Maintenance [Open]

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

Sure enough, it was there in the vehicle bay - the Freedom. At 18 meters tall, it wasn't the largest craft in the cavernous hangar, but it certainly did present an imposing figure... particularly next to the squadron of low-to-the-ground fighters that Kira didn't recognize.

It was a tool of war - of killing, Kira reminded himself - but it was also a tool which he could use to help people; he could use it to protect people. To protect a world that might truly be gone... it was almost comforting to see something familiar. A reminder of home (and of Lacus, still sleeping in the pod caverns), even if it was a war machine.

Computers were the young man's forte, but he'd become familiar enough with the machine to do a bit of physical maintenance on it too. So anyone in the hangar bay would see the machine's cockpit open in the center of its chest, as he gave everything a cursory inspection, making sure things were in shape.

Unfortunately, the plantsuits didn't make the best toolbelts, even when fashioning makeshift loops at the waist - but when one's was in a cramped crawlspace up to the waist, it made it possible for even enhanced Coordinator reflexes to catch a wrench that slipped out from one of said loops, skidding across the sloped metal of the Mobile Suit's skin before plummeting to the hangar floor below.

He didn't think anyone had been in here with him, but Kira gave a warning shout nonetheless. "Hey...! Look out!"

(ooc: There may be a wrench heading in your character's direction. Especially so for any of the Rogues, since the Freedom Gundam is conveniently next to the X-Wings. WATCH OUT BELOW!)

Comments

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

That actually got a small smile from the teenager. "You can sit in the cockpit (http://www.mahq.net/Mecha/gundam/seed/lineart/zgmf-x-a-cockpit.jpg), if you like - I don't think there's any harm in it."

"You'd probably be able to do it if I rewrote the OS," he nodded. "It's pretty intuitive once you understand what you're doing, but right now it's tuned for a Coordinator."

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

"Really? Thanks!" And without another word, Asuka slipped into the command chair, fingers flexing as she grasped the control columns. It was different from her Eva, but then again everything was.

She looked up as she fiddled with the controls curiously. "What's a 'Coordinator'?"

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

The smile faded just a bit. "Coordinators are humans who've been genetically altered. Back in my world, they usually live out on the PLANTs, because... well, a lot of Naturals - non-altered humans, I mean - don't trust them."

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

"That's stupid," Asuka replied dismissively as she ran her hands over the control panel, "They're still human."

She tapped a few random buttons, secretly hoping that one of them would start the massive machine up.

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

That brought the smile back to his face, though it had a bit of a melancholy tinge to it. "They are, you're right. But... some Naturals thought they were freaks, or were frightened of them because they could do a lot of things better. And some Coordinators did the same things - they were scared of the Naturals, they hated them, or they thought they were inferior. And it just kept snowballing, with one side hating the other because the other side hated them."

Kira shook his head. "But both Naturals and Coordinators were still human. I just wish it wasn't so hard for some people to see that. Besides, there's not much difference at all. One of the best pilots I ever knew was a Natural."

She seemed to be looking for the start-up, and while Kira didn't think it was a great idea to go into full combat mode... "Here, I'll show you - I've been meaning to run a system diagnostic anyway."

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

"Ugh. People are stupid." Asuka rolled her eyes. "I mean, I'm better than a lot of people, but I don't hate them for not being as good me! That's just life~"

She flashed a meaningful grin at Kira and then leaned back to let him access the control panel, watching him carefully. She wanted to know how to drive this thing.

"Are you a 'Coordinator' or whatever?"

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "I am. My parents were both Naturals, though." Well, the people he considered his parents, anyway.

Kira leaned in around the panel, touching his hands to a small keyboard that slid out from the controls - and around them, the viewscreens that lined the cockpit flared into life, showing the cavernous hangar bay in a wide, 270-degree arc around them.

Meanwhile, the green disc in the center of the console flickered and lit up as well, lines of computer text scrolling across the screen - and if she'd been watching Kira's eyes, Asuka would have seen how quickly they flitted back and forth to read them - as the OS booted up, with red letters now taking center stage along with the ZAFT logo:

MOBILE SUIT NEO OPERATION SYSTEM

Generation
Unsubdued
Nuclear
Drive
Assault
Module
G.U.N.D.A.M Complex

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

"Huh. So, how good are you at piloting this thing?" She examined him wit ha bit more interest - was he a potential rival? No. He couldn't be as good as her. No one was. Not even Wondergirl or Shinji. Shinji. She harumphed to herself and dismissed the idiot from her mind. She didn't need to be thinking about him.

Instead, she focused on the displays as they sprang to life, a grin on her face. This was familiar enough - she had similar displays in her Eva. The text caught her eye next and she glanced down, doing her best to read it as it flickered by.

"...that's a really complicated acronym."

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

"I'm good enough to hold my own against some skilled pilots," Kira said with a nod, though that was a bit of an understatement. "But that doesn't mean I can't get better."

"And it is - but it's why I call them Gundams, even if that's not the official name. It's easier to remember, isn't it?"

Fingers now raced across the keyboard at genuinely superhuman speeds as Kira took the familiar OS through its paces. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary here, so time for some technical stuff: With the press of a button, the words "Phase Shift Armor" flashed on the screen - and outside, there was a strangely-electric-sounding hissing.

If Asuka were to check, she'd see that the outer armor had changed from plain gunmetal gray to something a bit more colorful (http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k359/lel123_1234/FreedomGundam.jpg).

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

"Well, not all of us have natural talent," Asuka managed to sound condescending without truly meaning to - some people were just better. She grinned, watching him run through the start-up sequence - he was fast. She glanced at him curiously (the cockpit was a bit cramped at the moment).

"What's Phase Shift Armor?"

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

She was a bit confident in her own abilities, Kira noted - bordering on arrogant - but he didn't think she meant anything genuinely malicious by it. He just wouldn't let it get to him.

"It uses pinpoint electrical pulses to help coat the armor with special... well, it's kind of like a shield. It makes a mobile suit almost completely immune to physical weaponry like guns and explosions - but every hit requires more energy, so if you're using a battery-operated suit you can only take so much before you begin to run out of power."

"The Freedom doesn't have to worry about that thanks to the reactor, but... it can still be overloaded if the attack is powerful enough. Especially with energy weaponry like beam sabers."

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

"Really? Sounds like a poor man's AT field." She tapped a few buttons speculatively, watching as more of the displays lit up. Status reports, ammo count, engine and throttle power. Everything.

Kira earned another curious look. "What's a beam saber?"

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

"AT Field? I don't think I've heard of that, either," Kira acknowledged as he continued through the diagnostics.

At her question, though, he paused. Was it really okay...? A quick query of the computers showed no lifeforms anywhere in a hundred-meter radius other than the two of them, though, so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

"MA-M01 beam sabers - they're exactly what they sound like; energy-based weapons meant for close-range combat. I can show you, if you like."

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

"Short for Anti-Terror Field. They're part of what make our Evas so unbeatable. You know, besides all of the armored plate and weaponry." She shot Kira a grin. "They can withstand virtually all conventional weapons, as well as tactical nuclear warheads. It takes a lot to hurt my beautiful Unit 02."

Her grin got a bit wider, "Would you?~"

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

Anti-Terror Field? Well, that was a strange name for it. Then again, considering the OS name, he really didn't have much room to talk. "That seems really powerful. How is it generated?"

Kira nodded, once more wondering if it was okay - but they did need to do a check, and this was something that you just couldn't simulate. "All right. Do you think I could take the pilot's chair, if it's not too much trouble?"

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

Asuka shrugged as she slipped out of the pilot's chair and wedged herself out of the way. It was a bit uncomfortable, but she'd live. It wasn't like she hadn't shared a cockpit before. "I don't know exactly how it works..."

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

As Asuka moved out of the chair, Kira slid in, at once feeling... familiarity. It had been years since he'd piloted the Freedom in actual combat, but it still felt the same to him; the way his feet rested on the way his hands laid on the controls. "It's all right, I was just curious."

Another check of the scanning systems (just to be sure), and Kira exhaled, thumbing the controls and moving them just slightly. There was the sound of machinery moving, then, as the Gundam reached down to grab one of the two cylinders mounted to its waist, holding it out in front of them where it was visible through the open cockpit. Another brush of Kira's thumb, and the cylinder burst into life - a thin, pinkish-red energy blade that was dozens of feet long and that hummed and flickered with barely restrained power.

Part of him was just relieved that everything seemed to be in working order in the first place.

[redheadcarrier.livejournal.com]

Asuka grinned as she watched the flickering beam of energy flare into life outside. That was so cool! Way better than her prog knife, she had to admit, even if it wasn't as large. She wondered if she could get one for Unit 02 - having one of those built to scale would give her some serious hitting power.

"That's awesome!"

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

"Mm, I guess... It's useful if you can't fight at range," Kira nodded, and soon the glowing saber was joined by a twin held in the Freedom's other hand. All right, both of them were working now - and with another nudge of the controls the mecha brought both of them together at the hilt, and twisted so they locked together, forming one large double-edged blade.

"Everything seems fine with them," Kira said half to her and half to himself. She did seem genuinely impressed - did they not have energy weapons in her world?