Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wufei's Justice ❯ Chapter 7

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Wufei's Justice

Chapter Seven

Sally watched as four small blips on the screen in front of her rapidly approached Zechs' lone shuttle, and the six enemy ships. One of the six ships broke away, changing course to intercept the Winner Mining group.

"If that shuttle opens fire at those little mining machines, they won't have a chance."

Wufei snorted. "Do you really think they'd enter a battle, any battle, if they were truly outgunned?"

Sally gazed at him in surprise. "Are you telling me these things have superior weapons capability?"

"I'm telling you I don't think Quatre is stupid. He's mining Gundanium. Not arming his equipment well would be incredibly foolhardy."

Sally watched the various ships moving on the screen, the four mining craft avoided the single shuttle approaching them, spreading out to flank all the enemy shuttles. Zechs piloted his shuttle in a maneuver that would help draw their enemies toward the funnel the ex-Gundam pilots were forming.

She smiled. "It's like watching a well choreographed ballet."

Wufei's lips curled up. "It feels very much like that too."

"Do you miss it that much, Wufei?"

"What? Fighting in space?"

"Battle."

He looked away, his eyes becoming unfocused as if viewing events that only he could see inside his mind. "When I fought, in my Gundam, I had the sense of being in total control of my own destiny, dispensing justice in my own way." He met her gaze squarely. "Battle is a means by which those ends are achieved. But in reality, that sense of control is an illusion. Destiny is not something you can hold in your hands and dole out like a deck of cards at a gaming table. It is something you choose with every action you take, every decision you make. Whether you're in a Gundam, or an unarmed skiff."

Sally opened her mouth, but no sound came out. No one had ever spoken to her so plainly about their convictions before. Trust Wufei to take the topic to a whole new level. But before she could utter a word, the proximity warning went off. She whipped her head around and stared at the screen.

"One of the six enemy shuttles is breaking off from the others, heading our way."

Wufei's hands flickered over the ships control panel. "What are the other five doing?"

"Two are headed straight for Zechs, the other three appear to be trying out flank Quatre, Duo, Heero, and Trowa."

"Out of the four pilots, who's closet to us?"

"Trowa."

"Send him a message. We're going to need some backup."

"Why?"

"I think that ship is on its way to destroy the satellite." He flipped a couple switches above his head. "We're about to lose our cover."

Sally watched the screen, the ship continued to approach on a direct vector for the satellite. "Damn. At least we're fast."

"Hn. At the moment it's the only advantage we've got."

"I disagree." Sally watched Wufei's eyebrow rise in question. "We have two advantages."

A few seconds went by in silence before he asked. "And they are?"

"One is our speed. The other is the skill of an ex-Gundam pilot at the controls."

Sally could see him fighting not to smile as he powered up the engines. "Flattery… "

"That's not flattery Wufei. It's the truth."

He shook his head. "If I didn't know better I'd say you've been spending time with Maxwell again."

Sally laughed out loud. "He does have a certain effect on people, doesn't he?"

"One that's usually unexpected."

Sally finished typing up a quick mayday to Trowa and punched in the send command. "Message sent."

"Good. Prepare to detach."

Sally strapped herself into the co-pilot's seat just as Wufei released the docking clamps. He fired the engine, putting them on a heading to intercept with Trowa.

Sally's eyes never left the radar scanner's screen. "They've seen us. The shuttle has increased speed and altered course to put us within his weapons range in approximately…," she calculated the time. "Three minutes."

"Trowa's ship?"

"On its way, but since I don't know what kind of armaments it has I don't know if he has long distance weapons capability or not."

"A few evasive maneuvers should give Trowa a sufficient amount of time to get within range, whatever he's got. Monitor for energy build-up in the shuttle, that should give us a couple seconds warning before they fire."

"Roger."

Sally fine-tuned the scanners to pick up energy fluctuations; a flash on another screen caught her attention.

"One of the shuttles just fired at Zechs!" Sally said, unable to keep a tone of fear out of her voice.

Wufei didn't comment. He didn't have to; she could see the grim expression on his face perfectly well.

"He's moving to avoid and has returned fire." As she watched the enemy ship disappeared off her screen. "The attacking shuttle has been destroyed," she reported, breathing a sigh of relief.

"They are too hasty." Wufei said, disgust coloring his tone. "To enter a battle without first knowing the strength, ability, and conviction of your opponent is idiotic."

Sally glanced at him. He hadn't taken his eyes off the controls, yet his face was an angry mask.

"Wufei?"

"A stupid, foolish mistake…" he whispered. "A mistake I once made with Treize Kushrenada." He paused for a moment. "I underestimated him, as these pathetic people have underestimated us." Wufei turned his head to look straight at her. "You are right Sally. These fools don't deserve to die. What they need is to be taught a lesson."

Sally smiled grimly. "As Preventers, that's our job, Wufei. We fought long and hard and learned that there is no morality behind war or battles. Only suffering of one kind or another. It is our duty to instruct those who do not understand that."

"Then let us begin the lesson, and instruct these poor fools in the futility of war."

Sally nodded. Her fingers a blur over the panel in front of her, presenting a tactical display of their region of space.

Wufei considered it carefully.

"I'm changing our heading to bring us closer to the approaching shuttle. I am also decreasing our speed. I want the pilot to think we're vulnerable."

"You're going to lure him in, aren't you?"

"Yes. Please send a message to Trowa and the others. Ask them not to aim for their engines, tell them we want them alive when this is over."

"Roger," Sally said, her hands flying across the keyboard. "Message is…sent."

They watched the tactical display as the other ships tried to out maneuver the ex-Gundam pilots. But Duo, Heero, and Quatre's mecha were to mobile, too fast, and in the end more deadly than the shuttles chasing them. All used short range beam cannon, designed to precision blast out chunks of raw Gundanium, and even beam saws, that were supposed to precisely cut rock, to disable one ship after another, till all were powerless in space.

The shuttle pursuing them fired it's beam canon at them and had they been a slower ship, would have been destroyed. But, Sally detected the energy build-up a full three seconds before the canon fired and Wufei was able to move them out of target range in time.

Three times, Wufei's superior piloting skills saved them from being blasted to bits, before Trowa finally caught up to the shuttle, disabling it with one swipe of his beam saw.

Wufei nodded to Sally, indicating that she should open a broadband communication channel.

"This is the Preventers," Wufei said coldly. "You have violated section twelve of the Earth Sphere penal code and are under arrest." He paused. "Surrender. You are defeated."

###

Sally and Wufei emerged from the skiff in the docking bay at the Winner mining operation two hours later, to find the pilot's and crew of the attacking shuttles huddled on the floor, hands bound behind their backs, guarded by several of Quatre's miners. Sally did a double take as she recognized several of them as Maquanacs.

Quatre waved at them. "Wufei! Sally!" They've been remarkably well behaved since we towed them in. A couple have even asked if they can make a statement."

Wufei just snorted.

"Thank you Quatre," Sally said with a smile. "Looks like you've got everything under control here."

"Hey Wufei!" Duo's voice carried easily over the low hum of equipment as he, Heero, and Trowa crossed the bay to join their friends. "Thanks for providing such an entertaining day for us. Remind me to get you a nice present for Chinese New Year."

"I need no presents, Maxwell." The scowl lifted off Wufei's features. "Consider today's events a gift that needs no return."

"Okay." Duo looked Wufei and Sally up and down. "Did you guys get roughed up by those guys or something?"

Wufei frowned. "No."

"Then where is your shirt? And why does Sally look like she just went through a hurricane?"

Sally felt her face heat up and couldn't keep her hand from running through her hair in a futile attempt to fix it. Wufei stepped in front of her, blocking her from his friends' view.

"Sally looks as beautiful as ever," he said, his tone threatening bodily harm to anyone who disagreed. "As for my shirt…I got hot and took it off. End of story."

"The environmental controls on board the satellite and must have malfunctioned," Trowa said, as small smile lighting up his normally expressionless face.

Wufei glared at him, but said nothing more on the subject. "We need to process these prisoners. Excuse us."

"Sure thing, Wufei," Duo said, casting another glance at Sally's hair. "Uh, Sally? Before you do that, do you want to borrow my brush?"

TBC…