Gundam Wing: Forgotten Worlds

[tean-kun]

Sorok Grozny was sitting with a drink in his hand in the lounge watching the news broadcast from Earth. "After having inflicted devastating damage, OZ keeps sweeping away the remaining forces of the United Earth Sphere Alliance," the newscaster said, "More battles are expected around the globe since the Alliance's Armed Forces are entrenched in numerous nations."1

He smiled. Go ahead and play your games, fools, he thought, you have no idea what is in store for you . He got up, still with the drink in hand, and walked over to the large floor-to-ceiling window. He looked out over the rock and ice covered landscape then up at the large multi-colored banded sphere. It almost seemed to look back, with a single large dominate red eye. He raised his glass in toast. Ah, king of the gods. King of the planets. Only fitting that we should be the rulers of the Solar System.

He moved his eyes back to the broadcast as it continued with an officer, "Despite our patient attempts for a peaceful solution, the rebels refuse to listen to us. They keep committing acts of sabotage all over the world."

If you think they're bad, Integrational First Secretary Sorok Grozny thought, wait tell you get a load of us. 2

[tean-kun]

Chapter 1: Watching from the Sidelines


TROJAN INTEGRATION HQ, TROS, GANYMEDE

Integrational First Secretary Grozny walked down the hallway alongside his aide, Gabir Wahid. The sound of their shoes hitting the polished stone titles echoed down the hallway as they approached the conference room. The aide opened the door. As Grozny entered, all those who were sitting at the large conference table, the Integration's High Command, stood at attention and saluted by holding up their hands, palm forward. Each one had a mark in the shape of a "T" superimposed by a circle scarred on his or her hand.†


†


Grozny saluted in reply in the same manner with same mark. They all put their hands down but stayed at attention until he sat down.

"You may all be seated," he said. "This meeting will now come to order. Admiral Tysyacha, what is the situation of the fleet?"

Admiral Gennadi Tysyacha had on a black uniform but with a blue rectangle on his collar. He sat up. "Still mostly in development, sir. So far we have five cruisers, five frigates, ten destroyers, and twenty corvettes. It was enough to conquer the Outer Planets, but no means enough to take on the Earth Sphere."

"But, more ships are in production."

"Yes, sir. The Agamemnon shipyard is now operational. We should have a substantial fleet by the A.C. 200 deadline."

"Along with the super cruisers?"

"Yes, sir!" Tysyacha responded with enthusiasm. "Thank you for mentioning that. Our engineers are already at work designing a new generation of spacecraft that the Earth Sphere would have no chance against. Not even their…Mobile…Suits…right?…would stand much of chance."

"Thank you, Admiral. And as long we are on the subject of Mobile Suits," Grozny then turned to the African who bore a red rectangle on his brown collar. "Marshall Lezare, what is your situation to counter MS's?"

"Barely in development, sir. We do have a few designs for mecha, but we need to know more about Mobile Suits, not to mention these so called Gundams, to do much to counter them."

"What about our troops?"

"Well, there we are doing very well, sir, especially with the Order Guard which even right now is much more than a match for the UESA's so-called Specials. But since we are smaller in numbers, we are developing machines to help our infantry. They are going to be called Anti-Personnel Dolls, or APD's. They are similar to OZ's Mobile Dolls but much smaller, only a few meters tall, with enough armament that one could easily wipe out a platoon of those pathetic OZ soldiers."

"Thank you. And Chief Engineer Seratus, how is R&D coming along?"

The Malay woman bore a yellow rectangle on her white collar. She smiled. "Our engineers are making great strides. We already have been already using drives that far surpass anyone in the Earth Sphere has. We can get to a spot in days of what it would take them months. Furthermore, we should soon have developed a new, stronger composite that would surpass Gundanium. But we need to know more about the mechanism of the Gundams as a whole as well as the other Mobile Suits."

Grozny then turned to General Mincho Hiliada, Supreme Director of Integrational Security and Intelligence and Chief of State Police. "Well, Hiliada, they seem to be demanding more information. So what is the situation with the Earth Sphere?"

Hiliada's greay collar bore one black rectangle with three raised characters, a thunderbolt flanked by two vertical bars. 1 "Well, there seems to already be division developing in OZ, due to disagreement between Treize and Romafeller particularly regarding the use of Mobile Dolls. Treize feels they dehumanize war or something."

"Can't blame him too much," Lezare interjected, "A computer can't replace the intuition of a human. They only reason we're using doll-like mecha is because of necessity due to our low numbers. Unlike human fighters, they can just be spat out from an assembly line like any other machine. However," he added with a smile. "dolls can very well be overridden by a good cracker, a tatic which we may soon use against them."

"Well, Tsubarov is the main supporter of Mobile Dolls. They're his brainchild."

"Hmph," Seratus snorted. "Well, how seriously can you take an engineer who wears such loose baggy clothing? You can get sucked into machinery that way."

"Such is the pompous attitudes of nobility," Hiliada bemoaned sarcastically. "I look so forward to the day when we can eradicate them."

"Except those who denounce their nobility and join the Party, of course," Grozny interjected.

"Of course, First Secretary."

"Please, continue."

"Yes, sir. Again tension is starting to build in OZ. This will certainly detract more attention away from us," Hiliada chuckled, "as if there was any before. As far as the general Earth Sphere is concerned, there is no one out here."

"And what of external tensions?" Tysyacha inquired

"Mainly just those boys," Hiliada said. "Two have already been captured by OZ. One has 'joined' OZ. The other two are still at large; reports also are that one of those two had a nervous breakdown."

"Who is in charge of ISI there again?" Lezare asked.

"Shtatë. Major Enver Shtatë."

* * *

MOON BASE


"I'm done cleaning the pans. Can I go now?" the middle aged cook asked his supervisor.

"Yeah. Get out of here. I guess we can give the rejects to the prisoners."

The cook removed his apron and cap as he walked out of the kitchen. He was in the hallway when he heard the alarms. Hmm, must be an intruder. Better check this out. With a look of hysterical confusion, he ran through the hallway, excusing himself as he passed guards. He got to a quieter, emptier section, his pace slowed. He then got near a cleaning storage room. He waited for more guards to pass before he backed into the room. He closed the door and stood waiting for a few minutes with his back against the back shelf until the alarms quieted down. He then,with his back still to the shelf, reached under the second shelf from the top, and rapidly tappedout a quick tone. He then squatted down to the floor and pulled himself partway under the bottom shelf and tapped another pattern on a section of wall. A one square meter panel then opened which he started to pull himself into.

"Major, where have you b...." the man inside the small room behind the false wall started to say.

"How many times must I remind you to never refer me to my rank!" the "cook" said as he pulled his head inside.

"Sorry, s... , I mean, Enver."

"That's better, Louis. Apology accepted. So, what's happening?"

"A break-in," the man posing as a custodian responded turning toward the communication console, "I think it was that Maxwell kid. He let himself be captured. They should be getting him to his cell just about now. Let me switch the station to the speaker."

They waited in silence for a few minutes before they heard from the console a metal door open, then shortly there after voices.

"Botched your mission?" a first voice started, "You couldn't destroy the base and you couldn't eliminated Doctor J and the others."

"How about a little sympathy? In any case, I'm still glad I decided to come here," said a second, "and I've got good news. Your Gundam and mine are being rebuilt as we speak."

"Look's like OZ will be keeping us alive for a while. It's a good chance so don't die yet."

"Don't worry about me, pal. I have no intention of dying that easy. There's the Colonies to fight for. Just watch me. I'll become God of Death once again! But right now, I need some sleep."2

Oh, yes, your God of Death act. I think I know of some guys you ought to meet.

After it seemed the conversation seemed to have ended, ISI First Lieutenant Louis Huit turned to his superior, ISI Major Enver Shtatë. "Oh, my!" he said with strong sarcasm and absolutely no surprise. "Think we should report this?"

Shtatë laughed. Along with ISI Second Lieutenant Mladenka Cxetiri and the other ISI agents, they found out about the Gundam scientists "secret" projects weeks ago. It was a nice system for the ISI agents. When the scientists weren't working on the Vayeate and the Mercurius and other OZ projects, they would work on the Gundams on the side. So while the scientists were working for OZ, ISI would examine the Gundams, and while the scientists were working on the Gundams, ISI would examine the OZ projects, keeping track of anyone watching them of course.

"It's OZ's own fault for not doing anything as simple as bugging their prisoners' cell," Shtatë said, " Let them suffer for their own incompetence."

"I use to have a little bit of admiration for them. They did take over the United Earth Sphere Alliance very well. There they used cunning. But now things are starting to falling apart for them, especially with that a**hole Tsubarov. I wouldn't be to surprised if things flared up to another civil war before too long."

"Me neither. But that's because they have so many things against them. For one thing, there's Romafeller, which is so geared towards nobility, status due mainly to birth. And so they end up squabbling like children figuring they deserve something just because of who their mommy and daddy were.
"Furthermore, like many revolutionaries, OZ spent too much energy and thought getting into power, which I agree was well done, but not too much thought was put in what they would do after they got into power. This is much due to them being soldiers. They have a constant desire to fight, so after victory, they have nothing to do. So, they fight in these petty squabbles. Squabbles that could be taken care of by more effective personnel."

"You mean like us."

"Yes, which brings up OZ's greatest flaw, or for that matter the former Alliance's, no central police force. Internal intelligence has been practically nonexistent. No peace officers. No political officers. If we had been in power in the United Earth Sphere Alliance in the first place, none of this would be happening. Milliardo Peacecraft would have been found out years before he became Zechs Marquise, the Lightning Count or what ever the h*** he's called. Furthermore, we would have been easily found out about Khushrenada and Une's treachery before they got anywhere. For that matter, the Barton Foundation and their "Operation Meteor," whichever version, would have been discovered, and there would be no Gundams. In any case, the offenders would have been arrested and punished accordingly. Let's see anybody in the Earth Sphere be that effective."


"There was Inspector Acht, who did successfully discover that Gundam-01 was not destroyed and that Zechs was at Antarctica."

"True, but how did he decide to take care of it? By sending a squadron of those d**n Mobile Suits. What is it with the Earth Sphere's obsession with them? Again, sent in soldiers, or should I say pilots, when there would have been better ways of going about it. A team of ISI agents could have snuck in the base and taken over, or at least assassinate the offenders before they knew what happened." Shtatë raised his finger. "Yes, things would be a lot different if I was in charge of the Earth Sphere. There would be order. There would be no need for Mobile Suits or any armies for that matter. People would soon learn that the State is supreme."

"First things first, Enver. We must first become their State."

"Yes, Louis, but that should be taken care of in about half a decade." He sighed, "We must be patient."

Then they heard the signal as someone started to enter the room with the proper codes. A young shorthaired woman entered the room.

"Ah, Mladenka, how are you?" Shtatë asked.

"Pretty good," Cxetiri responded, "considering they had to keep even us lowly tech assistants 'safe' when there was an intruder. Even a peon in my position can be a security risk."

"Oh, that reminds me," Huit said, "So, Enver, what kept you? It couldn't have just been the commotion with the intruder."

"My biscuits were too flat. So, they made me stay and do another batch. It sure tries a person's patience of our capability to have such lowly positions and get a good amount of flak on top of it. But, it works better to keep a low profile, plus it makes more pleasurable the thought that when we get into power and become their superiors."

"I look forward to it, but if you'll excuse me, I have some floors to clean." Huit crouched down and exited through the hatch. "I'll make sure that Tsubarov's are spotless."

"Heh, heh. You do that, Louis. Take care." Shtatë then turned to Cxetiri. "Mladenka contact our agents on Barj."

"Yes, Enver," she responded as she turned to the console.


* * *

Weeks later.

TROJAN INTEGRATION HQ, TROS, GANYMEDE


Wahid walked along side Grozny along the somewhat decorated corridors. "So, we are going to meet the Plutonian ambassador?"

"Not exactly," Grozny replied, "He is not simply the ambassador; he is their present leader, their 'Primary Carnifex' as they call it."

"And, he is the head of this 'Order of Death'?"

"Yes."

"And, this is the first time any of them has left Pluto?"

"In over one hundred and fifty Earth years, yes."

"It will be interesting to meet him."

"Yes, it will."

They were discovered a few years ago. As the Integration expanded to the other Outer Planets, they weren't surprised to find the other systems inhabited, but they were surprised of the small colony they found. A fanatical group obsessed with death founded the colony in the early part of the last century. The group wanted their home world to be connected to death, so they picked the world named after the Greco-Roman god of death. The colony was actually placed right under Charon, the other member of the binary planetary system, which itself was named after the boatman who carried people across the river Styx to the Realm of the Dead. So, one would have to pass Charon before reaching their realm. Over the generations, their bodies changed, partly due to the environment, particularly the low sunlight, but mainly due to genetic manipulations they did themselves. For nearly a century and a half, they lived in isolation, having only the older generation to kill, which was done ceremoniously, and then the Integration came. The Integration soon learned that this colony would be hard to control since the Plutonians were small in number (less than fifty) but still very effective killers, so soon the Integration came up an alternative solution. Although the Integration could have easily have bombard the settlement out of existence, they decided to give the Plutonians semi-autonomy in exchange for their service as assassins and as elite body guards. With the opportunity to put their obsession and skills of death to practice, the Plutonians complied.

Grozny and Wahid walked on to the door of the lounge where their visitor was waiting. Two ISI officers flanked the door. The officers opened the door to reveal a dimly lit room. A figure was seated in the middle of the room with the large windows behind him. He was wearing a white suit and dark sunglasses. The four of them entered the room. As the door closed, Wahid went over to the light switch.

"Please raise the lights slowly, they have very sensitive eyes," one of the guards said to Wahid.

"Oh, uh, of course," Wahid said before carrying out his instructions.

Grozny walked up to the figure, bowed slightly, the stood straight. "Greetings, I am Sorok Grozny, First Secretary of the Trojan Integration and acting chairman of the Integrated Socialist Party. This is my aide, Gabir Wahid."

The figure then stood up, towering over the other two with a height of two hundred and twenty-three centimeters. As he removed his shades, he said in a freezing monotone voice, "I am Elmaveth, Primary Carnifex of the Order of Death "

Wahid felt a chill down his spine. He had heard and seen footage on the Gundam pilots. A couple of them often spoke with a low degree of emotion, but this guy made him seem like the more cheery ones. This was magnified by his appearance. His pale white skin on his face that contrasted with his black hair while clinging tightly to his skull greatly added to his menacing image, but not quite as much as his eyes which were about forty percent larger than a normal person's eyes and were mostly pupil. All this, plus his height which gave him a sense of power, truly made him seem like Death itself.

"Pleasure to meet you," Grozny responded, "I am looking forward to your services."

"I myself am looking forward to serve."

"I understand that you have been debriefed on the situation."

"That is affirmative, but may I discuss the situation some with you?"

Grozny looked to the ISI officers for approval. Both nodded and one of them pulled out a pen and note pad. "It should still be a while before the formal meeting with the rest of the High Command, but we should be able to have a little bit of small talk."

* * *

Second Lieutenant Scott Fichese sat in his cubical at ISI headquarters. Things seemed rather quiet, despite the security for the Plutonians. He sighed as he went through files about propionate individuals in the Earth Sphere. He saw Hiliada gathering together a few notes getting ready for his meeting, but just then an ISI communications officer called over, "Supreme Director, I think you better see this -- right now."

Fichese watched Hiliada sigh and walk over to other man's station. He stretched to look over his short cubical, trying to listen to what was being received, but the communications officer and Hiliada were each using headphones. He was able to see Hiliada's expression go from annoyance to amusement to disgust.

"Those arrogant sons of b*t**s!" he heard Hiliada exclaim, "And with the Plutonians here, too. Prepare to send a message to Shtatë."

"Yes, sir," the communications officer replied. While the officer was getting things ready, another message came up. "Message from Major Shtatë coming in, sir."

"I'm sure I know what it is about. Send it to my office."

"Yes, sir."

Hiliada walked into his office. Several minutes later, returned to the communications officer. "I've prepared a message to send to Shtatë. Send it off immediately. Then prepare the transmission he sent to the High Command conference room." He turned to the rest in the room. "I want the rest of you to contact the all members of the High Command. Tell them to meet in the conference room, immediately. Tell them it's an emergency. I'll get the First Secretary, myself. Get to it!" He then stormed out of the offices.

* * *

"Yes, Tsubarov was a fool," Elmaveth commented, "Death and war are inseparable. Fortunate that death claimed him, although I am a bit disappointed that I personally was not able to show him the error of his ways."

"The Earth Sphere has an abundant supply of fools," Grozny replied, this should prove to our benefit in conquest." Footsteps were then heard rapidly approaching in the hallway. "They should be easy for the taking," he finished while turning toward the door.

Hiliada entered the room followed by two ISI troopers. "Mr. First Secretary!" he started with some panic in his voice.

"Ah, Mincho," Grozny got up, "glad you're here. I was just talking with the head of the Order of Death. Is the rest of the High Command ready?"

"We are meeting together right now, but over something else that has come up. Details with the Order will have to wait." Hiliada then turned to Elmaveth, "No offense."

"None taken," Elmaveth replied calmly, "I'll just wait here."

Grozny and the ISI personnel nodded. Grozny started out the door with his aide and the ISI personnel in tow. "What's happening Supreme Director?"

"White Fang has done something very rash."



* * *

The High Command sat in the conference room. Hiliada stood in front while everyone else was seated. "What I am about to show you," Hiliada started, "was broadcast around the entire Earth Sphere about an hour ago. Shtatë also sent us a clearer transmission accompanied by a request for instructions." He picked up a remote control and activated a monitor.

Quinze's face appeared on the screen, "We, as space colonies have only wished for our rights as peaceful to that the Earth has acted with force as in the time of the Alliance, as in the time of OZ it is also the same in the time of the World Nation. And their choice was Gundam. They have used Gundam to fight against us who are trying to unify the people in Space."3

"Oh, brother!" Tysyacha interrupted, "He's using that bulls*** as if they are the onl..."

"Silence!" Hiliada snapped.

Quinze continued, "…force will soon be destroyed: We have sent our troops to the OZ space forces. Space belongs to the people of the Colony!"


Hiliada held his hand up. "Please, hold your comments until the end!" They obeyed for a while, but then they watched Dermail's death. So many comments arose, he paused the recording.

"Well, how about that?" Lezare started, "The b*st**d's dead."

" 'I can't be dying'?" Grozny mocked, "What the h*** was that pompous arrogant a** expecting when he blindly 'lead' the OZ forces?"

"He was just a political noble," Tysyacha commented, "Not much of a soldier, and even less of a mariner. With these gung-ho nobles going off like this, the will probably eradicate themselves without any of our help."

An elderly man in back spoke, "Amusing as it was, we don't need more proof of OZ's ineptitude. There would have to be more to this, Mincho, or you would not have been so upset."

"Yes, Secretary General, there is. Thank you." Hiliada resumed the recording after the other quieted down.

Quinze continued, "When the Space is one," [Hiliada raised his hand for silence again, but even he smiled with the others' snickers as Quinze said] "the only enemy left is Earth. We have a noble cause. And we have a new leader who will carry out that noble cause."

A new face came into the picture. "Earth and Space. These two existences create conflict. My name is Milliardo Peacecraft. I hereby declare the elimination of this opposing body, Earth."

Tension in the room suddenly began to flare up.

"Who do they think they are?!" Lezare exclaimed.

"Gods, obviously," Tysyacha commented.

Grozny stood up front shaking his fist. "What is it with these Colonial fanatics?" He held out his hand as an open palm. "The one body in the Solar System that has life, but instead of working to seize this prize, they choose to destroy it because of some warped philosophy in their frenzied minds."

"But can they actually do it?" Tysyacha asked.

"If the information Shtatë's team obtained is correct," Seratus said, "Libra could cause a few spot trouble on the planet, but not too much as a whole, so its armament is of little concern, even when it is fully operational. However, it is quite massive. If those fanatics were to resurrect the original 'Operation Meteor,' they could use it to create a nuclear winter. True, we are already familiar with working on frozen worlds colder than that, why should we settle for that?"

"The idea of one single warship is preposterous," Tysyacha commented, "an armada of smaller battleships would be more effective."

"So, what do we do now?" Lezare asked.

"Well, in urgency," Hiliada started, "I already told Shtatë to do whatever it takes to stop them. Of course, try to keep a low profile, but if necessary destroy Libra and to take out Quinze and Peacecraft. I apologize if I overstep my authority."

"It's alright, Michno," Grozny said, "Shtatë's is very competent. I am confident in whatever he will do. I'm sure we have nothing to worry about, but we should still be cautious." He raised his finger. "Now, then, we must take advantage of this opportunity."

"Take advantage of it?" Tysyacha asked.

"Yes; you know what they say about when you are given lemons. It is time to mobilize our forces. I want them ready to go within fifty hours. Supreme Director, I take it that after this announcement that the Earth Sphere was surprised and worried."

"Yes, sir. As a matter fact, while we were assembling, Shtatë said that many were taking this very hard. He even bothered reporting that our man on Peacemillion said that Peacecraft's lover, or at least the woman who hopes to be, was shocked. As if it is possible, they'll pay even less attention to us then before. But you aren't suggesting we attack the Earth Sphere are you?"

"Only if we need to. By the way, Admiral Tysyacha, just wondering, could we manage a hit and run attack on Libra?"

"They do have more fire power," Tysyacha response, "but our cruisers are faster than anything they've got. We should manage."

"Good, just a precaution. Again, I'm confidant in Shtatë's team, and besides I want us to stick to the turn of the century deadline. Seratus, are the communication dampeners ready?"

"Yes, sir, we can easily have them ready if fifty hours, but what do you want us to do?"

"Simple. We will take this opportunity to go to the next planned step of our conquest: Mars.

"Yes, of course," Lezare said with enthusiasm, "the Earth Sphere will be too busy dealing with this crisis to even think about dealing with those forgotten settlements."

"And with the dampeners," Seratus commented, "they won't notice if someone tried to call them."

"Good." Grozny said, "Then let's prepare to move out. Hmmf, soon all people shall know that all of 'Space,' including Earth and its Colonies belongs to us!" He raised his marked hand in salute. "For the glory of the Trojan Order!"

They all stood to attention and saluted. "For the glory of the Trojan Order!" they all said in unison.

"Good. Now get to work and prepare your forces."