Chapter 1, Part 2 (2/4)

 

The deep sea, where no light penetrates into, is a world of darkness.

There, light only serves at short distance. One can only rely on sound.

The strange creatures living in the oceanic trench at the JAP point hear the approaching engine noise with their whole body and go into hiding.

Soon a search light approaches, which moves around as if feeling its way through the darkness in which the marine snow dances.

In the deep sea, covered by total darkness, it's not possible to see the light source well enough to recognize its whole form. If seen in a more shallow depth, a form consisting of two cylindrical forms besides each other would have been visible. It's an OZ carrier for underwater mobile suits. On its upper side a heliport is set up, enabling the carrier to be supplied with goods on the water. About nine hours ago, Zechs had entered the carrier here because of the search for the unregistered mobile suit he sunk into the sea.

The Alliance Navy has already started the search, but there's no message so far that is has been found. Because only Zechs can grasp the position of the mobile suit with precision, there's no reason why the Alliance should find it easily any time soon. Additionally, if you think of the possibility that the ocean currents have carried it away, the search area has to become quite large. Zechs is also prepared for this.

They have been diving for three hours. As Zechs slowly starts thinking that, even if something shows up, it can't be anything of interest, the radar controller raises his voice.

"There's a metal reaction 550 meters to starbord."

Zechs issues instructions immediately.

"Okay, send out the Cancer and Pisces."

At the tip of the carrier, two dome-formed hatches are protruding. From the interior, three mobile suits make a sortie into the water. True to its name, the Cancer has the form of a glaring red crab. Then there are two Pisces, which have two propulsion systems using the arms to the left and right side of the hull at the same time.

At the same time as the three machines come out, there's a reaction, this time in the sonar.

"Lieutenant Zechs, the mobile suits of the Navy are coming this way."

The "ping" of the sonar resounds in the warship. On the monitor the mobile suits, which are advancing from the fleet on the surface of the sea in dive modus, are indicated as points. They are slowly going deeper and are approaching this warship.

"Have they noticed our movements?" A smile swims on Zechs' lips.

Zechs has followed Treize's words and, in order to avoid any unnecessary commotion, has asked the commander of the Alliance fleet on the sea to enable them to repair a defect in the engines. He has even put up a spectacle of carefully switching off the machines one after the other as if they were indeed defect. It seems it was all for nothing.

Aren't they stupid enough to fall for this bluff? The only positive thing is that they gained some time.

When Zechs murmurs this in his mind, a heavy shock resounds through the walls of the warship.

"Was that the sound of an explosion?"

The sonar confirms.

"The mobile suits which are at the same depth as us are being destroyed one after the other."

"Stop all movements! The situation can't be right."

"What about Pisces and Cancer?"

"I don't care. Leave them ahead."

After receiving the messages, Zechs gives orders continuously. He wants to grasp the situation at least a bit and looks at the monitors.

"The fleet has started attacking with sea mines. They are coming this way." This time it's a report from the sonar.

"Damned incompetent commander!" Zechs says this as if he's sighing.

Immediately thereafter, the carrier is assaulted by heavy shaking. The shock of an explosion hits the walls of the warship and inside a loud bang resounds. With things as they are, nobody knows whether the own mobile suits are attacked. With the theory that anything suspicious is an enemy, even Zechs' warship is attacked. "Incompetent" is exactly the right word.

No, maybe OZ is the enemy for the senior officers in the Alliance.

Zechs takes back his own word, "incompetent", which was laced with irony.

"It's really loud, but what is going on?"

The message comes from the soldier in the Cancer. If "it's loud" is said on the surface of the sea, it means that the situation is such that obstacles are swarming in the vicinity. The vicinity is however not clearly visible.

"Watch out. It seems there are enemies nearby."

With Zechs' words, the soldier's face on the screen pales.

"That Gundam can't be still alive, can he!?"

"Now that would be.... But stay on your guard!"

Even while denying this possibility, Zechs issues his orders to the Cancer soldier in a stern voice, then cuts the connection.

Even if that pilot is still alive, there's no reason why he should have stayed in this place. If he's still alive, he should have fled. So, who is this enemy?

In that moment, the sea mine attack suddenly stops.

"The situation with the fleet on the surface is strange. It seems it has been destroyed completely."

Zechs looks at the sonar monitor and nods. Nothing is around at depth zero. Instead, many big objects sinking down are displayed.

"That's bad. We have to hurry."

As Zechs murmurs this, a message from the Cancer comes in.

"We have found the Leo. But we can't find the Gundam."

If Zechs' Leo is there, the Gundam must be nearby. The search troop also dives counting on this.

"How can it be? There's no other metal reaction."

"Raise the sensitiveness. If it's made of Gundanium, the metal reaction must be weak."

Shortly after this order from Zechs, a message from Pisces arrives.

"It's here! It seems it got carried away about 300 meters by the ocean currents. I could verify with naked eyes."

"So, you have found it?"

"Yes, but it's astonishing. It's completely undamaged."

Through the camera of the Pisces, the white mobile suit is displayed before Zechs, lying on the belly. But he can find no sign that it was hit by the Leo's beam rifle and the Aries' shots. Besides, even if it is before his eyes, the metal reaction is so minor it could be ignored.

"Our enemy has manufactured a terrible monster for us. But if we collect this one, we can become monsters too" murmurs Zechs with a voice that can't hide his astonishment. Then he sends a message to the mobile suit troop.

"Watch out for the ocean currents. We remain on stand-by at this depth."

"So, we fasten wire ropes and lift it floating to the surface of the ocean."

"Agreed. The enemy is coming. Hurry on with the work."

After relaying his order, Zechs verifies the situation with the radar controller.

"There's no reaction in the radar."

Moments seem to stretch for hours.

Just after Zechs has thought this, the sonar calls out. "There's a reaction on the radar! Something is approaching very quickly!"

"What!!??"

Immediately thereafter, the monitor displaying the picture from the Pisces goes white. Something has emitted a flash light in the ocean.

"Aaahh!"

"What *is* that?"

The pilots call out in confusion.

"It's an enemy attack!"

Then the shock of the explosion is transferred to the carrier. It becomes clear that something is attacking the mobile suit troop.

The picture captured by the camera of the Cancer is displayed on the monitor for only a few seconds.

"Is that... a Gundam??" murmurs Zechs involuntarily.

On the monitor is a type of mobile suit which is very clearly different. Black and white have been made the dominant colours, but it's the same type as the one Zechs has shot down. The right hand is holding a weapon emitting a sickle-like energy beam. Then, the left arm...

Suddenly the shield like device which the left arm is equipped with emits a beam. As soon as this happens, the shield shoots off towards the monitor.

Immediately thereafter, the monitor blacks out and only the sound continues running.

The radio operator shouts into the mike, demanding an answer. But only silence comes back.

"Lieutenant Zechs, there's no reaction from either Cancer or Pisces."

"Ah so... since we don't have any mobile suits anymore, it's more than dangerous."

Nodding at the message of the radio operator, Zechs orders to turn around. He presses his lips firmly together.

"Whoever has seen a Gundam only once, does not return from the battle field alive... This had better not be a bad omen."

How does Zechs include himself in this bitterly said statement? It's not clear from his tone.

 

**********

 

"Thanks to the distraction of the Alliance and OZ, this job has become easy!"

The murmuring comes from the interior of the narrow cockpit.

It's immediately after the execution of the Cancer and the Pisces. Before this, he has been sinking a cruiser and a carrier of the Alliance on the surface of the sea. Stating that this was just simple work is a boy who still has some innocence left - it's Duo Maxwell, the boy who was inside the capsule that fell into the open sea at Guam.

He was on the way, planning to contacting Howard, the old captain of the salvage ship, when he listened in on an OZ message and came here in all haste.

"Sooo.. let's have a look at that unregistered mobile suit that OZ was aiming at."

Duo's voice is full of expectation and he presses down slightly the pedals. The mobile suits advances two steps and at its feet the figure of another mobile suit appears. Duo handles the searchlight in the head part and ascertains the figure.

"What's that?! It's exactly the same as my Deathscythe!" says Duo's astonished voice.

The mobile suit that appeared in the darkness is lying on its belly, but nevertheless many similarities with Duo's suit are visible. It's distinctly different from the OZ suits, like the Leo and others.

"Oh, okay. I'll gratefully use it as spare parts."

Maybe he's not the type to think deeply. So after shrugging slightly, Duo manipulates the lever and grabs the lying mobile suit.

In that moment, a red light, located exactly between the Vernier rockets installed on the back, starts blinking.

"A self-destruct mechanism?!"

It seems the intention is to make an approaching person a travel companion and to self-destruct.

"You dangerous bastard!"

While saying this, Duo reduced the capacity of the scythe's energy beam and slightly pushes it into the self-destruct mechanism. The fuse is destroyed and the countdown interrupted.

"It's the same up to the position of the fuse. How the heck did that happen? Professor G hasn't said a word."

With a frown indicating that he doesn't understand the reasons, he nevertheless continues to work smoothly.

"I'll lift it to the surface of the sea, then I'll contact grandpa for the rest."

Duo takes the mobile suit so similar to his own onto his shoulder, ignites the Vernier rockets and ascends in the direction of the surface.

 

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