The Forgotten

Chapter 8

by Dustin

Dominique watched nervously as a dozen Gemini’ took position around a docking bay near them, moving with jury-rigged chemical thrusters. It appeared that the suits were as blind as they were in the ion field, but they seemed to have power. Suddenly the docking bays opened. She focused on the starlit scene, straining to see. Freighters slid out of the docking bay one by one, moving slowly by chemical thrusters. Six of them. The bay doors closed and freighters turned and moved slowly away from the colony, followed by their escorts.

An idea suddenly occurred to Dominique. She checked her radio. It was totally dead. By the time she could talk to anyone, it would be too late. She released her harness and pulled herself to the cramped space behind her seat. She wrenched open the plating that covered the suit’s backup batteries. They were dead, but the delicate chemicals within should be just as flammable as ever. She went to work.

The bridge of the Peacemillion was quiet now. They’d left the battle when they’d entered the ion field. The battleship had been protected against ion radiation, but it was still operating at reduced power, passing dark mobile suits and fighters that were not so lucky. The ship’s sensors strained, but they couldn’t penetrate the field more than a few hundred meters.

“Distance from colony?” Colonel Une said tersely.

“Ninety kilometers,” the navigator responded. The ship’s computer was using new software designed to navigate by the star field when the normal System Positioning Signal was unavailable. The colony loomed on the view screen and the space around them was alarmingly quiet. The tension on the bridge was thick enough to stop a high powered bullet cold. A soft collision warning alarm would beep occasionally and the pilot would adjust coarse slightly to avoid crushing the unlucky suit or fighter.

The entire bridge crew twitched and the pilot sucked in his breath sharply as there was a distant bang of debris nicking the hull. “You’re doing well, Patterson,” Une said softly to the pilot.

Another alarm beeped from behind the colonel. She turned and looked inquiringly to the console.

“We’re picking up several signals ahead. Ten kilometers. They look like small chemical explosions,” sensors reported.

“They’re moving,” Une said. She turned to her communications officer. “Any luck trying to get a signal out of here?” she queried.

“Maybe. I’m not sure if it will get through or not, but it’s all I can do.”

Une nodded. “Try to plot their coarse, then move us to intercept them at the edge of the field,” she ordered the navigator. “Open a channel to the Gundam pilots.”

Dominique sealed the valve she’d jury-rigged above her batteries and climbed back around her chair. She braced herself and jerked down the manual release of her cockpit door and it slid open, the air pressure within her cockpit rushing past her into the vacuum. Tethering herself to the door, she moved out of the cockpit, pushing herself around to the back of her suit. She paused, sucking in her breath as she looked up at the colossal mass of colony above her. She felt dizzy with its size and the expanse of stars behind it and almost missed the small movement that suddenly crossed her field of view.

It was another Taurus like hers, dark and powerless, drifting slowly about a hundred meters away. As she watched, a small figure emerged from the cockpit. Sunlight glinted off the rank insignia and Dominique realized it was Noin. Dominique waved to catch Noin’s focus. After a second, Noin waved back and pointed in the direction the freighters had gone. Dominique gave a thumbs up, then pointed to the back of her suit and the flare in her hand. Noin held up her own flare and held up three fingers. Dominique understood. She smiled. Her flight commander had come up with the same idea she had. In three minutes, they’d see what they could do to wreak havoc with the freighters.

Calder had rejoined the Preventer team which had mopped up the remaining Forgotten troops. It was obvious what had happened now. His devious mother had betrayed Randell just as they had betrayed Calder’s father. Calder could only guess at what she planned to do with the weapon. He’d long ago decided that the woman was not stable.

They’d been unable to contact the Peacemillion, the Gundams, or either of the shuttles. He only hoped it was because of some kind of interference that their small transmitters were unable to penetrate. Captain Roland and his force had stayed behind to secure the colony and Calder was moving as quickly as he could back for the shuttles. He’d also been unable to get a connection to Wraith’s computer, something he needed to accomplish in order to pursue the freighters. It was possible they could slip by without the Preventers ever seeing them.

He reached the shuttle and went straight to the cockpit. “What’s our status?” he asked the pilot.

“Funny you should ask,” the young man said. “The colony’s generating some kind of radiation field. It’s not dangerous, but sensors and communications are dead. I’ve been able to keep some battery power online and we can maneuver a bit on chemical thrusters.”

Calder studied the stars outside the view port, trying to decide whether they should move after the freighters or try and contact Colonel Une. He frowned as his eyes caught a small movement not far away. He strained his enhanced vision and could just make out a dark mobile suit against the backdrop of stars and a small figure hovering near the back of it.

“Sir?” the pilot asked. “What is it?”

Calder started to reply when a tiny light suddenly flared. The small figure had apparently lit a flare and was now moving back into the suit’s cockpit. A second light flared up and Calder saw another Taurus whose pilot was mimicking the first.

The lights caught the pilot’s eye. “What is that?” he asked.

“Flares. But if they want to be rescued, they’re not getting…”

There was a sudden, blinding flash and Calder and the pilot shielded their eyes. When they looked again, the suits were both moving slowly away from them, each riding a thin jet of ignited plasma.

“I’ll be…” Calder said softly. “They’re using plasma from their batteries.” He grinned. “They must be moving after the freighters. Follow them.”

“Yes sir,” the pilot replied enthusiastically, turning to the task.

Calder moved to the dead radio circuitry. If he could just use the shuttle’s higher-powered equipment to boost his chip’s signal and reach Wraith… a minute later, his felt his signal punch through the radiation and breathed a sigh of relief as he found his Gundam undamaged and ready. He directed it to intercept the shuttle.

He stood and looked over the pilot’s shoulder. “Once I’ve joined up with my Gundam, find Peacemillion and inform Colonel Une of the situation.”

“Aye, sir.” He paused. “Joined up with your Gundam, sir?”

Calder nodded. “Just keep flying straight until then.”

Calder moved back into the hold and found an EV suit. He remembered that Heero and performed a similar maneuver before. Hopefully he could manage…

Arys, Meela, Wufei and Heero fought close together, back to back. The three Zero System pilots were moving in perfect sync with each other and adjusting to fit Wufei’s tactics. Arys had lost one saber and drained her Shiv rifle and Archangel had taken damage to one wing. She knocked the saber out of one Gemini’s hand, slammed her Gundam’s other hand forward and activated its beam emitter. The short, powerful beam slammed against the suit, cracking the gundanium chest armor. A second hit penetrated the suit and Arys let it drop away.

Meela had split her scythe in half and had a weapon in each hand, the glowing green energy forming a blurred figure eight as she weaved them in and out, her attacks leaving suits disabled and burning in just seconds. But her lightly armored suit had taken the most damage and could feel her reactions becoming sluggish.

Several Preventer wings and the other Gundams had joined them, trying to break open a path for them to get clear, but without luck so far. The Forgotten forces were determined to take as many Gundams with them as they could. Trowa watched a mobile doll explode from a Raptor’s missiles, then the Raptor streak past, gatlings blazing. Seconds later it was spun out of control as missile exploded near it. It crashed into the shields of another mobile doll, taking them out. Seizing the opportunity, Trowa put thirty rounds into the mobile doll, then pulled his gatlings back in close to Heavy-Arms’ torso and spun around, his knife severing the handle of a Gemini’s beam saber.

Trowa’s speakers suddenly buzzed, a garbled signal coming through. He could barely distinguish Colonel Une’s voice. “The weapon is moving…” A hiss of static. “…our position. Heading zero one three, two eight zero. Intercept and destroy… can… Do you read?”

Quatre’s voice came over the Comm. “Colonel, we’re all having difficulty maneuvering. It’s possible we may not be able to intercept,” he said as Trowa watched him duel with two Geminis.

There was no reply from the colonel. Quatre’s response likely hadn’t made it through the interference.

Dominique struggled to control the course of her Taurus as it slowly accelerated after the freighters. Tiny hydraulic movements allowed her to spin the suit on all three axis’, letting the small plasma stream emanating from behind push her towards the small puffs of gas from the freighter’s thrusters. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if she was going to get enough speed, but after awhile, she could tell she was getting closer. Her crude propulsion would last only another minute or so and she had to be directly on coarse when the plasma was exhausted. Focusing hard on her target, she gently steadied the suit’s jerky coarse corrections until she was sure she was going to intercept the freighters. She took her hands off the sticks just the plasma stream sputtered out and she felt the acceleration cease. She could see Noin’s suit just ahead of her, also right on target. They had only a small amount of fuel in their maneuvering packs and if the Taurus’ didn’t pass close enough to let them get a hold on one of the freighters, they’d have just half an hour to be found before they ran out of air. And with the ion field operating, being found wasn’t likely.

She patted the side arm under her flight suit and watched as the freighters drew slowly closer, hoping Noin had a plan. At the right moment, she opened her cockpit, took a deep breath and threw herself into space.

“Velocity matched,” the pilot said. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Calder apprehensively gauged the distance through the open bay doors between the shuttle and the flat wings of his Gundam, flying parallel to them. He took a deep breath and launched himself into the void. Though he knew they were moving at several hundred kilometers per hour in a wide orbit of the colony, it looked as though the Gundam was stationary against the backdrop of stars.

This is going to be easier than I thought, he found himself thinking as he gently approached Wraith. Uh oh, came the immediately following thought as he realized the distance had made his speed misleading and he was approaching much too fast. He fired his maneuvering thrusters in reverse seconds before he hit the gundanium surface. He skidded and rolled several times along the wings before catching himself on a ridge. Reorienting himself, he climbed to the cockpit and pulled himself in. The hatch closed and he strapped himself securely in, brought the cockpit controls online and punched the engines.

“As soon as we’re clear of the field, organize our remaining forces to cover our retreat,” Alexia ordered. “All the Preventer forces must be hemmed in so they’ll never be able to track the freighters, even if they do survive.”

“Acknowledged,” Brooke replied. “Our cloaks are ready to engage the instant we leave the field.”

A moment later, the lights brightened as all of the freighters’ systems came back online. She saw the freighter ahead of them ripple out of sight. She anxiously watched her display as it slowly resolved to give them a picture of the battle. She barely heard Brooke giving orders to their remaining forces. Slowly she allowed herself to relax. The Preventers were still surrounded and outnumbered. She could see the Gundams together in a tight group. Her eyes narrowed. “Where is Calder’s Gundam?” she snapped.

Brooke looked up in surprise, then quickly studied the screens. “I don’t see any sign of it. Or the battleship. They must have been destroyed.”

She shot a glare at him. “Don’t be stupid. It’s more likely that they’re in that ion field. If they detected us moving, if that assault team got word out…” She left the thought unfinished, unfastened her seatbelt and pulled herself back into the bay area of the freighter.

Dominique hung on for dear life to the protrusion on the freighter’s hull as its main engines kicked in, rocketing them forward and nearly rattling the teeth from her skull. A few long seconds later, the acceleration ceased and Dominique crawled over to where she’d seen Noin land. A moment later her commander met her and they touched helmets together.

“I think we’ve left the ion field, but we shouldn’t use communications in case they detect them,” Noin said.

Dominique nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Noin smiled wryly through the glass of her helmet. “So did you have a plan?”

Dominique laughed. “I was hoping you did, sir,” she said.

“Not exactly,” Noin said, but was looking around thoughtfully. “I do know how to get into these kinds of freighters though. We can get into a cargo bay and figure out what to do from there.”

Dominique nodded and followed Noin around to the side of the freighter. They found a small access port and Noin opened a panel there and began fiddling with wires. Struggling with the thick gloves, she motioned Dominique to help her. They finally managed to close the circuit and the access panel slid open. Noin removed her maneuvering pack and slid headfirst into the narrow space, the spacesuit almost to bulky to fit. Dominique followed, closing the hatch behind her. A few meters in they moved through another hatch and dropped to an open catwalk. Looking down into the cargo bay they saw a dozen Geminis packed tightly together.

Noin removed her helmet and grinned. “Just what we needed.”

Dominique crouched beside her and removed her own helmet. “How do we open the bay doors?”

“I should be able to override them from inside one of the suits,” Noin said. “And getting into them shouldn’t be a problem.”

After verifying that the bay was empty, they drifted down to the next catwalk that ran along at the cockpit level of the suits. Noin overrode the access panel on two of the suits and nodded to Dominique. “Good luck.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said and climbed in.

The cockpit was similar to the Taurus’ and she breathed a sigh of relief. If she’d been unable to fly the suit, she’d be going nowhere fast. She strapped herself in as her speakers clicked on.

“Can you here me,” Noin’s voice said softly.

Dominique keyed her radio on. “Affirmative,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll let you know as soon as I can open the bay doors. Don’t power up before then or they’ll…”

She was cut off as Dominique’s suit suddenly came alive around her. She looked nervously at the blinking lights. She didn’t think she’d touched anything. Noin’s voice returned with a curse.

“These are dolls,” she said. “We have to override the computer control.”

Dominique felt a wave of panic. “I don’t know how to do that,” she said anxiously.

“Just stay calm and follow my instructions,” Noin said. There was clank as the suit’s hydraulic system came online. An alarm klaxon went off and the bay doors suddenly hissed opened.

Stay calm, yeah right, Dominique thought as she released her harness and moved the computer chips behind the seat, listening to Noin’s rapid instructions.

She slid a chip from its slot and moved to place it in an empty slot when suddenly the suit lurched forward. She dropped the chip and it slid down a gap between the seat and the computer banks. She took off her glove and strained the reach it, but in vain.

“Noin, I dropped the chip,” she said helplessly. “I can’t get to it.”

“Okay, there’s another way,” Noin answered. Dominique wondered how she could stay so calm. Looking up at her screens, she could see they were in space now. The sensor display showed over two dozen suits around them, but she couldn’t see them on her displays. Cloaked, she realized.

Noin continued. “You have to access the computer manually. How’s your G-script coding?”

“It’s okay,” Dominique answered. She moved back to the seat and access the computer keyboard and began typing rapidly, following Noin’s instructions, fighting the computer for control.

She paused as an image suddenly loomed up on her screen. “Oh no,” she whispered as the invisible mobile doll force closed in on the Peacemillion.

“Colonel, we’re approaching the edge of the field. Still no sign of the freighters, but if they stayed on coarse, they should be only a few hundred meters ahead of us.”

Une nodded. “Weapon’s status?”

“The plasma cannons will take a few minutes to reheat after we get full power back, but missile launchers are fully operational.”

“Prepare a full spread of light missiles and detonate them around the freighters expected position,” she ordered. “Fire on my mark.”

“Ready.”

A moment later the lights brightened and the officer at sensors piped up, “Sensor resolution clearing. Still no sign of the freighters.”

Une held her breath. If this didn’t work, they were finished. “Fire.”

The bridge shuddered as the battleship’s six forward launchers rapidly fired off thirty six of the Peacemillion’s compliment. Everyone held their breath as they watched the missiles streak into the void, the smoke trails distorting the stars. Five seconds later they detonated in a fireball kilometers in diameter, forcing the crew to shield their eyes. As it faded, Une searched the stars for a sign that they’d succeeded. Straining her eyes till they watered, she could see nothing. She turned towards the sensor station where the lieutenant was furrowing his brow with concentration.

There was another second of silence, then Une saw his eyes light up.

“I think I might have something,” he said softly. A second later, he grinned and looked up. “Yes, I can see them,” he said excitedly. “Six distinct signatures. Their cloaks are fluctuating!”

“Sensor data on the cloaks?” Une said tersely, not daring to let herself celebrate.

“Coming in now.”

The Peacemillion’s sophisticated sensor package absorbed every tiny detail coming from the freighters as their cloaks tried to stabilize.

“We’ve got it,” the officer said a few seconds later. “They can’t hide anymore.”

“Good. Broadcast those frequencies to the Gundams.” She turned to tactical. “Get me my plasma cannons back and destroy those freighters.”

“Aye, Colonel. Just another minute. Launchers are cycling, almost ready to…” The tactical officer’s sentence was never finished as the console exploded in his face.

Une was thrown off her feet as the bridge seemed to shatter around her. Through the smoke and fire she saw a mobile suit on the view screen gracefully arch towards them, beam rifle glowing. Another powerful surge and her vision exploded with stars. She heard something crack and had just enough time to feel a hot wetness at her temple before everything went black.

Noin’s Gemini fell behind as she gained control over it. She bit her lip as the mobile doll force attacked the Peacemillion. There was nothing she could do, for them, or for the young pilot that was still helpless in the doll. There was one thing she could do though. Still cloaked, she moved her Gemini back to the freighters.