October 16th, 0068. Jaburo, Brazil. Jorge Marcenas POV

'God I really hate my job sometimes.' These were my thoughts as I slowly made my way through the subterranean base on the way to the interplanetary security meeting. When I was growing up, I was feed tales upon tales of the numerous proud achievements of the Marcenas family, how we were protectors of the Earth Sphere and defenders of the Universal Century. This drove my dedication to become an elected official and helped give me plenty of enthusiasm during my early years as an representative in Lhasa. It wasn't until 0064 that all of my hard work paid off and I was finally elected to the position of Prime Minister, succeeding my much older brother Georges. When the work finally began though, it soon became clear that the position of Prime Minister was little more than head jailer on the colonies, using my power to keep them in line and keep the shipments going between Earth and the colonies going. Oh sure I had done some good in my first term, passed some welfare reform, began the process of Federation rearmament, pass a bill which would start the reconstruction program on Earth in order to clean the environment; yet at the end of the day the problems of the Federation would always point back to the colonies. It's not like I was against the colonies having some rights, it's just that they couldn't get silly notions into their head of independence, that's all. We wouldn't even be in this mess in the first place if my idiotic predecessors hadn't decided to basically launch over 80% of humanity into space by force. Now these colonials started to see the walls of steel and titanium as their home rather than the soil of the Earth. We were far too dependent on the colonies for their manufactured goods and energy production, one single event was all that was needed to bring the entire Earth Sphere into ruin. Which brings me back into focus on the current topic of the meeting, Side 3, or the Republic of Zeon as they like to call it now.

I entered the command bunker of the Hexagon at Jaburo where I can already see that everyone else has arrived before me. Sitting down was Rear Admiral Edward Tianem of the 4th Fleet, General Andre Buchanan of the Ground Forces, Secretary of Colonial Relations Sarah Goldberg, Interplanetary Security Advisor Sergei Zhukov, and finally Rear Admiral Jamitov Hymen of Federal Intelligence. I could trust the capabilities and leadership of most of the people here except for that damned Hymen. He struck me too much as a cross between J. Edgar Hoover and Heinrich Himmler, always 10 steps ahead of everyone else and mad with power. Rumor was that he had a huge file in his office that had dirt on every politician and soldier on Earth ( I was clean for the most part but there were some aspects of my life I did not want the public to see). I sat down in the front seat which signaled the beginning of the meeting. "Alright everyone now that we are all in attendance it is time to begin the major topic on everyone's mind for the past few days, Side 3. Andre I'd like to hear your reports of the recent terrorist attack that took place."

The tall black man straightened up and put on his reading glasses which he used to read the file in front of him, "Prime Minister, as we all know at 1130 hours yesterday at GMT, an attack on the capitol of Side 3 in Munzo City proceeded under the direct command of local MP, Jimba Ral. At the time although we do not have a clear motive for attack, it is heavily presumed that the intent was to rid the government of the Zabi faction, a somewhat right-wing political faction of the SDSP under the direction of Degwin Zabi. local Defense forces were quick to respond to the attack and arrived promptly around 30 minutes, surrounding the building and sending special forces inside to deal with the terrorists." When Buchanan said that he let out a grunt in annoyance, it was clear that he was hoping that the Federal Forces would arrive on the scene first so that we could have a pretense for martial law. Something that didn't happen as the local garrison commander took over 2 Hours before mobilization. What he was doing that time was unknown, though it was clear that there would be much questioning over neglect of duty. Buchanan cleared his throat and continued. "The attack took a total time between one and thirty-three minutes, during that time an estimated over 200 civilians, bureaucrats, and politicians died from the attackers with over 300 wounded. The main attack finally came to an end at 1254 when the leader of the terrorists was captured by Dozle and Gihren Zabi, and his own son Ramba Ral." 'Hmm, interesting. I wonder if my nephew Ronan would have the guts to take me on.' As of right now the suspects are being questioned though there has been fierce resistance to cooperation with Federal Forces and intelligence. I'll let Secretary Goldberg take over on the political side of things." Buchanan then sat down and motioned Goldberg to take center stage.

"Prime Minister, according to reports from the other Sides, everything appears to be stable at the moment and nothing has gone in the way of unrest besides some fear and anxiety over the possibility of attacks in their homes. The situation is much the same over Side 3 with the exception of Defense and Federal forces shutting down the local spaceports at the time to try and uncover if a larger plot is unraveling. The same could not be said for the Munzo colony as attacks had once again started against the Ralist organizations and individuals present there. The situation thankfully did not scale into full fledged riots when a video was released onto the new Zeonet site of YouTube by Gihren Zabi on his personal YouTube channel, Kaiser Gihren. In it Gihren made a joint speech with Ramba Ral denouncing Jimba Ral's actions and calling for peace within the colony so that Zeon could move forward with fair elections and that they wouldn't have any more suffering from last weeks events. The video seemed to do the trick as by nightfall the crowds have largely dispersed back to their homes, albeit under a forced curfew, and not much has happened except for a few case incidents under rogue individuals. Special Elections have been called for next month and it is highly anticipated that the Zabi faction will gain control. Earlier today Degwin Zabi was announced as interim Prime Minister with his son Gihren taking on the role of Vice Prime Minister, most likely due to his actions in the attack. They are both expected to retain their until after the elections. That is all."

I was about to raise my voice to comment on the matter until Hymen interrupted me, "You've all failed. Now the situation is far worse than we could've imagined"

At that Tianem raised his voice in reply, "What are you going on about Jamitov? I swear you're too damn paranoid for your own good."

Hymen instantly flared when being accused by this and yelled in reply,"Paranoid? PARANOID?! You're calling me too goddamn paranoid when you are to blame for this mess?! You could've easily come in with the 4th Fleet and declared martial law, taking control of Side 3 and ending this whole nonsense of independence. But did you? Nooo. Instead those anarchists and rebels go about prancing without any authority or control. Did I set up the assassination of Zeon Zum Deikun for nothing?!"

At the instant mention of that deed the rest of the council quickly darkened in their mood.. Earlier last month Jamitov came to us with a report that his spies had stolen an early draft of some of Deikun's speeches which detailed a clear motion for independence from the Earth Sphere and for the evolution of Newtypes to take precedence. At first this would've been ignored and a later blockade of Side 3 instituted by the Space Forces with the garrisons storming out to take control. What did set the council towards the assassination of Deikun however, was when Syam Vist came to visit Jaburo around the same time and informed Hymen that agents on Side 3 have been actively searching for Laplace's Box. 'Once again, another situation started by that damned box.' Laplace's Box was something that I was not proud of at all as it was nothing more than some piece of blackmail that a family of terrorists and art collectors have been using over my family for the past near seven decades. Once word had reached that Side 3 knew of the box's existence, Jamitov started ranting about how Deikun was going to steal the box, or somehow obtained a copy of it, and was going to use it to back up his deceleration. What made the situation even more worse, was word from Intelligence on Side 3 of the activities of the Flanagan Institute. It appeared from the word of our agents that Newtype research was underway and that they had proven their existence with some of the earliest tests of their students. The agents were unfortunately unable to stop it as the place was too well guarded by the Defense Forces for some major sabotage, thus they had to resort to malfunctioning equipment and messing with financials. If Zeon Deikun had presented the Newtype findings with Laplace's Box, then the Federation was done for. The colonies would rise up in revolt and the Earth Sphere descending into chaos. Thus, for the greater good, we all agreed that Deikun had to be eliminated. Unfortunately, when our agents found out Deikun's speech contents later on, they had found out that no mention of Laplace's Box was in there. Meaning that some other force now knew of the box's existence. "Jamitov, we can't exactly go in and declare marital law when the situation had been under control by the local forces. We'd look nothing more like a bunch of conquerors and we'd only be giving fuel to the flames for the resistance by those Spacenoids. Deikun is dead and most of the government was fortunately eliminated by the actions of Jimba Ral, which was quite fortunate considering we didn't have a hand in his actions." I'd say we got the crisis behind us and we can now move on."

Advisor Zhukov then sat up and spoke out," I'm afraid you're wrong on that Prime Minister, and that I'll have to agree with Admiral Hymen on this one. For the past two years, Zeon has been developing their technology and an unprecedented rate in scientific development. Our top mechanics in the Engineering Corps say that their inventions are possibly thirty years in advancement. With this Side 3 is actively pushing to become the economic powerhouse of the colonies and may one day come to a point where any economic sanctions we lay on them may have no effect and they'll be self-sufficient. This, along with their expansion into the Solar System may one day have them rival Earth in terms of resources. Last of all we cannot forget the increasing armament that their Defense Force has begun, why else would they be doing that except to go to war?"

"Exactly, and you've only made the situation worse by leaving the Zabi's in power. Why else did you think I tried to eliminate them with that bomb." says Jamitov. Again the bombing of Sasro and Dozle Zabi was something that was due to the Federation, this time though Jamitov acted unilaterally. He only informed us after the event had gone down and his reasons were due to the fact that he believed the Zabi's were behind the virtual elimination of Federal Intelligence on Side 3 and the loss of what he decried to be some of his key assets. I had one of my loyal informants in Intelligence look into it and he said that Jamitov had gotten all riled up because most of the losses were several of his key assets. Men that I had no knowledge of in their identity like Bask Om and Jamaican Daningham. This made Hymen a very paranoid man and he saw the Zabi's as the problem. Speaking of, "The Zabi's are the most militaristic of Side 3 and they have actively been gearing up Zeon for war. That bitch Kycillia is probaly responsible for the loss in agents while I'm pretty damn sure that Sasro is the cause of the anti-Federal sentiment in not only Side 3, but Lagrange 4 as well. Lastly I've been my few informants left have been telling me that their oldest, Gihren is on the move. He was responsible for the whole Newtype nonsense and he's pushing for the Defense Force to militarize Mobile Suits."

"Mobile Suits? Tianem says with a chuckle. "How could they ever outperform our Saber Fishes in space? Those robots are too damn slow and would be perfect targets for missiles. Say Andre? Isn't there someone in your department that's actually trying to do the same thing? What was his name? Reveille, Revy?"

"That's Ibrahim Revil and yes, he has been advocating for increased Mobile Suit usage. He's one of our brightest officers but at the same time he keeps on pushing for trillions to be poured into the budget for modernized ships and increased armarment Earthside. He's actually the one who came up with the 0070 Plan that I was talking to you about in terms of new classes for the Space Force, but I'm not going to spend to much on the Army. Our tanks are very advanced thank you very much and I'm sure that they can handle any robots." Buchanan responded.

"If we could get back to the topic at hand." said Zhukov. "Once again I do have to agree with Admiral Hymen in that the Zabi's are a major threat. While Deikun has been pushing for independence, these people were the ones responsible for the changes in Side 3. Another pressing issue that we must attend to is that of Newtypes. Hymen's reports confirm that they're more than some crazy nonsense that Deikun spouted. Soon by all estimated reports there could be hundreds of thousands living in the colonies by the end of the decade, maybe even on Earth. Think about it, a whole new super race of humans that can use their mind powers to control us. I say we eliminate Side 3 as soon as possible before they rise up against us."

"Surely there must be some diplomatic solution to this?" pleaded Goldberg. "We've been at a time of peace ever since the Universal Century had begun. It would be foolish to start a war now when it could lead to the possible loss of billions and the destruction of space."

"You are nothing more than a pacifistic fool, woman! Those cockroaches need to be crushed now!" said Jamitov

The council then erupted into a fury of arguments for the next five minutes with Zhukov and Hymen going for the war party while Goldberg, Buchanan, and Tianem were calling for restraint. It was quite frustrating to listen to but it gave me time to think of a solution. "Everyone SHUT UP!" I demanded by pounding my fist on the table. It sure got those blathering idiots to quite down. "Listen I know that the Zabi's can be a potential threat, but at the moment our hands are tied. Anti-Federation sentiment is at its highest on Side 3 and if any more action is taken then the colonies will rise up against us anyways and soon we will have a full fledged rebellion. I say we quietly let this slide and slowly start to place economic sanctions on them to bring them to heel. At the same time we'll go forward with the 0070 Plan so that we can modernize the Space Forces so that we'll be in control once a war situation begins. Lastly, I want Jamitov to start a new program to find all Newtypes on both Earth and the colonies. Try and hack into the Flanagan Institute and see if they have any data on what classifies as a Newtype and how to find them. We can also hire our own scientists to work on the issue so that we'll become independent of their research. If Newtypes exist then I want the full potential of their powers understood and for them to be used for the Federation. If there are any complaints then please speak them now."

Everyone was silent for a few moments until Jamitov spoke up again. "Your making a big mistake Prime Minister. There will be war with the colonies by 0080, and there's a high chance that the Federation will lose. End this before it begins."

"I've made my decision and it's final Jamitov. Perhaps when you become Prime Minister than you can blow up as many colonies as you want." 'God help us if that day comes.'

A/N: Jorge Marcenas is my OC and is the granduncle of Riddie Marcenas. So tell me what you guys thought. It appears that Jamitov strikes again and it's all because of Kaiser Gihren's actions. What will Kaiser Gihren do next? How long before we get Zakus? Find out on the next installment of Gihren's Glory!