Mobile Suit Zaku

by AkureiGX

MSZ is the beginning of a long series of stories which follow the life of Xandra Zabi throughout the Universal Century. This story focuses on her life before and during the One Year War.

1. Prelude

Title: Mobile Suit Zaku
Chapter 00: Prelude
Disclaimer: Some names, characters, places and events contained in this story are copyrights of Bandai Entertainment. All others are intellectual property of American Zaku Productions. This story is Fanfiction based on the sci-fi anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. It is an original story spin-off of that series which follows the life of Xandra Zabi during the horrific One Year War and post war conflicts.
Author's Notes: The following is a short chapter to get the background info out of the way before the real story starts. It's mainly for those who may not know much about Gundam and provides some needed or at least useful background information. Since I want to focus on the story and not back story, I won't go TOO much into detail with this part, just a short list of the events leading up to chapter 1.

Chapter 00
Prelude

Universal Century 0068, a year that would mark great changes in the lives of those who lived in the space colonies of Side 3. On this year, Zeon Zum Deikun, founder of Side 3's autonomous movement and founder of the Republic of Zeon was assassinated. His death would have long lasting impact throughout the Earth Sphere. The Earth Federation, or the Zabi family were just a few of many names that were raised as possible assassins. Degwin Soto Zabi quickly moved in to take power as Zeon's successor and had Deikin loyalists dealt with. Not long after Degwin proclaims Side 3, the Principality of Zeon and installs a dictatorship monarchy with himself installed as Sovereign. Many lives were forever changed on that fateful year, one of those lives were of a young girl named Xandra Yoselyn Zabi, Degwin's niece. He had been taking care of her since her parent's died. Not wanting the 10 year old to be negatively effected by all of the political and military chaos surrounding this transitional period, he made arrangements for her to be sent to Side 6 to attend a boarding school, despite her objections.

While she originally resisted going to Side 6, it didn't take too long for her to develop a liking for it. The colony she was on was peaceful and had a rather small population, a big difference from Zum City and other Side 3 colonies. It was also her first time in an open-type colony, there was something about the solar light being reflected into the colony that made her feel at thought this is what Earth was like. She remained relatively happy and made several friends, due to her being from so far away, no one really knew anything about her family so unlike being on Side 3 she didn't have to walk around with body guards, as she sometimes did in Side 3. Xandra spent 5 years attending school and showed amazing talent in her classes. At 14 years old she had been placed in 12th grade through advancement testing. All her teachers believed that she would be the youngest person in Side 3 to attend college. Xan however, had no such interest, her achievements drew from her desire to return home. Though she enjoyed Side 6 and the friends she made, there was some driving force deep in her soul to return to her homeland.

Xandra's wishes came true and she completed her GED just before her 15th birthday, setting new student records in Side 6. She was happy to finally be in her homeland again, but something had changed in the last 5 years. Zum City was no longer the place she had remembered. There were many soldiers were she remembered there being a handful of police officers. On her return trip, there was security far tighter then when she had departed. And most disturbing was that instead of seeing small transport ships in the space dock, as she recalled. There were now large ships with vary clear weaponry attached to their hulls. On the day of her birthday she finally got to see her uncle Degwin. He was apparently the new head of state and even though she was raised by him for half her life, she actually had to arrange a meeting just to see him. They were both a bit surprised with each other. Xan had grown into quite an attractive young woman while Degwin's health seemed to have gotten worse then she remembered.

During there meeting, he took her on a tour on one of the new military facilities and explained about the changed made in Side 3 over the past few years. He had told her about the Federation Assembly's constant attempts to undermine their independence which even extended to a military blockade, and the need for the Principality to develop a military force. He explained about the warships at the space dock and how they guard Side 3's merchant ships from Federation harassment. But what he showed her next was something that would change the course of her life. Standing before her was a truly immense machine. It stood around 18 meters tall and was the most intimidating thing she had ever seen, with a large glowing "eye" was starring down at her. Degwin said this enormous humanoid machine was called a "mobile suit" and would be the key to maintain Side 3's independence, that these weapons would be the guardians of Side 3 and the protectors of it's people. In that moment her mind became set, she wanted nothing more then to pilot this machine and protect her homeland. When she asked about the suit, Degwin said they had given it a name, it was to be called "Zaku."

Wrap up: That's it for now, again just some background to lead into the main story which will begin with Xan having been admitted early into Zeon's new pilot training program and Zum City Military Academy and this is where our story really begins ^_^.