A Keith Newman sidestory[]
Penned by: K Neuman
LC 24 February 14th
Colony NEU_5
Keith ran, excited, out of his house and into the lawn before his patio. He took a deep breath. Today’s the day. “Mom, Dad! Hurry up; we’re gonna miss the performance!” The twelve-year-old shouted. In moments a man and a woman, both in their early thirties, stepped out of the house. “Slow down son! The show is starting in 30 minutes. We’ve plenty of time, right Catherine?” The man smiled, looking over to his wife. “Indeed, Peter.” Catherine replied, returning the smile.
“Damned feds!” Richard cursed. GM IIs were closing in on his Rick Dom Custom, and he was by far on the losing side. The fighting had started about an hour before, when a his subordinate insulted an Earth Federation pilot. The event ended in violence. This gave all the excuse his soldiers needed to open fire…and it also gave an excuse for the Feds to retaliate. As the battle dragged on, Federation reinforcements arrived. His team, however, was losing numbers. Richard recalled seeing David, Domovio, Tommy, Kenneth, and several others being shot down by Feddies. Now it was only him, Yuuki, Joseph, Aziel, and Edd. A few other conficts like this had happened before, and Rick was surprised that the Empire had not yet declared war upon the Federation.
A sudden rush of static brought Richard out from his daydream. “Edward!” He shouted as he put his MS into reverse. There was no reply. Now it was just the 4 of them. “Everyone, pull back! We won’t last longer if we continue to fight! Time to go!” Richard barked. The GMs were still onto him. Fools. They began to fire, and Rick easily dodged the shower of attacks brought upon him. In response, stopped his MS and flew forwards, activating his Beam Saber. The GMs desperately tried to change course, but the Dom was faster and more agile. In two swipes, the GMs were sliced into two. Fortunately there was no blast. His monitor beeped, and live images of several other advancing GMs made the Zeon pilot clench his teeth. “I’ll make you pay, Federation.”
Jumping into the car, the boy waited, fairly impatiently for his parents, who were still strolling across the lawn, chatting with one another. When his dad finally got his butt on the driver’s seat, Keith started to protest loudly, saying how late they would be, what an embarrassment they’d become. It took menacing glares from both Peter and Catherine to stop his screams of unhappiness. “We’ll be there in 15.” Peter said simply. Keith checked his watch. 25 minutes left.
The reason behind the young lad’s excitement was this: There’d be an air show in the centre of town. Last year, space fighter jets had carved a symbol of a pink heart in the sky. Rumour has it that this year a Mobile Armour would do it. The news immediately piqued his interest in the Valentine’s Day Air show. Maybe next year we’ll have an actually Mobile Suit performing. The thought made him smile in anticipation. Though I really wish a Mobile Suit would appear today…
Richard Diaz ran a scan of the area, hoping that the GMs were no longer on their tails. No such luck. He was flying behind the Musai II Jr, acting as its escort. His teammates had returned inside for repairs. Rick’s Mobile Suit was the least damaged, therefore he volunteered to guard the Musai as the rest of his team finished their repairs. As they neared Side 5, a horrible reality dawned on Richard and his cohort. No…a Federation Space ship? This is bad…the squad behind them must have ratted on the conflict. The group was now considered to be hostile.
Their need for concern increased when the Irish class Battle Ship deployed 4 GM IIs. Crap.
Miraculously…they made it in time. Keith breathed a sigh of relief. Anxiously he yanked open the door and rushed to the field. Thousands of people had gathered to watch, and indeed, there was a Mobile Armour. “Oh my god, it’s a Ball!” He squealed. The boy’s pulse rate rose as he inched closer to it. “It’s an RB-79…except that it’s pink…and the cannon is facing…backwards?” Meanwhile Peter and Catherine Newman rushed to catch up with their son. “I remember when I was his age,” Peter recalled. “I’d react exactly like that.” He finished, grinning. Catherine smiled. “I guess boys will always be boys...” She shrugged. The air show was going to start, and the Mayor of NEU_5 stepped onto the Rostrum. “Today, on Valentine’s Day…”
“This is Yuuki Sato! Zaku III, heading out!” The catapults on the launch pad of the Musai II roared to life and pulled the Zaku III forwards, flinging it into the darkness of space. Yuuki counted the enemies. “12 in total…we’re in deep shit.” He cursed. Behind him, a second, then a third Zaku III was launched. They were the Musai’s last line of defense. “Yuuki, you guard the front and sides of the Musai with Joseph and Aziel! I’ll handle the ones coming from the back!” The team leader, Richard ordered. “Yes sir!” The three cried in unison. The Musai’s thrusters flared up and the battleship accelerated to maximum speed. Here goes nothing…
The first wave of attacks came in the form of long range missiles. The Zakus shot them down with ease. The GMs were closer now, and the ones in front raised their Beam Rifles and started to fire. The three Zakus returned the shots, which were simply dodged by the GM IIs. They were even closer now. “Screw it! I’m going to kill those Federation scum!” Aziel scowled, rushing forwards. “Aziel! You’re breaking formation!” Yuuki called out, but his words fell on deaf ears. “DIE!” Aziel screamed, bringing down his Beam Axe on a nearby GM. The attack was so sudden the pilot never had the chance to react. The Beam Axe ruthlessly slashed through the cockpit, instantly killing the unfortunate pilot. “Come on!” Aziel taunted, but was cut short as a GM II rushed in from it’s side, ramming it’s torso into Aziel’s Zaku III. He screamed as his head rocked back and forth, smashing itself against the small monitor located in front of the seat and the chair. The GM armed itself with a Beam Saber and lunged forward. “As if I’ll let you do that!” Yuuki yelled. He raised his Beam Rifle and fired, tearing off the GM’s arms. It gave enough time for Aziel to escape; and subsequently to strike back, and of course, Aziel being Aziel did just that.
“And so, I would like to invite Sir William Gates The 14th, to cut the ribbon and begin the Valentine’s Day event!” The Mayor proudly declared. Oh hurry it up! I wanna see the Ball in action! Keith thought. He’d ignored the past few minutes of speech, and was instead admiring the Ball. As the person the Mayor mentioned stepped up the stage, Keith looked away again, diverting his attention to the Ball. Then he saw something. A very disturbing yet very cool something. In the layer of glass that protected the Ball’s ‘eye’, he could see a Musai II nearing the Colony. His gaze drifted upwards to the Colony’s glass layer and he froze, staring wide eyed at the events that were taking place beyond NEU_5. Oh no.
“YOU’LL PAY!!!” Aziel exclaimed, plunging his Beam Tomahawk into the GM II. The tomahawk tore through the GM like a knife would through paper, and seconds later the MS was engulfed by a ball of purple light. “Aziel that spiteful-!” Yuuki began, but was cut off when a beam ripped through the darkness out of the blue, scorching the Zaku II’s left shoulder. Yuuki was thrown off balance, and the next thing he knew, another shot had struck his MS that destroyed its left arm and a chunk of its shoulder completely. “They have a sniper!” was all Yuuki could say before he plunged downwards, slamming onto the Colony wall facing downwards. It knocked him out.
Then the third shot came, sawing off the Zaku’s leg and narrowly missing the cockpit. In the process the Colony’s glass exterior shattered, and the Zaku was forced inside.
By that time, everyone in the Colony had noticed. Everyone froze. The people of NEU_5 could only stare at the events unfolding outside the Colony. Then the inevitable happened. One of the Zakus got damaged and was thrown against the glass wall, causing cracks to appear. Another shot helped break it, the sudden force throwing the Zaku III inwards. The unit was facing the ground, and suddenly its thrusters rumbled to life, bringing the Mobile Suit crashing down. All hell broke lose.
The tremendous shaking woke Yuuki up. “What…” He mumbled, before realizing what serious trouble he was in. “I am going to die.”
As the Zaku collided with the earth, a humongous ‘bang’ was heard that reverberated throughout the Colony’s interior. People ran away from the site immediately. There was screaming, crying, all sorts of noises. Keith could only stare. He stood rooted to the ground in fear, and he could feel his legs liquefying. “Keith!” The boy’s head shot round. It was his dad. Oh how he had wanted to shout ‘father’, but when his mouth opened nothing came out.
Next, the boy saw a blur approaching his father. NO! The blur turned into a large explosion, a burning inferno of flames. His father was gone. As the boy struggled to control the emotions welling up within him, a second blast occurred nearby. It was the Ball. His head instinctively turned over to the direction where the blast was, and suddenly his body was impacted by shrapnel. Pieces of metal gored through his torso and thighs, and one put a large gash at his left eyebrow. His staggered backwards and collapsed to his knees. He could feel his life force fading, and as darkness ate into the corners of his vision, he saw a middle aged man running towards him. Everything went black.
Yuuki blinked. I’m still…alive? Weakly, he tapped several buttons and pushed the throttle forwards. The heavily damaged Zaku III pushed itself off the ground. It was a wrong move, for one of the GM’s noticed this, and thus its pilot had decided to end the Zaku’s misery. The federation pilot eased his MS into the Colony and tried to balance his suit while it got buffeted by escaping air. Nonetheless he pulled the trigger. The GM II’s machine rifle started up and started propelling rounds into the Colony. A few were off, and some had accidentally destroyed what looked like a Ball.
But at last it hit, and the Zaku crumpled back onto the ground. The GM landed, and the federation pilot took his MS in for a closer look at the fallen enemy Mobile Suit. “All in a day’s work, I guess.” He shrugged, but as he turned to leave the MS’s temperature started to increase rapidly. The Minovsky particle count spiked.
“OH SHIT!” He growled, jamming his foot on the gas. But it was too late. The Zaku III exploded, and the GM was quickly engulfed in the explosion, causing the federation Mobile Suit to go ‘boom’ as well. Everything in the colony burst into flames, and the explosion overwhelmed the burning buildings and people as clouds of radioactive dust swept through NEU_5. A familiar mushroom cloud materialized, and shortly after it was gone, for the hole in the colony had sucked out the dust and debris. Everything in NEU_5 ceased to exist…
Or at least, almost everything.