This is a long one. Be warned.

Episode 8

Lu steered Tallgeese III towards the K19 research colony’s docking bay. The Gundams had finally been completed a few weeks ago. The new team of pilots almost immediately began to patrol the space between colonies assisting the colony-based units of Taurus suits whenever attacks came. There had been reports of suspicious activity in the sectors near the K19, and even though the colony had been evacuated shortly after the K20 incident, Preventer expected an attack to come any day now.

Rowan and Lu had been sent alone to investigate. They had nearly reached the colony when they saw an explosion rip through its Southern block. Lu knew that they had a fight on their hands. "Hecate, Did you see that?"

"Yeah, Captain I saw it." She sighed.

Lu arched an eyebrow at Rowan’s tone of voice. Although she had proven herself to be an exceptional fighter, Lu knew that Rowan did not enjoy fighting. In the past few weeks he had spent quite a bit of time with the green-eyed beauty. They had seemed to grow so close while completing the Gundams, especially after that first night in the hangar. Solo had become almost insufferable with his constant ribbing. "When are you two gonna shut up and hook up?" He’d ask. Then Lu would give him a death glare, and Jade if she were around, would question Solo’s complete lack of honor. Rowan would never say a word; usually she would go off to work on Hecate or one of the other suits when the topic came up. Lu would find her later and they would work together in silence content with each other’s company. Lu felt very close to the mysterious mechanic. However, with each battle she seemed to draw further inward.

"Hecate?"

"Yes, captain."

"Are you ready for this?"

"I have to be" She said and guided her suit towards the explosion.

***

Using the Hecate’s jamming array, Rowan had gone around the outside of the colony towards the Southern block to try and surprise the enemy. Lu decided that the best strategy would be for him to come up on the attacking mobile doll forces from within the colony, hopefully trapping them between Hecate’s and his own attacking Gundams. The only problem with this plan was the risk of the colony exploding with him inside. "If it’s my day to go then there’s no use worrying about it." He whispered to himself as he guided Tallgeese further into the colony.

At first he appeared to be alone. He could only see a few scattered standing buildings among the rubble in the smoke filled haze that was now the colony’s interior. It was unnaturally quiet, like the eye of the hurricane. A brief pause in the midst of great destruction. Where are you hiding?

Just then the alarms in his suit went off. Mobile dolls began to emerge from the smoke. A small smile started to play on Lu’s lips. Time to go to work.

***

It took Lu about an hour, but he finally made it through to the area where the explosion he and Rowan had witnessed earlier had occurred. He looked around but saw no sign of either Rowan or the mobile doll forces. He guided the Tallgeese out of the colony through a large hole in its wall caused by the explosion.

The space just outside the colony was littered with mobile doll parts. That’s my girl. But still there was no Rowan. Where could she be? He turned towards the colony. Maybe she went in to look for me. The alarm on his suit activated again. "I thought we had taken care of all the mobile dolls." He snapped turning the Tallgeese away from the colony. He raised its mega cannon and prepared to fire.

"Damn it Lu, don’t point that thing at me." A voice barked. A black mobile suit seemed to appear out of thin air. Its dark wings reflecting the dim light from the colony, it positioned itself directly in front of him.

"Sorry Rowan, but you shouldn’t sneak up on a guy like that." Lu chuckled. "Why were you cloaking yourself anyway?"

"I just wanted to be sure that you weren’t followed out of the colony by any extra mobile dolls."

"Don’t worry, I think we finished them all. There isn’t a threat here anymore."

"That’s what you think boy." A deep voice growled.

***

Jade sighed and rubbed her temples. The computer screen in front of her sat blinking, mocking her. She had spent the last four hours since she had come in from patrol trying to find any information whatsoever about Preventer Shadow’s past. What she had come up with only gave her more questions.

Her tired mind barely registered the sound of the door to her quarters opening before a cup of coffee was shoved in her face.

"Hey Jadie, I though you could use this." Solo said setting the coffee down on the desk in front of her.

"Maxwell, I know your mother taught you to knock before entering a woman’s quarters. Did you simply choose to ignore her teachings or do you have a death wish?"

"Calm down Jadie, I was just tryin to be friendly."

Jade glanced at the cup of coffee on the table and then at his violet eyes. Maxwell baka! "Fine, perhaps you could make yourself useful and tell me if you found anything on Preventer Shadow, because I have come up short."

Solo scratched his head. "Actually Jadie I was kind of hoping that you had found something."

"Nothing, I can find no record of a Preventer Shadow before the J9 incident and everything after that is marked as classified."

"J9, that’s where they killed that Gundam pilot right?"

Jade nodded and motioned towards the computer screen. "It appears that our friend Shadow has many secrets."

***

Alex looked around him before turning back towards the vid screen. "Sorry, I thought I heard someone."

"Is it safe for you to speak?" The voice on the other end asked.

"Yeah, I’m clear. How are things there?"

"Fine, these attacks are keeping me busy. What about you?"

"Good, I don’t think they trust me though."

"Would you if you were in their place?" The voice laughed.

"No, I guess not. But you know why I haven’t told them any thing."

"It would be dangerous, I understand…" The voice paused. "You know that they’ll find out eventually."

"Yeah." Alex sighed. "I just hope they don’t hate me for it."

***

"That’s what you think boy." A deep voice growled.

"What the…"

A mobile suit appeared in the space just outside the colony. The Gundam. It was larger than the Tallgeese, and seemed to ooze malice. The massive suit was almost entirely red; a sickening shade akin to dried blood. It held a long beam glaive, which glowed, in a similar shade of red, at the ready. Lu could see the barrel of a large buster rifle poking up from behind the left shoulder of the suit. A small heat rod trailed down from its shield arm. Lu recognized it as the suit that had appeared on screen during the K20 incident.

"Well boy, are you just going to float there all day?" The voice asked.

"Who are you?" Lu questioned the suit’s pilot.

"I am your death boy. I had come to see Preventer’s hope. I was expecting a challenge. What I find is a boy in an antique and a woman no less." He laughed.

Lu thought he heard Rowan swear.

"Let me give you a bit of advice boy, from personal experience I’ve found that women are hopelessly incompetent when it comes to piloting mobile suits. They’re nothing but cannon fodder."

The next few moments seemed to go in slow motion for Lu.

"Fucking Bastard!" He heard Rowan shout over the com. Then he saw the Hecate charge the other Gundam. She brought her beam saber down with more speed than Lu thought possible. Yet the Gundam blocked it easily.

"Oh, it seems I’ve touched a nerve." The Gundam pilot mocked.

The two suits began to trade blows at a lightening quick pace. Neither suit doing much damage to the other. Lu was frozen; the dance between the two suits held him in place. Each time one would attack the other would block. It appeared that the two were just about evenly matched.

Suddenly Hecate made a swipe at the Gundam’s head with the beam saber, while at the same time lashing out with its heat rod. The Gundam dodged the saber’s blow but its glaive was caught by Hecate’s heat rod and destroyed. "Impressive" The pilot said backing his suit away from Hecate.

Rowan grunted in response. Lu, now able to move, guided the Tallgeese closer.

"It appears your woman has some talent." The pilot remarked.

"Asshole." Rowan replied. Turning her suit back towards the colony. "I’m outta here Lu."

"Pity."

Huh? Lu shook his head. What does he mean pity? His own question was answered for him as he noticed in horror that the Gundam had pulled its buster rifle and was aiming it at Hecate. It appeared that Rowan noticed as well because the Hecate began to turn. She’ll never get clear in time.

Lu knew what he had to do. He hit the turbos on his suit and charged the Gundam. It’s pilot, surprised by the sudden movement, hesitated a moment before firing. The shot went wide completely missing the Hecate. It did, however, manage to clip the Tallgeese’s right side. The impact was intense. Lu was able to make out the pilot’s deep laughter before his world went black.