I've returned after a bit of a break in order to deal with some IRL stuff. Hopefully we can get back on track with this. Shall we begin?

Like a pattern on a window,

The past is near again.

Someone sang a song to me,

One winter night sometime.

EFS White Base, moored at Luna 2

September 20, UC 0079

1938 Hours (L2T)

Eight military policemen formed a human barricade to prevent entry and exit from the living section of the White Base. As things stood, they were doing the job they were all tasked with and it wasn't a drill.

"Char is coming!" cried Amuro. "The Gundam! He's after the Gundam!" The boy tried his hardest, but the blockade of men wouldn't budge.

Amid this standoff, a pink-uniformed figure could briefly be seen sliding down the poles of a now-deactivated express shaft.

Sayla?

"Zeon knows about Operation V," said Wakkein, after sipping his coffee. "Jaburo is not going to be happy about this."

Three other officers had gathered in the admiral's office, two of which also had coffee in preparation for a long shift. They felt the same way.

"The civilian population has been seeing Zeeks under their beds at night since February," said Major Charles Kramer, seated on the sofa. "Many of them are convinced another Sydney's going to happen."

"Can you blame them?" William Hunter, the captain sitting next to Kramer asked. "After getting stomped flat at Loum, a lot of them think we can't win. Now that the Gundam is at least known to that Musai, you can expect that sooner or later, Zum City's going to try to replace the Zaku."

The monitor on the wall turned on. "Commandant Wakkein!" the lieutenant briskly announced. "We've been hit! A Zeon ship is firing on us!"

"The Musai?" asked Wakkein.

"It's not confirmed, but it looks like it! It's cruiser class!"

Captain Rick Archer, a swarthy-looking bald man with a thin beard and mustache was not happy about the news. "And to think we bailed them out…"

"Don't get worked up," said Wakkein, donning his cap. "Once threatened, they'll withdraw." He pressed a button on his console, calling the docking bay. "Magellan! Prepare to sortie!"

The EFS Magellan, the namesake of her line of battleships, was hurriedly being prepped for battle. Archer wasted no time getting to the bridge. After later finding out that they had obstructed the sinking of a Musai, he was flustered that the enemy wasn't repaying them the same courtesy.

As far as he was concerned, they were getting smashed.

"Gate open," control reported. "Now free of the hold! Engines look good."

"Control, we have reached turning point."

"Roger! Now back up—ah!"

Silence went over the bridge's loudspeakers for a moment. Was something wrong?

"Control! Control! We've turned and are entering the gate, okay?"

A new voice came over, different from what had been heard. "Main gate is clear. Ahead, slow speed, and good hunting!"

The battleship slowly eased forward, down the shaft out of Luna 2, guns charged and ready to go. But barely halfway out, fireballs blossomed all around the vessel, wedging her in the tunnel.

The fall of the Magellan knocked out all the main power for that section of Luna 2. The eerie red light of the emergency lighting enveloped the docking bay as smoke and debris filled it. Federation soldiers scrambled to counteract the abrupt sabotage operation.

In the midst of the chaos, Char approached the "Trojan Horse" unmolested. Her hangars were open and unguarded.

He went in without a fight.

Toward the back, a familiar white mobile suit stood with its back against its slab. He'd fought it a few days ago and witnessed its remarkable firepower. If he were only in a position where he could capture it. The best he could do was the data.

Char flew up to the belly of the suit. The cockpit was already open. A glory-hungry rookie would have attempted to hijack the suit and promptly get shot down by the Feddies. He was able to look inside the driver's seat at all the screens and consoles within. It was hard to believe, but after everything Char had seen since Side 7, he was convinced that the Federation now had the upper hand in the arms race.

"Don't move! The laser gun on your belt, let go of it!"

The Comet faced his left. A young blonde woman in a women's Federation uniform was walking toward him on the gantry to the suit. She had a handgun waiting to be fired.

"Do as I say, or I'll shoot!" she ordered. "Raise your hands above your shoulders!"

Char paused for a second. She had a vague air of familiarity about her. He smirked. "A reserve soldier?"

"Didn't you hear me? I'll shoot you, really!"

Char complied. "Nicely done," he said, raising both hands to eye-level. "You're a brave one."

"Step down from there and stop the chatter!"

He descended from the lip of the cockpit. "That's the spirit, I guess the Federation isn't finished yet!"

The reservist still had her gun trained on Char. "Stop right there!" she barked "Don't come any closer and take off that helmet!"

"So you want to see the face of the reckless Zeon officer?" Char chuckled. "The one who led his men straight into the enemy base? Very well." The helmet of his normal suit came off, revealing a man with golden locks behind a vinyl mask. "How's that?"

"The mask, too!"

Char laughed again. "You sure ask a lot of me, my lady." The mask came off, revealing a dashing face.

The girl looked as if she had seen a grizzly homicide when she saw him, but her shock left her distracted enough for Char to kick a wrench on the ground at her wrist, disarming her.

Char lunged forward his would-be captor, taking her by her left wrist while still clutching his helmet. He came close to giving the reservist a kiss, but paused when he was less than a foot away. He looked into her deep blue eyes and a chill came over him. Artesia?

"Miss Sayla!"

Char's attention shifted toward the source of the voice: another reservist, a boy with rusty-looking hair brandishing a pipe. Pushing the girl away, he fired at the kid's impromptu weapon.

The shock of the shot broke the upper portion of the pipe and sent the boy flying back against the wall, slumping on the floor.

With the wannabe hero's charge soundly thwarted, the Comet put his mask and helmet back on.

He turned around to fly out of the hangar, looking back only once at that girl one more time.

A firefight had broken out between Char's commandos and the Luna 2 staff. Using the radio function on his helmet, he called out to his men. "Fire a signal flare, pull back!"

"Shouldn't we destroy the enemy suit, Commander?"

"Negative. We've done enough."

The mobile suit team never received a call to return to the ship after attacking the Papua. They did see the capture of the White Base by the Magellan and had to follow both ships from a distance. It took a long time to catch up, but the flames erupting from one of the man-made tunnels into the asteroid gave them a clue they were getting warmer.

Ryu had been trying to raise the bridge over and over again, but eventually, he'd made contact. Bright was on the other end of the line, looking pretty ruffled. "So what's happening, Lieutenant?" Ryu asked, a bit awkwardly. "And where's Sayla?"

"I'll explain later," Bright told him. "Now come back! There's a big job waiting for you!"

From the VIP room in the sick bay, Wakkein stood with his arms folded as an assortment of humans, Guncannons, and Guntanks hustled to get the twisted hulk of the Magellan cleared out of the tunnel on the monitor as hospital equipment beeped and buzzed about him.

The admiral had egg on his face. Bright was completely in the right about that Musai earlier and his underlings' delusions of Zeon gratitude had been shattered.

Behind the admiral, hospital bed lay an older officer, all but static with the head of the bed cranked up.

"The White Base should be ready to go in little more than twenty-four hours," said Wakkein. "My apologies, sir."

The stricken captain spoke with a gravelly tone, as if he'd been screaming all night the night before. "Commandant Wakkein."

"What is it Captain Paolo?"

"There's no need to defer to me like that," he said. "You outrank me. You're an admiral and I'm just a reserve officer called up for emergency duty. An old soldier."

"No," said Wakkein, humbly, "to me you're still my academy instructor, Captain. You trained me well."

"You were an excellent student," Paolo said, smiling weakly. "It was an honor to teach you. Head of your class."

"I should be flattered," said the commandant, "but I think I detect a note of sarcasm."

"Do you recall what I wrote in your final evaluation?" Paolo asked. "'Excels in both theory and in practice. However, his thinking can be too rigid'. Those youngsters to whom I've entrusted my ship have great ability. The new mobile suits will change the tide of battle, but that's not all. Only their kind of youthful power can change this world. There's one thing I keep thinking about."

"What's that?"

"What our generation has left for those youngsters. War and death, arrogance and sanctimony, the destruction of the God-given gifts of nature. It may be time for us to bow out… and make room for a new age."

Wakkein said nothing. He faced the monitor again. The twisted bow of the Magellan was now sticking out of the space gate, pushed out by the two Guntanks. As the slipped further and further out into the vacuum, there was a loud, sustained beep from the apparatus.

A flatline.

The morning of September 21, UC 0079.

The guerilla attack on Luna 2 primarily yielded wounded once the madness abated, yet the guns of the space base signaled death.

The steel coffin of former White Base captain and reserve officer Paolo Cassius was draped in the Earth Federation flag as a few hundred onlookers.

The White Base's ragtag crew was among them.

"Bright," Mirai whispered. "About the refugees. Hardly any of them want to stay here."

Bright's voice was kept at the same volume as hers. "Can't blame them," he said. "After what just happened, Luna 2 just isn't safe."

Four officers inserted the flag-covered coffin into a larger space capsule, which was then sent out into space through a hatch on the wall.

A call to salute was ordered and Paolo's metal sarcophagus was jettisoned into space. "Taps" sounded as video of the capsule appeared on the large jumbotron of the assembly room, the sunlight glistening upon it.

"If I didn't know better," said Rosemary Prower, "I would have thought this storm was blowing in sideways." The rain outside was so thick that a hatchet would leave a mark in it and it had her pinned down inside Isabella Mongoose's house.

What was originally intended to be a brief stopover for the vixen was transformed into a prolonged visit between the two Councilwomen within private walls. Her attention was snared by a framed photo on the end table on her side of the sofa. A little purple-haired Mongoose wearing shiny black slippers, way too big for her, was in it. She had a silk scarf and a pair of oversized sunglasses on her face, worn crookedly. The only thing that fit the little girl was the diaper she had taped on.

Rosemary couldn't help but smile at the picture. Izzy, you're so lucky to have seen Mina grow up. I wish I could have been with Miles.

Isabella entered the room, carrying a tray with two mugs of coffee, decaf.

"It's funny," said Rosemary. "After Knothole went up in smoke, it's a miracle that nanites can restore mementos and images."

Isabella concurred. "There's not a whole lot of people who want to boot out NICOLE anymore," she said. "Last I checked, only a quarter were still undecided about her."

"The king's lost a lot of favor, too," said the vixen. "He came in blowing his own horn, but after nanites went dormant his standing really petered out."

"Naugus lost my support, too," Izzy admitted. "Rotor and Cream saved the people at the concert, not him, and the people want Elias back, they say."

"So I've heard," said Rosemary, taking her mug. "Remember his reaction to when we voted to overturn NICOLE'S exile? His reaction to Acorns returning would make that look like a frolic in the sunshine."

"Have you noticed that nobody's seen the king in public lately?" asked Izzy, stroking her chin. "Why is Geoffrey taking up so many of his responsibilities lately?"

"The alibi is that he's sick," said Rosemary. "We ought to ask about his condition at the Saturday meeting." She sipped the coffee and looked out into the rain. "It's not just the king. Geoffrey's been acting odd since he disappeared, too."

Lighting flashed and an earsplitting thunderclap followed a second later, causing both ladies to wince.

It was going to be a long night.

Author's notes:

+ As established in earlier chapters, and in Universal Century media, the time in between the Antarctic Treaty and the Side 7 attack was primarily an arms race: Zeon developed strongholds in space with A Baoa Qu, Solomon, and additional fortifications at the lunar city of Granada while the Federation toiled to rebuild its devastated space fleet and play catch-up with the Zeon mobile suit program. With Zeon overrunning roughly half of the Earth's surface and having forced an entire O'Neill cylinder onto Australia, I could only imagine that the attitude of civilian life on either side of the One Year War wasn't too far removed from that of the Cold War. The American citizen was led to believe that the Soviet Union was way ahead of them in intellect, technology, and munitions, that toppling a Communist government was akin to unscrambling an egg and that it would all end in either the whole world falling to Soviet-style socialism or atomic Armageddon. Many people would have seen the peaceful resolution of the late Eighties and early Nineties as ASB back then. Nobody imagined that both sides were equally scared of the other.

+ The prelude to the chapter is a translation of part of the lyrics to "Once Upon A December" in the Russian dub of Don Bluth's Anastasia (1997). The song for some reason always made me think of Sayla.

+ In the portion of the Origin manga this chapter was derived from there was a strange sequence where Bright and several other arrested White Base crew escape their cells after the destruction of the Magellan knocked out the power. It was deemed a bit too silly, especially the parts where Bright struggles to slide the door open and screams when he sees armed Federation soldiers charge toward his group (they were really going to fight the intruders).

+ SonicEvan has been, once again, indispensable when it came to the stuff with Rosemary and Isabella. Truth be told, I was a bit iffy about the recreation of objects and images after Knothole got torched.