NationStates Jolt Archive

((Eegads. Yet another post that should've been here a week ago or more! Sorry we've been slow on this.))

"Wonderful," Takamichi replied. "I am quite sure we can figure something out along those lines.

((Also, because CW has NEGLECTED TO POST MORE, I can't be much more descriptive than that sentence with what I was planning on doing.

FYI: time to start new threads, dude.:D))

UC0087

Months had passed since the making of the deal with the envoys from CoreWorlds and the Clans. Coredian and Clan freighters had become a relatively common sight within Side 3 and elsewhere within the Earth Sphere, almost always accompanied with a contingent of Zeon vessels just in case, so that they could do their jobs in peace. Their job was, as per the agreement, to equip the colonies, Zeon and otherwise, with defenses against possible enemy attacks, which in and out of itself was revolutionary. FTL drives, shields and point defense turrets, all things which the Principality was new to, were being installed onto the gigantic frames of the colonies. The varied peoples of the other Sides were sceptical of this oddly altruistic act of the Principality, which was best known for crushing the Earth Federation, but let the items be installed onto their colonies nonetheless without incident.

The process was quite sluggish, however. The fact that these were items not built for the relatively frail frames of the colonies but rather for much sturdier warships had to be taken into account. This meant that the colonies themselves had to be reinforced where possible, and compromises had to be made. This meant small but still significant gaps in their defenses, especially in the case of the Clan turrets, but luckily enough their "blind spots" could still be shielded - and where the shields could not reach, leaving small gaps in that line of defense, the turrets could.

Luckily, however, the FTL drives required no such compromises, as was proven by an empty colony cylinder which had been the first to be equipped with them. The ride was a bit bumpy, but otherwise the drives worked well enough - the colony, reinforced already for the application of the weapons and the shields, took about no structural damage. The shields and the turrets had been first tested on the same cylinder to make sure the feasibility of the endeavor - and everything worked just fine. The shields themselves had been tested with point-blank fire from Mega Particle Cannons, and the lack of any significant damage had impressed the Zeon leaders. That, however, made them a bit concerned. As the defenses were being applied on all colonies, if some Side was to start a new civil war... How could they be stopped if they had the same defensive capability?

While all that was taking place, the giant satellites which had once served as the power sources of Earth were being transferred, cannibalized and in some cases just modified for use with the new defenses the colonies were being equipped with. The energy requirements of the colonies, which were high already, would go through the roof with all the new items, so this was a quite necessary move. Not to mention that as no one was supposed to live on Earth anymore, they were just acting as a navigational hazard. They would have had to be dealt with sooner or later anyway.

All in all, the defensive part of the deal was well under way.

While the installation of defenses on the colonies was under way, the Principality had received the schematics of Coredian faster-than-light devices, shield mechanisms and so forth, which had been in turn forwarded by the Zeon leadership to companies such as ZEONIC and Zimmad for their implementation on Mobile Suits, while the Principality itself focused on doing the same for its starships. The only exception to the rule was the FTL drive, as both ZEONIC and Zimmad had experience on that field already due to the drives received from Orthodox Gnosticism back in the day - meaning that those two companies would also cover the FTL drives of the space faring vessels of the Principality.

Due to the process of trial and error already started with the earlier FTL drives, the Principality was better equipped for the conversion of outside technology to something which would fit their vessels than it had been. As a result, the first Musai equipped with a working specimen of the new shield technology was out in a relatively short period of time - only some weeks rather than months. After a few catastrophic failures (among them a violent implosion, explosion and disintegration), they finally had a ship equipped with shields that actually worked as specified, increasing the durability of a badly armored Musai by at least twenty fold.

The process was as easy as it was mostly because they did not have to completely integrate the shield mechanism into the ship. While it did draw its power from the ship and of course was built into the ship, it had not been connected to the ship's own computers, but rather into its own isolated circuit, where they just opted to add a new console into the ship's bridge for the shields. Same method would be used for the FTL drive as had been used for the older ones after quite a few failed attempts to incorporate the alien technology into their own entirely.

The FTL drives had been easy as well - having all the required information at their disposal, and their earlier information gained from their experiences with the OG FTL drives, they had had no trouble to build the new ones into Zeon ships, and the very first Musai which had been refitted with the prototype drive had been a success. It had been a joint venture by ZEONIC and Zimmad, as the two companies had learned from their earlier competition that it had not been the most profitable endeavor the companies had ever had. Through cooperation, both companies stood to gain much more in the process if they managed to bring forth a working starship (and otherwise) FTL drive for mass production than if they had competed. Indeed, based on their earlier experiences, they had not expected it to be as easy as it ended up being. So far, the current incarnation of the FTL drive showed none of the problems the ones earlier had had, but... Who knew if some strange anomalies would be found later.

While those things were going on, the companies were also trying to come up with ways to incorporate the shield technology into Mobile Suits. But it eluded them - they could not just use the method that had been used on ships. There was far too little dead space beneath the armor of a Mobile Suit to keep it isolated from the main systems, not to mention that there was no space in the cockpit to add a secondary system into it anyway. That, and the Mobile Suits' reactors did not have high enough output to support a defensive shield as well as its other systems.

As a work-around, first at ZEONIC, they chose to try to build the shield around the physical shields of their Mobile Suits. It would give them a new meaning, a new reason to exist, as, even in normal Mobile Suit versus Mobile Suit warfare, they were normally just one (or at most two) hit wonders if they were hit with a beam rifle. While it would be suboptimal compared to a full shield around a Mobile Suit, which would make the physical shield completely obsolete, it was considered a better choice than not having this shield technology in Mobile Suits at all.

If they would meet success, they would have to take another look on the shape and the coverage of physical shields, as the current ones were not covering them well enough.

After some time, ZEONIC's R&D department did meet success when it came to making a working example of Coredian shield technology integrated into the physical shields of Zeon Mobile Suits. As they had realized earlier that the current Mobile Suit shields were simply too small to be cover the Mobile Suit well enough from any concentrated fire, they had created a tower shield for the purpose. Not all Mobile Suits would be able to use it, but it was deemed good enough for most Mobile Suits which were in use - and they could always make different, most of the time meaning smaller, shields for other Mobile Suits as required.

What this meant was that almost no changes had to be made to Mobile Suits already in use. Only the shields they used would have to be either refitted (as was the case with certain modern Mobile Suits which had protrusions which made the use of the tower shield near impossible) or changed to the new tower shield type which was rolling off ZEONIC factories. Some Mobile Suits had to have their more or less built-in miniature shields removed (as was the case with the many Zaku IIIs the Principality had already rolled out) to use the new shield, but that wasn't seen as a problem, as it would still increase the survivability of the Mobile Suits considerably.

While ZEONIC had already created a working system which would use the new shield technology, Zimmad was hard at work to create its own version of the same. While the currently planned system used the physical shield as a starting point as well, it had one rather sizeable difference. Instead of having it shield the physical shield itself as the ZEONIC version did, the version that was being made at Zimmad would nearly eliminate the physical shield if thus desired, as only a relatively small armored sphere would be needed in its stead , as it would then use the new shield technology on the Mobile Suit itself. Used this way, the shield technology would make the Mobile Suits themselves much more durable while going around the limitations of Mobile Suits, and would be usable universally on all of them, rather than just ones built without protrusions.

But it wasn't ready quite yet and would not be in the near future. It was much more ambitious than the ZEONIC version, and had to be universally interchangeable between Mobile Suits, like the ZEONIC shields. Just how would they manage that was the main problem. It would also probably require one of the mechanisms planted on both arms of a Mobile Suit so as to not have any gaps in the shielding - but all things considered, as they thought, it still should be less expensive resource-wise than the ZEONIC type.

(OOC: If someone is reading this, please note that this year will most likely be done much faster than the earlier ones, unless I get another visitor which requires roleplaying in this thread.)

But there were other projects in progress which were a bit more on the shady side than these official ones. Zimmad company had acquired the wreckage of a certain half-human type some time ago after the battles on Earth, which included a cockpit (separated from the body, however) received as a show of good will from the Federation forces. They had, at this point, managed to power the cockpit and shortly after hack the security of the helmet after having found out the hard way of the existence of those security measures, leaving a research assistant in a coma. The exact use of this helmet was a mystery, although it was theorized that, considering its construction and the way it attached itself to the user's head, it would be some kind of variation of the same idea as quasi-psycommu, although a bit less sophisticated due to the use of such a bulky and clumsy helmet rather than the wireless system used by the Principality.

Also, they had repaired the wreckage of the half-human type far enough to power it as well, although its arms were shot and its legs weren't doing much better. To accomplish this, they had replaced its reactor with a more conventional one. It had been a feat in and out of itself, as it had taken them a few months just to figure out the correct way of placing the damn thing into the machine, not to mention connecting it to what remained of its systems without activating the self-destruct they seemed to be equipped with.

At first they had placed a regular Mobile Suit cockpit as a stopgap measure in the hole where the real cockpit should have been and made the rudimentary connections they could to operate it. That was done during the same months others were working on the cockpit of the machine. While technically it had been a success, and they could sort of get the body to move, its stumpy arms and so forth... They couldn't keep the machine upright, even though its legs should have been strong enough to support it after all the repairs done on them, even if the legs were mostly made of something they had never seen before. Obviously, the machine was missing something crucial.

Which, as was concluded, was be something in its own cockpit. So they were forced to remove the Mobile Suit cockpit from the half-human type and start the arduous process of attempting to make the connections between the machine and its own cockpit. It wasn't quite as easy as the insertion of the Mobile Suit cockpit, as they had only made what they had considered to be crucial connections rather than bothered figuring out every connection the system would require to act at its fullest capacity. Not to mention that Zeon technology wasn't exactly fully compatible with the technology they were working on - as a result, they couldn't have connected everything even if they had wanted.

The latest part of the process was started a few months ago from current time. They had made progress, but they weren't done quite yet. Considering the lack of indepth knowledge on how the systems worked and what would have to be connected with what exactly made things rather difficult. But they were determined to unlock the mysteries of the machine - and lucky for them, the company thought so as well.

Who knew what kind of strange and innovative technologies they would find.

Shortly after managing to connect all the essentials as they thought they were supposed to be, there was a major breakthrough, as they had managed to find out just how the half-human type stayed upright. It happened during testing whether they had actually managed to combine the cockpit with the machine or not - one of the scientists had put the central helmet on and... Then it happened.

The machine's legs, for the very first time, suddenly responded - and due to the startling nature of the find, they almost instantly find another effect of the system when the machine jumped slightly upwards. It was concluded that the helmet was, after all, a part of some kind of rudimentary quasi-psycommu system, as had been theorized earlier. It seemed to act as an auto-balancer which tapped into the pilot's own sense of balance, and at the same time, it managed to tap into the reflexes of the pilot, making the machine's response times much faster. At this point they knew that if they would somehow manage to combine this system to the quasi-psycommu used in the prototype Dooben-Wolf, it would bring the Mobile Suit's reaction times up to near-Newtype levels even with an "Oldtype" pilot.

It did not take long to discover just what part in the half-human type was connected to the helmet to make this balancing effect, which, after the original find, had become the main objective of the research happening on the half-human type. In fact, all it had required was observing reactions within the half-human type itself while the system was in use - and of course, seeing what wasn't used when the system wasn't being used.

After all these findings, the Zimmad researchers began feverishly to search for means to bring these additions into use in the quasi-psycommu system. It had, after all, been an awesome find - not only would it completely eliminate the need for auto-balancers, but it also would lessen the need for Newtype pilots, as this improved quasi-psycommu would speed up Mobile Suit reaction times greatly.

At around this point in time, the Clans had sent Takamichi back to Zeon territory, although he wasn't exactly in the large fleet he had been in the first time he had arrived. At this time, he was only in a single Saber-class Strike Frigate flanked by a quartet of ships of the same class, as well as a quintet of quintets of their small gunboat support ships, each of the quintets flanking its applicable mothership. Some moderate damage could be seen along the hulls of most of the ships, although it did not seem to deter the ships from coming to Terra. Along with this small fleet of ships (although quite big by size comparison to the Zeon ships) came an extra-large convoy of supply ships and...was it colonies?

"Greetings once more from your allies from afar. This is Takahata T. Takamichi, prior negotiator of trade and peace between the Clans and Principality of Zeon. I come wishing to speak with the respective governments of the Terran Sphere, as well as bearing many gifts for all respective nations. We have much to speak about that concerns all those who live in this region of space."

On the bridge of the Sadalahn, Axis defense fleet, in the relative proximity of the asteroid base Axis

Haman Karn wasn't amused by the stunt. Not by long shot. It was an unscheduled and unauthorized fleet maneuver by the Clans no matter what the man said, one which contained some rather rather gigantic - and by extension, cumbersome - objects which not only were unnervingly close to the Earth Sphere and on a collision course with some of the Sides. Not only that, they also posed an enormous risk to traffic in the region. While Clan and Coredian supply convoys were a somewhat regular sight in the Earth Sphere - they were scheduled and agreed upon by all sides, unlike this unilateral act by the Clans.

While the Principality had made peace with the Clans, whom had assaulted the Principality and the Federation remnant, and had even gone as far as to open trade relations and align itself towards the alliance the Clans represented... There are some things you just don't do. One should do these things through proper channels, not just pop in when one feel like it with complete disregard when it comes to other people.

She concluded that it was obvious that the Clans had much to learn when it came to being nice and diplomatic towards their friends.

She opened a comm channel.

"This is Haman Karn of the Principality of Zeon. While I don't have to ask you as to why you are here since you already so graciously answered the question before it was even asked, I do have to tell you that you are running an unannounced and unscheduled operation here which is not covered by our current agreement with you. You should know by now that the Earth Sphere is relatively crowded and has quite a bit of traffic. I hope you have a damn good reason for risking every ship in the area."

A short pause.

"Ah yes, and welcome back to the Earth Sphere."

Takamichi smiled as he heard the familiar sound of a fiesty, teenaged female voice. He then ordered another comm-channel open.

"I do apologize, Karn-san, but I am on a tight schedule, and this trip wasn't exactly planned ahead of time. I had but four hours notice before I was sent here by the Council of Khans, and it seems that the transmission I had sent some five days ago when we started this journey didn't make it here. Very peculiar, but that is beside the point. I must speak with all governments residing here in the Terran Sphere. I would also suggest that you inform Zabi-dono to bring his military cabinet, as well as inform the Federation, the Riah Republic, and the cities on the Lunar surface to do likewise."

She listened to the transmission intently. It seemed as though the Clans expected the national entities of the Earth Sphere to jump instantaniously whenever they were told to do so. Five days, especially considering the (admittedly not that bad) lag in interstellar communications that they had come to observe combined with the time used to process any given transmission, wasn't exactly a whole lot to begin with. Not that it would've been a lot even if transmissions were instantanious and always reached their intended target in first shot.

And apparently this time either the message had failed to reach its destination, was stuck in tons of red tape or had gone where it was supposed to go but was a bit late in that respect. Who knew. Whatever was the case, she hadn't heard of this, and had it been processed she should have, especially considering the strategic positioning of the asteroid base. But still, official meetings of this sort... Five days is a short time.

She let out a sigh and stood up.

"Alright. We'll send a copy of this conversation to the Supreme Commander's office and tag it urgent. I can't go telling the other Sides nor the people on the Moon to show up on my own. Chain of command and all that. Haman Karn out."

She pushed herself back to her seat, and shortly after she had done so, the communications officer raised his head away from his screen.

"Alright, ready to send!"

Haman nodded.

"Send it."

And so it was done.

In the meantime, the normal cargo ships went about their business, requesting their clearances and such as they chugged along at their usual snail's pace. These little cargo ships, while well armored, were no match for even a trio of Musai Cruisers, and their small defensive fighter compliments didn't make up for it much. Be that as it may, it wasn't like the Clans were going to pull off some suprise attack against the Zeon forces. While the Khans didn't like it, they respected the Principality's claims over the Sphere of Terra. They had, after all, been there for quite a lot longer than it seems even the Houses had, since it didn't seem to have any of the remaining founder houses.

In any case, Takamichi's small escort fleet waited quietly, some of the extra supply ships providing their own repairation materials to the larger ships so that the necessary hull repairs could be made to the ships. Takamichi was personally overseeing the repairs of his own ship, directing the repair crews to where the ship needed it the most. He also had a transponder on him so that, when the ship got a return transmission from Earth, he would be the one to respond rather than the comms officer.

Shortly after the message had reached the office of the Supreme Commander, things began to happen. The governing bodies of the various Sides and of certain colonies on the Moon were contacted regarding the Clans' request.

No one seemed overly interested in the matter, however.

The Federation remnant at Side 7 rejected the request based on their own current issues at home. Side 6 declined, claiming neutrality and not having any desire to commit to anything. The grouping of sovereign Moon colonies also declined - the official story was that they were too busy for the time being to send anyone in, although in truth it was a form of protest against the Principality's meddling with their affairs. As for the remaining Sides, Sides 1, 2 and (the very small Side) 4, they all simply stated that the Principality would be allowed to act on their behalf. They were, after all, more protectorates of the Principality than sovereign entities, although on paper they were independent.

What this did was simplify matters to a great degree. Not long after the confirmation that no other faction within the Earth Sphere was going to send any people to the meeting, Garma had assembled various Admirals of the Zeon military to accompany him. With great haste they left for the Gwadan which had been waiting idly outside the space colony - and were on their way to the meeting location.

Right after launch a transmission was sent, stating that the others seemed to be reluctant to send delegations of any sort, but that the Principality's one was on its way.

(OOC: Well, this post is somewhat crappy in my opinion, but I want this to move along. If I stop to think too much it'll never get moving again.)

Takamichi confirmed with the Zeon delegates about the situation. He was a tad peeved, but he resided himself to knowing that it was the other nations' funeral if they chose not to get involved. After a few transfers of command, he headed towards the conference room, exchanging paperwork and a few other pieces of data with several members of his command staff. Once he was in the conference room, he took a seat on the far side of the table, his command staff taking the four seats adjucant to his own (two to his left, two to his right). Once there, they began mulling over data on the past conflicts between the GFFA and the Galactic Empire, noting certain tactics that both sides used, contemplating revisions in their own strategies and tactics regarding the Empire's, and so on, all the while waiting for the report of the Zeon delegation's ship's arrival.

It didn't take all that long for the Gwadan to reach the small Clanner fleet. Shortly after they had sent a transmission to the Clanners of their arrival and of the fact that they were sending in the delegation right now, two Komusais were launched with several escorts which consisted of, less surprisingly, of the current mass production Mobile Suits - Zaku IIIs. All were indistinguishable of each other. All but one, which had a horn-looking antenna protruding from its head, denoting a squad leader.

As this was the only delegation supposed to arrive... It shouldn't take too long for things to get started.

(OOC: I kind of failed to post there for a while. Sorry about that. Need to expedite this now thanks to that.)

The Zeon delegation was quickly and accurately guided to land within the large, exposed hangars at the front of Takamichi's own ship. Not surprisingly, the hangars went from the direct front of the ship (flanking what seemed to be a rather large weapon in the center of the ship) all the way to about three fourths of the way down the length of the vessel. The Zeon delegation and her escorts would find that the interior of the ship they had entered was abundant with comings and goings. Hundreds of small utility vehicles scattered about everywhere, performing the tasks that were needed for the next trip to come. Likewise, towards the far end of the hangar they were in, a convened council of several medium-ranking officers were discussing tactics regarding what seemed to be a desert planet. A hologram sat in their midst, clearly visible, and the name "Geonosis" was set atop the planet's Northern pole on the hologram.

To greet the delegation was Takamichi himself, standing alone amidst a flanking honor guard Star of Mad Cat 'Mechs. He stood in the 'at ease' position, each of the 'Mechs standing in a five-point traditional Star Formation, although in this case, the position was reversed so that the Star Commander in charge of the honor guard Star had his 'Mech positioned behind Takaimichi.

The delegation saluted in unison. It consisted of some ten people, including Garma himself. All were high ranking officers of the Zeon military, and as such, the closest thing that could be considered a military cabinet within the Principality. Although, most of the power was in Garma's own hands.

"So we meet again," he said with a slight smile on his face, "I had expected it to happen, sooner or later. I apologize for the attitudes of the other Sides. I guess they see this as us trampling on their rights as sovereign states or something of that sort."

He glanced at the Mad Cats for a moment.

"So... Shall we get to business, or is there something else that would require our attention first?"

Takamichi smiled in return, bowing slightly at the waist. "Business is always the matter of attention, Zabi-dono, and all that I have brought with me is as such. Please, follow me."

Takamichi gestured for the group to follow, and soon they were on their way to the conference room he had been in moments earlier. It took less than five minutes to cross the ship and even less time than that to get to the floor where the conference room was. Another ten steps across the hall, and they arrived within the large conference room. The conference room was set around a single round table in the center, which had enough room for Takamichi, Garma, and all of Garma's associates. Many other chairs were also set up, as if there were supposed to be others. It was more than likely these seats had been for the other governments.

Once everyone was seated, Takamichi began. "Gentlemen, as some of you may already know, our mutual ally, the Core Worlds, has been at war with the large super-nation known as the Galactic Empire. For many, many years, the Galactic Empire has kept the Core Worlds, ironically, living on the fringe of their own galaxy, and there they have been set to live."

Takamichi then pressed a button on the table, and a holo-screen began to project an image of the galaxy in question. "The Coredians, however, have been preparing for a strike into Imperial territory, more specifically into their former claims within the Core from whence their name comes from. We, the Clans, have been called to provide a distraction for the Core Worlds and their allies, the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, before their attack into the Core."

Takamichi then typed a few things into a keyboard placed within the table just in front of him. The image then highlighted five planets, several of them way outside of the Core of the galaxy. "We plan to assault several key Imperial worlds as the means of the distraction. We also hope to cause significant damage to these worlds, but we lack sufficient firepower in orbit to manage it."

Takamichi then sat forward in his chair, folding his hands onto the table. "I have read that, during your year-long war with the Earth Federation, you utilized a tactic known as a Colony Drop. We wish to use this tactic, and we need your help to do it."

Garma began to grin wryly as he listened to Takamichi. They wanted to re-enact the second worst atrocity committed during the War of Independence, right behind the pointless mass gassings of innocent Spacenoids. For the greater good of all. He noted that the Admirals around him were whispering. Some of them were quite clearly stunned and horrified by the request, while others, of which some were indeed present to plan the original drop, were not quite so.

Sure, it was a sound strategic move if you were willing to take the chance of sacrificing millions of innocent civilians in the process if the attempt failed, like it did in the War of Independence. For a moment he thought that maybe Takamichi hadn't taken that into account, but only for a moment.

It was obvious that they had thought this through.

"Seems it was a good thing the others didn't show up," Garma stated matter-of-factly, "After hearing that I'm sure many of them would've left. Especially the Federation people. Them hearing you say that..."

He sighed. The idea was starting to really sink in. It didn't mean he liked it, but...

"I guess you brought those gargantuan colony-like structures with you to replace the colonies you'd use in this... Endeavor?"

Takamichi nodded, his expression cold and emotionless as he observed the reactions of all who were present. Garma's reaction was the one he wanted to see in particular, and he was quite surprised, although not visually so, to see him reacting in such a fashion.

"Correct," he replied. "It would be pointless to build our own and drop them as we make sure that everything we build is quality work. Besides, I doubt that even you, Zabi-dono, would pass up on the opportunity to replace older, outdated models for the ones which we have brought. They are easily twice the size, much more heavily armed and armored than your upgraded Colonies, and are easily capable of surviving long-distance extra-galactic travel. I am quite sure than ten of the outdated upgrades are a justifiable trade off."

Garma found Takamichi's lack of emotion somewhat unsettling, even if it didn't show from his own expression or demeanor. They were discussing colony drops like they were a common occurrence in war, and that was something that disgusted him, again not shown by his outwardly actions. But...

He heard a few objections from his Admirals about the outdatedness of the colonies, not to mention the snide remark on their quality. While the Zeon military wasn't responsible for the making of the colonies, they still saw it as an attack on the pride of the people of the Earth Sphere.

"... Yes... Yes," he replied, nodding slightly, "That does sound good, especially if your claims of them being so much better and more spacious are true. Although..."

He put his hands on the table, clasping them.

"You do realize just how unreliable a colony drop is? Surely you watched the entire entry? It shows perfectly well how even a slight deviation in the colony's flight path can even end up changing the continent it hits. So..."

A momentary break.

"Are we talking strictly about military targets, or is there a chance that, if we gave the colonies to you, that they might hit a civilian target by mistake?"

Takamichi sighed, closing his eyes. He realized how inhuman he was being at this point, but he had seen too many years of constant war, and it made him seem cold. His voice settled for a moment.

"Gentlemen, I know my manner of speaking on this as a matter-of-fact tactic is unsettling, but you must understand something," he said, typing more into the holo-screen to present a video of the Death Star above a planet very similar in appearance to Earth.

"Gentlemen, what you see here is one of the Empire's super weapons, known as the Death Star," Takamichi continued. "Please observe what happens next."

The video then began, showing the Death Star orbiting the planet that looked like Earth. A large, rounded-out dish in the Death Star's Northern hemisphere began to glow green, ever so slowly, before a stream of smaller lasers converged into a central point above the dish. The dish then fired a massive laser, which struck the planet. Within a mili-second of the planet being struck by the laser, it imploded for a brief second before exploding outwards, sending a ring of fire into the abyss of space. There the video would cut, and Takamichi would then address the convened party.

"Roughly a billion civilians died in that single, unwarranted strike upon a pacifist planet," he said, a sorrowful expression upon his face. "Does not the Empire deserve something similar in return? Does such a merciless nation deserve mercy?"

He had seen the Death Star attack before as he had been going through the records the Clans and the CoreWorlds had given the Principality before, so he wasn't that surprised by it.

"The Empire? No," said Garma, shaking his head slightly, "They deserve all the death they get. What I have seen of their efforts even makes my brother's actions pale in comparison. I understand the need for a weapon that could devastate entire planets that are being used as major military bases. Yes, I do understand that quite well. But you didn't answer my question."

"Could the colonies fall on civilian targets by accident? Or..."

He glanced at his Admirals. They were rather silent now, after seeing how the Death Star works. It showed that many of them hadn't bothered going through the records unlike Garma.

"Are you considering them already a lost cause?"

Takamichi mentally sighed this time. He had been trying to avoid answering this question, but it looked like he was going to have to do it anyways.

"Only one planet, Kuat, is susceptible to a significant loss of civilian life," he finally said, after a moment of tense silence. "While I understand your concerns about loss of civilian life, Kuat isn't exactly a supporter of the Core Worlds, either politically or socially.

"As for the other planets," he continued, "Fondor is a heavily industrialized planet that has no civilian population to speak of, Geonosis' population lives under the surface of the planet since it is a desert planet, Kamino is a water planet and, as this obviously entails, its native population lives under the surface of the vast oceans, and the final planet, Jaemus, is used for experimentation on innocent life to create new weapons of war."

Garma nodded after each planet Takamichi listed. While he said that only one of them had a population that was vulnerable to a colony drop, it was obvious that it might also have a very adverse effect on the underground dwellers as well as the underwater dwellers.

But judging from what Takamichi was saying, they were either expendable or so deeply affected by the Galactic Empire that they couldn't really be considered civilians anymore. Or maybe whatever their planets were being used for was well worth the risk of killing civilians in the process, as it would probably slow something down.

Garma didn't like being forced to make this kind of a decision without all the information on the table, and it seemed that this was urgent, so even if he asked for the information, he wouldn't have time to review it to make an informed decision.

No, he didn't like that one bit. But... Judging from the actions of the GE as they destroyed entire planets without remorse, he thought, whatever is done to them would probably be justified. Even if it involved killing some civilians. Surely even a few colony drops wouldn't manage to kill as many as the Death Star could if they missed their targets.

"So I take it you do consider them a lost cause," he said, unclasping his hands while keeping them on the table, "Why else would you consider such a solution in the first place?"

He idly tapped the table a few times with his right index finger.

"Has this plan gone through the Core Worlds? And if so, are they supportive of using this kind of unconventional attack against GE planets? Or did they leave the specifics of the distraction to you?"

"They left the specifics up to us," he replied. "The Council of Khans and the Coredian government do not see eye to eye on tactics. While normally we find the slaughtering of civilians to be very dishonorable, the Empire has shown that they will not show the same honor that we possess. Thus, the Council has agreed unanimously, albeit reluctantly, to use similar tactics against the Empire to further the end of this war."

Takamichi sighed audibly, closing his eyes briefly. "Believe you me, I wish things could be different, but enough about conflicts of morality," he said, opening his eyes to show that it was business time now. "If I was to give the order to redirect fifty cargo ships to assist in transfer of the civilian populations of the ten colonies we want, how quickly do you think we can have this done by? I've only been given, at the most, a month to have the colonies prepared for departure."

A strained smile came across Garma's face as he crossed his arms.

"Well... That shouldn't take too long, all things considered. We've been building new colonies to accomodate all the people in a satisfactory fashion ever since the war. Right now, we have a few near-empty colony cylinders which were put into use in Side 4 not too long ago... And a couple to help with the population problem in Side 3... They shouldn't be too full either. And I guess the couple of refugee colonies could be replaced with something a bit more permanent..."

A short break, as he glances at the Admirals.

"All it requires is some reassigning of colonies. Sure, it'll make some people angry, but that's life. A month should be more than enough."

"Wonderful," Takamichi replied. "I can have my ships ready in a matter of moments to assist in the transferal."

Takamichi then began typing into the panel before him once more, several pictures that were obviously the Shoal Zone appearing on the holo-screen.

"I am also wondering if we may have access to your Shoal Zone to use as extra pieces with which we could use as a blanket shield in front of the colonies to prevent their destruction by Imperial Garrison forces. Would it be alright with you if we did?"

"Sure," Garma replied, shrugging, "It's full of useless garbage that we can't even reuse thanks to rather thorough irradiation caused by indiscriminate use of nuclear weapons in the early days of the war. Not to mention that it's full of all kinds of unsavory types who have made it their home, which has reduced the desire to go explore the place for usable parts even further. So if you go there, you should bring an armed escort. Who knows who might think you're invading their turf if you go there."

Garma glanced at the Admirals again. They didn't seem too ready to give their opinions.

"Anything else you wanted to discuss right now?"

Takamich, too, looked at the Admirals, scanning their faces. He could see a lot of them did not like what he had proposed, yet they seemed reserved to speak their minds.

"Nothing, at this moment, that concerns your Military Cabinet, Zabi-dono," he replied, turning off the holo-screen. "As for the pirate problem, we'll take care of that for you as a form of payment for allow use to salvage the Shoal Zone."

"Then I guess we're done," he said and stood up. The Admirals did the same.

"We'll trade ten of our colonies for your five colonies, and allow you to clean up the Shoal zone and take whatever you find with you for your war effort. Who knows, you might even get lucky and find some near-intact and irradiated colony cylinders floating about."

And having said that, it was obvious they were ready to leave.

Takamichi bowed at the waist once more, having stood up as well. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, honorable Sovereign and Military Commanders. May you live long and live fruitful lives."

And, pretty soon, the Zeon representatives were escorted back to the hangar by a Point of five Elementals, each wearing ceremonial armor rather than normal combat armor, although this is not to say that the ceremonial armor was less than normal combat armor.

----------------------------------------

As soon as the Zeon ships began to clear out of range of the Clan ships and had taken with them the larger Colonies, a massive, three hundred kilometer long ship appeared via its jump drive, escorted by an entire Galaxy of warships to protect it. The massive ship would then ascend to a point that was above the general traffic of the Earth Sphere. It was quite a sight for anyone in the Earth Sphere who saw the ship and its escorting fleet. It was very obvious that this ship was coveted by the Clans as they kept a tight-knit formation around it as it moved towards the Shoal Zone and began its job of gathering up the thousands of fragments. To assist it in this endeavor, thousands upon thousands of small (http://www.starcraftwire.net/gallery/data/517/SCV.png) drones (http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/starcraft/images/thumb/b/bc/SC_Ghost_Probe.jpg/180px-SC_Ghost_Probe.jpg) flew freely from the massive ship to begin tearing apart and moving pieces back to the ship to be stored and sorted through. The ship would then take what was considered salvageable and smelt it down into base minerals and elements to be turned into ammunition for the coming conflict. Pieces that were either too irradiated or deemed too difficult to smelt down were stored in separate portions of the ship to be used as physical shields for the Colonies in the future drop operations.

In the meantime, Takamichi's fleet would follow, after being given proper clearance, the Zeon fleet back to Side 3, at which point they would wait for the proper clearance once more to begin the process of helping the civilians pack their belongings properly and efficiently before ferrying them to one of the Neo Colonies, as they had been so dubbed.

Office of the Supreme Commander, Zum City, Side 3

"... As for the new colonies," said a man in a Zeon military uniform, reading from a file in his hands, "They seem safe. And they weren't lying, they do have enough space to accomodate the population of two of our space colonies and then some. And that's when compared to our closed types. Hell, it'll count for closer to three, if not even four colonies for the others."

Garma grinned as he listened to the report.

"So we were right in doing this, then. And the situation with Loum?"

"The Clans are clearing it up, as agreed," said the man, continuing to read from the file, "They're being very thorough. Once they're done, the reports say that Side 5 should be re-colonizable."

"Yes," Garma responded, nodding, "I've been counting on that. As things are moving, we're going to make the populations of the two refugee colonies into the first new colonists of Side 5. That should be ample repayment for our inaction on their part."

"Sir, isn't that a bit...?"

"No. It's not. So few people survived the fighting that took place on Side 5... There'd be only a handful people who could contest this legally anyway. And that'll give the Side the initial population it needs."

"If you say so, Sir."

Garma sighed.

"Yes. What's the situation with the other colonies? We're going to need to send them a lot more than just those two for these."

The man changed a page on the file.

"Side 4 seems willing to do the switch. As thought, the amount of colonists on their three newest colonies isn't all that high, and they've had some unpredicted setbacks while setting up the regular civilian infrastructure. They didn't say what or why, but... I guess that doesn't matter to us a whole lot, now does it."

"So that's five accounted for. What about the colonies here?"

"Well... If we're to put two of the new colonies here, that means we should send them four in turn. But thanks to the one 'excess' open-type sent by Side 4 thanks to our negotiations, we can drop that to three. And, as it stands, we have three relatively new colonies we can send in. That basically means that the colonists aren't really rooted to their colonies yet. They're also a lot less densely populated than most colonies, so it'll cause a lot less aggravation among the general population."

Garma grinned to that wryly.

"And," he said with an amused tone in his voice, "I bet the promise of larger apartments for no extra cost isn't making our job any more difficult."

The man nodded, smiling a little.

"Yes, they seem to be very happy with that, even if it means going through the hassle of moving again... And of course, waiting a few weeks for the actual infrastructure to be built."

"That's eight colonies so far. What about the last ones?"

"Well... As you instructed, we've been conducting negotiations with some of the other Sides. Right now it seems Side 6 will end up with it, as they're giving the most on top of the two colonies that were a requirement for anyone to get it in the first place."

The man took the paper from the file and placed it in front of Garma.

"As you can see, their offer is very generous. And they intend to keep up to the schedule of a few weeks."

"Hmm. This looks promising."

And so, the conversation went on.

The job of cleaning up the Shoal Zone was proceeding smoothly, although small wrinkles did arise. For one thing, pirates were a factor, and they frequently attacked the small drones that were harvesting the materials within their territories. Skirmishes between old fighters, ships and mobile suits and the Clan missile gunboats and fighter wings were quite frequent and very deadly, mostly for the pirates. However, the Clans did suffer casualties, although small in number.

At one point, the pirates had been brazen enough to try and attack one of the Saber-class Strike Frigates. Unfortunately for them, they ended up on the wrong end of an Extended Range Behemoth Laser. After that little incident, conflicts tended to be small, usually just between fighter wings and mobile suits with very rare warship engagements involving, at the most, a Star of Clan Gunboats and usually a pair of hijacked Salamis-class cruisers with supporting Saberfish fighters.

During that time, the Clans had managed to collect quite a few semi-intact colony pieces. Many of them were in such good condition, if you could call it good, that the Clans managed to salvage more than enough pieces to rebuild almost six whole Colonies, the most recent of which still needing a few more pieces that were in route to the PHACT ship.

And all within the first five days. Takamichi smiled at the progress as he relayed the progress of the salvage efforts to both his superiors and Garma.

Everything was going according to plan.

The transportation of colonists in Side 3 and Side 4 were moving forward faster than anticipated, leaving the colonies empty about the time Takamichi sent his progress report. Their low populations and the enthusiasm of the colonists had sped up the process greatly, even if it meant that they initially would have to live in temporary homes before the colonies would be ready for them, which had begun with haste the day the colonies had been received from the Clans.

Even during the time when the colonists were still being shipped out of the colonies, the buildings and the likes inside them were being taken apart to be shipped into the new colonies so as to reduce the cost and time of rebuilding the infrastructure they would lose due to the transfer. Basically due to that, the entire process would take some more time than the five days used for the transportation of the colonists, but still, they were well on schedule.

As for the refugee colonies, things were going quite well. While the colonies were nearly bursting with people, they were also much more willing to travel with less personal space than the citizens of Side 3 or even 4, ending up with larger amounts of people transported per travel between the colonies. As was the case with the colonies in Side 3 and 4, the people would have to wait in temporary housing until more proper housing was ready - although due to the sheer amount of people coming in, finishing the transfer would take quite a bit longer. But it couldn't be helped.

The last colony had found its way to Side 6 which had paid quite a bit extra to get it. They had, much like the others, chosen to transfer the populations of two of their newer colonies to the new and improved one, and were quickly catching up on Sides 3 and 4, and they had finished transfering their people three days after the others had, but just like with the others, actually finishing up with the colonies would take a bit longer.

Once twelve days had passed, the refugee colonies were sent to the Clans. While they had been the most populous, their interiors were left untouched, as everything was to be rebuilt from the ground up. The others would soon follow, but not yet.

Things were still going on schedule.

Many things occured in the space of fifteen days after Takahata had sent his report to Garma and his own superiors. Some things were good. Others...well, you know how things go.

As the Clan Mining Operation in the Shoal Zone progressed, the Pirates had managed to bide their time, forming an alliance of the various pirate groups residing within the Shoal Zone. After careful planning and staging, the Pirates, in a bold move, attacked the PHACT ship directly, the massive, three hundred kilometer ship seemingly unprotected. Their initial assault against the ship was devastating as thousands of its drones were annihalated in the first barrage from the hodge-podge of Pirate capital ships, each ranging from cobbled-together junk ships made from various ship parts to full-fledged Federation and Zeon battleships that were from the Battle of Loum. Within mere seconds of their barrage, the Pirates began launching their payloads of mobile suits and fighters that had been pulled from the wreckage of that same battle mentioned before and repaired.

However, within roughly six seconds of their smallcraft deployment, the Pirates were in total disarray. The PHACT Defense Fleet, which had seemingly not been anywhere near the massive ship, suddenly appeared on top of the Pirates. Now within range of the entire Clan fleet, from broadside guns to point-defense weapons systems, the Pirates were thoroughly, for a lack of a better term, screwed. Within less than two minutes, the larger ships had torn apart the entire Pirate fleet, sparring not a single craft from their deadly onslaught. When all was said and done, only wreckage and a single Magellan Battleship was left. The Magellan, unable to flee or continue fighting, transmitted its surrender.

"To the leader of the Clans, this is Shiro Amada, captain of the remaining ship and de facto leader of the Pirate Alliance. I hereby offer our surrender and-"

A single Clan warship then flew forth towards the Magellan, it's bow pointed straight towards the Magellan's own. The size difference, if one could see from the broadside of both craft, was staggering, to say the least.

"Shiro Amada, this is Takahata Takamichi of the Clan forces currently within the Earth Sphere. Your brazen attack against our forces has endeared you as only an enemy to us, and, as such, you will be made an example of here and now."

Within seconds of the transmission from Takahata, a wideband video link would flood the entire Earth Sphere communications network, depicting the image of the lone Magellan and its demolished fleet surrounded by the Clan defense fleet. Takahata's voice would then fill the void of silence.

"Take heed, people of the Earth Sphere. Today we bring to you one Shiro Amada, a Pirate leader who has boldly and blatantly attacked your ally, the Clans, in an unwarranted show of defiance to our generous offer to reopen a portion of Lagrange point which the former Side 5 once stood. He and his cohorts have openly shown that they do not support the progress which we have endorsed towards your governments."

At the end of the word "governments," a single, massive beam of green energy would suddenly envelope the Magellan battleship, making it disappear in a spectacular explosion within a mere tenth of a second. As the debris from the destroyed ship scattered into the void of space, Takahata's voice would continue.

"Let this be a lesson to you all. Those who stand in the way of progress will be destroyed. Any more shows of defiance towards our cleansing of Side 5 will be dealt with accordingly."

And from that day, nothing would happen to the Clan forces that was untoward. Progress was steady, and by the twentieth day of the month well over fourteen Colonies had been reconstructed and stored on the PHACT ship, and another six, amazingly, were in the process of being reconstructed. It was estimated that these six would be finished by the 24th day.

Office of the Supreme Commander, Zum City, Side 3

Garma felt somewhat disgusted by the ways of the Clans as he watched the short feed sent by the Clans on the screen in his office. While they had been given the authority to deal with the pirates in any way they liked, showing off their supposed strength in such a way was bound to create animosity towards them. Had they just dealt with it quietly...

But then he thought of the name of the pirate leader.

Shiro Amada?

He scratched his chin.

I've heard that name before.

He opened the second highest right-side drawer of his desk and took a laptop from it, closing the drawer after having done so. He placed it on the desk, opened it and powered it up.

Wasn't that the name of...

He put a search on archives from during the war, cross referencing on the names "Sahalin", "Amada" and "Apsalus" for added effect.

Multiple hits. During the war, there was a rather sizeable Federation presence in the area where the Apsalus was being made. It was one of the last territories with such strong resistance. If it weren't for the eccentric nature of the supervisor of the project, it wouldn't have been done in that place to begin with.

Garma grinned ever-so-slightly. Indeed, the name Shiro Amada came up on several attacks on the then-prototype Apsalus. It appeared that during the Apsalus' development, the two hit it off. In fact, it was thanks to her that he even survived after the massive defeat of the Federation. Aina Sahalin and Shiro Amada.

Small world, thought Garma. He had met the pair after the war a few times. First during the festivities after the war, accompanied by Aina's brother, Ginias, the man behind the Apsalus Project. He was sent into a mental institution soon after the fact due to his deteriorating mental state, which was deemed to endanger those working with him after several reported... Outbursts. He had himself gone to tell the Sahalins of what had happened, and the couple had happened to be present there at the time. He had met them in passing a couple of times more, but they weren't really all that memorable.

As it was entirely possible that it was some other Shiro Amada, he went out of his way to check the profile of the man. Giving credence to the assumption was that his current location was unknown and he was wanted by several Sides for piracy... And that he had been widowed, based on an aged report, during a raid on commercial shipping by people assumed to be Federation remnants some three years back. Even his kid had died in the raid. And Garma had never even heard of this.

Poor bastard, he thought as he shook his head while shutting down and closing the laptop, Rest in peace.

With that, he opened the drawer again and put the laptop in it, after which he half-heartedly closed it once more, sighing shallowly.

--

During the time the live feed was sent to the Earth Sphere and after it, everything had been running quite smoothly when it came to transferring people and taking out unneeded materials from the colonies themselves. By the twentieth day, the colonies from Sides 3 and 4 were being shipped to the Clans without incident. By twenty fourth day, the day when the latest six colonies "rebuilt" by the Clans were to be completed, the last colonies from Side 6 had been sent to them.

And so, the Earth Sphere had kept its part of the bargain.

Takahata was pleased by the amazing feat of having been able to rebuild a total of twenty of the space colonies that had been left in the Side 5 Shoal Zone. While rickety in comparison to the additional ten colonies provided by the Earth Sphere in general, they would serve their purpose, if only in a miniscule fashion. As he watched the final ten colonies being attached to the PHACT ship, Takahata ordered the signal to the five Super Colonies that they had brought with them.

The five "double wides," as some of the Zeons had called them, suddenly vanished. Less than a milisecond later, they had replaced themselves in synchronous orbits with their appropriate Sides. The Clan crews, which had moved the colonies into place via their jump drives, each left the gargantuan machines on a semi-autopilot. Each colony had a password set, each individual colony having its own password, that would only be transmitted to the replacement Earth Sphere crews so that they could take over. From then on, the Colonies would be under complete control by their appropriate governments.

As the Clan fleet began its departure, Takahata would then send a transmission directly to Garma himself.

"Thank you, Zabi-dono. Your people's contribution to the war effort against the Empire is greatly appreciated and shall not be forgotten. While I, as a person, would wish to hold an opening ceremony for the Colonies, my duties must come first. I believe we shall be seeing each other in the future. Next time, though, I'll make sure that that warning of our arrival gets through to you. I'll bring some whiskey with me. May you and yours take care."

And before Garma could reply, the Clan fleet would disappear in a brilliant flash of white light, leaving behind them a Lagrange point cleaned of debris and five generous gifts.

Office of the Supreme Commander, Zum City, Side 3

"We have taken full control of the two colonies, Sir."

A woman in a red uniform stood before him with an opened file in her hands, looking at its contents. The cover had a Zeon emblem on it, with the words PRINCIPALITY OF ZEON below it. All in all, nothing too unusual.

"The other Sides have taken full custody of theirs as well, except for the new colonists of the colony of Side 5, as per our agreement with their officials. We'll keep control of the colony until such time that that they actually have "

Garma smiled slightly.

"Good," he said, "Just as we thought. Their efforts allow for recolonizing to begin. Now all we have to do is rebuild the Side."

"Yes, Sir," she responded, turning a page on the file, "and that is under way already. Two colonies have already been scheduled to be built for that Side."

Garma nodded.

"Yes, that's what we agreed upon in the meeting earlier. We want Side 5 to be reinstated as a fully fledged colony cluster as soon as possible."

She turned another page on the file.

"As for the five colonies and the colonists themselves... According to the reports, everything has been running smoothly. The building operations were not slowed at all by the FTL test nor the crew changes, and here in the Principality, they are almost complete. Same for Sides 4 and 6. The colony at Side 5 is taking a bit longer, but that was to be expected, what with their greater number of people and so forth. All in all, the project is still on schedule."

"Good, good," he said, pushing his back at the back of his seat, "I just hope we won't run into some unexpected trouble with them."

He sighed.

"Was that all?"

The woman shook her head.

"There is this, Sir," she said, taking a paper out of the file and placing it in front of Garma, "You may find this interesting. It's the latest variant of the Dooben-Wolf that is currently being built."

Garma's smile turned into a grin as he browsed through the paper.

"This is... I wasn't aware we were this far in our reverse engineering projects already."

"It appears it wasn't all that difficult," she replied, nodding, "The systems weren't technologically that much more advanced than what we already had. Innovative, yes, but not all that different."

And thus the conversation went on for a while.

Mobile Suit hangar, ZEONIC Company R&D base, somewhere in Side 3

Two people in Zeon pilot suits were standing in front of two Mobile Suits, near their chest level, on a platform with railings and several, low doorways to stop them from falling off accidentally. One of them standing in front of one Suit, watching that one particular Suit of their choosing intently. There was a slot for a third Suit on their left side, but it was empty.

One of the pilots turned his head slightly, now looking at the other one's Suit.

"Guess this'll be the last run, huh."

The other pilot turned towards the first speaker, crossing her arms.

"That's what I was told, yes. They're satisfied with the status of these Suits. The new technology obviously works. "

Now the first speaker turned to face the second as well. Properly.

"Yeah," he said, "I heard a rumor we're on a war path now. Something to do with Zimmad's current project. That 'Dooben-Wolf' they've been making for the last year or so."

"And I heard that ZEONIC's already signed us up for the testing phase of some new Suits," she replied, "Some kind of Ga-Zowmnn variant. The schedule's a bit open, though."

"Hmm," murmured the male pilot, glancing at his current Suit momentarily, "Think those could be the new Suits we're gonna beat Zimmad with?"

She shrugged.

"Could be. Probably. I don't know. But we're test pilots with unique knowledge on what to expect from Suits with these new technologies. I find it hard to believe that they'd leave us out of the loop now."

The man nodded in silence, and started looking at his Suit again.

After a few moments, he said, "Well, I guess it's time to go on the last run on our Kämpfers, then. Can't keep the commander waiting..."

The woman smiled and nodded as she pressed a button to open the cockpit of the Mobile Suit, after which she jumped over the railing, straight into the cockpit. The man did much the same.

Soon, the platform automatically moved out of the way and the locks which kept the Kämpfers in place were unlocked, allowing them to leave without breaking the place. Then the two walked up to the hangar door which had opened moments before they had reached it.

Shortly after, the two Suits flew out of the hangar to meet with the third Suit.

Just like ZEONIC Company, Zimmad Company had had its own modified Mobile Suits it tested the new technologies on before going forward with their current project to upgrade the Dooben-Wolf even further. While ZEONIC had gone and altered three of its own, dated MS-18E Kämpfers, Zimmad had done the same to two MS-09RII Rick Dom IIs, which were just as dated as the Kämpfers. It was a way to cut costs and to make sure the seemingly innovative technology actually worked well enough on Mobile Suits without gambling with their latest Suits.

But both companies had gone about it differently. Sure, both companies had begun the arduous process of reverse-engineering with the two stripped down Colonial Raptors shortly after receiving them, leaving them at a relatively similar starting point. This particular project was relatively speedy, as Colonial technology was not all that much more advanced than that of the Principality; not to mention the fact that the Principality already held some schematics of their technology. The first working copies of their reactors and thrusters were built within months by both companies independently, even if they were still being actively worked on.

Not long after this, the Clans assaulted Earth, and the Principality managed to acquire what amounted to two 'Mechs, or half-human type as it was known within the Principality. One of them was simply disabled with its cockpit still in the 'Mech and its reactor still intact, while the other one had lost its cockpit due to ejection and its reactor had broken down to a point where it was impossible to work on it, but they had managed to find an ejected pod, or cockpit, to go with it.

The more intact 'Mech was sent to ZEONIC, while the other was sent to Zimmad. And here is where their projects began to truly deviate: The Colonial derivative reactor used a form of fuel, Tylium, which was quite rare and somewhat costly to refine. Shortly after procuring their 'Mech, the researchers at ZEONIC came to the inevitable conclusion that its reactor would fit their needs much, much better, as it used water as fuel, which was deemed to be quite a lot more abundant than Tylium ever would be. It did not require a whole lot of work on the Colonial Raptor's thrusters to make them work with the Clan reactor, and shortly afterwards ZEONIC possessed a system which used both Clan and Colonial technology in unison.

Both companies came to the conclusion that some form of generating Minovsky particles would be required so as to allow the use of M particle-based weapons. ZEONIC, having a system which ultimately used water as fuel, ended up with a Minovsky Generator which relied more heavily on the Clan derivative reactor to keep it running, since they didn't see water as a commodity which would run out any time soon. Zimmad, however, constrained by the Tylium-using reactor of the Colonial Raptor, made a system which had the Colonial derivative start the Minovsky Generator while it would keep itself powered afterwards, so as to cut the amount of Tylium used in combat use.

But since Zimmad had not used any excess time on reverse-engineering yet another reactor unlike ZEONIC, they were well ahead in the competition to create the first Mobile Suit which truly incorporated all the new technologies. They had chosen the most complex Mobile Suit they had that was still in prototype phase and usable by more than a handful of people for this, which was the Dooben-Wolf. As the ZEONIC Company found itself playing catch up, they ended up on a Mobile Suit that had far less special features than the Dooben-Wolf: Ga-Zowmnn, the latest model in a long list of transformable Mobile Suits made by ZEONIC.

And thus had they reached the current situation.

(OOC EDIT: In case anyone's wondering about the HUGE amount of edits done the day this post was posted, it was because I suddenly realized how much I dislike calling Zeons "Zeonics" and using the term "Zeonic" beyond using it when talking about the ZEONIC Company, which is the reason why I started overusing "Zeonic" in the first place.)

ZEONIC Company R&D base, somewhere in Side 3

"... How's things on your end?"

"Busy, busy. Can't seem to get a break these days. And you?"

Two researchers working on the project had met while on the way to different parts of the facility.

"Same crap. They're really serious about this whole thing," replied the first speaker, sighing, "How's the wife and the kids?"

"You know, the usual," said the second one, "These hours are killing me, the kids and my damn marriage... And yours?"

"Not good here, either. The wife's going on about how I love my work more than her and all that..."

"Heh, sounds familiar. Gotta hope this thing gets finished and soon, eh."

"Yeah," the first one said, "What's the rush, anyway?"

"What, you don't know?", said the second, surprised, "It's because we're fighting over who gets the first next generation Mobile Suit ready. It's either us or Zimmad, and they've got some months on us. And the first gets all the publicity, the glory and whatever that comes with it."

"Well," said the first speaker, scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment, "you know me... I never pay attention to that stuff."

"And that's your problem, you always..." said the second, interrupting his speech mid-sentence as he glanced at the door they were about to pass, "Oh, looks like we'll have to continue later."

"Yeah yeah. Talk to you later."

"Later."

UC0088

The competition between Zimmad and ZEONIC had intensified as UC0087 drew to a close. While neither company really stood to lose too much even if they would come in second, both still wanted to be the first. It was, indeed, mostly a matter of principle. Or pride. ZEONIC Company did not want to end up being "bested" by Zimmad, and vice versa. ZEONIC Company was traditionally the premier Mobile Suit manufacturer and they were determined to stay that way, while Zimmad Company simply could not lose on the principle that they were so much ahead of ZEONIC - losing this far ahead would mean a loss of prestige, imaginary or otherwise.

By January 2nd of UC0088, the Zimmad Company's long and arduous project finally bore its fruit: The very first prototype of the new YMS-26C-R Dooben-Wolf which incorporated many innovative technologies and a height reduced by about ten meters was going through initial test trials. Technically this meant that they were first - but the Mobile Suit had to be tested thoroughly before it could be declared a winner, giving ZEONIC some more time to finish its project. But based on the data gathered on earlier models of the Dooben-Wolf and so forth, there was no reason to believe that any problems would surface.

Whether Zimmad would win this particular competition or not, even though it was expected, remained to be seen.

Mobile Suit hangar, Pezun asteroid base

"... And this," the woman in a Zeon uniform stated to a group of high ranking Zeon military officials, "Is the Zimmad Company's newest variation of the Mobile Suit Dooben-Wolf, surrounded by two of the older variations to demonstrate the change in scale."

While the group continued talking amongst itself, one of them spoke up.

"Exactly why is it so much smaller? What has changed?"

"Based on what I have been told, it's because they have incorporated alien technologies into the Mobile Suit. There's no longer a need for much internal space to be used for propellant and such. As to why they chose to make it smaller than try to fill the space with something else, a smaller Suit is obviously harder to hit, requires less material to be built, is easier to incorporate into the militaries of outsiders and so on and so on."

"What about performance?"

"Weapons-wise, not much has changed. Everything is a bit smaller, but yield is pretty much the same. The beam weapons have been largely unaffected by the change. There is a nuclear component to the smaller missiles, however," she said, which caused a small outburst of talk within the group, "Which was approved by Zeon officials."

She took a small breath.

"Acceleration on this version far exceeds anything we have had before. It can far exceed what is tolerable by human beings, but it has safety limits in place to stop this from happening by accident. And the number of vernier thrusters has been increased to some two dozen."

Another breath.

"As for defenses... It of course use Luna Titanium alloy for armor, which is the standard, but it also uses the deflector shield system we managed to procure from the so called 'CoreWorlds' to a much higher degree than any other Mobile Suit has before. With it, the Mobile Suit can survive several direct hits from a beam rifle without any significant damage."

"How," asked one of the people in the group, "Exactly, is this possible?"

"Many of the changes are related to each other. The deflector shield system is located in the slots where the auto-balancers used to be. The auto-balancers were made redundant by the changes made to the quasi-psycommu system. The deflector shield generators are, also, powered by the new, 'alien' technology based reactor, which is far more powerful than our Minovsky reactors. The new reactor also powers the Suit itself and the thrusters. It also starts the new 'Minovsky Generator', which is used to power all the beam weaponry on board."

"Interesting."

And so this tour on the latest developments on Mobile Suit technology went on.

"Get ready," said the condescending male voice over the comms,"The demonstration's about to begin."

"Yeah, yeah. This isn't the first time I'm doing this, remember?"

"It is on this Mobile Suit. I don't want you to break it with your antics."

"When did I break a Suit in a demonstration?"

"That doesn't matter. Just don't screw this one up."

"Roger that," responded the pilot and cut the communications.

What an idiot. I'm doing them a favor and he acts like I'm a bumbling rookie.

Within moments, he could see blips caused by Mobile Suits on the radar. They were far. And coming in from a strange angle. But still, they could have been a part of the demonstration...

But with each passing moment it seemed to be more and more distant a possibility, as it became obvious that the lead of the small group seemed to have the characteristics of a Gundam... With a distinctly different color scheme than usual. It even had a Zeonesque emblem on its shield. It was accompanied by what looked like four Waveriders, the transformed form of the Zeta Gundam.

Soon, the asteroid base's own defense fleet began firing upon the incoming Mobile Suits, showing once and for all that they are not a part of the demonstration.

"... What the hell?," muttered the pilot in amazement. It looked like what was supposed to be a simple demonstration of the Mobile Suit's abilities had turned into a trial by fire.

A comm link was opened between the Suit and Pezun command.

"... Pilot of Dooben-Wolf I, do you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Sir."

"Good. This demonstration is turning into a shooting war. You are to engage the hostiles with the two other Mobile Suits of your class. Switch to full power on beam weapons. And... Permission to use nuclear missiles granted."

"Roger and out," he replied, turning off the comms, putting the beam weapons to full power as he went, typing in the access codes to unlock the missiles.

After a short time of checking that the weapons were at full capacity, the shields were working and everything was up to snuff, he spoke shortly with the other Dooben-Wolf pilots, after which he locked his sights onto the incoming Mobile Suits which had been slowed down by the constant firing from the starships...

And engaged the Mobile Suit's thrusters at their full, safe acceleration speed. And right at that moment he knew that anything the enemy could be throwing at them wouldn't suffice anymore.

The Dooben-Wolf was in a league of its own.

The Minovsky particle coverage had been going up ever since the unknown and unresponsive group of Mobile Suits had appeared, reverting radar and radio waves to their usual non-usable selves and hampering most other kinds of detection as well, thus bringing about the usual situation in any battlefield in the Earth Sphere.

The pilot of the "first" Dooben-Wolf, in other words the lead of the three, couldn't stop but think that there was something wrong with the picture. The group had directly attacked a Zeon facility, not answering to hails and opening fire upon the ships which surrounded it. They would have to be fully aware of the consequences.

Yet they weren't even trying to engage. No. In fact, they were moving away as the three Dooben-Wolves flew closer. Even if they were much slower than the three prototype Mobile Suits...

I don't like this. It feels like they're trying to lure us into a...

Then he realized something he had nearly missed in the heat of the situation.

Asteroids. A whole lot of them.

The lead Mobile Suit made a hand gesture, and the three slowed down. He opened a comm link with the two others.

"Did you two see all those small asteroids before? When we got here?"

"Come to think of it... No," replied one.

"Gotta say, there were a lot less before," stated the other.

"I bet there's a whole lot more of these hostiles waiting in that asteroid field."

He targeted a few of the supposed asteroids, but didn't fire as of yet.

"We're going to force the issue. If there's someone there... Be prepared, men."

"Heh, always," said one of them, which made the other one snort.

And with that, the lead Dooben-Wolf fired a volley of small nuclear missiles, which seemed to get a reaction out of the five Mobile Suits which had been retreating all this time; they were now moving towards the three, causing both sides to shoot pot shots at each other at a rather extreme range.

But if someone was there, in the asteroid field, he would be either very fried or very angry afterwards.

They had assumed correctly. As the five targets continued to move towards them, there was obvious movement within the "asteroid field", as Mobile Suits moved into position to intercept the incoming missiles.

Their cover had been blown. But they still seemed reluctant to actually attack. Which was a good thing.

"Alright people, prepare for Mobile Suit combat!"

As the firing from the fleet was ending, the three Dooben-Wolves in turn began firing at the Gundam and the Waveriders once they had reached optimum firing range, but it did not seem to deter them any more than the earlier attack by the fleet.

"It looks like they're protected by some kind of beam shield," said the pilot of the third Dooben-Wolf.

"Yes, you're right. I guess that explains things..."

As they came closer, the reason why they had such a shield became evident. There were some kind of remote systems surrounding it. It wasn't difficult to guess that it was them which caused the shield in the first place.

"Target those bits!," he shouted, as he made his Mobile Suit target them as well.

"Roger!"

And so they did.

The attack seemed to be effective as the shield begun to weaken greatly. Only problem was that at this point they were almost at arm's reach... Making ranged combat difficult at best.

"Ugh," murmured the pilot as he made his Dooben-Wolf throw its beam rifle away and switched to beam sabers. "Prepare for close combat!"

Right as he did that, the Waveriders seemed to separate into two parts... With the main part being a Mobile Suit, somewhat Gundam-like in their own right. They immediately proceeded to wield their own beam sabers.

"... You guys take the escorts, I'll take on the main Suit!"

"Two on one. Easy."

"Heh. I don't think it's meant to be easy."

"Right."

"Alright, let's do this!"

And so, the three Dooben-Wolves flew towards their targets, which capabilities still were unknown.

Flashes of light came about as the Dooben-Wolf's beam sabers hit the sabers of the red Gundam. While his Suit was nimbler, smaller and generally just much more efficient, it did not seem to make it any easier for him to crack open the Gundam's defenses. Admittedly, it was obvious he was dealing with a Newtype with all the precognitive powers that come with it. He had the Suit to thank for his ability to actually fight his opponent effectively. Indeed, he was fully aware that it was because of the Suit that he could match the Newtype pilot's moves nearly perfectly even without prior data on the Suit. Luckily the Gundam's computer had no data on the Dooben-Wolf, either, so they were even in that respect, as both were fighting in suboptimal conditions.

The two others who were now fighting the paired Gundam-like Mobile Suits had found that thanks to the technologies used in the Dooben-Wolf, they weren't having any real trouble fighting the "Gundams", which, unlike the red Gundam, seemed to be piloted by, if not by Oldtype pilots, at least by much less talented ones. There were reasons why the two Dooben-Wolf pilots couldn't actually down their targets quickly, however. They had two of Gundamesque Mobile Suits against each one of them, and they were not yet quite accustomed to the new design of their own Suits, which admittedly was slowly becoming less and less of a problem for them as they managed to figure out things on the fly. It was quite obvious that if things continued the same way they had until now, the "Gundams" would soon be in a lot more trouble than they were already.

But as his Dooben-Wolf's beam sabers clashed with the red Gundam's sabers, the pilot could not shrug off the feeling of familiarity, only amplified by the coloring of the regular sized Mobile Suit he was fighting against. With each parry, each deflected hit both by the pilot and his opponent, the feeling only grew stronger.

The fighting style... It reminded him of someone he had fought during the final days of the Neo Zeon War. Someone he thought had died years ago by his hand in Mobile Suit combat, even if it had been something of a lucky shot which penetrated the cockpit and reactor of his opponent's Mobile Suit, making the Suit explode violently.

He couldn't have survived that... Could he?

He had never wondered whether the man had died or not until this day. He had always thought that there was no way he could still be alive.

"Char?!," he shouted in a bitter kind of anger with a comm link to the other Mobile Suit open.

"Ridden?," said the awfully familiar voice, even if it was a bit raspy.

"You're still alive, you bastard!"

"Heh," was the reply as their sabers clashed again, "You should have known by then that I don't die that easily."

"You should've stayed in the hole you've been hiding in!"

"I can't do that," was the response as the sabers hit each other again and the Dooben-Wolf fired its chest beam weapons at the Gundam which dodged most of the shots, taking a few hits in its shield, "My work isn't finished. A member of the Zabi family still persists."

"And you're going down by my hand! Again!"

Another parry, another counter-attack, another dodge. At this point the Dooben-Wolf's incoms came to life as they continued their fight. But the Gundam did not seem too bothered by them, dodging the shots as they came. But sooner or later one of them would make a mistake... Be it him or the Gundam pilot, it was inevitable.

While all this fighting was taking place, the Mobile Suits in the asteroid field had begun their deployment into the battlefield. While he couldn't give them too much thought, it still made him worry.

If they were to come while the fight was still on, how things would turn out was anybody's guess.

As one of his escort Mobile Suits suddenly exploded and his own close combat just dragged on with Ridden who was "just" an Oldtype, Char, or Casval as he had come to call himself as the leader of his Neo Zeon, came to think that maybe he had made a rather large tactical error. He had gone in without really knowing the full potential of the enemy Suits, and it was painfully obvious that his only saving grace was that the opposing pilots weren't Newtypes like himself.

Otherwise it was likely that he would've lost already.

Another explosion from the same side, while one of the Suits on the other side was as good as disabled, its arms, legs and head cut off. Neo Zeon had lost the element of surprise and now it was losing. Fast. He could see, from the corner of his eye, that the Pezun fleet had begun firing at the so called asteroid field with all they had. It was mostly indirect fire, and many of the mega particle cannon shots and missiles did indeed miss... But many of them also hit, as such a large number of Mobile Suits combined with such a large number of shots would dictate. With each passing moment, Casval knew that his chances of winning became slimmer and slimmer.

There was no escape, either. He had lost all his fin funnels, and every time he tried to break off, the Dooben-Wolves easily catched up to him. All he was trying to do now, while fending off the onslaught of two equally deadly Dooben-Wolves, was falling back to the other Mobile Suits which were now under heavy fire. It was likely that the fleet would stop firing again, as they had before, if he'd manage to draw the Dooben-Wolves into its line of fire.

And it was the only chance he really had right now. He hoped that it would be possible to overwhelm them with sheer numbers.

Seems like I underestimated them...

As the last of the Mobile Suits that had been escorting him exploded, he knew his situation just went from bad to worse. The only upside to his current predicament was that he had managed to pull the three Dooben-Wolves right into the line of fire of the Pezun fleet, which lead to a quick slowdown in incoming fire. And that, in turn, meant that his forces were no longer pinned down by their constant barrage.

He sighed with relief as at least a dozen of the GMesque Mobile Suits of which his entire force was seemingly composed of took over his fight, distracting the Dooben-Wolves enough to give him time to fall back a little, much to Ridden's chagrin.

He opened a comm link with several of the Mobile Suits which still stood back.

"It seems they haven't realized what we are aiming to achieve here yet. We can carry on with the plan even with the setbacks."

"Seems like that, Sir," said one of the pilots as they continued to slowly slide away from the red Gundam towards the group that was desperately trying to contain the Dooben-Wolves. Several Mobile Suits had already been destroyed; them getting through seemed inevitable.

"Help the others keep those three out of our way," he said as he turned his Mobile Suit around to look towards the so called asteroid field, "Our mission is too important to let them interfere."

"Roger that," said the same pilot that responded before. And with that, the red Gundam began to accelerate towards the few remaining asteroids. Shortly after he had started to accelerate, he launched several signal flares.

"Gah, there's just no end to them!," shouted Ridden annoyedly as he kept slashing through the mass of Mobile Suits that were bogging him and the two others down, "How did they get this many Suits in the first place?!"

"They look like Feddie Suits," muttered one of the others as a couple more of the GM-like Mobile Suits exploded most radiantly, "It wouldn't happen to be that damn Anaheim again?"

"If it is, they really like messing with us."

"Heh, I know."

It was at this point that the red Gundam, Char's Gundam, fired its signal flares.

"What the...?"

"Oh hell!"

From beyond the asteroid field emerged a veritable cloud of missiles that quickly began to spread out as though the one who had fired them was making sure that it would be harder to shoot them all down. It was obvious what they were going for: The Pezun fleet, which now had resumed firing, although now at the incoming missiles.

The nuclear nature of the missiles became apparent as the first few were intercepted by mega particle cannon fire. It became obvious that if even a few would manage to reach the fleet, it could end up getting wiped out.

Firing them all down would be paramount for the survival of the fleet, but with their sheer numbers... How could it be done?

As the nuclear missiles continued to fly towards the fleet which defended the asteroid base of Pezun, Char felt something he hadn't felt in ages. He felt content. Almost... Happy. After all these years he was finally able to continue his work. To avenge the assassination of his father, and to lead the Spacenoids to a new era.

An era which he would have brought forth.

He had chosen to restart everything by taking over Pezun, which had been known to be a manufacturing plant for Mobile Suits of more experimental nature in some circles. He knew that they were going to commence limited mass production of the so called "next generation" Mobile Suits there, first, and even while the demonstration was going on, people were at work to finish the adjustments required to do so.

He had known of the presence of three prototype Dooben-Wolves in the area. And as it turned out, he had failed to factor in the fact that the new Mobile Suits would actually be so much better than their own Suits, even in small numbers, that he would have to order so many of the people under his command to fight the three just to keep them at bay.

But right at that moment, things seemed to be going just as well as they could. There were too many missiles to shoot down with capital ship grade weapons. While there was a sizeable amount of Mobile Suits with the fleet... It was highly likely that at least some of the missiles would get through. Especially since their range wasn't exactly stellar, given the M particle coverage.

But then, something strange began to happen.

Missile after missile began to explode seemingly without being shot at by the fleet. As if something else was shooting them down. But it all happened too fast for him to see what exactly was going on, so he moved forward a bit, while making sure that he wouldn't get stuck in the ongoing battle with the Dooben-Wolves.

He zoomed in.

Still nothing.

He zoomed in a little more.

Now he could see it... And feel it.

He felt pressure.

A Newtype was shooting down his missiles in some kind of Mobile Armor-like thing.

More explosions.

He could tell that there were more than just the one. Considering the way the missiles kept getting intercepted, he estimated the number to be... Three. Just like with the Dooben-Wolves.

And they were fast. Just like the Dooben-Wolves, which still were fighting the shrinking group of Mobile Suits he had sent against them. The pilots had been mostly green... Sending them against a small group of hardened veterans would've been the same as sending them to the slaughter even if the veterans had used normal Mobile Suits. But at least then they could have gotten a lucky hit or shot in. Now... There was almost no chance of that.

There were more...

He could see his bitter-sweet victory turning into a loss. Without the missile barrage the fleet would remain intact, and with the three unknown Mobile Armors in position, another salvo would just end up getting blown out of the sky in the same way as the first one. Not to mention that they would find out the position of the small Neo Zeon fleet.

He sighed in frustration. If they lost now... With the speed of the new Mobile Suits, there was no way they could even retreat.

Now, things looked very grim for the Neo Zeon, whose renewed uprising might end in the very same battle it started.

Char had been using the few remaining fin funnels at his disposal to aid his men to fight off the three Dooben-Wolves all the while trying to keep his own distance as he knew already just how nasty they could be, and they were, after a fashion, doing a lot better now, even if there was little doubt that they would not survive the attempt. A few lucky hits had gotten in and not only one, but two of the Dooben-Wolves had lost a limb, and of the two one had even lost its incoms. Ridden was the only one whose Mobile Suit was still in perfect working order.

The unknown Mobile Armoresque machines were still busy shooting down what remained of the massive missile salvo. They couldn't have chosen a better time to begin their operation: Had they come even a few minutes later, some of the missiles could have gotten through and caused potentially massive damage to the fleet. Now it was possible to contain them.

But just as he thought that things could not get any worse than they ahd been, that was exactly what happened.

Char could feel something... Coming. He turned his Mobile Suit around to see what it was, if it was anything. Much to his surprise, a new Zeon fleet lead by an imposing Gwadan class battleship had suddenly appeared behind his Mobile Suit forces in the relative proximity of the small Neo Zeon fleet which Char had thought had stayed unseen by the enemy. In mere moments, the Neo Zeon fleet was destroyed, and the area was swarming with Zeon Mobile Suits. After all, a Gwadan class battleship could carry an excess of hundred of them.

"I lost?!", he shouted in his cockpit, "This quickly?! Impossible! Inconceivable!"

He noticed a transmission was being sent from the Gwadan to his Mobile Suit. Who could it be...? He allowed the connection to be made.

And what did he see? The face of the man he wanted to kill. The last of the Zabi family.

Ironic.

"I see it is you, Char. Or should I say, Casval Rem Deikun."

"... Long time no see. What do you want?"

"You to perish, as you should've eight years ago."

"Heh."

"What's so funny, you murdering bastard?"

Char grinned wryly in response to the question.

"Your family deserved to die for what it did. And you with it."

"... I see you're as mad as ever. It's you who deserves to die. Prepare to meet your maker."

Char laughed out as the transmission was cut. Considering how many times he had cheated death so far, it was unlikely, from his point of view, that he would die here, either, even if the odds were completely against him.

He would finish his duty... One way or another.

As the battle raged at the Mobile Suit Display Session, as it had come to be coined, trade continued on, unhindered by the events that were transpiring. Yet, even so, a single Strakha stealth fighter had been sent to observe and record the battle, the Maho Caste ever curious to see how others did their business.

The lone pilot, one Graf Wilhelm Josef Von Hermann, once prepared for the flight, activated the stealth capabilities of his fighter and, using a single-use Jump Drive, disappeared in a flash of light in the massive hangar of the ship, appearing, figuratively since the fighter was cloaked already, roughly five hundred kilometers away from the battle. Once there, the on-board recorder, which had replaced the missile payload of the fighter, automatically began recording as Josef began skating along the edge of the battle, keeping well out of range of the opposing fleets weapons so as not to get himself killed.

Char kept trying to find a way to turn the situation into his advantage, but... It seemed impossible. Each idea he could come up with seemed to be simply not viable. Even though two of the Dooben-Wolves had begun to withdraw from the field of battle after having defeated a high number of Neo Zeon Mobile Suits, the third was still in a perfect working order. After a few minutes he had been forced to call his fin funnels back as they were running critically low on energy the last vestiges of his Mobile Suit forces had been destroyed, and it was now gunning for Char's Nu Gundam which was now in what remained of the so called asteroid field.

As if that wasn't enough, a wall of Zeon Mobile Suits made any conventional attempts to retreat or even suicidal assault against the Gwadan close to impossible. While the Gundam would perform better than any regular Zeon Mobile Suit, it was somewhat damaged and had its fin funnels out of commission, which leveled the playing field considerably in the favor of the Zeon Suits.

Char sighed in frustration again. While defeat had been a contingency he had been prepared for, such a crushing defeat was not. Not only had his Neo Zeon failed to conquer Pezun, but he had also lost his element of surprise. Not to mention his entire fleet had been crushed and he was all that was left.

And... Now everyone knew he was still alive. But not only that, they would also soon know of his only remaining ace in the hole, and with the Dooben-Wolf moving closer and closer, he knew he had to do his move fast. He could keep evading the firing of the regular Zeon Mobile Suits, but he knew he couldn't survive another duel with Ridden in the condition his Gundam was in.

He moved his red Nu Gundam close to one of the remaining asteroids that had been saved simply by the fact that it had been located behind several real asteroids when the Pezun fleet had fired at it. Once he thought he was sufficiently close, he shut his normal suit's visor, opened the cockpit hatch and pushed himself outside, quickly finding his way onto the asteroid...

Which wasn't really an asteroid at all, as everyone would find out once he opened something that lead into the "asteroid", into which he thrusted himself with the aid of the small thrusters of his normal suit. Once inside, he closed the cockpit and activated the machine, which forced its way out of the "asteroid" debris, revealing what seemed to be some sort of a modified Core Fighter.

At least I can return to fight another day, he thought as he opened a glass-like cover of some kind that had a button beneath it, which he then proceeded to press.

Within moments, the Core Fighter just suddenly vanished, as though it had activated an FTL drive of some kind.

If there was one thing the battle against Char's Neo Zeon at the Pezun asteroid base had shown, it was the sheer strength of the new and improved Mobile Suits when compared to Mobile Suits not equipped with the same technologies. Indeed, they had been so impressive that only days after the fact plans were made to upgrade all Zeon Mobile Suits with the new technologies.

The project was dubbed "Pezun Project II", both in the memory of the original and also because it technically originated at the asteroid base, as both ZEONIC Company and Zimmad Company agreed to it there. There, also, it was decided that the ZEONIC Company's version of the reactor/generator combination would be used on all Mobile Suits that were to be upgraded as it was more efficient than that used by the Zimmad Company. Zimmad's research and development had not been in vain, however, as their particular version of the Quasi-Psycommu was to be used, as well as their variation of the thrusters which had been reverse engineered from the Raptors gotten from the so called Twelve Tribes, as they were better than those created by the ZEONIC Company.

There would be two types of Mobile Suits: Some would be simply refitted, gaining new thrusters, a reactor/M particle generator combination, shields and the sorts. Others would be more than just refitted. In fact, what would be done to them was closer to recycling, as their materials would be used to create more modern, smaller Mobile Suits as extensively as possible. They would have their own particular naming systems which would denote different types. "RF" types would be found mostly in patrol duties, colony garrisons and so forth, while the miniaturized types would be used mostly in defense (and offense) against outside forces... And other situations which might require special attention.

And so, the Mobile Suit was to be revolutionized.

(OOC: Gah, not quite as good a post as I wanted to do, but... I needed to post something. I had started to type many times before this, but... Well, now, finally, I actually got a full post typed.

I'm going to mention something about the naming systems of the new types of Mobile Suits, just because. A refitted Zaku II, for instance, would be named "MS-06/RF Zaku II". "RF" here stands for, "ReFit", not "ReFined" like in canon. After all, the Principality's people wouldn't know about the Oldsmobile army's naming habits. As for the Mobile Suit itself, it'd be a normal sized Zaku II with a new reactor with a Minovsky particle generator, CW's SWy shields and better thrusters. Possibly with a new cockpit. Probably capable of using regular beam weapons.

As for the other type of MS... A recycled one would be "MS-06/M-R Zaku II". M for "Miniaturized", because of the much reduced size, and R for "Revolutionized", because of all the changes in the internals of the Mobile Suit and so forth. It is cheesy, but works for me. A Zaku II version of this would be a "low end" Mobile Suit of this type, but it'd still be in a completely different league than a regular Zaku II in terms of ... Well, everything. It would be closer to a canon UC0120 or UC0150 MS than the UC0079 MS it's based on.

Of course, since the whole project is bound to be expensive and time consuming, there won't be any brand spanking new models of Mobile Suits coming up in any quick pace as everyone's busy making what's already there better. But all in all, in the end, the Principality's forces should be on a more competitive level with other people's stuff.

This means... The end of the skeet shooting era.)

With the disappearance of Char after the short battle between Zeon forces stationed at the Pezun asteroid base and Char's Neo Zeon, the Moon based Anaheim Electronics found itself under intense (not to mention constant) scrutiny as the Principality had found ample proof of its involvement with the Neo Zeon movement. It went well beyond that of what had been enacted after the earlier battles with the Federation remnant which had originally brought the company into the limelight in a negative fashion. In fact, if one did not know better, one would have probably mistaken each and every known Anaheim Electronics facility to be that of the Principality rather than a privately owned company.

They had also found proof that Anaheim Electronics had stolen the schematics of an early Zeon faster-than-light drive and used that information to build an experimental faster-than-light capable Mobile Suit of their own, and, as things were, one of the two reported prototypes were missing. And as it seemed, the prototype was a Re-GZ, a Mobile Suit based on Zeta Gundam which had been one of the high-end prototype Mobile Suits the company had built earlier for the Federation remnant during their uprising.

But there was no information as to where he had been going.

If he had used the Mobile Suit's faster-than-light capability... Who knew if he could ever be found.

Well, as it were, had the Principality of Zeon even bothered to ask their allies, the Clans, they would have been able to find Char pretty quickly. The Clans had been perfecting the technology of tracking FTL signatures, courtesy of their allies throughout the universe. Unfortunately, it wasn't an exact system, so it would've been pretty sketchy. Either way, they hadn't asked, so trade continued as normal as it would have if Char hadn't pestered the Principality.

All in all, it was pretty quiet...

A few months after Char's "Nu Gundam" had fallen into the hands of the Principality with its few remaining fin funnels and the confiscation of the schematics of the Mobile Suit from Anaheim Electronics, research on how to utilize one of the fin funnels' more special effects in other ways had begun.

The fin funnel system had proven the effectiveness of beam shielding, and now, with the M particle output of the new Minovsky Generators and the reduced size of the Mobile Suits, using such contraptions had begun to be considered viable. Beam shields, as proven by the fin funnels, would withstand much more ferocious an attack than regular, metallic shields, not to mention that it would reduce the weight of Mobile Suits which carried shields and make piloting somewhat easier for rookies, as they no longer would have to carry shields which mostly were just dead weight for them anyway.

While it was likely that it would take time for the research to bear any fruit, still, the process had begun.

Anaheim Electronics was in a state of turmoil after the failure of the Neo Zeon faction which had seemingly been wiped out during the aftermath of their very first battle against Zeon forces at Pezun. Shortly after the fact, not only had the Principality stationed troops in every facility controlled by AE and effectively forced its CEO and Board of Directors to resign, but the value of the company's shares had plummeted, it was forced to pay an exorbitant amount of money as reparations to the Principality (even if the damage caused by Neo Zeon was quite low), the company's clients were abandoning it... All in all, it was steamrolling towards bankruptcy.

It was at that time when certain Zeon officials contacted the company's newly chosen CEO and offered a contract. Not only were the Zeons prepared to forgive AE for its past transgressions and not demand the reparations to be paid any further, but the Principality would also pay quite handsomely for their efforts. Anaheim Electronics would manufacture Mobile Suit weapons which would retain the look of older models, but would be made smaller and most of them would be converted into beam weapons, with certain considerations. For instance, some bazookas, while most would be beam-based as well, would instead use nuclear warheads, and all missile pods would use missiles with nuclear tips.

Some weapons the Principality wanted to be built weren't standard-issue for Zeon Mobile Suits: One of them was the beam launcher, a long range beam weapon used by some Titans Mobile Suits, a weapon originally developed by Anaheim Electronics itself, and another was an originally Federation developed railcannon. The Clans used weapons similar to the railcannon to great effect, which was one of the reasons why the Principality wanted them in the first place.

As its only way out of its current situation, Anaheim Electronics naturally accepted the deal.

With Zeon forces going through a massive overhaul, the development of new Mobile Suit designs as well as the construction of new Mobile Suits had ground to a halt. After all, the Principality had devoted much its resources to upgrade its current forces, and there was no time, no space for the conception of new models nor manufacturing new Mobile Suits from scratch. This did, however, bring up an interesting weakness within the Zeon military that could not be easily addressed: Many of the Zeon Mobile Suits used absolutely outdated designs.

To keep the cost and the time used at a minimum on, for instance, upgrading a Zaku II into MS-06/M-R, certain compromises had to be made. Due to the internal structure of the Mobile Suit, the size, and as a direct result, the power output of the new reactors were reduced, causing the age old problem of the MS-11C Act Zaku to surface itself in the new and improved Zaku II: Its ability to use multiple beam weapons at a time were left... Wanting. Not to mention that to keep its performance otherwise at an acceptable level, its shields were weaker than standard; enough to help the Mobile Suit stay intact as it accelerates beyond its usual limits, but barely enough to allow it to survive more than a couple hits from a beam rifle. Even one would be enough to annihilate an MS-06/M-R Zaku II if it were moving at speeds the Mobile Suit could not normally survive at.

But this was considered an acceptable outcome by the leadership of Zeon. Zakus, nor that many of the other War of Independence age Mobile Suits were not to be used in any hypothetical front lines, anyway; they were to be placed in garrisons, patrols in quiet parts of the Earth Sphere and escorts with RF models of the same.

Still, things were proceeding on schedule, and while the process was indeed costly, the overhaul of the Zeon forces was well under way.

Several months had passed since Zeon's first encounter with the Clans...

All was quiet...

Green Noa 1, Side 7, Earth Federation Territory

It was dark in this corner of the Earth Sphere. The sun had just been eclipsed by the Earth moments ago, forcing the Colonies in Side 7 and Luna II to rely on their own lighting. Normal space traffic flowed smoothly, civilians passing through as they were required by Zeon law...

Unknown to them was a small Firefly-class transport was passing by the Zeon civilian checkpoints, passing into Federation territory under a complete radio silence with visual cloaking assisting their maneuvers, making them completely invisible on radar, especially if there was any Minovsky particle interference in the area. Slowly, but surely, the transport descended upon Green Noa One, the ship using minimal thrust correction to allow them to land and attach to the colony in question without drawing attention to themselves.

Beneath the ship and within that section of the Colony, a hole was cut into the hull of the massive cylinder near a relatively unused section of the cylinder, allowing several battle armored commandos, totaling twenty five in all, to make their way inside the Colony, their active camouflage preventing those nearby from actually seeing them. Any who were near the entry point were immediately dispatched as 'Mech-grade small pulse lasers and anti-personnel gauss rifles opened fire. Nearby cameras were also dispatched so as to prevent visual confirmation of what was happening in that section of the colony.

As soon as the area was clear, the commandos placed the cut metal back into place, one of them using a built-in welding tool to seal the metal back into place. With a knock on the metal, the crew of the transport quickly disengaged their lock on the Colony, maneuvering yet again to a shadowed area that prevented the transport from being seen by any patrolling Federation forces in the area.

Meanwhile, the commandos were quick to assemble near a door in their area, the commander of the team clicking his comm once. Four double clicks responded to him, letting him know that his Point leaders were ready to begin the operation. He smiled in satisfaction within the helmet of his battle armor, and then reactivated his active camouflage, his Star following suit as they opened the door and descended into the low-gravity corridor, sealing the door behind them shut and placing a cloaked magnetic lock on the door to prevent it from being opened again.

Monitoring station #5, Green Noa 1, Side 7

So far, it had been yet another uneventful day in the Space Colony Green Noa 1, especially so for Lieutenant Junior Grade Kartashkin, who had been stuck watching security monitors in Green Noa 1 for the last two years. Now, that alone isn't so bad, as people do things even in front of security cameras, but the section he had to watch was generally quite... Silent. In his two years of doing this particular job for the illustrious Earth Federation military, the biggest event had been a few drunks getting lost in the corridors... Who had managed to puke all over the walls and pass out before guards managed to get to them and throw them in the brig.

He sighed as he glanced at the monitors for a moment before returning to his crossword puzzle. Nothing going on, as usual. He had been working on the crossword for a few hours haphazardly. Just like he did every. Single. Day. At least it was soon lunch time... Even if that really just meant taking his food out from his bag and eating at his station, since he wasn't allowed to leave his station unless it was for the toilet. Well, at least he had a job. When the Federation streamlined its military forces he almost got cut loose.

"Whatcha doing, man?"

He recognized the voice as that of one of the other people doing the same job in another section of the colony. He raised his head to look at the monitors again as he responded.

"Shut up. I don't want to get in trouble for misusing the comm system again."

"Pfft. Hunter out."

But this time, as he looked at the monitors...

"What the...?"

For a few seconds, he could see what looked like beam weapon fire combined with some kind of railguns, tearing through bulkheads just as much as their intended targets, the poor few guards present at the location who were torn apart by the shots.

Then, one monitor after another went black.

He gulped.

What the hell did he just see? Was the Colony is under attack?

He took a deep breath and tried to regain his composure. He knew what to do in a situation like this. If there was even a possibility of the colony being assaulted...

He pressed the red button on the side of his console, and the annoyed face of the supervisor appeared on his console's monitor, right beside a map of his part of the colony.

"Yes, yes, what is it, Lieutenant? Why are you using this line?"

"Sir," he said nervously, "I think we're under attack."

"What? Where?"

"Here, Sir," he said as he pointed at the location where the cameras had gone dead in the map of the colony, "Just before all the cameras there stopped transmitting, I saw what looked like beam weapon fire inside the colony."

The man no longer looked annoyed. Instead, he looked as though he was worried.

"The guards there have failed to report in, although they should do that every hour... I had hoped it was just some freak Minovsky particle interference. But it seems it might be far worse than that. Thank you for telling me of this. I will send people there to see what's going on and inform the garrison."

"Just doing my job, Sir. Kartashkin out."

Soon the security inside the colony would be greatly tightened. More guards with heavier arms would be posted at key locations, patrols would be increased and the local Mobile Suit garrison would be at a heightened alertness level. While the Federation was just a shadow of its former self, it still had some power left. Of course, given the time all that will take, the unknown assailants would have ample time to sneak around the colony undetected.

((Get on MSN, you twit. :P))

The commandos were quick and silent as they moved through the zero-gravity of the colony's honey comb network of tunnels where normally only military personnel and civilians with construction and maintenance access had clearance. Their active camouflage made it easier for them pass by undetected, although some instances provided for more strategic thinking to get around the obstacles in their path. After some time, they began to notice that there were more guards at more posts than usual, and it wasn't too long before they even began to move more slowly because of the higher military traffic.

Now they were sitting across from what was obviously a mobile suit hangar, several GM-type mobile suits parked in their appropriate docking stations to prevent them from drifting into the zero-gravity environment and squish people. At the moment, the commandos were discussing their next course of action over a closed communications net, their voices filtered to silence by their own battle armors.

"Well, it is safe to say that they know we are here," stated the commander.

"Aff," replied one of the Point leaders. "How should we progress from here, lead?"

"That is a good question, Delta," the commander said, milling over the data that they had about the Federation and what they were capable of. "Technically, we could easily pass off as a terrorist force and deal a significant amount of damage to the military section of the colony. This, however, could be construed as an act of war, and they will probably blame this on Zeon."

"Why should we worry about those freebirths?" The Beta Point Commander sounded irritated. "I say we cause as much destruction as necessary, retrieve what we came here for, and then be on our way."

"Aff," the Epsilon Commander agreed.

"I agree, as well," stated the Gamma Commander.

The commando leader sighed. "Fine, then. Gamma, Epsilon, move to the 'Mechs and secure charges on them. Everyone else will follow me. We'll be moving further into the Colony. Gamma, Epsilon, when the explosives have gone off, your objective is to lead the Federation freebirths to the entry point as a distraction. When I give the signal, use a final charge to blow open the Colony to compromise its hull integrity and use as an exit. We will rendezvous at the transport."

"Aff," was the unified response, and the five Points began moving in their required directions.

Gamma and Epsilon were quick to move across into the hangar, their active camouflage still active and preventing them from being seen. As soon as the first commando touched the first GM, he was quick to move up to the head, the second one moving towards the back, and the third through fifth down towards the lower section. This was repeated by the second Point on the second GM. As each of the camouflaged commandos reached their desired points on their respective GMs, their battle armors' fingers would slide open, and they would reach around the armor plating near exposed joints to place finger-tip sized pieces of crystal held by an adhesive that instantaneously sealed the crystal into place. Once they were in place, the ten commandos pushed off their respective GMs, floating down towards the corridor they had come from, turning off their active camouflage and picking whatever targets they could see and firing their respective weapons, pulse laser and gauss fire flying across the hangar as they flew across the hangar once more.

The remaining fifteen commandos, however, had already cleared the hangar before the fire fight had begun, hanging as close to the 'ceiling' as they could to avoid any traffic that would be passing through the corridor they were moving through, making their way deeper into the colony to where they had been told the base commander's office would be.

Checkpoint #32, corridor intersection, Green Noa 1, Side 7

"Sir, we just got word from command," stated an officer who sat in front of the checkpoint's only terminal that was connected to the local military network, almost shouting as he read what had just been added there all the while the Lieutenant Commander in charge of the checkpoint walked towards him, "They're saying that Garrison hangar #2 has been compromised and the people there are engaged in combat with some unidentified hostile force!"

"Yes, yes, I can read, too," said the Lieutenant Commander as he had walked up to the terminal and was looking at its monitor from the side of the officer sitting in front of it, "It seems they want us to shut off this position and just leave the automated defenses in place. Hell, they want every single checkpoint within a few kilometer radius to close and abandon their positions for 'better positions' deeper in the colony..."

"What do we do, Sir?"

"Isn't it obvious? We'll close those damn doors," he said, sloppily pointing at the gigantic, metallic doors which surrounded the intersection, "They didn't make 'em just to seal compromised parts of the colony, you know. Then we'll pack up and leave so the next checkpoint can be abandoned."

"Yes, Sir..."

And so, while the battle in the hangar wasn't going too well for the Federation forces, not the least because of the GMs having had their joints compromised, their actions elsewhere would undoubtably slow down the progress of the Clan commandos who were infiltrating the colony.

(OOC: Well, it's a post. Not that great a post, but better than no post at all, I'd say.)

The commandos in the hangar had quickly departed the area for a different section of the colony now, having decided that purposefully engaging Federation forces was going to be the best way to keep their attention and have them redirect the bulk of their units to their combat zones while the remaining commandos continued to stealthily advance further into the colony.

In the meantime, the commandos who had continued to travel in their active camouflage were slowly making their way down the corridors alongside unknowing Federation soldiers, their silent movements undetectable to the naked eyes of these poor, unfortunate soldiers. However, once they reached an area pointing them in the direction of the command station in this section of the colony, the commandos were quick to break away from the soldiers' path and begin making their way towards the command station, eventually reaching it after doing quite a bit of traveling and detouring and, at one point, making their own doorway through a section of wall paneling.

That was when they noticed the defensive emplacements that were being set up, and they halted their silent advance, taking note of these new challenges.

"This will make matters worse for us," said a female commando.

"I agree," the commander replied. "But it is too late for us to turn around now."

"What should we do?" Another commando, male, fairly young.

"We continue our silent advance. Weapons cold."

After a few moments of powering down weapons, the infiltrating commandos began making their way towards, and past, the first checkpoint, their invisible movements silent and graceful as they slowly made their way along the walls of the corridor, making sure not to make any sound as they moved.

Colony command center, Green Noa 1, Side 7

The supervisor of the monitoring stations, a Commander by rank, whom was in command of the security of the colony, was worried. And with good reason. For such an attack to take place during his watch... The thought of the paper work and the inquiry to come made him shudder. All he was doing at the moment, however, was standing looking important, while watching the others around him work on their posts. Until...

"The hostiles have been driven out of the hangar, Sir!"

The Commander let out a sigh of relief. At least something was going their way.

"Good, good. Remind our forces that they have to keep these attackers out of populated areas!"

"Yes, Sir!"

But what is their objective?, thought the Commander in the light of current events as he sat back down to his seat, Terrorists wouldn't have attacked a military installation... They would've gone for the civilians.

"Sir," said a female voice right beside him. He hadn't noticed that a female officer had walked into the command center.

He turned his head toward her, noticing a datapad in her hands.

"Uh, yes? What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"

"You should take a look at this, Sir," she said, offering the datapad to him.

He nodded and took the datapad, which was displaying a three dimensional map of the colony. The only thing special about it that he noticed were a few blinking red dots that seemed to be in a sort of a line...

"... What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"You're looking at a number of anomalous motion sensor alerts."

"'Anomalous'?"

"Yes," she said, nodding, "Nothing could be seen on the security cameras showing the same areas. But for some reason, the motion sensors detected something..."

"Hell..."

The Commander stood up faster than he had ever before as he was slowly realizing what just might be going on. The hostiles had been using some kind of cloaking technology...

Maybe they had already infiltrated much deeper into the colony than anticipated.

"Force ALL security doors to close at least two hundred meters around the latest motion alert! That should give us some time to create some kind of a defensive perimeter around who the hell ever they are! All units are to carry motion sensors or at the very least tap into the built in system!"

He scratched his chin for a second. Hey, that might just work.

"Also, the use of sticky substances to blow the cover of these hostiles once detected is advised."

And with that, he fell back down to his seat.

"Good work, Lieutenant," he said, "We should be able to at least slow them down now and try to figure out what they're after."

(OOC: Oops, that took a while. Best that I posted something now!)

((Try to be more consistent, too. I'm not going to be around much longer because I ship out for Navy boot in May and I'd really like to get this done by mid-March. :P))

Passing that checkpoint had been an easy task. They'd managed to get past the checkpoint without incurring a battle between them and the semi-well armed Federation soldiers, which the Commander inwardly sighed in relief over. It had been a tense few minutes as each of the individual commandos played the 'wall-vaulting' game to pass through the checkpoint at the center of it, noiselessly slipping past the unaware Federation soldiers.

However, no sooner had they passed the checkpoint and reached a good ten meters away from it did they have a new problem. As they were about to pass through another checkpoint, the doorway that they were protecting was suddenly sealed.

"Damn." The Commander clicked his comm twice, to which three of the commandos advanced upon the check point. Once they were close enough that the heavy weapons would be ineffective, they dropped out of their camouflage and began firing on those Federation soldiers that were on their side of the door, making it painfully obvious that they weren't here to dick around. In the meantime, the other twelve commandos latched themselves to the walls, making sure to keep their camouflage on so as to avoid being visually detected.

The commandos probably were not quite as surprised by this turn in events than the normal suited Federation soldiers who, suddenly, had been closed in with the Clansmen, even if they weren't aware of the fact.

"... What the...!", shouted one of them shortly after having turned around in wonderment, "They've sealed us in!"

"Hold on," said another one beside him as he placed his right hand over his right-side ear, "I'm getting new info from command."

"What is it?", asked the first speaker as he turned towards the second one.

"They've picked up some movement around h..."

His sentence was cut short as the firing began. The first few shots had managed to turn his head into a bloodied mush.

"Holy shit! Need backup!"

All the command heard after that was weaponsfire and screaming.

And still they were no closer to finding out the objective of the hostiles.

Once the bloody, short-ranged combat had finished, the commando team went back to silence, the three suited commandos who had revealed themselves disappearing from sight once more. They quickly cleared the bodies away from the door, and the fifteen soldiers quickly began placing those tiny crystals around the door, the little objects quickly adhering to the door.

Once each of the soldiers had placed two each upon the door, the Commander quickly clicked his comm three times, signaling for the teams to clear away from the door. Once they were at least ten meters down the corridor and backed up against another door, the Commander lifted up his arm. If any Federation soldier had been present to witness the event, they would have noticed that, as the Commander lifted his arm, a high-pitch noise would emit from his general direction. Within a half-second later, the crystals exploded, each yielding enough power to render a Type 61 non-existent by itself.

Even a hardened blast door like the one they had placed the crystals upon wouldn't be able to stand up to such forces...

Colony command center, Green Noa 1, Side 7

"The anomaly picked up by the motion sensors was them after all, Sir! They just blew up the door we thought they'd break!"

"How many doors do they have to blow through to get to the next checkpoint?"

"Two, Sir."

"Alright, tell the soldiers there to prepare for them and give them hell when they get there. Even with the sensors we still can't see them properly, so they'll be shooting in the dark. But it's better doing nothing."

The officer nodded as he started doing as ordered.

The Commander looked at the datapad again.

Hmm... Isn't that my office? The way they're moving... They'll have to go past it. Weird. But it's not like we can stop 'em with what we have... Damn!

((I'm a hypocrite, but I blame writer's block.))

KRAKOOOOM!

The second door blew open, and the fifteen commandos boldly stepped into the open, their anti-personnel Gauss and PPCs blasting at the Federation soldiers. Small arms fire, and even grenades, were soaked up by the Clanners' battle armor, the advanced armor more than capable of dealing with the more primitive weapons of the Federation.

As they moved forward, the Commander noted a door to his right, taking a quick glance at it. When he saw the rank next to the name, the name which he cared no to remember, he motioned for two of his commandos to follow him while the others took care of mopping up the second check point.

After a few minutes of pounding the door with their battle claws, the two commandos accompanying the Commander jammed their claws into the softened metal and pulled, tearing the metal door straight from its position and tossing it into the null gravity of the main corridor. The Commander was the first to enter the office, and he casually noted to himself that the room was fairly small. After a brief check-and-clear, the Commander saw the computer terminal.

"Ajax, hack their network," the Commander ordered. One of the commandos stepped forward, placing his battle claw gently against the desk. Several tendril-like cables then popped out of the claw, jacking into every single input/output slot on the terminal. Thirty seconds later, Ajax had broken through their top security clearance, muttering about the incompetent programming of freebirths, to which the Commander told him to keep his mouth shut.

Five minutes later, the tendrils detached from the terminal and quickly disappeared back into the Claw. "I have found their command center. Let us go."

"Well done, Ajax," the Commander said, turning and exiting the cramped office with the two commandos at his back. As they came into the corridor, the Commander smiled inwardly as he saw the corpses strewn about and the commandos standing to, their weapons trained towards each end of the corridor.

"We move," he said. "Ajax, you take point."

And with that, they were on the move again...

(OOC: I took an extended leave of, um, absence. So, here's something finally. Not that I'm expecting much of a response any time soon...)

The Commander had gone to watch the monitors to see the enemy move through the colony, standing beside the officer who was stationed at the said monitoring station. As things were still, the damage the attackers were causing was the best indicator of their progress.

"... It's safe to say that our security has been compromised," said the Commander remarkably calmly as he noted on the monitors that his office had been breached.

"What makes you say that, Sir?," asked the officer who sat beside him.

"Well, judging from what we've seen so far... I bet they have the technology to enter our security networks in any way they want. And, you know... They could do that from my office. Our security's always been a bit lax. You should know that."

He sighed.

"It'd make things a lot easier if we had any idea what these attackers might be after..."

He walked back up to his own seat in the command center and sat down.

"All we can do is keep doing what we've been doing so far. Keep closing any security doors they're about to reach and informing the people in the immediate vicinity of the attackers of what to do. All we can do really is try to slow 'em down a little more. Maybe once the report on what they accessed in our network comes in we might get a bit better of an idea."

But still, things weren't looking too good.

(OOC: Well, apparently Skaugra no longer exists as the entity that started this battle, here goes the conclusion...)

While the situation had indeed seemed grim for the forces stationed at the colony, in the end, the sneak attack was seemingly thwarted as their progression towards the colony's command center had been halted long enough for them to be almost overwhelmed by the Federation troops, at which point they had retreated and vanished as quickly as they had originally appeared at the colony.

Oddly enough, no dead commandos were found among the wrecked parts of the colony. Whether it was because none of them had been killed or if they had somehow managed to retrieve their dead was unknown, as was their objective. It was likely that, no matter how much the Federation would attempt to investigate the issue, it would forever remain a mystery.

Damage to the colony's military areas had been extensive, but luckily it had very little effect on the colony's integrity itself, leaving the civilian population mostly unharmed. Mobile Suit hangars with their Mobile Suits in them had been destroyed. Several old Salamis docked inside had been damaged in the attack as well. In what remained of the many corridors which connected the different installations within the colony to each other were full of dead and the dying.

While the defense had been a success, it would take quite some time for the colony's forces to recover, not to mention that the stress the aftermath would cause to the already weakened Federation would be enormous. How long it would manage to keep the Titans at bay was anybody's guess.

"... With the disappearance of the Clans, Sir, we find ourselves in a unique position," said the obviously excited man who stood in front of Garma's desk, a Captain by rank, "We still have all the new technology from them and their friends, and they were our only tangible connection to those friends of theirs..."

Garma smiled as the man went on and on, although he was quite fed up with the man already. This wasn't new in any way. In fact, the decisions regarding the issue had already been made.

At least his seat was comfortable.

After a while longer of listening to the man, Garma thought it was the time to end it. He didn't have all day to listen to the ravings of a captain who obviously wasn't keeping up with the times, and had missed a memo. Or ten.

"... Captain," he said, startling the said captain.

"Um, yes, Sir?"

"You haven't read the latest news on this issue, have you?"

The man closed his mouth for the first time in at least half an hour.

"If you had stayed up to date, you'd know that we have already decided to take a neutral stance again, either until we hear from the friends of the Clans, or something that actually concerns us happens."

Garma stood up.

"What this means is we are nearly at the same position we were before we had any contact with the Clans and their friends, or anyone else for that matter. With one," he raised his index finger momentarily, "Large difference. We can defend ourselves a lot better right now. Our technological advancement has not gone anywhere."

Shortly after this, the captain, who now had very little to say, left Garma alone in his office.