SD Gundam Fan Fiction ❯ Gundam Force Saga ❯ Of Homes Lost and Found [Part 1] ( Chapter 2 )

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

Chapter 2: Of Homes Lost and Found [Part 1]

Sorry! Only half a chapter; the first half took so long to write, I didn't want to wait until the second half was done to finally do an update. D:

Cybertoy00- Oh yeah, I forgot to say that! :o Bandoleer Bizack is the BL-85X TR-2 BiZack, and Rake Rosette is the RX-107 TR-4 Rosette. Both MS are from "Advance of Z" (they're also awesome).

Disclaimer: Gundam's not mine. Sadly.

While LaGowe deliberated, his unit and the Gundam Force peered at each other. Neither group was familiar with the other's type, and the more curious were openly watching. The BuCue were sitting or lying down, resting while still being alert and on-guard, but the two nearest the Gundam Force were paying more attention to them than their surroundings.

Human eye met monoeye and looked away, and glanced back. Shute couldn't resist any longer and scooched nearer. "What's your name?"

The two soldiers glanced to each other and whispered back.

"I'm Meir."

"And I'm Kack."

"I'm Shute." The boy grinned. The BuCue nodded, and then Shute remembered he'd introduced himself earlier when talking about Neotopia. Oops. "Oh yeah.. Uh... your homeland! What's it like?"

Their ear-spikes flitted back and forth, and they tilted their heads to one side as if uncomprehending.

"Well... right now you know more about us than we do about you! If we're gonna be friends, we should get to know each other!"

Meir straightened up. "If LaGowe--"

Kack nudged him. "He's right. And it can't do any harm, right?"

Meir paused. "Oh, I suppose." He shrugged. "Lamen is a nice planet, I guess." Kack elbowed him again. "Stop that." ("Never," Kack retorted.) "I mean, it's home."

Kack took over. "Your Neotopia sounds rather similar to it. Lamen is a techno-organic paradise," he said proudly.

Shute blinked. "Techno-organic? Like how?"

The soldier peered at him. "You don't kn--oh, I guess not. Lamen has had techno-organic life for hundreds of years, but about ten years ago a movement was started advocating robots built without any organic components. It was a radical concept, but it became popular enough that many pure-metal robots have been built since then." He made a sighing sound. "Still... it -- among other events -- sparked the war."

Shute boggled. "Ohh.. Partially-organic robots.. cool!"

The BuCue looked at him quizzically.

"I mean, in Neotopia, everyone's either entirely organic or entirely robotic. Well, except for some humans -- organics like me -- who have robotic arms or whatever because they'd lost them.. they're called cyborgs."

Meir head-tilted again. "Purely organic life has not existed on Lamen for... a long time."

Shute was fascinated. "That sounds amazing! I'd love to see it!"

Kack sounded pleased. "It is amazing."

LaGowe watched them subtly. He had figured that if any of his unit were to engage in free conversation, it would have been those two; they were easily the most curious and extroverted among them. He let them talk, knowing that they would not betray anything, and that the Gundam Force's reactions would help him make his decision.

Captain interjected, "You two were not among the ones that initially attacked us."

Kack blinked, surprised by the random statement. "No, we weren't. Meir and I were far out, along with Ream." He nodded to a BuCue that looked different from the others; he was equipped with several different scanners and a large sensor dish on his back in place of the large cannons the others had. Ream stared back imposingly at the two soldiers and the Gundam Force.

Shute looked at the two remaining BuCue that must have been their attackers, and paused. "Wait, our sensors showed six right up until they attacked us... But if there were six there, and three were here... And LaGowe talked about eight BuCue plus himself... Shouldn't there be nine here?" He swayed in swirly-eyed confusion.

Ream, the recon BuCue, made an amused noise, but didn't elaborate.

Kack shook his head. "Secret," he said, and twitched his ear-spikes.

Ream laughed at that. "I am a sensor expert," he said only, but with pride.

"Huh..." Shute said, blinking. "What about the other three LaGowe mentioned?"

Kack shifted. "Ah... They died in battle."

"Oh," said Shute sympathetically.

An uncomfortable silence fell.

LaGowe spoke, finally. "I have decided." He paused; everyone's attention turned to him. He continued. "We will ally, at least temporarily." Shute whooped. One of the BuCue that Shute didn't know the name of shifted position; the other peered at his new potential-enemies-turned-allies out of the corner of his optic. Meir and Kack looked pleased, and Ream looked -- neutral.

The Gundam Force was more animated. Hazel was visably relieved, and Lily flashed her sweetest smile at LaGowe. Zero and Baku smiled encouragingly. Captain's attention had gone to his communication system, to inform the Gundamusai of the decision.

"Understood," Chief Haro said into the commsystem. "Good work, Captain, everyone." The pride he felt for his team shone through his voice.

"Thank you, Chief," Captain's voice was tinny from the commsystem's distortion, but it did not hide the warmth.

Haro smiled behind his mask and, suddenly remembering Kao Lyn and his charges, went to call up the repair lab.

The scientist's face appeared on the monitor. "What news, hmm?"

"Good news, my friend. They chose to ally, even if only temporarily."

Kao Lyn whooped and did a dance. "I knew it~ I knew they could do it~"

In the background, Haro could hear a sharp noise, followed by someone -- Rake Rosette, perhaps? -- saying, "What?! Is he kidding?" Someone else -- the other Dark Axis officer, probably -- commented, "Well, if it's true, then it's one heck of a lucky break."

Kao Lyn looked away from the comm's monitor, replying to the other two, "Of course it's true! This is no kidding matter after all~"

The first voice protested, "But they would never stop their hunt! What the Dell did you offer them?!"

Kao Lyn made a disapproving sound. "Hey now," he started, but Haro interrupted him.

"No, it's quite understandable... I could tell it was a difficult decision for LaGowe. I can only assume that his desire to rebuild his homeworld outweighed his desire for revenge," the Chief paused. "Even if but temporarily," he added, and stopped, wondering if they'd take it.

Rake Rosette had come into visual range of the commsystem, and was scrutinizing the Chief as well as he could. After several moments, he said finally, "All right. Though it doesn't look like I have much choice..." he glanced off-screen. "...But there are worse places I could be than here."

Shortly after, the two parties split and returned to their respective bases. LaGowe and the rest of his unit vanished into the sensor-blind maze of subterranean tunnels; the Gundam Force flew back up to the Gundamusai's launch docks, passing repair crew fixing the lower hull.

Aboard the 'Musai, Shute found himself retelling what happened several times, to the control crew at the dock, to the bridge crew when they finally reached it, and not to mention random people asking in the halls.

After the report, the bridge fell into contemplative silence broken only by computer sounds and then, RAIMI's voice.

"How will we contact them again?"

Ever the voice of reason.

Captain nodded. "They entered the tunnel system below..."

"And I checked; my sensors cannot scan the contents of the tunnels, only register that they exist," RAIMI continued.

"Hm," Zero murmured. "They know this land far better than we do. I believe that they can contact us at their own leisure..."

"So we're just going to wait for them to come back?..." Shute trailed off uncertainly.

Haro shook his head. "I don't think that's be necessary. Zero is right; I'm sure they could find us as long as we remain on this planet."

With that in mind, they returned to exploring and searching for the Zakorello clan; now with greater speed, for they knew there were no more Dark Axis remnants within LaGowe's extensive patrol range. They also called home; before leaving, Bell Wood had installed a system in the 'Musai that allowed them to call similar systems across the multiverse -- such as its twin in Neotopia.

The city was fine; it had been quiet ever since Sazabi's failed invasion, though it was a different kind of peace than before the Dark Axis had come. They were more experienced now, and better understood their place in the multiverse.

Bell Wood had been left in charge of the S.D.G. in the Chief's absence, and the Gunchoppers and Guneagle had stayed behind to protect the city in case anything should happen while the main force of the organization was away. Guneagle had protested, wanting to be where he knew the action would be, and was only somewhat placated by the knowledge that he was the de facto leader of the Gundam Force division in Captain's absence.

Regardless of the precautions, nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

After that, they began to pursue the location of Lamen, LaGowe's homeworld. First they asked Paparello, but he didn't know, telling them that the Dark Axis had invaded Lamen before they had captured him.

"Wait..." Shute said suddenly. "How did the Dark Axis get around without you?"

The Zakorello Gate related, in his slow way, what little he knew. The Dark Axis used to have a dimensional transport device of their own -- where it came from or who built it, he didn't know -- but it broke. He couldn't specify how, but that had been the reason the army attacked the Zakorello clan. He had never personally opened a portal to LaGowe's homeworld, but he did have an idea.

"Rello... Why not ask tall robot?... The one you found here, rello..."

That lost them until they realized he was referring to Rake Rosette, who was relatively tall. Nowhere near the Zakorello's height, but about as tall as Commander Sazabi.

Rake was very reluctant to tell them, although he did admit that he knew the 'way' to Lamen's dimension. He loudly believed that going there would be disastrous, especially if it meant bringing him with them, and warned that it was probably a trap. Eventually, the Chief asked Hazel to try and convince him.

The Gundam entered the repair lab, where Rake was still being held for observation and recovery. No one besides Rake was there, not even Bandoleer, which was unusual. The two former Dark Axis officers preferred to stay together, even if they only argued or ignored each other. Perhaps Kao Lyn had finally booted him out of the lab.

He found Rake sitting on the main table, tapping it with one taloned foot while looking off into space; probably thinking.

"Rake?"

The robot glanced at him. "So you're the next line of.. questioning?"

Hazel paused before answering. "Yes."

"I won't go back to that planet. And I won't stay on this planet, either. If you lot plan on going there next, what're you going to do with me, huh?"

Hazel was silent a minute. "I don't know. That's up to the Chief to decide, but--"

"What, I don't get a say in this?" Rake interrupted sullenly.

Hazel said nothing. In truth, he didn't know what to say.

Rake made a sighing sound. "I don't know..."

"I don't believe that the Chief would risk your life. You're with the S.D.G. now, after all."

"I believe you're naive, noob," Rake said.

"Then I will make sure you are not harmed," Hazel pressed. "But the S.D.G. was created to counter and reverse the damage caused by the Dark Axis. For that reason, we can't ignore Lamen."

Rake shook his head. "You, protect me? Ah, what has the multiverse come to.. Gundams protecting their enemies.. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. You're all so eager to jump into everyone else's business, one of these days it's going to get you all blown to bits." He looked straight at Hazel and added, "I'll give the address to you."

Hazel smiled. "Thank you," he said, sounding relieved.

"Don't thank me yet," Rake muttered.

For those who don't know: RAIMI is the Neotopian-made AI navigator of the Gundamusai, which is the Magna-Musai rennovated after Sazabi's defeat.

LaGowe is a TMF/A-803 LaGOWE.
Meir, Kack, Goran and Zoc are TMF/A-802 BuCUE; Ream a Tactical Recon Type BuCUE.