Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eyes Cold As Death ❯ Twenty-one ( Chapter 21 )

Eyes Cold As Death

Chapter Twenty-one -- Entering the Fray

When she had felt the first earthquakes signaling the beginning of the battle, Dorothy's first thought was to pack up and leave. She had managed to get a belated evacuation in progress and it was probably time for her to follow her own advice. However, just as she was starting to close her laptop, she noticed two important things. One was that she had discovered an encrypted signal from a low-orbit communications satellite that was not a Preventer code. The second was that she was afraid.

Swallowing her fear, she sat back down and stared at her computer. Information scrolled down the screen as she tried to process it without success. It wasn't a code that she recognized, and it was highly unusual. She did a search on the satellite--it was supposed to be a weather relay, transmitting pictures and readings between various weather installations. Dorothy, on a vague hunch that was curled up in her stomach, checked the destination of the signal. Unspecified. The signal was being broadcast on an expansive rapid-burst spread. It was compressed to one frequency with a wide physical range of destination. Wrinkling her forehead in confusion and curiosity, Dorothy began to trace the signal to its source.

As her trace program launched, she leaned over to the desktop she had recently turned off, and booted the computer back up. She watched both computers as they processed, waiting for one of them to complete its task. The desktop won the impromptu race, and Dorothy quickly set it up to receive any information--namely video feeds--from the transpiring battle. She could now see that Heero and Wufei were both fighting the enemy suits, and she could only assume that the two other suits fighting with Heero and Wufei were Zechs and Noin. The Gundams had given up ground. The battle slowly drawing ever nearer to the south edge of the city.

She turned back to her laptop, typing in response to certain prompts, fighting to get through a tight firewall. She fell back to all of her training, including the training and tips the Heero had given her over the years. Her fingers flew over the keyboard, trying first one angle and then another. She focused solely on her work, tuning out the battle and the shocks that rolled more frequently through the ground. The lights flickered, her fingers raced over the keys. She gritted her teeth, trying yet another attack on the firewall. She continued to probe and prod at the firewall, sensing that it was cracking, loosening under the strain of her onslaught. The first visible crack appeared, and with a shout of triumph, Dorothy attacked it with renewed vigor, keys clacking loudly as she virtually punched the keyboard with her fingers.

She broke through, confirming the source of the encrypted signal. Her eyes widened as she realized where she was. The Eagle Squadron's server. She was completely inside the enemy's mind. Her eyes flicked to the other computer. Duo and Quatre had joined the fray while she had been fighting her own war. She absently wondered where Trowa was as she turned back to the enemy's server. Her conscious thoughts crashed back in her head. She hadn't noticed that she had been working on instinct alone until her thoughts had finally caught up with her.

Her first action, prompted by her thoughts, was to deactivate any generators they had. She wanted to complete the assignment Relena had given her. So, she would sabotage the enemy from the inside, cutting off any means of internal support, before she turned off all power to Svetlaine. Svetlaine, the city where she had found references to Quatre, where he had lived for three years, unknowing and alone. Svetlaine, the home of the enemy.

She navigated slowly through the mainframe, gaining confidence as she worked. She flitted through files and subsystems, reveling in the new world she had discovered. Now, she understood why Heero had gotten so good at this. He had probably become addicted to this digitized world, just as she felt she could become as well.

She came across the backup systems, searching thoroughly to make sure that they were generators, and not computer systems. She smiled as she disabled the generators. The next item on her list of sabotage was the signal. It had definitely originated from this server, and Dorothy was determined to put a stop to it. She paused, fingers poised over the keyboard as an owl poised in flight over its meal. She realized that she didn't know why she was so desperate to interrupt the signal, it wasn't as though she knew what it was for. It could be anything; it could be a radio signal, perhaps TV, or even a new encryption for weather imagery. But then why was it coming from the hornet's nest of Svetlaine?

Did it really matter? she asked herself. If it was weather, did anyone in this town really honestly need it? It wasn't as though people needed to know the highs and lows for their evacuation. And if the signal carried something more sinister, then wasn't it prudent for her to disrupt it? No--she needed to annihilate it. She applied herself arduously to the task.

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It was mass confusion. Like every battle, there was no order to even be imagined. It was a flurry of snow carried by a tornado. Impossible in real life, but not on the battlefield. However, there was order, and that made the battle almost more frightening. The enemy dolls were ordered. Perhaps ordered is the wrong word to use--certainly organized. The enemy functioned like an animated video game enemy. The enemies didn't crash into each other. They should have--there were still over eight hundred dolls. That dense of a fighting ground, and there should have been accidental crashes. But they had to destroy each individual suit. With only four of them, it would take forever.

Heero banked sharply, avoiding a kamikaze doll. His head throbbed, but he pushed the discomfort away. He was fighting by himself. He had gotten separated from Zechs, Wufei and Noin earlier to try and stop the advance of the enemy dolls. He was not being successful. One against what felt like a million was not exactly even odds. Nor was it easy. Heero had slowly been giving ground, no matter what course of action he chose.

The talk on the communications channel had fallen almost silent, everyone being too busy to say anything. Earlier, there had been directions, advice, warnings and even encouragement. Now there was only the occasional 'Look out'. The battle was growing grim, and with no backup to be hoped for, there was only failure to look forward to.

Heero jerked his Gundam out of the way of an incoming missile, sweeping his rifle around and firing, without aiming. There were enough dolls swarming around him that he didn't need to aim. He would hit at least one every time. Needless to say, he didn't have the luxury of aiming, for it took more time than he had. Two dolls exploded; another took their place.

"Zechs! Incoming at one o'clock!" Wufei's voice blasted over the Comm, startling Heero, though he didn't show it. His concentration was fully on his Gundam and the enemy. He didn't look at the battle occurring far behind him. He swept his rifle around again. His radar pinged, the sound echoing in his head. He risked a quick glance at his displays. Two incoming signals coming in fast. He dodged another missile. Harsh static blared over the Comm. Under the static, Heero could barely make out the sound of someone screaming. It sounded like Noin, but he couldn't be sure. He fired blindly, an explosion rocking his suit. He sped into the enemy line, darting between two suits, slashing at their unprotected backs with his sabre. He risked another glance at his radar display. The two signals, now much closer, were coming in from the city. He spun his suit out of the way of another attack, briefly wondering if the enemy was circling the city, attempting to surround the remaining Preventers, or if other Preventer pilots had finally arrived at the scene. He quickly squashed his rising hope that it was Duo. Hope was not needed in the midst of a battle. Hope was needed before and afterward.

The irritating static finally tapered off into blessed silence, though he wasn't all that sure that the loss of static was a good thing. Certainly, the appearance of the static hadn't been good, but again, he buried the inappropriate feeling. Concern, like hope and pain did not belong on the battlefield.

He struggled to turn to face the incoming signals. He didn't have time to acquire additional information on them, so he would try to identify them visually, waiting until visual confirmation to plan his course of action. Until then, he would continue to batter down the enemy dolls, ignoring his companions.

The enemy dolls didn't appear to be taking any notice of the newcomers, and the apprehension that had been steadily building in Heero since the bomb exploded at HQ, jumped to a new level. He swept his beam cannon, firing into multiple suits. They exploded; the UV screens in his cockpit darkening for a brief moment to compensate for the sudden brightness. He had effectively scattered the enemy dolls immediately surrounding him, buying him a few moments to take aim on the approaching bogies. He settled his cannon, steadying it at the incoming targets. He waited for visual conformation.

There.

Two Gundams that he barely recognized as Deathscythe and Sandrock flashed past him, explosions blooming in their wake. For a split second, Heero froze, unsure of what to do. Did he really see Duo and Quatre? His eyes narrowed in concentration as his body instinctively found the next target. Of course I did, he thought, I did see Duo and Quatre. He unleashed his Gundam's power, and fresh energy flooded his body as he realized that he was not alone. He wouldn't let himself get too excited, but there was at least half a chance, now.

Half a chance that they wouldn't die uselessly. Heero wouldn't let himself think far enough into the future to determine whether they would survive. That would be counter-productive, and he didn't have the time to be thinking about anything other than the battle at hand. He swiveled, rounding on another group of enemy dolls.

Sadistic laughter echoed over the Comm, and Heero blinked unbelievingly as Quatre continued to laugh. Quatre? Heero had expected Duo, but he had been surprised. He moved to cut down another enemy. The enemy was too many, and they were too few. Every time he destroyed an enemy suit, two more seemed to take its place. Even with the sudden adrenaline rush with the arrival of Duo and Quatre, Heero was quickly tiring out. He refused to let his mind dwell on that thought, being too embarrassed to admit that he was tired. He couldn't tire out--he couldn't fail.

"Heero! Behind you!" Duo's voice rising from the Comm snapped him back into the reality of the battle. Heero immediately dropped into an evading roll, but he was too slow. Warning lights flashed in his cockpit as an engine alarm screamed. Still executing his evasion roll, he stabbed at the engine cut off switches, disconnecting the contacts and bathing the cockpit in silence. He banked sharply, wheeling around to fire on his attacker, noticing belatedly that Duo had already taken care of it. He evened out his flight, getting used to the new maneuverings of his suit minus one engine. He cast his eyes over the various readouts, assessing the damage wrought upon his suit.

He lost one engine. Another was flickering, but holding. His third was completely functional. His thrusters weren't reliable, and he had a coolant leak somewhere on his left flank. That meant his reaction time with his rifle would be slow, and his aim inaccurate. Suddenly he felt as though he was back up in space fighting in a stolen suit against another Gundam. As if in response to his thoughts, his Gundam veered erratically, carrying him away from the battle before he wrestled his suit under control.

He turned his Gundam to face the battle below him with the intent to launch himself back into the fray. He hesitated, watching in fascination as Quatre cut through two suits with his heated shotels, turning quickly toward another enemy, slicing it into thirds using both blades together. He saw an enemy attempt to sneak up on Duo. Heero opened the throttle and speed into the battle, sweeping his energy blade at passing enemies.

"Duo!" He didn't bother to form other words in warning. He just dove toward his new target, arrowing in on Deathscythe. He plowed into the suit behind Duo, jamming his blade into the belly of the enemy, gutting it. The suit exploded in his Gundam's arms. He was knocked backward, pressed into his seat. He jerked on the controls, forcing his suit to obey him.

"Heero!" Quatre's and Duo's voices were in unison. Heero shook his head, dazed, and he surveyed the battlefield as he brought his Gundam under control. His arms burned with exertion; his body trembled with fatigue. A trickle of sweat rolled nonchalantly down his face. He automatically reached up to wipe it away. His hand came away smeared with red. His wound must have opened again. He watched detachedly as Duo and Quatre cut down enemy after enemy. Heero himself had lost count of how many suits he had destroyed.

There were still too many more. Heero didn't waste time counting, but he guesstimated that they stood against another six hundred suits. He almost cried out in frustration and defeat, but he wouldn't allow himself to become weak.

It was the Preventers' darkest hour, and he would not add to the darkness by giving up.

He would fight to the end.

He drove into the fray, pulling up beside Sandrock. They began felling enemy suits like trees.

The pessimistic voice in the back of his mind asked: will it be enough?