POV: Lt. Hajime Riku (Yatagarasu 1)
Location: South China Sea, Above Fog Curtain – Interception Operation Alpha-Black
---
Mission T+00:17:38
We were above the clouds.
No visual contact.
No radar lock.
Nothing.
Only silence and the wall of fog below.
---
> "No movement," Hiroto muttered.
"We've been in position for over fifteen minutes. If this is an ambush, it's a damn patient one."
I checked the sync levels of our units.
Energy stable. Heat signatures normal.
But there was something off about the air.
---
The fog didn't move like fog.
It clung to the ocean like skin on flesh.
Alive. Watching.
---
> Yoshiro (Unit 3):
"Permission to dip below and draw it out?"
> Riku:
"Negative. Stick to high visual recon. You enter that soup alone, you'll vanish."
> Hiroto:
"Like Penang…"
> Rina (Recon Unit):
"Wait."
She cut in sharp.
There was panic in her tone.
> "I'm… getting something."
> "It's not from our squad."
> "It's… audio."
---
Then we all heard it.
---
At first, static.
Then low vibrations through the neural channel.
Not transmitted.
Inside the cockpit.
Like the suit was humming to itself.
---
A voice.
Male.
Humming.
---
> "Sepertinya…"
Soft. Broken.
> "…aku dipaksa…"
Cold. Like giving up.
> "…untuk mati…"
---
> Hiroto (barely above a whisper):
"Who the hell… is that?"
---
> Yoshiro:
"That's… that's not an external feed. My comms are sealed. You all hearing this?"
> Riku:
"...Yes."
---
Then radar lit up for half a second.
Just a blip.
To the west.
We turned—
And saw it.
---
Black.
Tall.
Sleek and silent.
No visible thrusters.
It stood atop the ocean — fog curling around its feet like worshippers.
Silver streaks across its body. Smooth armor like it was grown, not built.
No lights.
No ID signal.
No emissions.
It just stood there…
Staring.
---
Then it moved.
A step forward—
No jets. No tremor. Just glide.
---
> Yoshiro (shouting):
"Target locked! Permission to engage!"
> Riku:
"Hold fire—wait—!"
---
The humming grew louder.
Now across every channel.
Not as sound—
As pressure in the skull.
Like memory.
Like guilt.
Like something forgotten crawling back up the throat.
---
> "Aku… dipaksa… untuk mati…"
The fog swirled violently.
Unit 3 disappeared from my HUD.
---
> Riku (screaming):
"Yoshiro, respond!"
> Silence.
Then—
> CRACK.
> SPLAT.
> [YATAGARASU 3 – SIGNAL LOST]
---
Hiroto's voice broke.
> "What is it?! WHAT IS THAT THING?!"
---
> Rina (whispers, horrified):
"It's not a Gundam…"
> "It's something else."
---
And still it stood.
Head tilted.
Listening.
---
POV: Lt. Hajime Riku — Yatagarasu 1
Location: South China Sea — Operation Alpha-Black
Time Stamp: +00:18:10
---
The fog wasn't natural.
It crawled up the ocean like it was alive, sucking out the sound, the light, even the air inside my cockpit.
> "Unit 3, report—do you see anything?"
> "Yuki?" I asked again. "YUKI—!"
No response. Only static.
Then, just for a second, her visual cam flickered on—
And I saw her.
Staring at something. Eyes wide. Mouth open.
Like she was looking at God, and He was wrong.
Then came the crunch.
A wet, slow crunch.
> [YATAGARASU UNIT 3 – LOST SIGNAL]
Gone.
---
We didn't even see what took her.
She didn't fire.
She didn't scream.
She just…
stopped existing.
---
> "She's gone," Hiroto muttered. "She's just gone…"
---
Then came the humming.
Not from comms.
From inside the cockpit.
From inside my skull.
---
> "Sepertinya…"
"…aku…"
"…dipaksa…"
"…mati…"
---
A low male voice.
Broken. Gentle. So slow it sounded dead.
Every syllable dragged like flesh across concrete.
---
> "Sepertinya… aku… dipaksa… mati…"
---
> "What the fuck is that?" Hiroto whimpered.
"Why is it humming?! RIKU, TURN IT OFF!!"
---
I shut the comms.
Muted audio.
Sealed cockpit sound filters.
It kept humming.
---
Then, fog parted in front of us.
We saw it.
The black mobile suit.
Standing waist-deep in ocean.
Unmoving. Watching.
Silver accents glowing faintly in the low light.
Like bones.
Or teeth.
---
It took a step.
Not loud. Not heavy.
Just a slide.
Like a corpse being dragged across tile.
---
> "Don't move," I whispered. "It hasn't seen us yet…"
> "Sepertinya… aku… dipaksa… mati…"
It moved again.
---
> "It's singing to itself…" Hiroto breathed.
"It's remembering how it died…"
---
Unit 4 panicked.
Rina spun too fast.
Fired blindly into the fog.
Something caught her.
Fast.
A blur.
Then—
> CRACK
SPLAT
Her cockpit was crushed between two invisible hands.
Blood sprayed out of the cracks in her armor.
She was still twitching in the seat when the suit collapsed.
> [YATAGARASU UNIT 4 – BIO-SIGNAL TERMINATED]
---
> "SHE WAS STILL BREATHING—" Hiroto screamed. "RIKU SHE WAS STILL ALIVE—"
---
> "Sepertinya…"
"…aku…"
"…dipaksa…"
"…mati…"
---
I snapped the controls. Boosters full power.
I didn't even wait for Hiroto.
We left the others behind.
They were already dead.
Even if their hearts were still beating.
---
As we ascended through the clouds, the fog reached for us.
Something inside it watched.
Something that didn't need eyes.
---
I looked at Hiroto's screen — he was shaking, blood down his chin, pupils dilated.
---
> "It's not a Gundam," he whispered.
"It's a curse."
---
We hit the sun.
Broke into clean air.
But the humming… didn't stop.
---
Inside my helmet.
Inside my veins.
> "Sepertinya…"
"…aku…"
"…dipaksa…"
"…mati…"
---
I looked down at my hands.
They were moving.
Twitching.
Like I was… playing the song.
---
> "It's still in here…" I whispered.
> "And it's learning our names."
---
POV: Zhang Lei – Unified Eastern Coalition Liaison Officer
Location: Geneva Deep Sector — Black Level Council Chambers
---
You could smell fear in the room.
Even though the walls were steel and the seats were leather, it stank of sweat and silence.
No one spoke.
No one blinked.
Because the video hadn't started yet — and they all already knew they would regret seeing it.
---
The Black Level chamber was buried six floors below the Geneva Accord Hall.
No translators. No assistants. No diplomatic suits.
Just generals, scientists, and shadows.
China. Japan. Russia. The fractured EU. What was left of the U.S. NorthCore. Even an ex-Oceania warlord under "observer" status.
Twenty-four people sat in a crescent, facing a curved, ultra-high-definition monitor.
The file was already queued. Top of the screen read:
> [OPERATION: ALPHA-BLACK – INTERCEPT MISSION FAILURE – CLASSIFIED]
And beneath it:
> [FOOTAGE SOURCE: JAPAN YATAGARASU UNITS 1 & 2]
The click echoed loud when Minister Huang hit play.
---
Fog.
That was all the first minute gave us.
Thick, rolling fog like grave smoke — crawling over ocean waves like it had its own purpose.
Then came the voice.
---
> "Sepertinya…"
"…aku…"
"…dipaksa…"
"…mati…"
---
The humming.
Slow.
Male.
Low.
Like a dead man forcing himself to speak.
Not a message.
Not a signal.
Just a feeling, vibrating directly inside the pilot's brain — and now, ours.
---
Then came the kill.
Unit 3 disappeared mid-sentence.
No gunfire.
No light.
Just—nothing.
---
> "Where's the suit?" someone muttered.
"Did they lose signal?"
Then Unit 4's feed came on.
The camera flickered wildly.
We saw the cockpit.
We saw Rina's body, twitching as a shadow crushed her Gundam's head like a melon.
The gore splattered on her camera lens before it cut out.
Her last words were, "Something's crawling on my back…"
---
The humming continued.
---
> "Sepertinya… aku… dipaksa… mati…"
---
No one breathed.
Not even the generals.
---
The screen finally showed the source.
A black silhouette in the fog.
Walking.
Drifting.
Its proportions weren't right. It looked almost human. The shoulders were massive, the chest plated in what looked like scarred silver. The head—flat, cold, emotionless—tilted like a curious dog.
It didn't fire a weapon.
It simply stepped on Unit 4's wreckage.
> SPLAT
Blood burst out through the seams.
Someone in the room gagged.
---
Admiral Kusunagi — a woman who once nuked a lunar fortress with a straight face — whispered:
> "That's not a mobile suit…"
---
All eyes turned to Dr. Kiyomi Tan, who hadn't looked away from the screen.
She had designed Gundam Meifeng, and worked on six of the 13 Gundam-class frameworks.
She was pale. Hands shaking.
> "This isn't a weapon," she said.
> "Not a protector. Not a machine. Not a Gundam."
She pointed at the humming figure now standing still in the fog.
Its lone eye glowed red in the haze.
> "This is something humanity should never build."
---
> "Sepertinya…"
"…aku…"
"…dipaksa…"
"…mati…"
The loop didn't end.
Not in the footage.
Not in our heads.
---
Minister Huang slowly stood.
> "We spent twenty years building power through Gundams. Meifeng. Raijin. Naginata."
> "But that thing…"
He looked at me.
> "Zhang. What the hell is that thing?"
---
I exhaled.
Hard.
My voice shook more than I wanted to admit.
> "It wasn't part of the 13."
"It was a side project. Buried. Rejected."
"Created by a Malaysian research cell under Petronas Energy."
"Its frame is forged from meteorite alloy — material we've never been able to replicate."
> "Every pilot who tried to sync with it… died."
Someone gasped.
> "Except one," I finished.
> "And his name… is missing from every database."
---
General Satou leaned forward.
> "So who's piloting it now?"
---
I didn't answer.
Because I couldn't.
Because no one could.
Because maybe… it wasn't being piloted at all.
---
> "What do we call it?" someone whispered.
---
I watched the screen — that slow, shambling figure still humming, alone in the fog, blood soaked into its ankles.
---
> "We don't call it anything," I said.
"Names are for weapons. For soldiers. For machines."
> "But that thing?"
I looked up.
> "That's not a Gundam."
> "It's a monster."