Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ World on Fire ❯ Numbers ( Chapter 2 )

Duo rolled over and vomited, adding his bile to the large pool of display fluid and blood. You would've thought that the amount of times he had been violently knocked unconscious, he would be used to the horrid moment of waking back up.

 

“Ohhhh… my head.” He moaned, clutching at the side of his skull only to find his precious hair covered in wet, sticky gunk. Blood, he figured, pulling his hand back in front of his face. At least, mostly blood - it looked too diluted, and strangely crystallised. What the hell had happened? Oh, that's right. He'd been working on Deathscythe when the alarm went off and the whole world went suddenly upside down.

 

Well, there was only one way to find out what had happened and with a groan, he pulled himself up to the console and flicked on the outside cameras.

 

“Jesus… Howard?” Duo gasped in shock as the screen flickered to life. Two figures lay motionless just in front of Deathscythe's cameras, each steeped in a pool of red. One was unmistakably Howard, his loud shirt giving away the identity of the old man, the other was a mechanic Duo had seen working on Deathscythe a few times, but he had never found out his name.

 

“C'mon, open up dammit! OPEN UP!” The mechanic slammed his fist on the hatch to the fallen mobile suit, cursing at the pilot inside. “I know you're in there you fucker, open the hatch!”

 

“Don't.” A soft voice sounded from behind him as levered the cover away from the access panel. Howard. “We're dead already. Open that up, you kill him as well.”

 

“Get back!” The mechanic screamed in frenzy, drawing a gun from his jacket and leveling it at Howard. “I'm not dying here.”

 

“You are.” Howard stated levelly, inching slowly towards the mechanic. “We all are, and if you open that hatch, you're killing him as well. The radiation-“ He fell mid-sentence as the mechanic shot, the bullet ripping through his chest with a feeble spray of blood and soft gurgle as Howard collapsed to the ground. Looking down at his own gun in shock, the mechanic stepped back, pressing his back against the cold metal of the Gundam behind him. Fingers uncurling, he dropped the gun to the floor, the sharp clink of metal hitting concrete breaking the eerie silence that had fallen over the hanger. With small, shaking breaths he composed himself, turning back to the access panel and levering the last piece of casing off the keypad.

 

Overriding the hatch controls was a trivial task when you knew the machine you were working on. The access panel was always getting shot out or blown up during battle, so it was required to be easy to override. Splitting up the fail-safe wires and grouping up the assorted wires by colour, he started tracing the various connections when he was suddenly hit with a blinding pain as a screwdriver jammed into his neck, driving through the soft flesh into his windpipe until all he could was gurgle and clutch uselessly at his neck while his blood poured freely around his fingers.

 

The mechanic turned in horror and disbelief to face his killer, Howard who was beyond all reason standing, his usual Hawaiian shirt soaked in the blood that was still seeping from his bullet wound. The last thing he remembered was Howard pushing him to the ground where he lay helplessly, watching behind fading eyes as the older man stripped the fail-safe wires, shorting the access panel and sealing the suit closed.

 

Duo pulled hard on the door release, jamming it down ever harder when the only response was an annoying warning buzz. “C'mon you bitch.” Duo swore under his breath, still struggling with the lever. “Open!” he yelled, slamming the lever back into place in frustration. His eyes flicked back to the screen, the computer should tell him if there was a problem and glitches weren't exactly hard to override. His fingers flicking awkwardly over the controls - it was fucking hard typing when the cockpit was on its side - he brought up the logs.

 

Door release denied. Cause: Radiation detected: 24Sv/hr. Warning: Tampering with external access panel. Failsafe engaged.

 

Damn. The two warnings were easy enough to override, but that was a lethal amount of radiation. Five minutes out there could kill him without a radiation suit, and he didn't happen to keep one in his Gundam. Luckily there was no report of any radiation in the cockpit - the whole thing was shielded so much it could survive a nuclear meltdown.

 

Bracing himself, he grabbed the movement controls on the chair and began the rather difficult process of righting the mobile suit while not being strapped into the chair. The most difficult part of all was the tipping point, where he had to make sure that the suit tipped over to stand on its legs and not too far to fall on its face on the other side, all while gravity was making him dangle off the chair. With a thunk the suit managed to keep itself standing up, throwing Duo over the armrest to land uncomfortably upside down in the chair.

 

“Well, fuck.” Duo swore under his breath as he did a little spider-climb to get the right way up in the seat. He strapped himself back in, not wanting to be taken by surprise from another shock-wave again. Dialling up the communications system, he paused, thinking of what to say for a moment.

 

“Is anyone there? Please respond.” He decided to keep it conservative; there was no telling what was happening when there were two bodies lying dead under him. He knew the ship was powered by a nuclear reactor of some sort, so if someone had sabotaged it… it would explain both the radiation and the violence on the deck. “Please respond,” Duo repeated once an adequate amount of time had passed. “What's happened to the ship?”

 

“Kid?” The voice over the radio was uncertain and ragged. “Is that you?”

 

“Hello?” Duo replied. “What's happening?”

 

“I dunno kid. There was this big flash over the land and then we got hit with the shock-wave. The whole coast looks like it's on fire. We've been trying to send out a mayday, but there's no response. There's radiation everywhere, if we don't get medics out here soon, it's going to be too late.” The voice on the other end of the line paused for a moment, as if he was thinking. “Kid, were you in your suit when it hit?”

 

“Yeah,” Duo volunteered, not sure how much information he could divulge. Of course, he was in a heavily armoured nearly indestructible suit with a large amount of firepower. He could probably take a few risks. “Yeah, I was in it. The suit fell over and I hit my head, got knocked out cold.”

 

“You better stay in it, kid. You've got a better chance than us out here.” The voice paused again, followed by the barely audible sounds of a whispered conversation in the background. “Hey, kid. Your suit's got better equipment than we have up here on the bridge. Think if we give you access you could help us out?”

 

Duo thought for a moment about the offer. It was potentially risky, even though they were giving him access and not the other way around. With any connection though, there was always risk. “Alright. What do you want me to do?” Duo conceded. The crew of Howard's ship had always seemed trustworthy enough, and if he was going to get any information he was going to need to work with him.

 

“The radiation is killing our sensors up here. We can't leave the bridge because it's the only adequately shielded place on this part of the ship. We want you to do a fly by and check out what's happening, if possible throw out a mayday on our behalf.” Duo gritted his teeth, the other man was likewise hesitant in the asking. Placing a mayday signal would be putting himself at risk, if a military vessel responded he would have to hide himself and possibly lose contact with the carrier.

 

“Alright, I'll do it.” Duo flicked the 'magic' switches on the headboard, firing up the main engines with a satisfying roar. Carefully manoeuvring the suit out of the hanger, he jammed the throttle forward, launching Deathscythe into clear flight over the Mediterranean waters.

 

The guy on the bridge was right: the whole northern coastline seemed to be on fire, that or the countryside was being swept by black tornadoes. Considering his first targets were in Italy, the ship must be off the Italian coastline. He could bring up a pretty detailed map on his screen, but the radiation was still wreaking havoc with the GPS and to get a lock on the satellites he was going to have to go higher. Making sure his thermal scythe was armed in case he was attacked, he gunned the engines and brought Deathscythe past the first few low hanging clouds.

 

Good, he was getting a better reading now, just east of Sicily. There was a fairly large Alliance military base stationed on the mainland, it was the supply lines to that base he was planning on disrupting. If there was a large nuclear attack on the base, then that would explain -

 

He was cut off by a notice telling him that someone had been broadcasting to his private, secured signal. They had long since stopped the message, but there was still an open invitation to communicate. He quickly sent back a response saying he was ready for radio contact; hopefully this was G ready to explain why he'd decided to nuke Italy.

 

“Gundam Deathscythe, this is Gundam Heavyarms. Do you copy?” That definitely wasn't G.

 

“This is Deathscythe.” Duo responded, already trying to trace the source of the broadcast. He manoeuvred himself into position for a freefall dive, if anything seemed suspicious, he needed to be able to bug out at a moment's notice. “Are you going to explain to me why Italy was just nuked?”

 

“Nuked?” The voice responded, only the barest hint of curiosity evident. “What do you mean, nuked?”

 

“I mean fire, explosions, the whole nine yards.” Duo responded, rubbing the back of his head as a small reminder of what had happened. “I got knocked on my ass by a shock-wave, there's radiation everywhere and I can only tell where Italy is because of the giant cloud of smoke.”

 

“Deathscythe, I received a transmission stating that our controllers were dead and that we were to join together as a contingency.” Great, thought Duo as the voice droned on, I just told him a country was wiped off the map and he doesn't even blink? Who the hell is this guy? “I have met up with two other pilots, you would make our fourth. Have you been exposed to any of the radiation? Are you injured?”

 

Oh, a touch of concern? “Nah, no radiation, I was in my suit at the time. Got knocked around a little but it's no big deal.” Duo straightened out the controls of Deathscythe, pulling the machine straight up as he just realised where the broadcast must have been coming from. “Are you still in space?”

 

“Affirmative, Deathscythe. We will all be landing in Jordan, close to the Palestine border. We have safe haven and contacts nearby. Will you be able to rendezvous?”

 

Duo kept silent for a few moments as he worked out the implications through his head. It was on the other side of the Mediterranean and while it would not be an issue for him in Deathscythe, he could not just abandon the crew on Howard's ship to die out there. With that reminder of his immediate mission, he keyed into the emergency broadcast system, preparing to send out the ships mayday.

 

“godthere'sfireeverywHELPhere!peopledyingwhat'shappening ?fire!”

 

Duo could only listen to the ear destroying combination of static and screaming for a few seconds before he switched the radio off. It had been a likely outcome, but in the wake of such a disaster there would be no help spared for their ship. “Heavyarms, I was stationed on a ship that was hit with the blast. I need to get the crew to safety, but after that I will join you. Give me an hour to get them to Greece and I'll phone you back, k?”

 

“Affirmative, Deathscythe. We'll keep orbit until you respond.”

 

That conversation over, Duo jammed the controls forward to begin his freefall dive. Deploying the large wings on Deathscythe's back, he yanked back on the joystick, pulling Deathscythe up into a curved dive that would slingshot him within sight of the Grecian coast in a matter of minutes.

 

“Hey, bridge.” Duo thumbed open the radio channel as he fought with the controls, keeping himself in a steady glide as the cockpit threatened to shake apart. “Emergency channels are flooded, I'm going to scout out Greece, maybe Turkey, see if they can take you into port. Set a course there, fast as possible, I'll have news in a few minutes.”

 

“Copy that, kid...” The reply was bathed in the static of background radiation, three words being all that Duo could hear. Taking his thumb off the communicator, he let the static die out just as he was approaching the visible range of Greece. He couldn't see the land yet, but already he knew what had happened.

 

Scattered plumes of pitch black smoke were rising up into the atmosphere, little flagpoles denoting the areas that Duo knew were Greece's major ports. He drove forward, cursing his luck as he pushed the engines faster and faster, the deafening blast of the main engines washing out noise even within the sealed cockpit. The coast was coming up fast; the cameras blurring under the speed until he could no longer make out land, the screen a wash of blue and orange and black. Even from the struggling resolutions of the screen, it was obvious: the Aegean was on fire, all the way to Turkey.

 

Yanking the controls around in his frustration, Duo killed the throttle and set himself back into a tight turn back to the carrier. There would be no help in Greece or beyond, no one to send a helping hand when the disaster in their own backyard was this immense. Emergency units from all over Europe would descend on the Mediterranean, but it would be too late for Howard's crew.

 

Wiping a stray tear from his face, Duo opened the radio channel back up. If there was any hope for these people, it was with his... comrades in space.

 

“Deathscythe?” Before he could speak, there came a soft voice that he couldn't place. It wasn't the person he had talked to before.

 

“Yeah, this is Deathscythe.” He took a steadying breath, hoping that his first impression of his fellow pilots had been off. “I ran out of luck. Greece is gone... just gone. This place we're going, can it handle refugees?”

 

“Greece...” Came the single reply, a rising note of panic well entrenched even in that one word. “FUCK! Greece! Deathscythe... one hundred million. A hundred million and that's only what you've seen. What... what's happening, Deathscythe?”

 

Duo stumbled, hit not just by the numbers but the sheer emotion in that voice. When he saw the fires on the land he was not struck by despair for the people who lived there, but for the assistance they would be unable to provide the people he knew.

 

“Colony drop.” Duo breathed, hardly aware that his voice was still transmitting through the radio.

 

“What?” The voice was uncertain, surprised by the barely audible reply. “You know what's happening? Tell me!”

 

“The original Project Meteor... it was supposed to drop a colony from orbit, wiping out human life... like the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. The Gundams were built to... clean up afterwards.” Duo just kept on talking, afraid that if he stopped his brain would catch up with his mouth and reality would just come crashing down on him. “But they weren't supposed to. They decided they wouldn't. They said they wouldn't.

 

“It doesn't fit.” Heavyarms' calm voice interrupted before the other boy had a chance to reply. “I saw the plans for the colony drop. It would block out the sun - this... fire, radiation. Everything points to a local nuclear attack.”

 

Duo could feel his breathing slowing down, averting what could have turned into a full blown panic attack. “Yes, well... you're right.” Still, the guy's calm was unnerving. “Look, whatever it is, these people still need help.”

 

“I'll talk to the Maguanacs. They can take them in.” The soft spoken boy came back on, finally giving Duo some hope. There was still his new `family' aboard the Sweeper ship to think about, and though he had barely known them a week, he couldn't let them down when they needed him. He had been accepted into the Sweeper family - and it was a family in the truest sense of the word - and they were counting on him. Pushing Deathscythe into a freefall dive, Duo aimed his fall towards the ship and tried to think of what he could say to the guys on the bridge without crying.

 

“Hey kid, welcome back. Got any news?” The radio greeted him as he approached. The radiation must have cleared significantly in the past hour if he was able to hear them this far out.

 

“No good news. I dunno how to tell you this, guys.” Duo sighed, his voice already cracking.

 

“Hey, what's going on kid? You don't sound too good.”

 

“Greece... that whole area. It's gone too.” Duo managed before becoming too choked up to continue. He cleared his throat and pressed on.

 

“Holy shit, kid. You better be kidding me.”

 

“I wish, dammit. I wish I was. I'll give you a report when I land, but I got some intel on a bunker that may be able to take in survivors. Start heading to Jordan.” Duo ran his fingers through his bangs, not believing how childish he sounded to his own ears.

 

The radio went quiet for several minutes. Duo had to remember not to try and press them on this, he had to give them some time. When the transmission finally came back, the voice was a lot softer.

 

“I know this is your first time on Earth, kid. But Jordan's landlocked. Can't get there on a boat.”

 

“Just get as close as possible. We can land at Israel or Palestine, right? I'll try to figure something out for when we get there.”

 

Approaching the carrier, Duo brought Deathscythe up into a gentle swing, arcing slightly above the landing bay before letting gravity slowly get the better of the engines and pull the suit down into the hanger.

 

“I'm in. Is there anything you need me to do?” Duo queried, hooking back into the internal communications.

 

“Just sit tight for the moment, kid. Some of the guys that were working on the engines found some radiation suits down there, so they're going around trying to help everyone. Luckily most of the people in the quarters were shielded pretty well, but some of the doses could still be lethal. I'll throw you the medics report if you can pass it on to that base so they know what to expect.”

 

“How long will it take you to get to the shore?” Duo asked, already typing out a report to send along to the bridge.

 

“Two day, usually. That's going pretty fast. Full speed all the way, maybe a day and a half. But it'll be a rough journey.”

 

“Well, we'll have to get used to it. I'll scout the area ahead when we're a day out, so we can see what the landing's like. If there's too much radiation, then we're going to have to find some other way of transporting everyone. Get back to me if you have any ideas, but for now I'm going to try to get some sleep. It's been a rough day.”

 

Duo flicked off the communications system before they could get a reply in, powering down all the systems shortly after and leaving him in complete darkness and solitude in the cockpit. He had trained for hopeless situations and when the shit hit the fan all you could do was keep going.

 

Still, the emotional train wreck had taken its toll, and his entire body was already exhausted. Reclining his chair all the way back, Duo covered his eyes and just tried to stop thinking.