Gundam 00: Equestrian War
Chapter 1: Celestial Being
The young pilot sat in the cockpit of his mobile suit as his destination loomed below. He took a deep breath in through his nose, then released it from his mouth. He fiddled with the controls. They felt good. He checked the various gauges and meters on his Heads Up Display. Oxygen was full. The engine was fully charged. All that he needed was the signal. The pilot took another deep breath. He was ready. He'd spent years training for this moment. Now, it was for real. He didn't have any reason to be nervous. After all, once he heard the signal, he'd be launched from the flight deck and drop thousands of miles down to the surface of the planet and stir up some trouble with a global superpower. He'd seen this sort of thing in movies and video games hundreds of times. It's just that now, it was for keeps. No big deal.
"You all set in there?" a female voice with a heavy southern accent said over the Suit's comm.
"As ready as I'll ever be, AJ." the pilot responded.
"All right you know the drill." AJ explained, "Once we launch you, you can't come back until the mission's done. So don't screw it up."
"You've probably told me that 20 times since I woke up." the pilot said jokingly.
"Well that makes 21." AJ shot back, "And don't scratch my baby while you're down there."
"Are you kidding?" the pilot asked, "If this intel is good, they won't even be able to scratch the paint."
"I'm holdin' you too that." AJ shot back again, "Now say the words and launch."
The pilot took a deep breath and closed his eyes one last time. He tightened his grip on the controls before reopening his eyes.
"Guardian Soul." he began, "Exia. Launching!"
The pilot pushed the joysticks forward and his Suit lurched forward. The pilot, Guardian Soul, felt the force of the launch as he his suit lifted off and entered free fall. He had some time before he reached his destination, so he decided to read the mission report one more time.
***
Today was a big day for the Advanced Europonian Union. Today, they were unveiling their first solar powered mobile suit, the AEU-09 Enact. It was built with the newest and most advanced systems that the AEU had. It was faster than any of their previous models and was far more energy efficient than anything they had developed before. The reveal had gone spectacularly, now it was time for the demonstration. Said demonstration was taking place in a simulation of a city and each of the targets had a gun turret attached to it. The purpose was simple: destroy all of the targets as quickly as possible without taking damage to show what the Enact could do.
The Enact launched forward in an impressive display of speed. The pilot saw the first targets ahead of him. Four targets, each with a gatling gun attached. The pilot swerved the controls to avoid the hail of ammunition before raising the Enact's own machine gun and opened fire on the targets. Each target shattered into small pieces once a round came into contact with them. The Enact rounded a corner next and came face to face with several gatling guns that fired faster than the pilot would be able to dodge them. Fortunately, despite not carrying a bulky shield, it had a defense rod that could rotate and deflect gunfire. The pilot rotated the defense rod to do just that before opening fire on the targets. Once again, they shattered and he moved onto the next.
The spectators watched with bated breath as the Enact met and exceeded their expectations. It was faster and preforming better than even the highest estimates of what it was capable of. However, there were members of the audience who weren't impressed. One such individual was shifting in his seat right now. He had dark blue hair with a lighter streak that ran down the middle and bright blue eyes.
"So this is the Enact, huh?" he said, "I'm not impressed."
"Shining Armor," an audience member said, "The ace of the Equestrian Union. Should you really be here?"
"Of course not." Shining Armor said with a chuckle, "But it would be an insult if I decided not to attend."
"I suppose you're right." the audience member replied, "So, what's wrong with our Enact?"
Shining Armor looked over the new mobile suit. It was primarily teal in color and featured a very aerodynamic design. It was indeed a very fine mobile suit, but Shining had a lot of things to say, and none of them were positive.
"The truth is, it's just a knock off of the Union's Flag model." Shining said, "The only thing original is the aesthetics."
"HEY!" a voice from the Enact shouted, "I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!"
Shining turned his attention back to the Enact as the pilot got out to rant at him.
"Well, I'll give you guys this," Shining began, "That's some damn good sound pick up."
***
Being a radar technician during a time of peace was not the most interesting job. The people who did it mostly just monitored air traffic and occasionally had to ask planes to identify themselves, or just tell them to get out of the AEU's airspace. This was especially true on days like today. Since there was a mobile suit demonstration today, there was a temporary no-fly zone around the testing grounds, so the most they had to worry about was an occasional flock of birds or something. Honestly, a lot of technicians decided to take the day off since they figured there wasn't much of a reason to even show up. However, that may have proven to be a mistake.
"Hey," one tech said, "Are you guys seeing this?"
The tech next to him leaned over to look at his comrade's screen. It was definitely tracking something, but as that something got closer to the test grounds, the radar screen began to glitch. The object kept getting closer until the radar screen became nothing but static.
"Something's wrong." the lead tech said, "Bring up the live feed."
"Sir, we're trying! The feed's down!"
The lead tech grumbled, but he knew what needed to be done.
"Contact the Enact."
***
"What?" the pilot asked, "There's something approaching the testing grounds? And radar's not working?"
The pilot turned to the audience and shouted, "Hey, anyone here have reception?"
Each member of the audience checked their phones. One by one, they all affirmed that their phones had no reception. What was going on? A few phones having bad reception was nothing new, but every member of a large crowd having none? That was strange. What could possibly be happening? Was the cell tower down or something?
"Hey," an audience member shouted, "What's that light?"
Each and every member of the audience looked up and saw it. Indeed, there was some kind of green light in the sky, and it was approaching the testing grounds. Realizing something was wrong, the pilot got back into the Enact and booted it up. The light got closer, until finally, it landed in front of the Enact. The light dissipated, revealing a mobile suit. It was unlike any mobile suit the audience, and even the pilot of the Enact had ever seen. It was primarily white, with a blue torso and shoulders. It had some red and yellow accents as well, with a large shield-like object attached to its right arm. The object had a large, double-edged blade folded back that was longer than the suit's arm. It also had a large, cone-like protrusion on the back that seemed to be some kind of propulsion system. But the most striking feature was the suit's face. Namely, that it had what could be discerned as a face. It was far more human looking than any other mobile suit than anyone have ever seen. It also had a pair of horns in a wide "V" shape, making the suit somewhat resemble a samurai from the old days of Neighpon.
"What is that?" a member of the audience asked.
"Another new model?" asked another.
"Where did it come from?"
Shining Armor looked around the audience. Noticing what he was looking for, he spoke up.
"Excuse me, sir." he began, "Can I borrow your binoculars?"
The man was confused, but handed the young man his binoculars anyway. Shining thanked the man before looking at the new mobile suit through them. There had to be some sort of identifiable marking on it. A flag for the bloc it belonged to. Some sort of indicator of who made it. There had to be something. Shining got his answer when he looked at the center of the suit's head crest. A single word. A word he read aloud.
"Gun-dam?" he said, "Is that the unit's name? Gundam?"
Inside the Gundam's cockpit, Guardian Soul spoke.
"Ptolemaios, do you copy?" he said, "The objective is in sight. Preparing to begin operation."
The Enact pilot was less than amused by this turn of events. This was supposed to be his day. He was supposed to be the one who was walking away with the glory. Now, this newcomer had ruined everything.
"Look pal, I'm not sure who you think you are." the pilot said, "But you've stepped into someone else's territory. There's no way you're getting off easy! I'm Lucky Strike! The ace of the AEU! And I've never lost a mock battle!"
Lucky Strike pulled the trigger on cockpit's right joystick. This caused a compartment to open in the Enact's right arm to reveal a hilt. The Enact took hold of the hilt to reveal a shot blade. Once it was out in the open, the blade began vibrating at such a high frequency, that members of the audience without sufficient hearing protection had to cover their ears. Lucky Strike rushed at the Gundam as Guardian Soul watched, unperturbed.
"Exia," Guardian Soul began, "Will eliminate the target."
Guardian Soul pulled the trigger on his cockpit's right joystick. Once he did, a handle popped out from the shield object attached to Exia's arm. Exia grabbed the handle as the blade folded itself out. Exia swung the blade upwards faster than most of the audience could see. Once the excitement of the moment passed, a few members of the audience couldn't help but look up. There, they saw the Enact's hand and the short blade about ten feet above where the Enact's arm was. The hand landed about twenty feet from the duel, as the audience looked on in horror.
"You bastard!" Lucky Strike yelled.
He raised the Enact's machine gun and fired a volley of shots at Exia. Exia easily dodged out of the way as it reached for a spot on its shoulder with its free hand. It grabbed a hold of it and pulled. A new blade, appeared, but this one was different. The blade it had used to cut off the Enact's hand was still a physical blade. This one was made of some kind of pink energy. It was unlike anything that had ever been shown. Exia quickly used its new weapon to cut off what was left of the Enact's left arm.
"I can't lose!" Lucky Strike shouted.
As he yelled, Exia used its primary blade to cut off the Enact's right arm, depriving it of its weapons.
"I've won over two thousand-" Lucky strike continued as the Exia sliced off the Enact's head with the beam sword, "Of these mock battles!"
The Enact, the once proud new model of the AEU, collapsed to the ground in a smoking heap of wreckage as Exia put away its beam sword and folded its primary blade back into its standby position. Guardian Soul let out a deep breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Now all eyes were on him, and he wasn't sure he liked it. Best to move on.
"Exia." he began, "Phase one complete. Proceeding to phase two."
The cone shaped engine on the Exia's back began to whir and hum. Exia lifted off the ground before turning smoothly and launching upwards.
"That light again." Shining commented, "And it's taking off with almost no propulsion. That's amazing!"
As the Exia flew away, a very angry and still very much alive Lucky Strike clawed his way out of the smoking wreckage of what was once a top of the line mobile suit.
"HEY, YOU GET BACK HERE!" he shouted, "WE'RE NOT DONE UNTIL I SAY WE ARE!"
Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. He now had two things to give the Enact. Good sound pickup, and excellent pilot safety. But that Gundam was on a whole other level. And if there was one thing he knew, he knew the AEU wasn't about to take this insult lying down.
***
High above the battle at the testing grounds, a ship circled the planet. The ship itself was a similar color blue to the Exia and even emitted the same light from its engines. Around the outside of the ship, four containers spun. At the front was a long protruding section that resembled a passenger ship's bow. Inside the ship was a small group was analyzing the state of the mission.
"Operation time for phase one has expired." A girl with red hair and amber eyes said, "So phase two is a go."
"Guard better not have scratched my baby!" Said a similar looking woman with blonde hair and green eyes, "Took me two years to get the damn thing workin' right."
"Applejack, he's fine." the red haired girl said, "It's his first mission. You really think we'd give him somethin' hard? Try and relax, okay sis?"
"Applebloom, if there's so much as a paint chip on that Exia, he's comin' back in a body bag." Applejack said.
"Don't you think you're bing a little hard on him?" a young man with blue hair and matching eyes said, "He's reckless, but this is our big debut. He wouldn't do anything too crazy."
"Flash, just shut up and fly the ship." Applejack shot back.
"Hey now, take it easy." a laid back voice said from the bridge's entrance, "This is Celestial Being's big debut. We should be celebrating."
As if on cue, a woman, older than Applejack, but still well in her prime made her way to the captain's chair. She had long reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes. To any onlooker, she'd be quite fetching, but the crew weren't really looking at her. Rather, they were smelling something rather strong coming off of her.
"Miss Sumeragi, it's ten in the mornin'!" Applejack shouted, "Why do you already smell like booze?"
"Hey, I already made the plan." Sumeragi said, "Now it's up to them to carry it out. Speaking of which-"
Sumeragi turned towards Applebloom, "AB, is Kyrios ready yet?"
Applebloom turned towards her screen and checked.
"Kyrios is moving to catapult deck now." Applebloom said.
As she spoke, an orange mobile suit, similar to the Exia, was loaded into the catapult.
"Looks like it's time for a real battle." the pilot said with a disinterested voice, "He'll probably be happy. But I can't stand it."
The Kyrios locked into place as the image of Applebloom appeared on the pilot's screen.
"Loading complete." Applebloom said, "Ready when you are Double."
"Roger." Double said, "Double Team, in Kyrios, launching!"
Double pushed the controls forward and Kyrios was launched along the catapult. Once it was out of the ship, it demonstrated something the Exia couldn't do: it changed into a flight mode that resembled an old fighter jet and flew off into the distance. Double Team was ready for his mission.
***
Deep in the territory of the Equestrian Union, a castle loomed large over the bloc's namesake kingdom of Equestria. Within its ornate stones and walls sat a woman. A woman whom many considered to be the most beautiful in the world. Queen Celestia Alicor of the Equestrian kingdom. Her long pink hair, which, when catching the light just correctly, almost seemed to look like a rainbow of color, flowed behind her as she contemplated what was about to happen. She heard a series of footsteps heading towards her and opened her violet eyes. A woman who looked similar to Celestia, though slightly younger and shorter had entered the room. She had flowing blue hair and brighter blue eyes. Celestia's younger sister, Luna Alicor.
"Sister," Luna began, "It's begun."
Celestia sat up in her throne and sighed.
"So they've made their move." Celestia said in a calm voice, "The Gundam Meisters of Celestial Being."
***
The world's orbital elevators truly were marvels of modern technology. Over forty thousand kilometers high, they connected the array of solar dishes that provided power to almost the entire the world. There were many things one expected to see when riding the orbital elevator up to the monitoring station at the top of each tower. Beautiful landscapes, a sky above the cloud line as it faded into the inky blackness of space, and the stations themselves. Typically, one of those things was not a mobile suit dodging gunfire as it flew up the length of the pillar. But that's exactly what Guardian Soul was doing as he maneuvered the Exia away from the bursts of machine gun fire. It was a challenge though, as there was only one direction he could definitively go, and that was straight up. Realizing he'd rather be the one doing the shooting rather than being shot at, Guard dodged another burst of machine gun fire before maneuvering behind the enemy mobile suits. He flipped a switch on the right joystick causing Exia's folded up blade to reveal a second function: a functional beam rifle. Guard opened fire on the suits to scatter them and get them into position for his speciality: close quarters combat. He sliced the wing off one of his pursuers causing it to spin out and fall towards the ground. The remaining suits pulled up behind the Gundam as their wingman went down. They opened fire on it again, only for Exia to dodge out of the way before the spent rounds got anywhere near it.
"This damn thing is too fast!" one of the pilots shouted, "I didn't even know mobile suits could move like that!"
"Don't break formation!" the commander shouted, "We've got reinforcements inbound!"
Sure enough, at least seven more mobile suits were approaching. However, they weren't approaching from the ground. They were approaching from above.
"Looks like that intel was good after all." Guard said, "The AEU had military forces stationed inside the pillar."
Exia flew further up and engaged the new arrivals. Normally, 7-on-1 weren't odds one would like to deal with. Even the best mobile suit pilots could be overwhelmed by superior numbers. However, Guard wasn't worried. He had reinforcements too. Far below the fighting, another pilot was laying back and watching the action unfold. With long brown hair, cyan eyes, and a dashing smile, he was the epitome of a handsome man. However, he was far from just another handsome face as he grabbed hold of his cockpit's rifle attachment.
"Even Guard would have trouble with this," he said, "Don't you think Haro?"
The pilot's AI partner, Haro shouted his affirmation, "Shoot them down! Shoot them down!"
"Then let's go!" the pilot said, "Gundam Dynames and Long Shot in our maiden battle!"
High above the Dynames, Guard was doing his best to dodge all of the gunfire from the enemy mobile suits. He even used the Exia's main blade to deflect the shots a few times. However, they had with almost ten mobile suits surrounding him, he couldn't keep dodging forever. The Gundam may have been powerful, but it was only one mobile suit. It could only do so much on its own. Thankfully, a Gundam was never alone. A powerful beam shot up from beneath the clouds, blasting off one of the enemy mobile suit's wings. The damaged suit fell to out of the sky and disappeared beneath the cloud line.
"Enemy attack!" one of the remaining pilots shouted.
"From where?!" the commander shouted back.
Another beam shot up from the ground and blasted off the commander's wing. In two blasts, this flight team was now down a wingman and their leader.
"It's from below us!" the pilot shouted.
Guardian Soul chuckled.
"What took you so long, Long Shot?" he asked.
Far below the battle, the Gundam Dynames lay on its back. It was mostly green with some red and yellow accents, with a yellow, "V" shaped pair of horns like Exia's. Though Dynames' horns had locked in place over its eyes to allow it to use its primary weapon: a massive sniper rifle.
"Sorry, but I like to make an entrance." Long Shot said to his partner in crime, "Gundam Dynames, targeted and firing!"
Long Shot fired another volley of blasts from Dynames' sniper rifle. The first on hit one of the pursuers and caused his suit to fall to the earth. Then another suit followed. And another. Each shot from Dynames' rifle found its mark until only one suit remained.
"How can something hit us from the ground when we're this high up?!" the remaining pilot shouted.
However, in his distraction, the pilot failed to see the Exia fly directly in front of him. He let out a panicked yelp before Exia raised its blade and lopped off his suit's wing. His suit, much like his comrades', spun out and fell to the ground below. Exia refolded its blade with a flourish as Guardian Soul let out another sigh.
"Phase two," Guardian Soul began.
"Complete!" Long Shot finished as he lowered his rifle.
***
High above the battle on the surface, the array of solar dishes continued to operate. Every once in a while, a piece of debris or rock would float by the dishes. One would be concerned for the safety of the dishes, as if even one went down, an entire nation could be without power. However, the designers of the array had thought of that. They'd put a powerful shield around the array that allowed the solar energy to get in while keeping the debris out. However, today, things might just have been a bit odd. There was a lot of debris floating around, but there wasn't any scheduled maintenance going on, so why would there be so much?
"Someone get a visual." the head radar tech ordered, "There's way too much debris for this to be normal."
The technicians pulled up the video feed and, sure enough, there was a reason for the debris. There was a small group of mobile suits, carrying what appeared to be some kind of explosives, headed towards the station at the top of the orbital elevator. A station currently packed with VIPs and other important guests celebrating the tenth anniversary of the solar array's activation. The mobile suits were using the debris bouncing off the shield for cover. However, one was far too close to the shield. And when something got too close to the shield, things didn't tend to end well. The suit was vaporized in a violent display. Nothing could have survived. However, even with the loss of their comrade, the pilots kept pushing their suits forward.
"These guys are pretty determined." the head tech grumbled, "Give the order for the defense force to scramble!"
"Sending the order now sir!" one of the techs said, "But it will take some time for them to get into position!"
The lead tech grumbled again. They needed to act fast or hundreds of innocent people would be killed. He watched as the approaching mobile suits changed direction. Though, they weren't running away, they were positioning themselves above the array to ensure that anyone who attempted to fire on them would have to aim through the solar dishes to do so. The head tech cursed. Now this had gotten much trickier. And it only got worse when the mobile suits revealed that they weren't carrying explosives. They were carrying a portable missile launcher. They fired the payload at the station, the defense force still nowhere in sight. The lead tech stared in shock as his seemingly inevitable doom approached. This couldn't be the end. It couldn't!
Just as the missiles were about to hit, three blasts were fired, each one finding one of the missiles and tearing them to shreds. The station rocked a bit, but it held steady. The approaching mobile suits all ceased their approach to try and find the one who'd shot down their missiles. They got their answer in the form of what appeared to be an old fighter jet with colored orange and white, with some black and yellow accents. It was much faster than any of the approaching mobile suits and its pilot wanted them to know that.
"Double Team," the pilot said, "Kyrios, running interception."
Kyrios flew straight at the enemy mobile suits. Realizing they'd lost the element of surprise, they dropped the portable launcher and turned to face the enemy. However, Kyrios' speed proved to be too great. In just a single pass, two of the approaching mobile suits were destroyed in the blink of an eye. Realizing he was outgunned and outmatched, the pilot of the remaining mobile suit turned and resumed its course. That would prove to be the poor fool's undoing.
"Damn terrorists." Double grumbled, "Suicide attacks on civilians. Tieria, you there yet?"
As if on cue, a second Gundam appeared. However, this one was different from the other three. It was far bulkier than any of the others, primarily colored black and white with a few yellow and red accents and was carrying an utterly massive weapon.
"Virtue," Tieria said flatly, "Preparing to destroy target."
The Virtue pointed its weapon at the remaining mobile suit. Once Tieria had the target in sight, a bright pink glow began to build up in the barrel of Virtue's weapon. It grew brighter and larger as the final mobile suit approached. Once the light stopped growing brighter, a massive beam of energy shot forth from the cannon and disintegrated the poor fool. Once the target was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, gone, Virtue flourished its weapon with surprising grace for its size.
"Phase three, complete." Tieria said.
"That might have been a little much." Double said, making another pass.
Meanwhile, on the station, every single guest at the ceremony stood in silence. They'd been made aware of what was happening, but they couldn't have expected what had just happened. What were those mobile suits? Where did they come from? Why did they just save all of them?
***
It was a normal day in Neighpon. The people walked by as a news bulletin played. No one was really paying any attention to it at first, until a breaking news story began to unfold.
"This is NNN News with a breaking story." the newscaster said, "We have just been informed that the high orbital station at the top of the Human Reform League's orbital elevator was attacked by a group of terrorists. The attack took place around sunrise Neighpon time when an unknown group of terrorist mobile suits fired missiles at the orbital station. However, the missiles were intercepted by an unidentified mobile suit. These images where taken by an NNN crew who happened to be on location at the time."
The crowd watched as images of a very bulky mobile suit appeared on screen. Among them, were two young girls. Both of them had purple hair, but one had her's styled in a much curlier and fashionable way. She had a very fair complexion and baby blue eyes brought out by a similar colored eyeshadow. The other had a rather plain hairstyle, though she had an off center, vertical magenta streak that ran the full length of her hair. She also had violet eyes, similar to a certain Equestrian royal.
"The suit doesn't seem to answer to any military or show any loyalty other than its own, as it disappeared shortly after the battle." the newscaster continued.
"A new mobile suit that appears from no where, thwarts a terrorist plot, then disappears?" the curly haired girl questioned, "Seems suspicious if you ask me? Don't you think, Twilight?"
"Yeah," Twilight said, "It does seem strange, Rarity."
The newscaster turned to someone off camera as they told her something.
"This just in," the newscaster said, "NNN has just received a video from a group taking responsibility for stopping the attack and saving the station. It is unknown who they are or if their claims are genuine, but they do seem to be involved in the incident. We will now broadcast the video, unedited."
The familiar visual of the NNN news station faded and was replaced with a new visual. There was nothing spectacular about the location the video was shot in. In fact, the location being so plain was almost unnerving. The only noteworthy feature was the figure in the video. He was an older man with no hair on the top of his head, but he had a brown, pointed goatee and wore a three piece suit.
"I would like to address this statement to every human being born and raised on Equus." the man said in a calming voice, "We are Celestial Being. We are a private, armed organization in possession of the mobile weapon known as Gundam. Celestial Beings main objective is to completely eliminate acts of war and conflict from this world. We do not act for our own benefit or for personal gain. We have chosen to intervene for the greatest goal of all. To eliminate the scourge of war. As of this moment, I make this declaration to all humanity: Territory, religion, energy. No matter what reason or excuse is given, if there is an evident act of war being carried out, we will intervene with armed force. Any country, organization, or corporation that promotes war will also be a target for our intervention. I repeat, we call ourselves Celestial Being."
As the man in the video repeated his message again, the people of the world didn't know what to make of it. They were an armed force who wanted to eliminate war by using force? It all seemed so contradictory. It felt like something that would only cause more war rather than reduce it. Far away from the Land of the Rising Sun, Long Shot and Guardian Soul sat outside of their Gundams and watched the broadcast.
"Well, looks like we just picked a fight with the whole world." Long Shot said as he shut off the broadcast, "You sure you're gonna be alright Guard?"
Guardian Soul removed his helmet to reveal messy brown hair with a blue streak that ran across his bangs and a very youthful face.
"I'll be fine." he said looking at Exia, "After all, we're the Gundam Meisters of Celestial Being."
Author's Note
So this is the first chapter in what I'm hoping is a very long story. I had a lot of fun writing this, partly because I got to go back through one of my favorite shows for research. Not much to say yet, so if you have any questions, comments, critiques or otherwise, leave them down below and have a good day.
