(Gundam Wing) The Stars were Nameless as well (01)
The Stars were Nameless as well
A Gundam Wing fanfiction written by Masamune Reforged
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters.
Rating/Warning: Mature audiences. Language, violence, a bit of slash (3x4)
Setting/Type: Multi-part, in-series, slice of life
Words: 1078
Navigation: 00 01 02 03
The Stars were Nameless as well
Chapter 1 - The Unlucky Wrecker
James Webb cursed, smacked his control panel, and then turned away. For a moment he pretended that he hadn't seen. He hadn't seen. A smattering of charcoal gray slabs drifting sideways, with untangled communication tendrils floating lazily behind, telltale signs that the wreck had drifted far, and that this section had been the cockpit. An empty cockpit, James Webb tried to tell himself. He cursed again, and Geiger, back in the control room, heard it.
“Florida 1, this is Triangle. Come in Florida 1, over. What you got out there, Webb?”
Webb had just gotten to the target location, and Geiger, back in the control room, was monitoring everything like a hawk, even though it was just the final run on another lazy, late, uneventful Thursday night.
James Webb cursed one more time and looked back, and that was it. There was no pretending you didn't see it the second time.
“Goddamn it, John. Why's it always got to be me?” Webb answered without a callback. He grabbed the drive on the 164 Ball he was piloting and adjusted the approach, fired the thrusters for a quarter of a second. He zoomed in with the 164's single, top mounted camera and started relaying the image back to the control room.
“Flo-What- Webb, what the hell are you talking...”
Silence from Geiger in the control room, then, “Fuck, Webb. Another one?” Webb could hear Geiger wiping his large, crinkled forehead. Years heading a wrecking outfit added wrinkles and receded the hair line as surely as a fart caught in a T-Trap stunk.
Webb fired the retros and the 164 came to a halt only a handful of Ms from the floating rubble. He extended the two main arms and activated the primitive thermal scan. The foam covered insulation of his suit made his palms sweat, but Webb kept the sticks steady. The arms reached out and lifted the single large slab, a frozen, splintered slab of incombustible metal that had gone frost white. It looked like it had once been a dark blue. Underneath the metal was the rest of the body.
Webb switched to the scanner arm and began to sweep.
Geiger must have been talking to someone else, because he came back on with the call sign. “Florida 1, this is Triangle.” Geiger paused, and Webb could tell he was biting the inside of his mouth when he spoke. “Tell me he's not still alive, Webb. Over.”
He was still alive. Webb just knew it.
“Hey, Webb, man!” Fisher, three clicks away and approaching part of the same wreck, broke into the channel. “You found ANOTHER one!?”
“Get off the channel, Fisher,” Geiger barked. Webb shook his head.
Fourth one in the past two months.
“Florida 1, can you confirm?” Geiger wanted to know.
Unbelievable.
Sure, there had been a lot of action recently. With the Alliance and OZ getting into it, then even people in OZ going at it, bits of cruisers dotted the ruined vestiges of inter-colony routes. You could find half a transport every twelve cycles. Independent wreckers hadn't seen prosperous times like this since before the Sweepers had organized. And, yeah, mobile suits, too, though they were always much harder to get at. But that's where the best money was, and that's why Webb was here.
He scanned three times, even though twice was the standard protocol. Relaying the data back to Geiger in Triangle command, Webb said, “This is Florida 1.” He sighed and stared at the body, then said, “I confirm. We got a rescue.”
There was a long pause, probably Geiger trying to shout down all the chatter from Fisher while getting on the horn with the staff at Colony Relay. Webb looked back at the scan data. The fourth in two months, his seventh in as many years of wrecking. Body heat was very low, almost not there at all. Webb had a feeling this one, if he made it at all, would be a vegetable at best. The pause stretched on, and, knowing his day was going to come to an end shortly, with an equally abbreviated pay cut, Webb began idly scanning the wreck itself.
Geiger came back on the line, “Roger that, Florida 1. We've notified Relay, and they've got medical staff on the way. Bring him in. Over.”
“Roger that, Triangle. I--”
The pause.
“Copy that, Florida 1? You cut out.” Geiger spoke to a man who was not paying him any mind.
Webb blinked and flicked at his scan display with the back of his hand.
“Repeat. Copy, Florida 1.”
His scanner had to be broken.
“Repeat. Copy, Florida 1. This is Triangle. Do you read?” Geiger was as close to sounding worried as the man got, but it was all wasted on Webb.
There was no metal that gave off these numbers. Nothing. It was impossible. It was like the wreck would have had to be made from G-
“Goddamn it, Webb, what are you--”
“You need to see this.” His fingers fumbled at the control panel.
“Damnnit, Webb, wh-” There was the pause as Geiger looked at the data. “Mother of...” Geiger grunted, dumbfounded. Then he said in a turbulent voice, “Webb? Where are you getting these readings?”
Fisher cut into the channel again. “Um.... Webb? You taking readings off the same wreck I am?” Almost seven clicks away, Fisher had just reached his target. “Cause I think my scan equipment's got to be busted.”
The pause.
“No, it's not you, Fisher,” Webb answered. Weird, how calm his voice sounded. “It's a Gundam.”
Back in Triangle, Geiger was screaming up a storm and getting everything that had arms and half a space tight seal filled with a human body and shot out toward their positions. 178s, 162s, transports, maintenance dinghies, everything. And even William Marvin, who couldn't fly, in a 141 Scout that couldn't keep center. Because everyone and his mother was going to get rich as hell off of this find, if OZ didn't hunt them down and kill each and every last one of them first.
And out in the 164, James Webb was staring down at the half-dead body of Trowa Barton and thinking that it had to be some kind of weird joke that this had all happened to him.
-end “The Unlucky Wrecker”
Chapter 1 of
“The Stars were Nameless as well”
Notes:
Wreckers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrecking_%28shipwreck%29
quite a fun imagined subset of the Gundam Wing universe.
Triangle, as in Bermuda.
James Webb was the first official of wrecking in the US, hence the first character in the series.
John H. Geiger was a prominent captain and wrecker in Key West.
Fisher, as in a fisherman.
I know very little to nothing about non-mobile suit technology in the Wing universe, so I based it on other Gundam series. The Ball is a small, round unit with robotic arms. I referred to most machines based on the After Colony year they were designed in.
I imagine that, around the colonies, there would be many small outposts where ships (especially groups like the wreckers) would dock and resource mining operations would be carried out. Of course, there would need to be an official outpost that would relay info back to the colony, control official navigation routes, and such. Dubbed Colony Relay.
A Gundam Wing fanfiction written by Masamune Reforged
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters.
Rating/Warning: Mature audiences. Language, violence, a bit of slash (3x4)
Setting/Type: Multi-part, in-series, slice of life
Words: 1078
Navigation: 00 01 02 03
The Stars were Nameless as well
Chapter 1 - The Unlucky Wrecker
James Webb cursed, smacked his control panel, and then turned away. For a moment he pretended that he hadn't seen. He hadn't seen. A smattering of charcoal gray slabs drifting sideways, with untangled communication tendrils floating lazily behind, telltale signs that the wreck had drifted far, and that this section had been the cockpit. An empty cockpit, James Webb tried to tell himself. He cursed again, and Geiger, back in the control room, heard it.
“Florida 1, this is Triangle. Come in Florida 1, over. What you got out there, Webb?”
Webb had just gotten to the target location, and Geiger, back in the control room, was monitoring everything like a hawk, even though it was just the final run on another lazy, late, uneventful Thursday night.
James Webb cursed one more time and looked back, and that was it. There was no pretending you didn't see it the second time.
“Goddamn it, John. Why's it always got to be me?” Webb answered without a callback. He grabbed the drive on the 164 Ball he was piloting and adjusted the approach, fired the thrusters for a quarter of a second. He zoomed in with the 164's single, top mounted camera and started relaying the image back to the control room.
“Flo-What- Webb, what the hell are you talking...”
Silence from Geiger in the control room, then, “Fuck, Webb. Another one?” Webb could hear Geiger wiping his large, crinkled forehead. Years heading a wrecking outfit added wrinkles and receded the hair line as surely as a fart caught in a T-Trap stunk.
Webb fired the retros and the 164 came to a halt only a handful of Ms from the floating rubble. He extended the two main arms and activated the primitive thermal scan. The foam covered insulation of his suit made his palms sweat, but Webb kept the sticks steady. The arms reached out and lifted the single large slab, a frozen, splintered slab of incombustible metal that had gone frost white. It looked like it had once been a dark blue. Underneath the metal was the rest of the body.
Webb switched to the scanner arm and began to sweep.
Geiger must have been talking to someone else, because he came back on with the call sign. “Florida 1, this is Triangle.” Geiger paused, and Webb could tell he was biting the inside of his mouth when he spoke. “Tell me he's not still alive, Webb. Over.”
He was still alive. Webb just knew it.
“Hey, Webb, man!” Fisher, three clicks away and approaching part of the same wreck, broke into the channel. “You found ANOTHER one!?”
“Get off the channel, Fisher,” Geiger barked. Webb shook his head.
Fourth one in the past two months.
“Florida 1, can you confirm?” Geiger wanted to know.
Unbelievable.
Sure, there had been a lot of action recently. With the Alliance and OZ getting into it, then even people in OZ going at it, bits of cruisers dotted the ruined vestiges of inter-colony routes. You could find half a transport every twelve cycles. Independent wreckers hadn't seen prosperous times like this since before the Sweepers had organized. And, yeah, mobile suits, too, though they were always much harder to get at. But that's where the best money was, and that's why Webb was here.
He scanned three times, even though twice was the standard protocol. Relaying the data back to Geiger in Triangle command, Webb said, “This is Florida 1.” He sighed and stared at the body, then said, “I confirm. We got a rescue.”
There was a long pause, probably Geiger trying to shout down all the chatter from Fisher while getting on the horn with the staff at Colony Relay. Webb looked back at the scan data. The fourth in two months, his seventh in as many years of wrecking. Body heat was very low, almost not there at all. Webb had a feeling this one, if he made it at all, would be a vegetable at best. The pause stretched on, and, knowing his day was going to come to an end shortly, with an equally abbreviated pay cut, Webb began idly scanning the wreck itself.
Geiger came back on the line, “Roger that, Florida 1. We've notified Relay, and they've got medical staff on the way. Bring him in. Over.”
“Roger that, Triangle. I--”
The pause.
“Copy that, Florida 1? You cut out.” Geiger spoke to a man who was not paying him any mind.
Webb blinked and flicked at his scan display with the back of his hand.
“Repeat. Copy, Florida 1.”
His scanner had to be broken.
“Repeat. Copy, Florida 1. This is Triangle. Do you read?” Geiger was as close to sounding worried as the man got, but it was all wasted on Webb.
There was no metal that gave off these numbers. Nothing. It was impossible. It was like the wreck would have had to be made from G-
“Goddamn it, Webb, what are you--”
“You need to see this.” His fingers fumbled at the control panel.
“Damnnit, Webb, wh-” There was the pause as Geiger looked at the data. “Mother of...” Geiger grunted, dumbfounded. Then he said in a turbulent voice, “Webb? Where are you getting these readings?”
Fisher cut into the channel again. “Um.... Webb? You taking readings off the same wreck I am?” Almost seven clicks away, Fisher had just reached his target. “Cause I think my scan equipment's got to be busted.”
The pause.
“No, it's not you, Fisher,” Webb answered. Weird, how calm his voice sounded. “It's a Gundam.”
Back in Triangle, Geiger was screaming up a storm and getting everything that had arms and half a space tight seal filled with a human body and shot out toward their positions. 178s, 162s, transports, maintenance dinghies, everything. And even William Marvin, who couldn't fly, in a 141 Scout that couldn't keep center. Because everyone and his mother was going to get rich as hell off of this find, if OZ didn't hunt them down and kill each and every last one of them first.
And out in the 164, James Webb was staring down at the half-dead body of Trowa Barton and thinking that it had to be some kind of weird joke that this had all happened to him.
-end “The Unlucky Wrecker”
Chapter 1 of
“The Stars were Nameless as well”
Notes:
Wreckers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrecking_%28shipwreck%29
quite a fun imagined subset of the Gundam Wing universe.
Triangle, as in Bermuda.
James Webb was the first official of wrecking in the US, hence the first character in the series.
John H. Geiger was a prominent captain and wrecker in Key West.
Fisher, as in a fisherman.
I know very little to nothing about non-mobile suit technology in the Wing universe, so I based it on other Gundam series. The Ball is a small, round unit with robotic arms. I referred to most machines based on the After Colony year they were designed in.
I imagine that, around the colonies, there would be many small outposts where ships (especially groups like the wreckers) would dock and resource mining operations would be carried out. Of course, there would need to be an official outpost that would relay info back to the colony, control official navigation routes, and such. Dubbed Colony Relay.