“Those who believe, fight in the Cause of God, and those who disbelieve, fight in the Cause of Satan. So fight against the friends of Satan.”
‘Stop… it!’ Setsuna could feel the pressure threatening to overwhelm him… the pressure of Geass which allowed the floodgate of religious propaganda to once again flow freely in his head. ‘There is… no God!’
His vision showed him a familiar scene. He saw himself back as a child in the war that spread throughout the Krugis Republic as a child soldier. He saw the corpses of fellow children who would be branded as Holy Warriors. That man… Ali Al-Saachez would probably say something on how those children have earned their place in Paradise.
“As for those who reject faith, punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help.”
‘Stop…!’ The young Setsuna held his rifle and ran to find a new spot to hide while mobile suits from the Kingdom of Azadistan continued their offensive.
“Cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
The sound of weapons fire from an energy rifle blocked out the voice of Ali Al-Saachez and subsequently brought things to a stop as the enemy mobile suits were destroyed. At that moment, the boy looked up and saw Gundam… the symbol that had saved his life and guided him to where he was today.
But… behind the 0-Gundam, he could see those smug purple eyes… eyes that reflected the being’s absolute superiority in himself. He knew those eyes…
“Ribbons… Almark!”
“Show some gratitude. After all, it was because of me that you were able to attain those powers you have, Setsuna F. Seiei.” The 0-Gundam’s GN particles spread out, forming wings out of its light. What was once a beautiful symbol is now tainted in Setsuna’s view since he knew the truth.
“No… you aren’t Gundam!”
“I am beyond Gundam. I am God, the messiah of mankind, the one who will reform the world from its contradictions!”
“You talk too much, Mr. Innovator.” A sudden shot from another GN energy rifle slammed into 0-Gundam, destroying it in one shot. Setsuna turned to where the shot originated from and found himself shocked to see a familiar green mobile suit wielding a long sniper rifle.
“Dynames… Lockon Stratos?” The world faded away, leaving only himself and the image of Neil Dylandy in his casual clothes and the eyepatch covering his right eye.
"You have more than Gundam already, Setsuna. Believe in the people around you, they'll keep you straight."
“G-guh…” As Setsuna slowly regained consciousness, he could hear some of the medical Haros rolling about and carrying on their duties. Even though his eyes weren’t quite open yet, he instinctively knew that he was in the infirmary as his body was familiar with the type of medical bed used by the ship. Currently, he was strapped down to the bed, most likely for safety purposes.
One of the medical Haros started chirping rather loudly. “Patient is awake! Patient is awake!” No doubt that it would draw the attention of someone so they could check up on him.
His head still felt odd. He could still feel the Geass command at the back of his mind but something else seemed to be keeping it quiet. For now, he still had his normal sense of self which was good.
“Setsuna! You’re okay! Thank goodness…!” It was a female voice who sounded very relieved at his recovery. In fact, she had taken one of his hands (still strapped down) into her own.
“Feldt…” He opened his eyes and looked over to the right where the pink haired girl was clutching on to his hand. She looked rather startled though when she saw that he was looking directly at her.
“Setsuna… your eyes…!”
“What do you mean…?” Feldt immediately let go of his hand and went to grab a small reflective piece so that he could see what she was talking about. His eye colour seemed to be fluctuating between his normal brown colour, tints of red and traces of gold which signified the usage of Quantum Brainwaves. ‘This is…?’
“Let me call Tieria right away to run some scans!”
“So how is he doing?” asked Lockon as he dropped by where Tieria was running Rai through a series of tests. Their newest potential Meister was holed up in Cherudim’s cockpit and going through the tasks that had been assigned to him by the hologram.
“Quite well. After he got used to the cockpit layout, I started him on movement and combat simulations. His ability to assess situations quickly and take the best course of action with what resources he has at his disposal is remarkable.”
“It must be nice… being able to draw upon skills that you developed in another life,” muttered the Irish man before he took a sip of coffee from his mug.
“But at the cost of one’s own identity?” asked Tieria.
Lockon paused for a moment before nodding in agreement. “Yeah, that might be too high a price. You figured out if he can work with Heavy Assault unit types yet?”
“His results are promising. Already, he’s learning how to position himself carefully so that he is in the best possible defensive form while his primary weapon cools down from each charged shot,” said the hologram while he studied the readouts. “The problem is that he doesn’t play to the GN Mega Launcher’s strengths and tends to treat it as a regular rifle or a sniper rifle. And he seems more prone to engaging the enemies at close quarters combat. If he’s going to be piloting the GRM Gundam, he needs to be able to use its strengths effectively to make an impact on the battlefield.”
“Prone to engaging enemies up close? So is he gonna be something like a Setsuna Mark II?”
“Funny. Take this as an example.” Tieria brought up some footage earlier of Rai using the GRM Gundam to fire one brief shot from the GN Mega Launcher to disperse a group of enemies before forcing them into one-on-one combat, taking each of them out in a matter of seconds with some skilled moves with the GN Beam Saber held in the mobile suit’s left hand. “I might need to make a change of plans.”
“In what way?” asked Lockon.
“Currently, Setsuna’s not in the proper condition to pilot. I was thinking that maybe we should insert Rai into Exia since his piloting style seems to prefer close combat.”
This caused the other man to raise an eyebrow. “You think you can trust him to pilot a Gundam with a genuine GN Drive this early? Besides, Exia’s already fine tuned to Setsuna’s specifications. It would probably take some time to reset everything so that Rai can handle it.”
He paused for a moment to reconsider. “You may be right there. Perhaps Astraea would be a better fit. It’s an older machine but it can still perform well. And since it is Exia’s predecessor machine, it would still fit my idea of putting Rai in a mobile suit that’s built for melee combat.”
His musings were interrupted by the communication console at his workstation turning active. “Infirmary to Mobile Suit Hangar! Tieria, are you there?”
“Go ahead, Feldt.”
“Setsuna’s awake but there’s something odd going on. I think it would be best if you came to see it yourself.”
“I’m on my way.” After deactivating the communication channel, he turned towards his green clad comrade. “Lockon, can you look after things here while I go examine Setsuna?”
“You got it. Just keep me in the loop on his condition, okay?”
“Roger that.”
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(Posted Fri, 29 Jul 2011 02:47)
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