Hello and I am back with Chapter 7 of "Meister of Your Future Chronicles". After Celestial Being had committed their armed intervention on Taribia while allowing Chronicle Bringer to participate for appearance's sake to the world, they begin to initiate a plan of tailing after their mysterious ally/potential enemy. However, as there's an old saying: "no plans survive first contact" and there will always be unexpected interference.
My responses to these Guest reviews that I can't normally reply on PM:
Guest: Pretty much, Celestial Being is definitely gonna bring that up to Chronicle Bringer when they finally meet face to face for a meeting in the future. They will never live it down on him.
Amusing: Okay, I will check them out. Disney Star Wars has been sometimes disappointing and interesting at the same time.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam 00 and Gundam Build Fighters series. They both belong to Sunrise that owned the long-running Gundam franchise.
Enjoy and don't forget to review. :)
Chapter 7
Somewhere underneath the southern Atlantic ocean
"Well, that escalated quickly."
Within the Dark Veil's bridge, the room had manifested a holographic image of a lavender haired woman in her 20s who is dressed up in the purple and blue Celestial Being female military uniform with a beret on her head and a pair of spectacles. From first impression, she appears to be the younger iteration of Sumeragi Lee Noriega if the tactical forecaster of Celestial Being had decided to dye her brown hair, wear glasses and style a hair bun like that of her friend and fellow tactical forecaster Kati Mannequin.
She is Varia, the Quasi-Veda created by Daryl Lancer, or rather Chronicle Bringer now, to serve as the one who provide him vital information, tactical forecasting and monitoring the world of Anno Domini after the Dark Veil and its mechanical crew and cargo had been transported there thanks to the ZERO System her Creator had taken from Adam Winslow and activated it with Plavsky Particles.
Almost similarly like her original counterpart, Veda itself from the Celestial Being Mothership that was always cloaked by Optical Camouflage from sight. And she prefers not to get Veda's attention towards her after going through the trouble to ensure she won't be easily detected, traced and overwhelmed by the quantum supercomputer far greater than herself.
Perhaps if her Creator had chosen an alternative Gundam world such as UC, SEED or IBO before activating the ZERO System to be sent there, the Quasi-Veda would have undisputed complete monopoly over the said world's global network and nothing can stop her.
In fact, Varia was based off from one of the Artificial Intelligence iterations of Gundam characters that control the custom-made Gunpla to fight each other in Gunpla Battle, and they possessed the memories and personalities of the originals that they've replicated almost perfectly. Such as the A.I. iterations of Char Aznable and Amuro Ray as both of them are just like their counterparts with mutual rivalry and resentment at each other for the death of Lalah Sune as demonstrated in one Gunpla Battle duel with the Ballistic Zaku and the Reversible Gundam the two had controlled for example.
As for Varia, her Creator had used the data of A.I. Sumeragi Lee Noriega as a basis to be his Quasi-Veda, which she is more than willing to fulfill her purpose.
Little did Chronicle Bringer know that he also simply gave new form of the said A.I. when making her. Not only that, she accepted the name of Varia that he gave as her new identity to stand out from her human counterpart.
Speaking of her purpose, Varia was overseeing the current combat situation at Taribia where the three Gundams of Celestial Being and the Cornix Furia participated in the armed intervention respectively before splitting off when the Over Flags and the Union forces mobilize to protect the South American country that now changed its mind of secession.
"Exia has been pursued and forced to engage the Custom Flag of Graham Aker, the captain of the Over Flags in open combat. The specs on his Union mobile suit are somewhat impressive but it sacrificed pilot safety. It won't be long until Meister Setsuna eventually overpowers Captain Aker thanks to the superiority of Exia.", she analyzed upon looking at the viewscreen of the duel between Setsuna F. Seiei's Gundam and Graham's black colored Flag.
So far, Graham had been holding his own well against Setsuna's GN Blade when using both plasma blades thanks to his ace piloting skills as the Top Gun of the Union. But they fail to actually leave any real damage on Exia thanks to its brand of E-Carbon made by Celestial Being and enhanced by its GN Drive. Not only that, it would take one good swing of the GN Particle-enhanced physical sword to cut it down to pieces.
Then again, she noticed that Setsuna's combat skills are left to be desired when fighting a seasoned ace Flag pilot.
Turning to another viewscreen of her Creator currently engaging the red colored Flag in battle, Varia frowned. "Although, Creator was shocked at the Custom Flag of Verna Romero, the Over Flags lieutenant due to the fact her Union mobile suit currently possesses nuclear energy. Allowing her to use beam weaponry for the first time."
Observing the Over Flag's red mobile suit wielding the Butterfly Buster with a blue long cable attached to it while trading powerful blows with the other Butterfly Buster of Cornix Furia in the skies, she remarked. "Hmmm... Professor Ralph Eifman must have discovered Helium-3 after studying Creator's stolen rifle and modified Lieutenant Romero's machine as a testbed for Minovsky Reactor-powered mobile suits in the future."
It would not bode well for Celestial Being because they relied on the Gundams to have overwhelming power with the GN Drives, which allowed them one-sided superiority above the three superpowers of 00 Earth in the first place. And with the revelation of nuclear power being the source of beam weapons as demonstrated by The Crow, it won't be long until the Human Reform League and the AEU follow the Union's lead in kickstarting the return of nuclear energy to relevance and have their respective mobile suits be outfitted and modified to possess beam weapons.
This will make the future armed interventions a lot difficult than before compared to the canon.
Even if Varia or even her main counterpart, Veda, could manipulate or erase all data and information from their servers, it doesn't matter when brilliant minds like Professor Eifman of the Union's Over Flags, Doctor Lalah Singh of HRL's Chobu and Chief Engineer David Halevy of AEU's Gjallarhorn would have that in their heads after learning and memorizing them, and write them down with pen and papers.
Not even assassination will stop that as there would be others would take their place and continue the work.
Honestly, she didn't expect the HRL and AEU to have their own mobile suit development geniuses for their respective anti-Gundam units as they didn't seem to exist onscreen anywhere in canon, and yet they did. The Quasi-Veda had browsed through the profiles of Doctor Lalah and Chief Engineer David, or rather Coop as he liked to call himself, when learning about them.
"While I am confident Creator would stop playing around and reclaim his stolen weapon, he is going to be followed by Celestial Being upon withdrawing from Taribia, which will lead them right to us.", Varia remarked with concern after looking at another viewscreen of the Dynames and Kyrios currently on standby after feigning withdrawal, and later, a second jet fighter-themed Gundam designated as GNY-003F Gundam Abulhool that she had detected through tracing the GN Particles it used to maintain the Optical Camouflage to blend in with the mountains nearby Taribia.
She was surprised to see that Celestial Being has another jet fighter-themed Gundam despite the fact they have four Gundams, or five Gundams considering Nadleeh was hidden inside Virtue until it was unleashed against Chobu, in their possession. Which Varia can correctly guess that Celestial Being must have made prototypes first for testing and development before producing the final models.
And not only that, according to her knowledge of the show as inputted by Chronicle Bringer when he made her, the fifth GN Drive was never used until Season 2 where it's outfitted into the 00 Gundam's Twin Drive System.
"It could only mean that Celestial Being had used the 0 Gundam's solar reactor they kept in storage for one of their outdated machines they've deployed to aid Ptolemy crew in pursuing Cornix Furia into leading them to the Dark Veil, ruining the chance of a planned meeting as intended. Creator would lose his anonymity far too soon when that happens. He specifically wanted to meet Celestial Being on his own terms with the coordinates he gave them.", the Quasi-Veda deduced with narrowed eyes.
She finished, "And yet Celestial Being thought they can outsmart Creator and turn the tables against him..."
That won't do.
Not on her watch.
Not while she's around to do something about it with the Dark Veil she controls.
Because of that, Varia decided that it's time to take action and throw a monkey wrench on the plan that her human counterpart Sumeragi Lee Noriega had made. She will not allow that functioning guilt-ridden drunk of a tactical forecaster ruin everything for her Creator. In her honest opinion, it would be almost priceless to imagine Sumeragi being outplayed by herself.
She had the Dark Veil ascend from deep underwater like a submarine resurfacing and float on the sea like any ship.
"Preparing the Triple Beam Cannons... Concentrate Forward Maximum Firepower... Targets Locked On... Ready on my mark!", she raised her hand as the Dark Veil unleashed the three large scale anti-ship weapons. She then had them charging up the beam energies to full power while adjusting their aim toward certain targets nearby Taribia.
The Quasi-Veda needed to strike hard and fast on both Celestial Being and the Union who will be caught off guard by the unexpected attack they didn't see it coming, and then get the hell of Dodge as immediately as she can with the Umbrella Stealth System on full active mode before they can trace and pinpoint the Dark Veil's location and come after them in retaliation.
Her Creator will not be pleased if his mobile base of operations had been compromised and exposed too early at this stage.
Besides, the Dark Veil's anti-ship weapons have red beams instead of pink, and she can easily frame the Team Trinity to be the culprits behind it when Celestial Being or any of the three superpowers investigate and take care of them with immense prejudice. All she needed to do is to leak the location of Team Trinity's base at Africa's Northwest to be the source of the attack and she will sit back to watch the fireworks.
It will get off from Chronicle Bringer's back for the time being.
Those three genetically engineered brats from Ribbons Almark's DNA are disposable anyway just like their fates in the show.
Soon, Celestial Being will come to appreciate The Crow as a dependable ally far better than the Gundam Thrones will ever be. And giving them a taste of Team Trinity's modus operandi in form of an extremely unrestrained mass death and destruction would tip the Ptolemy crew off once the trio show themselves in their own debut, resulting in Celestial Being rejecting them and eliminating them altogether.
It's considered as a long term gambit and she is confident that it would definitely pay off in the future.
On the other hand, her Creator doesn't need to know of her interference and assume that it was Team Trinity who made their move and did the deed far earlier than canon he expected. Ever since Chronicle Bringer had brought her and the Dark Veil alongside his Cornix Furia to this world, he wasn't even aware of her presence when he created her and simply gave her whatever orders he made, which she will always comply.
And the lavender haired holographic Pseudo-Sumeragi prefers to keep it that way.
With a cold determined look, Varia waved down her hand, "Fire!"
The Triple Beam Cannons then unleashed their fully charged up beam power with massive pillars of red light flew towards Taribia!
-O-
Somewhere above Taribia's sea
"Warning, warning! Massive beam energy detected! Massive beam energy detected!"
Orange Haro announced with the flapping of its ears to Lockon Stratos and Allelujah Haptism who were currently observing the battles of Setsuna and The Crow's pilot against the Over Flag captain and lieutenant. Both Gundam Meisters' eyes widened open with shock as their respective GN Drive-powered machines turned around with their main cameras to see three massive pillars of red beam energy heading in different directions!
One is heading for the coastline where the two Union fleets were stationed there.
The second for a mountain of Taribia for some reason.
And the third right towards Dynames and Kyrios!
"SCATTER! SCATTER!", Lockon shouted as he moved Dynames to dodge the attack as quickly as possible.
Allelujah immediately followed suit by transforming Kyrios into its Flight Form and accelerated away as fast as he can.
Both Celestial Being Gundams were able to dodge one of the three massive beam attacks on time and it missed them, thankfully. But unfortunately, the other two beams had struck their intended targets.
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Such destructive impact had caused three powerful red explosions which shook the entire country of Taribia!
The Irishman then turned to see where the beam attack, that was aimed for them, went and witnessed it heading towards The Crow and the Red Over Flag. Both combatant mobile suits had noticed the attacked and dodged out of the way in time. That said attack eventually dissipated away as if it was never there at all in the first place.
"Haro! Were there any people living in that mountain?!", Lockon Stratos demanded with look of worry.
"Negative! Negative! No casualties! No casualties!", Orange Haro reported much to Lockon's relief.
However, the Dynames pilot narrowed his eyes at a certain smoking object that got sent flying by the explosion which took out the mountain and crashed on the other side of Taribia. What is that thing? Could it be some scouting mobile suit from the Union? No, it can't be. It wouldn't have survived from that huge beam attack that almost hit me and Allelujah if we didn't dodge! I better check it out and see what it really is., he wondered in suspicion and pilots Dynames forward.
On the other hand, the former Super Soldier looked to witness the Taribian coastline blown up respectively. He also noticed several Flag mobile suits that were with the fleet end up exploding or sent flying due to the force from the explosions, and the Union naval ships got vaporized or burning into useless slag metal with its many crews dying.
"NO!", Allelujah Haptism exclaimed with a horrified look on his eyes at the carnage that took away many lives of Union men and women in a blink of an eye. It was far worse than the one-sided curbstomp battle that he and his fellow Meisters had inflicted on the forces of Taribia in their armed intervention.
Meanwhile, his alter-ego Hallelujah was too stunned to provide morbid commentary at the scene he had witnessed through Allelujah.
-O-
At Ptolemy, Space nearby Earth
"What the hell just happened?!"
Sumeragi Lee Noriega demanded an explanation after witnessing three massive red beam attacks that came out of nowhere and wiped out most of the Union fleet, blew up a mountain and almost killed Lockon and Allelujah if the two Gundam Meisters hadn't dodge away from it in time. She never expected this to happen at all and it completely threw her off the loop from her tactical forecasting as a result.
Christina Sierra reported with a terrified look on her face, "Miss Sumeragi, the Union Fleet has taken heavy losses after one of the beam attacks from an unknown assailant! The America's 2nd Fleet have moved in to assist their comrades! "
Her viewscreen showed her several Union ships burning and sinking with many of its unfortunate personnel dying or trying to evacuate on the lifeboats or the surviving Flags using their servos to hold them before taking them to safety. It was horrifying and sickening to look at. She knew that there would be deaths during armed interventions.
But this? It came out of nowhere and whoever was behind it is certainly incredibly ruthless and brutal.
"I am currently attempting to trace the trajectory of the three beam attacks towards the source of the culprit, Miss Sumeragi.", Feldt Grace stated as she got to work on finding the assailant behind those destructive attacks albeit she looked quite shaken after seeing the size of the beams that made Virtue's firepower look inadequate in comparison.
"It can't be The Crow, right?!", Lichtendahl Tsery wondered in worry after witnessing it himself and it unnerved him.
Lasse Aeon retorted with gritted teeth at such massacre, "Hell no! He was busy fighting off that red Flag machine that was chasing after his tail! And from the looks of it, even he's surprised and caught off guard just like the rest of us!"
Now that the helmsman had noted, the Ptolemy crew took notice of the Cornix Furia being shaken from the unexpected attack appearing all of a sudden that almost took his life and also the Over Flag member he was clashing with from the footage they witnessed. In conclusion, Chronicle Bringer is, therefore, not the culprit behind those 3 massive red beam attacks at all.
"So that means we have another third player showing themselves?!", Tieria Erde snarled in outrage at these unwelcome turn of events, veins bulging on his forehead and gripping his fists really hard in his Meister suit's gloves.
Previously, he could have tolerated Chronicle Bringer for Sumeragi's sake so long the pilot of The Crow would explain himself of his intentions and if he is willing to cooperate with them and follow their lead, proving whether he's truly sincere in carrying out the Plan despite not being chosen by Veda, in the eventual meeting between him and Celestial Being.
But after the appearance of a second unknown party that had made an unexpected surprise debut during an armed intervention at Taribia?
No more, the Gundam Meister of Virtue had enough of this tomfoolery and his patience is at an end! He's very sure that Veda would certainly approve of his action once he will set everything back on the right path as intended.
Tieria doesn't care if Sumeragi had sternly told him to stand down; or Lockon, Allelujah and that brat Setsuna would try to stop him from doing what needs to be done; or even the world witnessing it to be an infighting within Celestial Being from their perspective.
Enough is enough!
No more unexpected shoehorns and deviances into Aeolia Schenberg's Plan!
He internally vowed to himself while glaring at the image of the bird-like mobile suit looking quite shaken from the unexpected sudden attack, I'm going to find The Crow and the other unknown party wherever they are hiding on Earth or in space... AND THEN I WILL GIVE THEM 10,000 DEATHS THEY RIGHTFULLY DESERVE!
-O-
Back at Taribia
"Captain Graham! The Union Fleet has been wiped out and America's 2nd Fleet has taken heavy casualties!"
It shocked the leader of the Over Flags after overhearing Howard Mason's words on the comms, stunning him enough to stop fighting in mid-air. Even Exia paused too as well with Setsuna F. Seiei who had witnessed three massive red beams appearing unexpectedly with two hitting their targets at the coastline and mountain of Taribia while one missed and dissipated away.
Where did that come from? Is it The Crow? Or another new player that Veda didn't know about?, the Krugis young man wondered in suspicion.
Graham demanded to his fellow Over Flags comrades, "What happened?!"
He can hear the outrage from Daryl Dodge who explained the situation to him in the comms, "They're beam weapons, sir! It must have been Celestial Being! Only they have beam weapons with such capacity for mass destruction! And with that kind of range, those are no normal weapons!"
"Captain, I've received reports from the America's 2nd Fleet command stating that Admiral Richard Halberton was among the casualties!", the Warrant Officer added in a grim tone.
The Top Gun of the Union felt something beyond furious within him, snapping in hotblooded fury! So many good men and women of the Union navy had unceremoniously died to a single massive beam attack from Celestial Being! He will make those bastards who dare claim to end war with force pay with the fury of an avenging angel!
No! He will surpass even Asura!
"YOU! YOU DID THIS!", Graham Aker angrily accused.
He turned around and immediately attacked Exia by swinging both of his melee weapons at it. Setsuna barely put up his GN Blade in time to block the two plasma blades from hitting him, causing a blade lock between the two opposing mobile suits! The Krugis Gundam Meister increased the GN Particle output of his machine's solar reactor to slowly overwhelm the Black Custom Flag despite the latter's maximum rocket thruster power.
Then Graham quickly raised his Over Flag's right servo to aim for Exia's head, resulting the glass of its right optic to shatter upon impalement!
It damaged the main camera, causing his cockpit's viewscreen to be blurry. It forced Setsuna to try adjust it to the remaining left optic so that he can see through again. Although, the plasma blade remain embedded into the right optic.
Graham took advantage of his opponent being temporarily disoriented by accelerating his speed to do the Char Kick on the blue Gundam with his Black Custom Flag, sending Setsuna flying back hard. Then he brandished his linear rifle to open fire at full barrage, pulling the trigger.
Recovering its balance in mid-air, Exia expertly backed away and fired the GN Blade's Rifle Mode to exchange blasts with its enemy that kept dodging his beams. Even though the damaged right optic of the main camera had caused some hindrance in Setsuna's aiming. To make matters worse, two more Flag units showed up to back up their leader and opened fire at him as well.
Dammit! Time to withdraw!, Setsuna thought to himself before he allowed his Gundam to finally get hit on purpose from his enraged enemy.
After being struck by linear rifle's blast to the GN Shield directly, Exia got knocked off from the skies and headed down towards the ocean!
"Got you!", the Over Flags captain yelled in catharsis while continuing firing at the Celestial Being mobile suit about to crash into the seas.
Upon making a hard impact, Setsuna's machine disappeared from sight and went underwater, successfully escaping and heading off to the rendezvous point as originally intended.
Catching up to his leader, Howard Mason complimented after watching the blue Gundam seemingly got shot down and crash into the ocean, "Excellent shot, Captain!"
"Tch, he got away!", Graham bitterly interjected with a frown as his black colored Flag raised its Linear Rifle before barely calming down and remarking on his retreating enemy descending deep into the ocean. "... This Custom Flag was able to stand up to the Gundam... But to be able to move underwater... Your mobile suit is just a little too versatile, Setsuna F. Seiei..."
"Huh? Setsuna F. Seiei? That's quite a... bizarre name..", Daryl Dodge commented after hearing his superior officer regarding the identity of Celestial Being's pilot.
"So that's the name of the Gundam's pilot?", the Warrant Officer questioned.
The blonde Over Flags captain nodded as he turned his mobile suit to meet up with his fellow Flag Fighters, "Affirmative. I have a feeling his comrades have unusual names as well."
Probably something ridiculous., he snidely added.
He then asked them, "What about Lieutenant Romero? Did she take down The Crow?"
The Master Sergeant responded in a somber manner, "Negative, sir! The Lieutenant's down... The Crow mangled her Flag and took back his stolen weapon before quickly withdrawing from Taribia. Joshua and Yuka barely made it in time to back her up."
In response, Graham quickly transformed his Black Custom Flag to its Flight Mode and flew as fast as he can towards where Verna fought with The Crow. Even when his body started feeling the effects of the G Forces as his friend Billy Katagiri warned previously, the Over Flags captain accelerated his mobile suit's speed to full throttle.
No! No, please no!, he internally pleaded, hoping he was not too late.
The words of the late Sleg Sletcher etched on Graham's mind in the past before Verna's father engaged a mock battle with him and died on that day, "I know you refused to accept my daughter's hand in marriage and I accept that. But please, look after her for me when I'm gone... Promise me on your honor as a Flag Fighter!"
-O-
Earlier after dodging the massive beam attack
"Where the hell did come from?!"
Verna Romero shouted after piloting her Red Custom Flag to swiftly dodge from the attack that caught her and also her opponent, The Crow by surprise in the middle of their duel with the Butterfly Busters they respectively wielded. The green haired Lieutenant watched the said red beam dissipate away after failing to hit any of the targets.
But she did witness the mountain and the coastline where the two Union fleets were there got blown up, and the results were catastrophic!
She thought in cold sweat as her grip on the Red Custom Flag's controls tightened, That was a close one! Who fired such powerful beam? Could it be that Chonky Gundam with Huge Beam Cannons backing up The Crow? Now that I think about it, that Gundam was never with its fellow other 3 when Celestial Being attacked the Taribian forces.
However, the female Flag pilot almost forgot that she was still on the battlefield and saw the Cornix Furia quickly coming at her, taking advantage of her distraction. As her red colored Flag raised the Butterfly Buster again to block an attack from The Crow, Chronicle Bringer immediately unleashed Mega Particle Cannon from its head splitting apart to fire at his enemy in close range. It completely obliterated her mobile suit's head, depriving her of the main camera and she was unable to see through anything as a result.
Unlike the last time, Verna was caught by hook, line and sinker and unable to break off and keep her distance from The Crow.
After that, the former Gunpla Mafia enforcer grabbed the Red Custom Flag's arm that holds the stolen Butterfly Buster and ripped its socket off! "I believe that it's mine.", he said before holstering back to his Cornix Furia's hips rightfully where it belongs.
The long blue cable connected to Chronicle's beam weapon was severed and the empty arm socket exploded, causing damage to the Flag cockpit of Verna. Then The Crow used its right claw to grab the Union mobile suit by the torso, which he then squish it as hard as it can. The small explosions on her machine injured the Over Flags lieutenant.
"Gaaahhh!", she screamed in pain as her pilot suit got shredded and helmet's visor shattered to pieces from the said explosions, suffering bleeding wounds all over her body.
Tightening his grip on his helpless enemy's machine via Cornix's dangerous claws, Chronicle coldly told her, "I warned you to return my weapon back to me, Lieutenant Romero. But you refused and play with it like a toy that doesn't belong to you. And now it's time to pay the price of your foolishness. In fact, blame this on the misfortune of your birth."
Verna's eyes widened after hearing the older man's words and remembered that familiar phrase before in the past when she was a child.
-O-
Flashback, years ago
"Mama?..."
A green-haired little girl in a pink dress, Verna Romero, muttered with tears on her eyes upon witnessing a tall shaggy white haired man in a black outfit, who wields a smoking silent pistol, standing over the dead body of her mother being riddled with bleeding holes.
It was supposed to be a happy family event for her and her parents in form of a picnic at the park. Her father, Sleg Sletcher, was on his 30 days of vacation leave per year in the Union military and he had intended to use those days to spend time with his beloved wife, Quess Romero, and his daughter, Verna. They're going to spend their wedding anniversary together.
While her mom was setting up the picnic table with the food and drinks including a wedding anniversary cake, Verna played kites in the sky with her dad.
And when it's time for picnic, Verna went ahead of her dad, who would be catching up to her, so that she will be the first and call dibs on the ice cream and sandwiches her mom made.
Only to watch the horrific scene before her eyes.
"Oh God, bring death to these fake humans! And then their spirits will be at peace!", the killer of her mother exclaimed out loud to the skies, looking very pleased as if he made another job well done.
Hearing a sniffling cry, he took notice of Verna who stood frozen in fear of him and his act of cold blooded murder of her mother. The white haired murderer narrowed his eyes at the green haired child before looking down at the deceased woman he killed. He commented, "I see, you're a fake human too as well, little one. But do not worry, Lars Grise will put an end to your suffering."
Verna tried to move her legs and run but she was too scared.
"Blame this on the misfortune of your birth.", Lars serenely said before he raised his pistol at Verna and he was about to pull the trigger.
"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
Suddenly, Lars Grise got shot repeatedly in both of the shoulders, right leg and his spleen. The insane killer screamed in pain that his attempt to take the life of Quess Romero's child was thwarted. He saw Sleg Sletcher, a clean-shaven muscular man with black hair in a blue and white civilian outfit, who opened fire at him with his serviceman pistol and the father of Verna looks absolutely livid.
Very livid.
Cutting his losses, the murderer of her mom then fled away as far as he can despite his injuries he sustained, leaving little Verna alone and Sleg.
"Verna! Verna, are you alright?!", her father asked her in concern as he ran towards his daughter while keeping his pistol raised in case the psychopath faked escape.
"Mama...", a still tearful Verna can only respond to him.
Her father looked to his daughter's direction and gasped with tears on his eyes, "Quess, no... No!"
Dropping his serviceman pistol, Sleg ran towards the corpse of his wife on the ground and held her in his arms. Her beautiful white sundress was stained in red blood from the gunshots Lars Grise had fired upon, and her eyes, once full of happiness and life, are now gone cold and empty. He tried to check for a pulse on Quess before pulling out his cellphone to call 9-1-1 for an ambulance and the police.
Even though she's already dead and it's already too late to save her life.
Verna watched her father crying his heart out for his love who left him and her from this world far too soon.
-O-
Present day, back to the skies of Taribia
Verna Romero's eyes remain widened in shock after hearing the familiar phrase burned into her mind years ago as she thought, It can't be... It can't be... Chronicle Bringer was... Lars Grise? The one who killed Mom?...
Seeing his opponent was unresponsive and assumed that she was humbled, Chronicle Bringer received a warning notification that two more Flag mobile suits are heading towards his direction. He looked up to his viewscreen through his mobile suit's main camera to see regular Flags in their flight forms coming at him and opening fire. Looking back at the damaged Red Custom Flag still under Cornix Furia's grasp, the former Gunpla Mafia enforcer decided that it's time to leave and return to the Dark Veil.
"Oh well, at least I got my weapon back.", he said to himself, looking quite pleased for today.
Yuka Kouen yelled at Chronicle while firing at him, "Let her go!"
"Poor choice of words...", The Crow's pilot coldly responded before casually throwing the Red Custom Flag towards the two Flag pilots.
Joshua Edwards immediately transformed his Flag mobile suit in mid-air, catching Verna being thrown towards him. The force of the weight almost pushed him back but he managed to adjust the balance in time. "First Lieutenant Romero! Are you alright?!", he said in concern as he assessed the damage sustained on Verna's mobile suit.
Thankfully, it didn't detonate in a nuclear explosion as Professor Ralph Eifman had feared. Even though the Red Custom Flag was outfitted with a Helium-3 reactor to allow beam weapon usage.
Damn, The Crow is merciless and he took back his stolen weapon. And she's not responding... What did he do to her?, he thought.
Meanwhile, Yuka gave pursuit of Cornix Furia and tried to shoot him down from the skies. Unfortunately for her, Chronicle was too fast for her to hit and quickly left the area into the skies of the Atlantic Ocean, leaving her to eat dust. "Dammit! He got away!", the female redhead Japanese pilot of the Flag gritted her teeth before turning around to go back where Joshua had caught Verna in his hands.
"Edwards, how's she?", Yuka asked.
"Not good! She's unresponsive! She needs medical attention!", her fellow Flag Fighter responded before he opened the comms channel. "This is Second Lieutenant Joshua Edwards! First Lieutenant Verna Romero is down! I repeat! She is down! The Crow took back his weapon and almost killed her!"
"I read you, Joshua! Damn you Celestial Being!", Daryl Dodge responded from the comms.
Joshua's Flag then carried Verna's Red Custom Flag to fly towards America's 2nd Fleet with Yuka following him and later Graham Aker showing up a bit too late to help after he went off to confront the blue Gundam with a blade. The Black Custom Flag followed them as well. The blonde Second Lieutenant knew better than to make a snide remark at the Over Flags captain and focused on getting Verna medical help from her disastrous encounter with The Crow.
Today is not a good day for the Over Flags and the Union as a whole.
-O-
On the other side of Taribia nearby the destroyed mountain
As Dynames flew its way towards the crash site of the object, which got sent flying by the massive red beam attack that took out an entire mountain, the green Gundam landed near it and took a closer look where Lockon Stratos was surprised to see what it actually is the whole time through his mobile suit's main camera.
He thought that the 5th GN Drive would remain in storage at Krung Thep according to Ian Vashti who told him during his induction into Celestial Being as one of its four Gundam Meisters. And apparently, someone in Celestial Being had been using the said solar reactor behind Ptolemy crew's backs to use it for themselves. Lockon knew that Tieria is not gonna like this when t he pilot of the Virtue learns about it.
"Allelujah, do you read me?", the brown haired man called to his fellow Meister.
"I-I read you, Lockon. What did you find?...", the Kyrios pilot stated albeit still shaken from witnessing the destruction of the Union Fleet by an unknown party's red beam attack.
Glancing down at the heavily damaged 21st century-type black jet fighter with a GN Drive, the Irishman responded, "It looks like one of Celestial Being's vehicles. And it has a GN Drive of all things... Haro, did you find any life sign from its pilot?"
"Life sign faint! Life sign faint!", Orange Haro responded with a flap of its ears after scanning the machine.
That means the pilot's dying! He or she needs medical attention ASAP!, Lockon thought before taking action. He moved Dynames' servos to pick up the incapacitated Abulhool from the crater, holding it. Activating his Gundam's solar reactor, he flew off to return to one of Celestial Being's secret island bases on Earth where he will get the pilot out of that machine and save his or her life.
Kyrios took notice that it's time to leave and followed suit, leaving Taribia behind with the said South American country and the Union reeling from their losses.
What a clusterfuck this mission has become! No doubt Miss Sumeragi and Tieria won't be pleased of this after what happened here today. This Bites!, Allelujah grimly thought.
Ditto. The world is gonna have a field day with this., Hallelujah agreed with him after witnessing it.
What an understatement in a nutshell.
Author's Note: Alright, the seventh chapter of "Meister of Your Future Chronicles" is done and I hope you like it. Varia made her appearance and decided to ruin Celestial Being's plan of tailing after her Creator to his location by pulling a Team Trinity. While also having the said team of 3 Gundam Throne pilots be the one taking the blame to cover her tracks. On the other hand, Chronicle Bringer finally got his stolen rifle back as promised and his parting words had given Verna Romero bad flashbacks about a certain Innovade serial killer who murdered his own fellow Innovades and got away with it from Gundam 00I.
Not only that, Abulhool is now in Dynames' hands after being nearly caught in the blast by one of the Dark Veil's attacks and now Ptolemy will know of Fereshte's existence. Fon Spaak never saw this one coming, lol.
As for the aftermath of this Taribia incident, it will be tackled on the next chapter.
By the way, Varia doesn't know about Fereshte at all thanks to her creator who only has knowledge of the Gundam 00 show he applied it to her when making Quasi-Veda before coming to the world of Anno Domini. She just thought Celestial Being had brought out the 0 Gundam's GN Drive too early and used it on one of their reserve machines to back up Ptolemy.
Plus it's not like Varia can find out about Celestial Being's real secondary team that is obviously not Team Trinity without drawing Veda's attention towards her.
Enjoy and don't forget to review. :)