'This is one big mess. Mercenaries should be worried for their lives instead of fighting to their death for some old man.
Just run away already!' Lockon complained as he looked through the scope of his sniper rifle. He was running assistance outside his Gundam for this operation. It's far too delicate for his 18 metre tall mech!
As he was looking for more targets, he heard a loud sound. His head went as he saw three black mobile suits flyby at absurd speeds.
'We have company! Union already is here!'
"Setsuna, Retreat! The Union is already here!" The Sniper Gundam Pilot said to his partner.
But there was no response, so he tried again.
"Setsuna!"
"...Roger." A very reluctant reply came from the other side of the comms.
Lockon scrambled to enter his Gundam, as before long, an Over Flag pulled its Rail Gun and began to shoot at him.
'Shit! I need to shake them off!
The GN machine lifted off and dodged the deadly shots before pulling out a GN pistol and shooting back at one of the Over Flags.
A fourth Over Flag arrived, and a familiar voice blasted through the open comms.
"Mr Gundam! We meet again! This time I will take more than your hand!"
'Graham Aker…' Lockon frowned as he used his other Gundam hand and pulled out a beam saber.
This time, he is not taking any chances.
Though there were four Over Flags here…
"Setsuna, a little help here!"
"Roger, give me a minute!"
The Sniper Gundam's pilot grimaced as he looked around. He was surrounded, and this was not his mission. He doesn't need to fight these Over Flags…
But then, before the trucks with soldiers can arrive…
*Boom*Boom*Boom*
The whole place exploded!
'Oh shit!!!' Dynames pilot looked with wide eyes as the Mercenary base erupted in a chain of explosions.
"Setsuna! Are you okay!?"
Setsuna's face popped up on the screen; he was in his Gundam.
"Fine, but…"
"Yeah… this is bad." Lockon frowned. The mercenaries took out the conservative leader…
"That man! He needs to die!!!" Exia turned around and rushed towards where Ali al-Saachez should be. But at that moment, three more Over Flags arrived and intercepted Exia; soon enough, a battle for survival started.
Not that Exia's pilot was calm. The Close Quarters Gundam moved erratically, essentially letting them know they should let him pass.
'Shit… this is getting out of control.' The Sniper complained to himself as he could barely dodge and parry the attacks. From the looks of it, these Union machines had another upgrade; their Beam sabers were reworked, and they don't run out of juice after a couple of swings.
And that is bad for the Gundam Meisters.
Then all of a sudden Graham Aker's machine turned around and rushed towards Setsuna's Gundam.
"Setsuna! Watch out!"
"Young Man! We meet again!" All of a sudden, Over Flag clashed with Exia.
"You…" Exia replied over the open comms. This was getting out of hand…
"So it is you. I knew it, you had that aura around you! To think that you would pilot a Gundam!" Graham exchanged words with Setsuna as two beam sabers clashed.
"Get lost, I have to kill somebody!" Setsuna had no time to talk as he tried to push Graham's machine back, but this is where the blonde pulled back on his own and proceeded to spin and kick into Exia's chest before going for a cut.
But the Gundam managed to block it at the very last second.
The two machines began to fall out of the air as the Over Flag was pushing the Gundam down.
"If you think this is enough, then you are mistaken!" Exia's eyes glowed as Solar Reactor roared to life, and even more green particles got released.
"TRANS-AM!"
All of a sudden, Exia turned red as it sliced through the Graham's Over Flag, and then rushed to cut through other Union Machines, before turning around and rushing where Ali al-Saachez could have gone too.
'Setsuna… damn you… Trans-am was our ace…'
Lockon clicked his tongue as he swiftly followed the rapidly moving Exia.
But by the time they checked the area, all they found was a black Enact left behind. There was nothing else there.
"Setsuna, we must leave. More Union troops are coming our way. They will be on us shortly." Lockon checked his long-range sensors; he was picking up more Over Flags and even more regular Flags coming their way. From the looks of it, the main army has arrived.
"...Roger."
The pair of Gundam Meisters swiftly left the area.
~~~
'I wasn't expecting Trans-Am…' Marcus looked at the footage he just saw. He lost seven Over Flags and 2 pilots who got sliced in half.
These guys are real aces, and they moved their mobile suits in a way that they would survive. But some of them are just idiots who would kill themselves.
'Well… I can spin this out in a way I want.'
The Commander of Over Flags stroked his chin; he already had an idea how he would explain himself.
It was in the end Celestial Being's fault, they got in the way of the UN operation and got Rasa Massoud Rachmadi killed.
Simple as that. Besides, the Gundam Exia pilot is a Krugis native, and he hates Azadistan, which conquered his homeland.
Very simple, isn't it?
With that in mind, he forwarded some information to Euphemia, and she will release it all when he green-lights it.
Until then, it's classified information.
"Commander, I am sorry, I lost one of your creations." Graham Aker said to his boss, he looked devastated and pissed off! He lost two of his men! Men he knows well!
And now they are dead! Because of Gundams!
The 'love' he was feeling for those machines has turned into hate.
"That look, you hate them now, do you?" Marcus replied as he put aside his work tablet; the money seen on it made him grimace a bit. He used to leave these spreadsheets for his wives; now he needs to deal with them himself.
"Is it that obvious?" The blonde tried to reply with a strained smile.
"After what we saw those Gundams do, we once more have that gap in machine performance," Marcus replied with a sigh.
"Does that mean you will be making an even better version of a Flag?" Graham perked up.
"Hmm, something like that." The disguised Emperor hummed for a bit. "The question is… how much do you hate Celestial Being and how far are you willing to go?"
"..."
For a second, Graham felt that something else was going on.
"... What do you need me to do?" He asked his Boss.
"Not what you need to do. But if you can keep a secret."
"... A secret?" For a second, the Over Flag's pilot wondered where this was going.
"Indeed. You see, I have plans; we discussed this before, with that kid as well." He hinted at the talk they had with the Celestial Being's pilot.
"...The Leader… you want to be that leader…"
"...Indeed. I will drag humanity to the stars themselves if I need to. To do that, all three of the Superpowers need to unite. Celestial Being is already helping us, even if they don't realise it.
As long as this continues, more people will die from this infighting instead of focusing on space exploration and expansion."
"...You want me to join you in this dream of yours?"
"Indeed, I need exceptional talent, and this talent will have access to technology they could only dream about." Marcus smiled mysteriously at his Over Flag pilot.
"...Now I am intrigued. If we can fight Gundams on even ground, then I don't mind."
"You don't mind? You do know that if it ends badly for us, we could be branded traitors." Marcus commented with a bit of amusement.
"...I doubt that will happen, Commander, you are a natural leader, people will follow you when the goal is something like that." Graham shook his head. His gut feeling is telling him that his boss will successfully unite the world and its people, unlike Celestial Being, which is 'faceless' and hides behind its Gundams.
"If you say so. Now, here it is, something for you." Marcus took another tablet and went through some options, showing a specific file.
It was the Gundam Meister they met.
"...This is…"
"Officially, he is dead. But our Kamal in truth is Soran Ibrahim, an ex-member of KPSA, a terrorist organisation. He was a rebel in Krugis, a child soldier, and fought against Azadistan as they conquered his country.
In other words, these lands he knows very well and by all means, he should hate them. So, he could have intentionally triggered the death of Rasa Massoud Rachmadi." Marcus 'concluded' while Graham was reading through the files.
"This kid is so young… yet he pilots a Gundam. Truly…"
"Yes. That is why I want to take over and prevent anything like this from happening. By all means, he has talent for physical activities; he could have been a good player in sports or the military, but alas, he ended up trained to become a child soldier."
Marcus sighed in disappointment. He could have used Setsuna in his world, becoming part of G-Force; he would have been a splendid Knight.
"...I see your point, Commander. He does know how to fight."
"Indeed. Just don't tell anyone that I revealed this to you. The committee doesn't know it yet. I will be attending a meeting soon." The Disguised Emperor disclosed something that shouldn't be disclosed, and that made the blonde realise that his boss is sharing something he should not.
"Don't worry. I won't say a thing."
With that said, the meeting with his ace was over. Marcus smiled a bit. He will have this ace on his side one way or another.
'I am sorry, Setsuna, but you will be the scapegoat this time around.'
The Commander looked over the window. He could see that unrest is not going anywhere, and soon enough, the news of their spiritual leader's death will spread as well.
Once that is done, the civil war in this area will truly begin.
~~~
"H-He is dead!?" Marina looked shocked and in disbelief as Marcus shared the news. They were in the Royal Palace.
As proof, he showed them footage.
"Celestial Being was there. They might be good with their mobile suits, but in a regular gun fight, they are useless.
They lack manpower and should leave this to my Special Forces." The Commander of Over Flags explained to the Princess.
"...T-Then…what is going to happen." The black-haired Princess looked shaken.
"We will continue with the peacekeeping operation. Don't worry, I won't leave until this is over."
"...You still have your superiors to answer to." Shirin pointed out.
"Yes, but Gundam will return here unless they go against their own directive. Azadistan is in a civil war, and they can't ignore that." Marcus reminded them of that.
"...But… if they return, even more people will die."
"Indeed, that is why you should leave this to me. My Anaheim already dispatched prototype technology that will disable people instead of killing them.
We shall capture these dissidents instead of killing them."
He smiled at the Princess, who slowly smiled back. She felt relieved to hear that.
"You have my thanks for doing this," Marina said with a growing smile. One thing she doesn't want is the death of her people.
"We had a deal, and I am keeping my part in it." He replied that there was no need to thank him.
Shirin smirked a bit when she heard that.
"Should we visit you tonight, Commander?" The assistant asked with a casual tone. Making Marina snap her gaze back and look at her with annoyance.
"Hah, you can. I will be having an annoying phone call with my superiors. I need to report that I lost 7 Over Flags that are worth as much as a small country's GDP." He said with a sigh, making Marina look at him with a bit of sadness.
"T-Then we shall be waiting for you there." The Princess in the end decided to do 'her part' as well.
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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