was to kill Nena not this man's, even if Ribbon's paid for this mercs services.
"I can't let you do that, for she's my target as well," Judgement replied, not caring if Ribbons had given that order. Punishment was acceptable over failure to kill who he was hunting. It was his duty not this man's, especially since he had waited for this.
"Yeah," the man raised a brow, "well I was told that I wouldn't have to worry about you giving me any problems. Guess things are going to get more interesting." he said giving another crooked smile.
Confused by the man's sudden attitude about this, he replied. "You're actually going to compete with me to see who manages to kill her?
"Why not, it makes things more fun than it already is, a little competition won't hurt anyone and I'm still getting paid, handsomely, I might add."
Hearing this Judgement just walked away as the man let out a short, small laugh before turning to look at the Legacy once more.
"Could use one of those," he heard the man mutter as Judgement continued to move away.
This man was just solidifying the facts how strange human beings were and how they needed to be controlled. Judgment would happily kill this man if it would be for the better, but Ribbons seemed to have others things in mind planned for the merc if he's paying him for this.
It looked like he would just have to put up with him till they completed their objective and when it ended he would be the one to win the competition.
Pacific Ocean, February 21, Phoenix Carrier en-route to Arvineo
On the bridge of the Phoenix, Wesker went over reports from the field and about Helana's condition.
"Our people are in the final stages, currently launching an attack on the Presidential Palace itself," Wesker read aloud for the rest of the crew to hear. "Once that's over we can wrap things up and end the mess we started."
"So then why are we out here if they can handle it themselves?" someone asked.
"We're back-up essentially, our main objective is to cover the retreat and pick up personnel on the ground that the fleet no longer has room for."
Wesker then stood up and activated the large monitor screen. "Once we've wrapped that all up we're heading into space see if we can pay Celestial Being a visit."
"Do you know where their base is?"
"No, but if we can find the pilot of the Virtue again we may be in luck to arrange a meeting," Wesker replied.
"I don't think Celestial Being will be in the mood to trust us, especially if they received the data we gave away," Kail said still staring at his screen. "We're probably by now considered a target for causing war. They won't take kindly to that."
Wesker turned to his friend. "It's the best we can do," he said curtly.
"Eh, thought we can do better," Kail still continued to look at his console. "So, any news on Helana?"
"She's alive, stable, and recovering" Wesker answered with light smile. "She'll be up in no time. That girl is tough, probably the toughest out of the four."
Kail gave a small chuckle. "No doubt about that, I remember the first time I saw her, beat the crap out of Flint after he tried to hit on her, wasn't even a fair fight."
Kail's attention then suddenly went to his screen noticing a slight change in the corner of his eye.
After a pause Kail spoke up. "Message from the fleet, it's Admiral Hiller."
"Bring it up," Wesker watched the screen flicker on revealing the scarred Admiral. "Hiller what's the news?"
Hiller handed back a data pad before answering. "I have request from a majority of our field commanders, they want to start to pull out, they say the Arvineo's can handle the rest."
Wesker quickly thought it over in his head maintaining his posture. "Tell them to begin to retreat what forces are not in use, all units in the city are to maintain their presence in the area till the mission is complete, no arguements, understood?"
Hiller nodded his head. "Understood, now how much longer can we expect you to take? We can't hold the UN by ourselves during the retreat."
"Should just be a day now, but we'll send our Gundams to support you when we're in range."
"Roger that, Hiller out," the admiral ended as the image disappeared from screen.
Wesker rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. "UN is going to start giving our guys on the ground a beating once they make contact, they'll need all the help they can get," he said as he turned to Kail. "Get our squadrons that are ahead on the line and tell them to provide air cover for the rest of this mission."
"Yes sir."
Taking out his pocket watch he opened it, staring at the time. There wasn't much time left for they needed to get as many of their troops out alive and disappear and only then would any sort of meeting take place.
Arvineo, February 21, Outskirts of the Presidential Palace
Viper peered out of the ruined building he and his spotter were in as thunder could be heard from above as lightning traced the sky.
Finally they were given a chance to relax for the moment as fresh troops took their place, now assaulting the Presidential Palace.
"Looks like a massive storm, they better hurry and take the Presidential Palace before the ground starts to turn to mud," his spotter noted as the first raindrops began to fall before he changed the subject. "So how did you end up with us? Never saw or heard of you at all, despite the fact I hear you're an excellent sniper."
Viper turned to his spotter. "I was captured," he answered with those simple words.
His sniper looked at him strangely. "Captured you say? You forced to fight or something?"
"Not forced to fight," Viper replied as he leaned back against the wall. "More like convinced after hearing what they told me, and I believed them."
"Hmph, never heard of us convincing someone after we've captured them," His partner then pulled out his pistol and began to clean it. "So, how did you get caught?"
Viper gave a weak smile. "One the officers of the Rising Phoenix became a target for the Union while undercover awhile back, I was sent to eliminate him." he began, refreshing his memory so that he could continue. "I took up position in a nice area and waited for him to pop out."
"And did he?"
"Eventually after a few hours, he appeared with some other man about some sort of deal I didn't know what it was about, even to this day, just given orders to eliminate him." Viper then dug into his bag, and brought out a broken scope, the lenses were cracked as if a bullet had gone through, but he kept it as a reminder. "Before I could take the shot a round somehow bounced off the ground cracking this scope and forced me to reposition."
His spotter looked up as he continued to clean his weapon. "Let me guess, you got into a waiting game after."
"Not exactly," he said. "I ended repositioning several times, but I never found the sniper once until we ended up moving into the same spot. Both of us didn't know what to do until I decided to fire my rifle only for me to get shot by a pistol. I didn't even realize the other sniper had his hand over his holster till it was too late."
"How did you not notice that, you're a goddamn sniper?" his spotter asked. Noting how snipers are supposed to be observant.
Viper shrugged. "Not my fault, the sniper was trained to quick draw like some sort of cow boy." He stretched his arms and placed his scope away before he then continued on. "I never stood a chance, but luckily they decided to take me in and patch my bullet wound up."
The spotter finally had finished cleaning and placed his pistol away. "And now you're here? Do your superiors know what happened to you?"
"I'm listed as MIA at the moment and I don't plan to reappear anytime soon, ghost reappearing aren't usually without suspicion."
"Too right you are," the spotter then looked outside as the trickle of rain had now turned into a raging storm. "If the weather continues to be like this over the remaining course of the mission I'm never coming back here again."
Viper sighed as he looked out as well. Life for infantry was hell, no matter what you were be it a regular grunt or a sniper, there just wasn't much comfort even with a roof over your head when you're in a foriegn environment.
Pacific Ocean, February 21, Phoenix Carrier en-route to Arvineo
"What are you doing here?"
Nena eyes opened from resting and she turned to see Helana looking right back at her.
Taking a second to ready herself she then asked her question. "Why did you save me? Out of all people why you?"
Helana groaned as she turned to face the other direction in her bed not giving an answer.
Slightly irritated she asked again only to get the same response.
"Can't you talk to anyone, is that bad that you can't tell anyone anything?" Nena then said.
There was an extremely weak chuckle. "Maybe it was for me, but not anymore," Helana replied back weakly as she turned to look back at Nena. "Last time we talked I wasn't thinking straight once you brought up Sten. I thought it over when you were gone. Life hates me, but I just kept digging a grave for myself." She grunted in slight pain as she moved slightly before continuing. "I hate the world and I still do, but I made things worse and worse by only thinking that there was no hope for me, that life would continue to torment me." She took another pause, momentarily catching her breath. "When I saw you come back aboard, you reminded me of myself, as if there was nothing to live for and then I thought to myself, is that how I was? Our thoughts may be completely different, but we both had one thing in common, we didn't have any point of living on in our lives other than just surviving."
"I still don't get it, why did you save me?" Nena repeated her question.
"Because we all deserve to live, no matter what we've done," Helana gave a slight sigh as if she was reluctant to say those words. "You never even had a life, and even if what you've committed is horrible, you deserve to live so that you can face the consequences like you should." She gave a weak smile, something that she rarely did.
"You're saying we should all be able to live no matter what we've done if we accept the consequences and make them right?" Nena said in surprise. "But what about me, you've seen what I've done, why is it that you think I should deserve to live? Even I ask myself if I should still be here."
"I don't know how I can answer that, but you'll find a reason to live other then surviving if I can then you can also."
"But what are you going to live for?"
Helana gave a pause. "Fix what went wrong in my life and not be put down by what I've gone through. Maybe even see my parents. I rarely ever talked to them myself and I was afraid of the answer they might give, but I've grown up since then and maybe it's not too late to still talk with them."
Nena looked away from Helana as she got up. "That's why you risked your life, for me to make things right?"
"I may not care about you, but it doesn't mean I can sit by and watch someone get killed when you have the chance of saving them. Sten wouldn't do that so I shouldn't either. Maybe if I follow his example things will go well," Helana stated as she closed her eyes. "If you think I'm lying about all of this go ahead, I don't blame you, but that look in your eyes really made me wonder if sticking with the past was a good idea. They just seemed so...unsettling."
Nena didn't answer as she left the room and proceeded to head back up having heard enough for the moment, not to mention give Helana the much needed rest she deserved.