The Future

Chapter 2

by Dustin

I sat back and watched the swirling blue patterns of the slipstream tunnel. A quick check revealed the trail of the Terran scout ship’s engines and I turned to follow it. I would take the opportunity to talk to Captain Newmar and persuade her to take it to the SS before she took it to her superiors.

The scout ships hadn’t gone far. When I came out of slipstream, they were in a ring with their armor still up. I was immediately hailed.

I brought Captain Newmar’s face on the screen. “Mr. Slandovich, now can you tell me what is going on?”

I sighed. She didn’t waste any time. “Captain, have you contacted anyone?” I asked.

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m getting tired of these evasions kid,” she said.

I ignored the use of ‘kid’. “Just have you contacted anyone, then I’ll explain.”

“I reported to Starbase Sixty that I had run across an unregistered Kateless-class assault ship, pursued it, then retreated when it stopped to attack. And that I recorded two unregistered slipstream capable mobile suits.”

I nodded. “Very well. I’d like you to send the information I’m sending you to the SS if you can.” I transmitted the files to her ship. “You can read them first. They tell you everything you need to know.”

She stepped over to a console and read from it. “All I need to know?” she asked.

“It’s everything there is, Captain.”

She read for awhile. There was suspicion in her eyes when she looked up. “This is for real? That’s where that ship was from? And your mobile suit?”

“Yes. A number of pilots deserted when we were made aware of the details of the operation. We didn’t know anything else. We thought our lives were normal.”

“So why did you not want to participate in the operation if you thought there was nothing unusual about it?”

“I had enough common knowledge and sense to know that our attacks would kills thousands of innocent people,” I said hotly. “Is that good enough for you?”

She sighed. “Well, as unbelievable as it seems, I’ve seen to much evidence to laugh.” She looked at me and smiled. “I’ve never seen anyone who can fly a suit like that, much less at your age.”

“Thank you Captain. Now, can you send it to the SS?”

She nodded. “Yes. Your right to give it to them. The government wouldn’t do anything about it in time.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Your pretty smart for scout ship captain.” An alarm went off in my cockpit. I glanced at the readings. “The Foundation ship is pursuing you. We’d better get out of here.”

She frowned and glanced off screen. “We’re not detecting anything.”

“My subspace sensors are quite a bit better than yours. They’ll be here in a little over a minute.”

“Roger. Come with us. We should present the information in person.”

“Agreed. I’ll follow you.”

She nodded and cut the communications. Her ships turned and I fallowed them into the tunnel that flared open.

Several hours later, I docked at a SS starbase about eleven light years from Earth. Captain Newmar had radioed ahead and gotten permission to dock there and given them a brief report of what I’d told her. When we came out of slipstream, there were several ships waiting. They’d immediately surrounded us and escorted us to the base. Even I couldn’t have survived if they’d decided to open fire. I was glad I’d made sure my weapons were off-line before I’d gotten here. Once the docking bay door closed I opened my cockpit. Several SS men stood there, weapons pointed at me.

“Step out slowly,” one of them said.

I did as they asked. One of them reached for my sidearm. “Wait,” I said. I slowly pulled out the weapon and touched a few controls. I handed it to him. “It automatically reads the finger prints and DNA of anyone who touches it. It would have given you quite a shock, even with a glove on.”

The senior officer took the gun and examined it. I could tell he was intrigued beyond his suspicion. “I’ve never seen anything like this. What are it’s capabilities?”

“It fires .45 caliber particly-charged bullets with three settings. Stun, kill, and blow-you-into-a-million-pieces,” I said. Several men laughed. “The third setting is designed for inanimate objects as you can imagine. It’s semi-auto, and has an accurate range of about two miles. I have a laser scope that attaches to it and it’s as quiet as a silenced nine-millimeter. It has a forty-round clip, the protection devise I mentioned, and a self-destruct option.”

The man pulled out the magazine and examined the bullets. “Fascinating,” he said.

Another man had gone into the cockpit. “Hey kid,” he called. “What about this rifle?”

I glanced at the senior officer. He nodded. I stepped up into the cockpit. “It’s protected as well.” I entered the code and gestured for him to take it. He tentatively touched it, then pulled it off its moorings. This he handed to the captain as well.

“That one is a fully automatic assault rifle, fires standard twelve-millimeter ammunition, two hundred rounds per magazine,” I told him.

The door on the other side of the room opened and another SS officer walked in. He looked at the man with the weapons, who saluted. “Secure those weapons Captain,” he said sternly.

“Yes Admiral.” He walked away.

The admiral turned to me. “Lieutenant Commander Slandovich, I’m Admiral John Hall. I’m in charge of this base. The information you have interests me greatly.”

I shook his hand. “I thought it might sir.”

He looked and Wraith and whistled. “Son, that is one beautiful piece of work.”

“Thank you Admiral. I designed it myself,” I replied.

He looked at me, disbelieving. “Well, nice job. This way,” he said, indicating the door. He led me to a conference room where I met his senior staff. Greetings done, he sat down at the head of the table.

“Now, Commander,” he said, steeling his fingers. “Normally I would doubt this kind of claim, but Captain Newmar has presented a lot of convincing evidence. So, I need you to tell me exactly what the Foundation is.”

I nodded and took a deep breath. “It was founded by the ruling family of Corus Three, the Barzads. When King James died, his son, Alan took the throne. He, his wife, sister, and two nephews are the ones in charge. His grasp now extends to six systems, which includes three planets and six colonies. He is not a very military-oriented man, so he surrounds himself with generals. Then, lower down are the scientists who design and manufacture the mobile suits. They built sixteen Gundam-class suits including mine. They also have four manufacturing plants and are building four distinct types of mass-produced mobile suits as well as Kateless, Dauntless, and Challenger class warships and several different transport and carrier designs.

“No one lower than the head scientists and instructors knew about King Alan’s plans until recently. When I found out, my instructor, Professor Gerald Leichten, confronted me with his and several other pilot’s plan for escape. That was four days ago. I haven't been able to find any of the other pilots or Professor Leichten.”

Hall frowned. “Why not?”

“Our plan was disrupted. One of my friends was killed by a fellow pilot loyal to the Foundation. The rest of us barely escaped. We weren’t able to form any plan for getting together again.”

“How many pilots escaped?” Hall asked.

“Seven. Leaving eight on their side. Plus they salvaged the Gundam of the pilot who was killed. I don’t think they will be slowed down much. Professor Leichten’s last estimate was that they would be ready to attack two days from now.”

Hall sat back. “Two days,” he mused. “And you were the first one to get through to us. You don’t even know if any of your people are still alive.”

I shook my head.

“All right. First, I need all the tactical information you can give us. How they are going to attack, where, and when. Mobile suit capabilities and fleet strengths. Everything you can think of,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” I replied. “Can I take a few hours to write it in a report?”

He nodded. “That's what I was thinking. When can you have it ready?”

“By nineteen-hundred hours.”

“Good. I’ll see you then. Mr. Sanders, please escort the commander to his quarters,” he said to his chief of security.

“Yes, sir,” the officer replied. “This way Commander.”

I followed the chief. He led me down a long corridor with doors on each side leading to different quarters. He stopped in front of one and let me go in. He showed me the computer functions and various appliances. I was familiar with it.

As he left, I saw two armed SS men standing outside the door. It was clear I still wasn’t completely trusted. Oh well. I lay back and browsed through the computer. It had been disconnected from the Confederation net so I couldn’t tap into anything or infect the system. I had to hand it to them. They hadn’t left anything to chance. I found a report pad and started writing.

Suddenly an alarm blared. “Condition red, all personnel to battle stations,” a voice said over the intercom. Then another, the voice of
Admiral Hall. “Commander Slandovich to the command deck.”

I quickly stood up and went to the door. A pause, and then it opened. The two guards gestured me ahead of them. I walked quickly through the base and onto the command deck. As I stepped through the door, the floor lurched beneath me.

“Two Kateless-class assault ships have broken through the outer defense perimeter. Armor is holding,” someone reported.

Admiral Hall looked at me. “They’re already attacking. They must have traced you here.”

I shook my head. “There’s no way they could have,” I said. “The leaders just must have gotten impatient. They aren’t ready.”

“Then that might give us an advantage.”

I looked at a tactical display. “It may in the long run Admiral, but your base won’t hold up now. I need to go out there.” I moved towards the door, but a guard blocked me.

“No Commander, we can’t let you do that,” Hall said without looking up.

The deck surged under our feet again. Then again, harder.

“Sir, a Challenger-class cruiser has broken through. Armor is at eighty-five percent integrity!”

“Sir, you’re not going to make it. I can stop them. You have nothing to lose,” I insisted.

Hall looked at his tactical officer. “He’s right, sir. They’ve already destroyed eighty-percent of the defense drones and two of our ships. All we did was damage one Dauntless-class enough for it to retreat.” the T.O. reported.

Hall sighed and finally looked at me. “All right Commander. Suit up. Mr. Garrett, prepare his mobile suit for launch.”

I nodded and turned towards the door. “Sir, a mobile suit has just decloaked bearing one-one-five mark zero-one-one. Six thousand kilometers and closing fast,” the T.O. said.

“Let’s see it,” Hall commanded. An image appeared on the view screen. Hall looked at me.

I grinned. “I’m not going to need to go out there after all sir.”

He frowned and looked at the menacing image. “One of yours?”

“Yes sir.”

The mobile suit was called Deathwing. Piloted by Meela Rumsey, a girl who it was never a good idea to get on the wrong side of. The suit was pure black with wide, bat-like wings. As I watched it deployed the double ended scythe and tore into the enemy fleet. Deathwing was much the opposite of Wraith. The fastest of all the suits built, it lacked my armor and firepower, but made up for it two times over in close range combat.

The speakers crackled and a distinct “Yee-ha!” was heard. I looked at Hall. “Permission to open a channel sir.”

“Granted.” He was grinning. “Who is that guy?”

I stepped up to the communications console. “She is battle-loving maniac. She can kick all the forces out there’s butt’s, and on a good day, mine to. Hey, Meela, having fun?”

“Hey, what’s up Calder? Where are you?”

“I’m on the station. What took you so long?”

“Just a little trouble with the bad-guys. I never did ditch that loser Andrea. Man, she is persistent.”

Compared to Meela and Andrea, David and I were best-buddies. The only difference was that Andrea was the least able pilot of the ten. And she was always causing trouble within the group. Especially with Meela. Unfortunately, she was the daughter of a noble and that insured her status as a pilot. Otherwise her training would have been terminated early on. Of coarse, that would probably work to our advantage now.

“Sir, the mobile suit has destroyed two enemy ships,” the T.O. reported. “Six more are damaged. The mobile suit hasn’t taken any damage.” He paused. “Sir, one of the ships is deploying something from it’s bay. It’s a mobile suit, Gundam class.”

Hall looked at me. “Can she handle it?”

“Depends on who it is. I’d better get out there anyway,” I replied.

“Go.”

I ran quickly to the bay where Wraith was. The Gundam had been positioned on a catapult I quickly climbed into the cockpit and closed the armored panel as I strapped myself in. Engine startup; successful. Computer; go. Navigation; go. Weapons online. Slipstream coil on standby.

“Commander, this is base. We’re ready when you are,” said a voice through my cockpit speakers.

“All systems go. Begin count down.” I brought my engines up and prepared to ignite them. A technitian began counting down. “Five, four, three, two, one... Launch!”

The seat slammed into my back as the catapult launched the ten ton Gundam into space. I fired my engine and accelerated further, putting me to one-tenth the speed of light in seconds.

I assessed the situation. Meela was engaged with the Foundation Gundam. I saw it was Knight. Piloted by the mediocre Joey Cooper. An evil-spirited short-tempered suck-up. Meela could handle him. I turned to the rest of the Foundation forces. A new group of defense drones were engaging two of the ships while Terran fighters and bombers attacked several more. Three ships were trading fire with the base itself. I could see scars and pits in the stations armor. Still in flight mode I opened fire with both particle guns, hitting the closest ship where it’s armor had already been damaged. A hole opened in the armor and now my shots hit the exposed hull, leaving pits of sparking wreckage.

The ship began to roll over to protect the exposed place and deployed its dorsal machine gun turret. A round section of armor rose up and the two barrels slid into position, then rotated towards me and fired. I deployed out of flight mode and returned fire with the double beam gatling and left particle gun. Sparks flew across my vision as the bullets hit my armor, barely scratching the paint. My aim was extremely accurate and I disabled the turret with only a couple of hits.

I activated the beam saber on my right hand dug into patch of exposed hull. The ship began to list away. I pulled the saber out and plasma began flowing from the gaping hole.

That ship disabled, I moved to the next. It had seen what happened and began firing its machine guns at me as I approached. I targeted its forward beam cannons and fired several missiles. They impacted in the vulnerable openings leaving the weapons useless. The ship began to back away, but at the same time it deployed multiple mobile suits from its bay.

I grinned. Now that was what I was talking about. The smaller suits zipped towards me and fired their powerful beam cannons. I put my shield in front of me and charged forward with both sabers blazing. I rammed straight into the first suit I encountered, skewering it on my shield then shoved it off into the next suit. Several more surrounded me and tried to pound me at close range. I drove my sabers into two suits in front of me then quickly moved away as they exploded. I hit another suit at the other side of the ring and kept going. Turning around I fired my full fire power into the mass of suits, scattering them and blowing parts everywhere. They tried to regroup but I never held still, hitting suits and backing away quickly to hit another. Soon, all the suits were adrift.

“Reaming Foundation forces retreating,” Meela reported to me. I looked at her as she threw a couple more throwing disks after the retreating Knight. “And don’t come back!” she said with a laugh.

“Meela, you’re insane, you know that?” I said.

She laughed crazily and came over to me, crossing the now separated sides of her scythe in front of her. I met them with my crossed sabers. Our little high-five.

Meela had always been like a little sister to me. She was mostly a pretty serious person, but once you got to know her, she was pretty fun-loving and witty. She didn’t have a temper, but anyone who crossed her would find himself on the floor faster than he could say “Ouch”. She always did this very calmly though. I’d once made the mistake of commenting when she was forced to where a dress once. We’d duked it out and the dress hadn’t hindered her one bit. I was one of the best at hand-to-hand combat, but I hadn’t been able to beat her when she was ticked off. Since then, we’d been buddies.

“Commander, would you and your friend report to the conference room please?” Admiral Hall’s voice came over my speaker.

“Yes, sir,” I said, still elated from the battle.

We docked our mobile suits and stepped out into the docking bay. To my surprise I saw a deep scar on Deathwing’s engine. “How’d that happen?” I asked Meela as her cockpit opened.

“Joey. The little punk put an explosive charge there in order to escape,” she said.

I winced. “Bummer.”

“I got him back though.” She leaned back into the cockpit and pressed a button. Deathwing’s fist suddenly opened, dropping something on the floor with a clang. I burst out laughing. It was the crest that all Gundams had on their heads. She’d torn it off.

“Good one,” I said. “Come on.”

We walked to the conference room. Admiral Hall and the rest of the senior officers were there. Hall motioned for us to sit down.

“The Foundation attacked in three more places besides this one. Two were military bases, one was an antimatter power plant. All three were destroyed. However, we did have a report from some survivors of one of the military bases. A Gundam-class mobile suit showed up just a few minutes after the attack ended. It took out the remaining enemy forces. Here’s a picture of it.” A hologram of a bulky red Gundam appeared on the table. “Who is it?” Hall asked.

Meela answered for me. “It’s Heavy Arms. Trowa Barton pilots it.”

“Where is this?” I asked.

“Sector one-one-three. The pilot is enroute here. They tried to get him to stand down and be boarded.”

Meela and I glanced at each other. “I hope they didn’t try it,” I said.

“Luckily he was smart enough to not try and negotiate with them. He left and we got a message to him saying we had you and her here. He’ll be here in two hours. In the mean time, we need that report.”

“All right,” I said and turned to leave. Meela grabbed my arm.

“Hang on. That's it? Not even a thank you?” she said to Hall.

He glanced at her, surprised. “Oh. I’m sorry Miss Rumsey.”

“Commander Rumsey,” she said coolly.

He smiled. “Sorry Commander. Thank you for your timely appearance.”

She scoffed and turned to the security chief. “You may show me to my quarters now.”

The quiet man turned to Hall, who nodded.

I shook my head and followed the two out. When we came to her quarters, she saw the two guards standing there and looked at me. I shrugged.

“We’re under guard,” I said.

She raised an eyebrow. “Oookay.” She turned to the chief. “You know I could get past them, right?”

I cleared my throat. “She won’t try it though,” I said to the frowning chief. “Right?”

“Right, of coarse,” she said with a smile.

“And besides, the SS trains their men a lot better than the Earth military,” I said.

She shrugged. “Whatever. See ya later Calder.” She stepped through the door. I looked at the chief.

“She won’t try anything Lieutenant. Don’t worry about it.”

“If you say so,” he replied in a deep voice. “Could she get past the guards if she tried?”

I hesitated. “Yeah, she definitely could. But don’t put anymore guards here or you’ll just tempt her even more.”

“Very well.” He nodded to me. “Commander.”

“Lieutenant.”

I continued on to my quarters to write with my report.