Episode 4: The Nightmare at Victoria

The ground passed by quickly, the greens and browns blurring together under the belly of the Noin’s personal craft. Inside, tightly secured, lay the ancient mobile suit that seemed the only weapon against the Gundams.

“A report just came in from Corsica base,” the rookie pilot in front of Noin announced. “There are no more signs of the enemy at the site. The damage is around fifty five percent to all the facilities.”

Noin frowned a bit regretfully.

‘Berker,’ she thought quietly to herself, ‘thank you for the data on the two mobile suits.’

“Lt. Noin, I have the Victoria Base on line,” the rookie piped, eager to please as he flipped the view screen on.

“Hm,” Noin said looking up just as the screen activated. On the screen, through white static lines, appeared a man with long platinum blond hair and deep blue eyes. He saluted the screen dutifully before leaning toward it with a smile.

“Long time no see, Lt. Noin,” he said with a small smile.

“You look good, Zechs,” Noin smiled back in recognition.

“I hear lots of stories about you,” Zechs went on leaning against the wall to which the screen was mounted. “The fame of the ‘Lightning Baroness’ has even reached here in Victoria.”

“I don’t like fame,” Noin retorted, still smiling slightly. “Fame makes you a target for enemies; it also makes your friends and allies expect too much from you.”

“Sometimes fame is good,” Zechs replied pushing off the wall and turning so the glass window behind him was visible. Then cocked his head to Noin’s visage with a slight smile, “I wonder what I’m famous for.”

“You’re famous for your excellence in educating and training space pilots,” Noin answered and Zechs smile widened a bit at the recognition. “Your graduates are always regarded as the best. But, Zechs, you used to hate war; how come a person like you became such an excellent instructor at the Academy?”

Zechs smiled and turned fully toward the screen as he answered, “I am honored that you remember I dislike war,” then more to himself than Noin he continued, “I just…like space.”

The simulator spun faster and faster along its track until it reached artificial Zero-G inside the capsule. The computer announced the obvious fact to all occupants.

“All right then,” Zechs snapped acknowledging the fact as he floated easily to the side. “Begin the final check-up for the mobile suits now!”

“Yes, sir,” all the cadets snapped in unison as they began to manipulate the controls of the chairs they sat in. The chairs controls were nearly exact to that of an actual mobile suit directional and thruster control.

The cadets fumbled in slightly blocky flight patterns, narrowly avoiding one another, until two backed into one another.

“What are you doing?” Zechs snapped as he pushed off the wall to a more visible position. “How can you afford to be confused at such a slow speed? You’ve got to know the location of all friendly units, using all the senses you’ve got.”

With a sweeping glare of the cadets he added, “Lt. Noin will be here soon. We are NOT going to show such an embarrassment!”

“Lt. Noin will be here?” the cadet repeated questioningly with complete hero-worship in his eyes. “I’ll repeat the maneuver.”

‘Noin,’ Zechs thought fondly as he watched the cadets repeat the maneuver flawlessly. ‘Its been over a year…’

Not far away stood a very serious blond-haired girl. She stood on an outcrop overlooking a forest and a river running through it, both framed with a beautiful sunset.

She looked out over the sight, checking for any signs of imperfection. Finding none she walked back to the hidden motorcycle and sped off the outcrop and down a hidden forest path.

Somewhere close by was Shenlong; hidden under its camouflage net from all prying eyes.

As Noin’s personal craft still streaked closer the Victoria base Noin leaned back in her chair with a little sigh. Her pilot had just informed her that they lost track of the one Gundam they had been able to trail just as it hit the equator.

“I bet its objective is the Tauruses at Victoria base,” Noin said with annoyance.

“The Federation is so careless,” the curly haired pilot, Otto, commented. “These days, even children know that Tauruses are being built at Victoria.”

“And I’m visiting there,” Noin said as a sardonic grin crossed her face. “Only Zechs could welcome such double trouble.”

“You two were classmates at the Victoria Academy, right?” Otto asked with intent curiosity to know more.

“How did you know that?” Noin wondered though she guessed the answer.

“Everyone knows that,” Otto answered as if it were a law of the universe. “You two still hold the highest and second highest marks in the Academy’s history.” Turning back Otto continued in admiration, “and you have the highest mark.”

“Because he always sought second place,” Noin said in quiet fondness. “He provided me the opportunity for that great honor. And I guess I’m in need of his help again.”

At Victoria Zechs stepped out of a refreshing shower thinking of how his cadets finally seemed to be shaping up. As he dried his long hair his eyes caught sight of a picture in a wooden frame. He looked at it with a slight smile.

It was of him and Noin on their graduation day, both of them at the head of the class.

“Noin,” he said smiling and shaking his head a bit at the silly mask she wore. “No, Peacecraft…” he amended to himself remembering that night.

The next morning as the sun arched up in the sky in a straight orderly line the cadets stood stiffly for their graduation.

“You are graduating today,” Zechs said so his voice was heard all the way down the line. There were no top representatives for this class, but they all had done well. “I congratulate all of you. From now on, you are proud members of the Specials.”

As he spoke the doors of the warehouse behind him opened and covered objects were wheeled out on well-worn tracks. Weary looking mechanics and one or two soldiers pulled the covers away. Underneath were bright and shiny Tauruses awaiting use for the first time.

“These are your machines,” Zechs informed the cadets who were trying to keep their jaws from dropping, “and also the target of our enemy.”

With a look back at the suits then to the graduation cadets he finished. “Therefore your first mission as officers of OZ are to get all of these machines off this base immediately.”

“But can’t the transport units take care of that?” a cadet asked.

Zechs glared at him with dark eyes. That particular cadet he was surprised had actually managed to graduate. He couldn’t take orders and spoke out of turn; but he was an extraordinary pilot.

Noting the hard glare the pilot gulped and stood back at attention.

Slowly taking his glare off the cadet he announced to the entire line, “I did not train a soldier who cannot take care of his own machine. I repeat: This is urgent! Get them off this base!”

The graduates snapped a salute and the click clack of boot could be heard as they moved toward their mobile suits. Zechs looked up when he heard the sound of an aircraft landing and smiled a bit as he recognized Noin’s personal craft coming down on the runway.

“When can you get all the Tauruses out of here?” Noin asked looking down at the drink in her hand and wondering who should be shot for decorating the cafeteria. The lights were giving her a headache.

“By tomorrow morning, 0700 hours,” Zechs replied with a bit of strain in his voice.

“That’s pretty tight,” Noin commented looking around the empty cafeteria.

“I heard that the Gundams do not show on radar, so I increased the number of personnel on watch,” Zechs assured her.

“Good decision,” Noin assured him. “Good job.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Lt. Noin,” Zechs said almost forgetting to add the rank.

“Call me Noin,” Noin said with another sweeping glance of the cafeteria-bar-disco before her eyes stopped at Zechs. “What a cafeteria this is,” she said with sarcasm.

“The cadets are all very young these days,” Zechs said leaning off the bar to reply. “These kinds of things are necessary.”

“Don’t get too attached to them. It makes it difficult to let go,” Noin said as she leaned in her chair with a bit of concern lacing her voice.

“Thanks for the concern,” Zechs replied looking over at Noin as he added with a tinge of pride. “But the soldiers I trained are never going to die. They are not trained to die.”

Looking away he continued as he shut his eyes to the maddening light show, “I believe that the value of human life is not comparable to war.”

“I’ve seen my men die many times,” Noin rebutted wanting and not wanting to get the cold hard truth through Zechs’ thick skull. “Zechs I have to disagree with you.”

“Any kind of operation that risks anyone’s life should be considered flawed in the first place,” Zechs responded with a tinge of anger in his voice remembering the friends he’d seen throw their lives away in suicide missions. “It’s unfair for soldiers to die in a operation where everyone can anticipate casualties.”

Noin said nothing but simply stared at Zechs not wanting to escalate the conversation into a fight but wanting to burst his bubble.

Their eyes locked into a staring contest until the phone rang and Zechs looked away to answer it.

“Zechs here,” he said into the line then held it out to Noin. “It’s Otto.”

Taking the phone Noin listened as Otto reported what the engineers thought of the prototype they had hauled in.

“The engineers here are amazed,” Otto said over heavy clanging and shouts in the background. “The mobile suit turned out to be even more advanced than we thought. It looks like we can complete it sooner than expected. It’ll still take time though…”

“I see,” Noin said carefully hiding her joy at the thought. “That’s good news. Thank you for all the effort.”

Still listening to Otto Noin turned a bit as Zechs’ ceremonial sword clanked with hers.

Sally stood quietly as her curls blew slightly in the wind. Her hand came up in front of her chest and with a determined look she pushed down on the button in her hand.

The explosion could be heard for miles as the sirens instantly began to whine and the searchlights clicked on. Screams were heard as well as worried shouts.

“What happened?” Zechs demanded as he ran out of his quarters and yelled at an officer running down the hall.

“An enemy attack! The cadet’s dormitories were bombed!” the highly agitated officer answered before returning to his sprint.

“What?” Zechs snapped in shock as his feet began to run toward the dorms.

As he arrived he found that only the base and little of the wall remained in place; the roof and the rest of the wall had been blown to dust and were scattered around the corpses of unsuspecting cadets.

A small moan was heard and Zechs turned to find, Tomoyo a very promising young student, struggling to move. He bent down next to the kid and felt for a pulse as weary eyes looked up at him.

“Sir,” Tomoyo said in a weak almost silent voice as his eyes looked up still admiringly at Zechs. “I wanted to… to go into space…” and with that his eyes rolled back and he was still forever.

Zechs clenched his fists in anger as he held back a curse and turned to the soldiers awaiting the obvious orders.

“Search for the enemy,” he snapped in barely restrained anger. “As soon as you find the enemy, you may open fire! Kill them all!”

Jumping to his feet and running toward the command center he kept shouting orders.

“Enemy mobile suits may be around. The Leo unit is to advance, the enemy has to still be close,” he ordered and ran into the control center toward two men working at warp speed. As he ran over a thought hit him, “is Lt. Noin all right?”

“The South wing is undamaged,” the tech reported noting the obvious concern in his commander’s voice. “She said she’d be right over.”

“Fine,” Zechs acknowledged as he grabbed for the communication link and began to talk into it. “The enemy’s objective must be to destroy the Tauruses. Get them off this base.”

The second tech turned as he heard the order, “it’ll take at least thirty minutes to put them in a cargo plane.”

“All right then,” Zechs said with determination. “For the next half hour, we cannot allow the enemy to attack us. I will take command of the mobile suit unit.”

Leaving the techs to relay all commands and codes necessary to follow his orders Zechs ran toward the hanger. Hooking a headset on he listened to the radio traffic for more problems.

“There is no enemy response on the radar,” an agitated voice reported.

“Everything’s normal here,” another said a bit garbled by static as another bit in, “power plant area normal.

As Zechs crossed the compound he could see the Leo sending up flares to illuminate the area and the battle sirens going louder.

“It’s like there’s no enemy at all,” another voice crackled over the radio.

Zechs saw the mechanic making final checks to the Aries as he ran across the catwalk to it. Jumping inside he did a quick internal check and began flipping on the monitors.

“Where did you go,” he growled as an idea came to him. “Turn all thermal sensors in the base on.”

The cockpit of the Aries closed and the inner lighting system came on as Zechs looked through the information the thermal sensors were sending him.

“There they are,” he yelled getting a fast moving beep of recognition. “Everyone available, join me.”

With that said the Aries leaped into the air in pursuit.

Speeding after, it caught the object that set off the thermal sensor; slamming through a grove of trees he gained visual confirmation of a person on a motorcycle.

“Stop,” he demanded over the Aries speakers. “Or I’ll shoot. There’s no way you can get away.”

Pulling his mind out off the cloud of anger and back down to rational thinking his mind clicked on the fact there appeared to be only one enemy. Only one answer could be found, “the Gundam.”

Forcing the Aries into higher speeds he began to bellow orders over the radio, “there’s a chance of a Gundam in that direction; prepare the space beam cannon.”

“But it’s not designed for ground battle,” the tech replied as two attentive Aries retrieved the weapon.

“Never mind that,” Zechs said as the anger over took his rationality again. “One shot is all I need.”

Watching the trek that the motorcycle was taking him on Zechs wondered, “are you heading for that forest? I won’t let you.”

Targeting just in front of the bike he let out four shots from the Aries’s gun. The bike spun out of control sending its rider crashing, and rolling a far distance, in the dirt.

Landing the Aries he trained the gun on the still moving rider.

“Stop you damn conspirator,” he growled over the speaker. “Going after pilots instead of mobile suits. What kind of person are you?”

“I know that line from somewhere,” Sally said pushing herself from her position on her side to her feet and raised her arms over her head.

“A little girl?” Zechs said in shock. “It can’t be. That girl single-handedly destroyed our base?”

Sally’s eyebrows arched at what she heard before the glare returned to her eyes, “a weakling. It’s not over yet.”

With that she hooked the bag that had been over her shoulder, with her foot and flipped it into the air. Jumping up after it she kicked it at the Aries sending, and igniting, the flares and explosives within.

Zechs held a hand in front of his face and blinked wildly trying to clear his vision. When he finally did he saw the girl speeding on the motorcycle into the forest. Taking off again he watched the forest carpet below for any sign of the girl.

“She’s alone… around fourteen or fifteen…” Zechs mused looking over his monitors. An explosion rang out from the forest he’s already covered, sending dirt and trees up into the air. He turned the Aries just in time to see Shenlong stumble into a fighting stance. Even father back he saw the other two Aries land with the space beam cannon.

They targeted Shenlong’s back and prepared to fire.

“Wait,” Zechs ordered.

“Lt. Zechs, why?” asked one of the Aries, turning as if the machine itself asked the question.

“Because he’s weak,” Sally answered from inside the Gundam as she released the staff from her back and blasted forward, destroying a portion of the forest below. With a single swing of the staff she slashed both Aries in half and beautiful explosions lit the night sky.

“Damn you,” Zechs snarled not even sure why he had ordered them to wait, but his Aries was almost out of ammunition as he charged the Gundam.

Shenlong raised its dragonarm and arched it toward the Aries at a sloppy angle, but still managing to take a good piece of the front off.

The Aries spun out of control, sending shards of metal flying, as it made a rut in the forest floor and Zechs braced for dear life.

Back at Victoria base the techs and grounded soldiers worked hard and panicked to fulfill Zechs orders to get the Tauruses off the base.

“Hurry! As soon as the loading of the Tauruses is complete the cargo plane will take off,” a particularly agitated and hyperactive officer ordered clutching on the communication console. “That’s a direct order from Lt. Zechs. Hurry!”

From the railing she was perched on, Noin looked over.

“The enemy is not heading this way. Calm down,” Noin ordered sidling over to the hyper, panicked man.

“Matters concerning this base, we will take care of,” the man hissed with considerable contempt in his voice. “Lt. Noin, please move your plane from in front of this hanger.”

“Even if it is a direct order from Zechs, I will not obey it,” Noin informed him with all calmness. “Do not bring the Tauruses out now. The enemy is not coming.”

The man glared at Noin before he turned and yelled into the communication console, “let cargo plane two take off first.” As the plane began its take off the man turned back to Noin and growled, “Lt. Noin, you will stand court-martial for this.”

“At this moment, I am more in control than you are,” Noin simply stated walking out to the end of the catwalk before turning to the hyped up man. “As long as you make a decision with a controlled mind, you won’t have to regret making that decision later, even if it turns out to be a bad one.”

As she said this the cargo plane rumbled and took off.

Zechs shook his head to clear it and reminded himself there was a reason the safety straps were built in. He looked up in horror to see the Gundam picking up the space beam cannon.

“Move,” he demanded hitting buttons and switches at random when it wouldn’t and slamming his fists on the hard metal when nothing happened. “Damn!”

Shenlong positioned itself for the possible backfire as it aimed the cannon for the quickly ascending cargo ship. One shot issued from the cannon and the Gundam had to reassert its footing. The shot flew through the air and dashed the cargo plane as if it was nothing; but the explosion making the night look like day.

The cannon began to smolder and spark in Shenlong’s hands and the pilot frowned casting it aside, not wanting such cheap equipment anywhere near her Gundam.

Sally turned the Gundam so that it faced the downed Aries as she flipped on the speakers.

“Weakling,” she half called, half taunted, “listen to me. Weakling!”

Inside the Aries Zechs teeth ground together, but he made no reply.

“You underestimated me because of my age and my gender,” Sally continued knowing the pilot of the Aries could hear. “You proved yourself to be inexperienced.”

Zechs began to snarl in fury.

“I do not kill weaklings,” Sally said arrogantly delivering the final ego buster. “They’re beneath my notice.”

With that Sally turned her Shenlong away and walked off unmolested into the night.

Inside the incapacitated Aries Zechs shouted in total fury, “SHIT!”

Somewhere far away Gundam’s Deathscythe and Wing lay side by side for repairs.

Relena sat just above Wing’s cockpit typing and reading stats off a computer, hooked into the Gundams onboard systems, to the exclusion of nearly everything else.

“Insulation: 2600…” she read off the damage idly. “It can be fixed.”

“Hey you,” Hilde yelled as she walked toward Relena who seemed to be a fixed part of Wing. “Hey, listen!”

Relena’s eyes flickered in the black clothed girls’ direction before returning to the screen as if she’d seen nothing.

“Why do you have to be so stubborn?” Hilde asked in annoyance as she flung her hand up in an exaggerated gesture. “I told you it’d be much easier to let us repair your mobile suit along with mine.”

“I just don’t want strangers to touch my suit,” Relena answered in a bored tone not even looking up or breaking from her work.

“Oh, c’mon!” Hilde said as she moved close to the mobile suit. “You don’t even have replacement parts.”

With that she pulled herself up to sit on Wing’s midsection.

“No matter how good a mechanic you are, without parts, there’s no way you can repair this,” she said remembering the last time she’d seem the girl fix something. “Machines are not the same as you broken legs or arms,” she informed by waving her leg in example at the girl who still made no sign she was listening. “You get it?”

The only response was the clack of keys.

Hilde let out an exasperated sigh, dropping her head in defeat.

“I saved this girl’s life,” Hilde said to herself. “What was I thinking? You’re antisocial, uncooperative, unpredictable…”

“God, I don’t like you one bit!” she said as she threw her hands up in irritation and shook her head before resting her chin on her palm. “If I were you I’d hate my personality so much that I would shoot myself as soon as possible.”

“Hey,” Relena said finally looking down at the ranting Hilde.

“What is it?” Hilde said, shocked the girl had actually responded. “Changed your mind? It’s too late.”

Relena closed her eyes in contemplation before she said, “will you shut up for a while?”

Hilde’s head shoulders slumped, “right, right,” she conceded. “Sorry to bother you.”

Her head jerked up again at a tweeting from inside Wing’s cockpit. Relena jumped down from her perch and slid into the seat, flipping a console down as she did.

“What is it?” Hilde asked as she leaned over the sandy blond-haired girl.

Relena did not reply but simply watched the information flashing across the console.

“A new mission,” she said to herself as if Hilde was not there. “The enemy will be transporting gundanium alloy…”

Relena’s eyebrows twitched down to there near permanent frowning state.

“Roger,” she informed the console. “I will intercept it tomorrow morning.”

“How are you gonna do it with this beat up suit?” Hilde asked from above, forgetting she was going to shut up. “You can’t do it.”

“Maybe you can’t,” Relena responded with no arrogance in her voice, “but I can.”

Hilde made a face of disbelief and annoyance as she pushed off Wing to stand.

“Right, right,” she said with a bit of mocking admiration. “You’re right again as usual.”

Leaving Relena to her impossible repairs Hilde made her way off the Gundam.

‘She’s gonna have to blow herself up is if she fails this mission,’ Hilde thought as she jumped to the floor with little effort. ‘A mission without room for mistake; she has to be on of us.’

With that thought she turned to see how the repairs to her precious Deathscythe were going.

Back on the beach where Relena had made her graceful landing, a boy with brown hair and dark cobalt eyes trudged along.

“You still have to kill me,” he mumbled looking up at the cliff the girl had rolled down. He wasn’t sure if it was the light from the setting sun or if he could actually see small tracks of blood on the rock face.

He squinted as he looked out across the sea wondering where Relena had gone off to and feeling like an idiot. His eyes scanned the horizon, for what he wasn’t sure, but for something or someone.

“According to the report from Lady Une, it did turn out to be made of gundanium alloy,” one of the men at the long table read.

“I see,” the rat like general at the head of the table said in a bored tone.

‘Une?’ Heero’s father wondered with heavy suspicions. ‘How could Une know about the alloy?’

“I understand that the gundanium alloy can only be synthesized in a zero-gravity environment,” another man stated looking at the general.

“So, those mobile suits were indeed sent to earth from the colonies,” yet another man said jumping to the obvious conclusion.

“Then I won’t be able to lift the special alert from my Armed Forces for a while,” the general at the head of the table said in a very bored voice as he tucked his folded hands under his chin.

“Perhaps you should consider the opposite,” a man to his right suggested. “I wish I could station my troops at the Lagrange Point so that we can be of help to General Settele.”

“My country is already preparing for that,” a man to the left stated.

“But this whole thing is done by only a few rebelling colonies,” Mr. Yuy stated in alarm at what he was hearing. “We shouldn’t provoke the other moderate colonies by treating all of them as a bunch of rebels.”

“They provoked us in the first place,” the general across from Mr. Yuy yelled jumping in his chair like a child caught by the teacher. “Let’s destroy them all.”

“Those colonies wish to make peace with the Federation more than anyone,” Mr. Yuy said ignoring the offended general.

“We want peace too,” the head general stated getting everyone’s attention. “I don’t see the colonies as seeking any peaceful solutions, though.”

“They do,” Mr. Yuy assured standing up. “It all started when the Federation brought the colonies under their control by using massive military power.”

“Is that all you have to say here?” the general next to him snarled with disgust. “Are you a spy for the rebels, trying to sabotage us or something?”

“What are you saying?” Mr. Yuy asked a bit taken aback by the insinuation.

“Thank you for sharing your opinion,” the head general stated trying to defuse the situation. “Mr. Vice Foreign Minister Yuy, you may leave now.”

“Isn’t it about time you realize,” Yuy said taking a parting shot. “The really dangerous people are you men…”

He trailed off as the general next to him jumped and grabbed his collar.

“Haven’t you said enough,” he snarled shaking Yuy by the collar.

“Assembling the Armed Forces at Lagrange Point?” Lady Une confirmed as she leaned back in her bubble bath and sunk in a little deeper. “I agree; that’s the right decision.”

“Leaking the information turned out to be very effective,” a stern faced man said holding tight to a folder. His dark blond hair slicked back and his icy blue eyes impassively framed by glasses.

“And our Lt. Noin,” Une commented not noticing, or not responding, as the stern man’s eyebrows arched downward and the thin frown grew. “As always, an excellent job. By the way, Treize…”

Treize’s eyebrows shot up as he was pulled from his angry thoughts at Noin who always stole the spotlight, “yes?”

“About Minister Yuy,” Une said tossing a strand of hair that fell in her face.

“As you wish,” Treize acknowledged the order that had been previously given with a bow of his head. “ Also, I will prepare you a bath with rose fragrance next time.”

Lady Une leaned back luxuriously closing her eyes with a small smile on her face, “please do.”

“What the hell,” Hilde moaned as she flipped out of the hammock she had been sleeping on. “What’s that noise?”

Stumbling to her feet and kicking out of the thin blanket that wrapped around her she made her way through the maze of hammocks and sleeping men to the door where her Deathscythe slept.

Leaning out she spotted the cause of the noise that kept her awake. Her eyes widened a bit in surprise wondering if the nutcase ever rested.

Relena was welding away at her Gundam not bothering to notice the light blue eyes trained on her.

Hilde let out a yawn as she leaned on the doorknob for support.

“What is she still doing up?” Hilde asked herself, knowing what, but not why. Flinging her hand up in annoyance she turned back into the room dragging the door closed behind her. “Good night!”

Hilde’s head snapped up as she heard the whine of engines powering up. Pulling her black shirt on and clutching her cap she ran toward the makeshift runway.

Two of the mechanics were in the archway holding their arms in front of their faces to avoid dust and other things being knocked out of place by the engines.

“What the…” Hilde began as she ran up behind the pilots. Her cap was jerked out of her hand by the draft as she held her hand up to ward off the pressurized air threatening to knock her down.

The engines screeched as the bird like object took off.

Hilde pulled her hand away and looked up in amazement, as it arched toward what she supposed was its target.

“What a gal,” Hilde said impressed. “She fixed that trashed out heap in one night?”

“Hey!” one of the mechanic screamed from inside as he looked mournfully at the slightly disassembled Deathscythe. “She got us! She stole the parts from your machine!”

Hilde’s mouth clenched as she saw her baby lying there in without its pieces.

“What? No fucking way!” she turned and glared in the direction Relena had arched toward. “That’s what I get for trusting her. Damn!” she screamed to the sky.

Relena eased her Gundam through the clouds, her eyes constantly surveying the monitors.

“Target confirmed,” she said staring out, as her well-trained hands moved to instinctively pulled the lever that transformed Wing into its mobile suit form.

The gray craft flew peacefully by, unable to see the danger in the clouds next to it.

Relena aimed Wing’s gun for the craft, making sure the thrusters could compensate for the backlash. Without a second thought as to the people piloting the shuttle she pulled the trigger. Her shot hit the craft dead center.

It exploded outward, incinerating any evidence into a molten mass.

Wing left cloud cover to survey the destruction.

Relena watched the explosion closely. Her eyes shut and her shoulders began to shake as her maniacal, almost insane, laugh echoed off the walls of Wing’s cockpit.

The violin strained gently as loving hands pulled the notes from its strings.

Dorothy kept her eyes closed as if the feeling of the instrument nestled under her chin and the sound of the music could banish all the pain.

Next to a mahogany case filled with instruments stood Catherine with her arms crossed and her eyes closed. Seemingly impassive, but listening intently to the soft strains of the blond girl’s playing.

Dorothy opened a single eye as she heard the click of something opening. She lifted the bow and looked over toward the sound with curiosity.

Catherine pulled a flute before clicking the case shut again. Taking a couple steps toward Dorothy she began to play the same melody the blond had been playing.

Dorothy smiled gently as she closed her eyes again and began to play along with Catherine.

The girls continued to play, not really looking at each other, seeming to be lost in the music.

A few building over the Maganacs worked busily to repair Sandrock and Heavyarms.

“Almost done,” one announced backing away from the welding his partner was doing.

“That was pretty easy; this one is just like the other one,” the welder commented as he finished up on Heavyarms elbow.

“They’re almost identical, right, Boss,” the first yelled up to a tall man with a beard and a guarded air.

“Yeah,” Rasid responded looking down. “That’s why Miss Dorothy was so concerned.”

Looking up at the unyielding face of Heavyarms he thought, ‘lucky she’s not our enemy. This machine could be the only one that could go against Miss Dorothy’s.’

The engines hummed more than roared as two Aries gently set down a wounded brother in front of the waiting Noin.

“Zechs?” Noin called as she grabbed hold of the cord to hoist her up to the cockpit. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” Zechs responded habitually as he glared at the console that still refused to work. “But I’ve had better days.”

“Zechs,” Noin said again as she leaned inside. “I’m just glad you’re alive.”

“Because if I died in the line of duty I would be respectfully promoted two ranks ahead of you?” Zechs quipped pulling himself out of the seat.

“You sound all right to me,” Noin said with a smile as she moved back to give Zechs room.

“Noin, let me join you in fight against them,” Zechs said with a fire blazing in his eyes. “I have to wipe out my disgrace.”

“I have to get back at those Gundams,” Noin replied remembering all the people she had lost so far as well as her own prized Leo. “It looks like I can no longer just let them do whatever they want. Besides, I’d fell better with you supporting me.”

“Thank you, Noin,” Zechs said still trying to gauge the emotion in those obscured eyes.

Sally walked out into the clearing under the full moon.

Wild dogs began to surround her with every intent on having her be their next meal. She stopped when she could walk no further and yelled at them.

“Go away you weaklings,” she snarled raking them with a hard gaze that would have chilled ice.

The dogs backed away, whimpering, and Sally felt disappointed.

“When my enemy is a coward, I feel bad even if I win the battle,” she said, her voice shaking in anger, shame, and disappointment as she threw her head back and screamed at the dark sky. “DAMN!”