Fic: Starbound, Ironclad (X-Men: First Class / Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing, PG-13)
title: Starbound, Ironclad
author: ilovetakahana
word count: 1217
fandoms: X-Men: First Class [movieverse], Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing
characters: Charles Xavier, Raven Darkholme, X-Men First Class ensemble. Mention of Erik Lehnsherr and characters from Gundam Wing.
rating: PG-13
notes: As self-inflicted a plot bunny as they come, brought on by TWO-MIX and "Rhythm Emotion". More information here and here. I've really mucked around with the GW timelines here, sorry about that - the only important things to remember are that "the Five" refers to Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei; and that almost all Gundam series begin with the main character/s stealing a Gundam from its original owners, hence "Gundamjack", and hence "jack".
Also archived at http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org.
“Computer, initiate.”
Voice signature confirmed. Psychic resonance confirmed. Identity confirmed. Charles Francis Xavier. Gundam Starbound.
“That's me,” I said. Flickering light scrolling across my eyes. The helmet was heavy on my head, and I never liked wearing it. But it was necessary; then as now, the Zero System tended to go wild once someone powerful enough was placed in it. The helmet was supposed to protect me.
I had grave doubts about that.
A voice filtered in through the click and hiss of heads-up readouts. “Pilot, this is Blackbird. Give us a communications check here on the mothership?”
I smiled, though I hadn't turned on the cockpit cam yet and no one would be able to see my face inside the helmet. “Sean, you are loud and clear.”
“Good to hear that.” His voice was a quiet burr in my ear. “How're the sticks? How does she feel? You know Hank and Alex and Angel spent like an entire week re-speccing her for you?”
“Because I'm such a runt?” I said, grinning.
“Because they've never met a pilot like you, stupid,” said a new voice, and this one was laughing and familiar. “Never met a better pilot. Not since the Five.”
Only the years I'd spent listening to it told me that the new speaker was worried for me, worried and fearful and still encouraging.
“Raven,” I said, gently. Warmly. “If I'm supposed to be that good, you know you're always supposed to be even better. And there's no one I'd rather have to run backup for me. At least you've healed enough. I still think you should be in hospital, recovering - ”
“No one is going to keep me from you, and this Doll's been missing me.”
A new blip on the screens: the ghost outline of Mobile Doll Shifter. Counterpart and companion to Gundam Starbound, and its far more maneuverable version.
“Computer, cams,” I said. I could see the image of myself in the confines of the cockpit. I could see Sean waving from the bridge of the Blackbird, and I could see Raven wearing her helmet. After the crash, after she'd barely managed to walk away from the fireball that was the other Mobile Doll, they'd had to cut off her beautiful red hair. Now only a few fringes were visible from the lower edges of her headgear.
A new voice. “Starbound, Shifter. This is Blackbird bridge, acknowledge.”
“Ma'am,” I said, and I could see Raven's hand move as if to salute. It was hard to forget the mannerisms and tics one picked up from Lake Victoria.
“Just MacTaggert will do, again,” the woman who commanded the ship, though she held no formal ranks, said. “We have reports of trouble at the Prize base code-named Caspartina. No one's talking about what happened yet, but it could be another mutiny - we've been having quite a few of those lately.”
“Are we going to prosecute?” I asked. Already I could feel my mind reaching out, the overlay of the Zero System like green warning lights, linking myself to Starbound and, through it, to Shifter and to the systems controlling Blackbird.
“Latest updates,” a new voice said.
“Alex, you're not supposed to be on duty,” MacTaggert said.
“I'm the only one they could send.”
There were five of us on the screen now, myself and the four others, and I looked up just in time to see Raven raise the visor on her helmet, mostly identical to mine except for the more limited connection that she shared into my Zero installation.
She raised her fingers to her temple, and I quietly engaged her on the back-channel comms. “You know what they keep at Caspartina.”
“Gundam Ironclad,” she whispered. “And the man you think is piloting it.”
“I still remember his face. I still remember seeing him, the night we fell out of the sky,” I said.
This was one of the times when being so deeply connected into Zero was a potentially bad thing. Crystal-clear memories, five years old, playing across my visor. Raven and I didn't die that night. We were saved from the exploding shuttle. We were brought down to earth, orphaned and broken and clinging together.
We were not supposed to have survived. They wanted our names among those of the dead. It had been targeted for a reason, after all.
Crashes and fireballs seemed to be our fate.
“What makes you think it's the same pilot?” I asked. Impossible as it was to have hope - Zero saw to that. As did this endless dragging war. It had already seen the first group of pilots - the Five - come back to life, when they should have been left undisturbed and deserving of their sleep. And now we were part of the fight.
“Because you believe it's so,” Raven said, at last. “And because no one else can pilot Ironclad.”
Grey eyes, and the face of a man who had given up on all but a sliver of hope. Hands that could fire destruction into space and sky alike; the same hands that had left my sister and me safe on the ground.
Before I could think of a response the warning lights began to flash in my cockpit, and MacTaggert was leaning in to the camera. Her words were more urgent now: “Starbound, Shifter, you have been given the green light.”
“Orders,” Raven rapped out.
MacTaggert paused. “That's the unusual thing. This dispatch comes from the Five. Message reads: Engage, no lethal force, imminent jack, escort. I've only ever heard the word jack in a very specific context - you can't tell me it's happening again? I still remember what happened the last time.”
I couldn't hear anything else over the ringing in my ears, over the deceptive hum of green and Zero in my mind. But I could hear my own voice, already responding. “Message back to the Five, please. Text runs: orders acknowledged, imminent jack, we know what to do. Starbound.” And: “Shifter, jet mode. Watch my back.”
The image of Raven nods, once, and then she's flipping her visor back down. Her hands wrapped in bandages.
I closed my eyes, and the world opened up around me. The metal shell with me at its heart. Electronics, communications, joints, and armaments. The weapons complements on Starbound and Shifter. The pistol I wore at my waist; Raven's knife, carried in the small of her back.
I could feel Earth fall away, far and fast behind me, and Shifter keeping up.
Caspartina was a hollowed-out asteroid base and communications relay station.
It was home to a Gundam.
And after the Five, after the memories of Operation Meteor, jack could only mean one thing.
Count down the seconds into burn. Push forward, second after second. Out, past the atmosphere - and I threw all my weight into the sticks. Starbound.
And what the stars originally meant to humans, long before the colonies, long before fire. Wonder and light and hope.
Green burned to blue faded to black.
Space.
Hope.
Ironclad. We are here.
We've come to get you.
On to Defection
author: ilovetakahana
word count: 1217
fandoms: X-Men: First Class [movieverse], Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing
characters: Charles Xavier, Raven Darkholme, X-Men First Class ensemble. Mention of Erik Lehnsherr and characters from Gundam Wing.
rating: PG-13
notes: As self-inflicted a plot bunny as they come, brought on by TWO-MIX and "Rhythm Emotion". More information here and here. I've really mucked around with the GW timelines here, sorry about that - the only important things to remember are that "the Five" refers to Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei; and that almost all Gundam series begin with the main character/s stealing a Gundam from its original owners, hence "Gundamjack", and hence "jack".
Also archived at http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org.
“Computer, initiate.”
Voice signature confirmed. Psychic resonance confirmed. Identity confirmed. Charles Francis Xavier. Gundam Starbound.
“That's me,” I said. Flickering light scrolling across my eyes. The helmet was heavy on my head, and I never liked wearing it. But it was necessary; then as now, the Zero System tended to go wild once someone powerful enough was placed in it. The helmet was supposed to protect me.
I had grave doubts about that.
A voice filtered in through the click and hiss of heads-up readouts. “Pilot, this is Blackbird. Give us a communications check here on the mothership?”
I smiled, though I hadn't turned on the cockpit cam yet and no one would be able to see my face inside the helmet. “Sean, you are loud and clear.”
“Good to hear that.” His voice was a quiet burr in my ear. “How're the sticks? How does she feel? You know Hank and Alex and Angel spent like an entire week re-speccing her for you?”
“Because I'm such a runt?” I said, grinning.
“Because they've never met a pilot like you, stupid,” said a new voice, and this one was laughing and familiar. “Never met a better pilot. Not since the Five.”
Only the years I'd spent listening to it told me that the new speaker was worried for me, worried and fearful and still encouraging.
“Raven,” I said, gently. Warmly. “If I'm supposed to be that good, you know you're always supposed to be even better. And there's no one I'd rather have to run backup for me. At least you've healed enough. I still think you should be in hospital, recovering - ”
“No one is going to keep me from you, and this Doll's been missing me.”
A new blip on the screens: the ghost outline of Mobile Doll Shifter. Counterpart and companion to Gundam Starbound, and its far more maneuverable version.
“Computer, cams,” I said. I could see the image of myself in the confines of the cockpit. I could see Sean waving from the bridge of the Blackbird, and I could see Raven wearing her helmet. After the crash, after she'd barely managed to walk away from the fireball that was the other Mobile Doll, they'd had to cut off her beautiful red hair. Now only a few fringes were visible from the lower edges of her headgear.
A new voice. “Starbound, Shifter. This is Blackbird bridge, acknowledge.”
“Ma'am,” I said, and I could see Raven's hand move as if to salute. It was hard to forget the mannerisms and tics one picked up from Lake Victoria.
“Just MacTaggert will do, again,” the woman who commanded the ship, though she held no formal ranks, said. “We have reports of trouble at the Prize base code-named Caspartina. No one's talking about what happened yet, but it could be another mutiny - we've been having quite a few of those lately.”
“Are we going to prosecute?” I asked. Already I could feel my mind reaching out, the overlay of the Zero System like green warning lights, linking myself to Starbound and, through it, to Shifter and to the systems controlling Blackbird.
“Latest updates,” a new voice said.
“Alex, you're not supposed to be on duty,” MacTaggert said.
“I'm the only one they could send.”
There were five of us on the screen now, myself and the four others, and I looked up just in time to see Raven raise the visor on her helmet, mostly identical to mine except for the more limited connection that she shared into my Zero installation.
She raised her fingers to her temple, and I quietly engaged her on the back-channel comms. “You know what they keep at Caspartina.”
“Gundam Ironclad,” she whispered. “And the man you think is piloting it.”
“I still remember his face. I still remember seeing him, the night we fell out of the sky,” I said.
This was one of the times when being so deeply connected into Zero was a potentially bad thing. Crystal-clear memories, five years old, playing across my visor. Raven and I didn't die that night. We were saved from the exploding shuttle. We were brought down to earth, orphaned and broken and clinging together.
We were not supposed to have survived. They wanted our names among those of the dead. It had been targeted for a reason, after all.
Crashes and fireballs seemed to be our fate.
“What makes you think it's the same pilot?” I asked. Impossible as it was to have hope - Zero saw to that. As did this endless dragging war. It had already seen the first group of pilots - the Five - come back to life, when they should have been left undisturbed and deserving of their sleep. And now we were part of the fight.
“Because you believe it's so,” Raven said, at last. “And because no one else can pilot Ironclad.”
Grey eyes, and the face of a man who had given up on all but a sliver of hope. Hands that could fire destruction into space and sky alike; the same hands that had left my sister and me safe on the ground.
Before I could think of a response the warning lights began to flash in my cockpit, and MacTaggert was leaning in to the camera. Her words were more urgent now: “Starbound, Shifter, you have been given the green light.”
“Orders,” Raven rapped out.
MacTaggert paused. “That's the unusual thing. This dispatch comes from the Five. Message reads: Engage, no lethal force, imminent jack, escort. I've only ever heard the word jack in a very specific context - you can't tell me it's happening again? I still remember what happened the last time.”
I couldn't hear anything else over the ringing in my ears, over the deceptive hum of green and Zero in my mind. But I could hear my own voice, already responding. “Message back to the Five, please. Text runs: orders acknowledged, imminent jack, we know what to do. Starbound.” And: “Shifter, jet mode. Watch my back.”
The image of Raven nods, once, and then she's flipping her visor back down. Her hands wrapped in bandages.
I closed my eyes, and the world opened up around me. The metal shell with me at its heart. Electronics, communications, joints, and armaments. The weapons complements on Starbound and Shifter. The pistol I wore at my waist; Raven's knife, carried in the small of her back.
I could feel Earth fall away, far and fast behind me, and Shifter keeping up.
Caspartina was a hollowed-out asteroid base and communications relay station.
It was home to a Gundam.
And after the Five, after the memories of Operation Meteor, jack could only mean one thing.
Count down the seconds into burn. Push forward, second after second. Out, past the atmosphere - and I threw all my weight into the sticks. Starbound.
And what the stars originally meant to humans, long before the colonies, long before fire. Wonder and light and hope.
Green burned to blue faded to black.
Space.
Hope.
Ironclad. We are here.
We've come to get you.
On to Defection