Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wild Wings ❯ Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

 

It took three days to re-program his Gundam and by all accounts, Duo should have been on his last nerve. It was hard work, it drove him nuts, but now he could finally say that Deathscythe was well and truly his. And with every new trick he learned, the mecha could only get better.

 

He didn't come across any earth shattering revelations during his complete overhaul, but what he did find was interesting. For instance, if the self-destruct sequence was triggered, a final download was sent to a server that Duo couldn't easily identify. He left that little trick in place and logged what information he could find for investigation later. He had a suspicion the computer was linked to G or the other men the pilots were collectively getting their missions from.

 

But with all that work finally done Duo could confidently say he knew his machine inside and out… especially inside. Four's music had certainly come in handy to keep his mood somewhat level but the surrounding everglades had done more in that respect. Running about in the wilderness helped calm him down. Duo had taken to running in the early morning before the sun was up to keep himself sane for the rest of the day. As long as he remembered to eat, it worked out fairly well.

 

And after all that work. All of that schedule adjusting, now was the moment of truth, literally. He called up G's frequency. `Scythe prompted him for a code. Before he could enter it, an alert sounded on the screen to his right. It made him jump. `High Priority' it displayed in huge red letters.

 

“Typical…” Duo sighed and moved his hand to the mission specs instead. In this world his personal shit would always be pushed aside for the greater good… he just wished it could've happened two hours from now. “What about my weeks off, G?” He triggered the message, unlocked it with the same code for G's frequency, and sat back with another sigh as the info scrolled over his screens.

 

“I'm sorry to cut your vacation short, Two.” G's recorded voice sounded honestly regretful, “By now you should have a few questions,”

 

Duo sat up sharply, “Damn straight I do!”

 

“but I can't answer any of them.”

 

“Oh now that's bullshit! I knew you were behind this… this, fuck what do I even call it? Transformation? How could you drop this bombshell on me?”

 

“That'll probably make you upset—“

 

“Upset.” Duo throw his hands up in the air, “The man thinks I'm upset—I'm fucking pissed off you asshole! I'm angry, I'm terrified, I'm confused beyond creation, I already swept past denial into the negotiation phase you spacer!”

 

“I'm sorry about that.”

 

“Oh, good Lord.” Duo tossed himself back in the chair and crossed his arms.

 

“This mission takes priority over anything else. You will be working in conjunction with Zero-One and Zero-Three. One will be leading this attack so please do what he says. Three is already in position.”

 

Duo growled, “You would know about the others…”

 

“Yes, there are other Gundams on the planet and no, I didn't tell you about them either. It was necessary for the safety of all involved. Now, on to your Mission…”

 

G's recording went on to describe, in detail, a three-step process that sounded like a scene directly out of a James Bond film. There were buttons, dials, switches, downloads, the all-important stealth infiltration, a diversion and finally, the long-awaited explosion. It was all too obvious this was more than a one-man job.

 

“You need to be in Niamey by the fifth. Zero-One's frequency code is included. Don't contact him until you're in position. Good luck, Two.”

 

Clearly G didn't realize that Duo had already met Heero… and had his code on file. Duo rubbed his forehead. The fifth was two days from now. He needed explosives, fuel, and time to get all the way over to Niger. If he hit the navel base tonight for fuel, did he have time to stop in India? He had a better network of contacts there for explosives… but there was no grantee he could get them on time. The time-frame would give him the short end of the stick during negotiations and clue the men in on who he really was. He wanted to avoid that.

 

The pilot skimmed the information of his mission as he thought. Key West was a training facility, not an assault base. But if you were going to train mobile suite pilots, you had to have some kind of ammo in stock. The workings of a Cancer torpedo would do the trick. It would be crude, but he would have enough time to rig the bombs and get some sleep before the shit hit the fan if he could run all his errands in the same trip.

 

Raiding the base was probably his best bet. And if that went south, there was always India.

 

Duo left `Scythe's cockpit to burn off his anxiety with a run. Then he'd get some sleep. The best time to hit the base was at night and he wanted to be alert.

 

--//--

Duo kept his angle of approach as low over the water as he could. `Scythe was cloaked and the sun was an hour below the horizon and sinking fast. What light was left would burn away before he ever reached Key West. The den was empty of everything he could carry, including that box of ration bars under the sink. The mecha was packed full but if G's trackrecord of `vacation' was anything to go by, he couldn't anticipate his next decent meal.

 

Without regular meals he wasn't sure what would happen.

 

Since the moon started waning, Duo hadn't transformed again. Those two experiences were the only claims to the supernatural he had other than his continued voracious appetite.

 

And his brain's continued insistence on calling the safehouse a den. Duo was almost ready to accept he the change in terms just to give himself a break.

 

`Scythe alerted him to the navel base on radar. Duo eased the mecha lower over the water as he debated his options. There seemed to be only one turret pointed out to sea and the thermal scanners brought up three sentries. Clearly Key West wasn't on high alert.

 

Duo eased his machine under the water and lessened the throttle on the engines. As long as the patrols on foot didn't hear him approach he could probably handle the explosives first. Fueling up was a somewhat trickier process.

 

Beneath the water, Duo's scanners picked up a small novel of new information. There were three active turrets below the surface out of an available twelve, one of the dry-dock's doors were open, and Shinigami's haughty smirk widened into a smile. He could readily identify three Cancer and a solitary Pisces unit inside the dry-dock, all of them armed and fueled. All he had to do was siphon some of that fuel over to `Scythe and he was good to go.

 

The thermal scan told him the coast was clear. Duo shut down his external lights and eased Deathscythe with care into a kneeling position on the docking metal. The lift trigger was meant for a Cancer or Pisces' grappler but Duo jabbed it easily with his staff. The dock groaned—it probably wasn't made to hold this much weight—but slowly eased `Scythe out of the water. Duo opened the chest hatch as soon as he could and executed a smooth jump from the mecha's thermal scythe to the cement only a few feet below. That distance quickly expanded. The dock locked into place with a loud clatter and Duo winced. The large building echoed the sound repeatedly.

 

Above him was a catwalk that hugged the walls. Duo couldn't see much along the perimeter of that walk but `Scythe's thermal sensors would have picked anything up for him to worry about. This western wall had a single person-sized door smack in the middle. The rest of the wall was occupied by machinery, cords, and all kinds of knickknacks that Duo didn't have the time to sort through. Straight ahead was the southern wall and it was mostly occupied by a huge metal door that clearly retracted to allow transport access from land. The eastern half of the dry-dock was occupied by the four OZ mecha and seeing them reminded Duo to get to work.

 

It took only a moment to set up a pair of siphon tubes from two of the Cancers into Deathscythe's tanks. He turned them on and crossed his fingers. One of the pumps rumbled to life quietly, all things considered. The other roared.

 

Duo heard a warning alert issue from `Scythe's cabin not a minute later. One of the footmen was coming to investigate. Duo sprinted to the door and grabbed a coil of tough rope along the way. He hit the wall and flattened himself against it not a moment too soon. The door eased open. A flashlight preceded the man. It swept the dry-dock in a standard pattern and arrested abruptly on `Scythe's open hatch.

 

“What in the hell…” The guard took another step into the dock.

 

Duo finally sprung. He delivered a vicious roundhouse kick to the side of the man's head that knocked him out before he ever hit the floor. The flashlight went skittering over the pavement, its light an errant strobe until it dropped into the water. Duo carefully closed the door. He searched the man before tying him up. The wallet gave up a few dollars, Duo removed the gun and found an extra clip of ammo in a pocket; he discarded a ring of keys and the ID when he came across a small music player.

 

“You're not supposed to have this on duty, I'm sure.” He whispered. “I'll just take that and save you the trouble of explaining it.”

 

There was nothing more to find so he tied the man up and left him where he was. He would be found before tomorrow. At the very least he'd have a headache. With some luck he wouldn't remember ever seeing the Gundam at all.

 

Duo put his mind to the problem of explosives after checking the fuel levels. The pumps were still thrumming so he left them to it. He climbed over the closest Cancer unit and took a close look at the hatch. There was a handprint scanner to one side, but there had to be some kind of override. If the scanner was damaged in combat, how were you supposed to open the mecha? There were no obvious handles or releases along the top or sides.

 

Rather than waste time he ducked under the front of the machine to reach the claws. All the weaponry worth while was stored there. He popped a maintenance panel off and fiddled with the wires for a while until an override triggered the mechanics. The claws opened. Duo suppressed a cackle.

 

The grappler was nested in a circle of five torpedos. Duo only needed the explosive power of two of them, three at the most, but he would take what he could get while it was at his fingertips and not ask questions. If nothing else, the extra munitions would save him a trip to India.

 

He really needed to worm his way into another network, maybe somewhere in Russia… or over in Zimbabwe. How prevalent were arms dealers in Cuba?

 

Duo eased the first torpedo out of its resting place. It slid so smoothly he was unprepared for the sheer weight of it. The back end slammed into the concrete with a frightening crash that rattled his teeth. The propeller snapped into pieces that flung themselves across the dock. A few landed in the water. Well, at least he didn't need the propeller.

 

He unscrewed the cap of the torpedo and cut the various wires that powered the targeting device. The warhead had a handle in the top and without all that fuel to hold it was surprisingly light. He moved carefully with it. Even if it wasn't armed at the moment he didn't want to risk dropping a bomb while he was anywhere near it.

 

He navigated to the open hatch and carefully stowed the warhead inside Deathscythe's cockpit. He didn't draw an easy breath until it was secure.

 

“One down. Four to go.”

 

Now that he knew the innards of the torpedo he didn't bother to take them all the way out of their housing. Instead he unscrewed the caps where they were inside the Cancer's claw and transferred all four of the remaining warheads without breaking any more propellers.

 

He covered his tracks even though he would probably never return to this base. He pushed the fallen torpedo into the water, the others he recapped without their warheads and he jigged the claw to close over them. He wished he could see the look on the soldier's face that discovered the theft. It was bound to be great.

 

He was just about to consider lifting the other five warheads from the other claw when both of the pumps rumbled to a stop. Either Deathscythe was full of fuel, or the Cancer's were out of it. Duo was betting on the latter. Did he have time to siphon the fuel from the other mobile suits?

 

He decided against it. Disengaging the pumps was hard work and he didn't want to push his luck. He hadn't been discovered yet and he wanted to keep it that way if at all possible. The first pump was coiled on the deck and the second nearly so when static echoed in the dock.

 

“Heeey Frank its Jim, I know you don't like watch this much. You're five minutes late. What's doin'?”

 

Duo doubled his efforts at the pump.

 

“Don't make me call the Martial, Frank. You know I've gotta if you don't show. Where is your ass?”

 

He tossed the siphon tube to the side and scrambled like a spider into `Scythe's cockpit. The hatch eased closed on another bout of static from the unconscious guard's radio. Duo didn't have time to wait for the lift to drop him into the water again so he tipped `Scythe backward. The splash would probably alert everyone but it was too late now. He was as good as home free.

 

The water closed over him, blurring the external cameras. He hit the thrusters and angled his mecha deeply. Cloaked he wouldn't show up on their radar, and the only witnesses spotted a short trail of bubbles in the middle of their dry-dock.

 

Duo cackled freely this time.