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"Grounded"Written By: ExecutiveShrimp Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, it belongs
to Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. Written for pleasure not
profit. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: unbeta'd, sexual, violent content (graphic,
at times). Pairings: 2x1 Summary: A Preventer mission goes horribly wrong. Co-captains Duo and Heero both survive, but as changed men, and they have to rebuild their lives from the ground up.
"Grounded" Part III - Heero's POV For three days they worked around the clock in preparation. They familiarized themselves with the schematics of the resource satellite. The blueprints were dated, there was no way of knowing to what extent RS42 had been remodeled to suit its new purpose, but the basic construction would still be the same. With the available information on the structure and load-bearing capabilities of the support beams, walls and floors of the interior, Duo - assisted by Grace - determined the most suitable type of explosive and calculated how much of an explosive, at several critical points, would start a chain of events that caused the satellite to collapse in on itself. They couldn't just load RS42 up with octanitrocubane and blow it to smithereens, because the resulting loose debris would be a hazard to L4 and L3 that circulated the earth at the same altitude, or DTE - Distance To Earth - as RS42. They choose Semtex, given the excellent weight-to-explosive-power ratio; it would be light weight and two backpacks' worth of it would be sufficient for a controlled explosion. Taking out certain support beams would cause the satellite to collapse in on itself, minimizing debris. Heero took charge of identifying the most efficient entry and exit strategy, aided by the insight of Viver and Rubo. There were two boarding docks for shuttles, but both were presumed to be guarded. Access vents on several points of the outer shell - meant for maintenance workers to climb in and out of - would be the safest bet to gain entry unseen, as was necessary if they wanted to avoid giving the terrorists manning the satellite enough time to wipe the computer system of the information they needed to further unearth their network. The vents were only small enough for a man in a space suit to fit through, they weren't equipped to accommodate even the smallest shuttle. They would have to use the nearest traffic route to approach RS42 and get as close as possible without detection and then eject from their shuttle and propel themselves towards the satellite. The method allowed for little accuracy, but the vents were located all over the outer shell and as long as they landed somewhere on the North-East side, they were in ideal position to board the satellite, because from there it would only be a short way to the control room. While Heero would be hacking into the system and creating a digital portal that would allow the technical staff at Preventer HQ to access and download the data, Duo would have to stealthily navigate the walkways of the hollow satellite and place the Semtex at the vital construction points. Once their tasks were completed they'd meet on the lower shuttle dock, since satellite surveillance had revealed the lower dock was the only one of the two in active use and they would best stand a chance commandeering a shuttle there and escaping before the set time of the explosion. With Heero having full control of the system by that time, he could lock doors remotely and shut off certain corridors while opening others, clearing a way for the team. They planned everything to the greatest detail: from the approach shuttle they would use, to the types of spacesuits they would wear, to the gear they would carry with them. Several contingency plans were fully worked out. The rest of the team complained about being left out on the action, but Heero knew he and Duo would be able to execute the mission more efficiently if it was just the two of them anyway and whether their teammates appreciated it or not, they were integral parts of the plan. Grace, Viver and Rubo had helped during the preparations and had given valuable suggestions and insight. Swafford would fly the approach shuttle and was on stand-by for a distraction procedure should that be necessary. All the while, Beck would be monitoring communication traffic in and around RS42, as well as act as back-up to Heero and assist in setting up an access portal once Heero had taken down the firewalls. Cho would keep Chang and Team Two - their back-up extraction team - up to date and liaison with HQ. Everything had been planned and every scenario had been taken into account and mission time T was set once Major Chang gave the green light. All that was left to do was rest. Heero was confident there would be no surprises, nothing that he hadn't prepared for. Until, eleven hours before departure, Duo said: "Haywire, Viv and Beck should come with us." Duo had come looking for him in the Preventer gym. Heero had just finished a sparring match with the captain of Team Two and he had been running on the treadmill, expending all of the energy so he could catch some sleep in the basement bunks before they'd had to leave for the shuttle port in nine hours. In the 24 hours leading up to time T, Preventer agents were not allowed to leave the premises, to ensure that they wouldn't consume alcohol, would eat well and get enough sleep, while a medical team ran last-minute blood tests on them to clear them. Heero was sprinting on the treadmill, set at its highest speed. He had to pick up the pace to be able to reach the console and dial down the miles per hour to a jog so he focus on his partner and his absurd suggestion. Heero didn't even ask him anything, he just stared at him, trusting Duo could read him well enough to know what he thought of the idea. "I know what you're thinking," Duo said. "We always go out with just the two of us and it has worked well-" "It has worked perfectly," Heero amended, while he worked to catch his breath. "But this mission is different from anything we've done in the past two years." "We've dealt with worse. By ourselves." "That's true, but we were by ourselves because we had no other options. This time, we have an opportunity to bring back-up with us. The stakes are higher than they've been in a long time, I don't think we should leave our resources untapped." "They're not 'untapped'. They have their roles to play. I know you pity them-" "It's not about that!" Duo argued and Heero didn't understand why he raised his voice at him. Two members of Team Two who had also been working out in the gym, paused with dumbbells halfway up to their chest and stared. Duo shot them a dangerous look. "Do you mind?" The twosome purposefully turned away and continued pumping their weights. Duo sighed dramatically and put his hands on his hips. "It's not about wanting to give them a chance. I want us to go into this knowing we did everything possible to enable a successful outcome." "We did," Heero stated. "This is hardly the opportune time for a learning moment." "You're not listening to me! You've been calling the shots for the past two years, it's time you listen to me - really listen to me, and consider what I'm saying." The Japanese agent jumped up onto the frame of the treadmill so he could stop running. "I'll listen when you give me an actual reason." "Be honest with me, if this was the perfect team, with perfect individual scores - even by your standards - would you agree that it would benefit the mission for them to go out into the field with us?" "Yes." He quickly added: "But this is not the perfect team. We're the perfect team." He gestured between the two of them. Duo's eyes softened and he smiled in a way that he shouldn't, not at the office; it was dangerous, not because anyone would be able to tell from a smile, but because it made Heero want to kiss his lips. "The perfect team does not exist," Duo contended. "The two of us are not a perfect team because it's just two of us and there is only so much two people can do. And the team isn't perfect because they don't have perfect scores and they don't have experience." "And you are advocating that two negatives make a positive?" "I think their skills can complement us and with our experience we can guide them. All they have to do out there is what they have been trained to do; to do what they do best according to our orders." Heero wiped the sweat off his face with a towel and jumped off the treadmill. He reached for his water bottle and screwed off the top, but didn't even get around to drinking before he spoke again: "How would they complement us on this specific mission? We have all bases covered: I hack the system, you set the explosion, we get out of there." "I don't doubt that we can do it ourselves, but I also don't doubt we could do it faster if we have extra sets of hands." Heero quirked his eyebrow at him, urging him to continue. If Duo wanted him to sign off in the idea, he had to work harder to convince him. "It's a classic divide and conquer approach. With Beck in the control room with you, with physical access to the system, he is of more use to you hacking into the database and uploading the information to HQ. You could be done in half the time." At his co-captain's doubtful look he conceded: "Alright, alright, more like three-quarters of the time. But still faster, and that's my point. In the meantime, I have to set ten charges of Semtex, over twenty-three floors. If I have Haywire there to assist me, we can do it twice as fast." "Where would Viver come in?" "She can be back-up for Haywire if he runs into any trouble. Haywire is trigger-happy, but we need to be stealthy for as long as possible. Viver's hand-to-hand combat is good enough to draw blood even from you." Subconsciously Heero made a face as he remembered the warmth and taste of his own blood after she had clocked him in the nose during a match. She was good, she was the best on the team, even though her scores were not the highest on all disciplines, she showed consistency and that made her more reliable than the others. Heero actually had the least objections to her coming along, but if the only reason to bring her along would be to have Grace's back, her presence was superfluous because he did not agree to bringing either Grace or Beck with them. Beck was slow and imprecise in stressful situations; he was eager to prove his worth and willing to work for it and Heero could admire him for that, but he wasn't convinced he was ready. Grace was a cowboy, with scores all over the place that didn't always back up his inflated ego While he agreed that, in theory, they could perform the mission in a smaller amount of time if assisted by other team members, he worried that letting them out into the field could just as easily cost them time if they had to constantly correct them. "Slow is precise and precise is fast," he recited. Doctor J had drilled those words into him. The mantra had helped his younger self become less jittery and hurried, because he'd made mistakes if he tried to rush his work. Duo shook his head. "Not fast enough. You don't know how many firewalls you are going to run into and I don't know how often I have to interrupt my work to take down an Unfriendly." Heero still hadn't gotten used to that term - 'Unfriendly' - it was such an odd euphemism but according to the Preventer Protocol, they were not allowed to call people "enemies" anymore. "Heero, what if we end up taking too long and they find out the satellite has been infiltrated and they have time to manually launch one of those nukes, before you can take over the system and before I can destabilize the structure?" Duo's eyes were pleading him. "... If they fuck up we'll need even more time," Heero tried. "They won't fuck up." "You can't know that for sure." "I trust them." Heero sighed and looked away. "I don't." "Do you trust me?" He blinked at him. He stared at his kind face and his calm eyes. "I do." He knew Duo would never do anything to knowingly endanger their lives or the mission. He joked around a lot, but he was as serious about this as everyone else in the agency. Heero still had his reservations about letting the other three join them, especially since it was such a last-minute change to the plan, but he had to remind himself of one simple truth: without arrogance or ego playing a part in it, Heero knew he was better than Duo in many regards, but he was not the better leader. Duo was the best captain, with a better understanding of their team. In the past two years, Duo had never openly questioned Heero's decision to sideline the rest of the team during missions, for him to do that now, meant he felt strongly about it; that he felt strongly Heero was making a mistake by wanting to leave Grace, Viver and Beck out of the action. If Duo was confident the mission would have a greater chance of success without citizen casualties if they went in as a team of five, Heero had to follow that instinct. The question was still in Duo's eyes and Heero answered it with a simple nod. Duo didn't look as pleased as Heero thought he would be, but he did smile at him and thanked him for his consent. "Want to come with me to update the team?" Heero shook his head and stepped back onto the treadmill. "I need to run more, or else I won't be able to sleep." "Okay. I'll let Haywire, Viv and Beck know they should get ready." He shot a look at the two other men in the gym; he resented their presence and Heero knew why. "Run and get some sleep. I'll catch my last few Z's later." "Will you come sleep in my room again?" They'd slept in the basement last night as well, not wanting to waste time going home, even though they were technically still allowed. There were seven rooms, with four bunk beds each. They had been the only ones spending the night and they could have had their own rooms, but Duo joined them in his. Though they both acknowledged it was a risk, but it had been nice. "Better not." Duo made a face. "Besides, I wouldn't want to wake you." Heero nodded. Although he dreaded the prospect of sleeping alone, it was for the best. Team Two and the three other members of their own team would be spending the night in the basement tonight as well, so rooms would have to be shared, but it was an unspoken rule that captains got an entire room to themselves, while the other team members would share. So it would probably draw too much unwanted attention and it was wisest to sleep separately. Heero didn't sleep much that night. He was exhausted but he wasn't comfortable in the narrow bunk bed. He missed Duo's body to collapse against. He missed the rhythm of Duo's heartbeat under his cheek and the way his head on his chest rose and fell with Duo's steady breath. He shivered without the other man's body heat. At 9 am the next morning, he was grateful he was allowed to come out of his room. He had started to feel trapped but he knew the medical support staff would get on his case if he had ventured out of his room. They would have lectured him on the need for sleep ahead of a mission and with the way Chang was running the office, the nurses would have probably ratted on him and called in the Major. Heero understood that they had rules for good reason, but maybe he'd been spending too much time with Duo, because sometimes he felt like rebelling, thinking he knew better anyways. He went up to the mess hall. The entirety of Team Two was seated at one of the tables. They looked relaxed and as he walked by them he caught bits and pieces of conversations not related to the mission. He presumed the day was quite different in their experience. While they were technically on call, they didn't feel the same pressure. The team had been assigned as their back-up on many other occasions but there had never been need for them to actually suit up and come out in support of them. Duo and Heero had never needed their help before. The captain greeted Heero and Heero nodded in response because Duo often told him it would be impolite not to. He was served a breakfast that he knew he wouldn't be able to stomach after his sleepless, uneasy night, but he had to eat as much as possible. He took his tray to an empty table. He used to like being alone, but he couldn't deny the skip in his heartbeat when Duo walked through the double doors, looking messy and tired. Heero waited for his co-captain to get his lunch before he would dig into his own. He felt a little better and more at peace once Duo seated himself next to him. "Morning." Duo took a drink from his coffee and made a face. "God, I hate the mess hall coffee. Wish I could run upstairs and brew a cup with our own machine on the tenth." "I think they have exactly the same machine down here." "Eh. It's still not the same." He poked his finger at his soggy toast and stirred his spork through his scrambled eggs. He didn't eat. "Did you sleep well?" He inquired. The Japanese agent forced himself to eat some fruit. "Well enough, I guess." Duo smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. Eyes that could see right through Heero. "Yeah, me neither." He looked up when Beck, Grace and Viver walked into the mess hall. The threesome was boisterous. They were excited. They were already feeling the adrenaline. When they passed friends on Team Two, they got high-fives from some of them. "It's not about glory," Heero muttered to no one in particular. "Don't mind them. It's natural. We get excited too, don't we?" Heero ate some of his toast before he admitted: "Normally, but I don't feel excited right now." He didn't and he didn't know what that meant. Duo nodded. Heero didn't know what that meant either. Their three team members sat down at the table with them. "Good morning, sir," said Beck, taking the seat next to Heero. "Hn." "I want to thank you for giving us this opportunity, sir. We will not disappoint you." "It's not about whether you disappoint me or not," Heero stated. "Failure is not disappointment. Success is not a pat on the back. There is more at stake today." "Yessir, of course," he readily agreed and he stuffed his mouth with his gluten free waffle. Duo didn't say another word during breakfast, nor did he eat. He stared into his coffee. He didn't drink that either. "Did you all sign the wavers?" Heero asked. "Yes, sir," they all said. "And update your contact information?" "Yes, sir." He nodded curtly, pleased with their responses. After breakfast they went to mission control. The communication center was dedicated to GA-127 until Team One would give the all clear. Cho was at her station. Swafford had been waiting for them. Rubo was there as well, even though his role from then on was passive and he needn't be present. Heero knew the six of them were friends, yet even with his limited social skills he could discern there was tension between Rubo and Swafford and the three newly minted field agents. He dismissed it as nervousness and perhaps irrational jealousy. Duo didn't raise any alarm, so he assumed he shouldn't read into the fact that the two men weren't as friendly with the rest of the team as they used to be. Chang approached them to review the latest information with them. The mission was officially greenlit and Heero, Duo, Beck, Viver, Grace and Swafford were driven to the space port where a shuttle was waiting for them. Their equipment had already been loaded onboard: five space suits, the backpacks with Semtex, weapons and the necessary tools. From L1 it was a three hour flight to RS42 at the current distance between the two points. Because RS42 circled the earth at a lower altitude but with a faster speed, the distance between L1 and the resource satellite fluctuated. Part of the consideration when determining mission time T was the travel time between the two and where Rs42 would be in relation to the other colonies at the scheduled time of her destruction. She had been closer to L1 and was already moving further away, but in three hours and thirty minutes, there was a twenty minute window during which she was the furthest away from any colony and other satellite than she ever would be. If any debris would come loose during the explosion, clean-up crews standing by would still have time to clear away the larger chunks that might cause damage to L3 and L4 at the same DTE as RS42. Swafford wouldn't take over the controls of the shuttle until later. As long as he was able to, Duo would pilot the shuttle. He took a seat at the joystick and strapped himself him. Once everyone confirmed they were secured in their seats, the bridge retracted and the shuttle decoupled from the space dock with a jolt. Heero sat in the back of the small shuttle with the rest, since there wasn't even a co-pilot seat in front, next to his partner. He observed as Grace and Viver shared a smile and gave each other a thumbs up. Swafford sat next to Heero, with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He was sulking. Heero knew what sulking looked like - Duo liked to do a mocking exaggeration of it whenever Heero wouldn't give him his way. Honestly, Swafford shouldn't complain. Until today, one could argue he had seen more 'action' than his team members. As the best pilot among his peers, Swafford had flown his captains out to many mission. But Heero supposed that was nothing to boast about to the other agents. There was little grandeur in shuttling his bosses around and he knew no one was being complimentary when they nicknamed him "chauffeur" behind his back. The entirety of the flight, Grace and Viver were the only ones to talk. They were seated in the back and the two whispered softly, only to occasionally let out an obnoxiously loud laugh. Whenever he cracked his eyes open and bothered to look over his shoulder to glare at them, he noticed they had already been looking his way. Beck was nervous the entire time, wiggling his leg uncontrollably. His gaze was focused at a spot on the wall. With his fingernails he scratched his knees. Duo had his earphones in. Listening to music was his way of relaxing, but it was odd to Heero that his co-captain didn't look back once to check on his team. After all, he was supposed to be the attentive and understanding mentor between the two of them. Beck looked like he needed some encouragement, but Heero had no idea how to go about that. At T minus 30 minutes, Duo gave the signal that it was time suit up and Swafford maneuvered to the front in the zero G shuttle and took over the control of the ship so Duo could get ready with the rest. They put on their black space suits and strapped on their holsters for their hand guns, extra ammo and army knives. Duo and Grace both had a backpack loaded with Semtex, wiring and timers and the tools to arm the charges, as well as a drill to unscrew access panels to get through locked doors. Heero, Beck and Viver could make do with a utility belt. They all had a one-man flight regulator - or "empty fire extinguishers" as Duo liked to call them - basically a canister of compressed air. With calculated releases of the air, they could adjust their flight path in space. The suits with built in flight regulators would allow for a more accurate and controlled trajectory, but they were too cumbersome and they wouldn't be able to fit through the satellite's access vents. "We're approaching the drop-off point," Swafford announced, reading the instruments. "T minus 90 seconds." Heero and Duo shared a look, like they always did, but Duo's eyes didn't offer him the same reassurance as they normally would and he supposed he couldn't offer Duo any either. They put on their helmets. The five of them climbed into the empty missile tubes, barely able to squeeze into narrow spaces. Swafford turned on auto-pilot long enough to close the breech doors to lock them in. This was why Preventer agents couldn't 'let themselves go' the way some other kinds of law enforcement officers did, because as a Preventer you had to get creative and sometimes you would be asked to do something insane, like allow yourself to be crammed into a missile tube to literally be shot into space. It was Duo's idea. Of course it was Duo's idea. It was a good idea. Being launched from the missile tubes would give them the necessary momentum to cross the remaining distance to the surface of the resource satellite swiftly to maintain undetected. Swafford had to angle the shuttle just right as he passed by RS42 as close as he could while still staying on the known traffic route, to avoid suspicion. If he did his job well, it was a straight shot to the North East side of the satellite; about a 3 minute flight. If he screwed up it was up to each individual to get on track using their flight regulators. If he screwed up too badly, they would hopelessly overshoot the satellite and Swafford would have to turn back and come fish them out of outer space, which would cost so much time that the mission would fail and a shuttle deviating off course in its vicinity would probably alert the crew of RS42 that something was in the works. Heero planted his feet securely against the slider on the inside of the breech door. The slider would function as a ram. Pressurized air would push the slider through the tube, ejecting the cargo. "Decompressing tubes," Swafford announced according to procedure. His voice was crisp in Heero's left ear. The shuttle pressure was slowly released through valves until the pressure in the tubes was equal to the low pressure on the other side of the hull. Safely in his space suit, Heero didn't even notice it. "Opening muzzle doors." He looked up and watched the hatch open. He saw the black void of outer space, the sun and white lights in the distance; he couldn't tell which ones were stars and which ones were shuttles, satellites and colonies. "T minus 15 seconds." Heero saw the silhouette of RS42 appear in his line of sight. He crossed his arms in front of him and tucked his chin against his chest. He felt his heart pounding, even through his suit, it pumped the adrenaline through his body and he felt invincible. Swafford counted down: "10... 9... 8... 7... 6... Arming air ram... 4... 3... 2... 1... G-" For a moment Heero couldn't hear anything over the rush of blood in his ears. His body was propelled out of the missile tube and before he knew it he was flying through outer space with speed. He kept his legs straight and his arms tightly against his chest, clutching the regulator to him, even though he knew movements would not deter him from his path without the resistance of air. He looked ahead at their target. It looked like Swafford hadn't failed them; the satellite was dead ahead. He looked to his left, at Duo and Beck and then to his right to check on Grace and Viver. They were all beside him and right on track. "That was amazing!" Grace exclaimed. "Wooohooo!" Viver joined in. Beck laughed nervously. "Yeah, how's that for a straight-shooter?" Swafford chimed in. "I've been an excellent shot since I was fourteen years old." The three team members laughed, but Heero missed the joke - as he almost exclusively did. "Do you mind?" Duo bit. "Our com-lines are for communication, not for cheering and boasting. We're not the only ones listening." The entire mission control on L1 was listening in as well, WuFei included. However, regulations prohibited them from replying, barring emergency situations, because the com-line would get crowded otherwise. "Yes, sir," Grace replied, but the way he slurred his words made his polite response to his captain's order seem disrespectful. "Everyone stay focused," Heero commanded. "When we get closer, release the air to slow down. I'll tell you when." The resource satellite appeared before them larger and larger as they hurdled towards it. "Now!" Heero instructed when they were close enough and with the exhaust of the regulator aimed straight ahead, he quickly succeeded in slowing himself down so he would be able to land comfortably. Duo was right beside him. Viver and Grace released two much air, slowing down too much too soon, leaving them several yards behind them, but they would be able to land on the satellite unhindered. Beck, however, was in trouble. He must have been imprecise with his aim because he veered to the left, into Duo's path and Heero watched them crash into each other and then the mass of their two bodies collided with his. Reactively he grabbed onto both of them, to prevent anyone from drifting off. Duo adjusted their flight path with his regulator as well as he could but they still hit the satellite about a hundred feet to the left of where Viver and Grace landed. They secured themselves to the hull with magnetic tethers and Heero felt his heart race when he noticed the spider web crack in the acrylic visor of Duo's helmet. "It's fine. Viv, Haywire, meet Yuy and Beck half way." Duo looked at Heero again. "I'll patch it up while you guys get started on the access hatch and then I'll come over." Heero nodded. He released the magnet on the tether, giving him the mobility to move along the outer shell to an access point about midway between where the three of them and the other two had landed. Beck lingered at Duo's side, but Duo told him: "Go, the more drills the faster they can get the hatch open." Beck obeyed and followed Heero to meet up with Viver and Grace. "Swagger, any chatter after our landing?" "She's quiet, Duo." Heero and the other three set to work on unscrewing the bolts holding down the hatch door. The hatch was designed to be opened from the inside only, so they had to dismantle the door to get in. Four drills for thirty-five bolts; each taking nine seconds to unscrew. "Duo, what's your oxygen level?" Heero asked as he worked. The crack in his helmet would be leaking oxygen and they didn't have much to begin with. He'd have to be quick to tape it shut to stop the leak. Rather than concerned, he caught himself getting angry. He had a suspicion the three inexperienced agents would cause them trouble, but not even he had expected it would occur in the first five minutes of the mission. "Twenty-two percent. And I've patched the leak. I'm coming over." A few second later Duo was at his side and he helped unscrew the last few bolts. Once the final bolt came loose, the hatch door floated away, revealing a dark tube they all had to cram into. Heero went last and he could barely fit inside with the rest of them already in there. They couldn't open the door at the bottom, even though they had access to the control panel, they had to create airlock first or else they would end up explosively depressurizing the entire satellite. Their bodies became heavy as the constant spinning of the satellite created its own gravity on board. Since outer hatch doors could get damaged by space debris or meteors, there was always a secondary, inner door for emergencies to be able to achieve airlock. Heero felt for the ridge, to make sure his head was ducked low enough before he triggered the emergency door. As soon as he pressed the button, a panel snapped shut, scratching the top of his helmet as it did, locking them in. "Clear." "Activating air vault," Beck said. He had been the first to go in, so he was at the control panel by the hatch at the bottom. There was the hiss of air pouring into the tube until the pressure matched the livable conditions of the space craft. "Opening breech door." With a clang the hatch below them opened and one by one they emerged from the tube. They took off their helmets and stowed them away in a storage locker so no one would come across them during patrols. Heero adjusted his earpiece and headset after pulling off the tight-fitting helmet. "Okay, we all know what to do. Sync times?" They all looked down at their watches. "Mine's at 40-43." Three of them nodded. Viver quickly adjusted the time on her watch to synchronize with the rest. "Confirmed." "Our magic window starts in twenty-six minutes. If we take longer than forty-six, this bitch starts to approach L2 - that's my peeps on that colony, so let's not take that long." "The odds of the debris getting flung low enough to get into L2's DTE are negligible. L3 and L4 - at this altitude - are at the greatest risk," Beck informed. Duo sighed. "I get what you're saying, but that's not comforting. Let's get to work. Let's do this." They headed down the hallway, hugging the walls. Heero and Grace were in the back with their guns drawn, Duo, Viver and Beck let the way, palming their army knives. If they ran into any "unfriendlies" they had to first try to subdue them without noisy gunfire. Thankfully, the inner structure hadn't been remodeled too drastically and with the old schematics memorized they found their way to the T-junction where they would part ways. Duo, Grace and Viver had to go right and work their way down to set the charges, while Heero and Beck needed to go right to breach the control room at the top and start recovering the data they would need for the Preventers to further investigate the terrorist cell. "Hey." Heero stopped at Duo's urgent tone and he looked at the hand placed on his shoulder with mild alarm. They had to be professional around the other three. Duo didn't seem to care much about their audience, nor the time pressure. He stepped in close. "Be safe. Don't be a hero." Heero frowned at the odd request. "Too late." Duo smirked. He patted his shoulder and distanced himself from him again. "Let's gut this bitch." The two splinter teams ran off in opposite directions. Heero looked over his shoulder once and right as he did, so did Duo and their gazes met and locked until the threesome rounded the corner and disappeared from sight. Beck and Heero were quick to reach the door to the control room. Heero used his handheld electronic device to plug into the control panel for the door and hack into it to unlock it. When all that was needed to slide the doors open was an ENTER, he handed the device to Beck, instructing him to stay out of the doorway and wait for his 'go'. Heero got into position with his gun in his right hand and his knife in his left. He inched Beck back so he could have cover behind the doorpost on the side where the door would open first. He listened for a moment at Duo's voice in his left ear, relaying orders to Grace and Viver as they parted ways to cover more ground. "Beck," Heero whispered, to clarify who he was addressing. "3... 2... 1... Go." ENTER. The door slid open with a swoosh. In a split second his brain registered the single man, seated at the control panel with his feet propped up, his back facing the door. He was across the room but by the time he would have turned around to see that the door had been opened by the agent and not by one of his co-workers, Heero would be on him. The Japanese agent leapt across the room and brown eyes widened in shock. The man raised one arm in defense and reached for his radio with his other hand, but Heero caught his wrist and drove the eight inch blade into his torso, angled up between the fourth and fifth rib, piercing his heart. The body went lax instantly and when Heero released him the man slipped bonelessly out of the seat and onto the floor. "Come in here. Close the door." Beck's face was white. He unplugged the device he was holding, stepped into the room and pressed a button on the panel on the inside of the door. It slid shut and a green light lit up to indicate it had been properly locked. "Hack in, change the passcode, so no one can come in." Beck nodded and went to work. Heero rolled the big man out of his way, not minding the streak of blood he left on the white floor. He seated himself in the chair. The seat and the backrest were warm from the man's body's heat. He popped open a panel on the computer in front of him to plug in his passcode encryptor. He had written the code himself and the little device could crack the code to access the mainframe in mere seconds. "Heero. Report." Duo sounded out of breath from running down stairs. Grace and Viver were planting the charges on the upper floors and Duo would start halfway and work his way down to the lower floor. "We've breached the control room." The computer beeped and the screen in front of him came to life. "I'm going in." "We need Beck to find updated blueprints and forward them to us. They've built an entire skeleton of metal walkways in the open space, surrounding the missiles. I'm worried we might need to relocate some of the charges. Some of these beams look load-bearing and we didn't take that into account." "I'm on it," Beck said and he seated himself in a second chair and got to work on a different computer. The files he was looking for should not be encrypted so they would be easy enough for him to find. The data Heero was interested in, however, would be under lock and key. His fingers flew over the keyboard. He downloaded viruses of his own creation onto the computer to search for and isolate sections of the system and automatically disable lower-level fire walls. Running a ghost program he hid his presence in the system and he made changes to the launch protocol to hinder the launch even in the case of a manual override. Those warheads weren't going anywhere. "Duo," Beck started, "I've sent the blueprints to your phones. But it looks like those beams aren't load-bearing, they are only supporting the lower frame of the walkways and keeping the missiles upright." "That's good news. Haywire, proceed as planned." "Will do." "Duo, won't the explosions trigger the nuclear warheads?" Beck wondered. Heero rolled his eyes at the question, but forced himself to focus on his own work. "Hold that thought," Duo whispered. "I've got company..." Heero listened to his partners pants and grunt and the dull, distant blows of an intense but short-lived fist fight. "Jesus," Duo breathed and he joked: "That was a big mother fucker." A smirk forced its way onto Heero's lips. "To answer your question, Beck: No. Nukes only go off following their own sequence of detonation. They are going to be safely entombed in the ruins of this satellite until we can get a team to extract them. The charges we're setting off are relatively mild and are only going to weaken the structure. The satellite is going to crush in on itself." "If class is over," Heero interjected gruffly, "I'd like some quiet so I can focus." "Sorry." Duo chuckled. Mere minutes later tabs started opening on the screen, popping up left and right. "I'm in," Heero declared to HQ and mission control on L1. "I'm going to use their own network to send them a Trojan Horse. If they access their own data from any other computer, we'll be able to see into the files on those computers as well." "Do you mind?" Duo whined dramatically, "I'm handling explosives here. I'm trying to focus." A smile appeared on his lips as he recognized his partner was mocking him. "Right. Beck, activate the link with HQ. The door is wide open." "Yes, sir." They worked in quiet. All he heard were his own fingers racing over the keyboards and an occasional exchange between Grace and Viver and Duo checking up on their progress. "One more charge to go," Duo announced. "I just finished the third. Two more to go," Grace responded. "When I'm done down here I'll come back up to help you." "We got it, Duo," Viver bit. "I'm coming up when I'm done," He repeated, leaving no room for argument. Suddenly everything went dark. Heero froze with his fingers over the keys. The room blackened and the computer died right in front of him. "What the fuck ju-" Before Duo could finish his sentence, red emergency lights came on. The computer came back online, but it was back on the start-up screen and when Heero tried the passcode his encryptor had deciphered earlier, a pop-up tab flashed with an error message. He was locked out. "I- I'm sorry," Beck stammered and he looked at his captain with wide eyes. "What did you do?" Heero demanded. "I- I don't-... I-..." "Well, whatever you did, you triggered an emergency power-down and now we're on back-up power and I'm locked out. We might have just lost everything." "Forget about that!" Duo bellowed. "The entire crew has just been alerted someone is meddling with the controls. They're coming right for you as we speak!" Heero shook his head. "I need to get back into the system, to see if the link with HQ is still open. If not, I can download as much data as possible onto my portable." He frantically set to work. "Heero, you and Beck need to get out of there! Now!" Heero's fingers stilled and he scrunched up his face. "Now, Heero!" He knew Duo was right. He jumped up from his seat and motioned for Beck to follow him. "Let's go," he instructed calmly. Beck looked anything but calm. They headed out the door and down the corridor the way they came, to the T-junction where they had splintered off from Duo and the rest. They'd have to follow their route, to the hollow heart of the satellite and down the twenty-three flights of stairs to the lowest floor to get to the lower space dock before the crew would converge on them. It dawned on him that the mission had failed. The charges would be found and disarmed before they could be set off. The warheads could be transported off site before back-up arrived. Without the necessary intel, the Preventers had no way to track down the entirety of the terrorist cell. Who knew where the warheads would be popping up next? He forced the question from his mind; he could not afford to be distracted. They sprinted down the corridor, knowing they had a large distance to cover to reach their escape, but Heero heard two other sets of footsteps mingle with their own - heavy military boots landing on the floor in a slow, constant jog. He looked ahead and knew two unfriendlies would round the corner any second, so he grabbed Beck by his collar and pulled him into the nook of a doorway. At Beck's questioning look, Heero touched his index finger to his own lips and he palmed his handgun. If the guards were worth their salt, they would be responding to the alarm with their guns drawn and bringing a knife to a gunfight wasn't an option in that case. Heero peeked around the corner and fired at the first guard, but he didn't have time to discharge a second bullet at the second sentry because the man opened fire on him and he had to pull back for cover. He listened intently to the shots and he counted them but it was a Smith & Wesson MP 80 with a twenty-four round magazine - only a fool would empty that clip before hitting target. The bullets ricocheted off the metal wall, but the pangs got increasingly closer until Heero could even hear the click of the firing pin every time the trigger was pulled. Using the sound, he pinpointed the location of the guard and he extended his arm around the corner. He risked getting hit, but it would be a non-vital injury. He fired off a single round just as a bullet grazed along his forearm, tearing his suit and skin open. A heartbeat later there was a thud as a heavy, lifeless body slumped to the floor. "I heard the gunfire, who was that?" Duo asked with evident concern. "It was up here. We're fine." Heero replied coolly. He grabbed Beck again and pulled him along, stepping over the two bodies on the floor. "Jesus Christ," the inexperienced agent muttered in awe. In his ear Duo and Grace were having a discussion. "We could still activate the timers and set off the charges as planned," Grace boldly suggested. "There's no point," Duo responded, "They'll find most of the charges long before they go off and even an imbecile can diffuse Semtex." That was true. It was literally a case of pulling the wires out of the plastic compound, disconnecting it from its timer and detonator. There were measures that could be taken to prevent such easy dismantling, but that hadn't been necessary for the mission. "What if we set the timers early?" Viver suggested. "Don't you even dare fuck with my timers, Grace," Duo warned, before the hot shot 'Haywire' could get any ideas following her suggestion. "Shit!" He hissed and then there were muffled sounds of a fight, followed by the pops of three gunshots. Heero pushed through an emergency door at the end of the hallway marked MISSILE LAUNCH and he dragged Beck with him onto the metal grate walkway on the other side. The vast open space would have been large enough to fit all five of their Gundams, if not for the clutter of walkways and metal staircases. Erected in the center, in triangular formation, were three tall missiles - as tall as buildings - their shaft was white but the armed head, pointing up to the hatch above, was black and marked with radioactive warning signs. Heero took a moment to look over the railing, down to ground level far beneath them. Twenty-three floors; twelve steps per floor; 276 steps to get down. In the meantime, every terrorist on the satellite was coming their way. He maneuvered Beck in front of him so he could keep an eye on him while they started racing down. "Duo, where are you?" Heero asked, trailing closely behind Beck. "I'm all the way below." "You need to head to the dock to clear a path and find us a shuttle." "I don't-" "There's no point in you wasting time waiting for us," Heero barked. "We need to get out as quickly as possible." Because of the haphazard inner construction surrounding the missiles, not all the stairs were directly below one another and every few floors they had to waste time running to the other end of the space where the next set of stairs were. It made calculating their time difficult. His estimation, however, was discouraging. "Heero, there is plenty of time, we aren't going to set off the charges." "It's not about what we set off!" He growled. "Duo, unless the power-down erased the changes I made in the code, the launch hatch isn't going to open. If they decide to fire those missiles, the rocket exhausts are going to burn up this place." "Jesus fuck..." "It seemed like a good safety precaution at the time..." And it was, because the five of them should have been long gone before the general alarm would sound. Any mad-dash attempt for the terrorists to make use of their warheads would backfire on them and cause their own destruction. "Haywire, Viv, where are you guys?" "We're also on our way down," Grace panted. "Okay, hurry up. I'm gonna head for the dock and find us a ride out of here." "Copy that," Heero and Grace replied in unison. Even in his haste, he noticed a black shape moving on the walkway directly across from him and Heero reactively tackled Beck to the ground, right as bullets hit the metal railing where they had been. Their attacker took cover behind a beam, but his frame was wider than the vertical steel. Heero fired off a shot with an accuracy he could always count on. The bullet didn't hit a vital organ, but the man doubled over in pain and he slumped to the floor when the second bullet penetrated the skull through the temple. Heero jumped up. "Up. Up," he ordered. He had felt Beck shake. When the agent didn't respond he hoisted him upright by his arm. "I shouldn't even be here!" The agent yelled in a panic. "No, you shouldn't," Heero agreed. "So let's get you the fuck out of here. Sound like a good idea?" Beck nodded frantically. "Then go! Come on!" He heard gunshots in his left ear and Viver announced through gritted teeth: "We're taking fire. We're pinned down." "Where are you?" "Third floor," Grace replied. Heero and Beck weren't even halfway down yet. Grace and Viver were on their own. When he said as much, the female agent bit back: "We got this! We don't need you to come rescue us!" Good, Heero thought, because I can't right now. He continued rushing his shaken team mate down the stairs. "Not fast enough, Beck! Two steps at a time!" He heard a scrimmage coming from Duo's end of the com-line, but he knew his co-captain could handle himself and he pushed his worries aside. Grace and Viver succeeded in overpowering their own attackers and were victorious and overconfident in the aftermath of the battle. "I think we can still pull this off," Viver said. "Most of the charges have been set and so far everyone has been too busy chasing us to even notice the explosives. We're on the ground floor at the main detonator. Haywire can reprogram the timer and synchronize remotely with the other timers, right?" "... Yes, I can." "I told you not to touch my fucking timers, Haywire! You better not! Heero and Beck are still up there!" Duo shouted. "We'll start the countdown when they are down here and leave just enough time to get to the hangar. You've got a shuttle ready, right?" Viver boldly strategized. "I'm firing her up right now. Get-away-car is waiting, just fucking get your asses down here and forget about it. It's over. We've failed," Duo tried to hammer it in. "No, we haven't!" She yelled. "Beck screwed up, but we can still fix this! Grace?" "I can do it," he asserted. "Don't, it won't even work. The calculations were precise and we didn't finish setting all of the charges, it won't be enough to destabilize the satellite," Duo tried to reason with them with a calmer tone. "But the explosion will be strong enough to wipe out everyone on board, at least that's something," Grace supplied. There was a moment of silence and Grace and Viver might have shared a look, before they decided: "We're doing it." "No! Grace! Fuck!" For Duo not to use Grace's preferred nickname meant he was really pissed and panicking. Heero remained calm. Grace could try whatever he wanted to enable his own ambition, but as soon as Heero and Beck would be down there with the other two, Heero planned to rip that detonator out of the plastic compound, rendering it useless. He knew it had been a mistake to bring them along. Beck was too nervous, Viver was too insubordinate and Grace was too arrogant. Heero blamed himself more than he blamed Duo, even though it had been Duo's suggestion. But blame didn't matter in the moment; they just had to get out of there, so he could yell at all of them later. Duo was already yelling. First ordering Grace to keep his paws off the timer, then begging him, then - realizing he would be disobeyed no matter what - he tried to help Grace by walking him through the procedure, so he wouldn't accidentally trigger the detonator. The stubborn agent wasn't responding to anything Duo was saying at that point and neither was Viver, making Heero suspect that they had taken out their earpieces and everything Duo was saying was pointless, but his co-captain kept trying. Heero listened to his partner's desperation, while his own sense of urgency - and emergency - started to border on anxiety and fear. The feelings were a heavy brick in his stomach, but he couldn't let that slow him down. Then Duo addressed him: "Heero, where are you two?" "Almost there, we're on-" He was cut off by an explosion from below. He and Beck were thrown back by a wall of displaced air before they felt the heat of the flames licking up the walls. The entire metal structure vibrated under them as they landed on their backs. The breath had been knocked out of him and it took a moment before Heero could scramble up on his feet and pull Beck up by the front of his suit as well. He patted out the flame on his shoulder; the preventer insignia had caught fire, but the space suit prevented Beck from getting burned. On the other side of the open space, where the explosion had occurred at the bottom, the left side of the skeleton of walkways was collapsing in on itself and the grates they stood on shook with the force of the tons of steel coming down. The lower floors pulling down the upper floors, starting an unstoppable domino effect. The two agents were thrown off balance again when the entire structure on their side bent and warped and the walkway they were standing on listed forward. They caught themselves on the railing. The creaking and groaning of twisting steel filled Heero's ears, drowning out the sounds of Duo's curses and demands to know if everyone was okay. "Status report!" Heero heard Duo scream when everything else went silent all of sudden. But he couldn't respond. He flinched at the sound of loud bangs. It sounded like gunfire but he knew it were heavy-duty bolts popping out of the wall - some of them with so much force that they might as well have been bullets. "I'm coming, Heero! I'm coming for you!" Duo promised. Above them there was a succession of explosions; one floor after another. The fire spread through the corridors and distant screams were heard. Whatever Grace had done, he had triggered the detonation of the three charges he had set on the upper levels earlier and the force of the explosions blew the three missiles off balance. They tilted to the left and pulled on the brackets connected to the side of the atrium that hadn't come down in the initial blast - the side Heero and Beck were on. The chain of reaction happened too fast to be able to respond. The metal walkway they were standing on was torn away from the wall and flipped upside down, flinging the two men over the edge. The free fall was long enough for Heero's brain to unhelpfully supply: "This is going to hurt". His body crashed onto the floor. After that, he remembered nothing; only pain.
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