Gundam Warblade

Disclaimer: Hey, if you want someone to sue, then I know a certain uncute
tomboy who... whoops! GOTTA GO! (evades a thrown mallet)

< >: Thoughts

Chapter 3

Gathering of the Warriors

 

KABOOM!

"Mission... completed." Heero Yuy said as he fell toward the water. 

Duo Maxwell and Relena Darlian could only stare in shock at what had just
happened. Duo was especially at a loss without words. He had thought he was
saving some innocent girl from being killed by a lunatic, but that same
girl had then thrown herself between them and used a piece of her dress to
bind Heero's shoulder. Then Heero surprised them again by launching a trio
of torpedoes at both Duo's and the other Gundam, sinking them again.

"Damn! He must have known the Gundam's impact tolerances! He was the owner
of that other suit!" Duo winced as he saw the Deathscythe sink beneath the
waves with Wing Gundam. He blanched when he saw several wrecked components
of his Gundam float to the surface.

<Damn! That other Gundam I tangled with underwater caused more damage to my
Mobile Suit than I thought! It should have been able to withstand those
torpedoes! >

Duo had no more time to think about it as he heard the distant sirens and
saw the approach of several vehicles. Taking out another one of his
magnesium flares, he temporarily blinded Relena and escaped, leaving the
girl and Heero to the authorities.

Somewhere else, in a hidden underground complex, the pilot of the Gundam
Warblade was busy making the necessary repairs to his Mobile Suit. The
complex was an old nuclear fallout shelter for government officials during
the latter half of the twentieth century, which had long since been
abandoned and forgotten when the Cold War ended. The discarded equipment
and armaments provided Ranma with a vast supply of raw material for him to
utilize. Before the Gundam pilot came to Earth, Ranma's mysterious
benefactor had rebuilt the complex to house his Gundam and adapted it to
serve as a hidden base of operations. 

Ranma shook his head as he scanned the readouts on the damages he sustained
during his battle with the Deathscythe.

<Stupid, stupid, stupid! Warblade wasn't designed for underwater battles. I
was just lucky that I managed to get out of there before the salt water
permanently corroded the relays. >

Ranma took a long, hard look at his Gundam as mechanical arms descended
from the ceiling toward his machine. Welders, sparkers, and other such
repair devices that were built into the arms began replacing damaged parts
and rearming the weapon systems.

<Hmmm, even though I prefer speed, it would help if I had a little more
armor. I have enough spare Gundanium to add to outer shell. Weapon and
other vital systems could use the extra protection. And even thought the
Chi Cannon Blades are good, I could also use a couple of extra backup
weapons besides the Vulcan guns in the head. >

After a while, Ranma made a decision and gave the repair console he was at
some new orders.

A day later, the Gundam known as 03 to OZ, but better known as the Heavy
Arms was attacking the Corsica Base. No matter what the base could throw at
it, the Gundam would simply aim its huge Gatling gun arm at them and shower
them with hyper-velocity, armor-piercing bullets. Tanks, fighters and LEO
Mobile Suits were ripped to shreds as the Heavy Arms continued to wreak
havoc.

Inside the Gundam, Trowa Barton kept up his assault as his computer gave
him readouts on the enemy's movements.

"Though the base commander's strategy to surround and exterminate the enemy
was in fact technically correct, he should have waited to see just what his
enemy was capable of."

The hidden blade in Heavy Arm's right forearm flipped out and slashed
another Mobile Suit in half when it dared to get too close.

The troops of the base were made even more surprised when the chest panels
of Trowa's Gundam opened up to reveal dual gatlings that added to the
firepower of the left arm.

At a hanger in a nearby facility near the Corsica Base, Zechs looked in awe
at the machine before him.

"It's huge."

The subordinate nodded to the Mobile Suit and said,"When you sent data on
the Gundams, it reminded me of this one. The local engineers call this old
relic a museum piece. However, this mobile suit is only one that has
features comparable to the Gundams. I don't know all the details, but in
order for this suit to maintain its structual integrity, it had to be this
large. Egineers in the past saw no need for such a huge Mobile suit so
that's why all present suit size became standardized." The subordinate
paused for a moment, then said, "Tallgeese I believe that's what they
called it."

Zechs smiled a bit as he considered the possibilities.

 

In a military hospital near the place where Heero had fallen, an explosion
rang out. On the side where the installation overlooked a very steep cliff,
two individuals jumped out of the gaping hole in the wall and down toward
the ground below. One of those individuals used a strange umbrella-like
device that halted his descent like a mini-helicopter. However, his
companion who was wearing a parachute, did nothing as he dived toward the
ground at terminal velocity.

"You jerk! What the hell are you doing? Pop your chute!" Duo couldn't
believe this guy. He had gone through enough trouble to rescue this person
so that he could question him and now Heero was going to splatter himself
all over the landscape!

At the last minute, Relena shouted out Heero's name from the top of the
cliff, which caused him to automatically pull the ripcord. However...

"You fool! It's too late!" Duo saw that there was not enough time for the
chute to deploy.

Heero however, discarded the chute, angled his body toward the cliffside
and made a violent tumbling maneuver to avoid injury. Though he managed to
land in one piece, he winced as he felt a sharp pain in his left leg. He
had broken it.

Duo couldn't believe how suicidal his acquaintance was, but now was not the
time. Quickly helping him to his feet, the two quickly made their escape.

"I don't believe it! He's alive!" Sally Po gasped. The medical computers
had scanned Heero's body during his captivity and had depicted him in
superb physical condition, but she had no idea just how well trained he was
until she saw him survive a drop of more than one thousand feet!

Relena could only watch in awe as Heero and Duo left the scene.

A few days later

At a storage facility forty miles south of the Victoria base, Wufei frowned
as his Gundum; the Sheng Long tore apart the security forces as easily as
Godzilla smashing through Tokyo. The right arm of the Gundam suddenly
extended itself like a snake and struck with its Dragon Claw. Gouts of
flame were spewed out, reducing buildings into ashes. LEO suits were
reduced to unrecognizable piles of scrap as Wufei brought out his Beam
Polearm and smashed two more enemy Mobile Suits.

"Weaklings! All of them! Is there no one who is strong enough?"

As if in answer to Wufei's words, his scanners suddenly picked up the
approach of something coming in from the north at high speed.

Ranma was bit surprised to see that another Gundam was already devastating
his intended target. The new enhancements he had added to the Warblade had
made the Mobile Suit a bit heavier, so it took him a little longer to get
to his destination. However, as he landed, his eyes narrowed at the sight
of another Mobile Suit that was very similar to his own machine. He
remembered back to the televised OZ reports that his base had picked up.
According to those reports, this Gundam was referred to as 05.

As soon as Wufei saw the Warblade, he immediately assumed that it was some
new kind of OZ Mobile Suit and attacked it with his Dragon Claw. To his
surprise, Ranma's machine dodged the strike with uncanny speed and then
charged at him. The arms deployed two strangely glowing blades and the
Chinese boy just barely managed to swerve out of the way.

Ranma had anticipated the Sheng Long's evasive maneuvers and countered.
Though his Gundam was now a bit more massive, he easily compensated as he
sent a kick to the midsection of the Sheng Long, while at the same time
focusing his chi into the systems.

Wufei was taken by surprise as he glimpsed the foot of the enemy Mobile
Suit swing toward him in a perfect roundhouse. The impact echoed within his
machine as the foot hit hard. The Sheng Long was sent reeling back, but
still managed to stay on its feet as Wufei collected himself.

"Let's see what you've got!" The Chinese boy was amazed that a Mobile Suit
could react so fluidly. It was like fighting against a sixty-foot martial
artist! His scanners were also picking up an energy signature from those
blades that was unidentifiable. Wufei's Gundam unslung its Polearm and
swung it toward the Warblade's head. 

Ranma countered by bringing up one of his Chi Cannon Blades to parry then
sent the other blade toward the Sheng Long's left flank. The Sheng Long
Gundam managed to twist to the side and only received a glancing blow. The
Gundanium armor still had an ugly scorch mark on it as the two machines
continued to grapple.

Wufei was astounded at just how fast this Gundam was reacting as he
suddenly changed tactics, released his weapon and extended his Dragon Claw
toward the Warblade's head. He smiled a bit when the Dragon Claw managed to
make contact, but then frowned as the enemy Gundam brought up a hand to
intercept the claw before it could begin crushing. Wufei engaged the Vulcan
cannons, but the strange Gundam surprised him yet again.

Ranma sent his Gundam into a twisting maneuver and had its back pressed up
against the front of the Sheng Long. As the Warblade was crouched down, it
managed to avoid the fire coming from Sheng Long's Vulcan guns. In a
classic maneuver, Ranma folded the Chi Cannon Blades back, grabbed the
extended Dragon Claw with both hands, and sent the Sheng Long into a judo
toss!

Wufei had certainly not expected to be put into a throw. Mobile Suits may
mimic many of the movements of a human being, but that was far too
intricate a maneuver to be done so well and accurately. The Sheng Long
crashed onto its back and its pilot was put into a daze. 

Ranma nodded as he pressed home his advantage. Deploying one of his blades,
he began focusing his chi into it to fire off a blast at point-blank range.

Wufei shook his head to clear it and saw through his monitors that his
enemy was about to finish him off. Fighting the feeling of dizziness, he
sent his Gundam rolling to one side, and extended his Dragon Claw toward
his opponent's weapon.

Ranma had not expected his foe to still have some fight left in him as the
Dragon Claw knocked into his blade and threw off his aim. The chi blast
went off and missed its target, but the Dragon Claw clamped down onto the
weapon. Ranma found that his blade was trapped as he deployed the other
one.

Wufei stood up his Gundam and had the other arm grab onto the wrist of the
right arm of the Warblade's, keeping it aloft and away from him. The two
Gundams wrestled with each other, with Ranma trying to free his arms and
Wufei holding them tight.

Ranma saw that the Sheng Long's head was angling down at him and he had
less than a split second before the Vulcan guns would begin firing.
Reacting quickly, he touched a button, which automatically caused the blade
on his left arm to eject from its housing. Since the Dragon Claw was
holding onto the blade and not the forearm, Ranma's Gundam instantly had a
free hand.

Wufei was taken by surprise as the blade pulled free and was momentarily
distracted when Ranma focused his chi and started punching with his left
fist, very fast!

One hundred and fifteen punches hammered away at Sheng Long's chest,
causing it to be thrown backward. Wufei was shocked at the sudden reversal
as he lost his grip on the Warblade's other arm. His Gundam was sent
crashing back down onto the ground, but this time Ranma was taking no
chances. Using the remaining blade, he slashed at the Sheng Long's Dragon
Claw while it was still extended, shearing through one of the joints and
causing it to malfunction. He then raised his blade for the final blow.

Wufei knew that this was the end. His opponent had the advantage and there
was only one other option for him. If he could not defeat his opponent,
then he would take him with him. His hand reached for the self-detonation
switch.

To be continued

Author's Notes

Once again, the revisions and additions to this chapter were minor but I
had to add that part where Zechs found the Tallgeese. The next chapter will
begin to diverge from the original series.


