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"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: 15:26 MST [Mars Standard Time] Simpson "Marquise! Marquise is here. Med... med..ic... med..." Simpson froze. The flat, tinny voice blasted through the earpiece, panic all too clearly evident. It was followed by the ominous looming silence of doom. Frazier glanced at his commander, eyes wide, expecting an explosion of curses and no doubt wondering why he had bothered to get out of bed that morning. The day had started bad and it was evidently not going to improve any time soon. The silence from the radio seemed loud, and he found himself counting silently. He had reached twenty before Simpson stirred. "Call back." Simpson ordered, tone ice cold, eyes blazing. "Cambridge, report." Simpson used a finger to press the earpiece deeper into his ear, as though that would make it easier to catch any reply. The only sound to be heard was a faint hint of static. "Cambridge? Report, Cambridge!" Frazier's voice held no hint of panic, just cold professional urgency. Panic would serve no purpose, except to aggravate the already annoyed man standing beside him. "Fannon, report." Simpson's voice cut into the network, demanding, furious that yet another thing had gone wrong. "Fannon!" With a snarl Simpson signaled to cut the communications with his team. He considered in silence the fiasco that had been a very well detailed plan of action before they had actually executed it. Marquise was responsible for this. There could be no doubt about that. No doubt. The two men he had sent to investigate the suspected deaths of two of his team were unaccounted for. Two men dead. Likely dead, he corrected. Their deaths were not confirmed as yet. The two sent to investigate that matter were missing and now the women had been taken out of the mission. Things were out of control. To say that it was getting messy was something beyond an understatement. The upshot of the matter was that his options were limited and getting worse with every passing minute. They had been sloppy, though where he had made the mistakes that had led to this point in time he could not see. Not without time to review what they had done. Time they did not now have. Alpha Dome was still off the air. No word from any of his team left there to act as backup should the need arise. Neither from the other half of his team or from the undercover operatives secreted amid the grunts and professionals who had come on the shuttle. Something was seriously wrong down at the Alpha Dome and he was loath to consider it possible that all of his people had been taken down. The silence did mean that he had no option but to scratch any aid from the main dome. Events were out of control, so it was now his obligation to bring them back under his control. The means by which he must do this was not really an option he had ever wanted to contemplate. That option he had really wanted to avoid if it was remotely possible. To now consider it meant that as a professional he had failed in his missions prime objective. He had wanted a surgical strike. He had intended to get in, secure Marquise and Noin, get the children and get out. Surgically clean. Get in the base, secure the objectives and get out with the babies and Marquise. That ultimate objective was still achievable. It was still possible for them to secure their targets, though, admittedly, not cleanly. That was the problem. Not cleanly. There was not just a mess in that he had lost team members, but that his mission was known and that there were witnesses and evidence to link the affair back to the ESUN Security Office. It was more than just a mess. It was regrettably irreversible, so, it was time to initiate their cover. Time to set up their camouflage. Time to initiate the last resort instructions for the mission and no time to regret what needed to be done. It could not be helped. //No help for it. I have no other option. Time to contact the Sleepers and have them set operation Raider into motion.// he sighed. He really had preferred not to kill so many, but his orders were clear. "Any word from Beta team?" "No contact with the Beta team, sir. No significant logged communications between Base Dome and Alpha Dome either. I have only the teams working outside of the dome on the com, and that is the usual one would expect from a mid shift conversation." Simpson scowled. If they had had contact with the Beta team he could have held off initiating Raider, but putting it off would serve no purpose. "Set Operation Raider into motion. Contact the Sleepers with the go ahead for their mission. We move from here to site three." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15:28 Shanna McIntyre "... peration Raider. Repeat, commence Operation Raider. Confirmation code Simpson, Beta Delta Delta Three. Confirm by impulse." Shanna sighed, leaning her head back against the chair rest, contemplating the ceiling of the control room. So Noin and Marquise were giving them trouble. Serious trouble. Operation Raider was the dirty tricks option to cover up their activities at the domes if they failed, or were more violent than they had hoped to be. She had been privy to the mission details when Simpson had spoken to her in the Alpha Dome that morning. She would be lying to say that she had been impressed by the entire matter. Either the main mission or the agenda of alternative scenarios they had covered. To her it had lacked something in the details. Exactly what it had lacked she could not have actually said, but it bothered her as the day had progressed, and she wondered now if it was not that by acting immediately Simpson had not given his team or himself enough time to get to know the lay out of the bases. It had also not given Simpson the advantage of actually meeting Marquise and Noin. Perhaps if he had delayed a day or two and given himself time to adjust to the local conditions and to formulate his own impression of the targets they might not now be in this mess. Be that as it may, it was a done deal. They had to work with the results of what looked to her like a decided failure. She knew that two men had been injured or killed, but she had no idea if the remainder of the infiltration team were still loose in the dome. Likely not, considering the instructions now being issued to her as Team Leader of the Sleepers. What had happened to warrant Simpson calling for operation Raider to be initiated was not good, but it was not her primary concern. What concerned her more was that they had lost all communication with the Alpha Dome. Her agent in the big dome had not communicated with her at their scheduled contact. In fact, it was coming up to the second scheduled contact and she had the feeling that she would hear nothing from him. Something had happened over there. Something they had not considered in their plans. Something they had missed when they had so carefully planned this mission. With communications between Alpha Dome and Base Dome off line, her doing, and her private line to the agent in the domes team also inoperative, decidedly not her doing, she had to agree with Simpson. Drastic measures to cover up were required. While it might prove to be a minor problem it might also prove to be a major hurdle they had very little means to counter. Had she heard from her agent she would have considered going against Simpson's directive and delaying Operation Raider, but since that was not the case, she had to concur that it was a necessary precaution. She had blocked both Alpha and Base Dome communications between each other, but more importantly off planet as well. The teams working outside the domes had personal communications equipment, but only short range affairs and they were ignorant as to what was happening anyway. At the scheduled shift change they could deal with the returning personal. Straightening in her chair she fronted the control panel, touching keys in quick succession. First the acknowledgement of the instructions to Simpson and then the prearranged signal sent to the personal pagers of her team and she settled back as she watched the small screen, watching as one by one the team acknowledged their instruction. Everyone knew their place. Everyone knew precisely what they had to do and where they had to be to fulfill the operation successfully. They all knew what key personal they had to kill and where they would be. After the initial strikes they would begin taking out the workers under the dome. Silence and stealth was the key to Raiders success. She sighed. No acknowledgement from her man in the Alpha Dome. Not good. "Sorry, people. Your in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, it must be done. Can't have the general population know what is happening here. Your all just casualties of war." Her first duty was to lock down the communications in the Base Dome, so that only she could operate the system. Must not have anyone contacting the outside maintenance workers with reports as to what was happening under the dome. Or realizing that the system had been tampered with. She would then have to go upstairs and kill everyone on that level, as neatly and quietly as possible. Her agent in the security team in the foyer would be starting from the ground floor and working up, floor by floor. She could use this time and bloody work to psyche herself up for the taping of the mayday call. She would need to be disheveled and only one tiny point off hysterical. It was imperative that she make the distress call believable. A quick glance at the schedule revealed she had a two hour window before a mining transport would pass within the range of Mars, close enough to pick up the signal. A little closer than she would have liked, but they could work around that. All going well the Daccar System would have been tampered with by now, initially as a precaution against the Preventers interfering and getting word out. The most likely scenario was that the mining ship that would pass near to Mars would turn tail and run, not wanting to get involved in a Raider operation. No Preventer ships were scheduled to be anywhere near Mars for at least two weeks, and that would be one returning from the asteroid belt patrol en route to Earth for maintenance and a change of crew. There was also a ESUN patrol ship within six days travel time of Mars, but this would be long over before then. Word would be blazing around the Earth Sphere days before any Preventer or security ships could act. The only possible witnesses she would have to worry about coming from space, would be the mining transports or any Sweeper ships that might be in the area. Neither of which she would expect to be a problem in this situation. The miners would run from possible Raiders and the Sweepers kept to themselves, refusing to get involved in direct conflict though they would certainly spread the word, passing on the mayday. The beauty of it was that all emergency communications would be automatically rerouted to broadcast over the supposedly secure Daccar Satellite System, and that system had been compromised as a necessary precaution to contain the situation on Mars. News would get out, but not until they wanted it to. All nicely packaged and time logged on the satellite. The Raiders, of course, would get the blame for that, as well. The ESUN pickup ship was due to arrive in two days. When the Mayday was received by them they would know that some cleaning up would need to be done and that they should hasten their arrival. They would receive the call hours before the Daccar System would relay the mayday, allowing them that little extra time to act. A total clean sweep of the base would then be possible. The only problems would arise if any ships, mining, private research, executives, Sweepers or whatever, were in the immediate area though not slated for a fly past of Mars and were within two days of the planet. Only if an unexpected ship with a captain brave enough, or stupid enough, to respond to the distress call by charging to the rescue, would they be in trouble and need to extend their action to cover their tracks. No, it was a sad and sorry truth that the Raiders that attacked Mars base would leave no survivors to be rescued, other than a few who would swear that it had been raiders when asked questions. The media would hype the story out of all proportion. No one would think to question it, not with the past record of the pirates who prowled the mining lanes. "Kill two birds with one stone. Get Marquise and his kids in security confinement and give a push to cleaning up the oh, so handy Raiders. First things first." a low murmur. "Clear the floors." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15:50 Alpha Dome "Well?" Joe Mako turned from the consol to front Eagle as he entered the control room. "Sectors A to F have been swept. All in dreamland. We have placed them in confinement until this is over. Another two hours should complete the sweep and we will know that the Dome is secure. As expected, we did find a few who escaped the gas, but they are in restraint. Everybody known to be in the dome is now accounted for." "Good. I can't afford to have riots or sabotage destroying the dome." a surly grunt responded, but Mako's eyes told how frightened he was by the necessity of this action. "Any word on Jenny Santos?" "Nothing coming in. Base Dome had contacted us to pass the time of day. Shanna McIntryre is on duty in the main control room, but now the com link is nothing but static. The interference is coming through the Base Dome's channels. Started about twenty, twenty five minutes ago." "Mmm, well we do not want to talk to her, just now anyway. Better if she just sits and wonders." Mako nodded. "Just so. I wish this was over, Simon." The Preventer could only agree with that. He had orders from Preventer Earth to contain the situation and ensure that as few people as possible were hurt. They could not afford to have it generally known that Milliardo Peacecraft was alive and well on Mars. Eagle had never met the man before he had been assigned to follow agents Wind and Fire to Mars and take over security at the terra formation project. Having now met the man, he could not understand the terror that swept what had become the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. The man he knew as Zechs Marquise was not the man who had threatened to destroy the Earth. Just what had happened to change that man? Milliardo Peacecraft was the Devil in disguise, so he had been told. Media hype added to the unreasoning fear generated when his name was mentioned. Clearly the ESUN government knew just how powerful an agent it had in controlling what information went out over the media to the general public. Information on more than just the Sanc Prince who had threatened to wipe out the civilization of the planet. There were people on Earth who were dangerously wise to the powers of the media being used to widely sway public sentiment. "It won't be much longer and it will be over." Zechs Marquise seemed so different to all the reports he had been privy to. Preventer Earth had ensured he was very well briefed on Milliardo Peacecraft when he was assigned to this mission. He knew he had been chosen to fill this post because he had not reacted with automatic terror and hate for the man who had threatened to destroy a civilization. The truth was that the Earth would not have been destroyed by the repercussions of the White Fangs plan, but the planet would have been stripped of more than ninety percent of life. Another mass global extinction, similar to that which was credited with wiping out the dinosaurs would have occurred. In so many thousands of years life would have started to develop again. Faster, when you considered that in a few hundred years time, when the planet had settled, the descendants of the current colonists would have started working on the planet to bring it back to life. The man he knew as Zechs Marquise seemed more concerned with keeping people alive than killing them. It made no sense to him. Especially when you considered the trouble Zechs had gone to, to convince he and Mako to install the gas cylinders in the ventilation system of the Alpha Dome. He was in no doubt that Marquise had saved lives, property and injuries with that single action. Mako grunted. "The situation was under control. He was hurting no one here. Why they had to do this is beyond me. Where could Zechs go? What could he do here? For gods sake, Simon, this is Mars." "They had plans. That's all I know. The Alpha Dome was going to be opened up for general colonization in less than a year. It would have been harder to keep Zechs' presence here secret. That would have figured in their plans, but likely we could have gotten around that hurdle." Likely he would learn more of the ESUN's plans at a later time. When this was over. "I hate not knowing what is going on over there." "Sir, static on the line from Base Dome is still in effect, but there is a message originating from the Base dome. Its going out on a broad band sweep." the com officer looked around, frowning. "There's a lot of interference I can't account for. There's no cause for it to be on the com link." Mako grunted and spun his chair around, watching as on the screen Shanna McIntyre, wide, terror filled eyes streaming with tears, blood on her face and uniform, wept. The picture was somewhat fuzzy and there was static disrupting both picture and sound, but it was clear enough to ensure the message was understood. "Mayday! Mayday! Help us. This is Mars Base Dome. The Raiders... oh, God... The Raiders are here! They're killing everybody. Help us..." With a violent hiss the screen dissolved into one final static display. Silence filled the control center as the com officer snapped off the link, staring at her hands for a long moment before looking to her Project Chief and the Preventer who was her Commanding Officer. Preventer Eagle glared at the screen, in total disbelief. The implications were certainly not lost on him. Zechs had informed him of the identity of the ESUN agents on the team that were known to him, stressing that there were others he did not know. He himself had independently checked the backgrounds of the agents when he had learned of them and he concurred. Zechs was not mistaken. Shanna McIntyre was the top name on that list of Sleeper agents. She was the commanding officer for the undercover team. Any doubt he had of her culpability in this situation were now firmly laid to rest. Zechs had said repeatedly that there were more and he did not know who they were, or how many of them there were. "Shit. They intend to kill us all." he whispered. "Sir! The communications array... Damn!" the man worked quickly at his consol, finally shaking his head in disgust, looking helplessly as red light after red light appeared on his instrument panel. "The whole system is going down. Mains, secondary, backup... everything! I can't even establish communications with the maintenance teams outside the domes. Some type of virus I think." Preventer Eagle growled softly, for a moment resting his head in a hand. They were thorough. He had to give them that. He understood now, and he was horrified. Lead everyone to believe the Raiders were responsible, take out communications so that no one who knew the truth could contact anyone to pass the word along. Likely they would have some means of mass destruction to seal the fate of the terra formers and it was his job to keep these people safe. Yes, it was his job as a Preventer to keep these people safe from the scum of the Universe. He had not known just how low that scum was willing to go. He had already sent off a preliminary report to Preventer Earth via the usual communications channels. Further reports would need to be sent on the independent communications array he had brought with him to Mars. That unit was sealed and he doubted that any of the sleeper team were capable of corrupting the unit, if they even knew where it was currently located. Still, what you could not take out with a virus you could still destroy with a few solid blows. He had to make certain that the only secured system remained secure. It was time to send a report anyway. If the worst happened he had to get some type of warning through. It would take time. Thirty minutes for the radio waves to reach the Earth. Then Preventer Earth would have to receive the report and determine a course of action. Then another thirty minutes for the return instructions to be received back on Mars. Possibly up to two hours before he could receive new instructions. It all amounted to one conclusion. They were on their own. "I need three people in suits ASAP. We need to get the maintenance crews into the Alpha Dome as soon as possible." "What about Base Dome?" Mako queried. "Alpha is our first priority. Zechs and Noin are in Base Dome with two undercover operatives if they need the assistance. We have to trust in them to handle the situation." ~ * ~
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