Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ World on Fire ❯ Deuteronomy ( Chapter 4 )

The engineers had worked remarkably fast, considering many of them needed to wear radiation suits. They had the modifications done in less than an hour, welding up the ruptures in Wing's transport and modifying all of them so that the engines would provide a certain amount of thrust themselves, hopefully enough to allow them to hover off the ground and keep the Gundams from having to do most of the work.

 

In short order the transports were being lifted up on to the deck of the ship, ready for loading the passengers. Duo once again mused that Howard had picked the crew of his ship - with one exception, of course - very well. Everyone was orderly and fast about entering the transports. Within another hour, they were ready to leave the ship behind, the Gundams hauling boxes full of weary refugees.

 

The flight to the Maguanac base was an eye opening experience for all of the pilots, but especially the three that had not been down on Earth to witness the devastation that had hit the area. They passed through the husks of burnt out villages, through roads that were covered in dead bodies: burnt, shot, or just having dropped dead from the radiation. The trees looked dead, burnt and broken with no leaves to cover them. The whole countryside was a depressing desert of black, charred earth.

 

The whole trip was in complete silence, each of the pilots believing that the devastation had to be limited - that it had to end. That over the next hill would be green grass and signs of life. Even Heero and Trowa failed to be unaffected by the profound stillness of the barren country. It was more than just the human bodies scattered around the countryside, it was the complete absence of life whatsoever. There was no rustling grass, no trees waving in the wind, no hint of a wary animal leaving its shelter for a curious peek at their passing. There was just nothing.

 

Each pilot was affected in unique ways. Trowa and Heero had no attachment whatsoever. They had never set foot on Earth, they had no ties to it in any way. But they knew death, and the death of a once vibrant country was deeply affecting in its own way. For Quatre, this was the Middle East - while it had never been his home, it was his homeland. Much of his family still lived in the region and he had many ties here.

 

Duo was just wondering if they hadn't accidentally landed on Mars instead.

 

*

 

They approached the coordinates of the Maguanac base shortly after nightfall, thanks to the modifications from the engineering team they hadn't had to drag the transports along as much as they feared, and had made good progress through the night.

 

The Maguanac base itself was completely hidden, and they had to trust Sandrock to lead them to the location, especially since the Maguanacs were not at all willing to open up the base doors for very long just so they could see the location. Sandrock guided them there accurately, however and before long they were staring at the shifting sand beneath their feet, flowing into a widening crack as the door to the hidden base opened up before them.

 

"Here we are." Quatre breathed with a sigh of relief. "Everyone get the transports inside."

 

Without a transport to hold, Deathscythe was left standing at the back, waiting to assist anyone that needed it. Just as with everything they did, the pilots were efficient to a tee, moving the transports inside and resting them in the cramped space at the entrance.

 

"That's odd." The doors began to swing themselves shut as Quatre spoke. "The entrance was supposed to be much bigger."

 

"Looks fairly new." Heavyarms remarked.

 

"We set up a wall for quarantine." The voice of Rashid came over Quatre's radio. "Please tell everyone we're going to need to spray everything down before we take them into the main hanger. Tell them to stay put until they're instructed to leave."

 

Just as Quatre was relaying this information to the other pilots and their respective transports, the room suddenly filled with a thick white foam from the many tiny nozzles lining the walls. The foam had nearly covered them entirely when just as quickly, the nozzles changed to a jet-like spray, washing off the foam and letting it drain down on the floor of the room.

 

The blast doors opened, seemingly signalling the end of the spraying. Quatre lead the way forward, dragging his transport with him. He had many questions now to ask Rashid, just how he set up a decontamination chamber without any prior knowledge of a radioactive disaster being the first.

 

A group of Maguanacs in radiation suits fanned out around the suits and transports, each of them waving what looked to be an old fashioned Geiger counter over the surface of each. Quatre was the first to receive the treatment and once they were done they motioned for him to come out, where they again waved the counters over his body as well.

 

"I'm glad to see you haven't been affected, Master Quatre." The voice was Rashid's, while he couldn't see the man's face behind the plastic mask, he could see his facial hair. "Welcome to our base."

 

"Thank you, Rashid." Quatre replied politely, giving the much taller man a small bow. "It is good to be here."

 

The older man waved a hand with a short chuckle; often young Quatre had a habit of being far more formal than was really required.

 

"You are always welcome here." Rashid's smile slowly turned to a frown, as if he suddenly realised why the younger boy was there. "I just wish it were under better circumstances."

 

Quatre nodded, it was a sentiment he couldn't argue with. "We have the chance to save a lot of people. It's better than what I'd be doing otherwise."

 

Rashid nodded back. "You'd better get out of here while we check the rest of the people. Find Auda, he can show you where you'll be staying."

 

*

 

When the decontamination showed that there was no dire threat to the people inside the base, Rashid gathered up everyone in the massive cavernous entrance. Standing on the long walkway above with Auda and Quatre both beside him, he addressed the new refugees.

 

"I'd like to thank everyone for being so calm during the procedures. While your welcome hasn't been the warmest one, we have to make sure that everyone on the base is safe. So we ask that for the time being, you stick to the quarters you have been given and make sure to listen to all the Maguanacs in the base if they give you instructions. We are going to need everyone's cooperation and eventually, assistance if we are to survive the tragedy that has come to the planet. I know everyone will want answers for what has happened, but those will have to come after we have everyone settled. Now please, follow your escorts in groups down to your living quarters and we will try to assign rooms."

 

Rashid stepped down from the podium, a worrying amount of sweat gathered on his brows.

 

"Nice speech," Quatre said from the sidelines, leaning over a rail and looking at the gathered masses below. There had to be at least two hundred people in the bunker entrance, it was suddenly occurring to him that the entire complex must have been designed to house a huge number of people. "Were there any survivors from the village above?"

 

Rashid looked downcast, trying to avoid his young leader's piercing eyes. He went to stand beside Quatre, mimicking his pose of leaning over the edge, hands on the rails.

 

"Not many. Please, don't ask any of the others about it. It was... hard, for all of us." He paused, turning away from the crowds below and leaning his back against the railing. "There were so many dead, so many dying. The fires got most of the village, anyone that wasn't caught by the fire was killed by the radiation. But the hardest part was the people who were still alive… we killed them. Because we couldn't save them.”

 

Auda went over to stand beside Rashid, placing a calming hand on the larger man's shoulder. "This... I want to say war, but whatever it is, Master Quatre. This is worst than anything we could have imagined. When you have time, I'd like to speak to you. It is... important."

 

With that, Auda turned and left, placing the fez he had been holding at his side on his head.

 

"I need to go and meet some of these other pilots now." Quatre stated, pushing himself up off the railing.

 

"Master... no one will blame you if you mourn." Rashid stood to block his path, a concerned face hiding behind a gigantic beard.

 

"There'll be time for that later. I don't even know the full situation, Rashid." Quatre's shoulders slumped, there was no way he could even try pushing his way against the lumbering giant of a man. "I'm glad I don't know, I need to get on with helping these people out. We can't sit around and cry, we have work to do."

 

The older man stepped aside, letting Quatre move along to meet with these new pilots.

 

*

 

It was a rather awkward silence as the other three boys stood by their respective Gundams. They had been told not to move until someone called Master Quatre had come to collect them. Alone and in a strange place, each of them had elected to lean against the legs of their suits, eyeing up the others suspiciously.

 

It wasn't long after the speech that a small blond haired teenager - one they had seen standing on the walkway above with the leader of the base - approaching them with a smile far too wide for the situation. He was wearing similar clothing to the other natives of the base that were wandering around: baggy trousers and a white dress shirt covered with a purple vest. He was wearing an odd looking set of aviator goggles that seemed to have the job of pushing his bangs out from in front of his eyes.

 

"I'm Quatre Raberba Winner. This," He gestured to the fourth suit in the line. "Is Sandrock. It's nice to meet you all." He deliberately didn't press for any more information, hoping that the other pilots would be relaxed enough to offer it on their own.

 

The first to introduce himself was the brunet uni-bang sporting boy in front of the red Gundam. "I have no name, but I pilot Heavyarms." He seemed to be much taller than Quatre, wearing very tight jeans and a dark turtleneck, it just added to the impression of lankiness. "For this mission, I have been called Trowa Barton. You may call me that, if you like."

 

He lowered his head back down to his chest, his eyes disappearing behind his long fringe. "I also have no name," The Asian pilot grunted, appreciating the irony of there being more than one nameless pilot. He was dressed oddly, a green tank top and what appeared to be spandex pants, all topped off with urine-yellow shoes. "But for this mission, I have been given the name Heero Yuy and the Gundam Wing."

 

"I'm uh, Duo Maxwell," This was the boy with the distinctive braided brown hair, dressed in what seemed to be a priest's garb. "That's actually my name, but I guess I did make it up myself. It's uh, a long story. My baby here is Deathscythe."

 

"Well," Quatre smiled at the others. "It's nice to meet you all. There's a room by mine that I've set up, but since we're so short on space it's going to be two people per room. We can decide who'll go where later, I'm guessing we've got a lot to talk about." The others nodded, moving away from their Gundams and falling in line behind Quatre as he led them through the maze of corridors that was the Maguanac base.