Gundam Warblade

Disclaimer: How did I get mixed up in all this?

< >: Thoughts

Chapter 4

Kindred Spirits

Wufei sighed as he reached for the self-detonation device of the Sheng
Long. He did not expect for his end to come so soon after landing on Earth.
However, he had no other option. His Gundam was too badly damaged from
fighting Ranma's and now the Warblade was about to deliver the final blow.
It would be a glorious end, worthy of his ancestors as he and his opponent
would be blown into oblivion.

It was then that Wufei saw that something was approaching the devastated
battle scene. The head of the Gundam Warblade looked up and also saw it. A
quartet of troop transports was heading their way, no doubt they were
reinforcements. As they came within sight, they began releasing their
payloads of LEO and ARIES suits. When the OZ machines descended to the
ground, they began to open fire.

Inside the Gundam Warblade, Ranma frowned as the first volley streaked
toward him and his opponent. In that brief instant, Ranma directed his
machine to back off and then sent the machine through a series of rolls to
avoid being hit.

In that same instant, Wufei removed his hand from the self-detonation
switch and directed the Sheng Long to kick out with its feet. It managed to
get out of the way of the brunt of the attack, but still received several
glancing shots to its chest. Wufei gritted his teeth as he struggled to get
his Gundam back onto its feet. Slowly, but surely, the damaged Sheng Long
began to rise. 

Ranma nodded as he noted that the OZ Mobile Suits were in fact attacking
both himself and his opponent. He came to the conclusion that whoever the
pilot of the other Gundam was, he was not an enemy, at least not at the
moment. Seeing that the Sheng Long was now struggling to get to its feet,
and was taking several hits from approaching LEO and ARIES suits, Ranma
made a decision. Retrieving his other Chi Cannon Blade, he began focusing
his inner energies.

Wufei grimaced as another trio of hits impacted into his Gundam, almost
causing it to fall backward. The Chinese boy knew that his beloved Nataku
would not be able to withstand much more of this barrage, when his scanners
picked a huge upsurge of power behind him. His eyes widened as he saw the
Gundam Warblade aim its weapons at the enemy and release twin beams of
energy. The beams lanced through five LEO suits and caused two ARIES to
spin out of control and sent crashing down. 

The Warblade wasted no time as it engaged its thrusters into a powered
leap. Raising one of its swordarms, the Gundam sliced through another Aries
like a hot knife going through butter. It then made a spin kick in the air
and slammed another of the enemy Mobile Suits to the ground. With no loss
of motion, Ranma's Gundam angled downward, and plowed feet-first into two
LEO suits, smashing off their heads. Before the stunned OZ pilots could
even think to react, the Warblade held out both arms and spun like a top,
slicing the decapitated LEOs like newspaper going through a paper shredder.

As the two LEOs exploded, Ranma looked up and saw the remaining ARIES
buzzing about him like maddened bees. Then, in the corner of his mind, he
began to have faint memories of a whirlwind and something about ice. As the
ARIES shooting with even more intensity, Ranma then knew what to do, even
though he had no memory as to where he got the inspiration. He began
focusing his chi once more as well as turning on the cooling units of his
Gundam.

Wufei Chang was a bit puzzled as to why the Warblade was just confining
itself in a small circle as the ARIES suits fired away at him. It was at
that moment that his scanners told him that there was a sudden drop in
temperature where Ranma's Gundam stood. Those strange weapons of his began
to glow again and the pilot of the Sheng Long knew that something big was
about to happen. That was when the ARIES suits moved in for the kill and
the Warblade sent a twisting uppercut while firing off a blast.

Wufei's Gundam was thrown backward as a sudden blast of wind erupted from
where Ranma was battling. The Sheng Long landed on its back and its pilot
was became a bit dazed from the impact.

The OZ pilots were taken by complete surprise as a huge tornado suddenly
appeared out of nowhere and began tossing them about like leaves. Many of
the Mobile Suits exploded as they collided with one another. Amazingly, the
Gundam Warblade remained untouched as it stood at the center of the violent
windstorm. Then its outstretched blade began glowing again and released
another blast skyward. This second blast totally disrupted the tornado and
caused it to implode from within, destroying the rest of the ARIES in one
massive detonation. When it was all over with and the winds died down,
Wufei was stunned beyond belief as he stared at the Gundam Warblade which
had survived with relatively no damage whatsover. In less than a minute,
more than two dozen ARIES suits had been destroyed.

The Warblade then suddenly whirled about to face where the Sheng Long had
fallen and threw something toward it. Wufei only glimpsed it for a moment,
before he heard an explosion behind him. Turning Nataku's head, his eyes
became wide as he saw n activated Beam Saber protruding out from a fallen
LEO suit. Apparently, a few of the LEO suits had escaped destruction and
one of them had tried to sneak up from behind.

Ranma turned his machine to finish off the few LEOs that were now
converging on him. As he engaged them, he flipped on his communicator and
spoke to Wufei.

"Well? Are you just going to lie there, or are you going to put my Beam
Saber to good use?" Though he didn't let on, Ranma was very exhausted after
having his Gundam perform his Hiryu Shoten Ha and needed someone to help
with mopping up.

Wufei became very annoyed at Ranma's barb, but he did have a point. The
Sheng Long came up unsteadily and reached out with its still-functioning
left arm and pulled out the Beam Saber. Though his Gundam was now sluggish
and heavily damaged, Wufei was still able to slash two more LEO suits in
half as Ranma dispatched the rest. When all of their enemies were
destroyed, the two faced each other off. The damaged Sheng Long held up
Ranma's Beam Saber in a defensive pose as the Warblade readied its weapons
in a ready stance as well. There was a long silence as the two machines
faced each other. Then, as if in silent agreement, both machines put down
their weapons. The Beam Saber deactivated as the Chi Cannon Blades flipped
back into their housings.

The Sheng Long's front chest panel opened up and Wufei stepped out with his
hands up in surrender. His eyes betrayed no emotion as he waited for Ranma
to make a move.

A moment later, the hatch of Ranma's machine swung down and the pilot of
the Gundam Warblade also stepped out.

That night...

"Hmmm, your Gundam did take some serious hits, but it can be repaired."
Ranma commented as he and Wufei stood on the observation deck of Ranma's
hanger. In the repair bay, the Warblade was being rearmed and serviced as
the mecanical robots carried out their programmed instructions. Beside it,
the Sheng Long was being assessed for damaged and components were now being
replaced.

"Yes." Wufei allowed as he watched Nataku being repaired. HE and Ranma had
come to a grudging truce as they each introduced themselves. After it was
discovered that they were both fighting for the same cause, Ranma had, out
of professional courtesy, offered to repair the Sheng Long, as their
previous battle had been a gross misunderstanding. At first, Wufei refused,
saying that he did not care for charity, saying it was a sign of being
weak. He also berated Ranma for being so weak and not finishing him off
when he had the chance. Ranma responded to that by saying that killing a
weak opponent always left a bad taste in his mouth. There were some tense
moments, but the two finally admitted to each other that any further
fighting would have been pointless.

"How long will it be before Nataku is repaired?" Wufei asked.

"About two days." Ranma replied. "Since I only have these robots and a
limited amount of compatible parts, it's going to take a while to get your
Gundam back to full strength."

"That's not good enough." Wufei said with a frown. "I have... business to
attend to."

"You mean the base at Victoria, right?" Ranma said nonchalantly.

Wufei was a bit surpirsed at Ranma's comment. "How did you know?"

Ranma shrugged as he said, "It wasn't hard to figure out. You went after
that storage facility where the Victoria factory puts all of its completed
Mobile Suits before shipping. It makes sense to go after the manufacturing
facilities next. Besides, that would have been my next target anyways.
Don't worry about it. I'll take it out and any of those new TAUROS suits
that they have there."

"What do you mean you'll do it? It's my mission." Wufei said with a bit of
irritation.

"And how are you going to accomplish it?" Ranma said as he gestured to the
Sheng Long. "You're Mobile Suit is in no shape to back you up, even if you
do manage to destroy the base on your own."

"Then what's to stop me from taking your Gundam?" Wufei suddenly tensed up
and then lashed out with a fast punch. To his surprise, Ranma easily dodged
the strike and backflipped out of the way. 

However, Wufei was counting on Ranma being distracted as he jumped down
from the observation deck and then ran toward where the Warblade was.

Ranma looked down at the fleeing Wufei and shrugged again. If that pilot
thinks he could gain control of the Warblade, he was in for a surprise.

Wufei sped up the entry ramp and buckled himself into the cockpit of the
Warblade. He then toggled the activation switch and... nothing happened. He
then tried to close the front hatch, but it wouldn't budge.

"It's no use." Ranma stated as he calmly walked toward where his Gundam
stood. "My Gundam may be similar to yours, but it does have one important
aspect that you have to know in order for it to operate. You better come
down from there."

Seeing Wufei's reluctance to leave, Ranma nodded and said, "Fine. I guess
I'll have to force you out of it." He then raised a hand and focused his
energies.

Wufei's eyes became the size of saucers as he saw Ranma glow with a blue
aura, then suddenly a ball of energy the size of a basketball came shooting
out of his hand and streaked toward him. Wufei was instantly knocked into
unconsciousness.

That evening at the Victoria base...

Lucrezia Noin was shocked out of her bed as the explosion ripped through
the barracks. As she emerged from her room, thick clouds of smoke clouded
her vision and fire alarms shrilled like banshees.

"What's going on?" Noin asked a soldier.

"An enemy attack! " The soldier replied. "The dormatories of the cadets had
been bombed!"

Noin quickly got dressed and began giving orders to put the entire base on
full-scale alert. Since the attack was probably connected to the
destruction of the storage facility the previous day, it was obvious that
the new Tauros suits were the likely targets for this surprise assault. She
immediately gave orders for the new Mobile Suits to be evacuated from the
base as well as send out troops to find whoever was attacking them.

As she ran toward the radar room, she began to suspect that those new
Mobile Suits that Zechs had told her about were behind this. The OZ
organization had described them as being made of Gundanium and that they
possessed phenomenal power. The new suits were now termed as Gundams and
were attacking OZ facilities with guerilla tactics.

As she reached the control tower, one of her subordinates informed her that
nothing was showing up on radar and that the patrol groups had not spotted
anything out of the ordinary.

"Switch to thermal scanners!" Noin commanded.

The subordinate did so and then said, "I've got a signal of someone fleeing
from the base!"

That was all Noin needed as she told the men to ready a squadron of ARIES
suits to chase him down. She also ordered that a space cannon be taken
along, in case a Gundam was nearby. Though her subordinates advised against
it, Noin was determined to catch whoever had the gall to attack her forces.
It was a matter of pride. Her old school chum Zechs Marquis had come to
visit and she wasn't going to be made looking like an amateur! 

A short while later...

Ranma ran as he headed toward the forest where the Warblade was hidden.
Getting into the base was child's play for someone of his talents. Using
his chi projectile to detonate a few explosives he had stolen from the
armory had gotten their attention. He knew that the troops at the base
would suspect that a Gundam would be nearby and would most certainly try to
evacuate the TAUROS suits. That was what Ranma wanted. He had already
deleted all the data the main computer had on the new Mobile Suits and now
was the time for him to destroy the rest.

"Stop right there!"

Ranma whirled around as he felt a gust of wind blow up behind him and heard
the sounds of thrusters. A spotlight was focused on him and the martial
artist and Gundam pilot found himself facing against an ARIES suit.

Inside the cockpit, Noin was surprised to see a boy, no more than 16 or 17
years old. "This is the one who blew up the barracks? This kid?"

"A woman?" Ranma commented, then shrugged, as it didn't really matter to
him. An enemy was an enemy, no matter what gender the person was.

"Lt. Noin?" Another soldier asked through the communicator.

"I've found the saboteur and" The lieutenant was unable to finish when her
eyes caught a glimpse of the boy as a blue light suddenly surrounded him.
The youth pulled back his hands while cupping them, then thrust them
forward, aiming the open palms at the head of her ARIES suit.

Half of the head of the Mobile Suit was blown away as Ranma's chi
projectile smashed through the armor plating and sensor arrays. Noin found
herself being driven backward and for a moment thought that the intruder
had fired some kind of heavy anti-tank weapon. Her main viewscreen began to
spark and show nothing but static. 

The ARIES suit crashed heavily onto the ground as Ranma bolted into the
woods. A few moments later, Noin's backup had arrived. Two ARIES suits,
carrying a heavy beam cannon between them jetted onto the scene.

"Lt. Noin! Are you all right?" One of the subordinates asked through his
communicator.

Inside of her machine, Noin shook her head to clear the dizziness. He
console was giving off slight sparks and small wisps of smoke, but was
still serviceable. She reached over to respond to her subordinate.

"I'm fine. Did you see where the intruder went?"

Both soldiers responded with a negative as the lieutenant began rerouting
power to the secondary systems of her suit. Gradually, her damaged ARIES
rose unsteadily to its feet and her main viewscreen came back online.

It was then that the trees a few hundred meters away began to rustle and
shake as something emerged. The OZ pilots gasped in shock as they all
turned to see what had just appeared.

"What the?"

"It's a Mobile Suit!"

Noin's eyes widened as she zoomed in with her optic scanners. She instantly
recognized the machine by its configuration, which matched the files that
she had read about the Gundams. "Gundam zero six!" Noin gasped as she
desperately tried to get her Mobile Suit ready to engage it.

Inside the Warblade, Ranma snorted as he focused his chi into his Gundam
while pushing the controls forward. Before any of the Oz pilots could even
think of responding, the Gundam engaged the Chi Cannon Blades and charged
them. The huge blades flared with an eerie light and slashed the nearest
ARIES suit in half. Just as it was beginning to explode, the Warblade
pivoted and cut the other ARIES in twain. The beam cannon they had been
carrying dropped to the ground.

Ranma then had his Gundam execute a perfect reverse spin kick and caught
Noin's damaged ARIES as it tried to attack from behind. Noin found herself
being driven backward again and her machine slammed into a grove of trees,
smashing them into toothpicks.

Noin gritted her teeth as she tried to get her mecha to stand up. However,
that last kick and fall had caused her control mechanisms to short out. She
found herself unable to do anything but watch as the Warblade approached
her. She knew that this was the end.

However, instead of finishing her off, the Warblade instead stopped before
the fallen beam cannon and picked it up, while resheathing its weapons.
Noin wondered what was going on, then realized Ranma's intentions. She
mentally kicked herself for falling for his trap. It was the new TAUROS
suits that he was after, and his attack on the base had been set up, so
that she would have brought out the beam cannon to battle his Gundam. Now
he was going to use her own weapons against the transports that were now
just taking off.

The Warblade turned to face the transports as they were just lifting off,
then did something strange. It looked down at the weapon in its hands then
dropped the cannon. It then pointed both arms in the direction of the
fleeing forces, then flipped out both of its blades and began focusing its
energies. The energy scanners on Noin's suit were still functioning and
they were now trying to analyze the strange power being emitted. 

Energy began crisscrossing between the two blades as they were held out
like the tines of a tuning fork. Then suddenly, a beam of light blasted
forth and shot toward the two huge transports that were carrying the TAUROS
suits. The beam struck through the first one, shearing off a wing and
splitting the fuselage in two. The beam continued and smashed into the side
of the second one. In an instant, both transports were reduced to
nose-diving wreckages and when they hit the ground, they exploded into huge
fireballs, incinerating everything inside of them, including their precious
cargoes.

Noin was flabbergasted at what she saw, as she did nothing but watch the
Gundam engage its thrusters and make its escape. She was still in a state
of shock and did not answer her communicator when Zechs tried to contact
her.

A little while later

Wufei woke and found himself lying on the ground in an open field. His eyes
focused on the person who was casually leaning against a tree.

"So you're finally awake." Ranma commented.

"How did I get here?" Wufei asked as he quickly stood up and took a stance.

Ranma shrugged as he replied, "After I knocked you out. I used a couple of
sleeper points on you to keep you quiet while I went to destroy all the
TAUROS suits at the base. When I came back, I decided to bring you and your
Gundam out here."

"Sleeper points?" Wufei repeated. "You know about shiatsu?"

"You're familiar with it?" Ranma thought for a moment, then shrugged again.
"Yeah, I guess you would be. Judging by your stance, I can tell that you're
not a bad martial artist. Not as good as me, but you're no weakling."

"Weakling?!" Wufei got very riled at that accusation.

"Calm down, pal. I'm not saying you're weak. In any case, you don't have to
worry about all those new Mobile Suits at the base. I destroyed them all
and wiped out their data and all their backups."

"I didn't ask for your help!"

"It doesn't matter to me. I would have attacked the base in any case.
Nevertheless, that's ancient history now. By the way, your Gundam has been
repaired and it's ready to go. Follow me."

Wufei gave Ranma a suspicious look and did nothing for a long while. Then,
since he didn't really have any other options, he cautiously followed
Ranma.

When the got to where the Sheng Long was standing, Wufei looked up and down
his mecha and noted that it was indeed fully repaired. When he turned to
face Ranma, the Chinese boy's expression was bit softer.

"Though I really don't like people interfering in my business I do thank
you." Wufei's mouth became a hard line as he barely managed to hold in his
irritation.

"Whatever." Ranma said nonchalantly as he gestured toward the exit to the
hanger. "Well, I'm sure that you want to go onto your next mission, just
like I do, so I guess this is goodbye." Ranma turned to leave.

"Wait."

Ranma turned back to Wufei. "Yes."

"There's something I want to know."

"What?"

"That thing you used to knock me out. That was chi wasn't it?"

Ranma paused for a moment, then gave his fellow martial artist a small
smile and nodded.

"That had something to do with your Gundam isn't it? That was the reason
why I couldn't pilot it. All of those attacks and the way your Gundam
reacts; it uses your chi, doesn't it?"

There was another one of those long pauses and then Ranma nodded again.
"You're very perceptive Wufei. You must be a true martial artist if you
were able to deduce all of that. I commend you."

"Then I wish to ask you to teach me."

Ranma was a bit startled at this. "What?"

Wufei took on a look of utter determination. "Teach me how to use chi."

To be continued

Author's Notes

Well, now that Gundam Warblade is on my regular story list, my readers will
begin to notice quite a few divergences from the original Gundam Wing
series. Stay tuned for ch.5.

Gundam Warblade Specifications (current)

After battling the Duo Maxwell and the Gundam Deathscythe, Ranma had
decided to modify the Gundam Warblade and address some of the deficiencies
of his mecha, which included an over-reliance on the Chi Cannon Blades and
a thin outer shell. The improvements he added are more armor and firepower.
Though the added weight has made it a bit slower, Ranma's Gundam still has
a far greater reaction time and its Chi Power System still puts the
Warblade on an equal, if not greater standing than the other Gundams. It is
especially proficient in melee combat, but it does possess long and medium
range weaponry, making it extremely versatile.

 

Model number: XXXG-01W2

Head height: 16.7 m

Base Weight: 7.9 tons

Armor materials: Gundanium alloys

Standard armament

Chi Cannon Blades (2): These are the main weapons of the Warblade and are
able to cut through virtually any substance as well as project beams of
concussive force or heat. They can also be disengaged and joined together
to form a double-bladed lance. Powered by Ranma's massive stores of chi,
they are the equals to Deathscythe's Beam Scythe and Sandrock's Heat
Shortels. Powering the two blades together can create a beam with the same
destructive force as Gundam 01's Beam Cannon, but this is extremely
draining for Ranma. 

Head Vulcans (2): These are the standard weapons of all the Gundams, and
are used for distance attacks, and defense.

Beam Sabers (2): These are standard Beam Sabers and are housed in hidden
compartments in each leg. Since constant use of the Chi Cannon Blades can
be very draining, Ranma had decided to add these weapons for backup.

Chest Missiles (6): Three per side. Launched from hidden panels and possess
homing capabilities.

Machine Cannons (2): Mounted on the torso for added firepower and defense.

Chi Power System (1): Based on the original Zero System, but uses the chi
potential of the pilot, rather than his brainwaves, the Gundam Warblade is
able to mimic the complex motions of the human body with 99.99% accuracy.
It also allows the pilot to actually feel WITH the Gundam, rather than just
directing it. The Gundam becomes a living extension of the pilot, which
makes it well suited for a talented martial artist such as Ranma. One
obvious drawback is that the pilot must have massive amounts of chi to
operate it, and even Ranma cannot meet the huge amounts of chi needed for a
prolonged battle, at least not yet.

Ability Levels

Fighting: 210

Weapons: 140

Speed: 150

Power: 190

Armor: 110


