HEROES WHO SHED THEIR BLOOD
A Mobile Suit Gundam [One Year War era] fanfic
by Andrew Dynon
Mobile Suit Gundam created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, (c) Sotsu Agency, Sunrise.
English-language version (c) AnimeVillage.Com
For Anzac Day
Any and all C&C NEEDED. MSTs especially welcome.
* * * * *
From a distance, the area of space within which the planet Earth and its
colonies drifted seemed peaceful, an undisturbed part of a clockwork-like
solar system. It had remained this way for billions of years, and would
remain so for billions more.
The race that originated there knew that was a lie.
Shortly after the Earth had last reached this point in its orbit, the
Duchy of Zeon had declared war upon the Earth Federation, and the human
population was now less than half of what it had been then. And still, the
destruction continued. More lives would be lost until one side could no
longer continue.
Deep down, rookie GM pilot Justin Long was aware of these facts. But he
had no reason to contemplate them, nor did anyone else aboard the carrier
he was on. A not insignificant number still did, though, during the
periods where they had nothing else to do - he was currently among that
number. Whether he lived or died, he thought, would not make a difference
to the cosmos. He didn't like that fact - he wanted to believe he had some
significance - but he could not deny it.
"Hey, Justin! Wakey-wakey!" A female voice called. Justin snapped out
of his reverie to see a redheaded girl his own age - sixteen - bending over
him. Technically, they were not eligible to enlist in the Earth Federal
Forces, but the Federation wasn't picky - he had heard, from a "friend of a
friend", that the pilot of the now-legendary Gundam was a year younger than
him. He didn't think that story was likely, but these days the story could
not be rejected out of hand.
"I'm already awake, Cathy." Justin said, slightly irritated.
"And thinking of Man's place within the cosmos, the meaning of life and
such." Cathy replied. "Don't look at me like that, I can tell. 'course,
I can't figure out why you keep doing that. All it ends up doing is making
you depressed." She let out a deliberately-overemphasised sigh of
exasperation.
"Cathy, you gonna let him know what's happening?" A voice called from
outside the quarters.
"I'm on it, Keiji! Sheez, can't we have a quick chat first?" Cathy made
another of her trademark exasperated sighs. "Anyway, like *Ensign Li*
wants me to tell you, we've gotta head to a briefing now, then prep our MS
before making our assault on the shoal zone."
"Thank you for telling him, *Corporal Bradbury*." Despite Li's serious
tone, Cathy and Justin both knew that the remark had more than a tough of
jest about it.
"Yeah, well, I suppose I should come along then." Justin remarked.
"'spose so." Cathy agreed. "Can you make it there by tourself, or are
you gonna get lost in your thoughts on the way?"
The briefing was short - according to the Federation's intel, the Zeons
had only a token force stationed along the shoal zone - a few Zakus and a
small asteroid fortress which was a low priority for resupply. In all
respects, the Federation's senior officers assured their green troops, it
would be a cakewalk for the Federation to waltz in and capture the area,
especially now that the tide of war was turning and Zeon morale was dropping.
* * * * *
"Well, looks like our first fight won't be a hard one." Cathy commented
as she ran the final checks on her GM.
"Hey, they might just surrender as soon as they see us." Keiji remarked.
"Or they could get desperate..." Justin observed less optimistically.
"Even if they are, what can they do?" retorted Cathy confidently.
"Anything their Zakus can do, our GMs can do better. Plus, we know exactly
where they are." She gave a thumbs-up to Jason before her cockpit closed.
Jason shook his head, but did not reply. Cathy was displaying what he
thought was too much confidence, especially for someone who, like him, was
going into her first real battle. He knew she had done well in training,
but that was of little comfort. And when he tried to caution her, which
had been often, she invariably told him that he was being a
stick-in-the-mud and that she knew how to take care of herself. What Cathy
thought of as self-confidence, he thought of as a dangerous over-confidence.
"Mobile suit squadrons, first wave, ten seconds to launch." The voice
over the comm snapped Justin out of his most recent period of
contemplation, and he positioned his hands on the MS controls. "Kyu...
hachi... nana... roku... go... yon... san... ni... ichi... HASSHIN!"
At that command, a swarm of GMs launched from the Federation carrier
fleet, flying towards the shoal zone where the Zeons were stationed.
Then, the Zeons opened fire. A massive wave of shells and energy beams
from their mobile suits and the asteroid fortress smashed into the
approaching Federation mobile suits. GMs exploded into grisly flowers of
flame and plasma, vaporising their luckless pilots. A few were unlucky
enough to have time to scream before they died.
Keiji, flanked by Jason and Cathy, piloted his GM toward the Zeon
positions. The three of them had, so far, been skilled and lucky enough to
evade enemy fire. They, and the rest of the Federation forces, had failed
to do any significant damage in return yet.
"Damn it! Why is it this thick?" Cathy yelled. Nobody replied -
Minovsky particles were blocking radio communication. "Geez, Jason sure
was right about military intelligence being a contradiction in terms!" She
twisted her GM sideways, narrowly evading another burst of Zeon gunfire.
The trio, along with other Federation mobile suit pilots who had managed
not to be disabled or destroyed by Zeon fire, had almost reached the shoal
zone by this time, and a number of Zeon mobile suits were clearly visible.
Most of them were Zakus, but there were a few heavier, purple and black
mobile suits among them.
{Rick Doms?} Jason thought to himself. {Just goes to show how good our
intel is. "Just a few old Zakus", my arse!". In the corner of his eye, he
saw a shot hit the leg of Cathy's GM - fortunately, it failed to do any
serious damage.
The trio continued to fight, dodging through the mass of floating
asteroids and trying to out-position their enemies. They had no real idea
of how much damage, if any, they had done, and it was not a concern at the
moment. All involved were more concerned about ensuring their own safety
than destroying the enemy, let alone keeping score.
A Zaku appeared from behind one of the many asteroids and fired at Keiji -
the ensign dodged to the left, away from the asteroid he was using as
cover, and was hit by a burst of fire from elsewhere - neither he, Jason or
Cathy saw from whom. It didn't matter, the result was the same. The GM's
reactor exploded, and the suit and its pilot went with it.
Neither Jason nor Cathy had time to reflect on his death at this stage -
both knew they could only mourn if they managed to avoid the same fate.
While Cathy turned to face a Zaku approaching from the direction from which
Keiji had been shot - she couldn't tell whether it was the same one that
had shot him - Jason drew his GM's beam saber and flew at the one which had
been the indirect cause of their commander's death. The Zaku moved far
faster than he had anticipated, dodging past him while drawing its heat
blade, a swing of which left a nasty gash in his GM's side. By the time he
had turned around, the Zaku was coming at him again. He slashed at the
Zaku's head with his beam saber, but the Zeon pilot ducked the swing, and
rammed the heat blade into his GM's lower torso.
Cathy, meanwhile, tried to dodge the fire from her opponent's machine gun.
Dodging to the right, she fired several shots in rapid succession from her
beam spray gun, until finally one of them plugged the Zaku in the chest,
causing an ugly cloud of black smoke to billow from its now-still form.
But at the same time as she fired that final shot, the Zaku's gunfire
struck her GM's right arm, blowing it off at the elbow, and sending her gun
floating away through space.
"Jason, where are you?" she asked through the comms, not expecting an
answer. She turned back the way she had come from and saw Jason's GM
impaled on a Zaku's heat blade. Thinking quickly, she threw her GM's
shield at the Zaku, bottom first. In the zero gravity, the shield shot
towards the Zaku, slamming into its verniers. Cathy followed up by drawing
her beam saber with the still-functioning left arm and slicing at the Zaku.
Its pilot tried to dodge, but Cathy still managed to take half its leg
off. The Zaku fired its main thrusters and cleared out of the area.
Neither Jason nor Cathy bothered to pursue.
"Jason, your GM's about to blow, get out of there!" Cathy yelled, again
half-forgetting, half-not caring that the comms could not work. Almost
immediately Jason's hatch opened, and he ejected, using his manuvering
thrusters to head toward Cathy's GM. Cathy didn't know whether she had
somehow communicated with him, or if Jason had realised the fact himself,
but at any rate, he had just managed to clear the blast radius when his GM
exploded.
"Darn Earthnoid brass sure screwed this one up." Cathy commented bitterly
as Jason climbed into her GM's cockpit. "Condition we're in, we can't do
any more good. Let's pull back."
"Sounds like the smartest thing to do right now." Jason agreed.
"You did good, Jason. The Zeons were better than I thought."
"Yeah. Thanks, Cathy." For now, that was all jason wanted or needed to say.
THE END
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Well, this is the first "special occasion fic" I've written, and, I think,
the first Anzac Day fic that's appeared on the FFML. Why did I decide to
do this? I've become a big Gundam fan in the last year or so, and it
seemed the best series I know of to do something analogous to the Gallipoli
(sp?) landings (which took place on this day, April 25th, 1915) and what
those involved went through, especially while avoiding too much blatand
flag-waving. It was a bit of a rush job (I was busy over Easter), not
everything is directly analogous (there were things changed for dramatic
reasons), and I don't think I managed to express/include everything I
wanted to, but at least it's finished and out on time.
Thank you to everone on the FFML and Gundam ML who offered me ideas, info
and advice.
The title comes from a quote from the Turkish commander at Gallipoli,
Ataturk, which are inscribed on one of the memorials there:
"Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives, you are now lying in
the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.
"There is no difference between the Johniies and the Mehmets to us where
they lie side by side here in this country of ours.
"You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away
your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
"After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as
well."
(This was quoted in a letter in _The Age_ today by Turgut Yavuz. And yes,
that means I didn't decide on the title until today.)
________________________________________________________________
Andrew Dynon
"When will those bloody adolescents learn to leave my Mobile Suits alone?"
- Bright Noah, from Kathleen Moffre's fanfic "Russian Roulette"
"Keep 'em guessing. Never tell anyone the truth. Try to confuse them."
- Stefan Elliot on dealing with Hollywood executives.
"Stories have to be told to exist. They exist in the telling and retelling."
- Itzhak Roeh