“Approximate time ‘til departure five minutes,” the animated pilot gingerly informed his companions. “Initiating launch sequence: thrust, trajectory, air pressure, fuel…” He energetically flipped the corresponding switches while listing the final preparations for launch.

One of his associates mumbled, “Annoying pilot,” adding this item to the unwritten checklist.

“Final clearance--Approved. Let’s get this thing moving.” He flipped a few more switches and the transport shuttle left the space colony. After leaving the colony’s gravitational pull he turned to his comrades and added, “Another perfect takeoff.” He laced his fingers and stretched his arms, turning the palms of his hands out.

“Any idiot could handle that,” his irritated companion replied. “It doesn’t take a genius to launch a shuttle.”

“I can’t believe I left the salvage yard for this! There are so many other things I would rather be doing.”

“Do you ever shut your mouth?”

“Do you ever call me for anything other than help on a mission?”

Their silent friend smirked as he watched them bicker with the one eye that remained uncovered by the thick bangs hanging over the side of his face. Not much had changed; whenever those two were in the same room they always argued. He waited until the argument had escalated to threats of bodily harm before interrupting, “What exactly is the mission?”

“The Preventers bureau only has preliminary information.”

“That means he doesn’t know,” the braided pilot offered his translation for the previous statement.

“What information is there?”

Let the truth be told; the Preventers knew next to nothing but Wufei provided his companions with the information he had been told. “Several months ago someone informed the bureau of peculiar activities in the L1 colony region. A small-unnamed organization has been stockpiling weapons and causing minor disturbances among the people.”

“What type of weapons?”

“Long range riffles, hand guns—nothing big.”

“And their purpose?” Trowa continued his questioning with a flat indifferent tone.

“There are several theories, but nothing is known for sure.” Wufei again could only supply what little he knew.

“What about the people in this organization?”

“The Preventers have apprehended a few members. Mostly assassins and snipers. Nothing is known about the leaders or the people who fund it.”

Duo, bored with where the conversation was going exclaimed, “Then why do you need us!?”

Wufei glared at the cause of this interruption; “I don’t need you.”

“Duo is right, what are we supposed to do?” Trowa didn’t like the idea but he had to agree with Maxwell, “It doesn’t sound like a big threat.”

“Lady Une has her concerns. I wouldn’t have contacted you if she hadn’t been so adamant about it.”

Skeptically Duo asked, “Who gave the Preventers this information and can you trust the informant?”

“The information was sent to the Preventers data base, the files were untraceable.”

“How did this person get the information?” asked Trowa.

“An inside job?” Duo guessed, “A mole?”

“The person calls himself mouse,” Wufei told his two companions.

The three former gundam pilots thought in silence, not knowing what was expected of them when they would reach the L1 colonies.

It might not have been necessary to call on the gundam pilots for help, but Lady Une choose to err on the side of caution. The gundam pilots power lie in fighting but their skills extended beyond brute strength. In many past endeavors the skills of the young men had been called upon. Once again they put aside their personal lives to help maintain peace; Duo maybe put aside other tasks too willingly.

In human nature it is only natural to fear what one doesn’t know and the Preventers knew little about the new threat. Growing alarm welled in the world leaders minds; what were these people capable of? Exactly what were their priorities? Did this new organization hold any real threat to peace? They were fighting an unseen enemy, whose powers had yet to be tested. The danger developed in this element of ignorance. If indeed this group was small it needed to be stopped soon before it grew.

Lady Une and Noin met them as they docked the shuttle; the men then began to see how big a threat it might be. Through the years after the Mariemeia incident Une had developed an instinct about what threats were to be taken seriously. If both women thought it necessary to journey to the space colonies there was sufficient evidence to be concerned. They all traveled to the temporary Preventers base together.

The messages from their correspondent steady in the first few months now came in sporadic intervals. Afraid of loosing their lead, the two women had traveled to the colony in hopes of finding more information or their informant. Since they had arrived the messages became even more infrequent, and the activities of the group had quelled. Successes were few but they had found some information.

Noin lead the party to the offices that they had secured for the purpose of their business. An entire floor of the building had been reserved for the Preventers: a small lobby with sofas, three once clean offices equipped with computers and countless piles of papers, a large conference room, a little kitchen and makeshift bunk rooms. They entered the conference room and Lady Une closed the door behind them; she addressed Duo and Trowa, “I’m sorry that I had to call you here, but I believe there is a real threat to the peace of the Earth and colonies.”

“No problem,” Duo piped up.

Trowa asked, “What can we do?”

“We need to find this organization before it disappears and comes up somewhere else.” As Lady Une finished her statement the door opened and a tall platinum blond man poked his head through.

Duo looked surprised, “Hey, Zechs whatcha doin’ here?”

Merquise eyed the self-proclaimed shingami and turned to the head of the Preventers; he handed her a paper and waited for a reaction.

“Still not enough to go on,” she glanced to the floor shaking her head. “You boys can rest. We will continue tomorrow.”

Disappointed she led the three to the bunks; they took the room gratefully, dropping their heavy sacks on the floor. The room was small but the beds were comfortable and they had privacy.

Maxwell plopped onto one of the beds, “Not bad, but we still don’t know any more than this afternoon.”

Wufei kicked Duo’s duffel out of his way and sat on another bed, “Be quiet, Maxwell.”

“She knows more than she’s telling,” Trowa stated.

“Lady Une always does,” Wufei added.

Duo lay down with his arms under his head and said, “It doesn’t matter anyway. She doesn’t have the information she wants. Night.” He closed his eyes and ignored anything else that might have happened.

The other two stared at him and decided to follow suit. They quickly fell asleep and quit thinking about what lay ahead.

In the morning the three boys ate in the little kitchen. Trowa and Duo sat at the small round table and watched Wufei rummage through the fridge and cupboards.

“Is there anything besides junk food here.” Wufei pulled his head out of the fridge and slammed the door.

Duo finished the last bite of his donut, licked the glaze off his fingers and poured a big cup of coffee, “Here buddy you need this.” He handed Chang the cup and added, “Did you know you snore?”

Wufei took a couple sips of the potent drink put the cup down looked at the others picked it up again took a few large gulps and said, “I do not.”

“You do.” Duo turned to Trowa, “He snores doesn’t he? And real loud too.”

Trowa threw up his hands in a mock surrender; he knew better than to get into this conversation.

Noin walked through the door dragging her feet, she barely noticed the boys; she yawned and poured herself a cup, she took her first sip and shook her head. “Hi guys, who made the coffee?” she asked taking another sip.

“Maxwell!” both Trowa and Wufei explained.

Lady Une entered the room followed by Merquise, making the small space rather crowded. Zechs stood next to Noin and slipped his arm around her waist. She handed him her cup, he took a sip, made a face, and finished it off. Lady Une explained further what she needed to be done, she showed the boys to the offices and left them to their own devices.

They went though the papers diligently, trying to find out what was known and go from there. Twice during the day they left to explore the colony and escape the seemingly impossible task of finding this mysterious organization. Exhausted they retreated to their bunk and left it for the next morning. The next day followed in the same manner, with the exception of Duo making the coffee.

Chang, Barton and Maxwell looked through the office door on the morning of the third day; the computers and papers had waited patiently throughout the night for them. Duo groaned and took a seat at one of the computers. Trowa and Wufei also choose to use this method of searching instead of the mounds of files and papers. The tapping of the keys and frustrated grunts were the only noises; for once it seemed that Maxwell would be quiet.

Trowa was the first to speak, “I found something.”

“What!?” Duo and Wufei exclaimed.

Trowa silently brought his discovery to Lady Une; she pulled some papers out of a folder and pieced together the findings from the past weeks with Trowa’s new information. A small smile played across her face and then vanished. Shingami and the solitary dragon watched in amazement, wondering how the clown could find something so fast and trying to figure out what it was. Lady Une brought the evidence to Zechs and Noin; they looked over it and came to the same conclusion.

“It looks like we’ve found the source of the organizations orders,” the Lady announced in a flat voice, inwardly proud because this new information may lead to an end. “Duo, Trowa, Wufei, we need you to cheek it out.” She handed the papers to Wufei and added, “Be extremely cautious, this may be the base of their operations.”

Duo tried to read the paper over Wufei’s shoulder as the dark-eyed man said, “We will take all necessary precautions.”

“Piece of cake,” Duo beamed.

* This ends the first portion of my little story. If you liked it I’d love to hear from you, if you hated it I’d like to know too, and if you could care less I’m sorry but I don’t know what to do for you. E-mail questions, comments, reviews to: timidtigress@hotmail.com

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