Mobile Suit Gundam Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Mobile Suit Gundam GGeneration: Dreams ❯ Chapter 2: The Meteor That Streaked Through the Sky ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 2: The Meteor That Streaked Through The Sky

`Some believe space to be a symbol of hope for a new life when the colony project first began; to allow people to live in artificial satellites and in new environments. It has become a home to those who live in these new habitats, a new beginning, to restart their lives and to live in peace and harmony with those around them. The Earth is a blue pearl in the vastness of space. As humans, we have a want for peace, but our own nature forbids us to achieve that goal.'

'Throughout history, humans have fought and killed each other for land, money, beliefs and for what they hold dear. Nothing can change how we act and think; it is built into our genes. Selfishness and an insatiable want for more have held humans back from their destination of harmony. But I realise now that we can discard those ideals which hold us back.'

`The people who first left voluntarily for the colonies allowed their minds and hearts to be freed from the restraints of gravity. It allowed them to be able to see, truly see.'

'They saw past their own limitations, they saw past their hatred and selfishness. They were the first true Newtypes. They were able to cast aside these useless things and gain a new understanding of the world, of humans, even of life itself. Their minds surpassed their own dreams and moved into the next step of human evolution.'

'Yet there are still those who remained continue to plunder the beautiful blue planet.'

`I cannot force mankind to leave Earth. No one can. But the will to accept that humans must leave Earth, to allow Mother Nature to recover and regain her beauty is the first step to true evolution, to a true understanding of nature and what it has given to us. So I implore you, people of Earth, cast off the chains of gravity that has kept you on Earth, cast off those ideals that have held you back from your destiny.'

Those were the words written by the late philosopher, named Zeon Zum Deikun, who campaigned peacefully for the independence of the colonies and also advocated the Newtype phenomena. These thoughts and ideas gave hope to those who lived in the hardships of outer space. But these words also began the Zeon War and wiped out half the human race.

The teenager, in a white normal suit, shut the book as he finished reading that passage. His eyes were dark and vacant, without feeling.

The cockpit controls hummed and beeped around him, as the giant blue orb called Earth loomed closer and closer. His shuttle was small compared to the commercial shuttles, but apart from that, it was perfectly normal.

Switching on the monitor above him, an old man, wearing a pair of goggles appeared on the screen and began talking. He had heard the recording for the twentieth time, but his mind was still conflicted.

“Operation Meteor is now in your hands. Do not follow the original plan. I know this is not what you have been trained for, but Operation Meteor cannot be allowed to take place. I have several jobs for you to do once you reach Earth, but after that, you're free to chose your own Destiny, Syuu.” The old man said to the teenager, Syuu. Though the man's eyes were hidden behind a pair of goggles that made him look like a cyborg, but other than that, he seemed like a regular old man talking to his grandson.

“I took away your childhood to train you for the operation, now I know it was a mistake.” The old man tilted his head forwards, ashamed, “I can't ask for your forgiveness Syuu, but know this: even if you are an orphan, I consider you my grandson. So be careful. It's parent's nightmare to outlive their children. Heh.” His half-hearted laugh was a poor attempt at humour. If it were a normal human being watched that video, they would be moved, even saddened by the old man's honesty and sincerity. But Syuu did not understand.

Why, Professor? Why are you doing this?

“Oh, don't lose the Wing Gundam. It took me months to build from the GAT project blue prints that the Titans were working on. I don't want to have to go through that again. Though it lacks the phase-shift armour that the GAT Gundams have, but yours should be just as strong. It should withstand even your destructive nature.” The screen flickered and turned itself off.

Let my heart guide me? What about my orders? How should I carry out my mission? What is my mission?

A frantic beeping on the sensor panel alerted Syuu of him two rapidly approaching bogies. As if waking up from a dream Syuu sat up suddenly and took over control from the computer. His main monitor picked up two Oz Prize Taurus mobile suits, in mobile armour mode. The black fighters were faster than him and were gaining on him, fast.

To make things worse another dot, a MS carrier, also appeared on the imagining sensors.

-----

Before the war with the Principality of Zeon, the United Nations was seen as incompetent but there was no one bold enough to stand up to its overwhelming military might. It was also riddled with internal conflicts as politicians often pursued their own personal agendas rather than for the good of the countries that they represented. If anything good can be said about the Zeon War was that it brought unity to the United Nations with each member focusing on the single task of protecting the planet against the Zeon threat. When Zeon surrendered to the United Nations, the infighting began yet again. This time, however, the conflicts between the representatives escalated into full-scale war and the mass exodus of all members from the United Nations.

Soon chaos spread across the entire planet but the colonies were spared. Five years into what was know as World War III several counties banded together to form new alliances. They called themselves Titans and Oz. The Titans were mostly countries from the American continent and African continent while Oz was made up of European and several Asian countries.

Finally, in CY 085, with help from the pooled military might of the Titans, Oz and other smaller countries, peace returned to the blue planet. The major governments felt that it would be best that a new United Nations was set up in order to improve relations between the newly formed countries and thus the Earth United Federation was born. With the creation of this new United Nations, the Earth United Federal Forces was set up, with civilian volunteers from each country forming the EUFF and only answered to the EUF council while each of the new countries kept their own militaries.

-----

It had been a good day for Vionne Temps and Alden Campbell. Not only were they promoted; they also received a pay rise and also twenty extra shore leave days. This was quite possibly the best patrol they have ever been on.

“Yo! Alden!” Vionne called to his squad mate from the cockpit of the Taurus mobile suit, “What are you gonna do with your extra time off?”

“I don't know. Probably head back to Earth and visit the folks.” Vionne pushed a few buttons and realigned his targeting sensors.

Beep

“Huh? Stupid thing.” Vionne kicked the panel below the sensor.

Beep

“Oh come on." He kicked it again but the beeping continued, "Hey, Alden, you picking up something on your sensor? Its at 232 elevation minus 40?”

“Yeah, I see it. Man that thing's fast for a shuttle.” Alden replied, “Wait, what the hell is a civilian shuttle doing out here?”

A year ago the EUF, under pressure from Oz and the Titan governments, approved a legislation prohibiting all civilian intercolony travel. While vital resources, such as food and fuel, are free to be moved between colonies, but nearly all migration was halted. The following recession and lack of freedom slowly built up within the hearts of the colonists and they rebelled.

“No idea, but that guy's not going anywhere other than jail today.”

Both Taurus suits pushed their engines to the limit so that they could catch up to the shuttle. As they pulled alongside it, they realised that the shuttle was tiny compared to regular ones. Plus, its design was irregular and neither of them recognised the make.

“Strange…” Vionne wondered out loud. There had been rumours going around the base that the rebel underground was sending some kind of secret weapon to Earth. Could this be it? He wasn't going to take any chances.

“This is Oz patrol 252, you're ordered to stop and surrender your vessel. I repeat, you are to stop and surrender your vessel. We will use force to if it becomes necessary."

-----

“Damn, can't out run them with this outer armour. Can't waste the buster rifle rounds on these two rookies either.” Syuu cursed softly afterwards as he watched the Taurus mobile suits slowly move by the Wing Gundam's side. Deciding that it would be futile to continue their little race, he slowed the Wing Gundam and stopped.

Now to see if these two grunts have any skills or not.

-----

Seeing that the shuttle slowed to a halt, Alden and Vionne transformed their Taurus into mobile suit mode. Their dark armour reflected the sun's light, making them look like two giant spectres. Vionne moved in front of the shuttle while Alden stayed behind it, blocking any chance of a quick escape.

“Good. This is gonna be easier than I thought.” Vionne pulled on the arm control lever and pointed the Taurus' large beam rifle at the shuttle, “You in the shuttle, prepare to be boarded.”

“Go to hell.” Syuu said back as he pushed down on one of the buttons on the mobile suit controls.

Two metal panels suddenly ejected off, revealing a missile pod underneath. A pair of small missiles flew straight at the Taurus.

“What the hell-” Vionne tried to react, but it was too late. The missiles impacted squarely on the Taurus' cockpit hatch, but instead of exploding they emitted a blinding flash of light.

The signal flares blinded Vionne and Alden, were completely dazzled by the light. The Taurus suits were like lost children; their pilots blind and most of their instruments jammed due to the extreme exposure to light and the sudden impact. They were completely harmless and totally exposed to an attack.

“Dammit!” Alden yelled out. He tried to check his sensors, but the stars in front of him were blocking his vision. He thought he was going to die.

-----

After the impact, Syuu pulled back on the joystick and the Wing Gundam flew past the two blinded Taurus suits, back on course for Earth. He reset his sensors again to compensate for the electromagnetic interference. Not surprisingly, the MS carrier that he saw early on was right behind him. A single message automatically appeared in the Syuu's monitor:

HEAD FOR ST HELENA

-----

On board the Oz MS carrier, Major James Harris sat in front of two of the most promising pilots of the Oz Mobile Suit Corp: First Lieutenant Vincent de la Norrio and First Lieutenant Richard de la Bretonne. The two pilots were from different families, but they saw each other as brothers or as some would say, blood brothers.

The two men, both in their early twenties, were being assigned to Barge space fortress while testing out two brand new type of mobile suit, the Geminass. Both units were on board with his Tallgeese. The specifications of the two units were identical except unit 01 was white and 02 was dark blue. The thing that sets the units apart from normal Leos and his Tallgeese was not the Gundarium armour, but their PX system. Designed to fully utilise a pilots' adrenaline rush during battle and uses increases the mobile suit's functions accordingly, maximising performance.

James sat there in silence pondering over the Geminass' mechanics while he tried to drown out the drone of chatter from Vincent and Richard behind him. He was a lone wolf who didn't care for relationships or socialising. His mind was analytical and cunning, able to adapt to any situation and it was that which made him one of the best pilots in Oz.

The cockpit cabin door swung open and the co-pilot stepped out.

“Major Harris, there's an unidentified civilian shuttle ahead of us. I think you should take a look at this sir.”

As James stood up, he noticed that both men behind him have stopped chatting and were looking up at him, wondering what the co-pilot meant. It has been rumoured that a group, who calls themselves the AEUG, were sending highly advanced mobile suits to Earth; Operation Meteor the report called it.However the report also indicated the likely hood of another colony drop, hence the name. One of James' principles was never to believe in rumours. But it would seem that, for once, his principles were wrong.

Stepping into the cockpit, the co-pilot showed him a visual scan of the shuttle.

“Hmm…looks like an advanced fighter…” James mumbled to himself, “But the wings makes it look like it's able to transform. What are those two dots behind it?”

“Those? They're Taurus suits, probably a patrol from Barge.” The pilot answered.

James watched as the three dots stop on the sensor. All of a sudden, two flares lighted up the entire area ahead of them.

Clever, he doesn't want to expose his unit to combat so he used flares to blind the Taurus. Could make a worthy foe.

“What was that flash?” The pilot called Vincent walked into the cockpit.

“A civilian shuttle just gave two Taurus the slip.” The pilot reported, “What do you want us to do major?”

James stood there for a few seconds analysing the situation. The corner of his mouth twitched, it was a smile but it existed for only a microsecond. He knew that the pilot of the shuttle was no ordinary person, no normal person would think of that kind of tactic.

“I'm launching with my Tallgeese. Tell the re-entry capsule to meet me at point 090-322.” James turned and walked out of the cockpit.

“Sir, let me and Richard go with you. We'll stan-” James raised his hand and cut Vincent off.

“You two need to get Geminass to Barge as soon as possible. Those were your orders. Don't worry about me, no one has been able to beat me and I'm sure as hell not going to let some shuttle take me down.”

“Fine.” Vincent respected the Major Harris but he always thought that the Major was a wildcard who was able to do whatever he wanted.

-----

“You're clear to launch, Major.”

“Roger that.” The clamps that held the white roman-like mobile suit flew backwards, sending it flying out of the small hanger. James activated the large booster verniers on the back of his mobile suit and shot forwards.

As he closed in on the fighter, he noticed that it resembled a lot like a bird. James brought around the giant metallic bazooka rifle that was attached to one of the boosters of the Tallgeese and fired a shell at the fighter.

Surprised that the fighter didn't dodge the bazooka round, the shell impacted on one of the wings, sending flames and smoke everywhere. James thought that hit would have destroyed it, especially with the grey armour on the shuttle coming off. But what he saw was the true form of Wing Gundam, a bird like fighter.

Worrying slightly, he fired off another shell at the enemy.

-----

So, they sent the legendary Major after me. Suppose my cover's been blown.

Syuu was thrown around in his cockpit when the shell smashed into the Wing Gundam, the beeping told him that wing engine 2 was hit and the extra weight of the camouflage was slowing him down. Ejecting the armour, the Wing Gundam suddenly accelerated to a tremendous speed, but with the damaged engine Syuu still couldn't outrun the Tallgeese. Cursing under his breath, he avoided the next shell and decided that he needs to take care of this before it was too late.

Another message appeared on his monitor, Syuu had no idea who's sending them but he suspected it was Professor B.

SAVE YOUR BUSTER RIFLE ROUNDS. YOU'LL NEED THEM TO TAKE OUT THE OZ BASE ON ST HELENA

I've got three rounds in the buster rifle.

Need to save one for the base, so one round to take care of this fool…

Twisting the joystick, Syuu the Wing Gundam spun around and its buster rifle nose pointing towards the Tallgeese while still travelling at the same speed backwards. Small balls of light began to collect within the nozzle of the buster rifle and a pillar of yellow light shot forth towards James. In anticipation of a miss, Syuu pressed down on the foot pedal and pushing a lever above him, the entire Wing Gundam shook and began to transform.

First to go, it was the head of the fighter. It detached off the main body of the fighter and separated into two parts, a large red shield and a thin rifle with two containers on it. The claws retracted back into the arms and two black hands replaced them. The lower part of the fighter twisted around and clamped down, while a head appeared where the original head of the fighter was. Its wings made it resemble an angel. Its human-like eyes flared with green light as it picked up the shield and the rifle. The mobile suit turned around to face its foe and fired off another pillar of beam energy at James's mobile suit.

-----

James had the nickname of the “Major” for a long time. It was given to him because he had refused to be promoted above the rank of major. He was legendary in the Oz military for it. Most people believe that he did it because he didn't want to upstage his fellow soldiers, but in fact he did it because being promoted to Colonel meant he would not be piloting anymore. Now it was time for him to live up to his reputation.

Before James realised what was going on, a bright flash of beam sped towards him. He was barely able to avoid the pillar of energy as he banked left to dodge it. However, as he avoided the first attack he noticed a second beam emerge out of the now transformed AEUG Gundam. The verniers on the Tallgeese flare to life as James performed a somersault over the oncoming buster rifle shot. If he had reacted slightly later, the bottom half of the Tallgeese would have been caught in the beam and he would have been incinerated instantly.

“So this is what the top-brass call a Gundam.” James said to himself. He wondered whether the Geminass units would perform just as well as this unit. If they don't, then Oz is doomed.

I can't remember I had this much fun. That's it, you're going down.

He promised himself as the Tallgeese threw away the bazooka rifle and unsheathed a beam sabre from its waist. A pink blade of energy extended forth from one end of the sabre, both of the verniers on the Tallgeese flared to life and he charged straight into Syuu's Wing Gundam.

He plunged the beam sabre towards the enemy's cockpit. He was surprised that his enemy was already one step ahead of him. The Wing Gundam's green beam sabre parried James's strike and slashed at back at him. James backed the Tallgeese away to a safe distance.

This guy's no amateur, able to parry a strike like that and then counterattacking so quickly.

James thought as he boosted forwards for another strike. This time, the lifted the beam sabre and swung it downward, trying to slice the Wing Gundam in half.

The planet Earth was huge and provided a blue and white backdrop for the battle. Both pilots know that if this battle doesn't end soon, they're mobile suits will become barbecued in the atmosphere. Wanting to finish the fight quickly, James dived forwards and rapidly jabbed his beam sabre at the white Gundam.

-----

Syuu was forced into a defensive position. He knew that the Major was good, but he had no idea how good. The Tallgeese dodged two buster rifle shots and now forcing him into a corner. This isn't good. Suddenly an opening appeared.

Just before the Tallgeese plunged its beam sabre downwards, Syuu turned the Wing Gundam to the left while slicing his beam sabre upwards. The move took off the Tallgeese's right arm.

Both suits began to emit a red aura as they began to enter the atmosphere.

Now weapon-less, James had no choice except to retreat, but not before he rams the Tallgeese's feet squarely in the Gundam's chest, sending it into a deadly spiral down to through the atmosphere.

“I'll let the atmosphere finish you.” James spat at his foe and took off back into space.

-----

Syuu realised that he was entering the Earth's atmosphere. He was glad to see the enemy move off back into space.

“I refuse to die!” Syuu yelled in his cockpit as he transformed his mobile suit back into the fighter mode and continued to travel down to Earth. The bird-like fighter looked like a meteor as it continued faster and faster down through the atmosphere. The colour in its armour was washed over with red, glowing like a phoenix.

As James looked on, he realised that his was Operation Meteor.

-----

The island of St Helena sat comfortably between the continents of Africa and South America, out in the South Atlantic Ocean. In other words, it was in the middle of nowhere. The location of the island was not strategically important or essential to any of the governments, such as Oz or the Titans. So during the formation of the EUF and marking of new borders, the island was given to Oz as a token of friendship from the Titans. Obviously no one bothered asking the people living on St Helena whether they wanted to govern themselves. So now, instead of just the town of St Helena, a large Oz military base also dominated part of the island. The base destroyed tourism for the island, so a deep sense of resentment dwelled within the resident's heart towards Oz.

Even after the deforestation, the island's ecosystem remained strong. Trees and lush greenery still thrived on the uninhabited parts of the island, providing homes to many hundreds different species of animals, birds and insects. There is a sense of calm and serenity beneath the canopy of trees, but every now and then, the peace is shattered by the thunder of footsteps of dark green Leo mobile suits. They seem clumsier than the other mobile suits used by the EUF, ZAFT or the Titans, since their heads are attached to their shoulders and cannot turn around; but these were definitely easier and cheaper to produce. Though the mobile suits were 16 meters tall, the trees around them still towered over them.

Four Leos made their way through the forest, following a path made by hundreds of patrols before them. There were two standard Leos, Leo Cannon type and leading the way was a customised Leo-N. While the normal Leos walked through the underbrush fine, the Leo-N's gigantic shoulders were having a hard time making it through the trees.

“Captain Schneider,” Rafae Miks, one of the standard Leo's pilot spoke through the crackling radio, “Your new Leo's mighty fine and all, but are you sure that its suited for this type of environment?” Another large tree branch slammed into his Leo with a loud clang.

“What are you talking about, Miks?” Captain Mark Schneider's voice sounded rather cheerful through the radio link, “This thing's great! I finally I get some recognition around here.” The rest of the team realised that Mark was about to go on another rant and braced their minds for the inevitable boredom.

“To think,” Mark continued, “Oz, placing one of their best pilots on this forsaken hell hole. Don't get me wrong, St Helena's a great place, but this place doesn't get its fair share of the action. Come to think of it, this place hasn't had any action period. And to think, they'd place an ace pilot on this dump and give me a team of Leos. What on earth are they thinking? I should be out in Australia leading a real team of soldiers fighting ZAFT.” Mark paused for a second. His men thought it was over, but he just started up again.

“Did you hear what they put in my report? I'm too talkative and refuse to listen to other people. What the hell were they thinking? Me? Talkative? HA! The whole lot of them are just a bunch of inbred monkeys who only know how to push pens across a piece of paper. If I get hold of them I'll sho…”

“Hey, Olsen,” Marigbo Olwatomi, the pilot of the Leo Cannon, opened up a secure channel to the remaining Leo. Mark Schneider's voice was still droning on in the background, “How about us three, just you, me and Miks get together after the patrol for a game of poker back at base. I'll bring along that female operator in base control you always liked.”

“Great! As long as you don't bring Mark its fine with me.” Olsen replied.

The four Leos walked into a clearing in the forest. It marked the halfway line of their patrol. The sky was unusually blue and clear that afternoon, but it wasn't abnormal for the island.

As the three Leos left the forest, they stopped in the centre of the clearing. Rafae Mik's Leo was bring up the rear. Mark has stopped speaking as he checked his sensor panel for any unusual readings.

“Hey, Mik! Come on, we've got the other half of the island to cover before dusk.” Something was wrong.

The three Leo pilots watched as Mik's Leo left the forest. His Leo gradually slowed down and stopped. It was as if something had grabbed hold of it.

“Sir, my Leo's not moving. Wh-” The transmission was cut short as Mik's Leo split right down the middle and exploding in a flurry of flames.

Seeing this, all three pilots panicked. Firing off their machine guns randomly in the direction of the destroyed Leo. The bullets threw up a curtain of dust and smoke. Screams from one of the two pilots filled Mark's headset.

“STOP FIRING!” Mark shouted to Olsen and Olwatomi and soon the sound of machine gun fire stopped. As the dust settled, only Olwatomi's Leo Cannon and Mark's Leo-N was still standing. Bits of Olsen's mobile suit were strewn across the clearing. It seems that Olsen, an inexperience pilot, panicked and tried to make a run for it, but was struck down by the invisible attacker.

“What the hell is going on here?” Mark muttered to himself as he surveyed his surroundings, finding nothing to suggest what destroyed his men. Dropping the machinegun in the Leo's hand, he decided to defend himself with the standard issue Leo beam sabre. The top half of the torso pivoted around the waist, which made up for the fact that Leo mobile suits had no neck, to allow him to see three hundred and sixty degrees. Both Leos were standing back-to-back.

“Olwatomi, you see anything?”

“Negative. What's attacking us?”

“No idea, but keep your eyes open.”

Where are you…? Mark tried to get the thought of death out of his mind and concentrate, but it was very difficult. His eyes shifted from monitor to monitor inside the cockpit, hoping that they will pick up something that will help him. It would seem that his invisible enemy was toying with them both.

Olwatomi tried to keep calm, but it was difficult in such situations where you can't evaluate you're enemy's strengths.

A group of birds flew out from the trees nearby. Both Leos turned towards the noise, but it was not their enemy.

CLUNK

What was that? Did I imagine that or was there actually a clunk right behind me? Then out of Mark's peripheral vision, he saw what looked like a black mobile suit, armed with a beam weapon similar to a giant scythe.

“OLWATOMI! JUMP!”

Without questioning why, Marigbo boosted up his Leo's waist boosters and leaped into the air, with the Leo-N following.

A bright yellow streak appeared across the Leo Cannon's legs. If he hadn't jumped, his cockpit would have been sliced in half.

“Dammit!” Mark did something for the first time in his life. He ran away.

Grabbing his last remaining comrade's Leo, Mark pushed his Leo-N's boosters to maximum to gain enough boost to maintain limited flight and fled from the clearing.

The silent assassin's long beam scythe glowed a deadly shade of green; its user, a black gothic Gundam mobile suit. Steam poured out from the yellow chest vents, its eyes glowing inside its dark face.

“Woot! I, Strass Bernard, the just owned your pathetic butts! Pathetic, you hear me? You're pathetic! HA!” Its pilot called out in triumph, “This Hyper Jammer thing works great on Deathscythe! They couldn't even tell where I was! It's great! I still can't believe Dr Z was able to get his hands on those GAT unit's schematics that the Titans was working on.” The boy, no older than 17, was clearly talking to himself but he felt like shouting out his experience. His hair was dyed black and his outfit was similar to those of priests, quite fitting for his mobile suit he piloted. When Strass quietened down, he turned to the direction of St Helena's Oz base. Several pillars of smoke rose from it.

“Hmm…controlled burst, 5 seconds. Should give me 15 seconds up in the air…” He mumbled as his foot pressed own on the control pedals, deciding to take a peek. The black Gundam jumped up no less than 100m into the air. Monitors in the Gundam immediately flashed as it detected the battling mobile suits and enlarged their images.

Many of the images that flashed before Strass was the Oz's mobile suits trying to defend the base, but a single attacking mobile suit in the base caught his attention. Both of them was similar to his Gundam, except one was red in colour and it was firing missiles out of every crevice of its body as well as shooting what seems like a gigantic gatling gun mounted on its right arm. Strass whistled to himself, impressed by the machine.

His 15 seconds up, the Gundam Deathscythe descended down into the trees of the island. Strass saw what he wanted to see, but he missed a red dot above the horizon that was heading straight for St Helena.

-----

“Need…to…hang…on…!” Syuu struggled to keep control of the damaged winged fighter. Though he was through the atmosphere, however with the damaged wing engine shedding smoke behind it like blood. The Gundam wasn't cooling down as quickly as he thought. The island was a small speck within the vast blue ocean, but it was getting closer. If Syuu didn't slow down, he'll dive straight into it.

If I transform Wing to mobile suit mode at this speed it would tear it apart.

Syuu's mind tried to focus, but the heat within the cockpit was intense. Floods of sweat was pouring down his forehead and forming a small puddle at the bottom of his helmet. Pulling hard on the control joystick in his hand, he adjusted his heading but his Gundam had other ideas. An explosion from the damaged wing engine caused it to slowly lose altitude. With the island coming closer and closer he noticed pillars of smoke rising up from the base.

Must be the others Professor B talked about... Syuu decided that there was only one thing to do.

Firing off all of the thrusters in the remaining wing and in the Gundam's foot, which formed the engines at the back of the fighter, Syuu was pressed back into his chair by the G-force. The heat of the cockpit dropping steadily, Syuu felt his entire machine rumble and shake as streaks of yellow light flew at him from the ground. But his speed was so great that the bullets just bounced off.

“Took them long enough to notice me…but now… IT'S TOO LATE!”

Wing was only about 30 meters from the ground as it reached the Oz Prize base on St Helena. Flying over the grey buildings, he pulled hard on the joystick, letting his fighter fly up vertically for 200 meters.

Seeing his speed decrease to 0 from the 180-degree climb, Syuu smiled. Pressing down on one the foot pedals and pushing forwards a lever above him, the entire fighter transformed into mobile suit mode. Pointing his rifle down towards the base, he pulled the trigger.

The Gundam mobile suit saw Syuu's little stunt and used their boosters to jump away from the base, as if knowing exactly what he was going to do. The bright yellow beam slammed down into one of the buildings. The resulting explosion engulfed much of the base.

Syuu laughed. His laughter rang throughout his cockpit. The Wing Gundam, out of control, plummeted down towards the oceans of St Helena.

His training to be the perfect soldier left him with barely any feelings. Syuu felt no remorse, no sadness, no happiness. He wasn't laughing because he liked to kill or enjoy seeing the destruction. He was laughing because it was the only logical thing to do. Laughter was the only thing keeping Syuu sane.

Even after he fainted, the echoes of laughter echoed around his cockpit.

-----

Riken Holm enjoyed tea in the afternoon. As the leader of Oz military, he rarely had time to enjoy the beauty of the greenery that surrounded his mansion in France. He raised the small teacup to his mouth and took a sip. The texture of the tea was perfect.

Birds chirped happily on the trees around the large glass dome that sat in the middle of the garden. There was a sense of calm everywhere around Riken and he felt at peace. He wore a blue caped uniform with gold embroidery on the collar and on the sleeves.

It had been a long day for him, especially the meeting with the head of the Oz Government Council. The Romefeller Foundation, the group who funds the Oz military, was unsatisfied with the progress of Operation Darling. If it wasn't for Riken's speech, the Romefeller Foundation would have cut funding to Oz and use their elite marines, soldiers taken from the Oz military itself, to completed the operation themselves.

One wonders why they allow senile old men to be in charge of the world...

A young woman walked up the path towards the glass dome. She was wearing a brown officer's Oz Prize uniform; though her hair was tied back it still fell all the way down to her waist. She knocked on the dome's door before entering.

“Your Excellency,” Though Riken was the leader of the Oz military, his subordinates holds him in such high esteem, and they felt it necessary to idolise him, even though he repeatedly told them not to.

“We just receive reports that our base on the St Helena Island has just been attacked and our forces have been basically wiped out. Two mobile suits made it out and most of the base's surviving personnel have escaped on several ships. Two recovery transports have been dispatched.” Her mouth twitched as she read the report. There was visible anger on her face, displeased at the fact that an entire base was taken by just 3 mobile suits.

“It seems that they were attacked by advanced mobile suits, called Gundams,” She continued, “which were built by a group called the AEUG from the plans of the GAT Project. I'll send out troops to St Helena and de-”

Riken raised his hand and she stopped.

“There's no need, Miss Tyme. It seems that our actors are here to begin the first act.” He said. His eyes were shut as he took a sip of he tea.

"Prepare the next step of Operation Darling. It is time for us to invite in our guests."