"So this is how my new Flag looks." Graham looked at his heavily modified Mobile Suit. It looked nothing like his old machine.
From frame to thrusters, even the wings were modified in some way. Not a single part was left untouched.
"Indeed, it's something else. Just wait to see how it flies." Billy smirked while he fixed his glasses.
"I can't wait." The blonde man smirked back. He was itching to test it out.
"Then we should not wait." Marcus, with a mug full of coffee, walked over. He has been pulling several more all-nighters to make this Flag a peak machine with the set technological limits.
"You are reading my mind!"
Graham was all pumped up to test it out.
"Should we notify Commander?" Billy asked Marcus.
"Yes. Tell Commander that the new Flag is finished, and that he should prepare for the presentation to his superiors as well." The 'disguised' Emperor nodded as he took a sip of his coffee.
"Ha, my new Flag will blow their mind away! Just look at it!" The blonde pilot looked pumped up for the demonstration.
"While I doubt we could make it into a mass production unit, we could have this version of Flag as a Commander-type Mobile Suit," Billy commented while stroking his chin. He recalled all the manufacturing he saw. It was far more complex, but at the same time, he is confident in its abilities.
"I guess. But that is for the big shoots to decide, now I want to test it out!"
Graham was about to run off with the energy of a small child in a candy store. This adult man looked like a giddy child.
"Before you run off too, here." Marcus pulled out a blue flash drive.
"What is that?" The blonde man took it, but he was a bit confused, having no idea why he needed it in the first place.
"Security reasons. The mobile suit won't start unless you put this flash drive into its slot. This is the key to your machine."
"...oh, that is a cool feature." The Flag pilot nodded before rushing off to test-pilot his upgraded machine.
Once inside the cockpit of his new machine, the blonde looked around. It was a spherical cockpit; the number of panels had shrunk by half, most of them dominated by a 360-degree screen that would let him see much more.
With the flash drive in place, the screens turned on, and the seat was readjusted, the control sticks emerged from the seat.
"Damn, this is so cool. It feels like a completely different mobile suit already!" The blonde man was geeking out just from getting into his pilot seat.
A bit later, the systems were fully booted, and he could finally fly!
With a smirk, he pushed the lever forward before pressing the pedal to the bottom.
But then his eyes widened as he realised the suit had already blasted through the runway; he needed to pull the control sticks back so his Flag could take off!
'W-What the hell is with this thrust!'
He realised how powerful it was, and how little he felt the air resistance.
'He did say something about the new thrusters having side effects and how he built the new cockpit. The G Force is partially negated.'
With that in mind, he smirked and decided to enjoy the full power of this improved Flag!
~~~~~~Two Days Later~~~~~~
"Trust me, this man is something else. He spent his money to improve the Flag." The Commanding Officer said to the gathered Generals and Politicians as they were walking towards the runway in the new Anaheim's base. It was an old military airfield converted into his company's base of operations.
"This didn't cost us anything. So if you are not impressed, you can just walk away." The man said with a confident grin.
"We will decide that ourselves, Commander."
The Politician said with a scoff.
But then they heard something in the air.
A screech of some sort, as moments later, an extremely loud sonic boom passed them.
The military personnel and politicians looked up as they saw a custom dark-blue flag flying as fast as the jet fighters of the old era.
Flags are not supposed to fly as fast as Jet Fighters, as they are not aerodynamic, and it's to conserve energy. But this Flag… It's ignoring all of that, and it's flying absurdly fast!
"The new Flag is as fast as a Jet Fighter, and it has operational time twice as long, even with this speed." The Commanding Officer said with a grin as he enjoyed their looks, he could smell a promotion just around the corner!
"How is that even possible? The original flag was not as aerodynamic as a jet fighter!" One of the Generals said with disbelief as he watched the Flag pass by one more time. There was that boom in the air!
"And it's not. That's the whole point. Our new Flag is a mobile suit that has the speed of a Jet Fighter."
"B-But how? Was there some sort of scientific breakthrough?" One of the nervous-looking politicians asked in a concerned tone. Could this impact THAT plan?
"Yes. By the name of Marcus Anaheim."
"...You mean…"
"The entire Mobile Suit has been upgraded with his technologies; it has considerably longer operational time, is far more responsive, and has improved Operational Systems. The machine can extract far more of the pilot's talent.
With this… Union will once more dominate the world."
As he explained, the Flag with a flip transformed into a humanoid form, slowly descended from the sky, and landed on the runway.
"But don't take my word for it. Watch yourselves how this Flag takes on other Flags." The MSWAD Commander motioned for them to watch the training spar.
"This is a mock battle, watch it closely, sirs."
The dark Blue Flag pulled out a training rifle. On the other side, there were 5 regular Union Flags; they had the same training rifles.
"Gentlemen, you might start." The Commanding Officer said via comms device.
"Understood, sir!" The Dark Blue Flag used its free hand to point at five opposing machines; it just demonstrated how human-like its actions were.
"Let me show you boys, how Graham Aker fights!"
With a rapid motion, almost like a cowboy, he blasted several paint bullets at the opposing Flags. The reaction and movement were absurd! Just like that, he took out two machines.
The remaining three tried to spread out, but Graham effortlessly tracked them and rained paint bullets, taking out another two.
There was only a single old Flag left on the field.
It tried to shoot at Graham, but the main danced around with his machine, dodging all of the shots before hitting the head unit of the old flag with his paint rifle.
And so a single new Flag took out five old ones.
"...Amazing… this is groundbreaking! With this—" The old military men began to gush at the results of this machine.
All of them were talking about the new machine and how they are willing to invest an absurd amount of money.
"You did well! Lieutenant Commander to find such an amazing talent! With him as our chief mobile suit developer, we will have an upper hand!"
"All I did was put my trust in him and allowed him to do his thing." The Commander tried to play down his role. It was, after all, Billy Katagiri who brought Marcus to MSWAD.
"A chance is all one needs! Simply wonderful!"
~~~
"It would seem you have aced it, Marcus," Billy said with a smirk as he watched the generals and the politicians nerd out around this improved machine.
"Well, our resident hot head was the one who made it into a show." Marcus was grateful that Graham was literally the best when it came to showing off. He made the new Flag look like an utter powerhouse.
"That is true, but he was able to do that because the machine can handle it." The brown-haired mobile suit developer fixed his glasses as he smiled.
"Marcus Anaheim! Please come over, we would like to have a word with you." One of the older generals got Marcus' attention.
"Yes, sir." He walked over, closer to the parked Flag.
"Your upgrades were astounding! You made a state-of-the-art machine into something else! We would like to hire you and your company to make more of these Flags for us!" The general almost gushed at the idea of having entire platoons of these!
"Isn't Iris Corporation the one who does this?" Marcus recalled that Iris Corporation had developed Flag in the first place.
"Don't worry about the details. Iris Corporation will continue to work, but we shall relegate it to assist in parts manufacturing for the Flag; it shall assist you and your Anaheim in assembling the Flags that you have envisioned!" The general ended up patting Marcus's shoulder; he didn't need to be psychic to tell what this man was thinking.
He wants new toys, and that is good for Marcus as he wants them to rely on him. The more they need to do, the easier it will be for him to take over the Union when Gundams descend from Space.
They are such a convenient threat. The chaos they unleash will become the perfect ladder that he can use to climb to the top.
"In that case, sign me up for this project, sir." Marcus ended up accepting this deal.
"Wonderful, Chief Engineer Anaheim." The old man smiled as he shook Marcus's hand. It was a title the Inventor hadn't heard before used on him, does that mean…
'Oh, and promotion as well.'
Just like that, his small battery company just became a 'big shot'. However, the hard work begins here. Now that he has become an 'important' person in the Union, he can't disappear for a week or two, something he could do before.
That means he needs to improve the portal to his homeworld. Thankfully, he has several teams working on that.
The recharging method is under development. Thankfully, while enormous, it's not as complex as one might think.
As improvements are underway on the Portal, Marcus is focusing on streamlining his company's logistics. He has shared some of the blueprints with Iris Corporation.
They will be making frame parts according to Marcus's designs while Anaheim will be making thrusters, batteries, the cockpit and the OS.
Those are the key parts; he doesn't want them to leak, not at this moment anyway.
Bit by bit, time passed, and Marcus was in a good position to take this to the next step: take over more of Celestial Being's facilities.
One of them is in Africa, Team Trinity's Earth Base. He can use this facility for operations on Earth and even develop machines that he can use here without revealing his true identity as someone from a different reality.
But there is one more place that he wants to check out, and it's right here in his South Pole!
"Suzaku. I have a mission for you." Marcus walked into his military outpost in the South Pole.
"What can I do for you, Your Majesty?" Suzaku slightly bowed to him. He is well aware that Marcus is already becoming a big shot. He saw Marcus on TV shaking hands with the President and accepting a medal for his contributions to the military. Not just the new Flags that have been renamed the Over Flags, but also the prothetics, better power contribution with the new batteries, and robotics for easier manufacturing.
Marcus Anaheim became this century's genius who will change the world.
'One way or another…' The Knight thought to himself.
"There is a base in the South Pole that I need you to take over for my Empire. It belongs to the Corner Family. I found it after digging around and cross-referencing several data logs."
"I will move out at once."
"Good, we are slowly getting into position for the first Celestial Being's move." Marcus already checked Veda. Setsuna was assigned to Exia, and training as a team has begun.
It won't be long until the first operation starts, and the chaos will begin.
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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