Standard Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing, but in this story, I own a lot of things. Just not the GW boys or the gundams. Or whatever else everyone knows I don’t own. I just trying not to get sued okay?!!! Sorry. Enjoy.

The Future

Chapter 1

by Dustin

Space lay out before me, infinite. The stars were numerous and beautiful, especially to anyone raised on Earth. This sector of space, thirty light-years away from the planet, was especially beautiful. For over four million square kilometers, there was very little space dust, leaving the view especially clear. I hardly looked at it though. Being raised on a colony, I hadn’t seen anything but stars. Of coarse, I‘d never really gotten tired of looking them, but to me, it didn‘t compare to Earth. I’d only seen pictures of the planet, and my training didn’t leave time for travel, but I’d always been attracted to it. A source of annoyance to my instructor, Professor Leichten. I would look at pictures when I was supposed to be studying physics, and take guided virtual tours of forests and oceans while practicing my computer skills.

The way I’d been raised was supposed to avoid things like that. I wasn’t supposed to be curious about anything, wasn’t supposed to take interest in anything but weapons and combat. If I wanted to look at pictures, I should learn the most detailed workings of holograms, photographs, and television screens. No just looking. And I wasn’t even supposed to touch music, but I had taken a great interest.

I personally thought this way of training someone was foolish. Trying to make a machine of a human being. The Foundation had wanted to terminate my training early on, but I’d convinced Professor Leichten that my interest in Earth and in music had no hindrance on my training and most likely enhanced my abilities. Of coarse, the Foundation didn’t care about any of this. They only pay attention to numbers, and mine were the best.

So here I was. Sitting in an instrument no sixteen year old should have been allowed in. An advanced-capability mobile suit I called Wraith. A very powerful weapon originally to be used to conquer Earth. When the details of the operation I’d been trained for since birth had become know to me, I’d acknowledged without comment. Then I’d took the suit and left the Foundation with Professor Leichten and a few other pilots. No way were we going to be involved in that. Unfortunatly, I hadn’t been able to find anyone so far. I was avoiding Foundation ships and deciding what to do with myself. Sitting, cloaked, a hole in space, listening to loud classical music, and reading Frank Herbert.

I was made aware of the ship exiting slipstream by Wraith’s computer. The ship was instantly analyzed as a Kateless-class assault ship. No identification beacon. I looked, but couldn’t see the ship with my bare eye. I brought up an enhanced view. There it was. A dark, sleek shape with slipstream engines glowing faintly purple.

I started my engines and moved my cloaked suit closer to the unmoving ship. I couldn’t tell if it was Earth military or Foundation. The way it was running without identification suggested Foundation, but didn’t rule out Earth. Terran Confederation secret service ran ships like this all the time. If I were to make the Foundations take-over plan known, it would have to be to the SS. They were the only ones who wouldn’t be distracted by my age. If they were presented with a threat to the Confederation, they would investigate, no matter who presented the information, or how ridicules it sounded.

The ship started moving forward slowly. A soft warning alarm went off when the ship began to emit electromagnetic pulses. I glanced at the readings of my cloak. It was stable. Wraith was designed to resist anything that would interfere with the systems of other ships. I moved back farther away from the ship. It wouldn’t do to be seen now. I was sure I could handle the ship if I had to fight it, but I wouldn’t do so lightly. A Kateless was still a powerful ship.

The assault ship had been systematically searching space for a few minutes when a slipstream conduit suddenly opened opposite the ship. Three more ships exited this conduit. They were Terran Confederation scout ships. They must have detected the electromagnetic pulses and adjusted coarse to investigate. The ships faced each other for a few seconds. Then the assault ship turned away and began to accelerate. I saw the lead scout ship trying to hail the bigger ship, but there was no response. Then the three smaller ships accelerated to follow the assault ship and the lead ship shot off a coded subspace transmission. I set the computer on decoding the transmission and moved to follow the ships.

So the Kateless-class ship was a Foundation ship. The commander had been assigned to look for me probably without knowing the capabilities of my suit. I sighed and watched the assault ship go into slipstream followed by the scout ships. That’s what they got when politicians tried to run the military. They must be frantically trying to catch us, so they hadn’t had time to brief all of their officers.

A few seconds after the ships entered slipstream, I followed, making sure to keep out of range of their subspace sensors. The commander of that ship hadn’t been real smart when he decided to run away. The scout ships were easily fast enough to follow and he’d let them get a transmission off. He should have jammed their transmissions and destroyed the ships. Of coarse, I wouldn’t have let him, so maybe it was better for him this way.

The scout ships tried hailing the assault ship again, to no avail. Finally realizing the situation, the commander dropped out of slipstream. I came out behind the scout ships. They were keeping their distance this time, cautious of the more powerful ship. The assault ship activated a dampening field to block any transmissions and keep the ships from going to slipstream.

Now the scout ships realized what was going to happen. All three deployed their armor. The thick plates rippled over the hull leaving only the slipstream engines exposed. The assault ship did the same. I activated weapons systems and moved in closer.

The Foundation ship suddenly accelerated towards the three smaller ships and fired. Two thick beams lanced through space. All three ships jerked up and away, but the lead ship took a direct hit. The armor where the powerful weapon hit melted and blew shards everywhere. I winced. The scout ship’s armor wasn’t meant to stand up to such hits. It couldn’t take another in the same place.

The other two scouts swooped in, firing at the larger ship’s flanks, but the weaker weapons didn’t penetrate the armor. The assault ship pursued the ship it had hit, which was using its superior maneuverability to avoid the beams, but that wouldn’t last. Time to intervene.

I accelerated to cut off the big ship, then decloaked when I was in front of it. The effect was amazing. The pilot of the assault ship pulled the ship up and threw the engines into reverse. The ship strained, then lurched backwards and moved a thousand kilometers from me before finally stopping. I smiled. Psychological warfare was one of my specialties.

The scout ships had broken off their attack when they saw me, and now both groups hailed me. I brought up a split screen view. The captain of the damaged ship was a competent-looking young woman sitting in her chair on the smoky bridge. The captain of the Foundation ship was a middle aged man, looking scared and angry. They both started speaking at the same time.

“Captains, please, one at a time,” I said. “Foundation, you first.”

“This is Captain Taggart of the Basilisk. Lieutenant Commander Slandovich, I have orders that you surrender yourself and your mobile suit to me immediately or I will be forced to destroy you.”

I laughed. “Okay. Next.” I looked at the Terran captain.

“I am Captain Jennifer Newmar of the Terran Confederation. Both of you please identify yourself and your allegiance,” woman said in a commanding voice.

“I don’t answer to the Confederation,” the male captain spat.

“Shut up please Captain,” I said calmly. “My name is Calder Slandovich. I am allied with no one. This Kateless-class is a Foundation ship.”

She frowned. “What is the Foundation, and what is doing with an unidentified Kateless-class?”

“I think I should explain later Captain,” I said. The Basilisk was bringing its weapons to bear on me.

“Slandovich, this is your last warning,” the Foundation captain said. “Surrender, or be destroyed.”

“No. And if you were wise, Captain, you would not attempt to destroy me,” I said.

He laughed. “As you wish.” He cut communications. I looked at Captain Newmar.

“Captain, keep your ships away. I’ll take care of him,” I told her.

“Mr. Slandovich, what is...”

I cut her off. The Basilisk deployed an object from it’s docking bay and moved to engage the retreating scout ships. I quickly analyzed the object and cursed. It was Cobra. It was a mobile suit like mine, piloted by David Archer. He was something of my arch-enemy in training. We competed in everything, and it was never friendly. I was better than him, but not by much. I couldn’t beat him without some loss myself. His voice came over the speaker, mocking.

“Well Calder, how’s it been going?”

“Not bad, how ‘bout you,” I said.

He laughed. “I’m great. I’ve always wanted to fight you like this. No restraining, no safeties. No simulations.”

“Well I’m happy for you,” I said. “It was nice catching up. I’ll be right back.”

I turned and shot after the Basilisk, which was still keeping the scout ships from entering slipstream.

“Get back here, coward!” David shouted. I knew he was chasing me, but he didn’t have flight mode and wasn’t fast enough to catch up.

I targeted the section of the assault ship that I knew the dampening field emitter was, then opened fire with my duel particle guns. They tore into the armor, but to slowly. I caught up, and deployed out of flight mode and activated a beam saber. I slashed at the patch of damaged armor and it melted away, by saber slicing right through it. There was a flurry of sparks as I hit the emitter. My readings showed the field was down. I quickly moved away from the ship as it deployed small beam turrets and began firing at me. I had chose to make my suit huge and heavily armed rather than super fast, so I didn’t bother to dodge the beams. They did almost no damage to my gundanium alloy armor.

I opened a channel to Captain Newmar. “Get out of here now!” I said.

I expected her to resist, but I guess she wasn’t stupid enough to think she could survive much longer. “Roger. Where can we find you?”

I almost laughed at the melodramatic question. “I‘ll find you,” I said. Oh well. It fit.

“Roger.”

I watched the scout ships turn and a slipstream conduit open in front of them. They accelerated into it and vanished. I prepared to go to slipstream, but hesitated. I glanced at David as he sped towards me.

“Don’t run away Calder,” he said.

I knew I should. I couldn’t afford to take risks right now. But he was right, I always had wanted to fight him this way. I shook it off and activated my slipstream coil.

“Another time, David,” I said and pushed the button to enter slipstream. A warning went off. David had activated his own inhibiter, keeping me here.

“Oh well,” I said aloud. I turned to face him. The Basilisk kept its distance. David must have told it not to interfere. Cobra slowed as it approached. The Gundam was a menacing black form, decorated with snake scale patterns. It was primarily a close range fighter, with only a few missiles and throwing disks for long range use. Its primary weapon was the lightning-fast “fang” on its left arm. It could dig into any material and then yank it lose. If it got a hold of my cockpit, I could say goodbye. It also used a double-ended beam saber. It could only be fought effectively using both of my beam sabers.

“You have no idea how glad I am it was me who found you,” David said. “I knew it would have to be me that killed you.”

I laughed. “Very melodramatic. When did you decide you were capable of that?”

Suddenly he leaped towards me, bringing his fang forward. I did what he least expected. I thrusted forward to meet him, knocking the fang to the side with the shield on Wraith‘s right arm. We slammed into each other and I held him there. I had the advantage when we were locked together. I brought my knee into where his cockpit was, hoping to penetrate with the spike there and end it quickly. He twisted his Gundam just in time. The knee spike embedded itself into his right hip joint.

He pushed away and backed off. “You coward!” he spat. “Trying to finish me quickly!”

He flew towards me again. This time I thrusted backwards and fired all my machine guns. He broke off, then came at me from the side, activating his double-ended beam saber. I activated both my sabers and met his blow. He backed up quickly and came at me again with short, fast blows. I fell back and shielded myself. His sabers cut gashes in my thick shield. I stabbed forward with my left saber. He dodged and I brought my right saber down onto the shield on his left arm, then quickly backed away as he tried to bring his saber up. He rushed me again and I brought my shield up so the end faced him and thrusted it forward, hoping again to penetrate his cockpit. He twisted aside and pinned my shield. I instinctively blocked his saber with mine, but he brought his other end into me. I moved just slightly and the saber missed my arm joint, instead drawing a line in the Gundam’s chest armor.

I pushed away and he pursued. I kept flying backwards and switched my right saber with a particle gun. He avoided most of the shots. I deployed the double gatling gun on my left forearm and opened fire with that too. He still avoided the particle gun, but the heavy caliber tracers from the gatling dug pits in his armor and did worse damage to more vulnerable areas. To my delight, one side of his double saber flickered out. The emitter had been hit. I switched back to beam sabers and drove in.

Now he was unable to keep up with me, and I scored several hits. He backed off and lashed out with his fang. I dodged and it caught me a glancing blow, spinning me around. I reached behind me with my right saber and blocked his own saber. I turned the rest of the way around and slashed hard with my left saber. He brought his shield to block and the beam weapon dug several inches into it. I dislodged it and a chunk of the shield broke off.

He pulled away and raced backwards. I locked on and fired several missiles. He dodged, but as they exploded around him, shrapnel penetrated his left arm joint. I could see it was now useless. With his right arm, he unclipped a throwing disk and threw it towards me with blinding speed. I dodged it, but by the time the first one passed, he’d thrown a second one. I brought my shield up just in time and the disk lodged itself in the armor. He threw two more, but I knocked them away with my sabers. It was time to finish him off.

I stowed my left beam saber and reached behind my shield, where a heat-whip was coiled. David didn’t know about this addition to Wraith. I raced towards him and pulled the whip out, preparing to slash it down on him. Caught off guard, he dodged downward as fast as he could, leaving his back exposed to my right saber. I twisted above him and thrusted it deep into his main sub light engine. I pulled out and backed away quickly as the engine exploded, sending Cobra spinning out of control. David screamed in rage, uselessly trying to regain control.

I knew I would have been expected to finish the enemy off, but that had never been to my taste. Besides, the Basilisk was closing in and David’s inhibitor was off line. I set my coarse and went to slipstream.