Gundam 00: Phoenix

Crushing Blows: Part 3

September 10, Ural-Class Transport

Soma Peries sat by Andrei for their final meal before the expected battle. Around them were others such as Graham Acker, Louise Halevy, Barack Zinin. This would be the closest amount of enjoyment anyone would get until they would take an hour to settle down before they readied themselves for the mission. Hopefully new recruits would not overindulge themselves, but given that this was military food, even on an A-Laws ship, she doubted that would be a problem.

Her eyes shifted to Andrei who kept looking over at Louise. She wondered if Sergei's son was interested in the young woman.

"Andrei, you're staring," Soma muttered to him, her focus going back to her food.

"Something just doesn't feel right," he softly replied as he went back towards his food. "I just get the feeling she shouldn't be here."

"You can tell?" Soma replied, taking a curious glance at the woman.

"When your father and mother are both military personnel it's not hard," he answered.

Soma could see what Andrei was talking about. Louise eyes, while focused, belied the confidence she had in herself with a slight dimness as if she was truly not herself. Her stance, while upright and disciplined seemed to have trouble staying up, being dragged down by some unknown force. Something of great importance must be on her mind.

"Hm, I think I can see it as well. Doesn't seem to be someone who would join the military, unless they didn't want to be here."

"I doubt conscription's the answer. Everyone here are volunteers. It makes me wonder if she volunteered for something else."

"While I'm curious, I don't think it's our place to ask," Soma told him with a hint of caution. "You shouldn't think about this too much, Andrei. We have other things to focus on."

"Maybe your right, but I still don't think Warrant Officer Louise should be here. It just doesn't seem right."

Soma then noticed the Warrant Officer cringe for some odd reason. For a moment she shook uncontrollably, but she had already had a small container in her hands that dumped a couple capsules. She then shoved the medicine down her throat and took a gulp of water.

Medication? Soma wondered to herself. Not many people she knew in the military were reliant on medication due to certain conditions, especially not those on the front-line. Even then, there were far better ways to treat that; they could regenerate missing body parts if worst came to worst. What condition could not be treated before hand?

Her eyes looked back at her food. 'You're thinking too much, Soma,' she then told herself, yet she could only be slightly concerned over this woman as Andrei was. Possible liabilities could be fatal if things went poorly in combat.

Langrange 3, September 10, Celestial Being Resource Satellite

Dislike was one thing, jealousy was another. Despite being more accepting of people and generally more stable, as other were to put it, Nena could only look at Anew from a distance with a slight hint of disdain after the initial greetings. She did everything so well and could perform multiple non-critical roles for the Ptolemaios including cooking. Her looks even seemed to say "I'm better than you"; the appearance men would roll over and beg for.

She forced herself to turn away, back to her monitoring station as they readied the 00 Riser for testing.

'Next they'll be saying she can pilot Gundams,' Nena thought to herself.

Setsuna may have been out of action, but they still had Allelujah, Lyle and Tieria. Given the importance of all this, Tieria had volunteered himself to help synchronize the system.

"Lights are all green here, 00 is linked up with the Riser," Ian's wife, Linda, told her husband who nodded his head before looking out the observation deck. "We're ready to go."

"Tieria, you all set?" Ian said over the terminal to the pilot "Time's wasting."

"Engaging systems, stand-by," Tieria voice cam back through the comm. "Trans-AM active."

With that the monitoring station lit up as they began to track the rising number of the 00 Riser's particle generation output.

Nena counted the numbers for the rest of the team to hear, even if they did not need it, as the number steadily rose without faltering. So far things were good.

The door opened with a hiss to reveal Setsuna and Feldt who still looked concerned over his injuries. The young man just had to see this himself and everyone quickly turned back to their stations when they realized Setsuna would not leave until he had seen the results. Must be the fact the 00 was his machine to pilot.

'Man, he's way too stubborn,' Nena thought as she kept counting.

The number continued rising and soon, they had reached over two-hundred percent in particle output, yet the number still continued to peak over what they had considered the limit.

"Two-hundred-" Nena paused, a sudden pain shot into her head, yet she tried her best to push it aside. "Two-hundred-ten."

Yet, the pain continued and with it, came sudden flashes of various memories, mainly those that tended to lean towards traumatic or emotional episodes. By that point, she had utterly stopped counting, locked in her own mind.

The death of her brothers, the feelings she felt upon realizing all the pain she had caused on Louise Halevy, the near-death experience against Judgement, the battle against Ali-Al Saachez, they raced past, barely giving her time to register the event.

Suddenly, someone's hand on her shoulder and she came to, snapping out of her trance.

She became stiff for a moment, as if on edge and alert, before settling back down when she noticed that only Feldt was behind her.

"Wha-what happened?" Nena asked, her senses still coming to. She barely even remembered what she was supposed to be doing. Something about counting.

"Well, you started saying something. I couldn't understand it, but it sounded bad, you even screamed at one point. "Sorry" was a key word."

"I did?" Nena responded and noticed that the numbers of the 00 Riser had gone down.

Tieria then appeared in the observation post, rubbing his head with a pained expression before he looked at her.

"I'm guessing you experienced it too?" Tieria asked her. She replied to him with a simple nod. She still had no idea what had gone on.

Tieria then stepped forward and looked at the 00.

"It has amazing potential, but it seems to disrupt those who can use Quantum Brainwaves; though, I will needed to ask Allelujah to confirm this," he began before turning to Setsuna. "You know how much trust it means to use this, correct?"

"The 00-Riser," Setsuna said, eyes still locked on the Gundam. "

"I hope so," Nena muttered before sitting back in her chair wondering what had just happened to her.

Feldt told her "Sorry" had been a key word in whatever she had been talking about when she had been out of it. Did it relate to Louise Halvey in some way? She tended to bring back the painful memories, a reminder of the cruel things she had done in this world and had forced her to change. If that was the case, was this issue on her mind more than she thought it was Was this really her greatest concern?

Hallelujah was alive, or had been for a moment, but he did not respond when Allelujah asked a question afterwards. It must have been a temporary thing, yet his head felt odd when Hallelujah came back. Next thing he knew, Tieria was asking what had happened before giving a nod after he had responded. He said something about the 00 affecting them when it activated during Trans-AM.

The young, black-haired man could only sigh as Lockon, or Lyle, turned to him while Saji sat quiet looking at a ring.

"You're seeming more depressed each day. I'd would thing you would be cheering up more ever since we snagged you out of prison," he said to him.

"I've just been thinking about someone," he replied back.

Lyle leaned forward. "Some girl you know on the other side?"

Allelujah looked at him in surprise before replying.

"Yeah."

"Seems you're not the only one, Saji," Lyle then said to the technician who looked up. "Man, what is up with your girlfriends being on the other side?"

'She's not my girlfriend,' Allelujah thought.

"You make it sound funny," Saji responded, looking at Lockon taking the man's words quite seriously.

"Well, I don't think I've ever known people who had their girlfriends on the opposite side, yet I have two of them sitting right in front of me." Lyle's mood then shifted to a serious tone. "Guessing you're both going to try and get them back?"

"Through whatever means necessary," Allelujah said back to Lyle. "She may be this Soma Peries, but I'm sure Marie is still in there, somewhere. And once that happens I'm making sure she gets away from all this fighting. That's not a life she should have or anyone for that matter. I'll take it on myself if I have to. I am a Gundam Meister for a reason."

"Won't that mean more people dying?" Saji then asked Allelujah, his head down looking at the table. "If you're doing whatever it takes, it means you won't care who has to die in the process. It's the same thing as you guys did four years ago. So many people got hurt, including Louise and myself. I know A-Laws has done some terrible thing; I've even experienced it myself, but does that mean everyone on their side deserves to be killed? I wouldn't kill people to get Louise back, I just don't think I'd be able to live myself. Even more people would get hurt."

"Those guys on A-Laws made their choice to join up and they don't seem to care what goes on," Lyle told Saji with a hint of anger, crossing his arms and leaning back. "If they're going to keep doing this, they deserve it. Lots of people have suffered because of them and I get tired of seeing and hearing about it. Someone's got to tale action." Lyle then leaned forward lowering his voice. "I even got word something big just happened and I'm betting it's A-Laws as usual."

Saji then looked up. "There needs to be a better way," Saji answered, his eyes unsure what to think of. "Find the answers, connect all the dots and bring it to light. That's something what my sister would do. If she were still around... I just know she would find her own way to stop this. We just have to dig and get it out, while still staying alive."

"Well, unless you've got some way to beat through the Federation's censorship, you're going to have a hard time telling anyone unless you want to start yelling to people in the streets who would probably think you're some sort of madman."

At that point, Allelujah decided he needed to speak on this matter of violent versus non-violent means to change the Federation and remove A-Laws.

"Wait, maybe Saji's onto something. I know we're Gundam Meisters and we use force to change the world, but I wonder if there would be another way. If I could get Marie back without having to kill people I would do it. We do this, maybe it could cause people to simply leave and fight against the Innovators and A-Laws. I doubt even half the people in the Federation knows what's even going on," Allelujah said, surprising Saji who did not expect to be supported by one of the Meisters.

Lyle sighed. "That's probably the hardest way of dealing with this problem. Sure it's preferable, but I doubt it's doable. Who's going to listen to a group of terrorists and anti-government forces who have been vilified in the worst ways possible?"

"But we haven't even tried," Saji answered.

"Do we even want to?"

Saji then gave Lyle a stern look. "I don't want people dying. I won't be what Nena was, a murderer. Yet, I'm stuck with Celestial Being, I will fight, but not in the way you want. I'll do it, for Louise, my way." He then stood up as if a fire had awoken on what he needed to do to get his girl back and change this world for the better.

"Looks like you have a lot of work, best get started. If you need me, I'll be there," Allelujah said with understanding eyes, though helping him would be more difficult. He had not done much in the ways related to methods outside fighting. A major loss for himself when he could have possibly picked up a few more skills during his time with Celestial Being before the missions.

Here in front of him was a man who wanted to change things, but in a different way, one where he did not have to fight or force change on people by making examples or taking lives. He also had a clear goal much like Allelujah himself. They had someone they wanted to get back, but unlike himself, Saji would not resort to the risk of having to fight her personally or, worst case scenario, take her life.

Maybe civilians who were less desensitized and closer to the population were what Celestial Being lacked which is why they failed and ended up with the A-Laws and the Innovators.

Afghanistan/Turkmenistan Border, September 10, Katharon Base Anvil

Everyone simply stood in silence, that was the only thing they could do.

Sunlight flooded in, revealing the torn-off roof of their hidden base. A structure meant to resist bomb and artillery attacks now appeared to be more similar to a damaged tin can than a military installation.

"What power can do this? Not even a direct hit and this can happen?" Klaus muttered to himself as people remained silent, speechless over what had happened and most knew it was likely A-Laws who had caused this.

One of his men then slammed his foot into the ground, shaking all the while.

"How are we supposed to stop A-Laws if they can do this!" the man shouted. "What chance do we have? We're already outgunned and now they start dropping WMDs several miles away and they still get us?" He then fell to his knees. "This is a lost cause, why should we even fight?"

Klaus wanted to knock some sense into that man, but he did have a point. What could they do when they were low on resources and were outmatched by the Federation in nearly all aspects?

"Get everything ready to move, we're done here," Klaus said to Shirin.

"Would it be wise to move during this time?" she asked, trying to put the thoughts of doubt aside that had been spread around by this attack.

"It's our only option. The sooner we get a head start, the sooner we can reach our fellow comrades. I just hope their positions are al-"

Something caught his eye as he gestured for a set of binoculars from one of the men. He peered through and saw two specks in the distance that were coming closer along with a dust cloud from below.

"A-Laws?" one of his men asked.

Klaus shook his head. "It's a blue particle trail, look."Klaus then signaled for everyone to start getting ready to move. "And that means it's the Rising Phoenix and they're probably in trouble. Let's get out of here before they draw attention to us. We've already lost contact with our forces, I won't spare anymore to save them."

Shirin seemed ready to say something, but he stopped her by simply raising a hand. He knew what needed to be done.

"Mackmar," he called out. "See if you can keep track of them, once they stop get in contact. Ask them if they saw the weapon that did this."

The man assigned reluctantly nodded his head before getting whatever personnel transport was ready to track the Rising Phoenix leaving Klaus and the others to evacuate.