Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Taking Flight ❯ Pride Commeth Before a Fall ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 02 - Pride Cometh Before a Fall

"Perhaps Quatre was right…"

***

The night passed with no note-worthy incidents, and morning as well as departure time soon followed. What few possessions each boy owned along with any and all portable evidence of their stay were loaded into a train of five vehicles. Each was carrying both a Gundam and one fifth of the shipment of advanced weaponry, which the boys hand intercepted on their previous mission. Their current mission was to drive (and if necessary defend) that weaponry along a difficult path to a precise location in the middle of the Sahara desert. Even under optimal conditions, the trek would take two to three days of slow crawl in the scorching desert heat. The Gundams could sprint across much faster, but a confrontation with OZ in this location would be devastating. Within their mission parameters, the pilots had received a warning pertaining to rumors of a large OZ fleet stationed somewhere in southern Egypt. No further details were given; it was only a rumor after all, and the pilots would be traveling several hundred miles southwest of the stated location, and in a small caravan of trucks no less. As Yuy had briefly put it, their chance of any sort of confrontation was only at 2%. Then again, with a 98% chance of going unnoticed, every pilot eventually wondered why J requested that all 5 Gundams be taken.

It was near the designated departure time, and Heero and Wufei were waiting outside their trucks. Trowa sat in the driver's seat of his, the third truck in the line, right behind Heero's and Quatre's. Behind Trowa's truck was Duo's, and lastly Wufei's. The three boys waited silently for the arrival of Duo and Quatre.

Soft taps of feet and louder talking announced their approach. As they came within hearing distance, the other three became privy to their conversation.

"You're sure you'll be alright?" Quatre asked for the umpteenth time. "I still don't think it's wise for you to participate in any more mission until that injury is taken care of."

"Stop worrying! I tell you, I'm fine!" Duo protested, face betraying his irritation.

Wufei smirked. "For the very fact that you are who you are, Maxwell, I've always doubted that you are all right, mentally or otherwise."

"Har, har." Duo rolled his eyes. "So are we going or what?"

After an additional protest from Quatre, the pilots climbed into the trucks and received a last-minute reminder of their mission. Once again, Quatre pleaded with Duo to stay behind.

"Quatre, you're embarrassing me. Drop it, all right? I'm fine. Let's get going before hell freezes over, ok?" Resting back into the seat, Duo winced at the pressure.

***

The first day across the desert was distressingly uneventful. They spent the night in one of the trucks, setting up just before the sun went down, and started off just as things began to heat up again. To curb Duo's request to travel instead when it was cooler, Heero calmly explained that their trucks would be much easier to spot via a thermal scan if they would travel at night. By traveling in the day, they reduced their chances of being caught.

As the day grew increasingly hotter, moods stretched and tempers flared. Wufei began to feel edgy, temper rising with the temperature. Neither Trowa nor Heero's mood could be told by the silence over their com links, and both were as alert as always. Quatre was merely bored, perhaps tired if told by his winded tone of voice. Then again, anyone would be exhausted after talking to a bored Duo for several scorching hours straight.

Even through his chatty act, Duo's voice was hollow and windy. Sluggishness was common in such severe heat even with plenty of water and sunscreen. The air conditioning could not be run, though, because it would further stress the engines of the trucks. However, Duo's exhaustion came from another, closer source.

Quatre had changed Duo's bandages once more this morning, and it was the first time the other pilots got a good look at what ailed him. Wufei had ranted about "Maxwell's stupidity and weakness" for the subsequent hour, and even Trowa had voiced his concern. Quatre's note that the injury was worsening didn't help slow the irate Chinese man's rant, but even though Duo honestly should have been taken to a hospital following the discovery of his hastening rate of deterioration, they were already a day into the mission and hundreds of miles from civilization. Now fully aware of the danger he had willingly put himself into, Duo agreed that turning back alone would be far too risky, and taking one of the remaining four as an escort was out of the question.

As a result, the mission continued on as planned and Duo did his best to lighten the mood by ensuring that the com link never received a moment's rest. The throbbing pain he suffered from-despite the ointment, heavy bandages, and pills Quatre had forced him to take-didn't hinder his sociability or his ability to annoy the hell out of Wufei.

Late in the morning while they still drove with the sun in their eyes, Wufei finally snapped at Duo over the com, yelling at him to shut up. Surprisingly, Duo did so with little more than a grumble.

Several minutes later, Heero spoke almost silently over the com. "It's too quiet."

Wufei chortled. "Maxwell's finally shut up."

Duo stuck out his tongue in response, realizing too late that the com in the trucks only transferred voice.

"I agree." Quatre responded to Heero, ignoring Wufei. "For such a top security mission, this is certainly uneventful. We haven't seen so much as a sand storm since we started out."

As if on cue, scores of mobile suits rose from beneath the surrounding sand dunes and from the ever-shifting valleys beyond them. Several Aries suits took to the air and circled around, firing at the dunes in front and behind the trucks, causing avalanches of loose sand to trap them from all sides.

"Of all the dumb luck…" Duo quipped.

Quatre's command came promptly over the com. "Quickly, everyone get going! I'll stay down on the com until you're in the air. Heero, Trowa, defend the front. Wufei and Duo, you take the rear. I'll join you when I get out. Go!"

Moments after Quatre cut the com, a rich British accent crackled over the radio. "Attention drivers. Unauthorized transport through this region is strictly prohibited. Step out of the vehicles peacefully so you may be transported. I repeat, attention drivers…"

Quatre frowned as he strapped his goggles on and climbed into the back of his truck. Whatever he had been hoping to hear over the radio was obviously not said. Three telltale blasts sounded from either side of Quatre, signaling that three Gundams had taken flight. A cry of "Bloody hell!" sounded from the dashboard of his vehicle followed by the shriek of melting mechanical equipment.

There was a superstition, Quatre remembered, that anyone who met a Gundam in battle would not live to tell of it. In order to protect their mission, time and time again that conception had to become reality by his and his four friends' hands. Quatre climbed into the cockpit of his Gundam, Sandrock, started it up, opened the top of the truck and joined the battle. Soon after rising into the air, only Trowa's voice came over Quatre's Gundam's video com system.

"Quatre, I've got a problem here."

"What is it, Trowa?"

"I've been trying to reach you. The roof of my truck, it's jammed. I can't launch without serious damage to the vehicle." Trowa replied.

"Stay there!" Quatre told him, then contacted Heero. "Heero, how are you doing up there?"

A curt nod and a monotonous, "hn" told Quatre that everything was fine.

Dodging and taking fire from every side, Quatre slowly made his way towards the back of Duo and Wufei. When he arrived, he told Wufei to move closer to Heero, but guard the middle of their caravan, and then told Duo to stay in the back.

"I'd be better off guarding the left flank, Quatre! We're leaving Wufei's back open!" Duo argued.

"No, Duo. You're injured. Your defense wouldn't help Wufei more than he can help himself." Quatre swiftly responded. "Now, we have mobile dolls to take care of. A thermal scan indicates that only about three of their forces are piloted by people." Several rapid explosions sounded near Heero's battle as many machines exploded. "…Check that, one mobile suit. The remainder of their forces is comprised of mobile doll Leos and Aries. We're taking heavy fire. Duo, stay close to me when we go after them. I don't want any accidents."

His scythe already glowing and several demolished mobile dolls at his feet, Duo launched toward a cluster of Leos, despite Quatre's protests, and proceeded to rip them apart. Quatre was only seconds behind and attacked the Aries dolls that were closing in behind Duo. After Duo was satisfied that the Leos were sufficiently destroyed, his cocky grin appeared on Quatre's screen. "See? I told you I'd be just fi-…" A sickening, watery gasp sounded over the com system as the top half of a sparking Leo doll fired one last shot from a heap of other ruined parts. The blast connected soundly with Deathscythe's unwatched back, rocking the cockpit and slamming Duo around in the firm seat. Deathscythe hung weakly in midair as its pilot hung silently in his harness, eyes shock wide, but unable to be seen by the video com camera beneath his crown of bangs.

Wufei appeared suddenly nearby and put the offending Leo out of its misery with a powerful swipe of his glaive. "Maxwell!" he yelled angrily.

"Duo! Are you alright?" Quatre asked urgently.

Seeming not to notice, Heero continued to draw the bulk of the mobile dolls into melee at the front. He was, after all, the greatest threat to their lines.

Moments later, Duo coughed and grimaced, sitting up and taking the controls again. Hoarsely and weakly, his voice came over the com. "…Yeah, I'll manage… Ow, that smarts."

"Damn you, Maxwell!" Wufei roared. "Don't get yourself killed on a mere escort mission! These unskilled dolls aren't worth even your street rat perspiration!"

"Uh, thanks. …I think." Duo responded.

"Duo, above you!" Quatre warned him of an incoming Aries.

He drew up his scythe and struck, searing and melting the metal body of the doll, cleaving it in two. Wufei returned to his designated post.

The mobile dolls kept on coming at them, and the confrontation stretched on for minutes, then hours. The cloven parts of dolls unlucky enough to be caught by blade or beam littered the desert sand, causing it to closer resemble a machine graveyard than the Sahara.

"Is there no end to these things?" Duo asked exasperatedly, dripping with sweat, panting, and wincing at every move.

The rest of the team was tired, and the armor of every Gundam was equally dented and worn by constant fire. Only Deathscythe's movements, however, had become jerky, shaky, and sluggish.

"Duo, fall back!" Quatre ordered. "Defend Trowa on the ground! You're in no condition to continue aerial combat!"

"He doesn't need defending! The dolls are going after us, not him! He'll become a target if I fall back! Besides, our left flank will be completely defenseless!" Duo argued, then yelled to blind himself of the pain of movement as he caught the legs of an Aries in the glowing energy of his scythe.

From the front, Heero had been listening to this argument continue for the past half-hour. Duo was right in every point he made, but regardless, the rest of the team would be able to defend him better if given the chance to surround him within the dual prison and sanctuary of sand and broken metal surrounding the trucks.

"Maxwell! That was an order!" Wufei yelled, interrupting the two boys. "Fall back now!"

Growling and glaring at Wufei's image on the screen, but too exhausted to argue with both him and Quatre, Duo finally gave in. "Fine! Whatever!" He turned and slashed a clean path to the ground.

Unfortunately, he didn't see the Aries doll behind him. Too late, Quatre yelled to warn him. The doll delivered a solid blow with the butt of its empty gun, piercing through a weak spot in Deathscythe's gundanium armor with the sheer force of the bludgeon. Something ripped; something gave way as Duo's silent, shock-stricken expression faded along with the light from his eyes.

If possible, the situation seemed far worse from the perspective of the other pilots.

"Duo!" Quatre cried.

"Maxwell!" Wufei roared.

They couldn't help, however, for even though the opposition had been significantly thinned, they were still overcome. Only Trowa's eyes were shielded from the lonely image of Duo slumped over his controls and the cockpit covered in a thick, scarlet liquid. The tragic picture flashed across the screen of each pilot as, like a marionette whose strings had been cut, Gundam Deathscythe fell lifelessly to the ground, joining the broken shells of those it had so recently preyed upon.

"…Perhaps Quatre was right…"

[End Chapter 2]

AN: Everything to this point has been very confusing, I'm sure. I especially had trouble deciding where to place what has become the prologue. It was originally designed to be a bit of action to get readers caught up in the story, abeit very confused, but I was seriously considering holding off and putting it as an interlude later in the story. As you can see, I often decide to go with the original plan. Unfortunately, I'm sure this has left everyone with many, many questions. Just so everyone knows, yes, the child the woman carried out in the prologue was her second of three. How is this possible? All answers will be revealed in an up-and-coming chapter. This chapter will be conveniently sub-titled "After a turning point, there is no turning back." Giving the actual title this soon would give far too much away for the next chapter.

Reasons all this has gone up so quickly:

1) I am quite pleased that I have received several reviews already. I would like to thank those reviewers with this little bonus. Thank you, everyone who has read this and whose endless hours of plot discussion with me have gone into the creation of this story. I am greatly indebted to you.

2) I probably won't have time to work on typing this story, let alone updating again until after the 17th of June. Why? I really need to study for final exams this time. I'm also taking my ACT test on the 14th. On the 15th, one of my uncles will be driving me out to Colorado, where I will spend the next two months helping another uncle with household duties, including babysitting his son almost 24/7 so my little cousin doesn't need to spend the entire summer in day care.

Therefore, I leave you with this malevolent, evil cliffhanger. ^_^ Enjoy your exams!