1: First Strike

Tsunekazu Igarashi was resting, lying on his back on the raised platform 15 meters above the ground. To his right, a towering metallic structure of gundanium alloy stretched above him, only beginning to take the shape of a humanoid form. It was a mobile suit, of course, but it was no normal mobile suit.

Gundam, Tsunekazu thought. The next-generation MS. And I'm building one. He was rather impressed, in spite of himself. But at the same time, he was completely tired out. Building a 6½ story tall robot that you designed yourself wasn't so tough in concept, at least not for Tsunekazu, but in practice it was a real workout. Which is why he was now just lying on the work platform covered in sweat and grime, a mig welder still in his hand.

"Working hard up there?" someone from below yelled up to him. Tsunekazu pulled himself up to see who it was.

"I'm doing my best, Tahk," he shouted down.

"You've been up there for seven hours. C'mon down and clean yourself up. Besides, we need to talk."

"Fine," said Tsunekazu.

"What?"

"Fine!"

Sitting at a table in the small cafeteria in view of the hangar, Tsunekazu went over his notes again.

I threw the armor grafting on the leg joints together really fast, he thought, so I'm worried about how they'll hold up. I don't even have the balancers in place; I need to get some from Fortuna. And then there's the--.

"So how paranoiac are we today?" Tahkruvas Incendor asked him jokingly.

"Less than usual," Tsunekazu replied. "Just a few leg issues."

"Well, you should probably leave the building of the rest of that thing to Fortuna," Tahkruvas said. "Because we need to get it done faster."

Tsunekazu sighed. "What's your excuse this time, another 'window of opportunity'?"

"A big one!" Tahkruvas slapped a newspaper on the table.

"'Mobile Defense Force to begin trials on new battleship'. What about it?"

"They're likely to have folks in high places there. If we can figure out some way to get ourselves noticed when it happens--."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Tsunekazu interrupted. "That's happening in two days and we have no way to get into space, let alone much of a squadron."

"We've got that taken care of, at least the part where we get into space," Tahkruvas returned, still exuberant. "Fortuna made contact with a transport ship of some kind. I've got the specs right here." He pulled out a sheet of paper.

"'Mixed freighter Astral'," Tsunekazu read. "'328.7m long, 93m tall. Well armored, well defended, for hire at a reasonable--.' Tahk, this is a cargo carrier."

"That's why Fortuna's refitting it. It's already got all the weapons an upper class battleship needs; it just needs flight decks and service technology. All taken care of by Fortuna—no cost to us!"

"Even so, Tahk, is this really worth pursuing? It's not as though war is imminent or anything."

This made Tahkruvas a little crazy.

"Of course war is imminent!" he half-shouted. "There wouldn't be rebellions in the colonies and an arms buildup if it wasn't! Besides, aren't you the one that formed this mercenary force?"

Tsunekazu sighed. He knew Tahkruvas was right. But there was still no real party to fight against, no set enemy. And the Mobile Defense Force wasn't saying anything, either.

"That's what I thought," Tahkruvas remarked. "Now, since you're the guy in charge, I need you to give me the go-ahead to hire these guys so we can get into space in two days."

"Now hold your horses, Tahk," Tsunekazu put in. "Are you even sure the test site won't be restricted? It says here they're closing the Euro space elevator for clearance purposes."

Tahkruvas looked thoughtful for a moment. "I hadn't thought of that," he finally said.

"And if war is as imminent as you say it is," Tsunekazu continued, "then we'll be the ones that the Mobile Defense Force goes after. We should take it easy until we get word of them needing some extra help. Besides, with the Gundams, we'll have a serious edge over other mercenaries."

"Guess you're right," Tahkruvas sighed. "But you should still work faster on that thing of yours. You've been at it for months."

"You can still get those guys hired, though."

"The Astral?"

"Yeah, I can."

"Good. We'll need them sooner or later."

"I knew you'd give in at some point!" Tahkruvas shouted as he left.

Tsunekazu leaned back in his chair and sighed. Things were going well, but it was still so stressful. Wooing the Mobile Defense Force into accepting mercenary help wasn't always easy, and there were all kinds of reports of them being thrust into dangerous situations just so that the Mobile Defense Force could patch up the flow of at least some money. And then there was the notion that he couldn't pay off the debts that forming the group had left. The pay he would require was just too much for a government organization to expect to pay.

And on top of all that, Tsunekazu thought, I have to name the damn group. I swear, I have too many responsibilities.

Little did Tsunekazu know that luck was about to smile in his and Tahkruvas' direction in a very twisted way.

Stars streamed by slowly outside a small window on board the mobile carrier Zephyr. But Hiran Ohkawa did not see them; she was busy changing into her uniform, something she didn't like to wear when she wasn't on duty. Unfortunately, she was almost all the time.

"Commander Ohkawa, please report to the bridge," the PA crackled.

I have too many responsibilities, Hiran thought as she sighed. Finally fully uniformed, she stepped out of her cabin and walked down the hall, arriving on the bridge four minutes later. Her presence caused quite a bit of notice as most of the bridged stood up, saluting with the right hand against the head and left hand across the chest.

"At ease," Hiran said as she returned the salute. "Captain, what is it?"

"We have sighted the Euro space elevator at a distance of 25000," Captain Marantz replied.

"Good. Has the rest of the fleet been notified?"

"Yes, but..." Marantz trailed off.

"But what?" Hiran demanded.

"There is a large collection of Mobile Defense Force ships around it," Marantz reported.

Hiran raised one eyebrow.

"It's possible that they are expecting us," Marantz continued. "And one of the units is completely unknown."

"Do you have a visual?" Hiran asked.

"We're waiting on one."

As if on cue, one of the petty officers on the bridge spoke up.

"An encrypted transmission has arrived from one of our Samsungs," he said. "It's an image along with intercepted vox signals."

"Display it," Hiran ordered.

The image appeared on the screen just above the bridge windows. It showed a few small transport craft, a bunch of gunboats, and some civilian ships surrounding a pair of larger ships; one carrier and a huge battleship.

"And the transmission?" Marantz asked.

"It's coming in," the petty officer said. Soon enough, pieces of vox conversation were coming in on the main communication speakers.

"Clearance has been..."

"...at, commence trials."

"Move forward a bit, don't overshoot the engines."

"Performs...well, a little on the slow side, ve...ll designed..."

The transmission switched off after that.

"It seems as though they weren't expecting us," Marantz sighed.

"Even if they are just putting a new ship through trials, they can still fight," Hiran decided. "We must achieve surprise in terms of force to gain the advantage." Her voice was raised so the entire bridge of the Zephyr could hear her now. "Once they see our ships coming, I will speak to them on their frequency and declare war, after which the Mobile Suits are to launch immediately."

"Aye!" the crew on the bridge said almost in unison.

"Are the Shishizaru and the Szubs Rias ready as well?" Hiran asked Marantz.

"They have been on standby since we received the information from our Samsungs," said Marantz.

"Then there will be no further proceeds!" commanded Hiran. "Commence the operation immediately!"

"Mobile suit teams on standby!" Marantz ordered. "Engines at full! The time for war has come!"

The Zephyr, flanked by the Shishizaru and the Szubs Rias, burst to life, engines roaring, propelling the small fleet through space. The Earth grew larger and larger, and a giant metallic box structure came into view as the ships moved closer.

"Space elevator sighted!" a crewman reported. "Targets are in place as well!"

"Keep the general vox network open!" Hiran ordered. "They'll be sending their warning transmission any time now!"

She had just stopped speaking when the loudspeakers on the bridge crackled to life as a vox transmission was received.

"Attention to unknown ship!" a voice barked. "You are entering a restricted area! Reduce your speed and turn immediately!"

"Put me on," Hiran said to Marantz.

"Go ahead."

"Greetings, Earth Mobile Defense Force," Hiran said over vox. "I am Hiran Ohkawa, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Next-Generation Exterior Alliance. You may call us NGEA for short. Since time is of the essence, I will be brief. You are probably aware of the Amun-2 affair that took place several years ago. We are the result of that; we are the Divergents who were discriminated against and run out of the Mobile Defense Force, the Earthsphere, and humanity itself!

"It is for this reason that NGEA would like to announce that a state of war now exists between us and the Earth Mobile Defense Force. Any resistance will be accepted and met with just as much force. I bid you all good luck." And with that, Hiran switched off the vox to the Mobile Defense force, and gave the order:

"Launch mobile suits."

The MS teams were out of the hangar and on the flight deck as soon as the order to launch went out. Four Guelff-as shot from the Zephyr, followed closely by a brand new Guelff-b. The pilot of this sparkling mobile suit was Lieutenant Carpathia Leeuwen, elite among NGEA pilots.

"This area's full of small gunships," he said to the other four pilots. "Take them out before they can react!"

"Sir!" the pilots snapped. Two Guelff-as swung to the right of the formation and opened fire on a set of gunships headed in the direction of the Szubs Rias. The NGEA battleship had no mobile units of its own, and its big guns were only doing so much against the smaller, faster ships. But the Guelffs opened fire quickly, their Divergent pilots easily dodging the AA weaponry aboard the gunships.

On the other side of the battle, deep within the Mobile Defense Force fleet, Leeuwen and his wingmen were tearing through the ranks unopposed. The space around the elevator was thick with explosions. The Mobile Defense Force commanders had by now realized that this was for real, but the larger mobile carriers had been destroyed. All they could muster was a set of six MA-34s, just before the ship carrying them was destroyed.

"Lieutenant!" one of the Guelff pilots alerted. "We have six incoming targets, all mobile armor!"

"You and Weaver lure them back to the Zephyr," Leeuwen ordered. "I'm going to mop up here and wait for the other two!"

The two Guelff-as zipped back to the Zephyr, four of the MA-34s in pursuit. As soon as they were in view, AA weaponry from the Zephyr blazed to life. Three of the MA-34s were destroyed instantly; apparently, there was a veteran in the bunch. That one zipped around the Zephyr and took a shot at the bridge. The beam fizzled out and disappeared as it neared the hull, proof of the power of NGEA's beam scatter devices. The time between that shot and the destruction of that last MA-34 was less than two seconds.

"Their final line of defense has been destroyed," a crewman announced on the bridge.

"Pull the mobile suits back and prepare to open fire," Hiran ordered. "Notify Shishizaru and Szubs Rias to do the same."

A few relays between onboard mobile coordinators, Leeuwen, his pilots, and Hiran later, the mobile suits were back in the hangar and three sets of large-size particle guns were charging up and taking aim. Their targets were the new battleship, still intact, and the space elevator.

"Fire," Hiran ordered coldly.