A shimmering cacophony of stars reached into the endless abyss

A shimmering cacophony of stars reached into the endless abyss. The sky was painted with shimmering diamonds and the cool mountain air teased briskly at Sally's long coat. A shooting star streaked a fiery trail across the heavens. Shooting star or battle wreckage? Sally wondered bitterly. Lake Victoria stretched away, lit softly in the moon light. Behind her, the base continued its business in muted fashion. From the bridge it appeared to be a cozy small town.

Her mind played back the conversation of two nights before.

"Old coals are being stoked…"

"What do you mean?"

"Beneath the baking desert sun, the dove of peace is hunted."

"Who are you?"

"I am a shade of what has been…"

Sally shook her head in frustration. But what the hell does it mean? She leaned forward against the railing of the wooden bridge.

The voice reminded her of someone she had known long before. But the image brought to mind by the voice was not the cheerful boy she had met. It was instead a young man who's hair was cut raggedly short and who's eyes and voice carried the bitterness of becoming a widower at nineteen.

The comm-link on her lapel buzzed.

"Sally."

"Sally, we need you back here, pronto." An excited voice told her.

"Trent? What is it?"

"Just get back here, it's impossible, but I can't find any other explanations. Wuffie's all ready on his way."

Sally nodded though she knew she could not be seen. "Right, I'm on my way."

Sally took one last look across the shimmering moonlit waters. Then she turned back towards the base and hurried away.

She had no way to know that the next time she stood on that bridge, she'd be looking at a wasteland.

* * *

On the outer edge of the asteroid belt was humanity's last outpost. It was an aging and decrepit station, all but forgotten by the space forces and government. It was home to four men and three women. Each of them was an outcast, relegated to the most barren post in the known universe as punishment for repeated and unforgivable offenses.

On this pitiful, airless hunk of rock they eked out a pathetic existence and monitored the deep-space relays. They didn't do the jobs because they wanted to, or because they felt any desire to repent. It was just that, well, there was nothing else to do. So they carried out their miserable and lonely mission and counted down the days until their shift ended and they could return to something approaching civilization.

The closest thing to recreation room on the station was a tiny lounge on the observation bubble. The graceful dome of super thick glass displayed a breathtaking vista of the vastness of space. Small asteroids drifted by and Jupiter was visible as an orange dot slightly larger than the surrounding stars on the lower left. The only problem with the view was the fact that it got old rather fast.

Senior commander (an officious and meaningless title given purely because of seniority) Gloval Graham stared resentfully out at the stars. In his hand he clutched a Styrofoam cup of bitter re-processed coffee. The food gets worse and worse as it gets closer to time for the supply convoy to get here. The air gets stale, the coffee bitter, and we, we get down right brutal to each other. Of course it doesn't help when the damn shipment is two weeks late! The thought that they had finally been forgotten and abandoned crossed his mind again as it had many times over the past few weeks.

Junior commander (another meaningless title) Jennessa Wells walked into the room. Her brown hair framed her pretty face and a mischievous smile lit her expression. Gloval pretended not to notice.

"What is it?" He rumbled dryly.

Jennessa poked her tongue out for a moment. "Mmm, you're no fun!"

Gloval made a vague gesture that encompassed all of the station around them. "Nothing in this tin can is fun."

The mischievous smile returned. She sauntered slyly up to the table and leaned forward. Gloval pasted an expression of gruff disapproval onto his face. "Hardly regulation uniform there, don't you think?"

She leaned forward even farther, giving Gloval a very ample view of her very ample cleavage. It was most certainly not a regulation uniform. "But," she purred, "You said there was nothing fun on this station." She traced her fingers teasingly across his shirt. "I'm just trying to prove you wrong…"

As she leaned across the table to kiss him, the universe outside the observation bubble exploded. Light washed across the bubble of glass and the entire asteroid rumbled as it was hit by an unseen shock-wave. An indistinct shape glowed violently and burned rapidly past the observation bubble, searing their eyes as it headed towards Earth. Bits of rock broke away from the edges of the viewport and could be seen tumbling lazily into the void.

Jennessa found herself thrown into Gloval's arms, but all feints at romance were now forgotten. "What the hell was that?" she asked.

Gloval didn't pay her much attention. He shoved her off and shouted hoarsely into his comm-link. "Rand! You'd better have been watching your screen or I swear to God I'll kill you!" He turned to Jennessa. "Command deck, now."

Jennessa shot him a sour look as she collected herself on the floor. "Yes Sir." She mumbled sarcastically.

It took Gloval all of thirty seconds to scramble down the central ladder into the command pod. Rand Daubson, the on-duty sensor watch looked shaken. Gloval hit the deck yelling. "All right Rand, what in Yui's grave was that?'

Rand shook his head. "I've got no fucking clue. Take a look at this replay. The three of them clustered around the small monitor and Tina, the comm officer, came to join them.

Rand's hands flew over the keys. "Okay, first I'll show you the farthest proximity sensors we have. It's the only way I saw the first part."

The screen focused on the lower left corner. It zoomed until Jupiter was a large blurry haze at the end of the screen. Suddenly, a million new stars blossomed into being, appearing simultaneously before dimming again.

Gloval leaned even further forward. "What the hell?"

"Oh it gets better sir." Rand shook his head. "Here's the immediate proximity monitor."

The view cut to static and resolved itself to show the view from the relative top of the asteroid. Stars, then…

A hole of pure light ripped its way into the very fabric of time and space. Impossible, a complete rebellion against physics, and yet completely undeniable. First, there was a flash, then the golden light opened like a giant crocus and something burst out. There was an impression of gracefully arched bows, a fluted neck, and four sweeping wings. But it was gone to fast. Far faster than the camera could track.

Then there was nothing left of the hole in space or the ship, if that was what it was, except a stinging sensation in their eyes.

"Should I play it back sir?"

"No, Tina, get on the horn to Earthsphere command, tell them something's comin' and it's comin' fast."

"Yes sir."

Gloval stared hard at the screen. "I don't know what the hell we just saw but I hope to hell we never see it again.

* * *

Trowa Barton glanced across the shuttle at his sister Catherine. She was looking distantly out of her view port. The private shuttle was luxuriously appointed as was befitting for the brother and sister executive team for the most popular traveling circus in the Earth Sphere.

Over the years, Trowa had mellowed but still found it difficult to show emotion. the experience of becoming a mercenary at the age of eight weighed heavily on his mind and he was still sometimes haunted by flash backs and memories.

He turned back to his own window. The earth appeared to be a blue and green sphere and powdery white clouds dusted the stratosphere.

"Trowa?"

"Hmm?" Trowa turned to see his sister looking concerned across the isle.

She turned back to the viewport. "Come here. What is that?"

Trowa quickly crossed and looked out her view port. There was a bright flash and it was getting rapidly larger.

larger…

larger?

Larger! Oh Shit! Trowa whirled around and looked toward the cockpit, all the while knowing it was too late. Ignoring his instinct, he lunged at the intercom. "Captain, evasive lateral north!"

Without question, the captain began to respond. But it was too late, far too late. In the time it had taken Trowa to lunge at the intercom, the thing was upon them. The light became blinding and it seemed the thing passed just beneath their keel. Trowa turned to the Earth side viewport in time to see the thing searing its way into the atmosphere. It almost seemed to be slowing, but could not overcome its own momentum.

The back of Trowa's mind connected the spatial view of the coastlines with his knowledge of terrestrial geography. That's headed straight for Lake Victoria. What the hell is going on?

"Sir?" The captain looked through his hatch.

Trowa turned away from the viewport, even though in his peripheral vision he could still see the diminishing light as it sped uncontrollably towards the surface. "What?"

"It only missed us by two hundred meters sir. But there was some good news."

"What?"

"It was small, only a bit larger than this ship."

Catherine had tears of fear and worry in her eyes. "well that's not going to be much comfort to whoever it hits."

* * *

Sally entered the room on Wuffie's heels. Trent looked exhausted but had a huge smile plastered on his face.

Sally stopped inside the door and stood, arms akimbo. "Well?"

Trent held up the log disk. "I think I found your mystery caller."

Wuffie nodded. "And?"

Trent's expression flattened. "And, it's impossible."

"What?" Sally leaned forward. "What do you mean impossible?"

"I found a match in Cobalt's files."

"Who? Are we about to nail a higher up?'

Trent shook his head. "Nope, we're about to nail a dead guy."

"Huh?" Wuffie looked annoyed. "Just tell us who it was."

"Right. We have a ninety seven percent match on a one Squadron Commander Drake Walker."

Sally gasped. "No! That just can't be. You know that can't be."

Trent nodded grimly. "You're telling me."

Sally shook her head. "But if you got a match on Drake Walker, then you really mean we have a match on Duo Maxwell!"

Wuffie pounded his fist on a monitor. "Impossible. We all saw Maxwell die. We know he was in that suit when he blew Cobalt to Hell!"

Sally opened her mouth to say something but was cut short by a blaring base siren. "THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT!

"What the-"

"Get down Sally!" Wuffie leapt towards his wife and brought her to the floor.

With and earth-shattering crash, the entire building rocked on its foundations. The lights cut out as the facility was buffeted by shock waves.

Then there was silence. Sally curled up in Wuffie's arms and rocked back and forth. "Shh," he murmured, "It's all right. We're going to be all right."

* * *

Interlude 2

The Earthsphere is ripe for domination. The government is fractured in political in-fighting and the preventers have grown to few to deal with any credible threat. I still find it ironic that after all these years, I, the black sheep of the family, will be carrying out Dekim's plot.

I must admit, he laid the groundwork beautifully. Thanks to my uncle's preparations, there is very little that must be done. In this instance, I will have no need to drop a colony. The destruction that Dekim hoped to cause with that will be admirably handled by other elements.

Then, it will all rely on the carefully preserved copy of the original Gundam schematic, the one Dekim himself designed and that the scientist couldn't stomach. It's a type of warfare the Earth and its people will have no experience with. even the pilots have grown too old to stop me.

So now, I must wait just a bit longer for the pieces to fall into place, then, it will be time for Earth to meet my uncle's vision and my key to domination.

Gundam Plaguescythe.

* * *

Central control tower; Lake Victoria Base.

The controller shook his head and turned to the watch commander. "What the hell was that?'

The commander shook his head. "That boys, may be what we like to call 'first contact.'"