"It is of fundamental importance to preserve the Earth Federal Forces as the primary instrument of defense and security in the Earth Sphere. We must seek to prevent the emergence of Spacenoid security arrangements which would undermine the EFF..."
-- 0071 Jaburo Policy Document

Chapter 9: Rules to be Broken

- February 14, UC 0084 -
- 0730 hours (EST) -
Chase turned the last page of the book and set it down in his lap, feeling a sense of closure at the completion of another good story. He loved that feeling, the inspiration of new beginnings that always followed, but this time when he put the book down he was surprised to find Naomi and Ryo sitting across from him at the table, silently eyeballing each other with a look of pure disgust on both of their faces. "I take it you two got to know each other?" They both nodded and kept eating, still fixing each other in their respective evil-eye glances. "Isn't that supposed to be bad for morale or something?"

Lucy sat down next to him and jumped into the conversation, "Not at all. It's nice to have the Lieutenant pissed at someone else for a change."

"Amen to that." Eric said gruffly

Chase tucked his book into his jacket pocket as Brian and Mike pulled up to the table along with him. "It won't last." Mike said sadly. "She's always this way with the new guys. Remember, Francis got beaten up six times before she warmed up to him."

He started to focus on his food again when Lucy added, "Chase, your girlfriend's here."

"She's not my girlfriend." He said automatically.

Brian tracked Alice's movement along the wall, guiding her way over to the table, seeking out a chair on the side of the table and listening around for the sound of her property. No one spoke, and she grew impatient. "Where's Chase?"

He held up his finger to his lips and shook his head in a silent request, which Brian had no intention of answering. "Second chair from your left."

Chase leaned back and looked at the ceiling in defeat.

Alice worked her way around to the side of the table until she got to his chair, then tugged at his arm and crawled up into his lap facing the others. "Now then, what did I miss?"

"Naomi and Ryo and fighting again." Lucy said boredly.

"Who's winning?"

"I can't tell. It's an ego-war."

"Oh, those are so boring! Why don't we just give em some boxing gloves and have em clobber each other? That always sounds cool."

Naomi turned suddenly with fire in her eyes, "Is there any way to shut her up?"

Alice sat tall and stuck out her chest. "Stuff it, Lieutenant. I'm not scared of you."

She would have been amused, except that Alice had become more familiar to her by now and this seemed less like a playful child and more like a flaunting of her authority. "Don't think I feel sorry for you just because you can't see. In fact, that's more of a reason for you to watch your mouth."

Alice grinned at her. "No, YOU'RE the one who better watch out! If you make me mad, my boyfriend Chase is gonna kick your ass!"

Chase groaned in anxiety and rolled his eyes again.

Naomi found herself in a position of wanting to be mad at her but finding too much humor in all this to be able to take her seriously. "I worry about you, kid. You're growing up, you need to learn how to act more mature."

Alice grinned at her. "That's a good point. In fact, I'm almost old enough to be a mobile suit pilot like you guys. Before you know it, maybe I'll be part of the Tarawa's Gundam squad with my brother!"

Brian tried not to laugh at her. "I'll have Kelly design a seeing-eye mobile armor."

"You mean a Ball, don't you?" Lucy didn't even miss a beat.

"I heard that!" Ryo started to argue, at once drawing Naomi's fire back in his direction. "Um... okay, Lieutenant, this is getting old. You've got problems with me, I've got problems with you, how about we make a compromise?"

"Like what?"

"Split the squad into two teams, forward and backup. First four Alphas will be the forward team, Mudrock and Guncannon, plus me and Rico will act as backups. This way we've got the heavier weapons in the second squad for when we need them, like against warships or bunkers and whatnot..."

"And it'll get YOU out of my hair."

"Exactly."

Naomi smiled at the pleasant thought of not having to listen to his complaining again, just as he enjoyed the concept of not having to watch her every move in case of friendly fire. "That's an excellent idea. Think we'll do just that."

"Thanks, Lieutenant."

"Don't mention it."

It was strange to hear them actually agree on anything, although everyone knew the spirit behind it was a deep, intrinsic loathing of one another. They all sat there in unbroken silence for a few minutes more, each picking apart their food, Alice helping herself to whatever was on Chase's tray, Eric and Mike trading dishes sporadically.

Half an hour later, Lieutenant Dyson slipped nervously into the mess hall, his eyes quickly seeking out Lieutenant Wilson and Izumi sitting right next to her. He moved in slowly and quietly, extra careful not to draw any attention to himself until he was close enough and finally leaned over Ryo's shoulder opposite Naomi and whispered, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Ryo glanced up and started to ask why, but Dyson shushed him and pulled away from the table before anyone noticed he was there. Ryo followed him away, but not before Alice's ears picked up the strange sounds across from her. "Chase has a boner. I better get off now."

Everyone at the table fell out of their chairs laughing, all except Chase who banged his head against the table in frustration. Alice moved along the wall and listened carefully for them, picking Rico's voice out of the crowd and moving in inconspicuously to hear better. Neither of them noticed her approach, not even as she slithered up to within two feet of Ryo's back to listen in. It was a skill she'd mastered through practice and necessity; they'd never know she was there unless she wanted them to. "... Rico, calm down! What's the problem?"

Alice could hear the stress in Dyson's voice, but she couldn't see the frustration and anger telegraphing in his expression. "Shit, I know why he did it! That back-stabbing bastard just doesn't want me talking so he stuck me here hoping I'll get killed! And he's right, that psycho bitch is gonna shoot me in the back first chance she gets...!"

Ryo grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to shake some sense into him. "Dammit, Rico! Start from the beginning!"

Lieutenant Dyson took two slow breaths and took control of his nerves. "I just came from the fleet office down the street. They denied my request for transfer and they assigned me here!"

"Here?"

"Here, on the Tarawa! I know it's not fleet command who gave the order, it's that goddamn Uncle Juan and his thugs!"

Ryo leaned against the wall next to him casually, feeling the conversation about to get longer and deeper. "Rico, that doesn't make any sense. Why would the Admiral transfer you here? Two months ago you were getting shipped out to the 4th Team on the Agamemnon..."

Rico sighed, his memory finally coming up with its own answer. "It's my fault, I should've known he'd pull this... it's all because I talked to that reporter guy."

"Reporter?" This rang a bell; Ryo remembered vaguely seeing a civilian man in a trench coat prowling around on the Merrimac, but whenever he mentioned it Lieutenant Dyson had always told him not to worry about it. "... what does that have to do with it?"

Rico looked past him at Naomi for just a moment. "It's a long story. Basically, he put me here to shut me up. He's afraid I'm gonna rat him out. Of course, he's right but still..."

"Rat him out for what?"

Rico hesitated for a moment, but decided it was best not to get into it here and now. "I told you, it's a long story."

"You got some history with Naomi...?"

"Just drop it, Ryo. You'll sleep better if you don't know."

Alice had heard more than enough. She knew this bit of information could work to her advantage, though she wasn't sure exactly how or when. She snuck away from their conversation as silently as she had approached, felt her way along the walls to get to the doorway out of the room.


- 0820 hours (CST) -
The bridge had been quiet for the last several hours of the pursuit, even with the ship locked down on Yellow Alert and half the crew at battle stations. Captain McCarthy had only just arrived at the bridge fifteen minutes ago, rubbing his eyeballs from sleep when his radar officer woke from his open-eyed nap to the sound of the proximity alarm on the computer consol. "Possible aspect change on target, sir."

McCarthy stirred in his chair, stretched his legs in boredom. "Is he turning again?"

"Looks like... yes sir, to starboard... HEY!" The radar spiked again with a new energy pattern, lighting up the holographic screen on the top of the bridge with text messages scrolling left and right. "Shit, he's accelerating!"

Captain McCarthy wasn't sleepy anymore. Now he was sitting straight up in his chair with his hair standing on end. "Which way is he headed?"

"Can't tell... Lagrange Five, I think. It's either Side 1 or Side 6, or he could try to swing through there to get to Side 3."

McCarthy knew better. "No, it's Side 6 for sure. They must've spotted us pursuing." He was indecisive for a moment, caught somewhat off guard by this move. The enemy cruiser could pass Side 6's perimeter in a matter of hours where they were now, and the Trafalgar wouldn't have more than one or two tries to intercept it before then. The mission was effectively failed; wherever else that ship would have gone, it wouldn't dare go there with a Federation battlegroup on their tale. "Okay, plan-B. Chief Bowman, sound General Quarters and get those mobile suits launched. Tell Lieutenant Marist to try to disable him before he gets across the border." The Captain waited as his first officer sounded the alarms, felt the slight rumble as the massive doors of the MS deck opened for the ship's mobile suits to scramble into space. Overhead, the large radar screen still scrolled messages alongside blips and clouds giving both him and his radar officers 360 degrees of information. Something about the scene troubled him deeply, but he wasn't sure just what it was... "Bowman, have our cruiser support take up a defensive formation around the ship. I got a funny feeling about this."

The three Salamis cruisers shifted in there formation around the carrier, moving out from their in-line flight to a triangle around its flanks to protect it from attack. For just a few moments Duncan worried that they'd spotted his approach, but his scans showed that the launching mobile suits were headed off into the distance in the opposite direction, none of them even looking back. That Captain's just being cautious. Better watch my step here. He was more than a hundred miles to starboard of the Federation ships where he could watch their movements, with Vanessa's mobile suit right alongside. They waited for a few minutes and watched the mobile suits zoom off into the distance, letting them get plenty of separation from the carrier and its escorts before they moved closer for a better look at their targets. At fifty miles he moved closer to her and set his hand against her shoulder armor to talk to her directly, "What can you see, Sis?"

Vanessa zoomed in the targeting scope on her large beam cannon to maximum grimacing at the reduced resolution and grainy image from the less-powerful computer. "I miss my Burstliener... Got em, computer tracks eight mobile suits moving on a low-angle course."

"What types?"

"Not sure. They look too fast to be Gundams, but they might be upgrades. Looks like they're moving to intercept that Zanzibar."

"It could be the Tarawa..." For the second time today, Duncan was thoroughly confused. "You're SURE it's not registered to our fleet?"

"I'm positive. Databanks call it a civilian vessel."

"Hmm..." He wasn't one to jump in without knowing exactly what was going on, but he too had a very strange feeling that something fishy was going on here. Scanning ahead he saw only three GMs actually space borne right now, one from each of the cruisers, moving close to cover the Trafalgar as it launched its suits "Will they launch the rest of their mobile suits?"

"No, but if they're moving into defensive positions they're probably thinking about it."

"Then let's make a run on them before they decide."

Vanessa clicked off the safety on the giant cannon and powered up for her first shots. "Remember, this thing runs off a capacitor like a normal beam cannon. I'll only get three or four shots before I run out of power."

Duncan nodded and checked the chamber on the Raketen bazooka on his shoulder. "We're both running unplugged here. Just try and do your best." He fired his thrusters and surged forward, leaving Vanessa behind to pick out her first target.

On the Trafalgar, Captain McCarthy's nerves started jumping even more and the sides of his head started to throb. CPO Bowman was the only one on the bridge to notice his discomfort and stepped up slowly to the captain's chair. "You alright sir?"

"Fine, Chief, just feeling a little pressure all of a sudden..." A brilliant light filtered in through the side windows and the entire ship rocked to the side from a thunderous impact. Everyone on the bridge turned suddenly to see pieces of a GM scattering into space, and then another GM turned and fired into the void just before a bazooka shell slammed into it and destroyed it as well. One bright red object soared through the debris of the two dead mobile suits and passed under the Trafalgar's hull like a lightning bolt. "Son of a bitch! Radar, you takin a nap up there or what?!"

"There's an I-field forming on the starboard quarter! The computer didn't spot them until they got closer to...!"

"No excuses! Call back the mobile suits right now...!" McCarthy watched Duncan's Rickdom Sniper circle back around in the distance, diving in to attack another one of the cruisers in their pack. The ship's defensive guns were already firing, and now two of its GMs launched from the deck and opened fire with beam guns as he drew near. The Rickdom ignored the cruiser for a time, dodged a few blasts from the beam guns and then put a single bazooka round into the chest of the GM before disengaging and flying off again. "Didn't you hear me?! Call them back!"

"We're out of communications! Minovsky particle jamming is too heavy to penetrate..."

"Then send up a flare! Call them back right now...!" Duncan's Rickdom passed over the deck right in front of the bridge, stopped in space and fired one bazooka shell straight into the hull below the bridge tower. The explosion ripped open the armored hatch above the secondary bridge, and a secondary explosion followed as the ship's forward main gun exploded beneath it.

Three GMs from one of the cruisers moved up behind the Rickdom and opened fire. Duncan fired the spray beam on his chest, blinding all three at once as he pulled away. One GM stopped for too long and Vanessa's beam cannon unleashed a column of fire; the beam encompassed the entire suit from head to toe, then blew it away like a sandcastle in a hurricane. The three Salamis cruisers responded immediately, turning their guns in her direction and firing with everything they were worth. Vanessa aimed and fired one more shot, this time striking the starboard MS deck of the Trafalgar dead on before retreating away from the barrage of the Salamis cruisers. "I hit it, Deuce! Focus your attention on the portside MS deck and then we can...!"

"Don't bother, Sis." Duncan made another high speed pass of the cruiser to see for himself, dodging its defensive guns easily as he got a look at the numbers painted on the side of the MS deck. "MSC-01... I knew it, she's not here."

It was disheartening, but Vanessa lined up another shot on the carrier as she dodged the fire from the Salamis cruisers. "Let's sink it anyway! What's another Pegasus class to the Feddies? They don't even make em anymore..."

"Negative, I want to see what those other mobile suits were up to." Duncan pulled away from the carrier and its three ships, dodging a few parting shots from the GM team as he cruised away and followed the path of the Trafalgar's mobile suits. That's weird. Vanessa's acting really immature lately...

******

Ensign Layla was as nervous as she'd ever been, even with the confidence she had in her new mobile suit. The RMS-117 Galbaldy was state of the art, with better acceleration and responsiveness than any mobile suit in the Federation's arsenal. At the same time she was nervous she was also trembling with excitement; she'd waited so long to see how the new suit would behave in actual combat.

Lieutenant Marist raised his hand and waved back to the others, gesturing 'target sighted' and pointing in the right direction. Layla scanned ahead and the computer magnified the image on a separate window. The cruiser looked older than it probably was, its hull covered in patches and panels of different colors and sizes where hasty repairs had been made permanent and damaged spots had been reinforced. If the ship belonged to any military, Layla would've had kittens. "Here we go. Let's see what this Galbaldy can do..."

As soon as they were in range, Lieutenant Marist fired a burst from his beam rifle into the hull of the ship. Part of the armor broke free in a small explosion, but in an instant the Zanzibar filled the sky with flak from what seemed like a thousand different guns and small missile launchers all around them. It took all eight of them completely by surprise, and even Lieutenant Marist had to stop his advance and keep his distance. "Shit, they really beefed up the defenses on this thing!" He took aim with his rifle and fired a few shots, this time clipping off an even larger piece of the hull with a slightly larger explosion. But when the fireball cleared, the blown out section of hull only revealed a second layer of metal underneath it, scratched but still not penetrated to the ship's inner hull.

Layla and Eddie moved around behind the cruiser, braving bursts of fire from the small guns until they too were close enough to attack. Layla fired several blasts from the beam rifle into the rear of the ship, ripping out entire sections of the hull at once. To her astonishment, as sections of hull plating fell away there seemed to be even more armor underneath it just daring her to try and hit the same spot again. "Damn, it's like peeling an onion! How are we supposed to...?!" More shooting crossed in front of her vision, but this time from a different direction. She spun around to face the new attacker and was faced with another surprise: four mobile suits of a type she'd never seen before with high caliber rifles in hand, firing across her face in an obvious bid to drive her off. She locked her beam rifle on target, but before she could fire again the suit let off several blasts with his own rifle, forcing her to evade again. "This is Layla to Lieutenant Marist, unidentified mobile suits engaging me!"

"Hang on, Layla, I'll be right there..." Two quick shots crossed in front of his face as he said it, and in an instant he found himself pinned between the enemy suit and the Zanzibar's thick defensive fire. He raised his rifle to shoot back, but the next shot from the enemy suit scored a direct hit, cutting through his right shoulder and ripping the arm from the socket immediately. He fought to keep the suit level, dodging more fire from the enemy suit as he did and then pulled away from the fight as fast as his thrusters could carry him. He drew his beam saber from his other shoulder and started to engage again when several bright flashes caught his eye; one of the new suits had sent up a cease-fire signal. "Marist to all units, hold your fire! I say again, hold your fire!"

Layla stopped in space, keeping her rifle trained on the enemy suit incase it tried something. The Zanzibar stopped shooting, as did her adversary, locking everyone involved into an instant standoff. "Lieutenant, there's eight of us and six of them. They caught us off guard but...!"

"Hold your fire, Layla!" Marist had already noticed his position here. All six of them had them surrounded, pinned down by the Zanzibar and its defensive guns and putting them in a position to be attacked from too many sides at once. And then one of them broke formation; the leader's mobile suit moved past him and put itself between Marist and the Zanzibar, its rifle trained on him every inch of the way. Somehow he could tell that the pilot could easily hit him even from that distance if he made a false move. "This is Lieutenant Marist to unknown mobile suit, identify yourself immediately."

The pilot came up on his monitor with a somewhat disgusted look on her face. "This is Captain Mackenzie of the Riah Defense Force's, 03rd Mobile Suit Team. This ship is registered and licensed by the Government of Side 6."

"Side 6? Are you joking?"

"This is no joke. That ship's cargo is 1900 refugees fleeing a terrorist attack on an industrial sight six days ago. We've been ordered to escort our citizens to safe haven within our borders."

Layla could barely contain herself. "Bullshit! This vessel is transporting rebel personnel and their equipment from a terrorist stronghold! If you aide these terrorists, you WILL be targeted!"

Marist tried his best not to laugh on an open channel. "Well said, Ensign. Captain Mackenzie, we cannot allow this ship to..." Three more flashes of light in the distance, this time launched from the Trafalgar's flare gun in the bright orange 'return to base' signal. The flares were scattered and random, and the first three were followed by more than a dozen more one after another. Marist could tell from this that something had gone terribly wrong. "Damn... all units, disengage and pull back immediately! The Trafalgar must be under fire!"

Layla took a moment and scanned all six of the enemy mobile suits briefly, then turned and followed the others back to the carrier on their retreat path. As soon as they were out of sight, the six Riah mobile suits gathered around the Zanzibar cruiser as it continued on its path, still keeping an eye on the Feddy suits as they retreated. With all their attention diverted, not to mention the limitations of their sensors, they all failed to notice the silhouette of a Tivvay class heavy cruiser discretely following them towards Side 6, opening its forward hatch as two Rickdom Snipers landed aboard to give their report to the ship's weary captain.

Side 6's borders were about to become extremely crowded.


- February 17, UC 0084 -
- 1240 hours, (EST) -
Kelly ran behind her to keep up, but Naomi's frustrated pacing was already starting to wear him out. He was sure if he didn't calm her down soon she'd carve a gigantic ring in the MS deck and tunnel her way to China. "Lieutenant, I told you I already filed a complaint with the brass! They told us the decision is final and that...!"

"I don't care what they told you, it's not gonna happen! I don't care how nice they are... they can walk on water for all I care! They're not taking away my Gundam, and that's final!"

Kelly groaned, feeling alittle like a big brother trying to coax a small child into giving up her favorite toy. "It's not up to you. If I had my way, I'd keep them too, but the brass has already made their decision. You do understand that the maintenance cost on one of these machines is astronomical."

"So they give us a garbage mobile suit that doesn't even work?! Not on my ship! Alex is the fastest and most powerful mobile suit in the Federation today...!"

Kelly took a deep breath and tried to end this conversation quickly. "Look, I know how you feel, really I do, but there's nothing we can do about it. According to the Titans, there's no such thing as newtypes, therefore there's no point in having newtype-use weapons. That's the OFFICIAL statement, anyway."

Naomi stopped pacing and looked at him with renewed interest. "Official statement, huh? What've you heard?"

Kelly stepped closer to her and spoke softly, "My brother works in the tech department at California Base, and he heard some scuttlebutt on the grapevine. Carter's having all four Alpha's upgraded and then transferred to his new flagship for Titans pilots."

"What new flagship?"

"I don't know. Something they were building at Konpei Island right before Operation Stardust. The Alpha Gundams will be getting an extensive overhaul and redesignated 'Gundam Mk-I.'"

Naomi grinned. They just keep changing your name, don't they Alex? "Is that to say there's a Mk-II in development?"

"Probably. You know how the Titans are."

"Yeah..." she heard something from far above them and looked up to see the Mudrock's cockpit open, some light flashing from inside from the playing of the monitors. "How come they're not taking Mudrock?"

Kelly smiled. "That's the good news. They didn't want Mudrock, so they let us keep it until it wares out. And don't get your hopes up, but there's a chance they'll let us keep Alex for a while too."

"With any luck..." There was more noise from inside the cockpit, chaotic this time like someone pounding their fists on the controls and the computer screeching back in protest. "What's Brian doing in there?"

Kelly smiled again, "That's just Alice playing around."

She stared up for a moment, then looked back down slowly at Kelly, trying not to let herself smile. "That's a breach in procedure, Kelly. You know this hangar's off limits to civilians..."

"She was bored. Sue me."

"I intend to." Naomi stepped onto a lift in front of the Gundam and raised the platform up to cockpit level, finally stopping just where she could see the girl in the cockpit with a frustrated expression as her fingers clawed at the instrument panel. Somehow she had separated the headset for the psycommu interface from the suit helmet and was wearing the frame around her head like the world's most complicated set of headphones. Naomi tried again not to laugh. "Cut it out, kid. The Gundam is not a toy."

"I know that, but I can't... dammit!" She flipped two more switches one after another and the monitors clicked off again, but at the same time the generator raised its power level and brought the computer online. "Shit... Lieutenant, can you give me a hand here?"

"What's wrong?" Naomi moved into the cockpit and perched on the side panel.

"I can't get this interface thing to work. Every time I power up the suit, the sensors go away."

This time she lost control. Naomi started laughing quietly as the situation unfolded. "Can you actually see anything?" She said in a playful tone.

"Of course not. It's just that whenever the sensors come on, the machine tells me where everything is. The walls and the other mobile suits and the shapes and things... it's like when I memorize my way around, only it happens instantly."

"That's good... that's great. Your brother's had some problems with this machine, so I'm glad you're getting used to it."

Alice was visibly confused. "Why? Aren't you gonna kick me out?"

"Hmmmm... maybe later. What was your problem with the sensors again?"

"Watch." With a strange kind of precision, Alice's fingers worked over the instrument panel and reset all the switches to the suit's waiting mode. She reached over and pressed two buttons on the side and the monitors came back on again. "See? The sensors come back now on the secondary system, but then when I try to power up the primary..." Naomi watched with amazement as she went through the Gundam's entire startup program as if she had done so a million times. She flipped the last two switches for reactor startup, and once again the mobile suit came to life as the monitors shut down again. "See? Every time I... oh wait..." She reached over again and tapped the controls, and then the monitors switched back on. "I get it, you have to transfer the sensors over from the secondary system when you start up the primary! I think I got it now!"

For just a few moments Naomi was impressed, but little by little she felt more afraid than anything else. "I'm just curious, did you figure this out all by yourself?"

"Well, yeah."

"How?"

Alice shrugged. "I dunno, just play with it, see what everything does."

"The 'what does this button do' system?"

"Basically."

Normally she would have thought it curious and left it at that, but if she was right about her, this was the moment she would know for sure. "Raise the left arm."

"How?"

"Figure it out."

With no sign of hesitation or fear, Alice took both control sticks in hand and immediately started moving them. Naomi felt a surge as the Gundam straightened up, then another one as the suit suddenly stepped forward off the maintenance rack, then again as the Gundam turned completely around in place. "Oh cool! I figured out how to make it walk!"

Naomi grabbed a firm hold of the instrument panel for balance. "Good job, but can you just raise the left arm?"

"I'll get to it. Let's see... what happens when I push these pedals?"

"NO, DON'T PUSH THOSE PE...!" Alice's feet came down and the Gundam's thrusters exploded into action. The Mudrock Gundam surged forward across the MS deck, charging down the catapult line and out of the open launch hatch at the front of the bay into the underground space port of Jaburo. It soared high over the tops of buildings, outcroppings of rock and two highways before Alice took her feet off the pedals and pulled the controls back. The mobile suit tilted back too much in the air and Alice overcompensated with a move of the controls; the Mudrock belly flopped on a sheet of rock, skidded for a few meters to come to rest just before the edge of a cliff.

Captain Shiden watched from the bridge for a few moments before calling any kind of alert, and breathed a small sigh of relief as the Gundam started moving again and finally came up to its feet. Even then it didn't head back to the Tarawa, but started walking slowly and carefully around inside the caves of Jaburo base as if learning to walk for the first time. "Mr. Holland, who's piloting that Gundam?"

The comm. officer turned around and grinned. "Brian's sister, Sir. Naomi's giving her flight lessons."

"Really?" Captain Shiden leaned forward with more interest now. "They should work on that landing."

"No kidding."

Lieutenant Browning focused one of the ship's cameras on the Gundam and put it on the main monitor, zoomed in as far as it could go. Mudrock was moving clumsily and very slowly, but with every second seemed to be getting more confident. It seemed she was finally getting the hang of it, but up ahead of the mobile suit the terrain was becoming more and more uneven and littered with loose rock and wet surfaces. Browning turned over his shoulder to the other radar operator, "Hey Simon, wanna make a friendly wager?"

Ensign Franks chuckled. "Twenty bucks says she doesn't fall."

"I'll take that bet."

"Me too," Captain Shiden added in. "Four to one odds."

Ensign Franks chuckled again. "Don't underestimate the power of youth..."

Captain Shiden rolled his eyes. "In that case, six to one odds."


- February 16, UC 0084 -
- 1820 hours (CST) -
District Attorney Cameron Bloom was angry, anyone could see it perfectly well. Storming down the corridor, pushing interns and secretaries out of his way until he finally arrived in the meeting room in the port of Londenium Colony where the Admiral waited for him. The viewing dome overlooked the Titans heavy cruiser Agamemnon, having entered Side 6's port without permission as usual and forced its way into a spot in the middle of the bay where everyone could see it entering or leaving. But that wasn't what angered him at all; he owed that to the six GM Quels with hyper bazookas and machineguns standing on the deck. Londenium's defense forces had been forced to respond, deploying ten balls and four of the new AMS-57 Hercules mobile suits to make sure the Titans weren't up to anything. Riah's new mobile suits weren't much to look at, but many an officer in the Federation could remember thinking the same thing about Zeon's Zaku-II mobile suits when he first received the intelligence reports.

Standing in the office, watching what amounted to a standoff in the middle of a space colony, Admiral Dyson seemed unusually calm about the whole situation. "So the security treaty wasn't enough for you people, is that it?"

Cameron slapped his briefcase on the desk and yanked it open, trying to draw the man's attention away from the window. With all the grace of a stampeding bull he whipped out the papers and waved them in his hand, "Admiral Dyson, Riah's Chamber of Commerce wants you out of this colony in the next twenty four hours or they are to be removed by force. They're unanimous on this resolution..."

"That's their prerogative, but we're not going anywhere."

Cameron slapped the papers down, hoping to get him to at least turn away from the window. "Dammit Dyson, this is not the time to be flexing your muscles! The Riah Government is giving you a day's time to leave, after that you'll be considered a hostile force...!"

"...And the Titans will take it as an act of aggression, and then we will smash you." Dyson turned away from the window and walked over to the desk, reached into his jacket and slapped his own papers on top of Cameron's papers. The one on top was the most interesting: a photograph taken from a Side 6 news crew showing a Titans battle group with all of its twenty two mobile suits flying in formation just ahead of them. "The live feed will be airing in about fifteen minutes if I'm not mistaken. You're exactly right, Cameron, this is not the time to flex muscles."

Cameron picked up the picture, studied it, then thumbed through the other papers to back up what the photograph showed him in so few words. "I'll be... the Alexandria, Brunei, Sachiwaru, New Guinea..."

"And that's just the main push. The Trafalgar and the Tarawa will be moving into position on the opposite flanks to box you in. And let's not forget the three Salamis cruisers currently parked on your doorstep, not to mention the fleet battlecruiser in this very space dock with a full load of mobile suits ready and willing to take this colony by force." Dyson slipped Cameron's papers out from under his own and skimmed the text shortly. "Don't make the mistake of thinking this is some kind of standoff. The only reason we're having this conversation is because Colonel Jamitov is in a REALLY good mood. If Captain Bosque had his way, you would already be dead."

Cameron did everything he could to calm his temper now and looked the Admiral dead in the eye. He knew Jamitov's reputation, as well as most of his lackeys. The only reason the man would assemble a combat force of that size was if he intended to use it very soon. Finally it was clear to him exactly what they were negotiating in this office. "What are your terms, Dyson?"

"I should force you to dismantle every last one of your fancy new mobile suits, but for the sake of fairness, I'll offer you a compromise." Dyson stepped away from the table and went back to looking out the window. "Ten days ago, a Zanzibar class battlecruiser lifted off from an underground mining base in Afghanistan. The assault carrier Trafalgar and its battle group followed it to Side 6, but were intercepted by armed guerillas before they could apprehend the fugitives. Eighteen crewmen were killed, our carrier was damaged and four of her mobile suits were destroyed. Someone is going to be held accountable for this."

Cameron had already seen it coming, as had the Chamber of Commerce when they briefed him for the meeting before he left Berliose Colony. "These 'fugitives' as you call them have been identified as citizens of Side 6. The ship is registered to Avalon Motors, a multinational corporation that has serviced this government for over thirty years. The passengers of that ship are all civilians themselves, mainly construction workers, engineers and their families, just under two thousand men women and children."

"And the others?"

"We don't know much about the guerillas, but our intelligence believes they may belong to the same faction that attacked Acheron Colony two weeks ago and destroyed ten of our mobile suits. If they've taken refuge in Side 6, which is very likely based on our intelligence, our defense forces will find them and bring them to justice."

Dyson frowned sourly. "Unacceptable. Side 6 needs to open its borders to Titans forces so we can apprehend those criminals on our own. We are authorized by the Federation to pursue Zeon combatants wherever they take refuge..."

"... when they're on YOUR turf, Admiral. Side 6 has authorized no such action. They're criminals, and as long as they seek refuge in our borders, they will be prosecuted like any other criminals in a court of law. That is, unless you can prove to me that we're at war with someone, which we both know you can't. The same goes for the Zanzibar and the civilians on board. If any of them are guilty of criminal actions, they will be given a fair trial."

Dyson didn't answer right away, and Cameron understood immediately that the man was only half listening to him. "I will only repeat this one more time: we want those fugitives extradited to Earth immediately."

"And I will repeat again, we can't do that unless you go through proper channels! It's not that hard, Admiral, the paperwork is two pages long! I don't care if you're the Titans, the President, my mother, Jesus Christ himself; if you want us to extradite them, file charges with Interpol like everyone else!"

"I'm sorry, Cameron, but the Titans are NOT everyone else." Dyson turned away from the window again and put down one more paper, this one a signed and handwritten statement from Jamitov himself. "Maybe you're confused. That was not a request, that was an ultimatum. Hand over the ship and the fugitives, and open your borders so we can hunt down those Zabi terrorists. The Titans have been authorized to attack any nation state found harboring Zeon remnants..."

"I told you, they're our own citizens! Are you even listening, Dyson?! You can't arrest colony citizens without a general warrant with Interpol...!"

"Who said anything about arresting them?" The Admiral took a step back from the desk and took another slip of paper out of his jacket, "I'll leave it up to you to make it perfectly clear to your bosses that Side 6 is either with us or against us on this matter. If you cooperate with us, we'll make a compromise and allow you to keep the weapons you've been assembling... with some restrictions, of course. But if you continue to make yourselves an obstacle to the defense of the Federation, The Titans will forcibly disarm and then occupy Side 6. Your colonies would become subject to Federation rule for a VERY long time."

"Over my dead body... but I'll pass that on for you, Admiral." Cameron took the note and closed it up in his briefcase. This meeting had already gone on far too long and he was only too happy to see it ended. No sooner did he begin walking back towards the door did he notice the Admiral still staring out the window, that same disdain and disrespectful attitude he always had whenever he set foot on Side 6. He decided now was a good time for a cheep shot. "I make it a point to be well informed, Dyson, especially about the people I'm forced to negotiate with. Rumor has it you have a very... interesting hobby."

Dyson didn't even flinch at the remark. "Rumors are rumors, Cameron. I suggest you learn the difference and quickly."

"I have a pretty good source, one that I think is pretty reliable."

Dyson picked up something in his voice and grinned. "You have a question, don't you? Might as well ask while you have this chance."

He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he was being baited but in the end not really caring. "How exactly do you live with yourself? All the pain you've caused in the world and all the suffering you've created, and you don't feel any remorse whatsoever?"

Dyson turned away from the window slowly and started to laugh. "Are you vegetarian?"

"What does that have to do with...?"

"This human race has mutilated billions of animals of all varieties just to fill its own belly. We do it every day, without a second thought, causing unspeakable miseries to dozens of species who don't understand the reason or even the instrument of their demise. If you don't feel remorse for them, why should I feel any remorse for the spacenoid trash that inhabits Lower Granada? They have no future, no aspirations, and they're not worth many regrets."

Cameron felt nauseous, and ducked out of the room as quickly possible before Dyson could say anything more.


Author's note:
1.) This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is entirely coincidental. (Though not necessarily accidental ^_~)

2.) Today's chapter quote is very special. It is actually a paraphrasing of a real statement I happened across during my various surfing periods on the web. I DID NOT MAKE THIS UP, IT IS ENTIRELY AUTHENTIC.

"It is of fundamental importance to preserve NATO as the primary instrument of Western defense and security ...We must seek to prevent the emergence of European only security arrangements which would undermine NATO."
--1992 Pentagon policy document

O_o