The first of the three was the only completed one. The other two only had their main parts and infrastructure showing, dull grey metallic pieces, cables, gears and all. However, even that one completed gundam alone was enough to make the crew of Freeden IV all look up in unison and exclaim in awe. It was colored in a dark red, outlined with white. It was also slender, appearing similar to the gundam Airmaster. But its shape was more angular and looked every bit a bird of prey.

This was exactly the feeling I had when I first saw the Gundam X, thought Garrod Ran, reliving the anticipation and andrenline rush of that moment long gone. There is no doubt, too, that where they are going now, it is a place with a lot of action and unknown. Reliving the past. Is that it? There were the Gundams X, Airmaster and Leopard five years ago. And there are these three new ones all over again. Thinking that, he glanced towards Tiffa Adill, trying to remember the feeling when he first met her.

Some memories never die. Jamil Neate felt a stabbing pain in his heart, and clutched his chest unconsiously. However, this was a pain he had lived with for a long time, and believed to have forsaken five years ago. A total of twenty years ago, he had stood in front of a mobile suit hangar much grander than this, admiring the three majestic and powerful gundams that stood right before him. Five years ago, he stood in the hangar of Freeden. Now, the hanagr of Freeden III. Everytime this happened, there was a war. He lost the first one, and only managed to barely stop the second. How about this time? He believed that everyone around him felt as he did.

"Beautiful!" Witz Sou screamed into the air, running around the place to admire the completed gundam from every different angle," It looks like an utter speed demon!"

"It does, doesn't it?" Kid Salsamille strolled slowly in, putting his cap back on," Then I did not waste the five years." The seventeen year old genius raised his head and looked at the gundam with affection.

"What's it called?" Jamil asked off-handedly, lost in his own thoughts. Witz heard that, and clambered over as well.

"Gundam Cypher, desendent of the Airmaster. Enhancements are primarily in speed. The other two are still unfinished, but all I need is a little more time and armour platings."

"Firepower?"

"Because the main factor is speed here," Kid took off his cap and scratched his head, apologising," So the weapons and armour are near non-existent."

"What?" Witz blew up, pointing at the gundam," So what is there?"

"Only a beam rifle on the hip, a micro-missile pack on its back and one large beamsaber built into the right wrist."

"Vulcans?"

"Nope. And the micro-missile pack can be disposed immediately if depleted, so weight can always be kept to a minimum."

Witz threw his hand up into the air in frustration. What can this gundam do? Sure, it's fast but so? Micro-missiles are no good against that enemy Airmaster, and that guy has two beam rifles. Things are definitely not going good. What the hell is Kid thinking?

As if reading his thoughts, Kid mentioned," But it needs a very fast pilot, though. Cypher is primarily built for close combat situations." Then he thumbed towards Garrod, who was now chatting with Tiffa," Garrod did that pretty well with the GX and DX before, and they don't have even half the speed of Cypher."

"Are you doubting my abilites?" Witz caught that and growled. Ever since there was Jamil and Garrod, he had always taken the back seat, even though he was a very good pilot himself. And the pilot of the enemy Airmaster, he fumed, that pilot seemed to be toying with him during the fight, and was only interested in Garrod or Crash.

"Cut the stuff, people," Jamil turned and headed towards Freeden IV, waving everyone away from the hangar. He stopped next to Kid, jerking a finger back towards the gundams," I'm taking 'em with me. You too. Pack the equipment you need and move in to Freeden IV with the gundams."

"What!?"

But Jamil was already walking away from him.

* * *

The reports were baffling, to say the least. Or at least W.O.R.L.D. was. Trent Wolfe, commander of the Earth Federation, stood by the map of the world and reflected silently. The war room he was in was a dimly lit and soundproof room. Nothing seen or heard in here would go out. The generals seated by the large table were either putting away their papers into the briefcases, calling for transport planes or just staring at him. Trent stared back. The war room, as he was told a moment ago, was going to be disabled.

The situation in Asia was rectified.

That made no sense. Reports from the six main bases, while under attack, was that there were hundreds of enemy troops, and each fought like demons. The five-hundred Daughtress Knights he sent over actually encountered zero resistance. Zero. The six bases were found smoking and in ashes, explainable by only the wrecked and dismembered Neos whose pilots will no longer speak. The enemy, W.O.R.L.D. seemed only to make him become stronger, giving him an excuse to built up an army on Earth. However, there was no known force capable of stopping the Federation's brute strenght, Old, New or Earth. Even the SRA relied on colony strikes and that gigantic solar cannon, rather than face the federation's mobile army. Why would anyone want to spur him to do something like that? An action that will only make him more powerful.

He idly traced the region known as Asia on the world map with his finger. Asia, the lands of mysteries. What was happening?

* * *

"Captain, sir," the com beeped, it was a transmission coming from the hangar. Even though he was now officially an Admiral, the people from the old Freeden Crew were still accustomed to calling him a Captain. He was, too. Working for the Earth Federation now gave him more restrictions and politics than he would have liked to handle, but that was the only way to keep an eye on it and out of trouble.

"Yes?"

"There's, uh, some trouble in the hangar, sir." The camera rotated to display two men in the far corner arguing loudly, in front of Gundam Cypher, which appeared to have an extra armour plating on its chest.

"Who allowed you to touch my gundam while I was sleeping?" A very agitated Kid was screaming.

"Yeah, who did?" His two henchmen stood by one side and echoed his words, swinging spanners aggressively.

"Shut up, you two," Kid scolded back," And where were you two at that time?"

"But, but boss!"

"Cut it out already," Witz placed one arm on his hips and waved the other one towards the Cypher," I just wanted more armour. Since you never know when I'll need it, it's better safe than sorry. The existing armour on Cypher is a joke. It offers about as much protection as wet tissue paper. What's speed if it's sayonara in one hit?"

"Why you..."

Jamil Neate slumped on his seat, about to let out a sigh before catching himself. Really ought to sigh less, he thought as he stood up, I'm doing it way too often. Turning to the crew, he ordered," Stop the ship," then to the com," I'm coming over." Then he walked towards the door. Really, all the things I've got to do to keep this ship running-

The bridge suddenly shook with an immerse force, and Jamil had to hold on to the door to steady himself. Even with his back faced to the main screen, he could feel the glare of brightness reflected from the walls, flooding the bridge. Turning around quickly, he could see two large streams of energy streaking across the wastelands in front of them.

Where they would have been, had the ship not stopped in time.

"What was that!?" Sala Tyrrell, the Vice-Admiral shouted. Jamil ran back to the seat, and ordered them to do a large scan of the area, as well as to do a full retreat. The power displayed was certainly as powerful as the former GX's satellite cannon. But who would possess such power? And wasn't the satellite system destroyed?

"There!" A crewmember pointed, as the screen magnified to show a lone, large mobile suit standing on the valley beside them. It had two large glowing cannons mounted on its shoulder, and was carrying a similarly gigantic weapon that looked like a bazooka.

* * *

Witz Sou jumped into the cockpit of Gundam Cypher, eager to get out of the way of Kid. Finally, the time to test out this new gundam, he rubbed his hands in anticipation, watching Garrod trying to get into his unfinished gundam. That Alpha Gundam of his was some other weird project of Kid's, trying to get an all-rounded mobile suit that can handle most types of battles. However, even though much was done in this one month to get the Alpha Gundam operational, it still lacked major pieces of armour plates and was not yet fined tuned. Too bad, he thought, as he blasted off from the hangar.

Kid was right about one thing though, this thing was fast! Witz darted around in the air and was next to the mysterious attacker in a second. Whoa, this was way too fast. The enemy raised its launcher and fired a missile right in his face, causing Witz to pull the joysticks upwards and soar into the sky. Before he knew it, the enemy mobile suit was a small speck on the ground. "Oh yeah, eat this!" A few shots from the beam rifle were fired and struck the ground near the mysterious MS, illuminating it in the dark night.

It was also a gundam. However, it was kind of fat and bulky, the type whose width is much greater than its height. Where Cypher was speed, this thing was armour. The arms were almost as thick as the Cypher's frame, too. Two extremely large and dangerous looking cannons were mounted on its shoulders, glowing eerily.

Cypher fired two more shots in the air, before unleashing a barrage of micro-missiles at the gundam. However, it did not even make an attempt to dodge, taking the two beam shots with only a blackened chestplate. It fired off another large missile, triggering a chain reaction which destroyed all his incoming micro-missiles. Now see what Kid got me into, Witz mused, as he activated the beamsaber, and dived like an eagle for the kill. The missiles came whizzing by but Cypher flipped over to the left and right, closing in rapidly.

In front of the enemy gundam in a flash, Cypher jumped into the air again and flew in full circles around it, making aim impossible, and ultimately sliced the entire bazooka launcher into two when he saw the chance. Now that the gundam had no more weapons, Cypher did a backflip in the air and swooped down again, beamsaber aiming for the cockpit of that gundam.

Suddenly, two large claws sprang from behind the enemy gundam and grabbed the Cypher in its full thrust. Speed from critical to zero almost immediately, Witz was knocked back violently into his seat and blacked out for a second. When he came to, he found himself facing two very large cannons aimed directly at him. He's not going to fire that at this range, is he? Light streamed from the cannon barrels and struck the now-prone Cypher in the form of a lightning ball. The frying electronics and hot smoke was too much to bear and Witz Sou screamed for a split second before getting flung to one side.

The unknown gundam turned towards Freeden IV and the image of a young japanese pilot appeared on its screens. "This is Gundam Raiden," the boy told Jamil and his crew," Taking down Freeden IV" With that, Gundam Raiden opened up its shoulder cannons again, lights growing brighter.

"Sir!" Shingo Mori, the Freeden IV pilot, panicked, turning towards the Admiral Jamil Neate," What are we gonna do?"

"Nothing," Jamil replied clamly, numbly," We're gonna die." He slumped over in his seat, head hung low in despair. The bridge was silent. To be frank, he had never really thought things would end this way. He wondered how the people who looked directly at his satellite cannon blast coming at them felt.

The cannon lights turned into two blazing lasers, lancing across the wastelands and straight towards the Freeden IV, engulfing it in a blinding brightness. Jamil could feel the heat seeping through the armour and metal and boiling his skin, indication that the entire ship was melting. Admist the rocking and violent vibrations, all he could see was the white that filled the entire bridge.

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