~ONE~ The Missing One
"2307 AD Earth's fossil fuels have depleted. Three groups of nations have created orbital elevators and a solar power generation system giving humanity access to nearly an infinite source of energy. However, to further increase their own prestige and prosperity, each group of nations insists on playing a grand zero-sum game. Yes, even in the 24th Century, humanity is still unable to live together as one. "
Military exercises had been a method of many nations to showcase the strength of their manpower and their weapons. Hence, today, even during a very hot summer day, many had gathered in order to experience one of the exciting occasions of the World Economic Union. The main agenda for today was to give the latest mobile suit designed for the battle.
The event was to be held in a football arena. The audience seats surrounded the field gaining a 360 degrees view of whatever would be placed in the middle of the place. This time, the people would not be watching a ball game but a game by the army using a mechanical stuff called "mobile suits".
A lot of people attended this event but it was not enough to fill the stadium. You can find a lot of vacant seats creating a wide gap from the portions which were filled. But because I went to this occasion for no reason at all but due to mere boredom, I decided to isolate myself from the curious crowd. I seated at the last row on the back which placed me at a very high altitude. At that time, mingling with the others was troublesome for me and my main objective was only to kill time outside the mansion. However, my "isolation plan" only lasted for minutes when a man suddenly sat on a place one seat apart from me.
Of all the many vacant seats below me, why did you have to choose that place? I asked him through my mind.
The man was a young adult with long straight brown hair which was tied up like a samurai. I deduced that he was Japanese due to that hairstyle. He was also wearing glasses and that made me think that he was a man with high intellect. Well, that was a bit cliché because not all people wearing glasses had poor eyesight due to studying but this young man's aura truly possessed that characteristic.
Unexpectedly, our eyes met so I automatically greeted him with "Good day, sir" and bowed slightly.
The man smiled at me and replied, "Good day too, Ms. Romanauv."
Obviously, he knew who I was. Therefore, I should no longer be surprised why he chose the seat near mine.
"I can see you are a bit knowledgeable even with the people around you."
He softly laughed at me and replied, "The Romanauv Group of Industries is the primary company that supports our technological advancements. It is only a must that we know the people behind it most especially its lone heiress." He reached for my hand and said, "I am Billy Katagiri working under Dr. Eifmann. It's an honor to meet you."
I took his hand and replied, "It's also an honor to meet you."
Being the heiress of a company engaged in manufacturing and supplying armaments for the World Economic Union was a little bit beyond my personality. But no one knew of this side of mine and I would not let anyone discover it. It was as if half of me was breaking apart whenever I do help these people in war.
However, my father, Mr. Aldrix Romauv, was eager to do this. It was triggered by a massive murder incident 11 years ago that brought down his entire kin. It was not his own idea to produce arms but because of the said incident, he was easily swayed by the "trend".
Suddenly, the direction and weight of wind changed. It blew hard as if a hurricane was about to arrive until the culprit finally showed himself. It was a white huge robot flying which swiftly circled the stadium. When it finally stopped in the air, it slowly landed in the middle of the football field on its two metal feet. Upon landing, its chest opened and a young man suddenly popped out. The people gave him a long expression of "awe" as he stood in front of us with great pride.
An announcer suddenly spoke, "May we present to you, Lieutenant Graham Aker, the Ace pilot of the World Economic Union."
The people clapped their hands together with their big smiles while the young man waved his hands like a prince showing gratitude to his citizens.
"Hooo… Graham is surely enjoying this attention," be muttered.
But I just continued staring the young man waving like a big shot in front of the people. Well, he was definitely a big shot because he was an ace pilot who surely had a lot of skills up on his sleeves but still he looked arrogant to me.
There was a sudden change on the wind again and another mobile suit appeared. The second robot had a more complicated design and the materials covering it were more extravagant than the unit used by Graham.
"Hmmm… I don't remember we had that unit," Billy calmly said. "Is that yours?"
"I… don't remember we have such design…" I answered. "But whoever produced that, it made me very eager to buy its patent."
"You sure have a lot of money in your pocket," he replied to me followed with his laughing.
My eyes got stuck on the blue mobile suit floating in the open space. I got star-stricken by the metal plates covering the second suit and its flying potential. Still staring at it with so much awe, I finally answered Billy. "No. This is the first time I felt so amazed with a mobile suit."
"An unidentified mobile suit trespassed the Union's military operations. I repeat: An unidentified mobile suit trespassed our area of military operations. Please leave the area at once."
With such an announcement, the civilians finally panicked to find their way out of the place while the military personnel are assisting them. Billy and I continued watching the two mobile suits ignoring the people's clamor around us.
The commotion worsened when the unknown machine suddenly threw gunshots around the unit of Lt. Aker which made the latter cover himself inside the white mobile suit. Lt. Aker flew and fired back at the blue machine. They exchanged blows in the air but the fight did not last long. Due to the unmeasured skills of the unknown pilot and mobile suit, it ended with the fallen unit of Lt. Aker and the unknown mobile suit left without any warning.
"Curse you! You will pay for this, you bast*rd!" the young pilot exclaimed.
Nobody knew that the event was the beginning of something that would change the flow of history. Everyone was just shocked and terrified by the surprise appearance of an unknown character in the story.
"Ms. Romanauv, are you alright?" Billy asked.
"Yes, I am. But I worry about the pilot," I said.
"Don't worry about him. He's as hard as his head," and gave me smile. "However, I wonder about that suit. Where did it come from?"
I gazed upon the sky and took time to think about the image of the unknown mobile suit. Suddenly, I felt an ache on my head. "Ah!"
"Ms. Romanauv? What happened?" Billy asked while he was trying to support me on my posture.
I rubbed my head and replied, "I'm okay. I think it was just because of the heat."
After such a surprising event, the media and all other communication sources of both Earth and Space were interrupted as if there was a terrible virus that infiltrated everything. It consisted of a 2-minute video of the person responsible for the occurrence of what I just witnessed. It was a message addressed to the whole mankind… a message broadcasted by the one and only inventor of the Solar Power Generation System, Mr. Aeolia Schenberg.
"We are the Celestial Beings and we will eradicate all kinds of war around the world. The incident during the Union's military operations is just one of our methods in our armed intervention."
The people from the broadcasting stations were at chaos because of the sudden interference on their lines.
"It's impossible! Aeolia Schenberg has been dead for centuries!" the President of the United States exclaimed.
Actually, the world was shocked.
Kinoue Crossroad, a reporter, also tried to gather information regarding Aeolia Schenberg. She found one thing that enticed her interest. Aeolia Schenberg had a rumored illegitimate son but disappeared after the exposé. Hence, it was never proven.
"Aeolia Schenberg A scientist and legendary inventor from the late 21st century. He proposed the basic theory of solar power generation system. He rarely appeared in public and nothing except his remembered name," said Kinoue. "It is not surprising that he is behind the creation of the Celestial Being but why are they making their move now? Why over 200 years later?"
On the other hand, the Advanced European Union (AEU) Intelligence Agency also dispatched their own investigation teams for essential data about Aeolia Schenberg.
"During Aeolia's final days, there had been a rumor that he had an illegitimate son but nobody was able to trace who was it. The rumored woman of Aeolia also disappeared as if she never existed because no data can be found about her," the Intelligence Agent reported.
"I see. But what happened to his fortune?" the Secretary of AEU asked.
"There's nothing about it in the records."
"He probably had a hand in that detail. Security was pretty much non-existing back in the 21st Century. However, do whatever you can to find the descendants or followers of Schenberg. We have to find root of this havoc," the Secretary further demanded.
Meanwhile, the World Economic Union already had a grasp of the most important clue to lead to the person they were trying to locate.
"We found out that the descendant of Aeolia Schenberg of our era is an engineer of Heaven's Pillar. He is Rendev Alistaire. However, he died, together with his wife, in an accident 10 years ago at the Pillar."
"How about his children?"
"It was said that their child was with them during the incident. Surprisingly, she was the sole survivor of the incident. The Media loved the mystery behind the accident especially the mystery behind the girl's miraculous survival. However, she was declared dead a few days after the accident because of depression and trauma. But we found misleading information that made us investigate deeper about it, sir, because her body was never found."
"And what's your point?"
"It's possible that the child is still alive and she is the one pulling the strings behind the Celestial Beings."
"Investigate further about this child. I want every person in Aeolia's bloodline to be captured as soon as possible!"