Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Wings of Freedom ❯ PHASE-01: Mystery in Space ( Chapter 1 )

PHASE-01

Mystery in Space

 

 

 

Heero Yuy had been awake for six hours now but his concentration had never wavered once. He was trained to do such things. It was three hours past the time for the next watch rotation but Heero had decided to let his comrades get some more sleep. He could stay up all “night” if he had to. In the trackless depths of deep space, with the sun constantly burning in the ink black void, night was something that could only be determined by onboard clocks and one's own internal timer. In point of fact Heero could go for at least three days without sleep before beginning to suffer from fatigue. He wasn't called the Perfect Soldier for nothing you know.

The ship he and the other five Gundam pilots were currently on belonged to the new Preventers organization formed by the ESUN government to be a deterrent to threats to the new peace that had been so hard-won. From the outside it looked like it was ready to come apart at the slightest touch. That was a clever deception however as internally it was, most probably, one of the most state-of-the-art spaceships in the Earthsphere. It was also the most heavily armed, considering that it had the six famous (infamous according to some people) Gundams. Three days ago, Preventer had received intelligence that something was occurring in the Scrapyard, a colonial term from a patch of space between the L5 and L3 Lagrange points where a bunch of space debris had gathered. Not being located at one of the five Lagrange points, it was a region of inherent gravitic instability and difficult to navigate, which make it perfect for any Alliance, OZ, White Fang or any other manner of dissenters to set up home and plot against the ESUN. Duo had often expressed frustration at these kinds of people but Heero understood. Some people, especially former soldiers just couldn't get used to peace and hatred and greed weren't going to vanish overnight just because of Relena and the ESUN government's efforts. It had only been one year since the end of the war, minus a few days.

Heero's musings were cut short when he heard the cockpit door hiss open.

“You were supposed to wake me for my shift Heero,” said a reproachful female voice. Heero merely grunted one of his usual grunts and began to get out of the pilot's chair to make room for his fellow pilot Aidan. Aidan was the only girl in their little band but was certainly something of a tomboy, although she didn't look like it. With gleaming red hair that fell down to her shoulder blades, mischievous green eyes and a body that was beginning to blossom with the fruit of womanhood, she was somewhat of a dichotomy in her personality. While she tended to be a bit of a tomboy, as mentioned before, she also had a very feminine side to her that usually only came out when she was in the company of close friends, like her fellow pilots. Right now she was regarding Heero with friendly annoyance, he mouth curved into that amused smirk he had seen so often.

“The extra sleep was appreciated though. I think I'm finally starting to see why Relena Darlian likes you so much.” Heero merely closed his eyes as a sort of silent shrug and made to leave the cockpit.

“Hey Heero?”

“What is it?”

“Why is that all six of us are going on this mission. From what I read in the report, this is a job for Noin and Sally, not us.

“You should have studied the report more closely. A small group of Taurus suits, probably Mobile Dolls, were spotted heading into the Scrapyard. There's no telling how many there actually are in there and Une didn't want to risk other Preventer units without MS of their own which are illegal now. So she sent us.”

“Well you don't have to say it like I'm an idiot,” Aidan said with a pout.

“It was also an excuse to keep an eye on Wufei,” Heero said before closing the door. Aidan blinked after him then chuckled.

“Heero Yuy trying to be funny? It really is a different era after all.”

 

 

-Wings of Freedom-

 

 

“This is a waste of my time!” was Wufei Chang's first sentence of the day when they gathered for breakfast. The others, well Quatre, Duo and Aidan, rolled their eyes at this, as it was exactly what the young Chinese man had been saying since they had left L3 two days ago.

“If it's any consolation Fei,” said Duo with a grin, “we'll be there in a couple of hours, we'll trash a few MS and then we'll be done, then you can go back to your quest for justice or whatever it you do in your spare time.” A fight might've broken out at that point if Heero hadn't fixed Dup with one of his glares and told him to shut up.

About an hour and a half later, their transport was beginning to approach the Scrapyard. Gathered in the cockpit, the pilots could see the hulks of derelict spaceships, burned out satellites, destroyed MS and various other chunks of debris.

“Quatre, sensors picking up anything in the wreckage?” asked Heero who was seated in one of the pilot seats.

“Scanning now. No heat signatures detected, scanning energy wavelengths… what the?”

“What is it?” asked Duo, leaning over Quatre's shoulder to see the screen.

“It's… I'm not sure what it is. There's some sort of strange, massive energy signature right in the middle of the debris field. I can't identify what it is but it's throwing the electromagnetic off the scale.”

“Well that can't be good,” deadpanned Aidan just as alarms began to blare in the cockpit.

“Movement detected!” said Trowa who manning another sensor console, “heat signatures detected. Checking… Mobile Dolls, a lot of them, coming straight for us. Correction there is one MS in the group.”

“Types?” asked Wufei.

“See for yourselves,” said Trowa, nodding at the front view ports. There was indeed a rather large cloud of MD headed for them, Taurus suits, some in the black, red, and violet of the former OZ Space Force, some in the maroon, white, and violet of White Fang, were leading the charge followed by Virgo and Virgo II MD models. All were armed and pointing their weapons directly at the transport shuttle.

“Weapons powering up! We're being targeted,” said Trowa, calm as he always was even when facing imminent death.

 

Aboard the single manned Taurus MS in the group of MD, a man named Troy Gallant (pronounced Gah-lah-nt), dressed in a civilian style Astro suit, regarded the shuttle he was currently viewing through a magnification window on his main screen. He reached over and pressed a button on his side panel, opening a comm. Line to his commander.

“Reporting in sir. The intruder is a civilian cargo shuttle, the 350-ton type. They're at the perimeter now. I wouldn't have bothered to confront them but they were performing specific active scans of the Scrapyard with sensors that are a mite too powerful for a standard shuttle. I'm thinking it's those Preventer people I've heard about. They've probably detected the Array sir.” The voice that responded back was deep, sonorous, laced with a hint of something manic.

“Is that so Troy? Then go ahead and get rid of it. Add its remains to the rest of our lovely collection here.”

“Pardon me for saying so sir but if it is Preventer, won't they come looking for them?

“And when they do it won't even matter. See to it!” said the mysterious voice with a snap to it, like a hammer forcefully striking down.

“Yes sir!” responded Troy. He shut off the comm. and keyed up the commands for his battalion of MD, giving the attack order. The unmanned, AI-controlled suits immediately complied, locking their targeting systems onto the shuttle and opening fire.

 

Inside the shuttle, just as Troy Gallant gave the order to the MD, Heero said, “Hangar now!” The six Gundam pilots dove through the hatch like a pack of racing dogs but there was nothing frenzied in their actions. There was no frantic shoving and flailing as they glided down the corridors to the hangar in ZERO-gee. They had been trained to well to panic in the face of annihilation.

 

Outside the MD opened fire, needles of thin yellow light stabbing out at the shuttle. Thicker beams flared from the barrels of the Virgo's beams cannons. A few Taurus' and Virgo II's were also armed with beam cannons as well. Troy fired both his MS's standard beam rifle and the Taurus' optional beam cannon as well. All the shots pierced the shuttle, striking in all the vital spots. That was the great thing about the MD. They could fire much more precisely than even most of the best humans could. The MD had only fired for two seconds before they ceased fire. For a moment everything hung in space. Then the transport shuttle detonated in an expanding sphere of flame and smoke that quickly snuffed itself out as it burned up fuel and the oxygen of the life support system. Where the shuttle had once been was now and expanding dust, smoke and particle cloud that would forever more expand in the cold void.

Troy smirked in satisfaction at what he'd done, not caring one wit for the people he'd just killed. Without warning a massive blast of energy erupted from the gas cloud, streaming out and vaporizing any MD caught in the path of the beam. The blast continued on and struck a derelict space cruiser, instantly shredding it.

“What in the-“ began Troy but before he could finish, a flash of movement drew his attention to the MS that had flown out from the debris cloud. It arced up in a sharp turn. With a smooth, almost careless movement, it drew a shoulder-mounted beam saber and sliced through two MD. Troy zoomed in his cameras and let loose with a rich curse when he saw the MS up close.

“Gundam!”

The Wing Gundam ZERO let loose with its twin Buster Rifle once more, a massive column of crackling energy that completely obliterated any MD in its path. Other MD oriented to target this new threat but never got the chance to fire. A flash of arcing green energy sliced six MD in half. Normally their sensors would have alerted them to the sneak attack but not when the attacker was the stealthy Gundam Deathscythe Hell. Other MD began exploding as a literal flood of automatic fire cut them to ribbons. Hanging in space in front of the debris of the shuttle, the Gundam Heavyarms unleashed its arsenal of beam gattling guns, machine cannons, Vulcan guns and missiles against its enemies. The other two close combat members of the Gundam squad also went to work. As the MD tried to attack the ZERO, Deathscythe and Heavyarms, Gundam Sandrock whirled through their formations, heat shotels slicing any and all of the opposition into ribbons. Gundam Altron flew between two MD, launching its twin Dragon Fangs, grappling the two helpless suits. With a heave, the Gundam sent them tumbling forward to crash into another trio of Virgos. Igniting its dual beam trident, Altron corkscrewed over them, instantly slashing the Virgos into so much space junk.

Last but not least, Gundam Supernova dove into the thick of the battle. Raising its left arm and the Buster Cannon mounted on it, Supernova unleashed a mighty blast that would have shaken the earth below if they'd been on the ground. Though not as pow4erful as the ZERO's twin Buster Rifle, the Buster Cannon was more powerful than the original Wing Gundam's had been and now mad an excellent showing of itself by annihilating roughly a dozen MD in one blast. The Supernova then opened up with its Beam Long Rifle, Vulcans, machine cannons, taking out another nine MD.

Aboard his personal Taurus, Troy cursed again and reversed course back into the field.

“Sir we've got a big problem here, it's not the damn Preventers that've come its those Gundam pilots!”

“Gundam pilots eh?” responded the deep voice again with a maddening hint of annoyance in its voice, “This was not unexpected though they are here a bit earlier than I had anticipated.”

“But sir! They're tearing up our MD defense line! They'll discover the-“

“Be quiet fool! I said not to worry about those children!” the voice barked back in clear annoyance and then abruptly switched to a tone of such glacial coldness that Troy swore his hears were about to freeze and break off.

“Lead them to me. I will deal with them myself.”

As it turns out, Troy didn't have to do any leading, Heero in the Wing ZERO had already spotted that Troy's was the only unit trying to leave the battlefield. With a pull of a lever, he transformed ZERO into its Neo Bird Mode and took off after the lone Taurus at top speed, diving headlong into the twisting, swirling debris.

“I'm in pursuit of a command MS, I'll leave the rest of the MD to you guys,” Heero radioed back to the others.

“Don't go too far Heero! We still don't know what's really going on here,” Quatre replied.

“Roger that,” Heero said simply.

 

After about five minutes Heero decided that if he'd still been using his old Wing Gundam, he might've started to get annoyed. Thanks to the ZERO system he'd learned a lot more about patience, particularly when it applied to tactics. Someone who was actually skilled in the space MS model's use piloted the Taurus he was chasing. He'd managed to stay away from Heero the entire time and had avoided every shot that Heero had fired at him. But the chase was nearly over. The Taurus had had to suddenly stop and duck as a piece of slag debris had nearly fatally collided with the suit. The Taurus pilot then flipped over and neatly glided over and around a giant chunk of debris. Heero knew, again thanks to the ZERO system than when he flew over the detritus, he would have roughly a 75% chance of nailing his target. What the ZERO system did not, could not, have predicted was the thing that Heero saw as he cleared the debris.

The center of the Scrapyard had been hollowed out, in that some one had managed to move all debris away from the center to form a clear bowl-shaped space that looked for all the earthsphere like the eye of the storm. And in the very center of the eye there hung a strange structure. It consisted of three concentric rings. The outermost of which stayed stationary while the two inner rings slowly rotated within. It actually looked a lot like one of those perpetual motion devices you could and display on your desk or something. Two blocky-looking structures were fixed to either side of the outer ring and glowed with tiny lights that might be windows. Heero didn't have time to wonder further about the strange structure as his threat board was shrieking at him with incoming enemy contacts. He swung to the left to face them and was again surprised. These new mobile suits that were heading towards them, or rather MD as he later learned, were of a type he had never seen before. Their whole aspect was just… wrong. They looked like no MS that the Alliance, OZ, Romefeller or White Fang had ever produced or used. They were colored grey and light green, had aerodynamic thruster pods on their backs and were armed with machine guns, weapons that were rarely, if ever used in space. They came at him, a dozen of them, all firing their guns in tight patterns. All that firepower, no matter hoe destructive was as nothing to a MS made out of the legendary Gundanium alloy. Heero fired his Buster rifles, separated when in Bird mode and was moderately gratified to see four of the new models vanish in a blaze of light. As he swooped past, he noticed these new suits had round mono-eye cameras that were able to track on a 180 degree axis, a completely different design from practically every other mobile suit and mobile doll with their stationary, square-shaped mono-eyes.

Heero flipped over pulling his transformation handle as he did so, switching the ZERO into MS mode, reuniting his rifles he let loose with another shot that the new suits dodged this time. Deciding to0 take it to close combat, he discarded his rifle and activated one of his beam sabers and his Vulcan cannons just as they closed with him again. His four-barrel, twin Vulcans vomited bullets as he slashed with the saber. The green beam blade slashed through one suit, detonating it in a fiery sphere of destruction while two other suits sailed on past now riddled with holes and inoperative.

Heero and the ZERO system estimated that these new models had roughly the same performance of the Taurus although the Taurus was slightly faster and more maneuverable. Of course that really meant nothing in comparison with the father of all Gundams. Heero's beam saber quickly reduced the remaining new models to scrap. Fortunately it was his excellent threat detection system that warned him of the incoming beam cannon blast and it was only his skill and mastery of the ZERO system that kept him from falling into the subsequent ambush.

Throughout the fight, Troy had watched from a safe position. He then had left his beam cannon in space, charged and ready to fire. It was a plan that probably wouldn't have worked but by chance the ZERO ended up in the perfect firing spot. Troy had triggered the cannon and had made what amounted to a lucky guess as to where the ZERO would dodge. He had been right and now he swooped down on the Gundam with all the fury he could muster, holding down the trigger on his beam rifle. The weapon might not have the power to punch through Gundanium, but if he had to, Troy would beat the Gundam into submission with his Taurus' fists.

“How'd ya like that Gundam?” he snarled. He got his answer quick enough. The ZERO twisted around and opened fire with its Vulcan cannons. Dozens of rounds had already penetrated his Taurus at close range by the time he passed by Wing ZERO, who had neatly side slipped out of the way.

Heero watched the manned Taurus as it began to float away. It didn't explode but plenty of small explosion popping all over its body like tiny volcanoes were plenty to indicate that it would never move again and Heero knew for a fact that the pilot was now quite dead. That was when his comm. crackled and the sound of a pair of hands clapping and a low voice chuckling in amusement filtered through the speakers. Heero immediately began scanning for the source of the transmission and felt it might also help to respond. Sometimes enemies got sloppy when they talked to their foes.

“Who is that?”

“And so I finally get to hear the voice of the famous Heero Yuy. Much deeper than I expected from a sixteen year old man-child. By the way, if you're looking for me, I'm over here by the ring.”

Heero shifted his display over and zoomed in. There, hovering before the ring construct was a black mobile suit. It was hard to make out its features, as it was entirely black from head to foot. All that Heero could discern was that it carried a shield and that the suit's `eyes' burned blood red.

“Who are you?”

“It wouldn't matter even if I told you because in this world I don't exist.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you see this construct behind me Heero Yuy? Do you know its purpose? I'm sure you sensed its unique energy from outside the debris field. You may have begun to guess its purpose but I would wager that even if you have, you are not willing to embrace the truth.”

During all this, Heero had been edging slowly to the spot were his rifle had been discarded, ready to make a quick grab for it. Whoever this man was, Heero could tell he was dangerous just by the way he talked.

“These rings are a gateway Heero Yuy.” That got Heero's attention.

“What do you mean a gateway?”

“Exactly as I said. It is a gateway to the multitude of worlds beyond this one. I suppose the correct if crude term for it would be parallel dimensions.”

“What?”

“Yes! With this device, the original one I built, this is just a copy, I rent asunder the veil that separates us from these other facets of reality. I traveled to many worlds much like yours and mine. I saw many things but do you know what one thing I always saw as I moved from world to world?”

“What?” asked Heero, now only ten meters from where his rifle floated.

“WAR!” roared back the man, nearly bursting Heero's eardrums with the ferocity of his shout. The black MS drew a beam saber the same blood red color as its eyes and charged at Heero. Heero made a dive and snatched up the Buster Rifle, locking it into his hand turning, aiming and firing it just as the black suit got to within 100 meters of him. The black suit dodged and kept right on coming, raising its saber for a high overhand blow. Heero barely had time to drop the rifle and draw his own green beam saber. The two MS collided with a blaze of lightning, as the two energy blades locked together, neither weapon able to overcome the other. Heero felt a lurch in his stomach, as he was able to get a close-up view of his enemy for the first time and recognized the particular styling of his enemy's suit. He was fighting against another Gundam. Not a good thing.

 

 

-Wings of Freedom-

 

 

The others had finished mopping up the MD and had begun making their way through the Scrapyard. They had been trying to get in touch with Heero since they'd entered but had been unsuccessful.

“He must still be fighting if he's ignoring his comm.,” reasoned Quatre. It didn't take them long to find the center thanks to the strange energy signature. When they finally emerged into the Eye, it was to find Heero and the Wing ZERO locked in combat. He and his opponent flew back and forth in the space around the ring structure, trading blows every few seconds. Heero had long ago abandoned trying to use his Vulcans, as they were worse than useless against a foe armored with Gundanium. Or so he had though at first. His scanners had picked up no traces of the alloy in his enemy's construction yet he absorbed damage just like a Gundam would.

“What's that black MS that Heero's fighting?” asked Trowa.

“Holy mother of… that's a Gundam!” exclaimed Duo as he zoomed in on the fight.

“If that's true we'd better go and help him,” said Quatre already brining his heat shotels into a ready position when the Altron laid a hand on Sandrock's shoulder.

“No, Heero wouldn't forgive us if we interfered. He can handle it,” said Wufei.

“If that's the case then let's at least investigate… whatever the hell this ring… thing is,” said Aidan, annoyed that she couldn't be more precise about the strange object.

 

Heero and the mysterious Black Gundam continued to duel ferociously, sparks of jagged lightning arcing around them every time their sabers came into contact. From Heero's own estimation with data provided by ZERO, he'd determined that his opponent was an excellent pilot, with almost inhuman reaction time, but an inexperienced one. He didn't realize that Heero was leading him back towards the Buster Rifle.

The black Gundam slashed at Wing ZERO again, followed by a parry as the pilot once again decided to strike up a conversation. Useless in Heero's opinion as it would be over soon.

“Your existence is no longer required! Your world will burn in the fires of my ultimate truth!” the man snarled, his voice getting higher with the tone of fanaticism or insanity or, quite likely, both.

“The earthsphere is at peace now. We don't need people like you, whoever you are, to disrupt it. I don't know where your Gundam came from but it's not needed in this era!”

Twisting out of another slash, Heero flipped ZERO over and grabbed his rifle. Taking just one moment to lock on target, he fired, the rifle emitting a blast that should have blown the black Gundam apart instantly. Heero had underestimated the reaction time of his opponent, the Gundam dodging at the last second. The blast instead struck the pulsing flare of energy inside the construct just as the two inner rings rotated away for a moment. There was a single second where nothing happened. The black Gundam continued to fly up and away from the Heero and the ring. The other pilots were moving steadily but cautiously towards the construct. Then there was tremendous flash of light that momentarily eclipsed even the sun. The seething energy storm contained within the ring began to crackle and boil, huge jagged lines of lightning arcing out. And then the suction began. It was the other five pilots who began to feel it first as their Gundams began to move towards the ring of their own volition. They tried to use their thrusters and it seemed to work for a moment. But then whatever warping of gravity that was at work here began to pull them inexorably back to the seething mass of energy.

The effect spread outwards at an alarming rate. All the debris that had so far stayed out of the space where the ring was began moving almost as one back into it. Alarms blared in his cockpit as Heero tried to dodge a piece of debris only to be smacked in the ZERO's chest by another. Maniacal laughter crackled out of his speakers reminding Heero that he'd forgotten to turn off the channel he'd opened.

“Farewell Heero Yuy and comrades. Don't fret; I'll take care of the so-called era of peace you keep talking about. Everyone will know true peace. The true peace of death that is.” The man then began laughing, a high, cruel laugh. It was odd how this man's voice kept oscillating from a deep, grandfatherly sort of voice to high-pitched mania.

Heero and the others didn't have time to worry about that though, they were too busy trying to get out of the newly-created gravity well of the ring construct. Maybe they might have held out… if not for the debris. It rained down on them like a flood. Duo was the first to go as Deathscythe was practically buried in a fusillade of junk and swept into the maelstrom.

“Duo!” cried Quatre just as Sandrock was struck by multiple fragments, tossing him backwards and straight into the energy storm. And so they went one by one until only Heero remained by running his thrusters at maximum and crawling over, around, under and between every piece of junk and debris that came at him. But it couldn't last indefinitely. The black hole-like effect of the ring's energy expanded out to the edge of the Scrapyard, pulling everything thing inside at all angles until there was a wall of debris that swept up the struggling Wing ZERO and dragged it down into the abyss. As he entered the event horizon of the maelstrom everything went white, completely white so that Heero could not see a thing. And then came the pain, wrenching, squeezing, tearing, biting, ripping, stinging, excruciating PAIN! Heero opened his mouth to scream but found he had not breath in his lungs to use. He could feel nothing but the pain. His last coherent though was of one he cared deeply for.

Relena…

Then Heero Yuy was gone.