Gundam R

4 - Tribulations and Atrocities

Lyra Bardock

Five months later, five RS, know only to their owners to be Gundam, floated silently below Jupiter's narrow rings. The only break in the serenity had come earlier, when one of them had decided to use their scythe to chop an asteroid in half with what would have, within an atmosphere, made a quite satisfying explosion. Now though, all was calm, and rheir destination glimmered ahead of them, a donut shaped mix of metal alloys, glass, rubber, plastic and other human modified materials. It and the five RS looked strangely out of place in the sheer blackness and raw naturality of Jupiter behind them, its moons scattered, moving slowly, on the horizon of the gas giant and everywhere in between, and the various dust and asteroids that were everywhere, yet oddly organized. Io, looking like a 'modern' painting gone wrong, hung before them, with that donut shape, the traditional shape of a colony, orbiting it at a noticeable pace. Quiet, perfect, idealistic, pristine… something from a science fiction movie, the quiet moments before an important discovery or revelation happens…

Or the calm before the storm…

The people in the colony would be up in another two or so hours, just a normal June day. Back on Earth the first hints of light would be threatening the night, but none of the racers knew this as they flew towards the colony… They'd never been on the near-sun side of the asteroid belt… none of them knew what it was to be on a planet that was by nature above 5 degrees Celsius… None of them knew a life that wasn't surrounded by the void and wonder of space, knew a world that once wondered if they could leave that home ground, knew what it was like to not have a planet half the size of the sun looming over them every day of their lives… And at the moment, none of them cared that they did not know this. At the moment all they could think about was the race ahead of them.

Perhaps, just perhaps, if they'd cared about something other than the race, they would have noticed the ship heading towards the colony they had their sights on. Most likely they wouldn't of, but had they, they would have been the only ones remotely capable of stopping what was about to happen. The word remotely is stressed however… With the conflicts being contained to only inner solar territory, no one could have ever imagined what was about to happen. The last of the main ring no longer above them, they fired their thrusters again to speed them towards the colony…

Which, with only a small flash of red light to warn them, exploded before their very eyes.

"N-Niban… p-p-please-se t-tell me th-that you didn-n't press any b-buttons again right th-then…" Eri stuttered out over their radio system after they'd all had a moment to gawk in slow, shocked realization.

"No, it wasn't her," Ly reported breathlessly.

"All of you, turn on your televisions," Mayo said, calm as ever, somewhat commanded. They did as they were told and were sent into another round of shock as the TV sputtered, then showed another colony as it imploded, the time showing only a few minutes earlier… They hardly heard the newscaster as she listed off the colonies that had been destroyed so far… nearly 20… The one they'd just seen wasn't on the list…

"What's going on?" came a choked whisper of confusion from Sean, who's shaking image came up alongside those of his other friends on Eri's viewscreen. He tried to respond and just shook his head slowly and turned off Niban's screen, a split second before she began to complain about large things blowing up as a result of someone besides her. The image that had just been displayed was too much for him, and most the others… The colony that they'd all grown up on appeared on the list, followed quickly by the one they'd just witnessed the destruction of. Directly following its addition to the list, came a video of its final moments.

He clicked off that screen as well. Ly copied the motion, and Sean watched it one more time before being willing to believe it, then got rid of that screen as well. Ly rubbed her eyes and then her image disappeared from the others' screens, and a sob escaped her before the audio cut. Sean continued to stare blankly as he tried hard to remember what it looked like to have his family all together but couldn't remember half their faces… and that he couldn't face the fact he'd never see them again. "…We're damned lucky we weren't home right then…"

"Home?" Mayo grunted, then cut off his out feeds as well, feeling no longer necessary for the moment.

"If that's what you want to call it…" Eri agreed, feeling the tears run silently down his face as he tried to get rid of the image playing an endless loop in his head… the yells of his brother and sister for his help… but he wasn't there… "…but I wasn't there…" he whispered, not realizing he'd said it aloud, never knowing that Sean stopped from continuing because of the comment. He nodded sadly before killing his video feed, breaking down slowly into the raspy, choked breathing of one who was struggling not to cry, watching Eri's eyes go blank. "…They're all… gone…"

Ly's voice cut back through the ensuing near silence. "This is gonna sound really stupid," she said, her voice strained as though she was somewhere between crying and laughing the cackle of someone who's sanity has just escaped them from overstress. "But…" Text across the news screen, still on all their screens, revealed that the rebellion was the source of the attacks, as well as a growing number of colonies that had been destroyed, as she spoke. "Does… anyone feel like fighting a war?"

"…Why not? Nothing else for us to do now," Niban said, calm for once, probably more distraught over the obvious loss of her ginger snaps than the probable one of her controlling mother.

"Yea, this seems to call for some avenging…" Sean agreed quietly, still trying to lighten the settled heavy mood.

"It's personal now…" Eri nodded, his eyes slowly regaining expression, melting into a snarl slowly.

Mayonaka turned his out feeds back on, face the same as ever. "In."

"…Lets use these machines for what they were built for then…"

At GMT 3:45 on June 7, AC 338, the first of 60 colonies was destroyed around the planets of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. One was destroyed every minute for the next hour. IO0045930 was one of the last, witnessed by 5 people, the only 5 people who survived the attacks. The next day, they reported themselves dead, saying that they had been on their own colony when it was attacked.

A man claiming to be the leader of the rebellion said that this was their way of saying that everything was too complex, that dangers can happen and are harder to avoid in the outer solar system, and that everything should be returned to Earth. They would not be satisfied until all these technological advancements had been stopped, all the colonies had been hurtled into the sun or out of the solar system, and the human population was back below 10 billion, what had been figured as the maximum the Earth could support.

He then said he was going to cut the bullshit and tell the truth. They wanted to rule the human race, pure and simple, and the confined space of Earth was the easiest place to do so. Anyone who questioned his faction's authority would be lynched. Oh, and by the way, to see to it this happened… They had Prince Yuy-Shintai there and held captive. They even showed that he was there. Oh goodie.

"Have I mentioned before that I hate these radicalist control freak groups?"

"No… but we all do now."