Zone of the Enders Fic

Zone of the Enders: Songs of Harmony

Prologue:

2192, Antillia Colony

Sitting inside the cockpit of Orbital Frame Jehuty, Julian was trying his best to get his breathing under control. His luminous, violet eyes flicked about the cockpit, checking the various angles displayed from within the canopy that relayed the information collected by the Frame’s myriad of sensors. He and the Frame he was in were rocketing through the colony’s cargo transfer shaft, headed for the space port at the end of the journey, however they weren’t alone.

Hiding somewhere amidst the mass of containers that were fired along with them in the colony’s magnetic transference system was an enemy. Despite Jehuty’s internal climate control it felt sweltering, sweat beading along Julian’s face as he ran a gloved hand through his shaggy frost white hair.

“Where is he, ADA?” the 17 year old rookie runner queried to the AI, trying not to let the tension slip into his voice, and doing a poor job of it as his fingers tensed about the control orbs set in the arm rests on either side of the cockpit.

-I am unsure,- came the female AI’s monotone reply, -The number of objects is making it difficult to track Vic Viper’s movements. However based upon past battle data, you will likely be attacked from above or behind, so watch those areas especially,-

Nodding to ADA’s response, Julian took little comfort in the AI’s appraisal, so far her advice had done him a fat lot of good in getting out here unseen. He’d thought he’d made off with Jehuty Scott free, but before he knew it he had Vic Viper and one very irked Leo Stenbuck pursuing him.

Julian wasn’t offered much time to brood, however. Before he got too deep into his own thoughts a warning sounded within the cockpit as ADA projected a warning indicating that sure enough Vic Viper was coming up on him from behind.

Despite knowing where the attack was coming from Julian was still hard pressed to get Jehuty around in time to parry one of the machine’s punches; the slender form of Vic Viper almost mirroring an Orbital Frame with its bladed arms and constant flight capability. In fact, were it not for the lack of energy pulses running through the machine there’d be almost no telling it was a new model LEV as opposed to a machine similar to Jehuty.

That didn’t make it any less of a threat though, especially when one considered the Vic Viper’s pilot. As Jehuty brought its right arm up, sword snapping forwards into position as Julian narrowly managed to parry the initial impact, Vic Viper followed through by bringing its left arm forwards, hitting Jehuty square in the abdomen with a hefty shockwave from its gauntlet weapon. The impact hit with enough force to send Jehuty hurtling back from Vic Viper’s attack, sending it straight into one of the flying containers, shattering the massive thing apart and showering its contents through the shaft while Julian cried out in a whole lot of shock and a little bit of pain from the attack.

-Five tons of coffee, vanished,- ADA intoned almost mournfully as she triggered Jehuty’s auto-recovery system, barely preventing the machine from colliding with the wall of the shaft at high speed, -Please be careful to not connect with the walls as it will incur excessive damage,-

“So you can tell what’s in the crates but behind them!?” Julian cried out in disbelief, paying no heed to ADA’s warning as he wrestled to get Jehuty fully back under control, but once again Vic Viper had disappeared.

-You never asked,- ADA stated simply in response.

“Not helping, ADA!” Julian snapped as he decided to shift his attention from searching for Vic Viper and simply making a break for it. Jehuty was still missing its superficial armor it had lost in the battle for mars almost 20 years ago, which meant that blow from Vic Viper did far more damage than it should have. Not for a moment did Julian entertain the thought he was simply outmatched by Leo’s own piloting ability.

Jehuty quickly swapped modes, switching from its usual combat mode to flight mode, spreading its arms out and powering up its verniers fully, setting them ablaze like aqua wings of light as it propelled itself at breakneck speed through the maze of flying crates that moved through the shaft.

-In this configuration it is likely that Vic Viper can still catch up to us,- ADA cited, -Its flight mode is more capable of quick maneuvering than Jehuty,-

“Then go faster!” Julian snapped, feeling frustration quickly getting the better of him, “C’mon ADA! After all that dad told me this frame can practically do anything! I’ve seen the combat recordings!”

-However since then many of those systems have been damaged,- ADA retorted before flashing another warning, -Vic Viper approaching. Be careful,-

“You keep saying to be careful but it never does me any good…” Julian grumbled in protest, flicking his gaze over his shoulder, Jehuty mirroring the action as he tried to gauge just how much time he had.

Rather abruptly, Jehuty’s video communications came up, displaying an image of Leo. His blue hair still as vibrantly colored as ever, but the past 20 years have added a few age lines to his once youthful expression and deepened his voice a fair deal from what it used to be.

“Julian, what the hell are you trying to accomplish by doing this!?” Leo demanded, the scowl on his face making it all too apparent he wasn’t going to let the boy off easily for this, “You can’t help them by doing this! Stop now and return Jehuty before you get yourself and others hurt!”

Turning his attention from his pursuer to the holographic video window that had popped up on his left side, Julian narrowed his eyes at the feed image of Leo.

“Leo you know what I’m trying to do!” Julian snapped back as if his ideas were the most obvious thing in the world, “They need my help and I can’t just sit by and do nothing! So I’m gonna bring Jehuty to Mars to help them out before it’s too late!”

Leo shook his head, trying to find some way to talk some sense into the idiot child that was running full bore to his own demise.

“Julian! Listen to me!” Leo snapped in turn, though his voice calming moments later as he tried to speak reason, “I know you’re upset, but acting rashly like this WILL not help!”

Leo heaved a sigh before continuing, “It’s only going to put you in danger, and even if you manage to reach them all it’s going to do is make them have to watch over you too!”

Julian recoiled in his seat as if he’d just been shot. Those last words from Leo cut deeper than anything else he could imagine. His head hung low, frosty bangs covering his eyes and shadowing over his ever so slightly tanned skin.

“S-so that’s it, huh?” he asked in a quavering voice, “After all this I’m still just dead weight to everyone?”

Leo grimaced as he realized his poor choice of words, no matter how true they rang. “That’s not it, Julian. I Just mea-“ Leo was cut off by Julian before he could finish.

“I know exactly what you meant, Leo!” Julian shouted back in reply, head snapping up as he glared at the Vic Viper and the image of its pilot that was on his screen, “But I’ll show you! You’ll see I’m not useless!”

Jehuty turned around, exiting flight mode and back to combat mode; a pulse of aqua light running along its similarly colored body. Its momentum was still faster than some of the crates up ahead, causing several of them to rapidly approach the Frame from behind.

Leo’s eyes widened in shock as he watched Jehuty turn around to face him. Not that he hadn’t been prepared for that much, but seeing the crates approaching Jehuty from behind filled him with a sense of dread that Julian had become so enraged he’d forgotten his surroundings completely.

Vic Viper quickly switched from its flight mode, a fighter craft with two long, sleek outboard hulls with the craft’s cockpit set in between, back to its normal bipedal combat mode. Its vernier thrusters flared a brilliant yellow as it darted after Jehuty, Leo shouting over the radio with one of Vic Vipers awkward hands outstretched towards the Orbital Frame, “JULIAN! Watch out behind you!”

In moments though, Leo realized he’d been had. He saw a slow smirk draw across Julian’s lips as Jehuty suddenly shifted back form Vic Viper and towards the cargo containers. The Frame nimbly ducked below the container and gave it a swift kick, sending it towards Vic Viper. Reflexively Leo punched out at the container, easily destroying it and reducing it to a shower of debris. Leo had expected Julian to use this opportunity to continue running and was just starting to charge forward again when he saw Jehuty’s glowing aqua eyes blazing through the debris cloud just as Jehuty erupted forward from within, wisps of the cloud trailing off of some of Jehuty’s extremities. Its right arm was cocked back in readiness, energy crackling along Jehuty’s form.

This has to hit, Julian thought to himself with grit teeth, not taking his eyes off of Vic Viper, If I miss, Leo’s going to stop me and then I’ll never be able to help them…I’ll never…no! Julian mentally scolded himself, shaking his head. He had to win and that’s all there was to it, he’d not entertain failure.

“This is it!” Julian proclaimed loudly as Jehuty unleashed its crescent slash, spinning around with such force that its right arm actually stretched further in length and sending out a shockwave at Vic Viper. He had to hit. He had to…

“Oh hell!” Leo hissed to himself as he was confronted with Jehuty getting ready to hit him with one of its most devastating melee attacks. Things felt almost as if they were proceeding in slow motion as Leo slipped into a sense of flow. As Jehuty came around with its rather obvious attack, Vic Viper quickly reversed its thrust, sending Leo forwards into the cockpit restraints, gritting his teeth against the force of the impact. Seeing the blade coming for what looked almost like his eyes, Leo quickly tilted Vic Viper’s head back, narrowly avoiding having the LEV’s face demolished by the attack before slipping downwards ever so slightly to evade the shockwave sent off by the attack. While Jehuty’s burst attack was powerful it also over-extended the machine for a few crucial moments. Moments Leo was more than willing to capitalize on. Yelling out like a martial artist on the attack, Leo brought Vic Viper in right as Jehuty was facing it fully again. There was no time at all for Julian to defend himself as Vic Viper’s right arm shot forwards in a hellish punch to Jehuty’s abdomen, taking advantage of damage already dealt to crack the armor there and punch into the machine. Aqua energy crackled and arced from the stricken machine as Leo held fast, not drawing away from Jehuty.

Julian felt like he’d been hit by a freight train. The sudden stop caused him to slam his head forwards against the console. Sitting back up, and panting he brought a hand to his head. A patch of his white hair had been turned crimson thanks to the blood leaking from the cut there. The cut was quickly forgotten though as he realized he was caught by Vic Viper and soon turned his attention to trying to get free of the LEV’s grasp.

“That. Is. Enough.” Leo muttered angrily, settling his gaze on Julian, reflecting not only the anger but the disappointment in him as well, “You can’t win, Julian. You know it, now stop trying to change that,”

“Damnit! Let go!” Julian growled, locking his eyes on Leo’s, rage filling him and quickly dissipating shortly after as he saw that look of disappointment. Suddenly his gaze felt heavy and looking Leo in the eye was becoming too difficult. A choked half sob escaped Julian as he started to realize his defeat and left him feeling absolutely crushed.

“But I…” he choked out, feeling so pathetic by this point, hands sliding off Jehuty’s controls “I…I have to help them…”

Closing his eyes Leo let out a tired sigh before opening his eyes to look at Julian’s dejected form over the video display.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to explain,” Leo began, evenly, “We are going to help them, but we can’t just yet. We don’t know enough and you’re obviously not ready yet,”

Julian grimaced once more at Leo’s appraisal of him, despite his parents he was shaping up to be a pretty shoddy Frame Runner it seemed.

A bit of a sympathetic smile crept to Leo’s face as he continued, “That said there’s still some potential. You’re not a natural like I was, but with a year or two I think we can make a decent runner out of you,”

Julian’s mouth hung agape at Leo’s suggestion. Two years!? They couldn’t wait that long! In that amount of time everyone could be-

“Julian,” Leo interjected before Julian could even start to protest, “It’s not just a matter of your skill. If we’re going to go there we need to get Jehuty up and running one hundred percent, and unless you know anyone at N.U.T. who’d want to give handouts we’re going to be stuck doing a lot of that work ourselves. ADA’s done a lot of the repair work herself, but there’s some things she can’t fix. Understand?”

For a few long moments, Julian simply sat inside the cockpit, unresponsive. He chewed on his lower lip, trying to find something to protest with, but when it came down to it he knew Leo was right. Julian gave Leo a faint nod before muttering out weakly, “Yeah…you’re right…”

Leo gave Julian a slight nod before he turned his attention to ADA and stated, “ADA, take over the controls and bring Jehuty back to the workshop, we’ve got a lot of work in store for us,”

-Roger,- ADA replied before Leo cut the video link, leaving the cockpit in silence as Vic Viper disengaged itself from Jehuty, the two machines turning to head back to the warehouse Leo had acquired some time back to store the two machines.

Julian meanwhile couldn’t keep his emotions at bay anymore. Tears began to stream down the young Runner’s face. All he could think of was how he’d failed. Julian slammed a fist against the side of the cockpit on one of the arm rests before he drew his knees up to himself and hugged them to himself, letting out a few quiet sobs as he tried to make sense of everything that had happened to bring him to this…