|
"Alternative Directions: Options "Written By: Karina Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the lovely
boys and their girls in the series. Wish I did. Please don't sue me.
I haven't even got a brass razoo to give you. Rating: Deffinately PG in Australia, at the moment,
but probably safer to say R for later chapters. Not sure about international
ratings Warnings: It will be 6x2, even though it does
not start out that way. After all, Zechs and Duo never met in Gundam
Wing and only spoke briefly over a com line in Endless Waltz. I've
tried to keep them in character as I saw them in the series. A bit
of language creeping in under stressful conditions. Pairings: eventual 6x2, past 2xH, 2+H,6x9, 1+R
Summary: Directions is set post Endless Waltz
and roughly 2 years have passed. Zechs and Noin are on Mars and Duo,
after spending some time with Hilde in a relationship leaves L2 to
join Preventers. Hilde was not happy about his decision. I guess enough
said. Here t'is, and I hope you like it. This is also AU for the standard
setting, as well as the series and Endless Waltz. Spoilers: Gundam Wing Series and Endless Waltz Many thanks to Dulin for volunteering to beta this. //... // thoughts
"Alternative Directions: Options"
Mars Colony Base Dome Date: 1st March AC 198 Time: 13:05 MST [Mars Standard Time] Simpson Commander Patrick Simpson chose to ignore his indignation that his concept of Mars was all wrong. He had expected the planet to live up to its reputation as the Red Planet. There should have been a vibrant red tint to everything around him. Red dust should have coated his survival suit and blurred his view through his visor. It should have been everywhere. Though he had been on the planet only a few hours he was already fed up with the dust. He would be glad to go back to the green bounty of the Earth. Why anyone would want to work on this god forsaken dead world was beyond him. It was, however, ideally suited for a prison, he reflected. He hated the place already. Nothing was as it should be. For God's sake, the bloody dust wasn't even red. It was a mix of yellows and browns. Not much red visible at all. And he so did not want to look at that god awful pink sky. Around him half of his team moved in silent deadly precision. Ahead loomed the bulk of the Base Dome construction facility. "Com traffic?" he snapped. "Usual construction codes. No indication of our presence being noted. There is a pre flight call sequence from a shuttle prepping for launch. Countdown is at ten minutes, thirty eight seconds." his communications officer was quick to respond. "We will be in before then." a satisfied comment. "Maddock. Runtridge. Go ahead. Scout the duct." He knew that a mobile suit construction group were working on the far side of the dome, repairing condensers broken down in the last dust storm to have ripped through the area. Those repairs would keep most of the Base Dome staff occupied on the far side of the dome, allowing them to infiltrate the dome unseen. Their point of entry would be a ventilation duct not far from the shuttle terminal of the base. Shanna McIntyre would have the seal deactivated for a set period of time in which his team must enter the ventilation system undetected. It was a monumental pain to have to go about this business in such a fashion, but he had no intention of having to handle irate scientists at a mass invasion. Mako had restricted access to the Base Dome and if the Project Chief expected that inconvenience to stop the mission he was sorely mistaken. //All of this to take custody of babies. God. I'm a soldier. An elite soldier, for Christ's sake. Not a bloody nanny. I don't trust the psych evaluations of Marquise. I don't want to deal with irate women. I don't want to deal with squalling infants. Marquise was a nut case. I don't care that they say he has calmed down. You never know what a psycho will do.// The duct was found to be unguarded by anything other than the two men he had sent ahead. He glanced at his wrist com and noted that they had all of a minute to wait before the seal would be deactivated. He sighed, satisfied. They had made good time on the walk between the domes, the lighter gravity had aided them in the climb up the steep rise and then the small cliff face to the Base Dome. He would admit that the view was spectacular from this vantage point, but it was still all wrong. The horizon was capped by that horrible pink sky and there were no majestic mountain ranges or forests in sight. Spread before him was the view of the Alpha Dome down on the lower plateau and beyond it a rock field that spread to a cliff face rising to loom above the Alpha Dome. While spectacular from this vantage point it was, none the less, wrong. There was no ocean or fields, nothing but endless rock and dust. No doubt the scientists who had first sent the probes to Mars had been excited by the planet and its differences and similarities to Earth, but he was just plain disappointed. He wanted to go back to Earth where everything was at least the right colour. "Com?" "No alerts, sir." Still undetected then, that was good, but it said exactly how much attention to security these people took. It was deplorable security if it was so easy for his men to enter the dome. How could anyone think that this level of security would contain someone of Marquise expertise? For all Simpson did not like the man he had to admit that the files he had read suggested Marquise was an elite soldier. Some said the Specials were all aristocrats who were promoted according to blood lines and family connections. He knew otherwise. He had become privy to old Alliance reports on the back ground of certain key individuals in the Oz Specials after receiving this assignment. According to those reports Marquise had been the best, Noin had been listed as second and the great Kushrenada listed third. Oz had only recruited the best from the Alliance armed forces and in some cases snapped up the really brilliant individuals before they even completed basic training. He had also had the opportunity to review their basic training procedures and found them to be brutal. He had been privy to the investigative reports on the training techniques of the Specials, and knew their physical requirements needed to be a mobile suit pilot far outstripped the Alliance standards. He had also had the opportunity to view the training schedule at the Lake Victoria Academy for a second year cadet. He had been destined for an elite squad when he had enlisted in the Alliance Forces, obeying his grandfathers instructions that he do so, and he had not had to undergo that level of training until his fourth year in the regular service. He knew just how well trained the Specials had been and he was not expecting Marquise or Noin to be an easy target to take down. A click and faint hum heard over his external audio systems drew his attention to the ventilation shaft and the cover that lifted. A grunt and hand signal sent his team into action. There were rungs leading down into the shaft so no climbing gear would be required, but they had only two minutes to get seven people into the shaft before the seal would be reestablished. The lighter gravity of Mars could be both help and hindrance there. He had no need to give verbal instruction. His team were well briefed and well trained at this type of work and knew exactly what had to be done. They had been provided with a map of the ventilation system and the expected locations of work crews and key individuals in the dome at this time of the day. He needed confirmed locations first. The team's priority at this stage was to spread out and locate the crèche the twins were kept in, and pin point Marquise and Noin. He also needed to know whether or not there were Preventer Agents assigned to this dome and where they were located before he made his move. He did not doubt that the Preventers had more than four agents in this Colony and as far as he was concerned, they were to be listed as expendable if they stood in the way of the mission. "Com?" "No alerts." A nod sent the man into the duct and Simpson cast a final look about him at the barren landscape and the nearby dome. All quiet. It was time to begin and to round up his targets. Descending into the duct he had reached the tenth rung when with a hum the seal reestablished. Satisfied with the timing he continued to descend, silently marveling how long it took to descend a hundred feet straight down. Midway down the shaft a vibration alerted him to the take off of the shuttle and he gripped the hand holds tightly through the worst of the vibration, only moving when he deemed it safe to do so. "Com?" "Clear. No alerts." Simpson stepped off the last rung and began to remove the enviro suit. They would not need them for now and they were too bulky to wear while going through the ventilation shafts. Neatly placing the suit on the pile already stacked to one side of the shaft he looked around him. Steel shafts, slightly less than two meters square led off to the west. His team were in the ready position, the last shucking their suits into the neat pile for later collection, the first down the shaft standing in guard position. He adjusted his throat microphone and checked his weapons, concentrating on remembering the blue prints for the shafts. All shafts narrowed, but were fairly large and not likely to be a problem maneuvering through. "Keep the scientists and workers alive if possible. We need no flack from civilian authorities over heavy handling of their personal. For now your mission is to locate and report. I want to know where the Preventer agents are at all times. You all saw the vids of the suspected agents and if you find them, you follow them. If you find Noin or Marquise do not approach them without backup. I mean it. They are not scientists and if you forget it you are likely to be dead very quickly. I want to know the base before we move, so this is a locate and mark mission at this time. Keep low key." Their agent in the base had assured them that for the first two hundred meters there was no chance that anyone wandering in the base could overhear them moving in the ducts, but from then on stealth must be maintained. When they started moving he winced from the echo's resounding in the steel enclosure. So many moving was not conducive to secrecy for long periods. At the first junction the team split up and their commander began to breath easier. In pairs they would survey the base, checking that there had been no last minute additions to the blue prints they had studied. Colonials and the people who built colonies were notorious for adding last minute additions. He had rough locations for the primary targets of this search and he intended to tag them, secure their location and bag them neatly, with as little fuss as possible. If at all possible he would make his move now, snatching the children and sedating Marquise before the locals expected him to. He had no doubt that Marquise had allies here beyond the Preventer agents. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alpha Dome. 13:35 Simon Barker shook his head slightly watching the display on the screen. As predicted. Exactly as had been predicted. The man was uncanny. Just how did he so accurately predict what would happen? Not only the time they would choose to move, but the method of entry to the base as well and the number of agents involved in this first attempt. He turned from the screen and glanced up to meet Agent Thorn's eyes. "Eight of his team are accounted for in the Alpha Dome. The commander and seven of his team are missing, including two of the three women. Our agents off the shuttle have been confirmed and moved to appointed locations." Thorns eyes glittered with emotion, the man was ticked off that the members of Blue Squad had managed to leave Alpha Dome undetected by their normal security measures. "They are going after them immediately." a sigh and Barker shook his head in disbelief. "I really thought they would wait until the shuttle had been serviced. Well, obviously they expected us to presume exactly that. They also presumed we would not be paying too close an eye to their activities or they would have been more careful. Pity they assumed wrong." he reached for the com. "Alpha Dome to Base Dome One. Medical confirmation on tests for that virus are now confirmed." It did not help him at all to know that they would have succeeded in exiting the Alpha Dome if he had not been pre warned of their means of egress. Sneaky bastards definitely had assistance from within Alpha Dome to leave as they had. They also had help from within the Base Dome. "Confirm that Alpha. Containment of subjects will begin. Isolation of all persons who may be carriers and have been exposed to the contamination is recommended." the deep voice, unmistakably that of Zechs Marquise, responded. //He was in the control room and waiting for my call? How does he do it? He always seems to be exactly where he should be, where he is needed, when he is needed. It's uncanny. // "Confirm that, Base Dome One. Isolation in effect." Preventer Eagle stood and nodded to his subordinate. "Lock down Alpha Dome, Thorn. It's time to show these ESUN bastards that we know what we are doing." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Base Dome One 13:37 Zechs Lucrezia Noin glanced up at Zechs and nodded. "They have an infiltration unit on the way into Base Dome." White blonde hair caressed her face as he straightened from the com board where he had leaned over her to answer the alert. "Already in the base. Came in through a ventilation duct. Duct Five was opened for two minutes, five minutes ago. They will scout the base first, looking for us and the twins and marking the locations of anyone else in the dome. Placing the location of the base personal." Lucrezia nodded slightly. "How did you know? How did you know they would act so soon? I expected they would at least enter the dome under Mako's escort the first time. Likely come for us in two, maybe three days, when the shuttle was nearly ready." Ice blue eyes narrowed at her question, for an instant looking distant, as though he watched something she could not see. "Is it not enough that they are here?" "I want answers, Zechs." she watched him, frowning. He had had a lot to say before, when they had argued over her abandoning him to their non existent mercies. Now he seemed extremely reticent about making any comments at all. "I have already given them to you, Noin, you just were not listening. I have to go. If you follow the instructions given, you will come out of this alive, Lu. So will the children and so will the people on the base. If you go your own way... people will get hurt." "With this infiltration of the base the ESUN has declared war on us, Zechs Marquise." softly stated. Deadly cold in her tone. "I will not forget what they have done with this decision. I will not allow them to touch the twins. My children will be safe from the ESUN and any others who think to use them. I will use deadly force to ensure that." He paused in the doorway, back tense, silent for a full minute as he considered her words. God, she could be stubborn. So stubborn. It was likely to get her and others hurt. If not killed. If she would only follow the instructions he had given then something other than death could come out of this. It all hung on a so precariously balanced mothers instincts. One little nudge could send everything spiraling into a blood bath. "It is not war if you do not pick up the glove and strike their cheek in return, Lu." Lucrezia Noin was not a woman to cross. If only she had remained on Earth. None of this would have happened if she had not insisted on coming with him into exile. Yet, if such had been, there would be no little bodies that meant the world to him. No tiny, delicate bodies that felt so warm and so right nestled in his arms. Catch twenty two. You could not have one without the other. Anyway, it all stemmed from that decision. She had not listened to him then. To his despair he knew that she was not likely to listen to him now. //It is time I started to accept what has happened in the past and deal with it as best I can. I can not change what I have become. I can not change other people; it is not my place to force them to change. If I can accept that and live with the consequences of their decisions, and what it means to me and to everyone around us, then I might stay sane. Perhaps. I can not make them do as I see. I can not make them take certain actions. Every body has free choice. Every body must have free choice or we become nothing but a race of programmed drones. God in Heaven. Do you really exist? Do you exist in some plane tied in some way to this time and place? Do you watch us and do you despair? How do you cope with the human race?' He would try once more. He would try just once more to get the message across to this stubborn beautiful woman. Likely she would not listen, even now, with the agents already infiltrating the dome. Or she would choose not to even try to understand what he had to say to her. He could only try, one final time, and then he must act as best he could. Likely most of his preparations would come to naught. "You are the crux, Lucrezia. If this sparks into a blood bath, it will start with you. It started with you coming to Mars instead of staying active with the Preventers, on Earth. It started with you deciding to come here and how it will finish will depend on you." "Zechs." the warning was evident in her tone, a low growl of frustration and brooding temper. "Are you blaming me for what is happening here?" "No one person is to blame. Everyone is to blame. We all have to claim some of the guilt. If you had not made certain choices things could be very different, Lu. If I had made certain choices, things would be different again from how they are now. We all interact. We all influence others. It is how things must be for the world to turn. That's just the way reality is. Everything we do and everything we say changes the circumstances that surround us. I've told you what will likely happen and when it will happen. To the best of my abilities. Decisions people make and the things people do change certain things. If you should choose to remain in this room, you will remain alive. If you choose to leave this room and go and sit in the canteen and don't move from there, you will remain alive. If you go and fetch the twins and go to the canteen you will die, because you will not allow Simpson to have them when he comes for them. And he will come. If you walk down corridor A3, you will kill directly two of his men, and cripple Jenny Santos, who will be caught in the cross fire. If you had taken the twins on that bloody shuttle hours ago, you and they would not now be stuck in this morass. Things change, Lu. We change them, with every decision we make. We have to deal with them as best we can." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noin Noin frowned, watching as he walked to the door. He was infuriating. He never seemed to understand what she said, always taking it with a somewhat slanted perspective, that somehow was never what she meant to say, or so it seemed. However angry she was with him, she did admit one thing. So far he had been right. How had he been so accurate in his assessment of the situation? She was surprised that so far he had been right about the time schedule of the agents and their every action. She would have thought they would have waited until the shuttle was ready for departure before coming after the children. How did they think they were going to retain custody of them for a week before the shuttle was ready to leave for Earth? Yet Zechs had said that they would come within hours, to the Base Dome, and that they would come quietly, secretly. Stealing into the facility and immediately begin to search for the children. Zechs paused in the doorway, turning back to her, long blonde hair sweeping over his shoulders as he leaned forward slightly. "By the way, Lu. Sometimes safety is not what we should strive for. You should remember that there are more important things. I have to go." Noin watched him walk out the door, confused, frowning. Exasperated she shook her head, glancing over the control consul and then back to the empty door. "He makes less sense every time I try talking to him." ~ * ~
|
