Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Mobile Suit Gundam Fan Fiction / Gundam 08th MS Team Fan Fiction ❯ Amalgam Gundam ❯ Enemies of the Homeland ( Chapter 17 )

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

Narrator: Universal Colony Year 118 was the year of triumphs and defeats. The Thallonian Empire conquered 95% of the area, enslaving the populaces of both planetary and space colonies. This Empire was ruled by the dictator Marianna Dellis, whose cruelty was only surpassed by her military knowledge and power. However, five space colonies took it upon themselves to join forces in resistance against the Empire by purchasing five Gundams off of one Clarke Axem and sending them to Thallos to win the war with guerilla tactics. Marianna responded by purchasing the mobile armor Apsalus IV and attempted to destroy all the colonies and Clarke Axem. The battle drew them over the Empire's Headquarters, and when the Apsalus fell, it destroyed not only the headquarters, but also the storage point for the whole economy of the Empire. The Empire has now fallen.





"We are now entering the Thallosian system, General."

"Excellent. Slow to one-half speed and begin scanning for hostile units or defensive platforms."

General Noa smiled and surveyed his Bridge crew. Aboard the Earth warship Perseus, he had molded a group of rebellious officers into a worthy fighting force. The crew knew this and implicitly trusted their commanding officer with their lives thanks to all he had done to keep them together. The General had lead them to victory during the Pluto riots and the terrorist strikes on Proxima Centauri that had almost claimed all of their lives. From one disaster to the next, General Noa had brought them all out of it alive and unscathed, so when he gave the order to take the Fifth Battlegroup to Thallos itself and see why there was no response from the government that had begun to form in the week following the destruction of the Thallosian Empire, the crew followed his orders without any doubt or concern.

"Anything yet?" Noa inquired.

The tactical officer shook her head. "Negative. There is some sort of particle field jamming the majority of the sensors; it's difficult to get accurate readings."

"See what you can do to clear it and slow to one-quarter speed. I'd hate to run into Thallos by accident." Noa commented as he sat back in his chair.

"Sir! I'm managing to detect something through the particle field... It's not a lot, but from what I can see, I believe they are using the same power field that the science vessels were able to catalogue." the science officer stated.

"Bradley, is that your way of telling me that you're detecting Mobile Suits?" Noa asked.

"Aye, sir." Bradley replied.

Noa stood and crossed his arms over his chest. "How many?"

"Unable to get accurate readings due to the particle field, but there have to be at least two dozen of them." Bradley answered.

"Keep the weapons running hot, but send a greeting of friendship. Maybe these particles have been giving these people trouble, too." Noa suggested, hoping for the best.

Despite his dedication to Earth and his frequent need to stomp out the enemies of the Earth Sphere, he had always been saddened when he killed other human beings. Call it weakness, but Noa still did his duty when he needed to, despite whatever his personal feelings were. He hoped to avoid a fight.

"They acknowledge our greeting, but are ordering us to turn around and leave. The exact message reads as follows: 'People of Earth, although we acknowledge and respect your offer of friendship and explanation of our shared history, it is the opinion of the Council of Seven that Thallos retains its sovereignty as a foreign power and will not submit to your requested annex. Please turn your ships around and leave the system or we will be forced to open fire.'" the Communications officer read.

Noa sighed. They always took the hard way.

"Engage main beam cannons and ready all missile banks. It seems we'll be doing this the hard way."






"We're repairing your machine as we speak, but chances are it'll be at least another day before you're ready to launch."

"Well, hurry it up. I can't just let the Thallosians have all the fun!" Aram called back to the Technician.

According to news reports on the scene, the battle was fairly even-handed so far, but the Earth forces were being driven back slowly. Ever since the transmission by the Earth General, many of the colonies had begun to mobilize for war once again to fight back a new oppressor. The victory over the Thallosians had hardened them and readied them to protect the freedom they had won through blood and hardship.

Aram Hashta was in it because of the fame that had accompanied him back to his home colony for his efforts in the original conflict. He also understood that if he wanted to keep the respect of the people on the poor Mining Colony, he'd need to go into another conflict. Of course, he loved blowing up anyone who got in his way, so it was a win-win situation!

Aram lit up a cigar and laughed gleefully, having acquired a taste for the larger sticks during his Welcome Home party.

"You know, you shouldn't be smoking those things around here. Something could catch fire," the Technician pointed out.

"Yeah, like my boredom. Isn't there anything I can do to speed things up to get Arsenal off the ground?" Aram inquired.

"Yes, you can get out of our way, sir." the Technician responded, not even turning away from the work he was doing.

Aram grumbled and walked away, hoping that the Mess Hall might provide more amusement for him than the irritating technician. As he walked through the halls, he thought of how everyone so quickly jumped back into their roles as soldiers for a cause, forgoing the attempts at political unity. The civilians were quick to take up arms, as well, since they had been shown that open rebellion to a superior force could and did work. As Aram walked in, his eyes were immediately glued to the video screen on the wall nearest to him. The news was dominated by images of the battle occurring at the edge of Thallosian space. Mechs fought against fighters with reasonable success, but it was the larger vessels that were really taking the pounding. Years before, it was made obvious that huge, lumbering vessels were not the key to victory in a battle in space combat, which was why Mechs and fighters had become so popular as weapons of war. They were simply more... effective.

The large warships of the Earth Sphere were obviously not designed for combat of this nature and Aram couldn't help but smile a little as he saw their vessels set ablaze by a few insignificant Mech suits.






Melanie Deikin stared at the video screen as if she weren't really looking at it. There had been a grand reception waiting for Den and her when they had landed on LX-059, but they only stayed for the speeches and made themselves scarce during the ball afterwards. Den had truly wanted to stay and party a little after all of the hardships he had gone through during the campaign to liberate his colony, but he knew that Melanie was in no condition or mood for such a thing. He quickly gathered her up and brought her to the temporary headquarters for the LX-059 governing council, letting her stay in one of the guest quarters.

Den entered the room and looked over at the video screen. The news' coverage of the battle was interesting, to say the least, since no one quite knew how exactly they got the images before them without flying into the middle of the battle. The sound was muted a little, since Melanie had only wanted to watch the battle and not listen to the commentary by the war veterans or the newscasters about what was going on.

"How are you holding up?" Den asked, setting down a tray of food next to herbed.

Melanie gave no response. It didn't even look like she was blinking as she stared at the screen.

"They were asking about you at the party, but I told them that you were very tired from the journey and didn't have the strength to see anyone at the moment." Den stated, opening up the curtains some more to let more sunlight pass into the room.

Melanie continued to stare at the screen. Den turned to her and frowned.

"Yeah, I don't think they bought it, either. How goes the battle?" Den inquired.

"Thirty-two percent of the Thallosian forces have been decimated. However, I calculate with a probability of 89% that the forces of Earth will have their right flank overtaken and be forced to make a retreat within thirty minutes." Melanie replied, her eyes never leaving the screen.

Den blinked and stared at her. "Oh."







Marianna Dellis was once the ruler of the Thallosian Empire. With a snap of her fingers, she could order the execution of any individual who she felt had offended her or her Empire. There were even times where her psychotic, conquest-driven mind had been prone to fits of mercy to the people she murdered or tormented.

However, it was not an often occurrence.

In recent events, Marianna's Empire crumbled around her after she purchased the Mobile Armor Apsalus IV, a prototype suit designed by Clarke Axem. Axem had hoped to use the technology and power of the Apsalus to conquer every planet within the Thallosian Empire himself, but sadly he found the controls for such an armor were too complex for an individual to handle, so he reconfigured it to house two people as pilots and boosted it up to be his most expensive item of his stock of mobile weapons. Marianna purchased the Apsalus and even used her dangerously insane mind to fix it so it was possible to pilot with one person, albeit with some difficulty. When Kenola Mozart, her most trusted friend and advisor, had revealed herself to be working for the Resistance, Marianna cut her off from control and attempted to combat the Gundam Jubilee Zero. However, the controls proved too much for her to handle alone and the Apsalus was literally ripped apart.

Kenola, seeking her fallen friend, had found a weak and unconscious Marianna in the wreckage of the Empress' palace. She took her back to her home colony of AS-002 to help her recover from the injuries sustained during the battle.

Marianna woke up in a cold sweat, her bed sheets stained from her perspiration. She sat up in the bed, her eyes darting everywhere as she tried to recognize the place she was in. Kenola, ever vigilante, had sat by Marianna's bed and quickly took her by the shoulders.

"Easy, your majesty, easy! You took a nasty concussion from the Apsalus' bulkhead. I told you those restraints seemed a bit weak and it looks like I was right. Your head had quite an argument with the upper cockpit..." Kenola stated, slowly lowering her onto her back again.

"Ken? Where am I? I... I thought you were a traitor..." Marianna spoke, a little dizzy from going up suddenly.

"I was, your majesty. However, you have been unconscious for a week. You don't know about the things that have happened." Kenola replied.

"I... I was in the Apsalus... I was facing against a mobile suit..." Marianna murmured, trying to make sense of it all.

"You lost, I'm afraid. The Gundam managed to destroy most of the Apsalus and let the rest crash down on the palace and annihilate it." Kenola explained.

Marianna's eyes got wide as she was tempted to sit up again. "But the financial records and the physical currency were all stored there! Bank numbers, identification pins... all of it was stored at the palace since it was the safest place to put it!"

Kenola frowned. "It was all destroyed. The ensuing economic turmoil sent the Empire spiraling downwards into collapse. Within a day, most of the colonies overthrew the Empire forces. It wasn't much of a difficulty, anyway, since the majority of Empire forces were withdrawing in an attempt to get back home and help their families."

Marianna stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling. "My Empire... it's dead, isn't it?"

Kenola nodded.

Marianna blinked and clenched her teeth. She closed her eyes, thinking of all the things she had done to try to keep the Empire growing and building. She had allowed the funding of scientific achievements, of ways to feed and create better colonies for the people of Thallos. Only the Colonies had dared to oppose her, but she quickly took care of them with the help of the mobile suits of Clarke Axem. However, it was all gone now. The servants, the luxury, and the power was now lost to her.

"Where am I?" she inquired, slowly opening her eyes.

"You're on AS-002, my home colony. I'm going to have to leave you now and get prepped for launching. The Doctor will explain to you where I'm going and why." Kenola explained, standing up and walking towards the door.

Marianna blinked for a moment as she took the information in. "AS-002? But that's a colony of pacifists..."

Kenola stopped in the doorway and closed her eyes. "Yeah, I know."

She didn't look back as she walked through the door.






"Emergency thrusters are down! Engineering crews say they'll need another minute to repair them!" the bleeding tactical officer reported.

"We DON'T HAVE a minute!" Noa screamed back as he stood at the navigation panel.

The battle was not going well for the Earth forces. General Noa had never before in his years as a commanding officer seen foes with such voracity and power as the mobile suit pilots. When the battle had first started, the experienced fighter pilots had had no difficulty in hitting any of the suits that came near them, treating them simply as a different form of fighter craft. However, as the battle progressed, the mobile suit pilots adapted, changing their tactics as they easily began to find vulnerable areas of the fighters and blast away at them with every weapon at their disposal. Every one of the larger battlecruisers had been annihilated except for the Perseus, which only survived thanks to the talents of her commanding officer. A good number of the Bridge crew, however, had been killed in the battle, which was why the General had taken over piloting duties.

"Fighter wing 3 is requesting emergency dock!" the ensign at the communications panel informed the General.

"Signal the retreat and tell fighter wings 4 and 6 to give us cover while we get everyone away! I swear, those Thallosian bastards have not seen the last of-"

However, General Bright Noa never got to finish his promise of revenge. Two Leo class mobile suits had bypassed the defense fighters and gotten to the main engines of the Perseus and had rammed their beam sabers into the cooling tanks. After they pulled them out, they ran like hell as the engines suddenly overheated and exploded, sending a chain reaction of flame to consume the vessel. A few fighters were caught in the explosion, but the rest suddenly found themselves without a viable way back home. After a few more seconds of fighting, the remaining fighters signaled their surrender.

The Thallosian Republic had won.




To Be Continued...