Mobile Suit Gundam: Road to Axis

The year is UC 0081, it's been two years since Zeon's defeat of the OYW. Zeon has no strong holds, and all their fleets are all but dead. However, a secret Manufacturing plant on the dark side of the Moon still remains. Its loyalty lies with Zeon, and they have newly designed Zeonic Mobile Suits. Fortunately there is one more fleet that can use these new model Mobile Suits . . . The Mars Fleet

Chapter 5: Start of a New
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> January 28, 0081
Locker Room
0615

Anticipation filled Japa's mind. He was excited, he had a right to be. He was going to be the first individual, besides Joachim, to pilot the new model Gelgoog. He had a restless sleep, but the anticipation counteracted the sleepiness. He acted as if he had been in a three month long slumber. He was as jittery as child would be at a Circus. His hands were trembling, and his knees felt buckling.

He wasn't alone in this feeling. Joachim showed signs of nervousness, of course, he never spoke so one wouldn't know. Adam's usual cheeriness wasn't showing, he kept to himself. But, more prevalent than Adam's nervous behavior was Raye's. His usual lewd behavior wasn't apparent, his usual babbling was absent. He sat on the bench near the back of the room. His head hanging, engulfed by his hands. His black hair was unkept, and was nearing the bottom of his neck. Japa knew something was troubling him, partly because he hadn't cracked any jokes at him lately. Japa stared at Raye, fitting his gloves into their places on the cuff of the flight suit. He grabbed his helmet off the locker rack and walked towards Raye.

"What's the matter, Raye? Nervous?" he said as he situated his helmet over his head. He raised the visor into the helmet and sat down next to, Raye.

"Yea, I guess you could say that." Raye mumbled from beneath his hands. Japa noticed he didn't even look up at him when he spoke. He knew it was something else, but what? Japa leaned back against the bench and rested his head on the wall behind them. He gazed through the locker room, examining each pilot and how they were handling it. He saw Adam finally talking with some other pilots. He also noticed Riko was there now. He was gone pretty quick, though. As if he didn't want anyone to notice him. Japa didn't care, he despised Riko for the way he treated Andrea. 'I don't treat her much better, though'. He looked to where Joachim was originally sitting. He had disappeared, too. His eyes circled the room again, and then landed back on Raye's back.

"Raye, there's something else wrong with you." he chuckled a bit, "When a person like you stops being loud and obnoxious, and just sits there quietly, there's something wrong."

"There's nothing wrong with me, Japa." Raye sat straight up and looked at Japa, face-to-face. Japa didn't reply, he just sat, staring back at him. Neither one blinked, the room fell silent. The silence that Japa hated so much. Everyone sat and stared at the two. Japa knowing this, wanted to avoid confrontation. He turned away from him and stood, towering over him.

"We'll see, Raye." he said quietly. He turned towards the entrance and began his walk out. He passed a few other pilots and they stared as he wondered past. His eyes didn't float to them, instead they stared at the dim corridor outside the locker room. As he was exiting the room a officer wandered in.

"Everyone needs to report to the hangar for their training. You have until 0640 to arrive." he floated back out the door as the last words exited his mouth. Japa looked back at him and then back forward. He could tell he was nearing the hangar; metal clanking on metal, and the sound of mechanic's hollering across the hangar. He slipped the visor back down over his face and kicked off the floor, floating into the hangar.

As he floated along, near the lights above, he saw a few mobile suits being loaded onto the catapult. One was a Gelgoog Kürzer, painted in red, white, and green. 'Must be Joachim.' he thought. But, even more stranger than the paint scheme was the lack of weapons, 'They must want us to get used to the controls before they give us combat training.' He sighed in disappointment, but he wasn't really disappointed. Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He saw the other Kürzer being readied for departure. Unlike its counterpart, it was painted in dull shades of grey. The mechanic's felt the need to nickname Japa the Lunar Ghost. He didn't mind, it was more of a "Who cares" thing he had. He ignited the boosters on his flight suit and dove towards the main rafter.

He landed softly on to the rafter and someone tugged on his shoulder, "Where's everyone else?" came from behind. Japa slowly spun around and saw the comforting face of the mechanic.

"They should be here soon. I left a little early." Japa paused and peered towards the Hangar doors, "That was Joachim who just departed, wasn't it?" he nodded. "Well then, can I depart early, also?" Japa turned and looked at his Kürzer.

"I guess so. Let me inform everyone." the mechanic used Japa as leverage and pushed off the floor. Japa pushed the mans foot to give him more speed. He grabbed the closest railing and flipped over heading for the cockpit of the Gelgoog. He thudded gently on the hatch and turned his head towards the mechanic. He gave him the thumbs up.

"Funny, I don't even know the mans name." he let out a sigh and waved back at him. He grabbed a handle and drifted into the darkness of the cockpit. He thumbed a few switches overhead and the monitors flickered as they came to life. The cockpit was almost the same as the Zaku, but the protruding radar screen was missing. Circular monitors in the lower corners of the main monitor took their place. The cushioning of the seat was new and coarse. It would take some time to break it in. The control sticks were somewhat the same, but all his fingers were placed over triggers. 'This will take some getting use to.' He gently lifted his fingers off the controls, just as the comm screen in the upper corner of the monitor flickered.

"How do you like it?" the monitor flickered a bit as he spoke but it wasn't enough to deteriorate the message.

"It's just like the Zaku's, except for the control sticks." Japa looked back down at them and eased his fingers back into their positions.

"Joachim said the same thing. It's just something you'll have to get used to. The others have arrived, you may launch whenever."

"Wait, I never did get your name, sir." Japa jerked back up, hoping he didn't miss.

"Petty Officer Meikle, sir." he said as closed the comm. Japa smiled as he closed the cockpit hatch. He gently pushed the controls forwards and the catapult hurled him out into space. The sudden rush of speed knocked Japa fiercely back into his chair. He found himself, and his Gelgoog, floating aimlessly in Space. He, with all his might, pushed down on the center pedal. The many vernier's flared, and in a sudden wave of blue he vanished into space.
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Command Center
0630

The highest ranking officials on the Plant were in attendance for the Mars' Fleet first training. For most of them it would be the first time to witness these extraordinary pilots. Some paced around, nervously, and the others stood, arms crossed, be hind the control stations. They watched, tentatively as Joachim, and soon after, Japa, flew into space. They strained their eyes watching them as long as they could, until they disappeared into the myriad of stars. Their attention was then brought behind them as the entrance doors opened, and closed with a loud thud. Andrea.

Cautiously, she walked forward. She could feel the pulse beat in her face, as it began to glow beet red. The other officers noticed this, and blushed a bit themselves for staring. They turned their attention back into space. Andrea, relieved, exhaled and walked behind a control station.

"Has anyone departed yet?" she asked.

"Japa and Joachim have, ma'am. The others should be soon." he looked up at Andrea as she nodded in agreement. She turned away and approached Colonel McFarren. She turned her head and watched as Riko, Raye, Adam and the other pilots flew out.

"I hope they don't disappoint us, Andrea." he snickered a bit, and grinned.

"They won't, Kurt. They're the best pilots I've seen." she replied, disgusted.

"I hope so, or I will assign you new ones." he turned to face her, but she turned away, obnoxiously. He clenched his fist in anger and went to pull her toward him. He stopped, and realized he could be demoted.

"Smart decision. God knows what would happen if you got demoted." Andrea faced him and giggled as she pushed off his chest towards the exit.
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Japa's Gelgoog Kürzer, drift, lifelessly through space. The vernier's had been shut off, and the mono-eye was out. He sit, motionless, in the cockpit. The monitors were functioning, and he felt as if he was amongst the stars. He felt at peace, and if it were up to him, he would float all the way to Pluto and back. But, he knew that he would not be able to do this. His eternal peace would be short lived, however.

"Japa, it's 0700, time to begin our training." Joachim said, lackadaisically.

"Very well." Japa opened his eyes and stared out the monitors. He saw Joachim approaching him. He gently placed his hands around the controls and the mobile suit came back to life. The mono-eye glowed and dimmed back down. He pushed down on the center pedal and the vernier's ignited. With a quick forward motion of the controls the Gelgoog sent a wave of blue backwards and flew off towards the others. Japa examined the radar and all the other instruments to make sure they were in working order. 'Everything's working correctly. Good.' he whispered to himself. It felt like he hadn't been in a cockpit forever. He longed for the monotonous sound of the reactor hum. Now he was reunited with it; reunited with the cockpit. It was as if Japa and the cockpit were meant to be. They were totally in conjunction with each other. This was the only thing Japa cared for. His mobile suit, "Joachim, how's the Kürzer handling for you?"

"It's amazing. The sensitivity of the controls is amazing. Instead of me making movements faster than the suit can, the suit is making movements faster then me." he smiled, "How's it handling for you?"

"Just as you described it." he paused for a moment, "They're broadcasting a message to us."

"I'm sure you are all excited, but put aside the nervousness, and concentrate. Today will basically be for you to get accustomed to the controls of your new mobile suits. This initial training will last for three hours. You will then take a break. Afterwards, there will be a meeting in the Briefing Room at 1100 hours. Luna out."

Hopes were high as mobile suits screeched through the darkness. Japa slowed down on the thrust to take some time and look at how each pilot handled their new suit. He saw Adam, and noticed that he was testing out the speed of his suit. Not unusual for a younger pilot. They were more interested in the thrill of piloting, rather than for their beliefs. Japa didn't mind, as long as they put forth their effort. He also saw, Raye. His Gelgoog was just sort of floating around with some other Zaku's. '***hole is probably telling jokes rather than training.' he said aloud, irritated. Ranking over him, he decided to take action. "Hey, Raye, what are you doing? Your supposed to be training, not talking. Your little pawns can stand around, but I want you to be working. Understand?" he said furiously.

"Uh, yes sir. I'll start right away." he replied. He was serious this time, though. He wasn't being sarcastic. Soon after he flew off from the crowd of Zaku's. Japa followed him through the monitor. He was pretty much secluded, and began ripping through space. 'Good.'. Japa searched his monitors, looking for Riko. He was no where to be seen. Japa decided not to question the matter, he was of high rank, and could probably do what he wanted.

Watching the others flying around bored, Japa. He felt the time was right to begin his own training. He stepped on the right pedal and the Gelgoog swung around. A few seconds later, he was rocketed forward. A flash of blue light and exhaust were he left behind.
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Ready Room
1014

The pilots stood around, a joyous mood filled the room. None of them could stop conversing about the new mobile suits. Most of the pilots stood in the front of the room. Joachim was even talking with them.'Didn't think Joachim to be so social' Japa thought to himself. Japa stared from his seat at the horde of pilots. He could make out a few things they were saying, but relied on his uncanny ability to read lips. He was unaware at first that he could, but realized it must have been from staying out of the crowd. He was interested in what they spoke about, but didn't want to be apart of it. He noticed a pilot peeking at him, he turned away sharply and stared at the Maps on the side board. He closed his eyes, and saw himself flying among the stars again. It was all he could think of, all that was on his mind. He was startled by the force of a slap on his back.

"How did it go, Japa?" the mysterious figure said.

"Just fine, sir." he peered up, into the light, to see Riko. The sight of him brought back his thoughts on why he wasn't out there, "Why weren't you out there, if you don't mind my asking, sir?"

"I have a high access to most things. Are you forgetting this?" he smirked, and crossed his arms. Japa took his leg off of his other and stood up as it clanked loudly off the floor. He was eye to eye with Riko. Their appearance's drastically different. Japa with dark brown hair, and deep brown eyes. Riko, the son everyone wanted. His fine blonde hair and his radiated with magnificence. His boyish good looks made people wonder if he really was part of Zeon. Japa's cold, emotionless face, and Riko's warm, friendly face.

"How could I forget, sir." Japa said, with a tone of annoyance in his voice. Japa blinked a few times, and then shut his eyelids for a while, and while under the darkness of his eyelids began to walk away. Riko's firm grip caused him to open his eyes and turn back.

"Are you getting annoyed with me, Japa?" Japa shrugged his hand off his arm and straightened out.


"No sir!" Japa exclaimed, but was rather sarcastic about it. Riko's peaceful blue eyes quickly filled with anger. Japa saw his persona change from peace, to anger, and smirked at his accomplishment.

"Leave now, Japa." his said, hatefully. Japa nodded, arrogantly, and walked towards the doors. The rest of the room was silent; they stood, staring at Riko. He paid them no attention, and began to walk out himself. 'I'll make him pay for what he did to me. No one will ever do that to me again' he grinned evilly as he walked down the vast corridors of the Lunar Manufacturing Plant.
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Briefing Room
1100

The pilots filed into the room. The majority of them came in together from the Ready Room. They were still chatting about the morning's training. They shut up rather quickly as PO Meikle began speaking.

"Now it's time for your combat training," he was interrupted as the room went into a uproar of cheering and hollering. "I know, I know, it's exciting, but you're going to have to pay attention. Alright, all of the mobile suit will be given their armaments. Here's where it gets interesting; instead of actually firing live rounds, we have developed a new technology. Similar to that of the old war games. The weapons will not be given ammunition, they will fire, however. Instead, we have inserted a type of training simulator into the suits computer." he stopped to breath and continued, "You will see the opposing suit fire its weapon and you'll receive damage. If your suit happens to be 'destroyed' the monitor will go black and you'll drift until a rescue crew arrives to pick you up. This is also the time were squads are assigned." he looked down at a piece of paper and read the names of the Squad Commanders off. " Lt. Hataki, Lt. Serscu, Lt. Commander Hyldebrand, and Lt. Colonel Schneider will be in command of the mobile suits."

"Who will be assigned to them?" a pilot sitting near the back said.

"Will you be patient, I'm getting to that now." he shook his head in disbelief, and began again, "Ensign's Merold and Reilly are assigned to Hyldebrand. Ensign's Noeer and Bullof are assigned to Hataki. Sgt. Richards and Lt. McIlwee are assigned to Schneider. Corporal Bock and Sgt. Troike are assigned to Serscu. CPO Munn and Lindgren will be on standby on every mission. If they should be deployed they will join the leading squad and help them. You will be in your squads for Combat. Now move out." The pilots stood and crowded the door way as they headed for the hangar. They were even more giddy now that they knew they were going to be in combat.
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Combat Training
1144

They had been in combat for 14 minutes. Raye is all that is left from his unit. Joachim has only lost Reilly and his Zaku II. Merold's Rick Dom II has taken heavy damage and won't last much longer.


"Merold, how much more damage can you sustain?" Joachim said, worriedly.

"A few more hits from conventional weapons. One beam hit and I'm gone." warning sirens went off in his cockpit and a image of Japa and his remaining Rick Dom appeared, "Sir, we have company."

"I know, I'll take care of, Japa. You try and hold off, Troike." Joachim smiled, this would be the first time he would face, Japa. 'Finally, I get a chance to face you, my friend' he grinned a little and then went full-burn towards Japa. He neared faster than he had expected.

"I see you're as eager as I am, Joachim." he said as he pulled back on his controls. The Kürzer stopped abruptly, and flew backwards dangerously fast. He put a little pressure onto the trigger and the Small Beam machinegun opened fire on Joachim. Joachim pulled right and fired his 110mm machinegun's. The bullets missed their mark as the opposing Kürzer had been climbing up since he fired. Joachim followed him upwards, firing a continuous round of bullets.

"Not bad, Japa." Joachim said over the comm, "You're right, I am, if not more, eager to face you." he stopped as a group of missiles screeched through space towards him. Joachim tried to pull back, but didn't manage to avoid all three missiles. The computer simulated that he had lost his left leg, from the knee down. He growled and retaliated by firing his missiles. They spanned the gap between him and Japa in no time, but were destroyed by a flurry of tiny yellow beams. Joachim searched his monitors frantically trying to find the person responsible. More yellows beam filles the air; Joachim's monitors went pitch black, "Who the hell was that?"

"I don't know." Just as Japa finished his sentence, he met the same fate as Joachim.

"You two should be more wary of your surroundings." Riko said quietly.

"Riko?" Japa let a little growl escape his lips.

"Yes, and it seems as if I'm the only suit remaining." he said obnoxiously. Joachim didn't speak, he just sat in the darkness of his cockpit, waiting for the rescue crew to arrive, "Interesting isn't it. You two are supposed to be the best, but you both were beaten by me."

"Yes, it's really interesting. Now, Riko, if you don't we have to take our sorry asses back to the hangar." Joachim finally spoke. His voice was crisp and full of anger. Japa hearing his statement, snickered a bit in his cockpit. Riko was infuriated and jammed his controls forward and burst off into the black abyss of space.

The rescue crew finally arrived and towed the two Kürzer's back into the hangar. Once in the hangar there monitors came back to life and they placed them in their respective rafters. Japa opened the hatch and floated out of the cockpit. He headed for Joachim's Kürzer and looked at it, staring at the vibrant color scheme. Joachim finally exited his cockpit and floated to Japa.

"Why such a colorful scheme?" Japa said staring.

"It's for a small German city I used to live in before the War."* Joachim stood next to him and stared up at the suit, "Lets go before Riko gets in."

"Yeah, we probably should." Joachim started off, and Japa followed. The two of them floated along the many rafters of the Manufacturing Sector.
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Notes

*- The Red, White, and Green of Joachim's Kürzer are the colors of the German city Joachim is talking about. Thanks to His Divine Shadow for this information.

Here are the Squads:

Riko-Jaeger Kai
Richards-Gelgoog
McIlwee-Gelgoog

Japa-Kürzer
Troike-Rick Dom
Bock- Rick Dom

Joachim-Kürzer
Merold-Rick Dom II
Reilly-Zaku II

Hataki-Gelgoog
Noeer-Zaku II
Bullof-Rick Dom

Munn-Rick Dom II
Lindgren-Rick Dom II