The “Unicorn”s body that was fastened in the spare hangar was an industrial product whose elegance was said to be distilled, and could be described as an art piece. On one hand, it preserved the strokes and the flat surface of a mass product silhouette, while on the other hand, there armor itself was enhanced through a complicated procedure. The lone horn extending out from the forehead showed a remarkable presence of an art piece, and the mysterious appearance which matched the name was granted on the standing giant.
“This high mobility state…or the Gundam mode, I should call it? When that is activated, a system called the NT-D acts as the OS. As for the Laplace Program, you can imagine it to be activated with the NT-D, and it will reveal some encrypted data in phases.”
The 40-year-old technical officer said as he poked his head out of the abdomen. Why can’t those who’re so called proficient in technical data talk appropriately to each person’s status? Angelo felt unhappy inside as he reached for the raised platform and peered through the dim and opened cockpit hatch.
As the backup power was the only thing activated, the all-view monitor was not activated as it remained in the darkness that felt like it was about to converge everything. The display board on the linear seat let out a light indicating standby, flickering a logo that could be read as “La+”. Ever since it fell into Neo Zeon’s hands, the “Unicorn” kept refusing all external interference and remained silent, and this was the only sign it had been showing. La+—most likely, it was a light indicating the coordinates of the Laplace Box. Angelo felt a chill up his spine, and behind him, Full Frontal spoke, “In phases, you say?”
“In other words, the seal will be undone every time the NT-D is activated, and will show new information. This was activated twice from the pilot was registered. The first time was to let the system get into a standby phase, while the second showed these coordinates, and that’s all. Maybe it’ll show new information the next time it’s activated, and to be honest, I don’t know for sure. However, it’s more natural to assume that there’s still unrevealed information from the percentage of space the Laplace Program occupies the hard disk.”
“You can’t release all the information during this current phase?”
Frontal quipped. The tall masked figure standing on the raised platform stroked his chin, seemingly showing off alone in this unpleasant maintenance factory. The technical officer did not seem to have slept much after 2 days of nonstop work as he investigated the “Unicorn”, and answered, “We can try.” and weakly dropped his shoulders.
“It already took this much time for us to extract the information that was given. If we randomly try to interfere with it, we might end up causing all the data to be erased. I’ll try if you’re willing to do this, but I won’t recommend this. it’ll be advisable to let it reveal itself according to the process.”
“Can’t you remove the pilot’s biological register?”
If we can do that, we can extract the information immediately, and there’ll be no need to control that boy called Banagher. The technical officer glanced aside at Angelo who interrupted with an anxious voice, and continued to tidy up the large number of cables floating around as he turned his back and answered, “There’ll be a risk too.”
“The pilot recognition system is linked to the Laplace Program. When a registered pilot activates the NT-D, the Laplace Program will be able to operate in the next phase. In this sense, we can say that this process is sort of a stepping stone. That’s because a special wave is needed to be detected before the NT-D can be activated.”
“So that’s why it’s called the Newtype-Drive system, is it?”
The technical officer gave a meaningfulness opinion, and Frontal gave a response that seemed to indicate that he understood something. So we can only rely on Banagher Links? Angelo only managed to understand this and lost all interest in this entire incident as he took a step back from the “Unicorn”s cockpit. The technical officer however continued “Yeah. But even so, its design is still rather amazing.” Angelo basically ignored half of his words as he looked over at the wide maintenance factory.
The maintenance factory was located amongst “Palau”, formed by 4 asteroids. The largest block was called “Calyx”. At this place, the “Unicorn” and more than 20 mobile suits could be seen lined up and undergoing repairs and checks. There was a large thick green mobile suit “Geara Zulu” standing 2 hangars away from this point. Beside it was a “Geara Doga” that was part of the Geara models, and the machine that had the sleeve emblem on it had its maintenance hatches opened. The long machine standing right in front of it was the “Gaza”-type that was the main fighting force of Neo Zeon in the past. It was a simple mass-production model that was 10 years old, developed from the remnants of the Old republic, but the machines with a transformable frame was not a poor choice in use, and even at this point, it could be used for scouting or investigations. The Sleeve design that was newly imprinted on it showed ingenuity in that they would not realize their weaknesses by using numbers. In this sense, this feeling described the machines fittingly, and it also brought about a sense of unity despite it being a unit of the “Sleeves”.
He looked up at the top, and saw the lights of the ships parked above the glass window at the ceiling. The silhouette that looked to be only the size of a thumb from this point was probably a patrolling “Musaka”-class ship. The military port of “Palau” was designated at the gap formed where the 4 asteroids were linked together, under the mortar-shaped depressions facing each other. The gaps were all covered by the asteroids facing outside, and it was impossible to see the military port from the outside. They could see the lights of the port from some angles, but it was hard to observe from the outside because of the asteroids linked together, giving a net function. Even though, it was not as concealed as a sturdy fortress. If the fissure at this point could be described as an anchorage, the light would be 5km away from this point on the “Calyx” in diameter, while the deepest part would be about 2km away. The fissure itself was protruding at the tip like an umbrella, and the beauty of the scene observed from below could only be described as majestic. If the connecting shafts could be described as stone pillars, this would be a stalactite cave in space.
Amidst, this large hole, there were 30+ ships docked, and the workboats and mobile suits looked like toys as they were floating through the dock. The randomly assembled remnant organization could be seen basically as a patrol squad, and though there were ships that could not be used as fighting strength, they could assemble enough personnel if they wanted to. If we can unravel this thing called the Laplace system or something and get hold of the “Box”, it’s not impossible for us to wipe out the enemies at one go. But even so Angelo gritted his teeth as he looked up at the head of the “Unicorn”. “I see, we might have to call it a drive, but its nature is a little intense.” Frontal’s tone caused him to hurriedly look forward.
“Yes. Leaving aside what the people who installed this Laplace Program were thinking, this thing itself is a hunting machine. It can be said that these two kinds of paradoxes were combined together. Captain, the ‘madness’ you said you felt from it might come from this.”
“I understand. Cardeas Vist sure left the Laplace Box to an unbelievable monster to tend to.”
Frontal’s lips under the mask curled as he heard the technical officer’s conclusion. I missed something important. Angelo did not even have the time to waver as Frontal called him “Lieutenant Angelo”, causing him to get into a still position.
“As what I commanded before, notifying the entire army and follow the instructions.”
“Yes!”
At this moment, Angelo instinctively stamped, and then reflected on what he heard. The given instructions were the response to the predicted attack. The Federation would come over to “Palau” to battle. He felt his blood boiling, but also realistically remembered that he had to bring over the freeze-dried rose. He stared at the back of the crimson red figure in front of him. Frontal put his hand on the cockpit hand and asked the technical officer, “So where’re the current coordinates pointing to?”
Angelo did not hear the reply of the technical officer who slipped into the cockpit. That might be the coordinate data of the “Box”, so there’s no need for me to hear it. Angelo intended to peek in through the cockpit, only to be taken aback by Frontal’s retreating figure, and could only make a way.
“…I really hope that’s a joke.”
Frontal faced the glow of the blinking “La+” and smiled as he said. At this, Angelo could only frown.
At the same moment, April 12th, 00.25, the supply ship “Alaska” finished the resupply to the Nahel Argama and left the shoal space region as it returned back to the Moon.
The “Alaska” was a support ship under the Columbus class, 145m in length and 110m wide. Its shape could be described as completely rectangular, and though its length was not even two-thirds of the escort Clop-class ships, the ship space it occupied could take up two container block, and its capacity could be said to be sufficient enough to hold a mobile suit squadron. The ship finished its mission, and once passed through a peaceful time as it was commanded to head back under the jurisdiction of the normal Naval Bureau, but at this point, the situation it was involved in was definitely not peaceful.
There were other Clop-classes ships that were escorting it from the moon, and on the way back, the Irish-class sent over from Side 2 joined them. Two Jegan mobile suits were escorting it from the front and back on standby, flickering warning lights. It was expected that there would be escorts when supplying, but this formation was more cautious than even during a battle, and it was a special exception to see more defenses on the way back than it was going forth. The fleet command did not explain much about this, so the crew of the “Alaska” could only feel puzzled by it. However, there were some amongst the cadres who detected that something was up. The fleet command that stated that they found it troublesome to send reinforcements would not just send in escorts on the whim. The issue here was the ‘baggage’ they received from the “Nahel Argama”.
The list of the ‘baggage’ included a pilot who was ordered to return back from the ship and two civilians said to be detained from “Industrial 7”. There was also a prisoner said to be involved with the “Sleeves”, but this person was accompanied with people from the Central Intelligence Branch, and her name and details were not revealed to the “Alaska”s crew at all. Most likely, the issue was regarding ‘her’—the prisoner in this incident was a girl, this eyewitness report was spread throughout the ship through the crew. The excessive number of guards was definitely drafted in to escort ‘her’. This moving of the prisoner was the main mission of the “Alaska”, more important than the resupply to the “Nahel Argama”. This was the truth.
Speaking of which, even if they knew of about this, things would not change. If the Intelligence Branch was involved, it would be suicidal to pursue things. The crew would just treat the rumors as such, and it would be fine if they did not reveal their true thoughts until the end of the mission. Even the Captain, who was sitting on his seat at the center of the bridge as he watched the “Nahel Argama” drift far away, had this thought too. The white ship frame shown on the main monitor lost its entire portside catapult deck, and even the ventral fin at the tail was collapsed. It looked like they needed to be repaired in a factory, but the Senate Council ordered them to carry on their mission, and would not even allow them to send back the injured. This was a secret mission being carried out, but the only thing one could assume from this was that they wanted the entire crew to die together.
“I don’t know what kind of thing they got, but that ship sure drew the worst straw there…”
The Captain, who had a military career of 28 years, and was still working as an honest supply ship captain while most of his graduated peers from military cadet academy had all become outstanding, had no other feelings about it. This was not something he should be involved in. Anyone in an organization, whether it was the military, would often have danger around, and he had to face caves he could not avoid. I just have to hurry back to the Moon and drop the troublesome ‘baggage’. As the Captain thought about this, he turned his eyes to the screen, and the alarm rang, ripping through the stable air flowing within the “Alaska”.
“We got a fire alarm coming from the 4th deck! Investigating it immediately.”
“The incident happened in the second living quarters. The area is filled with smoke.”
The operator immediately shut off the alarm and reported. “What did you say?” The Captain felt his moaning face stiffening as he turned his body to the console on the side of the bridge. The multi-screen monitor that showed the situation inside the bridge was covered in white smoke. The damage control board indicated the location of the report—
“Isn’t that the block where the prisoners are held…?”
The second living quarters located inside the ship’s gravity block was indicated on the damage board of the “Alaska”s cross-sectional view, and that flickering light was definitely there without a doubt. The Captain yelled out before he even thought about the significance, “ACTIVATE THE EMERGENCY STEERING TEAM!”
“PUT OUT THE FIRE. EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM, GO ENSURE THE PRISONER’S SAFETY…!”
“A new fire’s reported! In the first container deck.”
A second red alarm followed the voice of the operator, flickering in a corner of container block. A fire was detected there after there was a fire detected at the prisoner block. The Captain was not suspecting whether it was a bogus report or a coincidence anymore as he remained stunned for a while. “What’s going on…?” He inadvertently mused, but no one answered as the words of the reports and the term emptiness overlapped each other as they went by his mind.
The dome-shaped block that was rotating with the weak gravity generated within the walls required an airlock facility for artificial flow. Under zero gravity, where temperature difference did not exist, the air would not be able to flow easily, and this caused the danger of a vacuum belt in the ship.
The smoke that was created within the gravity block relied on this theory, and it flowed through the ship since the artificial airflow could not be stopped easily, causing the white mist to spread through the entire block. They could have sealed off the partition walls once they evacuated successfully, but the crew, who were all ordinary people, was not agile enough, and 1 minute was already wasted on teaching them the basics countermeasures. The only people who could pull out the Oxygen Breathing Apparatus after detecting this anomaly were most likely the Central Intelligence people who were in charge of watching the prisoner.
The 2 civilians that were also kept within the “Nahel Argama” were left to the crew of the “Alaska” for keeping. The 4 Intelligence Branch officers who were sent over to move the prisoner had already started moving. Two of them were standing in front of the prisoner detention room, while two others went to check on the situation. They did not feel that the enemy’s special agents would be able to sneak into the ship, but it was hard to imagine so many fire outbreaks happening at the same time being a coincidence. Two Intelligence Officers were dressed in suits and OBA masks as they kept their wary stares looking down the smoke-filled passages, pulling out their G-17 recoilless automatic pistols. All countermeasures were allowed, with the priority being that their prisoner was to be kept safe. Their guns were pointed at the floor, but their hands were holding onto the safeties of the G-17, and their expressions were already those of a soldier in battle.
At this moment, the smoke got thicker and thicker, making it harder to ensure their vision. If this was a fire that was deliberately started, the only reason they could think of would be misdirection. We can’t let the prisoner move around so easily, but it would be too late for us to evacuate. The two Intelligence personnel thought, and a person wearing an officer normal suit appeared on the other side of the smoke. He ignored the duo with their handguns raised as he yelled to them while running, “YOU GUYS, IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO WEAR OBAs!” and handed them three normal suits under his armpits.
“Hurry up and put those on. Those inside too.”
That person did not wait for their responses as he reached his hand to the detention door with an electric door. The Intelligence Officers quickly stopped him and said, “We’ll do this.” as they stared at this crew member who seemed to be from the emergency response. The emergency response crew member had the guns pointed at him, but he, who had his helmet pulled down, did not show signs of fear as he roared to the Intelligence Officers with killing intent, “HURRY UP THEN!”
“I’m in charge of fire prevention in this area! It’ll be on me if anyone dies here! Don’t just point that thing around here! Hurry!”
The Intelligence Officers exchanged glances and started putting their feet into their normal suits. One of them continued to remain on watch, while the other put on the helmet nimbly and pulled down the visor. After changing for less than 30 seconds, both of them entered a password only they knew and opened the electronic lock. One of them remained at the door to cover, while the other walked into the detention room.
At this moment, the emergency response member standing beside took action as he touched the Intelligence officer walking into the room by the neck. He pressed the emergency button on the seam of the helmet located at the back of the life support system, causing a status light to flicker. The Intelligence Officer noticed this anomaly and intended to activate the device again, only for the helmet to be filled with a transparent gas.
It was an anesthetic gas used to reduce oxygen consumption to the minimum when floating in space. Of course, this function would not be activated so easily, and it would require many countless procedures before it would be used normally. However, this normal suit that was tinkered with before would release the gas with the press of a button. The Intelligence Officer was knocked out in 2, 3 seconds, and the other person who noticed this anomaly walked into the room. The emergency crew member however responded before the gun was even pointed at him as he slammed the Intelligence Officer, and reached his hand towards the neck of the opponent who rolled onto the floor.
“You bastard…!” The Intelligence Officer groaned as his face relaxed and his body slumped. The emergency crew member pushed aside the sleeping Officer and tried to get up, staring right into the prisoner’s eyes as she stood in a corner of the detention room, dumbfounded. He poked his head outside to check that there was no one else around, and pulled aside his helmet visor.
“Ensign…Riddhe?”
The widened emerald eyes stared at the face deep within the visor. “Put this on.” Riddhe Marcenas simply briefed as he handed over the normal suit be brought along to her.
“We’re getting out of here. Pull down the visor and follow me.”
The prisoner—Mineva Lao Zabi did not say anything unnecessary. Her stared stopped on Riddhe, who was giving a serious look in his eyes, and received the Officer-use normal suit. She heartily took off her purple cape and brought the hefty normal suit onto the slender shoulders with the blouse on without taking too much time. Both of them rushed out of the detention room and passed through the passage with the canister giving off white smoke.
They passed through the gravity block and went to the portside container block, also called the first container deck. It was unknown how many gas canisters Riddhe set up at which locations and it was a layer of thin mist once they passed through the air lock. It was unknown where the smoke came from in the wide space that was 100m long and not less than 30m wide and tall. The piled up containers, preparatory goods and the hanging crane arms from above were all covered with a thin veil. It seemed that new air was being switched in, but they probably could not turn off the air flow. The smoke continued to disperse in from the air ducts, and it looked like the damage was spreading.
“If we don’t know where the fire’s starting from, can’t we just turn off the air flow?”
“We should know where the reported area is from, right? What do you mean that you can’t detect the heat source!?”
Growls echoed all around as the agitated crew members were scurrying around. If the source was a gas canister, they would not be able to pick up the location through a heat signature sensor. Mineva looked down at the chaos from the catwalk railing, and nearly knocked into Riddhe, who suddenly stopped. Riddhe grabbed her hand and pulled her nearly floating body back. He leaned near the communication panel and picked up the microphone on the deck.
“All hands, prepare for vacuum. We’ll now draw away the air on the container deck. Those without normal suits are to evacuate. There’s 30 seconds till the hatch is open.”
The voice that rang throughout the ship’s speakers caused the scattering crew members to stop immediately. The next moment, the black wave of fear started to fill the container deck, and they started moving at a speed several times that of before.
Some leaned towards the lockers with the normal suits inside, some were heading towards the airlock leading to the bridge, leading people in. “Who’s the one making that broadcast? I never heard of such a thing!?” “Hurry up and confirm with the bridge!” The officers’ voices rang as they fought for the. However, these voices would not be able to calm them down. Mineva saw the figures in normal suits rushing around, and stepped on the floor of this passage on Riddhe’s prompting. She grabbed onto Riddhe by the shoulder as he was using the cable gun, and both of them glided past the passage of the container block. They were headed to a space launch on a launching pad. Over there, as the smoke floated around thinly, a green ball-shaped object suddenly appeared from the shadow of the ship, and it rolled its way into Mineva’s sights.
“Haro…?”
She unwittingly called out, and people dressed in normal suits appeared behind it as they waved over. One of them waved over at them, while the other carried Haro and watched their surroundings before hiding inside the launch. Mineva did see that face that was without a helmet on despite her wearing a normal suit. It was Micott Bartsch—so in that case, the one waving over at us would be Takuya Irei, is it? Mineva did not have much time to think as the white frame of the space launch was right in front of them, and Mineva followed Riddhe as she reached for the ceiling.
Both of them used inertia to glide to the launch and grabbed onto the open hatch on the portside. Riddhe slipped into the launch first. “Hurry up” a familiar voice could be heard from behind. Mineva got into the space launch together with what looked Takuya in a normal suit.
This space shuttle had been used by the Federation before the One Year War, and there were 4 laser rocket engines installed on the frame that was less than 10m in length. It had a capacity of 10 people excluding the driver. At this point, Micott was sitting on the passenger seat, and she was looking tense and pale as she stared at the steering seat. She met Mineva in the eyes, and looked away awkwardly as she clinged onto Haro on her knees. Mineva felt a sharp pain at the bottom of her stomach as she passed by Micott and moved towards the steering seat in front. The console lights were already indicated, and Riddhe sat on the seat as he did the checks before take-off.
Mineva sat on the co-pilot seat and fastened herself down with the safety belt. She felt pressured by this atmosphere as she got all the way till here. Are we going to escape using this ship? This doubt that came way too late spread inside her, but she did not have time to speak up. Takuya closed the hatch, panted and grabbed onto the back of the pilot seat. “Is the airlock opened enough?” He asked as he stared at Riddhe’s face, who did not stop moving his hands as he continued the checks and answered.
“This kind of space launch can be used as an escape shuttle, so it’s possible for us to access the deck controls from here…those guys have finished evacuating, right?”
Riddhe’s voice caused Takuya to bring his helmet-covered head to the concave canopy window and checked the container deck filled with white smoke. The alarm showed no signs of stopping, but there were no signs of any crew members on the deck. “Looks like it’s over.” Takuya answered, and Riddhe answered, “Alright, let’s go.” and quickly operated on the console. The ‘Air’ flickered on the deck wall, and the warning lights on the floor started spinning for a few seconds. They could feel the continuous alarm sounds fading away rapidly.
The smoke outside the window immediately vanished, and the partition walls in front gradually opened. The large hatch of the pressure room split aside up and down, and the 4-sided space outside the hatch appeared right in front of them. It was the sound of the ship breaking away from the restraints and leaving, and it seemed that Riddhe and the rest were intending to escape from this ship. Where are they going? Mineva tried to think, but cringed due to the sudden impact.
A hammer-like sound rang twice, thrice as it rocked the ship, causing bright sparks to scatter all over the place, and the windows were jerking. Gunshots. Mineva realized this, and Micott screamed, “THEY’S SHOOTING AT US…!” “Don’t worry, hang on tight!” Riddhe growled. Mineva looked outside the window, and saw two people in normal suits pointing handguns at them as they approached the space launch. Flares popped out from their muzzles, causing sharp impacts to rocked the shuttle.
“We’ll cut the countdown. I’m going to make things rough here. Don’t bite your tongue!”
Riddhe spoke so loudly it was not drowned out by the bullets. Mineva looked back in front and held her breath. The space launch rockets ignited at practically the same time, and the G-force that struck from the front surrounded their bodies. The sight of the container deck instantly disappeared from behind, and the vacuum, where neither the Moon or the Earth could be seen, occupied the windows.
The monitor at the back showed the rectangular supply ship, moving further and further away. The pressure of the acceleration on their organs weakened within several seconds, and Micott’s heaving sound could be heard from behind. “Alright…!” Takuya shouted with a restrained voice, and Haro’s voice rang too “Haro”. Mineva too heaved a sigh of relief, but at this moment—
“It’s not over yet. There’re still mobile suits in the ship.”
Riddhe said with a tense voice that never relaxed, and as a result, Mineva continued to look at the monitor behind. The Federation mobile suits escorting the ships were there, and obviously, this space launch would not be able to beat them. If this heart of the fusion with four limbs floating in vacuum were a fusion core reactor as the heart, the old space launch would be caught be it immediately.
How many seconds passed before the ship grasped the situation and was ordered to pursue us—how much distance can we gain during this time? Mineva and the other three stared at this 5 inch monitor. There was a small light spot the size of a small thumb appearing on the screen with a white trail.
The sensors showed two “RGM-89s” closing in quickly onto the space launcher. They started their pursuit, and they would be caught up in less than 10 seconds. Do you have a plan? Mineva intended to ask this as she glanced at the side of Riddhe’s face, who was looking intently as he focused on piloting. She suddenly felt the ship shaking, and frantically looked in front again.
A small rock flashed by the canopy window, turning the ship slightly with a small impact. The space debris flew in like bullets, faster than the motion sensors that showed many objects, and this showed that the space launch was moving into the shoal space region. The sizes ranged from pebbles to rocks larger than the launch. Though they were moving through the debris, they could not even slow down by one kilometer relatively. The debris field of past colonies continued to close in on them, moving through the body and floated back. They moved by a large rock, and 100m later, the minute debris that were scattered all over the place covered the ship like a sandstorm. Cracking sounds that bullied the armor caused the launch to tremor unstably.
“Wait, are we really alright?”
“I checked the path. If there’s no Minovsky particles scattered, the radar…”
Riddhe answered Micott’s shrieking voice and swallowed what he was about to say. He was wondering what was shining in front, only to find that a material the size of a human was rushing right at them. He immediately tilted the launch greatly, and the safety belt was pressed down on their shoulder muscles. Haro slid out of Micott’s hands and slammed into the wall, and Takuya cried out, “Is it really alright?” “We won’t be able to escape if we just do those cautious things…!” Riddhe answered as he continued to steer. He was already losing focus trying to stare at the settings panel. The sensors would capture the locations of the debris, and he had to use these to find the most suitable escape route. The monitor on the panel showed rectangular blocks entering, all repeating as they formed a 3-dimensional corridor.
The mobile suit pursuers were deliberately slowing down while being wary of the debris, but their speed was still very fast. Both mobile suits used the AMBAC function to dodge around, moving over at a speed the launch could not match. There’s still a little while until the computer calculates the course— Mineva saw that the navigation setting panel showed a bar that stated the progress, and looked back at the pursuers’ positions on the sensors, seeing that they were right in front of them. “Alright. It’s here!” Riddhe then yelled and clenched his sweaty fists.
“LET’S GO! GRIT YOUR TEETH!”
At that moment, the 4 laser rocket engines burst out flares, causing the launch to move forward at maximum speed. The hull let out a rattling sound, and everyone was forced down onto the seat. The path calculated by the computer was a complicated route of twists and turns through the debris, and Mineva and company were basically passengers sitting on a roller coaster as they did not know which side was up or down. As Takuya and Micott screamed out, the launch continued to repeat the complicated maneuvers that tested its limits and entered the shoal space region. The sea of debris floated by messily, and the beam a mobile suit fired raced into the flowing starry space, causing the debris that were hit directly to let out lights of explosions.
The scattered debris spurted out from a parallel level, and what sounded like a large number of pebbles being carried tortured their ears. “It’s just to scare us!” Mineva heard Riddhe’s shout as she looked at the large debris floating over from the front. That was the debris of a mirror that brought sunlight to a colony, and the cracked surface floated in the vacuum together. The launch in automatic mode continued to dodge the fragments floating around as it rushed right at the mirror.
“I’m going to do an emergency brake. There’ll be G-force coming from the back. Get ready.”
He stared at the countdown timer indicated on the navigation setting panel and shouted, 4, 3, 2…ignition . Riddhe’s fist slammed onto the console switch, causing the launch that was headed to the mirror to let out its front exhausts to the maximum. The G-force that struck at that moment rendered Mineva breathless.
Everything that was not held in place were flying to the front of the body, and the safety belts stretched out so much they felt like they were going to snap as they quashed into the body. Mineva spent so much effort preventing her eyeballs from popping out as she did not lift her head. After several seconds that felt like eternity, the launch that braked suddenly stopped its reverse jets—and moved in amongst the debris of the mirror. The ship was moving at a relative velocity completely identical to that of the surrounding debris as it slowly floated in space.
Cough. It was unknown who coughed. The launch was dark inside most probably because the engine lights were shut off. Mineva slowly closed her eyes and stared at the sensor image that was the only thing giving off light. The pursuers’ markers looked like they were puzzled as they scattered aside. This launch rushed into the shoal space region at a reckless speed and slammed into debris…whether this sounds crazy or not, it’s true that they lost sight of us. After what seemed like an exceptionally long time, Riddhe said, “Let’s go.”. Mineva however looked up at the canopy, and could see a pale green machine dragging a trail of thruster jet as it floated through numerous materials.
At this point, no one had the strength to yell out; only sighs of relief could be heard from the gang in this dim launch. Haro, who was bouncing around, finally seemed relaxed as it flapped its ears and asked things like, (Are you alright, Audrey?) This alias that Mineva thought up at the last moment—but was designated onto her during the past few days made her unable to answer as she merely lowered her eyes. Riddhe glanced at her secretly, and spoke up while trying to end things off, “We’ll spend the time here.”
“Once those guys leave, we’ll take action again.”
Riddhe pushed Haro over to Micott, and removed his helmet while looking like he was avoiding Mineva’s stare. He’s really an overly empathetic person. Mineva thought as she asked, “What do you intend to do?”
“We’ll take immediately once we get back onto the Nahel Argama.” Riddhe exchanged looked with Mineva for a while, and continued, “We can still catch up to them at this distance, and once we make contact with them, it’ll be the start of the battle. At that time, the communication channel will be sealed off, so they can’t possible contact the “Alaska”. Logically put, it’s impossible for us to be brought back.”
“And then?”
Mineva did not think that things would improve just by them reaching back onto the Nahel Argama. Does this man knows what fate will befall on him for taking away a troublesome prisoner like me and stole a military resource to escape? She took off her helmet, gave a doubtful look, and was shocked by another voice “We can only do that.”.
It was Micott. She lowered her eyes, not daring to look at anyone, and her hands held Haro onto her knees tightly. The backup power was connected at this time, and a red light appeared inside the launch, revealing Micott’s bitter and depressed expression.
“We saw what we shouldn’t be seeing, whether it’s that Gundam or you, so there’s no reason for us to be allowed back home safely, right?”
“Besides, there were a lot of people who died or were deemed missing in that battle at “Industrial 7”. We might be counted amongst them at all.”
Takuya followed up. They’ll kill people to protect their secrets— Mineva gave a confirming look to Riddhe, who stuttered “Eh, I don’t think things will develop to such an extent so easily…” as he looked up to the canopy.
“But if that were the case, what should we do? Even if we get back onto the Nahel Argama…”
“I already thought of it.”
Riddhe was only able to go straight to the point at this moment as he clenched his hands on the control sticks.
“It’s a risky gamble, but it’s not like it won’t work. According to the report I got before I left the “Nahel Argama”, it seems that their battle will start before afternoon on the 12th. That’ll be the moment when “Palau” is closest to earth.”
Mineva did not understand what she just heard. “Battle? Did you just say “Palau”…Mineva asked back, and Riddhe gave her a look while saying, “I hope you can help me.”
“This isn’t simple. I don’t know whether it will be successful, but as long as I meet you, even my father will…”
Riddhe stopped here and looked outside the canopy again. “Father…your father?” Riddhe said with a forceful tone to block off Mineva’s musing, “It can’t be helped.”
“If this keeps up, everything will be swept under the table. I hope you can entrust your life to me in order to ensure your safety, and these two’s.”
The determined expression on Riddhe’s face as he left the detention room appeared as they landed on Mineva, causing her to look away immediately. No matter what Riddhe was thinking, his expression showed obvious consideration into this decision. She did not feel that she could simply agree to this easily, and as the void of silent time accumulated, Micott’s voice rang in her ears, “This is to save Banagher too.”
“I know this shouldn’t be something I should be saying. But sorry, I have no intention of apologizing to you. Your army was the one that decimated our colony.”
Micott spoke to Mineva, and suddenly looked down as she clasped her hands that were holding onto Haro. Mineva could only watch the face of this girl who looked more frail than anyone else in this launch silently.
“But I want to apologize to Banagher. If I don’t, I…”
The end of her words was vague due to her crying. Micott did not intend to speak up anymore as the silent time descended on the ship again. Riddhe seemed to realize that he was on a path of no return as he gave a determined look; Micott’s lowered angry face was trembling with wet eyes; and Takuya could only glance at Micott, wanting to reach his hand to her shoulder, but could not. Everyone’s feelings filled this launch, making the air inside hot and hard to breathe, and Mineva was forced to look for a place where she could lay her eyes on in the midst of this starry space with countless debris.
What expanded in front of her eyes was merely a frozen darkness, and she could not find anything to look at. However, the feelings of the people gathered here were running towards a certain place, intending to look for another place. Maybe I am look for some place I can run to, just like how I was guided by what warm hand. But to where? Mineva’s could not think properly as she closed her eyes and sighed out hot air. Even if we stay in the darkness, we can’t continue on to the next scenario. We have to start running—
“…This is originally an incomplete weapon. The reason why it wasn’t removed during the large Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) was simply because of budget issues. We did carry out formal regular activation tests, but we never actually fired for once.”
Despite looking tense in front of the Captain, the cannon operator said without hiding his stiff expression. Before Otto could speak up, the gunnery squad leader on standby at the back walked to the front and said,
“Leaving aside the issues regarding the design, I have absolute faith in the maintenance. If you don’t mind just one shot, I’ll show you how it can hit its target with 120% power.
The well-refined looking muscular body remained still as his energetic voice rang through the power room. Stop yapping so much. The cannon operator stared at him with such an expression, not because he was unhappy about how he spoke up while ignoring this officer here, but probably that this gunnery squad leader should not say things he was not confident in. This man’s doubting attitude became a fault, and he had the tendency to focus on failures in his heart. “Yes, we’ll rely on precision in this battle here. I look forward to your performance.” Otto kept his words till this point and just pretended to merely listen to the gunnery squad leader’s reliable words. “Yes!”, the gunnery squad leader raised his hand to salute and turned right to his workplace.
The cannon operator observed his Captain’s expression, and then kicked the floor to return back to his work. The place he was headed to had a standby battery one would mistake for the ship’s main engine, and the gunnery team could be seen carrying out their inspections. The soldiers briskly attached the connecter cables of the backup power source that were so thick they needed to be wrapped around with both arms. In contrast, the cannon operator who was left aside was not that excited. He would occasionally give some instructions, but his volume was never as loud as that of the squad leader. The soldiers were obviously ignoring him as well, “This really can’t do.” First Officer Liam lamented as she observed this same scene.
“It’s good that he’s serious, but he lacks a sense of authority. Such words won’t be able to move officers.”
She stated coldly while her stare under those thick eyelids were looking at the cannon operator. I didn’t expect to have the same view as this troublesome woman I have no relation with. Otto grimaced secretly as he answered, “Well, it’s not unreasonable after all.”
“Probably no one thought that we would need to use this to blow some things up one day.”
The front end of the energy condenser, 10m in diameter and more than 20m in length, had a mega particle generator that was far larger than normal, a beam generator. The mega particles would accelerate through 8 phases, gather inside the ring, and rise through the cannon that was 18m in diameter and monstrously large. If one included the energy, it would be said that this ‘grand cannon’ that was 50m in length could not be held inside the ship as it was too big, and could only be kept right under the 1st catapult deck, sticking out from the Nahel Argama from the hull of the ship. This was of a different class from the 4 main cannons that were designed on the ship. There had been no weapon like this weapon the ship was ferrying, and it was a mega-particle cannon that exceeded common sense—
“In theory, a hyper mega-particle is a weapon that can match the power of a colony laser and can be aimed at a location…but I’ve never seen it being fired for real once, even though I did see footage of it.”
“I’m the same as you as well. I guess the only ones equipped with such monstrously large things are the last generation’s “Argama” and this ship, right? We saw it fail in the end during the Neo Zeon War after all.”
This hyper mega particle cannon that caused the Captain and First Officer to say this in unison was basically a beam weapon that was an enlarged version of an ordinary mega-particle cannon. It was expected that one shot would be enough to bury a large ship, and if they adjusted the firing angle, it was possible to wipe out an entire fleet. This was basically similar to the large-scale mass killing weapon hanging on a colony frame as a cannon, the colony laser hailed as the ultimate cannon weapon. The problem was that the cost effective was worse off, and one hit would use up all the power on the ship.
They had to transfer all the main power in the ship’s main generator to the backup, and in that case, they would not be able to use other mega-particle cannons, and even pilot it. Of course, it did not have a rapid-fire option as the cooldown and reload times were all too long. Thus, there was only one chance of using it in battle. It was useful during the First Neo Zeon war, at the battle of Axis, where they were using it to break through, but it would not be efficient when it was a ship on ship battle. In this phase, the war against Zeonism was in the purging stage, and a targeted attack assumption here was basically zero, so the Federation army naturally never had the reason or ability to mass produce limited resources, and could not transfer this over to the other ships. If the costs for the FRAM was not ideal, this hyper mega-particle cannon would definitely be scrapped and sent to a war museum. It would be more efficient for them to turn the empty space to contain mobile suits, which would increase their fighting strength. That would be the case.
But in this battle, this monster that was behind times would become the crux. It would become the lynchpin in this battle to reclaim the RX-0—or rather, to save the civilian. Otto recalled Daguza’s seemingly ridiculous idea as he stared at the enemy scape, and sighed out all the heavy air from deep within his stomach. Liam reacted fast as she turned her eyes to him, and spoke with a probing voice, “Are you feeling unsatisfied?”
“No, this might be a reckless strategy, but it does make sense. If we want the Nahel Argama to stake on “Palau” alone, there would be no better plan than this. I too hope to save Banagher Links, but if we focus on this too much…”
What could have may never happen. Otto turned to look at Liam, who had this intent in her incomplete words.
“If we want to reclaim the “Unicorn” too, the risks of this operation will increase as such. I’m thinking whether I’m making our crew risk their lives because of some personal feelings, and I’m still wandering about this.”
“In this situation, the only one who can activate the RX-0 is Banagher Links. If we can’t save him together with the RX-0, we can’t consider ourselves as having reclaimed the “Laplace Box”.”
“Though that’s true…”
That’s just trying to talk our way out of it. Basically, there’s no need for us to be at the Senate Council’s whim and risk our lives on this mission to retake the “Laplace Box”. We do have the option to just fight with the motions and escape with our tails behind our back. Otto continued to stare at the gunnery squad soldiers who were focused on their work, and lowered his stare to the floor. Liam did not say anything as she took out a photo from her officer uniform pocket and stealthily handed it over to Otto.
The photo that was covered with a layer of coated sheet had a 15,16 year old boy there. He looked rather handsome, and that naïve looking expression did look rather similar to Liam. Otto tensed up slightly and asked, “Your kid?” Like usual, Liam answered without smiling and said to him, “Yes. He’s going to be 17 this year.”
“My husband died in the battle of Solomon, and my mother’s taking care of him. It has been more than half a year since I last saw him…”
Liam continued, and looked at the photo, quipping, “He’s like my life.“ and kept it back into her pocket. It was hard to imagine hearing this line from this person who acted like a woodblock, and Otto could not help but widen his eyes at his First Officer.
“I don’t really understand politics, but I told my son that momma’s working in the army to carry out justice. I don’t think justice will be in this mysterious “Box”, but it’s another thing trying to save another person. I suppose my son will understand and forgive me even if I can’t return home because of this.”
Liam said this with a serious face and continued, “I suppose the other crew members are the same too, and kept her mouth shut.” That direct attitude of hers and the enigmatic look was something he did not like about his First Officer, but she looked rather affectionate at this point, causing Otto to say “Is that so.” And smile.
People will sometimes end up in tough situations, and when they have nowhere else to rely on, they would rely on existences beside them that were like treasures. Otto thought that there was no need for them to give up their life so easily, and at that moment, a short alarm indicating an emergency meeting rang inside the power room.
(We’ve received an emergency contact from an allied space launch. Captain, First Officer, please head to the Bridge.)
The broadcast that indicated merely the bare minimum caused Liam to change expressions and mutter, “A launch?” It was unexpected to hear an ally contacting them so casualty in this space where there might be enemy ships patrolling. “At this time…!” it was unknown whether the groan came faster as Otto kicked the floor and floated to the power room door. He rushed through the communication shaft of the cannons department and left the hyper mega-particle cannon area at the hull. He returned back inside the ship, and the elevator leading to the bridge was right in front of him.
The elevator door just opened, and Liam entered the bridge at a speed she would never lose to. Otto used his hand to stop Ensign Mihiro who was about to get up, and spoke, “Whose ship is that?”
“Yes. The identification code classified it as a launch from the “Alaska”, but…”
Mihiro put her hand on the headset, and turned her face that grasped this vague situation to the communication console. The monitor was full of noise, and it was impossible to see the person’s face. As Otto frowned, a familiar voice rang through the voice box, (Can you hear me, Ensign Mihiro?), causing the air sucked into his nostrils.
(We don’t have enough thruster fuel here. Please hurry up and allow us to land. Is Uncle Raccoon there!?)
Raccon. This word itself caused everyone on the bridge to look at Otto. Of course, no Captain would be able to remember the voices of more than 200 crew member, but Otto heard this voice before. He coughed to clear the abnormal air here, and said, “Who are you? Are you a crew member of ours?” ignoring Liam as he picked up the microphone on the console.
(To the launch approaching here, this is the Uncle Raccoon of the “Nahel Argama”. Specify the passengers’ ranks and names.)
After an awkward pause for about 2, 3 seconds, (Yes, I’m Ensign Riddhe Marcenas of the Nahel Argama mobile suit squad!) a voice came from the speakers. The face of the “prince” he faced several days ago clearly appeared in his mind, making him speechless. “Ensign Riddhe…?” Liam mused as both of them looked at each other, and Otto turned his unfocused stare to the communication monitor that was full of noise.
(I’m approaching the Nahel Argama with 2 civilians here. Please allow me to board.)
“What’s going on? What happened with the “Alaska”?”
(I didn’t receive any instructions from the “Alaska”, but came to the Nahel Argama on my own.)
The atmosphere inside the bridge suddenly tensed up. Otto quickly held onto the microphone and asked Mihiro, “Can we contact the “Alaska”?”. Mihiro answered, “We can’t. It’s impossible if we don’t leave the shoal space region.” and Otto stared at the launch’s current position on the navigation monitor.
If they believed the information the Senate Council sent over, there would be less than 20,000km direct distance to the area the enemy patrols would be at. Otto stared at the monitor that caught sight of the launch, and made the conclusion that it did so despite knowing the consequences, and spoke into the microphone, “Why did you come back?”
(I’m a pilot of the Nahel Argama. I came back because I want to live and die together with the ship.)
“You should understand that this is against military orders, right?”
(I realized it already. Regarding the two civilians, I considered that it might be dangerous to hand them over to the Senate Council like this, so I brought them along.)
“He said they will be in danger…” Mihiro muttered and stared at Otto. These civilian had already known about classified military secrets, and the Senate Council would not just let them head back home so freely. Otto himself did think of this possibility before, but could not answer for certain, causing him to look away awkwardly. Otto exchanged understanding looks to Liam, and in place of doubtful answer, he simply told her to “Allow them to land.” and handed the microphone over to Mihiro.
Otto deliberately avoided looking at Mihiro’s doubtful look as she took the microphone. “To the approaching launch, our ship will allow you to land. Please match our relative velocity and abide by the deck manager’s instructions to enter from the back.” Mihiro said this, and Otto had his back turned on her as he again looked up at the visual on the sensor screen. No matter whether the “Nahel Argama” survives or not, Ensign Riddhe’s military career will be at an end. He did such a reckless thing…well, I can say that, but no half-baked determination is going to allow him to use such a small launch to shake off the “Alaska”s detection, pass through the shoal space region full of debris and catch up with us. What prompted him to do this? Such a doubt started to appear in Otto’s mind.
If they just wanted to ensure the safety of two civilians, it would be a weird thing to think of escaping to the “Nahel Argama” preparing for battle. From Riddhe’s words of wanting to live and die together with the ship, it’s clear that he knew how dangerous the battle that was about to start was. It was logical of him to contact them when communications were sealed off, and obviously, this was not something thought of at the spur of a moment— The indecisive thoughts started creeping up in him, and as the navigation operator asked, “Is this really alright?” Otto was at a loss of words. Liam stepped forward in place of Otto, and said,
“There’s still less than six hours before the battle. We can’t send them back now anyway. Tell the guards to carry out a thorough check on the launch.”
“Captain.” Liam added on for confirmation, and the navigation operator gave a believing look as he looked back at the console. Just ask the person himself. Otto nodded at Liam, who gave this expression, and looked at the watch.
9.07am. It’s definitely less than 6 hours before the first phase of battle at 15.00. Should we view this as a lucky omen, or…
The activation switch was pressed, and the low buzzing of the power flow shook the exterior of the machine, and the aged motor sound roared as it spun. The conveyor belt soon started operating, and the gears of the crusher could be heard activated it rattled.
“Amazing!” It moved!” Tikva ignored the cheers of the children as he poured the rocks on the cart onto the conveyor belt. The large fist-sizes rocked would first get crushed by the crusher, and then get polished by grease before being washed by a jet stream of water. The minerals would be stuck on the grease, so they would not be washed away by the water, and the remaining rock scraps would be removed easily here. The chosen pieces of minerals would then be set aside and poured into a bag at the end point.
This machine was set up behind Gilboa’s house, in a workshed smaller than a garage, so it was definitely not a large machine. The minerals they could obtain were just a teeny-weeny portion, but to Tikva and the rest, this was an important machine supporting their family income. “How did you do it?” The second son asked with excitement. “The gears had oil stains all over it. I just cleaned them up.” Banagher answered as he covered the maintenance hatch of this sorting machine. He used the towel hanging on his neck to wipe away his sweat, and the 4-year-old daughter pointed at him and laughed, “Your face is all black!”
Banagher touched his face, and noticed at the towel was already stained thoroughly by grease. Gilboa’s wife seemed to chuckle unwittingly as she said, “You helped us a lot.” and handed a new towel over to him.
“It’s a lot easier now. I did ask my husband to repair this before, but he would always be busy doing something during the rare times he come back...Tikva, you have to learn from big brother Banagher here. You have to learn how to repair it on your own even if daddy’s not around.”
“Got it. I saw it and remembered.”
Tikva sat down on a barrel of machine oil and answered with a tantrum. There was no reason for a prisoner to teach him…or rather, it could be said the reason why Tikva threw a tantrum was because that at his age, he would resist those who treated him like a child. Banagher inadvertently gave a smile and switched off the power source for the time being. “I’m telling you, mama used this to sort the rocks that can and can’t be used!” Banagher patted the young daughter who got over to his side and explained, and looked up at the sky through the roof workshed. The light that shone in through the brown clouds was the artificial sun of “Palau” he got used to seeing after the second day.
During the day, most of the men would head out to the excavation field, while the women would focus on choosing the rocks, or make screws or all sorts of things. The proper quarry plant was located outside the “Palau”, and they did everything from refining to molding, so the families’ factory produce as a whole was just a small percentage. The rocks inside the rocks storage of the living quarters—all the rocks dug out when the living block round cylinder, the shield machine was working—would be moved out, and one of the work specifics was to sort out these rocks scraps, and in nature, they were just ‘family handicraft’ where they could only earn so little despite working so hard. The efficiency here was very low compared to the automated system of “Industrial 7” and the machinery here was so old it was reminiscent of the Middle Ages. But the residents of “Palau” had viewed this form of living as a way of life, and spent many days doing so. The reality Banagher himself faced at this point was to kill time by repairing machines.
Marida and Gilboa went out, and the children had to head to school. He was left alone as a prisoner, and had nothing else but time to spend. Banagher went around Gilboa’s house randomly, found this faulty machine, and told himself to repair this on Gilboa’s wife request. He borrowed a set of tools that was said to be left behind since Gilboa’s grandfather’s generation, and wrestled against this installation that could be said to be an antique. It was better than being alone—and even though it was just this level of manual labor, but after hearing the sound of this sorting machine regain its life, and heard the cheers of the children coming back home, Banagher had to admit that he felt a sense of fulfillment he never had before.
No matter who that person was, it was not a bad feeling when someone got thanked by another person. Banagher could feel that he was actually helping someone by doing this, and to him, it was a source of hope that could help him continue to live. Don’t think of any unnecessary things when working. Just focus on the job at hand. What will happen to me after this, and what I’m doing—I don’t have to worry about this. It’s true that I’m running away from reality, but it’s true that I can relax my mind by moving my body and working out some sweat. I never worked seriously on the machines when I studied like an apprentice monk, studying for several hours—or maybe that’s because I’m being relied for something? Banagher recalled Marida’s face inside the cave church, and landed his sights on the grease-stained hand. “Where did you learn such things?” Tikva said, and he lifted up his head.
“From school. Anaheim Electronics Industrial College. That’s a place to learn how to take care of machines.”
“I know Anaheim. It’s a company that produces mobile suits, right? The “Geara Zulu” daddy pilots and the Captain’s “Sinanju” are made by Anaheim.”
Tikva said confidently as he let the toy glider fly. Banagher associated the term ‘Captain’ with the masked man, and asked back, “The “Sinanju”, as in that red mobile suit?”
“Yeah. But the rumors that Neo Zeon stole it were all lies. Anaheim did not want to show that it was helping Neo Zeon, and said that it was stolen.”
“…Oh.”
Banagher had no other way to answer. Tikva did not allow him to reflect on these words, and asked curiously, “Can I go to that school?”
“Of course…you want to?”
“Yes. Neo Zeon will be willing to use me if I’m familiar with machines, right?”
“But if you join the army too, no one can help your mother.”
“Stupid. It’s because I want to help mama that I want to join the army. She herself said that we can’t survive for long just by working in the quarries. Daddy said that he didn’t know when something will happen to him…”
TIkva bit his lips and threw the glider out like he was throwing stones. The anxiety and anger this stubborn child had was thrown out, and the glider could not ride on the wind as it landed right inside the yard. Banagher turned his back around, picked up that toy that resembled the “Homo Avis”, and said, “You’re amazing, Tikva.” as he realized his ignorance. He did not have the right to speak like an adult, but he had no other words to express this form of self-defeat within him.
“But I wonder if things can stop?”
“What can?”
“The war. Whether it’s your dad or Marida, I don’t think they like to fight, right? Both sides got battered, and everyone suffered, so I think it’s about time we should stop.”
“Are you telling us to surrender?” Tikva started to give a disgusted look as he said this. Banagher felt that he said unnecessary things, but continued, “I’m not talking about who wins or lose.”
“What I want to say is whether both sides can back off a little and talk.”
Banagher could not say anything more as he looked at the glider. They had a leader like Mineva who could think, and a soldier like Marida who could control herself. It seemed that such people alone would be able to end the war, but reality kept forcing children like Tikva to consider joining the war, continuing the situation. This could only be described as reality, and Banagher could do nothing but shamefully admit his ignorance. Are these the things Zinnerman wants me to ‘study’? To understand the current situation, and to realize that what I learnt in this current situation is just knowledge; this original ‘knowledge’ is to consider what’s after this and having the power to change the current trend, and this learning is a process to integrate thought elements.
The power to change the present, the possibilities—the unfamiliar memories pulsated in his temples as he stared at Tikva’s face. Tikva gave a somewhat doubtful look back at him, and started shaking the legs reaching down the oil barrel, patting his retreating head as he said,“…I don’t really understand.”
“But without war, daddy and the rest will lose their jobs. More people will be without jobs. I’m wondering if that’s a bother.”
“Now that you say it…”
This time, he really had nothing to say. This was the difference between those involved and those not involved—no, Banagher just felt that his knowledge which had no considerations for others were crushed, and he looked away from Tikva. There wasa saying that knowledge alone would not have power, and this scenario in front of him was a prime example of this. However, his temples kept pulsating, and he in reality could only say child-like words to a child, even though he was merely someone who could not use any useful knowledge…
A sense of shame, and anger, rose up within him. He switched hands to pick up the glider and threw it at Tikva. The glider became a vent of frustration without an exit as it flew above Tikva’s head, over the short wall outside the house, and disappeared.
“You’re bad at it!” Tikva teased. “Sorry, I’ll get it back.” Banagher said and left the workplace. He heard the singing of the daughter as he passed by the outside of the short wall beside Gilboa’s house. The glider with a wing that was about to fall off landed in the midst of a path covered with dust. Banagher was about to pick it up, and detected a shadow moving up to him on the road, darkening his sights.
He looked up, and saw a man he never met before standing there. He had medium build and high, and was wearing dirty work clothes with a hunter’s hat. It was obvious that he was like the quarry workers that were often seen, but in the midst of his drunken red face, there was a sense of tension in his eyes. Banagher inadvertently backed away, and the man spoke, “You’re Banagher Links, right?”, causing him to nod.
“Wait at the 3rd dock of the 14th Space Gate at 6pm. Someone will be there to receive you.”
The deep yet fine voice grazed past his ears as it moved by Banagher, and something was stuffed in his hands. Before he recovered, the man had already turned around the corner of the alley, and he could only vaguely see the fluttering of his shirt. “Erm, excuse me…!” But even with that call, the man never responded, and Banagher looked at what was stuffed into his hand.
Two A4-sied monitor sheets were rolled up. One of them was a 3D visual of the “Palau”, indicating the full view of the location in a grid format. The other was the actual scene of the space gate, and one would think that it was a crude visual recorded secretly, and the red light that probably designated the location was blinking.
Banagher checked that there was no one else around, and stared at the monitor again. As his face approached the monitor, something dropped onto the floor. Banagher picked up that thing which looked like a ball-point pen, but it was a little heavier. Most likely, it was some small transmitter—this instinct caused Banagher’s hairs to stand up, and he could not help but kick the floor.
That man passed through the alley and was about to turn around. Banagher called out to him, “Please wait!” as he tried to catch up with all he had. He grabbed the man, who kept moving, by the shoulder and asked, “What do you mean that someone will come pick me up? Who are you?” The man shrugged his arm off and gave Banagher a sharp expression, saying, “Don’t make too much noise.”
“Follow these instructions if you don’t want to die. This place will become a battlefield immediately.”
Banagher gasped, and this man did not let go of this opportunity as he quickly turned around the corner. Banagher frantically followed him, but did not see the man on the road surrounded by old unit houses on both sides. The man disappeared like a puff of smoke, and the only one there was an old granny with her back arched.
“You say this place will become a battlefield...”
Banagher gripped onto the ball-point pen that felt very heavy, and looked around at the streets that looked rather blurry in the afternoon. The regular sound of the grinder could be heard like a machine gun at this point, and Banagher felt that his feet swaying. Is it the Federation? Is that man an undercover spy or something? Don’t joke around. This is just a pitstop the Neo Zeon Army often use, not some military facility. A spy like this around should know. Why exactly is the Federation here—
As he thought about this, a jolt shot up his spine. It did not matter where the location was. The Federation had been aiming for the “Laplace Box”. They were preparing to take action, just like how it was in “Industrial 7”. They wanted to take back the crux of the Box…the “Unicorn”. They never cared about anything else, and the reason why they sent a spy over to contact him was to ‘take back’ the only pilot who could activate the “Unicorn”. The Federation was about to arrive. The vicious fangs of violence that gnawed “Industrial 7” to bits would strike “Pala”.
The glider slipped out of his hand and silently fell onto the floor. Banagher’s left hand, which was holding onto the monitor sheets, was frozen like stone, and his numb right hand picked up the glider as he started running.
First, he had to meet the man he just saw. He wanted to use that man to contact the Federation to tell them to stop the invasion of “Palau”. He knew that this definitely could not be done, but he could not stop his running as he ran mindlessly through the narrow alleys with the ‘hill’ of oxidized rocks as a reference. He ran down to the subway station through his own memory of the previous day. He passed by a cart full of dirt , and after an umpteenth turn, Banagher’s head nearly knocked into an oncoming person.
The person stepped aside before Banagher stopped. Banagher barely managed to stop himself from falling, and gasped as he faced the person around the corner.
“What is it? Why are you here?”
Marida was not really taken aback as she asked with a clear voice. “Well…” as Banagher was about to speak up, he met Zinnerman, who was behind Marida, right in the eyes, and immediately hid the monitor sheets behind him.
If I explain everything here, they will tell everything to the entire army. The Federation army will be ambushed, and the man just now will be caught. Riddhe, Mihiro, Daguza, the Captain whose name I didn’t manage to remember, the operators, they’re not just fighting units called soldiers, but people with flesh and blood; the faces of the “Nahel Argama” crew members appeared in Banagher’s mind, causing him to shut up. Of course, they might not be the ones approaching. Since they have such damage, and Daguza and Audrey are on board, it’s reasonable to assume that another squad is attacking, but it’s not fine even if it’s like this—
This thought appeared for a short moment, “Banagher?” as Marida frowned and asked, causing him to recover. He reached out the glider in his right hand and pushed it at Marida. “Erm, please return this to Tikva.” and backed away like he was about to trip.
“I’ll be back soon. So then.”
The siren indicating 3pm rang, “Banagher!” and with Marida’s cry behind him, he started sprinting wildly again. What should I do? What can I do? The melody of the siren seeped into his mind that was repeating his musing, and the thoughts that could not find any solutions became even more corroded. There were still 3 hours until the operation began. Banagher felt the transmitter in his hand become heavier as his feet never stopped moving, kicking up the dust on the way.
“Have they made contact? …No, it’s alright. We can leave the mouse alone. That’s a disposable spy, so it’s impossible for him to get that much information.”
The 3pm siren rang. The downtown block would let out an interrupted siren, and the uppertown would have a clear bell chime indicating tea time. This bell was something the man called the superintendent imported from Europe on Earth. Angelo tried to force himself to listen to this annoying sound that entered his ears, and picked up the ivory carved receiver.
“More importantly, the “Unicorn”s transported as planned, right? …Right. Let it remain at an obvious place. That person will definitely find it.”
As expected, there was a doubtful voice from the phone. Angelo turned behind and saw Full Frontal bring the teacup to his lips, and could only exert pressure by saying, “This is the Captain’s orders. Don’t think of anything unnecessary.” And hung up. DING. The antique phone let out a clear crisp sound, mixing into the bell chime that stopped ringing.
“Are your things done, Lieutenant Angelo?”
A somewhat bothersome voice in contrast to the bell chime rang, and Angelo turned his face as he was about to click his tongue. The light rays from the artificial sun shone into the reception room, and the sight of Pepe Meganan’s lightly tan smiling was over there.
The large body that accumulated so much fat had a loose Roman styled robe draped all over him, and his perverted looking face was staring at Angelo. This was his ancestor’s birthplace—a clothing of the Southern tribes on Earth, but to Angelo, whether it was those dazzling gold large rings or the rings that were piled up on the caterpillar-like fingers, these were just some crude class goods. This was really befitting of the owner of this residence, draped in such luxurious clothing and ignoring temperaments. This was how the superintendent of “Palau” was like.
Such Zeonism believers were a laughing stock, but they could not show any signs of disgust to Pepe, who was a sponsor of the “Sleeves”. “Yes, sorry to be rude on the phone!” Angelo answered as courteously as possible and returned back behind Frontal. Are things progressing as planned? Angelo nodded at this suspicious-looking stare through the mask, and cleared his expression as he stared at Pepe. “He’s rather capable for a young man.” The superintendent of “Palau” said with lots of irony.
“With young people like him, I suppose there’s hope for Neo Zeon’s future, right? Captain Full Frontal?”
“We need supporters like you to establish this line, Superintendent Pepe. Or I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“No no. Someone like me is just an opportunistic person with this sudden chance. I’ll be really honored if I can contribute even a little to the revival of Neo Zeon. Besides, we can reclaim the land robbed from us for generations due to the Forced Migration, and end our ancestors’ regrets of living their last days inside the Asteroid Belt.
Pepe continued to chuckle as he gulped down grape wine that were from Burgundy. No matter whether his words were true or not, it was a fact that his ancestors lived their lives developing the Asteroid Belt. He lost his father at an early age due to space radiation, and was forced to spend times of tears with his mother and brothers. Soon after, he became a representative of a labor union that was formed, and while he worked hard to improve the work environment, he skillfully provoked riots and strikes, managing to establish himself amongst the financial world. During the war especially, Pepe had a tight relation with the Pergamino family who invested heavily in ship repairs, and there were rumors that more than half of the quarry resources used for repairs were resold by Pepe through illegal means. Side 6, which maintained a neutral standpoint at that time, had a large number of floating docks, and so, that meant that as the Pergamino Shipping Company treated both Federation and Zeon forces as its customers, Pepe manipulated the organizations within the Asteroid Belt.
After the war, Pergamino retreated, but Pepe continued to remain in touch with Side 6, and offered some power in regards to the political stability on Side 6. In this sense, Pepe was undoubtedly a bureaucrat supporting Neo Zeon’s army, and one could say that he was someone who established himself from the Forced Migration plan, but he was a very ardent supporter. At this point, the passion to improve the work environment in the Asteroid Belt was not like before, and his shameless attitude of sitting on this throne of authority, leeching his labor camp, would remind one of the theory the media talked about, about how ‘the political season was over’. After the One Year War and the two Neo Zeon wars, the celestial space thought of gaining independence gradually became a fading yearning, but there were industrial forces trying to brew this sort of thinking. The fighters who tried soft methods in the past pulled back from the battle, and ended up squeezing out from the grassroots, creating an Earth Celestial Sphere where no one cared about.
To Pepe, the assistance to the “Sleeves” was just a form a investment, and the military understood that he was one of the culprits making things complicated in military affairs. Angelo did not feel that Pepe was someone worthy of being heavily involved in the revival of Neo Zeon, and could not even let down his guard. Pepe said, “But as the person entrusting “Palau”s safety to you, I have a minimum request.” causing Angelo to raise his eyebrows slightly.
“I’ll be especially bothered if you don’t notify me of an incident like what happened to “Industrial 7”. Besides, I have to consider the pride of Side 6.”
“As I had just said, that was not expected. I’m really grateful for your utmost support, Superintendent Pepe, but we can’t notify you regarding all the military matters.”
“I understand. Just notify me about these random stuff like usual. I have no intent of nitpicking the military’s actions.”
Pepe gave a diplomatic tone in response to Frontal’s answer as expected. How much does this man understand regarding the “Laplace Box”? As Angelo thought about this, Pepe’s eyes narrowed slightly, and spoke in a direct and fatal voice.
“Speaking of which, I’m still wondering about Her Highness Mineva’s illness. Has she still not recovered?”
This was an irritating point about this man. Despite living in this life of extreme luxury, he never lost his instincts as an investor. “I’m sorry, but she’ll come and greet you when she has time. I think she’s showing fatigue from having to hide from people for a long time.” Angelo heard Frontal’s machine-like voice as he stared at Pepe. “Is that so? I do visit a family doctor often. Please notify me if the illness persists.” Pepe said while giving a certain look that Mineva herself was not around.
“The revival star of Zeon has to be around. You may have built up this current Neo Zeon army…the army organization “Sleeves” that caused terror in the Federation, but the center of this organization is directed by Her Highness Mineva.”
Pepe lit the cigar in his mouth and slowly stood up. “It’s because of the Zabi’s inheritance that what couldn’t be fulfilled can be fulfilled, and we managed to continue doing things that wouldn’t work till now. But if Her Highness Mineva keeps shying away from people, we may have to reconsider.”
Pepe said these threatening words as he glanced aside at Angelo, who unwittingly clenched his fist. Right in front of him, Frontal answered, “We’ll take note of that.” as he continued to put on a stone cold mask on his face. Pepe’s fat lips tilted slightly, and looked through the wall window, down at the courtyard of his residence.
“Even so, a symbol is still a symbol. What the soldiers are seeing is you, the Second Coming of the Red Comet. You’re the one standing on the frontlines, waving the flag, and the organization’s able to gain the strength of unity and implementing…no, I suppose this is just my business sense at work.”
“It’s the same in the army.”
“That’s right, isn’t it? That’s why this current Neo Zeon army is so strong. However, it’s not easy to see this from the outside. Zeon will never get a real revival if it can’t gain the support of everyone in the Earth Celestial Sphere. I’m a believer in the old Republic army, but the fact is that many foolish people would reject the Zabi name. in that sense, there might be limitations in having Her Highness Mineva as the center of this organization.”
“May I know what are you trying to imply, superintendent?”
“I said it before, didn’t I? I’m just an investor, a businessman. I just feel that if the one I’m investing in has a seed that can sprouting rapidly hidden within, I’ll try to let it bloom even if it’s not of my personal preference…Char Aznable.”
This voice sounded neither like a confession nor a call. Frontal ignored Angelo, who inadvertently looked back, and continued to look forward with an unmoved face.
“Alternatively, Casval Deikun. As the orphaned son of Zeon Deikun, I hope that it’s possible to remove the mask and show up in front of everyone again…I’m not the only one to hope for this.”
Pepe’s back faced the fountain in the yard as he exhaled smoke deeply. So he stated Mineva’s absence as a prelude to this conversation? Angelo understood this and waited for the response of the masked man called “The Second Coming of Char”, whether he would take off the mask and reclaim the throne of Zeon’s revival—after several seconds of silence, Frontal said, “Char Aznable is a man who lost.” and on hearing that, Pepe’s trembling face was reflected on the window.
“And he’s a dead man. The reason why I put on this mask is because I know that death made Char’s name a legend. Thus, I’m just playing a role. I have no interest in whether he’s alive or not.”
“Then, you don’t have any intent to remove that mask in the end, is that right?”
“I don’t feel there’s a need to do so.”
In front of you, that is. Angelo seemed to hear a voice that added on to the meaning to these words. Pepe however curled his lips up without understanding and muttered, “What a pity.”
“Her Highness Mineva would not show up, and a Red Comet who’s just an illusion…looks like I invested in the wrong party, did I?”
“You really like to joke around, superintendent.”
Angelo finally could not hold in his emotions as he interrupted with a sharp voice. Pepe did not show any signs of wavering as he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Pardon my rudeness.”
“My nerves are a little sensitive due to a lack of night. Besides, it seems that it had been rather noisy at the ‘cove’ since last night.
The term ‘backstabbed’ would refer to this situation. This man acutely sniffed out the fleet’s movements as it prepared to defend against the Federation’s ambush. “I do understand…that you’ve been hiding the army’s tactics from me.” Pepe said, and it sounded like sarcasm to Angelo.
“But like I said before, I’m the superintendent of “Palau”, and I have a duty to protect the civilians. Of course, everyone here is mentally prepared for danger, but I do hope we can have definitive proof for this price. What I’m saying is that we can have proof that makes us think it’s worth getting involved.”
Simply put, you’re Char, right? Pepe’s steady and warm stare was met with Frontal’s cool attitude. “We have no intent of getting you involved in this.” The voice that rang sounded as cold as an ice block, raising goosebumps on Angelo.
“We’ll leave this place.”
The tall and big figure clad in crimson red uniform got up as Frontal said this in a monotonous manner. Angelo knew that it was to be expected, but he did not expect it to be mentioned in such a situation as he withstood the wavering look within him. Pepe too looked like it was completely unexpected as he said with an agitated tone, “This…doesn’t sound like a joke you’ll make, Captain.”
“Is that so? This isn’t a joke. I’m here to visit you today to bid farewell to you too.”
Bits of cigar ash dropped from Pepe’s fingertips as his mouth was wide open. Frontal kept his silent smiling face and looked at the “Palau” sky that was behind the window Pepe was standing at.
“…Looks like it’s start.”
His face seemed to show that he caught sight of the enemy’s presence from the other end of the artificial sun, in the space behind the thick layer of rock. The Federation’s attack—is coming earlier than expected. Everything faded away quickly; the decorations that were as luxurious as possible, and Pepe, who was standing there blankly. The rising sense of battle rose within Angelo.
Radar weapons had been viewed as useless ever since the discovery of Minovsky particles, but electronic warfare itself had not vanished. Due to the rampant nature of it, Minovsky particles had to be scattered during every single battle, so the particles that were scattered would rarely cause much damage to the electrical equipment. In other words, electronic weapons were effective equipment, and even at this point, military facilities relied on the warning system that relied on electronics. The Minovsky radar that could detect the range and density the particles were spread had been used for a long time, and basically, sentry watches were unchanged on the battlefield ever since the radar era.
“Palau” here was no exception. The Asteroid had multiple radar stations on the surface, and many RMS-119 “Zack” in the watch zones were acting as Early Warning and Control (EWAC). The siren stations, linked with the radar stations, were equipped with interception missiles, and the defense perimeter was overly strict for a civilian mining asteroid. However, the Federation army never viewed this as a problem during its regular checks. The radar stations were derived from the ones the Federation set up during the One Year War, and the missile were cleared under the name of shooting down the space debris. They could not find any reason to hide the mobile suits equipped with EWAC on the head, but they just needed to hide them in the ‘cove’ during the inspections.
April 12, 15.28. A “Zack” on patrol caught sight of a piece of debris that entered the space region they were guarding. That unit’s pilot quickly went to the scene, and reported to the radar station in charge of this area.
“Lorgnette 3 calling Big Eye. There’s an irregular in the Yap region. Should remain cautious. Sending my coordinates here.”
After the war, the “Eye-Zack” was built with the Federation’s RMS-106 “Hi-Zack” as a base, reinforced as an electronic weapon. It had the silhouette of the main fighting force of the Old Zeon Republic, the “Zaku”. It was possible to say that this line of silhouette was suitable for Neo Zeon’s se, but the dome line that was unified with the head was no less than 10m long, and the machine itself looked like someone wearing a really scary hat. The pilot clumsily drove the light grey machine around the debris in question. This block of rock seemed to have floated over from the colony debris, and the largest piece was about 15m. This small block would not cause much damage even if it crashed into “Palau”, but the army was on standby. The pilot let the “Eye-Zack” raise its machine gun and aimed at the surface of the debris. He set the firing mode to single fire, and his finger was placed on the firing trigger on the ball-shaped joystick, but an allied pilot’s voice came from the wireless communication. (Don’t do that. You’ll just waste your bullets.)
“But…!”
(Or you’ll end up writing a reflection again. Since you reported it, leave it to the alert side.)
The “Geara Zulu” pilot who was the same patrol squad did not have any other opinions. The money used to fire a shot would be enough to pay for one month’s worth of food for a person on Palau. This was the catchphrase of their squad leader, and the subordinates were forced not to use simulated projectiles in training. Even so, he had to bear full responsibility if something happened, so there was nothing less worthwhile than working in the army. The pilot of the “Eye-Zack” left the scene as he left the mission of observing the debris to the statio. There was less than a hundred million chance that the debris might hit the asteroid surface. In that case, they would have to use the intercepting missiles or let the mobile suits defending the facilities shoot to change the trajectory.
However, this block of debris was not on course to crash into “Palau”. The debris was moving on the same course, looking like it was moving rather slowly to “Palau”. The debris was taken off alert after it looked like it would float over the top of the main area, the “Calyx” and into another direction, and the radar station got back to normal. The debris then slowed down, and there was no reason for them to know why there was a heat source awakening within it.
There was a mass driver firing rail poking out from the top of the triangle-shaped “Calyx”, the nose tip of the “Palau” that looked like a beast’s skullcap. The array of rocks slipping through the perimeter net could be seen floating around. The debris slipped through the rocks and ignited a fake balloon that mimicked the color of the rocks. Two “Lotos” appeared from it, and as the balloon disappeared, the machines scattered and quickly mixed in amongst the rocks.
A “Loto” equipped with long cannons on both shoulders stuck itself onto the surface of the “Palau”, and another one with 4 Gatling cannons adjusted its position and created another fake balloon from the multi-purpose silo on its arms. That balloon immediately expanded and formed the exact same shape as the one that surrounded the two machines, and moved off towards the tip of “Palau” with unchanging speeds. The two “Lotos” covered for each other and snuck down onto the rock layer of the “Palau”. They then released several men in normal suits from the infantry transport room behind.
The ECOAS members carried the portable verniers they called the landmovers on their backs and gradually floated in the air. It was hard to distinguish their deep brown normal suits with the rocks as they carried the landmovers equipped with fire extinguishers on their back, not letting out any dust-like presence at all as they glided onto “Palau”s surface. These men passed through the bottom of the alert side’s invigilation window and head towards the connecting shafts linking the “Calyx” and the three “Corollas”. No medium showed this group of men moving beside some dust from the rock layers swaying around, and they climbed onto the bottom of the shafts in less than 30 minutes.
They got past the bottom of the “Gaza D” that acted as a cannon, and split up to many different shafts. The AMX-006 “Gaza D” was a transformable mobile suit that used the mega-particle cannon as part of its body. When transforming, the arms would be folded behind, and the legs that were like a wild bird would support the cannon. 16 ECOAS 729 members started their operation with the “Gaza D” practically transformed into a cannon. Their tasked job was to climb the shafts and plant sticky high-explosive bombs there.
The shafts linking the large asteroids were 30m long in diameter, and the external thickness that surrounded this linear car path was about 1m thick. The largest shaft was about 3km, and if one counted the support pillars outside the quarry factories, there were 10 batches of shafts leading up and down. It was seemingly too tough to blow up these constructs completely, but if they set up a suitable amount of explosives at the crux and set off a chain reaction with maximum damage, all the materials would be blown away by their own weights. Such places included weak areas like shaft connectors, water pipes for cooling and a power generator installation near the exterior. The members climbed up the long and wide exterior of the shafts and got to work setting up the explosives.
The explosives that were used were the plastic explosives SHMX-type that could be used even in near absolute zero temperature, and they could adjust the formation accordingly in order to get the expected outcome of destruction. If they wanted to cut off a point, they would set up a thin rhombus-shaped diamond charge. If they wanted to blow it up, they would use a plate charge that had piercing ability. These methods were all part of the intricate mathematics required in explosiveness and construction engineering, and all the ECOAS members were well trained in them. This group of men was inside the Asteroids that were floating around, carrying out the simple yet dangerous mission only they could do with the hollow of the ‘cove’ the Neo Zeon army was docked at right below their eyes.
Commander Nasri Razal was hiding inside one of the two “Lotos” behind the rocks, the one with long-ranged cannons on both shoulders, and felt that this was a really long moment. The end of the operation was to be 2 hours later, and they could not check on the progress as long as communications were sealed. They had to continue on in this still time until all the members finished their work and came back safely.
“Don’t make a mistake here. Daguza’s watching after all…”
He brought his eyes to the periscope at the driver seat and stared at the green nightvision image. He could see the round cylinders of the debris in the quarry block, but could not see the shafts. He turned the periscope around and turned towards the space where debris was floating at. At that moment, an enemy patrol unit pointed the gun at him, and his heart froze. Since he lost the disguise balloon, there was no hoping for a second time lucky.
I can’t make a mistake here. I have to let my subordinates return. Nasri’s sweaty hands held onto the grip of the periscope as he focused on the surroundings. A mobile suit form “Gaza D” seemed to swap around duties as it silently glided over to “Loto”.
(Everyone, this is the Captain speaking. We’ve confirmed that the advanced ECOAS squad has reached the destination. The operation will now move to the second phase. Mobile suit squad, get ready to launch. I look forward to everyone’s contributions.)
Captain Otto’s voice rang through the mobile suit, and this heroic mood from him was completely different from the usual Uncle Raccoon he was like. The supporting Manhunters seemed to have landed safely on “Palau”. Riddhe put on the helmet of his normal suit and drew the wire gun from his ankles. He aimed for the innermost mobile suit hangar on the starboard and squeezed the trigger.
There was a slim machine silhouette as he was dragged by the wire gun that was rolling back. That was the MSN-001A1 “Delta Plus”. It was a test transformable mobile suit left behind in Anaheim’s warehouse, one that had no definite production standard, and this was the mobile suit Riddhe was newly assigned to. He originally wanted to pilot the “ReZEL” he was already used to, but he had to rely on this mobile suit this one. It was a test mobile suit from out of nowhere, and though there was a chance that the right to pilot it can be transferred to him if he said that he wanted to pilot it, it was lucky that it was handed over to him. Riddhe looked up at the deep grey mobile suit on the hangar, looked around at how the mechanics were looking, took a deep breath, and floated there.
The half-wrecked “ReZEL” unit 008 was moved to the factory block, and Mechanical Officer Gibney and the mechanics of unit 008 were taking care of this “Delta Plus”. “We can’t use any of the “ReZEL”s spare parts. Pull out all the spare equipment from the storage!” Riddhe heard Gibney’s growl as he turned to look at the narrow catwalk behind the hangar. As expected, the mechanics were handing out manuals and looking, not in the mood to be distracted elsewhere. They’re able to get to work now, right…
(Romeo 009 and Juliet 5, launch with the second wave of ECOAS members. Once you get to the standby area, wait for the 3rd phase of the operation to begin. Romeos 008, 010 and 011, launch out as well. Cover the ship directly to prevent unexpected situations.)
Mihiro’s tense voice echoed through the deck. At that moment, the whistling of the hydraulic drive and the metallic parts rumbling could be heard as Riddhe looked at the helicopter leading to the catapult deck. The ECOAS’ transformable mobile suit got up from the flat armored car in its tank form, and was lifted up by an ugly machine. The tank that was at least two sizes smaller than the “ReZEL” crawled over there like a baby learning how to walk, and the machine that left the hangar was the “Jegan” codenamed Juliet 5. This special specs mobile suit had 3 rapid-fire missile launchers on both shoulders, and had a booster unit on the back as an optional unit. It was a heavily armed version dubbed the “Complete Jegan”. The waist and legs were also equipped with additional armor onto its already bulky body. On the other end, the reports of crew leaving the ship caused the wireless communicator to get even noisier, and the linear activation shooting out from the catapult belts shook the air in the hangar slightly. The “ReZEL” Romeo 009, acting as the first to launch, transformed into a waver rider as it left the ship—and it was probably acting as the tank mover that was leaving the ship too.
Juliet 5 and Romeo 009 launched out first as they escorted ECOAS, while the “Delta Plus” and two “ReZELs” were to act as direct cover for the “Nahel Argama”. These were the operation priorities Riddhe and the mobile suits were assigned to in this raid on “Palau” called “Operation Billiard”. It seemed like a strategy formed by quick wits in order to make up for their lack of fighting strength, but if they could move on successfully, they would be able to shut off the counterattack by Neo Zeon. For Riddhe’s ‘side’, this plan had to succeed no matter what. He watched the “Complete Jegan” get moved up the lift, and looked back at the catwalk, seeing a petite figure in normal suit there.
Despite the fact that her helmet visor was pulled down, Riddhe knew that it was ‘her’ from how she did not look like she fitted in. He felt relieved that she managed to make it to this place safely as he randomly raised his hand, making a hand signal to the petite person in normal suit, seemingly remaining still there. He climbed up the hangar platform, and was about to check on what the mechanics were doing, “So you came, the guy who went and returned back.” only to hear a gruff voice shot at him.
Gibney held onto the large spanner in his hand like he was holding onto a metal rod, baring his teeth as he grinned and looked at the ceiling. Did he find out? He suppressed his racing heart as he looked at the platform, only to find that there was no sight of ‘her’, and could only stare at the upper body of the “Delta Plus” standing there silently. Gibney stared at Riddhe who looked like he did not know what was going on, “Look at the shoulders, the shoulders.” and said with a hoarse voice.
The “R008” was spray-painted on the shoulder armor behind the wrists and the booster unit. “They said you’re going to ride on it. This is the codename of glory for the only one from the “Nahel Argama” who wasn’t shot down.” Gibney said as he gave an earnest smile not seen before, waiting for Riddhe’s response. Riddhe did not really have feelings about the machine’s serial number, but he courteously smiled and answered, “Well, to put it, I’m really grateful.” Gibney chuckled heartily and put his arm around Riddhe’s shoulders.
“We did what we can help you with, but the control system is so sensitive is scary. The thruster push isn’t something the “ReZEL” can match. You’ll get hurt if you think it’s just like normal. Be careful.”
“In other words, it’s a ferocious horse?” Riddhe answered as he looked at the catwalk, “That’s how it is.” Gibney ignored this reply as he patted Riddhe on the back. Riddhe stared at the petite figure in the normal suit floating over from the handrail, and none of the mechanics around him noticed—
“Sorry to let you go out there with a machine you’re unfamiliar with.”
“I returned back after a detour out anyway. It’s a miracle that I can launch.”
“You sure can talk, don’t you, brat.” Gibney rubbed the bottom of his nose and turned his extremely grateful expression away from Riddhe. “You barely managed to escape, and yet came back again. You really become an independent man.”
I want to live and die together with this ship… the mechanical officer’s voice sounded like he thoroughly believed Riddhe’s voice. It could not be helped that Riddhe felt hurt by it, but at this point, he could not cancel the plan like this. He moved away from the gentle Gibney and said, “Then, mechanical officer, can I just remain like this before I launch?” before looking over at him.
“Eh?”
“Because I want to have time with my beloved machine.”
He took out the biplane model from the bag on his belt, and Gibney snorted as he showed a wry expression on his face. “At such a moment again? You really like that thing, don’t you?” He tapped Riddhe’s helmet and shouted to his subordinates, “OI!”
“HIS HIGHNESS THE ENSIGN IS GOING INTO ZEN MODE BEFORE LAUNCH. GET ON STANDBY, EVERYONE!”
The demonic NCO yelled out, and the mechanics left the machine. Riddhe used the moment Gibney turned around to give ‘her’ a signal. The petite figure in the normal suit stepped on the head of the Gundam-type mobile suit “Delta Plus” that was without horns, and quickly slid into the cockpit. Riddhe checked that no one else was on board and intended to follow in. But…
“WAIT A SEC!”
Gibney’s roar echoed through the deck, and Riddhe was unable to move his body as his hand was on the cockpit hatch. He looked around in a terrified manner, and met the mechanical officer in the eye as it was unknown when he was looking over.
“Let’s pray for Ensign Riddhe to be successful in battle. Everyone salute!”
On Gibney’s command, the mechanics floating in zero gravity quickly raised their hands to salute. Riddhe saw the passion the mechanics had in their stares from all angles, and he gave a proper salute back to them before sneaking into the cockpit with a heartaching feeling. He finally stared at Gibney’s slightly bloodshot eyes and closed the hatch.
The back of the hatch that was closed became a screen, completing the all-view monitor that had already been activated. Riddhe could not relax even if he wanted to, and wiped off the sweat on his forehead first before calling behind, “No need to worry now. You can take off the helmet.” The person hiding behind the linear seat poked her head out and opened the helmet visor. Mineva Lao Zabi’s white tender face entered Riddhe’s eyes, and he found himself starting to tremble at this point.
It had been more than 6 hours since they finally managed to get back onto the “Nahel Argama”. Riddhe managed to convince the Captain who was guilty for making him write unnecessary letters, and as he was going through the usual procedures in getting back to the mobile suit squad, Mineva was hiding at the bottom of the launch, waiting for the time to go out. Both of them managed to last through the guards’ inspections, but they never had a chance to meet each other after there. In the end, she ended up floating around the ship alone. they already planned a detailed schedule, and he did hand her a path to move along in the ship, but it was nearly a miracle that she managed to reach this place without anyone’s detection. Normally, even if her legs did not weaken, she might had gotten lost on the way, move down a suspicious path, and could have been questioned.
Speaking of which, there was no reason for the two of them to meet at this place not for this level of guts she had. The emerald eyes looked rather calm by the side as Riddhe removed a monitor panel beside the seat and pulled out an assistance seat for training. Mineva took off her helmet and said silently, “Is this alright?”
Gibney and the rest were moving over to their standby areas right in front of their eyes. Riddhe carried the pain that had not subsided in him and shrugged.
“It’s a lie if I say that it’s not a huge problem, but I have no choice. I can’t create a chance for you to leave if I don’t do this.”
“What about Mr Takuya and Miss Micott?”
“Don’t worry. Mihiro will take care of them. The basic plan in this battle is a hit and run, so the chances of the ship being caught in battle aren’t high.”
Riddhe patted the assistance seat as he finished the setup, and added, “Though we need something to be successful.” Mineva sat on it with a complicated expression and gave a probing look over, “You’ll only attack military facilities, right?”
“Logically that should be the case. It seems that there’s a spy from the Intelligence Branch inside “Palau”, so the operation is made knowing where the objects are and the factory schedules. We won’t do anything that will cause the residence block to get damaged.”
After saying that, Riddhe remembered who he was talking to. “You’re concerned after all, aren’t you?” Mineva answered the curious Riddhe with an unhappy face, “The Superintendent of “Palau” is a man is someone who only cares for benefits to himself at all costs.”
“But the residents have no relations to him. I can’t tolerate it if this operation will hurt the residents of “Palau”. Even if I have to rob this mobile suit, I want to go back to tell them.”
Mineva’s eyes looked like she would really this. Riddhe looked away from the pressuring eyes on him and deliberately consciously let out a relaxed voice as he sat on the linear seat, “Don’t show such a scary expression.”
“I’m risking my life here as well. I might even end up facing the firing squad if I mess up here, you know?”
Mineva hid her speechless expression as she remained silent. That expression was like a youth who did not know how to suppress his emotions. He recalled that she was able to say astounding things in the face of adults, and was yet able to show her inner self so directly it was surprising. Riddhe understood that this was an inexplicable girl he was facing, felt a mysterious sensation rising in his chest, and clicked his tongue inside his heart. He looked away from the side of Mineva’s face, and deliberately spoke with a self-defeat tone, “Well, we made it all the way here, so it’s pointless to even worry now. Just help us pray that this good luck will continue.”
“Good luck?”
“Including how we managed to make it all the way here, our luck here also includes the coincidence of how the operation would begin when that place is closest to Earth and this “Delta Plus”. This guy here can break through the atmosphere without any optional parts. I won’t be able to think of such a reckless plan if this machine wasn’t moved here. I don’t know whether the luck is yours or mine, but anyway, we’re very lucky here.”
I’m half-saying this to myself. Riddhe shut his mouth after saying this. Even though they could keep up this momentum and make it all the way to their destination successfully, there was no solid proof that things would develop just as they hoped for. Riddhe too felt repulsed by the fact that he had to rely on the ‘family’ he had hiding from at this point, but there was no other way. They could only proceed on by believing in their own luck. Even if I’ll be slandered as a traitor, I have to fulfill my duty and responsibility as someone present— Riddhe wiped away the sweat that flowed out again and grabbed onto the control stick like he was ready for anything. He checked the energy gain value that was higher than that of the “ReZEL”s, and saw that the attachments were removed. “I understand.” Mineva’s voice rang suddenly.
“I’ll believe. Believe in my luck and your courage.”
She was seated on the assistance seat slightly behind, on the right side of the linear seat, her emerald eyes smiling back at him. As his heart skipped a beat (Romeo 008, please head to the catapult deck.) Mihiro’s voice rang. Riddhe answered “Roger that.” and looked forward. He slowly stepped on the pedal and said briefly, “We’re going. Put on the helmet.” Mineva did not look concerned by how Riddhe was looking away from her unnaturally as she wordlessly put on the helmet.
Riddhe raised the right mechanical arm lightly to bid farewell to Gibney and the rest, and put the personalized shield fastened beside the hangar on the machine’s left hand. He drew the personal beam rifle from the wall’s equipment, and let the machine with its weight increased at that moment move off, leaving the “Nahel Argama”s mobile suit deck he probably would not be returning to. He let the lift carry him onto the catapult deck, and the first catapult that formed the bow of the ship appeared right in front of him. As the shutter opened, the guiding lights on the other end light up the catapult headed into space. At this point, they looked like pyres for those who would never return.
“Once we see that the third phase is successful, I’ll leave the frontlines. As long as the operation is successful, we won’t have to fight against the enemy units. Maybe our units will pursue us, but with this guy’s acceleration, it’s easy to shake them off. Then, we’ll head straight for our destination.”
I’m getting ready to do something stupid. Riddhe suppressed the timidity that was rising up in his mind as he said. “Yes.” Mineva responded.
“Even if it’s the closest point to Earth, it’ll take at least two days to reach Earth. Water and food’s prepared, but you better get ready.”
“I don’t mind. Go ahead.”
Mineva curled herself in this narrow assistance seat for instructions, and showed a look that she was already prepared. Riddhe glanced behind at those widened emerald eyes, thought that she was really beautiful again, and shook his head to look forward at the space in front of him.
We can’t relax here. She’s an important person of Neo Zeon, our enemy. She’s also the crux to this incident, the existence that can stop this chaos. That’s why I decide to save her—to expose the truth of how the Federation intended to bury everything under the table and avenge the souls of those dead men. People might say this is an immature sense of justice, but I’m in a situation where I can do all these. I have something I have to do—didn’t Squad Leader Norm say this? This is the responsibility I’m tasked with for being the sole survivor. This is a duty I have to fulfill as someone present. It has nothing to do with any personal feelings I have for her…
(Romeo 008, catapult equipped. Get ready to launch.)
Mihiro’s broadcast voice rang in Riddhe’s ears, pulling his wavering consciousness. He was about to reply “understood”, only to notice that the wireless communicator was switched to another channel.
(Good luck, Ensign Riddhe. I haven’t forgotten the promise to watch a movie.)
Even though it was through the visor, Mihiro’s eyes on the communication window were giving off a slight heat. Riddhe immediately remembered the positioning of the camera and realized that Mineva was not on her monitor. He felt a bitter sense of betrayal in his mouth as he said vaguely, “Understood.” And stared at the round eyes that were like a small animal.
“…It’ll definitely happen one day.”
Eh? Mineva frowned, but RIddhe did not look at it any further. He held onto the control stick and raised his voice to remove all regret,
“Riddhe Marcenas, Romeo 008. “Delta Plus”. Launching!”
The countdown timer showed zero, and the linear propelled catapult was shot out as the G-force rose out of a sudden, striking his body. The portside catapult that was severely damaged passed by his eyes at that moment, and as the machine was about to reach the end of the runway, the “Delta Plus” shot out flares from its thruster jets and leaped off the catapult. The thick grey machine floated towards the void.
“I’m going to test the transformation. Hang on.”
The capabilities would decide whether the plan would succeed. Riddhe executed the transformation without waiting for Mineva’s reply. The torso popped up, covering the head, the legs that were foldable extended out left and right, and the binders on the back bended by 90 degrees, forming the machine’s wings. The shield that was below the machine became the bow of this streamlined version.
This thing was basically not much different from the “ReZEL” Waverider. However, this machine that managed to complete its transformation within several milliseconds had a volume reminiscent of a fighter jet in the atmosphere, and the visual sharpness was not something the “ReZEL” could match. The main wings on both left and right side were just like a winged machine, and even the side flaps used for flight control had designs on them. Riddhe checked the locations of the two “ReZELs” that left the machine first as he stepped on the pedal lighting. The unexpected amount of G-force struck his body, and the body of the “Nahel Argama” faded away at that moment. A chill struck his body, and his organs felt like they dropped below his navel.
“Amazing…!”
The thrusters still have power. Can I really pilot this overly picky machine? at that moment, Riddhe felt anxious. (008, you’re moving too far in front. Don’t break the defensive formation.) he heard an allied pilot growl, and hurriedly transformed the machine back into the mobile suit form. He cut off the sending signals of the communicator as he looked behind and asked “Are you alright?” The assistance seat had none of the G-force resistance the linear seat had. Mineva was slumped heavily into the assistance seat as she said,
“It’s alright. Don’t mind me.”
Her abdomen looked like it was rising and dropping in a painful manner, Mineva said that with her eyes widened. That fearless voice caused Riddhe to feel the pressure in his chest rising, and he wordlessly looked forward.
There were still no signs of the “Palau” amidst the vacuum as the debris floated around wildly. We should be around the security zone. Are the mobile suits that launched first are okay? Have the ECOAS group hiding in “Palau” finished their job as planned? If any factor gets messed up, our plan will also be doomed. Riddhe shook away the countless factors of failures in his mind as he stared at the digital clock that was set in Greenwich Time. 17.44. The climax of this 3rd phase of “Operation Billiard” is about to begin, and the time left is—
10 minutes later, at 17.54, the last member passed through the hatch, and the door of the “Loto” infantry transport room was closed up.
“Team Omega’s retreat is complete. None of the fireworks were changed.”
The vice commander seated at the front reported. It was 40 seconds earlier than predicted, but there was no time to be relieved over everyone’s safe return as Nasri ordered, “Right, send a signal to the “Nahel Argama”.”
“Once it’s sent, we’ll leave the current location. We’ll then rendezvous with the mobile suit squad on the “Nahel Argama” and cover 920’s entry.”
The pilot at the control seat pulled the joystick down in cadence with the repeated voice. The “Loto” hidden under the shadow of the rocks stood up, and the legs with the caterpillar belts crushed stepped onto the rocky surface. Nasri checked that their allied machine has left, and turned the periscope over to the space where the “Palau” was. He could only see the transport ships coming and going, and could not see any thruster flares that indicated an enemy ship. Space was silent, but they sent out a wireless signal, so it was best to think that it was a matter a time before the enemy discovered them. The time at this point was 17.55, and there were 5 minutes before the main event of “Operation Billiard” began. The long 5 minutes that were hard to endure would match the 2 hours before as it bgan.
“It’s not often that we can see such a show in this Celestial Sphere. Don’t you dare miss, “Nahel Argama”.”
Nasri looked at the shafts linking the Asteroids to each other as he mused in his dry mouth. Several Gaza machines left the surface, causing Nasri to wonder if they were moving because they detected an abnormal electric wave.
“ECOAS 729 called in. The Object Ball has been placed.”
One could tell from Ensign Mihiro’s tense voice that she did not have time to feel relieved over the end of the second phase. Object ball—their positions were set. There was no backing out from this competition. They had to quickly release the cue and let the cue ball hit the gathered targets. “Alright!” Otto let out a voice that echoed through the bridge, and used this momentum to pause his thoughts. He picked up the ship’s phone from the Captain’s seat armrest and pressed on the button to broadcast to the entire ship.
“This is the Captain notifying all hands. We’ll begin the 3rd phase of the operation. At this moment, our ship will rush into enemy space and attack their base with the hyper mega-particle cannon.”
First Officer Liam, who was seated at the console in front together with the cannon operator and the navigation officer, gave a tense glance at Otto. The sensor operator was sitting at the left console, and Ensign Mihiro was on the right. The second communication room was left to Operator Bellard for him to contact ECOAS and pass the information. The often-empty commander’s seat beside the Captain’s seat was occupied by Alberto, and this observer’s unreliable face was all pale, but nobody in the ship had time and will to send him to the safe living quarters for safety. Otto ignored Alberto, who swallowed his saliva hard, and said,
“As everyone knows, we need all the power on the ship to fill the hyper mega-particle cannon. Our ship will now head towards the enemy watchzone at the fastest speed possible, but we’ll have to rely on inertia once we start loading. We won’t be able to turn and adjust ourselves, and the main and side cannons can’t be used. We can only use the ship’s navigation speed to break through the enemy’s perimeter.”
In other words, once they rushed out, they would not be able to stop. They had to barge into the firing zone with such restrained conditions and fire the hyper mega-particle cannon at the target. They had to break through the enemy’s ranks until the ship’s power was regained. Otto heard the sighs of the crew members that amounted to more than a hundred for himself and emphasized, “This is a dangerous gamble.”
“However, the success of this operation will depend on this hit. I hope every crew member can rise up to the challenge.”
He put down the ship’s phone and stared at everyone’s faces on the bridge. It was impossible to see the crew’s expressions as they were covered by the normal suits’ helmets, but Otto felt the weight of the life in each individual body more than ever. He took in the last mouth of breath he could take and finally gave the order, “All hands, check the airlocks.” and closed the visor of his helmet.
“All hands, accelerate defensed. Proceed at high speeds.”
Soon after the command was repeated countless times, the trembling of the machines was amplified, and the ship itself shook with a rattling voice. 10 thruster nozzles let out flares at the same time, and the 400m long giant ship let out an impact from the inside. The “Nahel Argama” was starting to accelerate. Otto held onto the armrests tightly as he stared at the navigation screen in front of him.
The stars that were on the bridge windows did not move. Nothing could prove that the ship was accelerating other than the speedometer, but the G-force striking from the front increased its pressure regularly, causing the sweat under Otto’s armpits to flow towards the back. They started from the ‘safe driving’ of 1km per minute, and gradually accelerated such that it went down to 50 seconds, 40, 30. Once it reached the 30 second mark, the G force on the bodies exceeded 3G, and the skin on the faces were rattling.
The body that had the weight of the normal suit added on felt like a lead block, and he could not lean on the backrest. His arms felt heavy, like they were being pulled down by something, and if he relaxed, it seemed like the force would strike through the armrests fully. Otto continued to stare at the navigation screen as he heard the groans from the opened wireless communicator inside the ship. Soon, they would reach their fastest speed—3km per second as the ship accelerated by the minute.
The ship let out a rattling sound, and the continuous acceleration monitor let out a warning light. The minute space dust hitting it would let out a sandstorm-like sound inside the ship. The G-force on the body exceeded 6G. The “Nahel Argama”, escorted by three machines bore the G-force that was equivalent to that of leaving the atmosphere, and it passed through the shoal space region like a rocket. (We’re about to reach the enemy watchzone.) (Minovsky particles, scattered to battle situation density). Otto heard Liam and the rest let out reports that sounded like groans through the wireless communicator, saw that the value on the acceleration monitor was already what they planned, and shouted with all his strength, “HYPER MEGA-PARTICLE CANNON, READY TO FIRE!”
The vibrations of the engine faded away quickly, and the G-force that were pressing down on the body was weakening. (Coordinates stabilized, designated as the target instructed by the ship) (Engines stopped, proceeding by inertia. Focusing all power to the hyper mega-particle cannon!) (All hands, switch to the backup power). The voices rang and disappeared through the wireless communicator, and the lights in the bridge were switched to the red light of the backup power. This time, an impact from the back struck everyone. As the acceleration ended, the G-force on the bodies became zero, and the bodies that were released from intense pressure bent forward.
The thrusters stopped, and the ship that lost the propelled power flew in space by inertia. The real danger began at this point. The sounds of the ship’s rattling was fading gradually, but the sounds of minute debris was still pinging on the ship’s external armor. The air sac of the normal suits crumpled, and the Otto felt an itchy feeling in his lower body during to blood circulation flowing into his numb parts. He held his breath and stared at the sensor visual.
The navigation path was designed by comparing the latest space maps, but it was possible for the debris flying over to obstruct their way. The effective range of their sensors was reduced to a range of about 20km radius at this point as they had scattered Minovsky Particles. All signs of debris in the way would collide directly into the “Nahel Argama” within milliseconds…
Suddenly, a black shadow grazed past their sights, causing the sweat on Otto’s back to freeze. A small white light flickering outside the window as an allied machine diagonally in front of them—Ensign Riddhe’s “Delta Plus” was telling everyone that it was carrying out adjustments. The irregular debris floating in from the space outside seemed to graze past something not too far away from the ship as it flew behind. (Hii…) Mihiro let out a weak shriek a second later as the debris floated away from the sensor’s range.
(This is too reckless…)
Alberto moaned with his hands covering his head. Who do you think was the cause behind this? Otto suppressed the urge to let out this voice from his throat and his body felt the engine rumble again. (The anti-air Gatling guns can still work, shoot down the irregular rocks!) The sound of the hyper mega-particle cannon gathering power overpowered Liam’s growl as it got louder and louder. The large monster sucked up all the power the “Nahel Argama” generated and rumbled. The 50m long large cannon poking out from the hull of the ship spread the melody of the power generated and gathered through the ship.
17.59. The time schedule was going at a difference of 5 seconds. At this point, they could only leave their luck to Heaven. Otto saw the spot of light on “Palau” on the screen and exerted strength in his hands resting on the armrests. They would shoot the fireworks ECOAS 729 set up at the Pyramid Spot on the rhombus at 18.00. There were 3 seconds left, 2, 1…
0. Universal Century 0096, April 12th, 18.00 sharp.
Not a lot of vehicles were moving through the connecting shafts of “Palau” at this time. The factories had three work shifts through 24 hours, and the job shift for night duty ended 2 hours ago. The people working in the morning shift had returned home, and the people working during the night shift were still in dreamland. Thus, not many linear cars were in operation. As for what would be moving along this long and wide tube-like tunnel, that would be the linear cars without anyone in them, ferrying the mined rocks or trucks sending food and daily necessities. Including them, there were still less than 20 vehicles moving on a shaft.
Suddenly, an intense tremor spread inside the tunnel. The booming noise blew up the highway that was 3km long. The ferrying trucks present hurriedly stepped on the brakes and brought the vehicles to the road shoulders. There was no gravity within the connecting shafts, but the tires’ magnetism on the ground made the vehicles feel no different from a gravity block. Did a meteor strike? The truck driver floated out from the driver seat and intended to land on the ground with his magnetic soles. However, he floated in the air like this, and heard a second explosion.
The magnetism isn’t working. Is it a power outage? He did not even have the time to think as the lights in the tunnel went out and changed to a red light. At the same time, there was a flash expanding right in front of him, and a storm blew through the wide tube. The truck driver was blown away by the wind, and was soon knocked 50m away. His back slammed into the partition shutter that was activated, was knocked unconscious because of this impact, and remained asleep for the next three hours without knowing anything until the firemen arrived at the scene to wake him up once everything ended.
The ‘fireworks’ ECOAS planted were exploded. They timed this moment where traffic flow was at its minimum and blew up the areas near the connecting shafts with SHMX, creating the expected destructive outcome on the connecting shafts. The supersonic explosion winds were compressed into a shockwave, and a fatal fissure was caused by the explosion spread while the generators on the other side of the shafts showed deep cracks. The energy from the explosions multiplied without any wastage, causing the cracks outside the shafts to form breaks. The cracks letting out gas and flames instantly expanded. They expanded to form a round around the 30m diameter shafts, and all 10 of them ended up being severed like they were sliced at the waste.
The unmanned linear car carrying the mined rocks made an emergency stop, and emergency partition walls were lowered before and after the breaks. Fires spurted out from the broken areas, and numerous lights lit the joints of the 4 asteroids. However, it was just a poke of a needle at the stomach of “Palau”. The trajectory of the large asteroids would not change as long as nuclear weapons were not used. Of course, there was no major obstruction to the main part “Calyx”, and even the 3 “Corollas” were not affected. The “Palau” continued to remain floating in the shoal space region just like how it was before the explosion, but all connecting shafts were severed, and the 4 asteroids could be said to be separated from each other—this was the first time in the history of “Palau” that the 4 asteroids were separated from each other, and only managed to maintain the usual “Palau” shape. However, there was no time to check on what happened here as a second incident struck “Palau”.
Two unknown machines entered the watchzone at the same time as the explosion. More accurately, there were 3 machines. A “ReZEL” transformed into its Waverider form, an ECOAS 920 “Loto” riding on the back, and there seemed to be a third heat source sighted on the radar—but there was electronic interference after that, which made further observations impossible. The “Nahel Argama” followed the advance squad and entered the watchzone, scattering Minovsky Particles that caused this interference.
Multiple unknown machines started moving towards “Palau” at the moment there were explosions in many areas. This was undoubtedly an attack, and 4 “Geara Zulus” were launched hurriedly from the military port ‘cove’. They had an “Eye Zack” checking where the enemy was attacking, the mobile suits located at the alert sites left the surface, and the many “Gaza Ds” set a perimeter around the ‘cove’. The defense squad that detected an abnormal electric pulse from “Palau” believed that the enemy had already snuck into their camp. The alert sites lights were moving around, and a “Gaza D” pilot searching “Palau”s surface caught sight of a deep brown machine hiding in a crater.
It had a rock-like color scheme on it, but it could not evade detection under close range. The “Gaza D” pilot detected the “Loto”s heat source and pursued the attack as it transformed. The hook-like hands turned around from the stand it was like, and the body in the shape of a cannon grew a pair of hands. Despite having an arthopod-like silhouette that was dubbed ‘an alien transport’, the mobility “Gaza D” in mobile suit form was not something the “Loto” could match. The “Loto” fired its Gatling cannons on the shoulders wildly, using the weak verniers to move back, and the “Gaza D” pilot charged right over at its enemy.
At that moment, another shot came from another direction, hitting the “Gaza D” directly. The “Gaza D” had no chance of drawing the beam saber from its shoulder binders as it was sliced in half at the waist, and the weak machine frame blew up under the expanding fireball. The other “Loto” fired a 120mm low recoil cannon from behind the rock—and Squad Leader Nasri Razal “Loto” rushed out from the rock after checking that the enemy was shot down, and let its humanoid body with thick Gatling cannons on its shoulders hide in the next hiding spot.
The landscape of “Palau” was saved into their database, and they would not make the simple mistake of letting themselves get caught by the enemy so easily even if it were enemy territory. ECOAS specialty was concealment. Nasri checked that the allied unit acting as bait started to move, and proceeded on to find the next prey. They wanted to use this method to shoot down as many enemies as they could in this manner and support Daguza and his ECOAS 920 squad members in their assault. In order to break into “Palau” and go through lots of effort to save the capture civilian, they had to create a commotion as obvious as possible and gather the enemy’s sights on them. There were only a few seconds until the main event of “Operation Billiards”—the firing of the hyper mega-particle cannon. Nasri saw the large number of enemies rushing out from the ‘cove’ through the periscope, and gave a numb-looking smile on his lips.
There would be an assault after the destruction, and a ring of exploding light indicating that their allied machine was shot down came after. “Palau” descended into sudden chaos, but it would be later that the people in the large round tubes between “Calyx”—the inner walls of the shield machine knew about this. The explosion of the connecting shafts merely sounded like thunder to them from afar, and they could not experience the tremors for themselves. The resident blocks on both sides were about to have the usual sunset, and the only thing ringing dully was the sirens mixed with the winds, indicating an abnormal situation.
In the center Uppertown, Pepe was in his official residence near the governor’s estate, and got on the leather chair the moment he heard the siren. Full Frontal asked to break off ties with him on his side, and to him, who was about to go mad, who was able to negotiate with people in the related worlds, that siren sounded like it was the declaration of destruction. On the other side, in the Downtown area, Tikva kicked over the dining chair and ran out of the house while ignoring his mother’s attempt to stop him.
His father, Marida and the Captain returned to the ship because it was said that there was an emergency order. Banagher too disappeared after he went out. There’s no reason for him to escape— the Captain said so, and Tikva did not feel that the immature prisoner had such courage, but the sound of the siren sounded abnormally heavy, causing his chest to flutter. Quite a few people felt the same too, and they looked up at the artificial sun that disappeared, praying to God that their relatives in the Neo Zeon Army could remain safe.
Banagher did not have this luxury. He walked out from the subway at the military facility ‘cove’, moved through the zero gravity path, and ended up feeling the tremors of the explosion closer than Tikva and the rest.
DUN. A deep noise echoed through the path devoid of anyone else, and the siren could be heard after that. This path that was recorded on the monitor sheet map was a service route that was used by the guards at the excavation fields. It was connected to all the tunnels like a net, and ordinary people would be prohibited from entering this ‘cove’. Banagher compared the area code on the wall with the monitor sheet to see where he was, and had a premonition that caused him to panic in the midst of the aftershock. It was 6pm, the time the ‘receivers’ would arrive—
“It started…”
It was the Federation’s attack. There was no other guesses as Banagher hastened his speed up the liftgrip. He did not head towards the 14th spacegate he was told to head to, but went to the ‘cove’ Neo Zeon fleet base. The attack started, and his plan might be something unnecessary, but he could only continue on. Whether he could succeed or not, there was no other way to bring the residents of “Palau” away from the battlefield. He looked forward while hearing the sirens annoy his nerves like they were prompting him. This was just a premonition that things were beginning, and the hands holding onto the liftgrip were sweating.
Numerous light spots appeared on the asteroid joints, and the flashes merely remained for a moment. The gas left over from the explosions floated to the shadows of the asteroids and could not be observed. The main screen show that “Palau” looked just like usual.
(We’ve sighted an explosion of light at “Palau”s connecting shafts!)
(Hyper mega-particle cannon, loading rate is 120%. Preparations to fire are complete.)
The cannon operator’s voice quickly passed through the wireless communicator right after the sensor operator. Otto got up from the Captain seat and stared at the “Palau” that was optically corrected. There were three fat rock blocks “Carollas” gathered around the bow shaped “Calyx”—and since ECOAS had already cut off all the connecting shafts, those were 4 blocks of rocks sticking to each other through inertia. In that case, the object balls were lined up, and they just needed to use the cue to fire the cue ball and knock down all the target baclls lined up in a rhombus.
We must hit the vital spot in one hit. Otto told himself silently in his heart as he seemingly gathered his courage. But at this moment…
(High heat sources approach! Two of them. Mobile suits.)
The sensor operator’s voice caused Otto’s order to remain stuck at his throat. Why at this moment? He looked at the sensor monitor and stared at the indicated unknown targets. 4 mobile suits were launched from “Palau” and two of them passed through their mobile suit advanced squad and moved close to this point. The “Nahel Argama” itself was moving at a high speed, so both sides were closing in on each other at an alarming rate. The target was right in front of them, and this battleship could not dodge or fire as it approached undefended.
It was a thought that happened in less than a second. (Let the cover intercept…) Otto interrupted Liam’s words that were about to come out “LEAVE THEM ALONE!” and yelled.
“GET OUR ALLIES OUT OF THE WAY! HYPER MEGA-PARTICLE CANNON, BEGIN THE ATTACK!”
To heck with them. Otto ignored Alberto, who was looking over at him in surprise, and slumped himself tightly onto the Captain’s seat. The voices repeating the command rang, and as all their allied mechas were out of the range, (Ready…FIRE!) the cannon operator’s voice rang inside his helmet.
At that moment, the 400m long ship trembled, rocking the bridge. The flash dashed past the window as it went off to the other end, and even the anti-glare filter could not reduce the intensity of this powerful light that covered Otto’s sights.
At its critical stage, the large mega-particle cannon was released from the I-field perimeter; it carried out 8 levels of acceleration and gathering inside the ring, and the particles were fired outs. This scorching beam of light took all the power the “Nahel Argama” had and cut through space, first devouring the two “Geara Zulus” that were closing in on its path.
It was relatively moderate in terms of electrical output, but the mega-particle beam still showed a tendency to expand according to its range and fade off. That was why the “Nahel Argama” rushed into firing range and shot the hyper mega-particle cannon at what could be said to be extremely close range, and the two “Geara Zulus” were right in there, letting the beams rush over in the middle of this distance that was less than 20km away. The enemy units were swallowed by the beam that was as large as them, and one of the “Geara Zulu” that suffered fatality was melted like wax candles in a furnace, while the other mobile suit was 1km away from the beam, but was unable to avoid the shockwave and the scattered particles. That “Geara Zulu”s armor were all ripped off at the same moment the former mobile suit was destroyed, and the shockwave that reached it ripped the frame apart.
As the beam raced out, the other two mobile suits pursuing the “ReZEL” and the “Complete Jegan” suffered similar fates. They took the destructive power of the scattered particles that were as destructive as a normal mega-particle beam from the back, and their devastated machines were blown aside from the shockwave, igniting the core reactor furnaces. The hot fusion energy maintained by the I-field spread out in an explosive manner, the humanoid machines with sleeves decorations on them were broken down into limbs, and the giant beam continued to expand. The beam had these lights decorating the path like flowers, and they were just sparkler firestarters that were meant to be blown up before the beam arrived. The sublight arrow was shot out from the “Nahel Argama” at supersonic speed, causing the tip at the top to hit the “Palau”, scorching the surface of “Carolla A”. This massive energy was enough to rock a small asteroid and cause it to accelerate—the connecting shafts were blown, and the “Corolla A” that was linked to the other asteroids started to leave its fixed orbit as it moved.
And just like how the asteroid was moved over to this point from the Asteroid Belt, the direct hit from the hyper mega-particle cannon brought about a thrust that could match a nuclear pulse engine, causing an asteroid in a corner of “Palau” to be pushed out. This asteroid slammed into “Corolla B”, dragged a mining factory down as it touched the “Calyx” surface. The impact from “A” caused “B” to move and slam into “C”, and after that, it seemed like “B” moved together with “A” to slam into “Calyx”. The “Calyx” bore the brunt of the 3 asteroids mass and motions as it got knocked off course greatly, causing the tip of the bowhead to tilt mightily.
The broken connecting shafts started to bend at the base, and the collisions caused winds to dance on the surface and into space. The result of the hyper mega-particle cannon cue ball hitting the balls caused the 4 asteroids object balls to crash into each other in a chain reaction, causing the a Celestial-scale billiard performance in the shoal space region. From the outside, the 4 tightly packed asteroids might have moved just by a bit, and the “Palau” that was covered in flying dust did not change its shape. However, this was really an earthshaking thing to the people inside. This was definitely a large earthquake that could have caused the skies to crash down. The earthquake caused the two residential blocks in “Calyx” to tumble violently, and there were cracks on the ‘hill’. The dust accumulated within the inner walls flew up, all the houses’ windows were shattered, and the residents were rolling and tumbling around for several meters. Tikva was no exception as he tumbled on the road due to the rumbling, grabbed onto the outer wall that was shaking slightly, and looked up at the sky. The earthquake boomed through the surroundings echoing through the cylinder of this residence block. Did the shield machine digging into the ‘hill’ work on its own? Tikva thought blankly as he stared at this bladed digging tool that was abandoned before he was born and was about to be buried under the oxidized rocks. He vaguely heard the sounds his siblings shrieking and his mother calling his name.
The chandelier came crashing down in the governor’s house, and Pepe hid under the table to avoid danger. The “Palau” residential block was built to take advantage of the hardy ability to withstand the shield machine’s activation, and it was no wonder this governor’s estate that was thoroughly decorated took the greatest damage. Chaos too descended on the excavation field under zero gravity, as there were materials left in the air and baskets hitting the artificial, and pipelines were snapped together with the fissured ground. There was not just one crack on the underground tunnels, and the pale-faced workers were hurriedly trying to escape, but this was not all that could describe the devastated ‘cove’.
Due to the direct hit on the sun, the melted magma-like surface could not fade off easily. The “Corolla A” let out gas as it moved towards the “Calyx”, causing the gap between the asteroids to be show, and the Neo Zeon fleet stationed there lost their exit. The entire military port was sealed inside the ‘cove’ as a result.
The connecting shafts were severed, and several seconds later, another rock blocked the exit, causing the mobile suit squadrons that were mobilized in this emergency to suffer from having to remain there. Several “Geara Zulus” managed to sneak out of the gap before the exit was sealed, but the “Gaza Cs” that followed were crushed by this tectonic plate, letting out explosions of light in the openings. The military port facilities were not exempt from damage either. The rock bits that scattered due to the impact crushed the oil tankers and the dredge ships, and rain of fire and rubble descended on the factories at the base of the craters. The many factories were crushed and devoured by fire, lighting up the large hole that was gradually becoming sealed from time to time. The moored ships started releasing their restrains one by one, casting aside their supplies that were half loaded as they tried to leave the dock, but still could not get back the rock shutter that accelerated over.
A captain of a Salamis-class patrol ship saw the rock plate closing in from the bridge’s window. The crate that was 5km in diameter and 2km caused the military port at the bottom of the crater to burn and fall, and the term ‘landslide’ alone would not be able to explain it thoroughly. It looked like the sky collapsed on them, and the Salamis-class was devoured by debris inside the cave. We won’t make it—it was too late for the Captain to make this decision as the stalactites supporting the roof bit into the ship, and the crater closing in from the bottom raised the ship. In the face of this rock that was the size of an asteroid, the patrol ship did not even have the tolerance of a fly as the keel supporting the hull were snapped, the crushed bridge tumbled onto the deck, and the heat and flash from the core reactor that ignited rose up. Flames rose out from the tightly knitted rock surfaces, creating a border between the two asteroids that had basically become one.
The deep red color could be seen from above the “Delta Plus” despite it being separated from the cloud of dust. The “Corolla A” took a direct high from the hyper mega-particle cannon, and the surface hot surfaces showed lights of ships and mobile suits appearing twice, thrice, lighting the rubble flying all over the place periodically.
“Did it succeed?”
““Palau”s burning…!”
Riddhe and Mineva saw the red burning surfaces from the cockpit afar, and they could not say anything else. The “Nahel Argama” that was headed to the same place was using up all its inertia as it went right at “Palau”, they could only rely on the mobile suit squadron acting as direct cover until the functions were restored and they leave the place. Riddhe’s eyes scanned for enemies and found them coming out for the ‘cove’. I can’t let the battle drag on further. I have to hurry up and hit the enemies that are coming out hard and fast and leave the battlefield as fast as possible—
For a different reason, Daguza too was feeling anxious. He, who was gradually moving closer to “Palau” earlier than the “Nahel Argama”, caught sight of multiple enemies from the periscope, and ordered the pilot to remove direct contact with the “ReZEL” that acted as its transport. He deduced that the “ReZEL” would not be able to fight freely with the “Loto” on the back.
The “Loto” kept the foldable arms on its back and left the “ReZEL”. The “ReZEL” was like a large shark to the “Loto” as it transformed from Waverider form to mobile suit form, releasing the thruster flares. Multiple Gaza-type mobile suits rushed out from “Palau”, and they should be patrol ships outside the ‘cove’ when the collision happened. Daguza could see from the side that their allied “Complete Jegan” fired a beam rifle to hold off the enemy from closing in, and stared at the “Palau” surface that was located behind the flying rubble.
The connection shafts were severed, and the “Corolla A” took a direct hit from the hyper mega particle cannon. The billiard effect caused “B” and “C” to be knocked aside, creating this impression of “Operation Billiard” to seal the enemy fleet inside the ‘cove’. However, this was just a massive mobilization to cause a misdirection. The success of this mission would hang on whether they could break into Palau and snatch the RX-0 and its pilot. ECOAS 729 moved ahead to shoot down enemy units for them, but there were quite a lot of patrol units. There were mobile suits gradually rising out from the gap of the ‘cove’ that could not be sealed off completely. Despite wrecking their base, it was impossible for every ship to be moored. They had to finish the retrieval of the “Unicorn” and Banagher Links before the enemy ships leave the port, detect this and surround the area.
The pink beams suddenly flashed hitting the flying debris and creating an explosion of light. The enemies were firing intercepting shots at them. The “Loto” had no chance of winning with merely anti-air turrets even if they fired here. The pilot quickly dodged and intended to check on the enemy’s location, “Ignore it!” only to be growled at by Daguza.
“Leave it to the covering machine. Where’s the target signal coming from?”
(We can’t detect it. Vice Commander Conroy, who was seated at the front, replied through the wireless communicator. The transmitter Banagher Links’s holding onto can send signals within 20km even with Minovsky particles around. If we can’t detect him, does that mean he hasn’t arrived at the retrieval point inside “Palau”? Or is there some deviation… Daguza could only suppress his worst imaginations as he held onto the grip of the periscope again.
The fact that he was not imprisoned was confirmed by the spy’s report. If he stayed at the space gate retrieval point, he should be able to avoid getting involved in this damage. What is he doing— sweat of uneasiness continued to seep out of Daguza, and he looked at the landscape of “Palau” that occupied his sights. The “Loto” skillfully managed to avoid the rubble flying over, and quickly closed down its distance with “Palau”.
Banagher stared at the ball-point pen drenched in sweat and held it tightly. He had to press the signal switch at the appointed moment. He remembered the words recorded on the monitor sheet and checked his watch. It was 6.07pm, past the designated time.
Since the attack, I can’t achieve anything even if I struggle wildly. Shall I activate this transmitter? Banagher pondered for a while, and again decided not to. It’s easy to pcik me up, but the Federation’s goal is to retrieve the “Laplace Box”. Even if I obey the instructions, the operation won’t end like this. They’ll probably search through “Palau” until they find this mobile suit that is basically the key to opening the “Box”—and will eliminate all obstacles, whether soldiers or civilians.
That’s why you and I can’t stay here. We have to hurry up and leave “Palau”. Banagher looked at a corner of the factory amidst the numerous materials thrown into the air. As the sirens and growls from the mechanics echoed, ‘it’ stood silently as its body remained in the hangar.
He did not know what caused this earth-reversing-like impact. Banagher heard from the soldiers on the way here that it seemed like the asteroids that were linked together crashed into each other. However, he had no time or need to find out the truth. He was lucky to sneak into the military port facility in the midst of the chaos. The target was removed from the ship and placed in this factory block where he could see it after entering. There was no truth more important than this at this moment. Even the transmitter’s issue could be solved once he head outside and activate it.
There’s no other way. Banagher told himself this and gave up on thinking. He hid himself amongst the containers, looked around, and waited for the moment to rush out. Smoke was starting to float in, and the soldiers were busy putting out fires and tending to the injured as they went around the factory as they did not notice him. None of them looked over at the white machine that was standing deep within, and it looked like there was a deliberate unnatural void surrounding ‘it’. There’s less than 50m left, I can get up there without a wire gun. It feels uneasy not to have the normal suit, but there should be a spare inside the cockpit—Banagher had this thought as he secretly made his decision to get up there first before doing anything else.
He took a deep breath, kicked the floor and left his hiding place amongst the containers. Banagher stepped on the floating metal frames like he was stepping on stones while crossing water, and floated up diagonally within the large factory. The “Unicorn Gundam” with its lone horn pointed up did not affirm nor deny its master’s reckless action, and the eyes hidden under the visor were just looking afar.
The “Unicorn”s body that was fastened in the spare hangar was an industrial product whose elegance was said to be distilled, and could be described as an art piece. On one hand, it preserved the strokes and the flat surface of a mass product silhouette, while on the other hand, there armor itself was enhanced through a complicated procedure. The lone horn extending out from the forehead showed a remarkable presence of an art piece, and the mysterious appearance which matched the name was granted on the standing giant.
“This high mobility state…or the Gundam mode, I should call it? When that is activated, a system called the NT-D acts as the OS. As for the Laplace Program, you can imagine it to be activated with the NT-D, and it will reveal some encrypted data in phases.”
The 40-year-old technical officer said as he poked his head out of the abdomen. Why can’t those who’re so called proficient in technical data talk appropriately to each person’s status? Angelo felt unhappy inside as he reached for the raised platform and peered through the dim and opened cockpit hatch.
As the backup power was the only thing activated, the all-view monitor was not activated as it remained in the darkness that felt like it was about to converge everything. The display board on the linear seat let out a light indicating standby, flickering a logo that could be read as “La+”. Ever since it fell into Neo Zeon’s hands, the “Unicorn” kept refusing all external interference and remained silent, and this was the only sign it had been showing. La+—most likely, it was a light indicating the coordinates of the Laplace Box. Angelo felt a chill up his spine, and behind him, Full Frontal spoke, “In phases, you say?”
“In other words, the seal will be undone every time the NT-D is activated, and will show new information. This was activated twice from the pilot was registered. The first time was to let the system get into a standby phase, while the second showed these coordinates, and that’s all. Maybe it’ll show new information the next time it’s activated, and to be honest, I don’t know for sure. However, it’s more natural to assume that there’s still unrevealed information from the percentage of space the Laplace Program occupies the hard disk.”
“You can’t release all the information during this current phase?”
Frontal quipped. The tall masked figure standing on the raised platform stroked his chin, seemingly showing off alone in this unpleasant maintenance factory. The technical officer did not seem to have slept much after 2 days of nonstop work as he investigated the “Unicorn”, and answered, “We can try.” and weakly dropped his shoulders.
“It already took this much time for us to extract the information that was given. If we randomly try to interfere with it, we might end up causing all the data to be erased. I’ll try if you’re willing to do this, but I won’t recommend this. it’ll be advisable to let it reveal itself according to the process.”
“Can’t you remove the pilot’s biological register?”
If we can do that, we can extract the information immediately, and there’ll be no need to control that boy called Banagher. The technical officer glanced aside at Angelo who interrupted with an anxious voice, and continued to tidy up the large number of cables floating around as he turned his back and answered, “There’ll be a risk too.”
“The pilot recognition system is linked to the Laplace Program. When a registered pilot activates the NT-D, the Laplace Program will be able to operate in the next phase. In this sense, we can say that this process is sort of a stepping stone. That’s because a special wave is needed to be detected before the NT-D can be activated.”
“So that’s why it’s called the Newtype-Drive system, is it?”
The technical officer gave a meaningfulness opinion, and Frontal gave a response that seemed to indicate that he understood something. So we can only rely on Banagher Links? Angelo only managed to understand this and lost all interest in this entire incident as he took a step back from the “Unicorn”s cockpit. The technical officer however continued “Yeah. But even so, its design is still rather amazing.” Angelo basically ignored half of his words as he looked over at the wide maintenance factory.
The maintenance factory was located amongst “Palau”, formed by 4 asteroids. The largest block was called “Calyx”. At this place, the “Unicorn” and more than 20 mobile suits could be seen lined up and undergoing repairs and checks. There was a large thick green mobile suit “Geara Zulu” standing 2 hangars away from this point. Beside it was a “Geara Doga” that was part of the Geara models, and the machine that had the sleeve emblem on it had its maintenance hatches opened. The long machine standing right in front of it was the “Gaza”-type that was the main fighting force of Neo Zeon in the past. It was a simple mass-production model that was 10 years old, developed from the remnants of the Old republic, but the machines with a transformable frame was not a poor choice in use, and even at this point, it could be used for scouting or investigations. The Sleeve design that was newly imprinted on it showed ingenuity in that they would not realize their weaknesses by using numbers. In this sense, this feeling described the machines fittingly, and it also brought about a sense of unity despite it being a unit of the “Sleeves”.
He looked up at the top, and saw the lights of the ships parked above the glass window at the ceiling. The silhouette that looked to be only the size of a thumb from this point was probably a patrolling “Musaka”-class ship. The military port of “Palau” was designated at the gap formed where the 4 asteroids were linked together, under the mortar-shaped depressions facing each other. The gaps were all covered by the asteroids facing outside, and it was impossible to see the military port from the outside. They could see the lights of the port from some angles, but it was hard to observe from the outside because of the asteroids linked together, giving a net function. Even though, it was not as concealed as a sturdy fortress. If the fissure at this point could be described as an anchorage, the light would be 5km away from this point on the “Calyx” in diameter, while the deepest part would be about 2km away. The fissure itself was protruding at the tip like an umbrella, and the beauty of the scene observed from below could only be described as majestic. If the connecting shafts could be described as stone pillars, this would be a stalactite cave in space.
Amidst, this large hole, there were 30+ ships docked, and the workboats and mobile suits looked like toys as they were floating through the dock. The randomly assembled remnant organization could be seen basically as a patrol squad, and though there were ships that could not be used as fighting strength, they could assemble enough personnel if they wanted to. If we can unravel this thing called the Laplace system or something and get hold of the “Box”, it’s not impossible for us to wipe out the enemies at one go. But even so Angelo gritted his teeth as he looked up at the head of the “Unicorn”. “I see, we might have to call it a drive, but its nature is a little intense.” Frontal’s tone caused him to hurriedly look forward.
“Yes. Leaving aside what the people who installed this Laplace Program were thinking, this thing itself is a hunting machine. It can be said that these two kinds of paradoxes were combined together. Captain, the ‘madness’ you said you felt from it might come from this.”
“I understand. Cardeas Vist sure left the Laplace Box to an unbelievable monster to tend to.”
Frontal’s lips under the mask curled as he heard the technical officer’s conclusion. I missed something important. Angelo did not even have the time to waver as Frontal called him “Lieutenant Angelo”, causing him to get into a still position.
“As what I commanded before, notifying the entire army and follow the instructions.”
“Yes!”
At this moment, Angelo instinctively stamped, and then reflected on what he heard. The given instructions were the response to the predicted attack. The Federation would come over to “Palau” to battle. He felt his blood boiling, but also realistically remembered that he had to bring over the freeze-dried rose. He stared at the back of the crimson red figure in front of him. Frontal put his hand on the cockpit hand and asked the technical officer, “So where’re the current coordinates pointing to?”
Angelo did not hear the reply of the technical officer who slipped into the cockpit. That might be the coordinate data of the “Box”, so there’s no need for me to hear it. Angelo intended to peek in through the cockpit, only to be taken aback by Frontal’s retreating figure, and could only make a way.
“…I really hope that’s a joke.”
Frontal faced the glow of the blinking “La+” and smiled as he said. At this, Angelo could only frown.
At the same moment, April 12th, 00.25, the supply ship “Alaska” finished the resupply to the Nahel Argama and left the shoal space region as it returned back to the Moon.
The “Alaska” was a support ship under the Columbus class, 145m in length and 110m wide. Its shape could be described as completely rectangular, and though its length was not even two-thirds of the escort Clop-class ships, the ship space it occupied could take up two container block, and its capacity could be said to be sufficient enough to hold a mobile suit squadron. The ship finished its mission, and once passed through a peaceful time as it was commanded to head back under the jurisdiction of the normal Naval Bureau, but at this point, the situation it was involved in was definitely not peaceful.
There were other Clop-classes ships that were escorting it from the moon, and on the way back, the Irish-class sent over from Side 2 joined them. Two Jegan mobile suits were escorting it from the front and back on standby, flickering warning lights. It was expected that there would be escorts when supplying, but this formation was more cautious than even during a battle, and it was a special exception to see more defenses on the way back than it was going forth. The fleet command did not explain much about this, so the crew of the “Alaska” could only feel puzzled by it. However, there were some amongst the cadres who detected that something was up. The fleet command that stated that they found it troublesome to send reinforcements would not just send in escorts on the whim. The issue here was the ‘baggage’ they received from the “Nahel Argama”.
The list of the ‘baggage’ included a pilot who was ordered to return back from the ship and two civilians said to be detained from “Industrial 7”. There was also a prisoner said to be involved with the “Sleeves”, but this person was accompanied with people from the Central Intelligence Branch, and her name and details were not revealed to the “Alaska”s crew at all. Most likely, the issue was regarding ‘her’—the prisoner in this incident was a girl, this eyewitness report was spread throughout the ship through the crew. The excessive number of guards was definitely drafted in to escort ‘her’. This moving of the prisoner was the main mission of the “Alaska”, more important than the resupply to the “Nahel Argama”. This was the truth.
Speaking of which, even if they knew of about this, things would not change. If the Intelligence Branch was involved, it would be suicidal to pursue things. The crew would just treat the rumors as such, and it would be fine if they did not reveal their true thoughts until the end of the mission. Even the Captain, who was sitting on his seat at the center of the bridge as he watched the “Nahel Argama” drift far away, had this thought too. The white ship frame shown on the main monitor lost its entire portside catapult deck, and even the ventral fin at the tail was collapsed. It looked like they needed to be repaired in a factory, but the Senate Council ordered them to carry on their mission, and would not even allow them to send back the injured. This was a secret mission being carried out, but the only thing one could assume from this was that they wanted the entire crew to die together.
“I don’t know what kind of thing they got, but that ship sure drew the worst straw there…”
The Captain, who had a military career of 28 years, and was still working as an honest supply ship captain while most of his graduated peers from military cadet academy had all become outstanding, had no other feelings about it. This was not something he should be involved in. Anyone in an organization, whether it was the military, would often have danger around, and he had to face caves he could not avoid. I just have to hurry back to the Moon and drop the troublesome ‘baggage’. As the Captain thought about this, he turned his eyes to the screen, and the alarm rang, ripping through the stable air flowing within the “Alaska”.
“We got a fire alarm coming from the 4th deck! Investigating it immediately.”
“The incident happened in the second living quarters. The area is filled with smoke.”
The operator immediately shut off the alarm and reported. “What did you say?” The Captain felt his moaning face stiffening as he turned his body to the console on the side of the bridge. The multi-screen monitor that showed the situation inside the bridge was covered in white smoke. The damage control board indicated the location of the report—
“Isn’t that the block where the prisoners are held…?”
The second living quarters located inside the ship’s gravity block was indicated on the damage board of the “Alaska”s cross-sectional view, and that flickering light was definitely there without a doubt. The Captain yelled out before he even thought about the significance, “ACTIVATE THE EMERGENCY STEERING TEAM!”
“PUT OUT THE FIRE. EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM, GO ENSURE THE PRISONER’S SAFETY…!”
“A new fire’s reported! In the first container deck.”
A second red alarm followed the voice of the operator, flickering in a corner of container block. A fire was detected there after there was a fire detected at the prisoner block. The Captain was not suspecting whether it was a bogus report or a coincidence anymore as he remained stunned for a while. “What’s going on…?” He inadvertently mused, but no one answered as the words of the reports and the term emptiness overlapped each other as they went by his mind.
The dome-shaped block that was rotating with the weak gravity generated within the walls required an airlock facility for artificial flow. Under zero gravity, where temperature difference did not exist, the air would not be able to flow easily, and this caused the danger of a vacuum belt in the ship.
The smoke that was created within the gravity block relied on this theory, and it flowed through the ship since the artificial airflow could not be stopped easily, causing the white mist to spread through the entire block. They could have sealed off the partition walls once they evacuated successfully, but the crew, who were all ordinary people, was not agile enough, and 1 minute was already wasted on teaching them the basics countermeasures. The only people who could pull out the Oxygen Breathing Apparatus after detecting this anomaly were most likely the Central Intelligence people who were in charge of watching the prisoner.
The 2 civilians that were also kept within the “Nahel Argama” were left to the crew of the “Alaska” for keeping. The 4 Intelligence Branch officers who were sent over to move the prisoner had already started moving. Two of them were standing in front of the prisoner detention room, while two others went to check on the situation. They did not feel that the enemy’s special agents would be able to sneak into the ship, but it was hard to imagine so many fire outbreaks happening at the same time being a coincidence. Two Intelligence Officers were dressed in suits and OBA masks as they kept their wary stares looking down the smoke-filled passages, pulling out their G-17 recoilless automatic pistols. All countermeasures were allowed, with the priority being that their prisoner was to be kept safe. Their guns were pointed at the floor, but their hands were holding onto the safeties of the G-17, and their expressions were already those of a soldier in battle.
At this moment, the smoke got thicker and thicker, making it harder to ensure their vision. If this was a fire that was deliberately started, the only reason they could think of would be misdirection. We can’t let the prisoner move around so easily, but it would be too late for us to evacuate. The two Intelligence personnel thought, and a person wearing an officer normal suit appeared on the other side of the smoke. He ignored the duo with their handguns raised as he yelled to them while running, “YOU GUYS, IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO WEAR OBAs!” and handed them three normal suits under his armpits.
“Hurry up and put those on. Those inside too.”
That person did not wait for their responses as he reached his hand to the detention door with an electric door. The Intelligence Officers quickly stopped him and said, “We’ll do this.” as they stared at this crew member who seemed to be from the emergency response. The emergency response crew member had the guns pointed at him, but he, who had his helmet pulled down, did not show signs of fear as he roared to the Intelligence Officers with killing intent, “HURRY UP THEN!”
“I’m in charge of fire prevention in this area! It’ll be on me if anyone dies here! Don’t just point that thing around here! Hurry!”
The Intelligence Officers exchanged glances and started putting their feet into their normal suits. One of them continued to remain on watch, while the other put on the helmet nimbly and pulled down the visor. After changing for less than 30 seconds, both of them entered a password only they knew and opened the electronic lock. One of them remained at the door to cover, while the other walked into the detention room.
At this moment, the emergency response member standing beside took action as he touched the Intelligence officer walking into the room by the neck. He pressed the emergency button on the seam of the helmet located at the back of the life support system, causing a status light to flicker. The Intelligence Officer noticed this anomaly and intended to activate the device again, only for the helmet to be filled with a transparent gas.
It was an anesthetic gas used to reduce oxygen consumption to the minimum when floating in space. Of course, this function would not be activated so easily, and it would require many countless procedures before it would be used normally. However, this normal suit that was tinkered with before would release the gas with the press of a button. The Intelligence Officer was knocked out in 2, 3 seconds, and the other person who noticed this anomaly walked into the room. The emergency crew member however responded before the gun was even pointed at him as he slammed the Intelligence Officer, and reached his hand towards the neck of the opponent who rolled onto the floor.
“You bastard…!” The Intelligence Officer groaned as his face relaxed and his body slumped. The emergency crew member pushed aside the sleeping Officer and tried to get up, staring right into the prisoner’s eyes as she stood in a corner of the detention room, dumbfounded. He poked his head outside to check that there was no one else around, and pulled aside his helmet visor.
“Ensign…Riddhe?”
The widened emerald eyes stared at the face deep within the visor. “Put this on.” Riddhe Marcenas simply briefed as he handed over the normal suit be brought along to her.
“We’re getting out of here. Pull down the visor and follow me.”
The prisoner—Mineva Lao Zabi did not say anything unnecessary. Her stared stopped on Riddhe, who was giving a serious look in his eyes, and received the Officer-use normal suit. She heartily took off her purple cape and brought the hefty normal suit onto the slender shoulders with the blouse on without taking too much time. Both of them rushed out of the detention room and passed through the passage with the canister giving off white smoke.
They passed through the gravity block and went to the portside container block, also called the first container deck. It was unknown how many gas canisters Riddhe set up at which locations and it was a layer of thin mist once they passed through the air lock. It was unknown where the smoke came from in the wide space that was 100m long and not less than 30m wide and tall. The piled up containers, preparatory goods and the hanging crane arms from above were all covered with a thin veil. It seemed that new air was being switched in, but they probably could not turn off the air flow. The smoke continued to disperse in from the air ducts, and it looked like the damage was spreading.
“If we don’t know where the fire’s starting from, can’t we just turn off the air flow?”
“We should know where the reported area is from, right? What do you mean that you can’t detect the heat source!?”
Growls echoed all around as the agitated crew members were scurrying around. If the source was a gas canister, they would not be able to pick up the location through a heat signature sensor. Mineva looked down at the chaos from the catwalk railing, and nearly knocked into Riddhe, who suddenly stopped. Riddhe grabbed her hand and pulled her nearly floating body back. He leaned near the communication panel and picked up the microphone on the deck.
“All hands, prepare for vacuum. We’ll now draw away the air on the container deck. Those without normal suits are to evacuate. There’s 30 seconds till the hatch is open.”
The voice that rang throughout the ship’s speakers caused the scattering crew members to stop immediately. The next moment, the black wave of fear started to fill the container deck, and they started moving at a speed several times that of before.
Some leaned towards the lockers with the normal suits inside, some were heading towards the airlock leading to the bridge, leading people in. “Who’s the one making that broadcast? I never heard of such a thing!?” “Hurry up and confirm with the bridge!” The officers’ voices rang as they fought for the. However, these voices would not be able to calm them down. Mineva saw the figures in normal suits rushing around, and stepped on the floor of this passage on Riddhe’s prompting. She grabbed onto Riddhe by the shoulder as he was using the cable gun, and both of them glided past the passage of the container block. They were headed to a space launch on a launching pad. Over there, as the smoke floated around thinly, a green ball-shaped object suddenly appeared from the shadow of the ship, and it rolled its way into Mineva’s sights.
“Haro…?”
She unwittingly called out, and people dressed in normal suits appeared behind it as they waved over. One of them waved over at them, while the other carried Haro and watched their surroundings before hiding inside the launch. Mineva did see that face that was without a helmet on despite her wearing a normal suit. It was Micott Bartsch—so in that case, the one waving over at us would be Takuya Irei, is it? Mineva did not have much time to think as the white frame of the space launch was right in front of them, and Mineva followed Riddhe as she reached for the ceiling.
Both of them used inertia to glide to the launch and grabbed onto the open hatch on the portside. Riddhe slipped into the launch first. “Hurry up” a familiar voice could be heard from behind. Mineva got into the space launch together with what looked Takuya in a normal suit.
This space shuttle had been used by the Federation before the One Year War, and there were 4 laser rocket engines installed on the frame that was less than 10m in length. It had a capacity of 10 people excluding the driver. At this point, Micott was sitting on the passenger seat, and she was looking tense and pale as she stared at the steering seat. She met Mineva in the eyes, and looked away awkwardly as she clinged onto Haro on her knees. Mineva felt a sharp pain at the bottom of her stomach as she passed by Micott and moved towards the steering seat in front. The console lights were already indicated, and Riddhe sat on the seat as he did the checks before take-off.
Mineva sat on the co-pilot seat and fastened herself down with the safety belt. She felt pressured by this atmosphere as she got all the way till here. Are we going to escape using this ship? This doubt that came way too late spread inside her, but she did not have time to speak up. Takuya closed the hatch, panted and grabbed onto the back of the pilot seat. “Is the airlock opened enough?” He asked as he stared at Riddhe’s face, who did not stop moving his hands as he continued the checks and answered.
“This kind of space launch can be used as an escape shuttle, so it’s possible for us to access the deck controls from here…those guys have finished evacuating, right?”
Riddhe’s voice caused Takuya to bring his helmet-covered head to the concave canopy window and checked the container deck filled with white smoke. The alarm showed no signs of stopping, but there were no signs of any crew members on the deck. “Looks like it’s over.” Takuya answered, and Riddhe answered, “Alright, let’s go.” and quickly operated on the console. The ‘Air’ flickered on the deck wall, and the warning lights on the floor started spinning for a few seconds. They could feel the continuous alarm sounds fading away rapidly.
The smoke outside the window immediately vanished, and the partition walls in front gradually opened. The large hatch of the pressure room split aside up and down, and the 4-sided space outside the hatch appeared right in front of them. It was the sound of the ship breaking away from the restraints and leaving, and it seemed that Riddhe and the rest were intending to escape from this ship. Where are they going? Mineva tried to think, but cringed due to the sudden impact.
A hammer-like sound rang twice, thrice as it rocked the ship, causing bright sparks to scatter all over the place, and the windows were jerking. Gunshots. Mineva realized this, and Micott screamed, “THEY’S SHOOTING AT US…!” “Don’t worry, hang on tight!” Riddhe growled. Mineva looked outside the window, and saw two people in normal suits pointing handguns at them as they approached the space launch. Flares popped out from their muzzles, causing sharp impacts to rocked the shuttle.
“We’ll cut the countdown. I’m going to make things rough here. Don’t bite your tongue!”
Riddhe spoke so loudly it was not drowned out by the bullets. Mineva looked back in front and held her breath. The space launch rockets ignited at practically the same time, and the G-force that struck from the front surrounded their bodies. The sight of the container deck instantly disappeared from behind, and the vacuum, where neither the Moon or the Earth could be seen, occupied the windows.
The monitor at the back showed the rectangular supply ship, moving further and further away. The pressure of the acceleration on their organs weakened within several seconds, and Micott’s heaving sound could be heard from behind. “Alright…!” Takuya shouted with a restrained voice, and Haro’s voice rang too “Haro”. Mineva too heaved a sigh of relief, but at this moment—
“It’s not over yet. There’re still mobile suits in the ship.”
Riddhe said with a tense voice that never relaxed, and as a result, Mineva continued to look at the monitor behind. The Federation mobile suits escorting the ships were there, and obviously, this space launch would not be able to beat them. If this heart of the fusion with four limbs floating in vacuum were a fusion core reactor as the heart, the old space launch would be caught be it immediately.
How many seconds passed before the ship grasped the situation and was ordered to pursue us—how much distance can we gain during this time? Mineva and the other three stared at this 5 inch monitor. There was a small light spot the size of a small thumb appearing on the screen with a white trail.
The sensors showed two “RGM-89s” closing in quickly onto the space launcher. They started their pursuit, and they would be caught up in less than 10 seconds. Do you have a plan? Mineva intended to ask this as she glanced at the side of Riddhe’s face, who was looking intently as he focused on piloting. She suddenly felt the ship shaking, and frantically looked in front again.
A small rock flashed by the canopy window, turning the ship slightly with a small impact. The space debris flew in like bullets, faster than the motion sensors that showed many objects, and this showed that the space launch was moving into the shoal space region. The sizes ranged from pebbles to rocks larger than the launch. Though they were moving through the debris, they could not even slow down by one kilometer relatively. The debris field of past colonies continued to close in on them, moving through the body and floated back. They moved by a large rock, and 100m later, the minute debris that were scattered all over the place covered the ship like a sandstorm. Cracking sounds that bullied the armor caused the launch to tremor unstably.
“Wait, are we really alright?”
“I checked the path. If there’s no Minovsky particles scattered, the radar…”
Riddhe answered Micott’s shrieking voice and swallowed what he was about to say. He was wondering what was shining in front, only to find that a material the size of a human was rushing right at them. He immediately tilted the launch greatly, and the safety belt was pressed down on their shoulder muscles. Haro slid out of Micott’s hands and slammed into the wall, and Takuya cried out, “Is it really alright?” “We won’t be able to escape if we just do those cautious things…!” Riddhe answered as he continued to steer. He was already losing focus trying to stare at the settings panel. The sensors would capture the locations of the debris, and he had to use these to find the most suitable escape route. The monitor on the panel showed rectangular blocks entering, all repeating as they formed a 3-dimensional corridor.
The mobile suit pursuers were deliberately slowing down while being wary of the debris, but their speed was still very fast. Both mobile suits used the AMBAC function to dodge around, moving over at a speed the launch could not match. There’s still a little while until the computer calculates the course— Mineva saw that the navigation setting panel showed a bar that stated the progress, and looked back at the pursuers’ positions on the sensors, seeing that they were right in front of them. “Alright. It’s here!” Riddhe then yelled and clenched his sweaty fists.
“LET’S GO! GRIT YOUR TEETH!”
At that moment, the 4 laser rocket engines burst out flares, causing the launch to move forward at maximum speed. The hull let out a rattling sound, and everyone was forced down onto the seat. The path calculated by the computer was a complicated route of twists and turns through the debris, and Mineva and company were basically passengers sitting on a roller coaster as they did not know which side was up or down. As Takuya and Micott screamed out, the launch continued to repeat the complicated maneuvers that tested its limits and entered the shoal space region. The sea of debris floated by messily, and the beam a mobile suit fired raced into the flowing starry space, causing the debris that were hit directly to let out lights of explosions.
The scattered debris spurted out from a parallel level, and what sounded like a large number of pebbles being carried tortured their ears. “It’s just to scare us!” Mineva heard Riddhe’s shout as she looked at the large debris floating over from the front. That was the debris of a mirror that brought sunlight to a colony, and the cracked surface floated in the vacuum together. The launch in automatic mode continued to dodge the fragments floating around as it rushed right at the mirror.
“I’m going to do an emergency brake. There’ll be G-force coming from the back. Get ready.”
He stared at the countdown timer indicated on the navigation setting panel and shouted, 4, 3, 2…ignition . Riddhe’s fist slammed onto the console switch, causing the launch that was headed to the mirror to let out its front exhausts to the maximum. The G-force that struck at that moment rendered Mineva breathless.
Everything that was not held in place were flying to the front of the body, and the safety belts stretched out so much they felt like they were going to snap as they quashed into the body. Mineva spent so much effort preventing her eyeballs from popping out as she did not lift her head. After several seconds that felt like eternity, the launch that braked suddenly stopped its reverse jets—and moved in amongst the debris of the mirror. The ship was moving at a relative velocity completely identical to that of the surrounding debris as it slowly floated in space.
Cough. It was unknown who coughed. The launch was dark inside most probably because the engine lights were shut off. Mineva slowly closed her eyes and stared at the sensor image that was the only thing giving off light. The pursuers’ markers looked like they were puzzled as they scattered aside. This launch rushed into the shoal space region at a reckless speed and slammed into debris…whether this sounds crazy or not, it’s true that they lost sight of us. After what seemed like an exceptionally long time, Riddhe said, “Let’s go.”. Mineva however looked up at the canopy, and could see a pale green machine dragging a trail of thruster jet as it floated through numerous materials.
At this point, no one had the strength to yell out; only sighs of relief could be heard from the gang in this dim launch. Haro, who was bouncing around, finally seemed relaxed as it flapped its ears and asked things like, (Are you alright, Audrey?) This alias that Mineva thought up at the last moment—but was designated onto her during the past few days made her unable to answer as she merely lowered her eyes. Riddhe glanced at her secretly, and spoke up while trying to end things off, “We’ll spend the time here.”
“Once those guys leave, we’ll take action again.”
Riddhe pushed Haro over to Micott, and removed his helmet while looking like he was avoiding Mineva’s stare. He’s really an overly empathetic person. Mineva thought as she asked, “What do you intend to do?”
“We’ll take immediately once we get back onto the Nahel Argama.” Riddhe exchanged looked with Mineva for a while, and continued, “We can still catch up to them at this distance, and once we make contact with them, it’ll be the start of the battle. At that time, the communication channel will be sealed off, so they can’t possible contact the “Alaska”. Logically put, it’s impossible for us to be brought back.”
“And then?”
Mineva did not think that things would improve just by them reaching back onto the Nahel Argama. Does this man knows what fate will befall on him for taking away a troublesome prisoner like me and stole a military resource to escape? She took off her helmet, gave a doubtful look, and was shocked by another voice “We can only do that.”.
It was Micott. She lowered her eyes, not daring to look at anyone, and her hands held Haro onto her knees tightly. The backup power was connected at this time, and a red light appeared inside the launch, revealing Micott’s bitter and depressed expression.
“We saw what we shouldn’t be seeing, whether it’s that Gundam or you, so there’s no reason for us to be allowed back home safely, right?”
“Besides, there were a lot of people who died or were deemed missing in that battle at “Industrial 7”. We might be counted amongst them at all.”
Takuya followed up. They’ll kill people to protect their secrets— Mineva gave a confirming look to Riddhe, who stuttered “Eh, I don’t think things will develop to such an extent so easily…” as he looked up to the canopy.
“But if that were the case, what should we do? Even if we get back onto the Nahel Argama…”
“I already thought of it.”
Riddhe was only able to go straight to the point at this moment as he clenched his hands on the control sticks.
“It’s a risky gamble, but it’s not like it won’t work. According to the report I got before I left the “Nahel Argama”, it seems that their battle will start before afternoon on the 12th. That’ll be the moment when “Palau” is closest to earth.”
Mineva did not understand what she just heard. “Battle? Did you just say “Palau”…Mineva asked back, and Riddhe gave her a look while saying, “I hope you can help me.”
“This isn’t simple. I don’t know whether it will be successful, but as long as I meet you, even my father will…”
Riddhe stopped here and looked outside the canopy again. “Father…your father?” Riddhe said with a forceful tone to block off Mineva’s musing, “It can’t be helped.”
“If this keeps up, everything will be swept under the table. I hope you can entrust your life to me in order to ensure your safety, and these two’s.”
The determined expression on Riddhe’s face as he left the detention room appeared as they landed on Mineva, causing her to look away immediately. No matter what Riddhe was thinking, his expression showed obvious consideration into this decision. She did not feel that she could simply agree to this easily, and as the void of silent time accumulated, Micott’s voice rang in her ears, “This is to save Banagher too.”
“I know this shouldn’t be something I should be saying. But sorry, I have no intention of apologizing to you. Your army was the one that decimated our colony.”
Micott spoke to Mineva, and suddenly looked down as she clasped her hands that were holding onto Haro. Mineva could only watch the face of this girl who looked more frail than anyone else in this launch silently.
“But I want to apologize to Banagher. If I don’t, I…”
The end of her words was vague due to her crying. Micott did not intend to speak up anymore as the silent time descended on the ship again. Riddhe seemed to realize that he was on a path of no return as he gave a determined look; Micott’s lowered angry face was trembling with wet eyes; and Takuya could only glance at Micott, wanting to reach his hand to her shoulder, but could not. Everyone’s feelings filled this launch, making the air inside hot and hard to breathe, and Mineva was forced to look for a place where she could lay her eyes on in the midst of this starry space with countless debris.
What expanded in front of her eyes was merely a frozen darkness, and she could not find anything to look at. However, the feelings of the people gathered here were running towards a certain place, intending to look for another place. Maybe I am look for some place I can run to, just like how I was guided by what warm hand. But to where? Mineva’s could not think properly as she closed her eyes and sighed out hot air. Even if we stay in the darkness, we can’t continue on to the next scenario. We have to start running—
“…This is originally an incomplete weapon. The reason why it wasn’t removed during the large Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) was simply because of budget issues. We did carry out formal regular activation tests, but we never actually fired for once.”
Despite looking tense in front of the Captain, the cannon operator said without hiding his stiff expression. Before Otto could speak up, the gunnery squad leader on standby at the back walked to the front and said,
“Leaving aside the issues regarding the design, I have absolute faith in the maintenance. If you don’t mind just one shot, I’ll show you how it can hit its target with 120% power.
The well-refined looking muscular body remained still as his energetic voice rang through the power room. Stop yapping so much. The cannon operator stared at him with such an expression, not because he was unhappy about how he spoke up while ignoring this officer here, but probably that this gunnery squad leader should not say things he was not confident in. This man’s doubting attitude became a fault, and he had the tendency to focus on failures in his heart. “Yes, we’ll rely on precision in this battle here. I look forward to your performance.” Otto kept his words till this point and just pretended to merely listen to the gunnery squad leader’s reliable words. “Yes!”, the gunnery squad leader raised his hand to salute and turned right to his workplace.
The cannon operator observed his Captain’s expression, and then kicked the floor to return back to his work. The place he was headed to had a standby battery one would mistake for the ship’s main engine, and the gunnery team could be seen carrying out their inspections. The soldiers briskly attached the connecter cables of the backup power source that were so thick they needed to be wrapped around with both arms. In contrast, the cannon operator who was left aside was not that excited. He would occasionally give some instructions, but his volume was never as loud as that of the squad leader. The soldiers were obviously ignoring him as well, “This really can’t do.” First Officer Liam lamented as she observed this same scene.
“It’s good that he’s serious, but he lacks a sense of authority. Such words won’t be able to move officers.”
She stated coldly while her stare under those thick eyelids were looking at the cannon operator. I didn’t expect to have the same view as this troublesome woman I have no relation with. Otto grimaced secretly as he answered, “Well, it’s not unreasonable after all.”
“Probably no one thought that we would need to use this to blow some things up one day.”
The front end of the energy condenser, 10m in diameter and more than 20m in length, had a mega particle generator that was far larger than normal, a beam generator. The mega particles would accelerate through 8 phases, gather inside the ring, and rise through the cannon that was 18m in diameter and monstrously large. If one included the energy, it would be said that this ‘grand cannon’ that was 50m in length could not be held inside the ship as it was too big, and could only be kept right under the 1st catapult deck, sticking out from the Nahel Argama from the hull of the ship. This was of a different class from the 4 main cannons that were designed on the ship. There had been no weapon like this weapon the ship was ferrying, and it was a mega-particle cannon that exceeded common sense—
“In theory, a hyper mega-particle is a weapon that can match the power of a colony laser and can be aimed at a location…but I’ve never seen it being fired for real once, even though I did see footage of it.”
“I’m the same as you as well. I guess the only ones equipped with such monstrously large things are the last generation’s “Argama” and this ship, right? We saw it fail in the end during the Neo Zeon War after all.”
This hyper mega particle cannon that caused the Captain and First Officer to say this in unison was basically a beam weapon that was an enlarged version of an ordinary mega-particle cannon. It was expected that one shot would be enough to bury a large ship, and if they adjusted the firing angle, it was possible to wipe out an entire fleet. This was basically similar to the large-scale mass killing weapon hanging on a colony frame as a cannon, the colony laser hailed as the ultimate cannon weapon. The problem was that the cost effective was worse off, and one hit would use up all the power on the ship.
They had to transfer all the main power in the ship’s main generator to the backup, and in that case, they would not be able to use other mega-particle cannons, and even pilot it. Of course, it did not have a rapid-fire option as the cooldown and reload times were all too long. Thus, there was only one chance of using it in battle. It was useful during the First Neo Zeon war, at the battle of Axis, where they were using it to break through, but it would not be efficient when it was a ship on ship battle. In this phase, the war against Zeonism was in the purging stage, and a targeted attack assumption here was basically zero, so the Federation army naturally never had the reason or ability to mass produce limited resources, and could not transfer this over to the other ships. If the costs for the FRAM was not ideal, this hyper mega-particle cannon would definitely be scrapped and sent to a war museum. It would be more efficient for them to turn the empty space to contain mobile suits, which would increase their fighting strength. That would be the case.
But in this battle, this monster that was behind times would become the crux. It would become the lynchpin in this battle to reclaim the RX-0—or rather, to save the civilian. Otto recalled Daguza’s seemingly ridiculous idea as he stared at the enemy scape, and sighed out all the heavy air from deep within his stomach. Liam reacted fast as she turned her eyes to him, and spoke with a probing voice, “Are you feeling unsatisfied?”
“No, this might be a reckless strategy, but it does make sense. If we want the Nahel Argama to stake on “Palau” alone, there would be no better plan than this. I too hope to save Banagher Links, but if we focus on this too much…”
What could have may never happen. Otto turned to look at Liam, who had this intent in her incomplete words.
“If we want to reclaim the “Unicorn” too, the risks of this operation will increase as such. I’m thinking whether I’m making our crew risk their lives because of some personal feelings, and I’m still wandering about this.”
“In this situation, the only one who can activate the RX-0 is Banagher Links. If we can’t save him together with the RX-0, we can’t consider ourselves as having reclaimed the “Laplace Box”.”
“Though that’s true…”
That’s just trying to talk our way out of it. Basically, there’s no need for us to be at the Senate Council’s whim and risk our lives on this mission to retake the “Laplace Box”. We do have the option to just fight with the motions and escape with our tails behind our back. Otto continued to stare at the gunnery squad soldiers who were focused on their work, and lowered his stare to the floor. Liam did not say anything as she took out a photo from her officer uniform pocket and stealthily handed it over to Otto.
The photo that was covered with a layer of coated sheet had a 15,16 year old boy there. He looked rather handsome, and that naïve looking expression did look rather similar to Liam. Otto tensed up slightly and asked, “Your kid?” Like usual, Liam answered without smiling and said to him, “Yes. He’s going to be 17 this year.”
“My husband died in the battle of Solomon, and my mother’s taking care of him. It has been more than half a year since I last saw him…”
Liam continued, and looked at the photo, quipping, “He’s like my life.“ and kept it back into her pocket. It was hard to imagine hearing this line from this person who acted like a woodblock, and Otto could not help but widen his eyes at his First Officer.
“I don’t really understand politics, but I told my son that momma’s working in the army to carry out justice. I don’t think justice will be in this mysterious “Box”, but it’s another thing trying to save another person. I suppose my son will understand and forgive me even if I can’t return home because of this.”
Liam said this with a serious face and continued, “I suppose the other crew members are the same too, and kept her mouth shut.” That direct attitude of hers and the enigmatic look was something he did not like about his First Officer, but she looked rather affectionate at this point, causing Otto to say “Is that so.” And smile.
People will sometimes end up in tough situations, and when they have nowhere else to rely on, they would rely on existences beside them that were like treasures. Otto thought that there was no need for them to give up their life so easily, and at that moment, a short alarm indicating an emergency meeting rang inside the power room.
(We’ve received an emergency contact from an allied space launch. Captain, First Officer, please head to the Bridge.)
The broadcast that indicated merely the bare minimum caused Liam to change expressions and mutter, “A launch?” It was unexpected to hear an ally contacting them so casualty in this space where there might be enemy ships patrolling. “At this time…!” it was unknown whether the groan came faster as Otto kicked the floor and floated to the power room door. He rushed through the communication shaft of the cannons department and left the hyper mega-particle cannon area at the hull. He returned back inside the ship, and the elevator leading to the bridge was right in front of him.
The elevator door just opened, and Liam entered the bridge at a speed she would never lose to. Otto used his hand to stop Ensign Mihiro who was about to get up, and spoke, “Whose ship is that?”
“Yes. The identification code classified it as a launch from the “Alaska”, but…”
Mihiro put her hand on the headset, and turned her face that grasped this vague situation to the communication console. The monitor was full of noise, and it was impossible to see the person’s face. As Otto frowned, a familiar voice rang through the voice box, (Can you hear me, Ensign Mihiro?), causing the air sucked into his nostrils.
(We don’t have enough thruster fuel here. Please hurry up and allow us to land. Is Uncle Raccoon there!?)
Raccon. This word itself caused everyone on the bridge to look at Otto. Of course, no Captain would be able to remember the voices of more than 200 crew member, but Otto heard this voice before. He coughed to clear the abnormal air here, and said, “Who are you? Are you a crew member of ours?” ignoring Liam as he picked up the microphone on the console.
(To the launch approaching here, this is the Uncle Raccoon of the “Nahel Argama”. Specify the passengers’ ranks and names.)
After an awkward pause for about 2, 3 seconds, (Yes, I’m Ensign Riddhe Marcenas of the Nahel Argama mobile suit squad!) a voice came from the speakers. The face of the “prince” he faced several days ago clearly appeared in his mind, making him speechless. “Ensign Riddhe…?” Liam mused as both of them looked at each other, and Otto turned his unfocused stare to the communication monitor that was full of noise.
(I’m approaching the Nahel Argama with 2 civilians here. Please allow me to board.)
“What’s going on? What happened with the “Alaska”?”
(I didn’t receive any instructions from the “Alaska”, but came to the Nahel Argama on my own.)
The atmosphere inside the bridge suddenly tensed up. Otto quickly held onto the microphone and asked Mihiro, “Can we contact the “Alaska”?”. Mihiro answered, “We can’t. It’s impossible if we don’t leave the shoal space region.” and Otto stared at the launch’s current position on the navigation monitor.
If they believed the information the Senate Council sent over, there would be less than 20,000km direct distance to the area the enemy patrols would be at. Otto stared at the monitor that caught sight of the launch, and made the conclusion that it did so despite knowing the consequences, and spoke into the microphone, “Why did you come back?”
(I’m a pilot of the Nahel Argama. I came back because I want to live and die together with the ship.)
“You should understand that this is against military orders, right?”
(I realized it already. Regarding the two civilians, I considered that it might be dangerous to hand them over to the Senate Council like this, so I brought them along.)
“He said they will be in danger…” Mihiro muttered and stared at Otto. These civilian had already known about classified military secrets, and the Senate Council would not just let them head back home so freely. Otto himself did think of this possibility before, but could not answer for certain, causing him to look away awkwardly. Otto exchanged understanding looks to Liam, and in place of doubtful answer, he simply told her to “Allow them to land.” and handed the microphone over to Mihiro.
Otto deliberately avoided looking at Mihiro’s doubtful look as she took the microphone. “To the approaching launch, our ship will allow you to land. Please match our relative velocity and abide by the deck manager’s instructions to enter from the back.” Mihiro said this, and Otto had his back turned on her as he again looked up at the visual on the sensor screen. No matter whether the “Nahel Argama” survives or not, Ensign Riddhe’s military career will be at an end. He did such a reckless thing…well, I can say that, but no half-baked determination is going to allow him to use such a small launch to shake off the “Alaska”s detection, pass through the shoal space region full of debris and catch up with us. What prompted him to do this? Such a doubt started to appear in Otto’s mind.
If they just wanted to ensure the safety of two civilians, it would be a weird thing to think of escaping to the “Nahel Argama” preparing for battle. From Riddhe’s words of wanting to live and die together with the ship, it’s clear that he knew how dangerous the battle that was about to start was. It was logical of him to contact them when communications were sealed off, and obviously, this was not something thought of at the spur of a moment— The indecisive thoughts started creeping up in him, and as the navigation operator asked, “Is this really alright?” Otto was at a loss of words. Liam stepped forward in place of Otto, and said,
“There’s still less than six hours before the battle. We can’t send them back now anyway. Tell the guards to carry out a thorough check on the launch.”
“Captain.” Liam added on for confirmation, and the navigation operator gave a believing look as he looked back at the console. Just ask the person himself. Otto nodded at Liam, who gave this expression, and looked at the watch.
9.07am. It’s definitely less than 6 hours before the first phase of battle at 15.00. Should we view this as a lucky omen, or…
The activation switch was pressed, and the low buzzing of the power flow shook the exterior of the machine, and the aged motor sound roared as it spun. The conveyor belt soon started operating, and the gears of the crusher could be heard activated it rattled.
“Amazing!” It moved!” Tikva ignored the cheers of the children as he poured the rocks on the cart onto the conveyor belt. The large fist-sizes rocked would first get crushed by the crusher, and then get polished by grease before being washed by a jet stream of water. The minerals would be stuck on the grease, so they would not be washed away by the water, and the remaining rock scraps would be removed easily here. The chosen pieces of minerals would then be set aside and poured into a bag at the end point.
This machine was set up behind Gilboa’s house, in a workshed smaller than a garage, so it was definitely not a large machine. The minerals they could obtain were just a teeny-weeny portion, but to Tikva and the rest, this was an important machine supporting their family income. “How did you do it?” The second son asked with excitement. “The gears had oil stains all over it. I just cleaned them up.” Banagher answered as he covered the maintenance hatch of this sorting machine. He used the towel hanging on his neck to wipe away his sweat, and the 4-year-old daughter pointed at him and laughed, “Your face is all black!”
Banagher touched his face, and noticed at the towel was already stained thoroughly by grease. Gilboa’s wife seemed to chuckle unwittingly as she said, “You helped us a lot.” and handed a new towel over to him.
“It’s a lot easier now. I did ask my husband to repair this before, but he would always be busy doing something during the rare times he come back...Tikva, you have to learn from big brother Banagher here. You have to learn how to repair it on your own even if daddy’s not around.”
“Got it. I saw it and remembered.”
Tikva sat down on a barrel of machine oil and answered with a tantrum. There was no reason for a prisoner to teach him…or rather, it could be said the reason why Tikva threw a tantrum was because that at his age, he would resist those who treated him like a child. Banagher inadvertently gave a smile and switched off the power source for the time being. “I’m telling you, mama used this to sort the rocks that can and can’t be used!” Banagher patted the young daughter who got over to his side and explained, and looked up at the sky through the roof workshed. The light that shone in through the brown clouds was the artificial sun of “Palau” he got used to seeing after the second day.
During the day, most of the men would head out to the excavation field, while the women would focus on choosing the rocks, or make screws or all sorts of things. The proper quarry plant was located outside the “Palau”, and they did everything from refining to molding, so the families’ factory produce as a whole was just a small percentage. The rocks inside the rocks storage of the living quarters—all the rocks dug out when the living block round cylinder, the shield machine was working—would be moved out, and one of the work specifics was to sort out these rocks scraps, and in nature, they were just ‘family handicraft’ where they could only earn so little despite working so hard. The efficiency here was very low compared to the automated system of “Industrial 7” and the machinery here was so old it was reminiscent of the Middle Ages. But the residents of “Palau” had viewed this form of living as a way of life, and spent many days doing so. The reality Banagher himself faced at this point was to kill time by repairing machines.
Marida and Gilboa went out, and the children had to head to school. He was left alone as a prisoner, and had nothing else but time to spend. Banagher went around Gilboa’s house randomly, found this faulty machine, and told himself to repair this on Gilboa’s wife request. He borrowed a set of tools that was said to be left behind since Gilboa’s grandfather’s generation, and wrestled against this installation that could be said to be an antique. It was better than being alone—and even though it was just this level of manual labor, but after hearing the sound of this sorting machine regain its life, and heard the cheers of the children coming back home, Banagher had to admit that he felt a sense of fulfillment he never had before.
No matter who that person was, it was not a bad feeling when someone got thanked by another person. Banagher could feel that he was actually helping someone by doing this, and to him, it was a source of hope that could help him continue to live. Don’t think of any unnecessary things when working. Just focus on the job at hand. What will happen to me after this, and what I’m doing—I don’t have to worry about this. It’s true that I’m running away from reality, but it’s true that I can relax my mind by moving my body and working out some sweat. I never worked seriously on the machines when I studied like an apprentice monk, studying for several hours—or maybe that’s because I’m being relied for something? Banagher recalled Marida’s face inside the cave church, and landed his sights on the grease-stained hand. “Where did you learn such things?” Tikva said, and he lifted up his head.
“From school. Anaheim Electronics Industrial College. That’s a place to learn how to take care of machines.”
“I know Anaheim. It’s a company that produces mobile suits, right? The “Geara Zulu” daddy pilots and the Captain’s “Sinanju” are made by Anaheim.”
Tikva said confidently as he let the toy glider fly. Banagher associated the term ‘Captain’ with the masked man, and asked back, “The “Sinanju”, as in that red mobile suit?”
“Yeah. But the rumors that Neo Zeon stole it were all lies. Anaheim did not want to show that it was helping Neo Zeon, and said that it was stolen.”
“…Oh.”
Banagher had no other way to answer. Tikva did not allow him to reflect on these words, and asked curiously, “Can I go to that school?”
“Of course…you want to?”
“Yes. Neo Zeon will be willing to use me if I’m familiar with machines, right?”
“But if you join the army too, no one can help your mother.”
“Stupid. It’s because I want to help mama that I want to join the army. She herself said that we can’t survive for long just by working in the quarries. Daddy said that he didn’t know when something will happen to him…”
TIkva bit his lips and threw the glider out like he was throwing stones. The anxiety and anger this stubborn child had was thrown out, and the glider could not ride on the wind as it landed right inside the yard. Banagher turned his back around, picked up that toy that resembled the “Homo Avis”, and said, “You’re amazing, Tikva.” as he realized his ignorance. He did not have the right to speak like an adult, but he had no other words to express this form of self-defeat within him.
“But I wonder if things can stop?”
“What can?”
“The war. Whether it’s your dad or Marida, I don’t think they like to fight, right? Both sides got battered, and everyone suffered, so I think it’s about time we should stop.”
“Are you telling us to surrender?” Tikva started to give a disgusted look as he said this. Banagher felt that he said unnecessary things, but continued, “I’m not talking about who wins or lose.”
“What I want to say is whether both sides can back off a little and talk.”
Banagher could not say anything more as he looked at the glider. They had a leader like Mineva who could think, and a soldier like Marida who could control herself. It seemed that such people alone would be able to end the war, but reality kept forcing children like Tikva to consider joining the war, continuing the situation. This could only be described as reality, and Banagher could do nothing but shamefully admit his ignorance. Are these the things Zinnerman wants me to ‘study’? To understand the current situation, and to realize that what I learnt in this current situation is just knowledge; this original ‘knowledge’ is to consider what’s after this and having the power to change the current trend, and this learning is a process to integrate thought elements.
The power to change the present, the possibilities—the unfamiliar memories pulsated in his temples as he stared at Tikva’s face. Tikva gave a somewhat doubtful look back at him, and started shaking the legs reaching down the oil barrel, patting his retreating head as he said,“…I don’t really understand.”
“But without war, daddy and the rest will lose their jobs. More people will be without jobs. I’m wondering if that’s a bother.”
“Now that you say it…”
This time, he really had nothing to say. This was the difference between those involved and those not involved—no, Banagher just felt that his knowledge which had no considerations for others were crushed, and he looked away from Tikva. There wasa saying that knowledge alone would not have power, and this scenario in front of him was a prime example of this. However, his temples kept pulsating, and he in reality could only say child-like words to a child, even though he was merely someone who could not use any useful knowledge…
A sense of shame, and anger, rose up within him. He switched hands to pick up the glider and threw it at Tikva. The glider became a vent of frustration without an exit as it flew above Tikva’s head, over the short wall outside the house, and disappeared.
“You’re bad at it!” Tikva teased. “Sorry, I’ll get it back.” Banagher said and left the workplace. He heard the singing of the daughter as he passed by the outside of the short wall beside Gilboa’s house. The glider with a wing that was about to fall off landed in the midst of a path covered with dust. Banagher was about to pick it up, and detected a shadow moving up to him on the road, darkening his sights.
He looked up, and saw a man he never met before standing there. He had medium build and high, and was wearing dirty work clothes with a hunter’s hat. It was obvious that he was like the quarry workers that were often seen, but in the midst of his drunken red face, there was a sense of tension in his eyes. Banagher inadvertently backed away, and the man spoke, “You’re Banagher Links, right?”, causing him to nod.
“Wait at the 3rd dock of the 14th Space Gate at 6pm. Someone will be there to receive you.”
The deep yet fine voice grazed past his ears as it moved by Banagher, and something was stuffed in his hands. Before he recovered, the man had already turned around the corner of the alley, and he could only vaguely see the fluttering of his shirt. “Erm, excuse me…!” But even with that call, the man never responded, and Banagher looked at what was stuffed into his hand.
Two A4-sied monitor sheets were rolled up. One of them was a 3D visual of the “Palau”, indicating the full view of the location in a grid format. The other was the actual scene of the space gate, and one would think that it was a crude visual recorded secretly, and the red light that probably designated the location was blinking.
Banagher checked that there was no one else around, and stared at the monitor again. As his face approached the monitor, something dropped onto the floor. Banagher picked up that thing which looked like a ball-point pen, but it was a little heavier. Most likely, it was some small transmitter—this instinct caused Banagher’s hairs to stand up, and he could not help but kick the floor.
That man passed through the alley and was about to turn around. Banagher called out to him, “Please wait!” as he tried to catch up with all he had. He grabbed the man, who kept moving, by the shoulder and asked, “What do you mean that someone will come pick me up? Who are you?” The man shrugged his arm off and gave Banagher a sharp expression, saying, “Don’t make too much noise.”
“Follow these instructions if you don’t want to die. This place will become a battlefield immediately.”
Banagher gasped, and this man did not let go of this opportunity as he quickly turned around the corner. Banagher frantically followed him, but did not see the man on the road surrounded by old unit houses on both sides. The man disappeared like a puff of smoke, and the only one there was an old granny with her back arched.
“You say this place will become a battlefield...”
Banagher gripped onto the ball-point pen that felt very heavy, and looked around at the streets that looked rather blurry in the afternoon. The regular sound of the grinder could be heard like a machine gun at this point, and Banagher felt that his feet swaying. Is it the Federation? Is that man an undercover spy or something? Don’t joke around. This is just a pitstop the Neo Zeon Army often use, not some military facility. A spy like this around should know. Why exactly is the Federation here—
As he thought about this, a jolt shot up his spine. It did not matter where the location was. The Federation had been aiming for the “Laplace Box”. They were preparing to take action, just like how it was in “Industrial 7”. They wanted to take back the crux of the Box…the “Unicorn”. They never cared about anything else, and the reason why they sent a spy over to contact him was to ‘take back’ the only pilot who could activate the “Unicorn”. The Federation was about to arrive. The vicious fangs of violence that gnawed “Industrial 7” to bits would strike “Pala”.
The glider slipped out of his hand and silently fell onto the floor. Banagher’s left hand, which was holding onto the monitor sheets, was frozen like stone, and his numb right hand picked up the glider as he started running.
First, he had to meet the man he just saw. He wanted to use that man to contact the Federation to tell them to stop the invasion of “Palau”. He knew that this definitely could not be done, but he could not stop his running as he ran mindlessly through the narrow alleys with the ‘hill’ of oxidized rocks as a reference. He ran down to the subway station through his own memory of the previous day. He passed by a cart full of dirt , and after an umpteenth turn, Banagher’s head nearly knocked into an oncoming person.
The person stepped aside before Banagher stopped. Banagher barely managed to stop himself from falling, and gasped as he faced the person around the corner.
“What is it? Why are you here?”
Marida was not really taken aback as she asked with a clear voice. “Well…” as Banagher was about to speak up, he met Zinnerman, who was behind Marida, right in the eyes, and immediately hid the monitor sheets behind him.
If I explain everything here, they will tell everything to the entire army. The Federation army will be ambushed, and the man just now will be caught. Riddhe, Mihiro, Daguza, the Captain whose name I didn’t manage to remember, the operators, they’re not just fighting units called soldiers, but people with flesh and blood; the faces of the “Nahel Argama” crew members appeared in Banagher’s mind, causing him to shut up. Of course, they might not be the ones approaching. Since they have such damage, and Daguza and Audrey are on board, it’s reasonable to assume that another squad is attacking, but it’s not fine even if it’s like this—
This thought appeared for a short moment, “Banagher?” as Marida frowned and asked, causing him to recover. He reached out the glider in his right hand and pushed it at Marida. “Erm, please return this to Tikva.” and backed away like he was about to trip.
“I’ll be back soon. So then.”
The siren indicating 3pm rang, “Banagher!” and with Marida’s cry behind him, he started sprinting wildly again. What should I do? What can I do? The melody of the siren seeped into his mind that was repeating his musing, and the thoughts that could not find any solutions became even more corroded. There were still 3 hours until the operation began. Banagher felt the transmitter in his hand become heavier as his feet never stopped moving, kicking up the dust on the way.
“Have they made contact? …No, it’s alright. We can leave the mouse alone. That’s a disposable spy, so it’s impossible for him to get that much information.”
The 3pm siren rang. The downtown block would let out an interrupted siren, and the uppertown would have a clear bell chime indicating tea time. This bell was something the man called the superintendent imported from Europe on Earth. Angelo tried to force himself to listen to this annoying sound that entered his ears, and picked up the ivory carved receiver.
“More importantly, the “Unicorn”s transported as planned, right? …Right. Let it remain at an obvious place. That person will definitely find it.”
As expected, there was a doubtful voice from the phone. Angelo turned behind and saw Full Frontal bring the teacup to his lips, and could only exert pressure by saying, “This is the Captain’s orders. Don’t think of anything unnecessary.” And hung up. DING. The antique phone let out a clear crisp sound, mixing into the bell chime that stopped ringing.
“Are your things done, Lieutenant Angelo?”
A somewhat bothersome voice in contrast to the bell chime rang, and Angelo turned his face as he was about to click his tongue. The light rays from the artificial sun shone into the reception room, and the sight of Pepe Meganan’s lightly tan smiling was over there.
The large body that accumulated so much fat had a loose Roman styled robe draped all over him, and his perverted looking face was staring at Angelo. This was his ancestor’s birthplace—a clothing of the Southern tribes on Earth, but to Angelo, whether it was those dazzling gold large rings or the rings that were piled up on the caterpillar-like fingers, these were just some crude class goods. This was really befitting of the owner of this residence, draped in such luxurious clothing and ignoring temperaments. This was how the superintendent of “Palau” was like.
Such Zeonism believers were a laughing stock, but they could not show any signs of disgust to Pepe, who was a sponsor of the “Sleeves”. “Yes, sorry to be rude on the phone!” Angelo answered as courteously as possible and returned back behind Frontal. Are things progressing as planned? Angelo nodded at this suspicious-looking stare through the mask, and cleared his expression as he stared at Pepe. “He’s rather capable for a young man.” The superintendent of “Palau” said with lots of irony.
“With young people like him, I suppose there’s hope for Neo Zeon’s future, right? Captain Full Frontal?”
“We need supporters like you to establish this line, Superintendent Pepe. Or I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“No no. Someone like me is just an opportunistic person with this sudden chance. I’ll be really honored if I can contribute even a little to the revival of Neo Zeon. Besides, we can reclaim the land robbed from us for generations due to the Forced Migration, and end our ancestors’ regrets of living their last days inside the Asteroid Belt.
Pepe continued to chuckle as he gulped down grape wine that were from Burgundy. No matter whether his words were true or not, it was a fact that his ancestors lived their lives developing the Asteroid Belt. He lost his father at an early age due to space radiation, and was forced to spend times of tears with his mother and brothers. Soon after, he became a representative of a labor union that was formed, and while he worked hard to improve the work environment, he skillfully provoked riots and strikes, managing to establish himself amongst the financial world. During the war especially, Pepe had a tight relation with the Pergamino family who invested heavily in ship repairs, and there were rumors that more than half of the quarry resources used for repairs were resold by Pepe through illegal means. Side 6, which maintained a neutral standpoint at that time, had a large number of floating docks, and so, that meant that as the Pergamino Shipping Company treated both Federation and Zeon forces as its customers, Pepe manipulated the organizations within the Asteroid Belt.
After the war, Pergamino retreated, but Pepe continued to remain in touch with Side 6, and offered some power in regards to the political stability on Side 6. In this sense, Pepe was undoubtedly a bureaucrat supporting Neo Zeon’s army, and one could say that he was someone who established himself from the Forced Migration plan, but he was a very ardent supporter. At this point, the passion to improve the work environment in the Asteroid Belt was not like before, and his shameless attitude of sitting on this throne of authority, leeching his labor camp, would remind one of the theory the media talked about, about how ‘the political season was over’. After the One Year War and the two Neo Zeon wars, the celestial space thought of gaining independence gradually became a fading yearning, but there were industrial forces trying to brew this sort of thinking. The fighters who tried soft methods in the past pulled back from the battle, and ended up squeezing out from the grassroots, creating an Earth Celestial Sphere where no one cared about.
To Pepe, the assistance to the “Sleeves” was just a form a investment, and the military understood that he was one of the culprits making things complicated in military affairs. Angelo did not feel that Pepe was someone worthy of being heavily involved in the revival of Neo Zeon, and could not even let down his guard. Pepe said, “But as the person entrusting “Palau”s safety to you, I have a minimum request.” causing Angelo to raise his eyebrows slightly.
“I’ll be especially bothered if you don’t notify me of an incident like what happened to “Industrial 7”. Besides, I have to consider the pride of Side 6.”
“As I had just said, that was not expected. I’m really grateful for your utmost support, Superintendent Pepe, but we can’t notify you regarding all the military matters.”
“I understand. Just notify me about these random stuff like usual. I have no intent of nitpicking the military’s actions.”
Pepe gave a diplomatic tone in response to Frontal’s answer as expected. How much does this man understand regarding the “Laplace Box”? As Angelo thought about this, Pepe’s eyes narrowed slightly, and spoke in a direct and fatal voice.
“Speaking of which, I’m still wondering about Her Highness Mineva’s illness. Has she still not recovered?”
This was an irritating point about this man. Despite living in this life of extreme luxury, he never lost his instincts as an investor. “I’m sorry, but she’ll come and greet you when she has time. I think she’s showing fatigue from having to hide from people for a long time.” Angelo heard Frontal’s machine-like voice as he stared at Pepe. “Is that so? I do visit a family doctor often. Please notify me if the illness persists.” Pepe said while giving a certain look that Mineva herself was not around.
“The revival star of Zeon has to be around. You may have built up this current Neo Zeon army…the army organization “Sleeves” that caused terror in the Federation, but the center of this organization is directed by Her Highness Mineva.”
Pepe lit the cigar in his mouth and slowly stood up. “It’s because of the Zabi’s inheritance that what couldn’t be fulfilled can be fulfilled, and we managed to continue doing things that wouldn’t work till now. But if Her Highness Mineva keeps shying away from people, we may have to reconsider.”
Pepe said these threatening words as he glanced aside at Angelo, who unwittingly clenched his fist. Right in front of him, Frontal answered, “We’ll take note of that.” as he continued to put on a stone cold mask on his face. Pepe’s fat lips tilted slightly, and looked through the wall window, down at the courtyard of his residence.
“Even so, a symbol is still a symbol. What the soldiers are seeing is you, the Second Coming of the Red Comet. You’re the one standing on the frontlines, waving the flag, and the organization’s able to gain the strength of unity and implementing…no, I suppose this is just my business sense at work.”
“It’s the same in the army.”
“That’s right, isn’t it? That’s why this current Neo Zeon army is so strong. However, it’s not easy to see this from the outside. Zeon will never get a real revival if it can’t gain the support of everyone in the Earth Celestial Sphere. I’m a believer in the old Republic army, but the fact is that many foolish people would reject the Zabi name. in that sense, there might be limitations in having Her Highness Mineva as the center of this organization.”
“May I know what are you trying to imply, superintendent?”
“I said it before, didn’t I? I’m just an investor, a businessman. I just feel that if the one I’m investing in has a seed that can sprouting rapidly hidden within, I’ll try to let it bloom even if it’s not of my personal preference…Char Aznable.”
This voice sounded neither like a confession nor a call. Frontal ignored Angelo, who inadvertently looked back, and continued to look forward with an unmoved face.
“Alternatively, Casval Deikun. As the orphaned son of Zeon Deikun, I hope that it’s possible to remove the mask and show up in front of everyone again…I’m not the only one to hope for this.”
Pepe’s back faced the fountain in the yard as he exhaled smoke deeply. So he stated Mineva’s absence as a prelude to this conversation? Angelo understood this and waited for the response of the masked man called “The Second Coming of Char”, whether he would take off the mask and reclaim the throne of Zeon’s revival—after several seconds of silence, Frontal said, “Char Aznable is a man who lost.” and on hearing that, Pepe’s trembling face was reflected on the window.
“And he’s a dead man. The reason why I put on this mask is because I know that death made Char’s name a legend. Thus, I’m just playing a role. I have no interest in whether he’s alive or not.”
“Then, you don’t have any intent to remove that mask in the end, is that right?”
“I don’t feel there’s a need to do so.”
In front of you, that is. Angelo seemed to hear a voice that added on to the meaning to these words. Pepe however curled his lips up without understanding and muttered, “What a pity.”
“Her Highness Mineva would not show up, and a Red Comet who’s just an illusion…looks like I invested in the wrong party, did I?”
“You really like to joke around, superintendent.”
Angelo finally could not hold in his emotions as he interrupted with a sharp voice. Pepe did not show any signs of wavering as he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Pardon my rudeness.”
“My nerves are a little sensitive due to a lack of night. Besides, it seems that it had been rather noisy at the ‘cove’ since last night.
The term ‘backstabbed’ would refer to this situation. This man acutely sniffed out the fleet’s movements as it prepared to defend against the Federation’s ambush. “I do understand…that you’ve been hiding the army’s tactics from me.” Pepe said, and it sounded like sarcasm to Angelo.
“But like I said before, I’m the superintendent of “Palau”, and I have a duty to protect the civilians. Of course, everyone here is mentally prepared for danger, but I do hope we can have definitive proof for this price. What I’m saying is that we can have proof that makes us think it’s worth getting involved.”
Simply put, you’re Char, right? Pepe’s steady and warm stare was met with Frontal’s cool attitude. “We have no intent of getting you involved in this.” The voice that rang sounded as cold as an ice block, raising goosebumps on Angelo.
“We’ll leave this place.”
The tall and big figure clad in crimson red uniform got up as Frontal said this in a monotonous manner. Angelo knew that it was to be expected, but he did not expect it to be mentioned in such a situation as he withstood the wavering look within him. Pepe too looked like it was completely unexpected as he said with an agitated tone, “This…doesn’t sound like a joke you’ll make, Captain.”
“Is that so? This isn’t a joke. I’m here to visit you today to bid farewell to you too.”
Bits of cigar ash dropped from Pepe’s fingertips as his mouth was wide open. Frontal kept his silent smiling face and looked at the “Palau” sky that was behind the window Pepe was standing at.
“…Looks like it’s start.”
His face seemed to show that he caught sight of the enemy’s presence from the other end of the artificial sun, in the space behind the thick layer of rock. The Federation’s attack—is coming earlier than expected. Everything faded away quickly; the decorations that were as luxurious as possible, and Pepe, who was standing there blankly. The rising sense of battle rose within Angelo.
Radar weapons had been viewed as useless ever since the discovery of Minovsky particles, but electronic warfare itself had not vanished. Due to the rampant nature of it, Minovsky particles had to be scattered during every single battle, so the particles that were scattered would rarely cause much damage to the electrical equipment. In other words, electronic weapons were effective equipment, and even at this point, military facilities relied on the warning system that relied on electronics. The Minovsky radar that could detect the range and density the particles were spread had been used for a long time, and basically, sentry watches were unchanged on the battlefield ever since the radar era.
“Palau” here was no exception. The Asteroid had multiple radar stations on the surface, and many RMS-119 “Zack” in the watch zones were acting as Early Warning and Control (EWAC). The siren stations, linked with the radar stations, were equipped with interception missiles, and the defense perimeter was overly strict for a civilian mining asteroid. However, the Federation army never viewed this as a problem during its regular checks. The radar stations were derived from the ones the Federation set up during the One Year War, and the missile were cleared under the name of shooting down the space debris. They could not find any reason to hide the mobile suits equipped with EWAC on the head, but they just needed to hide them in the ‘cove’ during the inspections.
April 12, 15.28. A “Zack” on patrol caught sight of a piece of debris that entered the space region they were guarding. That unit’s pilot quickly went to the scene, and reported to the radar station in charge of this area.
“Lorgnette 3 calling Big Eye. There’s an irregular in the Yap region. Should remain cautious. Sending my coordinates here.”
After the war, the “Eye-Zack” was built with the Federation’s RMS-106 “Hi-Zack” as a base, reinforced as an electronic weapon. It had the silhouette of the main fighting force of the Old Zeon Republic, the “Zaku”. It was possible to say that this line of silhouette was suitable for Neo Zeon’s se, but the dome line that was unified with the head was no less than 10m long, and the machine itself looked like someone wearing a really scary hat. The pilot clumsily drove the light grey machine around the debris in question. This block of rock seemed to have floated over from the colony debris, and the largest piece was about 15m. This small block would not cause much damage even if it crashed into “Palau”, but the army was on standby. The pilot let the “Eye-Zack” raise its machine gun and aimed at the surface of the debris. He set the firing mode to single fire, and his finger was placed on the firing trigger on the ball-shaped joystick, but an allied pilot’s voice came from the wireless communication. (Don’t do that. You’ll just waste your bullets.)
“But…!”
(Or you’ll end up writing a reflection again. Since you reported it, leave it to the alert side.)
The “Geara Zulu” pilot who was the same patrol squad did not have any other opinions. The money used to fire a shot would be enough to pay for one month’s worth of food for a person on Palau. This was the catchphrase of their squad leader, and the subordinates were forced not to use simulated projectiles in training. Even so, he had to bear full responsibility if something happened, so there was nothing less worthwhile than working in the army. The pilot of the “Eye-Zack” left the scene as he left the mission of observing the debris to the statio. There was less than a hundred million chance that the debris might hit the asteroid surface. In that case, they would have to use the intercepting missiles or let the mobile suits defending the facilities shoot to change the trajectory.
However, this block of debris was not on course to crash into “Palau”. The debris was moving on the same course, looking like it was moving rather slowly to “Palau”. The debris was taken off alert after it looked like it would float over the top of the main area, the “Calyx” and into another direction, and the radar station got back to normal. The debris then slowed down, and there was no reason for them to know why there was a heat source awakening within it.
There was a mass driver firing rail poking out from the top of the triangle-shaped “Calyx”, the nose tip of the “Palau” that looked like a beast’s skullcap. The array of rocks slipping through the perimeter net could be seen floating around. The debris slipped through the rocks and ignited a fake balloon that mimicked the color of the rocks. Two “Lotos” appeared from it, and as the balloon disappeared, the machines scattered and quickly mixed in amongst the rocks.
A “Loto” equipped with long cannons on both shoulders stuck itself onto the surface of the “Palau”, and another one with 4 Gatling cannons adjusted its position and created another fake balloon from the multi-purpose silo on its arms. That balloon immediately expanded and formed the exact same shape as the one that surrounded the two machines, and moved off towards the tip of “Palau” with unchanging speeds. The two “Lotos” covered for each other and snuck down onto the rock layer of the “Palau”. They then released several men in normal suits from the infantry transport room behind.
The ECOAS members carried the portable verniers they called the landmovers on their backs and gradually floated in the air. It was hard to distinguish their deep brown normal suits with the rocks as they carried the landmovers equipped with fire extinguishers on their back, not letting out any dust-like presence at all as they glided onto “Palau”s surface. These men passed through the bottom of the alert side’s invigilation window and head towards the connecting shafts linking the “Calyx” and the three “Corollas”. No medium showed this group of men moving beside some dust from the rock layers swaying around, and they climbed onto the bottom of the shafts in less than 30 minutes.
They got past the bottom of the “Gaza D” that acted as a cannon, and split up to many different shafts. The AMX-006 “Gaza D” was a transformable mobile suit that used the mega-particle cannon as part of its body. When transforming, the arms would be folded behind, and the legs that were like a wild bird would support the cannon. 16 ECOAS 729 members started their operation with the “Gaza D” practically transformed into a cannon. Their tasked job was to climb the shafts and plant sticky high-explosive bombs there.
The shafts linking the large asteroids were 30m long in diameter, and the external thickness that surrounded this linear car path was about 1m thick. The largest shaft was about 3km, and if one counted the support pillars outside the quarry factories, there were 10 batches of shafts leading up and down. It was seemingly too tough to blow up these constructs completely, but if they set up a suitable amount of explosives at the crux and set off a chain reaction with maximum damage, all the materials would be blown away by their own weights. Such places included weak areas like shaft connectors, water pipes for cooling and a power generator installation near the exterior. The members climbed up the long and wide exterior of the shafts and got to work setting up the explosives.
The explosives that were used were the plastic explosives SHMX-type that could be used even in near absolute zero temperature, and they could adjust the formation accordingly in order to get the expected outcome of destruction. If they wanted to cut off a point, they would set up a thin rhombus-shaped diamond charge. If they wanted to blow it up, they would use a plate charge that had piercing ability. These methods were all part of the intricate mathematics required in explosiveness and construction engineering, and all the ECOAS members were well trained in them. This group of men was inside the Asteroids that were floating around, carrying out the simple yet dangerous mission only they could do with the hollow of the ‘cove’ the Neo Zeon army was docked at right below their eyes.
Commander Nasri Razal was hiding inside one of the two “Lotos” behind the rocks, the one with long-ranged cannons on both shoulders, and felt that this was a really long moment. The end of the operation was to be 2 hours later, and they could not check on the progress as long as communications were sealed. They had to continue on in this still time until all the members finished their work and came back safely.
“Don’t make a mistake here. Daguza’s watching after all…”
He brought his eyes to the periscope at the driver seat and stared at the green nightvision image. He could see the round cylinders of the debris in the quarry block, but could not see the shafts. He turned the periscope around and turned towards the space where debris was floating at. At that moment, an enemy patrol unit pointed the gun at him, and his heart froze. Since he lost the disguise balloon, there was no hoping for a second time lucky.
I can’t make a mistake here. I have to let my subordinates return. Nasri’s sweaty hands held onto the grip of the periscope as he focused on the surroundings. A mobile suit form “Gaza D” seemed to swap around duties as it silently glided over to “Loto”.
(Everyone, this is the Captain speaking. We’ve confirmed that the advanced ECOAS squad has reached the destination. The operation will now move to the second phase. Mobile suit squad, get ready to launch. I look forward to everyone’s contributions.)
Captain Otto’s voice rang through the mobile suit, and this heroic mood from him was completely different from the usual Uncle Raccoon he was like. The supporting Manhunters seemed to have landed safely on “Palau”. Riddhe put on the helmet of his normal suit and drew the wire gun from his ankles. He aimed for the innermost mobile suit hangar on the starboard and squeezed the trigger.
There was a slim machine silhouette as he was dragged by the wire gun that was rolling back. That was the MSN-001A1 “Delta Plus”. It was a test transformable mobile suit left behind in Anaheim’s warehouse, one that had no definite production standard, and this was the mobile suit Riddhe was newly assigned to. He originally wanted to pilot the “ReZEL” he was already used to, but he had to rely on this mobile suit this one. It was a test mobile suit from out of nowhere, and though there was a chance that the right to pilot it can be transferred to him if he said that he wanted to pilot it, it was lucky that it was handed over to him. Riddhe looked up at the deep grey mobile suit on the hangar, looked around at how the mechanics were looking, took a deep breath, and floated there.
The half-wrecked “ReZEL” unit 008 was moved to the factory block, and Mechanical Officer Gibney and the mechanics of unit 008 were taking care of this “Delta Plus”. “We can’t use any of the “ReZEL”s spare parts. Pull out all the spare equipment from the storage!” Riddhe heard Gibney’s growl as he turned to look at the narrow catwalk behind the hangar. As expected, the mechanics were handing out manuals and looking, not in the mood to be distracted elsewhere. They’re able to get to work now, right…
(Romeo 009 and Juliet 5, launch with the second wave of ECOAS members. Once you get to the standby area, wait for the 3rd phase of the operation to begin. Romeos 008, 010 and 011, launch out as well. Cover the ship directly to prevent unexpected situations.)
Mihiro’s tense voice echoed through the deck. At that moment, the whistling of the hydraulic drive and the metallic parts rumbling could be heard as Riddhe looked at the helicopter leading to the catapult deck. The ECOAS’ transformable mobile suit got up from the flat armored car in its tank form, and was lifted up by an ugly machine. The tank that was at least two sizes smaller than the “ReZEL” crawled over there like a baby learning how to walk, and the machine that left the hangar was the “Jegan” codenamed Juliet 5. This special specs mobile suit had 3 rapid-fire missile launchers on both shoulders, and had a booster unit on the back as an optional unit. It was a heavily armed version dubbed the “Complete Jegan”. The waist and legs were also equipped with additional armor onto its already bulky body. On the other end, the reports of crew leaving the ship caused the wireless communicator to get even noisier, and the linear activation shooting out from the catapult belts shook the air in the hangar slightly. The “ReZEL” Romeo 009, acting as the first to launch, transformed into a waver rider as it left the ship—and it was probably acting as the tank mover that was leaving the ship too.
Juliet 5 and Romeo 009 launched out first as they escorted ECOAS, while the “Delta Plus” and two “ReZELs” were to act as direct cover for the “Nahel Argama”. These were the operation priorities Riddhe and the mobile suits were assigned to in this raid on “Palau” called “Operation Billiard”. It seemed like a strategy formed by quick wits in order to make up for their lack of fighting strength, but if they could move on successfully, they would be able to shut off the counterattack by Neo Zeon. For Riddhe’s ‘side’, this plan had to succeed no matter what. He watched the “Complete Jegan” get moved up the lift, and looked back at the catwalk, seeing a petite figure in normal suit there.
Despite the fact that her helmet visor was pulled down, Riddhe knew that it was ‘her’ from how she did not look like she fitted in. He felt relieved that she managed to make it to this place safely as he randomly raised his hand, making a hand signal to the petite person in normal suit, seemingly remaining still there. He climbed up the hangar platform, and was about to check on what the mechanics were doing, “So you came, the guy who went and returned back.” only to hear a gruff voice shot at him.
Gibney held onto the large spanner in his hand like he was holding onto a metal rod, baring his teeth as he grinned and looked at the ceiling. Did he find out? He suppressed his racing heart as he looked at the platform, only to find that there was no sight of ‘her’, and could only stare at the upper body of the “Delta Plus” standing there silently. Gibney stared at Riddhe who looked like he did not know what was going on, “Look at the shoulders, the shoulders.” and said with a hoarse voice.
The “R008” was spray-painted on the shoulder armor behind the wrists and the booster unit. “They said you’re going to ride on it. This is the codename of glory for the only one from the “Nahel Argama” who wasn’t shot down.” Gibney said as he gave an earnest smile not seen before, waiting for Riddhe’s response. Riddhe did not really have feelings about the machine’s serial number, but he courteously smiled and answered, “Well, to put it, I’m really grateful.” Gibney chuckled heartily and put his arm around Riddhe’s shoulders.
“We did what we can help you with, but the control system is so sensitive is scary. The thruster push isn’t something the “ReZEL” can match. You’ll get hurt if you think it’s just like normal. Be careful.”
“In other words, it’s a ferocious horse?” Riddhe answered as he looked at the catwalk, “That’s how it is.” Gibney ignored this reply as he patted Riddhe on the back. Riddhe stared at the petite figure in the normal suit floating over from the handrail, and none of the mechanics around him noticed—
“Sorry to let you go out there with a machine you’re unfamiliar with.”
“I returned back after a detour out anyway. It’s a miracle that I can launch.”
“You sure can talk, don’t you, brat.” Gibney rubbed the bottom of his nose and turned his extremely grateful expression away from Riddhe. “You barely managed to escape, and yet came back again. You really become an independent man.”
I want to live and die together with this ship… the mechanical officer’s voice sounded like he thoroughly believed Riddhe’s voice. It could not be helped that Riddhe felt hurt by it, but at this point, he could not cancel the plan like this. He moved away from the gentle Gibney and said, “Then, mechanical officer, can I just remain like this before I launch?” before looking over at him.
“Eh?”
“Because I want to have time with my beloved machine.”
He took out the biplane model from the bag on his belt, and Gibney snorted as he showed a wry expression on his face. “At such a moment again? You really like that thing, don’t you?” He tapped Riddhe’s helmet and shouted to his subordinates, “OI!”
“HIS HIGHNESS THE ENSIGN IS GOING INTO ZEN MODE BEFORE LAUNCH. GET ON STANDBY, EVERYONE!”
The demonic NCO yelled out, and the mechanics left the machine. Riddhe used the moment Gibney turned around to give ‘her’ a signal. The petite figure in the normal suit stepped on the head of the Gundam-type mobile suit “Delta Plus” that was without horns, and quickly slid into the cockpit. Riddhe checked that no one else was on board and intended to follow in. But…
“WAIT A SEC!”
Gibney’s roar echoed through the deck, and Riddhe was unable to move his body as his hand was on the cockpit hatch. He looked around in a terrified manner, and met the mechanical officer in the eye as it was unknown when he was looking over.
“Let’s pray for Ensign Riddhe to be successful in battle. Everyone salute!”
On Gibney’s command, the mechanics floating in zero gravity quickly raised their hands to salute. Riddhe saw the passion the mechanics had in their stares from all angles, and he gave a proper salute back to them before sneaking into the cockpit with a heartaching feeling. He finally stared at Gibney’s slightly bloodshot eyes and closed the hatch.
The back of the hatch that was closed became a screen, completing the all-view monitor that had already been activated. Riddhe could not relax even if he wanted to, and wiped off the sweat on his forehead first before calling behind, “No need to worry now. You can take off the helmet.” The person hiding behind the linear seat poked her head out and opened the helmet visor. Mineva Lao Zabi’s white tender face entered Riddhe’s eyes, and he found himself starting to tremble at this point.
It had been more than 6 hours since they finally managed to get back onto the “Nahel Argama”. Riddhe managed to convince the Captain who was guilty for making him write unnecessary letters, and as he was going through the usual procedures in getting back to the mobile suit squad, Mineva was hiding at the bottom of the launch, waiting for the time to go out. Both of them managed to last through the guards’ inspections, but they never had a chance to meet each other after there. In the end, she ended up floating around the ship alone. they already planned a detailed schedule, and he did hand her a path to move along in the ship, but it was nearly a miracle that she managed to reach this place without anyone’s detection. Normally, even if her legs did not weaken, she might had gotten lost on the way, move down a suspicious path, and could have been questioned.
Speaking of which, there was no reason for the two of them to meet at this place not for this level of guts she had. The emerald eyes looked rather calm by the side as Riddhe removed a monitor panel beside the seat and pulled out an assistance seat for training. Mineva took off her helmet and said silently, “Is this alright?”
Gibney and the rest were moving over to their standby areas right in front of their eyes. Riddhe carried the pain that had not subsided in him and shrugged.
“It’s a lie if I say that it’s not a huge problem, but I have no choice. I can’t create a chance for you to leave if I don’t do this.”
“What about Mr Takuya and Miss Micott?”
“Don’t worry. Mihiro will take care of them. The basic plan in this battle is a hit and run, so the chances of the ship being caught in battle aren’t high.”
Riddhe patted the assistance seat as he finished the setup, and added, “Though we need something to be successful.” Mineva sat on it with a complicated expression and gave a probing look over, “You’ll only attack military facilities, right?”
“Logically that should be the case. It seems that there’s a spy from the Intelligence Branch inside “Palau”, so the operation is made knowing where the objects are and the factory schedules. We won’t do anything that will cause the residence block to get damaged.”
After saying that, Riddhe remembered who he was talking to. “You’re concerned after all, aren’t you?” Mineva answered the curious Riddhe with an unhappy face, “The Superintendent of “Palau” is a man is someone who only cares for benefits to himself at all costs.”
“But the residents have no relations to him. I can’t tolerate it if this operation will hurt the residents of “Palau”. Even if I have to rob this mobile suit, I want to go back to tell them.”
Mineva’s eyes looked like she would really this. Riddhe looked away from the pressuring eyes on him and deliberately consciously let out a relaxed voice as he sat on the linear seat, “Don’t show such a scary expression.”
“I’m risking my life here as well. I might even end up facing the firing squad if I mess up here, you know?”
Mineva hid her speechless expression as she remained silent. That expression was like a youth who did not know how to suppress his emotions. He recalled that she was able to say astounding things in the face of adults, and was yet able to show her inner self so directly it was surprising. Riddhe understood that this was an inexplicable girl he was facing, felt a mysterious sensation rising in his chest, and clicked his tongue inside his heart. He looked away from the side of Mineva’s face, and deliberately spoke with a self-defeat tone, “Well, we made it all the way here, so it’s pointless to even worry now. Just help us pray that this good luck will continue.”
“Good luck?”
“Including how we managed to make it all the way here, our luck here also includes the coincidence of how the operation would begin when that place is closest to Earth and this “Delta Plus”. This guy here can break through the atmosphere without any optional parts. I won’t be able to think of such a reckless plan if this machine wasn’t moved here. I don’t know whether the luck is yours or mine, but anyway, we’re very lucky here.”
I’m half-saying this to myself. Riddhe shut his mouth after saying this. Even though they could keep up this momentum and make it all the way to their destination successfully, there was no solid proof that things would develop just as they hoped for. Riddhe too felt repulsed by the fact that he had to rely on the ‘family’ he had hiding from at this point, but there was no other way. They could only proceed on by believing in their own luck. Even if I’ll be slandered as a traitor, I have to fulfill my duty and responsibility as someone present— Riddhe wiped away the sweat that flowed out again and grabbed onto the control stick like he was ready for anything. He checked the energy gain value that was higher than that of the “ReZEL”s, and saw that the attachments were removed. “I understand.” Mineva’s voice rang suddenly.
“I’ll believe. Believe in my luck and your courage.”
She was seated on the assistance seat slightly behind, on the right side of the linear seat, her emerald eyes smiling back at him. As his heart skipped a beat (Romeo 008, please head to the catapult deck.) Mihiro’s voice rang. Riddhe answered “Roger that.” and looked forward. He slowly stepped on the pedal and said briefly, “We’re going. Put on the helmet.” Mineva did not look concerned by how Riddhe was looking away from her unnaturally as she wordlessly put on the helmet.
Riddhe raised the right mechanical arm lightly to bid farewell to Gibney and the rest, and put the personalized shield fastened beside the hangar on the machine’s left hand. He drew the personal beam rifle from the wall’s equipment, and let the machine with its weight increased at that moment move off, leaving the “Nahel Argama”s mobile suit deck he probably would not be returning to. He let the lift carry him onto the catapult deck, and the first catapult that formed the bow of the ship appeared right in front of him. As the shutter opened, the guiding lights on the other end light up the catapult headed into space. At this point, they looked like pyres for those who would never return.
“Once we see that the third phase is successful, I’ll leave the frontlines. As long as the operation is successful, we won’t have to fight against the enemy units. Maybe our units will pursue us, but with this guy’s acceleration, it’s easy to shake them off. Then, we’ll head straight for our destination.”
I’m getting ready to do something stupid. Riddhe suppressed the timidity that was rising up in his mind as he said. “Yes.” Mineva responded.
“Even if it’s the closest point to Earth, it’ll take at least two days to reach Earth. Water and food’s prepared, but you better get ready.”
“I don’t mind. Go ahead.”
Mineva curled herself in this narrow assistance seat for instructions, and showed a look that she was already prepared. Riddhe glanced behind at those widened emerald eyes, thought that she was really beautiful again, and shook his head to look forward at the space in front of him.
We can’t relax here. She’s an important person of Neo Zeon, our enemy. She’s also the crux to this incident, the existence that can stop this chaos. That’s why I decide to save her—to expose the truth of how the Federation intended to bury everything under the table and avenge the souls of those dead men. People might say this is an immature sense of justice, but I’m in a situation where I can do all these. I have something I have to do—didn’t Squad Leader Norm say this? This is the responsibility I’m tasked with for being the sole survivor. This is a duty I have to fulfill as someone present. It has nothing to do with any personal feelings I have for her…
(Romeo 008, catapult equipped. Get ready to launch.)
Mihiro’s broadcast voice rang in Riddhe’s ears, pulling his wavering consciousness. He was about to reply “understood”, only to notice that the wireless communicator was switched to another channel.
(Good luck, Ensign Riddhe. I haven’t forgotten the promise to watch a movie.)
Even though it was through the visor, Mihiro’s eyes on the communication window were giving off a slight heat. Riddhe immediately remembered the positioning of the camera and realized that Mineva was not on her monitor. He felt a bitter sense of betrayal in his mouth as he said vaguely, “Understood.” And stared at the round eyes that were like a small animal.
“…It’ll definitely happen one day.”
Eh? Mineva frowned, but RIddhe did not look at it any further. He held onto the control stick and raised his voice to remove all regret,
“Riddhe Marcenas, Romeo 008. “Delta Plus”. Launching!”
The countdown timer showed zero, and the linear propelled catapult was shot out as the G-force rose out of a sudden, striking his body. The portside catapult that was severely damaged passed by his eyes at that moment, and as the machine was about to reach the end of the runway, the “Delta Plus” shot out flares from its thruster jets and leaped off the catapult. The thick grey machine floated towards the void.
“I’m going to test the transformation. Hang on.”
The capabilities would decide whether the plan would succeed. Riddhe executed the transformation without waiting for Mineva’s reply. The torso popped up, covering the head, the legs that were foldable extended out left and right, and the binders on the back bended by 90 degrees, forming the machine’s wings. The shield that was below the machine became the bow of this streamlined version.
This thing was basically not much different from the “ReZEL” Waverider. However, this machine that managed to complete its transformation within several milliseconds had a volume reminiscent of a fighter jet in the atmosphere, and the visual sharpness was not something the “ReZEL” could match. The main wings on both left and right side were just like a winged machine, and even the side flaps used for flight control had designs on them. Riddhe checked the locations of the two “ReZELs” that left the machine first as he stepped on the pedal lighting. The unexpected amount of G-force struck his body, and the body of the “Nahel Argama” faded away at that moment. A chill struck his body, and his organs felt like they dropped below his navel.
“Amazing…!”
The thrusters still have power. Can I really pilot this overly picky machine? at that moment, Riddhe felt anxious. (008, you’re moving too far in front. Don’t break the defensive formation.) he heard an allied pilot growl, and hurriedly transformed the machine back into the mobile suit form. He cut off the sending signals of the communicator as he looked behind and asked “Are you alright?” The assistance seat had none of the G-force resistance the linear seat had. Mineva was slumped heavily into the assistance seat as she said,
“It’s alright. Don’t mind me.”
Her abdomen looked like it was rising and dropping in a painful manner, Mineva said that with her eyes widened. That fearless voice caused Riddhe to feel the pressure in his chest rising, and he wordlessly looked forward.
There were still no signs of the “Palau” amidst the vacuum as the debris floated around wildly. We should be around the security zone. Are the mobile suits that launched first are okay? Have the ECOAS group hiding in “Palau” finished their job as planned? If any factor gets messed up, our plan will also be doomed. Riddhe shook away the countless factors of failures in his mind as he stared at the digital clock that was set in Greenwich Time. 17.44. The climax of this 3rd phase of “Operation Billiard” is about to begin, and the time left is—
10 minutes later, at 17.54, the last member passed through the hatch, and the door of the “Loto” infantry transport room was closed up.
“Team Omega’s retreat is complete. None of the fireworks were changed.”
The vice commander seated at the front reported. It was 40 seconds earlier than predicted, but there was no time to be relieved over everyone’s safe return as Nasri ordered, “Right, send a signal to the “Nahel Argama”.”
“Once it’s sent, we’ll leave the current location. We’ll then rendezvous with the mobile suit squad on the “Nahel Argama” and cover 920’s entry.”
The pilot at the control seat pulled the joystick down in cadence with the repeated voice. The “Loto” hidden under the shadow of the rocks stood up, and the legs with the caterpillar belts crushed stepped onto the rocky surface. Nasri checked that their allied machine has left, and turned the periscope over to the space where the “Palau” was. He could only see the transport ships coming and going, and could not see any thruster flares that indicated an enemy ship. Space was silent, but they sent out a wireless signal, so it was best to think that it was a matter a time before the enemy discovered them. The time at this point was 17.55, and there were 5 minutes before the main event of “Operation Billiard” began. The long 5 minutes that were hard to endure would match the 2 hours before as it bgan.
“It’s not often that we can see such a show in this Celestial Sphere. Don’t you dare miss, “Nahel Argama”.”
Nasri looked at the shafts linking the Asteroids to each other as he mused in his dry mouth. Several Gaza machines left the surface, causing Nasri to wonder if they were moving because they detected an abnormal electric wave.
“ECOAS 729 called in. The Object Ball has been placed.”
One could tell from Ensign Mihiro’s tense voice that she did not have time to feel relieved over the end of the second phase. Object ball—their positions were set. There was no backing out from this competition. They had to quickly release the cue and let the cue ball hit the gathered targets. “Alright!” Otto let out a voice that echoed through the bridge, and used this momentum to pause his thoughts. He picked up the ship’s phone from the Captain’s seat armrest and pressed on the button to broadcast to the entire ship.
“This is the Captain notifying all hands. We’ll begin the 3rd phase of the operation. At this moment, our ship will rush into enemy space and attack their base with the hyper mega-particle cannon.”
First Officer Liam, who was seated at the console in front together with the cannon operator and the navigation officer, gave a tense glance at Otto. The sensor operator was sitting at the left console, and Ensign Mihiro was on the right. The second communication room was left to Operator Bellard for him to contact ECOAS and pass the information. The often-empty commander’s seat beside the Captain’s seat was occupied by Alberto, and this observer’s unreliable face was all pale, but nobody in the ship had time and will to send him to the safe living quarters for safety. Otto ignored Alberto, who swallowed his saliva hard, and said,
“As everyone knows, we need all the power on the ship to fill the hyper mega-particle cannon. Our ship will now head towards the enemy watchzone at the fastest speed possible, but we’ll have to rely on inertia once we start loading. We won’t be able to turn and adjust ourselves, and the main and side cannons can’t be used. We can only use the ship’s navigation speed to break through the enemy’s perimeter.”
In other words, once they rushed out, they would not be able to stop. They had to barge into the firing zone with such restrained conditions and fire the hyper mega-particle cannon at the target. They had to break through the enemy’s ranks until the ship’s power was regained. Otto heard the sighs of the crew members that amounted to more than a hundred for himself and emphasized, “This is a dangerous gamble.”
“However, the success of this operation will depend on this hit. I hope every crew member can rise up to the challenge.”
He put down the ship’s phone and stared at everyone’s faces on the bridge. It was impossible to see the crew’s expressions as they were covered by the normal suits’ helmets, but Otto felt the weight of the life in each individual body more than ever. He took in the last mouth of breath he could take and finally gave the order, “All hands, check the airlocks.” and closed the visor of his helmet.
“All hands, accelerate defensed. Proceed at high speeds.”
Soon after the command was repeated countless times, the trembling of the machines was amplified, and the ship itself shook with a rattling voice. 10 thruster nozzles let out flares at the same time, and the 400m long giant ship let out an impact from the inside. The “Nahel Argama” was starting to accelerate. Otto held onto the armrests tightly as he stared at the navigation screen in front of him.
The stars that were on the bridge windows did not move. Nothing could prove that the ship was accelerating other than the speedometer, but the G-force striking from the front increased its pressure regularly, causing the sweat under Otto’s armpits to flow towards the back. They started from the ‘safe driving’ of 1km per minute, and gradually accelerated such that it went down to 50 seconds, 40, 30. Once it reached the 30 second mark, the G force on the bodies exceeded 3G, and the skin on the faces were rattling.
The body that had the weight of the normal suit added on felt like a lead block, and he could not lean on the backrest. His arms felt heavy, like they were being pulled down by something, and if he relaxed, it seemed like the force would strike through the armrests fully. Otto continued to stare at the navigation screen as he heard the groans from the opened wireless communicator inside the ship. Soon, they would reach their fastest speed—3km per second as the ship accelerated by the minute.
The ship let out a rattling sound, and the continuous acceleration monitor let out a warning light. The minute space dust hitting it would let out a sandstorm-like sound inside the ship. The G-force on the body exceeded 6G. The “Nahel Argama”, escorted by three machines bore the G-force that was equivalent to that of leaving the atmosphere, and it passed through the shoal space region like a rocket. (We’re about to reach the enemy watchzone.) (Minovsky particles, scattered to battle situation density). Otto heard Liam and the rest let out reports that sounded like groans through the wireless communicator, saw that the value on the acceleration monitor was already what they planned, and shouted with all his strength, “HYPER MEGA-PARTICLE CANNON, READY TO FIRE!”
The vibrations of the engine faded away quickly, and the G-force that were pressing down on the body was weakening. (Coordinates stabilized, designated as the target instructed by the ship) (Engines stopped, proceeding by inertia. Focusing all power to the hyper mega-particle cannon!) (All hands, switch to the backup power). The voices rang and disappeared through the wireless communicator, and the lights in the bridge were switched to the red light of the backup power. This time, an impact from the back struck everyone. As the acceleration ended, the G-force on the bodies became zero, and the bodies that were released from intense pressure bent forward.
The thrusters stopped, and the ship that lost the propelled power flew in space by inertia. The real danger began at this point. The sounds of the ship’s rattling was fading gradually, but the sounds of minute debris was still pinging on the ship’s external armor. The air sac of the normal suits crumpled, and the Otto felt an itchy feeling in his lower body during to blood circulation flowing into his numb parts. He held his breath and stared at the sensor visual.
The navigation path was designed by comparing the latest space maps, but it was possible for the debris flying over to obstruct their way. The effective range of their sensors was reduced to a range of about 20km radius at this point as they had scattered Minovsky Particles. All signs of debris in the way would collide directly into the “Nahel Argama” within milliseconds…
Suddenly, a black shadow grazed past their sights, causing the sweat on Otto’s back to freeze. A small white light flickering outside the window as an allied machine diagonally in front of them—Ensign Riddhe’s “Delta Plus” was telling everyone that it was carrying out adjustments. The irregular debris floating in from the space outside seemed to graze past something not too far away from the ship as it flew behind. (Hii…) Mihiro let out a weak shriek a second later as the debris floated away from the sensor’s range.
(This is too reckless…)
Alberto moaned with his hands covering his head. Who do you think was the cause behind this? Otto suppressed the urge to let out this voice from his throat and his body felt the engine rumble again. (The anti-air Gatling guns can still work, shoot down the irregular rocks!) The sound of the hyper mega-particle cannon gathering power overpowered Liam’s growl as it got louder and louder. The large monster sucked up all the power the “Nahel Argama” generated and rumbled. The 50m long large cannon poking out from the hull of the ship spread the melody of the power generated and gathered through the ship.
17.59. The time schedule was going at a difference of 5 seconds. At this point, they could only leave their luck to Heaven. Otto saw the spot of light on “Palau” on the screen and exerted strength in his hands resting on the armrests. They would shoot the fireworks ECOAS 729 set up at the Pyramid Spot on the rhombus at 18.00. There were 3 seconds left, 2, 1…
0. Universal Century 0096, April 12th, 18.00 sharp.
Not a lot of vehicles were moving through the connecting shafts of “Palau” at this time. The factories had three work shifts through 24 hours, and the job shift for night duty ended 2 hours ago. The people working in the morning shift had returned home, and the people working during the night shift were still in dreamland. Thus, not many linear cars were in operation. As for what would be moving along this long and wide tube-like tunnel, that would be the linear cars without anyone in them, ferrying the mined rocks or trucks sending food and daily necessities. Including them, there were still less than 20 vehicles moving on a shaft.
Suddenly, an intense tremor spread inside the tunnel. The booming noise blew up the highway that was 3km long. The ferrying trucks present hurriedly stepped on the brakes and brought the vehicles to the road shoulders. There was no gravity within the connecting shafts, but the tires’ magnetism on the ground made the vehicles feel no different from a gravity block. Did a meteor strike? The truck driver floated out from the driver seat and intended to land on the ground with his magnetic soles. However, he floated in the air like this, and heard a second explosion.
The magnetism isn’t working. Is it a power outage? He did not even have the time to think as the lights in the tunnel went out and changed to a red light. At the same time, there was a flash expanding right in front of him, and a storm blew through the wide tube. The truck driver was blown away by the wind, and was soon knocked 50m away. His back slammed into the partition shutter that was activated, was knocked unconscious because of this impact, and remained asleep for the next three hours without knowing anything until the firemen arrived at the scene to wake him up once everything ended.
The ‘fireworks’ ECOAS planted were exploded. They timed this moment where traffic flow was at its minimum and blew up the areas near the connecting shafts with SHMX, creating the expected destructive outcome on the connecting shafts. The supersonic explosion winds were compressed into a shockwave, and a fatal fissure was caused by the explosion spread while the generators on the other side of the shafts showed deep cracks. The energy from the explosions multiplied without any wastage, causing the cracks outside the shafts to form breaks. The cracks letting out gas and flames instantly expanded. They expanded to form a round around the 30m diameter shafts, and all 10 of them ended up being severed like they were sliced at the waste.
The unmanned linear car carrying the mined rocks made an emergency stop, and emergency partition walls were lowered before and after the breaks. Fires spurted out from the broken areas, and numerous lights lit the joints of the 4 asteroids. However, it was just a poke of a needle at the stomach of “Palau”. The trajectory of the large asteroids would not change as long as nuclear weapons were not used. Of course, there was no major obstruction to the main part “Calyx”, and even the 3 “Corollas” were not affected. The “Palau” continued to remain floating in the shoal space region just like how it was before the explosion, but all connecting shafts were severed, and the 4 asteroids could be said to be separated from each other—this was the first time in the history of “Palau” that the 4 asteroids were separated from each other, and only managed to maintain the usual “Palau” shape. However, there was no time to check on what happened here as a second incident struck “Palau”.
Two unknown machines entered the watchzone at the same time as the explosion. More accurately, there were 3 machines. A “ReZEL” transformed into its Waverider form, an ECOAS 920 “Loto” riding on the back, and there seemed to be a third heat source sighted on the radar—but there was electronic interference after that, which made further observations impossible. The “Nahel Argama” followed the advance squad and entered the watchzone, scattering Minovsky Particles that caused this interference.
Multiple unknown machines started moving towards “Palau” at the moment there were explosions in many areas. This was undoubtedly an attack, and 4 “Geara Zulus” were launched hurriedly from the military port ‘cove’. They had an “Eye Zack” checking where the enemy was attacking, the mobile suits located at the alert sites left the surface, and the many “Gaza Ds” set a perimeter around the ‘cove’. The defense squad that detected an abnormal electric pulse from “Palau” believed that the enemy had already snuck into their camp. The alert sites lights were moving around, and a “Gaza D” pilot searching “Palau”s surface caught sight of a deep brown machine hiding in a crater.
It had a rock-like color scheme on it, but it could not evade detection under close range. The “Gaza D” pilot detected the “Loto”s heat source and pursued the attack as it transformed. The hook-like hands turned around from the stand it was like, and the body in the shape of a cannon grew a pair of hands. Despite having an arthopod-like silhouette that was dubbed ‘an alien transport’, the mobility “Gaza D” in mobile suit form was not something the “Loto” could match. The “Loto” fired its Gatling cannons on the shoulders wildly, using the weak verniers to move back, and the “Gaza D” pilot charged right over at its enemy.
At that moment, another shot came from another direction, hitting the “Gaza D” directly. The “Gaza D” had no chance of drawing the beam saber from its shoulder binders as it was sliced in half at the waist, and the weak machine frame blew up under the expanding fireball. The other “Loto” fired a 120mm low recoil cannon from behind the rock—and Squad Leader Nasri Razal “Loto” rushed out from the rock after checking that the enemy was shot down, and let its humanoid body with thick Gatling cannons on its shoulders hide in the next hiding spot.
The landscape of “Palau” was saved into their database, and they would not make the simple mistake of letting themselves get caught by the enemy so easily even if it were enemy territory. ECOAS specialty was concealment. Nasri checked that the allied unit acting as bait started to move, and proceeded on to find the next prey. They wanted to use this method to shoot down as many enemies as they could in this manner and support Daguza and his ECOAS 920 squad members in their assault. In order to break into “Palau” and go through lots of effort to save the capture civilian, they had to create a commotion as obvious as possible and gather the enemy’s sights on them. There were only a few seconds until the main event of “Operation Billiards”—the firing of the hyper mega-particle cannon. Nasri saw the large number of enemies rushing out from the ‘cove’ through the periscope, and gave a numb-looking smile on his lips.
There would be an assault after the destruction, and a ring of exploding light indicating that their allied machine was shot down came after. “Palau” descended into sudden chaos, but it would be later that the people in the large round tubes between “Calyx”—the inner walls of the shield machine knew about this. The explosion of the connecting shafts merely sounded like thunder to them from afar, and they could not experience the tremors for themselves. The resident blocks on both sides were about to have the usual sunset, and the only thing ringing dully was the sirens mixed with the winds, indicating an abnormal situation.
In the center Uppertown, Pepe was in his official residence near the governor’s estate, and got on the leather chair the moment he heard the siren. Full Frontal asked to break off ties with him on his side, and to him, who was about to go mad, who was able to negotiate with people in the related worlds, that siren sounded like it was the declaration of destruction. On the other side, in the Downtown area, Tikva kicked over the dining chair and ran out of the house while ignoring his mother’s attempt to stop him.
His father, Marida and the Captain returned to the ship because it was said that there was an emergency order. Banagher too disappeared after he went out. There’s no reason for him to escape— the Captain said so, and Tikva did not feel that the immature prisoner had such courage, but the sound of the siren sounded abnormally heavy, causing his chest to flutter. Quite a few people felt the same too, and they looked up at the artificial sun that disappeared, praying to God that their relatives in the Neo Zeon Army could remain safe.
Banagher did not have this luxury. He walked out from the subway at the military facility ‘cove’, moved through the zero gravity path, and ended up feeling the tremors of the explosion closer than Tikva and the rest.
DUN. A deep noise echoed through the path devoid of anyone else, and the siren could be heard after that. This path that was recorded on the monitor sheet map was a service route that was used by the guards at the excavation fields. It was connected to all the tunnels like a net, and ordinary people would be prohibited from entering this ‘cove’. Banagher compared the area code on the wall with the monitor sheet to see where he was, and had a premonition that caused him to panic in the midst of the aftershock. It was 6pm, the time the ‘receivers’ would arrive—
“It started…”
It was the Federation’s attack. There was no other guesses as Banagher hastened his speed up the liftgrip. He did not head towards the 14th spacegate he was told to head to, but went to the ‘cove’ Neo Zeon fleet base. The attack started, and his plan might be something unnecessary, but he could only continue on. Whether he could succeed or not, there was no other way to bring the residents of “Palau” away from the battlefield. He looked forward while hearing the sirens annoy his nerves like they were prompting him. This was just a premonition that things were beginning, and the hands holding onto the liftgrip were sweating.
Numerous light spots appeared on the asteroid joints, and the flashes merely remained for a moment. The gas left over from the explosions floated to the shadows of the asteroids and could not be observed. The main screen show that “Palau” looked just like usual.
(We’ve sighted an explosion of light at “Palau”s connecting shafts!)
(Hyper mega-particle cannon, loading rate is 120%. Preparations to fire are complete.)
The cannon operator’s voice quickly passed through the wireless communicator right after the sensor operator. Otto got up from the Captain seat and stared at the “Palau” that was optically corrected. There were three fat rock blocks “Carollas” gathered around the bow shaped “Calyx”—and since ECOAS had already cut off all the connecting shafts, those were 4 blocks of rocks sticking to each other through inertia. In that case, the object balls were lined up, and they just needed to use the cue to fire the cue ball and knock down all the target baclls lined up in a rhombus.
We must hit the vital spot in one hit. Otto told himself silently in his heart as he seemingly gathered his courage. But at this moment…
(High heat sources approach! Two of them. Mobile suits.)
The sensor operator’s voice caused Otto’s order to remain stuck at his throat. Why at this moment? He looked at the sensor monitor and stared at the indicated unknown targets. 4 mobile suits were launched from “Palau” and two of them passed through their mobile suit advanced squad and moved close to this point. The “Nahel Argama” itself was moving at a high speed, so both sides were closing in on each other at an alarming rate. The target was right in front of them, and this battleship could not dodge or fire as it approached undefended.
It was a thought that happened in less than a second. (Let the cover intercept…) Otto interrupted Liam’s words that were about to come out “LEAVE THEM ALONE!” and yelled.
“GET OUR ALLIES OUT OF THE WAY! HYPER MEGA-PARTICLE CANNON, BEGIN THE ATTACK!”
To heck with them. Otto ignored Alberto, who was looking over at him in surprise, and slumped himself tightly onto the Captain’s seat. The voices repeating the command rang, and as all their allied mechas were out of the range, (Ready…FIRE!) the cannon operator’s voice rang inside his helmet.
At that moment, the 400m long ship trembled, rocking the bridge. The flash dashed past the window as it went off to the other end, and even the anti-glare filter could not reduce the intensity of this powerful light that covered Otto’s sights.
At its critical stage, the large mega-particle cannon was released from the I-field perimeter; it carried out 8 levels of acceleration and gathering inside the ring, and the particles were fired outs. This scorching beam of light took all the power the “Nahel Argama” had and cut through space, first devouring the two “Geara Zulus” that were closing in on its path.
It was relatively moderate in terms of electrical output, but the mega-particle beam still showed a tendency to expand according to its range and fade off. That was why the “Nahel Argama” rushed into firing range and shot the hyper mega-particle cannon at what could be said to be extremely close range, and the two “Geara Zulus” were right in there, letting the beams rush over in the middle of this distance that was less than 20km away. The enemy units were swallowed by the beam that was as large as them, and one of the “Geara Zulu” that suffered fatality was melted like wax candles in a furnace, while the other mobile suit was 1km away from the beam, but was unable to avoid the shockwave and the scattered particles. That “Geara Zulu”s armor were all ripped off at the same moment the former mobile suit was destroyed, and the shockwave that reached it ripped the frame apart.
As the beam raced out, the other two mobile suits pursuing the “ReZEL” and the “Complete Jegan” suffered similar fates. They took the destructive power of the scattered particles that were as destructive as a normal mega-particle beam from the back, and their devastated machines were blown aside from the shockwave, igniting the core reactor furnaces. The hot fusion energy maintained by the I-field spread out in an explosive manner, the humanoid machines with sleeves decorations on them were broken down into limbs, and the giant beam continued to expand. The beam had these lights decorating the path like flowers, and they were just sparkler firestarters that were meant to be blown up before the beam arrived. The sublight arrow was shot out from the “Nahel Argama” at supersonic speed, causing the tip at the top to hit the “Palau”, scorching the surface of “Carolla A”. This massive energy was enough to rock a small asteroid and cause it to accelerate—the connecting shafts were blown, and the “Corolla A” that was linked to the other asteroids started to leave its fixed orbit as it moved.
And just like how the asteroid was moved over to this point from the Asteroid Belt, the direct hit from the hyper mega-particle cannon brought about a thrust that could match a nuclear pulse engine, causing an asteroid in a corner of “Palau” to be pushed out. This asteroid slammed into “Corolla B”, dragged a mining factory down as it touched the “Calyx” surface. The impact from “A” caused “B” to move and slam into “C”, and after that, it seemed like “B” moved together with “A” to slam into “Calyx”. The “Calyx” bore the brunt of the 3 asteroids mass and motions as it got knocked off course greatly, causing the tip of the bowhead to tilt mightily.
The broken connecting shafts started to bend at the base, and the collisions caused winds to dance on the surface and into space. The result of the hyper mega-particle cannon cue ball hitting the balls caused the 4 asteroids object balls to crash into each other in a chain reaction, causing the a Celestial-scale billiard performance in the shoal space region. From the outside, the 4 tightly packed asteroids might have moved just by a bit, and the “Palau” that was covered in flying dust did not change its shape. However, this was really an earthshaking thing to the people inside. This was definitely a large earthquake that could have caused the skies to crash down. The earthquake caused the two residential blocks in “Calyx” to tumble violently, and there were cracks on the ‘hill’. The dust accumulated within the inner walls flew up, all the houses’ windows were shattered, and the residents were rolling and tumbling around for several meters. Tikva was no exception as he tumbled on the road due to the rumbling, grabbed onto the outer wall that was shaking slightly, and looked up at the sky. The earthquake boomed through the surroundings echoing through the cylinder of this residence block. Did the shield machine digging into the ‘hill’ work on its own? Tikva thought blankly as he stared at this bladed digging tool that was abandoned before he was born and was about to be buried under the oxidized rocks. He vaguely heard the sounds his siblings shrieking and his mother calling his name.
The chandelier came crashing down in the governor’s house, and Pepe hid under the table to avoid danger. The “Palau” residential block was built to take advantage of the hardy ability to withstand the shield machine’s activation, and it was no wonder this governor’s estate that was thoroughly decorated took the greatest damage. Chaos too descended on the excavation field under zero gravity, as there were materials left in the air and baskets hitting the artificial, and pipelines were snapped together with the fissured ground. There was not just one crack on the underground tunnels, and the pale-faced workers were hurriedly trying to escape, but this was not all that could describe the devastated ‘cove’.
Due to the direct hit on the sun, the melted magma-like surface could not fade off easily. The “Corolla A” let out gas as it moved towards the “Calyx”, causing the gap between the asteroids to be show, and the Neo Zeon fleet stationed there lost their exit. The entire military port was sealed inside the ‘cove’ as a result.
The connecting shafts were severed, and several seconds later, another rock blocked the exit, causing the mobile suit squadrons that were mobilized in this emergency to suffer from having to remain there. Several “Geara Zulus” managed to sneak out of the gap before the exit was sealed, but the “Gaza Cs” that followed were crushed by this tectonic plate, letting out explosions of light in the openings. The military port facilities were not exempt from damage either. The rock bits that scattered due to the impact crushed the oil tankers and the dredge ships, and rain of fire and rubble descended on the factories at the base of the craters. The many factories were crushed and devoured by fire, lighting up the large hole that was gradually becoming sealed from time to time. The moored ships started releasing their restrains one by one, casting aside their supplies that were half loaded as they tried to leave the dock, but still could not get back the rock shutter that accelerated over.
A captain of a Salamis-class patrol ship saw the rock plate closing in from the bridge’s window. The crate that was 5km in diameter and 2km caused the military port at the bottom of the crater to burn and fall, and the term ‘landslide’ alone would not be able to explain it thoroughly. It looked like the sky collapsed on them, and the Salamis-class was devoured by debris inside the cave. We won’t make it—it was too late for the Captain to make this decision as the stalactites supporting the roof bit into the ship, and the crater closing in from the bottom raised the ship. In the face of this rock that was the size of an asteroid, the patrol ship did not even have the tolerance of a fly as the keel supporting the hull were snapped, the crushed bridge tumbled onto the deck, and the heat and flash from the core reactor that ignited rose up. Flames rose out from the tightly knitted rock surfaces, creating a border between the two asteroids that had basically become one.
The deep red color could be seen from above the “Delta Plus” despite it being separated from the cloud of dust. The “Corolla A” took a direct high from the hyper mega-particle cannon, and the surface hot surfaces showed lights of ships and mobile suits appearing twice, thrice, lighting the rubble flying all over the place periodically.
“Did it succeed?”
““Palau”s burning…!”
Riddhe and Mineva saw the red burning surfaces from the cockpit afar, and they could not say anything else. The “Nahel Argama” that was headed to the same place was using up all its inertia as it went right at “Palau”, they could only rely on the mobile suit squadron acting as direct cover until the functions were restored and they leave the place. Riddhe’s eyes scanned for enemies and found them coming out for the ‘cove’. I can’t let the battle drag on further. I have to hurry up and hit the enemies that are coming out hard and fast and leave the battlefield as fast as possible—
For a different reason, Daguza too was feeling anxious. He, who was gradually moving closer to “Palau” earlier than the “Nahel Argama”, caught sight of multiple enemies from the periscope, and ordered the pilot to remove direct contact with the “ReZEL” that acted as its transport. He deduced that the “ReZEL” would not be able to fight freely with the “Loto” on the back.
The “Loto” kept the foldable arms on its back and left the “ReZEL”. The “ReZEL” was like a large shark to the “Loto” as it transformed from Waverider form to mobile suit form, releasing the thruster flares. Multiple Gaza-type mobile suits rushed out from “Palau”, and they should be patrol ships outside the ‘cove’ when the collision happened. Daguza could see from the side that their allied “Complete Jegan” fired a beam rifle to hold off the enemy from closing in, and stared at the “Palau” surface that was located behind the flying rubble.
The connection shafts were severed, and the “Corolla A” took a direct hit from the hyper mega particle cannon. The billiard effect caused “B” and “C” to be knocked aside, creating this impression of “Operation Billiard” to seal the enemy fleet inside the ‘cove’. However, this was just a massive mobilization to cause a misdirection. The success of this mission would hang on whether they could break into Palau and snatch the RX-0 and its pilot. ECOAS 729 moved ahead to shoot down enemy units for them, but there were quite a lot of patrol units. There were mobile suits gradually rising out from the gap of the ‘cove’ that could not be sealed off completely. Despite wrecking their base, it was impossible for every ship to be moored. They had to finish the retrieval of the “Unicorn” and Banagher Links before the enemy ships leave the port, detect this and surround the area.
The pink beams suddenly flashed hitting the flying debris and creating an explosion of light. The enemies were firing intercepting shots at them. The “Loto” had no chance of winning with merely anti-air turrets even if they fired here. The pilot quickly dodged and intended to check on the enemy’s location, “Ignore it!” only to be growled at by Daguza.
“Leave it to the covering machine. Where’s the target signal coming from?”
(We can’t detect it. Vice Commander Conroy, who was seated at the front, replied through the wireless communicator. The transmitter Banagher Links’s holding onto can send signals within 20km even with Minovsky particles around. If we can’t detect him, does that mean he hasn’t arrived at the retrieval point inside “Palau”? Or is there some deviation… Daguza could only suppress his worst imaginations as he held onto the grip of the periscope again.
The fact that he was not imprisoned was confirmed by the spy’s report. If he stayed at the space gate retrieval point, he should be able to avoid getting involved in this damage. What is he doing— sweat of uneasiness continued to seep out of Daguza, and he looked at the landscape of “Palau” that occupied his sights. The “Loto” skillfully managed to avoid the rubble flying over, and quickly closed down its distance with “Palau”.
Banagher stared at the ball-point pen drenched in sweat and held it tightly. He had to press the signal switch at the appointed moment. He remembered the words recorded on the monitor sheet and checked his watch. It was 6.07pm, past the designated time.
Since the attack, I can’t achieve anything even if I struggle wildly. Shall I activate this transmitter? Banagher pondered for a while, and again decided not to. It’s easy to pcik me up, but the Federation’s goal is to retrieve the “Laplace Box”. Even if I obey the instructions, the operation won’t end like this. They’ll probably search through “Palau” until they find this mobile suit that is basically the key to opening the “Box”—and will eliminate all obstacles, whether soldiers or civilians.
That’s why you and I can’t stay here. We have to hurry up and leave “Palau”. Banagher looked at a corner of the factory amidst the numerous materials thrown into the air. As the sirens and growls from the mechanics echoed, ‘it’ stood silently as its body remained in the hangar.
He did not know what caused this earth-reversing-like impact. Banagher heard from the soldiers on the way here that it seemed like the asteroids that were linked together crashed into each other. However, he had no time or need to find out the truth. He was lucky to sneak into the military port facility in the midst of the chaos. The target was removed from the ship and placed in this factory block where he could see it after entering. There was no truth more important than this at this moment. Even the transmitter’s issue could be solved once he head outside and activate it.
There’s no other way. Banagher told himself this and gave up on thinking. He hid himself amongst the containers, looked around, and waited for the moment to rush out. Smoke was starting to float in, and the soldiers were busy putting out fires and tending to the injured as they went around the factory as they did not notice him. None of them looked over at the white machine that was standing deep within, and it looked like there was a deliberate unnatural void surrounding ‘it’. There’s less than 50m left, I can get up there without a wire gun. It feels uneasy not to have the normal suit, but there should be a spare inside the cockpit—Banagher had this thought as he secretly made his decision to get up there first before doing anything else.
He took a deep breath, kicked the floor and left his hiding place amongst the containers. Banagher stepped on the floating metal frames like he was stepping on stones while crossing water, and floated up diagonally within the large factory. The “Unicorn Gundam” with its lone horn pointed up did not affirm nor deny its master’s reckless action, and the eyes hidden under the visor were just looking afar.
