Mobile Suits, giant humanoid weapons developed by PLANT which had surpassed all other weapons that had existed up until that point.
Even now, over a year after the war broke out, the fact that the Earth Alliance, who had the advantage when it came to pure quantity, hadn’t been able to achieve victory over ZAFT’s forces was largely due to the existence of these Mobile Suits.
Of course, the Alliance wasn’t just sitting back and twiddling their thumbs at the threat of these Mobile Suits. The Alliance, which suffered heavy blows from Mobile Suits in their first battle against them, immediately began developing weapons of their own.
The Mobile Suit was a completely new kind of weapon, which drastically changed people’s perception of warfare, but the technical barriers to develop them weren’t high. It was simply a collection of technologies that already existed. Because of this, the development of Alliance Mobile Suits proceeded with no major obstacles.
The Alliance took two routes in developing Mobile Suits.
The first, a plan to develop a mass-production machine, with the Earth’s Panama Base as its center.
The goal was to create a machine that would be fit for mass-production and maneuverable, and the GAT-01 Strike Dagger was born.
The Strike Dagger was not only fit for mass-production, but also equipped with beam weapons in its standard equipment, giving it superior offensive capabilities to ZAFT’s main Mobile Suit, the GINN.
Their second development plan was taking place at Heliopolis, a colony of the neutral nation known as Orb.
This was a highly unique state of affairs. Orb was a neutral nation and didn’t belong to the Earth Alliance. Naturally, it had also established neutral relations with PLANT, which was hostile toward the Alliance.
The neutral nation known as Orb, which couldn’t possibly have been powerful enough to have a military, got involved in the development of Mobile Suits for the Alliance with their own agenda in mind. Since it was founded, Orb had always followed its policy of neutrality. But, in order to maintain that neutrality in the midst of a rapidly intensifying war, they would need the strength to stand on their own. The power to defend their own country. That power could only come from Mobile Suits. And so, just like the Alliance, Orb would need their own Mobile Suits.
However, it is said that representative Uzumi was never informed of the Alliance and Orb’s joint development of Mobile Suits, and it was the result of another group’s rogue actions.
As a result of the Earth Alliance and Orb’s mutual interests, Heliopolis’ Morgenroete Company took charge of the Alliance’s Mobile Suit development. (Orb would later develop the MBF-M1 M1-Astray Mobile Suit using the technology provided to them by the Alliance.)
The approach to development on Heliopolis was completely different from the mass-production development down on Earth. On Heliopolis, they were creating fewer, more special machines that incorporated all of the technology the Alliance had at its disposal.
There was a reason that the Earth Alliance needed to develop a machine like this. Never having used Mobile Suits before, they had no operations records, no practical or live data on what technologies or equipment would be useful for a Mobile Suit, nor any on how they should be used in various situations. Even if their weapon was completed, it would all be for nothing if they didn’t know how to use it effectively.
For this reason, the Mobile Suit developments at Heliopolis were meant to demonstrate special specifications, incorporating all sorts of technology with no regard for mass production. In the end, five Mobile Suits were created, each with different performance characteristics.
The basis for all five machines was the GAT-X102 Duel, with one for heavy artillery use, the GAT-X103 Buster, and one equipped with a backpack exchange system, the GAT-X104 Strike. Beyond that, there was the close-combat type, GAT-X207 Blitz, which used a special kind of frame, along with armor equipped with a Mirage Colloid, allowing it to remain completely stealthy. Then, the most unique of the five was the GAT-X303 Aegis, which was capable of transforming into a Mobile Armor mode.
ZAFT forces found out about the Alliance’s Mobile Suit development and launched a surprise attack against Heliopolis. As a result, four of the five Mobile Suits were stolen by ZAFT. Only the Strike remained with the Alliance.
The Strike escaped to Earth with the new battleship Archangel, which was also being developed on Heliopolis. ZAFT immediately added their newly stolen Mobile Suits to their real combat force. The Archangel and the Strike engaged in numerous battles with the four Mobile Suits that pursued them on their way to Earth.
Ironically, this would give the Alliance operational data for all five of the Mobile Suits. The data for the four other than the Strike coming from their confrontations as enemies. This was genuine data from actual combat, something that couldn’t have been obtained through testing and was therefore highly valuable. However, ZAFT was able to obtain data regarding the applicability of the machines that the Alliance never would have come up with during those same battles. For example, when ZAFT realized the weakness of the Duel’s thrusters combined with long-ranged weapons, they immediately started development on an additional set of equipment called the Assault Shroud. The Assault Shroud could be detached during close combat, meaning the Duel was able to succeed in raising its long-range performance without hurting its performance at close-range. (This piece of equipment was apparently converted from one originally being developed for the GINN.)
The battle data gathered by the Archangel was sent to the Earth Alliance’s 8th Space Fleet just before they entered the atmosphere.
The data was immediately put to use for the development of mass-production machines underway at Panama Base.
Though, this alone wouldn’t allow them to start deploying the Mobile Suits in actual combat.
In fact, the Alliance forces had a major problem when it came to Mobile Suit operation that ZAFT didn’t have.
That problem came in regard to pilots.
Quick reflexes and good judgment were required to operate a weapon as complex as a Mobile Suit. The genetically modified Coordinators were born with these abilities, so it was inevitable that Mobile Suits would be invented on the PLANTs, the world of the Coordinators.
A Natural is able to perform basic actions with a Mobile Suit such as making it walk, but keeping up with the rapid flow of battle would be impossible.
No matter how excellent a weapon it was, without a pilot it was nothing more than a hunk of iron.
The data brought by the Archangel solved this problem as well.
The battle data from the Strike and the four stolen units was put to good use in the development of an operating system designed for Natural pilots. The data served as a sort of textbook, showing how Mobile Suits ought to react to various combat situations. The Natural OS could turn situations into patterns, which the Mobile Suits themselves could then respond to.
As a result, even units optimized for Naturals, who have poor reflexes, would be able to carry out combat operations.
And so, a solution to the problem of pilots was found, thanks to the data brought by the Archangel.
However, among the Alliance, other approaches from all sorts of angles were being tested regarding the problem of piloting Mobile Suits, aside from the Natural OS.
One of these plans was to create Naturals who specialized in Mobile Suit piloting, which had some success.
They would surgically embed micro-implants into the brain and secretory glands of the pilots and use a drug called Gamma Glipheptin, which improved their endurance and reflexive speed to their utmost limits. As a result, they would acquire the abilities necessary to pilot Mobile Suits, despite being Naturals.
They were also conditioned through psychological control (a type of brainwashing) during training to have no fear of battle and to increase their ferocity toward the enemy while piloting their Mobile Suits.
The drug they used, Gamma Glipheptin, was essential for their modified bodies and would need to be administered on a regular basis. This may seem like a weakness, but it allowed the military to use their addiction to bind them, preventing them from deserting or betraying their country.
And so, preparations had been made for the Earth Alliance to use Mobile Suits.
However, few know that during this process, many plans had failed and were buried in darkness.
✥✥✥
Mobile Suits were engaged in battle.
No, “battle” wouldn’t be the right way to describe it. Three Mobile Suits were ganging up on a single other Mobile Suit. The Mobile Suit being attacked would occasionally point the gun in its right hand at the other Mobile Suits, as if trying to fight back, but its muzzle never fired.
They were in an experimental Mobile Suit facility built deep underground.
There was a battlefield created by hollowing out a large dome within the bedrock itself, then covering the interior rock surface with a special armor. The facility was built so that even if combat experiments were conducted using highly destructive Mobile Suits, the facility itself wouldn’t be destroyed.
“C’mon now, that’s no way to test a machine!”
The pilot of one of the Mobile Suits on the attack was complaining.
“You’re right, it really isn’t fun when they don’t fight back.”
“…”
One of the remaining attackers agreed, the other silently nodded.
The Mobile Suits used by these attackers each had a unique appearance.
One had machine guns all over its body. The other, large wings. The last, a gigantic umbrella-like piece of equipment on its back. The features of all three of these machines were markedly different from those of ZAFT Mobile Suits.
The Mobile Suit being attacked was the GINN-type more commonly seen on the battlefield. Though, unlike the typical GINN, it had the insignia of the Alliance military on several parts of its body. This indicated that the GINN had been captured by the Alliance.
The Alliance military had many GINN which they had found discarded from a battle, repaired and then recreated to use in Mobile Suit experimentation and data collection. This was one of those GINNs.
“Well, even if we ask, it might not be possible for him to fight back. He was designed to not be capable of attacking us Naturals. What a pitiful guy.”
Despite saying this, there wasn’t even the slightest hint of pity in the pilot’s tone.
“Well, we’d better kill him quickly and get it over with then!”
“Hyaaaaah!!”
The three pilots all attacked the GINN at once.
The GINN bearing the Alliance insignia showed no sign of resistance. It stopped moving as if it had completely given up.
As if running on predetermined rails, countless beams were stalled up by the machine.
In a moment, the GINN had been destroyed beyond recognition.
There was no explosion. Battery-powered Mobile Suits didn’t explode unless hit in the propellant tanks they carried in their backpacks. However, if hit by an attack of this magnitude, the backpack would certainly have been damaged. The reason this GINN didn’t explode was likely because it had only been equipped with a small amount of propellant in the first place.
There was someone watching the battle at a distance, from within the cockpit of a Mobile Suit.
“Looks like they’re done… now comes my turn to fight and die.”
The words he uttered were devoid of emotion. No sorrow, no fear of death. Not even rage at the unfair battle that he had just witnessed. A simple awareness of the facts.
His name was Eleven Socius.
The expression on his well-defined face had a child-like quality to it. He was probably in his early teens. Though, there was none of the boyish brightness or youthful energy typical of one his age. There was no heat to him.
His bluish hair was cut short. His eyes, slightly hidden by his bangs, were as blue as a sea in winter. Most striking was the color of his skin. A sickly pale, as if he were dead.
The expression on his pale, defined face was faint.
Those who saw him, even for a moment, were never able to forget his striking appearance. A boy with the beauty of a lifeless doll. People are mesmerized by the negative energy he held.
Eleven Socius wore an Alliance pilot suit. His abnormally thin physique didn’t give the impression that a soldier should’ve had. It even seemed disproportionate to the pilot suit he wore in battle.
Even so, his muscles were more powerful than any able-bodied soldier. His whip-like body held a level of fighting ability that one would never imagine from his appearance.
This is because he was a Coordinator who was genetically tuned for combat.
✥✥✥
When George Glenn revealed himself to be a genetically engineered human being and the concept of the Coordinator was born, the first group to take notice was the military.
At the time, the Earth Alliance as it was now known didn’t exist, and no one had expected a war with the Coordinators to one day break out.
Through genetic manipulation, they could create soldiers with specialized combat capabilities.
The plan was put into action without regard to any of the ethical issues involved. An army, in its extreme form, is an organization meant for killing people, and there was no way that ethical concerns would deter them. Though, the plan had to be carried out in secrecy to avoid any meaningless trouble.
The plan was put into action within military facilities and proceeded without haste.
Decades after this research began, the era that came to be known as the Coordinator Boom had begun. In this era, people were searching for safe and inexpensive technology that could produce Coordinators for them, so the technology of genetic manipulation advanced by leaps and bounds.
Eventually, a dedicated colony for genetics research was created in Lagrange 4, one of the areas where the Moon and Earth’s gravities were balanced. Genetic manipulation has the potential to cause irreversible damage to the Earth’s environment if done incorrectly. To prevent this, many layers of specialized equipment were installed within the colony.
The colony was funded by companies from all over the world, and all sorts of genetic research was conducted there.
The military’s development of combat Coordinators would also take place in this colony.
Their project had been accelerated by the support of the era.
Even so, this project to create a new kind of human took much longer than usual weapons development.
The Coordinators created in this project had been trained and educated specifically for combat once they grew to be a certain age. Because of this, it took at least ten years for any issues to become apparent.
After years of experimentation, they found that it wasn’t all that difficult to give the Coordinators high combat capabilities. Even regular Coordinators had far superior abilities to those of Naturals.
The problem came from elsewhere. They weren’t able to control them psychologically.
The Coordinators, who were created by combining superior genes, had strong minds and were highly resistant to education that went against logic, brainwashing or other forms of control.
No matter how great their fighting abilities were, it would be meaningless if they were still soldiers who didn’t listen to orders. In a way, this problem was more dangerous than their actual enemies.
There was even an incident where some of the Coordinators created in the early stages of the project had escaped.
By necessity, the development project became more focused on psychological control. The military focused their efforts on the “obedience gene” inherent in humans. Using this gene, they could control the general behavior of the soldiers via “imprinting,” regardless of their own will.
The new phase of the combat Coordinator development project was named Project Socius, named for a latin word meaning comrade.
Project Socius would take a long time and a massive budget, but it would eventually bear fruit.
Then, the research was halted because of an unexpected turn of events.
War had broken out between the Earth Alliance and the Coordinators.
Coordinators became the enemy of the Naturals.
Psychological control via the obedience gene did have some success in Project Socius, but it still wasn’t perfect. As long as there was even a slight possibility of betrayal, it would be impossible for the Alliance to create Coordinators with enhanced combat power.
Just as the military was about to cancel Project Socius, another company came in to take over development on the project.
The company had been contracted by the Earth Alliance to develop Mobile Suits for them (behind the scenes, this company also had ties to Blue Cosmos, the hate group which called for the elimination of Coordinators).
The presence of Coordinators was essential to Mobile Suit development, so Project Socius was used for that purpose.
The Coordinators were used like expendable parts in a number of cruel experiments.
They were born with obedience to Naturals imprinted in their genetics, and performed their duties without complaint. For them, being able to serve the Naturals was their raison d’etre, the joy of their lives. Eventually, the Alliance completed their development of mass-produced Mobile Suits and an operating system for Naturals to use.
Beyond that, with the birth of enhanced Natural pilots, their reason for existing would be completely lost.
✥✥✥
Eleven Socius was one of those Coordinators.
As a Coordinator, he was of course capable of rational thought, and was well aware that his own role had come to an end.
“Well, I can’t work for the Naturals anymore.”
The thought did bring up feelings of disappointment, but if the Naturals didn’t need him anymore, there wasn’t anything he could do about it.
In front of his eyes, his comrade Eight Socius had just been killed during a combat exercise.
And it was his turn next.
Their partners in this exercise were Naturals with enhanced combat abilities. He wasn’t capable of attacking someone he knew to be a Natural, the same was true for Eight Socius. They were all born that way.
Eleven Socius understood that this was a death sentence disguised as a combat exercise.
He felt no fear.
He had been created to fight for the Naturals, and he was about to be killed for failing to fulfill that role. He felt something akin to dread at the thought.
“Alright, next one! Come on out to the battlefield, number 11!”
A voice barked orders into Eleven Socius’ cockpit.
Naturals were always shouting when they ordered Socius around. He understood that they did this to mask their fear of Coordinators.
He felt disgusted with himself for making Naturals feel this way.
“Understood.” He answered in as gentle of a voice as possible. He didn’t want to provoke them.
He quietly moved his machine onto the battlefield.
Eleven Socius didn’t use a GINN.
The GAT-01D Long Dagger. Which was developed from the Strike Dagger, the first Mobile Suit successfully mass-produced by the Alliance.
The Strike Dagger was developed with an emphasis on mass-production and Natural operation, so its performance was detuned to suit the pilot.
The Alliance had several plans to develop pilots with abilities equal to or better than the Coordinators (Naturals with enhanced abilities included), so a high-performance unit would be necessary in addition to the mass-produced ones.
The three machines that Socius watched fight earlier were some of those high-performance units.
Eleven Socius’ Long Dagger was one of those special units that was built with both high-performance and a degree of mass-production in mind. In fact, more than half of the Long Dagger’s parts were the same as those used for the Strike Dagger, making it possible to produce them on the same line.
As soon as a large number of enhanced pilots could be sent out to the battlefield, production of Mobile Suits would be shifted toward the Long Dagger.
The design of the Long Dagger also incorporated data received from the Archangel.
The incorporated some aspects of the Duel, one of the five Mobile Suits developed on Heliopolis. In addition, they added characteristics based on the battle data that weren’t part of the Duel’s original design. The Assault Shroud. An additional piece of equipment called the Fortestra (strong dress), would, like the Duel’s Assault Shroud, greatly increase the unit’s defense, thrust and firepower.
As an aside, Eleven had heard some rumors among the engineers regarding the choice to call it Long Dagger.
The Long Dagger was certainly an extension of the Duel’s concept, and probably should have been called the Duel Dagger. However, there was a lot of resistance among the military toward naming it after a weapon that had been stolen by enemy forces, so they went with Long Dagger.
The inverse seemed to be true for the Strike Dagger. It was rumored that the reason their mass-produced machine, which didn’t have the Strike’s backpack weapon system was given the Strike title was because it was their only unit that hadn’t been stolen.
Eleven Socius didn’t really care if the rumor was true or not.
The name didn’t change the unit’s performance. Nor was it likely for this unit to also be stolen simply because it was named Duel. For this pragmatic Coordinator, names were only a matter of convenience.
Long Dagger… my machine.
It had only been about a month since Eleven Socius first encountered the machine. However, from the moment he boarded the unit for testing, he felt a sense of oneness with it, as if it were meant for him. He couldn’t imagine going through these combat exercises, or even his forthcoming execution, with any machine other than this one.
Sorry to drag you into this too, Long Dagger. Sitting in his beloved machine, a thought naturally drifted into his mind. He was supposed to use this unit to fight for the Naturals’ sakes. Now, the newly created enhanced pilots were about to take his place.
Not because the Socius were inferior to them. They were chosen because they’re Naturals and controlled by drugs, which was safer.
Can’t they find some way to give us a chance?
Eleven Socius knew that this thought was dangerous. The Naturals who created them had deemed the Socius to be unnecessary, so he shouldn’t question it.
Is our psychological control still imperfect? He asked himself because he didn’t know.
If it was incomplete, getting rid of the Socius would be the right choice.
Still questioning himself, he proceeded onto the battlefield in his Long Dagger.
The battlefield had been completely cleared of the GINN wreckage left from the previous battle.
“We’ve got a bony one this time.”
“Who cares what machine he’s using, Socius is Socius. They’re no different from dogs.”
“…Let’s just hurry up and do this.”
The battle began immediately.
A series of precise and powerful attacks were fired at Eleven Socius’ Long Dagger as well.
But Eleven dodged them all.
Though Eight Socius couldn’t, Eleven had managed to accomplish this, simply because of the difference in the performance of their machines. Of course, Eleven couldn’t fight back either.
How unfortunate. Eleven, seeing the three enemy machines on the move, muttered in his mind.
The three Mobile Suits were fully complete. The pilots operating them were also moving in ways that were difficult to believe a Natural could.
Though, they weren’t working well as a team. If the three Mobile Suits coordinated their attacks, even Eleven would have been unable to avoid them.
The movement of the three machines showed that they were competing with one another. Each trying to make their own last stand with no desire to cooperate. If two of them were to back him into a corner with the third finishing him off, it would’ve been a lot more efficient.
If only us Socius were allowed to go into battle, then… Another thought came to him.
If he destroyed the three machines in front of him, would he be able to reaffirm the superiority of Socius?
A foolish idea. If he did that, it would really have the opposite effect. The Socius would all be branded as an enemy of the Naturals.
But, if he didn’t do anything…
“Isn’t… isn’t there anything I can do!?”
Eleven cried out.
His cry surprised even himself. But, the abnormal event that had just occurred instantly brought back his composure.
“This is…”
His three enemies all suddenly stopped in their tracks.
The reason for this was clear to Eleven in an instant. The Gamma Glipheptin the pilots needed had worn off. They’d need to take another dose to survive. As soon as the drug wore off, they suffered intense withdrawal symptoms and were no longer able to operate their Mobile Suits.
“Such imperfect soldiers…”
Socius’ opinion was frank.
Could they protect the Naturals? Weren’t Socius themselves meant to serve the Naturals?
For this reason, Socius would have to prove his strength.
But how could he?
“…!”
Suddenly, a lightbulb went on in Eleven’s brain.
Socius was born to fight Coordinators. What was the point in fighting his own rivals? He could prove his strength by defeating the world’s strongest Coordinator!
The next moment, Eleven did something that even he couldn’t believe.
Taking advantage of the Long Dagger’s enhanced thrusters, he left the battlefield in an instant.
Before the battle they had reduced the amount of propellant in his machine, but Socius was good enough as a pilot to compensate for that.
Beyond the battlefield was the maintenance facility, with a large elevator there to take Mobile Suits up to the surface.
Eleven slid into the elevator, making the elevator unusable as he flew straight through the ceiling.
“Did I get away?”
He was committing unforgivable treason, but it felt as if it were someone else’s problem. He felt no joy or regret over it. He was simply glad that he now had the opportunity to prove himself.
“So their control over us really is incomplete?”
He asked himself again, still not knowing the answer.
But there was no doubt that he had escaped, not for his own sake, but to serve the Naturals.
No pursuers followed him.
There was nobody in the base working on the Mobile Suits at the time.
Socius left the facility in a hurry and didn’t meet any resistance in the process.
It wasn’t an act of betrayal.
It wasn’t out of some hope for survival.
It was all for the sake of the Naturals.
✥✥✥
The Orb Union.
A small island nation in the South Pacific. The owner of the Heliopolis colony. The country that cooperated with the Earth Alliance to develop five Mobile Suits, despite its neutrality.
Led by Murakumo Gai, the members of the mercenary unit Serpent Tail were gathered here.
They had been asked to help test the M1 Astray, a Mobile Suit that Orb had developed on Earth.
The M1 was a mass-production version of the ASTRAY Series, which had been developed on Heliopolis by stealing technology from the Alliance. In other words, they were a mass-produced version of Gai’s ASTRAY Blue Frame.
Gai had used the Blue Frame during a wide variety of combat missions since early on. There was nobody better suited to test the M1 Astray than him.
Though he did accept the request, Gai asked for some conditions in place of the monetary reward.
The conditions were something that only the ASTRAY’s home country, Orb, could offer him.
To improve the Blue Frame.
Gai was satisfied with the Blue Frame’s performance, but as he used it more and more he started to find a few things that needed to be improved. Gai wanted them to upgrade the Blue Frame with some modifications that would make it easier for him to use.
When Gai got the request from Orb, he wasn’t finished with his mission for the Alliance, and still had matters to attend to with it.
So he sent Loretta’s daughter, Kazahana Azure, to head to Orb ahead of them.
Kazahana was a six year-old girl, but she had a sense of responsibility and could get the job done. Because of this, Gai was able to trust her to handle the contract.
After Gai had entrusted her with his design plans for improving the Blue Frame and the contract with Orb, Kazahana Azure went to Orb on her own. There, she met with Morgenroete Inc.’s chief designer, Erica Simmons, who was in charge of the ASTRAYs’ development.
Kazahana didn’t back down on anything during their negotiations regarding the detailed terms and conditions, which surprised Simmons. Erica had a child the same age as Kazahana, so she was even more taken aback by her than people usually were.
At the same time Kazahana also got in touch with the Archangel, which was in port there at the time, to gather information from them. She did this at her own discretion.
Coincidence worked in her favor, because the junk dealer who had the other ASTRAY, the Red Frame, was also docked at Orb at the time. Through working with them, she was able to get in touch with the Archangel, which was docked for repairs.
When Gai and the others finally made it to Orb, everything was going just as planned.
“Mission accomplished!”
Kazahana reported her results with pride, and Gai replied with a simple “understood.”
The other Serpent Tail members, Elijah and Reed, praised Kazahana by patting her head and telling her she did a great job, but she was more happy to have been able to tell Gai that she had completed her mission than she was at receiving praise.
As soon as he arrived at Orb, Gai began running tests on the M1 Astray. It was as close to real combat as could be. Through repeated mock battles, he gathered data from various situations.
As a result, they found that the M1 Astray had a few issues when it came to its performance.
The OS had also been optimized for Naturals to use and worked extremely well.
In fact, this OS was the thing Gai was most interested in during the tests. It had been improved by Kira Yamato of the Archangel.
Gai had first heard Kira Yamato’s name while on a mission to defend the space fortress Artemis.
Kira Yamato was a young man who piloted a Mobile Suit for the Alliance. He didn’t have any combat training, but he had repeatedly managed to repel the pursuit of ZAFT’s Creuset Team despite being a civilian.
Mercenaries and other people who lived on the battlefield tend to develop a keen sense for this kind of information, and Gai was no exception. The OS that Kira Yamato had helped improve deeply satisfied Gai’s curiosity about him.
The M1 Astray proved to have a few issues, but it’s worth noting that the quality of the test pilots were quite poor. This was mostly due to a lack of practical experience.
Gai created a training menu for the M1 Astray pilots. Normally, Gai would’ve accompanied them during their training, but he had to leave Orb immediately because of some new developments in his mission from the Alliance.
After leaving Orb and returning to his duties with the Alliance, Gai and the other Serpent Tail members had yet another encounter with Lowe the junk dealer.
“Are these two ASTRAYs bound together by fate or something?”
Elijah said this as a joke, but he had apparently started to look forward to meeting the junk dealers every now and again.
Gai was a realist, so he didn’t believe in things like fate, but he could understand why Elijah would be tempted to think some sort of outside force was at work causing them to run into each other this often.
Aligned on the same battlefield, the blue and red ASTRAYs worked together on a mission.
After completing that mission, Serpent Tail parted ways with the junk dealers and returned to Orb.
Soon after, Gai got a letter through a secure connection.
The sender’s name: Eleven Socius. It’s contents: A challenge.
✥✥✥
When Gai and his team returned to Orb once more, relations on Earth between the Alliance and ZAFT were extremely tense.
It seemed only a matter of time before ZAFT’s invasion of Panama would begin.
But on the surface, the neutral nation of Orb was at peace. Gai and his team were free from their duties for the first time in quite a while.
They were all peacefully relaxing in a hotel room. The hotel was one of the highest-caliber locations in all of Orb, with luxurious furnishings as well as protection from eavesdropping and the other dangers of the underground. The fact that Gai and the others were granted access to such a place showed that Orb valued their abilities highly.
“I see that you got the job done on the surface without a hitch.”
This was the first thing Reed said when they got back.
“Once Orb’s done upgrading Blue, our business with them will be over with. They’ll be done in a few days, so we’d better get ready to head back up into space.”
Reed looked around at the other members. If they stayed on the surface, Serpent Tail would never need to worry about running out of work. But now that ZAFT’s forces on the ground were becoming more active, they’d lose the means to go into space if they timed things wrong.
“Yeah. I guess we’d better get back up there.”
The first to respond to Loretta’s agreement was Kazahana, who looked dissatisfied.
She had hoped to see the phenomenon of snow falling despite clear skies that she was named after once she came to Earth. But since landing, the only places she had gone were Panama, the Amazon, and Orb. None of which had any snow at all.
“What do you think, Gai?”
Elijah asked for Gai’s opinion.
Gai was the leader of Serpent Tail, so his opinion is respected the highest out of any of the members.
Gai, who had only been listening to his teammates until this point, softly began to speak.
“I got a request for a duel… from a man who says his name is Socius.” He didn’t answer the question. A confused look spread across the faces of all of his teammates. Either way, Gai went on. “I’m going to accept his challenge. Not as a job, the battle will be more personal than that. You guys don’t have to come with me.”
“What? Why?” Elijah’s question for Gai was straightforward.
Mercenaries were professionals when it came to combat. It isn’t a hobby nor a game to them. It’s their job. Because of this, they normally try to avoid unnecessary combat as much as they can. Gai was an exemplary mercenary. It was unthinkable for him to go into a duel simply because he was challenged to one.
“But this opponent… Socius? I’ve never heard of ‘im.”
Reed twisted his head. He was the greatest gatherer of information on the team. He seemed a little humiliated by the fact that someone of his caliber had never heard the name before.
“I don’t know much about him either… but apparently he’s a combat Coordinator made by the Alliance.”
“A combat Coordinator… made by the Alliance!?” Elijah almost looked like he was going to bite Gai. “I don’t know anything other than what you’ve said, but why would you fight somebody like that!? Mercenaries don’t act unless there’s a reward equivalent to the amount of danger involved! I learned that from you! This is crazy, Gai!”
At Elijah’s words, the other members only nodded in silence.
Gai’s response clearly didn’t make sense. He was hiding something.
“Socius wants to fight the strongest Coordinator pilot.”
Gai was a mercenary. In order to get good work, he needed to sell his abilities as the best. It was no surprise that Gai’s name would come up during a search for the strongest Coordinator, but this wasn’t directly related to Gai’s reason for accepting the fight.
“Hey, calm down, Elijah.”
Elijah was riled up, and Loretta tried to soothe him. At Loretta’s side was her daughter, Kazahana, who was staring at Elijah with a slightly frightened look in her eyes.
Upon seeing this and hearing Loretta’s words, Elijah was deeply ashamed. To get so riled up was completely unfitting behavior for a mercenary. A mercenary was supposed to respond calmly at all times.
“Gai, I doubt that you’re just messing around about this, but if you lose this fight, it would hurt Serpent Tail’s reputation. That’d cause problems for us.”
“I understand that. Of course, I don’t intend to lose.”
Loretta stared into Gai’s eyes with a serious expression, as if she were trying to get a better read on him. Eventually…
“Alright, I get it.”
Her expression relaxed. It seemed like she had been able to find something hidden behind his orange sunglasses.
“I trust you, Gai. C’mon, everybody, let’s give him a hand.”
“This is my fight. Your help isn’t ne-”
Loretta held up a hand, interrupting him.
“Stop it. You made your own decision to accept this fight the same way I’m making my own decision to help you out. Plus, Serpent Tail is done for if you lose, so this is just as much our fight as it is yours.”
Loretta smiled mischievously and turned toward the rest of the team.
“Yeah, this is our fight.”
“Wait, you mean that we gotta help him out too?”
Reed cut in, looking a little disappointed.
“Of course it does.”
“I won’t.”
Elijah was totally stubborn. An almost childish trait about him.
“That’s fine.”
Loretta made no attempt to sway him.
This only frustrated Elijah even more.
“You’re just gonna try to get me back on board by saying ‘Elijah is too scared to join the fight,’ aren’t you? I’m not gonna fall for that old trick.”
“Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to say that.”
“Fine, then I’m seriously not going to help with this.”
“That’s fine. Though, you don’t approve of what Gai is doing, right? You think this isn’t what a mercenary should do, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why don’t you at least watch to see what happens as a result of Gai’s bad decision. Isn’t that the only way to prove that you were right about this?”
“Wha…?”
“Am I right?”
“I suppose so.”
Loretta could tell that Elijah actually wanted to go along with Gai. Knowing that, all she had to do was give him an easy way in and getting him to crack would be easy.
“Then I guess there’s no helping it, I’ll come with… but I’m not gonna help during the fight.”
“Of course not.”
Loretta replied with a big smile.
Held in her arms, Kazahana was grinning. She had understood the exchange.
Seeing this, Reed knew that the girl had been learning all that she could from her mother. When this girl grew up, what sort of smooth-talking would she use to sway men to do as she wanted… Reed couldn’t help but wonder.
“Alright. I have no right to stop any of you who choose to come along.”
Finally, Gai agreed to let everyone else come with him.
Though, in the end, he never told them why he had decided to accept Socius’ challenge.
✥✥✥
Socius had designated the site of his battle with Gai. A ruined town deep within the mountains of Europe.
He had strategically chosen a place with no value whatsoever, a place that hadn’t been associated with war in a long time. Though, ironically, the Earth Alliance and ZAFT troops had fought there once.
They both brought a small force, but it had been more than enough to turn the once peaceful town into a ruin.
Now, the town was uninhabited.
Only a few battle-scarred buildings remained.
Gai, in his Blue Frame, came to the town that Socius had designated.
The sun had just come up, but there wasn’t much sunlight. Thick clouds spread overhead, which was abnormal for the season. It was as if the clouds had come to hide the fierce battle that was about to unfold from the eyes of the people.
The white armor of the Blue Frame shone dully in what little sunlight was able to pour down from between the clouds.
The Blue Frame’s load-out was as normal as it could be. Meaning, the only weapons in its hands were the shield and the beam rifle.
The ASTRAY Series allowed for the addition of specialized equipment and an interchangeable head to suit each mission. This time, the head was normal and nothing was added onto the back.
Gai chose to go with his normal equipment for a reason.
He didn’t know what sort of strategy his opponent had in mind, but when an enemy is the one to choose where and when the battle would take place, the possibility that there could be traps must be considered.
To deal with traps and respond quickly to any unexpected situations, his machine would need to be as light as possible and not heavily armed. Under these circumstances, using specialized equipment meant for particular functions could have been fatal.
In this respect, the standard equipment was highly flexible.
Gai would have liked to go into battle after his upgrade parts from Orb were finished, but his opponent had decided when the duel would take place and he had no way of postponing it.
The other Mobile Suit pilot in Serpent Tail, Elijah, was waiting in a nearby town.
Of the other members, Loretta was the only one there. Though, Reed and Kazahana didn’t usually participate in battles to begin with.
Loretta was a Natural, so she couldn’t pilot a Mobile Suit. Instead, she used a Powered Suit, the Guti. They had used one of these previously during their mission in the Amazon. Along with the armor that covered the user’s entire body, it had crawlers attached to the legs, allowing it to run freely over any terrain. It was about two meters tall, its small size allowing it to be used differently from a Mobile Suit.
Though, in terms of combat power, Powered Suits are inferior to Mobile Suits. Loretta wouldn’t fight, she had been given different instructions. She had an important mission that may have placed the fate of the battle in her hands.
“You’re Murakumo Gai…?”
Suddenly, Gai’s enemy opened comms with him. The voice was younger than he’d expected.
It would be dangerous to judge an enemy by their voice alone. Especially when the age of his enemy didn’t matter. Age had no bearing on Mobile Suit piloting skills.
“That’s right. I’m Gai.”
Gai replied, stifling any emotion in his voice. He didn’t do this to avoid revealing any information to his enemy. It was simply a habit he had formed over many years.
“To start, I’d like to thank you for accepting my challenge. As I stated in my letter, I want to prove my usefulness and return to the Alliance. For that, I’ll need your help. By the way, I hear that you came to this country on a job for the Alliance, did you finish that?”
“Yes, I finished it the other day.”
“That’s good. If you were still actively useful to the Alliance, I wouldn’t be able to kill you.”
Based on the conversation, Gai could glean that Socius was under some level of psychological control from the Alliance. Though he didn’t know what kind of effect that would have on the forthcoming battle. Gai made a mental note of it.
“Before we start, there’s just one more thing I want to make sure of.”
“And what’s that?”
“They say that you’re the strongest Coordinator pilot? Is that true?”
For a moment, Gai thought of Kira Yamato, the pilot of the Strike. If he and I were to fight, which of us would be stronger…? But he quickly put the thought aside. It didn’t matter now.
“…I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve fought every other Coordinator to check.”
“Then, have you ever lost a fight to another Coordinator?”
“I haven’t.”
“Good enough.”
“Shall we begin, then?”
“No, we’ve already begun.”
Before the words had even reached his ears, Gai’s Blue Frame began to move.
BWOOM!
A large explosion erupted at the Blue Frame’s feet. It seemed there really were traps. If he hadn’t moved immediately, he would have been caught in the explosion.
Gai had a map of the town, which he had memorized in advance.
Though, the map was based only on information that was public knowledge, and he had no way of knowing what had been changed. Naturally, he didn’t know where the traps were either. Of course, he could use his knowledge of combat to identify where the traps were most likely to have been set.
The town had a small-scale sewage system. This would be the riskiest point. If they fell into the sewers underground, their movements would be severely restricted.
Within the city, radar was completely useless. The jamming was even worse than it normally would have been under the influence of a Neutron Jammer. Maybe whatever he was planning had involved some sort of radar disturbance.
“So he doesn’t want me to use my radar…”
He may have set a large trap. Though, there could be some other reason of course…
Gai quickly moved the Blue Frame into the shadow of the crumbling building in front of him. The five-story building was made of reinforced concrete, though its outer wall appeared to be made of brick. Rebar peeked out from some of the more heavily damaged walls.
As he slid the Blue Frame into the building’s shadow, Gai paid close attention to the wall.
There was a graffiti-esque symbol drawn on it. No one but Gai would have been able to understand their meaning.
“Alright.”
The symbol had been drawn by Loretta when she went through the town in her Powered Suit.
She went around town in the small Powered Suit, informing Gai of whatever live data she could, including the presence of any traps.
The symbols on the walls indicated whether or not there were traps in the building. Though the simplicity of the symbols didn’t allow for them to communicate what sort of traps they were.
Gai slowly moved the main camera on the Blue Frame’s head into the building.
Upon taking a closer look, he found what appeared to be an armored plate embedded in one of the walls. The same wall that the Blue Frame was currently hiding behind.
It was well hidden, but easy to find if you knew there was a trap there.
The wall was an interesting sort of trap.
Firstly, it could be used to hide behind in place of a shield. But if push came to shove, one could drive their enemy toward the wall and shove them into it.
Typically, the power of a Mobile Suit is enough to push through a reinforced concrete building, as if ignoring it.
If someone tried to go through this wall without knowing about the trap, they would collide with the armored plate, seriously damaging their main systems.
Gai decided to make the most of this trap by turning it back on his opponent.
The enemy knew that there was armor in the wall, so he wouldn’t attack it. In other words, Gai could limit the directions from which his enemy could attack him.
“Guess it’s a war of attrition…”
His radar still showed him nothing.
Gai extended the Blue Frame’s left index finger and held it out past the edge of the wall.
Mobile Suits weren’t like humans, they had “eyes” all over them.
Hiding the main body behind a wall and peeking out with only a fingertip, he probed for the enemy’s movements.
After six minutes, the camera on the Blue Frame’s fingertip caught sight of the enemy’s shadow.
Gai fired his beam rifle without hesitation.
He didn’t aim with precision, he simply shot in the direction where he saw the shadow.
Three shots, one after the next.
One of the shots went through a wall.
An unarmored chunk of the wall was hollowed out in a perfect circle.
“…No response?”
If the beam had even grazed his opponent, there would have been some sign of it. There was no such sign.
Just as he was about to re-enter his war of attrition, Gai was hit by an impact unlike any he had ever felt before.
Suddenly, he was hit by a missile from behind.
It wasn’t possible. His enemy was in front of him, there was no way he could have gotten behind him in an instant. Even completely uninjured it was physically impossible.
Gai hurriedly turned the Blue Frame around and scooped some of the dirt off the ground with the shield in his left hand. At the same time, he moved the Blue Frame from out behind the building.
BWAM!
The missile exploded in mid-air when it hit the airborne soil. He could have blocked it with the shield, but the Blue Frame’s armor was thin. He couldn’t afford to lose his shield. Especially against an enemy that used beams, having a shield with an anti-beam coating would be an important factor.
As he got moving with the Blue Frame, Gai tried to get a read on his opponent’s movements.
There were about 300 meters between where he had fired the beam and where he guessed the missile had come from. It would’ve been impossible to cross that distance without his notice.
The missile could have been a remote controlled device that had been planted there earlier.
“It’s gonna be difficult to keep track of all of this.”
It was clear that his enemy held the advantage on this battlefield.
“There’s no helping it. Have it your way…”
Gai decided to abandon his strategy of hiding behind buildings.
The traps would generally be set in places where Mobile Suits were likely to stop moving.
In that case, hiding behind buildings would actually be the most dangerous place to be. Out in the open, he would at least be able to react to and dodge his enemy’s attacks. With the battlefield under his opponent’s control, Gai’s only option wasn’t to hide and try to avoid the attacks, it was to let the enemy attack him to figure out where he was.
Gai moved the Blue Frame to stand in the center of the town.
The strategy was a gamble, one he wouldn’t normally have chosen.
But Gai had the skill to back it up. The Blue Frame had a certain characteristic not found in other Mobile Suits. The weight of its armor was extremely reduced, allowing the machine to be around half the weight of a regular MS.
This not only gave it increased speed, but also allowed it to operate for longer.
By standing in the town square, he allowed the enemy to see him from anywhere. But, he would also be able to see the entire town. When he and his enemy were under the same conditions, Gai’s speed would give him the advantage.
“How bold. I never would’ve thought you’d make a move like that.”
As soon as the Blue Frame stood in the square, Socius opened comms with Gai. There was no hint of unrest in his voice. Rather, the battle seemed to be fun for him.
“But, in a real battle, the idea that you can win just by taking your opponent by surprise is for idiots.”
“That’s right. But I would never do something like this if it didn’t give me a chance to win.”
“I see. Let’s see how long this confidence of yours can last you!”
As he said this, a shell flew through the building on the Blue Frame’s left. A linear cannon with the speed of an electromagnetic wave.
The bullet was faster than the speed of sound, but Gai reacted instantly. He quickly pulled the Blue Frame’s shield up at an angle to deflect the bullet. It slid across the surface of the shield and disappeared into the sky on the opposite site.
The next moment, the Blue Frame was dashing away.
This was the attack Gai had been waiting for.
Just a single shot. If he could get through it, it would reveal his enemy’s hiding place. If the enemy moved after the attack, it would be absolutely impossible for it to move faster than the light-weight body of the Blue Frame.
ZWOOM, ZWOOM!
The enemy shot at his rapidly approaching Blue Frame again and again.
Usually, a Mobile Suit would decrease its speed to dodge the attacks, but Gai’s Blue Frame didn’t slow down whatsoever. On the contrary, the enemy was unable to increase his own speed while firing, so the distance between them got smaller and smaller.
The enemy jumped upward at a diagonal and disappeared behind a building. But since the attacks had continued, the building was hit, and began to collapse.
Gai didn’t hesitate to plunge into the collapsing building in front of him. He saw Loretta’s symbol, which marked that it wasn’t trapped.
Gai felt his senses sharpen. The falling pieces of the collapsing building appeared completely still. Either way, before the building had completely collapsed, the Blue Frame had slipped through to the other side.
And there he was.
“Socius!”
“…Gai!”
The enemy was clearly shaken. Normally, an enemy would never appear right in your line of fire after your attack. If the enemy was in your line of fire, they were supposed to have been defeated. Gai defied this bit of common sense and appeared directly in front of him.
The Mobile Suit that Socius piloted was a stark contrast to Gai’s Blue Frame.
The body was covered head-to-toe in heavy-looking armor, with linear cannons and missile pods attached to both shoulders. It probably had a powerful thrust mounted on it to increase its maneuverability.
The machine was red, which also contrasted against the blue of the Blue Frame.
After observing his opponent for a moment, Gai discarded his beam rifle and drew the beam saber from his back.
The beam rifle was a weapon with absolute destructive power, but in a close-quarters battle between Mobile Suits, it wouldn’t be very effective.
There was a time-lag of a few tenths of a second when firing, and the direction that the muzzle of the gun is pointing can be used to easily predict where the beam will pass through. Of course, this only mattered during fights between top-class soldiers, but Gai’s enemy now was certainly one such soldier.
The enemy reacted in an instant, holding up his shield. With such a large body, dodging the saber attack probably would’ve been impossible. He would pretty much have to take it.
Gai changed the trajectory of his beam saber’s swing to go around the shield. But, the saber didn’t land. Just before Gai swung, a flash of light spread before his eyes.
“What!?”
The light pierced the enemy and flew out at him.
GSHWM!
A hit to the body. The Blue Frame shook from the impact.
“Kh!”
The air was knocked out of Gai’s lungs. His head had been shaken violently and, for a moment, he almost lost consciousness.
Gai, trying desperately to maintain his nearly lost consciousness, made the Blue Frame step back, putting distance between him and his enemy.
In front of him stood a different enemy from the one he was facing before.
“You’ve… abandoned your armor.”
The enemy Mobile Suit had shed the armor and weapons that once covered its entire body. Its shield was already gone. Instead, it pulled out the beam saber mounted on its waist and switched it on.
The more the Blue Frame fell back, the quicker his enemy closed the gap.
The attack was drastic. Throwing away his shield meant that he had no way to block Gai’s beam saber. He was increasing his speed in order to dodge all of the Blue Frame’s attacks. It was the same strategy Gai was using just a moment ago.
“Shit!”
Gai quickly threw aside his own shield.
The opponent’s movements slightly, but not completely, surpassed the Blue Frame’s. The MS itself probably wasn’t lighter, but its thrust was greater than the Blue Frame’s.
The beam’s blade lunged forward again and again, chipping away at the Blue Frame’s armor.
The Blue Frame wasn’t taking serious damage, but Gai was clearly being backed into a corner.
If the timing of the attacks or his defense was off by even a small margin, it would be fatal.
But then, the Blue Frame’s knee suddenly gave in.
The enemy didn’t pass up his chance.
He immediately swung his saber.
He’d fallen into Gai’s trap. By making it look like he was off balance, he had invited his enemy to attack.
Dodging the beam saber’s wide swing, the Blue Frame dove into the enemy’s chest.
I’ve won.
The moment Gai thought so, another sudden shock hit his MS.
“What!?”
In an instant, he swung to look at the camera behind him and saw another enemy standing there. This one still wore its armor.
“There were two of them…?”
Gai realized his mistake in assuming he only had a single enemy. Now he knew how his enemy seemed to move in an instant.
Now that he knew his enemy’s secret, there was nothing else he could do.
The Blue Frame, whose backpack had been destroyed by a direct hit from behind, had completely lost its usual speed.
Gai tried to regain his composure, but there was nothing he could do now.
The two machines struck Gai’s own from the front and back over and over. Gai’s consciousness slowly began to fade.
The Blue Frame was unable to withstand the attack and fell to the ground.
“It’s over, Gai. Now we, the Socius, have proven ourselves to be capable.”
Amidst his fading consciousness, Gai heard Socius’ voice on the comms.
The monitors in the Blue Frame’s cockpit were all dyed a bright red. Gai was surprised to realize that this was his own blood.
On the bright red monitors, the two Mobile Suits stood proud.
“…”
Gai tried to reply to Socius, but no words left his mouth. Instead, a large amount of blood spilled out.
“We should thank you.”
Socius’ Mobile Suit pointed its muzzle at the Blue Frame’s cockpit.
Then, something came flying in that the Socius had never expected.
A humanoid weapon just over two meters tall. Loretta’s Powered Suit.
“What is that?”
The Powered Suit bore the insignia of Serpent Tail. On the insignia was the number 3, which was the number used to denote Loretta’s machines.
“Loretta… Azure!?”
Her presence clearly shook the Socius.
They couldn’t attack Loretta. She was a Natural.
Loretta stood between the Blue Frame and the Socius.
“…Oh, well. We’ve already won.”
“True. Though we should take some evidence.”
The two Socius decapitated the Blue Frame with their beam sabers. They wanted to use the head as proof that they had defeated Gai.
After cutting off the Blue Frame’s head, the Socius left.
Loretta in her Powered Suit and the headless Blue Frame were left in the ruin that had been their battlefield a moment ago.
“Gai! Wake up! Gai!”
Loretta shouted over the comms in the Blue Frame’s cockpit, but got no response from Gai.
She felt a chill run down her spine and began to expect the worst.
NEXT MISSION
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Translated by TrafalgarLog
Editing by celico, ciel (nonbinarysunset), and Watt
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