Post by Gundam Revival GM on Dec 6, 2012 14:04:19 GMT -5
“…and then he just took it anyway!” Razel expelled the punch line with his own boisterous laughter as the girls surrounding him giggled, most still nervously smiling around the semi-famous celebrity. Razel was having too much fun at this party. The drink in his hand sloshed back and forth, sometimes spilling mixed coke and rum on the beautiful hardwood floor of the Zero Heaven main ballroom.
As Razel flirted with the group of ditsy debutants, Hal and Natalya held hands across the room, conversing with a well-known scientist of Zephyr Research. Natalya mostly remained quiet, something still on her mind. As Hal excitedly expressed his interest in the scientist’s work, Natalya looked at her beau with hesitant eyes. She needed to tell him, soon. It was bad enough that she had slept with Razel, but this, this was something she couldn’t hold from Hal for long. She subconsciously squeezed Hal’s hand, drawing his attention away from his discussion. Hal’s head turned in her direction as the scientist walked off to mingle his way to the bar.
“You look bored,” Hal said with a smile. Natalya feigned a smile, keeping up appearance for the time being. She didn’t want to ruin his time at this extravagant party. Instead, she hugged him and gave him a kiss on his cheek, whispering in his ear, “I’m going to go use the ladies room.” With that, she walked off. Hal watched her until she disappeared into the crowd. Just then Hal gets jolted from a sudden force on his back. Looking back, Hal sees Razel smiling. “How’s things with the little lady?”
Hal smiles back, taking a sip of the wine he had been nursing. “Good, I really enjoy the time we spend together. And here on Zero Heaven, it all seems more… I don’t know… grandiose. I’m having feelings for her I didn’t know were there before.” Razel looks up at the intricate carvings on the ceiling, accented by the pure crystal chandeliers.
No wonder, this place could make a homeless person feel more important, Razel thought, taking a gulp of his drink.
Ramsi leaned against the wall in the far corner of the ballroom. He watched as people danced, drank, and talked to each other. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves, but Ramsi, he had an uneasy feeling tugging at the back of his mind. Something felt off.
There’s too much joy, he thought. Not that Ramsi was depressed, he just couldn’t accept that everything was alright. Something just felt off since his fight with Dmitri, when the Zero System showed him what he saw. Was it just a reflection of his mind’s eye? His subconscious telling him something he couldn’t understand? Or something more…
“We just lost Deep Space Sentry 2142,” the E.S.S. technician informed his superior. The tech officer sat behind the technician, half asleep, leaning back on his chair. He grunted.
“Did you hear me, sir?” the tech said in a sighing voice.
“Yeah, yeah,” the officer said, waving his hand, “we lose at least one a day, usually, nothing to worry about.” He yawned, pulling his hat over his eyes and adjusting himself.
“Well that was the second one within the hour, sir.”
The officer took a deep breath of frustration and stood up, moving his hat away from his eyes so he could look at the screen from over the tech’s shoulder. Reading the data, the officer didn’t see anything to be alarmed about.
“The other was D.S.S. 2134,” he said, plopping himself back on his chair, “they’re in the same sector, prolly just an electrical storm or some space trash. Whatever it was, it took them both out. Loosen up.”
The officer yawned and pulled his hat over his eyes again, preparing himself for a nap. The tech, a little more concerned about the loss of the satellites, grunted and went back to watching the screen.
Trent stared at the vid-screen on his desk, filling out his report for the assignment he and Hiro had just finished. He yawned expressively and palmed the coffee mug close by with his still-human hand, pulling it up to his lips and took a sip. He reviewed his report on the recon mission and sighed.
Another threat, he thought, we get rid of one and another pops right up. It’s never-ending.
Just then Hiro walks into the office, carrying a cardboard box in one arm. Trent stays still, not taking his eyes off of the screen in front of him. Hiro sets the box down at his desk, rummaging through it as if looking for something. A sound of metal banging around comes from the box, ruining Trent’s concentration. Trent sighs, taking a sip from his mug once again. He turns to Hiro and shots him a questioning expression. Hiro shrugs with a slight smile. “Just going through some old stuff I had packed away,” Hiro says, still rummaging.
Trent stands from his chair, stretching away the drowsy feeling from his eyes to his toes. A part of him wanted to just go to sleep, he could finish the report in the morning. But he didn’t want to leave work undone, so he decided to head to the cafeteria for some more coffee.
“You want anything while I’m down at the cafeteria, kid?”
Hiro, still looking through the box, turned around and with energy behind his voice said, “nah, I think I’m good. If I need anything I’ll run down later.”
Trent tilted his head and turned to leave, thinking about how much energy Hiro had at this time of the night. Then, looking at the clock on the wall, saw what time it was: 11:56.
It’s not even midnight yet? Man, I must be getting old…
Natalya stood at the exit to the ladies room after walking out, seeing from across the large ballroom Razel talking to Hal. She hesitated walking toward them, uneasy and nervous to be around them both at the same time.
Get it together, Natayla, she thought to herself, it’s gotta come out eventually…
She took a deep breath and began her walk towards the two, confident that soon everything would change. As she strode through the crowd of people, her arm was suddenly grabbed, causing her to stop. She turned to see a drunk man smiling and trying to keep his balance.
“Wasss ur name purty ladi?” the man slurred. Natalya pulled her arm from the man’s grasp and started to walk away, ignoring him. The man would have none of that, grabbing Natalya again, this time by the waist, pulling her close to him. She struggled to get loose, smelling the alcohol wafting from his mouth. “I askd u a queshtion, don be rude now,” the man said with a bit of annoyance.
Before she could yell for help, Hal was at her side pulling her away from the intoxicated man. The man’s grip loosened but he didn’t let go, trying to pull her closer again. “Hey, we havin’ a conver-conver… we’re talkin’ here,” the man said aggressively, spilling his drink on the floor as he pulled at Natalya’s waist.
“Excuse me, but I don’t think she wants to talk to you, let alone have your arm around her waist,” Hal said politely but with fire in his eyes. He then swats the man’s arm, releasing Natalya into his own arms. He quickly swings her around behind him, to put himself between the man and her.
The man, looking quite furious now, throws his glass to the floor. The glass shatters and what ever he was drinking splashes everywhere, getting everyone’s attention in the immediate area.
“Who the hell are you?” the man said, shoving Hal with his open palms. Hal took the jolt and tried his best not to hit Natalya behind him. Before Hal could say anything, Razel taps on the man’s shoulder, averting his attention. The man instantly recognizes Razel and shrinks back a bit.
“He’s my friend,” Razel said in complete seriousness, “and you should know that he’s saved the world just as many times as I have.” The man then looked embarrassed by his actions. “And furthermore, I think you’ve had a little too much to drink,” Razel said, waving his hand by his nose with a smile.
“I’m sorry about that, it’s been a tough week for me and…” the man said before getting interrupted by Hal, “don’t apologize to him, apologize to her.” Hal stepped to the side and the man said his sorry to Natalya with his head hung low. She just nodded, still holding on to Hal’s arm.
It’s then when Razel realized everyone was staring at the drama unfolding. Razel raised his hands and clapped a few times, saying, “isn’t this supposed to be a party? C’mon people, have some fun! And can someone get me a drink?”
Ramsi had had enough of the jovial mood emanating from everyone in the ball room. He decided to head to Culas’ room on Zero Heaven, maybe a talk with him would help to soothe his worries. He pushed off the wall he was leaning on with his left leg and began his stride to the outer doors of the ball room. He passed many businessmen letting loose, fan-boys and girls, and random civilians getting a slice of the rich life for one night. Before opening the doors out of the ballroom, Ramsi took one look back, seeing Razel and Hal.
Don’t party too hard, there’s never too long a break.
Dmitri sat across from the Queen, flexing his metal hand in front of his face. He watched as the artificial tendons stretched to move the fingers of his prosthetic. The Queen watched Dmitri as she talked into the receiver of her private phone, to who was what Dmitri wondered. After a few minutes Zerium hung up and gave Dmitri her full attention. “So, Dmitri, how is your new arm working out for you?”
Dmitri shrugged, “took a while to get used to.” The Queen tapped on the keyboard, seemingly interested in something on her screen. Dmitri adjusted his eyes in the direction but was unable to see the screen.
“You should be grateful Alzabrrio paid for it, those new prosthetics can run more than even I could afford,” the Queen said, her attention back on Dmitri. For a moment he thought, Ramsi should have chipped in for it as well, nutcase…
He sat there for a moment still eyeing the fake hand, moving it different ways and watching the result. This was just part of ‘his way’ of training himself. Sure, the doctors that operated on him gave him books full of procedures to help orient himself, but Dmitri had done alright so far. As long as you don’t count the farm-full of eggs he had wasted in the past couple of days.
“OK, why I asked you here,” Zerium started, standing and pushing her chair away, “I wanted to show you something before someone else did.” She then turned the vid-screen to angle towards Dmitri so he could see. Dmitri’s eyes went wide and he stood up fast still looking at the screen in disbelief, “if this is a joke, Queen Zerium, I’m not laughing.”
Back on Zero Heaven, Hal and Natalya found a somewhat quiet corner to be somewhat alone. Hal hugged Natalya close, then pulled back and looked into her eyes.
“Are you OK? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Natalya weakly smiled and pursed her lips, shaking her head slightly back and forth. “No, just scared me a bit,” she said, looking at Hal but still with distant eyes. Hal, being used to deciphering code and not humans, didn’t really notice. He turned his neck to see Razel already surrounded, by another group of women, this time amassing even more attention then before. Hal sighed, “good thing Razel was around. I’m not much of a fighter and I don’t think I could have talked him down as well either.” As he said this he looked back at Natalya, almost ashamed of the fact he couldn’t protect Natalya himself.
Natalya noticed this in Hal’s voice, feeling even worse now at the comparison between him and Razel. She had to tell him and tell him now. “Hal…”
Ramsi knocked on the door to Culas’ Zero Heaven room, one reserved for the most important of guests. He heard a faint “come in” from behind the door and turned the knob. He walked in to see Culas lying on a couch in the front room, wearing jeans and an old T-shirt. He looked quite comfortable. This, in turn, made Ramsi more uncomfortable to the current situation. Across the room a vid-screen blared with the sounds of an MS battle. Culas muted the volume and sat up from the couch, stretching and yawning a bit.
“What’s up, Ramsi? Shouldn’t you be letting loose at the party?” Culas said with a smile as he reached for his drink on the table in front of the couch. Ramsi was silent for a moment taking in the lavishness of the room. As he looked around he glanced at the vid-screen playing a recording of the Tournament silently. “I could ask you the same thing,” Ramsi said flatly.
Culas sighed, knowing his reputation within Pax Pacis as a partier. “I’m not much in the mood for parties lately, actually. Being Vice-Prez of Pax has me running almost twenty-four seven. I’m actually getting my sleep right now.” He let out a little laugh and leaned back on the couch, “I’m actually glad you came by, kinda had something I wanted to talk to you about.”
Ramsi sat on the nearest chair, wondering what Culas would want to talk to him about. Then it came to him. “Is this about my fight with Dmitri?”
Culas nodded silently with a somewhat solemn expression, then turned the volume up on the vid-screen. Right as Ramsi turned to watch, an image of his MS blasting Dmitri’s MS in the back played in slow-motion. Ramsi signed and raised his hand to cover his face in shame, knowing Culas had a few words for him about the whole situation. "Sir..." he started before being interrupted.
"Ramsi, I'm not going to scold you," Culas said with a comforting smile before regaining his seriousness, "I just want to make sure you're OK. The first match..." He paused, thinking of his next words, "That first match... you used the Zero System for the first time, didn't you?"
Ramsi stayed silent, but did nod.
"I thought so," Culas said, standing from the couch and walking over to his desk. For a moment he was silent, typing something up on the computer. "Come look at this."
Ramsi stood from the chair he'd been sitting on and walked over to Culas, wondering what he was about to see. As he stood across from Culas at his desk, Culas turned the screen to face Ramsi. What Ramsi saw could simply be called devastation and chaos. On the screen a battle ensued in space, thousands of MS's flying around battling one another. He recognized some of the ships as ESS, as well as some of the MS's as well. As he watched, a somewhat familiar MS came onto the screen. The MS tore through everything in its path without any mercy. The MS had no markings of any affiliation, none that Ramsi could see anyways. The speed and agility of the MS was staggering, and at points it was hard for his eyes to keep up with the blur on the screen. Finally he was curious enough to ask, "what is this?"
Culas paused the clip at a perfect shot of the MS and Ramsi felt a tug at the back of his mind. It was on the tip of his tongue where he'd seen the MS before, but he still couldn't quite pinpoint it.
"This," Culas started, "was the test run of the first Zero System. And the pilot... your father, Kal Talex."
Trent sat in the cafeteria of the ESS Main Headquarters, sipping at a coffee and staring at nothing in particular. A group of ESS Privates walked in, catching his attention. They immediately made the cafeteria louder with their hoots and hollers, goofing around slapping each other hard but playfully. Trent watched as they walked the line, placing some midnight snacks on their trays. He smiled a bit, remembering when he was just starting out in ESS.
So long ago…
Trent took a sip of his coffee as he reminisced about his younger years. For the first time since before the assignment Trent thought about the offer from Culas to join Pax Pacis. It would be a good career choice, especially since Culas had offered him so much, in terms of money and the rank he would start at. But on the other hand, ESS had been his place for a long while, barring the time he took away from it to do bounty hunter work. And Hiro? What would he do?
He’s a smart kid, he’d handle himself fine without me…
Trent sighed out loud and took another sip of his coffee, once again weighing his options in his mind. His eyes were growing heavy and if he didn’t move he’d succumb to drowsiness. He stood, palming his coffee and turned to leave.
Once this report is finished, I’m hittin’ the hay…
“Sir, this can’t be good,” the ESS technician said, staring at the screen with various data streaming. The tech’s supervisor didn’t bother looking this time, “what is it?”
“Another two DSS’s just went offline, but that’s not what bothers me,” the tech said, a slight shiver in his voice, “it seems whatever is destroying these DSS’s is heading in our direction. At what I calculate as its speed, I figure it’ll be here in no time at all.”
The supervisor sighed, over-zealous rookies.
“Listen,” the supervisor said, dripping with condescension, “you’re new to this. These things happen all the time. There’s nothing threatening about this situation, it’s in your head. DSS’s get destroyed all the time. When In-Space Sentries start disappearing, THEN you can worry.” The supervisor smiled and nodded at the tech, knowing damn well he was right.
You’ve been at it as long as I have, you learn to ignore certain things.
“Um, Sir,” the tech mumbled almost silently.
“What?” the supervisor said, somewhat annoyed.
“We just lost ISS 6932.”
“What?” Ramsi said with apparent shock. His father was the test pilot for the Zero System, this he did not know before today. He turned away from the screen showing his father’s former MS rampaging through a horde of other MS’s with little difficulty and abundant lack of mercy. Before Ramsi could ask any questions, Culas asked them for him.
“What did you see when you activated the Zero System, Ramsi?” His face showed some concern, as if he knew what happened when someone was connected to the Zero System. Ramsi turned to face Culas, his face white with fear.
Was what I saw…?
“It’s OK, Ramsi,” Culas tried to preemptively comfort Ramsi, “I know what it’s like. I too have used the Zero System. The…” Culas paused, searching for the right word, “…visions, they aren’t like anything you’ve ever experienced, were they. Hard to explain, I understand.” He seemed to fade off, thinking about what he himself had seen.
Ramsi took another moment before speaking to go over what he did know. “It’s all pretty personal,” he said, eyeing Culas for reaction.
Culas hesitated, obviously remembering something personal himself, “I know Ramsi, it always is. But sometimes…” Culas hesitated, then decided to continue, “sometimes personal things can effect everyone. And with the Zero System, sometimes it shows you a glimpse of what’s to come.”
Ramsi’s eyes squinted, taking this all in was taking its toll on his brain.
Zero System. Kal, father. Visions. Predicting the future. What the hell? Ramsi couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was all too much, though it did make sense in the case of what he saw and how he lost all control while fighting Black in the tournament. The things he had seen…
“You lost consciousness the first time you used it against that ESS Private, didn’t you? That’s when you saw the visions?” Culas seemed exceptionally interested what Ramsi’s experience was.
“Yes,” Ramsi said quietly, almost ashamed, “I didn’t know what happened until I saw the play-back of the match. I could have killed him…” Again, Ramsi turns his head away from Culas, fighting the demons in his head. Control, he was taught, was the only thing we have as humans. Everything else was perception.
“It’s OK, Ramsi,” Culas said, standing and walking around his desk to Ramsi where he placed a hand on his shoulder, “what I’m worried about is that second fight with Dmitri. Did you see something then too?”
Ramsi truly felt ashamed now, knowing damn well that the fight with Dmitri was purely emotional, especially the end. “No,” he answered, “that was the result of Dmitri’s taunts and my own lack of control. I apologize for making Pax look bad in any way.” Then he said said under his breath, “but he did kind of have it coming.”
Culas ignored the last part, smiling, “Make us look bad? Hell, you made us look great! You almost won the whole thing, plus you beat Dmitri, who, and I hope you don’t mind me saying, is one of the best pilots out there!”
Almost… Ramsi shrugged his praise aside, as well as the compliment to Dmitri.
“Though,” Culas started, his smile wiping from his face, “I think you should see the Pax psychologist. The Zero System can be extremely disorienting, even if it’s been a while since you’ve used it. It stays with you, Ramsi.” Culas walked away from Ramsi, heading for the bar at the other side of the room. Mixing a drink, he signals Ramsi as if to ask ‘you want one?’
Ramsi nodded, adding, “make it a double”
Hal stared at Natalya, seeing the expression on her face; he knew she was serious about something.
“What is it Natalya?” he asked, comforting as he held her hands. Hal was nervous, had known for quite a while that she had something important on her mind. He just wondered what it was. Her head hanging, looking at their hands together, she started to cry. Not loudly, but the tears certainly and abundantly fell from her cheeks. Hal couldn’t speak, no words of comfort came to his lips. Instead he just pulled her close and whispered “it’s OK” into her ear.
“No, it’s not, Hal,” she said through the escalating sobs, “and after I tell you, I don’t know if you will think that either.”
All that kept running through his head was: she’s ending it.
“C’mon, let’s get some privacy and we’ll talk,” Hal said, pulling Natalya to the exit of the ballroom. They walked out and it became instantly silent compared to inside the ballroom. In the hallway outside, they sat down on one of the benches lining the walls. Natalya sat there, now sobbing out loud, Hal wrapping his arm around her. “Take your time,” he said.
“I’ve already took too much time, Hal,” she said, again sobbing. Tears soaked her hands and Hal pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket, handing it to her. She wiped her face of the salty moisture, looking at Hal as she tried to keep herself from bawling completely. For a moment she calmed down, just staring at Hal.
“I love you, Hal. I really do,” she said, so heartfelt that it hit Hal like a ton of bricks. He just smiled, nodding, relieved that this wasn’t going to be a break-up. “I know. And I love you too, Natalya. You should know that.”
“I do,” she said, welling up again, “but there’s something in the past I never told you.” Hal’s eyes went wide. His analytical mind began to run a mile a minute. The possibilities were endless, what could have possibly happened that she would wait this long to tell me and feel this bad over? Hal began to feel scared again.
“After I met you,” she sniffled, letting out a soft sob, “and before we started seeing each other. That night me and Razel got drunk off the… Vodka…” This is where she looses it completely, crying rivers into her hands now cupped to her face. Hal remained speechless, knowing exactly why she was so upset. He had had his suspicions about that night, but after they started to talk to each other he brushed off the thought. At that moment he didn’t know how to feel. He wasn’t angry at either of them, he really couldn’t be, even if his personality allowed him to be. Confused wasn’t the word either. His feelings were somewhat hurt, but he couldn’t tell her that, but even though it was before they started talking, Hal couldn’t help but feel… cheated. Not cheated on, mind you, but cheated because she had ‘chose’ Razel before him. His heart aflutter and a lump in his throat, Hal pulled her close before she could say more.
“It’s alright, I understand,” he said in the most comforting voice possible, “It was before US, and I don’t hold it against you. I love you, Natalya, and this isn’t going to change anything.”
Natalya looked up with red eyes and tears still falling from her eyes. Hal looked right into her eyes and smiled a warm smile. Natalya burst into tears again.
She tried to regain her composure, failed, and through her sobs she choked out, “yes, things will… change… there’s more…”
Razel saw Hal and Natalya leave the ballroom, her eyes teary and Hal with his arm around her. He knew what it was about, and he hoped Hal would take it OK. Razel considered Hal more than just a coworker, he was a friend, and he hoped that it would remain that way even after she had told him.
It was only one night, he thought to himself as he sipped at his drink and ignored whatever it was the girl he was talking to was saying. Pushing the thought aside, Razel excused himself from the girl and headed towards the bar where he was planning on getting another drink.
“Do we have visual confirmation?” Admiral Kofista asked the ESS technical supervisor as he read the data on his vid-screen.
“None, sir,” the supervisor said flatly, “I sent out a scout and he said there wasn’t anything to see. He couldn’t even find the remains of the Sentries.” The supervisor’s voice had a touch of fear in it, as Kofista noted, which was unusual for him. Usually the supervisor was very calm and collected, even bored, with his job. He’d been doing it for so long, he thought he’d seen everything.
“What about these energy readings? These aren’t normal,” Kofista said, still reviewing the data.
“Yes, and that is what scares me, sir,” the supervisor stated.
“Alright, no need to panic just yet, officer. Keep an eye on the Sentries and let me know if any more are destroyed. In the meantime, I want you to cross analyze these energy readings with everything we have on file. Come to me directly if you find out anything. Dissmissed”
“Aye, sir,” the supervisor said, saluting and turning to leave.
Kofista sat silently after the supervisor left, pondering what was destroying the Sentries, and if it was something to prepare for. He’d been in the game long enough to know that a false alarm could be as bad as something threatening.
But false alarms don’t leave to loss of life, he thought, reaching for the com-screen.
Trent sat at his desk, finishing up the report he had been working on, periodically sipping at his coffee. Hiro sat across from him at his own desk fiddling with something mechanical, Trent too tired to ask what. Just then the silence in the room was cut as the com-screen on Trent’s desk began to ring. Seeing it was Admiral Kofista, Trent pressed the open button and Kofista’s face appeared on the screen.
“Trent, Hiro,” Kofista started as Hiro walked around to face the com-screen, “we might have a situation brewing. Seems we’re losing Sentries out there. Mysteriously.”
Trent started taking mental notes.
Hiro listened.
“It started with a handful of Deep Space Sentries failing to send in data. They were destroyed. Soon after In-Space Sentries began to follow suit.” Kofista paused a moment to look at the data on his vid-screen.
“What about the path? Where is it leading to?” Trent asked, fearing and already knowing the answer.
Kofista sighed, “Whatever it is, if it IS something, the destruction of the Sentries is indeed heading this way.”
Hiro jumped back into his seat, already digging up the data on the Sentries to analyze. Trent squeezed the bridge of his nose, frustrated with his lack of sleep and starting to get a headache.
“I want you guys to be ready for anything. I’m getting some ships out there and I want you to be on them. Be on deck in twenty minutes, whatever is doing this will be here in less than an hour. I want those ships launched ASAP.”
“Aye, sir,” Trent said, tiredly. He closed the com-screen and Kofista disappeared to black, leaving only his words behind. Across from him, Hiro typed furiously on his computer, his eyes glued to the screen, almost literally. He inched closer and closer until his eyes were practically against the screen.
“Hey, we gotta get going,” Trent said, putting on his ESS jacket, slowly.
“Hold on, I think I’m on to something,” Hiro said, his eyes never moving from the screen. After a few more moments he jumps from his seat to the printer where the sheet he was printing was just finishing. He grabbed the sheet and threw his jacket on one arm, walking out the door with Trent. As they walked down the hallway, Hiro handed Trent the paper. On it was various statistical data, elemental tests, and energy readouts. Trent couldn’t decipher one word on the paper.
“Pretend I’m not dumb to this stuff,” Trent said, handing back the paper to Hiro.
Hiro took it back and looked at it again, excited.
“Remember that space fog? Well the readings we got from that said that it contained all pretty basic elements. Except for one type of energy that couldn’t be determined.” He started talking faster and faster as he explained, more and more excited.
“That energy, as far as we could decipher, would have to have been super dense inside that fog, meaning that the little we could measure, about 7.43% of what the fog was made of, would have to be more powerful than even most atomic generators on Earth. Well…”
“Finally, a point,” Trent said, swiping his keycard to get into the docking bay.
“The point is,” Hiro said, without a second glace, “whatever is destroying those Sentries has the same energy signature, except there’s a good hundred-thousand times as much of it.”
As Dmitri stared at the vid-screen with disbelief, Queen Zerium poured a cup of coffee for herself in the corner of the room where her little dinette was. Dmitri almost seemed shocked, even as unusual that was for him. The Queen couldn’t help but feel responsible for what was now occurring, and wish she could say or do something more than she already had.
“It’s no joke, Dmitri,” she said as she sat at her chair behind her desk, “though I wish it were.”
Dmitri remained quiet still, reading over the information for the fourth time since she’d turned the screen to his view just moments ago. Were these people serious? Who would do this?
Dmitri finally turned the screen back in disgust, starting to go from shocked to infuriated. He slammed his fist down on the table, looking up at Zerium and regretting it. He had respect for her, respect he only held for people who deserved it.
“Sorry…” he said, holding back the anger trying to affect his voice.
“Quite alright, Dmitri, I completely understand. The nerve of those bureaucrats. How can they expect you to be held responsible for all the damages caused while undercover in Vis Vires?” She looked at the vid-screen, noting the staggering amount of money they were charging Dmitri, “and these figures don’t exactly add up.”
Dmitri remained quiet, thoughts of finding the people who issued these outlandish bills and doing terrible things to them filled his head. He wanted to seriously be a bad guy again just to show these idiots a thing or two, all with his bare hands so that he could feel the warm blood on his skin.
Seeing his tension, the Queen intervened his thoughts, “do not get too worked up, I have already paid everything in full, though it did take quite a bit of this year’s budget.”
Dmitri took a deep breath, trying to calm his thoughts. “Thank you,” he said, looking her in the eyes, “but that’s not the point.”
“Dmitri,” the Queen suddenly said, more serious than before, “there’s more.”
Dmitri was ready for anything at this point, after finding out about his damage bill, he wouldn’t be surprised if they were…
“They’re bringing charges up concerning the lives that were lost during your time undercover,” she paused, then sighed, “you’re going to have to go to trial, Dmitri, and they are dead serious about this. Now I have held back the ESS agents so that you have a chance to go in peacefully, and that’s how I want you to handle this. I don’t want you running. We can fight this, Dmitri, without hostility.”
Dmitri thought for a moment about running, about taking the Queen hostage and running. He would NOT go to jail, especially for this. The conflicting thoughts ran through his head, I can’t take her hostage, all she’s done is help me. Gotta get away, gotta run, gotta fight, blood, fire, destruction. Damnit!
Before he can make a decision, the Queen’s com-screen came to life with the face of one of her intelligence officers.
“Your Majesty,” the officer slightly bowed, “there is something of utmost importance that needs your attention.”
The Queen looked at Dmitri, standing and telling the officer that she would be there in a moment. She stood there, eyes trained on Dmitri, his as well on her. She sighed and nodded to him.
“I trust you to make the right decision,” she said as she glided past him towards the door.
After the door was shut, Dmitri leaned forward and rested his elbows on the Queen’s desk, his interwoven hands keeping his head up. The cold metal of his artificial arm chilled his entire body, leading to soreness in his shoulder, a pain that seemed to never go away completely. A sigh of frustration passed through his nostrils. Then, he stood.
Culas handed Ramsi his drink, sipping at his own as he sat on the couch. The two were silent for a moment, quietly sipping at their drinks, Ramsi still wrapping his head around all the information Culas had provided. Culas opened his mouth to say something, what Ramsi didn’t know, but before any words came out, the com-screen on his desk came on:
“Vice-President Westin, are you there?” a familiar voice said from the com-screen. Culas placed his drink on the table in front of the couch and jumped up and towards the desk. He looked at the screen and saw the familiar face of Preisdent Ralcheister, a concerned look growing on his face.
“What can I do for you, Mr. President?” Culas said, tucking in his shirt to look more professional.
“I just got word from Kofista that there has been a significant amount of Sentries disappearing from their grids. They’ve been destroyed, but no one can seem to find out what has been causing such a thing to happen.”
Culas listened intently, taking short mental notes along the way.
Ralcheister continued, “They’ve already begun prepping a few ships to go and check it out, so I think we should have presence there as well, just in case they need our help. I’ll send the coordinates to Captain Silvenburg at the ship docked there, I expect you to be off Zero Heaven in the next twenty minutes.”
Culas nodded, already regretting the drinks he’d had. “I’m already gone, sir,” he said, grabbing his Pax Pacis jacket. The screen went blank and Culas looked at Ramsi while zipping up the jacket.
“You catch all that?” Culas asked, knowing he had. Ramsi had already put down his drink and was calling the hangar for them to prep his MS. Ramsi nodded grimly, professionally, to Culas, letting him know that he understood.
The two quickly headed out the door, heading in the direction of the docking area. As they walked they saw the party still going on in the ball room, which could be seen from most of the rest of the space station. Culas thought for a second about going down there and getting the other pilots to help out, or at least let them know what was going on.
Nah. Don’t wanna alarm them if it’s nothing. Let them have their fun.
He then glanced at Ramsi striding next to him, thinking for a second that he saw something familiar in his eyes. Culas shook the thought off and continued the walk to the hangar and docking bay, wondering what it was now causing a threat to Earth.
“I’m pregnant, Hal” Natalya said, her eyes filled with tears, “and…” She trailed off, offering the thought to not be said. She knew as well as he did what that meant.
Hal stood shocked, wanting to smile and cry at the same time. He knew that he could be the father, but it was just as likely that Razel was. Hal said nothing at first, standing there without words, only a cluster of confusing thoughts flying through his head. He began to feel angry, though he fought it as hard as he could. He wasn’t angry at Natalya, not really, just at the situation.
I could be a father…
Just then, before anything else could be said, the floor began to shake. Not just the floor, but the walls, too. The entire Zero Heaven was shaking, if only slightly. Hal knew even this much disturbance was unusual, and possibly dangerous. Hal looked deep into Natalya’s eyes and forced a smile, a weak, pathetic smile. He grabbed her by the hand and they both stumbled their way into the ballroom, where most everyone was drunkenly panicking. He found his way to Razel, who was already on the phone calling the Zero Heaven main office. Before he could get a hold of anyone, Redrico Alzabrrio made his way up the stairs to the stage, holding on the railing for support. He grabbed the microphone and said: “Everyone, please calm down. We cannot have a panic, that will only make things worse.” People began to quiet down, either from his words or to better hear what he had to say.
“Everything will be alright, you have my guarantee of your safety. It seems there is just a small disturbance out in space that is causing Zero Heaven to have some turbulence. We do not know what this disturbance is, but I’m sure everything will be OK.”
Razel and Hal looked at each other after he had said this, nodding to each other, knowing that something was up. Hal continued to look at Razel as he turned to watch Alzabrrio speak. He fought off the animosity towards him as much as he could, but deep down he wanted to punch Razel right in the face, completely uncharacteristic of him. He physically shook off the thought and looked at Natalya, who was still tearing a bit. Hal smiled again, a smile of love, one that said ‘we’ll work through this.’
Natalya even managed a small smile, feeling only a little bit better, but Hal’s love comforting her immensely. She didn’t know who the father was, but she knew who she wanted to be with, and for that matter knew Hal would always be there for her, whether the child was his or Razel’s.
Oh, god… I have to tell Razel, too…
Cell phones all over the ballroom began to go off, hundreds of different ringtones sounding at once. Even Alzabrrio’s went off, cutting his speech off. The noise level in the room raised as the affiliated pilots and officers got their information from the various people calling them, letting them know about what was going on with the destroyed Sentries.
“Hello?” Razel said into the receiver.
“Razel,” the Queen’s voice, “we have a possible situation, is Hal there?” Razel looked at Hal, answering, “yes, him and Natalya are right next to me, what’s going on?”
“No time to really explain, just get to the ship and contact me when you do. I’ll explain to all of you on the com-screen.” She hung up before Razel could say anything more. He put his phone back into his pocket and looked to both Hal and Natalya, a quizzical expression on his face, his reasons two-fold. He saw something in their eyes, especially Natalya’s, not to mention she was obviously crying.
Damn, she must have told him... no time for that now…
“Time to go to work,” he said, quickly and already sobering up.
“What’s going on?” Natalya questioned, figuring it had something to do with the turbulence on Zero Heaven.
“Have no idea,” Razel said, walking past them, “but the Queen needs us.”
Trent sat in his MS, Prophet of Sorrow, prepping it’s systems inside the cavernous hanger in the main headquarters of E.S.S. A vacuous yawn escaped his lungs as he double checks the various flight programs. He’s tired, dead tired, and he wishes he could just go to sleep, but knows he’s going to be needed out there. Especially after what Hiro had discovered.
“OK, I let Kofista know about my discovery,” Hiro said after popping up on Trent’s com-screen. Although nervous and anxious to get out into space, Hiro still had that childish anticipation and excitement strewn across his face. This was something for him, something new and undiscovered, and even though he was there when the fog was slowly making it’s way towards Earth, he didn’t get the chance he wanted to study the anomaly.
Trent ignored Hiro, either that or had no response, and continued his preparations. In the back of his mind he couldn’t let go of the feeling that something wasn’t right, that this was directly connected to the fog, maybe even more...
“You hear me?” Hiro said, eyeballing the camera, his eye taking up most of the com-screen view.
“Yeah, I heard ya,” Trent said calmly, almost distantly.
“Everything OK, partner?” Hiro said, his tone now of a mature and somewhat concerned friend.
“Is everything ever OK, Hiro?” Trent said, his tone solemn. He rubbed his temples, his eyes closed.
“What’s wrong?” Hiro said, now concerned with his friend and partner’s downhill mood.
“It never ends, Hiro,” Trent says with a sigh, “It’s been, what, a month or two since Vis was all but destroyed? Now this…”
“I know what you mean,” Hiro said, trying to comfort, but failing, “but that’s our job, our life, to try and protect those who can’t do it themselves.” Hiro thought he sounded pretty profound.
Trent sighed again. “I know, I guess I’m just tired.”
“Well, once this is over we’ll put in for some quality leave, and you can get some much deserved rest,” Hiro smiled and tried to levitate Trent’s mood. Trent smiled back.
“Yeah, that would be nice,” Trent said semi-cheerfully.
In the distance they could both hear a couple of the ESS ships beginning their ignition phases, two smaller scout ships that would be taking point. Behind them would be a cruiser in which Trent and Hiro would be boarding soon.
“Alright,” Trent said at the sound of the engines warming up, “we better catch our rides before we miss the whole thing. I’m sure that would disappoint you.” He let a slight smile grace his lips for Hiro’s sake. Hiro smiled back, all the while readying his MS, and wondering what it was that was waiting for them out in space.
Queen Zerium hung up the phone and looked up at the large vid-screen, trying to make sense of what she was, or actually wasn’t, seeing. The screen showed blank space, stars in the distance, but otherwise empty of anything of importance. She sighed and reached for the com-screen controls, connecting to her office’s com-screen.
“Dmitri, are you still there?” the Queen asked, hopeful he hadn’t run. After a moment of silence, she assumed the worse and ended the connection. She then tried the cell phone she had practically forced on him so he’d be a little more available. The call went strait to voicemail. A third call is made, this time to the hangar.
“Your Majesty, how may I be of service,” the man on the com-screen said, taking a slight bow.
“Has Dmitri been down there?” she asked, giving away nothing.
“Not that I’ve seen, ma’am. Though, we have been very busy down here getting ready for… well, whatever we’re getting ready for.” The man looked confused, still wondering what was going on out in space. Even though most people were already briefed on the situation, no one really knew what to expect.
“Alright,” she said, wondering if Dmitri had decided to get out a more stealthy route. But she knew that wasn’t his style, plus he would need his MS if she knew him well enough.
“Well, is his Mobile Suit still in the hangar?” she asked.
“Yes,” the man said with a little more confusion as well as curiosity, “is something going on?”
“No, no,” the Queen said with a quick smile, “everything is fine, just let me know if you see Dmitri, will you?”
“Of course, my Queen,” and with another bow he was gone, a blank screen replacing him.
Zerium leaned back on her chair, sighing quietly. She really didn’t want to alert the complex, but if Dmitri got out he might do something she would have to answer for and that would be bad. Then again, if she alerted the complex and castle, he’d have to be aggressive in his escape, and that would endanger the lives of the men and women working for her.
She begins to daze, starring into the nothingness of space on the vid-screen. A hand rests on her shoulder and she is startled back to where she was, sitting in the complex command room. She swiveled her chair around to see Dmitri, standing there with his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword. For a moment Zerium is tense, not knowing what Dmitri’s next move would be. Then, as if feeling her tension, he spoke:
“What’s going on,” he said, nodding towards the vid-screen.
The Queen slightly smiled, relieved and strangely proud, even though she should expect Dmitri to be trustworthy by now.
He’s come a long way, she thought as she began to explain the current situation to Dmitri.
Hal and Natalya, hand in hand, followed Razel up the ramp and into the Royal Army ship waiting for them in the Zero Heaven docking bay. Razel wasted no time with crew pleasantries, putting his hand up and giving a slight nod to the guards just inside the spacecraft. He quickly made his way to the bridge, where the captain was, waiting for them to arrive.
“Razel, Hal, Natalya,” the captain said, nodding to each as he said their names. He turned around and hit some keys, bringing the large com-screen in front of them all to life. Hal looked to his side at Natalya, sneaking a glance before she realized he was looking. A quick ping pulled at his heart, his gut. Just looking at her he could now see the glow people talk about pregnant women having, if only slightly. She turned suddenly and their eyes met, locking into each other. For a moment they stood there staring at each other, Natalya feeling horrible after telling him what had happened, and showing it in her face. Guilt, as well as fear. Fear of loss, because she truly did love Hal, and wanted nothing but to be with him for the rest of his life. Hal sees this hidden on her face, and smiles to make her feel better. As mad as he was, and the fact that he knew what he knew, he still loved her and wanted to stay with her. Hell, they might be a family soon enough.
“Hello, all” a familiar voice said through the com-screen. The Queen’s likeness appeared on the screen. She was beautiful as always, Hal thought to himself as he turned from Natalya’s gaze.
She began to explain about the missing Sentries and whatever they were waiting to get to Earth, even the new information Kofista had gathered from Hiro’s discoveries.
“So we’re assuming this new threat is somehow connected to that fog?” Razel asked soberly, standing with his arms crossed on his chest.
“We shouldn’t assume anything until we have more information, Razel,” the Queen said, her attention only half on Razel, the other half now looking off-screen, “we can’t even visually or otherwise detect whatever has been destroying the Sentries. Until we even know what we’re dealing with it’s strictly observation, we don’t need everyone firing at something we can’t see. And besides…” She leans off screen and says something to someone, “…we don’t even know if there IS something out there. These Sentries could have been a distraction caused by Vis Vires to throw us off long enough for them to attack.”
“True, we haven’t heard from them since Dmitri blew up most of their ships, and I’m sure they’re not too pleased about that.” Razel’s words brought Dmitri out from the sidelines, his face sliding into view from the Queen’s side. Razel noted that he looked pissed, or at least more so than usual. The last time he’d seen his friend/rival had been in the hospital after Ramsi had sent him there.
“Probably not,” Dmitri said solemnly, with no loss of confidence, “you know about the recent communication cut off with Colony X-10? Well, in the search of this phantom satellite killer one of the scouts found that X-10 had all but disappeared. Found a large ion trail as well, one larger than any the scout had ever seen. I’ll bet that was Auray, sounds like his style. He’s licking his wounds and rebuilding his army… somewhere… else… with a colony at his disposal.”
“Hm,” Razel sounded, his chin resting in his palm.
“What about the energy signature?” Hal chimed in directing his question to the Queen, “can I get the data sent here? I’d like to look them over.” He was now closer to the screen standing ahead and to the right of Razel. Natalya stood behind Razel and Hal, looking at the two without them looking at her. Her expression would give so much away, as it does, the Queen noticing before answering Hal.
“I can get them to send you everything you need, Hal. Should I send it strait to your notebook, or your MS?”
“Notebook, please,” Hal said already sitting and setting up his mobile computer, his attention focused on the new task at hand. He was relieved to have something else to think about.
“So what is our next move?” Razel asked, shrugging a bit.
“All I want you to do is to go with Captain Zetsu and be there if you’re needed. I want no action taken unless completely necessary. Dmitri will be staying here to keep the castle safe. Hal, Natalya, try to get as much information you can about what we’re dealing with.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Razel said, then under his breath: “a real boring one, at that.” His buzz was already gone and all he had left was the lethargy of sobering exhaustion. This was quite the day already, and he figured it would keep going for too long.
The Queen disappeared from the com-screen and Captain Zetsu stepped in front of the three.
“Sirs, you’re Mobile Suits have been transferred into our docking bay, are you ready to leave otherwise?” Zetsu said rather stiffly.
“Hit the gas, man, we’re always ready,” Razel said with confidence.
“Wait,” Hal said, looking up from his laptop, “can you give Natalya and I a moment before we lift off?” Hal looked at Natalya, his eyes saying everything.
Razel’s shoulders slumped, then with a smile, “fine. Hurry up though, lovebirds, we gotta get going.”
Hal took Natalya’s hand and headed towards the exit of the bridge. As they walked out, Razel watched as they began to whisper to each other, noting again that something was going on between them.
Trent and Hiro had finished prepping their MS’s and getting them onto the ship, after which they made way to the bridge of the ship. The walk was silent, save the usual noise of a space vessel preparing for lift off. Almost to the entrance to the bridge, the klaxon blared a warning, informing those onboard that the ship was about to take off. Trent and Hiro picked up their steps, heading into the bridge. Once inside, the noise level tripled with the amount of people aboard the bridge, everyone hurrying about doing their individual jobs. Trent and Hiro walked up to the captain of the ship, both saluting to the man they have never met.
“At ease,” the captain said, saluting them back, “Corporal Valencia and PFC Glyph, I presume?”
“Sir,” Trent said, nodding to the man.
“I am Captain Reykar, commander of the ESS Elexitor,” he said with complete professionalism and a bit of stiffness, then turned around and continued giving orders to him men.
Captain Thelonious Reykar carried himself with pride, a certain confidence in himself and his abilities that Trent immediately took a shine to. He watched as the higher ranking officer spat off directions in rapid succession, the fact that everyone could keep up with him was amazing. Trent already respected the man, maybe even looked up to him, even though he couldn’t be much older than himself, this man was running an entire spaceship.
Can I really do what he’s doing? Trent thought as he watched Reykar at work. He decided once again today to push the thoughts of Culas’s offer to the back of the list. Right now, it was time to work.
Strapping into a couple empty seats on the bridge, Trent and Hiro feel the ship lurch forward, then shake a bit as it began ascending into the sky. On the bridge vid-screen, a massive screen covering an entire wall, they could all see the two lead scout ships not too far ahead of the ESS Elexitor but almost out of the atmosphere. The combination of the thrust of the ship and the seemingly weightlessness of the two scout ships ahead of them on the screen gave Trent a sense of peacefulness he hadn’t felt in a while. For a moment he closed his eyes, just breathing, nothing else. Hiro nudged him, breaking him from the slight meditation.
“Hm?” Trent grumbled without opening his eyes.
“I was just thinking,” Hiro said, leaning back and watching the space getting closer, “if there is something out there destroying the Sentries, it must have a killer stealth system since it can’t be detected by sensors or the naked eye.”
“Yeah,” Trent said absently at the obvious comment, then drifted off just slightly, exhausted.
In a rather large bridge on an unknown ship, a large-muscled pale-skinned crew goes about their work. The captain, a burly, oversized man of great stature and wearing a gray uniform stands in front of everyone, starring out at a mostly blue planet. His head turns as if to talk to another large man sitting to his side, but instead just stares at him, lips unmoving. The man nods, as if he knew what the man was saying and began pressing buttons on the console in front of him. The captain continues to stare out towards the planet.
So this is where the Collector was stopped. Interesting. I wonder what kind of planet we have stumbled upon here.
“Should we send out another Collecter, Sire?” the captain heard someone say from behind him. Instead of saying anything he just stood, watching, and his answer was given without so much as a word. His men knew him well enough they knew he’d want to do this.
No, we’ll bring the Arc down close and make planetfall, the captain thought.
“Quarantine System activated, Sire,” the captain heard, still starring.
Good, next we test them…
Trent shot up, woken by the loud blaring of the klaxon and the screams of the people on the bridge. His first sight was that of Hiro, whose mouth was wide open, aghast. Trent followed Hiro’s line of sight to the vid-screen, where he saw three things. The first and most obvious, the two scout ships in lead had exploded, and the wreckage was now being pulled toward them by the gravity of Earth.
Captain Reykar practically screamed his orders to pull back and avoid as much of the flaming debris as they could. Everyone was shocked and a bit panicked.
The second thing Trent saw was subtle compared to the third. The sky had a tint of orange-red in it. He could still see the brilliant blue he was used to, but it looked as if someone had covered the world in orange-red cling wrap.
The third could not be explained, nor could Trent even wrap his head around what he was now seeing. His expression resembled Hiro’s, and pretty much everyone else’s aboard the bridge at that moment. Trent blinked, hoping this sight would just be wiped away with his sleepiness, but when his eyes settled on the image his fears were realized, and life itself could never be the same.
Ramsi sat in his MS quietly aboard the Pax Pacis ship, waiting patiently for the lift off warning. He thought about all Culas and himself had talked about over drinks in his room, especially the fact that Kal, his father, had been the test pilot for the Zero System.
When was that? And…
Breaking his concentration, the com-screen in his cock-pit came to life with Culas’s face, his expression pale, all the blood drawn from his face.
“What is it?” Ramsi questioned when Culas failed to say anything.
Culas just shook his head for a moment, clearly in shock. He finally cleared his throat and physically shook his head of thought. “You have to see for yourself.”
The visual appeared on the vid-screen next to the com-screen and Ramsi’s eyes went wide. He couldn’t believe this was possible.
“You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me…”
“This has now become a full force operation, get prepped ASAP, this isn’t going to be pretty,” Culas said, then shut down the communication to do preparations of his own to Gundam Valen.
After seeing the visual on his command vid-screen, High Admiral Kofista was panicked but still in control. He barked orders at the officers in the room and into the communicator in his ear, frantic with hidden fear and compensation.
“…I don’t care what he says, NO SPACECRAFT LEAVES THE ATMOSPHERE!”
He couldn’t let this get to him and especially let it show in front of his men. All they had was control, and he needed to keep the control, for his men and their fear.
“NO commercial or military ships. NONE AT ALL UNTIL WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DEALING WITH!”
Be strong for them, he thought as he looked over at the vid-screen again and got a chill. A man like Kofista never gets a chill.
The Queen had to force back the tears of fear and anxiety as she gazed at the scene projected on the screen in front of her and Dmitri. No words could escape her lips, and even Dmitri’s usually somber expression was that of awe and trepidation, his jaw slack. After a moment of the visual, Dmitri took a deep breath and turned to leave. The Queen regained her composure and began giving orders to the men and women in the strategy room.
“Cancel all flights out, we don’t know what’s out there. And get me Captain Zetsu, we need to inform him as well.”
“Your Majesty,” Habbert Albaston said, standing at her side, his expression grim, “all communication off-world has been jammed. We can’t contact anyone outside of Earth.”
Dmitri made his way to the hangar, then out the large doors to the outside. His head tilted upward to the heavens, having to see it with his own eyes, not on a vid-screen. Even after seeing it in the sky, in the open, he still doubted it. Quickly his eyes tightened, his brow wrinkling. He was always ready, but for what? Suddenly, jail time was the least of Dmitri’s worries.
As Razel flirted with the group of ditsy debutants, Hal and Natalya held hands across the room, conversing with a well-known scientist of Zephyr Research. Natalya mostly remained quiet, something still on her mind. As Hal excitedly expressed his interest in the scientist’s work, Natalya looked at her beau with hesitant eyes. She needed to tell him, soon. It was bad enough that she had slept with Razel, but this, this was something she couldn’t hold from Hal for long. She subconsciously squeezed Hal’s hand, drawing his attention away from his discussion. Hal’s head turned in her direction as the scientist walked off to mingle his way to the bar.
“You look bored,” Hal said with a smile. Natalya feigned a smile, keeping up appearance for the time being. She didn’t want to ruin his time at this extravagant party. Instead, she hugged him and gave him a kiss on his cheek, whispering in his ear, “I’m going to go use the ladies room.” With that, she walked off. Hal watched her until she disappeared into the crowd. Just then Hal gets jolted from a sudden force on his back. Looking back, Hal sees Razel smiling. “How’s things with the little lady?”
Hal smiles back, taking a sip of the wine he had been nursing. “Good, I really enjoy the time we spend together. And here on Zero Heaven, it all seems more… I don’t know… grandiose. I’m having feelings for her I didn’t know were there before.” Razel looks up at the intricate carvings on the ceiling, accented by the pure crystal chandeliers.
No wonder, this place could make a homeless person feel more important, Razel thought, taking a gulp of his drink.
Ramsi leaned against the wall in the far corner of the ballroom. He watched as people danced, drank, and talked to each other. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves, but Ramsi, he had an uneasy feeling tugging at the back of his mind. Something felt off.
There’s too much joy, he thought. Not that Ramsi was depressed, he just couldn’t accept that everything was alright. Something just felt off since his fight with Dmitri, when the Zero System showed him what he saw. Was it just a reflection of his mind’s eye? His subconscious telling him something he couldn’t understand? Or something more…
“We just lost Deep Space Sentry 2142,” the E.S.S. technician informed his superior. The tech officer sat behind the technician, half asleep, leaning back on his chair. He grunted.
“Did you hear me, sir?” the tech said in a sighing voice.
“Yeah, yeah,” the officer said, waving his hand, “we lose at least one a day, usually, nothing to worry about.” He yawned, pulling his hat over his eyes and adjusting himself.
“Well that was the second one within the hour, sir.”
The officer took a deep breath of frustration and stood up, moving his hat away from his eyes so he could look at the screen from over the tech’s shoulder. Reading the data, the officer didn’t see anything to be alarmed about.
“The other was D.S.S. 2134,” he said, plopping himself back on his chair, “they’re in the same sector, prolly just an electrical storm or some space trash. Whatever it was, it took them both out. Loosen up.”
The officer yawned and pulled his hat over his eyes again, preparing himself for a nap. The tech, a little more concerned about the loss of the satellites, grunted and went back to watching the screen.
Trent stared at the vid-screen on his desk, filling out his report for the assignment he and Hiro had just finished. He yawned expressively and palmed the coffee mug close by with his still-human hand, pulling it up to his lips and took a sip. He reviewed his report on the recon mission and sighed.
Another threat, he thought, we get rid of one and another pops right up. It’s never-ending.
Just then Hiro walks into the office, carrying a cardboard box in one arm. Trent stays still, not taking his eyes off of the screen in front of him. Hiro sets the box down at his desk, rummaging through it as if looking for something. A sound of metal banging around comes from the box, ruining Trent’s concentration. Trent sighs, taking a sip from his mug once again. He turns to Hiro and shots him a questioning expression. Hiro shrugs with a slight smile. “Just going through some old stuff I had packed away,” Hiro says, still rummaging.
Trent stands from his chair, stretching away the drowsy feeling from his eyes to his toes. A part of him wanted to just go to sleep, he could finish the report in the morning. But he didn’t want to leave work undone, so he decided to head to the cafeteria for some more coffee.
“You want anything while I’m down at the cafeteria, kid?”
Hiro, still looking through the box, turned around and with energy behind his voice said, “nah, I think I’m good. If I need anything I’ll run down later.”
Trent tilted his head and turned to leave, thinking about how much energy Hiro had at this time of the night. Then, looking at the clock on the wall, saw what time it was: 11:56.
It’s not even midnight yet? Man, I must be getting old…
Natalya stood at the exit to the ladies room after walking out, seeing from across the large ballroom Razel talking to Hal. She hesitated walking toward them, uneasy and nervous to be around them both at the same time.
Get it together, Natayla, she thought to herself, it’s gotta come out eventually…
She took a deep breath and began her walk towards the two, confident that soon everything would change. As she strode through the crowd of people, her arm was suddenly grabbed, causing her to stop. She turned to see a drunk man smiling and trying to keep his balance.
“Wasss ur name purty ladi?” the man slurred. Natalya pulled her arm from the man’s grasp and started to walk away, ignoring him. The man would have none of that, grabbing Natalya again, this time by the waist, pulling her close to him. She struggled to get loose, smelling the alcohol wafting from his mouth. “I askd u a queshtion, don be rude now,” the man said with a bit of annoyance.
Before she could yell for help, Hal was at her side pulling her away from the intoxicated man. The man’s grip loosened but he didn’t let go, trying to pull her closer again. “Hey, we havin’ a conver-conver… we’re talkin’ here,” the man said aggressively, spilling his drink on the floor as he pulled at Natalya’s waist.
“Excuse me, but I don’t think she wants to talk to you, let alone have your arm around her waist,” Hal said politely but with fire in his eyes. He then swats the man’s arm, releasing Natalya into his own arms. He quickly swings her around behind him, to put himself between the man and her.
The man, looking quite furious now, throws his glass to the floor. The glass shatters and what ever he was drinking splashes everywhere, getting everyone’s attention in the immediate area.
“Who the hell are you?” the man said, shoving Hal with his open palms. Hal took the jolt and tried his best not to hit Natalya behind him. Before Hal could say anything, Razel taps on the man’s shoulder, averting his attention. The man instantly recognizes Razel and shrinks back a bit.
“He’s my friend,” Razel said in complete seriousness, “and you should know that he’s saved the world just as many times as I have.” The man then looked embarrassed by his actions. “And furthermore, I think you’ve had a little too much to drink,” Razel said, waving his hand by his nose with a smile.
“I’m sorry about that, it’s been a tough week for me and…” the man said before getting interrupted by Hal, “don’t apologize to him, apologize to her.” Hal stepped to the side and the man said his sorry to Natalya with his head hung low. She just nodded, still holding on to Hal’s arm.
It’s then when Razel realized everyone was staring at the drama unfolding. Razel raised his hands and clapped a few times, saying, “isn’t this supposed to be a party? C’mon people, have some fun! And can someone get me a drink?”
Ramsi had had enough of the jovial mood emanating from everyone in the ball room. He decided to head to Culas’ room on Zero Heaven, maybe a talk with him would help to soothe his worries. He pushed off the wall he was leaning on with his left leg and began his stride to the outer doors of the ball room. He passed many businessmen letting loose, fan-boys and girls, and random civilians getting a slice of the rich life for one night. Before opening the doors out of the ballroom, Ramsi took one look back, seeing Razel and Hal.
Don’t party too hard, there’s never too long a break.
Dmitri sat across from the Queen, flexing his metal hand in front of his face. He watched as the artificial tendons stretched to move the fingers of his prosthetic. The Queen watched Dmitri as she talked into the receiver of her private phone, to who was what Dmitri wondered. After a few minutes Zerium hung up and gave Dmitri her full attention. “So, Dmitri, how is your new arm working out for you?”
Dmitri shrugged, “took a while to get used to.” The Queen tapped on the keyboard, seemingly interested in something on her screen. Dmitri adjusted his eyes in the direction but was unable to see the screen.
“You should be grateful Alzabrrio paid for it, those new prosthetics can run more than even I could afford,” the Queen said, her attention back on Dmitri. For a moment he thought, Ramsi should have chipped in for it as well, nutcase…
He sat there for a moment still eyeing the fake hand, moving it different ways and watching the result. This was just part of ‘his way’ of training himself. Sure, the doctors that operated on him gave him books full of procedures to help orient himself, but Dmitri had done alright so far. As long as you don’t count the farm-full of eggs he had wasted in the past couple of days.
“OK, why I asked you here,” Zerium started, standing and pushing her chair away, “I wanted to show you something before someone else did.” She then turned the vid-screen to angle towards Dmitri so he could see. Dmitri’s eyes went wide and he stood up fast still looking at the screen in disbelief, “if this is a joke, Queen Zerium, I’m not laughing.”
Back on Zero Heaven, Hal and Natalya found a somewhat quiet corner to be somewhat alone. Hal hugged Natalya close, then pulled back and looked into her eyes.
“Are you OK? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Natalya weakly smiled and pursed her lips, shaking her head slightly back and forth. “No, just scared me a bit,” she said, looking at Hal but still with distant eyes. Hal, being used to deciphering code and not humans, didn’t really notice. He turned his neck to see Razel already surrounded, by another group of women, this time amassing even more attention then before. Hal sighed, “good thing Razel was around. I’m not much of a fighter and I don’t think I could have talked him down as well either.” As he said this he looked back at Natalya, almost ashamed of the fact he couldn’t protect Natalya himself.
Natalya noticed this in Hal’s voice, feeling even worse now at the comparison between him and Razel. She had to tell him and tell him now. “Hal…”
Ramsi knocked on the door to Culas’ Zero Heaven room, one reserved for the most important of guests. He heard a faint “come in” from behind the door and turned the knob. He walked in to see Culas lying on a couch in the front room, wearing jeans and an old T-shirt. He looked quite comfortable. This, in turn, made Ramsi more uncomfortable to the current situation. Across the room a vid-screen blared with the sounds of an MS battle. Culas muted the volume and sat up from the couch, stretching and yawning a bit.
“What’s up, Ramsi? Shouldn’t you be letting loose at the party?” Culas said with a smile as he reached for his drink on the table in front of the couch. Ramsi was silent for a moment taking in the lavishness of the room. As he looked around he glanced at the vid-screen playing a recording of the Tournament silently. “I could ask you the same thing,” Ramsi said flatly.
Culas sighed, knowing his reputation within Pax Pacis as a partier. “I’m not much in the mood for parties lately, actually. Being Vice-Prez of Pax has me running almost twenty-four seven. I’m actually getting my sleep right now.” He let out a little laugh and leaned back on the couch, “I’m actually glad you came by, kinda had something I wanted to talk to you about.”
Ramsi sat on the nearest chair, wondering what Culas would want to talk to him about. Then it came to him. “Is this about my fight with Dmitri?”
Culas nodded silently with a somewhat solemn expression, then turned the volume up on the vid-screen. Right as Ramsi turned to watch, an image of his MS blasting Dmitri’s MS in the back played in slow-motion. Ramsi signed and raised his hand to cover his face in shame, knowing Culas had a few words for him about the whole situation. "Sir..." he started before being interrupted.
"Ramsi, I'm not going to scold you," Culas said with a comforting smile before regaining his seriousness, "I just want to make sure you're OK. The first match..." He paused, thinking of his next words, "That first match... you used the Zero System for the first time, didn't you?"
Ramsi stayed silent, but did nod.
"I thought so," Culas said, standing from the couch and walking over to his desk. For a moment he was silent, typing something up on the computer. "Come look at this."
Ramsi stood from the chair he'd been sitting on and walked over to Culas, wondering what he was about to see. As he stood across from Culas at his desk, Culas turned the screen to face Ramsi. What Ramsi saw could simply be called devastation and chaos. On the screen a battle ensued in space, thousands of MS's flying around battling one another. He recognized some of the ships as ESS, as well as some of the MS's as well. As he watched, a somewhat familiar MS came onto the screen. The MS tore through everything in its path without any mercy. The MS had no markings of any affiliation, none that Ramsi could see anyways. The speed and agility of the MS was staggering, and at points it was hard for his eyes to keep up with the blur on the screen. Finally he was curious enough to ask, "what is this?"
Culas paused the clip at a perfect shot of the MS and Ramsi felt a tug at the back of his mind. It was on the tip of his tongue where he'd seen the MS before, but he still couldn't quite pinpoint it.
"This," Culas started, "was the test run of the first Zero System. And the pilot... your father, Kal Talex."
Trent sat in the cafeteria of the ESS Main Headquarters, sipping at a coffee and staring at nothing in particular. A group of ESS Privates walked in, catching his attention. They immediately made the cafeteria louder with their hoots and hollers, goofing around slapping each other hard but playfully. Trent watched as they walked the line, placing some midnight snacks on their trays. He smiled a bit, remembering when he was just starting out in ESS.
So long ago…
Trent took a sip of his coffee as he reminisced about his younger years. For the first time since before the assignment Trent thought about the offer from Culas to join Pax Pacis. It would be a good career choice, especially since Culas had offered him so much, in terms of money and the rank he would start at. But on the other hand, ESS had been his place for a long while, barring the time he took away from it to do bounty hunter work. And Hiro? What would he do?
He’s a smart kid, he’d handle himself fine without me…
Trent sighed out loud and took another sip of his coffee, once again weighing his options in his mind. His eyes were growing heavy and if he didn’t move he’d succumb to drowsiness. He stood, palming his coffee and turned to leave.
Once this report is finished, I’m hittin’ the hay…
“Sir, this can’t be good,” the ESS technician said, staring at the screen with various data streaming. The tech’s supervisor didn’t bother looking this time, “what is it?”
“Another two DSS’s just went offline, but that’s not what bothers me,” the tech said, a slight shiver in his voice, “it seems whatever is destroying these DSS’s is heading in our direction. At what I calculate as its speed, I figure it’ll be here in no time at all.”
The supervisor sighed, over-zealous rookies.
“Listen,” the supervisor said, dripping with condescension, “you’re new to this. These things happen all the time. There’s nothing threatening about this situation, it’s in your head. DSS’s get destroyed all the time. When In-Space Sentries start disappearing, THEN you can worry.” The supervisor smiled and nodded at the tech, knowing damn well he was right.
You’ve been at it as long as I have, you learn to ignore certain things.
“Um, Sir,” the tech mumbled almost silently.
“What?” the supervisor said, somewhat annoyed.
“We just lost ISS 6932.”
“What?” Ramsi said with apparent shock. His father was the test pilot for the Zero System, this he did not know before today. He turned away from the screen showing his father’s former MS rampaging through a horde of other MS’s with little difficulty and abundant lack of mercy. Before Ramsi could ask any questions, Culas asked them for him.
“What did you see when you activated the Zero System, Ramsi?” His face showed some concern, as if he knew what happened when someone was connected to the Zero System. Ramsi turned to face Culas, his face white with fear.
Was what I saw…?
“It’s OK, Ramsi,” Culas tried to preemptively comfort Ramsi, “I know what it’s like. I too have used the Zero System. The…” Culas paused, searching for the right word, “…visions, they aren’t like anything you’ve ever experienced, were they. Hard to explain, I understand.” He seemed to fade off, thinking about what he himself had seen.
Ramsi took another moment before speaking to go over what he did know. “It’s all pretty personal,” he said, eyeing Culas for reaction.
Culas hesitated, obviously remembering something personal himself, “I know Ramsi, it always is. But sometimes…” Culas hesitated, then decided to continue, “sometimes personal things can effect everyone. And with the Zero System, sometimes it shows you a glimpse of what’s to come.”
Ramsi’s eyes squinted, taking this all in was taking its toll on his brain.
Zero System. Kal, father. Visions. Predicting the future. What the hell? Ramsi couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was all too much, though it did make sense in the case of what he saw and how he lost all control while fighting Black in the tournament. The things he had seen…
“You lost consciousness the first time you used it against that ESS Private, didn’t you? That’s when you saw the visions?” Culas seemed exceptionally interested what Ramsi’s experience was.
“Yes,” Ramsi said quietly, almost ashamed, “I didn’t know what happened until I saw the play-back of the match. I could have killed him…” Again, Ramsi turns his head away from Culas, fighting the demons in his head. Control, he was taught, was the only thing we have as humans. Everything else was perception.
“It’s OK, Ramsi,” Culas said, standing and walking around his desk to Ramsi where he placed a hand on his shoulder, “what I’m worried about is that second fight with Dmitri. Did you see something then too?”
Ramsi truly felt ashamed now, knowing damn well that the fight with Dmitri was purely emotional, especially the end. “No,” he answered, “that was the result of Dmitri’s taunts and my own lack of control. I apologize for making Pax look bad in any way.” Then he said said under his breath, “but he did kind of have it coming.”
Culas ignored the last part, smiling, “Make us look bad? Hell, you made us look great! You almost won the whole thing, plus you beat Dmitri, who, and I hope you don’t mind me saying, is one of the best pilots out there!”
Almost… Ramsi shrugged his praise aside, as well as the compliment to Dmitri.
“Though,” Culas started, his smile wiping from his face, “I think you should see the Pax psychologist. The Zero System can be extremely disorienting, even if it’s been a while since you’ve used it. It stays with you, Ramsi.” Culas walked away from Ramsi, heading for the bar at the other side of the room. Mixing a drink, he signals Ramsi as if to ask ‘you want one?’
Ramsi nodded, adding, “make it a double”
Hal stared at Natalya, seeing the expression on her face; he knew she was serious about something.
“What is it Natalya?” he asked, comforting as he held her hands. Hal was nervous, had known for quite a while that she had something important on her mind. He just wondered what it was. Her head hanging, looking at their hands together, she started to cry. Not loudly, but the tears certainly and abundantly fell from her cheeks. Hal couldn’t speak, no words of comfort came to his lips. Instead he just pulled her close and whispered “it’s OK” into her ear.
“No, it’s not, Hal,” she said through the escalating sobs, “and after I tell you, I don’t know if you will think that either.”
All that kept running through his head was: she’s ending it.
“C’mon, let’s get some privacy and we’ll talk,” Hal said, pulling Natalya to the exit of the ballroom. They walked out and it became instantly silent compared to inside the ballroom. In the hallway outside, they sat down on one of the benches lining the walls. Natalya sat there, now sobbing out loud, Hal wrapping his arm around her. “Take your time,” he said.
“I’ve already took too much time, Hal,” she said, again sobbing. Tears soaked her hands and Hal pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket, handing it to her. She wiped her face of the salty moisture, looking at Hal as she tried to keep herself from bawling completely. For a moment she calmed down, just staring at Hal.
“I love you, Hal. I really do,” she said, so heartfelt that it hit Hal like a ton of bricks. He just smiled, nodding, relieved that this wasn’t going to be a break-up. “I know. And I love you too, Natalya. You should know that.”
“I do,” she said, welling up again, “but there’s something in the past I never told you.” Hal’s eyes went wide. His analytical mind began to run a mile a minute. The possibilities were endless, what could have possibly happened that she would wait this long to tell me and feel this bad over? Hal began to feel scared again.
“After I met you,” she sniffled, letting out a soft sob, “and before we started seeing each other. That night me and Razel got drunk off the… Vodka…” This is where she looses it completely, crying rivers into her hands now cupped to her face. Hal remained speechless, knowing exactly why she was so upset. He had had his suspicions about that night, but after they started to talk to each other he brushed off the thought. At that moment he didn’t know how to feel. He wasn’t angry at either of them, he really couldn’t be, even if his personality allowed him to be. Confused wasn’t the word either. His feelings were somewhat hurt, but he couldn’t tell her that, but even though it was before they started talking, Hal couldn’t help but feel… cheated. Not cheated on, mind you, but cheated because she had ‘chose’ Razel before him. His heart aflutter and a lump in his throat, Hal pulled her close before she could say more.
“It’s alright, I understand,” he said in the most comforting voice possible, “It was before US, and I don’t hold it against you. I love you, Natalya, and this isn’t going to change anything.”
Natalya looked up with red eyes and tears still falling from her eyes. Hal looked right into her eyes and smiled a warm smile. Natalya burst into tears again.
She tried to regain her composure, failed, and through her sobs she choked out, “yes, things will… change… there’s more…”
Razel saw Hal and Natalya leave the ballroom, her eyes teary and Hal with his arm around her. He knew what it was about, and he hoped Hal would take it OK. Razel considered Hal more than just a coworker, he was a friend, and he hoped that it would remain that way even after she had told him.
It was only one night, he thought to himself as he sipped at his drink and ignored whatever it was the girl he was talking to was saying. Pushing the thought aside, Razel excused himself from the girl and headed towards the bar where he was planning on getting another drink.
“Do we have visual confirmation?” Admiral Kofista asked the ESS technical supervisor as he read the data on his vid-screen.
“None, sir,” the supervisor said flatly, “I sent out a scout and he said there wasn’t anything to see. He couldn’t even find the remains of the Sentries.” The supervisor’s voice had a touch of fear in it, as Kofista noted, which was unusual for him. Usually the supervisor was very calm and collected, even bored, with his job. He’d been doing it for so long, he thought he’d seen everything.
“What about these energy readings? These aren’t normal,” Kofista said, still reviewing the data.
“Yes, and that is what scares me, sir,” the supervisor stated.
“Alright, no need to panic just yet, officer. Keep an eye on the Sentries and let me know if any more are destroyed. In the meantime, I want you to cross analyze these energy readings with everything we have on file. Come to me directly if you find out anything. Dissmissed”
“Aye, sir,” the supervisor said, saluting and turning to leave.
Kofista sat silently after the supervisor left, pondering what was destroying the Sentries, and if it was something to prepare for. He’d been in the game long enough to know that a false alarm could be as bad as something threatening.
But false alarms don’t leave to loss of life, he thought, reaching for the com-screen.
Trent sat at his desk, finishing up the report he had been working on, periodically sipping at his coffee. Hiro sat across from him at his own desk fiddling with something mechanical, Trent too tired to ask what. Just then the silence in the room was cut as the com-screen on Trent’s desk began to ring. Seeing it was Admiral Kofista, Trent pressed the open button and Kofista’s face appeared on the screen.
“Trent, Hiro,” Kofista started as Hiro walked around to face the com-screen, “we might have a situation brewing. Seems we’re losing Sentries out there. Mysteriously.”
Trent started taking mental notes.
Hiro listened.
“It started with a handful of Deep Space Sentries failing to send in data. They were destroyed. Soon after In-Space Sentries began to follow suit.” Kofista paused a moment to look at the data on his vid-screen.
“What about the path? Where is it leading to?” Trent asked, fearing and already knowing the answer.
Kofista sighed, “Whatever it is, if it IS something, the destruction of the Sentries is indeed heading this way.”
Hiro jumped back into his seat, already digging up the data on the Sentries to analyze. Trent squeezed the bridge of his nose, frustrated with his lack of sleep and starting to get a headache.
“I want you guys to be ready for anything. I’m getting some ships out there and I want you to be on them. Be on deck in twenty minutes, whatever is doing this will be here in less than an hour. I want those ships launched ASAP.”
“Aye, sir,” Trent said, tiredly. He closed the com-screen and Kofista disappeared to black, leaving only his words behind. Across from him, Hiro typed furiously on his computer, his eyes glued to the screen, almost literally. He inched closer and closer until his eyes were practically against the screen.
“Hey, we gotta get going,” Trent said, putting on his ESS jacket, slowly.
“Hold on, I think I’m on to something,” Hiro said, his eyes never moving from the screen. After a few more moments he jumps from his seat to the printer where the sheet he was printing was just finishing. He grabbed the sheet and threw his jacket on one arm, walking out the door with Trent. As they walked down the hallway, Hiro handed Trent the paper. On it was various statistical data, elemental tests, and energy readouts. Trent couldn’t decipher one word on the paper.
“Pretend I’m not dumb to this stuff,” Trent said, handing back the paper to Hiro.
Hiro took it back and looked at it again, excited.
“Remember that space fog? Well the readings we got from that said that it contained all pretty basic elements. Except for one type of energy that couldn’t be determined.” He started talking faster and faster as he explained, more and more excited.
“That energy, as far as we could decipher, would have to have been super dense inside that fog, meaning that the little we could measure, about 7.43% of what the fog was made of, would have to be more powerful than even most atomic generators on Earth. Well…”
“Finally, a point,” Trent said, swiping his keycard to get into the docking bay.
“The point is,” Hiro said, without a second glace, “whatever is destroying those Sentries has the same energy signature, except there’s a good hundred-thousand times as much of it.”
As Dmitri stared at the vid-screen with disbelief, Queen Zerium poured a cup of coffee for herself in the corner of the room where her little dinette was. Dmitri almost seemed shocked, even as unusual that was for him. The Queen couldn’t help but feel responsible for what was now occurring, and wish she could say or do something more than she already had.
“It’s no joke, Dmitri,” she said as she sat at her chair behind her desk, “though I wish it were.”
Dmitri remained quiet still, reading over the information for the fourth time since she’d turned the screen to his view just moments ago. Were these people serious? Who would do this?
Dmitri finally turned the screen back in disgust, starting to go from shocked to infuriated. He slammed his fist down on the table, looking up at Zerium and regretting it. He had respect for her, respect he only held for people who deserved it.
“Sorry…” he said, holding back the anger trying to affect his voice.
“Quite alright, Dmitri, I completely understand. The nerve of those bureaucrats. How can they expect you to be held responsible for all the damages caused while undercover in Vis Vires?” She looked at the vid-screen, noting the staggering amount of money they were charging Dmitri, “and these figures don’t exactly add up.”
Dmitri remained quiet, thoughts of finding the people who issued these outlandish bills and doing terrible things to them filled his head. He wanted to seriously be a bad guy again just to show these idiots a thing or two, all with his bare hands so that he could feel the warm blood on his skin.
Seeing his tension, the Queen intervened his thoughts, “do not get too worked up, I have already paid everything in full, though it did take quite a bit of this year’s budget.”
Dmitri took a deep breath, trying to calm his thoughts. “Thank you,” he said, looking her in the eyes, “but that’s not the point.”
“Dmitri,” the Queen suddenly said, more serious than before, “there’s more.”
Dmitri was ready for anything at this point, after finding out about his damage bill, he wouldn’t be surprised if they were…
“They’re bringing charges up concerning the lives that were lost during your time undercover,” she paused, then sighed, “you’re going to have to go to trial, Dmitri, and they are dead serious about this. Now I have held back the ESS agents so that you have a chance to go in peacefully, and that’s how I want you to handle this. I don’t want you running. We can fight this, Dmitri, without hostility.”
Dmitri thought for a moment about running, about taking the Queen hostage and running. He would NOT go to jail, especially for this. The conflicting thoughts ran through his head, I can’t take her hostage, all she’s done is help me. Gotta get away, gotta run, gotta fight, blood, fire, destruction. Damnit!
Before he can make a decision, the Queen’s com-screen came to life with the face of one of her intelligence officers.
“Your Majesty,” the officer slightly bowed, “there is something of utmost importance that needs your attention.”
The Queen looked at Dmitri, standing and telling the officer that she would be there in a moment. She stood there, eyes trained on Dmitri, his as well on her. She sighed and nodded to him.
“I trust you to make the right decision,” she said as she glided past him towards the door.
After the door was shut, Dmitri leaned forward and rested his elbows on the Queen’s desk, his interwoven hands keeping his head up. The cold metal of his artificial arm chilled his entire body, leading to soreness in his shoulder, a pain that seemed to never go away completely. A sigh of frustration passed through his nostrils. Then, he stood.
Culas handed Ramsi his drink, sipping at his own as he sat on the couch. The two were silent for a moment, quietly sipping at their drinks, Ramsi still wrapping his head around all the information Culas had provided. Culas opened his mouth to say something, what Ramsi didn’t know, but before any words came out, the com-screen on his desk came on:
“Vice-President Westin, are you there?” a familiar voice said from the com-screen. Culas placed his drink on the table in front of the couch and jumped up and towards the desk. He looked at the screen and saw the familiar face of Preisdent Ralcheister, a concerned look growing on his face.
“What can I do for you, Mr. President?” Culas said, tucking in his shirt to look more professional.
“I just got word from Kofista that there has been a significant amount of Sentries disappearing from their grids. They’ve been destroyed, but no one can seem to find out what has been causing such a thing to happen.”
Culas listened intently, taking short mental notes along the way.
Ralcheister continued, “They’ve already begun prepping a few ships to go and check it out, so I think we should have presence there as well, just in case they need our help. I’ll send the coordinates to Captain Silvenburg at the ship docked there, I expect you to be off Zero Heaven in the next twenty minutes.”
Culas nodded, already regretting the drinks he’d had. “I’m already gone, sir,” he said, grabbing his Pax Pacis jacket. The screen went blank and Culas looked at Ramsi while zipping up the jacket.
“You catch all that?” Culas asked, knowing he had. Ramsi had already put down his drink and was calling the hangar for them to prep his MS. Ramsi nodded grimly, professionally, to Culas, letting him know that he understood.
The two quickly headed out the door, heading in the direction of the docking area. As they walked they saw the party still going on in the ball room, which could be seen from most of the rest of the space station. Culas thought for a second about going down there and getting the other pilots to help out, or at least let them know what was going on.
Nah. Don’t wanna alarm them if it’s nothing. Let them have their fun.
He then glanced at Ramsi striding next to him, thinking for a second that he saw something familiar in his eyes. Culas shook the thought off and continued the walk to the hangar and docking bay, wondering what it was now causing a threat to Earth.
“I’m pregnant, Hal” Natalya said, her eyes filled with tears, “and…” She trailed off, offering the thought to not be said. She knew as well as he did what that meant.
Hal stood shocked, wanting to smile and cry at the same time. He knew that he could be the father, but it was just as likely that Razel was. Hal said nothing at first, standing there without words, only a cluster of confusing thoughts flying through his head. He began to feel angry, though he fought it as hard as he could. He wasn’t angry at Natalya, not really, just at the situation.
I could be a father…
Just then, before anything else could be said, the floor began to shake. Not just the floor, but the walls, too. The entire Zero Heaven was shaking, if only slightly. Hal knew even this much disturbance was unusual, and possibly dangerous. Hal looked deep into Natalya’s eyes and forced a smile, a weak, pathetic smile. He grabbed her by the hand and they both stumbled their way into the ballroom, where most everyone was drunkenly panicking. He found his way to Razel, who was already on the phone calling the Zero Heaven main office. Before he could get a hold of anyone, Redrico Alzabrrio made his way up the stairs to the stage, holding on the railing for support. He grabbed the microphone and said: “Everyone, please calm down. We cannot have a panic, that will only make things worse.” People began to quiet down, either from his words or to better hear what he had to say.
“Everything will be alright, you have my guarantee of your safety. It seems there is just a small disturbance out in space that is causing Zero Heaven to have some turbulence. We do not know what this disturbance is, but I’m sure everything will be OK.”
Razel and Hal looked at each other after he had said this, nodding to each other, knowing that something was up. Hal continued to look at Razel as he turned to watch Alzabrrio speak. He fought off the animosity towards him as much as he could, but deep down he wanted to punch Razel right in the face, completely uncharacteristic of him. He physically shook off the thought and looked at Natalya, who was still tearing a bit. Hal smiled again, a smile of love, one that said ‘we’ll work through this.’
Natalya even managed a small smile, feeling only a little bit better, but Hal’s love comforting her immensely. She didn’t know who the father was, but she knew who she wanted to be with, and for that matter knew Hal would always be there for her, whether the child was his or Razel’s.
Oh, god… I have to tell Razel, too…
Cell phones all over the ballroom began to go off, hundreds of different ringtones sounding at once. Even Alzabrrio’s went off, cutting his speech off. The noise level in the room raised as the affiliated pilots and officers got their information from the various people calling them, letting them know about what was going on with the destroyed Sentries.
“Hello?” Razel said into the receiver.
“Razel,” the Queen’s voice, “we have a possible situation, is Hal there?” Razel looked at Hal, answering, “yes, him and Natalya are right next to me, what’s going on?”
“No time to really explain, just get to the ship and contact me when you do. I’ll explain to all of you on the com-screen.” She hung up before Razel could say anything more. He put his phone back into his pocket and looked to both Hal and Natalya, a quizzical expression on his face, his reasons two-fold. He saw something in their eyes, especially Natalya’s, not to mention she was obviously crying.
Damn, she must have told him... no time for that now…
“Time to go to work,” he said, quickly and already sobering up.
“What’s going on?” Natalya questioned, figuring it had something to do with the turbulence on Zero Heaven.
“Have no idea,” Razel said, walking past them, “but the Queen needs us.”
Trent sat in his MS, Prophet of Sorrow, prepping it’s systems inside the cavernous hanger in the main headquarters of E.S.S. A vacuous yawn escaped his lungs as he double checks the various flight programs. He’s tired, dead tired, and he wishes he could just go to sleep, but knows he’s going to be needed out there. Especially after what Hiro had discovered.
“OK, I let Kofista know about my discovery,” Hiro said after popping up on Trent’s com-screen. Although nervous and anxious to get out into space, Hiro still had that childish anticipation and excitement strewn across his face. This was something for him, something new and undiscovered, and even though he was there when the fog was slowly making it’s way towards Earth, he didn’t get the chance he wanted to study the anomaly.
Trent ignored Hiro, either that or had no response, and continued his preparations. In the back of his mind he couldn’t let go of the feeling that something wasn’t right, that this was directly connected to the fog, maybe even more...
“You hear me?” Hiro said, eyeballing the camera, his eye taking up most of the com-screen view.
“Yeah, I heard ya,” Trent said calmly, almost distantly.
“Everything OK, partner?” Hiro said, his tone now of a mature and somewhat concerned friend.
“Is everything ever OK, Hiro?” Trent said, his tone solemn. He rubbed his temples, his eyes closed.
“What’s wrong?” Hiro said, now concerned with his friend and partner’s downhill mood.
“It never ends, Hiro,” Trent says with a sigh, “It’s been, what, a month or two since Vis was all but destroyed? Now this…”
“I know what you mean,” Hiro said, trying to comfort, but failing, “but that’s our job, our life, to try and protect those who can’t do it themselves.” Hiro thought he sounded pretty profound.
Trent sighed again. “I know, I guess I’m just tired.”
“Well, once this is over we’ll put in for some quality leave, and you can get some much deserved rest,” Hiro smiled and tried to levitate Trent’s mood. Trent smiled back.
“Yeah, that would be nice,” Trent said semi-cheerfully.
In the distance they could both hear a couple of the ESS ships beginning their ignition phases, two smaller scout ships that would be taking point. Behind them would be a cruiser in which Trent and Hiro would be boarding soon.
“Alright,” Trent said at the sound of the engines warming up, “we better catch our rides before we miss the whole thing. I’m sure that would disappoint you.” He let a slight smile grace his lips for Hiro’s sake. Hiro smiled back, all the while readying his MS, and wondering what it was that was waiting for them out in space.
Queen Zerium hung up the phone and looked up at the large vid-screen, trying to make sense of what she was, or actually wasn’t, seeing. The screen showed blank space, stars in the distance, but otherwise empty of anything of importance. She sighed and reached for the com-screen controls, connecting to her office’s com-screen.
“Dmitri, are you still there?” the Queen asked, hopeful he hadn’t run. After a moment of silence, she assumed the worse and ended the connection. She then tried the cell phone she had practically forced on him so he’d be a little more available. The call went strait to voicemail. A third call is made, this time to the hangar.
“Your Majesty, how may I be of service,” the man on the com-screen said, taking a slight bow.
“Has Dmitri been down there?” she asked, giving away nothing.
“Not that I’ve seen, ma’am. Though, we have been very busy down here getting ready for… well, whatever we’re getting ready for.” The man looked confused, still wondering what was going on out in space. Even though most people were already briefed on the situation, no one really knew what to expect.
“Alright,” she said, wondering if Dmitri had decided to get out a more stealthy route. But she knew that wasn’t his style, plus he would need his MS if she knew him well enough.
“Well, is his Mobile Suit still in the hangar?” she asked.
“Yes,” the man said with a little more confusion as well as curiosity, “is something going on?”
“No, no,” the Queen said with a quick smile, “everything is fine, just let me know if you see Dmitri, will you?”
“Of course, my Queen,” and with another bow he was gone, a blank screen replacing him.
Zerium leaned back on her chair, sighing quietly. She really didn’t want to alert the complex, but if Dmitri got out he might do something she would have to answer for and that would be bad. Then again, if she alerted the complex and castle, he’d have to be aggressive in his escape, and that would endanger the lives of the men and women working for her.
She begins to daze, starring into the nothingness of space on the vid-screen. A hand rests on her shoulder and she is startled back to where she was, sitting in the complex command room. She swiveled her chair around to see Dmitri, standing there with his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword. For a moment Zerium is tense, not knowing what Dmitri’s next move would be. Then, as if feeling her tension, he spoke:
“What’s going on,” he said, nodding towards the vid-screen.
The Queen slightly smiled, relieved and strangely proud, even though she should expect Dmitri to be trustworthy by now.
He’s come a long way, she thought as she began to explain the current situation to Dmitri.
Hal and Natalya, hand in hand, followed Razel up the ramp and into the Royal Army ship waiting for them in the Zero Heaven docking bay. Razel wasted no time with crew pleasantries, putting his hand up and giving a slight nod to the guards just inside the spacecraft. He quickly made his way to the bridge, where the captain was, waiting for them to arrive.
“Razel, Hal, Natalya,” the captain said, nodding to each as he said their names. He turned around and hit some keys, bringing the large com-screen in front of them all to life. Hal looked to his side at Natalya, sneaking a glance before she realized he was looking. A quick ping pulled at his heart, his gut. Just looking at her he could now see the glow people talk about pregnant women having, if only slightly. She turned suddenly and their eyes met, locking into each other. For a moment they stood there staring at each other, Natalya feeling horrible after telling him what had happened, and showing it in her face. Guilt, as well as fear. Fear of loss, because she truly did love Hal, and wanted nothing but to be with him for the rest of his life. Hal sees this hidden on her face, and smiles to make her feel better. As mad as he was, and the fact that he knew what he knew, he still loved her and wanted to stay with her. Hell, they might be a family soon enough.
“Hello, all” a familiar voice said through the com-screen. The Queen’s likeness appeared on the screen. She was beautiful as always, Hal thought to himself as he turned from Natalya’s gaze.
She began to explain about the missing Sentries and whatever they were waiting to get to Earth, even the new information Kofista had gathered from Hiro’s discoveries.
“So we’re assuming this new threat is somehow connected to that fog?” Razel asked soberly, standing with his arms crossed on his chest.
“We shouldn’t assume anything until we have more information, Razel,” the Queen said, her attention only half on Razel, the other half now looking off-screen, “we can’t even visually or otherwise detect whatever has been destroying the Sentries. Until we even know what we’re dealing with it’s strictly observation, we don’t need everyone firing at something we can’t see. And besides…” She leans off screen and says something to someone, “…we don’t even know if there IS something out there. These Sentries could have been a distraction caused by Vis Vires to throw us off long enough for them to attack.”
“True, we haven’t heard from them since Dmitri blew up most of their ships, and I’m sure they’re not too pleased about that.” Razel’s words brought Dmitri out from the sidelines, his face sliding into view from the Queen’s side. Razel noted that he looked pissed, or at least more so than usual. The last time he’d seen his friend/rival had been in the hospital after Ramsi had sent him there.
“Probably not,” Dmitri said solemnly, with no loss of confidence, “you know about the recent communication cut off with Colony X-10? Well, in the search of this phantom satellite killer one of the scouts found that X-10 had all but disappeared. Found a large ion trail as well, one larger than any the scout had ever seen. I’ll bet that was Auray, sounds like his style. He’s licking his wounds and rebuilding his army… somewhere… else… with a colony at his disposal.”
“Hm,” Razel sounded, his chin resting in his palm.
“What about the energy signature?” Hal chimed in directing his question to the Queen, “can I get the data sent here? I’d like to look them over.” He was now closer to the screen standing ahead and to the right of Razel. Natalya stood behind Razel and Hal, looking at the two without them looking at her. Her expression would give so much away, as it does, the Queen noticing before answering Hal.
“I can get them to send you everything you need, Hal. Should I send it strait to your notebook, or your MS?”
“Notebook, please,” Hal said already sitting and setting up his mobile computer, his attention focused on the new task at hand. He was relieved to have something else to think about.
“So what is our next move?” Razel asked, shrugging a bit.
“All I want you to do is to go with Captain Zetsu and be there if you’re needed. I want no action taken unless completely necessary. Dmitri will be staying here to keep the castle safe. Hal, Natalya, try to get as much information you can about what we’re dealing with.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Razel said, then under his breath: “a real boring one, at that.” His buzz was already gone and all he had left was the lethargy of sobering exhaustion. This was quite the day already, and he figured it would keep going for too long.
The Queen disappeared from the com-screen and Captain Zetsu stepped in front of the three.
“Sirs, you’re Mobile Suits have been transferred into our docking bay, are you ready to leave otherwise?” Zetsu said rather stiffly.
“Hit the gas, man, we’re always ready,” Razel said with confidence.
“Wait,” Hal said, looking up from his laptop, “can you give Natalya and I a moment before we lift off?” Hal looked at Natalya, his eyes saying everything.
Razel’s shoulders slumped, then with a smile, “fine. Hurry up though, lovebirds, we gotta get going.”
Hal took Natalya’s hand and headed towards the exit of the bridge. As they walked out, Razel watched as they began to whisper to each other, noting again that something was going on between them.
Trent and Hiro had finished prepping their MS’s and getting them onto the ship, after which they made way to the bridge of the ship. The walk was silent, save the usual noise of a space vessel preparing for lift off. Almost to the entrance to the bridge, the klaxon blared a warning, informing those onboard that the ship was about to take off. Trent and Hiro picked up their steps, heading into the bridge. Once inside, the noise level tripled with the amount of people aboard the bridge, everyone hurrying about doing their individual jobs. Trent and Hiro walked up to the captain of the ship, both saluting to the man they have never met.
“At ease,” the captain said, saluting them back, “Corporal Valencia and PFC Glyph, I presume?”
“Sir,” Trent said, nodding to the man.
“I am Captain Reykar, commander of the ESS Elexitor,” he said with complete professionalism and a bit of stiffness, then turned around and continued giving orders to him men.
Captain Thelonious Reykar carried himself with pride, a certain confidence in himself and his abilities that Trent immediately took a shine to. He watched as the higher ranking officer spat off directions in rapid succession, the fact that everyone could keep up with him was amazing. Trent already respected the man, maybe even looked up to him, even though he couldn’t be much older than himself, this man was running an entire spaceship.
Can I really do what he’s doing? Trent thought as he watched Reykar at work. He decided once again today to push the thoughts of Culas’s offer to the back of the list. Right now, it was time to work.
Strapping into a couple empty seats on the bridge, Trent and Hiro feel the ship lurch forward, then shake a bit as it began ascending into the sky. On the bridge vid-screen, a massive screen covering an entire wall, they could all see the two lead scout ships not too far ahead of the ESS Elexitor but almost out of the atmosphere. The combination of the thrust of the ship and the seemingly weightlessness of the two scout ships ahead of them on the screen gave Trent a sense of peacefulness he hadn’t felt in a while. For a moment he closed his eyes, just breathing, nothing else. Hiro nudged him, breaking him from the slight meditation.
“Hm?” Trent grumbled without opening his eyes.
“I was just thinking,” Hiro said, leaning back and watching the space getting closer, “if there is something out there destroying the Sentries, it must have a killer stealth system since it can’t be detected by sensors or the naked eye.”
“Yeah,” Trent said absently at the obvious comment, then drifted off just slightly, exhausted.
In a rather large bridge on an unknown ship, a large-muscled pale-skinned crew goes about their work. The captain, a burly, oversized man of great stature and wearing a gray uniform stands in front of everyone, starring out at a mostly blue planet. His head turns as if to talk to another large man sitting to his side, but instead just stares at him, lips unmoving. The man nods, as if he knew what the man was saying and began pressing buttons on the console in front of him. The captain continues to stare out towards the planet.
So this is where the Collector was stopped. Interesting. I wonder what kind of planet we have stumbled upon here.
“Should we send out another Collecter, Sire?” the captain heard someone say from behind him. Instead of saying anything he just stood, watching, and his answer was given without so much as a word. His men knew him well enough they knew he’d want to do this.
No, we’ll bring the Arc down close and make planetfall, the captain thought.
“Quarantine System activated, Sire,” the captain heard, still starring.
Good, next we test them…
Trent shot up, woken by the loud blaring of the klaxon and the screams of the people on the bridge. His first sight was that of Hiro, whose mouth was wide open, aghast. Trent followed Hiro’s line of sight to the vid-screen, where he saw three things. The first and most obvious, the two scout ships in lead had exploded, and the wreckage was now being pulled toward them by the gravity of Earth.
Captain Reykar practically screamed his orders to pull back and avoid as much of the flaming debris as they could. Everyone was shocked and a bit panicked.
The second thing Trent saw was subtle compared to the third. The sky had a tint of orange-red in it. He could still see the brilliant blue he was used to, but it looked as if someone had covered the world in orange-red cling wrap.
The third could not be explained, nor could Trent even wrap his head around what he was now seeing. His expression resembled Hiro’s, and pretty much everyone else’s aboard the bridge at that moment. Trent blinked, hoping this sight would just be wiped away with his sleepiness, but when his eyes settled on the image his fears were realized, and life itself could never be the same.
Ramsi sat in his MS quietly aboard the Pax Pacis ship, waiting patiently for the lift off warning. He thought about all Culas and himself had talked about over drinks in his room, especially the fact that Kal, his father, had been the test pilot for the Zero System.
When was that? And…
Breaking his concentration, the com-screen in his cock-pit came to life with Culas’s face, his expression pale, all the blood drawn from his face.
“What is it?” Ramsi questioned when Culas failed to say anything.
Culas just shook his head for a moment, clearly in shock. He finally cleared his throat and physically shook his head of thought. “You have to see for yourself.”
The visual appeared on the vid-screen next to the com-screen and Ramsi’s eyes went wide. He couldn’t believe this was possible.
“You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me…”
“This has now become a full force operation, get prepped ASAP, this isn’t going to be pretty,” Culas said, then shut down the communication to do preparations of his own to Gundam Valen.
After seeing the visual on his command vid-screen, High Admiral Kofista was panicked but still in control. He barked orders at the officers in the room and into the communicator in his ear, frantic with hidden fear and compensation.
“…I don’t care what he says, NO SPACECRAFT LEAVES THE ATMOSPHERE!”
He couldn’t let this get to him and especially let it show in front of his men. All they had was control, and he needed to keep the control, for his men and their fear.
“NO commercial or military ships. NONE AT ALL UNTIL WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DEALING WITH!”
Be strong for them, he thought as he looked over at the vid-screen again and got a chill. A man like Kofista never gets a chill.
The Queen had to force back the tears of fear and anxiety as she gazed at the scene projected on the screen in front of her and Dmitri. No words could escape her lips, and even Dmitri’s usually somber expression was that of awe and trepidation, his jaw slack. After a moment of the visual, Dmitri took a deep breath and turned to leave. The Queen regained her composure and began giving orders to the men and women in the strategy room.
“Cancel all flights out, we don’t know what’s out there. And get me Captain Zetsu, we need to inform him as well.”
“Your Majesty,” Habbert Albaston said, standing at her side, his expression grim, “all communication off-world has been jammed. We can’t contact anyone outside of Earth.”
Dmitri made his way to the hangar, then out the large doors to the outside. His head tilted upward to the heavens, having to see it with his own eyes, not on a vid-screen. Even after seeing it in the sky, in the open, he still doubted it. Quickly his eyes tightened, his brow wrinkling. He was always ready, but for what? Suddenly, jail time was the least of Dmitri’s worries.
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