Gundam Warblade

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and Ranma 1/2 are not mine so don't 
bother me about it.

< >: Thoughts

Chapter 7
Trial by Fire

Corporal Ludemella Platnov was ecstatic as she saw the 
Thunderhawk speed toward the base. The defending ARIES and LEO 
suits that were sent out to intercept the Gundam would be no match 
against it, and would give the Russian girl the opportunity to test the 
new Gladiator Mobile Suit under actual combat conditions. High up 
in the sky, the Thunderhawk was slaughtering its opponents. It was 
even taking out the new TAURUS suits that were sent up against it, 
as well as obliterating whatever ground targets that were firing at it.

Inside the cockpit, Celia Whitestar nodded as she picked off her 
enemies with an almost casual air. As the last of the ARIES and 
TAURUS suits fell, she focused her telescopic scanners onto the 
base and found the new prototype Mobile Suit that she had heard 
about. A day before, she had sent her robotic bird Free Wind to scout 
the area and it had relayed detailed reconnaissance images of the 
Gladiator in action. Now it was time to see if the new OZ weapon 
was all that it was reported to be.

The Thunderhawk engaged its afterburners and rocketed down 
toward Base Nova. As it came down on a low altitude and skimmed 
the treetops, Celia launched a barrage of missiles from underneath 
the wing pivots to take out a group of LEOs. As it approached the 
perimeter of the base, Celia threw the switch that caused the Gundam 
to undergo its transformation. In less than two seconds, the Gundam 
Thunderhawk assumed its humanoid shape and was now engaging its 
Spirit Force Energy Bow. Three rapid-fire shots and a trio of LEO 
suits had gaping holes in their chest armor as the arrows struck with 
deadly accuracy.

Ludemella nodded as her Mobile Suit's systems began analyzing her 
soon-to-be opponent's moves. She then readied her Double-Bladed 
Beam Saber and charged toward the battle. 

Celia was just engaging her Beam Spear and gutted another LEO 
when her shaman senses went off. Like Ranma, Celia had developed 
a kind of danger sense that was due to her Native American heritage 
and upbringing. Her uncle had taken her on many hunting trips 
during their visits to Earth and had honed her tracking skills. With 
her grandmother's training in focusing her Spirit Force, she had 
gained a kind of psychic awareness of her environment. As she pulled 
her weapon out of the last of the LEOs, she turned around and saw 
the Gladiator rush toward her, then come to a stop some fifty meters 
away. The new machine took a ready stance while holding up its 
weapon. Inside the cockpit, Ludemella switched on her 
communicator and addressed her foe.

"I didn't expect that I'd have the chance to test the Gladiator and my 
skills against a Gundam pilot so soon. You'll find that this Mobile 
Suit is a lot tougher and I'm going to be a much harder opponent to 
beat! I am Corporal Ludemella Platnov! Who may I ask am I fighting 
with?"

Celia's eyebrows furrowed at this pilot's audacity as the 
Thunderhawk readied for battle. "You want to know? Well, here's my 
calling card!" She charged toward her enemy as she remembered back 
to the one instruction that had been constantly drilled into her mind 
when Chieftess V had trained her to pilot the Gundam.

<Those who see my Gundam must not live to tell about it. >

Celia let off a blood-curdling war cry as she thrust forward with her 
Beam Spear, aiming for the lower abdomen of the Gladiator. 
However, to her surprise, Ludemella countered the stab with her own 
weapon with a speed that Celia had not expected. The Russian girl 
then began making a series of slashes at her foe, using the Beam 
Saber like a quarterstaff. The Sioux pilot found herself hard pressed 
to parry each of her strikes.

<Uh oh! The Gladiator's response time is lot faster than those other 
Mobile Suits! She knows how to handle it! >

Inside her cockpit, Ludemella smiled as she continued to force Celia 
back. The Gladiator was operating flawlessly and the cybernetic link 
was giving her unprecedented control over her Mobile Suit's 
movements. She smiled as one of her Beam Saber's energy blades 
nicked a wing of the Thunderhawk. She had studied the Gundams in 
depth and was aware of the potential weak points of each machine, as 
stated by Lady Une during her briefings. The Heavy Arms had 
tremendous, but limited firepower. The Sandrock was good for close-
range combat, but had very little in long-range attacks and relied on 
its thick armor. Deathscythe was also limited to hand-to-hand battle 
and its Beam Shield and Vulcan Guns were its only means of striking 
at a distance. Gundam zero five's greatest strength was its Dragon 
Fang, but that was also its weakness. Once extended, the arm was 
open to damage. Like Gundam zero one, the Thunderhawk was a 
transformer, and therefore had more weak points due to its many 
moving parts. Lady Une had specifically noted that severing the 
wings would be the key in defeating 01, so the same might apply to 
Gundam 07. However, unlike Heero Yuy's machine, the 
Thunderhawk was loaded with more weaponry and was capable of 
short, medium and long-range combat. It was a well-rounded, air 
superiority battle mecha and Ludemella knew that keeping it 
grounded was the real challenge. But then again, she lived for the 
challenge.

Celia became annoyed as the Gladiator parried another one of her 
spear thrusts, then decided to try a different tactic. She tried for a 
feint and thrust forward at her unprotected flank.

However, the BFC of the Gladiator gave it impossibly faster reaction 
time and its tactical analysis programs were recording Celia's battle 
tactics and maneuvers. Gradually, the OZ pilot was beginning to get a 
feel for Celia's style of combat and finding ways of breaking those 
patterns. And like the ZERO system, her battle perceptions were 
heightened and her reflexes became almost inhuman. The warrior 
from colony L7 found herself being pushed back again as Ludemella 
began pressing the attack again with savagery. Celia began to take 
hits as Ludemella's Beam Saber began getting through her defense. 
Unlike regular Beam Sabers, Ludemella's had far greater power 
output. Even Gundanium alloy had its breaking point. 

Celia winced as her Beam Spear was knocked out of her Gundam's 
hands and took a glancing shot from the energy blade. She was then 
kicked back and damage readouts began to register on her screens. 
Her mecha was knocked back onto its rear as it took another blow to 
the chest area. Fortunately, the cockpit module was the most heavily 
protected area and took the brunt of the attack. However, as the 
Thunderhawk was on its back, Celia discovered that the last attack 
had caused a short in her controls and the Gundam was now slower 
in reacting. Her screens were also showing static as they began 
flickering in and out. When she saw that Ludemella was about to 
drive her Beam Saber into the Thunderhawk's midsection, she had to 
react quickly.

"This battle is MINE!" Ludemella cried as she prepared to deliver the 
deathblow. As of now, she was now totally immersed in her 
Gladiator's flawed BFC. She was only concerned with winning and 
eliminating all who would dare oppose her. She wasn't an OZ soldier 
any more. She wasn't even responding to the communications that she 
was receiving from her commanders to take in the Gundam pilot alive 
for questioning. 

Celia had only a spilt second to decide. The self-detonation device 
or...? She then reached for a switch and pulled a trigger.

Ludemella was taken completely off guard as Celia's Head Vulcan 
guns fired at point-blank range. The force of hundreds of armor-
piercing rounds slamming into her Mobile Suit's chest, forced her 
away. Her Gladiator's armor was made of neotitanium and took the 
hits with no more than relative superficial damage. Celia had emptied 
her entire payload of ammunition stored in the Head Vulcans to get 
her opponent to back off and caused the Mobile Suit to lose its grip 
on its weapon. However, it was enough time for Celia to get her 
Gundam back onto its feet and aim her Spirit Force Bow at her 
opponent. Focusing her inner energies, she fired off a shot into the 
Gladiator's chest. 

Ludemella shrieked as the energies of the Spirit Force arrow lanced 
through the already weakened outer chest plating of her Mobile Suit 
and caused a bioenergy backlash into her BFC. Her cerebral cortex 
and her psychomotor control centers were given quite a shock as 
Celia's bioenergy intermingled with the cybernetic control circuitry. 
Then, the Gladiator began to thrash about wildly, mimicking the 
erratic movements of its pilot as the Russian girl began to have 
seizures. For twenty seconds, the prototype to OZ's newest close-
combat Mobile Suit went through a series of erratic movements that 
resembled a bout of epilepsy. The young corporal continued to howl 
in pain as her brain was racked by intense mental fire. Then, as 
suddenly as it began, it stopped as the Gladiator's arms drooped 
down and the torso slumped over like a hunchback. 

Celia was curious as to why the mecha had stopped as she held her 
Spirit Force Bow at the ready with an arrow already notched. She 
wondered what was going on and then rerouted some of her auxiliary 
power to the sensors to detect for life signs. Her readouts indicated 
that there were none and the Sioux warrior naturally assumed that her 
opponent was dead. She decided that she now had the opportunity to 
destroy the only prototype of OZ's new close-combat Mobile Suit 
and raised her bow to finish it off. Her sensors located the main 
power reactor of the machine and she estimated that a well-placed 
shot would detonate it, thereby destroying it completely. The body of 
the pilot would be incinerated along with the Gladiator, but since she 
was already dead, Celia reasoned that a cremation would be a fitting 
end to her opponent. 

Just as she was about to release her arrow, Celia's sensors suddenly 
began flashing as they began picking up an energy surge within the 
Gladiator. Without any warning, the seemingly dead mecha suddenly 
sprang back to life as its eyes glowed emerald green. With a speed 
that defied description, the Gladiator charged into the Thunderhawk 
and gripped the bow arm with both hands and began applying 
enormous pressure near the wrist.

Celia fought hard to free her Gundam's arm from Ludemella's grip, 
but before she could get into a position that would give her more 
leverage, the Gladiator put her into a shoulder throw and slammed 
her hard into the ground. The landing stunned Celia as she was 
jostled in her seat and that was when another impact struck her 
machine hard.

Inside the Gladiator's cockpit, Ludemella was feeling a new 
sensation. After she had come out of what seemed to be a very deep 
comatose state, she had discovered that she was not only controlling 
her machine, but was actually feeling WITH it. She could actually 
feel the grip of the Mobile Suit's hands as it continued to crush the 
Thunderhawk's wrist. Now, with the arm still pinned, she was 
mentally commanding the Gladiator to stomp down with its foot onto 
the Gundam's chest. Though the Gundanium armor protected the 
machine from any direct hits, the joints were become strained to 
beyond their tolerance levels. Circuits began to spark and fluids 
began to leak from the Thunderhawk's shoulder as the Gladiator 
continued to pull on the arm while kicking out with its foot.

Celia winced as her damage readouts indicated that her bow arm was 
about to be torn loose from its socket. A moment later, she heard the 
sickening grind of metal and circuits being ripped apart as the arm 
was pulled free. She then stared in shock and horror as the Gladiator 
held up the limb and then swung it down like a makeshift club. She 
desperately made her Gundam swing its remaining arm to block the 
blow, then had the Thunderhawk roll to the side to avoid another hit. 
However, with her controls slow in response, her Gundam was too 
sluggish and began taking more of a pounding as it was still being 
pinned by the Gladiator's foot. Then her eyes widened as her screens 
flickered when the pounding suddenly stopped. She saw the 
Gladiator discard her Gundam's severed arm and raise its own arm to 
reveal something emerging from a housing of its forearm. A sharp 
spike popped out and began cracking with energy. Celia was thrown 
back into her seat as the other Gundam slammed its foot down to 
drive the Thunderhawk into the ground. Then it prepared to thrust the 
spike into the Thunderhawk's cockpit. Celia knew that this was the 
end as she began to reach for the self-detonation device.

Ludemella was ecstatic. The Gladiator was responding as fast as she 
could think now. She had thought the controls were smooth before, 
but after being shot by Celia's energy arrow, her BFC had totally 
interfaced with her cerebral cortex. The machine was now linked to 
the OZ pilot on a level that was far beyond what the creators of the 
Gladiator had envisioned. The young Russian was now intent on only 
eliminating her enemy and the heat of battle had increased her lust 
for combat ten times over. Her opponent was too damaged to 
continue on, but that did not matter to Platinov. Celia was still alive 
and therefore was a threat.

Celia closed her eyes as her hand was about to touch the self-
detonation switch when the energized spike came down toward her 
Gundam.

The roar of thrusters stopped both machines and their pilots as the 
Warblade II landed.

The pilot of the Gladiator paused as she saw the newcomer, then 
smiled. Though its configuration was somewhat different from the 
images she had scanned, she recognized the enemy nonetheless.

"An upgraded Gundam zero six!" Ludemella said fondly as she 
backed off her downed opponent and faced the new challenge.

Inside the Warblade II, Ranma focused his chi as the blades slid out 
of their housings. He was more than ready for combat, but he paused 
as his sensors began picking up some very interesting energy 
emissions coming from both Mobile Suits. He recognized the 
damaged Thunderhawk from the data he had collected on it and was 
surprised to be picking up bioenergy feedback pulses that were 
incredibly similar to the ones detected in his Gundam. He then turned 
his attention on the Gladiator and winced as he recognized the energy 
emissions. He had been told about it by Sensei X when he was being 
instructed in the operation of Warblade I.

Sensei X had confided in him that the Chi Power System had been 
based on another system called Zero. The Zero system could easily 
make any pilot operate at beyond anything humanly impossible, 
increasing both psychomotor and tactical ability. Reflexes were 
heightened and awareness was raised to unimaginable levels. 
However, the system also caused the pilot to become emotionally and 
psychologically unstable. That was the main reason why the Gundam 
engineers had not tried to complete the Gundam they dubbed Wing 
Zero and went about creating their own personal Gundams. Sensei X 
had decided on creating a system which used the bioenergy feedback 
of the pilot as a medium, in which Ranma's phenomenal chi abilities 
made him a perfect candidate. The martial artist had no problems in 
manipulating and channeling his own inner power, so there was no 
risk of any psychological instability as massive amounts of power 
was fed into the Chi Cannon Blades and the main control systems.

Ranma was also surprised to detect some energy emissions within the 
Gladiator that matched the ones being generated in the downed 
Thunderhawk. He quickly pushed those thoughts aside as his 
communications systems began receiving a transmission from his 
opponent. The main viewscreen lit up as he got his first look at the 
pilot of the Gladiator.

"Welcome, pilot of Gundam 06! You don't know how much I have 
been waiting for this opportunity to test my skills against you." 
Ludemella said as she urged her Mobile Suit to step back a few 
meters to get more fighting room. She then gestured with a nod of her 
head down at her defeated opponent. Amazingly, the Gladiator's head 
mimicked the movement simultaneously. "This one was nice warm-up 
and now... it's time for the REAL battle to begin!"

Inside the Thunderhawk, Celia gritted her teeth at being brushed off 
as just a warm-up, but she couldn't do anything about it. Her Gundam 
was now just barely able to move and was on auxiliary power. The 
damage it had sustained had caused it to shut down several of its 
major systems except for sensors, the self-detonation device, life-
support and a few others. She could only sit by and watch.

Ranma was momentarily speechless when he discovered that he was 
going up against a girl, but shook it off. He had been taught that 
fulfilling his mission directives was top priority and that the gender 
of his opponents was irrelevant. This point was driven home as the 
Gladiator charged at him after sweeping up the discarded Double-
Bladed Beam Saber and igniting it. Ranma's chi flared as he brought 
his blades up to parry.

The energies clashed together in a violent storm of light and sound. 
Ludemella tried several slashes and cuts at his Gundam's midsection. 
The Warblade II parried and countered each of the attacks while 
trying to get through her defense. However, as they dueled with each 
other, Ranma began to realize that unlike the other Mobile Suits he 
had faced off against, this one was far more agile and had 
phenomenal response time. It was almost as if the Gladiator was a 
living extension of its pilot. Realizing that the mecha must have some 
kind of system that was similar to the Zero and Chi Power Systems, 
Ranma knew that he would have to give this battle far more attention 
that he usually did with Oz Mobile Suits.

Off to one side, several OZ soldiers saw this as an excellent 
opportunity to destroy two Gundams at once and had commandeered 
a tank. Since the battle between the Warblade II and the Gladiator 
was in front of the downed Thunderhawk, the soldiers couldn't get a 
bead on it. But Ranma's Gundam had its back to them as it was 
occupied with its battle with Ludemella's Mobile Suit. But, as the 
tank's turret swiveled to take aim, something shocking happened.

Ranma's sixth sense had already alerted him of the danger as his rear 
sensors caught the motion of the tank, but before he was about to 
direct his Gundam to avoid being hit, Ludemella's Mobile Suit 
suddenly rushed forward.

Ludemella was in the grip of her flawed BFC and had been enjoying 
the challenge when she saw those cowardly soldiers trying to take 
away her prize! She was determined to claim the victory for herself 
and no one was going to take it away from her!

"HE'S MINE TO FIGHT! MINE!!" Ludemella screamed as her Beam 
Saber slashed down and cleaved the tank and its operators in half. In 
front of the shocked eyes of both Ranma and Celia, the vehicle 
exploded a moment later as the Gladiator turned to face them. 
Ludemella's voice was cold and hard as she addressed them.

"I shall not let ANYONE interfere! This battle is between true 
warriors and I will not tolerate any cowardly attacks!"

Ranma's eyebrows furrowed as he could see that whatever was 
powering the Gladiator was making its pilot more lustful for battle 
with each passing minute. There was no doubt about it. Sensei X's 
warning about the Gladiator's operating system being similar to the 
Wing Zero's was true. Whatever happened to push Ludemella over 
the edge had turned her into a berserker. And that made her a 
hundred times more dangerous. Ranma tensed as the Gladiator 
charged forward, its Beam Saber flashing. Ranma had no choice but 
to counter as Celia was too close for him to use chi blasts. Ranma 
didn't know the pilot of the Thunderhawk, but assumed that since it 
was Gundam, its pilot was therefore a potential ally as Wufei and the 
others were. 

Ranma gritted his teeth as he was forced back toward the fallen 
Thunderhawk by Ludemella's relentless attacks. He tensed up when 
his Gundam tripped over Celia's mecha and impacted hard against it. 
Inside the fallen Thunderhawk, Celia was jostled in her seat and was 
rendered unconscious when her forehead jerked forward and struck 
an overhead console.

Inside the Gundam Warblade II, Ranma glanced down at the sensor 
readouts and sighed with some relief as the life energy readouts 
indicated that the pilot of Gundam 07 was still alive, but unconscious 
now. Ranma blocked a downward slash, then had his mecha slam a 
foot into the Gladiator's gut to force it back. Ranma then charged 
forward with Chi Cannon Blades blazing and began pressing his 
advantage. He attacked with intricate patterns of cuts and thrusts that 
would have made his former rival Kuno green with envy.

Along with the swordplay, the pilot of the Warblade II began mixing 
in some martial arts maneuvers. As he swerved to left to avoid a 
deadly thrust to the side, he had his mecha execute a perfect spin 
kick. The foot of the Warblade II connected with the outstretched 
arm and knocked the weapon out of its metalshod hands. The Beam 
Saber of the Gladiator went flying as its opponent then executed a 
counterthrust with one of its blades. Ludemella winced as she barely 
managed to avoid being skewered, but was knocked back into the 
pilot's chair as her Mobile Suit received another blow to the head by 
a jump kick. Damage reports began to flash across her screens as her 
machine's already battered hull took another hit to the torso. Her 
readouts were also informing her that her main reactor was beginning 
to lose power, due to damage sustained in her battle with the 
Thunderhawk. The pounding she was taking from the Warblade was 
not helping any. Her Mobile Suit was getting sluggish. Though she 
was still more than eager to continue the battle, a sliver of logic 
began to filter through the red haze she was seeing. Then, something 
happened which shocked her back to reality. Specifically, the 
Gladiator's right arm being slashed off as one of the Warblade II's Chi 
Cannon Blades connected and severed the limb from its shoulder. 
The Russian pilot gritted her teeth as she had the Gladiator lash out 
with a kick, knocking Ranma's Gundam off-balance. She had her 
mecha back off as sparks were emitted from the exposed shoulder 
socket and torn cables dangled out from their supports. Ranma's 
weapon had cut clean through the arm and it was apparent that the 
Warblade's pilot wasn't going to stop there as the Gundam got back 
to its feet and advanced on her.

Ludemella's battle rage began to subside and her logical thought 
processes began to surface again. She still had the urge to continue 
the duel, but now she could see that the odds were stacked against 
her. Her mecha was too damaged to continue on and it was now more 
tactically sound to withdraw. However, she made a silent promise to 
herself that she would once again face the pilot of Gundam 06. The 
next time, it would be with the Gladiator at full power!

"The battle ends... for now." Ludemella said as she triggered a device 
that caused the Gladiator to release canisters of dark smoke and emit 
scrambler waves to confuse sensors. This didn't fool Ranma's 
extraordinary perceptions as he charged forward to finish her off. 
However, that was when the prototype OZ Mobile Suit's thrusters 
fired and launched it into the sky. Though the mecha was not really 
suited for flight, its thrusters were more than powerful enough to give 
the Gladiator long-range leaping abilities. As it made its escape, it 
also released photon bursts and magnesium flares which momentarily 
blinded all those present. In less than ten-seconds, it was out of 
visual range.

Ranma rubbed his eyes while cursing himself for being too slow. As 
his vision cleared, he knew that there was no hope of catching the 
Gladiator now and he still had a downed Gundam pilot and an intact 
OZ base to contend with. The soldiers were just starting to recover 
from the sudden confusion and would be turning their weapons on 
him in a few moments. The mission to destroy the prototype Mobile 
Suit was a bust, but he could still make certain that this base would 
never be able to construct another. All the precious alloys and 
components to make a new Gladiator were stored here, and as far as 
Ranma was concerned, one Gladiator was one too many. Just as the 
soldiers were about to man their weapons, the Gundam Warblade 
Mark II swept up the Thunderhawk with its severed arm over its 
shoulder and blasted off into the air. The additional weight of the 
damaged Mobile Suit severely hampered his Gundam's flying ability, 
but he still managed to get to an altitude of half a mile as the OZ 
soldiers began firing lasers and cannon shells. He then hovered for a 
minute as his targeting computers located the storage areas for the 
base's munitions and power reactor. He then aimed one arm with Chi 
Cannon Blade energized and then let loose with a huge blast of raw 
chi, followed by a second burst a moment later.

The base that had given birth to the Gladiator went up in a huge 
explosion that made the atomic bomb that had been used on 
Hiroshima in World War II look like a firecracker. Not a single 
person or piece of equipment survived intact as the Warblade II flew 
off with its fallen counterpart.

Some time later, somewhere near the South Pole...

"That was a good idea to use the salvaged remains of Gundam 06 to 
help rebuild 01, Commander Zechs. Recycling that Gundanium was 
certainly easier than having a new supply shipped in." The engineer 
said as he and the Lightning Count stood before the nearly 
reconstructed Wing Gundam.

The officer in the helmet nodded. "Yes, well I know how hard it is 
for Gundanium to be made, especially since it can only be created in 
the vacuum of deep space. I had considered using neotitanium, but 
since the Gundams all share similar designs and construction, I felt 
that the remains of the two self-detonated Gundams would provide 
sufficient material to rebuild at least one of them. By the way, were 
you able to reconstruct the operating systems of Gundam 06?"

The engineer shook his head. 'No sir. I'm afraid to say that whatever 
systems that Mobile Suit had used, had been totally obliterated when 
it self-detonated. My guess is that those systems were the most 
important components of that Gundam and took the brunt of the 
explosion to prevent them from falling into enemy hands."

"I see. Well, in any case, Gundam 01 will be completed on schedule 
and I look forward to finishing my duel with its pilot. And after that, 
I also want to meet up with that other one as well, if he survived, and 
I have a feeling that he did."

"He did survive, Zechs." Lt. Noin said as she walked up to the two 
and saluted. "I just received this report a few minutes ago." She then 
handed Zechs the file.

The masked man scanned the file and was a bit surprised. "Nova was 
destroyed? Isn't that where that new close-combat Mobile Suit was 
being developed?"

"Yes sir. The Gladiator prototype and its pilot had engaged both that 
new Gundam 07 and... an upgraded 06!"

"Upgraded? Then the pilot is not only alive, but is now using a more 
advanced Gundam?"

"Yes sir. The surveillance cameras managed to televise visuals of the 
new Gundams before the base was destroyed."

"And what about the Gladiator and its pilot?"

"I'm afraid that Corporal Ludemella Platinov and the prototype have 
gone AWOL. The readouts from the base computers had indicated 
that something in her cybernetic control systems had caused her to go 
berserk. We can't track her since the homing device on the Gladitor 
isn't working. We don't know if it had been damaged during the battle 
or if Platinov had deactivated it. The higher-ups are now in favor of 
scrapping the Gladiator project as it is deemed too unpredictable. 
They are now in favor of that new automated control system for our 
Mobile Suits."

"I see. Well, this doesn't alter my plans for a rematch with the pilot of 
Gundam 01 or my interest in 06." Zechs said as he turned his 
attention back to the nearly restored Wing Gundam.

Meanwhile, the other Gundam Pilots were also having their own 
adventures. Trowa had nearly self-detonated himself and it took his 
adopted sister Catherine to snap him out of it. She had actually 
climbed into the Heavy Arms and gave him a hard slap to the face. 
Later on, he traveled with Heero as he went to the surviving families 
of the officials he had inadvertently murdered when he had downed 
that Oz shuttle. At the same time, both Duo and Quatre were forced 
from their hiding spot as Oz soldiers ruthlessly terrorized the Arabic 
village they had been staying at. With the help of the Magnoc Corps, 
the pair managed to make their escape. As for Wufei, he had gone 
into a bout of self-pity and denial. Unknown to Ranma, after he had 
parted company with him, the Chinese boy had gotten into a duel 
with Treize... and lost. Though he had been trained in the ways of 
chi, his impatience and arrogance had caused him to underestimate 
his opponent and Treize had the opportunity to kill him, but instead 
spared his life. He had since went into a state of depression that 
would have made Ryoga's seem trivial, but was given a bit of a boost 
of self-confidence after helping out Sally Po and her rebels, That had 
been the time in which he discovered that he could use his anger to 
focus his chi. He was confident enough to join the others in Siberia, 
but after the threat to the colonies, his confidence levels once again 
plummeted. As of now, the pilot of the Sheng Long was unsure of the 
road he was to take.

A day after the destruction of Base Nova...

Ranma nodded as he scanned the inner workings of the Gundam 
Thunderhawk. The Mobile Suit was in the hidden hanger beside his 
own and was undergoing repairs. The robotic waldos and other 
devices were hard at work with welding, replacing components, 
buffing out dents and reattaching the severed bow arm.

<I'll be damned! This Gundam operates on a system that is similar to 
the one that Warblade I and II use! I wonder...> Ranma looked off to 
one side from within the cockpit of the Thunderhawk and saw that 
the arm was now attached and all the major circuit connections were 
completed. It was at that time that his danger sense went off.

"Get away from my Gundam!"

Ranma looked out from the open cockpit and saw that Celia 
Whitestar was standing with her left arm extended and her right arm 
cocked back. Apparently, she was no longer unconscious from the 
time he had brought her here. Her head had a white bandage wrapped 
around her temples. In her hands, a glowing aura of light appeared 
and took the shape of a bow and arrow, which she aimed directly at 
Ranma.

The pilot of the Warblade II gazed at the energy construct in her 
hands and smiled. It seemed that he and Wufei weren't the only ones 
who could manipulate and focus chi.

Meanwhile...

Ludemella Platinov sat on a narrow ridge as she continued to stare 
off into the sunset. A few meters away, the Gladiator stood silent as 
its pilot considered her options. It was now out of the question for 
her to return to OZ, but that no longer concerned her. She was done 
with OZ and with her new... partner, she was now ready to move 
forward. She gazed up at the damaged Mobile Suit and gave it a 
knowing smile.

"Don't worry my friend." She assured as she addressed the Gladiator. 
"I'll get you back up to full strength and we'll have another chance 
against that Gundam pilot. The next time we meet... it will be our 
final, glorious victory!" She held up a hand and clenched a fist. Her 
eyes suddenly flashed with an eerie green glow.

The remaining arm of the Gladiator also raised and clenched its fist 
in response as the eyes emitted a green light. Now normally, this 
wouldn't be a strange event, save for the fact that Ludemella was 
OUTSIDE of her Mobile Suit. 

 

To be continued...

Author's Notes

Well, I finally got over the writer's block and finished this chapter. 
Next chapter, Ranma and Celia get acquainted as Heero and Zechs 
have their battle in Antarctica. As for Ludemella Platinov, we'll be 
seeing more of her and the side effects from her battle with the 
Gundams. See ya there!


