KSGU:Volume 1 Chapter 1

Part 1

The alarm inside the ship sounded. That wailing sound gave goosebumps but caused the mind to calm down gradually. The girl went near the ship window on the wall.

Looking out from the plastic board window, it was an outer space of vacuum. Right now, neither the Earth nor the moon could be seen as only the starry spots that filled the sky lit up the silent darkness. This ship should be moving forward at a very fast speed, but the stars outside the window weren't moving at all. It was like being locked in a still darkness.

The girl recalled how she would ask the maidservant the reason behind this phenomenon as she didn't understand them. The extremely patient Lamias would give a beaming smile and say: Princess, that's because the stars are too far away, so they didn't discover us moving...

That was the excuse the adults gave, but it wasn't without sincerity. The 17-year-old girl already knew all this. Lamias was a good maidservant, but she was already dead for almost 10 years. The girl's youth was shrouded in mystery, and the certain person who was called a princess remained in her memories—the past she bore had to be erased for a while from now on.

Thus, she didn't need a name right now. She was just a nameless person who was going to where she should be going to, to meet the person she should be meeting as she got herself stowed aboard this ship. That was all.

“Hurry up and scatter the Minovsky Particles. Get to combat levels!”

“One enemy ship. Most like a Clop-class battleship.”

“That's not an ordinary patrol. It had already planned on an ambush in this space area. There will be an enemy mobile suit attacking. Don't let your guard down.”

Through the broadcast inside the ship, the wireless communication started to reach the ears. They had already scattered Minovsky Particles that could disrupt electromagnetic waves and jam electronics like radar, but it was possible to communicate inside the ship. As the deep operating sounds of the machine rang with the people's voices, the girl heard the low grunt of the ship captain, Suberoa Zinnerman and looked out at the darkness outside the window.

Just now, she saw the pink light fly outside the window. It was the glow of the mega-particle cannon. Due to the development of Minovsky Physics, the high energy beam weapons glowed. The Earth Federation was shooting at this ship to capture it. This ship ignored the command to stop and continued to spray Minovsky particles as it accelerated. The next shot wouldn't be a warning shot. The enemy should have realized that a civilian ship couldn't be this fast.

The concentrated mega-particles that came over at lightspeed would immediately pierce through the armor n this ship if it was a direct hit. Even if it only grazed by, the high temperature of the particles that flew by may open a hole on the wall. The girl kicked herself off the wall of this dim cabin and moved her body to the cupboard in the corner of the room. In the cupboard that designated as a storage and fastened due to the zero gravity environment, there was 3 days worth of food and water she smuggled in, and also a spacesuit.

The girl then pulled the things out, and used the inertia to push her body about, using zero gravity to quickly put on the spacesuit. This cabin was hardly used, so it was used as a storeroom to put stuff inside. Once the ship gets damaged, the life support system would be cut off first. In this case, the likely situation of a vacuum occur, or the supplies that was fastened to the wall or the floor would be frozen. The girl didn't want to think of the worst case scenario where she could be sent flying out of the ship and put on the large worker spacesuit helment.

(Enemy ship's shooting high energy. 2 of them, approaching fast.)

(Its a mobile suit.)

(It seemed to have went past the 'Getas'. Estimated time of contact, T-minus 320.)

(We'll be caught up before we enter the dark wasteland space...alright, hurry up and send Marida out. Let her go chase the flies away.)

Though they looked like shipping crew members, the bridge members all had combat experience and sounded very calm. Right now, they would definitely be in spacesuits and moving to the bridge where the red light is flashing. The girl remembered the bridge that was as cramped as the cockpit in a plane, remembered the thoroughly moustached face of Zinnerman as he sat on the captain's seat, and she wondered whether she should tell them that she was here. If a battle began, it would be best for her to be in the safe protected zone. If she was revealed as a stowaway, she would definitely be sent over there. If she died here without being discovered, it would really be a futile death.

No—she couldn't. If they knew that she was on board as a stowaway, Zinnerman may change the projected course and turn back to the 'Palau'. Even if he didn't, she would be locked up and watched tightly. She wouldn't be able to achieve her aim, she wouldn't be able to got out, and she wouldn't be able to meet the person she had to meet. And this outcome would cause the deaths of even more people.

This was the only chance. The girl told this to herself. She knew that this was a reckless act, but there was no other way. This was to prevent Earth from being covered in battle and causing many housands of people to die. She could only do that...

(The ‘Kshatriya’s ready for launch.)

(Target the enemy Mobile Suits. Ignore the mothership. This Garencieres’ speed is enough to shake them off.”

Once Zinnerman said with the deep coarse voice, a clear female voice (understood) could be heard. The girl remembered the face of the solidary woman, Marida Cruz, who should be of the same age as she was, and looked outside the window. The silver form of the field entered her eyes, and the numerous scale powder-like glitter entered her eyes. The shutter suddenly appeared covered the windows as the ship—the ‘Garencieres’ was entering battle mode, and all the windows had the protective shutter on.

The only image screen was on the inside part of the bridge window, and the protective shutter on the inside of the cabins didn’t have such a convenient function. The girl left the wall and hid her body in the gap between the boxes. Under the light of a weak standing lamp, she used the tape amongst her supplies to tie her hands together and gathered her consciousness onto the wireless communicator inside the helmet.

She will die when the time was right anyway. Instead of looking outside to scare herself, she might as well gather as much information as possible to deal with the current situation. She was calmly and clearly telling herself this as she tucked her knees in and hugged herself in the spacesuit.

Suddenly, she felt a chill. It was a chill that the life support of the spacesuit couldn’t adjust, a chill that entered deep inside her heart. As she often got involved with the battlefield when she was young, her body was already numb to the fear of it, and this chill seemed to be the price. The girl let herself be the instrument of silence as she closed her eyes and waited for the chill to fade.

Part 2

The transport ship ‘Garencieres’ was 112m in full length, and it was cone-shaped. The maximum capacity it could bear was over 500 ton. The front end had a bridge that was shaped like the front end of a plane. The shape of the ship made it look like the designer factored in air resistance, and one could tell that it could fly in the atmosphere, and could be used as a transport vehicle between space and Earth. It was an old model that was commonly used by all the shipping companies in the past, but was hardly seen today.

As indicated by the word ‘Ribakoona Trading’ on the side, the ‘Garencieres’ was registered as a civilian transport ship, but in reality, that wasn’t the case. Right now, the shutter on the back of the ship was slowly opening, and the sliding suspension of cargo was slowly opening. What opened from the bottom of the cone was a crane that was suspended by the cone—the place that was supposed to be carrying cargo had a human-shaped giant robot fastened there.

It had 4 limbs that were somewhat thick at the end, and the bulge at the front of the waist had a mouth-shaped armor. The head looked like a rooster’s crown and also like something that was poking out, and then there was a one-eyed laser sensor. The almost 20m humanoid frame had 4 wing-like pods that was about as large as the main body on its shoulders. This dark green machine should be called a giant, and the shape was way too mysterious. However, its humanoid appearance was way too defined to be called something else. In this age, amongst mobile suits—human-shaped mobile weapons that had the power of a main weapon, this machine’s profile was somewhat strange. However, its abdomen had a cockpit like many mobile suits, and it was covered in many layers of a ball-shaped cockpit, and the pilot in the spacesuit was already over there operating it.

“Target captured. Abandoning the ‘Geta’. There’s a ‘Jegan’ that’s somewhat fast, possibly a commander type.”

Marida Cruz looked through the full screen that’s displayed on the inside wall of the cockpit, and a small window showed the specs. She said without emotion, (This means it’s not a coincidence that we met?), and Captain Zinnerman responded through the wireless communicator.

(We’ll be entering the dark wasteland space. Hurry up and finish it off before coming back.)

“Understood, master.”

Don’t call me master. Before these usual words came, Marida heard Zinnerman breathe in a more tense manner than before. The reason they would meet the Federation ship here was that it was rare of them to patrol around here. However, it was really abnormal for a trading ship that was on its designated course and even check for inspection. They even sent out specially equipped mobile suits. This may be because the Federation Army already knew our side’s true identity and objective and set an ambush in the space field. To Zimmerman, he had to deduce who leaked the information and wonder what to do next.

That’s right, the next step…Master, he didn’t need to bother about this. I exist for this. Ignoring all other thoughts, Marida put the hand on both left and right control sticks—the hemisphere Arm Raker that could allow all 5 fingers to be gripped together.

“Marida Cruz, ‘Kshatriya’, launching.”

As the restraints on the machine were released, the abnormally shaped mobile suit—'Kshatriya' slowly descended down the hangar. It wasn't really accurate to call it 'descending' when there's no concept of up or down in outter space, but the machine that was being dangled had this feeling as it was released from the hangar of the ship at the bottom. Marida released the activation control thrusters and moved under the 'Garencieres' until she was more than 100m away from the ship, and stepped on the pedal. The four main thrusters on the pods let out white light at one go. The 'Kshatriya' got away from the inertial motion of the of the 'Garencieres', spun and soon got behind and approached its target.

In the planet-shaped cockpit that was 1.5m in diameter, there was the screen of a full 360 degrees scnery. The intense rays of the stars entered Marida's eyes, and a bystander would feel that it looked like Marida's cockpit was suddenly in the midst of stars, and that she was flying in the stars. However, the image of outer space that was depicted all around wasn't a real scene, but a computer-depicted outer space that used special effects of constellations as locators.

In one area, there were 3 of these targets after the visual was enlarged. Right now, the optical sensor merely managed to capture the distance, so it was a rough CG. But in contrast, the model number of the data RGM-89 was rather clear itself. It was the mainstream mobile suits of the Earth Federation, the 'Jegan'. Amongst the trio, the one leading the attack was a special type that had an S behind, and they continued to abandon the Geta as they scattered and closed in. 'Geta' was the common name for mobile suits' flight packs when they attack from long range, and the use was to act as a flat bed that transport the mobile suits from below and send them into space battle. It could be said to be a miniature boat that replace the mobile suits legs, but Marida didn't know the origin of the name 'Geta'.

The three mobile suits were each wielding the main weapon, the beam rifle as they closed in—Marida sensed that the enemies wanted to surround her from outside beam weaponry range and surround from 3 directions, and made the first judgment that 'the battle was difficult'. It wasn't difficult to take down 3 'Jegar', but missing one would cause the defenses of the 'Garencieres' to be unstable. Marida wasn't being confident or bold as she merely used her head to think of how to handle the situation right now, and let her mobile suit decelerate suddenly.

The 4 pods swung forward, and the main thrusters spurt flames in the opposite direction, causing the Kshatirya's speed to immediately go from meters per second to meter per minute and finally, terminal velocity. As the back bore the sudden force of slowing down, Marida endured the discomfort of the eyeballs feeling like it was going to fly out and the fingers swelling as the blood flowed back, and muttered, 'Funnel'.

The numerous exhaust lights on the inside of the pods shot out as 2 small objects came from each of the 4 pods, 8 of these 2m things altogether. They moved as per normal, and as they stopped around the 'Kshatriya', they activated their thrusters and rushed to their targets like a bullet.

The sensor cannons were like its name, funnel, as the conical shaped objects gathered together and then dispersed, striking the 'Jegars' that were still outside shooting range. This wasn't automatic control, and neither was it mechanical long-range control. In a battlefield that was full of Minovsky particles, it was impossible to use electromagnetic waves to control it, and it was impossible to use a computer to launch an attack on one spot. This weapon, the funnel, is controlled by the pilot's brainwaves.

The Psycho communicator—commonly know as psycommu, the brainwave guiding system would use the brain signals of the pilot, magnify it and send the instructions to the unit sensor cannons. The brainwaves are also called psycho waves, and it could cause the Minovsky particles to react. Thus, it didn't have the risk of being interfered with like normal electronic waves. As long as the pilot had ability, the funnels could be said to be completely invincible in the current battlefield. As the Minovsky particles would prevent all electronic devices from working, and as it was required to use a large golem like this kind of mobile suit to protect the body and engage in close range combat on the battlefield, the funnels truly became a flight equipment.

Of course, not everyone could use it. Even though it went through many improvements, the psycommu system would still bring a lot of physical and mental stress to the pilot. However, Marida could operate it better than anyone. More accurately, she was 'created' to be able to operate the funnels.

The funnels that split up continued to spin as they attacked the two 'Jegar' behind. Due to the size, the funnels could be easily mistaken for space dust, and even with optical sensors, it would be hard to capture them visually. The funnels shot out the thrusters that were acting as its controls in a short time and gradually bound the 'Jegars' down before shooting out lasers. The Mega-particles energy beams let out pink glows and shot through the Jegars that didn't detect the enemy approaching at all. The psycommu was only equipped with a small rechargeable battery, and so the intensity of the light was really small and didn't have much energy. However, they do have the power to shoot through a mobile suit's armor. The pilots who were suddenly attacked panicked and started shooting beam shots all around messily. However, the funnels continued to destroy the Jegars' machine frames bit by bit. The transfer fluids continued to shoot out from the critical areas like blood, and the Jegars that were smaller than the green Kshatriya were painfully struggling. At this moment, the funnels were like a flock of killer sharks that hunted down a whale as they lunged forward to attack—

1, 2. Without checking for the lights of explosions, Marida sensed that the two Jegars were already blown to bits and concentrated on the remaining special unit. Though the backups were already destroyed, the unit didn't slow down at all as it continued to close it. Marida decided that there was no need to let out new funnels and again pushed the Kshatriya forward.

The psycommu captured the exterior of that specially equipped unit that was more like a human and had added armor and thrusters. Before it entered the Kshatriay's range, the recoilless rocket launcher the Jegar was wielding let out a flash, and a physical bullet that was 380mm in diameter was shot at the Kshatriya. This hi-firepowered shot was about the size of a normal recoilless rifle on a mobile suit, and though it had the disadvantage of being small, the destructive power it had when it attacked would be larger than a beam weapon. Right now, it was in shotgun mode, and as it explode, the hundreds of metallic balls that scatter would attack the Kshatriya. However, Marida expected it beforehand and dodged with the minimal of movements. The pilot of the special equipped mobile suit seemed to have also expected it to be dodged and used the scattered pellets as a smokescreen, shooting the thrusters out and getting above the Kshatriya.

Then, as if to prove the reason why humanoid weapons were so valued, the battle became a typical mobile suit battle that would be commonly seen in this era. The specially equipped Jegar's missile launcher again shot out another shotgun and let out the missiles that were equipped on the shoulders. The Khastriya activated its main thruster to move up and grazed past the missiles that attacked. She then deployed the 4 pods horizontally, spun the mobile suit and changed 90 degrees and moved forward. The Kshatriay saw through the Jegar's trajectory, and the short and fat body slipped into the dark outer space to get the initiative.

Normally, only the exhaust from the thrusters is needed to change directions in the vacuum of outer space. However, mobile suits had another system commonly known as AMBAC. Though there's no gravity in outer space, the mass of objects themselves weren't gone, and a Newton's worth of push would require a Newton's worth of force, and the force required would be equivalent to the force exerted. The principal behind the AMBAC system is that it uses the law of having equal and opposite reactions when there's an action to control the movement of the machine—the means to control any mobile suits' limbs, and using the recoil to change directions. This was the biggest reasons why the mobile suits were the strongest weapons that stood far above the rest in the same era.

The Kshatriya skilfully used its 4 thick and large limbs and 4 pods to manoeuvre as it closed in on the Jegan in a complicated trajectory. The two machines' thrusters were glowing, and these two humanoid robots seemed to be dancing in outer space. The explosions of the bullets flashed on both sides' visuals. As the explosions occurred, Marida immediately closed in on the enemy. The Kshatriya's pods opened out like a blooming flower, and with the petals at the metal, the one eye on the head was shining. Looking from away, it looked like a flower with the humanoid shape as a human. The metallic flower was covered with beams, and it used the explosive impact to release what's the most savage and beautiful flower in outer space.

This scene was depicted on the optical sensor on the Jegan's visor, and both machines were within several meters of each other where they could use the optical sensor to look at each other—in outer space, this would be an extremely close distance. The battlefield that's affected by Minovsky particles had to be done from close range, and thus it was common to see machines go at each other close. And at this moment, there was a need for a primitive showdown, which was why mobile suits were designed as humanoids.

The moment she was about to cross the Jegar, Marida switched from the firearms to the beam saber and aimed the crosshair at the abdomen of the Jegar. The Ksatriya grabbed the handle of the beam saber, drew it out from the wrist and used the mechanical five figners to grab it. The particles of light that shot out from the handle that was more than 10m hacked into the Jegar's abdomen.

The Jegar seemed like it wanted to draw the beam saber, but it reacted too slowly. The beam saber that could cut through 30cm thick metal in a second melted through the Jegar's abdomen, and the sound that sounded similar to metal metally struck Marida from through the suit.

(Damn you, 'Sleeves'...!)

At the same time, she heard the voice of the pilot, even though she did not know whether it was wireless interference or a sense other than her hearing. No matter what, things ended here. The beam saber slashed through the armor of the Jegar, going straight through the cockpit, immediately vaporizing the pilot and hackign the entire machine in half. The nuclear reactor inside the Jegar couldn't explode as the machine was hacked in half at the waist and floated away. The burnt remains were still giving off sparks, and the machine body floated beside this enemy called the 'Sleeve' and silently went away.

Marida silently watched the remains of the enemy move away as she kept her beam saber. The wrist of the Kshatriya had a place to keep a beam saber and also had a crest that looked like a wing, something that looked like a sleeved decoration. The mobile suits of the organization Marida belonged to had such a design, which was why the Federation called them 'Sleeves', but that wasn't important to Marida at all.

No, not just the nickname, even the ideal of being an Anti-Earth Federation organization and the content of this mission wasn't important. Humans were animals that would think and had curiosity, but Marida felt that this definition wasn't suited for her.

Just like how a man was a man and a woman was a woman, Marida Cruz was born to be a pilot, and to live as a pilot. To follow her master's orders and destroy the enemy mobile suits. Perhaps the Garencieres should have entered the dark wasteland space region before the mothership chased over. Right now, she had to return back to the ship as soon as possible, do damage inspection on the Kshatriya, readjust and resupply. Once she's done, she would prepare for the next launch and get as much rest as possible. She wouldn't do anything else, and wouldn't think of anything else. Marida didn't feel that she was unnatural like this, and she didn't feel sad about this.

However—once the battle end, as she release her tense state after having concentrated for so long, the empty soul would feel some pain. The emotions she suppressed in the battlefield would awaken, and her mind would complain about the unhappiness. As the fire of the funnels pierced through the machines, it felt that the psycommu installation went in reverse as she felt really complicated, uneasy about the cries of the pilots before they died that entered her mind. When she sliced the special equipped mobile suit, it felt like she personally sliced a pilot to death, and the muscle cringe before he died would cause an uneasiness in both her mind and soul...after recalling the funnels, Marida switched back to full screen view to let the surroundings show the actual outer space.

Marida reached up to take off the helmet of her spacesuit and loosened the hair that was tied behind her head. The waist-length straight hair was scattered aside, and the healthy hair an 18-year-old should have appeared right in front. But Marida's eyes were staring at the entire starry sky that filled her eyes.

If there wasn't any special reasons, the cockpit of the mobile suit wouldn't show the real outer space. It's not just because it was hard to capture, but also the risk that the pilot may panic. The real outer space was so dark, grim and filled with emptiness that look like it would swallow all existence. However, Marida liked it this way.

During the short time before she returned back to the ship, she took off her helmet and relaxed her entire body as she remained in the vacuum of vast emptiness. This would let her feel that the uneasiness inside her would eb washed away, and each star would perform a music that she never heard before, bringing her to another place. That's an outer space that didn't have war, didn't have unhappiness, and that people didn't need space suits.

Of course, such a place didn't exist. Outside this cockpit was a space of vacuum that humans couldn't survive in and a reality that had lots of problems—the human social circle called the Earth's boudnary. Marida adjusted the main camera of the Kshatriya and looked at Earth that looked only the size of a tennis ball from here.

Like many space migrants, she had never stepped onto Earth once. Marida knew from the black object that was floating in front of the blue body that the target was near. Floating on the Lagrange point between the Earth and the Moon was the rubble of the past war, as numerous destroyed space colonies and spaceships were located at this dark wasteland space.

Humanity created space colony settlements on five Lagrange points known as Sides, and most of humanity had been living in outer space for almost 100 years. The wounds of this grand-scale war was so deep, and the dark wasteland space was one of them. The place people used to call Side 5 was no longer there as what remained was a space graveyard of countless frozen remains—and Marida and the rest's destination, the 'Industrial 7' should be located deep inside this graveyard.

Right now, it was impossible to find it through the large amount of rubble, but she did find the Garencieres who made a move first. Marida again checked to see if there were any pursuers behind her before pushing the Kshatriya on. The nuclear rocket engine sounded through the machine as it jerked, and the force of acceleration remained on her uneasy body. The helmet that was dragged behind hit the screen and let out a light thud.

Part 3

Ah, I’m so out of it today-Banagher Links thought that moment he woke up, and then stopped the alarm clock that was set to vibration mode.

As he carried it to sleep, the alarm clock that became rather warm showed 4.20am. After checking the time, he stealthily got off the bed. It was still pitch black outside. Inside the two-man hostel room, the two beds, desks and dressing tables were still covered in darkness. It was so quiet that only the sound of the clock ticking away by seconds, and his roommate Takuya Irei snoring away on the other bed could be heard.

Of course, it’s impossible for a room with 2 stinky guys inside to be clean as there’s things like clothing that were taken off and empty cans. However, there’s still some orderliness in the mess as Banagher grabbed his shirt and jeans, got off the bed without turning on the lights, and tiptoed his way to the bathroom. He quickly finished combing and washing himself, and then looked at the mirror at the sink.

He had dark brown colored eyes and a skin color of an old Middle Eastern Blood. The long hair of his was of the same color as his eyes, and it was rather smooth even if he didn’t take care of him. On seeing that 16-year-old boyish face of his that was so ordinary and nothing special, that disjointed feeling rose up in him. However, this feeling only continued until he put on that only coat he had.

The blue-based fireproof fibers had the logo ‘AE’ sewn on it. It was the jumper of the Anaheim Electronics Industrial College, and the logo of the main company Anaheim Electronics was sewn on the left side of the chest. This jumper wasn’t really so good looking that it could be worn outside practical lesson, but Banagher modified the extra jumper he bought and used it as plainclothes. The main modification was at the pocket on the collar. The crest of the Anaheim Electronics Industrial College, AEIC looked like it was removed. Of course, he wasn’t the one who removed it, but that he found a second-hand shop he was familiar with to do the job.

After putting on his clothing to suppress that ‘disjointed’ feeling, what replaced it was the realism of him being part of the large enterprise Anaheim Electronics. After slapping his face to keep himself awake, Banagher left the bathroom, checked that his roommate was still in dreamland, and intended to silently move towards the exit. However, he accidentally kicked into an object the size of a basketball on the floor.

(Hello, Banagher. Hello, Banagher.)

The two circle disks on the ball-shaped body flapped out like ears, and the impact from the kick caused Haro to be activated as it spoke in a monotone voice. Banagher frantically tried to hold down the Haro that was moving on its own and growled softly, “Quiet, Haro!” But it was too late. Takuya, who had the pillow covering his head, sniggled about, and the moment his eyes met Banagher’s, who was about to leave, he got off the quilt and sat up.

“Damn it, Banagher! You don’t care about the agreement that we’re not supposed to run away?”

Takuya roared out. His tea-colored hair was all messy, and he even forgot to wipe away the drool on his head. Though the impression his roommate give was like a big brother who was very affectionate, his popularity would likely decrease when girls see him like this. However, Banagher didn’t have time to think about this and answered back, “Didn’t you adjust the clock faster by 5 minutes, Takuya?” and carried Haro out of the apartment. Banagher put Haro on the door of the hostel and ate the sandwich he bought yesterday. Haro was jumping energetically like a ball out through the automatic door that led to the corridor.

He ran through the school campus that was linked to the hostel, ran through the stairs that linked the school atrium and the road, and arrived at an electronic carpark. The carparks that were managed by the computers automatically send the vehicles over to the locations where the highest frequency of use was. With an ID card, anyone can use it. Banagher bit onto the sandwich and sat inside the open two-seater electronic car, used his ID card to insert into the slot and pressed the start button, grabbed the steering wheel and stepped on the gas.

(Very improper, Banagher.)

Perhaps realizing that Banagher was holding the sandwich with one hand and the steering wheel with the engine, Haro’s two optical sensors flickered as it said. Haro, which had a first-level artificial intelligence in its’ ball-shaped body, was supposed to be a toy robot that’s marketed at kids, and would thus say it like this. This shouldn’t be a toy that should belong to a vocational student that’s of the equivalent of high school, but Banagher modified it and carried it around like a pet.

The streets before daylight were rather quiet. Banagher swallowed the sandwich and looked through the windshield glass of this electric and looked up at the sky. Through the clouds that were scattered in the night sky, there were numerous lights flickering through. They look like shines from the stars, but they’re not. Those were the night lights that came from the windows of shops, factories and skyscraper windows that were opened through the night. It’s the city lights that just so happened to be in the opposite direction from here. The carpet of lights that was about 6000m above in the sky covered the entire sky with a gradual arc. On the gap that linked to the skyscrapers, one could see the lights go all the way to the sky right in front. If any residents that were in the opposite direction were to see the sky, the headlamps of this electric car and the surrounding street lights would look like stars too.

The artificial ground that was built within the large cylinder had houses, office buildings, parks and other important things that made up the streets built on it. The internal structure of space colonies were almost all like this. The cylinder that’s 6.4km in diameter would spin in a definite speed, creating a centrifuge force inside the walls, creating 1G’s worth of gravity that’s similar to Earth. The artificial Earth that’s stuck on the inside of the earth, plate areas that’s 3.2km in size and 1.6km deep. Thus, the inside wouldn’t look like it would follow the inside of the ground. At the most, the joints of the plates would look a little slanted.

Day and night inside the space colony was created through the mirrors outside or through the artificial sun at the core, which also had the function of the of adjusting the temperature and creating the four seasons. The time setting was set as Greenwich Time, and the temperature itself was set to the Northern Hemisphere. Unless there’s special uses for sightseeing, this basic setting was used for all the space colonies. Thus, right now, on the 7th of April, 4.330am now, the residential area itself wasn’t too hot or too cold, and most of them were still in middle of night. Also, just like this ‘Industrial 7’, the numerous space colonies were also waiting for spring at night—of course, this include the billions of residents in the space colonies.

And as one of these billion of people, Banagher had been getting up before daylight to get to the dock to work. The work involved clearing ‘rubbish’ outside the space colonies. It was tough getting up early in the morning, but it was all okay since the general education periods could be used for sleep. It was more worth it to work 3 hours before lessons when the morning duty included extra day for night duty, more than working for 5 hours after school.

Takuya worked at the same place, but he got a mini mobile suit that had better work function, and the salary would increase with the work performance. Thus, they would race to see who would get out early. Though there’s a little gentlemanly conduct of not using underhanded means, it was all right if it was everything else, so Banagher and Takuya would think of ways to sneak out. Right now, the winning chances were about 50-50.

However, the two of them weren’t extremely poor students. They were studying in a vocational school where it’s compulsory for them to stay in the hostel, and they got their clothing and food secured. The most they only needed was some spare money. This is just a game, Banagher thought.

A game to shake my roommate off, getting a high capability mini mobile suit. A game to shake off studies, using work to get rid of boredom. Everyone’s the same too. Enjoying the game of student’s relaxation and not facing that ‘disjuncture’…

(Working all the time. At least study some more.)

It’s unknown how Haro realized this as it spoke these words that struck through him. Feeling that he was read through, Banagher answered back, “This is just outside studying!”

“The vocational students here will become future employees of Anaheim. It’s not a bad thing to test out this mini mobile suit first.”

On one hand, he wondered how he ended up making this kind of excuse, but on the other hand, he could be said to be really satisfied by this. Banagher again felt that ‘disjointed’ feeling. This was a future that he wouldn’t even dare to dream of a year ago, and as he look forward to the 12 years of wonderful future, he felt that he was just drifting with the flow like this, and yet feeling a little cold to himself for walking on the path others set in stone. However, he didn’t have anything else he really wanted to do. He would maintain his grades in the middle high tier, party around with others, and feel extremely out of place. The psychological state behind this trouble started when Banagher was small, and now it became his bad habit.

The electronic head moved through the residential area, entered the industrial area between the light industrial areas. Banagher parked the electric car at the carpark near a convenience store and walked down to the subway like usual. On thinking that he may be caught up by Takuya for being so slack, he kept his stupid bothers behind as his feet naturally quickened through the silent street.

Industrial 7 was one of the industrial space colonies Anaheim Electronics operate. Under the control of the space colonies association, the management of facilities were all controlled by Anaheim Electronics. Amongst the population of 2 million, more than half of them were workers or family members of Anaheim Electronics. Of the remaining, half of them, were of related enterprises or underground companies, and those who were unrelated to Anaheim were mostly civil servants working with government administration, policemen or firemen. They didn’t belong to any Side, and they didn’t have any self-government activity, so the Federation Army didn’t keep their army their. This space colony was basically Anaheim Electronics’ personal island.

After the war, Anaheim Electronics started to recover and absorb, becoming a large corporation called the ‘Spoon of the entire Space Army’. Thus, supermarkets, fast food chains and others in the commercial district would all have the logo of Anaheim Electronics. There would be movies sponsored by Anaheim Electronics, teams sponsored by Anaheim in away baseball games, and residents using AE credit cards to pay. Money would flow within the corporation, forming a structure where the money’s paid out and taken back. However, it was never forced, and done in a way residents would notice at all. This was the reason why Anaheim Electronics could become the largest corporation. Banagher glanced aside at the posters, where 80% of them were related to the corporation, got into the subway, and onto the platform.

The whole of the space colony Industrial 7 was just like a factory. At all times, there would be people working. However, there’s no real switch of shifts like morning peak hours. Thus, on the subway train, there’s only a collapsed drunk middle-aged man who was in his work clothes and a woman who looked like she was working in a night club and whose thick make-up was coming off. She didn’t notice Banagher as she looked emotionlessly outside the window. The expired smell of perfume inside the train would remind one of the smell of a hometown one gave up on. Banagher got onto a double seater and sat down.

The 3 layers of doors closed, and the subway train jerked slightly before moving from the platform to the tunnels leading to the outside of the space colony. It’s called the subway, but the subway in the space colonies weren’t underground, but rail tracks exposed on the outer walls of the space colony. In other words, it’s hanging on the tracks and transported outside the space colony—in outer space.

Soon after leaving the station, the air lock that was located at the ramp was locked from behind. Then, the air lock was opened from the front, and the train entered the outer space that’s full of vacuum. The sound of transport and air disappeared together through the subway, and in this silence that felt like the ears were stuffed, the monorail that went through the air lock slightly glide through the outer wall of the space colony.

As there was no air resistance, only a minimal amount of force would be required to move the subway train under high speed. In a space colony, this is an essential mode of transport efficiency, whether it’s to get to the dock or to take a cable car from the bottom of the ‘hill’, or even to ride the elevator up with an electric car. However, Banagher preferred to look at outer space from the subway train’s window as this place had a sense of release other places couldn’t provide.

There were also people who wouldn’t want to take the ride for fear of motion sickness. To create the centrifuge force of 1G, the space colony had to make one rotation about once every two minutes, and the speed would be a rotation speed of more than 600km per hour. If it were to follow the movement of the rotation, the subway train would find that outer space would continue to move, and to a passenger, it’s like shaking the bottom of a toilet bowl at high speeds. Of course, as it’s merely a really long rotation of more than 20km, it would merely look like the stars are moving. However, if one’s not caring, the mind would continue to feel dizzy after returning back to the space colony, and in worse cases, it would cause a severe psychological problem. That’s called the Coriolis Syndrome, a common environment illness amongst first generation space migrants.

However, to Banagher who was born in outer space and brought up in space colonies, looking out from the subway train to outer space was like looking through at an exhibition, something that’s merely a little different from daily life. Once he exit the space colony, he could clearly see the construction of Industrial 7 under way. Industrial 7 was between the Moon and Earth, a sealed space colony that orbited in L1 through the dark space region. It was shaped like a large oxygen cylinder, and the point that had a dock and a construction area was facing the Earth. On the other side that’s facing the Moon, there’s a population settlement building tool commonly called ‘Wheels’ that was covered up. After construction, it’s said that the cylinder would be 30km long. Right now, 18km was completed. Banagher suddenly remembered that there’s a new plate coming today.

The notice board at the hostel had the poster with the words ‘On 7th April, 1pm, there will be a new extension on a new plate which will cause inconvenience…’ and so on. This mean that there would be new artificial land added. The cylinder of Industrial 7 would be extended by another 6km, and the space colonies were floating amongst the large amount of rubbish in the last war. No matter how much it expanded, the world Banagher live in would be of such a size…

Just when Banagher was suddenly thinking about this as his mind thought of that ‘disjointment’, he saw a white object crossing through outside the window.

It wasn’t a star. It let out several exhaust of blueish-white lights, going underground through in a diagonal manner and flying over at a speed faster than the rotation of the space colony. It was only for a moment, and it looked only about the size of a small fingertip, but Banagher felt that the white afterimage that flew away looked human.

“Mobile suit…?”

That’s right, it was completely different from a mini mobile suit used for working. It was a real mobile suit. It wasn’t just a complete duplicate of a human’s dimensions as Banagher even saw the lone horn that was extended out. Industrial 7 didn’t have a factory to create mobile suits, so it couldn’t be a testing of new mobile suits here. Was the army nearby?

His pulse started to race for some reason, and his palms started to sweat. The uncanny resemblance to a white horse—no, the lone horn that gave the biggest impression made it not look like a mere white horse, but a mystical beast that appeared in legend. What was that name…

At this moment, the ‘disjointed’ world came, and it seemed that something that couldn’t be seen before appeared right in front of the eyes. However, he couldn’t find a way to describe this. Banagher put his face onto the window, wholeheartedly looking for the location of the white machine. The nightclub-styled woman who was sitting behind wasn’t moving, and the man in worker’s clothing was still sleeping and snoring loudly.

The train reached one end of the space colony cylinder and turned down the corner. The front end of the space colony looked like a round pressure tube that was sealed. The train moved onto the seal, and moved to the dock at the center—the docking bay. Banagher couldn’t find the white object and sat back. Above the windshield, one could see the docking bay linking to several large buildings near the commercial area, and the intense weight would make anyone gasp for breath. However, Banagher now didn’t care about it. he merely felt that the intense white remains in his eyes start to fade away, and that his heart started to beat wildly for some reason.

Everything began like this.

Part 4

The white machine moved through the space colony that was rotating in the vacuum and head off in the opposite direction of the docking bay, the side facing the Moon.

Similar to the other space colonies, the outer walls of Industrial 7 were of a blueish-silver color. However, it would change at the 18km point on the moon's side, becoming a tea-brown color. That's because the space colony building tool 'Wheel' was set on the front end of the Moon's side.

The wheel, that's 10km long and 6.4km in diameter like a normal space colony, looked like an Eastern teacup from afar, and what covered the space colony looked like a pencil case cover. Its work was to build the outer wall of the space colony and the plate block on the inside of the wall. Like the name 'Wheels' indicate, the space colony was 'created' out from the large cover. Once the outer wall that was built was aligned properly, the 'Wheels' would slide back until the estimated length before separating. The front end of the cover head an outlet to move the equipment and a workers' quarters, thus, even with the expansion work, the space colonies could continue to operate without being affected in any way.

And right now, Industrial 7 had the equipment of the 'Wheels' moved to the entrance—the bottom of the cup. Then, other machinery and equipment were moved in through that large machine. The white mass went by the outer wall of the 'Wheels', and in a short time, got to the Moon's side to the large machine called 'Magallanica'.

The 'Magallanica' was about 6,500m in length, and the long and thin center exposed the rotation residential area that's 1.6km in length. That unique shape earned it the moniker 'Snail'. On the two sides of the of the rotating residential areas, there were factories shown out, and they looked like little asteroids that were absorbing resources. The biological-like appearnance really fit its moniker. On the back of its main body, there's a nuclear pulse engine. Based on the fact that it could navigate on itself own, it could be said to be a giant spacesuit. However, it would be more appropriate to call it a mobile factory that had an engine due to its production ability to create, refine and even build space colonies. In fact, the Magallanica was classified as a builder of space colonies, and its dimensions were different from a spaceship.

And at an area of the Magallanica, at the place that's the equivalent to the head of s snail, there was an oval-shaped command center. The white machine slowed down right in front of it, used the AMBAC system to make a flip, grazed through the arc of windows in a bow shape and went up. There were many unmanned cameras following it, taking shots of several of the machine's parts. The main thruster on the back of the machine, the overall image of straight and curved contours and the complicated antenna that extended out from the forehead. These images were immediately analysed and shown on the multiple screens in the command room, shown into Cardeas Vist's eyes.

The dome-shaped command room that was more than 70m in diameter had a fan-shaped multi command system that gave a mixed impression between a command room of a ship that's parked and a control room of a base. On the inside of the walls of the dome-shaped space, it seemed to be filled with screens and only windows. What appeared at the middle fan-shaped metal board was a control scheme full of messages and controls. The Magallanica was a space colony builder that was meant to develop the area around Jupiter, and the command room that bore the responsibility of a central brain was large and magnificent. However, as it was now at Earth's vicinity, most of the control functions couldn't be used. Thus, only 1 quarter of the control seats were taken, and it looked somewhat relaxed.

However, every single person amongst these 20 control personnel looked rather serious,. They were staring at the multiple screens on the inside of the wall and recording the data they took down into the computers in their hands. The command room was filled with intensity, and it wasn't just because the overnight operation experiment was about to end, but that they knew that the 'UC project' itself was about to end. Cardeas, who was sitting on the command seat in this fan-shaped central command room, was also feeling this excitement.

Anaheim Electronics was requested by the Earth Federation to secretly carry out the 'UC project', and it would immediately end with the completion of this white mobile suit. However, that would be the start of the development of the plan.

The RX-0 'Unicorn', the product of this 'UC plan', would be born out of the darkness, where even the army and Anaheim wouldn't know, becoming the key onto a journey that would break a 100 year old curse. The machine that had the name of the beast of possibilities would bring release to the world or—

“RX-0, you're too close to the space colonies! The subway train's moving! What'll happen if a passenger sees it!”

An operator who also bore the secrecy of this job roared at the microphone. Cardeas was also sweating it when he saw the Unicorn close in on the outer walls of the space colony, but a daring pilot was a more reliable one. Cardeas gave a wry smile and said,

“Today's his last time piloting the 'Unicorn'. Forgive him.”

“Yes...” Even though he kept back his attitude, the operator still couldn't hide his emotions on his face as he looked at the screen. Even though he was a little overly serious, he was a rather good worker too, and Cardeas' wry smile made it even more obvious. Including the test pilots, all the workers here were Anaheim Electronics employees who were involved in the 'UC Project'. The Vist Foudation gave them a high salary in return of them to keep the company's secret and help Cardeas in his plan. Of course, every single one of them weren't people who could be bought over with money, and every one that helped out were outstanding technicians who hoped for the 'Unicorn' to be completed successfully.

Right now, the only one who wasn't a member of Anaheim Electronics was most likely Gael Chan, who was standing beside Cardeas. He was also the secretary and bodyguard. Gael, who was also of the military in the past like Cardeas, joked “As expected of what an ex-pilot would say.” He was in charge of maintaining the secrecy behind this project, and now, he should be undergoing foolproof security at the secret stronghold in Magallanica.

This man was once involved in the underground society, so he was clear with the dealings within the army and the police. If there was a need, he would do a dirty job without hesitation. Gael had a bitter look on his face, which made Cardeas feel that he had something to say. He whispered, “What's the matter.”

“We just made contact with our allies on Lunar II. A Londo Bell ship fought with the 'Sleeves', lost 3 mobile suits and let them get away.”

Gael whispered back. Londo Bell was an independent mobile squadron of the Earth Federation, and didn't have a designated control area. It was a brigade that would deal with things once there was something. The command system would obviously be different from usual, so it would be more like an external organization of the army.

And Londo Bell set an ambush around the dark space region and fought with the 'Sleeves'. To Cardeas, who had something really important to do, he couldn't leave it alone.

“So news were leaked. Did Londo Bell take any other action yet?”

“We've tried looking into news on the 'Londonio's side, but there's no information yet. The commander's really an upright person.”

“He's called Bright Noa, right? I saw him before on a television interview or something like that. Such a man...”

“RX-0 passed its final phase. All objectives complete.” The voice of the operator rang, and Cardeas looked back at the front. “Good work. The mental response to the G-force is within expectations.” “Pilot's lifesigns all all normal.” Voices of reports continued to echo, and Gael shut up behind and seemed to back away. Has it arrived? Cardeas rubbed his eyes, looked through the screen to see that the white machine had already entered back onto the trajectory and took the microphone off the control panel.

“Everyone, please swear this together with me. The activation experiment of the RX-0 has completely ended. Once it comes back, we're going to remove the test OS, seal the NT-D and activate the Laplace system.”

The air rumbled a little, and soon, the command room was covered in an urgent silence. As the workers floated under zero gravity right in front of the screen, they were grabbing their things nearby and looking at the chairman with nervous expressions.

“I'm grateful to everyone for taking part in this. The 'UC project' will never see the light of day, and everyone's accomplishment will not be passed through generations. However, I'll like to guarantee everyone that at this moment, where history will be changed, the Unicorn would play an important role. Before that day, I hope for everyone to remain silent about this and forget everything you heard here. The Vist Foundation will use its name to ensure everyone's safety. That's all.”

The 'safety' over here would mean that all the workers here would be watched by the Foundation. All their relationships and communication records would be thoroughly exposed—it's unknown how much the workers knew. Gael used his eyes to indicate to everyone to applaud, and after everyone clapped to scatter away this troubling atmosphere, Cardeas put down the microphone.

Now, all preparations were complete. The Unicorn would be sealed and handed to the recipient. If the recipient had that element within, the Unicorn would approach this recipient, carry him and lead him to 'Laplace Box'.

After that...it's impossible to predict. If the recipient didn't have that element, the seal of the Unicorn will not be broken—no, there's a bigger problem. There's no proof to indicate that such a person existed. No matter how much he thought, there wouldn't be such a beginning. Cardeas' conclusion was not to think about it. He told Gael behind him, “Proceed as according to plan.”

“Continue to track Londo Bell's movements. If we can't track the commander, we can still know of the fleet's movements if we follow their reinforcements.”

“Understood...but, aren't you going to reconsider?”

Grabbing onto the handle of the chair, Gael lowered his upper body and said to Cardeas. Cardeas looked at Gael's face.

“They not related to the Federation, but the 'Sleeves' is still a dangerous organization. There's no need for the head of the Vist Foundation to personally head out.”

On seeing Gael's expression that practically said “Think about your own age”, Cardeas couldn't help but grimace unknowingly. Even if this wasn't something really related to the Foundation, Cardeas didn't want to hand it over to other people. The reason was that if there was really someone who had such a nature, he wanted to see what kind of person that was.

“If you think of it that way, just do your work properly and safely and prevent causing trouble in this Industrial 7. Besides, there's a school I'm running here as the chairman.”

Cardeas said in a half-joking manner as he used the computer beside him to open the introductory page to Anaheim Electronics Industrial College. Gael didn't smile as he used his eyes to say 'is this really alright?' before leaving the command room. On seeing Gael's tall and huge body grab onto the handle on the corridor as he floated out, Cardeas looked back at the screen that had the logo of Anaheim Electronics and the school photo.

After keying in the special password for the chairman, Cardeas looked through the students' namelist that wasn't to be released. As Cardeas scrolled through the 5,000 students that were arranged in alphabetical order, he showed a designated person's photo on the screen, and sighed in a habitual manner.

Now that he thought about it, he really shouldn't use this place as one for dealing. However, there's no better place to hide from the eyes of the client and the developer, and there's no better place to install the Laplace system into the Unicorn. The industrial space colony Magallanica that belonged to Vist Foundation and Anaheim Electronics symbolized a good inseparable location that could fool the army and Anaheim, a secret garden to readjust the Unicorn. Cardeas silently watched the screen at the enlarged profile of the student.

Banagher Links. Currently of the Technical Resource development branch. 16 yeasrs old. As he looked at his birthday and the personal particulars, Cardeas again sighed as he looked back at the boyish face that seemed to represent his youth.