Chapter 1

May 27th, UC. 0079

The space pod ejected fuel from the port thrusters, aligning itself with the airlock hatch on the exterior of the station.

"Welcome to Jovian-01," The onboard speaker blared.

The hatch popped open as two men pushed themselves out into the near-weightless Layer 1 of Jovian-01.

The first was a grizzled old man with a hard-set, square face, wearing a Jupiter Fleet uniform. The second man was much younger, with jet-black hair and donning a EFSF Ensign uniform.

"Thanks for the lift again, Malock," The young man piped up.

"Don't mention it. I'm here to sort out some paperwork with the Zeons about how much Helium-3 they need, and the numbers ain't pretty. It was nothing to give you a ride. Alright, gotta go. I'll see you around, Aros."

Aros bade his farewell and grabbed the nearest mag-rail to Layer 5.

Layer 5 was the size of small town in terms of living area.. As a small elevator trundled up its shaft to reach Layer 3, Aros felt the gravitational pull increase. A maintenance screen cheerfully told him he had reached the 0.3 G zone.

To prevent accidents by falling, any zone beyond 0.4G could no longer use mag-rails as the method of ascending or descending.

Aros got into the capsule lift and watched as Layer 4 whisked by and as the lift trundled to a stop at Layer 5.

"EFSF main building, on Io road," Aros scrunched up his face to look at a crumpled map, "Right here."

Aros pushed through the rotary door and found himself in a simple yet elegant lobby.

"Ensign Aros Epsom, I presume?"

"Yep, that's me." Aros turned around to find a man with a walrus mustache.

"Perfect. Follow me now, or you'll get lost in here. I'm Commodore Blanc."

Blanc led Aros to his office through an ornately designed corridor, "Have a seat, Ensign. You know why I called you here, kiddo?"

"No, sir."

"Alright, I'll cut to the chase. You have piloted a Ball before, am I correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"So we were looking for a Space Force Member with experience with space-use mobile weapons, and you were the only one fitting the criteria."

"The criteria for what, sir?"

"Stop calling me 'sir'. You can call me Blanc. Back to your question, have you perchance seen a large container outside this station on your way here?"

"The big blue one printed with EFSF on the side ? Yeah, I did. Is that relevant, sir… I mean, Mr. Blanc?"

"Yes. Yes it is." He paused here for a second and gazed out of the window, " What if I told you it is a portable hanger with a Federation Mobile Suit in it?"

"A Mobile Suit? Doesn't only Zeon have Mobile Suits like the Zaku?" Aros stood up in excitement.

"Sit down, Ensign. It's a long story."

0079 0079 0079

January 17, UC. 0079

Side 5

The salvage craft cruised toward the Zeon craft's wreckage. Zorran couldn't figure out what ship it used to be, but neither did he care.

"Alright, normal suits on, people."

The Commandos left the salvage craft and dived into the wreckage. What lay in store could be a jackpot or a bust. Zorran grabbed a metal hunk wedged between some crushed debris. A nav-comp CPU. He cracked open the shell. The silicon plate was broken. Worthless.

"Sir… I found something big," Another Commando's voice crackled over the radio.

"Well? What is it?"

"A Mobile Suit, sir. And undamaged by the likes of it."

Zorran let go of the broken CPU.

0079 0079 0079

March 17, UC. 0079

Side 7

"Mr. Ray, we got the Zaku's processor out whole and downloaded the OS."

"Good. We can study it. Later. Put the processor back in for now," Tem Ray responded.

"Excuse my asking, but for what purpose?"

"See those thruster parts and the metal pieces on that truck over there?"

"Yeah?"

"We're making a test unit for the thruster we're going to put on IT."

"It?"

"The ultimate weapon. The Gundam."

0079 0079 0079

April 13 UC. 0079

Side 7

Tem Ray gaze at the lightly armoured mobile suit before him.

"We're gonna have to christen it. Any ideas?"

"Well, while we were replacing the cockpit with one from the Ball, we found a small metal plate with the name 'Jacob' on it."

Tem Ray smiled. "Jacob it is."

And he wrote on the data sheet in his hands, under unit name: MS-06EFSFV "Jacob".