Upon completing a safe landing on the island, the Knight of Seven raised the canopy up and climbed out just as a Special Forces officer approached him. "Are you the unit commander?"
"Yes, my Lord!" replied the man as he saluted. "Lieutenant Soap MacTavish of the 104th Mechanized Special Forces Regiment. I have already informed the rest of the landing party that you will be taking command of the operation from this end, Sir Kururugi."
Suzaku couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow before he returned the salute. "I appreciate your efforts. Please take me to the work site."
"Of course. Please follow me." As MacTavish led the way to the site, Suzaku decided that a bit of small talk would help calm his nerves.
"If you’ll pardon my forwardness, but I’ve never heard of someone with the name Soap."
The officer gave a dry chuckle. "Trust me my Lord, I get that a lot. My first commanding officer Major Price gave me some grief about it at my expense and his amusement. I got the name during basic training and before I knew it, pretty much all my fellow comrades stuck with that name over my real one."
"I... see." He was fortunate that his nickname of Spinzaku didn't stick with him. It was a name that he got during a particularly initiation done by fellow cadets at the military academy when he was tied up and spun around like a top while some annoying song that kept looping over and over again played in the background.
MacTavish's tone returned to a more serious one as he addressed the Knight of Seven again. "That aside my Lord... the technician team is already combing through every inch of that Knightmare as best they can. We also received word from Lady Enneagram. Her group's estimated arrival is eight minutes."
Suzaku felt a surge of relief flow through him, knowing that the Knight of Nine would be arriving soon. It wasn't as if he wasn’t up to the task of command over this operation but having another fellow Knight of Rounds close by helped ease his mind. "That's good to hear. Please take me to the others so I can get updated on the situation."
"Follow me my Lord."
The Knight of Seven followed the other man into the cavern while his mind unconsciously brought up several old unpleasant memories about this place. He shook his head to stay focused on the task at hand and spotted the kneeling Gundam with its left hand touching a stone wall that had carvings engraved on its surface. The white cone-shaped engine on its back was still active, producing those particles at an astounding rate... and yet, the rest of the unit seemed inactive. He then noticed the team that was working nearby and approached them, not noticing MacTavish slip away to stand by for the Knight of Nine's arrival. "Can someone give me a status report?"
One of their technicians poked his head up from his work while the buzzing noise of a saw starting up was heard in the background. "My Lord, we’ve tried to run scans over the unit but the particles originating from the engine are disrupting most of our equipment. All attempts for deep scans have failed utterly. The best we could do was take chemical samples off the armor using a compound kit used for testing minerals and metals."
"Did your chemical tests find anything?"
"Not a great deal as you can see here, sir." The technician held a notepad up for Suzaku to see. "Most of the compounds in its armor composition are unknown. What we did find out was that there’s some form of artificially enhanced carbon as the base of the armor. We’ve judged it to be extremely tough gathering what it did to our cutter tools when we tried to cut open what we surmised is the cockpit."
Just as he reported that fact, the noise from the saw suddenly cut off. "Ah, crap!! There goes another one..." Another technician jumped back down and tossed the remains of a double bladed diamond tipped rescue cutter saw into the pile of broken saws that had accumulated not too far away.
"Its armor did that?" asked Suzaku in an astonished tone as he noted that the blades from each saw in the pile were completely trashed.
The first technician nodded in affirmation. "That's correct. The grade of saw that we're using is designed to cut open ejection blocks from Knightmares and panic pods that VIP’s use in case their transport gets hijacked. It’s a top of the line cutter and the only thing it managed to accomplish was scratch the paint, if even that."
A third technician walked over with a clipboard to show the information to the Knight of Seven. "We did manage to gather some readings using a few of the less sophisticated radiation detectors we brought along to get some sample data on the particles. However we’ll be lucky if we can even determine what the particle’s residue compounds are composed of, much less the particles themselves."
"Unreal..." Suzaku wasn’t exactly as technologically savvy like Lloyd or Cécile, but he knew enough about to understand the gist of what he was being told. Essentially, their ability to study the Gundam outside of a combat situation was near impossible given the properties of the armor and the electronic countermeasures the particles from its engine were giving off.
"Despite it being an enemy machine, I can’t help but admire its overall design, my Lord," stated the first technician as he stared at the inactive machine. He gave a small sigh of envy before clearing his throat to recompose himself. "We’ll resume trying to open the cockpit as right now, it would be in our best interest to pull the pilot out, assuming that he's inside of course."
"Hey, guys! I thought of a code name we can give to the armor. How about Gundanium?"
There was an awkward pause that followed by the sudden out of the blue suggestion by the rookie of the team. Pretty much everybody, including Suzaku, gave him an odd look before one of the older technicians broke the silence. "Rookie, that’s the dumbest name I’ve ever heard. No self-respecting scientist would name the armor of a mobile weapon like that! You just took its name and added to it, to make it sound like it came from the periodic table!"
Suzaku just shook his head upon seeing the tech team’s antics before MacTavish walked into the cavern again. "My Lord, the Knight of Nine has arrived with her squad. She wishes to speak with you."
"I’ll be right out. The rest of you, continue trying to open the cockpit. If we can get the pilot out and shut the machine down, then we can put this to an end without a major hassle.”
"Yes, my Lord," replied the entire team simultaneously.
Both Suzaku and MacTavish left the team and soon found themselves greeted by several purple Vincent Wards the moment they stepped back outside. The lead Knightmare Frame was an unknown model that bore some resemblance to the Gawain. The machine’s cockpit block opened up, revealing a woman dressed in a similar pilot outfit to Gino's as soon as she got out. She looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties, with silver-grey hair cut short with two long bangs in the front. The right side hung loose while the left was braided with a gold hair lock keeping the braid in place. Upon seeing Suzaku, a wide smile appeared on her face. "Yo, Suzaku!!"
"Lady Enneagram, it's good to see you," said Suzaku politely as he saw her disembark and approach.
"Didn't I tell you that you can cut the formality with me? Just call me Nonette!" exclaimed the woman as she gave her fellow Knight of Rounds a friendly slap on the shoulder.
"Er... right..." How could he forget that she was similar to Gino in so many ways?
"Sheesh... it seems we just keep getting busier and busier these days! From overseeing invasions, to testing new Knightmares... and now, there's this whole Gundam business!" She sighed in a dramatic fashion, causing MacTavish to snort once in amusement. "Seriously, we need some vacation time."
"Unfortunately, a Knight’s duty is never done." Suzaku looked over to the Knightmare Frame that she had brought with her. "That Frame you have with you..."
"It’s the Gareth, a new unit based off of the Gawain's design. It has a few extra features that probably won't make it to the mass production stage so it’s identified as the G1 Gareth. Sure beats the Proto-Gareth or Lesser Gawain nicknames," stated Nonette as she glanced at the unit herself. "So what’s the situation with our captured quarry? Is it unmanned or is the pilot inside it?"
"I honestly think the Gundam’s pilot must be inside but we cannot confirm the pilot's current condition. Given my experience with the... artifact on the island, it can mess with your head," replied Suzaku while carefully choosing his words to best describe the situation without tipping anything off about the Thought Elevator. After all, he didn’t know who else among the Knights knew about that temple that the Emperor allowed him to see.
Nonette rubbed her chin in thought. "So we should assume he’s in there, probably off in la-la land. And based on that assumption, I bet that his friend may be coming to bail him out."
"A friend?"
The Knight of Nine took out a personal data handheld and brought up some photos recently sent to her electronically. "Off the coast of Italy, Prince Schneizel’s forces were attacked and forced to retreat by another Knightmare Frame that generated the same light particles as the one that first intervened in the execution of the Black Knights. We now know that there are two of them out there."
"Another Gundam?!" Suzaku's eyes were glued to the screen on the PDA, showing photos of an orange and white machine making its assault. Some pictures showed it in a humanoid form while others showed it in an aircraft form. "It's just like the Tristan with a fully transformable frame. Do we have any hard data?"
"It’s capable of super-sonic speed and it pulled off its transformation instantaneously without any compromise of its speed. Even the Tristan has to slow down to transform without wrecking the frame."
It was bad enough that one of these things existed but now they had concrete proof there was indeed more than one. "We’d better secure this Gundam as fast as we can. We can’t dawdle anymore."
"Agreed. But-" She was cut off as a flash of pink energy flew towards the sky and took out three airborne Sutherlands. "What the hell?!"
Immediately, Suzaku ran over to his VTOL craft that was parked nearby and switched on the radio. "Team Two, where did that shot come from? Report!!"
"Sir, it came from the ocean!" exclaimed a panicked voice on the other end.
"From the sea?!" He looked up as several more of the pink colored beam shots came from under the water’s surface, tearing apart several other airborne Gloucesters and Sutherlands. "All units spread out!"
Nonette raced back to her machine and climbed up to the cockpit. "Dammit!! They have amphibious capabilities too?! Suzaku I’m launching ahead! Have Anya and Gino back me up!" The cockpit hatch then closed as the G1 Gareth flew up, followed by her squad of Vincent Wards.
He switched the radio to the needed frequency to contact the Tristan and Mordred. "Gino, Anya, move out to help Nonette and back up the aerial combat teams from being wiped out!"
"We are on it Suzaku!" As always, Gino seemed ready to go.
"Roger that," replied Anya in that monotone of hers.
As her Gareth took position into the air, Nonette checked her rear and was glad to see the Tristan and Mordred approaching. "Alright... let’s see if we can flush out our attacker! Team Four, prepare to fire depth charges on my-" She never had a chance to finish giving out her latest orders as a massive object suddenly surfaced from below. "The hell?!"
Gino's eyes widened as his Frame's camera focused in on the object. The overall design... it resembled that other machine to a degree. Especially the head with the mask and optics standing out to intimidate the enemy. "That's..."
"...... a Gundam." Anya flipped open her camera-phone and snapped a picture of the green coloured Gundam from the view she was getting with the Mordred's camera. This would make for an interesting blog entry later.
With a single pull of the trigger from the sniper rifle it was wielding, another beam shot crossed the distance to hit the battleship’s bridge and traveled onward through the rest of it, causing a ship wide explosion and a feeling of absolute dread in the heart of MacTavish. "Good Lord...... how the hell do we fight something like that?!"
'I wish I knew...' Suzaku only hoped that his fellow Knights could hold out against the third machine that just arrived.
"A third Gundam?! Today just keeps getting better and better," grumbled Nonette from inside her cockpit.
"Holy crap!! Did you see it take out that battleship?!"
"Yes I did, Gino. But we have to keep calm. It may have size and firepower but we are the Knights of the Round! The Britannian Empire's elite soldiers! We won’t go quietly nor will we be defeated! If we keep our heads calm, even that large monster can’t keep up with all of us! Let's go!!"
Inside the Cherudim, Lockon checked his monitor which had caught a glimpse of three unique machines. "I didn't see these in Feldt's database..." He paused for a moment and gave it some thought. "They must be new models or top secret. Whatever they are... they're in our way."
"Obstacles! Obstacles!"
He glanced at the orange ball jacked into his controls. "Haro, don’t give them any slack and keep up evasive maneuvers. I’ve got targets to shoot down!"
"Roger! Roger!"
“Cherudim, Lockon Stratos... sniping the targets!" The green optics of the Cherudim Gundam flashed once as it brought up the sniper rifle just as the three Knights of Round began to charge.
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(Posted Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:46)
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