1 Two Weeks Later

Andrew slipped calmly into his Gundam. The others were all beside him. "Launch on my mark," Andrew said. "You know the plan. We'll have to maintain radio silence for a while. You know the duration. I'll clock us and send the message."

"Roger that, Andrew," Wicks replied. "This is CT-Zero-One. Launch in t- minus seven seconds and counting."

Seven seconds later, the Gundams were on their way to Earth, a place none of the six had ever visited.

The plan, called Operation: Meteor, after the original attempt almost a century earlier, followed the original's basic outline.

Simultaneously, the Gundams were to enter the earth's atmosphere and ride the wave course in. They would be contained in a substance that looked like a rock, as to draw any attention away from them. Once on land, the six suits would converge at an underwater base seven miles off the shore of England. Wicks would meet them there.

However, through some medium, an Alliance affiliate caught wind of the plans and spoke to the Alliance leader about this.

The Alliance was the Earth Sphere Unified Nation created so many years ago by Relena Peacecraft and the pilots of the original Gundams. The ESUN has lasted long, but has taken a turn for the worse by beginning to produce weapons.

Now, enter Colonel Thomason, a well-respected aristocrat from Scotland. It was his faction, the Thomason Militaristic Faction, or TMF, that was given the news of the revolutionaries. The TMF was to look out for anything suspicious, but otherwise, the whole thing was regarded as an elaborate hoax.

Thomason's ace pilot Luther McDamison was on patrol when it happened. His shuttle was entering the atmosphere after a civilian shuttle. The instruments caught something to the east. When the men looked, they saw a meteor, and began to trail it closely…

Andrew awoke inside his Gundam's cockpit. He yawned as a detector flashed. "Civilian shuttle…and it's right in my way." He looked off and made some calculations while saying, "We'll commence operation in three minutes."

Andrew looked back at the civilian shuttle. "It's gotta go."

Sitting aboard a shuttle beside her father was Sarah Ingel, a sixteen-year old girl. Her father was from the colonies and was on a personal visit. "Next time, why don't we spend some time together, Father? Just you and me. Some free time perhaps."

"I'm sorry, Sarah. Forgive me."

Sarah looked out her window to see a glowing object not too far from the shuttle. "Father?"

Her father just whispered, "Operation: Meteor…"

"Distance to target is seven-five-two-three. Locked onto the target." A turret appeared from the "rock" that encased the Gundam. As Andrew began to fire, Luther's ship appeared on the screen. "Impossible! They're already onto me! God-damn it!"

Andrew began to take his measures.

"Sir, there's more than one. There's six."

"But we can only catch one, am I right?" the blue-eyed, blue-haired Luther replied. Luther was a prominent figure in the military. He stood tall. He was slim, but muscular. He was the role model for all the young soldiers.

"Yes."

"There's a shuttle ahead, right, Haute?" Luther said.

"Yes. He'd have to reduce speed drastically," Haute said.

"What if he shot it down?" Green, the other man said.

"He's on a secret mission. He's not going to make himself obvious to us."

Andrew changed his course and allowed the rock casing to shed away. What was left was the Emberglow-Zero's flight-mode, which all the Gundams had been equipped with. The machine gun was strapped to the chest. The legs and arms were folded up. Wings protruded from the back of the thing. And finally, the buster rifle made up the nose.

He began to speed from the carrier when he received a message from Wicks, "That's a TMF carrier. Get rid of it!"

"Roger that, Mission. I'll take care of it."

"Look! The enemy's fighter jet as turned back around!" Haute shouted.

"Is the Ranter ready?"

"Yes, but wouldn't the Dase be more appropriate?"

"Don't worry. My Ranter will be just fine." Luther hopped in the hold of the ship and started up a mobile suit called the Ranter.

It was only a labor suit, but was equipped with a plasma saber and a handgun for other purposes.

Luther hopped out of the hold and looked around. "He's behind!"

Luther fired a shot that missed. As the machine flew by, Luther fired another shot, this time hitting the area between the engines directly.

"Drive system malfunctioning," Andrew said. "He's good." He saw two more suits, both Dases, fly in beside Luther.

Through the frequencies, he heard one say, "We'll take care of him."

Andrew punched in the command code "Shining Star" and activated the ZERO system. He then transformed the jet into its mobile suit form.

"It transformed into a mobile suit!" Luther shouted. I thought only the ESUN and the TMF were able to build mobile suits. Perhaps the reports about the Space Screamers were correct.

"Sir," said one pilot, "let us get him."

"Go ahead."

The two pilots took off towards the machine. Both opened fire with the machine guns. Almost every bullet hit its mark, but nothing seemed to happen.

One of the suits began to fire rockets. After taking several hits, the machine spun around. It looked almost angelic, the sun rising behind its head, the earth silhouetting it, its wings spread. "He's intense," Luther commented. "Hmmm…"

"It moved!" one pilot shouted.

"Forget it! Keep firing!" the other retorted.

"Locked on target," Andrew said calmly. The rifle was aimed and fired. Andrew, for a moment, thought he could hear the screams of agony given out by the soldiers.

Andrew looked around, then began to laugh. He stopped abruptly and said, "Just one more…"

"He destroyed two with just a single shot! He's pretty good!" Luther decided to engage the pilot himself.

The two pilots began to fight. Andrew attempted to fire the rifle, but the shot was dodged at the last second. "Who are you?" Luther said.

Andrew made no reply. Luther pulled out a plasma saber and swung it at Andrew. Andrew grabbed that arm, only to have the whole Ranter dropped onto him afterwards. "I'll ask again! Who are you?"

The radio crackled, then the reply, "In a moment, we'll smash into the ocean."

"The force would be like hitting a solid brick wall! We must bail. I will forgive your insolence!" Luther was getting desperate. He knew he had to act fast.

"I'm not going anywhere." Andrew remained calm. He knew the Zero had the strength to survive hitting the water.

"Vermilion, this is Luther! Activate the tracking beams! I want this suit!"

Suddenly, Andrew could feel the Emberglow-Zero being pulled on. "All thrusts are reversed." The suit struggled against the beam and appeared to be winning.

"Stop this immediately!" Luther said.

"No."

Then, for no reason, the Emberglow-Zero stopped working. "Emberglow-Zero?! What are you doing?" Andrew began to hit button sequences in an attempt to get the suit working again.

Then, the suit activated again. But it wasn't Luther or the Vermilion that Andrew saw. It was someone else, coming at him straight on. Out of sheer reflex, Andrew fired the buster rifle.

The beam pierced the man and disintegrated him. But then came an explosion.

The Vermilion had taken a bit of damage from the shot. Smoke trailed from the ship, and Luther could see some flames inside. "Vermilion, damage report!"

"The tractor beam is disabled. The engines can only make about seventy percent capacity."

"Damn!"

Andrew's alarm beeped. His three minutes were up. Damn it, he thought. On a secret frequency he said, "This is Andrew Yuy. Initiate Operation: Meteor now. Move at your own discretion but arrive at the designated point at oh-six-hundred tomorrow morning."

Five confirmations came across the radio. "Boy, answer me!" Luther shouted.

"Thirty seconds!"

"Give me a video confirmation, boy!"

Andrew laughed and said, "You really want it?" Andrew sent a video feed to Luther.

"A baby? The pilot is only a baby?!" Luther shouted. "Are they forcing you into this?"

"Ten."

"Boy!"

"Seven!"

"Don't do this!"

"Three."

"Don't!"

"One."

"Hellfire!" Luther had to bail in order to save his life.

"Until we meet again," Andrew said as he smashed into the brick wall that was the Pacific Ocean. He felt like he had been thrown into a canyon, but was otherwise okay. The systems inside and outside the Emberglow-Zero were perfect.

"Sir, are you alright?" Haute said.

"I'm fine."

"An ESUN sub is offering to bring up the Gundam."

"Gundam?" Luther couldn't believe it at first. "That's impossible! It can't be a Gundam!"

"That's all it could be, sir."

"We could be in for it," Luther said, the revelation sinking bluntly into his mind.

2 Two hours later

"So you lost two suits, Luther? That's not like you," Colonel Thomason said.

"It was a Gundam, sir."

"You're kidding. So then the Screamers are real. But…no, it can't be."

"What, sir?"

"I was just thinking. The Screamers' objective is to rule the colonies in space, not Earth. Either we have another faction on our hands or the Screamers have some plan. In any case, we must eliminate the ESUN soon, otherwise we could have problems."

"I'll do my best, sir," Luther said as the video link was ended.

"All in due time," Thomason said. "We will do this."

3 Six o'clock A.M. the next day

Andrew docked the Emberglow-Zero at the underwater base. Technicians helped him into the base.

Andrew could barely walk. That's how hungry he was. Two technicians had to carry him to the cafeteria. Andrew slumped into a seat beside Ric, Naomi, Trent, Akia, and Rahmet. "What took you?" Trent asked calmly. "We all arrived about nine last night."

"I had an unexpected run-in with a TMF carrier," Andrew wheezed. "Please, Trent, I need something to eat."

Trent stood and said, "Hold on a second. I'll get you something."

Wicks walked into the room shortly afterwards. Another man was with him.

He stood about five feet tall and had gray hair. A gray moustache and beard covered the man's face. He dressed not too fancily, but was dress up nonetheless. Andrew looked up and fell out of his chair. "That's him!"

Wicks walked over as Andrew was trying to pick himself up. "You don't look so good, son," Wicks said.

"I'm fine," Andrew said. "Just a little tired and hungry."

"I see." Trent walked back then with some food for Andrew he set it down and Andrew began to eat immediately. "Well, now that you're all here, I'd like you to meet someone. This is Gregory McWithar. He helped me with the Gundam designs."

That's the man I saw yesterday! The man I shot! Who is he? Is he an enemy?

Gregory looked around and said, "We have a mission for you. We intercepted a transmission saying that a mobile suit factory in the Mediterranean area is reopening, along with many other bases worldwide. I believe the base is called Corsica. So far, the top training facility is in the Lake Victoria area. We want you to destroy the Corsica factory and Lake Victoria training facility."

Andrew nodded and said, "We accept your mission. We'll move out at oh-four-hundred hours Wednesday morning."

"Agreed," said Gregory.

Tuesday night, Eleven P.M., Undersea Base Freedom

Andrew was walking through the corridors. The others were all asleep, and he knew he should be too. But there was something he had to do.

Andrew headed for the docks. He kept himself as quiet as possible. After some time, he reached the area that he had stored the Emberglow-Zero.

He stared at its bright orange color, attempting to unravel the mysteries. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Gregory said, stepping from the filing room.

"Yeah. Look, I wanna talk to you. We'll pilot these Gundams for you, but first we need to know all the specs and controls. We can't go around playing with buttons using the trial-and-error method I went through."

"I figured one of you would ask that." He handed Andrew a folder. "This is everything you'll need to know, including the activation codes of the ZERO systems."

"Thank you." Andrew walked back to his room with the folder in hand.

Gregory watched him go. "That boy knows too much."