Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Mobile Suit Gundam Fan Fiction / Gundam 08th MS Team Fan Fiction ❯ Amalgam Gundam ❯ Kingdom of Sulfur ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Narrator: Universal Colony Year 118: A time where the Endless Waltz of history continues unabated. Let us go back one year to UCY-117: The Empire of Thallos declares war upon all neighboring star systems, and the dozens of space and planetary colonies within them. The Empire's military power is at equal strength with each Government they are at war with, so they are caught in a stalemate. However, halfway into UCY-117, the Empire acquired a new weapon whose name would be heard through the future: Mobile Suits. These new devices smashed through any and all resistance, and the Empire now controls more than 95% of the area. We now return to UCY-118. Five Space Colonies have had enough. They have landed five Gundams that they purchased from one Clarke Axem onto the planet Thallos, and now begin their plans to take down the Empire.






Melanie took one final look around, making sure Den or Aram hadn't planted any kind of cameras in or around the small waterfall that served as the five pilots' shower while they remained in a cave. The cave had been nearby where they had landed on Thallos after they successfully completed the first two stages of Operation Stardust. Melanie was pretty sure that Edmond didn't give a damn about seeing a girl shower, but she thought Den or Aram would be more suited to do such a perverted thing. Den was less likely, considering he seemed to have genuine respect for girls even when he was hitting on them. Aram, however, seemed like the ultimate drugged-up pervert Melanie had ever encountered.

Melanie was feeling a little worn out. In the last 28 hours, she had raided her colony's stores for food, witnessed her own colony's destruction, become the pilot of Jubilee, and survived an atmospheric drop from an asteroid. And she had only gotten about two hours of sleep in all of that. She stripped down, leaving all her clothes on a nearby rock and stepped into her 'shower.' She sighed as the hot water, caused by a natural hot spring, poured over her, relaxing her tense muscles. She stood like that for about three minutes, until the makeshift shower curtain suddenly opened.

She immediately opened her eyes to see Aram pointing a video camera at her. Melanie's face turned bright red and she screamed. Aram smiled until Den, with one hand over his eyes, grabbed Aram by the back and shoved him away from the nude Melanie. Aram fell on his butt on the hard ground, and Den turned to him, uncovering his eyes and ripping the camera from Aram's hands. He threw it against a nearby rock, shattering it.

Aram: NOOO! All my hard work and planning for nothing!

Den: Oh, go get high on your Gundam's fuel, you pervert.

Aram: Well, now aren't you playing mister nobility?

Den: GET OUT OF HERE!

Aram shrugged and winked at Melanie, who had already covered herself with a towel that Kenola had leant her. Den turned around, covering his eyes again as Aram walked off.

Melanie: It's okay; you can uncover your eyes.

Den slowly released his hand from over his eyes. He smiled at her.

Den: Sorry about Aram. He told me about his plans, wanted me to get in on it, but I disagreed.

Melanie: I'm sure you did. You're nicer than that pervert.

Den: Thanks. Does that mean I can get a date?

Melanie: I think we have other concerns than romance, Ryuu.

Den: Another heart breaker!

Den made a fake sigh.

Den: Will I ever find love?!

Melanie giggled a little.

Den: Speaking of our 'other concerns,' we're starting to receive orders from one of the colonies. Get dressed and move into the main chamber ASAP.






The small transmitter that was displaying the text message to the pilots looked like a small green orb, nothing really impressive about it all except the monitor on it. The monitor displayed text that was being placed in a few letters at a time. Melanie and Den walked into the main chamber of the cave, where the other three pilots are situated.

Edmond: "According to the coordinates you provided, you are close to an area of Thallos known as the Fire Zone. It is twenty feet of sulfur and other chemicals. Inside the Fire Zone is a heavily protected mobile suit factory. Your mission is to infiltrate the Fire Zone and destroy the factory. Now, there are several factors to consider in this mission. First of all, beam weaponry and other weapons that create extreme heat and can ignite flammable substances are prohibited. The Arsenal Gundam must remain behind because the intense heat and corrosives in the Fire Zone would destroy it. Also, for destruction of the factory, you must place explosive charges and then vacate the Fire Zone as quickly as possible. Also, when fighting mobile suits, disable but do not destroy them. The explosion would cause a cascade reaction and kill you all if you did not have the proper protection. End of message."

Aram: Damn, I've gotta stay behind. Oh well, I can catch up on sorting my porn collection.






The four Gundams moved slowly through the yellow liquid, looking around themselves with care. Light particles of sulfur steamed up from the liquid from their heat, covering the Gundams in a yellowy haze. Automatic wash systems protected the external cameras and sensors.

Melanie: I thought sulfur was airborne, but the message didn't warn us about using our jet packs while we're in the Fire Zone.

Den: Well, I wouldn't recommend using the jets when they're this close to the sulfur, but as for why it's not airborne here, Thallos produces a natural compound in its atmosphere that eliminates gaseous sulfur. If we were standing on a rock or something else and high enough, we could use our jets.

Melanie: Ah. So, Edmond, how'd you get involved with your resistance?

Edmond said nothing in reply. He merely kept his eyes on the external cameras.

Melanie: Edmond?

Edmond: Please do not attempt to make small talk with me. We are soldiers. We are not here to socialize.

Den: Speak for yourself, Ed. I joined my resistance to meet chicks.

Kenola: Really?

Den: No, but it's fun to say. Hey, are you guys picking this up on your sensors, too?

The other pilots checked their short-range scanners. They all detected some type of structure on the other side of some large rock formations. The four all grabbed hold of some of the larger ones, and climbed up them. Liquid sulfur drained off of them, as they got higher up. When they reached the top, they slowly raised their heads over it to get a direct view.

The structure itself had about four sections to it. The largest section and easiest to see was the main dome where the mobile suits were being constructed. The slightly smaller section was off to one side of it, where there appeared to be four mobile suits on guard duty. Off to another side of it was what appeared to be a storage shed. And the final part of it was a circular flat platform extending several meters above the sulfur. It appeared to be some sort of landing and take off pad.

Edmond: It seems they have defenses. We have two options available to us. The first is to pull out the emergency beam weaponry we did bring with us in an attempt to blast them from this distance, or engage in manual combat.

Den: The beam rifles are too risky to use at this range. There's no chance we could hit them.

Kenola: I'm with Den. We're going to have to fight them manually.

Melanie: I think this might be a good time to point out that I have zero combat training when it comes to Jubilee. In fact, I don't even know how to use a knife or shoot a gun.

Den: Pull the trigger?

Melanie: Oh ha ha.

Kenola: Melanie, you're going to need to get some training in some time, anyway.

Den: And this is going to be child's play compared to the kind of fighting you're going to need to do.

Melanie: All right! Fine, fine. Let's do this, already.

Edmond: Okay. Ready weapons!





Mobile dolls were considered to be the opposite of what war was supposed to be about. Instead of having soldiers fight on the battlefield in mobile suits, where many believed they should be, mobile dolls were completely automated and designed to defeat any enemy they came across with no mercy or honor.

And of course, human ingenuity always seemed to triumph over artificial intelligence.

That particular phrase seemed to come to light after Gallant had already unloaded a dozen bullets through the head of a Zaku mobile doll. There were four other mobile dolls on the platform, and every one of them pulled out some kind of weapon as they saw their companion fall to the ground, riddled with enemy fire. Two of them were Zakus, whereas the others were Leos.

Voice: SURPISE!

The mobile dolls could not comprehend the communication from Den Ryuu as Golem jumped off the main wall of the platform the Dolls were on and landed on one of the Leos. The sheer weight of Golem after its armor had fully formed managed to crush the Leo's head and waist into the platform, leaving it a crumpled mass of titanium alloys. Immediately, the other three Dolls turned and began emptying rounds of their own weapons at Golem, who blocked with his shield. Bullets ricocheted off of it or became imbedded in it.

Den: Guys, little help over here!

The sensors on one of the Dolls detected something approaching it from above, and it stopped firing and looked up to see Gallant in it's Wave Rider mode swooping down and transforming back into Gallant. Realizing what happened to the Leo, this Doll stepped aside as Gallant landed onto the platform, shaking it from the impact. The Zaku Doll that had stepped out of the way pulled out a beam saber and sliced down at Gallant. However, Gallant had already activated his beam saber, so the Zaku had merely struck against Gallant's energy blade. As the Zaku tried to force it's own power against Gallant, Gallant rose up its other arm, which had a machine gun in its hand. It riddled the Zaku's chest armor with bullets, disabling the main functions and it collapsed to the platform floor easily.

Seeing the superior firepower at play, the remaining Zaku and Leo activated their foot jets and flew up to the roof that covered the entranceway into the main dome. However, what was waiting for them was Kenola's Gundam, Warpath.

Unlike the light colors of the other Gundams on the team, Warpath was a very dark gray, and covered in weapons. A cannon attached to it's back rose up onto its shoulder and aimed at the Leo. The cannon fired out two large shells at the Leo, the shells splitting apart and taking out the Leo's head and torso. The Leo collapsed as the Zaku continued to retreat, running at the dome. However, waiting for it was Jubilee.






Melanie took in deep breaths as she prepared the beam saber in her hands. The Zaku in front of her had seen that it had no more choice but to battle. It pulled out it's own beam saber, and Jubilee and the Zaku stood, looking for a point where they could attack.

Melanie: Here goes nothing!

Melanie clenched her teeth as Jubilee began to run at the Zaku.





The Zaku saw the way that Jubilee was approaching would undoubtedly make it raise its beam saber up again before it struck down. And just as it was beginning to rise up, the Zaku activated its foot jets and flew into the air, evading the saber. Melanie gasped as she turned Jubilee's head up to see the Zaku falling back down, and it's foot smashed into Jubilee's head. Jubilee fell back with the Zaku on top of it. The Zaku raised its beam saber up and prepared to strike down with it and destroy Jubilee, but Melanie instinctively had Jubilee's arms grab the Zaku's leg and rip it off of the Zaku. Losing its balance, the Zaku collapsed onto the ground next to Jubilee.

At this point, Melanie was through playing around. Her rage was finally at a breaking point. All she could see when she looked at the Zaku was the camera image of her colony's destruction. Melanie roared in fury at the Zaku.

Jubilee's hands grabbed onto the Zaku's head, ripping at the camera eye. The glass around it shattered and Jubilee ripped the camera out and threw it away. It then proceeds to dig its hands into the chest and opening it up by tearing and bending the metal away. When the skin had been opened, it would begin pulling out the innards of the mobile doll, primarily wires and cables. After the Zaku was quite obviously disabled, Jubilee continued to dissect the Zaku.

Melanie did not stop, did not think. She only wanted revenge against those who had wronged her and stripped her of her home and family.

Kenola: MELANIE!

It was the voice of Kenola that got Melanie to stop. Melanie was breathing quickly, her pulse fast and her forehead covered in sweat. She looked at the image of Kenola that had appeared on screen, merely staring at her.

Kenola: I think it's dead.

Melanie nodded, and released the pedals that had been under her feet when she had gotten on top of the Zaku.

Melanie: I- I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me.

Edmond: It was just bloodlust. It happens to even the strongest of us in combat. Now, let us set the charges and leave this Kingdom of Sulfur.






To Be Continued...