Mobile Suit Gundam - The Second Century (Part 1: Prelude 0099)

[Ken Cheng]

Heh. I know the feeling.

What's funny and sad is that I often have great ideas about what to do about these problems when I don't have a computer or even a piece of paper to write them down on. I'll have this great idea while walking or driving and think, "Oooh! Got to write that into the fanfic," only to forget what it was after I finally get to a computer or a piece of paper.

Maybe I should start carrying a tape recorder around with me...

[Ken Cheng]

Well, I added a few lines to the most recent Episode 6 installment and moved a few things around, and it works *much* better now. I was able to use Athena and Jolie's Newtype abilities to counter the Blackbirds' threat without demeaning the skills of the Federation's reconaissance specialists.

It'll set up the next installment much more easily too.

[ghostdarTeal'c]

I was able to use Athena and Jolie's Newtype abilities to counter the Blackbirds' threat without demeaning the skills of the Federation's reconaissance specialists.

i havent read ch5 and 6 yet (waiting for you to come up with more chapters first )....so does this mean that you wont be needing my help?

[Ken Cheng]

i havent read ch5 and 6 yet (waiting for you to come up with more chapters first )....so does this mean that you wont be needing my help?

I'll probably still need it, just not as urgently. Thanks.

[Ken Cheng]

Episode 6 continued...

Blackbird Two and Blackbird Three narrowly dodge the incoming beams of the Cour De Leon and the Centurion Gundam's cannon. Gazi and Song's own beam cannon, already primed, must fire...but the shots go astray.

"We've got to retreat!" Gazi bellows, breaking the radio silence that is now superfluous, "Got to abort the mission!"

"No," Dirk Kirscher replies calmly, "we've lost the element of surprise, but we can still accomplish the mission. Spread out. Don't let them concentrate their counterfire on us."

The three Gellonds of the Blackbird Team vector away from each other, Kirscher to the vertical twelve position and Gazi and Song to the respective nine and three positions.

Song points out, "Did you two feel a sudden pressure in your heads about an instant before those two shots came at us?"

"Newtypes," Gazi agrees, "the mobile suits guarding those two shuttles are piloted by Newtypes. It's probably that Jolie Minh and Athena Ibaz that Shiden warned us about!"

Kirscher smiles, "You're probably right. The Federation's White Phoenix and her commander."

Another shot lances forth from somewhere among the Federation convoy; Kirscher senses it a split second before it arrives and narrowly dodges the strike.

"Enough talk," Kirscher says, "Mugabe, Hyo-Kyung: keep the enemy occupied. I'll go after the shuttles."

"Roger, commander," Gazi and Song reply.

************************************************** ***************

"Anna, can you confirm a hit?" Athena asks her reconnaissance specialist.

"Negative, ma'am," Anna replies, "my sensors register negative evidence of impact."

"Damn," Jolie grates, "how could both of us have missed?!"

"Calm down, Jolie," Athena says, "remember what I told you."

Athena opens communications channels to all Special Forces mobile suit units, "This is Centurion Leader. All of you: fall back and form defensive perimeters around the shuttles. Centurion Two and I will identify and neutralize the sources of that beam fire. Come on, Jolie: you're with me. Let's go!"

The Cour De Leon and Centurion Gundam vector away from the convoy.

Jolie tries hard to calm herself and follow Athena's directives, but it is very difficult for her to resist the urge to charge forth and turn the black skies white with bursts of fusion-powered lightning. She can take the Blackbirds...all three of them at once. She knows she can.

Calm, calm, calm... Jolie whispers to herself, fighting the urges burning within her.

Jolie's tiny, silver-gloved hands shake violently even as they grip the control sticks of the Centurion Gundam tightly. Jolie feels her bloodlust rising like a ravenous beast from the depths of her soul.

************************************************** ***************

Aboard the Silverthread, General Bright Noah watches the developments from the window of his seat with concern, but not alarm. A veteran of nearly twenty years of war, Bright has been in numerous situations as perilous as this.

An aide enters the passenger cabin of the shuttle from the spacecraft's cockpit, "General Noah, sir. With all due respect, sir, you should be getting yourself to the emergency escape capsule...just in case."

"No, Lieutenant," General Noah replies, "I don't think that will be necessary. The Special Forces will be able to handle this."

"But, sir..." the aide protests.

General Noah holds up his hand indicating his wish for the aide to let the matter drop. The aide reluctantly complies, and stands by to receive further orders.

Watching the explosions of beam fire outside the nearest viewport of the shuttle, Bright offers a silent prayer, "Mirai...Chieming...one way or another, I'll see the two of you soon..."

************************************************** ***************

The situation is not nearly as calm aboard the shuttle Nightwing.

"Dammit, Lieutenant!" General Manron Blackhead rages, "What the devil is going on out there?!"

The aide replies, "The captain reports that there's been some beam weaponry fire nearby, sir. The Special Forces are now trying to secure the situation."

"Secure the situation?!" Blackhead roars, "The situation should have been secured long before we left Side 7! How could our intelligence people have NOT seen this coming?!"

The aide has no answer for the angry general, "I'm sorry, sir."

Blackhead lights a cigar and grumbles, "Whole lot of people are going to be sorry when this day is done!"

************************************************** **************

Dirk Kirscher, Blackbird Leader, has the Nightwing bracketed squarely in the scope of his Gellond's beam rifle. Calmly, the veteran mobile suit pilot and assassin opens the safety on the trigger mechanism of his cockpit control.

His finger just begins to tighten around the trigger switch when an overwhelming sensation of stabbing pain fills his head.

Momentarily surrendering the initiative of striking at the Nightwing, Dirk Kirscher twists his Gellond away with acrobatic agility, narrowly avoiding two thirds of the half dozen missiles that vector onto the scene abruptly. Two of the missiles find their mark. The Gellond's tough Gundarium armor is able to absorb much of the damage, but the Gellond nevertheless begins to leak sparks and hot fluid.

"Port side maneuvering thrusters damaged," a synthesized voice reports from the Gellond's combat computer, "mobilty of unit compromised 30%, but still functional."

"Lost some of my speed," Kirscher remarks quietly.

Kirscher feels the pressure in his head again, less stabbing this time, but more clearly defined.

The beam rifle of the Gellond rises and arcs 44 degrees to the right, 14 degrees up.

"Die," Kirscher whispers coldly.

Bright yellow light erupts forth from the muzzle of the Gellond's beam rifle.

************************************************** ***************

Psychic lightning bursts forth in a silver spark from Jolie's helmeted forehead.

Jolie gasps. She senses deadly beam energy reaching forth for her Centurion Gundam.

Like an enormous armored athlete playing a game of cosmic dodgeball, the Centurion Gundam spins and dashes away from the path of the incoming destructive beam. Shockingly, although the beam misses its target, it does not continue on its path, but arcs around, once more towards the Centurion Gundam.

Jolie senses the deadly energy approaching again and maneuvers the Centurion Gundam through a zero-gravity backflip, the killing beam missing her mobile suit by less than a meter.

It's the multi-tracking beam weapon Athena was talking about... Jolie realizes.

The enemy's lethal energy beam, having missed its target twice, arcs around once again directly towards the Centurion Gundam's cockpit.

Within the last ten seconds, Jolie has already miraculously escaped fiery death twice. But is it possible for her to do it a third time? A fourth?

The beam, superheated nuclear energy at temperatures that rival the heart of the sun's, closes in at multi-mach speeds towards the Centurion Gundam's cockpit, whose armored shell, tough as it is, cannot survive such heat and impact.

Jolie stares into the face of death, but feels no fear.

Episode 6 to be continued

[sheraldine]

i kinda forget then, ken when i PM u earlier. when u finished the story, could i print it out and kept in my mini library, which is really in need of some books or volumes... used to print good fanfics from variety of authors, with their permission of course, so i need your permission too. if yes, thank you. if no, it is alright.

and ghost dearie, if u reading this, i m gonna kill ya .... ken hound me upon your request u see, which i kinda deserved it....

[ghostdarTeal'c]

and ghost dearie, if u reading this, i m gonna kill ya .... ken hound me upon your request u see, which i kinda deserved it....

mission accomplished

[Ken Cheng]

i kinda forget then, ken when i PM u earlier. when u finished the story, could i print it out and kept in my mini library, which is really in need of some books or volumes...

Well of course you can. If you're a good artist, perhaps you could help to design a cover as well.

[Ken Cheng]

Episode 6 continued

Per Athena's orders, the Centurion Team and other Special Forces mobile suit units form a titanium-clad defensive perimeter around the Silverthread and the Nightwing. They will only be able to maintain this perimeter for another 540 seconds, however, before the mobile suits' thrusters will be unable to push the suits out of the grasp of Earth's gravity. Word is received that the escort squad from Shanghai Whampoa Base is being delayed by extreme weather conditions.

Athena has broken off from the defensive squads to seek out enemy targets. In the distance, Athena sees the flash of beam rifle fire exchanged between Jolie's Centurion Gundam and at least one of the enemy units. As much as Athena wants to help Jolie, it's imperative that Athena locate and neutralize her own targets.

The interference of Minovsky particles renders the radar of the Cour De Leon useless, and even the sensors of Cpl. Anna Horowitz's GM-IV AWAC offers Athena nothing of use. Athena is forced to rely on her sharp eyes and the reach of her Newtype mind.

Athena decides to not wait for the enemy to come to her. She sets the missile pack launcher of her Cour de Leon, a payload of 54 short-range high explosive missiles, for wide dispersal, and opens fire.

Four and a half dozen missiles burst forth from their containment nacelles in the Cour de Leon's thruster/backpack unit. These arc omnidirectional from the Cour de Leon, rocket contrails exploding forth like a spiderweb of hellfire from their erstwhile host mobile suit.

Multiple explosions rock local space, detonating silently against the field of stars. Soon, the thruster contrails of Blackbird Two and Blackbird Three's Gellonds become evident.

Her enemies now exposed, Athena takes aim at Blackbird Three with her beam rifle and opens fire.

************************************************** ************

Blackbird Three reacts quickly, but not quickly enough to dodge Athena's shot completely. The beam strikes the Gellond's left arm, tearing it off and denying the Zeon mecha its arm-mounted defensive shield.

"Mugabe, I'm hit!" Hyo-Kyung Song calls out to her comrade, terror evident in her voice.

"Hang on, Blackbird Three," comes the large, dark-skinned mobile suit pilot's reply.

Mugabe Gazi's Gellond fires its beam rifle to where Athena's Cour de Leon had been, but the Federation mobile suit is gone.

To Gazi and Song's surprise, the beam does not arc in another direction to seek its moved target, but proceeds straight ahead into infinity.

"What th...?" Gazi rages in confusion, "Did Miguel's people sell us duds? This weapon is supposed to track moving targets!"

Gazi is correct. The Phased Tracking Beam Weapon is indeed designed to track moving targets. Knowing this, however, Athena fired her mobile suit's beam weapon, quickly vectored away, then cut the mecha's thrusters to rest it absolutely dead still in space...using carefully balanced and modulated vernier thrusters to maintain a relative stillness that renders the mobile suit undetectable to the beam's tracking mechanism.

Athena sees sparks leaking from Blackbird Three's damaged Gellond. Her target is easily visible now.

Athena levels the beam rifle of the Cour De Leon at Blackbird Three.

************************************************** ***************

The beam fired from the rifle of Blackbird One's Gellond is almost upon Jolie's Centurion Gundam. Already, the cockpit of the Centurion Gundam is flooded with a hellish white light.

Aiming the Centurion Gundam's own beam rifle downward past the mobile suit's feet, Jolie takes a blind, desperate shot...her aim guided by something past her consciousness, but somehow, paradoxically, not past her control.

The collision between the two streams of powerful kinetic energy results in an explosion whose shock force throws the Centurion Gundam into a wild tumble.

Gripping the thruster controls tightly, Jolie fights to regain control...to regain balance. She scarcely has time to do so before another beam lances towards her.

Unconsciously mimicking Athena's earlier maneuver, Jolie fires off half of the Centurion Gundam's missile payload in random directions, at the same time bringing the Centurion Gundam itself to a near halt.

The beam of the Gellond arcs away from the Centurion Gundam to chase the Federation mobile suit's dozens of discharged missiles, finally expending its energy on the projectiles to leave the Centurion Gundam undamaged.

Can't play this guy's game, Jolie tells herself, his tracking beam is going to get me sooner or later. I've got to get in close and take him down now.

Using her powerful Newtype PSI-abilities, Jolie pinpoints the location of Blackbird Leader. It doesn't take long for her to locate him: she fixates on the darkest soul in the area.

Jolie unloads the rest of the Centurion Gundam's missile payload at the Blackbird Leader's Gellond.

Dirk Kirscher, not quite ready for Jolie's move, but nevertheless quick enough to counter it, raises the Gellond's beam rifle and opens fire. The beam disintegrates Jolie's missiles before they can strike his mobile suit.

An instant later, Kirscher comes to the realization that the missiles were not necessarily meant to destroy him. Instead, the harsh light and impact shock of their explosion mask the rapid approach of Jolie's Centurion Gundam.

The Centurion Gundam crashes armored feet-first into the Gellond of Blackbird One. The Zeon mobile suit is thrown backwards in space.

Inside the cockpit of the Gellond, Dirk Kirshcher is thrown around violently. Were Kirscher unhelmeted, the back of his skull would surely have been fractured. Were he not securely strapped to the seat, he would surely have been thrown head first into his mobile suit's forward monitor. As it is, Kirscher's breath is pulled from his lungs and the reinforced plastic of the restraints dig painfully into his flesh as the bone-crushing impact of the collision causes his mobile suit's internal systems to briefly short out before they cycle to life again.

Jolie presses the advantage. With a savage battle cry, Jolie unleashes the Centurion Gundam's beam saber and raises it for a merciless downward slash.

Kirscher, seeing his dark life flash before him, responds in kind, drawing out the Gellond's own beam saber to parry the incoming slash, a mere two meters from the main body of his mobile suit.

The Centurion Gundam and Blackbird Leader's Gellond are saber locked. Beneath them, the great blue mass of humanity's mother planet, its placid white clouds and tranquil turquoises ocean juxtaposed against the violent scene hundreds of kilometers above it.

Aboard both mobile suits, computer-synthesized voices issue a warning to the much-occupied pilots, "Warning: orbital integrity decaying. Complete orbital integrity loss in precisely three-hundred and twenty seconds."

Episode 6 to be continued...

[sheraldine]

say, that a quick battle... n i shall answer your questionaire much later very lazy now.

i can only draw feminine figures for fashion designing (u know, those without eyes and nose and mouth but only graceful neck and long slim legs ) and sketched landscapes.

[ghostdarTeal'c]

i can only draw feminine figures for fashion designing (u know, those without eyes and nose and mouth but only graceful neck and long slim legs ) and sketched landscapes.

wow...you could do that? im impressed at those who could draw, period!!


KEN!! where are those damn chapters?!!

someone gotta pull out the whip around here....

[sheraldine]

wow...you could do that? im impressed at those who could draw, period!!
someone gotta pull out the whip around here....

of course dearie, we all could draw.... i mean no expert or anything closes to it, but we do study arts here in malaysia, dont we, huh, dont we? or maybe this generation dont?? (after all allow me to quote - dulu mahathir, sekarang badawi ) while onto this, i only managed to get a credit, while my most my classmates got a distinction. you wont be that impressed now, would ya?

whip?? yeah, i love to see a ghost whipping an english teacher! since ken dont believe in ghost that will be a lesson he never forget

[ghostdarTeal'c]

of course dearie, we all could draw.... i mean no expert or anything closes to it, but we do study arts here in malaysia, dont we, huh, dont we? or maybe this generation dont?? (after all allow me to quote - dulu mahathir, sekarang badawi ) while onto this, i only managed to get a credit, while my most my classmates got a distinction. you wont be that impressed now, would ya?

i hated art class......thank god i dont have to go thru with it no more once i got into Form 4. but yeah, i still admire people who can utilize their art side..... cuz for me it's not easy to draw...honestly, my drawing of a cow once got mistaken for a dog!

whip?? yeah, i love to see a ghost whipping an english teacher! since ken dont believe in ghost that will be a lesson he never forget

lets see if it'll work in forcing him to type up more chapters faster...

[Ken Cheng]

i can only draw feminine figures for fashion designing (u know, those without eyes and nose and mouth but only graceful neck and long slim legs

That might be useful in helping to design the uniforms and other outfits worn by the various characters. You get some idea from the illustrations I've scattered throughout the thread, but I do need to commission some artists to do more design work for me.

[Ken Cheng]

wow...you could do that? im impressed at those who could draw, period!!

No kidding. I have great admiration for those who can draw well. I can't even draw a straight line.

KEN!! where are those damn chapters?!!

Coming, gradually...how far have you read?

I feel like Jin Yong back in his newspaper days...adding piecemeal excerpts daily.

Can you believe that the past three Chapter 6 additions have been about the same fight? I wonder if this fight is *ever* going to end!

Well, there *are* only around three-hundred seconds left...it's got to get resolved by then, one way or another!

My main concern right now is that all the fight scenes are starting to sound the same. I feel like I'm writing the same battle over and over.

I wonder if Jin Yong and Gu Long had that problem in describing fights too.

someone gotta pull out the whip around here....

Believe me, it's very welcome. Keeps me motivated and shows that at least someone's paying attention. I'll take the whipping over the silent treatment ANY day!

[Ken Cheng]

Hi, guys.

Sorry there's been no update during the past few days. Gotten suddenly busy with my life away from the forums.

I'll post in a new update when I can. I don't know how soon it'll be, though.

[ghostdarTeal'c]

did you get caught up with exams or something?

anyway, i just got thru with ch5. nice battle goin on there.

off topic q, why do i see ****** (no, i am not swearing! i really see asterisks right below your username!) for your status? first with Spirit of Honour, now you? but i can see pem's moderator status pretty well......just wondering if im the only one seeing this.....

feel free to reroute this post to technical (which im sure you would if you feel it's necessary)....im not really into starting a thread for this thing....

[Ken Cheng]

Just a brief update for today. The battle in the upper atmosphere continues!

Episode 6 continued…

Even as Athena's gloved finger tenses around the trigger mechanism of her Cour de Leon's control stick, she is rocked by the piledriving force of Mugabe Gazi's Blackbird Three ramming shoulder-first into her Cour de Leon. The Earth Federation Forces mecha is sent plummeting towards Earth.

Have to regain control before I get too far ensnared by planetary gravity, Athena thinks to herself.

Athena switches the Cour De Leon from mobile suit to Waverider mode. Now in the form of an aerodynamic fighter jet, she soars up away from Earth, past Blackbirds Two and Three.

Blackbirds Two and Three level their beam weapons in the general direction that Athena had soared towards, but their weapons are unable to draw a bead upon their fast-moving target. Mobile suit beam rifles are designed primarily for use against other mobile suits and space battleships. They are of limited use against fast-moving fighter air/spacecraft. Even the Phased Tracking Beam Weapon of the Gellond is no exception to this general principle.

Athena's Cour De Leon Waverider rushes back onto the scene like a vengeful jet-powered falcon. Before the two enemy mobile suit pilots can react, she transforms her Cour De Leon back into mobile suit mode, firing two shots. The first shot destroys the beam rifle of Blackbird Two, and the second shot forces the already damaged Blackbird Three further into retreat.

Deprived of his mobile suit’s most potent weapon, Mugabe Gazi is forced to rely on the Gellond’s close-in combat weapon…its double-bladed hyper beam naginata. This weapon similar to the one employed by the Gellond’s ancestral mecha, the famous MS-14 Gelgoog deployed by the Archduchy of Zeon during the final month of the One Year War. The Gellond’s beam naginata, however, has five times the power output of its ancestor’s, and a few other nasty surprises as well.

Gazi raises the Gellond’s beam naginata as his foe approaches.

Athena, knowing that her Cour De Leon’s forward momentum is too great to reverse or stop in time, draws her own mobile suit’s beam saber.

Mugabe Gazi proves to be highly skilled in the use of the Gellond’s beam naginata, wielding it less in the traditional style of the Japanese weapon as in a similar, but somehow even more deadly style based on the spearfighting technique of Gazi’s African ancestors…a skill that Gazi had mastered as a boy under his father’s tutelage in their homeland in Earth’s Serengeti region.

Athena, whose own skills with a mobile suit’s beam saber are more influenced by European combat styles, finds herself hard-pressed to parry. Mugabe Gazi’s intricate and complex swordfighting style is too refined and too aggressive for Athena to handle effectively.

He’s too good with that weapon, Athena reflects, I’m not going to beat him like this..

In the distance, Hyo-Kyung Song’s Gellond arcs back onto the scene, headed not for towards the Cour de Leon, but past it towards the space shuttles Silverthread and Nightwing.

Athena attempts to give pursuit, but is forced to parry another slash from the beam naginata of Gazi's Gellond. Athena knows she will be unable to lend any direct assistance to the shuttles until she can shake off her attacker...a prospect that looks dubious at best at the moment.

Athena opens communications to the other Special Forces pilots, trying to maintain her focus on defending herself from Gazi's relentless attacks even as she gives orders, "Centurion Leader to all units! Incoming enemy unit! Protect shuttles at all cost! Repeat: at all cost!"

All cost...even the lives of two Special Forces officers, if necessary.

************************************************** *****************

Nearby, the beam saber of Jolie Minh’s Centurion Gundam disarms and removes the left arm of Dirk Kirscher’s Gellond.

Jolie draws the Centurion Gundam’s beam saber back and prepares to plunge the energy blade into the main body of the Gellond, Got him!

Not quite. In her rush to finish off her damaged and apparently vulnerable enemy, Jolie forgets that Kirscher still has his mobile suit’s beam rifle, now fully recharged and ready for another shot…at point blank range.

Inside the cockpit of the Gellond, Blackbird Leader smiles, Got you now, Gundam.

Jolie jets the Centurion Gundam backwards a mere second before the beam erupts forth from the Gellond’s beam rifle. White death approaches Jolie.

Episode 6 to be continued…

[Ken Cheng]

Episode 6 continued

The Guncannon 100 and Jegan mobile suits of the five Special Forces Teams assigned to escort the Silverthread and the Nightwing continue to blast away in the general direction of the Blackbird Team. Captain Athena Ibaz has instructed her fellow mobile suit pilots to disregard the possible danger to her and 2Lt. Jolie Minh and protect the two shuttles at all cost.

Aboard her damaged Gellond, Blackbird Three (former Titans 2Lt. Hyo-Kyung Song) refocuses on her team's original objective. With Blackbird Two (Mugabe Gazi) occupying Athena and Blackbird Leader (Dirk Kirscher) battling Jolie, Blackbird Three breaks off to attack the space shuttles bearing two of the Earth Federation Forces' senior officers.

Although her Gellond is heavily damaged and has lost its left arm to Athena's Cour de Leon, Song proves to still be more than a match for the Special Forces pilots left guarding the shuttles. Deftly dodging the fire from the Guncannon-100s and GM-IVs, Song unleashes a quick succession of beam rifle shots that immolate nine of the twenty-three mobile suits left guarding the shuttles. One of the beam rifle shots even scores a glancing hit on the Silverthread, causing smoke and sparks to pour forth from the hull of the shuttle.

Aboard the Silverthread, General Bright Noah grits his teeth through the impact. Peering out of the window nearest his seat, the general notices the smoke and sparks trailing from one of the shuttle's wings.

Bright uses the ship intercom to contact the cockpit of the shuttle, "Captain Donatelli! What's our situation?"

The pilot of the Silverthread replies, "The damage to our wing is pretty severe, sir. I recommend we abort the landing and call for help."

Bright agrees with the captain's assessment. In atmospheric re-entry, even the slightest damage to the re-entering spacecraft could have catastrophic results. It would be beyond foolish to attempt a re-entry with the damaged Silverthread, and Garrison Noah back at Side 7 is too far to attempt to return to now.

It becomes a moot point, however, as Hyo-Kyung Song's Gellond closes in on the already damaged Silverthread, once again leveling its beam rifle at the burning space shuttle.

************************************************** **************

Above, Athena struggles to maintain her defense against Mugabe Gazi's deadly beam naginata strokes. Gazi's attacks are swift and relentless. Athena can only parry; she is unable to break free.

Jolie... Athena's mind reaches out desperately.

************************************************** *************

But 2Lt. Jolie Minh has her own problems.

Contrary to the perceptions of laypersons and civilians, the beam energy weapons used by space battleships and mobile suits do not fire beams of laser energy, but high-velocity megaparticles. Were the beam rifles of mobile suits truly laser-based weapons, Jolie would already be dead, because not even she is quick enough to dodge an incoming beam of light.

The hypercharged megaparticles that constitute the beam of a mobile suit's long-range beam weaponry move at a relatively modest velocity of 1/100 the speed of light....which, in practical terms, is still pretty damn fast...many, many, many times more than fast enough to be absolutely lethal at point blank range. Far, far, far too fast for any human being to react to after the fact, let alone attempt to evade.

2Lt. Jolie Minh, despite her superlative talents as a mobile suit pilot, is only human. Newtype though she is, even Jolie requires time for her brain to process incoming sensory data, process that information, and transmit that information to her motor muscles to maneuver her mighty Centurion Gundam.

The Newtype, however, sees past the dimension of time. Seconds before Dirk Kirscher squeezes the joystick trigger for his Gellond's beam rifle, Jolie senses the enemy pilot's intent. Instantly, Jolie jets the Centurion Gundam back away from the Gellond, putting hundreds of meters between the two mobile suits in the seconds that she has.

1.5 seconds separated the beginning of Jolie's reverse blast from the firing of the Gellond's beam rifle.

As she thrusts the Centurion Gundam backwards at the top of its fusion-powered rocket engines' throttle, Jolie raises the beam saber of her mobile suit in a gesture not unlike that of a baseball player preparing to knock an incoming pitch out of the ballpark.

When Jolie was a little girl, not many years ago, she had been a supremely talented athlete. Her father, Dominic Minh, had dreams of his little girl growing up to someday become a professional baseball star. Indeed, in the two years that Jolie had played competitive little league baseball at her elementary school, she was known for having never missed when at bat. To pitch a baseball at Jolie was to have her send it out of the ballpark for a home run...sometimes when it seemed like she was barely paying attention at the moment the pitch was thrown.

The Centurion Gundam raises its beam saber like a baseball bat. In her mind, Jolie sees images of those baseball games of her bygone childhood days.

The Gellond's beam of white death approaches silently, swiftly, inexorably.

The Centurion Gundam swings the beam saber in a graceful sidelong arc, even as it continues to jet backwards.

An instant later, a deadly explosion ensues. A mobile suit is vaporized; its gifted pilot nothing but memories.

Episode 6 to be continued!

[Ken Cheng]

anyway, i just got thru with ch5. nice battle goin on there.

Thanks. There's more of the same in Chapter 6. I've got a battle right now that's run five posts and is STILL going. It might take another five to resolve it!

I'm really fleshing out the battle sequences quite a bit from the original draft written back in the mid-1990s. Believe it or not, the multipage Chapter 6 upper atmosphere battle I'm currently posting was originally just three paragraphs.

It's forced me to rethink some things, however. For example, in the original, Jolie just blasts the three Blackbirds out of the sky and everybody lands at Whampoa Base. Now, I've got General Noah's shuttle Silverthread too badly damaged to make the landing. I've got to figure out a way to get the general safely down to Earth for the next episode/chapter!