Mobile Suit Gundam: Transversal Alliance Part Four

Ten: Are we there yet?
0900 Corona Century

Infirmary, The Harbinger

With a hiss and grimace, the pilot of the Prophet removed the needle of the injection gun from his arm. Applying a bandage, he waited for the injection to spread throughout his circulatory system. Minutes later, he pulled his overshirt back on and exited the infirmary. 'Those blasted injections get worse every time' he complained silently, 'but I'll tolerate them if they do what the good doctor promised'. The ace pilot of the Host shuffled down the Harbinger's corridors, searching for his superior. He finally found him in the observation platform of the hangar, overseeing the rebuilding of the Prophet. Before he could say anything, the Captain said without turning around "And here is my champion, back from another 'improvement' session. By the time your machine is finished with it's own improvement, the two of you will be unstoppable.". The said champion stepped beside his Captain, observing his tool of destruction being honed. "Now there isn't an icicle's chance in hell of that pilot defeating you again." the Captain remarked. Nodding in agreement, the pilot thought to himself 'Yes, I will make him pay for humiliating me repeatedly, and then...', glancing at the Captain, he sneered malevolently.

Simulator, The Wyvern

Shortyly after boarding and unloading of the Gundams, each member of the G-Alliance goes about on their own devices, passing the time until the Wyvern rejoins with the main fleet of the UESF... As the red hot plasma formed the twin blades of the super lacerta, Leonid brought it up in a defensive stance, and keyed his intercom "Ok, let's see what you've got.". Opposite of him, in a simialar defensive stance, stood the terror of the UESF- the Prophet. In a flash of thruster fire, it came at him brandishing it's sais. The Superior stood still however, waiting for the appropriate moment to counter. Just as the blue blur came within melee range, and brought one of it's sais around in a decapitation maneuver, Leonid acted. Faster than normal human thought, he ducked the Gundam and spun it around whilst sweeping it's leg under the Prophet's own, tripping it. 'Fool,' he thought 'falling for one of my signature moves', and brought his saber up to cleave it in half at the waist. As the two halves clanged to the floor, the Superior stood and sheathed it's weapon. Again, the Son of the Eagle flipped on his intercom "That was much too easy, the real deal would have lasted at least a few more minutes. Make it harder, I want to train not play slash 'em up." he quipped. Some moments later, the simulation restarted from the beginning. Returning to his former stance, Leonid thought to himself 'I have to try and activate the berserker state again, and possibly master it. If I could...' but at that moment, the fake-Prophet came at him once more.

In one of the ship's quarter rooms, a certain pink suited android stared at her reflection. Tilting her head to the side, she examined her human-like body. Starting at her feet, she steadily drew her gaze upward, until reaching her lips, and smiled. Then, she saw her eyes- gleaming silver, with yellow, pupilless irises- and frowned. In the shadowy corner of the room, her brother's voice spoke up "What is it sister? is there a problem with your optics?". She looked back at him and replied softly "No brother, its just...". At her pause, he zoomed in to her for a better look "Just what?". No answer. He continued "I see. You find the the fact that they are silver and not white unpleasant. They aren't human eyes.". Ni looked to the floor silently, confirming her brother's accusation. He stood and walked to her slowly "MVT 2, I realize that continued exposure to humans may bring you a certain appreciation for their attributes, but envying them is not appropriate behaviour. We are not human, and never will be. We are constructed of sinthetic materials, not flesh and bone; we are creatures of calculation and logic, not of emotion. Do you understand?". She slowly looked up at him and nodded. Returning the nod, he left their room quietly knowing he'd gotten his point across. Ni again glanced at her reflection, and-against possibility- shed a tear. MVT 1, after the hatch to his and his sisters's quarters hissed shut, made his way to the simulator. 'I'm contradicting my entire lecture by going to blow off steam' he said to himself. Passing a crewman, he waved to him before cursing himself 'I'm even showing signs of cameraderie. Maybe we are slowly becoming human...'. He passed a mirror and backpedaled slowly, examining himself just as his sister was. He then shook his head 'No, we are machines, tools of war, nothing more.', and resumed his walk to the simulator.

Just as Leonid began to gain the upper hand in the saber lock between himself and the fake-Prophet, the simulation restarted once more. "What the-" he began, before noticing Ichi's face on his HUD. "My apologies for interrupting your session Leonid, but would you mind a new sparring partner? I need to... run a few scenarios.". With a friendly smile, the ZAFT ace replied "Not at all comrade, I was getting tired of the weak simulator anyway heheh.". A beep sounded, and the voice of the not-too-happy simulator operator retorted "Well excuse me for being incapable of creating challenging opponents for SUPERHUMAN PILOTS!". Leonid chuckled at this and awaited a new simulation for himself and Ichi. The sim environment activated, placing them in an asteroid field. Leonid activated the Superior's beam shield and drew it's Baldr rifle, taking aim at the Helios. Waiting as it drew it's own GN sabers (in blade-staff configuration) and beam rifle, he inquired "You can pilot the Helios without your sister?". Once assuming a defensive stance, Ichi replied "Yes. It requires more from me, but it is possible. Shall we begin?". The Superior attached it's bayonette to the Baldr, and resumed aim. "En guarde" said it's pilot, and they began.

The chief admiral of the UESF sat in the captain's chair, bored as a midget in a theme-park. 'I know I should be alert and ready for surprise attacks, but I've always hated long drives, since I was a kid.'. Garm then reached into his pocket and withdrew a photo. The photo was of a beautiful brunette woman and a teenage boy who looked to have a perfect blend of her's and the Admiral's features. Smiling slightly as he gazed at the pair, he thought to himself 'When this war is over, I'm resigning and spending the rest of my years with you guys, where I belong.'. At that moment, the communications officer piped up "Admiral, we've recieved a message from the Fafnir, of the main fleet: the Little Grey has returned from it's pursuit mission. They apparently were unable to subdue the cloaked ship, and had to come back for resupply.". With a sigh, Garm returned the photo to his pocket and flipped on the ship's intercom "Attention pilots fo the Gundams: the Little Grey has returned to the fleet, which we are nearing. Prepare for rendezvous." and flipped it back off. A few leagues ahead, the Wyvern-classes of the main UESF fleet could be seen awaiting the arrival of their flagship of the same name. On a second thought, the Admiral addressed the communications officer "Notify Miss Ronah that we must have a meeting between us and the Gundam pilots about our next move.". With a "Yes sir", the officer relayed the message. Hangar, Thresher Class Ship "Seeker"

For the second time, Seeker One gazed up at the magnificent tool of destruction she had retrieved for the cause. In the half-day period it took to reach their current point in the journey back, the mechanics had repainted the grey and white Earth machine to better cater to it's new pilot's preferences. It now gleamed scarlet and bright orange (scarlet torso, head, and limbs, orange joints, shoulder flares, claws, and feet). The bright eyes of it's retriever shone with awe at it, never tiring of the sight of it. "It" remained currently without a moniker, for during the process of fetching it she hadn't bothered to inquire it's name, nor did she think the Earth dogs had designated it yet anyway. For now, she only referred to it as the Gundam, like Arashi called his. 'Arashi...'. The thought of him broke her focus on the unit before her, and clouded her mind with confusion. ' "Mercille this isn't you, you're not a killer!", "What are you talking about? it's me, Arashi!", "Mercille stop! what about me? what about that night on the beach? Mercille I-" '. She shook her head quickly, trying to rid the words from her head. "No, he's the enemy..." she strained, clutching at her head "I can't...". His face appeared before her eyes, smiling softly. ' "Mercille..." '. She shook her head again, violently "No, no, no.". When his face didn't go away, she swiped at it, as if to claw at him in reality. As the apparation faded, she looked on, steeling herself. 'I'm a soldier, and he is the enemy' she commanded her mind 'That's all there is.'.

Conference Room, The Wyvern

Once the participents of the meeting were seated (the G-Alliance pilots, Admiral Garm, Shawn Louis, Bereh Ronah, Yasuo, "The Blue Flash", Minoru Suzuki, and a representative of the MS Corps, upon request by the pilots), the Admiral began with "Hello everyone, it is good to see you all again, healthy and in one piece. I've ordered this meeting to discuss a few imporant issues, primarily concerning the next course of action to take against our foe.". At this the congregation nodded, save for Yasuo who preoccupied himself with a video game. With a stern glare from his brother, he turned it down. "I understand that a few of you have your own issues you would like discussed at this meeting, so we will now decide what our first order of business shall be.". Immidiately, the hands of the android twins raised, and the Admiral nodded to them. In unison, they asked simply "We find it imperative that an explanation for the Gundam that the Host hijacked be offered.". An awkward silence followed this question, as the eyes of each of the other pilots looked to the Admiral for the answer. He in turn, looked to the MS Coprs rep, and nodded. The thin, middle-aged man stood, facing the other participants, and began explaining. "You see, shortly after you all appeared and decimated almost an entire army of Host forces, we MS engineers took the liberty of examining your machines, and taking notes.". Arashi interrupted the rep, asking rhetorically "So you reverse engineered the tech from our Gundams to make your own, without asking?". The rep paused before answering "Technically, we didn't reverse engineer anything. We simply studied them while repairing them, and payed careful attention to their combat data. You must understand, we did not want to betray your trust, we simply thought you would get the wrong idea, as you are now proving.". It was Ichi's turn to interrupt, as he broke in coldly "What you 'simply' did was create a highly powerful machine without fail-safes, that is now in the hands of the enemy. Asking first would have been the wiser choice, being that we are the experts in the field of our own units.". Admiral Garm tried to defend the rep, arguing "Don't you realize that we're desperate here? even with your help, the Host is an overwhelming force to compete with, and your machines are much more advanced than either their's or our's. We thought that if we combined certain features of each of your suits with some of our own tech, we'd have an unstoppable savior on our side. It didn't have fail-safes because it isn't finished.". "Can you tell us what all it's capable of?" requested Bereh.

She was obliged by the rep setting up a hologram displaying the suit and it's specs. Pulling out a collapsable pointer, he described the unit's features "As you can see, it is fairly larger than the average mobile suit, but not quite a mobile armor. It is designed to have the perfect offense and defense: it has a set of five claws on each arm that serves as hands, which can generate beam blades for extra cutting power. Also in these claws are special cannons that fire beams that can curve, making it hard to dodge. These beams are of high output, extremely powerful. It has a special field that can deflect beam weapons of all power outputs, even it's own. Finally, it's propulsion system is based upon the Minovsky Drive of the F100, but not quite as powerful, for we could not duplicate it perfectly.". Arashi looked up at the last point "So, besides being able to destroy an entire military base, and take a hit from most anything, it's got the power to move at high speeds and travel long distances by itself?", to which the rep nodded. Ichi then queried "Do tell us how this Gundam was constructed in so short a time; our own are constructed in a minimum of a month or so.", to which the other pilots agreed. With a small smile, the rep replied "We've been playing the mobile suit game for a while, and have perfected most aspects of creating them, plus, the suit isn't exactly complete. Abruptly, Leonid broke in to the explanation "I believe I have found our next course of action.". Gaining the attention of the rest of the participants, he continued "Obviously, this 'unstoppable Gundam' poses the largest threat to us, for according to the Little Grey's report, they could not subdue the ship, but it seems to be retreating to a far-off location. In the period between the time they stole the Gundam and now, they can't have gone far, especially with a ship small enough needed to sneak past orbital defense. Therefore, I suggest we again send a pursuit force, but this time with a couple of our Gundams, preferably mine and Arashi's.". At this Shawn inquired "Why you and Arashi?", to which Leonid answered "For the Helios has the most firepower, and two pilots. It would be best to leave it behind in case of any more attacks, being the best equipped to defend.". The twins nodded at this "We agree, if anyone should stay behind to protect against more attacks, it should be us." said Ni. Everyone then took a moment to consider this. The Admiral then asked the group "So, all in favor of sending pursuit team after the stolen Gundam?". All hands went up. Nodding, he added "We will expand upon this later. Next order of business?". All remained silent. "None? then I declare this meeting adjourned.".

A bit after the meeting, the participants went their seperate ways about the ship, Leonid heading to the cafeteria for a small lunch; he hadn't eaten for almost 24 hours. Settling into a table and digging in to his soup and crackers, the long-haired ace let his thoughts wonder. 'Things are happening a bit too fast for comfort here, it was only a week and a half ago that we came here. In all that time I still haven't gotten to see a psychiatrist on this whole different dimension headache' he pondered humorously. 'What could have happened to bring us here? It can't have been worm-holes, and there is no technology in any of our respective universes capable of this, according to what I've gathered from everyone else'. 'Could it be-' but his train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of one of his fellow "guests" to the world they occupied. With a friendly smile, he greeted Ni and gestured for her to sit next to him. "I don't suppose you're here to eat?" he joked. Returning his smile, she shook her head "No, I just ended up here after a bit of wondering, and saw you.". At this Leonid smiled bigger and bit into a cracker before saying "Wanted a bit of company huh? Well you know I'm always around.", to which she nodded and let her smile fade slightly. With concern he asked her "Is there something the matter Ni?". She looked back up at him and replied "It's just... I'm confused.". Seeing the quizzical look on his face, she elaborated "If you haven't noticed, I've... changed, in the past week and a half. Since coming here, I've become less me, and more... I don't know, and my brother doesn't seem to like it.". Scooting closer, Leonid asked "You think with this continued exposure to human emotion, it's started to rub off on you?". She shook her head and argued "No, that cannot be possible: before coming here, I'd been exposed to humans since activation, and remained the same.". Leonid then rubbed his chin, thinking. 'Maybe...' he then looked back up "Could coming here have affected your programming or something?". At that moment, her twin entered the cafeteria declaring "That is also improbable, if not impossible. We have no capacity for change of program that would replace our logic with emotion. We have no capacity for emotion period, our 'brains' are data processing units, nothing more.". He stepped up to the table and glared down at his sister "If there is any change, then there is a malfunction with that unit, which must be addressed immidiately.". At that moment, Leonid swore he saw fear in Ni's eyes, and took her hand. Ichi then looked at him coldly, to which Leonid returned his gaze defiantly "Leave her alone, there is no malfunction with her. She's your sister, not a device that you can just decide is broken.". Ichi opened his mouth to retort, but was unable to when the intercom announced "The following pilots are to report to the bridge: Arashi Takeda, Leonid Orlov, MVT 1 and 2, Shawn Louis.". With a final glare, Ichi led the way to the bridge.

"Alright, so the current draft of the plan goes like so: The Little Grey, along with it's own complement of mobile weapons, a few of our own, and the F100 and Superior, will pursue the stolen Gundam, and either retrieve it, or take it down. They will be utilizing the aide of a specially fitted tail-booster to catch up to them. Meanwhile, the Helios will be staying behind to defend the main fleet from any more sneak attacks by the Prophet and that ship, with the help of the Lieutenant and his newly assigned MS squad. Upon success of the mission, the Little Grey will return to fleet, at the rendezvous point, and we will decide what to do from there. Sound about right?" the Admiral looked to the pilots he'd called to clarify. With a unanimous nod, he nodded in return and continued "Well then, I see no reason to delay, so I declare Operation: Takeback a go, and order those of you who are going to transfer to the Little Grey.". With a salute, the pilots dispersed to follow their orders.

Around an hour later, the ship-sized tail-booster specially fitted for the Crossbone Vanguard ship hissed into place. "All hands prepare for ignition, I heard this baby has a kick" Bereh Ronah called into the intercom, and nodded to her crew to begin ignition procedure. Once charged up, she looked on with a determined grin "Here we go!". With a flash and short burst of speed, the Little Grey took off after her quarry. One pilot aboard, ignoring the nauseating spurt of g-forces, thought to himself solemnly 'Mercille...'.