CHAPTER III

WAR OF THE WRENCHES

REBEL ENGINEER QUARTERS- COLORADO BASE

Rowan Zimmermann woke up, like he and every other single human being on the planet Earth did as a daily practice. Rowan normally groaned and groaned about the fact that he had to get up and face reality, but that day he had engineer a smile on his face when he woke up. He normally drank three cups of copy and shot some Zetacron D (a popular new drug) into his system, but that day he got a shower (which was a rarity for him), brushed and flossed his teeth, and then zipped up his uniform and faced the real world. He then walked down the hallways of Colorado base, where he would usually make untrue comments, such as "You're uniform's on backwards!" or "Don't you have a briefing to go to at 7:00?" to all who passed by, just to get some humor into his day. But this day he said "Hi" to all who passed by, and that put some of his comrades into a state of mental shock.

"Why are you happy today?" asked Lydo Wolf, who was walking down the hallway the same time as Rowan. "Let me guess- that Katya girl spent some time in your bed last night?"

"No", said Rowan. "Today's the last day of the contest and I can't wait 'till it's over".

"That's awesome", said Lydo. "Well, I have to go on a mission. See you later".

"You too", replied Rowan. Yes, he was so excited for that damn contest to be over. Since you probably don't know, I'll just go ahead and tell you. Right after the Battle of Solomon was lost, so were all the Federation's ace pilots, including Amuro Ray and the RX-78-2. The Federation panicked so much that they hid absolutely everything about the Gundams from Zeon eyes, but once Zeon took over control of the Federation, those files were easily found. Once the Rebellion was formed, one of their first missions was to capture the files and anything related to Operation V. The ace pilot Tenneth A. Jung led the assault, which turned out to be a surprise success. They were able to get some files about two Gundams that Zeon was trying to develop- the Mobile Armor Gundams. The Mobile Armor Gundams were essentially the RX-78 but with a covering of heavy armor, which was outfitted with several advanced weapons. Tenneth also captured a prototype Gundam, which was to be used for the Full Armor Gundam, otherwise known as the FA-78-1.

Once the Rebels got their hands on the booty, some of the top Generals went to Rowan's engineering team. He ordered the team to split in two, one to work on the FA-78-1 and one to work on the PA-78-1 (or the Perfect Gundam). That was no problem for Rowan at the time. His team repaired the Prototype Gundam (which was badly damaged from the attack), while the other team built another Gundam for the PA-78-1. Life was good then, until one of the engineers from the other team proposed that they make this a contest, and whoever won would get a $1,000 raise to their paycheck. Then, all life turned to hell for Rowan.

The generals loved it, for it meant the Gundams would come faster. But it mean a huge competition between the engineers, for the leader of the Perfect Gundam team was the absolute most competitive person that one could find on this planet. Production on the two Gundams then sped up by 65%, but that still didn't erase the fact that it took a long time to build the Gundams. That was when Rowan started buying the Zetacron D, which put pressure on his paycheck. You would think that Rowan's team (which he entitled the "Titanium Dolphins) easily won because they were ahead, but the other team (called the Doom Devils) worked 24 hours a day, so competition really grew. Rowan would not sleep for weeks making sure that the Gundam was being built smoothly, and he took extra Zetacron D to keep him up. This was the trend for six months, where the Gundam project kept going higher and his budget was going lower. But now, this stupid contest was going to be over. Or so he though.

"Hey Zimmermann", said Hal, the leader of the Doom Devils.

"What?" yelled Rowan.

"I won", said Hal with a huge smile on his face.

"WHAT?!?!" yelled Rowan.

"I talked to Kuroshima about how our project is going", said Hal. "He said we automatically win since you're so far behind".

"What are you talking about?" yelled Rowan. "We're almost done with painting the dolphin on the shield."

"That's not what I saw", said Hal. Rowan then ran in the hangar and saw the FA-78-1, which was in millions and millions of pieces.

"HOW COULD YOU!" yelled Rowan.

"What are you talking about?" teased Hal.

"IT WAS IN PERFECT SHAPE!" yelled Rowan. "IT WAS ALL DONE EXCEPT THE DOLPHIN ON THE SHEILD!"

"Three words", said Hal. "I-WON" Rowan then punched Hal and threw him across the room.

"That's two words!" yelled Rowan. He would later regret it, since every member of the Doom Devils and Titanium Dolphins saw what happened.

"FIGHT!" yelled one of the engineers, and the two massed then came together and started a huge fight that would last the whole morning. Every single engineer on the two teams began to battle one another, without any strategy or hope of winning. The fighting got so crazy that the two teams started to be careless and punch whoever was in their sight, whether it be a bystander or someone from their own team. After several minutes of fighting, an officer shot a gun into the air, and the fighting stopped.

"STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!" yelled the officer. "THE GENERALS ARE MOST DISPLEASED WITH YOU!"

"They'll be displeased with you," yelled one of the engineers.

"Excuse me?" yelled one of the officers.

"Your shot hit one of the engineers", said the engineer. "Look!" The officer then looked down and saw a dazed and bloody Rowan lying helpless on the floor, with no more hope left for his life.

Right after those terrible events, the officer carried Rowan to the hospital, where he was treated for the bullet wound. The doctors would've been able to treat the bullet wound easily, but his intake of Zetacron D made it impossible for the doctors to treat the wound. After hours of trying to remove the bullet and treat the wound, the doctors gave up and gave Rowan shots of Ghalxamite, which instantly put Rowan to sleep. An hour later, Rowan Zimmermann died.

Due to the fight that occurred that day, the teams of engineers were fired from the Rebels and were sent off to live in Zeon controlled territory, where they would never be accepted. A team of engineers from Havana base came to finish the job, which only took a week. Even though the engineers from Havana were the one credited for the Mobile Armor Gundams, no one on Colorado base would forget Rowan Zimmermann's sacrifice in building the two Gundams.

CHAPTER IV

DANCE TO YOUR DEATH

BALLROOM- FRANCE

A mere week ago, Johnny Ridden received an invitation to go to a social gathering at the Zabi's private villa in France. The invitation said it was a party for the "Best and Finest Zeon Has to Offer", but Johnny doubted that. How could he, a mere Gelgoog pilot, be considered Zeon's finest? He assumed it must've been for Shin Matsunaga or another famous pilot, but he looked at the letter, which said "Dear Major Ridden". Not only did he not believe the invitation, but he hated social gathering like this and would rather go to pubs with his buddies or beat Thomas Krutz on the simulators for the billionth time. He would also rather prepare for this huge conference that was going to be taken at the rebel base between the Zabis and General Revil, the leader of the Rebels. But once he saw Kycilia Zabi's name on the list, he knew he had to go.

He and Kycilia had what you might call a romantic relationship since they first met in 0068, when a Zeon soldier for no apparent reason was beating Johnny. Kycilia saved him from the soldiers, and she had invaded his life ever since. Johnny considered it a knight protecting his lady type of thing, but he was the only one who had that view. After the fall of the Federation, Kycilia and the whole Zabi family had been extremely busy with politics, so he hadn't seen her since 0078. Now, on the edge of 0080, he would finally meet up with her again at last.

"You're name, rank, and number?" asked the guard at the door of Char's villa.

"Major Johnny Ridden, DM757", said Johnny. The guard then looked at the list and gave him the 'thumbs up' sign.

"You're clear to go", said the guard.

"Thanks", said Johnny. He then walked into the ballroom to find Kycilia waited for Johnny by the stairs in an elegant, regal pearly white gown.

"You're late", said Kycilia.

"Well, traffic was bad", said Johnny. "I used my Dopp, and... I...."

"Don't fret over it", said Kycilia. "I don't care".

"Thank god", muttered Johnny.

"What?" yelled Kycilia.

"Nothing", said Johnny. "Want to dance? It's the real slow kind of music; your type."

"Sure", said Kycilia. "One dance won't kill you". The two then joined hands and danced real slowly to the music, which was a soft solo sung by a famous male singer. The two then danced away, but there was something about Johnny that disturbed Kycilia. It was the fact that Johnny was so worried about not making any mistakes that affected her in any way, and she didn't want to cause him pain in that manner.

"Why are you so worried?" asked Kycilia.

"Just want you to enjoy this night", said Johnny. "It's my duty, remember?"

"No it isn't", said Kycilia. "You're so nervous that I can't enjoy anything with you".

"Sorry", said Johnny. "It's just that..."

"What?" yelled Kycilia.

"Nothing", Johnny mumbled. They then danced until the end of the song, but then she ran off.

"LADY KYCILIA!" yelled Johnny. His cries were useless, as she was talking to Brenev Auggs at the punch table.

"Maybe this party is useless after all...", thought Johnny.

While those events were unfolding, Char Aznable was playing basketball with several of the other Zeon commanders and pilots. Char was really skilled at all sports, with this being one of his top five. Unlike the Zabis and all the other political leaders, Char wasn't that worried about the conference with the Rebels. He had an inner feeling that everything was going to be okay.

Gabby Hazard had the ball on the other team, and was ready to make a goal. Char saw his ploy and stole the ball from him. He then dribbled the ball to the enemy team's basket, ready to shoot the hoop. He threw the ball towards the hoop when, out of nowhere, Ian Greydon tackled Char and the ball missed the basked.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" yelled Char. "THAT WAS A FOOTBALL MOVE!"

"Sorry", said an embarrassed Ian. Then, Degwin Zabi came walking up towards Char, eager for a talk.

"Do you have a moment, Char?" asked Degwin.

"It's Captain Char", said Char. "And yes, I will come". Degwin had regretted moving Char up to captain, but Char was so popular for helping Zeon win the One Year War that Degwin had to let Char be a higher rank, or legions of screaming girls would storm his palace. He knew Char hated him, and it was Char's fault that Garma died. Degwin and his whole family hated him in return. But Char did do a lot for Zeon, and Degwin didn't want to imagine a huge uprising without Char in his red Zaku.

"Come on", said Char. "You're holding up the game."

"I need someone to lead a mission for me", said Degwin. "Shin Matsunaga recently captured a Rebel warehouse full of explosives, and I was thinking about using them to destroy the Rebel battalion on the northern side Greenwich base, which is giving us lots of trouble."

"Sorry", said Char. "I have some business to attend. Ask Johnny Ridden or any of those young yippy pilots."

"Come on", said Degwin. "This is really important. The Battle of Greenwich has been going on for six months now, with neither side closer to winning than the other. We need to at least gain something in this battle, and then we might win the damned battle".

"Sorry", said Char. "I have business."

"What business?" asked Degwin.

"It's about the MSN-02", said Char. "The engineers are having a lot of trouble with it and I need to be present, for it is my mobile suit."

"Very well then", said Degwin. "I'll get that Ridden kid to do it, but I would rather have you get your ass kicked out there".

"What?!?!?!" exclaimed Char.

"Nothing", said Char. "Go back to your game". Char then ran off to his game, with an evil smile on his face. The Zabis would not last long, and he would make sure of it.