The Forgotten

Chapter 5

by Dustin

An alarm sounded through the complex, signaling the inhabitants to get to their battle stations. Eighteen year-old Dominique LeShey glanced in mild irritation at the swirling red light, but quickly zipped up her flight suit and headed to the hanger. This had better not be another drill. She was getting tired of the increased rate of training the Preventer pilots had been undergoing.

A voice sounded over the P.A. system. “Enemy forces detected. All personnel to battle stations. This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill.”

That answers that question, she thought as jogged through the corridors of the base. Was the enemy the Forgotten? Or maybe just some small guerilla group? As she approached the hanger, she ran into several more pilots, all grim faced. As they went through the doors, they were assaulted with noise and flashing lights as people frantically prepared to launch the fighters, bombers, and mobile suits parked along the sides of the huge bay.

Dominique grabbed her helmet out of its locker and quickly pulled it over her head. The design on the helmet was a green and white star-burst and it bore her name across the front. She hurried on to her souped-up white Taurus, which bore the mark of the Preventers proudly. She smiled up at it as she grabbed the tow line that dragged her up to the cockpit. This was what she was a pilot for, why she’d signed up a year ago, as soon as she was old enough. For the mobile suit, the personalized helmet, for the whole atmosphere. She’d risen rapidly through the ranks and was the youngest full pilot on the colony.

She punched a button and suit came to life around her. She reveled in the power she felt vibrating beneath her seat and strapped herself in. She signaled the tower she was ready to go and a moment later the voice of the squadron commander came over her speakers.

“All right, listen up. First thing you should be aware of is that we’re severely outnumbered. We estimate thirty mobile suit carriers and four command ships. Taurus Wing’s role, therefore, is going to be purely defensive. We’re expecting re-enforcements, so we need to protect the colony until they arrive. You’ll have further updates once we have them.”

Dominique frowned a little. She definitely hadn’t expected to be outnumbered. These terrorists were serious. Her confidence wasn’t slackened though. She was sure they could handle whatever was thrown at them.

She felt the locks on her suit release and she gently eased the machine into position on the runway and initiated the change to flight mode. She felt herself get lower to the ground as the suit shifted slowly around her and a slight vibration began as the anti-gravity engines engaged to keep the suit off the ground. She engaged the auto launch sequence and the Taurus’ computer linked with the base’s to receive the countdown. Dominique felt the engines build power, preparing to throw the Taurus into space. She grinned with delight and braced herself. The Taurus ahead of her suddenly ignited its engines and rushed down the runway. Then her engines fired, and she was slammed into her seat at five G’s. This was it! A real battle! She had dreamed of it, of becoming a hero. She knew she had the skill to. She only had to prove herself. Her suit followed formation and slowly decelerated. She activated her targeting computer and found the mobile suit carriers.

Defensive only, she reminded herself. She glanced at the other Taurus’ in flight mode around her, forming a barrier between the colony and the attacking force. More fighters and suits were standing by to defend in another direction in case the enemy attacked there. Dominique looked at one of the fighters holding station next to her. It was a new Raptor-class space fighter, commissioned by the Preventers to compliment its mobile suits. The agile craft could avoid most enemy fire and deliver a lot of punishment.

Suddenly her computer beeped a warning at her. She looked at the readouts and saw a terrifying site. The carriers were deploying their compliments of Virgos, and the mobile dolls were racing towards them. She just grinning and braced herself.

“Okay folks, initiate maneuver Delta Seven on my mark,” the Taurus Wing’s flight leader, Commander Tait said over the radio. Then the voice of the Raptor Wing flight leader.

“Raptor Wing standing by to engage the leftovers.”

“Roger that,” Tait replied. The Virgos rapidly closed the distance between themselves and the Preventer suits. “Three... two... one... mark!”

Dominique threw her suit to the side just as the first blast of enemy fire blew past. In perfect concert, the Taurus’ fired a spread of ion energy, which shorted out the Virgos’ shields. Dominique singled out a suit and swooped in, firing her powerful beam cannon with perfect accuracy. The mobile doll exploded. She turned around and watched missiles fly from the stubby wings of the Raptors, hitting the remaining Virgos.

“First enemy wave has been neutralized,” Tait reported. “Prepare to initiate maneuver Delta Five.”

Dominique gracefully maneuvered her suit back into position and looked at the next wave of enemy mobile dolls. More Virgos. They approached without hesitation, not caring that the first wave had just been wiped out. Dominique readied another blast of ion energy.

“Three... two... one... mark!”

Dominique fired her ion energy and dodged upwards as enemy fire started to track her. The Raptors swooped in from behind and made short work of the dolls with their Vulcan cannons. Dominique smiled and maneuvered through the debris field back into position. The voice of her friend, Darren Holm came over her Comm.

“All right, we kicked butt!”

“Hey, pipe down Darren,” Dominique said sternly, but grinned at his enthusiasm. The older pilot’s headstrong, hotshot attitude amused the other pilots, but they all respected him, for he could back up all of his talk with his flying skills.

“All right, we’re not through yet people. More suits have just been deployed. They’re armored with gundanium alloy. Raptor squadron will try and keep them busy while Taurus squadron makes sure they don’t slip anything past us,” Tait said.

Dominique sighed. She’d hoped she could engage the suits at close range. No more tricks, just combat. But not yet. Her suit moved off, following its flight orders. The Raptors stood on station, preparing to engage the enemy suits.

“We’ve just received confirmation on the force attacking New Siberia. Definitely the Forgotten. The Preventer base has estimated thirty carriers and four command ships. They’ve managed to hold back the first few waves of Virgos, but we’ve confirmed that they have the gundanium armored suits.”

“Acknowledged,” Heero replied to Colonel Une. He, Calder, and Wufei were headed to the colony along with an elite squadron of Taurus’.

Calder glanced at the readings from his engines. They were already running a one-hundred and ten percent, the Taurus’ at one-hundred and twenty to keep up. The temperature was pushing into the yellow zone. He toggled his Comm. “Noin, how’s your temperature looking?”

“Pushing six-thousand. We’ll be okay for a few minutes more,” Noin responded from the lead Taurus.

“You should back down now to be safe. We don’t want you overheating in the middle of the fight.”

There was a pause and Calder could tell she was debating the logic of his statement with being left behind.

“Agreed. Backing down to normal levels,” she finally resigned and the Taurus’ fell behind the faster Gundams.

As they grew closer, Calder could see the flashes of light and bright explosions of the battle. His computer began to pick out and sort various targets. Heero’s voice came over the comm.

“We have clearance to take out the enemy forces by whatever means necessary. Trying to spare pilots would work too much to our disadvantage. Calder, try and take out the Forgotten’s carriers while Wufei and I back up the defense perimeter.”

“Roger,” Calder replied. He focused on the group of carriers and deployed out of flight mode, arming his missile launchers. He slowed as he set up a firing sequence, targeting one missile to each carrier’s mobile suit bay. He initiated the program and thirty missiles flew from Wraith’s launchers. Ejecting the spent missile cases to increase his mobility, he tracked their progress and watched as they detonated, effectively disabling the carriers. He accelerated to full, plowing into a group of the gundanium armored suits, breaking up the formation.

He kept himself moving as fast as he could to avoid enemy fire and moved through the troops up to Heero and Wufei.

“Having fun yet?” he asked.

Neither replied. Calder sighed. He wished Duo were there.

Dominique dodged another blast and returned fire with her beam rifle. The enemy suit continued to advance, blocking her shots with his shield. Dominique was getting frustrated.

“Okay, fine. Let’s see how good you really are,” she muttered. She pulled out her beam saber and charged him. He blocked and she quickly withdrew and struck again, this time scoring a hit. She grinned fiercely. Her suit was still faster. She jetted upwards, dodging his slash and spun her suit around, ending up behind him. She stabbed her saber into his engines and backed off as they exploded. Yes! Her first close combat kill.

She turned her suit looking for more. Just as a beam saber slashed through her arm. She reacted on instinct, blocking his second slash with her saber, still in the undamaged arm. She quickly withdrew, her heart beating rapidly. Her previous gusto was gone, replaced with a foreign emotion. Fear. She’d nearly been killed. It simply hadn’t truly registered before that that might happen.

She gritted her teeth. The Forgotten suit wasn’t through with her. She parried his saber blows rapidly, moving backwards as she went. She thrust fast, stabbing into the suit’s chest. The saber penetrated only a few centimeters into the gundanium, but it pushed the suit backwards. She pushed her throttle up and rammed the suit into another, entangling them, then slashed until her saber disabled both suits. She quickly got her bearings and moved her suit back into position. Darren Holm brought his suit up next to her. His voice came gasping over the comm.

“Dominique, are you okay?”

“Yeah. I just lost my beam cannon.” She noticed the deep line drawn down the side of his Taurus and the smoke pouring from one engine. “You?” she asked.

“Fine. Just not as fast.” He laughed slightly. “This is a little different than we talked about, huh?”

“Yeah, that’s for sure,” she replied.

They moved off again to intercept a pair of suits heading for them. They jinked their suits around, avoiding the Geminis’ machine guns. They struck at the same time, driving the larger suits apart. She gasped in her helmet, her adrenaline rush running dry as she grappled with the suit, finally disabling it. She turned to look at Darren. He was falling backwards as he fought with the Gemini. She started to move to his aid, when suddenly a single powerful blast shot straight through Darren’s suit, cleaving it in half.

“Darren!” Dominique screamed. She listened for any sign he might still be alive, but there was silence. His suit exploded, spraying shrapnel that pinged off her armor. With a primal howl of rage, Dominique threw herself into the suit he’d been fighting. It turned towards her, but to late. She slashed through the handle of its beam saber, then pushed her saber into the suit until it penetrated the armor, exploding its reactor. She intuitively dodged a blast of energy, then charged for another suit.

Alexia Slandovich watched the battle from her Taurus. She was well behind the carriers her son had disabled, surrounded by six Virgo mobile dolls. She hailed Commander Trent who was leading the battle from his Gemini. When his face finally appeared on the screen, it was flushed and angry.

“What is it?” he said, less than courteous.

“Commander, how is the battle proceeding?”

He growled low in his throat. “Not as well as we hoped. The Preventers have twice as many suits as we thought as well as some new type of space fighter. Our Geminis are superior at range, but the Preventer pilots are pressing close and they’re faster close in.” And better, he thought to himself.

Alexia smiled. “Very well. How about a positive report?”

“We should wipe out their forces in the next ten minutes. We’ve already disabled the colony’s military bays.”

“And the Gundams?”

“They won’t be able to stop our taking the colony. If you could distract them once we destroy the main force, it would be very helpful,” Trent said.

“No problem Commander. Just tell me where you want me.”

He nodded and cut the connection.

Calder lashed out with his energy whip, keeping one Gemini at bay while he harassed another with the beam gatlings on the left arm. He quickly ran a status report through his head. The Preventer force was wearing thin and the Forgotten had plenty of suits left to take the colony. He, Heero, and Wufei wouldn’t be able to stop all of them. Heero must have been thinking the same thing.

“The colony is ready to evacuate,” he said. “We’ll take the remaining forces and protect the evac ships.”

“Acknowledged,” Calder replied, finished off two more suits, then moved to a docking bay. Around him the Preventer suits rearranged themselves, ready to protect the colony from intrusion until the ships were away.

Alexia watched the movements from afar. Her console beeped as Trent hailed. She brought his face up on her screen. “They’re going to evacuate the colony. We’ll try and prevent the ships from escaping while you engage the Gundams.”

“Very well,” she replied. She toggled a switch and braced herself as a yellow mist suddenly shrouded her perception. Then she could see everything clearly. She focused in on the large green mobile suit and jetted forward, the Virgos moving in perfect sync with her.

Calder followed the movements of the enemy suits closely as they tried to clear the docking bays for boarding. The Preventer pilots, supplemented by Noin’s wing, fought back bravely, holding them off. For now. He did a quick systems check. About half of his physical ammunition had been depleted as well as all but six of his missiles. He still had seventy-five percent full fuel tanks, so there shouldn’t be any problems for the immediate future. He was about to move to another area when an alarm sounded. He quickly locked onto and tracked a group of suits moving towards them.

“Guys, we have company. Six Virgos and one Taurus. I think the Taurus is manned.”

Heero glanced at his screen. Sure enough. An icy feeling developed in his gut. He remembered the last time he’d seen this type of formation. His suspicion was confirmed a moment later as the suits attacked. Two Virgos went after him, shields activated. He shot backwards and avoided their fire, trying to get a bearing on the lone Taurus.

“Wufei, Calder, I think the Taurus pilot is using the Zero system to control the dolls,” he said.

“I thought so as well,” Wufei responded, battling with two other Virgos.

Calder was also fighting two dolls. For now, the Taurus was hanging back, gauging the pilots’ actions. Heero aimed his buster rifle and fired on the Taurus. It moved swiftly out of the way, almost before he fired. Yes, it was definitely the Zero system. The Taurus drew two beam sabers and moved after Calder.

Calder reacted quickly, taking both sabers on his shield and managing to disable one of the Virgos with his energy whip. He pushed the Taurus away and moved backwards, firing his head and shoulder machine guns. The Taurus out of his line of fire before the bullets had made it half way there. Wraith moved forward with both sabers lit. The Taurus met them, and moved easily backwards before flying upwards away from Wraith’s reach.

“Not bad Calder. But not good enough.”

The voice send a jolt through Calder’s stomach and he barely managed to block one saber and the other dug into his arm plating. Alexia continued as her Taurus circled Calder. “How do you like this new rendition of the Zero system? A slight improvement over the one designed by Zechs Merquise, but only very slight. He did very well incorporating the system into mobile doll control.”

Calder dodged a blast and returned fire with his plasma guns. “How are you alive Alexia?” he said.

She laughed. “Don’t ask stupid questions Calder. I’m alive because I haven’t died.”

Calder growled and drove forward, trying to slide his sabers through her parries. “You were supposedly killed in a lab accident. Along with Nicholi and Eric Randell.”

“Your father died in that accident. Randell and I did not.”

He exchanged a fury of slashes with his mother, than suddenly backed off and destroyed the other unsuspecting doll. “You killed him and made it look like an accident,” he said.

“Correct. When Eric told me about the Transgenetic Particle beam, I knew your father had planned to leave me out of it. I was somewhat hurt,” she said with a smirk.

“Calder, we have to protect the evacuation ships,” Heero urged. He and Wufei had destroyed the dolls attacking them and came up on either side of Calder.

Alexia sighed. She’d done what she could. She knew there was no way she could take on all three Gundams without dolls for support. “I’ll talk to you later Calder,” she said and withdrew.

Dominique watched as the Gundams’ battle ended and the lone Taurus retreated. She wondered what that was all about.

They’d been able to hold off the Foundation’s attempts to stop the evacuation ships. Now the Gundams joined them, forming an intimidating force. The Forgotten forces stayed at the colony as the dozen evacuation ships moved away. Dominique breathed a sigh of relief. As far as she was concerned, her previous beliefs were an illusion. She’d just seen some of her best friends killed, and almost been killed herself. There was no glory in that.

Commander Tait’s voice came through her helmet. “LeShey, you all right?”

She shook her head to herself, knowing Tait wouldn’t see. “Yes Commander.”

“That’s good. You did well.”

“Thank you,” she intoned, but she didn’t feel anything.

As the Preventer forces withdrew, a hole in space watched. Not discernable to any sensors, it had watched the battle unobserved. The sophisticated energy field that hid it was only detectable at close range by the naked eye, and then only as a slight ripple against the backdrop of space. It hid a dark secret, one known only to a few people. One of them was out there now. But even he didn’t know the extent of it.

The pilot of the mobile suit felt no emotion as she regarded her position. She’d considered joining the battle against the Forgotten, but decided it was to soon. More observation was required.

She hadn’t been with specific direction for some time, but she was never without a purpose in mind. The Zero system didn’t let her be idle. Yes, she’d wait, then make herself known to the last person she could turn to. Once her friend and mentor, now only a possible asset to her existence. Calder Slandovich.