Chapter Text
In the years after the end of the old wars – the most recent one being Char Aznable’s Rebellion against the Federation had caused so many innocent lives lost both on the heavily polluted Earth sphere and the space colonies themselves and changed everything for the worse and those who sit upon a mountain of limitless wealth were not affected in the slightest.
Flying towards the Earth was the space shuttle, the Haunzen, which only housed individuals wealthy enough for the trip like the Earth elites who were riding in first class. One of the many passengers on board the shuttle was a sharply-dressed woman with long flowing dull teal hair and a small green Haro pin on the left breast pocket of her pale blue jacket.
This woman stares out the window of the Haunzen looking upon the small blue world with a sombre glance as a man floats towards her with two glasses of champagne.
“Are you still intending on finishing off Mafty when we arrive on Earth, Captain Sleg?” Asked the woman in a calm and collected manner. This question brought the attention of certain individuals on board the shuttle and including one who has the scar of a veteran. The man addressed as captain answered her question as he handed her drink over before taking the seat next to her.
“Of course, we can’t have a dangerous terrorist much like him running around causing the Federation trouble.”
Feeling unsatisfied with the answer she was given, she threw another question in the captain’s way, asking what were his own personal opinions on Mafty and their campaign.
“I’m sorry if my answer to your previous question upsets you, Ms. Vice-Foreign Minister. As for my opinion on Mafty and what they’re doing? Well call me a sheep but I believe he’s a total nutjob, a dangerous individual that has disrupted the order of the Earth Federation government.”
“And yet he has the praise of the public more so than we do, they say that he’s Char Aznable brought back to life, that he’ll do what the people want. He may not seem all that bad, Captain Kenneth” The Vice-Foreign Minister replied.
“He’s an extremist, that’s what he is. After all he declared that he’d assassinate Federation ministers, including you, Ms. Quess Paraya.” Kenneth spoke as he shifted in his seat, having much trouble getting comfortable being in a zero-g environment. “And then, all just for the sake of the environment, all of humanity will have to leave Earth.”
“Without exception, if I am not mistaken. Yes?” Quess Paraya asked as she took her glass of champagne from the captain’s hand.
“Yes, Ms. Vice-Foreign Minister.” He paused for a moment so he could have a sip from his glass before continuing the conversation. “All of humanity without exception. It’s a childish idea, really.”
Quess would then respond to Kenneth’s comment with a sharp tone before looking at the alcoholic beverage that was being held firmly with her cold hands. “Yes, it really is. But sometimes aspects of a child’s logic are correct.”
“If only the world worked that simply. It’s a shame that this is no dream world”
“So you don’t believe that anyone can be clean and pure, captain? What do you think?” Asked the Vice-Foreign Minister of the Federation as she spoke with much disapproval of Kenneth's comments and potentially what his answer to her final question.
“The wheels of society must be greased, I suppose.” The captain spoke predictably in the eyes of Quess. She lets out a sigh of disappointment before opening her mouth to say, “of course you believe that as well. A small bit of advice, captain? Best you respect the enemy’s philosophy, it may just spare you from their wrath.”
Kenneth looked at the sharply dressed woman, confused by her words and took a swig from glass before asking for a refill.
The space shuttle that the two and many others were aboard starts its descent into Earth’s atmosphere and the crew in the cockpit preps the auto-pilot for its destination but unbeknownst to the crew and passengers, they were being followed by an unidentified transformed Mobile Suit.
This man. Captain Kenneth Sleg, is seen in the Haunzen’s washroom washing his hands after finishing his business and wonders to himself out loud why Quess Paraya, the Vice-Foreign Minister wanted him to not look down on the ideology of Mafty.
As Kenneth left the washroom, he was greeted with one of the flight attendants, Ms. Mace Flower. Her stylish blonde hair and piercing hazel brown eyes captured the captain’s attention. “Is anything the matter, sir?” She asked as she offered him a towel to dry his hands, Sleg smirked before he responded to Ms. Flower’s inquiry while taking the towel from the aluminium tray that the attendant held in her hands. “Not at all. I just realised that you’re my type, Ms. Flower.”
She looked at the captain with a brow raised. “Is that your stock pick-up line?” she jokingly asked. “Must be hard getting older.”
“No, not really.” The captain said in a calm tone. “For instance, I no longer get nervous when talking to a beauty like you.” He would then drop off the used towel onto the tray as he continued. “That’s enjoyable in itself.” Kenneth paused for just a moment as another flight attendant passed by. “When I was a teenager, my heart would race, it was pure agony. This is better.”
Flower tilted her head as she looked to Sleg with a curious glance and continued the conversation with her own belief. “I’d rather have my heart racing if I were to be met with someone I’m crushing.” “That’s an ideal left over from the experience of first love.” Kenneth fired back quickly to what Flower had to say. “You know full well that reality isn’t what we desire it to be.”
An unidentified object then casted upon a large shadow through the windows of the Haunzen, catching the captain’s attention but not Flower’s. “Well… you’ve certainly put me in my place!.” She said with a playful tone before she took a look out the window with Captain Sleg. As Kenneth took a good glance at what passed by the Haunzen he spotted what looked to be a Mobile Armour, and an old one at that as well. What was it? A Gaplant? Why would the Federation be using it after what happened eighteen years ago?
Questions that he thought of and as soon he thought of the what and whys, they would be unexpectedly answered with the shriek from one of the many flight attendants and hijackers boarding the shuttle armed to the teeth with heavy machine guns and handguns.
They would immediately open fire on Kenneth and Ms. Flower, thankfully with his quick thinking he dragged her into the entrance of the cabin room with him as the bullets flew into the direction of two Federation soldiers who were there for the protection of the passengers.
Kenneth would then spot a pistol that was close to his foot and immediately took it but made sure to be careful of his surroundings. The smell of blood was fresh and it did not bring any pleasant memories with it. He would then take Mace to the cabin room as an attempt to place her in a safer area rather than an unpredictable variable like a hallway that could be occupied by terrorists of uncertain origins. Just as the two arrived the shuttle shook greatly from the combination of gravity and something that was attached to the top of the shuttle.
Flower flew into the direction of a man in red and caught in his arms before being safely dragged back down to the cabin’s Victorian styled floor, the man did not say a word to Mace, unsettling her just a bit but it may just be a rush of adrenaline from being shot at for the first time in her life. She didn’t know what to say other than a simple thank you to her saviour, however, before she could give her gratitudes, Kenneth shouted to everyone seated to be buckled into as he cocked the hammer on the pistol he confiscated, he was however stopped from continuing with his job to protect not just the Vice-Foreign Minister but also the other Federation Cabinet members by Minister Einstein. He lectured the captain, asking him a rhetorical question if he was trying to get the rest of the passengers on board the shuttle killed.
The captain countered by saying they were being attacked by Mafty, justifying his actions after suggesting that they may be after the cabinet members that were sitting comfortably in the shuttle. The sounds of explosions were in sync with a violent shockwave that came from the cockpit suggesting that Mafty or a terrorist group similar to Mafty have control of the shuttle now, then gasps could be heard all around as the terrorists arrived in the passenger area. All heavily armed with military grade assault rifles that have enough power to punch through six centimetres of steel, and uniformly dressed in green bomber jackets with Mafty patches on each side of their sleeves like a crimson red satanic message. Despite their uniformed attire, all of the terrorists wore cheap but unique silicone Halloween masks.
“A wise decision,” started the pumpkin masked terrorist with an almost condescending tone in his voice.
“Could I ask for you to disarm yourself and carefully set that pistol on the floor, Mister Kenneth?” Captain Sleg stared down the man who requested for his surrender and his stare became more of a scowl as he noticed the symbol of Mafty plastered dead centre of the pumpkin mask.
Miss Mace looked around the room, seeing all the passengers quietly panicking as the terrorists kept their rifles close to their face as a warning for them to not intervene with their operation, she was freaking out in her mind but suddenly the man who saved her earlier spoke softly in her ear.
“Don’t look.”
She turned to the man scared and confused, “Eye contact may provoke them, best to not frustrate them.”
The man finished as he kept his hands to himself and looked down to the floor with no intent of making any form of eye contact with either the passengers or the terrorists. The red suited man had no intention of drawing any attention towards himself, but Quess, since the terrorists had broken in the room, kept her eyes on him.
The Vice-Foreign Minister then turned her eyes to Kenneth who had surrendered himself to the likes of these hijackers, the leader from the looks of it took away the captain’s gun, inspecting to make sure that there wasn’t anything that could be potentially harmful towards himself. As soon as he was finished inspecting the handgun, he motioned to Minister Einstein to return to his designated seat and let out a small cough before speaking to everyone on the shuttle. “All Federation boars and sloths, listen well.” The pumpkin man said insultingly of the Federation cabinet ministers, “I am Mafty Erin.”
This revelation caused more panic as everyone already knew what Mafty’s end goal was, fearful that this hijacking was in fact a purge, however their fears were set aside. “However, this small operation is no purge.” Hearing this from the man who claims to be Mafty, eased some of them but not entirely. “In exchange for your lives, we will obtain war funds from the Earth Federation government, and upon completion of this, you will be released.” Quess raised a brow at this man as if she already knew that these hijackers were full of it, she had some sort of gut feeling they did not intend on keeping their word. As the hijacker’s Mafty walked forward to continue his speech, he stated that this deal is the same goes for the other non-Federation passengers that he has deemed privileged.
The man in red lifted his head when he heard this, he scowled for some reason. No one near him knew why and assumed it was because of these hijackers threatening his own life as well, but that was far from the much darker truth he hid in his blackened heart. Captain Kenneth sat in his seat, furious at the situation he was in. Not only has Mafty taken over the Haunzen, but he was cuffed and being watched over by one of the terrorists, essentially making him unable to protect the Vice-Foreign minister.
More trouble could be heard as an old woman can be heard complaining to her husband saying, “this is why I said I didn’t want to go to Earth!” Her husband begged for her to be quiet, however this was too little too late as Mafty had pulled the trigger to his rifle as a way to release his anger.
“Stop screaming.”
He breathed heavily through his mask, before he turned to look at them with his body language stating he was very much disappointed in them.
“It gets on my nerves!”
After he shouted at the couple he moved towards the purser demanding for the passenger manifest. Quess quietly looked around the seating area, seeing every man, woman and children holding onto one another, fearful of what is to come later. She worried for everyone’s life on board, especially for the man in the red suit sitting by Miss Mace Flower.
After Mafty had returned with the manifest, he began calling out everyone’s names including the staff on board the shuttle except the pilots. The short-tempered terrorist walked down the aisle with the purser calmly as if this was something he did on the daily. The tension in the air was dense and this only got heavier as Mafty stopped by the seat of the Vice-Foreign Minister.
He looked at the manifest staring directly at her name for a few seconds before slowly turning towards her, “Quess Paraya. Vice-Foreign Minister of the Earth Federation.” She raised her hand slowly before the man grabbed hold of her, squeezing hard as well. “You are a popular individual aren’t you?” laughed Mafty.
“Then you know that I am better alive, correct?” She responded as she ripped away from the terrorist’s grip. “With all the blood money your father left behind for you? Absolutely.”
The passengers who sat close with the Vice-Foreign Minister began speaking to one another and this caught Mafty’s attention, their small talk, their conversations about him. It was annoying him. “Shut up!” He demanded with his view still set on Miss Paraya. One of the passengers stood up, an elderly moustached man who had grey hair and balding. “How did you individuals find out about this vessel?” He started, “I told you to shut up!” Mafty demanded with a much harsher and frustrated tone in his voice. Hearing this tone from him frightened everyone close by, fearing they knew what was about to happen if the man kept pressing Mafty’s buttons.
“But one of our duties is to investigate your organisa-” before he could finish his response, Mafty quickly turned to the man’s direction and drew his handgun for the man’s head.
“YOU’VE GOT SOME NERVE!”
Bang. Bang.
In just a few short seconds, blood and grey matter covered the now dead elder’s seat and who seemed to be his now widowed wife. His body dropped hard to the ground with his skull completely exposed and blood still spewing out like a spilled drink. The widow panicked from the sight of her now dead lover and jumped out of her seat only to hit her head hard at a door and collapse from the shocking view.
Everyone was in as much shock as the woman was. Kenneth stared at his dark coloured leather shoes, feeling sick to his stomach. Quess covered her mouth to stop herself from puking. As for Mafty, he found the sight somewhat amusing. “Okay, I guess that means the Public Health Minister is dead, honestly didn’t know why I bothered keeping him alive this long.” He said in a now bored tone before he turned his pistol to one of the ministers, demanding they clean up their colleague’s remains. Before any of the Federation representatives could get up, Mafty got impatient and demanded that someone had to do it. “I’ll do it,” spoke the man in the red suit as he raised his hand high for Mafty to see, “I’ve seen some terrible corpses in the old wars.” Mafty looked at him for barely a few seconds before he looked at the manifest to see who this man was, and what he saw shook him. The manifest designated this seat of the red suited man to be Hathaway Noa, son of the leader of Londo Bell, Bright Noa. “...Y- you are…” “Exactly who you imagine, if I’m not mistaken.” Mafty stepped away from Hathaway as he turned his still scarred face, the shrapnel that had been lodged in the right side of his head like a small horn that belonged to a demon. “Alright,” Mafty said as he motions for Hathaway to get up. “Help him,” he said to the purser. The tone of fear that Mafty had from his interaction with Hathaway caught Kenneth’s attention, making him curious as to why did Mafty freeze up. Quess on the other hand didn’t seem all that surprised but rather worried.
Hathaway called for the purser to grab some blankets causing him to start running but this quickly got Mafty shouting again, “no fucking running you imbecile!” He had his gun cocked and it had the purser then freeze before slowly walking with Hathaway. “Listen up.” Mafty spoke again in a commanding tone, “this is Mafty Erin doing this. I thought I warned you lots not to forget!”
Hathaway looked at the body of the Public Health Minister before the purser returned with the blankets he had requested, he told the purser that they were going to wrap up the body with the blankets and provided instructions on how to do so. As the two were finishing up wrapping up the dead minister, his wife was slowly waking up from her small incident from earlier, her vision blurred but was becoming clearer. What she saw was Hathaway placing her husband’s body back in his seat before clicking the safety belt. She jumped up and pushed Mafty aside to reach her husband.
This act had enraged him and only made him more angry as she began to grieve for her lover. Hathaway stood aside watching the purser trying his best to have her keep her voice down, stating that Mafty will kill her only for the widow’s response to be for Mafty to get it over with. This cry for death clicked with Mafty and he forced Hathaway to the side as he raised his rifle to the woman’s head and fired.
Blood splattered all across his mask and hot bullet shells burning the soft carpet floor as they made contact. This action had Hathaway annoyed and he started reaching out to Mafty, signalling to him but this had the masked man to react with confusion and aiming his rifle in Hathaway’s direction. “What the fuck are you doing?!” This response was unexpected for Hathaway and suddenly he heard a voice, a woman’s. It echoed loudly and his vision hazed for a second hearing the sentence. “Do it! They’re all fakes!” And then all of a sudden, everyone had their sights set upon Quess repeating those same words that Hathaway heard. He turned to the declared Fake Mafty and immediately grabbed something from his pockets as he ducked to evade the hijacker’s gun fire, pulling out two switch blades and forcing them deep into his thighs.
The Fake Mafty screamed in pain and had let go of his rifle which caused Hathaway to grapple onto and quickfire one of the three terrorists who were in the room, the third was tripped and apprehended quickly by Kenneth, which caused the rifle the man held drop right by Quess’s feet. Hathaway hasted, dashing for the cockpit with the rifle in hand not thinking of any plans.
Kenneth was taken aback by this and called for someone to help remove his cuffs. As that was happening, Hathaway arrived at the cockpit and started ammo dumping the rifle into the first terrorist he saw and using the now empty gun to restrain the second by holding it against his neck. Unfortunately, Hathaway did not account for the one in the pilot seat only realising it as he saw all the dead shuttle pilots and hearing a laugh from the last terrorist he didn’t get to. The clown masked man got out of his seat and pulled the hammer of the revolver in his holster before aiming for Hathaway, but before he could pull the trigger on him, he was quickly turned into swiss cheese by Captain Kenneth and had arrived in the nick of time with a rifle from the terrorist he had apprehended from earlier.
“You really didn’t have a plan for taking these goons out did you?” He jokingly said to strike up a conversation with Hathaway, “no, I didn’t. I was only going by instinct I suppose.” Kenneth was surprised by the response and sighed, “alright. Now that was just an awful joke.”
Not soon after the apprehension of all the now injured hijackers, the Haunzen has its autopilot set for Davao City for the terrorists to be questioned first and arrested afterwards.
The flight lasted about a few hours and several Federation soldiers arrived to help escort the passengers to safety, the hot wind of the Philippines filled the shuttle and blew through Hathaway’s wind as he stood over the terrorists with the rifle he had taken firmly gripped, his scowl more fierce than ever. The son of Bright Noa then overheard some of the passengers talking about how the hijackers were taking them to Australia which had become a breeding ground or home base for anti Earth Federation groups whether if they were peaceful protestors or “radical terrorists” as those who work within the Federation in any capacity would say. Kenneth groaned as the hot air blew in his face, complaining about the heat as he began unbuttoning his now blood stained beige jacket. He slicked back his hair and wondered to himself how did the Vice-Foreign Minister know about the true allegiance of the hijackers, but he brushed that question aside as he helped Miss Flowers up on her feet to tell her that his subordinates are on the way and he is willing to provide her with luxurious comforts that are beyond her imagination. She simply gave a sigh and told the captain that she will think about it as she smiled before taking her leave off the shuttle.
Hathaway squinted at Kenneth with a glance of total disgust before the captain himself faced towards him with the opposite reaction. “Looks to me they didn’t have the same resilience that I expected from Mafty,” Kenneth started as he began heading towards Noa’s way. Perplexed by the captain’s words, Hathaway began speaking, continuing the conversation, “It almost sounds like you approve of Mafty.” Kenneth smirked before he gestured with his hand to Hathaway to hand him the full automatic weapon to him, afterall it was military property now. “They’re probably a small splinter group from Oenbelli.” “What’s Oenbelli?” Hathaway asked mendaciously before Kenneth continued, “it’s a town in northern Australia. It’s one of the many places in Australia where tens of thousands of disturbing elements gather together.” The man would then crouch down to the ground to inspect the apprehended suspects, a feeling of revulsion soaked into his heart as he kept looking at the men responsible for the hijacking. “And of course, all if not most of the dirtbags call themselves Mafty’s army.” Then all of a sudden, a sharp but deep shout is heard from a military police who was calling for the Captain’s attention, Kenneth responded in no time and immediately ordered the man to hold the suspects in a military facility and preferably maximum security, “we’ll claim them before the Bureau of Investigation.” The MP saluted before calling in more soldiers to come in to take the suspects away from the scene.
Hathaway stood aside as he saw how harsh the military police were towards the hijackers despite their wounded state. Noa would wonder to himself about why there were Mafty forces in Oenbelli, however his train of thought would not last as Kenneth called to him, asking for him to stay at the airport’s lobby for his written statement of the event they had experienced during the hijacking adding on that it will help him get transferred to the next flight for his destination. Hathaway thought nothing of it and was about to leave the shuttle as he saw Kenneth walk away from the exit, unfortunately the captain was not finished conversing with him, much to his annoyance.
“Oh, and sorry. I never got your name, sir.” He said in a smooth and relaxed tone, “I’m the newly appointed commander for Davao, Kenneth Sleg.” Before Hathaway could answer, someone else came into the picture and answered for him. “Noa,” both of the two men turned their heads in the direction of Quess Paraya, “Hathaway Noa, it is so nice to cross paths with you again.” She finished with a beaming grin across her face.