"H-How did you conclude that?" Billy asked Marcus. He still doesn't quite believe that there exists something like a faction that developed a new branch of technology from scraps!
"Simple, really. The way it moves, the way the engine of that mobile suit is shaped. Nothing we have to this date is like that." Marcus said to the fellow Mobile Suit developer. Their SUV stopped a bit of distance away, clear from any of the possible fighting.
"What are you two talking about?" Graham finally asked.
"Think how long it took for the internal combustion engine to reach the point that we had Jet Fighters?" All of a sudden, Marcus asked him instead of replying to the previous question.
"...Umm… I guess around 40 years?"
"More, around 60. A similar principle applies to the electric motors we use today. It took around the same. The same is most likely for that machine that uses those particles."
"...You mean to say that there is some sort of hidden faction that has been making these Gundams for like 50 to 60 years? What for? Why did they attack that new model?" The blonde man asked, not expecting any sort of answers.
Instead, he leaned into his seat and wondered what it feels like to face that machine in combat.
"...Gundam, huh… where did you come from?"
~~~
"I would like to address this statement to every single human being born and raised on Earth. We call ourselves simply Celestial Being—"
Marcus looked at the video recording on the computer screen before him. This was Aeolia Schenberg, the founder of Celestial Being.
'This bald guy predicted aliens and that we will need Quantum Brainwaves. As crazy as it sounded, that stuff can be applied to my world as well.'
For a bit, the Inventor Emperor frowned as he realised how idealistic this man is. It makes him a bit sick as he and this man are polar opposites. Marcus united his world with sheer brute strength, and he is preparing for a greater conflict on a galactic scale. Yet, this guy believes there could be some sort of dialogue with aliens?
'Tell that to the Reapers.'
The Inventor Emperor frowned as he knew damn well there was no dialogue with sentient machines that had concluded that all advanced organic life needs to be harvested and then bio-merge with a synthetic to bring 'peace' between organics and synthetics.
'Honestly, the one who programmed the initial Reaper AI should be embarrassed that he was a failure in programming.'
"What the hell! Do you hear that!? Will they attack everyone? Is he planning to fight the whole damn planet!?" Graham exclaimed with utter disbelief at what he was hearing.
"...They really plan to use them like that…" Milly mumbled next to Marcus as she realised how similar this was to their world.
Their Gundams were used to erase nations as well, in pursuit of world conquest. This was deja vu for her.
"What do you mean?" The pair of guys looked at the blonde woman.
"What I mean is that these Gundams are so advanced that they can take on entire nations by themselves. They desire to force upon humanity their ideology." She explained, speaking from experience.
"...And if we resist?" The blonde pilot asked with a frown.
"Then they will beat you down until you comply."
"Is that so?" Graham's expression morphed into cold anger.
"And what is their end goal? This makes no sense to me." Billy asked, arms crossed and confused.
"They will provoke everyone, causing the entire world rebel against them."
"Don't you see? It's world unification; this bald man's ideology is world unification through the Gundams." Marcus explained to him.
"...But… It's a stretch… everyone will hate them. You mean this Celestial Being is the unification mechanism? But we all need a common goal. I understand these 4 machines are allmighty because of their uniquely advanced technology.
But we are fickle beings…" Billy wasn't convinced this tactic would ever work.
"Indeed. They lack a leader with a goal." Marcus ended up smiling while saying that. In the end, he concluded that his own unification was superior to Celestial Being's.
"I don't care. Why don't we fight one of these with our Over Flag?" Graham looked at Marcus.
"Commander! Permission to use Over Flag against one of these."
"Do it. Gather some data for me. Show them that the Union is not a doormat they can just walk over."
The blonde man grinned from ear to ear; he liked his new commander more and more!
"Orders understood! Then we shall wait for their next move."
When Graham said that, Marcus turned on the world map.
"There is no need. They are very predictable, the side effect of telling us what they will do." He pointed at the island of Sri Lanka.
"The only place where open conflict is happening at this very moment."
"The civil war." Billy realised where they would go.
"You are right." He nodded at his Commander.
"Indeed, call in a transporter for us; we are taking a side trip before we go home," Marcus said with a smile. Thankfully, he joined a team with like-minded individuals.
"I do apologise, Milly, that I have to drag you through all of this." He said to his wife with a knowing smile, and she smiled back at him.
"I don't mind. It is a bit interesting." She said while hugging his arm, the girl played his 'understanding supervillain's wife' role to perfection.
"Good to hear."
After talking a bit more, the group got a call from HQ to return to the base. Though Marcus immediately suggested interception and where it could happen.
There was some deliberation at HQ, but they ultimately accepted the proposed mission. They are clear about engaging a Gundam in the Indian Ocean if that is where they will go.
~~~
"GN-001 Exia… eliminating targets!"The blue-and-white mobile suit accelerated and slashed a brown mobile suit in half. This primitive machine is named MSJ-04 Fanton.
"Setsuna!... ugh… fine, I will support you from the back." Lockon Stratos, the pilot of Gundam Dynames, tried to calm his partner down, but the sniper unit decided to help him deal with the Fantons.
It was one-sided slaughter, as these Fantons are several generations behind; they can barely make human-like movement, making them extremely easy targets for Setsuna, who is piloting a close-quarters machine.
And he is especially motivated to destroy these Fantons, as they were the same machines that destroyed his home.
That is why he sliced and diced them left and right.
'Setsuna, why is he so worked up?' Lockon frowned as he was leisurely shooting these Fantons with his GN pistols.
Then, all of a sudden, his early alarm system went off. His radar was picking up an object approaching his location.
'Hmm? What is with that speed?'
He used his Neural Interface to check out the target.
"A Union Over Flag? What is it doing here?" Lockon Stratos frowned as he turned around and looked at a dot in the sky.
It was a dark-blue custom machine, flying at absurd speed.
The mech midair flipped over and transformed into Mobile Suit mode.
"My name is Graham Aker! Lieutenant of the Over Flag Squad of the Union! It's my pleasure to meet you, Mr Gundam!!!" The improved Flag pulled out a long rifle and pointed it at Dynames.
'An unknown weapon? Most likely Anaheim creation.'
As Lockon was thinking about the new weapon, the said weapon's barrel extended, and the Flag pressed the trigger.
A loud rumbling erupted from the barrel as a bolt of yellow rushed towards Dynames.
Alarms blared through the whole suit as the Gundam took evasive manoeuvres.
'A damn railgun! The guys from Union are crazy for putting a warship weapon on a mobile suit.'
Lockon was not wrong. The weapon has a separate battery cartridge that powers it independently of the suit.
Marcus copied what Britannia used against him all those years ago.
After one more shot, several more followed as Lockon switched tactics and returned fire at the Over Flag.
"You are not the only one who has a good rifle, Graham Aker!" The brown-haired Gundam pilot pulled out his beam rifle as he was ready to blow the Flag out of the sky, but then the machine rushed at him.
*Tsk*
"Close range is not my forte."
The Ranged Gundam tried to make some distance, but the Flag pursued before flipping and delivering a spin kick to the head of the Celestial Being's machine.
'W-What the—'
Lockon realised this mech moved as well as a Gundam!
'Shit.'
His Gundam swiftly rose into the air and decided to use Gundam's natural ability to negate gravity and, at the same time, air resistance, making it superior to the Over Flag.
But Graham didn't give up that easily, as he proceeded to shoot two more times from his Railgun before folding it and then pulling out a Beam Saber.
Lockon's eyes widened as he tried to block the beam saber with his beam rifle, but at that moment, the Over Flag kicked him one more time before doing a spin and slicing Dynames's hand.
*ALARM*
The whole suit shook as the Gundam Meister looked at the machine's status panel. It showed that a hand is missing.
He worried that this Flag could attack even more, but the beam saber turned off mid swing.
'...out of power?'
Lockon swiftly snapped out as he contacted Setsuna.
"Setsuna! A bit of help here!"
"Roger."
The blue-and-white mobile suit rose into the air and rushed towards Lockon, but by then the Over Flag had folded into plane mode and circled before taking Dynames' hand and flying away at supersonic speed.
"..."
Lockon slammed his hand into the panel as he realised he messed up!
'Damn that Flag! What the hell is that machine!?'
"Lockon… your Gundam." Setsuna noticed that Dynames was damaged, damaged to the point that they needed to send the Gundam back to space.
"Yeah… It was the new Over Flag. Anaheim's creation." He replied, looking at his Dynames. It lost its sidearm. Now he can't use his long-range rifle.
"We need to finish the mission, then we can return."
"Roger."
The two gundams returned to their one-sided slaughter of primitive mobile suits.
~~~~~~Later, back in MSWAD HQ~~~~~~
"Magnificient! Great work, Lieutenant Commander!" One of the Generals went to see the acquired hand of Gundam. The man thanked Marcus instead of Graham, and the blonde waved his hand, saying he didn't care who got the praise in this fight.
"We just showed these Gundams and Celestial Being that they are not so Celestial."
The old man smiled as he began showering them with praise before getting to the main objective of his mission.
"Our next mission is to capture a Gundam. Lieutenant Commander Anaheim, you will be leading the Anti-Gundam Special Force.
I will be throwing money and talent your way, while you will continue to improve the Over Flags and your team. Once you are ready, we shall go on the offensive." The old man patted his shoulder before he looked at Graham Anker.
"And you are the first one to join them full-time, Lieutenant Graham Anker." The general declared to the blonde pilot.
"...Sir, yes, Sir! It will be a pleasure to assist Commander Anaheim in his quest to take down Celestial Being!"
"Good to hear. Now, I want you debrief the defence committee on what you have learned. This is important. If you men do it right, your new Anti-Gundam Force will get even greater budget to work with."
'It's all about the budget… thankfully, I always give my boys unlimited budget.' Marcus internally shook his head. Now he is doubly certain that he should never limit his top researchers.
"Understood, sir, I have some ideas about this Celestial Being and their Gundams."
The Inventor Emperor is certain that this time around, Union will be the one who ends up gaining one of the Gundams.
"Very good! I am eager to hear your explanations. We expect a lot from you, Lieutenant Commander." The General could not stop smiling; having Marcus Anaheim as their Golden Boy was the best move they ever made.
And that just proved them right! Would they would ever able to get a piece of a Gundam otherwise?
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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