//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn - Volume 2 // by Alines Reinhard //------------------------------// After the close calls by the missile's salvo and the excellent performance from the CIWS and anti-air rocket, the whole bridge breathed in relief. In addition to that, Celaeno was genuinely surprised by how well protected the Remember Me was. “Nice weapons you got there, Captain Mohawk!” the white parrot complimented “Your lady is a tough fighter!” “I know right! Thanks to friend Lady Rainbow Dash for her help!” the black-fur anthropomorphic hawk with the same fancy hat as her said “Those Phalanx CIWS does make the job!” By the camera that was mounted outside of the ship, she could see that six different large plums of dark gray smoke blocked part of their view to the enemy. From that, she speculated the enemy are just opening their charge. With that in mind, she alarmed the ships. “Don’t let your guard down, every creature. That’s not all of their arsenal!” “Captain, get the clouds!” Suddenly, the Strike Zeta pilot’s voice screamed to the com link “They will sink you both!” “Yes I know! You just deal with the suits!” the captain yelled back. But right after that, the second salvo came towards the airship. Celaeno yelled at her crew to brace for impact, in case there were missiles that actually hit them while the alarm rang all across the hull. Then, the defense system got to work again. Two Phalanx CIWS fire constantly at the incoming warheads, taking out 2 of them in the process. Meanwhile, the guns and rocket on the refueling airship also successfully stop another duo of warheads, creating a large plume of smoke just like the previous strike. After all of the alarms stopped, another 5 missiles destroyed mid-flight. While Celaeno looked at her crew and asked “Is every creature okay?”, her eyes glanced at the screen that was recording her comrades at the Remember Me. “No way!” she exclaimed. … One of the warheads hit the bow of the gray refueling ship, blowing off the upper section which had a statue of a golden hawk, something Captain Mohawk was proud of. Flash glancing at the charging mobile suits. He knew that he had to do fast, or else the GMIIIs and Commander Jesta would take his comrades down either with rifles or beam sabers. He decided to transform back to MS mode and fire his side skirts beam gun at them. The first two strikes did hit one of the base jabbers, making it slowly lose balance and forced the riding suits to abandon it. At the time, he had come close enough for a hand to hand combat. The white MS pulled out its beam saber and slay one of the GMIII’s both hands, destroying its rocket launcher and cutting its legs. The second one, while still holding up the beam rifle and firing at Flash in panic, still managed to get caught by the Strike Zeta itself and found itself losing the beam rifle as well as the rocket launchers. The GMIII that was labeled “No.2” on its right shoulder armor, the thing Flash only noticed when he closed up to it, still pulled out its beam saber and put up a fight with him. In response, Flash fires his head mounted 60mm Vulcan gun to its head sensor in hope that his opponent will be blind. After seeing his tactic worked, the Strike Zeta brought itself to the opponent and tried to cut off its limb like its previous victim. The only thing that stopped the strike was when Mark fired his rifle to Flash.  “Nikita, Amanda, just focus on the battle! We’ll recover them!” Joseph said to the duo on the second base jabber “Do not get your target get away!” The two damaged GMIIIs managed to fire their thrusters and remained airborne for a few seconds until Joseph’s base jabber could bring them up, despite one of them having all of its limbs cut off. The Federation’s Lieutenant noticed Flash decided to ignore them and move on to his next target: Nikita's Jesta Commander and the GMIII that was labeled “No.1”. Nikita aimed his rifle towards the Parrot’s Strength, adjusting the range and closing his right eye. According to his quick analysis, both of them have a staggering defense system against physical warheads, but they are nothing if they don’t have I-field or anti-beam coating on their hulls and balloons. “20 meters… 25… 30 meters…” he mumbled to gather focus on him. “Nikita!” Amanda’s GM suddenly stopped his progress by warning that Strike Zeta is attacking them. The duo quickly diverted themselves out of the strike path of Flash’s mobile suit, making his beam saber miss the base jabber by a few centimeters and pass the target. “They’re fast!” Flash exclaimed. Suddenly, a little headache comes right through him, signaling that there are some anomalies around. Then, Grisela’s voice came up: “Flash, tell your friends to get out of the battlefield fast!” she yelled in an alarming tone “They just got us out of the launch pad!” Flash zoomed his camera towards the Cloudsdale to see the Alicorn Gundam being brought out of the hangar. Following it is the pair of shields it usually has on its back, which was perfectly placed on second after the Alicorn fully exposed itself under the sun. It's mostly white paint flared up as the Cloudsdale itself changed the direction to the runaway airships in order to have it’s strongest mobile suit’s face to face with its intended enemy. “Flash, help!” Yolinda screamed in despair “They're gonna start that… software again! We really don’t want to fight again!” With this, he knows he has to choose: either keep fighting Joseph and his squad or stop the Alicorn from running wild again. In that situation, he is the only one from the S.M.I.L.E side that could use his MS freely in the open. His sweat ran down to his cheeks while Flash looked all around his battlefield. In some moment, he feels like parts of his brain have ceased to function for a moment due to the massive amount of information he have to processing. However, a sudden blast came to the base jabber of Nikita’s Jesta, causing the flying machine to lose balance and shake both of the mobile suits on it. Flash adjusted his view to the sky and saw a silhouette of an airship that was just as large as the Parrot’s Strength. The airship hovering right above him, exposing its belly down to fighting suits. However, he could see its two hangars with their hatches open with the same mechanism as his airship, showing two mobile suits as one of them aimed its gun at the enemy. Then, both of the suits are released and fall down to him. It was Yamina’s Jegan sniper pack and Blue Thunder’s Jegan D Type descending to the battlefield to lend some help. “Jeez, that base jabber can still get away!” Blue Thunder mumbled “Hey Brad, how’s the fight?” “Yeah, still good!” Flash replied. “Come and get the Alicorn, Brad! Hurry up!” Yamina screamed as she attempted to take another shot at Nikita’s base jabber. The blue machine still managed to airborne because the first shot only blew its nose. Flash could see the Jesta Commander on it deploy its beam saber and charge right at Yamina Jegan. However, as Flash started to accelerate to the Cloudsdale, Yamina successfully shot the base jabber down, making both the GMIII and the Jesta Commander fall off. In addition to that, Flash could see Blue Thunder is making the other two Jesta Commander busy by constantly attacking them with grenades and beam shot. “Thank you, guys… “ Flash mumble as he pushes his legs on to the gas pedal and accelerates to the Cloudsdale. It was a near suicidal mission. The ship’s crew don’t just let him getting close to their ship too easy, as it should be in a war: small anti air missile and CIWS firing constantly at him rapidly, as if all of them wanted to hit him with their hard alloy. Flash rejected those wishes and successfully dodged or destroy them all. The exploding warheads caused a large number of smokes that soon covered him. “Damn it, Ronan!” the Captain yelled to the radio “What the hell are you doing?” “We’re charging it, Captain! Be patient !” the ship lead mechanic said. “It will be ready in about 2 minute!” “Two minutes? We’re all gonna die by the time you finish!” the Captain yelled. Right after that, the ship was shocked with a blast at its starboard side. When all of the shock was slowly dying, the Captain asked. “Damage report!” “There’s a hit at No. 5 CIWS turret, Sir! It was destroyed!” the combat operator reported Through the smoke, Flash could see the ship still firing missiles and bullets towards him. However, over half of them already silenced only after 25 seconds with his excellent rifle skills. After that, despite the dense smoke and the firing pace of the ship’s CIWS, Flash still managed to get to the ship’s launch pad and land on it. Face to face with the Alicorn, which is starting to have its psycho frame lighten up through the armor crack with its usual pink light, Flash decided to do something that almost every creature that the battlefield considers to be insane. The blue haired pilot carefully gets off his seat and goes to the hatch as the Strike Zeta is still descending to the launch deck. Then, right after the Strike Zeta position itself firmly onit, its cockpit hatch slowly opened to reveal a white suited pilot. “What the… Brad!” Blue Thunder yelled “Have you lost your mind?” “Brad! Get back to your seat, for Celestia shake!” Haystack yelled “Do you want to get yourself killed?” “Brandon, no!” Yamina mumbled Flash holding his hand as firmly as possible to prevent him from blowing away by the wind. Face to face with the Alicorn Gundam which is still charging itself up, along with processing the “Killer” software that was used to force Luster and her friend to go rampage, Flash opened his helmet and scream: “Luster, Yolinda, Grisela, SG, BB! Can you hear me!” “Yes yes yes!” Luster Dawn responded. Her voice makes Flash feel like she is screaming through the Alicorn’s cockpit hatch as it is still closed. “Flash, get back…” “Control yourself, okay?” he screamed again “I’m here with you!” “Flash, you’ll get yourself killed! Get back… we’re…” Yolinda added “You must close your cockpit now!” “No, I’ll stay here for ya!” Flash said, but right after that, he turned himself back into the pilot to say to the crew at Parrot’s Strength. “I’m buying time for you! You should get out of here, now!” he said “Captain, you should also tell Yamina and Blue Thunder!” “Darn you… Make sure you go back safely!” Celaeno said with an unamused tone “We're gonna have some serious talking after this…” “Flash, look out!” Luster Dawn yelled. Even before Flash attempted to turn himself back to the Alicorn, a huge shock knocked him down the cockpit floor. The next thing he feels is that he and Strike Zeta are falling. “What the…” Flash mumbled as he got back to the seat and closed the hatch. It was the Jesta Commander of Lt. Joseph Barn. It has grabbed the opportunity to knock Flash off the Cloudsdale when Flash is still talking into the wind. “Captain, you can stop the Alicorn! It’s too late!” the EFSF Lieutenant said “Those filthy airships have gotten away!” “Let me just teach this jerk a lesson!” he said with a maniacal laugh “This one is for the pilot who doesn't know how to observe the battlefield!” The attack was so fast that Flash didn't even have enough time to close the cockpit hatch. This gives Joseph some time to actually rip the hatch off and let Flash expose himself out in the open. The two then fell right into the clouds and disappeared. There is water vapor from the clouds pouring into the cockpit and starting to block his view outside. However, he still managed to stop a beam saber strike by grabbing the Jesta Commander’s right arm. Just after nearly a minute, the duo have fallen down long enough to see the desert below. Judging from the town somewhere near the horizon, Flash speculates that they are near Kludgetown, the place where thugs and even some gangsters use as a place to do business freely without being annoyed by the royal guards. By the time he lets himself back to the situation, there are some pink lights and a slight yellow bright right eye appears in the cloud. Then, the shields of the Alicorn rapidly escaped the dense cloud and attacked on the Jesta by hitting the right side of its torso. The ramming is so powerful that it makes the black mobile suit fly sideways for more than ten meters and nearly lose its beam rifle. In the cockpit, it took Joseph a few seconds to recover from the shock and regain balance. But the assault doesn't end there: its shield continues to make several attempts to ram into the Jesta’s torso. This makes Joseph deploy his beam sabers aimlessly cutting at the shields in hope that the strikes will lure them away. However, the shields still do not take those beam sabers strike as a threat and still continue to fly around the falling Jesta. “Flash, go back to the ship!” Haystack yelled through the com link “They are the danger!” In his mind, he doesn't know why he should get out of there since he feels that the Alicorn is providing him with protection. However, he still decided to transform his suit to Wave Rider mode and return to the ship. With that, he just ignored Luster Dawn and her friends' call for help. “Flash… don’t… don’t leave us!” … “Hey guys, are there… anyway....to stop this thing?” Joseph asked in a struggling voice as he constantly dodged the shield’s strike. “Just a few seconds, Joseph!” the engineer that named Victor replied “The software is working as a ‘stimulator’ for them to attack the enemy. They’ll stop as the stimulator cuts the ‘energy!” “What the… But what do you mean ‘a few seconds’?” “20 seconds… How about you push it to the sand?” Victor asked. “Darn it… You want to kill me?” “Or just landed gently and you will contain it there! Just lure it!” However, the Alicorn took back its shield right after Victor ended his advice. Instead, the suit attempted to cast some sort of magic from its hand with Joseph’s suit in its firing line. The ‘magic’ was basically a five-colored rainbow with light cerise, black, light yellow, brown and gray, which he was familiar with when his squad still tried to capture the thing. What stunted him is how it was used as a weapon by the Alicorn itself: the magic, while failed to make a direct hit, still managed to pass by his left arm, completely disable it by turning it into rock, and it soon turned into sand and fell down the desert. The ‘magic’ then continues its destruction path on the desert by creating a large hole in the sand causing a mini sand storm. “What the… Did that thing just destroy my hand?” Joseph exclaimed. However, that did not stop him from ramming as hard as he could into the Alicorn before he accelerated to the desert below with the Alicorn’s back facing down the ground. After a few seconds of falling, both rammed into the sand with a force so powerful, it made some houses in the nearby Kludgetown crack their walls. However, the G-handler system has minimized the impact into the cockpit, to the point that the worst Joseph has to go through is nose-bleed and his head rammed into the main control monitor. It took him a few seconds to bring him back to consciousness to see that Alicorn was completely off. His guess is that the suit has lost its ‘stimulation’ from the software. Not far from where the suits are lying, the Alicorn’s shields have detached from it and plugged down the sand. Not long after that, his base jabber with Ensign Mark’s Jesta arrived at where the crash occurred. “Lieutenant, are you alright?” “Good… good…” the Lieutenant replied while he still held his head. “Quickly grab the Alicorn back to the ship! We don’t want to mess with the locals!” “Roger that, Sir!” … Right after Flash came out of the cockpit and had his feet stand firmly on the hangar deck, Haystack immediately ran to him and slapped him right in his face. “What in Equestria are you doing?” he asked with grinding teeth “I told you to stop the Alicorn, with your suit, not yourself!” “Sorry Sir… I just did what I could…” he gulped midway “… in that situation…” “Yeah yeah… You could be blown away by the wind… Not to mention the Equestrian Army can grab you right from the cockpit and squish you like a… Oh my, I don’t want to imagine that!” “By the way… Good job Brad!” Celaeno then shows up right behind Haystack and comes to compliment him “2 destroyed base jabber, at least 3 heavily immobilized mobile suits and a damaged ship. And yet the only damage is some bruises and w missing bows! We might have to go somewhere friendly to fix that!” “Wait… I thought only the Remember Me…” “Their missiles hit our bow as well…” Mullet came with some documents on his claws “The Remember Me will go back to Orthinia for repair! And how about our ship, Captain?” “We’ll go somewhere else too… Although the Alliance still does not openly support us yet, they have let us use their space at Kirin’s Groove!” “I think that’s what I wanted to hear, Mullet…” But right after that, his face turned dark. It was like there was some bad news on his face. “But… we have some casualties….” … The pilot was led to the sick bay through a dark alleyway. The heavy atmosphere appeared all around the creatures. As the door of the sick bay opened to show a heavily injured blue parrot: his lower body was completely warped in bandage, his hand was shaken in pain. Near his bed, Era is kneeling to help the ship’s doctor try to calm him down. His mouth is mumbled something that none of the creatures on board understand. “Era…” “Yeah, she agreed to help when someone near her cell said that there are injured sailors…” the doctor said “I don’t know why Mullet left in the first place, but then I’m genuinely surprised when she just came right next to him and took the bandage…” “I used to be specially trained in medicine in Antarctica…” she said, with a small interruption in between by herself when she turned to the injured parrot to say “Hold on, Drake.” “How is he now, Era?” Celaeno asked “Is his injury…” “I’m aware he might not go through this night…” she replied. It was a shocking thing to hear. Flash has heard how many creatures lost their lives in battles, but that's just numbers. He knew since he was a soldier, death is something he has to witness. However, seeing such a heavily injured creature right before his eyes is still the most disturbing yet the saddest thing he has ever witnessed in his entire life. “Are there any more casualties, Mullet?” Celaeno asked. “No, he is the only one… But our friend on the Remember Me lost three already…” Looking back at the heavily burned parrot, he started to feel sorrow go all across his body. Fearing he might have some mental breakdown, Flash told to his superior: “Pardon me… Sir!” … The bow of the airships was covered in cloth, as it was temporarily restricted for repair. Flash specifically avoids that damaged part and gets to the open bridge of the airship. The sky is decorated with twinkling stars and the moon, shining all over the dark desert. The wind gently washes through his face and hair, whispering into his ears as if it’s trying to tell the story of places that it has gone through. The desert below turned blue under the light of the moon, which allowed him to watch a small convoy of merchants walking through the sand dunes. “Princess Luna’s work is always beautiful, right?” Suddenly, he heard some creatures walking behind him and asked. It was Era, dressed in her new Federation uniform that the ship crew gave to her, walking towards where Flash was standing at the moment. She touches Flash's shoulder with her hands and stands right next to him. Flash slightly nodded, then asked: “How about Drake?” “He’s currently sleeping… The doctor said that’s the best way for him to pass away…” she said while tearing out “She just keeps pushing me out and says ‘You can’t do anything, lady. Just let me do the job”. But… I still think we can help him…” She looked towards the horizon for a few seconds and then asked. “And how can you end up here? How is your fighting gone?” “Well… All because of that Alicorn Gundam… You remember when I was dragged into that cave, right?” “Yeah… The Antarctica Unit tries to dig both of you out of the snow, only to find nothing… Little did they know...  But I like how the Lieutenant just keeps ranting for hours after that news. You should see his red face and that ‘Goddam it! But this is the best, I don’t want to see that brat ever again!’. You know…” She repeated Lieutenant John's quote with a wrinkled face so expressive that Flash could tell she recreated that moment accurately. After all, being a soldier under his command and serving in the very base that tortured him is an extremely unpleasant experience to him. “And… How can you be selected to go here?” “I don’t know, but the top brass said they like my medical skills just like I have said, so I was chosen. And what have you gone through, Brad?” Flash decided to spend hours talking to her about how he was picked up by S.M.I.L.E, the failed missions to capture the Alicorn and how Operation Rainbow Roadtrip had to turn to Phase 2. He still chose to talk about Luster Dawn and her friends, because he might face the risk to show his real identity. “And… You know about the politics, right? Like how all of these things happen in the first place?” “Of course! When I was still stationed on that Mattia class, I was constantly informed about your status. But I have to admit we temporarily lost your MS information until just a day before I was captured on this ship.” She replied “I didn't even know that gate and the operation surrounding it until like… 2 weeks ago! But hey, at least I know you have vanished!” “How?” “They still do not fully know about how that gate exists, but they are slowly understanding how it works: it was placed in an abandoned colony. They said some algorithm glitch could randomly open additional gates all across the Earthsphere, as well as close them.” “Do you have to go through any test for this mission?” “Nope, not at all… I was chosen all of a sudden because they don’t expect to need so many humans for these kinds of missions, I guess. Given the size of that gate and the operation surrounding it, I couldn't know how its secret was kept so well: none of us at Antarctica knew about it before, let alone the civilians. But I could see that the abandoned colony being so far away from Earth could be a factor…” “How far?” “Somewhere in L2, I think…” she replied why gently moved her red hair back “I was scared when my crew first went through that gate, to be honest…” The duo then decided to continue to look at the starry sky once again. Suddenly, there was a small comet passing through the sky, which reminded her of something… “I’m still trying to learn how to cope with this new world, Brad. Look, even the sun and the moon have to rotate under Luna and Celestia’s order… Who are they anyway?” “Well, they are…” “Hey Brad, what are you doing out there? Why talk to her?” Haystack suddenly yelled behind their back “It’s 11 pm already!” “Ah… yes, yes Sir!” Flash replied. “Sorry Lieutenant, I just wanted to…” “You go back to your cell, Era! And you, Fla… I mean Brad, we have to wake up early!” he yelled again. … The next day ended on a depressing note. Right after lunch, the doctor announced that Drake had passed away. It was a bit later than Era expected, but it was still a sad news for the whole ship nonetheless. “Hey Brad, do you want to go to the funeral?” Haystack asked “To bring Drake to the final resting place?” Flash nodded slightly. The duo followed part of the crew when they arrived at a flat area in the middle of a jungle. From the last night, he could see that the Captain had cried a lot. But in the morning, he could see her eyes run dry, just like the rest of the crew. They slowly walked out of the airship and walked towards the designated place for the burial: a little patch of land near a bush of strange fruit. “Those fruits are called apple cider. Basically they taste like fermented apples, but trust me, you won’t get drunk!” Boyle said. Leading the group is Captain Celaeno herself, followed by the bridge operation crew. Next, a dark brown wooden casket was brought out by 3 other parrots, as well as Seashell Blue. He doesn't know such a cheering hippogriff can look so sad. Flash and Haystack, wearing the best looking uniform, followed the casket. The smell of fresh water vapor and the sound of chirping birds hit them all of a sudden when they walked out of the large door at the port side of the airship. They only get to walk for 10 meters before stopping at the planned point. That’s when the crew started to dig the hole to bury the soldier. It takes about 2 hours of digging, with both Flash and Haystack, joined by Seashell, Celaeno and about 6 others parrots, to remove tree roots and some hard rocks. It was only after Celaeno noted that the hole is at about 1.2 meters deep, she ordered the crew to stop by raising her left hand. “Okay, climb out. I’ll help you guys say farewell!” The casket was put right in front of the hole, on the opposite side of a cross made from a wooden piece. Standing along the length of the hole, the crew lowered their heads and Celaeno started her speech. “Every creature, we are here to say goodbye to a good friend of ours. Drake is one of the most devoted parrots of our crew. As a machine gun operator at the bow, his actions have saved countless lives and we owe him a lot as well. However, as you know, he was killed in combat just 2 days ago. It is a huge honor for us to serve along with him. Now, Drake, allow us to bring you the final resting place…” The casket was carefully picked up, slowly being brought down the hole and put down the dry soil by Seashell, Boyle, Mullet and Lix. The parrots then throw flowers and soil onto the casket while mumbling prayers to their fallen friends  slowly and carefully while walking around the tomb. It took them about 10 minutes to walk and bury them. After that, they left the buried casket in order to let their friends rest in peace. However, Flash was stunned to see his new comrades not showing any tears in their eyes. On the way back to their room, suddenly, Captain Celaeno pulled Flash back: “I see you are quite surprised by our ‘lack’ of sadness, huh?” “No… No… No way, Captain!” Flash stuttered. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna punish you. But there’s something I wanted to tell you…” The duo then walked to the hangar deck, where Celaeno told her story. “There are stories among us, the Orthinians, that there is a kind of butterflies that was created by our ancestors to carry the souls of the dead. They are called the Feather Butterfly…” She speaks calmly, her eyes open a little as she brought herself to her imagination “…it wings shaped like feathers being attached to it’s little body, with colors varying but mostly resembles the feather color of the birds when they are still alive, as well as having their eyes decorated on the wings. Well… you will mostly found them at the grave yard back in our home in Parrot’s Peak, but if an Orthinian died on the battlefield, they will followed their comrades all around Equus…” “So… you mean that…” “You might see one of them flying around this ship, Brandon. Drake is still with us and still watch over us. He will show up when we need him the most!” the Captain said with her claws on Flash’s shoulder “We’ll show you when we see that butterfly. You will see his eyes on it’s wings, trust me!” At that moment, he could understand why they didn't cry… … “So... they buried him today?” Yamina asked, following the stories of the battles, Drake and Era’s stories that Flash had told to the creatures the night before. “Yeah, and Era was kept on the ship in all of those times!” Flash said, his front hooves covering the back of his head while he gently lie down the grass… Seeing Drake have to suffer like that is in-bearable for me…” “I know, Flash! That’s why we really care for you…” Luster said “War is unpredictable, and you can easily lose your loved one in just the blink of an eye. Flash, you have to end this fast… There are too many casualties in this already…” “My focus is now how to free you guys from that software. But… why can’t you get out of that cage, anyway?” “They installed something in our consciousness to prevent us from controlling the suit…” Grisela said “I feel like that thing makes us like… being paralyzed… We’re so scared, Flash…” “But you can still hear and see what happens outside, right?” Flash asked “By the way… did they also used you guys in other mission other than the last 2 times we met?" “Yes, Flash…” Yamina said “We… we really don’t want to see our magic of friendship being turned into a weapon!”