Gundam Seed: Kira, Knight of Orb

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my Original Characters and my Original Mecha Designs

Phase 00: Prologue

– The Doomed –

Mendel Colony, Lagrange 4
0622 GMT, May 20, 55 CE

It was a massacre. Ever since the first explosion twenty-two minutes ago, Mendel Colony's security forces found themselves overwhelmed by the invading force. The disparity of forces was highly obvious, as the security forces had mere normal space suits, civilian-grade sub-machine guns loaded with low-velocity rounds, and about as much combat experience as the average mall cop. The invaders, meanwhile, wore military-grade Semi-Powered Combat Armor, were armed with military-grade carbines loaded with 'Talon' self-fragmenting rounds and it was highly apparent they had training in close-quarters combat.

They made effective use of cover, despite the fact that they could literally walk right into a hail of the security forces' bullets and come out with little more than a scratch on the urban-camo paint on their armor, covering each other with suppressing fire and leap-frogging their way through the corridors. Each time they came to a door led towards more security forces, they tossed in either a flashbang or smoke grenade, and either piled out and started firing, or used the distraction to find another way around, if applicable, using no clear discernible pattern as to which action they took.

In their wake, they left bloody walls and shredded corpses. Talon rounds, illegal since the adoption of the Yggdrasil Accords more than forty years ago, broke under stress after piercing the skin of a target, specifically shaped to split into anywhere from three to nine shards of eviscerating lead and copper alloys, slicing open pretty much anything that got in their way. Veins, arteries, nerves, muscles and internal organs were cut apart, causing internal bleeding and shock that often enough killed the target outright.

All in all, it was a pure, simple massacre. Every so often, when the intruders came across a sector that security had been unable to reach or evacuate and encountered the civilians; scientists of various biological fields, they gunned them down on the spot, not even allowing a plea of mercy before bullets sliced through the researchers' flesh.

This pattern continued, unabated, up to the final, most secure and entrenched sector of the colony. Contrary to common sense and belief, it wasn't the colony control center. Rather, it was the lab of the premier scientist of the colony, one Ulen Hibiki, including his assistants' work-rooms and quarters as well as the chambers of him and his wife, Via.

Different from the rest of the colony, the hallways leading to this room were separated by thick metal bulkheads. The invaders were prepared for this obstacle. All of them, numbering thirty-three, gathered in the corridors preceding the first bulkhead blocking entry into the Hibiki's sector. Two of them attached a dark, compact wire to it using strips of a strange, thin and silvery tape, around an area large enough for three of them to walk through without difficulty. After they were done, one of them removed a detonator and triggered it, the tape igniting in a bright blue-white flash that burned through the metal in seconds, allowing the lead breacher to kick it in and storm through the opening.

Almost immediately, gunfire sounded, and the first of the assailants' casualties bled, tungsten-alloy-tipped bullets piercing through titanium-alloy and dilatant colloids intended to halt bullets and absorb kinetic impacts, to imbed themselves in the body of the intruder wearing the armor, killing him within seconds. Back behind the bulkhead, the apparent leader of the invading force shook his head at his underling's recklessness and stupidity.

Now, two of the invaders again stepped up, this time throwing in a variant of smoke grenades and another, special kind of explosive a second after. Filled with metallic shavings as well as the normal smoke-producing chemicals, these acted somewhat similar to the chaff thrown off by combat aircraft when targeted by missiles. The other explosive, meanwhile, was a long-term, relatively low-temperature incendiary.

Combined, these served to distract the automated turrets mounted on both the ceiling and floor from the entrance of the actual intruders, who made short work of the defenses.

And thus, another pattern came about, the experienced intruders plowing through the defenses only somewhat more slowly than their previous progress. They dismantled the last of the turrets an hour after the bulkheads first came up in their path.

Behind them was a door. It was a fairly simple one that slid into the wall when activated, guarded now only by a simple coded keypad.

Leaving all but four of his soldiers behind to act as a rearguard, the leader of the force simply walked up to the door and punched in a code that at one point only three people had known, before his organization's various spies and hackers managed to obtain it.

The door beeped, and slid smoothly, silently into the wall.

Behind were the two targets.

It was simple and quick.

"For the preservation of our pure and blue world." The leader intoned blandly, the speakers in his armor's helmet broadcasting his voice clearly so the two could hear him.

The blond man, Ulen Hibiki, snarled at the leader and opened his mouth. What for, no one would ever know, for the leader simply drew his sidearm, a .45-caliber handgun, and shot him in the head.

The brown-haired woman, Via Hibiki, however, simply stared calmly at him. It was unnerving, and would have made the man hesitate if he had any hint of emotions left. Instead, he simply shot her too, noting her strange smirk as an oddity that was dismissed after a split second's consideration.

The leader was about to turn back and order his subordinates' to carry out the last part of their mission, when rapid cracks started sounding.

– The Twin Commanders –

Outside, the invaders struggled to deal with their unexpected assailants. Ironically enough, they found themselves in the positions their own opposition were in merely hours ago.

Their armor did not protect them from their enemy. Whatever their weapons or ammunition, it pierced through the invaders' armor as easily as their own Talon bullets had passed through the security forces' clothes and skin.

Their weapons did not harm their enemy. The same Talon rounds that had been previously so effective merely shattered against the armor of the assailants.

And to add insult to injury, there were only two of them.

One was suited up in a hulking armor, obviously some kind of true powered armor prototype or something rather than the semi-powered production models the invaders wore. Each piece was a black, light-absorbing solid metal slab, with scale-like patterns on its surface, and whatever gaps they didn't cover showed a dark gray mass of fibrous material that was no more penetrable than the black pieces to the intruders' ammunition. The helmet, rather than being a simply effective affair, was artistically crafted in the image of a human skull, with eye-sockets glinting with embedded cameras. This one held a rifle that sounded a simple supersonic crack with every bullet fired, no normal gunshot that indicated the presence of gunpowder in any form, and had a rather huge handgun somehow attached to his hip. Parts of the armor slabs on the thighs and upper arms had spare magazines for the rifle attached in the same way the handgun was.

The other, lagging slightly behind the brute, was dressed in what was obviously a lighter and more main-stream version, perhaps intended for mass-production, the black armor pieces being both smaller and more numerous, with more gaps but also more flexibility, showing more of the dark gray under-material. The helmet wasn't a standard combat model however, being an all-encompassing oval orb that came up into a sort of crest at the back of the top of it, only a few small strips of off-color glass showing the mini-camera arrays that allowed the wearer to see. As with the brute, this one's upper arm and thigh plates had spare magazines somehow attached to them.
A compact weapon, a bullpup sub-machine gun with the same audio characteristics as the big attacker's rifle, was the main weapon used by the lighter-armored attacker, a handgun much smaller than the big brute's adorning his hip.

They worked in concert, the bigger one taking carefully aimed shots, sometimes firing bursts, at opportune targets while the smaller one sprayed indiscriminately in the direction of those still taking cover around corners. With the proven lethality of their weapons, it proved effective, the highly accurate shots of the brute's rifle rarely missing a target, often splattering the intruders' brains inside their helmets, while the small one's suppressive fire forced the intruders to keep their heads down, or suffer a couple dozen bullet wounds.

By now, it was apparent that the aggressor's weapons had enormous magazine capacity, considering how after two minutes of nearly non-stop combat, neither of the pair had yet to reload. Unbeknownst to the intruders however, the smaller one's SMG, despite having a much larger magazine capacity than the brute's rifle, was running low on ammunition due to the constant firing.

"Reloading." He called out, using the encrypted radio.

"Yeah sure, just get on with it Tei." The brute, Taka grumbled back. "I've got a good half-magazine left, shouldn't be too much trouble." In response, Tei ducked behind Taka's large, heavily armored form after firing off the last of his magazine, taking out the expended clip and bolting it onto a space on his thigh before retrieving a full magazine from the slot above that, sliding it into the SMG and chambering a round before slipping back out and spraying two overconfident enemies that slipped out when Taka's attention was elsewhere.

With Taka reloading while the remaining targets cowered, this allowed the duo to continue their onslaught, cutting their way through the rest of the intruders within a minute.

While the invaders' attack merely left corpses, Taka and Tei's assault left behind smoldering bullet holes in the metal walls as well as the dead bodies of the invading force. Most of the torn holes were from Tei's generous automatic fire, although there were one or two deep gouges from when Taka fired an overcharged single shot that penetrated right through a target ad his armor.

Now, only five remained. The leader of the invaders, and his chosen four subordinates.

They attacked when Taka stepped through the door, slamming his rifle into the wall and grabbing him in a hold intended to bring the heavier trooper to the ground under the other soldier's weight. It didn't work, Taka already counteracting by shifting his body and stomping on the invader's foot, heavy boot combined with synthetic hyper-dense musculature crushing both the inferior armor and the soldier's bones before Taka dropped his rifle and drew his knife, the eight-inch black-spined blade with its glittering transparent edge slicing through the semi-powered combat armor like it was cloth, embedding itself into the man's aorta.

As Taka was dealing with his two attackers, Tei was already firing on the other two, magnetically-accelerated rounds puncturing one's upper torso. The other one, slipping by Taka, simply punched Tei in the head. It wasn't quite as effective as he'd hoped, Tei simply grabbing the fist before his assailant could retract it and breaking the wrist with a single jerk of his hand. Then, it was a simple matter to pepper his attacker's abdomen with bullets.

Taka gave a twist of his knife before pulling it out and shoving the dying man to the side, turning more fully to face his last attacker, who grabbed a hand grenade from his belt. Taka just snorted in his helmet, reaching out and crushing his opponent's fist in his gauntlet and breaking the enemy's fingers around the grenade before burying his knife into the man's forehead.

Their attackers dealt with, the two armored men turned to face the last of the invaders, the commander standing in front of Ulen and Via's corpses. He held a detonator, and they could see several blocks of plastic explosives, wired with receivers, placed at several points around the chamber.

"You know that's useless, right?" Tei spoke up. "We've had radio jammers in place ever since we started killing your men." The commander hesitated, his thumb hovering over the detonator's button.

Enough of an opening for Taka to swiftly draw and fire his handgun, a 3mm hypersonic round punching through the commander's helmet and skull to splatter the innards of his cranium all over the floor before the fanatic called Tei's bluff.

"Fucking bastard!" Taka spat, holstering his sidearm and rushing to Via's body, Tei close behind. Kneeling by her corpse, he made to turn her onto her back, before stopping and just dropping his hands. "Damn him...and damn you Tei! Via was supposed to be safe with this asshole!" He growled, gesturing angrily at Ulen. "That's why I let her go, even after what happened to Caridad!"

"I'm sorry." Tei said, stepping around Taka. "I had hoped that everything we'd done before, combined with her marrying Ulen would have protected her...But it appears I was wrong. Even after so long, he's still rather effective in choosing his pawns." Tei moved over to Ulen, when there was a sound.

Crying.

Taka stood up, he and Tei frowning under their helmets and sweeping the room, noting its features for the first time.

To the right, consoles and screens lined the wall, with two screens still active: One showing a room full of large spherical machines large enough to house an average-sized man and one that was decorated in a way stereotypical of baby boy's rooms, occupied by a cradle.

"Is that-"

"Looks like it." Tei cut Taka off, moving to the consoles under each screen and rapidly hacking into the system. Within moments, he'd pulled up maps with each room highlighted, and nodded to Taka before the two moved off to their chosen destinations.

Half and hour later, they gather again in the room with the Hibiki's corpses, Taka cradling an infant while Tei leaned over it.

"Is that..."

"Yep. Their son. Kira Hibiki." Taka answered.

"So the family isn't dead yet." Tei mused, waggling his fingers above the baby's wide purple eyes.

"Looks like it." Taka agreed. "Still, what are we going to do now? There's no one left we can trust." Tei paused at that, head inclining as he thought.

"There's Orb." He said, Taka stiffening at the mention of the nation. "I know you don't want to go there, but at this point we have no choice. He's going to be looking for us after this incident, and we have resources in Orb that we can exploit. And besides, we can't raise Kira the way we've been living up to now. He's going to need a stable environment, and we're not exactly the best choices for father figures."

"We're not going to just hand him off to someone!" Taka snapped. "Not after this!"

"I know, I know." Tei placated. "We'll still raise him, our little nephew, and we'll teach him how to survive in this world...although I fear for his mental state with us looking after him." Taka snorted at that. "We're going to need plausible identities though..."

"But I like my name!"

"Not that, these names should be safe. We haven't used them in public persona yet, but we still need a surname..." The two paused, thinking.

"What about that guy Caridad was sweet on? Yamato?"

"Yamato..." Tei mused. "Yes, that could work. Somewhat generic-sounding these days, and it won't be out of place in Orb...very well then." With that, the two reached up and removed their helmets, black and white hair falling to frame Tei and Taka's faces before two bright purple eyes of an infant locked with the darker violet of the older men.

"Meet your uncles Tei and Taka...Kira Yamato..."

– The Author –

And I'm back!

(And so am I bitches!)

What the- What are you doing here K'GoN! I banished you to the deepest, darkest corners of my mind!

(Dumbass, I was born in the deepest and darkest corners of your mind - and a for the record, it's absolutely disgusting down there, especially the part where you keep your Mecha Musume fantasies - So of course I'd know my way out!)

Dammit, I was at least hoping you'd stay down there for another couple of years, until I could get some psychiatric help.

(Before or after they lock you up and throw away the key? Anyway, watching Jeff Dunham probably didn't help at all.)

Wait, so you're like my Peanut?

(Yes, and to add context to the reference, Peanut is the purple monkey puppet with the self-referential humor)

Moron, you should know not to explain the joke, since I'm fairly certain TV Tropes is down there too. Anyway, on to business, it's back to the main course for me, after several forays into other realms of fanfiction. Yes, I'm back into writing Gundam people!

(Wow, you're cruel. Giving those poor deprived folk a taste of your writing...actually, I take that back. You're probably doing them a mercy, ending those premature fantasies right there.)

What? No, I'm not giving up on the Devil of Zero or Scorpion's Masterpiece! However, they are admittedly not going to update quite as much as before -

(Which wasn't much at all, by the way.)

- Shut up - but I think I've made it clear that Gundam and by association other Mecha stories are my main priorities -

(No you haven't.)

So I...what?

(You haven't made any mention of any sort of priorities in any story you've posted. At all.)

Well, of course I...Surely I've...I haven't, have I?

(Nope.)

Crap. Well, anyway, just to clear it up, in the list of priorities, Gundam in all its forms is at the very top, followed by other Mecha/Robot works (Code Geass, Transformers, Armored Core, Battletech...) And then the rest of the pile is pretty much ordered by total reviews and/or how I'm feeling about them.

(Truly, your muse is a flighty one...which is a bit punny, considering she's a pin-up of Wing Zero EW Version's Mecha Musume taped next to your desk...)

*cough-shut-up-cough* So, as of now my prime focus is on this new story here, Kira, Knight of Orb (Formerly titled Kira, Soldier of Orb - it seems to flow better this way), which can be boiled down to a rather drastic rewrite of Killer's Realm. Now, usually, I post both the prologue and the first chapter within two days, but there's been some problems with Phase 01 -

( - Namely, the buying of Armored Core V and the release of Diablo III - )

- So that's probably going to be posted around Monday -

( - Unless the asshole gets lazy again - or, god forbid, gets a job! - )

To summate: New Story! (Again) Original Mecha! (Again) Beta'd by Maderfole! (Aga - wait, what? How the hell did you get him to beta this crap?)

...Um...

(...It's pity, isn't it?)

...

(And the last seven hundred words or so weren't in the draft you sent him, were they?)

...No?

(...You are a sad, sad, fat man.

Anyway fleshlings, Read and Review! Or I KILL YOU!)

Please don't threaten the readers.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni