Wish I Knew You (Phal)

[Buster]

"Considering yourself lucky Ensign St-Jacques, lucky that you're out of the brig for that stunt you pulled during out Side 3 jaunt. If it wasn't for orders to finish the last of the G-Bouncer's testing, I'd have you sitting there still."

Captain Varden Brousse narrowed his eyes, unflinchingly cold. If it wasn't for his past as a member of the Garde Impériale, Florus St-Jacques would think he belonged as either a film villain, or a hitman. He'd never really seen anybody who displayed a lack of empthy for another human being. Seriously, it was just a kiss, the hell was his problem? Still, the time allowed Florus to think about what he did, and he felt that he honestly was beginning to fall for the pilot, Josephine. Even if he was supposed to be working with her. Not that it mattered to him what the Captain thought, Florus felt he was going head over heels for the girl.
However, that being said he looked up from his seat on a bench in front of his locker in the pilot's changing room as Varden stared at him for a moment longer before he used his cane to help him step out of the room.

Even as Florus St-Jacques got into his red and white on black pilot suit, the man didn't pay much attention to the passing time. As Florus St-Jacques came out from the locker room, and down the small hallway, he had to take a step back when he saw it. Sword Calamity. The unit he nearly died in at the moon was repaired, as if nothing happening when it launched into battle what seemed liked ages ago. However, Florus could still hear the howling screams of that newtype pilot when the Scylla cannon tore through her mobile suit. Shutting his eyes for a moment, Florus had to steady himself on the railing before he launched him out and up. He didn't pay much attention to the machine coming back to life, a soft hum filling his ears, nor did he know how he moved the Gundam outside and saw the waiting base jabber floating some distance above him.

"Hollywood 2, this is base jabber. We'll take you to the testing area, so just hop on up." Even as Florus brought the Sword Calamity up, with puffs of flame from the vernier and apogee motors, he had to issue a sigh as the jabber began to take off, quickly accelerating at a high rate of speed.

It was bringing Sword Calamity to the testing location, near the Meridia derelict, a haunting reminder of what had taken place here, just a little over a year ago. Still, Florus had survived Side 2, and now bore a bionic left lung, so as the shaggy haired young man narrowed his grey eyes, he wondered what kinda of day today would entail.

[GEAR]

BGM:
youtu.be/58tEG1YoeBk

"We've located it."

Within the depths of the derelict, several suits moved in the gloom. Multiple industrial-grade floodlights had been assembled in one of the many cavernous halls of its maze-like interior, casting the dark metal sheets that made it up in a harsh bleach white. While no longer populated by Gunboys, and with Meridia now slumbering once again, its guts had been the subject of various Union expeditions... but to little success, most of its winding passageways rendered uninhabitable, or long since picked clean by space pirates... Or so it appeared.

That was simply because they did not know where to look.

Three dark-grey Flints led the way of a small party, head-mounted searchlights moving with their gazes. Faded emblems identified them as being among those who had originally taken ownership of the Colony in years past, swiping it out of the grasp of the Black Guard and Space Frontier Republic as they quarreled. The fourth machine was a wholly different design - regal in appearance, clad in white and gold, with a tall, sweeping bladed crest adoring its forehead, thick purple pauldrons, and a long sword-like weapon carried in its right hand.

The group paused before their destination. It appeared to have once been a storage room of sorts - row upon row of empty, disused containers that had once housed mighty war machines or fed the Judas population filling its interior... Except for one. A large, coffin-shaped entity, small diodes still winking green above its berth, at the heart of the room, nestled in a cluster of rusted power cables.

"Is this the machine?" Asked the Gundam, speaker crackling to life as it stepped forward.
"See for yourself." Said one of the Flints, giving a slight shrug as it did.

The silver and gold Gundam approached the coffin, and reached out with its left manipulator, pressing it to the dull grey surface, pushing away the dust and detritus of the ages. Under the layers of grime, a dark "X" shape was revealed, embossed on the metal.

"Excellent." Its pilot breathed, his voice heavy with anticipation.

"A shame to let such a fine weapon fall to the wayside, before it has shed the blood it was always meant to."

The Flints looked at one another, their own excitement tangible.

"At last... the designs of Sir Joachim will be realized." Said one of them, clenching it’s fists.

"Judas will rise again!"

There was a gentle pause.

"Yes... well." Said the Gundam pilot airily, still with his machine's back turned as they talked eagerly amongst themselves. It raised its golden sword, looking at their reflections in its surface, red eyes glowing.

"About that..."

They didn't even have time to cry out.

The Gundam's frame seemed to shiver, an electric blue glow coming over it - only for a split second - and then it was gone to the naked eye. A whirlwind of roaring metal and crackling plasma whipped through the room, causing the lights to flicker, the violence below being rendered into little more than a series of start-stop glimpses. When the lights finally readjusted... all three Flints fell as one, deep slashes across their bellies, as the Gundam Burnlapius came to a stop, the power of its PX system fading as it lowered its weapon, now stained a dark crimson.

One of the Flints managed to look up, raising the barrel of its beam rifle, haltingly, its speakers sputtering to life as it did to cry:

"But... we were... comrades...!"

"Don't flatter yourself." - The Gundam's foot slammed down on the Flint's elbow, forcing it back to the ground, as it raised its sword arm, the floodlights casting it in an eerie glow as it was held against their artificial brightness.

"Your common blood staining my blade is insult enough."

With that, it plunged the blade into the Flint's damaged cockpit, eliciting a spray of ichor, wriggling it back and forth until it had finally ceased moving. Satisfied, it removed the weapon, and reaching down, picked up one of the Flint's mantles, using it to clean the sword's surface until its reflection was clear once more.

Another machine arrived, hurrying into the room - a small, insectoid appearing mobile suit, with a single yellow camera eye, giving a salute as it did. It did not so much as solicit a glance from the Burnlapis, which continued to focus on its meticulous cleaning.

"Forgive the intrusion, My Lord."

"What is it?"

"We've detected a Mobile Suit approaching."

"I thought the patrols were taken care of?"

The Arana gave an apologetic bow. After a tense moment, it continued, the relief in its pilot's voice evident, as thought he had expected only certain death from delivering such news.

"My deepest apologies... We believe it to be an impromptu sortie, not on the base's schedule." It paused, momentarily, before continuing, "It's just a test pilot."

At this, the Burnlapis pointed its weapon in his direction, causing the Arana to jump slightly in alarm.

"Stall them." He instructed, voice firm, "I'll handle things here."

"Vae Victis."

The small machine hurried away, evidently glad to be leaving with their life intact. The Burnlapis turned back to the coffin, looking upon it thoughtfully.

"...Accursed Union." Its pilot muttered to himself into the quiet, his voice tinged by a faint, rasping accent...

***

The Meridia derelict stretched out before Florus as he approached in all its vastness, jutting out of the landscape like a the back half of a wounded whale in mid dive, its surface splintered and cracked. Decorating the side facing him was a large black spot, where it had been struck by Alsace Circio's unwitting Positron Cannon blast over two decades ago, bearing the guts of the beast to the world.

Around him, the inert forms of hundreds of Gunboys, packed into small, cubelike packages, hung motionless. It had been a solid year since any movement had been reported from them, but who knew if any still remained to guard the super colony's secrets? In any case, the form of several GN-XIII's could be seen wandering about in the distance - those soldiers placed at the installation to guard it against any intruders... but as he closed in, they suddenly pulled away, retreating further into the underside of the installation.

There were several "courses' that had been established by patrols and would-be hotshots that had taken to racing about the downed Colony - the one he was on currently would take him in a loop about its midsection at medium height, and was generally considered the simplest approach. Alternatively, he could dip low into the ravaged, scrap-littered lunar surface, where Union recovery efforts continued, the work of Veda's automated workers clearing away debris still in progress. Lastly, he could rise and seek to travel among the massive, winding thruster arrays of the colony, in what would promise to at least serve as a challenging performance test.

The choice... Was his.

[Buster]

"Alright, here's my stop Hollywood-2."

Florus St-Jacques had lost himself to thought. He was sure they replaced the entire cockpit, at least from where his head smashed into the monitors. So it took him a moment to register what the man said, "Huh? Oh, yeah, just roll it over and I'll take it from here." As Florus felt it turning over, he raised a hand to brace on the console above his head before the Sword Calamity came lose from the base jabber. "Let's see how you're running, old friend." With that, his hands dropped to the controls, and brought Sword Calamity's throttle all the way forward. The lunar gravity forcing Florus St-Jacques back into his seat as the Gundam was rolled over, it's body alight with the verniers and thrusters coming to life quickly. Curving upwards on a burn towards those thruster arrays, Florus felt his skin goose bumping from the sheer excitement coursing through his young body.

That being said however, he had to relax on the throttle, pulling it back as he began to maneuver it through those arrays. The corner of his lips pulling to a smile as he licked his lips, still, something seemed a bit odd. Shouldn't there be a patrol in the area? Where the hell was the Union? Grey eyes narrowed for a moment before Florus began to slowly increase his speed again, dodging around what debris he could, and when he had to. Using the Sword Calamity to land on one of those arrays before thrusting off and towards his goal: deeper into that super colony.

"It's good to have you back..try not to kill me this time, okay?"

[GEAR]

As the Sword Calamity took off, a figure watched from the shadows. The diminuitive form of an Arana, perched among the debris, a large camera attachment affixed over its normal goggles, clicking and oscillating as it tracked the new arrival with concern. It raised a small signal light, winking at something in the distance... and waited. After a moment, another, similar signal returned. Message received. The Arana sunk back into the shade, disappearing from view once again.

As Florus rose, the debris grew thicker. The Union hadn't prioritized cleaning this particular sector yet, and it made going a slow, meticulous process. As he crested the lip of the Super Colony class's rear, its tremendous thruster arrays layer before him - titanic in their scale, designed for extraplanetary migration. At their bases, a network of tubes, coils, and hatches clustered about, creating a haphazard landscape - still littered with the occasional Gunboy - the whole lot cracked and weathered with age and constant battle.

No patrols or friendly units emerged to greet him, and none registered on his immediate scanner. He was alone... Or, so it seemed. The radio crackled in silence, just leaving him, and the uncaring stars. Several hatches below led into the interior of the vessel, but most had been sealed off. However, as he traveled across the surface, keeping low to the corroded metal and carefully maneuvering about the power lines, he would have come across something - an opening that appeared to have been recently used below, a large barrier of sorts located above the main thrusters - presumably some kind of maintenance bay or catapult.

From his current distance, it was difficult to tell, however, and it may well have simply been the latest point of entry for the Union. He could investigate it, if he so chose, or stay on his route, which would take him through the center of the fuel arrays, and over to the outside edge of Meridia.

[Buster]

The shiver running down his back replaced excitement, and it faded into worry. Something was wrong here. It made no sense to why Meridia wasn't being patrolled, even as the thrusters flickered and flared, to bringing the heavy machine to a complete stop. "..This feels all wrong." Maybe it was how eerie the dead super colony felt, or the fact the sensors were completely devoid of any contacts, "Luna, this is Hollywood-2, do you read me?" Nothing? Something was wrong, it shouldn't be this quiet, with nobody around. Placing a hand on the side monitor, Florus St-Jacques would roll his head, trying to look around to see if he was alone.

Jesus, he was. It was an unsettling feeling, and it made that shiver trace it's way down his back again. Causing Florus to clench his jaw before his grey eyes locked onto that opening and the man stopped everything he was doing. That..wasn't right, what the hell was going on here? Florus's hands went to the controls, pulling on it as the Sword Calamity's left arm shifted. Pulling free one of the Calamity's anti-ship swords, the blade driving through the quiet, battered body of a gunboy before throwing it aside as the Gundam began to move again. Continuing on it's current course as Florus decided to play it careful in case something had gone into that hole recently. No, but still..he was worried to the core.

"Great, the first time I'm alone since nearly dying at side 2, and I'm worried about being jumped."

[GEAR]

Florus continued on his course in eerie silence, perhaps wisely leaving the entrance way be, the Sword Calamity winding its way through the piping and cabling that made up Meridia's fuel injection array. Below and beside him, the forms of the actual engines themselves jutted partly out of the ship, now silent - but once roaring with power enough to push the behemoth across the stars. He was nearing the lip of the Super Colony's other side after what seemed like an eternity of navigating his way through an intestine-like maze, when a proximity alarm would have sounded in his cockpit.

His sensors had picked up something strange. A sonar reaction, coming from below... the hum of heavy machinery, churning away. This was especially unusual, in that the derelict was supposed to be wholly inert - the Union had yet to be able to even restore power to the vast majority of it in the wake of the Battle of Luna.

To his right was a large refueling station that jutted out of Meridia - presumably a leftover from whatever port it had been crafted in, with hundreds of comparatively small cables and tubules jutting out from its surface - many now damaged beyond repair. Gunboys still slumbered in their berths around it, connected to their mother unit perhaps never to awaken again.

A pair of large double doors, ones that presumably led towards the innards of the ship opened, and a trio of familiar blue and grey suits stepped out, their IFFS reading "Union", but there being no record of a patrol scheduled to travel through this area - 105 Daggers, the staple of the Union, the lead machine glancing left and right as it did. Surprisingly, they seemed to not yet have spotted Florus, as his machine was currently nestled among the thick fuel vats that surrounded the station, currently obscuring him from view.

[Buster]

Florus's grey eyes looked on the machine, and his first thought, his gut feeling something was wrong. Dangerously wrong. No Union patrols in the area, and suddenly now here they were, in 105s? No, this didn't seem right. Even so, as a finger shifted on the controls, Florus St-Jacques said a quiet prayer before he took himself on his feelings. Older model 105s, and Union IFFs? The IFFs could be faked, and the older models generally weren't used, compared to Slaughter Daggers.

Even though, Florus was aware the CEU was phasing out the Daggers in favor of the more well rounded Jinx Three. Florus St-Jacques would watch the trio, and it felt like ice was running through his veins, what the hell was this feeling for? Was it fear? Possibly. Florus hadn't thought about actually engaging in combat in weeks, even as a hand reached up to casually rub over his left side. A reminder he nearly died at side 2, but according to Captain Brousse, he actually flat lined twice after being recovered. Thanks a lot, Sword Calamity.

Well, enough is enough. Sword Calamity's hands moved, the left hand pulling free one of those large anti-ship swords as the right pulled out one of the beam boomerangs. With a snap of the wrist, the green bladed boomerang was sent hurtling down in an arc towards the lead machine. Aiming to cut into that Dagger's neck as the heavy machine left the security of it's hiding spot as the second of those anti-ship swords was pulled free. Florus's aim to was to strike quickly, and with surprise to take them off before they had a chance to call for help. Once into the open, the machine would pick up it's speed for a moment as it came down, directly towards the third machine. Even as the Gundam's verniers flared, to slow it's decent, Florus brought the left sword down from over the shoulder, seeking to split the third machine in half, from head to pelvis.

"You must think I'm completely stupid, don't you!?"

[GEAR]

The Daggers didn't even have a chance to respond as Flores charged them, such was their surprise. His boomerang scythed into the chest of the first unit - nicking its battery just barely enough to trigger an explosion that sent its fellows scrambling for cover. The third machine peered over its shield as the tempest subsided, trying to determine whether it was an attack or machine error that had claimed its fellow - only to be met with the howling form of the Sword Calamity, bursting through the dust before it. The Dagger raised its shield - but to little effect, as the Union's heavyweight sword fighting champion's blade tore it clean in half, from head to crotch, two sizzling halves falling almost comically to either side of Florus as he landed.

The second Dagger - the only one left - reacted not with bravery, but with utter alarm at the destruction of its comrades. It turned and bolted, its Aile II pack carrying it away on twin plums of blue, in the direction Florus had just come, not even bothering to fire back in his direction.

...

Had they been Union after all? The suit below seemed the genuine article, but closer inspection revealed its paint to be faded and scratched - clearly a salvage job of some kind. Were they imposters, then?

He didn't actually have much time to contemplate it.

A deep, baritone rumble, the grinding of heavy machinery, sounded in his cockpit - much closer now, causing the sensors in his suit to go wild. In the distance, behind and to his right, he could see panels sliding away from the floor of the area he had just passed through. Dust and steam billowed from the new opening, as something began to emerge - a structure of some kind, jutting up into the lunar sky, beginning to emerge from the derelict.

The Dagger was heading right for it.

[Buster]

It was over almost as quickly as it started, and as the beam boomerang was plucked out of the air as it returned the man sighed in relief, even as the dagger peeled away and ran away.
That rumbling caused Florus to grimace, his brows furrowing as the gundam turned on it's heel. Looking directly at what was happening now, and even as Florus stepped the Calamity back, far enough to pluck the beam. It felt like his nerves were icing over, foreboding as Florus brought the hefty suit off that ground where it stood even as he pulled the other sword free. Even as he brought the targeting over the back of that now sole Dagger, finger paused on the trigger for the Calamity's Scylla. Florus wanted to shoot him down, and finally pulled the trigger. The bright, multi-phase energy cannon expending it's shot from the chest of the Sword Calamity, aiming for one small moment to connect Florus and the unknown pilot. The man didn't want anybody to be able to react quite yet, not until he was sure what the hell was going on.

That all being said, it felt good to be in control of Sword Calamity, and all the things melted away from Florus St-Jacques. Everything going on in his personal life, from how he was sure he felt about Josephine, to his fear of nearly dying in Sword Calamity again. Cold grey eyes looking at the remains of the third suit, and he was glad he trusted his gut on this. They weren't Union, that paint was too sloppy. Besides, he'd served on the moon after the Battle for Luna until the fight at side 2, he knew very well they didn't use Daggers anymore.

At least the Lunar Guard didn't.

Which caused Florus to shift, his hands running over the keyboard on the console to his left as he punched in the code to bring up the Lunar Guard's secured comm line. Hoping somebody would be listening, if only to record what was happening here. "Attention Lunar Guard, this is Florus St-Jacques of the Charlemagne. I'm not sure what's going on..but we have people inside Meridia, and they're not from the Union."

[GEAR]

Only silence and static greeted Florus' communique. The levels of Minovsky particle had risen sharply as the structure before him rose, perhaps in a deliberate attempt to prevent him from attracting further attention... but given the previous lack of patrols, as well as the presence of the outmoded Daggers, it also seemed possible that he had stumbled upon something far more deliberate and sinister.

The Dagger reacted to the Sword Calamity's shot by turning, allowing its shield to absorb the brunt of the blast, blue and red particulate splashing across its anti-beam covered surface - but it held, albeit looking far more melted in the aftermath. It raised its rifle, and fired a pair of bright green shots in his direction, aimed directly at his head, before accelerating to his left, attempting to get out of view - and perhaps to draw his fire away from the structure behind it.

The apparatus in question continued to unfold, until it appeared as though a kind of sharply-inclined ramp, constructed with Meridia's trademark minimalist touch. Electricity crackled across rails set into its surface, and smoke billowed from the section of the Colony it had emerged from... but for the time being, nothing more seemed to emerge. Florus' radar, hazy as it was becoming, chirped a warning of an additional contact in that general direction,

[Buster]

The silence made Florus St-Jacques's skin goosebump and a shiver crawl it's way down his back. From his neck to the base of his back, however, Florus had scant time to enjoy the feeling before his ears filled with the sharp wail of warning klaxons. Pulling lightly on the controls, Sword Calamity's left arm shifted up as one of those rocket anchors fired out. Grasping onto one of those fuel rods as the veriners flared, pulling the hefty suit out of the way of those incoming shots.

Still, what was happening made the man clench his jaw and briefly his eyes turned to that apparatus before back towards where the mobile suit had gone. Florus would have to deal with it later, the unknown pilot had to die. There was no option about it, sure, he could try to cut it apart and capture the pilot, but death? It was the easier option. "Now, where did you go?" Soft puffs of blue flame brought the Sword Calamity around as Florus St-Jacques grey eyes scanned the area, looking for something, anything out of place.

However, there was easier ways to draw him out into the open and it made Florus St-Jacques smile widely. As the feet of the Sword Calamity touched down, it's thrusters came to life brightly. Propelling the suit upwards towards that unknown, strange apparatus quickly as the mobile suit gripped it's anti-ship swords together as Sword Calamity rotated over onto it's back. Aiming to cut directly through that extending ramp as Florus St-Jacques figured the best way to draw out his prey, was to simply damage this thing. After all, it was why the suit was running away from him..wasn't it? A bid to buy time?

Still, something seemed off, seemed wrong. Like that twisting knot in the pit of his stomach, Florus St-Jacques couldn't figure that out..and it was driving him mad.