No Second Chances [Gundam 00/Battletech SI]

[LGear]

LGear's Notes: So I got inspired by reading a glut of the Battletech SI crossovers over at SB, especially GundamChief and his SI stories. He also beta'd this fic, much thanks for that!

So jumping into this admittedly small bandwagon... ​

==========​

Light.

Shape.

Color.

Thuds.

Movement.

Vision.

Clarity.

Vibration.

Blinking.

Cognition.

Where?

Where am I?

"Where am I?!"

As though a haze lifted from my mind, I looked around, wondering where I was at that moment. But before I could try to find answers to that question, my mind caught on to an important fact, one I almost missed.

What happened to me before?

I tried to remember the last thing I saw-

Darkness.

White lines in the dark ground.

Blinding white light in the darkness.

PAIN

PAIN

PAI-

My stomach felt void, and a cold chill overtook me.

I had died.

I had gotten careless, and crossed when I should not have.

I died.

I WAS dead.

I should be dead.

I tried to process this fact through my brain… and found that I couldn't. Between me dying back near home, and waking up here, had it really been so quick? If not for the fact that this place was nowhere I should be in, I could've accepted that it was all a dream, that I had slept for a moment and simply woken up.

"I…. died."

My hands started shaking the moment those words left my lips. I hugged myself with both hands, trying to stop the shaking, but found I could not.

I had not believed in an afterlife back then. No heaven, no hell, no purgatory or Valhalla or Sovngarde or whatever you wanted to call it. I knew that death was an unimaginable void, of endless nothingness, where no cognition or consciousness existed, where everything simply ceased to be. The very thought of this oblivion was the source of all terror.

I had been there, and couldn't remember it. Death was exactly as I imagined.

My stomach heaved, trying to empty itself out as the nausea overtook me, the only fortune being that my stomach seemed empty, expelling only air.

I don't know how long I cried, or how long my mind blanked out at the thought of having been dead. Didn't know how long I spent wallowing in the agony, the horror, the utter patheticness of it all. Didn't know how long I spent coughing, sniffling, screaming, sobbing.

…..

By the time my eyes had dried and my nose no longer ran, I felt exhausted and utterly spent, unable to lift a finger, nor willing to move my body. My mind wanted to slip into unconsciousness, into darkness-

Cold terror shot through my veins. I didn't want to go back, not now when I had sights and sounds and smells and touch and thoughts….

Not when I felt this alive!

I slapped my cheeks with my hands, shook my head, and tried to focus on what I was seeing, on where I was, anything to keep my mind off the fatigue.

Spoiler: Sight

It seemed I was inside a rather small compartment, whose ceiling was only a foot away from my head, and whose sides I could reach with my arms stretched out while I sat on a comfortable chair of sorts. The armrests had various buttons, and each had handles sticking out of them.

There were three large oddly-shaped windows, one to my front, and two to my side, showing a view of a reddish-orange desert outside, under a clear, blue sky with thin, wispy clouds. I squinted for a second glance, noticed that these windows had moving white lines and shapes on them, then I realized they weren't windows at all: they were monitors, built into the dull, grey walls. A smaller display on the front monitor showed that there was a large orange rock formation of sorts behind me that gave me much needed shade.

Wait a second.

The seat, the monitors, the handles…. I was in a cockpit, more specifically a mecha cockpit, complete with pedals when I finally moved my feet. How did I not connect the dots earlier?! The layout looked kind of familiar now that I observed a bit more, as if I should know this place by heart, but hadn't been there in a while, a nostalgic feeling that needed a reminder to surface.

That reminder appeared as a set of three words on the frontal monitor, flashing slowly in black lettering:

GN DRIVE REPOSE

The words vanished from the screen, but the damage had been done, the pieces had fallen into place.

"Hey, it spells 'repose' correctly now."

Goddamnit brain, you had to focus on THAT tidbit after discovering that you're in the cockpit of a GUNDAM?! Not just any Gundam, but a GN-Drive powered one, meaning a mecha from one of my favorite series, Gundam 00 (double-oh). There was a moment when the thought of this machine being a GN-Drive mobile suit and not a Gundam presented itself, but was dismissed in light of the evidence - machines that weren't built by the armed military organization Celestial Being tended to have different colored monitor displays, and many of the later machines by different factions had wrap-around monitors that covered most of the cockpit, instead of the relatively small window-like monitors like these.

My left hand clicked a few buttons, bringing up a general system menu to see what suit I was inside of. The display in front of me brought up a diagram showing the humanoid shape of the mobile suit I was in, broken into multiple neatly-divided sections. Of all the words and terms scattered across the screen, the diagram's shape, and the words above it provided all I needed to know.

"GN….." I blinked, now very, very awake. ".... 001".

I had a lot of fantasies, from the childish, to the grand, to the perverse, and though most of them couldn't possibly come true, a man could still dream couldn't they?

But to see one of those silly dreams become reality…

"Gundam…. Exia."

The familiar name rolled on my tongue fondly, of one of my favorite designs of any mecha anytime and anywhere. A mecha that was literally the embodiment of everything I found awesome and cool and great and sexy and beautiful-

Sorry, but this was the GUNDAM EXIA, the first design of anything that I fell in love with at first sight. And not only had it been made into reality, I was sitting inside its cockpit, to use and do as a pleased.

Don't worry Exia, I'll be gentle with you.

I pressed some more buttons to see what else this sexy thing had installed, and whether it had any of its weapons-

Wait...

...How did I know how to bring up this thing's system menu at all?!

That knowledge should not have come as easily as it did to me. Afterall, I never piloted a mobile suit in real life, let alone make finding the right buttons to press seem like second nature. I placed both of my hands on the pilot sticks, gripping them tight to stop their trembling, and tried to feel anything I "remembered" when it came to operating the Exia. I knew the autobalancer for the legs was set to neutral because the suit was currently kneeling and its setting adjustments based on what weapons the suit had for balancing, I remembered that the particle ballast valves needed to be kept to be opened to at least 35% capacity for safe operation, I cringed when I realized that there was a particle blockage on the left arm that I had to flush out via the E-35 connectors…

There was no way I should know these facts, and yet I could recall them easily as though I was piloting the Exia for my entire life.

Only one conclusion presented itself in light of all the collective evidence so far: someone, or something, had messed with my head, added knowledge that I shouldn't have, and likely the same entity who had…. Resurrected me and placed me here. It brought into mind memories of reading scenarios like these from other authors, of a person pulled out of their everyday life by an all-powerful being and dropped into a setting from one of their favorite stories.

In Spacebattles terms, I was an S.I. - Self Insert - pulled by R.O.B. - Random Omnipotent Being - into another world for shits and giggles.

I was still trying to parse just how I felt about that revelation when subtle vibrations made themselves known through the hull, pulling me out of my thoughts, making me as alert as can be in this state.

"Earthquake?"

The computer helpfully conjured a display on the frontal monitor, which formed a circular minimap which showed where the source of the vibration… of the vibrations were. Six objects, moving from the side and behind me in a loose formation with some 40 to 50 meters between them, and will likely pass close to my position. Could they see me? With a few button presses I flashed a status display on the monitor, and breathed with relief at the words.

Optical Camouflage Status: Active

At least I was invisible for the time being, right until I decide to move anyway. From their heading, it looked like they were going slow and steady, and wouldn't be close to my position. I wouldn't see them until they passed by the rocks I was behind, but just knowing where they were was enough.

Still I froze up, feeling cold sweat run down my face. It stood to reason that if I was in the Gundam Exia, then I was likely in the Anno Domini setting where the series took place, which meant that these contacts were likely mobile suits from one of the three power blocs that formed the basis of 00's geopolitical setting. Since these contacts were walking on the ground, and since I was in a desert, I could only come to one conclusion.

"The HRL huh."

The Human Reform League, i.e. HRL, was the power bloc consisting of most of Southeast Asia and Oceania, with China being their most influential member. They tended to use ground combat mobile suits more akin to lumbering tanks on legs rather than the more nimble machines that tended to be a staple of the Gundam franchise. If they were still using Tierens, or hopefully the less advanced Anfs, then I shouldn't have anything to fear as they were machines the Exia could dispatch easily enough.

Well, easy in the hands of an experienced Gundam Meister, as was Celestial Being's term for a Gundam pilot. I had no delusions about being an actual Gundam Meister no matter if R.O.B. had dropped me inside this cockpit, and while my knowledge assured me that the Exia was a superior machine capable of handling what was coming….

Black and white lines

PAIN

PAIN

…. Before I knew it I almost hyperventilated, and tried to steady myself with deep breaths. I only just… and R.O.B. wanted me to fight? That was the only reason it would put me in a Gundam wasn't it? Did it want me to perform armed interventions like Aeolia Schenberg did when the guy founded Celestial Being? But the story of 00 had already ended with the events of the Awakening of the Trailblazer movie, why did R.O.B. want to mess around with the setting now? I know I was decently knowledgeable about the Anno Domini setting, and I might be able to use that knowledge to change some events, like say stopping the Thrones from killing Louise Halevy's parents… but I personally thought the setting didn't need any desperate changes, afterall they had achieved some measure of peace and prosperity in the end didn't they?

The contacts drew closer, blood pounding in my ears with each beep from the monitor. My hands felt hot and clammy, clamped upon the pilot sticks so tight I felt I could almost crush them.

Well screw you R.O.B., you gave me a second lease on life, and I'm not cutting it short by rushing headlong into battle like an adrenaline junkie. I did not have to fight here, no battles currently raging, and no reason for me to antagonize the HRL. Unless Sumeragi (preferably) or Tieria (not preferable) suddenly cracks through the comms to chastise me for my behavior I'll stay nice and safe here.

Beep

They were close now, and would pass by the rocks any moment.

Beep

I had the Exia's telephoto cameras zoom in on where the mobile suits would appear. Time to see who they were.

A barrel emerged itself from the rocks, rusty and brown, followed by a bulky leg in a similar state of wear and tear, and finally the body on which the barrel was mounted on moved forward.

".... that is not a Tieren."

Spoiler: Enemy Contact

It was a massive brown humanoid mech, almost as tall as the Exia it seemed, with large stumpy legs, equally bulky arms, and a massive square torso. The telephoto camera easily picked up all of the scratches, burns and rust on the mech, a few of them recent, but most likely having been there for years, decades, or even centuries.

It had a white, skull-like head with two eyes in a menacing visage.

"You've…. got to be frakking me."

This wasn't a mobile suit, this was a battlemech, specifically an Atlas, the largest and most dangerous of the battlemechs I know of.

So I wasn't in Gundam 00's setting after all. No, I was actually somewhere worse.

I was in the Battletech universe.

I've read crossover SI fanfics set in Battletech before, but R.O.B. is this like a fad or something?

I let out a groan that I poured all of my disbelief and bemusement into, kneading my nose with my left hand. Unlike 00, my own knowledge of Battletech wasn't very deep or broad. I did have some cursory knowledge of the mechs in the setting, like the aforementioned Atlas, and I could ID a few other battlemechs by sight, like the couple of Orion battlemechs that showed up after the Atlas, which had thinner legs, cannons for forearms, and a head that looked like it was lifted off an attack helicopter. There was also an Urbanmech after them, with its distinctive cylindrical body and domed head that made it look like R2-D2 with actual legs and a gun that was perhaps the source of all the memes it appeared to have.

I could not ID the other two mechs afterwards, and that was the problem: show me a mobile suit from 00 and I can ID them in a heartbeat, two if they were from somewhat obscure sidestories. But battlemechs were a different matter, for while I knew a handful by heart I couldn't identify the rest of them, let alone whatever variants they may have that determined what weapons they're packing. And that was the least of my problems.

If this was the Battletech universe, and not some strange fusion of settings, then it's likely I wasn't even on Earth anymore, but on some distant planet I wouldn't even know the name of, let alone where I was in the galaxy. I also didn't know what year it was, though it really wouldn't help me much since my knowledge of the timeline was spotty at best, let alone know of the current political situation.

All I knew was that there was this Star League long ago that had all the best technologies - including the faster-than-light jumpships that allowed for interstellar travel, and of course the battlemechs - until it broke apart when they up and left the Inner Sphere to fend for themselves, and the galaxy has been a constant shithole between the 5 Noble Houses and all other factions in between ever since. I can call up terms like the Ares Conventions, or the numerous Succession Wars, or the Clans…. But I did not truly know them, did not understand them as much as I did the Exia.

Information is power, which in this case meant I was powerless.

Not completely of course, as there are many other sources of power, like having the most advanced war machine in the Inner Sphere in the form of this Gundam. Or at least, until R.O.B. just decides to drop an enemy 00-Qan[T] (pronounced "Quanta", the creators were weird like that) from nowhere to fight me or something to make it "interesting". I certainly hope not, but you can never tell with these bastards.

But as long as R.O.B. doesn't do anything dickish like that, there was no reason for me to move from this spot. I did not know the situation, did not know anything about what was happening. These guys could be Draconis Combine, Federated Suns, Comstar or Santa Claus for all I care, I'm staying put until they're gone, then find a better place to hide and survive for a while, sort all of this out.

Another beep, and the monitor flashed another sub display.

Cryptanalysis Complete

Transmission Intercept Mode: Off

I knew that Celestial Being's Operating System for the Gundams was supposed to be user friendly, but I don't remember it being this easy. That, or this is yet more R.O.B. power at work.

Everything I knew from fanfics told me that this was a rather convenient set of events, and that the display was just tantalizing me to flip it on and listen in on whatever conversations were happening on-air right now, likely from the passing "lance" (aka a squad) of battlemechs. This was a trap, and if I wanted to live longer I would do my best to just ignore it.

… on the other hand, waiting is boring. I could take on Boring as the enemy.

I sighed, flipped the Intercept mode to 'On', and was immediately rewarded by the familiar crackling noise of a radio transmission.

"Chief, how much we getting from this?" A young female with a strange accent.

"They'd sell a pretty penny offworld. With the right buyers, I say a million C-Bills for them." Your average young male.

"Had you kept your hands off them, buyers don't pay well for damaged goods." An older gruff-sounding guy.

"We can clean them up good as new, show off the quality of the merchandise. If I couldn't resist them, those horn dogs certainly won't!"

A pit formed in my stomach at this conversation, having heard enough innuendo and double entendre through my perverted life to know what they might be talking about. They were laughing, relaxed, as if talking about the weather. I had the cameras scan around the battlemechs for anything resembling transport vehicles, see what their cargo was, and hoped that I just had a wild imagination from having seen too many shows.

Indeed, there were three large freight trucks following behind the mechs, their contents unseen behind their steel walls. Each truck was protected by a single armed APC each for security.

I took a breath, and had the cameras switch to thermal imaging mode to peer inside.

Please be cold, please be cold…

They were hot.

Yellows and orange blobs filled the inside of the containers, many of them forming separate humanoid shapes... And they were moving. They formed huddled shapes, hugging shapes, shapes lying on the floor.

They were transporting people in those trucks, talking about them as if they were things…

Human trafficking.

Slavers.

A term from the earlier conversation hit me, and all my fatigue vanished even as a cold chill pierced through me.

'... damaged goods….'

You win R.O.B. You absolutely fracking win. You magnificent sonuvabitch I read your fanfic!

There was absolutely no way these fuckers were getting away, not after what I discovered, not after I heard their leers, their absolute disregard for human dignity.

"GN Drive Repose, Release."

The red light of the biometric scanner flashed past my eyes.

REPOSE RELEASE

Even if I wasn't a Gundam Meister, even if I didn't know anything about what I was facing, even if I didn't know the greater political climate outside this world… I could not stand by and see this convoy escape. The more I thought about it, the more the anger swelled, to the beat of the GN Drive's ever louder whine.

GN SWORD ACTIVE
GN BEAM SABER ACTIVE
GN BEAM SABER ACTIVE
GN BEAM DAGGER ACTIVE
GN BEAM DAGGER ACTIVE
GN BEAM GUN ACTIVE
GN VULCAN ACTIVE
GN VULCAN ACTIVE
GN SHIELD ACTIVE

"All weapons green."

Every move was automatic, every click and every push choreographed. My mind willed this war machine to life, and my body effortlessly complied to realize that goal. These false memories and skills of mine, I shall make use of now.

"Disable optical camouflage."

These fuckers were DEAD.

"Exia, commencing attack."

==========​

"Hey Chief, got incoming!"

Patty Lindbaum tried to hide the panic that tinted her voice. There was incompetence, and then were was missing a massive enemy contact out in the middle of the desert! Chief Presto had always relied on her skills to spot threats early, and her Urbanmech "Doldrums" had been jury-rigged with improved sensors to help in her only useful skill in this company. It now showed an enemy that literally appeared out of nowhere! She shivered at the thought of getting another tongue-lashing again after this.

"How far?" The Chief's suspicious voice only served to enhance the fear that was growing in the pit of her stomach.

"B-b-be hind ye!"

"WHAT DID YOU-"

She had braced herself for the stream of curses forever cementing her uselessness, until she saw the black line rising above and behind the Chief's Atlas mech. She blinked, and saw the black thing crash through the Atlas' head, bisecting downwards towards the crotch as it left a glowing orange line in its screeching wake. Another blink, witnessing as the Atlas split apart at the orange line, and fell to earth in two halves, kicking up dust everywhere.

"W-w-what is that?!" One of the men, she didn't know who, cried out in horror, reflecting what she now felt as she took in what just happened... and witnessed the sight that would change her life forever.

Spoiler: The Face of Death

Standing in the place between where the smoking halves of the Chief's Atlas lay, was a white and blue battlemech taller than the Atlas it felled, yet proportioned like a curvier Phoenix Hawk. On its left arm was a diamond-shaped shield, and on its right was a shield where a gigantic grey sword of all things was attached, longer than her Urbanmech was tall. For a moment, she thought she saw sparkling points of light behind the mech, before they vanished from her sight as the large green orb on its chest glew bright.

The mysterious battlemech turned its head to gaze at her with its two glowing blue eyes, freezing her in place as fear overtook her. To destroy their Chief's mech, his unbeatable Atlas, in a single stroke...

"Hardy, Pickins, with me! Patty you useless git, take the cargo and go!" crackled the angry voice of their second-in-command Wayne through the radio which she heard but didn't acknowledge. More commands barked through, but all her attention focused on their enemy, perhaps trying to rationalize what she saw.

Their two Heavy Mechs, Hardy and Pickin's Orions, rushed towards the lone battlemech, their arm-mounted medium lasers leaving blazing trails of light across the desert, while their SRM's fired their deadly salvos of rockets against their targets. Beams struck true, and the rockets followed, fiery explosions blooming all over their enemy.

For a moment Patty thought it was over, that perhaps she was just being a scaredy cat again.

"Spread out and keep firing! I want to see a wreck when that smoke clears!"

Of course Wayne wanted to keep firing, as expected of the smartest in their group, and she watched his Victor assault mech move between the two Orions and fire an alpha strike at the smoke and dust cloud where the enemy mech had been, with beams, missiles and tracers intertwining and exploding inside the cloud. She could see the Victor's heat sinks glowing, the air around them warping and rising.

"You think that got him?" Hardy asked hesitantly over the sounds of weapons fire.

"Hell if I know! Don't let your guard dow-"

The blue and white mech exploded out of the cloud, a blackened shield raised high as it FLEW at speeds only light mechs should have towards the Victor, before bashing Wayne's mech with its shield. Before the stricken Assault mech could even fall to the ground, the enemy reared its sword and with a slash tore through the Victor's arms and chest, steel, cables and all. Without pause the mech spun in place, leapt to the right, and sliced Hardy's Orion through the cockpit. Patty caught a glimpse of legs sitting in a chair with no body before the mech fell.

Her cockpit soon smelled of vomit.

"Get away from me! GET AWAY!-"

Pickin's desperate cries blared through the radio, then fell silent to the tune of crashing metal and the thud of a heavy battlemech hitting the ground. The boom of their Enforcer's autocannon cracked through the air repeatedly as if in desperation, and were then silenced by the sound of drawn metal. The stillness seemed like an eternity.

By the time Patty dared to look to see what happened to their only medium mech, she saw IT standing in front of her.

​

To defeat five battlemechs so quickly with only a sword, moving impossibly fast between them while taking no damage from their weapons…

This was no battlemech they faced…. This was death incarnate, a spectre of anger and vengeance. They had done bad things, and they had been punished.

And its burning blue eyes were glaring at HER.

"P-p-please… I'll be good! I'll be a pirate no more! D-Don't kill me!" She managed to croak, even as all she wanted to do was break down.

She paled as Death raised its sword, and she braced herself, knowing without a doubt that she was about to die.

"Get out."

A new voice, cold and venomous crackled through the comms. Even as her mind tried to understand what she heard, her body frantically obeyed, and within moments she had left behind her mech and was on the ground, running through the dry desert sands as fast and far as her legs would take her.

A crash, and a final thud resounded through the desert, and Patty knew exactly what happened, but she dared not look back.

"I'm sorry Doldrums…"

And so she ran, under the clear blue sky.

==========​

I watched the girl disappear into the desert sands, as if trying for a new land speed record. A dark part of me had wanted to shoot her as she ran, but I easily shut the thought down. I had been prepared to kill her like the rest, but that last transmission…. The girl was obviously broken, and had not taken part in the battle against me. The fact that she interpreted my demand as making her abandon her mech and run, rather than actually run with the mech was proof enough of how my rampage had affected her. She was no threat.

I stifled a laugh at that.

… so I'm making threat assessments now huh?

The battlemechs may have been scrapped, but the trucks and their escorts had made their escape in the meantime. Not that they can, between the Exia's sensors showing them speeding full throttle and the tracks in the sand they weren't going anywhere. I powered up the GN Drive, and let the Exia rocket to the sky.

On any other day, I might have enjoyed the view from half a kilometer up, the vast yellow desert below me, and the endless expanse of blue above, but my attention was focused on finding that convoy. It didn't take long to find them: they were moving north, leaving behind a rather large trail of dust in their wake.

I gunned the throttle, overshot the convoy by a hundred meters, and crash landed the Exia feet first, kicking up a small dust storm in the process, before turning towards the convoy that had now stopped dead in their tracks.

Admittedly, I always wanted to do a dramatic entrance like that.

To top it all off, I set GN particle release to maximum, which should create a rather spectacular light show behind me, and also affect any of their attempts at calling for backup due to the GN Particle's ability to disrupt communications at sufficient concentrations. Come to think of it, I think I should've done that earlier against the battlemechs.

Machinegun fire lit up from one of the escorts, a pitiful effort against any battlemech, let alone the Exia's GN Composite Armor. These APC's also housed the rest of the pirates, as thermal imaging confirms, and already some of them were stopping to disembark men with anti-armor weapons.

Weren't battlemechs supposed to be able to intimidate infantry into surrender? What's with these guys and their tenacity?

Pointing the GN Sword's beam gun at them, I made my declaration via the suit's loudspeakers.

"Surrender, and you will not be harmed."

One of the men hoisting a rocket-propelled grenade loosed its payload, streaking towards the Exia. I could easily have the Exia avoid it or shoot it down, but some vindictive thought in the back of my mind wanted to truly demoralize these men.

So I took the rocket head on, an explosion blooming on the Exia's leg, which is the logical place to shoot a battlemech to destabilize it. Impact and damage sensors on the leg flashed red on the Exia's structural integrity diagram, before returning to normal. In other words, it didn't do much but scuff the paint. To hammer in the point, I turned the Exia's head to stare directly into the offending pirate, who looked like he was regretting his life decisions at that point as my GN Beam Gun pointed at their direction.

Fortunately, they all got the message, and laid down their arms.

I cleared my throat, and with a voice that hopefully sounded authoritarian I declared, "Disembark from the vehicles and put your hands behind your heads."

Most of the APC drivers complied with the order, though thermal imaging revealed there was one vehicle that had a person hiding in a compartment with a weapon, if their body language was any indication.

"To the person hiding inside the APC, you have ten seconds to get out of the vehicle, or be destroyed."

It took him 5 seconds.

23 pirates overall, including the crew of two of the trucks, a whole platoon more or less. There was still one more vehicle whose crew had not joined the others however.

Instead of doing like I asked, the last truck started to accelerate.

"Oh come on…"

Despite my earlier gesture, firing a GN Beam Gun at the convoy would be counterproductive to my goal of saving the prisoners, and I'd wanted my show of power to cow them. Unfortunately, they called my bluff, so Plan B…

I wondered if my acquired skills would be enough to perform Plan B….

Frak it.

The GN Sword folded out, and before the escaping truck could go any faster I stabbed it behind its cab, which skidded for a few meters before it stopped.

"So, anyone feeling lucky yet?"

After that show, the other truckers finally got out with their hands up, where I then had them gather at a single point. I realized at that moment that I couldn't afford to take care of these guys: I might have a Gundam, but there was only one of me, and at least 25 of them. If I dared go down personally, I'd find myself overwhelmed before I got to the prisoners.

I remembered the crying girl, and made my decision.

I shot the GN Beam Gun at its lowest setting a few meters away from them, creating a small explosion that knocked a dozen of them around and made a new glass crater in the sand. I think I saw one of them mouth "Are you crazy?!" at me, but he shut up after I pointed the beam gun at them again.

"Run, before I change my mind."

Thankfully, none of them wanted to stick around, and I got some small enjoyment watching a platoon of full-grown men race as far away from me as possible.

That issue solved, there was only one more agenda for the day: the prisoners.

As I returned the GN Drive to repose mode and deactivated the monitors I caught sight of myself for the first time reflected in the now dark screens acting like mirrors, and noted that I looked nothing like I previously had before. I still had dark hair, but now I had green eyes, and I was noticeably thinner and more fit than I last remembered. Also, I looked quite familiar…

Then realization hit, and I let out a small laugh at something falling into place.

At least thinking up a code name suddenly became easier...

==========​

For Town Mayor Bryn Sile of Valdez, the last two weeks had been hell, beginning from when these pirates and their battlemechs had raided their town, and had taken a lot of the able men, women and children away. He had seen the local militia arrive to help, but between the pirate's superior weapons all they accomplished was add to the growing death toll, and in the end there was nothing to stop the pirates from whisking him and nearly a hundred of his people away. At least the pirate's dropship had been taken down, forcing them to take the long way out. Though a part of his mind wondered if perhaps that would've been a better alternative to what they were going through now.

From there, events had deteriorated as they were hauled across the desert to wherever they were being taken. The heat had taken its toll on his people, along with the scarce rations and water given by what little generosity these slavers had. Already he knew that eight of his people had died in between escape attempts and the hellish conditions, which had severely weakened them during the journey. Some had even died here in these very containers, but instead of getting rid of them, the pirates decided that they couldn't afford the time. They had been left here to rot, a grim reminder of the fate that awaited them all. Morale to say the least was abysmal.

He had seen women dragged out of the trucks, to return with the light in their eyes snuffed out in tears, and brave sons shot as "examples" to quell unrest and disorder. As much as he tried to ease the suffering of those left behind, he knew there was nothing he could do in his current sorry state.

The first sign of change had been the explosions that rocked their truck, loud enough that the could hear it from inside the container. None of them could see in the darkness of the container, illuminated only by a dim electric light, but they could feel the truck speed away, faster than they've known before. Once the truck had skidded to a sudden stop, throwing the people to the front of the container towards the walls. One, farmer Darius Gol, had been knocked out bleeding by the sudden stop, and though he lived he may not have long.

In light of this, he had ordered all of the people inside to stay to the rear of the truck, a move that turned out most prudent when the truck jerked to a halt once again, throwing them forward once more. This time, no serious injuries had occurred.

That was when they all heard another large explosion, and afterwards silence.

"What is happening?" Asked his wife Lila, whom he was grateful had not suffered the pirate's filthy hands. The concern and confusion in her voice lit a fire within him.

"I don't know my love," he answered truthfully as he squeezed her hand in his, a gesture that she returned, "but stay close. They will not harm you as I live and breathe."

His bravado was short lived, as they heard the creaking of the steel bar that sealed their only exit from this container, and reflexively all of them, including himself, ran to the front of the container, as far from the door as they could. Even then, Bryn steeled himself, and stayed at the front of his wife, and his charges protectively to face whoever came in. As a precaution, he threw his hand up to his face.

Both doors creaked open, bathing the inside in the warm desert light and temporarily blinding Bryn despite his precaution.

When his eyes finally adjusted, he saw a lanky man in a white and grey bodysuit, with a similarly white helmet that revealed the man's young visage.

"Is everyone alright in here?!"

The gun on the man's hip made Bryn wary, but the other item the man carried eased his tensions: the carrying bag's red cross was the universal sign for medicine after all. The man definitely looked nothing like the pirates that had held them, and unlike the previous times this man came alone instead of having armed guards, but he could not be certain.

"One of us, Darius, hit his head in one of our stops," the man seemed to flinch at this, "If you are here to provide aid, then help him."

"I understand. My name is Soran Ibrahim. Do not worry, I am not with the pirates."

As if to prove his sincerity, Soran removed his helmet, revealing a youthful face adorned by unruly black hair, and emerald eyes that hardened at the sight before him, and yet seemed to hold an underlying innocence at odds with his appearance. The man sniffed the air, and the slight cringe that vanished as soon as it appeared made Bryn conscious of their unfortunate circumstances.

Nonetheless the man soldiered on after laying his helmet on the floor, and Bryn stood aside as his wife brought Darius to the fore. Suspicious eyes lay upon the stranger as he approached, then finally knelt down by the injured farmer. Taking out a small torchlight from his medical kit, Soran inspected the farmer's head, then frowned.

"I'm afraid all I can do is stop his bleeding," the young man informed apologetically. "With your permission?"

The polite gesture did much to lessen Bryn's unease, though not the rest. "You have my blessings."

The young man brought out a clean white cloth, sprayed the farmer's wound with some kind of medicine, and within moments Darius head was snugly covered up. Meanwhile, Bryn had noticed the lack of any other people besides Soran outside, and the all pervading silence bereft of machinery or activity, and it appeared the rest of them inside had noticed it as well as their faces began to relax, though alert.

Soran stood up to face Bryn. "He will need to be taken to a proper hospital for treatment."

Bryn shook his head. "But the pirates-"

"Are no longer a problem."

Many eyes, including Bryn's, widened at certainty behind the declaration. "Truly…"

Soran smirked. "If you heard that explosion outside, that was their way of saying goodbye with their tails tucked between their legs."

For the first time laughter, though weak, came from his people, especially his lovely wife, and Bryn found himself doing the same. But still, he could not let his guard down.

"If it is as safe as you say, then will we be able to go outside?"

"Of course," Soran replied without hesitation. "This is the first vehicle I've visited, and the rest of your people need your help."

"Then you wouldn't object to helping this old one down?"

"As you wish."

Slowly Bryn exited the container that had been their prison, listening for anything out of place. His feet touched the warm sand, shaded from the sun by a massive shadow. He looked up, and saw a massive white and blue battlemech the likes he had never seen before. What struck him most was not how it was smoother and more curvy than other machines he'd seen, or how human-like it appeared, it how it was clean in a way he had seen no other battlemech be, aside from the shield on its left arm that had clearly seen combat from its scratches and burns.

"Am I to assume that is yours, Mr. Ibrahim?" Bryn asked with much trepidation.

"She's my sweet baby," Soran replied fondly, "and this mission wouldn't have been possible without her."

Bryn was no stranger to hearing mechwarriors refer to their machined by gender, and felt himself relax at the admission. And indeed, the pirate battlemechs that kept them in captivity were nowhere to be found, and he hadn't been shot, ambushed or dragged away. He turned towards all the people in the container.

"Have no fear, the pirates are no more!"

Cheers rang out, as weak as they are, but joyous nonetheless. One by one, with assistance from himself and Soran, men, women and children came out to the sand, some praising their gods for their salvation, others tending to those who needed help, and some simply enjoying the freedom they regained. The children, despite their weakness, still found the energy to admire the young man's battlemech with their 'oohs' and 'aahs'.

The young man turned to him, after they had helped all of the people down, expression all business. "There are two more vehicles that need our help, Mister?"

Bryn felt no small amount of shame at that. In his suspicion, he had not introduced himself to this young man, who had been nothing but forthcoming.

"I apologize for not introducing myself sooner, Bryn Sile, Mayor of Valdez Town." He extended a hand to the young man, who shook it promptly.

"I figured as much. They all look to you when something happens."

The compliment sounded sincere, and for the first time Bryn allowed himself a smile. "Let's say we free the rest of my people."

Soran simply nodded. "Gladly."

==========​

The rest of the day went by in a blur, as more of the townsfolk were freed, and finally allowed to rest outside those rather pungent-smelling containers. Truth to be told the smell was unbearable, but I understood that it was through no fault of these people.

As it turned out whatever food was left was stored in the cabs and the APCS, which were previously guarded by the pirates, so they were distributed among everyone. I politely declined when they offered me to have them as well, since I knew that the Exia had a ration pack stored in the cockpit, and honestly they needed it more than I do.

Still, there had been a lot to do - cleaning the people up to decency with what little supplies we had at hand, treating the sick and wounded, assigning temporary guards with the weapons left behind, burying the dead (the corpses which had contributed to the smell inside the trucks, what the frak) and other small stuff.

I could leave now, congratulate myself for a job well done. But to do so would have felt incomplete, as these people still needed to get back to their homes. However, the Mayor admitted as much that between being kept inside a dark metal box for days, and the distance they've travelled since then, that they had no idea how to get back.

"Mayor, the radio's not picking up anything," one of the men informed, much to our consternation, being the third check of the radios on the trucks.

"It appears we are too far from civilization to contact the militia, damn the Shroud," the Mayor observed. This desert, apparently called the unimaginative "No Man's Land" was home to a rather mean radio diffusal phenomena called "the Shroud", preventing any radio transmissions from reaching beyond a hundred meters. It meant that we wouldn't be able to call on the militia to secure and transport these people back. On the flip side though, it did mean that my GN Particle light show earlier was pointless, as the trucks had no means to call for reinforcements anyway. Probably why the slavers took this route off the beaten path, so they wouldn't be detected as easily. "I fear we may have to journey in the morning to make time getting back."

"Not in those things, sir," I objected quite sternly, "Your people deserve better than staying cooped up in those disease-ridden filth boxes for a second longer than they should."

The Mayor let himself have a resigned sigh. "Unfortunately young man, most of the time, we should take what we have."

'Most of the time' instead of 'Sometimes' like I was used to in regards to that particular phrase. Then I remembered that Battletech fostered a scavenger mentality especially in regards to Lostech due to the various wars crippling the Inner Sphere's industry through the loss of various manufacturing factories, or at least so I heard.

"I don't believe in the viability of scavenging as a long term plan, sir."

A bitter chuckle left the Mayor. "A lofty ideal young one, but as you can see reality is not nearly so accommodating."

Reality huh? I almost wanted to tell him that this world used to be a fictional story played by people for entertainment… but that would be denying everything I've experienced within the past few hours - the crying girl, the twisted metal, the rancid smell that covered these innocent people in gloom. Reality could accommodate resurrecting me for some R.O.B.'s twisted plans, surely there must be something I could do here.

A beep drew our attention to the communication device on my hip, that looked like a miniature Star Trek PADD, which I drew out to emit a holographic emitter (I didn't miss the faces of everyone looking at it like a piece of lostech… which, it practically was). Along with a map overlay of the current area, there were a set of coordinates listed (which again, I knew how to read thanks to ROB memory mashing), and saw the alphanumerical set hovering by said coordinates.

CBS-743

I tried to remember where I've seen that string before…. And then grinned as the implications hit. Sure, it was actually one number away from what I actually knew about the string, but the change was a logical progression, an upgrade.

"Young man?" the mayor asked me, sounding quite disturbed for some reason. I turned to him, still in my newly discovered good mood.

"Sir, if you'd permit me to leave for a few hours, I may have a solution for you."

==========​

After I dazzled the locals once again by not only filling the dusk sky with brightly colored particles of light, but also by FLYING off into the sunset (literally going west), I sat in the cockpit and let the Exia's autopilot take me to the assigned coordinates, which if I'm reading this right, was literally a few miles away from shore under the sea. By her current speed, the Exia had about a couple of hours or so to reach the coordinates.

Here, in the silence of nothing but the whirring of the GN Drive and the occasional small beeps on the monitor, as the day's adrenaline rush faded away, did it hit me.

Well, a lot of things hit me today, from beam weapons, missiles and autocannons, to the inhumanity of it all…

… and worse of all, what I had done.

I had killed people. In my anger and rage, I had taken lives without a second thought as thought it was the most natural thing in the world, despite never having done so before. I only hesitated when that girl had pleaded for her life, and I obliged her, but even then a part of me had remained that wanted to actually kill her!

"Fuck."

I tried to justify it, after all they were slavers, pirates, they were selling off innocents like cattle and treating them as such! I remember the rancid smell of human sweat, feces and rotting corpses inside those trucks, and how long these people had to languish in those conditions under the desert heat, without food or water…

Those slavers deserved what was coming to them!

But even then…. Could I have done better?

I have in my hands the most advanced machine in the Inner Sphere, excelling in close combat. I even demonstrated the necessary skill by not going for a cockpit hit against that assault mech, and splitting off that cab. Could I have pulled it off, go full Kira Yamato and try for non-lethals?

I think I read somewhere that this universe even had a code of conduct in battle for such things, where pilot kills are always accidental, but never intentional lest you want to be blacklisted or something. I don't know for sure. Maybe it was wishful thinking.

But it didn't seem to matter then, during my rampage against those battlemechs. To move the Exia as it was meant to be, a force meant to destroy, consequences be damned. My false skills, my old memories, my new experiences, all just told me that it was RIGHT.

I can't accept that for some reason, I really can't.

I don't want to lose myself to some bloodlust when I fight. That wasn't who I was, and I'd rather not become that way. But I fear, given what I saw, that I may have to head into that direction without a choice. That I may have to kill some more in this universe just to survive.

A beep catches my attention on the screen - it seems that the Exia's camera by default will attempt to tag any items that might be of interest en route, and then present it to the pilot just in case. From this high up, the telephoto cameras caught movement even in the dimming light. Considering how empty this rather vast desert is, the find was more or less inevitable. I highlight the find to zoom in and see what we got.

It was a young female, who looks rather familia-

"P-p-please… I'll be good! I'll be a pirate no more! D-Don't kill me!"

Huh, it's that girl.

Considering how fast the Exia can move in the air though, seeing her this far out from where she came from was a surprise. Did she really run that far in the burning heat? Either she's crazier than I thought, extremely stubborn, or hardier than I imagined. Possibly a combination of all three.

It was clear the girl was tiring out though, and yet she still continued to walk, shambling like a zombie. Even I with no prior experience could tell that she'd be dehydrated by this point, and likely delirious. She wouldn't notice me even if I landed near her.

Well, she wouldn't notice me anyways because she just collapsed.

I let the girl go before, more because her pleading got me to stop. I had no obligation whatsoever to assist her here, and she only got into this situation because she had aligned herself with slavers.

On the other hand… did I not fly into a rage to save complete strangers from an unfair fate? What was so different between this girl now, possibly dying out in the desert sands, and the people I left behind that I was trying to save now?

I had thought that I didn't want to kill anymore out of bloodlust or rage. Yet now, I was letting my preconceived notions possibly kill someone who I had the power to save right now. I would kill people I know would die out of my inaction.

I thought to that platoon I had scared off the vehicles. Wouldn't they be in the same situation as this girl now? Maybe, since they also had to brave the desert heat and the coming night cold. Or perhaps their numbers will allow them to survive where a lone girl could not. If I turned back now, perhaps I could save them too?

Call me a bleeding heart, but it wasn't exactly my choice to land in this messed-up grimdarkness of the 31st Century where there was only war.

I landed the Exia beside the fallen girl, got out of the cockpit and got my first good look at her. A messy heap of neck-length orange hair, barcode tattoos by her neck, mismatched green vest and orange overalls that wouldn't win any fashion awards. And she looked way too young to be a mechwarrior, around 16-17 maybe? Wait, I don't even know what age your average mechwarrior is, so who was I to judge?

Considering where we were heading, I picked her up in a fireman's carry (those fire-department-sponsored exercises came in handy), noting that she was pretty much burning hot and dry to the touch, and then deposited her on a convenient gap behind the pilot's seat, which while not the most comfortable of places, would be sufficient until we reach our destination. I force fed her one of the drinking water packs available in the Exia's cockpit to keep her hydrated, and then lifted off, letting the autopilot take over once again.

For the record, I didn't pick up this girl because her plea tugged against my conscience. She was just in the way already, that's all.

Honest.

==========​

Beep

Beep

The sounds roused me from my…. Sleep.

Sleep. Huh. I never thought I'd be capable of it after earlier. Somehow, I had been tired enough to want to doze off even after… that. Guess feeling alive and well again, and doing something actually meaningful dulls the edge of having been dead only a while ago. I was still hesitant about intentionally getting some shut eye, but I really shouldn't become an insomniac if it wasn't necessary.

Though if I expand the definition of what was 'necessary' I could avoid sleeping altogether. I dismissed the thought before it became appealing.

A quick yawn and stretch, and I check to see what the beeps were about.

The map overlay onscreen showed that we were now on top of the listed coordinates. Nothing to see but the dark ocean all around at this hour. Looking at it, the all-consuming darkness where the sky and the sea are indistinguishable, forming just a field of endless black-

No, don't think about that. I'm in a well-lit mobile suit cockpit on a mission. Focus on that. Just think of it like that one episode of Star Trek Voyager with the endless dark nebula. Actually, that sounded quite edgy for some reason...

There were other things that made me hesitate in what I was about to do next, like how I never really liked the ocean at its deepest nor its darkest, an irrational fear of very, very deep water. Imagining it was one thing, but diving into it was something I never had to do before. The only consolation I had now was that I was inside a water-sealed mobile suit capable of underwater operation.

Sighing, I lowered the Exia into the sea, splashing down into the water. The coordinates were very specific about being on this very spot, so all I had to do was dive straight down and hope that what I was looking for was there. I had lights on the Exia's head open up to try and illuminate the area, the lights only showing minute particles of random stuff floating in Brownian motion around us before being swallowed up by the darkness. I descended slowly, remembering lessons about water and air pressure that fortunately was something ROB didn't need to implant into my brain, not only for my benefit but for the other passenger in this cockpit who wouldn't have the ability to equalize on her own.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to reach the bottom, only a hundred meters or so down, and the lights revealed what I was looking for. Lit up in the darkness, was a blocky blue and white vessel, in all her glory. I couldn't help the smile on my face.

Spoiler: Lit in the dark

"Here you are, Ptolemy."

==========​

All that Town Mayor Bryn Sile wanted to do was lay down and rest under the cool desert air, a drastically welcome change from the stench that had clung to them in the previous days. The bonfires they had set up would provide heat, and already most of them had gathered around the flames to keep them warm. His own wife was sleeping by his lap, and though he wished to join her in blissful slumber, he had to keep watch if only to let everyone else know that he was looking out for them.

If not for the traces of grime, their generally dishevelled appearance, and that smell, he might have thought that all of them were on a hunting expedition, reminding him of simpler days when the burden of responsibility was a distant and far-off goal. The actual circumstances were far bleaker though, as while that young man Soran had freed them from captivity, they were still bound by the limited resources they had at their disposal. There was only so much food and water to go around, and they were already critically low on both, since the rations had been made to feed a pirate force of a couple of dozen, not a hundred. At best their supplies would last for a couple of days more with some careful portioning, but the problem remained that their journey would be far longer than that.

How many might die of disease and injuries before they get help? How many would starve to death before they reach home? The thoughts agonized him, another reason that sleep did not come easily to him.

He thought to the young man that had rescued them, Soran Ibrahim. The man had left in a jolly mood, and that he might be able to solve their problem. He had wanted to doubt the man, point to him how bleak the situation was…. And then he saw the impossible happen, as the man's pristine battlemech not only FLEW, something that no Assault-Class battlemech should be able to accomplish, but did so without an obviously hot and noisy thrusters, leaving only a trail of bluish lights that lit up the night sky with a beautiful sight, enough to take their minds off their current predicament if for only a moment. .

Clearly the young man had stumbled upon a cache of Lostech, speaking of the man's incredible luck or considerable resources. He thus still had trouble believing that the young man, apparently an unaffiliated freelancer, would so willingly use his priceless treasures to rescue people he didn't know. To be honest, his claim of being a lone wolf was rather suspect, since no one in their right minds would keep Lostech of this caliber if they didn't have the means to maintain them, and from what he'd seen his machine had been lovingly well-maintained, beyond the abilities of a rag-tag mercenary or pirate group, let alone a single person. The man was not telling them everything that much was clear.

At the same time however, the young man had eyes that possessed much conflict, a naivety and optimism hiding underneath a hard visage, like someone who had seen so much darkness but still clinging to childish ideals.This wasn't someone about the betray them he was certain, though he was still waiting for whatever catch was there, some condition for saving them.

"Mayor, we got incoming, lights in the distance!" One of the men providing security - bartender Fillus Mannerly from his favorite Paw's Place - shouted, everyone's attention turning to where he pointed. Indeed, over to the west flew an object hidden by the dark of night, lit only by small white lights and mysterious green glows.

What alarmed Bryn the most wasn't how large the object obviously was, but by how quiet it was. No aircraft or dropship of that size should be so silent.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, alert and uneasy. Tensions rose as children clung to their mothers, mothers covered their children, women sought companionship, and men braced themselves for whatever came next. Some men hurried women and children behind the cover of their vehicles, while others pointed their guns at the approaching object, whatever good their weapons might do.

Even his wife had been woken up by the commotion as Bryn took her to seek cover behind an APC, looking at the massive dropship, for that was the only thing it could be, in confusion and concern.

"Dear, those lights..."

Bryn could only hold his wife tighter as the dropship drew closer. It was then that the familiar crackle of the radio sounded, breaking through the silent tension that worsened as it meant the ship was now close enough to use the radio.

It was then that a now familiar voice emerged.

"Can anyone hear me there? This is Soran Ibrahim, that massive warship you're seeing is mine. I'll be landing in a moment, stay clear."

The voice did much to ease everyone in the camp, and Bryn himself released the breath he had been holding. Still, a WarShip? Just what secrets did this young man have to possess such a thing?!

He took hold of the APC's radio. "Welcome back Mr. Ibrahim, it is good to see you well. We shall prepare for your arrival."

Immediately he ordered the people to stay together, and brace themselves.

Floodlights opened up from the ship's belly, illuminating the entire camp as though it was day. Only when the mass of lights was almost upon them, when they could hazily make out the white and blue mass that formed the body of the machine was the silence broken by a low hum so soft it was almost inaudible, yet distinct enough to be alarming. For a moment Bryn wondered what Soran was doing, as the ship was now almost on top of them. Yet despite how close the ship was, all he could feel was a slight, cool breeze, and only that distinct whining noise the machine made, a far cry from the horrifyingly loud earth-shattering racket that dropships made when landing. Was this yet more of the young man's LosTech?

The vessel finally touched the ground, scattering sand and dust around. A couple of minutes passed, everyone coming out of hiding and milling about, staring in awe at the warship that had just descended, and it didn't escape Bryn's notice that it was as immaculate as Soran's battlemech. A massive hatch on the ship's port side suddenly opened, accompanied by the whining of machinery as it dropped down to become a ramp, out of which their young rescuer descended, bathed from behind by the light of the ship's insides. It made for a dramatic image, and he had a feeling the young man had that in mind.

Soran looked Bryn in the eyes, and smiled. Yes, the man was enjoying this way too much.

"I have returned," the man declared, then swept his hand towards his ship, "and made reality accommodate us."

The words struck at Bryn…. And then he lost all guard as he guffawed, laughed like he had not done for a long time, unheeding of the disbelieving looks his wife was giving him.

==========​

The CBS-742 Ptolemaios II, more commonly and affectionately known as the "Ptolemy", flagship and base of operations for Celestial Being during the second season of Gundam 00. It was an assault carrier designed for the transport and maintenance of the Gundams, while at the same time being a capable warship in itself loaded with beam cannons, missiles and torpedoes complemented by powerful defensive systems including GN Fields and optical camouflage. Powered by the GN Drives from the Gundams it carries, the Ptolemy can operate in all environments including space, in-atmosphere, or even under the sea. It doesn't even need a full human crew to operate, due to its population of Haros: colorful basketball-sized spherical autonomous robots that were a staple of the Gundam franchise, capable of performing all manner of important tasks from ship maintenance and repair to even gunnery duty. An amazingly versatile all-purpose vessel that I can proudly say is more than a match for any ship in the Inner Sphere.

And I was using it as a transport ship. Cool huh?

After the initial shock my appearing in a warship gave the townsfolk, things went smoothly from there. Everyone was loaded in, and I had demanded that everyone take a shower first. The Valdez folk (Valdesians?) took to the idea with much gusto, and the lines to the showers were understandably long.

Once the people were clean and decent again (as much as they could with their still dirty clothing), I showed them the crew quarters where they could rest. To my surprise, there were enough crew quarters for most of the 92 people onboard to bunk in comfortably, even if most of them had to share. It really lent credence to the idea of the the Ptolemy having been operated by a skeleton crew for most of its life, if it was capable of housing this many people without difficulty. The implications of the surplus of crew also extended to our supplies, with ROB having stocked the Ptolemy's food stores to maximum capacity, allowing us to easily feed everyone and allow for seconds.

For the injured, I took the ones with the most severe injuries to the med bays, where the Ptolemy's medical pods would be able to take care of them on their own, given how advanced Anno Domini medical tech was even outside of Celestial Being - the show did make a deal how it was red GN Particles that kept civilian doctors from making Louise Halevy regenerate a new HAND.

The Mayor and a few of the men that accompanied me to the med bay did see the unconscious girl I rescued in one of the pods. Guess a few of them recognized her because they had almost gone off and tried to mete revenge on the girl right there. Operative word being "tried".

"You will do no such thing," I ordered with as much authority as I could against one of the men, a middle-aged man with a stubble who had been one of the temporary camp's security guys, as my right hand touched the pistol on my hip.

"What is the meaning of this young man?" the Mayor asked, obvious suspicion and concern in his voice. All of them were looking at the unconscious girl lying in a medical pod, covered by a half-cylindrical hard glass cover.

"I brought a girl who needed medical attention into my med bay so she could be taken care of. I hope that isn't a problem?"

"She's one of those dirty pirates! She shot my Annie in cold blood!" yelled another man, eyes burning with rage. Now that was news I could file away for later, but right now it wasn't relevant to the situation.

"And would you follow in this pirate's example by killing her in cold blood as well?"

"Pirates don't deserve mercy!"

"Van, cease this instant."

The man froze at the Mayor's soft but commanding words, reinforced by the elder's hand on his shoulder. The man shook off the Mayor's hand and stomped out of the med bay, at which point I released the breath I've been holding.

"Donnie, Murdo, keep an eye on Van will you? Keep him out of trouble," the Mayor ordered to two of his men, who promptly followed after the guy. "I apologize on behalf of Van, Mr. Ibrahim. That was rude of him."

"It's alright sir, I should be thanking you for putting a stop to this before it got out of hand," I replied as I sat down. "I'm hoping he won't cause more of a ruckus, but just in case I'll be locking down the med bay unless needed."

Apart from that minor episode, which I hoped wouldn't blow up into something worse, it was all in all a rather straightforward affair.

Afterwards, I led the Mayor through the Ptolemy's white and grey walls into the briefing room, which consisted of large screens on every grey wall, and a large circular display on the floor. I walked to the console on a raised platform beside the door we entered from, where I activated a map display of the current area to the monitor on my right, which the Mayor looked at intently.

"This ship has a more comprehensive map of the region than my mech, and I was thus able to locate the town of Valdez."

The map panned to pinpoint the town on the map, displaying its name in big, bold letters, before finally zooming out to show its location relative to our current position, with a line displaying our route.

"At our current speed and heading, we should reach Valdez in under twenty-four hours, if we don't run into any problems along the way."

He gave me a brief bow. "I thank you again for your help Mr. Ibrahim."

"It was no problem sir," I replied truthfully, and thought that was the end of it as I closed the monitors. I turned to the Mayor to show him back to his quarters when I found him scrutinizing me with his gaze, a hand on his chin. Uh…

"Sir?"

"Why?"

Now that was the vaguest question I've ever heard.

"I don't understand sir."

"Rescuing me, my family, and my people from captivity, giving medical aid, even using your lostech warship to get us home." When he saw my blank expression he sighed, "I am ever grateful for the aid you've given us Mr. Ibrahim. But I was young once, and through my life I've learned that nothing is free."

His gaze at me hardened, and for a moment I almost flinched. "You have given us too much in so short a time Mr. Ibrahim. It is a debt me and my people will have difficulty repaying, to you, or the organization you work for."

Wait, what organization? Oh…

I guess that's what it'd look like from the outside wouldn't it? Strolling in, showing off shiny LosTech and being all magnanimous and helpful, in a universe where technology was dwindling, salvage was king, and threats loomed just around the corner…

It wasn't like I did it for favors, nor expected a reward.

"Would you believe me sir, if I said I just wanted to see evil fail this day, that I wanted to see justice done, that I wanted to see five less slavers in this world, and that I wanted to see the ninety-two lost people of Valdez, including yourself, returned to their rightful place?"

The Mayor's silence was all I needed to hear.

"Then I don't know what I can tell you sir."

"I'm sorry young man," the Mayor apologized, in a tone whose intentions I was unable to place. Not that it mattered.

"Don't be sir, you've done nothing wrong." At least, that one he believed if his expression was any indicator. Still, if this was how it was going to be, it might be best to make use of it.

I turned a serious gaze to the Mayor. "If you really want to give me something for my efforts sir, I do have something in mind." I hoped my voice didn't sound threatening or exploitative, the man was suspicious enough as is.

It was thus a strange sight that the Mayor actually relaxed a bit, as though something in the world made sense again. "Name your price, young man."

There was one thing that I needed in this world that only the natives here can give me, something that had been eluding me since I've arrived.

"I need information sir."

==========

June 7, 3025
Rimward Periphery
Lusitania, 3rd Planet of Gneisenau System​

The vast expanse of hot sand and stone literally called No Man's Land was the largest desert in the Victorina continent, covering almost 22% of the entire landmass. For anyone Victorinian, the arid desert was a place that deserved its name, and most decent people would avoid it out of common sense and the lack of anything valuable within its sweltering sands.

Of course, this made it the perfect place for undesirables of all kinds to stay in, far away from the judgmental reach of lawful and civilized folk. Indeed, only the dredges of society knew that No Man's Land was a very inaccurate name, due to it being the home of a handful of scattered villages where the lawless kept low.

What made No Man's Land desirable in the eyes of those with something to hide was its unique geomagnetic phenomenon, theorized to be created by unusual rocks deep beneath the earth, that diffused electromagnetic phenomena at long ranges, limiting any such transmissions to a range of a hundred meters. This all-pervading feature, the 'Shroud' as it was commonly known, turned No Man's Land into a radio dead zone, where no hope of contact could be established to the outside world for anyone stuck inside. All bets were off once one steps far into the desert, and many a fool had vanished here, never to be heard from again.

To counteract this, many pirate and slaver groups typically follow secret pre-planned routes and schedules into the desert, with ultra-fast bike scouts and messengers periodically sent out to make sure that a particular group was keeping their time in the place they were expected.

When Petro's Steel Fists had reported their dropship shot down following a raid in some distant town called Valdez, they had sent a bike messenger to establish a route plan through the desert for their mech lance and convoy, which wouldn't see them arrive at the remote outpost of Victory's Folly for a week. When a week passed by with no mechs in sight at the outpost, the bike scouts were sent to search the indicated route for them.

They had expected everything from a tardy convoy, to mechanical breakdowns, or even infighting among the group.

Nobody expected to run into the wreck of five mighty battlemechs scattered in the sands, torn apart and scrapped mercilessly. The craters in the sand, myomer cables and shards of metal strewn across miles, those were the familiar sights.

The bisected Atlas mech that now rested in two halves, the bloodcurdling image of a torso-less corpse still sitting in an Orion's cockpit cleaved apart, the battlemechs cleanly sliced in large pieces; those were strangely disturbing sights that pointed at something strange afoot, something new they had never witnessed before.

The site's coordinates were tagged for the retrieval teams to recover the precious remains of these fallen machines, and the all important BattleROMs extracted and taken back for study. Whatever this was, the BattleROM's data will tell the story the dead mechwarriors could not…. And hope they learn enough to prepare against the ones responsible.

==========​

The Ptolemy had arrived in Valdez town, which did look relatively clean and modern by my standards, by early morning the next day after. The townsfolk had been returned to their homes and family without incident, and a simple farewell was all I gave the Mayor before I departed.

I sat down on the Captain's chair by the middle of the ship's bridge, and sighed as I could finally rest. Mission Accomplished.

I thought about the state this galaxy was in. All I knew from the Mayor was that I was in a world called Lusitania, a planet far out in the Rimward Periphery, i.e. the "south" of the Inner Sphere map I'd been shown, and the current date was June 8, 3025, which meant that I had woken up on the 6th. All I knew of this date in relation to what I remembered of the setting was that the Third Succession War was winding down.

So basically, I was in a far off backwater where nothing really important was happening. This wasn't a place where I could make ripples just by my very presence, this far out from the rest of the Inner Sphere, and I didn't have the help of omniscient cameras and comm H4XX to spread my reputation around.

In the end, I had mollified the Mayor's rather skewed impression of me with the information exchange. But to see such distrust of altruism in this place, from someone I had freely given my time and attention to help out…

To be fair, I did receive my fair amount of heartfelt thanks from the townsfolk, from the simplest of thank you's, to flowers, and even relieved parents offering their rescued daughters to me.

These women had been torn away from their beloved homes for two weeks, and you're going to give them to someone who may not ever return to this place? Are you nuts?

I did use more polite words to express the sentiment, but I made it clear that no, I was not in the business of taking in wives at the moment.

That particular headache aside, that past couple days had been quite fulfilling - I think I did more in the past 48 hours than 30 years of my past life. Now wasn't that depressing?

I still don't know what I was supposed to be doing in this place. I had no means to quickly effect change in the Inner Sphere from here, and ROB had given me a ship that didn't even have FTL. For better or worse, I was stuck here on this planet.

Was my purpose to help out whoever I can in this lonely planet in the farthest reaches of human civilization in this war-torn galaxy? Maybe I can do that. It's not really as lofty a goal as Celestial Being's elimination of all war to prepare people for Innovation, but baby steps I guess. I mean, I was only one person with Gundams and a Warship filled with cute colorful AI balls for crewmembers. Besides, Celestial Being did only perform interventions on a single planet. Man, for all of 00's GN Drive H4XX, ROB sure put me in a setting where I couldn't even take advantage of it to its fullest.

It felt…. Anticlimactic? I didn't even receive any points to spend on ROB's magic stores, and not even a post-action briefing-

BEEP

The monitor to the front of the Ptolemy's bridge now displayed a message:

You have cleared the Prologue.

Oh, so there was a post-mission brief. And this was just the Prologue?

Level 1 Access Clearance Granted.

Cryo Bay Access Granted.

So apparently I can level up now, though by what measure ROB decides on such I have no idea. Maybe this was a freebie due to accomplishing a "Prologue" mission.

A "Cryo Bay" though? I knew for certain that the original Ptolemy II didn't have a cryo bay, but then again this was technically a "CBS-743" as opposed to the Ptolemy II Kai's "CBS-742".... Would that make this ship a "Ptolemy II Kai Ni" or something? I'll think about that name for later.

I stepped out of the bridge, only to find a blue Haro bouncing in place to greet me.

"Orders! Orders!"

How convenient this all was. "Haro, where's the Cryo Bay?"

"Follow me! Follow me!"

A few minutes later found myself and the Haro standing in front of a wall within the med bay, which didn't look to have anything on it.

"Are you sure this is the right place Haro?" I do hope this thing wasn't malfunctioning.

"Stand still! Stand still!"

It then stopped bouncing, and just as I was about to ask a scanning laser from the top of the wall flashed across my eyes, similar to the ones used on the Gundams for biometric security. The innocuous wall in front of me suddenly vanished from the bottom to the top in small hexagonal shapes.

Optical Camouflage, of course!

The now revealed door opened up to me, revealing an unlit room, and I walked inside to finally see what this was all about.

There were two rows of pods on the walls, to my sides, 12 on each side for a total of 24 pods. They were lying diagonally at a 45 degree angle, and unlike most cryopods I know from scifi, these ones were completely sealed and opaque, with no windows to look inside them.

All of the pods were illuminated by their sides by a green diffuse light, giving the place that appropriately mysterious feeling. But what would I need all these Cryopods for though? Was I expected to use them for long voyages or something?

That hypothesis was discarded when my eyes adjusted to the place, and I realized that the pods all had letters on them in large, bolded script, made up of two initials on each pod. I read some of them out loud as I looked.

"S.H."

"L.V."

"K.C."

"J.M."

"I.V."

"H.M."

"D.G."

"D.D."

"C.S."

It looked like the pods were arranged in alphabetical order, proceeding from Z by the entrance, to A at the back of the room.

"A.L."

I still had no idea what the initials could mean…. Names perhaps? But of whom?

A burst of white light suddenly filled the room, and to my shame I jumped at the damned event. Obviously I didn't scream, that'd be unmanly.

Honest.

Though really ROB, Jump Scares?

Thankfully all that happened was a large monitor on the wall at the end of the room had activated, with the following message:

Level One Clearance Approved

Select Pod To Open

Under that was a list of all the 24 pods available, with the initials alphabetically arranged. There was a handy console below the monitor which I approached as I looked at the choices, which appeared to be this ROB's version of an incentive and progression system.

Honestly I don't know what these initials mean, so I decided to go in alphabetical order because why not, it was as good a choice as any.

SUBJECT A.L. SELECTED

REVIVAL IN PROGRESS

SUBJECT A.L. CRYOPOD NOW SAFE TO OPEN

HAVE A NICE DAY

I certainly wasn't expecting that last random bit, but thanks ROB, you live up to your name.

A rather familiar hissing sound filled the room, the type of sound you associate with cryopods opening or high-tech helmets and spacesuits being removed in countless movies and videogames, and I looked to the cryopod I just opened to see what I just got.

… where the hell did the Cryopod go, and why was there only an empty space where it used to be? In its place was a holoscreen with a helpful flashing message.

CRYOPOD MOVED TO MED BAY

You know, when I think about it this really was a more convenient system - have the cryopods transported directly to the med bay so any problems from waking up from cryostasis can be alleviated immediately. How thoughtful ROB.

I moved back to the med bay, and saw that the Cryo Pod was already situation in its own space near the Cryo Bay door, beside the three other medical pods already in place. Another holoscreen floated by the pod, near a large glass panel.

Place Hand To Open

A biometrics scanner huh. I placed my right hand on the panel, a green line of light passing from top to bottom in true sci-fi fashion, and then the holoscreen displayed the message I was waiting for.

OPENING POD

The upper half of the pod split into multiple sections crosswise, then retracted towards the wall in a telescoping manner, revealing a glass-covered medical pod not too different from the others in the room. Do I really have to go through all these steps whenever I opened up a Cryopod?

It was then that I got my first glimpse at the occupant.

It was… a cute young girl.

"Why of course it is."

Thankfully she was clad in the standard light blue Celestial Being-issue patient robes, so I didn't have to worry about seeing naked people from cryo. She had chin-length dark brown hair, and while I couldn't see what color her eyes were just yet, she did have a distinct mole - a birthmark? - under her right eye.

She looked oddly familiar, and I felt in the back of my mind that I knew what her name was, but I had not needed to recall it in such a long time. I had the glass covering retract into the wall, and checked her pulse by the wrist while watching her chest for signs of movement, and sure enough it was rising and falling. Positive Pulse, Positive Breathing. Good, definitely alive.

For the record, I did not stare.

Honest.

She slowly opened her eyes then, revealing dilating eyes of dark navy blue, looking at nowhere in particular. That familiar feeling was definitely getting stronger.

Now, what do you say to someone when they've just woken up from cryostasis? I couldn't think of anything new or special to say, so I said the first thing that came to mind.

"Good morning."

She looked at me groggily, eyes struggling to remain open.

"Where…"

Her words were weak, almost a whisper. .

"You're in med bay onboard my ship," I said gently, trying not to scare her. She tried to sit up, but seeing her struggle to do so I helped her up by supporting her back with one hand, and pulling her by the shoulder with the other. "Hey easy there, you're not quite good yet."

"Thank-"

Her words cut abruptly, her eyes dilated, and her face twisted in pale terror, hugging herself trembling… just like I did when I came into this world.

"I….died? I… why can't I hear them..."

It was only when I saw that face of hers, horrified beyond measure, that all the pieces clicked.. I definitely knew this girl, as small a part as she played, displaying the same expression she had now when she looked at a long-dead man in a space suit coming at her, when first contact with alien life went terribly wrong.

A.L. That was her name after all.

Amia Lee.

NO SECOND CHANCES
A Gundam 00/Battletech SI Story
​

LGear's notes:

If the fic hadn't already made it obvious, my Battletech knowledge isn't really up to snuff compared to true fans here, and I had been wanting to at least play Harebrained Scheme's upcoming Battletech turn-based game, which will include a singleplayer mercenaries campaign on launch which I planned, and still am planning to use as the base for this fic's story. Don't know when that game will launch though, and the words and ideas had been flowing through my head after a long while, so here this is!

Anyone able to help out in fleshing out Battletech's lore would definitely be appreciated.

Until next time!

 

[Killer Hamster]

Huh. Amia Lee. If I recall, the alien ELS was occupying like 1/3 of her body at the end of the movie, from her reaction it seems ROB just noped them out of existence? She will probably take it alot harder than the SI would it seems, given that the ELS that was assimilated into her body had been her companion for more than half a century.

Edit: Even more so as she may have come from that post-war time period at the end of the movie.

Also watched.

 

[Tyrell]

Awesome stuff!

 

[LGear]

The girl in front of me, coming to grips with her own existential horror moment in a similar way I did, was someone I knew, but not know exactly.

Amia Lee, an incredibly minor side character in the Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer movie, whose only appeared as someone who tried to get into her house only to get attacked by the self-descriptive mouthful Extraterrestrial Livingmetal Shapeshifters, aka ELS, silver and crystalline aliens that resembled the illicit lovechild of a T-1000 and Tiberium, who in her case came in the shape of one of the TV series' dead antagonists in a spacesuit.

Yeah, that sounded kinda silly when I describe it like that.

Her second appearance was her unconscious in a hospital bed with half her body transformed into spiky silver crystals while expository narration talked over. She did survive the experience, and showed up in the 50 year timeskip epilogue as a crewmember on one of humanity's first interstellar ships, looking no older than she did then but with parts of her hair and eyes now looking metallic and chrome due to said alien.

In any other horror flick she'd be the nameless victim at the beginning of the show who only served to show that there was a monster up and about killing people, and the only reason I even knew she had a name was because of supplemental material and how the director apparently gave her a lot more attention than her actual presence in the movie.

That, and I've always been a sucker for minor side characters given attention in such a manner. Didn't hurt that she was rather cute.

My knowledge of her only extended that far though, and thus I really didn't know anything about how she was handling her current issue… not that was good at that even if I did know. The only thing I did know was that the parts of her that ROB seemed to have removed the ELS from her, leaving her looking perfectly normal again.

She was already in her attempted vomit phase, and reflexively I stroked her back in an attempt to ease her suffering. For a few minutes afterwards she was hunched over, still hugging herself, and I could hear her attempts to catch her breath.

It wasn't my place to see if she was crying, but if she was she was being silent about it, unlike me.

It was another few minutes before I could hear her breathing normalize, slow and easy, and before long it vanished into the ambience of the room. She also wasn't shaking anymore.

I'd have asked if she was alright, but I don't think stating the not obvious was productive at the moment.

"You need anything?" I finally dared to ask.

She gave me a weak nod.

"Water... please…"

It was fortunate the med bay had a disposable paper cup and water dispenser.

"Small sips, just take it slow," I instructed as kindly as I could while she partook in her drink, finally sitting up straight and her feet dangling off the side of the pod/bed. Apart from her initial shock she didn't appear to have difficulties with motor function, which if she had a newly built ROB-created body really wouldn't have had the time to atrophy or weaken, as evidenced by how healthy she looked. Hadn't noticed it on myself earlier, but it seemed our weakness at that point was more emotional than physical.

I thought to let myself relax at this point as the silence dragged on for I don't know how long, but found myself getting even more nervous: What was I supposed to say at this point?

"Nervous?"

Her voice broke me out of my thoughts, and she was looking at me with a hint of concern, which was kind of surprising, though not unpleasant.

"That obvious huh." I scratched the back of my head, and tried to grasp for a retort, "you calmed down quickly for someone who just realized that they're supposed to be dead."

...Wow, foot-in-mouth syndrome so early? "I'm sorr-"

Her soft giggle interrupted my attempted apology, Why was she laughing? "Not very good at this are you?" Yep, she was pitying me and my stupid mouth.

"I know," I admitted nervously with a shrug, "not my strongest point."

"Fight on, you'll get there." I realized she really looked better when she smiled. Surprisingly, she tapped the bed with her left hand in a "sit here" motion, and I took the seat out of politeness more than anything, though not too close. She then held out her left hand to me. "Amia Lee, and you are?"

I took her hand and gave it a lazy shake. "I'm kind of between names now, but you can call me Sora in the meantime." She gave me a questioning look that forced my mouth to salvage the situation. "I never liked my original name, and I kinda made up a name on the fly when introducing myself to people earlier today. You'll be the first to know if I decide on what I'll be calling myself from now on."

She blinked once, then gave another one of her small laughs. "I understand, I'm looking forward to it. Call me Ami then." She smiled as our hands parted, then a weak sigh escaped her afterwards, looking reminiscent. "It's really strange, talking to someone like this, I haven't done so in a while."

It took me a moment to parse what she was referring to, but once I did I took a guess as to what was bothering her.

"The ELS? Your quantum brainwaves?"

Amia made a small nod, then took a sip with both hands. "Before, I was connected to everyone, I could feel their thoughts and emotions. I understood them without a word, and they understood me in turn. It felt like being in one big family." She stared at me then sadly. "Now, there's only you, and your emotions are blurry to me."

I realized why it seemed so easy to talk to her. The only reason the ELS attacked her in the first place was because she was one of the people who had been undergoing Innovation, the GN Particle-induced process of becoming an "evolved" human - an Innovator - capable of using quantum brainwaves for telepathy and enhanced empathy, and quantum brainwaves drew in the ELS like a moth to flame due to how they communicated. From what I understood from side material the beneficial effects of using quantum brainwaves was more potent for people that had peacefully fused with the ELS, which from the sounds of it created something of a weak hive mind, akin to the something like the Protoss Khala from Starcraft. She'd been skimming my emotions from the beginning, knowing how I was feeling this whole time.

"You're uncomfortable," she suddenly asked, and the hurt on her face kinda stung unbelievably bad, as if I had discovered that I'd murdered her dog.

"I won't deny that I'm not particularly amenable to telepathically joining a collective of minds anytime soon," I stated frankly, "but I really haven't had a conversation like this in a while, and if your Innovator abilities are what's making it possible, well…. Thank you."

Whatever she felt from my statement, at least she didn't look betrayed anymore.

"Sora…" she shook her head, "you really shouldn't rely on my powers to talk to you. But I do appreciate your honesty."

"Only thing I can give," I replied weakly, "well, apart from new clothes and an explanation of what's going on."

"See, you're getting better at this," she beamed in that disarming way of hers, "and I think I'd like to have some clothes now."

"Why, when you look so good in those?" I joked, though a part of me did honestly believe that. I got laughed at for that.

"A bit more confidence and we'll get you to Earth Sphere Federation standards for complimenting a lady."

"Yeees, Miss Lee," I drawled out in that childish way a grade school kid might, as I stood up and got her some fresh clothes from the med bay locker. I remember she wore a green suit for the epilogue, so I picked out a set of cleanly pressed green uniforms. As soon as I brought Ami the clothes however, she immediately gave me a suspicious glance.

"Those uniforms…. Celestial Being?" She accused, immediately on guard against me. Well, that was unexpected, and it honestly hurt to hear her say it like that and all it implied she thought of me then.

"You're not wrong, these uniforms are Celestial Being issue," I replied without hesitation, which I think surprised her a bit. "I did say I'd give you an explanation for all this after all, but for the record I am not a member of Celestial Being."

She immediately relaxed at that, releasing the breath she was holding. It was nice when you can tell the truth and people trusted you enough to believe it. Not that it was a good idea to lie to an experienced Innovator, as young as Ami looked.

"So I'm guessing… you want the clothes first, or the explanation?" I offered, setting down the uniform beside her.

She finished off her drink, then set it down on her bed before finally turning to me.

"For now, I'd like the explanation first," her eyes then took on a predatory glint, leaned back on the bed with both hands, then crossed her legs. "I do look good in this right?"

Yes, she was definitely playing me now. I coughed to regain my composure to the sound of her laughter as I sat beside her again. I let her (and myself) calm down first before I breathed a heavy sigh and got my game face on, which made her sit up straight in attention. Time to ask that one question that needed to be cleared before I began my explanation.

"Ami, to lay down the groundwork for my explanation... what was the last thing you remembered before you woke up?"

==========
​

Stars.

She always loved looking at the stars even back on Earth, the twinkling lights that dotted the sky with their small, but stubborn radiance. Even now that she was out in space, where she saw the same black void every day, she would never get tired of looking at the stars for ease her mind.

Even if one of them would become her doom.

Her feelings must have reached them, for their panic become palpable within her heart, their worry and concern for her fate. It eased the knowledge of her impending fate a little knowing that she had people who cared, and knew that their thoughts were truly with her. Even without a working communicator, their emotions shone bright and true to her.

But only a little. Nobody wanted to die. She certainly didn't plan for this to happen.

The monitor was running on emergency batteries to show her the outside, her mobile worker having long ceased to work, deprived of its only source of power.

Not even GN Drives can survive getting hit by a coronal mass ejection this close to a star, and hers had been sacrificed to keep the others in the science vessel alive. The ones who at this moment were jetting away from her at full speed, even as she knew some of them were wanting to turn back and help her, as if pure willpower could propel a ship where a busted engine could not - there were only so many miracles that quantum brainwaves and Innovators could perform before reality pushed back and reminded them that there were limits. Simple arithmetic told her that the loss of one was preferable to the loss of a dozen, and she knew that everyone else knew it too.

As though responding to the growing fear in her heart, an outpouring of love and concern flowed into her, attempting to smother the growing darkness within her.

We're coming for you

Hang on

We're with you

Don't give up

Keep strong
​

Their emotions conveyed what mere words could not, and it warmed her heart to have such support, even from those she'd never seen but had always felt on this journey, from the thousand-strong crew of the Sumeragi, to their non-human friends who shared in their desire help her communicate her feelings across. This was the true promise of Innovation, the world of understanding heralded almost half a century ago.

So she tried to keep strong, to keep her terror away from the inexplicable mass of emotions that flowed between herself and the others. She knew what it was like to be on the other side, trying to reassure a dying man of their sincere care. Yet despite it all, the man had been truly terrified of his impending death, and all of them shared in that suffocating realization in his final moments. His death had brought all activity on the Sumeragi to a halt for a week.

For the more they understood each other, cared for each other beyond simple human labels like "friends", "lovers" and "family", the more painful it was to accept loss.

She would not allow that to happen on her watch, she would not let her death cripple everyone else. With this determination she greedily consumed everyone's feelings, took in all the joys they were sharing, clad herself in all their compassion, bathed herself in their kindness, and steeled her heart with their resolution.

All so she could face her what was coming with a calm mind and a peaceful heart.

Even as the monitors flashed warning messages of critical heat levels, even as she felt her body becoming heavier as the star's gravity pulled stronger against her, and even when orange light washed over her cockpit, she would not let her defenses break.

No even when she felt the warm tears that flowed out of her eyes, blurring her view of the stars that she so loved, would she compromise her spirit.

For all those who were with her this moment, for those whose hearts and minds intertwined with hers, she would remain stalwart and strong, cheerful and loving. They will remember her with a smile, and she held on to that promise as long as she could.

Her body started to transform, the familiar appearance of the water mass turning her body silver, reducing the heat that she felt. She saw it as the desperate measure that it was, not for themselves whose consciousness did not reside in any one body, but for herself to keep her cool. Even now her sense of touch was dulling until she no longer felt the heat, her ears assimilated to remove her hearing the ominous warning klaxons, her sense of smell neutered so she could not smell the now smoking and likely toxic vapors in the cockpit. All that remained, once she had shapeshifted into this humanoid mass of metal was her sight, if only so she could keep her eyes on the view she loved the most, that dark expanse filled with light.

No more distractions from the physical world to assault her attempts at keeping the terror away, only the realm of emotions remained, where she was at her strongest, so she could hold on to the promise that she made.

To think that when they first met, she had been deathly afraid of them, these once strange, shapeless beings from beyond. Now, in the moments leading up to her true death, were they her most loyal and thoughtful companions. They could not halt the inevitable, but she would not suffer for it.

She did not think this. She knew this beyond doubt, beyond faith.

More than anything else in her life up to that moment, when she realized that they understood her enough to know what she needed the most…

All at once, she was overwhelmed by an immense feeling of hope, of daring to dream the impossible, of the future so bright with infinite possibilities. She felt it come from herself, but it did not come just from her, but from everyone who held her in their thoughts right here, right now.

"Ah… everyone understood."

When roiling orange plasma covered her screen and blotted out the stars from her vision, when the ELS finally smothered her eyes and left her in darkness, did she take all of their love, their understanding, their kindness, their compassion, and defeated the last vestiges of terror in her heart.

Then in the void of her mind, a single pinprick of light appeared, small and seemingly fragile. A second light appeared, followed by a third, and another, and another, and one more still, never ending, unstoppable… until her entire being was filled with stars.

A scientific part of her mind justified the sight with ELS-induced mental illusions, implanting images directly to her brain now deprived of eyes.... But it didn't matter anymore. Because here, in the darkness filled with stars that she knew and loved, she felt whole, as she felt all the feelings of solidarity that was with her, as many as the stars in her sky.

At that moment, she was a lone astronaut in the vastness of this universe, in the final seconds of her life…. But she was not alone. She was never alone.

When the end came, in the loving embrace of everyone's thoughts and emotions as though in the arms of her mother once again, her final thought…. Was gratitude.

Thank You

==========
​

Ami had broken down by the time she finished with her story, staining my pilot suit with her tears. This was her time to cry, like I had mine back then.

I didn't know how long she poured out all of her sorrow and anguish at me. It didn't matter I suppose, I was there for as long as she needed me.

She had cried herself to sleep in my arms, and I chose to let her stay in the med bay for the time being so her condition can be monitored by the ship's medical systems in the meantime. The blue Haro that accompanied me on the trip, the one who was suspiciously absent when I met Ami had reappeared to take up station as the ship's impromptu "doctor" to look after the girl. Grabbing a blanket and putting it over the girl's sleeping form, I went back into the darkness of the cryo bay to gather my thoughts.

"Innovation huh…"

In Gundam 00, True Innovation was only really seen in two people: Setsuna F. Seiei, original pilot of the Gundam Exia, whose appearance I now resembled; and Descartes Shaman, an Earth Sphere Federation pilot who only appeared in the movie.

Both of them showed off the traits most watchers would associate with Innovators: enhanced reaction time, improved spatial perception, quantum brainwave ability beyond the ability of most humans, even enhanced physical abilities that made them the peak of human ability, and even a life expectancy double that of the average human.

Essentially, they were what many humans strive to be, and the show made them out to be post-human warriors whose abilities were only really good for battle. Well, there was the bit about Innovators being able to use their quantum brainwaves to interact with purified GN Particles created by a particularly powerful emitter like the Quantum System in order to create a "unified field of consciousness" within which humanity can unite in peaceful understanding…

Honestly, as noble as that particular concept seemed to be, it was the most cringe worthy part of Gundam 00 speaking out as a fan. It sounded way too much like other similar unification plots in other mecha shows like Code Geass and Neon Genesis Evangelion, and in said cases unification was the bad guy's EVIL plan, the misguided endeavor of a few that our heroes had to stop to maintain humanity's individuality. It was a part of the show I really wished they didn't sell as the end-all be-all to humanity's problem of war.

Because war has many causes, with misunderstanding being only one of the reasons. Many times, conflicts can occur with both sides having complete understanding of what they were getting into… and still doing stupid stuff anyway. And there were conflicts that simple understanding cannot help against, like resources. Even if I were to somehow have the 00 Qan[T] dropped on my lap, gained Innovator powers, and used Quantum Burst to envelope the galaxy in a massive field of rainbow-colored quantum kumbaya… I doubt the wars that plague the Inner Sphere would disappear anytime soon.

Still, to hear Ami relate the events leading up to her demise, to hear how she found strength to face the end from all the other Innovators and even the ELS through the power of quantum brainwaves… for the first time, I found the concept… beautiful.

No matter what my own personal views on the issue were, I would not deny Ami the peace she found from Innovation, and the good that it brought her. And honestly, it did help smoothen relations between me and her, so it was all in all a net win.

Well, I guess the explanation will have to wait.

Speaking of Ami though, I looked at all of the cryopods once again with new eyes, realizing a very simple fact:

Amia Lee was the person who came out of the pod labelled A.L., confirming that the initials were names, which meant that the pods all had people whose initials corresponded with their names. Also, Amia had been from Gundam 00, which given that this ROB had yet to introduce elements from other stuff in here, meant that every other people in the pods would also be from 00.

…. Oh, this was going to be FUN!

I activated the cryo bay's console once again and brought up the cryopod name list, which would be easier than looking at every cryopod one by one. Amia Lee's pod was already greyed out due to having already activated, and her full name was displayed right alongside, so there were now 23 more pods remaining. This time, I paid more attention to all the pods to figure out who they were.

A.Z.
A.R.
A.T.
C.A.
C.S.
D.B.
D.D.
D.G
H.M.
I.V.
J.M.
K.C.
L.F.
L.T.
L.V.
M.V.
N.N.
R.E.
R.S.
S.H.
V.L.
Y.C.

It was time to sort them out and see if I can ID them all. I'll start with the ones I can recall off the top of my head.

Spoiler: "Names and Stuff"

A.Z. was Amy Zimbalist, the "Steel Cowboy" well known for having an Advanced GN-X as his true MS love, to the point where he refused to part with it even when newer, more capable models came out. He mostly featured in Gundam 00V, the graphic novels and technical supplements that focused on mobile suit variations and technology.

Yes, he really is named "Amy", in the Kamille tradition of some Gundam males having feminine names. Hope I could find a suitable nickname for him before I confuse him with Ami.

A.R., A.R…. wait, Anew Returner? Lyle's Innovade girlfriend was here? What the hell? In the show she was an Innovade sleeper mole who infiltrated the Ptolemaios, fell in love with Gundam Meister Lyle Dylandy, and pretty much betrayed them because of Innovade-related mind control shenanigans. She broke free from her mind control at the last moment, only to be killed by Setsuna destroying her MS.

To be fair, Anew herself wasn't really a bad person, and unless evil mastermind Ribbons Almark was here to ruin our day by Assuming Direct Control, her skills at pretty much everything would be invaluable.

C.A…. alright, I had assumed after I did a preliminary look-over of the list that we wouldn't be getting Gundam Meisters in this thing, but it looks like one got through by technicality: Chall Acoustica, -former- Gundam Meister and founder and leader of the short-lived Fereshte, Celestial Being's support group. Essentially, if Celestial Being was the public face, Fereshte were the shadow ops who kept out of the limelight. I think she might be better suited for handling a leadership role around here to smoothen out day to day operations. I'll have to think on this some more.

C.S. was an easy one: Christina Sierra, one of the Celestial Being's original bridge bunnies on the first Ptolemy during the first season. Not only would she be a good pick for keeping the Ptolemy operational, she apparently had some good programming skills enough to make an autonomous OS for the Gundams that removed their reliance on the quantum supercomputer VEDA to function. Got killed off in Season One though in Operation Fallen Angels, the UN operation to destroy Celestial Being once and for all.

D.D. is another easy one: Daryl Dodge, Union pilot assigned to Graham Aker as part of the Over Flags anti-Gundam task force, aka the "Flag Fighters". Later became a GN-X pilot as part of Operation Fallen Angels, and got killed by the Gundam Dynames, though his actions did lead to said Gundam's destruction indirectly.

D.G. took me a while to remember: Deborah Galiena, former UN test pilot that featured in a variety of short stories in Gundam 00V. The aforementioned Amy Zimbalist dislikes her for some reason, though otherwise they share a professional relationship to my knowledge.

H.M. came easily enough: Howard Mason, fellow Union Flag Fighter alongside Daryl Dodge. He got killed much earlier by the Gundam Throne Zwei. Huh, not much to say about him other than the fact that the only reason I remembered him early was due to him being a Flag Fighter whom Graham was all too fond of reminding us.

I.V…. wait, was this a combo breaker? Celestial Being chief engineer Ian Vashti was technically a side character, but he got lots of screentime and is responsible for a lot of the stuff that the organization used, including the creation of the Twin Drive System. Well, can't complain since he's apparently here, and unless I get an oddball further down the list or I'm mistaken and it's not Ian, he's on top of the list for the next person out of cryo since we desperately need his skills in this outfit

J.M. had me pulling my teeth for a bit before I remembered who he was: Joyce Moreno, the original Ptolemy's doctor. One of the victims of Operation Fallen Angels, and thus didn't survive the first season. At the very least, he's high up on the list out of cryo so we can man the all-important med bay.

Out of the entire list, K.C. was the most surprising of all: Kinue Crossroad, elder sister of Saji Crossroad who worked as an investigative journalist. She had been investigating Celestial Being, especially its long-dead founder Aeolia Schenberg. Unfortunately her investigation led her into foolishly taking a car with resident agent of chaos Ali Al Saachez, resulting in her getting shot and dying in some back alley.

To my knowledge, Kinue was the only truly "civilian" person in this list, since she wasn't an Innovator like Ami, nor had any military connections.

Hmm…. Oddly, I think Kinue might turn out to be one of the more useful members of the list, if she's as skilled as I hope she might be in her original job.

L.T. had a name that I couldn't spell on the first try, Lichtendahl Tsery, aka "Lichty", the original Ptolemy's co-pilot and support weapons gunner. He's mostly notable for the fact that he's pretty much a very advanced cyborg, and his (somewhat) successful love confession to Christina Sierra just before he died trying to save her during Operation Fallen Angel.

L.V. was kinda obvious: Linda Vashti, Ian's much younger and hot wife to the jealousy of a lot of older people everywhere. Apart from being the resident MILF she's also Ian's second-in-command, and was instrumental in developing several technologies such as the GN Archer, and the 00 Qan[T]'s GN Drives.

M.V. was obviously Mileina Vashti, only child of Ian and Linda, and bridge bunny for the Ptolemaios II during the second season, taking on what might have been Christina's place on the bridge. Since bridge bunny Feldt Grace wasn't here, it wouldn't be hard to have both Mileina and Christina as operators, not to mention Mileina's own useful engineering skills. Finally, all three of the happy Vashti family were here, so why not?

R.E. was one I thought I didn't know, but then came in a flash of inspiration: Ralph Eifman, senior mobile suit engineer and scientist for the Union military during the first season, working closely with the Flag Fighters to not only develop more powerful weapons against the Gundams, but also try to unlock the secrets behind the GN Drive. Unfortunately, like Kinue he got too close to the truth and so got killed, in this case by an attack of the Gundam Thrones.

Since Deborah Galiena was here, R.S. is obviously Robert Spacey, a historian who chronicled the various mobile suits seen in 00V, and good friend to both Deborah and Amy. Guess he was here to complete that trio.

Finally, S.H. was another difficult one: Sherilyn Hyde, a Celestial Being engineer and Ian's protege. She mostly worked as Fereshte's chief engineer at a young age, but later joined up with Celestial Being proper on several projects, most importantly the 00 Gundam.

The other remaining initials were ones I had the most difficulty remembering, leading me to believe that they were rather obscure side characters from the various supplemental stories. I'll find who they are once I get around to unlocking them.

I did now have a very good idea of who the most important people to get out of cryo are: Ian Vashti for his engineering expertise to keep the Ptolemy and the Exia maintained, Joyce Moreno for our medical needs, and Kinue Crossroad, who might be useful as a field agent to try and learn more about the Battletech setting. These three would be essential to our operations, after that all the others would be unlocked based on our needs, though I imagine Ian will want to get his family out and about ASAP.

However, all of the above plans would be useless if I didn't know how to actually unlock them, and unfortunately the console was very clear about the fact that I am not able to get anyone out unless a particular condition was met, as a rather helpful message on the display pointed out:

To Next Unlock: 5,000 C-Bills

Yes, apparently in order to get people out of cryo I had to get some dosh in this place. I wasn't foolish enough to think that I didn't need to C-Bills to survive in this world, but it looks like I needed to earn some to get these people out, who in turn would be instrumental in getting this outfit running for getting more money.

If I seem to have come upon this fact immediately, it was because I had been thinking about what I wanted to do in this setting. Considering what I had at my disposal, and what I needed, there was really only one thing I could do:

Become a Mercenary.

I mean, it's not like there are many jobs that an 18-meter tall nigh-indestructible Gundam can do, and using it to do menial labor like an Industrialmech would be a waste, and wouldn't be nearly as profitable in the margins needed to keep the Exia and the Ptolemy running.

The hard part however was going to be convincing the new returnees to actually work with me. I wasn't nearly charismatic enough to think they'd work for me, and if they decide to strike out on their own I didn't think I was good enough to make them think otherwise.

I was hoping that Ami could at least stay, but otherwise it'll be up to her wouldn't it?

I'll think about my next step once she wakes up and get her up to speed. In the meantime, I think I can play some games- I mean sharpen my piloting skills on the Exia's combat simulator, since as powerful as the Exia is, it definitely isn't the best mobile suit that we could've gotten, and I doubt it was going to be this easy for long.

I was about to leave the cryo bay when a beep accompanied a large message box that showed up on the monitor.

DEVA EVENT FORECAST

6:10:3025
Event: Slave Raid
Target: Stillwell, Verona Region
OPFOR: Midas Lance Gang
Composition: Insufficient Data
ETT: 00:45:00

Event Probability: 92%

An event forecast? DEVA?!

I had assumed that I was completely cut off from all forms of support, but it looks like there was a VEDA analogue in this world called… DEVA. Huh, that actually still works, wasn't 'deva' a Hindu word too?

So I now apparently had a quantum supercomputer from someplace that predicts any incoming action, pretty much how VEDA worked in the first season of 00. Still, a slave raid? I haven't been in this place a week and I'm already getting another one… only this time, I now had advanced warning of when and where it will occur. Which means if I hurry, I should be able to stop them before it escalated.

I brought up a map of the where this "Stillwell" was, and calculated a route to it, which was 292 kilometers northeast of my current position. At fastest speed, the Ptolemy would reach it in 39 minutes, 6 minutes closer to the enemy ETT (I assume it meant 'estimated time to target') than I liked - I'd essentially be arriving just as the pirates were, and then I had to set down the ship then try to launch the Exia all by myself, which would take up more time, which meant by the time I did launch, the raid would've already started.

The fucking problem with doing everything myself...

I tried accessing the Ptolemy's flight controls from here to expedite a course.

Flight Controls Available At Bridge

Of course there was a limit as to how all-encompassing individual consoles are, and just when I needed it!

With no time to lose I ran to the bridge, and hoped that I manage to turn the ship around in time...

NO SECOND CHANCES
​

LGear's Notes:

SI is actually mistaken about one of his character guesses.

 

[Kinunatzs]

Don't know much about Battletech but its still a nice fic and I just hope that the MC won't go revealing that they all come from fiction

 

[Z000]

MC won't go revealing that they all come from fiction

Click to shrink...

alway hated this
every one keep doing it

 

[Killer Hamster]

The portion describing Amia Lee's death is pretty nice, the emotions conveyed in that scene is great.

Also the pirates brainstorming about what the Exia is funny, Celestial Being's presence on Lusitania is the very definition of Outside Context Problem.
Come to think of it, does the Ptolemaios have other Gundam in it's holding space or do they have to be unlocked like the people in the cryopods?

MC won't go revealing that they all come from fiction

Click to shrink...

But I think it will come out eventually, otherwise how would the SI explain all that knowledge he is pulling out of nowhere? And he also stated that he is not Setsuna. He could quote Robert A. Heinlein World as Myth concept. Even if he knew them as fictional characters, it does not make them or the trials they went through any less real.

 

[edboy49]

Awesome story.
Keep on going.

 

[LGear]

LGear's notes: I intended for this chapter to be longer, but thought it ended on a good place.

==========​

For a brief moment when Amia Lee opened her eyes, the almost panicked. The ceiling was unfamiliar to her, and when she stood up from her medical pod she had been clothed in patient robes, something she didn't remember wearing… until her mind cleared, and she remembered.

It was liberating to recount the story of her end to someone else, and though she couldn't stop the anguish she felt from her demise, letting it all out had been cathartic, a good way to come to terms with what happened.

More difficult though was accepting her current circumstances. Whatever had happened to bring her back to life - because, what else could it be? - had completely removed all traces of the ELS from her body. She knew this because of the silence, the complete and utter void in her head that threatened to drive her crazy. The friends she'd known all her life, whom she can rely on, to talk with, to simply reassure her with their ever constant presence, who had time and again demonstrated their loyalty and devotion… was gone.

All the tears for her lost friends had already been spent earlier, but it did not vanquish the aching void left in her being at the loss, only dampen it where it wouldn't hurt as much. She would move on, in time.

The longer the silence went, the more she felt afraid and lost. She tried to reach out to someone, anyone who could share the thoughts and emotions she felt this moment, but found her ability wanting. Not only had the sensitivity and range of her quantum brainwaves been reduced from her prime, but she could find no other soul capable of the same. Her mind suspected the removal of the ELS as a primary cause, losing the boost that their presence gave to her Innovator abilities, another reason she was missing their presence badly.

A pang of sensation was suddenly felt, and she almost missed it due to how minute it was. Melancholy and regret suddenly made themselves known to her senses, muted but distinct, and Amia turned to see its origin. On another med pod in the room was a young girl, wearing the same patient robes she was, with a freckled face and short, curvy orange hair spilling out on the bed. The girl was too deep into her unconsciousness, which along with Amia's reduced ability to sense made feeling those emotions like listening to music with water-filled ears, but even then the traces of repentance and self-loathing that the girl emanated… it was still too much.

Before she knew it Amia had walked over to the girl's med pod, retracted the glass cover separating the girl from the outside world, and gingerly held the other girl's dry, rough hands with her own.

'What happened to you…why torment yourself like this…'

It was heartbreaking for her, and for one who believed in the promise of Innovation, to not act was unthinkable.

She took a deep breath in, exhaled slowly, then filled her own heart with the memories of kindness, of compassion, and most of all acceptance. She took those emotions, and with force of will felt her quantum brainwaves reach out to the other girl, with a fervent hope that her actions can help. There was a resistance, a deflection from the other's subconscious that made what Amia was doing more difficult, and she couldn't wonder if it was the other's mind wanting to reject her help, or if it her own abilities had weakened, or both at the same time. A subconscious mind was still more vulnerable than a conscious and willing person however, and after a gentle mental push Amia's emotions subsumed into the other girl's, and it didn't take long for the other girl to visibly breath softer and easier.

'Thank goodness. Sleep well now.'

Without knowing more about the unconscious girl Amia would only guess at what demons the girl had, but all that pain so deeply infused into the other…. One way or another, Amia would look after this girl, no matter what.

Now was not the time to be weak, for there were so many questions that needed answers, such as who this girl was, and she remembered the one who had been here before, who promised to provide them.

Sora he had introduced himself as, admittedly a self-chosen alias, but it was the only name she knew him as. Reduced as her ability was, she was confident she had felt no malice from him though there was an undercurrent of relief and… embarrassment? The combination at least made her believe that he was telling the truth about his reasons for doing so.

He was trying his best, now that she could definitely feel from him, like he was a student trying to impress their favorite teacher but failing in the most awkwardly cute, which is why she felt it natural to act like she did around him. It was a surprising feeling from someone she knew had never seen her before, unless he acted like that around everyone, or with girls in particular.

She hadn't needed to speak to someone out loud in a while, and despite herself it took out a lot to relate her story to him. She had to remember that even novice Innovators had problems communicating wordlessly, let along 'naturals', and more than once she had to remember to voice out what she wanted to say. Still, Sora was an amenable enough man, and any more questions could wait once he explained what he knew.

Amia tried sensing him like she did the girl in front of her, but felt no sign of him nearby. In fact, she only noticed that apart from herself, Sora and the other girl, there didn't seem to be anyone else here on the ship.

Movement alerted her to another presence nearby, and she turned to a nearby table to confront…. A blue Haro?

'Hey there', she greeted mentally unable to stop her grin at the familiar and welcome sight, then realized that Haros can't read telepathy and almost smacked herself for her mistake. She repeated her greeting vocally this time as she leant down towards the Haro's resting cradle, making the spherical machine flap its disc-like "arms" in seeming enthusiasm.

"Hello! Hello!"

She let her laughter out freely. "It's nice to meet you Haro!"

It was strange how seeing something so mundane and familiar can bring such joy to someone such as herself. Still, was getting anxious about getting those answers.

"Haro, do you know Sora?" she asked with more respect than intended, the question aimed at ensuring that the little robot knew who she was talking about.

"Sora Captain! Sora Captain!" It repeated. So it truly was his ship.

"Can you tell me where he is?"

"Bridge! Bridge!"

"Where are we headed?"

"Combat! Combat!"

Blood ran cold for the first time in a while, and not even in the moments leading up to her death did she feel this afraid.

Who exactly was Sora? She thought back to the uniform she had been given earlier. While a lot of things about Celestial Being were still secret in her day, there had been enough photographic evidence of what their members wore, she could not be mistaken about its origins.

Sora did tell her that he was not part of Celestial Being, and it rang true to her at the time. Yet now, knowing that she was in a ship headed to war...

Amia took a very deep breath and cleared her mind before she thought any further. She had given Sora the benefit of a doubt, and she did know little of why the man was heading into battle. Innovators were supposed to understand, not judge.

She almost dreaded asking the true question she needed to ask. "Why?"

"Important Mission! Important Mission!"

A sigh escaped her lips at how vague that answer was, and certainly she had hoped that she'd more information to confront Sora with. Her gaze fixed on the Haro as she stood up with renewed vigor and fire in her eyes.

"Haro, take me to your Captain."

"Roger! Roger!"

It was about a few meters upon exiting the med bay that Amia felt her first pangs of unease at the silence that suddenly came over her, as the feelings she sensed from the unconscious girl disappeared. Like a radio too far from a station she had ceased receiving, leaving her only with an empty stillness that not even the soft tapping of the bouncing Haro she was following could dispel.

To be truly alone with only her own thoughts and emotions was a sensation that Amia had not experienced in decades. How did she ever live by herself like this when she was younger? How does any person live with only themselves without the warmth of another's emotions?

Nonetheless she marched on hurriedly to her destination behind her robotic guide. Her earlier observation appeared to be true, as asides from a handful of other Haros encountered enroute she saw nobody else in the ship, which only enhanced the eeriness she felt despite the brightly-lit corridors.

The next door opened up, leading into a catwalk inside what looked like a massive expanse she recognized as a hangar, and standing there in the middle was a blue and white mobile suit. It was only when she walked up in front of it did she see the embodiment of what she feared she would find:

A Gundam.

Amia did not consider herself a mobile suit enthusiast, but the Gundams were so infamous and distinct that it was not hard to identify one on sight, and this one had all the hallmarks: the twin eyes, the mask-like mouth, the "beard", and the horns on its forehead flaring to the side. It made for an unforgettably imposing image, the appearance of a machine built for only one thing: war.

'Celestial Being…'

So many questions, so many thoughts scary and unpleasant formed in her mind, her unease at its height. How far did their reach extend, if they had a presence all the way out in the undiscovered frontiers?

Celestial Being, the organization that nearly 60 years ago forced the world to change through their armed interventions with their statement of eradicating war. A lofty goal, if not for the blood they had to shed in the process. She had been too young to understand the gravity of Celestial Being's actions, up to the moment she was assimilated by the ELS. Once she gained her Innovator abilities however, she had realized how much pain Celestial Being put the world into, and how many people suffered, directly or indirectly at their hands, in an end goal purchased at too high a price. If they were active out here, what were they planning, and how many would likely die before they were satisfied?

But the truth of Sora's statement boggled her, with facts that didn't seem to mesh together. He claimed not to be Celestial Being, yet was in possession of the organization's paraphernalia and their Gundams, and was certainly the captain of this ship. Had her read on him been wrong all this time?

Had he lied so thoroughly as to deceive her senses?

Her steps hastened with more force than he needed to, fists clenched, but she didn't care for that. She needed answers, and she needed them yesterday.

"We have arrived! We have arrived!"

Amia stood by the door, dreading what she might see, what she might feel emanating from the only other conscious mind on this ship, which began to feel less like a rescue and more like a prison.

"Come In! Come In!"

On the other hand, prisoners don't get to boss around the ship's own computers for her own ends, and it was inviting her to go in. Was Sora expecting her inside, or was security really just that lax here? Her quantum brainwaves didn't reveal anyone else inside, or perhaps they were unconscious. She braced herself, then clicked on the door's switch, making it slide open with a hissing sound.

The bridge was certainly small compared to the Sumeragi's, only seating 7 people at maximum, with the captain's chair at the very middle. The entire bridge had this antique, if clean feeling to them - large physical monitors on the walls, massive chairs, the cramped configuration of the seats, like what she might expect in a museum.

The only person in the room however was Sora, and he took up what was certainly the helm controls at the very front right seat, looking out front at a terrestrial desert with a bright blue sky. He seemed to have picked up her presence then, because he turned his seat around to look at her, first in momentary confusion, then recognition.

"Ami, what are you-" His words suddenly died, and she saw… wonder? "Whoa, that looks cooler than I thought it'd be."

His words certainly disarmed her for a moment. "What are you talking about?" She asked more angrily than she intended, with the effect of making him visibly flinch.

"Your eyes, it's your eyes!" He clarified with a confused and fearful tone. "It's doing that Innovator thing! And why are you mad?!"

Realizing what he was talking about, Ami closed her eyes and breathed deep to relax before opening them again, hoping her eyes had returned to their normal color. When actively using their quantum brainwaves in sufficient strength, an Innovator's eyes glow gold in an effect still little understood. The act also allowed her to rein in her previous anger, though she let it simmer under the surface.

She took a step inside, and then suddenly the familiar sensation of reading another's emotions washed over her. It was a most welcome sensation, like finally seeing a person after being alone for so long, and it allowed her to relax enough to read the emotions more clearly, like….

Confusion

Anxiety

Worry

Sora was still staring at her, his earlier confusion not abating. If she wanted to properly gauge his response, she would have to bring in the elephant in the room, and whose answer would reveal the most about their situation.

"I saw the Gundam," she accused, trying to keep her voice level. Would he deflect? Would he deny it? Would he admit to the gravity of the situation?

His previous emotions diffused away but were not removed completely, but at the fore, resignation and... humor?

"Yes you did."

What she didn't expect was for him to confirm it so nonchalantly, as though it wasn't a big deal, in a tone that felt as though her actions were inevitable. It was time for another angle, another approach. She walked closer to the front, until she was standing over him.

"Sora, why are you going into battle?"

It almost felt good to sense surprise at that, but it lasted only for a blink of an eye, and wasn't potent enough to be his primary emotion, a secondary emotion that was automatic rather than the actual true reaction. At the forefront of his mind was a plethora of other feelings….

Anxiety-Confusion

Resignation-melancholy

Concern?

The last emotion she tried to analyze. Concern… not for himself, not connected enough to his own anxiousness. He felt for something more distant, anticipation, dread, for something that was about to happen. His gaze met hers as he stood up, a part of her nothing that he was taller than he appeared, and she saw his previous jestful appearance replaced by seriousness, and the beginnings of anger.

"In less than twenty minutes, the town of Stilwell will be attacked by a pirate group whose goal is to capture as many men, women and children as they can, so they can sell them to slavery. I'm heading there to stop them."

His words, and the desperation and vehemence behind them hit Amia like a sledgehammer, derailing everything she had wanted to ask. Out of everything she thought about the situation, to find out that an atrocity was about to happen right now was not one of them. What was he trying to pull?

He sighed again, now looking downcast. "You don't look like you believe me right now," the hurt in his voice pricked in her heart, a self-recriminating emotion like that she felt in the unconscious girl in the med bay. But she had to know what she was dealing with here.

She tried to keep her voice neutral. "The uniforms, the Gundam?"

"Given to me," he replied quickly but surely, "by the same being," she noted the humorous derision in that interesting word choice, "who brought you and me here."

"A being." Was this a play of words of some kind? Doublespeak?

"Something of immense power." he pointed out incredulously as though he didn't believe what he was saying, but believing it anyway. "You've already told me how you died," he said gently, his expression softer, "so tell me, how do you survive getting vaporized by the heat of a star?"

"I….don't know." It had been the one thing nagging at her mind since earlier, out of everything strange about this situation…. She should not have survived. Should not be alive, and yet here she was.

Sora nodded in agreement. "Me neither, and I won't pretend to understand that I do. Let's just say I knew exactly how you felt."

And he did, even back when she was inconsolable, there had been no confusion or pity in him, just acceptance.

"How did you…" she asked weakly, and he picked up on what she was referring to.

He leaned against a wall, looking up in regret. "At least you died nobly for the sake of others. Me?" he laughed bitterly, "I was walking home one day, back from a convenience store, minding my business. One moment, I was thinking of what I might do tomorrow. The next, I was staring into a pair of fast moving lights, and there was lots of pain as I realized for certain that I was going to...."

Regret

Sadness

Terror

Anxiety

Fear

These echoing emotions visibly manifested in his shaking as his words became lost in his memories. Instinctively she moved to grab his hands and began to project calmness into him, the process much easier on an accepting consciousness.

'It's alright, I'm here.'

Soon his breathing slowed to normal, his terror vanquished, but not the others still staining his thoughts.

"Pathetic way to die huh?" he quipped with laughter that did not reach his eyes.

She shook her head at him. "Death is death Sora, nothing more."

Sora steadied himself then, slowly pulling his hands away from hers.

"That episode aside," he tried to brush off even with the emotions still plaguing him. "It's true that all this," he gestured around, "are technologies made by Celestial Being. But I will say it again: I am not a member of, nor affiliated with Celestial Being. Not when I've only returned to the living just two days ago, just like you did now."

She sensed him, probed his emotions, took in his facial expressions, and saw no hint of deceit. But this man was a natural-born, and might be capable of lyin-

Amia clamped down on that line of thought before it went further. She sensed herself this time, her fear, her anger, her suspicions…. Was this how she was without the aid of others behind her? Paranoid, mistrusting against those who didn't share the same abilities she had?

'Innovators are supposed to understand, not judge,' she recalled the precious words from her teacher a long time ago. She almost discarded a man's words because she didn't want understanding, but confirmation of her own observations. Since when had she doubted her own abilities, doubted the ability of Innovators? Since she lost her companions? Since her abilities weakened?

No, those were just excuses, for even now, as muted as her sensing was, she could still perceive the emotions underneath, still know what they are, and most importantly she had the experience to know what they meant. It was more difficult now, more than before when her fellow Innovators shared the same abilities she had… but that didn't mean that should stop trying.

If she couldn't trust her own powers to discern the truth after all this time, how could she ever call herself an Innovator?

And everything she had seen and felt told her that this man was telling the truth. Truths she cannot dispute, not when the emotions from him had been so raw, unsullied by malice or mischief.


"Ami," Sora started, his voice still grave, but underneath held determination with a hint of desperation and some uncertainty, "I promised you answers, and I will give them to you when we have the time, all you need is ask. But right now, there are bad things that need be to stopped, and I'm the only one with the power to do it."

Perhaps, she just needed a bit more faith in her abilities, and in this man whose actions have not given her reason to doubt.

"I understand, " she answered with a smile, "I'll trust you for now."

"It's all I ask," the man nodded with palpable relief surfacing, though it was followed by… nervousness? "Well, asides from one other thing…."

"What is it?" She asked warily.

He exhaled some of his nervousness away as he looked at her with anticipation.

"I said that I'm the only one with the power to stop bad things around here… but I really wish I wasn't. And so… " he paused, his nervousness spiking, but steadying himself even through his trepidation, as he turned to meet her gaze, "I want to ask if you could help?"

Honestly, the way the man's emotions roiled inside him, embarrassment sometimes mixing in, reminded Ami way too much of a teenage boy asking out the girl he liked, which she suspected wasn't too far off the mark. Knowing that strange dichotomy between his feelings and his actual words without contradicting each other, despite the gravity of the situation, was enough to make her relax.

"Sora, you need to think up a better pickup line than that," she teased, and was rewarded with his sputtering denial.

"That wasn't meant to be-" he retorted, finally getting a giggle after her, and his glare soon after only her laugh some more. "You…"

"So, what do you need me to do?" she asked.

"For now, I need a helmsman...or woman in this case," he replied with a nervous laugh, obviously trying to add levity to the situation. "We need to start descending if I'm going to sortie in the Gundam to do anything."

She only realized it now as he spoke those last words, but his earlier emotions had not subsided, his anxiety and fear only kept in place by his determination and some excitement when he mentioned the Gundam.

Sora would be the one to pilot the Gundam, to head into battle… cautious of going into battle, but excited at the prospect of controlling a mobile suit. It wasn't a mix she was unfamiliar with, and she came to the only word that could describe her exasperation at that.

'Boys.'

"I got it, tell me what to do."

The small and brief appearance of lust was actually surprising, and though Sora used his panic to bury it under all his other emotions she couldn't help but snort.

"Naughty boy," she quipped, getting an adorably bashful face out of him.

"My mind is wired for double entendres, sue me." He pointed to the chair he had been sitting at before, "Anyways just sit down on the helmsman's chair and take the wheel."

She mirthfully shook her head at that, and took her position as she grasped the rather primitive helm controls-

Knowledge. Memory. Control. Routine.

A heavy feeling of worry and concern brought her out of her fugue, and to the voice of Sora sounding absolutely distraught.

"Ami? Ami you alright?!"

"It's okay Sora, I'm fine," she reassured much to the other's relief, and she didn't feel any worse from what happened now. "I just-"

"Learned how to fly this thing?"

She gave his smug form a questioning glance, his humor and satisfaction slowly taking over the anxiety he felt. "Yes, I did. How did you know?"

He shrugged, tapping his head with a finger. "You're not the first one who had knowledge suddenly shoved into their brains."

Now that... actually explained a lot. She'd have to have him clarify that, but if so perhaps some of the inconsistencies she saw would make sense. Still, for something to have the ability to casually violate their minds was a rather disturbing thought...

A beep catches both their attentions to a noteworthy event, and as if by instinct she brings up a display monitor with said event on the forward screen, expanding a black and white topographic map.

"Picking up three, no eight small craft entering atmo, displaying long-range camera feed." To be in control of a ship and giving reports was a very familiar task for Ami, and for the first time since she awoke she felt useful again. A second monitor is brought up, showing the craft, primitive-looking blocky things of different shapes and sizes falling from the skies, their sheaths of flame slowly vanishing. A variety of names appears on their map blips and also on the video feed, names like 'Centurion', 'Seydlitz', 'Lightning', 'Stuka', and other names. A spike of anxiety from Sora grabs her attention.

"Sora, what is it?"

"They look like aerospace fighters," he pointed out worriedly. Before he could clarify another notification alert sounds, and Ami displayed the monitor to report.

"Three large craft entering from the same vector as the smaller craft. System identifies them as 'Leopards'."

If Sora was apprehensive before, his anxiety shot way up and merged with disbelief, sending a chill down her spine.

"Ami, can you tell me where they're headed?"

"One moment." She checks the monitor again, and felt a faint unease begin to form as the computer overlays lines and figures over their map, "... Stillwell, ETA ten minutes."

"Dropships, fuck," her companion cursed with as much confusion, despair and anger he can muster. "I thought the pirates would be locals, not off-worlders! And with ASF's too!"

A pall cast itself on her features. "Pirates…"

She looked at the monitor with the video of the craft more intensely now. These were the people he was talking about, the slave raiders… a cold anger formed in the pits of her stomach, coupled with Sora's own disgust at the approaching ships. Anxiety, fear, apprehension… Sora was not taking the sight well, his breathing becoming labored. Truth to be told, Sora's fear was also affecting her, mostly because he obviously knew the dangers more than she did.

No. If she let their collective emotions feed off each other the both of them would become nervous wrecks soon enough. So she steeled herself, radiating with calmness and reassurance.

"Sora, calm down."

In a moment, Sora breathed deep and exhaled, releasing most of the tension from his body, but his earlier his emotions didn't subside, just set aside. Yet his eyes were resolute now, and locking her eyes with his gaze..

"I'll be launching in the Gundam through the bottom hatch. As soon as I drop activate the Optical Camouflage and keep yourself hidden." He was trying so hard to sound commanding, even with the obvious nervousness in his voice. Then his visage softened, pleading. "Please."

With such a heartfelt plea, how could she say no? "Alright, I'll take care of the ship."

"Thank you, for everything." The gratefulness in his voice was almost heartbreaking, with a finality as though he didn't expect to make it out alive. That will not do.

"Sora, you still owe me answers, so…. Come back alive."

He laughed nervously, trying to show a smile with bravado. "For you? Of course."

As the bridge door closed, and her sense on Sora disappeared, for once she was grateful for the silence in her head that allowed her to compose her thoughts. One came to the front of her consciousness.

'Sora you idiot, why do you have to fight when you're that afraid?'

No Second Chances

​

 

[edboy49]

Good chapter.
Since you said that you did this story based on GundamChief's stories, are you going to have DEVA broadcast the events to the entire Inner Sphere?

 

[LGear]

Good chapter.
Since you said that you did this story based on GundamChief's stories, are you going to have DEVA broadcast the events to the entire Inner Sphere?

Click to shrink...

My story was inspired by GundamChief's stories, but I'm not trying to copy them wholesale, even if some similarities may bleed through. I intend this to be a more "real" take on the premise, with less Gamer elements and definitely more hard work.

 

[Killer Hamster]

Thanks for the chapter.

I'm wondering, how are the crew going to obtain more Gundams? Clearing events like what the MC did in the first chapter?
Also, I can see people like Ian Vashti not being happy with being on the new Ptolemy, partially it is because it does not "belong" to Celestial Being. It is definitely a CB design but it is not built by them. Add to that they have to unlock functions/people with C-Bills or clearing events would probably only reinforce that belief. I could see people staying with the Ptolemy only because they have no where else to go and the locals are less than friendly. But I expect some friction to appear due to the fact that some of them are enemies at the time of their deaths. Though the MC's position as a neutral third party observer of the events of Gundam 00 may help with relations.

 

[LGear]

Thanks for the chapter.

I'm wondering, how are the crew going to obtain more Gundams? Clearing events like what the MC did in the first chapter?

Click to shrink...

For the most part. But doesn't mean that they'll necessarily get Gundams though...

 

[edboy49]

For the most part. But doesn't mean that they'll necessarily get Gundams though...

Click to shrink...

Okay, my 00 lore is somewhat limited so I got to ask, what is the best GM (General Model aka Mass Production) Mobile Suit in the 00verse?

 

[NHO]

Okay, my 00 lore is somewhat limited so I got to ask, what is the best GM (General Model aka Mass Production) Mobile Suit in the 00verse?

Click to shrink...

Brave, also known as post-GN Flag.
From pure mook suit standpoint? GN-X 4.

 

[LGear]

Brave, also known as post-GN Flag.
From pure mook suit standpoint? GN-X 4.

Click to shrink...

For official videos of them in action (narrated by none other than the King of Braves himself):

 

[Z000]

The Brave are BS
and they are suppose to be Mass Produce

 

[Sakuya's Butler]

Well, the Raiser, by itself, will pretty much be so hilariously OP against aerospace fighters, hell, DropShips, that you might just cause whole engagements to freeze up in shock.

Especially so if you can upgrade its drive to a true GN system.

And that's before linking it up to a mobile suit.

 

[LGear]

As the red light of the cockpit's optical scanner flashed across my eyes, I thought about what I was going to face this time, and what I knew about them.

Aerospace fighters, aka ASF's. If Battlemechs were the "kings of the battlefield" in Battletech, then the Aerospace fighters were the queens of the sky. I wasn't too familiar with them beyond the general picture, but what I got was chilling: they utilized all of the same technologies as battlemechs, protected by the same Standard armor, and packed the same weapons, but in an airborne package capable of fighting in-atmosphere or in space. They're even able to leave the atmosphere and enter orbit through their own power, something not even the Gundams can do without specialized equipment or certain abilities.

Seriously, by any measure ASF's were super fighters that would make your average aviation enthusiast do inappropriate things to themselves while dreaming of them, and the only reason why they're not more important than battlemechs in this setting was because they can't fulfill the type of tactical and strategic niches that boots on the ground can do. But if your ASF's can secure air superiority, then your mechs on the ground have nothing to fear from the sky.

I trusted the Exia's ability to dominate against battlemechs of this era, with her armor, weapons and mobility giving me the upper hand on the ground against even the likes of an Atlas, as my very first kill demonstrated.

Against ASF's however that was a very different matter, as they excel against the Exia in a couple of important aspects: speed and mobility. There's a reason Lockon and the Gundam Dynames had to bail the Exia out of trouble in the very first episode against a bunch of inferior AEU Hellions.

It was a scary feeling, knowing that you're not the top dog in a particular fight, and this was only my second taste of action in this world.

"Alright me, calm down."

It can't be that bad though can it? No matter what, the Exia was still a Gundam, the top of the line and the most technologically advanced fighting machine in the Inner Sphere. Inexperienced though I was in real combat, I did have my implanted skills and knowledge to rely on, and these were pirates I was facing, not proper military.

I should be good right?

When faced with something particularly scary, my main tactic is to barge ahead and deal with it as fast as possible so I can get it over and done with. I only hope that I can accomplish the important "fast as possible" part. I felt the thud that signals the Exia disconnecting from its docking clamps, and with the Gundam now free I walk her over to the front of the hangar bay, where I find what I'm looking for.

One of the things Celestial Being thought up when making the Ptolemy II was giving the Gundams the ability to use certain hardware by themselves instead of relying on a bridge operator, most especially in opening escape hatches. To facilitate this, the Ptolemy had massive mobile-suit sized operating handles on the hangar deck hidden away for the Gundams to use, and I immediately found the handle I needed.

Now I could've done this the proper way, launching from the ship's linear catapult, however that required a dedicated bridge operator to do so, and with Ami in control of the helm there really wasn't anyone to fill that role.

Speaking of Ami, I open up a vidcomm channel to the bridge, showing Ami on the monitor. "Gundam Exia, preparing for drop."

"Bridge acknowledges, Exia," Ami confirms over the line, and dammit I like that professional operator vibe she has going. Then she gives me a look I have no idea how to interpret.

"Sora, will you kill out there?"

Ah, damn. A loaded question right off the bat?

I didn't know Ami enough to say anything conclusive about her, but it was clear that she was an empathic and caring person, the type of person that lends themselves to taking care of others like I've seen her done with me, and as a consequence someone who cherishes human life. Remembering the tale she gave me about her final moments, it was clear that she didn't like seeing people die, and her reaction to Celestial Being was quite telling.

I could tell her what I want, that I didn't want to kill, and that I wouldn't kill if I can help it. But I couldn't lie to her. Not only did I not know how far her empathic sense goes, but it didn't seem right for me to start. I simply had no guarantee that I'll be skillful enough to be able to spare my enemies when push comes to shove, and in any situation where my life was on the line, I'd prioritize myself over my enemies obviously.

I knew what my answer was.

"If I have to. Sorry."

It almost scared me looking at Ami's face then, to see what expression she wore. Disgust? Disapproval? Condemnation?

"Sora, look at me."

Well, she broached that topic quite easily, so I turned to look at the display showing her face, and it was… well, it wasn't unpleasant at least.

"I wish there was another way to resolve this situation peacefully," she started sadly. "But I know that right now, you need to do what you have to."

"Yeah."

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again I felt my heart skip a beat at the caring expression she had.

"Take care out there, you hear?"

Then she ends with that and turns my insides into mush. "Roger that, and thank you." I gave her a lazy two-finger salute, and the smile she gives was so worth it before the video feed cuts off.

… Right, time to get my game face on. Taking a deep breath I brace myself for what's coming, when a stray thought passes through my brain, and I realized I just had to say it, just so I can ignore the pit forming in my stomach.

"Commencing Gundam fall!"

My gut lurched upward, my body feeling weightless as I fell, the the ground quickly rushing in my sight. I resisted the urge to pull back on the stick, and let myself fall for a few seconds before finally tugging on the controls to level the Exia in midair. I watched the Ptolemy start its descent as it speeded away, then to my relief saw its optical camouflage spread from top to bottom, until it blended into the orange sands of the desert below.

With a burst of speed the Exia dashed towards the direction of the pirates, the plan I had earlier forming in my head.

Earlier I had planned to land the Ptolemy in a secure location, where I could then prepare for launching the Exia to meet the enemy. With Ami awake and piloting the ship however, I was able to depart sooner without leaving the Ptolemy unguarded, allowing me to do something even better than I hoped:

Intercepting the enemy.

Hurtling at speed, I could get the drop on the… well, dropships, leaving me with only the ASF's to worry about, and fighters can't capture slaves so all in all a win.

It only really occurred to me then that perhaps I could've used the Ptolemy's beam guns to do the same… then dismissed it. It was one thing for me to be engaging enemies away from Ami, it was another to be doing the shooting from beside her in the ship when her feelings on Celestial Being were already quite clear, and doing so would attract the attention of the ASF's, not only potentially endangering everyone on the ship, but also showing the cards in my hand early, which wouldn't be good.

Thus, I must do this with the Exia, and keep all the aggro to myself so to speak.

I pushed the Exia faster, trying to close in to the dropships.

10,481 meters…. 10,483 meters... 10,476 meters...

I watched my numbers to the dropships, a cold, sinking feeling in my stomach. Bracing myself I gunned the throttle, willing the Exia to go faster, g-forces pushing me to the back of my seat as the GN Drive whined louder and louder.

11,340 meters... 11,332 meters… 12,330 meters…

Even at full throttle, as the distance to my target barely receded, did I realize there was a big flaw in my plan:

I couldn't catch up the dropships, which were actually getting further away!

Damnit, damnit, damnit…

Right out the gate, and my plan was already in shambles.

No, I could still salvage this, there was still a way. I remembered a notable feature of the Exia that wasn't often used, only seen once in S2, but could still be my key to making this plan work.

I grit my teeth as I entered the relevant activation sequence for what I was about to do, the words I needed flashing on screen.

GN DRIVE BURST

A sudden pulse slammed me right into my seat, the acceleration becoming unbearable, blood rushing to my brain.

12,560 meters... 12,555 meters… 12,549, meters…

I eased off on the throttle, deactivating the GN Drive Burst as the full extent of my folly dawned. Even the enhanced particle emission of the GN Drive Burst had not been enough to get the necessary speed. Lesson learned: trying to catch up to a hypersonic dropship coming out of reentry in a mobile suit not optimized for high speed flight was a bad idea.

Alright, time for Plan B. They may outrun me, but they can't outrun beam.

Leveling off into a stationary hover took aim at one of the dropships with the GN Beam Gun, the one nearest to my position. It looked too small for comfort on the reticle even at full resolution, and my targeting computer was warning of beam diffusion at that range, reducing effectiveness, but as long as I hit I should do something to them, it has to.

"Firing!"

A lance of pink light streaks towards the dropship, and smashes through the engine, going up in an explosion that consumes the craft.

"Yes, it's a hit!"

I did it, I hit them from this range, and I didn't even have to move! As the stricken dropship goes down in flames I take aim at another dropship. I let loose another beam, and it misses far to the left.

"Damn, too far."

Another lance of light flashes through the sky… and it's not mine. A second one follows, and I see the characteristic swirl of light circling around the shaft, a Particle Projector Cannon or PPC.

"Guess I caught their attention."

More PPC beams shot my way, and a couple of them splashed with little effect on the GN Shield I put in front of me. Still, that was too close for comfort.

I pulled the trigger for another shot at a dropship when an explosion rocks the Exia, and to my utter disbelief the beam had gone wide and missed the target completely!

"Oh fucker!"

The offender was displayed on the monitor, an ASF with a large autocannon on its nose that was still spewing rounds downrange. Even if I stay here the resulting explosions would throw off my aim.

Oh we simply can't have that can we?

There was an appropriate line for this occasion, and I relished in the chance to utter it.

"Exia, exterminating targets!"

GN Sword deployed and drive to full throttle, I rocketed towards the approaching ASF's head on.

==========​

Fighter pilot Ridhe Valse, riding in a Rapier heavy fighter, had seen a lot of things strange and unusual in his days as a pirate in the Inner Sphere and out, to the point where he could make a good Top 10 list of the oddest things he'd witnessed.

The flying *assault* mech in front of him with a giant sword? Now that was a new one for his list.

"Hey boys, take a load of this guy," he pointed out in disbelief, only to be greeted by the sound of the static that had plagued them since they strange machine had gotten close, and he clicked his tongue at that. "Damned jamming…"

No matter, even if his enemy was a flying elephant he'd still need to deal with it, and just hoped the others in his flight knew what they were doing. They were also vets sure, but who knew what they were thinking right now.

He tried to aim at the thing, and found that his targeting computer was on the fritz. He gave it a hard tap, and when it still failed to acquire he put it away with a frustrated grunt. Fine, he'll eyeball this thing if he had to.

Both his PPC's fired against the flying mech before banking his plane hard right, letting the machine eat his dust. Circling over for another pass he watched the assault mech weave attacks from the other fighters, sometimes blocking them with its massive arm-mounted shield.

"Keep your distance boys, don't get too close to this fool!" he commanded, even when he knew the others couldn't hear him. He saw the machine's sword fold away its pistol-like stub at him, and instinctively he rolled hard left, barely avoiding the pink PPC beam whizzing too close to his position. Pulling the trigger let loose a couple of rounds from his autocannon, and he didn't wait to see if they hit before pulling out.

"Sneaky bastard! Hiding your gimmicks weapons!"

Orbiting around for another look he saw that the strange battlemech wasn't very fast, comically chasing after his planes only to repeatedly get interrupted by weapons fire, and was now spamming its bright-pink PPC at them while hiding behind its shield. It kept firing at a steady pace, and as Ridhe launched another autocannon round that smacked the machine square in the face he noticed with growing wonder that it didn't stop firing.

"Just what kind of heatsinks does this guy have?"

Incredulously he saw the lone Seydlitz in his flight fly straight into the machine, its sole large laser lighting up the sky with its blue beam splashing on the mech's shield. Before the light fighter could swerve out of the way the mech zoomed at it with a burst of speed and then slashing that huge sword through the fighter like a hot knife through butter.

"Karin that idiot! Always the glory hound..." he cursed the pilot's idiocy, and the plan was going so well too. On the bright side, nobody else should be trying that one again.

In the confusion the battlemech had boosted away from them, heading towards the town they were hitting. It didn't take much to know what it was aiming for.

"He's going for the dropships!"

Fusion engines roared as he accelerated towards their prey. His PPC sent a shot downrange, missing the mech but catching its attention as it turned in place, flying backwards firing its own PPC at them. His flight's Stuka and Lightning fighters joined the fray from the flanks, autocannons and lasers forcing the mech to dodge up and away from the town. His men had found their unspoken groove now, one of them pulling back as another tried to get shots in, constantly keeping the mech on its toes and stopping it from fixing on lock on them. Even from here he could tell the mech was getting very confused at them, and that brought a smile on his face.

"A mech trying to fight in our turf? Learn your place!" he cried out, and he seized that one moment when the mech stilled in midair to loose an alpha strike of particle beams, high caliber shells and his missiles against it. Orange explosions bloomed and thundered on the battlemech, and he watched in satisfaction as its giant shield fell blackened and smoking to the ground.

A rain of small pink bolts suddenly slammed into his Rapier's wings, warning klaxons ringing on his ear. He rolled to dodge another barrage of those things - rapid fire lasers? - and watched as the rapidly descending machine fired the weapon on its wrist from the left arm that just lost its shield.

He clicked his tongue at the damage, but saw that the standard armor had withstood the barrage. Oh he'd repay this mechwarrior a hundred times over for this. The mech now pointed itself head first towards the ground in a dive, gaining speed.

"Hitting the deck are we?" he wondered incredulously, the sheer guts of the man earning him a begrudging respect. Still, if the mechwarrior thought he was going to be fooled by the maneuver he was in for a rude surprise.

Long-range heavy missiles screamed from their pods straight towards the ground where the battlemech was headed, and he saw it stop and flinch just feet above the earth as sand and trees were blasted away. The mech, though pitted and scarred, held its ground and spraying more beams their way. Even as Ridhe circled his Rapier for a strafing run, preparing to unleash more fire, he voiced a single unnerving thought that filled his mind.

"How tough is this thing?!"

==========​

You know that trope, where military aircraft stupidly get close to a giant monster or enemy robot, shooting their ineffective guns at it, and just get swatted out of the sky like flies? I always hated that one, since it shows a tacit disrespect of the abilities of modern day aircraft.

Paper-and-wood biplanes with machine guns versus King Kong? Sure, I can believe that.

F-22's doing the same thing against a Kaiju? That grinds my gears something fierce. And I always wished directors would show aircraft being smart and staying out of the way to use the long-range weapons they have to pelt the monster from afar with impunity.

Right now, I regret having wished that.

The enemy ASF's had immediately picked up on the Exia's weaknesses in mid-air, and had promptly used them to their advantage. Melee was right out, as unless they were acting stupid they were faster and could keep me out of arm's reach indefinitely. They were kiting, keeping their distance and taking turns sending shots my way. If it wasn't me they were shooting I would've praised their competence, but as it was the situation was just getting frustrating.

Didn't help that it turns out shooting while moving was a whole lot more difficult than even my implanted skills could compensate for, coupled by the Exia's pack of a "proper" firing computer. Aiming from a standing position was one thing, but trying to compensate for movement and trying to quell the vertigo and onset of nausea from all figuring out which is up and which is down and left and right and everything between gets really confusing after a while. Stopping to aim was out of the question, as then they'd get a bead on me, and as I found out enough fire could threaten the Exia, as the damage diagram showed yellow on the left arm, torso and head.

Fuck, this wasn't how I imagined this would go. Being a Gundam pilot it seems was not as easy as it looks, hijacks notwithstanding.

I speed-hovered backwards along the sand dunes, zigzagging erratically as I sent more beams towards the fighters, grabbing the dropped shield along the way. Its arm connector was busted now, but I could still hold it up with its handle, defending myself from the bulk of the incoming fire as I thought about my situation.

On one hand, staying near the ground appears to be keeping the ASF's from exploiting too many directions to approach me, making their attacks more predictable. On the other hand, it also restricted mine against theirs, and all the sand and dust their attacks were blowing up weren't doing favors for my aim and beam effectiveness. All I could do was keep my shield up and hope I get some shots in.

This wasn't how I planned this. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. I no longer knew how long I've been fighting, how long I've been avoiding them. What was happening out there? Would I make it in time to save the day?

What do I do here? Why can't I kill them fast enough? Why-

"Sora? Sora-"

"NOT NOW DAMNIT!!"

….

….

…. I had snapped, before I realized who I was talking to.

"A-Ami, that you…"

"Sora, take a deep breath and calm down."

She was quite cool and composed considering my outburst, which just made it feel much worse. Still, I did as she suggested, and though I didn't feel any better, my head felt clearer.

"Ami, I'm sor-"

"Like you said, not the time." She didn't sound angry at that, at least I hoped so. "I've been monitoring the situation at Stillwell through their transmissions. The pirates have already landed, and it sounds bad." Even from here the grave worry in her voice was too obvious.

"I understand, keep me posted," I replied, trying to sound as calm as possible. "And, thanks."

"Acknowledged." She nodded, before the transmission cut off.

I definitely couldn't waste time with these ASF's now, not when the raid was already underway. But the one option available to me, the only option left, was one I hesitate to use in this instance. A double edged sword, one that would enhance the Exia's combat abilities but then cripple it afterwards. And considering my earlier performance, I wasn't sure if I could handle it for the duration it was active.

Perhaps I could've used this earlier, played this trump card right from the start. But with its drawbacks, I didn't know whether the short term advantages now would negate whatever advantage I might need later.

Right now, it's not like I have any other choice do I?

In a more naive, less stressful time, I would've savored this moment with excitement. But now, all I could think about was killing some fuckers, and letting them know not to mess with me or the Exia.

I was mad, and they were gonna feel it.

"Alright, time to shine Exia!"

==========​

Another alpha strike slammed towards the enemy assault mech, kicking up more dust in the air. By now Ridhe had no illusion that said attack was going to keep the mech down: his LRM's were spent, his heat was at dangerously high levels, and he still didn't know how much more punishment the battlemech could take. Still, as he gained altitude to survey the area and watch the rest of the flight dump ammo on the thing he had a feeling that the end was in sight. Atlases had been felled by his flight, and this one should last much more.

The dust cleared, and he felt vindication at his thoughts: the mech had dropped its sword and shield, and now without its weapons it was visibly turning red. He at first had difficulty believing what he was seeing, but then his brain gave the most likely answer.

"It overheated! It overheated! How stupid is that?" He laughed incredulously at his good luck. All it took was to push the machine to its boiling point? With how red the machine was, he could imagine the pilot getting roasted inside his own machine, how delicious.

Missiles from their Stuka slammed into the mech, blanketing it in dust and smoke, and Ridhe sighed in relief at the end of it all. Good riddance.

"Good job now everyone, sunnovabitch really made us work for out pay!" he cheered through the comms…. And got only static.

That was his first indication that not all was well, before the dust and smoke exploded outward, and Ridhe thought he saw red before their Stuka got sliced in the air. No, he realized, he did see red, a mirage flashing through the sky. Then it stopped mid-flight, and got his first look at it.

It was the damnable assault mech, shining red, and on each hand it held…. Beam swords?! Wasn't that the stuff of cartoons and science fiction?! Knots formed around his stomach then. This was something beyond his imagination, beyond everything he'd seen.

There was now a new top 1 in his strangest things, and it was running away.

"Damn this mech…" he spat, and he gunned full throttle after it, and it seemed everyone else in the flight. It sped away from them, moving erratically and leaving behind afterimages with every movement, giving it a ghostly, unnatural appearance.

High Explosive rounds let fly from their Lightning, and the machine climbed at impossible speed to dodge the salvo, before it turned around and then charged his flight. This was not a new tactic, and they normally dodged the mech before it got close. But even before his planes could evade the red mech caught their Lightning and cleaved its sword right through.

"Oh god," he realized what had changed: it was faster now, more agile, and the advantage his craft once had was lost. It was even using their own speed against them, as it was now had the speed and agility enough to close in the gap between them quickly. What he thought was a dead battlemech was now an impossibility given form, and now their worse enemy.

"Everyone pull back now!"

One of their Centurions tried to climb away, but the mech chased after it with ease, and fired its strange rapid-fire PPC's at the escaping craft, tearing it to shreds.

Half of their flight was gone in less than a minute, and the effects were devastating. He could see his craft flying around like headless chickens, forgetting their earlier tactics. If they felt even a bit of the fear he did, then they'd be wetting themselves in short order.

Their Spad had lost its mind and flew straight towards the machine, giving alpha strikes like it was going out of style to no avail as the machine weaved through the fire, and the Spad met its end as a beam sword tore diagonally through its fuselage. The second they had Centurion tried the same tactic firing all its medium lasers at once, and the mech didn't even try to dodge as it met them head on, and smashed a sword through the cockpit before pulling out.

Only a Corsair remained aside from itself, and it was running at full speed, firing ineffectual lasers to its rear. In the same ease as it dispatched the others the mech chased after the fighter, and cut the Corsair in half.

There was only him, and the mech that decimated his flight, and all he could feel now was vengeance. Even as the heat became unbearable, all his weapons blazed against the mech coming closer every second, the beam sword growing larger and larger in his sight.

"YOU FILTHY SUNNOVA-"

==========​

I didn't check to see what happened to that last fighter I ran through, and instead pushed the throttle as hard as it can towards the town, which I should barely reach with the Trans-Am system active. The G-forces pushed against me once more as I accelerated, but oddly not any more than before, despite what should be crushing pressure against me by now, small mercy that.

It wasn't long before I came up on the town, and saw Stillwell for the first time. It actually larger than I thought it'd be, similar to the provincial backwater towns I knew back home, but with much wider streets to accommodate mechs, and if the somewhat clean state of the buildings were any indication, it was a "young" town, newly established.

There was fire, burning and smoking in places, and where there was fire, there were battlemechs. I couldn't see the dropships from here, but I tagged 10 mechs within the city, and the Exia's IFF handily identified 4 of them - a Jenner, two Commandos, and a Panther - as belonging to the local militia. All were in various states of damage, but it was clear the militia mechs had taken the worse of them, with the Panther having lost its right arm, and the Commandos' armor rent open in various places. On the pirate side, they had a Shadowhawk, a Firestarter, two Locusts, a Spider, and an Urbanmech. There were more damaged mech hulks scattered throughout the city, but the IFF didn't tag them.

00:45

The countdown timer on the Trans-Am system was counting down fast, and once it ends I'm a sitting duck. I have to make this quick.

The Exia rocketed towards the Shadowhawk engaging the two Commandos, knocking the mech down and smashing it through the ground as I used it to slow myself down. It spat an autocannon round from the torso at me, missing me by inches, and in return I ran the cockpit through with the beam saber.

00:32

Zooming around the corner of a plaza searching when I spot the Firestarter trying to flank the militia's Panther. It finally saw me, and went wide with its medium lasers as I rushed it. In a last ditch effort it unleashed flamethrowers on me, and I simply kicked the thing down before stomping on it, crushing its torso.

00:16

Not much time left now, I ran into one of the Locusts with an Urbanmech. The latter fired its small laser first, dealing surprising damage to my left arm when I swung, cleaving it clean in half, then following up with another swing on the Locust's legs, rendering it useless.

A Spider suddenly jumped into view, jumpjets flaring, and I turn to meet it when a warning klaxon invaded my senses.

00:00

TRANS-AM SYSTEM REPOSE

"Not now, not now!"

The Trans-Am system terminated, and along with it all of the Exia's fighting power. The only silver lining was the Exia kneeling before the shutdown, but only meant I was a big, fat target for the light mech that just appeared. I grit my teeth at what I knew would happen.

The Spider stood stock still, waiting for a reaction from me, then shot me with its lasers. I didn't feel it in the cockpit, but the warning alerts were helpful enough, displaying damage at the left shoulder armor. It wasn't critical yet, but I really didn't want to find out what happened when it punched through.

I couldn't move, I couldn't fight, I couldn't do anything.

All the expletives I knew of in all languages poured forth towards my luck, my situation, at ROB for bringing me here....

Then the Spider got shot by lots of lasers, taking out a leg, and toppling it over.

I sat there in disbelief, watching the militia mechs round the corner to find the remaining pirate, and breathed a sigh of relief.

It was over. My first true combat sortie was over.

I wanted to laugh, to praise whatever being was out there at how I was still alive, and most of all, that we had succeeded. We pushed them back. But most of all, I just wanted to sleep, find a nice cozy bed and get some shuteye.

But I earned this. I did.

I watched the Leopard dropships in the distance bugging out, rising high into the atmosphere.

Yeah you better run you pirate scum.

"Sora, do you read?"

A most welcome voice comes through the comm, but when I look at her face onscreen the grave visage she had alerted me to something wrong.

"Loud and clear Ami, what is it?" I replied weakly.

She sighed in relief for a moment, but the grave expression returned.

"The pirates have been repelled…. But they still made off with hostages, numbers unknown."

I watched the dropships receding into the twilight sky, and suddenly felt like my entire world just collapsed.

"..... fuck."

No Second Chances
​

LGear's Notes:

As of this chapter, No Second Chances is now longer than my previous fic, Spirit of Steel. That depresses me more than it should for some reason. ​

 

[NHO]

Well, Exia may go better in space against ASF. Of course, Kyrios would have slaughtered them, but beggars can't be choosers.

 

[Killer Hamster]

Well, in the end both sides lost. The MC failed to prevent the raiders from taking the people from Stillwell and the pirates probably lost more than they may earn from selling those slaves due to the MC destroying half of the ASF force. If I recall, ASFs are ludicrously expensive.

Also nice to show that the MC has his limitations, though I think he should have gotten Amia to cover him with the Ptolemy.
If the MC had Dynames or Kyrios he would have probably wiped the floor with the pirates easily.

 

[Sakuya's Butler]

I get the strangest feeling the 'wrong guess' in the cryo bay, is Ali al-Saachez.

Because ROB is a dick.

 

[edboy49]

Good chapter.
Really hope that in the next fight he wipes the floor with the enemy.

 

[victor janus]

looks pretty interesting. watched.

 

[NHO]

I get the strangest feeling the 'wrong guess' in the cryo bay, is Ali al-Saachez.

Because ROB is a dick.

Click to shrink...

There's no B.G. or G.B. there.