It is the year 122 of the Terran Age. It has been 35 years since the Earth Union was overtaken by the authoritarian and nationalist feudal state: "the Empire of Terra" in T.A. 97, who have enforced a campaign of almost genocidal terror against the space colonies around the Lagrange Point, seeing their inhabitants as subhuman monsters to be removed by force.
Resistence held out, however. And those born in space have remained their own culturally-separate people, "Empyreans" against Terran might in spite of no formal rebellion taking place.
Three years ago however, with the death of Emperor Sebastien I, the colonies officially revolted under the leadership of former Grand Marshall of the Knights of Terra: Rafael Guernica as a new proclaimed state: "the United Colonies of Empyrean", who claimed all clusters around the Lagrange point.
This act of open secession started what would become known as the Empyrean War, which has raged on for the past 3 years and become one of, if not THE most brutal conflict in human history.
This is the story of the closing months of the war and how it was won.
"This is Control. Rook, you're cleared for takeoff." A voice called over the intercom.
"Copy that Commander Gauthier, ma'am." A man responded as he firmly placed his right hand over the joysticks of the cockpit. "Buzzard, ready to take off!"
The hangar doors slowly opened with a beeping sound into the light of day as the one-eyed grey and navy-blue mobile suit unfurled thin wings from its back and began firing jet thrusters before speeding forwards across the runway and taking off.
The man held steady on his flight path, as he carefully eyed every gauge, screen, button and switch in front of him. "The Buzzard is moving at a steady 1.33 G's. Altitude at 200 plus metres and climbing. Pressure and fuel are both stable." He said. He looked out over the scenery below and saw the landscape of his home: Verde, Theta Cluster. All its rolling hills, sprawling farmlands, large buildings and many peoples that all dotted the ground below the flying mobile suit and the colony's artificial sky.
It was still hard for him to believe that only three years ago, it was still part of the Empire of Terra. Well, they still claimed the colony as their rightful dominion, but they could certainly try and take it. The forces of the United Colonies of Empyrean would be there to defend against any Terran aggression.
"Okay, we're going to be deploying target drones to your position." The voice replied. "Try testing out the machine gun and keep climbing."
"Got it." The man said as he flew the Buzzard around to intercept the incoming drones and grabbed its back to equip a machine gun. Five red dots appeared on his radar, and sure enough, he saw some small red and white metal orbs flying in front of him.
"Gotcha." He mused to himself with a smirk. He turned the joystick to the left as the Buzzard entered into a clockwise aileron roll and fired the gun mid-spin with a single hand, destroying all of the drones in a single motion.
"Still showing off, are we Glenn?" A different voice asked over the intercom.
The man chuckled. "Oh you know me, I just can't help being this good." He joked with a cocky smile as he put away the machine gun in a compartment in the Buzzard's back.
"Okay, now return to the facility to test this thing's grounded capabilities." The first voice said. "We're gonna set up some targets for you to test the sabres out on. That way we can at least get you to conserve your damn bullets."
"Roger that." Glenn said as the Buzzard sped back to the base. As it drew closer, he slowly began descending back onto the runway and began flicking switches above him. "Landing gear, deployed. Diverting power from propulsion to landing jets." As the Buzzard got closer to the ground, small jets emerged from its legs to slow its descent and wheels deployed at the back and front of the feet. "Easy. Easy. " Glenn mumbled under his breath as he landed the mobile suit onto the track with a small jolt and ran it along to the runway towards a shooting range.
There were multiple targets, all resembling black, regal-looking mobile suit models and all lined up for him to take the shot. Glenn pulled a one-bladed sabre from the Buzzard's hilt and drove towards the targets, with reticles appearing on the display over each vital area where they would be on the real deals. The Buzzard sliced through them all effortlessly, dodging and weaving through the obstacle course before speeding on ahead.
"Rook, what's the Buzzard's current speed?" Control asked.
Glenn looked over at the gauge. "About 110 K's an hour." He said.
"Okay, that should be enough for now." Control said. "Return to the hangar so that maintenance can look over it."
"Copy that. Rook returning to base." Glenn said as he put away the Buzzard's sabre and walked it back to the hangar.
As it arrived back at the main complex, a team of mechanics and other ground control personnel wearing white and dark-blue jackets were waiting with a mobile stairway reaching up to the Buzzard's chest area as it opened out to the air. Glenn took his dark-blue and white helmet to reveal messy shoulder-length black hair underneath, green eyes and a scar on his left temple resembling an "X".
"So, how was it?" Commander Gauthier asked, throwing Glenn a water bottle. She had a tall stature, short brown hair and hazel eyes, and had her jacket's sleeves rolled up. "Looked a bit shaky up there from the tower."
Glenn caught the bottle with his right hand. "Yeah. I get these are meant to be mass-produced and all, but they're only barely any better than the Terrans' mobile suits, at least outside the speed department." He grumbled. "A good enough pilot in a Junker would smash this thing to dust."
"Unfortunately it'll have to do." The commander replied. "We're not really getting anywhere with this war while the Empire only pumps out more and more troops our way."
Glenn walked down the stairway and took a sip of the water. "I guess you're right, Cass."
Cass smirked and lightly smacked him on the back. "Of course I am! Now go hit the showers, fly-boy."
Glenn chuckled before walking off to the main building as he wiped the sweat off his brow and onto the legs of his form-fitting navy blue pilot's suit.
A small, lone crimson and gold spaceship eyed a large cylindrical structure in the midst of the Earth's orbit, slowly drifting closer behind debris and asteroids as to approach it undetected.
"There it is, Verde Colony." A middle-aged man at the helm of the ship declared as the large grey structure floating in the void of space grew closer and closer. "Are you sure this is a safe target to attack, Knight-Commander?" He asked.
"Positive." A white-haired young man in a red and black embroidered coat wearing a black mask-like visor and a sabre by his hip sitting in the captain's chair replied. "Most of Empyrean's forces are stationed in Alpha, Gamma and Zeta Clusters as of now, and Theta is a major industrial centre and testing facility for military-grade equipment. That, and it can serve as a prime supply hub to our fleets due to its close proximity to our mass drivers at any given time."
"But isn't this still opening a new front? This could backfire horribly if we're not careful." Another man called out.
"I don't recall asking your input, lieutenant. " The Knight-Commander snapped back. He held out his hand in an authoritative gesture. "Set a course to the backside of the colony. See if we can enter discreetly."
The first man nodded. "Of course, Knight-Commander Eisenstadt. Estimated arrival in 4 hours, 48 minutes."
"Good." Eisenstadt replied. He then turned to another helmsman. "How's the status of the new mobile suits?"
The third helmsman turned back towards him. "They're holding well. Both the Paladin and the Crusader will soon be ready to be deployed at a moment's notice alongside a squad of Junkers." He answered.
Eisenstadt smiled. "Very well then. Proceed."
The lieutenant sighed in resignation. "Why does the emperor insist on this brat commanding us? He's gonna get us all killed by the demons." He thought. Eisenstadt immediately tensed his hand, almost as if he'd somehow heard that.
He then looked over at the colony as his expression turned to a bitter scowl. "Are you watching, Grand Marshal Guernica?" He muttered under his breath. "Your rebellion in the heavens shall be brought down by the Emperor's will. Such is the fate of all those who defy Holy Terra."
Glenn, now wearing a more casual red shirt, black vest and jeans, walked through the streets of Theta past multiple people to the residential district until he happened across a brick house around the middle of the rows. He unlocked the door and walked through.
"Hey Kotaro, I'm back!" He cried as he closed the door behind him.
"You're home early!" A deep voice cried out from inside the house. The voice came from a tall and skinny man with dark-brown hair and stubble with glasses over his grey eyes. He wore a dark green long-sleeved shirt and black pants and was sitting on the couch with a laptop in his lap.
Glenn hung his vest up on the nearby coat rack. "Yeah, just needed to do final checks on the latest model of mobile suits before they get sent to the frontlines." He then casually crashed on the couch next to Kotaro.
Kotaro sighed. "More ineffective slabs of scrap-metal to slam against the Terrans."
"Hey, don't be like that." Glenn reassured as he leaned in to kiss Kotaro on the cheek. "You're gonna hurt morale if you talk like that." He joked.
"I know, I know. It's just…" Kotaro shook his head. "This whole 'revolution' the Marshal started isn't going well at all. We only just took back control of Zeta Cluster last week after months of occupation." He said as he looked up anxiously.
Glenn smiled. "So that's why the curfew dropped back down to Code Yellow. Besides, we don't have anything to worry about. We still took it back."
Kotaro looked at his partner exasperated. "After they tried going scorched-earth on the farmland, cutting off most of Empyrean's food security for months. And that's without getting into all the casualties." He then grabbed Glenn's hand tightly. "Glenn. This is serious business, I don't want to lose you to the Terrans."
Glenn's face lit up for a moment. "Actually, speaking of food, that reminds me." He then pulled out two orange vouchers from his pocket. "You know that Deltan Woodfire pizza restaurant that opened a couple months back? My treat."
Kotaro stared blankly at his boyfriend. "Glenn, you're lucky you're adorable or we would have broken up by now."
Glenn gave a goofy smile and chuckled.
Just then a whirring sound could be heard from outside until a loud bump was heard just outside the door.
"I got it!" Glenn said, springing up from the couch to open the door. As he opened it, a small green ball-like robot hovering with two helicopter-like propellers from the sides of its head flew in and sat on the coffee table in front of Kotaro before he closed the door.
" GOOD AFTERNOON, KOTARO-SAN, GLENN-SAN. SURVEILLANCE COMPLETE. SURVEILLANCE COMPLETE. " It declared robotically, its eyes lighting up with every syllable as it retracted the propellers.
"Ah, good to see you back, Haro." Kotaro replied. "Upload footage to the drive."
" AFFIRMATIVE. DOWNLOADING 20 TERABYTES OF FOOTAGE. " Haro blared. As it sat motionless with its eyes flashing yellow.
Both men sat in front of the motionless Haro until Glenn turned to Kotaro. "So… I've been meaning to ask you. Why does Haro keep saying 'san' at the end of our names?" He asked.
"It's something that people do in the empire's Yamato District, back when it was still called 'Japan' at least." Kotaro replied, a scowl setting in across his face.
"I see." Glenn said, looking off at the roof of the living room. "...Do you miss it? Earth, I mean." He awkwardly asked.
Kotaro closed his eyes and clenched his fists tightly. " ...No. Not at all." He responded, with a hint of doubt in his voice. He sighed as the two men sat in silence for a few seconds.
" TRANSFER COMPLETE. TRANSFER COMPLETE. " Haro declared as it bounced up and down on the table.
"R-Right. Thanks, Haro." Kotaro fumbled as he searched through the various image and video files now on his computer and played them to check over them.
Glenn looked over Kotaro's shoulder and skimmed over all of the files. "More stuff for Lagrange Weekly?" He asked.
"Yeah, just some standard drone stuff over the new agriculture program they're trialling around the back end of the colony." Kotaro responded. "My editor insisted I be the one to cover this." He then looked over an image from the far back, where windows to the vastness of space lay.
It was then that Glenn noticed something.
"Hey, what's that red dot right there?" He asked, pointing at a small dot out one of the windows towards the back.
Kotaro stared at it and frowned. "Don't know. Hang on a sec." He said as he zoomed into the image where Glenn pointed. "Manually upscaling…" He muttered as he tried to enhance the image. After a few seconds, the image became clearer. Both Glenn and Kotaro recoiled in shock and horror when it was revealed: a red and gold ship bearing the banner of the Empire of Terra. And it was heading directly towards Colony Theta.
" Shit! Why here? Why now?" Kotaro cursed. He then turned to Haro. "How long ago was this image taken?"
" EXACTLY TWO HOURS, 32 MINUTES AND 17 SECONDS AGO. " Haro answered.
Kotaro frantically looked through other images and videos to find more of the ship. "And this one?" He asked, pointing to one where the ship seemed even closer.
" ONE HOUR, 59 MINUTES AND 36 SECONDS AGO. "
Glenn pondered for a moment. "I think they're after the factory district and the testing facility." He said. "They're not that far from the back of the colony."
"So they're trying to cripple our means of fighting back by destroying our industrial backbone…" Kotaro grimaced.
"And I'm not gonna let them do that!" Glenn declared as he ran off towards the door and grabbed his vest.
"H-Hey, where do you think you're going?!" Kotaro yelled. "Don't tell me you're gonna try and fight the Terrans, you're only a test pilot!"
"Maybe, but I can still pilot a mobile suit." Glenn rebutted. "Besides, we're gonna need every hand available to fight these guys off. You contact the governor, we need to get everyone to safety right now!" He said as he sprinted off.
Kotaro ran outside after his boyfriend. "Wait, Glenn! Glenn! " He cried out. Nothing.
Cass floated forwards through the zero-gravity hallways of the base with two of her superior officers. An older man with greying hair and an eyepatch over his left eye in an all-white uniform with a navy-blue military cap, and a younger man with blonde hair in a black uniform and no cap. "So, they just finished repairing her?" She asked.
"That about sums it up." The older one responded. "Honestly, I'm surprised your people got it up and running again after the battle of Vladivostok, Commander Gauthier."
Cass chuckled. "Well, it did take us three months to get the old girl's engines working again alone, especially in an out-of-the-way colony like Verde. So we're just as surprised as the rest of the brass."
The younger man pulled up a tablet as they floated. "Still, the amount of money and resources it took to make the damn thing functional again has taken a toll on our budget."
"How much, Captain?" Cass asked.
" A lot , at least a quarter of a billion Juenos." The captain responded. "I swear, the Lunarians are just trying to gouge cash out of us while we're desperate. No different from the damn Terrans."
Cass sighed in resignation. "That's capitalism, for you."
The three of them walked into a hangar where a massive navy-blue, black and white triangular ship floated, with crews floating around the bow, stern, wings, secondary thrusters and many cannons in the gravityless hangar doing maintenance and repairs.
"There it is, gentlemen." Cass said. "The pride and joy of the Empyrean fleet: The ES-34 Tenma in all its glory."
The older man crossed his arms. "At least we should be able to fight the Terrans on a more even playing field now."
Cass stared directly at the Tenma. "Hope so."
" CASS! " A voice cried out loudly behind the three of them. They turned around to see Glenn floating quickly towards them, out of breath and clearly panicked.
"Commander Gauthier, do you know this man?" The older man asked.
"Yes, this is Lieutenant Glenn Kristophe: one of our test pilots." Cass answered. "What happened, Rook? Where's Kotaro?"
He took a few seconds to catch his breath. "...Terrans… ship… back of the colony…" He weakly said between breaths.
"W- what? You can't be serious!" The captain said in shock. "Their fleet is engaged at Gamma Cluster!"
"I'm serious!" Glenn yelled as he showed an image of the Terran ship on his phone. "This was taken just over two hours ago at the backside of the colony near the agriculture district!"
Cass, the captain and the third man stared at it in shock.
"...And right when our security systems are down for repairs." The older man said, taking off his hat and clenching it in his fist. "Those surface-dwelling bastards. "
Cass and the captain turned to him. "What do we do now, Admiral Morgenthau?"
Morgenthau's face twisted into a concerned frown. "Commander, how many units do we have to deploy in the colony?"
"Not many, sir." Cass grimaced. "Only a couple hundred regulars with another few dozen or so off-duty. There are only seven fighter pilots at our disposal, four full tank crews, and our only available mobile suit pilot is…" She turned to Glenn with a regretful expression.
Glenn immediately saluted. "What's the best MS we have at our disposal, Cas- uh… Commander Gauthier, ma'am?"
"A Magpie, a Condor and the Buzzard you piloted earlier. It'll take the least amount of time to set up the latter." Cass replied.
"Yes, ma'am!" Glenn called before floating off back towards the mobile suit hangar.
"Wait, Rook!" Cass cried out.
Glenn stopped himself from floating off and turned around. "Yeah?"
Cass paused for a moment. "...Come back safe, okay Fly-boy?"
Glenn nodded, scoffed and gave a sincere expression. "Yeah. I'm counting on it." He said before kicking himself off again.
"Alright. Captain Hadija, you stay behind and try to call the brass for reinforcements from the rest of the cluster." Admiral Morgenthau commanded. "Commander Gauthier and I will- ergh!" He winced towards and doubled over, clutching his heart in pain.
Hadija leaned over. "Admiral, are you okay?!" He worriedly asked.
"...I'll be fine." Morgenthau reassured. "Anyway, Gauthier and I will board the Tenma. We're gonna teach those Terran bastards not to mess with us Empyreans!"
Both Cass and Hadija saluted him. "Sir, yes sir!" they both said in unison.
Glenn was sitting in the cockpit of the Buzzard at the back of a vertical catapult at the back of the colony flicking up switches and calibrating the controls. This was it, he was actually going to pilot a mobile suit in real combat to defend the colony. He took a deep breath to calm himself. This would be just like shooting down drones in testing, except they could… you know, shoot back . That, and they explicitly wanted him dead. And he was in a mobile suit that was clearly not strong enough to take them on.
Glenn shook the thoughts out of his head. Now was not the time to be thinking of those sorts of things. He had people to protect. Kotaro, Cass, everyone . He could take on a few imperials, no problem.
"This is control. Rook, you're cleared for launch." The operator said over the radio.
Glenn sighed again as he tightly gripped the controls.
"Control to Rook, do you copy?" The operator asked out of concern.
"Copy that." Glenn said, his face shifting into a determined frown. "EM-03 Buzzard, cleared for launch!" He declared.
With that, the Buzzard was launched out of the catapult at high speed into the middle of space as the wings on its back unfurled and the jets started to fire. Glenn scanned the immediate vicinity for the Terran ship, finding it just to his right. It was even closer now. He could actually get a good look at the thing. It was rather small, only about 140 metres long and not heavily armed. Maybe it was an infiltration force? Either way, it wasn't going to be around for much longer.
" Get the hell away from my home. " Glenn snarled as he approached the ship.
Eisenstadt watched over the crew of the ship and eyed the ever-approaching colony intently until…
"Knight-Commander! Enemy mobile suit incoming!" The lieutenant cried.
Eisenstadt was taken aback, though quickly recomposed himself. "How many?"
Another helmsman checked the radar. "Just the one. But it seems that the infiltration plan is now off the table."
"Damn it." Eisenstadt cursed. "I guess there's nothing else for it." He then stood up out of his chair and walked out of the bridge. "Deploy the new mobile suits and provide cover fire." He demanded.
"Of course." A helmsman replied. "Prepping the Paladin and the Crusader for launch."
Eisenstadt ran down the hallway to the back of the ship, running past the ship's various crew members. He then stopped just in front of the hangar doors where another pilot stood, not much older than himself.
"We're deploying already?" The other pilot asked.
Eisenstadt nodded. "They've spotted us. We now need to end this as quickly as possible or risk dragging the battle out into a quagmire when Empyrean reinforcements arrive."
"Got it!" The other pilot answered.
The two of them walked through the doors to gaze upon two large human-like mobile suits. One was an aerodynamic-looking blood red suit wielding two curved swords with triggers crossed on its back, the other was a bulkier white one with a black torso and red stripes along its head and arms holding a large black shield with a gold scale insignia on it in its right hand and a lance with some sort of trigger at its hilt and a blade at its end in its left hand attached to its back via a long cable. Both mobile suits had grate-like heat vents on their faces that looked like a knight's visor, as well as antennas pointing directly downwards, green eyes and two jets on their backs.
"Roath, you take the Paladin. I'll pilot the Crusader." Eisenstadt commanded before running off to jump into the red mobile suit.
"R-Right!" Roath said as he ran toward the black mobile suit.
As Eisenstadt sat down in the cockpit, the console at the front switched on and greeted him with a glowing blue screen. He pressed buttons in order to turn on the operating system for the Crusader, activating it. Just then, the antennae snapped up into a "V" shape and the excess heat was expelled out through the face vents as the machine whirred to life, with text appearing on the console.
" G uard U niversal N uclear D rive A ssault M echanism" It read. The first letters of each word then all coalesced into a single acronym: "GUNDAM" before changing to "IGNITION".
Similarly, the Paladin was activated by Roath, as the two "Gundams" were taken to the ship's catapult and lined up facing slightly away from Colony Theta.
Eisenstadt calmly looked out into space and stared out towards a growing blue dot in his field of vision. The approaching Empyrean mobile suit, no doubt. He pressed a button which brought up a projection of Roath in the Paladin's cockpit to his side.
"Are you ready? We'll have to make a mad dash to any factories and bases they may have."
Roath was tensing up all over his body. "...As ready as I'll ever be." He muttered.
Eisenstadt lightly smiled. "I see." He then gripped the controls. "Gundam Crusader, Albrecht Chapter. Ready to launch!" He cried as the Catapult launched the Crusader out into the vacuum of space.
"G-Gundam Paladin, Salvatore Chapter. Ready to launch!" Roath timidly called out as the Paladin was likewise shot out of the ship's catapult towards the Buzzard. Roath was taken aback by the launch, and jostled in the cockpit from the g-force before catching his stability.
"Pull yourself together!" Cried Eisenstadt. "We can't afford to screw things up now!"
Roath looked down sheepishly. "Sorry… I'm just-"
Eisenstadt seemed to jolt as if he'd foreseen something. "Incoming!" He yelled as both Gundams parted away from a rain of shots from a machine gun. He looked on to get a closer look at the Empyrean mobile suit.
"Roath, you handle this one! I'm going to try and bombard the colony's bases!" He cried before shooting off past both the Paladin and the Empyrean MS into Verde through the entry hatch at breakneck speeds.
"H-Hey, wait!" Roath yelled at his commander. Eisenstadt however, ignored him and flew off without his subordinate.
Glenn continued to shoot at the Terran mobile suits with the Buzzard's machine gun. They looked more special than the average Junker the empire normally shoved to the front lines, these were something new. The red one shot right past him towards the colony at blinding speed and completely ignored him. He'd never seen a mobile suit move that fast before.
"Rook to control! A red enemy mobile suit is headed straight for the gate and is coming in hot!" He radioed over.
"How quickly is it moving?" Admiral Morgenthau asked over the intercom.
"I'd say about… three times as fast as a Junker!" Glenn roughly estimated with worry in his voice.
"Must be a new model." Morgenthau grimaced. "We're just doing final checks before the Tenma launches. Just keep the rest of them occupied for now!"
Glenn turned his eye to the Paladin as a targeting reticle appeared on the overlay directly over it. "Roger that!" He said, charging ahead to pelt it with machine gun fire. Said mobile suit however fired back two vulcan guns from its head, slowing the Buzzard and slightly dented its armour.
"Rgh! That the best you got?!" Glenn angrily proclaimed. He then grabbed the Buzzard's sabre and rushed towards the Paladin. The Paladin however blocked it with its shield and stabbed the Buzzard in the shoulder with its lance before pulling the trigger, completely blowing off its right arm with an ion beam and breaking its sabre.
The blast sent Glenn and the Buzzard flying away from the Gundam with great force. "Just what the hell is this thing?!" He cursed. He took out the machine gun again and fired it directly in the face of the Paladin point-blank. All the bullets only dropped helplessly from its frame, the surface of the armour almost seeming to ripple as the black and white mobile suit loomed directly over the Buzzard, staring at it with its glowing green eyes before kicking it away, crushing the left side of the frame in doing so. Glenn sat there with his jaw hanging open, too stunned to move. How was he going to overcome this… thing, this monster ?
However, he then noticed something down below the Paladin's chest. He then knew what to do. It would be risky, but it was all he had. He had to stop that indestructible mobile suit somehow.
Glenn took a sigh as he steeled himself for what he was about to do.
"Rook to control, I'm currently engaged with an indestructible black mobile suit. I think I've found a way to beat it, but I'm going to need to ram the Buzzard into it to do it!" He declared.
"Wait, Rook stop!" Cass cried. "You'll get yourself killed if you do that!"
"This isn't up for debate!" Glenn yelled. "This is the only way to get that thing to stop attacking us! I'm going in!" He said, charging directly at the Gundam Paladin, screaming with fury at it.
" GLEEEEEEENNNN!!! " Cass yelled over the radio as the distance between the two mobile suits rapidly shortened.
Cass and Admiral Morgenthau heard a blip of static before the radio cut out from Glenn's end.
"Rook! Come in, Rook! Do you copy?!" Morgenthau yelled. Nothing.
"...That idiot… " Cass cursed.
Just then, another soldier ran onto the bridge of the Tenma in a panic. "Admiral! Commander! The red mobile suit is rapidly approaching us!"
"Already?!" Cass exclaimed. "Get the jets ready to scramble, now!" She commanded.
"Yes ma'am!" The soldier declared before he ran off to relay the order.
Morgenthau turned around to the rest of the bridge crew. "How much longer until we're cleared for takeoff?" He asked.
"Two minutes." One of the helmswomen replied. "Just performing final checks for the engines before launch."
Morgenthau grimaced. "We might not have that long depending on whether or not we can even slow it down…" He said as seven black jets flew out of the hangar to engage the Gundam.
Eisenstadt looked over the interior of Verde from the Gundam's cockpit. It was surprisingly green, sporting everything from suburban sprawls and industrialised districts to rural landscapes and rolling hills. It was a far cry from the almost completely mechanised imperial capital of Jerusalem, the old Earth Union capital of Geneva, or even most of the other imperial cities. This was what those demons had built for themselves in the heavens? He gritted his teeth in rage. How could these people be so arrogant as to claim the Kingdom of God as their own?
His inner thoughts were interrupted by a beeping sound and seven blips showing up on his radar. As he looked forward, he noticed a squadron of fighter jets approaching him. Trying to slow him down, no doubt.
"Alright boys, let's blow this surface-dwelling son of a bitch out of the sky!" One of the pilots declared, as the seven approached the Gundam and shot at it with various guns and missiles.
Eisenstadt simply rolled through the shots with ease and equipped the Crusader's twin swords from its back as they lit up with lasers igniting along the blade before accelerating even faster than before, slashing two jets in half like a hot knife through butter as they exploded behind him.
The remaining jets scrambled behind him in a formation, trying to box him in to move him away from the base. But he just smirked, placing his left hand up to his temple and concentrated on the jet to the top-right.
The pilot screamed in pain and clutched his head, causing his jet to descend and crash into the two directly below it as they all erupted into a fireball and crashed not far from the base.
Cass and Morgenthau stood in shock.
"How did that pilot take out the entire squadron so easily?!" Cass said. "Even the best MS can't take them all on like that!"
Morgenthau suddenly tensed, as if he'd had an epiphany. "...It must be the Iron Duke."
Cass looked at her superior. "The 'Iron Duke'?" She asked.
Morgenthau turned towards Cass in a panicked state. "Why do you think we lost Vladivostok?!"
Cass turned to the rest of the crew, clearly stressed. "How much longer now?" She asked them.
"We're ready to launch, ma'am!" The helmswoman from before answered.
Morgenthau took a seat in the captain's chair. "I guess we have no choice. Launch the Tenma now!" he declared.
"Affirmative!" A helmsman replied. "Launching in T-Minus 10… 9… 8…"
"Admiral! A similar mobile suit is approaching us!" The helmswoman replied.
Cass looked down at the ground. "Glenn… This is for you, my friend." She mumbled.
"3… 2… 1!" The other helmsman called. "Initiating takeoff!"
The engines of the Tenma fired up as the gravity stabilised and the hangar doors opened to the colony. Everyone on the bridge took a seat as the ship exited into the air.
Eisenstadt turned the Crusader sideways and effortlessly sliced through both of the remaining jets, removing the one distraction he had. He then looked over his right shoulder to see the testing facility. He then folded the swords into a pair of assault rifles and opened fire on the building, completely decimating it, causing explosions and collapse all over it.
However, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a familiar sight. He couldn't forget that distinct triangular shape anywhere, though he was sure he had struck it down in Vladivostok. Eisenstadt stared down the rebuilt Tenma and took a deep breath. He then noticed an energy signature on his radar: the Paladin. Roath was slow, but at least he'd finally made it. He opened a communications channel with the Paladin, but for some reason, Roath wasn't responding.
Eisenstadt looked to his left, only to notice something strange about the Paladin. It was baring its lance at him . It was then he realised the horrifying truth and immediately turned to attack the other Gundam. That wasn't Roath at the controls.
Finally as the Crusader's swords and the Paladin's shield clashed with shots firing on both sides before pushing each other away, the enigmatic new pilot of the Paladin answered.
"Just as I'd thought…" Eisenstadt cursed.
Glenn glared at the red mobile suit in front of him. It must have been another of these "Gundam" things. And its pilot, an enemy pilot , was right in the middle of a call with him. How young was this masked man? The mask made it hard to tell, but he had to be about… 17 , tops.
"Hey jackass, this is my home you're invading." He declared, pointing the Paladin's gunlance at the Crusader. "I suggest you and the rest of you imperial scumbags piss off and leave us alone."
Eisenstadt angrily scowled. "Apologies, we don't negotiate with murderous demons like you." Hateful venom utterly dripped from every single word that left his mouth. He then closed the call as the two pilots stood in the middle of the runway as the scenery around them had descended into a fiery battlefield, the two staring each other down as their weapons flared to life.
To be continued…
