Mobile Suit Gundam 00N

[parallelzero]

OOC: Kind of... forcing myself to post. So... yeah. XD

Alitaria had figured this would happen from the beginning. She was going to have to engage herself in a battle of wits with the tactician, Kiel, if she had any hope of getting away with her substance use. Luckily, seeing as she knew all about the properties of the serum, and he had no idea regarding anything involving it, she had the upper hand. He could send her to see the doctor until the cows came home, but he'd have to do it a lot sooner than he was doing it now. Something that had been used up isn't something that could usually be found, and Rage had that kind of property. The worst that doctor would be able to diagnose her with would be heavy fatigue, and she could justify that through a variety of means. As such, she showed little reaction to his 'compliments' and other comments, though her lust for sleep helped quite a bit. She didn't like having to sneak about, being the kind person she was, but she needed to keep her position as a Meister. The world needed repair, and she wanted to help repair it.

"How 'bout we meet up after Alitaria see's Quinn and gets a break? I'm wantin' to see the news. Bet they're all having cows over us!"

The sudden invitation snapped the girl back to reality, and brought a little bit of red to her cheeks. She hadn't expected to be outright invited to meet up with the others, especially considering the nature of their positions. Not to mention she was new, and probably not worthy of their company. Yet this Meister, Aesur, had asked her straight out. Was this man really a Meister? A killing machine? Somehow, nobody in this group seemed to match that description. She initially intended on declining, what with her condition, but she too wanted to see the news, and it may give her a chance to examine the habits of the other Meisters. "S-sure..." She replied hesitantly, naturally an anti-social person. Almost her entire life, she had lived abroad with her parents, so it wasn't very often she was engaged in conversation with unfamiliar people.

Those were her parting words, and she slowly made her way to her room, where she was quickly to change into her civilian clothes. She didn't like the pilot suit, and much preferred her gradient themed tube-top micro-dress, arm warmers, and black skinny jeans. She ended things by brushing her chestnut hair, and putting the light pink flower ornament on the right side of her head. All in the meantime, she had a coffee pot brewing in the farthest corner of her room so that she'd have something to drink afterward that would, hopefully, keep her up a little while longer, even if she hated the bitter taste. She took a small cup and poured some in, quickly taking a small sip and cringing before she downed the whole thing. Before departing for the medical room, she slipped the suitcase containing her 'medicine' in a secret compartment in the floor beneath her bed. She had a friend on the Ptolmy make it for the purpose of hiding her secret, and it blended perfectly with the floor when closed. This friend and herself were the only ones who knew how to open it, too.

With that said and done, she wearily wandered out into the hall into the direction of the medical room. It was going to be horrible if this became a regular occurrence.

 

[Kansas]

Ryder and Aesur's conversation had continued more successfully than he had expected as the pilot responded with his own compliments on Retribution's build and weaponry. Ryder could almost blush at the man's charisma before he was as the other pilots entered and took their places as well. Awkward small conversations began to form before being interrupted by Kiels appearance. He began to explain the mission and each Meister's performance in detail. Ryder quickly silenced as he listened to the other pilot's performances. Aesur had some embarrassing maneuvers but performed well, and Ryder couldn't help but smile when he heard of Alice's trouble with close range combat.

"Heh... looks like they needed a little babysitting after all..." Ryder thought to himself as he looked at the two Alice pilots sitting together. His chuckled thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his name.

"Ryder Fleetback and Gundam Retribution. Target: the AEU backup Aheads stationed at Brussels Airport. Emergency response and destruction mission. Good initiative. You eliminated most of the units before mobilization, as per orders. I shall expect this level of performance from you on future missions as well, even if they are, as you say, 'babysitting'. This is not a game or thrill ride and you can not always expect mission specs to be tailored to your liking."

Ryder tensed up at the sound of that comment, looking around nervously and grinning with a pathetic half effort. "I coulda sworn that line was closed..." he thought as Kiel continued on.

"Regardless, you have exceeded your simulation run performance by a fair margin, though in that regard, I am still afraid that you have one other Meister to best."

"Another meister?! Who bested me?!" the thoughts raced through his head as Kiel turned to the pilot.

"Alitaria Sigma and Gundam Celestia"

"How did she even pilot a Gundam? She can barely walk..." Ryder thought spitefully as Kiel gave Alitaria her report. When finished he turned quickly, making his way out of the room and leaving them to themselves until another mission would arrive. Aesur was the first to speak up, quickly making a suggestion of meeting up later to get to know each other.

"Sure, sounds good. I bet they don't even know what hit them down there. I can't wait to see the news..." Ryder responded, laughing slightly as he pushed off the wall to head over to the recreation area of the ship. "I'll just go on ahead, see ya" Ryder called as he pushed of the ground, floating towards the doors and grabbing the edge, ready to leave.

 

[Loki]

"Well." Dr. Quinn let out a sigh, leaning back in her seat and eyeing her clipboard impatiently. Examining the results of the short check-up, Scarlett Quinn saw nothing particularly out of the ordinary, and put the data aside on her desk as she drummed her fingertips against her cheekbone. "I don't see anything immediately wrong with you. Don't wear yourself out over such a small mission- you've got a lot to go, and if this happens every time then you might not be able to get into the cockpit for every mission you know." Sighing, the woman stood, signaling that she could go. "You have a rendezvous with the other meisters, or so I heard. I won't keep you here- there's nothing other than a bed, if you'd like a change in sleeping environment." She smiled wryly before sitting down again, "I'll report the results to Kiel, but I doubt there's anything to be concerned about."

---

It took a lot for Aesur not to make a face as he peeled away the plastic covering on his space-edition TV dinner.... thing. He loved TV dinners, but when they were… flash frozen to be kept in space for long periods of time? Urgh, they taste like someone had over cooked a piece of expired meat. This was not a TV dinner. Sighing dejectedly, he shoved it into the re-heater, opening the storage and sifting around for a water bottle. As soon as his thirst had been slaked, the man flopped down onto the bench, twisting the cap back onto the bottle and perching it on the surface of the white table. He sat by himself in silence for a few moments. Normally, he'd take much longer to get dressed than he'd had today. But he was suffering from post-victory laziness, and simply thrown on a black thermal long-sleeved shirt and a pair of stone-washed jeans, instead of his usual fashionable ensembles.

Quick run-through, Aesur decided, sitting up and watching his meal cook. Ryder pilots… Retribution. He seemed like an okay fellow- perhaps more average than most. But that was the perfect requirements for a pilot. Aesur rolled his eyes at himself. He was such a failure outside of the cockpit. Must've been nice not to freak out like a little girl whenever someone seemed like they were reaching out to touch you. Moving on. Kain, seemed a little… strange. But Aesur didn't mind that, since he wasn't strange in a bad way. But one really wondered how he was a meister. Such a haphazardous person. He'd spew everything soon as someone took that doll hostage. Abele was a mystery to him- as was Alitaria. The two of them seemed as normal as Ryder, just less… outgoing. More introverted. But then again, who on this entire ship wasn't? It wasn't exactly like you could find pilots walking around the streets these days. Nobody piloted- there was nothing to pilot, up until that stupid agreement that they'd go back to the way things were before the peace.

"Oh, it's done!" Aesur forced out a grin, hoping it might taste better if he were looking forward to it.

Before he could sit down to enjoy it, a very blustered mechanic stormed into the dining room. "Did you do it?" Royal asked, looking like he was ready to blow, as usual.

"…" Aesur raised an eyebrow, "… Do what?"

Royal let out a strangled cry before hurrying back out of the room without explaining, simply grumbling to himself. Aesur couldn't hear any of it, since he was halfway across the room, but he didn't let it bother him. Royal would get over it as soon as he got something new to fuss over.

 

[Alter Ego]

"No, Rosa, I don't understand how you can have a TV for dinner either. At least...I don't think it would taste very good." Kain tapped his chin thoughtfully, carefully depositing the miniature comb he had used to fix up the doll's hair back into the toolkit and picking up the ribbon, taking equal care as he tied it back into its place at the top of the doll's head, "...maybe they're called that because people eat them on TV?"

Apparently satisfied with this conclusion, the meister cast an appraising glance at Rosa, and, content in noting that dress, hair, and ribbon were all in tip-top shape, gently lifted the doll back into its regular haunt in his breast pocket, gently stroking it on the head with an index finger, though he took care to not to mess up the hair again. The pilot himself seemed only marginally more presentable than before, still wearing his pilot suit, hair still a wild mess, the only real personal maintenance he had the patience for having been washing off the worst sweat so that he could handle Rosa properly, but this didn't seem to disrupt his sunny mood in the least.

It wasn't until Divine came blustering in that the blonde raised an eyebrow, "I always do Rosa's hair and ribbon." he said earnestly, "She's very picky about the way they're supposed to-"

Kain blinked in confusion as the mechanic stormed off without even giving him a chance to finish his sentence, "...did I say something wrong?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

"Kiel is peep-"

"Save it, machine." the tactician interrupted, peering intently at the data spread out on the massive screen in front of him, the heart and soul of his personal quarters, a personal terminal completely excluded from any outside networks. No-one got into it except him and nothing came out of it unless he wanted it to, the numerous alarm and precaution functions he had rigged it with ensuring that even any would-be hacker bold enough to try breaking into his personal sanctum would think twice about trying to access it. It may not have been the most easy-to-use of personal databases, but it was by far the safest solution, perfect for precisely this kind of thing.

Kiel frowned, slowly massaging his temples as he peered at the wall of graphs laid out in front of him. The solution was all here, he knew it was. Adrenaline spike, suppression of normally highly active areas of the brain, something had taken that frail little body and overclocked it, and there was no way any emotional state, no matter how profound, could satisfactorily explain this discrepancy, not when the brain scan was so clearly indicating little to no activity on that front. Periods of psychosis, psychological trauma, past life trouble, the other Meisters had all come here with something to hide and he had been given no reason to believe that this...Sigma, this weepy little cripple girl, would be an exception to that rule.

The tactician gave a tired sigh, leaning back in his chair and taking a moment to clean his glasses. This was precisely why he had chosen machines. They were reliable. They did what you wanted them to do, without duplicity and dirty little secrets, and they didn't make excuses for themselves. If a machine did not do what it was commanded to do, it was because you were operating it wrongly. Errors were clear, tangible, and correctable. But with people? Never a straight answer, never complete obedience, and always, always the tedious game of cat and mouse as you had to distill the data from the personal nonsense. The medical exam would not help him get to the bottom of this, he knew that much. The girl had taken the news too calmly - smugly, even - there was no doubt in his mind that whatever compound she was using would have dissolved by now.

This, however, did not mean that she had out-maneuvered him just like that. Kiel had not become a world-class chess player by being short-sighted. To the contrary, it had taught him to think ahead, and to consider carefully all the implications of the data available to him. Though it was hardly conclusive at this point, there was a hint of decline in the effects near the end of the monitoring period, and if doctor Quinn's report would contain what he expected it to, they would have vanished completely by now. This meant that the drug worked short-term, and - judging by Alitaria's condition - came with a considerable backlash, as was to be expected from a body pushed past its natural limitations. This was good, because it meant that she would have to take a new dose for each mission. With every time the girl had to access her secret, there was a risk involved, and the odds only had to fall in his favor once. All he had to do was to keep casually constricting her movements until she made a misstep. The tactician afforded himself a small grin. His preferred kind of gamestate.

For now, however, there was little else to be done about the matter. He could, after all, not jeopardize the mission by devoting too much time on such a distraction.

Well, not too much of his time anyway.

"Haro," he turned his attention back to his mechanized assistant, which was currently preoccupied with jumping up and down of its own accord, "Calculate an estimated rate of decline based on this data and cross-reference with available data on military-developed drugs created under project goal 'improvement of combat ability and or physical performance'. I doubt you will find any, but report any possible matches to me."

"Understood! Understood!" the Haro chirped, "Processing, processing!"

"Well, well..." the tactician said to no-one , leaning back in his chair and shutting the personal terminal in favor of following newscasts on the public one, "...it looks like your opening moves could use some work, but let's see if you can give me an interesting game."

 

[parallelzero]

"Thank you for your concern, and I'll be back later this week for my usual checkup." Alitaria said quietly as she headed for the exit of the medical center, referencing the monthly examination of her eye and arm that she was required to get. While Miss Quinn had said nothing was found yet, there was no telling what the use of the drug multiple times would do to her body, and her main priority was, ironically, the inorganic portions of her body. As she began her walk back to the mess hall, her mind wandered back to her new problem. Would there be a way to prevent, or at the very least weaken the fatigue she felt after the usage? There was a chance that over time her body would just become accustomed to it, but that was too long term to ensure she'd be able to get away with it. The coffee was helping at the very least. She could keep her eyes open, and her mind was somewhat clearer. She'd need to figure out a more clever way of administering the serum to herself as well, figuring that bringing her bag on board the Celestia every mission would be way too suspicious. For this to work, she may have to make some discreet modifications to her piloting gear.

"Ah! Sorry..." The girl apologized to the man she had accidentally bumped into in the hallway outside of the mess hall. Having been lost in thought, looking quite depressed - though this was only because she was so fatigued - she didn't get a chance to see the man's face. But, as she glanced back, she recognized him as Royal. Another crew member she was unfamiliar. Really, the only crew member she knew was the gunner, Evan, and she hadn't seen him since arriving back. Sighing, she walked through the doors of the mess hall - which was more or less the crew hangout, and found two others already present. The first was the one who she had spoken to before the debriefing, Kain, and the other was... "...Aesur, right?" She was never one to waste words, but she had grown up without much social interaction, so she was pretty introverted. "Good job on today's mission." She forced a small for the second time in the past hour. Sleeeeep.

 

[Loki]

12:00, Paris, AEU.

"Non merci." A man with a horrid accent, enunciating all the wrong letters, shook his head impatiently at a waitress whilst surfing through various TV channels on his flat holographic cellphone. A pair of earbuds recited the words of the anchorwoman into his ears as he watched the report on the latest, unexpected developments in international news. His flaming orange red hair hung in and around his face, a fringe long overdue for trimming. He wore a black turtleneck, accompanied with a rather thin yellow waterproof vest. His dark navy jeans were heavy, but well fitted around his waist, and a pair of indifferent brown eyes were focused on the not-so-attractive woman on the small screen.

"-Though the origins of these mystery suits has yet to be discovered, experts have concluded that they are most likely working together as a joint attack against the three forces of the world. Images of all five units have been released to the public. For more, please visit our website at-"

Tuning out, Siegen put his phone down, rolling his eyes. It didn't take an expert, let alone multiple ones, to conclude that they were all apart of a group against the AEU, HRL, and Union. Dang even a kid could figure that out. Bringing his coffee to his lips and breathing in the unique aroma, the young pilot seemed not to care for the bitter cold around him. It was by a stroke of luck- or maybe now, bad luck, that he'd been allowed to pilot one of the Aheads. He stirred in enough cream to turn his black coffee a nice, milky brown. This was easily his last chance for vacation for some time, unless those five suits suddenly decided they were going to take a break. But being stationed in Paris was Siegen's worst nightmare. His French was terrible, and he only knew the stupidest, most useless trivia words, like… like…. Well the bottom line was, he hadn't exactly passed his French exams with soaring colors in highschool.



Ptolemaios

"Ooh, thanks." Aesur grinned sheepishly at Alitaria's comment, remembering Kiel's not-so-positive analysis, "Wish Kiel thought so too, but I guess not. It's not like I hurt anyone this time…" Aesur trailed off, poking his broccoli, debating whether to let it get cold. "But dang, you did really well!" He perked up, changing the subject, "I mean, you never really shined when you were doing the simulations, so maybe- Oh you must be one of those people who just can't do the fake stuff. It's the real deal that really let's you let go, huh? I'm kind of an obsessor type. It's all gotta go perfectly, but the real adrenaline really got me this time. People firing at you- and really firing at you. Well what about you?" Aesur waved his fork towards the other meister, who had been thoroughly creeping him out for the past few minutes. (He hated dolls, ever since hearing a horror story about them during the few years he attended public school.) Then again, he wasn't really sure if it was the doll himself, or Kain. He'd never really met someone quite like Kain. Sure there were plenty of weirdo's in the psycho-ward, like the guy who was sure that anything and everything that got near him was poisoned, but…

"Hey Kain, shouldn't Abele be with you?" Aesur asked, intent on pumping as much life into the conversation as he could manage.

 

[Alter Ego]

Kain offered Aesur a blank look as the topic of the mission was turned to him, "They made Rosa cry." he said matter-of-factly, his tone dead serious as he cradled the doll protectively, "Only bad people make Rosa cry, so I made them stop being bad. She's not scared anymore so it worked, see?" he nodded towards the doll, as if its continuously neutral expression was proving an important point, "She thinks the new girl is kind of weird, though, like the person from the other ward who got the wrong medicine. But that's okay," he offered a reassuring smile in Alitaria's direction, "Rosa is just careful, that's all, and Ai..Aili...Ali-" his face scrunched up in concentration, "You, I don't think you're a bad person, so it's going to be okay. I think Rosa just needs a bit of time to adjust."

His piece thus said, the blonde returned to his business of fawning over his doll, only to be torn away from it as Aesur mentioned the absence of his co-pilot.

"Abele..." Kain repeated slowly, just a hint of nervousness apparent in his manner as he clutched Rosa a big tighter, "Abele needed to wash herself, and Rosa thinks it wouldn't be ap-apri-ap...appropriate for me to be there." he nodded in confirmation, visibly proud over having recalled such a complex term, "Yeah. That's it. Abele will be right back when she's done, she promised."

 

[Loki]

A teenager's history textbook stood open on a stand before a black leather upholstered arm chair, a small artist's rendition of a white and blue Gundam facing off against a standard Ahead pictured in the corner. The circular room was empty, save for the stand, book, and chair, and was enclosed with deep red velvet curtains for walls. Murmuring voices could be heard behind the curtains, and the young information agent of the present day Celestial Being sat with his hands folded under his chin, reading silently to himself.

Chapter 6

Celestial Being and the Gundam Units

A.D. 2307 was the mark of a new era in mobile suit technology. At the unveiling of the AEU's Enact, a strange, white mobile suit interrupted the exercise and put the lone Enact out of commission. The white mobile suit was later on identified as a Gundam. The Gundam was later associated with a third-party organization called Celestial Being, who presented four unique Gundams. The purpose of Celestial Being was to end war by means of interventions with military campaigns and warring countries. In essence, Celestial Being's existence was a direct contradiction to itself, as they fought strife with strife, war with war. Their actions promoted the formation of the Earth Federation, which is still intact nearly a century later. The two halves would be at odds with each other for six years after Celestial Being's first debut.

The Long Peace

After the conflict between the two powers of the world, Celestial Being and the Earth Federation, and the passing of an economic disaster, a world-wide peace…


Absolutely nothing worth mentioning, the section on Celestial Being was short, vague, and would be of no aid whatsoever to the three blocks. Much of the information on Gundam's seemed to have been long destroyed, or shut away, for the sake of covering up the wars during the beginning of the Long Peace. Or at least, that was Basilio's theory. After all, he'd failed to find any vital information on the Gundams even at the very end of his information web, which included many of the top ranking businessmen in the world. Of course, they were apart of the financing for Celestial Being as well- because they were all against the huge economical crises that hit the world hard at the end of the war. It was common knowledge amongst businessmen of this time and age. Fighting was not good for company profits, simply because companies that primarily manufactured mass war weaponry didn't exist anymore. Crossing one leg over the other, Basilio sighed contentedly, having done his share of the work and set his butler to investigating the rest of the textbooks. They were merely highschool and college materials, but as with everything he did, Basilio wanted nothing overlooked.

Looking up from the boring text, he cleared his throat, and after a few seconds, a hush fell.

"So." Basilio waved his hand, and the red curtains withdrew, revealing tall black screens lined with flat speakers. "I've found nothing of importance."

"It seems my government has only recently begun investigating deeper into the topic of Celestial Being. They were still trying to identify the mobile suit before the newscasts from the Union and AEU were broadcasted. Apparently, nobody was able to capture a good picture of the Gundam without it being irreparably blurry in my country." An old man's voice with a crisp accent stated from Basil's left.

"Good, good." Basil replied, amused by the short trivia, "My informants have reported to me that the Union and AEU are currently looking through their archives. I doubt they'll find much, but I wanted to run a double check."

"Thorough as always."

A polite chuckle echoed through the circular room, one that Basilio contributed only a smile to.

"An agent of mine has reported that the AEU has managed to scrape up a lead. It may no longer work, since it's a C.D. in a long outdated format. But the information contained in that C.D. has yet to be identified." A stern and rumbling voice cut in, "Is it worth looking into?"

"It always is." Basilio replied, an edge of interest in his voice, "Please send the information to me. Same means as always."

"Of course."

"Anyone else have any information that may aid in the selection of the next mission?"

Silence.

"Then for now." Basilio continued, closing his eyes, "Let us celebrate the debut of Celestial Being, and the imminent eradication of war."

 

[Kansas]

Ryder entered the room, looking around curiously at first to see who occupied the inside. He was surprised to see it already full with the other pilots, conversing together. He slipped in silently, giving a small "yo." as he entered, as to not attract too much attention to himself and interrupt their conversation. He glided to a vacant space against the wall, turning slowly and propping against it, folding his arms. The monitor on the wall adjacent to him projected various news stories, all of which entailed images of the Gundams.

"These people are more scared of the Gundams than they are of Celestial Being itself... After a larger scale intervention, I'm sure they'll realize what they're up against..." Ryder thought to himself as he watched the various images of suits exploding and being mercilessly torn apart. "The media of course is well manipulated to make us out as complete enemies... but there isn't much to justify our actions yet either...I'm sure the Kiel has that under control though."

"They made Rosa cry." Ryder couldn't help but over hear the other meister's conversation. He turned his head in curiosity to litsen
"Only bad people make Rosa cry, so I made them stop being bad. She's not scared anymore so it worked, see?" the other pilot of Alice, Kain said, nodding towards the doll, "She thinks the new girl is kind of weird, though, like the person from the other ward who got the wrong medicine. But that's okay."

Ryder tuned him out after that, thinking curiously. "The new girl is weird? The kid talks to a doll..." Ryder thought from behind a cocked eyebrow. "How does that kid pilot Alice Gundam..."

He looked to the newscast on the monitor again, looking at a portion of the screen that was showing Alice Gundam in action, blasting large volumes of particles and destroy waves of fleets. Ryder glided over gently, picking up a remote and enlarging the report. The sound immediately kicked in as a reporter spoke over the visuals.

"The unknown mobile suits seemed to attack without warning and intervened all over the world. The AEU reports that they plan to have zero tolerance in regards to the interventions and will strike back with full force ---" Ryder tuned out the newscaster's voice as he watched Alice destroy another wave of suits on the screen. The visual suddenly switched to the airport scene, as a replay of Ryder and his mission played on screen.

"30 additional suits were lost lost in attempt to scramble to action at Brussel's airport before they were intercepted by the red mobile suit. 6 lives were lost in the assault. Our thoughts go out to them as---"

Ryder tuned out the report again, switching the screen back to split, muting them all once more.

"6 lives... its all for a cause though...It had to be done. The next mission will be the same thing, I can't let something like that get to me now..."

 

[parallelzero]

"I- I guess so." Alitaria falsified a response to Aesur's compliment. She wasn't very good with the simulator, she was aware. So, why had she been selected as a Meister in the first place? It was one of the many questions she needed to find answers for. The man continued to address the issue of Kain's partner, which lead the girl to realize how uncomfortable she felt around that individual. As much as she wanted to like him as much as everyone else, she had encountered very few people like him in her life, and was provided with a sudden insecurity in his presence. Why was someone like him a Meister, was a bigger question to Alitaria than her own existence in that role. She also found herself disliking him for the fact that comment that he had made about her getting the wrong medicine being too close to the truth. She contemplated saying something to this, but was interrupted as Ryder entered, offering nothing other than a short greeting and an examination of the news. She got the feeling that this Meister didn't really like her, even though he seemed to be closer to her in terms of age than all of the others. As things were looking, Aesur may have been the only Meister she could have pursued a plausible friendship with, not that she was any good establishing friendships. She avoided confrontation as much as possible, and she hated speaking up to start conversations.

She glanced over at the screen Ryder had enlarged only for a minute, and found herself watching the footage of the Celestia - or rather, her. The way that machine was ducking and dodging was clearly not her in the pilot seat, but rather someone completely different. Someone who didn't feel anything for what she was doing. Was it really smart to keep using the drug? Her thoughts became tangled further and her eyes widened as the footage of the kill she made flashed on the screen. It continued to show the family members at a funeral, deepening the emotional wound. She hadn't felt anything at the time, but now. "I... killed someone... right..." The man she killed possessed a family, just like she had. Was it really right to take something like that? She had resolved to, and she had been aware of it from the start, but it was still a lot to consider. "I think maybe I'll be taking my leave now..." She bowed to Aesur. "Thank you for inviting me, though!" Come to think of it, she was still very tired.

 

[Loki]

Aesur blinked, staring at the door in which Alitaria had just disappeared through. He glanced over at Ryder with a "What just happened?" sort of look, before turning on one screen again, just to get a good look at how he looked on the tube. He mostly focused on the ones from east asia, which had the most footage of himself. True, destroying the square was definitely a little bit of an overkill, now that he was watching from outside the cockpit. He still held true to his original argument however: He hadn't exactly killed anyone with the last blast. At least, not anyone other than the people in the dinky old suits of times past that had been trying to catch him, the pilot of the fastest Gundam available. Yeah, right. Aesur smirked to himself and ate a mouthful of un-frozen soup, which was probably the best thing on his plate. As he ate, he forgot all about maintaining the conversation, contemplating on how shaken that Alitaria had been upon finally realizing that she'd killed someone. The only information he got from the news on his own intervention was that eleven people had died, and all of them pilots. Most of them had probably died in the last shower of particle beams during his goodbye attack, he reasoned. Few families were being interviewed, as per the uptight regulation of the news, but they had to exist. And… he felt pretty normal, knowing that he was officially a murderer. Everyone could suffer, just like he had. Just like a lot of the others in Celestial Being had. Aesur looked over at Kain, who seemed busy with Rosa.

All those ignorant people who didn't care or understand, but pretended they did. Burn off their masks.

Aesur sat up straighter at the thought of burn, swallowing a lump in his throat. Fire was the worst. He dropped his spoon and let it sink into the liquid letting his head fall into his hands. "Man this stuff is nasty." He groaned, covering up his slip with something that he probably would've actually said anyway. He shoved all thoughts of fire out of his head.

-----------------------------


Two Days Later

"And everything should be set." Royal huffed, his face smeared with black grease as he sat back from Theritia's GN Drive. It was a pain in the butt, that thing. Too delicate, and constantly in need of oiling and greasing for smoother movement. Actually the whole suit in general was a pain in the butt, and to the mechanic, its pilot was a pain too. He was a nice guy, but Royal just didn't like him at all. He was the kind to whom Royal would immediately snap at, and the kind who wouldn't snap back. Hopping off the platform, the mechanic stretched, glad that he'd finished in time. Now he wouldn't need to talk to Kiel. That stupid tactitian. Messing with his Gundams, installing mission recorders without permission?! What if he'd broken something!? Then they'd have to go through the trouble of ordering a replacement part, and it would've been a pain and that stupid guy was just… stupid! But Royal had already gotten that out of his system yesterday. Mostly. He was itching to yell at someone again, but the only things around were Haro's, and they didn't react to being yelled at.

"Better get outta the hangar." Royal muttered darkly, looking down at his stained T-shirt and jeans. The gravity would be cut as soon as Royal reported that he was out of this place, so… best to get the mission moving.

"Alrighty Haro, shut it down." He patted the spherical computer docked beside the control system and sat down, watching as things that had been tied down floated up, just to be restrained by their cables. He glanced at the screen, where the mission details were being displayed. A race for information, Celestial Being versus the AEU and their Aheads. They didn't stand a chance.

Damn that Kiel was a hateful guy too.


OOC: Time to move out kiddies. Directions in the OOC thread.

 

[Alter Ego]

Kain liked the briefing room. It was nice and clean and simple, like the one he had back on the Earth's surface and everything was in plain sight. It was the kind of room you could trust.

"No Rosa, that's not the real thing." he explained, nodding sagely at the stylish three-dimensional depiction of a military installation that Kiel's pet Haro was currently projecting in front of them, "It's a proji...proge...proje...it's all done with lights and things."

Kiel cleared his throat rather more loudly than Kain thought necessary, the blonde tilting his head towards the tactician in a slightly curious manner, "AS I was saying." the man continued somewhat louder, "While the AEU's second unveiling must obviously meet the same end as their first, we also have a more pressing priority on our hands. Model B23, Haro."

On que, the miniature image of the AEU base faded into the shape of an old picture of two men, one shrivelled and old with long, gray hair, the other brown-haired, looking about thirty with a bright and attentive countenance, both dressed much in the same way scientists were expected to dress for formal photographing.

"Ralph Eifman and Billy Katagiri." Kiel introduced, not all too surprised when Kain offered the hologram a friendly wave, "These names may not mean much to you, but during their respective lifetimes, these two were extremely prominent figures in the Union's struggle against Celestial Being. Specifically," his expression grew a notch sterner, "They were the leading minds behind the analyzing the capabilities and weaknesses of the Gundam class mobile suits. Following in his mentor's footsteps, professor Katagiri eventually managed to compile an extensive analysis of both the individual capabilities of each Gundam and the GN Drives that powered them into a document that became known as the Eifman-Katagiri Report, EK for short. This document was the fundation for the design of the Aheads and the main reason for why they could ever match Gundams in combat. Officially, every copy of the EK report and all documents like it were erased at the time when Mobile Suit technology was first outlawed, however..."

The projected image switched again, this time depicting a structure built in the same spartan style as the base from before, but less...armed, probably a research facility of some sort, "It has come to our attention that an old data container of the outmoded Compact Disc format has recently been transferred to this AEU research facility for decoding and processing. It does not take a logical mastermind to determine what they are after trying to decipher such an antiquated piece of data. While the disc itself is too small to contain the EK report, it may well contain clues leading to the full backup storage, and needless to say that is information that must not reach the hands of our enemies, especially now when we are still in the process of determining the full potential of GN particles ourselves." he waved a hand towards the Haro, the projection ending, "From this point on, ladies and gentlemen, we are in an information arms race against the world, and I can not sufficiently stress how imperative it is that we stay ahead. For this mission, you will be divided into two teams. Gundam Retribution, Gundam Alice." Kain snapped into attention upon hearing the familiar name, "Your task will be to disrupt the second AEU unveiling. It is obvious that they are attempting to use it as a decoy to draw our attention, but we may well use it against them for that very same purpose." the tiniest hint of a smile briefly played across his features, "Bombard and terrorize the unveiling. Provoke them into action. The more of our enemy's forces we can tie up with the unveiling, the smoother our true mission will go. Gundam Retribution shall lead the assault, while Gundam Alice's primary objective will be to intercept any Aheads that attempt to break away from the battle and reinforce the primary target area. Meanwhile, team two," he turned to Aesure and Alitaria in turn, "You will infiltrate the research facility, avoiding conflict as far as possible. Gundam Theritia will then pierce the facility at the point that will be designated in your mission specs while Gundam Celestia provides covering fire. Starting from the point you break in, you will have at most ten minutes to secure the disc before security manages to concetrate on your location. As always, avoid civilian casualities as far as possible, but do not hesitate to use as much force as necessary to accomplish your tasks and if no other options are available to you, destroy the disc. Granted, it is a valuable lead for us, but it is an even more dangerous weapon against us that must not - I repeat, must not - remain in our enemy's possession."

There was a brief moment of silence, but Kiel soon broke it again, "Well?" he demanded, "This briefing is now concluded, so man your Gundams immediately. You will be disembarking for the mission area in five minutes, and whatever questions you still have can be answered during the flight. Now move out!"

And with that, the tactician turned on his heels and strode out into the corridor, the automatized doors sliding shut as he passed and just barely missing the Haro hopping along behind him. It didn't take long for the tactician to run into company again, however. This was, after all, an encounter he had seen coming long before.

"Is there something on your mind, Royal?" he inquired casually, striding past the aged mechanic, "If so, you had better explain it to me on the way to mission control, as I shall be a very busy man for the foreseeable future."

"Busy Kiel! Busy Kiel!" the Haro chanted, hopping along beside him.


OOC: THERE! BRIEFING! >O So yeah, that's how we discussed it, right? I left the name of the place up in the air because I realized that we hadn't reached a conclusion on that, so feel free to fill the detail in and correct any stupids I may have pulled there, my fellow Al. :3

 

[Loki]

Aesur's brow furrowed as he listened intently to the briefing, staring at the facility, then at the two little figures. Those two would unravel all their plans if their report was found. And Aesur couldn't allow that, and nor could any other meister in this room. At least, he hoped this was the case for them. This mission was considerably more important than the last one. He would have no fun and games. No fun and games. He repeated the phrase in his mind over and over again for good measure, knowing it would do no good once he got into the cockpit. It was like a conditioned reaction, the way he freaked out in the cockpit. The feeling of being free from his chains. Nothing to fear. He paid close attention to Ryder, Kain, and Abele's mission details, wondering how it'd fit in with his own mission, which was probably with Alitaria. He hoped she would do as well as she did last time, and maybe help save him some face. He was the oldest official meister in the room, and yet he had let himself slip by firing a worthless shot. He'd been unprofessional, and the idea had been eating away at him for the past two days as he lamented his failure and the lack of a sandbag to distract himself. He took a deep breath and nodded when Kiel turned to him and the newest meister.

"You will infiltrate the research facility, avoiding conflict as far as possible. Gundam Theritia will then pierce the facility at the point that will be designated in your mission specs while Gundam Celestia provides covering fire. Starting from the point you break in, you will have at most ten minutes to secure the disc before security manages to concetrate on your location. As always, avoid civilian casualities as far as possible, but do not hesitate to use as much force as necessary to accomplish your tasks and if no other options are available to you, destroy the disc. Granted, it is a valuable lead for us, but it is an even more dangerous weapon against us that must not - I repeat, must not - remain in our enemy's possession."

Aesur's determined expression grew looser and looser as Kiel's explanation continued. He didn't understand. Or more like, he understood, but his brain was blocking it out. Suddenly, even with Theritia, there was something to fear. His face was that of dumbfounded shock by the time Kiel was done. Secure the disc before security managed to pinpoint their location? But didn't that mean that he'd have to get out of Theritia? Didn't that mean that he would be… Aesur's vision blurred for a second as he felt his knees weaken and his lungs twist into a knot. Swallowing a lump in his throat with a bit of difficulty, Aesur forced himself to recover. This was an important mission. He couldn't put it in jeopardy thanks to some stupid phobias like fear of…….

Aesur's eyes darted to his side, looking over at Alitaria as he realized something. Shoot. If he was working together with her on this mission and she was providing his cover, didn't that mean he'd have to keep the transmission on the entire time? He couldn't do that. It wouldn't… It… It would undo everything if the other meisters heard him speak! The wild monster in the back of Aesur's head growled in displeasure as Aesur worked his brain to the limits on how to solve his new dilemma within the five minutes he had to get to the hangar. How would he explain himself? He couldn't let something like surprise at his ugly personality take down the rest of the meisters. And then if he got out of the cockpit to retrieve the disk, he wouldn't have the protection of the cockpit against the fire! There would be fire, from the particle beams and explosions and... There would be fire. He looked up nervously at the other meisters and found that his throat had completely closed up. He forced a smile to show that he was… okay, before quickly making his way out of the briefing room. Shoot. Shoot. Damn it!

He made a beeline for the hangar, clutching his bangs in his fist as he pulled out the bobby pins holding them away from his face. Damn he wouldn't be able to do this. He tried to catch his breath and calm his pounding heart before taking the final step to his nightmare into the hangar. He was screwed. Utterly screwed. He'd keep his composure this time, and he'd just… Just warn them, if he couldn't. Just a… vague reference to the fact that if he couldn't control himself, not to… not to pay attention to it. Good. Good, that was a good idea. Feeling a little better, Aesur pushed himself off the wall and realized that he had to apologize for just walking out of the briefing room without saying anything. An unfriendly move like that. He had to count on himself being able to control himself throughout the entire thing, so he would bet on it by apologizing like the normal Aesur. Yeah, that would do it. That would calm him down. Smiling to himself, Aesur felt better. Just keep pretending! What a great solution. He was feeling a little better already.

As long as he didn't think about the fact that he had yet to think of a solution as to what he'd do once he got out of the cockpit.

 

[parallelzero]

"You will infiltrate the research facility, avoiding conflict as far as possible. Gundam Theritia will then pierce the facility at the point that will be designated in your mission specs while Gundam Celestia provides covering fire. Starting from the point you break in, you will have at most ten minutes to secure the disc before security manages to concetrate on your location. As always, avoid civilian casualities as far as possible, but do not hesitate to use as much force as necessary to accomplish your tasks and if no other options are available to you, destroy the disc. Granted, it is a valuable lead for us, but it is an even more dangerous weapon against us that must not - I repeat, must not - remain in our enemy's possession."

So that was it, huh? Alitaria had figured she would be cooperating with Aesur from the moment Rider, Kain, and Abele had been given their own mission. That was fine, though. She had taken the last two days to rest and figure out a way to administer the serum to herself in secret. The solution she had discovered was one that she'd still have to be very careful about, but it would work for the time being. It had been a simple enough solution, as well. All she had to do was fill a small bag with the liquid, stick a small needle on the bag, and stick the bag in between the interior and exterior material of her pilot suit with the needle pointing out slightly so as not to pierce her arm by itself. All she'd have to do, if conflict were to arise, is hit the part of her pilot suit that housed the serum in order to drive the needle into her skin and provide the drug. She had one in both arms, in case the mission ran on too long, but she hadn't a clue what would happen if she used two in a row.

The prospect of providing cover fire seemed somewhat difficult to her, but Alitaria nodded in acknowledgment to her orders as she considered the outliers. The Theritia's specs, including those of speed, outmatched those of her Celestia. However, if Aesur were to fly a bit slower than normal, the Celestia wouldn't have a problem keeping up in it's much more agile mobile armor mode. Of course, this left her at a disadvantage if they were confronted by a large group of enemies. Also, since it seemed that Aesur would be leaving his cockpit, Alitaria had the responsibility of protecting the Theritia once it's cockpit was vacant. She'd most likely have to rely on her mobile suit form for that portion of the operation, but hopefully the distraction caused by the other three would leave them with few hostilities, if any.

The girl's full attention went to Aesur as he took off without a word. Had something upset him? There wasn't really anything in there that should have been unexpected to him, so... what was wrong? Alitaria bowed to the others as if to apologize for the actions of the young man, and followed after him. If there was something that he found wrong with the plan, if there was a way she could help it go smoother for him, then maybe asking would be the best option? She couldn't afford to have him screw up because something was bothering him. She pursued him to the hanger, figuring that that was where they were supposed to go anyways.

When she arrived, she found Aesur smiling. Had something really been wrong? Maybe she was over-thinking things? Maybe he was just anxious to get going? "Um... Mister Therra? I was... just curious if you found something to your dislike in the mission plans?" She revealed herself as she walked around the corner from which she had been momentarily spying to check his condition. She bowed again in apology of her own rudeness. "I just think that if you find anything to your distaste that could prove to be an issue, could you inform me so that I'm prepared to take a proper course of action? Unless of course, I'm the issue, in which case I apologize." She had been open to the prospect that nobody would want to work with a newbie ever since joining Celestial Being, and that could have very well been the case with Aesur. "Umm... I'm sorry if nothing is wrong and I'm just asking stupid questions, as well..."

 

[Loki]

Aesur took a long time to realize that Alitaria was there. It was like with Kiel. He could hear, and he understood, but his brain just wouldn't process it enough so that he could respond. When he finally did though, the first thing that hit him made him grin. "Mister Therra?" He laughed, though an edge of nervousness twinged his voice and he mentally slapped himself, "You can just call me Aesur. I don't think I'm that much older than you, so it's awkward otherwise. And um… there's… no need to change the plan. I'm sure I can handle it, I just had to… accept it, earlier. So d-……" His voice blocked up again but he forced the sound out of his throat, "-on't apologize, I should uh, be the one apologizing for leaving without say- ing anything. But um, there is something… wrong. A little. So I should tell you now that I… show an ugly face, inside the cockpit. B-Basically I might… I might say a lot of… offending things." Aesur pushed his bangs back as he searched for the right words, "And uh… I'm really sorry if I do… I-I don't mean it! But I j-just… sort of… lose it. B-But we shouldn't stand around!" Aesur brightened, masking his shaken realization that he really might call Alitaria a whore or an ugly hag… "Kiel is probably wanting to start the mission now. Um, about the other meisters… I… I'll close those lines."

He nodded at this other solution. At least he wouldn't have to admit it again. He didn't want to see Alitaria's reaction. He was vague. And he thought she definitely wasn't going to be expecting his total turn around. He hoped he would be able to keep his tongue in check. He hoped he could retrieve the disk- No. He had to hold his tongue. He had to retrieve the disk. He had to succeed, and he would. Not as Bai Yan, who excelled at the arts and learning. Not as Michael, who was an introvert and a social butterfly. But as Aesur, who would help show the world what was good for them.

Dropping into the cockpit, a contented smile crossed across his face before he realized with terror that he'd already lost his grip on reality in less than a few seconds. Calm, he told himself. He pinned his bangs away, and pulled his helmet on, shaking as he gripped the controls. "Sending the launch timings and mission specifics to Gundam Alice and Retribution." Came a voice over the communicator.

He would be fine! Absolutely fine.



"He's screwed." Was Dr. Quinn's eloquent way of putting the fate she expected of Aesur, already preparing the necessary supplies to remove a bullet, and a potent sleep medicine. She sighed. "I picked a bad seed, didn't I?"


OOC: Alright, I know me and David are kind of being boring, but we'll be waiting for Alice and Retribution to get most of their part of the mission to finish before we carry out our side. AKA: We're just waiting for everyone else to post, and there's really nothing important in our posts right now, unless you're interesting in watching Aesur wet his pants. (Not literally. D:)

 

[Kansas]

Ryder had left the room as covert as he had entered, heading for his Gundam. He floated to a slow stop in front of his massive dark crimson mobile suit. He sighed, leaning silently against the railing on the catwalk outside Retribution's cockpit shutting his eyes and crossing his arms in contemplation over the mission. The cockpit door remained open as crew members floated around, making the final preparations on Retribution for its re-entry into the atmosphere. From there, the mission would commence. Another all out slaughter mission at the hands of Retribution's blades. How many lives would it be this time? For the sake of a simple decoy. But the data was vital. The deaths were unavoidable. He chuckled to himself as Alitaria floated by, greeting Aesur. Probably to go over their co-operative mission. He left the two to themselves, they wouldn't be launching until well after him.

"Well Retribution... It looks like they painted you're Crimson because any other color would show how stained you're going to be with blood..." Ryder murmured to himself and his mobile suit. He pushed quietly off the railing, turning in mid-air as he went. He landed with a soft thud inside Retributions black seat. He slid his hands over the controls, strapping himself in as he went. He slowly closed the cockpit, letting the darkness overcome him for a moment as his monitors powered up, displaying visuals of all sides. The platform slowly moved as Retribution was taxied to the launch platform. After a few interchanges, it sat in the launch tube, ready to go. He slipped MIDD into its corresponding circular position on his panel.

"M.I.D.D mission status, password DY56K cache" He said calmly as he tuned various switches around the cockpit. A holographic image displayed before him, with various countdowns and status bars. He observed them all, letting the mission briefing replay in his thoughts.

"For this mission, you will be divided into two teams. Gundam Retribution, Gundam Alice. Your task will be to disrupt the second AEU unveiling. It is obvious that they are attempting to use it as a decoy to draw our attention, but we may well use it against them for that very same purpose. Bombard and terrorize the unveiling. Provoke them into action. The more of our enemy's forces we can tie up with the unveiling, the smoother our true mission will go. Gundam Retribution shall lead the assault, while Gundam Alice's primary objective will be to intercept any Aheads that attempt to break away from the battle and reinforce the primary target area. Meanwhile, team two..."

That was all he needed to know. Him and Alice again for the mass assault mission. If any of the Gundams were going to eliminate multiple units in a swift movement it would be the two of them.

"Things must be getting serious..." Ryder commented aloud. "MIDD, end display."

The hologram dispersed into the air, giving Ryder a clear view of the launch tunnel that shot off into the void of space. He felt Retribution's feet lower and lock into position on the launch platform, Ryder placed his hands on his controls, letting Retribution crouch slightly. He opened his communication airwaves at last, gaining communication with the bridge.

"Ryder Fleetback and Gundam Retribution, all system set for launch." He called over the communications. Silence followed before operator confirmation.

"Copy that Ryder, switching control."

"I have control... Retribution launching."

The catapult hurled forward, sending Retribution into space. Immediately his GN turbines began to spin as his engine burst into life. He headed down immediately at top speed, the unveiling would happen soon.

"Dispersing GN Particles for Re-entry procedure." He called over the airwaves as Retribution emitted particles from various armor slots, shielding its front. They glowed bright as the atmosphere ripped at them, until finally clearing it and entering cloud cover. The base would be a short flight directly below them. The mission would commence immediately and Alice would arrive soon for backup. That was the plan. He broke through the cloud cover, finally gaining a complete visual on the base. Aheads lined the perimeter with rifles pointed directly at his entry point. Retribution didn't slow down. It reached down, drawing the massive blades from its hips and holding them out to the side. The GN engine began to spin fiercely as he thrusted to max speed.

"Retribution commencing mission and engaging targets."

The hail of enemy Ahead rifle fire immediately followed.

 

[Loki]

"Theritia, on stand-by for mission start."

The feeling was vaguely familiar.

The feeling that your chest would burst at any given moment, holding back something that just wanted to rush out all at once. It took all his willpower to keep in the wild glee of being in control again, and he was torn. Torn between concentrating on the mission and letting everyone else think whatever they wanted, or putting his efforts towards keeping himself normal and acceptable. Gripping the controls harder than usual, he was glad that he and Alitaria's missions began about ten minutes after Alice and Retributions. It'd give him time to reconcile with himself. Calm down a little, maybe. He wouldn't be able to be as nimble as he usually was if he was holding onto the acceleration for dear life. Shaking, Aesur loosened his grip on the handles, and took a deep, deep breath. He calmed to a small tremble, trying to refocus his eyes. As he tried to keep himself under control, it felt like all the other aspects of him that were usually normal were slipping away too. He wanted to burst into the mission, despite the fact that they had three minutes left before penetrating the atmosphere once more. He wanted to just destroy stuff. Wanted big explosions and light shows. Hitting himself on the side of his helmet, Aesur swallowed a lump in his throat. Breathing in and out was the key, he preached to himself, and he felt much calmer than usual as the countdown on his left reached zero, the numbers blaring red into his line of vision. He nodded to himself before pushing forward. He said nothing, unsure of himself, but went ahead and raised the amount of GN particles being released by the engine. Lock on the engine's socket to keep it in place, and the descent through the atmosphere passed like hours in which Aesur's hard work of cooling his nerves quickly dwindled.

"Theritia, moving to phase one." Aesur reported, straining to keep his voice under control. He hurtled through the sky as if he were falling before easily recovering at the proper altitude. Angling himself so that he would hit the runway of the base as soon as he reached it, he turned the GN particles back to their normal level, looking for Celestia through his screen. He let himself grin like a maniac, feeling a little less tense, and thinking to himself, 'Show me what you're made of!' He reached forward to dart ahead, but hesitated. This was a group operation. It wouldn't do for him to go ahead. Shaking his head, Aesur moved forward towards the point where he'd have to face his phobia. He'd all but forgotten about the fact that he had to get out of the cockpit, what with all the other worries on his mind.

Theritia's feet hit the pavement in no time, and Aesur released the rollers on the bottom of its feet and increased propulsion, sliding around on the pavement to avoid enemy fire and slashing through enemy Aheads to find his way to the entrance that would put him closest to the disc. With each explosion occurring around him however, the fact that he'd be heading into action on his own began to dawn on him again. This time however, he was more desperate to get it over with, than run away from it. It was too late to run. He grabbed a handgun and set it in place at his hip. As soon as it was in place, he whipped his hand out again and narrowly dodged an oncoming Ahead's lance by spinning around, reaching out and pushing it against the ground while he raced towards the exit point. He cackled in amusement, "Bang!" He laughed again when he heard the explosion, reaching out and ripping the wall of the building off. His sudden burst of confidence quickly dispersed however when he reached over for the button that would open Theritia's cockpit. He stalled, turning up the dispersion of GN particles to stop communications within the building. And then… Just do it!

"False footage successfully feeding to the security cameras! You're all clear Aesur."

He breathed in, and choked out, "Phase two."

The cockpit split open like a blooming flower, and he hopped out right away, giving himself no time to consider it. He raced into the hallway, enough so that the burning mobile suits were out of his sight. Aesur had pretty much had his fill of fire for another lifetime, and he hadn't even taken the time to really absorb its existence. He pinched his arm and hit his helmet against the wall before stumbling into a run, pulling out a drive that displayed the information stored on it. A holographic map appeared and he looked around, taking a minute to discern where he was and register where he would go from there. Slipping the drive back into his belt, Aesur blitzed it through the halls. He wasn't scared of blood. He pulled out his handgun and shot two soldiers who had been heading towards his fake location, ducking past their dying bodies and twisting around into another hall. In this one, he met three soldiers. Then they began to ebb in amount, thankfully. How long until they figured it out? Probably not much longer. It wasn't like they had a fake Aesur running around. It wasn't exactly as fun as he'd imagined, running around on your own with a zillion armed people looking to kill you. Then again, he hadn't really imagined this as much fun to begin with. He was just glad that there wasn't any fire inside the building yet.

Twisting into the room where the disc was supposedly located, Aesur took a suffocating three minutes to locate the disc. He lifted the disc up and scanned it with the drive he'd pulled out earlier. "Disc identity confirmed."

He pressed up against the door, peeking through the crack and straining his ears to listen for any passerby's. He was running low on time. He wrenched out the drive and checked. Four minutes to get out. "Returning to Gundam Theritia." He reported absentmindedly, slinking out of the room and darting along the designated escape route.

"Camera's deactivated."

He was making good on time, at least. He turned the last corner and met the bad luck that had been chasing him all along.

"I have bad luck, don't I?"

Aesur spun around and a splitting pain bolted through his abdomen, but not before he managed to shoot the soldier first.

"Or maybe-" Siegen flinched, hastily dressed in his uniform after being called on duty for the crises on hand, "It's not that bad." He crumpled to the floor, Aesur's bullet having blasted through his right leg. Through all this, Aesur hadn't even realized that behind him was the blazing ravages of the battle outside, and at first, the single, haunting sound of crackling silenced everything. Stumbling backwards, Aesur gripped his wound unnaturally tight, his eyes wide and his entire body shaking horribly. Frozen, frozen. Aesur was completely frozen in the face of flames. They were so far away, but they were still there. His knees folded beneath him, and he fell to all fours, his shoulders heaving with the effort of breathing. Just a little farther. He wrenched his eyes away from the fire and stared at the cockpit, dragging himself over with the little strength left in his arms. Needles of pain shot up in his abdomen as his vision slid in and out of focus. Just a little more, and he would be safe from the fire.

This was more than enough to get him into the cockpit a little faster, and once there, he stumbled through the medicine box for a small dose of anesthesia. Not enough to stop the organs working around the wound, but enough to keep him from passing out. Just enough. His breath ragged, he pulled back on the handles, and Theritia shot backwards, spinning before leaping into the air. Aesur swallowed a cry of pain, as the pressure of Theritia's speed crushed into his stomach and coaxed out more blood.

"Phase-" He choked on his words, taking a sharp breath and gripping his side, "C-Complete."

Deviating from the original flight path, he shot up into the air, away from the battle scene and scanned for surrounding Aheads. None. He let go of the controls, pressing into his bullet wound with his right hand and pulling down on his helmet with his left. It would be hell to get through the atmosphere in Theritia after this.

 

[parallelzero]

"Celestia, on standby." Alitaria spoke calmly after settling herself into the cockpit. What Mr. Therra- Aesur, had told her was slightly troublesome. Saying things he didn't mean? He loses it? Judging by the rest of what he said, "it" was probably control. The girl didn't feel perfectly comfortable with him cutting himself off from the other Meisters, either. There was just too much risk in not being able to communicate with them. But, in the end she agreed to go along with it. It wasn't like she didn't have her own flaws that others had to accept. In fact, she probably had more than most.

She hadn't forgotten about the drug pouches woven into her outfit as she launched after the Theritia. In fact, Alitaria had decided to go into this operation without using them once. If it had been any other country they were attacking, this would not have been the case, but since the enemy was using those relic Aheads, the spec difference between them and her Celestia were more than enough to guarantee her victory. It would have been a different case if she was about to face the full force of the units stationed there, but since most of them would be lead away by Alice and Retribution, there was a slim chance that she would be overwhelmed. If in the case she was, then she would obviously have no choice to use this drug. In any case, this measure would prevent her from being caught as quickly, although her battle data would probably turn up worse than last time.

Alitaria shook her head as she pressed the button that triggered the Celestia's transformation into it's mobile armor form. The mecha quickly shifted to it's quicker and more agile mode, leaving the girl to take a deep breath. "Celestia, initializing phase one." The jet-like mobile armor shot after the Theritia, which seemed to be keeping a pace that allowed her to keep up. At least he was doing that for her. There wasn't a huge gap in speed between the Theritia and the Celestia's mobile armor, but there was enough for him to pull out of her range if he wanted to, and, well, cover didn't work that well when the thing being covered is way in the front.

It wasn't long after Aesur's Gundam touched down on the pavement of the runway that enemies began to engage them. As she assumed, the Aheads were few and far between, with the odd anti-mobile suit weapon stationed nearby. Aware that Aesur had the Aheads under control, she focused on the anti-Mobile Suit cannons scattered around the building. While they were smaller targets, they were stationary, so the GN cannon in mobile armor mode was more than enough to take them out one by one. This continued until the Theritia made contact with the wall of the building, leaving Alitaria with the position of defense. She quickly reverted the Celestia back into it's mobile suit mode, taking a defensive stance slightly ahead of the Theritia. "Phase two, initializing."

It didn't take long for a small unit of Aheads to appear on her left, and the solution for the pest control was glaringly obvious as they were all in a group. Alitaria sighed, "You all want to be killed, don't you?" The GN cannons behind the Celestia's shoulders flipped up and over to point in the direction of the flying Aheads as the sound of GN particles gathering could be heard. A single shot wouldn't guarantee complete success, but a single charged shot would. As the squad grew even closer, she adjusted the mobile suit so that it's direction remained consistent with the that of the targets. A loud beep confirmed that the cannons were done charging, and the buildup in the cannons was released all at once, pushing the Celestia backwards as well until it got a grip in the ground. The girl managed to murmur an apology as the beam finally struck the first Ahead, and she manipulated the aim of the beam by slowly adjusting the Celestia's direction. This way, she guaranteed a hit on all of the targets. The main problem with this attack was that it consumed a lot of GN particles, so it was limited to only one use for the time being. Luckily, it wasn't a very difficult attack to pull off.

It didn't take long for the fact that she had just killed a group of people to set in, and she felt rather sick to her stomach. She'd eventually come to terms with it - or rather, she'd have to, but for now it was still a little overwhelming. It wasn't long after that Theritia began to show signs of activity again. It quickly flew up in the air, and Alitaria sped after him after hearing Aesur's phase completion line. "Aesur!? Are you okay?" He sounded like he was in pain. Had something happened inside?

 

[Alter Ego]

"You're right, Rosa; they do look like big fireworks."

Kain absent-mindedly stroked the doll's head as he listened to the steady, dull hammering of ahead weaponry against the Alice's heavy and unrelenting defenses, following the display of flashing lights and explosions on the monitor with bemused interest and occasionally flicking his one occupied hand to shoot down a suit or two that attempted to veer past them. Abele seemed to be getting into her job like usual, and so she hadn't bothered him with it, but to be honest...this was sort of boring. The lights and explosions had had their charm, but Kiel was being adamant about 'exhaustion battle tactics', which apparently meant that he should just sit there and only fire when absolutely necessary. No pretty firework patterns and absolutely no playing with the big puppets.

The meister pouted. Just as he was about to finally voice his opinion, however, a vaguely familiar voice in his head.

"Team one, this is Kiel. Our primary target has been secured. Commence phase three."

"Phase three..." Kain repeated the words slowly and deliberately, a smile creeping up on his face as the recollections from the briefing bubbled up onto the surface of his thoughts, "You know what that means, right Rosa?" the meister slowly and deliberately pulled on the second one of his custom-made gloves, placing his previously unoccupied hand on the control pannel, "Remote cannon system; initiate one-to-one mapping." his expression split into an excited grin as the cannons responded to his touch, not stiffly and unnaturally like they had before but smoothly, like so many puppets connected to the strings on his fingers. On the outside, the careful observer would have noticed a subtle shift in the previously rigid posture of the Alice's cannons, but unfortunately, few paid attention to such detail in the heat of combat. Kain could barely contain his excitement as he watched the cannnons' energy gauges charge up in near-perfect unison, "Let's make some fireworks!"

 

[Kansas]

The volley of artillery fire instantly hailed from the ground units as the enemy Aheads scattered in military unison. Ryder and Retribution didn't slow themselves as they continued to bullet towards the ground, kicking the forward thrusters just in time as particles showered the earth with its glow, forcing Retribution to a quick halt on the ground. He looked up for a moment before blasting straight forward with no warning, blades extended, slicing through the suits one by one. The Aheads were now beginning to move into formation, the surprise attack no longer keeping its...element of surprise. The enemy suits were quick and ruthless with their counter attack.

"They've got a bit more skill than the guys back in Germany... but it's still not good enough!" Ryder screamed as his blade's clashed into the beam saber of the enemy Ahead in front of him. The two machine's only paused briefly before Retribution's solid blades tore through the beam saber, instantly dispersing it and slashing through the torso's center. It glowed a slow orange before exploding into pieces. The crimson gundam kept moving, unphased by the kill, moving to his next targets. The suits battled in close combat, sharing a few parrying blows before being torn to shreds by Retribution's blades. Small volleys could be seen blasting through the air, the sign of Gundam Alice's support fire. It blasted suits down with ease and single shots, showcasing its power and defense as it refused to budge an inch.

"Looks like things are starting to clean up around here...When is Aesur going to..." Ryder thought silently as he fought before being cut off by the open air transmition into the cockpit's speakers.

"Team one, this is Kiel. Our primary target has been secured. Commence phase three."

Aesur had done it, but that means it was time for the ending phase of the mission. The clean up. Retribution parried a suit away, then slashed through the suit, standing firm and defensive as Ryder rushed inside with his controls.

"midd, display status of Gundam Alice's particle compression status for phase 3." Ryder commanded in a quick tone as Retribution's turbines began to spin faster and faster. The small disk displayed a model of Alice in front of Ryder with a long bar next to its cannons.

"Alice's cannons are nearing one hundred perc--"
"I can see that! End display!" Ryder snapped at the machine as Retribution's turbines slowly crept to launch speed.

"Phase 3, Gundam Retribution clears the firing radius of Gundam Alice's cannons which will immediately clean the battlefield of remaining Aheads..."

"If I don't clear that radius, Retribution Retribution'll be toast... not to mention myself..." Ryder commented to himself with a loud gulp of spit as the turbines hit the right out put, Ryder immediately blasted forward, then straight up to the sky to await the cannon's fire.

"Hmpf, once those kids fire that thing, its mission complete. Aesur and Alitaria work fast...I expected no less from the Gundam Meisters."