Title: Monster

Author: Karina

Rating: PG

Pairing: Milliardo + Wu Fei

Notes:  Challenge 222.  Baby Series 4  #123.  Takes place  approximately one hour following Preparation.

Spoilers: None

Warnings:

Many thanks to ShenLong Deb for her work betaing this set of fics.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.

Title: Monster

The worst case scenario had Sanc under the effects of the storm for upwards of a week should it keep the track they had projected and its crawling speed.  The massive storm was expected to linger over them, hitting the mountains and stalling, spending its force slowly, held back from the bulk of Europe by the mountain ranges.  It would prove to be a week from a very cold hell, Milliardo mused, as he stared out toward the sea and the dark horizon.  Their only saving grace was that it was moving slowly and that gave them time to prepare as best they could.

The recovery would not be easy.  The most vulnerable, the old, the infirm, the ill, had been moved out entirely.  He was not expecting to maintain electricity services beyond a few hours into the storm.  He owed Quatre Winner a profound thank you for arranging the airlift using Winner resources.  Using those same resources they had imported as much non perishable food, vital generators and portable heating units as they could cram into the cargo holds of the planes and the few ships that could make the sea crossing before the storm closed the sea lanes.

His first priority was preparing for the storm, surviving it, but the recovery would bankrupt the country.  He was uncertain how he would face that disaster at present, but it could wait until they reviewed the damage.

They might be lucky.

“It’s a monster, isn’t it?”

Chang stood at his shoulder, dark eyes on the horizon, hair whipping in the wind.  There was a stiff breeze, nothing like the expected onslaught of more than 300km/h winds.  It was not even the wind that would be their greatest danger.  Ice.  They already had proof of what would hit them, torrential rain frozen into spears of ice whipped into a frenzy by the wind.  Sweden had been hardest hit.  A blizzard unlike any other in living memory... or recorded memory, he supposed.

Well, perhaps not.  He vaguely recalled one of the meteorology officers saying something about the late 21st century and climate change.

“An ice dragon from mythology, come to scourge us for past sins; so my ancestors might have claimed.  Thank you, by the way, for allowing us to use the base as one of the shelters.”

Chang shook his head slightly, eyes never leaving the distant horizon. “The clan are working well preparing for what is to come.  It gives them something to do other than panic at the unknown.  They have no real concept of what it will be like, never having experienced such a storm before.”

“Sometimes ignorance can be bliss.” Milliardo drew a deep breath and stretched slowly. “I will authorise the evacuation orders later this afternoon, sector by sector.  Expect the first people by five thirty or so.”

“The heating units are being unpacked and the food and water stores are filled to bursting.  We will survive well enough.”

End

Karina Robertson  2013