Indigo sat frigidly inside the cockpit of her Gundam. She was anticipating her mission. The others were equally as worried. They all understood that they had a very serious mission this time. If they failed…the consequences were hard to think about. Infiltrating an enemy base was definitely no easy task.
"You OK over there, Indigo?" Helen asked, her face popping up on the screen, riddled with concern.
Indigo took a long, deep breath and said, "Yeah, I’m good."
"You’d better be," Helen warned, "Because take off is in a few minutes. You might want to open your com-link so Noin can give last minute instructions. Just remember to cut off your connection with the base when we get close OK? We don’t want the enemy tracking us."
"Got it Helen, I’ll open the link now,"
Helen smiled and disappeared off the screen. Indigo quickly tapped a few keys and opened the link.
"Glad to see you wanted to join us, Indigo." Noin smirked as the window opened, showing Noin’s face.
"Sorry Instructor Noin, I guess I sorta space out for a second."
"No problem, Indigo. Now for some last minute details. We’ve received word about the type of suits our enemy is using. Very high-tech stuff, but I’m confident that Joel and Jasmine can handle it. I’m sending the data to you now, just in case. And I must warn you that they have highly advanced security systems and defenses on their base. So be on your guard at all times. Are we clear?"
"CLEAR." The six teens confirmed.
"Good. Well then, good luck and Godspeed! Noin out." Noin disappeared and the hanger doors began to open into outer space.
Indigo took another deep breath and gripped the controls tightly as she launched the Gundam Venus into space.
"Set Gundams on auto-pilot," Came David’s voice. "It’ll be a while before we get there."
No one answered him, but Indigo was sure they were all taking his advice. Why bother flying for nine hours if a machine could do it for you? Indigo slowly activated her autopilot system and sat back to wait to arrive at their destination.
No one answered him when he told them to turn on the autopilots, but David was used to it. They always acknowledged him without saying anything. As frustrating as it was, David assured himself that he didn’t mind. He sat back in his seat and stared into outer space. It was vast and empty, and he knew he was going to have way too much time to think about the upcoming battle. He heard Helen and Jason arguing over the voice-only com-link. He smiled at the familiar sounds of his friends’ voices and leaned back again. Then he fell asleep.
"Hey! Davie boy! Wake up!" A voice came over the com-link. David opened one eye and saw Jason there, scowling at him.
David yawned and stretched before he acknowledged Jason. "What do you want, Jason?" He asked tiredly as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"We’re almost there," Jason said, "Don’t tell me you weren’t paying attention."
"Sorry Jason," David sighed, "I guess I dozed off for a minute."
"A minute? You’ve been asleep for nearly eight hours! I suggest you grab a snack before you go in there. You’ll need your energy. Joel says we need to observe radio silence now, so I can’t wake you up again." Jason warned.
"Yeah, sure Jason. "See ya in the base, then."
Jason smiled and saluted and then disappeared. David looked at the controls and then pulled out some food from some hidden compartment in his Gundam. One hour to go, he was just beginning to see the base in the distance. He munched on his food and went over the plan in his mind. He and Indigo were going to follow Jason and Helen to the control room and take it over. He went over the route to the control room in his head.
Then he went through the codes to the system. He couldn’t forget those. He saw that they were getting closer and he grabbed his gun from the hidden compartment and gathered the equipment he would need. It was nothing other than a hack-disk. He quickly disengaged the autopilot and gripped the controls tightly.
He would have to fight his way into the base. Even though Helen and Jason would be there to help for a while, he still had a lot of work cut out for him.
He brought out his gun and waited for the signal from one of the Chang twins to go ahead.
As soon as mobile dolls started filing out of the base, Jasmine gave them the go-ahead. David started fighting off the mobile dolls as he followed Helen, Jason and Indigo towards the base. He hoped that Jasmine and Joel would be able to hold off the mobile dolls long enough to complete the mission.
"Get into formation as soon as you get out of your mobile suit." Helen ordered. "We go down the second hall to the right. Everyone know what they’re doing? Let’s go!"
"ROGER!" The other three said as they blew in the hatch and entered the base. Jason hopped out of his Gundam first and waited for the others. Next came Helen, then David and Indigo was last.
Helen loaded her gun and checked out the base. She found the right hall and nodded towards it. "Down there," She said.
They all nodded and followed her, guns ready. Not long after they left their mobile suits, the alarm sounded. Red lights started flashing, and the four teens got ready to fight.
Guards swarmed around them from all directions and Helen and Jason sprang into action fighting them off. Indigo and David fired their guns at them as well, but still not getting close enough for hand-to-hand combat.
When the last of the guards were either dead or unconscious, they started running again. They stopped at a turn and Helen checked out the hallways.
"I think the control room is this way," She said, motioning to the right. They ran down the hallway to where they thought the control room was. They encountered a few more guards in the halls, but not a lot.
"I got the door," Jason smirked. He pulled out a grenade and threw it to the door.
"That had better not damage any of the computers in there," Indigo warned. They ducked around the corner to hide form the explosion. There were a few screams as the guards closest to the door got caught in the blast.
"Let’s go," Jason grinned. He led the way to the control room.
"Masks on everyone!" Helen screamed. She dropped a gas bomb and their enemies fell to the ground, coughing. The four teens held their gas masks to their faces until the poisonous stuff had cleared away.
Indigo and Jason went straight to work pulling up the schematics for the base. Indigo brought up a map and directed their attention on it. It was a heat sensor map, and it showed where everyone was on the base.
"I think they’re holding the device in here." Indigo pointed to a large room, where a lot of guards were posted inside and out.
"Looks like you’ll face about twenty soldiers on your way there, less if you can avoid them. There are fifteen soldiers stationed around the room. The device will be in this safe." She pulled up and diagram of the safe where the device was being held.
"David, you get as much as you can out of the computers while I handle communications." Indigo ordered.
Helen, Jason and David nodded.
"Ready guys?" David smirked.
They all nodded.
"Then lets get this show on the road!"
Helen and Jason left the control room in a run, while turning on their headsets so they could talk with the other four. Indigo and David were left to deal with the computers.
"You OK over there, sis?" Joel asked Jasmine as they battled the enemy mobile suits.
"Just great, bro. How about you?" Jasmine answered.
"Just fine over here," Joel said as he snuck up behind an enemy mobile doll and stabbed it with his fork-like weapon. Jasmine was having fun with her own weapon, a whip. Whenever it struck an enemy a wave electricity was sent thought it, destroying the mobile suit. The waves of mobile dolls kept coming, but the twins knew they could handle it. NO task was too great for the two Changs.
"Indy, give me my location," Helen asked as she crept silently down the halls, hoping to avoid any enemy soldiers. Jason was trailing just behind her.
"Almost there," Came the cracking voice over the headset. "Take a right at the next hall way. And watch out! You’ve got two guns around this corner to the right and three more behind you.
"We’re all over it." Jason answered before Helen could. He turned to deal with the enemies behind them and Helen went for the ones around the corner. Helen quickly sniped the two around the corner and Jason ended up in an all-out battle with the other three. He managed to shoot one down before Helen came to help. She shot one of them in the leg and then kicked him in the back of the neck, knocking him out. Jason took care of the other one just as quickly. They wordlessly turned back and headed for their destination.
"You’re there," Indigo said suddenly.
"Can you get us in?" Helen whispered fiercely. She knew there was a guard walking patrol nearby.
"Yeah, give me a minute. You guys have a gun coming down the left hall way from the south."
"Just one?" Helen asked.
"Yeah,"
"I’ll take him, Jason, you can deal with the device until I get there."
"Got it, babe,"
"And don’t call me babe." Helen hissed as she went to deal with the patrol guard.
"Keep an eye on the patrols for me, Indy." Jason said as he heard the door click open.
"Already three steps ahead of you. The closest are the three that will be directly to your right."
"Gotcha." Jason smirked and barged into the room. He immediately fired to his right, taking down those three guards. Five more came from in front of him, and Jason took aim and took out two before he ran out of bullets.
‘Uh-oh,’ He thought as he searched for more ammo. In his momentary lapse of concentration, the soldiers managed to knock the gun out of his hands.
Jason had no choice but to go hand-to-hand. He didn’t have time to fish out another weapon, the remaining ten guards were closing in on him.
"Sir!" A young soldier ran up to their leader.
"What is it?" He snapped.
"We’re under attack. The enemy has managed to infiltrate our main base, Sir!"
"Dammit!" The man slammed his fist against the wall. He knew that once the Gundams were back in the picture his chances of success were slim. But still, he had to try. But he had never expected them to attack his main base so quickly.
"What’s their status?" He demanded.
"It looks like there are only six of them." The young soldier answered.
Six, that sounded about right,
"Two are fighting our mobile dolls,"
"How are they doing?"
"We’ve lost sixty percent of our dolls already."
The man clenched his fists in anger. "The others?"
"Two are heading straight for our new technology, and the other two are in the control room."
"How bad is it?"
"Pretty bad sir, they’ve went straight for out top secret information. It appears that they know exactly what they’re doing."
"Send out all out soldiers to capture the two heading for the safe. Set aside about twenty to capture those in the control room."
"What about the ones in the mobile suits?"
"Leave them for now, we don’t have enough mobile dolls here to defeat them. But if we capture their friends they may falter."
"Sir!" The soldier saluted and ran off to relay the orders.
"Helen! I could use some help here!" Jason called as he fought off a few more guards. "Helen, where are you?"
A guard about to knock Jason over the head suddenly fell down with a loud thud.
"You were saying?" Helen smirked.
"What took you so long?!"
"Never mind that! Get to the device. Indigo will help you get in!"
Jason nodded and fought his way to the safe. Meanwhile, Helen watched his back, killing off soldiers as they came.
"We’ve got company!" Indigo hissed at David. "Hurry it up!"
"I’m almost done." David assured her. "Give me just a couple more minutes."
"Indy," Jason’s voice came over the headset. "I need help with the safe."
"I’m on it." Indigo tapped away on the keys, trying to crack the safe code without setting off the alarms.
"I’m finished," David announced. He pulled out a few disks and stored them on him. "Let’s get out of here, Indy."
"Just a sec. I’m almost through the safe’s security systems. Give me a hand David. Keep an eye out for guns."
"Ok," David sat back down at his computer and pulled up the heat sensor grids.
"Uh oh, Indy, we’ve got company! Hurry it up!" David said urgently.
"I’m going!" Indigo hissed. She started typing faster, trying to beat the soldiers heading their way. She could sense the urgency of the situation, but she wasn’t about to leave without getting the device.
"They’re right on us, Indy." David cried, "We’ve gotta get out of here!" He grabbed her arm but Indigo refused to budge.
"We can’t leave without that device!" She cried. She kept typing. "You should go, David. I’ll catch up."
"No, Indigo, I can’t just leave you."
"I’m in! Now we can go!" She stood up, finishing up with covering her tracks. They heard some pounding on the door and they knew the soldiers had arrived.
"Let’s go!" Indigo cried. They hurried to the other door. David got out first, and stood outside waiting for Indigo.
She scanned the room before she got out, and suddenly realized they had left a disk of vital information in the control room!
"Oh shit! The disk!" She dashed back in for it just as the door slid open.
"Indy! Leave it!"
"What’s going on?" Helen asked. But she was cut off from the sound of gunfire. David fired back but the amount of soldiers flooding into the room was overwhelming. Finally, he was forced to leave.
Indigo grabbed the disk just as she heard the security door open. She quickly hid the disk on her and pulled out a weapon. A few shots were fired before the soldiers crowded around her and attacked. Indigo felt a sharp blow from the side and she wheeled over in pain.
"Keep her alive! She’ll be wanted for questioning." One of them screamed. She felt a few more blows from all directions and she started to feel dizzy. But it was a blow to the head with the but of a gun that finally knocked her out. The last thing she heard was an order to ‘get the others’.
"No," She mumbled, and she fell to the ground and the world went black.
Joel heard rushed voices and a lot of static ver the transmissions. He tried to concentrate on the last of the mobile suits but he couldn’t. He heard the screams of one of his friends before the line went dead.
"What’s going on?" He asked desperately, trying to forget that only Jasmine could hear him since the transmission was cut.
"I don’t know," Jasmine answered. "Take care of the dolls, I’m going to try and get the transmission back."
Joel sighed and attacked the mobile suits viciously, anxiously waiting for some information. When the voice transmission finally returned, he heard Helen’s urgent voice barking orders.
"Everyone file out!" She screamed.
"What’s going on?" Jason asked. "What the hell just happened?"
David came on next and he sounded very upset. "They got her." He gasped. "I’m sorry guys, but I couldn’t save her." He sounded as if he was about to cry.
"Calm down David." Helen said calmly. "Get back out to your mobile suit. Are you hurt?"
"No, I got skinned in the shoulder but its nothing serious." David answered; he was very short of breath.
"Ok," Helen took a deep breath as well. "We get out, regroups and come up with a plan to get Indy out of there."
Joel felt as if he was hyperventilating. How could they have gotten Indigo? She was in the control room. He saw the other three mobile suits come out of the base, and he tried to keep him self calm to help them escape.
Data analysis showed that they had already destroyed about seventy percent of their mobile suits so there wouldn’t be much of a battle. For that, Joel was grateful. And now he had his other three comrades as well to help.
"Head back to base," Helen whispered over the intercom system. "We’ll assess the situation form there."
There was only silence over the line as the rest of the group was lost in thoughts of their friend being held captive by the enemy.
"Noin, this is Helen." Helen called their base as soon as they were close enough.
"Yes, report, Helen."
"We have a problem." Helen said coldly, trying to hide the feelings of panic portrayed in her voice.
"What? What is it?" Noin asked urgently.
"Its Indigo, she’s been captured."
"Oh shit…" Noin cursed under her breath. "Return to base!" She ordered. "We’ll need to formulate a plan to infiltrate the base and get her back!"
"We’re on our way."
When Noin got off the com-link with Helen, she slammed her fists into the wall and cursed again. "Dammit!" She cried. Pluto, who had been sleeping behind her, jumped up and barked a few times.
Noin ignored the golden retriever and thought instead about how she was going to break the news to Indigo’s parents. Midii had been more concerned about Indigo than any of the other parents had been.
Noin took a deep breath and walked out of her office to find the Bartons. She ran into Duo first.
"Hey Noin, any word from the kids yet?" He asked cheerfully.
"Yeah," Noin said sadly. She sighed.
"What’s wrong?" Duo asked.
"Indigo’s been captured."
"Shit!" Duo cursed. "Trowa’s gonna kill someone!"
"Do you know where he is?"
"Yeah, he’s down in the gym with Heero."
"Thanks," She mumbled and headed off towards the gym.
She found Trowa where Duo said he was and pulled him away to talk to him. When she broke the news to him, Trowa’s usually calm expression broke. His eyes widened in shock, and then narrowed again in anger.
"Call everyone together," He said coldly, "We’ll need a plan."
Noin breathed a sigh of relief. He had taken it well, or as well as could be expected. Midii, however, would be another story.
Within half an hour, everyone on the base had heard of Indigo’s capture. And everyone knew that Midii was just about to have a nervous breakdown.
"All right people!" Noin screamed as she entered the conference room, where all the high up people were seated. That included the former Gundam pilots, their spouses, and herself. "You all probably know what’s happened. One of our Gundam pilots has been captured. The rest are on their way back, but right now, we need a plan!"
"I can’t believe I let them take her." David whined, clearly upset that his friend and partner had been captured and was no doubt being beaten by the enemy as they spoke.
"Calm down David." Jasmine snapped. "Crying over it isn’t going to help her."
"Looks like we’ll being coming back to that place soon." Jason sighed.
"Noin is probably formulating a plan as we speak." Helen said confidently. "We’ll get her back guys."
"Hopefully they won’t hurt her too badly," Jasmine said quietly, which was unusual for the proud Chang twin.
The four of them kept up the quiet conversation for a while. Only Joel remained silent. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was worried sick about Indigo. What if they hurt her? They could beat her, keep her locked up in some cold cell, or worse, they could molest her. He shook his head of the thoughts. He listened to his friends and comrades for a moment, talking quietly, sounding as if they were giving up. He listened and let his rage build. They could give up and go back to base if they wanted to, but he wasn’t about to let Indigo spend another minute more in that place than she had to. Suddenly, Joel switched his autopilot off and turned his Gundam around.
"Joel! Joel what are you doing!" He heard his sister screaming over the com-link.
"Joel! Come back here!" Helen cried.
Suddenly, Morpha was in front of him. "Calm down Joel." Jason hissed. "No decisions made in rage are going to help Indigo.
"Get out of my way." Joel growled. He put on his invisibility cloak and swerved around Jason.
Jason used his Gundam Technology to find him again. Jason got in front of him again and grabbed the Gundam Tiger.
"You guys may feel fine about waiting to go after her, but I don’t!" Joel screamed. "Can’t you see that Indigo needs our help? We don’t have time to wait for a plan! Now let me go!"
"No," Jason cried. "You’re not going to be able to help her without formulating a plan to get her out!"
"And I can't sit back either!" Joel screamed. He pulled out his dragon claw and stabbed it into Jason’s suit’s arm, and ripped it right out.
"JOEL!" Jasmine shrieked. "What do you think you’re doing?"
Joel didn’t answer. He was able to push Jason off and he sped away towards the enemy base.
Helen, always managing to keep a cool head, called the base and contacted Noin. She could see all the former pilots in the background and their wives as well. All except for Midii. "Noin," Helen said, ignoring the people behind her.
"Joel’s gone to get Indy on his own."
Noin frowned. "What’s he thinking?" She cried.
"I don’t know, but we’re going with him. And I’m sending Jason back to get repairs on his mobile suit. Helen out."
Helen turned on her com-link with the other pilots. "Jason, no offense, but your next to useless. Take your Gundam back to base and get repairs. The rest of us are going with Joel. He’ll need backup."
"What!" Jason cried. "No way am I going back! Just because my mobile suit’s lost an arm! Most of their mobile suits are gone anyway."
"Jason," Helen warned. "You’re losing power fast. If you turn around now you may not be able to get back to base."
"Its all right," David cut in, "Jason can go, I’ll take his mobile suit back for repairs."
"But David, how…"
"Jason, get out of your Gundam. Take mine, I’ll go back to base with Morpha."
"Ok, thanks buddy. You sure?"
"Yeah." David sighed. "I don’t think I’ll be much use in a hand-to-hand battle. That bullet did hit me, after all. It may have only been a skin, but it hurts like hell."
Jason grinned. "OK, let’s switch."
David nodded and got off the com-link. The truth was, he didn’t feel up to going into that base for Indigo. After he’d already failed her once, he was afraid he’d do it again. David put on his helmet and opened the hatch to the Gundam Armageddon and climbed out. Jason did the same and they floated past each other and into the other’s Gundam.
"See ya guys, good luck." David said after he was safely buckled into Morpha.
"Good luck to you too, David." Helen smiled. "Now let’s get outta here! If we hurry we can still catch up with Joel!"
The others agreed and they sped off towards the enemy base they had just come from. David stayed there for a moment and then turned to go back to the base as well. "Sorry Indy, but I can’t help you."
