The mid-afternoon sun was high in the air as Heero forced his way through
some berry bushes.  He was in the middle of a small forest, the sounds of
wildlife were everywhere around him, and the ground was slightly muddy
from a recent rainfall.  He used a small dagger to cut a path when bushes
and vines got in his way.  His green tank top was stained with berry
juice and dirt, sweat and dirt were also on his face.  Yet, it didn't
bother him nor the fact that he didn't carry a compass, for his well
developed sense of direction told him where he was.


          He soon came upon a small area of the forest that was cleared of all
foliage and the ground was even and smooth.  Inside the clearing, around
a small campfire with some meat cooking on a spit, was Trowa, Quatra,
Duo, and Wufei.


"Did you find anything?"  Quatra asked with hope in his voice.


"No, there was nothing out there, except for this knife."  Heero replied
indicating the steel dagger in his hand.


"Why don't we use the Gundams to find a nearby settlement?"  Duo asked.


"A waste of fuel," spoke Trowa, "Heero and I both don't recognize any of
the star constellations.  Meaning we don't know where we are."


"Nataku's computers don't register the topography of this landscape and
the weather patterns are odd." Wufei added in.


"Then where the hell are we?" Duo said with anger in his voice.


"Someplace where no one has ever been." Quatra spoke with wonder.


Everyone looked at Quatra with blank stares.  Quatra just smiled and gave
a small chuckle.


"That is a possibility." Trowa agreed with Quatra, a little anyway.


"Oh, this is so uncool."  Duo collapsed to the ground and looked up at
the light blue sky.


"Apart from that," Wufei interrupted Duo's gripping, "What will we do
about those."  He indicated two half destroyed Taurus Mobile Dolls.


"We'll use what's left of the fuel and the rest for spare parts." Herro
instructed.


"I think the meats ready."  Wufei said while poking at the cooking meat
with a stick.


"Have you ever had roast Dragon?" asked Duo as he got up off the ground.


"I feel kinda sorry for it." Quatra said with regret.
"It was also a waste of bullets." Heero looked at Trowa.


"I would've used the beam saber," Trowa explained, "But it was too late
to deploy it."


"Yeah, repairing that melted armor will give Heavy Arms a weak point."
Duo added while he cut himself a slab of meat.


"But we can't afford weakness, not at this critical point."  Wufei
pointed out.


"But if we just leave it as is, Heavy Arms will be unable to stand up
straight."  Trowa said while taking a bite of Dragon meat.


"What else do we have?"  Wufei asked as he forked his food.


"We all have 1 pistol each with two clips, if we evenly divide them.
This dagger" Heero listed.


"1 weeks worth of emergency rations and about a week worth of dragon
meat.  Oh and I have my scythe and Wufei has his sword" Duo added while
chewing.


"And apart from the clothes on our backs, we have our Gundams which all
are down to 80% fuel."  Quatra finished off.


"Well have to make do." Heero said has he reached for his share of the
food.


"What's that!?"  Duo asked as he pointed to a column of smoke in the
distance.


"Maybe a battle or something."  Quatra guessed.


"Let's find out." Wufei suggested as all 5 pilots quickly extinguished
the campfire, and started sprinting towards the smoke.


After about an hour of jogging they reached the top of a small hill.
They then discovered a small primitive town being burned to the ground.
Coming out of the town was a small squad of about 10 big monsters with
green skin, dressed in loin clothes and iron armor, carrying large clubs
and axes, and had huge teeth protruding out of their lower jaw.


"What are those?"  Quatra asked no one in particular.


"Orcs." Duo said.  Everyone looked at Duo, their gazes demanding an
answer.  "OK so I used to read a bunch of fantasy novels, so sue me."
Duo roared.


Then a large, inhuman, war cry was uttered by the orcs as they started in
the direction of the Gundam pilots.


"I think they heard you Duo." Heero couldn't have been more calm.


"Shit!" Duo cursed as he pulled out his scythe and activated it.  Wufei
readied his sword, Trowa and Quatra loaded their guns, and Heero pulled
out his dagger.


"Hmmph,"  Wufei scowled, "they look weak to me."


"Don't let your guard down." Heero commanded.


"Hmm," Duo thought, "I wonder how Orc meat tastes.  It looks like we'll
have plenty after this."  Duo, then, giving his own war cry, charged at
the orcs, closely followed by the others




Sincerely,
Ocean Knight
Master of water/ice magic, and keeper of the Leviathan Gundam.
Sore wa himitsu desu (Well now, that is a secret.)