1The sound of heaving breathing and running filled the wide empty metallic room as a young boy ran abruptly across the wide field
The sound of heaving breathing and running filled the wide empty metallic room as a young boy ran abruptly across the wide field. He was a boy about an age of 7, with short spiky black hair and a pair of red eyes. Fear and despair were visible from his eyes; his face was covered with sweats and blood. He wore what was once a white patient robe, now a tattered blood-covered piece of cloth.
The boy continued running madly towards a large metallic slide door and was just a few meters before reaching his destination until a gun shot rang from the other side of the room and the bullet tore into the flesh of his right leg, making him incapable of running. The boy fell and dragged onto the metallic pavement below him, yelling in pain, but that didn't stop him from his objective though as he dragged his body towards the door, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
"Let me out!" The boy shouted desperately while banging on the door. "Please, let me out!" He continued banging this time with both of his hands.
The sound of a footstep approaching behind him snapped the boy out of his desperation as he turned around and leaned his back against the door in fear. "No… Please don't do it, don't kill me!" He begged, tears rolling down his red eyes.
Another similar boy stood opposite him, holding a smoking handgun in his hand with an emotionless expression implanted onto his youthful feature. If his body wasn't covered with blood, one could tell that he had a long curly black hair with brown highlights and a pair of grey eyes. He too wore a similar white patient robe with crimson fluid covering most of it.
He raised his handgun and aimed it at the other boy's head.
"What are you waiting for? Do it!" The voice of an adult boomed through the speakers located in each top corners of the room. "Subject #Fortyseven has showed his weaknesses out of him and has failed to prove himself to be of any values. Finish him," The voice threatened and pounded more fear into the boy who was referred as subject #Fortyseven.
The boy with the handgun didn't even flinch at all as he stared blankly into the boy's teary red eyes with his cold grey ones.
"No, please don't. I don't want to die. Please don't kill me!" #Fortyseven shot his right hand out, frantically swinging it in the air as if trying to wave the boy off. "Please save me, God."
"God…?" The boy trailed slowly. "There is no God in this world," without any remorse, the boy pulled the trigger and another boom echoed through the empty room followed by the sound of blood and brain matter splattering onto the slide door and ended by the sound of an empty shell falling onto the ground.
The boy lowered his handgun and stared at subject #Fortyseven's lifeless body; his mouth still opened a wide, tears still flowing out his eyes starring blanky. The boy then turned around and took a look at the room. Bodies of children of similar ages with the same white robe lie lifeless onto the cold metallic pavement; the room was decorated with blood and brain matters and is drenched with the aroma of death and gun powders in the air, signifying a battle had just taken place. All the lives of the boys and girls in the room were ended by the same person.
Just like subject #Fortyseven, they all plead for their lives with the same fearful expression just before having a bullet up their heads. The boy killed them with no signs of either fear or remorse in him. To him, it was either kill or be killed.
"Congratulations subject #Seventeen, you have proved yourself to be the strongest of all soldiers and will be recommended for outfield operations. Your victory has brought us one step closer at the annihilations of coordinators in this world," the man said proudly and sounds of hand claps were heard through the speakers.
The boy, known as subject #Seventeen by the man, looked to the opposite top of the room where a mirror connected to what seemed to be an observatory room behind it, was seen. A group of scientists were in the room, chatting among themselves. One of the men must've turned off the speakers as #Seventeen couldn't hear what they were saying at all.
His cold emotionless expression caught the attention of a man standing behind the group of scientists. The man is in his mid-thirties and has a long messy dark purple hair. He has a sadistic smile plastered onto his scar-ridden face when his dark blue eyes met with #Seventeen's.
Onogoro Island, Orb's military base, 12.34 p.m.
A male figure jolted up from the seat of a parked jeep. The sea breeze blew his long black curly hair to the side and the sunlight gave him an intense greeting. Blinding him temporarily, he raised his hand to cover the light from further blinding him until his grey-eyes could adjust to the surroundings.
Parked by the roadside, the Orb's military base could be seen not too far away from across the road. Lines of buses were parked outside it with a group of people gathered there. They look to be young adults between the ages of 18 to 20, probably students.
The infotainment in his jeep beeped, bringing the young boy's attention to it. The word "Audio call" was on it with no indication as to the identity of the caller. He reached out to it and tapped onto the screen to accept.
"Morning sleeping beauty," a voice of a young lady greeted the boy from behind the screen.
The boy frowned and replied with a low sigh, not that the other lady can see or hear it.
"Did you have that dream again?" The lady asked. Once again only silence but the lady immediately knew the answer was a 'yes'.
The lady let out a sigh, her frustration apparent even from her tone of voice behind the screen. "Come on Kyle, it has already been more than 10 years. You are not subject #Seventeen anymore, you are Kyle Tsui. That accursed place has already been completely wiped off from the earth."
Kyle only looked away; his mind was somewhere else. 12 years had already passed since he was last called subject #Seventeen. The people he met and the people around him have called him by his new given name: Kyle Tsui. Despite that, the 19-year-old has yet to fully embrace his current identity, having difficulty putting behind a certain dark past.
"We'll talk about it some other time. Let's focus on the task at hand," the lady digressed knowing they don't have the luxury of time.
A fact Kyle seems to acknowledge as well as the boy reached to the glove compartment and took out what seemed to be a fake student ID-pass.
"Our informant from Terminal revealed that this place will be a target of an attack here today at approximately 1400 hour," the lady briefed as Kyle hung the pass around his neck.
"We have no idea how the attack will be carried out. We have reports that she will be there too in a college field-trip and she will undoubtedly be trapped in the crossfire so your mission is to ensure her safety. Fortunately, but also unfortunately, the field trip means blending in should be no problem for you since you're still a 19-year-old BUT that means you'll also have to take the safety of the students and civilians in addition to your cover into account," she further explained as Kyle exited the jeep and placed his left leg first onto the pavement.
"We are not ruling out the possibilities of mobile suits being used in this attack. Your unit is on standby at point Delta-20 should you need it."
"Roger," said Kyle flatly as stood out of the jeep, revealing his attire that he wore; a black T-shirt under a white jacket that managed to hide a handgun holstered at his back and a pair of brown cargo pants.
"Hey Kyle," the lady called out as Kyle was about to end the call. "Cheer up a little, that moody stern face of yours is going to blow your cover before you even know it. Good luck anyway."
Kyle then ended the call and proceeded towards the group of college students.
"Good afternoon everybody, my name is Katsu Shigeru but you can call me Katsu," yhe Orb military tour guide said. He is a man in his late thirties with a pair of olive eyes and brown short hair that he covered with an orange Orb military cap. He is wearing the standard Orb maintenance uniform consisting of an orange jump suit.
"Before we begin any further, please hand over your student ID-pass to your teachers so that we can take your attendance and will be able to take responsibility for you throughout this tour," Katsu said while pointing to the group of teachers standing beside him. One of the teachers standing beside Katsu is a lady probably in her late forties; she has long black hair tied into a bun with a pair of blue eyes behind a pair of glasses. She wore a simple white T-shirt along with a pair of pants and she held an electronic tablet in her hands.
The students passed their IDs to the teacher one by one who then proceeds to scan the IDs QR code with the tablet. Kyle was the last to hand his ID, the teacher observed him closely while constantly switching her sights to Kyle's pass and back at him sensing something amiss.
"Mister…" The teacher trailed while reading the name written on the ID.
"…Tsui. Kyle Tsui. Did I pronounce your name correctly?" The teacher asked in a suspicious tone.
"Yes," Kyle replied, his expression flat. While the name Kyle Tsui itself was an alias to the young man who was named #Seventeen, the Asian name perfectly suits him as he has the facial features of someone with Chinese ethnicity.
"Are you from our college? I've never seen you before," the teacher asked while scanning the QR code on the ID with her tablet, she was beginning to get suspicious of Kyle.
"I just enrolled not too long ago. I transferred from the democratic republic of Malaysia," replied Kyle, his expression and eyes firm, leaving no space for doubts from the teacher.
The teacher's suspicion would then disappear when her tablet registered the fake ID. In the list of students, there indeed was a Kyle Tsui registered for the tour. His particulars and also his student picture appeared onto the screen of the tablet albeit Kyle's smiling expression on the (fabricated) student picture is a far cry compared to the person she's looking at right now.
I guess life does that to you... The teacher remarked to herself wryly at the young man's gloomy expression as he walked past her. With all the students accounted for, she joins the rest of the group and head into the military base with a majority of the group already boarded the tour vehicle prepped for them.
"Wait up!" The teacher turned around and saw two girls approaching her.
The two girls bent down to catch their breaths. Looking closely, the teacher was able to make clear their appearances. One girl with shoulder-length straight platinum pink hair is wearing an unzipped white cropped jacket with a pair of black sports bra underneath it that matches her black trousers. The other girl has long curly platinum silver hair tied to the side wearing a white-themed Lolita dress. Both girls have similar baby blue eyes.
The teacher crossed her arms in annoyance, allowing the two girls to catch their breaths.
"Rosé and Lilliana Zwei. What must I do to fix that tardiness of you twin sisters?" she addressed the pink-haired girl and the white-haired girl respectively.
Rosé lifted herself after catching her breath and handed her ID pass that she took out. "We're sorry for being late, Lilliana took a lot of time dressing herself up," she said while looking over to her sister who was searching frantically for her ID.
"I'm sorry," Lilliana said softly almost in a whimper as she passes her ID to the teacher.
"I told you to just wear something simple like mine," said Rosé while she lowkey flexes her simple getup. Her cropped jacket and sports bra revealing her hourglass waistline and abdomen lines. Lilliana only pouted in return.
"It's okay you two, let's move on with the trip, don't want to waste any more time," the teacher said with a sigh after registering the twin sister's ID with her somehow has a feeling that the tour is going to be a long day while walking towards the tour vehicle with everybody already onboard.
Rosé had difficulties finding a seat when she got up to the vehicle, Lilliana had already found herself a seat as she was the first one who got up to the vehicle before Rosé did. Rosé scanned around the vehicle and found an empty seat beside a boy who was minding his own business. The boy somehow resembles a Chinese boy. Immediately, she sat down beside him without asking him whether he minded or not and when he turned around and looked at her, she just giggled and did a 'V' sign with her hand.
Kyle ignored her and looked away coldly, raising slight annoyance to Rosé. "Meanie," she muttered and looked away.
The young boy's eyes were fixated on another girl sitting a couple of seats in front of him; a peculiar blonde girl near his own age. Wearing a brown sweater over a yellow collared shirt paired with a plaid dark brown skirt, the girl has long below-shoulder blonde hair tied into a high ponytail.
The blonde girl giggled as she and her friend chatted away, unaware of Kyle's attention on her until one of her friends pointed out. Kyle immediately looked away before her emerald eyes could meet his grey ones.
"Leonne, you know the new guy?" asked one of the blonde girl's friends.
"Nope," she replied, trying to sneak a peek at Kyle from her shoulders.
"He's totally checking you out gurl," her other friend teased, earning a playful punch from the blonde girl. The girls giggled again.
That's her… Kyle thought to himself, his eyes onto Leonne while his mind remembers one of the tasks he was given earlier.
"Alright students, let's begin our tour," the sound of the megaphone boomed as Katsu held it up high. The tour guide whispered something to the driver and after the driver nodded, the vehicle began to slowly accelerate off.
Space, 1.46 p.m.
"What's the current condition on the surface, Elaine Elsman?" A lady, sitting on what seemed to be a commanding officer's chair in a space-ship asked. Behind the bulky space suit, the lady can be seen as a beautiful young lady at the age of 24. She has shoulder-length brown hair as well a pair of brown eyes that suited perfectly with her hair.
"There is currently no activity down on the surface, Captain Flaga," The girl who Captain Flaga referred to as Elaine Elsman, replied while continuing monitoring onto the screen. Elaine is a girl at the age of 21, she has long blonde hair that she tied into two pony-tails, and she also has a pair of ocean blue eyes. Aside from that, her skin is also slightly tanned.
The captain looked at Elaine with a smile imprinted onto her face. "Please. Just call me captain or Mia at the very least. It feels weird being called by your last name," The captain or rather known as Mia La Flaga to the crew of her spaceship, said while chuckling softly.
"Yes captain," Elaine nodded. The sound of the monitoring beeping caught the entire crew in the bridge's attention as Elaine quickly scanned through the monitor while typing on the keyboard.
"What is it, Elaine?" Mia asked.
"Captain, two mobile suit space pods had been launched down the atmosphere…" Elaine trailed while her eyes were running through the monitor. "There are 4 mobile suits detected in each pod. I'm putting the image onto the screen,"
After pushing a few buttons, a screen where five orange dots were seen descending towards the atmosphere appeared in a giant screen in front of the bridge.
"That's too early! So, it has begun…" Mia mumbled to herself. "Elaine, what is their path of descent?" She asked again.
"Just a moment, captain," Elaine then clicked some buttons and the computer automatically did its calculation. "The predicted area of their descent is… Orb's Onogoro Island, the area where Kyle Tsui is in!"
"As expected, notify Kyle about the enemy's movement," Mia commanded. "Send a text message to him: The enemies are approaching earlier than the estimated time and are in large numbers. Diver to plan S-3 and get ready to engage in mobile suit combat."
"Yes captain!" Elaine replied. Another beep sounded off again as the blonde looked at the monitor. "Captain, the radar is showing another reading. It's an enemy space-ship!"
The image of a giant black ship was shown on the screen.
"Captain, what should we do now?" A young male about the age of 28 asked. He has a short dark blue hair and a pair of black eyes. Gripping tightly at the steering wheels of the ship, he eagerly waited for his captain's command.
The captain then grins. "Relieve the outer Mirage Colloid particles. Get into combat mode and notify other crews in this ship," she barked. "After long years of waiting, the wheels of time will finally turn again."
Mia closed her eyes for a moment and shot up from her seat as soon as she opened her brown eyes, glowing with a profound sense of determination.
"Archangel, launch!"
Onogoro Island, Orb's military base, 1.53 p.m.
"Aw man, I got shot down!" A boy groaned as he stepped frustratingly out of what seemed to be a simulation machine.
Katsu chuckled humorously as he looked at the boy's retreating form while standing in the middle of a room that seemed to be a simulation room of some sort. The round room has 5 simulation machines around it and a monitoring computer behind each simulator.
"Alright, who wants to have a try at the simulator?" The tour guide asked and looked around for any students who were interested. Katsu continued to scan around until his olive eyes were locked onto Kyle.
"What about you boy; would you like a try?" He asked while pointing towards Kyle.
Kyle stood still and looked around at the other students who looked back at him. Most of them had already gotten their turn in the simulation machine; he was the only one left who still hadn't got into the machine yet. Without saying anything, he walked towards the simulator and sat on the seat.
Just by first glance, Kyle could tell that it was a mobile suit simulation machine. It's used for practice for both soldiers and those who are still in training. Two speakers are built into the seat located beside the top of the seat. A three-way screen was placed in his front, left and right with sets of keyboards lay below the screens. The sides of the simulator had a handler on each side and several pedals were found on the ground. Behind the simulator were a set of wires connected to a monitoring computer where an officer was stationed there to observe the simulation.
Katsu then stood beside Kyle and bent down to his level. "Alright, let me explain the controls to you," he said and started to explain. Kyle did not listen to him; his attention was onto the two twin sisters who had already been in the simulator since the beginning.
Those two girls aren't any ordinary girls… He thought to himself while observing them. His eyes met the baby blue eyes of the pink haired girl who earlier sat beside him and made a 'V' sign to him as she stared back at him. Smiling innocently, she winked and made another 'V' sign with her hand to Kyle.
Ignoring her once again, Kyle looked over to the other sister who seemed to control the simulation well without breaking any sweat judging by her reflexes and responses. Must be a coordinator… Kyle remarked.
"So did you get the controls well now… umm…" Katsu asked suddenly, snapping Kyle out of his train of thoughts. "How may I address you…Mr. …?"
"Kyle Tsui," Kyle introduced himself.
"Alright Mr. Tsui, I'll explain the score-system in this simulation while you play it," with that, Katsu pressed a red button that was found at the left side of the keyboard and the screen was activated, indicating that the red button was the activation button for the machine.
The activation screen didn't start up as Katsu had expected, instead the image of an elderly man appeared.
The man looks about the age of 40 and above; he has a bald head and a pair of sharp yellow eyes.
Kyle looked around and saw that not only his simulator, but other simulators had ceased functioning and is showing the same image of the man. Is it happening already? He asked internally and was about to get up from the simulator when one of the officers shot up from his seat.
"Katsu, take a look at this," one of the officers shouted from his seat and asked for the tour guide to come.
"What's this?" Katsu asked to no answers, the monitors were also showing the same image. "Don't tell me…" He trailed and took out his PDA. Much to his shock, it was showing the same thing too. "What the hell is this?" He asked again, not getting an answer.
"Greetings, citizens of the earth," the man said in a coarse tone, catching everybody's attention. "I'm sorry for the disturbance caused but I have an announcement to make,"
The man cleared his throat before beginning. "Lately, the world has been very peaceful with everyone living together. But have we truly achieved peace? Or has this fabricated utopia made us ignorant fools forget humanity's greatest threat; Coordinators?"
"Coordinators are beings having their genetics illegally altered to further surpass those of normal humans. Because of this we, Naturals, are inferior to these 'space monsters' in every aspect. They have taken our skies; they have taken our leaders. Have you fools forgotten the incident 9 years ago? Is that not a grave reminder of what these monsters can do? So why are they still permitted to reside on our blue earth? Why are they still breathing the same air as us? Why are they alive?!" He raised his voice this time.
The speech of the man gave shock to everyone in the room as Kyle looked at all of their surprised faces. His eyes were then locked onto the two simulator machines that the twins were in moments ago, they were gone. He tried but unsuccessfully to find those two girls in the room.
"That is why, we, will continue our goal to wipe out these 'space monsters' from our land! Never forget C.E.89…" the bald man in the video shouted. "…For the preservation of our Blue and Pure World!"
Right after the man said the line, the ground began to shake violently. "What is going on?" Some of the students shouted.
The sound of the alarm blaring filled the room followed by sounds of computer beeping. "Katsu, an explosion has just been reported in hangar 4," one of the officers said, responding to the beeping on his computer.
Another beep sounded off as the ground resumed its shaking. "Hangar 7 had just been blown to bits," another officer said.
"What, is this a terrorist attack?" Katsu asked the officers but did not get a reply. "Anyway, we have to evacuate the students first," he told the officers and the teachers who were still in there.
The teachers nodded and opened the emergency exit door that leads to a flight of stairs. "Students, please come this way," the students listened to their teachers' instructions and headed towards the door in uniformed fashion.
"What is going on?" Katsu asked one of the passersby who were using the emergency stairs.
"I don't know. Hangar 4 and 7 blew up," the passerby told Katsu and continued descending the stairs.
"Must be a terrorist bombing," Katsu told the teacher and later turned over to the students. "Alright everyone, proceed down the stairs and follow what the staff says," at that, the students begin to descend down the stairs right after another violent shaking, indicating another explosion.
"Ack," the shaking made Leonne miss a step, almost causing her to fall had it not been for someone grabbing hold of her arm. She looked over and saw the black-haired boy from earlier. "Thank you," she said.
Kyle nodded in acknowledgement and the pair continued their descent from the stairs together with the other, the latter leading the way for her. He was still holding onto the blonde girl's arm to make sure she didn't trip or fall and making sure she didn't get separated in the panicking crowd.
He has to ensure Leonne and the other civilians' safety, especially the former; it was a mission given to him and failure is not an option. But if things take an ugly turn, he will have to take action as he grips tightly at his handgun in his back.
Onogoro Island, Orb's military base, 2.08 p.m.
"Everyone, please calm down and proceed to the nearest shelter, an Orb officer will escort you there. Repeat, everyone, please calm down and proceed to the nearest shelter, an Orb officer will escort you there," the robotic sound of a woman sounded through the speakers throughout the base among the sounds of the alarms blaring, explosions and gun-fires.
The terrorist had already launched their attack right after the video was shown throughout the whole media just like what the info had told. One by one, the hangars were blown into flames. A team of mobile suits were scrambled throughout the base to investigate.
"Leonne!"
The blonde girl turned around and reunited with her classmate who called out to her.
"Yuki!" Leonne called, watching her friend squeeze through the crowd to get to her. Amid the chaos, she's at least glad that her friend is safe as they continue towards the nearest shelter, ushered by the Orb officers.
"What is happening?" Yuki asked with a shaky voice which prompted Leonne to grab her friend's hand tightly to calm her down.
Kyle interjected, "There is an attack; this base is being targeted."
Both Leonne and Yuki were surprised with the black-haired boy's revelation, the latter was more surprised shortly after when she saw the weirdo from earlier holding hands with Leonne's tightly and guiding them through the pushing crowd. But she doesn't have the time to ask about it or tease her friend amid the interrupting sounds of explosions and alarm blaring.
"Hey, what do you mean by an attack and targeted?" Leonne asked back, her grip onto Kyle's hand tightened. "You mean like a terrorist attack?!"
Kyle turned around and only nodded to the frightened girls without going too much into details. He was focused on his mission; he scanned the area for any impending dangers or threats and also constantly looking for a safe place to get away to. Looks like they are not targeting her specifically yet… he thought inwardly.
"Everyone, please proceed this way!" A military worker shouted while guiding the crowd towards the shelter. He tries to repeat the message again but was then sent flying forward along with a few other workers who were thrown off their feet when one of the hangars behind them exploded.
BOOM!
A high-pitched ringing stung her ears as Leonne tries to get her bearings right. The explosion was so near that everything around her sound muffled right now. She slowly opens her eyes to see herself and Yuki still in one piece and mostly unharmed. The two of them crouched into a ball when the explosion happened.
Looking up, she saw Kyle shielding the two of them with his body.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, his grey eyes combed through Leonne from head to toe to assert her condition.
The ringing stopped and Leonne could hear clearly again. "Yeah, I am fine…" she muttered shakily.
The blonde girl then looked around the aftermath of the explosion; flames as far as her emerald eyes could see and bodies littered the ground. Before she could see further, she felt Kyle pulling her closer to him.
"Don't look," he said and shielded her eyes away.
"FOR THE PRESERVATION OF OUR BLUE AND PURE WORLD!"
A group of what seemed to be armed mercenaries came out of the woodwork and started to fire their machine guns towards the direction of Leonne, Kyle, and the rest. Some of the Orb personnel and factory workers were shot on their legs and hands and some were shot onto vital areas, killing them instantly.
Further chaos erupts as Orb personnel, workers, officers, students, and teachers screamed and ran for their lives. Diving and ducking away from the line of fire from the group of mercenaries firing indiscriminately at them.
Leonne and Yuki hugged each other into a ball and made themselves as small as possible, too scared to move for their literal lives. The blonde girl shut her eyes and screamed over the loud sounds of gunfire. She wasn't even sure if Kyle was still with her.
One of the mercenaries had an Orb factory worker pinned down and was about to have his life ended before hearing a gunshot, the worker thought by now he would've been dead. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw the mercenary drop dead before him with a bullet on his head. The other mercenaries were caught off guard when several gunshots rang through the air again and tore into their skulls.
The worker, still in shock, turned his body over and saw a figure with a smoking handgun in his hand. It was a boy, a lot younger than him to be exact. A long black curly hair and a pair of grey eyes was all he could see before another explosion nearby made him run away in fear for his life. He might have been spared from certain death but the worker isn't going to leave his life to a game of chance.
"Leonne!" the blonde brought her head up to the voice of Kyle calling to her. She opened her eyes and saw a helping hand extended to her; it was him.
"Can you get up?" asked Kyle.
Still silenced by the fear in her system, Leonne took his hand and the latter pulled her back to her feet. Yuki, upon seeing that the immediate danger is no more, joined Leonne as well. She then saw the handgun in Kyle's other hand and the bodies of the terrorist lying in a pool of their own blood not too far away.
Her eyes widened in horror, "Wha- Did you do that?"
Kyle ignored that question and pulled Leonne and Yuki to a safer location, away from the battlefield that just took place. He remembers seeing the entrance to a shelter not too far before the explosion and the mercenaries appeared. Turning to a corner, they eventually arrive at the entrance to a shelter with two Orb military personnel guiding people in.
The shelter leads to an underground bunker designed to withstand gunfire and explosion from the surface. It was the perfect place to take refuge for non-combatants. Kyle then turned over to Leonne and Yuki.
"Can you both make it to the shelter?" he asked the two girls.
Leonne was confused at the question, "Huh? Yes, I think so."
"Good, head into the shelter with your friend and hide there."
"Wait, what about you?" she asked worryingly. The boy's choice of words indicated that he wasn't going to join them and she would soon get her answer.
"I cannot go with you," says Kyle as he places a firm hand on her shoulder. She saw his other hand tightening the grip on his handgun at the corner of her eyes.
"What do you mean, what are you-," she tried saying before being interrupted by another explosion nearby followed by gunfire from where they came from.
Kyle gently pushed Leonne and Yuki towards the direction of the Orb soldiers, "I have to go," he said again.
Still confused, Leonne stopped in her tracks and turned back to Kyle as Yuki have headed towards the shelter. The Orb soldiers spotted them and called out to them. Yuki was pulling her friend towards safety as well.
"Let's go Leonne, it's not safe," she said, urging her friend to head towards the shelter.
"Go," Kyle barked. "Stay alive, Leonne Lienhardt."
Before Leonne could ask further, another hangar nearby exploded again. The smoke blew viciously into their directions, obscuring everybody's vision to black. When the smoke cleared, the black-haired boy was nowhere to be seen. Attempts to run after him were thwarted when one Orb soldier reached out to her and ushered her into the shelter.
"Mission log: cub has been escorted to safety. Proceeding to point Delta-20," Kyle spoke into an earpiece that he took out and placed in his left ear.
Kyle continued running until he was forced to stop and hugged his back against a wall when he was almost seen by another group of mercenaries.
He slowly peered his head out from his cover and counted a total of six mercenaries out there not including the dead bodies of the workers lying all over the floor. He then held up his handgun and slid out the magazine and counted an exact amount of six bullets left.
Sliding the magazine back into his handgun, Kyle dived out from his cover and professionally sent all six bullets into the skulls of the mercenaries, ending their lives instantly before they could even react upon Kyle's sudden appearance.
Determining that there were no immediate threats in the vicinity anymore, the boy was about to resume his mission when another nearby explosion caught his attention. Behind the large pillar of smoke, he could barely make out the silhouettes of two tall humanoid figures standing.
His questions were answered when he saw two pair of lights; a pair of yellow and another pair of green eyes flashed behind the smoke. The smoke begins clearing out, revealing the machines hiding behind.
"Gundam…" Kyle remarked.
TO BE CONTINUED…