In a Strange Land

Gazing at the main view screen, Avalon couldn't help but feel an intense wave of homesickness. The planet he was looking at was achingly familiar to him in almost every detail. The color of its oceans, the shape of its land, all of it reminded him of home. It looked so much like the Earth he had known, and in reality it really was Earth. But at the same time, it wasn't Earth; it wasn't his Earth, and that became abundantly clear when he focused on the space around it.

For starters, there hadn't been an asteroid belt around his Earth. It also lacked the familiar lines and discs that comprised the orbital elevators and solar power system he was accustomed to. But most of all, his Earth didn't have several seed-shaped vessels sitting in obvious attack positions across the span of the planet. The systems aboard his ship had picked out almost a dozen of them just in the region he could see, and that wasn't counting the multiple facilities built into the asteroids themselves. Add that to the gaping wound in the moon, and it all became pretty clear; this wasn't his world.

Shaking his head to clear the memories away, he rechecked his instruments as he steadily approached the upper atmosphere. He didn't have any real plan once he got down to the surface beyond finishing his task in this realm. So far, it appeared that the sensors aboard those installations were just as susceptible to GN Particle interference as the systems back on his old world, meaning that as long as he remained out of visual range he was safe. Confident that he would at least make it to reentry without detection, Avalon leaned his chair back and checked out the content he could access from this world's limited satellite network.

As one could guess, there was a large amount of general entertainment being broadcast on the open waves. Not nearly as much as Avalon was used to seeing, but that was to be expected from such a limited network. Besides, these programs were of no interest to him at the moment. He was more interested in the various news programs from the different nations. If he was going to spend the next few days or weeks among this world's people, he would have to be aware of what was going on in the world. While it would have been easier to get up to speed using the encrypted military broadcasts, he didn't want to risk any attention at such an early stage. And so, despite the fact that he would still have to wade through lots of chaff to get the information he needed, Avalon sat back and slowly paged through the different news networks.

After a while, he realized that all of the networks were talking about the same thing; some kind of royalty had landed on the planet the previous day to begin talks with the United Earth government. She was apparently a princess from the colony on Mars. From what he could tell from the way they spoke about it, this 'colony' had become an independent entity some time ago and that there were still rather tense relations between them and Earth. Leaving the broadcast playing on one screen, Avalon accessed the data web and began pulling up all of the information he could find on this conflict. And it by no means filled him with confidence.

After discovering a transport gate on the moon and a large trove of advanced alien technology, the first colonists of Mars had decided to wage a war for independence. While the Martian forces had been, for the most part, outnumbered by the UE militaries, the use of an alien power system, called Aldnoah Drives, had given them a decisive advantage over the Earth forces. The records of the capabilities of these drives were incredibly vague, so Avalon couldn't even begin to guess how they would fare against his own machine in a fight. He could only hope that they weren't nearly as formidable as some people seemed to think. However, since the war had been ended with the destruction of the gate, and the moon, it gave him more than enough reason to want to steer clear of them if he could help it.

But while those machines were mostly a mystery, the machines used by the Earth forces were much better documented. Called 'Kataphrakts,' their combat abilities could be viewed as respectable for the level of technology used to make them. However, by the standards Avalon was used to, they were very basic and cheap mobile frames with rather depressing armaments. For starters, the entire frame was much smaller than his mobile suit. Measuring almost a full 6 meters shorter, they were also much lighter with armor equivalent to that used by modern tanks. Combine that with the fact that the machines used assault rifles almost exclusively, and Avalon could understand why they had only been able to fight the Martians to a standstill.

Hell, I'd be surprised if they could penetrate my normal armor, let alone my damned shield he thought as he closed the screens. If it came down to it, he was confident that he could fight his way through those machines, although he hoped it wouldn't come to that. These Martian units, though… they would be a different story. Before he could dwell on it much further, the news broadcast grabbed his attention. Apparently, the princess was now taking a convoy to where the council members had gathered. While most of the onlookers appeared to be curious and excited, he spotted more than a few faces that were definitely not pleased with her being there.

Can't say I blame them he thought as he entered the asteroid belt, if someone had dumped a ton of rock all over my home world, I'd be pretty pissed, too. But then he noticed something that the cameraman didn't; a faint smoke trail between two buildings. The camera had panned away too quickly for Avalon to get a good look, but he could tell right away that it wasn't just a fluke. The trail had been hugging the ground, an obvious sign that a missile was streaking through the buildings. He didn't even have time to guess at its purpose when the missile suddenly streaked into the screen again, slamming into the middle car of the convoy. Several more missiles followed shortly after it, tearing all of the cars into pieces and ensuring there were no survivors.

Staring at the screen in mild horror as it cut away from the gruesome scene, Avalon tried to figure out what the hell he had just watched. It was ironic, considering he already knew what he had seen, but his conscious mind was still reeling at the sheer stupidity he had just witnessed. Some dissident faction had, for whatever reason, decided to take it upon themselves to assassinate a Martian ambassador, and a member of their royal household no less. To say that there would be hell to pay would be an understatement; the Martian military would demand blood, and lots of it, for such a crime.

And he wasn't wrong by any stretch of the imagination. An alert from the main sensors grabbed his attention, and he watched as the orbital stations began moving towards the planet. There's no way he thought briefly as he checked their trajectories, they can't possibly be bringing those things down to the surface. But sure enough, a number of them dropped straight for the surface, aiming for various cities as they began to glow from atmospheric heating. What made it worse was that these landing ships weren't aiming near the cities in an effort to avoid civilian casualties; they were aiming directly at the center of them. He couldn't even begin to calculate how many people were about to be killed in their opening volley, but he guessed it would definitely be in the millions.

And all he could do was sit back and watch, powerless to stop them. No, screw that he thought as he deactivated the autopilot, plotted a new course, and kicked the engines up to their maximum safe output. His mission may have been important to this realm's survival in the long run, but he couldn't just sit back and watch this. Setting his sights on Japan, since it was the closest landmass, Avalon dove into the atmosphere while he activated his forward GN field. Such a reckless descent would be taxing on the particle storage and GN drive, so he would have to give both of them time to recover before he actually made a move. Still, if the Earth forces were half as outgunned as the records suggested, then he couldn't just let this massacre happen. I guess I'll get to see how a Martian Kataphrakt stacks up against my machine after all.

Up in orbit, one of the landing castles that hadn't been chosen for the assault sat in a ready position. It was under the command of a Count who had just attained the position, and he was irritated at not being selected for the assault. He had wanted to bring his fortress down on these 'people,' to show them the might of the Vers Empire. That they would dare to harm a member of the royal family was blasphemous, and his honor as an Orbital Knight demanded that he ride out there in his Kataphrakt and put them in their place.

However, they would require orbital support in case the UE forces got creative, as well as to defend their various support facilities. And while it pained him to admit it, guarding the supply chain was almost as important as the actual combat. And so he remained in orbit, unaware of the danger approaching his ship.

Under a GN particle cloak, a small vessel approached the ship from the stern. It looked a lot like a rectangular box from a distance, with a slightly rounded front. But as it got closer, it became clear that something was riding it. Towards the front of the machine was the upper section of a mobile suit. In one hand it held what was obviously a rifle, while the other was empty. Of course, for what it intended to do it wouldn't need any of its onboard weapons. Instead, the machine just closed with the larger ship before rotating so its underside faced the surface.

At some unseen command, six legs folded out from the main body and clamped onto the castle's surface. One of its legs then seemed to liquefy before spreading down and across the castle's hull. After a few minutes of seeding the material, the machine broke away from the growth and reformed its leg before retracting them all back into the main body. Enough of the material had been planted to be self-sustaining, and by the time the crew realized what was happening it would be too late to stop it. Turing away, the machine then proceeded to head down to the surface. There was someone in this realm that it would need to kill.

After he had gotten down to the surface, Avalon had to find a safe place to set his ship down while the GN drive worked to recharge the storage containers. It was a slow process that put his patience to the test. Deciding that it would be better to take a walk than sit in the command chair and try to stare the screen into submission, he exited the vessel and walked around the beach he had picked. Having watched the Martian landing craft touch down, he was starting to feel incredibly restless; restless and uncomfortable.

He had just witnessed whole chunks of this world's major cities wiped out, their populations reduced to ash and dust. It was all he could do to keep his anger in check, while also burying his sorrow as deeply as he could. How these Martian 'soldiers' could so easily wipe out so many innocent people was beyond him. If they had come down on military installations, or even just outside the cities to minimize the damage, he would have understood. But no, they had come down right on them, knowing it would kill millions, and that just pushed all of the wrong buttons with Avalon. Looking at one of the cities that had managed to avoid becoming such a target, he vaguely recalled that it was where the Martian Princess had been. And now it was under attack.

He had watched a Martian transport drop off one of their Kataphrakts in the city, and it was now in a holding pattern overhead as the single machine laid waste to the defenses. He could hear the muffled explosions from the battle, even from here, and he could tell that it wasn't going well. Sighing in frustration, Avalon began to pace up and down the sand as he tried to come up with a plan to deal with this machine. The air support could be a problem he thought as he continued to walk, but not a big one. It's most likely just a transport with a light armament. The real challenge will be the Martian mobile suit…Kataphrakt…whatever, since no one really knows what kind of abilities they possess.

He was pulled from these thoughts when the com unit in his ear beeped, informing him that the reserves had reached optimal levels. Rushing back to the ship, Avalon quickly made his way to the small living space and changed into his pilot suit. Grabbing his helmet as he rushed out the door, he made his way into the main storage bay as he put it on and secured the seals. Leaving the visor open so he wouldn't have to activate the life support, he walked out on the gantry to the open cockpit of his mobile suit. After dropping down into the combat chair and connecting his suit to the onboard systems, he jostled the control sticks to wake the machine from its slumber and close the hatch.

"Time to wake up, partner," Avalon said as he closed the visor, sealing himself off from any hostile environments. As the machine began to scan his vitals to make sure he was authorized, it gave him the familiar prompt for voice recognition.

"Gundam Exia; this is Avalon Blade, launching," he said, receiving a green light as the suit powered up. The container hatch opened, while the arms attached to the machine's back began to move, bringing the Exia into a standing position. Once he was fully upright, the clamps released and Avalon dialed up the GN Drive's output. Feeding energy to the particle emitters, he took off while keeping low to the water.

He hoped that by staying low he would avoid drawing the plane's attention, and it payed off as he entered the city. After that, it was a simple matter of following the gunfire. But he wasn't prepared for what he saw. An evacuation transport went roaring by with the upper half of an Earth mobile weapon attached to its bumper, and they were being chased by one of the Martians. The Martian Kataphrakt looked like a big, purple bug and had its arms folded into its body. But that wasn't the truly strange part; as it rounded the corners it would brush up against the buildings and a black barrier would shimmer to life. At which point, the material it came in contact with simply vanished, leaving perfect cuts behind.

How in the hell is it doing that Avalon wondered as he continued to track them. Finally, the truck was on a straightaway heading for a tunnel, and Avalon saw his chance to help. That is, until he noticed movement on the truck and zoomed in. Two kids were out there, probably trying to pull the pilot out of the machine they had saved. He watched as the kid out front lost his grip and almost went flying, only to be saved by his friend. At least, that's what it looked like. But his grip must have failed, and the poor kid went flying into the Martian machine, disappearing in a flash of black as the field activated.

"Okay, you will pay for that one," Avalon said, kicking his Gundam into action. Soaring up and over the building he had been using as cover, he brought Exia down in front of the truck with the legs just far enough apart to allow them to pass.

"Keep moving!" he broadcast over the speaker, taking a defensive stance. While the truck kept going, the Martian machine came to a stop and stared at him. Glancing down, Avalon saw that the kid still on the outside of the truck was looking up at him with a blank expression. Then they were past, and it was just the two machines squaring off.

Deploying the blaster just inside the guard for his broadsword, Avalon waited to see what this thing would try. After a while, a screen popped up requesting a communication link. Figuring he had nothing to lose, Avalon accepted it and watched as another screen appeared with the face of the Martian pilot. He had short, black hair and was wearing what Avalon assumed was an official uniform for Martian soldiers. The lack of a pilot suit was odd, but not nearly as odd as the look he was getting from the guy.

"Who do you think you are to get between me and those rats?" he asked, clearly pissed off, "Which Lord do you serve? I would know who thinks they can stand in my way."

"My name is Avalon Blade," he replied coldly, "I obey no Lord, and I'm in your way because I won't allow you to kill innocent people."

"Impossible," the Martian replied, "There's no way that you belong to the Terrans; your Kataphrakt is too advanced for that. That can only mean you're a Vers soldier, and as such I demand to know who your Lord is, now!"

Bringing the blaster up, Avalon replied, "I am a Gundam Meister, and the only thing I serve is my own sense of justice. If your small brain can't comprehend that, then that's your problem, not mine. Now kindly die for me."

With that, he pulled the trigger and sent a particle beam into the other machine's head. The shot impacted, causing the barrier to flare as it absorbed the energy. Okay, that's definitely not good Avalon thought as he continued to fire.

"I don't know where you got your Aldnoah Drive," the Martian said as he began to advance, "Or why you're siding with these vermin, but my Nilokeras will end you here!"

With that, he brought his right arm up and attempted to smash its palm down onto the Exia's head. Avalon easily sidestepped the blow and continued to fire while backing away and circling the machine. It has no real weapons beyond its barrier he reasoned as he dodged another swipe, but my particle beams won't penetrate, which means my beam swords won't, either. My physical blades are out, too, as are my missiles. No matter how he looked at it, he had just walked into a standoff.

None of his weapons would penetrate that shield, whatever it was. But as quick as the Martian machine was, it wasn't nearly as nimble as Exia. He could keep dodging its swipes all day, although the other pilot didn't seem aware of this. Deciding he had bought enough time, Avalon purposely put his back to one of the office buildings. As the Martian machine closed in to finish him, Avalon brought his shield up and triggered one of his two missile cells. There were four tubes stacked in a square, each with four GN missiles set up end-to-end, one above and one below Exia's arm. Setting four missiles to active, he fired them off in a wide arc at the ground between Exia and the Martian Kataphrakt. The dust and debris from the explosions was enough to obscure his line of sight, and Avalon used that as he dashed to the right.

At least, he had thought so. But the Martian moved through the cloud swiftly, his hand just barely brushing the back of Exia's foot. While he was pissed at having to run, Avalon knew he had very little chance at beating this enemy on his own. Instead, he flew up and away, putting serious distance between himself and the Martian. He noted that the pilot's transport plane hadn't tried to intervene, something for which he was grateful. After a while, Avalon descended back to street level and moved north. He hoped that those civilians had managed to get to safety, but judging from what that single machine could do, 'safety' was relative now. If that's what they deploy in an opening battle, what in the hell do they save for serious fights he wondered as he moved through the city.

After a while, he figured that he had put enough distance to risk some more altitude, and in the process his sensors picked up movement just at the extreme of their range. Turning, Avalon closed on it as he tried to get a better view. He was coming up on what appeared to be a school, and he could see the truck he had just saved. Well, at least I'll have some company he thought as he got closer. It wasn't surprising that the second they saw him, most of the civilians rushed for the relative shelter of the main building. But there were still a few that remained outside, and they all appeared to be a bit younger than him. Bringing the Exia down so it was on one knee, Avalon powered the systems down before opening the cockpit.

He made sure to polarize his visor before stepping out, and he was relatively surprised that he wasn't greeted with weapons. Taking the boarding line down to the ground, he was greeted by the same boy that had been on the outside of the truck and what Avalon assumed were two of his friends. One of them was blonde and looked friendly enough, while the other was a girl with black hair. She seemed more suspicious of him, although the boy in the middle had a blank look like last time.

"Hey, thanks for the help back there," the blonde said, smiling and scratching his head, "We might have been done for otherwise."

"Why did you decide to help us?" the girl asked, crossing her arms.

Avalon recognized her stance well; it was an almost universal one with women, and it was a silent warning to watch your next words very carefully. "I just did what any human would do," he replied, looking from her to the other two, "Was I just supposed to sit back and watch you die?"

"But you're a Martian," she continued, her gaze narrowing, "So why would you help Terrans?"

To be perfectly honest, Avalon hadn't been expecting that reaction. "Right, I should have known you would make that mistake," he said, turning back to the Exia, "But before I forget; Exia, seal cockpit and deploy optical camouflage."

At his command, the cockpit closed itself and its entire surface shimmered before it disappeared completely. Aside from a slight waver in the air that was only visible up close, there was nothing to indicate that his mobile suit was even there. Turning back, he unclasped the seals on his helmet before removing it, saying, "We should probably head inside, unless you want that Martian to find us."

Without waiting for their response, he walked past them into the main building. The two boys glanced at each other, with the blonde one shrugging before they followed. The girl, on the other hand, hesitated for a moment longer. She still didn't feel all that trusting of this new guy, in spite of his friendly attitude. I should keep an eye on him she thought as she walked through the doors.

As Avalon walked through the main hall of the school, he noticed that the civilians quickly cleared out when they saw him, and he couldn't really blame them. His suit made him stand out, as did his white hair. "Is there someplace private we can talk?" he asked, not liking some of the looks he was getting. Without breaking stride, the one boy that appeared to be in charge said, "This way." He led them all to what looked like a briefing room, which was odd but would serve his purpose. Dropping into one of the seats, Avalon put his helmet next to him before undoing the clasps on the upper part of his suit. While it was really useful when in his Gundam, it was a bit stifling when outside.

Sighing in relief, he looked between the three and said, "Okay, am I going first or are you?"

"How about you start by telling us your name?" the girl asked, crossing her arms and taking that stance again.

"Easy enough," he replied, leaning back, "I'm Avalon Blade, and it's a pleasure to meet you, miss…?"

"What kind of name is that?" she asked, ignoring his question. Before he could respond, the brown-haired boy spoke up.

"That is Inko Amifumi, and the other one is Calm Craftman," he said, gesturing to the girl and boy respectively, "I am Inaho Kaizuka. You know our names now, so why don't you tell us who you really are?"

"You're a perceptive one, aren't you?" Avalon asked, smiling, "To answer you both, Avalon Blade is just my code name. Unfortunately, the organization I belong to classifies their pilot's identities as need-to-know, and you really don't. Well… at least, the organization I used to belong to."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Calm asked, looking confused.

"It's a long story, and one we don't have the time for," Avalon replied, "For now, that name will have to do. Now, how about answering some of my questions?" When none of them objected, he continued, "This place has a military feel to it, and you all clearly know your way around. So, are you soldiers or were you just undergoing military training?"

"We were carrying out military drills," Inaho replied, "But we're just students."

"Well, that's just freaking great," he replied, running his hand over his face, "The first group I run into is a bunch of freaking kids."

"Hey, you're not much older than us!" Inko said, looking indignant.

"True, but I have a lot more experience than you do," he said, looking right at her, "Or did you also spend the last year fighting in a war?"

"Wait, what?" Calm said, completely lost now.

"Nothing," Avalon said, waving his hand, "So, what's the plan for that big, purple bug?"

"What, you can't take it with your Kataphrakt?" Inko asked with a smug smile.

"No, I can't," Avalon replied, "And let's get a few things straight. First; I'm not a Martian. Second; that's not a Kataphrakt. And third; that thing's shield negates everything it comes in contact with, which renders my entire loadout useless against it."

"Wow, really?" Calm said, scratching his head, "Your machine looked a lot more powerful than that. You really can't do a thing?"

"Not without wasting what ammo I have and some good swords, no."

"We need to get more information on it," Inaho said, turning to Calm, "Can you get a drone and rig it with a few things?"

"Sure I can, but why?" he replied. Without replying, Inaho turned back to Avalon.

"I need all the information you have on it," he said. While it was disturbing to Avalon that the kid's face hardly showed any emotion, he could sense the drive in his tone. He wanted to take this thing out, and he clearly already had some idea of how to do it.

"Consider it yours," he replied, getting up, "Just give me a portable drive and a few minutes."

After pulling the recording of his little scuffle with the machine from Exia's memory, Avalon returned to the room only to walk in on an argument. There was an injured woman badgering Inaho, saying that he was being an absolute idiot for trying to fight back. Inaho, meanwhile, just stood there and stared at her with a blank expression, and Avalon got the feeling that the kid knew she didn't really mean it.

Walking up behind her, he put a hand on her shoulder, saying, "Okay, I think you made your point by now. Ease up, will you?"

To say that she jumped would have been an understatement, and before she could recover Avalon handed over the memory stick to Inaho.

"That's the entire recording of my attempt to engage the machine," he said, "I wish I had more, but none of my other sensors could get a good enough reading."

"Between this and our drone, it should be more than enough," he said, plugging it into the terminal near the screen and bringing the file up.

"So, you're the Martian that helped us," the woman said, looking him up and down.

"For the last time; I'm not a Martian," Avalon said, sighing before pointing at her sling, "And shouldn't you be resting with that kind of injury?"

"And let you kids get hurt doing my job?" she replied, "I don't think so."

"I'm pretty sure I have more combat experience than you do," Avalon replied, crossing his arms. They just glared at each other while Inaho brought up the files, only to trigger a lock-out screen and a password prompt.

"The files are protected," he said, turning and looking at Avalon.

"I'm not surprised," he said, walking over and typing in his code, "It's a standard safety procedure when pulling data from my mobile suit."

"Why would you give us that kind of information?" the woman asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Because I'm helping take this thing out," he replied as he took a chair, sat down and leaned back, "Also, I should tell you that I'm the only person that can pilot that machine, so don't even think about it."

"I wasn't thinking of stealing it," she said, turning back to the screen. Avalon just rolled his eyes at her back. He knew how these military types thought, and he could guess how desperate they would be once this war had gone on for a while.

Meanwhile, Inaho was going over what Avalon had managed to learn about their opponent. "So, he doesn't need a line of sight," he concluded when the footage ended, "And his barrier can also stop your energy weapon."

"It's not a conventional shield, I can guarantee that," Avalon replied, "But of course that's obvious when you consider how it seems to cancel anything it touches."

"So how do you beat something like that?" the woman asked, sounding concerned, "It sounds like the perfect defense."

"There's no such thing," Avalon and Inaho replied at once before glancing at each other in surprise.

When the kid didn't seem like he was about to elaborate, Avalon continued, "It's something I learned during my time as a Gundam Meister. Defenses can be incredibly effective, almost to the point of impenetrability. But there is always a way through them, or around them. We just have to find it."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" she demanded, waving at the screen, "From what I've seen, nothing we have can even scratch it, and I fought with it."

"So did I," Avalon replied, "And if nothing else, we do have one decisive advantage."

"Oh, and what would that be?" she asked, all sarcasm.

Avalon just looked at Inaho, knowing that someone as smart as him would have picked up on what Avalon meant. "It lacks any real weapons," he said as he brought up a still image of the machine, "Aside from its barrier, it isn't equipped for close or long-range combat. That's likely due to the enormous power requirements for such a field."

"That means that once we get through it," Avalon concluded, "the Martian will be as good as beaten. We just need to figure out a way past it."

"I think I have an idea on that," Inaho said, bringing up a new screen.

Set adrift in a world he knows little about, Avalon struggles to learn the capabilities of his new opponents. Meanwhile, his own enemy sets about laying its own plans for domination.

Next chapter; Unlikely Allies.

When survival is the only goal, everything must be considered.

AN; Well, this officially kicks of my 'Genesis' series. A few things I want to put out there now; because this is going to be a multi-story project, I'm not going to lay everything that my OC has gone through out right off the bat. For people wondering just what the hell is going on, I'm going to reveal that a bit at a time, too, so please be patient. As always, feedback is welcome so long as it's constructive, even if it's criticism.