Gundam Fire Still

The mercenaries then stalled the Combine decisively, and then signaled to them from the encrypted channel to depart as soon as possible.

While there were a few voices - mostly from the oRB military - that thought the secret negotiation was futile, it was all enough to make the young men think the affair would cheer up their elders, the children of politicians who had stepped into the political and diplomatic vortex as voluntarily as they had expected.

As far as Kira was concerned, this negotiation was hardly going to benefit the oRB, he didn't know much, but he knew that the Kleinites of PLAnt were out of power and that gaining their favor wouldn't do the oRB much good, and the coalition was still pushing the oRB to stop their trade with PLAnt and making threats of sanctions and even war from time to time, and they weren't going to let up on their attitude just because the oRB was involved in the matter.

There is good news though, the fact that the young Asha didn't let herself strike out on this shows that she is at least learning to protect herself and knows to finally hide some power.

The location of the secret contact was L4, the Waste Merchants Union had arranged for this location and had also brought in a representative of them, the oRB, to act as a guarantee of neutrality, he had a short meeting with Chisaka, Director Simmonds and Kagari to discuss the problems they might face, he cautiously mentioned the ambitions of the Waste Merchants, but the subject was quickly interrupted by Kagari's optimistic expectation of opening the road to peace, but with the tragedy of Heliopolis ahead of them, they still talked about the intelligence leaks and the potential for conflict.

These preliminaries proved to be correct.

So they weren't too surprised when ten minutes ago, the waste dealers informed of the presence of the fleet outside, then a few minutes later when the firefight in the satellite began. The Orb representatives who had entered the satellite quickly evacuated to the port, the ms that had been left behind to guard the ship were policing the perimeter airspace, and Kira sat quietly in the cockpit of the fuselage, watching it all unfold.

Everything seemed perfect, but he knew it wasn't, because the young boys and girls who were supposed to be making decisions weren't making that final, most important decision, which was whether or not they were allowed to fire and at whom they were firing when they appeared on both sides of the battlefield as a neutral nation.

Whether this was due to concerns brought on by this country's tradition of peace or diplomatic considerations, for their role as soldiers and MS pilots, their standby position here would be almost meaningless if they were not allowed to fire.

The standby position was the interior of the satellite, which he accessed early through a meteorite damaged passage in the port area plus some terrain damage using the ms's beam saber, and then hid the body in a building-empty underground parking facility. Here he was quietly facing the main screen of the airframe.

This was no ordinary production machine, and he remembered the indescribable look on old Asha's face when he handed him the terminal with the fuselage's information, a mixture of anticipation and regret, trust and compulsion.

That was when he'd nodded his head in agreement to board this ship for this ill-fated voyage and to protect a bunch of idiots.

"And yourself, Kira, you're also the man this country needs for the future." The old man who had given an option he hadn't chosen smiled, relaxing the corners of his mouth that had been tense from the seriousness of his earlier words, "This is for you."

He removed a terminal from the antique wooden desk drawer that looked out of place with the former, it showed, a diagram of a ms, he could see that the airframe had the overall architecture of the Heresy series, but with thicker limbs and a more versatile backpack.

"This is the new ms, the original design was codenamed Dawn, unfortunately the project wasn't fully completed, this is the product of supplementing some of it's armament and electronics systems to Astray, let's call it the Dawn Heresy if you don't mind, anyway, it's yours."

It was a great airframe, and as a pilot with enough experience in MS warfare, the teenager recognized that with a quick glance at the parameters.

The airframe was lying in this hidden corner now, holding a beam rifle, the beam cannon behind it in battle condition, the clock ticking by the minute, and he could feel the vibrations of the satellites, the sound of ms jets and impacts, and the sound of gunfire, which belonged to light weapons.

It was an excellent sword, but if it couldn't be sheathed, it was meaningless.

He had to know what was going on before he tried to do anything himself.

He opened the comm and called for the squad heading to the negotiations.

"This is Kira, what is your status, do you need backup?"

"All clear, no support required, no more MS activity outside the satellite if the joint's right. Remain on standby, do not fire."

"Roger," he shut down the comm, the screen in front of him changing back to the abandoned towers of the colonial satellite and the quadrangular artificial sky that was circled within them. He thought back to the first time he'd been on the MS, when he actually had a choice, when bullets and sparks ricocheted in front of his eyes, when he could have ducked out of sight instead of going to the aid of the Union soldier he'd never met and getting involved in this thing he couldn't control.

The familiar Union ship that was nearby, and the familiar, Zaft ship that was chasing the former, all of which was displayed only coldly in numbers and letter codes on his own screen, but he knew what those explosions of flame and ballistics were like, and in there was perhaps his old friend, the various officers of the Union, and.... He realized he didn't want to wait around here.

Kagari and the young men who were also children of the family were probably rejoicing that they had just contributed on behalf of the oRB government to a negotiation that led to peace, even though it was destined to be futile. And he knew it was doomed to be futile for both sides of that negotiation, who were more concerned about the ripples it would cause with the stones it would be used to probe, the fires that were happening right now inside and outside the satellites, with the combined determination, the determination of the PLAnt moderates and the determination of the Zaft hardliners. And Orb could have just left, shrugged it off and no one would be in danger, leaving the three warring parties to watch the peaceful blue and white ship move away from the storm.

Or, Kira. Lt. Colonel Yamato, commander of Task Force MS, Aub Self-Defense Force, had another option, one that attempted to seize the initiative in all of this.

"Calling Kusanagi Control, this is Kira. Lieutenant Colonel Yamato, prepare to depart the aircraft, please record the position of the airframe, repeat, Kira. Lieutenant Colonel Yamato, prepare to depart the plane."

Now was not the time when one should stay in the cockpit with two black eyes.

The skinny figure was running quickly through the artificial sunlight, and in front of his path was the fishbone like institute that was erected, and as he stepped through the doors of the institute, he heard the call over the broadcast system that had a cold tone but exuded a maniacal air.

--- "If I'm not mistaken, no, that's absolutely not wrong, the man who should have appeared, the one who should have appeared in this starting place, Kira . Yamato-kun."

He seemed to have come in response to the call.

21. whispers of the dead

Just like many people's imagination of the laboratory, this genetics laboratory protected by the heavy sealed door of the air is still floating with the smell of chemicals, although there is no lighting, but under the light beam of the flashlight hanging under the surprise, presented in front of the eyes within the spot is clean as new laboratory, the desk with computers and plastic gloves box, piles of books under the protection of the air conditioning system is still running. Nor was it decaying. There was a neat array of vat-like containers in the middle of the lab hall, the control screen above each one still lit, curves and numbers still pulsing, and even without the beam of light from the flashlight, one could still easily make out the monitor screen on one side of that screen displaying images that approximated a human embryo.

"This is probably it, the huge sum of money that went nowhere, the Doctor's final plan." Borgman's gasps became slightly more rapid.

--- "Have you finally arrived, this end, the cursed place, the madness of mankind..." The male voice on the radio continued

"Damn, can this guy see the security cameras?" The captain whispered, his subconscious gaze darting to the ceiling of the lab, trying to find something resembling a camera.

"No, more likely just focusing on every door opening and closing," since the moment he'd walked in, Borgman had pounced on a computer, plugged into the MI data interface then tried to decipher what was in it.

"No, it's not supposed to be surveillance." The representative on the Adjuster's side suddenly lowered his voice in a weird way, giving the same opinion, "He's just hiding nearby, about 2-3 walls away. Can hear a little echo of his voice, and he must have heard us, or at least the footsteps walking in."

The Union Soldiers also immediately muffled the conversation, a few flashlight beams swept the surrounding walls and doors with panic, but they found nothing.

"I hope there isn't a self-destruct system in here so this maniac can take us out with him."

"An institute wouldn't have anything like that,"

"But one never knows, if he's ever been here after the place was deserted and then installed something." Borgman's voice shook a little as he realized that the madman hiding behind the broadcast system had probably worked here for a long time after he'd been recalling the files he'd read, and what was worse was that the man's voice indicated an age that didn't match any of the researchers he could recall in the files who'd worked here.

"Any chance he could have stolen some explosives while he was at zaft?"

"Very easily, he could easily get his hands on any kind of ammunition, from 76mm to a charged particle container for a ship's gun, the captain has enough access to-"

"Hell, then there's a good chance there's a particle container right under our feet right now."

However, it was clear that the speaker hiding in the radio wasn't planning any kind of panic for the time being, and he was still stating his monologue.

-- "You have all seen what is left of these sins, these monsters shaped by the madness of man."

--'I was not born into this world in a natural way'....

--born by artificial genetic modification at the fertilized egg stage--that earliest human adjuster, George .... Glenn's statement..."

-- "Do you see how much of the chaos that guy caused has since evolved into a dark situation?"

"Wait, who's there?" While listening to this long speech someone heard footsteps coming from outside, then several assault shots were pointed in the direction of the sound, but it was clear that the footsteps didn't belong to the crazy man who was talking on the radio.

"Is that you? Kira?" Mu was the first to recognize the young face that had appeared in the doorway, and then he remembered the name that Crusher had mentioned just a few minutes earlier.

"Hell, how did you get in here?"

"As ORB senior officer, your men had no reason to stop me, Captain." The young man replied rather bluntly.

"I think ORB needs to know what's going on here."

"And then you've probably led yourself into a trap, Junior, the guy just gave your name, and it's possible he's targeting you, though we don't know why yet." Quicker than the others to speak up, perhaps because of his familiarity with the teenager, Mu was the first to respond, who seemed to him to be the same teenager who had been in the cockpit wondering whether or not he should fire.

"So all the more reason for me to come, I need to know why this madman, this captain of the zaft, cares about a minor character like me, Kira . Yamato, the name."

He shouted his name loudly, his voice echoing ghostly in the closed lab, and no doubt it reached the ears of Crusher, who was hiding somewhere nearby.

"I don't care about your neutrals, but, a suggestion young man, turn on your insurance, in this unknown." The captain shrugged helplessly, making a gesture to his soldiers that instructed this man that there was no threat and continued to alert the perimeter.

Just as the teenager had expected, the radio, after a moment of silence, came the cool, but somehow satisfying, male voice.