Matrix Dragon Presents.... Gundam Sorceress Part Two Most of this isn't my creation. Surprised? I didn't think so. *** A few hours ago, the Gundam Sorceress had fought a number of Earth Sphere Alliance Mobile Suits and armoured vehicles, destroying all of them in a short but brutal battle. Now, several platoons of Leo Mobile Suits, supported by Aries suits and attack helicopters in the air, had secured the site to try and find information that would aid them in future battles against the Gundam. Colonel David Talbot, ESA Army, watched as investigators studied the wreckage of the various mobile suits. He expected that, true to form, the investigators would spend weeks, even months, studying photographs, black boxes and such before someing to the same conclusion the experienced pilots here had already made. He could see how the Gundam had destroyed a number of suits with a close range weapon. He'd heard stories from the survivors of the Nowra attack that the Gundam carried a massive sword, probably made from similar materials to the armour. Most of the Leos that were destroyed in ranged attacks early on in the battle had been taken out by accurate laser pulses that penetrated the Leo's reactors. A lot of the Aries had been destroyed in close where they were weakest. And when the Gundam was low on ammo for its head vulcans and arm cannons, it had grabbed the gunpods of fallen suits, allowing it to keep fighting at a distance. All in all, David was very impressed. Despite the fact that this pilot was an enemy, he had remarkable skills. As an experienced pilot himself, David wished that there was some way for a fair fight with this mystery person. *** Once again, Lina had hidden the Gundam in a forest, simply because she couldn't think of anywhere else to hide it. Australia was either forest, desert or farmland in most regions. There were mountains, but none in locations that would make hiding a giant robot a simple matter. Right now, she was busy reloading the Gundam's weapons systems. The arm cannons were almost fully recharged, but the head-mounted Vulcan cannons were almost completely empty. The Mobile Suits designers had known about the potential weakness of a weapon that depended on a supply of ammunition in the type of war that Lina would be fighting in, and had designed the Vulcan to use the same 50mm ammunition as the gunpods of the Leo and Aries Suits, providing Lina with a constant supply. She had found a commercial radio station on her mobile suits radio, and she ended up singing softly as she fed the ammo belts into the autocannons. Once she was done there, she climbed into the cockpit and activated the satelite uplink, before she began working at a furious pace. "Okay, they've got to be co-ordinating their search efforts," she muttered to herself, "which means that the data has to be stored somewhere. It'd have to be transmitted between bases, which means it's online. The Alliance's Milnet would be the place to look." Accessing the Milnet was as easy as ever, thanks to a number of backdoors Lina had learnt of over the years. The Alliance had rather poor computer security, due to a rather ironic fact. Fearing the chance of rebels accessing ESA military information, the Alliance created their security systems in house, using programmers who could be trusted. These programmers were members of a ESA unit known as Net Force, the cyberspace division of the Specials, Oz's cover group. In order to allow Oz better access to the Alliance's military data, Net Force had created a number of back doors for their own use. Three years ago, a member of a Specials unit assigned to Colony F-6 had been captured by rebels, and the details on a number of backdoors were revealed, before they staged his death by drug overdose. In a matter of minutes, Lina was searching through the files on the Australian servers, trying to find troop movements, notably those connected to search parties. She was ignored by any system defences, electronic or otherwise, thanks to the ident-code her signal carried. A Specials ident. "Hmm... troop transfers to the Middle East battlegrounds, Leo construction rates at Australian factories, bingo! Mobile Suit movements in the state of Victoria." A diagram came up on the screen, showing the region that Lina was currently in. After that, the map was covered by a grid, which lit up with details of troop movements. "They're searching on a sector by sector basis. And it looks like they've actually slowed the search." She selected a number of units for better detail, only to find that it was classified at a level of security that she didn't have. "Damn. I was afraid of that. Maybe if I..." Using a few programs she had developed recently, she managed to trick the security systems into granting her access. "All of these units are either holding their current posistion or moving to reinforce Mobile Suits already in the field." She sat back in her chair, arms behind her head. "Is it because of me? Have I already spooked them to the point where they're taking extra security measures?" She thought about that for a moment, then decided that she was safe for the time being. Shutting down the satelite uplink, she adjusted the back of her seat, turned off the radio, and pulled the blanket over her. She was too spooked by the earlier encounter with ESA troops to sleep outside the Gundam. *** There was a beeping noise. It was at the edge of Lina's hearing, interferring with a rather nice dream. Groaning in annoyance, the Gundam pilot forced herself to wake up, glaring at a flashing light and trying to remember what it meant. After a few seconds of searching through a sleep-fogged mind, she realised that it was the comunication console. Checking that the origin of the call came from where she suspected, Lina pressed a button. Instantly the main screen came to life, displaying the woman Lina had spoken to the night before. The woman looked at Linas appearance, still covered by the blanket, and raised an eyebrow. "Sleeping in the Suit? I thought you said you weren't obsessed." "Very funny Grandma," Lina replied. "I ran into a few problems with Alliance patrols looking for me. Seems that one Mobile Suit destroying a base scared them." "Not just one base," Brianna Diggers said. "I've been monitoring global communications. There have been reports of powerful Mobile Suits across the globe. Several Alliance bases and storage facilities have been wiped off the face of the Earth. All of the confirmed Suits seem to be constucted from Gundanium alloys." "Other Gundams?" Lina asked. "Now?" Brianna nodded. "Apparantly so. They all arrived yesterday, the same time as you did." Part of the screen changed to display a list of reported sightings. Two of them were in Australia, which the Gundam pilot marked off as her appearances. The rest were scattered all over the planet, ranging from a transforming Suit with a fully fuctional beam rifle sighted over the Pacific, to a Suit with two curved blades fighting alongside the Arab forces. The current number of suits was estimated to be somewhere between six and eight, thanks to unconfirmed sightings around the globe. "It's impossible for all of them to begin operating on Earth on the same day if they're all independant of each other," Brianna commented. "There must have been some sort of plan, and we ended up as part of it by accident." Lina looked over the data her grandmother was presenting to her. "Someone else has been producing Gundams for the purpose of attacking Oz," she said after a few minutes of consideration. "All the Alliance bases that have been attacked contained Specials units. I'll bet that those particular Suits were targeted first." "I'll see what I can find on that train of thought," Bri' promised. "Any ideas on how to deal with these new Gundams?" "I say we ignore them for now," the young woman replied. "None of them are on this continent, so chances of meeting up with them at the moment are rather remote. If we watch their behaviour, we'll learn just what their intentions are. For now, we'll just concentrate on my targets." Brianna nodded. "That was my line of thought too. I found some potential targets that look better then just ESA bases and warehouses." "Lemme see." A side screen displayed the list the woman had compiled. There was a number of factories, along with a spaceport and several shipyards. What got Lina's attention was the target that her grandmother had placed at the top of the list. A military base devoted to the testing of prototype Mobile Suits. "Currently testing the C-Series Aries and the new Tauros Space Mobile Suits," she muttered as she read the details of the base. "Looks like a good target, but I'll have to get to the other side of the continent." "Steal an Suit carrier," Bri' suggested. "The Alliance has thousands of those." *** David Talbot read over the report faxed to him. "Six Gundams," he muttered. "The Gundam first seen on the Australian continent has been designated Zero Six." "Great, we get the last one," James Ritter replied. He was looking at an image of 06 taken from the gun camera of a Leo destroyed at Nowra. It showed an extremely poor image of the Gundam Sorceress tearing its way through several Aries. "An entire base couldn't stop it sir. What can we do against it?" David skim read the next section of the report. "I don't belive this," he said, disgusted. He tossed the papers onto the desk and swore quietly. "Standing orders are to capture the Gundams and bring them in for study. It seems that they're using weapons and technology beyond even the newest designs the Alliance has on the drawing board." "How the hell are we meant to capture a virtually indestructable Mobile Suit?" James demanded, half angry, half curious at what the response would be. "It says that suit commanders are expected to use their own initiative when encountering these Suits," David replied. "That translates to: We don't have a clue. Try whatever you want, but don't blame us if it doesn't work." Grinning slightly, James leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the table. "So, it's up to us. I say we take it down at the kneecaps and thrusters. Cut down on its manuverability." "The hard bit's actually getting a decent shot at the kneecaps," David replied. "Feet off. I say we shoot to kill. If we can bring it home in one piece, all the better." "Sounds like a plan to me," James said. *** The Sorceress flew towards its latest target, flying NOE to prevent radar detection. In the cockpit, Lina looked over maps of the Echuca base. "Suit Carriers are stored in hangers on the north side of the base," she commented to herself. "I'll come in from the east like the original plan, and decimate the bases troops and force any non- combatants to evacuate. That'll give me the time I need to load the Sorceress into a carrier and take off. Then it's only a question of how far I get before they shoot me down." Removing the maps from the viewscreens, Lina checked her sensor array. There were no ESA Suits within the range of their inferior sensors. Lina smirked and increased the power to the turbines. she thought to herself. *** Asteroid 1738-D is a rather unimportant object, loacted beyond the moons orbital path. In the early days of space exploration, it was used as a refueling station for ships on their way to the outer colonies. It was abandoned almost twenty years ago, following the development of more efficent ships, and the Earth Sphere Alliance cutting down on space travel. Ten years ago, the installation on the asteroid was repaired and rebuilt, to serve a new purpose. It was here that the Gundam Sorceress had been built, beyond the reach of both the Alliance and Oz. And it had become the home of the Gundam's creator. Brianna Diggers sat in front of a large monitor that displayed several Mobile Suits in action. The Suits were a new design, made for space combat. They were painted dark black, with dark red stripes running along a number of the panels. The Suits were engaged in heavy midair manuvers, ducking and weaving around a group of slower Aires suits. From the ground, remote controled turrets opened fire on the suits. Smoothly and cleanly, they turned and fired their gunpods, destroying the turrets. After several minutes of simulated combat, they transformed to a strange fighter mode and flew towards a base visible in the distance. "So these are the Tauros Space Mobile Suits," Brianna said. "That's right," a male voice replied over the speakers. "One of my men recorded that five days ago. A live fire exercise. That means that the Suits have nearly completed testing. It's almost impossible to gain data on the test flights in space, but word is that Romafeller is impressed." "They should be, considering how much money they've pumped into this project," Bri' pointed out. "Any idea on how the first production models of these suits are going to be desployed?" "A few rough details so far. The first thousand or so off the factory line are being sent to the Specials Space Division, to replace the GS-5S Space Leos currently being used. After that, the next few groups of suits will be sent to the conventional Alliance Space Forces. Then work will begin on a planetary version." The Gundam engineer smiled wickedly, leaning back in her seat. "I get the feeling that by the time the Tauros Suits for the Alliance forces are under construction, there might not be an Alliance to recieve the suits." "You think Oz is going to make their move soon?" the voice asked. "They have to move soon. Noventa and his allies are in posistion to begin causing changes in the Alliance. If they begin disarming their forces, then Oz and Romafeller will lose most of their power." "Good point. I'll sniff around, see what I can find. If you're right, they've got to leave some sort of evidence of what they're planning. Take care of yourself." And with that, the words 'call terminated' appeared on a small screen on the edge of Bri's vision. Sighing softly, Brianna saved the recording of the Tauros prototypes, then entered several commands into the computer, bringing up an computer generated image of the Earth. Zooming in on a certain area, the detail of the image improved, becoming a more conventional map that showed major military units currently in Australia. She focused her attention on one base, waiting to see what happened. *** Ten kilometres east of the Echuca base, two Leo Suits were patroling the area. They moved slowly and cafefully, watching for even the slightest thing out of place. They had heard the stories about the Gundam, how it appeared out of nowhere and destroyed Mobile Suits in seconds. The fact that there was very little confirmed information about Gundam 06 made it even more frightening. "Do you think it would come here?" one of the pilots asked, looking in every direction. He was fresh out of training, and assigned to the care of a more experienced pilot. The arrival of the Gundams made made the job more frightening. The patrol Suits were the first to go, and he was still too young to be prepared for death. "Maybe," the other pilot replied. "Besides, our job isn't to figure out IF it's coming here, it's to make sure that we see it before it gets too close. Leave questions like that to the intel boys." "I guess." Still nervous, the younger pilot glanced around, looking at the surrounding area. There didn't seem to be anything out of place. Following an established procedure, he began focused scans to the 90 degree arc in front of him. That was his last action. With his Scout Leos sensors focused in one direction, he couldn't register the sudden energy surge to his right. His older partner did detect it, and turned towards the potential target, but his gunpod was only raised halfway before a laser pulse blasted its way through his suits chest. Screaming in surprise and fear, the young pilot spun in the direction of the laser pulse. He saw a flash of red and black, heard the roar of thrusters, and then he was dead. The Sorceress removed her sword from the Leos cockpit, then turned to look in the direction of the base. Lina thought to herself. Firing her thrusters, she continued on her journey. *** "Commander, I'm getting no response from patrol unit nine." The communications officer glanced up from his workstation. Behind him, the captain on duty was scowling. "Launch three Aries to investigate." As the control tower staff moved to obey that order, the captain picked up the phone built into his seat and punched in a number. After several rings, he got an answer. "Sir, we have lost contact with two Scout Leos. I've dispatched three Aries to investigate, but-" "Indeed," the base commander agreed. "Take the base to stage two alert. All Suits are to be prepared for immediate launch." "Yes sir." As he hung up the phone, the captain saw the Aries Suits take to the air, hovering for a few moments before all the turbines powered up and they raced off into the distance. *** Alarms sounded across the base as pilots ran for their Suits. As many powered up their massive war machines, there were a number of prayers and wishes, hoping that this was anything but what they thought it was. The Gundam pilots had not yet realised it, but their greatest weapon was not the powerful Suits they controlled, but the fear they had planted in the Alliance and Oz. When they destroyed entire bases and armies on their own, without suffering any damage, they gave death a physical form. As he sealed the hatch to his cockpit, David Talbot went over the plans in his mind. "Please let this work," he whispered to himself before opening a channel. "All Suits, this is Colonel Talbot. Form up in defense posistion seven-nine-three." Quickly and cleanly, the Alliance Suits moved into posistion, raising their gunpods towards the horizon, waiting for any word from the three Aries Suits investigating the missing pods. They got a response all right. There was a sudden burst of static and screaming, followed by three explosions several kilometres away. "Damn," Talbot muttered. "All Leos maintain posistion," he said over the radio. "Aries squadrons, increase altitude to eight- hundred." "Roger Colonel, increasing to eight-hundred," James Ritter replied as the Aries climbed higher. Then James spoke again. "Control, this is Aries-Prime. I'm detecting an energy buildup bearing-" He never finished that statement. A beam of golden energy appeared out of nowhere, punching through the control tower like it was made of paper. As the beam faded, the control tower exploded, launching flames and debris in every direction. "Shit, where'd that come from?" James demanded. On the ground, David and several other pilots had traced the beam to its source. There was a Mobile Suit almost two kilometres away and approaching fast. As David zoomed in, he saw that its left arm was outstretched, a thin trail of smoke coming out of a gun port just above the wrist. The small but powerful design, the red and black armour, and the evil looking sword in its right hand revealed the Suits identidy. "Target confirmed!" David screamed. "Gundam Zero-Six, bearing ninety-eight degrees, range two kilometres. All Suits, target leg and arm joints. Anywhere else will have no effect." Leading by example, he opened fire on the Gundam, the tracers leaving a bright after- pattern in the afternoon air. A few seconds later, other Suits joined him, trying to cripple the machine approaching them. *** Lina assesed the situation. Taking out the control tower had taken almost 5% of her left arm cannons power cell, but it was worth it. The Alliance suits were taken by surprise, their controlling body damaged. Now it was time to completely shatter them. With the roar of the Suits thrusters, the Gundam ducked and weaved around the majority of the weapons fire, only a small nuber of bullets actually impacting against the outer armour. Taking to the air, the Sorceress charged towards her first target. The Aries Suit tried to dodge, but Lina managed to adjust, the Gundam's feet slamming into the cockpit of the weaker Suit and killing the pilot instantly. As the wounded Aries fell to to Earth, the Sorceress turned its attention to the other Suits in the air. The Gundam raised its arms, and laser pulses began ripping through the lightly armoured Aries. Those in close were destroyed instantly, while those a greater distance managed to fall back, angling for a clearer shot. On the ground, David swore as he saw 06 shred several Aries Suits in a matter of seconds. "Aries squadrons, fall back and regroup. Leo Suits and combat vehicles, continue firing!" Lina swore as more of the weapons fire from the ground found its target. Ducking around a squadron of Aries for cover, engaged the head vulcans and opened fire on the land-based Suits. The Leos unlucky enough to be in the line of fire detonated almost instantly as the 50mm rounds punched through the outer armour and into their engines. A wicked smile on her face, Lina dove towards the ground, taking out several more suits on the way down. The Leos backed up as the Sorceress landed, creating a rather large impact crater underneath it. The Gundam stood up and studied the Alliance Suits, its green optics glowing brightly. Gunpods blazed as the soldiers tried with everything they had to damage the Mobile Suit even slightly. The Gundam seemed to ignore the gunfire, instead leaping at the closest Suits and shredding them with it's sword. Calmly and quickly, Lina began tearing a path through the Leo suits. Like those she had faced at the Nowra base the day before, these soldiers were no match for a Gundam. Nothing they did could even harm the outer armour, let alone damage anything important. Lina scowled as she finished destroying the Suits nearby. *** "Sweet Eris," Ritter muttered as 06 stabbed a Leo in the chest, going right through the cockpit. The Gundam pushed the suit off its blade, before turning on the spot and blasting an Anaconda tank with its arm cannons. "What a monster." Then his eyes narrowed as the Sorceress turned to deal with a group of Leos armed with heavy launchers. "Now. Specials Aries, regroup and attack by wave. Other Aries disperse and provide covering fire." Lina swore as rifle fire errupted across her back. The advanced Mobile Suit stumbled slightly as the first wave of Aries flew overhead. She targeted them and raised her arm cannons, but was distracted by an alarm begining to scream in her left ear. Glancing in that direction as she shut off the alarm, she saw the next wave launch half a dozen missiles at her. "Bastards!" she spat as she fired all her thrusters and activated her countermeasures. All six missiles detonated against the chaff and flares released from compartments on the Gundams legs. The Aries pilots that had launched the missiles ignored this, banking left and putting some distance between them and their enemy. The next wave approached, most of them armed with standard gunpods, but two of them had missile launchers. But the pilot of the Sorceress had caught onto the plan of attack the airborne Suits were using. Changing directions so fast that the g-forces pushed Lina back into her seat, she charged at the Aries, head and arm cannons firing. Taken by surprise at the tight turn the Gundam had performed (One beyound the abilities of any Mobile Suit before now) the Aries pilots only fired a few shots before they were destroyed. 06 flew past the wreckage and towards the next group, sword at the ready. David cursed as he watched Mobile Suits split in two. He saw a small number of pilots eject, but overall, most of them were killed by that Gundams sword. "There has to be some way to stop it," he muttered to himself. But there seemed to be no other choice but to keep firing and hope he found a weak point. The Alliance Colonel had no way of knowing that Lina was as angry as he was, but for two seperate reasons. One, although there were Mobile Suits here with Specials markings and IFF codes, the majority seemed to be conventional Alliance soldiers that she had no battle with for now. The other cause for her anger was at herself. She had gotten overconfident in her abilities and those of her Gundam, and the Alliance had managed to take her by surprise. "Overconfidence," she muttered as she took out two Aries. "Grandma taught you better then that. Idiot." She studied the battlefield. As in her previous battles, her first sledgehammer-style attack tore ragged holes in the defense lines, scattering the ESA troops everywhere. A few jumps around the battlefield to destroy what was left, and then she could head for the hangers. Feet thrusters roaring, the Sorceress took out an Aries with a roundhouse kick, crushing the cockpit. David watched as the Suit dropped to the ground before exploding. A few seconds later his Suits gunpod ran dry. He glanced at the ammo counter on a display panel, then narrowed his eyes. "Fuck this," he muttered, tossing the giant rifle aside. "Time for a blaze of glory." He pulled a beam saber out from under his arm shield, activated it and fired his thrusters. Lina turned, spotting Davids movement out of the corner of her eye. She raised her left arm cannon but never got a chance to fire, the Leo slamming into her Suits chest. The Gundam was forced back several steps before Lina regained control. She targeted her head vulcans, but the Leo rammed its beam saber into the Gundams face. Although unable to penetrate the alloys the eyes were made from, they were able to block Lina's view. "Hold your fire!" Ritter screamed over the comm-net. "You'll hit the colonel!" The weapons fire across the base died out, as everyone watched the two Suits struggle with one another. In the Leo, David increased the power to his right arm and Beam Saber to the redlines. Warnings began flashing over the cockpits viewscreens, but he ignored them, his attention focused on the Gundam. "The optics are a weak point," he muttered, remembering an earlier conversation with Ritter. "Destroy them and the Gundam is weakened." Lina had reached the same conclusion. Making a wild guess on the location of the Leo's arm, she managed to grab the right forearm with 06's hands. Then, in one smooth motion, the Gundam easily crushed the neotitanium armour plating, completely tearing off the lower arm. The beam saber landed several dozen metres away, deactivated and worthless. Lina smirked as her displays cleared up, although there was a small amount of static. The left eye seemed to be slightly damaged. In the Leo, David opened a small panel and typed in a command on the keypad there. Popping open his restraints, the colonel opened the cockpit hatch and leapt out, landing on the Gundam's knee joint before dropping to the ground. Inside 06, Lina saw the Alliance officer start running and put the pieces together, but before she had a chance to fall back, the Leo exploded in a massive fireball. David was lifted into the air by the force of the explosion, travelling almost thirty metres before hitting the ground with a sickening crack. High above, James Ritter circled the plume of smoke. "Did he kill it?" he wondered out loud. His question was answered when several laser pulses took out a number of Suits. Banking hard left, he was too slow to avoid the shot aimed at him, a sphere of golden energy tearing off his right manuvering wing and carving a gash in one of his engines. Gundam Sorceress emerged from the cloud of smoke, a vision of Death. Some distance away, David Talbot rose to his feet, left arm hanging at his side, just in time to see the final Suits and armoured vehicles fall against the powerful machine. Sighing sadly, he limped towards the nearest Suit that looked like it had an intact comm-link. The base was lost, but he could at least sound the evacuation order and get the survivors out. *** Moving quickly, Lina loaded the Gundam into the Suit Carrier. Like most of the base, the aircraft hangers had been evacuated, helped along by the Gundam firing a few shots in their direction. Now there was almost no-one left in the base, allowing Lina Diggers to go about her tasks in peace. However, she didn't have forever. It was likely that other Alliance bases in the area were sending troops to secure the battlezone, not to mention attempt to destroy the Sorceress. While she doubted that anything other then overwhelming force would defeat her suit, she didn't intend to push her luck anymore then she had to. Thumping the ramp control panel as she ran past, Lina sprinted towards the cockpit. Dropping into the pilots seat, she began powering up the engines. "Plenty of fuel, engines in the green," she muttered, glancing at status displays. "Looks good." A few moments later, James Ritter watched as the Suit Carrier sped down the runway. "Evac?" one of the nearby soldiers wondered. "No, the Gundam," Ritter growled. "He destroyed this base just to get a carrier craft!" Swearing under his breath, he ran towards a truck parked nearby, determined to have that carrier shot down somehow. *** MS Gundam Sorceress GDD-036 STANDBY MODE Reactor Nominal DIAGNOSTIC MODE All Weapons Secured All Targeting Links Secured All Power Couplings Secured ALL SYSTEMS 100% OPERATIONAL Lina nodded in satifaction as the data scrolled down the screen. The damage to the optics was so minor that the systems didn't notice it. While weaker then the Gundamium alloys that made up the rest of the armour, the optic coverings were still superior to the armour and weapons of Alliance Suits. Lina wasn't sure how her Grandmother had made it, only that it was as strong as hoped. Shutting down the screens, Lina climbed out of the Gundams cockpit and made her way to the front of the plane. The autopilot was keeping her on the flight path she had entered, one that would avoid the maior groupings of Alliance forces. Checking the availible data again to make certain that there were no changes, Lina decided to pop open that thermos of coffee she'd made up before the battle. *** Brianna turned her attention away from the main monitor, satisfied with what she had seen and heard. Although Lina did have some difficulties with that battle, she learnt fast, and the woman was confident that the next battle would have fewer problems. Turning to another monitor, she opened a file containing diagrams and blueprints of the Gundam Sorceress. "If there are any flaws in my design that I've missed, they'll become apparant soon enough," she said quietly, a slightly worried tone in her voice. "Lina should be able to handle it. I just hope my work was of the level needed." Double-clicking on a button at the bottom of the page, the blueprints changed, now showing another Mobile Suit. This was slightly smaller then the Sorceress, but this was offset by the large, angel-like wings mounted on its back. Underneath the plans were the words; MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM ANGELUS GDD-039 "Estimated time of construction, two more months," she said quietly. "I could speed it up, but training its pilot is taking the most time. But still, the real delay is a supply of Gundamium." She stared at the plans for a moment, then spoke again. "Ruri!" "Online," a bored sounding voice said, a sub-monitor displaying the image of a twelve-year old girl, silvery-blue hair pulled back into twin ponytails. "Display all vaccum production facilities capable of producing Gundamium alloys." "Checking data files now," Ruri replied, glancing at a monitor next to her, which sprang to life with a list of facilities, co- ordinates, production abilities and people Bri' could use to obtain Gundamium. "Judging by the number of people you have in facilites throughout the colonies and their abilities in obtaining Gundamium, it's unlikely that you will be able to obtain the alloys at a faster rate." Brianna grinned. "Not if we use the normal approach. Find out how much security there is at stations producing Gundamium. I want to know if I can just swipe it." Ruri raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "You're the boss. I'll see what I can find." Ruri flashed out of appearance, off to carry out her task, and Bri' decided to go get a drink. "I really wish that Ruri would actually show some emotions," she muttered as she pulled a can of Mountain Dew out of the fridge. "I designed her to have them after all. Instead, she always seems... bored." She smiled, downed the Dew and tossed the can in the bin, before leaving the cafeteria and heading for the hanger. "Oh well, she's never had much of a problem with it." Entering an access code into the keypad next to the hanger doors, Bri' stepped inside, making her way past a number of vehicles and Mobile Suits of various designs, some conventional, some not. She came to a stop in front of two Mobile Suits, one of which was still under construction. The one on the left was the Angelus, although there were a number of parts still being built. Most of the chest and head were covered in Gundamium alloys, but large parts of the limbs and wings were still uncovered, exposing the mechanical insides of the Mobile Suit. Resting in a special mount on the wall was the Angelus' main weapon, a massive halberd made of Gundamium, an energy cannon in the shaft. To the right of the Angelus was a Suit that seemed similar in appearance to both Gundams that Bri' designed. Mounted on each arm was a retactable blade, almost identical to the sword carried by 06. Folded away on the Suits back, on each side of the thrusters, were two energy cannons, larger versions of the energy weapons in the Sorceress and Angelus. Engraved on the Suits left shoulderpad were the words: MOBILE SUIT RAGNAROK GDD-035 The prototype for the Gundams, the Ragnarok was not coated in Gundamium alloys. However, it was installed with a number of experimental systems not yet in the Sorceress or Angelus which, in theory, made it equal to the Gundams. Climbing up a ladder to the Ragnaroks cockpit, Brianna sat in the pilots seat and began opening status displays, her attention focused on the latest test run of the Mobile Suit. *** On Earth, the Alliance, Oz and Romafeller, tried to find a way to defeat the Gundams. The reports of Colonel Talbot were noted by all three organisations, with a number of potential weaknesses of Gundam Zero-Six crossed off the list. In the Pacific Ocean, Gundam Zero-One, also known as Wing, lay on the sea bed, it's pilot forced to eject when the suit had landed in the water. A task force of Specials sent to capture the Suit were all destroyed. Although the source was not known, it was believed to be Gundam Zero-Two, the Deathscythe. Elsewhere, the Gundam Heavy Arms, Zero-Three, began making its way towards the ESA's main Mobile Suit factory. In the Middle East, the United Arab Nations were aided in their defense against Alliance forces at their borders with the arrival of Gundam Zero-Four, the Sandrock. And in Africa, the Sheng Long, Gundam Zero-Five, targeted the many Mobile Suit factories found on that continent. The Gundams had their enemies off-balance, and were moving in with a followup attack. But the question was, how long would this last? *** End Part Two ***